Giselle Interlude

**Giselle Interlude**is the twentieth Interlude sidestory in the expanded universe of *Pokémon Reset Bloodlines.*It is also the fifth sidestory written by Fox McCloude and the thirty-fourth sidestory overall.

It stars Giselle, the top student of what is considered the "Golden Generation" of the Kanto Pokémon Technological Institute trainer school, as she tries to coach Joe, the least remarkable student of her class. One day, however, and a fateful encounter will lead her to rethink her mindset in ways she never imagined, and learn that her teaching methods might not have worked no matter how hard she tried, and that there are things you can't learn at school.

## Plot

The story begins with Giselle and her fellow classmates attending a lecture about how to take advantage of weather based Pokémon tactics in battles with Pokémon Tech's most well regarded Teacher, Noland Datsura.

After discussing several strategies and an explanation into the effects of Icy, Heat, Smooth and Damp rocks to extend the effects of weather conditions, Noland asks his students if they have any questions, of which only a boy named Joe, regarded as the lowest ranking student at Pokémon Tech, raises his hand.

Giselle notes to herself how Joe is good with theory work, but in practice his skills as a Pokémon trainer and a student of the school leave a lot to be desired, especially in regards to how he sometimes got a lot of strange ideas.

A sentiment that seems to be reinforced in the minds of Giselle and her fellow students when Joe brings up the possibility of there being other potential whether conditions that can have an effect on how Pokémon battles play out besides the recognized conditions of sunlight, rain, hail and sandstorms.

This suggestion catches Noland's interest and he asks Joe for an example. Joe brings up a story he'd read from a magazine about a Unovan Gym Leader who'd invented an unofficially recognized technique creating wind currents to boost the speed of flying type Pokémon, but stops halfway through, hesitating after noticing the other students including Giselle shooting him odd looks.

The bell to signal the end of class rings, and Noland ends the discussion and dismisses the class, leaving shortly afterwards. Many of the students continued to give Joe odd looks before Giselle instructs them to leave and approaches Joe.

Once alone, Giselle admonishes Joe for his suggestion of using techniques not officially recognized by the Pokémon League, finding it improper. Joe meekly suggests the unconventional tactic could still be useful, but Giselle remains unconvinced.

After musing on Joe's low win rate in battles, Giselle offers to provide him some extra support after class, which Joe is appreciative of. He was a lot less enthusiastic when Giselle instructs him to do her chores for her in exchange, but doesn't argue.

Giselle silently wonders to herself afterwards if she was being too harsh on Joe. Musing that she does have a soft spot for the boy's kind attitude, Giselle nonetheless finds his adequate performance as a student unbecoming of a student of the most prestigious Trainer School in Kanto, and decides to make a point of pressuring him to show more backbone and improve his performance.

So for the next eight weeks following the lecture, Giselle makes a point of monitoring Joe's performance at his schoolwork closely, disciplining him where she found necessary when he came up short. Despite her best efforts however, Joe was showing little improvement as a student in that time, leaving Giselle concerned and wondering where she was going wrong with her methods.

One day near the end of term, while Giselle was resting under the shade of the tree and reviewing her notes from a recent lesson, Joe approached her with some interesting news. That apparently two trainers had been spotted camping near Pokémon Tech.

Noticing to herself how it was a tradition among the students of the school to lure wandering trainers to the school grounds and challenge them to battles, as a way to show off their skills and prestige, Giselle instructs Joe to use himself as bait to draw the two trainers in.

Joe is uncomfortable with the suggestion, but Giselle firmly instructs him to do his duty to his fellow classmates, to which he ultimately accepts.

Before following the instructions however, Joe randomly muses on how he sometimes wishes he was a Bloodliner. Giselle herself muses how such a thing might be interesting, noting to herself how Bloodliners had become a more common discussion point even at Pokémon Tech in recent years due to the increase in their numbers in recent years.

When Joe asks if she would like to be one however Giselle soon brushes off the idea, declaring she doesn't need special powers because she already knows she's exceptional without them and tells Joe to get a move on in drawing in the passing trainers, thinking that beating them would be just the motivation he needed to better his performance at the school.

A couple of hours later while enjoying her favorite desert in the school cafeteria, Giselle is approached by a few other students, who frantically call for her help. Giselle is shocked to learn that the two trainers she had asked Joe to bring to the school were curb-stomping all of her fellow students in battle.

Taking advantages of her privileges as Pokémon Tech's Top student, Giselle makes her way to the school's audiovisual club and demands access to the computers used to monitor all Pokémon Battles taking place at the school.

Giselle then watches the footage of the two trainers, a black haired boy with a Pikachu and a red haired girl using Water-type Pokémon, being left aghast at how effortlessly the two were able to beat her fellow students.

Recognizing that as part of the tradition of luring them in the school would have to offer the two trainers a special reward if they kept winning, Giselle prepares to challenge them herself, determined to uphold Pokémon Tech's reputation.

Arriving in the midst of a double battle between the two trainers and two fellow students, Giselle takes notice of how the battles are being watched by both her teacher Noland and a portly man accompanying him that she was unfamiliar with, though who she notes was dressed like an Alolan Tourist. She also notices that Joe seemed to be hiding behind the two trainers as she confronted them, but paid this little mind.

Giselle then introduces herself to the two trainers and challenges them to a battle, the trainers identifying themselves as Ash Ketchum and Misty.

Misty calls out Giselle as a bully for her treatment of Joe, particularly in using him to bait her and Ash into battling the students at the school. Giselle brushes off the accusations, insisting that there was no place for mediocre trainers among the Golden Generation of students at Pokémon Tech and that her treatment of Joe was for his own benefit, which doesn't sit well with Misty and Ash.

After being surprised to learn that Ash and Misty had already beaten every other student at the school, though remaining confident of an inevitable victory and just considering the two a fun challenge, Giselle challenges the two to a battle, which Ash is the first to accept.

Settling on a two versus two battle, Giselle calls out her Cubone as her first Pokémon. A voice suddenly calls out to provide exposition on the bone wielding Pokémon, slightly irritating Ash, and Giselle realizes that Ash is in possession of a Pokédex.

She notes that possession of such a device probably meant his victories over her fellow students weren't just dumb luck, but wasn't discouraged, simply deeming Ash interesting.

Giselle begins the battle between her and Ash by ordering Cubone to use Bonemerang. To her bewilderment however, Ash's Pikachu immediately gains the upper hand in the battle through the use of unconventional tactics, avoiding the Bonemerang and flipping around Cubone's bone helmet as a distraction before biting it's tail and scratching it's back, leaving the ground type wide open to be struck by it's own returning bone.

While Giselle processes what just happened, Ash instructed Pikachu to use a combo of Quick Attack and Iron Tail on Cubone, defeating it swiftly.

Shocked by how effortlessly she had lost the first round, and nothing how it almost felt like Ash and Pikachu had pulled off a similar tactic before, Giselle regains her composure and brushes the loss off as Ash simply catching her off guard before calling out a Graveler as her second Pokémon.

To Giselle's surprise Ash doesn't switch out Pikachu despite the type advantage, and to her frustration Ash and Pikachu quickly gain the upper hand again in the second round, first by canceling out Graveler's Rollout with another combo of Quick Attack and Iron Tail and then avoiding a Rock Throw with another Quick Attack.

Giselle manages to land a powerful Magnitude attack on Pikachu however, leading her to believe victory was within sight. But right before her Graveler could finish Pikachu off with a Rock Smash, Ash called out for the electric mouse to use Thundershock while jumping over Graveler.

Initially baffled over why Ash would use an attack that had no effect on Ground-type Pokémon, the trainer's reasoning soon became clear as Giselle realized her Graveler had been temporarily blinded by the sudden flash of lightning, leaving it vulnerable to a barrage of Quick Attacks from Pikachu.

The repeated physical contact causes Pikachu's Static ability to take effect and render Graveler paralyzed, and despite Giselle's best efforts to fight on despite her Pokémon's condition Graveler ultimately freezes up at a crucial moment, leading Pikachu to land a decisive Iron Tail attack on Graveler, much to the disappointment of the referee and Giselle's fellow students.

Giselle falls to her knees, almost devastated from the loss and unable to comprehend how she could have lost so utterly against a random trainer as the best student at Pokémon Tech, feeling especially embarrassed to have lost in front of her teacher.

Ash and Misty meanwhile are offered Scholarship's to Pokémon Tech as a reward for their victories, but Misty immediately turns it down, instead requesting an all-you-can-eat-buffet at the School Cafeteria.

The students agree to the request... and later they and the staff all end up regretting it, as Ash, Misty and their Pokémon eat an abnormal amount of their rations.

While in the cafeteria, Giselle catches sight of Ash and Joe talking to one another on the other side of the room, wondering what they might be talking about as she begins her own conversation with Misty, who she leaves flustered after assuming that Ash was her boyfriend.

After taking note of how unconventional Ash's fighting style was, Giselle notices Ash and Joe looking in her direction, with Ash saying something to Joe she couldn't hear, but gave Giselle the impression they were talking about her.

Misty once again calls out Giselle for treating Joe poorly, but Giselle continues to insist she needed to be firm with Joe to help improve his performance as a student.

Misty asks if Giselle ever considered that maybe her methods weren't right for Joe and if he might respond better to alternative training methods, which actually gives Giselle pause, as she never considered what worked best for her might not be best for Joe.

The next day in class, the students at Pokémon Tech were left feeling forlorn, both from the humiliating series of losses they'd suffered the previous day and from Joe's conspicuous absence from class that day.

Their moods are not improved when Noland arrives and announces to the class that he plans to resign as their teacher effective immediately, leaving their final exams to be carried out by a replacement.

Giselle frets over the announcement, worrying that the resignation has to do with her and the other students poor performance against Ash and Misty the previous day, but Noland quickly assures her that isn't the case.

Noland explains to the students that he was offered a new job by the owner of the Kanto Battle Frontier, which he accepted in an effort to expand his horizons as a trainer as Ash and Misty's performance had given him the impression he still had much to learn from the new generation of trainers.

As a last bit of advice to his students before leaving, Noland tells the class to not rigidly conform to only the training methods they had been taught by him and those at the Pokémon school, and to go beyond what they were taught and try new things to improve as trainers.

The students are all left with much to discuss amongst themselves as Noland departs, while Giselle just silently stares at Joe's empty chair, getting an idea of why he was absent from class.

With class cancelled, Giselle goes to Joe's room in the male dorms, noticing after he invites her in, that Joe was packing his bags and getting ready to leave.

Joe explains to Giselle that he doesn't feel like he fits in at Pokémon Tech, and conveys Ash's philosophy that all Pokémon are individuals and trainers shouldn't need to limit themselves to the supposed limitations of their species and instead work on improving each Pokémon's strong points.

Furthermore, Joe calls out Giselle for her and the other students treatment of him, revealing he never felt comfortable with the way Giselle made him conform to her methods or the way she and the other students routinely punished him for not living up to their expectations.

Giselle weakly tries to defend herself one last time insisting she only wanted to help Joe, but Joe insists it didn't work out the way she wanted.

Joe reveals he has decided to return home and start from scratch as a Pokémon trainer, and find his own path the same way Ash did.

Joe then hands Giselle a picture he had of her, apologizing for taking it without her permission. Giselle however insists that he keep it, and asks herself for a picture of Joe to remember him by, noting that she keeps pictures of all of her friends.

Joe expresses surprise and suspicion at that claim, but Giselle insists that she did always like Joe for how kind and friendly he was, and sincerely apologizes for doing a poor job of showing it. With that, Joe gladly accepts her apology and friendship before leaving Pokémon Tech.

Feeling sad to see Joe leave and regretting the cruel way she had ended up treating him, Giselle resolves to learn from her mistakes as both a person and a trainer.

Following Joe's example, Giselle decides to also follow her own path as a trainer going forward. And the story ends with Giselle declaring to herself that the next time she faces Ash Ketchum in battle, she would not lose to him.

## Continuity

* First appearances of Giselle and Joe.
* This Interlude sidestory takes place during **"Cerulean Arc Part 1: Despair,"** showing how Ash and Misty defeated the Pokémon Tech students. The introductory scene takes place two months prior.
* Joe mentions reading a magazine article a Unova Gym Leader creating a weather move for Flying-types, which happened in the *Skyla Gaiden*.