On the way to the EV room with Joey, a chill ran down my spine, and Joey felt the area get colder. "Show yourself! We can feel your presence," I said. Then, just as I suspected, it was Gary Gengar. Being raised into a Haunter by a rough family and sent to PPS (Pokémon Protection Service) made him the bully he is today.

"So, word around the school is that you have a Hidden Ability and a Life Orb," said Gary. "Yeah," I said. "Don't be jealous that you can't have one, I'm just lucky to not get only one ability!" I must have touched a nerve, because next thing I knew, I got punched and tackled by Gary.

"I'll give a proposition. You give me the Life Orb, and I'll leave you alone," said Gary. "Why should I? I have another way to get out of this! Joey, use Dark Pulse!"

Joey followed my order, shooting a wave of dark energy at Gary. After flying off of me, Gary snuck back into the shadows. "I'll get you sometime soon, Kilian, and your unshaven pet you call a friend won't be there to help you then!" "Thanks, Joey," I said. "You saved my bacon back there! Now let's get to class!"

"Hello, class! Today we will be IV testing," said Mr. Han, the Granbull that taught the class. "That means that we will test to see if your skills in battling are genetically better than your peers. We will go by type and in alphabetical order. First up, Allan Bibarel!"

Joey and I started talking while training. "I can't believe I'm going to have to fight Gary without you to protect me! How can I win?" "Well, you could learn Crunch. It's a physical Dark type move that can lower defense, and is Super Effective against Psychic and Ghost types. And Gengars are known for their terrible defenses." "Teach me. Right now," I told him.

He taught me the move, and while I was practicing the move, I was called in. The first test was HP, where I was asked to take multiple Dragon Rages. Then, Attack, where I was asked to hit a Substitute doll as hard as I could, then Defense, which was the opposite. After that was Special Attack, where I used Dragon Breath on a Substitute doll, followed immediately by Special Defense, where my Dragon Breath hit me back. This was odd, as it hit way harder than at Defense, despite my Dragon Breath being a weaker attack than my Headbutt. Finally, there was Speed, which was a simple sprint.

After the results were compiled, I was told that my IV's were near perfect. The only IV that lagged behind was Special Defense. I was actually quite happy with that. Even if it makes me slightly worse than if I had that last perfect IV, I'm glad that I'm not some aspiring example to Bagon everywhere.

That wasn't my goal in life. My goal was to just battle with my friends by my side the entire way. I told Joey about my test, and he was surprised at the results. "Kilian, it's rare to have  even 1 or 2 perfect IV's, let alone 5!" Unfortunately for Joey, after my test, the period was over and we wouldn't get to see his until next week.