Like No One Ever Was

“Nims, you need to hear this!”

“Po pop!”

Cyan and Popplio burst into my room one morning, my sister shoving her Rotom in my face.

“Whoa, where’s the fire?” Blinking as I tried to stabilize myself from falling out of my desk chair I’d been idly leaning back in. Once I was back under control (an effort that I couldn’t claim was helped by Popplio hopping onto my shoulder) I put my homework to the side and took a look at what they were trying to show me.

Cyan had a new article brought up on the phone, a recent one. Scrolling through it I began reading aloud. “Investigation by the League and ‘concerned citizens’… Corruption of tournament officials… Van Grough family disgraced for cheating, Freddrick stripped of championship!?” My voice rose as I took it all in and stood up suddenly.

Popplio hopped off of me and on top of Cyan’s head, something she’d gotten used to. He does like to climb all around and explore everything.

I thought my sister might be a little upset that the breeder's psychics hadn't been able to properly predict the gender of the Pokemon she would get, but the white-haired girl didn't say a single bad word when the topic came up.

“I know, right? Glad that the cheater got caught. You should have won the whole thing!” The Popplio atop her head nodded very seriously as well, even though I knew he had no real knowledge of the topic.

The support goes both ways with those two, I’m glad to see it. My little sister fawned over Popplio in turn every day, so much so that she was almost busier than me with all my new lessons, just looking after the little guy.

Reading the article in more detail, I saw more treachery involved than just the head judge being connected to him, and even that was different than I imagined. Mr. Rovali wasn’t actually Freddrick’s uncle but instead was a close friend of the family who must have been like a relative to the boy (which explained why it wasn’t immediately detected). There was also the fact that the Corviknight was ‘doped’ with Power Herb before the fight.

“Wow, can’t believe that jerk!” Cyan exclaimed, stomping her foot as she read it over my shoulder as well, clearly having just skimmed it before rushing over.

“I know, wasn’t enough that he had to get Mr. Rovali to disqualify me but he was just straight-up cheating too. And there’s suspicion that Rovali was fixing the match order as well.” That one was harder to prove definitively, but it would make sense. That Pawmo might have been a challenge for his Corviknight but was checked by Rika’s Clodsire, who in turn had a tough time against Corviknight.

In any case, the man had been fired and was facing civil and criminal suits. Civil for interference with the gambling organization around the tournament, and criminal for ‘abuse of authority.’ The League was making big statements about how this incident was an outlier and that they’re looking into their structure to make sure nothing like this happens again, standard ass-covering stuff. Still, it’ll be interesting to see if it leads to any big changes.

“Looks like Freddrick’s paying for it at least. He lost his Junior Tourney championship, lost his badges, and can’t compete in any League-sanctioned match for the next ten years at least, they even considered taking away his Trainer’s License!” Cyan shouted at the end, and I sucked in a deep breath. That is a big deal.

Being able to train Pokemon was considered a fundamental right by modern society. Yes, you did have to pass a test, but it was fairly easy and you could retake it however many times it took if you failed. To revoke it though? That meant permanently banning you from having any Pokemon partners, a sentence to live life alone. Especially since it’s a sentence basically only handed down on real criminals like Team Rocket. People who have their licenses revoked are universally shunned by polite society.

I feel like my parents might have pushed people to come down hard on him if this was even considered, though the officials decided not to go through with it. Without any signs of Pokemon abuse or mistreatment, it was never going to go through, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel too much sympathy for the boy after what he did to my first tournament.

Most shocking of all however wasn’t the contents of the investigation, but the identity of the investigator at the end.

“Wait, Geeta found this out?!”

Cyan looked funny at me, which also had her tipping her head back a bit, which almost caused her and Popplio to topple over. She was still getting used to him in some way. “Why is that so surprising? You met her at the tournament. She found you when you ran off crying.”

My cheeks grew red at that embarrassing reminder. “Thanks for that. But I didn’t realize it was Geeta then.” And how could I miss something so obvious? Argh. At her strange look, I tacked on “I’ve talked with Geeta online. She had some good views on Pokemon protection and the like, just didn’t realize those were the same person.”

Before she could ask me anything more about that, I changed topics. “Well, it’s great to hear that Freddrick is getting his just deserts, but I was actually on the verge of heading out. I’ve got a class I need to get ready for.”

“Oh? What is it right now? I keep losing track of your schedule.”

“Well…”

***

“What is the first step you must take when stranded in the wilderness?”

“Get supplies, find somewhere safe,” Amethio said. Not a bad choice, but you’re skipping a step there.

Chalce agreed with my unspoken assessment, shaking her head. Her long, braided dark hair swished back and forth, a few of the ornaments on the ends making a light clinking sound as they tapped each other. She was wearing a white and orange dress with a Japanese RPG character’s amount of belts wrapped around it, with a patch attached to the side holstering a few Pokeballs.

“Those are important, but not the first step you must achieve. Nemona?”

“Assess your surroundings. You need to know where you are, and what’s around you, before making any moves.”

“Correct. Leaping forward can just leave your foot caught in a Stunfisk.” Amethio and I winced at the imagery. Not sure if she’s speaking from experience or not, but that just sounds painful.

We were in a classroom, of sorts. Honestly feels more like an office room that was repurposed to teach us. The single large table with a projector at the end helped sell that image as well. Still, we had notebooks, pencils, and a teacher, so it made due for a classroom.

“When getting your bearings, you need to find out the type of environment you are in. Above ground or underground? Is there any running water nearby? Any cover? What is the foliage like? Is it particularly hot? Humid? Cold? These are the questions you need to ask first when you find yourself in the wilderness. They can give you an immediate idea of the potential resources and dangers around you.”

Amethio let out a sigh, something that Chalce caught, her gaze sharpening on the young boy. “This might seem basic to you, but it’s important to categorize these things carefully. Many a mission has been put in jeopardy because of false assumptions at the start, things that could have been easily avoided if they had paid attention from the start.” Chalce didn’t raise her voice or show aggression, but her stern, thorough method had Amethio avert his gaze, embarrassed while nodding.

I think he’s learning more from this than from Spinel’s spiels. Then again, I think it would be hard to learn less from him. The Explorers were a small organization, or at least I assumed they were, given the relatively few older members we had as ‘teachers.’ The base was sprawling, and I was always given something to do in one specific place or another, so I hadn’t nearly had time to explore it all. Even with that, I could tell it was much bigger than what was needed for the handful of teachers, Amethio, Hamber, and me.

Are the others off on ‘missions’ often? And what would said missions be comprised of? I didn’t know and could tell the others were keeping secrets from me. Except for Amethio, who was probably too young to be trusted with anything like that. I suppose it’s fair though, I’ve got my secrets, which I’ll keep no matter what, so even if Spinel does a shitty job when it’s his turn to teach us, I should let them keep theirs.

Given we were only being taught now though, and by teachers of… varying aptitudes, I could infer that this was likely not often used to teach young people. The other methods by which they induct people remain a mystery-

“Nemona, can you tell me which Pokemon these claw marks belong to.” I snapped my gaze forward at Chalce’s words to the image being projected on the screen.

“Well, there’s several different Pokemon it might belong to,” I began, frantically filibustering for time to better analyze the picture and pretend I’d been paying attention.

“Give me your best guess. And explain your reasoning.”

Urk- ok, I think I’ve got it. “I believe those are Ursal- ahem, Ursaring scratch marks.” She gave me a cool, impassive gaze. “Right, the reasoning, umm.”

“There are three claw marks evenly spaced, that’s the same number that an Ursaring would have on one hand. The gouges are pretty deep into the tree trunk as well, not a lot of other Pokemon would have the strength or sharpness to go that deep - or if they did it would lead to other signs. Sneasil or Scythers would just cut a tree of only a few feet in diameter in half, a Vigoroth would just scratch everything up, not one mark.” There was a slight shift in her eyes and I knew I was on the right track with that idea. Ok, look closer, what else- there!

“Then there’s the top left corner, where I think that’s a Combee hovering in the frame. Ursaring loves the honey Combees make and will often make deals with the Vespiquen, protecting the hive in exchange for honey. So that mark is a warning sign that an Ursaring is watching over this area, to scare off anyone else that might get close.”

Chalce nodded. “Very good Nemona, that was quite the thorough deduction.” I beamed at the praise until she continued. “Except that an Ursaring has five claws, though their fifth claw is on their thumb and thus a bit shorter. Still, an Ursaring would leave four claw marks when marking their territory.”

“So, what was it then?” Amethio asked, just as stumped as I was.

“Nemona’s deduction was quite close, it was a Teddiursa. They were trying to mimic the signs of an Ursaring, hoping it would scare off any predators-”

“Were there three Tediursa stacked on top of each other?!” I couldn’t help but exclaim as I put the pieces together. No other claw marks up the tree, so it wasn’t one Tediursa that just climbed up and left the mark.

Chalce gave me a small smirk. “That’s impossible to say with perfect accuracy… but we did find three Tediursas when surveying the location. Now, onto the next location…” I couldn’t help but grin at the image in my mind of three Tediursas working together like that. Can’t wait till we can get out there and do some actual exploring ourselves!

***

“Osu! Punch left! Right! Left! Keep your knees bent!”

“Yes, sensei!” I called out, following her instructions, sweating profusely. We were starting to hit a good level, where Dendra could tell just how far to push me in our sessions without it going overboard.

“Good job, now let’s move on to punching a moving target.” She grabbed the boxing pads while I took a quick drink of water and put on some gloves to protect my hands before going back to the mats.

Dendra had to kneel to keep the pads at an even level for me to punch at. ‘Not realistic’ I had pointed out until Dendra said that I shouldn’t be picking fights with adults. I then asked her if that meant I should be picking fights with kids, which sent her into a spluttering fit of denials.

In the end, she pointed out that this trained good habits, and I agreed. Dendra would call out for strikes, and I’d punch or occasionally kick into held mitts, my sensei moving them around to the appropriate spot. Every so often, she’d throw one of her hands out as if striking back, though the mitts made it so that any strike even if it would connect wouldn’t have done much harm.

This is good practice and fun, but… “Can we do some actual sparring, sensei? I know you’ll have to hold back, but I want to try!”

The enthusiastic girl frowned instinctually, biting her lip. The teenager was still very nervous about me getting hurt, but I felt better than ever. I’m not made of porcelain after all! It’s been two years since ‘I’ve’ gotten here and I’ve been working out for most of it, and now have weekly sessions with a martial arts expert. I must be as tough and strong as I was in my old body by now, which just says how crazy strong people in this world can be.

I gave her my best impression of Baby-Doll Eyes and she caved. “Fine! We can do some sparring. But let me know if anything hurts, no matter if you think you can shake it off or not.”

“I’m not that bad- yes sensei,” I quickly amended at her stern gaze. We both donned full boxing gloves, helmets, and shin guards for the practice. After it had been decided that I would be doing this regularly my parents had ordered me some of the best gear available, the Hitmon Brand stuff you’d see in specialty stores. I’d also noticed that Dendra’s old gear, which had been ‘well-loved’ to say the least, had been slowly getting replaced with shiny new gear as well (she favored the Blazik Fist brand gear, but had noted that my Hitmon gear was great too).

The heavier gear would limit my ability to use grapples or the like, but that was just the cost of having to spar. Hopefully, if this went well she’d be more willing to go harder in the future. We bowed to each other as was customary to show respect before a fight, and then Meditite tossed an arm down, signaling the beginning of the fight.

Dendra started cautiously, throwing a jab my way. I countered, slapping it just far enough to the side that it missed my head and punched out at her.

She blocked the attack and pivoted, indicating that she was going to go for a Roundhouse kick.

If I’d been the same size as her I might have moved into the blow to grab it and lock her leg against my body, but that wouldn’t work here as the kick would likely be aimed at my head. Sliding back, I let her attack slice through the space I used to occupy, then moved for a step-through side kick (one of the only times my style allowed for my legs to cross, however briefly).

Aiming high, I hit her in the stomach, pushing her back a meter with a grunt. “Osu!” She said an eager smile on her lips before moving back in and striking back.

Punches and kicks were traded more easily after that point, as we ran through our different techniques. Her control is amazing. It was very easy to get too eager in a fight and have your control slip and use a bit too much strength or speed, and I was well aware that Dendra exceeded me in both those areas. She didn’t once go faster than me, though. Despite that, she still landed several more strikes, and more clean hits against me than I could against her, however.

Even keeping to my level, she just had more reach than I did. Trying to get in close might have helped, but she stymied my attempts there, her footwork good enough to shift around whenever I tried it.

Eventually, I went for a flurry of blows a ‘Vertical run’, where I just made a lot of straight punches while running in. It could be surprisingly effective, especially when catching someone off guard. And it did surprise Dendra… for a moment, after a few blows however, she slipped to the side and caught me with a low punch to the gut.

The blow took me off my feet and I hung in the air for a moment before landing back down. I had the instinct to break my fall, slapping my hands out to the side, and distantly noted that the fall didn’t hurt that much. Distantly, because most of my thoughts were on how hard it was to breathe.

“Oh my gosh, Nemona are you alright?!” My sensei rushed over to me

I wheezed for a moment before saying “Fine… just… solar plexus.” Dendra winced and nodded, clearly familiar with that feeling. Getting punched in the solar plexus could make you feel like you couldn’t breathe and would be annoying for a few minutes while that feeling and the pain subsided.

“I think we’re done for today,” Dendra stated, and I nodded.

Once I got my breath back I asked “Could Miles and Meditite have a battle?”

“While you’re like that?” I waved her off, getting back to my feet.

“I’ll be… fine. Besides, they’re the ones that will be fighting.” Meditite perked up and was eager to go, walking over to his trainer and looking up hopefully. Contrary to popular belief, Fighting Types aren’t always eager to fight… but this Meditite does seem to fit the stereotype. She had a Medicham on her team in canon, didn’t she? I wonder if this is the same one.

“Ok, we’ll do it. Osu!” She cheered as we went outside. Once there she asked “How much has your Rotom battled before? Meditite hatched not too long before I met you, and has trained with the team, but hasn’t been in any battles outside of it before.” It was a very reasonable question to ask, especially for a single-stage Pokemon like Rotom. They could range from rather weak to incredibly strong, and unlike in the games you couldn’t just look at a Pokemon and find their ‘level.’

“Oh, Miles has trained a bit against another trainer, a young kid. Other than that, just training with Dun and I.” I would have challenged Arven to a fight, but he had been pretty busy recently with his dad, and I didn’t want to take any of that time away from him. “Where did you get the egg from?”

The question caused Dendra to stop mid-stride for a moment before Meditite tugged at her gi pants and she shook it off. “Ah, Tulip gave his egg to me after… my parents passed away.”

“Oh. Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“No no, it’s fine,” she said with a bit too much cheer, though even that quickly faded to genuine happiness. “Meditite has been great for me, but I gotta do my part as a trainer for him too.”

I nodded, feeling the exact same as I took my place opposite her on our usual battlefield. We didn’t have Pokemon battles after every session, but it was a common enough occurrence.

“Yeah, let’s have a good battle.”

“Osu!”

***

"Ooom... I would like to know more about Aura... Ooom..." The almost imperceptibly huff of air from the other side of the dojo told me that Tulip wasn't as amused as I was with my antics there. Or maybe I've suddenly manifested Psychic Type energy, I thought sarcastically before shaking that thought off and opening my eyes.

The fashionable teen across from me had her eyes open as well. "This meditation doesn't work if you keep on getting distracted."

"I can't focus right now anyway, so might as well make this time informative, right?" I asked, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice. While we'd only met a few times, I'd been working hard at trying to meditate at home, but to little avail.

I was not sure if she saw what I was feeling there or just decided it wouldn't hurt to go over the basics a bit more in-depth, but she nodded. "As you know, every person and Pokemon in this world has some internal energy colloquially referred to as 'Aura'. It's a bit different for humans than Pokemon in what can be done with it; we don't have Moves, no instinctive formalized constructs we form with Aura, not even those gifted with very strong Auras."

Would I be considered 'very strong' among active Aura users? Tulip has said I have more potential than she does, but she also considered herself fairly weak. In any case, I should probably just be happy that I have some talent with it to start; someone without that talent wouldn't have my superior senses or anything like that, to begin with, and would have to work a lot harder under a great teacher to even begin showing signs of active Aura use.

She continued, ignoring the constant whirring of my mind. "Aura users can use techniques, shaping the energy in generalized ways based on whatever Type they lean most to. Things like someone with a Fire Type Aura conjuring sparks by snapping their fingers, or someone with Water Type Aura breathing underwater."

"Ok, that makes sense, general manipulation and adaptation to the element your Aura corresponds to. What about the weirder Types?" At her quirked thin eyebrow, I expanded. "Like sure, Ice might give you cryokinesis and make it so the cold never bothered you anyway, but what about something like Bug or Dragon?"

"Many Bugs are known for their ability to crawl anything, so you might develop the ability to stick on walls. Dragons... are very intimidating?" She tried, and I smirked, realizing that part of her snappishness before was because she didn't actually have an answer to the 'dragony draconic ness' comment I had made off-hand.

She frowned, but quickly expelled such frustration, her facial expression becoming neutral once more. I wonder if that's a skill from her model training or her Aura training. Maybe both.

"I'll admit, I hardly know everything about Aura and all of its different Types. Even then, you'll likely innovate expressions of your Type in your own unique ways. The element can give you a framework, but don't let it be a limitation to what you can do with it."

"Alright, thank you, Tulip. I just wish I had a better idea of what my Aura is so I could know how to better use it." Within what I said was an almost fully buried frustration, at how she still hadn't told me what her own thoughts about my Aura were.

"Keep at it. If we don't get anywhere before next time, then we'll try something different." At the slightly worried look on her face, I threw myself back into my meditation, hoping that this time I could get it and we wouldn't have to do whatever was bothering her. Unfortunately, that session ended like the others, without me being any closer to my goal.

***

“Miss Glitterati, this is most unexpected,” Hassel answered with his own Rotom Phone. I could see a rather green living room on the other end, the Elite Four member himself sitting on a burgundy couch. “What are you calling about?” It was a fair question, I didn’t call or talk to Hassel outside of our lessons, not wanting to impinge on his free time.

Time to ‘face the music’, I suppose. Taking a deep breath, I began. “Sooo, I was practicing a couple of days ago, like you said. And uh, I did some strumming with my fingers, and well…” I held up my hand as I trailed off.

“My dear! How did that happen? I only asked you to practice for half an hour. Even finger-picking shouldn’t have caused that.”

“... when I said I practiced ‘like you said’, I mean I practiced the chords you specified for a duration of time that may not have matched what you specified, which is very similar to what you said.”

“Nemona,” he growled out, and in this moment I could see how the stoic artist was indeed the draconic guardian of the Elite Four.

“Anyways, I just wanted to call you and let you know for tomorrow we should probably practice stuff like sheet reading or singing.” I tried, retracting my bloody fingers out of camera view.

“This girl,” Hassel muttered, and I heard another voice from that side of the screen go “Hmm?” The Rotom tilted up a bit and I saw a familiar man with wild green hair standing behind the couch.

“Ah, hello Brassius. Sorry for taking up your time again, Hassel, just wanted to give you a heads up, ok bye-”

“You know of me?” Brassius questioned before I could hang up. Opening my mouth, I then immediately closed it. Darn it, he’s not a Gym Leader yet!

“Uh yeah, you’re an artist, right?”

He frowned, nodding. Or maybe just drooping his head, it was hard to tell. “That’s right, though of late I’ve found little inspiration to ply my craft. I’m surprised you could recognize me.” Because you aren’t super famous yet, nor a gym leader. Right, need to get off of that topic.

“Oh, that sucks.” It was true, it did. Writer’s, or in this case, Artist’s block sucked, and I didn’t have a great answer for him on how to fix it.

“Umm, I’m not sure if this helps, but me and my sister make these comics. I do the writing for them, and she draws them. I could send some over with Hassel tomorrow and see if they can spark anything?”

He gave me a sad smile, clearly not expecting anything to come from this, but having the tact not to say such a thing to a little girl. “That sounds wonderful, Miss Nemona.”

“Alright, thank you, and sorry again, bye!” I quickly said, hanging up before I could further embarrass myself. After taking a moment to gather my thoughts I said to Miles “Ok, I need to look up everything Brassius has ever made in case Hassel asks me any questions about it.”

“Wait, you don’t actually know of him, bzzt?”

“I know he will be the Grass Type Gym Leader of Artazon someday, and he’s made this famous statue called the ‘Sundering Sunflora’- wait no, ‘Surrendering Sunflora’. Actually, I don’t even think he’s made that one yet.”

“Your future knowledge is incredible. Bzzt, it never fails to amaze me what you know, Nemona.” They said in an awed tone.

“It never fails to amaze me how much I can nearly mess things up even with that knowledge.” I groaned. After slapping my cheeks to get me out of that funk, I refocused. “Alright, let’s get to work.”

***

While that was how a lot of my days went, I wasn’t the only one learning and growing.

“Go, Hex!” Dun gave the large fan Miles was possessing an evil grin before charging up the Ghost Type energy, and I swear I heard a large ‘gulp’ from Miles before it hit, despite the physical impossibility of such an action.

Dark purple ephemeral shadows surrounded Miles, who winced at the attack but managed to shake it off.

“Miles, Shock Wave, Dun Protect!” Both my Pokemon responded to my commands, Miles spreading out a wave of electricity expanding all around them in a large sphere that covered the field we were training in. Dunsparce quickly dropped the ghostly assault and conjured a far smaller spherical barrier of their own, easily weathering the electrical attack.

“Drill Run!” Dunsparce turned around, his tail spinning fast and he accelerated backward. The drill tail cut halfway through the dirt and churned up the ground, spraying dirt all around as he sped under the Rotom Fan. Miles wasn’t even touched by it, their innate Levitate ability and Flying Type easily letting them drift above any dirt that would have been spun up towards them.

“While he’s doing that, Nasty Plot, quickly!” Miles smirked, conjuring wicked plots, or perhaps simply anticipating what would be coming next. After my starter had cut a few paths through the grass, I said “Miles, Thunder, hit Dun… 5 times. Dun, take it.” The land snake gave a small sigh before giving me a small, determined nod.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

The sound of the impact washed over me as the lightning bolts came down. As I blinked the spots out of my vision, I saw Dun, singed but still conscious. He’s twitching a bit, probably Paralysis. I ran towards him and gave him a few sprays of Paralyze Heal and he was moving smoothly again. “How are you doing Dun?”

He gave me a flat stare. “Un.”

“Sorry, I know this part sucks, but I think you’re getting a lot closer to mastering this. Just gotta push a little harder.” Then turning to Miles I said, “You know what’s next, kick it up!”

Quickly darting out of the way, Miles began spinning their fan fast, the air whipping up the field. Burnt grass and dirt rose into the air, as the wind started swirling around Dun. They’re getting a good handle on their different elemental forms. Miles is nearly horizontal with Dun but is making the Hurricane spiral vertically around Dun. Fan was one of the Forms we had practiced with the least, so I had high hopes for how well they’d do in a serious battle.

The wind gathered enough speed to lift Dun into the air, something Dunsparce assisted with, flapping his little wings to rise even higher with it. Peaking over a hundred meters in the air, he crested above the whirling winds below him and drifted above the world. Wow, must be great to be that high up and just look down on… everything.

My Rotom stopped making the winds wild, and as it died down I shouted up at Dun. “Descend and Roost!” Dun pulled his wings back, entering into a steep dive, and as I saw his face, for some reason I couldn’t help but think of Dwayne Johnson for a moment.

Flaring his wings hard, he managed to slow his fall at the last moment, a few bursts of wind helping cushion his landing, likely being modified Air Slashes. Excellent thinking, that will get him feeling the Flying Type energy he needs to then ‘lose’.

On the ground, Dun settled down, curling into a circle and flapping his wings down before resting them on his body. As he settled in, I saw the scorch marks marring his scales fading away before my eyes. “Excellent work Dun, thanks for putting up with that.” He gave a pleased cry in return, snapping back to battle readiness in an instant.

Roost is a weird Move. It gives healing as great as the famed ‘Recovery’ that few Pokemon can learn, but it causes you to lose your Flying Type… but not every Pokemon that can learn it has the Flying Type. Dunsparce was one of those exceptions, and this Move was going to be incredibly important for a tanky Pokemon like him to use. Because of that, it’s basically free healing for him. Of course, not being the greatest flier ever means it can be tough for him to tap into that Move.

The Move was getting better, but not perfect yet. Even now, I could still see a few red spots on his scales, where the recovery wasn’t complete.

“That was great, both of you. Dun, you’ve got the Move, now we just need to get you using it even when you’re on the ground. Practice your Air Slash on those three trees, work on the precision and strength behind each as well as feeling the Flying energy, and the drop between it.”

“Dun.” He got to work right away, undeterred by any fatigue from his efforts thus far. To Miles, I pulled out the Rotom Oven from my Sliph bag.

“Get into Heat Form and we can practice Will O Wisp. It’s got a lot of ghostly connections, but it is still a Fire Type Move. Conjure the flames several times and try to move each of the flames independently of each other.”

“Ro-to-to.” Miles agreed, slipping out of the fan and into the Oven, which they possessed and began controlling. I shoved the fan back into my bag and watched the two of them go at it.

Dunsparce was flapping his wings back and forth, shifting his body as he did so (not dissimilar from how I’d move my shoulders when punching in martial arts, I noticed). Ripples passed through the air, gouging into the tree, each one hitting just a few centimeters above the last.

Out in the open air, Miles was ‘spitting’ out purple flames in clusters of three at a time, the oven door swinging open to let the flames out each time. With six groupings of three, they began making them dance through the air. The first two clusters moved in a helix pattern, but trying to add more just had the others or the ones they were controlling already drifting off.

“Try controlling just one group at a time, but push the others forward on a trajectory to meet them,” I offered, and rapidly they began making quick micro-adjustments to push them through the air, closing in like a net on an imaginary target.

That’s great. They’re both getting so strong and capable. Dun has been mastering so many different Moves, and Miles is catching up fast, getting stronger every day. The rest of Paldea isn’t gonna know what hit them once we start taking it on.

Though the Pokemon nearby might have an idea since they were already giving us a wide berth - the devastation and power my team could bring was well known by all the local Pokemon, and few of them wanted to challenge us. In turn, I made sure to double-check that none of the environments I was using as target practice would be putting some poor Pokemon in the line of fire or ruining their homes.

As our training came to a close with the setting sun, I gave Dun his last order. “Agility a couple of times, then Last Resort.” Dunsparce started slithering around, picking up speed as the blue psychic aura surrounded him. Moving faster and faster until he was a blur speeding around in a circle and eventually launching himself out at a small boulder he had formed earlier today with Ancient Power.

As he flew towards the target, I noticed something different with the Move. Instead of being surrounded by star-like energy, there was a rainbow corona as he corkscrewed towards the rock, smashing into it head first and shattering it into a million pieces.

“Whoa, what was that?”

“I do not know, bzzt,” Miles said from their phone form. Their stamina was improving quite a bit, but Dun could go on for days if he needed to, so Miles would often need to take a break before Dunsparce did.

I ran over to Dun and saw that he had a large bump on top of his bulbous head. “Ouch,” I hissed, taking out a Potion to spray over the injured area, and he sighed in relief. “Well, I don’t think that was Last Resort. Probably some sort of recoil Move, maybe Take Down? We can look it up later. In any case, it’s quite strong,” I waved a hand at the multitude of pebbles scattered around.

“Duuun.” The Dunsparce said with a measure of tired pride.

“Let’s go home-” Miles started ringing a custom theme I’d made for him. Answering the call I said, “Hey Arven, what’s up?”

“This is what’s up!” The young boy on the other end exclaimed eagerly, pointing at a lighthouse behind him. Hmm? That lighthouse looks familiar- are those movers in the background?

“Wait- you’re moving here? Like, right next door to me!?” I squealed. I can’t believe it’s happening so soon. We’ve come so far, but it feels like only a few weeks. Time just keeps moving on huh?

It was a bittersweet feeling, as I was so happy to be here, but also sad for what I had lost. But even that pain is dimming with time. I’ll do my best to cherish my loved ones from my past life, but Nemona- I have so many friends and family I care for here, and that’s what I have to focus on.

“Hey, Nemona, you there?”

“Oh right, sorry, just lost my train of thought.”

The boy laughed. “Haha, you can be so airheaded sometimes. Wait, are you crying? Is everything ok?”

“It’s fine, must be some dust in my eyes. Dun’s been kicking up a storm with all his new Moves! Look,” I said, having Miles show him some of the results of our training. My tone was happy and calm all the way through, to help sell the fact that there was nothing to worry about. And there really is. I don’t want to burden him with all the knowledge I have.

Arven shivered. “Uh oh. I don’t think Maschiff should battle you when you come over.” The dog Pokemon in question agreed, whimpering and hiding behind Arven’s legs.

“Aww. Oh well, guess that means I’ll have plenty of time to spar you then. I’ve been training a lot too, ya know?” I said rolling back a sleeve and flexing my arm.

He froze for a moment before turning away from me and towards Maschiff. “I need you to take one for the team.”

“Maschiff!?”

“She is going to beat my butt-” It was hard to make out anything more distinct from there as Arven tried to push Maschiff forward, the Dark Type having none of that and trying to remain behind him. They fell in a pile, tumbling and roughhousing around.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow, ok?” Then I hung up, leaving them to their squabbles. Should be fun to see Arven again… and I might be able to find out what Turo’s been up to.