I hummed a tune as I rode on Flamel's back, slowly making our way back home from Petalburg gym. Kel strolled along beside us as Dolly chattered to me while sitting on Flamel's back at my front. Snap flew lazily above us while showing off the new flying maneuvers he had learnt. Toothless had just been introduced to the wonderful world of marshmallows and is currently trying to roast a stick of it without catching the entire thing on fire, holding the stick of the sweet goodness with his right front limb, the left front limb holding his unstable tail-flame underneath the stick of marshmallows to roast it. I remind myself to keep an eye on his sugar intake, can't have him eat too many of those. Bigblue and Lily preferred to stay in their pokeballs as they do not enjoy traversing flat terrain. Our newest members, Rena and Fuzzy, traveled with us as well. Rena walked alongside Kel while Fuzzy perched on my left shoulder and draped his tail around the back of my neck like a scarf.
Eight months have passed since my fainting spell back at the Petalburg gym challenge.
I was in a coma for two weeks before I woke up in the hospital. Norman was able to stabilise my condition with a Heal Pulse from another blissey he had on hand and rushed me to the hospital. Mum hugged me tightly after I woke up and berated me for being an idiot, saying that I could always take the gym challenge another day and I shouldn't have pushed myself if I was not feeling well. All was well until the conversation took a turn for the worst when she wanted to force me to quit being a trainer, and to let me live the rest of my life on the farm instead given how bad my fainting spell was. Naturally, I wasn't happy about the arrangement, and I threw my first and biggest tantrum ever since I came into this world. Dad had to interfere before things got sour between me and Mum. Maybe it was because she wasn't a trainer, but I don't think she understood how I felt about quitting the gym challenge halfway. The gym challenge wasn't easy even at the gym trainers portion of the challenge, and we were doing so well too. There were no guarantees that we could perform as well as we did if we gave up halfway just to return another time. She doesn't understand that as a trainer, I have the responsibility of not letting my pokemon down as well, and I have to meet their expectations just as I expect them to meet mine. She just doesn't understand. Can't she see my achievements? I daresay that less than 5% of the trainers in Hoenn had managed to win five gym badges in their gym circuit on their first try by defeating the respective gym leaders. I know she wants the best for me, but what she feels is the best for me is not what I wanted in life.
Dad and Vance didn't say much other than asking how I felt after I woke up. Dad was a trainer and Vance is in ACE, so they could relate to a certain extent as to why I pushed on despite my condition. That didn't stop them for giving me a good scolding, and I took it since it was well-deserved. What I had done was very irresponsible and I had worried my entire family. The doctors had mentioned that if Norman's blissey did not use Heal Pulse to stabilise my condition until the doctors in the hospital took over, I might not have woke up at all.
I was discharged another two weeks later. However, the doctors imposed a six month travel ban on me, saying that although I am well enough to go about doing my daily activities, I am not fit enough to travel outside Petalburg. They wanted me to go to the hospital for a checkup every month until the six months are up, and the travel ban will only be lifted if my recovery was satisfactory.
That disrupted any plans I had for my gym circuit. By the time I was discharged it was already the end of February. An additional travel ban of 6 months would mean that I could only continue my travels at the end of August. However, the annual Ever Grande Conference starts at the start of August every year, and ends on the end of August. I would have missed the opportunity to compete in the Ever Grande Conference.
Vance only gave me a pat on my head while trying to comfort me, saying that it was a pity that his favourite little sister would miss out participating in the Ever Grande Conference for that year. He admitted that my performance in the gym circuit was outstanding, and that I actually had a mini cheer-leading squad in the form of his ACE comrades who he usually shared my exploits to. They actually believed that I had a chance of finishing the gym circuit within a year, similar to Steven Stone, due to the fact that I earned five gym badges within five months after the start of my journey. There was even a secret betting pool among them on how long I would actually take to finish my gym circuit. I also noted with amusement that my untimely travel ban had caused the majority of them to lose their bet.
Inwardly, I was touched at the amount of support that these people gave me, even though I had never met them. Outwardly, I retorted that I am Vance's favourite little sister since I am his only little sister.
Norman had visited me a few times as well after I woke up. He also presented to me the Balance Badge and the Facade TM. However, he was a busy man, and only stayed for about 10 minutes each time he visited before he had to go somewhere to fulfill his gym leader duties. Apparently, there is more to being a gym leader than waiting for challengers in their gym the whole day.
I spent the first week after my discharge from the hospital at home, helping out on the farm and to continue training my pokemon. My pokemon had gotten very protective of me since I got admitted into the hospital. They had even came up with their own protocols when it comes to dealing with my stubbornness. If they think that I looked too tired while conducting their training, they would just stop whatever they were doing at once in an impressive show of teamwork and shepherd me away from the training area into a shady spot away from the sun, or simply carry me back home, much to my fond exasperation. No matter what I say, they will just stare at me with the look, and continue to stare at me in silence until I gave in and went along with whatever they think is safe for me to do. Usually I will just sit down beneath the shade of a nearby tree while they crowd around me, and we will just spend time together in comfortable silence.
After spending the first week at home after my discharge, I got bored and restless. It's not like I don't enjoy being at home or helping out on the farm. It's just that after travelling to so many places for the past five months, spending my time at home following a mundane routine made me feel like a prisoner in my own home. The only thing that momentarily brought me out from my boredom were the calls from the gym leaders that I had challenged before. If I had to hazard a guess, Norman must have told them what happened to me. Flannery kept asking me repeatedly if I was alright, Wattson made bad puns while laughing in his trademark 'WAHAHA' laugh after learning that I am now fine, Brawly expressed an interest to battle me again after my health got better and I became an Elite trainer. The first thing Roxanne did when I answered her call was to scream 'What were you thinking when you challenged Norman in that condition?!' at me before acting like a mother hen, asking questions to determine if I was truly fine.
The gym leaders all congratulated on my win against Norman. They had saw our battle when Norman sent them a video of it. They said that it was one of the best battles that they had seen from an intermediate trainer. Roxanne told me that I should be proud of my win, since it was Norman I was facing even if it was a battle of the intermediate level. She also told me in secret that no one she knew, including the other gym leaders, knew how strong Norman truly is due to the secretive nature of his previous job. None of the gym leaders had saw Norman using his main team in a serious battle against anyone else before. To add on, Norman is a recluse that rarely spoke and interacted with others unless necessary. Roxanne suspected that Norman's prowess as a trainer might be as powerful as Juan, but neither of them confirmed or denied anything, and they saw no reason to battle each other.
Roxanne's description of Norman was why I was so surprised that he was the one who saved me from my otherwise monotonous life for the next six months.
When he got wind of my six month travel ban, he came to my house personally with the offer to work under him at the Petalburg gym as a freelance gym trainer. I immediately accepted the offer, much to my mother's annoyance, since she thinks that I am the safest when I am at home where she could keep an eye on me. In my opinion, being a gym trainer is the best possible arrangement given my circumstances. I have a steady flow of income (not that I need the money since my family is one of the richest families in the world), I can get out of the house (FREEDOM!), I can continue training (some of them will be conducted by Norman, which is the main reason I accepted the offer), and I can continue to participate in battles (and I do not even need to look for battles since the battles will come to me naturally). Dad just rolled his eyes at my quick acceptance before reminding me to take better care of my body, and invited Norman inside our house for a cup of tea. Norman coming over to our house for tea soon became a common occurrence as he and Dad slowly became good friends despite their age gap, and it wasn't long until our family would frequently visit him at his house, situated beside the gym, for tea as well. Their conversation usually revolves around pokemon, the latest happenings in Hoenn, or news about world politics. After learning that Norman had a toddler child, Dad and Mum will also share tips with Norman on how to take care of children based on their experience in raising me and Vance. I highly doubt that Norman would need to apply any of the tips he learnt from my parents since Vance is the number one trouble magnet in Hoenn while I was an adult in a child's body. We weren't normal by any means.
I also met his daughter May, who is only a toddler at a year old when I first visited Norman's house. Looking at her, I still couldn't tell which pokemon universe I am in. If this was the anime verse, she would be a pokemon coordinator that will become a good friend of Ash Ketchum. If this is the game verse, she would probably be the future hero in taking out Team Magma and Team Aqua in the future, putting a stop to their reign, and eventually become the Hoenn Champion. She also could be the May counterpart of another universe of the pokemon franchise that I am not aware of in my previous life, or this world could be an entirely different pokemon universe altogether. Just thinking of it made my head hurt, and I settled on waiting for Max's possible appearance in a few years to see if this world that I landed in belongs to the anime verse. I could also fly to Pallet Town in Kanto to see if Ash Ketchum existed, but a foreigner actively looking for him in a foreign land when there was no possible way for us to know each other beforehand would raise a lot of suspicions. Furthermore, Ash would also be a toddler as well.
If this is the anime verse, I am staying the hell away from Ash Ketchum. That guy gets into more trouble than Vance in one anime season compared to Vance's 18 years of life in this world.
The very first thing I experienced when I entered Petalburg gym as a gym trainer was to get a stern reprimand from Norman. He reminded me that what I did was very irresponsible, and that I could simply request to pause my gym challenge the moment I felt unwell. Norman also told me that he would have approve to let me continue my gym challenge from where I left off the moment I recovered, and I was embarrassed since I did not consider that such an arrangement could be an option as well. I was of the impression that a completed gym challenge will only be acknowledged if it was completed in one sitting. Norman merely replied that if there was a very good reason in allowing a challenger to take a pause from the gym challenge, it can be arranged upon the gym leader's approval. He showed me a record book of a list of trainers who had to pause their Petalburg gym challenge and continued from where they left off, approved by him or his predecessor. There were many reasons listed, although most of them were medical reasons. I should have read the official gym circuit handbook given out by the Hoenn League to novice trainers. This particular arrangement was written on page 8 of the handbook under 'Special arrangements allowed in gym challenges'.
Being a gym trainer was an eye-opener. There were more gym trainers in Petalburg gym than the original seven I faced, since most of them were freelancers. The turnover rate of gym trainers is high and they changed on a yearly basis as being a gym trainer was a temporary job for most of them. Most gym trainers are advanced trainers that had already completed their gym circuit and were training for the upcoming Ever Grande Conference, some of them were of the Elite level. The main reason why most of them applied to be a gym trainer was because one of the perks of being a gym trainer was to have the chance to be trained by the gym leader themselves. Most gym trainers are Specialists, and they will try to apply to work under the gym leader that had the same specialisation as them, although it may not always be the case, like in mine. Some of the gym trainers worked at the gym full-time, for the sake of having a stable job or other personal reasons, and they tend to be older than the freelancers. Petalburg had 10 gym trainers including me when I first joined, and they welcomed me with open arms despite the fact that I defeated most of them in my gym challenge previously. I was the youngest member there at 11 years old, and probably the youngest gym trainer in Hoenn when I joined.
I felt embarrassed for a second time when I found out that the Petalburg gym trainers were at least advanced trainers in skill with all eight badges under their belt, and that I only defeated them so easily since the pokemon that they used doesn't even belong to them to begin with. Pokemons that gym trainers used are provided by the league, and part of their duties were to train pokemons for the league's use. Many trainers under the employment of the Hoenn League worked in dangerous environment, especially the Rangers and ACE operatives, and it is not uncommon for their pokemon to lose their lives while performing their duties under perilous conditions. Some of these trainers would choose to find another pokemon on their own to replace the ones they lost, a majority of them will choose from the pokemons offered by the Hoenn League. These pokemons offered by the Hoenn League are pokemons that were trained by gym trainers. If the trainer needing a replacement wanted a more untrained pokemon so that they could personally mold them into their liking, they will usually choose a pokemon trained by the gym in the earlier part of the gym circuit, like Rustboro, Dewford, or Mauville. If they preferred a fully evolved and highly trained pokemon, picking a pokemon trained by the gym in the later part of the gym circuit, like Mossdeep or Sootopolis, would be a better choice, although they will have to spend more time in letting them fit into their team. Some prefer to choose pokemons that were only partially trained, and would choose pokemons trained by the gyms that were responsible in testing intermediate trainers, like Petalburg. It is an interesting arrangement, and it serves to maintain Hoenn's military might by ensuring that trainers under their employment will always have pokemon to replace the ones that they lost while on duty.
Hoenn gym trainers will usually use the pokemons loaned to them by the Hoenn League in gym challenges unless the gym challenge is on the Elite level. In this case, the pokemons provided by the Hoenn League are often unqualified for challenges on the Elite level, and gym trainers are allowed to use their own pokemon team against the challenger. Most of these gym trainers have the same specialisation as the gym leader they are working under, so Elite trainers do not need to worry about facing a wide variety of specialisations against gym trainers. There will always be a few gym trainers that doesn't have the same specialisation as represented by the gym, but Elite trainers are expected to handle all kinds of different circumstances, so this arrangement was allowed by the Hoenn League.
When Norman reviewed the battle we had, he decided to place me in the Defense Room of his gym, which currently lacks a gym trainer as the one I had previously battled quit as a gym trainer shortly after I woke up from my coma. The other gym trainers are fine with being stationed in this room, but they prefer their original rooms more. The more important reason was that Norman needed a minimum of 10 competent gym trainers working under him so that the gym trainers can rotate their working days comfortably without being overtaxed. A large part of why Norman placed me in the Defense Room was because he was impressed at my ingenious use of Protect, and Bigblue's and Lily's defensive abilities have caught his eye as well. He also gave some pointers on how I could do better in that battle we had, like how Dolly could use Phantom Force to dodge slaking's Shadow Ball instead of defending with Protect to save her from unneeded damage, which I didn't think of at that point in time. He also told me that it was a bad idea to face pokemons who primarily uses sound-based attacks in an underwater battle due to how well they complement each other, as displayed in Bigblue's battle against his exploud.
Norman loaned three pokemons to me that were to be used against intermediate trainers. I remembered very clearly the conversation I had with him when I first found out what kind of pokemons he had entrusted into my care.
"Sir, you just loaned to me a chansey, a zangoose, and an eevee. Each of these are rare, especially eevee, and you are entrusting them to me, an 11 year old. What if people find out that they are in my possession and decided to steal them from me?"
"Call me Norman, Velda. And I am sure that they will be safe in your care." Norman then began to count the list of reasons on why I am the most suitable candidate. "Firstly, you are from the Vera family, who have dealt with many rare pokemons despite your young age. I do not need to worry that you will run off with these rare pokemons when I entrust them to you since you can easily get any of those from your farm, or through your family's connections. You have a regional starter and a prehistoric pokemon with you, each of them is worth at least ten times more than the three of them combined, and they are still safe with you. Secondly, after defeating me in battle at the intermediate level, you are at least an advanced trainer in strength. Not even Elite trainers will have an easy time trying to snatch the loaned pokemon from you. You will be staying at your house during your time here as a gym trainer, which is only a 20 minute walk away. Petalburg is one of the safest towns in Hoenn, and you are capable of defending yourself until help arrives. Thirdly, if someone is actually capable enough to snatch these pokemon from you, they have me to deal with. I may not be the strongest trainer in Hoenn, but I was one of the best trackers in ACE. Not to toot my own horn, but no one can hide from me if I really want to find them, including Wallace. He tried."
The only thing I could do after that was to gape in awe that even the Hoenn Champion is unable to hide from Norman. I accepted the fact that I was entrusted with three rare pokemons, and it is now my duty to train them to the best of my ability.
My time at Petalburg gym as a gym trainer was fun. The layout of the rooms are as such: Speed Room and Accuracy Room will be possible options to be chosen as the first room, Zero Reduction Room, Defense Room, and Recovery Room are the possible options to be chosen as the second room, and either the Strength Room and One-Hit KO Room will be the last rooms to challenge, assuming that challengers only chose to battle the minimum of three gym trainers. I battled with the loaned pokemons against other intermediate trainers who came for the Balance Badge, and decimated most of them with glee. The other gym trainers had nicknamed me "Mt Coronet" after the real mountain in Sinnoh, which is part of the mountain range that divided the east and west parts of Sinnoh. It was unscaled and unconquered until someone dug a tunnel through it in the warring states era, allowing the first Sinnoh Champion to lead his troops through the mountain range to conquer and unite the whole of Sinnoh. They likened my high success rate of preventing challengers to reach the third rooms and Norman with Mt Coronet's ability in preventing people from easily travelling between east and west Sinnoh, and I wasn't sure if I should be amused or annoyed at their sense of humour.
My notoriety in preventing challengers from earning the Balance Badge got me a special mention in the online forums. Most trainers had suggested a "flee on sight" approach for aspiring challengers if they ever saw the Defense Room.
In response, Norman just shifted me into different rooms every time I reported for work at the gym.
My working hours were from 10am to 7pm, with a one hour lunch break from 1pm to 2pm and one hour tea break from 4pm to 5pm. The gym only opens on weekdays and operates on a five day workweek. I will send my team to train with Norman's pokemon from his main team at the greenhouse located at the back of his gym while I battled challengers. There were only two instances that I have to battle Elite trainers with my own team, and I witnessed first hand on how strong an Elite trainer should be as they swept through my entire team without much effort, even if I managed to bring down at least one of their pokemon. Elite challengers were rare at this stage of the gym circuit since most of the Elite trainers were stopped by Wattson at the third gym in the circuit, who had years of experience in foiling gym challenges for Elite trainers.
Norman will also find time to train the gym trainers individually at least once a month in person, and it was the most valuable experience I had in my journey as a trainer. He said that I have proved that I am proficient in the seven aspects of battling, especially in defense, and that I am knowledgeable enough about pokemon. Hence, most of my training with Norman was spent on learning and practicing battle tactics, something which he drilled relentlessly into my head. He also told me to take this chance during my time as a gym trainer to let my pokemon learn and master as many moves as possible from his own pokemon, something which they were eager to do so.
Many things changed during the eight months I spent at Petalburg gym. Puberty had struck me like a speeding train and I grew like a weed. I am still a little short for a 12 year old, but at least now I looked like a 12 year old as compared to looking like a 9 year old when I was 11 the previous year. I had started to grow my curves at the chest and hip areas, and while they are not overly curvy, they are visible enough to pass me off as a growing teenager instead of a little kid. Many of the townsfolk had said that I am probably the most beautiful girl in the age group, which made me blush. I had inherited good genes from my mother, who looked more like she is in her thirties when she is in fact in her forties. Vance had commented that I have a "more elegant feel" to me now, something which he thought wasn't possible. That comment earned him a hard kick to his shin.
My pokemon had changed as well. Apart from learning new moves and undergoing vigorous training, some of them had evolved. Lily had evolved into a cradily, and had proved her worth to the other members of the team by consistently taking them on all at once and managed to hold her ground, earning the title of the best defensive battler on the team. Toothless had evolved into a charmeleon, and while not as strong as the other members of the team yet, is at least on the high end of the intermediate spectrum. I suspected that he could have evolve into a charizard at any time since most of his species would have attained their final evolutionary form after going through eight months of vigorous training, but Toothless chose to hold back on his evolution. Toothless's respect for me had not diminished after his evolution, but his stubbornness had grown exponentially together with his pride, something that Flannery had warned me about when I first received him. He was adamant on mastering Overheat for reasons unknown, and I secretly felt that it was the true reason why he held back on evolving. From my guess, he probably wanted to prove that he could master Overheat as a charmeleon before evolving into a charizard. I tried to tell him that while it is not impossible for his species to master that move at the charmeleon stage, most of them only managed to do so as a charizard, and that mastering Overheat as a charmeleon would not have any meaning other than a matter of pride. I explained that the main reason why most charmeleons aren't capable of mastering that move is because the organs that allowed them to breathe fire aren't developed enough at the charmeleon stage to generate flames intense enough for an Overheat, and that only a select lucky few are born with that capabilities. This would not be a problem when their species evolve and have fully developed organs to generate these flames as a charizard. In summary, there is no shame in not being able to use Overheat as a charmeleon. Toothless either didn't get the point I'm driving across, or chose to ignore it. I decided to leave it as it is for now, he will understand why I said it was futile trying to master Overheat as a charmeleon in time.
I also treated the three pokemons that were loaned to me as if they were my own, and reminded my team to not treat them as outsiders. Chansey was perfectly fine with interacting with my team, although she didn't bother to build any form of lasting friendship with them. I guessed that it was because she knew that I was only her temporary trainer and thus felt that there was no point in building lasting relationships with my pokemon. Zangoose was constantly wary of everything and everyone. He prefers to be left alone even though he is perfectly fine in following my orders in battle. I would not be surprised if he was another case of abandoned pokemon given how jumpy he is. Eevee was the special case.
Norman had warned me when I received eevee's pokeball that she is "a spunky one with a little attitude problem", if I were to quote him directly. It wasn't hard to see why he described her as such. Eevee had no problems with following my directions in battle and training, and took them very seriously. She has high expectations of herself, and placed the same expectations on other trainers or pokemons that she work with. Outside of battles, eevee can be bossy, which annoys other pokemons that interacted with her. She also hates rowdiness and prefers everything to be done in an orderly manner in a no nonsense fashion. I'm not sure if her no nonsense attitude was because she was influenced by how Norman usually conducts himself, or if she was born with that mindset. Eevee tends to take on the role of the disciplinarian of the team among the three pokemon that I was loaned with. Zangoose just ignored her while chansey just went along with the flow due to her easy-going nature. My pokemon were a little annoyed with her whenever they spend time with the three normal type pokemon. They have no problems with chansey and zangoose, but they disliked how eevee took her disciplinarian role so seriously that she started to try and keep them in line as well, when strictly speaking, eevee isn't part of our team. My pokemon can be a little rowdy due to the way we interacted with each other, but we were not overly so such that we make a nuisance of ourselves. However, to eevee, any form of rowdiness is unacceptable and she expected them to carry themselves in a "proper manner" just as how she carried herself. She will try to remind them to behave themselves by swatting them with her paws or tail which annoyed them to no end.
I was only a gym trainer for two weeks when it got to the point that even Lily, who was usually unaffected by everything that goes on around her, wrapped eevee in her tentacles and hanged her upside down to shut eevee up and bring my team a moment of peace. All these happened when I left them alone just for a short moment to help Norman with some paperwork. I had to interfere and save eevee from Lily when I returned. I wasn't pleased with how eevee and my team behaved around each other, and made them apologise to each other. My team knew that I was angry, so they apologised to both me and eevee. Eevee didn't get the memo, so I decided to punish her.
I rarely punished my pokemon, but my team knew how scary my punishments could be if I got angry with them. Back at Fiery Path, Bigblue and Snap got into a spat shortly after attaining their final evolution, and destroyed a large part of their training area while I was away at another spot training Kel. I hated conflict, especially if it happened among my pokemon. Furthermore, that particular training spot was so suited for our training purposes that it was hard to find it in the first place, let alone finding another one similar to it. It was the first time I got angry at my pokemon, and I took a leaf out of my Dad's book in handling uncooperative pokemon on our farm. I told them that since they have so much energy to spare in fighting each other instead of training, they have the energy to do extra strength and stamina training. As their punishment, I made them push boulders at least thrice their size to and fro the entire length of Fiery Path 10 times. No techniques are allowed when pushing the boulders, only pure strength and stamina. I watched them serve their punishment on Flamel's back while the rest of the team took a break from training, watching Bigblue and Snap pushing boulders. They were so utterly exhausted by the end of the punishment that they just lie on the ground gasping for air.
I did a similar thing for eevee, but instead of strength and stamina training, I changed it to evasion and stamina training. I made eevee run laps non-stop around the greenhouse under zangoose's and chansey's watchful gaze while they tried to snipe her with long-ranged attacks at least 20 feet away. If she managed to run five consecutive laps without getting hit by their attacks, or if I deemed that she ran enough, then eevee would have served her punishment in full. Of course, no pokemon techniques are allowed for eevee, the only thing she was allowed to do was to run and dodge. My team almost laughed at her predicament, but an angry glare from me shut them up immediately. As I expected, eevee didn't managed to complete five consecutive laps without being hit, so I stopped the punishment when I knew that she was nearing her limit. I had made sure to tell zangoose and chansey to tone down their attacks so the worst that eevee had suffered from the attacks were light bruises that will heal in a day or two. I collected eevee from where she collapsed on the ground, and brought her to a corner of the greenhouse and healed her up with potions. I was of the belief that pokemon can be reasoned with if they understand our language, so I proceeded to give her a long one-to-one talk on what was appropriate and inappropriate when interacting with me and my team, or any other pokemon team for the matter, and explained what she did wrong. I complimented her on her professionalism and work ethics, but also bluntly informed her that none of my pokemon, or any pokemon team, will accept her as part of the team if she kept up the bossy attitude. I told her that everyone is bossy to a certain extent, but sometimes we simply have to learn how to tolerate each other, especially when we are working as a team. I may only be her temporary trainer, but she is part of my team now, even if it was for a short period of time, and I don't wish for her to learn about the consequences of her actions the hard way when she got stuck with a permanent trainer later on.
I was afraid that I had went too far in my punishment, and that it would cause eevee to be uncooperative during our battles. To my surprise, eevee's respect and fondness for me actually grew. She took the initiative and apologised to my pokemon, both my own and the other two loaned ones, in my presence the very next morning. She tried to interact more with my pokemons and build some sort of rapport with them, including zangoose and chansey. The sudden change caught everyone off guard, and I've never seen zangoose so wary before while he was under my care. Eevee will also try to stick closer to me and follow me around whenever possible, which I didn't mind, and I tried to make her time with me as enjoyable as possible. I realised she enjoyed the sensation of being groomed after I noticed that she was watching me grooming Kel with longing eyes, so I offered to help groom her fur as well. After several grooming sessions, Kel and eevee became friends with each other and often walked around together in their own free time. Eevee also showed more enthusiasm in her training with me and my pokemons, whereas her training with me prior to her punishment was more of obligation rather than desire. Her change in behaviour was obvious enough to be immediately noticed by Norman and the other gym trainers when we battled together. Eevee actually placed absolute trust in me when facing challengers, which is something rarely seen among loaned pokemons used by gym trainers. They had cornered and asked me (even Norman himself) about how I managed to curb eevee's "little attitude problem". To this date, I still don't know how my actions managed to gain eevee's immense respect for me, so I told them the story in full.
There were suddenly many more wary stares at me from the pokemons in the greenhouse after that, especially those belonging to the gym trainers. I tried very hard to pretend that it wasn't because they had heard many untrue variations of the story of how I had punished eevee from their respective trainers.
The one thing I learnt from the stares was that gossips, even among pokemons, can be very scary.
Eevee's bad habits still popped up every now and then, but it is a lot more tolerable and she quickly rectified them whenever she noticed that she had gotten into her "bossy mode" again. My team welcomed the change and I was glad to see the group finally acting as a team once again, even if the three normal type pokemons were only supposed to be temporary members of our team.
Time passed. Norman had managed to find more gym trainers so that we have enough manpower to rotate our duties. There wasn't a need anymore for all the gym trainers to come to work every working day. We have a duty roster pasted at the gym's pantry, and I found out that most of us only need to work three or four days a week, excluding the gym trainers that worked full-time. I still go to the gym everyday to see if I could help out or to simply train at the greenhouse, since I have nothing better to do at home. Things went on in this manner until there was another major change in my life during my third month as a gym trainer. The gym had closed for an hour for tea break and I was lounging about in a room with the rest of the gym trainers on duty. Most of our bigger pokemons are outside at the greenhouse since they could not fit through the door, and the room wasn't very spacious to begin with. Kel rested and laid by my feet while eevee curled up on my lap while I groomed her. The gym trainers were discussing about what they wanted to do for their career after their participation in the upcoming Ever Grande Conference as the application date for it starts at the beginning of July, which is only about a month away. Norman was reading the newspaper, giving his opinion every now and then and I listened quietly as I groomed eevee.
Halfway into their conversation, eevee suddenly began to glow brightly, and immediately drew the attention of everyone in the room. I watched as she evolved from her position on my lap. Her body grew longer and more stream-lined, her tail growing to almost the same length of her body as the ends of her tail split into two. She grew tufts of fur that lengthened out from her cheek areas. Her ears stretched and became a little larger and her legs became longer and slimmer. When the light died down, an espeon clumsily stood up from my lap and jumped down onto the floor below, fumbling for a moment to adjust to her new body before turning around to look at me in the eyes.
Eevee had evolved into an espeon.
The gym trainers were shocked into silence, and we all turned towards Norman, who also looked a little stunned at eevee's unexpected evolution. It is common for loaned pokemons to evolve while under the care of gym trainers, but the chance for eevee to evolve at Petalburg as a loaned pokemon were almost non-existent as the conditions for her to evolve are too specific for it to happen at Petalburg gym. She either need evolutionary stones, or the Moss Rock or Ice Rock, or to be absolutely happy with her handler to allow her to evolve. No one will be exposing her to evolutionary stones or special evolutionary rocks, and her status as a loaned pokemon meant that she would not have time to bond with any of her temporary trainers as she was passed frequently from one gym trainer to another. There was another consequence of her evolution. Unlike other pokemons, eevee doesn't retain her normal typing after its evolution in the eight different evolutionary forms that she could evolve into, so she can no longer be used in battle against intermediate trainers at Petalburg. Furthermore, her evolution had meant that she had surpassed the intermediate level and had progressed to at least an advanced level in terms of strength. The fact that she chose to evolve into an espeon meant that she is also now unwilling to leave me, as it required her to have unwavering trust and affection in me to trigger her evolution. Espeons are known to be extremely loyal to the trainer that helped triggered their evolution when they are still an eevee, and hence espeon is no longer suited to be a pokemon on loan to be passed to another trainer after I quit as a gym trainer, for the sake of espeon's mental health.
Norman sighed as he put down the newspaper he was reading and beckoned me to follow me to his office, telling me to bring espeon with me. I picked espeon up from the ground and hugged her close to my chest, still a little bewildered, as Kel followed me and looked at us in amusement. I sat down on a chair in his office as Norman made a call to someone, who I presumed was an official in the Hoenn League. Five minutes later, he took out a few sheets of paper and told me to fill in the forms for a request to transfer the ownership of espeon, telling me that the Hoenn League had approved to give espeon to me, and all I need to do is to fill in these forms for an official transfer.
I named espeon Rena with no other reason because it just felt like the right name for her. She liked the name. My team was a little shocked as well when I told them that Rena is now an official member of our team. Chansey and zangoose simply congratulated her, if I read their grunts correctly. I cannot tell if they are feeling happy or sad at her departure from the gym.
Rena had major problems trying to control her newfound psychic powers after her evolution, and it caused things to float randomly around her at random times whenever she cannot rein in her powers. Jody, who is a fellow gym trainer and an Elite trainer, helped me in teaching Rena on how to control her psychic powers together with her grumpig. The most shocking ability that Rena now possessed is the ability to talk to me telepathically, and that she can peer into people's mind and memories with her psychic powers.
Naturally, she found out the biggest secret that I had kept to myself when she was experimenting with her psychic powers. She found out that I am now living my second life.
Rena's voice is like those of a teenage woman, and it felt silky and smooth. She told me that my secret is safe with her and she will not tell a single soul about it, even to my other pokemon. Despite having my secret found out, I felt a little relieved that I do not need to bear this secret alone. Rena isn't too concerned on how many lives I had lived before, or how my previous world was like, as long as I remained as her trainer. The ability to talk telepathically is common among fully evolved psychic pokemon, although the only humans that they converse with is usually their own trainers, something that I had learnt from Jody. Rena didn't delve deeper into my memories, saying that the act of invading into the memories of others is rude if done without permission, and educated me that psychic pokemons view these actions as breaking a sacred law of their own. She only found out about my secret by accident when trying to establish a more stable telepathic link with me. Hence, I do not need to be afraid of having my memories forcefully read by other psychic pokemons unless they were commanded to do so by their trainers. This also explained why Holly, my mum's gardevoir, still does not know about my secret despite living under the same roof with her for 11 years.
I continued being a gym trainer and trained together with my team. I spent the weekdays at the gym battling challengers as my pokemon trained on their own in the greenhouse. I would spend the weekends training together with my team on the farm, inventing combos with them while honing their existing moves. Each of them had learnt a wide range of moves and maneuvers from Norman's pokemon, and had taken specific roles on my team. Flamel is the fastest pokemon on the team, and takes on the role of being the lead pokemon that I usually use against unknown trainers. Bigblue is a tank. On top of being able to create shields out of rock, he is capable of taking large amount of damage while dealing even more damage against his foes, and is extremely hard to take down. Dolly is my best saboteur, and possessed the largest amount of moves among the members of my team, with Lily as a close second. Dolly soaked up new moves like a sponge, mastering them in a short amount of time before moving on to learning the next move from Norman's pokemon or from any other pokemon she meets at the greenhouse. She is now a walking encyclopedia of pokemon moves. Dolly excelled at foiling the plans of her opponents and taking down troublesome foes through indirect means, and had ensured our team's victory against difficult opponents when we fought advanced trainers we found outside the gym in our free time. Snap is our powerhouse with the largest amount of raw power, and the only one that we rely on for aerial battles, a position that Toothless will soon be joining when he evolves into a charizard. Kel's role on our team is also similar to Dolly that she can sabotage her opponents, but due to her dislike of conflicts, her way of doing it is by playing defensively while forcing the opposing trainer to switch out their pokemon. Kel's fight is also usually more dirty and underhanded, and she will bring victory for our team through any means as long as it is within the rules of an official battle. Toothless is still the weakest on the team in terms of power, but he will grow to be our powerhouse in time. He had mastered all of his dragon type advanced egg moves, and is brutal when it comes to battle. Toothless is also a battle junkie, constantly seeking out challenging fights. Lily is our best defensive battler now that she evolved into a cradily. Her access to more advanced rock type techniques after her evolution allowed her to shape the battlefield to her liking, and she excels at crowd control. She does not have the best physical defense, but her best defense comes in the form of the abundance of recovery moves that she can use to heal up the damage she receives. Lily became even harder to take down after Bigblue taught her how to use rock type techniques to shield herself, and they are an awesome combo in double battles. Rena is also capable of being my lead pokemon alongside Flamel, although she is a bit of a glass cannon. Rena can dish out devastating attacks, but is unable to sustain heavy damage to herself in battle. Hence, she relied a lot on her speed and psychic powers to make sure she remain safe in battles. I also taught her how to use Protect effectively, although it is not her preferred move for defense.
During my time at Petalburg, Vance also came back home a few times for a short stay in between the breaks he was allowed to enjoy after completing his missions. I will usually drag him along to help me train my pokemon during his stay, and he was helpful in teaching my pokemon the rarer and advanced moves that would be hard to master otherwise. His salamence had taught Snap and Toothless a wide range of dragon type moves, and gave me and Vance the biggest scare of our lives when it decided to teach Snap Draco Meteor on its own volition. Draco Meteor is one of the most destructive moves in existence, and a well-trained dragon is capable of wiping out a small town with it. Dad wasn't happy that the two dragons nearly obliterated a portion of the farm, and we had to drag our dragons to a remote corner of Petalburg when practicing Draco Meteor to ensure that they would not accidentally destroy anything. Macky and Dolly became prank buddies and pulled harmless pranks on the pokemon on the farm whenever they have the free time. We simply let them be since the pranks were harmless. Macky had also helped Dolly master the more advanced ghost type techniques, especially Destiny Bond, and taught her other exotic moves to add to her arsenal. Vance's weavile had helped Kel in her dark type techniques while his gallade and metagross helped Rena in harnessing her psychic powers. Toothless and Flamel learned under Vance's magmortar, who had evolved after I gave it to him as a magmar. Toothless and magmortar had hit it off immediately after meeting each other since they shared a love for challenging battles. Vance's sceptile helped Lily master her grass type moves.
Life in Petalburg continued as it is, and the doctors lifted my six month travel ban after seeing how my health had improved for the better during my rest that lasted half a year. I decided to stay for a little longer in Petalburg since I only have three gym challenges left, and I have a full year to attempt the challenges since I will be missing out on the upcoming Ever Grande Conference. Norman have to search for gym trainers again, since the bulk of them had left to compete in the Ever Grande Conference, and I have to work for the full five days per week until the new batch of gym trainers joined us. My twelfth birthday arrived, and my parents gave me a pachirisu that they found in Slateport during their business trip there to purchase supplies for the farm. The pachirisu had hidden itself among the crates on a ship that sailed to Hoenn from Sinnoh, and were found by my parents when they were checking the crates.
My parents knew that I have a soft spot for anything cute, and so they decided to capture this pachirisu and gave it to me as a birthday present. I named him Fuzzy due to how soft his fur is and his tendency to release sparks of electricity whenever he gets excited. Fuzzy hates to battle, although he sometimes join us in training for fun. The only thing he did in training other than trying to increase his electricity output is to participate in agility exercises, and he actually managed to complete five laps around the greenhouse without getting hit by zangoose's and chansey's attacks, much to Rena's surprise. Fuzzy is extremely hard to pin down once he gets into it. I am fine with Fuzzy not participating in battles, I have enough pokemons on my team that can hold themselves in battle and aid me in completing the gym circuit. His species is also not one that is built for combat, and are more often seen in pokemon contests or kept by civilians who needed a pokemon companion in their lives.
'You are daydreaming again, Mistress.'
A telepathic message from Rena brought me out of my reverie, and I looked downwards from Flamel's back as I saw her looking at me. She had taken to address me as 'Mistress' ever since she managed to establish a stable telepathic link with me. I told her that I preferred if she just called me by my given name, but she was insistent on giving me the proper respect as I am her trainer. I would be continuing my journey tomorrow, and I had just resigned my position as a gym trainer. My resignation will not cause any manpower deficiency issues now that Norman had found enough competent trainers to fill in the ranks. I felt a little sad when I said my farewells to chansey and zangoose. I'm not sure if I will see them again, and they were a little unwilling to see me go as well. I focused on the thoughts that I wanted to send to Rena, and send it back to Rena through our telepathic link.
'Just thinking of the time we spent together. We will be continuing our journey tomorrow. It has been a long eight months.'
'None of us pokemon really keep track of short periods of time unlike you humans. I still don't get why humans need...what do you call that? A calendar? Can't they just keep track of time by counting the number of moon cycles?'
'It's easier for us that way, Rena. And eight months is not exactly a short period of time.'
'You humans just have short lifespans, Mistress. Eight complete moon cycles is hardly a significant amount of time.'
A sudden yelp from Toothless made me turn my attention to him, and I saw that he had accidentally roasted his marshmallows into a blackened mess. Good, he does not need more sugar in his diet, he has been eating too many of those.
'Serves the lizard right. He has been annoying me with his preaching on how good and tasty those thing are.'
Toothless's predicament earned a round of laughter from the team, and I saw my house in sight at the end of the path that we were walking on.
"Come on guys, dinner's waiting for us."
My team chorused an agreement, and we hastened our pace back home.
I stared at the pokeball Vance had dumped on me just right before he left after dinner. We had only just finished washing the dishes when he pulled me aside, and started to tell about how cool Mt Silver is when he went there for a joint mission with STAR, the Indigo League's version of Hoenn's ACE. He talked about how smooth it is to sail on the back of a lapras, and how strong the ursarings there are, and a bunch of other details and stories which I simply tuned out and pretended to listen. I got a little suspicious when he purposely went into detail of how cool the wild pokemons in Mt Silver are, before he suddenly threw a pokeball at me which I caught on reflex, told me that 'This little guy is your belated birthday present. Buh-bye!', before cheerily teleporting away with his gallade to who-knows-where.
What. The. Hell?
I sat down on the sofa of our living room, dumbfounded. Rena, Dolly, and Kel crowd around me and looked at me and the pokeball, unsure of what to make of this situation.
"Come on Vel, I don't think it's anything bad."
"This came from Vance, Mum, his definition of a suitable birthday present is debatable. Remember the time when he thought that giving me an illegally customised pair of Running Shoes that can run up to 80km per hour was a good idea? Luckily we checked the shoes before I used it."
"Point taken."
For the sake of my safety and sanity, I pulled my Pokedex out of pocket and scanned the pokeball, which suddenly felt like a ticking time bomb. Just what did he gave me?
The screen of the Pokedex lighted up, and revealed the identity of the mystery pokemon.
"That's...I'm not sure if Vance's idea is a brilliant one, or an absurdly stupid one." Dad spoke, after seeing the identity of the mystery pokemon, now identified as a larvitar.
"Isn't larvitar... I don't know... absolutely difficult to handle? They evolve into a tyranitar at the end, right? Those are classified as pseudo-legendaries! How am I supposed to handle this guy! This is an absolutely bad idea!"
"Not really, if you can actually manage to get this guy -lavitar's a he right?- to respect you, you would have another amazing powerhouse on your team for the next Ever Grande Conference. This guy won't lose to even a dragon when trained properly, and your Mum and I can sleep better at night knowing there's a tyranitar there to protect you when you are on your journey."
"IF I can get this guy to respect me."
"WHEN you get larvitar to respect you, Velda. You are a better trainer than I ever was. Don't doubt yourself."
"I can go and see if there are any notes in our family's library on how to handle his species." Mum supplied helpfully.
"One thing's for sure." Dad interjected. "You cannot train and treat him as how you normally do so for the rest of your team, at least not in the beginning when he has no respect for you. Train him like how you would train an unruly soldier. His species only respect power, show him how strong you really are. Knock him down into the ground if you have to, as many times as you need. Show him that only you can bring out his full potential. His species is notoriously stubborn and vicious, so it probably will take a lot of time to finally get him to listen to you. Even among gym leaders and Elite Four members, not many will want to raise larvitars into tyranitars due to the amount of time and effort needed for the entire duration, which is a long time, so don't get disheartened if you don't see visible results in the short term."
"Vance probably just wanted to get back at me for giving him a magmar for his last birthday, I knew it." I groaned and threw my head back into the headrest of the sofa. Raising a stubborn and vicious pokemon is not on my to-do list for my journey, no matter how strong it may be in the future. I don't even know if I can handle it properly.
"If things really get out of hand, just send larvitar back to the farm. Your Mum and I can handle it."
"That's right, Vel." My Mum said, sitting down beside me and pulling me into a hug. "Remember to take care of yourself on your journey, ok? If your body starts to give you anymore problems..."
"I will inform both you and Dad before coming back home ASAP. I got it, Mum. I won't be as reckless again. I promise."
"Thank you, Vel. That's all we need from you."