Another couple days went by, we all trained. Sometimes we partnered up, sometimes we worked on moves by ourselves, sometimes we just went and picked fights while browsing the local Pokémon. It was great and I felt that I was making real progress with everyone and the ideas I had for improvements kept flowing as I marked up my notebook and eraser marks stained several pages from continuous updates as they got better and I observed them more and thought about different ways to make everything better.
Sin was obviously working on his punch moves after he finished working on punch and had gotten better at forming runes now that he wasn't making the lines one at a time, that allowed him to build upon them a bit faster and use my suggested improvements. He still didn't like doing this but he was seeing results so he would hopefully come around.
Sin wasn't the biggest achiever though, that honor belonged to Fly. She had been working on her static field and after mixing in some elements from her thunder wave she was able to make it thicker for a short time. A little bit farther from her body that could work on causing others to freeze within as their muscles went haywire and refused the brain's signals. She was also running around much more nowadays to recover her static buildup that was lost.
Puff had been putting in less work but still making good results whenever I worked with her directly. She had extended her doctor's order of no battling an extra day by fainting from overwork. Although I suspect she was just pretending from the soft giggles she let out when Fly walked over to lick her. She had worked out cotton guard and was still working on sing but another day and she would be able to pull off the complicated move.
Finally, my starter was becoming a menace around this area and a true hunter. He is now about a three inches longer and has been starting to hunt more aware prey like our most recent dinner of a Lechonk. In between him working on pulling steel TE towards him and adding it to his body, he has been working on shadow sneak with Thomas' ghosts and loved to zoom through the city in a game of tag that turned into mischief once Tammy the Phantump took the reins. He seems to enjoy these outings, abet in a creepy sort of way. Much like when he pulls out his maintenance oil. Thomas made good on his word to train him in that destiny bond thing but he hasn't been able to do much with it compared to Lori(apparently its a matter of experience). At the very least he knows how now as well as how to properly gut Pokemon with blood to prevent clotting, bruising, and the spread of bacteria through the meat.
I also bought 5 spices, a large thing of salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic, and basil that I've been experimenting with. My dad only ever used salt because he loved the taste and my mom made fancier stuff than I thought I could possibly replicate so I didn't have a lot to go off of. Hannah's dad was a real grill man though, his Clefairy steaks were top notch and whenever he made them I ensured I had a place at his table. Hannah learned his secrets over the years of her childhood and was happy to help me out in roast seasoning even though a physical grill was not a one to one comparison to this campfire style setup.
Today all of us are taking a break. Us guys are going to go watch a Poke-Ball game while the girls are going to do something I was not informed of, taking Puff and Fly along with all the female Pokémon and their own. I was getting a little nervous from the lack of attacks to my person or the area. Usually the lack of them meant a larger one was coming, but that probably wouldn't happen here with all the strong trainers and the rangers around.
Poke-Ball was a game 2 teams of both trainers and their Pokémon play, usually in a 1:1 ratio. They kick or hit a ball around until they score into a goal. Like soccer but you can hit with your hands or extremities for Pokémon and you cannot hold onto the ball. The major teams are all around 5th badge level and the two playing today are the home team Thievuls against the away team Bombers. The main mascots are Pokémon called Thievul and Bombirdier and there is there is at least one mascot on each team representing the species. Thomas is rooting for his home team of course, but the Bombers are actually from Stew's home town.
Stew is from Sky Island, a floating rock that houses a town and floats around the continent in random patterns. He got dropped off in Blossom at the beginning of the summer for their better facilities training class despite Sky Island being known for the suburbs there. Sure his parents are rich but he still has to go through an approved training class to become a licensed trainer. Instead of getting a Pokémon from the government though, he declined it and got Monster instead. Who wouldn't want another free Pokemon of the many great starters they offered? Stewart Pidgey, that's who.
We all chipped in(Stew more than the rest of us) to get boxed seating in an area just for our crew, our teams, and Thomas' younger was going to join us too. Liam was an 11 year old who was just as tall as us with a bowl cut look and very excited about watching the game. We got our own popcorn and I got a hot dog for the experience(it wasn't that great) before sitting down 5 minutes before gametime. I had played before with my friends, siblings, and the younger village Pokémon and I really liked it. I didn't even notice how I got a bloody nose one time after getting hit in the face with a rock throw, kept playing until they pointed it out to me.
I was looking forward to the game, so were the others. From our teams the most excited were Froakie and Bard(Stew's Toxel) but the others were all at least interested in seeing something new. Lori wouldn't get out of her shadow for Hannah and was still sitting there as Thomas talked with Zac. They had picked up an interesting conversation on Yamask and its mummy ability while I talked with Stew and Liam on who the star players of each team were.
I knew the teams from some of the adults talking with me but I didn't know who was on them. A Meowscarada and a Sandaconda for the Thievuls and Bombirdier and this player called Santiago for the Bombers. I was surprised that there was someone able to be as good as a Pokémon in this game, usually they were better at handling TE from what I knew and overall stronger. Santiago was a repeating player from last year and had brought glory to the team by stepping through the air and being just as fast as all the bird Pokémon despite being known for their speed.
He owned a Kilowattrel who was of average ability but Santiago shined more than his Pokemon when he shot the ball. Using spin and air currents to guide the ball in wild directions to score. The man was one of the best in the country at the sport. He quit his career as a trainer early to be able to play at the pro level but he definitely could have gone farther than the 5th badge if it weren't for the play restriction.
The crowd cheered and I knew the match was starting. Inside a very solid shield of a protect creating device, the players lined up to first to sing the national anthem. It’s a beautiful song about freedom and growing with Pokémon but one I’m not very familiar with as we never really played it in our village as none of us knew how to play music well enough or cared about it.
From there a chubby alolan Raticate and a human ran to the larger soccer goal nets. The human jumped up and did some pull-ups to show off on the bar with whip like water appendages. The bar was double his height off the ground and the crowd cheered as anticipation built.
The teams got ready as a countdown began, and a round red and white ball was teleported into the air from somewhere. Attacks flew, players tried to go for it, and the ball bounced around at fast speeds before it was clear what happened. “Oh, what an amazing start from the Thievuls, Malamar quickly dragged the ball sideways with psychic such that his trainer Robins could secure a dribble.”
Robins was soccer dribbling before Staraptor came in with a blue brave bird. He kicked it up to himself and basketball dribbled to psych it out and completely pass it by. “Looks like the Rocking Robin has done it again” “Why yes he is truly showing how much attention the ball receives. New draft Staraptor isn’t fully up to speed at the real levels and this is her first lesson here today.”
A stray wind slash landed on the ball and would have hit him in the stomach should a barrier not have been put up protecting himself. “Oooo that was a close one, Tammy is not playing around today and here she comes.” A woman sliding on a patch of grass that looked more like a blur than real person shot forward to toss the ball around Robin with spin to the backpedaling Staraptor. A short hurricane later the ball was tossed further into the air before being shot at by dark pulses. “Looks like the Thievuls are going to have trouble with the Bombers arial superiority and passing.” “As expected Mark for a team of fast and flying members, they need this to give them an edge against their less fragile competition.”
Someone, Santiago I believe, came running with a dark shirted player hot on his heels before he put some air under his feet and started walking up towards it while dodging the dark pulses. He passed it forward to open field, seemingly to Thievul, but it got zapped back to him by Kilowattrel as he gained twenty yards towards the goal. “The windup! The shots a ’coming folks, here is the REVERSE Z-MOVE!” He pulled his foot back, looking ridiculous in any other scenario up there in the sky upside down as he dodged a gunk shot from Sandaconda and the man started to glow with flying TE focused around his foot. When it was just right, it came forward, driving rather than hitting the ball with the tip of his toe such that it spun low and widely left around a dark shirt before curving back.
The alolan Raticate dove to protect his net but the ball shifted down to first hit the ground and bounced over the goalie's head. “SCORE ONE NOTHING FOR THE BOMBERS!” AAAAHHAHAHAHBAHAHHAVBA the crowd roared as fans from both teams screamed their support. Apparently only a short half day’s flight on a Pokémon was Sky Island to the north so the people came to cheer on their team from the stands.
The rest of the half was action packed and in 20 minutes the first half was over 12-14 in the away team’s favor with Santiago pulling out 5 of those with that crazy kick of his with only one being blocked.
The halftime show started as the players walked off the field and on the TV I saw a report covering a new consumable making waves in the battling scene.
