On the road again

Rex slept through the night at a hotel in lavender town since Machoke needed to be kept for observation throughout the night. The morning sun shone through the burgundy curtains and onto Rex's face.

Getting up and taking a shower he walked out of the hotel to the fresh breeze with a hint of moisture from the rain last night. The smell of fresh flowers accentuated the pleasant atmosphere that lingered in the town.

Rex along with Marshadow who was in his shadow made their way to the Pokémon centre where they would pick up Machoke. The centre was empty since it was early in the morning and only Nurse Joy could be seen as usual.

Nurse Joy "Your Machoke has made a complete recovery," she said with a smile as she handed Machoke's Pokeball back to Rex. He took it hastily before thanking the nurse and walking out. He immediately threw the Pokeball out and a massive 2-meter tall Machoke came out with a burst of aura.

Rex didn't care and rushed to give him a hug.

Rex "I missed you buddy, I'm glad your ok," he said emotionally. Machoke pulled out of the hug and smiled happily before fist-bumping Rex. But his smile soon froze when he stared at Rex's shadow and punched it heavily, which exposed the fleeing Marshadow.

Marshadow was shocked that it was spotted and the power that Machoke just displayed. Rex who saw this quickly stopped Machoke from continuing.

Rex "Machoke, this is our new family member, Marshadow, this is your big brother from now on," he said as he introduced them to each other. Machoke looked down at the small Pokémon with a smile before petting its head amicably. Marshadow seemed to not like it as it began to punch out at Machoke.

Machoke only laughed it off as it was too powerful to feel the punches. Marshadow stopped after seeing that it wasn't effective and decided to climb on top of Machoke's shoulder before knocking on his head.

Machoke just swatted him away as a person would to a pesky fly. Marshadow was indignant and disappeared back into Rex's shadow. Rex smiled and patted Machoke's shoulder before recalling him back to his Pokeball. Rex then pulled out his bike from his inventory and rode it out of town as he headed towards Vermilion city where his next gym badge would be.

It would take several days as he would need to go through routes 12 and 11 before reaching the destination but he missed being on the road. He was getting a bit tired of riding a bike so he was thinking of getting a motorcycle since it would be quicker and more efficient while traversing the place. He already did enough exercise, so peddling was just too much.

As he was thinking this, he made his way over the bridge where a lot of people could be seen fishing. He didn't need a water type so there was no need to fish but he did fight all the trainers he could. Marshadow participated in the majority of them as Rex needed to gauge his level of strength and ability.

He was pleasantly surprised at the prowess Marshadow showed as he was almost meant for battle. He spared with Machoke every day, and it was a one-sided beat down, Machoke pretty much dominated him. Marshadow was able to improve the power if his moves thanks to watching how Machoke did them, but it got to the point where he couldn't anymore. This was due to his lack of knowledge on how to refine his energy. There was a limit to his copy technique after all it wasn't all-knowing. So, he would mediate under Machoke and pretty much live on Machoke's shoulder which bothered him to no end.

But Machoke couldn't do anything about it, every time he tried to swat him away, he would disappear and reappear which made him miss. He was like a demon. Machoke had given up and let the little one do as it pleased.

The training increased for all of his Pokémon in order to push them harder. In the meantime, Rex was going over the ground-breaking news the system had revealed to Rex.

[the system's research has found a way to increase the strength of some of the host's Pokémon, these being, Weepinbell and Growlithe. The system has been scanning the fire stones and leaf stones the Host bought in Viridian City and has found a way to use them to increase the strength of the Pokémon. By fusing three stones of the same kind together it will have a qualitative change. The Pokémon will be faster, stronger, and smarter than its own species, the only catch is that it will put the Pokémon into a coma-like state for 1 month,]

Rex was mind blown, he didn't think this was possible, but he always wondered what would happen if he used more than one stone.

Rex "why only three?" he asked, after all, wouldn't more be better?

[System has scanned and found that Growlithe would need to increase his level by 10 for every stone added, which is not worth it in the long run, since, if held back for too long, it will stay a Growlithe forever without a chance to evolve. Being held back hinders and wastes a pokemon's talent which would affect it after evolution, system used three stones since it is the optimal limit in order to maximise stats and retain talent,] it responded mechanically.

Rex understood the concept and had to qualms with it, after all, Weepinbell was not very far from level 30 so he would evolve it when it reaches that level and Growlithe had a long way to go before he was ready.

Having processed the information, Rex went to do his Aura training with Machoke and Marshadow joined in as it found aura to be incredibly interesting. Rex found that when it was in a fight some parts of Marshadow would turn green which was cool.

And so, they spent a couple of days like this in route 12 before encountering a slumbering giant.