Author's Notes:
After this chapter, it's straight to Lavender Town, and the Celadon City. The badges will be in the same order they're in in the games, rather than the Anime.
Dino's Reward
Jet sat on a bench with Gary watching his little Eevee try and try again to use Shadow Ball, but with no success. Gary's Umbreon was the instructor, and he was showing great patience with the little pup. Jet assumed the Umbreon, like himself, was not expecting Eevee to get the attack right by the end of the night. Still, Jet wanted his Eevee to be instructed on how to do the attack, so when she became a bit more powerful she would be able to pull it off.
Gary scrolled the screen of his cell phone and said, "Yep, say's here with Eevee you want to wait until they're at least two months old before breeding them. You're right; it is way too early for them to mate."
Jet smirked, "But you just had to google it and try to prove me wrong, didn't you?"
Gary put his phone away, "You can't blame a guy for hoping, right? If they make babies! Well, you know as well as I do how useful the evolutions of an Eevee can be. I lucked out when mine evolved into an Umbreon. I don't have any other dark types."
Jet watched as his little pup tried yet again to clear her mind. A clear mind, as Jet understood it, was essential for ghost type attacks. A Pokémon without mental discipline cannot hope to use moves like Shadow Ball. His Spinarak had the same issue when it first learned Night Shade.
Gary spoke again, "So, what are you hoping your Eevee will evolve into?"
Jet shrugged, "I have absolutely no clue. I'd love a Jolteon or a Sylveon! But you know how hard it is to get an Eevee to evolve into what you want it to, right? It's all about the environment, or the time of day. Any way, it's like you said; any one of Eevee's evolutions would be good."
After a few more attempts to use Shadow Ball, both trainers decided to call it a night. Jet said to his Eevee as they walked back to his bike, "Don't worry about it, you'll get it eventually! And we'll practice it every day until you do."
XXX
Jet and the twins took a walk down to the beach the next day with their Eevee in tow. All three pups had grown a few levels since they started their training. Jet's was now at level eight, while Ken's was at level six. Anna's Eevee was just behind Ken's; it had progressed to level five.
"Don't get cocky because they leveled up so fast," Jet told them as they neared their destination, "Pokémon usually level up very quickly with a steady stream of battles until about level twenty. After that point they grow a lot slower."
"So," asked Anna, "once they hit level twenty, how do we make sure they keep leveling up?"
"Two ways," Jet answered, "Either have them defeat scores of lower level Pokémon, which takes forever-"
"Or?" Kenny cut in.
"Or," Jet continued, "You have them take down opponents that are stronger than them."
Kenny frowned at his brother, "How do we do that? If they fight Pokémon at a higher level, won't they lose?"
Jet shook his head, "Not necessarily. You can take down stronger opponents by spending a lot of time training and perfecting your battle techniques. You also need to think about strategy. If you can out think your opponent, you might have a chance. Now if you have a Pokémon that skilled and smart, and you get their level high enough…"
"Then they become unbeatable?" Anna finished for Jet.
Jet gave her a little smile, "No one's unbeatable, but they can become pretty damn close. Thorn has yet to lose a single battle, and he's fought a bunch of higher level Pokémon."
"So if Thorn is so tough," Kenny asked, "Why not just use him in every battle? You'd never lose!"
"Well, He'd probably be at a much higher level," Jet said, "Which would make him a lot harder to beat, but then what about the rest of my Pokémon? Do you know how many trainers make the mistake of training just one Pokémon only to neglect the rest of them? Sure you'll have yourself a really strong champion, but what happens when you fight someone like Bill Brooke, or if you try to get into the Pokémon league? When your opponents have a plethora of strong Pokémon to choose from, half of which have type advantages on your own? Are you going to make your one well trained Pokémon fight against six other well trained Pokémon?"
"Wow," said Anna, "I never thought of it that way."
Kenny, however, had more to say, "But that's the league! Those trainers are like, the top of the line! I'm talking about real Pokémon battles. You could make a ton of money if you have one really good sweeper."
Jet shook his head again, "You think you're the first person to think of that? Try training your Pokémon that way and see how far it gets you. Besides my Eevee, any one of my weakest Pokémon would be able to take down your strongest without breaking a sweat. That's power, Kenny. If you want to win battles, and I mean really win battles, then you better train every day like you're trying to get to the Pokémon league."
Kenny didn't have an argument for this. He knew Jet would probably take out his level fifteen Pansear with any one of his Pokémon. But what did he know? Jet has been at it for months, and Kenny was just getting started!
"How about we see whose Eevee is stronger than?" Kenny said as they walked onto the beach, "If you're sooo much better than we are, how about proving it?"
Jet stopped walking and grinned down at his little brother, "You want your Eevee to go mono y mono against mine? Ok then Mr. badass, you got it! Eve!" Jet called to his Eevee, "Battle stance!"
Jet's Eevee turned to her opponent made a lowered her body as if she was about to pounce and began growling. Kenny's Eevee looked up at his trainer for instructions, so Kenny said, "Don't just stand there, use Head-butt!"
Jet called to his own Pokémon, "Use Syncronoise!"
Kenny's Eevee charged at Jet's own, only to be blown back by a psychic shock wave that caused everyone to flinch and cover their ears. Jet called to his Pokémon, "Now follow through with Head-butt!"
Jet's Eevee charged at Kenny's this time. That latter Eevee was still recovering from Syncronoise, and was knocked out cold by the force of Eve's Head-butt.
The match was over, and Jet had won. Kenny looked down at his unconscious Pokémon in shock, "Wha- how did-" He then turned angrily to Jet, "You cheated! You said you were going to teach my Eevee everything you taught your own! What the hell was that attack anyway?"
Jet bent down to scratch his Eevee behind the ear and answered, "Syncronoise is a powerful psychic attack that only works on opponents whose type is the same as the user's. And I didn't teach Eve that attack, she inherited from her parents. So did your Eevee, you'd know that if you took the time to check all of his moves while we were at the research center."
Kenny stood there dumbstruck for a few moments, and then he shook his head, "If I knew he could do that then I would've used it from the jump! It's not fair!"
Anna snickered, "My god you're such a sore loser! Jet won that fair and square and you know it Kenny!"
"Oh shut up!" Kenny groaned as he picked up his unconscious Pokémon. "How do I revive him?"
"You can't," Jet replied, "For now your Eevee is going to have to sit this training session out."
And so Kenny recalled his fallen Pokémon. They found a nice spacious spot on the beach to train and sent out their Pokémon. Jet's Eevee and Anna's Eevee were to be trained today by Jet's Raticate. He showed the pups different biting moves and defensive maneuvers that they were able to perform at their level.
Anna convinced Kenny to let his Pansear spar with her Shellder by telling him that the little fire monkey would need to learn how to defend against water types anyway. So Shellder got to practice some of his water moves while Pansear used his superior agility to maneuver around the attacks.
Jet had his Nidorino train with his Graveler. Nidorino had been trying to better his form and Jet figured Graveler would teach him how to stand his ground and keep a solid base.
As for Weedle and Ledyba and Spinarak, Jet had them pulling large rocks in the sand using their webs. It was training similar to what he had his own Weedle and Caterpie do in the Viridian Forest. Although, it was certainly much harder to drag the boulders through the sand rather than over a hard, grassy surface. And Jet wasn't taking it easy on them, either.
"Are you kidding me? It took you a full minute to move that rock a hundred meters?" He yelled at Weedle, "Aragog did it in half the time! And his rock is almost twice as big as yours! Do you want to evolve anytime soon or do you want to stay a Weedle your entire life?"
Weedle glared at Jet with a look of pure hatred. Jet snorted, "Oh what you're mad at me now? I'm quaking in my fucking boots! Come see me when you turn into a Beedrill and become an actual threat! Until then, stop dragging your feet and move the fucking rock!"
All three bugs began dragging their rocks back to the start point Jet had drew in the sand. Jet was moving along side of them, "Let's go! Move your ass like you actually want to evolve! There you go Aragog! Nice pace Spot! Oh, now, what the fuck is this?" Jet had exclaimed watching the shiny Weedle that was falling behind. "Weedle is dragging ass, big fucking surprise!"
Weedle, it seemed, had had enough. Letting go of his string, he turned to Jet and hissed angrily. Jet chuckled, "Oh what, you're going to spear me with your little stinger? You're a little low on the food chain to be mouthing off, worm!"
Weedle cocked his head back and shot a poison barb from its mouth straight at Jet's face. Jet ducked the attack, (by cocking back his head, Weedle had broadcasted his attack). Jet was about to call for his Spinarak when out of nowhere, his Nidorino pounced. Growling, Nidorino stomped on Weedle's head and pushed it into the sand, while securing the bug's tail with his other foreleg. He bent down to bite the caterpillar Pokémon when Jet stopped him, "Dino, wait!"
At this point, everyone else had stopped what they were doing and gathered around the scene at hand. Kenny ran up and said, "No! My shiny Weedle!"
Jet told his Nidorino, "You can let him go, Dino. He's not going to attack me again, are you, worm?"
Nidorino snorted, and then let go of his prey. Kenny asked breathlessly, "What the hell happened?"
Jet didn't answer right away, but stared into the glaring eyes of the little Weedle who was panting restlessly. "Apparently your Weedle can't handle my training, so it decided to attack me. A cowardly move, really. He'd have been better served if I'd let Dino eat him."
Kenny went pale, "What? You can't eat let it eat him, Jet! It's a shiny!"
Jet let out a little laugh, "Jesus, Kenny! Are you concerned for the actual Pokémon itself or do you care just because of the color? Because if that was the case, I might as well have let it die."
Both Kenny and Anna looked at Jet with shocked looks on their faces. Anna spoke next, "You can't mean that, Jet! You wouldn't kill a Pokémon on purpose, would you?"
"Yeah!" Kenny yelled, "What the hell was all that shit about every Pokémon being precious?"
Jet stopped smiling, "Every Pokémon has the potential for greatness, this is true. You're right, Anna; I'm not one to kill if I can help it. But if it's a choice between their life and the life of my Pokémon, (or my own life for that matter), I'll choose us over them every time. Pieces of shit like your little Weedle here," Jet smirked again, "They're fit for nothing more than to be my Pokémon's dinner! You want to be a trainer? Then learn this early: the Pokémon world is a world based on the idea of survival of the fittest.
"I catch only real fighters, the ones with the will and the drive to do great things. I hone their greatness, I help them rise above weakness. The weak, Pokémon like your little shiny here, shall be devoured; for they are stepping stones for my Pokémon to ascend to greatness!
"I don't wish for them to die, don't get me wrong. But when they challenge me like that, when they make it a serious fight, then they must be prepared to deal with the consequences."
Jet turned back to the Weedle and continued, "I had no desire to harm your Pokémon. No, quite the opposite! I was making him stronger! That's what I do! I bring the out the true power in a Pokémon. More power than I think even he is aware that he has. I tried to give your Pokémon this gift, and he spat in my face. My Pokémon don't like it when their trainer is threatened, you see. And it's been a while since Dino here has been hunting, hasn't it boy?"
Nidorino glared at Weedle as well and began to growl hungrily. Jet smiled and spoke directly to the Weedle, "Know this. Next time you attack me, or any of my Pokémon, I won't stop Dino from eating you. It won't matter that you're my little brother's Pokémon or what color your skin is, you will be his lunch, just like the other nameless worms that have come before you!"
Weedle dropped his gaze, and then hurriedly scuttled over to his trainer. No one spoke. Jet dropped to one knee and opened his bag. To Nidorino, he said, "You have both shown great improvement, and great loyalty today. And I always award those who work hard, as you know. And so-" Jet took a Moonstone from his bag. Nidorino watched the stone excitedly, hardly daring to believe it.
"Come here, Dino, and collect your reward."
