The voice of life

I always found it strange how in the anime wild Pokémon, who probably had 0 exposure to any person prior to being caught, were able to perfectly understand commands from their trainers.

I had initially chalked it up to good old anime logic, but now that I existed in the actual world, there had to be a reason. Right?

Yes.

Good old Grandpa Xanax had an answer for me. It was quite simply related to intent. The ability of a living creature to relay its forefront thoughts. Some people were out of luck when it came to possessing and using this ability, those were the ones that found it increasingly hard to become Pokemon trainers.

They loved to blame it on their Pokemon simply not listening but it was more so their Pokemon just couldn't understand. This group accounted for only around 20% of humans and only around less than 1% of Pokemon.

Then there was the other 80% of humanity who could use this ability properly or even showed remarkable prowess with it. The latter ones only comprised a very very small population of people.

Apparently, when one's ability to convey intent reached a certain level they became able to use one of two abilities. Aura, or psychokinesis.

When it came to Pokemon, however. It was a bit different. They were unable to truly relay intent as well as humans and so most were left on the receiving end. The main reason for this was the lack of intelligence most Pokemon possessed. Kind of like normal animals on Earth.

Some, however, did have enough intelligence and intent to do the same as some humans. These Pokemon were usually called psychics or had some form of psychic power.

The nature of Pokemon allowed that psychic ability to be passed down when they gave birth. Which is why there were a lot more psychic Pokemon than people.

My first two thoughts when hearing about all this were one, Lucario, and two Sabrina of the Saffron city gym.

One was a Pokemon that the concept of aura was first introduced, and the other was a human capable of psychic powers.

So if I'm good enough I may be able to fly or use aura attacks. The childish part of me giggled like a damn child at the thought.

I was told I really shouldn't get my hopes up, that's how rare of an ability it was. But, I wasn't discouraged and immediately insisted I take Mawile to the wild and see if she can follow battle commands.

The problem with this?

Well, quite a few, but the most prevalent being, I had absolutely no knowledge of what moves Mawile even knew.

So through the process of trial and error, we figured it out.

...

"Mawile use tackle."

The large bipedal Pokemon slammed herself into a nearby tree, causing the thing to snap in half.

I had been with Mawile for about a week prior to the beginning of the experiments. In this week I'd like to think I got to know her fairly well.

For one, she was a lot like me in that she required no food, water, or sleep. She was apparently with me the entire time I was slumbering away under Xerneas.

Perhaps that was the reason she treated me as something of a parent. She was used to my presence.

Weird because she was technically probably older than I was.

Next was that she seemed to be very reverent to Grandpa Xanax. So much so that when she accidentally hit the base of his form, she bowed down and apologized.

She was a lovely thing. Made me feel not so bad about being stranded on an island.

'Well, I assumed that would work.' I returned my thoughts to the destroyed tree that a proud Mawile stood above.

"Good job girl, now try a quick attack," I ordered but received nothing but a rotation of the head from Mawile.

'Ah right.' Mawile's aren't much of speed demons, I doubt she can produce enough to form the move.

"Ok, growl." I again ordered and this time received a nod.

The mouth appendage behind the girl's head suddenly moved forward in my direction. Its teeth bared.

And boom, terror.

Well, she can definitely use that.

*Gulp*

Thank God she wasn't familiar with that move. If she had known how to make it even a tiny bit more intimidating I would've pissed my pants.

Speaking of the source of that intimidation. That weird appendage of hers might signify her knowledge of a few moves.

"Mawile, Fire fang."

"Wile."

Another nod of approval was followed by another appearance of the mouth appendage. This time, however. Its mouth opened and its teeth began to blaze into a small flame.

'Must be an egg move.' I noted before I immediately commanded her to try the rest of the fang moves.

Ice fang... Check.

Thunder fang... Fail.

Poison fang... Fail

Fire fang and Ice fang. Pretty nice when you consider the fact that it's common for most Pokemon to not have a single egg move.

The rest of my move hunt was done through logic instead of going in blind.

When I finally finished these were the moves I found Mawile was able to use.

Fire fang, ice fang, tackle, growl, astonish, metal burst, and the most surprising ancient power.

The last one was surprising. Unfortunately, I could tell just by her egg moves that Mawile was more of a physical attacker.

It was still useful, however, as there is a chance that ancient power raises all the pokemon's stats.

Upon my finding out about her moves, I made the decision that it was safe enough that we can go try them out a bit in the forest.

And so we went.

...

"Fire fang when it gets close!" I ordered my huge companion as a Pidgey zoomed toward her.

The small creature even with being faster stood no chance against Mawile, as her second jaw clamped down on the Pidgey's wing.

I didn't use ice fang for the entire purpose of not instantly killing the bird, but as it seems that didn't help at all.

Small embers erupted from Mawile's teeth and within three seconds pidgey was down, its eyes closed and its body still.

"Wile, Mawile." Marine happily jumped up and down at the sight of her first victory.

"Good job girl, shall we keep going?" I asked petting her chin. She smiled and nodded, an action that looked menacing from my angle.

Our next victim... *cough* *cough*... Enemy, was a Rattata. The small rodent was agile, but it didn't expect the sudden use of growl.

It shuddered and didn't recover in time to avoid an ice fang.

The entire time I was simply giving orders while taking note of what I clearly needed to work on with my new Pokemon.

Which clearly was her speed. In-game terms she was low-level, and didn't possess as much speed early on as the other Pokemon.

With a bit of training even if she would never be the fastest, I'm sure I could get her to a decent speed.

We continued for another 2 hours, defeating random Pokemon that stumbled upon us. We only stopped when Mawile began to show signs of fatigue.

It was amazing to see how she had gotten so strong in such a short time. She did end up taking a few hits, but all injury was healed in a matter of seconds thanks to her absorption of life energy.

I had initially been concerned about this, as there was no Pokemon center out here, but my fears didn't matter much.

Now I could take my time, coming up with a plan to tame one of these pidgey.

I needed a way off this island, and unless there was a Lapras or something nearby that wasn't happening unless I tamed a flying type big enough to carry me and Mawile.

I wasn't really sure how Pidgey were though. Were they Pokemon that desired strength? Would they submit to me if I just beat them in a battle? I was at a loss.

On top of that, I had requirements when it came to choosing a pidgey.

1. Bigger than the norm.

2. Confidence that it won't barrel roll mid-air and throw me and Mawile to the ocean.

Ugh...

'Granpa, you know this island... Any pidgey big enough that I can evolve and get the hell off this island?' I asked.

'...What?'

He responded with more confusion than I'd ever heard from him. It's funny to see someone so wise sound like that but regardless I repeated.

'I said, are there any...'

'I heard what you said child, but how did you say it in the first place?'

His confusion remained. What the hell is he talking about?

'You seem even more confused than me. Listen, when I wish to speak to you, I do so by reading your thoughts and sending telepathic messages to you.'

Didn't he just answer his own question?

'No, when you asked that question... I was not reading your mind, nor was there any telepathic link between us.'

Wait... Does he mean...

'Yes, you established that link by yourself... It seems you have the abilities of a psychic.'

I nearly came in my pants...

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??? Pokemon information:

Mawile:

Known moves: Fire fang, Ice fang, Tackle, Growl, Astonish, Metal burst, Ancient power

Ability: Sheer Force