When Ran eventually stumbled back into town half a week later, covered in dirt and debris and with a slight limp, his small prideful smile seemed awfully out of place. To his father however, the two new pokéballs on his son’s belt were all the explanation he needed. From Spencer, who Ran encountered on his way home, they drew a dismissive scoff.

Ran didn’t let that response dampen his mood however, focusing instead on dropping off his two new acquisitions and Ekans at the Pokécenter, cleaning himself up, getting a warm meal in his stomach and briefing his father on his eventful excursion into Ilex Forest. Though by no means an easy or pleasant trip, he'd managed to capture both his intended targets and that was all he could really have asked for.

The anticipation of working with his new team members for the first time left Ran thrumming with energy for the remainder of the afternoon. Though a nap would have been great after the tiring few days he’d had, he simply couldn’t seem to fall asleep, instead anxiously looking at the clock every few minutes as he waited for evening to come, when he’d be able to go and retrieve his pokémon from the Pokécenter and finally get to training.

His father was kind enough to distract him by putting him to work around the house, as Ran worked through the dishes in short order before putting together dinner for them both. Eventually however, the clock finally struck seven, at which point he stormed out the door in a flash. Collecting his pokémon from Nurse Joy was short work, even if it was painful to use his ID to use up one of his limited free Pokécenter visits.

Still, as he finally made his way back to his unofficial training ground, any worries about future Pokécenter visits disappeared from his mind as he devoted his full attention to his planned training session. To start, he brought out Ekans, his starter having been the one to beat both Spinarak and Zubat down to the point where Ran had felt absolutely confident about using his limited pokéballs to capture them.

The purple poison-type appeared on the field easily, letting out a pleased hiss as he recognized the by now very familiar surroundings. His tongue flickered out to taste the air as he turned his eager yellow gaze towards Ran.

“We’ll be getting started on training our new teammates today, Ekans,” Ran announced proudly, “I’d like you to my right, as a reminder that they lost to us fair and square. I’ll do the talking. Try to be a bit welcoming, so no intimidating them right out of the gate, alright?”

Ekans’ head drooped slightly, as he let out a low, sulking hiss, before accepting his trainer’s words and gliding over to settle in place by Ran’s right side. Briefly, Ran offered a gentle scratch of Ekans’ scales, right where the skull transitioned to the vertebrae. Ekans’ raised his head slightly to meet his trainers trailing fingers, a pleased hiss plenty of confirmation for Ran to know that his starter wasn’t actually upset with him for having to be nice to his earlier opponents.

“Alright, we’ll do this in order. Spinarak first.” Ran announced, hand falling to the Level Ball on his belt before he let his second pokémon appear on the field in front of him.

The Spinarak he’d caught was a largely unremarkable specimen of its kind at first glance. It had the typical green body and yellow legs, with black accents present on both. Her white horn was perhaps a bit on the smaller side, but Ran thought that was more than compensated for by the slight purple sheen to her otherwise red mandibles, which was surely a sign of her potent natural poison.

She’d been a tricky capture, as Ran had walked right past the small hole at the foot of the tree she’d been hiding under. Fortunately, Ekans had been more alert, his sharp senses noticing her presence where Ran hadn’t. Once Spinarak realized her hiding place had been found however, she’d fired off a massive String Shot, which had caught Ekans head on. It’d slowed Ran’s starter down massively and would have allowed her to escape, as the green arachnid pokémon charged off deeper into the forest ahead of both trainer and starter.

Ordinarily, Ran might’ve simply let her flee to seek out another Spinarak, but the briefest glimpse of that purple sheen on her mandibles had been enough to draw Ran’s interest. Thus, he’d raced right after her, briefly recalling Ekans to free him from the String Shot before releasing him once more. Against a faster target, that might not have been enough to keep up.

Spinarak however, for all her short burst speed, hardly had the greatest top speed, allowing them to catch up to her and confront her in a battle. It had shortly become apparent that for all the utility of her String Shot, she lacked any real ability to stave off Ekans’ attacks. Her two main attacks were Absorb and Poison Sting, neither of which troubled Ekans all that much, allowing him to Wrap her up and Glare her into a state where she’d been utterly incapable of resisting Ran’s Level Ball.

Now, as she materialized in front of him, Ran immediately noticed just how uneasy she appeared, as she immediately looked around wildly to check just where she’d been brought out. Only after a few seconds of frantic searching revealed no threats, did her gaze briefly lock onto Ran’s before lowering to his chest rather than continue eye contact.

“Hi, Spinarak.” Ran greeted her gently, as he slowly lowered himself into a crouch, descending to the ground to make himself seem less threatening. Next to him, Ekans offered a single wag of his tail, the solitary rattle intended as a greeting, rather than a threat.

From the way Spinarak flinched, however, it was clear that Ekans’ intent hadn’t been received correctly.

“You don’t need to be afraid,” Ran clarified gently, keeping his voice low and soothing, “I captured you to make you a part of my team. We’re not going to fight you or attack you anymore, alright?”

For a few seconds, Spinarak didn’t outwardly react. Finally, however, her gaze slowly shifted upwards as she finally made eye contact with Ran again. For a brief moment, she seemed to be assessing him. Finally, her small figure sagged slightly, tension visibly leaving her. Still, she didn’t maintain eye contact, as her attention instead shifted slightly to Ran’s right, a foot or two above Ekans’ head.

Unwilling to proceed directly to the training he’d planned due to Spinarak’s avoidant behavior, Ran hesitantly dug around in his backpack as he sought after the treats he’d originally intended for the end of the day. After a brief search, his fingers grazed the distinctive texture of the small box he was looking for.

“Normally,” He said next, as he brought out the small variety-flavor box of pokétreats, “we’ll come here to train. When you do a good job, at the end of the training there might be a treat for you. Because we’ve only just met though, just this once, you’ll get your treat early. I’ll put out a few options, you can pick the one you like best. Just one though, these need to last us a while and the others will want some later as well.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Spinarak didn’t immediately give any outward sign of acknowledgement at Ran’s words. When he opened the box and its many distinctive smells came drifting out however, she visibly perked up, attention shifting to the trio of treats Ran fished out and extended towards her.

She shifted in place, clearly intrigued by Ran’s offer, but seemingly unwilling to approach him directly. Initially, Ran wanted to hold onto the treats and force Spinarak to approach him, but as he slowly watched her grow tenser once more, he started to feel guilty. He didn’t want his new team member to feel forced into anything she wasn’t comfortable with. That’d make for a poor start to their relationship.

So, he slowly laid the three treats out in front of him, spaced a foot or so apart from each other, before taking a small step back. Ekans and he were still close enough to the treats where Spinarak would effectively be entering their ‘attacking’ range, but she wouldn’t have to actually eat the golf ball sized candy directly out of his hand.

It was apparently enough of a concession for Spinarak, as she slowly scuttled forwards, briefly examining the three candies before settling on the leftmost one. Ran briefly made a note that she initially seemed to favor the purplish-blue treats, for future reference, before slowly picking up the other two treats once more.

Spinarak visibly tensed up for a moment as he came closer to pick up the other two treats again, but she didn’t actively recoil or retreat, which Ran considered enough of a victory for now. He ignored Ekans’ attempt to gain early access to his own treat for the day, as his starter butted up against his knee hopefully.

With his first new capture seemingly calmed down for now, Ran took a few paces away from the slowly snacking Spinarak, before fingering the Friend Ball on the other side of his belt.

“Ekans, just do the same as before. No, actually, get behind me for a second. Spinarak, just enjoy your snack and don’t be scared alright, I’m releasing Zubat, our other new team member.” Ran announced, pausing to glare at Ekans when his starter didn’t immediately move to obey. Further behind the pair of them, Spinarak froze for a second, before seemingly deciding to trust Ran as she continued to consume her treat. At least she seemed quite happy with her choice.

After a brief staredown, Ekans begrudgingly backed down, letting out a few annoyed low hisses in his unique version of grumbling as he did so. Ran understood his starter’s attitude to a degree, as Zubat had been significantly more aggressive than Spinarak when they’d encountered him.

Unlike Spinarak, who’d been entirely focused on escape when Ran and Ekans had stumbled upon her, Zubat had actively engaged them in a fight when they’d wandered too close to the tree it’d been resting in. Of course, though its Supersonic had proven annoying, its attempted Absorb had brought it close enough for Ekans to shoot forwards and Wrap it up. The small poison-flying-type had struggled fiercely, but eventually been choked into near-unconsciousness, at which point Ran had easily captured him.

Because of its combative response, Ran understood Ekans’ unwillingness to get into a position from which he couldn’t easily defend his trainer, but he didn’t want to risk a scenario where Ekans’ presence might provoke Zubat into aggression. With the Friend Ball involved, which he’d originally intended as a partial countermeasure to most Zubats’ natural skittishness, he was hopeful that his newest team member wouldn’t be immediately hostile.

After another brief glare at Ekans, to make sure that his starter would remain behind him, which said starter accepted with a final sulky hiss, Ran turned forwards and aimed the Friend Ball in front of him. With a click of the button, the ball opened and out came the typical red energy which soon materialized into the flying form of Zubat, his dark blue body covered in a significant number of thin scars, slightly darker blue scars.

Unlike Spinarak, Zubat didn’t appear skittish at all, mouth briefly opening in a clear moment of echolocation before his attention was firmly focused on Ran.

“Hello Zubat,” Ran greeted confidently, “I assume you remember your capture. Welcome to our training ground.”

Zubat paused for a moment, before slowly turning in place, using his echolocation to get a better idea of his surroundings. When he’d finished his rotation, otherwise remaining unexpressive, Ran continued to speak.

“This is where, for the next eight months or so, I’ll be training you, Spinarak and my starter, Ekans, to be ready for competitive battling. Then, we’ll be setting out to take on the Gym Challenge. My goal is to become a professional trainer who specializes in poison-types. For your part, you’ll get a lot stronger and you’ll eventually become a Crobat.” Ran explained confidently, optimistic that Zubat’s scarring and earlier behavior indicated a strong fighting spirit.

From the way his proportionally large ears pricked up, Ran seemed to have struck the nail on its head. After a moment, he felt confident enough to gesture Ekans out from behind him, allowing his starter to draw up next to him once more. When Ekans did just that, Zubat’s head shook for just a moment, presenting his fangs in a threat display for just a moment, before he seemed to ease up once more.

Pleased at the smooth introduction, Ran felt comfortable finally getting things underway.

“Alright team!” He called out enthusiastically, loud enough to draw Spinarak’s attention from where she’d just been cleaning up the last bit of her treat, “Ekans, you can get started on your own, race through the course a few times, then go to work on that big tree over there and try to squeeze through it.”

His starter offered a single affirming hiss, before gliding away to execute his orders, giving Ran an opportunity to focus on his two new acquisitions. Glancing from Spinarak to Zubat as he spoke, he opted not to get started on acquiring baseline stats for them just yet, postponing that somewhat monotonous task until the next day. Instead, he had an idea for an interesting cooperative exercise that might also help Zubat in particular see the benefits of Ran’s training sooner.

“Zubat, there’s a number of flags spread out around the obstacle course. I want you to fly through the course as fast as you can, all the way to the back and then back to the front again, in reverse order. Tomorrow, I’ll be timing you as you do so. For today, just to make sure it isn’t too easy, Spinarak will be using her String Shot to try and slow you down or trap you. Spinarak, you win if you manage to trap Zubat or if you manage to force him out of the course. Zubat, you win if you make it all the way through without too much delay, alright?” Ran explained eagerly, already perfectly able to picture the upcoming exercise.

Zubat let out an approving cry, clearly enthusiastic at the upcoming challenge. Spinarak for her part seemed significantly less confident, but Ran wasn’t discouraged. As Zubat flew over towards the starting point, he merely crouched down and slowly extended a hand towards Spinarak, making sure to keep his palm aimed upwards.

“Don’t worry too much, alright? I know you’ve got good aim, you already proved that. I won’t be upset if you have a hard time and I’m sure that Zubat won’t mind if you do a good job either. If anything, that’ll just drive him to try harder next time. Just do your best, that’s all I ask.” He encouraged her gently, slowly reaching out as he did so.

Though Spinarak tensed slightly as his hand approached, she didn’t withdraw or visibly threaten Ran in any way. Seeing this as permission to proceed, he gently reached out and ran his hand comfortingly down the top of her lower body once. When Spinarak relaxed once he withdrew his hand fully, Ran stood up once more.

“Alright, are you both ready?” He asked, as in the background Ekans slithered over to his designated tree, already finished running the course whilst Ran was still getting his other two team members ready to begin.

Receiving affirming sounds from both Zubat, loudly, and Spinarak, softly, he counted them down.

“3…2…1…Go!”