- Pokeballs -
Union Cave was mostly spent getting Wooper up to speed on their teams' unique features, so Alexa didn't get much chance to try some more trainer battles as a pokemon-trainer, but it was worthwhile to deal with the young pokemon's massive amount of excited energy.
"We're go outside?" the wild pokemon asked eagerly as they approached the end of the cave system. "Have not been out, wanted to go out!"
"She is definitely energetic," Alexa buzzed to William. She was back to the standard Vespikiln shape instead of liquid metal, mostly to run down the time left in the form a bit more. "I don't think I've seen as excited of a pokemon."
"I need to get her a pokeball soon," William complained. "Given the chance I'd prefer a custom one in this sort of situation. A pokeball that is a good fit for a pokemon can be important. I might even get Mareep a second better one if he wants to upgrade in Azalea Town."
"Have you actually done that before?" Alexa asked the more experienced trainer. "All of my pokemon are in their original balls. Well, they are unless Charizard or Heracross switched before I got them."
"A few times yeah. I've never been in one, but my team has had opinions on which are the best for them," William confirmed as they found the bright light of the cavern opening. "But that wasn't until my second League, and the big change from my first team. I had the money for higher end options, so the new teammates started off with better than the original members had."
"Huh, I would have thought you'd at least have had some kind of class about how to break out of pokeballs better," Alexa had to admit about his mention of not being in one before. "I know Charizard got one during his Starter training, he wants me to try sometime just in case." She shifted her new bag a bit. "That's why I have about twenty standard pokeballs right now even though I don't want to add to my team this League."
William instantly let out his own Starter. "Chesnaught, did you get training on how to break out of pokeballs?" the other pokemon-trainer quickly and seriously asked.
"You say that like you haven't," Chesnaught dully replied as they walked out into the sunlight of Route 33. "William, you say that like you have not been trained how to break out of pokeballs."
"I think maybe Charizard will have his hands full with teaching us to break out of pokeballs," Alexa sighed while William continued to stare off into space. "I'm probably going to end up with a couple by the end of it."
"Are you a pokemon and a trainer?" someone suddenly asked from a nearby tree. It was an older red haired girl with a Slowking, they appeared to have been inspecting the large pink nuts that Alexa realized were Apricorns. "I haven't met one of those before, at least as far as I know." The girl walked over to them while Alexa set down on her feet to not hover above eye level. "I'm Maizie, and you've probably heard of my grandfather Kurt."
"The famous Apricorn pokeball carver," William said with a nod. "I had hoped to pick up a couple of custom ones in town for my two new pokemon." Alexa had hoped to speak with the old craftsman about the impact of type specific pokeballs in town if she got a chance.
"Well grandpa is retired now, but I've taken over for him," Maizie said briefly. "I'm out here now to see about getting a few more properly sized Apricorns. The goal of every Apricorn carver now is to make a handmade Master Ball, and that means working out the best size and age for the shells." The Apricorn crafter looked over the both of them. "So, do you have a pokeball of your own yet? They can be helpful to have on hand, I know that Slowking has needed his for a couple of medical emergencies."
"We are technically two pokemon," her Slowking grumbled with a rub of his Spiral Shellder. "Even if this bite maniac doesn't like to talk. He was the one that was sick last time."
"I've always been curious about if Slowbro and Slowking could speak with their Shellder," William mumbled as Wooper tried to wiggle out of his hands. "How does that work anyway?"
"Energy unification," Maizie replied. "Some pokemon link their energies together so well that the collection system treats them as a single pokemon." Alexa nodded at the information, her father had noted that kind of interaction could have some unusual type alteration effects in a number of foreign pokemon. "Slowking here is why I decided to go a bit further than just remaking things the old way like grandpa. I still make the old style for people that like it, but working out how pokeballs actually function and how to make the best ones possible has fascinated me." The older girl smiled at them both. "I can tell you more about it while I'm working. Let me show you to town."
"Alright, and no I don't have a pokeball of my own yet," Alexa admitted. "I still need to train a bit with breaking out of them just in case, so I'll probably get one then."
"Okay, I have to make you a custom pokeball," Maizie said with nod. "It probably will be more fancy than a good catcher, that way if you break out by accident I can fix it, and fully willing catches don't need as good of a latch as one for pokemon who want to use the ball to test your resolve."
"Some pokemon can be strong enough that the things can't handle them," William noted thoughtfully. "Alexa is usually human, could that throw things off?"
"I'm not sure that 'usually' is the right word anymore," Alexa had to say. "I think I've managed maybe one day since the start of it as a human the whole day."
"Okay, changed humans do require a bit stronger pokeballs," Maizie said a bit uneasily. "Although, huh, I don't suppose you would be up for some testing later? I'd be interested in seeing how a collection layer changes when you do."
"This one will probably take a couple of days to wear off, but I did plan on staying in town that long," she informed the older girl. "Would that be fine with you, William?"
"I wanted to spend at least couple of days with my new pokemon before going after my Gym match anyway," he easily agreed.
"Gym, Gym!" Wooper agreed.
Route 33 technically was the entire path between Union Cave and the Ilex Forest, with Azalea Town listed as being along the route. In practice it was just a short path from the cavern entrance, past a large recessed well, and directly into the relatively small town that was right next to the forest. The origin of the town was a bit odd, and Slowking had a slightly different story than Maizie. Either way the local humans were there because of the local Slowpoke, and the Slowpoke were there because Union Cave had nice fishing locations, but the well the humans dug out had better ones. A lot better ones given how many Slowpoke were around both the well and the town.
They were actually surprisingly chatty for Slowpoke, and quite a bit more aware than Alexa was used to. Admittedly that meant they were only taking minutes instead of hours to have a short conversation, but compared to the Slowpoke Alexa had seen before that was quite responsive. There was even one running a stand of some kind.
"Please tell me that Slow-Slim hasn't cut his own tail off again to try and sell it to people," Maizie said as the older girl and her Slowking both sighed.
"Rare and valuable!" the salespokemon Slowpoke said reasonably quickly, and waved a little sign. "Harvested willingly! Extra value!"
"Do I want to know the explanation for whatever is happening there?" William questioned dully and struggled a bit to keep a handle on his wiggling Water/Ground type as Wooper tried to look at everything. "Because I've heard of Zoroark who make fake hair beads to sell, but nobody would actually sell their own bead."
"The tails grow back after a while," Alexa said with a confused look at the tail that 'Slow-Slim' currently had on the end of his body in addition to the one on top of the stand. "Well, faster in some cases. I thought it turned out that Slowpoke tails didn't actually do anything?"
"We had a witch in town a couple years ago that worked out a spell to turn humans into Slowpoke that used one," Maizie grumbled. "It was less fun that it sounded at first. Thinking that slowly is very unpleasant in my experience."
"I'm still sorry I helped you try that," Maizie's Slowbro apologized.
"You didn't know it would be that odd," Maizie replied to her pokemon.
"Is he speaking human?" Alexa had to ask with a sigh.
"Alexa is new to being able to understand both," William said to the pair quickly. "She sometimes can't tell yet."
"Ah, sorry about that, I forgot that some pokemon can't tell he's speaking human right off," the older girl apologized. "Come on, my shop is just over there." Maizie motioned towards a relatively new building with a sign that featured the pieces of a pokeball next to a hammer.
Alexa didn't try to smile again, but she wanted to as they approached the doorway. It was a nice to see that making pokeballs was this successful for the older girl. Maizie unlocked and opened the door, and revealed a shop full of little displays for pokeballs of various types, but most of them were at least half empty. Even with the many missing spots the variety on display was massive, with at least a dozen different standard color patterns to indicate the kind of ball, and at least a dozen more with non-standard paterns that were a bit more fancy and in smaller display racks. "You have plenty of space to expand still," William said a bit uncertainly as he carefully got a better grip on his pokemon.
"I opened up last year towards the end of the League. Even though I thought I had enough for this year, it turned out that there are a lot more trainers with money to spare in the first couple weeks," Maizie explained with a huff. "I'm going to be real busy trying to build stock back up, and that's before I even think about next year's League. Some are easy to make, I can do it while I read the trade magazines for pokeball crafting, but others were supposed to be harder to sell."
Alexa could understand why the older girl would think that. Some of the prices listed for the more elaborate balls were extreme, more than a low level Gym match all on their own. "I would think these would be more of an off season sell," she admitted out loud.
Maizie laughed at that. "Yeah, so did I, but apparently seasoned trainers also fall off later on during the League. At least I put a Badge count requirement on those," the older girl sighed as she went behind the counter. "So, you said you were after some higher end ones for new pokemon?" she questioned William.
"Just nice ones on the inside," the other pokemon-trainer answered as he looked over the products. "What is the difference between the smooth shells and the wood ones?"
"For what you're doing, cost. The wood finish ones are more expensive because they need a special sealant to last in open air long enough to actually catch some pokemon," Maizie tiredly replied. "Grandpa didn't even bother with that option even though it was more accurate to the old way of doing things because too many trainers would complain. The smooth shell is just a protective covering."
"So, back when everyone used Apricorn balls they all looked wooden?" Alexa asked as she inspected the now quite rare natural looking pokeballs. There was the same amount of display spaces for each style, but most of the wooden ones were entirely missing, with only a handful left of the few that remained.
"Well, most of them. Some people did make protective cases even back then, because most Apricorn balls weren't able to attune to the pokemon inside of them. So the pokeball wouldn't be protected by the pokemon's energy and they would need to be re-caught every time," Maizie explained while William looked over the small descriptions beside each display. "Actually, give me a moment." The older girl then disappeared into the back of the store through a doorway.
"I had thought I would just ask for Friend Balls, but there are quite a few more options here," William muttered to her as they waited. "I've never even heard of some of these before, and I might want to ask her what she can do instead of just looking at what she usually does."
"Maizie does have a guidebook for custom orders over there," Slowking noted and pointed at a book next to the counter. There were a few printed forms and pens next to it.
"Here it is," Maizie interrupted before William could head over. The older girl displayed a rather rough looking Ultra Ball with a metal shell and a complicated latch. "My reproduction of a Hisuian Ultra Ball. Ancient Sinnoh was the first place to make attuned Apricorn pokeballs. This one has a metal shell over the wood to reinforce it, which helps it catch better, and inside it has two Tumblestones instead of just one." She opened the reproduction to reveal two polished orange-yellow stones set on the top of the inside next to each other.
"Tumblestones?" William questioned with the tone of someone who has heard of the thing but forgotten what it was.
"Little rocks that hold someone's energy," Alexa answered thoughtfully. "Wild pokemon sometimes use them to mark locations, because you can track where your own energy is pretty easily. That's how pokemon know where their pokeballs are, because it links to them the same way." She tilted her head as something occurred to her. "But Tumblestones don't hold energy very well. After two or three days it goes away and they can't find it anymore."
"Yeah, that's one of the downsides to this old design. If the pokemon stays out of one of the weaker ones for a few days it loses connection and you need to catch them again," Maizie agreed happily. "Having two in this one makes the charge last longer, weeks instead of days, but modern attunement layers last for decades." The older girl closed the pokeball with a clack. "The other downside is that this thing is only about as good as a modern Sylph Co pokeball. The standard one any trainer can buy."
Alexa blinked at that, while William sputtered. "I thought the new pokeballs were only old Great Balls," she slowly half buzzed in surprise.
"Ah, you're pretty well informed," Slowking declared, and then repeated what she said. Which meant she had not said it in human to her embarrassment.
"You're right, but this thing here is a lot older than those. When Sylph Co released their original set of pokeballs what we now call the 'pokeball' was what they sold as a 'Great Ball', and the old 'Ultra Ball' would only be a Great Ball now," Maizie gratefully explained. "Modern Great Balls are what people back in Sinnoh when they called it Hisui would have called a 'Master's Ball'. As in the greatest kind of pokeball that only a master crafter could even attempt. Just like how modern Ultra Balls were once Sylph Co's original Master Ball, and I can make balls that are that strong now. Those are even enough that some humans can be caught with them." The older girl nodded at William. "So would you like one for yourself too? I've seen how Slowking and the Slowpoke react to you, and that means you probably have enough of a Dark type for them to work."
William blinked at that question, opened his mouth, and then closed it again to think for a moment. "This is honestly the strangest reason I have ever encountered for why I've had to explain to someone that I'm actually a pokemon," he admitted with confusion. Then he checked the door and dropped his illusion. "I'm actually very aware that pokeballs work on me."
"So I've got two pokemon-trainers in my store right now?" Maizie asked excitedly, but then frowned. "Wait, where are your ball handling gloves?"
"They makes gloves to handle pokeballs safely?" Alexa asked with a bit of annoyance. "Because I just got three new sets of clothes for my pokemon forms, and nobody said anything about gloves."
"And now I am professionally upset," Maizie said darkly. "Human trainers with types and energy that is too loose need to wear special gloves in order to use the standard pokeball blocking methods on Ultra Balls. Made out of the same kind of special fabric your pokemon clothes are that stop a pokeball from working on you when they get hit with one. That way you can use those methods. Somebody should have told you about those."
"I was just told not to use those, although I did go through the exercises," William admitted slowly. "This is news to me as a thing that exists."
"Our clothes are pokeball proof?" Alexa had to ask. "Nobody mentioned that either."
"Right, I'm making both of you pokeballs, and getting you at least two pairs of ball handling gloves each," Maizie sighed. "And then I'm going to the League to ask them why it isn't official policy to train pokemon who are trainers like humans who have loose energy."
"Maybe we should start with the easier pokeballs?" Slowking suggested. "That Wooper seems to be a bit of a handful, and given you haven't returned her I am guessing you are here for her first?"
"Water ball!" Wooper suggested loudly and wiggled her head towards one of the cases. It was one of eighteen setup in the front counter itself, and Alexa realized with a start that the mostly cleaned out stock of that display was in fact a full set of pokeballs for every single type.
"Ah, the typed balls," Maizie said and rapped on her counter with her knuckles. "Water or Ground? I kind of hope Water, those are easier to get the materials for. Electric, Grass, and Fire are other easy ones that will be easy for me to replace this League."
"Are they nice on the inside?" William asked, and then paused. "Bear in mind I've actually never been in one before myself, but I'm mostly after something comfortable for them."
"What about during your training on how to break out of pokeballs?" Maizie asked slowly. Alexa and William glanced at each other. "You know what, I'll just ask what sort of training trainers like you do get when I talk to the League. Okay, so from what Slowking has been able to pass along these ones are nice if they match your type, but not as much if they don't. I don't even try to make dual type balls without it being a custom order, but there isn't much improvement in conditions for those."
"I might have to wait for you to work on things with Alexa for my new Mareep then," William sighed, and Alexa flinched a bit at that note. "I'm not sure how an added Fire type would impact those, and I have a feeling Mareep will ask for a Fire typed one."
[Author's Note]
Here we have the first of a few chapters on the details of pokeball function, creation, and use. Legends Arceus, which I have not played myself, added crafting mechanics for pokeballs, and honestly from a look at the wiki they work out wonderfully with my plans for this subplot.