After spending his Saturday taking Tinkatink out on an excursion for metal, which thankfully ended up being a rather smooth and uneventful process, Ethan started his Sunday finishing off tutoring his own pokemon. While not an avid battler in any sense back on Earth, he did breed pokemon for people to use when battling online. So, he was pretty familiar with the movesets used for doubles and the ‘good’ pokemon synergies. This meant he knew what he should be doing… he had just been bad at the execution part.
But in the real world of pokemon… He was starting to think that maybe he’d been a bit too negative about himself. Actually, he was starting to see many things more clearly now that he’d started therapy. He’d never needed therapy, or at least he’d like to think so, back on Earth. Since he never went, he had some bad preconceived notions about what therapy was like… but it wasn’t so bad.
Just like his battling ability wouldn’t automatically be bad just because it was so before.
With a brightened outlook upon himself and his odds, a few hours of thinking and theorycrafting, and a whole lot of tutoring, Ethan was crafting a lean, mean, fighting team. Since he didn’t have much experience, he decided to go with what he’d ideally be best at—double battles. He even lived in Eterna Forest! The place where double battles were in Platinum, Diamond, and Pearl!
His lineup already had some inbuilt synergy, considering he had a healthy amount of electric types, two flying types, and some big hitters who favored ground type moves. It’d be difficult to balance, but it had potential. He had a lot of support to go around but not too many pokemon to build around.
Idly, he looked out over his pokemon who were practicing their moves as he thought. Emolga was having a field day throwing Reflect and Light Screens around like there was no tomorrow. After having learned Protect, his little flying squirrel had picked up the moves much faster than he anticipated. If there was a downside, her swooping down in a twirl in front of him and throwing panes of light in his way would be it. He still needed to teach her Baton Pass, but that could wait for now.
Shuckle, his berry buddy, was curiously looking at the remains of a small rock that he’d just smashed with basically zero effort…
Ethan… had done something that he felt a little bad about. While Shuckle, on Earth, was known to be quite scary, nothing could or would prepare this world for what he unleashed. Arceus would never recover from this absolute oversight. From what he could gather, either people didn’t branch out to teach pokemon moves they were normally unable to learn, or he just had a nifty knack for it…
And oh boy, was Body Press Shuckle something unneeded in the world they lived in. It took a long time (to him) to teach Shuckle Body Press, as Shuckle wasn’t very offensive minded. Shuckle liked to hide in his shell and wanted to defend himself, attacking never really crossed his mind because of how weak his attacks typically were. Now? Now, Shuckle was confused at how he could suddenly demolish a rock, even a small one.
In the end, Ethan had convinced Shuckle that he could hug his enemies into stop fighting him if he pressed his body and bulk into them. Granted, it took nearly two weeks for him to learn, but he would have kept trying to teach Shuckle Body Press even if it took a year. It was that broken.
Body Press was a move that dealt damage, but was based on the defence of the pokemon, not at attack… and Shuckle had a base defence stat of two-hundred and thirty… before spamming Withdraw, Shuckle’s former favorite move.
Former, because Ethan had also taught Shuckle Iron Defence. Iron Defence was just a better Withdraw, and Shuckle took to the teachings like a… Shuckle to buffing its defence.
Snorlax was jumping up and down at the far end of the field—Well, he was trying to jump. His jumps were more one inch hops, due to his bulk. That didn’t stop him, with some help from Ursaring, to learn Earthquake. He had somehow already learned Body Slam. Ethan assumed that his Tackle was upgraded or something of the sort? Perhaps when he tried to Tackle the Steelix in Wayward Cave, he learned it through the heat of battle? He wasn’t sure, but it gave him a solid STAB move. Giga-Impact was still a ways off, and he didn’t want Snorlax to learn that move unless he wanted to, as it had some tremendous recoil damage involved.
Crunch was easier to teach Snorlax, as his big-eater knew how to chomp. It wasn’t anything amazing, but it would let him snack on those pesky ghost types in the future, if any came his way.
Speaking of eating, Smeargle was eating well when it came to moves. Ethan had splurged and spent a solid amount of his money on more and more painting supplies so that Smeargle could begin to Sketch the moves his pokemon knew. Sketch took anywhere between four days and a week on average to copy a move. It was quite quick in Ethan’s opinion, but costly. It was no wonder why Max, Smeargle’s former trainer, had only taught him a handful of moves.
Smeargle was also terrible with money, having no concept of it other than ‘I give you my trainers card and I get stuff in return’.
A bad combination, all things considered.
Pachirisu was tired of learning moves that help out the team or protect himself, so Ethan caved and had him team up with Emolga to learn Discharge. Thankfully, and having nothing to do with his own tutoring, Pachirisu had quickly learned Volt Absorb. It was painful to watch Pachi get shocked over and over again due to Emolga’s reckless showcasing of the move, but he learned through the pain and annoyance.
When Pachirisu had grown accustomed to the move, he’d tried to get revenge on his flying teacher, only for both of them to find out that Emolga’s natural ability was Motor Drive. A blessing for Ethan and the team as a whole, but a horrendous blow to Pachirisu’s quest for retribution.
His wonderfully colorful bird, Chatot, learned Nasty Plot…
Ethan had just told her to think of Pachirisu taking her spot on his shoulder and to come up with plans to make him stop doing it.
It was scary how quickly she learned… to be honest.
Beyond learning Nasty Plot, Chatot had chosen to spend her time with a new friend she made in the forest. Ethan had tried to meet her new friend, but hadn’t been successful. Chatot had said that her friend found her, not the other way around. Ethan told her to invite her friend over to the ranch, but he hadn’t had any luck so far. They sung songs together, apparently.
He’d probably meet this mystery friend soon enough.
As he put his fingers to his mouth and let loose a shrill whistle to end their training for the day, a shadow flickered across the dirt field. Looking up into the sky, Ethan spotted the nightmare for neerdowells everywhere—a flying Garchomp. With his eyes still on the descending champion, Ethan called out. “We’re done training for the day. Go and have some fun.”
All his pokemon scattered in their usual directions, except for one. Shuckle excitedly dragged himself over towards him as he stared up into the sky at his approaching friend with an enormous smile. Ethan picked up his berry bud with a heave of effort, feeling the slosh of juice within his stop-gapped shell as he settled him across his chest.
Thirty seconds later, Garchomp came in for a landing on the training field like a jet engine, taking the whole length of the field. Her heels dug into the earth tearing up ground until she eventually tapered off and came to a stop. Cynthia hopped off Garchomps back with practiced ease, landing with bent knees from the drop.
Ethan had a smile plastered on his face, happy for one of his friends to finally be out of the weeds near Wayward Cave… but his smile faded as he saw Cynthia’s. She was wearing her normal black trenchcoat, but carried herself as a bearer of bad news.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, taking several steps forward to close the distance.
Cynthia gave him the look of the Champion before answering. “Nothing is wrong, Ethan… I just have to bring some solemn news.” She tucked a hand into her coat then withdrew a simple piece of paper. “One of the deceased from the avalanche wrote her last wishes before she succumbed to the cold—A will.”
With slow but steady hands, Cynthia unfolded the paper and skimmed over it, like she was verifying its contents. “A young woman came to your ranch. She had a Sunkern. Do you remember her?”
Oh… “Yes, I remember her. She was from Floaroma town…” Ethan stopped speaking, already having connected the dots. A small pit formed in his stomach at the news, knowing that the young woman who’d visited—Emily, had passed away in such a tragic way.
Cynthia gave him a moment to sort through his feelings, which he appreciated. “She didn’t want to go on a journey… Her—Her dad made her go. She cried on my shoulder when we first met. I didn’t know her well, but she didn’t deserve to go out like that.”
“In her final letter, one that she didn’t even know would be found, she requested that you take Sunkern, so that he can live at your ranch.” Cynthia took a breath, “You can of course say no, but I suspect that he will find a home here?”
“Of course.” Ethan blurted before his brain even fully registered the information. “How is Sunkern doing?”
Cynthia shook her head, her blonde hair swaying from the motion. “Still being taken care of by the Joys. It was a miracle it lived so long without sunlight or food.”
Shuckle’s mood had dimmed from feeling Ethan’s sadness. No more bubbly smiles and waving limbs, but a worried stare with a slightly open mouth of concern. With a heavy sigh, Ethan placed Shuckle down and gestured to the towering dragon nearby. “I’m okay, Shuckle. It sucks, but the world is an unforgiving and unfair place. Don’t make my mood ruin yours, say hello to your friend.” He cracked a smile at Shuckle’s own returning to his face. Shuckle nodded eagerly then trudged off with cries of his name towards Garchomp, who watched the slow moving rock/bug come towards her with a gnarly grin.
Cynthia stepped up to his side as their pokemon greeted each other. “Sorry for the bad news, but I figured it shouldn’t wait. I have all day and tomorrow free though.”
“I only knew Emily for a day or two.” Ethan shrugged, feeling a little callus at not feeling horrible at the girl's death. He felt bad, but he wasn’t going to break down over someone he knew for such little time. “You staying the night?”
“If you’re offering.” Cynthia shrugged in return, letting the mantle of Champion fall from her shoulders. “I still have to talk to you about your compensation for helping during the emergency, but that can wait.”
Cynthia gestured towards the pokemon before them. “I recall you asking for us to come over? You wanted us to come by for a gift, right?”
“A gift for Garchomp, that’s right.” Ethan nodded and gave Cynthia a pat on the shoulder. “I’m glad you’re alright. The stress of being Champion would eat me alive.”
Before Cynthia could even respond, Ethan spoke louder towards Shuckle. “Gift time! Let’s get to the house!”
“Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”