Wes

**Wes** (Japanese: **ウェズ** *Uezu*) is a Pokémon Trainer hailed from Lavender Town in the Kanto region. He is a student of the Pokémon Tech school.

## **New Era**

### **Indigo Challenge**

Wes first appeared whilst being quizzed by his classmates about various Pokémon. He misses a question and is rejected by the other boys, and Dwayne jumps in to defend him, but upon taking a closer look on their uniforms, Dwayne freezes in fear. The boys reveal that they are students of Pokémon Technical Institute, a boarding school which educates Pokémon Trainers, to which Dwayne remarks he knows about them, all the while stuttering. They leave, stating they don't want to fight. As Wes questions Dwayne on he knows about the school, Dwayne says he was a former student, but was the target of bullying and belittling by one of the students, and ultimately dropped out. Dwayne and Wes talk on how the school trains its students without sending them to collect Badges, and guarantees entry into the Pokémon League upon graduation. The school is expensive, and therefore populated with rich kids, and Dwayne remarks that he only got accepted because of his family's reputation.

Wes defends his so-called friends, who were trying to help him. He explains that he sometimes pretends to know less than he really does because the questions get so much harder. Dwayne is very upset at this brutal "tutoring" system, reminding of his awful time at the school, but because he's now older and more "experienced", demands to meet the student in charge, with plans to stop it. The head student of the beginner class is a girl; and upon looking at the picture, Dwayne's face becomes pale, and he stutters out the girl's name in fear: Lauren. Wes questions if Lauren was the same girl that bullied him, and Dwayne nods, and says that she made his life at the school horrible, and was genuinely surprised she didn't seek him out after leaving the school as he was "her favorite pet".

Wes leads Dwayne to Lauren's study area, all the while Dwayne remains uncomfortable. Wes says it's overall skill as a Trainer, not any one battle, that determines success at Pokémon Tech. He says that even though he is the weakest student in his class, he is still better than someone with two Badges, to which Dwayne takes offense and demands a battle against him, but Wes is doubtful of his ability to beat him. Dwayne calls his Ralts, though Wes calls on Nidorino, a Poison-type Pokémon, and has the type advantage over the Fairy-type Ralts. Nidorino attacks with Horn Attack, but Ralts uses Confusion, which stops Nidorino on his tracks, and Ralts sends him crashing onto the wall, knocking him out.

Lauren walks in and chastises Wes for forgetting that Ralts was also a Psychic-type Pokémon, which was super-effective against a Poison-type like Nidorino, and calls him an embarrassment to the school. Hearing Lauren's voice causes Dwayne to take a step back, with memories of his awful time at the school flooding in, but quickly realizes that Lauren wasn't as "scary" as he remembered, and wonders why he was so scared of her. Lauren continues to upbraid Wes, and threatens to withdraw the help of the other students. Seeing this, Dwayne overcomes his fear of her and stands up against her, calling her an awful person. Lauren then says that it was good to see him again, but Dwayne rebuffs her comments, sarcastically remarking that he couldn't say the same, and with a pure tone of disgust in his voice, states she hadn't changed at all. Lauren seems offended by his comments and angrily asks him what he meant by that, and Dwayne says she knows very well what he meant.

Wes then witnesses Dwayne and Lauren's subsequent battle, and apparent reconcilement, and joins Lauren and the other students in seeing Dwayne off as the latter departs towards Vermilion City.

Wes, Lauren, and their classmates were later seen watching the Indigo Plateau Conference through the television, cheering for Dwayne during his performance.

## **Character**

Wes is a quiet, yet somewhat arrogant, individual, believing that because of his studies at the prestigious Pokémon Tech school, his battling skills were superior than Dwayne's, who had been traveling across Kanto collecting Gym Badges and battled different kind of Trainers.

Nevertheless, Wes is not above admitting to his mistakes, realizing that Dwayne was indeed a better Trainer, and apologizing for any previous signs of arrogance. He's also quite unmotivated, preferring to purposely get wrong answers during any pop quiz test to avoid getting harder questions.

## **Pokémon**

### **On Hand**

Nidorino's only known move is Horn Attack.