Chapter 15

"Send out your weakest Pokémon to start him off with," exclaimed Joleen. "My Infernape is probably a little too strong for him at the moment, and my other Pokémon only comes out to help me with healing."

"Alright," muttered Rex as he withdrew a teal ball with a black net-like pattern on the top of it. "Deino, come out."

"Oooo," cooed the girl with excitement as she helped me up to my feet. There was a flash of bright light and a small blue and black Pokémon had appeared before us. "I've never seen one of those before! Okay, so now you can take the Pokédex and point this little camera at Rex's Deino."

"Okay," I muttered as I lifted the device.

A picture of the little, blue, four-legged dragon-like creature with fluffy black fur all over its head and collared around its neck appeared on the top of the dual screens. Once again, the female voice sprouted from the device.

-"Deino. The Irate Pokémon. They cannot see, so they tackle and bite to learn about their surroundings. Their bodies are covered in wounds."-

At the sound of the voice emitting from my device, the Pokémon squeaked and tried to hide behind Rex's legs. Its body came to just above the man's knees as it tried to duck its head below his ankles. Raikou turned a glance from the other Pokémon towards me as though a little confused with its reaction.

"You notice that the lower screen has a list on it?" asked Joleen. I nodded. "Put your finger on the little speaker button here and it will read out the stats for you."

I did as she mentioned and the device spoke up again while displaying the text it was speaking.

-"Deino.

Type; Dark/Dragon.

Gender; Female.

Ability; Hustle.

Nature; Timid.

Origin; Unova, Victory Road.

Weak to; Fighting, Bug, Ice, Dragon.

Immune to; Psychic.

Resistant to; Ghost, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Dark."-

I lowered the device as Rex crouched down and coaxed the Pokémon to stop hiding behind him. It took several hesitant steps so it was in front of him, but remained crouched low.

"We're goin' to 'ave a little battle," said the man gently once he had the Pokémon's attention. "We need to teach our new friend 'ere a thing or two about Pokémon. Are you willin' to help me out?"

The blue and black Pokémon hesitated before giving a sharp nod and moving to stand confidently in front of Rex and faced me and Raikou with a low growl.

"Pokémon can come in dual types as well as single types," Joleen lectured beside me as Raikou confidently took its place in front of me. "Raikou is a single type, being Electric. Electric types have the ability to store and emit electrical power and used to be a common sight around power stations. A lot of them tend to be yellow or have some form of jagged patterns. Deino is a dual type of Dark and Dragon. Dark types usually have darker colours, prefer places with less light and like to deceive others around them. Dragons are typically majestic creatures and it's no surprise that a lot of the Pokémon we classified as legendary are also of this type. They are also very emotional beings with long memories."

"So each type has physical clues to lean towards what type I could be facing?" I summed up with a hopeful gaze.

"Exactly," continued the girl with a wide grin. "But there can be exceptions to every rule; especially where dual-typing comes into play. It could mean some of one type's usual weaknesses might be countered by its other typing. The opposite could be true if a move does even more damage and is super effective against both types.

"To battle with, Pokémon can each only learn four moves. Each move is associated with a type as well. They can be taught more moves as they grow at the expense of forgetting one they previously knew. Right now, your Raikou knows Leer, Bite, Thundershock, and Roar. I suggest we refrain from using Roar right at the moment as we don't want to give our location away to Team Plasma."

"Right," I nodded. "I remember what that one does. It made them run away."

"It's a Normal-type attack which doesn't cause any damage to your opponent. Instead, it will normally force the opponent to switch Pokémon. I believe Team Plasma only had the one Pokémon on them so it fled and they had to chase after it."

"That must 'ave been some roar," commented Rex with a grin. "Best save it for later."

Joleen returned his grin before she made eye contact with me and continued on. "Leer is also a Normal-type move. It and Roar are what we call Status moves. They don't afflict actual damage, but can cause a whole lot of useful effects to help with a battle's outcome.

"Bite is a Dark-type attack. It is also called a Physical attack because it is caused by one Pokémon actually biting the other in a contact attack. Thundershock, on the other hand, is an Electric-type attack and a Special attack as it causes damage without the Pokémon actually touching each other."

"Think you can remember all that?" asked Rex with his arms crossed and a good natured grin. "When you're ready, you can 'ave the first attack."

I hesitated and then glanced at Jollen.

"This is your battle," she said with her hands up. "I'll be here with useful pointers, but you need to decide what you want to do on your own. I can't do that for you."

"Okay," I sighed before turning back to Raikou and sharing a determined glare with it. I pointed at the dragon before us. "Let's do this, Raikou. Thundershock!"

"Rair!"

The yellow Pokémon began emitting sparks from the short mane on its back. The dancing blue sparks gathered just behind its head and arched over it to make direct contact with the blue and black Pokémon standing before Rex. It winced slightly before shaking the attack off. It looked like the attack did nothing.

"Normally,"Joleen dictated. "An Electric-type Pokémon using an Electric-type move would make the move more powerful, but electric attacks are not that great against a Dragon-type Pokémon like Deino. You might want to try a different attack on it."

"Deino," said Rex calmly. "Use Headbutt on Raikou."

"This is where you can command your Pokémon to Dodge!" exclaimed Joleen as the dark dragon zeroed in on my Raikou with its head lowered.

"Dodge!" I yelped.

The Raikou lunged to the side and out of the way of the oncoming attack. The Deino skidded to a halt and growled at the Electric cat.

"Dodging is an unofficial move which all Pokémon can use," Joleen spoke a little faster as the two Pokémon between Rex and I began circling each other. "It's not classified as a special attack that Pokémon can do so it doesn't limit what you can teach your Pokémon. It can be very handy in strategy."

"Right," I said with a quick nod. "Raikou, Bite!"

The tiger lunged in towards the dragon and clamped its teeth on its opponent in a painful looking bite. The Deino shook off Raikou as though the attack did nothing to it.

"Dark-type moves like Bite are not very effective against a fellow Dark type," stated Joleen to my confusion.

"But then how am I supposed to be able to defeat it if none of Raikou's attacks are any good?" I asked with despair brought on by realization.

"Strategy," said Joleen simply. "It doesn't matter if the odds are against you if you have the ability to be as clever as you are able. True champions, back before Plasma took over, were able to strategize on the fly within the middle of a heated battle. It comes down to outsmarting your opponent and believing in your Pokémon. Trust between a trainer and a Pokémon is an extremely important part of a battle. It can change everything that happens. If you don't trust and believe that they can do it, they won't."

"Deino," said Rex, taking advantage of a break in the girl's explanation. "Let's show this cat a real Bite!"

The dark dragon snarled in reply and lunged towards the Raikou. The yellow tiger jumped back in surprise and the attack just barely missed.

"Why?" asked Joleen with narrowed blue eyes before they snapped wide open in realization. "Right! Hustle. Each Pokémon also has an ability which can help within a battle. Your Raikou's is called Volt Absorb. If it gets hit by an Electric attack, like that Herdier's Thunder Fang when you battled the Plasma grunts earlier, it will gain health instead of being hurt."

"I remember that," I murmured.

"Deino's Ability is Hustle," stated the girl with an absent twirl of her strawberry-blond hair. "That means its physical attacks are more powerful at the expense of being less accurate. You've been lucky so far and you can use that to your advantage to wear it down. Remember, Raikou still has one more attack it might find useful in this situation."

I nodded and turned back to focus on the battle as the Pokémon continued circling each other. "Leer!"

Raikou's red eyes widened in a leer aimed directly at its opponent. The Deino winced slightly and its body tensed up.

"Now you can use Bite again with greater effect now that its defence has been lowered by that attack," exclaimed Joleen.

"Deino," said Rex in a calm tone. "Dragonbreath."

The black and blue Pokémon opened its mouth and encased Raikou in a crimson cloud of dust. The tiger yelped loudly and lunged back to try and escape the attack. It slammed its head into the log beside our bags and fell to the ground in a sprawl.

"Raikou!" I exclaimed as I ran to its side. "Are you alright?"

It glanced up at me with wide red eyed before growling lightly. "Rair."

"Let's end that lesson there," said Rex with a pat on the head of his Deino before recalling it to the cyan ball he'd released it from. He tucked the ball back in a pocket inside part of his cloak. "It is very important to know when a battle is done. True, they are tests of skill an' determination, but they aren't meant to be a fight to the death. Be careful not to push Raikou too far, or to attack an opponent with too much. Believe me. The death of a partner is the worst thin' one could go through."

"Thank you," I said softly as I fished the purple ball out of my jacket. "Do you feel alright returning to the Master Ball?"

In reply, Raikou bumped the button on the ball with its nose and vanished in a flash of red light. I placed the ball back in my jacket and held my hand on it while it shrunk. I kept my hand on my chest as I turned to Joleen and Rex.

"Thank you for the lesson. I shall think about it carefully."

"No problem," Joleen beamed. "If you have any questions about anything, just feel free to ask."

Rex shouldered the large bag he owned. "Let's get movin'. We 'ave still got a lot o' ground to cover."

A/N: Is it a bad thing that most of the time I was editing this Chapter, "Come Along," the music that always plays in the games during a time when the player is being taught the basics of the game was playing through my head? Not as chipper or upbeat as the ones in the original BW when Professor Juniper shows you Route 1 or the Pokemon Center in Accumula, but the exact same tune ... with maybe an undercurrent of urgency to it as this is something necessary for Chris to learn.

I hope I didn't overdo it with teaching him about the basics of battling. I know its everything you guys should already know, but to Chris, it's new information and important for his progress. This is the only time we'll see a mostly teaching battle. Any time he has to learn something new about Pokemon in the future will hopefully be mentions from Rex or Joleen and references back to conversations on the road that I won't be writing in.

I thank you for your patience. The next Chapter should have them arriving at the Dream Yard where things should hopefully pick up a bit more, and we'll be meeting some familiar faces.