“…Training can be hard or boring, training can also be easy or pleasant, don’t become attached to the idea that to grow is to suffer, train is a process to learn and to practice, with a little imagination it can mean anything and everything, here are some examples...”
The first thing that I did the next morning was go to the Pokemart and resign.
Poor Clarisse almost had a heart attack thinking I had snapped because of the word load. When I explained to her that I had gotten a professor pokemon to sponsor my trainer career she was shocked since she didn’t know about my plans to become a pokemon trainer, but then she was very supportive and even said that she was going to watch my match for the hive badge in the Azalea Gym.
I also used my trip there to buy some things that I would need soon immediately, like food for my new pokemon, some toys, and some puzzles for newborn psychic-type pokemon.
Then I went to the City Hall to get an official copy of all the necessary documents and then I had to go to the Pokemon League Center to give them these copies, do a background check, and then do a quick interview, not nearly as intense as Professor Oak’s. Everything went well and I was officially registered for the next Circuit and gained my Trainer Card that acted not just as a recording of my badge progress and battle victories and defeats but also as a debit card for poke dollars.
That also meant that I was able to lawfully receive the packages that Professor Oak sent me via Dragonite, I had to wait two hours as the orange dragon had to diverge from his route to pick up my Baltoy when I told Professor Oak about my new pokemon he told me that he would ask the dragon type to get it from Alph for me, where Jeremy’s father was, it even worked out as he wouldn’t need to pay for transport.
When the Dragonite landed at the League Center landing pad, I was just a little bit disappointed that it was not Professor Oak’s famous three-meter high Champion-level Dragonite, but of course, it was not going to be and I was just a hopeful idiot. It was still very cool being near the legendary dragon that was the official pokemon of Indigo. Cape was very impressed as he walked around the confused and amused dragon to inspect him.
The dragon was also wearing a deliveryman’s hat alongside a huge bag, together with the goofy grin that peaceful Dragonites always sported made him look very charming, but what he had to deliver took more of my attention, of course.
The professor had sent me the newest model of Pokedex, a Silph Co. bag as he had a partnership deal with them, a pokeball belt along with the two pokeballs that held Baltoy and Bulbasaur. He also transferred my monthly salary. As the professor is not a corporation the salary that he gave me was just enough to buy the basics like food and potions as it was expected of even a mildly successful pokemon trainer to win money in battle bets. If he had employed me as a PA I would make more with the grant from the League but also would have to work for it.
It was a shame but I had a good amount of money saved that I had guarded for my Trainer Card and Silph Co. bag, so it was not too bad either way, at least for now.
As we walked through the streets I looked at my watch, 2 p.m., Cape and I had just left a restaurant after a quick bite to rest after the hectic morning and were now going, for the first time, to a pokemon trainer park to get to know our new teammates.
After a short walk, we reached one of the four parks that the city had. It was a large piece of land in the north of the city near its border. It had a place for every type, a lake for water types, big rocks that resembled mountains for rock types, sand to simulate desert for ground types, and even a large charcoal floor for fire types.
We walked around for an empty spot. We passed a teenage girl who was talking to an Aggron near the rocky part of the park. A kid was observing two flying pokemon making maneuvers in the air as part of some type of exercise and a woman and a Primeape in a meditative pose, so presumably meditating, and then we found an open green field with no one around, perfect for a talk.
We stopped and I grabbed my new Bulbasaur’s pokeball from my belt and clicked on the middle button for a controlled release, most kids and some more flamboyant trainers, to use a kalosian word, pokemon trainers liked to throw the pokeball to release the pokemon but the pokeball also had another method that was more to my taste, just click the middle button and point to where you want the pokemon to be released.
The red light left the closed pokeball, gathered in the ground, and formed an average-sized Bulbasaur in under three seconds. Ah, the miracles of modern technology.
The little pokemon blinked its eyes and looked at me then to Cape and around the grassy field. “Bulba.”
I bent down and Bulbasaur turned to me again, silently eyeing me. I patted him on the head, which he leaned and rubbed into. “Hello, Bulbasaur, I'm your trainer. My name is Scott Wood, and this Heracross here is named Cape.”
“Bul… Saur.” He chipped happily and then ambled more closely towards us.
Pokemon that came from professors, before being sent to or collected by their future trainers, received an explanation from the professor about what was going on and where they were going. He already knew that he was going to be a part of a battling team and so he was very calm about this whole situation.
I gently grabbed him by the sides, raised him, and then cradled him in my arms. “You are going to be part of the team from now on, are you ok with that?”
“Bulba.” His large mouth opened wide and curved up in a smile, I squeezed the cute pokemon very softly and put him on the ground again.
“Nice, I will be counting on you Bulbasaur.” He gave two little jumps on the same spot and nodded. “Now, besides you, we also got another new teammate for us to greet.”
I took the third pokeball and clicked on it, this time the red energy condensed into a floating pokemon made entirely of earth, a Baltoy.
I eyed the floating pokemon, who seemed to be completely unresponsive. Well, looks like a Baltoy alright.
Baltoy are part of a group that pokemon researchers and scientists call true inorganic pokemon, pokemon who don’t have anything organic in their bodies and therefore are, of course, made entirely of non-organic material, each one of them has their own specificities and “biology”, a Bronzor, for example, had as much in common with a Baltoy as he has with Pidgeot, even if both are part of the true inorganic group.
Specifically in the case of Baltoy and Claydol, what we do know about them is that they are a mixture of a body made of soil that is held together by ground-type energy, and an inorganic mind, and in the future minds, composed of psychic-type energy. That is why they are found almost always in ruins of ancient civilizations, because almost always these places are buried under the earth, accumulating the ground-type energy necessary to form the body and because of the combination of the echoes of the people who had lived in those ruins, together with the inspiration from the architecture, paintings, tools and other things created by human intellect, it collected enough psychic energy to construct their minds.
From that combination rises a Baltoy.
However, sadly, a Baltoy trapped inside those ruins never develops what scientists and philosophers call consciousness because the minds created by psychic type energy still need mental training to grow and gain sentience, training that they don’t have trapped inside the ruins, there are stimulus there, the architecture and paintings, for example, but no one to instruct or teach them what the ruins are or mean, so they end up never developing awareness of self.
When archeologists find Baltoy, and more rarely Claydol, they are just floating around, looking and moving through the ruins as they search for meaning in them. Many described the scene as quite sad. A pokemon that should have sentience looking at ruins full of meaning, tradition, and knowledge, all the while cursed to never comprehend any of it for decades or even centuries.
Because of all of that when Baltoy reaches humans, be they trainers or civilians. it was recommended to treat them as children whom you have to teach for the first to three months, depending on if they are a new or old pokemon, to fully awaken their sentience.
I had to explain all of that to my other two pokemon who seemed to ask why the Baltoy didn’t talk to them and just stood there silently watching, after all of that was resolved, we sat together in the grass ground, except for the Baltoy, of course, who floated.
“Ok, now it is time for me to name you guys,” I said as I petted Bulbasaur’s head, who leaned into it again. “You know, when I was a kid at the same time I was learning about pokemon training and battling, I was also learning about geography, which is the study of places and environments. You know, many terms are used when describing the different lands that humanity and pokemon see and visit… When I thought about what I was going to name my team of pokemon when I finally had them, that idea always kept coming back. So there we go.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
They looked at me, Cape with his legs and arms crossed, Bulbasaur curled in the grass by my side with his eyes following mine, and the Baltoy that floated in a soft up-and-down motion as he looked blankly at me.
I gestured towards my starter and he puffed up his chest to show himself to his new companions. “Cape is what we humans call a large and narrow landform that extends into a body of water, I named Cape that because just like a cape extends and cuts into oceans, rivers, and lakes, his large and pronged horn extends and cuts into the sky,” Cape grumbled into a familiar joke that had taken me a few days and many hours of mimicking for me to understand. “Yes, yes, and into the bodies of your enemies too.”
He seemed satisfied with the addition and the following admiration of the Bulbasaur, who stood up and turned to me, animated.
“So with that, Bulbasaur, from now on, you will be called Jungle.” He cooed, curiosity mixing in his tone. “It is a tropical land, which means that it has lots of sun and sunlight, it is also covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, lots and lots of vines, bushes, and trees. It fits as you have vines, vegetation, spores, and… Jungles are known to be very dangerous to the overconfident and unprepared people who tread on them.”
A fierce grin slowly formed on Bulbasaur’s face. He jumped up, landed upright, and put himself into an attacking position as he imagined an opponent in his way. “Bulba… Saur!”
“Excellent,” I said as I laughed in amusement. I then turned to the Baltoy. “Now, for you I considered many names but after thinking a lot about it, I decided that your name should be Mesa, this name comes from a flat-topped mountain or hill, they are wide, flat, and elevated landforms with very steep sides all around them. I will not explain in what way you remind me of a mesa right now as you are not conscious to understand it but when you do become curious, ask me and I will tell you.”
The little Baltoy did not understand now but, as a psychic type, they can remember very well, after they gain sentience they usually go back through their memories to understand them, so talking to them as you would any other pokemon will make them feel good as they looked back on their lives, some of them had described it as discovering gifts but in the past.
“Ok people, let's start with some examinations. Cape, you can begin with stamina training, I will just give a fast examination on Jungle and Mesa and then they can train too, after I finish with Jungle you will help him train and I will train Mesa, okay?”
“Hera.” He saluted and then took a bit of a distance to start running around two trees. In this exercise he had to run, in a very controlled manner to not waste stamina, to one tree, go around it as closely as he could to increase maneuverability, and run to the other tree and repeat until he became too exhausted or, in this case, until I called him back.
I approached the curious Bulbasaur and began to examine him, and to my unsurprised self, there was nothing abnormal about him. Jungle was a very healthy and normal Bulbasaur, his head, two vines, teeth, four limbs, and his bub were all very colorful which meant that this Bulbasaur was very well treated and fed, his body was slightly muscular which meant that he already had some exercise so it was not needed to start with physical conditioning, at least for the main body. This examination was more a formality than anything else really as I was certain that Professor Oak and his team would never let a pokemon be less healthy than it could possibly be.
Then I grabbed a new journal from my bag and noted down my observations of Jungle’s exam, and then his size and weight as well as the length of his members and vines with a measuring tape that I also had in my bag and then finally called Cape.
The Heracross stopped running and flew to us, he had spent five minutes doing the exercise and was panting a little.
“Jungle, I will tell you what you are going to be doing and Cape here will maintain a full-time eye on you while you train, I will also be observing but while I also examine Mesa, ok?”
“Saur.”
“Ok, right now the best thing for a Bulbasaur to do is to strengthen their vines, they are going to be your main method of physically attacking your opponents for all of your life after all, so what you are going do is grab that thick branch on that tree and pull up with your vines”—I pointed at the specific branch on a tree just three meters away from us—“right now you vines are not very strong since they are not always being used unlike your four limbs that support your weight all the time, so we have to get them up to speed. You are going to do five series of five to start, Cape will pace you slowly since it's your first time so you don’t need to rush okay.”
“Bulbasaur.” He nodded and moved with Cape towards the tree, as he passed me I scratched his head and he made a cooing noise and slowed down to enjoy it, but when he saw that Cape was almost at the tree, the little tortoise began to adorably run after him.
I chuckled and turned to Mesa, who was observing both pokemon as they moved to the tree. When he saw that I was looking he turned to me and, following Jungle’s example, got closer to me so that I could examine him. “All right, let's begin.”
I began by feeling the hardness of his ground body, it was not too hard to make a sound when lightly hit by my finger, but also not too soft as to sink, so he must have at least twenty years of life. I searched for any scars from battles with wild pokemon, some ghosts and ground types might have been born or found ways to enter the ruins and ended up fighting the group of Baltoy, the people from the archaeologist team took care of any wounds or problems the pokemon might have had when they found them but if the wound was too old the pokemon might lose flexibility in some areas, he didn’t have scars so probably no fights for him and his friends, then I started to gently move his arms and head to see his flexibility, thankfully, everything seemed normal.
Then I opened a new journal for Mesa and noted down his tests and then his approximated weight, which I tested by holding him, and the length of his members and body, same as I had done with Jungle.
“And… finished, let's train.” Then I took from my bag a puzzle game that I bought at the Pokemart when I went there to resign. It was similar to a geometric sorting board for children but a little more complicated as it was geared towards psychic types infants, I picked one piece and showed him “Can you levitate this piece?”
Mesa just stood there and nothing happened so I guess that he can’t use psychic energy, not enough intellect to generate it yet probably.
“Ok, this training is simple, you just tell me where to put the pieces and I do, ok?” The little Baltoy floated up and down, focused his eyes on the piece in my hand, and then turned to the puzzle, looked it over, and pointed, with his ground-made arm, to a spot.
I tried to put it there and it did not fit, he leaned back, confused. “It's not going in, it must be in someplace else.” He bobbed in an “ah, of course” manner, which I found very amusing, and then pointed to another one. It was still the wrong one but I tried it anyway. In situations like these, the important thing is to have patience and not try to show the pokemon the right way but let him find it himself, failure builds intellect after all.
After some minutes, I saw that Cape and Jungle were coming back and was about to call them when a voice interrupted me.
“Hey, my dude, this place is for trainers to train, not for you to play with your new pokemon.” A voice told me from behind me.
I turned and saw two kids more or less twelve years old. One of them was a dark-haired boy with arms in his hips and beside him was a Shroomish, another kid, a short-haired girl in baggy travel clothes with a worried face and who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else stood behind the two of them, a Starmie was by her side.
I stood up and said. “I am training.”
He made to disagree but Cape and Jungle finally reached us, the kid looked at them and probably recognized that I was really a trainer but as kids normally do, he doubled down.
“No, you are playing with a toy.”
“It’s a form of training psychic type pokemon.”
“Hmm, I don’t believe you, but whatever, if you are reeeally a trainer then you will want to battle right?” He said and pulled a pokeball from his belt and showed it to me with a straight arm, it reminded me of a pose some characters in a children’s cartoon about pokemon training used to do when they challenged someone.
I examined him and saw his battered and torn in some places clothes, they were stylish traveling clothes that poor people would not have so he was a well-off trainer and at least a second-year trainer if he was looking like that before the circuit even started. I looked at my team, two of my pokemon were too new and didn't even know many moves.
Cape might be willing but in my orphanage, between Mother Elena and the other workers and volunteers there was a saying “Bad-mannered children would not be rewarded”. I would know as I used to be one.
"No, we don't want to fight."
“What?”
“I don’t want to fight with you, actually.”
“You can’t do that! It's against the rules.” He took a step forward and clenched his fists and Jungle tensed.
“Whose rules?”
“Rob, let it go, and let's get out of here.” Said the girl as she finally approached us.
He turned back around. “What?! No way Mel! He can’t refuse! He is playing around the beginner’s park, obviously he wants a fight and now he is just being an assh—”
He stopped talking as the girl called Mel looked above and behind us with her eyes and mouth wide open.
Me and the kid also turned and we saw a huge, two-meter-and-a-half, Aggron glaring at us. His body was relaxed but even just standing still the sharp points in his steel armor screamed danger.
“What is happening here?” Said the girl in front of the Aggron. It was the girl that I had seen when I entered the park, the one near the rocks. Now that she was near I could see that she was at least fifteen years old and had blonde medium-length hair and blue eyes, her blue and grey schemed sweatshirt and pants were a little less torn and battered than the two kids, but they still had some tears here and there, what was interesting was that her clothes also had some kind of armor in some parts like her knees and elbow. It looked really cool. The only part of her outfit that was not blue or white was her black hiking boots.
At her waist was a bulk belt that proudly displayed eight pokeballs, which signaled that she was at least a six-badger trainer. She stood there straight and with her arms at her side, waiting for a response.
Since the two kids were stunned I took charge and said. “This one challenged me to a battle and I said no, so now he is challenging me again, but now he is doing that by screaming.”
“I saw him approaching you.” She nodded and turned to the kids. “Is it true?”
The boy called Rob was too shocked to speak, so the girl, apparently, called Mel yelled.
“Sorry!” she said and grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away, he didn’t resist and off they were, both the Shroomish and the Starmie pokemon ran after them.
“Thank you for helping with that incoming headache.” I bowed towards her.
“It was nothing.” She nodded and was about to turn to go away when she stopped and glanced at the puzzle and then at me. “I would recommend for people who started later like you to go to the parks outside the city to train.” She looked around. “If you stay here situations like this one will become common very fast.”
She then left, the massive Aggron by her side followed while causing little tremors every time his limbs stomped the ground. I pulled the Pokedex and checked an average Aggron weighed 360 kilograms, and that Aggron was taller than normal and looked like it was trained to be a heavy physical attacker. He should be about 500 kilograms. That… Was a lot.
I sighed and put down my Pokedex and began to put away the rest of my things. “Let's go guys, we will continue this in another park, outside the city this time.” The Aggron girl was right after all.
I began to gather my things, the toys, and the writing materials and sighed. I didn’t think I would have to deal with this kind of shit today.