Finally I was alone. Well, alone and with my pokemon.
The day slowly comes to and end and I`m here in the middle of nowhere. At least, fresh sea breeze will help me sleep better. If my paranoia will let me sleep at all.
But I still feel myself energized and ready to do something else. For example, setting a small camp on the beach, eating something and training a little. I now have some good ideas for new maneuvers. Also, I should teach Loser maneuvers that Caesar knew.
After finding a perfect place for this, I threw my greatcoat on the grass, took some chocolate bars from my pockets and put off the shoulder belt. Five capsules on it made me think of finally adding the last one. But what could it be?
Time will show. But for now the short laziness spasm attacked and made me fall on my greatcoat and enjoy the moment of weakness. Maybe I could even feel the PokeDex in my pocket under me that I hope I did not crush.
But the moment of weakness can`t last longer than thirty seconds. I can be killed thirty times during this time. The training must begin!
So I overpowered my sudden laziness and got up. The fresh wind blew in my face and cheered me to move on. I got the shoulder belt up and began to release all my team, one pokemon after another. Dumpling roared and stretched his muscles, ready for action. Reaper buzzed loudly and clenched his stings. Moment loudly screeched and flew up. Harry quietly moved away from the others to watch over us. And the last, but not least – Loser appeared in his final Gengar form to scare everyone with his creepy smile. The first trio cautiously approached him and exchanged some pokemon words with him. I think they noticed the replacement.
"Yes, gang, this is not Caesar, this is… Loser. But he will be with us for now, so… get to know each other." I introduced our new team member to the guys. I don`t know how they will like that I traded my Caesar with Douchebag, but I can`t do anything right at the moment.
Suddenly I noticed how suspiciously cold it became here. The day isn`t finished yet, it should be around 9 P.M. now. Just a minute ago it was so great – a perfect cool temperature…
The creepy smile of Loser attracted me again. He noticed me looking at him and stared at me too. As it becomes colder and colder, his smile grows.
"It`s you, aren`t you?" I asked him after suddenly remembering his PokeDex entry. "You`re doing something, yes?"
He just grinned at me. I now sure it`s all his doing.
"Can you please NOT do that?"
That question caught him off guard. Loser looked down trying to find the answer there, but he could not. Maybe some pokemon just can`t control their nature.
And then I realized one strange thing. To check it, I looked into Gengar`s PokeDex entry again.
Hiding in people's shadows at night, it absorbs their heat. The chill it causes makes the victims shake.
I looked up at Loser. Yep, he`s standing on my shadow. I made a step away to move my shadow, and suddenly it became much warmer. The damn refrigerator turned into a nice cool evening again.
"So that`s how it works…" I mumbled quietly. "Loser, try to avoid stepping on my shadow… I don`t want to be frozen to death… by a non-ice pokemon, at least."
He confusedly looked at me for some seconds. I have no idea whether he understood me or not. I hope he did.
"Is this… is this how you feed?" I carefully asked, just to be sure. "With the heat of human body?"
And again, he just grinned at me, stretching his damn smile more and more. That`s just another level of creepiness.
But somehow this reminded me of Moment, and I looked up at the tree where he was sitting and sadly looking at the rising moon.
"Moment, are you okay?" I interested of his feeling. Golbat quietly growled in return. That`s definitely not okay with him. "I will find the solution to your problem, I promise."
He didn`t reply. Maybe he just doesn`t believe this is possible. I could just let him sometimes drink blood of defeated pokemon… But I could not. This is too much, even for me. I just need more time to think of it.
Meanwhile Reaper threateningly approached me and swiped the air before him. Looks like this one was really eager to train.
"Yes, guys. Let`s waste no more time and begin training." My words somehow cheered everyone, even Moment.
All my team gathered around me, ready to do some practice. I grabbed my greatcoat and moved forward. We have spent some more minutes walking around the woods near beach and looking for a nice place for training. When the perfect place was found, I stopped and began to give commands.
"Okay… Dumpling, you go train some more of your Embers. Climb on that rock and send them in the air, try to keep them in a straight line. Someday you will finally get your Flamethrower!"
Charmeleon was really inspired by learning the new Flamethrower move, and immediately rushed to carry out my command.
"Reaper… Let`s make Dumpling`s work a little bit harder. Practice your Fury Attack on the rock he`s standing on. Shake him!"
Beedrill for some reason was glad to do THIS exercise. Charmeleon wasn`t, and he questionably looked at me.
"Hey! Your task remains the same. You still need to shoot your embers into a single line above you… Despite Reaper shaking the rock underneath you."
He looked at Reaper, then changed to me. Filled with determination, he hopped onto that rock, gave one last serious look to Beedrill and began to shoot embers into the air.
"Good. Now you, Moment." I addressed my strange Golbat. "This should wake you up. Let`s train our vertical flight. Head up, turn on the back and fly around this way. Right wing down, left wing up."
He nodded and flew straight into the sky where turned on the side and began to fly in circles. Sometimes this was pretty hard to do as he was losing the balance and had to fly some distance straight, but then he again turned on the side and continued the exercise.
Meanwhile, Reaper approached the Dumpling`s rock and launched a nice punch into it. The Fury attack shook that boulder and pokemon on it, making him lose balance and disturbing his ember line. Charmeleon was really pissed off by that and even pulled his hand to threaten Reaper, but then remembered that I gave Beedrill such command, and calmed down a little.
"So, Harry, your exercise for now… Will be like Dumpling`s. We will train the slingshot later. Shoot Acid in the air and catch it with your mouth. Resist its effects on you. Then shoot it again."
Weepinbell jumped to the hill I pointed at and furiously shot a large acid clot in the air.
"And finally, you…" I switched my eyes to Gengar right at the moment he intentionally tried to step on my shadow. Understanding that I noticed him, he made a step back. Such a hooligan pokemon. "I`ll tell you how we battle here."
I made some careful steps aside and looked around me. All my team is doing their best at training, empowering themselves. I just can`t enjoy this enough.
"Our battle style is not only the power itself." I crossed my hands behind back and turned back to face Loser. "In our battle we use the so-called… maneuvers. A thing that I invented. They help us battle better and win! Do you like battling and winning?"
Suddenly I noticed a bit of real interested in Gengar`s creepy red eyes.
"I see, you do. Caesar wasn`t actually fond of battling. But for you it`s fine I see." I raised my eyesight at Moment and pointed at him. "Maneuvers are the special type of move performance, or a combination of some moves at once. Some may look strange… Some may look confusing. But all of them are super effective despite the type."
I moved my shadow away from Loser again and continued.
"All of them have codenames. You learn the codenames, and I use them in the battle instead of the actual moves when needed. This helps me keep my strategy in secret from my opponent, get it?" Loser happily nodded. "Despite maneuvers are too specific to be used in every battle, we have lots of them, for different situations."
Now I looked at Harry shooting the acid in the air. If it wasn`t that horrible to see acid clot flying up and down, I would think of making him a juggler. Acid juggler! What a terrible idea.
"I taught Caesar two maneuvers. Let`s try out the first of them – Dark Counter, a little bit modified. Harry, come here!"
Weepinbell hopped closer to us and waited for the next command.
"Great. Loser, you stand there, right on the edge of that cliff." I pointed at the cliff near our practice field. Gengar questionably looked at me, but obeyed and hovered to that place. "Harry, stand in front of him somewhere… here!"
Weepinbell faced Loser at the point I said. Both pokemon prepared for the training.
"Okay. Now your task, Loser, will be… standing and doing nothing. Yes, just stand and don`t react to anything."
His face became even more confused than before. In a moment he will understand.
"Now, Harry… Down Whip maneuver!"
My Weepinbell with pleasure launched his destructive vines at Loser, smacking him down the cliff and making fall down. After that he didn`t stop and jumped to the very edge, launching vines again and hitting Loser once more.
"Good, stop now." I jumped down the cliff and used a potion on my Gengar.
He quickly recovered and angrily looked at me.
"You see? The effect of surprise was real. Despite grass-type attack don`t hurt you that much, Harry managed to hit you twice, and pretty hard. Get up and return to the position."
Loser growled at me instead of moving.
"Come on! I`ll teach you how to avoid such things. Let`s go."
Avoiding sounded good for him, and now he listened. All of us returned to previous positions.
"Now let`s try this thing. If the situation went out of control, and you`re already hit the first time, you will fall down. But you can easily attack the opponent when he doesn`t expect this."
Both Harry and Loser listened to me very carefully. I even was surprised a little to see this from a pranking ghost pokemon.
"Let`s try this one. Harry, repeat the maneuver. Loser, use Shadow Punch on Harry." I made a step back and crossed hands on chest.
Loser was ready to make revenge on Harry and immediately turned into the phantom image and rushed to him. Gengars are really fast, I have to say, much faster than Weepinbells. He struck Harry making him move back, and jumped back too. But then it was Harry`s turn to attack, and he again performed the Down Whip maneuver, sending Loser down the cliff and hitting him once more.
"Okay, fine. That was a good try, Loser. Return to the position, boys."
Harry jumped back to where he was, and so did Loser. He was angry after another experience of Down Whip on himself and barely held himself back not to attack immediately. But I think he began to understand what I want to show him.
"Great. Now we will do the same a little… differently. After I say 'Dark Counter maneuver' you, Loser, will LET Harry hit you first time and just after that perform the Shadow Punch move."
His confused face just couldn`t understand why would he let hit himself.
"I`ll explain. The problem is that you`re fast enough to strike first. But in this case Harry can easily perform the maneuver after that. The difference is that you disrupt him during this and the last word is yours in the end."
Maybe now he realized that.
"Come on! Sometimes you need to overcome the attack to strike stronger then!" I cheered him up and got back to my position. "Harry, Down Whip maneuver!"
Loser prepared for another attack while Harry stretches his vines to strike. Right at the moment Gengar was hit another time I gave him the next command.
"Dark Counter!"
But now his reaction was not enough as he fell on ground and was hit by Harry`s vines once more.
"Okay. Let`s try this again. To the positions!"
Loser was already beaten pretty much. Each Harry`s strike was not effective on him, but they were strong and there were many of them.
"You see, it`s not enough just to wait for my command." I lectured Loser. "You must expect this. You must predict this. And that`s why you must prepare yourself to this. Maybe even before my command." The angry look of Gengar became more confused once again. "Now it`s hard for you, I know. But when you have enough experience, you will understand what situation you got into. And what command to expect from your trainer."
Loser didn`t seem to understand all I tell him. But he`ll get used to it. When the situations fitting for the use of 'Dark Counter' will repeat, he will begin to realize we already been through this. And then he will understand.
"One more time. Harry, Down Whip maneuver!"
We tried to repeat the exercise again, and again it failed. Harry struck Loser hard sending him down the cliff and hitting again on the ground. Maybe when Loser acts on his own he is fast enough, but he must react to my commands in time.
"Okay. The last time. To the positions, guys."
Loser was not angry anymore. The evil red eyes were glowing with determination. He wished to beat Harry now. He wished to do this right.
"Down Whip maneuver!"
And again, Harry with all his determination struck Loser as hard as he can, making him fall back and down the cliff. But this time my Gengar pulled himself together and performed a nice Shadow Punch – in the falling he empowered his fist and rushed through the shadow and struck Harry even harder, sending him far back. Loser felt his final triumph.
"Great! You`re just great, Loser! You even did more than I said to."
He questionably looked at me and growled something.
"I didn`t gave you the command." I said and smiled.
Loser looked down, realizing my words. He managed to did it without my command. Not exactly what I actually said him to do, but exactly what I wanted.
"Yes, that`s what I`m trying to achieve - the independence. Thinking by yourself like the trainer would think. Why the heck would we need commands then?"
At this moment I noticed that all my gang stopped training. They were watching me training and lecturing the newbie, and they remembered how I trained and lectured them Some were agreed to this, some were not.
"All right. Harry, return to the previous training. Loser, you have some time to rest." I commanded to my pokemon and turned back to see how all the rest return to their trainings. I silently watched for them for some minutes.
And then I decided to make a small rest and called Loser to me. This shady bastard continues to scare me with just his damn grin almost every time he can, but I seem to start getting used to it.
"Loser, we need to talk. Seriously." I addressed him and sat on the ground. The phantom body flew to me and hovered near my face. "Finally we have some time to chat.. personally."
I tried to concentrate my thoughts. I just… I just couldn`t believe I`m actually talking to a ghost. Alive… well, almost alive and pretty intelligent ghost. The real ghost! Maybe training ghost-type pokemon is quite rare but not impossible thing, for me it is more than just training. Maybe this guy can open the door to completely another world. And I need to understand how this can be achieved.
"You… are a ghost. In the past life, you were someone different. Do you… remember anything from your past life?"
Loser looked left and right thinking, but then returned his eyesight to me and shook his head… which is also his body… in a negative answer.
"The Marowak ghost in Pokemon tower. Did you know who it was after the converting?"
He negatively shook again. Interesting…
"That ghost could talk. It demanded us to leave. Maybe… you can… talk too?" I asked my Gengar unsurely. He just screeched loudly in reply. This didn`t sound like a speech, and I guess he did this just to irritate me.
"And that was not a telepathy or some psychic stuff like that. I think that if that ghost could talk, we can teach you too. How about that?" I asked my Caesar with intriguing voice. I have to interest him in this experiment if I want it to succeed.
Gengar changed the face to suspiciously confused. Maybe he`s just fooling with me.
"You know very well what I mean. You will be able to talk to people! You can tell us what it is – to be a ghost. About the afterlife. Isn`t that great?"
Maybe this time I actually caused his interest. At least, he opened his mouth wide and stick out his tongue like Growlithe.
"I have no idea how this works, but let`s try. Let`s begin with the simplest sounds. Say… A!"
He just screeched in reply. This wasn`t like 'A' at all.
"No, repeat. A-a-a!"
"Scrrraarrr!"
No, it doesn`t work. Almost the same screech again. But we will try hard. If that ghost could talk – I will teach my Loser to talk too.
We spend nearly half an hour trying to pronounce at least "A" letter. This kind of training didn`t succeed at all. Well, you can`t get everything at once.
"Okay, gang, time is over. Let`s eat!"
We set up the camp, made a bonfire and warmed around it. Harry and Reaper, of course, tried to keep away from it, but all the rest felt themselves quite comfortable.
The night slowly fell on the Route 13 where we settled down. The day was long and hard and full of events. I got myself not just a new pokemon, but an evolution of my own pokemon. Which now belongs to Douchebag… But I guess we can get used to Loser now. Until I catch Douchebag and return everything back to normal. I actually don`t care about a pokemon called Loser in my team. I just want to have my pokemon that I caught. The pokemon that I trained. The pokemon that helped me to defeat Giovanni…
Damn, we were together just for a few days and so much happened. Maybe, Erika is right and I just need to stop and take time to think. Sometimes I act too fast that I just don`t have time to think it through… For a prudent man like this is not good.
But then I looked at my Harry. He was just sitting on a stone nearby and looking at the moon with his angry eyes actually full of hope.
This is the reason why I`m in a hurry. His friends, family, flock – something like that. The pokemon he cares about. He wants them back, and every minute of delay may be very dangerous. I don`t want to fail Harry. I don`t want to fail any of my pokemon.
But I know that we`re not ready to face Team Rocket yet. We don`t have enough power. I still need to evolve my Dumpling into Charizard, evolve Harry into Victreebel… The strange Leaf Stone is still lying in the pocket of my greatcoat. I could use it right now, but… The guide says that unevolved pokemon learn better. And this is what we need now – learn. Live and learn…
I can evolve Harry whenever I want. Whenever he wants.
But now all I want is to sleep. The stomach full of chocolate bars and local fruits and quiet rumbling of my resting pokemon predispose to a nice sleep.
So I didn`t resist that anymore. I looked at Harry guarding us, returned Loser back into greatball just to be calm and fell down into the bottomless pit of slumber..