Pokemon Rebellion

Opposing Views

The bell rang, signaling the beginning of class. There were a total of 21 students in the grade 7 class, all with their own character and personality. The teacher of Armaan’s class was Justine who was in her 30s and a very compassionate teacher. Normally, she would begin the day by asking the students to share about their life. However, today there was a special event happening; a new student had arrived. Justine announced that the new girl’s name was Aumber. Rumor has it that she was an A-student, and when she was asked to share about herself she didn’t really say much. She was going to sit in between two students named Chloe and Da-Wei who were good friends with one another. Both were athletic in their own sense, Chloe was the more outgoing silly type. Da-Wei was a nice guy but also the strong silent type.

After Aumber took her seat it was time for the class to share. Up first was a fellow named Zaid, he was considered the chatterbox of the class. He could go on for hours about anything that comes to his mind. A conversation is always alive when Zaid is around. Next up was Armaan who would normally just share about very general things in his life. However, he was feeling a bit more courageous today and decided to ask a question that many people never dared to ask, “Justine, why can’t humans and pokemon just get along?”. The instant he uttered the word ‘Pokemon’ a dreadful atmosphere fell into the room. Justine could sense the uneasiness of the room and was about to politely ask for him to change the subject. Suddenly, Reevmrak slammed his desk and was disgusted. They were about 3 desks away from each other, both standing and facing each other. Armaan was really uncomfortable with confrontation and didn’t know what to do. Justine was about to tell everyone to settle down when suddenly the door opened and a student came stumbling in late. His name was Jovan Junior, super nice kid but unfortunately he has the trait of not being a very speedy student. Normally his tardiness would have caused some frustration from Justine but for once his lateness came at a very opportunistic time. It cleared the tension that had previously surrounded the class and as Jovan Junior slowly made his way to his desk, Justine carried on with the class as if nothing had happened.

After another day of class, Armaan headed towards the abandoned hideout to see Froakie again. He was on his way there and was about a block away from his destination when he saw a familiar face: Reevmrak. Armaan quickly turned to escape towards the other end but Reevmrak was not alone as Aynat appeared to block his path. Aynat quickly grabbed his arms and held him down. Reevmrak reached into Armaan’s backpack and threw out his stack of pokemon books. “Pokemon are for fools, I can’t believe you read about them! You should be reading stuff like this!” He pulled out a couple of comic books one titled “Night Rider” and the other “Rice the Rampage.”

Reevmrak began, “Night Rider was a human vigilante who took matters into his hands. In a world, filled with more crime and injustice than the city’s law enforcement can handle, Night Rider comes out in the night with his incredible speed to take out villains of any kind. He was well versed in many forms of fighting and although he wasn’t the strongest fighter, he was able to adapt to any situation and usually outwit the opponent as well. However, that is nothing compared to Rice the Rampage, he is the…”

As Reevmrak was passionately speaking, Armaan interrupted, “Umm you know they are fake right, those are comic books.” Reevmrak was absolutely enraged by both the interruption and the comment made. He ordered Aynat to hold him down with greater force and he punched Armaan in the rib. He followed up with another left and was about to land a third strike but before he could connect, they were disrupted by a masked man jumping in.

From a distance standing in a proud hero stance the figure yelled forcing a low voice, “You there! Stop what you are doing!” The fellow was in a superhero suit that looked like it was stitched together by a grade 7 or bought from a dollar store. Reevmrak, Aynat, and even Armaan were confused at the mysterious goofball who had presented himself. “Who in the world are you?” inquired Reevmrak. The unknown man replied, “What?! How have you not heard of me?! I’m the protector of the weak, the server of justice, the caped crusader, the one and only, BIG Z!” As he talked, his low voice slowly reverted back to his original voice. Aynat realized the voice sounded familiar and notified Reevmrak that the man behind the mask was Zaid.

“What? Who is Zaid? I’m not him, I don’t even know the guy!” He said in panic and hesitation. Reevmrak who was not impressed as he ran full speed at Zaid and tackled him. He was about to give him the beating of a lifetime but before he could, he was interrupted again as a rock was thrown behind his head. He turned around to see that it was the new kid from their class, Aumber, standing there.

Reevmrak thought it was his lucky day as he imagined adding a third person to his smack down list. He turns towards Aumber to intimidate her with a slow and heavy walk but she would have none of it, “You know the Night Rider wouldn’t be very impressed with a bully picking on kids.” Those words shot right at his pride, stopping him right at his tracks. His expression took a complete turn as he was aggravated with her comments. “Why I ought to…” once again Aumber interjected, “Oh and I called the police a couple minutes ago, they will arrive any second now. If they see you beating up a girl too this won’t look good on your record. Rice the Rampage might find out.” Reevmrak halted and commanded Aynat to let go of Armaan and in disgust, they left the scene.

Armaan collected himself and began to thank Aumber, who quickly replied, “It’s getting late. Get home and stay out of trouble.” With that she left without saying much else. Armaan was taken aback by her stern comment but he suddenly remembered to check on Zaid to see if he was ok. Zaid was lying on the ground and asking in a daze, “Did I scare them away good?” Armaan hesitated in his reply, “Ummm, yeah you totally got them good. Hey thanks for standing up for me back there. That’s something only a good friend would do?” Upon hearing the word ‘friend,’ Zaid popped up with haste and exclaimed, “No! We are not friends!” Armaan was confused but Zaid continued, “We are going to be rivals! That way we will keep pushing each other to be better and never get beaten by bullies again!” As odd as that sounded to him, Armaan actually thought it might have been a great idea. He was about to verbally acknowledge what Zaid said but as he was about to do so, Zaid struck another superhero pose and made a dramatic exit.

Armaan waited to make sure Zaid had left and that he was the last one remaining. He then headed off into the hideout to see his friend. Once he was there, Froakie greeted him happily and hopped with joy. Armaan reached into his backpack to give Froakie some food. Luckily Reevmrak didn’t throw the food away. As he was handing the food to Froakie his rib began to hurt from the punch he took from earlier, forcing him to clutch his rib and drop some of the food. Froakie showed a face of concern but Armaan assured him it was nothing, that he just fell on his way here. Although Froakie had a feeling Armaan wasn’t telling the truth, he didn’t want to press the issue at the moment. So they hung out for a bit before Armaan had to part ways and head home.