Like No One Ever Was

“Alright, both of you, Thunder!” I called out and my two Pokemon followed my command.

Dun raised his tail, the tip of it sparkling with electricity, before swiping it down like a conductor with their baton. The sky answered the unheard song, releasing a lightning bolt down on the empty path before us, scorching the earth.

In the time it took Dun to fire one bolt, however, Rotom had launched three of their own. The Ghost in my phone was for once, outside of it, floating with their blue-plasma body hovering in the air. A slight glow shortly preceded each bolt Rotom called down from the heavens.

They turned around to give me a big grin. “Excellent work you two. Dun, that was great power, your bolt was just as strong as Rotom’s even without the Electric Type. Rotom you called those bolts down very fast and you're not tired yet. That’s great, I know it's a big step up from the Thundershocks you’ve been working with. ”

“Dun dun!” Dunsparce cheered while Rotom just buzzed happily. They couldn't talk to me outside of their phone, but they were quite emotive, and I had it close on hand if we needed any clarification.

“Next, I want you to use Rain Dance, Rotom ,then we'll try again with the Thunder.” I'd planned on training accuracy because I remembered the Move being quite inaccurate in the games, but it looks like that's not the case here. Instead, it seems to be more charge-up speed. Of course, they're accurate against spots on the ground, it's possible the ‘inaccuracy’ comes from moving targets interrupting you before you can execute the attack. I'd look into that later, but for now, we were just practicing getting a basic handle on the Moves.

Rotom tilted, confused, and zipped back into their phone. “What’s the purpose of training in the rain, if I may ask, bzzt?”

“Of course, you can ask. As for that, weather has more effects on a battle than one might think of at first. Rain increases the power of Water Moves and decreases Fire, but it also makes Moves like Thunder or Hurricane easier to use. That's why I got the Rain Dance TM for you and not Sunny Day: Sunny Day would increase the power of your Overheat and protect you against Water Moves in Heat form. Rain Dance will increase the power of Hydro Pump in Wash form, protect you from Fire Moves in Mow or Frost forms, make Hurricane easier in Fan form, and Thunder in every form.”

There was a moment of silence and I wondered if I had overwhelmed them or made some mistake in my logic before Rotom spoke up. “Wow, you put a lot of thought into this, didn't you?” Dun chirped smugly, proud to have such a great trainer, and I blushed.

“I mean, of course I did. You guys are the ones that put in the hard work, so I have to do at least this much.” I was also somewhat constrained by budget. Realistically, I knew I could ask my parents for money if I needed it, and I had tons of allowance saved up over the past year and a half, but I didn't want to. Plus, mastering six new Moves each would keep them busy for a while.

They both had Protect, Hyper Voice, and Thunder to learn. Protect for being a solid shield and an all-around good option for gaining time, Hyper Voice being a powerful special attack that was fast, hard to avoid, and hard to resist. For Rotom it gave good coverage and for Dun, it had STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) and would be a good stepping stone for his ultimate Move, Boomburst. Thunder had plenty of synergies for Rotom, and just gave a good range for Dun.

“Bzzt, should I change to Wash form for this next test? I could also practice Hydro Pump-” Rotom ‘offered’ before I cut them off.

“Nope, still just practicing your base abilities for today. It'll help to give you a handle on the changes you'll feel to your energies in and out of an appliance form.” It was well documented that in addition to the Type changes, Rotom’s also became a bit slower but much tougher, and even a tad stronger drawing from the motors of the appliances.

At the frown on their face I added “Don’t be too eager to change, we'll be starting physical conditioning once you're training in an appliance begins.”

“Must we, bzzt?”

“We must. Every battling Pokemon needs to know how to take a hit.” Except Shedinja, but I'm ignoring that because it's not helpful to this situation. “It's the best way for you to learn some Moves too, like Hex. Dun did a good job demonstrating it for you, but it's still hard for you to grasp the Move yourself, right?”

They nodded glumly, while Dun had a sharp gleam to their eyes, clearly eagerly awaiting this. That being said, I could tell that he was happy to see Rotom doing well with Thunder earlier too, which is nice to see.

Dun's other Moves he had learned were Agility and Air Slash. Agility was just a good power-up Move, to help him match faster foes, while Air Slash would be helpful in training Roost. He'd demonstrated a good level of control over both already.

Rotom was going a bit slower, but I could tell that despite their worries about getting hurt, they were committed to this. It showed in how they left the phone and threw themselves into the Rain Dance, wiggling their plasmid body around. And the world answered, the sky opening up and rain pouring down.

Dun turned, readying themselves with Rotom, and the two gathered lightning once more. This time though, despite the storm only stretching out about a hundred meters across, the lightning came much faster, the rapid flashes of light forcing me to avert my gaze eventually, counting the shots by the boom of thunder left in their wakes.

“Ok, I think that’s good!” I shouted out over the din, and the lightning stopped. Blinking my eyes open, I saw through the rain two lines in the field in front of us burnt black from the bolts that had slammed into it. Dun had landed five bolts in twenty seconds, decent enough for someone just getting used to the Move and that Type of energy. Rotom’s line was over double what Dun’s was, probably managing at least a dozen strikes in that time.

There’s still attacking a moving target, moving yourself while attacking, and general boosts to power and speed to work on, but this is a great start. And really, there’s just something… awe-inspiring about the power Pokemon have. To be able to reshape the elements, the world to your whims, it’s incredible. Of course, it came with a toll. Dun was looking quite pleased with his work, but he was a bit puffed. Rotom on the other hand was swaying mid-air, exhausted.

“Excellent work, let’s- Rotom can you turn this rain off?”

They waved their plasmic arms up, before drooping them back down and shaking their head/body. “That’s fine, let’s get out of here then, I think we’re done for the day.”

We walked down to the beach and I offered them an Ether each, something that Rotom eagerly accepted, and Dun shrugged off.

“Ar, un.” He said to the Ghost, literally sparking chagrin from them.

“Hey now, I’m not coddling Rotom. They did excellently with Thunder, it’s one of the strongest Moves any Electric Type can use.” Rotom beamed at my words. “Especially since I lied about this being the end of Rotom’s training.” They turned to me, shock and horror showing on their teardrop face… until they saw the small smirk on my face. “Psych.”

“Dun du dun,” Dunsparce laughed at them while Rotom fumed, moving towards the phone, which I pulled back.

“Wait, I lied about lying, sorry! But those feelings, right there, of the joke I played on you, try and hone those. Focus on how you want to get me back. Come up with some plan, make a Nasty Plot.”

They concentrated, face flashing through emotions too quickly to keep up until they settled on a frown. After about fifteen seconds, it turned to a cruel grin, one befitting the Dark Type Move, to the point that I would have realized had worked even if I couldn’t feel the ambient level of electricity increasing in the air.

“Well done, ok, now it’s over.” I held out the phone and they quickly slipped back in. “Sorry about that, but I needed to get you in the right frame of mind to use Dark Type Energy.”

There was a light buzzing sound, which felt like incoherent grumbling before they calmed down.

“Bzzt, I understand, even if I don’t like it. Hopefully, I won’t have to use that energy much beyond that, it felt… wrong.”

“Yeah, Ghost Types are pretty diametrically opposed to Dark. Unfortunately, there is another Dark Move you might want to learn eventually, that will help you shore up a potential weakness against those resistant to energy-based attacks.” Foul Play is a great Move to turn someone’s strengths into a weakness.

“I still haven’t even used Will o’ Wisp, bzzt,” Rotom moaned before hastily adding: “I’m not going to be practicing it today either.”

Laughing I said “No worries there, take your break, you’ve earned it. Will o’ Wisp is pretty easily learned by any Ghost Type anyways, and they have worked hard today. They’re growing in a lot of ways, that denial was a lot firmer than usual, well done Rotom. You’re getting more confident every day. Somehow, that thought called to mind an image of a character from my previous life and I stopped.

“What’s wrong, bzzt?” They asked, dropping any wariness in favor of worry for me.

“No no, it’s nothing.” ‘Tails’ wouldn’t work, they never have a tail, and what even is a Prower? But, maybe… “I just- it’s dumb but, I thought of another name for you. Miles.”

“Bzzt, from the ancient Imperial measurement system before Paldea ended such use and switched to the base ten Metric one? I don’t see how it applies to me, admittedly.”

But that’s not a no. Every other suggestion got a swift rejection. “Ok so, it’s dumb because it only makes sense to me. See, I had an idea for a story-”

“Arce ar dun,” Dun complained.

“Hey, I don’t have a story for every little thing!” I faltered as he opened one eye up fully as if to say ‘really?’ “Urk- well, a writer should have tons of ideas! Anyways, this one, I hadn’t even put it down to paper yet, but it involves some really incredible creatures. Uhh, I'll just describe them as Pokemon for now." Since that's how I'll eventually tell this to others. "There’s Sonic, a Shaymin with blue fur that’s super fast, even in land-form. He also had a younger friend, like a little brother to him, Miles ‘Tails’ Prower. They’re a Vulpix who’s a genius inventor, and nearly as fast as Sonic themselves, and together with their friends they fight against the evil Doctor Robotnik and his army of robots. He’s a mad scientist who often captures Pokemon and uses them to power his machines, and sometimes builds amusement parks…”

I shook my head, realizing I was getting off track. “Tails is incredible in a lot of ways, but they feel like they don’t always match up to Sonic. But when they believe in themselves, they realize they’re great too, and help save the world a bunch. Sonic gets a lot of credit, and he fights hard no doubt, but many times he wouldn’t even be able to do anything without Tails. Just there, you reminded me of Tails. Someone smart, driven, and quite strong, who just needs a bit of confidence. Someone who will definitely grow to be one of the greatest heroes in time.”

There was silence after I stopped talking. Did I screw up? Was that weird? I hope not, I should just tell them to ignore it- “You never fail to amaze me, Nemona,” Rotom said softly. “I think Miles is a lovely name.”

“Even though it doesn't fit or make sense to others?”

“I've never truly 'fit', bzzt. Not with the other Rotoms or with other people, not until I met you. If others don’t get it, that’s fine. It’s not their name, it’s mine.” There was a steel in their voice that told me how firm they were, and in this moment I believed they could take on the whole world.

This touching moment was, of course, shattered by Dun asking if he was the ‘Sonic’ in this story.

“Haha, no, you wouldn’t be Sonic. Honestly, you’d be Knuckles.” At my Pokemon’s confused glances, I explained. “So, Knuckles is this Annhilape, crazy strong and tough. He’s the last survivor of his tribe who defended a mystical artifact called the Master Emerald. It and the seven Chaos Emeralds are the main driving forces of a lot of the plot, with Eggman and Sonic and friends chasing after them. In their first meeting though, Eggman tricks Knuckles into thinking Sonic is the bad guy and makes them fight each other. Soon enough Knuckles sees the truth and works with Sonic to stop Eggman, but they still have a fierce rivalry later on, Knuckles and Sonic constantly competing to see who’s best.”

“Dun?”

“Who’s Eggman? Oh right, I haven’t explained yet but Sonic kept on taunting Robotnik by calling him that, which got him infuriated and he ended up making a bunch of mistakes in their prior adventures when anyone taunted him. Eventually, he realized that it was costing him, so he turned around and decided to own the name. Made his own brand out of it as ‘Doctor Eggman’, which soon enough became a name feared around the world…”

***

“And together, Doctor Eggman, his newly adopted daughter Sage, the Porygon, Sonic the Shaymin, and all his friends joined forces and defeated The End!” I finished my long and winding tale. It had many backtracks, places missed where I forgot or only half-remembered details and names, details I had skipped, and even complaints from the crowd.

“Du dun.”

“I must concur, bzzt. ‘The End’ isn’t that inventive of a name for a final foe.” Miles threw in their two cents.

“Oh come on! I didn't write it." Though, I guess in this world I will. I suppose a few edits wouldn't go amiss. “Look, Dun, I don’t think you even know how to write, so you have no room to talk.” He slumped, turning away. “Oh, I’m so sorry, we can work on writing lessons if you want…”

After a long pause, they said laconically “Dun.”

“If you don’t want writing lessons then don’t act like that!” Miles’ case was shaking, sparks flying off and Dun was making his odd hissing sound that I took to be laughter. “I can’t believe it, my own Pokemon, teaming up on me,” I sighed melodramatically but couldn’t keep the grin off my face. This was a great day.

Looking out over the horizon, I saw the sun setting and realized that the day was also coming to an end. “Alright, let’s head back inside for some dinner and recharging. You’ve done great learning all those new Moves so far, tomorrow we can work on mastering them-” Dun lightly headbutted my shin. “What- oh. Right, that Move.”

“Dun.” He nodded seriously.

“That’s fair, you’ve earned it. Thank you for being patient with me. I don’t think we’ll have time to use it much today, but we can give it one shot before dinner.”

I returned him to his Pokeball and pressed the Technical Machine around the opening button, where it began to spin around. You could teach Pokemon TMs without a Pokeball, but the instructions always recommended having them inside. Better for ‘auric information transfers’ or something like that.

After a minute it was completed, and the disc finished spinning and fell off. Dun’s head swayed a bit, seeming a bit overwhelmed by all the information but shook it off fairly fast. “Dun dun!”

“Before you use it, I want to try Terastalizing you. As a Normal Type Move, this will make it supercharged!” Grabbing the Tera Orb with both hands, I threw it above Dun, Terastalizing him.

“Ok Dun, see that cliff there?” I pointed to the small three-story cliff at the end of the beach. “Hit it with the strongest Move you have, Giga Impact!”

He jumped, launching his body forward, and before he was surrounded by the green light of the Move, I could see how he was moving his body differently. The Technical Machine not only imparted Type Energy information, but also the physical information needed to best use the Move, how to shift his muscles just so to maximize his force.

Like an emerald comet, his crystal-covered body smashed into the cliffside. The boom of impact made a shockwave, the sound like a cannon strike washing over me. I blinked my eyes and through the cloud of dust, I saw a massive crater in the face of the earth where Dun had struck, my Pokemon lying at the bottom of the cliff, the Terastalization effect dissipating as his energy dropped.

Miles turned to me with wide eyes, speechless. “... Maybe no one noticed?” I tried.

A large crack spread out from the point of impact, widening and spreading up and down the cliff as a large chunk of it split off from the rest and tumbled into the ocean.

***

“What were you thinking?!”

People did, in fact, notice. The household had been a buzz of activity as we went back inside, the staff wondering if a horde of wild Pokemon were stampeding only to find out that it was just us practicing. Plenty of them had been amused or relieved, but Leah was not among their number.

“We just wanted to try the Move out…” I mumbled, shrinking in on myself. It didn’t feel great to get lectured on this, but I also knew she was entirely in the right for doing so.

“Just look at the damages you’ve caused. The view from this side is ruined…” she trailed off, seeing that the argument wasn’t having much impact on me. “What about any Pokemon living up there?”

“Ahh, I hadn’t thought it would- I’m sorry.” I hadn’t seen any Pokemon fall off from there, but there might have been some who used the cliff as a lookout point, or even for nesting among the bird Pokemon. “We’ll fix it up, I promise.”

That stopped her lecture, leaving her confused. “How do you plan on doing that? We could call in a construction crew but-”

“No, that wouldn’t be me fixing it. Well, me and my team. Dun can learn Ancient Power. We’ll practice it until he can lift the cliff edge parts back in place.” He doesn't know the Move yet, but he should be strong enough to use it by now, and Dun is pretty sharp when it comes to new Moves.

“It’s noble of you, to want to fix your own mistakes,” a new somber voice entered the conversation and we turned to see the stately majordomo enter the foyer where Leah had cornered me. “But it is often better to prevent the problem in the first place than work to fix it after.”

“Ah, Hamber, sir. I didn’t hear you there. Sorry about this.” Leah began, and he waved her off.

“It’s fine, I appreciate your diligence in this matter,” he replied before turning to me, clearly expecting a response.

“I get it, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. I’ll… try to do better in the future.”

“A good goal to have, and one I may be able to help you achieve.” Huh? “Your progress has been prodigious. I’ve reached out to an old friend, who runs a small shall we say, ‘outdoors preparedness training group.’ We call ourselves the ‘Explorers,’ and at my request M- our leader, Gibeon would be happy to accept you into our group.”

“Wow, I don’t know what to say…”

“I would suggest ‘I accept’, Young Miss,” Hamber said so dryly it had me doubled over with laughter.

“Hahaha, oh man, that was good. Of course! Thank you so much. I’d been thinking about getting some training for stuff like that-” I cut myself off before I could ramble too much.

“Think nothing of it Young Miss, I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t think you had the potential to succeed where so many others have failed.” The majordomo said before giving me a brief bow and leaving. Ominous… but that just might be how he is. He has a couple of Ghost Types, doesn’t he? Wonder if that is part of why he’s so mysterious, or if it’s the other way around and his personality meant he was more inclined to catch Ghost Types. Still, very nice of him to offer, I should see if my parents can get him a Reaper Cloth for his Dusclops as a year-end gift.

Leah’s words snapped me out of my thoughts. “Don’t think that you’re entirely out of trouble here. Your parents might ground you once they hear about this.” I raised an eyebrow and looked at her oddly, causing her to let out a sigh. “Fine, we both know that it isn’t likely.”

“I know, and I get trying to make sure I’ll behave responsibly, I appreciate you trying to instill those values in me.” She chuckled helplessly at my words, shaking her head as if wondering ‘What am I going to do with you?’ What indeed. My training has made Dun strong, and Miles is well on their way as well. But I need control too. At the tournament, I nearly lost myself and would have attacked Freddrick. Haven’t been that angry since, well since I was ‘young’, the first time. Before I started practicing martial arts…

“There’s something else I’d like to do,” I told Leah. “I want to start practicing martial arts. I think it will help in teaching me control and good physical exercise.”

“I’ve seen your workout drills, don’t think you need any help with your physical exercise. But if you wish it, we can begin looking for classes.”

“Actually, I had someone in mind. You remember that girl from the tournament, Dendra? I was thinking I could train with her.”

“Ah yes, the loud one. That could work. Tell us what times she’s available and we’ll arrange a schedule for you, Young Miss.”

And now comes the part where I have to ask her. Something I had been dreading ever since the tournament. I’d exchanged messages with Friede a few times, mostly about the past or Pokemon facts, and was always messaging Arven, but I hadn’t talked to Dendra or Tulip much since then, just letting them know I was ok. The fact that Tulip hadn’t messaged me anything since then didn’t leave me with any confidence that she had been impressed with how I acted.

Rather than send the model a message, I decided to put it off and talk to Dendra first.

Nemona: ‘Hey Dendra, I was looking to get some martial arts training and was wondering if you could help me?’

Almost immediately I got a reply back.

Dendra: ‘Osu!’

Dendra: ‘That means yes! I’d love to help you!’

We arranged a time and place to meet up. Given she was still a teenager and not a teacher at Uva Academy, we wouldn’t be meeting there. Instead, she lived in Alfornada and invited me over there next week. Before that, however, I had my first meeting with the Explorers…