Day 21 at Professor Oak's Lab:
Things returned to the status quo after that, with no particular advances in the strategies of Battle between me and Chee. Each morning we would get up, have our daily battle, play in the enclosure or train with the kids in Pallet Town, and then play until bedtime. Sometimes even when Chee won she would decide to train more instead of playing.
Today marked the third week since I had started training at Oak's lab, and Oak had called me in to start doing camping/survival training-Since I would have to look after both Chee and myself on the journey to each location. As such, Oak and I were currently seated around a recently constructed campfire with various pieces of camping equipment-Most notably a large cast iron pot filled with soup that I was currently heating.
"...You're taking to this quite quickly. I thought you'd find it more difficult." The elder gentleman mused, rubbing the beginnings of a beard on his chin. "Even if you know how to cook already, most people have trouble adapting to the camping lifestyle."
It wasn't that surprising really, I'd spent a good proportion of my life living as a soldier in the army, so I'd needed to know how to cook, procure fresh water, and find shelter. If I hadn't been able to do that much, I never would have survived long enough to die in that frosty hellhole near Sinnoh.
"Maybe I have a talent for camping." I fibbed, not wanting to be too obvious about where my skills came from. The camping skills were a bit more focussed on maintaining luxury than the training I'd had to do in the army, but I wasn't having too much trouble adapting.
"Hm. I wonder..." Oak grumbled to himself. "How are things going with Chee, are you two still getting along?"
"I would argue so, we've been doing a lot of training with each other-And our secret hideout is getting pretty fancy at this point."
We'd even planted those pear seeds, after Chee had remembered she still had them. I was curious to see if we would genuinely get a pear tree to grow near our hideout or not. Ordinarily I'd just think the wild Pokemon would end up destroying it, but our hideout had been chosen because Pokemon didn't tend to go there.
The older man nodded thoughtfully as I dug a ladle into the pot of soup cooking on the campfire in front of me. The soup was simple and tasty, a creamy steak and potato soup with some chopped bacon and cheese. I ladled out a scoop full of the food into a bowl and gave it a taste.
...Needs more pepper.
"...Are you two still battling regularly?" He asked while I used the portable pepper grinder to add extra seasoning to the food. "Is she still willing to engage with Pokemon battles?"
"More than that-" I started, dishing out another serving of soup to try eating. "She's started battling with the other kids in town too. I don't even have to push her anymore, she's really gotten into it."
I took another bite of the soup. It was delicious, and I would more or less be happy to dish it out to Chee and myself, but personally...
...It could use more Pepper.
"Hmmm..." Oak thought aloud. "Well, that's good to hear. I'd actually like to ask you something."
"What's up?" I asked, shaking more pepper into my bowl of food.
"Could you grab Blue tomorrow and-Actually, how much pepper are you planning to use!?" Oak stopped mid-sentence to chastise me for my reckless pepper usage.
...
Carrying a soup-filled metal container and bowls, I walked briskly by the makeshift wooden sign stuck into the ground which read 'Chee and Cyan's Secret Hideout!', hopping onto the rough path made of flat rocks we'd stolen from the plateau. I wandered past the deck chairs out on the recently cut grass and pushed aside the curtain made from forest leaves that covered our stick house.
Inside Chee was lying in the shade, eyes shut closed as she let out slow, regular breaths. She must have been waiting for me for a long time, since she wasn't full of energy like she usually was. "Chee?"
The girl let out a muted squeaky groan, and opened her eyes ever so slightly.
"...Were you asleep?"
Suddenly she jolted upright, rubbing her eyes and trying to brush off her embarrassment along with the bits of cut grass and moss that had gotten stuck in her black hair. I wasn't asleep! I was just bored!
"...Right. Anyway I'm finished doing my cooking training with Professor Oak, so we can hang out together now. What do you want to do?" I asked as I sat down beside my friend. She was quiet for a moment, before flopping back on the grass. She seemed to be a little bit sad.
I set down the metal thermos I'd brought with me and moved to lie down opposite Chee, so that I could see into her eyes. She avoided my gaze for a moment, but eventually her eyes trailed up to me.
...How much longer are you going to be here?
"...I don't know."
Her eyes were cast down again. I've had a lot of fun lately, and I know you helped me make friends with the others but... I'm not looking forward to when you leave.
She must be worried about going to the Gym Challenge again. It sounds like she ended up traumatised last time, I doubt she actually wants to go again. She might have felt relieved if I told her I was going to go with her, but Oak had asked me to keep quiet until he told her himself. I wasn't going to be going for a while anyway.
"Well, it's going to be a while still, right?" I laughed. "Oak wanted me to be training for a few months before we go."
Chee shook her head then closed her eyes, tilting her head back to lay against the grass. She didn't give me an answer as to why we disagree, so I simply laid back myself and enjoyed the ambience.
We sat in the silence, the beating sun diluted through the curtain of leaves we'd prepared leaving us relatively cool on a hot afternoon. After a few minutes she was back to her normal self, shaking my side. "What's up?"
Chee gestured at the metal container I'd set aside. Is that the food?! Her eyes exclaimed.
I nodded, and I poured her a bowl. The girl excitedly took a sip. It's good! I can't cook anything this good! Her eyes widened with excitement, although she paused in thought a moment after.
...But it could use just a bit more pepper.
"Right!?"
...
The rest of the afternoon was unremarkable, and before I knew it we were eating dinner with Blue and Professor Oak.
The dining room was a fairly simple affair, just enough colour to break up the monotony of the Laboratory aside from it, but nothing like enough actual decoration to make it a room interesting enough to use outside of mealtimes.
The four of us sat dispersed around the table. Oak sat next to Blue, and Chee had sat next to me, but only Oak and I were directly across from one another. The mealtimes were usually quiet and uneventful, but Oak still made a point of us all eating together-Unless he was too busy that day.
Which had been most days.
"So, I've been thinking." Oak began. "Cyan, you've been training very hard. I'd like to watch a battle between you and Blue, tomorrow."
I almost spat out my baked beans in surprise. Blue notably choked on his drink, slamming down the glass of milk he was drinking. "G-Grandpa?"
"Well, I was planning to delay this longer but Cyan already knows how to camp out by himself-His taste for pepper notwithstanding." Oak admitted with a shrug. "If he's got the battling skills, I think he's ready to try for the Gym Challenge next week."
"Uh, sir-" I cut in, concerned by Chee's quiet shaking. "I thought I was supposed to train for three months-At least- before heading out for the challenge?"
"That was my plan originally yes, but if your battle training is going well I see no reason to forbid you from trying early. You can spend some more time preparing if you'd like."
"I... See." I answered quietly.
The dining room was silent for the rest of the evening. I went looking for Chee after the meal, but I couldn't find her before it was time for bed.
...
Day 22 at Professor Oak's Lab:
I took a deep breath to calm my nerves as I stood opposite Blue on the interior battlefield. His blue-skinned turtle Pokemon stood tall and proud, almost as arrogant as Blue himself. Blue stood with his arms crossed and a fowl frustrated expression on his face, almost as if he was asking Do I really have to battle with this loser? with his silver eyes.
"Do I really have to battle with this loser?" Blue growled, tightening his arms. "I haven't seen him engage in a serious battle since we've gotten here, just those-Mockeries that he and... Chee... Play together. I doubt he's gotten any stronger since the last time we fought at all."
Much though I hated to admit it, Blue had a point. Chee and I were truly battling, but the Gym Challenge would be a league-sanctioned event. Things like the Trainer running onto the field themselves, or throwing their Rattata into the air to evade an attack... They were sure to get me disqualified. I had one strategy I'd been preparing with that in mind, but it wasn't exactly ready yet...
Honestly I wasn't that confident. I could only rely on my years of experience as a soldier from my past life.
"Well, if that's true then I suppose he's just not ready." Oak said with a smile. "But I would like to see the results with my own eyes. Whether Cyan is ready for the challenge or not is for me to decide." He called from the sidelines, where he sat with Chee, who had brought out her Bulbasaur to watch our battle as well.
"Now, are the two of you ready?" The professor queried, raising an arm in the air to officiate the battle.
I gently placed Yeller on the ground, and returned to the trainer box.
"Ready."
"Born ready." Blue smirked at me, his silver eyes focused.
"Begin!" Oak swung down his arm to officially start the battle, but it was barely even necessary. Immediately, both Blue and I had given our orders to our respective Pokemon.
""Tackle!""
The two Pokemon charged at one another, testing their might-However, although Blue's Squirtle had trained and grown stronger since before, my Rattata had grown much stronger on top of the S.T.A.B. bonus that had assisted him before. As a result, Yeller easily won the competition of physical strength.
The Squirtle recoiled, holding strong despite the power of Yeller's attack.
"Looks like you still hold the edge in physical power..." Blue murmured, his eyes shimmering a deep sapphire.
...Sapphire?
The colour of Blue's eyes caught my attention again, and I couldn't help but feel like his eyes had been silver until now. Something felt uncanny about his eyes, but I couldn't spare enough attention from the battle to analyse why.
"Squirt! Use Water Gun Barrage!"
The same strategy again?
"Use Quick Attack to dodge it Yeller!"
As we were still feeling each other out, I decided I'd respond with the same tactic as I had last time, counting every water gun along the way. Once the Squirtle had fired 25 blasts, I directed Yeller to actually go in for a hit again.
"Water gun again!" Blue ordered, dramatically swinging his body forward with a heavy stomp and point.
The Squirtle tried to form another ball of water for a powerful special attack, but it dispersed, just the same as last time.
But Blue's eyes weren't panicked as before. "Sure enough, you can tell when it's about to run out of attacks somehow."
I felt a little nervous as I realised what was happening. Last time Blue had battled me, he only took me serious about halfway through, and I'd had him mostly off-guard. That wasn't the case this time, every concession I'd earned through tricks last time was now being given to me as a concession. It was almost as if...
"Yeller! It's a trap!" I called out desperately. "He can still fire!"
And the Squirtle formed a new attack, a membrane of water forming at it's mouth and shooting towards my partner, who dodged aside at the last moment. The bubble floated through the air for a few seconds, before exploding into a powerful blast of water.
I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck raising anxiously. Blue was the sort of opponent you never wanted to meet twice. The sort who remembered every trick and habit you had and would use them against you.
"...I won't be able to get out of this using tricks I've already shown you, huh?" I thought aloud.
Blue's smile widened ever so slightly. "Perhaps. If I were to say, I don't think you've grown enough to win this battle at all."
I glanced around at the battlefield that was already beginning to become muddy, looking for anything I could use to my advantage. Unfortunately, the battlefield was a fairly generic affair with no extra props to use. If there'd been a tree, or a boulder, or even a lake, I had some ideas but...
"...Guess I've got no choice then. I'll have to jump straight to my trump card." I took a deep breath again, calming my nerves. The better strategy still wasn't reliable, so I could only rely on the easier version... Though Yeller's energy would drain like mad.
"Yeller."
The Rattata went stiff, feeling the intention in my words. He shot me a glance as if to confirm my intentions. ...Is it time, brother?
I took a moment to mentally count the number of moves Yeller had used in this battle. Five Quick Attacks had been wasted dodging the water gun barrage, and two tackles in pursuing both the initial clash as well as the incident with Squirtle knowing another water move.
...25 left, even with most of the power for Quick Attack still there it wouldn't last long, but I didn't have any choice if I wanted to defeat Blue.
"Quick Mode."
Yeller nodded at me, and as he stood still the white energy of a quick attack began to trail from his body even though he was remaining still.
A moment later he sped down the field with unbelievable speed, a blitz of white speeding across to the Squirtle's side.
...Two.
"...Tail whip Thrice!"
"Counter using Withdraw!"
Yeller sliced past the Squirtle in a flash of white, slamming it with his tail as he spun past. The Squirtle had managed to bolster it's defences by withdrawing into it's shell, rendering the attack moot. A moment later Yeller touched the ground with a single leg-
And in another flash of white, he'd already landed another defence-lowering Tail Whip, spiralling past the other side of the Squirtle.
"Wha...?" Blue's eyes widened in shock.
...Six.
- Quick Attack
Quick attack as a move is pretty interesting. It's properties are surprisingly similar to Focus Energy when you look closely. The effects of the move can be roughly broken into three pieces.
First: A white energy forms around the Pokemon, boosting it's maximum speed and acceleration.
Second: That white energy begins to redirect all of the Pokemon's speed, and for that first half-second the acceleration is incredibly high-Allowing a Pokemon to get up to high speed immediately.
Third: The Pokemon now gets momentum-locked in to the direction it was travelling, making it much harder to turn or jump without canceling the move. It can be done, but it requires wrestling with the energy. Despite the agility and speed Quick Attack provides, this means that each major turn requires a pause of at least a second, unless you cancel the move.
Quick Attack can also be canceled, but that means abandoning the momentum and power of the attack as they will return to normal within a few seconds of the energy dissipating. Not to mention losing the boost to agility and acceleration it provides. Cancelling Quick Attack into a Tail Whip is a great way to land an attack that normally is hard to use-Since it requires getting in close to the Pokemon.
So with all of this information, let me ask a question, what happens when you cancel Quick Attack into Quick Attack?
The important thing to note is the fact that Quick Attack's starting effect can redirect speed as well as generate it. So by utilising all of that first Quick Attack to generate speed, then using a second Quick Attack to redirect all of the momentum to the direction you want to go, you can reach the top speed of Quick Attack almost immediately. It also allows the Pokemon to make pinpoint turns at the cost of energy.
But there are three large flaws with this technique.
The first is that it costs large amounts of energy from the Pokemon, and every change of direction takes an additional charge of Quick Attack.
The second is that despite the power of the technique, if we want to use any moves other than Quick Attack with that speed, Yeller has to use a charge of Quick Attack immediately afterwards or else he'd start to slow down.
And the Third... Is that it's just plain difficult. If either Yeller or I slip up even a little, Yeller could almost knock himself unconscious with that speed.
"Bubble!" Blue exclaimed, as Yeller once again shot past his Squirtle. With the trio of Tail Whips completed, the Rattata tried to regain his grip on the ground but slipped and went skidding across the dirt, shaking the mud from his yellow fir.
Eight...
I had to keep count to know when Quick Mode would become unusable.
The Squirtle formed and fired another membrane of water, but it was slow moving. I had an idea to potentially win the entire battle. "We can do this Yeller! Get out of the way and use Focus Energy!"
The bubble of water flowed across the field, and Yeller scrambled away from it, he was easily fast enough to get away from an attack that slow without any problems... Or he should have been, a single step away from the place he landed, Yeller tripped onto his side.
What? Even if we hadn't perfected the technique yet, it shouldn't have left him that disoriented...
"Yeller?! Look out, use Quick Attack to get away if you have to!"
Yeller met my eyes, his gaze holding a slight edge of panic. I'm trying! But my foot, it's...
But the rattata limped to his feet, unable to avoid the powerful bubble of water. With a sudden burst, it sent my partner flying across the field. It was easy to tell at a glance that he'd been knocked unconscious.
"Yeller!" I exclaimed, dashing to catch him before he could hit the ground. I just barely made it in time, scooping the airborne Rattata up in my arms as I skidded on my knees across the mud. "I'm sorry buddy, I guess it was still too early to be using Quick Mode..."
I could only reason that Yeller must have hurt one of it's feet doing an instant pivot with Quick Mode-Something similar had happened before- in which case it was my fault that I lost the battle. I thought we'd trained enough to make sure that wouldn't happen, but there was no other explanation.
Sucking up my pride. I walked over to Blue who was no longer even looking at me, staring off at Oak and Chee with a bored expression on his face. I held a hand out for him to shake.
"I'm frustrated I lost, but I only have myself to blame. Thanks for the battle Blue."
Blue looked at me for a moment, an unreadable expression behind his eyes that were definitely still a deep sapphire colour. He turned to look at Oak, a frown growing on his face.
"...Gramps, what did you think of that fight?"
Oak pondered for a moment. "Well, I won't lie, I was hoping Cyan would put up a bit of a better fight. That 'Quick Mode' was an interesting technique for sure, but if it hurts his Pokemon to use it, that's a bad strategy... I guess it was an easy victory for you, huh Blue?"
"I didn't win that battle!" Blue spat suddenly, slapping my hand away. His eyes seemed to flare an even deeper and darker blue. "Are you all blind?! No matter how you look at it I lost that battle!"
Oak let out a deep sigh. "Don't be a sore winner, Blue." He gazed at me carefully. "...It looks like you have to do a little more work before you're ready Cyan, but I think the fact that you even came up with a technique like that is worthy of note. Keep at it." With a warm smile, Oak turned and walked out of the room.
Chee looked at Blue's scowl nervously and walked after Oak, sticking to the back of his coat.
Angrily, Blue pointed an arm at Oak like he was planning to say something. But after a moment his look of anger subsided and he let out a long sigh. His eyes turned back to me and they were appraising for a moment.
And they were still blue, which struck me as odd. Now that I wasn't under the pressure of battle I felt certain. Blue's eyes had changed colours, although I still wasn't sure why.
"...Hey Cyan. You're not an idiot right? Can't you tell something is wrong here?"
I gave him a blank stare.
"Didn't something feel weird about the way your Rattata moved just now?"
I raised an eyebrow at him in confusion.
"Uh, yeah. But I must have pushed him too hard, I already knew we weren't ready to be using the technique so..." As I spoke my eyes drifted to the dry patch of ground where Yeller had been blasted by the large bubble. "...Wait."
I examined the field again. It was littered with various puddles from all the water-based attacks Blue's Squirtle had launched throughout the hectic battle, and yet the place where Yeller was defeated was suspiciously dry.
I walked over to the place I suspected, the splashing of my footsteps turning to a crunch the moment I reached it. In the centre of the patch of dirt was a hole the size of a small coin which appeared to have drained all the water.
"Do you get it now?" Blue asked from behind me.
"Could... Could this be a hole from vine whip?" I asked cautiously. "It looks just like one the holes left after Bulbasaur tries to restrain something from below..."
My mind shot back to the sight of Chee who had been watching my battle. Not only was she there to watch, she'd brought her Bulbasaur out to watch with her.
But thinking back on it, Chee never let her Bulbasaur out of it's Pokeball when she wasn't actively using it. Presumably owing to her trauma around touching Pokemon...
So why was it there today?
"What can I say." Blue clicked his tongue in disappointment. "I guess she really wants you to stay."