Ash's Pokémon Journey

Chapter 136 - 140

Chapter 136

The Pokemon Summer Academy

One day the gang were running in a panic. "We are going to be late!" shouted Ash. "This is because Dawn was messing about with her bedhead!" shouted Tomo. "Hey don't put the blame on me!" shouted Dawn. "We have to hurry!" shouted Brock. The gang continued to run till they ran through a gate. "Phew we made it at last" sighed Ash. "But you are still late" said a voice. It was from Prof Rowan. "I welcome you to the ruin research facility on Mt Coronet or, for purposes, your school". Thing is once a year in summer Prof Rowan and his assistants ran a pokemon summer school, like a pokemon summer camp, for a week at one of Prof Rowan's research facilities at Mt Coronet. So the gang were taking a break of their journey to join in the pokemon summer academy.At this academy the students who attended it would split up into three teams; a red team, a blue team and a green team. During the week the students take part in different activities and earn points for their achievements. And by the end of the week you find out which team has the most points and wins the whole competition. Prof Rowan's assistant Yuzo told everyone to look at the black board to see which team they would be in. As it turns out Ash, Tomo, Dawn and Brock were all in the red team. There was a little surprise for the gang. Conway, who they met at the Hearthome tag team tournament, was attending the pokemon summer academy too and he was in the blue team."I have to say it feels a bit strange attending a school again; I haven't been at school since I was nine years old" said Ash. "Same here" said Brock. "This is my first time going to school" said Tomo. Ranger Jenny taught Tomo to read and write and other things when he lived with her so he never went to school like other kids. "You'll be alright Tomo," said Ash "just pay close attention to the lessons and if you do have trouble with something just ask a teacher; they are always there to help a student. And do not yawn when you get to a boring lesson; teachers absolutely hate that". "Got it" said Tomo.Prof Rowan and his assistants welcomed all the students to the academy. Then they explained what the first activity at the academy was. The students were to have a pokemon battle with each other, but not with their pokemon. The activity was the students were to team up with the pokemon they were given. One of Prof Rowan's assistants presented a box filled with pokeballs. No one knew what pokemon they were getting so each student just had to pick. Tomo made a grab for a pokeball, but someone else grabbed it too; it was a girl with short green hair and she looked very tomboyish. "Excuse me but I got to this pokeball first" said Tomo. "Oh really," said the girl "I take you don't know the rule about it being ladies first". "What, you're a girl?" said Tomo. The girl looked so tomboyish Tomo didn't recognize her as a girl. "The name is Angie," said the girl "and I challenge you to a battle". Tomo didn't like Angie's rude attitude and accepted the challenge. But Prof Rowan reminded them they were to bond with the pokemon they picked out. Angie's pokemon turned out to be an orangey monkey type pokemon with a flame on its tail. Tomo looked at the pokemon on his pokedex: Monferno, the playful pokemon. The evolved form of Chimchar. It uses ceilings and walls to launch aerial attacks. Its fiery tail is but one weapon."Cool so my Chimchar will evolve to that huh?" said Tomo. Angie said hi to Monferno, but it looked away; it was a moody type pokemon. Tomo and Growlithe thought it was a bit funny. Tomo tossed his pokeball and his chosen pokemon was a Raichu. Tomo said hello to it but Raichu dug into the ground; it was a shy type. Angie thought this was funny; Tomo and Angie had hit a rough start with each other. Ash released his mysterious pokemon next and it was a Smoochum. "Hi Smoochum" said Ash. Smoochum looked at Ash and kissed him on the cheek and then it gave Pikachu a kiss on the cheek too. "I guess Smoochum likes us Pikachu" chuckled Ash. Dawn's pokemon was a Grimer. Of course the other students didn't like Grimer because of its scary and disgusting nature. But Dawn told Grimer she thought it was cute and Grimer happily gave her a hug. Brock's pokemon was a Magnemite and Brock was happy with that.Angie had trouble with her Monferno; it was running around like crazy and it tried to pick a fight with a student's Croconaw. Growlithe jumped in to stop Monferno from causing any more trouble, but Monferno didn't listen and hit Growlithe with ember. Of course being a fire type himself Growlithe wasn't hurt much by the ember attack, but he was angry with Monferno and used leer which made Monferno back off in fear. "Hey don't treat my Monferno like that!" shouted Angie. She took out a pokeball and released a Shinx; it was her own pokemon. "Hey!" shouted Tomo, who saw everything, "my Growlithe was only stopping your Monferno from causing any more trouble than it already is!" He and Angie glared at each other, but then Prof Rowan came over and angrily stopped them. Tomo told him what had happened, but Prof Rowan stopped him again. He explained the pokemon battles would take place tomorrow and hoped everyone would get along with the pokemon. Tomo and Angie still stared at each other, claiming it was the other's fault. In the class room the students were getting to know about the pokemon they had picked out. Ash was checking out Smoochum's moves and stroking her on the head. Pikachu liked playing with Smoochum. Dawn was checking out Grimer's moves, giving it some poffins and practiced some poses with it. Brock was giving Magnemite a boost of electricity from static electricity. Tomo was checking out Raichu's moves and having a chat with it to help it gain some confidence. Growlithe spoke with Raichu too. Angie however was still having trouble with her Monferno; it still liked to pick fights with Croconaw. The worst was it blew ember attacks at Angie and it ended up hitting Growlithe again. "Take that Monferno outside will you!" shouted Tomo, who was getting fed up with Monferno's attitude. "Excuse me but you are not my father" replied Angie. She and Tomo were about to have another argument, but Yuzo stopped them and made them run laps outside as punishment. "Thanks a lot Angie" said Tomo, while they were running. "What was that?!" Angie argued back. As much as they wanted to fight each other, what they wanted now was to finish their punishment and go have their lunch because they were hungry. Luckily for them Ash and Brock saved them some lunch. After lunch there were games like tug of war and ball games. Next there were classes run by Yuzo. Tomo did what Ash told him and paid attention to what Yuzo was saying. To Tomo it felt very different to learn at school rather than learn from home like he did when he lived with Ranger Jenny.Hours later it was time for all the students to be asleep, but Ash, Dawn, Brock and Tomo, who were sharing a room together, couldn't get to sleep yet. So they decided to talk and play cards. "School is more challenging than I thought it was" said Tomo. "Well this is a good start for you Tomo," said Brock "remember you'll be going to a ranger school as you want to become a pokemon ranger, and that will be challenging". "But you'll be fine Tomo," said Ash "just remember to always pay in attention in classes like you did today and study hard. And remember to always ask a teacher for help if you're stuck with something". "And also try not to argue with anyone like you do with Angie" said Dawn. "Hey that wasn't my fault, she's the one who started it" said Tomo. "You know Prof Rowan told me that her parents run a day care center at Solaceon Town" said Ash. "Really?" said Dawn "wow we were at Solaceon Town before and we didn't even know". "We'll visit it when we next past Solaceon Town" said Brock. Suddenly Yuzo opened their door and told them to go to sleep. The gang quickly got into their beds to not get into any more trouble and went to sleep. The next day Tomo went outside to train Raichu before the pokemon battles. As Raichu was shy its attacks were not exactly that brilliant; even when using thunderbolt against a rock it was weak as a Pichu's thundershock attack. "Come on Raichu," said Tomo "I know you can do better than that". Raichu dug back into the ground in fright again. "Come on there's no need to be scared" said Tomo. He touched Raichu and Raichu electrified him. "There you see," said Tomo "if you are able to electrify me like that then I'm sure you can do more with your attacks. You just need to boost your confidence, come on we'll try it again". Raichu attacked a rock with focus punch and it broke the rock apart. "That's it!" cheered Tomo "You see Raichu if you build up confidence with attacking, like you just did, you'll beat any opponent when battling. Come on let's do some more". What Tomo didn't know was Angie saw everything; Tomo's tactics made her want to take a shot with Monferno. She released Monferno from the pokeball. "Alright Monferno fire your ember attack at me," she said "hit me with all you got". Monferno fired an ember attack but Angie dodged it easily. "Come on is that all you got?" asked Angie "Put some energy into it". Monferno tried again but Angie still kept dodging the attack. Monferno got crosser and fired a more powerful ember attack and this time Angie got hit. "That's more like it," said Angie "that was showing me some real heat. Now come at me with your mach punch". Monferno tried to hit Angie with mach punch but Angie dodged it. "Two slow" she said. It was obvious she was playing it up with Monferno to bond with it.A few moments later Angie and Tomo met up. "Whoa what happened to you?" Tomo said to Angie, who looked pretty beat up by now. "I could ask the same thing about you" said Angie; Tomo looked a bit beat up as well. After exchanging news Tomo and Angie raced each other with Monferno and Raichu. Ash, Brock and Dawn saw them race through a window. "Well, well, well," said Brock "it seems we are going to have competitions on our hands". Ash and Dawn agreed. Prof Rowan saw Tomo and Angie too and he seemed pleased that despite Tomo and Angie don't get along well; they have turned into formidable rivals.Later that day it was time for the pokemon battles. Prof Rowan and his assistants were going to watch and judge the battles. Yuzo was to be the referee. The battles were to be timed. Ash and Brock were against each other first with Smoochum and Magnemite. "Alright Magnemite lets go with thunder" said Brock. "Use the spin to dodge it Smoochum" said Ash. Ash had taught Smoochum the spinning move with Pikachu's help so Smoochum was able to dodge the thunder attack with the spin. "Okay Smoochum show Magnemite your hidden power". Smoochum's hidden power type was ground so it was a super effect on Magnemite. Prof Rowan and his assistants were impressed. The match turned out to be a draw because of the time. After some other student's turns it was Conway and Dawn's turn. Dawn let out Grimer with a heart seal to give it a nice entrance. "Grimer use sludge" said Dawn. "Venonat psychic" said Conway. Conway's psychic attack moved the sludge attack straight back at Grimer. Dawn had Grimer use sludge gain and Conway had Venonat use psychic again, but Dawn had Grimer to poison gas which countered the sludge attack and hit Venonat. Venonat fought back with stun spore but Grimer countered it by spinning and using poison gas. Conway was impressed but he wasn't giving up and neither was Dawn. The match turned out to be a draw after the time was up. After some more students took their turns it was finally time for Tomo and Angie to battle each other. "Monferno mach punch go" said Angie. "Raichu use focus punch" said Tomo. The two punches collided with each other. "Flame wheel now" said Angie. "Use dig Raichu" said Tomo. Raichu dug into the ground just before Monferno could hit it with flame wheel. "Ember on that hole" said Angie. "Dodge and use thunderbolt" said Tomo. Raichu jumped out of hole, dodging the ember attack, and shocked Monferno with thunderbolt. Tomo and Angie gave each other a real hot heated battle. The result was a draw after time was up.After the battles were over Prof Rowan gave a speech of what a wonderful job the students did with their bonding and battling with their new pokemon. Next he revealed that Dawn developed the most relationship with her pokemon Grimer. Last of all he revealed of how the points between the teams were going. The blue team was first, the green team was second and the red team was last. The reason why the red team was last was because Tomo and Angie's constant arguing yesterday caused the team to lose points. Even though the gang's team was last there was time for them to catch up because there were still more activities at the pokemon summer academy to cover. This had been an exciting start at the pokemon summer academy.