Slow as a Slowpoke
An academy for genius and some not so genius Pokemon trainers, what could possibly go wrong.
Johna had finally finished the finals for the Pokémon academy. Most kids had attended regular Pokémon schools, but recently Pokémon academies had been set up for older generations who were much more dedicated on becoming the best Pokémon trainers they could be. Instead of teaching remedial things like weakness's and statuses, they taught complex strategies on how to defeat advance opponents. He had been in the academy for five years since he had been thirteen. He had gone through the Kanto league and had come up against some of the top trainers in Kanto. When he had lost against the elite four he was offered the chance to attend the academy for five years. The finals decided on whether or not you were competent as a Pokémon trainer. The teachers had each been once been Pokémon masters at one time or another. When they found that their abilities weren't being used for anything they decided to start up the academy, they wanted to see who would make it as a Pokémon master and who wouldn't. Most of the class was full of rich snobs who had bought their way in, but some like Johna had been selected to attend. Johna had quickly become a favorite of the teachers; he soon was given private lessons so he could learn all that he wanted to. The others that had been picked he quickly became friends with, but the rich kids all stayed away from him. They tried their hardest but they couldn't keep up to the pace of the ones who had prior experience with Pokémon training. "Hey Johna, you waiting for the results too?" Johna's friend Michael walked up and sat beside him, "Yeah, they said the results would be posted up in a few minutes so I just wanted to be here when they popped up." Some of the others started to show up also to see the results. Johna knew that if he passed first in his class then he would be given a free pass to go to Unova and compete in the Unova league. If he failed he would be given one more chance at the test, if he passed the second time he would be given a pass to pass through the gate into Johto without any hassle. Usually you would need to go through complicated sheets to go to Johto, more so for Unova. Michael bumped Johna's arm, "You don't need to worry man, you're going to pass first no doubt." Johna laughed nervously, "I don't know about that Michael." Michael shook his head laughing, "You are too humble for your own good." The rich kids walked in laughing to each other and bragging. "I'm betting the teachers will see how good I did and just give me the rank of champion instead of having to go through the monotony of battling." Johna glared at the snobs, "Those guys never cease to amaze me with how conceited they are." Michael nodded and looked forward as the electronic board started registering the scores; it first started showing the people who had failed. The rich kids were the first to show up on the board, "What?! How is this possible, I bribed so many people to make sure that I pass!" The leader of the rich kids was infuriated. After all of the failed results were shown the passers started to register. It said next to their names what pass they would receive for what region they would be given. It started with Johto and started going up from there. After a minute Johna's named showed up, at the very top of the list. "Johna you did it! You're going to be going to Unova." Johna blinked for a minute taking it in then started to cheer. All of his friends crowded around him and congratulated him; even if they had failed they were happy for their friend. As the rich kids walked out they sneered at him, "How did a poor brat like him get first?!" Michael glared at them as they walked out and smiled at Johna, "Let's have a party to celebrate you passing man." Johna smiled and shook his head, "Let's celebrate being able to get through the exams." Everyone laughed and nodded and went to get ready for the party. As they were preparing for the party the rich kids were going out into town getting into areas that usually they would stay away from.
A few hours later all of the students were heading over to the gym, Johna asked the teachers if he was allowed to have a party in the gym and they permitted him to. They helped set up the gym for the party while everyone was getting prepared. Everyone started to pile into the gym and started to dance to the music. Johna walked in with Michael, people walked up to them and congratulated Johna on his ranking first in the class. As everyone was having fun the rich kids snuck into the back and started to set up some props without anyone noticing. As they were finishing up getting set up the teachers announced that they would be giving out the passes as they announced the names of the students. Johna was the first to be announced and was handed two slips, one for a boat ride and the other was to get into Unova. As the announcements continued the rich kids finished up setting the props, "This will show those upstart poor people." The leader with a snide expression peeked out around the curtain and grinned out of delight at what was about to happen and quickly departed with the others. As they finished the announcements the teachers waved to the students and departed to let the kids have fun. As the party started coming towards its close one of the rich kids hit a button to raise a curtain. Everyone watched entranced as a plethora of Pokémon costumes were unveiled. The odd thing was that all of the costumes seemed to consist of Slowpokes and Slowbros. "Who put these costumes here?" Michael questioned as he walked closer to the costumes. Nobody seemed to know, "Why don't we make the party into a costume party?" Everyone seemed to agree to this idea, some people laughed at the novelty of the idea. People were grabbing costumes; the suits seemed big enough that they would fit anyone who tried them on. Michael was one of the first people to pull on one of the suits, everyone followed suit. Johna was skeptical of the idea, "It seems kind of odd that these were put here, don't you guys think?" Everyone laughed at his skepticism, "Come on Johna, it's just a fun little joke." Johna sighed and grabbed the last Slowpoke suit. He pulled on the body and looked around for the head; he saw that it had rolled out into the hall. "I'll be right back guys." He walked out into the hall as everyone danced around in their Slowpoke and Slowbro costumes. As he walked out into the hall he heard the rich kid's talking to each other, "I can't wait to see them all; soon all of those stupid poor folk will soon be what they are, stupid." He heard all of them laugh cruelly.
"I need to tell everyone else to get rid of those costumes, as he started to run he suddenly felt something being shoved onto his head, "Hey little Slowpoke, you forgot your head." He recognized the voice as the leader of the rich kids. He was pushed from behind into the gym and heard the door close and lock behind him. Johna tried to pull off the head but found that it had seemed to connected to the suit. As he ran into the main area of the gym he saw everyone seemed to be talking in a rather slow and dumbed down dialogue.
As Johna hurried forwards he found himself stumbling over himself much more than he should've even if he was in a costume. A lot of the other people dressed in Slowpoke outfits were walking on all fours. He saw that all of the others had seemed to shrink in size, "Hey guys you need to um... what was I going to say again?..." Jonah found himself forgetting what he was about say, "Oh yeah, we need to take off these suits guys!" The others slowly looked at him and he noticed the eyes of the suits were now blinking, "Why is that?..." They all asked him in a slow manner, "Because... um I can't remember..." He tried to think it over, as he was thinking he found himself falling onto all fours, his body had become smaller. All of the Shellder on the Slowbros' tails were now coming to life. Johna's brain was starting to slow down along with his speech, "What were we talking about again?..." He asked as he tilted his head slowly, the other Slowpoke slowly shook their head as clueless as he was. The rich kids came in after a while and saw the gym was now full of real Slowpokes and Slowbros. They all looked around and started to find the passes that the others had dropped, "Well I guess this means that we're not such failures as our parents thought we were right guys?" All of the other rich kids laughed and nodded. As they were gloating over their victory the teachers came in and their jaws dropped, "What did you kids do?!" They all asked the rich kids. The rich kids suddenly went white in the face, "We just brought in some Slowpoke and Slowbro as a prank..." They all said having thought of this situation. The teachers all sighed and shook their heads, "Alright, just put these Pokémon back where they belong." The teachers all walked out exasperated. The rich kids all started to snicker, "Yeah... we'll put them back where they belong." The next day the local Pokémon sanctuary received an influx of Slowpoke and Slowbro. The rich kids thought they had gotten away with it, but as they were about to leave from the academy all of them were mysteriously turned into Grimer. The man that had sold them the suits to turn others into Slowpokes and Slowbros came to collect them all and walked out with many Grimer. He had a mysterious smile on his face, "I told all of you, I don't require money as payment... I take other sources of payment..." In the Pokémon sanctuary all of the Slowpoke and Slowbro were blissfully unaware that the ones who had turned them into Pokémon had been punished with the same fate that they were forced to suffer.