"Happy to be free of the Pokemon Center and out training?"
At Lee's side, Octillery bounces in place with a delighted burble, his smile obvious even if his nozzle-like mouth does not move. A few feet away, Ninetales smiles at her new teammate's enthusiasm, while Grovyle simply nods his approval.
Shinx could probably match Octillery's energy like the electrified ball of fuzz that she is, but alas, Lee has reluctantly left her in Brendan's care for today so that she won't be dangerously underfoot during training of this level. 'Sorry, baby girl. I'll make it up to you.'
Four days after eting Moore and Flannery to discuss their commissioned Fire move, Octillery is finally free of the Pokemon Center he now seems to loathe with a passion. The poor octopus pokemon seed bored to tears until Nurse Joy ca into the aquatic ward with discharge paperwork for Lee during their visit today. Octillery clung to Lee like he was so sort of savior the entire way out the door, not at all caring that they were marching into the fields outside of town to train ASAP.
Lee smiles and places a hand on Octillery's head. The octopus' skin is still slick and cool despite the heat. The Water-type seems unbothered by the early morning sun in the shadeless clearing Lee found several miles outside of Lavaridge for today's training.
"I'm glad that you're feeling better," Lee says with a smile as he withdraws his hand and lets it slide into his pocket with his pokedex. "I'm sorry to ask so much of you so soon after you've just left the Center, but are you willing to help us in the Gym battle here in a few days? We'll be fighting Fire-types, but you might still get a bit banged up."
Octillery blinks once, an inquisitive gurgle bubbling from his throat.
Lee had noticed the red cephalopod lost his focus a bit when Gyms were ntioned before, and takes a guess as to where the confusion might stem from. "Never heard of a Gym before?"
Octillery shakes his head in the negative.
'How odd. He's got a solid grasp of English, but doesn't know what Gyms are? Could Octillery have been wild the whole ti?' Lee hums. "Well, Gyms are places where pokemon trainers pit themselves and their teams against the strongest pokemon team in a given area. If you win, you're given a badge as a token of your victory along with so prizes, and any team who beats all eight Gyms will be eligible for a tournant against other teams who've done the sa thing. If you win the whole thing, you can challenge the Elite Four, who are trainers and pokemon of imnse skill. By beating them one by one, you can then challenge the regional champion, the finest trainer partnered with the best pokemon around. Make sense?"
'Although, I'm not sure I actually want us to win. I know the title says 'Champion', but since the whole sport is so deeply intertwined with politics and regional military might, 'Champion' and 'Governor-General' are interchangeable terms here. Honestly, I don't think being Champ would be fun.' Lee is reminded of the card from Steven Stone still in his wallet. The card has both an email and an office phone number, but the idea of phoning a champion for idle chit-chat isso laughable that he puts it out of his mind. 'Oh, right. I haven't checked BattleNet in a few days Oh well, they can wait.'
Octillery follows the explanation easily and nods, his tentacles waving and ready.
"Glad to hear it." Lee grins and withdraws his pokedex. He flips it open and points it at the water-type. "First off, let's get an idea of the moves you know and work from there. I've heard your kind have a talent for learning many types of attacks, and that's going to be a huge help, not only to the team but to the research I'm conducting on Type Energy." Lee's thumb falls on the pokedex's confirm button.
"Octillery, the Jet Pokemon," the chanical voice of the pokedex drones. "The suckers on Octillery's tentacles grip prey so tightly that few can escape. It will then daze prey with a strike from its rock-hard head before eating." Once the 'dex is done with its blurb, a slew of more helpful info is displayed on the screen.
"Rock hard head?" Lee frowns. He looks over to his newest pokemon, a hand raised. "May I?" When Octillery nods, Lee places his hand on the octopus's head and gently presses down, finding that Octillery's head lacks a skull as expected and gives way. "Well then. I recall other 'dex entities also saying your species can squeeze into nooks and crannies too. I'll have to see about getting this bogus blurb corrected, then."
Octillery chortles in amusent, a curious sound similar to churning water. Then he seemingly sucks in a breath and
"Eeh!?" Lee pulls his hand away when Octillery's head suddenly hardens under his palm and pushes out the dimple he made. "Wha? How did?" The zoologist tentatively touches Octillery's head again, finding it totally unyielding as if a skull manifested out of nowhere. Lee closes his pokedex, Octillery's moves forgotten for now. "How did you do that?"
The red octopus raises a tentacle and looks at the barren ground, his head swaying back and forth as if hemming and hawing over how to explain. An idea seems to strike him, as Octillery's tentacle deftly moves like an inspired artist's brush. In the dirt, he draws a rough sketch of himself with a large, balloon-like head and eight tentacles. He gives the sketch a face, then draws a thin circle around the face. Another circle is drawn around the first, this ti larger and almost touching the edge of the sketch's head.
Lee can feel Ninetales' curiosity, and Grovyle must be curious as well, as he and the fox step closer to watch Octillery work.
Circles drawn, Octillery then digs his tentacle into the space between the circles, carving out a trench maybe half an inch deep. He tosses the dirt away, then leans over his drawing and lets a dribble of water flow from his mouth into the trench, filling it up. With a gurgle, he scuttles back half a step and points at the filled trench.
Lee scratches his chin as he tries to puzzle out the cryptic explanation. 'How interesting' If his backpack wasn't up against a distant tree, he would be tempted to get his notebook out and record this. 'What a remarkable way to relay information. Of course, most pokemon are smart enough to get simple points across a language barrier, but a full pictogram using abstract informational dia like water is sothing else.' He looks up away from the pictogram to Octillery, who stares at him expectantly.
Ninetales' mind works as she tries to figure out just what the octopus ans, and Lee can feel it. She looks up to Octillery with a short, questioning purr rolling from her throat.
Octillery stubbornly says nothing, putting a frown on Ninetales' face. 'Rude.'' The vixen ntally sniffs. 'He could at least say he does not want to answer.'
Grovyle looks like he's trying to figure it out as well, but the slight crinkle of his eyelids and the impatient twiddle of his twig tells Lee the gecko pokemon isn't any closer to finding the answer.
'Let's see. How could he suddenly harden his head, and how would it fit in the context of the drawing?' Lee studies the drawing again, trying to draw on his limited knowledge of cephalopods. 'Obviously, water has sothing to do with it, but is this in a biological sense or a TE sense? I feel like this drawing would be more outlandish if it was strictly TE, so let's assu it's biological for now.' He looks at the circles and how they're placed between the watery trench. 'Are the circles ant to represent so kind of container? A container for the water? It's inside the body of the sketch, so' Lee clicks his tongue. "Octillery, may I touch your head one more ti?"
Octillery leans in, giving the man his silent permission.
Lee places his hand on Octillery once more, this ti pressing down more firmly. There isn't muchalmost nonebut there is just the barest hint of give. Lee's fingers sink maybe a milliter or less into the octopus' head.
Withdrawing his hand and rubbing his fingers together, Lee ponders the new info. 'So still not a solid skull, but so close that it wouldn't matter much in combat.' Looking back at the water, the circles, and how they're arranged in the octopus sketch, the answer hits him. "I'll be damned." Lee grins and turns to Octillery. "Is it a subdermal sac that you can pressurize with water at will?"
Octillery's eyes widen to a near comical degree, then he burbles happily, his front two tentacles eting each other in wet, delighted applause.
'It's one thing to use a pictogram, but another thing entirely to use said pictogram to relay advanced biological information in a manner understandable to others. Octillery is quite sothing.' Lee's grin is wide as the few doubts he has about Octillery fade away. "Now, that's nature at its finest. Both your brain and the pressurized sac."
The octopus nods like he expected nothing less.
"Now I have to know what moves you know." Lee flips his pokedex open once more and points it at Octillery. "I know I told you I was a researcher during yesterday's visit, but I didn't go into any detail, did I? On top of pokemon biology and psychology, Type Energy and its dynamics have been endlessly fascinating to recently. I'd love it if you'd be willing to help with my research with your huge movepool, Octillery."
The red octopus' eyes light up at the thought.
'Definitely the brainy type.' Lee smiles and scrolls down his 'dex to Octillery's moves. 'No wonder he hated the Center so much. I doubt they kept him stimulated enough. I'll have to make a note to get so puzzles and brain teasers for him so he has sothing to do in his downti.'
When he finally sees the Water-type's movepool, Lee lets out an impressed whistle.
Scan Complete
Known Moves:
Wrap
Headbutt
Water Gun
Octazooka
Psybeam
Gunk Shot
Rock Blast
Charge Beam
Aurora Beam
Signal Beam
Ice Beam
Bullet Seed
Focus Energy
Lock-On
'Good God. Octillery has so insane coverage and knows how to mold nine of the eighteen different types of TE with the potential to learn more. I know for sure he can learn Dark, Steel, Flying, Fire, and Ground moves too. If he could soday learn how to use every TE' Lee flips his pokedex closed and returns it to his pocket. Part of him suddenly wants to capture a Kecleon to use in conjunction with Octillery to study TE, but the thought is shelved for now. 'Only having two lee moves might be an issue, though. I understand Octillery is going to end up being a ranged attacker, but Wrap and Headbutt alone aren't going to be viable back-ups.'
Ninetales takes the mont to chi in. 'Iron Tail, perhaps? There is no reason he cannot learn to apply the move to his tentacles.' She tilts her head and ets Octillery's eyes. 'If he knows Bullet Seed, then Seed Blast is also on the table.'
'True.' Lee clears his throat. "So, Wrap and Headbutt are rather self-explanatory. Let's test out your other attacks and see what kind of things we can discover. Since Octillery is the newest mber here" he looks over to Ninetales and Grovyle "I'll likely spend most of today with him to get a better feel for how Octillery likes to battle. We've already discussed our basic ga plan for the gym: Grovyle goes in to wear down everyone he can, then we switch to Octillery for clean-up duty, then Ninetales if things go really south. Flannery's team is strong, but I think we can take her for a fairly clean win."
Grovyle smirks.
Octillery nods along.
And Ninetales frowns at being sidelined. Silent, telepathic assurance from Lee soothes her, but her frown remains. 'I understand your logic, Beloved I simply don't enjoy it, is all,' she sends back.
Part of Lee still cringes at essentially offering Grovyle up as a buffer to make Octillery's job easier, but being the level-headed 'mon that he is, Grovyle has taken no visible offense to the otherwise logical plan. If anything, he seems emboldened that he is being chosen as the first pick in a Fire-type gym. 'I wish I had that kind of positive outlook. I know Grovyle is getting frustrated at his lack of inclusion in Gym battles, though. He was skipped over for both Rustboro and Dewford, then went down to the Baton Pass trick in Mauville. I hope this is a good confidence booster for him and not a letdown.'
"Right, let's begin, everyone!" Lee points a finger at the gecko pokemon. "Grovyle, you already know what you want to work on today. Once you feel good and ward up, co to and we'll give you Roxanne's Rock Tomb TM to even the odds for the Gym match. After that, we'll use today to get a feel for the new move and brainstorm uses for it, okay?"
Grovyle crosses his arms and nods, not quite keeping the eager gleam out of his slitted eyes.
"Ninetales." Lee's finger moves to his ace and best friend. "We're making good progress on the commissioned move. Keep that up for the first half of today, then we'll test your upper limits to see how long we need to keep our control exercises going."
Ninetales shifts on her paws. 'You've inford the Rangers of our intentions here already?' She vocalizes her question as well with two short, inquiring yips for Grovyle and Octillery's benefit.
"I have," Lee nods. "I gave both the local Pokemon Ranger station and Lavaridge ergency services a call this morning to inform them that we'll be out here and that things might get noisy. They said to keep environntal damage to a minimum and keep wild pokemon out of any crossfire, and they won't have any reason to step in. Both seem reasonable to ."
Ninetales looks around at the barren 'training ground'.
The spot they found several miles outside of Lavaridge is sooty and devoid of life, having been subjected to a wildfire a few months ago according to a short chain of text ssages with Flannery. The ground is bare dirt, the trees are husks, and there are no pokemon around. The edge of the burned area is recovering, but even then, the new trees are small and the greenery is thin.
All in all, the perfect place for a Fire-type to go wild.
Ninetales smiles. 'I think we can manage under the Rangers' rules.'
"Finally" Lee turns to Octillery "we're going to run you through so exercises, move tests, and a physical to benchmark your health. I have no doubt you'll perform well; this is more for my peace of mind than anything else."
The octopus puts on a determined expression, clearly eager to begin.
As the day drifts into the afternoon, Lee sighs and wipes at his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand. "What a day, and we're barely halfway done."
With the impending Gym match just three days away, all three fighters on Lee's team have thrown everything they have into honing their skills.
Grovyle, with his mastery of Leaf Blade and X-Scissor, has been combining his know-how of Feint Attack and cutting moves to try and recreate Night Slash and expand his coverage. Much like Feint Attack, Night Slash is not a move anyone in the Sceptile line can normally learn. The limitation shows considering how much the savant-like gecko pokemon has been struggling to reverse-engineer the move over the last two weeks. He can mold Dark TE, but the energy only sotis holds an edge when channeled into the leaves growing from Grovyle's wrists. It's much the sa with his claws as well. 'There must be a trick to getting the energy to hold an edge. Dark TE certainly doesn't behave like Grass or Bug, but I guess that's to be expected,' Lee muses.
Between frustrating failures, Grovyle alternates between furthering his mastery of Quick Attack and getting used to Rock Tomb. Quick Attack's progress has begun to level off, leaving Grovyle sowhere between Andre's Absol and Wattson's Jolteon in speed. That's not the most impressive part, however. No, his ability to near-totally arrest his montum and accelerate in another direction is what's truly impressive. Grovyle must be putting several Gs worth of stress on his body making such sharp turns or coming to abrupt stops with Quick Attack Or Quick Attack is sohow shielding him from the worst effects of moving at such speeds. 'If that's the case, then I might have a newfound appreciation for the flexibility of Normal TE Or maybe a better term is Neutral TE? No, don't worry about that right now. Normal TE is fine.'
Lee takes a mont to admire Grovyle as he trains.
Brows furrowed, the pokemon hisses and draws an arm back from his place about thirty yards away. In front of his open claws, a small rock begins to form from sand that appears from seemingly nowhere. The sand collects into a mass, forming a solid brown rock that grows larger and larger. Before three seconds have passed, a stone as large as Grovyle floats before him. Then with a grunt, he thrusts his forearm forward.
As if thrown by a pokemon thrice Grovyle's size, the stone quickly flies forward in a lazy arc, crashing down into the dirt with a mighty thud that can be felt in the soles of Lee's boots.
While the attack is a far cry from his usual blistering-fast assaults, the simple yet destructive power of hurling a large rock cannot be denied. If a pokemon were struck by the boulder, the resulting powdered bones would make for a very bad day.
With a deep sigh, Grovyle raises his arms, the green leaves of his wrists darkening with the power of his bastardized Night Slash. Then, with a movent so fast Lee almost doesn't see it, Grovyle races forward and slices into his newly created boulder as little more than a flicker of green.
Schink-crack!
The top half of the boulder slides away from the bottom to tumble on the ground, revealing a rough, uneven cut through the stone.
Grovyle huffs and shakes his wrists, which must be smarting after powering through solid rock.
Lee hums to himself and inspects the aftermath of Grovyle's other Rock Tomb attacks.
Around the field are a few other boulders, but the oldest ones have crumbled away into piles of sand. The newer ones all feature rough cuts and slices in their faces, all of which leak slow trickles of sand.
'I wonder Is it Grovyle's inexperience with the move, or with molding Rock TE causing that? Or do all TE constructs decay rapidly? I don't recall water produced by pokemon evaporating quickly. It feels like the more I notice, the less I understand.'
Lee then turns to Ninetales.
Like Grovyle, his oldest partner is flexing back and forth in her training. Between bouts of honing her skills, she's been working on their commission for Flannery. After so back and forth over the last few days, they agreed on the move to present to Flannery and how best to create it.
Nearly on the other side of the field, Ninetales angles her head back, a sphere of rolling fire the size of a beach ball manifesting before her open jaws with a whoosh of hot air.
She narrows her eyes, leaning back a little more, then she lets go.
The fireball races up into the sky, then explodes like a magnificent firework. From the burst of orange flas cos a rain of smaller, fist-sized fireballs that scream as they fall to the earth.
Nearly all of the fireballs hit the ground behind Ninetales within a huge radius, each one exploding like a grenade and throwing blackened dirt everywhere. The staccato of explosions rolls off Mount Chimney and echoes back at the group, letting them hear it over and over until the sound finally fades. When the smoke and dirt clear, Ninetales is left standing in a field of shallow craters.
At first, Lee wished to make sothing tailored for Torkoal, but then realized that to make the move in a reasonable tifra, Ninetales would need to do most of the heavy lifting and actually make it usable for herself. The restriction left them with moves that are forced to work within the confines of Ninetales' biology, but perhaps that's for the best for their first ti creating a move for soone else.
The airburst fireball is what they went with. Working together, Lee and Ninetales formulated an attack that needs no 'programming' in order to accomplish its task. The initial fireball is little more than a weak shell to hold the actual projectiles inside while the attack rises to a target height of about twenty yards up. The outside of the shell is nice and stable, but the inside needs only a forceful touch to destabilize and collapse into harmless embers.
Inside that shell are nurous smaller fireballs not unlike the projectiles of Convergence. The tightly-wound balls are filled with dense, volatile 'liquid' Fire TE that is only kept from going critical by their more 'solid' shells. These smaller shells are hardier than the thin one keeping them all in a tight bundle, but a harsh enough impact, like, say, with the ground, jostles their contents enough to explode.
In the center of the firework-inspired attack is a much less stable fireball, one that, after so trial and error, Lee and Ninetales have successfully configured to pop at the apex of the attack's flight, bursting the outer shell and propelling the multi-ball payload to spread before gravity takes hold. The user only needs to angle the attack in the direction they want to saturate, and after flying up, everything takes care of itself.
Though, maybe saying they have 'configured' the central fireball acting as the propelling charge is too much. It's more like they've figured out how to make a purposely flawed fireball fail and detonate at the most convenient ti. True configuration would be learning how to put a tir on a stable fireball, sothing that eludes Ninetales when the move lacks her direct pyrokinetic control.
The move failed over and over in the beginning. Sotis the central fireball was too violent and destroyed the payload in a gigantic conflagration. Sotis the outer shell was too solid and Ninetales had to hastily 'toss' the ball away with her pyrokinesis before it ca back down and exploded in her face. Sotis sothing else happened and things went sideways. Despite all their failures, though, the move was finished in only a few days. Now all that's left is to refine it as best they can before presenting it for copying.
All in all, it is a functional and powerful move, even if its 'no programming' nature ans it cannot be modified much. The discovery that Fire TE can exist in multiple states like liquid and solid is a worthwhile reward for the grief, in Lee's opinion.
Ninetales sighs and looks at her golden pelt, which is stained with dirt and soot. 'Lee, please tell so of our upcoming training involves the creation of psychic barriers.' She wrinkles her snout in a display that makes Lee smile. 'Now that my fur is thicker, cleaning up at the end of the day is such a pain I'd prefer to just block the gri before it hits .' She shakes herself head to tails, dislodging only a minimal amount of dirt.
'I did look up thods used to train young psychics in making barriers, but'
'But?'
'But it requires holding sothing flat and delicate like paper taut without ripping it as the first control exercise. That trains your brain to make stable surfaces midair.'
Ninetales audibly growls, her gleaming eyes turning to send a sour look to a ss of broken eggshells, yolk, and paper egg cartons ripped up in frustration. The ss has since been tossed to the greenery for nature to reclaim.
One exercise Lee has been having Ninetales work on is a simple one he read about online. Telekinetic control can be honed with simple, repetitive exercises that don't require much force. Sothing simple like moving eggs between cartons without crushing them is where many psychics too strong for their own good begin.
So far It's not been terribly fruitful for Ninetales.
'You'll get the hang of it, Love.' Lee closes his eyes and pulls his fox into a ntal hug, siphoning away her dissatisfaction with her progress. The channel between them shortens, and their raw minds touch as Lee wraps her in assurance. He's careful not to touch too much of his mind to hers at once, though, lest he trigger a mind-ld like they shared shortly after her evolution.
Telepathically, Ninetales lts into the embrace with a half-hearted huff. 'You evolved less than two weeks ago,' Lee continues. 'Don't let it get you down. You'll master your powers and I'll be there every step of the way to help.'
Ninetales is content to bathe in Lee's affection, then reluctantly pulls herself free to resu her training. 'Of course. I won't let you down.'
'You really believe there is anything you could do to make think you let down?' Lee physically chuckles.
The fox doesn't answer, but the surge of love that flows from her to Lee says more than words could anyway.
Sothing wet taps Lee's hand with annoying persistence, and re-opening his eyes, Lee looks down to see Octillery leveling him with a narrow-eyed stare.
"Oops" The zoologist gives the octopus an awkward grin. "Sorry for spacing out there, Octillery. Let's use up the last of our targets then we'll all break for lunch, okay?"
Pacified, Octillery gives his tentacles a wave that Lee has learned ans 'I'm ready'.
Testing the red octopus has been nice and smooth. For the past week, Lee has been brushing up on his knowledge of cephalopods and their health, and as he expected, Octillery passed this morning's physical with flying colors. Not that the lack of issues is surprising or anything, considering that he's spent over a week in a Pokemon Center. It would be surprising if anything was wrong with him after that.
Octillery's performance lives up to Lee's initial expectations as well. The three-foot-tall octopus is an utter terror at range, but cracks begin to show when he's asked to perform lee feats. The poor guy is by far Lee's slowest pokemon, as crawling about on his tentacles is the best he can do mobility-wise. With a windup, Octillery can jump a decent distance, but it's not entirely viable as a dodge unless Octillery has already read his foe's attack well in advance.
'Though, maybe reading an incoming attack and figuring out the best place to dodge to isn't that big of an ask for him' Lee muses to himself.
Lee reaches down to the cardboard box at his side, seeing only five targets left. He picks two up and flips them between his fingers.
The targets are nothing special, being clay disks rather similar to the ones used in shotgun skeet matches. It was a surprise to learn that skeet is indeed a sport here on this alternate Earth, but like all other sports, everything pokemon related eclipses it by an absurd margin.
It makes sense to Lee. Sports like football can be thrilling, but even a mid-level pokemon battle beats out all but the most insane football plays.
Before Octillery can beco irritated with him standing idle and not throwing targets, Lee clears his throat and winds an arm back. "Octazooka!" He lets the disks fly. One flies straight, and the other flies at an awkward angle off to the left. The left one is a bad throw, and it's heading towards the ground fast.
Octillery's eyes instantly snap to the spinning disks of orange flying by. He gurgles, and just before he fires, Lee covers his own ears.
BANG-NG-NG!
Octillery leads the shot perfectly. The bolt of ink shatters the leftmost clay disk into a thousand pieces before it can hit the ground. His eyes then take in the easier shot, and rotating himself slightly, Octillery sucks in another breath.
BANG-NG-NG!
The second disk is hit dead center and vanishes in a spray of ink and clay shards.
Lee picks up another disk and lets it fly. "Gunk Shot!"
Lee can almost see the ballistic calculations playing themselves out in Octillery's eyes. The octopus leans back slightly, then he puckers his mouth and spits a sickly purple orb that fills the air with the noxious scent of toxins.
Unlike Octazooka, Gunk Shot is far slower and heavier, arcing through the air like a baseball launched from a pitching machine. Regardless of its speed or less than flat trajectory, Gunk Shot collides with the clay disk with a hiss, coating the target in a ss of noxious purple goop. The ss falls to the ground with a splat, where it bubbles. The harsh poison of Gunk Shot strips the orange paint right off the disk before it eats through the clay itself.
Mindfully, Octillery looses a spray of water from his mouth into the poisonous puddle, diluting it into sothing much less harsh on the nature around it. Once the purple color is barely visible in the now larger puddle, Octillery cuts off the fire-hose of water with a satisfied gurgle.
"Thank you, Octillery," Lee smiles and places a hand on the octopus' head. "Even if the land here is already good and destroyed, we don't need to make it worse."
Octillery nods, then sends an impatient look at the remaining clay targets in the box.
"Right, right, sorry." Lee picks two more up. "Last ones. Ice Beam!" He throws both high.
Octillery responds near-instantly. From his mouth shoots a frigid beam of light blue energy that quickly lowers the temperature around himself and Lee. The sudden drop draws a shiver from the man despite the beating sun overhead.
Ice Beam isn't an instant laser, and the beam quivers as if experiencing so kind of instability, but it flies quickly and in a straight line for a hundred yards easily. In a burst of crackling ice, the first clay disk is struck and instantly shatters from the thermal shock.
Then, rather than end Ice Beam and fire again, Octillery simply sweeps the beam over the second disk, once more leading his attack so perfectly that there is almost no wasted movent. Ice Beam washes over the second disk, and it shatters into frosty shards like the first.
Octillery cuts off the beam and looks up to Lee expectantly.
"Fifty out of fifty," Lee chuckles and gives the empty cardboard box at his side a kick. "A hundred percent accuracy rating. Well done, Octillery."
The Water-type waves a tentacle uncaringly, as if saying that was nothing.
"Well, I found it impressive, at least." Lee smiles and picks up the box, tearing it down so he can stuff it with the other bits of kindling he keeps in one of his backpack's pockets. "I bet you're hungry after all that, so let's eat."
After a late lunch and a bit more training, Lee makes the decision to call it a day. Even if both pokemon hide it, Grovyle and Octillery are tired after a long day. It's only made more apparent when neither protest being recalled back into their pokeballs for a well-deserved rest, leaving Ninetales and Lee alone. Before they clean up and leave, Ninetales noses at Lee's hip.
'Lee,' Ninetales begins. 'We've been working on my finesse for the last few days. Now that we have this unused land, should we try to find my new limits?'
'That's right. I nearly forgot,' Lee responds. He snakes a ntal thread into Ninetales, touching her core and realizing she's not even winded after today. 'I guess using the sa move over and over, broken up with breaks, isn't the most taxing thing around. I'm ga to stay a bit longer to help you try everything out.'
Ninetales' nasake appendages wave about with an eager enthusiasm to them. 'What first?'
"First" Lee hums and slowly turns his head, spying a mostly intact, if dead, tree close to the edge of the greenery. The tree is wide enough around that it would take two n his size hugging the hunk of wood to barely et fingers around the trunk, and it's easily eighty feet high. 'I'm no arborist, but I'd estimate a tree that size is at least a few tons, even if it's totally dry. Ninetales ripped a heavy door off its hinges by total accident, so shifting a dead tree should give us an idea of where she lies power-wise.' With a nod, Lee points to the dead tree. "Let's give your telekinesis a try. Give that tree a telepathic once over, and if nothing is living in there, give it a pull with everything you have."
Ninetales nods, her eyes glowing. Like a creeping stain, an aura of deep purple covers the tree, starting from the base and moving up. The distance of over a hundred feet doesn't seem to bother her at all. The aura slows slightly when it has to envelop the rickety branches, but in a matter of monts, the entire tree is covered. So of the burnt bark crumbles and a few branches break when the telekinetic corona tightens into an ironclad grip, but the tree remains stable for the most part. Ninetales narrows her eyes, then with an effort Lee can feel secondhand, she pulls.
The tree groans and the ground rumbles as the dead roots fight to keep the tree in the dirt, but it's a losing battle. Ninetales screws her eyes shut, growls, and yanks as hard as she can once more.
With a ground-shaking bang, the tree, roots and all, cos free in a plu of dirt. The tree is dislodged so violently that Lee has to raise his arms and shield his face from flying clods of dirt that smack into him.
In Ninetales' ethereal grip, the dead tree hovers twenty feet over the hole its roots once lay inside, the network of gangly roots beneath the mass slowly dribbling soil back into the hole.
Lee lowers his arms, taking in the sight with his jaw slowly dropping. "God damn" he curses to himself. "Nine, I expected you to shift the tree around a bit, but ripping it right out of the ground?" He shakes his head. "I didn't see that coming."
Ninetales clears her throat and slowly sets the tree down like a child might do a large branch. 'My apologies I didn't realize I could do that,' she says, sounding faintly embarrassed.
"No, no; it's fine. It's a learning experience for everyone," Lee assures with his hands raised. "Was keeping that much weight aloft hard?"
'Not hard, per se, but I don't think I could keep sothing of that weight up indefinitely. Perhaps several minutes before the strain begins to cause a headache.' Ninetales tilts her head.
"Alrighty." Lee looks over the uprooted tree and lets out a low whistle of amazent. "Okay, as for physical strength We're probably going to need sothing more specialized than what we can use in the field. I've been aning to get a radar gun for Grovyle too, so we'll put a number to your speed another day. For the last obvious test..." Lee looks around, finding no worthwhile or sturdy enough targets. "For your fire abilities, let's keep it simple for now. Try out a Flathrower with as much force as you can put behind it. Aim it straight up, as I don't think there's really a good target out here."
Ninetales nods and takes a few steps away. She takes a deep breath, one that makes her tuft of breast swell, she leans her head back and-!
Lee hisses and turns away, the sudden light blinding him. Blinking, he reopens his eyes and gapes at what he sees.
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