Six months passed as Alex returned to his routine none the wiser with the results of his sound log. Not that he didn't care but that he was not allowed to know. He was only thirteen afterall.
In any case, progress was inevitable.
Name: Raticate, Expert
Type: Normal, Male
Ability: Run Away
Moves:
Advanced: Quick Attack
Raticate finally reached Expert ranked today, so they decided to check out what Expert-level battles looked like.
His move pool, on the other hand, was disappointing. When Alex asked Clarissa about it, she explained that her Charizard and his Raticate were outliers for having achieved Advanced proficiency moves this early in their development. Typically, Pokémon would need to be at the top of Expert before even beginning to experiment with them.
When Alex showed her Raticate's move pool progress, she was shocked to see that he had already reached Basic proficiency for all his learnable moves. However, she pointed out that this was a waste of time, as taking a move to Advanced would take at least a year even for top-level Experts.
Raticate would never be able to reach Advanced proficiency in all of his moves within his lifetime—Alex would inevitably have to focus on a select few to bring to Master rank instead.
But Alex thought differently. Raticate didn't have a choice. He had to reach Advanced proficiency in all of them to stay relevant in top-level battles.
His Growlithe on the other hand would likely follow the mainstream.
Name: Growlithe, Adept
Type: Fire, Male
Ability: Justified
Moves:
Novice: Covet(Egg Move), Ember, Leer, Howl, Bite, Thief, Roar, Attract, Endure, Retaliate, Wild Charge, Tera Blast, Heat Wave, Fire Blast, Overheat
Basic: Morning Sun(Egg Move), Double-Edge(Egg Move), Sunny Day, Dig, Facade, Protect, Sleep Talk, Rest, Substitute, Roar, Flame Wheel, Helping Hand, Agility, Fire Fang, Crunch, Snarl, Outrage, Thunder Fang, Charm, Close Combat, Fire Spin, Flame Charge, Will-o-Wisp, Temper Flare, Curse, Scary Face, Swift, Body Slam, Psychic Fangs
Growlithe grew about as fast as Rattata because he was being fed Pokéblocks with growth acceleration. They truly worked as advertised, considering that Rattata was an incredibly fast Pokémon to train with minimal effort.
Of course, there was also his immense diet, the ability to carry 220 lbs (100 kg) while sprinting for exactly 30 minutes daily, constant spars and battles with Raticate, and the Pokéblocks as the cherry on top.
The real wonder was that he only managed to match Rattata's growth speed despite all the effort he put into it.
And, of course, there was the third wave of TM disk purchases that set Alex back 137,000 Pokédollars. Alex had officially spent half of his savings, and at this rate, he might not have enough to last until graduation.
He hadn't originally planned to take this expensive route with Growlithe, intending to train him for just a specific set of moves. But after six months of Raticate's lack of progress, he started to worry that Growlithe wouldn't have any decent moves at all. In the end, he gave up and put them both through the same TM training routine.
It helped immensely that Raticate was there to tutor Growlithe on their shared moves—offering small tips and tricks, nothing too fancy.
When it came to battles, Growlithe still hadn't had his official school match yet. Raticate's strong win rate had been enough to secure the credits needed to purchase their Pokéblocks, so there was never a reason to risk it. As a beneficiary of those credits, Growlithe had been more than happy to defer the responsibility to Raticate.
But now that Raticate had reached Expert Rank, perhaps it was time for Growlithe to become the new breadwinner of the family.
Raticate as a Pokemon was only strong at the earlier levels similar to bug Pokemon like Beedrill. A Beedrill in the Novice ranks were menaces to early level trainers because they have already reached their final evolution whereas Pokemon with more potential were still struggling to reach their first evolution.
Now that Raticate cannot participate in Adept ranked battles, he was firmly reminded of his place in the food chain.
"Alright, Raticate. This is our first Expert ranked match. It's okay to lose. Just give it your all," Alex said as he encouraged Raticate.
Even Alex knew they were in for a rough time considering Expert ranked Pokemon were the most common around in school. The level range alone was quite threatening at level 40 to 59. At this point, 99% of Pokemon are already at their final evolution.
The real Pokemon Academy thrived in their Expert ranked battles where most of the college students were ranked in.
"Rati," Raticate said as he shrugged.
He still firmly believed that he could guarantee hits while being able to escape.
Their notification arrived and as they made their way to the battlegrounds, they spotted their first opponent in Expert rank. It was a Machamp right next to a tall burly man wearing a karate gi with a black belt.
"Trainers, ready. Battle begins in 3, 2, 1. Battle!"
"Bullet Punch."
"Quick Attack. Make sure you don't get hit."
Commands came in simultaneously as Raticate acted first and managed to graze Machamp while Machamp ran at him with similar speeds and a dark gray glowing lower left fist but missed. Raticate was now behind Machamp as Machamp slowly turned around to face Raticate.
Alex had the chance to set up properly with Swords Dance but was afraid of invalidating F.E.A.R. and losing to a Close Combat. He also wasn't sure one Swords Dance and one Giga Impact were enough to take this Machamp down. Even if it was, a Protect would throw that plan out of the window.
The fight devolved into a cat and mouse chase in which Machamp was cornering Raticate with a glowing fist while Raticate was bouncing off of Machamp's openings ensuring it never got hit.
If the fight continued any longer, Machamp would lose to chip damage that it was taking from Raticate. Unfortunately, that would take a while as Raticate was only grazing Machamp and not dealing full damage. Otherwise, Machamp would have simply lost after five solid hits from Quick Attack.
"Machamp, focus just like we trained."
"Try to get far enough away for a Swords Dance, Raticate."
The two trainers encouraged as the fight continued.
Unfortunately for Alex, Raticate never got the chance to use Swords Dance without getting caught. Their arena was smaller and Machamp never left too far from the center hence no matter where Raticate escaped too, it could never finish a Swords Dance that needed Raticate to be immobile without getting caught by Machamp who was on guard.
The chase finally ended when Raticate, believing he saw an opening, used a Quick Attack to target Machamp's right foot.
Machamp, having read the timing, pulled its left foot back and twisted its upper body in a low sweep behind it while swinging its glowing lower left fist to nail Raticate as he passed by back handing Raticate with a Bullet Punch which nailed Raticate in the face. This damage effectively neutralized Focus Sash.
"Quick Attack, get out of there," Alex commanded.
"Finish it with Close Combat," their opponent yelled.
With Machamp's upper left arm, it grounded the stunned Raticate by the back of the neck to finish its release of Close Combat. Blow after blow came from Machamp's other three arms as Raticate was held to the ground.
Raticate tried to Quick Attack away but was held firmly in place. Even when it released the Quick Attack, Machamp shrugged it off as damage to its arm while still holding Raticate firmly to the ground. Even if Raticate tried to use Dig, it wouldn't be able to escape into the hole it dug as it was firmly grasped.
In the end, Raticate fainted from a single release of Close Combat.
"Winner, Joe Holloway!" the automated referee announced as Raticate fainted from the beating.
Alex sighed and retrieved Raticate. Just as he was walking away to have Raticate revived at the medical facility, he heard his opponent, Joe, calling out to him.
"Hey, that was a great match. Your Raticate was feisty," Joe said with a big smile.
The guy was quite big and intimidating, even more with a menacing smile on his face. But, Alex was a former fighter and knew guys like him who were big and scary looking but meant well. So he knew this guy was speaking from the heart and not trying to be intimidating.
"Thanks. I never thought Raticate could meet his match and get pinned down like that. That was the first time he went for an attack that he was not able to escape retaliation from."
"Hahaha. Machamp is a big guy and quite slow so we trained specifically to counter hit-and-run tactics like that. You should check out the Fighting Dojo. You'd probably get some pointers to spot those fake openings better."
"Isn't that just a gym where you can get badges?"
"Well, yes. But they offer training as well. They teach Pokemon to fight better and not simply rely on Pokemon Moves. I called out to you because I happen to be a gym trainer there and we would love to have your Raticate be our practice partner. Not just anyone can pull off a hit-and-run tactic like that on my Machamp who was specifically trained to counter it."
"Um… Aren't you a student here? How could you do both?" Alex asked perplexed.
"My tuition here is being paid for by the gym. They sent me to be a better trainer overall and to broaden my horizons but I still work there when I don't have class. Why don't you swing by and let them know Big Joe sent you as a hit-and-run specialist. They'll know what to do."
"I can swing by on the weekends, I guess," Alex said half-heartedly.
"You do that. Oh, I almost forgot to mention. You'd get paid for it."
"I'll swing by today after Raticate gets revived," Alex said as he immediately changed his tune.
"Hahaha. That's more like it. Alright. I'll see you around," Big Joe said as he walked off for another match.
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