Sledgehammer

I woke up the next morning to get straight into fixing the water issue…..It took me nearly a full day and a good chunk of the night, working by torch light to cobble together enough faulty and dodgy cabling to get that hot water service up and running with my YouTube honed DIY skills I picked up in my last life…

And it was worth every second of it...

Standing in a small semi enclosed room of grey concrete and missing walls with a wonky and broken looking shower head raining down sweet, sweet hot water in a very wide spread, on me and meowth..

I couldn't really wash meowth before because of the lack of a container big enough to hold enough hot water for a bath and the cold weather, so I just dragged him in with me when I went I took my shower for it's maiden voyage this morning…

He was VERY reluctant at first but eventually bit the bullet and jumped in with me, and found he very much enjoyed the hot water as well…as I said before this shower head has a very wide spread, so we both have space.

I even built a small shelf out of random off cuts of timber to hold my soaps and shampoos that I managed to buy during my stockpiling before I left that hellish "orphanage"

Luckily I bought shampoo That's safe to use on Pokémon as well, because meowth was filthy, covered in dried blood from his earlier near death experience the day before last, and clumps of dirt and mud, I guess from every day living in the wild?

But he's a bloody dirt ball no more, he enjoyed a good wash down with and vigorous shampoo scrubbing to get him looking like someone actually owns him and not just some random street cat.

It was pretty early morning so it took some willpower to get out of bed and away from the fire….which was burning real well when I woke up, it seems meowth woke up through the night to throw a couple more bits of lumber onto our heat source….this cat is a legend I'm telling you….

The only downside is to this cat is...this cat is going to eat me out of house and home, I mean yes he has to recover from his clear malnutrition and he is very much doing that, but good god, I'll barely be able to last the rest of winter with the way he's eating…

So I reckon maybe next week, I'll have to bite the bullet and head back in to buy some more stuff, I've got about $900 left, which should be enough to keep and my new buddy fed for another month or two at least after my stockpiled food runs out..

But after me and meowth are done, I turn off the shower and we both make a mad dash for the fire to try and keep warm as we towel off..

Meowth did the whole shake the water out of their fur thing in the "bathroom" which was fine, but he tried to do it again in our main room and I had to stop him and tell him to wait till I got dressed and I'll wipe him down…

So I got dressed up nice and snug in my winter gear and proceeded to wipe down the now very clean meowth next to the fire pit…and I notice his fur is still a bit tangled, but I don't have brush for him….hopefully i can find something in the scavenger run I'm doing today..

With both of us dried, dressed and ready for the day, we have a quick brekky, stock the fire a little and head downstairs to find what we can find today..

I was also planning on seeing what moves meowth can use and maybe try a little training and feel it out a bit..

We get down stairs and grab the pull cart that still has a few tools in it and start making out way out the front entrance….

The ground was still a bit wet from the storm a couple nights back, but that shouldn't be much of a problem hopefully..

I suddenly felt the cart shudder a bit, I look back and see meowth has jumped in and taken a seat…

I was going to say something, but I honestly didn't really mind that much, and I suppose it would stop him from getting muddy while we walk.

So I just turned back around and started back up on my little journey to find some useful shit in this abandoned ghost town…hopefully not a literal ghost town, I've not heard good things about ghost types, but I've yet to see one, or any tell tale signs, so fingers crossed

We ended up raiding a few half collapsed buildings and we found some pretty good shit, a solid electric kettle that looks untouched, a rice cooker that's definitely seen better days, but should still work well enough and even randomly some tackle boxes and fishing rods, though old, were solid as they could be…I tried everything and I couldn't break the dam things so….fishing is now an option!!

We walked around for a few hours before I got bored and decided it was time to see what meowth could do…

So we came to a stop near an open field of ruined buildings and I turn around to speak to meowth

"Alright mate, we need to see what you're capable of, reckon you could show me all the moves you currently know?

I had doubts he would know what I meant by "moves" but that proves to be a needless doubt as he just happily nods and pounces out of the of the cart to face a dusty brick wall that looks half melted….If I had to guess I would say that looks like a hyper beam went through it…

He readies himself and pounces as his claws glow a dull white and swipes at the melted wall and leave 3 clean groves running diagonally down it…

"Alright, that looks like scratch…what else ya got?"

He reorients himself into the same position and his claws glow a dull white again as he leaps and lets loose a flurry of scratches against the helpless wall…

"I reckon that's fury swipes, ok what else you got champ?"

Again back into position he steadies himself and let's out a low growl that seemed to pick up some dust on its way to the wall…

"Mmmmk, I'll take that as growl, keep it up big man"

Again in place, his gold coin on his head starts to glow and lets out a jarring blast that hits the wall with a decent thump as it nearly brings the wall down…

"Alright…..payday?, it would have to be right?"

He just turns around and nods

"You got anymore mate?"

Another nod as he turns back to the wall, but this time a whitish energy surrounds his body as his muscles seem to expand a bit with a growling noise leaving hit throat…

"Was that focus energy?"

He just shakes his head

"Uuuuh?…..work up?"

A grin splits his face as he answered that question with an enthusiastic nod…

"Alright man, anything more to show?"

Without answering he turns back to the abused wreck of a wall and lunges at it again but this time a dark energy radiates out of his mouth as he bites clean through solid brick…..

"So bite than….alrighty…if you have anymore now's the time to show it"

He just readied himself in pouncing position and suddenly one of his claws erupt in whispy purplish fog in the rough shape of a claw and pounced at the wall….. it this time the wall was shaved in half cleanly, no resistance what so ever…leaving me a little stunned, looks like I struck gold with this fella

"So you got shadow claw somehow aye?, that's pretty sick bro, that's a real sledgehammer in your arsenal of mallets…man, hopefully we can use that to learn shadow ball as well…"

Meowth was puffed up in pride at my reaction to his shadow claw, and he's earned it….shadow claw is not a joke, I almost wanted to ask why he didn't use it against the Rattata, but I remembered it's a ghost move, and Rattata are normal type…so duh I guess…

"Alright buddy, it's getting pretty late, I reckon we should head home and get some food in us and re stoke the fire….maybe try and pick up some more wood from the old sawmill on the way home…not that it's urgent but it's better to grab it while we can yeah?"

Meowth was down for that, so he hoped back into his now overcrowded personal chariot as we make our way back home….

I want to see if I can try teaching him iron tail the same way they do in the anime tomorrow…I was a little worried about getting meowth to train but I have a hunch it won't be an issue….