When I woke up in the group house of Rich, Eva, and Will, I was surrounded with webs. I refused to get up and address the issue, instead curling closer to the fuzzy bat in my arms. I daydreamed for a good forty minutes before the door creaked, someone checking on me, and Will yelled out, "WHAT THE FUCK!?" I lurched and my hammock dumped me in a net of silk threads, Kawami pressed under me. No longer able to avoid it, I shouted, "TOMA CLEAN THIS UP!"
I yawned as my new team member cleared a path in his gargantuan complex of webs. "We need ground rules on your webs Toma.", I told him. The Spinarak hung his head, his pattern-face frowning as he continued to weave and eat through the webbing, making a tunnel for me to leave the tomb of silk. "First, if we don't have permission where we are, only small webs you can tear down in about a minute. Second, everyone else on the team should be able to get around them. Also try to get something out of the webs that's more than just a web, like a hammock or something." Toma nodded solemnly.
"Out of the ball or in, Toma?", I asked. He thought for a moment, then stamped a leg determinedly on the floor. "Do you want to ride on me somehow?", I continued, as I reached into my pocket and grabbed Kawami's pokéball. Toma thought about my question, his expression already returning to brightness, as I released the Zubat. As soon as she was out, the spider's faces both lit up and he ran up to her, an idea in mind.
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Will giggled at my side. I had my share of laughing when the two first started up this little performance, but now I was level. We left through the hardwood front door into the yard where Rich and Eva were lounging under a tree with their pokémon. Rich's Drowzee, Howie, was the first to notice Toma suspended from thread dangling off of Kawami. Howie nudged Eva's Croagunk, who nudged Eva, who lowered her color tinted sunglasses and said to Rich, "The prodigy has once more done something stupid yet brilliant." Rich turned his head at that point and nearly burst a lung in long, coughing laughter. Toma waved to his adoring audience.
Eva patted Rich on the back, comforting his poor esophagus as she said, "Kau'i, you are wanting to train soon, yes? I have someone I'd like you to talk to before you get into it." "Do I have to go with you? I don't think I've gone anywhere on my own since I got here.", I asked. She shrugged and said with a voice dripping sarcasm, "I will have to go along, sadly. If only I didn't have to be near you so often either."
We hung around the house for a while longer as I got to know the group and their pokémon better. It was peaceful, fun in a way I rarely experienced back on Poni. I had had to scrounge for every moment of solace back then, but here, with thugs twice my age, that feeling seemed to envelop all of Po Town. Far too soon, it was time to go.
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We walked past some unfamiliar streets around our clique's house until locking onto a familiar path. 'We're heading to Plumeria's', I realized. We made our way, Toma attracting attention by hanging off of Kawami again, until reaching the house of the one and only Team Skull admin. It was covered in tattered curtains and multicolor furniture. The house held much more presence in the daylight.
Eva released her pokémon from their balls, Croagunk from a safari ball and Nidorina from a great ball, to do what they wanted as we entered Plumeria's. The inside was shockingly clean of graffiti, arranged in a homey manner, and the lights and other electronics were wired neatly to the power supplies typical of Po Town, with its long since disconnected powergrid. This was as lavish as it got in Po Town, and clearly Plumeria had put in effort to make it that way.
We passed the entryway and living room, following the sounds of activity to the kitchen. Plumeria chatted with another girl who was cooking something on the electric stovetop. Just the fact the stove was working was a testament to how much care Plumeria had for her house. "Big sis! I wanted to talk to you about Kau'i.", Eva interrupted. Plumeria politely put a pause on her conversation with the other grunt and came over to a countertop between us and the kitchen. I lifted myself into a seat and pulled Toma from his thread to stand in my lap while Kawami wrapped herself around the back of my head.
"What's this about, Eva?", Plumeria asked, clearly familiar with Eva's style of scheming. "Yeah Eva, what is this about?", I doubled. "How long would you guess Kau'i here has been training her Zubat?", Eva asked Plumeria, avoiding directly answering the question. "About a month maybe.", she placed after a moment of consideration. "Four days.", Eva stated. Plumeria quirked a brow, intrigued. "And what are your plans for training?", she asked me, clearly getting at something. "I want to teach Kawami Absorb and Hypnosis. Toma needs to catch up on the strategies I've made for Kawami, but I'm not sure what moves Toma knows other than String Shot. They both need better basics, ways to get in position for moves and that kinda thing.", I answered. Plumeria leaned over the counter, staring into me.
"Your Spinarak should know Absorb, Poison Sting, and Constrict as well and can learn Infestation and Scary Face at its level. For Zubat, Hypnosis is generally accepted to be an egg move for the species, though some of my grunts say it's as easy to teach as a typical move for their Zubats.", Plumeria said, expanding on my plans in what seemed to be another test. I looked down at Toma, saying to him, "Then you'll be helping Kawami learn Absorb, since you already know it." "Do you understand now, big sis?", Eva asked. "Yes, Kau'i has all the makings of an excellent Poison-Type specialist. Likely even better than yourself Eva, no offense.", Plumeria agreed with Eva's silent suggestion.
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I looked up, confused. "Damn prodigies.", Eva said, ignoring big sis's pacification. "Poison-Type specialist? I just wanna be a normal trainer.", I piped up. "You'll be better than a normal trainer, you'll train faster with better team cohesion and better branding to boot, not that you'll be getting sponsorships as a grunt.", Eva replied. "What's this have to do with my training plans!?", I asked, still unclear on how this had happened. Plumeria stepped in.
"You've just started training, and like any dumby you're just doing what you know how to do, but in spite of that you've identified exactly what areas you need to improve. As an experienced Poison-Type trainer, I can say you're on the right course. You've done all this in four days, and the moves you're choosing to teach, they're proof you should be a Poison-Type specialist. Rather than attempting to change how Kawami fights, you lean into a Zubat's natural debilitative battle strategy. It's a strategy inherently Poison-Typed."
"When we went to the jungle outside, I let her decide what pokémon to catch. Her top choices were Paras, Gastly, and Spinarak.", Eva added. Plumeria pointed to Eva, saying, "Exactly my point. Poison-Types are in your nature." "But Spinarak's just a Bug-Type?", I said, not getting it. Now the grunt who had been cooking joined in, "Nope! Bug and Poison.", she said, driving the nail into my coffin. I only had one thing to say.
"Huh."
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Kawami and Toma were in a skirmish where Toma could only use Absorb, to help Kawami get the hang of it. Toma had wrapped the field in webs while Kawami darted to and fro to get an angle on him. I sat back watching them, thinking about the label placed on me just minutes ago. Poison-Type specialist. The words tumbled around as the battle raged on, Kawami slowly losing as Toma healed off of the ineffective Absorbs. Then Kawami seemed to lash out, not with an attack, but by trying anything to keep her energy from being Absorbed.
The greenish motes of light Toma drew out of her seemed to stop, then be dragged back to Kawami. I cheered and Eva rolled her eyes. As Kawami was about to shout a Supersonic into Toma, I yanked her back and pulled her into a hug. She frowned for a moment, missing what I was so happy about, before forgetting to care about small things like that and joining in. "You figured out Absorb!", I shouted. Plumeria smiled from the sidelines, laid back in a patio chair eating with her team of Poison-Types.
Toma and Plumeria's Muk began tearing down the mass of webs that had built in the few minutes of the practice match, as I huddled with Kawami. "Okay, so now you just try what you did to Absorb that energy back over and over again on different things. Remember to always have a target, it won't do anything without something to Absorb from.", I coached her. She tried to salute me but fell out of the air in the attempt.
As we continued to train, Rich and Will came around to watch, then called even more grunts over. My training session turned into a strange battling party, with one of two grunts that ran Po Town's Pokémon Center called in to deal with all the injuries. I met several of the grunts I saw on my first night in Po Town.
Kass was the trainer of the Froakie and Koffing, he mostly just stuck to the dance floor, but was happy to talk about the unfamiliar foreign species. Rebecca had the weird Grimer I'd seen, informing me that it was a Kantonian Grimer and the variation I was used to was Alolan Grimer. I also met Scoop, the guy who'd stolen another grunts wallet, and he gushed about how rare his Kakuna was in Alola. Agarta, the girl who'd corrected me about Spinarak's type, was another Poison-Type specialist. She gave me a textbook stolen from the Pokémon Trainers School on Melemele, apparently it wasn't as good as a pokédex but would fill me in on most moves and abilities and what pokémon had them naturally. And I had met all these people while still having time to battle and grow Toma and Kawami's capabilities with the other grunts.
As the day stretched into night, Howie helped Kawami learn Hypnosis as I paged through the textbook trying to learn more about my team's potential abilities. I turned to the I's section after a while, seeing both my team members listed several times. Zubat could have Inner Focus and Infiltrator while Spinarak got Insomnia.
My eyes immediately snapped to the description of what Insomnia does, prevent a pokémon from being put to sleep. I got up and stopped Howie and Kawami, ushering Toma over for a moment.
"You two, practice Hypnosis on Toma. Toma try your best to resist it, you'll be training your ability, Insomnia.", I instructed. Toma bopped excitedly, then joined in. The training continued better than ever. At that my research compounded, focusing now on Inner Focus and Infiltrator. Inner Focus's entry said it makes the pokémon immune to flinching and intimidation, bringing to mind the battle with the Frillish on the way to Ula'ula. Kawami had taken a powerful Water Pulse to her wing, but carried out her attack with a piercing look still. The memory made me sure Inner Focus was at least developing, and would be battle ready without a fuss.
Infiltrator was interesting, allowing Kawami to circumvent plenty of annoying effects like Reflect, Mist, and Substitute. It would be very useful in higher levels of battle, but since it was a hidden ability and not very helpful in my low level battles, I left it for another time. Seeing nothing more for my team in the I's, I paged through the textbook until finally seeing Spinarak again in the S's.
Swarm would empower Toma's Bug-Type moves by the same amount as just being a Bug-Type did. It would be a must have for making Toma stand up to larger threats. I already started planning to train with a Bug-Type specialist to grow Toma's connection to the type for his ability. Finally, there was Sniper, the hidden ability available to Toma. It would make critical hits twice as effective. Toma would be even more formidable, but it would take a long time to train. I'd have to make him an aim training regimen.
Ideas bubbling through my head, I watched as Kawami continued to attempt to imitate the Drowzee's finger waggling methodology to Hypnosis with her wings, falling from the air each time. I smiled, lied back on the grass, and lazily ordered, "Use your eyes Kawami, you don't have fingers.", as I stared up at the slim crescent moon, brimming with excitement.