4 In Hot Water
It's been two years since I had Feebas and in that time we were able to get a lot of progress in her training but now we're about to face one of our hardest challenge yet, a rematch with an Alakazam named Cofo.
Cofo as always is just floating above the water with his smug expression, As having a Gardevoir as his cheerleader really seems to boost his ego so I decided to make the first move to wipe that grin out of his face with a classic introductory tackle.
"Feebas use tackle and aim in that big noggin"
'Feebaaaaas!'
'Whosssssh' 'water surface breaking'
Our daily laps and tackle training really showed its effect as Feebas was able to launch itself faster and harder than ever before, sadly our dear old friend mister tree is no more and took the route of the log we first used. My parent wasn't so happy with me turning the innocent trees around the lake into stumps so they ordered several large wooden pillars with a cushion in the middle and then had them erected in the water just far enough from the bank of the lake to not worry about Feebas accidentally finding itself on land after an unsuccessful jump.
'Feebas!'
'SwoooOsh' 'flight'
"A head-on approach may be good if your using a dark type attack but tackle is not the best strategy here young master, Cofo stop it on its track with Psychic"
'Ala Alakazam'
'Bzz bzzzz'
'Feebas?'
'Feeeeebaaaaaaas'
'Plop''Plop'"Plop' 'Feebas as a skipping stone'
As Cofo used Psychic Feebas was stopped mid-air and then thrown back to her original position. Psychic is a really strong move in this world as it can only be nullified by using a dark type move or through willpower which is only possible if the Pokémon is as strong or stronger than the user.
(That cheat move again, I still remember our first battle with Cofo where he just used Psychic to lift up Feebas and wait for her to faint from suffocation. Good thing we banned that before this battle along with shockwave.)
"If tackle won't work, then let's show them our progress with a barrage of Dragon breath!"
In the past year, Feebas was finally able to master Dragon-breath to the degree of being battle-worthy. The draconic flames can reach up to 20 meters away and have a temperature comparable to that of a flamethrower from a none fire type.
'Feeb Feebas!'
"Teleport"
'Alakazam'
'Bzz bzzz'
As I heard Joseph command Cofo to dodge the barrage of attacks by teleporting right behind Feebas, and as already used to it I can already guess what he's about to do next.
'Feebas?'
"Quickly jump out of the water!"
'Feebas!'
"Thunder punch"
'Alakazam'
Feebas was able to evade the thunder punch by doing a quadruple summersault in the air and landing 10 meters away safely avoiding the punch and the static permeating the water in the area.
(That was a close one even though we banned range electric moves such as Cofo's shockwave, that thunder punch would still do a wallop and if remember Alakazam is weak physically but that doesn't seem to stop him)
"Nice one Feebas now let's give them an attack they can't easily dodge. Use surf and follow it up with tackle served with a couple of fresh slaps of your tail"
'Feebas feeeee!'
A 10 feet wave rose from the lake that spanned the area which Feebas rode like a professional surfer. While giving Cofo a look as if saying 'I'm gonna get ya' she charged toward Cofo with the might of a mini tsunami. As Feebas was getting closer Joseph didn't seem to be troubled by the situation and just commanded Cofo to prepare as if waiting for something.
(Ohh no, it's gonna be another Psychic. That's just cheating at this point!)
"Cofo destroy that wave using Psychic"
'Alakazam'
'Bzz bzzzz'
'Feebaaaaas?!' 'thrown in the air'
The Psychic easily destroyed the wave causing Feebas to be airborne. However, we are luckily close enough for another attack.
"Feebas show them your hot tackle!"
'Feebaaaaaas!'
"Young master you really need to learn from yo....."
Upon hearing my command Feebas shot a full-powered Scald towards Cofo which caught both Pokémon and trainer off guard thus hitting Cofo right in the face, blasting him a few meters away before using teleport to avoid crashing into the water.
"That's not a tackle, young master!"
"Not with that attitude, it's not"
A few months earlier after Feebas has just mastered Surf, I thought it was time to begin learning Water pulse. As I have no clue on the process of executing the move, I just told Feebas to first try performing a dragon breath but instead of using dragon-type energy switch it with water-type energy. At first, Feebas did not understand my meaning but when I said it's the same energy she uses when performing surf she immediately tried it out and the outcome we got is a steaming burst of hot water.
(Man, I just love that fish)
"Then allow us to repay in kind, young master"
'Alakazam!'
'Bzz bzzzz'
'Feebas?!'
'Alakazaaaaaam'
'Wham' 'Impact'
'Feebaaaas!'
'Swooosh' 'flight'
After saying an inauspicious reply, Cofo suddenly teleported on top of Feebas and immediately landed a thunder punch which caused Feebas to once again be thrown into the air.
"Feebas Evasive maneuver!"
'Feebas'
'Alakazam!'
'bzz bzzz'
'Feeb Feebaaaas'
'Boom!' 'Impact'
'baas'
As Feebas was a sitting Ducklett in the air, Cofo easily landed another psychic and blasted Feebas into the banks of the lake fainted.
(What the... Joseph did not even give any command but why did Cofo continuously attack?.... Telepathy!!)
Telepathy is considered the ability of some Pokémon but almost all Psychic-type has the potential to manually do something with a similar effect after reaching an Elite strength.
(It's the only reason I could come up with what they did or else it just didn't make sense. As it gives Joseph the ability to communicate telepathically to Cofo, he is able to give commands without me knowing.)
After figuring out what they did I promptly accepted our defeat as I knew Cofo was strong but never did I think that he is at an Elite level.
"That was a good battle young master, way better than any of the ones we had before"
"We still got defeated though, Why did you not tell me about Cofo being able to use telepathy"
"Young master it's customary for trainers to keep their true combat potential hidden until needed, It's young master's own fault for not considering it a possibility."
"I doubt you needed it to defeat us though"
"True, but I wanted to show young master that using verbal trickery is fine in most cases but it will not land you an easy victory. To add to that, such things are lookdown upon by many in the trainer community but I think it's just them not wanting to accept losing in the battle of wits."
Battling with Josephs and Cofo really helped us in our training as we were able to put our strategies into action and test if they are truly viable for future battles. But sometimes I just think that Cofo is enjoying blasting Feebas in the air too much at the point where I remember there was one time that I heard Feebas silently making an oath to someday drown all Psychic-types.
After my mother, Drasna successfully defeated and took the position of elite 4 from Elena the Normal-type master I immediately asked my mother for a battle to see what's a true elite 4 level trainer is like in this world but sadly I was given the Gym leader Norman move and was quickly rejected and told that she will battle me when I have a full team of six powerful Pokémon that she is satisfied with.
After the battle with Cofo, I gave Feebas a spray of Full restore then let it rest in its Pokeball while I think of what's next in our training plan. My original training plan was shortly changed due to a sudden revelation my parent told me after a month I got Feebas. Which now I'm planning to put a stop to it because it has already run its course and no longer gives any foreseeable benefits aside for Feebas who still enjoys beating up a small Psychic-type.
.... Less than two years ago ....
It's been one month since I've started training with Feebas and I'm happy that our progress is going well, too well. As training can only get Feebas so far, I had the idea of asking Joseph and Cofo for a battle, where we got easily wrecked and not even a shred of remorse was given.
After the first defeat we tried challenging once or twice a week even though it is always led to our defeat to Feebas' displeasure and the smug face Cofo shows after the battle only increases Feebas' irritation, we were still able to gain important combat experience so I don't see us stopping anytime soon.
Feebas just keep getting stronger as the days went on and even the scales I asked my father arrived yesterday and there is the Prism scale, Deep sea scale, and Dragon scale present along with a variety of Pokémon scales from including but not limited to a Seviper, Gyarados, and even a Kammo-o scale which I still don't know what to do with.
With a lot of scales in hand, I thought of making it a true hobby, Thus I used one of the many vacant rooms in the penthouse and made a makeshift museum for Pokémon scales, each sample of scales was even labeled and came with a picture of the Pokémon it was from.
(The prism scale that my father got me does not really matter anymore because Feebas had just shed her own prism scale a few days ago and it's golden. A shiny prism scale!)
"With everything in place, nothing can go wrong! It's only smooth sailing from here, Isn't that right Feebas"
'Feebas!'
Just as I had that agreement with Feebas, Jess showed up and told me that I was called by my parents to go to my father's office. There I was reminded of something that I put in the back of my mind since coming to this world, School.
"Albert as you are already five years of age, we talked about enrolling you in the Pokémon trainers school"
"School?"
"School Albert, As we know you are already far ahead in terms of academics we still think you should make friends with those close to your age in the kindergarten section of the trainers school"
(I doubt I'd be making friends due to the mental age gap and I don't see what they could possibly offer me that our archives could not, some information stored up in our library are not even available to the public)
"Uh, huh. can I please just say no?"
""Nope""
"No need for the quick denial Albert, The trainers school has a lot of things to offer"
"That's right Albert, this school is a good place for aspiring trainers as it was adopted from the one in Hoenn and is considered a first of its kind in Kalos with it just built and opened 3 yrs ago. We think that enrolling you there will help you in your goals as a future trainer"
"Mind me saying dad, but I don't think it being new is a good thing considering it is a school and all. Don't they need to show their worth with results and stuff with their graduates?"
"It already did or the one in Hoenn did as those who have gone in their trainer school was able to have successful careers as trainers."
"Besides that, let me ask you. What type of trainer do you want to be Albert?"
(What kind of trainer?)
If my mom is asking me what type I'm gonna specialize in then it would obviously be dragon type or Pokémon with Draconic tendencies such as a Charizard or maybe Steelix would be a nice option to have to not easily be countered by a trainer who specializes in fairy type. As dragon types are what my studies mostly focused on due to our family specializing in it for generations. It seems only right that I choose the path of a mixed team with half of it being dominantly dragon types.
(Well If lance is allowed to only have a couple of Dragonite's and 3 non-dragon types in his team and still be called a dragon specialist in the original games, I don't see why I can't do the same)
On the matter of fairy type, I don't think it was discovered yet as I've found no information of it alongside mega evolution but I'm sure they exist. I'm positive of their existence because Josephs Gardevoir is already known to be immune to dragon-type attacks which were even tested by my mother with her Noivern with a practice match once. I also believe that mega evolution exists here because when I was studying the geography of Kalos I found Mega Island off the coast of Shalour City and it was listed as a private property of the Concombre Family. In the anime, Gurkinn who was the grandfather of Korrina the gym leader of Shalour gym said the place to be where Mega stones could be found in abundance and it is also where Ash got his Lucarionite.
As I'm clueless about Generation 6 onwards of the games I don't know if such a place exists outside the anime but I was able to find information about Gurkinn who I found was currently the gym leader of the Shalour Gym located in the Tower of mastery. In the anime, The Tower of mastery is where the gym leader Korrina and later Ash got their keystones.
(Maybe I can get one if I approached them correctly, then I can sneak into mega island if I ever get a Pokémon that can Mega evolve which I surely will because it would be just plain stupid not to.)
"I want to be a Dragon Specialist like mom"
"Ohh! my little Albert wants to be like mommy. No worry then, mommy will teach you what it takes to be a dragon master even though you have already read up on our archives there is still a lot you can't get from just reading a book"
"I take offense to that my dear, but Albert your still going to school as it will also help you achieve your goals, as a trainer must not only know how to take care of his Pokémon but also how to socialize with other people as you will be traveling a lot in the future"
"I really don't have a choice in the matter do I?"
""Nope""
"So when do I need to start?"
""next week""
".... great"
"We knew you will like it, as we already prepared all the necessary stuff you will need, and here are some more of the scales that you like. These ones are all different from the first batch I gave you as I thought you may not like duplicates"
".... Thank you"
.... A few minutes later .....
"Feebas, due to recent events I am now forced to change our training plan"
'Feebas fee?'
"It's a rescheduling in a way. In short, aside from the early morning jog, everything else is gonna be different."
'Feebas?'
"Well, it's because we're going to school which luckily is only scheduled in the morning. In the afternoon we can continue training although now needing to alternate between body training and the learning of new moves each day while still practicing old moves every day."
'Feebas feeb feebas'
"No worry Feebas we could make it work, trust me"
'Feebas'
.... 4 months later ....
As the trainer school was only a 30 minutes drive from our mansion I was still able to continue our afternoon training as well as even do some of the mornings' jog and swim for Feebas but shortening it to 30 mins before starting to get ready for the trainer school.
After the first week in the Trainers school Kindergarten department, I already know I'm not supposed to be there. Don't get me wrong it's was a nice place, the trainer school overall is a large campus complete with a multitude of battle arenas which gives an advantage to certain types of Pokémon depending o the arena used.
The school is divided into 2 levels, first is the Kindergarten class which is mainly for those of 5-8 yrs of age still without a Pokémon but is allowed to borrow a Pokémon that is owned by the school for use in classes and the second is the Beginner class that is for those who are old enough to have their own Pokémon. The beginner class is further divided into the classes of battle, Performer, and Doctor, and as I already have a Pokémon I asked my parents if I could take an exam that the school offers for those who want to skip levels.
My parents were iffy at first but when I told them that I can't relate and get along with those of the kindergarten level they realized that it must be due to me having a bit higher mentality than those of my age so they accepted my request thinking that I may have an easier time making friends to those students of the beginner class. The exam was not really so much of a challenge and I even thought that if it was given to any random adult walking on the street they could probably ace it on the spot.
To not worry my parents I did make a couple of friends in the beginner class where even though I look noticeably younger they just treated me like a smart younger brother who likes to keep to himself most of the time. I did have some issues in the beginner class though like when I first showed Feebas to everyone which led to an over-exaggeration from the class which includes two of the girls fainting with one even vomiting in front of the whole class before falling unconscious. That event dealt a big blow in Feebas' confidence however, it was easily fixed with a few days worth of continued compliments with the addition of saying that people in the trainer's school have no eyes for beauty which Feebas believed to her very core.
My classmates were able to adapt to Feebas looks after a few weeks and even showed the initiative to challenge us for battles but comparing them to Josephs and Cofo it's like literally playing with kids where we hardly lost any battle unless they use types which Feebas was weak to as we still have yet to start training coverage for it. The class I choose to mainly attend was the battle class but sadly what they teach is the thing I already covered when I was just four so, in the end, I just treated it as a place to socialize and have battles but there is also an issue with that and it came in the form of a girl of the age of seven that I deemed to be a very competitive younger version of the future champion of Kalos, Diantha.
It seemed that just like me she also took the advancement exam to be able to attend the beginner class. I was very happy when I first saw her as it gave me a clue on when I was currently at before the possible start of the series whether it be in the anime or games.
I planned to make a good impression on the future powerhouse but it was sadly not meant to be as she is one of the two girls that fainted along with the teacher, specifically she is the one that vomited. Diantha seemed to be acting fine about the mishap but it's clear she is holding a grudge at the embarrassment she was put into because it was clear that she is trying her best to outdo me at everything which included Pokémon battles where she thought she could get revenge on my Feebas by battling with it using her Ralts.
As I wanted to end this feud as early as I can, I made it so that we would try to lose on purpose without being obvious on what we are doing so that we can give her an easy and fast victory. I felt bad about Feebas as I decided to use an arena without water but she still accepted the battle so, in the end, I decided to put the plan into action. However little did I know that Feebas did not understand that we were trying to lose but for her, it was some kind of challenge where she had to overcome adversity in a location where she is very handicapped.
At the start of the battle Feebas immediately used surf to create water in her surroundings without my command and used that as leverage for a full forced tackle which Ralts was too slow to dodge and was not even able to use teleport. Ralts did not really stand a chance against Feebas because when compared to Cofo it can't even be considered as a warm up.
(It seems the grudge of my Feebas towards Psychic-types goes deeper than I thought as the battle did not even last 10 seconds from start to finish.)
That debacle only led to Diantha declaring me as her rival which I kindly refused. Even with my refusal she still hounded me every day for a battle which I can only accept because if not she would just keep following me along with some other people who wanted to see the match, always leading into a Falinks like marching band with me in the lead. Feebas was all too happy to battle Diantha and her Ralts as she sees it as one of the few chances she get to beat up a Psychic-type as a way to release some of her ire against Cofo.
.... Back to the present time ....
After two years in trainer school, I was able to defeat all the students of my class and other classes even if they have a type advantage as in the end, they are still trainers who have yet to start their journey. One interesting tidbit I discovered about Feebas in the trainer school is that she seems to very much enjoy beating up Psychic-types especially Diantha's Ralts which sadly recently caused the poor Pokémon to go into a panic attack whenever she hears the word Feebas.
I realize that I'm just wasting time in the trainer's school as even Diantha left a month ago after telling me that she will be going to train under someone so next time we meet she is going to beat me or so she said. However, considering that her Ralts can't even stay in the same room with Feebas before teleporting far away as quickly as she can due to harsh anxiety, I doubt that's gonna happen any time soon.
Since I realize that I'm just wasting time in the trainer's school, I went to my father and mother to give a request that was already a year overdue.
"Albert, what is it you want to talk about? You are usually training your Feebas during this time its rare for you to ever skip it for any reason"
"Mom.. Dad.. I want to stop going to the trainer's school"
""!?"" 'shocked and confused'
"I've already had enough socializing with the people at the training school, even though I made friends it's only at the campus and the trainers there don't give me and Feebas any more challenge which stagnated our growth"
"Don't you want to double-think this? You won't be able to meet the friends you made anymore"
"I don't really have a choice in the matter as most of my friends are much older than me and have already started their journey last month leaving me behind. Besides, I want to do something new aside from just learning about Pokémon"
"Ohh? and what's that."
"I want to learn how to do business like dad!"
Having the knowledge of how the money of this world moves will surely help me in the future and introducing innovations from my old world here may not be a bad idea as a source of personal income for the future so getting my father to help with that will surely be a fruitful endeavor.
""Ahh""
Alden 'excitement'
Drasna 'shock'
"Yess!!! then you will stop trying to be a trainer?"
"Nope, I still want to be a trainer but at the same time I want to learn to do business stuff so someday I can not only be smart and strong but also rich like dad!'
"Hahahaha, Spoken like a true Ryuma"
"It's good that you did not stop your dreams of being a trainer but why the sudden change of plans?"
"Mom, I want to have a lifeline if someday something happens to me that forces me to stop being a trainer"
"It's good that you are at least prepared for the worst"
"Then will you let me stop going to trainer school?"
"It's really not our choice, but yours. If that's what you think is best we can only support your decision"
"Thank you!!!"
(Where was that best for you bit two years ago, but never mind that at least now I can go focus on training Feebas again with the addition of spending some time with my father to learn about his work. Now the only problem is the lack of good trainers to battle which I already have an idea on how to fix)
"But there is another thing I would like to ask for your permission for"
"What is it?"
"Can I use the lake Penthouse for future guests?"
"That's no problem at all, we rarely use it anyway"
"But Albert when will you be having guests? are they your friends from trainer school?"
"Well ... I'm having a problem with a lack of new people to battle and as our house is in the outskirts of Lumiose City which has its Pokémon center always packed leaving many trainers to need to camp out near our residence, I thought that maybe you could allow them to stay in the Penthouse for a few days in exchange for battling with me and giving me some advice if possible"
"So in short you're asking us to allow strangers into our estate."
"If it's too much forget ...."
"It's fine! It's customary to welcome traveling trainers into the house"
"It is?"
"How do you think I met your mother? It may not be a written history but for the longest time, people of different regions welcome traveling trainers who have come from far places to their homes to give them a chance to rest from their journey, although it is not known where the custom started from."
"Ohh honey making me remember such a lovely memory"
"Lovely? Drasna, you just landed in front of my house with your Noivern and yelled "NICE HOUSE, LET ME IN OR MY FRIEND HERE WILL BURN IT DOWN!" You're lucky that for some odd reason I did not call officer Jenny and even let you stay the night!"
"Well, your lucky I never left"
"Touché"
".... Mom, Dad, Thank you very much but I think I'll see myself out now"
(I'm really lucky to have a loving family that's willing to allow me to go through my escapades)
'leaves the room'
"Now that Alberts has left let get started on finishing that little project we left off as their is only two years left "
"......"
.... 1 week later ....
After being allowed to perform my little lodging plan, I immediately made a poster detailing my offer and time of admission for those who would like to take the offer. I made the time of admission one hour long and set it to end before noon.
I asked Joseph to have it be posted in the Pokémon center in order to be easily seen by incoming trainers. While that was done I continued training Feebas following our old training plan but now focusing more on mastering scald and learning water pulse and dragon pulse. As from what I learned a Pokémon is able to learn moves faster at its first base of evolution but slows down that learning by a large margin by evolving and is compensated by a great rise in strength and most commonly a Pokémon could learn a one to two moves right after evolution without even training the Pokémon to learn said moves. This is one of the reasons why I try to stall Feebas' Evolution even though she shows me that she is already ready to evolve evident by the twenty-five shiny prism scale I have displayed in my scale museum.
I also started visiting my father whenever he is available to learn about properly running a business and how he gets his contacts. I even told some of the innovations of my former world such as the flat touch screen phones and flat-screen Tv's but I was told it will take some time to develop a device such as a touch screen phone with functioning apps but the Tv is a possibility.
A problem arose though, for the Lodging plan as even after three days no one showed up at our gates to try for the admission so I tried to increase the offer by allowing the use of the facilities in the lake which I used for training Feebas and my parent even offered to provide for their meals so I added a line saying 5-star meals included in the poster but for the next two days still no luck.
(Do trainers really like camping that much? Or maybe my poster was a bit too intimidating)
As I want only the best to show up I wrote "Penthouse owned by the Dragon master Drasna of the Elite Four" at the bottom of the poster. But finally by the end of the week while I was waiting at the gate as I still have 15 minutes before the end of the admission for the day I saw someone walking towards my location which after getting closer I was able to Identify as a glamorous-looking teenage girl adorned with so many accessories that could even rival my mother's.
"Hello is this the admission site for the Lakeside battle house?"
"Yes! Yes, it is!"
"Great! Then what time do I need to battle Drasna for a chance of lodging in her penthouse"
"Say what now?"
"I would like to battle Drasna for a place to stay for a few days"
"?"
"?"
...............
