There had been a nervous tension in her body when she took those first few steps, Butterfree in the stomach. She wondered if that was a sign that she wasn't the first to be reincarnated to this world, or perhaps it was just that humanity wasn't very creative. She didn't want to think about either of those two too hard, but regardless she had been nervous. Had been.
It was hard to stay nervous when she had been on a bus for the last six hours; the overnight bus from Sunyshore City to Hearthome City, it had arrived in Daybreak town at 1pm and was expected to arrive in Hearthome at 4am the next day. It wasn't as fast as she was used to from Earth, the roads in Sinnoh were significantly less developed than New Zealand's, which frankly said a lot, New Zealand roads were pretty terrible sometimes. Still it could be a lot worse, she thought to herself, she could be walking.
Molly shuddered to herself with that thought, the Butterfree in her stomach making a dramatic return. That trip at her pace could take two weeks if she was lucky, and three if she wasn't. She had six months before the season ended and she had to get two badges to keep her sponsorship, she had no intention of wasting any time whatsoever. The sponsorship covered off season too and she spent two years getting it so she had no intention of giving it up now.
It was a lot of money, $250 every week for three years straight. Molly was not playing games with that kind of cash on the line. The six month deadline hung above her head at every moment but still, thinking about it wouldn't help.
Hearthome City had a lot of opportunities for her, for a start Fantina who she vaguely remembered from Pokémon Pearl ran the Gym there which meant it was a Ghost-type Gym. The sponsorship had a clause that if she became a Gym Trainer, it would pay out in full. She didn't think she would be able to pull that off or particularly wanted to be a Ghost-type trainer, but it was pretty common to go to Gyms to ask for help with a particular type, it's why they were called Gyms afterall. She wanted to go and do a few of the courses they offered anyway, Dante had been struggling with a limited Move pool for a while now and neither of them could overcome that hurdle yet. Ghost-type Pokémon were rare and none of the resources she had found in Daybreak Library were particularly helpful, Hearthome Gym was her best option in that regard.
That said, this early in the Season Fantina would be swamped with trainers, so chances are Molly would be dealing with Gym Trainers instead if she attended those courses. Which is why it was always good to be achieving multiple goals instead of one. Outside of the distant hope of becoming a Gym Trainer, Hearthome City was dead center in between three different Gyms geographically, which gave her options for four different Gyms when it came time to get her first two badges. She could challenge Fantina and hope that Dante was as strong as John promised her he was, catch the bus to Veilstone City and rely on Dante being immune to Fighting-type moves, take the week long hike to Oreburgh City and take a Gym fight where she had no particular advantage, or head down Pastoria City and challenge the Water-type Gym. Of all of these, the latter is the one she was least inclined for, Gyms could be challenged in any order excluding Sunyshore Gym but her last battle with John proved that without a solid ranged option Dante struggled in fights where he couldn't exploit his phasing, and the Water-type Gym would deny him solid ground to phase through.
No, she'd head to Eterna City or Canalave City before challenging Pastoria's Gym, unless she got some new Pokémon that changed things. Which despite the feeling in her gut was her first step, from Hearthome City she could head out onto Route 209 and start hunting for new Pokémon. Route 209 had two of the three Pokémon Molly had her eyes on, the Swablu in that area was particularly strong and ever since she flew on an Altaria she'd known she must have one. It's the fluff, it's just so impossibly comfortable, it looks like cotton but feels like what you imagine a cloud would feel like. Molly had to get a Swablu, she had no intention of walking everywhere for the rest of her life, and mundane transportation was incredibly slow thanks to less infrastructure being required. So long as trucks could get in, or you had some kind of harbour, no one would complain, roads were for cities without tram lines, not towns silly. Maddening for Molly but she couldn't deny the results, Pokémon World inhabitants were fit, they had to be, you couldn't drive down to the grocery store after all.
Aside from a Swablu, Molly wanted two other Pokémon, Mareep which didn't appear on Route 209 and Eevee. Buying an Eevee on the market could cost you upwards of fifty thousand so she wasn't going to get one from the market barring divine intervention, which left two options, connections or just catching one herself. Molly had tried the former but unsurprisingly she hadn't had much luck on that front, thus she spent hours talking to numerous trainers about where she could find one and the most reliable answer she got was miles off track of Route 209, there was a population of Eevee that hadn't been caught. The fact that no less than three trainers had informed her of this over a four year period made her a touch nervous that the population of Eevee might have been tapped but she was willing to spend three of her very precious weeks investigating for any sign of Eevee.
Two weeks, she'd spend two weeks in Hearthome City to expand Duskull's move pool; she needed Night Shade and Mean Look, before she set out hunting a Swablu and Eevee.
It was quarter to five when the bus finally pulled into Hearthome City, Molly had slept through whatever delayed them so she wasn't entirely sure why. She didn't have to wait for luggage, she'd kept her bag on her. So she set out immediately, she had a schedule for the next five months and she intended to keep it.
First destination, the first Pokecenter she could find. She need accommodation for the next two weeks and while trainers in their first season were allocated a month of free accommodation in Pokecenters to be used as they pleased, Molly had been forewarned to expect the Pokecenters in Cities with Gyms to be packed to the rafters with trainers hoping to get their first badge this Season early. No, the real reason she was going to the Pokecenter was because they were open 24/7, and they would be able to direct her to everywhere she had to be today, a reputable hostel, the library, training fields frequented by trainers on her level, the Gym and somewhere good to eat. She was starving.
It was still dark out, the sun had yet to peak over the horizon, any minute now the first rays of light would light the night sky but for now, she'd enjoy it. She wasn't a morning person, if she had her way she'd never be one but moments like this almost made her want to give into Dante.
Almost.
It wasn't a long walk to find a Pokecenter, walk in any direction long enough and you'd find a sign that would tell you where to go. She'd gotten one of the smaller ones, the distinctive building you could find in the four Nihon regions. A city like this would have a larger one that served as a hospital as well as a Pokecenter but for her purposes any of them would work. The building's front had been plastered in a veritable blockage of no vacancy notices, Molly wondered how many people ignored those and still asked.
It was a male Joy manning the counter, the men of the Joy Clan typically went into business or research. Traditionally they worked as gardeners, or herbalists, collecting the herbs and berries needed for their clan's medicine and producing the medicine the female members of their clan would use to treat patients. They did subvert expectations since it was the males who were expected to cook, clean and maintain the home and clinic as part of their tasks. While some elements of that tradition still existed, times had changed and better agriculture techniques meant they had less work compared to their counterparts, so they had transitioned to running the business side of the Joy Clan. Appraisal, and trade of Pokemon, breeding, teaching, managing property and supply chains for Pokecenters and when demand had increased dramatically as the population boomed. Many started to become Nurse Joys themselves, demand breaking down the gender roles so strictly enforced culturally by their clan. That said it was still uncommon for a female Joy to break that barrier so they still had further to go but it was undeniable that the Joy Clan had been a forefront of medical research for years and throughout their history had offered their aid without strings or caveats.
The Joy looked up as if hearing her thoughts as she approached the desk.
"I'm sorry but we're currently booked full, no vacancy."
Molly thought that answered how many people read the signs.
"I saw the signs, I assume it's the same at the other Pokecenters?"
"Ah yes, we will be getting updates…. In four hours to see which Pokecenters have room but until then I can't help you."
"That's fine, I'm planning on staying in town for a few weeks and wanted something more permanent. Could you give me a recommendation for a trustworthy hostel?"
He looked relieved at that, and the tension in his shoulders went out as he relaxed to a more comfortable position. He fumbled around in the drawers attached to the desk.
"Yes we have pamphlets.. Somewhere… With a list of hostels that the League recommends, you said a few weeks? Are you planning on challenging the Gym?"
Molly shook her head at the last query. The Joy was still digging through piles of paper.
"I wanted to do some of the courses on training Ghost-type Pokémon at the Gym but I don't plan on challenging it yet."
"Found it!"
He brandished a pamphlet above his head, it was vaguely stained in what smelled like coffee and handed it over. Molly gave it a brief glance, it was fairly well done. A list of hostels, their prices and on the back a map that gave directions from how to get to the Gym from each hostels.
"Sorry, we've been handing them out to everyone and we haven't had the chance to print more off yet."
Molly just shrugged. The coffee stain hardly mattered after months of scanning faded documentation at the Police Station.
"If it's training you're after then I'd recommend the Spring Hotel, they offer a discount to first season trainers and their prices for one person rooms are reasonable. They're fairly close to the training fields new trainers are recommended to use as well."
"Sounds perfect, can I keep this pamphlet or do you have a map of the city?"
"We have maps, now then is there anything else you need help with?"
Molly was pretty happy with herself, she'd gotten a room at the Spring Hotel, had a shower, changed into the outfit she kept for wearing in cities and taken advantage of their free breakfast. She was keeping to her schedule so far, which did a fair bit to sate the feeling in her gut. She'd been told that trying to get into the Gym right now was a fool's errand but the Gym shared resources with the Delian Library; they named them after former champions in Sinnoh, so that was her first stop. From there she had as much time as she was willing to spend at the library.
She started with the ol reliable, walking up to the front desk and asking for directions. Works every time.
She started skimming books, and it wasn't looking good. For a start, the most useful advice she had gotten was in a manual by Morty; Gym Leader of Ecruteak City: "Ghosts are difficult to train and what works for one may not work for others." It was a summarized version of his much longer spiel on how training Ghosts could not be generalized, each Ghost would require its own approach. Molly had written this advice off when she first read it but after another hour of research she was starting to realize what had brought Morty to that conclusion.
None of the manuals she had in front of her agreed on anything.
There were common elements certainly, Ghosts are dangerous, Ghosts will play pranks on you, Ghosts weren't spirits and instead something new that formed from people and Pokémon dying. They agreed on the core traits of the Pokémon but how you were meant to handle them could vary completely, Agatha of the Indigo Elite Four recommended using a stronger Pokémon to beat down any would be tricksters, while Phoebe of the Hoenn Elite Four advised being too adorable and cute for Ghosts to prank you without feeling bad.
None of which was useful by the way since Dante didn't play tricks. Molly had to deal with a Pokémon trying their best to be generally helpful, not actively working against her or refusing to train. Dante ate her pizza crusts and made sure she was on time to work, not any of the long list of possible pranks and how to prevent them. This explained why all the resources at Daybreak's Library weren't helpful, she thought it was just a poor selection of material but now she was starting to see that training Ghosts was both a metaphorical nightmare and sometimes an actual Nightmare.
Well that kills becoming a Ghost-type trainer.
She hadn't planned on it since she brought it up to Dante once and he had shook his head for entire minutes until she said she wouldn't do it a few dozen times. Still this wasn't a complete waste of time, she had made notes of Duskull's evolutionary process. Once he evolved into a Dusclops, the advice had been fairly unanimous that she needed to let him grow into that state until he was ready, and then track down a Reaper Cloth, which were pieces of cloth someone had died on, preferably murdered and the more gruesome the better. Large pieces worked best but the difference was only in how quickly they would evolve, a smaller piece could work if the death was gruesome and if the cloth was the murder weapon it worked even faster.
Molly really didn't want to meet whoever did the research on that particular topic.
Well Ghost-type manuals were a bust for her current problem and she didn't want to resort to Technical Machines quite yet. TMs didn't teach moves like the game would suggest, they instead taught the foundation of a move, and the trainer and Pokémon would have to work off that. They were best for moves that weren't the same type as the Pokémon or for Molly's current roadblock where they needed something to push them over their current roadblock.
Still if Ghost-type manuals weren't going to help, she could try more general trainer manuals, she might have narrowed her search down too fast.
The advice her research had turned up was to overcome a challenge. Find someone who is stronger than you but not impossible to beat and fight them. Which was how she found herself in the training fields taking one challenger after another. Finding people to fight her was easy, she walked into a training field and shouted.
"Fifty bucks if someone can beat my Pokémon and has one or less badges."
It had gotten a bit of interest, but what really got people's interest was when she slapped the $25 she'd gotten from the first challenger down and shouted.
"Seventy-five dollars if someone can beat my Pokémon and has one or less badges."
The pile was just over two-hundred dollars now; the losers had to pay her half the pot if they lost, and Dante had beaten four different challengers now. She was starting to understand why John had told her that she could get two badges easily now, these guys sucked. Their Pokémon weren't bad, in the hands of someone like John she imagined they could have given her a harder fight but on a tactical level they had no idea what they were doing. She'd feel bad if this wasn't the city with the Ghost-type Gym, really she was doing these guys a favour.
Her fifth challenger had been doing a bit better than the rest, until she pulled out her notebook and started reviewing the advice she had copied down. He promptly lost his cool and gave a bad order that Dante had exploited almost immediately. She gave the fight a quick look, Dante hadn't even taken a hit yet but her opponent's Cacnea was looking very confused. It was kind of disappointing, Cacnea could learn Dark-type moves so she'd been hoping it'll give Dante a run for Molly's money.
Maybe if I go for endurance, take on ten challengers in a row.
Molly's thoughts were interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. It was an older woman, her pale blue hair was kept short under a Breton hat, her clothing was practical wear and her boots well worn. If Molly had to guess she was one of these kid's older siblings who were on their third or fourth season, or a Ranger on a Gym Holiday. The older woman had finished her own examination of Molly and gave her a nod.
"I'm not interested in the money but I've got three badges and a new Pokémon I'm trying to bring up to speed for my fight with Fantina, you interested?"
"Ranger?"
She nodded, Molly's second guess had been right.
"Sure, I'm trying to give Dante here a workout after all."
Both Molly and the Ranger looked at the field where the recently defeated Cacnea was still being shouted at by his trainer to stand up.
"I believeeeeeee in you Toppy!"
It wasn't working.
Molly took this fight a lot more seriously than she had taken the last five, Rangers weren't a joke to fight. You had to have three badges to be accepted for Ranger Training and they had careers where they were giving their Pokémon in practical experience, every single day. Plus they spent the vast majority of their downtime away from society and were left with whatever they had brought with them for entertainment and battling their coworkers. The Rangers Corps had a bad rap among trainers but Molly was inclined to believe that may be because trainers got yelled at by them when they made a mistake. If this woman had been given a holiday during one of the busiest periods every year it meant her superiors thought she meant business.
Molly was at a disadvantage here in more ways than one, her tactics had been revealed in the last few fights, her opponent had years of practice on her and Dante had just fought five battles in a row. Needless to say, it was going exactly as planned.
She had gathered a fair bit of an audience by this point and someone had volunteered to act as a referee. No idea why she had but Molly had looked at the Ranger and she shrugged so they had a ref now. They both had blinked when the girl had pulled out a Pokeball and released a Ralts which she said could put up a weak barrier. Molly would never complain about safety precautions but she was surprised to see such a rare Pokémon.
They both turned and looked at the ref and she flinched before stuttering some words out.
"Will both sides choose their Pokémon?"
The words sounded more like a polite request than a demand. Molly didn't move, Dante just emerged in front of her. The Ranger pulled a Pokeball off her belt and whispered a few words before tossing it out.
It was a Shellos, the pink kind which meant they came from the West Sea. Molly wasn't sure they could even learn Dark-type moves so she didn't have anything to warn Dante about. She had a list of every Pokémon that could learn Dark-type Moves in one of her notebooks, but that one was in a Storage Cube. She didn't think she'd be battling today.
"This battle will be a one on one, there will be no substitutes. Let the battle betwee-"
She had started so strong and suddenly looked sheepishly at the two of them.
"Molly." "Steph."
"Let the battle between Molly and Steph begin!"
Molly immediately focused on the battle before her, Steph had plenty of time to observe Dante's tactics before requesting a battle so she had to have some kind of plan.
"Probing!"
She needed information before she settled on a tactic, Dante wouldn't commit to a strategy and launch his attacks when he thought it was necessary or there was something to exploit. The whole point of this was to see how the other trainer would react to Molly's Duskull spending most of the fight underground.
"Water gun!"
It was quick and well aimed which told Molly that Steph had put some time in training that, but it hardly mattered Dante had already phased below ground. A few moments and he had yet to emerge so Steph would be responding to that any second now.
"Start Hardening Pinky!"
Molly hesitated for a moment as she internally judged Steph for her naming practices before shouting her own command.
"Disable."
Now the question was, how would she respond to her set up being denied. If she didn't have an answer, Molly had this one in the bag, Shellos was significantly slower than the Buizel John had used.
A few moments dragged out until it was apparent that Steph didn't have a plan to deal with Disable, and Dante emerged behind Shellos and used Astonish before fading back below before the Shellos had finished spinning around, the Water Gun it charged up hitting nothing but air. And that was the exact moment Steph threw a wrench in Molly's plan.
"Use Recover and then start Hardening again."
Molly wasn't sure what the exact interaction Recover and Disable had but the grey light that soon started coming off Pinky told her that it acted as a purge of some kind.
"Confuse Ray, three quarters, take opportunities to attack when you can."
Three quarters referred to how much Dante needed to prioritize using the move over dodging. Full would mean tank and use the skill. It wasn't a long term solution but it gave Molly time to think of one without throwing the fight.
Her mind whirled as she thought through her options. As she did, a real fight emerged, not Dante and Molly's standard fare of hit and phase. Dante couldn't use phasing to reposition himself if he wanted to Confuse Ray to have any effect in the next five minutes, so he had to dodge the Shellos' Water Guns the normal way and only occasionally dipped below ground when he needed cover.
Steph had only instructed Pinky to keep using Water Gun which meant two things, first she didn't want a Pokémon that spent a lot of time Hardening but was very confused, and secondly, she was happy with how the fight was going currently. Her Shellos had some wicked aim and even with Dante's Confuse Ray she was still landing hits.
Molly had decided on her three options, she could resort to her standard tactics and let Steph use Recover to purge Disable and then just reapply it. Harden scaled based on how much time you spent Hardening not how many times you used it. If she did that, she turned the match into a long haul where her win condition was forcing Shellos to use Recover until it couldn't anymore and then Disabling Harden and going back to comfortable ground. The issue was in that Dante had just fought five fights and while they might have been easy, fighting was still tiring. She had trained Dante for endurance but he had put in a good thirty minutes of fighting already with very short breaks.
Her second option was exhausting Shellos' internal water reservoir and then use Shadow Sneak and phasing to gain a speed advantage and use hit and run tactics again but this time force Shellos to come to Dante as he used Confuse Ray and ran away from her. The issue with this one was about the same as the last solution and that this Shellos had some good aim so Dante might go down before it ran out of Water.
No, she'll have to go with her third option: All out attack.
"Dante block out the sun!"
The neat thing about Shadow Sneak, firstly you didn't have to be in contact with your shadow to use it and secondly, you could choose where you emerge from your shadow. Dante's position blocking out the sun meant he was casting a wide shadow with plenty of options to choose from. You could do this normally but the wider the area you covered with the shadow with Shadow Sneak the longer it took. Blocking out the sun meant that Dante didn't have to expand his shadow at all to cover a wide area.
The second advantage? Poor Pinky had to stare at the sun to shoot at Dante.
Dante sneaked down from his position, hit Pinky and picked up some mud and threw it in Shellos' face before dodging the Water Gun and flying back to his earlier position. It didn't hurt but it did piss little Pinky off and the Pokémon squinting at the sun behind Dante fired a Water Gun. Dante promptly all but teleported next to Pinky the second the move left her mouth and punched her in the gut before flying away again.
It was working and Steph knew it.
"Use Ancient Power but make a big umbrella over you!"
"Astonish and keep hitting her until she stops building an umbrella!"
"Take the hits until it's up and then reposition and use a Water Gun whenever you see the Ghost, otherwise Recover."
Soon enough the umbrella was covering a wide circle above the Shellos and Dante had to reveal himself to it's aim before he could Shadow Sneak since he couldn't phase through the rocks thanks to the Rock-type energy keeping them afloat. Molly was impressed that the Shellos could keep the umbrella up and use Recover or fire Water Gun. Her impression so far was that Shellos was being trained to fight for long haul fights but at range, keep the opponent constantly moving with Ancient Power while firing quick Water Guns to deal chip damage over time while using Recover to heal any return fire.
The solution Steph came up with to counter the sun plan was good, but it had one glaring flaw. Dante could Shadow Sneak through shadows that weren't his and the umbrella was casting a wide shadow.
"Dante, abuse Shadow Sneak to dodge and attack."
Steph looked confused at that but quickly muttered what Molly assumed was a curse under her breath when she saw how quickly Dante was moving under the umbrella.
"Drop the roof and use Recover!"
"Below ground now!"
She had made her choice then.
"Disable Recover and then go back to the Sun Plan."
The battle hadn't gone much longer after that, Dante would Sneak from his position and hit Pinky whenever she tried to make a move and it had taken damage from dropping Ancient power on itself and without being able to use Recover it wasn't able to endure the barrage.
Soon enough Steph called the fight, Dante looked exhausted but he wasn't hurt all too badly while Pinky was both abused and exhausted. Steph had committed too much to a plan that didn't pay out.
They didn't do the trainer thing where they walked onto the field and shook hands, the field was covered in mud and rocks. They walked around the field and shook hands. Steph was the first to break the respectable silence they had going on.
"It was a good fight, if I had known that Shadow Sneak could be used like that I wouldn't have gone with the umbrella idea."
Molly just shrugged at that, Move interactions could be weird and then repeated that thought aloud.
"Pokémon Moves are weird, I didn't know Recover could purge Disable like that."
She actually started rummaging through her bag for her general notebook and started writing that one down, in the corner of her eye Steph nodded.
"Yea it depends on how strong the Pokémon are in comparison to each other, if I was using one of my stronger Pokémon your Disable wouldn't last long enough to matter but if your Duskull was stronger, Pinky's Recover wouldn't have removed it."
Molly looked up and nodded before jolting that down too in her notebook, it was good to know. John had used strong Pokémon on her before but they had always overpowered Dante before any of her fancy tactics could do anything. Raw strength was always a good answer to clever tactics.
"You get that workout you're after kid?"
Molly finished writing down her notes before looking back at Steph and shook her head.
"We're stuck on learning new Moves, he can't seem to get any new Moves no matter what we do and all the advice I had found wasn't helpful."
"So you went looking for something to challenge your Duskull, it's a good plan. How about this, you and me get our Pokémon checked up at the Pokecenter and grab some lunch? I'll give you some advice if you can give me some tips on Ghost-type."
"I can't say I'll be all too helpful but I do want lunch."
"Uhhh... "
They both whirled and looked at the girl who served as their ref. Up close Molly started noticing more details, her long hair was a vibrant deep red and was currently being played with by the Ralts she held in between her arms. Her stylized straw hat, sundress and sandals accompanied by a belt with one Pokeball and a purse completed the look that screamed to Molly as a shy rich kid.
Her hair actually kind of annoyed Molly, she was reborn into a world with thousands of hair and eye colours and she had ended up with grey hair and grey eyes, while being surrounded by people with bright hair colours that required none of the upkeep dye had. She looked prematurely grey surrounded by people like Steph here with cool blue hair.
She hesitated, she was surprisingly skittish but quickly powered through.
"CouldIcomewithyou!"
Molly and Steph looked at each other.
The cafe they had chosen was on the list of places the Joy had given her all those hours ago. It sold oven baked pizza and Molly had ordered an entire large pizza with no toppings, cheese or sauce for Dante which had raised a few eyebrows and then ordered a small River Special which was smoked river Magikarp, some kind of white sauce, and a sprinkling of red onion and dill along with an iced tea. It was surprisingly hot out, she might need to get a hat like the other two people at her table outside. She kind of wanted a beret but that didn't really help with the sunshine.
The silence was eating at the other two, Steph clearly didn't know where to start a conversation, the newly introduced Lily was far too nervous and Molly? She was too busy enjoying the other two's social inability to help. They had done well on the way to the Pokecenter and when they were deciding where to eat, but she'd been keeping count, it had been roughly forty seconds since they had placed their orders and they hadn't said a word since.
It was kind of beautiful in it's own way. The side glances, the fidgeting Ralts on Lily's lap.
Lily cracked first and looked at Molly and spewed out a question.
"Howdoyoustaycalmlikethat!"
Molly just looked at her and waited for something at a reasonable pace.
"Um, how do you stay calm in fights like that?"
She said significantly slower than she had before. Molly yawned as she thought over an answer that wasn't, I'm extremely stressed over a time limit I have over my head or I've died and everything else in comparison is kind of easy. Both were varying degrees of heavy for a first meeting.
"It's how I battle, I don't shout out every command like dodge it and so on. I've trained Dante so I don't have to, which lets me focus on strategy."
Steph jumped onto that opening proving how uncomfortable she had been with the silence to Molly's amusement.
"I did notice that you were doing something like that. Who taught you to battle like that? It's an interesting style."
"Last fight wasn't really a good example of my style but are either of you two familiar with the Cadet Program the Police run?"
Lily shook her head and Steph made a noise that presumably meant something but Molly had no idea. She looked at Lily.
"It's a sponsorship program they run where you work as a junior officer and do a bunch of grunt work. My boss would send me on patrols with his starter which is 6th Badge level and it was established to me very early on that he was in charge and I was there to write reports and call in incidents since he couldn't talk or write."
She smiled, it hadn't even been a full 24-hours and she was starting to miss Char. John not so much.
"I just got used to the idea that I didn't have to give a command for everything and that stuck when I started training Dante."
Molly didn't elaborate any further.
"But that doesn't help if you can't stay calm, it just gives you time to think."
Molly paused at that, that was fair and she hadn't really expected it from her. Steph spoke before she could.
"This is your guys first season right? Molly probably practiced during her Cadet program but how many battles have you been in Lily? Ten or less right?"
They had obediently nodded at each question directed their way and Steph continued on.
"People will say they have all kinds of tricks and no disrespect to Molly here but they're all bullshit. It's too fast right? Everything is moving fast and you can't keep up. It's one reaction after the other. You were watching and I'm sure you saw how Molly wouldn't hesitate when something changed, her style gives her time to think but it doesn't explain her reaction speed. No offense again."
Molly shrugged, she wasn't wrong after all. She had her eyes on the waiter moving their way with their drinks.
"Nah, you want the real secret to success? Just keep battling people, when I look back I remember being in your exact position but I didn't find some trick to deal with it, it just became easier after I fought more battles."
The conversation broke up when the waiter brought around their drinks. Molly was enjoying her lemon ice tea when Steph looked at her.
"You said you were struggling with your Ghost learning new Moves right?"
"Yea I don't know what's holding us back, I was busy most of the time with my Cadet program which only ended… Three days ago, so I haven't really had time to work on it till now. I don't know what to do, I just kinda assumed he'd learn more Moves as we trained, that's how he got Shadow Sneak."
Molly paused to take a sip from her drink, the straw was metal. She hadn't actually ever seen a plastic one in all her time here.
"I went to the library earlier today but all the advice for Ghost-types was for keeping them in line and how to use them in fights. Not how to teach them new Moves and the general trainer advice told me to go challenge something stronger than you when you start to reach a plateau. So I did that so I wouldn't have to buy a TM."
They both looked completely baffled at that.
"Molly, how many moves does he know?"
She had to pause and count, she had never thought about how many he had.
"Five? Five."
"You haven't had him too long right?"
It was Lily this time, which tipped Molly off that her problem might be really bad.
"Only… Three years…"
"Molly, I hatched Pinky from an egg three months ago and she already knows six Moves."
"Oh no…"
She was watching Dante eat his pizza, actually everyone was watching Dante eat his pizza. Ghosts are rare and Dante was adorable, she told them not to cut his pizza and he was holding the entire thing with both arms, it was nearly as long as his arms length and he took small bites before savouring the moment with a look of pure bliss. Molly had no idea why he enjoyed eating pizza crusts so much and frankly she was starting to wonder what they tasted like since it had been two years since they had found how much he loved them and she hadn't had one since.
"Duuuskuuu."
God the noises he made were adorable, she needed to reward him more often. It was excellent distraction material from her failures as a Pokémon Trainer weighing on her mind.
Molly had never once told Dante to practice one Move repeatedly, she ran a bunch of experiments on every Move, that was how she found out about the shadow trick with Shadow Sneak. But training one Move? Why….? There were better ways to spend her time training in her mind, going over tactics, building endurance, speed training, throwing rocks practice, throwing balls at Dante to help him practice his phasing on command, dodging practice… She was starting to see where she had gone wrong just assuming he would learn stuff as they went.
Lily had gone into detailed explanation about how practicing Moves would give Pokémon experience in controlling the various types of energy inside of them. If she had him practice Leer over and over, he might have learnt how to use Mean Look since they had similar roots. If she had him practice Shadow Sneak he'd be able to expand his shadow faster and cover more ground. Molly's issue was that she saw Moves like something from a game, they had hard-set limits and that's all they would ever achieve in those boundaries. She spent her time working around limitations, trying to exploit loopholes instead of just improving the Move until it had less limitations.
It wasn't a complete nightmare, as Steph had reassured her. She had learnt how to battle really well thanks to her trying to create more options with a severely limited Move set. And internally Molly thought that thinking about Moves asymmetrically was how she found the trick with Shadow Sneak.
They had asked her how she had missed something so basic; and she had plans to ask John why he'd never pointed it out at some point, but the food had arrived and she used that as an excuse to end the topic. Dante was a great distraction.
The truth was she had probably just missed it, she had skipped so many years of education via testing out and she didn't get to do much on the basics of Pokémon, they would have gone into advanced stuff like actually training Pokémon in latter classes but the ones she had been in focused on stuff like learning the names of every Pokémon and the Type-chart. She was only two years ahead in subject and along with how often she had moved growing up, the curriculum she had gone through was rather spotty.
"When exactly do they teach you about how to train Pokémon?"
Both Steph and Lily turned away from Dante who had now made a crescent moon from his pizza and was working his way down from the top.
"They started when I was twelve? I think."
Steph just nodded at Lily's answer, never really taking her eyes off Molly.
"Sounds about what I remember, why you asking kid?"
"I graduated highschool when I was ten, that'll be why I never found out and I never bothered to read the basic training manuals."
She had assumed her problem was something medical or to do with Ghost-types in particular. It just never really seemed like an issue because she rarely lost battles and only so far to John.
"So what, you've been doing that Cadet program for the last four years?"
"Last two, I went and did a two year course on Archaeology first at Southern Shore University."
Much like their longer school years, so were their semesters. One of the areas where she thought they had made a mistake when compared to the Earth equivalent. It had been... Stressful.
"You graduated four years early and had a degree by twelve!?"
Lily looked gobsmacked and Steph wasn't too far behind, Molly wanted to feel proud of the fact but in truth it had always bugged her how long she took to get out of school. She was twenty possibly twenty-nine years depending on how you measured it; she hadn't decided which she was comfortable with, four years felt far too long for someone her age.
"But how did you graduate if you didn't finish the Pokémon classes?"
Molly just gave her a look.
"I went to university when I was ten Lily, no one was going to hold me back because I hadn't finished the Pokémon classes."
The two of them fell silent at that and resumed eating their food. Molly wiped the crumbs off Dante's face before cutting off the crusts on her pizza and handing them over.
She was hoping to get a nap soon but it looked like she was heading back to the library.