Step 18: The First Dimension (Patreon)

Step 18: The First Dimension

Ilex Forest, Johto.

Past the dilapidated shrine and beyond the local timber fell, the four of us ventured deeper into Ilex Forest for our training session.

We happened upon an ideal clearing. Wide, flat, and empty. Drops of sunshine dodged through the dense canopy overhead, drawing away the darkness. Dew-soaked blades glistened under the dollops of daylight, dappling the dirt-packed ground of the grove. 

The distinct drone of habitation disappeared at our descent into the domain of the native wild Pokémon.

Our party stopped directly in the middle of the field. Footprints divoting the topsoil denoted our route back to Azalea Town. Defending us from taking any unintended detours on our return delivery. 

I breathed in the fresh air. It was diffused with the myriad scents, from azure to verdant, of the diverse foliage on bountiful display. “Damn!”

Brock also whistled beside me. “Took the words right out of my mouth. This’d be a great place to take a hottie on a date!” His mind was always on the wrong tract of land.

While Ash had the right of it. “Pretty place. Try not to burn it down, Pikachu.”

“Pika-pi!” Pikachu reprimanded Ash with a swat to his face, unable to digest the insult.

Misty, though, was in an entirely different world of her own. “I don’t care how picturesque the scenery is; all I care about are the eyes I can already feel crawling over my skin.” She hugged herself to soothe the shivers her bug-phobia brought. 

I swerved in to distract her from the forest denizens, doubtlessly keeping a vigil over us from within their dens. “Don’t get too down in the dumps, Misty. There’s a lot more mystery in this forest than just a couple of critters popping out from a bush. Who knows what else can randomly show up?” So far, I’ve practically drained the dictionary. It was time I dispensed with it, ditched the ABCs and picked up the one-two-threes of tutoring. “Speaking of bugs, let’s get to the nitty-gritty and work on our strats for the gym.”

Reaching down to my belt, I unclipped my most recent capture ball and threw it to the ground. Tuki was barely out of her Pokéball before Ash had his Pokédex trained on her. “Whoa! I’ve never seen one of these before.”

“Pikipek, the woodpecker Pokémon. A flying type species native to the Alola region. This specific example is of a much greater size due to its genetic mutation as an alpha variant.”

“Got her in a trade.” I explained while fluffing my bird’s plume. “I’ve not yet put her through her paces against an actual challenge. Letting her face-off with a type advantage in an official battle seems like a logical way to put her through her paces.”

Brock, though, was a bit more stone-faced as he consideringly rubbed his jaw. “Hmm. It’s rare, for sure. But it’s obvious that it’s a flying type - which, in theory, is a good matchup. Bugsy might not be a veteran gym leader, but there’s no way he doesn’t have counters for his common weaknesses.” He released his own Pokémon, which in a flash of red revealed itself to be a Pineco spinning with dizzying velocity. “To really catch him off guard, I was thinking of going toe-to-toe with the same type.” 

“If you want to fight fire with fire, why not just actually use fire?” Ash popped open his own ball, and a Cyndaquil rose on its hind legs and squeaked out a greeting. 

Misty, determined not to be left behind, released her Poliwhirl. “Because, bozo, gym leaders aren’t that stupid. We know how to deal with trainers using cheap tricks.”

“If that’s the case, how come Pikachu and I were able to defeat you?”

“Ouch…” not helping, Brock.

“I wouldn’t go there, grit for brains. I was there when you lost a winning battle.” Misty reminded Brock of his own immunosuppression. An electric defeated his ground type, after all.

Eager to delay any irrelevant arguing, I quickly intercepted the conversation. “It’s a bit basic, true enough. But at the low badge level we are at currently, Bugsy won’t pull out the complex stuff. There isn’t a need to worry about toxic stalls, speed traps, or even evasive hit and runs. From asking around town since I’ve been here, I’ve found out that his second badge challenge is relatively straight-forward; he’s gonna send out a Heracross or Scyther to hit hard and fast.”

Ash excitedly pounded his fist into his palm. “That just means we gotta hit harder and faster!” 

Ding, ding, ding! “Right you are! But that’s easier said than done - especially with our current collection of battlers. Pineco, Pikipek, and Cyndaquil all have relatively mediocre natural agility. Poliwhirl is surprisingly speedy,” Misty lip quirked up rather smugly at that observation, “but Scyther still has us all beat,” too bad I had to dash it. “Bugsy isn’t likely to have skimped on the speed training, either.” 

“Is there a point to all this? Or are we just supposed to sit here and listen to you drag our team’s choices?” You know what, Misty? I hope something creeps out of the bushes.

“No. I have a simple and elegant solution that neatly sidesteps his advantage. If you wanna outpace a Pokémon faster than yours, then all we need is a priority move.”

“Wait! I get it - like Quick Attack.” Ash was on a roll. “But…”

“Doesn’t exactly have effectiveness or any real stopping power.” Brock sounded their group’s immediate concern.

“That’s where I come in. Mach Punch, Bullet Punch, Sucker Punch, and a whole host of other moves exist to cover that weakness. All priority moves, but with the addition of specific type auras, gain a boost in combat utility.”

Misty was smug again, as she sarcastically buffed her nails on the rough fabric of her suspenders. “Don’t leave Jet Punch or Aqua Jet off that list. Didn’t hear a fire or type move among them, did we? Always told you water types are superior.”

“Hey! Rock types have Accelerock.” Brock, again, stayed stubbornly unhelpful.

Before Ash could articulate more than an under-breath grrr, I salvaged his poor Cyndaquil’s waning self esteem. “If you guys want to get started, you really got to let me finish explaining. I’m a move tutor. Just because a fire type priority move doesn’t currently exist, doesn’t mean I can’t create one.”

“Good! We finally get to see if your feat against Falkner was just a fluke, or if you’re the real deal.” Misty, despite her orange hair, had not an ounce of carrot in her. So, I picked up a stick too. 

Relieving the forest floor of one of its many, many dead twigs. I walked a straight path across the clearing, setting a start and finish between two opposing trees. Every ten paces, I slashed my twig and marked a gash into the ground to indicate checkpoints. “First order of business; we need to turn these slow-coaches into bullet trains. No better way to train speed than suicide sprints.” So called because you wanted to die by the end of them - super effective though. “Line up, you lot!”

“Us, too?” Brock asked, worried at the prospect of forced manual labour.

“Only the four Poké students admitted to my SPE class, I’m afraid.” Dutifully, Tuki, Pineco, Poliwhirl, and Cyndaquil took their places. “Your task is as such: each of you will run to the first checkpoint and back, then the next one and back, and so on and so forth till I ask you to stop. Full tilt, all the way. Go!” All four shot off without objection.

Poliwhirl was leaps and bounds ahead of the pack. My Pikipek and Ash’s Cyndaquil kept each other pace and company. While Pineco lagging hopped at the rear. 

The rest of the day continued on much the same.

We made our way back to Azalea when dusk made itself known. Brock, seeing his Pokémon struggle most of the afternoon, fussed at me. “This is a bit more spartan than I thought it’d be. I’m not sure how valuable it’ll be for my mon, to be honest.”

It was a fair criticism, but unwarranted. I had total presence and pride in what I was doing. “Trust the process. They’ve got to tackle their deficiencies first.” I held no worries about any other parameters. My patented shuck mai for Pineco and Pikipek, along with the other Pokémons’ inherent type energy, took ample care of both physical and aura strength. Attack would also get boosted with constant use of the attacking moves. Although… as my brain scrolled through what I knew of the Pineco line, I may have a potential cheat that could put a pep in Pineco’s step. “Tell me something, has your Pineco learnt Rapid Spin yet?”

“Sure. He’s even got a decent enough handle on basic rock type energy. Probably on the edge of learning Rollout.”

“Good to know. Maybe I can accelerate our progress tomorrow onwards, then.” 

“Alright, Uki, I’ll be patient. I’m counting on you, though. We all are. Those two might not fully realise it, but I know just how difficult it is to teach a Pokémon a move outside of its pool without TMs. It’s why tutors make fat stacks - I’d briefly entertained the idea of becoming one myself to help with the expenses back home. Didn’t have the talent for it. My expertise lay more in raising kids, as it turned out. Being a breeder’s more my speed.”

Pausing in front of Kurt’s door while Ash and Misty barged in, I held Brock back. “Then I’ll know exactly who to reach out to when I need a Pokémon bred for my team. I’ll expect a discount once I prove to you I can do what I’ve claimed.”

“Don’t make promises you may not be able to keep, Uki.” Kurt coughed out from around the corner. “Confidence is great, and all. Ain’t alway mean you can make good on ‘em.”

My machinist mentor had become extra crotchety during our brief absence. Which meant, “I take it you haven’t cracked the GS ball yet?”

“Only thing I’ve cracked is my damned head beating on the thing. I’ve had to call in a favour from someone in Ecruteak - maybe they’ll know how I can get the blasted thing open. Not like I can focus with all the racket! I don’t know what the townsfolk are doing at the well, but it’s too noisy!” Complaint lodged, Kurt skulked back into his workshop to try to hammer out a different solution with April.

I also had my own project to find answers for.

–

Over the next few days, as we waited in anticipation for Bugsy’s return from his excursion, we spent hours running around the found clearing. And we were witnessing marked improvements at the checkpoints.

Day one had just been the introductory phase. Day two onwards saw the complete recitation of my ‘action + aura = move’ mantra.

The suicide sprints were a continuing source of exhaustion - but I’d maintained our momentum by tacking on the use of aura. “Steady, Tuki! You’re falling behind! Follow Pineco.” I warned my woodpecker when I saw the ochre hue of rock type aura fluctuate during a lapse in her concentration. 

Poor Pikipek was bringing in the rear all by herself. Poliwhirl was doused in blue, Cyndaquil in burning orange - both were absolutely shredding through my makeshift course. It wasn’t her fault, though. The macho brace and tucked wing balancing a rock gem were boosting her progress greatly by hindering it. Pineco, out of all of them, had seen the greatest improvement.

The pinecone Pokémon had abandoned hopscotch in favour of playing tops. He zipped through, rotating furiously while surrounded by the same shade of aura as Tuki. Rapid Spin with a rock type twist. The speed buffing move compounded the base stat growth, while reaffirming the agility increase required for priority.

I paid close attention to Pineco. His aura flailed wildly, like a localised hurricane of dust storming around him. Then, just as it almost spiralled out of control, all the aura imploded. Every cloudy wisp of it sucked right into the Pokémon’s spiky shell, absorbing the aura’s rabid inertia with it. Pineco suddenly twirled with greater ferocity. The tip of his bottom thorn burrowed into the dirt. The rest of the Pokémon swept hurriedly out of the way as he flickered unstably this way and that. Friction with the wind whistled out a high pitch noise like a power drill.

“Hey!”

“What the–!”

Misty and Ash rushed to their feet at the abrupt disturbance. Brock was more sedate. “Pineco,” he called out to his Pokémon. Its panicked pirouette slowed enough for me to catch sight of rocky scales forming over the Pokémon’s natural spikes. “Accelerock!” I allowed Brock the honour of giving Pineco the command. The twirling kicked back into gear, aura flared out, and the normally plodding pinecone shot off like a torpedo. Straight into a bush. “Aww, man. There goes my cool moment. At least there weren’t any cute girls around to witness my humiliation…”

“Hmph! Excuse you!” 

Ignoring Misty, I approached Brock as we both observed the rustling bush his Pokémon crashed inside. “Hey look on the bright side, Pineco got the move down before anyone.” Which meant Pikipek would have an easier time copying off him. 

We waited for Pineco to pop back out; instead, a geta-clad foot peered out of the pile of shrubbery. “Oh, dear! Thank you for finding me, Mr Pineco.”

“On the flip-side, that is a very pretty girl.”

“People! It seems I must no longer suffer being lost all alone in a dark forest. Might one of you know the direction of the exit? I journey towards Azalea.”

What in the world was a geisha doing in the middle of the woods?