Chapter 7:
"Tell you what, lad; you've exceeded expectations." Blaine marveled as he watched the group of young pokemon perform their Flamethrower one after the other.
Arthur rewarded all of them with a snack and a pat on the head after, earning him quite a few licks and nuzzles. "Glad to hear that, sir."
It had been a week after he had started to train them, and while things didn't go too smooth, they managed to just barely reach their goal in the given timeframe. The last one of them had managed to perform the move just the evening before. They managed to reach it after learning Flame Wheel and Incinerate, the former coming about after they combined Tackle with Fire type energy, while the later happened after trying out Ember with the higher firepower of Flame Wheel.
"Honestly, I was about to tell you that you did well enough and I'd teach you either way. I didn't expect you to actually succeed." The man confessed and twirled his moustache, ordering the pokemon to use Incinerate once more. "I've never seen this move. Fire Spin is the logical next step on the ladder towards Flame Thrower, but this …"
Knowing full well where that move came from, Arthur scratched the back of his head. "I instructed them to gather more energy and release it at once because I thought Fire Spin would require more delicate control. We didn't have time for that."
Blaine grunted in approval. "You got any notes about your training?"
"Everything from start to finish." He replied with a smile and handed his notebook over.
"Very good. That's an important step to becoming a good trainer. Never forget this: Knowledge is power." Blaine stated and motioned him to follow. "Types, Moves, baseline parameters. All of that is nice to know, but it's of little use if you don't know how to apply that knowledge. From what I could see since you started here, I believe you have a lot of theoretical knowledge, but only little regarding practical use. Correct?"
Arthur nodded as he followed Blaine into what appeared to be his office. He was just trying out what he thought could get him the results he wished, but it was more guesswork and trying to apply logic where it may not even be. Getting pointers from an experienced trainer would surely skyrocket his chances of training up a competent team. The office they arrived in was filled to the brim with bookshelves and video tapes. They seemed to cover every topic about pokemon one could find, and the only non-scientific looking items in the room were two small pictures standing on the man's desk, although he couldn't see what was on them. He sat down opposite of Blaine.
"Then we'll work on that. I've got a few topics for you to read up on while I'm busy in the lab, along with some tests for you to take." Blaine said and dumped a stack of books on the desk that briefly hid them from each other. "I've got some free time due to complications with my experiments and resources, which I'll use to teach you how to apply the knowledge you learn."
"Alright." Arthur nodded, but couldn't help but ask. "Your resource problem, is that related to money or …"
"Afraid so. But you're a bright young mind, perhaps you can come up with something to solve that little issue?" The man grinned at him. "While I'm willing to teach you, the more I get out of this the more I'm willing to invest into you."
Leaning back in his chair, Arthur thought for a moment. He was surprised that Blaine was lacking anything, with him obviously being sponsored by Team Rocket, but perhaps his work wasn't fruitful enough at the moment. Cinnabar Island didn't make much money, the fact that its Gym Leader didn't help with that didn't make it any better. He was sitting on a potential goldmine, however, and if that wasn't enough then maybe …
"How about restoring the hotel and onsen? The island is lacking in tourist attractions, and a hotel with open bath and a look at the volcano would surely bring in some people."
"It'd cost a lot of money before that happens." Blaine responded gruffly, looking to the side. "Aside from restoring it, I'd also need to hire people to keep it running. With so little tourists there are likely more costs than income."
Not about to ignore their potentially best source of income, Arthur pushed back. "I'm sure there'd be quite a few on the island who would like to work in it. There's not much going on and quite a few of the older folk I've met this week seemed like they want to do something but can't. And while there may not be much tourism yet, that can change, especially when you announce the restored hotel and hot spring. Plus, we can ask around town for further attractions as well, this is a volcanic island after all. There's bound to be something interesting. Even if we don't go for the beach or some volcano exploration, just a way for children to see and pet young pokemon like your Growlithe would be enough to garner interest."
Blaine sighed and looked intently at one of the pictures before leaning back in his chair. "Alright … if you can find me, say, a dozen or so people that'd want to work there we'll do it."
He felt like the man had more to say but his sigh had so much weight that he'd postpone asking any questions. There were more options, however. "You could also make money by breeding and selling. I haven't seen any kind of breeding facility, and I'm sure you could sell some Growlithe to the League for their police. And have your own steady supply of new pokemon as well."
The man cackled before breaking into full on laughter. "Now wouldn't that be something? Make money from the police I'm trying to avoid. You sure got guts, lad." He exhaled loudly and got serious again. "For that I'd need a breeder, a confidential one at that, who'd want to work on this island first, though."
"All the more reason to make the town nicer and offer a relaxing hotel and onsen combo to anyone working for you, don't you think?" Arthur replied cheerfully.
"They told me you were too nice, but here you are, pushing me into a corner with potential riches paid by the very people I loathe." Blaine hit the desk with both hands as he pushed himself up, a wide grin on his face. "Let's get to work!"
And work they did. Arthur's prediction had been correct and many of the townsfolk joined in on the restoration once asked about it. While a good part of them just wanted something to do, there were also a few that wanted to restore what they saw as one of their town's landmarks. As it turned out, there were quite a few that disliked the building neglected like it had been, although the lady from the clothing store hinted at there being more to it than just Blaine prioritizing his work.
It had taken the better part of a month to fix some issues with the roof and floor, and an additional month to restore the onsen part of the building. pokemon really did make such chores easier. While Blaine was first and foremost a Fire type specialist, and his Fire types did great in burning away any unwanted plants and dirt in a controlled manner, he had precious few other types on hand that helped surveying the roof and cleaning the bath. Only few others had pokemon themselves surprisingly, although history might've played into that for the older people. But even with the help of pokemon, they needed a specialist to take a look and restore the water pumps and pipes.
A part of the hotels charm was its traditional style with its wooden floors, older rooms that used sliding doors and the balconies attached to the rooms in the upper floor. While Blaine had initially resisted against anything they might share with their Johto neighbors, which explained why he didn't have any Johtonian Fire types on hand, his cost-efficient mindset prevented him from refusing the traditional robes sponsored by the lady and her spider pokemon. They even had a fitting color scheme for the Cinnabar Gym, with fire-red as their primary color and thin white vertical stripes as their motive, the Gym Badges Symbol stitched onto the robes meant for the hotel's staff. A receptionist had been easily found, as had been several cooks willing to rotate with other jobs. Blaine would have to hire an accountant from the mainland, but for now they're set. Even the kids got to do something, if they wanted to, like cleaning the floors in exchange for a free bath.
And while most of the bored-out-of-their-mind kids did take the free bath, there were two who called in their favor differently.
"- and while there are other important aspects to pokemon battles, remembering the Type Chart is crucial, especially when building your team and fixing its weaknesses." Arthur concluded his presentation. He'd been given an older laptop from Blaine so they wouldn't have to print out everything for him – "I'm trying to save money, do you know how much quality paper costs, especially when it needs to be delivered here?!" Blaine had said – which he was currently using in combination with a projector to throw some pictures at the white wall behind him. One of the first tests he'd been given by Blaine had been to research and present his findings about pokemon types, so he'd used that topic as one of his first lessons for the aspiring trainers.
He even got to finally put a name to the kids, which in two cases helped immensely in finding out where he knew them from. The duo of older sister and younger brother he was teaching were called Cissy and Senta, which were both here to visit their grandmother. While the names initially didn't ring a bell, after a few days and some talk about what kind of pokemon they liked while they were looking at pokemon on the beach, he had been able to connect the dots. If he had guessed right, then Cissy would become one of the Orange Islands Gym Leaders. She wasn't a major player from what he remembered, especially not when compared to everyone else he'd known about, but she was an eager learner, if a bit hotheaded.
"How am I supposed to remember all that?!" She cried when comparing the extensive chart Arthur had made to what she'd written down. "And some of those don't even make any sense! Why is Poison not effective against Ghost, but only neutral to Bug types?! Isn't Poison used for keeping Bug types away from crops?!"
"There are some weird interactions between the types, yes, but most of them should come naturally. And if not, you'll learn them over time when applying this." He replied with a laugh. While the assignment about types had been easy, he had to alter his results from what he knew. With The Fairy type being approximately years away from being discovered and researchers in both Kanto and Johto still unsure about how the different types interacted with Steel and Dark types, he had to cover up his knowledge a bit. He wondered how effectiveness would work with the Steel type, as it had been retroactively nerfed to balance the type out. In the games at least.
Blaine had been impressed by the speed and decisiveness he'd delivered his results, so much so that the Gym Leader had sent it as an application for him being a recognized junior assistant researcher. It had been accepted and his type chart apparently even printed in one of the scientific magazines, probably as some small note in the back, which got him a bit of attention and Blaine a bonus to his research resources from some kind of scientist association. Arthur hoped he would be able to use this in the future as a chance to speak with one of the pokemon Professors, but he doubted something as simple as the cohesive type chart he had created would be enough for that. He really wanted a pokedex and a bigger selection for his starter, and while this was a good first step, he was certain he'd get the chance when his breeding experiment succeeded. If it succeeded?
He wasn't sure if his idea to try and breed the Hisuian Growlithe back to the modern times was even possible, but he'd try nonetheless. He was on an island that had an active volcano and the plan was to breed primarily Growlithe, so it was a worthwhile plan in his mind. The breeder Blaine had hired hadn't arrived yet, but he'd surveyed some spots fitting for both the regular Growlithe and the Hisuian ones. He had the better parts of three years to try and make it work, but if it didn't it wouldn't be too bad either. Maybe he should make a few calls to Pewter City to get insight about rocks and minerals, that might help in trying to get the Rock typing to awaken in the pokemon. He wasn't sure how the energy pokemon used for attacks worked just yet, but it was on the curriculum with Blaine.
But that'd have to wait. Cissy nudged him out of his train of thought so he could repeat why certain types interacted the way they did, but before he could get to it the timer he'd set at the beginning of his 'class' went off, telling them that it was time for lunch. While teaching the two had been easy once he got Cissy to understand that Blaine won't teach anyone but him, dealing with them or the other children outside of that wasn't. Lucky for him, he had a myriad of excuses to get out of the unpleasant situations whenever he wanted. He was fine with going to town or the beach with them to unwind, but whenever they wanted to play or do, well, kids' stuff, he grew uncomfortable and didn't know what to do. Most of the children just saw him as some extreme nerd, but as an aspiring trainer herself, Cissy understood. It was good there was at least one person he could call a friend here.
Since he had arrived at Blaine's, communication with Team Rocket had been near zero, at least for him. He expected Blaine to have called in with someone to agree with him staying on Cinnabar, but he himself hasn't heard anything aside from him being accepted to stay here and getting some bonus if he managed to help Blaine with whatever he could. Judging by the news, Team Rocket wasn't yet recognized, its agents only sometimes being in the news and even then, not yet associated with a big criminal organization. There was talk about them, sure, but nothing like how it would be in the future if nothing changed. He really hoped he could bring what's necessary to change it.
Obviously, he didn't get to speak with Jessie and James either, and he wondered how they and Meowth were doing. They were out in the field for over half a year now, and while he had helped them improve, he was sure that no matter that, they would get into some kind of trouble.
"I told you it was a stupid idea!" James shouted as he ran through the dense forest, the sound of their imminent demise drawing closer and closer.
Jessie, who wasn't holding up well, huffed back at him, her steps kicking up dust behind her. "It was exactly what we're looking for! Strong pokemon!"
"There's a difference between finding them and being able to handle them!" A shrill third voice added with an angry tone.
"Well if you guys would've thrown the pokeballs correctly we wouldn't have to deal with this!" Jessie shouted back. "How hard can it be to throw a ball, especially at stationary targets?!" But the ones thrown by James went so far off that they hid something entirely different, which was the reason for their current predicament.
James was having nothing off it and used his position at the front to guide them towards a nearby river he just noticed. "I don't want to say 'I told you so', but I told you so!" He unclipped his pokeballs from the magnetic belt he's wearing with his black uniform, and looked over his shoulder. A swarm of a dozen or so giant, flying, yellow and black Beedrill was slowly but surely catching up to them. He knew he had messed up when hitting one of the nearby Kakuna, rather than the Pinsir they were aiming for. But how should he have known that there was a whole swarm ready to go at them?!
Their third member, the snarky Meowth that was capable of human speech looked back as well, before making eye contact with him. "You don't think you can fight them, do you?"
"I'd love to say I do, but alas we're a bit outnumbered." James admitted, grinning nonetheless. "We're not here to fight, however, and making a glorious escape is my specialty. Just follow my lead."
"I'm not going to like it, am I?" Meowth sighed but braced himself. "But anything is better than getting our butts kicked by those Beedrill."
With a newfound vigor, Jessie sprinted up to them, completely out of breath. "Then what are you waiting for?! Do something!"
"Alright, alright! Stop shouting!" James responded in an equally loud tone. "Koffing you're up! Smokescreen!"
He released his starter in a flash of red light, revealing the floating purple pokemon. The craters on its round body were already releasing small amounts of gases before it heard its instructions. A loud call of its name later, and the immediate area around them was shrouded in thick black smoke. Not wasting any time, James recalled it before shoving Jessie into the river in front of them and jumping in right after, making sure all of them were submerged.
The smoke cleared out soon after, and with their collective breaths running out they surfaced perfectly in sync, gasping for air. Thankfully, they'd held out long enough for the Beedrill to lose interest in them, with none of the aggressive Bug types still being around. They got out of the river and continued their debate while wringing their clothes, hair, and fur.
"Couldn't you've come up with a plan that didn't ruin my hair?" "Or my fur?" Jessie and Meowth asked annoyed, to which James scoffed.
"At least I came up with one at all. If we'd kept running things would be worse than being drenched." He said and swiftly dodged the mess Meowth was making by shaking himself. "At least we can remember that location and come back more prepared. Or just let someone else deal with it."
Jessie, neither liking the thought of giving up their prey to someone else nor the way her wet clothes clung to her body, chose to ignore his reasoning. "None of this would've happened if you could do something as simple as throwing a ball!"
"It's not my fault we never touched on this back at the academy!" James retorted, fed up with being blamed. "And I didn't see you hit any either!"
"Alright you two, calm down." Meowth intervened, still trying to somehow dry his delicate beige and brown fur. "At least now we know that you're both useless when it comes to catching anything yourselves."
"Oh yeah? I didn't see you contributing much either." James stated flatly, his eyes narrowing at the cat pokemon.
The pokemon crossed its arms. "Oh really? Who was it again that found out there were strong Pinsir in the forest in the first place? I didn't know either of you could talk with pokemon."
After having managed to wring out her clothes just enough as not to cling to her every curve, Jessie groaned. "Urgh, this would be so much easier with-" but she didn't finish the sentence, instead growing quiet.
"… we probably should've asked him how to properly capture wild pokemon, shouldn't we?" James added with a sigh.
Not getting who they were talking about, Meowth looked at one and then the other, before raising an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
Completely ignoring Meowth, Jessie looked at James. "Maybe we should've just failed the exam and wait for him instead. But then again, it's not like he was cut out for any of our other jobs."
"You're right about that. I wonder what he's up to right now …"
"Could you two stop ignoring me?!" Meowth shouted and got both to focus on him with a well-timed Fury Swipe at each of them. "Now, who or what are you talking about?"
In retrospect, it probably wasn't a good idea of him to do that, as the two swiftly retorted in grappling him and giving him wedgies that messed up his fur even more. Once done with that, the two let out a sigh.
James stretched and looked back at where the Beedrill came from. "We'll tell you on the way back."
"Yeah, I really need to change. There are only so much drooling stares I can take in one day." Jessie added, leading the way.
"As if you didn't enjoy all the attention. I've seen your face when you notice them gawk at you, Jess." James teased and fell in line.
"I can't fault them for noticing true beauty, but that doesn't mean I have to give them more than they deserve." She remarked and dramatically swept her drenched hair back over her shoulder, where it slapped against her back with a wet thud.
"You mean until they hear you talk." Meowth added with a snicker, promptly dodging the incoming fist.
They spent the walk back talking about their time at the academy, both the good and the bad, although Meowth seemed to enjoy hearing about them failing their classes way too much, and about the youngest of their little group. Just when they arrived at the front of the run-down hotel they're staying at, Meowth noticed something at the newspaper stand right beside it, swiftly grabbing one and catching the twos attention.
"You're not talking about this guy, aren't you?" He asked with his paw pointing at the lead article of the science section.
"'Young blood from Cinnabar Island presents a new iteration of the Type Chart'?" Jessie read the headline out loud.
"'Aside from a new and improved visual representation, debatable points have been addressed and caused leading researchers to pick up the topic once more. With this, the newest junior assistant researcher Arthur Anderson, under the tutelage of Gym Leader Blaine of Cinnabar Island, has poked the Beedrills nest. What his daring iteration entails you can find on page five.'" James added as he read further. "… huh. I knew Art knew his stuff, but this?"
"What, you're telling me that's the guy you hung out with?" Meowth questioned doubtfully. "If that's the case I'm not surprised you want him on the team. Sounds to me like he's got more of a brain than both of you combined." He expected them to give him another round of wedgies, already preparing his claws to strike back, but they never came.
Instead, James nodded along, mumbling "He's grown up so much already," while Jessie gripped the newspaper tightly, her eyes seemingly burning with aspiration.
"Alright you two, enough diddly dawdling. First thing tomorrow we start training; we're gonna get those Pinsir! And after that we aim straight for promotion!" She clapped her hands loudly, so much determination in her voice that the other two could help but nod instinctively.
"So, we're starting at point six in the morning?" James asked with a yawn, shuddering at the thought of adjusting their sleep schedules to what they were used to back in recruit training.
"What? No! This isn't the academy and I need my beauty sleep. Eight to nine will suffice." Jessie replied as she carefully folded the newspaper and tucked it away.
Meowth was surprised by the complete one-eighty to their demeanors. He wondered when he'd get the chance to meet the guy that was capable of getting those two to do any training whatsoever. "You're right about that. You really need that beauty sleep." He added and slipped between their legs, making sure to be the first in the bathroom to properly dry himself while dodging Jessies casual show of violence. This Arthur guy seemed to be a big number from what he heard from them. He had to be when he got the chance to work so differently than the rest of Team Rocket, aside for maybe the higher ups. Maybe he'd be a good way to get into the boss' graces. For that they'd have to team-up with the guy first, however, and Cinnabar wasn't exactly around the corner. Grunts didn't get to choose their work, but if they got promoted to Specialist they just may. And who better to support this young boy than those that already worked with him?
Sorry for the long wait! Vacation and a dose of writers block kept me back a bit, but here we are again. Since I'm aiming to get the crew together soon there'll be some timeskips, like the restoration of Blaine's hotel.
Thanks for reading and reviewing, till next time!