home

search

Working a 9 to 5.

  Starting his illustrious career as a gym trainer, a month in. Carlos had fallen into a routine of working 5 days and spending the weekends with Cory.

  The first week had been him and Surge, who seemed very eager for Carlos to get started, going out together into the wild or areas, with electric Pokemon, with Surge selecting the mons for Carlos to catch and giving him guidelines on what he could train them in and how long per day.

  Surge was a rather forceful man when it came to pokemon. But the laws of the strongest, weighed heaviest with Pokemon. The 9 gym Pokemon, all identical to the point he couldn’t keep them apart, for 1-3 badges he was working with currently, hadn’t complained once.

  He asked them a few times if they were ok with the arrangement but all he got was a nod, blank stare or a shrug. Surge had moped about not getting many 4 badge and up, matches. Practicality, had forced Surge to alter his plans for Carlos and make him the defacto 1 to 3 badge gym trainer. The gym was lacking gym trainers for that level.

  Gym trainer workload for those badges was high, low paying and not very desired.

  Taking all those things into consideration. Carlos was apparently very effective as a gym trainer. 9 out of 10 trainers got trounced so hard including with typing advantages, that it quickly earned him the name of Drill sergeant, something that seemed to spark the competitive nature of trainers. Surge was already making plans for Carlos to get a 4th and 5th badge. The need for a second trainer, kept increasing.

  The Gym was getting a steady influx of trainers dead set on beating Carlos. A few trainers managed to beat Carlos on the second or third try due to typing advantages but most took about 4 tries. Surge told him to keep it up. The sheer quantity of trainers losing, brought in the dough.

  He was already getting respectful nods and from time to time discounts when he purchased stuff for his Pokemon.

  He had been flabbergasted at how BAD people were at this level. Stupid, didn’t even begin to explain it. And the arrogance a lot of them showed was downright infuriating. Apparently humans needed to get used to the sense of power they got from owning their own piece of living military equipment, as was apparent in their complete misjudged many situations, getting their Pokemon injured.

  He ruthlessly crushed almost all of them. Electric types were very good at crushing idiot delusions of power and it was a necessary process, as far as he was concerned. half of these kids had the talent but purely because of their arrogance and stupidity, Carlos simply didn’t trust these fools to survive on their own.

  He got a lot of angry calls from overprotective moms or dads. Surge told him to hang up the phone if he got such calls. He would deal with them if they showed up. Surge was very happy with Carlos noob stomping.

  Heck any overprotective mother showing up at the gym, ended up leaving quickly because if Surge took a liking to em he began relentlessly flirting with them. Which usually made them leave. People were definitely a lot more hands on in this society, both men and women had no issues with appropriate touching.

  The limitations placed on him as a gym trainer, with matches for 1 to 3 badges, were ridiculous in his opinion. Only electric moves. Only one buffing move per Pokemon and to top it all off, he was only allowed to use endure plus 4 moves, that were preregistered on the website with every gym fight he had done on video. so everyone got to look it up and saw his straight cut strategies. Surge was working on streaming services too. The man was a hustler if nothing else.

  He understood perfectly why he had these limitations. Although the Pokedex could measure vitals, moves, somehow levels and the newest models, abilities. There was no accurate statistical representation for stats, hp and TE like the Arceus system he had the privilege of using.

  However people must have realized millennia ago that if a Pokemon beat another Pokemon of higher level, the gains they had as far as power, were substantially more.

  This discovery, is what the entire Gym circuit was based on. This is why the Gyms were respected. Why a gym leader’s word weighed heavier than the local government. They provided protection and gave you the opportunity to attain power for yourself. Government was effectively an organization to deal with all the paperwork.

  The gyms were a way to ‘game the system’ so to speak. For young trainers to receive the proper growth spurt for their Pokemon.

  So far Working 8 hours for 5 days wasn’t that bad, he still needed to train his Pokemon early in the morning or evening so it was more like 50-60 hour work weeks. But with it was very doable, with his enhanced endurance.

  He taught Kong the move, mach strike in the first week. Carlos used it a bit differently than Kong but that was to be expected.

  They had switched up Kong’s focus on defense, to improve his reflexes from now on. Carlos felt that due to the nature of Detect and counter being staples, Reflex was a better stat to train then Defense.

  Carlos thought it to be a shame. But alas Kong would never be a tank as successful as Gwen or Loki. Kong was a beefy all round offensive fighter, singularly focused on crushing his opponents into the ground, repeatedly if needed. All his defenses existed for the sole purpose of supplementing his berserker offense. Existed so he could get close no matter what.

  Surge and Carlos had visited Bruno a minor gym leader located in Saffron City. Bruno was not known for his gym but because he was one of the Elite four, like Carlos, he was an auric fighter.

  Surge definitely had the electric TE to become one as well but according to Bruno it required a specific mindset for each typing. A mindset that Surge didn’t really have. Didn’t help that electric typed auric fighters were close to zero, so Surge never had the opportunity to apprentice as one.

  Seeing the potential of high level trainers really brought home how large this world was. Apart from his secret Arceus systemic , he simply was an above average sprout among many.

  Both gym leaders apparently got together for a drinking match from time to time. After Bruno got Inebriated, he was kind enough to Teach Kong the move Quick Guard.

  Further cementing reflex as a prime stat for fighter Pokemon. Carlos learned that Kong, and by extension all fighter Pokemon, understood things through motion. Motion was something instinctual, Mankey’s were as instinctual as they came.

  Carlos felt he would never feel the essence of fighting, what it meant to be strong, as strongly as he did with Kong. The bond with your starter Pokemon was no joke, at least not for Carlos. It was almost frightening in a way, how intense he experienced it from time to time. For all intents and purposes, he had 3 starters. His life, his chest felt like bursting with what he had gained in such a short amount of time and he got an awesome girlfriend to boot. He found himself tapping wood, although he didn’t know why, he couldn’t remember why tapping wood was important.

  He shook his head, bringing himself back to watching Kong practice Mach strike, the move consisted of a quick one two, strike. The first strike made the fighter relax by focusing on throwing the punch with deep exhalation of their tension with their breath, loosening their muscles and mind.

  Then it followed up with a second strike still loosened up and relaxed, hit less hard but doubled in speed as a result. The thing was, Kong could perform mach Strike in various ways. He even did a double head butt at some point but the part that excited both Carlos and Kong, was how he could switch out the second strike with another move, albeit with reduced damage. Again showing his monstrous talent. Mach strike wasn’t supposed to be able to do this. Part of why Bruno had taught him Quick guard was, so he could get telemetry on Kong using Mach strike. Apparently Kong had already changed the move into something of a signature move. The first part of the move was so natural to Kong it no longer had any intensity.

  Kong’s explosive speed and combo potential with moves, shot through the roof. The added bonus to reflexes was just adding insult to injury to Kong’s opponents.

  Kong absolutely loved the move. He was enamored by learning and mastering the technical aspects of using the centrifugal force of his own body.

  Carlos was told by quite a few obnoxious know it all trainers, the move wasn’t optimal for Mankey. He read about some ace trainers ragging on forums, on the early quick power of it and then never using it again. He ignored it for the most part but it got him to do a bit of thinking on the path of Kong.

  He sure as hell wasn’t going to rip Kong’s enthusiasm down. he saw Kong numerous times practicing the move at night alone. Kong had his temper, but Carlos saw that practicing Mach Strike, gave something to Kong, something Kong wanted to fully grasp something other than strength. Why or how this was happening, neither knew, neither cared. Carlos saw the sliver of peace each time the crazy, lovable, angry furball went through the motions for the thousandth time, finally learning what it meant to relax, by exercising like an absolute maniac.

  Bruno had also quickly dispelled any doubts he might have had. Reminding him how important different types of fighting motions were to Fighter Pokemon, and mixing different types of TE shaping and intent, was integral to their growth. Carlos took Bruno’s advice a lot more seriously than what he read online. The fact that Bruno was one of the few on the globe that could consistently evolve Machoke’s into Machamp, definitely weighed in as well. A subject Bruno refused to talk about. Only saying that: “It’s all about trust and resolve first. Without those two as an absolute quantity for both trainer and Machoke it shouldn’t even be tempted.”

  After a bit of thinking and pondering, he also realized all the advice, in regards to Mankey’s online, was always colored subconsciously because almost everyone believed it a foregone conclusion that you trained your Mankey for the Annihilape evolution.

  Carlos began to see, he had a very different look on life and how you should train someone.

  Most trainers used pure/double fighting types as a jackhammer, not a refined tool, Kong was a finely tuned jackhammer.

  Kong and him were on barely trodden ground by slowly but steadily veering away from the tried and true method of how you trained a Mankey or by extension a pure or a fighter/normal type.

  Carlos wanted power but he couldn’t and wouldn’t sacrifice his bonds, his relationships for that. By making that decision internally, fully resolved with no regret. He found himself sitting next to Kong on a night with a full moon. Catching Kong’s eyes, out of the corner of his own. Glimmer with gratitude, while sharing a bottle of fermented rice.

  Something he had never seen in Kong before. Carlos then knew Kong had known the intent and direction of Carlos recent thoughts, discussions and research on the Pokenet and had comprehended what going down the road of Annihilape meant, not for the first time Carlos saw the comprehension Kong had of him and the world around him. What struck him, was the complete natural expectation that he would pick the best path for Kong. He felt the weight of responsibility as a Trainer then but was at peace with it.

  Carlos for the first time since coming here, had to fight his tears at this emotional moment, silently sitting together as brothers, they had been together in a very intimate way for almost half a year now, he had one tear drop on the side facing away from Kong, couldn’t have Kong think and mock him for thinking he was a whimp. They didn’t say a word, neither had a single regret about the choice of their path. A path he began to realize, they would share for a long time.

  Dianne spend a lot of time with Gwen. Quickly becoming inseparable as sisters. Dianne often acting as the older sister keeping Gwen out of trouble. Gwen wasn’t naughty, not exactly although Loki certainly attempted to put her up to it. She just didn’t understand social dynamics at all, the concept of possession or property went completely over her head.

  which would have gotten her into a lot of trouble if it wasn’t for Dianne, it still got her in a lot of trouble whenever Dianne wasn’t around.

  Dianne naturally learned the Moves hone claws and foul play. Seeing Dianne learn moves so easily, definitely gave a lot of credence to everyone’s claim that his first three mon’s were abnormally gifted.

  The routine with Dianne lately, was him grooming her fur at night to perfection, while she rambled on about her insufferable big/little sister raiding the pantry, again. Surge and his Pokemon team, definitely didn’t help in the discipline Carlos tried to enforce.

  Dianne was constantly hounding them, not to feed Gwen snacks but it became a game of cat and mouse. Or Dianne and Surge, Surge had a very playful petulant side to him that his true team shared.

  Carlos saw Surge have a paternal weakness against little girls attacking him with puppy eyes and Gwen registered as such. She always made sure his beers and appropriate liquors, were ice cold, so they had an understanding.

  To Carlos surprise, one of the first things Surge set up, when he was officially made a gym Leader. Was a program together with the local orphanage and schools, setting up kids with potential as a trainer with a good electric starter from the Gym Pokemon out of rotation. and get the rest of the kids a good start for their coming of age journey, often assisting them in catching their starter in the local wilds.

  Surge quickly became known in the orphanage and local schools as “uncle Surge.” All the little girls, and teenage girls, ruthlessly hustled him for whatever they wanted with puppy or teary eyes or blatant guilt tripping. More often than not, he caved. The last two weeks Carlos decided he needed to come along, play a little bad cop to Surge’s coddling cop. It won him a great deal of favor with their bookkeeper. Funds were still a bit tight.

  It was an odd dichotomy to see such a roughntough brash man so ruthless and violent in his matches, cave so quickly,

  Carlos didn’t know what to make of it. Especially since Surge was such a player with women. This month alone Carlos had counted 3 nice kind ladies, that if he didn’t know they were sleeping with Surge, he would never have pegged them for the promiscuous type, the women Surge courted were always a little older than him, yet he never gave any signs he would settle down.

  Whoever he was with, seemed to understand or didn’t care. One lady he asked gently about a wedding ring she was wearing. She got a pained look off loss he had come to recognize. Carlos immediately apologized for asking. She was a war widow. He wondered if Surge had something similar happen but he didn’t ask.

  Dianne’s training currently consisted of her turning Shadow clones into a cardinal move, it was an utter bullshit broken move and they were going to abuse it. which meant her training sessions were short. Blasting through her TE. Further supplemented by training to keep her speed and reflexes sharp. The fact she could use Shadow clones, while she hid in the shadows made it utterly bonkers broken. Rookie trainers were scared of Kong. Veteran trainers had worried looks when they saw Dianne train. Carlos wasn’t sure why barely anyone hounded him about the unique moves, His dark sinister smile whenever they attempted to approach was definitely not to blame.

  With Gawain, he had the cyndaquil focus on his Sunny day and Ember. Focusing on TE control, either as powerful as possible or as weak as possible, Gawain had a long arduous road when it came to his Fire TE.

  The Typhlosion line instinctually depended on either blaze or the flash fire ability to use their fire moves. Gawain was a talented, intelligent and driven Pokemon, with a keen sense for combat that bordered on fighter Pokemon instincts.

  But Fire TE was difficult for him, Carlos distinctly saw Gawain struggling way more with chaining ember then his other moves.

  He was quite literally missing part of his instincts in order to use it, with focusing on 2 moves with opposing fundamentals, he hoped Gawain would find a way to master his fire and gain control over his fire TE.

  Ember was a biological move, it was naturally learned and produced by his body, like breathing in and out. The organ that allowed a Cyndaquil to channel fire TE was smaller than his peers. According to any Nurse joy he talked to, this would persist and hopefully fade when he evolved.

  Sunny day however was a Pyrotechnical move, it relied more on mental and intellectual prowess. Sunny Day was a weird move in a way. It wasn’t so much a fire move as it was classified on the Pokenet as a solar move.

  Solar typed moves were considered dual typed fire/grass moves, both fire types and grass types could learn them, trail blaze, solar blade, solar flare and solar beam all were solar moves. The overwhelming majority of trainers and researchers stood by this explanation, it was the only way it made sense. Fire and grass otherwise, were completely incompatible.

  Solar moves definitely followed the fire typing as far as who was vulnerable or resistant to it.

  There were a few moves that fell into pyrokenetic’s dual typing. Will-o-whisp which could be learned by ghosts, Mystic fire, which could be learned by psychics. And flame dance which could be learned by Fairy types.

  Carlos had misunderstood months ago that Gawain combined ember with swift during his survival period in the mountains. Gawain had in fact combined, sunny day, solar energy, with swift.

  Gawain seemed to have a knack for the pyrotechnical or as it was commonly called pyrokinetic’s. One day he hoped someone with a friendly Delphox or ninetales could help him out. Alas very few trainers in the indigo league had one of those or were willing to divulge their training methods.

  They valued their privacy, is what they said but it was blatant purist fire type elitism on the net, when he told them of his struggles with Gawain he could hear the collective scoff over the Pokenet. His dark TE flared and he was halfway in finding the address of the multiple POS’s, before he took a deep breath and turned off the computer.

  So Carlos and Gawain focused on the basics for now. Gawain clearly enjoyed practicing Sunny day more than ember. He started putting money to the side so he could get Gawain more pyrokinetic moves in the forms of TM’s Which were expensive.

  The Long distance relationship with Cory, once practical reality settled in, wasn’t as bad they both first thought. They called every night, talked a lot and to his surprise he received a weekly stipend as a league official for personal use, for the teleportation pads. So he spend all his weekends with Cory.

  Cetoddle had been baptized with the name Gwen, meaning divine or white, and Pawniard with the name Loki, due to his relentless pranks, which were mostly harmless, like buckets with water balanced on doors slightly ajar and such. Loki was utterly serious about his training but the monotony drove him mad.

  Gwen remembered everything and was actually quite obedient when Carlos told her to do something. She would do it then wander around for food. Her species naturally developed into to its full potential as long as she had enough food and all Carlos needed to do with Gwen was train her defense stat and her moves.

  Loki was more difficult. Carlos had him on a routine to become the worlds most obnoxious Pokemon but that required Loki to run himself ragged so he could begin expanding his TE reserves. The basic idea was outlast and tire them out with bullshit. Carlos had to invest quite a bit of extra time in keeping an eye on Loki, often Carlos would find him slacking off planning another prank.

  by taking a lot of beatings from both Kong and Dianne, while rotating defense utility buffing moves, both Gwen and Loki made great strides in sharpening their defense.

  Loki also improved his TE control and his reserves began to expand but it was still his Achilles heel. He ran out of fumes faster than everyone else.

  Carlos resolved to fix that. In his mind TE was synonymous to survival. It didn’t matter how high your stats were. Most Pokemon could easily quadruple one or two of their stats for short bursts of time.

  Moves were essential in your Survival and thus whoever ran out of TE first, would generally lose. Especially Gwen and Loki, who Carlos trained as defenders.

  Carlos for the first time since coming here, came face to face with an actual challenge in training Pokemon. It was a subtle thing actually. Both Gwen and Loki made strides in sharpening their stats, which was a big relief for Carlos. Who had initially thought stat increases on level up were final.

  Progress notwithstanding, what bothered Carlos was how slow their progress was when it came chaining moves, the Gym Pokemon he was responsible for, were so bad he didn’t even think he would ever get them to do it, in the month of training there was no visible progress whatsoever, with any of the gym Pokemon.

  Carlos had gotten so used to Pokemon chaining moves together back in the hollow mountains, that the experience was jarring. Unlike Dianne, Kong and Gawain who could reliably chain 3 moves of low intensity. In fact when he made them pace the 3 moves over a second Dianne and Gawain no longer flinched from move overuse. A 4th move flinched either of them hard for almost a full second.

  Gawain had been given the most opportunities to battle any trainer who wanted to fight his personal team on his days off and had thus caught up a bit with Dianne and Kong.

  Gwen, Loki and by extension, all rookie trainer Pokemon he had fought so far, never chained at all. Each move, like clockwork had a .2 second gap in between moves and a 0.3 flinch if they used 3 moves within a second.

  Surge and Cory explained to him that this was normal and that chaining moves was a skill usually mastered by veterans during their second year of training their Pokemon. Quite a few ace teams still struggled by the beginning of their ace circuit. It was the determining factor that made or broke you as an ace trainer.

  The only exception were moves such as quick attack and volt tackle which had the chaining structure of moves, built in.

  There was progress with his two new members but agonizingly slow. Gwen and Loki and Loki had managed to shorten their gap to 1.9 but only with the moves they were working on.

  There was another subtlety Carlos noticed. His 2 new Pokemon didn’t seem to bond very fast. At least not as fast as his first three. Oh sure he had them disciplined and following orders to a T but it bothered him that they both remained relatively distant, especially Loki didn’t seem to care about spending time together at all.

  Cory had sighed and giving him a look when he shared his concerns, telling him that he shouldn’t discount the exceptional events which led to Carlos acquiring his first three vs how he acquired Loki. It set the tone of the relationship and it would take time.

  There were bound to be different paces to how quickly different Pokemon bonded, with different levels of compatibility.

  Carlos didn’t bring it back up, but it never stopped nagging him. Perhaps his first three had spoiled him but he couldn’t shake it was something else. Regardless. He really didn’t spend all that much time talking with Cory during weekends for that matter, 5 days talking over the phone or video call took care of that. As far as love language went. Both were disproportionally responsive to physical intimacy and quality time. And physical counted as the best quality time.

  Cory was getting in a lot of trouble skipping her weekend shifts that she had to pay for during the week. but she didn’t care.

  Today Monday, still groggy from drinking a little too much with Surge, trying to numb the frustration of being away from Cory,

  Carlos found himself fighting another rookie trainer for the 3rd badge and for the first time. He was excited.

  Elekid

  Dynamo: circular movements or running will create an electric charge. You can hold 3 charges. Each electric charge adds 20% damage to all electric moves. Without a charge all electric moves are reduced by 20%.

  Lightning Rod: You can absorb ambient Electricity from your environment, lighting bolts and electric attacks. You can hold 3 lightning charges, separate from charges created from Dynamo. You can use your own Electric attacks to charge Lightning rod. Each Lightning charge adds 20% additional damage.

  Charge Beam: requires 2 charges, emit a blinding beam of electricity.

  20% TE. 200% attack. Applies 2 static charges.

  Charge: You briefly turn your body into an electric Generator. You vibrate so fast it’s not even visible to the naked eye. This creates a charge for your abilities and increases your attack and speed by 10%

  5% TE.

  Volt tackle: Increase your Speed by 100% for 1 second. Dash a 100 feet in the blink of an eye. Deal 150% damage. Apply 1 static charge 5% TE for either part. The attack may be substituted for something else.

  Thunderbolt: Shoot lightning from your body instantly. 100% atk 200% speed. Apply 1 static. 10% TE.

  Voltorb

  Self destruct: lose All remaining HP except 1. Deal increased damage based on personal missing health. Uses 50% of all TE.

  200%atk, 200% base speed. Deal an additional 20% damage for each charge obtained through abilities.

  Spark: Electric currents instantly ionize the air and soil around you allowing you to travel at superior speeds while remaining in the ionized field. This move leaves an ionized trail behind you for one second after leaving the field. Opponent’s stepping on ionized ground accumulate static charges. You will charge both your abilities

  30 by 30 foot Field remains for 12 seconds

  increase speed by 100% while on the field

  increase speed by 100% for one second after using move.

  20% electric TE.

  Electro ball:. Elektric types are petty when it comes to anything that’s faster than them. This collective pettiness has lead to the recent birth of the electro ball move

  50% attack. Uses the base speed of your opponent if it is higher and will apply 2 static charges if so.

  10% electric TE.

  Discharge: You discharge a loud electrical surge from your body, observers have compared the sound to crackling sound of a electric wire whipping around. Requires a an electric charge

  100% atk, an additional 50% if you use any number of charges.

  If opponent has a static charge they will suffer 25% reduced reflex. If they are paralyzed or flinching this move ignores their reflex or speed stat.

  Magnemite

  Dynamo: circular movements or running will create an electric charge. You can hold 3 charges. Each electric charge adds 20% damage to all electric moves. Without a charge all electric moves are reduced by 20%.

  Lightning Rod: You can absorb ambient Electricity from your environment, lighting bolts and electric attacks. You can hold 3 lightning charges, separate from charges created from Dynamo. You can use your own Electric attacks to charge Lightning rod. Each Lightning charge adds 20% additional damage.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  static charge: each static charge adds a 10% chance to paralyze a second after it is applied.

  He looked at his rookie badge team. An elekid, A magnemite and a Voltorb. All of them had that numbed emotional docile look. Something the Digit balls were responsible for. He really wasn’t sure why this was ok from a Moral perspective, but apparently Pokemon and humans in this world all thought it was a great idea.

  The only price of living the next couple of years in a mental fugue state was something his gym Pokemon all readily agreed to.

  Surge told him multiple times that most Elektric pokemon were very intelligent and were more than capable of making their own choices.

  How the digit ball functioned, boggled his mind. It was some serious existential crisis type of science, that allowed a Pokemon to store experience. “How?” Was a question that plagued him many nights staring at the ceiling waiting for sleep to come. The Digit Ball locked the level of a Pokemon.

  Apparently the Giovanni’s, yea there were multiple. The man running the gym also a war hero, his mother his uncle, A powerful deeply respected family, based out of Viridian City. had worked closely together with the Silph company, decades ago, pivotal to create this digit ball that revolutionized how starter pokemon could be given a massive boost to their growth prior to giving them to a trainer. Competition for these starters among youngsters was fierce.

  The science behind these balls was absolutely ludicrous. One day of rest inside their ball, plopped into a digit TE device, issued by the league to all gyms. And these Pokemon were good to go. They barely needed TE food, or medical care.

  Once a Pokemon had done his time as a gym Pokemon. They continued their life in the wild or as a starter. They would naturally max out their stats easily like Carlos had done. with little to no training, due to all the combat experience and training accumulated as a gym pokemon.

  Regional Starter pokemon given by The lead Professor of the region had gone through a similar process. Rookie trainers were given their starter at 15 and if compatible, over a course of 3 years, worked to gather funds and build a relationship with their starter. For their rookie journey and running the rookie circuit.

  He shook his head, the referee had done his speech, rambling and listing all the rules and after hearing it too many times, Carlos zoned out, his mind always wandered over the little tidbits he was learning now that he lived in this world.

  After the referee was done, he focused on the rookie trainer in front of him. Someone who loudly proclaimed he was going to be a flying specialist. Which is why he waited till the third badge to challenge the Electric Gym. Carlos respected the strategy. Although he was confused at the low ish, level of his Pokemon. This kid most definitely wasn’t someone who had received a starter.

  3v3

  Carlos was not allowed to switch. Liam had 2 switches and 2 full heal instead of a 3v4. Liam didn’t have a 4th member.

  This was a rookie match addendum due to his entire team, consisting of flying types in order to balance his weakness out. Badges were only handed out to trainers who won.

  Zubat

  Ledyba

  Farfetch’d

  All in all Carlos was impressed. All three had 2 stats above 20% of the max Carlos had struggled with increasing, this Kid had fought stronger Pokemon with his team and won.

  “Alright…. Liam. Send out your first Pokemon.”

  ”GO ZUNY! To the SKIES!” Out came his zubat.

  Carlos flinched, still suffering from a hangover, loud, head hurts. He immediately grabbed his standard issue ear mufflers. His head couldn’t handle sound moves.

  ”Alright Magnemite! You’re up!”

  Liam tsked, “ZUNY! Return! Buster! beat that metal eye!” Liam instantly returned his zubat and out came his Farfetch’d, using one of his returns.

  “Good choice man! That’s a bonus in my book!” He yelled. “Magnemite! Start charging Steady!”

  Magnemite starting gathering ambient electricity and amplified that with his internal TE, the buzzing indicated how fast he was vibrating and the hum steadily increased.

  Liam yelled his orders. “use LEER and Sword Dance!” Carlos whistled at that sword dance was a powerful buff he hadn’t seen that with a low level Pokemon yet.

  “Hot damn his sword dance is a cardinal move?” Carlos was getting excited. He vaguely remembered Leek master gave farfetch’d an edge in gaining self buff moves as cardinal.

  ”You got him well trained! But that won’t be enough! I hope you taught him double team and quick attack or something!” Carlos made good use of the litle pauses, to throw around some banter. The pauses, turned it almost into a real life, turn based game for him.

  ”Magnemite thunderbolt!” Magnemite crackled shortly and shot out the lightning fast bolt.

  Liam was ready. “Ha! Buster! Aerial ACE Into slash!” Aerial ace was a carbon copy of quick attack except that it synergized perfectly with the flying type inherent trait resulting in quadrupling speed and reflex.

  the Farfetch’d shot forward, creating a crack in the air. It didn’t matter, electric moves were complete BS. The burst of speed allowed theFarfetch’d to avert getting hit full force but Magnemite had aimed well

  ”Kinda crazy how fast that little fucker can go.” Carlos mused. He had to wait a split second, ordering magnemite otherwise he would flinch

  Farfetch after shaking off the attack like a pro came in hot. With a slash. It was a simple move, didn’t do much special except that it had an easier time critting as it sought out weaknesses.

  ”Sheesh I Underestimated the kid”, Carlos thought. The kid pound for pound would win this fight if he would manage to deal with the static.

  He smirked, “not bad for a rookie”, he yelled.

  ”Magnemite volt away and charge steady! Stay away from that leek!”

  “Double tap him with Leer!”

  Carlos noted some of the static on Farfetch’d fizzled out harmlessly. He didn’t mind.

  “Magnemite Volt into Thunderbolt!” This would flinch Magnemite but it would deliver the blow faster then Farfetch’d could dodge

  Magnemite shot forward. Not as fast as Farfetch’d but too fast for farfetch’d to dodge fully.

  “Aerial into Endure!” Liam called out

  “This kid is good! And another cardinal move! Nice!”

  Farfetch’d flew as fast as he could and braced for impact. The thunderbolt super charged was practically instant and cracked with intense power, a crackling arc flashing white, it hit Farfetch’d dead on, he barely managed to avoid getting slammed by a critical. endure dispersed a lot of the electric force.

  Although his Magnemite flinched from overuse, The decisive impact of the bolt had knocked the bird of course and by the time it regained its balance his Magnemite had recovered.

  “Nice one Liam that was good quick thinking! Keep it up, cuz im not pulling my punches mate!”

  ”Thanks, I guess.” Liam clearly wasn’t used to praise talk, he was used to trash talk.

  Carlos got a kick out of throwing Trainers for a loop. “Volt and charge!” Magnemite shot away again charging his abilities.

  Liam tsked and Carlos saw the change in tactic. “Double tap!” He called out.

  “Ah he realizes he needs to go all in. well let’s see if he can keep his cool.”

  ”volt and charge BEAM!”

  ”Aerial into slash!”

  their Command came simultaneously, both Pokemon Burst into action. Crackling ionized air from the white beam of intense electrical energy. Gales of winds from all the ambient flying TE exploding.

  Farfetch’d took a glancing hit gracefully avoiding the brunt of the beam with sharp crisp moves but painfully seared through the sky staying conscious by the skin of his teeth.

  Slamming his Leek with all of his Resolve and Power into Magnemite. Smoking, charred leek, it’s smell spreading over the field, shaking, barely on his legs. He was still standing albeit Barely.

  Magnemite laid on the floor, fainted.

  ”You did it BUSTER! FUCK YEAH!”

  The referee called the match and the Chansey on call performed the full heal restoring the tenacious bird who stood with a smug, deserved smile on his face. Puffing his chest. He pointed his Leek at Carlos.

  ”FAR never underestimate the Mighty FETCHED, BUSTER!”

  ”Oh you can bet, that I never underestimated you mighty bird.” Carlos said smiling. “Well fought Buster. You and your trainer earned that.”

  “Ya know I don’t think we wouldn’t have won if you had used a good old thunderbolt.” Liam said chuckling while they waited for Chansey to finish.

  ”I know, I was testing your cool as a trainer.”

  “Oh, I was so caught up I didn’t even hear it.” Liam said sheepishly. Carlos laughed heartily. “Well luck favors the bold it seems, Ready for your next match?”

  Both trainer and Pokemon nodded with excitement, Carlos saw buster was exactly at half on both his TE reserves so he was still raring to go.

  ”Alright! Elekid Show them some REAL Speed!” Carlos was having fun with the dramatic entrances Surge had him do.

  Elekid materialized and did a pre practiced Roar which sounded more cute than terrifying.

  The field was reset and Farfetch’d had his sword dance run out. It seemed sword dance had a hidden effect on its mentality, as it noticeably calmed down. Good thing to know. He wouldn’t mind having that move on one of his Mon’s.

  “double charge!” Carlos called out.

  “double tap” Liam called out.

  ”Ah he thinks Leer is a waste for Electric mons, ah well”. Carlos thought. “Volt Tackle!” He called. “Aerial into slash!” Liam countered however his Face morphed into one of shock as Elekid crossed the distance near instantly before Farfetch’d could respond. And Farfetch’d Completely misjudged the attack and missed. Elekid slammed into Farfetch’d head, the powerful electric currents knocking him out, Carlos was grateful there was no cracking sounds of bone.

  Liam quietly returned his Buster. Carlos could see the guy was shaking. Thinking on how to deal with this. “Double tap with leer would have kept Elekid from striking with a critical hit. Elekid is a speedster not a tank like magnemite.” Carlos said loud enough for Liam to hear. Liam nodded, grinding his teeth.

  ”ZUNY! Your UP!” His Zubat materialized, flitting through the air at break neck speed.

  ”Here it is, his speed monster, Carlos Changed his strategy.

  ”Elekid take it out with a volt tackle!”

  “Oh no you don’t! Zuny, Aerial fang and inject!!”

  Zuny flew out, almost twice as fast as Elekid and before Elekid could charge Zubat chomped into Elekid to inject him with venom. He clamped down hard with his small but powerful fangs and Carlos saw the poison take effect.

  Elekid meanwhile began his volt tackle and took Zubat with him, jumped up and slam dunked himself and Zubat into the ground carried by the momentum. He was partially effective in delivering the electric charge built by movement but the Poison messed with how much he could deliver.

  Carlos smirked, Elekid had instinctively used parts of the move body slam, Carlos had trained Elekid in, it hadn’t been performed full force so the Zubat didn’t get flinched. Still it hurt.

  “Volt into Thunderbolt!”

  Carlos suspected a venom shock coming and he didn’t feel like obliging.

  “Tripple team!” Liam yelled right on time as Zubat created four clones of himself.

  Carlos was kinda happy Elekid missed, he realized he was cheering the kid on. Not that he would pull his punches but he saw what was coming. A mile away.

  Perfectly timed Liam waiting while biting his lip called out his order. “Double Shock!”

  The zubat send out two poisonous bursts of air covering a large area, that came into contact with Elekid. Quadrupled the effectiveness the Poison ravaging Elekid.

  Although the fight wasn’t done yet Carlos withdrew Elekid. This much Poison needed to be taken care of quickly and the match was called, Elekid lost. Liam sighed in relief. “I’l be honest, I hate fighting Elektric types. That volt into thunderbolt is such bullshit.”

  Carlos laughed heartily. “You are doing exactly the same with abusing the flying type trait in combination with aerial ace. Nice thinking on double team btw. That almost ended the match. But are you ready for the strongest member of my team? I suggest you use your heal now. You can’t use it on downed Pokemon.

  Liam nodded and Carlos called Voltorb onto the field and called for a timeout. “Liam try and damage voltorb as much as you can and watch out for the self destruct. Im required to say this due to the low level of your remaining mon’s”

  Liam gulped and nodded.

  “Do you wish to use your switch?” Carlos wanted to plant the idea in his head. He didn’t say it out loud but Voltorb equipped with Electro ball. was a hard counter to his Zubat.

  For Liam’s sake he hoped his Ledyba had enough ranged moves to deal with Voltorb.

  Liam was thinking. “Take your time, you have 40 seconds left, in what order do you need to land moves from both of your Pokemon to defeat my Voltorb? It will require both, I can tell you that for free.” Carlos said.

  Liam thought it over for a few more seconds and nodded. “Great job Zuny! Take a breather! Ruby you are up!” He returned his zubat and out came his Ledyba. Her red Carapace was polished to a Perfect sheen that broke the light, just like shining light on a Ruby Crystal.

  “Oh boy now he makes me feel bad for hurting his precious Pokemon.”

  The big giant Ladybug took to the sky and skittered and flew through the sky down into an adorable hero landing and struck a fighting pose.

  ”Huh, so their intelligence is affected by human contact it seems.” Carlos saw the sentient glint in the Lediba eyes missing in the eyes of wild bug Pokemon.

  ”Spark!”

  Volttorb let out a crackling blast creating a 30x30x30 dome, momentarily supercharged by the ambient and static electricity created by the move. He hovered, zipping around gathering charges for his ability .

  ”Aerial ace into string shot! Stay out of his charge range like we practiced!”

  Ruby shot into the air. Spewing an ungodly amount of sticky string, due to her large TE reserves. covering the entire area Voltorb ionized with spark, while staying out of Range.

  “Huh another cardinal move”, Carlos noted. Cardinal moves were rare at this level and all 3 of Liam’s Pokemon had at least one.

  “Ball discharge!”

  Voltorb started crackling with an intense amount of electricity creating random crackles of electricity arcing out around him due to the highly ionized air. Some of the webbing started smoking but it was too thick and dense to make a difference.

  the electroball shot out, half of it passed into the Ledyba who creating a sharp crack in the air by spreading her red carapace. Dispersing most of the damage but still got the static charges on her, the Discharge homed in on the Ledyba.

  The webbing, responsible for dispersing most of the damage.

  “Aerial needle then U-turn!”

  Ledyba came in like a screeching stuka plancr dive bombing Voltorb firing off twin needles, again a cardinal move with the ease the ladybug performed the move. 2 razor sharp needles thunked into Voltorb who was instantly poisoned.

  U-turn caused her to “flee” back into her pokeball and brought back Zubat back with the benefits of aerial ace.

  Carlos however beat him to the punch and yelled his order first.”Volt Destruct!”

  “Aerial into endure!” Liam was too late to call out an order as Voltorb hyper charged a portion of his TE and came barreling into Zuny, but the bat had the presence of mind to take initiative and did exactly what his trainer wanted prematurely. Screeching through the air to ride the currents of the explosion that soon followed.

  Liam looked flabbergasted at his smoking Zubat. knocked out. Deformities and a cracked bone protruding from one of its wings. He quietly walked onto the field and gingerly stroked his painfully panting Zuny and spoke some soft words of encouragement and comfort while the Chansey on call performed a heal, before he returned him to his Pokeball.

  Carlos started clapping and made sure he didn’t smile too much. “I did warn you about self destruct and Isaw that needle into u turn coming a mile away, still it was your only option and you succeeded. Good job man! You got yourself a thunderbadge on your first try!”

  Carlos had walked closer and put the badge in Liam’s hands. Liam was quiet, and had a thousand yard stare. Knockout backlash from having your Pokemon fainted was like a gut punch that you never quite got used to.

  Carlos carefully guided Liam to a bench and gave him a water bottle.

  Liam still shaking a bit, drank some to calm down his nerves.

  “You know mister, you made me fight way too hard for that badge.” Liam joked smiling weakly getting some of his earlier bravado back now that his victory set in.”

  ”No I didn’t.” Carlos shot it down immediately. You came with a strategy expecting a mediocre fight due to the limitations placed on me as a trainer, even though you should know my current reputation.

  Gym battles are specifically designed to challenge your pokemon so it triggers proper growth with your Pokemon. If I pull my punches that growth you need so desperately in your Pokemon, will not happen. This is especially important because non of your Mon’s are league starter Pokemon.”

  Liam flinched. His story was a common one. A young kid, had the posture of an Orphan. Was driven but didn’t have the resources or the talent to be the top contender for any of the starter programs.

  It was obvious he had caught a wild Farfetch’d as his starter, prepped for his journey and managed to scrape by with wit and some cunning strategy.

  ”Your Farfetch’d who is awesome on all accounts, is an all round offensive Pokemon best used to outsmart outmaneuver his opponents capabilities yet you use him as a fighter pokemon who can take a hit and hit back harder if that is your goal he needs moves like bide and revenge for that. He’s your starter correct?”

  Liam nodded and was about to say something but Carlos continued his tirade. “He needs self buffs that can boost his survival. Things like harden. Detect, counter, agility double team, get him bide and revenge while you are at it.

  “He can’t learn half of those moves!” Liam finally managed to get in.

  “Leek master and Normalize say otherwise mid, both are one of those bullshit abilities that lets him learn 4self utility moves of any typing. On top of that, he’s got Normalize. He attempted it right before Elekid knocked him out, Check the footage for yourself.”

  ”How do you know his abilities? I don’t even know them.” Liam asked confused. “I lived in the wild for a long time kid I know these things because I had to know.” Carlos flawlessly bullshitted his way through that.

  Carlos continued to berate him about how Liam’s Pokemon level was too low for a 4 badge gym battle, how he needed an actual defensive flyer and better control over the field.

  And for the hundredth time he reminded Liam, like he reminded everyone else, that trainers were allowed to use more than 4 moves and endure. Which for some reason was something not clearly defined in the league rules.

  Many Rookie trainers assumed because the gyms had a 4 moves limit, they did so as well. Liam left with a note from Carlos “educated guesses” on what his Pokemon’s abilities were, a few wrong that wouldn’t matter just in case people got weird ideas about him , and with a strong recommendation for him to get his Pokemon telemetry checked.

  It was the end of the day and went to the TE device to deposit his gym Pokemon for their recovery. He sighed he really didn’t like his gym Pokemon. He wished he could but they were so cold and detached.

  He went to his desk to fill out today’s paperwork. Which was boring evaluations of trainers. Their personalities. Habits, everything. He really didn’t like it and usually gave vague answers that didn’t alude to much. Surge called it trust but verify. Carlos called it a hidden police state. He didn’t like the idea that someone gathered psycho analysis, intel on such a large scale.

  Done driving a wedge into someone’s shady plans of control through mass information by having nothing but praise for Liam.

  He started browsing the Pokenet. Surge knocked on the door, “Yo wana go for a few drinks in town? I got a lady that arranged a double date and none of my other buddies can go.” Carlos sighed. “Is this some convoluted way for you to snag a threesome date for yourself?”

  Surge grinned big time. “You wound me man! I just figured, you could do with some relaxation. You work harder than I do for crying out loud. Besides you know one of em. A very cute ranger, she’s very hurt you haven’t given her a call.

  “Carolyn?” Carlos asked after a moment of thinking. “Fuck, yea that totally slipped my mind. Oh I should bring Gwen and Loki. Perhaps I can exchange some pointers with her, she seemed to focus on ice and water types.”

  “Yea see? Im totally not trying to mess with your love life!” Surge laughed. Carlos gave him a look before he got up and went to the place where his team usually was. He noticed they did better outside of the Pokeball than in. Especially with Gwen and Loki he began to notice a difference he only put them in the Pokeball if he was forced to. They were a bit more present.

  He saw his team practicing outside on the courtyard behind the massive gym building. Some of the management personnel, had given him a lot of flack for allowing his Pokemon to do whatever but after showing how well behaved they were they couldn’t fault him for anything so they begrudgingly watched his Pokemon to see if they would screw up.

  Loki and Kong had turned it into a game of pretending they would do something bad, like exaggerating moves and pretending they were going to break things and then whiff the attack and get a kick out of their reaction.

  Carlos wondered if Kong had some latent dark typing in him. Or if Dianne Loki and him started rubbing off on him. Whatever it was, he definitely liked to fool and joke around with people.

  “Hello guys! How is the training?”

  ”Good, boss mon. I’m close to fully mastering Lock on and Mach strike, I can feel it.

  Kong responded first.

  “My shadow sneak and Shadow clones is going well. It actually allowed me to master double team fully. The move is rather basic in comparison with Shadow clones.”

  Dianne responded next.

  ”I mastered Sunny day today and im trying to figure out how to combine solar energy with quick attack, i feel that will help me develop trail blaze.”

  Gawain said.

  ”I froze all of Surges bottles all day today!”

  Gwen said happily.

  “Surge got a new shipment in today, it really did take her all day.”

  Dianne added. Carlos wondered how much Liquor Surge kept in his cellar but filed that for later.

  “I worked on trying to chain Harden the first third of the day, hone claws the second third of the day and practiced assurance with Big sis. unsuccessful on all three. I keep flinching when I try and flow or chain the moves, I hate flinching.”

  Loki spoke matter of factly except the last part had a harsh tone, not for the first time he heard frustration in the pawniard’s voice.

  Everyone heard the frustration for that matter. Gwen waddled over and started patting his head, which was more of a slapping motion.

  “You will be ok, untasty bro.” Gwen didn’t like the flavor of his metal.

  Carlos sighed. “I understand your frustration, You understand why I ask this of you correct?”

  ”Off course, I want to be just as good as your first three, Sir.” Still that frustration. This time directed squarely at Carlos, who nodded but felt anger boil and hurt. Kong & Dianne became tense, Gawain observed.

  “I know you will make a breakthrough, Loki, I’m still brainstorming as to what it is, that’s blocking you and Gwen from mastering chaining. Tell me, Kong, Dianne and Gawain have explained to me that chaining moves is like changing the flow or bring the TE back full circle if you repeat the same move. What is it that you experience when attempting to circle the flow?”

  Carlos asked this question almost every night and every time he asked he got a somewhat different answer. Understanding came different for everyone. Kong experienced it as different flavors of rage. Normal rage. His rage fighting rage etc, culminating in a fire that he constantly balanced and danced with.

  Dianne was a hunter, for her it was a simple matter of entering the mind set of hunting with the pack.

  Gawain seemed to be the must mentally adept at controlling his flow at this point. This was due to his conditioning and training with moves that were by their nature very technical.

  Gwen had no clue she just did her moves and had little to no understanding of the questions for that matter. She was naturally gifted at TE control.

  Loki had never found a groove when it came to TE. Carlos tried to mimick what he had done with his first three with Loki but unsuccessful so far.

  Loki sat down thinking seriously. Which he did a lot these days. It was fascinating to see all these different sides to his Mon’s. Loki loved pranks but he took his training dead serious. About as serious as Kong did. Loki was smart, cunning and calculating. It frustrated him to no end that someone like Kong. Simple, straightforward and impulsive, outclassed him on a technical level.

  ”To be honest sir, I don’t think I even have a flow. It almost feels im getting worse.” He gave Carlos an accusatory look. Carlos on the other hand smiled and said. “Good. It means you are unlearning the bad shit that previous idiot of a trainer taught you.” Carlos attempted a bit of brevity.

  “He wasn’t a bad trainer, I grew pretty quickly with him.” Pawniard got angry. He seemed oddly defensive of his previous trainer

  “Sure, i didn’t mean anything by it, if you compare him to the average trainer he was decent. If I may ask, if he was as good as you make him sound, why did he get rid of you?” Carlos shot back.

  ”He told me from the get go, he was training me for the purposes of trading. I was ok with that.” Loki snapped. “It was an arrangement agreed on before he caught me. Even brought a Pokemon along to translate, if you think I’m not good enough you should trade me in for another.” Loki snarled out the last part. Venomously added. “You like the other four a hell of a lot better than me anyway.” He looked away at that. Kong and Dianne were about to explode but Carlos gave them a look.

  “Remember when I first gave you your name Dianne? This is something similar.” With that, she sat back down and calmed down, but not before giving Loki a dirty look.

  As pissed off and annoyed Carlos was, he cursed at himself for not seeing this sooner, he hadn’t realized how his frustration was obvious to Loki. Who took that frustration as judgement, judgement that made Loki believe he wasn’t good enough. Dark Pokemon were a lot more vulnerable to intent and emotion.

  Carlos was quiet for a moment. “Sorry Loki, I am also frustrated that I haven’t found the right way for you or Gwen. My failing as a trainer is what I’m frustrated with, not with you, I’m sorry I didn’t make that clear to you. I want to give you my best. I just haven’t figured out how.”

  ”You mean extra tasty snacks?”Gwen chimed in. Carlos smiled. “Something like that. He turned back to Loki. “Again my apologies. I know I can’t really judge your previous trainer. Truth be told I felt guilty buying you like that.”

  “Do you mean all of that?” Loki asked somewhat cautiously. “Of course, ask big sis how often I lie.”

  ”All the time, but only for the betterment of the pack, us.” Dianne gave her honest assessment.

  ”Pff, boss mon doesn’t lie, he just doesn’t bother telling unworthies the truth that they suck.” Kong chimed in.

  Loki as a dark type could respect that. He nodded at that. “I also might have judged you too soon.” He said after a while. Carlos took a deep breath and let the quiet settle in, till he remembered why he had come here.

  ”Oh yes I almost forgot. Guys, uncle Surge is dragging me along for a human ritual and I want to take both Gwen and Loki for some r&r. Will you three be ok for a few hours? We can talk more as well Loki, if you want.”

  The three nodded, basically shooed him, Gwen and Loki out the door. He found Surge in the Lobby with the two ladies both dressed in some very skimpy clothing. “Oh shit, that fucking bastard.” Carlos whispered. He felt utterly underdressed. He showed up in regular jeans and a basic buttoned shirt. Carolyn saw him and strutted his way.

  ”Hey long time no see handsome stranger, you never called.” Carolyn smiled amicably. “Yea sorry about that, got dragged into the busy life of beating sense into upstart youngsters and trainer my team, I’ve been busy.” He smiled Politely, really wishing he had said no to Surge.

  ”I’ll say he’s been busy! Ya know what they call him on the forums? Drill sergeant!” Surge laughed and slapped Carlos roughly on the shoulders. Carlos hit him in the ribs with an Elbow, chuckling. The other woman, somewhere around her 30’s had a seductive smile going way overboard, making Carlos really wonder if Surge had been truthful about the situation. “Shall we go?” He asked the group and they walked to the restaurant area.

  “So what was the story Surge told you about me? The way he brought this to me was that you wanted to catch up and such, and were pissed I didn’t call.”

  Carolyn sighed. “He told me you were looking to have some fun. And hey none of us called you either, we got swamped. The champion gave us a promotion, before I knew it he suckered us all into another year with the rangers that absolute prick. Don’t worry about it I’m a big girl.” She continued.

  “So this is the Pawniard you got for those credits? Tough looking guy I must say. And your Cetoddle looks happier than ever.” She noted, saying hi to both.

  “Yea he is tough, I realized today I was too tough on them both with training, so I took this opportunity to have some relaxation.”

  Carlos saw the ever so slight glint of approval in Loki’s eyes.

  “How is your Cetoddle Carolyn?” Carlos asked.

  “Oh he’s great!” She beamed. “I brought him along too!” She grabbed a Pokeball, from Arceus knows where and out came a dapper looking Cetoddle, slightly smaller than Gwen and the two got reacquainted waddling together in the wrong direction almost instantly.

  ”Huh, my Gwen hasn’t done that since I got her, I was so sure she was the perpetrator of all that trouble.” Carlos joked. He felt some tension ease away.

  ”Seems like the two of em bring out the worst in each other.” Carolyn laughed.

  They started talking about their training regiment for their respective Cetoddle’s, they quickly left Surge to his date, who was practically tugging his clothes off, that date would quickly end in a motel.

  both Carlos and Carolyn went to a public arena to have a mock Battle between the two Cetoddles.

  Carlos felt a pang of envy, he immediately saw how much smoother Carolyn’s Cetoddle was in performing his Moves. He couldn’t punch through Gwen’s defense after she used snowscape, which made her immune to freezing, and started stacking harden. But it was obvious that Carolyns Cetoddle had made much greater strides in mastering Chaining moves. Carolyn’s Cetoddle had a 1 second gap between moves vs Gwen’s 1.9. It had been a month for both of them.

  The fight was a mixed outcome. On the one hand, Gwen had made significant strides in sharpening her Defense which made her untouchable for the most part. But she had no real offensive moves that worked against the other Cetoddle.

  Both Loki and Gwen had good defense so they didn’t really get hurt at all even if this would be a real battle.

  Loki was eager to have a mock battle as well, but struggled with getting slowed down over a period of time, the drop in temperature as ambient ice energy started slowing down his body functions and icicles forming till he really was an icicle stopped the match, after another trainer with a charmeleon helped thaw Loki out. Carlos and Carolyn sat down on a bench.

  ”You know I don’t know which one of those two, people will be more annoyed with.” Carolyn commented after Loki stopped shivering.

  Carlos smirked. “What do you mean?”

  ”oh come on Carlos, it’s obvious you are training them both to be obnoxious stalls for your opponent, making them drain their TE trying to take these two down.”

  ”That’s the general idea, although if what I read about Supreme overlord is correct then Loki will have pretty nasty offensive capabilities as well, once he gets to his Kinggambit form.

  ”You think I have what it takes to be King?” Loki asked.

  Carlos was surprised at that. “Obviously.”

  Loki was stunned. “Huh maybe i should have lead with that when we did introductions when we first met.” Carlos thought.

  ”It’s good to see even you struggle with your Pokemon you know? The way you just came running to the rescue a month ago and fixed the situation the way you did was surreal. It’s nice to know mundane people like us stand a chance.” Carolyn smirked.

  ”I don’t know, I would never describe you as mundane.” Carlos glanced at her skimpy top. “Like what you see?” She asked with a sultry glint in her eyes. Carlos smirked playfully, “from an aesthetic point of view? Absolutely.” She sighed and shook her head.

  ”Thanks i guess?” She smiled questioningly. “I take you are still with that woman from a month ago? You never told me who she was.” She inquired.

  ”She’s the young nurse Joy stationed at the Blackthorne Pokemon center.” Carlos answered. He felt an unsettling feeling settle in the moment he said that. Her whole posture, and expression changed.

  ”Really? You are one of those guys?” Her tone was one of curiosity but cold, so was her gaze. Carlos stayed calm.

  “You have to understand, I’ve only lived in this human society for about a month. Lots of social dynamics will go over my head.”

  ”Ah I guess it makes sense you wouldn’t know.”

  She repositioned, making her curves bounce. “See men that feel attraction to Joy’s and Jennies that have a relationship or had a relationship with one; are almost always perverts that are shunned.” There was a tone of disgust in her voice.

  ”What!?” Carlos was shocked.

  ”Obviously not all, you are nothing like those guys. I’ve been here for a few days. Did know you are the talk of this town? known as the drill sergeant but you are so standoffish to women so much more ruthless to them, that all the ladies think you are gay. Which let me tell you, surprised me.” Carolyn finished.

  Carlos looked at Carolyn with a blank stare. Then a light went up in his head.

  ”Im going to have a talk with the principal of some of the schools, seems like some angsty teenage girls are pissed at me cutting of their hustle with Surge.” Carlos sighed. He really hoped Goth girl was an outlier, she wasn’t.

  ”That’s a rather, big accusation don’t you think?” She said smiling.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense, I don’t meet enough women for such a rumor to spread. You really think im gay? I can barely look you in the eye with how distracting that outfit is.” Carlos said.

  A smirk on his face. She really did look good in this light.

  “So you do think I’m pretty?” She wiggled her shoulders. Carlos smiled. “It might be because i was stuck in the mountains since forever but i haven’t seen a single ugly woman.”

  “pff so the bar was low to begin with?” She teased.

  ”Yup, you and all the ladies are in luck besides you know you are gorgeous, you don’t need me to tell you that” Carlos teased back. Carolyn laughed at that.”Still it’s nice you can admit it in such a roundabout way, still, I honestly can’t picture you dating a Joy. What’s that like?” She leaned in curious.

  ”Idk I don’t really have a point of reference. It feels good. It sucks we only see each other 2 days of the week. But other then that it feels good. She’s playful, incredibly perceptive, sultry and has this shyness that she lets slip past her guard from time to time that I find mesmerizing.”

  Carolyn leaned back and sighed. ”Well it’s good to know I never had a chance with you I guess.” Carolyn sighed. “Got dressed up for nothing.

  Carlos sighed and raised his eyebrow. “Do you honestly believe I wouldn’t have gone for it if the situation had been different? I’m not the type of guy that takes this for granted.”

  She gave him a look of gratitude, but obviously this situation sucked a bit for her..

  They talked a bit more before they said their goodbye’s Carolyn trying her luck in the bachelor’s part of town. “Wana have some fights Loki?” Loki had an intense fire burning in his eyes and nodded.

  ”God I’m stupid,” Carlos thought. “I deprived a battle maniac of battles.”

Recommended Popular Novels