Quick note! Internet has been wonky last 12 hours! Sorry for delay.
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The next morning, Ethan returned to his little cleared out field to get back to work. Gloom was awoken from his slumber off to the side, rousing with a yawn and a Sunny Day to brighten up his morning. As Ethan basked in its glorious glow, he slyly checked out the area.
Now, one might expect that running into the protagonist of a children's franchise from Earth was all well and good. Not Ethan. Ever since coming to the world of Pokemon, literally nothing has gone his way. The first year was hell on… whatever they called this planet. After that, he got forced into one thing after another; From Cynthia’s impromptu battle, to watching over the Rockets—which to be fair to them, was turning out to be a good thing—from people trying to catch his sweet little Teddiursas. Jenny, Jocelyn… The list went on and on.
So like any sane and rational person, Ethan was wary and alert for whatever shitstorm was about to fall into his lap. For all he knew, it’d be him traversing around the assumedly claustrophobic Wayward Cave. He’d never been inside a cave before, but he’d seen enough videos of people crawling through tiny holes only to get stuck to know that he didn’t want any part of that.
“Drah!!!”
The shout startled him, nearly making him jump out of his boots. Drapion and Jayce—Drapion’s Trainer—strolled onto the field with waves of greeting. Since they didn’t make it the day beforehand, they’d asked to start bright and early. “Good Morning!” Ethan shouted as he closed the distance between them.
“Yo.” Jayce yawned as Drapion scuttled forth.
Drapion, for all that he was… disturbing in appearance, was quite the lovable pokemon! A good learner too! With his large and wide purply arms he immediately came forward for a hug, which Ethan reciprocated. Jayce had warned him that his Drapion was much more friendly than others from its species, but Ethan doubted he’d run into another one anytime soon.
“Aight, big guy.” Ethan started as he pulled away. “You remember where we left off?”
Drapion attempted to tuck in his arms—which hung off the sides of his head as he didn’t have shoulders—into his body to become more streamlined. Ethan nodded in approval. “I think you have the actual digging part down, but you’re gonna need to limber up and create smaller holes that you can fit in within a reasonable timeframe. You won’t be using this in any battles at the moment, but you can Dig.”
“Go ahead and dig a hole as quick as you can. I want you to pop up on the other side of the field.” Ethan urged as he took out his phone and readied a stopwatch. “Ready? Go.”
Drapion did the opposite of tucking his arms and instead elongated them forward. Within seconds, he was tearing into the ground with reckless abandon and with both pincers. The large purple Dark/Poison type also gnawed with his mouth, chewing and spitting out dirt, snow, and pebbles without a care.
“Uhh… Ethan?” Jayce spoke, tone unsure.
Ethan turned his body towards Jayce, but kept his eyes locked on the other side of the field for Drapion’s time. “Yeah? Got some questions?”
“Oh, no… I just thought that I should mention that your Gloom went into the ground.”
Ethan tore his gaze away from the end of the field to where Gloom had been… and found a hole. Ethan blinked; once, twice… three, then four times. “Well, that’s new.”
Kneeling and sticking his head into the hole, Ethan tried to see if it was shallow. Like Shuckle’s Den, all he could see was darkness past just a few feet. With his trusty phone, Ethan shined a light into the hole and found that it twisted just beyond where he could see. “Gloom?” Ethan shouted.
“Gloooooooom!”
It was faint, but Ethan heard his local weed’s reply. “Do you need help?”
“Gloo-Glooom.”
Having lived around Gloom and Oddish, he judged himself as a fair translator for their kind. To him, that sounded just like a ‘nuh-uh.’ “Well, come back up if you can.”
Ethan stood up as Jayce leaned down to inspect Gloom’s hole. “I didn’t even know Glooms could learn Dig.” He shook his head in wonder. “I mean, I guess it kinda makes sense? Don’t they like… burrow a bit to go to sleep?”
“Yes they do… but they also aren’t supposed to learn Rain Dance and Sunny Day. To my knowledge, they shouldn’t be able to learn Dig?” Ethan ended with a questioning tone, second guessing what he remembered. Jayce’s explanation did… sound fair?
“Gloom ga gla gloom-ga-gloom-gloooooom!” Gloom’s victory cheer resounded from the opposite end of the field. Seconds later, Drapion’s arms and head billowed out of the earth. Dejectedly, the large purple pokemon stood alongside the happy weed. “I guess they were racing.”
As Ethan and Jayce walked across the small field to meet up with the pokemon, Ethan watched as Gloom demonstrated his technique for digging to the now rapt Drapion. With a wiggle of his tushy and with his hands in the air like he just doesn't care, Gloom… danced into the ground. Similar to how he burrowed himself neck deep to sleep, Gloom wiggled his butt and the ground moved aside.
With some awkward nods of understanding due to Drapion’s physiology, the large pokemon gave this new and improved technique a try. Like a body-builder with way too much muscle and not enough flexibility, Drapion raised his arms into the sky as much as he could. Next, he began to swirl and twirl, using his much smaller legs to dig grooves into the earth. Ethan and Jayce watched on with amazement as it—
”Holy shit. It’s working.” Jayce uttered, battled at the weirdest Dig he’d ever seen.
Drapion became a large purple blur as he spun faster and faster. Eventually, he dipped beneath the ground and out of sight, leaving a much larger hole in his place. It reminded Ethan of the weird Digs he’d once seen as a child in Pokemon Stadium for the N64. From all the things he’d seen since coming to the world of Pokemon, even counting Dark Void, this was the weirdest move he'd ever seen. At least the more fantastical moves appeared like magic. This just seemed… non-sensicle.
Moments later everyone turned at the ground of grinding earth. At the other end of the field, opposite of them all, Drapion rose from the ground in a much more normal fashion—With his arms raised digging, clawing, and climbing out from a large hole. Interestingly enough, Ethan could glean the brown sheen of type-energy goating Drapion's limbs and head. It was much faster than his previous attempts as well. Something about learning the spinning had to have resonated with the large purple monstrosity.
“Gloom.” Gloom nodded his head in approval and then plopped himself onto the ground to sit and relax.
“So… I assume he’s good now?” Jayce asked, unsure and still baffled at what he’d seen just before his eyes.
Ethan knelt and gently rubbed Gloom’s fronds as he answered, much to the grass-type’s enjoyment. “I’d call that a success. Let’s see him do it a few more times successfully before we actually call it for good. Just to be sure.”
And so they watched. Jayce had taken the front seat in ordering his pokemon to do it again and again. A bright disbelieving smile of joy and pride growing on his face after each successful attempt. Ethan was confident that they no longer needed his help. “I think you’re good to go.”
“Holy shit man! That was what? Two sessions? I didn’t believe it when I heard…” Jayce was too overjoyed with his pokemon’s success to censor his words, but Ethan didn’t really blame him.
Because now… Now it was time to shill.
“I’m happy to have been of help—” “Gloo—” “Gloom as well.” Ethan smirked at his ranch's number one supporter as they interrupted. “Please tell your friends and spread the word that I tutor, breed, and daycare for pokemon within Eterna Forest. Granted, it’s pretty deep within the dangerous territories… but there’s a freshly built path. Would you mind if I sent you my website?”
The next five minutes was Jayce singing his praises for himself and Gloom, admitting that he’d thought that the claims of his skill were exaggerated. Ethan also learned of the ‘scams’ within his current field of work… That would explain many of his customer problems and highlight Cynthia’s early endorsement. With the endorsement of the Champion of the region, it gave him credit and proof of authenticity… She was doing him a favor all along.
It was probably the highlight of his week, being praised for his skill and seeing the results of success. Well, that’d be a lie. Snorlax evolving was the highlight of his week—but, all things had to come to an end eventually. Jayce exited the field alongside his purply friend, chatting and laughing at his pokemon’s unique take on Dig.
Ethan nudged Gloom with his foot. “You did that.” He nodded off towards their retreating forms. Gloom turned to him in question, but returned his gaze to Jayce and Drapion’s back in contemplation. Eventually, a humungous smile spread on Gloom’s face. His eyes crinkled into crescents of happiness and drool began dripping with haste. “Glooooooooooom.”
Ethan watched Gloom watch Jayce and Drapion walk away. The joy and happiness radiating off the weed was… Without hesitation, Ethan grabbed the placeholder 6th pokeball he carried on his belt. Gloom turned as he moved about, and Ethan’s response to his gaze was to wiggle the ball playfully with a raised eyebrow of expectation.
No words needed to be said. Gloom simply nodded as he smiled wider and continued to drool. With a boop on the head, Gloom was sucked into the pokeball.
*Ding* The ball didn’t shake once, nor leave his hand at all. Ethan released his new friend and then rubbed his head fondly. “Should have done that a long time ago.” Gloom hugged his leg.
Ethan stared at Gloom pokeball in contemplation, then felt a little worried. “Joyce is going to… start to question how many pokemon I have.”
Gloom shrugged, uncaring of his non-worries. To Gloom, nothing had changed at all. This was just finalizing the deal.
“Well,” Ethan started, “Wanna be safe from the cold now? Go into your new and shiny pokeball as we go bug the Joys about registration in the middle of nowhere?”
At that, Gloom nodded eagerly.
Maybe things did change. For the better.