Theory Crafting
Steven was about at his breaking point, he wasn't having fun anymore. Route 1 was too boring and stale for him and his pokemon, they were all pretty weak in comparison to his team. So in this time of battling, resting, strategizing, and walking Steven started his next big project for his team. This was the last bit that Steven needed to prove that even the last generations mechanics would still work in this world. Steven was attempting to get Prince to unlock the first ever fairy type move ever in this world.
'My lord, even if you tell me to train in another element, if you cannot accurately describe what I am even looking for, how am i supposed to do it?' Currently Prince was undergoing a special training session on route 1 because they needed some real training rather than just the mundane trainers and pokemon they had been fighting until now. This is the point they were at now, theory crafting. Steven knew that fairy type exists and that it could be a final trump card to whoever he ran across, simply put, how could you fight something that you've never seen before, easy enough concept, hard to pull off though.
Steven thought for a moment to himself and replied,'Look Prince, this is something I will not be able to fully guide you on, you must find the power deep inside your core. I know for a fact that you can do it, in fact I personally believe that you might be the only one capable of doing this in the entire world at the current moment.' Steven said this and Princes features became prideful and arrogant so steven added on,'that is at this moment, but, if you can't do it I will try to think of another pokemon that might actually be able to change history forever.' This was a bait steven was laying out fro Prince, since he knew that Prince liked to think that he was the strongest in the group, which wasn't technically incorrect.
–flashback–
Prince collapsed onto the floor of the training field with a sudden "Thwump!". He looked around and he could see Steven, Queen, and Smoker all rushing over to assist him. Steven was the first to run over and shouted in his mind,' Are you ok?! You just suddenly collapsed!' Prince knew the reason why he had collapsed but he could not tell steven as steven would definitely scold him. Prince collapsed because of all the extra training he was doing even in the nighttime. Prince had realized that with the emergence of Queen his spot as the team leader and the most powerful in the family was in jeopardy, after all he was the first pokemon to start training, so naturally he should be the strongest in everything. Prince was now ashamed, he tried to push past his limits but he was stuck at a bottleneck in his development and he was getting extremely frustrated that he wasn't getting any stronger, thus this situation was currently happening.
Steven looked onward as Prince slowly got up. Eyes full of hatred and with tears in his eyes. Prince knew that steven could probably help him but right now his pride as warrior and royal of his clan was telling him that he needed to do this on his own. He looked at Steven and simply said,'I am fine, do not worry!' Then to get them to go away he started channeling his psychic powers and started to attack one of the boulders repeatedly. 'Do not let them see weakness! No weakness! No defeat! No honor!' Prince thought to himself privately while he forced his weary, and broken body to continue the training he was undergoing. Smoker and Queen took his words at face value, said goodbye and went back to their own personal training. Steven remained but didn't say anything, only watching Prince. Prince continued his attacks on the giant boulder, but no matter what he tried his power wouldn't grow anymore, nevertheless he continued for hours, striking the same boulder. The whole time Steven said nothing and just stood there with what looked like an unsatisfied expression on his face, which made Prince feel even more ashamed that he could not break this bottleneck. To him, not being the strongest in the group wasn't an obligation or something he personally wanted, but his duty as the first retainer of the lord. If he could not even get stronger in the early stages, what would happen when they got on later down the line, his power wouldn't increase and most likely he would be taken out of the team, possibly only called upon for translations and such, which was a nightmare that Prince had had many times.
Prince didn't want to fail this task, especially with Steven staring right at him. The next time he fell it was night. Prince looked around and found Queen and Smoker had already gone inside and only himself and Steven remained outside. Prince judged that it was probably around 11 at night based on the moon about 2 hours after they usually stopped, with the exception of 'speciality training', which can sometimes be during the night. Prince collapsed in front of the rock and was crestfallen as the realization that he had failed. 'I have failed you my lord, my power is so pitiful, why would you ever need someone like me?' Prince thought to himself in self deprecation.
'Who said you have failed?' Prince heard in his mind, which startled him. He had definitely thought to himself and not to steven. He looked at the young man who was his lord in suspicion and thought back,'did you just hear my thoughts without me connecting my mind to you?'
Steven smiled and said to prince,'You're not the only one who does secret training, but there is a reason why I stop at night most of the time. That is rest, your body may be willing but if the mind is not rested how do you plan to think, to grow, strategize and all that wonderful stuff?' Prince was shocked to see Steven on his side, up until now during training Steven had been berating him, breaking down his walls while also building new ones. Prince nodded and didn't reply and simply walked his body with what little energy he had left over to the house and as soon as he set his head in the bed he fell asleep.
The next day he was well rested after a full 10 hours of sleep and he went over to the field with a much better feeling than the day before, he couldn't explain it, but he was more confident now, more assured that he could do it, he would break this bottleneck today even if it killed him. This was the turning point his mind had made during his sleep. He lined up in front of the same boulder and took his battle stance. Right before he started attacking, he noticed Steven, Queen and Smoker all standing on the side about 20 feet away, silently staring at him. Prince figured that this was something that Steven had cooked up to motivate him, and by god was it working. With his friends and lord staring at him, Prince now had a chance to prove himself. This was his own trail, something he had to conquer on his own, but having support on the sidelines invigorated his mind.
He struck the boulder,'not enough power'. Again, he struck the boulder,'no thats not it'. Prince continued to strike the boulder and as he fought he started to think what he could do. Then in the middle of striking the boulder he had an epiphany. Maybe he was thinking of his power in the wrong way. Until now, he had imagined his power as water in a container, in order to have more water the container must be bigger and sturdier, and what Prince had been trying to do until this point was continually make the container bigger and sturdier and right now his container was full, and it wasn't growing anymore. Now Prince had an idea, what if, instead of just making the container bigger, why couldn't he just condense the water inside the container? Now prince realized he was on the verge of a breakthrough, he could sense it, so he carefully rotated the energy in his body, his breathing slowed down to a snail's pace, he focus on the energy, the water, and no longer even looked at the container.
Then when it felt like the right time, Prince struck the boulder once more. The effect of the breakthrough was so extremely evident that everyone was surprised. Before he was barely scratching the thick boulder with his attack, but this attack with his new condensed power, well it directly cracked the boulder into 3 separate pieces. He had done it. He had broken through, and after his strike he passed out. Stevens' smile was the last thing he saw as he passed out.
–present–
Prince frowned, he did not not what his lord was trying to get him to do. He was supposed to unlock this new type, called fairy. But also according to steven, no one on this planet has ever done it, so how was he supposed to? Then his competitiveness kicked in and Prince knew that he wanted to do this. He would open the doors for his lord to become the best among the best, and if he had to repeat the experience from before he knew that he could do it again.
'Ok, my lord, I have decided to go at this whole heartedly. I shall not fail you!' Prince said with eagerness in his heart. Prince had long ago learned that trying to argue with steven was pointless and more often than not his theories and ideas would help immensely with training and strategizing. This was one of the reasons that Prince and his other teammates liked to learn from steven and truly respected him, because even with all their power, to be able to see growth on the scale that steven has been pumping into them was unprecedented and they all knew it. In fact, for all of them, including himself, the challenges and obstacles that steven put in their way only made them respect him even more. Being physically and mentally challenged day in and day out was the best thing Prince could ever ask for, because the more you are challenged the more you grow. Prince knew that him, Queen and Smoker were not normal standards for trainer pokemon in the early stages, heck, he was pretty sure that as they are now they could probably take on an entire platoon of pokemon and probably still win. To put into a perspective that he could more easily understand, steven had once described powerlevels as such,'When i first met you in the forest you had the power of about 1 to 3 rattata. Right now, after your breakthrough, you have the power of about 120 rattata. Queen has about 90 rattata and Smoker is around 80. Before your breakthrough you were sitting around 90 to 95, so this was a great achievement for you!'
Prince looked at steven after he thought back to those days of extreme training and suddenly had an idea,' My lord, this fairy type, you say i already possess some knowledge of it even if i don't know it, so i have come up with an idea that could possibly help. I am going to meditate, and while i search my core for this allusive energy you will list off everything you know about the fairy typing.' Steven looked at Prince with a slightly shocked expression but smiled after a few seconds, steven had started the process and now it was up to Prince to figure out the power and where it lays dormant.
Steven said,' Ok' and Prince got in his meditation position. His position was rather simple, he would sit with his legs crossed while cupping his hands together to make a loop of energy throughout his body, circulating it with a higher efficiency than just a regular meditation. This was another thing that steven had taught Prince early on in his training. With just a general description, Prince found out how to successfully harness and control his physic power with this type of cultivation. Steven waited for Prince to get ready and started to list off everything he knew about the typing,'Well first, the fairy typing is extremely resolute and is super affective against dragon type, dark type, and fighting type, as well as being….'
–2 days later–
Steven launched a kick in Smokers direction, but the young pup managed to dodge out of the way just in time. Smoker then went in for a bite on stevens leg but steven avoided it by sweeping his leg underneath Smokers front leg, causing him to fall to the ground. Steven walked up to Smoker and thought,' That's my win buddy!' Steven and Smoker were doing combat trials against each other, currently Steven was losing with 2 wins 3 losses for the day so far. Smoker and Steven had been practising drills in a small forest near route 1 while Prince meditated in the field not to far from where they were. Queen was on border duty at the moment as Smoker was on it yesterday while Queen and Steven had done these same combat trials. Queen had lost yesterday to steven with a score of 17-14 in favor or Steven, and while she was a little dejected that she had lost overall, she was thrilled more than ever to have a lord like steven who could challenge her.
Steven and Smoker took their position about 20 feet away from each other and after 5 seconds they rushed to attack each other once more. Right before they were about to collide once more there was giant "BOOM!!" from the clearing that Prince was in. Steven and Smoker rushed over to see Prince standing in the middle of the field, looking at his hands as he stared at the crater around him. Steven, Smoker and now Queen all rushed over to Prince to see if he had done it. Prince took a knee in front of Steven and said to him,'My lord! I believe i have succeeded in accessing the Fairy Type!'
Steven was overjoyed! He knew Prince in theory could do it but didn't know if he would be able to do it in reality. Now steven knew it, everything he knew about pokemon from this generation to the latest 8th generation, he knew it all had to be true. Steven had done it, Prince had done it, and now the future of their journey was radiant like the stars at night.
Steven looked at Prince and took out his notebook and jotted down everything he saw around him, making sure to record it all in high grade detail. Next he went to interview Prince about how he had done it. 'Prince, I need to know what you experienced, and how you found the fairy type in your core and how you finally unlocked it.' Steven said, excitement in his voice made that made it very apparent how happy he was.
Prince was also happy, to achieve such a great milestone, one that his lord personally requested of him, made him so extremely happy he wanted to cry, but royalty did not cry and he would not lose face over mere feelings. Prince responded,'My lord, please be ready, I have a report but I do not know how helpful it will be to you. First, after you told me of the weaknesses, strengths and advantages of the typing it made me have a firmer grasp of what exactly I was looking for. Then there were some of the moves you listed off, the first one you said "disarming voice", sounded familiar to me for some reason, even though i know i have never used, nor heard of the move before, therefore after some thought, i figured this must be a low level fairy move. This was most likely one of the moves I am able to access upon birth, at least that was what it felt like. With this reasoning, I will be able to focus all my power on this one move, however no matter how hard I tried I still couldn't find the energy. I tried many times, and failed all but once. After repeated failures, I will admit I started to get frustrated, but that was when I noticed that just behind my physic energy there was very small energy, one that I had never touched before. This energy was not like psychic energy i have been using, it felt more like the radiance and grandeur that the moon gives off during the night time. So I focused and honed in on this energy, and then I did something that even i did not even think I could do. I shouted in frustration in my meditation world and the mysterious energy suddenly ballooned to 2 times the size it was before. I did not miss this chance, I grabbed hold of whatever energy I could from this mystery energy and once more shouted in frustration at the notion that this was giving me an impossible challenge. That's when it happened, the fairy energy inside me created a new container to hold it and I used all the remaining energy in my body to unleash a "disarming voice" as loud and powerful as I could, which i'm guessing is what caused this explosion'. Prince finished his report to Steven who had been fervently writing every word down.
Steven finished his writing and said to Prince,'Ok thank you Prince, today you have taken a step toward your revenge, this undoubtedly will be the key to winning. Now, I know you just got out of meditation but for the next 3 days you will do the exact same energy training that you did with your psychic energy in the beginning, however i'm sure this time it wont take nearly as long as you know exactly how to from the energy within your body to suit your needs and how to make it grow in such a short time will not be a problem for a genius like yourself.' Prince was stunned beyond words, his lord had called him a genius, today was the greatest day of his entire life.
Steven looked at Prince, then looked at the rest of his team,'Today is the day that we starts our journey for real! I hope you are all prepared for this! It wont be easy and i will challenge you every step of the way.' In response to his words all of stevens pokemon knelt down on one knee and said,'Lord! We are at your command!' Steven smiled once more.