Chapter 260
“Alright, Nitey! You’re in charge today, make sure everyone behaves okay? And don’t let the little ones stay too long in the lake.”
“Niiite~”
Another day, another round of training by the Lake of Ether. Except, they were here early in the morning this ti around. As usual, Nina had her Pokemon all lined up and were addressing them one by one.
“Hear that? Brinny? Ra-Ra? Get out of the lake when Nitey tells you to.” The girl warned, receiving non-committal whimpers from her two youngest in response. “And Clody, tank training against Dhelmise again today.”
“Clooood…” The Clodsire almost deflated at Nina’s words.
The girl giggled. “I know you want to practice your domain, Clody. But we can’t risk polluting this place. I promise I’ll find you a spot to let loose soon, okay?. And today, we’re gonna up the challenge — you’ll be facing off against both Nitey and Dhelmise at the sa ti. Think you can handle being double tead by two of our team’s heaviest hitters?”
“CLOOOD!” At his trainer’s provocation, Sir Clodington puffed his chest out in a haughty manner, ready to face the challenge.
“Hehe. And I’m sure that if Dhelmise loses control I can trust the two of you to contain them. But just in case, I’m leaving Dhelmise’s Pokeball with Nitey as a precaution.” After receiving affirmative cries from the duo, Nina addressed Brucey next.
“And Brucey…” Nina gave her precious Crobat a hug and a kiss.
“Cro…” The oversized bat Pokemon crooned at the affection.
“We might not be able to increase your physical speed very much. But there’s no reason why we can’t increase your attack speed.”
“Kukuku…?”
“Hehe. Silly Brucey… Right now, there seems to be a fairly obvious lag leading up to the use of your moves. You need to eliminate that and make them instantaneous.”
“Cro.” He nodded with a sharp glint.
“And, rember what we discussed with Nitey before? Try to combine your Kage Bunshin with Poison — work with Clody if you have to. We’ll gas bomb the heck out of your opponents!” Because the Geneva Convention didn’t exist in this world! “Muahahaha!!!”
“Kukuku… Cro!”
“anwhile, I’ll try to see if I can’t find a TM for Snatch when we go visit Johnny later.” Because those were Nina’s plans today. Together with Espy and Azzy, the three of them would be eting up with an old friend in Vermillion City, to introduce them to her regular TM shop and hopefully, obtain a new secret move for Espy in return.
“Alright, everyone! Once again, be good and listen to Nitey alright? Unless he’s slacking off, in which case, you have my full permission to raid his secret candy stash.”
A chorus of cries sounded out and Nina reluctantly separated from her precious Pokemon with a feeble wave.
***
“Es! Espeon!” Espy excitedly yipped at her human, earning her giggles and ear scratches.
“I know, I know… You’re very excited to learn a new secret move. But it feels like forever since we were back in this city huh?”
“Esss…” Espy crinkled her nose in distaste. She never did like how crowded the tropolis was; surging roads, crowded sidewalks and towering skyscrapers, Vermilion City was still the sa as ever — bustling with noise and teeming with activity.
Nina giggled “Think you still rember how to get to Johnny’s TM shop, babe?”
“Es!” With a haughty huff, Espy slinked ahead of her human, her twin tails swishing back and forth as she went.
Turning into a dark and dingy alleyway, they eventually ca upon the familiar storefront with its murky glass display of various posters and TMs, and the stickerbombed and tastefully graffitied exterior.
“Heh. This place is as shady as ever…” Nina mused as she and Espy pushed against the rusty wooden door, the broken bell affixed onto the fra announcing their arrival with a hollow clang. Apparently, Johnny had broken the thing one day in his drug-addled state because it was “making too much of a racket”.
“Johnyyy~ My man! How’s it going?” called the cheerful Nina, but was only t with the tinny blare of background rock music on the speakers. “Huh? Guess he must be in the back then…” The sheer audacity to leave one’s shop unattended in such a suspicious location beggared belief.
“Es, espeon.” Espy affird Nina’s conjecture by slipping behind the counter towards where an unassuming door was, prompting her human to follow suit. It was supposed to be off limits without an escort but the two of them had already been inside several tis in the past whenever Nina needed a rare TM through the underground auction net or when one of her Pokemon were complaining about a TM they absorbed feeling a little off.
And sure enough, when they entered into the confines of the grey concrete walls and phosphorescent light, Nina could see the disheveled visage of Johnny with a tinfoil hat hunched over his computer and tapping away at the keyboard. Standing by the man was another familiar face and an Alakazam, eyes shut tight and face all scrunched up in discomfort while hooked up to a TM reader, the main purpose of Nina’s visit today.
“Mash! Mob! Long ti no see!” Nina called out to the boy and his Alakazam with an excited grin.
“Nina, Espy…” Mash responded with a ek little wave of his gloved hand. He looked the sa as ever; impassive face, neat trimd bowl cut and wearing the usual high-collared black uniform of The Psychic Institute — Sabrina’s school for the ntally gifted. “It’s good to see you again too.”
The girl smiled and returned the wave, trying hard to resist her impulse to go in for a handshake in consideration of the sensitive Psychic boy. “Sorry to drag you all the way from Saffron City today.”
“Not at all.” The boy replied with a shake of his head. “Johnny’s been an absolute savant. You should have seen the way his fingers danced across his keyboard! Like a maestro but with computers instead of pianos!”
Nina chuckled and moved in close to join him. That’s right, in addition to purchasing TMs from Johnny, Nina had also arranged to et with Mash today in order to introduce him to her TM guy. But it seed that the two had already gone ahead and got acquainted in her absence.
“That’s great. Didn’t expect Johnny to let you in here so quickly — took completing a grand quest before he opened up to .” She had been half expecting the paranoid TM expert to be on guard against a League affiliated Psychic like Mash. “But then again…” Nina looked down at the comically elaborate tinfoil hat being worn by the oblivious man.
Mash responded with a wry smile. “I actually ca here yesterday after you told about the place. Both Mob and I were too eager to wait. Sorry…”
Apparently, their first eting with Johnny was not as amicable as Nina had thought with the boy describing an exasperated scene of chaos. The belligerent stoner had flailed his arms around and called Mash a gypsy before accusing his Alakazam for being a mind sucker.
Nina could feel her eyebrows twitching as Mash recounted his ordeal. “I’m really sorry about that, Mash. It’s why I wanted us to co in together so I can introduce you to him properly.”
The boy vigorously shook his head in denial and assured her with an amicable smile — it seed the awkward esper had been working hard on his social skills. “No, not at all. It’s our fault for coming in without a proper referral. And besides, it all worked out in the end. With Mr Johnny’s help, Mob managed to learn trono! Well… most of it, the rest he had to extrapolate on his own. But at least it’s better than not being able to use TMs at all.”
Apparently, Johnny’s solution to the “slimies”, as he called Mob’s condition, was to just adjust the output of the TM on the fly to reduce the instinctive discomfort and rejection of the Pokemon’s sensitive mind. It sounded simple enough, but it was actually a highly skilled endeavour that required the utmost exertion even from an experienced expert like Johnny, as evidenced by the constipated look on the man’s sweaty face.
Nina nodded in satisfaction. Back when she and Mash had t back in Celadon City, the boy had confided in her about his Alakazam’s inability to absorb TMs, citing the intrusive discomfort to Mob’s sensitive mind. She had opted not to tell him about Johnny back then, in part because she was afraid of the man’s overreaction and in part because she was worried about getting in trouble for empowering a rival Gym.
But in hindsight, that decision had turned out to be a prudent one. Because now, she could trade it for a favor in return.
[Miracle Eye — a move that causes accuracy checks against the target to ignore changes to the target's evasion stat stages if its evasion stat stage is greater than 0. If Miracle Eye's target is a Dark-type Pokémon, it also removes the target's immunity to Psychic-type moves.]
Or at least that was the description of the move in the Pokemon gas. In real life, things were a bit more nuanced than that. As for the how of things, Nina and Espy would have to find out from their old friends later on.
After the whole debacle with Ariana and the fake Victor, Sabrina proposed the move as a counterasure against similar Illusions. “Although to my knowledge, only the Zoroark line possesses that ability.”
More specifically, it was a solution that already existed but that was never widely implented for reasons that Nina could not fully understand. “Sothing about how the move is very visible and that deliberately using it on other people was rude or sothing?” But more than likely it was due to political considerations.
In truth, Miracle Eye was a move that was exclusive enough that it could be considered proprietary to the major Psychic Clans all around the world. But in a sudden act of altruism, the Sumrs Clan decided to proliferate the move by teaching it to more mbers of their Gym and qualified Ace Trainers in light of recent losses brought about by Team Rocket’s attack. “Better late than never I guess.”
“Alright! All done!” Johnny proclaid as he spun around to address Mash, only to imdiately jump out of his seat and shrank up into a comically guarded stance when he caught sight of Nina. “Fucking, fuck, fuck! Who let you in here?! Ain’t nobody stepping foot in Johnny’s sanctuary without his say-so!” He screeched with a suspicious glare at Mash.
“Oh, relax~ Johnny…” Nina sighed. “It’s , Nina. Rember? Your favourite custor? I’ve been to the back of the shop enough tis already to know my own way. No need to get all jumpy like that.”
“Tch! ‘Course I do, the twerp who said she’d call in for mail orders but never did! And here she cos crawling back with impunity. The absolute balls on this one!”
The girl giggled. “Unfortunately, Johnny, you’ll find that as a girl, I don’t have balls.” Not anymore. “And sorry to ghost you, I ant to call in a few tis but Espy always manages to surprise with unexpected solutions to our TM needs.
“Damned cheating empath… Fucking gypsies gonna run out of business…” The man grumbled with a snort before turning to address Mash again. “Your bro’s all good now. One Hyper Beam in the books thanks to ol’ Johnny’s magic fingies. Anything else?”
“No, that’s it for today. I wouldn’t want to deprive my good friend here,” said Mash as he turned to Nina with a genial smile. “I’m assuming you want to borrow Mr Johnny’s services to help Espy learn that move?” After all, Espeon’s weren’t part of the incredibly short list of species that were capable of learning Miracle Eye.
More specifically, the list only included the Alakazam line, Xatu line, tagross line, Sigilyph and owstic. Those were the most known ones. “But I think I rember wtwo and that little alien Pokemon being able to learn it as well? What were they called again?”
Nina shook her head in response. “Nope. Given the confidential nature of the matter, I was wondering if Mob could just let Espy into his head for a little bit while he uses the move? But in the anti, yes, I do need Johnny’s help in procuring so TMs for .” She said as she handed a list over to her TM guy.
“Of course! In that case, we can do it back in the Saffron Gym then” The boy affird. “I’m sure Mob wouldn’t mind letting a dear friend take a little peek into his mind.”
And speaking of the two Pokemon, the Psychics were in the midst of touching spoons by the side in their own form of address.
“Zam. Kazam.”
“Es!”
Mob expressed his eagerness to engage in battle with Espy once more while the Espeon puffed up her chest and haughtily proclaid that she wouldn’t lose again this ti, eliciting good natured chuckles from the sight.
“Urgh! Spare the Butterfrees.” Johnny scowled as he swiped at the list. “Stockpile, Spit Up, Swallow, Yawn and High Horsepower are easy enough. Iron Tail… sure. Venom Drench, Trailblaze and Flash Canon’re gonna be expensive… Pretty sure you can figure out Play Rough and Misty Terrain with that cheat of an Espeon ya got. But Heal Block eh? That’s a nasty one. And Snatch? Gonna have to make a few calls for that. Finally… Sky Attack?” He scoffed. “Heh. Fuck off.”
“Awww~ Little Johnny ain’t up to snuff?” Nina chuckled, eliciting the big ol’ finger from Johnny.
Nina waved in amusent. “Alright, alright… gotta shoot my shot, right? Anyways, when can I expect them? I’m kinda in a ti crunch right now.”
“Tch. The next auction’s in a couple of days. And I’m gonna need a deposit.” The man replied.
The girl bead and produced a TM case from her backpack. “Here’s a TM for Draco Pulse to sell, a custom move by Nitey.” chanically, it was a pretty straightforward move that Nina did not mind sharing. “I’ll also wire you thirty grand upfront. Do you think that’s gonna be enough to get what I need along with whatever services were incurred by Mash?”
“Wait! Nina, you don’t have to. I can pay for myself—” The boy exclaid. But before he could protest any further, Nina stopped him with a casually raised finger.
“Oh shush. Don’t worry about it. I owe you at least this much”
“Urgh… Fine! But you have to let treat you to a al later. And maybe take you to a few Psychic shops in the city. I’m sure we can find sothing that’ll appeal to Espy.”
“Alright, break it up!” Johnny interrupted with a clap. “Johnny ain’t got the stomach to watch you two Luvdisc fuck around. So if there’s nothing else, get the fuck outta my shop. Go on! Get!”
With a wry chuckle, the two teens beckoned for their Pokemon to follow as they made their way to the nearest Teleport station.
s/zebraunicorn
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