Avi2112
patreon
Chapter 10: Challenger Joey | Pokémon
🕑 Added 2025-05-05 02:31:53 +0000 UTCWith Amanda’s announcement, the computer screen in front of Orin immediately turned black.
“Oh no, shit! I missed the last five questions! Can I get five more minutes, please?” the scrawny kid sitting on Orin’s right whined aloud, looking towards the front.
“Yes, five more minutes, please!”
Not just him—many voices echoed throughout the large hall, turning it into a cacophony of noise.
“Silence!” the old man standing to Amanda’s right yelled, his voice booming across the room. “The exam is over. There will be no concessions for anyone,” he said strictly.
“Now, all of you should leave the hall in an orderly fashion without making a ruckus,” the old man on Amanda’s left continued. “Remember, you will receive your results soon on your registered phone numbers and emails. Until then, no one is allowed to leave the premises of Saffron Gym. If anyone is absent when called for the second round, they will be automatically disqualified,” he added sternly.
“There will be snacks provided at noon for all students and their guardians near the Main Gym Stadium,” Amanda announced with a smile. “Now, you may all leave.”
“That sucks,” the scrawny, spectacled kid muttered in annoyance.
Ignoring him, Orin gathered his bag and stood up. The hall was already buzzing with noise as everyone filed out through the doors. A few kids were heading towards Amanda and the two old men, probably to ask questions, but the staff didn’t seem eager to entertain anyone.
Although Orin kept thinking of them as kids, most were surely around his age—or even older.
“The exam was pretty long, right?” said the kid with excessive hair oil walking behind Orin, addressing him.
Before he could answer, the scrawny kid in front jumped into the conversation. “Yeah! I was still reading the 45th question when the screen went black on its own.”
“Well, last year when I took the exam, it definitely wasn’t this long,” the hair oil kid replied.
Seeing the two of them talking, Orin quietly slipped away, hurrying ahead.
He could hear the general murmur of complaints from the crowd, most grumbling about the exam’s length. Apparently, many of them had already secured spots in other colleges and were only giving this exam for formality’s sake.
Orin smiled wryly to himself. He must be one of the few without any backup colleges—he had put everything into this.
Glancing around, he noticed many fashionable and cute girls, but they were either in groups or too far away in the crowd.
Before he could approach anyone, he found himself already outside the building tagging along the herd.
Most of the students were moving towards the crowd of parents and guardians, where anxious voices filled the air, everyone impatiently asking about the exam.
Orin could easily imagine why they were so nervous: if their kids did well, they had a real shot at getting into the best university in the world—and that too, fully funded.
If the passing rate in Saffron City hadn’t been so abysmal—zero for the last ten years—maybe many more people would have applied for the exam here.
Leaving the crowd of parents and kids behind, Orin decided to head towards the main building. As apparently there was still plenty of time to kill before he would get his exam results.
Making his way towards the large purple dome, he pulled out his phone and opened Poke'Chat. In the group titled Friends 4 Life—made up of him, Terri, Duplica, and Kyle—he quickly typed:
Orin
"First exam's done. Now stuck at the gym until they announce results."
Almost immediately, Duplica replied:
Duplica
"How was it??"
Climbing the grand staircase, Orin grinned as he typed back:
Orin
"Easy."
A second later, a Pikachu emoji with sunglasses popped up, captioned:
Duplica
"Braggart. Bet everyone was copying from your paper, Mr. Psychic Protégé."
Orin snorted and shook his head, replying:
Orin
“Not everyone is like you, Copycat."
Duplica’s reply came instantly: a meme of a Wobbuffet dramatically fainting.
Laughing quietly to himself, Orin slid his phone into his pocket and jogged up the last few steps towards the massive open doors of the gym.
Directly ahead was the main battle stadium—probably packed right now because of the ongoing gym battle.
Instead of heading that way, he took a right, finding a lounge area lined with sofa sets and massive TV screens mounted on the walls.
To his surprise, many of the psychics from the exam hall were already here, eyes glued to the live broadcast on the screens. He realized that there must have been a direct passage from the exam hall to the main building for them.
Spotting Amanda chatting with a short woman with long, unkempt black hair and thick black glasses, Orin headed over.
“Hey Amanda, Stacy. How’s the match going?” he asked, flashing a grin.
Amanda snorted.
“How else would it be going? The guy’s gotta have a screw loose to challenge the Gym Master for his very first badge.”
“Hi, Orin,” Stacy said, startled, quickly adjusting her lab coat and pushing her messy hair back with one hand.
“Hey,” Orin smiled, stepping between them and glancing at the screen.
"And it looks like challenger Joey is down to his last Pokémon!" the female announcer called out excitedly.
The camera zoomed in on a young brown-haired man wearing a blue cap turned backward. He looked about ready to throw his Pokéball at the ground in frustration.
“The challenger Joey looks frustrated—and who can blame him? All five of his Pokémon so far have been effortlessly crushed by Gym Leader Sabrina’s Kadabra!”
The scene shifted to the battlefield, where Sabrina’s Kadabra stood coolly on the flat plain, a silver spoon glinting in its hand.
"Kaddi?" Orin blinked in surprise.
He hadn’t known Big Sis was planning to use Kaddi for today’s match.
“That rascal didn’t even mention anything to me,” he muttered with a pout.
"Did you say something, Orin?" Stacy asked, peeking up at him curiously and adjusting her glasses.
“No, just surprised that Big Sis is using her Kadabra today,” Orin replied with a smile.
“Ha! Even if she had used an Abra, she still would have destroyed this stupid trainer,” Amanda said with a snicker.
“Using an Abra would have been... a bit too much,” Stacy muttered quietly.
Orin agreed but kept his thoughts to himself. He had learned not to argue with the zealots—and Amanda was definitely one of the crazier followers of Psychic Master Sabrina.
Honestly, sometimes Orin wondered if half the Psychic Lab was made up of cultists who were worshipping his Big Sis.
"Go, Rattata! Tackle!"
Joey hurled his Pokéball with a shout loud enough to wake a Snorlax. The ball burst open in a flash of red light, revealing a small purple rodent on the battlefield.
“A Rattata... seriously?” Orin groaned, facepalming at the absurdity of it all.
“It’s not that surprising. His last Pokémon was a Pidgey,” Stacy said, with a hollow laugh.
"How did he even get past the other gym trainers to challenge Big Sis?" Orin asked, baffled.
Amanda smirked and rubbed her fingers together in the universal sign for money.
“How else? He paid a lot.”
“Ohhh.” Orin nodded in understanding.
One of the few ways to bypass the standard gym challenge was to pay a massive fee—and from what he remembered, the amount was outrageous.
Enough to buy a nice house on the outskirts of Saffron City, easily.
“The challenger Joey has sent out his last Pokémon, Rattata, who is dashing swiftly towards Kadabra for a Tackle attack!” the female announcer called excitedly.
“Let’s see how Gym Leader Sabrina responds!”
The camera panned across the battlefield to the far side, where the lights were dimmed to complete darkness. Only the faint silhouette of a throne-like chair could be seen.
From that darkness, two glowing red orbs appeared—the unmistakable gleam of eyes.
Deadly, yet beautiful eyes.
The outline of a woman sitting regally on the throne emerged, bathed in shadows.
Orin smiled wryly. He knew all too well that his Big Sis loved her dramatic flair.
As Sabrina’s eyes opened, Kadabra’s own eyes glowed crimson.
He raised his silver spoon, pointing it directly at the charging Rattata.
Without warning, the Rattata froze mid-leap—and began to float helplessly off the ground.
“No! Not you too, Rattata! Try and break free!” Joey shouted, his voice cracking in panic.
“Oh no! It looks like Kadabra has trapped Rattata in a Psychic Hold!” the announcer said, her tone dripping with fake concern.
“R-Rattataaa!” The small rodent cried out, its tiny body struggling in vain, completely immobilised by Kadabra’s psychic grip.
“It’s over,” Orin muttered, watching the screen.
A second later, Kadabra waved his spoon lazily—and with it, Rattata was hurled across the field, crashing heavily into the far wall.
“Gym Leader Sabrina’s Kadabra has done it again!” the announcer called aloud.
“Challenger Joey’s Rattata has been defeated!”
The camera panned to show the fainted Rattata lying motionless outside the battlefield.
“With that, Challenger Joey is eliminated!”
“Oh no!” Joey cried, collapsing to the ground and clutching his cap, his face twisted in pure despair.
“Wowwwww!”
“Yeahhhh!”
“Sabrinnaaaa!”
The stadium erupted into cheers, the camera sweeping across the roaring crowd.
“Haha! His tiny Pokémon, just like his tiny self, got crushed! Serves him right—how dare he challenge Sabrina-sama!” Amanda shouted, her face flushed with excitement.
Around them, plenty of others wore the same gloating smiles.
“Well, that was inevitable,” Orin said, smiling wryly.
He had seen his big sister beat far tougher opponents than this; Joey hadn’t even been a warm-up for her.
“Her Kadabra is so strong…” Stacy muttered, anxiously rubbing her hair as she stared at the screen.
“Well, Kaddi definitely is,” Orin agreed, a flicker of pride warming him as he looked at the calm Kadabra standing tall on the field.
“-And to all our viewers at home, don’t go anywhere!” the announcer said brightly.
“Up next, we have several matches lined up featuring the Gym Trainers of Saffron Gym, so stay tuned!”
The screen shifted to a waiting room filled with commentators ready to dissect the match.
“Well, that ended up pretty anticlimactic,” Orin sighed.
He stretched, then asked, “I am heading to the Psychic Center. Anyone want to come? This post-match talk is gonna drag on for a while.”
“Yeah, I have got so much work piling up,” Amanda groaned.
“Same here,” Tracy added, scratching at her hair.
“Well, lucky me—it’s my day off,” Orin said with a grin while they filed out of the room together.
As they turned towards the East Hall that connected to the Psychic Center, Amanda spoke up.
“Oh! I forgot to ask—how did your exam go?”
“Wait, you were taking the Nexus Admission Exam today?” Stacy asked, surprised.
Orin smiled confidently.
“It was easy enough,” he said, a bit more bravado in his voice than he truly felt.
Deep down, he was still a little worried... but he was confident that he would at least pass the first round.
As they walked through the hall, Orin noticed several personnel wearing Silph Co. uniforms, all carrying strange devices.
“What are Silph Co. researchers doing here?” he asked, curiously.
“Oh, I heard they developed a new device... called Warp Panels, I think,” Amanda whispered back quietly.
“It’s supposed to be absurdly expensive, but since they are still testing it, they agreed to install it in the Nine Main Rooms of the gym for free as part of their research.”
“Oh? Warp Panels?” Orin muttered, eyeing the large, flat, square metal devices they were transporting.
It immediately reminded him of the Warp Panel maze from the Saffron Gym in the old Pokémon games.
“What’s it used for?” he asked, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.
“They are short-range teleportation devices. Pretty high-tech stuff,” Stacy chimed in, adjusting her thick glasses as she peered at the equipment.
Orin nodded, his interest sparked. Definitely something worth keeping an eye on in the future.
As they reached the Psychic Center, Amanda and Stacy broke off towards their respective research rooms, both wishing him luck before disappearing down the halls.
Orin headed for a door labeled Napping Room and quietly slipped inside.
It was a small, softly lit room with a calming, ambient tune playing in the background. Mattresses and small beds were scattered across the floor, but the most noticeable sight was the tiny, floating yellow figures gently bobbing through the air.
Abras.
Dozens of sleeping Abras.
The psychic Pokémon could sleep up to 18 hours a day, and this room was specially reserved for their rest.
One of Orin’s daily tasks was to check the lights and the music system, making sure everything remained soothing and uninterrupted. He wasn’t permitted to care for the Pokémon directly, but simple tasks like this were allowed—provided he was extremely careful.
He had to move quietly and avoid getting too close to any of the Abras; even in sleep, they could unconsciously teleport away if startled.
Orin stifled a yawn—the peaceful atmosphere here always made him sleepy too.
After checking that everything was in order, he lingered for a moment, watching the tiny Abras float gently in their dreams, then slowly closed the door behind him.
He was just thinking about checking out the snack corner Amanda had mentioned when a familiar voice rang out behind him.
“Onii-chan!”
