Chapter Forty-Eight - Friendly... Fight?

Tabitha woke up at eight on the dot, turned over in bed, and tapped the alarm on her phone just as it was starting up.

It was easy to be up at the same hour every day, not just because of the sheer habit ingrained in her from years of doing so, but because the world tended to come awake at that time. She wasn't her sister, who could probably read the minds of every person in a small town like this all at once. Instead, Tabitha got... impressions. People frustrated at their alarms, dreams being interrupted... a lot of people suddenly discovering that they needed to use the washroom.

It was, perhaps, the most annoying time of the day because her sleepy mind didn't have strong shields up, and it took a few moments and some focus to raise those to a satisfactory level. Once she did, she was able to roll out of the pokemon centre's bed. "Good morning, King Krabby," she said. "Good morning Slowking."

"Krab," King Krabby replied with a snap-snap of her claws. The krabby unburrowed herself from the cocoon she slept in at the base of Tabitha's bed.

Her newest pokemon, Slowking, gently raised his head from the pile of blankets he slept on. He turned her way. Blinked. Then opened his mouth. "Slow?"

"Yes, it's morning," Tabitha said. She wasn't completely on the same wavelength with Slowking, not in the same way she was with King Krabby, but it was getting there. It likely helped that Slowking had some latent psychic abilities of his own... and he was a bit... slow?

He wasn't unintelligent, however. Quite the contrary, she had discovered that slowpokes were particularly intelligent pokemon. It was just that that intelligence came at its own pace. A glacial pace. She'd encountered a few slowbros in Azalea, and they were even smarter, though not much faster.

It was unfortunate, but most people took speed to be one of the greatest qualifiers of intellect. When someone was given a complex puzzle to solve they were judged on two metrics. The ability to correctly solve the puzzle, and how quickly they solved it.

She suspected that without the second quantifier, the average slowpoke would be respected a lot more. As it was...

Slowking, after a minute of staring, finally yawned and started to rise. Very slowly.

Well, there was nothing for it. Some pokemon moved at their own pace, and it was going to be up to her to work with him to help him become a powerful king. In the meantime... he was nice company. His mind worked at a calm and relaxed pace, and was easy to read and understand.

Tabitha grabbed some clothes from her bag, walked over to the showers, and basically ran through her morning ablutions. She wasn't surprised to discover that Broccoli was awake, but Jazz was... well, she was moving. Whether or not she was awake was debatable.

"Good morning," Tabitha said as she sat down at the same table as the other two. Her pokemon had food in their bowls. A carefully measured amount of pokemon feed of two different types, and she'd slipped some vitamins in each of their bowls, as well as some berry-flavoured sprinkles which King Krabby insisted improved the taste considerably.

"Good morning!" Broccoli said. The girl looked fresh and awake, even more so than her pokemon. She also looked clean, without any noticeable sign that she had taken a shower. Another datapoint?

"Mrble," Jazz... mrbled.

"Are you well, Jazz Poison?" Tabitha asked. She was aware that she didn't need to use a person's full name, not here in Johto, and certainly not in such an informal setting. However, she also knew that it annoyed Jazz, and some small part of Tabitha... enjoyed teasing the girl. It was amusing to see her snap her attention up from her breakfast to glare at Tabitha.

"I'm fine," Jazz said. "More than fine, really. I'm doing great. Zubat's fully mended. He can start combat practice today. We've got three more days until we're facing off against some of the gym's trainers. That's three days to get him up to speed."

"I see. And how, exactly, do you train?" Tabitha asked.

She had seen Broccoli training her pokemon. It had been a combination of physical exercise, move practice, and games. Tag, dodging games, small spars. Infantile modes of training that Broccoli and her pokemon seemed to enjoy. She supposed that it made sense. Broccoli's pokemon were both still infants. Tabitha had been raised next to a gym. The training she saw and partook in was a lot more... professional. She was certain that Broccoli's training would work to get her pokemon to the level where they could take on their second badge, at least.

The third badge level might also be doable. The first three were barely a challenge, they were more about having the training to know how to give orders, react to simple challenges, and see if they were aware of type advantages and disadvantages. Beyond that, things would actually be difficult. As it was, Tabitha was quite certain her team, even with one pokemon being untrained, could rise to the fourth badge without difficulty.

"I'll find some kids from town to beat," Jazz said. "It's good training."

"I suppose," Tabitha replied.

"What, you think you know better?" Jazz snapped. She sat up straighter, and Tabitha could feel the challenge coming from the taller girl as their eyes met.

"I am aware that I can, yes," Tabitha said with well-earned honesty.

"Then how about you put your pokedollars where your pokemouth is, huh?" Jazz asked.

"Are you two fighting?" Broccoli asked as she looked between the two.

Tabitha fought the urge to make herself smaller and cringe away. Broccoli's disappointed look was... dangerous. "We are... merely having an argument. One which we can solve with a simple spar. My two pokemon against three of yours. No harmful moves?"

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"A friendly spar, right?" Broccoli asked.

"Yeah, friendly," Jazz said in a tone that was anything but. She jumped in her seat, then hissed before looking to Broccoli. Ah, had Broccoli kicked her under the table? For all that the bunny-eared girl seemed innocent, she wasn't entirely unable to read tone and intent. It was actually something Tabitha struggled with at times. A life-long dependance on mind reading had atrophied her people-reading skills significantly.

Tabitha nodded. "After breakfast and our morning routines?"

"Yeah," Jazz said, calming down a little now that the challenge was posed.

The moment breakfast was over, Tabitha excused herself and travelled to an outdoor arena not too far from the pokemon centre. It was a natural place for their little competition. The area was a square of soft grass with the edges marked by a bare dirt path. The location was obviously tended to by some Grass-type pokemon, as natural grass wasn't this soft and natural dirt wasn't as absorbent.

This type of arena was common enough, a space for young trainers to practice spars that was close to a centre and designed to minimize damage.

Tabitha set Slowking down and then went over a few things with him. He nodded along eventually, slowly working through her logic and what she predicted for the fight.

When Jazz arrived, accompanied by Broccoli and both of their pokemon teams, Tabitha was ready.

"I'll be starting with Slowking," Tabitha said.

"Isn't Slowking an actual kind of pokemon?" Jazz asked as she took her spot across from Tabitha. "You're making this confusing."

"No. He is king, that is all."

Jazz scoffed. "Fine then. Broccoli, want to be the ref?"

"Okey-dokey!" Broccoli cheered. She approached the middle of the arena then raised a hand. "Friendly spar rules! No maiming, no attacking with the intent to harm... too much. We want our friends to learn and feel better about themselves, win or lose. Is everyone ready?"

"Yeah," Jazz said. She recalled all of her pokemon, then held up one pokeball.

"I am," Tabitha replied.

"Then... start!" Broccoli said, her arm sweeping down.

"Slowking, take your place," Tabitha said. Her newest companion took three seconds to start moving forwards, but he took his place all the same.

Jazz grinned. "Bellsprout, mess him up!"

"Hey now," Broccoli said.

Bellsprout appeared on the grassy field and wiggled. It was a good pokemon to start with. Type advantages were no jokes, and he was Jazz's oldest pokemon, at least in terms of time spent with her. He wasn't her strongest, but she didn't have full control of the rest of her team just yet.

"Slowking, Psychic Prod," Tabitha ordered.

"Bellsprout, Vine Whip!"

The first whip cracked and snapped across Slowking's front. The second missed entirely as Bellsprout flinched.

Psychic Prod wasn't a real move. It was the beginning stage of the move Psychic, which required the establishment of a psychic link between two pokemons in order to inflict mental pain onto one of them. Psychic Prod was more about opening that link as hard and fast as possible.

It was a slap instead of the full-body punch of a proper Psychic, but it was a good semi-move to start a pokemon on the route to learning better psychic abilities.

It was a move that barely hurt. But it did cause an enemy to flinch if they weren't prepared for it or able to defend themselves mentally.

Bellsprout writhed in pain, then again.

Jazz grunted in sympathy. "What's that move?" she muttered just loud enough that Tabitha picked it up. Another hit, cutting off Bellsprout's fourth attempt at a Vine Whip. "Dammit, Bellsprout, Poison Powder!"

Tabitha smiled very slightly. All according to plan.

Slowking had stopped the Psychic Prod on the third hit and had started to charge up a move. Tabitha gestured forwards and called it out even as Slowking finally launched the move. "Water Gun."

The plan was simple. Jazz would open with her type-advantage because she was a simple girl, and for the same reason she'd use a ranged move with that same advantage. Tabitha was debating whether it would be Razor Leaf or Vine Whip.

Slowking was to launch three spaced out Psychic Prods, then Water Gun. He had a good memory. Being slow to react didn't mean that he couldn't prepare movesets in advance. That required no reaction time to use, especially against an immobile target like a Bellsprout whose trainer didn't know any better.

The Water Gun shot right into Bellsprout's expanding flower, and the pokemon gargled on a mouthful of water, choking on it hard.

"Slowking, finish it with a Tackle," Tabitha said.

The five seconds it took for Slowking to process the order were sweet for how little Jazz could react while her pokemon choked on his own Poison Powder.

Slowking ran across the arena and rammed into Bellsprout, taking him out of the fight once and for all.

"Oh, uh, Bellsprout's out," Broccoli said. "Sorry, Jazz. Send out your next pokemon?"

"Tch!" Jazz tsked. She palmed another pokeball.

Tabitha smiled slightly. "Slowking, set one, but start with a Growl."

Slowking only knew one set, and he'd just used it, but that was fine, Jazz came into this fight with no information, and it was about to cost her everything.

Tabitha had never had friends before, but she knew that if she wanted friends she'd need to impress them, and this was how she planned on doing it. She was going to crush Jazz, and then Jazz would have no choice but to like her.

***