Moving Along

I ended up spending a week in Rustboro City. Cutie wouldn't let Gaia leave until he was satisfied with her ability to use her inherited fang attacks. During the week I worked on helping Sucellus's Razor Leaf attack, helping him shoot more or less leaves at will as well as how sharp they are. I also picked up the gift from my father while I was there. Gaia seemed interested in the item, but lost interest after a bit while Sucellus just ignored it completely. With only 3 weeks left before the Beginner Trainer's tournament in Petalburg, Sucellus, Gaia, and I decided to skip on heading to Dewford for the 2nd gym battle and instead spend the next 2 weeks training in Petalburg Woods. I bought a ton of first aid supplies (double what the employee recommended when I asked) before heading out.

I spent the first few days training Gaia and working with her so I could learn how she prefers to fight and help come up with strategies to teach her. As is normal for her line Gaia prefers to just charge and let her natural defenses protect her, so Sucellus and I helped her improve her defenses (by repeatedly attacking the same spot with bullet seed, used over every inch of her body), and I added some waits to her legs to help her move faster. Her line is fairly bulky and slow, but has a high attack and physical defense to make up for it. Thus making her move faster increases her ability to be a threat without relying on draining and powerful moves.

It was on out 5th day in Petalburg Woods that something interesting happened. While we had stopped for lunch Sucellus' food was stolen by a sewaddle. What made this interesting was not only how it happened, but also how the sewaddle defended itself. Sewaddle had swing in using String Shot to come flying through the clearing we were eating in and used a second String Shot to grab Suc's food. Even more amazing was that it kept using what looked like an Air Slash to knock down branches into Sucellus' way as he gave chase. It took Sucellus 20 minutes to return with his food and the sewaddle wrapped up in its own string.

"That was a quite the trouble Sewaddle gave you Suc. It seems like quite a strong ally we could add to the team, would you be okay with that?"

I had to stifle a laugh as Sucellus immediately started shaking his head negatively before Gaia roared out at him. He then reluctantly nodded, but looked at bit depressed.

Unable to hold it in any longer I laughed at Suc's expense. After I finally calmed down I said, "Suc, just think. If Sewaddle joins us then there is no reason for it to steal your food any more since I'll give it its own portion."

I giggled as Sucellus energetically started nodding his head in acceptance. With both Suc and Gaia accepting, I pulled out a revive from my bag and used it to help the fainted Sewaddle.

"Hello there Sewaddle. Your antics impressed me when you stole the food from Sucellus over there. Would you like to join us? I'll help you get stronger, and I promise you'll never go hungry."

Sewaddle glared at me in contemplation, judging me on whether I was worthy of capturing it. After a couple of minutes, Sewaddle stopped glaring at me and bent it's head to look at the string it was wrapped in. With a small shout it released an Air Slash and cut itself out of its cage. It then made its way over to me before it nodded its agreement. With a smile I thought for a second on what I knew about its species and decided it would be for the best to catch Sewaddle with a friend ball. Taking out the only one I had purchased and tossing it at Sewaddle, I had finally caught my first pokemon.

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It's been a week since I caught Sewaddle, who refused my offer of a nickname. In just this week Sewaddle has grown so much. At first I simply had her out often to bond with me, but her drive to become stronger had her practically begging for me to start training her. She took to my training like a ghost type to graveyards. She progressed so much I actually think she's getting close to evolving! However, we have spent more time in the Petalburg Woods than I wanted. As I exited the woods and was following the signs to Petalburg I decided to stop for a bit and talk to Sucellus and Sewaddle. Seeing as I was currently riding on Gaia I told her to stop and we stepped off the road.

"Come on out Sucellus, Sewaddle. We need to talk."

Both of them came out and looked at me in confusion. Sewaddle looked a bit tired which has been happening more and more recently, something I took to be a sign that she was going to evolve soon. Most bug pokemon tend to get tired before the evolve from their larvae stage, something about them storing too much energy to force the full evolution faster.

"Sucellus, I wanted to let you know that I've been thinking about giving you the leaf stone so you could evolve soon. I know you wanted it earlier, but I refused because I didn't feel you're ready, however you've shown tremendous improvement and I honestly don't know how much stronger you can get without evolving. I refuse to limit you because of that, but I also don't want to let you evolve too early because that could harm your future potential as well. So, I've got a challenge for you. We have a few days before we get to Petalburg, in order to determine if you're ready I'm going to have you fight several trainers we see along the way. Depending on how you do, and I don't mean whether you win or lose, but the way you battle, I will either give you the stone before the tournament or after. Regardless I'll give it to you soon."

Sucellus jumped up in excitement his eyes gleaming in determination. I felt bad for the trainers we would be up against. He was very motivated to do his best now.

I then turned to Sewaddle and said, "Sewaddle, I know you've been storing energy so you could evolve soon, and I think you're more than ready to evolve, however I also think it might be for the best if you try and delay your evolution a slight bit. Over the next few days I would like to work on your defenses, that way once you evolve you'll be safer in your pupa stage evolution. I don't want to risk you being harmed because you lack defense. Are you willing to try that for me?"

With a tired sigh Sewaddle just nodded her head before she crawled on top of Gaia's head and fell fast asleep.

"Now for you Gaia," I said after I shook my head in amusement at Sewaddle, "You're still a ways off from evolving, but that just means more time to train you to your limits! If all goes as planned then I'd expect you to evolve around the time we head to the 3rd or 4th gym probably a couple months from now."

With a roar of approval Gaia walked the few feet up to me before she started nudging me in the direction we were headed towards Petalburg apparently very motivated to get started. Laughing at her antics I pat her head a few times before mounting her again this time with Sucellus joining me on her back rather than in his pokeball. Sewaddle was still asleep on her head. It wasn't much later that I spotted another trainer taking a break on the side of the road. I signaled to Gaia to head over towards them and as we got closer I yelled out, "Hey, would you be up for a battle?"

The trainer looked up at me startled, apparently she hadn't heard or seen me coming. After taking a few seconds to compose herself she said, "Sure, I have 3 pokemon so a 3 on 3 sound good?"

In response I said as I patted Gaia's head, "Sorry, but Gaia and Sewaddle here a bit too tired to battle. However, I'd be willing to do a 1 on 3 battle if you don't mind. My nuzleaf, Sucellus has been rather bored with fighting all the rather weak bug pokemon in the Woods and would love a challenge."

She looked at me as if trying to decide if I was looking down on her or not before she nodded and said, "That's fine I guess, just don't complain to me when you lose. My name's May, what's yours?"

I laughed at the pose she made as she was speaking, seemingly completely unaware that she was in fact making those poses. After a few moments I caught my breath enough to say, "My name's Isaac, and I hope I do lose. That would just mean that this battle was a great learning experience for not just myself but Sucellus as well. However, don't think we're just going to let you win. Come on Suc, front and center. Get ready to fight."

At my prodding Sucellus jumped down in front of Gaia looked at May and then turned away from her in disdain. In a rage May yelled, "Go, Wailmer! Teach this rude thing some manners!"

At her call a rather large Wailmer came out of her pokeball and immediately used Rollout and started chasing Sucellus around. I didn't even bother telling Suc what to do, there was no point. May had lost herself to anger and Wailmer was just doing whatever it wanted. Sucellus had more than enough experience to know how to deal with a Rollout thanks to the week we spent in Rustboro. As Sucellus dodged around he used Sunny Day to increase his speed making his dodging easier, Grassy Terrain to empower his primary attacks, and kept boosting himself with Harden and Growth because he recognized that he had the time to do so without much risk and that he would need the extra power and defense they gave for the rest of the battle. It was several minutes later when Sucellus felt he could gain no more from using Harden and Growth that he finally went on the offensive. Wailmer had gotten dizzy from all the rolling so Sucellus used Bullet Seed to send dozens of fast high power seeds along Wailmer's right side. Each seed struck precisely the same same spot with enough power to spin Wailmer around in circles. Sucellus just kept that up until Wailmer fainted, completely unable to retaliate.

Seeing her Wailmer handled so easily May shouted, "YOU!" while point at Sucellus. May then took a deep breath before she recalled Wailmer while saying, "You did your best Wailmer, sorry I failed you." She then looked at me and said, "You've trained your nuzleaf well, I am sorry about that poor display. I lost myself in anger. The real battle starts now. Come out Shroomish."

I smiled as I saw her regain her composure and confidence in a matter of seconds. Seeing that she was truly ready to battle now I called out, "Sucellus, newest move only. This'll be good practice."

May yelled out, "Shroomish use Stun Spore!"

I blinked in surprise wondering if she didn't know or just forgot that grass type pokemon couldn't be affected by Stun Spore. Knowing that Sucellus probably didn't know this either I said, "Suc, attack straight through it. It won't affect you."

At my words May seemed to realize she had forgotten about that and said, "Shroomish quick use Headbutt!"

However she was too slow Sucellus had already gotten in close enough to hit Shroomish with Feint Attack. While Shroomish was still stunned by the sucker punch Sucellus just kept following up with another and another. After the fourth hit he stopped and Shroomish could be seen just laying there unconscious.

May was shaking her head in disappointment muttering about something. She recalled Shroomish while saying, "Sorry Shroomish, I made a mistake and it cost you." She then looked up at me and asked, "How many badges do you have?"

I had been smiling a bit because of how she didn't blame Shroomish but herself for the loss, just like with Wailmer. Seeing no harm I said, "I have 1 badge, the Stone Badge."

She opened her eyes in astonishment and asked, "WHAT? You're a Beginner Trainer?"

I nodded my head and said, "Yup. I got my license about 2 months ago but only started my journey about 3 weeks ago. I spent the first month with my license training Sucellus here, who is my starter, and bonding with him."

She just blinked at me for a few seconds before she sighed and said, "Well, let's get the last fight of the battle. This is my starter pokemon. Come out, Combusken!"

Seeing the Fire/Fighting type Hoenn region starter I quickly shouted, "Sucellus, this is your first time against a fire type. End Sunny Day and Grassy Terrain and run to the beach!"

May shouted, "Combusken use Flame Charge!"

"Sucellus use Bide to take the hit and let it push you closer to the beach!"

Sucellus immediately started glowing red as it forcibly stored his power. Not even a second later Combusken smacked into him with such force I flinched thinking about how much that probably hurt Sucellus. For a second though, I began thinking he had been knocked out by that attack however he stood back up and unleashed the energy at Combusken throwing her back towards May. Using the extra time he had gained thanks to Bide, Sucellus quickly finished running to the beach where he would make his stand.

By this point Combusken had stood up and chased after Sucellus, May called out, "Combusken Peck!"

I waited until Combusken was close enough to guarantee a hit and called out, "Use Nature Power now!"

Before Combusken could hit Sucellus with her Peck attack the ground beneath her feet erupted and sent her into the air. Sucellus immediately followed up on the successful attack with Bullet Seed, sending Combusken even higher into the air. He then turned and ran the short distance down the beach to the water, entering it to the point where he could barely stand. He then used Nature Power again, except this time it took the form of the attack, Hydro Pump! Combusken was blasted by the attack all the way back to where May and I had been standing, almost 100 feet away from the beach. With a quick glance at Combusken I can see she had fainted so I yelled out, "Come on back Sucellus you won."

I turned to May and said, "Thanks for the battle. It seems thanks to the pressure of your Combusken on Sucellus, he finally learned why I keep forcing him to use Nature Power in different terrain."

May looked at me in shock and stuttered out, "Ah, uh, y-yeah n-n-no problem."

Seeing that she looked rather sad, I said, "You have a lot of potential. Would you mind adding my number so we can meet up and battle again in the future?"

It took her a few moments to respond but she went from depressed looking to excited in no time at all before she started babbling on about how she was going to beat me one day. After a few minutes we said our goodbyes and parted ways, with me heading towards Petalburg and her heading to the Woods. I grabbed Sucellus and started looking him over for injuries, seeing no overt injuries I used a basic potion to heal the minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises he had before I said to him, "Good job Sucellus! You did really well against Combusken, that could have been really dangerous for you. I can honestly say after that battle I have no problems giving you the leaf stone now if you'd like, or you can wait a bit. I had an idea for an attack I wanted you to try to learn, however I'm not sure you would be able to learn it once you evolved because of the way your body changes. So would you like the leaf stone now?"

Sucellus glared at me like I had asked it leave me forever before huffed and turned away from me in anger. I said, "Well, we still have some more to go before we reach Petalburg. How about you try to learn this attack while we travel? I think you'll have it down within days and then you can evolve and get used to your body in the few days after before the tournament."

"LEAF!"

I giggled at his quick turn around from anger to excitement. He hopped up onto Gaia's head, picked up Sewaddle and handed her to me. She had slept through the entire fight. Holding her in my arms as we moved towards Petalburg I explained to Sucellus what I wanted him to do.