Step 4: Sundown (Patreon)

Step 4: Sundown

Midnight had become my prime training time. The moon was high; the Kricketots were chirping, and I was struggling not to jump at every shifting shadow. This time neither Ivy nor I had neglected to bring our Pokémon along with us. 

“Alright, Baloo! Get to work!” Baloo roared in determination; his claws struck at his sides in a martial art pose. He rushed to the brightest ray of moonlight, gave me one last confident smirk, and promptly fell flat on his back and fell asleep. Beautiful.

It probably wasn’t surprising, but the Teddiursa line had an intrinsic connection to the moon. Its evolution into Ursaluna requiring it outright. There was also the tiny coincidence of the crescent moon marking on the Pokémon. 

Taking a nap in concentrated moonlight was probably going to help in the long term, even if I didn’t know what that benefit was yet. It’s not like environment changes and weather effects were unknown factors in Pokémon growth and evolution.

To reiterate my philosophy on training moves, it was all about aura exposure and a Pokémon’s natural physiology. 

When I devised this training, it brought me to an interesting thought about moonstones and their link to fairy aura energy. Moonstones catalyzed the evolution of two fairy types - Jigglypuff and Clefairy. They also helped evolve two Pokémon, that while not fairy types, were decent enough users of that particular type of aura. The Skitty and Munna Line. Hell, even Lunatone, a literal moon Pokémon, had a serviceable fairy move set. 

The only exceptions were the two Nidos, where they somehow gained enough ground type aura to evolve. Was it something to do with their poison typing interfering with the fairy energy? 

So whether it was fairy, ground, or just a general placebo effect, I was going to utilize it until and unless I saw adverse side effects. 

Now that Baloo was hard at work training himself into the ground - I willfully ignored the ‘No, he ain’t’ Ivy hollered - Zubi was up to bat.

The night was ideal to train dark type aura.

“Zubat, Bite!” I called out. Zubat just flapped languidly and turned towards his trainer Ivy sitting at the roots of a tree with her Bellsprout curled in her embrace, and screeched out in question.

I guess the sonar feedback of her nod was adequate approval, so Zubi charged up the dark type attack and chewed off a small chunk of bark from the nearest tree. Her fangs barely got through the outer layer of rough bark and only scratched the lignin underneath. Weak.

“Hmm.” I felt dissatisfied. “Ok. Supersonic, and put some power behind it.” Clearly, the Zubat seemed to pick up on my disappointment and put some real oomph into the move. It was strong enough to shake the dirt off the floor. “Good. Put that same strength into Bite.” I made Zubat perform those two attacks, again, and again, and again until I was satisfied.

She was warmed up well, and ready to learn.

Before I could even give the command, Zubat was already lining up her next Bite attack. It was quick, saturated with dark energy, and had I let it strike, it would’ve been strong too. “Stop. Hold that aura.” 

Zubat stalled the release of the move and let the dark type aura grow within herself. Ivy, who had fallen asleep during the training, now perked up at the deviation from my previous instruction. I waited. I waited till I saw the fleeting wisps of dark aura seeping out of Zubat. “Don’t let go of that energy. I want you to use Supersonic with it.”

Ivy was clearly Zubat’s trainer, given the way they both tilted their heads in Confusion. It was a common stereotype that trainers and their starters were most alike. 

I glanced at Baloo; his belly rhythmically rising and falling with his soft, snoring breaths under the Moonlight. I wonder what that said about me.

My thought process was sound - pun intended. Snarl is a de-buff vocal attack with dark aura - that did damage and lowered the opposing Pokémon’s special attack. Supersonic is also a de-buff vocal move that administers a status effect, while Bite damages by generating dark type aura in the mouth; one plus one equals two. Therefore, in theory, Supersonic + Bite = Snarl.

Confused or not, Zubat carried through with my command. Initially, the moves clashed, the dark type energy would falter as the Supersonic passed through. Sometimes there was just a burp of dark aura before the move collapsed into itself. 

What Zubat was doing wasn’t too far off from how I’d trained Hoothoot’s Ember. A good command of dark type energy compounded by the Pokémon’s natural vocal organ. Aura meets action. 

Then, suddenly, Zubat screeched harshly. A dark aura bloomed out from its mouth in a large shockwave that crashed against a tree, gouging out a chunk. Success.

Ivy rushed to her feet and tackled her Pokémon out of the air in excitement. “Ya did it! Yer the first Zubi in the world that can do that move, ya hear!” Zubat trilled with infectious energy as she eagerly flapped her wings while Ivy exploded in laughter. 

But we weren’t done just yet. “Alright, good job. Now we move on to phase two.” I waved Ivy away, who gave her Zubat a final affectionate pet before returning to her seat. Yeah, Zubi likely wouldn’t be staying a Golbat for too long. 

Now that the move was created, it was time to practice it to an acceptable repeatable proficiency. “When I call Snarl, you do that move again.” Zubat called in agreement and prepared itself. “Snarl.” 

Perfecting the move for battle usage would be up to Ivy. My job was simply to teach the move to a replicable level. But if I’m training a client’s Pokémon, I might as well Double Team and train my own too. 

“Hibernation’s over Baloo,” I strode over and nudged my Teddiursa awake.

It was nearly impossible to not bend down and hug the stuffing out of him when he yawned and cutely rubbed his eyes awake. But a strict mentality was important when training. 

The clearing had a good spread of large rocks and boulders I could use. I pointed over to the nearest one, and Baloo, understanding my intent, got himself ready in front of it. “Peat Punch.” I intoned. 

Using my tried-and-true method, I’d taught Baloo to imbue ground aura into a paw swipe to create this ground elemental punch move. It wasn’t as strong as Rock Smash yet, but as his fist crashed into the hard stone with a meaty thwack, it left a nice enough divot that would let me approximately measure power. 

“Ok. So here’s how the rest of the night is going to go.” I called out to all in the clearing. “Zubat, you are going to keep firing off Snarls at Baloo. Baloo, you are to use Peat Punch after every hit of Snarl you tank. We continue this until the first Pokémon drops.” 

Harsh. But Pokémon were resilient and capable of monstrous growth and adaptation; you just had to push them without breaking them. More so, with this training, Zubat would gain proficiency in the move by using it, while I could also gauge its effectiveness as long as the used Peat Punch would hopefully drop in power. Not only that, Baloo would be repeatedly training both his move, as well as his special defense.

On top of everything, I’d also be training up another move for Baloo simultaneously. This is one area where the value of the Pokédex shone again. This device was the complete compendium of every known Pokémon’s data. From basic information like a species’ general parameters, a cross regional catalogue of all known habitats, instructions on rearing the species including dietary requirements, grooming, etc.

Most importantly for competing trainers, a full breakdown of a Pokémon’s known move set alongside detailed steps to teach them said moves.

So while an original move would only display as part of Baloo’s custom page on the dex, I also had access to the Teddiursa line’s basic learn set and learnable technical machine moves. One such move that Teddiursas naturally learnt was Payback.

Payback is a retaliatory move that essentially doubles and returns the damage a Pokémon receives. According to the dex, the easiest way to train the move was by making a Pokémon endure a damaging move and immediately perform an attack after receiving the hit until the Pokémon was visibly hitting the follow up strike harder and with visible dark type energy. 

Win, win, win, win! 

It was a good thing that I was doing this in the wilderness of route 36 and not in town near a Pokécenter. No doubt the constant screeches, roars, and thumps would have had the local population descending on us like a flock of pissed off Spearow.

Zubat was the first to drop, but I couldn’t complain. The sky had just begun to be painted in the tableau of purples and oranges as the sun peeked over the Horizon. They’d both lasted the entire night.

The handful of surrounding trees and boulders, however, suffered the opposite fate. 

Ivy, with bloodshot eyes from the all-nighter, gently scooped up her collapsed Zubat and made towards her tent. “Take a rest, Zubi. Ya did better’n I coulda ever asked fer.” 

I watched her walk away, but turned my attention to my foot as a weight settled on it. I relented, bent down, and scratched him between his ears. “Bedtime, bud.” Baloo couldn’t start snoring fast enough. 

I’d like to say my diligence continued past dawn, but I’d be lying. It wasn’t until well after lunch that I resurfaced from the confines of my tent.

Today was back to hawking my business.

“Ya sure I can’t convince ya to follow me on ma’ journey, slick? I think we’d make a real swell combo - like Toxic and Venoshock.”

Ivy had finished packing up her tent and shouldered her rucksack. I chuckled as I continued setting up my stall. The league gym challenge circuit was only just beginning, and I had plenty of other potential customers. I’d gain far more from raiding the collective pockets of the Johto region than by following one young woman’s monotype challenge. 

She was cute, but not that cute. If she were someone like Sinnoh champion Cynthia, or Paldean professor Raifort, I might’ve been more tempted. “I think you already know the answer to that question, farm girl.”

“Reckon I do.” The typical tomboy shoulder punch on my arm was likely meant both as a ‘you suck’ and goodbye.

“Hey, don’t be a stranger after you take the gyms by storm. I’m always ready to scavenge around your backpack for a few more goodies in exchange for a move here or there.” Client retention would take me far, I had no doubt.

“Oh, you can count on that. I’ll find ya again like stink on a Muk. And when I turn Falkner’s team into lunch, ya can bet yer bottom Poké that I’ll sing your praises from the top’o mount Silver!”

“Just be sure to mark up my prices, eh? I’ll give you a good discount next time.” She waved one last time as she headed east to Violet City. One customer satisfied, an entire region to go.