บท 13: Icy Encounter (1/3)

He watched as his former classmate climbed the cliffside with nothing but a weird yellow vine Pokemon as her climbing gear.

'What was her name again? Bean, or something?'

"And what is THAT?" He pulled out his Pokedex, pointing in her direction.

[Bellsprout, the Flower Pokemon: It prefers hot and humid places, and ensnares tiny bugs with its vines and devours them.]

He squinted at his Pokedex, thinking the Pokemon was a bit ugly. It also looked pretty frail from what he could tell.

"Hmm…" An imaginary lightbulb appeared over his head. "Oh! I know exactly what that is."

"Pika pi?" The Pikachu on his shoulder asked, curious. The Pokedex already told him what it was, what else could it be?

"That… is not our problem." The lightbulb cracked and shattered. "Let's go Pikachu." He said with an upbeat tone, all too happy to just ignore the girl.

"Pi." Pikachu rolled its eyes as they made their way to Pewter City.

[}-{]

It took almost four days of constant stinging sensations for Sandshrew to become acclimated with the Rock Gem.

And after she was done, she had a look of complete satisfaction. Like she had overcome some great obstacle and become stronger.

Izan almost didn't have the heart to tell her she wasn't done.

Almost.

And so, after a total of ten days, her energy training was complete. Well, the basics, at least. She could still improve a lot.

Plus there were still a few other typings that would be useful for her in the future, such as psychic for [Agility] or dark for [Hone Claws], but that was for later.

A problem he didn't take into account was that he planned to make smoothies with the Apricorns he bought, but it wouldn't help her.

It was something he'd done countless times in the Pokeathlon minigames, and if each Apricorn did what he thought they did, it'd work like a charm.

The idea was to make stamina-increasing smoothies that pushed her to her training limit each time they did a workout. But since the only thing stopping her from continuing was pain, it wouldn't help here.

Either way, the results of her training spoke for themselves.

[Sandshrew (♀)]

[Type: Ground]

[Level: 10]

[Energy Mastery: Ground (Beginner), Normal (Beginner), Rock (Beginner), Poison (Beginner), Steel (Beginner)]

[Ability: N/a]

[Moves: Scratch, Sand Attack, Defense Curl, Mud Shot]

'Is she super talented or was the Fearow encounter a blessing in disguise?' Izan wondered as he looked at her status page.

While having a level 10 didn't seem like much, it was alarming considering how long it took her to get to that level.

There were a few articles he'd read about the Youngster Program and how most people were against its continued existence. One of the main arguments was the dangers of letting inexperienced young adults travel, even if it was on protected routes.

And a few of the articles simply brought up statistics about how long it took the average F-Class trainer to train their Pokemon to level 10.

Two and a half months.

Of course, this article failed to take into account that D-Class trainers were only better by about 50%.

But the point was that Sandshrew way faster than normal.

Realistically, the training they'd just completed should've only leveled her up to 9. That meant that she was on the cusp of level 9 before the training began, and this just pushed her over and above.

Now that it was over, it was time for one last thing before he could bust out the Aprijuicer and do some real workouts.

"Oi, Sandshrew. I've got a present for you-" Izan called out. At the sound of the word 'present' she damn near teleported in front of him.

She was even giving him a salute like a soldier.

'Wait, who taught her how to salute? Bah, whatever. It's pretty cute.'

He chuckled. "Eager, aren't ya? Well, I figured this would be a fitting gift after you finished that energy training."

Reaching into his hoodie pocket, he pulled out the dark yellow scroll he got from Serebyi.

Her eyes brightened as she saw it, but dulled as she tilted her head in confusion. "Sandshrew?"

Izan furrowed his brows at her before relaxing. "Ah, I don't think you were paying attention back then. Anyway, this is for you."

Handing her the scroll, he backed up a bit. She inspected it a bit, before looking at him in confusion again.

He made a shooing motion at her. "Go on, open it. I think that's how it works anyway." He muttered that last part.

Placing it on the ground, Sandshrew shrugged after staring at it. Carefully, she picked at the string holding the scroll together until it snapped.

Pulling it apart, she stared at the… blank page.

'Uh… Did I get scammed or-'

A bright brown light burst from the scroll, startling both him and Sandshrew.

Motes of brown light danced in the air before swirling around slowly. Sandshrew herself was stunned in the center of it all.

The lights grew faster and faster, spinning faster around her like a hurricane. All until they suddenly stopped.

And then, as one, they rushed into Sandshrew's head.

Both trainer and Pokemon blinked at each other, stunned by the light show. Izan opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted before he got the chance.

*I wanna be the very best like no one ever was~*

His Pokegear rang. The fact that that song existed in this world was a surprise that didn't make any sense, but there was no point questioning it.

Opening his Pokegear, he raised an eyebrow at the contact. 'An unknown number? …it is what it is.'

"Yo. Who is this?" Izan answered without hesitation.

There was a pause before the other person sighed. "Izan, you didn't even save my number? Then why ask for it?"

'Oh, it's Nurse Joy. Whoops.'

He'd exchanged numbers with Nurse Joy in case someone came to the Pokemon Center to request a job specifically from him. So far no one had, but he had faith.

And he didn't save her number because… well, he had no excuse for that. He was just lazy.

"Ahem. More importantly, did someone finally ask me for a job?" He brushed it off.

He could almost hear the eye roll from across the phone. "Yes, but it might be a bit different than what you were expecting."

"Considering I wasn't expecting anything, that'd be impossible." He stated matter-of-factly.

"…Right. Anyway, I think you might want to postpone this job if Sandshrew has already done some training today. She should probably get some rest beforehand."

"Oh? Is it that dangerous? I didn't expect something like that already."

"I thought you just said- never mind. If you want to do it today, I'd rather you come down sooner rather than later."

Izan gestured to Sandshrew, as she jumped on his shoulder without a word. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. I don't see why you'd care when I complete it though."

"Because if you accept, I'll have to get involved." She replied.

'A job where Nurse Joy has to get involved? What kinda Bizzaro world bullshit is that?'

He thought on it more before giving up. "Nah, I've got no guesses. What kind of job is it?"

"It's a battle request. And if you accept, I'll have to referee."

---

->These are the PKMN choices that I am still unsure about:

Gastrodon[tank]vs Golurk[warrior] (Frontline) ((I am leaning toward Golurk because of two things. One, I like punching. Two, I like the idea of a Golurk just chilling in Izan's shadow.))

Nidoking vs Camerupt (Backline. Both are widespread attackers.)

Claydol vs Garchomp (All-rounder)

[If you didn't catch the memo, Flygon and Torterra are confirmed already.]