Grant picked up horsea from the pokemon center early the next morning. Grant could tell horsea was happy to be free of the center as upon leaving horsea instantly took off on his water orb. Grant laughed and ran after horsea, tangela following at his side.
They ran like that until they exited the village, and all three of them needed to catch their breath.
“Alright we have a lot to get done today.” Grant finally said after catching his breath. Tangela and horsea looked to Grant excitement in their eyes.
“First, tm’s.” Grant pulled out the two tm’s. Originally Grant had planned to teach horsea both moves, but after hearing the warning from Mable that the bark vine supplement could impact tangela’s speed, he decided that she might make better use of the move than horsea.
“I have one for each of you, but you need to go back in the ball so I can use them.” Grant said and sucked both of them back into their respective balls. The tm’s were odd. They were rings that had just enough room in the center for a pokeball. The water gun was a blue ring, and the quick attack was gray. They both had all kinds of lights, whirring machinery, and metal plates along the outside. Grant fitted the tm’s around each of the pokebals and pressed the activation button on the tm’s. There was a whirring sound for several seconds, before both tm’s let out a loud ding, and then fell into scrap metal on the ground.
“One time use items are the worst.” Grant muttered as he released horsea and tangela.
“Alright, let’s try out those new moves.” Grant said. The new moves were not at all battle ready. Tangela’s quick attack barely boosted her speed, and horsea’s bubblebeam was more like bubbles moving slowly in the same general direction.
“We can work on this. Tangela you will likely need to practice a lot more before you get good at the move. Horsea same idea. Practice will help, but more than anything you just need to focus on tightening the spread of the bubblebeam, the strength and power will come with time. We will work on it today some more, but I also want to work on water gun and teaching you twister. Tangela, I want to get you working on quick attack, and I want to get it so you can use stun spore and poison powder at the same time. After Grant gave his assignments his pokemon split off to work in different areas. Tangela found a large area of grass to run in, and horsea found a rock to pelt with water gun and bubble beam. Grant moved back and forth giving advice and trying to keep his pokemon from getting frustrated at the slow progress, and there was definitely progress.
After three hours of training horsea had gotten his bubblebeam to fire in an actual beam. It didn’t move very fast, but he at least had the shape down right. He also started to get a little more power on the charged water gun, although very little progress was made on the spiraled water gun Grant still pushed for. Grant imagined a tight spiraling jet of water that could be fired at long range, versus the charged water gun which was a little more widespread and short range. They also tried to work on twister, and horsea could get a little wind moving, but Grant knew it wouldn’t be ready in time for the challenge against Ashley.
Tangela had definitely progressed with her quick attack. She moved perhaps 10% faster than normal with it on, which Grant thought was great. He knew quick attack could double a Pokémon’s speed when utilized properly, but they would have a long way to go until that was possible. Unfortunately, tangela did struggle to release both stun spore and poison powder at the same time. She could release them back-to-back in rapid succession, but they still traveled in separate clouds. Grant wanted tangela to be able to fire a single cloud of spores and powder so that her opponents could receive multiple status conditions in a single attack. It would definitely take some time to make it happen.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
As he watched horsea and tangela train and struggle to do what he asked of them, Grant wondered if perhaps the moves he wanted them to perform were too advanced for their evolution stage. Tangela and horsea were still just the first stage of their evolution lines, and Grant felt confident that as horsea evolved his control of water would vastly improve. Similarly, tangela’s control over her spores and powder could only get better when she evolved to tangrowth. The problem was Grant knew it would be a while until they evolved. Well, Grant assumed it would be a while, they weren’t exhibiting any of the behavior to imply they were on the cusp of evolution at least. As Grant was thinking, he noticed a pair of boys walking down the road out of the village. They both had pokeballs on their belts and had to be trainers. Grant looked over to tangela and horsea, and grinned. Grant recalled his pokemon and started jogging over to the pair of boys. He was going to see how much the training had helped both of his pokemon.
The boys agreed to a challenge right away. Grant would fight them both back-to-back, each of his pokemon fighting in one of the battles.
“Gram Lock has accepted the challenge from Grant Wilson. The challenge will be a 1v1 pokemon battle. The loser will have 100 pokedollars deducted from their account and credited to the winner. Trainers take your positions.” Their watches called. Grant and Gram already stood in their designated boxes. Tangela, and Gram’s ponyta stood ready to fight between them. Grant was a little nervous about the type disadvantage, but tangela was an alpha, surely it would be fine.
“The challenge will begin in 3, 2, 1.
“Tangela charge in with quick attack and then bind!”
“Ponyta charge in and use ember!” Ponyta and tangela charged at each other. The collision made Grant wince, as both pokemon were sent stumbling back a few paces. Tangela had managed to loop a vine around ponyta’s front legs in the collision though, so as ponyta stumbled back, the vines tightened, and sent the pokemon stumbling to the ground.
“Ponyta burn the vine off with ember!” Gram called. Ponyta got the ember off, but it cost her. Tangela had sent out a cloud of poison powder without Grant even needing to give the command. Ponyta coughed and hacked and sneezed as the poison entered her lungs.
“Tangela finish this with vine whip.” Tangela charged in and pulled an arm back to slam it on ponyta’s prone body.
“Flame wheel!” Grant’s eyes flew open in alarm, as the ponyta erupted in fire just as tangela got in close. Tangela was sent flying back from the attack. Fires smoldered on her body, and Grant knew it had to hurt. Grant thought about recalling her, but she stood right back up after the big hit. Grant couldn’t believe it, but she acted like the hit didn’t hurt at all. Then Grant met tangela’s eye. She was furious, not at Grant, but at ponyta. Tangela looked backed to the wounded ponyta and used mega drain. The horse pokemon whinnied in pain, as the attack landed.
“We surrender!” Gram called as he fumbled to get out his ponyta’s pokeball. Tangela took a few steps towards the fallen pokemon, a vine raised to strike, Grant was faster. He recalled tangela, his watch already confirming his victory. Grant hadn’t expected tangela to lose her cool and try to kill Gram’s ponyta. They would need to have a long talk as soon as this was over.