Decision

"Go Mareep!" my opponent called out, as his Pokémon appeared in a red flash on the arena's floor, just as Joker did for me.

Immediately a low murmur went through the crowd, once they saw that I was the trainer of a Gastly, which I had somewhat expected since Gastly were pretty rare themselves, let alone one that had been caught by a trainer. They were devious and elusive as nearly all Ghost types were.

And it seems the sight of my Gastly had not only rattled the small crowd but my opponent as well, as the boy seemed uncertain and even a little afraid all of a sudden, with none of his previous bravado and eagerness to be found anywhere.

"Uhm, Thunderwave…?" My opponent began and I had to consciously stop myself from rolling my eyes at the uncertainty in his voice.

I knew I should not have expected to meet opponents like Aurelius everywhere I go but was it too much to ask for somebody as my opponent with at least a little bit of drive inside of them?

Whatever. Let's just get this over with so I can get myself that cash and start planning on how to train my Larvesta.

"Phase. Then Nightshade." I countered rendering the small burst of electricity contained in the Thunderwave completely useless, as it harmlessly struck down upon the ground of the arena, in the place where Joker had been a second ago.

I was already preparing myself for a counter attack, as my opponent surely had heard my orders for Joker, but I needn't have bothered, as the fight was already over in the next second.

Appearing right behind my opponent's Mareep, Joker emerged from the ground with his eyes already glowing ominously with that familiar red colour, and immediately struck down upon the small yellow sheep, who had no time to react at all.

A veil of coldness descended upon the arena for but a second but that was all it took for the Mareep to faint in a heap of yellow wool, its eyes closed in unconsciousness.

"Wha…" My opponent began, a tone of slight dis-believe colouring his voice at the one hit knock out displayed in the arena, obviously in disbelieve at what he was seeing, until he sighed in apparent dejectedness and recalled his sheep Pokémon.

I did the same with Joker before I marched over to my opponent to grab myself the promised reward and just get the hell out of here. I was rather disappointed in that lacklustre fight. I had hoped for at least a little bit of a challenge, to push Joker and myself at least a little bit further but it was not to be it seems.

"Dude, your Gastly is insane!" He began, and I shrugged only in response, unwilling to answer in the positive, as I was only too aware that me and my Pokémon were still at the very bottom of the food chain. My last battle against Aurelius had made that only all too apparent. Even though we had come out in a draw in the end, it had not been a clear eye opener on how much I still needed to work with my Pokémon if we truly wanted to rise to the very top of the world. And considering Aurelius was the proud trainer of a god damned Larvitar we needed to work even twice as hard!

After receiving our spoils from our opponent via online transfer, which was made very easy, only requiring to bump the respective phones/Pokédexes against each other and the entering of a little bit of data, I left the arena and quickly made my way back inside the Pokémon Centre while the crowd of still hyped up youngster consisting of both boys and girls continued to animatedly talk about the fight and speculating about this and that in their enthusiasm.

Walking past the front desk, at which one of the nurse Joy's sat to whom I waved mutedly, I navigated through a couple of corridors, all of them held clean and possessing an air of sterility home to every known hospital no doubt, I soon came to the section I had been looking for. The training area.

Walking through one of the electronic doors, which opened and closed with a near silent hiss at my approach, I entered a room that reminded me eerily much of the one I had used in Viridian city when I was training with Joker.

Turning up the small switch next to the door, a small signal would now appear on the outside, signalling that this room was in use and locked for outsiders.

Afterwards I marched right over to the rack holding all the different objects used for training and thought about what I could train on with Joker.

While doing so I absentmindedly took the two Ultraballs containing both Joker and Larvesta from my belt and, after enlarging them, released my two partners in twin flashes of red light onto the floor of the training room.

"Gastly.", "Laar…?" my two friends said once they were released and took curious looks at their new surroundings, after which they returned their attention back to me.

"So, time to train." I began and I hadn't even finished my sentence before Larvesta began to practically vibrate in place while Joker grinned eerily as only he could.

"Joker, you will start a warm up session by circulating your energy inside of you. I know that you just had a battle but let's be honest, that was no real battle." I continued and Joker snorted only in agreement at the reminder of that disappointment we both had been through only minutes ago. Still, we had gotten some money out of that so it wasn't all bad. And now we could let loose a little.

"Afterwards I want to see if we can't bring out that poison type energy inside of you somehow, as I've realised that you are pretty much powerless with your current move set against normal types. But first, get yourself warmed up." I told him and his nodded eagerly before floating away in order to not disturb Larvesta's first training session and be undisturbed himself.

"Lar?" My Larvesta asked, obviously eager and excited to start and I couldn't help myself but chuckle slightly at its rather clear impatience.

"Yes, now it's your turn." I said while sitting myself down in front of Larvesta, who chittered in happiness at my words, to which I petted it softly on its warm to the touch head.

"Before we begin however, I need you to understand a few things, okay?" I continued, to which Larvesta nodded, its beady ember eyes focused intently on my own.

"You are still young. In fact, you are still very young and I do not want to stunt your future development by pushing you too hard so early in your training. So, I've decided that we will begin your training but take it slowly, until I'm sure you will not be harmed by said training. Do you understand?" I told it and it seemed a little sad at my words but still nodded in understanding. Good.

"Alrighty. Then let's begin." It nodded again, while I could feel a slight increase in temperature around us. Huh.

"As you know I'd assume, you are both a Pokémon of the bug type and the fire type." It agreed, so I continued onwards.

"Good, so you are aware of that. That particular pairing of types is in and of itself a curious pairing in my opinion." Larvesta tilted its head slightly in question at my words, so I decided to explain my contemplations to it.

"Alright, I will try to explain why I find that combination to be so curious. Bug type Pokémon, to my knowledge, are very strong amongst trainers who've only just started their journey, as Bug type Pokémon evolve the quickest amongst all Pokémon types, which gives them an advantage early on. However, the longer a Pokémon trains, the stronger it becomes, until pretty much every Pokémon surpasses Pokémon of the Bug type species. Obviously, there are exceptions but that only confirms that rule in my opinion.

And amongst those types, that are rather weak early upon their path to grow stronger, the fire type is most certainly a major one, besides dragon Pokémon for example.

Fire Pokémon are, no doubt about that in my opinion, very weak and fragile in the beginning, but the longer they train and grow in strength the more power the can unleash until most fire Pokémon become literal juggernauts in a fight.

And as it so happens, you ARE part fire type. And Volcarona, your evolution, is one hell of a powerhouse when it comes to special attacks, no doubt about that." I finished explaining which maybe I shouldn't have done as my Larvesta was practically shimmering under a thin sheen of heat expelled from its body while a fire of eagerness burned brightly inside its ember coloured eyes.

"However, while Volcarona is awesome and powerful, Larvesta face a little problem on their journey towards their final evolution. They are stronger in the physical aspect of fighting while Volcarona are exceptional at attacks employing energy instead of rushing in head on. So, that said, you are now faced with a choice. And I have thought long and hard upon the benefits and disadvantages of training you that way. So, it is in the end up to you, which path you will take. I will train you either way." I explained once again, and Larvesta seemed to clearly understand that we had finally arrived at the crux of the whole conversation, namely which way I would train it from here on out.

"As I explained, your current evolution is pretty good at physical attacks, but not so much at special attacks. That means I could train you in your physical aspects, enabling you to go toe to toe with your current pears for some time, until you evolve into a Volcarona, upon which we would switch over to training you in using your inherent energy reserves.

Or I could train you in the development of your energy reserves now, leaving you far behind your pears. For the moment at least, as I am 100% sure that you would become a literal monster of energy reserves once you evolve into a Volcarona, due to your premature training in that aspect.

Train physically now, and compete with your pears like all the others, evolving into a 'normal' Volcarona later on, or train for the long haul, aiming to become the strongest Volcarona of them all, leaving you far behind your pears for the moment.

Your choice." I finished, and I could clearly see the gears turning inside Larvesta's mind. It was very tempting to go the normal path, avoiding hardships and despair at the own weakness when compared with one's pears, but in the end reaping the fruits of one's labour. I could understand the struggle Larvesta faced with that decision.

In the end however, Larvesta decided to go the hard way full throttle, and I couldn't have been prouder of the little guy. And even though he would be a weak little fellow for quite some time, once he evolves into a majestic Volcarona he would become practically unstoppable on the battlefield. I would make sure of that.

And so the decision was made, and we began the arduous grind that lay before us, until one day it would all pay off.