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Armonia Event .:Battle Isle:. - R.T.'s turn!

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The day had started out pretty enough, not too warm, not too cold, but ever since the students had arrived to the at first secretive Battle Isle and one by one begun their evaluation tests, it had had it's random spouts of rain, fog, cold and scorching as moves after moves of varying types had been performed to either tame, avoid or destroy different obstacles.

Like many others around him, R.T. felt mighty nervous as he awaited for his name to be called. He did have some experience using his moveset, but very little in actual battles – mostly he just used them for fooling around and trying to reach new places in his exploration. Luckily, as the child had understood, today wouldn't be so much about battling as it was about showing off those moves along with your other skills.

As he waited, the drifloon did his best to turn his nervousness into excitement. It was a new experience after all, and 'twas just an evaluation, not a real, like, real test or anything, right? This could even turn out to be lotsa' fun! R.T., feeling already a bit more relaxed, took a big, calming breath and slowly exhaled it, before turning to look around at the other students waiting for their turn. Most of them seemed only vaguely familiar, as people from his house and sharing the dorm or someone he had seen from afar. They had gathered into groups, chattering with each other to ease their own nervousness, but there were others like him standing by themselves also. The balloon started to consider whether he should go talk to someone and get to know people, when he spotted the familiar figure of the black, white and blue whimsicott. He brightened up a whole lot, finally someone he actually knew! R.T. was just about to call out his friend's name when he spotted the teacher appear to view again. She was with the previous student, and the duo took all of the drifloon's attention.

Miss Kendrah stopped in the front of the crowd, waiting for it to quiet down and for the student behind her to take their leave. When the awaiting students had calmed down she raised her voice to gain the attention of those who hadn't yet noticed her as well.

"All right, next student, please step forward..." the snorlax stretched the last syllable as she looked at a sheet of paper, most likely a list of the students, in her hand, "... Rick-Timothy, a drifloon?" She lifted her gaze and scanned the crowd, which started to move as the students also tried to find the one the teacher had named.

"Oh, that's me, here!" suddenly super-excited, R.T. raised his arm high and waved, catching the teacher's (and everyone else's at that) eyes before emerging through the rows of young monsters to stand, well, float before her. He had to look up high to make eye contact, gee, the snorlax was huge compared to his tiny form. She in turn looked down at him, trying to memorize the face with the name before she nodded and checked the name off of the list.

"Follow me, please," she beckoned as she started forward, R.T. quickly following close behind.

"So, Rick, you're nine years old, correct?" she asked, glancing at the boy who now flowed next to her.

"That's right, miss, turning ten this year!" the balloon answered cheerily. The earlier nervousness had melted away now that his turn had finally come, and he was only excited to finally see this new place fully and up close.

"Have you had any battle experience before?" the teacher continued.

"No, not really, but I use my moves pretty often for other things."

"That so? Such as?"

"Hm, well, to get from place to place, and, you know, things."

"... Alright." A silence fell as she scribbled this information on the paper. They continued onward for a while, and the lack of speech started make the balloon a bit uneasy, but he was too nervous to speak up, this was a teacher after all, and a huge one, an authority even a kid like him knew to respect. So he spent the time looking around at the island, the other students were quite far behind already, and the only sound was wind in the trees and bushes, miss Kendrah's footsteps and some pokemon cries in the distance, and... hold on, was that really thunder somewhere? But it was so sunny, and R.T. could only see a few innocently white clouds on the sky. Maybe he had misheard?

Their walk was shorter than R.T. had anticipated and almost bumped into the teacher as she stopped. The drifloon looked up at her and then in front of them. They had stopped at a big sign with the letter A painted on it (a rather fancy A, one might add). Next to the sign began a small trail.

"Now, how this works..." miss Kendrah started and turned to R.T., pointing at the sign, "is, I want you to get from here to the mark B, which at a one end of this trail", she now pointed forward at the trail disappearing behind the trees in a short distance. "There are different obstacles on the way, and I want you to deal with them, using whatever skills you have. If, however, you deem one or more of them simply impossible, there is a way around so you can go on, but I recommend you to at least try before giving up. Now, any questions?" she finished and looked at the young monster expectantly. R.T. stood silent for a while, trying to memorize all the stuff she had said.

"So, um..." he began, and the snorlax gestured for him to go on, "I don't have to use only my moves?" he asked, just to be sure.

"It's preferred you primarily use them", his new teacher answered, "but if for example your ability or your type gives you an advantage, or you can find another way to deal with an obstacle, you are allowed to resort to it. Anything else?"

"No, miss Kendrah."

"Very well, do begin, I will be following after you to see your process", the snorlax announced but her expression softened a bit almost instantly.

"Don't worry, remember that this is not a test, merely an evaluation of your current skills", she nodded and smiled encouragingly, raising her arm toward the path.

"If you will, and do your best."

And so the little drifloon took off onwards the assigned route, which almost instantly turned into a crossroads, with different letters (each painted very flamboyantly, apparently, with ornaments or silhouettes decorating them, some even were with a background) instead of real destinations in signs pointing towards each path. As assigned, R.T. chose the one with B, keeping his eye out for dangers and obstruction on the narrow path. Well, for a while at least, then his concentration kind of took off and he was merely admiring the scenery and was that a salamance that just flew above them? Yeap, no sign of his earlier nervousness there, at least.

The path led the duo into a thick forest, where he met his first obstacle, which was heavy overgrowth on the road. Trees and bushes and vines and roots were blocking the way well. This was not a problem, as R.T. knew instantly how he would do this. Using his Constrict he wrapped his arms around the branches and hoisted himself higher, climbing the trees much like he at least imagined an aipom would and trying to find a hole big enough for him to get through. He had to go pretty high, near to the roof of the forest, but he did find one suitable enough for him to squeeze through. Once on the other side, he paused to look down and measure the fall. It was pretty high, but he didn't worry, he did have nothing to worry about after all, high places had never been a problem for the little balloon. He had also done this many times before, back at home while exploring the nearby forests and the Solaceon ruins. Granted, none of those trees were really quite this high. Nevertheless, R.T. took a breath, braced himself, and let go. His light weight granted him a slow floating pace to his fall, and his iron bracelets made sure he didn't go floating away with the wind. Those bracelets, however, also made him heavier, making his falling speed gradually pick up, but he had a plan. A few moments before he would hit the ground again he made a Gust underneath him. The circling motion of the wind caught him, softening his landing and making it safe.

He had gotten through the first obstacle.  Miss Kendrah was already on the other side when R.T. got down, waiting for him, and the test continued.

After a while of walking they got out of the forest and into another crossroads, and once again R.T. picked the one path leading towards B. The road led them to a rocky mountain path, which climbed steeply to a side of a cliff. It would probably be a hard path to walk, but R.T. didn't really have that problem as he floated forward and upward the narrow route. The next obstacle, however, would be a problem, he soon found out. It was a very narrow pathway with a low roof, a short tunnel in the mountain, and it was entirely blocked with boulders and rocks. There was no way to get over, under or around it, the only way to get through was to break the formation.

"Hmm", the boy pondered. This really was a problem. Rocks had always been his weakness, type wise and generally. His moveset wasn't really good for clearing heavy things like that, maybe if it had been hailing or even raining. Even a sandstorm would be fine at this situation. Alas, the weather was partially cloudy, painfully normal, and would give no type change whatsoever to his Weather Ball. Constrict wouldn't work, the boulders were way too wide for him to wrap around, and there was no way he could even think of lifting them. Astonish was also out of the question, I mean how do you startle a pile of rocks? If they were geodudes, but nope, just normal rocks. As for Gust, it wouldn't really do much good either, the boulders were pressed together way too tightly, and again way too heavy for a wind to move.

"Oh well, let's give it a try", he said to himself, the teacher had told not to give up without trying, right? And he didn't have much to lose anyway. "Weather Ball!" he opened his mouth wide and collected a bunch of energy, and launched the formed ball towards the clog. As he had anticipated, it didn't change its form, and hit its target as a normal-type move. Despite the clear hit, it did next to no damage at all to the formation, the rocks stayed tightly locked together. Not ready to give up, R.T. decided to try another Weather Ball. And then another. And then another. Nothing. Already panting of the heavy usage of the move, he meekly turned to look at the teacher standing behind him. Understanding the situation, Kendrah wrote something in the list and signalled for the drifloon to follow her. They went through a small, hidden passage way, which led them to the other side of the unbeaten obstacle, letting them continue on.

The trail went on after yet another crossroads, and after choosing the one assigned for him the trail continued higher, and the air started to turn colder as the temperature dropped with each step. It even started to snow at one point, and as they went the snowfall grew heavier and heavier. Then they reached a summit, a surprisingly large snowy field considering they weren't even at the top of the mountain yet. The trail now made a fork, and the one signed as B led towards the field, but the snowfall clouded the view to see for how long.

As soon as R.T. took on to the trail and left the side of the mountain for the summit, the snowfall instantly worsened, turning into a vicious hailstorm. This seemed to be the next test, to make it through this storm. As he didn't find any use of his moves to help his situation, R.T. simply went on, pushing forward slowly but steadily, floating very low with his arms even dragging on the ground every now and then to keep him from getting caught in the strong wind. It still pushed the light weighted balloon back an inch for every two he took, making his progress painfully slow, literally even as the hail hurt him a little occasionally.

Somehow he did make progress, as what seemed like an eternity later he finally saw the edge of the summit and hurried towards it, glad to be out of the hail. Ice isn't really his best friend either, snow's nice but not for too long, and hail's just plain evil. A fork on the road and the correctly chosen path later R.T. was on a path down the side of the mountain, and the hail subsided back into a gentle snowfall. The trail downwards wasn't as steep as before, and was a lot easier, giving R.T. chance to catch his breath as they advanced forward.

Going down the weather once again got warmer, the snowfall gradually lessened before it stopped altogether and was replaced with a deep fog this time. A crossroads after, and the trail suddenly stopped and in front of them opened a calm lake. It was impossible to determine its size due the fog, and the only way on was to cross it. As it was the only way, R.T. took off.

Everything went smooth enough as the balloon floated above the water, though it was a bit eery with the heavy fog dulling all sounds (huh, where'd miss Kendrah go?), and no wind nor a single ripple on the pitch black water. R.T. didn't know whether it was good or bad that he didn't have to swim, in a way it felt wrong if he'd have to break the oppressing silence, but in a way the idea of the sound of the water splashing seemed like a welcomed thing in the middle of the quiet.

Then happened something the kid didn't expect. The calm surface suddenly started to ripple, and before R.T. had time to really comprehend it towards him jumped a seemingly hungry school of carvanha's. They snapped their teeth at the little floater, and as a startled reaction R.T. threw a Gust to throw the offensive fish farther from him and to give him some more altitude to get away. It worked at first, but the ferocious fish recovered soon and were after him again, jumping even higher and snapping their jaws even louder than at first in their anger. The young drifloon had to concentrate really hard to keep his hands away from those razor teeth, suddenly the earlier calm seemed much more welcome even in its eeriness than now. He kept using Gust to speed his escape  and to keep the carvanha's in a distance, with occasional screams of his Astonish in hopes to slow them down.

Finally he caught the silhouette of the shore through the fog, and R.T. gave his all to reach it as soon as possible to get away from those horrible water monsters. When he then was above the solid sand and far enough from the water, he gave himself permission to slow down and to catch his breath after the hasty float. As he panted he stole a glance at the lake, which was once more quiet and calm, a few stray ripples on the shore the only proof of the terrors lurking underneath its surface. R.T. gave an involuntary shudder as he thought of the ones who would actually swim through this path.

"You alright?" a voice asked, and R.T. spun around in surprise to find miss Kendrah standing there.

"Yeah, I'm fine, miss Kendrah", he answered and straightened up, floating on his regular altitude again. He was still a bit out of breath, but nothing serious, he could go on. The teacher nodded.

"Good, carry on, then, when you're ready", she gestured toward the student's left. R.T. turned to look, and sure enough, the trail continued there. The balloon didn't waste time near that horrible lake and went on the trail, which as usual led to a crossroads, and as usual R.T. continued the route assigned to him.

The air got warmer, and the fog dispersed, giving way to the sun. Maybe a bit too much way, R.T. thought. There was not a single cloud on the blue sky, and the sun was soon scorching down at its full force, and it was visible in their new surrounding scenery too.

They had arrived to a vast savannah, with high, yellow grass and a few low trees with wide branches here and there. A silhouette of a forest was visible on one side of the savannah, and one of a mountain of the other.

R.T. couldn't at first figure out his next test, but he didn't have to guess for long, as his next "obstacle" walked, well, slithered to him in the form of a large, tough looking arbok.

"What's this? A kid? 'Tis a mistake or somethin'?" the snake looked clearly confused as she looked at the tiny drifloon in front of her, before turning her black eyes questioningly to the snorlax behind him.

"No mistake, he is a student", the teacher clarified. The purple cobra didn't look convinced, but turned back to the child in front of her.

"Sure, why not then. Look, kiddo, it's not like I have nothin' against kids or anythin', but I was told to not hold back no matter what. So if ye're ready..." she raised herself up to her full length, hovering over the tiny balloon as her collar shadowed the sun and making her form look even more menacing, "... here I COME!"

R.T. had less than a second to react to the sudden attack, but he somehow managed to throw himself away from the fangs snapping tightly shut in Bite in less than an inch of him. If he wasn't too busy in the adrenaline rush of the sudden fight and trying desperately to gain distance on his current foe he would've wondered what's the sudden urge to bite him lately, first the fish and now the snake. He really didn't have time for such thoughts now however, she was fast, and dangerous. One of her Bites hit him, and it's game over for the kid. He needed to find a way to counter, these close calls wouldn't do for too long. But it was a start at least.

"So you dodged it, huh? Not bad, boy, I give you that", she said, turning to him after the attack, "but you can't keep dodgin' me forever!" The snake charged at him with her mouth wide open again, and again R.T. managed to keep his skin intact and away of those fangs. He managed to get slightly behind her, and creeped as close as he had the courage to before making his counter attack.

"Hee-HAH!" he screamed his Astonish as loud as he could, taking help from his empty body shape which echoed the voice making it louder. The arbok flinched forcefully and let out a yelp of slight pain as her eardrums hurt. R.T. used the momentum of her flinch to get to a better spot behind her, as she stood still shaking her head, getting rid of the ringing in her ears.

Once in a good position, the drifloon glanced at the sun, hoping it was strong enough to give his next move strength, before taking aim and starting to gather energy inside his mouth, before launching it all towards the backside of the purple collar. True to its name, this time when the ball of energy left its user it took in the heat energy of the bright sun and changed its colour into fiery red, growing in size a bit before colliding with its unsuspecting victim. It hit the recovering snake square on the back, causing her to scream in agony. R.T. mentally congratulated himself of his successful aim, and thought for a while that she was going to collapse, but instead she kept her posture, albeit hanging her head and swaying slightly. Slowly the large snake turned around, locking her inky eyes filled with hatred on the drifloon, and suddenly R.T. wasn't as proud of his nice shot as he was a moment ago.

"Sneaky one, I spy", the arbok said, her voice hoarse after the previous scream and the continuing pain, but her aura emanating her increased will to battle, "but others can play that game too." She once again rose herself up high to her full hight, looking down at the balloon, frozen in his place under those dark eyes, as she loomed over him, the sun shadowing just the right parts to bring forth the evil gleam in her black eyes and the bright pattern on her hood, making her Glare hit him head on. R.T., in and to his horror found that he was paralyzed on his place and could not move a muscle under that face. The arbok noticed it also, based on the smirk spreading on her face.

"No runnin' away this time, brat!" She screamed victoriously as she charged towards him, her jaw wide open and the two rows of fangs dripping with poison. Not a Bite this time, but it wouldn't make much difference were the Poison Fang to hit its target. R.T. had to do something, and fast.

"HeeHAH!" he barely managed to scream another Astonish before the poisonous fangs hit, and it was just enough to divert the attack. It didn't make her flinch, but the few moments were enough for him to try to get away again. Not quite far enough, however.

"Nuh-uh-uh, the same trick won't work twice on me!" she yelled and shot rows of Poison Sting after the younger monster. It was almost a square hit on his side, and R.T. let out a scream of his own as the attack threw to the ground. The paralysis had tired him quickly, as had the whole day, and he soon found that he had not enough strength to keep himself floating. He could only pant heavily and watch as the snake slithered closer to him. Her breath was also clearly laboured, his Weather Ball had been a critical hit after all, but on her face was a victorious smirk as she looked down at the paralyzed and tired boy on the ground.

"End of the line, kid," she laughed before opening her jaws wide, ready to throw one and final Bite to end the battle. R.T. closed his eyes and braced himself for the sharp fangs. They never came, however, when a third and immensely welcomed voice interrupted the attack.

"Alright, that's enough!" R.T. cracked one eye open and felt instant relief when he saw miss Kendrah's huge form between him and his assaulter.

"I've seen quite enough during this fight, thank you for your efforts, Ophelia, you are free to rest at the school's infirmary." The arbok nodded. "No'a problem Kendrah, I'm happy I could be of help. And hey kid", she continued before turning to take her leave and looked at R.T. again. The drifloon met the look warily, but instead of the vicious battle smirk he had seen on her during their fight her tired face now sported a genuine, warm smile. She nodded at him. "You're not bad, for a kid. Good battle, good luck with school!" she cheered and winked, and away into the yellow grass she slithered.

"Are you alright?" it took a moment for R.T. to collect his thoughts and to turn to answer his teacher, who had a worried look on her round face.

"'M fine, miss Kendrah, just--", a huge yawn ripped through his sentence, "tired." The day had really been long and exhausting, and the final battle had sucked away the little energy he had left. "Where next, miss?" despite his exhaustion, he dutifully made himself rise off of the ground, seemingly ready to go on. His natural curiousity was encaged in a mortal battle inside him with his condition, he wanted to see what else this island had to hide, but he could barely keep himself floating. Maybe if he took his bracelets off, just for a moment...

"Back to the school, this was it. Good job, Rick", the snorlax answered smiling, and R.T. blinked in surprise.

"Already?" he voiced his surprise.

"Yes, now go along to the infirmary yourself and let nurse Conlon take care of that parlyz before heading to your dorm. You will hear your results of today later on."

"Yes, miss Kendrah", her words were really a welcomed thing as the child fought off sleep while floating after the teacher, who led him away from the field and towards the school. Yes, it had certainly been a long and exciting day, and as much as R.T. had enjoyed himself, he was also glad that he was heading for his soft bed in his dorm.
Edit// Was a bit bored, so decided to add a simple summary. So, um, I suppose his strengths are
* intuition and improvisation when it comes to how he uses his moves, as he knows his moveset pretty well.
* he's rather relentless, once he sets himself a goal or a destination he's guaranteed to get there, if he doesn't get a chance to get sidetracked of course. His concentration can be a bit short, at times

while his weaknesses are
* neither he or his moves are physically very powerful, safe for his Weather Ball
* though continued usage of Weather Ball tires him quickly
* relies on luck way too often. There. (:


It. Is. DONE. Fiiiiiiiiiinally. Phew.

Three something weeks and seven pages of handwritten text. Then a whole day and seven pages of text in OpenOffice Word. Damn. I read it through only once (I'm not good at proof reading my own texts…) so if you find any mistakes feel free and please point them out so I can fix them, thanks |'3

I am sorry it is so long, but I have no skill at all at comics and I had no idea how to go with single images with this, so a story it became.

I hope R.T. doesn't seem too good in the last battle, he usually just goes by instinct and this time he got just really lucky ;w; But I found how fun Pkmn battles are to write~

But at least it's done. I'm done. For now. TOWARDS THE NEXT ADVENTUUUURRRRRRE!! :iconlaunchedplz:

Pokemon © Nintendo
Kendrah © :iconspiderliing666:
Random cameo characters © their owners anyone even notice them…?
R.T. (& Ophelia) & the wall of text © :iconjiibee:
:iconpkmn-armonia:

Ophelia is partially based on my arbok in my SoulSilver. Mostly just name-wise, though. |D

Btw, any feedback would be lovely. Does the story flow fluently? Is it clear what's happening, R.T.'s reasoning behind his choises? If you can say anything it'd be great c':
© 2012 - 2024 JiiBee
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