The patrol the next morning was not a fun time for me, I mean sure the patrol in of itself was fine. Candis, my partner, and her Pokemon are fine. My Pokemon are fine. My muscles are NOT fine.

“Ugh, how far do we have to go again?” I grumble to my snickering partner. Our Pokemon that are walking alongside us, Manectric and Absol at the moment, are also snickering.

“Come on, you are a big boy aren’t you?” she managed to get out between her snickering.

Sigh. “Yeah, yeah laugh it up.” I continued to grumble. I only stopped half way through the patrol, when my muscles finally cooperated. We finally finished at 11:30 am and Candis was leading me to her desk to write up the report. I spoke up while we were weaving through the cubicles of the individual rangers.

“How long does it usually take to write up the report? I assume there is a difference between the ones I had to submit for the lab?”

She looked at me and nodded. “Ours are a bit more detailed, but essentially the same. We should be done in half an hour.” I nodded at that and we worked on the report, when we finally arrived at her cubicle.

We were done on time, so I managed to get a light snack before taking the path to my execution. I met Takeshi in the lobby of the gym and jokingly asked.

“Hey Takeshi, so today is the easy day right?” Takeshi looked up at me and just grinned. I audibly gulped and remembered a painful lesson from my soccer days in the old life. NEVER under any circumstance talk back to the trainer during condition training. So naturally the following workout left me with noodle limps, that only started to feel like something to walk on or grab something with after 15 minutes. Of course in that time Brawly had to pass me and shot me a wink.“

“It will get easier, pal. Don’t worry about it.” and he just walked on. I scoffed internally, I wouldn’t dare out loud in the training gym. ‘Yeah sure it would, if Takeshi doesn’t increase the workout, which he definitely will.’

And of course I was not allowed any rest during my Pokemon training, every time I slowed down a seed came flying just behind my heels. At least I provided my Pokemon some amusement.

This lasted for the whole week, thankfully I had a day off from the patrols and the gym on Sunday. So I used that time for research in the PokeNet to help my Pokemon with their moves. Speaking of which, they of course were just lazing about as I had mandated a day off for them as well.

The interchangeable moves were coming along fine, as was Absorb for Seedot. Poochyena just managed a harder Tackle attack, which was progress at least. Absol had problems controlling the energy at her horn, but I think that’s normal. The one that worries me a bit is Murkrow, she isn’t making any progress with the moves. This visibly annoyed her, but I doubt she would react well to changing the move she should learn. So I had to do research.

The PokeNet to put it bluntly is a mess, you really start to miss a good search engine when you don’t have access to one. For one, the only place I could gleam any information were the forums and there I had to sift through pages of stuff that I did not care in the slightest. Since I wanted to start with Icy Wind I headed to the ice type forums, and what I saw was not encouraging.

‘Ugh, simps. Really those kind of people are even here? Where are the mods?’ I grumbled internally while I clicked through the pages, seeing way too many threads discussing Lorelei of the Kanto Elite Four. Finally I saw something that looked at least promising. Reading through the thread that discussed how to train up your ice type moves I quickly gave up on it. The discussion started from moves like Powder Snow, not once Haze was mentioned.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

The general forums were even harder, not because of dumb threads, but because there were just too many. The search function was also a bust. ‘So I have to do it myself, huh.’ I thought to myself.

After making a cup of coffee I just sat at the desk and looked out of the window, not really focusing on anything. I even forgot to sip my coffee, because I had a gag reflex as I took a sip. ‘Ugh cold coffee…’ I grumbled and moved to the sink to wash it down the drain.

My steps slowed as I approached the sink, thoughts clicking into place. I hurried to set the cup on the counter and ran back to the desk, were I had my notebook and furiously scribbled my thoughts down. ‘Of course, how could I be so dumb. Murkrow could learn the easiest learning tool herself. While not in the game, I doubt it will be a problem here.’ Looking up I called out.

“Murkrow come over here for a moment please, I have an idea for your Icy Wind training.”

“Mur?” came the sleepy reply, quickly blinking the sleep away she flew over and perched on my shoulder. “Krow.”

“You see you should be able to learn another move first. It’s a basic move for a flying type, but should help you with Icy Wind. It’s called Gust and does what it says. It generates a gust of wind.” I explained. Murkrow just nodded and tilted her head.

“When you learned Gust, you will use the same motion but with the ice type energy that you use for Haze.” I explained exited.

“Murkrow. Krow.” Murkrow cawed equally exited. Sadly my research took me nearly all day, so any experiments had to wait until tomorrow. It turned out that Murkrow could learn Gust and did so very fast. She had it down after one day. After that came the renewed training on Icy Wind.

In the following week Seedot moved on to Mega Drain, having Absorb down pat. Poochyena finally managed to get a recoil from his move, signalling the transition into Take Down. Absol managed to not have her energy explode on her, which was a nice change. Still no edge though, it was more like a club at the moment.

My gym performance did improve, at least according to Takeshi and his Machoke. I certainly was completely drained every time after training, so I wouldn’t know.

The last week of our training regimen saw improvements across the board, the only downside was that Featherdance was a big nono. I think that move really needed the genetics to have a slightly different plumage. Which is interesting for sure and something to keep in mind.

So with our training done and a day of rest I approached the gym for the first time as a challenger. Of course I was greeted by Takeshi and his Machoke.

“Hey there Iruni! We already reserved you a fight with Brawly, it starts in one hour. No need to wait!” He shouted exited. I just deadpanned at him.

“Really now? How about no?” Takeshi and his Machoke both looked confused at me.

“Did you not want to challenge Brawly?” I sighed and decided to humour him, he did whip me in shape after all.

“Of course I will challenge him. But I will need time to plan and strategise, no way I will just challenge him. I would loose for sure.” I told him, while I did feel way more confident than I told him, I really wanted to plan this time.

He slumped. “Alright, alright. But tell me when your match is. I want to see it.” he said dejected.

I chuckled. “Of course I will.” I answered him and continued to the front desk. Before I could even say anything the lady already rattled of.

“Hello Iruni, as you don’t want the spot Takeshi saved you, I can give you one two days from now at 12 pm.” I blinked at that.

“Ehm, 12 pm? Isn’t that usually the so called ‘prime time’ with the highest amount of locals in the stands?” I asked confused.

“Why yes that is correct.” she smiled back at me.

I massaged the bridge of my nose. “And pray tell why a second badge fight is on such a time?”

“Oh right, I forgot to give you a message from Brawly. Because you were so diligent in your training, he will fight you with his three start team in a four versus four with a four star Pokemon as his ace.” she answered me, still smiling.

‘Why me? Why?’ I ranted internally. “I don’t think I have a choice right?” I said with resignation.

“Of course, you could travel to Mauville or Petalburg for your next gym badge and come back later.” she answered while still smiling.

“Ugh. Ok, ok I get it. Write me down for the slot in two days at 12.” I grumbled.

“The slot is now reserved for you, have a nice day Iruni.” she just answered. I nodded and turned around, only to come face to face with Takeshi.

“I think you heard it, in two days at 12. See you then.” I said in a clipped tone and rushed out of the gym. I had a fight to prepare.