S.R: Here you guys go.
M.R: What no talking to yourself this time?
S.R: I don't have to talk to myself every time.
M.R: Point taken, but you do it so much it just seems wrong without it.
S.R: But we're co-writing this so why talk to myself when I can talk to you?
M.R: Fair enough. But enough about us.
S.R: Right time for the side note. We are expanding the TM selection from the Department Store so as to suit the story better.
M.R: Let's get to the story now.
ASH'S POV
Brock and I had been traveling for 3 days now after I beat Sabrina. We battled the random trainers we came across, and in the evenings while training we'd either have our Pokemon work on learning new moves, or have a free for all battle and the results were showing. Besides that it also seemed that they had more fun in the free for all battle than they did before when I'd just set them to a task to increase their skills.
Today though was interesting as we kept meeting trainers who were getting a last bit of training in before the P1 Grand Prix in Celadon. The last guy was especially weird, as he refused to battle against anything other than a fighting type Pokemon because he wanted to see what the Grand Prix battles were like.
I was going to turn him down since Conan was still pretty young, being only a month and a half old. But Conan was eager to start having real battles, since in the free for all battles the others wouldn't target him at all or would only lightly shove him away so he didn't get hurt. After seeing his determiation I agreed to let him battle.
He really impressed me, and the other trainer whose name was Anthony. Anthony was training an extremely unruly Primeape, who apparently only started listening this morning. Anthony's Primeape was pretty powerful, but Conan had been training most of his life already and was able to hold his own for quite a bit, eventually drawing the battle out into a tie.
After seeing just how strong Conan was Anthony suggested I enter the Grand Prix with him. While it's true our chances of winning were probably very slim, Anthony said it would be a great way for Conan to improve.
Since then I've been mulling the thought over in my head. But just now I've determined to wait until after battling Erika for the Rainbow Badge to decide if we'd enter. After all the P1 Gran Prix is still around two weeks out. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts I move to continue my training, as I've taken to doing my own workouts while my Pokemon battle each other.
After completing my workout, I glanced over to see my Pokemon are still going strong in the free for all. Not only that, but it looked like the others were going out of their way to help Conan improve. Seeing that leads me to believe they heard about his battle earlier and feel he's ready to step up. But they're still holding back with him, and he either hasn't noticed or is trying not to ruin the moment.
"I'm glad to see they're letting Conan participate more."
"Yeah it's nice to see everyone supporting him."
"It's not enough though."
"But he's still young Brock."
"How young were the Pokemon at Professor Oak's ranch before he'd let them fight with the others?"
"Older than Conan. He's not even two months old yet. The Professor wouldn't let a Pokemon younger than 5 months fight with the other Pokemon on the ranch."
"Okay then, what about this. Where any of the young Pokemon on the ranch Fighting Type?"
"No, why?"
"It's quite literally part of their nature to fight, so they mature faster than other Pokemon."
"That makes sense I guess… So if he's not being trained right what do you recommend I do to fix that?"
"His biggest issue right now is the fact his move pool is rather limited."
"Any moves you suggest I have Conan learn?"
"Low Kick for sure. Other than that it depends on how you want him to fight."
"Low Kick huh... Is that because he can cause more damage to larger opponents?"
"Yup. If you had and used him when you first challenged me I bet he would have beaten both Geodude and Onix using Brick Break and Low Kick if he knew it."
"Thanks for the advice Brock. It means a lot to me when you help out."
"That's why I help. You have great potential, but manage to stay humble accepting advice from those who offer it. You will go far, and I want to see how far."
After saying that Brock turned and moved away to start making dinner. Mulling his advice over, I decided to visit the Celadon department store when we get into town tomorrow, since they have a TM store. I also figured I'd switch things up with the team, and start learning new moves.
The next day
We had made it to Celadon, and stopped at the Pokemon center to get a room for our stay in town. After that Brock and I discussed a few plans about what we'd do in town. He wanted to go meet a certain professional Pokemon Breeder, and I wanted to head to the department store so we agreed to split up. I told him I'd meet him back at the Pokemon Center at the end of the day and left for the department store. Entering the store I made my way up to the floor that sold TMs.
"Hello there how may I help you?"
"Well really I wanted to see what all you have, I'm hoping to find a few more TMs to purchase on top of the TMs I'm looking for some of which I want multiple of."
"Okay, but we've recent added some special TMs into stock that can be used up to 5 times without breaking. It's cheaper to buy them that way than it is to buy multiple of the same TM"
"That works out even better. For now though I'm just going to look through what you have. If I need your help or have any questions I'll ask."
Two hours later
I had finally finished browsing through their stock and grabbing the TMs I wanted to buy. Thankfully I had made quite a bit of money from battling. It also helped that I had a lot of money saved up from when I was helping the professor. While I couldn't buy everything I wanted to, I could at least buy a decent amount of TMs.
"Did you find everything you were looking for?" I was asked when I starting ringing up my purchases.
"Yeah, though I'll admit I can't buy everything I want. But this should be enough for now."
"Alright one Protect, a multi use Dark Pulse, one multi use Poison Jab, one multi use Mud Slap, and one Dragon Tail… Since we have a special sale going you have a 30% discount dropping your total down to $65,000. You also get this coupon, that can be used any time between now and the Indigo league Tournament at the end of the year."
"Yeeeesh, I was expecting the price to be pretty high, but still." I said as I paid for my purchase.
With that settled I made my way back over to the Pokemon Center. I opened the bag containing my purchases and my backpack to pull out the TM case I bought before I started my journey. After placing the TMs inside the case I put it back away in my backpack, and called up the professor.
"Hey professor I've got a quick question. My team loves the new training method which is basically a free for all battle right now. But I plan to use some TMs that I just bought, I know they need to take some time to practice the new moves they'll learn. So how should I go about incorporating that into our training?"
"Well…. Balance your training methods. Devote time to learn what moves each of you Pokemon can learn both now and once fully evolved. Figured out what battle strategies work best for your team. Teach them moves that fit those strategies, train them to be able to pull said strategies off. And finally make sure they have the battle experience needed to adjust and adapt between different opponents. That is what being a great trainer is all about."
"I see…. Well then I think I'm going to get started on teaching everyone some new moves. Though after we've gotten our next badge, I think I'll switch things up on who I bring with me."
With that I hung up on the professor and made my way out of Celadon, back onto the route between Celadon and Saffron. I walked to the nearest clearing I could find and called everyone out of their Pokeballs.
I explained that from today on we were going to be mixing up the training. I told them that for today and the next few days it would be a focus on learning new moves. I mentioned what TMs I had bought earlier and who would currently be learning them since Dark Pulse and Mud Slap could be learned by Squirtle since she wasn't currently with us, though Dark Pulse wouldn't be learn able til Squirtle evolved all the way to Blastoise.
Once that was over with I recalled Gyarados, Charmander, Beedrill, Nidorino, and Gengar so the could learn their new moves. Gyarados gained both Dark Pulse and Dragon Tail, Charmander learned Mud Slap, and Beedrill gained Poison Jab. Nidorino also learned Poison Jab, where as Gengar gained Protect, Poison Jab, and Dark Pulse.
After getting through the learning process I brought them back out and had them test their new moves. Seeing them successfully use their new moves I set them to practice them so the could perfect using them. I turned to Pikachu after that.
"I know you pulled it off once when we battled Surge, but I don't know if I'd say you successfully learned Volt Tackle, because we haven't tried it since. That is what I want you to work on right now buddy. If you can use it great, just work on making it better."
I got a determined cry from Pikachu in response. With that I moved to the Zubat and Conan. I explained what I wanted Conan to learn and using my Pokedex I showed him a few video clips of the moves I had in mind. He gave me an excited nod before running a short distance away from the others to work on learning Low Kick and Iron Tail.
Zubat however I had a small chat with. We both felt he was close to leveling up, and after talking about it we decided to see if our idea that he just needed a bit more experience was true. Using my Aura Bonds with everyone I told them Zubat and I were going to see if we could get him to evolve.
We didn't walk very far before finding an Oddish. Since I wanted to work with Zubat and evolve him I decided to just scan the Oddish with the Pokedex and send the info back to the professor for him to study. Once that was done I had Zubat attack the Oddish with a Quick Attack to draw it's attention.
The Oddish quickly tried to fight back using Absorb and leaching a bit of health off of Zubat. Thankfully the typing match up made it so the move wasn't very effective. Nodding to Zubat after covering my ears, I called out for him to use Supersonic and confuse the Oddish.
Zubat screeched at the Oddish and it scared the poor thing so badly that I could easily tell it had become confused. Oddish was spinning on it's feet looking all around it before trying to use Stun Spore on a nearby tree. Granted I knew it was a Stun Spore since the spores were yellow in color.
But since the Oddish was confused and attacked a random tree instead of Zubat I didn't have to worry about him being paralyzed when getting in close so I had Zubat use Wing Attack, which hit and did a good bit of damage since the Oddish staggered hard after taking the hit. Noticing the Oddish was still standing I smiled when I saw it had shaken off the confusion.
"Alright Zubat this Oddish is pretty tough and has earned our respect. Let's show it just how strong you really are. Use Air Cutter!"
Zubat did as I asked and I watched in statisfaction as the Oddish finally collapsed from the battle. My smile grew even wider when Zubat started glowing bright white. I closed my eyes so I couldn't be blinded by the light and waited till enough time had passed I'd be satisfied the light would have faded. Upon opening my eyes I was greeted by my newly evolved Golbat.
"Great work buddy. Now let's go back to the others and get you used to moving around in this body. After all you and Charmander will be leading the charge against Erika when we feel prepared enough to battle her."
Golbat gave a cheery cry in response and we moved back towards the others. Once we entered the clearing they had been using to train I was tackled to the ground in a group hug from most everyone. Gyarados hung back because she knew it would have actually hurt me if she joined in. After the fun greeting I asked how everyone felt with their new moves, and got a chorus of pleased responses.
Taking their happy answers as affirmations they felt they had the moves down pat and ready to go when asked for, I told them we were done training and going to take the rest of the day to relax so that we'd be well rested. Why? because they felt ready to challenge our next gym, and earn our fifth badge.
S.R: I'm cutting this chapter here, because we are going to make Erika's battle a longer one and we don't want it to take up multiple chapters just yet (as a matter of fact in Kanto the only long gym battle we plan to have take more than one chapter is Blaine's).
M.R: Should we give them a preview of the next chapter?
S.R: Nope. I mean it's probably really obvious what's going to happen. Though right now Beedrill and Nidorino have been swapped with Golbat and Charmander for being in the additional slots since he plans to use them in his team for the battle with Erika.
M.R: True, true. Maybe next time we'll do a preview then.
ON HAND:
1. Pikachu (m) 2. Riolu (m) 3. Gyarados (f) 4. Golbat (m) 5. Gengar (f) 6. Charmander (m)
TRAINEE FIELD RESEARCHER SLOT ADDITIONS:
7. Beedrill (m) 8. Nidorino (m)
AT THE RANCH:
1. Bulbasaur (f) 2. Squirtle (f) 3. Pidgeot (f)