“Why the hell isn’t this fat junkie going to jail!”
“We’ve already told you. The video evidence from several eyewitnesses show your son punching him first.”
“I am the president of Castelia University and good friends with Siebold, the Elite Four member! I demand that he be thrown in jail before-”
“Before what?” Officer Jenny interrupted with a glare. “Choose your next words carefully, Mr. Gilligan.”
“Why, the nerve someone like you has to talk to me that way. The Officer Jenny in Castelia City would never,” the guy’s dad, who apparently was the president of Castelia City University, was having a meltdown. The suited men did not intervene the entire time, probably knowing there wasn’t much they could do.
“He grabbed me by the jacket! Why isn’t he getting in trouble for that?” the guy, Dash, cried out.
“All of the witnesses say they didn’t see that and you don’t have proof. I can’t charge him for something that might have happened, I need evidence,” Officer Jenny replied. I was sitting back, chilling with a smirk on my face. While normally, as a social worker, it was my duty to help those that were struggling, I was never one to back down from giving an asshole some karma. After 30 minutes, I was let go while Officer Jenny dealt with the asshole/cunt duo. I felt bad for her.
I walked back to the restaurant, where the manager was waiting for me. After telling him about everything that transpired, he gave me a generous tip along with a hearty laugh and many thanks. Once the money was sent over, I went back to my room. Tomorrow was my last day here because the researchers had no more data to collect.
From what they told me, my body was not using Infinity Energy at all, a stark contrast to what Elite Trainers and specialists do for their feats. From what they could tell, my body was doing exactly what it was supposed to do: break and repair muscle tissue, using nutrients from the food I ate to supply my cells with everything they needed, conditioning itself for exercise and active movement. It was just doing it on a massively more efficient scale.
That was just with the physical exercise. While I didn’t have busted learning and memory capabilities, the researcher from Kanto told me that my neural connections seem to be built very quickly after learning something new or doing something I’d never done before. Another doctor told me my bones, organs, even my blood, seemed to be streamlined for optimal activity.
After a grand total of about three or four weeks, there were no new developments besides my continued increases in strength.Nurse Joy told me the free room and food was going to end at the end of tomorrow, so the morning after I’ll have to start paying. I wouldn’t mind that for now.
Thanks to Calem, Nurse Joy, and Officer Jenny, I was able to schedule an interview and exam for getting my Trainer’s license. I would then become a Senior Trainer and go explore the world in its entirety. Well, not the WHOLE world since most of it is too dangerous for people, but I’d get to explore some more regions. Alola would be nice for sightseeing, but Galar, Hoenn, and Unova are where I’d really want to travel.
I had the PokéLeague interview at 4pm, which was late. I showered up and put on some nicer clothes I had ordered just for this. I was wearing a dark purple dress shirt, foregoing a vest and instead picking a charcoal V-Neck sweater to go over the shirt. I also had a purple and smokey gray tie that made it come together nicely. I also wore dark gray chinos, a black belt, and oxblood dress shoes. Of course, I didn’t forget black socks to make sure my ankles couldn’t be seen.
After dressing, I went down to the lobby to wait for the interview. After a few minutes of waiting, a man with a navy blue suit walked in and headed to me once we made eye contact. He told me to follow him to one of the meeting rooms he booked. He walked with quick, smooth steps, an air of solemness and gravitas exuding from him. We sat down on opposite sides of the meeting table. He pulled out three files; from what I saw, the files regarded my Pokémon, my League Profile, and my unique situation.
“Since you’ve looked at the files, I’m sure you have an idea about how the interview will go,” the man began. “Champion Calem has expressed a lot of interest in your situation, so much so that he’s had almost everyone looking into it..”
This surprised me, but I expected to gain a lot of information about my relationship with the League.
“From what Champion Calem has told us, you yourself don’t seem to be a threat to the region. However, this can change depending on circumstances. So, I want to ask you several questions. Hypotheticals will be included. I will also be gauging you while we talk, checking for any changes in behavior or wording,” he said before pausing. “If you’re wondering why I’m telling you this, just know we have a Psychic-type assessing you as well. Any questions?”
There was a lot to unpack with what he said. The most obvious was that there was someone else involved in the interview and that a Psychic Pokémon would be involved while I talked. I thought it was also interesting that he mentioned that circumstances might change my threat level to the League. Whether this meant they’ve dealt with this in the past or were worried about me being dissatisfied with their treatment of me in the future was a guess at this point. I doubt they would tell me anything in particular in case I ever did go rogue.
“Did the interview start the moment I applied, or the moment you walked in?”
The man smiled. I guess they might be able to read my thoughts. “My name is Booker. As I already mentioned, I’ve been told about you and your situation so there is no need to hide anything regarding that.
“And yes, our Pokémon is reading your mind.”
‘I knew it.’
I smiled in response to him.
“You antagonized Mr. Gilligan in front of the Santalune Brewing Restaurant. Why is that?”
“I accepted a task to remove him from the restaurant, which was posted by the manager. After managing to get him out, I noticed he was still waiting out front. He was on the phone with someone while smiling and looking through the window. I thought he was going to try something else, so I decided to go out and confront him.
“He kept trying to antagonize me, so I decided to do the same. I was hoping it would escalate and that he would throw the first punch because, if so, I would not be at fault for defending myself and he would get punished by both Officer Jenny and me,” I answered.
“Why did you want the situation to escalate?”
“Well, as you know, I’m not from here. Where I am from, I studied social work and worked in a school teaching children, mostly adolescents, positive coping mechanisms for stressors in school and at home. I also dealt with a lot of aggressive and antagonistic students, oftentimes having to remove them from a classroom when they weren’t able to calm down or physically restraining them when they began to pose a danger to themselves or other students.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“I have learned throughout my years in this job that some children will antagonize until they get the reaction they want. When they don’t receive this, they escalate to physical aggression in order to get the reaction they want. Oftentimes, they just want attention from their friend or teacher. Some get a kick out of watching others get frustrated. A few just feel like they can do what they want, disregarding any consequence. I gauged Dash Gilligan to be similar to the kids in that third group, so I wanted him to escalate to physical violence to teach him a lesson.”
“I see. Why didn’t you use your Pokémon?”
“Because he didn’t use his. Most people can’t handle a legitimate Pokémon attack, no matter how resilient their bodies may be.”
“Let’s talk about the training you’ve been doing with your Pokémon.”
—
The interview lasted an hour. He asked a lot of questions about my decisions to do things the way I did. I answered truthfully ‘cause fuck getting called out by a Psychic Pokémon. He was really interested in my interaction with Dash, the hungry Pokémon, and my training. At the end, he said they would review the information tomorrow before walking out the door with another guy. Wait, when the fuck did he enter? Why didn’t I notice him before?
The new guy chuckled as he left. He was probably the one with the Psychic-type. They quickly left the center, leaving me to simmer in the implications of the entire conversation. I was most likely under surveillance, and I was actually considered a possible threat in the future.
They will probably let me join the Pokémon League trainers so they have more ways to watch over me. I also found out from the interview that there are plenty of unregistered trainers out there. The main difference is they didn't get paid, receive free services or discounts, and were not required to help during emergencies or when something abruptly came up. This meant that when I became a registered trainer, they could order me around when situations came up. Trainers were basically like “off-duty soldiers.”
Well, I needed resources to get stronger and I couldn’t really do anything against the League. Imagine fighting the Elite 4 right after catching your first two Pokémon. You’d get crushed. All I could really do was focus on myself and my team, getting stronger and building the right connections to eventually not worry about anyone coming after me.
I walked back to my room, though not before getting a quick snack from Nadia. Some cookies for me and my two Pokémon, and clay for the baby. Ferroseed was finally at the end of her baby phase, so she could actually start training.
For training, I had her jumping around the facility, doing laps just like Inkay. I wanted her to get accustomed to moving around like this because I thought it would be useful in dodging and slamming when using moves. Eventually, I'll have to start training her rolling movements. I also had her use Gravity on herself and Inkay. She was currently training on applying gravity on two separate spaces: herself and Inkay. This would massively improve her control. I was hoping she could do this to immobilize an opponent by just targeting a specific body part to interrupt an attack or disrupt dodging attempts.
Inkay, on the other hand, was definitely getting stronger. Along with the effects of Gravity, I also added weights available in the gym to his body while he did his entire morning training. Since he levitates and keeps himself stabilized by using his Psychic energy, it will also train his energy control. He had Peck and Payback mastered, needing next-to-nothing amounts of energy to use. It was now time to focus on the new moves he learned.
Inkay, over the past week, learned Pluck, Psybeam, and Swagger. Out of the three, I wanted him to focus on Pluck and Psybeam. The third, Swagger, was not going to be practiced yet. For the third practiced move, I thought it would be best to train up Hypnosis since it would prove more useful than Swagger in fights and tense situations. He would use it on Ferroseed, giving her the task of training some sort of resistance to the move.
While not dealing with Hypnosis, Ferroseed was going to focus on Bullet Seed and Iron Defense. Getting used to the energy of her main typings could only be beneficial. Same with Inkay. I would eventually have them focus on learning three different attacks from their main typings, mastering them completely before adding more to their arsenal. I wanted to create different strategies around their movesets, especially with moves that aligned with their natural energy inclinations.
As for me, I was still biking for a warm-up and then lifting weights. I’m glad that the
PokéCenter had a training facility with such high weight maxes. I was starting the near the max the barbells could hold, so I would have to eventually move on to training my endurance. I always hated that.
I slowly started to add in other exercises. Platform jumping, wall climbing, rope pulling/climbing, basically any exercise that was also a type of movement that I thought I might have to do while adventuring. I wanted to eventually find exercises I could do just about anywhere and still get maximum strength training while doing them.
We kept training here in the facility because I wanted to really get into a groove before leaving on a journey. I needed to make sure I had everything I needed and that Inkay and Ferroseed were consistently performing at peak levels before I left the town. I also needed battle practice, something I was going to start tomorrow. Once I get accustomed to battling in real life, I would be more comfortable leaving. Battling Trainers was different from battling wild Pokémon, and even that was different from the random scraps we’ve had while completing the berry picking missions.m
After our training session, we had breakfast in the cafeteria. It was currently 6:30am and the kitchen was busy with an influx of trainers this morning. I grabbed a few slices of pizza for myself, a large piece of baked ziti made with Bouffalant crumbles for Inkay, and several chunks of metals along with a clay tray for Ferroseed to absorb.
Ferroseed’s diet is going to get pretty expensive pretty fast.
After lunch, we walked out into the Santalune forest. We’ve been exploring a bit deeper in the forest lately, battling wild Pokémon and having lunch with some of the later battlers. Today, we were going to catch a few ‘mon for a breeding ranch associated with the PokéCenter. They raised the starters for each batch of trainers that began their journey from Santalune City. They wanted a few more Litleo, Fletchling, and Flabébé to help with the breeding efforts. Apparently, there’s been a steady increase in new trainers and they needed to increase the number of Pokémon available for next year. So, with about five male and eight female catches of each species, they should be good to go.
While looking for the Pokémon, I went over how I wanted to go about catching them. From what I read, Flabébé were very likely to let me catch them if I talked to them and told them the benefits of living on a ranch. Fletchling could go either way while Litleo would definitely need to be beat down via a challenge. As I was looking for them, I asked the Pokémon I found for battles, with some of them agreeing. After each battle, I gave them an Oran berry or two, depending on how hard we trashed them. It was making for some good Psybeam practice for Inkay, while Ferroseed got in a few Tackles.
Around 1:30pm, we stopped for lunch. So far, we had caught four male Fletchling after they lost a bet. They each wanted a battle so I gave them a one-sided attack. After that, I gave them Oran berries to heal up. They were very grateful, bringing some of the other Fletchling in the area to join when I told them the ranch I was going to take them to would focus on keeping them happy and full. With that, I had enough Fletchling to meet the requirement.
I hadn’t seen any Flabébé yet, though I wasn’t expecting to meet any today. They were located on the other side of the forest, from what I could find online. Instead, I focused my search for Litleo. For this, I decided to pay a visit to the small community of Pokémon I had planted the berries for. They were doing alright, just hungrily waiting for the berries to grow, there were a total of 16 berry bushes planted for the 20 or so Pokémon living together. I had come by a few times to water the plants and give them pointers on growing the bushes. I wasn’t a berry connoisseur at all, but the internet gave me a lot of knowledge that I was willing to share.
When I arrived, the entire group was in a celebratory mood. Apparently, the bushes had begun bearing fruit yesterday. After a day of waiting, the bushes were full of fragrant berries that were waiting to be eaten. The Litleo of the group and another Pokémon came out to greet me with smiles. The Pokémon, a cat with dull pink fur that came out in large tufts around the ears, a thin tail that enlarged at the tip with a lot of fur and three dots sticking out, and a face devoid of fur in a crescent moon shape, looked at me with curiosity.
“Hello Litleo, Skitty. I wanted to check up on all of you and ask you a question.”
“Li, Leo! Leo Lit,” Litleo happily cried out. I guess it was a good thing I gave them those berries. One of the Fletchling from my first encounter with the group flew by and landed on my shoulder, giving me a Rawst berry. I took it with a smile, taking a sizable bite out and immediately being reminded about the bitter taste the berry was known for. I almost spit it out, but there was a subtle hint of sweetness that I noticed before doing so. Instead of chewing, I let the piece of berry sit in my mouth a bit longer. The more my saliva broke down the berry, the more I could taste the flavor of the berry. It reminded me of strawberries, just way more bitter. I thanked Fletchling, taking another, smaller bite to enjoy the berry a bit more.
“Kit? Ski, Skitty,” Skitty mewed. Litleo looked at me, waiting for my question.
“Oh yes, sorry for getting distracted. Do you know where I can find other Litleo? I want to find some others and challenge them,” I told him, which got me a frown from the little lion cub. He growled out some words I didn’t understand, but I could guess from his expression he wasn’t happy with me looking for other Litleo.
“I won’t bring them anywhere near here. I just want to challenge them and try to catch some. There’s a ranch that wants to raise some Litleo for the safety of some kids and I thought I could help them out by making a deal with some wild Litleo and challenging them to a battle. If you don’t want to help, that’s more than fine. You have enough to deal with here,” I said to placate him a bit.
Litleo nodded, before growling again and walking to the other side of the tree. Skitty walked over to him and nudged her head onto his cheek, an open display of affection. Maybe there were some prides in the area that were starting to intrude on their territory.
I followed him, walking about a meter (three feet) behind at all times since he knew the area better. After about fifteen minutes of walking, he stops, pointing his nose further out before heading back.
‘I guess this is the end of his territory.’
With that, I walked forward. I hadn’t explored much of this part of the forest, but I knew that I could find Pansear, Pansage, and Panpour, as well as some Bug-types. If Litleo told me to go this way, then there was at least one Pyroar pride somewhere around. As I walked, I heard some scuffling movements. I paused, taking a look around. At this point, I was about a 15 minute walk away from the community of Pokémon I was just with.
I heard some more movements to my left. There were several tall bushes hiding my view, so I walked forward and peeked through them to see the red mane of a Pyroar about two meters out.