Leveling up.

Max's visit with the professor was annoying, yes, but he got what he came for: his pokedex and five starting pokeballs. He already had two Pokemon, so he wasn't looking to catch anything unless it was one of the few Pokemon that struck his interest in this town. Max had done his research before coming to the city of Pueri. There were basic Pokemon here, none of which would prove to be very useful in the long run. Yet, he was interested in two of them.

First things first, he needed to train his current Pokemon. They were indubitably weak and would stand no chance against any trainer that knew what they were doing. Max knew that in some scenarios his brains wouldn't make him win. He needed brawns to back up his brains. He decided to start his training out with Aetos first.


“Aetos,” Max looked down at the bird. “We needed to work on your Fury Attack, ok?” His eyes moved up to look at the wall of a building. On the wall was a series of boxes that Max had stuck to it. There were exactly 15 cardboard boxes with a three set pattern of O, X, and V. “I want you to fly parallel to the boxes and hit only the ones I say.” Max walked passed Aetos and stood the face the boxes so that he could see every box. “Hit the circle boxes with your Fury Attack.”

Aetos nodded once and then jumped into the air. He flew alongside the boxes, keeping his keen eyes trained on the symbols on the boxes. As he passed a box marked with a O, he would hesitate just long enough to slam his beak into it three times. Once he reached the end of the boxes, he quickly spun around and repeated the process, hitting the boxes no in reverse order.

“Stop!” Max called out the instant Aetos passed a O marked box. Aetos was throw off guard and lost momentum. He wobbled in the air and clumsily landed on the ground to face his master. “You missed a box. Start over, and hit the V boxes this time.” Max crossed his arms and watched quietly as Aetos gathered himself and then flew alongside the boxes once again. To Max's displeasure, Aetos was flying much slower this time. Even if he was hitting ever box with precise accuracy, the attack would be useless unless he had the speed to actually hit a moving target. “Faster,” Max grumbled. To his surprise, Aetos responded with out hesitation. He flapped his wings forcefully and began to cut through the air, yet he still hesitated to attack. “X.” The purpose of having an X and V boxes was to confuse his Pokemon. When flying fast enough, the X and V shapes should blur and be harder to tell apart, and as of now Aetos was used to seeing only the X marked boxes.

After ten minutes of perfectly hitting the boxes without slowing his pace, Aetos was beginning to feel confident. Then he messed up. He hit an X box on mistake. He didn't even need Max to tell him to stop – he had already landed on the ground and moved to stand at the beginning of the line of boxes. With a sigh, Aetos began to start again. He picked up his speed right where he had left it off. Every time he passed a V, he turned his body to jab his beak into the box three times, only by now the boxes were worn and hardly hanging on. Two of the three boxes had fallen from the wall, making the training far too boring now. Aetos stopped at the last V marked box and rammed into it with his Peck attack. The force behind Aetos' attack caused the box to cave in and then fall to the ground. He smirked and then landed on the ground. He turned and looked up at Max who was smiling down at him with approving eyes. Aetos ruffled his feathers and then glided up to Max's head and sat there happily.

(554 words. Aetos gained two levels.)


Next was Alena's turn for training. Max had looked down at his little girl as he tossed a baseball into the air and caught it repeatedly. “We're working on Defense Curl, got it, Alena?” He tossed the baseball into his left hand. “When I throw this at you, you have to use Defense Curl to deflect it back at me.” He gave no further warning. He threw the baseball at the unsuspecting Phanpy at full force. Alena yelped as he eyes grew two sizes too big. As she cried out, she turned to the side and ran from the ball and moved to hide behind a trash can. Max retrieved the baseball and then looked at Alena with soft eyes. “Alena, if you use Defense Curl, it won't hurt, so just do it.” That was his way of being nice. Alena slowly stepped out from behind the trashcan and nodded once, only this time she braced herself. Max threw the baseball at her once again with the same amount of force. She quickly pulled in her legs and head and turned herself into a tight ball. The baseball bounced off of her and fell to the ground anticlimactically. It lazily rolled back to Max's feet. He bent down and picked it up. “Alena, you have to bounce it back to me,” he said to her as she uncurled herself. She blinked twice then nodded slowly. “You got this.” Max threw the ball at her once again. Just as before, Alena curled into a tight ball, only this time as moved her body to hit the baseball. The baseball flew off to the side and into an alleyway.

Max rolled his eyes and, once again, retrieved the baseball. “Alena. The baseball has to come back to me,” he said with annoyance. “You're not that dense.” With that said he threw the baseball once more. Alena, who looked genuinely hurt, pulled into her Defense Curl position once more and spun her body once just before the baseball made contact with her. This time, the ball flew directly at Max's head with enough force to knock him clean out. Thankfully, Max had quick reactions and caught the ball, though it did make his hand sting a bit. “Nice. Do it again.” This time he took a more professional stance before throwing the baseball. He threw it with more force and Alena, who was looking more and more confident by the minute. Just as before, she spun her body to help her direct where the ball would go, and hit the ball back to Max. “That's good for now, Alena.” Max pocketed his baseball and then recalled Alena, putting her pokeball into his backpack.

(459 words. Alena gained two levels and learned Flail, but forgot the move Growl.)


Now that his solo training was done, Max decided it best to test out Aetos' and Alena's new skills on a Pokemon, or trainer, whichever he came across first. He strode through the town with his eyes set directly in front of him. He didn't bother to look at anyone, he knew that would probably only upset him and he needed to keep his cool if he was going to fight wild Pokemon.

(total word count: 1253. 1100 pokemoney gained.)