Missing Pieces

Chapter 25

I know that highscoolers are supposed to be a chaotic kind of people, myself included, but when the school's apparently annual battling competition was announced I wasn't expecting everyone to just lose their minds. Barry, obviously, was talking nonstop about the whole thing at a speed so unnaturally fast I'm pretty sure no one actually understood a word he was saying. Conway and Clemont were buried deep in their notebooks for the majority of the day. Misty was excited and trying to convince May to participate. As an aspiring coordinator, battling wasn't exactly May's thing, though she didn't seem that opposed to the idea.

Gary and Dawn meanwhile, were trying to get me just as hyped as everyone else and take away some of my confusion.

"So this is a yearly thing?" I asked walking into the lunchroom.

The two of them had ambushed me as I left my last class and I knew from prior experience with them that there would be no escaping.

"Yup!" Dawn affirmed, nodding vigorously. "Every year every student competes against each other for the top spot on our school's battling rack!"

"The prizes can be pretty great too," Gary added.

I raised an eyebrow. "Prizes?"

"Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place," he clarified. "Every year they do something different. Sometimes it's a get out of denetion free card. Sometimes it's an internship with some sort of Pokemon professional the school somehow managed to snag."

He shrugged nonchalantly, like none of it was a big deal. "I'm more in it for the battles though than any of that"

He had good reason to be. Gary's grandpa back home, Professor Oak, had been planning on letting Gary work at the lab with him. He'd be getting to work with Pokemon with a professional on standby anyways. The get out of dentention free card though may have been something of use to him.

Gary wasn't really a bad kid, but he did used to have a bad habit of making decisions that left you with a bad impression of him. When we were younger he didn't used to be as openly nice. Especially to me. Now? I considered him one of my best friends. But back then our relationship was a little more than rocky.

He was hard on me but not in the way Paul was sometimes. He teased me a lot, and it was obvious that sometimes he'd rather hang out with his other friends than with me, but when I really needed him he didn't ignore me. If I was getting hurt, or if someone's teasing escalated to bullying, Gary stood up for me. When I was losing confidence Gary encouraged me. Not exactly in the conventional way. No, instead he challenged me, roughed me up, and reminded me that I better step it up so he could say he had a worthy rival in the future. Gary spoke to me through tough love. He still did from time to time.

If I'm being honest though, he felt more like a brother than my twin ever did.

"Where do I sign up?" I asked, feeling a half smile form on my face.

Dawn picked up three trays and passed two down to me and Gary before moving forward down the line. "The school makes everyone participate anyways so no sign ups. We do the prelims this week to knock out the people who aren't serious about the competition. Then we wait about a week and that's when the real fun starts!"

For the first time since I got here, school actually seemed pretty promising.

---

During gym that day, just like Dawn said, preliminary rounds were being held. I sat with Barry, Misty, and Clemont again although it seemed like the two guys at least didn't want me there.

I wasn't here for them though anyways.

The battles seemed pretty lack luster for the most part, and most of the time when I was called to the stage I was taking on lower level Pokemon and less experienced trainers. I decided to use my lower level Pokemon, like Oshawott, and Snivy, but they still didn't really seem to struggle at all. I tried not to show it on my face, but the whole process was incredibly boring.

Thing's got interesting however when I was called to face Misty.

The guys looked at both of us with wide intrigued gazes. Misty and I locked eyes.

For the first time since the tournament began, I smiled. "This should be interesting," I murmured, more to myself than to her.

Misty grinned back, matching the fire in my eyes with her own. "I'm sure it will be"

The two of us stood to our feet, and made our way toward the stage, chosen pokeballs already in hand.

We both positioned ourselves, and dug our heels into the ground.

This was gonna be great

"Staryu,  I choose you!"

"Sceptile, let's go!"

~~~

"It seems as though this year's competition is quite promising"

Chuck looked over to the fellow watching the current brawl with him. He had on a gray suit, typical of the average talent scout, and gray blue hair that stuck out in various ways. His pale white hands were clasped behind his back as his narrowed eyes surveyed the gymnasium.

Cyrus was a familiar face. He came around every year at the same time to scout students who did exceptionally well in the battle tournaments. Despite how often he interacted with him, Chuck had always found there to be something off putting about the man.

"Yeah we've got some great potential with this year's 2nd years," Chuck stated, turning back to the battle. He had definitely made the right choice pairing Misty and Ash for the last face off of the day.

A burst of air flew forth from the battlefield as the result of a Solar Beam colliding with a Hydro Pump, causing shrieks of surprise from some of the students

"Fascinating," Cyrus murmured under his breath.

"What?" Chuck asked, against his better judgement.

"They're equally matched, despite the type matchups"

Chuck paused and nodded "Yeah?"

Cyrus returned to silence for a moment, eyes roving over the field as Ash's Sceptile came behind Staryu with a Leaf Blade attack.

Chuck almost thought the conversation was over but after a solid minute of nothing Cyrus spoke up once more. "What's the name of that boy"

It felt like less of a question and more of a demand.

"Ash Ketchum," Chuck replied, not taking his eyes off of the battle at hand.

There was another long pause before another "fascinating" was murmured. However it was lower this time, almost as though it were introspective.

Chuck stole a glance at Cyrus, who wore a thoughtful expression that made the rigid lines in his face more prominent. Before he could even begin to question the man further he heard one of his referee's declaring that Staryu was unable to battle.

Chuck's head turned back toward the scene to see that, sure enough, Staryu was on the ground, unmoving.

Cyrus muttered again, a trace of a smile in his voice "Fascinating indeed"

So hey. It's been a minute

Sorry updates have been slower. Life has gotten kind of crazy lately honestly. But I'm still trying to write!

I've got some other stories that I've been working on so that I can start posting them out when I finish this series which I hope to bring to a close soon.

I loved the idea behind Missing Pieces when I first started it but when I first started it my main exposure to Pokemon fanfiction was content on Youtube XD

I think now with more experience maybe I could do something better

I hope so

Thank you all so much for 3K+! I really appreciate it

Hope y'all stick around till the end and beyond!

So Question of the Day: How do you guys feel about Pokemon Journeys? I'm unsure about watching it cause I've gotten mixed reviews

Hope you guys have had a great start to 2022!

See y'all next read!