CH27 (257), Second Minute Of Fame (2)

Well, I was pretty sure that mom was actually more excited than I was about my interview and appearance on TV. I was so sure about that because she woke me up at 7 a.m despite the appointment with Jimmy Talon and his crew at the Saffron Studios being at 10 a.m.

The trip from our home to Saffron City was roughly 4600 km, and Horus/Xatu preferred using 9 jumps to reach the city. It took him 45 minutes to complete the trip if he was teleporting the two of us. All this was obviously without forcing Horus to his absolute limits since there was no reason for that and it was better to be careful before and after each jump.

Now, if we added my parents to that he would need 70 to 80 minutes to complete the same trip, so it would have been enough if I had woken up at 8 a.m. At least that would have been the case if we would travel there with Horus, which was not the case.

No, Mr. Cameron was accompanying us since he would be taking part in the interview as well as a show of support from the academy and Aura Guardians. This obviously meant his Pokemon would be teleporting us to Saffron City, which meant the trip would be done in a single jump, which meant the whole thing would be over nearly instantly.

At least it had been like that the last time his Alakazam brought us to Saffron City for the interview with "Good Morning, Kanto!". This meant mom had not roused me from my sleep one hour too early but two, since we were supposed to meet Mr. Cameron at 9:45 a.m in front of the academy gate.

I would have been perfectly prepared for the meeting if I had woken up at 9 a.m, so I lost two hours of sleep for nothing. Luckily for mom, I loved her, or I would have harbored a grudge over my lost sleep instead of just grumbling over the situation mentally.

It took me a grand total of 20 minutes to take a shower, and change into the clothes mom had put out for the interview, so I swiftly took them off and changed into a new set of my regular clothing. No need to risk dirtying the nice clothes during breakfast after all.

I told mom as much when she asked why I was not wearing the clothes she chose for me, and she looked before pinching my cheeks. I looked like a 17-year-old, but I still had to suffer through cheek pinching. It was a pout-worthy situation, but as a manly man, I naturally did no such thing.

We ate our breakfast and then I changed into my "nice" clothes, so at 5 minutes to 8 a.m, I was ready to go. Dad also wore a suit but was ready a few minutes after me. Meanwhile, mom was upstairs getting ready as well.

Normally, I'd say that they didn't have to have to smarten up like that, but since they were my parents they got two first-row seats among the audience, so I could relate to why they wanted to look good.

Still, by the time mom came downstairs I felt empty. We nearly managed to be late for our meeting with Mr. Cameron because of how long mom took to come down. She kept saying I'm nearly done when I asked when she would come done and in the end, it was 9:25 a.m when she finally deigned to grace us with her presence.

She did look super beautiful and both dad and I told her as much since she was looking at us obviously waiting for comments *cough* compliments *cough*. Still, somewhere in the recess of my mind the question "just why did she take so long" kept echoing.

Still, at least she made it in time, and the only reason I could say that so easily was thanks to the existence of Horus Express, your friendly teleportation service.

We did a last check to make sure everything was fine before Horus brought us to the academy gate. We still had 10 minutes until 9:45 a.m, so everything was fine. Just a minute after we arrived Mr. Cameron appeared with his Alakazam, most likely having sensed/noticed our arrival.

"Good morning," he greeted us and we returned the greeting, my parents were a bit more stiff/serious than me since I had gotten somewhat used to seeing him during our meetings.

"Alright, since you are already here, we'll make our way to the studio right now. There's no need to wait until 9:45," he said and that was all it took for Alakazam to act.

One moment we were in front of the academy gate and in the next moment we were in front of the Saffron Studios. It happened in the blink of an eye, and after nodding toward Mr. Cameron Alakazam went away to do his or her stuff.

Mr. Cameron directly entered the tall building, that may have qualified as a skyscraper, and moved straight to the reception. He told the receptionist that we were here for an interview with the Jimmy Talon cast, and he straight-up told her to call them to tell them to send someone down to receive us since we had come a bit early.

Well, his exact words were "tell them that a Mr. Cameron was waiting for them to send someone down to receive him and his company." I was pretty sure that he was flexing, but I was also sure that he was doing it to calm our nerves, and looking at my parents it seemed to work.

I obviously did not need any show of authority/power like that since I was cool as a cucumber, but he did it for us, so I was thankful for his action and gave him a grateful nod.

It took a minute or so for someone to come out of the elevator and hurry toward us. He politely asked us to follow him and we entered the elevator, heading to the 18th floor, which apparently belonged entirely to the studio that owned the Talon show.

Once we reached our floor and left the elevator we were received by Mr. Talon himself along with the producers. I had no illusion that they were this attentive because of me. No, they were behaving like this solely because of Mr. Cameron, and we were receiving the VIP treatment as his company.

After a short exchange, it was decided that we would get right into recording the show. Thankfully, all audience members were already present, or someone might have missed the chance to take part in the recording.

My parents went to their seats while Mr. Cameron and I moved backstage. We were told about the intro and when to move to the stage. Everyone got ready, and within less than 5 minutes I heard the intro music of the show being played.

We could see as well as hear what was happening on stage from one of the screens placed backstage, and I heard Mr. Talon begin our introduction.

"Tonight we have a very special guest with us. Some of you might have heard about him and his work. Despite his young age, our guest had his work published in quite a few papers and magazines, with the Pokemon Ecology Journal as well as the Kanto Weekly being among those. I'm talking about young Mikail Geo.

Accompanying him is Mr. Cameron from the Order of Aura Guardians and the Aaron Aura Academy. Young Mikail is a student of the academy and has the backing of both the order as well as the academy. According to Mikail himself, they helped him publish his papers."

That was our cue to come up from behind the curtain and move onto the couch across from Mr. Talon. We walked towards our place under the applause from the audience and they only stopped clapping after we sat down. There was no glowing sign that said "clap" that went out at that exact moment, nuhu.

"Welcome, welcome. I have to say it is great to have you here with us," Mr. Talon said.

"It is great to be here," I returned and Mr. Cameron just nodded with a small smile.

"So, Mikail, you're a student of Aaron Aura Academy, which means that you are an aura user, and we all know that aura users grow faster than others. So, would you be willing to share with us exactly how old you are right now?" He began and I nodded with a smile.

"Sure, no problem. I'm going to turn 10 years old in two months, so I'm still 9 right now," I disclosed, and excited noises came from the audience at that.

"I'm sure that is younger than most expected, at least to those that have not read the excerpt on you in Kanto Weekly. Still, your accomplishment at your young age makes us older people look on in awe.

I mean it is not something most expect from someone your age, so what made you write those papers? I'm sure it was a lot of work finishing the project, so what motivated you to go through all that work?"

I briefly thought about what to answer, and I remembered that Mr. Cameron told me that I didn't need to hold back, so I went with the truth, at least a form of it.

"I love Pokemon a lot, and as someone that loves Pokemon, I obviously aspire to become a trainer among other things. Due to that aspiration, I have gathered Pokemon partners to join my family over the years, and we are regularly training to get stronger for the future when I start my journey as an official trainer.

Two of our most visited training spots are Mt.Moon and the Viridian Forest. During our training trips there we came across a lot of Pokemon species, and after some online research I found out that there was no comprehensive list of Pokemon that inhabited those places, so I decided to make one of my own."

Mr. Talon looked impressed with my answer and the audience clapped as well to show their excitement.

"Impressive. That's not the first thing that would come to my mind in such a situation, so that's probably the difference between a regular guy like me and a genius like you," he joked with self-deprecation and the audience laughed along.

I just politely smiled since no matter what I said it would most likely sound either arrogant or fake humble. Seeing my reaction Mr. Talon simply continued with the next question.

"So, I'm sure everyone is curious if you're planning to start another project, and if so, is it another ecology paper, or is it on something else?" He asked with great interest and I went with the answer I had prepared with this question in mind.

"Well, Mr. Talon," I began but he briefly interrupted me with a "just call me Jimmy," so I restarted with that.

"Well, Jimmy, I am actually not planning to work on any new projects until the end of my third year. Any new projects will have to wait until I start my tertiary education since I'm preparing for the secondary academy and school competition that's going to be held at the end of my third year."

Enthusiastic sounds came from the audience when I declared that, and Jimmy had a really interesting look as well.

"Oya, I seem to have heard something really interesting. So, we can expect to see you participating in the competition in a year? Say, how do you think you'll do in the competition? Any specific goals or declarations?" He asked curiously.

"Definitely, as for my goals for the competition. Jimmy, while this may sound a bit arrogant, I can tell you as well as everyone else that I am planning to reach the global competition. In fact, not only am I going to reach the global competition, but I'm going to dominate it.

At least, for the regular competition that's the plan. I'm planning to join both the personal combat as well as the regular category, but while I'm confident in dominating the Pokemon battles, I believe that it will be a bit of a struggle to win the personal category."

There, shot fired, and what a shot it was. The audience was going wild in the background and Jimmy looked absolutely stunned at my ballsy declaration.

"Wow! I did not expect that. Now, that's what I call a declaration of war! I'm sure a lot of students all over the world will feel challenged by your declaration and I would not be surprised if you became their target number 1 after this. This is going to lit a fire under a lot of people, so is there something you want to say to them?" He asked full of enthusiasm.

"Yes, there is," I replied with a nod, before looking straight at the camera. "Please, at least make it interesting for me" I turned back to Jimmy before smiling at him.

"That should motivate everyone to train extra hard. I'll be happy if everyone gets stronger due to what I said, even if I lose because I managed to over-motivate somebody," I informed him and the audience since I did not want to come across as a young master, but as someone concerned with the strength of the future/my generation.

Well, I got a standing ovation and Mr. Cameron, as well as Jimmy, laughed happily, so I think I succeeded.

"Well, I hope so as well. I'm sure everyone will be happy if some extra strong students reveal themselves during the competition. You've mentioned that you might work on some projects during your tertiary education, so any concrete plans, or is it still undecided?" He asked next after giving everyone a moment to calm down a bit.

"I am planning to apply for an apprenticeship under a professor for my three years of tertiary education, so hopefully I'll be accepted. Wish me luck!" I declared and Jimmy looked pretty happy with my answer.

"Wow, you're revealing grand aspirations one after the other. Can you tell us which professor you plan to apply to?" He inquired with a look at Mr. Cameron to gauge his reaction.

"I plan to apply to multiple professors, since they are all respectable intellectuals, and while I obviously have my favorite, I'll have to keep that one a secret, sorry."

"I'm sure you'll succeed and I wish you the best in your endeavors," Jimmy returned before turning towards Mr. Cameron.

He asked him some questions on the stance of the academy and the Aura Guardians, as well as Mr. Cameron's own opinion. Mr. Cameron answered that he, the academy, and the Aura Guardians, were believing my potential as an aura user, trainer, and intellectual. He declared that they were fully behind me as my backers.

They talked for another two to three minutes before Jimmy thanked Mr. Cameron and turned his attention back to me.

"So, seeing how confident you are about winning the Pokemon competition next year, can you show us some of your Pokemon?" Jimmy asked and I actually glanced at Mr. Cameron for that one not sure if I should do that or not.

Mr. Cameron gave me a subtle nod and radiated his approval as well as assurance towards me using his aura, so I decided I might as well show off a little bit.

"No problem," I began, " I'll show you my oldest and strongest two partners," I finalized before pulling out the (Poke)balls of Horus/Xatu and Mothra/Butterfree.

Jimmy motioned that the stage was mine, so I stood up and walked a bit more towards the middle of the stage before releasing Horus and Mothra. When they saw Xatu they were moderately impressed but as soon as Mothra appeared the audience went wild. Mothra tittered happily due to their clapping and fervor.

"Impressive Pokemon, especially that Butterfree. Can I ask why your Butterfree looks so different than a regular one?" Jimmy inquired and since I already brought her out I was ready to answer that.

"That's because she is a queen of her species. She is more than a cut above the rest and belongs to the apex of the bug type," I praised Mothra who was happy with my compliment, which she showed by dancing through the air.

That made the audience clap in elation and even Jimmy watched her dance for a bit before focusing back on me.

"These two are the reason I'm confident in dominating the competition," I added and he looked intrigued by that.

"Any chance you could tell us how strong they are?" he asked and I shook my head.

"Let that be a surprise. I have to keep everyone else on their toes after all. I'll just say that I am confident that we would have swept this year's participants," I finished and everyone seemed impressed.

After that, we finished the interview part and Jimmy proposed a game instead. It was "guess what Pokemon it is", a game where a picture with a part or silhouette of a Pokemon was shown and we had to guess which Pokemon it belonged to.

All three of us participated and the game went on for nearly 10 minutes. The Pokemon were not only from Kanto but from all known Pokemon. In the end, I still managed to win, which was a no-brainer in my humble opinion.

After that, we talked a bit more about less serious stuff like favorite trainers as well as people before Jimmy thanked us for coming and went through his closing remarks to wrap up the show.

Once the signal came that everything was done Jimmy thanked us once more and remarked that it was really impressive that we managed to finish everything in one take without having to re-shoot any scenes.

He also complimented me and told me to stay confident before adding that he was rooting for me. He even asked for an autograph citing that he believed that I would become someone big in the future and that he wanted to get the autograph before that happened.

Feeling flattered I gave him his autograph. He actually had special autograph cards on hand that would ensure that the autograph wouldn't get damaged in the future as long as it was correctly preserved.

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This chapter was longer than my regular ones at over 3k words, so I hope you enjoyed it.

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