Chapter 38

Want to know something interesting about TM's?

Quite simply, there's a reason why they're so damn expensive. Take Defense Curl for example, one of the perhaps simplest moves a pokemon can learn, right up there with Tackle. Yet, when I was in Viridian City, even a TM for it cost over a thousand pokedollars. It doesn't seem like much, but to the average lower-class citizen, it was more than they made in a month of working.

TM's weren't as simple as taking an attack from a pokemon and turning it into digital information that could be passed on to another pokemon. There were two drawbacks to making a TM. One, when a TM is created, the knowledge on how to use the attack is drained from the pokemon used in the TM's creation and they are unable to use the attack without going through proper training to relearn it. Secondly, was the fact that pure data and knowledge was not enough to pass on a pokemon movie. It wasn't just knowledge that was drained from a pokemon, it was power as well. A mysterious energy that still apparently baffled scientists even a few years after discovering that all pokemon had it.

The name it was given was PP, standing for Pokemon Power. Not exactly very creative, though ironic all the same. This 'mysterious energy' that they haven't found out much uses of at all beyond TM's, is minisculely drained from a pokemon upon the creation of a TM, permanently. That pokemon would then need to train to recover that lost strength. And the stronger and more powerful the attack created, the more power that is taken from the pokemon and infused into the TM. That energy and the data information on how to use the attack of the TM, is then transferred into another pokemon upon the usage of the TM, draining it entirely.

TM's cannot be permanent, because upon use, the energy is all drained out, even if the data remains. They basically become like any form of electrical device, without a battery to power it.

So, not only do pokemon gain the knowledge on how to use attacks from TM's, they also get powered up a bit. And this is why TM's are so expensive, because their creation drains the pokemon used in the creation, and it is also why Smeargle are so highly valued. They can learn any pokemon attack they see, so the only things they need to do is train to recover the 'Pokemon Power' lost upon the creation of a TM. Which is again why Smeargle are so highly valued, because the more of them they have, the more bulk TM's can be made before having to retrain the Smeargle up to a point where they again have enough 'Pokemon Power' to start creating multiple TM's.

So this is the reason why TM's are expensive. And it's also the reason why many unskilled trainers actually get anywhere. Let's take Cross for example. He boasted to me about how many TM's he sunk into Charmander, yet somehow my lovely new fire type was still weak according to him. He was relying more on bought power for Charmander, than trained ability. Even in that battle we had, he done nothing but call for an attack and wait. It also explained how Gary, in the original Indigo League anime got so far, especially when the one time we saw him battle that early, he got utterly destroyed and knocked out of the league. Before he pulled his head out of his ass and put his actual talent to work, he was coasting by on Professor Oak's money more or less, the same way he did with travelling around in a convertible with a bunch of hired cheerleaders.

Now, with my knowledge of the pokemon universe, I can make a fairly educated guess on just what 'Pokemon Power' actually is. Aura. And that was just so very interesting.

And so when I was given the chance to pick five TM's, I made sure to pick five very high tier ones that were worth a lot of money, that I can get use out of right away. Three of which I confirmed that Charmander could learn from TM's.

Dragon Dance, Recover, Dragon Rush, Hydro Cannon and Blast Burn.