Round 2
I met Mike at dinner and on seeing me he sprinted over and greeted me with a punch to my shoulder.
"I saw your stunt. That was epic, man." He said, hitting my arm again.
"John was so jealous. He thought that with his ninja training, he would be the first one to reach the ground, but you and another chick beat him," he said as we sat down for dinner.
"Didn't you feel scared?" he suddenly asked.
"Nope, I believed in my calculations and most importantly in my Pokemon. I know everything about him, so I knew Cet could pull it off," I replied between my bites.
"Awesome, awesome.. I say," he mumbled, before concentrating on finishing his food.
I didn't get to meet Celia or the royal duo that night as I retired to my cabin early, utterly exhausted.
The next morning, I woke up fully refreshed and more energetic than ever.
As I was brushing my teeth, I noticed the bandage on my wrist.
'Awesome, already healed. I totally forgot about my swollen wrist after Chansey gave me the egg and medicine. It didn't hurt even once,' I thought rubbing my wrist, peeling away the bandage.
I finished my breakfast enduring a barrage of questions from Amanda about what had happened between me and Madlyn.
Seeing she wasn't taking no for an answer, I posed her a question of my own.
"If you tell me what you meant by you and Madlyn being the same as me, then maybe I will tell you."
"That's not fair. That is seriously not my place to tell you," she said pouting.
"Then the answer to your question involves Madlyn too, so you should ask her."
Amanda looked like she was going to answer my question before she changed her mind and went away, huffing.
"Trainers should assemble near the camp entrance in 1 hour for the second round." An announcement rang while I was in the middle of my morning training.
I was training in evading and running techniques provided by Mike along with my Pokemon, who were doing their general routine.
After freshening up again, I walked towards the camp's entrance.
There were only about 50 trainers compared to the 200 before.
10 small tents were arranged in front of the entrance, placed equally apart from each other.
"You will be teleported into an uninhabited island containing a variety of environments, teeming with Pokemon ranging from wildling to Apex, where some of the Pokemon have been marked with tokens of varying colours- Green, Yellow, Red," Celia stood in front of the crowd, speaking into a mic giving out information about the 2nd round.
'Did she teleport on her own?' I mused seeing her appear out of nowhere.
"The tokens green, yellow and red are worth 5,25,75 points respectively. Orange tokens worth 50 points are also present across the island, but they are placed somewhere unreachable by normal means or in Pokemon lairs," she said, levitating colourful tokens each engraved with the first letter of their colour.
"You will have a week to collect the tokens. A minimum number of points are needed to qualify for the next round, the required number will not be announced. Stealing and injuring your fellow trainers is forbidden."
"Each terrain or part of the island has an Apex lording over it. The Apex will have a rainbow-coloured token on it worth 200 points," she said shocking the crowd.
"As the Elites can't monitor everyone at the same time, the chances of you ending up dead are high. You can quit now if you want, but we, clan Reich, or the elites won't be held accountable in case of death or any other serious injuries," Celia announced, further surprising the crowd full of trainers.
She waited 2 minutes for the trainers to quit and on seeing no one was coming forward, she continued.
"Good luck to all of the participants, you will need it if you want to get out alive after an encounter with an Apex."
With the creepy well-wishing, Celia disappeared again.
"Trainers must go into any of the tents from where they will be teleported. There is no limit on the number of Pokemon, but you are not allowed to catch any Pokemon on the island," A voice rang in our heads, making us pay attention.
Some trainers ran back to the camp, mostly likely to pack their outdoor kit.
Unlike them I was ready. So too was Amanda, it seemed as she hastily darted into a tent, making Madlyn follow her.
I too ran into a tent, where I was greeted with the sight of a Xatu lounging on a sofa.
"Ah! Here you are. Do you remember me, the Ever-Watching Wind's eye?"
The Xatu projected her voice, as l looked around the tent a map attracted my gaze.
I nodded at the Psychic Pokemon.
"It has caught your eye I see. Choose a place you want to be teleported to and it shall be done," the Xatu said appearing in front of me, holding her wings high into the air.
The map depicted an island that had multiple bodies of water and hills across it. A thick jungle covered the whole island, which was only parted by hills, some of which ended in rocky tips, and lakes.
I scanned the map for some time before speaking.
"Teleport me to the largest body of water which is near to multiple hills which can be climbed on foot," I said as even though the map looked nearly 3d it didn't have any type of scale on it.
"Hmm! Most would just point to a place on the map.. very well, see you later- alive or dead," The Xatu said snickering, teleporting me with a wave of her wing.
My surroundings spun and I was standing in front of a large lake.
The water was calm with very few ripples caused by the fresh breeze, which greeted me after my teleportation, tousling my hair.
The sun shined brightly in the vast blue sky, akin to a perfect painting, the absence of clouds highlighting the vastness of the sky, the all-encompassing veil.
Thick trees covered the lake on all sides blocking everything, a cliff stood in the direction I was facing.
'Ah! One hour walk to reach the cliff, it will be a pain to wade through these trees and bushes, though,' I thought before a Slowpoke slowly emerged in front of me from the water.
Seeing that it had a green token attached to its head, I tossed some food in front of it.
But it just stared at me for a minute before registering the food.
As it shifted its stare to the food, I released Cet and Nia and ordered Cet to get the token pointing to the Slowpoke's head.
Cet bit down on the token and flew back to me as the Slowpoke nibbled on the food I threw.
I gestured for my Pokemon to follow me and walked away from the Slowpoke.
"Slow.." I heard the Pokemon call out its name in surprise, likely registering that a Zubat had bitten it.
Grinning at the cute Pokemon I chose a spot with many fish-like figures darting around in the water and ordered Nia to prepare for battle.
Nia entered the water the Pokemon, disturbing the tranquil water. The outlines in the water disappeared in a jiffy, making me question whether I had imagined them before.
Not deterred, I ordered Nia to dive and catch a Pokemon, making her look at me weirdly before diving into the water.
The Ducklett rose from its dive after a minute shaking its feathers and dumbly looked at me.
I stared right back at it until my stupidity became obvious.
'Of course, whenever I thought I was being clever reality slaps me right in the face. I forgot Nia, a duck, can't swim as fast as pure aquatic Pokemon,' I grimaced slapping my head.
As I was considering bashing my head on a tree for how stupid I was, an idea sprang to my mind.
'If Nia can't go to them, let them come to us,' I reasoned and threw some berry mixture into the water.
"A Duck hunts from the surface after all," I nodded my head convinced of my genius plan.
"Toss them out, Nia" I ordered.
I spent the next hour watching my Pokemon double-teaming whatever poor Pokemon got caught in Nia's beak, attracted by food.
Nia tosses whatever Pokemon it comes across into the air where Cet swoops in taking away their token.
As the saying goes "work smart, not hard".
Why should I battle a Pokemon for a token when I can just steal it from them, saving time and energy for my Pokemon?
But all the tokens we ever collected were of green colour, we didn't get to see a single yellow token.
As they say good times never last long, ours came to an end as Nia tossed a Tentacool into the air, getting poisoned for it.
Cet didn't move as he didn't notice any token on it.
"Nia, come back," I yelled.
Nia was well into the middle of the lake.
More jellyfish Pokemon floated near Nia obstructing her and making her take flight, poisoned.
"Cet, Gust, cover Nia,' I shouted seeing the Tentacool's fire poison stings at the flying duck.
With Cet taking on aggro, Nia dashed towards me with a quick attack. I quickly sprayed an antidote on her and gave her a treat.
"Let's retreat Cet," I called out, seeing many Tentacool suddenly pop out and float on the lake.
Just when we were retreating, the Tentacool swarm parted giving way to a bigger and better version of themselves- A Tentacruel.
The Tentacruel's eyes shone malevolently as it stared at Nia, who was glaring right back at it from my arms.
'Hoo! An orange token,' I noted excitedly.