Chapter 6:
"Another round of Ember!" Arthur commanded, and the group of Fire types complied. He'd spent the past hour to see what they were capable off, which wasn't much as they were still young. After he had sent them to run some laps, they'd gone to work on their moves. Contrary to what he'd thought, these Pokémon weren't bred by Blaine's Gym Pokémon, or at least their moves didn't indicate such.
Training real Pokémon had already been proven different from what the games told; just because a Pokémon knew a move didn't mean it was at a set standard both in power and accuracy. While the Growlithe had more power behind their Ember it was also inaccurate, while those of the Vulpix was the other way around, with the Ponyta sitting somewhat in the middle in both aspects. From what he knew, a Pokémon would usually learn new moves from becoming more powerful – or leveling up in game terms – or via outside help like TM's or tutors. He doubted he could make this group of Pokémon level up fast enough for them to learn Flamethrower that way, and he didn't have any TM's nor a tutor to help. Unless …
He walked over to one of the older Pokémon who was watching their little training session with interest, a tall Rapidash. While he hadn't been told explicitly, he knew better than to approach an animal – or Pokémon in this case – carelessly, especially when it could kill him in an instant. So, he approached it with a short "Hey" and carefully held out his hand until he Rapidash allowed him to come closer after it nuzzled his hand.
"Getting these young ones to learn Flamethrower by the end of the week seems to be a bit hard by the looks of it, don't you think?" he asked as they watched another round of Embers being shot at the mountains side. The Rapidash neighed with a nod. "How about you show them how it's done? That'll help them for sure." He didn't understand what the Rapidash's said in response, but it moved forward and grabbed the attention of the other 'mons, so it must've agreed.
Arthur watched closely, as did the young Fire types, when the Rapidash turned towards the wall and shot out a controlled torrent of flames for a few seconds. At first glance, it didn't seem to be doing anything different than the others with their Ember, which is why he wanted to compare the two. "Could you show us an Ember next?" The Rapidash obliged and effortlessly shot out a spray of Ember. He wasn't entirely sure, but he believed there was a shorter delay when using Ember as opposed to the Flamethrower. The temperature was obviously different as well, which gave him an idea. The last difference he noticed was that Rapidash's mouth glowed more intense when shortly before it uses a Flamethrower.
He'd seen that back at the academy when they'd trained with Rattata, with more powerful moves glowing brighter and more intense in their types associated color. So, perhaps they could achieve a stronger move by concentrating this energy more?
"Alright everyone, you've seen what your senior can do, so let's try to replicate that!" His group looked back at him. "I want you all to try and use Ember, but instead of shooting it immediately, try to keep the energy of the move inside your bodies. Hold onto it longer so it can build up further before you unleash it."
The Rapidash moved back to his side with something akin to an affirmative grunt. It'd obviously not tell the other Pokémon the answer but seemed to have taken an interest in watching them figure it out. As they watched the younglings train, Arthur pulled out his notebook and scribbled down some notes about his ideas and how his trainees performed. This training was both exiting and incredibly important for various reasons. Aside from watching and actually training several different Pokémon, the insights he'd get from this would prove vital to him once he would train his own Pokémon.
He was aiming to complete the Kanto Gym circuit and win the Indigo League Conference in his first year, so he had very limited time to train up his Pokémon to a level on which they could manage to do so. Sure, Ash got all his eight badges in one go, but that was in a show for kids, so it wasn't that convincing. If it was representative of what's possible in this world, however, then it should be easy for him to do so as well, at least in theory. Training wasn't shown much in the anime and Ash usually won because his Pokémon were strong individually, sometimes even strong enough to win without any prior battle experience and with a type disadvantage. With Arthurs knowledge about Pokémon, their stats, moves, and abilities, as well as where to roughly find them, he should be able to train up a team in this short timespan that could win the tournament. Perhaps he could even try to come up with his own moves, depending on how learning new moves worked. And with him still being three years away from being allowed to become a trainer and own a Pokémon, as well as interning under Blaine, he'd have enough time to learn everything he needed to properly train his own Pokémon when the time came.
His training assistant Rapidash poked him with its snout and shook him out of his thoughts, directing his eyes to one of the Growlithe that managed to let out a shower of stronger Ember. Instead of the small orange pellets it shot out earlier, this time the projectiles were much larger in size and with a more fire-red tint. He applauded loudly. "Great work, Growlithe, just like that!" The puppy Pokémon wiggled its tail and barked happily, which only caused the other Pokémon in its group to redouble their effort.
Before long, they all caught up but were starting to become exhausted. Arthur took a look at the clock and it told him it would soon be evening, so he stopped the training. Giving head pats to all his little trainees – which felt warm even through the gloves he was wearing – he sent them off to relax before dinner. Arthur himself sat down near one of the large flat rocks that were laying around the compound and expanded his notes. In but the span of an afternoon they'd already managed to make visible progress, but perhaps he needed to make some milestones along the way. The Flamethrower they're aiming for was a high-level move after all, so perhaps trying to achieve a Flame Wheel or Fire Spin along the way would be a good way to progress. And both of those moves used real fire as opposed to the more energy-based projectiles Ember produced, so that might help too. He assumed that learning new moves from the same type as the Pokémon learning it would be easier than from completely new types. Finding out how to teach moves from types a Pokémon wasn't used to would be a big part of his preparations as well, but that would have to come later.
He spent the rest of the break brushing up his little merry band of fire types. They'd gotten sweaty and a bit ruffled during training, which would only worsen if they approached more physical moves in the future. When it became time to feed all the Pokémon, Arthur was once again thankful for the clear instructions written down in the storage room, which told him exactly how much of what food to feed everyone. The young ones would share their food, which seemed to be designed to have them grow steadily, while the older Pokémon would either have their own specific meals or share them with a single partner of their species. Pokémon diet was something he'd have to learn in the near future for sure. He could cook for humans, sure, but Pokémon were a completely different topic. He doubted Blaine made these mixes himself, but maybe he had some references laying around or could get him some.
Contrary to what he thought, not all of the food was in the form of the small brown bits that he knew from the show. They were part of the meals of course, but there were also some Pokéblocks as well as fresh berries, vegetables, and meat. He didn't know where that meat came from, but for the moment he was content with simply not knowing the answer to that. The thought of Pokémon eating each other was a bit unnerving, and he had no idea if there were regular animals either. On one hand, the categories the Pokémon were given in the Pokédex were sometimes based on animals if he remembered correctly, but on the other hand there were never any normal animals shown.
With all Pokémon fed and happy, he moved back to the hotel and heated up a premade curry that was in the fridge. First thing tomorrow, he'd have to go shopping. After dinner he went back to training with the younglings for another hour, but there wasn't much progress. Deciding to call it a day, he thanked everyone for their efforts and was subsequently buried beneath a bunch of fluffy Pokémon. It took him another half an hour to give them pats and scratches until they let him go, after which he was in clear need of a shower. Although Blaine told him he'd check in on him in the evening he hadn't seen the man since he had left before noon, so either he simply didn't show up or perhaps checked in through the security cameras he noticed on his way back.
On the desk in the reception area of the hotel was a key with a little note under it when he got back, telling him where his room was. The room itself was bigger than the group rooms they had in the academy, and it even had its own bath with a shower to boot. By the looks of it everything had been freshly cleaned, so he quickly jumped under a cold shower and went to bed right after. There was much to do and he was excited to see how things would develop from here on out. Before he fell asleep, he wondered how Jessie and James were doing out in the field.
After he had some breakfast and instructed his trainee Pokémon to continue like yesterday for the time being, Arthur took some cash from the kitchen and went to town. He didn't know how far he'd get with the Poké he took, but he was in dire need of a few more clothes and wanted to get himself some tea and ingredients for cooking. A perfect chance to have his first experience shopping in this world. If he remembered correctly, the Pokédollar was based on the Japanese Yen, but that meant that buying Poké Balls was as easy as getting candy from a shop. For how much technology had to go into the physics-defying spheres, that was nothing.
Which was why he was surprised to see that things were different in this regard too. The shops he passed had prices as low as 1,50 Pokédollar for a bag of vegetables, the few shops selling trinkets were going from 10 to 100 Pokédollar, and even the nice old lady he had helped the day before had prices more akin to those he had expected from a western currency like the Dollar or Euro. Did that mean that this worlds Poké was more like a Pokédollar rather than Yen? It checked out, he realized. The important people he'd met up until now all had their western names as well; Jessie and James, Giovanni, Blaine … but what was the price for Pokémon related items then?
With two bags in his hands, one filled with underwear and shirts and the other with ingredients for making curry, he entered the sole Poké Mart on the island. He was in awe as he walked down the aisles. Poké Balls, potions, outdoor gear, merchandise, different kinds of Pokémon food enough to fill several shelves, backpacks and more. He stopped in front of a glass cabinet that held regular Poké Balls as well as Great Balls, then he looked at the prices. A whopping 200 and 600 Pokédollar respectively. He looked at the medicine shelf holding potions and antidotes. 300 and 100 Pokédollar.
So, it was equal to the Dollar, but items related to Pokémon had the same value as in the games? That'd mean that TMs were even more expensive than he believed. How were fresh trainers even supposed to pay for all of this? He'd have to ask Blaine about that when he met later.
Deciding not to buy anything, he was about to leave when perhaps the most important item in ever trainers arsenal caught his attention. He wandered over and took a look at the backpacks. There were normal ones, ranging from 50 to several hundred Pokédollar, but then there were the Silph Co. backpacks. According to the pamphlet laying next to them, they utilized the same technology as the Poké Balls, which allowed way more and way lighter storage. But that of course came with a cost. The smallest and oldest model costed 3000 Pokédollar, with newer models that could hold up to five times more than that one going far into the five digits.
He couldn't help but gulp at that, only now remembering how he had written down that he wanted enough money to gear himself up and get 3000 Pokédollar in allowance on top of that in the proposal he'd given to Archer and Giovanni. And they had accepted that! Shacking his head at that, he left the mart and turned the way to the Gym, but the moment he stepped around the corner, something as tall as him crashed into him, causing him to fall onto his butt.
"Ouch …" he murmured as he rubbed his aching forehead, as did the person in front of him.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" the girl shouted, moving her auburn hair out of her eyes so she could glare at him. "Huh, who are you?" Behind her, a group of four children came around the corner, with all but one seemingly similar in age to both her and himself. The last had to be a few years younger.
Arthur got back on his feet and extended a hand to the still downed girl, all the while rubbing away the pain on his forehead. "I'm Arthur. You alright?"
She glowered at him a bit more before sighing and taking his hand, resulting in her promptly being pulled to her feet. "Yeah, but you got one tough nut for a head."
"So, I've heard," he laughed and turned and picked up the bags he'd dropped in their collision.
The other kids all rallied behind her, especially the smallest one. "You're the new guy granny told me about, aren't you?"
"… I guess?" He was new after all. The granny she's talking about could only be the lady from the clothes shop, though he didn't see much of a resemblance.
"Hmph." She looked him over and didn't seem impressed. He didn't know why, but he felt a little hurt by that. "And you're learning from the Gym Leader? You're not even from here!"
"But sis, we're just here for a visit too …" the smallest of the bunch said and got his spiky black hair ruffled in response.
Now that he looked at the two of them together, they seemed vaguely familiar, but not enough to give them names. The others with them didn't ring any bells either, aside from being the same ones he briefly saw the day before. He assumed the siblings had some relation to what he knew about the world, but he just couldn't place them.
A bit flustered by that, the girl cleared her throat. "Anyways, I guess I should thank you for helping our granny yesterday. We might've missed the time we're supposed to help her ourselves …"
"It's fine, but you shouldn't miss it next time. Your grandma really struggled with that box." He waved her off before chiding her like he did others back at the academy.
"I guess I- hey, who're you to tell me what to do?!" She started meekly before shouted once again. While she looked a bit defeated and even bad for letting the woman down like that, she obviously didn't enjoy his chiding. "Just because you're being taught by a Gym Leader doesn't mean you can order me around!"
She seemed pretty upset about that whole ordeal. He wondered if she tried to intern at Blaine's Gym herself? "Hey, I'm just saying you shouldn't forget important things like helping your family. And if it makes you feel better, Blaine's not exactly teaching me anything right now. I'm basically teaching myself until he believes I'm worth his time."
That pacified the girl a little bit and they fell into an awkward silence. After about a minute he turned towards the road, not knowing what else to say. "Well, I've got some work to do. See you around and slow down a bit when taking corners." He jogged around the group and towards the Gym, only hearing her shout something after him. Only then he realized he didn't ask for her name, which probably would've helped him finding out why she seemed familiar. But with the town not being all that big, he's sure they'd meet again soon enough. He just didn't know whether he liked that or not.
Sipping on his fresh cup of delightful coffee, Blaine watched the screens showing his Gym Pokémons rest area. He had been skeptical when he was ordered to take in a promising young man from Giovanni. It was rare enough that his boss called for something other than wanting to know the progress on Project M2, but for him to send a young boy that just passed his academy time over was unprecedented. He'd read the report given to him, of course. The lad seemed to have a great understanding of Pokémon that came from his parents, if the reports were believed. But he was taken in from the Orre region, a place where Pokémon were as rare as humans with how terrible its nature was. The whole region was but a lawless place used for smuggling and secret experiments, some of which he still hadn't read up on.
While he'd only given the boy the bare minimum to work with, he wasn't as skeptical as he'd been before anymore. Sure, the young Pokémon the lad was supposed to train were well behaved and would've taken a liking to almost anyone. But they're a lot more energetic in their training now than how they were before the lad came. Even his Rapidash, the one that served as his strongest for the Gym challenge for 6th and 7th ranked badges, doted on him. He'd told his older Pokémon not to help in the lad's assignment other than maybe give a hint, but he hadn't thought any of them would.
Right now, he was impressed by the deduction of his intern and how easily he motivated the young Pokémon in his care to train. After realizing that he wasn't getting much farther with training up Ember, and seeing the young ones being disheartened by that, he switched up the training. This not only served in getting a new viewpoint, but the way he incorporated training and playtime got the Pokémon motivated once again. It looked like he was trying to have them learn Flame Wheel next, which wasn't a bad idea all things considered. If anything, it was the best choice he could've picked with what he's given. Maybe he'd even manage to succeed in the assignment he'd given him.
Blaine finished his cup and went back to his own work. There was a lot to do and he didn't have the resource he would've liked, but what could he do. Perhaps he could've the lad come up with something to generate money. He's practically guaranteed to succeed in his endeavor if he continued on like he did, so why not put that brain to use?
Hey everybody, sorry for taking so long for this chapter! Went into some worldbuilding and finding out (game-)mechanics this time around, along with some insight from Blaine towards the situation. We won't stay on Cinnabar for too long, but long enough to show Arthurs progress in finding out how things work and how to apply his findings. Put in some awkwardness with the children as well, although I have to confess that I don't know what to do with that little plot, so I'll probably leave it small, since there'll be a timeskip towards the end of the internship anyway.
Thanks for reading and your encouraging reviews, and I hope you'll stay to see how all of this plays out!