Chapter Eight - Check Up!

Buneary reached down and rubbed his backside again. The pokemon centre had been... interesting? It smelled weird, like humans, but also like a lot of pokemon, and then there was a strong stink that stung his nose a little. Broccoli said that it was cleaning products, which she also didn't like the smell of.

The chansey there had been nice, but also scary. It had the same kind of energy his mom had, and that scared him a little, but it was gentle, and when he went in the back with it, the chansey had poked and prodded him carefully while asking him how he felt.

It wasn't all that annoying. There were other pokemon in the back, lots that he recognized, like weedles and metapods and pidgeys, and some that he didn't. They were all more or less quiet, stuffed into little boxes while waiting. He was worried that he'd be stuck in a box too, but the chansey stayed close and kept hold of his hand as she walked him through.

He had been told to sit on a bed with some soft padding. A little staircase was placed for him to climb up onto it, then the chansey had used a few healing moves on him. He felt a lot better after that. A few aches faded away, as well as some bruises that he didn't even notice were bothering him.

Broccoli was let into the back, and she looked around at everything while a lady very similar to the one in the front, but with a different scent to her, explained some human things. Broccoli had nodded, then sat on the bed next to Buneary. She had been poked with a needle filled with something, then had some blood taken from her arm.

Then it was Buneary's turn. He had been very brave as chansey stabbed his rear end with a long needle. Once that was done, Broccoli had picked him up and cradled him in her arms until the pain went away.

It was one thing to be hurt in a fight, but this was entirely different.

Broccoli had brought him to another room where someone made her stand in front of a machine that flashed brightly, then they went to the front again, where she was handed a strong-smelling card with her picture on it and a bunch of human words that he couldn't make heads or tails of.

"I guess that I'm a trainer now," Broccoli said as she looked at the card.

"Obviously," Jazz said with her arms crossed. "It's good for you. The trainer ID lets you get lots of free stuff, and the first one's free. The second one too, but you need to have gotten at least one badge with the first for that to happen."

"Oh?" Broccoli asked. "What sort of free stuff?"

"Eh, you can rent a room in most pokemon centres for free, as long as it's not overbooked," Jazz said. "There's free healing for you and your pokemon, some places give free transportation too. A lot of things are cheaper. Pokeballs, lots of pokemon stuff, like potions and medicine and vitamins. It's all super expensive once you're done with your journey, but until then, the League picks up on a lot of the costs."

"Interesting! That's kind of them."

Jazz shrugged, her arms still crossed. "It's less that it's kind and more that it's good business. Pokemon are needed to make the world work, and the best time to learn how to be a good trainer is when you're young. Do you know how much time it takes to train some pokemon?"

"I don't!" Broccoli said.

"Heh. Well, it's not fast. I think that's why it's good to have young trainers. We don't have jobs taking up all of our time. And if you catch a few good pokemon, they'll be with you for the rest of your life. Having a good pokemon at your side can unlock a lot of potential jobs."

"Like that nurse and the... chansey was it?" Broccoli asked.

Jazz nodded. "Yeah. Nurse Joys almost always have chansey with them. If you want to become a medical professional, you'd better look for and catch one, or buy a happiny from a pokemon breeder."

"Oh, can you only get certain jobs if you have certain pokemon?" Broccoli asked.

"I mean, some, maybe. It's more that some pokemon are really useful to have if you have a certain job, and if you have one on your team, you'll be much better at that kind of work," Jazz said.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"So, what kind of job are Poison-type pokemon good for?" Broccoli asked.

Jazz pouted. "A-all sorts of stuff! Muk is a must-have pokemon for sanitation workers, you know! And lots of rangers have Poison-type pokemon to help them weaken others to capture them. Obviously there's work in toxicology. A lot of venoms are only cured using the same venom. There's pest control too!"

"I see, I see," Broccoli said. "What about Cleaning-type?"

"That's not a type!" Jazz snapped. She placed her hands on her hips and glowered for a bit. "Now that you're a trainer, officially, you'll want to try your hand at the gym challenges."

"Okay!" Broccoli said. "What's that mean?"

"It means beating the stuffing out of Falkner and his stupid birds," Jazz said. "He's... actually not usually that hard of a gym. Most people's first gym is supposed to be easy. It's the second gym badge that everyone says is a big challenge, but this will be my third time challenging him."

"I don't know if I'm quite ready for that," Broccoli said. "He's an expert, right? He probably knows a lot about fighting."

"Oh, well, each gym asks you a few questions before you can even fight the gym's leader, and you need to fight with some gym trainers the first time, to make sure you're even worth the gym leader's time. Then the gym leader will tailor their team to you, based on how many badges you have."

Buneary looked up and saw Broccoli's eyes light up with understanding. "So the second badge is harder, and the third even harder?"

"It's mostly linear, or so I've heard," Jazz said. "By the fifth or sixth gym, you should have a full team, and then there's another big jump in difficulty with the seventh and final badges, but that's a long, long way off!"

"Okay," Broccoli said with a grin. "So, what do we do now?"

Jazz worked her jaw, then pointed across the city, to a building sticking out from above. It was that same tower they'd seen when coming in. It looked old, even to Buneary who really didn't know much about human buildings and such. "That's the Sprout Tower. There are some old monks there that don't matter, and a few wild pokemon in the tower. There's one I want to catch. A Poison-type pokemon that might give me the edge I need to defeat Falkner this time. And... well, there are some weak pokemon in there too, we can train against those."

"Okay," Broccoli said. "If we're going to be doing any amount of fighting, with pokemon I mean, then I think I'd like some time to teach Buneary here a few tricks."

"Bun? Buneary?" What? What kind?

She smiled down at him, then gave his forehead a peck. "Well, my signature move is Cleaning magic, of course! But I had to start small too. I don't know how useful that would be against birds though... maybe I can teach you fireball?"

Jazz shook her head, then pulled out a small red device from a pocket and pointed it towards Buneary. "I don't think he can learn any fire-type moves," she said.

Buneary

The Rabbit Pokemon

You can tell how it feels by the way it rolls its ears. When it's scared, both ears are rolled up.

Jazz nodded, then touched a few buttons on the machine that had just spoken up before turning it towards Broccoli. Buneary stretched his neck, but there was just text on a little glowy box. "Lots of Normal-type moves, but they're not offensive, and maybe a few Fighting-type. Swift would be one heck of a move to learn to beat Falkner's birds though! But overall, you might want to catch another pokemon too."

"No, I think I'm okay," Broccoli said. "How about it, Buneary? Want to learn how to throw balls of fire around, and use Cleaning magic?"

"I just said, that's not a thing!" Jazz shouted.

"Bun!" Yeah!

This Jazz lady might know a lot, but he trusted Broccoli more. If she said it was possible, then why not?

"All right! Let's go get this pokemon of yours, Jazz, then let's see about getting some training in. I'm kind of excited too now!"

***