training is worse at night.

[xxKrows.]

XUAN

The Weavile 'morph paused, having second thoughts. Her Pokémon weren't going to respond well to this idea of "training", when it's done in the middle of the night. She herself didn't like the idea of something dangerous lumbering out of the forests at midnight – her only choice would be to run back into Pine Village, then. But this was the entrance to Route One; how dangerous could it get? She wanted her Pokémon up to a sufficient level, despite the fact that her heart was not truly in becoming a Trainer. But Pokémon who have been taught many skills sometimes passed those down to their descendants, and if she wanted good stock Pokémon, she might as well start now.

First up, she thought, would be Mustela. The Sneasel, like her own Weavile self, would take more kindly to being awakened and told to train at 11 PM. She could see well, and if something got disturbed – well, she was the faster of her two Pokémon. Then she would train Rex. If Mustela was a success story, Rex would be more likely to follow her leader.

Jun was in Weavile-form now, and though still rather sleepy and constantly yawning, he didn't utter more than a word of complaint – and that word was "Uh", she remembered, quietly proud of her Daemon; any other sane diurnal creature would not appreciate keeping late hours. They were going to suffer for this, tomorrow, but she already planned to leave during the afternoon anyway. Not much harm done there.

She plucked Mustela's Pokéball out from her belt, maximising it to its larger size. With a soft call of "Come out, Mustela!" and feeling rather silly at that, the 'morph tossed the Pokéball at a tree. Upon contact, the ball split open, and a flash of light so brilliant that it lit up the entire clearing and some beyond revealed a dark form standing inside it. The brightness subsided; a sleepy Sneasel stood inside, rubbing her eyes with a paw.

"Xuan? What's this?" Her question wasn't exactly disrespectful, but it contained the plaintive whine of a child being told to do something she didn't like. Xuan smiled slightly, explaining that she wanted to train her team up before they set off. "We are going to train up your skills. There're three things I want you to do: climbing the trees, jumping over obstacles, and dodging." She waved a hand at the trees. "Get to it. Climb to the top, back down again, and move on. Ten trees later, report back to me."

Mustela's jaw had dropped open. "Excuse me? There's no way – no way! – you're going to get me to climb those things. I'm going back to sleep, and that's it!" She sat down on the grass, plainly stubborn. One lower lip even managed to protrude in a very human pout.

Seeing that Xuan's tactic hadn't worked, Jun moved in with Plan B. "Hey, didn't know you couldn't take a small challenge like that. You're pretty lousy, you know, if you can't even climb a tree." Smugly, he scaled a large pine, and waved down at his friend from between the branches, still a Weavile.

"That does it! You better watch out, Daemon, a'cos I'm coming after you like there's no tomorrow!" With a snarl, Mustela launched herself at the tree, scrabbling up the straight trunk with difficulty. Her claws managed to catch the bark, though, and soon she had dragged herself to the top. Panting, she looked about – and let out a cross between a moan and a roar in dismay. Jun had already sprang to the next pine, Treecko-paws gripping the precarious branches carefully.

"Slowpoke! Slakoth! Snorlax!" He jeered from across empty space.

"That ain't fair! You're a Treecko now! I can't jump gaps!" Complaining, but clearly bent on pursuit, the Sneasel half-climbed, half-slid down the trunk, wincing as her belly rubbed against the rough bark. She immediately chased after Jun, lunging at the next tree.

Half an hour later, she called triumphantly from the top of the last pine, where Jun obediently sat as she pinned him down, "See? I'm just as good as you at this thing!" Smiling, Xuan called them down to her, with Jun bearing a whooping Mustela in his Swellow-form. "You're going to practice your jumps, next."

A fallen log rested behind the girl. Mustela looked on, a dismayed expression appearing on her face yet again. "Well, fine. If that fellow can manage it, so can I!" She took the log at a flying leap, clearing the top cleanly. For the next fifteen minutes they repeated the same action, until the Sneasel collapsed and protested that her legs were on the verge of shattering like twigs. Knowing her penchant for melodrama, Xuan merely gave her a ten-minute rest and a small sweet as a reward. Too much of those things were bad for Pokémon, too, but she simply could not deny the Sneasel of her favourite treat.

Finally, they practiced her dodging. Xuan tossed twigs and small pebbles at her Pokémon, who dodged the incoming missiles. Many times the branches glanced off the Sneasel's shoulders; similarly, she was constantly struck by the pebbles. However, five minutes into the routine and she was consistently avoiding the projectiles with increasing ease. When they stopped again, after yet another fifteen minutes, Mustela was given many praises and another small sweet. Happy with her progress and the rewards, she went back to bed into the Pokéball, after getting a cold shower courtesy of a small stream, and a rare flash of a Mudkip-form from Jun.

Xuan had pulled out Rex's Pokéball, now. She released the Larvitar into the clearing and gave her similar instructions; getting Rex to climb trees and jump logs was near impossible, so they worked on shuttle runs, sprinting and stamina instead for the first hour, and water tolerance for the next fifteen minutes.

"Woah, no," the Larvitar had protested when she was told to run. "I can't do that! I mean, it sounds fun-ish and all, but I'll probably trip and crush something." Jun had worked his charm on her again, this time by leading her on the first rounds. Soon, the Pokémon was running on her own, chuffing between two stones set down as markers. It was a rather hilarious image to Jun, who had to resist the urge to laugh by climbing trees and training himself, watching the chubby creature dash around. He couldn't battle, but it was always good to prepare for emergencies. Meanwhile, Rex moved on through all three items, before collapsing much like Mustela did, complaining of the ache in her legs. Xuan hauled her to the stream and dumped her in unceremoniously.

"It's c-c-cold! I d-d-don't swim! Why are we d-d-doing this?"

"To prepare you for battling. Simple wading and withstanding the water will do. It would help against your x4 weakness against the type."

That fifteen minutes yielded little visible effect, though it seemed to Xuan that the Larvitar grew less and less vulnerable to the water as the time wore on. Where she started with wincing every time she took a step in the stream, now she could splash about and jog across it with relatively less screaming and flinching. That, Xuan thought, was progress.

Lastly, they practiced the dodging techniques. Jun helped. He had returned from his climbing, and was now pitching branches at the Larvitar. They'd discovered that Rex didn't quite mind the pebbles; rather than flinch from them, she simply snapped them up, grinning at Jun, before spitting out gravel again in a move that made Jun grimace. Still, the branches worked. She wasn't that good at the dodging as Mustela was, but she actually hit back at the branches, smashing them into pieces when they came too near.

Finally, Rex was given a bath and a drink of her favourite Oran juice, and sent back to her Pokéball. Trainer and Daemon packed up, straightened the clearing out, and trudged back to the Pine Village Pokémon Centre for bed.

[Birdybot]

Mustela gets 8 levels, Rex gets 6 levels!

[xxKrows.]

Awesome! Thanks! :3 *Hugs*