Act 2: Chapter 7

Act 2: Chapter 7

Lee's pen dances across his notebook as he watches Flannery's Torkoal struggle to keep Ninetales in his line of sight. The tortoise pokemon is obviously used to dealing with opponents who boast greater speed, as he turns his head and neck to keep a bead on Ninetales with admirable accuracy. Once the vixen is at too harsh an angle, though, Torkoal is forced to turn on his feet to follow and falls behind. The Gym courtyard is littered with blackened soil and cracked ground, though Gym Leader Moore seems unbothered by the destruction as he watches from the side of the Gym proper.

Ninetales blurs into a spear of yellow once more and darts into Torkoal's blind spot directly behind him. Her red eyes flash and her jaws open. From her maw comes a single bolt of flame that crosses the distance between her and the tortoise pokemon with a whistle.

"Torkoal, behind you!" At Lee's side, Flannery grimaces and tries to direct her pokemon as best as she can.

The nameless fireball splashes across the back of Torkoal's shell without doing any real damage, but it does startle Flannery's ace into retaliating without instruction. Grunting, Torkoal shoots a cloud of hot, ember-filled ash from the holes in his shell, covering him in a burning, protective cloak.

'Burning Ash, one of Moore's own moves,' Lee eyeballs the cloud, guesstimating the circumference of the black, sooty defense. He jots the number down next to the three other numbers he observed in the spar. 'Twenty feet or so, definitely good enough to keep melee attackers at bay.'

'But not quite enough to deter ranged foes,' Ninetales adds, already charging Quick Attack as Torkoal begins to turn to her. 'In all other regards, Torkoal would be a serious opponent for most, but this blind spot and his inability to cope with projectiles approaching from behind is a notable weakness, one we figured out within minutes. I feel the ideas brewing in your head, beloved. What do you have in mind?' She charges Torkoal head-on.

'A few things-'

"Torkoal, Smokescreen!" Flannery's voice cuts off Lee's train of thought. "Then back up and use Stone Edge!"

The orange tortoise inhales, then spits out a rolling cloud of opaque, black smoke as he shuffles backward. Once the last puff of smoke passes his lips, his squinted eyes open ever so slightly. Torkoal raises a leg and stomps upon the ground of the Gym's courtyard, spider-webbing the ground with cracks. A barrage of razor-sharp stones breaks free from the ground at the stomp, quiver mid-air for a moment, then scream through the smoke at Ninetales.

Lee's eyes tickle, and he feels his fox drawing upon his clearer point of view, focusing on a spot behind Torkoal.

Ninetales leaps over the entire Smokescreen, easily clearing the distance as Stone Edge flies harmlessly under her. She twists midair, tails billowing like a cloak, then fires another nameless bolt of flames at her foe.

Neck craning back as far as it can, Torkoal tries to line up another Stone Edge, but the fire bolt tags him in the rear of his shell once more, drawing an annoyed grumble from him.

Ninetales lands neatly on her paws behind Torkoal without much of a crouch, but the shock that runs through her paws and up her legs doesn't bother her.

"I think that'll be enough for now, Flannery," Lee gives the redhead beside him a smile. "Thank you for allowing Torkoal to spar with Ninetales. We've got an idea of what would work best for you two now."

The Gym heir sighs and wipes her forehead with the back of her hand, seemingly relieved that the practice match is over. "No prob. Torkoal! C'mon back, honey!" She raises her hand and beckons her pokemon over. "Not even one hit" She mumbles.

Lee does his best to not let his smile become awkward. "Ah, it was just a practice round is all, and a bad matchup at that. If Stone Edge had hit, that might have ended the fight" He observes the far wall surrounding the courtyard.

The rocks hurled by Torkoal's Stone Edge are embedded into the wall like steel knives driven into soft wood. The Stone Edge projectiles must have been charged with an impressive amount of Rock TE, as a brown sort of 'rot' radiates an inch or so from each razor-stone, causing the rotted bits of the wall to crumble like loosely-packed dirt.

'Torkoal is not a pushover despite his weaknesses. Honestly, I think Flannery's fears about not being able to fill Moore's shoes are unfounded.'

As Torkoal leisurely lumbers back to Flannery with Ninetales padding along beside him, Flannery turns to Lee. "So I'm going to guess you already figured out Torkoal's biggest issue?" She asks glumly. "My Magcargo and Numel are both in the same boat."

"It's certainly no fault of you or your pokemon, and I've got a few ideas on how to fix that," Lee smiles back. "Lemme collect my thoughts here for a moment before we move on."

Flannery returns the smile with one of her own.

Ninetales returns to Lee's side and sits, looking up at him. 'You were saying?'

'Ah, right.' Lee flips back to the previous page in his notes, one filled with observational notes and a sketch of Torkoal. 'If I'm being honest, the most pragmatic answer here is to teach Flannery's pokemon Protect and drill them until they can instinctually guard their rear. I think Torkoal learns Protect naturally anyway.'

'I had similar thoughts,' Ninetales blinks and turns her eyes skyward, peering up at the clouds. 'Though that doesn't fill the commission very well.'

'It doesn't.' Lee agrees. 'I was thinking of something else. At first, I wanted to go for something fancy, like a loitering munition set to float behind Torkoal that attacks enemies that purposefully try to go for his rear, but'

'But weaving such advanced instructions into a move is beyond me,' Ninetales huffs in self-aimed annoyance.

'We'll figure it out,' Lee soothes. 'We just need to crack the secrets behind complex moves. Normal TE has no built-in homing, so moves like Swift are doing something in the background. Corvi and his efforts with Swift prove there is underlying 'programming' to moves and that we can alter said programming. With your expertise, I know we can figure it out.'

Ninetales' ire rises briefly at the mention of the still-missing raven pokemon, but she pushes it aside. 'More like your expertise. My feats might look impressive, but they would have never come to be if you didn't figure out that my Fire isn't truly tied to biological cues.'

'It was a fluke, really.'

'Some discoveries require luck just as some require skill, but it's a discovery all the same,' Ninetales refutes him. She looks away from the sky and back up to Lee, curiosity apparent. 'Your mind is whirling again. Credit for your thoughts?'

'Just thinking on what Corvi did to alter Swift's target mid-flight.' Lee raises his pen to his mouth and taps it against his lip as he stares at his notes. 'When we were working on it, he had no progress, then suddenly began to demonstrate the properties we wanted with slow but measurable improvement. Maybe it's like muscle memory? The repetition might train a pokemon's brain to mold their TE differently, changing the programming of the move? I know you can freely mold Fire TE into almost any form you want now, so I'm wondering if this commission is going to be as simple as dreaming up a new move, then repeating it until the molding steps cement themselves in your subconscious enough that you don't need to think about it anymore. With enough training, we might even be able to make Fox Fire fully autonomous or make something even more outlandish. Honestly, love, you open so many doors that I almost don't know where to start.'

Ninetales is silent for a moment, pondering Lee's words. 'The idea certainly has merit. I myself cannot rightly explain just how I know a move is a move, but' Inside of her, Lee feels raw Fire TE churning, running up and down her limbs like the blood in her veins. 'My Fire jumps to my command much faster when you call a move for me to use. It must be some form of instinctual, predetermined molding. Back to our commission, however'

Lee turns the page in his notebook back to the one he was previously writing on where there are a number of ideas, some crossed out for being too complex or ridiculous. 'Right. If it needs to be flashy, cover the shared weakness between Torkoal, Numel, and Marcargo, and needs to work within current limits, then my plan is to go with something that simply attacks in every direction at once. Do you think you can manage a sort of air-burst fireball that rains down on the field?'

The fox at his side smirks. 'Not exactly elegant, but it'll do for the first of what will be many commissions. If it is only two uncomplicated steps, then I believe we can have this whole deal wrapped up in a single afternoon.'

'That's assuming Flannery accepts our proposal. Do you think we'll get more? Commissions, I mean.'

'Beloved, you're going to need to put a price tag on even talking to you.'

With an unsure smile, Lee clears his throat and turns to a hopeful-looking Flannery with her Torkoal at her side. "So after some thought," Lee begins, "Torkoal's biggest weakness is the spot behind him where ranged attacks can get him before he can turn. We know powering up Flame Wheel takes too long to be a viable dodging technique, so in lieu of that, my thought here is to keep it simple and provide Torkoal with an attack that can strike all parts of the field simultaneously."

"All parts of the field simultaneously?" Flannery parrots with a confused blink. At her side, Torkoal tilts his head.

Lee nods. "Yep. Our proposal is this; an airburst fireball that saturates the ground with multiple smaller projectiles. After some tweaking from Ninetales, your team should be able to cast this move and cover large parts of the field in flames." As he speaks, he can feel Ninetales idly twiddling her Fire TE as she follows the image playing out in his brain. "Torkoal could either cast it directly upward to nail most of the field, or behind him to punish anyone trying to exploit his blindspot. It'll probably take practice to get it just right, but I think with some time to prepare, you and Torkoal will have a new and viable move ready for your appointment as Gym leader."

As he talks, Flannery's eyes grow wider and gain a mystified sort of shine to them. "A new move just like that? That fast?"

"Ehhh" Lee closes his notebook and stows away his pen in the spiral binding. "As I said, it's going to take us some time to really prototype your move, test it, work the bugs out, then present a working copy to you. Having it ready before you take your place as Gym Leader is the only thing we can really promise. It could be ready tomorrow, it could be ready a day before the turnover. Do you have any input on what you want? This proposal is just our suggestion, and you're free to ask for something else."

Flannery crosses her arms and tilts her head back, looking up at the sky in thought. "I mean I'm not really sure what to ask for. I never really considered the possibility of a move of my own just popping up out of thin air like that. You said your idea is, like, a bunch of falling fireballs that hit the whole field?" At Lee's nod, she continues. "It sounds cool to me. What's the next step?"

"Next, we should" Lee pauses. "Hrm"

'Perhaps we should baseline just how much stamina Torkoal has?' Ninetales silently suggests. 'Energy consumption is an important factor to consider.'

'Not a bad idea at all, love. I think I know just how to do it, too.' Lee nods. "Next," he addresses Flannery out loud. "Let's get an idea of Torkoal's total Fire output and try to gauge how much we're wanting this new move to cost him. If we make it so powerful that Torkoal can only cast it once, that's time you'll have to waste learning how to modulate the power. In a worst-case scenario, the move might not even work under a certain threshold if it's made with too high a predetermined level of power."

Flannery smiles. "Gotcha. So what do we do?"

Lee leads Flannery, Torkoal, and Ninetales to a boulder sitting at the edge of the field as he explains. "How many times do you think Torkoal can use Flamethrower going full-tilt in a match before he exhausts himself?"

The Gym heir and her pokemon lock eyes for a second. "All out? Ten or eleven times I think," she replies, turning back to Lee.

"Alrighty," Lee reopens his notebook and readies his pen as the group comes to a stop. "Have Torkoal use Flamethrower on the boulder there," he gestures with his pen, "and Ninetales is going to match him as best she can. That'll tell us how much energy the new move can consume without being a burden."

"You heard the man, Torkoal," Flannery smiles and dramatically points a finger at their rocky target. "Flamethrower, and give it all you've got!"

Torkoal takes a deep breath, the coalbed in his shell blazing orange and making Lee uncomfortably warm as he does so, then from the tortoise pokemon's mouth comes a spiraling pillar of near-white flames. The heat is so intense that Lee is forced to blink as his eyes dry out.

The Flamethrower strikes the distant boulder almost like a physical object, throwing chips of rock away. The face of the stone rapidly heats to red-hot, and parts of the boulder pop and explode away as it heats unevenly.

'Torkoal was certainly raised by a Fire-type master' Lee grimaces and ignores the discomfort of open flames not under Ninetales' careful control. His scars tingle unpleasantly before the heat. 'Does the spiraling motion of the flame do something for the attack? Added stability?' He jots the note down. 'Alrighty, Ninetales. Match him as best you can. Start small and ratchet up until you're on par with him.'

Ninetales steps up beside Torkoal, wholly unbothered by the air-distorting heat the other Fire-type is putting off. She takes no breath and performs no flourish, merely opening her jaws and letting a stream of whooshing fire spill out. The new attack washes over the boulder, and the rock hisses as it starts melting into a puddle of molten stone.

Ninetales' Flamethrower is already the near person-engulfing size of Torkoal's, but the flames are a searing white that hurt to look at. The heat never reaches Lee, but Flannery winces and steps back.

The fox pokemon's brows furrow, and slowly the intensity of her Flamethrower dials back, matching Torkoal's near perfectly. Out of curiosity, Lee snakes his way a little deeper into Ninetales, touching that nebulous dynamo of pure, raw Infinity Energy deep inside her.

Sustaining this Flamethrower pulls at her reserves, but the drain is lethargic, almost unnoticeable at first glance. She could melt twenty boulders like the one here in the Gym courtyard before needing a breather.

'Remember this level of drain, love,' Lee orders. 'Ideally, we don't want to go over 200% of what this Flamethrower costs. That'll give Torkoal five or so casts of this new move.'

'Understood,' is Ninetales' short reply.

"Okay, that's good!" Lee's voice is almost lost over the roar of the twin Flamethrowers, but both Ninetales and Torkoal abate their attacks, leaving the half-melted boulder to crackle and cool. "Ah, sorry about the rock. I guess I didn't expect it to melt so easily"

Flannery waves the apology away. "No worries. Torkoal can put a new one there no prob," she says. "What's next?"

"I think that's about it" Lee shuts his notebook once more. "We'll begin prototyping the move and report back with our progress. Thanks for taking the time to work with us so we could get an idea of where to go from here."

Off to the side, in the shade of the Gym, Moore picks that time to speak up. "Well now," he rises and pushes his glasses further up his nose, slowly making his way to Lee and Flannery. "Quite the process you have there, my boy."

"We're just following the same steps we use for moves we intend to use for ourselves," Lee says with a shrug.

"I see" Moore digs in his pocket and withdraws a pokeball. "Now that you've completed your assessment, would you like to test Madam Ninetales' powers now, or later?"

Lee looks down just as Ninetales looks up, their eyes meeting and a conversation passing in less than a second. "If it's all the same to you, may we come back in a day or two for advanced testing? I think we can get baselines on our own, and we've got an appointment to see my Octillery at the Pokemon Center."

"Of course. No problem," Moore grins and puts his pokeball away. "Thanks again, my boy. I know you've got Flannery's number, so give us a ring when you want to visit. We're also looking forward to your match here soon!"

"See you later!" Flannery smiles and offers a wave.

Lee re-reads the message twice before he begins to type up his reply. 'Awful formal for a forum message.' He clicks his tongue, realizing the politics game is going to follow them as he and his team keep rising. 'I'm going to guess your answer to breeding proposals hasn't changed with your evolution?'

'It hasn't,' Ninetales wrinkles her snout in distaste. 'I have entire lifetimes before I need to worry about such things.'

With a nod, Lee pens his reply. 'Certainly not shy, is he? Or did he say that quiet part out loud to distract from something else?'

Hello Gym Leader Kabu.

Thank you for the congratulations, as it means a lot to both myself and Ninetales. Her evolution is a moment I will never forget. Regarding your offer, I must decline the breeding proposal at this time. Ninetales does not wish to breed for profit, and I will stand beside her in her decision. Who knows what the future holds, however? If she changes her mind, I will message you.

Secondly, thank you for the invitations. I will join them here shortly. As I am a traveling trainer, I cannot say how active I will be, but I will attempt to add to discussions when I can. I'm certain there is much to learn from respectable peers such as yourself.

Kindly,

Lee Henson.

Trainer and Pokemon Researcher of the Hoenn Regional Pokemon Laboratory.

Once done, Lee nods to himself and silently offers his eyesight to Ninetales. 'What do you think, love?'

Ninetales reads the draft through Lee's eyes, approval radiating from her. 'Respectful, but still firm. It will do well,' she says, pulling away from his senses.

Lee's thumb falls on the 'send' button, and the message is off. Eyeballing the pair of invite links and resigning himself to fate, he taps the first one.

Group Name: 9TT

Topic of the day: N/A

Inside, the group is somewhat barren, with the last sent message being four days ago. Scrolling up, there isn't much there either, as it looks like whoever administrates the group deletes the message history every month or so. None of the twelve other members seem to react to the join message generated when he hit the link.

Lee recognizes a precious few of the members. There's Kabu, for one. Then there's Blaine, a man regarded as one of the strongest Kanto Gym Leaders and a world-renowned Fire Specialist. Rudy rings a bell, and after a moment Lee remembers the man is an Orange Island Gym Leader. The others, he has no idea, but all of them boast impressive trainer classes like (Verified Elite), (Master Breeder) and even one (Veteran PKMN Ranger). The admin of the group, though

Lokoko (9TT Administrator)

'Where have I heard that name?' Lee taps the edge of his phone against his chin as he thinks, but can't seem to recall such a woman anywhere in the pokemon canon. It's frustrating, as he can almost feel the answer tickling his brain, but he just can't remember. 'My meta-knowledge is so out of date by this point I should probably toss most of it.' He taps on Lokoko's name to pull up her profile, only to frown at what he finds.

Which is nothing. Literally.

Lokoko's profile has zero posts, zero comments, and is missing nearly all the info required for a profile, even the mandatory parts. No date of birth, no region, no pokemon or trainer class, nothing. It's as if she exists in name only.

'How odd What kind of strings did she have to pull to do this? BattleNet made it pretty clear they hate taking down anything on their site. Kabu was specific in calling her a Pokemon Master, so is that it?' Before he can ponder further, his phone pings and he taps the notification on reflex, taking him back to 9TT.

Today at 2:04 PM

Lokoko (Admin): Good Afternoon, Lee Henson, and thank you for joining. I've taken notice that you are a caring trainer for a fine young Ninetales. If you need any guidance on how best to raise her or manage your relationship with her, please do ask. I am here to help you and everyone else.

For a reason Lee cannot place, reading the message makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Slowly, he types a reply.

Today at 2:05 PM

L_Henson: Thank you, Lokoko. Kabu speaks highly of you. If I have anything to ask, I'll consult you.

Lokoko doesn't reply, and taking it as a dismissal, Lee goes back to Kabu's message and clicks the other link.

Fire Masters is much more active, boasting fifty or so members and messages from only a few moments ago. Lee reads down the member list.

There's Kabu, of course. Blaine again, Flannery and Moore, Flint of Sinnoh's Elite Four, Malva of Kalos' Elite Four, and a host of other people. Nearly all of them have some sort of professional trainer class, but one above all others takes the cake.

Leon (Galar Champion) is typing

And he's the first one to begin typing as soon as the welcome message is announced.

'Yeah, no. Fuck that.'

Lee shoots in a message as quickly as he can, barely able to keep his spelling straight in his haste.

Today at 2:05 PM

L_Henson: Hello everyone and thank you Kabu for the invite. I cannot say how active I will be due to being a traveling trainer, but I'll do my best to contribute where I can. I'm actually about to lose service now, so I hope to be back soon.'

He closes the website and stuffs his phone in his pocket. "PR, politics, social media" Lee's voice is so quiet only Ninetales can hear him. Both man and fox turn down a side street, bringing the Pokemon Center into view. "When we're done with all of this league tournament shit, we're building a nice cabin somewhere in Sinnoh and I'm throwing my phone into a lake."

Ninetales' reply is a comforting set of tails wrapped around his back. 'No need to stress. You have myself, Grovyle, and everyone else with you.'

With a cross of his arms, Lee lets his worries go. 'Sometimes I hate that you won't let me bellyache about things.'

'It's a full-time job, I assure you,' the golden fox smirks.

"Come now, fool! Angle your shields! Do you want to be struck!?"

Below Corvisquire in the forest clearing, Ralts cries out and raises another shield of translucent psychic energy, this time angling it to the right slightly.

Corvisquire's latest barrage of Swift stars smash into the pink shield, which cracks like glass, but as the last star detonates with a bang, the shield barely holds. If the psychic moron had dared try to block the attack head-on, Corvisquire knows the shield would have broken.

Mercilessly, Corvisquire swoops down, racing for the ground at a near 90-degree angle, then inches away from crashing, he pulls up and races towards Ralts so fast his sight begins to blur. The power of Steel flows into his wing, and with a tilt, he's poised to take Ralts' legs out from under him.

"Ralts!" The voice of the boy, Wally, rings out from the side of the clearing. "Teleport!"

With only a second to spare, Ralts vanishes in a flash and escapes Corvisquire's Steel Wing.

Clicking his beak in annoyance, Corvisquire pulls up, filling his vision with the sky. He feels a Confusion attack from Ralts try to yank at his wings and jostle him, but all it takes to break the psychic hold is to flex his wings with force.

Leveling out in the sky and looking back down, he meets the determined eyes of the Ralts below him. Off to the side, the green-headed brat Wally does a decent job keeping his face clear of worry. The boy and the tiny psychic break their eyes away from Corvisquire to look at each other, no doubt trying to form a telepathic plan.

'I didn't expect them to come this far in just a week or so,' the raven pokemon muses to himself. Day in and day out, Wally and Ralts have come to him, bringing him tributes in return for training. The first days were pathetic, with Ralts unable to do more than run away like a Ratata before a Fearow. His attacks were weak, his defenses were laughable, and Corvisquire thought his plan of making an ideal foe to push his own evolution was going to fall flat. It made his blood boil, that this weakling dare waste his time and good faith instruction.

Then slowly, Ralts began to get better.

He dodged quicker, looked for openings to strike from, and started utilizing his powers in creative ways, something Corvisquire ordered him to do every single day, in every single spar.

It was a surprise to the raven pokemon when Ralts admitted that it was Wally coming up with half the plans and ideas. "Sometimes when we go home, Wally and I will go to the backyard and practice on our own," Ralts said proudly during a break a day ago. "We want to get strong like you!"

Wally nodded along as Ralts spoke. "We know you've probably got other things to do, Mister Corvisquire," the green-headed child mirrored his pokemon's sentiments. "So we're doing our best to catch up. I don't want to be a burden on everyone around me!"

Corvisquire's stomach did not clench when the boy's over-excited words were punctuated with a short coughing fit.

"Hmm" Corvisquire pulls himself out of the memory and takes his eyes off of the little fool and his child, instead looking at the falling sun. "We're done for the day!" He caws to Ralts and Wally. "I will be busy tomorrow, and Friday next week. Do not seek me out or you'll be wasting your time!"

Ralts' eyes lose their psychic glow as the foolish little pokemon allows himself to relax and rub one of the bruises dotting his form. "Okay!" He replies with obnoxious cheer. "Thank you for today, Mister Corvisquire!" Both Ralts and Wally mirror each other, smiling and waving before they turn and begin the short trip back to the town of Verdanturf.

Corvisquire ignores them both as he dives into the trees, flying past branches and zooming along a path that's quickly becoming familiar. In short order, he finds the right tree and pulls up, slowing to a stop before he lands on a thick limb.

Folding his wings, Corvisquire shuffles along the branch to a small knothole in the tree, where his beak dips in. He bites down on what he's looking for and pulls it free before setting it down on his perch.

Sitting before him is a crumpled Devon shipping manifest, one stolen from Verdanturf's small outskirts warehouse.

Holding the packet of paper steady with a talon, Corvisquire bites the first page and flips it, taking in the second page with a crooked smile.

He can't steal something too high profile, as he already knows Pokemon Rangers are prowling around Hoenn looking for him, and every wild pokemon is a mouth that might potentially squeal. He cannot afford to add more heat to himself.

His talon taps down the page, past bulk pokeball shipments, an entire crate of Lum berries, and past several evolution stones.

No no, one never goes for the big-ticket items for goals such as this. What is taken has to be not worth pursuing.

His talon stops on his mark.

'The fool is progressing. Once he evolves, a gift from his dear mentor will be too much to resist.'

In a week's time, Verdanturf will be receiving a handful of evolution stones, and among that number are six middling-grade Dawn Stones. It just so happens that Ralts will evolve into Kirlia, and Kirlia evolves into one of their two final stages with a Dawn Stone.

Corvisquire can either wait for the little fool to evolve naturally after he hits his Kirlia stage, or outside factors can speed things up.

Corvisquire was never the patient sort.

'They won't miss one stone. I'm sure of it,' he smirks to himself.