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((13 points earned so far. Post #6 for 1.5 total points)

Clare had to be careful and dodge the bolts from Discharge but they managed to not get blasted, thankfully. Once Eidolon has stopped releasing the attack, Clare clapped, cheering for the Pincurchin." Excellent!" They cried out, cheering the Pokemon on. "Why not try a Water-type move this time?" They asked. "Think you can use Muddy Water?"

Eidolon cocked to the side. What was that? "Pincur?" He asked, confused.

"I guess you don't know that one..." They realized, pulling out their SNAG and finding a video of someone else using it at some point. "This, here." They explained, showing Eidolon the video of what the move looked like.

Eidolon watched, curious, his intrigue currently overwhelming the desire to destroy someone or something. As the video proceeded and he saw how it worked, he realized why it looked familiar. It was just dirty Surf. He could do that, he thought.

As Clare backed away to give him space, they watched the little Pokemon summon a huge wave from seemingly nowhere, though the water was crystal clear. That was definitly just Surf.

"I'm afraid that's not right." They informed Eidolon as the water receded again. "Want to try again?"

Eidolon nodded, upset that he'd failed. He knew he could make a dirty Surf attack. It couldn't be that hard, could it?! As he focused on the attack he'd seen he began to summon the water once again. He could feel it rising up through the earth and beginning to filter through the floor tiles but as the wave began to form, he could see it was still crystal clear water, just like the previous time.

"Pin cur!" He shouted, dismissing the Surf almost the moment it began to form. The Sea Urchin Pokemon felt his rage returning now. Two failed attempts at that attack were getting to him now.

((17 Purificatio points earned so far. Post #8 for 1.5 points))

Clare stood back and watched as Eidolon focused on his toxins once more. His spikes began to glow purple before the color drained from them and began to concentrate in his frontmost "horn" spike. As Eidolon focused on his attack, Clare watched the poison fire out of his spike like an electric spark before it struck the wall and released like a blast of purple lightning.

"You did it!" Clare cheered, clapping once more. "Great work!" They assured the Pincurchin.

"Pin cur?" The Electric-type asked, eyes unclenching as he looked up at the spot he'd been trying to shoot to see the strange burn mark where the toxic shock had struck.

"Do you think you can use Pin Missile now? Try and hit the same spot!" Clare suggested. They'd heard not letting your Pokemon think too hard about newly learned moves would prevent them from getting hung up on the attack so using a familiar one after that should do the trick if they made sure it was harder than just using it.

"Pin pin cur." Eidolon agreed, his spiked glowing a light green for a moment before the tips of each of his spikes seemed to fire themselves off like tiny missiles that cut through the air in strange and erratic arcs before striking the wall in a clustered but not highly accurate grouping.

Aile would step foot into the STR once again, two Pokéballs in hand. She’d been keeping herself busy between her first couple of visits to Kitakami, from helping Sol and Reno try to get research done, to working on her archery again, to working on purifying the Rhydon she snagged so long ago. She intended on sending it out on a mission that they were supposed to go to, before… Was it fighting a Stakataka that came through a nearby Ultra Wormhole? Or was it the Kartana? There had been so many Ultra Beasts near HQ in that time period… Arceus, they’d gone through a lot. Now, though, they finally had some amount of down time, so it was finally the right time for her to work on purifying the Rhydon.

Aile would throw out the two Pokéballs, bringing out the Rhydon as well as Tatooine, who’s been his sparring partner the entire time. While she knew that the STR had Immunizers going the entire time, she still was nervous having anyone else out. In theory, she could have brought out her Nincada as well, but despite the size of it, Rhydon could still probably smoosh him under his foot. So, Tatooine, her other purified Pokémon, it was.


Rhydon would look around as he was brought out into the world once more, noting his surroundings and how, once again, it was Aile and a Flygon accompanying him. Once, when they first started on the purification process, he would have gone on the attack immediately. Now, though, he had mellowed out… some. Still wasn’t sure about these two, but he knew a fight was coming, at this point, and he was ready for it still. However, Rhydon was taken aback for a moment, when the red headed human walked up towards him, pulling some sort of object out of her jacket. “Hey, hey. Relax. This isn’t anything bad for you. You remember how I’ve been telling you that you’re sick, and that these battles are to help get this virus out of you,” she asked him, slowly walking up to the large Pokémon. One of her hands was raised up and empty, while the other one held some sort of small vial. It, too, was raised, though, showing that the one object was all she intended on getting out. He stared at her, staying put and watching until the fragile human, finally nodding slowly as he realized she was waiting on a response from him. It was, in fact, something she had mentioned in some fashion a good few of the fights. And apparently, it was something she was able to track on her tiny little pad. “There is some medicine you need to take, though,” the woman continued when she finally received the nod. “If you let me give it to you as a drink before we get going with this fight, it’ll be a lot easier. Please?”


Rhydon considered what she asked. When they first got started on this whole thing, if she had asked that, he would have instead attacked her on the spot. Aile’s training method, though, while unorthodox, was working. She had let him just rampage the first few fights, with the dragon fighting him back and protecting her trainer. After a while, she began to rotate who she commanded, with him being stubborn and not listening when it came to him being commanded, doing his own thing. It had taken the dragon yelling at him during one of his more lucid moments for him to finally attempt to listen to her, which was when he finally started scoring a reliable hit onto the Flygon. This had continued, and now, it was pretty much the human commanding him exclusively in their fights now, which didn’t feel so one sided, despite the dragon having an aerial advantage. Snorting finally, Rhydon bent down and opened his mouth slightly, Aile taking the opportunity to open and pour the contents of the vial into his mouth. Shaking his head, he'd swallow the bitter concoction, wondering if he’d been poisoned instead. Looking to his opponent, Tatooine, the dragon nodded back at him, getting herself set up. He wondered if that was acknowledging what he did, or just to show that she was ready. Either way, it was time to fight.


The two Pokemon would lie on the ground, both of them panting hard as they gave it their all against each other. Tatooine would have a fair few scratches and wounds on her, easily healed, but Rhydon would have the same sort of scratches on him as well. His aura, though, was definitely flickering, dying out. And he had a smile on his face. Not some sort of savage, psychotic smile of someone who only wanted to fight. But the smile of someone who had fought their heart out and was pleased with the results. In fact, this felt like the first time in a rather long time he had felt like this. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched his trainer… yeah, this felt right. His trainer. His human. The one who helped him get to this point. He watched as she walked up to the both of them, looking slightly tired herself. “You both did great. Tati, Rhydon, great job. Rhydon, I’m honestly proud of you. How would you like your own name, actually?” The Rhydon pushed himself into a sitting position, once again staring at Aile. His own name? Rhydon was fine, but…His gaze shifted to the Flygon, Tatooine she was called. Or Tati, depending on the mood the human was in. She seemed to be fine with it, maybe even adored her name? Maybe… Maybe there might be something in it. They shared a strong bond, and it seemed like a bond that helped them bring out their best when they fought against him. SHe seemed like she was trying to foster a bond with him as well, if he was reading things right. She had been helping him with his illness… And he was feeling lighter and had more clarity than he had in ages… He nodded, curious to see what the human would give him.

“Awesome. How about the name Fett, then? Named after a badass character, for a badass Rhydon that managed to fight off the Shadow Virus.” Aile’s grin grew wide as she bestowed upon him his own personalized name, with Fett feeling the infectious emotion she was exuding right now. She was extremely happy, and he couldn’t help but feel the same. They managed to work together to get to this point. “Now then. Tati, Fett, how about we get something to eat?” The Flygon slowly sat up, cheering in agreement with that idea. Looking between Aile and Tatooine, the smile would grow on his own face as the last remnants of the Shadow Virus aura would fade away, roaring his own cheery agreement for food.

Monique looked intensely at Poloka from atop the rim of the "bathtub".

"To work as an attack, though, you need to do it faster and sometimes without all that water. So... I'm gonna challenge you."

A grin formed on the Pokémon's mouth.

"I want you to do that without being fed on water. Imagine you're surrounded by Shadow Pokémon. You need to take them out all at once. You're all alone. What do you do?"

Monique tapped on her SNAG, and holograms of different Pokémon appeared in a ring surrounding Poloka: a Meganium, a Cinccino, and a few other random assortments. Poloka started turning her head around. Oh, she can feel it now.

"Come on, Poloka! You can do it! Remember what you were just taught!"

It nervously waited, the holograms snarling and appearing to want to close in on their "prey".

"Don't wait, Poloka! Attack!"

Without warning, Poloka extended her arms and briefly inflated her cheek sacs. Suddenly, a torrent of sludgy water rushed forth, an unnatural violet wave that spread in all directions. The omnidirectional attack caused the holograms to reel and fade away, leaving the Croagunk alone in the bathtub.

"That's it!" Monique shouted, clapping. "I'll give you a hug once all that water clears," she replied. "Not going in the Smoggy ocean."

"Croaaaa!" Poloka called back. At first, she thought this was in reply to her positive encouragement, but then the Toxic Mouth Pokémon began to glow white, its body structure shifting and barely visible under the large release of visible light.

It's evolving! Monique realized, watching rapt from the top lip. She could tell that Croagunk was getting taller—almost twice as tall, but little else was revealed until the light began to fade. A new Pokémon with a clear familial resemblance but more mature, taller, and with a massive sac under its neck awaited her.

Toxicroak. Poison/Fighting. The Toxic Mouth Pokémon. It has a poison sac at its throat. When it croaks, the stored poison is churned for greater potency.

Monique ran down to hug the newly evolved Pokémon. "Now, don't go croakin' on me, okay?" She looked Poloka in the eyes. Looks like this method of coaching really does work on them...

[Evo Points: 24 -> 27]

"Time for the next exercise. I think we've done enough bubble projectiles so I want to see what you can do in your new form." Sub said as he removed his SNAG from his pocket and brought up the Pokedex function, scrolling through the dex until he found the Frogadier species and began to read the data the dex provided concerning Frogadier. "According to this you should now be able to use Smokescreen next, that would come in handy. In fact..." Sub said as he pocket his SNAG, then calling out to GRAY, knowing good and well the AI was listening at all times. "GRAY, could you run us a simulation of a Trumbeak attacking with Bullet Seed? Make it completely reliant on visual cues. Hop-Frog is going to test his dodge capabilities and hopefully Smokescreen." Sub requested of the AI, Hop-Frog perking up as he heard what he was going to be doing.

GRAY would respond to the request by executing it, a blue wire frame of a Trumpeak materializing and soon the skin and texture materialized as well until it looked like a normal Trumbeak. Once it was created Sub would hold a finger up into the air as if to indicate 'one second', holding off the attack for now as he turned to Hop-Frog. "Alright, it's going to relentless fire at you. I want you to run, dodge, and try to bring out a Smokescreen so you can shake it off of you, got it? Once it has lost you retaliate with Water Pulse." He instructed the Frogadier, Hop-Frog giving him a nod as he got low and ready. Once he was prepared Sub would drop his finger and the Trumbeak immediately drew in 'breath' as its beak swelled.

The Trumbeak would do as warned and unleashed a machine gun-like spray of Bullet Seed straight at Hop-Frog, the Frogadier immediately leaping high into the air with its powerful legs to dodge the initial spray but alas it still had to come back down thanks to gravity and when it did it got caught in the Bullet Seed, Hop-Frog hitting the ground hard and rolling a ways until he stopped. "Pause session!" Sub called out to get the holographic Trumbeak to stop, which it immediately did. Sub would walk over to his Pokemon and help him back to his feet.

"Just jumping straight up isn't going to help you. Maybe try using your fingers to adhere to the walls. The dex says Frogadier as especially good at clinging to surfaces." Sub instructed his Pokemon as he brushed him off, Hop-Frog letting out a croak in response as he readied himself again. Once his Pokemon was prepared, and Sub out of the way, he would instruct GRAY to resume the program.

Like before Trumbeak would fire off its spray of Bullet Seed and just like before Hop-Frog would leap over it except this time it jumped much higher and landed on the ceiling. The Trumbeak would turn its beak and its spray of Bullet Seed would attempt to follow Hop-Frog on the ceiling however the frog was quick to bounce off the ceiling and move at an angle back onto the ground to avoid the incoming Bullet Seed. Again Trumbeak adjusted, following Hop-Frog which its Bullet Seed and Hop-Frog would attempt to go for the ceiling again but the STR controlled Trumbeak caught on and simply moved to where it thought the Frogadier would go and would catch it in the Bullet Seed again, Hop-Frog falling to the ground hard once more.

"Pause it again, GRAY!" Sub called out, the Trumbeak freezing up again as Sub moved over to help his Pokemon again. "You're doing better but you can't stay so predictable. Here, take a break and drink this." Sub said as he handed his Pokemon a Fresh Water, the Pokemon happily taking it from the trainer and beginning to gulp it down.

[Hop-Frog: 4/40]