The next morning Damon asks Booth, "We were thinking of signing up for an official team battle next week. I think you would be a lot of help. How do you feel about joining?"
Booth responds without needing a second thought, "Of course I'll join. When will it be?"
"Great! The battle will be next Saturday. We'll do some team battles to practice next week. The team battles require each team to have 4 pokemon and since none of us have a second pokemon. I'll need to find a 4th member before our upcoming practice."
"I got it, thanks."
Booth finishes his breakfast and walks to his own practice room at the Tiered Trainer Center. Booth's plan is to do a few exercises, modify some moves with Pansear, and visit the trainer club at the contest hall after lunch.
Because it's a Saturday, there seem to be more people out practicing than on a normal day. Booth manages to secure his own practice room and gets started. Booth's exercise today focuses on footwork and positioning. The day before, Ben helped Booth find a footwork exercise he liked online.
The goal of the footwork Booth chose is to press your advantage as long as possible. Booth likes this one a lot. After seeing how quickly the outcome of a battle can change from one successful hit, Booth knew this was the footwork he wanted to learn first.
Due to his experience in Pokemon before, Booth is very good at thinking ahead. Even though the style of battles here is quite different, Booth is still able to make good judgments in battle. The only problem is that Booth's reaction time needs some of work. Reaction time wasn't a factor in pokemon before, so Booth has to improve it little by little.
'The footwork in the exercise is excellent, but it's pretty risky if you don't use it right. When using the footwork it's important for the user to have the advantage, and also be aware of the areas that the opponent can attack. If not than the opponent can easily catch you slipping up like Emmet in the Ducklett battle.
Booth starts practicing his footwork with pansear. Booth's poor reaction time makes the exercise look more like a game of tag than practice for footwork. In the exercise Booth tries to get both his hands on Pansear by trapping him with his footwork. Pansear instinctively knows how to play the 'game' and taunts Booth whenever he gets ahead of Booth. Which frustrates Booth quite a bit.
"Who knew Pansear could learn Taunt. I was sure you had to teach it, but what do I know."
Booth takes a break to catch his breath and cool down. During the break, Booth thinks of Pansear's past actions and plans ways to get around them for later. Additionally he notes Pansear's body movements and footwork and tries to incorporate them for himself.
Restarting the exercise with a refreshed mind, Booth gives the signal to go. Pansear runs off again, not waiting for Booth. Booth approaches carefully and keeps an eye out for Pansear's movements. With Booth adapting some of Pansear's footwork he misses a couple more times, but is feeling better as the exercise goes on.
The two use their bodies to slip and dodge past each other. Their feet slide with their own rhythms in an attempt to trick the opponent.
Booth's feints his body one way and lunges directly to the right. Finally, Booth catches Pansear with both hands. Pansear smiles and claps celebrating Booth's achievement.
'I got him! Ahem, I mean it's a work in progress. I can continue learning this later. With luck I can get this down before the team battle next week.' Booth records his thoughts in a notebook like Ben does to review for later.
In the next few hours until lunch Booth works on modifying Pansear's moves. As he works, Booth makes a little progress by learning how to use pokemon's power.
As for creating new moves Booth is completely stuck. Booth decides to postpone the idea of creating new moves and focuses on move modification. Booth still struggles in understanding how to get certain effects. Regardless, he makes some progress.
At lunch, Booth eats the lunch he prepared earlier with his Pansear. Having wrapped up most of the things he wanted to do in the morning, Booth exits the trainer center and walks outside. To satisfy his curiosity on what other trainers are like, Booth makes his way to the contest hall that Macy told him about.
Booth finds the contest hall relatively easily. The building is located outside of the busy part of town, but not too far from the Tiered Trainer Center. Leading up to the building, there is a modest fountain and garden. The contest hall's wide entrance makes the building seem larger than it really is. While the domed roof finishes the stadium look.
Booth walks inside and is welcomed by a large and comfortable lobby. Booth comments on the interior in his head, 'The Tiered Trainer Center is nice, but comparing it to this place is unfair.'
Booth asks an employee where to find the pokemon trainer club. He is directed towards a trainer lounge in a room to the right. There are a couple different rooms for different groups to gather. Like the Tiered Trainer Center, the contest hall is a popular place for trainers to gather.
Booth enters the room and greets a couple of the trainers there. The majority of trainers in the room are traditional trainers. Despite tiered trainer battles being the most popular sport to watch, normal trainers still make up the majority of trainers.
Booth talks to a traditional trainer and listens to his perspective on battling. "Outside of tiered trainer battles, battles are pretty linear. Most battles are like a slugfest. Each trainer calls out moves and the pokemon go at it. Of course there is still strategy involved. Overall, I'd say people find this kind of battling is much more accessible and fun."
Booth agrees with the trainers assessment, "I can definitely agree. As a hobby, I think the traditional battle style is very exciting too. Not to mention the rewarding feeling a trainer gets when a pokemon they raised fights well."
Another trainer hears their conversation and jumps in, "Ah, you get it! For me raising pokemon is one of the best parts of being a trainer. Raising pokemon from low level to high makes me happy to be a trainer."
"Are you a breeder?" Booth guesses.
"Yes, I have been a breeder for quite a while. I started breeding pokemon about a year ago and I have loved it ever since."
"Oh, do you do trades with any of the pokemon you breed?"
"There's no need for trades, unless they are for rarer pokemon. If I am raising extra, I would be happy to just give them away."
The other traditional trainer jumps, "If your looking for a pokemon there are many trainers and breeders who would be happy to give away some pokemon to a willing trainer, so don't be afraid to ask."
"Thanks for the advice. I'll make sure to do so in the future."
A few minutes later a fourth person comes. "Hey Booth, how is the trainer club?"
Booth turns and sees Macy. "Hello, Macy. I am enjoying it so far. The trainers here are easy to talk with after all. How are you doing?"
"I'm doing well, thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, I hope you found everything you needed."
Booth thinks then asks Macy, "There's one thing I was wondering."
After seeing Macy give a nod, Booth continues "Do you know any good places catch pokemon?"
"Sure I know a few places. The closest place from here is Woodruff Forest. Inside you'll find Steele Cave. There's also the Guffy River next to the lake. I would recommend looking around Steele Cave if you want an easy time finding pokemon, though."
"Sounds good. I'll look into it." Booth says.
Booth stays for a few hours at the contest hall. Besides talking to other trainers, Booth watches a pokemon contest. Booth is surprised to learn that many of the trainers there modify their moves to better suit contests. Many of the trainers even using Integrators.
The contestants show astonishing control over the abilities of their pokemon. One trainer has their pokemon send a flurry of fists fast and accurately at a dummy. The next trainer shoots a large blast that explodes magnificently. The last trainer fires what Booth can only guess is a Dark Pulse across the stage in the form of a destructive beam.
It's Booth's first time seeing these moves in this world, but he can already tell that they are not normal. Each of the moves is modified by the trainers to illustrate specific effects. Just by watching, Booth is given a lot to think on. Especially on how he should go about modifying moves.
Booth says goodbye to a couple trainers. Then goes back to the tiered trainer center to train. After watching the trainers at the contest hall, Booth starts testing more ways to use power.
His goal now is to figure out how to get certain effects. By understanding that, not only can he improve his moves he can personalize them for different situations like the contest trainers.