Pokemon: The Smogon System

Premise: A man reincarnates into the world of Pokemon as part of a team rocket venture into Unova with access to the smogon system.

......

"Huh?" The confused expression of a brown-haired teenager appeared in the mirror. He moved his hand, wondering why he was looking at a different face in the mirror...

'Those tablets really do fuck you up ey? Maybe I should stop going to clubs with Em, after all, I'm nearly seventy...' He closed his eyes before smacking himself and opening his eyes with no distinct result. The same deep-brown eyes stared at him causing him to wave his hand in front of the mirror, 

"This is trippy as fuck...I've never had this light of a skin tone before..." 

Abruptly, a headache overcame him as information began flooding his mind. A couple of minutes later, the man had concluded that he was no longer in his original body,

"So that dark place must have been death right...Never thought I'd ever say that, damn, but now... I'm just a dude called Lester..."

He grabbed his face as he sat down in a chair in the corner of his room,

'What the fuck is this shit, I never asked to wake up in a new reality... I just wanted to enjoy my adult freedom but now I'm back at square one, as some 16-year-old kid.'

He didn't brood for much longer, deciding that pitying his circumstance wasn't going to help him survive in this world. Instead, he searched his room for items that might help him. The room seemed like some sort of dilapidated bunker which made him think that this body really got into some trouble. 

BASH! 

His door swung open as an old man wearing a Black skin-tight suit, embroidered with a red R on the front, waltzed in with a commanding presence. This caused Lester to suddenly jolt up and salute as he started internally cursing,

'The fuck is this shit...Team Rocket?! Look, I only said that 'Pokemon was an easy world' in passing while I was dead, you didn't have to truly send me here...'

"hmm, you did well being held up in this type of place for that week of travel, there's food and water downstairs before selection. Well Done on making it here from Kanto, you'll definitely be rewarded as promised," he glanced around the room before nodding at Lester to relax,

"Dismissed. Before you go though, let me remind you of a piece of advice, only salute Officers with our symbol on their shoulders. Not Simple Grunts like me..."

Lester walked straight out after nodding to the Grunt's advice,

'I stand corrected, this place is more like a supervillain training camp...A smaller, luxurious one.'

He noticed the mess hall below the stairs outside his room and looked out of the building he was in, he noticed a training facility and another building further out. This thing was like a small complex!

*NOM NOM NOM*

Lester gulped down a large plate of chicken tikka masala with some water before burping, 

"It feels like I haven't eaten good food in ages..." 

*BURP*

Lester kept rubbing his belly which seemingly bulged before another blonde, blue-eyed trainee came over, causing Lester's eyes to cock up. He never thought that another person would approach him as everyone seemed to keep to themselves,

" Hey man, the name's Riki, I'm from Unova and I'm thinking that since Team Rocket is trying to get a foothold in Unova, why not get a group of trainees toge-"

"Sorry, Not Interested," Lester replied as he obtained all useful information from this guy. Lester returned to watching any changes in the expressions of the grunts stationed around the perimeter of this hall. The blonde trainee stormed off after noticing Lester's Nonchalant attitude towards him, returning to his own group. 

'Giovanni's trying to get a foothold in Unova then huh? Interesting...' Lester thought with a curious look in his eyes before returning to his passive state. 

Soon enough, a red-headed man wearing a red cloak with a red R embroidered on his Shoulder stood in front of the hall,

"Listen up trainees! I'm Elite Officer Relan from the Kanto branch, follow me to the training facility for selection, those of you with priority from Kanto or Johto, form a separate line...Disruptions will not be tolerated."

Abruptly, Relan pulled a Pokeball from his belt and threw it on the ground to his side.

*Whoosh*

"Krickereee"

A grey-coloured, dog-sized, metal ant was released from the Pokeball causing Lester's eyes to widen, 

'I thought Durant's were supposed to be tiny...this thing is the size of a German Shepherd. I wonder if it's simply a mutation or if...game data is not accurate...'

Suddenly, his eyes flashed a purple-blue colour as an interface appeared in front of him.

[Welcome to the Smogon System! Access to the University will now be Granted!]

................................................................

Durant, The Iron Ant Pokémon has been registered.

Genetic Potential: II - Viscount Rank

Ability: Hustle

Maturity: 99%

Moves: 

Vice Grip - B+

Bug Bite - B

Crunch - C+

Dig - A

Overall Combat Potential: Elite Viscount Pokemon

................................................................

All of the new terms caused Lester to become confused as these were terms that he'd never heard of before. 

'Genetic Potential? Like What? IVs? I mean what else could it be right? I'm so glad my kids and grandkids taught me about Pokemon...' He kept thinking of other conclusions but that was the only one he could draw. He assumed that the effectiveness of a move was just that as grades increased, the better the execution of the move. He also assumed that any moves that had no ranking could just be newly understood. Basically, it's the equivalent of getting an Ungraded(U) on an Exam.

'I guess that Pokemon must be pretty hard-working otherwise...maybe that's the effect of EVs in this world as well...' Lester kept thinking but before he knew it, he was at the front of the line, being ushered into a room full of pokeballs. The supervising grunts seemed to be stronger as they spoke to Lester,

"Your benefit for joining this venture in Unova is that you get a larger choice pool of Pokemon than those joining branches back in Kanto or those that joined up from this region. Go on, take your pick quickly,"

[Scanning Pokeballs for Information....]

[Data Acquired: ]

2 Count Rank Pokemon

5 Viscount Rank Pokemon

27 Baron Rank Pokemon 

His vision began being filled with small entries of the Pokemon contained within each Pokeball. His eyes, however, rested on only two pokeballs. Glaring at them deeper, the windows opened on a more detailed page,

"Come on Kid hurry up, you're holding up the line and wasting your time that is required to train these Pokemon...You know that if you can't tame it by the end of this week, you'll have failed the training period and will become one of us," one of the grunts supervising spoke as he urged Lester to hurry up. 

Lester nodded as his eyes widened at the pages.

................................................................

Houndour, The Dark Pokémon has been registered.

Genetic Potential: III - Count Rank

Gender: F

Ability: Flash Fire

Maturity: 10%

Moves: 

Ember - E+

Howl 

Bite - E

Taunt - E-

Overall Combat Potential: Baby Count Pokemon

................................................................

'Yikes, this thing has some pretty good potential if the ranks are based on Nobility rankings like I'm thinking. It already is pretty good at using moves of its own type as well,' Lester thought before concentrating on the other Pokemon.

................................................................

Pawniard, The Sharp Blade Pokémon has been registered.

Genetic Potential: III - Count Class

Gender: M

Ability: Speed Boost

Maturity: 6%

Moves: 

Scratch - E-

Psycho Cut - E

Fury Cutter - F+

Pursuit - E+

Overall Combat Potential: Baby Count Class Pokemon

Preferences: Dark-type Food, Spicy Food.

................................................................

"I'll pick this Pokemon," Lester spoke as he picked up one of the pokeballs while thinking,

'Damn, Abilities also work differently here...Maybe they simply have an equal chance to inherit their parents' abilities...This ability on this Pokemon is busted. But the concept of genes then must also hold some sway in this world.' 

The Grunts nodded as they ushered Lester out of the room, and back into another line with his Pokeball which he firmly gripped before smiling at it,

"Hello buddy, it seems like it's me and you from here on out...Let's make this work and get stronger together." 

As soon as everyone finished their selection, the officer exited the normal room and began to address everyone, 

"As of right now, you have one week to tame your Pokemon before an evaluation will take place. You've all been set a base amount of Contribution Points that you can redeem at the mission centre. Keep in mind that you'll need these points to buy basic stuff like food, not just for yourself but for your Pokemon as well. Those ranked in the bottom 30 will be relegated to being grunts. Those in the top 10 will earn the qualification to undergo Officer Trials after a year, with a prize for first. Not to say that the others won't have access to these trials, it will just take more time though. Very well, you're all Dismissed." 

After concluding, the officer dismissed the group before returning his Durant to its Pokeball and walking off.

...

After a few days of releasing his pawniard, it starting to slice towards him, him returning it to his Pokeball, Lester managed to make some progress with taming his Pawniard.

"Paw, Pawniard" The Pawniard that emerged from the Pokeball looked warily at its current trainer. In the training hall, The trainer's palm outstretched with food in it, he approached Pawniard slowly with a smile. He kept his eyes glued on it as he knew this thing could chop his hand off at any point... His palm stopped a couple of centimetres in front of the Pawniard's head, the Pawniard closed its eyes and snuggled its mouth into his palm.

Lester smiled as he had successfully tamed his Pokemon on his third day, 

'Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, I never doubted you for a minute you goddamn genius,'

After all, it was quite a dangerous Pokemon but Lester was glad that it didn't have the Defiant ability. It seemed to be quite innocent and yet from the shimmer of its metallic coating, Lester thought it was capable of taking hits. After talking to it with closed questions, He began to understand Pawniard's history and mentality. before long, he was asking him about what name he'd like.

"Okay final try, Pawniard, do you mind if I call you Checkmate?" Lester began listing off some names before it nodded its head at that name.

"Nice to meet you then, buddy, let's aim for the top together 'Mate!" Lester began motivating Checkmate by bringing out a piece of paper and drawing a picture of a King-like, crimson, metallic humanoid sitting in darkness before pointing at Pawniard. 

"If you want to become like this one day, we can't be lazy so we have to train every day!" Lester said causing Checkmate to nod with bright stars in his eyes as his arm began to touch the picture as he nodded to himself. 

This entire interaction was watched over by some of the other trainees, some scoffed at his weird antic while others took a genuine interest in what he was doing. However, no one approached him as they all just continued doing their own thing. 

Checkmate looked into his trainer's eye and nodded, it seemed quite Adamant about completing its training.

As they had already completed the task set by the instructors, Lester spoke to Checkmate and asked him whether he would like to stay out or return to his Pokeball,

"I need to go and report that we've already become friends." 

Checkmate pointed at the Pokeball at his hip curiously, Lester nodded and returned him to rest. Before long, he moved towards the grunts and told them that he had completed the task. 

Bringing out Checkmate, The grunts nodded with slight apprehension as he was a slightly taller Pawniard standing at 3'0. He was then directed towards a training area for people who had passed. However, after this, the grunts began to mutter among themselves as they input the data into their systems.

[1st - Lester Orelion. Completion Time: 3 Days, 4 Hours.]

....

Lester nodded and turned his head to the training apparatus in the large hall before moving to an area that had punching-bag-like equipment. It took a couple more seconds for Checkmate to reach there as he walked over to the bag. 

"Mate, I want you to use a normal Cut on this punching bag as you rotate around it, once your energy has run out, let's rest and then I want you to use Fury Cutter for the next set." Lester explained as he showed what he meant by striking the punching bag, pacing around it with every jab, "Let's go." 

Lester began doing the same exercise as well, huffing and puffing as sweat began to collect over his body. pink, formless energy began collecting over Checkmate's blade-hands as he continued to exercise. 

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Pawniard kept slicing at the practice bag causing Lester to think to himself as he kept attacking his own punching bag,

'Even the goddamn punching bags here are stronger, probably made of Pokemon-derived items. If you stabbed or slashed a punching bag back home, all of its insides would pour out.'

After 45 minutes of exercising, Lester had run out of energy to continue,

'goddamn, the people in this world are freaks, I wouldn't have been able to do even 5 minutes back on earth...'

"Good work Mate, let's rest for the remainder of the hour and start again once the next hour begins," Lester spoke to his pokemon, disturbing the rest of the training area. As he looked over to Checkmate though, he noticed that he'd collapsed on the training mat in exhaustion. Everyone again looked at him weirdly for treating his pokemon with respect,

'why doesn't he just give it orders like every other trainer. It's not like it's human.'

'Why is this guy treating it like it's just another dude...'

Not concerning himself with the gaze of others, Lester high-fived his Pawniard for it's dedication. Yes, the pawniard used the flat of its blade hands to complete the action, otherwise, our story would end here.

Lester smiled as he closed his eyes and rested against the wall, wiping his sweat away. Checkmate moved to plonk himself down next to Lester as he copied Lester's actions, even though he wasn't sweating himself. This caused a grin to escape from Lester's mouth as he glanced at his first pokemon's actions. 

'He's just like a child following his parent's actions and demeanours. I need to set a good example for him to follow,' Lester thought as he noted this quirk of Pawniard. As he gazed around the training area, he noticed that there were some doors that he assumed led to private training grounds.