I spent the next few days on the road, mostly just training my new member. Looking at her stats, I knew I should focus on Special Attack with Budew. I let my two Pokémon practice with one another, training Minccino’s Special Defense which is currently one of his lowest stats. Budew is much more careful in her attacks than Minccino. Prodding defenses from afar with Absorb, trying her best to dodge with her stubby legs and drain her enemy of their life force ‘Will that have lasting effects? No, probably not, they would have banned moves like that from tournaments or something.’
Though her long-range fighting style was a bit useless against Min as he just sped toward her, giving her no chance to reach before hitting her. I look towards Min and mutter “Status”
Minccino
- Attack: C+/S-
- Defense: F+/B-
- Special attack: E-/B+
- Special Defense: E-/C+
- Speed: B+/S+
- Luck: A-/A-
- Reactions: B-/S++
- Intelligence: B/A+
- Moves: Baby Doll Eyes, Pound, Helping hand, Echoed Voice, Aqua Tail (Egg Move), Thunder Wave (Taught by TM)
‘Sweet, a lot of his stats went up!’ Training is going well, though I feel like I should focus more on his strengths instead of spreading his training out evenly for general improvement. But then again that’ll leave everything behind. ‘Another problem for future Eli’
Another thing I’ve noticed with Budew is that she barely eats, just eating a few berries as treats. She gets most of her nutrition from Photosynthesis, where she opens her …palm, bud? To soak up a lot of sunlight. I should still set up an after-workout diet for her though, just various berries to help heal and make the most out of the workout ‘Like a protein shake’ though I should study more on Grass types before I try anything.
My two-day hike was peaceful, just training and looking at wildlife, and checking out random battles. I plan to battle trainers once I get to a Pokémon center, but seeing all those trainers fight makes me wonder if I’m falling behind. ‘After all, I haven’t had a trainer battle yet, I don’t know if I’ll freeze up, or if I trained my Pokémon well enough to fight.’ I sigh as I continue my trek to the last few minutes of the route.
Finally, I manage to see the sandy shores of Shaleshallows, the ocean blue and the smell of salt fill me with excitement. The houses themselves are very box-like, made out of concrete and a few tiled with a mosaic of grey and browns of thin shale tiles. ‘Hence the name’ the houses remind me of the type you’d see in an ancient desert city, the kind built into mountains and mesas. Though there are a few outlier houses here and there, and of course the gym stadium and the Pokecenter.
‘Right, first and foremost, getting a hotel room!’ While the Pokecenter has rooms for trainers to stay in for free since it’s the start of this season, they’re pretty packed. ‘I would have to share a room, and that would mean no Editing.’ I walk around the bustling town, ‘They seem to be having a festival to celebrate the new league year.’
Bunting flags of a myriad of colors resembling the 18 types, fairy lights wrapped around lamp posts, just waiting to turn on at night. Food stalls line all the streets I see, with various carnival games and electronic games. Some look…shiftier than others, like that stall that has a suspicious set of unmoveable bottles, each slightly glowing with psychic energy. I look towards the sleeping Drowzee at the stall, but quickly realize he’s faking ‘Yeah, let's avoid that guy.’ I decided to just avoid the stalls in general, instead looking around for a place to stay.
Loud music enters my skull as some type of concert goes on at the town square, the square is where all these alleys seem to meet. If looked at from above it probably looks like a sun, with the town square being the middle. I decide to check what’s going on, but find it impossible to think, or even hear among the screams, cheers, and rock music not being able to see who’s playing due to the crowd. ‘Christ, there are so many people here!’ I plug my ears with my fingers and decide to just continue my search for a hotel, finally finding one after a bit of walking. I talk to the lady at the counter, and she gives me a key and room number, I head up the stairs of the building.
The hotel itself seems more like an Airbnb, just some guy's house refurbished to be a resting spot. The building is one of the few nonrectangular buildings, instead looking like a very small mansion. I find my room, which is on the third floor for some reason. ‘Yes, it somehow has a third story, it’s surprisingly big.’ I resist the urge to make a joke out of that last thought and just head into my room. It’s pretty pleasant and much more decorated than my last hotel. I set my bag down and sprawl myself out on the bed, after getting Budew out of my hood and Minccino off my shoulder. ‘If my third member also likes to climb on me…I’ll practically be a jungle gym.’
My two teammates make conversation, well Minccino tries to anyways Budew just stares at him. I feel a bit anxious, but the day is young and the people are plentiful, which means it’s the perfect time to get some battles in. ‘Relax Eli, I mean, you practiced with Cora and you fought a Scraggy, just chill out…Nope, not working.’ I take a sigh and decide to take my nervousness and try to shift it into excitement ‘This will be your first stop to being an actual pokemon trainer, instead of just some…kid with a pokemon!’ I hold onto my resolute statement and jump out of the bed.
=====
I’m now standing behind the Pokecenter, Min and Budew are both in their pokeballs, and as I fiddle with them in my palm, I realize that I haven’t edited Budew’s ball yet. ‘Note to self, do that.’ What I’m doing right now is standing around the dirt battlefield behind the Pokecenter, looking at two kids fighting in front of me. The kid on the right is two pokemon down and onto his third, a Pidove, and the kid on the right is still on his first, a very, very, scary Scatterbug, who’s been using Stun Spore and then tying up the pokemon with String Shot, then just tackling them over and over. Each time with a weirdly sadistic grin showing his single buck tooth. ‘Sheesh, I hope my first battle doesn’t go like that.’
And finally, the Pidove goes down as well, despite being in the air she swooped down to try and peck the bug, but as soon as she was about to hit him, he used Stun Spore in a swift motion. He wrapped his string around the bird's beak and her wings until the flying type’s trainer just decided to give up. The kid forked over a small roll of money and headed into the Pokecenter. ‘That is a scary bug…’ The bug’s trainer decided to call it quits after that and also headed into the center to heal up some scraps.
Now that the field is empty, the kids started to look around for another person to fight. It was hectic, a swarm of kids each trying to fight each other, I soon found myself lost in the wave of people. “Hey, do you want to fight!” I don’t know who said it but I just blurted out “Yes?” Soon the crowd dissipated and I find myself on the right chalked-lined square of the battlefield ‘When did I get here?’ Across from me, there’s a young girl around my new age, she has light blue hair in a pixie cut. The pale-skinned girl looks towards me and I realize that I’m actually about to fight someone, I put Minccino’s ball onto my belt and opt to use Budew, ‘ Gotta save my ace for later.’ I nod at her and she nods back, as she enlarges a pokeball and I do the same.
Simultaneously I chuck my ball and she does as well, both of them actually hitting each other and bouncing back toward me. Though not right at me, just a bit in front of me, Budew forms in a flash of red light and the girl sent out an Espurr. I quickly shout “Probe them with Absorb, play keep away!” I wait to hear the girl’s orders but she doesn’t say anything instead, her eyes glow a faint pink as Espurr does the same. ‘Are they using telepathy right now? That is so cheating!’ Budew starts to suck a few globs of green energy from the Espurr as the bipedal cat just stands there.
Finally, the cat attacks, throwing a beam of psychic power, Confusion tries to hit Budew but before it can even reach her it just dissipates. ‘What?’ I looked around trying to see if this was an illusion or something, but the girl just sighs and returns Espurr… ‘What?’ I shout over to the girl “Hey! What happened there?” She looks up and shouts back “Espurr’s still learning how to restrain her abilities! Turns out she needs more practice!” I tilt my head, but finally remember what Espurr’s deal was ‘Right, the Restraint Pokemon, Has a bunch of psychic power, but has a hard time controlling it!’ I just nod to her as she pulls out her second pokemon.
Hatenna appears on the field, ‘Is she a psychic specialist?’ She nods to me to signify the start of the fight. I shout out “Repeat!” and Budew repeats her probing pattern, this time though her pokemon dodges. I order Budew to keep it up, she tries to lock on to Hatenna, to no avail as she dodges each time. Hatenna shoots out a Confusion and Budew tries to dodge, but her stubby legs make her trip over herself. She takes the hit, forming a big bruise on her stomach, but she’s not out. “Stun Spore, then use Growth!” Moving my arm through the air as I give out the command, Budew shoots out a small ball of sparkling powder as it tries to hit the psychic type. As Hatenna dodges the move, Budew uses Growth, increasing attack, and special attack. “Absorb some more!” She finally manages to land one, causing Hatenna to falter a bit, but with a faint glow of the duo’s eyes, Hatenna starts to shoot out more Confusions, cutting it off and rapidly firing like a machine gun.
“Quick, dodge!” but it’s no use, Budew’s stubby legs can’t dodge them and she starts to get pelted with attacks. She manages to hang on for a bit, but soon succumbs to the attacks, fainting on the ground. I return her and give a few encouraging words before pulling out Minccino’s ball. I look towards the girl and throw out Minccino, he pops onto the field and looks at Hatenna, we nod and the fight starts once more.
Right away Hatenna starts her rapid-fire Confusions, Minccino dodges them by zigzagging across the field, getting closer to the psychic type. Hatenna stops firing, looking exhausted seeing an opening I shout “Miccino, Thunder Wave!” He pauses his charge as the fur on his back sticks up, soon a small charge of Electric Energy shoots toward Hatenna, and small shocks zap her body, causing Paralysis. “Attack!” Minccino closes the distance, and Hatenna tries to shoot another Confusion but pauses at the crackle of electricity. Minccino flips up into the air as he charges at Hatenna, flipping through the air twice, and striking his tail down with all his weight and the faint enhanced Normal Type aura from his scarf boosting his Pound attack.
I wait in bated breath, waiting to see if Hatenna gets up, when her trainer returns her to her Pokeball I let out a long relief filled sigh. She walks towards me and hands me some crumpled-up bills ‘What is this currency called?’ She pauses for a bit and looks me up and down before offering me her hand, I shake it and she asks “Hey, what’s your name?” I return Minccino before responding, “Oh, I’m Elliot.” She nods then responds with “Fen.” She seems to ponder something before taking out a smartphone with a case that looks a lot like a Rotom. “Can I get your contact info, I want to fight you again later.” I pause for a bit, ‘It would be nice to have someone I can spar with…but I didn’t see any messaging apps on my phone. Maybe I can make an email on Pory-Goon?’
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I take out my phone and am greeted with a new message.
[New application unlocked: Messages]
‘A new app? Did it get unlocked because someone asked me for my number? Wait why didn’t I have this in the first place? Can I unlock even more apps? God, so many questions.’ I open up the new app, which is just a standard messaging app, with options for phone calls and text messages on the bottom. I click a small “i” in a circle and am greeted with my contact info. I recite it to Fen who nods while typing it down, I look towards the crowd of people surrounding the battlefield, waiting for us to finish our talk so they can start to battle ‘Probably should have done this in the Pokecenter…’ Fen nods once more as she puts her phone back in her pocket. She finally notices the impatient crowd, “Can we keep talking inside of the Pokecenter?” I eagerly nodded back, as I was starting to get uncomfortable from the crowd’s glares.
We shuffle our way past the crowd and walk into the Pokecenter, the Pokecenter here looks a lot like Maple’s Burrow’s which makes me a bit nostalgic for a bit. I walk to Nurse Joy, who is a guy this time ‘From what I know Nurse Joys are a huge clan of people who work for the Pokemon League. It’s interesting, I wonder why the Clan is so in debt to the Pokemon League? Is it just a work opportunity thing, or is it like an honor-bound mission?’ Fen snaps her fingers as she sees me slowly slipping into my thoughts. I shake out the thoughts and hand my pokeballs to the nurse, he responds with the standard “We’ll take great care of your Pokemon!” in a peppy voice. I walk to the couches by the entrance and sit down, Fen soon joining me, “So, what did you exactly want to talk about?” I ask the extremely calm girl, ‘I don’t think I’ve seen her change her expression at all, even in battle…’
She looks towards me and starts to speak “Well, for the most part, I want to ask about what time we could fight again. But now I also want to ask about your phone case.” I shoot her a confused expression, “My phone case? What about it?” I pull out the Arc-Phone and examine the white phone case, the center lies a golden circle with four points, and on the intersections of the points lies a small red circle. “The symbol there is the same as that religion in Sinnoh.” She says while pointing at the symbol. “And…what about it?” She looks at me with a dead-panned expression “Aside from the symbol, there are also no signs that your phone has a Rotom in it.” I stiffen a gulp ‘Are Rotom phones that common?’
“Well…I mean there’s Pokegears and stuff, so I don’t see how it’s that interesting.” She looks at me, showing no signs of emotions. A permanent calm expression, “Okay, then.” She seems to take her gaze off of my phone and back to me, ‘Thank god, it seems like the conversation’s focus has switched.’ I shove my phone back into my pant pocket and wait for Fen to continue talking. “If it’s alright with you, I would like to fight you and your pokemon every day for the next three days. Since that’s when I’ll be taking on the Gym and then leaving for the Fighting gym in Bonescrap.” I listen to her offer, her voice sounding a bit like she’s in a business meeting or something. “Why are you going to Bonescrap? That’s a few gyms away, you could just challenge Dizzyfield’s Gym, it’s the next gym in the circuit.” She listens to my question and responds immediately. “I know the leader of Bonescrap, so I plan to shock him with how strong I’ve gotten.”
‘Ah, so it’s a personal thing. I guess I won’t press about it.’ I nod and a few seconds of awkward silence pass. It’s interrupted by Nurse Joy calling my name, I stand up and pick up my pokeballs, slot them back onto my belt and head back to Fen. As I head back I go over my own plans ‘I think I’m going to stay here for about a week, and during that time I’ll fight the gym. Then it’s off to Dizzyfield which has a grass gym leader.’ I stop my musings and sit down next to Fen, who in turn got up as her name was also soon called. I let Minccino and Budew out of their balls and they immediately went into their favorite spots, Min on my shoulders and Budew in my hood. Minccino decides that after his confidence got a bit of a boost from beating Fen, to try and tackle combing down the jungle known as my hair. I was going to ask Budew how she was doing, but she didn’t seem to be really phased, she was acting as she usually does. ‘She seems pretty unphased by her loss.’
Fen retrieves her Pokémon and lets Hatenna sit on her lap, Espurr seems to want to stay inside of her pokeball. ‘Hope Espurr’s okay…is she embarrassed because she couldn’t fight properly?’ Fen looks at Min trying to tame my hair, she just stares at him but her Hatenna lets out a low giggle.
“Ah, don’t mind Min he’s just trying to do the impossible.” I scratch his head, and he takes a small break to push his fur back down. “Right, so when do you want to set up the spars?” I turn my attention back to the topic at hand. She keeps her gaze on Minccino for a few seconds before looking back toward me.
“Sometime in the mornings, around 8 or so.” She casually pets Hatenna, who’s just chilling, listening to the conversation. ‘Hatenna evolves into Hatterene, right? I know that Hatterene hates loud people, to the point where they attack them. But what about Hatenna?’ Hatenna notices my gaze, or perhaps my thoughts about her, and shuffles a bit in her seat. “8 AM is good for me, we could train together rather than just sparring.” She thinks it over for a bit so I decided to explain my thought process on it, “Rather than just meeting up to fight each other, this could be a good chance to see how different our training is, and maybe even give out some pointers” As I finish my offer, I feel the pitter-patter of happy feet and an ecstatic “Min!” on my shoulder. I turn to face Min who seems really happy for some reason, I try to look at him, but he’s just out of my sight.
I turn back to Fen who seems to be focused on Min, I look down towards Hatenna who seems to be holding back a giggle. A few awkward seconds pass, ‘Was my offer that strange?’ I start to fiddle with my thumbs, just waiting for a response…A few more seconds pass and my worrying thoughts start to increase ‘Is there an unspoken rule about training with people? Did I just say something culturally insensitive or…’ The thoughts start to pile up, Hatenna’s stifled giggles stop as her eyes glow a faint pink, Fen’s glowing the same in return. Like what they did during the fight ‘So that’s telepathy, huh? How does it work-’ My thoughts are interrupted by Fen speaking.
“Yeah, that sounds good, I’ll text you when I start my team’s training.” She stands up and we exchange a few goodbyes, she leaves and I do the same. I head to the hotel and situate myself inside my room, Min jumps off of my shoulders, clearly happy about something. Budew hops out of my hood and starts to waddle toward the TV, struggling to hit the power button on the remote. Min helps her out and they start to flip through some channels, I watch them with a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart ‘Heh, so cute.’ I head into the bathroom to brush my teeth and switch into my pajamas, I slip into a pair of shorts and a blue t-shirt. As I brush my teeth I noticed something off about my hair, I spit out the toothpaste and rinse out my mouth before getting a closer look at it.
‘Huh, so that’s why Min is so happy.’ I look at a small braid of black hair, sloppily made by Minccino, it’s just a bit behind my ear.
I examine my hair, it’s grown out to about just below my ear lobes. ‘Should I get a haircut?’ I fiddle with the braid, being extremely careful to not undo it. ‘They would probably need a Scizor to cut this mess.’ I chuckle a bit inwardly before heading back into the bedroom. Minccino and Budew seem to have moved a chair in front of the TV and are currently watching a movie. It seems to be a sports movie starring a Cinderace ‘Now that I think of it, have I watched regular TV in this world? I watched battles and stuff, but not the regular movies here.’ I situate myself on the bed and start to watch the movie with my pokemon.
A few hours passed and my team drifted off into sleep, Budew and Minccino fell asleep next to each other, Min using his tail to blanket Budew. I chuckle a bit at the cute scene then place a small blanket over the top of them, soon I settle into my own blankets and start to drift into unconsciousness.
=====
I walked towards a small clearing in the forest, there I spot Fen and her pokemon training. She spots me and I give her a small wave, “Hey there, Fen.” I greet her, and she just nods back. I send out my team, first Minccino who climbs onto my shoulder. ‘I put them inside of their pokeballs because it was pretty crowded today,’ and then I send out Budew, who has a new pattern on the lid of her pokeball. I used “Edit” to make half of the Pokeball's top blue while keeping the red on one side and placed a small rose symbol around the button, Budew comes out and stares at Fen.
Fen’s team, Espurr and Hatenna, stop their training and go to their trainer “So, how do you want to do this, train first or battle first?” I ask the psychic specialist.
“Let’s train first.” I nod at her and get settled into our standard training, I run beside Min and Budew. Minccino, outdoes both me and Budew, once I start panting for air I change to Min’s training. I look for a suitable tree and call for Min to attack it, I look toward Budew and ask her to shoot a Worry Seed toward Min every so often. I let them go at it, and turn around to see what Fen is doing, but am a bit shocked to find her just staring at my team train. ‘Oh, I thought she would train her pokemon while my team did their thing…This is kinda embarrassing.’ I just shake out the thoughts and try to ignore the eyes boring into the back of my head.
After a while, I call for them to stop, ordering Min to attack Budew, and order Budew to dodge. I do this to try and increase Budew’s speed and reactions, after a bit of her dodging I order her to retaliate with Absorb. It slowly diverges into a sparring match, I would usually let it continue like that, but I decide to tell them to stop since we’re going to fight Fen. I instead order them to do separate training, Min back to hitting the tree but this time using Aqua Tail. I order Budew to do a bunch of side steps, one of her main issues is that she’s not that quick on her feet. I let them do their thing and turn to Fen.
“Hey, how about you start training as well!” I call out to her, and she nods, her eyes glow pink and so do her team’s. They nod and start on their tasks. Espurr has a pile of bent spoons, she seems to be unbending them, trying to get more precise control of her powers. Hatenna is shooting out a constant stream of Confusions while running around, ‘Psychic type, huh? I know that in the pokemon games there are espers and psychics, so maybe she’s something similar? Or are her pokemon just psychic types?’ I let my mind wander about my new training buddy as I look toward my pokemon.
An hour passes, and I change up my team's training a few times just trying out some ideas or making them focus on something else. ‘Hm, what moves can Minccino learn? I know he wants a dark move, and since he’s a physical attacker Thief is probably the best call for that, how do TMs work in the first place? Budew’s a bit limited in new moves to learn until she evolves, she can only learn some TMs, and that’s it. She’s a special attacker so if I could get a TM for Bullet Seed or Giga Drain, that’ll be a big help.’ As I start to think about what moves I could teach my team, I forget that Fen was even around me.
I finally remember that she was also training with me when she called out to me “Hey, can we spar now?” I jump a bit at hearing her voice ‘Ah, right training buddy thing. Not used to that yet.’ I shout back “Yeah!” and we move to the middle of the clearing, I call for my team to follow and assume that Fen does the same, though it’s hard to tell with them using telepathy.
The spar goes well, the first fight was a rematch against Espurr and Budew, I was a bit shocked toward’s Espurr’s growth. She was having trouble attacking with Confusion but now can use the move with little difficulty. Budew tries to block Confusion with Absorb, but that goes poorly as the psychic aura gets caught by Absorb, causing the attack to mix with her Absorb. Budew faints to that accident, ‘So does Absorb, absorb aura? How does that work…’ I once more move those thoughts to the back of my skull as I send out Minccino, who manages to faint Espurr with a Pound.
‘Gotta get Min a better Normal-Type move, if I remember correctly, he has a limited supply of physical Normal attacks. But he can learn Hyper Voice, which is a great move.’ Fen sends out Hatenna who unfortunately manages to knock out Miccino with a Disarming Voice, ‘Ah, that’s his first loss.’ I look towards Min who’s helping himself to a few Oran berries, he doesn’t seem that phased by the loss ‘Well, that’s good. It’s better to get them a bit more used to losing, so that way they don’t get down in the dumps if we lose a big fight’ I walk over to Fen and shake her hand.
“Espurr seems to have improved a lot since yesterday.” I look towards the small pokemon as I talk about her, Fen nods and says “Yeah, she’s usually like that. I think her failure to attack in our fight caused her to try and control her power more.” I let out a small intrigued hum, “Well, pokemon are creatures that get stronger in actual scenarios after all.” She thinks for a bit and nods to my comment and adds one of her own.
“So are humans, we have a bit more in common with pokemon than a lot of people think.” I turn to her, she still has the same calm expression, but this time it seems a bit more… Wistful? “Well, I guess you’d know a lot about that, huh? With telepathy and all that.” I see Hatenna jump in shock, but then calm down ‘Is she eavesdropping on us?’ Fen turns towards me and nods.
We spent another hour or so training before we went our separate ways, ‘Right, let’s see when we can schedule a gym battle.’ I walk through the crowded alleys and manage to find the gym, with a very long line in front of the doors. ‘Yup, screw that.’ I turn around and head back to my hotel, but pause as I have a thought. I continue my walk and head into the hotel then my room, I let out my team as I prepare to ask them a question. Min pops out and starts to pat down some fur, Budew pops out soon as well and just sits down.
“Alright, team!” I semi-shout in an upbeat voice, this startles Min but provides no reaction from Budew. “Who wants to go to the beach?” Min hardly thinks it over and gives me an affirmative “Min!” Budew seems to have no comment on it. I smile and start to grab a few things, like a towel and a water bottle. I’ll have to buy a pair of swim trunks, or I could just use some shorts… ‘I’m actually a bit excited! I’ve never gone to the beach before, this will be some good fun!’