I glance at my watch. 7:55, 5 minutes before my test starts.

  I look back up to the waiting room in the trainer association building. There are 5 other people in the room, the receptionist, a guy who is rather tall with brown hair. The old man sitting across from me with a pichu in his lap, I recognise his uniform from a local pokemon daycare. A girl sitting in the corner who seems about my age, probally also aiming for a trainer licence after failing to get a sponsorship when she was younger. A young boy, who is probally going to try and get a youngster license to participate in battles with borrowed pokemon. And finally Ralph, the dick who has had me waiting a whole month to apply for this just so we could travel together.

  I remember when we first met, as co-workers who started working at the pokemart at around the same time after the tournament, a water type specialist.

  He finishes talking to the receptionist and looks around finally spotting me, I give a small wave as he starts to walk towards me, glancing at my watch while I do so, 7:57. 3 minutes until my test. Not enough time for a decent conversation.

  "Hey, how you been Johnny boy, I haven't seen you all week since we quit the job, you really in that much of a rush for the journey that you couldn't even say goodbye." I look up from my watch only to see that he's already sat down next to me, with that same annoying smirk he always seems to pull of.

  "What do you think? You've already proven yourself as dead weight, I could've of already been in azalea by now if I didn't need to wait on your dumbass to turn 18." I respond to him, making sure to sound as monotone as possible to give him no more reason to mess with me. I glance at my watch, 7:59.

  "You here to take the test" I ask, simply to fill in the air, since I gave him nothing to go off of.

  "What type of dumb question is that?" But before he can critasize me more for the worst small talk of my life. A man dressed in standardised league uniform holding a clipboard to his chest, walks out the door beside the receptionists desk.

  "Can John Smith, Ralph Williams and Elizabeth Carr please come with me for the trainer qualification test." He states, somehow spreading across the entire room despite the fact that he said it at a normal volume. I quickly stand up and start to walk towards him, noticing Ralph and the girl in the corner also standing up to walk towards him. He quickly leads us through a few corners before we reach a room that simply has 3 desks evenly spaced with a peice of paper on top of them. All of us get seated while the man, Rory, now that I can see his name tag, takes a seat by the door.

  "You can begin when the its five past eight."

  I glance at my watch, 8:03, 2 minutes before I start the test, 32 minutes until I pass it. I start going through possible questions in my head. Effect of a leppa Berry? Restores energy. What types resist fairy type attacks? Fire, steel, Poison...

  By the time I've gone though a dew questions the clock ticks to 5 past and I quickly open my paper.

  1) name 5 diffrent grass type pokemon?

  Chikorita, sunkern, bellsprout, hoppip, exeggcute.

  7) what are water types resistent to?

  Water, fire, ice, steel.

  18) name 10 diffrent fire type attacks?

  Fire Punch, Fire fang, Ember, flamethrower, flame burst, Lava plume, mystical fire, sunny day, blaze kick and fire Spin.

  Those are the questions that refer to pokemon typing, the easy questions.

  3) how does one evolve a vulpix into a ninetales?

  Fire stone.

  15) a politoads dance is a sign of what to come?

  Rain.

  24) is air cutter a learnable move for pidgey?

  No, it is only an egg move.

  And the final question.

  30) name all the pokemon that are known to be able to switch typing without the help of a move?

  Tricky, abilitys like protean and color change require a move to be used.

  Just rotom.

  Once i finish filling in the box's below each question with the correct answers I glance at my watch and see that I finished with 2 minutes to spare. Confident in my answers I don't even look back at them and just close the leaflet and close my eyes.

  By the time Rory has came and collected all out papers and sent us off, saying we would recieve our results through a P-mail some time within the next hour, and that we should then return and get our licenses from the reception desk. I quickly walk out, hearing Ralph walking behind me, probally gonna brag about how 'good' he did in the test.

  "Man that last question was Doozy, some obscure knowledge required there, rotom and Ditto aren't the first pokemon that comes Into people's minds am I right" He said while swinging his arm around my shoulder with a wet thwack. He has a point though, any idiot could remember rotom, but Ditto, I don't even know what a Ditto is.

  Wait.

  What the hell is a Ditto.

  "Fuckkkk, 29 out of 30. How the hell was I meant to know about a pokemon discovered last year."

  "30 out of 30, maybe you should of just been better, it is a normal type, you should be on top of shit like this, I sure know about that water type, frillish, which they have been finding in sinnoh lately"

  I looked over at him while we waited in the somehow long line, which is shocking when you consider only 5 people were here just an hour ago. I look into his face already knowing that I'm never going to hear the end of this, that he did better than me on the trainer qualification test.

  "Shut up, the second we get our licenses I'm chalengeing you just for saying that you Ass" I say, trying to keep my voice level to not portray how excited I am, I mean seriously, I've not been in a serious battle in 2 years, when we both got eliminated in the same sponsorship tournament both in the round of 8. Luckily he does shut up and we just keep in line until we reach the front and recieve the cards that will dictate out very future.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  I glance at the hardened plastic, knowing that it acts as a pass for free healing and rooms in pokecentres, a bank card and most importantly identification as a trainer stating that since i have no badges im still restricted to a 3 pokemon carry limit. Instantly, I turn around to go and chalenge Ralph, only to get a faceful of his card.

  "I challenge you to a 3v3 battle" the second those words are uttered, I know what's coming is going to be great, I pull my hand along the 3 pokeballs on my belt, already imaging how this will go, with my victory.

  "I accept" is all I can muster before we both rush out of the building and start to head towards the closest park.

  I look over the standardised battle field, 50x20 meters of compacted dirt, with a few scuffs over the field from previous battles at Ralph, who is standing with a dive ball in hand, telling me that he's sending out his most recent capture, so I reach for the last ball on my belt, a nest ball. I pick up a rock from the edge of the field, knowing that Ralph knows what's happening and Chuck it in the air.

  As the rock starts its descent, I get ready, already knowing what my first orders are going to be, and with a pretty good guess on his first orders. And as the rock landed we both threw out pokeballs and shouted orders as they were released.

  "Bart, get down with dig"

  "Ella, get up and start a tailwind"

  As the orders came out, our pokemon finally finished forming, on Ralph's side, a small blue and gray fish with long what looked like a mouth down its side appeared for a second before tunneling into the ground with Dig, a barboach. I still remember last month when he caught it, some idiot released a whiscash into the lake north of violet, which promptly layer tons of eggs and let loose a bunch of barboach into the ecosystem, something the rangers are still dealing with. On my side a small blue and white bird a large red plume appeared before taking off into the air, a rufflet, who's migration patterns brought it over violet for just a few days about a month ago, I was lucky to catch one with how crazy the gym went catching them all.

  As Ella reachs around 20 meters up she rapidly swings her wings back and forth, obviously eager for her first serious battle, the only battle I've done with her before being against a youngster with a sandshrew just 2 weeks ago which we ended before it got to serious. Ella takes a while to set up tailwind, so I keep an eye out on the ground, and I see it as Ralph calls out the command, a slight shift in the dirt in the far left corner from me.

  "Water pulse"

  Its a short and consise order that instantly tells me how he has trained his barboach, a hit and run fighter.

  "Pivot right"

  As I give this command, Ella finally finished tailwind and dives away from the orb of water that is launched from Bart who is barley poking out of the ground, a powerful attack that's definitely been well trained. Then Bart goes back into the ground.

  "Get ready with hone claws and attack with wing attack when he pops up again"

  I shout up so that Ella can hear me from the air, I watch as she scrapes her Talons together, sharpening them against each other with a loud screech. And sure enough, the next time that Bart surfaces to launch another water Pulse Ella dives down at insane speeds with the wind at her back, her wings glowing a brught blue as she bats the water Pulse aside with a wing attack and hits Barts tail with it as he dives back down... just to deliver a faceful of mud directly into Ella's eyes in a textbook mudslap.

  As Ella gets hit in the face, she loses her balance and crashes into the ground, taking some damage from the landing, just before Bart surfaces again right below her.

  "Quick, spark"

  And instantly lights up with electricity before promptly slamming into Ella with the super-effective attack, almost instantly knocking her out. I look on shocked. (Had to do it)

  "Like his special move, I think his other parent must of been a lanturn" his remark is the trigger for me to return Ella to her ball, already knowing she's going to be angry about losing later, and take a look at Bart, and see that he looks exhausted, no doubt from pulling of a move from such opposing typing to him, and I also see the massive bruise starting to form on his tail, no doubt from Ella, with her sheer force ability, hone claws and the momentum granted by tailwind she packed quite a punch and one more attack would likely take her out. I unlatch the premier ball on my belt.

  "Tony, do your thing" and with a bright Tony appears... already lying down face first, before seemingly standing back up straight only to almost fall over again, his red spots all but glowing in the morning sun, a spinda, I caught him just about a year ago now in one of my watchings of someone taking on the sprout tower gauntlet where I was leaving after watching the gauntlet and he fell down through the centre of the tower right into my arms. As he sort of straightens himself on the field, Bart has already dived back into the ground.

  "Disable the second it comes up" I shout, hoping to get rid of it going underground in place for a straight brawl, something the much taller pokemon will accel at. And sure enough, Bart surfaces, atempting ot ram into Tony, onky to miss as tony seems to trip over his own feet and fall down so bart goes over him, he goes to go under ground agian only to glow white, and when he trys to go back down, he can't.

  "Follow it up with rapid spin"

  The second the command leaves my mouth, Tony, still on the seems to Summersault onto his head where he starts so Spin before slamming into Bart, knocking him out using his greater size on the much smaller fish. Ralph probally seeing this coming returns Bart quickly and follows this up by plucking the net ball off his own belt and launching it into the field.

  "Blob, start aqua ring"

  As the light from the net ball fades, a balloon like blue and white pokemon with 2 small pointed teeth, spread, a pokemon he caught a few months ago when he and his family went on holiday to hoenn. I smirk as I here his order, knowing that it's the perfect opertunity to reveal Tony's trump card which I've been hiding from Ralph.

  "Copy it" from the confused face into a shocked face as both pokemon become surrounded in a layer of glowing water, he figured it out, my trump card I've taught to Tony since our last battle a couple months ago.

  Copycat.

  But I realise a flaw in my plan as soon as Ralph shouts his next order.

  "Powder snow"

  A move that is sure to become much more effective effective with tiny encased in water.

  "Quick, psybeam and close in" I shout, planning to instead make this match up as quick as possible to reduce the chance of Tony freezing.

  As the cold wind and chunks of snow fly towards Tony, his spots glow as he unleash a beam on interlocking pink energy to split it down the middle, which Blob promptly rolls out of the way of as it hits the ground where he previously was, leaving a scorch mark. After this Tony starts to rush forwards, thou rush might be over stating it with the amount of times he has to catch himself from falling over while dodging water guns sent his way from Blob. And as he gets close to Blob, a new move is shouted by the both of us.

  "Water pulse"

  "Sucker punch"

  As Blob starts to condense water in his reserves into a large orb, Tony suddenly speeds up, and promptly falls on his face...

  Blob seeming confused at him not getting up looks back at Ralph, before promptly getting kicked in his side, and sent rolling backwards.

  "Tch, water Pulse again, don't wait for him"

  The second the order is given Blob rolls himself upright, launching a compressed orb of water right at Tony, who is still on the ground, which leads to a direct hit.

  As its now Tony's turn to get launched back a bit, before stumbling up somehow and running towards Blob who is rather close.

  "Rapid spin"

  "Brine"

  The orders leave our Moves and our pokemon quickly follow, Tony by suddenly stumbling somehow more in a circle at faster speeds and Blob by suddenly inhaling and unleashing a torrent of water towards Tony. As Tony and the water collide, most of the water is flung to the sides die to Tony's spinning but some still has an obvious effect, before Tony slams into Blob, spraying water everywhere, by the time it clears up? They are both down for the count, a textbook double knockout. As we both retrieve our pokemon, Ralph and I share a glance, he has a massive grin on his face, probally matching the one I have no doubt is on my own face. We both grab the only pokeballs on our belts, our starters. As we both throw them forward at the same time, and as they open and start a flash of light we both shout our orders.

  "Steve, swords dance quick"

  "Titan, water spout"

  And with our orders, they both appear looking at each other with menace that only a rivalry cultivated over 2 years could lead to.