Chương 15: The True Potential of Humans.
(We hit rank 7 in the power stone rankings. All I can say is wow, and thank you for the support. Also, I misspelled Maylene's name on the last chap lol.)
I was sitting in a corner of the gym eating my food when Georges approached me and sat by me.
"Kid, I gotta admit it I am impressed. I honestly didn't have high hopes for you at the start."
I choked on my food as I heard that. Georges was a great teacher, but he was blunt when it came to his words.
"If you keep up like this I can see a good future for you. You might even be able to join the fighting tournament. If you join when you turn 16 you would barely be the right age to enter, plus that would give you plenty of time to catch up. You know the reward for coming in the first place, right?"
Thinking for a second I answered.
"A Riolu, right? Isn't that where you got yours?" I asked. I honestly didn't believe that I would be strong enough to win, but I certainly wanted to try my chance at it in the future.
Nodding his head he added.
"I know I told you not to rely on it too much, but I have never seen anyone who can take a punch like you do. As long as you make sure to not make it too obvious you can get a great advantage against your opponents. Make them think they have made you exhausted and that you are in pain. Waiting for the moment they lower their guard before striking."
Thinking for a moment I glanced at Maylene.
"Do you think I can beat her?"
Georges let out a loud laugh before answering.
"Nah kid, not yet. You can't beat what you can't strike."
We both sat there for a moment before he tilted his head.
"Kid, you said you went to Olympia's psychic school right?"
I nodded my head.
"Did you suck at it? I didn't want to ask before because I know it is a hard topic for failed psychics."
I gave him a blank stare before answering
"No… I was actually pretty good."
"Then why do you fight like you aren't a psychic?" He said in confusion.
"Because… that's cheating? It also slightly defeats the purpose of trying to learn to fight, no?"
Georges let out another round of laughter as he heard my answer.
"Kid… You can't be serious, right? Using psychic attacks to mess with your opponent's mind is cheating. Using your psychic powers to predict and avoid attacks is not. If that were the case Medichams and Gallades would be banned from pokemon fighting tournaments. Do you think you are the only psychic person to try to become a fighter?"
I couldn't help but give myself a facepalm.
"Why didn't you bring this up sooner?" I couldn't help but ask in slight annoyance.
"Kid, I thought you sucked so bad you got kicked out of psychic school." He said before letting out another round of laughter.
He stood up before waving at me.
"Fight me. But this time don't hold back your psionics. The only rule is that you aren't allowed to attack my mind."
Putting my food down I stood up before taking in a few deep breaths and releasing my powers in a small radius around me. I basically had my own knockoff Byakugan by doing this, and as long as I kept the radius to about 5 foot I wouldn't be distracted by seeing everything. I could also feel the thoughts of my teacher.
Reading minds was a complex thing, all minds were different after all. Some people thought with pictures, and some people thought with random scattered words. But from what I felt in his mind I could tell he would start with a simple punch.
I felt his muscles tighten as his arm began to move. I could see the path his punch would take before he started moving. Honestly, this was kind of weird, almost as if I was hallucinating.
Tilting my head out of the way I felt the punch pass right by my face before stopping.
"You dodged too early. I could have changed my trajectory slightly and it would have landed square on your face. But it was a good first step." he said as he nodded his head.
He followed up with slow yet precise punches, punches I was able to see and dodge. As I began to get the hang of it he said
"Kid, you can't beat your opponent if you never hit them. Stop dodging and fight back."
I saw a punch that was coming straight to my face, and as his muscles tensed I launched my own punch as I took a step back. I was aiming for his elbow, planning to strike it just as his arm would be fully stretched out.
But before I could complete my movement I was punched in the face. Georges had taken a step forward once I had committed to my own punch.
I took a few steps back to catch my balance before I saw him nodding with approval.
"Medichamp, it's your turn to train this kid." he said before turning to me.
"I can't teach you to fight like a psychic because I am not one. So Medichamp will be your main instructor for now. But I think it was a good thing you learned the basics without relying on your psionics. I think you should focus on learning to fight with your powers, but you shouldn't stop training without them either. It will give you a new perspective."
— — —
"Dude, what happened to you? I used to be able to kick your ass." Darren asked while laying on the floor.
"I awakened the powers of ultra instinct." I said in a joking manner as I helped him stand up.
It felt almost as if I could predict the future when fighting now. With a combination of feeling their intentions and sensing their bodies' movement, I could create a clear image of what was about to happen. This didn't mean I was suddenly the strongest fighter in the class, Maylene still kept that title. The few times we had sparred she had thrown me to the ground and disabled my movement. Her instincts allowed her to change her attacks mid-punch if she felt she was about to miss, at which point it was hard for my body to catch up when I had already dodged the first punch.
Though after her accident she didn't seem to be enjoying training and fighting, she was still the strongest of our group.
Medicham was a chill teacher though, he did force me to do a lot of yoga to increase my mobility which wasn't fun. But hey, I was quite flexible now. He was an "inner peace" kind of pokemon, which meant my lessons with him were mostly at a slow yet deliberate pace.
I turned to look at Maylene who was about the head out the door on a run before jumping out of the ring and saying.
"Yo, wait for me!"
Running through the city was calming. Most of the streets were usually relatively quiet. And if you ignored the massive building that overlooked the city, team Galactic's hq, it was relatively safe too.
"What do you think is going on in there?" Maylene asked while we ran.
"I honestly don't know what they are up to. But I can tell you it's something bad." I said.
I knew what they would be doing in the future, but their current actions were a mystery to me. I didn't want to poke the hornet's nest before I had some pokemon as extra protection. The one time I had tried to look inside with my clairvoyance I was almost detected by the psychic pokemon guarding the building.
She looked at the building for some seconds before asking.
"Why are you babysitting me? I can take care of myself." she asked with slight annoyance.
Some time back she had gone out on a run by herself, and she had spotted someone from team galactic acting suspiciously. She decided to follow them by herself until she got noticed by them. Were it not for Georges being in the area and noticing the disturbance she could have gotten seriously injured instead of leaving with a small scar.
At first, I thought it was stupid that Team Galactic had a headquarters out in the open for all to see. Especially given the fact that they were rumored to be an organization that was carrying out illegal activities. It should have been easy to shut the whole place down, right? Even the people in the city knew not to mess with them. But Cyrus was smart.
He always managed to cover the tracks of anything his team did. There was no real proof that they had committed any crimes, and if a member ever got caught they were cut off, excepting themselves from any real responsibility. The members who got caught never snitched on team Galactic, which only made me wonder what would happen to them if they did.
As for police investigations, they went nowhere. Those who looked close couldn't find anything. Those who looked closer were never seen again.
Ever since the incident with Maylene and team Galactic I had taken it upon myself to "supervise" her when she tried to go out by herself. I knew she held a grudge to team Galactic because of what had happened, and I didn't want her to do anything stupid.
"We are friends, aren't we? I know you can take care of yourself, but I have your back in case you need it." I said
The annoyance on her face disappeared before her expression turned to frustration.
"What are you going to do if we got in trouble? I was taken out in just one bite from a Houndour" She said as she rubbed her arm in a slight grimace.
"We are weak. Why even bother?" She asked
*thud* I gave her a karate chop on the top of her head before shaking my head.
"I disagree, kiddo."
She rubbed the top of her head before saying.
"I'm older than you, don't call me kiddo. Plus, you don't understand, you weren't there."
Before she could become completely annoyed I grabbed her arm before teleporting us away. We arrived on the outskirts of the city, it was raining heavily but I had brought us under an underpass that was in the mountain.
I brought my finger in front of my lips to indicate that we needed to be quiet as I saw her about to shout in surprise.
In the distance loud thuds could be heard, that even shook the ground we were standing on.
"You say that there is no point in training… But look at our teacher." I said in a whisper as I pointed toward the direction of the sounds.
Standing in the middle of the rain he was punching a massive boulder repeatedly, his punches creating small cracks on the boulder. Taking a deep breath he punched one more time before causing the boulder to explode into pieces
He turned towards the Graveler next to him and said something before another boulder emerged from the ground.
I could see Maylene's expression turn to shock.
"Humans and pokemon are both more similar than you might think. We both possess innate types, and we both hold the capabilities for growth. In fact, it is almost as if humans and pokemon were meant to grow together. A wild pokemon will struggle more to reach the same level of strength as one with a trainer. Similarly, we humans become stronger when we work with pokemon. I think that's why Georges has so many pokemon running around in the gym to help out during lessons."
I saw her eyes widen as she took in the information.
"Why have I never heard of this before?"
"It's mostly a working theory that I and Professor Rowan have been working on for a while. There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered so it hasn't really been published into the world. It goes more in-depth, but that is the general gist of it."
I heard another loud explosion from a boulder shattering which made me laugh a little.
"Most pokemon are born with an innate strength that humans do not possess. But that doesn't mean that we can never reach it. All it takes is hard work."
Looking at Georges I let out a small sigh.
"I will probably never reach even half his level of physical strength. I simply do not have an affinity for it. But you do."
She took a few seconds to breathe and process the information before asking.
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
I gave a smile before answering.
"I already told you, didn't I? Because we are friends. Plus, when I am finally able to kick your ass during a fight I don't want to be fighting someone who gave up. I may not punch as hard as the other students, but I can take a punch."
She laughed as she heard my words before determination filled her eyes.
"How can a damsel in distress ever hope to beat the prince charming?" she said in a joking tone.
Off in the distance, Georges smiled as he heard the conversation over the rain. His ears and senses had been honed after a lifetime of working on his body enough to get the gist of the conversation.
"Kid, you are about to get your ass kicked like there is no tomorrow." he muttered before looking at his Graveler for them to summon another boulder.
~Author's note~
I escaped prison, but now I am being hunted by the FBI and the CIA. Give me your power stones so that I can buy myself a new identity so they can't catch me.
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