YES! THE WORK-AROUND WORKS!
CONSIDER THE FANFICTION TO BE BACK ON TRACK!
'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed:
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed…'
-A poem by Aleisha Wimpersleake, but I have a feeling it's from Hamlet. Or Macbeth. Or whichever it is.
Also, if you can't tell by the other times Aleshia has appeared in these intro slates, it's an anagram for William Shakespeare. Do the math, it's true.
It's been three days since we arrived in Mauvile City, home of the biggest electrical generation sites in the Hoenn Region. We had been relaxing after we got here, and I think it was time we got off our asses and started working to beat the third gym leader in Hoenn. I had found a small, secluded patch of grass a few miles out of the city, far from others and danger from hitting them by mistake. Zack and the others were over their now for training, I stopped by the Pokemart before I went back there for supplies.
"Welcome to the Mauvile City Pokemart, how may I help you?"
"Just browsing, thanks." I shouted behind me as I went back to the supplements in the back. "Let's see here, grab some Protein for Xavier, some Carbos for Chester… Wait. The hell is this?" I stopped dead in my tracks after grabbing a few things, and looked at some sort of torture device on the wall.
"Hey, what is this thing?" I leaned back over, looking at the clerk in the front.
"What thing?" He asked, coming from behind the desk.
"This thing. What is that?" I pointed at the weird device on the wall.
"Oh, that thing. Uh, if I recall correctly, it is a Binding Brace."
"The hell is a Binding Brace?"
"It's used for Sandshrew, but it can be altered to fit any pokemon."
"Okay, but what does it do?"
"Oh, you want to know what it does." I glared at the clerk. 'No, I want to know if I can eat it. Yes I want to know what it does!'
"Well, if what I was told is correct, you place the separate rings around your arms, legs, and neck. Once you put that on, it forcefully contorts your body into a Defense Curl. You have to fight the brace to be able to move normally, so it's really good training for everything. I once heard of a kid, he's dead now, but I heard he put it on a Charmander right after it was born, didn't take it off until it evolved into a Charmeleon, and it was faster and could hit harder than most Charizard, triple its level!"
I let out a low whistle. "How come more people haven't been using them, if they are so good?"
"Half because of the price, half because it causes extreme pain if you use them incorrectly."
"Damn. So how much for four of these?"
"38,000."
"What! Jesus these are expensive."
"9,499.99 apiece. So, do you want them?"
"Fuck these are expensive… Okay, I'll buy them for 45,000, but I get my choice of 10 vitamins."
"You have a deal, good sir." He reached out, shook my hand, and I gave him 45,000. Nearly all of what I had, money-wise.
(An hour later.)
"Alright everyone, I got something you will all learn to hate!" I shouted when I finally got back to the training grounds.
"What did you… Jesus Jack, what the fuck is that?!" Zack turned around and stared at my expensive and torturous looking payload.
"They call these Binding Braces. I got one for Ele too. You place the braces here on your limbs, and they force your body into the fetal position. You have to fight it to be able to move around normally. The guy who told me about them says that they are good for heavy training, so that is what I plan to do. One for everybody." I grabbed the first one, altered it by changing the height and width of it for Chester, and fixed it on him.
"Now, this should be painful, but not to the point where it feels like your limbs are being ripped from their sockets." I adjusted the front legs to tighten the resistance. "You should fell like curling up into a ball, but you need to resist it so you can move."
Chester nodded, his eyes turning fierce. "Okay, I can do this."
I nodded, smiling. "That's that I want to hear, Chester. Now go run as fast as you can for as long as you can." He nodded and took off. Normally I struggle to keep up with even Chester, but when I put the braces on everyone, I could outpace even Xavier by a brisk jog. They could, on average, run a total of a few miles without breaking a sweat. With the braces on, they couldn't even make it around the grounds once before nearly passing out from exertion.
I gave the biggest grin in the damn world when I saw this. I went around to everybody and passed out Sitrus Berries from the surrounding trees to everyone so they could regain their strength.
"Okay. Everybody, we are not going to be doing your attacks. We are not going to be doing dodging maneuvers, and we are not going to be using this time to sit on our butts and pray. We'll be using strategy to win our next fight. I checked the stats for Watson's Grandkid; he is much more powerful than we are right now. His strongest is at Lv. 31. Xavier, you are at 27, Brandon is at 26, and Chester just breached 24 two days ago. His average is around 29. We need to watch a Gym Battle, learn his moves without showing him ours. If we can map out our opponents moves first and be able to counter them, then we have won have the battle. The other half is about power. You guys need to train with these on until the fight. You may only take them off when you bathe and sleep. We will be working on physical strength, not with your abilities." I clapped my hands together, looking at everyone panting on the ground. "Alright, everyone, follow me to learn some hand to hand skills." I walked off a hundred feet to my left. They struggled to make it over, but they did.
"Okay. Time for some boxing…"
I trained each and every one of them with a different type of fighting style. I showed Chester how to dodge, tackle, and to otherwise maul his opponents with a new move he learned, Bite. I showed Brandon some speedy hit-and-run tactics I looked up on the internet. And Xavier I showed him the boxing moves my father had taught me before he left. I showed them all how to complete the moves without the Binding Brace, and then they trained with it on. It was grueling for them, but after a month of making the same motion and me continuously ramping up the resistance on the braces in the middle of the night while they slept, they maxed them out. Another week after that, they could move fluidly with them maxed up to full resistance, and then came the day where I took them off for good.
"Alright, now you have been working out for five weeks with the equivalent of six hundred pounds of pressure on each limb." I disabled Brandon's braces. "You will fell a lot faster, and a lot stronger." I removed Chester's braces. "Now, I want you all to take it slow." I pulled Xavier's from his body. "Try out all of your attack when I call for it." I pointed over to a great redwood on the far left of the grounds.
"Chester, use Tackle on the tree!" One second he was standing in front of me, listening for his command, the next, he had cracked the tree on front of him. He hadn't destroyed it, but he had barreled through at least a foot of the 3-foot wide trunk.
"Well, those binding braces really helped out then, huh?" Is all I could stammer out. "The only thing left is to watch a match of Watson, then challenge him to a fight."
"Wait, where's Zack and Ele?" Brandon asked.
"They went off to Verdanturf Town for the Contest there. We'll meet them at Lavaridge Town when the Lava Tourney starts four months from now. Winner of that can challenge Felix, the son of Flannery, the leader when Ruby went through. So the plan is simple; we challenge Watson III, journey to Fallarbor Town and train in the legendary Meteor Falls. Then we scale Mt. Chimney, and make our way down the peak to Lavaridge Town to wait for Zack and the tournament, all in about a month."
"Hey, are you a trainer?" I turned around at the question, and saw a rather fat kid jogging (or bouncing) up to me.
"Yeah, why?" I asked quizzically.
"I'm legendary trainer Louis Fox McCrane, and I challenge you to a… hold on…" He was lent over, breathing heavily and sweating a rather unhealthy amount. He was a black guy, wearing thick bottle nose glasses, and had four pokeballs on his belt. "A… a battle! I challenge… you to a… battle… oh boy…"
"I accept, but are you okay?" I asked him, trying to get a look at his face. Suddenly, he bolted back up to his feet and smiled at me.
"Never better! Now, do you have three pokemon or do you have four?"
"Three."
"Very well, a Three on Three it is!" He pulled the second pokeball from his belt and grinned. "Choose your first combatant!" Brandon stepped forward, but I held him back.
"I would rather try out Chester first; he hasn't fought majorly since Brawly and the Gyarados." Brandon nodded, and stepped back. Chester took his place, eyes burning for battle. Louis grinned and tossed out his pokeball, which revealed a small, green little blob with a yellow leaf on top. I pulled out my dex and scanned it.
Venom
Lv. 25
Type: Poison
Moves: UNKNOWN
Hidden Moves: UNKNOWN
"Alright, are you ready?" I shouted over to Louis.
"I might be, but are you?" He retorted.
I smirked. "Chester, combine Iron Defense and Rollout!"
"Brace with Harden and deflect with Smokescreen!" Louis shouted back. Chester tucked into a ball, rolling at high velocity at Venom. Venom retaliated by blowing out a bunch of thick, black smoke that obstructed both mine and Chester's view.
"Chester! Find him and use Odor Sleuth! And once you find him, fall back on the training!" I shouted, crossing my arms and a smirk on my face.
"Jack, what are you doing?" Xavier asked me. "None of us have trained like that."
"Just watch." I cupped my mouth. "Chester! Do as you see fit!"
"Venom! Once you see him, Fire with Sludge Bomb!" Silence ensured, being only broken by my outburst of uncontrollable laughter.
"You call yourself a legendary trainer! Everyone knows Steel types are immune to poison types!" I shouted, clutching my gut in laughter. I could tell, even in my state, that Louis had no idea of that.
"Wait, are you serious? That explains my defeats against the past few trainers…" He looked off to the side, appearing to be in deep thought. He shook his head before looking back at the fight. "No matter! We shall prevail, no matter the circumstances! Venom! Find that Aron and send it flying!"
"Chester, don't let him get the better of you! Hit him hard with Iron Head!" The smoke still hung thick, but I could hear an affirmative from Chester, and a resulting crash from the smoke and a cry from the smoke.
"Chester! Clear the smoke!" I shouted, hoping it wasn't him that shouted. The smoke gradually cleared, showing Venom down for the count, and Chester barely standing. Louis snapped his fingers in frustration. "Damn, thought we had 'em." He looked up at me. "Hey, for the next two battles, wanna combine them and do a double battle? My next two work better as a team." I looked behind me at Xavier and Brandon, seeing them fired up. I turned back at Louis and nodded.
"Sounds good to me! Send them out and we'll do a double. Chester, take a rest." I pulled Chester's pokeball from my belt and recalled him, seeing that he must be exhausted. "Brandon! Xavier! Front and center!" I shouted; them running to the battlefield.
"I like it! Go, Shock and Awe!" He shouted, sending his third and first pokeballs out to the field. Out came two rabbits that looked identical save for the fact that their colors on the ears and hands were different. Sparks shot out from their cheeks as they glared at Xavier and Brandon. I whipped out my dex and scanned them.
Species: Plusle Species: Minun
Lv. 28 Lv. 27
"On your call, Louis!" He nodded back, pointing at my side of the field.
"Shock, Helping Hand! Awe, Thunder!" The red one spun around in a circle and started clapping its hands while the blue one shot out a bout of lightning at us.
"Crap. Xavier, use Bone Rush as a lightning rod! Brandon, hit the red one with Leaf Storm!" I shouted, taking a step back from the lightning. Xavier quickly materialized the bone and stuck it into the ground before jumping away, while Brandon charged up his attack.
And that will end chapter 21 with an exciting cliffhanger! (Not really, it seemed a little wonky for me writing this and all…) But anyway, favorite, follow, and review for more! (And yes, by saying that I made fun of most youtubers.)