CHAPTER 25

On our way back, Elekid kept trying to pull me toward the power plant with his clumsy little hands, and I kept having to tell him that I wasn’t going to go there.

“What do you even want in there? The electricity? I don’t want to get in trouble,” I told him.

“Elekid! Ele!” He yelled.

“Man… you’re a strange one.”

Frillish looked at our new member with disdain, while Togetic was trying to make friends in her own strange way. She kept trying to play with Elekid’s plug-like horns, looking at them like she was fascinated. It was in these moments that I realized that even though she had evolved, Togetic was still just a baby.

At some point, I ended up having to recall Elekid to his ball because of how adamant he was about getting to the plant. I walked back to the Pokemon Center and gave him to Nurse Joy for a check-up since I had just caught him. Since we had been slacking on our training a little bit, I decided to make Togetic practice her Extrasensory, while Frillish continued to work on Water Pulse. Togetic was slowly working her way up in what she could lift, and I could actually notice the attack now whenever she used it. It was as if an invisible force that distorted the air around it surrounded an object, and after that, she could move it however she pleased. I was confident in her lifting light Pokemon, but heavier ones would be a no go for the tournament. Meanwhile, Frillish had completely mastered Water Pulse. I rewarded him with one of Floaroma’s famous berries, but Togetic whined, and I ended up giving her some too. There was no way I could ever resist her sad stare. Hex was trickier. The only way to practice the move was against living beings, so we weren’t able to try to learn the move very much. I decided to put it on the back burner for now.

I was getting used to spending more and more time with my team out of their Pokeballs, which was honestly a welcomed addition. Denzel already did the same with Eevee, and a lot of trainers simply never recalled their Pokemon unless they were forced to. Plus, seeing as how chill Elekid was around me, I’d probably be able to do the same thing with him. Not only would it accelerate the pace at which we bonded, but I’d be able to learn his body language— how he thought, moved, and his behavioral cues. When I picked him up from the Center, I hurried back to my room and released him there.

“Hey, it’s me again. I wanted to talk to you with my team here,” I said.

Elekid crossed his arms and stared right into my eyes.

“I caught you, but I want to make sure you know what you’re in for. I’m a trainer participating in the League Circuit. That means that I travel, battle other trainers, and we get stronger together,” I explained. I gauged his reaction, expecting him to be confused, but he seemed happy. Excited, even. “We have a little less than a year to get as strong as we can, then we’ll compete against the most powerful trainers in the region. Are you fine with joining us?”

Elekid flexed his arms and began rotating them. Sparks of electricity flew in between his horns. “Kid!”

I didn’t have to speak Pokemon to realize that was a yes. “Well, now it’s truly official. Welcome to the team!” I smiled. “Oh, and we’re also traveling with another human friend and his Pokemon, but we can get you introduced later. For now, I’ll start training with you to measure your strengths and weaknesses, and I’ll also have you observe during tomorrow’s tournament— oh, I forgot to even tell you about the tournament!”

I explained everything to Elekid. I wasn’t going to have him fight yet, obviously, but it’d still be nice to have him see how trainer battles worked. He was seemingly bummed out about not being able to fight, which surprised me. I was slowly getting a hold of his personality, and he seemed to be hyper all the time, but also a battle junkie. Maybe his life in the wild had made him this way, but it was still peculiar to look at.

Anyway, after finishing our conversation, I took a shower, and we headed outside toward the edge of town. It was annoying to be doing this back and forth between outside and the Pokemon Center all the time, but what could I do? My standards had been ruined by Jubilife’s quick public transport.

I rechecked my Pokedex to make sure I hadn’t missed any of Elekid’s moves. Thundershock and Thunder Punch meant that he’d be useful both at a distance and in close range, which was a boon. Swift was extremely useful as well, being a move that homed in toward your opponent. All in all, I needed to assess what level he was at with those moves until I even thought about teaching him anything else. I directed Togetic to practice her Extrasensory on any object she could find lying about, and I told Frillish to stick with her to make sure she didn’t get lost. Her new flying abilities had seemingly made her increasingly likely to just float off somewhere as soon as something grabbed her attention.

“Okay, Elekid, let’s do it. use Thundershock in the sky,” I started. “Keep it going for as long as you can.”

Elekid grunted and began to spin his arms around. Electricity sparked, and then gathered above his head before flying off into the clouds. He kept it going for around eight seconds before tiring out.

“Good job!” I said with a smile. Elekid grunted in between heavy breaths. “Eight seconds… y’know, I should really start taking notes about you guys’ progress. I feel like I’d be able to track your growth better with a spreadsheet.”

Elekid looked at me like I was speaking gibberish, but he yelled anyway as if he understood. I was glad his movements were so telegraphed. This was nowhere near how hard getting to know Frillish had been. Probably something about ghosts.

I pointed toward a tree. “Can you use Swift on that tree?”

The electric type nodded and aimed his arms forward as stars materialized all around him before flying toward the tree trunk. I approached it to see the damage it had done and noticed that it had created some pretty big scratches. The move was definitely usable in battle, but we’d have to work on it.

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“Swift again on the same tree, but aim a bit to the left this time,” I said.

I wanted to test the limits of Swift’s homing abilities. As it turned out, the only requirement was for the target to be within Elekid’s eyesight, and it would always hit. That was truly a powerful asset to have.

“Thunder Punch that same tree,” I continued.

Elekid spun one arm, and electricity coated his fist. With a scream, he punched the tree with all of his strength, creating a huge hole in the bark.

“Stand back, I don’t want it to fall on you,” I told him. Thunder Punch was definitely his strongest attack, and ideas were already forming in my mind about how to maximize its potential. First, I needed to ascertain a few things…

“Can you do it on both fists?” I said, lifting my own fists up as an example. I mimicked a series of punches. “Like that?”

“Kid! Kid!” He said excitedly.

“Show me what you got,” I grinned. “No need to hit the tree this time.”

He spun his arms around again, and once enough electricity had gathered in his fists, he threw a series of jabs in the air until his fists ran out of energy.

“We definitely need to work on endurance, but that’s like, the easiest thing to work on, so don’t worry,” I said. As it stood, he had the power to battle, but he wouldn’t last more than two minutes in a fight— less if he had to use more moves than usual.

“Ele…” He said.

“Disappointed?” I asked. He nodded and hung his head. His body’s behavior was so human it was almost unsettling, but that was probably the way it was with bipedal, humanoid-shaped Pokemon. “Aw, don’t worry, honey. We’ll get you in shape in no time.”

Leer was pretty self-explanatory. Elekid would try to intimidate a Pokemon with a scary glare and hope to catch them off-guard, similar to Growl. Those types of moves only worked on weak Pokemon though, and the higher I’d go, the less useful they would be. Charge was just the way Elekid gathered electricity in his body, so he basically used it subconsciously with every attack. However, my mind flashed back to my very first trainer battle. Shinx combined the move Charge with Tackle to create an entirely new move, so maybe I’d be able to do so when Elekid learned something else. Or maybe I’d even be able to create an electric type Swift. For now, though, Elekid’s assessment was over.

I looked around, trying to find Togetic and Frillish. They were hanging out high in the sky, looking at something I couldn’t see. If I remembered correctly, that direction was north of Floaroma, which was… Eterna Forest.

“Guys! We’re done here, come down!” I yelled. Togetic gently floated downward while Frillish just deactivated his levitation and stopped himself with Water Sport, similarly to our battle with Roark. He seemed to enjoy that little trick. “Togetic, I thought I told you to practice your Extrasensory…” I said, putting my hands on my hips. She avoided my gaze and hid behind Frillish, who proceeded to get out of the way. “I know flying is fun, but you can’t slack off, alright?” I told her. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m not mad! Have I ever gotten mad at you?”

Togetic shook her head. She chirped, and then her eyes turned blue as she tore a branch off of a nearby tree before dropping it in front of me.

“Is that for me?” I asked as I bent down to pick it up. “You’re sweet! Let’s get back to the Center and see if we can meet Denzel. I’ll call him.”

We ended up meeting him back at the Center thirty minutes later, where he walked in followed closely by Eevee and Budew. The little plant waddled next to Eevee, and was seemingly ok with the situation, although she still had that permanent scowl on her face. I would have called her cute if she hadn’t tried to kill me.

“Wow, who’s that?” Denzel asked, looking at Elekid. The Pokemon put his arms up and yelled out his name, introducing himself.

“New member of my team. I caught him earlier today near the power plant at Valley Windworks, and he’s fitting like a glove already,” I said, patting him on the back. I felt a small shock run up my arm and jolted. “Ow, ow, ok, let’s not do that again.”

Elekid laughed loudly, eliciting some stares.

“Anyway, what about… well…” I trailed off, realizing it’d be rude to just talk about Budew like she wasn’t there.

“Oh, Budew still hates me, but she’s taken a liking to Eevee. Progress is progress, right?” Denzel said, bending down toward the big Budew. She released spores at him, making him cough and fan the air in front of his face.

I just about screamed for Nurse Joy before he stopped me. “Don’t worry, they’re nonlethal, I’ve already had this incident before, and I checked with a doctor. It’s just something that she does if I’m being annoying.”

“How extreme,” I said, side-eyeing the grass type. “How will you deal with the tournament? You still can’t battle with her, right?”

“Bud!” Budew screeched.

“What in the world does that mean?” I said in a cautious tone.

“She’s saying no, obviously. And I’ll just use Eevee. If he loses, I’ll forfeit. I know I’ll be at a disadvantage, but the majority of participants probably won’t have a badge, so I’m hoping to at least get the third place money.”

“It’d be fun if we fought again. It’s been a while,” I said.

“True, it has been. Looking forward to seeing you out there, Grace. I’ll make sure to turn our score into a 2-0.”

“Be cocky while you still can, I’ll make you eat your words,” I joked.

I recalled my Pokemon and Denzel did the same while we went to eat in a restaurant. It was an early dinner, but the food was excellent, and all plant-based.

“I’m surprised you caught an Elekid,” Denzel said before taking a sip of water.

“Why?” I asked.

“Well, because they’re one of the few Pokemon that we don’t know how to evolve, right? Well, Electabuzz, I mean. The only trainer that has an Electrivire in Sinnoh is Volkner, and I doubt he’ll ever spill.”

“Well, obviously I know that,” I said. “But when I looked into his eyes when he asked to come with me, I couldn’t refuse. We’ll make it work,” I said confidently.

Even with today’s knowledge, some Pokemon evolutions were unknown to the public. Electabuzz, Magmar, Dusclops, and Haunter were all examples I could come up with at the top of my head, but there were more. Only a few trainers owned their evolved forms, and they hogged the knowledge like gold.

After digesting dinner, we went for a run. I had Elekid with me and Denzel had Eevee. Elekid was actually surprisingly fast, which was something I hadn’t expected with his two little legs. He was faster than me and Denzel, but the problem was he tired extremely easily, which is why I had him on this run in the first place.

That night, I fidgeted in my bed until sleep finally claimed me, but of course, the nightmares came back.