Development on Plants vs. Zombies was moving along smoothly. With Daniel's help Luke's pace had picked up a lot. Still work and rest needed to stay balanced. Plenty of overtime sure. But plenty of slacking off too.
Haunter's Hypnosis came with side effects. Afterward Luke always felt dizzy and his head went foggy. Once Eevee mastered Yawn though his sleep quality improved noticeably. Even his dark circles started to fade.
Daniel's hairline meanwhile kept paying the price. One step closer to true mastery with every overworked night.
Saturday July 11th. Luke silenced his alarm with a yawn. The cat bed beside him was empty.
He blinked and looked down. Eevee had burrowed into his own blankets instead and was breathing slow and even.
"I thought cats were the ones who grew inside blankets in winter," Luke muttered and scratched his head. "Does an Eevee grow in summer instead?"
Looking at its tired little face he didn't have the heart to wake it. He poked its cheek once smiling and got swatted away for the trouble. Then he gave up the blanket without further argument.
His morning stream ran an entertainment-focused lineup and chat laughed through most of it. Afterward he scrolled YouTube for a while. The Master League was the top trending topic since it would kick off in Metro City the following week. No official roster yet but rumor already had Lance from Kanto slated to appear.
"A Dragon Elite competing in this? Feels like he should just be classified Flying-type at this point," Luke grumbled. He got distracted for a while watching Elesa's runway show out of Couriway Town.
He dawdled through to noon then went back to coding.
A call from Coach Whitman broke the rare weekend quiet.
"If you've got time this afternoon swing by campus," Whitman said. "Got a few new recruits in for school team tryouts. Could use your eye on them."
College entrance results hadn't officially dropped yet but early-admit Fighting Department freshmen had already started reporting in. Whitman wanted a look at fresh talent while the window was open.
Luke thought it over. "Sure no problem." He'd already taken the assistant coach job after all. And he could bring his tablet and code while he supervised.
The summer heat was brutal. Luke rode the bus in with a dozing Eevee draped over one shoulder and Haunter drifting along beside him.
At the Arena Center Whitman waited by the stands. Clipboard in hand and sun hat on he waved Luke over.
"Five new recruits this round," he said and gestured at the group warming up on the field. "Keep an eye on them for me. The actual team's training on the other field."
Luke blinked. "What exactly am I supposed to do?"
"Pick two out of the five to advance." Whitman laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Team slots are limited so knocking their egos down a peg early isn't a bad thing."
Prestigious-school recruits tended to show up with plenty of confidence built in. Luke's actual job here was bad cop plain and simple.
"Fine. More experience never hurts them," Luke muttered and walked onto the field. His arrival triggered an immediate wave of murmurs.
"Wait — TEACHER LUKE?!"
"The Piplup Cup champion?!"
"He's running our tryout?"
Hannah, freshly admitted to Metro City University herself, waved enthusiastically. "Teacher Luke, YOU'RE the assistant coach?!"
Luke gave his most devoted fan a quick look and cleared his throat. "Hannah. Step forward."
She stepped up instantly with curiosity and excitement fighting for control of her face.
Luke pulled out his tablet and turned all business. "You'll lead the group through a warm-up. Then the assessment starts."
"Got it!" Hannah beamed then blinked. "Wait. What's the assessment format?"
"Free-for-all. All five of your Pokémon on the field at once. Last two standing advance."
The recruits froze for a beat. Then their eyes lit up with competitive fire. A free-for-all format tested everything at once: adaptability, conditioning, and real-time reads. There was nowhere to hide.
"Don't worry, Teacher Luke, I won't let you down!" Hannah called out.
Watching the sudden burst of motivation ripple through the group Luke nodded and quietly reopened his project file. Great. Plenty of room to slack off here.
The five recruits spread out across the field and called commands to their Pokémon at the center. Whitman watched from a distance and nodded, satisfied. Rough around the edges maybe. But a real free-for-all captured a Trainer's full range far better than a standard one-on-one ever could.
Naturally that same chaos left plenty of room for details to slip past a casual glance. Which was exactly where a sharp assistant coach's eye came in.
Watching Luke fully absorbed in his tablet, Whitman smiled to himself. "Even his note-taking's this focused. I really did find a gem here."
Luke meanwhile was buried in his framework build. His Programming Lv3 checks kept failing. A faint prickling crawled across his scalp and he figured it was probably some side effect of the failed rolls.
"Great. Is this skill really side-effect-free or does it just say that?" he muttered and scratched his head. Then he looked up. The free-for-all had already ended.
Two Pokémon remained standing: Hannah's Breloom and a Torkoal belonging to a recruit named Gordon. The other three looked deflated but still glanced hopefully at Luke and angled for a second shot.
Luke considered it. He'd already scanned all three losing Pokémon with the system's Pokédex. Their movesets confirmed what the match result had already shown — a real gap in strength compared to the two finalists. Giving them another chance now would just be unfair to the two who'd genuinely earned their spot.
"You're free to go," Luke said with a smile. "Though if any of you can beat me directly you're still in."
Hannah's eye twitched. Is that even a reasonable thing to say? Beating you would basically require Piplup Cup Champion-level strength.
"...That's just Teacher Luke's whole thing, honestly," she murmured.
The three exchanged glances. Finally one of them — a Sandslash Trainer named Felix Zhu — gritted his teeth and stepped forward. "I'll try."
Luke was mid-calculation on whether to actually go easy on him purely out of respect for the nerve it took. Then Eevee hopped onto the field on its own.
"Vee!" It eyed Sandslash with open disdain and its lip curled.
Felix froze and his face flushed. He's sending out an Eevee against me? An unevolved one no less?
He scoffed. "Sandslash, Iron Tail!"
Something clicked uneasily in Luke's mind. He glanced at Eevee. It was already moving on pure instinct and looked visibly thrilled. It had the unmistakable look of a Pokémon about to freeload yet another move.
Oh no.
Too late. Eevee closed the distance in a blur.
Copycat. An identical Iron Tail bloomed off its tail and arguably glowed even brighter than the original.
Thud!
Sandslash took the hit full-force. No mercy involved. It fainted instantly and left a deep crater in the dirt.
Felix stood frozen with his mouth open, then shakily recalled Sandslash. "I — I overstepped," he managed.
Gordon, watching with his own Torkoal, swallowed hard. This assistant coach is way stricter than expected. Do not provoke him.
The field went dead quiet. Every recruit stared at Luke with a mix of awe and dread.
"...Why is everyone looking at me like that?" Luke, who'd genuinely come here to coast through the afternoon, felt caught between laughing and despairing. "I'm a nice guy, I promise!"
A beat of silence.
"Ugh, forget it." He waved a hand, resigned. Is going easy really this hard for my own Pokémon at this point?
He nervously pulled up Eevee's move list. Sure enough, Iron Tail sat there faintly and was flagged as trainable but not yet unlocked.
Luke sighed. He'd braced himself for a lot going into this whole ordeal.
My Pokémon's talent is just fundamentally broken. There's no other explanation left.