6 Prelude To Battle!

Currently, Roy was in his room with three types of Poke balls in front of him. They were sitting on his desk as he inspected them closely.

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[Poke Ball: A device for catching wild Pokémon. It's thrown like a ball at a Pokémon, comfortably encapsulating its target.]

[Great Ball: A good, high-performance Poké Ball that provides a higher success rate for catching Pokémon than a standard Poké Ball.]

[Ultra Ball: An ultra-high-performance Poké Ball that provides a higher success rate for catching Pokémon than a Great Ball.]

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Indeed, they were the most common types of Poke Balls a trainer could encounter. Technically, this was true for the games, but in this world—not so much.

The Ultra ball had one of the best catch rates a Poke ball could possibly have. Usually, they were sold out at the local Pokemarts or preordered beforehand. Roy only knew this because his mom complained about it every now and then.

"These Poke balls are more than what meets the eyes, but not to my eyes. I can see it all, this is incredible!" Roy squinted as he glared deeply at the Poke balls.

Roy could see many thin white lines going across the regular Poke ball. Even with his special eyes, if he didn't pay close attention he would miss it. As for the Great ball, the lines were thicker and easier to spot.

The Ultra Balls had the thickest of the Poke balls Roy had seen so far. This was the reason for Roy checking the Poke balls in the first place because the Ultra ball's lines were apparent to him.

"This probably has something to do with aura. I've seen the same thing on pokemon, for instance, red for fire types, orange for fighting types, and cyan for flying types."

Roy had also seen this on duo types, but they would have an overlapping aura. For example, Houndoom, it would have a black and red aura over its body, but it wasn't chaotic and instead calm.

Roy speculated, perhaps he could make his own Poke balls. He thought that maybe he could create Poke balls.

Roy wanted to create balls that could catch specific types, or create a ball that could catch pokemon in certain environments. Of course, such balls already existed—such as the Dusk ball, Net ball, Dive ball, etc.

"I don't have much information, I'll need to ask an expert to better understand these things." The first to come to mind was Kurt, this was the old fellow who lived in Azalea Town.

"I just hope this guy is in this world." Roy strongly believed he was; this character was a must-have. In any case, Roy could only wait and see as time went on, eventually, he would set foot in Azalea Town at some point.

Roy's birthday had passed 2 days ago, so he was official 14 years old. As of now, it was night time and he had school tomorrow. So he stretched; stood up and undressed before hopping into his bed and going to sleep.

The next day, Roy and his siblings arrived at school. This year he had a different teacher. This was his last year of school before his school days were over. Roy took a seat while his sister Diana took a seat at the desk next to him.

Indeed, they had ended up in the same class together, while his brother was put in a different class this time.

"Hey, have you heard about the upcoming tournament?" A chubby kid turned to another kid and said.

"Of course, who hasn't heard about it." The glasses boy shook his head and dismissed the chubby kid.

"Hehe, well, have heard about the rewards they're giving out to the top three?" The chubby kid smirked widely.

"What? Do you know what the rewards are? What are they?" The glasses boy was interested and his personality did a one-eighty, after all, he was one of the chosen participants.

"I only know that the top three will receive the chance to choose from any of the Royal pokemon of Johto."

"What?! Are you serious!" The glasses kid was shocked.

Roy was a little stunned, but his sister's figure shook with excitement. The Royal starters were hard to acquire and most trainers weren't seen with one. Though, not as rare as Larvitar; they were considered top-notch pokemon.

There were quite a number of people eavesdropping on the conversation. They couldn't help but feel jealous because they weren't qualified to participate. As for the two other students who were qualified, they almost jumped out of their seats in excitement.

Roy, personally, favored Totodile among these three.

As for the ones that weren't qualified, they could either buy a pokemon or have their parents catch one. Roy also knew the chances of winning first place among so many people weren't at all high, or easy.

Just as everyone was discussing the rewards and possible rewards for trainers; the teacher walked. This was, of course, a different teacher from the one Roy had those years ago.

He wore a lab coat, with a brown shirt and pants. The man had a clean and well-groomed haircut with sideburned that connected with his goatee and mustache.

"Hello, guys, today we'll be talking about two pokemon. With the upcoming tournament and this being your senior year, you guys have learned quite a lot throughout the years." The teacher turned to the chalkboard and started sketching pokemon.

Within five minutes, he had sketched the two pokemon he wanted to talk about today. Roy saw that these pokemon were both Zubat and Golbat.

"That pokemon is creepy, I wouldn't use such a thing." A girl behind the glasses boy said with disgust.

"Haha, Zubat and Golbat deserve some love." The teacher chuckled and continued, "This pokemon is Zubat, we'll be talking about it first."

Everyone listened closely, but most people here were not interested in such a pokemon. It looked weird to them and also seemed to be blind, which was, in fact, true.

"Zubat, as you can see from the sketch is totally blind. However, despite being blind, it can sense obstacles with the Ultrasonic waves it emits from its mouth. Zubat is a blue bat, it has a short round blue body, purple wings, and slim legs missing feet."

Everyone remained silent, Roy had many thoughts. For one, he was in the Johto region so he wanted a team full of nothing but Johto region pokemon. Roy was going to do the same for every other region as he went forward on his journey.

'Hmm, Crobat, this would be a good pokemon later on.' Roy silently came to a decision, he would catch a Zubat once the chance presented itself. This would be an amazing pokemon to add to his team for battles in general.

"Zubat is the most common cave pokemon worldwide, you can virtually find them in any dark place. They form huge colonies in caverns numbering up to thousands. At night Zubat may leave their caves in large groups, with as many as ten thousand Zubat having been documented leaving from their cavern at once."

"So scary!" The girl behind the glasses boy was terrified. It could be found in every cave? She knew that if she wanted to be a trainer, she would have to pass through some caves to get to her next destination.

Mr. Willard continue to explain enthusiastically, but many people felt bored and started yawning. Next, he jumped to the subject of Golbat and began to explain many things about it.

Many people frowned when he talked about Golbat because of how dangerous it could be. This pokemon sucked blood and their saliva contained a substance that poisoned and immobilized prey.

The more people heard about it, the more they were determined to not bother with this pokemon.

"This pokemon is a little too much, huh." Diana scrunched her face into disgust.

"Interesting pokemon." Roy nodded with a smile.

"What? Roy, are you kidding me? This pokemon is crazy, I suggest you steer clear of it, lest you end up as a dried-up corpse."

"We'll see." Roy only smiled and didn't give her a direct answer.

"Did everyone get that?" Mr. Willard gazed around the classroom, but what he said next caused everyone a headache.

"Alright! Pop-Quiz on Zubat and Golbat!" Mr. Willard grinned widely.

"What?"

"Come on!"

"Please, we're Seniors, show some mercy!"

Everyone's hearts were reluctant, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. Mr. Willard pulled a stack of quiz paper out of his desk drawer, which showed that he was long prepared for this.

School time was only three hours long for the Seniors, but it was double that for lower-grade level students. After class ended, everyone began to gossip about what they would do next after graduation.

The three siblings went home together, they couldn't wait for the competition two weeks later. Once they were home, they learned from their mom that they had mail. Checking the mail, the three saw that the competition was being held in Cherrygrove City.

Cherrygrove was a city, not a town, so it was a large place. The battles were being held in the colosseum next to Cherrygrove's square.

"Haha, congratulations again to the three of you. I hope you guys win it big!" Diane was overjoyed. Even though she knew this already, she couldn't help but congratulate them again.

"Thanks, mom, we'll try to acquire a high ranking in these battles." Diana's expression turned serious, she had 'grown a lot' over the years.

"We'll try, but the chances aren't high. Some of these kids trained day in and day out for this moment." Roy sighed. It wasn't like he wasn't confident, but he was just being realistic. Those rich kids particularly—were forced to train in the extreme.

Roy and his siblings had their own training, but the level between the two groups was fairly wide.

The Pokemon Alliance didn't show favoritism to these rich kids and they had to do the same thing as everyone else. However, these families had a lot of its members within the Alliance, so they did have access to Merit Points they bunch together to buy things.

That was their advantage. A large family with breeders, trainers, and money could 2up others no matter how you looked at it. The Alliance didn't give them any advantages and made sure everyone was treated equally, at least on the surface.

After eating and talking for a bit, Roy went to his room.

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Elsewhere in a coffee shop somewhere in Cherrygrove, a duo sat together.

"Aren't we going to capture them with the plan we put together?" Said the crooked nose man.

"We'll wait until after the competition, this will allow us to see who the best candidates are. There are more talents coming to this town for the competition." If Roy was here, he would immediately recognize this woman.

She was the teacher who passed out Roy's first exam back when he was eight.

"So we do it after the competition?" The crooked nose man rubbed his chin and grinned thoughtfully.

"There would be too much of an uproar if we did it before the competition. That annoying Looker guy has been on Team Rocket's case for years, he's like a pest you can never get rid of." Smarten's voice turned cold when talking and thinking about Looker.

The crooked nose man groaned as well before nodding.

"We'll watch the competition in person, I can't wait to see who the best will be." Smarten was a bit entertained by the thought.

"I guess we wait then."

"Who ordered coffee with whip cream and 3 blocks of sugar?" A woman in a waitress's outfit came to their table and asked.

"Oh, oh, that's me!" The crooked nose man hurriedly said happily.

Seeing him act like this, Smarten's lips twitched.

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Time passed and in a flash, two weeks had gone and the day of the competition was here.