A/N: 16/10/2021. I've done a major edit. The chapters no longer lines up with their old counter parts, so you might want to go back and re-read if you're jumping in here.
Chapter Ten: Battle
Riolu, the Emanation Pokémon. A Fighting type. Riolu can understand how people and Pokémon feel by observing a kind of energy called Aura. It has a flexible body with enough power to cross three mountains and two canyons in one night. This Riolu is male.
Egg moves: bullet punch
Hidden ability (unlocked): inner focus
Move: Quick attack, endure, counter, work up, reversal, metal claw, quick guard, telepathy, focus blast,
Having been the only child at home with Lucario, he had been able to focus on training Riolu and so he had learnt a lot of moves which he had then mastered. Lucario, like me, believed that it was better to have mastered a current move set before moving onto learning a new move, and even than there was always an opportunity to improve beyond current standard of mastery.
The last time I had seen him, before fleeing the island, Riolu hadn't known Telepathy since it was typically the last move Lucario taught before his children left so they could communicate with any humans that they might meet, whether that human is an Aura Adapt or not. Which meant, Lucario had been preparing his son to go with me for at least three weeks because his children didn't normally leave home until they were three or four years old to make sure that they were close to evolving and strong enough to not be caught unless that was what they wanted. I hadn't figured out how he stopped his children from evolving despite being so strong.
Riolu's introduction to the family went very smoothly. Despite being older than everyone else, Riolu didn't hold it over them. He was more than willing to help with training, and he took to helping translate for me if I had issues trying to understand what one of my friends were trying to say based solely on their emotions. He also helped me understand how much they were all learning during my education lessons and games, since I hadn't had a true measure of their intellectual development before Riolu joined me.
With an Aura using Pokemon as part of the family, I was able to progress a little quicker in my own training. By Riolu's third week with the family, I'd learnt how to communicate with each of my family members to the point of determining intent and emotion, even if we hadn't gotten to words yet. It would take a little longer before I'd be able to talk to them in the same way that I'd was able to talk with Riolu. Noibat was trying to learn telepathy with the help of Riolu, but he was having difficulties because he was still too young and his own mind was constantly learning and evolving so he couldn't understand his own mind enough to talk with another. Once his intellectual growth rate settled, it would be easier.
After Riolu joined us, I focused on his physical training to ensure that he settled into the routines I'd designed for each of my family before I helped him learn two new moves. In that same period of time, the rest of the family had mastered the two moves we'd learnt so I'd decided to do my families first test battle.
I took everyone to a large clearing, surrounded by rocks, which Slowking had found for me to practise in. He knew that as the family grew, some of their moves had the potential of being quite destructive and once they started evolving, some of them would be very large.
As it was such an important training day, I set the PokeNav up to record, ensuring to title the video with the date which was the 28th May. I'd add a verbal narrative at the end of the session, detailing my observations.
"Okay, everyone, we're going to be doing some battle training. I've randomly assigned everyone a partner by using the number generator on the PokeNav. So Vulpix you're up against Swablu, first. For the purpose of this battle, I'll be giving Swablu directions while Vulpix you'll be acting independently." I smiled as Vulpix let out an excited barked.
Vulpix was pleased that he'd be in the first battle, as well as showing of his hard work by fighting independently. I'd swop who fought independent the next day but keep opponents the same. In our next battle scenario, I'd mix it up again with random opponents.
"Okay, Swablu start off with round."
Swablu immediately opened her mouth in order sing, but barely got a note off as Vulpix used his superior speed in order to get close and hit her with tail whip.
"Shake it off Swablu and use dragon breath, followed by peck." I ordered.
Swablu managed to catch herself before she hit the ground and dodged Vulpix's follow up ember and returned with a dragon breath which was jumped over but Vulpix wasn't able to twist completely out of the way of Swablu's following peck. Vulpix landed hard on all fours, but shook off the pain before using his greater speed to send an incinerate after Swablu who was turning to attack again. Swablu cried out in pain at both the damage caused and the burn inflicted.
"Swablu, return." I called, not willing to have her suffer through burn for a training session. "You did well." I complimented once she had been returned to her ball.
One of the things I'd learnt since being gifted the ball was that they could hear what was said directly to them. once I clipped the ball to my belt, I turned to Vulpix.
"Well done, Vulpix; you've gotten very good at countering and dodging. We just need to work on your flexibility, since you made yourself vulnerable when you jumped over the Dragon breath."
"Vul, vulpix." He accepted my rub across the top of his head with a proud puff of his chest.
"Please, go join the others. You can provide feedback for the other battles." I encouraged Vulpix to go and stand with Deino. "Froakie, Piplup, you're up next."
Both the water types moved forward, pleased that they got to face each other. At this point, most of the family were hesitant to face against Riolu, and her two water types weren't confidant against Vulpix who was rapidly learning to defend himself against water because he hadn't liked the period of time in which he wasn't allowed around water.
"Piplup, you're fighting independently." I instructed so that they knew which side to take up position on.
"Froakie, bounce."
Froakie started hopping in a zig-zag pattern towards Piplups because he knew better than to try and use Bounce from such a distance. He'd be vulnerable to retaliatory attack in the brief moment in which he was air-born. Not willing to wait around for an attack, Piplup started using Bubble in the hops of keeping him at a distance.
Froakie got in close and jumped high. Piplup squeak and scrambled out of the way, managing dive out of the way just before Froakie impacted with the ground. Using the brief moment of daze caused from the impact, Piplup managed to hit him with Peck.
Despite crying out with pain, Froakie retaliated with Lick before Piplup could put distance between them once more.
"Pursue, Smack Down." I instructed. Froakie went after the retreating Piplup, who once more tried to use bubble to keep him away, but Froakie just take the attack to one arm. As he was keeping them so close together, Froakie's thrown rock landed a powerful blow.
Piplup cried out in pain, but didn't give in. Her fins glowed as she charged forward with a Fury Attack.
"Froakie, dodge and pound." I instructed.
Froakie rolled out of the way of the Fury Attack and responded with Pound which sent Piplup to the floor. Although Piplup struggled back to her feet, I decided to end it there. Piplup was injured enough for a practise spar.
"Piplup, Froakie, that's enough." I called. "You've both done well, but I don't want anyone getting seriously injured."
Despite the injuries sustained, I kept Piplup out and simply gave her an Oran berry to help her recover from the effects of Lick even though she hadn't been paralysed.
"Noibat and Deino, you're next. Riolu you will fight against one of the others based on who is in the best physical condition after a short break." I called on the next pair.
As there was seven of them, there was always going to be an odd man out until I was able to generate enough Aura energy in order to produce an Aura Sphere and physically enhance my body.
"Noibat, you're independent." I gave out the results of my random pick early. I'd known before going into these battles who was going to be independent and who wasn't, but I didn't want to give any of them time to pre-plan how they were going to battle.
Noibat got the battle started by kicking up the wind the beginning of a gust attack.
"Deino hunker down, Focus energy." I instructed.
I pulled the scarf I was wearing up to cover my mouth and nose to protect myself from the dust which was being picked up. The scarf was more useful for when we were practising on the beach, but it was still helpful when practising elsewhere. Fortunately, I didn't have to bother with buying goggles in order to protect my eyes since I had no eyes to protect.
Just as Gust reached it's hight of power, Deino finished gathering his energy.
"Deino, Dragon Breath."
Through the whipping winds of Gust, Deino released the powerful blue flames at where he could hear the sound of Noibat's wings. Noibat swerved out of the way ad responded by diving at Deino with his wings glowing in preparation for wing attack.
"Headbutt," I called.
Deino jumped left so that her mass was directly lined up with Noibat's body and not her wings, and she slammed her head into Noibat who hit the ground. Before Deino could follow through with a bite, Noibat used supersonic which had Deino stumbling away in pain. I winced, the sound shaking through me despite not being the focus of the attack.
"Okay, enough." I called as Noibat struggled back into the air. They were both able to continue the battle, but they'd done enough for now. If one of them got chosen to battle against Riolu, they couldn't be too injured.
I got everyone sat down in a circle, and released Swablu so I could treat her injuries before the last battle. She would be the only one not in the pool to face against Riolu.
"Okay, I'm confidant that you've all mastered the new moves I've been teaching you." I started. "So, in our future training we will be focusing on learning two new moves each. And we will also be doing training battles more often."
"What moves?" Riolu questioned, as everyone else let out curious and excited noises.
"I was thinking that Swablu, Noibat, Froakie and Deino should learn Quick Attack. Vulpix, Riolu can you help them learn that?"
"Vul, Vulpix," Vulpix nodded his agreement.
"Of course," Riolu confirmed.
"Swablu, you'll also be learning wing attack with the help of Noibat. Noibat I want you to move on to learning Air Slash, Froakie you've got Double Team up next on your list of moves to learn, and Deino you're advancing on to Dragon Rush." I listed off the second move that those learning Quick Attack would be learning.
"Vulpix you'll be learning Swift and Dig; Piplup, you've also got swift and you'll be moving onto the move advanced form of Peck, Drill Peck. Riolu, I'd like you to learn Heal Pulse and Zen Headbutt." I finished off the list. I figured it was better to get the moves that more than one of them could learn out of the way first.
Vulpix and Piplup tapped paws at learning they would be learning the same move.
"Now, who would like the opportunity to face off against Riolu?" I put the opportunity out there.
Froakie and Piplup both tapped out, not feeling like they were ready to fight against their more experienced sibling yet. Noibet wavered, but also bowed out of the opportunity to face Riolu. Swablu wasn't recovered enough to fight again, which just left Deino and Vulpix who had a brief but intense argument.
"Vul," Vulpix stepped forward, making it clear that he was the one who would be facing Riolu that day.
"Alright, that works." I agreed, lifting Swablu up a little so she could fly and rest on Deino's head – just in front of Deino's horn.
Riolu was fighting independent while I directed Vulpix in battle since he'd already had chance to fight independent that day. next time, I was going to have to direct Riolu in battle so he could get used to the idea because the emanation Pokemon was used to fighting without direction.
