Chapter 57

Opening the door, an old man with dim, grey hair stepped out onto the patio deck. In overalls and hard-toe boots, the old man looked more like an auto mechanic than a renown Move Tutor! "Who's out there? We're not open for business! Come back later when the shops open!"

"Oi! Old man! Did you go blind? Why would my car need any work done? I'm here to cash in on that favor you owe me!"

Hearing the familiar voice of someone he thought he would never see again, the old man started tearing up before briskly walking down his steps. On the way down, he almost tripped but caught himself and quickly ran up to the woman getting out of the car. Reaching over, the old man pulled her into a hug. "You naughty girl! Only now have you finally come to visit me! If you had come any later, the only thing left to greet you would be my bones!"

Bewildered at the exchange between an old man he had never seen before who was crying while hugging his mother and his mother who was crying just as hard, Jax could only assume that whoever this man was, he was incredibly important to his mother. Stepping out of the car followed by Metsys and his two pokemon, Jax walked right up to the old man and gave a light cough. Although his mother seem to know who the old man was, Jax didn't and because he didn't know who the old man was, he didn't want him hugging his mommy! 'I still have a dad!'

Noticing that someone else had stepped out of the car, the old man turned but saw no one. Looking around, he still didn't see anyone but then he felt something pulling at his leg. Looking down, the old man saw a very handsome boy with silver, grey hair and eyes that reminded him of the woman he hugged just seconds before. By the boy's side stood a girl with grey hair that was a little darker but shinier than his and around them stood a purple lizard and a floating…cannon ball?

"Mommy, who's this old man you were hugging? I don't think he's daddy?"

Hearing her son's questions, Doria gave a light chuckle and shook her head. "Haha! No, silly! Although this man isn't your daddy, he is someone's. Mine! Meet Grandpa Rick!"

Shocked at the realization, Jax felt embarrassed to have assumed otherwise! "H-hi, um, G-Grandpa Rick! I'm J-Jax Skyborne. Mommy's baby."

Laughing at the funny self-introduction, the old man also introduced himself. "Hello, Jax. You don't remember me, but I saw you once at the hospital right after your mother just gave birth to you. Look how big you've already gotten. And how handsome! Like your mother said, I'm her father so you can just call me Grandpa Rick, comfortably."

Once everyone was caught up with their introductions, Doria explained why they came today; seeing if the old man could teach her son's new pokemon and new moves! Grandpa Rick at the two pokemon to see which one would have the honor of becoming his new student. Not expecting to see two pokemon who exuded so much pressure, Grandpa Rick was slightly surprised. 'Heh, I guess blood really is thicker than water. So young but already such a capable trainer.'

After a long and hard decision, Grandpa Rick still couldn't pick which pokemon he wanted to teach so to make things easier, he just chose to train both! "Alright, little guy. Since Grandpa's missed six of your birthdays, consider this my present to you. I'll train both of your pokemon, but I can't guarantee they'll be successful in learning them. Look over here, this is a list of all the moves I currently know how to teach. Take your time reading through the list and let me know which move you want your pokemon to learn." Handing a list of pokemon moves over to Jax, Grandpa Rick then went out to the back to grab the necessary training equipment he'll eventually be needing.

Looking over all the moves that Grandpa Rick had handed him, Jax was surprise by the extensive amount. In the games, as long as you visited a Move Tutor and paid the corresponding price, your pokemon could instantly learn a move. Although the Move Tutor in the games only knew a set number of moves, it was a lot more convenient than the anime version. In the anime, the Move Tutor would just give a demonstration of the move the pokemon wished to learn and the rest was up to the pokemon on what they could grasp from it.

'Mhm, since this is the real world, I doubt it would be like learning from a TM. I should pick only a few moves that are essential to my pokemons. Since Beldum already had Headbutt, Jax could cross that off the list. The only three moves it could learn were Iron Defense, Iron Head, and Zen Headbutt. All three moves had their pros and cons. Not knowing which one was more important than the others, Jax decided to just ask Beldum for its opinion.

"Buddy, come take a look with me. There's three moves you can currently learn. These are the only moves you can learn before you evolve into a Metang, so we'll have to choose carefully." Flying over to Jax's side, Beldum took a look at the list that he had pointed out. Since it already knew Take Down and Headbutt, it didn't really need the other two attacking moves so it definitely wanted to learn Iron Defense. While it didn't need new attacking moves, having more was always merrier. After thinking for a long time, Beldum expressed his intentions of learning all three moves available to him! Liking his new pokemon's enthusiasm, Jax agreed with its choice.

Moving onto the list of moves that Nidorino could learn was more complicated, however. There were just too many moves! A new stab move would be good but Vioarr already had plenty of attacking moves. Plus, with their ability to combine moves together, the duo weren't lacking in that department at all! Thinking so, Jax focused his attention to the more utility-based moves which drastically limited the number of moves a Nidorino could learn.

"Hmmm. Cross off Sunny Day, Rain Dance and Attract. Vioarr doesn't know any moves at the moment that will benefit from Sunny Day or Rain Dance. While Attract would be nice, most of the pokemons we've battle up until now have been the same sex as him. It wouldn't make sense to only battle female pokemon because then his ability, Rivalry, would just be useless." After much deliberation, Jax finally picked out three moves for Vioarr to learn! Now, he just had to wait for Grandpa Rick to come back to tell him his choices.