Today in reasons why this chapter took a while: I had to refresh my computer and it uninstalled Microsoft Word! Now I have to work on my fics in Google Docs and I haaaaate it. What kind of writing program requires you to check your word count through a pop-up window!? Weak shit Google, weak shit.

Ben's Team:
Ogrim - Golett
Dart - Beedrill
Cleo and Lacy/The Twins - Doduo
Geodude - Not yet named

Chapter 15: The Power of Friendship!

"I think we should all train together."

I look up from my meal, a pasta dish with imitation krabby, to see Sara looking around the table at the rest of us. Keith and I trade glances, before the ninja decides to be the one to comment first, "You mean for the tournament?"

"No, for dance classes. Of course I mean the tournament!" Sara gives Keith a flat look, before addressing all of us, "Look, what do you all think our top priority should be in this tournament?"

"Uhh… winning?" Keith says uncertainly, looking at Axel and I with a confused expression.

"That would seem to be the main goal we should have if we're participating," Axel agrees, chuckling a little at Keith's response.

"Honestly I'll settle for just not making a fool of myself," I joke.

"There!" Sara snaps her fingers and points at me, "I know you're just messing around Ben, but that should be the real answer!"

Keith looks around the table, then looks back to Sara, "Sara, I think the pressure is getting to you."

"No, I believe I understand what she's getting at," Axel interjects, now nodding in understanding, "More than winning, the most important thing for all of us is to make sure that we are fulfilling our roles as Koga's representatives."

"That… makes sense, yeah," I say, "This is our first big public appearance as trainers. We should be doing everything in our power to make sure that it's a good one. That includes using every resource we have at our disposal, which means taking advantage of each other's knowledge as well."

"Exactly!" Sara smiles, "I've been thinking about this since we talked to Koga yesterday, that we all probably have a lot we've picked up already that could be useful to each other. And honestly seeing Ben's gym battle this morning has me feeling even more strongly about this!"

Keith looks around at the three of us, then shakes his head, "Ehhh, not convinced. I'm not going to say I don't see the logic in what you're saying Sara, but…" He trails off for a moment to gather his thoughts, then continues, "I think that your idea would be good for us as a collective unit, but not so good for us as individual trainers. Ben, you should be backing me up on this. You've got firsthand experience with the dangers of letting the opposition have even the slightest bit of access to your training practices."

I grimace at the brutal reminder Keith just gave me, "Yikes. Okay, you've got a very good point there. And while we're on the subject, why the fuck did I let you guys watch my gym battles again?"

"Oh, be quiet. If you're that bothered by the idea then just go find the videos of our matches online. Gym leaders are required by the Pokémon League to post all their battle records publically," Sara rolls her eyes irritably, then looks back to Keith, "And I'm not saying we should be telling each other everything about our techniques or our strategies. But surely you have something that you've been struggling with in your training that at least one of us can help with. I know I have some ideas I'd like to ask you guys for answers with."

"I suppose I have a big struggle to deal with as of an hour ago, don't I?" I muse, staring down at the new addition to my belt, "Might be worth having you guys learn my secrets if it means my first battle with this geodude won't be a disaster."

"I don't think that will be necessary," Axel says with a light chuckle, "There's no need to dedicate our time solely to group work or individual training. We can simply spend some time on both. Perhaps work together every other day, or something to that effect?"

"That's plenty!" Sara agrees, "I'd prefer to have some time for training my own techniques as well, so that sounds like a good way to do it."

The three of us nod to each other, then I look to Keith, "So, what do you say man? You feel like channeling the power of friendship?"

Keith stares for a long while at his burger as if waiting for it to reveal the secrets of the universe to him, then takes a deep breath and nods to the rest of us, "Fine. I'm willing to give this a shot. But if I feel like my team's training is suffering as a result I reserve the right to bail on this and do my own thing."

"I'm pleased to see you all taking your responsibilities so seriously."

"Gah!" The four of us all yelp in unison as Koga makes his presence known. "Okay, HOW!?" I exclaim in disbelief, "I refuse to believe that you managed to pull up a chair and sit down at our table without us realizing using just ninja misdirection. There has to be some kind of Pokémon helping you do this to us, or some kind of weird trick, or something!"

"If there is, I've never been able to figure it out," Keith groans, "He's been doing this to me all my life and I still don't know the secret."

Koga says nothing in response, but there's a faint aura of smugness about him as he stoically sips his tea.

"Umm, anyways, you're saying you agree with our plan?" Sara says, "You don't mind us collaborating?"

"Even if I did, it would be an extreme abuse of my position as your sponsor to stop you," Koga replies, taking a bite of his salad (and when the fuck did that get there?). He takes a moment to savor his meal, then continues, "I may set goals for you, but I have no business dictating how you choose to accomplish them. Your journeys are your own. Your teams are your own. Your methods are your own. I will provide guidance, if asked. But I will not tell you the way you must train. When I say that I am pleased, I don't refer to you choosing a method that I approve of. I am simply pleased to see you taking the time to discuss your responsibilities and how to best live up to them at all."

"Okay…" I look to the others, then back to Koga, "Well then, while we have you here, is there anything you think we should be focusing on to get ready?" The others nod along to my question, looking equally interested.

"Certainly," Koga nods approvingly, "Sara, your defensive strategies continue to be impressive, but your offense remains lacking. Consult with Keith and Ben during these training sessions of yours for good ways to improve your offensive movepool; their styles should suit you well. Keith, you are beginning to develop the opposite problem. Technical skill is all well and good, but you need to ensure your Pokémon are trained to weather blows and bolster their defenses should your evasive tactics fail you. Ben, you spend too much time devising new tactics and techniques and not enough time refining and improving those you already have a grasp on. There is more to growth than simply expanding your options; you must also take the time to ensure your Pokémon are refining their existing skills to the point of mastery."

Sara, Keith, and I all bow our heads at Koga's guidance. After a moment, Axel speaks up, "And… what would you have me improve on, Master Koga?"

Koga closes his eyes for a moment and sips his tea, clearly thinking very hard on the question. After a moment though he opens his eyes and nods to Axel, "The best advice I can give you is this: continue as you are. Out of the four of you, you are the one who has the clearest idea of what your style as a trainer shall be. And you are already refining yourself in the best way to embody the style you envision."

That gets everybody's attention. If there was a trainer amongst us who I would have guessed was furthest ahead of the curve it would have been Keith. I think he'd have been the first choice of any of us. He's got far more experience than the rest of us, and more than proved it when he won Koga's sponsorship challenge. Plus, according to Koga, he also has had the fastest progress of the four of us, which is why he was chosen as first seed in the tournament. So to hear that the trainer Koga thinks is doing the best isn't his star pupil, but Axel…

Well, we're all rather plainly stunned by the reveal. Axel in particular looks shell-shocked as he musters a response, "I-I see. Thank you for your kind words, Master Koga." An unusually flustered response from a typically unflappable trainer. Not that I can blame him.

"Geez, look at mister bigshot here," Keith says, his smile not quite managing to cover how thrown he is by Koga's proclamation. "I guess that makes you the man to beat, huh?"

"I wouldn't go that far," Axel says, collecting himself swiftly, "Master Koga isn't saying I'm the strongest, just that I'm better focused."

"It is as he says," Koga says, "Make no mistake, the gap between you all is by no means large. You each have strengths which you play to. A style which has begun to reveal itself. And to become a truly skilled trainer you must discover what those strengths are and how best to capitalize on them. How best to make them truly yours. Any one of you could feasibly win this tournament should you learn to do so. Let that be something you think about in the coming weeks."

I'm about to ask him for more advice when a loud pop goes off behind me, causing a waitress to shriek in surprise. I look in the direction the sound came from and I see the woman staring at a tiny tube of paper that somebody left sitting on a plate at an empty table. Is… is that a mini firecracker?

Suddenly there's an indignant squawk from next to me, and when I look back to the table Koga is gone. Sara and Axel blink in surprise along with me, having both followed my gaze to see what the noise was. Keith on the other hand is rubbing at his face with a napkin.

"Ugh, that ass! He knew I wasn't going to fall for his stupid noisemaker so he just flicked salad dressing in my eyes and ran!" Keith complains.

I burst into laughter at the reveal, as Axel intones with an amused expression, "Truly, the relationship between master and student is a privilege to behold."

"Hey look," Sara indicates a few bills left on the table, "Master Koga picked up the tab before leaving."

"What a generous soul," Axel beams, "We are blessed to have him as a sponsor."

"Yeah, feeling really blessed right now," Keith groans.

"More like dressed, am I right?" Sara ventures, and then declares upon seeing Keith's offended expression, "I regret nothing!"

The pun is weak, but in my compromised state I can only laugh all the louder.

"Alright, so how do we want to start here?" Keith says, looking around at the area we've picked out for training. We picked a nice open area north of Vermillion, big enough for all four of us to let our teams flourish and far enough out of the way that we shouldn't have to worry about anyone snooping around.

The rest of us look to each other uncertainly before I grab a ball off my belt. "Well, I certainly know where I want to start," I declare, releasing my newest teammate.

"Geodude," Geodude declares, staring up at me sternly.

"Right, I suppose before we come up with any sort of training plan we need to figure out what kind of training your geodude needs!" Sara nods.

"Shall we start with an analysis then?" Axel proposes, "Work together to assess geodude as a sort of… proof of concept?"

"Let me start my team on their warm-ups, at least," Keith says, "I don't want to waste time here."

We all agree that that's a fair and reasonable request, so he starts letting his team out, starting with his scyther, then his beedrill, then a roselia, and finally he reveals to us that he has a growlithe. Which proves to be a mistake because as soon as the big puppy shows up Sara and I end up wasting his time anyways.

"What a good boy! You are so cute, yes you are!" Sara coos, rubbing his belly as his little paws kick in the air.

"Such a good boy! Such a good puppy, oh yes!" I echo, scratching at his neck.

"Guys, leave Fluffy alone so he can start training!" Keith groans in protest.

"Aww, don't be like that! He doesn't seem to mind," Sara says, gesturing to the way Fluffy the growlithe's tongue is lolling in contentment.

"But… ugh, come on Axel, help me out here!"

"I can't help but feel you brought this upon yourself by naming him Fluffy," Axel jokes, watching the proceedings in plain amusement, "Who wouldn't react like this after being introduced to Fluffy the growlithe?"

"Nobody I'd want to interact with!" I declare.

"Oh dear, then I suppose I had best pet Fluffy as well, before our alliance is broken," Axel says, moving to join us. He doesn't quite manage to hide his smile as Keith complains loudly at our antics.

After screwing with Keith a little longer we all get back on track, and soon everyone is introduced to each other's teams. Keith has Checkers the scyther, Wocky the beedrill, Fluffy the growlithe, and Belladonna the roselia (apparently he favors cooler nicknames for his female team members and cute ones for the guys). True to Koga's advice he focuses almost entirely on fast technical attackers, with Fluffy apparently having been caught to somewhat offset the relative frailty of his team and to mitigate his weakness to fire types.

Sara's team is almost a perfect contrast, with three relatively bulky Pokémon and one speedy attacker. She's the only one on the team without a beedrill, since she left hers with her mom for personal reasons. What she has left is frankly, really worrisome though. Her starter is a female nidoran named Missy, and a strong one too if the everstone around its neck is any indicator. Then she has Roper, a ferroseed, a wigglytuff named Poppy, and a jolteon named Stat. There aren't a lot of fully evolved Pokémon you can get as a tier two trainer, but those that are available are no less capable, so seeing that Sara has two of them is extremely intimidating.

Axel's team is intimidating as well, if for a different reason. The man is the only one of our group to have five Pokémon. Ibara is his beedrill, a strong looking specimen, though not as strong as Dart. Then there's Daisuke, his rhyhorn, who I know from his help with training the Twins. Shizu, his slowpoke, is powerful and unpredictable as expected from her species. And for new additions to his team he has a charmeleon named Tokeru and a magnemite named Arashi. His team is varied, tough, and powerful. Entirely as expected and all too worrying.

Of course my team draws its fair share of uneasy looks too. Out of all the Pokémon between the four of us mine have a notable difference in intensity. Well, Dart and the Twins do at least. Dart is, as always, both literally and figuratively buzzing with mad energy. And Cleo and Lacy clearly look like they're ready to stomp everyone else into the dirt and show who's boss. And while I haven't had time to figure out exactly what kind of intensity Geodude has, he's clearly got a lot of it too. They're providing a stark contrast to Ogrim, who has been confronted with three whole teams of friends to make and clearly doesn't know where to start.

In short, Keith has the fast technical team, Sara has the well developed defensive team, Axel has the highly powerful juggernaut team, and I have the team that will kick your ass and relish every second of it. If Ogrim wasn't here to break the ice I worry my pokémon would all have problems making friends. I should maybe look into recruiting some less aggressive pokémon for my next few team members to balance things out.

"Alright!" Keith shouts, getting everyone's attention, "Let's start warmups. Everyone start at that tree over there, and run to that tree all the way over there. Back and forth as many times as you can, for… let's say ten minutes. Everyone go at your own pace, remember it's not a competition."

"That means you Dart," I interject, giving my overeager friend a warning look.

"Dree lee bee!" Dart protests indignantly, but flies off with the others at a relatively sedate pace, for him at least, keeping right on the tail of the fastest mons. Leading the pack are the twins, Checkers, and Stat, who all look determined enough that I'm sure they'll be racing before long despite our warning. Meanwhile at the back Roper is rolling at a snail's pace and Shizu has only just begun to realize that she's supposed to be running.

"Alright, and in the meantime," I turn back to Geodude, "Let's see what you can do."

As it turns out, Geodude can do quite a bit. He has a couple of useful melee attacks in tackle and spark, as well as defence curl and charge to boost defenses and power those attacks up. He also has some useful utility moves in block and wide guard, though the first still needs practice and the second won't be useful for the tournament.

Movement is something of a low point. Some of the media I saw as a kid portrayed geodude as capable of minor levitation to get around, but in real life things are decidedly less fantastical. They mostly get around by using their arms to propel them, effectively hurling themselves around the battlefield. But when they don't need to move as quickly, they bounce… using a little foot. Yeah. Apparently geodude have a tiny foot set in the bottom of their body which they can kick with juuuust a little, in order to bounce around.

Out of all the weird differences to this world I've discovered since coming here, that one may be the most disturbing.

The bouncing is almost completely useless, so I happily do my best to forget how it works completely forever. Geodude's ability to throw himself about is much more useful in battle, especially since he can use rock polish as well to make himself lighter and more aerodynamic. It's not as dramatic an increase in speed as it is in the games, but it does still make a noticeable difference. He can also use rollout if he needs to cover a lot of ground, though he doesn't seem to take to the move as well as Ogrim has. And since his arms have actual functional shoulders instead of weird action figure sockets I can't train him to use different attacks while rolling like Ogrim can either. Still a useful option to have though, and I do love having options.

But all of this pales in comparison to the most interesting discoveries made. Everything I've covered so far? It's all useful, and Geodude can perform them well enough, but he has yet to hone any of these moves to perfection. No, Geodude has a different focus: magnetism. He discovered magnets, and decided that he was going to find out how they worked.

Ignore everything I said before about geodude not being able to levitate, because apparently my new teammate at some point decided 'fuck the rules' and figured it out anyways. Sara tells me his father must have been a probopass, because his magnetism control is well above the norm for his species. Alolan geodude are somewhat capable users of magnetism, but they usually only really become skilled with the ability once they're fully evolved. This guy has a talent for it though, and now he's trying to figure out how to use it for everything. Far from rock-headed, this geodude is a mon of science!

Which brings me to his most impressive trick, his personal take on rock throw. Rather than just picking his ammunition up and tossing it at the opponent, he's taught himself to move rocks by using thundershock to affect their magnetism! He's essentially training himself to alter the magnetic charge of whatever he touches through the use of electric attacks!

And at this point most of us feel the need to sit down and reflect on what we're dealing with here.

"He's a genius," I comment, staring blankly at the rock he's levitating between his hands, "This is ridiculous."

"For real!" Keith exclaims, "What was Surge thinking, letting a Pokémon with this kind of potential go?"

"If I may," Axel interjects, watching Geodude's performance with a critical eye, "I believe I know the answer to that."

I gesture for him to go ahead, and Axel points to one of the trees everyone was running between, "Alright geodude, launch the rock."

"Geodude!" Geodude replies, clearly concentrating with everything he's got. He holds out his hands, with his fingers curled so that they surround the stone without quite touching. It almost looks like he's firing a Kamehameha, right out of Dragon Ball. Instead of an energy blast though, Geodude instead runs a jolt of electricity into the stone that causes it to fly away from his hands. His attack hits the tree center mass and bounces off, rolling on the ground.

"Wow! That was really accurate!" Sara says enthusiastically. She then looks back to the rest of us, looking uncertain, "But…"

"Yeah, lots of work to be done there," I nod. Geodude's technical skill is through the roof, but an attack like that just doesn't have the power to pass muster. "Alright, can I see you use rock throw the more… traditional way?"

Geodude scowls deeply at that, looking at me with clear distaste. Ah ha, suddenly I'm starting to get an idea of what makes this guy tick. "Geodude, this is important. I can't help you get your technique up to par if I don't know what baseline I need to be aiming for."

Geodude frowns, but nods at my logic, calling up another rock and holding it regularly in his hands. He eyes the target, winds up, and pitches the stone like a baseball. This time the tree splinters under the force of the blow, with the rock crumbling on impact.

"Not bad at all, especially for a technique that I imagine Geodude's been neglecting," Axel notes, eyeing the damage critically, "If I were to compare it to an attack from Daisuke, I would say Geodude is hitting with about… two thirds power."

"Considering your style? I'd say that's pretty solid," Keith notes, "Is there any way to get an attack as weak as that magnet shot up to this level though?"

"I think so," I muse, mind racing to recall anything I can possibly recall from my school science classes, "I think it'll require changing the technique from the ground up though. He needs a longer magnet to be able to put any force into his shots. Also I'm remembering something about spirals being good. I need to brush up on my physics knowledge, but the point is: it should be doable."

Keith looks like he's only barely following what I'm saying, quietly mouthing the word 'spirals?' to himself, before shrugging his shoulders, "Alright, we'll let you handle that since you seem to have some ideas. Just don't commit too much to a dead end move. Remember we're training with a time limit right now."

"Before you start with your grand plans though," Axel interjects, "I think it would be best for us to go over the rest of our Pokémon and decide what everyone needs to work on."

The first of our group training sessions progresses rather slowly, all things considered. It's to be expected, of course. All of us are suddenly familiarizing ourselves with a dozen Pokémon we need to manage, no small feat on such short notice. For a while it looks like Sara's plan is doomed to failure, but things start to turn around once I suggest dividing our teams into categories.

First of all is the Pokémon who are leading the pack, the ones without any serious weaknesses for our level. There's two obvious frontrunners in this regard, Checkers and Dart. The bugs are definitely ahead of the curve with exceptional speed, technique, and strength, though after further discussion Daisuke is also added to that small group, since judging a rhyhorn for not being fast enough just isn't fair to a Pokémon that honestly excels in every other aspect. While none of our Pokémon are perfect, these three are the ones we decide should be considered our pinnacle, and therefore the ones we should use to help the other members of our teams along.

After that comes the mons that are lacking primarily in defenses. The twins fall into this group of course, bearing all of Dart's offensive talents but lacking his absolutely indomitable tenacity. The other two beedrill in our little group also fall into this category, and Keith also puts forward Belladonna instead. Last member of the group comes from Sara's team, to everyone's surprise. Despite being the clear best in defensive tactics from our group Sara hasn't trained Stat in defense at all; the jolteon has been focused entirely on being the offensive keystone of her team.

Sara suggests a group for Pokémon that have the opposite problem; mons with powerful defenses but not much for offense. But after some discussion it's eventually decided that we should scrap that idea. The only mons that really qualify are from her team, and while Missy could primarily benefit from more offensive presence her other two Pokémon have other needs that should be attended to first.

That brings us to Pokémon who need to work on their mobility. Keith's team is of course exempt from this group, having placed heavy emphasis on mobility when selecting his team so far. Mine is left out as well, as Ogrim has largely overcome his mobility issues already and Geodude has rollout and magnet rise to do the same. That leaves Axel with Shizu and Arashi, and Sara with Poppy and Roper. This is the group we all agree will need the most effort, as Arashi is the only one with a clear direction to improve in.

Last but not least is the Pokémon who just need general training in everything. Keith and Axel submit their fire types for this group, as both are relatively recent captures. I also decide this is the group Ogrim best fits into, as his focus in training so far has largely involved curing him of his critical weaknesses. He has a lot of work to do on the aspects of battle I intend for him to really excel in. After some deliberation Sara adds Missy into this group as well, for lack of anywhere better to put her.

"There's honestly not much I can do with Missy right now," Sara explains to us, "She's way above average for a nidoran, but that just isn't saying much. Until I can get my fourth gym badge and be promoted to a Tier-3 license she's gonna be at a disadvantage no matter what."

A rough situation for her to be in for sure, and one I'm sure to take note of. I'm in the same boat as Sara, in that my team options are very limited right now by my license. Until I get a tier three license both Geodude and the twins won't be allowed to evolve, and while I don't think Geodude is much of a concern yet the twins are definitely strong enough that I can't help but be concerned. It won't be long before I'll be having everstones strapped onto my Pokémon as well.

"Well, we need to just stick with the basics for her then," Keith continues, not bothered by the licensing issue like I am, "Nidoran may tend to evolve early, but their middle stages don't actually suffer from delayed evolution. There's no reason not to keep pushing her. Same goes for Fluffy and Tokeru, they just need to keep doing what they're doing. The real concern is Ben's Pokémon.

"How do you figure?" Sara looks over at me, clearly a bit lost.

"Geodude is a problem because he has the most catching up to do to reach the level we need of him," Axel explains, "And Ogrim doesn't benefit from regular training because he's a non-organic Pokémon. Arashi has a similar problem."

"Ohhh, right. I've never trained a non-organic Pokémon, so I guess I forgot," Sara grins sheepishly, "So… what do we do, then?"

"Non-organic Pokémon get stronger by training in their energy control," I explain, "So Ogrim needs to train his use of ground and ghost energy, while Arashi needs to train to better use electric and steel."

"I'd focus on ghost energy for Ogrim, personally," Keith declares, "His ground control is already seriously solid. And as for Arashi-"

"Arashi will have to continue to train primarily in electric control, I'm afraid," Axel shrugs, "Magnemite manipulate steel energy through the power of their magnetism. Until they evolve though, they lack the stability to truly manipulate it beyond simple levitation."

Keith frowns at being interrupted, but shrugs at the explanation all the same, "I suppose I should defer to your superior experience. Most of my expertise lies with bug and poison types."

"Magnezone is a tier 5 Pokémon," Axel explains, "I have been starting my studying early."

"Good call," I say, looking over to Ogrim, "I'm not nearly so well-read on the subject, honestly. Most of what I know about Ogrim is stuff I was taught by my friends in Unova. I can't even seem to teach him to use a ranged attack properly."

"Wait, he doesn't know a ranged attack?" Keith blinks in surprise, "What about those bulldoze attacks he was using this morning?"

"Useful, but limited," I shake my head, "bulldoze can't be used long-range, it's a mid-ranged attack. The only properly long ranged move he knows is mud slap, but we're already at the point where that's only useful as a utility move. Everything else I've tried just doesn't seem to stick."

"What have you tried?" Sara asks, looking as if she's just been presented with a puzzle to solve, "Maybe you're just pushing for moves that are beyond Ogrim's skill level."

"That's the thing, I've been trying to teach him the most basic stuff!" I shrug helplessly, "Rock tomb and shadow ball. Both should be relatively simple for him, but no matter what I've tried we just haven't made any progress."

"So he's having trouble expanding his use of ghost type energy, huh?" Keith frowns at that, "That figures. This is literally the worst possible region to be dealing with that sort of thing."

"Not so much anymore," Axel says, "Have you thought about visiting the gym in Lavender Town? The Leader there is quite a capable woman, and I got the impression she enjoys teaching others about her chosen type."

"A Lavender trainer who likes sharing training information…" Keith snorts, clearly amused by the thought, "What a time to be alive!"

"Yes, I've heard the stories about the way they hoard knowledge. But it's true," Axel replies, "I was there for my second badge. She's very knowledgeable. I almost wish I had a ghost type Pokémon so I could have benefited more from her lessons."

"Well, I guess I should make that gym a priority then," I muse, "Lavender's gym doesn't have primary status, right? What level of trainers does she accept?"

"Oh, she accepts all of them," Axel says.

"I told you about her before, remember Ben?" Keith says, "She's applying for primary status. Can't earn that position without having teams ready for any level of trainer."

"If she's applying for primary status, who would she be replacing?" Sara asks, "Is Blue planning on finally rejoining the Elite Four?"

"Doubtful," Keith laughs, "The guy may be stronger than everyone in the Elite Four but he's been getting way too invested in Viridian lately. From what I've heard he isn't ever going to quit that position. Nah, if anyone's getting replaced it's definitely Blaine."

"Not much sense in having one of Kanto's primary Gym Leaders hide their gym so well they don't even accept challenges anymore," Axel nods sagely.

"Well I'm sure it makes some kind of sense to Blaine at least," I chuckle, "Nice cushy position, lots of peace and quiet… right up until things get so quiet that he gets replaced by Agatha's rebellious granddaughter."

"Speaking of, let's get back on track here," Keith says, waving his hand to get our attention again, "We were talking about Ogrim not knowing ranged attacks. I agree that Lavender is Ben's best bet for figuring out the ghost thing, but that's not really an option for us right now. So why don't we figure out why Ogrim can't seem to learn any new rock moves instead?"

"Perhaps you should show us exactly what's happening when Ogrim attempts to use a rock attack," Axel suggests.

"Sure thing," I agree, looking over to Ogrim, "Hey Ogrim, could you come over here and show everyone your rock tomb?"

"Golett? Go let go…" Ogrim groans, not looking forward to the idea of messing up in front of so many people. Still, being the agreeable little dude he is, he still trundles over nice and quick. He takes a stance in front of us, clenches his fists in focus, and then thrusts his arms into the air, "Golett!"

And in front of him a mound of dirt raises out of the ground and then promptly collapses.

"Yeah… that's where we're at right now," I explain, "No matter how hard he tries, Ogrim can't seem to call actual rocks out of the ground. Just dirt. Crumbly, not at all useful for attacking dirt."

"Huh…" Sara comments, looking on in confusion, "So he knows what kind of move he's going for… but it looks like he can only seem to use ground energy to replicate it. He's not channeling rock energy at all."

"But he can channel it through himself just fine, his rollout attack is fantastic," Keith continues thoughtfully, before perking up, "Well, here's an idea, if his problem is using rock energy outside of his own body, why not ask an expert? You have a rock type of your own now, don't you?"

"Oh, good call!" I grin, looking down at Geodude, who has been waiting patiently nearby this whole time, "What do you say Geodude, would you be willing to help teach Ogrim what he's doing wrong?"

"Geodude," Geodude says, giving me a determined nod. He moves over to Ogrim and raises a hand, "Geo deo dude geodude, deo geodude."

"Golett!" Ogrim nods eagerly, clearly ready to learn.

Geodude nods, looking pleased to have such an attentive student, and starts explaining.

"Geo dude geodude geo deo geo dude. Geodude geo geodude deo geo dude geodude dude. Deo, geo geodude, deo geodude geo dude. Geo geo dude geodude deo geodude geo gude deo dude geo geodude deo geo deo geo geodude dude geodude. Dude, Geo geodude deo geo dude, Geo dude geo geodude deo geo deo dude. Geo geo dude geodude deo geo dude geo dude deo dude geodude. Deo geo deo geo deo geodude geo geo dude geodude deo geo dude geo. Geodude deo geodude, gude geo deo dude geo deo geodude. Geodude geodude deo gude geo deo geodude; geo dude geo deo geo dude geodude geo geodude. Geodude, geo deo geodude, geo dude geodude…"

He's… not stopping. He's barely pausing for air. And all the while poor Ogrim is falling further and further into the haze of concepts that are clearly far beyond him. He's trying, bless his heart he's trying his best, but my boy Ogrim is just not an advanced thinker. And Geodude very clearly is. Geodude is indeed so advanced that he's effectively advanced right into his own world of complex Pokémon move theory. A world which is so complicated that Ogrim is now staring blankly into space, having lost the thread completely.

I glance to my fellow trainers, but they look as lost as I am. Though Keith seems to be trying not to burst into laughter at the display, incorrigible shithead that he is. Sara can only shrug helplessly at me once I've caught her gaze. Axel looks baffled, but also quite curious at the display.

"RHY."

Of all the onlookers present though, it's Daisuke who comes to the rescue. He stomps his way over, butting in between my two Pokémon without even a bit of hesitation. Geodude stammers in shock at the interruption, but even his brilliant mind can't devise a way to stop a rhyhorn from walking wherever it damn well pleases. He's forced to back off, and gives me a look as if this is the worst thing that's ever happened to him.

"It's alright Geodude. You were doing a great job, but I think your lesson was just a bit too… advanced for Ogrim to follow," I say as tactfully as I can manage, "We'll see if maybe Daisuke has a different approach."

Daisuke certainly does have a different approach. Axel may be calm and collected himself, but his Pokémon are all straightforward powerhouses. So when Daisuke decides to teach Ogrim a move he stamps a foot, calls up a rock, and then gives Ogrim a look as if to say, 'Well? Get on with it!'

Ogrim looks a little thrown off by the sudden change of teachers and teaching styles, but he rallies quickly. He raises his fists, focusing with everything he can, until-

"RHYHORN," Daisuke barks, stamping a foot impatiently and startling Ogrim out of his concentration. He calls up another rock and then gives Ogrim another impatient look. And Ogrim starts to try to focus again, only to once more be interrupted by a very irritated yell.

"What the fuck is he doing?" I growl, making to advance on Daisuke.

"Wait," Axel says, throwing up an arm in my path.

"Axel, I know he's your starter, but this isn't training, it's bullying! And I won't let it continue!" I snarl, pushing my way past my fellow trainer.

"Just be patient a little longer," Axel says, grabbing me by the shoulder. He looks me straight in the eyes, weathering my glare with the patience of a saint, "Daisuke isn't just doing this to be mean; there's a purpose to his methods. Let him continue and I promise you won't regret it."

"I regret it already," I reply, but I settle down for the moment all the same. Axel and Daisuke have both helped me before. I can give them the benefit of the doubt a little longer. Even if I feel absolutely furious seeing Daisuke interrupt Ogrim's concentration again. And again. And again.

"RHYHORN!" The hulking rhyhorn growls, his voice like grating stone.

"Go-golett," Ogrim replies plaintively, trying to push up another mound of dirt.

"RHYHORN!" Daisuke stomps his feet, calling up yet another rock spire that bursts through Ogrim's weak attempt at the move and sends dust flying.

"Go golett go, let go!" Ogrim protests, clenching his hands once more, though this time he looks openly angry and frustrated.

"RHYHORN!" Daisuke bellows again, getting right up in Ogrim's face.

"Go… GOLETT!" Ogrim yells back, punching his hand in the air.

A proper rock bursts out of the ground next to Daisuke's latest demonstration, sending the large stone toppling.

There's a moment of silence amongst the group.

"Go-Golett!? Go let go golett? Let go!?" Ogrim asks, looking between the rock he just called on and Daisuke in bewilderment.

"Rhyhorn. Rho horn rhy," Daisuke answers, suddenly looking quite calm and happy.

"Go golett go!" Ogrim cheers, throwing his hands in the air. He bounces up and down for a few seconds, then stomps his foot and calls up another rock out of the ground. Upon seeing that he managed to replicate his success he starts pumping his arms in the air, "Go! Go! Golett!"

The rest of the Pokémon break into cheers and crowd around Ogrim to congratulate him (except for the twins of course, who consider themselves too cool for that sort of thing), leaving me to stare in disbelief.

"That worked?" I look over at the rocks Ogrim called up and look back at Axel, "I'm not going to argue with the results, but why did bullying Ogrim into making rocks work so well?"

"It's simple," Axel says, looking rather pleased with himself, "Ogrim was overthinking things."

"... Can you explain this properly for those of us in the big open field who aren't in the loop?" Sara asks. I nod in agreement with the sentiment.

"Oh, I get it! Ogrim's problem was that he was trying to coax the ground into doing what he wanted, when he needed to force it," Keith exclaims, clapping a fist into his palm.

"So… what, he was being too nice to the ground?" I look to Sara to see if she's getting anything from this. She just shrugs helplessly. Apparently we're both missing something here.

Axel looks at the two of us, seeing our mystified expressions, and frowns, "Are you two not familiar with type essence theory?"

"I've heard of the concept, but I don't actually know it," Sara says, shrugging her shoulders.

"First time hearing the term, personally," I say, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"I see," Axel muses, "I suppose it is still rather obscure outside of more advanced circles. I only know about it due to my time studying in ranger school back in Almia."

"And I heard about it from Koga," Keith adds, "Okay, so basic principle of type essence theory: it's a school of thought that believes that there is basically… an almost spiritual principle behind what identifies the different types of Pokémon. An idea that shapes each type and how it interacts with the world."

"Huh… neat idea, but is there an actual basis for it?" I frown, looking between the two.

"Yes and no…" Axel frowns, "The theory is rejected by many within the scientific community for being far too abstract to be properly defined. That's part of why it hasn't spread very far, the theory is highly criticized for treating Pokémon battling like a form of art or even prayer rather than something you can analyze and study for."

"On the other hand, it explains a ton about the trends that always seem to pop up in Pokémon trainers," Keith adds, "Like the prevalence of type specialists, while successful diverse teams like Cynthia or Red are such a rarity. They even say it's the reason seasoned Pokémon trainers tend to look so… eccentric. The more a trainer pours themselves into a type the more benefits they get."

"Ah, so you're saying your wardrobe actually serves to give you a tactical power boost," Axel comments.

"Shove off Axel," Keith rolls his eyes.

"At any rate," Axel says, turning his grin away from Keith and back to us, "Type essence theory has little in the way of proper evidence supporting it, but does serve to explain many questions that have otherwise stumped scientists for ages. Including the issue Ogrim seems to have been having: the difference between ground and rock."

"And that difference is how… assertive you are when attacking?" Sara asks, still trying to puzzle this all together. I applaud her for her intellectual curiosity; I've basically decided to give up and let these guys exposition at me until I know what the fuck is going on.

"The force you put into the attack isn't what makes the difference itself, but it is the key to harnessing that energy. At least according to the theory," Axel shakes his head, "Basically what it boils down to is this: ground type is the earth as an ever shifting force, while rock type is the earth as an immovable object. Like the constant shifting of tectonic plates compared to an unmoving monolith."

That's what sets off the lightbulb moment for me, "Ah, so by that logic rock type needs a more firm hand because it doesn't want to move naturally!" I grin as my thoughts start to fall into place.

This is it! That fundamental piece of the puzzle I was missing! I feel like a shonen protagonist who's suddenly been clued in to the power of friendship. And is it any wonder why? For all that this world runs on stricter rules than I expected when I first arrived, this is the world of Pokémon! This world is quite literally magical, and this is the key to understanding that power.

"I need to be taking so many notes right now…" I groan as my mind starts to race with different theories, "This is… I have so many ideas!"

"And you're saying they teach this stuff in ranger school?" Sara asks, looking similarly overwhelmed.

"Not as hard fact," Axel says, "But the modern stylers that rangers use are designed to harness type energy, so the lessons on how type energy works and interacts is extremely in-depth. This included a lot of different theories, and out of all of the things I read up on, type essence theory was what resonated the most with me."

"It's one of those things where you can't really prove it's real, because it's more of a philosophy than a real measurable thing," Keith says with a shrug of his shoulders, "But people who do follow it still usually get tangible results so it might as well be fact. It's still debated and dismissed like crazy though.

"Part of the problem though is that some types are just… way harder to understand than others. See fairy, dragon, and ghost types for prime examples. And of course, the people who understand the most about those types are usually very close knit communities of trainers who have protected their secrets from outsiders in order to maintain their power for literal centuries," Keith concludes by gesturing to our Pokémon, "Doesn't help that these guys don't really need to think about how they use these powers. It's all instinct for them. Unless you're some kinda super-genius like Geodude is, I guess."

In other words, I'm going to do a lot of studying and a lot more thinking if I want to get to the essence of all of this stuff, pun not intended. "Well, instinct or not, it still helped Ogrim get past this block we've been struggling with," I conclude, "Thanks for telling me about this stuff Axel, Keith. I think I'll be getting a lot of mileage out of this info."

"For real!" Sara nods along, "I'm glad I asked to work with everyone today; I don't know if I would have figured this out on my own."

"Eh, I'm sure somebody else would have mentioned it to you sooner or later," Keith says dismissively. He looks back to our Pokémon again, all of them still just standing around chatting, and shakes his head, "Alright, these guys are getting way too relaxed, we should get to work already."

"No kidding," I agree, "We've already solved one big problem and we've only been out here an hour. Let's see what else we can get done today!"

I had entirely too much fun writing Geodude's thesis on the principles of rock throwing. In all my years of writing that may be the stupidest thing I've ever put to paper (so to speak), and I just love it for that.

Type essence theory is an idea I've been waiting to show you all for a while now. The basic concept is basically: do the Avatar the Last Airbender thing, but for every type. As ideas go I think it does still need some polish on my end, but it serves its function well enough as an answer to many of the weird idiosyncrasies that one discovers when they look at types too long. I first thought of it while looking at the move sandstorm of all things. Namely, why it was the only sand move that was a rock attack. The thought I had was that by taking sand manipulation and amping it up to the point where it became its own weather pattern it becomes more steady and persistent. The change in scale was taking the sand and turning it into an immovable force of nature. And from that idea I derived a whole philosophy of sorts behind which kinds of earthbending fell under which type, and from there went on to try to expand the idea to every type of Pokemon. Because I am hopelessly addicted to theory crafting, and live to subject you all to my weird fixations.

Alright, now that the fun stuff is over with let's talk business, because I have an announcement to make.

After a whole bunch of waffling over the idea (seriously, I've been debating this for literal months), I have decided to launch a pat reon page (sorry about the weird spacing, it's the only way I can talk about it on this site). Now, before I continue, let me emphasize this very clearly: this will NOT affect my updates in any way. I will continue to post updates as frequently as I possibly can for you all.

I have been writing fanfiction in some form or another for nearly two decades, starting with some very old stuff I still have tucked away in scribblers somewhere. Fifteen of those years have been spent writing on this site (though I deleted my first works years ago for being too cringe for me to handle, lol). It's a big part of my life, and I like to think I've gotten pretty good at it. Seeing the reactions people have to my work means a lot to me. And if I could use this talent I've acquired to improve my lot in life it would mean more than I can possibly describe. But I can only do that with the support of all of you. So if you want to give me that support, just go to the patron place and type /howlingarmadillo (I can't give you a proper link because this website doesn't like it, sorry!)

And if you don't want to or can't, that's fine! Just keep on reading and commenting like always, and know that I appreciate you!

Also here is the usual link to the Fanfiction Treehouse discord, a nice place full of nice people who write stuff! discord .gg/u89gs745fn