Ch 15. Team Rocket rumors and training

Another day had started and Ares was once more relaxing with his pokemon at the waterside. He had trained a lot with his pokemon this morning, as he wanted to keep his body in shape as well. His pokemon were training hard, so he should up the effort to increase his own exercises as well to show he was doing his best as well. He needed to get as much as he could from the effort he put in.

The work his pokemon were doing was paying of as well, as both Clefairy and Pichu learned new moves. Clefairy learned the move Dazzling gleam, a very useful fairy type move. It had a lot of uses, especially since it targets more than one opponent. Clefairy would be a huge help if they were in a group battle, both as a healer and as an attacker. Should they ever find themsevels surrounded, Clefairy would surely be able to turn the tides of the battle.

The new moves Pichu had learned were Shock wave and Iron tail, increasing her moves set by a huge margin. When she evolved, she would be a great damage dealer. Terrible defense, yet amazing offense. He just needed her to keep up her agility training, so that she could evade any attack coming her way. That way, he didn't need to worry about her low defense.

The rest of his pokemon were doing fine as well, as they had become faster at executing their moves and increasing their power output. Their energy manipulation had gotten to a whole new level, as they didn't get as tired from using their attacks as they did before. They should be able to keep on battling for a bit longer, should the need ever arise.

They had deserved their rest for the time being, as he had given each of them some Pokepuffs so enjoy. A delicacy they all relished to eat.

Enjoying their treats, they watched as people came and went. It was really busy this morning, which wasn't surprising as a market was being set up right in front of them.

The towns folk were walking by doing their own thing, some going to work while others were having fun shopping. Yet amongst the people, a shady rumour was going from mouth to mouth.

"Have you heard? A group of people called Team Rocket claims they can heal a blind man."

"I heard they can even let someone speak again."

"They treated my mother after she was blinded by a wild pokemon."

"Then what do they want in return?"

"Yeah, they definitely won't do it for free."

"I heard you just need to join team Rocket."

"Haah? Aren't they just a group of thieves? Why would they even heal people?"

"I know right!"

"Maybe they aren't what we thought they are."

The rumours were absurd, but some people claimed it was true as they had seen it themselves.

Ares scoffed at the claims. Pokemon and specialised doctors couldn't heal blindness and suddenly a group that was well known as thieves claimed they can heal people. How laughable. Still, there had to be some credibility to what these people were saying, though the degree of it had yet to be seen. It surely wasn't at the scale he had just heard, as most of the rumors spread on the street would always end up getting exaggerated.

Ares once again closed his eyes as he let the sound of the surroundings fade away. At his side, Lucario copied his actions as they both started to meditate. His and Lucario's aura began to gently fluctuate as they began to increase it, no matter how slow it was.

It had been a while after his departure from Pallet town that he had last trained his Aura. He had rushed quite a bit in traveling to Cerulean city, affording himself only now a moment to get back to his training. While he and Lucario started their training, his other pokemon started theirs as well. As they were already quite used to their everyday sparring, they were now upping the proficiency of their moves and the control of their prospective energies.

Though they had already trained a lot today, they didn't mind doing more, if it meant they got stronger. They were carefull not to overdo it though, as it would only be detrimental at that point. Getting injuries from over training beat the whole point of doing the extra work. They would just get behind if they were forced to take a rest to heal.

Pidgeotto was training his flying ability, dodging long distance attacks Eevee was sending towards him. To make the training a bit more effective, Pidgeotto had Clefairy put weights on his legs and wings, making the whole debacle a lot more difficult than it would be otherwise, as well as training the muscles in his wings.

Eevee enjoyed his training as well, as he could practice in hitting moving targets. Pidgeotto was fast and Eevee became even more determined to hit him even once with every miss. At some point, Eevee upped the amount of shadow balls launched, making it look a bit funny.

Clefairy sat on the side lines and watched the whole thing. She wasn't that far yet with her training and she was more into watching her friends train and learning from that. They would help her with her training anyway, once they were done. She had much to learn and she was the more patient one amongst the others. It was better to ask for help than to learn things that would end up being a hindrance in the long run. Preventing was always better than regretting.

And Pichu, well, she was dozing off in the sun. The morning training had really tuckered her out, so she was getting all the rest she needed.

Lucario smiled as he sensed his friends busying themselves about. It looks like they all found their place in the small circle of friends they had gathered. Who knows if they would ever see the other as family, something he and Ares both hoped for and wanted. He glanced at his trainer, who had at some point began to watch his pokemon as well, the thought of training his Aura on the back burner for now.

"You can join them if you want."

Ares said as he looked at Lucario. Lucario shook his head as he stuck close to Ares, his intent clear. Even if you have other pokemon, I am still your number one partner. I'll train with you. You will always be the most important in my eyes.

Ares chuckled, almost hearing Lucario say those words.

"Sure partner. Let's continue our training."

Closing his eyes once more, Ares and Lucario began to channel their Aura. They started to spread their senses, feeling the other pokemon's emotions as well as how they were currently feeling. Grasping that feeling, Ares began to channel the Aura in his hands, covering them and breaking it down repeatedly. At some point, Ares and Lucario started to create aura shields in front of themselves and held it up as long as they could, which was pretty long.

After an hour, Ares was completely soaked as his aura finally ran out. Glancing at how his pokemon were faring, Ares spotted them sleeping around him, equally exhausted. Even Lucario wasn't off any better, though he was still keeping up his aura shield. As a pokemon, he had a better grasp on how to effectively use his aura. Because even compared to Lucario, Ares still had a bigger aura capacity, dwarving Lucario by a lot.

"Let's take a break. I bet you all are hungry."

They immediately woke up as soon as Ares mentioned food, a clear example of how much they were considered as foodies. At least that was what they appeared like in Ares's eyes, who couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the thought.

After finishing lunch, Ares was joined by Misty, who had a slowpoke following her around. She smiled brightly as she thanked Ares for the pokemon. Slowpoke just stood behind her as he was staring at nothing, completely oblivious to his surroundings.

"Ares! Can I play with your pokemon?"

Misty said as she looked at Clefairy, Pichu and Eevee. While Clefairy seemed happy to have some attention, Pichu patting her full belly as she managed to stuff the last morsel of food in her mouth, Eevee stuck close to Ares as he could feel Misty looking at him..

"Sure."

"Thanks!"

Misty said as she and her Slowpoke went to play with Clefairy. From time to time she would look at Eevee, a sparkle in her eyes.

"Ares! I have a question!"

Ares looked at Misty who had her eyes pinned on Eevee. Eevee, who was laying content in Ares's lap, looked at Misty with a faint hint of distrust. It was unknown if it was because of Ares's clear distancing from others, but Eevee had adopted the same approach, as he was alway wary of the strange people around him.

"And that question is?"

"What are you going to evolve your Eevee into? I think a Vaporeon would be great!"

Ares just shook his head slightly at Misty's words.

"I want to let Eevee decide into which form he wants to evolve into. And from the looks of it, he doesn't want to be a Vaporeon."

Eevee purred happily at how good his trainer understood him. Ares caressed Eevee on his head, which the latter seemed to enjoy a lot. Eevee pressed his head eagerly against Ares's hand, a show to indicate he wanted to be petted more.

"Aww, too bad. A Vaporeon is so nice too..."

Ares couldn't help but laugh as Misty started to pout. She looked just like a Skwovet when she did that.

"Don't act like that. Should I come across another Eevee, I might consider it. Don't get your hopes up though, as I don't make any promises."

Even if Ares didn't do so, Misty stopped pouting immediately as she became happy again. She mumbled all kinds of things she wanted to do should she ever get Vaporeon for herself, her head already in the clouds. Maybe Ares could get an Eevee for her in the future as well, should they remain in contact. She rushed towards her Slowpoke in excitement, hugging it tightly against her chest as she twirled around.

'Well, not that finding an Eevee is easy. Besides, he had no plans on giving her one if he ever found one. He didn't know her at all, so he had no reason to give her a rare pokemon. Slowpoke was the only exception, as it would make the trip back to the city a lot faster and it was easy to catch. Besides, maybe she can get an Eevee from Noah. Even if the chance is rather slim at best.'

Putting that thought out of his mind, Ares went back to lounging against the tree. He was planning to relax for the rest of the day, as he had heard there was a contest tomorrow for catching water type pokemon and he wasn't going to miss it. His team was already filling up nicely and a water type pokemon was a great addition. And to make sure he would get something nice, he made sure all his pokemon were relaxed and ready to roll. Today's morning training was already intensive enough, so they had the rest of today and tomorrow off.