Chapter 11: Training Methods 

I had Bagon knock over a total of ten trees before lunch. By then, he was sweating and his limbs trembled, but he was still standing. He held his head high as if none of the work bothered him. 

I admired him for that. 

"Lunch time," I said shortly. 

Bagon slowly walked back to where Dawn was sitting over a fire with a cooking pot. I hadn't been paying attention, but it seemed like she had made stew of some sort. 

"Here." Dawn put a bowl of Pokemon food in front of Bagon and patted him on the head. He gratefully tore into his food, hungry from all the training.  

I sat down next to Dawn on the first tree Bagon had knocked over. It made the perfect bench. We let all of our Pokemon out for lunch and they settled in the clearing, happy to stretch and eat. 

Dawn handed me a bowl filled with stew. I looked at it cautiously. "Since when do you cook?" 

"I picked some things up from Brock. You would have known that if you hadn't just assumed I didn't know anything about cooking." She ladled herself a bowl, then looked at me. "Well, eat it." 

I smirked at her commanding tone and took a taste. It actually wasn't half bad. "Not as atrocious as I thought it'd be. I didn't even gag." 

Dawn put her bowl on the ground and leaned forward so that her elbows were resting on her legs, her face in her hands. "Can't you just ever compliment someone outright?" 

"That was a compliment." 

"Not by my standards." Dawn sighed. "Can't we just have a truce?" 

I considered it and came to the conclusion that Dawn and I would always clash. We were like the colors black and white- total opposites. "There is no truce, no understanding, between two beings like us." 

"Wow. Could you get any glummer than that?" Dawn massaged her temples. Apparently she had a headache as well. 

I ignored the question. 

"Paul, I don't want to fight with you. I want to learn how to be a better Trainer." 

"Exactly. And all you've done is complain about my methods so far. How can you learn if you're too stubborn to listen?" I took another sip of her stew... it really was good. Not that I would tell her that. 

"You're right. But still, why would you have Bagon train Headbutt like that? Wouldn't he hurt himself?" Dawn questioned. 

"Bagon is the "Rock Head" Pokemon. As you've already seen in Meteor Falls, they have very hard heads that can even crush rock without damaging themselves. Their ability allows them to use attacks that cause damage without actually receiving damage themselves. Headbutt does not have any recoil damage, although new time users usually have to learn how to get past the dazed side effect after using it. Bagon does not, therefore using Headbutt is as safe as walking for him." 

"Oh. I didn't know that." Dawn blushed. "But you're still killing the forest by having him knock over all these trees." 

"They'll grow back." Unlike your brain cells, I thought to myself. "We're done training Headbutt for awhile anyway. It's not that important of a move and he has an almost perfected one to be able to knock over a tree in three blows. What's more important is Ember, which leads to Flamethrower. That's our main goal as far as attacks go right now." 

"Ok." Dawn picked up her bowl and we ate in peace the rest of the time. Piplup seemed to be chiding Bagon about training and kept giving me annoyed glances, as if Dawn's style of training was much more suitable for a tiny Pokemon like himself. 

I smirked as Bagon ignored him and ate in silence while Piplup grew frustrated and stalked away. I liked this Bagon.

We finished eating and both stood up, stretching our limbs. 

"My turn to train some!" Dawn called. "Togekiss!" 

I wryly wondered what had inclined her to start training right now as her Togekiss, large and pure white, hovered over from the others. I gave it another appraising look- it was larger than a normal Togekiss and seemed more mature than Dawn, not that she was hard to surpass. 

"Use Sky Attack!" Dawn commanded. Togekiss took off, soaring almost lazily through the air, flipping upside down and twirling. I suppressed rolling my eyes and watched as Togekiss became surrounded by a blinding white aura and sped through the sky, so fast that she was a blur. 

"Nice!" Dawn commented as Togekiss came back down. 

"Think again." I leaned back against a tree. 

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked, mouth open in confusion. 

"I've studied Togekiss before. They have a high Special Attack and yours shouldn't use Sky Attack. It's pretty useless." 

"That's not true! We almost won the Sinnoh Grand Festival!" 

"Almost, Dawn, is not winning," I replied dryly. "What other moves does she know?" 

"Oh, um, Aura Sphere, Air Slash, and Safeguard." 

"Get rid of Safeguard and Sky Attack. They're a waste of time and won't help you in a battle." 

"But I need them for the appeals round," Dawn complained. 

"Do you want my help or not?" 

She seemed to sag. "Yes." 

"Then teach your Togekiss better moves. You might as well put its ability to good use." 

"Ability?" Dawn gaped at me. 

"Arceus, Dawn, do you not even know what an ability is?" I raised my eyebrow. "If you don't, you're not even worth training." 

"I do know what abilities are, but I don't know what Togekiss's ability is." Dawn fidgeted, looking embarrassed for good reason. 

"It's Serene Grace, Dawn." 

"What does that do?" 

"It makes added effects like flinch and paralysis occur." I sighed. 

"Oh. So... Air Slash?" Dawn cringed as if expecting me to snap at her for saying something wrong. 

At least she knew that made Pokemon flinch occasionally. I nodded. "Yeah." 

"So shouldn't Aura Sphere go too? It doesn't have any special effects." 

I shrugged. "It's still a good attack to have." 

"Why?" 

"Because Aura Sphere is a Fighting type move and Togekiss is weak against Ice and Rock Pokemon, who are both weak against a move like Aura Sphere, nitwit."

"Oh, ok." She scrunched her eyes in concentration. "So Aura Sphere and Air Slash are ok. What other two moves should Togekiss learn?" 

"Why don't you try doing this research on your own? I'm not a walking encyclopedia." 

"I don't think an encyclopedia would be as rude as you," Dawn muttered. 

I ignored her. 

"Please help me?" She pleaded. "I don't have any way of looking up what moves Togekiss can learn." 

"Don't you have a Pokedex?" I pinched the bridge between my nose. I was developing another headache. 

"Oh, yeah!" She dug it out and held it toward Togekiss, scrolling through the options.  

She selected "known moves" and it droned, "Togekiss is able to learn a variety of different types of moves. These include Dazzling Gleam, Aura Sphere, Extrasensory, Magical Leaf, Ancient Power, Roost, and Morning Sun. With great difficulty, Togekiss can learn Shadow Ball and Flamethrower." 

"There you go." 

"So which moves would be best?" 

"Extrasensory, Shadow Ball, and Ancient Power have extra effects that would become more likely to happen if Togekiss knew them." 

"I wonder which would be prettiest." 

I tensed. "Who cares what they look like? Which one does the best in battle?" 

"That's not what Contests are all about!" 

"They should be. Power is everything." 

She frowned and stared at Togekiss for a minute. "I'll compensate. It seems like Roost would help out in battle, not to mention that it would be pretty. Should I have Togekiss learn Shadow Ball or Flamethrower?" 

"Your Quilava knows Flamethrower. I'd go with Shadow Ball. Though Dazzling Gleam would be a good move to learn in the future considering Togekiss is a Fairy type," I advised. "Am I done teaching preschool yet?" 

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I'm going to be busy. Go ahead and do whatever you want since you don't want to help me. I just thought we'd try to help each other." 

"I can't think of any way you could actually help me, Dawn."

"The next time you need medical attention I won't give it, then." 

"I'll cross my fingers that I won't need you to donate a kidney."