Energy

"I think it is about time we worked on a new move for you, buddy." I said with a thoughtful frown on my face, while Joker quickly dodge out of the way of the training ball I had simultaneously thrown at him. He was getting better at the whole situational awareness thing.

Now the only question was which move I should focus on. Ominous wind was not a bad move, but it had no real focus point but was more of an area of effect kind of attack. Which wasn't bad mind you but single target attacks were in general the more powerful attacks, since all the energy of the move was concentrated on one specific point, instead of covering a large area.

And even though I really wanted to get right down to business and start trying to teach Joker the move Shadowball, I knew that was a pretty bad idea. You don't run up stairs with 100 steps by taking five steps at a time after all. Same concept applied to training, no matter what it related to.

Now, I know that Ghastly could also learn moves like Lick or Astonish with but a little bit of practise, but I honestly didn't consider those moves worth our time. Ghastly were not very strong physical attackers after all, and right now at the very beginning of our training together I deemed it a bad idea to focus on both physical and special attacks.

Later down the line maybe, most probably actually, since Haunter could learn priority moves like Sucker punch, but for now that was not much of an option in my opinion honestly.

And so I decided to pick the middle ground, move wise and chose Night shade. A neither really powerful move like Shadowball with immense destructive power, nor a really weak move like tackle or something alike. Though, I guess tackle could be damn powerful if performed by a Steelix for example, but anyway. My decision was made.

"Ghasstly?" My companion asked with his head tilted slightly to one side, probably wondering what I was thinking about for such a long time so intensely.

"Ye, sorry buddy. Was thinking about what move I should try and teach you next. By my estimation you got ominous wind down to boot, no question. However, you don't yet have the energetic power reserves to learn a move like Shadowball, so I had to think a little on what move to pick instead. Lick isn't worth our time, so I decided on Nightshade." I told him, to which he nodded in understanding while his gas like body floated around his black face like clouds.

"Now, this will be the first time I'll try to teach a new move, so bear with me, alright?" I requested while the both of us had settled down next to the burned down campfire from last night.

It was still early in the morning, since I was an early riser and Ghastly didn't need sleep anyway, so we were in no hurry to rush into things.

All around us the lifeforms inside the forest slowly but surely came alive anew, while the hunters of the night went to sleep with their bellies full and instincts satisfied.

A few rays of sunlight managed to crack the roof of leaves above our heads, reflecting beautifully off of dew drops that sleepily rolled down the occasional leaf of a random plant amongst its brethren.

And yet, we were only paying attention to the beauty around us with a fraction of the attention it probably deserved, but instead were focused on our newest passion. Battling and training for the battles yet to come.

"As you know, I watched a small battle between two kids when we were still in Viridian City." He nodded at that, while I continued.

"One of the two Pokémon, a Poliwhirl to be exact, used a move called Raindance, which summons rainclouds and rain to fall down upon an area of choice. Now, the move itself has no offensive capabilities on such a small scale and functions more like a support move. After all, water moves gain strength when performed in the rain or bodies of water, while for fire moves it is the opposite, namely with sunlight. Same for some grass moves like Solarbeam, which require quite the amount of sunlight to be absorbed before they can be utilized." I explained while Ghastly's whole attention seemed to be focused onto my every word, bringing a small smile to my face. It had always been a nice feeling when a student was particularly attentive. And Ghastly was far more than just my student by this point after all.

"Long story short, when the rain fell, and the Poliwhirl performed its water gun, it expectedly came out with around double the normal power and speed. While that is already impressive, it is not what I was most fascinated by." I continued, absentmindedly running my fingers through my very short dark blond hair, which was barely more than stubbles at the moment. I had grown used to the comfort of the wind on my nearly bare head after all and wasn't in the mood to wash my hair every freaking day at that. Not to mention the comfort of not having my hair get in the way of exercising. Sue me.

"What drew my attention the most was the blue shimmer around the Poliwhirl when he performed both the move Raindance and the Water gun afterwards. I hadn't noticed it before those two, but it seems that special attacks require a certain kind of energy conversion. I had my theories before that mind you, on how Pokémon performed such moves such as Flamethrower or Thunderbolt, hell even Shadowball, but I still didn't have any proof for my theories. Now I think I do." I told him and he hummed in contemplation at my words, seemingly going over everything I had told him just now, before nodding in understanding or agreement. I wasn't sure honestly, but who cares.

"And so, for the next step in our training, which doesn't mean we'll drop the previous exercises, I want you to play around a little with the energy in your body." I said and before he could voice his obvious confusion I continued.

"Gimme a second, I'll get to that. What I mean by play around with the energy inside your body is: start performing your attack ominous wind, reeeal slowly though, and observe what happens inside of you while doing so. How much energy do you have? What type is it? Does it have a Ghostly or Poisonous feel to it? Or does it maybe feel neutral before you turn it into your attack? Can you move the energy around besides for the moves? That kind of playing around. We need some of those questions answered before we can continue with a clear plan to teach you more and better moves for battling. Alright?" I finished and immediately a light of comprehension lit up in Joker's eyes, before he nodded vigorously and began with his experimentations promptly afterwards.

And while my friend was occupied with his training, I decided I would get my own kind of training down, as I had become accustomed to doing every morning since, hell, I don't even remember. The point is I needed my training to really get my spirits going for the day. And so I buckled down and started doing what I had been doing for years by now. The good ol' routine that was like a black coffee to me.