We found ourselves a nice spot that was NOT coated in burning grass. The strong trainers that did that were shaking hands and ughing about something as one of them spat on the grass. The droplet spread out and became a water pulse that got rid of the remaining fire on the destroyed terrain before the other trainer stomped and leaned into the stomp to level the ground back out from being wrecked with some sort of earth bending skill.

  It was amazing and something simir to what my grandmother said she could do in her youth but less than her peak form. Thomas continued talking about ghosts as if this didn't concern him. I gave the ground another look and saw the grass slowly growing back again to make it look like the rest of it as a worker on a Meganium ride over to the battlefield with a perturbed look. Before there was a stadium sized patch of destroyed earth and burning grass.

  Amazing!

  There was a crowd forming, trying to get closer to the two girls but they just out sped them as they stood there, the ground moving as fast as a Rapidash. I looked up at Puff who was also looking on from her perch. She was in awe as well and had stopped her constant humming to watch them. Sin also checked them out but with a more respectful gnce and nod. "FAST, FLY GO FAST!"

  Off Fly ran, trying to catch up to the figures as they passed by to get to the city. One of them pointed and ughed at her attempt but they evaded the puppy. I let her run, sending Puff to watch after her to make sure she didn't enter the city and get lost without me. A battle was afoot, though I wasn't about to ruin her fun only to have her sit and watch.

  Sin watched on as he used focus energy, trying to find weaknesses that he could exploit if he were battling after Ian asked him to. They had gotten closer in their teacher and student retionship while also having simir mindsets.

  "Ok Ian, lets do this!" trying to hype my Pokémon up.

  "Come on Lori, it will only be for the battle. Yes, yes, ok. You got this" Thomas had a conversation with his own starter, the Corso seemingly not liking to leave her comfortable resting pce. She did exit his shadow to slowly walk in front of him, even slower than Ian somehow. She sunk halfway back into her shadow but used it more like a fort while her coral spines sat outside. Her eyes were mournful, creepy, and disturbing. I had seen worse.

  "On the count of three go, one two three Ian wide guard now!" normal Corso were ranged attackers so I hoped Lori was too.

  "Bulldoze and keep him away with icicle spear" the wide guard immediately went down to the wave of dirt that moved through them and hit Ian, who was hiding behind it. It rose up only a few feet away and it moved fast so I couldn't warn him before the wave hit him. The following icicle spears also hit Ian, doing more to him than the physical attack had. The icicle tips hit him and visibly made a dent in his steel as I ordered him forward, autonomizing as he did. They must have practiced icicle spear a lot compared to bulldoze, I had not expected that.

  "You need to get close, slice those icicles out of the air with fury cutter but try to dodge" I called out. I was waiting to surprise him with shadow sneak, just like he had with bulldoze which would counter the ground type move.

  The strategy was sound but Ian wasn't able to dodge recurring waves of dirt and icicles well even when he was as thin as he was. We lost after a trio of spears crashed into him, the first two knocking him back before the st knocked him out. Lori was a sniper for real, perching from her shadow fortress and taking aim from many yards away. I'd ter learn that she was using a modified destiny bond to feel his emotions, feeling when he was preparing himself to ssh or a feeling of readiness when dodging.

  "How does that even work so well? I mean its just emotions right?" I asked while getting healed up.

  "I can teach him if you'll spot me 200 pokedolrs and a couple pictures of Ian. Lori's has had a lot of practice against opponents who feel differently than normal. All the dark types around here and from the gym are all different, some have strong emotions, others are almost emotionless so we trained pretty hard on it along with the TMs I was able to get my hands on. Bulldoze was my most recent investment actually" ah TMs, something that could save me so much effort and yet I will never buy.

  For new trainers and those who want to get strong quickly they are the way to go since better moves can be learned without their lesser variants. BUT Silph Co has an uncontrolled monopoly on the things so TMs are also jacked up super high. I can't even imagine what some of the rarest ones like ones that legendarys or even the gods use would go for.

  Even a reusable protect, a great move that almost anything can learn costs 50,000. I can totally see how Thomas might have spent all his money, not just on snacks either. I caught sight of Puff floating in the distance, talking with Spritzee and another Pokémon that was too far away for me to know what it was.

  "So, you studied past gym challenges somehow?" I curbed the conversation towards something interesting he told me. I was familiar with watching gym challenges in person but that required hours and sometimes the battles weren't for your badge level.

  "Yeah, you can find their videos online. Here let me show you" he pulled out a ptop with a Banette on the back. He spun it around on his hand and tilted the screen up once he was finished fiddling with it. "Do you know what type of battle you signed up for?"

  "The specialty one" I had looked over the options and there were a couple others but they were a bit too vague to make me switch away from bonus points. The temptation was too strong when I could get my first 'gimick' here.

  "Alright, I'm just doing the normal one to get my feet under me. What you need to look at are the 6 v 1 dynamax specialty. 6 trainers with 1 Pokémon each have to fight a stronger Pokémon that is dynamaxed. Really cool idea that shows you what the wrist band actually does" Thomas went on showing me how to first get to the site, sort for the second badge, and even the different types of challenges that they offered. That st one could have been real handy before I registered so I'd have to show this to Puff before I forgot.

  If I had a psychic type, they would usually be smart enough to help out with something like this as well but being so near the two biggest dark type locations on the continent wasn't helping my chances of getting such a useful secretary. Usually Pokémon drifted towards areas with other Pokémon and environment that matched their types and preferred living space while they stayed away from areas that they would have a disadvantage in or couldn't live in. There weren't going to be any electric types in the Great Sansen Desert except for maybe Stunfisk for example.

  We talked for a couple hours, going over ways around certain moves that were commonly used by this gym and potential strategies. He even helped me find some local wild Pokémon that I was interested in. He lived here so he knew all of them like I did back in my home. Sadly, none of them stood out enough to influence my choice. My unpnned Pokemon would have to be something special for me to make that call. I had a long year ahead of me, so I had time.

  When he went home I was somewhat relieved though. I had sort of motioned for Ian and Sin to go train on their own as I couldn't find a good way to end our conversation near the end. He was a nice guy so I didn't want to be rude and that left me and my limited interactions with others from outside my vilge to stand there and listen to him a lot.

  His team(except Lori) were all having fun with various ghost type moves and trying to scare other people in the area with sudden appearances and Lori was the one to actually pull him out of his ranting when she barked at him for something he said about her feet.

  "I got to go man, it was fun talking with you. Uh as for training Ian I can come back tomorrow after my gym battle, I don't know if you want to watch or not but its at 9 am if you do."

  I kind of did want to watch actually "I'll be there if I can, thanks for the battle earlier and good luck tomorrow."

  "Thanks, good night and see you in the morning!" he called as he started moving to end his team's pranks. His Phantump was leading these escapades and was a lot more trouble to reel away since his Sandygast body blocked for his leader and preventing it from being recalled easily. Soon it stopped when Phantump determined that it had had its fun and Sandygast followed suit.

  "Good night!" I called while waving at the trio and shadow. I kept waving until he turned around and then went to look for the duo of strong trainers that had attracted a crowd. I found Fly busy racing a Herdier around with awkwardly energized steps. An older girl looked on while chuckling.

  "That your poke there?" she asked. When I nodded, she looked back "Little thing is pretty fast. Been a good long while since Herdier had fun racing anything, so thank them for me will you?" Herdier suddenly sped up as they got closer to the imaginary finish line and Fly in her hunger to win became ced with electricity before a thin cloud like-part of it spread out, encapsuting the other racer's leg. The Herdier twitched and missed a step, stumbling enough to allow Fly to get ahead of it.

  The trainer looked at me with surprise. That wasn't a move that I knew of.