Lumiose University - A Degree In Pokemon

Chapter 7: The Tests Continue

It was a couple of hours after Clemont's battle, and Professor Sycamore's announcement, and the screening battles were in full swing throughout the battlefields. After Sycamore had made his announcement of the incoming arrival of Ash Ketchum, and had waited for the excited whispers to die down, he had quickly informed the students on how to register for their screening battles, and the locations of the stadiums for regular battles and performance battles. There was some initial chaos at first, as the most excited students pushed ahead, desperate to be among the first to battle, and the lineups were pretty hectic at first.

Serena and Shauna didn't mind waiting around at first, though. Instead, they hung back with Clemont, congratulating him on his victory and getting a proper introduction to his father and sister. Once again, his sister, Bonnie, knelt down in front of the two of them, but before she could speak, Clemont had pulled her back, fuming. It wasn't long after that until Meyer decided to take Bonnie home, informing Clemont that they'd return later on to help him move into his dorm room, but that it looked like he needed some time to get to know his fellow students.

After that, Serena, Shauna and Clemont had decided to go and watch some performance battles, in order to better prepare the two performers for what they were up against. Once they had made their way over to one of the stadiums where a trainer was preparing for a battle to enter the intermediate classes as a coordinator, they found some seats, and then began watching.

While Clemont's battle had set the tone for how these screening battles were going to work, Serena definitely didn't expect for the first performance battle she saw to be as intense as it was. The trainer they were watching was red-haired girl, all dressed up in a red dress which was presumably her coordinator outfit. She seemed quite motivated along with her Sandshrew, a little mouse Pokmeon with a yellow, brick patterned back. It quickly set to work, curling up and spinning in an impressive display of speed, immediately causing Clembot's points on the screen up top to decrease. Clembot had answered back with a Pidgeotto, who used a Gust attack to disrupt Sandshrew's spinning, quickly tying up their scores.

The match continued for the full five minutes, neither Pokemon actually managing to land many hits and mostly losing points when their attacks missed or the opponent performed a fancy move, such as Clembot having Pidgeotto combine Feather Dance with Gust in order to create a tornado of dust and feathers which temporarily mesmerized Sandshrew. However, the coordinator countered this quite quickly, having Sandshrew use the tornado while curled up, and it was carried up into the air before landing a powerful hit on Pidgeotto. When the match finally ended, the points were nearly identical with the coordinator and Clembot being on their last slivers of their counter. After the final check, however, it was determined that the coordinator had won, and she immediately rushed out of the room, celebrating loudly with her Sandshrew.

As the matches continued, Serena saw more and more battles that increased her nervousness. She saw performers and coordinators alike, both succeed and fail at all the levels. Some even left the field in tears because of their loss. Seeing everyone get so stressed and feeling her own stress was not making things any easier. And it wasn't like this was the only thing on her mind, particularly after Professor Sycamore's announcement.

They had just finished watching another match, when the three of them decided to go out to the lobby and have Serena and Shauna register for their battles, as the lines were starting to shorten up. Shauna was fairly enthusiastic, but Clemont picked up on Serena's nervousness.

"You know, Serena, if you lose, you don't get kicked out. You're allowed to battle as many times as you want. At worst you'll go into beginner classes, but you can still work your way up." He adjusted his glasses and chuckled nervously. "I would know. I was thinking I'd have to do that."