"Mmm... Go away... Not now," mumbled Axel in his sleep while his hand subconsciously tried to remove himself from the peck of Pidgeotto.
"Hmm... Pidgeotto, what happened? Is everything alright?" shouted Axel after waking up. He could see that Pidgeotto was poking him with its beak, trying to wake him.
"Pri... Piiii... Piii Pi..." it said in excitement.
However, Axel couldn't understand what it meant. He tried to comprehend, but Pidgeotto gestured for him to follow, and so he did, not knowing what had happened.
Pidgeotto then performed a move and started crying tears of joy.
---
Ding!
Pidgeotto's Tailwind has leveled up to 41
---
"So, you're telling me that you've finally learned the combination?" Axel asked.
"Pi... Piiii," Pidgeotto replied.
"And now you want me to teach you a new move?"
"Pii. Pi..."
"Pidgeotto, it's the middle of the night. I'll teach you tomorrow, okay?"
He looked at Shedinja, who informed him that it had tried to stop Pidgeotto, but it wouldn't budge.
Axel couldn't fully understand, but he knew what it meant.
However, Pidgeotto wasn't agreeing. It had trained really hard for this moment and wanted to learn the new move now.
After several minutes, Axel finally managed to convince it. He told Pidgeotto that he would teach it a new move in the morning, making it the first thing they would do.
###
The next day,
Axel hadn't slept well the previous night. He had been woken up by one of his Pokémon for no good reason, and he wasn't accustomed to sleeping properly after being disturbed. He washed his face and got ready for the day; he would be teaching Pidgeotto its new move.
Pidgeotto was already in the training ground, ready to learn. Axel contemplated the moves he wanted to teach but didn't want Pidgeotto to have an overly extensive move pool. After some thought, he settled on two moves: 'Feint Attack' and 'Air Slash.'
'Air Slash' was a special-type move with good range, allowing the user to send slashes made of wind towards the target.
'Feint Attack' was a dark-type move, perfect for a fast Pokémon like Pidgeotto.
When Pidgeotto heard that it would be learning two new moves, its happiness knew no bounds. It could now become even stronger than before. It took Pidgeotto six hours to learn the two new moves. Axel then examined its stats after a long time.
---
Pokemon's name: Pidgeotto (Age: 5 months)
Pokemon Nickname: Flappy
Pokemon rank: Common
Ability: Keen Eyes (60%)
Hidden ability: Big Pecks (30%)
Potential: Brown (Monstrous)
Health: 800/800 Attack: B
Agility: S Defense: C
Sp. Atk: B++ Sp. Def: C+
Moves: Sand Attack (C) (Lvl 20), Wing Attack (G) (Lvl 36), Aerial Ace (G) (Lvl 38), Double Team (U) (Lvl 19), Steel Wing (G) (Lvl 32), Parabolic Charge (C) (Lvl 27), Agility (U) (Lvl 18), Roost (U) (Lvl 18), Tailwind (E) (Lvl 41), Work Up (C) (Lvl 21), Whirlwind (C) (Lvl 25), Air Slash (Lvl 1), Feint Attack (Lvl 1)
Hidden Power: Electric (3%)
---
Since Pidgeotto had only focused on 'Tailwind,' the levels of its other moves were not satisfactory. It had trained extensively in flying and speed, resulting in its Agility stat reaching the S rank. It had also mastered the use of 'Keen Eyes' while employing 'Tailwind' and 'Aerial Ace.'
However, Axel noticed that the other moves had not been trained for quite some time, which displeased him. If a move wasn't practiced regularly, the Pokémon would lose the feel for it, making it time-consuming to increase its level again in the future. He instructed Pidgeotto to train its other moves, such as 'Double Team' and 'Roost,' and focused on its training the following day as well.
Axel realized that Pidgeotto simply wanted his attention. While he understood this, having twelve Pokémon made it challenging to give each of them sufficient training time. He instructed Pidgeotto to train in its other moves too.
###
Gogoat kept asking Axel to let it have its revenge. It wanted to defeat its opponent by itself, but there was a slight problem—it wasn't strong enough yet. Axel understood, considering Gogoat had recently ranked up as a pseudo-king Pokémon. To defeat Hypno, Gogoat needed more experience.
Axel could only ask it to wait for some time. Beedrill had already ranked up, and Nidorino was on the verge of ranking up as well. Axel had decided that they would target the next gym after Nidorino's rank up.
It had been two weeks since Axel joined the Venu family, and ten days since the expedition team embarked on their mission. Everything was going well. The Venu family was now regarded as one of the most powerful starter families in the Kanto region, and everyone in the family was happy about it.
The faces of the Venu family members were no longer gloomy. Axel could see the difference. All the Venu family members respected Axel like an elder because they knew that their newfound strength was possible only because of him.
This calm and lively atmosphere was abruptly shattered by a kid of Axel's age, running and shouting.
The kid started to stutter, his body trembling. Some of his friends rushed to him to calm him down.
"What the hell happened?"
"Are you okay?"
People bombarded him with questions. The kid looked like he had seen a ghost. It took him some time to calm down, and after a minute or two, he spoke.
"The mission failed. Sarena died," and then he fainted.