After finishing his battle Booth is feeling pretty good. For the rest of the day Booth decides to take a look at the town. With no real destination in mind, Booth figures he should see some of the trainer stores that Ben mentioned.
Almost half an hour of walking later, Booth reaches a strip mall located a mile away from the Tiered Trainer Center. Booth picks the store called 'Poke-chain'. Entering the store, Booth finds it similar to an outdoors shop like those on Earth. The store has camping gear, fishing rods, and bait. In the pokemon goods section Booth can see uncommon pokeballs like Net and Nest balls. As well as a rare Lure Ball!
Booth is eager to check out the pokemon merchandise and heads there first. As he's looking around Booth hears someone speak from the side. "Are you a new pokemon trainer?"
"Hmm?" Booth turns to see who is speaking. There's a woman with a friendly smile. She seems to be a somewhat experienced trainer judging by the different pokeballs on her waist.
"Yes, that's correct. How could you tell?" Booth asks.
She laughs a little, "It's not that hard to tell. You've only looked at the pokemon items and you were practically drooling, when you looked at the evolution items. My name is Macy, nice to meet you."
Booth jokingly checks for drool, which makes the female trainer laugh again. "Nice to meet you Macy, my name's Booth. I've been a trainer for about 2 days now. I've seen stuff like this online, but never in person. Seeing it now it's almost as if the items have a power of their own or something."
"I get it. They are pretty impressive up close. Although nowadays these kinds of evolution items aren't as popular as they used to be."
"Why is that?"
"There have always been alternate ways to evolve pokemon, yet it wasn't until tiered trainers came around that people regularly started using other methods. My guess is that tiered trainers have easier access to these methods. Or they're just poor..."
"Is that so? I'd be interested in looking into the other methods for myself." Booth says.
"In that case there is a pokemon trainer club that meets at the contest hall on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The trainers there can help you train your pokemon, trade, and they would be happy to teach you things like learning new moves and evolving your pokemon."
"Thanks, Macy. I appreciate the help!"
"No problem, I enjoy teaching new trainers. Remember to stop by if you need anything." Macy leaves to do her own shopping.
'Tiered trainers really are a mystery. From what I can tell the evolution items range from about 50 to 150 credits. They aren't cheap, but neither are the Integrators. If money is really the issue then that would mean that tiered trainers think upgrading their Integrator provides more of an advantage than an evolved pokemon would.
There's no reason to be hasty I guess. I don't have any need for a more powerful pokemon anyway. But learning more about the trainers there, wouldn't hurt. I'll check out the contest hall on Saturday.'
A normal tiered trainer doesn't bet money on normal matches. In other words, Booth is still broke. Seeing so many of the pokemon items Booth starts to feel distressed about his finances. Getting a good idea for the merchandise offered at the store, Booth decides to head back to the Tiered Trainer Center.
On the way Booth takes notice of the pokemon around town. While most trainers seem to keep their pokemon in pokeballs, there is a fair amount of pokemon out with their trainers. Booth sees a Mareep walking down the street with a little girl. And Yanma helping an older man carry his groceries.
'There are pokemon out in about in the games, but it does not even compare to this world. Having people walk their pokemon here seems like someone taking their pet camel or crocodile for a walk. It's ridiculous.
I'm sure there are plenty of aggressive pokemon in this world. The people here are either ignorant of danger, or have nerves of steel. It might be that the wild pokemon are just as afraid of people as we are of them or something like that. I guess I can ask Damon later.'
---
Booth goes to the outdoor courts to see if there are any tiered trainers having a battle. When he gets there he sees a familiar face. The guy who sold Ben the Integrator, Emmet, is having a battle with another trainer.
Emmet is using a Yungoos , while his opponent is using a Ducklett. The Ducklett looks like it has taken a substantial amount of damage at this point, but the battle isn't quite over. Ducklett launchs multiple heavy looking bubbles around the court to slow down the Yungoos.
'This doesn't seem like a move that I'm familiar with. If it was a version of Bubblebeam then it would make more sense. This definitely seems like a new move.'
The Yungoos kicks up chunks of earth and sprays it over the large bubbles to try and pop them. The Ducklett's trainer quickly responds by launching a Water Pulse at the Yungoos. A sound like a crashing wave vibrates through the air. Yungoos tries to leap out of the way, but is still hit by the blast.
In this instant, the battle goes downhill for Yungoos. Ducklett swipes its wings in front of it, and an Air Slash slashes through the air. The wind blade tears into Yungoos. Finally Emmet's Integrator beeps, calling for the end of the battle.
The two trainers return their pokemon to their pokeballs, and Emmet congratulates his opponent on a good battle. Emmet sees Booth before he leaves and walks over towards him.
"Booth! How is your Integrator working!" Emmet asks cheerfully.
"It's great. I had a battle a while ago and it worked very well."
"That's good. You've already had your first battle then, how'd it go?"
"I won. It was a great experience. The Integrator has opened a lot of options for me."
"Sounds like you're off to a good start. Maybe we can have a battle some time later this week."
"I'd love to! I'll be sure to find you later."
"Alright, see you then." Emmet says as he heads back to the Tiered Trainer Center.
Booth stays to watch another battle. A while later he also goes into the Tiered Trainer Center ready to apply some of the things he's learned.
---
Booth walks to a practice room and takes a second look at Pansear's moves. From all the battles today, Booth gets some ideas he wants to run through.
'In most of the battles, I recognized its rare for trainers to use moves in immediate succession. The simple answer for this is that it takes too much of a pokemon's power to do so. In my battle, my opponent made his first mistake by putting himself in the corner. But using up so much of Electrike's power to get out of the corner was what made it hard for him to recover.
In battle with the Ducklett and Yungoos both trainers had a good grasp of their pokemon's strengths. The bubble trap is something even I marvel at. The trap was arranged quickly and covered a sizable area. I think Emmet was a bit impatient, because of the damage he suddenly took from Ducklett. Ducklett's trainer got one hit and the carried the advantage the rest of the match.
The problem isn't using too much power at once, but using it at the right opportunity. If Emmet waited for the bubbles to pop on their own or went around, he could have avoided getting caught in a difficult situation. While if the Electrike trainer waited to use Shock Wave to counter, or took the Incinerate head on with his Electrike, the battle might have gone differently.
It's only been 2 days and battles already have more layers than I could have guessed. For now I can try to improve Pansear's moves. Just like the Ducklett trainer showed, using your pokemon's power in the right situation can give you an immense advantage.'
Booth starts by doing some warm ups with his Pansear. Then he directs Pansear to the opposite wall to experiment with some moves.
Booth chooses a specific gash on the wall as their target, then he gives Pansear instructions on how to use a different version of Incinerate. He directs Pansear to increase the firing speed and keep everything else the same. Pansear spits a fireball and it sears through the air, eventually fizzing out on the wall. The result is to be expected, it misses by 6 or 7 feet. Booth thinks about the outcome, as Pansear rests.
'The fireball was much faster, but its accuracy suffered. It makes sense. Without the correct form or model for a move it's likely for things to go wrong. I'll check out what increasing the power does next, hopefully that will give me some ideas.'
Using the same gash as the target, Booth commands Pansear to put as much strength into the attack as he can. The heat around Pansear becomes hotter than before. The fireball shoots out from Pansear quicker for a moment, but slows down considerably as it flies. The modified Incinerate hits the wall and explodes against the gash.
'The accuracy is still a little off, but much better this time. Unlike a normal Incinerate, this one explodes after hitting the wall, instead of lingering. The power was clearly stronger and initially the fireball moved faster too. The only problem is that it takes a lot out of Pansear and we would be in a tough situation if we miss. It might be risky, but the power is no joke. I'm sure I can use it somehow.
Booth looks at Pansear and sees he is pretty tired. Thinking that they have done enough today, he calls Pansear back.
Booth finds Ben in another room and waits until he's done to go back for the day.