Grant was elated after tangela agreed to join horsea and him. He wanted to go out and challenge somebody, but there was a good deal of work to do before Grant would be able to use tangela in a challenge. Grant needed to register tangela as his, get her a medical check at the pokemon center, have her grade and rank evaluated, get food for her, and come up with a training routine for tangela. Horsea was working on his water gun, speed, and smokescreen although they hadn’t really done much to train it yet. Grant also planned to have horsea apply similar techniques from his water gun to bubblebeam when Grant taught it to him tomorrow. Horsea had a lot to work on, so what could tangela be doing to improve herself? With that in mind Grant pulled up tangela’s move set on his holo watch.
“Move Set: Absorb, bind, stun spore, vine whip, mega drain, growth, poison powder” Grant was pleasantly surprised with the list. He was especially excited with the quality and quantity of the moves listed. Grant was sure that he could come up with some combos for tangela to work on. Instantly he wondered if she would be able to release stun spore and poison powder at the same time like the emperor dustox had done when it unleashed that big cloud on the village. They would need to work hard to make sure all of her moves were battle ready, but Grant felt confident they could manage it. Since he was looking, Grant pulled up horsea’s move set.
“Move set: leer, splash, water gun, smokescreen, (twister)” Grant’s eyes flew open at the last entry. Holo watches were supposed to buzz to signal when a move was ready to be learned, but he hadn’t noticed a buzz.
“It must have happened during the battle, and I just didn’t notice.” Grant muttered. This would add a whole new layer to horsea’s training. Learning a new move wasn’t as simple as it sounded. It was easier when you had a tm, but naturally learning a move took a lot of time and effort. Hopefully, the little guy would be ready for some major training when Grant picked him up from the pokemon center the next day. For now, Grant headed to the pokemon center to get tangela registered, checked, and evaluated.
Grant left the pokemon center three hours later happy but a little tired. Tangela left irritated and just happy to be away from the poking and prodding of the nurses inside the pokemon center. Tangela had evaluated as an uncommon grade baroness alpha rank pokemon. Her medical had come back mostly clean, and the registration had been completed. The only hiccup was that tangela’s diet in the wild had been less than stellar according to the nurses. Grant had been given a list of supplements that tangela needed and he was to get food from Mable and show her the list. Thankfully, Grant had already planned to stop at the old woman’s store after the pokemon center. Tangela walked with Grant as they headed to the store.
“I think you’ll like the food here. I know horsea really likes the food I got him from this place.” Grant said. When Grant had told tangela that they were going to get her food she had gotten very excited. Grant had been told by the nurses that she was not getting enough food in the wild. Grant tried not to think how similar he and tangela were, because for a while Grant hadn’t gotten enough food either. Instead, he tried to focus on her excitement as they entered the small shop.
“Be with you in just a moment, feel free to look around.” Mable said. She was busy mixing food in her giant bowl. Grant was surprised when he recognized the trainer whose food she was mixing. It was Ashley, the girl whose mankey had defeated horsea in their first challenge. Grant looked for the mankey, but only spotted a fletchling resting on Ashley’s shoulder. It’s wing was heavily bandaged. Ashley was staring at tangela, an odd look on her face. Was that envy?
“Hello, Grant. Are you ready for our big challenge in a couple days?” Ashley finally asked, and the pieces came together for Grant. He hadn’t been told who had challenged him. The letter had just assumed he would know. Well, now he did know, and he wasn’t very pleased about it.
“Just figuring it out now?” She asked smugly. Grant tried to think of something to say, but Mable broke into their conversation.
“Here you go, your fletchling’s food is ready.” Ashely quickly paid and started to leave. She slowed as she past Grant.
“See you in a few days. I hope our second challenge is a little more exciting than our last one.” Grant didn’t respond. His jaw was clenched, and fists were balled. He would not let her take horsea. Tangela, at Grant’s side, glared at Ashley as they left.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Both of you calm down.” Mable scolded as she washed out her bowl. Immediately Grant felt embarrassed for getting so angry in front of Mable. Tangela also seemed to feel something similar as her vines seemed to droop a little.
“Better. Now I am guessing you are here to get food for this lovely tangela at your side Grant?” Mable asked.
“That’s right.” Grant said still shaking off the remnants of his anger. Mable set down her bowl and walked over to tangela. Mable looked tangela in the eye for several seconds before finally looking away.
“You did good finding this one Grant, she’ll get another foot or two tall I’d guess when properly fed. The kind of food she needs won’t be cheap though, and when she evolves, she will need a lot of food as a tangrowth. Are you ready to take on that kind of burden?” Mable asked, now staring into Grant’s eyes. Grant shifted a little uneasily.
“Right now, no, but when she does evolve, I’ll be ready.” Grant said firmly. Mable nodded and asked Grant a few questions, Grant handed over the list of supplements, and Mable started mixing the food in her bowl. Tangela watched rapt the entire time Mable was mixing. The food was a lot messier and more involved than horsea’s had been. Horsea’s food had essentially no meat in it, but tangela’s had a good deal of blood and meat chunks mixed with a massive amount of herbs and a variety of fruits. Grant was slightly nauseated by the smell, but tangela was taking deep inhales of the smell she must have thought was delicious. Mable finally poured the disgusting mixture into her food processor and turned to face Grant and tangela.
“So, what kind of vitamin are you looking to get for tangela?” Grant shrugged and decided to just do what he had done with horsea and refer to the master.
“I was hoping you could help me pick again. I think tangela will turn into a very tough and durable pokemon. I want to kind of lean into that and build her up to be the tank of my team.” Grant had seen a tangrowth once before. It had been nearly seven feet tall. Given that tangela was an alpha, and as a tangela was already three feet tall, and according to Mable had room to grow, Grant figured as a tangrowth tangela would reach ten feet tall or more.
“I agree that is perfectly sensible. I think you would be best suited to a bark vine supplement. It isn’t very popular, because it can decrease speed and mobility a small amount. The boosts to defense though are well worth whatever cost you might pay in speed. She will be a true tank if she takes this long enough.” Grant thought about it for a few moments. Speed could be everything in a pokemon battle. You needed speed to keep up with faster opponents. However, tangela already was pretty speedy. She wasn’t going to win races, but she could probably keep up with horsea right now. In time horsea would far outstrip tangela in speed if Grant had his way, and if you could just take every hit who cared if you were too slow to dodge?
“I like it, let’s do it.” Grant finally said. Mable bagged up the food pellets. They were a spiral of green and red that did not look very appetizing, but tangela was practically salivating at the sight of the pellets.
“I will need both coupons you were given. Each of them is for a regular food order, but this order required some nontraditional supplements, along with being a lot bigger than normal. It should last her a month and a half before you need to get more, and next time you can get her a normal batch like horsea.” Grant had hoped he could get another month of free food for tangela, but the food had been a lot more involved than horsea’s, so he guessed he understood. He handed off the coupons and took the bag of food from Mable. Carrying all this food was going to get heavy. He would need to buy a spacial bag soon assuming he could get the money to afford one. Grant was about to leave when Mable stopped him.
“Grant, normally I don’t interfere in the business of trainers, but I wanted to wish you good luck in your challenge against that Ashley girl. From what I saw of her she seemed like not the nicest trainer, and I would hate to see your horsea taken from you.” Grant smiled at Mable.
“We’ll do our best to not let that happen. I promise.”