Chapter 3 – Hidden Powers
Ex's method of speaking to pokémon, it turned out, would NOT be revolutionizing poké/people communications. Apparently, pokémon had no trouble understanding humans after a few weeks of being Captured, making his technique redundant.
Still, the Professor had rewarded him for the discovery. After testing it out on a few freshly caught pokémon and realizing it actually worked, Oak immediately presented Ex with ₽5,000, with the promise that an additional ₽50,000 would come after other Pokémon Professors replicated the results.
Ex had been surprised at the promised amount, asking why he was being offered so much for a supposedly non-revolutionary discovery. Professor Oak had told him that the discovery might not be society-changing, but it was still significant enough to warrant significant reward. His new "language" might be able to communicate with Wild pokémon, which would be a tremendous boon, though Professor Oak had also been skeptical that would work. When Ex had asked why, the Professor had said he would link an article to Ex's email. And even if it didn't work with Wild pokémon, it still held the potential to help innumerable Trainers speak to freshly caught pokémon.
And so, Ex now had ₽2,000(starting funds) + ₽1,500(from the Revives) + ₽7,500(from Professor Oak) + ₽275(from battling) = ₽11,275 in currency. He also had the various Items his Meowth had been collecting all morning. They were bringing Berries now – a possible result of Pallet being more rural than Viridian – though his Meowth would still bring him the usual assortment of Items every other Pickup.
Ex hummed one of the many tunes of Pallet town as he walked down the road to the Pokémon center. When he heard a second humming join his, he stopped short.
"Hi!" said the girl with green hair, standing right behind him.
"Uh... hi," said Ex. "Are you following me?"
"Yup!" she said with a smile.
"Um... why?"
"Because new Trainers should stick together," she said. "And because I'd rather stay with you than Gary."
"Okay..." Ex said hesitantly.
Being the sort of person *cough, cough,* NERD *cough, cough* he was (gee, thanks brain), he wasn't really used to dealing with members of the opposite sex, except under certain circumstances. Someone needs help with their homework (or Pokémon Trainer application)? He's there. They ask him a technical question? He answers. They challenge him to a game or competition? He's all for it.
But simple companionship? That was heading into alien territory. Especially if that companion was a girl.
"So, where are you going first?" she asked.
"Pokémon Center," he said at once. "I need to heal the Meowth your Bulbasaur knocked out, and I don't want to spend money on a Revive to do it."
She winced. "Sorry about that."
"No hard feelings," Ex said at once. He even meant it. "Knockouts are a normal part of battling. It's not like I'm doing a Nuzlock."
"Nuzlock?" the girl echoed. "What's that?"
"Er, never mind," Ex said. Then, to distract her, "But yeah, I'm headed to the Pokémon Center first, then the Pokémart, then it's off to Route 1."
"Sounds like a plan!"
Healing his Meowth took surprisingly little time. He was prepared for the worst – that pokémon recovery would take as long as it did in the show – but he ended up getting the best: a few words with Nurse Joy followed by a few seconds of pulsating light and his pokémon were fully healed. The girl also healed her Bulbasaur, and then they were off to the Pokémart.
Ex's full squad of Meowth were back in business along the way. His Charmander, who did not have Pickup, was walking beside him, while the girl's Bulbasaur was sitting on her head. She would give his Meowth curious glances whenever they brought him something, but they reached the mart before she could say anything about it.
"Welcome!" said the cashier. "What can I get for you today?"
"We're fresh Trainers," said the girl. "Do you have a section for Items we might need as beginners?"
"Sure!" said the man brightly. "Right over there."
The girl headed off in that direction, but Ex first went to the counter and exchanged most of his Items.
After selling everything but his Berries (which would sell for practically nothing) and his Repels (which the shopkeeper had recommended he NOT sell, because they would keep Wild pokémon away at night), Ex added ₽6,800 to his existing ₽11,275 for a new total of ₽18,075. Most of this came from another Nugget his Meowth had found, and the rest had come from Pokéballs, Potions, and Antidotes.
With new funds on his account, he headed off to catch up to the girl, who was standing in front of a wall with many relatively cheap Items on display.
Basic Travel Kit – ₽2,000
Basic Backpack – ₽2,900
Basic Trainer Outfit - ₽5,000
Silph Co. Berry Pouch – ₽3,000
Deluxe Backpack – ₽9,800
The girl sighed forlornly at the wall. "Now I know why they start us with ₽2,000. I can't even afford the Basic Travel Kit anymore."
"Sure you can," Ex said. "You can just sell your Potions. Like I said earlier, that's the same amount you paid for the Revive."
"But what if my Bulbasaur gets hurt on Route 1?"
"He has Leech Seed now," Ex pointed out. "He can heal on his own. That's actually another reason why he's the best Starter at the beginning of the journey: he can heal himself. But I forgot to mention it earlier."
"Hm," the girl said, her eyes going back to the wall.
Ex examined the shelf himself for a moment, thinking about his current needs. A bigger backpack would be good for my Pickup Party. Another set of clothes would also help, and this Basic Trainer Outfit is cheaper than anything in Viridian. That leaves me with enough money for either the Berry Pouch or the Basic Travel Kit, but not both...
He leaned closer, inspecting each Item.
Basic Travel Kit: Tent, tarp, water bottle, cooking supplies, and sleeping bag.
Silph Co. Berry Pouch: This pokétech pouch is an insulated container perfect for preserving Berries indefinitely.
"Hmm," Ex said out loud. "When you think about it, we only really need one Basic Travel Kit. One of us could sleep in the tent while the other gets the sleeping bag."
"Are you offering to buy it for the both of us?" she asked, tilting her head.
Ex shook his head. "No, I'm going to buy everything except the Travel Kit – the Berry Pouch, the Deluxe Backpack, and the Outfit. I'll let you have my old backpack if you let me sleep in the tent or the sleeping bag, whichever you don't use. I don't have enough money for a Travel Kit of my own on top of everything else."
Her eyes widened. "How do you have enough money for 'everything else' in the first place?"
"Compensation from Professor Oak for services rendered, mostly. The rest is thanks to my Meowth." Before she could ask what he meant by that, he said, "If you don't want to share, I can skip the Berry Pouch and get my own kit."
She furrowed her eyebrows, thinking for a moment. "I won't have enough even if I sell my Potions. I used one to heal Bulbasaur after using that Revive, and I'll be needing to buy this-" she picked up a small lighter from the shelf "-so we can start a Fire even if Charmander runs out of fire moves."
"Couldn't we use Charmander's tail to start a fire?"
"If you're fine with taking a few years off your pokémon's life," Amber answered sarcastically.
That's not how fire works, Ex thought, his mental voice equally sarcastic.
"Charmander's tail fire represents its life force, remember? Anyway, the lighter costs ₽205, which is how much I earned from the battles. Even if I sold all the Potions, I would only have ₽1,850 left for the kit. I'd be ₽150 short."
"Then I'll cover the difference for the kit, since I'll be using it too."
That'll only leave you with ₽125, his brain calculated.
Better to use my money now than have it collect dust in my account, he thought back. Besides, we need the gear.
"So, do we have a deal?"
The girl sighed. "I guess we do, since I can't even afford the kit in the first place without your help." She grabbed the Basic Travel Kit. "The three of us should have fought near the Pokémon Center. That way we wouldn't have needed those expensive Revives."
"Hindsight is twenty-twenty," Ex shrugged as they made their purchases.
"By the way," he said once they were outside again, now headed towards Route 1. He was wearing his complete Trainer Outfit, having changed in the store's bathroom. "I never caught your name."
She paused, then said with a smile, "I'm Amber."
Amber, his brain repeated as they entered Route 1. The dead daughter of Dr. Fuji from the first pokémon movie? Green hair, white dress, white sandals?
Ex gave a sidelong glance at the girl whose gait kept her a few feet behind him. Yup, it's her alright.
Did she not die in this world? his brain asked. Or did the man actually manage to revive his daughter?
She doesn't call herself Ambertwo, Ex pointed out. So she might be the original.
She might be uncomfortable with the 'two' part, pointed out his brain, and avoid saying it out loud.
She wasn't uncomfortable with it in the movie, Ex argued back.
So... NOT a zombie/clone?
Ex sighed. We can't know for sure. Unless we ask. Which is probably a bad idea.
Why? His brain asked. Seems like a perfectly good idea to me.
Because it might make her uncomfortable, Ex pointed out. And I don't want to ruin our companionship this early on. Actually, scratch that, I don't want to ruin it at all.
So you're ignoring a valuable source of information because it MIGHT make your new travelling buddy SLIGHTLY uncomfortable? his brain asked sarcastically. That's SO practical.
You want practical? he hurled back heatedly. Fine, I'll give you something 'practical': our new friend Amber, who can call Professor Oak or Officer Jenny at any time, discovers that a complete stranger somehow knows all these facts about her life, even though she never told him. She thinks that person is stalking her, or she starts asking UNCOMFORTABLE questions about where he gets his information.
He could feel his brain pause at that.
I can deflect her questions for a while, Ex continued, especially if there's a way I could have learned my knowledge online. But if I start blatantly asking her about all this stuff I couldn't possibly know, even if I was the most well-read person on the planet, THAT'S the sort of thing that sets off all these 'impractical' red flags in people's heads, you see?
His brain didn't respond, but he knew the message was getting across.
Stick to pokémon and let ME handle people.
The imaginary personality that was his brain gave a mental nod of acceptance.
Now that we've got that out of the way, he sighed internally. Are there any facts about Amber or Dr. Fuji that might help to piece this puzzle together? You know, WITHOUT her input?
Cinnebar Island, his brain answered instantly. That's where Fuji's lab is, and where Fuji HIMSELF should be, his brain reasoned. Unless this universe has MR. Fuji the president of Silph Co. instead of DR. Fuji the scientist of Cinnebar. We can check out Silph when we get to Saffron and the Abandoned Mansion when we get to Cinnebar, to see which is which.
Or we could just look up the president of Silph online, he pointed out.
Spoilsport, his brain pouted.
"Ex?" Amber addressed him, breaking the silence that had fallen over the two of them as they walked side-by-side through the first Route of the region.
"Yes?" Ex responded, glad to have a distraction from his mental musings.
"Why are your Meowth out of their Pokéballs, and why do they keep bringing you stuff?"
Ex sighed. He had kept this a secret from Professor Oak, but he wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from his travelling companion.
"If I promise to explain it to you," Ex began, "do you promise not to tell anyone? I want to keep this a secret as long as I can. The more people there are that know about it, the less effective it becomes, I think."
The girl looked at him a moment, then nodded. "Sure, I can promise that. So what's going on?"
Ex's brain, needing no more prompting than that, began its lecture. "It's called a Pickup team. Meowth has the Pickup Ability, which lets the species pick Items up from the ground while you travel, or during battle if an opposing pokémon drops one. If you have a Meowth in your party, you can have it run around collecting things when it's not doing anything else. The more Meowth you have, the more things you can collect. Half the time you get Berries, but you can also get Potions, Pokéballs, Repels, Revives, Nuggets, and just about anything else that other Trainers lose or discard, or that grows in the wild."
Amber's eyes had widened as he spoke, and by the end they were wide as saucers. "So THAT'S how you could afford all that stuff at the Pokémart!" Her eyes widened further. "And how you had those Revives!" And yet further. "And that Oran Berry!"
Ex grinned smugly. "Yup."
His brain took over again, glad to finally have someone who was able and willing to hear about this strategy. "Strangely enough, Revives are more common than I thought they'd be. I guess they're easy to lose because they're so small, and easy for Meowth to find because they're shiny. Or maybe they're just more common in cities, since what you find depends on where you are. I'm guessing we'll find more Berries in the wild, and more Items in cities."
The girl took a moment to absorb all this. "That makes sense," she said at last. "And it's a very clever technique." She tilted her head. "But why do you want to keep it a secret? Wouldn't Professor Oak pay you for telling him about it?"
"He would," Ex agreed. "But then he might tell the WHOLE REGION, and then OTHER Trainers would start doing it, and THAT would mean fewer Pickup Items to go around. I'll tell Professor Oak once I have a proper team. The Meowth are only temporary; there are other ways to make money."
"So it's all about the money?" Amber asked. She was frowning now. "Not the Pokémon?"
"It's not ALL about the money, only MOSTLY," Ex corrected. "And of course it's about the Pokémon! I wouldn't be able to do this without them, and we both get something out of this: I get Items, and the Meowth get a steady source of food. They're all strays from Viridian, and they're all getting more to eat now than they ever were wandering the streets."
"And you won't just throw them away when you're done with them?" She asked, still frowning.
"I... haven't really thought that far ahead," Ex said honestly. "There are plenty of Trainers who catch more Pokémon than they keep in their party."
"I'm not asking what OTHER Trainers do," Amber stressed. "I'm asking what YOU will do."
"I have no idea," Ex floundered. "Maybe I'll just release them. Or leave them in Professor Oak's care. Whatever they want, I guess."
"That's good," the girl sighed in relief. "And what did you mean by 'it's only MOSTLY about the money'?"
"There are a few Items I intend to keep, if we find them," Ex answered. "Plus, I'll be keeping Berries, since they don't sell for crap."
"Language," Amber warned loftily.
"They don't sell for crud," Ex rolled his eyes. "Anyway, that pretty much sums up the whole 'Meowth' thing. You're welcome, by the way, for the free explanation. Apparently, those are worth something here."
"Gee, thanks," she rolled her eyes back.
For a time, the two of them were walking without talking, strutting in a silence only occasionally broken by the call of Wild pokémon off in the distance, or by a Meowth's return.
Eventually, Amber asked, "What do you plan to do if we come across a Wild pokémon you want to catch? You already have six pokémon."
"There aren't any pokémon on Route 1 that I want to catch," Ex answered, not even needing his brain's help to recall the whopping TWO pokémon species you could encounter here. In the games, at least. "Come to think of it, there won't be any pokémon I want to catch for a while. I can probably keep the Pickup Party going until we get to Cerulean."
"But what will you do for the first Gym, if you only have Fire and Normal Types?" she asked. "You said Charmander won't be any good there, and I don't know too much about Typing, but I know that Rock beats Normal."
"No, I said Charmander would be a challenge against the first Gym," Ex corrected. "And my plan is to teach him Metal Claw, Evolve him to Charmeleon, and train the cr- um, the stuffing out of him. That should be enough."
Amber frowned. "That doesn't sound like a very good plan. A Gym Leader won't be beat by a single pokémon."
Ex shrugged. "Maybe not the later ones, but has anybody ever tried focusing all their training efforts into a single pokémon in order to beat the first Gym?"
Amber rolled her eyes. "I'm sure HALF of Kanto's Trainers tried that strategy the first time around."
Er, his brain thought, that's an important point.
Amber continued. "Gym Leaders adjust their teams based on the strength of the challenger, and it's their job to crush beginners who try simple strategies. And the Viridian City Gym Leader is REALLY harsh against beginners."
Another thing that's different from the games, his brain noted. The path of new Trainers is not set in stone, so every Gym Leader must be ready to fight Trainers of all skill levels. They probably have a bunch of pokémon at a different range of levels, ready to fight anyone from newbies with no badges to Ace Trainers on their eighth badge.*
"I wasn't planning to fight Viridian first," Ex said out loud. "Especially now that you mention its reputation. Brock will probably be much nicer to beginners than Giovanni."
"Even Brock would be harsh if he saw you only wanted to battle him with a single pokémon," Amber stated.
Ex paused at that, as he considered the future. "You have a point about simple strategies," he said eventually, "but unless we can find one of the pokémon I intend to add to my official team before we get to Pewter, I can't do anything about that."
"You could just train one of your Meowth," she argued.
"I... suppose I could," Ex conceded. Then his brain took over again. "But unless I find a Water Pulse or Iron Tail TM between here and Pewter, I don't think that's an option. Those're the only Moves Meowth can learn that would be effective, unless I want to gamble on-"
"Mrwth!"
Ex stumbled a bit at the interruption. "-Hidden Power," he finished lamely.
Both he and Amber turned to look at the Meowth that had loudly caught his attention.
"Mrwth!" the Meowth repeated excitedly, holding a shiny disc in between its teeth.
He stooped to scoop up the Item, giving the Meowth a large amount of food as compensation for the rare find.
He then read the letters inscribed in the center of the shiny disc: TM 10.
Well, speak of the devil, his brain thought. 5% chance to Pickup this TM in Gen 3. But that's in the games. No telling how lucky we just got.
Then, out loud, his brain repeated what it was about to say earlier. "Unless," he emphasized, "I want to gamble on Hidden Power and pray the Meowth I choose gets HP Water or HP Grass."
"What's Hidden Power?" she asked, looking at the disc.
His brain, presented with yet another opportunity to share its knowledge to a receptive audience, kicked into overdrive as it worked out where to begin.
"THIS," he said importantly, holding out the disc, "is a TM for Hidden Power. Almost every Pokémon species in the world can learn it."
She tilted her head. "What does it do?"
"It fires a-"
Non-physical, i.e. Special Attack
"-beam that can be any Typing except Normal-"
or ? (like Curse) or Fairy.
"The Type-"
and damage, prior to Gen 6
"-of Hidden Power is determined by-"
the IV Stat values, or 'genetic code' your pokémon received upon hatching
"-random stuff that-"
is relatively unique to individual pokémon
"-never changes. So, if a pokémon uses Hidden Power and the Typing comes out as Fire, then that pokémon will always have a Fire Typing for Hidden Power for the rest of its life."
The girl's eyebrows were scrunched together, and she was clearly thinking very carefully about what she had just heard. "I... think I understand," she said eventually. "So Hidden Power could be any attack Type, and you don't know what type it will be until you try it?"
Ex nodded. "Exactly. If I get super lucky, the Meowth I choose will have a HP (Hidden Power) Grass Typing or HP WaterTtyping, which would be doubly Super-Effective against Brock's Rock/Ground pokémon. If I get somewhat lucky, I'll have HP Ground, HP Ice, HP Steel, or HP Fighting, which would be normally Super-Effective. HP Rock, HP Fire, HP Flying, and HP Bug would be not very effective and unlucky; HP Poison would be doubly not very effective and SUPER unlucky; and HP Electric wouldn't effect his pokémon at all, so it would be worst of all."
Again, the girl's eyes were very wide by the end of his lecture. "Did you just break down every Type matchup against Brock?"
Ex nodded. "Yeah. Like I said, Hidden Power can be anything."
"Where do you learn all this stuff?" she wondered. "And how do you remember it all?"
"I learned most of it online," he said honestly. "And it's not that I remember it all, it's that I never forget it."
"Isn't that the same thing?"
"No, there's a difference," he huffed.
She giggled. "Oh really? It sounds the same to me."
Ex shook his head. "Remembering something takes effort. If I want to remember someone's name, I have to repeat it a few times, say it out loud a few times, and decide that I want to remember it. It takes repetition and work to remember something. But when it comes to Pokémon..." he trailed off, trying to find the right words. "The information just... never leaves my head in the first place. I only need to see it once, and I can recall it later at any time. Does that make sense?"
"I... think so," she said, taking him a bit more seriously now. "Is that how you know so much?"
He nodded. "But most of my information is... misinformed. Or pure theory. I didn't know exactly how Gym Leaders operated until you spelled it out, for example. And speaking of Gym Leaders..." Ex looked at the disc in his hand, sighing hopelessly. "I guess I can give this to one of my Meowth and hope for the best."
"Why not just give it to all of them, and train the Meowth who gets the best Typing?" Amber asked. "I've never used a TM before, but I know they can be used more than once."
Ex froze for a moment, both in thought and in movement, then jogged to catch up. "See? This is what I mean by misinformation. I didn't know TMs could be reused here."
Sorry, his brain apologized. That one's my fault. I was assuming TMs would be single-use because I've been equating this region to Gen III. But we've experienced elements of Gens I, III and VI so far. Not to mention the TV show. TMs have been reusable ever since Unova in Gen V; it's not surprising we can reuse them here.
Amber looked at him skeptically for a moment, then shrugged. "So, you are going to teach Hidden Power to all your Meowth?"
"And Charmander," Ex said with a nod. "I'll do it when we stop for lunch."
Just before the two Trainers arrived at a suitable resting place, a Meowth brought another particularly eye-catching Item – the thing that originally inspired people to make Pickup Parties in the first place. If Ex had to guess, the discovery rate here was probably around 1% or less.
Between his fingers, he held a small round ball, wrapped in blue, and he thought to himself:
Level 100, here we come!
Amber glanced at him curiously. "What have you got there?"
"One of those Items I said I'd be keeping instead of selling," he said, putting it away in his bag. "I'll tell you about it later."
In the shade of a canopy of trees, Ex had gathered all six members of his team.
Amber sat nearby, watching. She didn't have Ex's pokémon knowledge or ingenuity, but so far she could understand what he was doing after he explained. Now that he had explained, she wanted to see his knowledge in action.
"Okay Meowth Number One," Ex said, "you're up first."
"You're really going to name him that?" Amber asked.
"Yes?"
"And what are you going to name the others?"
"Meowth numbers two through five?"
"Can you even tell them apart?" Amber accused.
"Er... yes?"
"Then which was the first one you caught?"
Ex looked from one Meowth to another. "It was y-" he pointed at one Meowth, then his finger moved to point at a different one. "No, him."
"Are you suuuuuuure?" She teased.
Ex slumped. "No."
She giggled again. "You could always just ask them which one you caught first."
"I... could..." Ex seemed to be very nervous as he agreed. "But it'd be embarrassing."
"Why?" Amber asked. "I don't think they would mind. Here, I'll do it for you." She turned to face the Meowth. "Which one of you did he catch first?"
The Meowth all looked at her in some surprise, then a single one stepped forward from the group.
"OH COME ON!" Ex shouted. "How come they understand YOU just fine, but I have to-"
He suddenly cut himself off.
"Have to what?" she asked.
"Nevermind," he grumbled. "But how did you do that? Professor Oak said it would take a few weeks for them to understand human speech."
"Maybe I just have a way with Pokémon," she shrugged. "It's a woman's touch, you know."
He grumbled some more.
"Now you know who you caught first," Amber said, ignoring him. "And once they all know Hidden Power, you'll have an even better way to tell them apart. Oh!" she exclaimed, suddenly excited. "You could buy them some ribbons when we get to Viridian! You could even color-code them, based on whatever Hidden Power Type they get!"
"Even if that's a good idea, it might be expensive," he pointed out. "I'll figure something out eventually. But first," he turned back to his Meowth, "I actually have to teach them Hidden Power. So..."
He drew the silver disc from his large backpack, turning it over in his hands.
"Come to think of it, how do TMs work?" he asked.
"I don't know," Amber shrugged. "I've never used one."
He looked from the disc to his pokémon. "Force-feeding the disc to pokémon is something Rusty did**, so that can't be it. Plus it would destroy the disc."
Amber was torn between laughing and frowning at the mental image.
"I could place it on his or her forehead and see if that works."
"His," Amber said. "They're all male, except her." Amber pointed to the female Meowth in the center of the small circle of Pokémon.
"How can you tell?" Ex questioned, confused. "They all look the same."
"Woman's intuition," Amber shrugged. "I just can."
Ex frowned, said "ugh," then turned back to his pokémon. "Alright, lets place the disc on his head and see if it does anything."
He held out the disc, placed it on the Meowth's head, and let go.
The disc fell to the ground.
Ex looked at the Meowth, then at the disc.
Meowth at the disc, then back at him. Meowth didn't seem impressed.
This time, Amber wasn't torn at all. "Do you think it worked?" she giggled out.
"Only one way to find out," Ex said, picking up the disc. "Meowth, Hidden Power that tree!"
There was silence in the clearing while a pokémon stared blankly at his Trainer.
"So that's a 'no', then," Amber giggled. "Maybe you should ask your Pokédex how TMs work."
"Pokédex?" Ex echoed. "Wait, Pokédex! That's it!" With a sudden surge of excitement, he took out his Pokédex and inspected it. "Here!" he declared, pointing. "There's a slot for a TM disc!"
"There is?" Amber asked, pulling out her own Pokédex. Her eyes quickly found a narrow slot that could admit a disc. "Huh. There is."
When her gaze returned to Ex, she saw a flash of silver disappear into the side of his device, followed by a fit of furious fiddling with buttons and the screen.
"There's a section for TMs here," Ex vocalized. "TM 10: Hidden Power. Would you like to teach this Move to a Pokémon? Yes. Which Pokémon would you like to teach? Meowth. Please insert the Pokéball of the Pokémon into the Pokéball Scanner. Pokéball Scanner?" he asked at the last part.
"The place where we scan Pokéballs to add newly Captured Pokémon to our teams," Amber pointed out. "We learned in orientation, remember? I thought you didn't forget this stuff."
"I didn't know that was called a Pokéball Scanner," Ex huffed. "I would have figured it out on my own."
"Sure you would have," Amber teased.
"I would have!" Ex insisted. "And now that I know what it's called, I won't forget. So there." He stuck his tongue out at her, and Amber giggled as he began shuffling around in his bag.
"Do you even know which Pokéball belongs to which Meowth?" She asked. "I haven't seen you recall them yet, except the one that Fainted."
"Professor Oak said that Pokéballs are linked to their Pokémon. I can figure out which is which by putting the ball into the dex and using a search function. But I'll worry about that later."
Ex had been emptying his bag of Pokéballs as he spoke, and now six sat before him.
"Which Meowth is going to learn first?"
"Doesn't matter," Ex shrugged. "If I'm going to teach my entire team Hidden Power, I might as well do it all in one go."
One at a time, Ex brought a Pokéball to the Scanner, placed it inside, pressed a button, waited a few moments for a ding!, then removed the Pokéball and moved on to the next one. Less than two minutes later, all the balls had been returned to his bag and Ex was once again focused intensely on his Pokédex.
"I wonder..." he said. He pressed a few buttons. "Hm..."
"What are you looking for?" Amber asked.
"A way to check out the status of my current team. I want to see what the Pokédex knows about them. I bet there's a section on the Moves my Pokémon already know." Then, with a bright smile, "Here! Under the 'Trainer' tab, you can check out your current team."
Amber took out her own Pokédex to see what he meant. She clicked the 'Trainer' button (which had her name and a picture of her face as an icon), then she clicked 'My Pokémon', which had one Pokéball and five empty spaces for more. Seeing an image of her Pokémon, which had a green bar and the word 'Bulbasaur' above it, she clicked once more, and a new tab with four pages opened, revealing a great deal of new information to her all at once.
"First page," she heard Ex's voice say. "We have...
POKéMON INFO
(Dex)No: 004
(Species) NAME: CHARMANDER
TYPE: FIRE
OT (Original Trainer): Ex
IDNo: 14202
ITEM: NONE***
And a space to type in a TRAINER MEMO***."
Her eyes tracked each item as he spoke, confirming for herself that it was all there, the only difference being the details were about her (male) Bulbasaur instead of his Charmander or Meowth.
"And no matter what page you turn to," his Pokédex made a rapid series of beeps, "the pokemon's picture, (Charmander sprite), Level (Lv7), Nickname (Charmander), Gender (Female), and Pokéball of Capture (Pokéball)*** all remain visible."
She flipped through her own pages, watching the image of her Bulbasaur remain firmly in place while the other information displays changed.
Ex paused. "Huh, you're right. I do have four male Meowth and one female. And Charmander is female too, which is unusual – only a 12.5% chance."
"What's the Memo for?" she asked, her eyes halting on the only blank space on the page.
"Nature of the pokémon, followed by location of acquisition, and the level it was caught or received in a trade," Ex said, his voice sounding almost mechanical.
He really doesn't forget, she thought to herself. "So for my Bulbasaur, that would be..."
"Unknown Nature, Met in Pallet Town at Lv 5," he said, still monotone. "Same for Charmander." His Pokédex made another rapid series of beeping noises, and she realized he was typing the information into his Pokédex's Memo.
She followed suit, but she wasn't finished typing by the time he continued speaking.
"For my Meowth, each has an Unknown Nature, Caught in Viridian City at Lv 3." His Pokédex made more rapid beeping noises, his typing speed much faster than hers.
But since he had six Memos to type out and she only had one, she finished before him and moved on to the next page before he did. There she saw a bunch of numbers that didn't make any sense to her, along with words next to the numbers. She had only finished reading a few of them when Ex caught up with her.
"Second page, POKéMON SKILLS,***" he read aloud.
"First are the Stats:
HP: 23/23
ATTACK: 13
DEFENSE: 10
SP. ATK: 14
SP. DEF: 13
SPEED: 16***
Finally there are the Experience and Ability sections:
EXP. POINTS: 768
NEXT LV.: 415
a blue bar to represent how much progress you've made to the next level,
ABILITY: BLAZE, Ups FIRE moves in a pinch."***
Amber nodded along, ignoring the numbers and focusing on the words. "What are all the Stats for?" she asked.
"Stats indicate a pokémon's effective power level. The higher the Attack Stat, the more physical damage it can do; the higher the Speed, the faster it moves, and so on. In a way, these matter more than the level of the pokémon. A high level Caterpie would have similar Stats to a low level Tauros."
"I didn't know that," she mentioned. "And the Experience?"
"Determines when a pokémon levels up, learns new Moves, Evolves, that sort of thing. You earn Experience by battling."
"Oh."
"Third page," he continued, monotone once more.
She quickly tabbed over.
"It should be a list of Moves, what they do, and how many more times they can be used without a visit to a Pokémon Center or using certain Items. The amount should be indicated by a fraction over the original total of Power Points, or PP, of each move." He was quiet for a time, although his Pokédex continued to make beeping noises. "Looks right," he finally said. "But there isn't..."
She glanced over at Ex as he trailed off, noticing the distant look in his eye. "Isn't what?"
His eyes refocused, this time on her instead of his Pokédex. "Is there a limit to how many Moves a pokémon can know at a time? Like, I don't know, if a pokémon tries to learn more than four Moves, it has to forget another Move first?"
"Why would they have to forget a Move?" she asked back. "Once a pokémon knows a Move, it knows a Move. Simple."
"That's... that's..."
"That's what?" she asked, curious at the boy's strange look of disbelief and wonder.
Completely and utterly broken, his brain supplied. Exploitable to the extreme. Teach every team member Protect, Toxic, and Rest – no, teach them every possible TM they can learn, not just those three. Go to all Move Tutors and Move Reminders. Have an infinitely versatile team and... and...
Now, even his brain was trailing off at all the possibilities. No limits on Move count had literally just blown his mind into infinity.
"Ex?" he heard a voice say. "That's what?"
It took a bit of time for his brain to properly reboot.
"That's, uh, good to know," Ex replied.
It took a bit more time for him to find a good reason to think about the implications later. He absolutely needed a reason, otherwise he would be sitting here all day. Eventually he found a decent one: he had only one TM at the moment. He couldn't truly exploit this new realm of possibilities until he had more, and for all he knew, a single TM could cost ₽1,000,000.
Thus his mind was finally able to focus again, having found itself a concrete task: exploiting his single, current TM as much as he could. Which, admittedly, wasn't much. But it was all he had, so darn it, he would do it!
"I think I'll test out Hidden Power now," he said, "so you might want to stay where you are. I'm going to have Meowth target that tree over there."
"What if Meowth gets a Fire typing and you burn down the tree?"
There was a pause.
"Tree?" Ex intoned, acting confused. "I said 'rock', of course."
"And if you get Dragon and blow the stone to smithereens, sending rock shards everywhere?"
"Who would target a rock when there's a fresh patch of grass right over there?"
"Poison. Or Fire. Or Ice. Bad for the environment."
"Fine," Ex huffed. "I'll have my Meowth target that bare patch of dirt, empty of life, rocks, trees, or anything else. Happy?"
"Maybe." Amber was trying very hard not to smile at this point. Trying, and failing. "Of course, I would have been fine with the tree. I doubt level..." she checked her pokédex, "three and four Meowth can do any real damage."
"AAARRGH!" Ex shouted. "Meowth, use Hidden Power on that bare patch of ground!"
Unfortunately, he had not specified which Meowth should use Hidden Power, resulting in five different colored beams all shooting to the same location, at the same time. Also unfortunately, they combined upon impact, multiplying each other's effects and creating an explosion that sent wind, dirt, gunk, sparks, and sparkles everywhere.
It was a good thing the Meowth were so low level because, as Amber had predicted, the damage was low and the explosion rather small. Only the wind reached the two of them and their pokémon, along with very tiny dirt particles. All the substantial debris stayed near the sight of the explosion.
"Uh," Ex said finally. "Whoops?"
"Yeah, whoops," Amber deadpanned. "I take it back. You should stick to bare patches of dirt for move testing, regardless of how strong your pokémon are. And maybe you should Nickname your Meowth."
"Er, yeah," Ex replied. "I'll get right on that."
AFTER I know their Hidden Power typings, he thought. That should make nicknames easier.
"You," he pointed at one of the Meowth. "Hidden Power, same place."
The Meowth blinked its eyes, one at a time, then aimed at the dirt and fired a white beam that impacted the ground. Nothing happened, aside from the loose dirt and dust being swept away in a breeze that followed the attack.
The beams are color-coded, his brain thought. It had managed to observe that much from the first test. What Type is white? It can't be Normal. Is it Ice?
No, Ex thought back. It didn't freeze anything, and the air didn't get any colder.
Then that just leaves Flying and Steel, thought his brain. Probably Flying, because of the breeze.
He looked at the Meowth, who looked back, again blinking one eye and then another, almost as if it were...
"Winky!" he declared. "Your Nickname is Winky."
He drew out his Pokédex and began entering the information. He made sure he was doing it for the correct pokémon by recalling the Meowth to its Pokéball, placing it in the Scanner, and only then Nicknaming the Meowth that became highlighted on the screen.
"Why Winky?"
"Because it looks like he winks when he blinks," Ex answered. "And his Hidden Power is Flying. Wind – Winky. Sort-of the same."
"It totally isn't," Amber huffed. "So I guess you won't be training that one?"
"What? Why not?"
"Not good against Rock, remember?"
Ex's train of thought, which had been focused on exploring Hidden Power in general up until that moment, switched gears back to its original purpose. His brain can only focus on so many things, and the recent explosion of possibility had shifted that focus away from the Gym Leader challenge.
Right, he thought. I don't want Flying, Rock, Fire, or Bug. I REALLY don't want Poison, and I ABSOLUTELY don't want Electric.
"I remember," Ex nodded. "Here's hoping the next one will be better. Okay, your turn now," he said, pointing at another Meowth. "Hidden Power, same target!"
A purple beam launched from the Meowth's mouth, bringing with it a foul smell and leaving a purple-brown puddle of sludge in its wake.
"Stinky," he said at once. "Your nickname is Stinky." He quickly Nicknamed Stinky using the same method as before.
Then, as he was typing in the name, he groaned. "And OF COURSE it's Poison Type. First Flying, now Poison, two terrible options against Rock and Ground."
"Third time's the charm?" Amber chimed in.
"Maybe." He pointed at another Meowth. "You next. Hidden Power, bare ground."
Naturally, in accordance with Murphey's Law, a yellow, sparking beam shot forth and collided with the growing impact crater.
"The universe hates me, Blinky," he said to the Meowth, retracting and renaming it. "It's official."
"Chin up, Ex," Amber encouraged. "You still have two more tries."
"That's just two more opportunities for failure," Ex replied. "Just think of all the ways this could go wrong. How much do you want to bet the universe will find some way to turn Hidden Power into a Normal Type attack just this once, in order to spite me?"
"I'd bet all the money in my bank account, if I had any at all, that you won't get a Normal Hidden Power. Come on, Ex, your luck will turn around."
Ex sighed deeply. "Fine. You, the female, Hidden Power at the dirt."
A pink beam sprang forth, punching into the crater and purifying the sludge that had been left behind by Stinky.
Fairy type, he thought, surprised.
"Pinky," he named. "At least you're normally effective."
I didn't think there'd be Fairy typing here in Kanto, he thought.
And not only that, his brain added, Hidden Power CAN ACTUALLY BECOME Fairy Type! That was impossible in the games.
Why? he mentally asked, his conscious brain not aware of the exact reason.
Hidden Power could only ever become Move Types that existed in Gen II. Fairy Typing came out in Gen VI, but Nintendo and/or Game Freak didn't bother updating the Hidden Power algorithm. All the potential IV combinations that determined its Typing were already accounted for with the first 17 Types by the time Pokémon X and Y came along.
But logically, he pointed out to his brain, there's no reason why Hidden Power shouldn't be able to become Fairy Type in a real world of Pokémon. Now, back to the topic at hand...
"But I still don't think a normally effective Hidden Power will be good enough to beat Brock," Ex observed out loud. "I need something super effective."
"Save the best for last?" Amber offered weakly. "The last Meowth is the first one you caught, and I think he's the one who battled Bulbasaur, too."
"Saur!" said the pokémon on her head.
"See?" she asked. "Maybe that's why you got unlucky with the other ones. This Meowth was your first partner. I'm sure he'll have a good Typing!"
"Here's hoping," said Ex. "Meowth no name, use Hidden Power on the crater."
And lo, a brown beam came forth, bringing with it a shower of dirt and mud onto the freshly purified crater below.
"YES!" Ex shouted to the heavens. "GROUND TYPE!"
And since this Meowth was the first he caught, and it would be his primary focus for the near future...
"You and me, Prime, we're going places."
* This idea of Gym Leaders being ready to fight at all skill levels comes from multiple canon sources. I first saw it in episode 1 of Pokémon Origins - a short, well-made series of anime episodes that follows Red and Blue instead of Ash Ketchum.
** Rusty shoved the HM "Streng-tuh" down his Geodude's mouth in season 2 episode 3, 'HM Madness'.
*** This specific Pokédex format comes from Fire Red and Leaf Green. I was wondering if I should take it from one of the more advanced regions, but decided it would make more sense to base the design of the Pokédex coming from Oak's lab in this universe on one from Oak's lab in the games.
Other information in this chapter, especially about Hidden Power, comes from memory or Bulbapedia.