Chapter 25- Training Results
The celebration that we threw for Arnold went by fairly quickly. There wasn’t much to celebrate given that we all expected it. The few interesting things that happened were only Sera announcing that she would leave tomorrow for Nacrene in order to come back for the gym. Also, Frank and Mathew unsurprisingly got along fairly well. They even exchanged contact by the end with talks of meeting later or something like that.
Speaking of him, Mathew decided that he would accompany Sera to Nacrene city. At first, he played it off by saying he had nothing better to do but once we grilled him enough, he let it slip that he was meeting the one and only Professor Juniper. And I admit, I was incredibly jealous of that. So much so that I was tempted to just follow them along. I mean, sure I met Caitlin and other gym leaders I knew of, and that was pretty significant already, but meeting the Professor just felt more… official? Either way, Mathew meeting up with her most likely had to do with Lilligant.
Tangent aside, we all split up after the restaurant, with Sera deciding to hit the stores for some supplies. Mathew and I headed for his sister’s house since he apparently forgot something there. We reached the house and he excused himself only to come back with a case and a letter. The case was holding a Technical Record inside, judging by the lack of a golden ring around the disk-like item. I was curious about what that was about but was pulled out by Mathew’s explanation.
It was a package from Catlin. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to hear much from her until the end of the circuit, so it was a pleasant surprise. Well, rather a totally unexpected one. Apparently, the psychic community was much more tightknit than I thought. The letter was basically her explaining that they made sure to give confirmed psychic a copy of the move Teleport…
Yeah, that was genuinely insane. While not the most expensive move, it is very much up there. Granted the quality of the move would make the price vary but any record of Teleport was always snatched up pretty much instantly. I mean, it is basically a get out of most trouble generally so who wouldn’t want that? Plus, even if on the off chance you decide to stop being a trainer, having a Pokemon capable of teleporting is enough to make a living since it is always in demand. Heck, the league would rarely refuse someone capable of the move. Not that the Unova league was lacking in that department.
Teleport is actually one move I considered to offset Nike's slowness but instantly discarded it, at least in the short term. I planned to focus on Trick Room since we could work on it and it will always be useful. The flip side was that we would have to train to ensure that the move stayed in place for long enough to capitalize without impacting the next Pokemon in case she got knocked out. For instance, Skoll was a fast Pokemon and while Tiamat as she is would benefit from the move, as she evolved, she very much would not.
Regardless, that was no longer of concern. A single disk managed to flip all of my plans upside down and I was more than happy to oblige. Trick Room was still very much on the table, but we now had more time to train it. and we would need it.
I thanked Mathew for the delivery via text when I opened the package. Unfortunately, I did not have any means to thank Caitlin or anyone from said community, but I also had a feeling that I would meet them soon enough. Eventually.
As soon as I was done, I headed back to the reception and asked them to use a machine. While some smartphones, and most notably all Pokedex devices, had the equipment necessary to read the TM and TR, mine didn’t. Nike had already been out all this time and the hardest part had been convincing her to let me read the letter before going to learn the move.
“Calm down, calm down, we’re going.” I tried not to laugh but her excitement was very contagious.
There was also my own childish excitement at doing something that sounded nonsensical from an Earthly point of view. I pointedly ignored that I was carrying three living beings inside balls that could shrink and expand at the press of a button because that was completely normal.
Once we got to the room with the machine, I quickly realized the first hurdle would be to have Nike sit still. After the better part of five minutes trying to hook her up with no success, I opted to instead do it in her ball. On the left, there were electrode-looking cables that could be placed on the Pokemon, but with Nike literally unable to sit still, I opted to use the option on the right. It was a simple depression the size of a Pokeball. As it turned out even returning Nike was a hassle because she kept popping back out.
It took me longer than I would have liked but, in the end, I managed to convince her. I may or may not have pretended to give up for her to behave long enough but it worked out. I returned her for the last time and placed the Premier Ball inside of the depression. It magnetically snapped into place and the screen on the front lit up. From then it was a simple process of opening the compartment and inserting the TR.
I didn’t know what to expect, but I was still disappointed. There was no whir of the machine kicking to life, no loading bar even if that would have been odd in itself. The only thing that appeared on the screen was a brief [Scanning] message before it showed the picture of a Hatenna, and then … nothing. After what I assumed was a check to see if the Pokemon could learn the move, it did its thing but it went so fast that any sense of wonder was dashed. A simple [Success] message was all that greeted me.
That is what you get for getting your hopes up for a childish thing.
It made sense that it was silent and fast given the advanced look of the machine. It didn’t take the sting of disappointment away but there was nothing to do about it.
After a self-deprecating chuckle, I picked up the ball which instantly popped open releasing an even more excited bundle of joy. Only for her to disappear in a flash and reappear off to the side. She looked confused for a second only to pop right back in front of my face. I caught her reflexively and realized what happened.
“You were trying to go on my head?” I asked while containing a laugh. When she nodded it escaped and continued. “It’s okay. We will train with it.”
She managed to restrain herself, but I could already guess that it would be her favorite move for a while. What’s more, it was also approaching a time when it was more reasonable to contact Miss Opal. I tried but I unfortunately got her assistant who told me that she was not available. I opted to leave a message and was told that she would call me back.
With the once-exciting event out of the way, it was time to properly relax. I spent the rest of the day relaxing with Sera when she came back. Mathew also dragged Ally and we had dinner together. We didn’t stay for long though, mainly because Sera wanted to leave early the next day. I would also mark the beginning of the most epic training known to mankind!
We all woke up early, barely after the break of dawn and Mathew was already waiting for Sera in the lobby. None of us wanted to drag things for long, so we opted for shorts, see you later, and set off. To be honest, it felt weird being alone once again, but I quickly shook this off because training was waiting for us.
I quickly made my way toward the connector to the north of the city which will be our main training area for now. In short order, my whole team was arrayed before me. Skoll was already bouncing because he knew what was coming while Tiamat still had her ‘out of it’ expression on her face and Nike was simply smiling and waiting.
“Well team, now we are on our own, which means full-time training for a while. We all have our objectives but let’s recap it for now. Nike, your focus will be on Mystical Fire, because Arceus knows we’ll need it, and I’m guessing you want to play around with Teleport as well. However, don’t forget to train your control, I brought more balls, and we can always buy more if we need them. As soon as Miss Opal comes back, we can work on your evolution, but it might take a while.”
The excited psychic type proceeded to teleport a bit of distance away before trying to summon flames that would obey her will. I glanced at her before moving to the most excited of the bunch.
“Skoll. I know you are excited but don’t forget not to push too much. Regardless we also have our program to work on. The first focus is Brick Break. It is the easiest of the move because it is straightforward. Once that’s done, we can move to Ice Punch like the previous plan and wait for Mathew to help with Drain Punch or Force Palm. That also means it will not be ready for this gym but don’t worry, we have the next one. Are you ready?”
He nodded his head so hard that his aura-sensing organs looked like they were about to fall off. I smiled at that sight and turned toward the newest member.
“Riolu!”
When I heard his cry, I turned back to face Skoll. “What is it?”
Instead of answering me, a coating of white energy enveloped his form before he shot in a direction before coming back to his previous position and looking at me for approval. Thankfully this time it did not take long for me to grasp the meaning of his actions.
“You want to continue training Quick Attack?” I asked, perplexed.
Quick Attack was one of the moves he already had a pretty good grasp on even before I met him. Him suddenly wanting to train this move was not something I was expecting. Then again, he seemed to have awakened a need for speed since whatever Frank did, because that was definitely not driving.
I thought about it for a bit before answering. “I think we can prioritize Brick Break first and after that, you can choose what you want to work on. If you need help, I’ll be around as well.”
That answer seemed to satisfy him since he trotted away as soon as I was done and was already looking for something to break and train on. Then I was finally left with the future terror of a dragon.
“Well then Tiamat, you and I will be working closer than the other two so we can get used to each other. The first order of training will be Mud Shot. Hopefully, it will not take us long but that is the main goal. Now, if we manage to perfect it earlier, we will work on an ace up our sleeve for our gym. Rock Tomb!”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Saying so, I pulled out something that might help us in a pinch. When we helped the Watchog all the way back before Virbank, Sera and I each got a fire gem and an additional one. Initially, I had the Ground Gem since I wanted to empower at least one ground-type move. But with Sera discovering her fossil, we decided to switch. That way her Tirtouga will have an easier time getting used to Ground type energy while Tiamat would get accustomed to the Rock type energy.
Given how close both types seemed to be, we didn’t think that we would necessarily need it but having it would make it easier if we needed it. So, we simply switched. I was honestly hoping to be able to teach Rock Tomb to Tiamat, but we could do it even without it.
“Now then, time to get to it!” I declared.
With that, the most productive training session as of yet was launched.
---
As it turned out, time seemed to really fly when you keep yourself busy. Before I knew it, two and a half weeks went by without me paying attention to it. Some trainers think of staying put for this long as a waste of time you could have spent exploring or facing gyms, but I disagree because the gains we got as a team were out of what we were used to.
Our three weeks consisted of mainly training outside of the city with the occasional battle here and there to keep everyone on their toes. Between the training and real situation fight, everyone got used to each other. Skoll also finally came around and spent more time outside of his capsule than just training. Also, despite having the funds to sustain us for way more than I needed to, I still decided to take some Requests here and there to keep some money flowing in.
As a team, my three Pokemon got a lot closer to the others. I also decided to buy a TM for Protect. It was one of the most affordable TM, partially sponsored by the league to encourage safety among trainers. So now the whole team was outfitted with a brand-new defensive move. I opted for one with not too much proficiency this time around. A TM with the move at a too weak proficiency would have been cheaper but also almost useless for us. On the other hand, an expensive one would have been almost perfected but that would also mean they would have less room for improvement. It’s not to say that it would have been impossible, but having knowledge of a perfect Protect would kind of stifle their personal improvement of the move. By working to perfect it ourselves we might stumble on something less useful for everyone but perfect for the individual team members. That is also why I opted for the reusable TM rather than the single-use TR.
On the training side of things, I noticed that at some point they started to train in groups. One of such group training was Skoll dashing around Tia with Quick Attack to help her get used to faster foes. Nike also joined this training from time to time to get more used to Teleport. She was far from the moment she would be able to teleport us around, but we were getting there.
Funnily enough, Skoll reminded me that he was also learning Detect which honestly slipped my mind. That was why I was surprised when Nike started to orbit her training orbs further from herself with Skoll being right in the path with his eyes closed. He had to dodge them and when he was hit, she had to quickly correct the movement of the ball to resume as soon as possible. I also joined in and snatched some out of the air before throwing in another one in an awkward orbit.
The reason we were able to do this was because Nike was able to control more training balls simultaneously. Over the course of the three weeks, she gradually increased her control to six balls at the same time. And that was the extended orbit which was already harder to control. For the normal one, I had no idea what her limit was because it was more than the ten balls I bought at the time. I could have bought more to test the limit, but we figured that for now it was good enough.
Now the individual, planned training is where things got really, and I mean really juicy.
First off, Tiamat. The little bugger held nothing back to prove to her seniors that she will surpass them if they were not careful. Mud Shot? Easy as pie. Before the end of the first week, she had the move mastered to the same degree as Mud-Slap. Rock Tomb? Done and dusted without even the need for the Rock Gem. It did take more time to figure the Rock-type energy out but that went swimmingly. The speed was also at a point where it could be used in battle.
Bulldoze is where things got a bit dicey surprisingly. She kept rearing too high before using the move, and one of our opponents took advantage of that during one of the matches. After that, she tried to adapt but still had to spend more time that we were both comfortable on her hind legs. Still, in the end, we managed to reduce the time to when the opponent would need to be close to take advantage of the opening, which would also put them in range for her jaw to latch on.
Interestingly, we tried on the fly to narrow the effect and we ended up with something that looked suspiciously close to Earth Power. A bit of research proved us right and we were already making plans to be able to blast Elesa with our new move in Nimbasa.
Then we have Skoll, and I honestly was not wrong when I called him a madman. It took him no time to figure out Brick Break before he started having fun with his Quick Attack. Then he also managed to figure out Detect, which I guess we could say that Nike helped. And between all of that, he also managed to make some progress on Ice Punch. It was not ready yet, but he managed to grasp some understanding of the Ice-type energy. The result was an impressive way to cool the air around his fist.
Most of his improvement, however, came in the form of his attitude. He was finally hanging out with the rest of us and we all got progressively closer. The distance that he seemed to want to maintain around us finally fell away and we were finally a team. And as if to prove the improvement of our bond I started to feel some bumps on the back of his paws. If it was what I thought it was, his monstrous tendencies would only get stronger.
Finally, we have the resident princess of the team. And her progress was the most impressive despite not having new moves to show off. First was her control over psychic energy. The training we were doing seemed to be perfectly adapted for. The number of training balls she could keep stable only grew and as I said earlier, we ran out of balls to judge her limit. Her finer control also meant that she was able to help with the chores which I supported wholeheartedly.
Utility aside, she soon noticed that having the balls further made them harder to control so she promptly did it resulting in her mixed training with Skoll. Then came her training of the moves. Confusion and Play Nice fell off to the side of her focus due to the other. Play Nice wasn’t an issue since we almost never used it but confusion was a bit concerning. She had a more powerful psychic move with Psybeam but confusion was also a nice step to build up to Psychic, the move, so we would probably go back to it.
Psybeam and Disarming Voice fell into a similar category together. Both were moves that she could fire consistently with minimal start-up time, so her focus ended up on variability. She could opt to fire them even faster but with less power behind them or decide to go for a normal one. An eventual empowered version was being worked on, but we had only so much time. Disarming Voice was also more interesting in that we could somewhat narrow the damaging range to hit a single target now. This was what I considered our first true variation of a move.
Her most impressive progress was with Mystical Fire, the move going from ‘usable’ to ‘has to be used’. While we did not have a Fire Gem this time around, firing the move repeatedly did wonders to improve it. The purplish fire now answered her beck and call every time she wished for it. We even met a couple of fire types that could learn to control fire as she did even if they were outliers.
Finally, we have her new favorite toy in Teleport. We had a few accidents when she got too excited, but no one was hurt. The knowledge instilled by the record made sure that at least would not teleport in the ground or similar situation, but fine-tuning the distance she wanted to teleport took a bit of figuring out. We weren’t sure if it could be used in battle reliably, especially with the pressure during gym, but so far it has been mostly positive. She did teleport out of bounds once though.
On a somewhat sour note, but not really, Miss Opal refused to answer our question. She also made us realize that just because we had our number didn’t mean that we could ask her everything. I admit I didn’t even notice that I became somewhat dependent on her feedback before making decisions which she gladly pointed out. Even after all was said and done, she asked us if we wanted her opinion, but we rejected it which seemed to please her. We decided to only ask her if it was an emergency from now on. although we would still call her from time to time brag but that was another story.
We decided with Nike to not force her evolution. It would happen when she was ready and that was all there was to it. I didn’t miss that the reason she was fine with it was probably because she had Teleport to keep away but did not mention it.
Battling also became smoother in my opinion because sometimes I would make a bad call which they would occasionally correct by themselves, or attack without leaving a gap even when I did not explicitly tell them to. I had no working non-verbal command with Tia, so it was also something to work on. Also, we renewed our win streak after Arnold broke it.
Another positive side of the three-week break was that I was more emotionally stable. Caitlin did warn me that I would be having a lot of emotional outbursts, but it was not until I looked back at some of my actions that I truly realized how it affected me. Thankfully, she was also right in saying that it would be mostly temporary.
All in all, a pretty productive three weeks. Tomorrow would mark the end of the rush with Sera and Mathew coming back before we would face the gym.
---
Waking up today was not difficult because I had been pretty excited. Today the two weirdos I traveled with were coming back and with a new Pokemon in tow. Yes, Sera was lucky enough to be able to revive the fossil. We stayed in touch over the weeks, but it was inconsistent given that they were on the move. She did send me a picture of the little Tirtouga eating but refused to send me a video because she wanted me to witness it in person.
So, when they passed through the doors of the Pokemon Center, I was reasonably excited. I mean it’s fossil Pokemon, who doesn’t like fossil Pokemon?
“Hey, took you guys a while!” I said in greetings.
Both of them seemed in relatively good shape given the travel they went through.
“Yeah, sorry that not all of us had the opportunity to sit back and relax for nearly a month.” Sera jabbed.
“You wound me,” I said while clutching my heart in exaggeration. “Also, we were training, not relaxing. Get your facts straight.”
Mathew was just chuckling at the side failing to mask his amusement. “At least things are never boring with you guys.”
After that, we settled down in a sitting area just to catch up. Although we all pointedly avoided asking questions regarding the gym battle to keep the surprise for tomorrow. Then we finally moved on to the main topic, or rather individual.
“Let me warn you, she is rather shy so don’t take it to heart too much.” She said while holding a Pokeball.
She threw said ball before it pooped open and released a small form onto the ground. The blue turtle slowly blinked her eyes and looked up at us. I did as I was told and avoided getting too close, simply taking her form in. An almost rock-like blue carapace covered her body, while her hide-like skin seemed to shine as if it was permanently wet.
It didn’t take long for the small Pokemon to analyze the situation and spot an unfamiliar face. She hurriedly, for her, made her behind Sera who was in the front, and slowly poked her head out. Sera lowered herself to calm her Pokemon down but before she did, an inquisitive psychic type slowly floated in front of the new Pokemon.
Nike being Nike it took barely a few seconds for Tirtouga to come around and lightly play with. Maybe it had something to do with Nike’s size being closer to her own. I lowered myself and tried to project calm emotion toward her while moving slowly so as to not frighten her. Slowly, I managed to convince her to let me get closer and pet her as well.
“That is simply not fair.” I heard Sera grumble behind me. “Do you know how long it took me to be able to pet her regularly even though she imprinted on me?”
“All I hear is skill issue,” I answered, content to let the amusement spill into my voice.
After this mini-meeting, we went to book our turn in the gym battle. The break we took also meant that we escaped the rush of trainers who were fighting gyms after gyms, meaning the wait time was getting shorter. Heck, one of us could have fought in today’s slot but we refrained. We both had a spot in the later part of the morning, with me going first because “it’s only fair since I went first against Cheren.” That was Sera’s argument.
After that, we went back to the Pokemon center where we slowly introduced the rest of my team to the skittish Pokemon before just enjoying ourselves for the rest of the day. We were tempted to battle but decided to refrain in the end. After all, we had a gym battle early the next day.