Champion's Confidant

On Learning

When Chloe returned to the darkened arcade's atmosphere, Ash was standing still at the dance machine, very clearly pretending to be confused as to which of the Pikachu sitting on the rail were his partner. Pikachu was sitting perfectly still next to the plush as Ash pretended to hum and haw, waiting for Chloe to return. "Hey, Ash!" she called out, making both Ash and Pikachu drop the ruse.

"Hey! Oh, you fixed your hair!" he said, immediately noticing the change. "Sorry about that..."

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it," she said, waving off his concern. "I'm just glad I didn't keep you waiting for so long."

Ash put his hands on his hips. "So, what's next?" he asked, looking around the arcade for the next game to play before Chloe spoke up.

"Actually, there is a game I'd like to play," she said. "It's a bit slower than the ones we've played so far. Do you mind if we go check it out?"

Ash shrugged. "Why not? Could be a fun change of pace, right?"

She beamed a smile back and nodded. "Thanks, Ash. C'mon, it's this way."

Ash followed Chloe closely as Pikachu picked up the plush and carried it, with Eevee carrying the cup of tokens, trying to mimic Pikachu as she did.

Chloe led Ash mostly backwards through the facility, past the entrance and the token machine, heading back to the machine she saw on the other side of the facility.

The machine was bright blue and large, riddled with flashing lights. There were four seats in a semi-circle around the display though only two were occupied at the moment. There were six smaller signs across the top, over the display labeled with the following categories: "History", "Science", "Music", "Entertainment", "Pokémon", and "Geography". Above that, on a white background was the blue logo for the game, "Trivia Time".

The Trivia Time machine had drawn quite a crowd, which made Chloe curious as to why there were only two people playing it and the rest of the crowd was watching. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that one of the competitors was answering every question before his competition. Watching the screen, it shuffled through the choices before landing on Geography. The machine displayed the question: "What chain of islands lies directly south of the Kanto Region?"

The person answering all the questions quickly hit his buzzer, and three answers were displayed: The Sevii Islands, the Orange Islands, and the Decolore Islands.

The young man smirked, and Chloe took a look at him. He was wearing a plaid button-up shirt with a pocket protector. He had long, somewhat unkempt black hair and sported thick glasses. 'This guy looks like a real nerd...' she thought.

"A more unintelligent person may be intimidated by this question," said the nerd. "But I have the intellect to understand that the answer is the Sevii Islands!" He hit the button in front of him that matched the Sevii Islands, and the screen displayed a green circle, indicating that his answer was correct, showing that he had answered twenty questions correctly compared to the other participant, an unassuming boy wearing a large red hoodie, having answered zero.

An onlooker from the crowd called out. "That's another win for the Zekenator!"

The nerd, this 'Zekenator' stood on his seat at the machine. "No applause necessary! I'm only showing off my natural intellectual talents!" The boy in the hoodie slipped away, clearly looking for another game to play as the Zekenator surveyed the crowd. "Who'll be my next intellectual challenger?"

Chloe glanced over at Ash from the corner of her eye. He was looking on with a confused look on his face. "...this is some sorta quiz battle game?" he asked.