"-ut Magby just won't listen you know." A girl around my age explained.
Today was my dentist appointment so I was just in the blue and white waiting room with a couple kids around my age who were willing to talk. The posters were pretty funny because there were a couple cartoonish Girafarig and Mawile that were shown to be brushing their teeth.
"Well, Alice, my mom and Professor Oak always say that when you have issues with your Pokemon then you should always try to talk it out. That advice really helped me because my Ralts didn't want to evolve anytime soon but she thought that I would've kicked her off the team if I found out. I talked with her and now she wears an everstone until she's ready. Have you had a heart to heart with Magby?" I said.
She looked down at her lap, since we were sitting down, and took a bit before she shook her head.
"Well... not really. I guess I've just been telling her stuff instead of listening."
"Well, now that you know what you did wrong you can at least go and talk with Magby. Does your mom have her pokeball?"
She then nodded before running off to her mom who was talking with a couple adults, including my mom, about school and politics; why would anyone talk about that stuff it's like the two most boring conversations you could be talking about.
I'm in a pretty upbeat mood since the dentist said that there weren't any cavities in my teeth and now mom's trying to schedule a later appointment for something so now I basically have to be in the city at that due date, which wouldn't really be that hard since its only like two or three months in the future. Something about my teeth needing to be aligned after all my baby teeth fall out, I didn't really get most of what the dentist said.
I was also pretty happy because of what happened with Striker.
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Before
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I woke up at 8 like usual, heading over to the bathroom and moving Pearl into my room while I brushed my teeth and stuff before getting out and greeting Elian who now woke up at around the same time as I did since we'd been traveling together for the past couple weeks.
Me and mom wouldn't actually be heading out to the dentist till 11am so I took the opportunity to make some breakfast.
I was on my way into the kitchen when I spotted mom with a hand in a cookie jar and very wide eyes looking back at me. She took a moment to look around before addressing me.
"...Don't tell your grandfather!"
Of course, because this was such good blackmailing material, I then immediately asked for some ice cream after the appointment for my current team and also to head off and do some training with Striker and Starmie's help. She, of course, accepted the offer and almost immediately I forgot what just happened.
Ten minutes later I was heading over to the edge of town with five Pokemon, two that didn't technically belong to me since they were legally mom's, and a chipper attitude to really start the day. Lupa was previously handed over to the move tutor guy, who had a glowing recommendation by Nurse Joy and a general feeling of trustworthiness, and he said to give him about an hour to begin the process of learning Thunder Fang.
Most move tutors were weird like that, they could teach you any move that might even remotely be usable by their own Pokemon but most of the time they would only give a barebones version so that the trainer themselves could experiment and see if the cost of training the move is less than the benefits of maintaining another move. It also kinda sucks how if a non-electric type wanted to use electric moves than their only options were Thunder Fang and Thunder Punch since Volt Tackle was Pikachu-line exclusive and mainly electric types get moves like Wild Charge, Nuzzle, and Volt Switch.
Anyway, that wasn't what I should be focusing on but instead on two very important things.
Having sufficiently gotten as far away as possible from the outskirts of civilization to have some proper privacy I begin to explain the current training plan. The place was sufficiently open enough for multiple people to have their teams out and about while still having privacy with the trees everywhere and blocking the view for anybody passing by the area.
"So, Pearl, you're gonna try to learn Brine with Starmie just to get the salt effect, since it's basically a stronger Water Gun with a twist. Leaf, continue practicing Flame Charge but use Rain Dance to weaken it first- I can't believe it took me this long to come up with that. Striker's with me to test something out & Dee-Dee can just hang around and do whatever." Everyone readily nodded except for Striker who had a questioning gaze as he knew I asked specifically for him for something.
Once the three Pokemon began their training, I took the other two- because Dee-Dee was gonna follow my little plan- over to a open patch that didn't have any rain falling down on it.
"So Striker, like last time I want you to use Wing Attack." He easily did so, with one wing and a little nub which was on his left side. "Alright, now try to use Wing Attack to how it used to be when you had both wings." This was more tricky and the dragon began growling from the focus he was maintaining while doing the task.
Ultimately he succeeded.
"Great! Now move it to how you would when you're gliding in the air!" I yell at him. Striker snorted but began shifting the massive blue tinted wings to curve a little.
"Perfect! Now look down!" Maybe it was how different the command was but Striker blinked in confusion before actually looking down at the trees.
And I do mean trees.
Once his mind caught up with him, he yelped and lost focus on his Wing Attack and began rapidly falling to the ground- which would've been painful if Dee-Dee hadn't used Psychic to grab hold of him again.
"Okay, now get him down gently." I say to Dee-Dee, who didn't need the command since she was halfway done with the task.
I run up to his new location which was a good ten meters from where he had started, and as the rain from Rain Dance was splashing down on us I got to see the dragon type's expression.
Even if he didn't have a humanoid face, it was obvious to tell when someone was in disbelief and shock. By the time Dee-Dee had caught up while holding the egg, Striker had finally snapped out of it. He looked at us for a second before doing the cry-laugh thing that Tabs did back when I caught her and stomped over to glomp Dee-Dee and I in a big dragon hug.
Very much known fact about the Bagon line: they dream of flying since the very moment they hatch and if a trainer can turn a Bagon and Shelgon into a Salamence then that trainer gets that dragon's trust and loyalty for all time, unless that trainer goofs up big time. Having lost his wings means that he lost the most important part of being a Salamence... other than losing his trainer.
Dee-Dee was giving highly sympathetic pats on his neck while I was scratching the scales under his chin at just the spot mom always says he likes.
Soon, a deep croon resonated from the dragon type and he shifted back a step to fix us with a determined gaze.
Well... I still have a good forty minutes before I have to go back and get Lupa. Might as well use them.
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After
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The morning after the dentist appointment was the same. Except for one detail.
Elian had decided to leave yesterday with a group of trainers heading over to Dark City. It had been a pretty sad 'see you later' but we had a lot of fun doing one last battle. I won but that was because I decided to counter Paras and Dill with Leaf whose Leaf Guard ability made status inflicting moves useless against her and Abra against Lupa who had Snarl. Even then I still needed to use Pearl and was down to two Pokemon by the end of it, with one poisoned and the other heavily exhausted. Being a Gloom brought massive power behind each of Dill's attacks.
Now I had the opportunity to go and challenge the ninja academy, which was basically a trainer challenge thing like what I heard the Bellsprout tower does for beginner trainers.
We were still frustratingly close yet far from perfecting a workable Flame Charge but my hope is that by having Leaf attempt it in the coming fights with a bunch of Pokemon while under the effects of normal weather, rainy weather from Rain Dance, and finally sunny weather from Sunny Day it would be the catalyst that would allow Leaf to finally get it down.
It would be the perfect counter against fairy, bug, ice, and steel types with half those typings being super effective against her. If we could just get it to work.
I was already heading over to the academy since mom was sleeping in today and since grandpa had nothing better to do he decided to tag along with me just to see how I battle. Then he's gonna show me how to play something called mahjong and checkers.
"You might not realize it but you can find out a lot about another trainer when you battle them in high level matches, and to a lesser extent any sort of activity that requires the mind. Not basic stuff like another persons birthday or favorite color but instead stuff like their general personality and the way they deal with conflicts and issues. That was actually how I found out that I really liked your grandmother, heh, when she trounced my a- butt." he hastily amended.
I didn't know that since grandpa usually talked about what grandma was like after they got married. I still teased him about losing to grandma.
By the time we finished walking to our destination, we were at least a solid two kilometers away from the city over to where Elian said he managed to find the place since it was notorious for occasionally changing location, just like the challenge Janine had for trainers with six or more badges.
It wasn't a noteworthy building, almost entirely made using bamboo and wood. There was a door we could go through but it was obvious that the guy behind the door had noticed us and was getting others ready for the challenge.
Sliding the bamboo door aside showed a simple room with only minimal items strewn about. Some bowls of katsudon which implied we were interrupting breakfast, a tv, and some notebooks.
The guy who was talking to the other people that were just here was evidently a woman.
She bowed in greeting before addressing us "Greetings and welcome to the ninja academy. I must assume that the young one is either enrolling or doing the challenge Mr Morgan."
Grandpa waved her off "Please, Mr Morgan was my father. I'd rather be called 'Dr Supreme Overlord of all Humankind' Morgan, might make a poor fool believe that half that hogwash might be true. And my grandson here wishes to do the challenge since he's on his journey right now."
The lady nodded and quickly addressed me. "Well young man, seeing as how you wish to challenge the students of Fuchsia ninja academy I have to inform you of all the rules and regulations. Please sit down and jot down any points you believe you might find confusing." Then she began talking about how the challenge was meant to go once she confirmed that I had two badges.
Basically it was a big hide and seek where I had to find six trainers hiding and all of them would challenge me in a battle so it was probably a good idea I bought those ethers from the store yesterday. The hiding places would all be in a kilometer radius so they might hide in the ground or somewhere else. The challenge would persist until I either gave up or until four hours had passed. Once I found each one of the ninjas I would then battle them in a two v two. If I managed to get at least three then I'd win a random prize, beating four gave me better options from the prize pool, and getting five let me have a random pool between TM's and battle items, while six would allow me to pick any two prizes that they had onsite.
I didn't have to re~ally worry. I'm pretty good at hide and seek.
Once the challenge officially began I sent out Lupa to sniff the bowls of food and get us towards the area with the least trainers so that the team could have a higher chance to recover from their exhaustion early on. The ninja lady gave a weird smile at my actions which gave me more than enough incentive to follow through with it, the smile could've been for the guy I was singling out after all.
We got to the south side of the building and began walking in that direction to find out that the ninja we were following had masked their scent. It was only a minor setback since I easily sent back Lupa and swapped him for Leaf since she had slightly better eyesight than the rock typed canine.
Eventually we stumbled across a dude who looked a little older than me in the trees and pointed at him. He noticed and quickly came down from the tree, putting the book he was reading away.
"Mou, you found me so quickly." He stated more than asked.
I was still obliged to give an answer though "Yeah, it was pretty easy to follow the scent you had before you erased it, then we just followed the general direction and looked for hints along the way."
He hummed and nodded before pulling out a pokeball from seemingly nowhere and easily tossing it out. The light coalesced into a bipedal shape and in front of me was the evolved version of a Snubbull. A Granbull
"Pakkun, prepare for battle."
This was the perfect opportunity for Leaf.
"Leaf show off your newest move, we'll mainly be using it to attack for this battle alright." and she easily nodded as she jogged in front of me to stance up into battle position.
He picked up kunai from somewhere and tossed it into the air randomly, only it wasn't random and it landed on a rock nearby with a distinct tink noise.
"Mean Look into Scary Face, stop any escape."
"Duo 3, then attack"
Since I wasn't gonna bother switching to Pearl or Lupa for this battle I was able to get a pretty good head start into the fight as my grass type used Double Team and Agility at the same time. She didn't even need my prompting to begin circling the enemy Snubbull who lost track of which Leaf was which and fired Scary Face off on the wrong one. It was then that Leaf ran right at the fairy type and was sparking an orangish red before tackling the opposing Pokemon, a grunt escaping her due to the pain.
The other dude merely sharply inhaled before nodding and grunting. Pakkun, who was previously shouting from pain, stopped in its tracks and ran to get Leaf in an Ice Fang. Leaf on the other hand dodged back using Quick Attack which gave me the chance to observe the black burn marks on her body, fewer than before but more than we hoped for.
"...This won't working. Return." And with that Pakkun was sent back. Though Leaf wouldn't be able to against whatever is sent next.
"Sneasel, out and Claws." Maybe that's just a shortened order for Hone Claws? Well whatever.
"Attack again, but DT and SD" I accidentally forgot to make an order for using Double Team and Sunny Day at the same time. Leaf rolled with it though.
As Sneasel was making with the claw scratching, Leaf went behind a tree and two of her alongside a bright orb of light came out.
"Take that Leafeon down."
Now with even more speed to her already fast baseline, Leaf began circling the Sneasel in a green blur which quickly became bright orange-red again. Sneasel aimed an Icy Wind to slow down its opponent only for it to be ineffective against the sun boosted fire type move, though the ice move had popped the double. Really, Leaf shouting from pain was mainly attributed from the fire move being too hot- I had palmed Dee-Dee's ball and almost ordered her out because of the cry. Almost immediately, she rushes at the Sneasel in what I believe 'll be a one hit knockout.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Sneasel instead accurately blocks the attack with a dark move of some kind- maybe Knock Off- and manages to outmuscle the flaming bullet that was Leaf. Her Flame Charge cut out as she was tossed away from the blow but she quickly got up and had the Oran Berry I gave her so what Sneasel used probably wasn't Knock Off. Either way, it meant that somehow the Sneasel was stronger than Leaf by a wide margin if she couldn't blow past it.
"Leaf use Duo 3 again, if you can't outmuscle then just outspeed."
"Taunt"
Leaf had already begun the process of using Double Team and Agility but the energies fizzled out pretty quickly. The bad part was that Leaf had gone from calm to extremely angry. The worst part was that Ice Shard's that had been fired and scored shallow hits on her flank as she moved to dodge them.
"Leaf use Duo 1 to strike, then try doing it again but instead use the fire version"
She had already begun running towards Sneasel going back into a green blur but with hints of white as the Trailblaze-Quick Attack combo was used to bash into Sneasel who, this time, couldn't move fast enough to dodge or block the attack.
It slammed backwards into a tree but had already begun getting up and firing some slightly melting Ice Shards but they were ineffective as Leaf blurred through them while on fire. Although this time there was no shout of pain as something in Quick Attack was helping with keeping Flame Charge from hurting her. Definitely gonna have to confirm that later.
Right now. Sneasel's on the ground face down from taking a super effective strike to the body.
The other dude merely hummed and returned Sneasel before taking a look at Leaf who was panting from exhaustion and pain. He and I both noticed that there were no new black marks. He then looked at me to find the same conclusion.
That whatever Leaf just did to learn the actual Flame Charge had worked- and with Pokemon- that meant that it could be replicated once, twice, or even a hundred times if it was required.
He then shrugged and sent out a slightly rested Pakkun, maybe not to win but to definitely tire out one of my original partners.
I was proven correct when he informed the fairy type "Sneasel's down, make this difficult for them. Dig."
Even though Leaf managed to snag them with a quick Razor Leaf, Snubbull managed to get down into the dirt. Maybe against Woody or Beedrill this might've worked but with Leaf it was just...
"Fire off Swift into the hole. A whole ton of it."
Once the majority of the flying stars went down the hole it was only a matter of time unti-
The Granbull was blown out of the ground right behind Leaf before falling down back onto the ground. Leaf then ran right at the fairy type while using a Quick Attack to finish it off only for it to fizzle out of existence
We got duped.
Right underneath Leaf, our opponent was lunging with another Ice Fang. And with no way to dodge we couldn't stop it. Unless...
"Leaf use Flame Charge! Full Power!" I yelled.
Leaf followed the order dutifully and with the boost of power from the sunny field helping all fire moves the Flame Charge was bigger than ever before.
And this time, there was no shout of pain.
With its ice move nullified by the fire, Leaf quickly cut the attack positioned herself to hit the fairy type with an overhead Iron Tail. Pakkun had slammed down onto the ground.
It was obvious that it was knocked out.
The other guy just grunted before returning his Pokemon. I was slightly busy sending out Dee-Dee and getting a Burn Heal and a Potion.
Leaf didn't mind that the two of us began immediately working together to heal her of her injuries but was instead really happy by the pampering.
"Hey Leaf," my second bff yipped in reply "I think you just figured out how to use Flame Charge. Great job."
After we were done I gave her a new Oran Berry and sent her, along with Dee-Dee, back into the pokeball.
The ninja dude was already walking over to the shack with a book in hand.
It was pretty easy catching up to him since he wasn't even walking that fast and my pokegear showed that only twenty minutes had passed since this challenge had started. So long as I kept this pattern up, then I'd probably be able to find the other ninjas before the third hour had passed.
Ninja dude was only willing to give short answers whenever I asked stuff so by the time we had finished walking to the shack it had been in silence.
The lady sighed when she saw that the other kid was there but became surprised when he handed a slip and sat down to eat a bowl of cold katsudon. I wasn't paying all too much attention as I sent out Leaf again and instructed her with sitting down and resting until later use. Having around a little less than half an hour of rest should be enough for her to be fighting fit. I thought about sending out Dee-Dee since I wasn't gonna use her and I'd rather leave some company for gramps but that was incorrect since I needed her Heal Pulse in case things get dicey like with Leaf.
I sent Lupa back out and he began sniffing again to find the others as well. Turns out that the other five had all went in the same general direction so I'll maybe find a couple together before I can head back.
It turns out that I was right in that I'd find a couple of them together. One was hiding in the dirt while the other had taken residence in a nearby pond. One got surprised by Lupa digging her up while the other got shocked by Pearl sinking down to say hello... and maybe splash an underground Water Gun at 'em.
They were pretty peeved about the way I found them.
The problem about having only three battle Pokemon is that eventually I'm gonna have to fight with a type advantage due to having too little teammates to do anything about.
So it was really unfortunate that one had a Houndour and Shuckle while the other had a Beedrill and Murkrow with the only battling Pokemon I had available were Pearl and Lupa who I used. Also the Houndour one wanted to fight Pearl since she spooked them while the Beedrill one wanted to sic her Beedrill on Lupa.
Suffice to say the battles were pretty quick.
I'm nearly an hour into the challenge and already got half the ninjas. Though apparently there was someone called 'Hatake-san' who I had to be really worried about because he's the strongest ninja trainee here.
My team was mildly exhausted and at this point the scent of the other ninjas would be too weak for Lupa to sniff out so I made a tactical decision to make the team relax for about ten minutes or so under Dee-Dee's care. Definitely not to spend some time talking to grandpa and the egg so I could rest my feet for a bit, the uneven terrain and loose dirt certainly hadn't been killer on my ankles.
Somewhat rested up, I took the team with me to go in the general direction of the ninjas and began searching from there.
The rest seemingly were by themselves now since the guy we found was northwards when our previous finds were in the east and west of the wooden hut.
He only had an Arbok and Magikarp. Arbok didn't have Fire Fang to counter Iron Tail.
Another was southwards.
He was pretty bad at the ninja hidey thing. But...
"Machoke u~se Cross Chop then Low Kick!"
"Lupa, Rocky Guard. Then jump and use Thunder Fang."
His Rocky Guard broke easily enough to the fighting type attack but it gave the rock type canine enough time to get another bite in with a mild amount of electricity to course through the Machoke.
It worked. The fighting type was now paralyzed.
"Now Machoke, use your burning determination to break your gates with a Close Combat!"
Oh no, Guts!
"Get outta there, Double Team and Rocky Guard."
It was a fruitless endeavor. Lupa and his two clones got caught in the mishmash of punches and kicks.
He didn't get up.
"Return, that was a good run pal."
Machoke was now paralyzed though and since Lupa had already dealt with his extremely loud Noibat it was up to Leaf to take him down.
"Ready up Leaf." Which was codeword for 'start with Mud Slap'
Soon as she came on the field she had thrown a batch of mud right at Machoke's eyes, temporarily blinding the fighting type, before she capitalized with a Quick Attack, Iron Tail, and Leaf Blade combo.
It was annoying how Machoke actually seemed to battle better without any eyesight than with, seeing as how the fighting type managed to dodge the attack Leaf used and stopped the follow up Leaf Blade and Iron Tail combo with another use of Close Combat.
Aside from that first guy, every battle except this dudes been a relatively easy experience so maybe he's this Hatake-san everyone.
"HAHAHA! Show him your blinding youth Machoke!" ...or maybe the last guy will be Hatake-san since this guy doesn't really seem like a ninja.
"Leaf, Swift into Duo 2."
As Machoke somehow managed to run at exactly where Leaf was, the Leafeon decided to fire Swift from her mouth. The massive body of Machoke once again dodged the starry attack.
It didn't dodge the follow-up.
And with that, Machoke had finally choked and I could put my all into finding the real Hatake-san.
"Brilliant job Machoke, now team, we must train even harder so that we can aim to be stronger! One hundred laps around the forest, GO! But first, the slip!"
I tried to ask that for directions on where the last ninja might be but all I got to see was him and his two Pokemon running back to the hut in blinding speeds, a trail of dust obscuring the rest of his team.
Well... I better get on with finding the last ninja since Leaf and Pearl are still fresh.
After I heal up Lupa of course, I'd be a bad trainer if I ignored his injuries just because of the nature of the pokeball and its injury freezing effect or whatever.
This last guy was probably anywhere in the forest at this point so I made sure that Lupa was out on sniffing duty for any sort of scent while Leaf and I kept a lookout for any ninjas running on trees.
We spent a whole hour walking like that, going in a clockwise of the hut and making sure to look at every nook and cranny of the forest for any hidey holes.
At this point, I give up. Five out of the six is a good number to achieve so the odds of me getting a TM for Sand Attack is probably really low.
I sent out the whole team and took a leisurely walk finally being able to enjoy the scenery and look at the wild animals and Pokemon. On the right of us, Fly's were being caught by Spinarak and Ariados webs. And on the right, there were a few Poliwag playing in a pond.
It was only when we reached the hut that I realized that I am a big doo-doo butt.
The last ninja wasn't away from the hut.
They were hiding on top of the hut.
I asked Dee-Dee to psychically grab me and bring me to the roof of the hut. Lo and behold, the last ninja who's probably the one everyone says will wipe the floor with me.
He's pretty surprised to see me but he masks it pretty quickly and jumps off the building to run away.
He doesn't get far. Dee-Dee grabs him.
Once I get down with some help and head on over to him he stops struggling and just sighs before tossing out a pokeball, being let down now that I was near him.
It opens with a pop hiss sound to reveal a... Misdreavus. Thankfully, its caught and I just saw him release the ghost type otherwise I'd probably try and run away from it.
I send forward Leaf since Pearl had gotten poisoned for the third time today when she was against that Arbok so I'd rather keep her back to finish off any opponents.
"Shadow Ball."
"Duo 4, use Quick Attack to boost your speed but don't use it to attack."
Leaf had already struck away the orb of ghost type energy that the Misdreavus had thrown using the combo of Leaf Blade and Iron Tail which gave me an idea when the ball didn't immediately blow up but then little ghost had decided it would be the best option to use Growl. The cutesy sound cutting Leaf's attack power before she hit Misdreavus with the combo attack.
Deciding to cut my losses, I told Leaf to use Duo 3 before Misdreavus could use Taunt or Disable. The ghost type instead used another normal type sound move that lowered Leaf's stats again despite her using Double Team and Misdreavus not even facing the direction of the right Leafeon. It wasn't Growl because you still did need to face the opponent when using that specific status move.
Leaf also saw that it was the perfect opportunity to attack again and whipped up another Duo 4 but Misdreavus used a purple and red colored move right as Leaf began converging.
"Wait Leaf! It might be Destiny Bond." The ghost type move used was a favorite of Agatha's and practically every ghost type can learn how to use it..
Though I was proven incorrect when the ghost energy turned into a trio of floating flames.
That moment of hesitation meant that Misdreavus had plenty of time to make the flames wash over the clones of Double Team and the actual Leaf.
Her already low attack having been weakened even further by the burn meant that her next hit didn't do a lot of damage to the Misdreavus but the follow up Mud Slap decreased the ghost types accuracy.
The other guy decided to cut his losses seeing that his next order was. "Weaken. Make that Leafeon fresh meat for Mightyena."
Whatever moves they're planning to use it's clear that we definitely we don't want them to happen, maybe they're more status moves.
The Misdreavus decided to faint.
I'm not even joking. It used a ghost move, and probably said some mean words, and just fainted.
I was also right in thinking that it was a status move. And Mightyena is a common enough Pokemon that everyone in Indigo, Hoenn, and Sinnoh remembers what their abilities can be.
Intimidate, Quick Feet, and Moxie. And with the way this guy was acting, it was probably the dreaded Moxie; an ability that increased a Pokemon's attack and gave them a slight boost of energy with each opponent beaten.
The dark type came out just as I was pressing the button to return Leaf, resetting all her stat changes and leaving it all to Pearl. The only problem was that the return function didn't work no matter how many times I sent the beam of light to collide with Leaf.
So, there was a Mightyena with the Moxie ability facing off against a heavily debuffed Leaf.
Okay. Try not to freak out.
"Double Team then Trailblaze, if it connects then Swift."
Where there were four Leafeon's on the field there were now six, which was slightly odd because of the minimal increase, all running right at Mightyena.
"Odor Sleuth to find it then SP."
The dark type used its snout to smell the correct Leafeon before standing very still. Alarm bells were ringing but Leaf was way too close to order a retreat.
She ran in a green outlined shape ready to tackle only to get socked in the jaw, causing her body to fly to the side. Mightyena chased Leaf with some very fiery fangs but a quick use of Double Kick hit the snout of the dark type dealing little damage despite the super effective hit. It gave Leaf time to get her legs under her and move away from the dark type.
"Do Swift then Trio 3, cripple it as well!"
"Detect then Fire Fang."
Frustratingly, the dark type managed to dodge a very quick, and small, use of Swift and began advancing on Leaf who sat on her hind paws and began using Growl, Baby-Doll Eyes, and Tail Whip so that she could harshly lower the attack and lower the defense of Mightyena. For some odd reason she was having a lot of trouble with managing to use her moves so she took some time before she fired off her status moves on Mightyena. The dark type simply did like any good dog and followed the orders of its trainer, but it was plain to see the stat drops that occurred from it looking only at Leaf as it bulled over to the grass type.
She quickly sheathed herself in flame as well, which seriously spooked the ninja guy but didn't really faze the Mightyena, before trying to gain enough momentum to at least do a little damage. They collided in flames and fur as both stopped the other from advancing from their spot on the battlefield.
The dark type definitely got off the worst in the initial exchange but one simple snap of jaws and Leaf was down. And that included the effects placed on her, one of which was probably Mean Look. Only then was it possible to return her, though I didn't miss how her muscles stopped clenching super hard once she fainted.
That's the second time she's gotten hit with Mean Look today. But this guy did it way better. Maybe this is the Hatake-san everyone was badgering on about.
Well whatever. Pearl enters the field and immediately the other guy face faults.
...Something tells me that he doesn't have a lot of options against long range opponents with his Mightyena.
That something was correct because immediately starting the battle with a Water Gun had the Mightyena pushed back. It managed to dodge the three different Confuse Ray's that Pearl aimed at it but it couldn't dodge the Water Gun's that would follow-up without getting hit if it wanted to get close. It still tried to get really close with what I assume is Sucker Punch but it didn't really have any way to deal damage after Pearl used Iron Defense and a subsequent Rain Dance which was frankly overkill in my opinion. Brine was still too unpracticed for us to actually use it and hope for an effect but Pearl still spewed a smattering of salty water that caused Mightyena to momentarily scrunch their nose.
The other dude still tried his best but ultimately, since Mightyena didn't know Thunder Fang... or any ranged option for that matter, Pearl quite easily won having hit Mightyena only once with Water Gun.
A fact the other guy wasn't too happy about seeing as he trudged into the ninja hut.
I followed after Pearl and Leaf got healed. It was good that I had the foresight to bring a couple bottles of burn heals as well.
Soon, I entered the building with all seven ninjas inside along with grandpa. Turns out that everybody aside from the ninja guy I just fought were watching TV. Once everybody noticed me enter, and the last dude I fought gave a slip of paper to the ninja lady, did everyone present give me some polite clapping.
"Well congratulations young man. You're officially the second trainer to complete the full challenge this season, please come with me to retrieve your prize." Then the ninja lady began walking further into the hut which was strange since from the outside it doesn't look that big.
She briefly sent out a Venomoth which used a move or something and suddenly we were in a warehouse filled with items.
I was stunned by whatever just happened so I wasn't prepared for us to keep moving along, which the ninja lady did. I yelped a bit as I power-walked to her side and we proceeded to an area of the warehouse that held something major.
Held Items and TM's.
The vastly different items and devices were on one side while the other held discs in all different colors.
From memory I could remember that the umbrella could prevent weather effects on the user and that the black sludge could heal poison types. The TM's on the other hand I couldn't make heads or tail out of due to them not being coded or numbered which meant I only knew their typing.
Ninja lady then decided to speak up. "I understand that this is a somewhat difficult decision for you so I shall hand out a list of what is available for trainers of your current badge level, though your strength might currently succeed it." and then she handed me a slip.
Looking through it informs me that I'm not getting anything as powerful as Thunder or as dangerous as Toxic but I still have access to Thunderbolt, Magical Leaf, and moves similar to that. Thankfully I have access to Toxic Spikes and Protect which a lot of the team will appreciate having access to.
I inform the lady as much only for her to rain on my parade by telling me that all TM's are single use. If that's the case then its imperative that Tabs gets Toxic Spikes since it'll come easier to Beedrill through training compared to Tabitha so I can have her practice it and then help teach Beedrill how to use it. Plus she could chain it with regular Spikes.
But if that's the case then I should be careful on my last item choice. Something that could benefit the majority of the team or at least one member.
That meant the list got shortened further by cutting off utility moves, since Double Team and Agility are good enough.
The current list is mainly Ice Punch, Rock Tomb, Ice Beam, Shadow Claw, Brick Break, Shadow Ball, Air Cutter, and Bulldoze. I thought about Fury Cutter and Dynamic Punch but those moves are merely rumors on what the Charmander line has available.
Or I could get Black Sludge for Beedrill as some form of passive healing.
Or I could get one of those Power Weight things to increase the growth rate of any new team members.
The choice shouldn't just be me though.
With permission, I sent out the current team and explained our predicament. I could either get my first item for Beedrill or I could get five out of eight TM's would almost certainly go to Chardon.
They all had the same thoughts that I did. I could always get these items or TM's but I should ask the entire team on a team vote first.
The ninja lady accepted the request, seeing as she was right next to us the entire time. I got to write down the list of items that I'm thinking of getting and her email so that she could send the item to me.
We then exited the weird warehouse and came back to the hut with grandpa and the six ninja trainees still there, because why would they actually leave. Grandpa and I started heading home after I got a confirmation that I'd be getting a wireless transfer of payment for completing the challenge.
"-and that's basically why I'm calling the five of you for this group meeting on what to decide." I explained to the other half of the team. "Most the items I picked are pretty expensive so we'd probably only be able to buy one of those things if we need to since I'm trying to save up for Pearl's evolution which is gonna be pretty pricy."
The team was paying rapt attention to what I just said aside from Tabitha who was doing that happy cry thing she usually does when someone is nice her. We all then decided to put it into vote.
I was being impartial unless we reached a three-way tie.
Beedrill and Pearl were of the opinion to get a TM.
Lupa, Chardon, and Dee-Dee- who was surprised she was part of the voting process for some reason- voted for the high quality Power Weights.
Ralts, Tabs, Woody, and Leaf all quickly voted for the Black Sludge. Something that surprised and confused the bug type.
With that out of the way I proceeded to message the ninja lady with my choice before saying bye to the part of my team that was behind the screen.
Wait... she said single use.
I realized that I had to make a very quick emergency call before someone used up their Curse TM.