Chapter 2
As Sasha traveled down Route 1, the singing of Finchettes, a small brown bird pokemon, filling her ears as she walked down the farm lands, a few patches of tall grass around her, she took out a cord from her pokedex and plugged into her two companion's pokeballs. Information filled up the screen on the bright red computer, and she couldn't help but browse through it.
She looked through the moveset of Sneg, her smoochum proving to be quite the capable little pokemon. Pound, Lick, and Sweet Kiss, all standard moves for a Smoochum, but the icing on top was the Ice Punch, a move that had to be bred into the Smoochum line. Despite Smoochum's rather weak attack and defense, on par with the pitiful stats of an Abra, it wasn't Ice Punch's damage that made her lick her lips, but rather, the chance of causing the Frozen Status effect. Sure, it probably wasn't powerful enough to freeze a large pokemon, but it could certainly cause a limb to freeze up, which would spell the end of a battle if the enemy pokemon couldn't get around that. Her Forewarn ability also made her quite delicious in the pokemon researcher's eyes. A psychic that could see it's enemies attacks would make an even greater asset than other Smoochums. Of course, the trade off was a bit bad since the Oblivious ability would've made her immune to some of the more underhanded attacks, but in Sasha's mind, she would find a work around for that. Either way, she was going to get some training done before they reached their first gym in Krasnyy City so Smoochum would be putting her skills to the test!
Now if only she could tutor her little friend in the Signal Beam attack. Her powerful Special Attack would lend it well to the bug type move, but type moves that weren't naturally learned were rather difficult for a pokemon to learn, especially one that had a type weakness to it. But teaching it to her would be well worth it when it came to the first gym, Yaga being a well known psychic-type gym leader. Even if she didn't know the pokemon the older woman used, no one did since it was kept classified so people wouldn't train their pokemon to simply fight one set (which would be lethal in any pokemon trainer's career), having that trump card on hand would be incredibly useful.
Her Minior on the other hand...Professor Fennel was right. She was indeed lucky. After watching some videos on Poketube, she watched as someone from Alola completely swept entire teams once they used Shell Smash on their Miniors, lowering it's defense and special defense, while drastically increasing it's speed, attack, and special attack. And once it's Shield's Down ability activated, switching it's formidable defenses into a crushing offense, well...it was pretty much over for the enemy team. Unfortunately, it was one of the last moves it learned, but hers still knew some pretty decent moves. Rollout, Defense Curl, and Tackle. Nothing too fancy, but nothing to be looked down upon either. She just couldn't wait to start trying to tutor it in some of it's other moves. A nice Iron Head, or Zen Headbutt, would certainly be a surprise to any opponents that dared face her Zvesda. And once it learned Shell Smash...
She bit her lower lip at the thought, trying not to let her tongue loll out of her mouth as she thought of the destruction her little meteor pokemon could cause.
'Either way, we've gotta train. And there's no better place than Route 1.'
The farmlands that made up Route 1 were quiet, pleasant, and filled with weak pokemon. New trainers who hadn't received their starters, either from the Local Gym Leader, or the Regional Pokemon Professors (Or relatives if they were lucky) flocked to this place to battle and train. Of course, it wasn't very high stakes, and the amount of money made was negligable compared to what was needed to buy things like TM's, but a nice match could net around 150 Pokedollars. Not much with potions costing around 300 pokedollars, but it was a start. Plus it would provide the experience her pokemon needed to train and learn.
"Hey you!" A small boy says as he walks up to her, an astoundingly large Molrat on his shoulder. Normally such creatures would only be up to below someone's ankle at best, but this one was almost an inch or two above his! "My name is Billy! I work down at the local farm with my dad. Anyway, wanna fight?"
"Sure. Any rules you want to set?" Sasha asks, the boy putting his finger up to his chin and mulling it over.
"Nah. I only got my Molrat, but it's in the top percentage of all Molrats. It's even a Gallonsize pokemon!" He says proudly, and Sasha nods at that. Pintsize pokemon were usually people's pets, miniature pokemon to carry in people's purses or backpacks as a sign of status considering the miniature gene that caused it was on par with shinies in rarity. Gallonsize pokemon on the other hand, while still rare, were less so than shinies or miniatures, and were great for battling, the mutation causing them to be bigger and stronger than their average counterparts. "You only got two pokemon with you, so we should be good." He says, his Molrat squeaking in agreement.
"Okay then," Sasha says, a small smile coming over her face. 'My first pokemon battle! I can't screw this up!' She presses the button on the pokeball, unleashing her Smoochum, Sneg. "you asked for it."
"All right," His Molrat, a rather cute, if blind, molerat-like pokemon with a brown and white color scheme and big incisors jumped off his shoulder. "Let's do this! Molerat use pound!" The creature springs into action, using it's powerful leg muscles to launch it forward. Sneg is surprised, both by the sheer size of the rat and by it's speed. It slams into her stomach, sending the Smoochum sprawling.
'Hmmph! I don't like this ugly rat!' Sasha hears the Smoochum say in her mind. 'Any plans friend? I don't think I can take another hit like that, especially a physical one.'
'Don't worry, I've got a plan. But I can't relay orders in my head because I'm a bit of a ditz sometimes and I don't want you screwing up because of me.' Sasha says, the small blonde pokemon nodding in reply. 'Okay, you ready?'
'Ready.'
"Sneg, get in close and hit him with your ice punch." Sneg looks confused by the plan, especially since she had a weak attack and defense, but she obeyed nonetheless, the Molrat having grown arrogant due to it's massive size. The hit barely managed to connect, but it did, and the effects were obvious. The Molrat looked down at his left leg and screeched, the limb being under the status effect of Frozen. "Yes! Now go for a Sweet Kiss!"
Sneg looked reluctant to kiss the, in her mind, repulsive creature. But her boss' plan had worked so far and she trusted her one and only friend, even if her child-like mind reminded her that she had only met her yesterday. The Smoochum puckered up, before unleashing a devastating smooch right on it's face. The Molrat's eyes glazed for a second, before the Confusion took hold of it, it's eyes glancing around it's environment wearily, as if it couldn't comprehend what was going on around it.
"No! Molrat! Snap out of it!" The boy cries out, but the Molrat is too confused to listen. Despite it's frozen limb, it jumps forward, but the combination of the confusion and the Frozen status causes it to headbutt a tree, knocking itself out. "God dang it Molrat..." The boy slumps as Sasha walks forward and picks her Smoochum up, the little blonde letting out a squeal as Sasha spun her around.
"We won! I knew we could do it!" She says, and the boy picks up his Molerat in his arms, wincing at the nasty bruise starting to form on it's head.
"Yeah yeah." He pulls some money out of his pocket, around 150 pokedollars, "Here you go. If you want to ever battle again, you know where to find me."
"Okay. Don't let yourself get all rusty though! I expect it to be a Molking if we fight again!" She shouts and the boy smiles back at her as he walks off, "You okay Sneg?"
'I have a bit of a bruise in my side, but I should be fine for now.' The smoochum says, before pushing her hair up in a pompous manner. 'A small price to pay for showing that rat who's boss.'
Their trip down Route 1 took a couple of hours, the Trainer and her pokemon fighting around six battles, Sasha enjoying the look on their faces when they realized she had pokemon that were not the typical Inrigo Starters. Sneg had managed to fight two more battles, honing her skills with her moves, especially her Ice Punch and Lick, before Sasha kept her from fighting so she wouldn't be too hurt. Zvesda managed to blow through the remaining four trainers, before being defeated by a rather strong kid, obviously a farmer due to his pokemon, a rather tanky Mozcow, a rather large blue cow-like pokemon with ridges on it's back and a large poofy tail.
Even with her pokemon defeated, Sasha was rather happy with the results. They had proven themselves to be exceptional pokemon, and it could only go further from here. She was practically salivating at the thought of what her pokemon could do by the time she became strong enough to attend the League Conference.
The amount of money she got was also a nice plus, even if she lost some to the last guy.
As she walked into Krosnyy City, the place living up to it's name with all the red colored buildings, an odd choice due to the rather Psychic nature of the gym clashing with the Town's color scheme, but she wasn't going to judge the Psychic leader. As long as she could get through this as quickly as possible and avoid the older psychic, she would be a happy trainer. While she would've liked to explore the city a bit more first, having grown up in the rather backwater town that was Shamrock Town, but she had her priorities set.
First, heal her pokemon up.
Second, have dinner with her pokemon. Preferably in one of the cheap rooms provided by the Pokemon Center.
Third, buy more items, especially pokeballs. Need to catch more pokemon for a full team.
Fourth, Train to kick ass and take names.
Fifth, repeat four till suitably bitching enough to take on the gym leader.
With her mind set, she walked into the Pokemon Center, the telltale jingle of the Pokemon Center filling her ears.
The Next Day…
With a few books by her side and a couple items in her bookbag, courtesy of purchasing them from the Pokemart inside the Pokemon Center, Sasha set out to train in the nearby Route 3, a small grassland near a large lake. She unleashed her two pokemon, the red haze revealing Sneg and Zvesda.
"Okay you two, we're going to be training in speed and endurance for a bit, and then we'll get to stepping up our game regarding your movesets, alright?" She asked. Zvesda let out a trill of approval, a loud "MINI!" ringing from it's ethereal mouth. Sneg on the other hand, grumbled as she stood next to her trainer, letting out a small 'Why the heck am I even doing this?' through the telepathy link. Sasha let out a small chuckle at that, before she began to stretch, Sneg mimicking her master while the Minior simply stretched it's stubs out. The fake blond haired girl had read that working out with pokemon helped not only motivate them, but made them push harder and thus gain better results from their training.
Especially fighting pokemon.
With Smoochum's typically having pretty pathetic defense and attack, along with the fact that, as a psychic pokemon, she wouldn't have much stamina in the first place due to an over reliance on mental prowess, Sasha had decided to fix that problem as best she could. Plus, it would help with her own stamina issues and hopefully help build up some muscle. She was a young girl in a world where teenagers that were as young as ten and as old as fifteen were declared adults and allowed to go there own way. It was a scary thought that she may be helpless if someone got the jump on her and tried to do things to her.
It was certainly something she didn't want to think about.
So, she had purchased books on Martial Arts, and muscle building, along with a few supplements to help. She was also hoping to help build up an Aura. Being that humans had stood alongside pokemon for so long, they too had developed an Aura of their own, from the same energy that Pokemon used for their more esoteric attacks. PK Energy, it was called, and anyone could use it. Unfortunately, it took a long time to use, but the results were well worth it. Enhanced muscles, the ability to use it to do many of the more physical fighting and normal moves, and simply a healthier body from all the physical fitness it required.
That, and it would give her a defense against Psychics.
Of course, that was months away at the very least, but there was no harm done in increasing her pokemon and her own stamina and endurance. Their stretches eventually evolved into a series of pushup, squats, situps and a mile run. Needless to say, the future pokemon professor and her Smoochum were rather sore by the end of their workout. Minior wasn't but he had instead been forced to work on his moves since it couldn't really increase it's physical form outside of it's shell, so she had it work on forming and reforming it's shell as fast as it could, to flex it's "muscles" so to speak.
Then the two had got to training. While Sasha practiced Martial Arts she had read from the book, having chosen Tai Kwon Doe, Sneg and Zvesda decided to put their abilities to the test on the surrounding area. Sneg smashed her fist into a lone tree, the mark leaving a small frozen crater where her fist hit. She looked back at her hand, then at the tree in awe. She had thought her trainer was stupid for trying to physically train a psychic type, but the results were surely showing. And as she grew, she felt that she could use her ice in new ways, freezing the air to chilling temperatures and blasting it at the opponent. She used this new move, trading Pound for Powder Snow, on the tree, leaving a small bit of frost on the bark. Sneg's lips turned up in a smile as she continued to practice her techniques, her control over her ice growing steadily stronger and stronger.
After a while, Sasha had finished practicing, the teen drenched in sweat as she walked over, League Phone in hand. Using RedTube, she managed to show Sneg a fight where a bug type used Signal Beam, and tried to give her tips on how to create it. It was frustrating to the Psychic pokemon, the small blonde trying to create the sinister beams of light the move was known for. As it went against not only her typing, but was also a move that was super effective against her, it was difficult for the little Smoochum to pull off, but by the end of the training session, she had managed to create a small purple beam that left an energy burn on the tree. She had forgotten Lick in the process, and while it was a weak Signal Beam, it was still one nonetheless.
Minior on the other hand, had taken to increasing the size of it's Rollout and speed that it could hit, leaving a small trail of destruction in it's wake. It even helped with the speed it could reform it's shell since it followed the same principle of gathering earth around it, allowing it's shell to become smoother and more resilient. Having grown slightly, it had learned Confuse Ray and had taken to practicing it on nearby Snochic, the ice bird pokemon, a rather small pale blue bird with a large beak, swaying as it slowly hopped around instead of flying.
Sasha had also tried to teach Zvesda the move Iron Head, and it was quickly apparent that it was easy for the pokemon to do. Despite the typing of Steel being against it's own Rock typing, the move relied on principles that it used to form it's shell and Rollout. Hence, while it's shell only gave the slick gleam that were a sign of a Steel move half the time, it at least worked and could be improved upon in the future. Tackle was discarded for the superior move, and while it was still imperfect, Sasha resolved to train with her team to perfect their moves so when the time came to face the Psychic gym leader, they would have no doubt about their victory.
"Mini!" The meteor pokemon let out an excite squeak, it's tiny limbs sticking out of it's dense shell, pointing towards a large monkey-like creature with grass for hair and a large jewel on it's long tail, scurrying up one of the trees to grab an Oran Berry off the same tree Sneg used to train. The girl grinned as she spotted the monkey, the Weedape snacking on one of the Oran Berry's at the top of the tree. She fumbled in her backpack for a moment before pulling out a pokeball, pushing up her glasses to lend her eyes a menacing gleam. "Minior, now's the time to test out your new move. Weedape is a grass type, so your Iron Head should be normally effective against it! Sneg, ready a powder snow if Zvesda misses!"
Sneg nods in reply as the air turns frigid around her, Zvesda rocketing off and...missing the Weedape by only a few feet, snapping the branch it was on and causing the grass type to panic. It tries to flee, but a powerful Powder Snow hits it, sending it sprawling into the tree, frost all over it's grassy hair. Weedape however, is quite the fighter, and doesn't give in easily, the Grass type pokemon's pushing itself off the tree before kicking Smoochum in the right side twice, unleashing a nasty double kick on the small pokemon, Sneg growling as she decks it in the head with an Ice Punch, sending it dangerously close to fainting.
Sasha isn't going to let that happen though. As Minior lands near them, creating a crater and startling the Weedape, the trainer throws a pokeball at it. It wiggles around, before exploding out as the pokemon escapes it. Frustration tints her mind as she tosses another pokeball at the Gallon size creature, the larger than normal for it's species pokemon flowing into the ball. The fake blonde had no intention of letting the rather hard to find pokemon get away, especially a Gallon Size one, Sasha putting her foot on the ball in an attempt to keep the pokemon inside it.
And as the ball clicks, signaling a capture, the girl let's out a squeal of joy. After fixing up Sneg with a potion, she plugged the pokeball into the pokedex and scanned it.
"Weedape, the Grass Ape Pokemon. Known for scavenging food, and occasionally stealing it from the marketplaces. Evolves into Mandrape. This one is male. This one has the Scrappy Ability, allowing it to hit Ghost types with Normal and Fighting Type moves. Knows Tackle, Growl, Bullet Seed, and Double Kick."
Sasha let's out a whistle at that. While it's moves weren't too good now, she was certain she could teach it some more fighting type moves to help bolster it's arsenal and allow it to use that Scrappy Ability to the fullest. Not to mention the high attack stat on top of it and it's Gallon Size...she was going to make this pokemon into a fighting machine! But first...
She unleashed it out of it's pokeball, a red haze revealing the large than normal, around 3 feet tall, ape.
He glanced around in confusion for a second, expecting the two pokemon around Sasha to attack it. When she didn't after several moments, he simply stared up at her with his wide blue eyes.
'Cute.' Sasha thought to herself as she rubbed his hair, the grass type pokemon trying to look menacing, but couldn't stop the small blush running over his face. "My name is Sasha and I'm your new trainer. Here," She says, pulling out a potion from her pocket and spraying it onto the creature, healing his bruise on his face. Weedape let out a squeak of appreciation and Sasha smiled down at the pokemon. "Big and energetic, you'll make a fine battler. And I know you crave adventure, I can tell just by seeing how jittery you are." She says, the pokemon shaking impatiently, "Well, before I take you back to the Pokemon Center to get you checked out, why don't I give you a name? Hmmm, oh I know..."
"Sornyak. It means weed, because just like a weed you won't ever go away from a fight." She says, and he chirps in approval of the name. "Well, there we go. I'll take you back to the pokemon center with me, and you can join us in training tomorrow. We've got a week before we challenge the Gym Leader, and I want us to be at our strongest, alright?"
A loud screech of approval is her answer.
She returns him to his ball, before picking up Sneg and putting her on her shoulders, heading back to the pokemon center to rest up.
They had a long week of training ahead of them, and she had no intention of losing her first gym battle because of improper training.
