For the next two weeks, Vex was a veritable machine who was only capable of eating, sleeping, training, and studying.
From the very beginning, a schedule was established between everyone with each person being assigned to different roles in Vex's teaching.
Each morning, Vex would train for two hours by himself, allowing him free reign to test out any of his own theories and put together his own strategies. Anyone could help him in the free period if they chose to and, more often then not, this was usually the case as both Brock and Serena would stand by and listen to various ideas Vex had about battling and moves as he pushed both himself and his pokemon to break their limits. Brock would offer his own advice while Serena would debunk anything Vex said that was too outlandish such as him using more then one move at a time, which seemed rather ridiculous to both her and Brock. Vex would train himself and his pokemon in an attempt to increase the stats he had written down at the very start, lengthening the moves time per activation as well as the number of times it could be used per half hour.
After training himself, the next part, which lasted around four hours, was given over to Brock who would teach him various strategies as well as teach him the fundamentals such as types, movesets, status effects, so on and so forth.
During his training with Brock, Vex found out that at the mere age of 8, he had taken over the job of Gym Leader and maintained it for nearly six years, gaining vast knowledge and experience while strengthening his own pokemon. This realization made Vex respect the young man a lot more and pushed him to do even harder as the days flew on by.
After studying with Brock, Vex would battle for the next seven hours, relentlessly attacking Caitlins pokemon over and over again, attempting to actually hit Gothitelle or Metagross, the only two pokemon she ever opted to throw out, while trying to dodge all incoming attacks of her own. Despite always losing without even laying a scratch on one of them, Vex felt that he had marginally improved, able to call out the right moves faster and sometimes even "feel" what his opponent might do, allowing him to attempt a counter. All in all, none of the full eight hours were wasted as even during the breaks between battles, Caitlin would give him advice on how to better use his movesets, Pikachu's natural speed and Squirtle's unusually strong [Water Gun].
In the middle of training with Caitlin, Vex even learned how to utilize psychic powers to some degree, enabling him to communicate with his pokemon at will with a bit of practice. After a whole week, Vex was able to freely shut on and off the ability not only telepathically with his pokemon but also to see the aura of others, something that fascinated him and something he freely played with. No matter how hard he tried though, he was unable to move things with his mind which kinda disappointed him, but then he realized that might have been asking for too much. Just being able to use psychic powers at all was a blessing he never thought would happen so he decided to not bite off more then he could chew.
Once battle training was done, Vex would spend the last four hours studying with Serena, going over maps, customs, laws, history, and various other important information that the others had neglected to mention. These details usually encompassed Kalos as thats where Serena was from, but luckily the two were very similar in terms of laws and customs so it wasn't a total waste of time. In fact, this part of the daily schedule was probably the most important to Vex and he even perused the various books and maps, that Brock had retrieved in Viridian City, while he was eating or bathing in the lake. He took everything seriously, but this part warranted extra attention as he had to know as much as possible. He didn't want to run the risk of breaking any laws or offending anyone because of some weird custom he was unaware of.
Vex Masters became a sponge of knowledge, soaking up everything that was thrown at him. Anything he saw once during battle, he would remember to a frightening degree, allowing him to adapt and reform a strategy around it on the fly.
Caitlin even noted during one of their spars that Vex was growing fast, much faster then his even his own pokemon could even keep up with. What he lacked in experience, he made up for with determination and grit, a fighting spirit that seemed to resonate with his pokemon partners, causing them to fight until they could no longer move. The drive to get stronger was so strong that it even appeared in their auras, a bright orange glowing strongly around them.
The only problem that Caitlin saw during Vex's rapid growth was that Vex had some great theories and strategies, but his pokemon weren't at the proper level for him to fully deploy them. Of course, it seemed the white haired youth knew it and sought to correct it almost immediately, but it was still a problem that might arise again so Caitlin felt that she had to push Pikachu and Squirtle even harder to further increase their stats.
As the days turned into weeks, Pikachu and Squirtle also made significant growth, even if it wasn't as much as Vex's. Pikachu learned to use [Thunder Wave], which Vex found rather useful as it inflicted the status known as paralysis which affected the mobility of pokemon hit with it. Whether or not it worked other electric types, Vex wasn't really sure.
Squirtle had a much larger gain, but Vex reasoned it was only because he had been pretty weak to start with. Aside from its stats shooting up, the turtle pokemon also learned the moves [Withdraw], which allowed Squirtle to retreat in its shell and raise its defense up, and [Rapid Spin], where Squirtle retreated into his shell and spun around before somehow launching itself at his opponent. For a mere two weeks training, these were some great results, at least in Vex's opinion anyways.
All in all, the training was going great as the Bayrock festival drew closer and closer with each passing day
------------------------------------
(("Pikachu, roll to the left")) Vex said telepathically, his mix matched colored eyes focused on the field in front of him.
The small yellow mouse pushed off the ground with his tail, rolling out of the way as Golem, Brocks rock type pokemon that looked like a really big rock with a head, arms and legs, slammed his fist into the ground where Pikachu had once been. The move, [Mega Punch], did some serious damage to the ground, leaving a miniature crater about the same size as Pikachu. If the small mouse pokemon had taken the full impact of it, the damage would've been a bit more then he could handle.
"Nicely dodged," Brock said. "Golem, [Rock Throw]."
Golem turned to glare at Pikachu who simply glared back, red spots sparking with electricity. Digging its hands into the ground, Golem ripped up a huge chunk of earth and tossed it towards the small mouse as hard as it could.
(("Use [Quick Attack] to get behind him,")) Vex quickly thought, shifting his gaze towards one of Golems legs. (("Hit him in the left leg with [Iron Tail]"))
A soft white glow surrounded Pikachu as he darted around the rock with a pure burst of speed that Vex found difficult to follow. The yellow and white blur ran up, skidding to a stop behind Golem, rapidly switching to his next move, his tail shining silver. Brock looked a bit shocked at first but regained his composure.
"Golem, lift your foot."
Without even hesitating, the rock pokemon lifted his foot, allowing the tail of iron to pass underneath. Before it fully passed though, the Golem stomped his foot downwards, trapping the tail underneath, pinning Pikachu in place and preventing him from moving.
"And thats it," Caitlin said, clapping her hands, interrupting the tense atmosphere. "So ends a rather bland battle with no actual kick to it. We'll call this one a tie."
"I wouldn't call that a bland battle," Brock said as he summoned Golem back into it pokeball. "How were you able to switch moves so fast? That requires a lot of skill for most pokemon to achieve. It shouldn't have even been possible with only two weeks of training."
Vex merely smiled.
It had been a full two weeks and a day, marking the day of February 7th, 15 days since Vex had appeared in the world with nothing but the clothes on his back and the beanie on his head. From that time, Vex had matured quite a bit, his hair becoming shaggier, his physique a bit more muscular, and his experience becoming a far cry from how he had been when he first woke up in Pallet Town. The difference between the Vex of then and the Vex of now was like night and day. He still didn't have a prayer of fighting Caitlin, let alone the cloaked figures from Team Rocket, but he had marginally improved to something of value.
"I noticed that you've almost mastered your telepathy. Sending orders via the mind is far faster then yelling them and gives you an added edge over your oppenent." Caitlin smiled, clearly pleased. "You've improved so much, its almost scary. You're still an amateur, but now its appropriate to call you a trainer."
Vex winced but managed to smile. He didn't need to see Caitlins aura to know she was actually happy about his growth but the way she put it so bluntly. She practically said that he was just barely useful as thats what he thought of when someone said "amateur trainer". He put himself through that intense period of learning and training and he still had barely scratched the surface of being a trainer. It was almost disheartening.
(("Don't worry about it too much,")) Pikachu said as he jumped up onto Vex's shoulder. (("We'll show them up eventually. We just gotta go at our own pace."))
Vex smiled and gave Pikachu a head pat, feeling a bit better. He had almost lost his own resolve for a split second, but it only took Pikachu to help rekindle it.
"So are we gonna contin-"
"Thats it for today," Caitlin interrupted as she walked over to her bag and lifted it onto her shoulders. "You can have the rest of the day off."
Caitlin walked over and tossed the backpack to Vex, who caught it reflexively. "Instead, your gonna be helping me shop. Get excited."
//Sorry for the short chapter but I couldn't think of anything else to put. I got loads to write next chapter though. The writing quality decreased a bit and I need to bring it back up to par.
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