The newly named Oxide seemed to really enjoy the new name, actually leaping into the air zipping from tree to tree while laughing. After a few moments of celebration she landed back on top of my head with a final cheer.

  “Alright then,” I said while stacking up the dirty dishes, “Let’s get the campsite broken down and cleaned up!”

  Knowing what I meant from the small amount of practice we had gotten, Ionia began using her telekinesis to move some of the plates over to the stream.

  I tilted my head up in an attempt to see the Pokemon on my head, “Oxide, can you help Ionia bring the dishes to the stream so we can wash them?” She agreed with a nod, and dropped down to begin walking dishes over while I turned to look at the fire.

  “Hmmmm, maybe just drench it with water?”

  “Patrat!”

  Turning I found the three Patrat all looking to their mother as if asking something. She gave a gentle nod and the trio each ran up to the fire and kicked up a wave of sand onto the campfire which was extinguished instantly.

  “That’s one way to solve that,” I murmured. “Thank you for the help Patrat!”

  I offered my hand out to see if I could give them some headpats which they all took advantage of while standing tall and proud.

  “Tenna!”

  Turning around, I found that my Pokemon had finished moving the dishes and were waiting for me. Grabbing some Pokemon-safe dish soap from my bag, I joined them and found Ionia had picked out a spot in the stream where the current would carry away the grime while not being so fast that it would carry the dishes themselves away.

  The clearing was soon full of the sound of clinking dishes, scrubbing and the occasional instruction to teach Oxide how to wash specific items. Eventually, our only mildly soaked group began putting the dried dishes, alongside the tent and bedding, back into my backpack which was closed with a flourish.

  “Okay!” I said while clapping my hands together, “Now that the campsite is clean, I wanted to get a short training session in!” I then belatedly realized we had a fourth member of our crew.

  “If that’s okay with Mr. Zebstrika that is.” I added sheepishly. The Pokemon in question rolled his eyes and gestured for us to continue.

  Grinning, I turned back to the duo of Pokemon psyching themselves up for the first day of training on our journey. I started by pointing at the more senior member,

  “Ionia! Today I want you to work on Life Dew! It’s even more important now that we’ll be out in the wilderness and away from Pokemon centers more often than not!” I then moved to the junior member, “Oxide! We’re going to do a basic amount of benchmarking to see where you’re at! To put it simply, show me your moves!”

  Ionia almost instantly went over to Mr. Zebstrika at his prompting and began practicing Life Dew and splashing him with it. After every attempt he would give advice based on what he saw other psychic types in the Dreamyard do, alongside if it felt ‘right’ to him.

  Oxide instantly started by flying a decent distance away from a large boulder and assumed a clearly practiced stance. A beat passed and she instantly rushed up to the boulder at high speed, before turning and rubbing a cheek against it which sent a small shower of sparks into the dirt.

  “Quick Attack to close distance, and cancel to combo right into a Nuzzel.” I spoke to myself. It was an incredibly nasty combo at the power level she was at.

  She then leapt up into a tree and began bouncing from low branch to low branch, perfect copies appearing around her until there were a couple dozen images zipping around the clearing.

  “Double Team as well.” Although I expected it since Emolga as a species are known for using it.

  Finally all but one of the fake Oxides disappeared as both it and the real one landed back on the forest floor. The real one swept her tail under the feet of the fake image, tripping it and causing it to evaporate as well.

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  “And Tail Whip to finish it off!” I cheered. “Is that all you can do Oxide?”

  She shook her head no and then turned towards the boulder again and sparked her cheek pouches.

  “EMOOOLGA!”

  With a lot of effort, Oxide shot a weak bolt of electricity at the boulder which left a decent size scorch mark on it. Oxide on the other hand was teetering on her feet a bit.

  I rushed over to her and scooped her up before she could fall over. Then brought her over to Ionia who was also breathing heavily as she dropped a Life Dew on herself.

  Seeing how she perked up, I made my decision. “Okay Ionia, just one more Life Dew for now for Oxide and that will be all.

  A quick nod and concentration later, a green droplet of liquid splashed against Oxide’s head and she began to come back around from the extreme fatigue she felt.

  “That was an unmastered Thundershock if I’m not mistaken?” I asked her after she had recovered a decent amount. After she nodded, I looked at Mr. Zebstrika. “Do you have any advice or ideas for us?”

  After a moment of thought he nodded yes, and stood up to walk to Emolga’s starting position. As he started his demonstration, he began glowing as little motes of electricity appeared and sucked into his body. When the Charge had finished he launched his own perfected Thundershock at the boulder.

  After repeating a few times he looked back at us to see if we understood.

  “You want us to exercise Oxide’s generation and expulsion ability?” I guessed.

  I got a few notes of pride from his direction, as he nodded.

  I smiled down at Oxide, “Then we’ll do just that! However, next time we’ll try it out with repeated nuzzles to exercise your expulsion, then try out another Thundershock after we get to a Pokemon Center.”

  I got a thumbs up in response, recognizing that training was over, I placed Oxide up on my head and recalled Ionia before walking to put on my bag.

  Mr. Zebstrika was right next to me before I could blink, and I quickly mounted him as we turned to see the family of Watchog and her Patrat waving goodbye to us.

  We returned the wave and without any further fanfare we were back to zooming through the woods towards Nuvema.

  ***

  We only made one more stop for lunch and a bit more training on the way there. Ionia had improved her Life Dew very nicely, so I had her working on short ranged teleports to improve her endurance a bit.

  Eventually we’d increase the distance she’d teleport for practice until we were satisfied with what she could do as a Hatenna. Evolution would be a much needed boost to her Psychic output and unlock more of her potential for using Fairy type energy, but for now making sure she had a proper foundation was more important before building upwards.

  Oxide had stuck to the plan, using Nuzzle on a bemused Mr. Zebstrika since he was completely immune to it, and had continued until she was clearly empty of electricity again. At that point he had leaned his head down and beckoned her to place her cheeks against the tips. He then sent a weak current into her pouches and recharged her all the way up to full power. After that, she repeated the exercise a few more times, with each recharging session going a bit faster as she got used to the energy flowing back into her and began attempting to draw more from him.

  Even after we had stopped due to time, Oxide was upset a bit at the fact that she wouldn’t be able to train more that day.

  ***

  After another few hours of riding, we reached a simple dirt road with a few white fences leading towards the nearby town, and a beach opposite to the trees we had emerged from.

  We had made it to Route 1.

  Gingerly pulling myself off of Mr. Zebstrika due to being slightly saddle sore, my boots hit the dirt path. Releasing Ionia, who instantly teleported up onto my shoulder, we turned to see Mr. Zebstrika off.

  “Thank you for helping us get here quickly,” I smiled, “I don’t know what we would've done if we ended up running into those weird guys again on our way down.”

  He responded with a snort, then gave us all a nod and ran back into the forest.

  After a few moments of silence, I turned to the south. “Shouldn’t be too far,” I said quietly, “maybe an hour of walking at most. Shall we get going then?”

  A cry of agreement from Oxide’s regular perch atop my head and a soft hum from my shoulder brought us all into agreement, and I began taking the first steps of what was the final leg of our journey.

  Finally having the opportunity to fly without being left behind, Oxide almost instantly jumped up to the nearest tree and began her regularly scheduled ‘glide-hopping’. She even started to weave tricks into her glides, seemingly trying to practice her dodging ability since most of them were waiting til the last moment and juking out of the way.

  Ionia was content to stay on my shoulder and rest, and I was feeling a bit wistful so I pulled out the gift a close friend gave to me before my gene donors screwed everything up.

  A little green potato ocarina.

  I felt the song coming together in my heart and began to play. It started off melancholic, but as I played it turned into something more curious, as if I was taking my first steps into a wider world beyond my comprehension.

  Soon enough a few of the local flying types flew over and added their voices to my music. Only stopping once I crested a hill and saw our destination.

  Nuvema town was by no means large, but its size was often underestimated if you went any further than Nacrene City. It had a small port for cargo and passenger ships alike, a few scattered Pokemon Centers, and a small airport.

  Quite robust for a small little town. And honestly very peaceful.

  It felt nice.

  I walked over to a tree on the side of the path, and after thanking the flock of Tranquil for adding to my song, put away my ocarina and laid my backpack against the tree.

  Oxide landed on top of my head and Ionia was now wide awake again, as I put a hand on a low hanging branch I spoke softly to them and the fossil sitting in my backpack.

  “Welcome to Nuvema Town, everyone.”

  Aliapanacea for help editing!

  Current Team:

  Trained Abilities: Anticipation

  Moves: Teleport, Confusion, Play Nice, Life Dew, Disarming Voice

  Trained Abilities: TBD

  Moves: Nuzzle, Tail Whip, Double Team, Quick Attack

  Do you want more words written by me?

  A Spark of Sylvan Flame: A story about a trans farmgirl facing off against plant aliens, with items bought from an AI chip in her head!