But the employees certainly weren’t prepared to help fit a saddle for the biggest Garchomp they’d ever seen first thing in the morning. Since it wasn’t busy, most of the human staff just stood around and either took pictures of Sahara next to the Leavanny making saddle adjustments for her, or talked with me about Garchomp care while I picked out some safety gear, mainly a helmet, goggles, and a wind and water-proof jacket.
Winnie being in a Lucario disguise today also made one of the employees ask if I was trying to ‘do a Cynthia’, I guess because two of the Sinnoh Champion’s most famous team members were a Garchomp and Lucario.
During check-out, I was told to regularly check the saddle straps and to get them fixed the moment the straps turn orange. All ride Pokemon saddles were made so that the inner layers were orange and red to indicate to trainers when it was time to get stuff fixed/replaced. Orange meant ‘time to get things fixed’, red meant ‘don’t use this saddle’. It was a pretty smart system.
Pokemon with the rough skin ability like Garchomps and Sharpedo tended to wear down saddles faster than other Pokemon. Sharpedo was still a very popular water ride Pokemon despite that, but there are many more popular options in regards to flying Pokemon because falling into the water, and falling out of the sky have two very different outcomes.
The purchase was probably the most expensive thing I’d gotten so far, but I wasn’t gonna pinch pennies on safety related stuff. On the bright side, I wouldn’t have to use flying taxies anymore cause Sahara could fly faster than a taxi Pokemon.
After that, I got the batteries for my phone and watch replaced. Rotom was particularly chipper with the new battery. It zoomed around me like an over-caffeinated Dedenne while I walked to the nearest Pokemon center before stopping mid-zoom and showing me a message from Justine. It was a response to the text I sent her last night asking about the ghost hunting mission we had planned with Fabian.
I went and sat down on a nearby bench.
Ghost Geek: Hey Az! Yeah, I’ve been trying to find a time that works for everyone, but stuff just keeps piling up ?? Fabian told me he just got a new work offer too so he’s gonna be slammed for a while.
She sent a sleep deprived Pikachu GIF.
Zombie: Oof. We can’t go if the star of the show can’t go lol
Ghost Geek: fr
Zombie: Where’d he get the work offer from?
Ghost Geek: Lysandre labs, I heard they found something big next to Geosenge.
My stomach dropped a bit. Uh oh, sounds like they found the ultimate weapon.
Ghost Geek: How much longer are you planning on staying in Kalos?
Zombie: Idk, maybe another week? All that’s left on my Kalos sightseeing list are the graveyard coven and Geosenge.
Ghost Geek: ur not planning on going to shalour?
Zombie: Not really, if i have time I’ll swing by shalour after I’m done with geosenge
Ghost Geek: You should check it out, it’s a really nice city, the roller skate park is super fun. The tower of mastery is really cool. You can’t go in without permission, but it’s still really pretty from the outside
Zombie: ??
Ghost Geek: Fabian and I aren’t gonna have any free time within the next week so I’ll just give you the details for the graveyard so you can go by yourself
Zombie: Yes please do ??
Ghost Geek: It’s on route 6, and the entrance only opens at 3 AM, and it closes at 3:03 AM, so don’t be late!
Zombie: Is it easy to spot
Ghost Geek: yep, you’ll know when you see it. It’s got a pumpkin theming. And a heads up, if you’re offered food or something to drink, just politely decline.
Zombie: Is the food cursed or something?
Ghost Geek: lol no. The stuff they offer just has ingredients for ghost pokemon. You’ll get an awful case of food poisoning if you eat it.
Zombie: Good to know, thanks for the info
I sent a greninja bowing GIF. Justine replied with a Happiny waving GIF with the captions, HAVE FUN!
Then she sent a selfie of herself in Sycamore’s lab with Mii on her lap grinning, Lampent posing next to her, and Cofagrigus in the background drinking coffee and reading a newspaper.
Ghost Geek: Btw, the crew says hi
Zombie: Noice ??
Seeing Cofagrigus reminded me that I needed to talk to him.
Zombie: Oh, that pic just reminded me, Winnie wants to talk to Cofagrigus
Winnie, who had been reading my texts from the side, snorted, “what? why would I wanna talk with him?”
“Shh shhh shhhhhhhh.” I put a finger to his nose and shushed him. “It would be kinda weird I wanted to talk to Cofagrigus. Just tell him that I need the contact info for his friend at interpol.”
“okay.” Winnie sighed.
Ghost Geek: Now?
Zombie: Yeah, if it’s not a hassle lol
Ghost Geek: Np, I’ll give the phone to him, but I need to go take a shower, mii keeps saying I smell like a dead stunky, so ttyl
Zombie: Aight, thx! ??
A minute or two later, my phone rang and I answered.
“What do you guys want?” Cofagrigus asked, “Make it quick, I need my coffee time.”
“we need that contact info for that interpol person.” Winnie replied.
“Oh, yeah. I can get you that. Actually, I was planning to give it to you guys, but the whole Catacombs incident happened.”
We heard some shuffling. “How long are you guys planning to stay in Kalos? Justine isn’t here anymore so you can talk Azalea.”
“I dunno, maybe a week at most?” I answered.
“Hmm, okay. I’ll make sure you’re given a way to contact interpol before you leave the region.” Cofagrigus replied, “You asking about this because of Team Flare? What did they do now?”
“yeah.” Winnie answered, then he gave Cofagrigus a summary of what happened in Frost Cavern.
Cofagrigus laughed at us for not being careful, “You guys must have a Victini’s luck with the way you keep getting out of these situations unscathed!”
Winnie grumbled, “more like a magikarp’s luck with how we keep getting into these situations in the first place.”
“No, I don’t think you guys realize how lucky you got with this one,” Cofagrigus said, “That mountain doesn’t have enough ice stones left in it to keep the entire area that cold. It should’ve melted long ago, but Isolde’s presence has kept the entire place from turning into a room temperature puddle. It’s why people compare her power to that of an Articuno, it’s one of the many benefits to being a three thousand year old ghost.”
“Aaaaand that’s another reason why I’m never going back there.” I replied.
Winnie rolled his eyes and sighed, “well hopefully the whoever’s in charge of the graveyard is normal.”
That earned another laugh from Cofagrigus, “No coven master is normal foxy, they’re all eccentric motherfuckers for better or for worse. The graveyard’s master, I think her name is Reine?” The mummy Pokemon’s voice became muffled as he leaned away from the phone, “Hey Barkey, it’s Reine, right?” Then his voice went back to normal, “Yeah, from what I’ve heard Reine’s still got most of her marbles.”
“that better be true.” Winnie grumbled.
“Yeah, hopefully she’ll be able to help us out.” I said before remembering Fabian again, “Oh yeah, did you hear about Fabian’s job offer?”
“Yes.” Cofagrigus answer, “Don’t worry about him, that kid’s smart as a whip, and he’s no pushover in a battle.”
There was a pause as Cofagrigus seemed to get distracted by something, then he said, “Alright, my contact will send a Dreepy to deliver a package to you before you guys leave the region, whenever that is.”
A Dreepy? Not something like a Dragapult?
“Uh, cool. I’ll keep an eye out.”
“Well, it time for me to get back to my coffee time.” Cofagrigus said, “Stay safe kid.”
“Same to you.” I replied.
There was a beep as the call ended.
“they’d better not be bullshitting us about this ‘reine’ character.” Winnie grumbled again.
“What, you don’t trust Justine or Cofagrigus’s word?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
The illusion fox sighed, “sure, i guess. i’m just not super psyched about diving into another potentially crazy ghost’s home territory again.”
Banette popped her head out of my shadow with a raised hand, “That’s why I’m opting out of the fun graveyard trip.”
“So you’re a scaredy cat?” Haunter’s voice challenged.
“Better a scaredy cat than a pile of fertilizer.” Banette retorted, as she went back into my shadow, and their bickering was muted.
We continued on our way to a Pokemon center where I used a few TR’s to give my team some new moves. It took more time than I thought it would to get there because of how freaking hilly Dendemille was, I was pretty sure residents could get full leg workouts just taking a casual walk around town.
Honestly I didn’t mind the hills that much cause Dendemille’s had a quaint, peaceful atmosphere that I just enjoyed while walking around in. The massive historical windmills in the distance and the older european styled buildings one would see in a show based in medieval times, all framed by flower and wheat fields kinda just sold the nice vibe.
On the way there, we passed by the fancy section of Dendemille, and Winnie noticed a shop that sold fancy Paldean styled sandwiches. The ‘Paldean style’ was mainly them putting herba mystica in every sandwich. The scent of the food was mouthwatering.
At least the battle park wasn’t super far away. After getting there, Winnie noted that Dendemille’s battle park was more of a performance park as there was a substantial amount of coordinators practicing their acts there.
The thing I was most interested in was how a large portion of the Pokemon belonging to coordinators were shinies, as well as the variation in pigments of the shiny Pokemon. Sure,a shiny Dedenne was a mocha brown, but one was a dark mocha brown while one was an almost pastel mocha. I guess having a rare shiny would be a good way to help stand out from the crowd.
It took a while for us to find a quiet corner to set up, and after Rotom showed him what a shiny Lucario and alolan Ninetales looked like, he decided to change into a shiny Ninetales cause he thought it was cool.
The ghost gang all thought it was cool too cause the purple tint and red-violet eyes gave off a more ghost-like aesthetic than a regular alolan Ninetales. When Winnie asked me what I thought, I said, “Your new look is very cool.”
The illusion fox gave me a dead stare and replied, “very punny.”
I scoffed, “That was even worse than my pun.”
“frankly i though mine was pun-tastic.” Winnie replied with a straight face.
I rolled my eyes and put my hands up in defeat, “Yeah okay, you win.” Then I grabbed everyone’s Pokeballs and let the team out, “Time to get to work guys. It’s been a while since we’ve had a dedicated training day.”
Glados zipped out of my watch, its body and wings spinning.
Sahara let out an excited roar as she appeared, which thankfully didn’t seem to startle anyone, cause we were a good distance from the other occupied fields. Thorondor squawked at her and landed on Kaiju’s head. The teen dragon was much more interested in all the new sounds and smells than training, but a peck from Thoron kept him on track while I went over and exchanged her muscle band and soft sand for the entire power set to Sahara. I wasn’t really sure how the game’s effects would translate to irl Pokemon, but it surely couldn’t hurt.
“These items will decrease your overall power while you wear it, but they’ll also make your strength grow faster.” I explained as the landshark examined her new equipped items. “It’ll provide a good challenge, and if you feel ready to turn up the difficulty level later, I’ll ask Glados to use Gravity.”
Sahara nodded and grunted, then she lazily swiped a claw to the side. Water pooled around her claw and dissipated. The landshark looked questioningly at me.
I nodded, “That’s your new move, Liquidation. It’s good for taking down tanky Pokemon, and it’s generally just a powerful physical move.”
The landshark gave me a sharp toothed grin and looked at Kaiju and then back at me.
I shook my head, “You’re gonna be sparring with Glados today.”
“PooOrRYy?” Glados’s head whipped around to look at me.
“Yeah, you.” I confirmed, “I gave you Iron Tail and Double Team. You only have two physical moves, one of them does a lot of recoil damage, and frankly isn’t worth using much since you have better options, and Double Team for increased evasion. Sahara, I want you to try to hit Glados with Liquidation, but you can get creative with your moves. Glados, you’re only allowed to use your new moves and any utility moves to stay away while you try to trip up Sahara. Make good use of Conversions 1 and 2, and I want you to take advantage of the fact that none of your body parts are attached to each other. Got it?”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Sahara nodded, she looked excited to have a new punching bag. Glados slowly nodded, and floated away with Sahara close behind.
“Ruff! Rufflet?” Thorondor chirped. “Zweiiii!” Kaiju added.
“Yes, onto you guys.” I pointed at Winnie, Kaiju, and Thorondor, “Kaiju and Winnie will be sparring each other today. Thoron, you’re with me.”
Winnie side-eyed kaiju, “what’s the training plan?”
“No fancy illusions.” I answered, “The only moves you can use are Ominous Wind and Brick Break. Utility moves are limited to Agility, and Detect.”
Winnie scratched his head, “just those ones? but i never need to use detect.”
I shrugged, “Yeah, I almost forgot you had it in your move pool, but it’s useful. Remember every Absol we’ve come across? They have an in-built Detect as their ability. If you’re almost impossible to hit while you’re using your illusions, you’ll be completely impossible to hit if you get the hang of it.”
“eh, reasonable i guess.” Winnie then pointed to Kaiju, “what’s his homework?”
I turned to Kaiju, “No biting moves.” Kaiju’s happy muppet face instantly wilted, and he let out a dramatic wheeze. I didn’t budge, “You’re only allowed to use Dragon Pulse, Dark Pulse, and Protect.”
Thorondor was forced to hop off and scurry behind my legs as Kaiju flopped onto the ground began to roll around while making the same wheezing sounds. I just put a hand on my hip.
“It’s only for a day Kaiju, and you need to work on your coordination.” I said with a bit of exasperation.
“Zwei.” Kaiju stopped rolling, but stayed splayed out on the ground like a frog.
“and frankly, i am not letting myself be ragdolled by you kaiju.” Winnie added.
“Zwei zwei.” One of Kaiju’s heads said to the other.
“yeah, i’d certainly say it’s reasonable that I don’t want to get bitten by you.” Winnie said, “because i don’t have scaly armor like sahara does.” He showed the dragon his arm and patted his fur, “this stuff is very rippable.”
Kaiju’s other head pouted and tried to use his version of Yamper eyes. It wasn’t effective. Neither side was willing to budge.
Bro, it is really that much of a crime for him to not use a biting move once? If only I had more herba mystica to bribe him with…oh wait. The sandwich shop.
“I’ll get you an herba mystica sandwich if you can coordinate yourself for this training session and only use the moves I told you to use.”
The teen dragon was instantly on his feet with a, ‘why didn’t you say so earlier?’ attitude.
“Zwei! Zwei zwei zweilous!” Kaiju’s heads grunted. One of them grabbed Winnie by the mane and began dragging him away. “Zweilous!”
Winnie tried to get out of Kaiju’s iron grip, “oi, oiiiii hey, heyyyyy! let go of my fur you lunk!”
“Ruuff let!” Thorondor cheerfully waved at the two.
I looked down at Thorondor, “Let’s get to work too.”
“Rufflet!” Thoron replied with a happy hop.
Using water type energy was a new experience for Sahara, it worked just a bit too differently from dirt and rock, but she could sense the potential power in the move. So she went with her usual training tactic called: spam the move until she gets a hang of it. Simple, but effective.
The ‘power set’ as Azalea called it was slowing her down just enough that the landshark had to adjust accordingly for the decrease in overall battle power. Normally, she would be able to outspeed the robot with ease, but now they were evenly matched in speed.
Shortly into the match, Glados made the mistake of thinking it could parry one of Sahara’s weakened attacks with Iron Tail, but it misjudged how strong the landshark was, even with a debuff. This led to Sahara bulldozing through the attempted block and landing a solid hit, slamming the AI into the ground.
Glados propelled itself out of the way and high into the air with Magnet Rise and used Double Team to prevent itself from being hit again. In response, Sahara scattered spikes all around the field and used Twister to fling them in every direction, dissipating the Double Team clones.
Using the brightness of the sun behind it, Glados dived at Sahara and chopped down with Iron Tail, but it was completely countered by a Liquidation, followed by a flurry of even more Liquidations that kept hitting harder and harder.
Having learned from its first attempt, Glados converted to a grass type and used Iron Tail to deflect and redirect instead of directly parrying it before using Double Team again to get away.
Sand swirled around Sahara, and she charged at the AI, parrying an Iron Tail as she summoned a Sand Tomb to trap them both so Glados wouldn’t be able to get away. Silver steel type energy shimmered around Glados as it converted into a steel type to prevent chip damage and to get a power boost to Iron Tail before engaging in melee with the landshark once again.
This time around, the AI tried a new tactic, its wings began glowing with steel type energy too, and its detached tail and wings began spinning around faster and faster and faster. As a collection of living code, a Porygon-Z’s body simply didn’t work the same way most Pokemon work. It wasn’t too big of a stretch to redefine its ‘wings’ (which weren’t really wings cause they weren’t needed to fly) into tails.
And voila! Glados was now, a spinning top. Or to put it in fancier terms, a beyblade.
Sahra tilted her head as she tried to figure out what Glados was trying to do, but she gave up after a second. Nothing she couldn’t fix with a Liquidation, the dragon thought as she grinned and charged. That grin was quickly wiped off her face when her attack bounced off of her opponent, completely deflected.
That earns a frustrated growl from Sahara. Glados was beginning to think this was more fun than sniping its enemies from far away. Then AI used Agility and began to bounce around like a pinball in the little space they had inside Sand Tomb, forcing Sahara to go on the defensive for the first time since their match started.
The swirling sand slowed down and Sahara leaped back, closely followed by Glados. Sahara parried a charge from the AI with Metal Claw, and flames leaped from her mouth as she blasted Glados with a close ranged Flamethrower that was mostly dissipated by the AI’s spinning.
Glados used Double Team, but that was quickly taken care of any another Spikes Twister combo from Sahara.
The landshark leaped at her opponent with another Liquidation at the ready. Glados braced itself for impact, but Sahara whipped around and smacked the AI’s head with a Dragon Tail, sending it flying.
The momentary surprise slowed Glados’s spinning down enough that Sahara was able to grab and stop its spinning wings with each clawed arm. The remaining tail flailed and whacked Sahara a few times before the AI’s head returned and bonked Sahara on the head as it returned, Sahara headbutted it back with Iron Head, and then Glados pushed back, emitting a loud high pitched beeping noise.
As the two struggled to end this stalemate, Glados dryly made a note to itself to analyze battle videos of fighting types later.
“FOR THE HERB!” Kaiju’s left head screamed as his right head blasted a Dark Pulse at the silly fox. The moment Righty was done firing, Lefty shot a Dragon Pulse and Righty screamed, “FOR THE HERB!”
The nonstop barrage of Dark and Dragon Pulses, and screaming about ‘the herb’ was what Winnie had been dealing with for the past ten minutes. While Kaiju’s accuracy left much to be desired, the range and sheer amount of area each attack covered made it so that Kaiju wouldn’t have to worry about accuracy.
Why bother aiming if you just nuke half the field with every single attack?
“how the hell does he have the energy to put this much energy into each attack?” Winnie muttered to himself as he ducked down and laid flat on the ground like a pancake to dodge another Dark Pulse.
Getting hit by one of those attacks would be able to knock him clean out. Winnie made a note himself to tell Az off for letting Kaiju keep his Wise Glasses and Black Glasses on for an arceus-damned sparring match.
“is that plant really that good? it looks like a bunch of weeds to me!” Winnie shouted to the teen dragon as he got back up. A wave of ice and snow rushed at Kaiju, who blocked it with a Protect.
Kaiju paused his screaming and made the most serious expression Winnie had ever seen from the teen dragon, “Yes.” Both heads said simultaneously.
Then Lefty yelled, “FOR THE WEED!” Righty nodded and shouted, “YES! YES! THE WEEEED!”
Winnie’s spine prickled as Detect activated again, and he leaped into a nearby shadow just in time to avoid a field sweeping double Dark Pulse.
The illusion fox leaped out of Kaiju’s shadow and sent an Ominous Wind at the dragon’s unguarded back, though it looked like a Blizzard attack. Kaiju unflinchingly tanked the hit and turned around, shouting, “FOR THE WEED!”
Winnie tried sending another Ominous wind Kaiju’s way to stop another double Dark Pulse, but Righty used Protect to block the attack while Lefty blasted a Dark Pulse in Winnie’s general direction, forcing the illusion fox to dive back into another shadow.
Kaiju turned around, getting face to face with Winnie, who had tried to sneak up on him again. Righty used Protect again, but Winnie already had a Brick Break prepared to counter it. Except when he chopped down, he was only able to crack the barrier, making him narrowly dodge a Dragon Pulse from Lefty before he dived back into another shadow.
Unlike Low Kick and Low Sweep, Brick Break required a good amount of skill with manipulation of fighting type energy, which was a problem because trying to manipulate fighting type energy was like trying to herd Liepards, except the Liepards were also trying to run away and punch him at the same time. Winnie had asked Sahara last night how she used Brick Break, and her answer was that she just used her muscles. He wasn’t surprised.
“FOR THE WEEEEEED!” “THE WEEEED!”
“SHUT UP YOU’RE TOO LOUD!” “NO YOU’RE LOUD!” “STOP SCREAMING IN MY EAR!”
Winnie sighed to himself, “i call dibs on sparring with sahara or glados next time.”
It was about time to expand Thoron’s moveset, so I used the most TR’s on him: Dual Wingbeat, Steel Wing, Shadow Claw, Slash, and Swift.
It would’ve been nice to get him some more ranged moves since Hisuan Braviaries had a higher special attack, but he could only learn a total of six ranged moves as a Rufflet, three of which–Heat Wave, Hurricane, and Tera Blast–were a bit too powerful for him to handle at the moment.
We started off with having him try out Slash. It was a pretty simple, but powerful and effective attack. I had the ghosts get me some rocks and sticks to throw in the air for him to practice his new attacks on, and after a few throws, he was able to cut large rocks clean in half.
Dual Wingbeat and Steel Wing, which were kind of just improved versions of Wing Attack.
The eaglet had a bit of trouble getting the hang of Dual Wingbeat at first because it was basically Wing Attack, but you hit twice in rapid succession using both wings instead of just one, which was a bit hard to do while hovering. Watching a few videos of bird Pokemon use the move showed us that it was mainly used for slamming opponents away when they were directly above or below the user while flying. Other usages included hitting two opponents at once in double battles, or stopping midair and slamming an opponent with both wings at once.
Thoron copied what we saw, and he got the hang of it pretty quickly, though the last attack type we saw was basically impossible for him to perform until he evolved and got bigger wings.
Steel Wing was okay for him since he just had to use it to attack the same way he did with Wing Attack. The main issue was generating and using the new type energy, cause he was only able to slightly reinforce his wing with steel type energy instead of completely covering his wing with it. He’d be able to get the hang of it with practice.
Banette, who was watching this with a bunch of the ghosts, commented that Thoron’d Steel Wing looked more like an aluminum wing. That earned her a smack on the back of the head from Mismagius.
Shadow Claw was a bit easier for him to use than Steel Wing despite the new type energy because he was already kind of familiar with it due to being surrounded by ghost Pokemon 24/7. He got the hang of it in the first few tries.
The last move to try out was Swift. I added it in because it was the only other ranged move I could feasibly give him, and it was just a good move he could spam without having to worry about aiming while flying. It was the perfect move to provide cover while he was dealing with any ranged opponents.
It was an easy enough move for him since he was already very familiar with normal type energy, so he was able to use the move pretty well right off the bat, and the more he used it, the less of a charge up he needed.
To practice all his new moves, I began tossing rocks and sticks in the air for him to attack and calling out the new moves in a random order. Eventually I began adding some of his old moves too for variety before switching to having him spar with Banette and Haunter.
This went on for a good while before a loud shout of surprise from Winnie made us stop and look just in time to see Kaiju headbutt Winnie across the field. The illusion fox skipped like a stone a few times before landing in the dust, his eyes spinning.
“ZWEI! LOUS!” Kaiju shouted victoriously.
I stared for a moment before telling Thoron and the ghosts to continue while I ran over to check on Winnie.
Kaiju was already standing over Winnie with both heads making happy muppet faces by the time I got to them. Winnie groaned and tried to swat Kaiju away, his ninetales illusion wavered for a moment before stabilizing.
“You alright?” I asked as I helped him get up.
“yeah.” Winnie shook himself off, “he taught himself two new moves.”
I looked at Kaiju with a raised eyebrow. The dragon kindly demonstrated what he did by turning around and wiggling his stubby tail, and then turning back around to swing his heads. “Zwei!”
“You learned Zen Headbutt and Dragon Tail?” I asked a bit incredulously.
“Zwei!” His left head replied, his right head nodded, “Zweilous!”
I didn’t really know what to say, so I just patted his heads, “Uhh, that was pretty unexpected. Good job Kaiju.”
The dragon’s tail wiggled, and he pranced back out to the center of the field, and then he began spinning around as his heads began nipping at each other over something.
“using detect nonstop like an absol isn’t working for me.” Winnie stated, “it’s hard to keep it up all the time while also using an illusion and trying to use another move and whatever other chaos is going on in a battle.”
“Hm, yeah that’s reasonable.” I tapped my chin as I brainstormed a solution, “Then instead, try focusing on figuring out the best times in a battle to use it. Off the top of my head, you can use it when you’re being targeted by multiple opponents and can’t keep track of them, or when your opponent uses a move like Smokescreen or Dig.”
Winnie nodded, “yeah i like that more.”
“You can practice Detect with Sahara using Dig. Maybe we can set up an area with a lot of cover with Rock Tomb too…I’ll change up our training format after lunch.” I said, “by the way how are Ominous Wind and Brick Break working out?”
With a shrug, Winnie replied, “i’ve got a hang on ominous wind, but i can only crack a protect.”
“I’ll have Rotom search up some tutorials on Brick Break for you to watch later then.”
Winnie nodded again and began heading over to Kaiju to restart their match.
“Oh yeah.” I raised a finger, Winnie stopped to listen.
“You can add Bitter Malice, Low Sweep, and Low Kick to your move roster.” I added, “Tell Kaiju that he can use Dragon Tail and Zen Headbutt too.”
The illusion fox’s face soured a bit at the thought of giving Kaiju more moves to terrorize him with, but that feeling with quickly balanced out by him being able to use his signature move. He left with a bit of pep in his step.
For lunch, I gave Mismagius money to go buy Kaiju a sandwich from that fancy Paldean sandwich shop cause I wasn’t allowed to leave the crew alone in the battle park, and the fields were getting taken up pretty fast.
We were previously taking up three fields cause there weren’t that many people out in the morning, but after lunch, we were restricted to one field as more people arrived. Most of them were coordinators, and I got a bit excited seeing a few of them battle for spots at the park. It would be pretty great to get Thoron some battle experience outside of my team, but most of the trainers took one look at Sahara or Kaiju and decided to challenge someone else. It was a bit disappointing, but I guess I wouldn’t have to worry about my spot being taken.
Sahara and Winnie’s presence drew a decent amount of attention too, which made me feel a bit awkward. It wasn’t every day people could see a giant Garchomp and a shiny Alolan Nintales on one team, but I kinda wished people would stop openly staring as us like a public art display or something.
Once lunch was over, I switched the format to single battles, and I’d shout suggestions or moves and the like to each side while any non participating member of the team would watch. After a while of this, I decided it might be useful to get a megaphone cause my voice was beginning to get hoarse from all the shouting.
Winnie made the most of his rest time by practicing Curse, and Banette, Haunter, and Mismagius even decided to participate to stay sharp.
Kaiju had basically instantly mastered his new moves, I was surprised he hadn’t learned Dragon Tail earlier. According to Winnie he probably learned it because Winnie kept using Phantom Force to keep jumping up behind him to attack. Zen Headbutt kinda came out of nowhere, maybe it was because Thoron told him how to use it?
Speaking of, Thoron was getting a hang of his new moves very fast. Faster than I expected. Maybe it was because he had to compete against Pokemon who were already much stronger than him that he was forced to grow faster too. Today was his first time actually sparring with Sahara, and despite the dragon going easy on him (well as easy as a brute like her could go), he did a splendid job dodging and making use of Swift, and using Slash to cut a Mud Shot in half.
I wonder how to apply Sheer Force to his moves, cause it’s not something he naturally has like Keen Eye. A major boost to physical moves in exchange for secondary effects is a pretty good ability to have.
Once Thoron got tired out, I pulled him out for the day and ramped up the difficulty by having Glados use a half strength Gravity on the field for some extra strength training.
I got curious and decided to try out the gravity field myself. It wasn’t impossible to walk around, but it was like wearing a full suit of heavy armor. It wasn’t that bad at first, but my muscles began burning after a short while. It wasn’t a bad way to get a full body workout, but I’d save that idea for when I didn’t have to worry about running for my life from anything.
During training, I overheard some coordinators use special, shortened names for move combos, and that got me thinking about doing something like that myself. It would be useful for preventing my opponent from figuring out any plans I came up with mid-battle. Sahara was already familiar with the Spikes, Twister, and Sandstorm combo, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to come up with more and give them cool names.
We stayed until the sun began to set, by then everyone was pretty worn out. I returned everyone and began making my way to the nearest Pokemon center. Well, turns out that Pokemon center was completely booked, which was kind of my fault for not realizing that it would be crowded because of the Pokemon Showcase tomorrow.
The nurses there were very helpful, and directed me to the Pokemon center furthest from the Dendemille Theater. It was an hour’s walk away since there weren’t that many Gogoat rides out this late, but the weather was nice and I didn’t mind.
On the walk over, I got asked by Lampent what events happened in a Pokemon Showcase. Mismagius informed me that he spent the entire day watching the coordinators and their Pokemon practice their performances for tomorrow’s show.
There were a lot of people practicing today, I wonder how many people will participate in the showcase tomorrow, they usually don’t have that many people actually participating in the showcase. I wonder how they narrow things down cause I’m pretty sure they don’t have time to let that many people perform in once showcase.
I gestured for Lampent to float over so I could talk to him, “You interested in performing?”
Lampent shyly nodded. Mismagius then asked, “Are you interested in performing Azalea?”
I made a face and shook my head, “Ehhhh, nah. I’m fine with sports related stuff that requires me to focus on winning, not stuff that requires me to impress a crowd or have people judge me.”
I looked back at Lampent, who looked a bit crestfallen, “That doesn’t mean you can’t perform. If you’re determined to do it, I can find a good trainer who’d like to have you on their team.”
The lamp ghost looked to the side, “...I would like to perform…but…I’ll miss my friends…”
“I understand that.” I scratched my head, “Hmmm, I’ll ask around then. If you join the team of a coordinator we’re friends with, then you’ll be able to see your friends when we meet up. How’s that sound?”
Lampent nodded.
“Great. I’d suggest we wait until we get to another region though.” I leaned a bit closer to the lamp ghost, “Other regions all do Contest Spectaculars instead of Pokemon Showcases and I personally think they’re cooler.”
The lamp ghost questioningly tilted to the side, “What’s different about them?”
I nodded knowingly and put a palm up as I launched into an explanation, “Contests have a bigger variety of themes and event, and they have battles with different rules from normal league battles that require finesse and flair to win.”
I put my other palm up, “Showcases on the other hand, are for female trainers only, and from what I know, the range of events and format are less varied. Also there’s no contest battling, which I think is a con.”
“why are contests in kalos different from the other regions?” Winnie asked, “and why female trainers only?”
I shrugged, “I dunno. Probably something history related.”
Rotom dinged and flew out of my pocket with the answer loaded on a Pokenet search. TLDR, it’s because of Kalos’s women’s rights movement back in the day. Women were excluded from doing a ton of stuff cause sexism, so they decided to create their own women only event and then that ended up becoming more popular than the men’s version.
Rotom then pulled up the website where we could buy tickets for tomorrow’s showcase, “bzzt?”
I shrugged, “I’m fine with it if you guys wanna go. I don’t think my voice can stand another full day of training anyways.”
Mismagius smiled and looked at Lampent, “I think that’s a great idea. We’re going to be here tomorrow anyway.”
Lampent nodded.
“Sure,” I gestured at Rotom, “how many seats are there left?”
Gave me a mischievous, “bzzt!” and showed me that it had already booked three seats in a good section.
I raised an eyebrow, “When did you buy these?” Rotom showed me the number 3, as in three days ago, then it showed me that the seats were all booked out, so we wouldn’t have gotten seats now if it hadn’t booked early. The ticket prices weren’t bad either, about thirty dollars per seat. I wasn’t sure how much ticket prices were on average in this world. But compared to the average of a hundred plus in my old world ninety dollars for three seats was a good deal.
I sighed, “Alright, just…run things by me next time before you buy something.”
Rotom nodded and dinged, showing me an alarm set for an hour before the show started tomorrow. I nodded, and gave it a thumbs up.
The conversation died for a moment before something ticked in my brain, and I glanced at Lampent, “Wait a moment, I don’t remember there being a Lampent in the gang. Did someone evolve?”
Banette flew over with a grin, “Oh yeah, one of the Litwicks evolved during the Isolde incident.”
Haunter butted in with a laugh, “Yeah, Lampent got scared into evolving!” That earned him a very hard smack in the back of the head from Mismagius. “GACK! OWWWwwwww…” He trailed off due to the glare the witch ghost gave him and sank halfway into my shadow with a weak, “sorry.”
“That’s rich coming from the ghost who can’t even figure out how to evolve.” Banette shot at Haunter.
The gas ghost huffed, “It’s not my fault I’m part of a two evolution species that has a stupid method for evolving.” Lampent slowly make its way into my shadow while the two were occupied with each other.
“Doesn’t make you any less of a loser.” Banette teased. Haunter growled and turned to me, “You think Angela or Justine will have a way for me to evolve fast?”
I raised an eyebrow, “I dunno about the fast part, but I’m sure they know how to evolve a Haunter without a trade.” I pointed to Rotom, “Send a text to Angela, how do I evolve a haunter without trading it?”
The plasma ghost buzzed in acknowledgement and sent the text.
She didn’t answer immediately so I left it at that, and Mismagius forced Haunter back into my shadow so we all wouldn’t have to deal with their bickering.
A while of beautiful silence later, we arrived at our destination, another Pokemon center. This one was less crowded, but there was still a buzz of activity from coordinators and their Pokemon hanging out in the lobby or walking to or from the battlefield out back. Winnie, Banette, and I joined the line at the room booking kiosk.
Winnie did a big yawn, which made me yawn too. I was more than ready to go straight to sleep, but I still had to make sure Sahara’s scales were brushed clean from today’s exercise, Kaiju needed a bath, Winnie also needed a good brushing, and Thoron needed help removing the caps on the pinfeathers on his head. Thankfully Mismagius and Haunter were nice enough to help out with these tasks.
Maybe I can teach some of the other ghosts how to do this too.
Once our room was booked, I headed out back so Glados could get started with prepping everyone’s food while I took care of my team.
I had just started brushing Winnie’s coat when Angela replied to my text. Rotom flew over to show me.
Queen Boo: Route 14, go at night. You’ll know it when you see it, just make sure to wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty cause it’s a swamp. Watch out for the Swalot and Whiscash, and keep a dark type handy.
Zombie: Roger that, thank you! ??
“haunter!” Winnie called to the gas ghost, who was helping Mismagius clean brush Sahara down, “we’ve got your evolution plan!”
Haunter grinned, “Great!” Then he shot a look at Banette, who was helping Glados prep dinner, “I’m looking forward to being stronger than Banette, according to battlenet forums.”
Banette deigned not to respond.
“The timing for this actually works out pretty well.” I said as I looked at a map of Kalos on Rotom’s screen.
“The show is tomorrow evening, so we can do a bit of training during the day, then at night we go to route fourteen for Haunter.” I resumed brushing Winnie’s mane, “Then we’ll fly straight to Camphrier, rest until night, and then head to route six for the graveyard visit.”
“sounds like a tight schedule.” Winnie remarked.
I shrugged, “Yeah, but it’s the best course of action we have now. I wanna be done with everything asap.”
“fair enough.” Winnie replied before wincing, “ow, easy on the brush.”
“Sorry.” I untangled my brush from his mane and tried, to brush it a bit gentler.
And then there’s everything we have to do in Hoenn. I shook my head to clear the sense of impending doom, I’ll worry about that once I’m done dealing with all this Kalos bullshit. Stupid Team Flare. Go jump in a microwave Lysandre.
Hisuan Zoroark – Winnie:
Normal-Ghost | Male
Nature: Jolly (+Speed/-Sp. Attack)
Abilities: Illusion
Held Item(s): Ghost Tag, Bright Powder
Moves:
- (Utility) Detect, Agility, Torment, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray, Taunt, Leer, Fake Tears, Hone Claws, Substitute, Protect, Calm Mind, Curse
- (Atk) Slash, Phantom Force, Foul Play, Dig, Shadow Claw, Low Kick, Low Sweep, Crunch, Brick Break
- (Sp. Atk) Bitter Malice, Psychic, Hex, Shadow Ball, Night Shade, Dark Pulse, Snarl, Icy Wind, Hyper Beam, Ominous Wind
Garchomp – Sahara:
Dragon-Ground | Female | Ultra Ball
Nature: Lonely (+Attack/-Defense)
Abilities: Sand Veil, Rough Skin
Held Item(s): Garchompite, Power Items
Moves:
- (Utility) Scary Face, Sandstorm, Swords Dance, Protect, Spikes
- (Atk) Metal Claw, Dragon Rush, Bite, Slash, Dragon Claw, Dragon Tail, Dig, Rock Tomb, Outrage, Brick Break, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Iron Head, Crunch, Liquidation
- (Sp. Atk) Twister, Dragon Pulse, Sand Tomb, Hyper Beam, Flamethrower, Mud Shot
Zweilous – Kaiju:
Dark-Dragon | Male | Dusk Ball
Nature: Rash (+Sp. Attack/-Sp. Def)
Abilities: Hustle
Held Item(s): Wise Glasses, Dark Glasses
Moves:
- (Utility) Work Up, Scary Face, Screech, Taunt, Nasty Plot, Roar, Protect, Thunder Wave, Endure
- (Atk) Crunch, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Ice Fang, Head Smash, Astonish, Body Slam, Dragon Rush, Outrage, Dragon Tail, Zen Headbutt
- (Sp. Atk) Hyper Voice, Dragon Breath, Dragon Pulse, Dragon Rage, Draco Meteor, Dark Pulse, Snarl
Porygon-Z – Glados:
Normal
Nature: Mild (+Sp. Attack/-Def)
Abilities: Adaptability, Download, Analytic
Held Item(s): Wise Glasses, Magnet
Moves:
- (Utility) Conversion, Conversion 2, Defense Curl, Magnet Rise, Nasty Plot, Recycle, Agility, Recover, Lock-on, Charge, Protect, Gravity, Magic Coat, Thunder Wave, Double Team
- (Atk) Giga Impact, Zen Headbutt, Iron Tail
- (Sp. Atk) Discharge, Zap Cannon, Psybeam, Tri-Attack, Hyper Beam, Swift, Psychic, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, Electro Web, Thunder
Rufflet – Thorondor:
Normal-Flying | Male
Nature: Brave (+Atk/-Speed)
Abilities: Keen Eye, Sheer Force, Hustle
Held Item(s): Soothe Bell, Focus Sash
Moves:
- (Utility) Agility, Leer, Roost, Tailwind, Protect
- (Atk) Zen Headbutt, Peck, Wing Attack, Crush Claw, Dual Wingbeat, Steel Wing, Shadow Claw, Slash
- (Sp. Atk) Air Slash, Air Cutter, Swift
Rotom
Banette: Spell Tag, Quick Claw x3, Razor Claw x3
Haunter: Spell Tag, Reaper Cloth
Mismagius: Spell Tag x2