CH24 (254), Planning Ahead

On Grouday evening, at the end of my two-week-long mission, I said my farewells to all my old as well as new acquaintances. The little ones I entertained during my free time did not want to let me go, my own age is irrelevant here so just ignore it.

They swarmed me, and literally clung to me while telling me to stay, but that was naturally impossible, so I did the responsible thing and threw the job of calming them to the sister Joy on duty while shamelessly running away by myself.

Well, I quickly felt bad for leaving her to the wolves, so I went back and had Drowzee put the little ones to sleep after seeing the poor sister Joy being surrounded since it was close to sleeping time anyway. Then I asked him and Horus/Xatu to move them to their beds before leaving once more.

I talked a bit with Jessie while waiting for my transport, and the changes that had happened to Spiral Town during our time here were part of our talk.

I was honestly impressed by the amount of work that had been done to the half-destroyed town during these two weeks. While we had been busy dealing with the injured everyone else had been cleaning up the rubble and began to "slowly" rebuild the destroyed building.

According to what we had heard, and Jessie's information source was more reliable than mine since she heard it from the other Joys, all rubble had been successfully cleared away, and a fourth of the destroyed building had already been replaced/restored.

Anyway, the others that had come with me were going to stay for another week or two before returning, so I was the only one in my group waiting for Alakazam. Jessie, herself would be here for another two months according to what she told me before being transferred back to the PokeCenter in Viridian City.

Alakazam appeared in front of me at 8 p.m sharp, and after I gave Jessie a final farewell hug, we vanished from Spiral Town. Alakazam brought me directly to Mr. Cameron's office, and after nodding towards Mr. Cameron, Alakazam vanished probably going back to his no doubt important matters.

"Good job, Mikail. I have been receiving updates from your supervisors, mostly Ms. Citrus, and also some from the command center. To be honest, you should have taken part in the clean-up work during the last 4 days, but Nurse Joy requested that you stayed with the medic team for the full duration of the assignment.

She cited that you were a hard-working young man with a big heart that was popular among the young patients. She especially mentioned that you spent some of your free time entertaining the younger children in the medical area together with your Pokemon.

I'll be honest with you Mikail you've done something that many people envy you for you have positively impressed a lot of Joys, and they have noted you down as a promising prospect in their trainer files.

That's something that happens rather rarely, so you can be really happy about that. It is something really useful to all trainers since it helps them with many procedures in the PokeCenter." Mr. Cameron informed me after praising my performance during the mission.

"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you for informing me," I thanked him since I had not known that the Joys had done something like that.

"Alright, now I want to hear your report on what you've witnessed during these two weeks. I'd like you to add your honest feelings and opinions to your report," Mr. Cameron said and I began telling him about everything I did during the last two weeks.

I even added my idea about selling the Numbing and Sleep Powder into my narration, and by the end of my report, Mr. Cameron closed his eyes for a moment before nodding.

"You have done an exemplary job during the mission and the promised 300 academy points have been added to your profile. Now, while your idea with the powder is not revolutionary since many whose Pokemon have mastered the Stun and Sleep Powder, even Poison Powder, moves have thought of selling them.

You might make a nice sum if you do go through with it seriously, but you'll face the same problem that everyone else has faced, and that is that one or two Pokemon can only produce so much powder by themselves.

Other than that it is a nice idea, and we're willing to provide you with the contact information of clinics and facilities that are worthy of your consideration. We'd be willing to facilitate the meeting between both parties without asking for a return if you need our help," Mr. Cameron advised and informed me in the name of the academy.

I gave him a grateful nod before telling him that I'll think about it. I now had 1799 points with the points I would get for my second project along with the ones I would receive for my exams, I should be able to gather around 2100 points by the end of the second year.

That meant that I should be able to exchange the chance to visit the Riolu/Lucario habitat toward the end of the first term of my third year if I took one or two missions.

Now, assuming that I got a partner Riolu during my first visit since I am awesome and I need to have confidence in myself, then I would need to gather another 1800 points to visit the Togepi/Togekiss habitat as well before my graduation.

"Mr. Cameron could you please tell me how many academy points I would receive if I participated in and won the competition at the end of my third year," I asked politely since that would determine how many missions I would need to take to get the chance to get a Togepi.

"No problem, it's good that you are interested in the competition. The farther you go the happier we will be. Anyway, if you become one of the academy representatives, you get 200 academy points. If you become one of the Rota representatives, you get 400 academy points.

If you become one of the representatives of the northern continent, you get 800 academy points. If you win the global competition, you get 1600 academy points, so in total it's possible to earn up to 3000 academy points through the competition.

You naturally still get points if you make it to the Top 4 or Top 8 in the later competitions, but I have faith in you. I'm sure you'll make it at least to the global competition and I think you have a really great chance to win that one as well."

Well, that was a lot of points, especially because I was planning to participate in both the regular and personal combat categories, so I could potentially earn up to 6000 points.

Now, while I was not entirely sure if I could win the global personal combat competition, I was absolutely sure I would wreck the regular one, so 3000 points were guaranteed from that at least. If I got another thousand or so from the personal one I would still have more than enough for my plans.

I wouldn't even need to do any extra missions to get access to both the Riolu and Togepi habitats, but I had no plan to wait until the end of the third year to get myself a Riolu, so the plan regarding the mission during the first term still stood.

No, after using 1800 points for the chance at a Togepi I was simply going to use the excess points for more resources, or actually, I might even be able to gain another Pokemon.

"Um, Mr. Cameron, sir, is it possible to use any excess points I earn during the competition to choose another Ralts partner? It's just that Ali, that's my Kirlia, wants to evolve to Gallade and I'd also like a Gardevior, so it would be great if I could find one in the sanctuary I chose Ali from."

I asked hopefully, I mean I really put it on thick there with the hope in my voice. I might have taken it a bit too far since I made Mr. Cameron laugh. Oh, well, better him laughing than being angry or anything like that.

"No need to put it on thick like that. *hahaha* Exchanging the chance to enter any of the habitats for the possible aura partners is possible. That's actually part of the regular exchange list since not everyone can or wants to exchange a Togepi or Riolu.

The chance to enter their habitats costs less to enter than those two, so the others are pretty popular among the regular students/graduates. Entering the Buneary/Lopunny or Clauncher/Clawitzer habitat costs 1000 academy points each.

Entering the Tyrogue/Hitmonform or Mienfoo/Mienshao habitat costs 1250 academy points each while entering the Ralts/Gardevior habitat costs 1500 points.

I have to add that you are only exchanging the chance to enter the habitat, whether you manage to get a partner or not depends solely on your luck as well as compatibility with the Pokemon, so just like in the Togepi and Riolu habitat it is possible to end up empty-handed in the other habitats as well."

I thanked him wholeheartedly for being so considerate before wishing him a good evening and taking my leave. The first thing that happened to me when I returned home was nearly dying from suffocation.

After that, I got dragged to the living room and then they made me narrate my time at the medic zone to them, even though we talked over the phone during my time there. Still, I smiled and began telling them how my last two weeks went since it was nice to spend time with my parents like this.

The next day at the academy I got surrounded by my classmates who all wanted to hear about my mission, and it took until the end of the week for them to calm down.

My first session with the third years at the Knight Academy happened that Palkiday, and I believe I put on a good showing. I got to spar with 10 students during my time there and I won 6 out of 10 fights. Not bad for my first session with the third-year students.

Mr. Burns said as much during our session the Palkiday after that, which was also the last week of my first month. Signaling the end of the first of three months of my final term as a second-year student.

Still, the month did not end without a final surprise. On Grouday, two days before the start of the second month, Mars officially entered the group of those that started their limit breaking after his Agility finally reached the A-value.

'Name: Mars

Species: Ursaring

Gender: Male

Age: 10+ years

-

Type: Normal

Potential: Deep Blue (53.89%) -> (74.14%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Guts, Quick Feet

Talents: None

Affinities: Normal

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Likes Close Combat

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (high)

Vitality: S

Strength: S

Endurance: A

Agility: A

Energy Capacity: A

Energy Density: A

----

Immunity: Ghost

-

Resistance: None

-

Weaknesses: Fighting (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Fighting (in-progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy, Excited

----

Masteries:

Neutral Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

Double Team

-

Novice:

Bulk Up (new), Metal Claw (new)

-

Beginner:

Scratch, Sweet Scent, Play Nice, Charm, Scary Face, Snore, Work Up, Thrash (+), Play Rough (new, +), Bulldoze (new, +), High Horsepower (new, +), Double Edge (new, +)

-

Proficient:

Lick, Feint Attack, Swift, Dig, Hyper Voice (++), Protect (new, ++), Hyper Beam (new, ++), Endure (new, ++)

-

Advanced:

Brick Break, Fire Punch, Slash, Rest, Thunder Punch (+), Ice Punch (+), Hammer Arm (+), Shadow Claw (++), Throat Chop (++)

-

Mastered:

Fury Swipes (+)

-

Combos/Custom:

Fury Slashes (Proficient)'

Honestly, Mars's status screen looked pretty great and he had made a lot of progress during the last two years. He had learned a lot of new moves and improved quite a few of his old ones. I mean his list of moves at advanced mastery was pretty good and versatile on top of that, and the new moves he learned were all useful as well.

Hyper Beam was one of the moves that he learned since that was a must-have move for any self-respecting Ursaring. Besides, Mars had no problem integrating it into his style cause a Hyper Beam to the face from close up was still considered close combat, at least in his words it did.

Also, Mars had mastered Fury Swipes and raised his combo-move Fury Slashes to proficiency. I was considering combining Fury Swipes with Metal Claw next. Well, after he finished learning Double Team.

As for the rest of his status screen, well, his potential had improved thanks to the stuff I was providing, but he was still far off from reaching light purple potential.

We would have to wait for him to break through to the gold stage for that to happen thanks to the limit-breaking bonus. That, or I'd have to spend 3 to 4 more years pumping him full of supplements to help him reach light purple without relying on the bonus.

Yeah, that was pretty much it on his status screen. On another note, I had made no significant progress on his alternate evolution. I mean I had managed to solve the issue of Ursaring's evolution to Ursaluna, but that was not what I, or rather we, wanted after all.

Still, it was nice to know that I could allow/help any Ursaring that I wanted to evolve to Ursaluna, and I was pretty sure the method would be worth quite a bit more alliance points than any of my two projects. I was planning to use that as bait, or rather one of the chips for my apprenticeship during my tertiary education.

Nonetheless, it remained true that I was still struggling with finding the correct evolution conditions for Mars, but I was not going to give up. It was not like Mars and I were under any time pressure or anything, so Mars's alternate evolution remained one of my constant side projects.

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