6 Chapter Five: The System and Going Back

It was the last day of the school trip. Alex finished packing up his stuff and cleaning up the campsite. After that, him and Sapphire started walking back to the main campsite to meet up with everyone else and head back to the school.

Along the way, Alex asked Sapphire something that has been bothering him for a long time. "How did you know about the [Pokédex]? Do all Pokémon know or were you abandoned?". "What?! No! Why would anyone abandon me!" Sapphire rebuked. Abandoning a Pokémon means that you dislike the Pokémon so much that you cut off your Bond with it. Most of the time, it was only used if the Pokémon was trying to harm the Fuser it made a Bond with. It rarely happens, but it's still possible.

"Well, then explain how you knew about the [Pokédex] during the battle. The knowledge couldn't have come from nowhere" Alex said. He found it really strange that a wild Pokémon would know so much about the Pokédex. "Well, he's the thing. You know how you humans used to live on Earth, and how it got destroyed by a meteor, right. And then, what you guys call the [System] came and sent you all to this planet, called [Evora]. You know all of that, right?" Sapphire explained. "Yeah, yeah, all that boring stuff that I learned when I was younger. What does that have to do with it?" Alex said. "Well, that's the thing. I'm the [System]" Sapphire said.

Alex stopped and stared at him for a few seconds before continuing walking. "Hey, hey, why are you walking without me? Don't you want to know more? Like why I'm here?" Sapphire said. Alex, still walking, replied "That's such a lie. You must've heard all of this from your previous Fuser that abandoned you. Plus, even if it was true, why should I bother with how you came here and all that jazz. It's your story and, frankly, it's probably about history, which is the subject that I failed back at school". Hearing Alex's opinion on the matter, Sapphire gave up. It's true, he is the [System], but Alex just couldn't care less. Sapphire decided that if Alex changes his mind, he'll tell him. But, for now, he can continue believing it's a lie.

After awhile, Alex and Sapphire finally made it back to the main campsite, where they saw a few other people. Alex recognized Jack and Lizzy chatting together. Jack noticed him as well and waved. Alex waved back before joining them.

"Hey, you guys seem to have Bonded with a Pokémon already. How long did it take?" Alex asked. "Heh, well I got a Shinx! Pretty good, right?" Jack replied with a grin. Clearly, he was really happy with his Pokémon he Bonded with. "What about you Alex?" Jack inquired. "I struck gold and got a Shiny!" Alex said, pointing towards Sapphire next to him. Jack and Lizzy were both shocked. "I-Is that a S-Shiny?!" said Jack, thoroughly surprised. 'What kind of luck does he need to find a Shiny and make a Bond with it during his first time going into the wilderness?!' he thought.

Meanwhile, Lizzy was also surprised, but she didn't want to say anything because she was shy when it comes to new people. She isn't shy near Jack because he "chats" with her all the time, but she doesn't know Alex that well. She only met him once and he seemed kinda... anti-social.

Jack turned to Lizzy. "Oh yeah, you haven't told us the Pokémon you Bonded with yet" he said. Both Alex and Jack turned to Lizzy. "Uh-h I-I Bonded with a-an... an Eevee" she stuttered. "That's cool!" Jack says. Alex nodded as well. "Can we see it?" Alex asked. "Uh, o-ok" Lizzy said. Then, an Eevee jumped out of Lizzy. Alex was a bit tripped out from it. He still wasn't used to it and only experienced it from a first-person perspective. Nonetheless, he still inspected the Eevee.

"Cool!" Jack said. The Eevee was curled up and sleeping on Lizzy's lap. No one wanted to wake it up, so Lizzy called it back. "Does it have a name?" Alex asked. "Uh, yeah. She's called Poppy" Lizzy said. "Nice! Wait, we haven't seen your Shinx yet. Can we see it?" Alex said to Jack. "Sure, no problem" he replied while a Shinx jumped out of him.

The Shinx stood up proudly on Jack's head. "Hey! Get down fro there!" Jack said, before pulling the Shinx off his head. The Shinx didn't want to go down, so Jack forcefully pulled it off his head, almost losing his hair at the same time. Meanwhile Alex was laughing and Lizzy was giggling while looking at Jack struggle.

"Enough" Jack said after finally getting The Shinx off of his head. "Just because Voltage is a bit goofy doesn't mean you guys should laugh at him!". His face was red because of his mix of frustration and embarrassment. "Ok, ok, fine. We'll stop laughing" Alex said while trying to hold in a laugh. Lizzy also tried to stop giggling, but still let out a few giggles.

Seeing this, Jack sighed and tried to change the subject. "Anyways, we all Bonded with a Pokémon, so we'll finally be considered Fusers. Hopefully we get put into the same dormitory Alex" Jack said. "Yeah, even if we don't, we can still make a squad" Alex replied.

Once you become a Fuser, you go to a different school called a university. He doesn't really know why it's called that. It probably was randomly chosen on Earth or something. Anyways, there are 3 main differences between Fuser school and Fuser university. One is that you live at the school in a dormitory with other people, so that you can easily go to classes. The second difference is that you choose your classes, which means that he can choose classes that he enjoys so he doesn't sleep through the class. The third difference is that you can make a squad.

A squad is a group of Fusers that take requests from people to find Pokémon, clear out Pokémon infested areas, etc. You get paid for completing the request successfully and different jobs have different rewards. Some require specific Fuser Ranks in order to complete a request. For example, if you request for a squad to clear out an area infested with multiple Arbok, you'd need Fusers that are Novice or Intermediate ranked to insure that they get the job done. Either way, you can pick a request from the Request Board at the university. The Request Board is where anyone can add or take requests to do/needed to be done.

Anyways, while Alex, Jack and Lizzy were talking, a whistle blew. They turned to see the source of the whistle and saw Ms. Hamlet with a whistle in her mouth. "All right everyone. It's been 3 days, so your school trip is now concluded. If you didn't manage to make a Bond with a Pokémon today, don't worry. There's another chance coming up soon, so take what you learned today and use it when you go again. Otherwise, if you did manage to make a Bond with a Pokémon today, congrats! I'll give you a pass for the university so you can get settled there whenever you want. University starts in a week, so make sure you get everything done before then. Now, get on the bus because we're heading out!" Ms. Hamlet said. Everyone started loading onto the bus. There are 30 students here, and of the 30, 10 students, including Alex, Jack and Lizzy, manage to make a Bond. The others weren't that interesting though. They Bonded with Caterpie, Weedle and some others that aren't that strong.

When everyone got onto the bus, It started moving and everyone left, albeit in different moods. The ones who made a Bond with a Pokémon were happy and exited, while the ones that didn't were sad and disappointed. Meanwhile, Alex, Jack and Lizzy were chatting together. Ok, more like Jack and Lizzy were chatting together while Alex was the third-wheel, but still. Alex eventually left once Jack started to flirt again with Lizzy. He eventually fell asleep after arguing with Sapphire that he wasn't the [System].

Once he woke up, he looked out the window and saw that they were pretty much back at the school. There was a couple minutes left before they got back to the school, so Alex got all his camping gear organized, bickered with Sapphire a bit more and waited for the bus to stop. He saw Jack and Lizzy were separated, with Lizzy's face flushed red ,while Jack had a red handprint on his face. 'Oh my... I swear Jack did something quite sexual to her. It was only a matter of time before he overstepped the boundaries' Alex thought. He didn't put much thought into it, because he planned on interregati... no, "Strongly Ask" Jack later.

Either way, he got off the bus, and headed home to pack up his stuff and get ready for his university life.