"There they are! We've been searching for the entire day but we've finally managed to find the Petalburg woods Breloom colony." The pokemon world version of Steve Irwin zooms his camera in the direction of what must be hundreds of Breloom and Shroomish while flying on the back of his Pidgeot. "There, land on that big tree over there." The wildlife expert directs his Pidgeot towards a tree which has a clear view of the area. The tree appears to be around a hundred meters tall, about as tall as some of the largest trees from back home. I've learned that trees of such height are not even remotely impressive in the pokemon world.

"Now, the interesting thing about this colony is that the alphas are from a different species. Predictably, the female alpha is a Breloom while the male one is actually a Roserade. Ifyou look more carefully you can see them standing on that rock near the waterfall." True to his words I can see a Breloom lying on her stomach with head positioned on the lap of a Roserade. That is...really cute actually.

From my knowledge of the anime and games I can make out that the Roserade is male. They have shorter capes as opposed to the longer ones of their female counterparts. I don't know the gender differences between Breloom but I'm sure they exist. From the negligible amount of experience I have with this new world I can tell with absolute certainty that all pokemon have differences between the genders. They can be either big or small, but they still exist.

"What's more fascinating is that both of those pokemon were once the companions of a Hoenn champion named Evan Rose. He passed away roughly one hundred and fifty years ago but even today he's considered to have been the best grass type trainer. Being able to ascend to the position of champion after a brutally one-sided battle against his predecessor who specifically specialized in fire and dragon type pokemon. After their Trainer passed away, these two left human civilization and travelled to the Petalburg woods, creating this colony…"

Really Now? …I'm having real trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that there are Pokemon powerful enough to give Champions a run for their money in the Petalburg Woods of all places… a place filled with nothing but trash mobs in the original games and even the anime. I've probably been living near them too considering there aren't a lot of forests near Petalburg City. Is it even safe to pass through there?

As the narrator keeps talking over the footage I have my gaze focused on the two pokemon in question.

Well, at least they look really wholesome together. Roserade is caressing Breloom's head cap with the end of his appendage. They don't look like the type who'd go on a rampage unprovoked.

The door to the living room opens as I'm thinking this new information over.

"Brendan dearie you're supposed to be preparing for school not watching…TV. Huh?"

Turning around I see Brendan's mother, Louise, looking at me confused. She walks up to me and picks up the remote I'm standing next to, using it to turn off the Television.

"Well now, I really underestimated your intelligence didn't I? Daniel did say you're way smarter than a normal Mudkip but I didn't expect it would take you a single day to figure out how to use the TV."

Placing the remote on the table she gently picks me up in her arms and heads to the kitchen.

"Just don't go and use your intelligence to poison Brendan again, alright dear? I'll let it pass this once, considering your shared history, but no more."

"No problem." I declare.

Yeah, as if! Brendan's mother is scary. Yesterday she nearly turned me into Mudkip stew after she found out what happened to him. I don't want to see those void black eyes ever again in my life, thank god her Lopunny was there to wrestle me away and dissuade her from doing something stupid.

Entering the Kitchen she calls out to said Lopunny "Lola, can you make this little guy here something for breakfast?" She places me on a table as she says so. "I have to go and get ready for work"

"Sure thing!" Lola responds to her trainer. Closing the notebook she was drawing on she hops to the fridge and takes out some food. Louise just soundlessly leaves the room shortly afterwards.

"Hey Bellum, I see you're still alive." Lola says to me in a cheerful voice as she moves the food to the kitchen counter.

"Ugh, come on now, is that something you should say to a six month old Mudkip? Have some consideration for the guy who nearly got chopped to bits." I don't like the way she's eyeing me, her gaze has a certain… 'intensity' to it.

"Nope~ you act and talk like an adult so I'm gonna treat you like an adult. It's hard to believe that you're not even a year old, honestly."

"Well, my sole purpose for those six months was to make sure that my siblings don't tear apart either each other or their immediate surroundings, you won't believe how wild they got." I start rambling as I walk up next to her on the counter. An action which opposes the warnings given by my instincts, her eyes haven't lost any of their intensity. "That kind of forces you to be more 'mature'."

"Pfft, now you sound more like an old man. Come here, I've been waiting for you to wake up all morning." She suddenly plucks me from my nice position on the counter and gives me a crushingly powerful hug.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" A sudden girlish shriek comes from her after she hugs me, it hurts my ears a bit.

"Urgh." Honestly at this point even if I wanted to fight her and get away I wouldn't be able to. The strength with which she's hugging just shows me I'm way below her power league. Ow! I think she's gonna snap my spine in two!

"I finally have a little brother to coddle! And he's such a nice and well mannered gentleman too. Even having a, dare I say it, spicy sense of humour~"

Weakening her grip, she silently hugs me for around a minute.

Placing me gently back on the counter as if I'm suddenly a glass figurine she gives me a little head pat. The aggressive hug has dizzied me up a bit.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for someone like you to show up here. Life has gotten so monotonous over the last few years. Brendan no longer has time to play with little old me, busy learning to be a pokemon trainer and all that." Walking up to a knife rack she picks up one of the smaller knives after which she comes back to her previous position.

Recollecting myself, I focus more on what she's telling me.

"Daniel is busy with his research project so he's gone from morning till dusk, only coming for a bit during lunch to drop Brendan off from school. Not that he's much fun to be around anyways. His Sceptile is an even bigger drag, always so serious and dull. Spends most of his time in the Petalburg woods doing whatever and only rarely comes to the house. Can't blame him too much though, nothing he can do in the lab." She starts chopping the ingredients with the knife.

"And Louise is busy managing her restaurant chain. I go with her to help out, but working in the kitchen has also gotten boring with the passing of time. At least now we'll be here for the latter part of the day to look after Brendan and you, Bellum~" Makes sense, a seven year old needs to be looked after.

"Is your work as a chef why you're so good with handling the knife?" Seriously, her hand movements are so fast they're basically a blur. She's done chopping a tomato-looking fruit into cubes in seconds.

"Yep! If you want to, I can teach you how to cook when you evolve and get arms. Cooking is a really useful skill to have."

"Really? I'd love it if you did!" I really will, I never really got the chance to get good at cooking other than the odd scrambled eggs and fried sausages here and there.

"Of course! Hehe~" She reaches her to pat me on the head again. Unlike Brendan she's actually really good at giving headpats. The dulled claws she uses to scratch around the base of the fin on my head feel unnaturally good…

"Haaaaa~ …ack!?" Sadly the good times don't last more than a few seconds. I'm pulled out of my trance by a sudden tug on the gill. I look at Lola, disgruntled.

"Come on now, you can't go to sleep yet. You've got a whole day ahead of you" She just ignores my look and shoves a plate with different types of cut fruit positioned on it. "I'll see you around for lunch, Okay? Have fun with little Brendan."

Casually walking to her notebook she picks it up and goes to leave the kitchen.

"I will, thanks for the food."

Giving me a quick parting kiss on the forehead she leaves the room.

"..." My eyes linger on the door she used to leave the kitchen for a scant few seconds.

Big sister huh? Well she's probably older than I am, both lifetimes combined. Depends on how long she's been with Brendan's mother. If Lola became her companion at the same age that Brendan got me then she's definitely my senior. I'll certainly use her as a 'compass' of sorts. Got no idea how your average pokemon is supposed to act and I have a lot of mannerisms that have remained from my time as a human. That easily flew with my siblings but I don't know how it will go around others.

Urgh. So much work just to keep this annoying secret. I have to be like Emperor Palpatine here, plotting behind peoples backs. A master of disguise. Wish I could just tell them and get it over with. Will just make them think I'm crazy or sick with something if I were to actually do it, probably worse. Even if I manage to convince them that I am in fact a human, what then? How would you feel if your pet cat walked up to you one day and said that it was once a human? Better yet, what if it could prove it was once a human. They'll never be able to look at me the same way. It will just create such a crazy amount of needless trouble. Maybe, far in the future, to someone I really trust both as a person and because I know they can keep their bloody mouth shut.

Most likely I'll just keep it to myself though. I give it like… 95% chance that I'll keep it to myself. The only reason I'm even considering telling someone is because I'm a slob and I hate putting in the work to keep the secret.

Doing a cute stretch + yawn combo I walk to the plate of food.

Digging into my breakfast I let my mind wander back to what I was watching on the TV. The implications… they're enough to cause a small, silent chill to settle in my stomach. I'll need to watch the nature guy's show some more just to be sure. Even like this though It's safe to assume that those two grass types were not the exception, but the rule.

Thinking about it, how many champions have there been over the years? If every champion has around six pokemon, all of them on the pinnacle of strength, just nine or ten champions are enough to fill Hoenn's landscape with unbeatable monsters. Jesus. That's what, one to three centuries? I don't really know how long a champion remains a champion, assumedly until he willingly steps down or he's defeated.

Of course there's a pokemon's lifespan to consider, but that's a whole nother can of worms I don't want to open. Roserade and Breloom don't strike me like the type of pokemon who'd live for a whole whooping century and a half, and look at how spry those two appeared to be. Probably has something to do with their strength. Wouldn't be surprised if a pokemon's power directly correlates to it's lifespan, in fact it would be weird if it didn't.

And then there are pokemon like Ninetales. Or Ghost types in general really. In the canon series it's specifically stated that they may live for over a thousand years. A thousand years man… Now that's a scary thought. They'd probably hit a power ceiling at some point where their raw strength can't get any higher, but raw strength and skills are nothing alike.

Ugh, and I told myself I wouldn't open this can of worms. I'll just stop thinking about it. Even if pokemon like that exist from what I've seen, civilization is still thriving. Rohan is an old man who lives in the middle of nowhere and he seems fine. I'm probably just being paranoid since I've never seen something like…

Wait juuuust a second here.

A very interesting and funny looking device that managed to level two Japanese cities with the ground about eighty years ago decides to remind me that it exists.

I honestly feel like I just slapped myself in the face, without actually slapping myself in the face. I'm retarded, there's no other way to say it. Wow. I'm scared of this world? I need to think for just a moment of my old one to be reminded of the literal embodiment of death and suffering.

Yea, nevermind my stupid contemplations. I am being paranoid. Hah!

Almost immediately after finishing the fruit salad Lola prepared for me I feel a pair of small hands grab me from my blind spot, lifting me into the air.

"There you are Bellum! Come on, Dad's leaving in a minute."

Now if only I could manage to somehow stop everyone from treating me like a plush toy that is to be carried around. I have legs. Walking is a thing I can do, you know? It's been less than a day and I've already been handled by everyone in this household at least once. Excluding that Sceptile Lola mentioned, he doesn't count.

Brendan rushes to professor Birch's SUV like his life depends on it. Seriously, do you honestly think he's gonna leave you behind? Bah, seven year olds. So gullible.

- o - o -

So, battle class.

A class where we as pokemon are supposed to get stronger. We will meet each other in combat under the command of our trainers, ultimately growing better and more experienced during the whole process.

Taking in the room where the battle class is supposed to take place, a room the size of a basketball court, I think of the single word that can describe the situation I observe.

Pandemonium

It is… so loud.

The sheer amount of noise generated by twenty excited students, along with twenty more as equally excited pokemon… all this sound reverberates throughout the room back and forth, amplifying itself over and over. I cannot describe with words how much my ears hurt.

Brendan isn't doing much better than I am, there are around four more students around us with the same predicament. Moving to the opposite side of the place doesn't seem to help.

Ah, yes. How could I have forgotten? The staple of high school, middle school and most definitely grade school. Unholy amounts of noise. Thinking back to yesterday, everyone had somehow managed to keep themselves relatively silent. Somehow.

Out of the corner of my eye I pick out that the double doors leading to the training grounds get opened. When I focus my attention on the man who comes out of them I immediately panic on the inside.

"SILENCE!"

You know him, you love him. Lieutenant Surge. Oh boy, this classroom is quickly gonna turn into a bootcamp isn't it? His Raichu waddles in from behind him.

Ear splitting shout aside, he manages to instantly silence everyone.

"Alright."

Stepping in front of us he gives a quick glance to all gathered here.

"I want all of you to form two neat lines standing next to each other. Your pokemon to your left hand side. The boys forming one line and the girls forming the second.

He's greeted by deafening silence from all fronts. Everyone is just looking at him dumbly, stuck in whatever pose they had when Surge did his initial shout.

"What are you looking at? Move it!"

It takes us around two minutes to form said lines, whereas a trained group would have needed something along the lines of two seconds... Grade schoolers aren't exactly the most organized bunch. Props to Surge since he doesn't shout at us for being slow. He helps everybody get into their correct position.

Currently we're arranged into two lines, one for the boys and one for the girls of course, with their pokemon sitting on their left. We're ordered by height so Brendan being average in size is placed smack dab in the middle with me alongside him.

"Remember who's standing on your left and right hand side. That way you'll be faster to organize next time around." Surge starts doing the drill sergeant walk where he paces back and forth in front of us. His Raichu meanwhile has positioned himself on his shoulder. I think that he's male? I'm not sure. I know that the anime mentioned a difference between the differently gendered Raichus but I don't remember what it was. Why am I even fussing over this so much? What, am I looking for a mate? I should really stop trying to discern a pokemon's gender. It's mostly meaningless at the end of the day

"I want all of you to remember that the moment I enter this very room, is the moment that class starts." God, just stop trying to build suspense and talk like a regular human being. Faster please.

"And the moment class begins, is the very moment you should start to order yourselves and form a line." Stopping his walk he turns to us.

"Now! My name is Surge, I will be your Battle class teacher for this year." He opens the book he's been carrying in his arm, simultaneously as he does that he flicks off the cap of a pen and gets ready to write.

"Zip up and listen carefully because we're taking attendance. If I hear any talking you're being written up. I don't tolerate jokesters while I'm teaching." He scribbles something on the book for a second and continues.

"I'm going to call out your first name, followed by your last name. And if I don't hear you say 'present' then you're being marked Absent. You should be paying attention because you only have one chance. And I'm not calling names twice… If I pronounce your name wrong, correct me! Alright, here we go."

"Alexander Smith."

"Present."

"Anya Hopkins."

"Here."

"I said to call out 'Present' and not 'Here'." He lifts his eyes from the book and looks at her, giving her a bit of pressure with his gaze. Hardass.

"Ah…umm 'Present'." The girl gets startled a bit but quickly collects herself. I quickly mark in my mind that she has an Eevee.

"Good. Now then… Brendan Birch."

"Present."

…

…

"Ja… Jadien Flynn? Did I pronounce that correctly?"

"It's close enough."

"Correct me next time!"

"..."

Surge seems offended that she didn't correct him. His Raichu is also nodding his little head along, indicating that he's agreeing with Surge's words. What a random thing to be upset about.

"Uh…It's Jaiden, Sir."

"Good, now where was I…"

He continues reading off names for about a minute, finally getting to the last name in his list.

"And finally, Zack Roberts."

"Present."

"Good." Closing the book he continues "Now, start running laps around the arena until you've completed four. Run at a slow speed so that you can keep your formation." His Raichu speaks up as well, pointing to us from his position on Surge's shoulder. "You lot as well! You'll be running alongside your trainers." His voice confirms to me that he is, in fact, male.

"..." Dead silence from all fronts again.

"Well? Come on, move it!" He moves his attention to the tallest boy in the group. "You! start running. Follow my lead." With the Raichu jumping off his shoulder, they both break into a light jog.

Feeling Brendans eyes on me I turn to see him looking at me with a quizzical expression on his face, asking me what I think. I just shrug at him and start running with him when it's our turn.

"Girls will follow directly after the boys! Keep two or three meters away from the person in front of you and focus on maintaining that distance."

The jog isn't something difficult to maintain, it's a nice and steady pace. It's a bit difficult to see what's happening behind me but from what I can observe nobody seems to be having trouble. By the time we're done though Brendan seems winded. What, come on man that wasn't even that much and you're having problems? Not good, I notice that Surge's eyes linger longer on those who are more tired from the run.

"Now! Let's actually start this class." Opening the book again he checks something in it and closes it. "Brendan and Zack, step up." They do so. I follow Brendan, noticing that this Zack kid has an Aron.

"You four will have the honors of being the first ones to have a trainer battle today. But! The two of you won't be able to give them commands during the battle." He points to the boys.

"Huh?"

"What, why?" Good question, why?

"Two reasons!" He makes a 'V' shape with his index and middle finger, displaying the number two. "First! Because I want to see what your pokemon are capable of doing on their lonesome, without your input."

"And most importantly, second! Because none of you actually know how to properly give commands yet. That may sound harsh, but it's the truth. All of you have gotten your pokemon merely a single day ago, not a single one of you has any experience when it comes to trainer battles. That is not a problem since it's My job to teach you how to give commands without stumbling over yourselves. Until then the pokemon will fight on their own."

"Oh come on teach, it can't be that hard. Our pokemon only know one or two moves. How exactly are we gonna screw up something so simple?" The Zack boy speaks up, dissatisfied with what Surge said.

"Oh yea?" He raises one of his eyebrows as he looks at the boy "Now tell me, if I had you command your Aron in the following battle what would be the first thing you do?"

"I'd order him to do a tackle immediately as the battle starts." Zack says, confident that there's no mistake that could be done with a command so basic.

"Aaaaand you've already lost!" Surge responds, a slight mocking to his tone.

"Wha? What do you mean I lost? I haven't even done anything yet!" Oh he's flustered from that response.

"Bwahhahahahaha." I could really do without the loud laughing here mate. Raichu has a small smirk on his face too after hearing the boy's words.

"Now, here's the problem with that command. Everyone better follow what I'm about to say very carefully because it's really important. This is something that every trainer learns, either the easy way or the hard way. You can instantly tell if someone is inexperienced if they make this simple mistake."

"That mistake being opening yourself for the first strike, probably the single dumbest way to lose a battle."

He points to Zack, asking him "Tell me Zack, how long would it take you to order your pokemon to do a Tackle attack? In seconds."

"Uh, I don't know. A single second?"

"Exactly! It will take you about a second to get your command through, something along the lines of 'Aron, do a tackle attack!' or 'Tackle him to the ground'. Then it will take your pokemon a brief moment to process what you actually want of him before he springs into action. That is called 'Time of reaction' which also takes about a second, sometimes less, sometimes more. Now you have two whole seconds of wasted time."

He picks up his Raichu from the ground and shows him to the class "My pal here is named Fulgur. He's an expert at taking advantage of those two wasted seconds, it's his favorite way of beating newbie trainers. He doesn't need to be told what to do because he's experienced at fighting and can make snap moment decisions. Those two seconds are more than enough for him to close the distance between himself and his opponent, striking brutally. This is a tactic that is exceptionally useful for Electric types which can move fast and strike hard. What's more damaging in the case of a first strike is that often the command given by the trainer conflicts with his pokemon's natural instincts" Putting him on his shoulder he continues. Fulgur has a big smile on his face, it wouldn't be a stretch to call him cute.

"If you have ordered your pokemon to attack, but in those two seconds the enemy pokemon wastes no time and goes on the offensive. Their instinct to defend themselves from the incoming attack would clash with the order received from their trainer. That is often more than enough to cause your pokemon to stumble over themselves, confused, and lose the battle."

"So Zack, do you understand what I meant by 'You've already lost'?"

"Uhm, yes I do…"

"Good, this is why I want everyone to abstain from commanding their pokemon into battle at least for today. It will be an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. For your pokemon, for you and most definitely me. Watching people do such elementary mistakes honestly hurts my soul."

"Starting next time, I'll be teaching everyone how to properly command their pokemon into battle." He looks to me and the Aron "For now though! You two come over here to the center of the arena, the rest of you stay clear. I wouldn't want you to get injured after all"

"Be careful pal, remember that this is just a friendly fight. Alright." Brendan tells me. Crouched, he lays his arm on my back to reassure me. I nod to him and hop off to the stop indicated by the teacher. Everyone else forms a large circle around me and the Aron.

Well, it's fighting time I guess. I've been pondering over different types of strategies I could use ever since I learned that we'll be having battle class today. Didn't expect to use them though… What I was planning on doing was following Brendan's orders even if I could do better by doing my own thing. You learn best when you make mistakes Yo! Though I'm ashamed to admit it I've gotten pretty good at 'getting beaten up'. For the past six months I've had an ongoing feud with Rocky that somehow always ends up with one of us unconscious… Don't know how that happens~

Looks like it's time to apply one of the more simple but still very effective strategies. Simple is good, there's less room for mistakes.

I turn to my opponent. He's already staring me down, standing in his point of the arena.

"Hah, get ready to lose shrimp. You stand no chance against me!" Condescending. Well he is like one and a half times my height so fair enough.

"I'll give you the same shock the Teacher gave to your trainer pal." I mockingly respond to him.

"Huh? And what are you gonna do? Smash your tiny soft head against my armor?"

"Oh you'll see." Yeees~… My strategy will work nicely against him, he's the perfect target for Kiting. Slow and chunky. Being made almost entirely out of metal he must weigh somewhere close to forty or sixty kilograms, even with his small form. Metals are a dense thing.

There's no way that doesn't slow him down. I wish I wasn't so young though, I still have some growing up to do in the physical department. The detriment will lower my chances of victory significantly.

The only thing I'm not certain of is how well my water gun will do against his armor. Anime and games logic dictates that Aron is weak to water types since he's a Rock type.

My common sense dictates that no matter how strong my water gun is, there's no way it will deal damage to either rock or bloody steel. I'm no damn pressure cutter.

"Both of you remain in your positions and don't move until Surge gives you the signal!" I can hear Fulgur, Surge's Raichu, telling us from the side. We don't really do anything to indicate that we've heard him other than do a more aggressive posture.

"You two seem ready." Surge gets close and stands close to the midway point between me and my opponent. "On my signal!" He raises his arm into the air. I can see the Aron putting strength into his hind legs, getting ready to charge me. Likewise I get ready, gathering the water energy inside me and compressing it. I can shoot a single high energy water gun by compressing the aquatic aura like this, it takes around five seconds for me to do this though so it's not applicable in combat.

In this case, it's more than applicable.

"Go!" Surge roars.

Instantaneously I shoot a Water gun at the Aron. It's enough to break all of the momentum he's built up in those short few moments and make him stumble over himself. He wasn't expecting that.

"Ooooh shit!" Surge shouts from the side "That tiny Mudkip knows water gun, What the Fu.."

*Crack*

I hear a sound, similar to that of a whip striking, and Raichu hissing 'Language' from next to me. I don't really have the time to look at what's happening there right now though.

"OW! That really hurt." Did it now? Thanks for telling me. I was truly expecting for him to just shrug that strike off. Looks like he is weak to water.

"Get over here!" He starts rushing me again.

"Good luck reaching me slowpoke!" I fire another water gun to slow him down… and start running in the opposite direction. That is Kiting, maintaining a distance from your opponent while striking him with ranged attacks.

From here it's pretty simple, I don't think he realizes that he can like… attempt to dodge my attacks? He's just coming at me in a straight line, no sidestepping attempted. Gradually slowing down the more attacks I lay on him.

"Urgh…" He's still trying to come after me after around ten water guns. His pace is greatly slowed though, barely faster than walking.

"Enough! Mudkip wins this one." Surge gets in between us as he shouts out. Stopping me from releasing the next attack I've prepared.

"Pweh?!" He has a red lightning imprint on his cheek. It resembles the end of his Raichu's tail suspiciously much. I have to put in effort not to laugh at the sight.

"Huh?! You got a problem, Shrimp?" My reaction doesn't go unnoticed by Fulgur. He immediately steps up to protect his trainer's honor.

"No." Deadpan mode, control your emotions and look at him without any of them evident on your face.

*Humph*

"Go back to your trainer. Good job on the fight."

"Thanks!" You don't need to tell me twice, It doesn't take me long to spot Brendan amongst the crowd. I run up and jump into his waiting arms.

"Haha. That was amazing Bellum, Good Job!" Aggressive petting intensifies. This time I can actually feel something from him, still mediocre though.

"Dude, where did you manage to get a Mudkip from?" One of the boys next to us asks.

"You remember the National Math competition from last year?" Brendan responds to him, slowing down his 'appreciation' of me in the process. I gently bite his arm and drag it, showing that I want stronger head pats.

"Yea I do?"

"Well I got him as a reward for scoring high in it."

"What? Danny, that's so unfair! If I knew that the reward was a National pokemon I still would have joined even though I'm bad at math."

"Hahaha, yea he's really great isn't he?" He looks at me as he says that.

"What are you celebrating for? Winning a fight you didn't take part in?" Oh boy, Here comes Surge. Zack and his Aron are behind him, he seems alright despite the beating I gave him.

"Now, I want the four of you to start doing more laps around the room. Either until class ends or until you drop!"

"What!? But we have three consecutive school hours of battle class!" Oh? Brendan seems outraged. Hmm…he probably really dislikes doing anything physical. That's concerning and a problem.

"Bwahahahaha! Oh yeah? Don't think I didn't notice how you were gasping for breath after our short four lap jog. Disgraceful for a trainer! You're going to be running laps every class from now on until you build up your strength. Why do you think you didn't have Physical Education in your curriculum this year? It's because this class doubles as P.E. class!"

He points to the side. "Now the four of you, get running! And don't even dare stop. If I see you slacking I'll make sure you have to do double the exercise next time."

"Aww Geez…Wha?" I jump off of Brendan's arms and shove my head against his leg. Come on, move it. We're gonna have a talk about your physical condition today. I don't want no anemic slug to be my trainer.

"Ow, not you too Bellum. Okay! I'll get going, just stop it." He starts jogging after my prompting.

"Hahahaha! That's more like it. I think I'm starting to like you, Mudkip." He turns back to the crowd of kids, pulling out the book to pick out two other names.

"Alright. Jaiden, you're next. Stop feeding that Taillow of yours food mid class. And also…Tanya! Get over here."