CH24 (154), Friendly Spar (1)

The next day after breakfast I began thinking about which of my Pokemon to use for our "sparring" battles. I obviously could only choose between those I registered.

Otherwise, I would have used Prime who recently broke through to the silver stage, or Seb as well as Gaia who reached the (high) silver stage. Prime's potential obviously increased as well after his breakthrough, and he was not that far off from reaching light purple, missing less than 20%.

No one who saw just Prime would believe that a Beedrill like him was caught just to be the lackey of another Pokemon, and seeing as I could not bear to treat him and or Optimus like that either showed that reality often times changes plans.

Anyway, back to choosing my Pokemon for the battle with Ace and Weiss. Let's see, Ace has a Feraligatr at the (mid) silver stage, a Ninetales at the (high) bronze stage, and a Mienfoo at the (mid) bronze stage.

Meanwhile, Weiss has a (high) silver-stage (Alolan) Ninetales, a (mid) silver-stage Dewgong, a (high) bronze stage Jinx, and a (mid) bronze stage Buneary.

If I tried to use Pokemon around the same stage then I arrived at a small impasse simply because I did not have enough "weaker" Pokemon among my 12 registered ones.

Horus/Xatu, Mothra/Butterfree, Mars/Ursaring, Manami/Lapras, and Stan/Gyarados were all at the (high) silver stage. Since Weiss's Alolan Ninetales was the only one of our foes at the same stage as them, only one of them "could" fight, and choosing Mars seemed the most logical choice.

Then came Nyx/Eevee, Luna/Clefairy, Tyson/Machoke, and Thor/Pikachu who were all at the (mid) silver stage. Ace's Feraligatr and Weiss's Dewgong were the ones at the same stage as them, so two of mine could fight.

Now the most obvious candidate was Thor since he could body either of those water types. My little guy had made some good progress since I first saw him more than 3 years ago, so he would win the battle pretty easily in my opinion.

Thor was my second new capture after Luna. I was out in the Viridian Forest training with my Pokemon occasionally challenging some of the stronger wild guys and gals when I saw him Volt Tackling a Raticate for stealing his berries.

I obviously immediately checked his status and after seeing his potential together with him having Volt Tackle I naturally decided to capture him.

'Species: Pikachu

Gender: Male

Type: Electric

Potential: Light Blue

Stage: Bronze-stage (low)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Static, Lightning Rod

Talents: None

Affinities: Electric'

Seeing that he was Volt Tackling others for a berry I decide to use food as a lure. I called out most of my Pokemon, at least the non-water types because I had to show off our might as well and pulled out a lot of food for an impromptu lunch.

As expected Pikachu got lured by the food I pulled out and began using his cuteness to his advantage. The little guy acted shy and coy, trying to get me to give him some food and I did since that was the reason I pulled out the food in the first place.

I gave him some of the food I had prepared for electric types in general in case I ever needed it to bribe/lure some electric type, and it did come in handy at the time. I actually had some general food for all types ready in case I ever needed it to lure some Pokemon.

Anyway, he ate the food I gave him and I kept giving him as much as he could eat. I practically made him go into a blissful food coma, and while he was in a food overdosed daze I had my Pokemon spar with each other to show off their strength.

Just as I planned Pikachu observed them fighting among themselves, and after we stopped he said he was willing to join me if I could keep giving him tasty food like the ones he ate and if I could beat him in a fight.

That was obviously no problem and I chose Osiris, who at that time had just recently evolved to Marowak, to whoop his ass. I captured him afterward and after I let him out again he told me he had to tell his father about joining me.

It turned out his father was a pretty strong Dark Gold-stage Raichu. Thankfully, Uncle Raichu, as he told us to call him, was a pretty chill guy and had no problem with Pikachu joining us.

Since then he had made good progress, reaching the (mid) silver, having light purple potential, and all that.

'Name: Thor

Species: Pikachu

Gender: Male

Age: 7+ years

-

Type: Electric

Potential: Light Blue (20.6%) -> Light Purple (52.46%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Static, Lightning Rod

Talents: None

Affinities: Electric

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Slightly Mischievous

----

Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (mid)

Vitality: E

Strength: E

Endurance: E

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: E

Energy Density: E

----

Immunity:

Electric

-

Resistance:

Flying (Minor), Steel (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Ground (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Ground (in-progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy

----

Masteries:

Electric Energy Manipulation (Proficient)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

Rain Dance

-

Novice:

Growl, Nuzzle, Tail Whip, Feint, Light Screen

-

Beginner:

Thunder Wave, Double Team, Spark, Slam, Thunder

-

Proficient:

Quick Attack, Volt Tackle, Iron Tail, Discharge, Thunderbolt

-

Advanced:

Electro Ball, Thunder Punch, Agility

-

Mastered:

Thunder Shock'

Once he reached the (high) silver stage I would have him evolve to Raichu, but that was still going to take a while. Still, as I said even if Thor could most likely take on both Weiss and Ace's Pokemon that was not the aim here.

I ultimately decided to use Thor against Weiss's Dewgong and have Tyson fight against Ace's Feraligatr.

After that was settled, I was left with Enji/Growlithe, who was at the (high) bronze, Hashirama/Ivysaur, who had recently reached the (high) bronze stage as well, and Ali/Ralts, who reached the (mid) bronze stage last month.

The stubborn guy wanted to reach the (high) bronze stage before he evolved to Kirlia even though I told him that he was ready to evolve. Still, I respected his choice, so he was still a Ralts.

On the other side, Ace was left with a Ninetales at the (high) bronze stage, as well as a Mienfoo at the (mid) bronze stage, and Weiss still had a (high) bronze stage Jinx, as well as a (mid) bronze stage Buneary.

This meant that I had only 2 (high) bronze-stage and 1 (mid) bronze-stage Pokemon left, while they had 2 (high) bronze-stage and 2 (mid) bronze-stage Pokemon, which left one of their (mid) bronze stage Pokemon without a battle/sparring partner.

I ultimately decided to use Luna against Ace's Ninetales. She was the only one of my not-chosen Pokemon that would make short work of her. It was either her or Nyx and Nyx would beat Ninetales in under a minute. Luna would take a bit longer since had a "slight type disadvantage" offensive-wise.

Anyway, since Luna was fighting against Ace's Ninetales, Enji would fight Weiss's Jinx, while Hashirama would fight Ace's Mienfoo, and finally, Ali would fight Weiss's Buneary.

To raise the difficulty for my Pokemon by a little bit, I decided that I would let them fight the battles on their own, so there would be no commands coming from me while the battles happened.

This naturally did not mean I would send my Pokemon into the battles blind. No, I was planning to tell each of my Pokemon about their opponents and their possible moves.

I would tell my Pokemon which moves could be used in which situation, how to react in case the opponent used a certain move, and so on, but how to implement it during the battle would be left to them. The same was true in case the foe did something unexpected.

Their reaction would show me if we needed to do some remedial training or not. However, I still expected all my Pokemon to win, simply because they should have more fighting experience and better parameters, as well as potential.

So, I spent the time until 1 p.m to prepare each of my battlers for their battles, until 5 minutes before 1 p.m. when the doorbell rang. I recalled my 7 fighters and went to the door where Ace was waiting.

"Yo!" He said hand gesture naturally included, and I returned a greeting of my own as well before I closed the door behind me and locked it.

"Weiss should be here any moment now, so let's go to the entrance gate," I told Ace, who nodded at my suggestion.

While walking there we saw Weiss walking in our direction. She stopped doing so when she noticed us and waited for us to arrive by her side, which we did a few moments later.

Greetings were exchanged before Ace began leading us to the open field he mentioned yesterday. The place was actually just 20 minutes from my place at a moderate pace, and it was a pretty good place to fight just as Ace told us.

It was a clean area with just pretty short grass, no trees, not even a few shrubs, perfect to fight without being afraid of destroying the surroundings.

"I have to admit this is a good place for us to battle. Even if I would have liked it more if there was a pond as well," came from Weiss after she took a look at the place and I had to agree with her.

I also understood that she mentioned the pond because of her Dewgong. While Dewgong could fight outside of water, they could not perform at maximum capacity while on land. How big the loss of their battle capacity was depended on how much they trained for situations like that.

"I have to agree with Weiss, Ace. You've stumbled across a nice place." I said to him, which got me an immediate reply.

"Obviously, I wouldn't have brought you two here if I didn't think the place was perfect." Ace responded while doing that gesture sometimes seen in anime where they rub their index finger below their nose.

"So, who's fighting first? I would recommend me being one of the first battlers, that way my first opponent can heal their Pokemon while I battle my second opponent.

I plan to use different Pokemon for the two of you, so I don't have to heal my Pokemon after the fight to start the next one. You two brought some healing supplies with you, right? Or do we have to visit the PokeCenter after each fight?" I gave my suggestion while simultaneously asking the two some important questions we forgot to mention yesterday.

As for visiting the PokeCenter, after registering my Pokemon at the Academy, I could actually make use of any league facilities, that I qualified for, without any worries, as long as I used my real name and as long as it was for the 12 Pokemon I officially registered.

Ace and Weiss exchanged a few looks upon hearing my suggestion/question before they seemingly came to a decision.

"While I did bring along some healing supplies, and I'm sure Ace did the same, I want to battle against Ace first. We can go to the PokeCenter afterward, I think there is one just 10 minutes from here.

I want our match to be my last one and I'm sure Ace agrees with me as well because that way I can also watch your battle with Ace without being distracted." Weiss said and Ace expressed his full agreement.

"If that's what you want, ok," I told them with a shrug. I kinda expected that to happen, but I thought my suggestion was a good one, which was why I gave it either way.

We agreed on going from weakest to strongest Pokemon for the battles, and since Ace only had 3 Pokemon their battle was a 3-vs-3, or rather three 1-vs-1 battles.

Even if one of them won 2 rounds the third round would still happen, whether the battle continued or not would be decided after the result of the 3rd round was out.

To make sure I wouldn't be the only one to "expose" their Pokemon, I called out my battle candidates whenever their potential opponents battled. It wasn't so that they could get a glimpse of their foes, scout's promise.

Anyway, Ace's Mienfoo fought against Weiss's Buneary in the first round and unsurprisingly Mienfoo won, even if it was not as one-sided as one would expect due to that match-up.

During the second round, Ace's Ninetales fought against Weiss's Jinx, and surprisingly despite the type-disadvantage Jinx won. It was a hard-earned narrow victory, but a victory nonetheless.

The last round was between Ace's Feraligatr and Weiss's Dewgong. The battle was pretty equal but Feraligatr barely managed to eke out a win.

The reason Dewgong manage to content with Feraligatr despite being out of the water was that it first froze a large part of the field as soon as it appeared on the field, which allowed it to glide across the ice increasing its mobility somewhat.

Dewgong also kept using Hail to keep the temperature cold enough to keep the field frozen as much as possible and to heal itself since it apparently had Ice Body as an ability.

I didn't have the chance to check the status of their Pokemon before this and I didn't want to do it before our battle as a minor handicap for myself, which is why I didn't know that it had Ice Body as its ability.

Anyway, even if Feraligatr won it was on its last legs as well, so Ace capitulated. As soon as he did his Feraligatr fell over, which showed that he made the right decision since his Mienfoo stood practically no chance against Weiss's Jinx.

I congratulated them for the good showing and we went to the PokeCenter to heal their Pokemon before we returned to the field once more.

Ace and Weiss talked and decided that Ace was going to battle against me first, which was why we currently stood across each other, while Weiss stood at the side watching us from the place I observed their battle. Just like me, she had called her Pokemon out to observe the battle as well.

"Ready?" Ace yelled and I replied with a "Ready!" I grabbed Hashirama's ball and waited for Weiss's signal before releasing him on the field while Ace let out his Mienfoo at the same time.

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