Chapter 15. First Day Of School
Alex finished his first day of classes by the afternoon. It was as boring as he remembered. Not even the interesting topic of Pokémon could alleviate his disinterest in studying.
'Now I remember why I became an MMA fighter instead of going to college like everyone else,' Alex thought.
Alex simply lacked an affinity for studying in general. Even memorizing all the information on Pokémon was starting to take its toll.
There was just something about sitting in one place for hours, listening to lectures, that didn't sit well with him.
In any case, he didn't come to school to learn—he could do that in his downtime. He came for the battle arena and the free stuff he could get once he recouped his losses from paying tuition.
Alex made his way to the third floor of the building, where the battle arena was located. The floor was filled with over a hundred multi-terrain battlegrounds of various sizes. Typically, larger battlegrounds were reserved for higher-ranked battles.
Here, students could fight for credits without spending any of their own, even if they lost.
This was a program the school had fought to implement, incentivizing students to train their Pokémon through battles while also serving as practical experience for the medical students.
Though it might seem like a significant expenditure to keep the program running, the high tuition students paid balanced it out. In exchange, the school maintained an impressive track record of graduates—one that Silph Co. was more than happy to continue sponsoring.
Alex made his way to an unoccupied terminal and registered for an Adept-ranked one-on-one match. Rankings were required during registration to ensure a relatively fair fight.
A few minutes later, Alex had his first match when a notification from the battle arena came to his Pokédex with the arena number.
Making his way over, Alex spotted his opponent—a college student with an Adept-ranked Beedrill. He was a tall, bespectacled young man with shoulder length black hair and clean, tidy clothes—a typical researcher look.
Rattata, seeing his opponent, jumped down from Alex's shoulder and made his way to his side of the battleground while their opponent scrutinized him.
The student immediately noticed the Focus Sash wrapped around Rattata's neck and determined his first strategy for the battle.
An automated voice refereed the battle.
"Trainers, ready. Battle begins in 3, 2, 1. Battle!"
"Laser Focus."
"Toxic Spikes."
Commands were issued simultaneously. Beedrill shot a blob of poison into the air that burst at its zenith, raining toxic spikes around the battlefield, while Rattata gained a glint in his eyes as he focused on Beedrill.
Unlike in the games, where Toxic Spikes are only hazards upon entry, in real life, they are hazards on the battlefield itself. As a matter of fact, if the user's next Pokémon was not a Poison type, they might end up poisoning their own Pokémon.
"Dig."
"Protect. Crap! Substitute," the college student said, misreading Alex's next move and issuing a correction too late.
He was sweating, feeling the pressure mount from his first mistake in the fight, while Alex remained calm.
Beedrill was immediately covered by a translucent gray shield, which fizzled out as Rattata dug underground, effectively avoiding the toxic spikes scattered everywhere.
Beedrill immediately followed up by creating a doll in its own image, which dropped to the ground just as Rattata burst from beneath Beedrill with an explosion that sent chunks of dirt flying. Rattata headbutted Beedrill's chest while covered in a light brown sheen of energy.
The doll immediately dissipated, and the quarter of Beedrill's health that was used to make it was consumed in its place.
"Sucker Punch."
"Agility. Get out of there."
Just as Beedrill began glowing pink, preparing to fly away at insane speeds, Rattata pounced with rapid speed while cloaked in dark energy, striking Beedrill in the chest. The attack canceled Beedrill's attempt to execute Agility and increase its speed, but it succeeded in pushing Beedrill away with the momentum of the impact.
"Sucker Punch. Keep chasing, Rattata," Alex cheered.
"Protect."
This time, Beedrill successfully shielded itself from the rapidly approaching Rattata, who was still covered in the dark energy of Sucker Punch. Along the way, Rattata accidentally stepped on a toxic spike he hadn't noticed, poisoning him. The already purple rat now radiated a sheen of purple energy, making him look even darker in color.
The college student sighed in relief. He had finally managed to poison Rattata. Now, all he had to do was keep his distance and rely on a standard Toxic stall strategy.
Unfortunately, he had celebrated too soon.
"Sucker Punch. Keep going," Alex commanded relentlessly, like a shark that had smelled blood.
"Substitute, Beedrill! Hang in there," the college student urged.
Perhaps it was adrenaline, or maybe it was the relief of finally poisoning Rattata, but the student forgot that Sucker Punch was a priority move that bypassed speed.
He had relied on speed to produce the Substitute before the attack landed, so he was completely caught off guard when Rattata pounced on Beedrill mid-substitution.
The attack sent Beedrill flying for the second time in the match. Combined with the earlier Substitute, which had already consumed 25% of Beedrill's health, this was enough to knock it out of the fight.
"Winner, Alex Wattson!" the automated referee announced as Beedrill hit the ground unconscious.
In all honesty, the fight was already won when the college student assumed Rattata was significantly weaker based on the Focus Sash. A Toxic stall strategy would have been the correct call if a single attack from Beedrill could have one-hit KO'd Rattata and triggered the F.E.A.R. strategy.
Conversely, if he had gone for the KO immediately with Brick Break, he would have had a significantly better chance at winning. Rattata needed three Sucker Punches, one critical hit Sucker Punch and one normal Sucker Punch, or one critical hit Dig to take down Beedrill—all of which provided enough time for Beedrill to land two normal Brick Breaks and secure the victory.
The key was the deception presented by the Focus Sash, which Alex had intentionally leveraged. His Rattata was only slightly weaker than Beedrill, so he was never relying on the F.E.A.R. strategy in the first place.
As the college student stored his Beedrill and walked away, pondering how he could have done better, Alex approached his little poisoned rat.
Suddenly, Rattata started glowing blindingly, drawing the attention of those nearby.
His body morphed, growing larger, and the silhouette of a chunky rat standing on its hind legs took shape.
The light receded, revealing a fat brown rat with large teeth and long whiskers.
"Raticate!" Raticate declared happily as he pounced on Alex, attempting to climb onto his shoulder.
Alex, surprised, managed to catch the pouncing 2'04" (0.7 m), 40.8 lb. (18.5 kg) rat and steady himself—the months of training and balanced diet paying dividends at this moment.
"Congratulations, buddy. You finally evolved after months of hard training and constantly losing battles," Alex said, congratulating him.
Rattata had been constantly getting into battles and losing over the past few months. Every so often, while training, they would be interrupted by casual trainers looking to score an easy win against Rattata, one of the most well-known weakest Pokémon.
Excited for battle rather than monotonous training, Rattata was more than happy to oblige, though he would often lose simply due to having weaker stats. However, as he kept battling, he started winning more and more fights, as trainers kept underestimating his level due to the Everstone necklace.
In truth, Rattata had been ready to evolve for a while now, having already learned Endeavor. However, Alex wanted to make his evolution special by winning and evolving in a new environment rather than back at their usual training spot, where he wouldn't get as much of a confidence boost.
Seeing the now large rat still excitedly trying—and failing—to get onto his shoulder, Alex could tell his decision had been the right one. Raticate was ecstatic about his victory and evolution. He felt as though his efforts had finally paid off.
"Alright, alright. Calm down. Show me your moves, then we can go get you checked out to see if you have any lingering poison in you," Alex said as Raticate gave up trying to climb onto his shoulder and opted to be carried instead.
Raticate hopped off Alex and started demonstrating all of his moves while Alex scanned him with the Pokédex. After showcasing all of his abilities, the Pokédex beeped with an updated status.
Name: Raticate, Adept
Type: Normal, Male
Ability: Run Away
Moves:
Novice: Super Fang, Double-Edge, Endeavor, Scary Face
Basic: Fury Swipes(Egg Move), Screech(Egg Move), Tackle, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Focus Energy, Bite, Laser Focus, Take Down, Assurance, Taunt, Thunder Wave, Grass Knot, Dig, Facade, Work Up, Protect, Double Team, Sleep Talk, Rest, Substitute, Iron Tail, Crunch, Sucker Punch
Description: Raticate, the Mouse Pokemon. Its powerful front teeth never stop growing. It constantly gnaws on hard objects to keep them from getting too long. It can swim across strong rivers and even chew through concrete if necessary. Its territorial nature makes it aggressive toward intruders.
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