“You’re willing to teach Haunter how to use Will-O-Wisp?”
“Wak.” Kaipo the Marowak nodded.
“What do you say, Kerry? Would that be okay with you?” Nina asked.
The young Nurse Joy chuckled. “Sure, why not? Kaipo’s willing and you’ve been helping me out a lot with my Pokemons’ training.”
Nina cheered. It was the night of the Alolan Marowak joining their little entourage and as soon as the trade was made, Kaipo promptly challenged Nina to a Pokemon battle, insisting on fighting her strongest.
So, with much reluctance, the girl agreed. Though, she did tell Nitey to go easy on her. A fact that irked the competitive Marowak to no end. But in the end, Kaipo still lost, barely even scratching Nitey’s scales.
Then she went and challenged Espy, who locked her in a Trick Room while jeering from the outside until Nina put a stop to it.
And right after that, it was Sir Clodington who fought a more even match since Nina told him to hold off on Swampy Terrain. Otherwise, Kaipo would be stuck in muck and unable to even move.
Ultimately Sir Clodington did win. Mainly because Kaipo had no means of handling the Clodsire once he sank underground. Despite her partial Ghost Typing, Alolan Marowaks as living Ghost Type Pokemon did not have much in terms of Ghost Type moves. They were more focused on the Fire and physical aspects of their kit.
In fact, while Kaipo could manipulate the shadows just fine. She was unable to dive into them the way that Nina’s Haunter could.
“Wak. Maro-wak. Wak!” Kaipo continued, relying on Espy to interpret.
“Hmm… Whazzat? You want me to train you to be stronger in exchange?” Nina giggled.
“Wak!” The Marowak nodded.
“Aww… silly girl.” Kerry cooed and pulled her newest member into a hug. “Nina would have trained you even if you didn’t try to bargain with her. Arceus knows she’s been training the rest of my team without input…”
“Hey! You said you appreciated my meddling.” Nina made an exaggerated pout, eliciting laughter from her friend.
“You mean like when you went and evolved Lynxie without me?”
Nina coughed. “Whatever, this is good. I was going to call my regular TM shop to buy Will-O-Wisp anyway. This will save me some money.” She then turned to her Haunter. “What do you say, Haunter? Are you willing to let Kaipo teach you?”
“Haunt!” Haunter nodded with a smile. And just to emphasize her resolve, the timid Ghost girl raked her claws on the ground to draw a silhouette of a Bellsprout. Then proceeded to cross it out in a menacing manner.
Nina giggled and pulled her Haunter in for a hug. “Hehe… So you want to beat the Trial of Ascension huh?”
“Haunt!”
“That’s a good goal to have, I think. Kaipo could work towards it as well.”
“Wak?” The Marowak tilted her head in confusion. So Nina explained to her about the Sprout Tower and martial monks contained within.
“That sounds awesome!” Justin exclaimed. “I wanna go challenge them too.”
“Do you have any juvenile Pokemon you want to train?” Nina asked.
The boy responded in denial.
“Then there’s no point. The Trial is designed to facilitate growth. Your existing retinue is just going to stomp through them. You’re better off challenging the Gym.” Nina said, but then just as quickly recalled something. “Actually, your Scyther might benefit. He still can’t use Aura without buffs, right?”
“Scyther… yeah… He can use it, but not like those Elite Pokemon I see on TV.”
Nina nodded. “That’s because his Aura hasn’t fully manifested yet. You’ll know you’re there when Scyther’s Aura is thick enough to be seen by the naked eye. And the Bellsprouts training in the tower are all martial experts aiming for that goal as well.”
Justin nodded with a fiery gaze. And so the motley crew of teens decided to spend the rest of the evening and the next day training their Pokemon.
***
“Haunt!” Haunter gave Nina a little lick and hovered to the side to use Will-O-Wisp over and over again — each conjuration marginally more efficient than the last.
This wasn’t Haunter’s first time using Espy’s move copying emporium, so she already knew what she should be doing. The first moves she ever learned through Espy was Brucey’s Confuse Ray and the Espeon’s own Shadow Ball. Compared to those times, trying to reorganize Kaipo’s Will-O-Wisp was significantly easier since they shared a Typing.
“Hehe. Once you get the hang of Fire Type Energy, maybe we can get Nitey to teach you one of his punches. Thunder Punch might not be possible since you can’t even harness Electric yet, but Fire and Ice should be doable.”
While Haunter was busy with her self-training, Nina turned to address Kaipo. “Alright, Kaipo. Let’s discuss your goals.”
“Wak.”
“I know you want to be the best. But the unfortunate fact of the matter is that there’s always going to be incompatibilities even among Pokemon of equal strength.”
“Wak?”
“For example, it’s going to be exceedingly hard and maybe even impossible for you to fight on equal footing with someone like Nitey.” Nina gestured towards her partner, who was in the distance sparring with Justin’s Blastoise — the two Pokemon had decided to exchange pointers, with Blastoise helping with Nitey’s Ice moves and Nitey helping to improve his weather moves.
“Wak!” Kaipo protested with a defiant glare, eliciting chuckles from Nina.
“I’m not looking down on you Kaipo. The fact of the matter is, Nitey can Fly and he’s a master of Water Type moves to boot. BUT, that’s not to say we can’t narrow the gap as much as we can.”
The downtrodden Marowak jolted at Nina’s words.
“In a confined space, Nitey’s vertical mobility would be limited. So your lack of wings isn’t going to be an issue if you have sufficiently effective range options.” The girl explained, then pointed towards Kaipo’s bone staff. “Which brings us to your Bonemerang.”
Kaipo nodded, finally understanding Nina’s intent.
“Now I noticed you never use Shadow Bone and Bonemerang together. Why is that?”
“Maro…?”
“You never thought of it, huh?” Or more than likely, Kaipo’s former trainer never thought about it.
The Marowak nodded sheepishly.
Nina smiled. “Well, the first thing you need to know about my team is that we love combining moves. And we teach Kerry’s team to do the same as well. It’s not that hard really, just need to adjust your mindset a little. With some help from Espy and Nitey, you might even start to make combination moves on your own soon enough. Maybe even create moves that not even Kerry and I would think of.”
“Wak!” The Marowak nodded eagerly, very much looking forward to that prospect.
“Hehe. But we’ll set that as a long term goal for now. Right now, let’s try for something that should be feasibly achievable within today. As you know, Kerry and I have matches scheduled with Falkner’s Gym coming up. And going back to our conversation about Flying Type opponents just now — Falkner just so happened to be a Flying Type specialist.”
“Wak.” The Marowak responded with a competitive gaze. In her mind, if she wasn’t even strong enough to take down a couple of dumb birds, then she might as well give up on trying to catch a Dragon.
“So let’s make it today’s goal to improve your Bonemerang — increase your control over it, maybe make it go further and last longer instead of just a throw and a return. And to do all of that, we first need to understand the move and dissect its mechanics. In particular, how could such an un-aerodynamic object possibly return itself like that?”
“Wak…?”
Kaipo did not fully understand the question. Evidently, her previous trainer did not bother much to dissect the mechanics of a move so long as it worked. A pair of instinct driven battlers so to speak.
And thus, Nina told Kaipo to throw out a few Bonemerangs while Nina and Kerry observed with Espy’s assistance.
“I think it’s the green Fire.” Kerry chimed after a few rounds of demonstrations.
Nina nodded. “I think so too, but normal Marowaks have that move as well and their bones aren’t on fire.”
“Type Energy then?”
“It’s technically a Ground Type move.” Nina argued.
“Magnets?” said the confused nurse girl in return.
Nina laughed. “It would make more sense if this was a Normal Type move honestly. But you’re not wrong. It’s very faint, but Espy can feel a tendril of Fire Type Energy connecting Kaipo to her bone. So let’s work with that for now.”
The girl then clapped to get the Marowak’s attention. “Did you hear all that, Kaipo. Try to manipulate the green flames on both ends of your bone staff to control its trajectory. Right now, the Bonemerang is only capable of returning, so let’s aim to change its trajectory at least once, mid air, then return it.”
“Wak.” Kaipo furrowed her brows and tried to do as she was told.
The first few attempts did not go well, the Bonemerang was barely affected. But eventually, Kaipo did manage to get the green flames to flare up and the bone itself to wobble a little.
“That’s it, Kaipo! You’re doing great!” Kerry cheered with an encouraging smile. “Just need to redirect your focus a little.”
Nina smiled and quietly extricated herself to go check on her other Pokemon. Kerry might not be the best battler around, but that did not make her any less of a Pokemon Trainer. If anything, as a Nurse Joy, she was much better at handling Pokemon than Nina was.
This was also the perfect opportunity for the pair to bond after their previously awkward exchange.
“Hopefully, Kaipo will grow to love Kerry enough to want to stay with her.” It was clear to Nina that the Marowak was carrying a lot of baggage. And while she would love to have such a skilled Pokemon in her team, she was cognizant of the fact that Kerry was better suited to help Kaipo work through her mental trauma.
***
Author's Note:
This little training chapter was actually a last minute addition after some feedback from Patreon. Next chapter will mark the beginning of Nina's second Gym challenge.