Battle Tactics Class #1 - Instructor: Catherine Eisenberg

[Sorin Black]

Sorin walked up and down the halls at a hurried pace. He'd never find the classroom at this rate! Kipperin followed quickly behind him, preferring to stay out of it's Pokeball when possible. Lucian on the other hand was quite content staying "inside", as it allowed the Pokemon the quiet time he liked. Finally, Sorin reached the door to the Battle Tactics classroom. Looking in from the outside, it appeared that the class had only just begun. Taking a quick breath to ready himself, he opened the door and entered the room. The teacher was seated, an Arcanine resting beside her. On the board was written "Find a seat, any seat."

Making a quick bow Sorin said, "So sorry i'm late. Please excuse me." He looked around the room to find that most of the seats had been taken. he finally found one, unfortunately in the back left of the room, and took a seat next to a black haired girl. He leaned over and whispered, "What have I missed?" Kipperin hopped up on the desk then and sat down, apparently fascinated by the alien looking Pokemon that floated beside her.

[Kyrie Vyler]

This is why Kyrie loved the back. All the social or pompous looking people went to the front, the more quiet birds sat in the back, Mammon would keep staring at the ceiling, and a girl would come bother her-

Wait, what? Kyrie had thrown herself into her own little peaceful vortex until someone's greeting just sliced that vortex right open. Wait a second, she was in the back. No one ever talked in the back. Well, they did actually; but no one talked to her in the back. She didn't know if she felt disturbed, awkward, or the mixture of both as this random girl introduced herself. "Hi, yeah. Kyrie Vyler. Pleasure." There she said words, the Bolt colored girl would be happy right? Her eyes wandered from the girl to her outside... pokemon? What in the- yeah, she wouldn't ask. She didn't want to ask. No, Kyrie would go back to her vortex, petting her Mammon and reveling in his velvety fur.

Until class started that was. The teacher did her greetings, short like the assembly; then onto the lesson like classes usually went. The Mana girl felt her blood freeze at the first question. It was probably a basic question of question but for the shut-in who only knew about her own pokemon (and very little at that); this was like an exam. "Best type? Um... Dark types maybe? They're immune to psychic. Have only three weakness when it's a pure dark-type. Um, when paired with ghost like sableye they're only weak to Fairy. Strong against psychic and ghost. Oh! And most usually have two stages of evolution." Yes, that was really all the knowledge she actually had. Kyrie hadn't the slightest clue of physical capabilities or any of that more complicated stuff.

[Tanya Christianson]

Before she could get a decent response from the fellow Wave dorm girl, the teacher was about to begin her class. Once that happened, she sat down in her chair and became quiet, intrigued to hear what the first ever lesson was going to be about.

Then the bombshell.

Best Type? Oh god. That question made her mind shut down and stare blankly at the board for a few seconds. For all the research and struggling she did to get to the academy and with all the studying she did into battling, she never really considered which type was best. Sure, there were preferences depending on what people wanted, certain types were better than others. For example, Psychic pokemon were the go-to for special attacking while Fighting types could be amazing at physical strength. Each type had it's strengths and weaknesses that were efficient in the battle.

Her mind puzzled over the question as people gave their answers. One person said Electric, another said Dark. She thought deeply about how she was going to answer the question. She didn't want to sound dumb. At the same time though, she didn't want to sound pretentious. However, she eventually came up with an answer as she raised her hand.

"Well, like, I would say it really depends on the situation. I mean, all types have their advantages and they have parts where like they are better than other types." Tanya started, praying that she didn't sound like an idiot. "However, I would say that for offense, Dragon type is best since not only are they really powerful in both attack and special attack, but they also have like only one type resistant to it and one type that is immune to those attacks. For defensive, I would say Steel because they are not only immune to the poison ailment, but they also have a lot of resistances and normally have very high defensive stats."

Once Tanya started, she found it hard to stop. Eventually, she realized she was talking way too much and stopped. She hoped that she didn't answer the question in a pretentious or tricky way that would just irritate the teacher. From where she was sitting, a part of her couldn't help but be intimidated by her. Especially since she had an Arcanine out. She went back to sitting a little lower on her desk, hoping that she did the right thing.

[Astrid Sherinian]

"Not much of a talker, huh?" Astrid asked. Although, with how short her initial reply was, she wasn't expecting much else from the girl. A shame. But that was fine for the moment, since shortly afterward, their teacher started class. She remained seated, but well, it would have to take someone not paying any attention to figure out why. Then, after a quick introduction, she immediately went into their first lesson, opening with a question. 'What type would you say is the best?'

Now there was a strange question to pose. Astrid had been under the impression from the sheer diversity of types that there wasn't one singular 'best' type. If there was, wouldn't they be far more common than any of the others, due to always beating them out for food and trainers? Even dragons, while powerful, were quite rare. Of course, one had to look at individual species for things like that, while Miss Eisenberg had asked about types as a whole. Going purely like that, the answer of the first boy to speak up, made sense. Electric types had the fewest weaknesses of any type, just one weakness that could be negated by some of them. But it was possible to get around that, as well. Electric types were definitely her favorite but could they really be called the 'ruler', as Miss Eisenberg put it?

No, Astrid had to admit that she had seen very little of Pokemon battling thus far, but what she did know suggested that everything had a counter. In that case, was there really a 'best' type? "I'd say there isn't one," Astrid said after a few seconds of silence after Tanya's answer. "Although if I had to give a specific answer, it's whatever type an opponent can't do anything about at a given time. That's not something that would always stay the same though."

[Alice Geissler]

The teacher asked about what type was the best. There were about eighteen types and only some of them had different weaknesses. That blonde-haired boy had said that Electric types were the best. And then, Dark types were said to be the most efficient. "Ghost types. They are only weak to themselves and Dark types. The only exception is Gastly and its evolutionary relatives who have an added weakness of Psychic types and the Honedge line is weak to Fire and Ground. Ghosts have the capability to dish out some strong damage with either the Special Attack or Attack stat or they could be defensive. They have an immunity against Fighting and Normal types which makes Froslass's secondary type useful. They resist Poison and Bug. Some Ghost types are speedy and combined with their high Special Attack, they can be deadly. Their only issue is their weak defenses."

Well, this was what she remembered from reading a book about them. It was certain that ghosts were probably the best she could think of. Of course, she didn't really laugh at other's opinions, but she was open to any type whether it was a type different from her preferred specialty or something else. At least, she gave each of her Pokemon some battle experience, otherwise sometimes there would be an experience sponge.

[Annie Prince]

Annie was caught badly by surprise when another girl, dressed in the same color as she, burst into the classroom and started speaking loudly to a Buneary she addressed as Daniel. Moments later, that same girl was crossing the room to sit--oh, right next to her. A few words not fit for polite company flashed through Annie's mind as the girl studied her for a moment, before all thought was blasted from her again by the rapid onslaught of words that comprised the introduction. The important bits did at least catch in her head: Wave Dorm--Tanya--classmates--your name?

Annie was overwhelmed by it all. Dušana seemed to be even more so, as the little creature had jumped down into her lap and hunkered down so that all that could be seen of the Snorunt was the hat she had just made into a tent. Annie's Pokémon could hide from the too-sudden introduction, but the girl herself could not, so she fell back on habit and fixed the other girl with an icy, superior gaze. "Yes, I am in the Wave Dorm," she began, deliberately speaking at a slightly slower pace than usual. "You may call me Annie. And this--"--she glanced down at Dušana, placing a hand on the orange hat, and then up at the girl, taking her measure as best she could--"--is Spirit." Annie's opinion of this girl was already forming, and her offering the alternate nickname was a result of that.

Much to Annie's relief, the teacher interrupted at that point by opening the class. Annie listened eagerly, drinking in every word of the introduction. The course would be teaching them things to use "to forge a victory," the teacher--Miss Eisenberg, she called herself?--said. And there was a question, a most unusual question...

People began calling out answers to the question, but Annie barely heard any of them. What kind of a question was that? All the types were weak to something or another even if you were looking at it purely on paper. When you added in an actual Pokémon with its own combination of moves and abilities and experience and the skill of the Trainer, the waters became all the more muddy (as it were--Ground-type was weak to Water-type). Annie's own preference was for Ice-types, for reasons both inscrutable and evident.

There was no reasonable answer for her to give, so she simply sat and waited.

[Deleted]

William pondered the question for a moment. What was the strongest type? While water was his first thought he quickly wiped it out. Carefully thinking for a minute or two he responded. "The strongest type is Dragon. They're resilient to Fire, Water, electric, and Grass types. However, their weaknesses are Ice, Dragon, and Fairy. They usually hold quite a bit of power in their h-high." William paused for a moment, before continuing. "They usually hold quite a bit of power in their high evolution stages." He said, his face now somewhat red from embarrassment. He had stumbled again with his wording, which he hoped wouldn't happen in class.

[Sonia Strugatskaya]

Stretching and making a relaxed hum as a result, Sonia was just about ready to lay down on her desk and relax a bit before class started. yet, before her head hit the desk, a voice from the front of the room reached her ears, to which she promptly rose up in her seat. Blinking, she watched as the teacher began her introduction. So much for relaxing. Not that she was complaining of course. She was very much looking forward to this class.

The teacher introduce herself as Catherine Eisenburg. Sonia got that much. But after that? Her attention drifted over to the sleeping Arcanine for a little bit. She smiled as she watched its "sleeping" face and hummed a bit. Her legs kicked back an forth as this happened, given her legs did not reach all the way down in the least. Such was the case when you're such a young girl. Of course, her attention was moved back to the teacher once more with the mention of the "first lesson." She presented a question to the rest of the class. Namely, what "Type" of Pokemon was the best. Anyone was free to answer as well it seemed. Now, Sonia had opened her mouth for a moment, only to shut it a second later. That was a good question really. While she thought about it, other students began to shout out their own thoughts as to what type was the best. She listened to each and every one, yet, she couldn't agree with any of them. If not them, then which type did she call the best?

After another moment of thought, she raised her voice and gave her own answer. Well, I just use whatever I want because I like them. So the best type is clearly Pokemon that you like! . . .right? Even after giving her answer, the girl decided to do a little more pondering. Was that even an acceptable answer? The instructor asked for "types" yet she had blatantly ignored that fact and gave her own answer. Even so, young Sonia couldn't see herself agreeing with any types that the other students were bringing up. After giving her answer, Sonia simply sat back in her chair waiting for the instructor's response. Of course, being idle, her attention went right back to the Arcanine.

[Seria Floria]

The teacher introduced herself as Catherine Luciana Eisenberg. Quite a bit of a mouthful for airhead Seria here, but she would manage just fine. She'll just call her 'Instructor.' Yeah, that works. The class was about to begin, and the teacher now opened with a single question - 'What type would you say is the best?' Now, Seria was probably a greenhorn in battling - all she knew came from watching her parents. In the interim, other students said their answers. Some of them mentioned concrete answers along with their reasonings for it.

Others didn't have a specific answer to give. Truth to be told, Seria wasn't entirely sure what that answer was herself. She sighed and continued thinking to herself, before steeling her resolve and speaking up. "I don't believe in a single answer to that question, but if we really had to choose only one type out of those that we currently know, I believe that the Fairy type would be probably the best one. A lot of people have already mentioned they believe that Dragon type is the best one. Well, the Fairy type strikes back at that easily. Okay, someone's gonna say, but, what about 'Ice' type?" Seria took another deep breath. "Well, my parents told me, 'Ice is strong too, but weak to Fighting and Ground. Fairy isn't weak to those, but it can defeat the Fighting type!' And furthermore, it's strong against Dark type too, which is another popular one. So I'd pick that one."

Seria fidgeted nervously.

[Cameron Faulkner]

Cameron was late. Sad, seeing that this was the topic he was planning on specializing in. He doesn’t know how I lost so much time this morning. He had gone through his normal morning routine like he always does. Wake up, take a shower, brush teeth, flex in the mirror, workout, take a shower, flex again, get dressed for the day. Nothing changed; it’s just like when he was home except without his brothers’ pranks. He’d probably have to wake up earlier or change it around, something had to change. After all he couldn’t go give muscular people such as himself a bad name by being late all the time. That would be awful; so as to not sully the name of muscle any longer he threw his bag over his shoulder and ran as fast as his legs could carry.


When he got to the Battle Tactics Wing of the Teaching Center, he approached the door where his class was at. He needed to think of a strategy to avoid his teacher’s site, and potential trouble. “Alright Cameron; Open the door, sneak to the back, act like you are deep in your work.” It was a perfect plan, and his only one. So he went through with it; He opened the door slow enough so it wouldn’t make any noticeable noise. He then tip-toed to the back of the class, and took the first open seat he saw. Luckily they weren’t doing any work so he could skip the last step of his plan.


The assignment, if it could even be called that was to name the best type and why or at least he gathered that from the few he heard. Being the impatient man he is, when someone else finished their talk about normal types he was quick to jump in. “Well of course the best type of all-time are fighting types!” he shouted, pounding at his chest. “Fighting types have the muscle to do anything, the brute force to take down anyone before them, and the chiseled physique to take any attack thrown at them.  weak, scrawny, little Furrett has nothing on the sheer power and size of a Conkeldurr. I mean, have you seen them!? They carry concrete pillars just to carry them and flaunt their overwhelming muscle wherever they go.”


When he finished his little speech he wore a smug grin as he sat back in his small seat, but it wasn’t till he looked back at the teacher that a serious question arose in his muscle-fixated head. “Hey, teach.” He said trying to get her attention. “Why are you in a freaking wheelchair?” He was curious, as curious as a little kid but he wasn’t one for subtlety so he just went ahead and said it. Hopefully she wasn't playing around, his Ma and Pa always told him that it wasn't nice to impersonate a paralyzed person.

[Chris Thyodor]

The strongest type eh... that certainly is a good question, and one that certainly requires some thought, although it's common knowledge all types have weaknesses and multi type Pokémon, trying to judge it purely based upon weakness is just one argument... if we turned this around, turning it to the more statistical side, dragon would certainly be the most powerful type in general, despite their three weaknesses. apart from say a priority move or a faster ice type, of which there are the occasional fast ice type, ice is quite vulnerable due to the amount of dragon types which can learn the perfect counter to ice types in the form of earthquake, against dragons, well, the faster one can often find itself with an advantage.

"well... personally, I don't think weaknesses and the like is the best way to work out which would be the 'ruler' due to every single type having a weakness... so if you ignore the whole weakness side of things and go purely to the statistical side, personally I'd have to say dragon is the strongest on average, out of all types, their endurance and their physical strength is rated on average first, and with all other stats, they are easily within the top three, going purely off statistics and averages, dragon would be classified as the strongest, but since statistics don't make up a battle purely on their own, I believe their is no ruler in general, this is just from personal knowledge, so it may not be completely acurrate" Chris spoke in a somewhat calm, analytical nature, sure that might be over explaining things, but, that's my point of view on the situation.

[C.B. Eleazar]

A wannabe mad scientist, a chubby yellow platypus and a blue-pink bird thing walked to a classroom-

Ahem. Wrong joke.

C.B. knocked on the "Battle Tactics" classroom's door once, twice, three times and peeked into the room, where she found herself a little late very late. She quietly cursed her sucky sense of direction. Madder, who had stolen a gulp or two of his trainer's coffee that morning, excitedly slammed the door open and waddled in like the over-caffeinated kappa-duck that he was, and tripped over the Arcanine. C.B. pinched the bridge of her nose. "Damnit, Madder."

She smiled sheepishly and greeted the Professor with a "G'morning, ma'am." C.B. sighed, pulled out Madder's pokeball out of her bag and returned the flailing duck in his ball. Oh Madder, I love you but can you be less dorky on our first day?

Archimedes, her ever-reliable, level-headed Porygon, on the other hand, quietly settled on a chair all the way on the other side of the room (!?), as if reserving it for his trainer. Said trainer, who already had her share of embarrassment for that day, quietly walked to the seat, her shoulders slumped in resignation.

Bring it on, day. As if things can get worse.

[Adolfina von Brauer]

The instructor, one Catherine Luciana Eisenberg, gave her introduction and presented an odd enough question. Was this a trick question? It had to be. Sure, some people were answering and actually giving types, but some of the answers were pretty stupid. She could, had she wanted, argued the benefits of her dorm's specialties, but she felt that that would be putting the cart before the horse. After all, the teacher would be able to dismiss whatever wrong answers there were. Instead, she should focus on presenting a solid response, one which would put her in the teacher's positive range. And, also, open the door to private lessons. One-on-one teaching would always be more productive than being taught in a group- it moved much more quickly, and allowed for much more ground to be covered, she felt.

Of course, through the constant flow of students into the room, someone did something that the blonde found extraordinarily stupid. That is, they asked a cripple why they were a cripple. Sure, it wasn't directly on-point, but the fact still stood that a student had the gall to ask an instructor something regarding a severely personal issue? She wanted to say something, but there was a chance that it would just infringe on the woman's nerves, putting her in a bad spot. Though he was obviously a dumbass, and rude, she'd have to go without commenting. Instead, she'd need to focus on her answer.

Which was getting nowhere. It was a trick question, yes. There was no way their teacher was going to give them some nonsense that there was a Type that was the best. Adolfina needed time to think. And think she did. To the point that she said nothing. A chance to flaunt her superiority over the masses was. . . slipping away, unnoticed, without a whimper.

[Crispin Yates]

[/i]meant there were so many places to explore and ways to get lost in other places.  Who knew how long it would take him to discover truly everything!  Shaking his head from his thoughts he focused on finding the class.  Jove the Joltik clung on for dear life to Crispin's dark hair as his trainer shook his head, completely forgetting the little guy was hiding away up there.  It wasn't until he heard the bug chattering away at him that he realized he almost flung him off in another direction.  "Sorry Jo.  I ke' forgettin' yer up there."  Reaching a hand up he gently found the small electric spider, scratching the top of him.  It hummed happily, forgiving his person for almost chucking him.

Finally finding the room, he took no hesitation in gently opening the door and bowing his head slightly at the teacher in apology.  He didn't want to say more to bring attention to himself, though, so instead quietly found a seat and settled into it.  As he listened he heard the students around him offering up their ideas of what the best type was.  He assumed that had to be the question posed, and thought about it briefly.  The best type?  His brow furrowed sharply, hand scratching his chin as he thought to those on his mom's team.  She didn't have just one type though, did she?  She always had different ones to balance different situations.  

His tongue clicked absently as he thought.  Every time he thought he may have had an answer, something came to mind that made the idea moot.  Finally he sighed, shaking head in defeat and putting his hand back to the desk.  He couldn't think of any that stood out in his mind that made a lick of sense to him, so all he could do is sit and wait patiently for the teacher to speak her piece.[/ul]

[Amanda Dupomme]

Pushing through the door, Amanda considered battle tactics was not her ideal choice of class. Although becoming a Pokemon trainer had always been a goal for her, she had not ever given too much thought into the notion of forcing her servants to fight for her. The idea seemed... barbaric. Nontheless, she had signed up for the class with the intention of learning the basics. While she had to particular desire to actively pursue any conflict: the young girl was smart enough to understand that she might not always be capable of avoiding it. Especially given the possibility of her interests taking her into dangerous locales. She would have to know how to teach her Pokemon to defend themselves and her against any threats.


Purse at her side: Amanda quietly walked into the classroom at the exact moment the teacher was starting the lesson. With a quiet sigh, she was thankful that she had avoided being tardy: it would not have been fitting for a proper lady to devlop a repuation for missing classes. Certainly not on the first day.


As she carefully sat down, she listened as Catherine posed the first question, then as the large boy near her responded. Amanda found herself contemplating the question. Her thoughts drawing her away from the presence and activity in the class. The most powerful type of Pokemon could only be...

Waiting for a moment to answer: she perked up.


''Excusez-moi, but is not the Dragon-Type known as the most powerful? The typing belongs to several of the more powerful known species of Pokemon such as Hydredgion, Goodra, and Garchomp, and is known to be weak only to a select few defensive Ice-Pokemon, to itself, and to Fairy-Pokemon. Although the last is much more frail?''