Training to the Top (Selina's Dojo)

[Selina O'Sullivan]

“Okay, Domino, I need you to focus. I need you to start from that tree and then glide to me, okay? Glide, not jump.”

The little Emolga tilted her head a little bit before simply jumping up at her Trainer’s face and rubbing her cheek against it. Selina let out a bit of a sigh… there was clearly a language barrier, and she knew they would have to work on that once and for all. Selina had originally intended on working with Miro and his obedience issues, as well as overall laziness, but surprise surprise, the Snivy just flat out refused to come out of his ball that day except to eat. So, needless to say, he would have to wait another day.

Instead, Selina decided she needed to work on Domino’s rather… unskilled gliding. However, before Selina could even get far enough from the tree to require gliding, the Emolga had already jumped on her shoulder, or back, or the like. This would cause the teen to sigh. If Domino couldn’t get any kind of gliding down, how was she meant to learn any Flying Type moves? It was possible that Domino simply wasn’t old enough to glide properly, but she wouldn’t know for sure because Domino simply had no clue what the teen was saying.

So Selina had to change tactics.

She would put off teaching Domino how to glide better, and instead work on Domino’s understanding of… well any language at all. Since she was the Trainer, best start with trying to get Domino to understand what she was saying. “Domino,” Selina said, catching the Emolga’s attention with a head tilt as she eagerly approached her Trainer. Selina placed a hand on the squirrel’s head, petting it enough to get a squee out of her. “Domino.” Selina raised her hand off the squirrel’s head and pointed at herself. “Selina.”

Domino tilted her head a little bit and then tried to grab her Trainer’s hand to get more pets. Selina let out a sigh in frustration. “No, Domino.” Selina pointed at the squirrel’s chest as she grabbed onto the teen’s hand. “Domino.” Selina pointed at herself again. “Selina.” Domino sniffed at the girl a little bit, staring right into the girl’s eyes before trying to climb onto her lap and licked her hand a little bit, causing the girl to growl a bit in frustration. “Come on, Domino, I know you can do this!”

Selina picked Domino up and placed her on the ground in front of her. The brunette pointed at Domino without saying anything, to which Domino only replied with “...Emo?” and tilted her head again. Selina let out a sigh, the frustration really getting to her, and without anticipating anything, she pointed at herself. There were a few moments of silence…

“...Selina.”

The brunette just about jumped when she finally heard it. The girl’s mouth was agape as she was about to question what it was she just heard. “Wha-”

“Selina!”

“Oh my gosh!” Selina covered her mouth upon realizing what was happening. Did… did she just understand Pokespeech… and from Domino of all Pokemon?! Selina picked the squirrel up to which she giggled out Selina’s name again, and the teen couldn’t help but beam. The teen cradled the Emolga a bit, placing a hand on her head.

“Domino!” Selina squealed a little bit as she pulled Domino into a big hug, causing the Emolga to giggle a little bit, repeating the two names she’d learned. “Domino! Selina! Domino! Selina!” However, Selina didn’t let herself dwell on such lovey dovey… ness as she cleared her throat and held the Emolga away from herself a little bit.

“Yes… well… Can I get you to glide off that tree now?”

…The answer was no.

Training with Domino

[Deleted]

[dojo]XBKKSGjJ

[Selina O'Sullivan]

This time around, Selina ignored the tree, convinced that Domino was simply too young to start gliding yet. Instead, she started working on her speed a little bit. As she had recently read, most of the electric rodents with electric sacks have a high tendency for speed. With the ability to glide, Emolga had the capacity to be the fastest of any of the rodents with the exception of the last evolution of the only line that could evolve: Raichu.

Needless to say, speed would most definitely be important if Domino was going to be a battler at all.

Unlike last time, Selina had a simple solution to this problem. Domino couldn’t be as fast as she could be without gliding, but she could still work on her ground speed by playing with the most genius game invented by man: catch!

Well, Selina felt like Domino felt like it was a genius game. Selina crouched a little to the squirrel’s level, showing a round, red ball in front of the squirrel’s face, causing the baby’s face to brighten up in an instant. The teen tossed the ball from one hand and the other, the squirrel’s eyes glued right onto the ball as she tried to reach her little paw out to grab it. Selina smiled at her little Pokemon quite sweetly. “Domino,” She almost sang out. “You want the ball? You want the ball?”

The squirrel giggled a little before jumping up and down a little and trying to leap at the ball in the teen’s hand. “Want ball! Domino want ball!” Domino barely missed the ball, landing on her face before pushing herself into a standing position with a bit of a grunt before running at her Trainer eagerly. “Emo!”

“Good girl!” Selina said quite eagerly when she said understandable words, causing the squirrel to smile even bigger. “Alright, ready?” Selina held the ball up a little, causing Domino to stance herself on all four, nodding quite eager in anticipation. “Okaaay… Go get it!” Selina tossed the ball in an empty field, though she didn’t throw it too hard. Giggling, Domino ran on all fours, tripping just a little over her gliding membrane as she got a hold of the ball. The Emolga rolled around along with the ball before it stopped, allowing the squirrel to unroll into a sitting position before looking over at her trainer and walking over to her Trainer on her two little feet before holding the ball to her Trainer.

Domino waved her paws and bounced a little in excitement. “Again! Again! Emo!”

Selina beamed. “You wanna play again?”

“Play again! Play again! Emo!”

“Okay! This time I’m going to throw a little harder. Ready?” Domino squeaked as she wagged her tail a little before the teen tossed the ball again. Domino did still trip, even more than the first time, but this time she managed to get a hold of the ball without letting the ball get her rolling with it and trotted back at her Trainer for another round.

The two would continue playing this game for about eight more tosses, where the last three tosses in a row, she ran quite dazzlingly. Selina was quite proud of her!

Training (Playing Catch) with Domino

[Haunter]

[dojo] YZvz3Ihk

[Selina O'Sullivan]

“Alright, Miro, let’s see what your Grassy Terrain works with an actual Grass Type move.”

The teen brought out the Pokedex and scrolled through information she gathered before landing on the information on Snivy and a specific move her own Snivy knew. Miro walked toward her a little as he peered over in slight curiosity. Selina glanced over at the Grass-Type and tilted her head a little with a smirk. “You wanna look here, too?” Miro’s eyes widened a bit in shock before turning away with his short arms crossed over his chest. Selina sighed a little.

Ever since Arthur and his mother joined the group, Miro’s been a lot less disobedient in all cases that didn’t involve stealing Pokemon, but he seemed like he still wanted to show that he was a tough guy. He still wanted to keep his Trainer at arm’s length, and had a tendency to be quite lazy. Luckily, Selina managed to find a spot with plenty of fragrant smelling flowers, and that seemed to perk the snake right up and finally get him ready to train, something he’d been very reluctant to do for just about the entire time Selina had known him.

In any case, Selina brought her attention back to the Pokedex:

Grassy Terrain, Snivy’s egg move. Grassy Terrain is a non-damaging Grass Type attack that fills the battlefield with an aura that particularly affects all Grass Type Pokemon in the field for five turns. Effects include restoring 1/16th of any Pokemon affected by the terrain, effects the typing of certain moves, halves the power of Earthquake, Bulldoze, and Magnitude, and increases the power of all Grass Type moves by 50%. Certain Pokemon abilities have a special effect in Grassy Terrain.

Selina scrolled through the Pokedex, unknown to her that her little Snivy had climbed up a nearby tree to get a better look at the dex himself.

Vine Whip. Snivy are more adept at using their vines than their hands. Because of this, the entire line can use their vines for utility use even when they no longer know the move “Vine Whip”. That being said, Vine Whip is a 45 power Grass Type attack in which Snivy uses one or both of its two vines to try and smack an opponent around. It has no secondary effect, but since Snivy is a Grass Type, Snivy gains the benefit of STAB from using a move with the same element as its typing.

Selina had to take this all in for a second. So not only did Vine Whip have a power of 45, but Grassy Terrain could increase that by 50% and on top of that, there was something called STAB? Well, she could look into that later. Right now she really needed to try and put that power to the test. “Alright, Miro! Use Grassy Terrain!”

“Alright, easy enough.” Miro huffed before summoning the same aura he’d used in his previous battles, dragging one foot across the ground as if drawing a line on the grass as the aura enveloped the Terrain around Miro and Selina. Miro folded his arms over his chest in satisfaction. “Hmph. Too easy! What’s next?” Miro turned to his Trainer, waiting for her response.

“The Pokedex said that the Terrain lasts five turns during battle… I wonder if that’s true during Training as well.” Selina hummed a little before bringing her attention to a rock. “That thing looks sturdy enough to prove our point. Alright, Miro, let’s try that Vine Whip of yours out now!”

“Sounds simple enough!” Miro held his arm out as a vine came out of the collar of the same side as his extended arm before waving his arm and slamming the vine right onto the stone. The accuracy wasn’t particularly precise, but the power was enough to cause the stone to crack just enough for it to be visible to the two.

The teen and Snivy duo looked on in surprise. “Woah, Miro,” Selina pointed out in awe. “That’s some crazy power! Your aim was a bit off, but imagine if it hadn’t been!”

"Huh." Miro looked over at his vine and smirked at himself a little bit before placing his hands on his hips and forming a rather confident smirk. “I knew I had it in me.” Miro spoke up in slight arrogance.

“No wonder Feral was saying you had a lot of power…” Now Selina was finally getting the whole picture. Despite Miro’s unruliness, this Snivy was quite useful to Team Rocket’s cause… now if only Miro could get behind that cause a bit more. “Alright, let’s do another one! Let’s try to smash that stone into pieces?”

“Do I even have to? We already know how strong I am.” Miro sighed out in annoyance. Selina could immediately tell Miro was disinterested.

“Do you want to lose to that Mudkip again?”

Miro cringed as he recalled every little detail of that absolutely humiliating loss. From the fact that Regina was a Water Type Pokemon to the fact that he’d lost to a Water Type attack, everything about that battle made Miro seeth. He gritted his teeth and balled his hands up in fists before turning toward the stone and just imagining the stupid face of that stupid mudfish in its place. Miro growled, took out both of his vines before slashing at the stone furiously until it was shattered in pieces.

Well… nothing wrong with his aim there.

Selina stared at the shattered stone before looking back at the peeved Grass Type before giving her partner a nervous smile. “Yeah, uh… I think we can go ahead and take a-”

“No.”

Selina jumped a little upon hearing that. Wait, that had to be a no, right? With the face Miro still had and the tone of voice, that had to be a no. Was Selina starting to understand Miro now, too? Miro completely faced the teen.

“We need to work on moving targets now.”

Selina was gob smacked. She understood all of that! Could she just… understand him now? “...Moving targets, huh?” Selina looked around to see what she could use. “Alright then… let’s get to it.”

Training with Miro

[Espurr]

[dojo]isK9m7Sq

[Selina O'Sullivan]

“Alright, Arthur, let’s see what you can do with that big bone of yours!”

It was that time again! Selina was training a Pokemon of hers, and this time it was Arthur. This time she decided to pick a setting that fit the Ground Type style more, so she went with a dessert theme. The small Cubone looked up at his Trainer with what could only be assumed as an eager grin since his eyes looked so happy. Honestly, she could just eat him up right then and there, Arthur was just so cute! But now wasn’t the time to dwell on the cuteness of the cutie pie.

Right then, she needed to try and get him stronger. The sooner she could get the Cubone into battle, the sooner she could start giving her “alternate persona” if you will, aspirations. Selina decided that she needed to get good at battling. And what better way to accomplish that than to take on the Gym challenge? But first thing was first, and that was for Selina to get all of her Pokémon in tip top, battling condition.

Right now, Arthur’s mother was probably the most capable of battle, but that was somewhat unfortunate. After all, Ivory was hardly a battler. She was a maternal caregiver. That was it. She could fight and fight well, but she didn’t really want to. Having two Cubones was rather redundant anyway outside of Ivory’s ability to be stronger so long as she’s battling with her son, but that was quite specific.

But in any case, Domino wanted to see what the little guy could do. “Alright, let’s try a Bone Club at…” Selina glanced around before her eyes landed on a stone. “That rock over there! That seems sturdy enough! Go ahead and hit it as hard as you can!” Arthur gave a confident nod before running over to it with his stubby little legs, raising his bone club up… and giving it a rather soft wack.

…

“...Arthur, was that really your hardest?” Arthur looked over at his Trainer like he had made a huge accomplishment, and nodded. Selina… wasn’t sure if she believed it, but he looked so pleased with himself, she couldn’t bring herself to doubt him. “Well, okay. We can definitely work on it a bit. Maybe you work best when you're motivated by danger.” This… worried the Cubone a bit. “Not that that’s what we’re gonna do. We’ll just keep getting you to hit this rock, okay? Just do your best!”

“Mm!” Arthur nodded as he ran over to the rock and kept wacking at it with his bone. Selina shoved her hands in her pockets, and couldn’t help but form a smile on her face. The little guy was just so precious…

Training with Arthur

[Chandelure]

[dojo]DwiFTc|u

[Selina O'Sullivan]

“Clarity! Come on, we’re not gonna get any kind of training done if you keep hiding. Can’t you just cooperate without issue this one time? Please?”

Well, apparently that was too much to ask of the gaseous Pokemon. Selina was smart enough to pick an area without a whole bunch of trees, but the problem was now she had to contend with Clarity just up and going invisible on her. Who knew raising a Ghost Type would be so difficult? Selina’s hands curled into fists as she glanced around trying to get a look at her area. She knew the Gastly was bound to appear at any moment, probably to try and scare her.

But… but it wasn’t that big of a deal, right? Ghosts couldn’t hurt her here, right? Yeah. She was perfectly safe! She had absolutely nothing to- and she let out a scream and fell over as Clarity finally appeared right in front of her.

The Gastly preceded to let out billows of laughter, and if she had a body, she’d certainly be rolling on the floor in laughter. “Human, you should’ve seen your face! It was priceless!” the Gastly mocked, though the human couldn’t be bothered to argue if for no other reason than she couldn’t understand her. Clarity let out a sigh and shook her… face? Head? Clarity was ironically confusing. “But you’re way too easy to scare. And to hide from! Man, don’t you have any challenges in your party?”

As much as Clarity would’ve loved to mess around with Selina’s party and let the other Pokemon out, the rules didn’t allow Selina to so much as bring her other Pokemon into the area. Man, rules just ruined everyone’s fun, didn’t they? “You think this is funny?!” Well, at least she still had the human’s hilarious reactions.

“Hilarious actually!” Clarity voiced, giving her Trainer a rather cheeky grin. “Try to find me!” And once again, Clarity vanished, leaving Selina to try and find her all over again.

Training with Clarity

[Haunter]

[dojo] AZTzCgJq

[Selina O'Sullivan]

The second Selina and Tusk entered the training room, the baby dragon ran up to a strange looking rock and shoved his nose onto it. Little green hands were swiping at the stone, though no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t reach the hard surface of the stone with his claws. Selina arched an eyebrow, questioning what this rock had done to get on his bad side, and it wasn’t until he had leaned too far forward and fallen on his face that she realized why: the stone looked like it had a face. It didn’t, but it looked like it.

Tusk wanted to battle. She understood that from the moment he was born, but he didn’t have any attacks that would actually do anything of worth. So, Tusk needed to find a way to actually get his Scratch attack to hit its mark.

Despite it being his own fault that he fell, the fact that he had fallen at all just made him even angrier. The Axew puffed air into his cheeks and swiped at the rock even more furiously, but this didn’t change the result. Tusk was still face first on the floor by the end of the temper tantrum, which just seemed to start it anew. Selina rolled her eyes. This was starting to become pathetic! Before Tusk could start anew, the teen picked the baby up, and the moment he didn’t see the rock anymore, it was as if he’d never seen it. He looked around rather confused and tilted his head before being gently placed on the ground.

He recognized one thing in the room: Selina! …He proceeded to headbutt her leg and try to scratch at it.

“Will you cut that out?!” Selina snapped, causing the dragon to plop right onto his backside and shake his head a little bit. Selina let out a sigh before going down in a sitting position with her Axew. “Look, I know you’re eager to fight, but there’s gotta be a better way to do it than just flailing your arms around like that. You’re not hitting anything!”

“...Kiba?” Tusk tilted his head in response, and Selina sighed. It was like dealing with Domino all over again. At least with Domino she tried to get an understanding of what Selina was saying. All Tusk was interested in was slicing stuff. Even if he was able to reach anything, which he wasn’t, how was Selina meant to know how strong the little guy even was? Selina tapped her finger on a stone before the dragon started kicking around at the stones and digging in the dirt. Hm… perhaps there was a more pressing matter. Before she could train him on how to attack, she needed to teach him what the attacks were, much like she had with Domino.

“Tusk,” Selina called out, to which the dragon ignored. Naturally, the baby hadn’t known his name for very long. How was he meant to know it was his? So, Selina needed to be patient. “Tusk.” Selina called again, but the result was the same. “Tusk.” Selina called again, nothing changed. Selina stopped for a moment and hummed. There had to be a better way to go about this… and then it came to her. Selina walked over to the Axew, picked him up, and placed him on her lap.

“Giba?” Instantly, the baby looked up at her curiously. He tried to swipe at her, but then Selina gently grabbed his paw and tapped a finger on her other hand at his nose.

“Tusk.” She repeated again. Tusk blinked for a couple of seconds, but then squinted at the top of his nose and tried to grab at it before she tapped her finger at his palm. “Tusk.” The little dragon sniffed at his paw and licked it before she poked at his belly a little, causing the little baby to start to giggle at the tickling sensation. “Tusk.” It was that call of his name that caused the Axew to tilt his head at the name. “Tusk.” He tilted his head again before looking down at his paw and then patting his nose again. “Yes, that’s Tusk’s nose!” Tusk’s eyes widened a little as he placed both paws on his nose. She then placed a finger at the baby’s chest this time. “Tusk.”

Tusk perked up again looking at his Trainer, then grabbed her hand and pointed at his own chest. “Ba.” He stated confidently in the same tone that Selina had spoken when she was saying Tusk’s name. “Ba!”

“Yes, that’s right! You’re Tusk!” Selina stated gleefully, causing a huge smile to form on the baby’s face. “Good job, Tusk! You’re getting a hold of your name!”

“Ba! Ba! Kiba!” The little Axew started dancing around, so pleased with himself that even the rather skeptical Trainer had to smile. She almost missed this stage of Domino’s life… even though the Emolga was still kind of in it. This dragon was fresh out of his shell, and he couldn’t speak yet, precisely like how Domino was when she first met the squirrel. Sure, Domino had more useful abilities at such a young age… but maybe Selina needed to be more patient with the little dragon.

“Okay,” Selina began again. “Now let’s work on moves: Scratch.”

Training with Tusk

[Primarina]

[dojo] nR1pY3L_

[Selina O'Sullivan]

“Wumpah! Wumpah, wumpah!”

“Okay, Sparkle, I know you’re gonna like it in here,” Selina knelt down to the Yamper’s level. “I bring Domino here all the time, and she always has so much fun. I’m sure you’ll have a blast here, too.”

“Wumpah wum!”

Selina decided to bring her new Yamper named Sparkle to the dojo today. The little puppy was super excited, sniffing anything she was in nose range of before sitting down on her backside letting her tongue hang out as she panted. The puppy somewhat closed her mouth as she glanced around before looking up at her Trainer, her lightning shaped tail wagging to and fro. The young woman had a ball in her hand, and the puppy instantly started jumping for joy. A ball meant fetch, and Sparkle loved fetch! She loved it soooo much that she couldn’t help but chase her tail from pure excitement.

But this wasn’t just any came of fetch… the ball she had in her hand was Sparkle’s own Pokeball, the one Selina had used to catch her when she and Domino first met her. “Alright, today we’re going to work on your ability, Sparkle,” Selina caught the Pokeball midair before holding it out in front of her. “I’m going to throw this Pokeball, and I want you to bring it back to me, okay?” Yamper barked back at her Trainer pulled her arm back to throw the ball, causing the Yamper to do a play bow. “Ready? Set…” Sparkly yipped and yipped in anticipation, incredibly excited. “...Go get it!”

Selina threw the ball, and the puppy bolted for it. Sparkle ran and ran on all fours so fast; she tripped over her feet. Somehow, through her own grit, the puppy managed to recover and catch the ball midair with her mouth much like her Trainer had earlier. “Wumh!” The puppy stood there, wagging her tail as she ran right back to her Trainer, who was very excited.

“Good girl!” Selina enthusiastically praised the little pup, who obediently brought the ball back, jumping on the woman’s leg, her tail wagging. “Good girl, Sparkle, you did such a good job!” The Yamper yipped and yipped some more, circling around and play bowing again in more anticipation. “You wanna play again?” Sparkle barked in response. “Okay, then… let’s see if I can throw it even farther this time!”

Training with Sparkle (Yes, it’s technically playing fetch, but this is legit training because Sparkle’s ability is Ball Fetch)

[Primarina]

[dojo]SEKjt3Ky

[Selina O'Sullivan]

With how disinterested in she was as of late, Selina would’ve been quite surprised that Clarity had rushed her to the Dojo as soon as possible if it weren’t for one key detail: Clarity obviously wanted to become stronger and defeat Salem, the Gastly. The second she went into the Dojo, Clarity rushed to the nearest tree and attempted to focus on the tree itself. The Pokémon glared at the tree, giving herself a Grass Type aura for about a second before it dissipated. Selina wasn’t sure if Clarity decided she didn’t want to be a Grass-Type, or if she couldn’t become one unless she was copying from a Pokémon.

Either way, the gaseous Pokémon grunted in frustration before heading to the nearest stone and trying to do the same thing. The result was the same, and she huffed. The Gastly then rushed over to a puddle of water and attempted to do the same and then grunted at the result being the same as the other attempts. The Gastly caught her reflection in the water and glared at it before sticking her tongue out at herself. The Ghost Type was usually in more positive moods, and even if she became negative, it was hard for those kinds of moods to stick. Right now, though, the Ghost Type was clearly upset, and clearly not pleased with herself somehow.

As much as Selina and Clarity didn’t really get along, the teen couldn’t help but empathize with her plight. After all, Selina herself could hardly call herself a success when it came to Pokémon battles or being a Team Rocket grunt in general. Clarity was still so new to everything, and her pride had been totally crushed… Selina approached the Ghost Type, sitting down and taking in the silence. Clarity didn’t seem to notice her right away until her Trainer started taking in a deep breath and letting it out. The Ghost-Type stared at her warily at first, but somehow, the breathing calmed her.

Once Clarity became less stressed, the teen gave the Ghost Type a bigger grin. “You’ll win next time,” Selina reassured. “You’re a lot tougher than you seem. You were right for focusing on the one thing you can do that she can’t. After all, you’re every bit as special as that other Gastly.” Selina folded her legs together and smiled even brighter. “In order to win, though, we have to get to work. Are you willing to try, Clarity?”

In most cases, the Ghost-Type would play off disinterest, and would delay any kind of answer, but this was different. Clarity was raring to prove herself, and she wasn’t going to let that other Gastly beat her forever. So, she nodded with confidence in response.

Training with Clarity