"Blas."
Blastoise scratched its head and glanced toward Farfetch'd on the swing.
If it couldn't even beat Farfetch'd or Butterfree, then picking a fight with the rest of Reiji's team would just be asking for a beating. A capture battle was pointless. Blastoise raised its hand, pressed the Poké Ball's button, and let the red light draw it in.
"Awoo."
Ninetales was even less confident than Blastoise. If Blastoise wasn't going to ask for a battle, it certainly wasn't going to embarrass itself. It touched the button with the pad of its front paw and vanished into the red light too.
"I caught Blastoise and Ninetales!"
Reiji was so pleased that he released them again right away. Venusaur and Charizard, after watching the whole thing, decided there was nothing interesting left and settled back onto the terrace to sunbathe.
They had no interest in humans catching Pokémon. All they wanted was a quiet life away from trouble.
After that, Reiji introduced Blastoise and Ninetales to everyone properly. From now on, they were partners.
Before this, they had only been cloned Pokémon living nearby. Even when they spoke to Reiji's team, it was more like friendly neighbors exchanging a few words. Now it was different. Now they could stand on the same side.
Seeing everyone getting along, Reiji sat under the eaves and opened Blastoise's and Ninetales's panels. He wanted to see what kind of potential these two had.
Blastoise should be decent, at least in theory. It was cloned from a starter Pokémon, and a proper League-standard one at that. Ninetales was harder to judge.
Reiji remembered seeing both Pokémon during the Indigo Plateau Conference. If he was remembering right, Blastoise and Ninetales had belonged to the same female Trainer, so these two clones likely came from the same original team.
[Blastoise]
[Type: Water]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 66.12%]
[Level: 50.01%]
[Ability: Torrent/23.13%][Hidden Ability: Rain Dish/34.23%]
"Sixty-six potential. Not bad."
Reiji nodded to himself. It barely reached Elite Four standards, but that was still worth taking in. Blastoise could help at sea too. It could carry him across the water, and its shell looked stable enough to fish from.
Its level had already reached fifty as well. In the upcoming League, it could at least show up and take a match or two.
As for explaining where it came from, that was easy. Blastoise had wandered into the lake, caused trouble, chased off the other Water-types, and Reiji happened to catch it.
Simple. Clean. Nothing suspicious.
He hadn't done it earlier because he didn't have a witness. Now that he and Cissy were together, that problem was gone. He could let her see the capture herself, then have her register Blastoise through the Gym as a Gym Trainer's witness. That made everything much easier.
Connections really did make life simple. Before he and Cissy got together, this would have taken a pile of awkward explanations, and people might still have doubted him. What a pain.
He closed Blastoise's panel and opened Ninetales's. Ninetales would be even easier to explain.
[Ninetales]
[Type: Fire]
[Gender: Female]
[Potential: 58%]
[Level: 46.01%]
[Ability: Flash Fire/22.23%][Hidden Ability: Drought/24.43%]
"Ah."
Reiji looked at the panel and gave a tiny sigh.
It hadn't reached Elite Four potential. That meant Ninetales's future role was probably going to be a very pretty hand warmer.
Legend said each of Ninetales's nine tails held a different mysterious power, and that it could live for 1,000 years.
A thousand years.
If it lived another 200, maybe its mental strength could reach Elite Four tier like Lokoko's, pulling its potential and level up along with it. But Reiji didn't have 200 years to wait. Humans didn't live that long.
He pushed that depressing thought aside and set the Poké Ball down. Nearby, Ninetales was already talking with Lokoko. He had no idea what the two foxes were whispering about.
With the capture business handled, the next step was team coordination.
They needed battle practice. Pokémon that had never fought under League rules had to get used to the rhythm, the limits, and the pressure before the Orange League began.
There were no outside opponents here, so Reiji would use his own team. He had more than enough Pokémon. They could train against each other.
The Pokémon that needed work included Dugtrio, Magmar, Lucario, Umbreon, Zapdos, Pidgeot, Ludicolo, Slowking, Blastoise, and Ninetales.
The cover Pokémon needed work too: Swampert, Magnezone, Golurk, Weezing, and Sharpedo.
Zapdos, Ludicolo, Slowking, Blastoise, Ninetales, Magnezone, Golurk, and Sharpedo needed extra attention.
Some of them had never fought in a proper regulated battle. The cover Pokémon were even more used to wild fights, especially Magnezone, Golurk, and Sharpedo. In the wild, there were no clean rules, no referees, and no polite openings. You struck to end the fight before the enemy got a chance.
Better to start with the Pokémon he could use openly.
Reiji called Slowking over first.
Slowking had spent a long time training in the back mountain behind the Gym, and its strength had already reached quasi–Elite Four tier. At that level, only another quasi–Elite Four-tier Pokémon could put real pressure on it.
There weren't many good choices. Reiji wanted an opponent that could pressure Slowking's weak points, and among the available Pokémon, Scizor was the best fit. The others still needed their own coordination training, so using them here would only muddy the results.
He called Slowking and Scizor over.
"Slowking, I'll command you in this match. Your opponent is Scizor. We're using this to prepare for the League."
Then he turned to Scizor.
"Scizor, you're one of the veterans. You have the experience, so don't go easy on us. Help Slowking adjust, but fight seriously. At the same level, you have the type advantage. If you lose too easily, that's on you."
"Sciz."
Scizor nodded. Since evolving, it hadn't really had a chance to go all out. This was perfect timing.
"Slowking, Scizor. Ready?."
Reiji led them out onto the open ground. Slowking stood in front of him, with Scizor on the opposite side. The rest of the Pokémon gathered around the edges, cheering for whichever side they liked better.
"Scizor, we're attacking first," Reiji said. "Slowking, Flamethrower."
"Yaa."
Slowking opened its mouth and sent a thick burst of flame rolling across the field.
Scizor slipped aside.
Scizor moved in a red blur, slipping past the Flamethrower before the flames could touch it. A heartbeat later, it was already in front of Slowking.
Bang!
Scizor's claw smashed into the psychic barrier before Reiji could even process the movement.
Now he understood why opponents were afraid of The Crimson Streak.
It wasn't just fast.
It was gone before your eyes caught up.
"Too fast."
Reiji had only seen a red streak. Then Slowking was flying backward, barrier and all.
"Yaa."
Slowking skidded out over the lake, caught itself with psychic power, and floated back. It wasn't badly hurt. It had used Confusion to bleed off a lot of the impact before the hit sent it away.
"Feel the pressure now?" Reiji asked.
"Yaa. It's too fast. If we don't slow it down first, I won't be able to hit it." Slowking's eyes glowed blue, and its expression turned serious.
As a Psychic-type, Slowking could sense fast movement better than most Pokémon. But Bug, Ghost, and Dark were all difficult for Psychic-types.
Psychic power couldn't hold them easily. If the difference in strength was huge, brute force could still work, but against a close opponent, those three types could burst out with their own energy the moment they were caught and tear free.
"Then try Blizzard."
"Yaa!"
Slowking let out a long cry.
The sky darkened almost at once. Clouds rolled in, wind tore across the clearing, and snow began whipping through the air. The cold swept toward Scizor in a broad white wave.
Scizor charged again.
Slowking blinked away with Teleport, but that was all it could do. It still couldn't keep up with Scizor's speed. If this kept going, Scizor would catch it sooner or later.
But the snow kept falling.
Frost gathered on Scizor's body. Ice clung to its claws and joints. Its speed dropped little by little, and after a while, it finally stopped moving.
"Scizor, how does that feel?"
"Sciz."
Scizor clicked its claws together, breaking the ice off them, then shook the frost from its body.
"It says it's cold," Slowking translated. "It doesn't want to move. It feels sleepy."
"So that still works."
That was the opening Reiji needed. Ice wasn't super effective against Bug-types, but the cold still got to them. Snow slowed them down, frost stiffened their joints, and even a second of hesitation was enough to keep Slowking from getting run over.
That mattered.
If Slowking failed to set up Trick Room, then its base Speed of thirty would leave it under constant pressure. Against something as fast as Scizor, hesitation meant getting flattened.
And this was Scizor, The Crimson Streak. Even an ordinary Scizor with Light Metal could hurt Slowking badly if he handled it wrong.
"Slowking, against Bug-types, you'll need to rely on Ice moves like Blizzard and Icy Wind, plus coverage moves like Flamethrower. Against fast Bug-types, Ice can slow them down long enough to create an opening. If you get the chance, use Trick Room too."
"Yaa. I understand."
Slowking nodded.
The Gym hadn't taught it this kind of thing. It had learned telepathy, ways to strengthen its psychic power, and plenty of moves from older Pokémon, but not matchup handling like this.
"First, get used to the moves I assign. After Bug, we still need to cover Ghost, Grass, Electric, and Dark. You need answers for every bad matchup."
Reiji wrote down the anti-Bug plan for Slowking.
There were still four more types to work through, and Dark was the worst. Psychic attacks did nothing to Dark-types, and psychic defenses might as well be paper once Dark-type attacks started landing.
The others were easier, as long as Slowking's attacks still worked.
Ghost could be hit by Ghost and Dark moves. Slowking had Shadow Ball.
Grass had too many weaknesses to be frightening on its own. Bug, Poison, Flying, Fire, and Ice could all pressure it.
Electric was weak to Ground. Slowking had Ground-type coverage. Grounded Electric-types wouldn't have much room to work, and anything floating could be knocked down first, then punished with Earthquake.
Dark was weak to Bug, Fighting, and Fairy. Fairy wasn't available yet, but Slowking did have Fighting-type moves. With Teleport, Trick Room, and Oblivious preventing Taunt from shutting it down, it still had ways to maneuver.
Over the next stretch, Slowking would spar with Scizor, Golurk, Ludicolo, Magnezone, and Umbreon. Each opponent would force it to handle a different disadvantage. Reiji would use those battles to build coordination with Slowking, then do the same with the rest of the team.
For now, he had Slowking fight Scizor again, this time with Trick Room.
After that, Reiji looked toward Ludicolo.
Ludicolo only had three main problems to worry about: Flying, Poison, and Bug.
Bug was simple. It could use the same answer as Slowking. Ludicolo knew Blizzard and Icy Wind too.
Poison was weak to Ground and Psychic. Ludicolo had one Psychic-type move and one Ground-type move. Neither was especially strong, but usable was usable. Those moves needed practice.
Flying was weak to Electric, Ice, and Rock. Since Ludicolo already needed Ice practice for Bug-types, that same training would help against Flying-types too. Convenient. One set of drills solved two problems.
Beyond that, Ludicolo needed to tighten up its own STAB moves, plus Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Swords Dance, Protect, and last-resort moves like Hyper Beam. If it was going to bring those moves into real battles, it needed to use them reliably.
There were plenty of Flying-types to spar with it: Pelipper, Golbat, Pidgeot, Farfetch'd, Butterfree. Whoever was free could help.
For training against Poison-types, it had Toxicroak, Golbat, Weezing, Tentacruel, and a few others.
For Bug, Scizor, Forretress, and Accelgor would all work. Most of them were around level fifty, close enough for solid practice. Scizor and Toxicroak were a little higher, but that wasn't a problem.
Next came Blastoise.
Blastoise had only just joined, but as long as it listened, coordination was only a matter of time.
It mainly had to watch out for Grass and Electric. As a turtle, it had a lot more room for mistakes than most Water-types, thanks to the shell on its back.
Against Electric-types, Blastoise had plenty of Ground-type options, including Dig and Earthquake. Honestly, Earthquake alone was enough for most situations.
Against Grass-types, it had a strong Ice movepool: Icy Wind, Blizzard, Ice Punch, Ice Beam. Anything it didn't know could be learned later.
So Blastoise's training would focus on those coverage moves, plus its Water-type staples. Once it could handle bad matchups, favorable matchups would be easy.
Reiji had confidence in that. Same level, full health, and a favorable matchup? He did not believe he would lose the commanding side to another Trainer.
Blastoise's Electric sparring partners would be Zapdos and Magnezone. For Grass practice, there was Ludicolo.
Those three would train while also helping others train. Everyone needed move practice, matchup practice, and time as sparring partners.
The workload was heavy, so Reiji split training into morning, afternoon, and evening sessions. One focus per session.
Move practice. Sparring. Bad-matchup battles.
The schedule didn't need to be rigid. Whoever was free would help with whatever needed a partner most.
A bad matchup wasn't something to survive. It was something to overcome.
And in a favorable matchup, losing was unacceptable.
If a Pokémon still lost while holding the advantage, there was only one answer.
It hadn't trained enough.
[End of chapter]
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