CH3 (133), What Happened/The Squad (2)

Now, Butterfree, or Optimus as he was named over two years ago had made some good progress as well. I gave him and Beedrill official names as well since it kinda felt wrong to give everyone names except for those two, so I did it for them as well.

I know that I caught them as lackeys for Mothra as well as Parvati, and they were, but they were also Pokemon/partners of mine. Turns out training, caring, and spending time with someone causes one to get fond of them. Who knew?

Yeah, I can't see them as just lackeys anymore and they were overqualified for that anyway. Hmm, or rather they were like those super-butlers that could be rich, famous, and successful with their skills but chose to stay butlers instead.

Anyway, I decided on great names for them that coincidentally created an inside joke. Butterfree got Optimus and Beedrill got Prime, together they were Optimus Prime.

'Name: Optimus

Species: Butterfree

Gender: Male

Age: 6+ years

-

Type: Bug, Flying

Potential: Light Blue (7.76%) -> Blue (81.73%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Compound Eyes, Tinted Lens

Talents: None

Affinities: Bug, Flying

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Hardworking

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)

Vitality: E

Strength: E

Endurance: E

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: C

Energy Density: D

----

Resistance:

Grass (Major), Fighting (Major), Ground (Minor), Bug (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Electric (Minor), Fire (Minor), Ice (Minor), Flying (Minor), Rock (Major)

-

Standardized:

Electric (in-progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Bug E. Manipulation (Proficient),

Flying/Air E. Manipulation (Beginner) -> (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

Powder Bomb

-

Novice:

Rage Powder

-

Beginner:

Tackle, Whirlwind, Psychic

-

Proficient:

String Shot, Bug Bite, Harden, Iron Defense, Gust

-

Advanced:

Sleep Powder, Stun Spore, Poison Powder, Electroweb, Bug Buzz, Psybeam, Air Slash, Tailwind, Confusion, Signal Beam, Quiver Dance

-

Mastered:

N/A'

As I had promised Optimus, I did my best to make up for his early evolution and breakthrough. I, obviously, gave him some supplements with that specific function that I managed to unlock, but those were naturally not enough.

Limit breaking could not be skipped by him if we wanted him to make up for his hidden/invisible loss. I mean it was not the end of the world and he would still be able to get stronger, he just wouldn't be able to unlock genes, or rather it would be nearly impossible.

Wouldn't want to talk about absolutes that never ended well. There is also the fact that it was a necessity for Mega-Evolution/Unleashed Potential. Even the chances of unlocking talents were affected. So, we did our best to make up for it.

Due to my careless decision for his early breakthrough and the consequences of that, it took Optimus more than 3 years to raise all of his parameters to SSS, despite already having raised all his parameters to A and two of them to S.

Nonetheless, we, mostly he, preserved and after a lot of blood, sweat, performance enhancers *cough* *cough* I meant supplements he succeeded.

After his breakthrough a few months ago he started at the (mid) silver stage and after training diligently he had raised a few of his parameters by a value.

Also, thanks to his perfect limit break his potential got a big upgrade and all the stuff I have been feeding him had raised it by an additional 14ish%. That was pretty good. The guy had blue potential and was not too far off from deep blue.

An interesting thing that happened was his Quirk changing from Careful to Hardworking and I believe it was due to his attitude towards training as well as his earnestness. Personally, I thought it fit him to a tee.

Our bond also improved to "strong", and I noticed that the increase in resistance was smaller than the one I got from Mothra, just like the increase in my physical attributes.

That one got worse with every new bond increase. I concluded that the increase I could get per stage was limited to a certain amount for all aspects. So, while the number of Pokemon/bonds helped reach that limit after a certain number it did not increase anymore.

I was also certain that if sufficient time passed and the Pokemon kept getting stronger, the trainer would reach the physical limit without having to increase the number of bonds.

Still, for the increase in resistance, the number of Pokemon was pretty useful. Anyway, back to Optimus. Besides parameters moves were important as well, so we did our best while doing his demanding parameter training, and focused on that aspect a bit more after his breakthrough.

He only learned 4 new moves and Whirlwind was among those. He had started learning that one even before I caught Feebas. Besides that one, he also learned Rage Powder, Quiver Dance, and Psychic.

Psychic was a rather recent addition, and the only one among the other 3 we really trained was Quiver Dance. That one got raised as long as we could see visible improvements, which was advanced mastery.

After that, the improvement rate slowed down to a crawl, so we shifted our focus. Optimus then raised Sleep Powder, Stun Spore, Poison Powder, Bug Buzz, Electroweb, Signal Beam, and Confusion to the advanced mastery as well.

Each one took months of dedicated training to go from proficient to advanced. He naturally also trained in his other moves to not get rusty with them, and for a change of pace.

This led to his flying/air element manipulation going from beginner to proficient mastery. All in all not too bad with him being proficient in both his elemental manipulations.

I occasionally thought about combos and custom/self-created moves, but I noticed that a move had to be at the advanced stage if one wanted to use it in a combo.

This explained why they were not that common. As for custom moves, creating one from zero was ultra-hard and to derive one from another move one had to master the base move first.

After he raised his powder moves to advance I had him occasionally working on combining them into what I called Powder Bomb. It was a work in progress, but it was a nifty combo.

Anyway, that was pretty much everything important on Optimus progress during the last years. Pretty good if I was to say my totally unbiased opinion.

Let's see next up were Seb and Gaia. Those two had yet to evolve but they were not too far off. One or two years at most and hopefully, less than that.

Now, before I go over the progress of those two let me pre-empt with the fact that the bond of both had improved to "strong" as well. The attribute increase I got was minuscule, but I got some poison resistance out of it.

That one worked on poison moves and regular poison. Well, it was not too great, but it worked pretty well against weak poisons, including food and mushrooms that could cause light diarrhea, mild hallucination, and things like that.

Probably inebriation as well, but that has nothing to do with me, and I had no plan to test it out ever. Just like I had no plans to test out my resistance to drugs, which should count as poisons as well. Anyway, back to Seb.

'Name: Seb

Species: Nidorino

Gender: Male

Age: 6+ years

-

Type: Poison

Potential: Blue (83.2%) -> Light Purple (52.9%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Poison Point, Rivalry

Talents: Keen Hearing

Affinities: Poison

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Patient

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)

Vitality: D

Strength: C

Endurance: D

Agility: C

Energy Capacity: D

Energy Density: D

----

Resistance:

Grass (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Poison (Minor), Bug (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Ground (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Psychic

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Poison Energy Manipulation (Proficient) -> (Advanced)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Earth Power

-

Beginner:

Leer, Peck, Shock Wave

-

Proficient:

Poison Sting, Fury Attack, Helping Hand, Double Kick, Dig, Bite, Water Pulse

-

Advanced:

Focus Energy, Toxic Spikes, Horn Attack, Endure, Poison Fang, Poison Jab, Sludge Bomb

-

Mastered:

Toxic'

As mentioned before he was still a Nidorino since he had yet to reach the (high) silver stage. Seb and Gaia had both broken through to the silver stage roughly a year ago.

They started directly at the (mid) silver stage thanks to the limit-breaking with straight E all across the board. Thanks to the boost they got from the limit break they upgraded their potential to light purple.

The supplements I gave them through the years added a bit less than 10% on top of that which allowed them to be a bit above 50%, so roughly halfway to purple. I have to mention that Gaia managed to keep her slight potential lead through the years even if it was less than 0.5%.

Neither had managed to unlock a gene but I was hopeful that they would during the breakthrough to the gold stage. Now, back to Seb's parameters.

During the time since his breakthrough, he had trained diligently. Gravity training was really helpful for physical training, especially with the use of weights. So, after training dutifully he raised all his parameters to D except for Strength and Agility.

Those two he raised to C, which meant once he managed to raise another two parameters to C then he would reach the (high) silver stage. After that, he would be free to evolve to Nidoking.

I already bought all necessary materials for the evolution, and my space has been reproducing them for a while now, at least those it could reproduce.

For some reason C-class or rather the gold stage seemed to be a hurdle because my space still couldn't replicate C-class materials, neither could it upgrade stuff to the C-class. This was despite me and my Pokemon reaching the silver stage or the equivalent.

The only thing that changed with that function after our strength increase was that the quota of D-class and below materials that could be produced was raised by a lot.

Since I did not want to be an ungrateful person I did not complain about it. So, it was going to happen when our strength reached the gold stage and that was okay.

I mean I got a steady and inexhaustible supply of materials, so being grateful was par the course in my opinion. Man, I keep digressing. So, back to Seb.

Both Seb, as well as Gaia, did the resistance training as well with the focus of theirs being the psychic type, and just a bit more than a month ago they managed to complete it.

They successfully elevated their relation with the psychic type from minor weakness to a regular one. After our success with the psychic type, we started on the ice type to pre-empt the weakness they would gain after their evolution.

We did not expect to succeed before the evolution happened. The first one took more than three years after all, but it would serve as a good foundation for their resistance training as Nidoking and Nidoqueen.

That left us with Seb's elemental mastery and his moves. Actually, both Seb and Gaia raised their mastery from proficient to advanced thanks to the training they did with their poison moves.

As for his moves, he improved Dig and Bite from beginner to proficient. While raising Focus Energy, Toxic Spikes, Horn Attack, Endure, Poison Fang, and Poison Jab from proficient to advanced.

Focus Energy and Endure practically raised passively/subconsciously during his resistance training. Then there was Toxic which was mastered.

I focused on that one for both of them because I believed that raising that one would help increase the general toxicity of their poison, thus strengthening all their poison moves.

It seemed to work a bit as well since their poison/moves did get a little stronger. Besides improving their old moves Seb and Gaia both learned 4 new moves. Sludge Bomb, Water Pulse, Earth Power, and Shock Wave.

Sludge Bomb they learned by themselves and raised to advanced mastery since it was a strong ranged poison move. They learned Earth Power nearly solo as well, but Osiris did help them whenever they needed some help.

Being a Marowak Osiris knew a thing or two about the earth and ground-type moves after all. Since it was the most recent move they learned it was still at novice mastery and they were working on it.

Water Pulse they learned with the help of my water types. Whoever was free helped them out since all of them knew the move. That one they became proficient in thanks to all the help they got.

Shock Wave was a bit harder, but they learned it with the help of the newcomer. The little electric type knew the move and whenever Seb or Gaia needed help they went up to him for some wisdom.

Which happened a lot more than it did with the other moves and they temporarily stopped after reaching the beginner mastery. That was pretty much it for Seb, and I went over a lot of the progress Gaia made while going over Seb's progress, so I only need to see what I didn't mention.

'Name: Gaia

Species: Nidorina

Gender: Female

Age: 6+ years

-

Type: Poison

Potential: Blue (83.5%) -> Light Purple (53.4%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Poison Point, Rivalry

Talents: Keen Hearing

Affinities: Poison

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Curious

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)

Vitality: C

Strength: D

Endurance: C

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: D

Energy Density: D

----

Resistance:

Grass (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Poison (Minor), Bug (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Ground (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Psychic

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Poison Energy Manipulation (Proficient) -> (Advanced)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Earth Power

-

Beginner:

Growl, Scratch, Tail Whip,

-

Proficient:

Poison Sting, Fury Swipes, Helping Hand, Double Kick, Bite, Water Pulse, Shock Wave

-

Advanced:

Poison Fang, Toxic Spikes, Dig, Endure, Focus Energy, Crunch, Poison Jab, Sludge Bomb

-

Mastered:

Toxic'

Let's see, she was still a Nidorina, has light purple potential, a "strong" bond, and is at the (mid) silver stage. Aha, the parameters. Just like Seb, Gaia had raised all her parameters to D as well, except for two of them.

However, unlike Seb who raised his strength and agility, Gaia raised her vitality as well as endurance to C. Hmm, what else? Prepared for her evolution as well, resistance training has been mentioned, and poison mastery as well.

That left only her moves, and of those, I went over 4 of her new ones already. Many of her old moves got ignored but Dig, Toxic Spikes, and Endure got raised to advanced mastery.

I already mentioned the reason for Endure's rise and exactly because of that Nidorina managed to learn Focus Energy from Seb and raised it to advanced as well.

There were also Crunch and Poison Jab that she raised from beginner to advanced. As for Toxic I already went over why that one got mastered. That was pretty much everything I missed, so I can go to the next one Nyx.

'Name: Nyx

Species: Eevee

Gender: Female

Age: 5+ years

-

Type: Normal

Potential: Blue (43.17%) -> Light Purple (16.98%)

Genetic modifiers: None

Abilities: Run Away, Adaptability

Talents: Stealthy

Affinities: Normal

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirk: Lively, Curious

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)

Vitality: D

Strength: D

Endurance: D

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: E

Energy Density: C

----

Immunity:

Ghost

-

Resistance:

None

-

Weaknesses:

None

-

Standardized:

Fighting

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Neutral Energy Manipulation (Beginner) -> (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Double Edge

-

Beginner:

Growl, Tackle, Tail Whip, Helping Hand

-

Proficient:

Baby-Doll Eyes, Baton Pass, Charm, Sand Attack, Take Down, Refresh

-

Advanced:

Quick Attack, Swift, Shadow Ball, Iron Tail, Endure, Focus Energy, Dig, Bite, Stored Power, Work Up

-

Mastered:

Copycat'

My girl Nyx had unfortunately not evolved yet as well, since she too had not yet reached the (high) silver stage. She had broken through to the silver stage 6 or 7 months after Seb and Gaia if I don't remember it wrong.

Her potential improved to light purple at nearly 17%, which she reached thanks to both the limit-breaking breakthrough she had and the almost 14% all the supplements gave her.

However, just like with everyone else that has purple potential no matter the shade, the improvement given by my supplements had fallen to a slow crawl.

Still, let's get back to business. The bond between us became "strong" as well. The physical benefits I got from our bond and the bonds of those after her were negligible. I did, however, get the bit of resistance that came with the bond so that was useful.

After her breakthrough, she started at the (mid) silver stage and she was still there. She did manage to raise everything to D in the 20 plus months since then with energy density even reaching C. Well, except for her energy capacity which was still at E, but we don't talk about that.

I was sure that one was going to follow the example of the others soon as well. Still, that schmuck aside, she only needed to raise three more parameters to reach the (high) silver stage.

After that, she would be ready for her evolution to Umbreon, and let me add just like with Seb and Gaia I was also prepared for her evolution. Oh, I surprised myself with how prepared I am for her evolution.

I mean unless I managed to find something better than an honest to Mew Moon Crystal before her evolution, which I extremely doubt, then I was good to go.

What a Moon Crystal was, you ask? Well, good question, it was basically a Moon Stone but better. It was something like a superior version of it, which made sense since it grew in the center of an incredibly lunar-energy-rich area like a Moon Stone site.

I managed to get one through what I could only classify as protagonist-level luck. Could have been straight out of a novel that one. Here's what happened, I went to Pewter City to buy the stuff for Seb, Gaia, and Nyx evolution.

I bought a few useful things including a D-class Moon Stone for my space to replicate and to use them as supporting components during their evolution.

While I was looking at the C-class Moon Stones, since I was planning on using those to trigger the evolution, I heard a commotion outside the store.

Now, normally I would have ignored it, and simply went about my business, but thanks to my heightened senses I heard words like discovered in a cave surrounded by lunar mushrooms and lunar rocks.

Anyway, I quickly bought 3 C-class Moon Stones and went outside. I saw someone arguing with another about the price of something one of them was trying to sell.

Long story short I checked the thing saw what it was and paid the guy the money he asked for which was 200.000 Poke. It was pretty funny to see their faces when I began pulling out cash until I had 200 grand.

After I paid the guy I took off and once I was sufficiently far away And sure that I was alone I called out Xatu to Teleport around for a bit before going home.

So, yeah I was ready. Back to business, Nyx honestly only had a single weakness in her current form, so with the help of one of the newcomers, and a lot of supplements, she trained her resistance against fighting type energy/moves.

Her efforts actually bore fruit just last week when the fighting type moved from the weakness section to the standardized section. So, until she evolved Nyx was weakness-free.

I was still contemplating if I should start her resistance training towards bug or fairy-type moves but for now, she was not doing any resistance training.

Besides that, she raised her neutral element manipulation from beginner to proficient which was not too great but that was because she focused more on her moves.

She successfully learned hot Stored Power as well as Work Up just like I had planned, and both were brought up until advanced mastery as well. Naturally, not at once, but they became the focus every once in a while until they reached advanced mastery.

Besides those two she also learned Refresh and Double Edge. Refresh got raised to proficient since being able to cure paralysis, poison, and burns was pretty useful. Double-Edge got ignored for the time being since it was too self-damaging.

Among her old moves Sand Attack, and Take Down we're raised to proficient, while Endure, Focus Energy, Dig, and Bite were brought up to advanced mastery.

Endure and Focus Energy profited from the resistance training in this case as well. Now, the only move she had mastered was Copycat. It was also the move she worked on the most.

Nearly a year of just dedicated to Copycat with a few months/years of on and off training was what it took to reach that point. When Copycat became advanced the move she copied was at proficient mastery as long as the opponent had at least reached that mastery as well.

The effect also lasted longer, so she kept the move for longer periods like hours instead of just one hour like it used to be at proficient mastery. That or until she cast another Copycat.

When she mastered Copycat she gained the same mastery of the Pokemon she had copied the move from. So, if she copied a mastered Flamethrower then her Flamethrower was mastered as well.

On top of that, she could remember up to two copied moves at once. Honestly, I was wondering what the effect of transcended mastery was. Probably, something like the mastery of the copied move being raised to mastered regardless of the owner's mastery.

That would be overpowered as hell, and after that part with Copycat, I was pretty sure I went over the important bits that had to do with Nyx. Now, who was next up on my checklist. Since the topic of trigger evolution came up, Enji could be next.

Yup, let's go over the progress of my dear Growlithe.

'Name: Enji

Species: Growlithe

Gender: Male

Age: 3+ years

-

Type: Fire

Potential: Light Purple (54.86%)

Genetic modifiers: None

Abilities: Flash Fire, Justified

Talents: None

Affinities: Fire

-

Bond: Mikail (weak)

Quirk: Lively

----

Parameters:

Stage: Bronze Stage (high)

Vitality: SS

Strength: SSS

Endurance: SS

Agility: SS

Energy Capacity: SSS

Energy Density: SS

----

Immunity:

Fire

-

Resistance:

Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor), Bug (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Water (Minor), Ground (Minor), Rock (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Water (in progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Fire Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Leer, Roar, Flare Blitz

-

Beginner:

Helping Hand, Retaliate, Reversal, Play Rough

-

Proficient:

Ember, Howl, Bite, Fire Fang, Endure, Iron Tail, Crunch, Take Down

-

Advanced:

Flame Wheel, Agility, Flamethrower

-

Mastered:

N/A'

Growlithe hatched around three months before the end of 2174, which was about 14 months after I got his egg from my parents as a birthday gift.

My boy was born with light blue potential and right after he hatched his potential got upgraded to blue. Not only that, but the optimization he went through also swapped his Intimadate ability with Justified, and since both were abilities the Growlithe line naturally had it did not register as a variation.

Also, Enji became sapient at the (high) iron stage, specifically after he raised most of his parameters to SS, which took nearly a year. This was still much earlier than fire types usually achieved sapience, but I was already used to that. Our home and my psychic abilities helped accelerate the process which resulted in their early sapience.

Honestly, that was great and I was not complaining. I had waited with naming him until then and after going over a few names we settled on Enji.

That used to be what a fire deity of the Illyrians in my old world was called, so I thought we should set high goals and all that when I suggested it.

I obviously did not mention my old world but substituted that with a really, really strong fire type being called that in ancient times. I did that with a lot of the name suggestions I gave my Pokemon.

Roughly 10 months after that he broke through to the bronze stage and his potential got upgraded to light purple. The next roughly 90 months were spent reaching his current status.

He reached the (high) bronze stage and had raised all his parameters to SS with two of them being at SSS. He obviously did not just focus on his parameters, because that would become monotone and boring which was something we wanted to avoid at all costs.

No, Enji started his resistance training as well after he broke through to the bronze stage. With the help of my water types, he began raising his resistance against water-type moves. It was a work in progress but we expected him to be done in a year or two.

He also managed to learn all the moves in his natural move pool, which was the roster of moves all/most Growlithe comprehended while getting stronger.

The only moves he learned outside of that pool were Iron Tail and Endure, which he learned with the help of his big sis Nyx. He raised those two together with Ember, Howl, Bite, Fire Fang, Crunch, Take Down to proficient mastery.

Furthermore, he brought up Flame Wheel, Agility, and Flamethrower to advanced mastery. That was about as much he managed to achieve with his moves and it was impressive if I had to say it. He had done a great job at getting strong with my help and I was proud of him.

Now, the last thing to mention before going over the next one of my Pokemon was our bond. Unfortunately, it was still "weak", but that was simply due to him not being at the silver stage yet.

-----------------------------

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As promised, as long as that goal stays fulfilled the number of weekly chapters will increase from 5 to 6. Since it is currently Sunday, this means that I, as a man of my word, am going to post the 6th chapter for this week as well. As for the 2 bonus chapters I'll make sure to upload those between today and tuesday.

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