‘In other news, it seems that raccoons have evolved from stealing trash to vandalism. Police were baffled when they were called down to the county dump last night for breaking and entering. No official word has been said yet about possible suspects, but we’ll bring you more info when it comes.’

Derek winced as the news report ended, nearly cutting his hand into quarters instead of the potato he was preparing. While he had known that people would notice, he didn’t expect for them to be covering it so early in the morning. As the news anchor transitioned from talking about the break-in to talking about the upcoming forecast, Derek let out a huff, before he turned to stirring the eggs. It had been a long night spent writing and tending to Indiana’s bruises. Thankfully, Indiana seemed to be healing up well, but Derek had barely gotten sleep until 4.

Thank god the campus was still closed, Derek thought to himself as he poured the large omelet mixture into the frying pan. As it slowly sizzled, Derek chopped up ham, mushrooms and some shredded cheddar, before he finally poured it all together into a bowl. With the potatoes cooking in one pan and the eggs forming a dozen-egg omelet on the other burner, Derek scooped the scraps into the egg carton. After some flipping, careful seasoning, and scraping burnt pieces off the eggs, he finally served up four plates of egg omelets and fried potatoes onto the table. When Sparkplug, Indiana and Eve saw the dishes, they immediately dug into their meals.

As he sat down at the table though, an eager cry that sounded like it was filtered through a wet bag made him pause. He looked down from his food to find Trubbish looking up at him eagerly, and he reached back to the counter. Grabbing the carton full of scraps, Derek wobbled slightly before he held it out for the salivating Poison-type.

“Here ya go. Eat up,” he told the Trubbish. With little hesitation, the Trubbish scooped it all in both hands to shove it in its mouth. The Poison-type let out several happy noises as it chewed on its dish, the Pokemon’s cheeks swollen like chipmunk cheeks. When it finally swallowed, Trubbish let out a sigh of contentment before it waved its arms around happily.

“Well, I’m happy to see someone is enjoying themselves,” Derek said, chuckling slightly. When the Trubbish let out a visible belch though, he grimaced at the smell. He quickly grabbed a handheld fan and blew the gas cloud out of the closest window before it could curdle the ceiling. Once the visible gas vanished from the window, Derek let out a held breath before he set the fan back down.

“Alright, I think we’ll need to work on where it’s safe to let out burps,” he commented before he looked down. When Trubbish gave him a look of innocence, he simply shook his head before he turned back to eating his own supper. As he chewed on his potatoes, he glanced over at Indiana, the Zigzagoon gingerly eating his own meal. He knew that they had been taking the battles with relative ease, but the latest battle against Skorupi was… it was a lot closer than he had liked.

Letting out a sigh, Derek set his utensils down once he mostly cleared his plate. “Alright folks, we need to discuss what happened last night,” he declared, drawing attention from all four Pokemon, “I know we’ve been getting into some battles recently, but we’ve really been drawing it close with winning. With how we handled that wild Skorupi though…” Derek took in a breath before he told them, “I’ll be blunt - We got our asses handed to us.”

The three Pokemon at the table let out cries of denial at this, with Eve even charging across the table to protest right in his face. Rather than shout back though, Derek placed a hand on Eve’s face as he spoke to the group. “I know you were a big help with handling that Skorupi, especially thanks to Sparkplug,” he said, giving a nod of appreciation to the mentioned Bug-type, “But if Professor Titania’s Bronzor wasn’t there to help, we likely would have lost the battle. Hell, he took out Indiana in one attack.”

Indiana grumbled at the comment, but a wince as his wounds flared up. With no further comments, Derek scratched Eve between the ears as he continued, “I know that we’re still a bit roughed up, but it’s only a matter of time for a Pokemon to show up that will curb-stomp us as we are.” Indiana and Eve looked down at his comment, until Derek added, “But that just means that we’ll have to work on getting better.”

As Indiana and Sparkplug looked up in hope, Derek told them, “I know that I don’t have TMs or Move Tutors, but with the stuff available on Pokemon sites, I’m sure we’ll be able to figure out some new moves to learn. Hell, we’ll likely be able to learn some outside the usual arsenal, assuming that the side-games are accurate.” The Normal-type and Bug-type gave light cheers at the news. However, Derek looked down in confusion when Eve failed to comment. It only took a few seconds for the confusion to change to mock-anger when he felt her chewing under his hand.

“Oi, are you being a little stinker?” Derek asked and lifted Eve up. The Eevee looked at him with stuffed cheeks and swallowed her stolen food before she stuck her tongue at him in amusement. Derek snorted at the action, then plopped her on her back before he started spinning her around. “You’re a stinky thief, Eve,” he said as he spun her around, the Eevee letting out moans as he spun her around, “Stinky thieves get put in the spin cycle~”

Eve tried to protest, but Indiana was quick to join in by booping her on the nose each time her head drew close. As Sparkplug and Trubbish cheered the teasing on, Derek snickered when her eyes swirled. It wasn’t the best use of his time, especially when their movesets were still up in the air. Besides, it wasn’t like he had anything else to do today!

Just as he thought that, Eve’s cheeks suddenly bulged. That was the only warning Derek got before he found his shirt sporting a new color. Looking down in shock and disgust when the smell of vomit slowly spread, Derek pulled his shirt off before he walked over to the bathroom. He had wanted to handle research after breakfast, but it seemed that cleaning would need to be done first…

“Veee…”

Derek looked straight ahead as he drove down the gravel road, trying his best to ignore Eve’s intense glare from behind him.

“Veeeee…” Eve’s growl intensified, and he could feel her nose practically pressing against the back of his neck. Not wanting to show any issue, he flicked the turn signal and took the first exit towards the mountainside lab.

“Veeeeeee…” Eve growled, her nose now poking the back of his right ear. With sweat starting to drip down his neck, Derek pulled into Professor Titania’s driveway. The Normal-type’s eyes followed him as he stepped outside. Derek did the best to ignore her frustrated gaze as she looked around, trying to ignore the growing dread. When he heard a door opening, he immediately turned around to find Professor Titania standing on the doorstep with frazzled hair and a coffee mug held with both hands.

“Hey, Professor,” he greeted her, “How’s it going today?” Titania gave him a blank stare for a few seconds before recognition finally hit her. Before she could respond though, a series of cheers rang out before the Trubbish squad she had caught ran past her. Derek blinked in surprise, but when a Pokeball in his pocket popped open, his own Trubbish gave a greeting before they tackled it in a group dog-pile of living garbage.

Titania let out a snort from the interaction as the garbage Pokemon caught up and took a sip from her mug before she walked over to Derek. “I take it you didn’t decide to visit for social reasons?” she asked when she finally reached him. Derek looked at her in confusion as she took another sip. He could’ve sworn that…

Derek pulled his phone out to check, then frowned in confusion. “Well, I had sent you a text saying I was coming over, but I guess you didn’t get it,” he told her. However, Titania’s deadpan expression turned into a light glare, and she only responded by pulling out a phone partially dissolved and stained with purple puncture marks. Derek winced at the state her phone was in, but pocketed his phone before he continued to say, “Anyways, I was coming over since we had some difficulties dealing with that Skorupi last night.”

Titania let out a snort at that and drained the rest of her coffee in a single gulp before she set her cup on the closest windowsill. “God knows that he’s been a pain in the ass,” she muttered, and rubbed her eyes before she looked at him. “So, what did you have in mind to fix that? Do you think we should build an automatic Pokeball launcher? Or start toting grenades to blow them up?”

Derek paused at the question, before he shook his head in confusion. “No, that’s not what I had in mind at all,” he told her, unsure of how she thought of that. He reached back into the car before he pulled out a tablet. “I figured that with all the information there is on Pokemon online, we could use it to help train them to improve their movesets and maybe raise their levels.” Derek paused at the last bit, before he added, “Granted, I don’t think the levels aspect will be too accurate...”

Titania investigated the distance for a few seconds, before she finally let out a sigh and placed her hands over her face. “I swear, every new paper I read makes me lose another hundred brain cells,” she muttered, before she clapped her hands together and turned towards him expectantly. “Alright, I can get behind that!” Titania said, now a lot more alert than a few minutes ago, “Some time away from reading the drudges of what people call essays nowadays will be greatly appreciated.” Without waiting for a response, Titania took the offered tablet from him, and looked at the tabs he had open. “Alright, I can see some of this working, if we have the details available,” she said as she nodded in agreement, then asked him, “What part did you plan to tackle first?”

“Well, I wanted to explore what moves they had available-” Derek started to explain. Before he could go into detail, Eve pounced at his inattention. With a cry of ‘VEE!’, she leaped out of the car and bounced off his head before she finally landed on top of his head. Derek looked up in frustration but smirked when an idea came to him. “However, I think teaching some Technical moves would be a big help,” he said as he took Eve off his head, and the Eevee looked at him in confusion for what he meant.

Dirt flew about wildly as Eve dug frantically, Indiana kicking up dirt alongside her. With a growing pile of debris behind the two, Indiana barely managed to dive into his hole before a thick rope shot out at the two. Eve let out a yelp of surprise when it hit her, forming a sticky blob, and she was yanked out of the hole with a single tug. The Eevee’s legs flailed about as she was reeled in, before she finally landed in front of a triumphant-looking Sparkplug.

“Looks like Sparkplug won again,” Derek said, and knelt down to tug the sticky strands out of Eve’s fur. Eve whimpered as the rope of web pulled out some of her fur but shook herself once she was free. Derek set the discarded String Shot on the ground and brushed the ruffled fur over before Indiana came over with a dirtied snout. “Well, that still leaves Indy and Sparky in the lead,” Derek commented as he wiped the dirt off, causing Eve to huff, “So, we’re going to take a quick breather, then we’ll be doing a five-second start before Sparkplug gets to use String Shot.” The three Pokemon gave a brief cheer, and Eve and Indiana immediately collapsed as they caught their breath.

As Eve took sips from the offered water bowl, a sudden cough caused Derek to look up at a concerned Titania. “Are you sure that this is the best way to train them?” she asked him. Derek looked in confusion, before he finally turned to look at Sparkplug.

“I believe so, since this is how Sparkplug showed them. It also helps them avoid ranged attacks while training for it,” he said. When the Grubbin let out a cry of agreement, Derek turned back and commented, “See? He knows what he’s doing.” Eve and Indiana gave the smug Bug-type glares at that, but Derek didn’t notice as he stood up and pointed at the Bug-type. “Anyways, helping them learn Dig isn’t the only thing this covers. It also helps ensure that Grubbin will have a way to deal with getting close to ranged attackers.”

“Ranged attackers?” Titania asked. When Bronzor let out a chime, her gaze turned to the Mirror Pokemon before a spark of realization came to her. “Ah, you mean Pokemon who attack from a distance, like Bronzor and Skorupi,” she mused aloud, and placed a hand on top of the Steel-type as she thought things over. “Assuming that different Pokemon can specialize in different methods of fighting back, I take it they have their own strengths and weaknesses?”

“I wouldn’t really say that Skorupi is a ranged attacker, but pretty much,” Derek agreed. As the Trubbish squad started listening on, he explained to the group, “Since Grubbin is built a lot better for fighting up-close, I’m having him work on a method to pull them in. Granted, we gotta decide on a name, but it’ll be a great move to help balance things out, especially since he’s likely going to evolve soon.”

Sparkplug perked up at the idea, but Professor Titania just looked confused. “That can’t be the right term,” she muttered, and began looking things up on the tablet. Her mood soured as she read the details, muttering something about how ‘general terms were a poison to scientific exploration.’ Sparkplug, on the other hand, personally preened at the concept of evolving. After a few minutes of research, Titania let out a huff before she commented, “While I’m not a fan of the terminology, I can see where you’re coming from. How can you tell he’s close to evolving, though?”

Derek snorted at this, before he picked up the pudgy Bug-type. “It was the same thing that made me notice him in the first place,” he told her, “You see, Grubbin doesn’t learn Spark until they’re close to evolving. I don’t know if he has learned Acrobatics yet-” When he looked down at Sparkplug, the Bug-type shook its head in the negative, “-But he must have developed the organs for generating electricity. From there, it’s just a matter of time for him to evolve. With how much we’re fighting, I reckon he’ll evolve in the next two months.”

Titania nodded along as he explained this before she looked over at Munna and Bronzor. “I suppose you have plans for your Pokemon, but what about mine?” she asked him before she gently rocked her Steel-type with one hand. “I’m afraid that my Pokemon aren’t exactly the most… physical Pokemon to interact with.” Derek nodded at the comment, looking at a sleeping Munna before he poked them in the head.

“Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from,” he commented as Munna woke up, blinking with weary eyes. Derek hummed in thought for a few seconds before he finally pulled his phone out. “Give me a quick minute to look it up.” Pulling up Bulbapedia, he looked over at Eve and Indiana, then added, “In the meantime, how about you two get back to working on Dig? I’ll give you guys twenty seconds before Sparkplug joins in.”

Eve let out a huff, but quickly jumped towards the trench with Indiana as Grubbin eagerly clicked his pincers together. As Eve and Indiana worked to vanish underground, Derek looked at his phone, while Titania searched online for any possible tips. After a few minutes, Derek pocketed his phone before he clapped his hands together. “Alright, I think I got a plan in mind for how to train the two, and the Trubbish, too!,” he commented. Derek looked at Bronzor and Munna, the latter rubbing its eyes as it looked around, before he said, “So Bronzor, Munna, what is the latest move you managed to learn?”

Munna looked confused at the question, but Bronzor immediately perked up and turned towards a fallen tree. Its eyes glowed light blue, and a ball of glowing energy grew in front of it. After a few seconds, it launched the orb as a fluctuating pulse of psionic energy. The unstable beam enveloped the trunk, before the old wood was crushed in a crunch. Derek winced at the aftermath but looked back at Bronzor as Munna fired a smaller, more compact beam in imitation.

“Alright, I’m guessing that was a Psywave attack?” he asked the Steel-type, earning an eager nod from the Bronzor. Humming in thought, Derek knelt down before he grabbed several fist-sized rocks that Eve and Indiana had dug up. “I suppose we could work on your accuracy with Munna some, but if you wanna get good, you gotta improve your psychic control,” he told the Steel-type. Bronzor nodded along as it listened, trying to understand where he was going with this. With the Pokemon now listening attentively, Derek set the rocks in a circle around the Bronze Pokemon before he told it, “For starters, let’s have you lift all of these up at once.”

Despite being hairless and made of metal, Bronzor raised an eyebrow at Derek before it glowed blue. The rocks shook, before they eventually rose to orbit the Steel-type. Letting out a triumphant toll, Bronzor looked at Derek with little effort. Derek nodded in satisfaction, before he then told it, “Now, try to hold those up for as long as you can!” Bronzor hummed in thought, before it slowly started spinning the stones around itself and drifted towards the large side-building.

With Bronzor occupied, Derek then turned to Munna. However, the psychic tapir seemed to be a lot livelier than before, with it using a variety of psionic beams and turning the broken trunk into mulch. Derek let out a whistle at how motivated Munna seemed to be, before he finally turned to find the Trubbish brigade rummaging through a torn trash bag. The Living Trash Pokemon were eagerly eating ramen cups and paper cups, but when Derek let out a cough, the troop turned to look at him.

“Well, now that the others are busy, let’s get you guys doing some training, too!” he told them. With their attention now on him, Derek looked at them before he asked, “Now, just to quickly check, but have any of you managed to figure out how to spit acid at all?” A few Trubbish nodded, and one mischievous living bag even demonstrated by spitting an indigo sphere at a nearby bush. As the large corrosive droplet hit, dissolving the leaves and branches, Derek looked back warily before he told them, “Alright, for those who know it, I want you to teach the others how to use it. Practice using it on…” He paused as he looked for a possible target. Eventually spotting a large, cracked boulder discarded at the corner of the lot, he pointed at it and said, “I want you all to work on dissolving that cement block there. However, it has to be done by the whole group, okay?”

The group of Trubbish let out a united cry at the instruction, and immediately charged towards the block. With the majority of the Trubbish trying to spit on the boulder to varying success, Derek walked over to Professor Titania. She gave him a deadpan look, before she shook her head. “Is that really what you have in mind for training?” she asked him, seemingly not impressed by his options.

“Well, it’s all we can really do for the first day,” Derek responded, before he started pointing at each group training. “Eve and Indiana are learning Dig, which will give them more type coverage and mobility. If he figures out Electro-Web with this accuracy practice, Sparkplug will have a way to lock down flying Pokemon. Bronzor is working on fine control, while Munna improves its stamina. And the Trubbish are learning Acid, which should help lead to Acid Spray.” Derek frowned when he finished speaking. He’d have to work on a name for Trubbish. Maybe Curie, or Arsene? Hard to tell when you didn’t know their gender…

“I supposed that could work, but what did you have in mind for having us improve?” Titania asked, causing Derek to freeze. He looked around for a moment, trying to figure out something to do before he eventually looked at the tablet.

“Well, since they’re working on improving their moves, I think it’s only fair we improve by watching what actual trainers do for combat tactics,” he told Titania as he took the tablet from her. The professor looked confused at first, but as he opened the Pokemon website, her expression soured slightly.

“Seriously? You’re saying we’ll improve by watching episodes of the Pokemon show?” Titania questioned.

“I mean, it’s likely a better source for actual battle strategies than the video games, in terms of actual field planning and using moves smartly,” Derek refuted, and pulled up Episode 2 as he muttered, “Hell, Episode 9 is a key example for why that’s the case.” Titania’s expression didn’t change as the intro started to play, and she grabbed her mug before walking inside. Derek looked back in concern and paused the video. It wasn’t like he had a long battery on it for watching solo. After a few seconds though, Titania returned with a second mug, both cups full of hot coffee. Once she sat down, Derek took the offered cup and hit play again.

“Oh, come on! How does that make sense?!” Titania exclaimed as the Bulbasaur on-screen blew the cloud of powder away, “I know it’s a cartoon, but you can’t just blow powder clouds away by blowing hard! All it’d do is just spread it around!”

“I know, right?” Derek said, cackling at her outraged reaction that timed perfectly with Pikachu’s astonishment, “The whole thing would end up flopping if they tried it with modern seasons!” As the episode continued, a sudden cheer made him look up from the tablet. The Trubbish brigade gave a cheer as the fallen tree dissolved from their attacks, then waddled to the next tree. Hissing in concern, Derek nudged Titania with his elbow. The professor looked up at this, only for her to stand up and hurry towards them.

“Okay, I think that’s enough of that!” she exclaimed, and returned them one after another into their Pokeballs until only one remained. The last Trubbish looked around in confusion momentarily, until Derek picked it up with both arms. As he repositioned his hold on it, Titania looked around at the area only to wince at the acid splashes and holes that littered the yard. “In fact, I think we should end training for now,” she said just in time for Bronzor to return into view.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Derek agreed, and looked at the minefield of dug holes, “Alright guys, time for lunch!” The call for food was quickly answered by Eve and Indiana, each Normal-type poking their head out of a different hole. When Derek opened the door to the lab, their eyes literally lit up with sparkles before they ran over. Their charge over to Derek was swiftly followed by Sparkplug poking his head out of the unseen maze, and the Grubbin scurried over to the lab as Titania walked inside.

“I think that’s a good start,” Titania mused as she opened a bag of apples. As she set the apples on the counter for the Pokemon, she looked outside in thought before she asked, “How long do you plan on having them work on these moves?”

“Well, I only plan on have them work on it for a few days,” Derek said, and as his Pokemon began to chow down, he grabbed an apple for himself and told her, “When they get the moves down, it will be time to move onto the next part of combat training.”

“And what would that be?” Titania asked him, not seeing where Derek was going with this.

Instead of answering her immediately, Derek took a big bite out of his apple. He chewed on it vigorously, before he finally swallowed and gave her an eager grin. “Why, having the two of us do some actual practice battles,” he told her.