It had taken me the rest of yesterday's daylight to reach the biggest lake in the region, where I had camped the night. It was a popular spot for families who wanted to enjoy the lake, swim, barbeque, and wander since it was safe enough that families were comfortable bringing their children. At the same time, it was also popular with trainers because it housed most of the regional water pokemon, and of course, the water also lured land pokemon for a drink and some playing in the water. The bugs and fish inside naturally were also a ready food source for all pokemon.
There were also a lot of already prepared spots for camping, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle to set up there, you just had to leave the place as you found it once you were done, which was fair enough.
Setting up my tent had been relatively quick since it was the same technology that shrunk my bike when I wasn't using it. I had seen videos about tents before that technology had become widely available and I was super glad to have dodged that business. Stowing it away after our breakfast had been similarly fast, so now, I was once again on the road, continuing my journey to the Xanadu Nursery, and we arrived at around nine in the morning.
The Xanadu Nursery consists of several main parts, but the most eye-catching part was no doubt the huge glass dome that stretched dozens of meters into the sky, and I knew covered a radius of 500 meters. It was basically a huge greenhouse, offering a wide selection of vegetation, plants, and trees that were not necessarily native to Kanto, and with that, it housed a lot of pokemon.
Since it was a Nursery, one couldn’t just waltz in and capture pokemon, though. The primary function of the Xanadu Nursery still remained to be the nursery part in its name, and it was the home of a lot of young pokemon who could not handle life on the outside alone. Of course, plenty of pokemon who had grown up here, decided to stay here, which is why there is also a surprising amount of mature and evolved pokemon, who act as protectors alongside the few Rangers who are stationed here and who patrol the area.
Once I reached the parameter, I was greeted by a bored-looking guard who was sitting in a chair, with a Growlithe dozing next to him on the ground. After presenting my credentials with the Pokedex, he winked me through, instructing me to actually go to the glass dome. Upon arriving at the entrance I was directed to, I was surprised to actually see a lady with long, straight purple hair going down to her hips, who was reading the tablet she was holding intently. There was no mistaking it, this was actually Florinda Showers, the owner of the Xanadu Nursery. Famous for her numerous pokemon of the Oddish line, and her dedication to and protection of pokemon. It was especially impressive if you knew that she was in her 30s and had become a very respected figure in the pokemon world in a relatively short time. The Xanadu Nursery had been founded when I was five or so, just a bit over ten years ago.
Hearing my footsteps, she looked up and her intense expression changed to a warm smile. She folded her tablet and stepped towards me, extending her empty right hand. “Hi, you must be Green, it’s so nice to meet you.”
I shook her hand firmly, responding with a smile of my own. “Miss Showers, thank you so much for your time.”
“Oh, don’t be so formal. We’re not big on that around these parts, isn’t that right, Gus?” she said that part louder, while looking over her shoulder, up a tree. I looked up, only to see a man with graying hair, sitting on the branch of the tree, and he was doing something with what seemed to be an electronic device attached to the tree itself.
“Very disrespectful, one could say,” he growled, although given Miss Showers' laugh, it was probably not meant too seriously.
“Well, come with me.” She opened the door we were standing in front of and motioned for me to go in first, so I did. Once we were inside, she closed the door behind her. “So, currently, there is a family of seven Eevees in the Nursery. The mother and father are off-limits, of course, but you will meet all five of the children and if one decides to go with you, you’re free to take them with you.”
“The parents are also Eevees?” I asked, actually surprised. I would have expected them to be evolved.
She nodded, “Eevees are one of the pokemon species that benefit from the bond with humans the most, as they evolve very rarely on their own. Most of their evolutions require exposure to elemental stones, and while it is of course possible for an Eevee to stumble upon them in the wild, it's harder to do so nowadays, as humans are generally collecting those as much as they can. Not to mention water stones and fire stones are generally found in locations where Eevee loathe to go before they evolve, so thunder stones which are created by big thunderstorms if the conditions are right, are the most common of those, but even they are relatively rare.” She shook her head, “There's still a lot to learn about pokemon in general and about Eevee in particular. This is why part of this whole system is that you will have to periodically write us reports about your Eevee and tell us everything, no matter how insignificant it may be. We need as much data and as many different experiences as possible.”
I had known that this would be part of the bargain, so it was easy to agree. “I will, but I cannot say I'll bring any new insights.”
She shrugged, “even confirmation of what we already know is huge. I’m not a researcher by profession, but I’m rather involved in the process and will of course make sure the academic community will have access to your reports. Don’t worry too much about grammar or structure, by the way, but it should of course still be readable."
"Is there still so much left to learn about Eevee? I was given the impression that it was one of the better-understood species out there."
She wiggled her hand. "We know a lot about Eevee, that's true, but we also know that we don't know everything. For one, everyone who is seriously researching Eevee agrees that we have not yet found all its eevolutions. It does seem unlikely that Eevee can only evolve in roughly half the types out there. It's possible, mind you, but general consensus is that there are still discoveries to be made. And who knows, maybe it's you who stumbles upon the dragon or poison type evolution? And in which case it's critical to know what you did and what your Eevee has experienced, so the knowledge is not lost."
She met my eyes and had a slight smile on her face.
“It's not all note-taking and ideally, it won't take up too much of your time. It'll be a good habit anyway since it will improve your general training results if you know exactly how Eevee and any pokemon for that matter are developing. And in a few years, after you have battled with your Eevee for a while, and you have been a good caretaker and trainer, you may be approached to take in a second Eevee if you have not done so by yourself already.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Will I come back here then?”
She grinned, “It will be one of a different gender from a different place, so your Eevee can reproduce. There are still too few Eevee out there, and we want responsible trainers to help bring the population levels back up.” Miss Showers scowled, “This is a slow process, Green. Eevee have been hunted to almost extinction levels a few years ago, and while this method will take decades to restore the Eevee population where it can subsist on its own without requiring our protection, it's the method that still allows the Eevee as much freedom as possible.”
I suppose by doing it this way, the trainer benefited as well, which made their participation more likely.
Thinking about it, it was a slow method but still one that would work.
“Once the trainer has a few Eevees, most trainers will probably sell or gift them to friends, which will, over a long enough time frame, sustainably increase their numbers while still protecting them," I said.
Miss Showers nodded. “It was tried with having trainers bring their Eevees, or whatever they evolved into, to places where preservers were keeping their Eevees but not many trainers did so. We’ll see how successful this initiative is, and it's just one of many, but thousands of people, in four regions, are collaborating to ensure that the Eevee line is protected and able to flourish again.”
She then stopped, to whirl around, and gave me a sharp smile. “That is, of course, only really applicable to you, once you pass the last test.” My heart started pumping as she said that and I felt my blood flow faster, giving me goosebumps as I started to grin. “Essays and research are all fine, but you want to become a pokemon trainer, and there is really only one way to determine if one is a good pokemon trainer. You may have only started your journey yesterday, but I’m sure you already know what that is.”
I plucked the pokeball my Squirtle was in from my belt and enlarged it. “You know, there was something about the whole process that had been rubbing me the wrong way and I’m so glad this is happening.”
Where we had stopped, it was a small grass clearing, surrounded by a few trees and bushes, where a few Oddish and Gloom were watching us.
Miss Showers threw a pokeball and the white energy leaving the ball, coalesced into the form of a Meowth. Cream-colored fur, four long whiskers, and a tail with a brown tip, it looked like a rather healthy specimen.
It was odd, pun not intended, since I expected an Oddish or Gloom or even a Vileplume or Bellossom from her, but I guess it wouldn’t really prove anything if she rolled a beginner with her best pokemon.
I burrowed in the pockets of my shorts until I found a packet of gum. I offered Miss Showers one, which she declined and I put one in my mouth. Immediately, the sweetness of the gum filled my mouth and I began chewing. I then released Squirtle, and he was immediately sizing the enemy up.
When I fed him this morning, I had been happy to see that he seemed to have recovered from yesterday’s training session. Just one session was too soon to improve his physical abilities, but I hoped he would be able to implement the strategic elements into this fight.
Meowth was a close-combat fighter, and usually not a very strong one. Squirtle could attack at range and even if Meowth came close, using its superior speed, Squirtle could use his shell to block the worst of the attacks. On paper, it seemed I had the advantage. If Miss Showers had used an Oddish, that would not be the case.
“Be ready to keep the Meowth at range, buddy,” I told him and he nodded.
“Okay, this is a one vs one match between Green from Pallet Town and Florinda from the Xanadu Nursery,” Miss Showers said, “show me what you got, Green!” and with that, she pointed at Squirtle and yelled “Meowth, use Fake Out!”
At the same time, I also gave orders to my Squirtle. “Water Gun, don’t let it come close!”
The water torrent left Squirtle’s mouth, which the Meowth avoided by jumping to the side. It did so again with the next Water Gun but the third blast actually hit it and the pressure of the water hitting it right in the head pushed it a few centimeters backward before it managed to get away. Three full-powered blasts in succession were quite taxing, however, and Squirtle was breathing harder already while Meowth looked a bit dizzy. It shook its head, collecting itself, and dashed forwards on all fours, before leaping towards Squirtle, its paws glowing ominously with white light.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Fake Out didn’t hit that hard but it was dangerous because it could make the pokemon on the receiving end flinch and leave it open to whatever next attack was coming afterward. It went without saying, that that was rarely good.
Squirtle tried to fire off another shot, but unfortunately missed the jumping Meowth as it moved its head right in time, and it landed right in front of Squirtle and clapped its glowing paws together right in front of Squirtle’s face as it just had stopped its water attack. A shockwave of air hit Squirtle and I felt him flinch, taking a step back.
“Withdraw!” I ordered him, while Meowth was making its claws glow to what I assumed would be a Scratch attack. Flinch made a pokemon unable to bend their limbs or do most things, however, retreating back to his shell was something that was still possible since it was the most instinctive action a Squirtle could do. That had been my hope, anyway, but it seemed that the Flinch was stronger than expected and it was the first time Squirtle had been hit by it. As such, he was unable to do anything as the Meowth landed a few hits with its claws raking over his face and stomach.
He squeaked in pain, as red lines appeared on his face as the skin was torn. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be too deep and the shock of the pain had disrupted the flinch. “Water Gun again!” I yelled because the Meowth was still close and winding down from its Scratch attack. Even its considerable reflexes were not able to dodge the point-blank Water Gun and the torrent of water pushed the Meowth a few meters back. When the water stopped Meowth was dripping wet and it was slightly wonky on its feed.
Oddly enough, I could hear the blood rushing through my body and I was tensing up, but not in a bad way. The chewing was also helping to stay grounded.
This was fun!
“Use Tail Whip,” I ordered Squirtle and he obeyed, waging his tail. It was one of the more esoteric abilities, despite most pokemon learning them very early and scientists were not one hundred percent sure why it did what it did, but somehow, this attack was able to lower the defensive capabilities of enemy pokemon temporarily. Whether it was because it was psychological or some sort of weird energy thing, no one knew, but it was a recorded fact.
I could see the Meowth wince as it was affected by the move, and now it seemed anxious. I looked at Miss Showers and she was not quite worried but seemed to be thinking about her next move. It was clear by now that I had an advantage. After being hit twice and having its defenses lowered, one more hit would put Meowth out of the match for good. Well, or so I hoped. While both pokemon were tired, Meowth was the one who would need to move more in order to close the distance between them.
That said, I also didn’t believe that spamming even more Water Guns would be productive at this point. Sure, one more hit would be great, but I didn’t have the feeling that the Meowth would be unable to dodge at this point, and it would be dangerous to have Squirtle waste his stamina. I also shouldn’t wait too long, because every second they weren’t fighting, Miss Showers’ Meowth benefited from the rest more.
While I didn’t like it, I still didn’t want Squirtle to come into scratching range again.
“Shoot several small Water Guns, not more than one second per blast.”
Squirtle obeyed and started firing what were essentially water bullets from its mouth. By now, they weren’t particularly fast or strong, but it was enough to keep the Meowth on its tows and most importantly, kept it from further recovering from the damage. It was still able to dodge them and with each dodged bullet, Meowth was able to come a bit closer.
“Be patient, Meowth, that Squirtle is going to run out of energy soon. Be ready to dash.”
It is unfortunate that we were still so early in our training because I did want Squirtle to be able to fake being out of energy in order to tempt the enemy into attacking early, thinking Squirtle would be weak at this point only to be hit with full force at close range. We weren’t there yet, so the weaker attacks were just weaker.
There was something I could do about this though.
“Soak the grass between yourself and the Meowth.” Squirtle aimed his water on the ground and quickly covered the whole ground.
Miss Showers raised an eyebrow. “Meowth won’t slip on slightly wet grass.”
“In which case, it shouldn’t be a problem for you, right?” I said in response, meeting her gaze to which she just smiled wryly, shaking her head. I wonder if she could tell how fast my heart was pounding in my chest right now. I blew a small bubble with my gum and immediately popped it to continue chewing.
“You’re confident, I’ll give you that. We’ll see if it’s warranted.”
She was right though; the wet grass wouldn’t be enough to do anything to the Meowth at this point. Meowth was too good on its feet, especially with its claws, to simply slip and fall. Nor did Squirtle know any ice moves yet to take advantage of it in a different way.
However, the wet grass was not for Meowth. Who had now started to dash towards Squirtle, and I could see in the tense way it was holding itself, that it was ready to jump to avoid a Water Gun. With more training, I also would want Squirtle to shoot a short Water Gun to make the enemy commit to a jump and then fire off another blast immediately after to hit the enemy in the air. That would take a lot of practice and wasn’t something I could communicate to Squirtle right now.
That was fine, though, because the next part of my plan would not depend too much on Water Gun. I felt a wide grin forming on my lips. “Blitz forward, Squirtle and be ready to use Withdraw on my command.” So far, Squirtle had been standing on two legs, but now he went down on all fours and started running towards Meowth. That took both of them by surprise and before Miss Showers could react, I yelled “Now!”
After gaining speed with his dash and then retreating back into his shell, he was now gliding towards Meowth on the wet grass at a speed neither Meowth nor its trainer were expecting, and Meowth did not dodge in time, as the shell slammed into him just as he was trying to jump to the side. The Meowth howled in pain and flew for a bit before landing on the ground with a soft thud, not moving.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Miss Showers said, letting out a low whistle. “I didn't see that coming.” With that, she returned the Meowth to its pokeball. “You did great, little guy, have some rest.”
She walked toward me, with a bright smile on her face. “Well, I’m more than convinced that you will take good care of her. I’ll be honest, at the beginning I wasn’t sure if it was just good tactics to use Water Gun over and over again or just a lack of creativity but I’m impressed. That was one hell of a move for such a new trainer.”
“Thank you,” I told her, quite happy at hearing her compliments. I knelt down and patted Squirtle on the head. “That was amazing, buddy. Our first win. You were so good but there is still a lot of training we have to do. This fight has shown us where we needed to improve as fast as possible.”
He nodded, letting out a happy squeak. I gave him a bit of pokefood which he immediately gobbled down and I returned him back to his ball. Our first victory and it felt amazing. My heart was still pounding, and this couldn’t compare to the training matches I had with the pokemon the professor had lent to us.
This was my pokemon against someone else. We needed to get better, in order to have more options and with that, a lot more fun in battles.
“You're good with your Squirtle. Really makes me look forward to what you will accomplish with an Eevee.” She ran a hand through her hair. “Well, we’ve put this off enough. Oh, wait, this first.” She pulled out a poke-com, and pressed a few buttons before pointing it at me. My own device started beeping and when I checked it, I saw that she had transferred 500 pokedollars to my account. “While it was a test, it was still an official battle between trainers. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have made you pay, since you're still a newbie, but this early on, every pokedollar helps.”
“Thank you,” I said, and I was grateful. It could have pricked my pride but honestly, I was just happy for the money. My parents weren’t particularly wealthy, and while I had tried to save up as much as possible, I would still need to do odd jobs on my travels or just never lose.
And that was much easier said than done, so the odd jobs here and there seemed a lot more realistic.
We then walked a bit deeper into what was basically the sanctuary until we finally arrived next to a small, artificial pond, and right there in the shadow of the tree beside it, was the small family of Eevees.
Two parents, and their small litter of kids. I could tell that two of the little ones were girls, based on the flower-shaped, cream-colored pattern on its tail, the same color as its little mane. The rest of their fur was brown, albeit their shades were a bit different from each other. Walking on all fours, and jumping around their parents, they certainly seemed like a rambunctious and energetic crowd.
“There they are,” Miss Showers said, “I already talked things over with them, so all you have to do is slowly walk up there, kneel down and extend your hand, with your palm up.”
I listened, feeling the cool grass touching my knees, and I was now kneeling a bit more than a meter away from the family, with my hand out. The parents were watching me, judging me.
“Hi guys,” I said, “it’s great to meet you and I’m hoping one of you will want to come with me.”
Of the five kids, two of them hid behind their parents, while three tentatively approached me and started to sniff my hand. After a few seconds, one turned around, returning to his family.
This left two, one male and one female, judging by their tails, with them being almost the exact shade of brown, with the girl being a bit darker than the boy.
“We will travel a lot, but I’m going to be a trainer who will have a lot of battles. My goal is to be the best and my pokemon should have a similar ambition. I’m going to warn you guys now, that there will be a lot of hard training in the future. I will run you ragged and I will give it my all right beside you. There will also be difficult battles against monsters ahead of us until we snatch the crown of champions from their beaten bodies. So, decide if you want to excel alongside me, or if you’d rather remain in this cozy and safe life. It will be exciting, but also a bit like hell from the training. So think hard if you want that.”
It wasn’t the most welcoming pitch, but I didn’t want to mislead anyone. Besides, I wanted a motivated partner who was all in, not someone who I had tricked and who went along half-heartedly.
I could tell both were thinking about it until the boy Eevee shook his head and walked off. The girl Eevee, though, I could see a sharp, fanged grin on her face, one I soon matched.
“Welcome aboard, then. I hope you're ready. The training from hell will begin the second we are leaving the Nursery.”
She yipped and jumped on my shoulder, licking my face. I laughed and ran my hand through her fur, scratching her tenderly. Her fur was so soft and warm.
“Aww,” I heard Miss Showers say and also heard a click, and when I turned around, I saw that she had taken a picture. “I always love scenes like this. Here, let me send it to you.”
Well, that was unexpected. But now I had an Eevee.