Marble sighed as she looked about the training field, one hand on her hip as the other held a notepad with a list of the recruits she would be training with today. The training field was nearly empty with a few exceptions of course. A Meinfoo was sitting underneath a tree, watching over in the sidelines as a Eevee was practicing her moves against a training dummy nearby. Not far ahead was another Eevee attempting to do the same, with a sparring partner from the looks of things. He seemed to have gotten the attention of a goggle wearing Rattata with a Riolu following not far behind her.
None of them were the Pokémon she was looking for however. She had trained most of them and these five were late for the initial training sessions. With the trip to Ywarua coming up soon she supposed it made sense they would want to hone their skills before they left. She eventually arrived to the rather unusual and unimpressive gathering of Pokémon.
“Let me go you jerk so I can pummel you!” Soleil huffed as she tried to get out of Keaton’s grip. She tried biting down but her beak did little against his hard shell.
“Like hell I’m doing that,” Keaton smirked as he gave her head a noogie.
“What? All he did was call you squirt friend,” Jezebel said with a slight smirk.
“We are not friends,” Soleil grumbled. “And I am so getting you for getting him to call me that.”
“What? Me? All I did was try to be friendly with your new pal here.” Jezebel gave an innocent grin.
“I think it’s rather endearing,” Saki said with a smile. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with it. You are rather small. It’s best to embrace it than let it get to you.”
Yeah right, Jezebel thought. Nothing got her worked up more than calling her small or short. It was honestly funny in her opinion. She couldn’t help bring their new teammate in on the fun. If only to mess with her.
“Flora, help. Send word that these maniacs are torturing me.” Soleil pleaded as she reached out towards her.
“Aren’t you exaggerating a little,” Flora giggled a little. She honestly never understood her frustration. Sure she was small but there was nothing wrong with it. She wasn’t tall herself but she didn’t complain or make a big deal about it.
“You know, I’m kinda surprised to see you here of all places,” Jezebel passed a glance at Flora. “Last I heard you were hanging out with the other nerds making who knows what.”
“W-well… It’s true that I’m starting to lean with the Scholars more these days.” Especially since it could further help advance her medical skills and reach her goals. “B-but we’ve been going up against people like Morgan, to bandits like Xavier. It’s only gonna get worse from here I think. I have to be prepared.” She said, a rare glimmer of confidence in her.
“That’s right,” Marble took this opportunity to step in. It was at that moment that the others noticed her and stopped what they were doing to listen. Most of them at least. “Life outside of Tabira isn’t nice or fair. From bandits, to witches to basic forces of nature. If you wimps want to work with the Trackers or the guilds in general you better shape up.”
“Does yelling loud make me a better Tracker like you?” Jezebel said.
Marble huffed as she glared at her. “Laugh all you want but this is serious. You think you’re gonna handle Ywarua? I’ll be the judge of that. This training, it’s gonna be hard, it’s gonna be brutal, and no I don’t care if you don’t like it.”
Flora gulped a little and was visibly beginning to grow nervous. “U-um, some of us are new. W-we’re not all that um…” she paused, trying to find a way to phrase it correctly.
“Don’t care,” Marble snapped, making the Chikorita flinch in response. “Life is unfair. When you’re out in the field your enemies won’t fight fair. The terrain won’t be fair. Make a wrong move and you’ll end up hurt. Unless you learn to face danger head-on… you won’t last a second out there. We’re gonna start with an obstacle course before moving onto practice dummies and maybe some sparring. If you can make it through the end than maybe you’ll last longer than a minute out there. Any questions?”
They glanced over to the obstacle course in question they’d be tackling first. Immediately Flora noticed a cause for concern but Soleil was the one to voice her thoughts first. “How do you expect some of us to go through that? Some of us don’t have hands you know.” The rope climbing was going to be a pain.
“Figure it out,” Marble scoffed. “Now we’re late as is so get moving!” She barked.
~~
One of the first obstacles was a low wall. Most of the recruits had ran up on the wall, made a token attempt to get over, only to fail and having to walk around it. Only a few were fit enough to actually get over the wall in her experience. Out of this group only Jezebel, Keaton and Saki were able to get through. Soleil had attempted to use her speed and momentum to make the leap but failed and wasn’t able to reach the end. Flora managed to make it after using her vines to help her but it was clear she had trouble doing so in the first place.
Marble wasn’t impressed at all.
~~
The second obstacle was a series of logs with low hurdles. Keaton was rather slow and kept muttering how this would be easier if he could just roll through the obstacles instead. Flora fumbled at first but slowly got the hang of it. It went without much of a hitch which was impressive all things considering. If only things had continued like this.
~~
A grid of wagon wheels were set up side by side on the ground that they would have to cross as quickly as possible. Soleil, being short as she was, had trouble hoping through. She tripped against the edge and went sprawling into the ground. She cursed under her breath, and the fact that Keaton passed by and snickered at her didn't help.
~~
A nearly vertical stack of logs barred further progress. Two-by-two, they each took one of the hanging ropes hanging from the top and begin to climb their way up before climbing down on the other side.
Heaving herself to the top, Flora let out a victory cry and even proceeded to dance a little jig. She didn’t think she could do it but she did! With one misplaced hoof however, she lost her precarious balance. Saki tried to reach out to catch her but only lost her own balance as well and the two ended up rolling down the other side, ending up on heap atop of Keaton and Soleil below.
Marble shook her head and sighed deeply.
“At least she got to the top,” Jezebel said with a shrug.
Marble huffed, her eyes still lingered on the other four as they disentangled themselves.
~~
A long narrow plank stretched across a mud pit and weighted sandbags swung back and forth across the path. Soleil dodged and ducked under the pendulums, putting her size, balance, and sense of rhythm to excellent use. Flora followed after with significantly less grace, having to pause at several spots to avoid falling over or rushing into an incoming bag. Jezebel crossed relatively easily as well. Though Marble thought she could have done so much quicker and didn’t look to even be trying as hard. Saki crossed with mixed results. She was trying to be too flashy and Marble swore she would have finished sooner had she not insisted on doing a backflip at the end.
When it was finally Keaton’s turn he barreled forward with reckless abandonment, actually taking one or two grazing hits completely unfazed. He seemed like he was going to make it until finally a bag caught him full on. Even at that, the sturdy grass-type only stumbled, but as he struggled to regain his balance his forward momentum carried him into the path of another bag swinging in the opposite direction.
As Keaton cleaned the mud from his eyes he gazed up at the plank, huffing in frustration. The fact that Soleil hopped on to blow a raspberry at him certainly didn’t help. He smirked as she scooped up a sizable ball of mud with a hand and tossed it at her. Soleil let out a startled cry, before misplacing a step and tumbling down to join Keaton in the pit.
“Hey, that was uncalled for!”
“Meh, you deserved it.”
“And you deserve this!” Soleil shouted as she took a ball of mud in her wings and lobbed it at Keaton.
He effortlessly dodged the attack. “You really shouldn’t give someone so much of a warning squirt.” Keaton smirked as he made an even larger ball of mud before tossing it at her. He puffed his chest out in triumph, but it was short-lived before an angered roar pierced the heavens.
~~
As the two starting taking turns dodging and returning fire at each other, three others watched from above.
“Shouldn’t we stop them?” Flora asked, worried things may get out of hand.
Jezebel shrugged. “Nah, I say we let them get it out of their system. Especially squirt over there.” She paused before a wry grin formed on her lips. “Besides, why spoil a good show?”
Suddenly a ball of mud struck Jezebel on the side of the head. “I heard that!”
Jezebel lazily wiped the mud away and smirked. Suddenly, they all had to hastily cover their ears as a shrill whistle cut the air.
Marble lowered the whistle as she glared down at the two. “Would either of you care to explain what the hell is going on?”
“They might have gotten a little carried away I guess,” Jezebel chuckled.
“I’ll deal with you later. You there!” She pointed at Keaton. “What the hell was that back there? Running through that will get you killed in the real world. Then you had to go and trip her up.” She pointed at Soleil.
“Ooh, busted,” Soleil said in a mocking drawl.
“And you! I caught that taunt back there.” Marble said, making Soleil wince at the volume of her voice. “What the hell kind of teamwork is that?”
“Geez, it was only practice and it was all in good fun. No need to get worked up,” Keaton said as he got out of the pit before pulling Soleil up. Soleil looked up at him and looked like she wanted to slap him behind the head. Not for carrying her, though that was annoying at best.
“Fun?” Marble deadpanned.
“It’s not like either of us would have pulled that stunt if any of this was real. Besides, I never would been knocked down in real life.” Keaton declared.
“Just get cleaned up already. We’re moving to the practice dummies next. I want you all there in ten minutes” Marble bellowed, frustration evident in her voice.
~~
Okay, so perhaps some members needed attitude adjustments. With that said they weren't the worse recruits she's seen. Maybe a little clumsy and uncoordinated but not incapable. With time of course. A lot of time in her opinion. Of course she had to see if they really had the potential to make it through the ranks. So after Keaton and Soleil had cleaned up she led them all to the training dummies.
“Listen up!” She barked, patting the wooden dummy next to her. “Next we’re practicing with these. You're gonna hit these with your best moves so try to impress me.” She huffed as she let them go.
Overall the group was beginning to prove some adequate results. Flora had only two offensive moves with her. Her Vine Whip was standard but her Ancient Power put a couple of good dents on the dummies. Jezebel hit her dummy rather lazily and seemed uninterested. Saki was the polar opposite, hitting her dummy with passion as she attempted her absolute best. Soleil didn't have much power but her attacks were swift and accurate. Keaton didn't hit fast but he did hit hard. His Rollout was unexpected though. He crashed and bounced against the dummies hard. He wasn't usually fast but he seemed to make up for it this way.
Unfortunately at some point he lost control and crashed against a tree. Well that could have gone better.
“Someone check on him,” Marble said as she wrote something down as Flora went to see how he was. Perhaps some members were weaker than others but they had potential.
~~
“This is the sparring area,” she gestured at the section before them. “You’ve done adequate so far. You have potential and with time you might even make it to the Trackers someday.”
“We weren’t that bad…” Flora said softly.
“But here’s where we’re really going to test your skills. I’m gonna have you spar each other in groups. Since we’re uneven one of you will have to face me.” She said, cracking her knuckles.
“Yeah, I’ll pass.” Jezebel said with a shrug.
“Not it.”
“Eep!”
“Sounds fun!”
“Sorry, I don’t like fighting girls.”
Marble huffed as she glared at Keaton for a moment before passing a glance at Jezebel. “Fine, you two! You’ll be up first up.”
Flora giggled softly and wished Keaton good luck as he took to the field. He face Jezebel and looked down at the smaller Pokémon.
“What?” She asked suddenly.
“Nothing,” he insisted. The two prepared themselves as Marble blew her whistle for the two to begin. “Ladies first~” he insisted, giving her the initial attack.
Jezebel rose a brow before letting a small smirk creep on her lips. “You sure you want to do that? Who knows, I might accidentally hurt you if you don’t try.”
“Please, I’d like to see you try and hurt me.” He said, patting his shell. Jezebel’s smirk only widened.
~~
“Ugh… what happened?” Keaton said as he rubbed his head. He felt sore all over. When did he take a nap? And why did it feel like a hammer was pounding at his skull?
“Um… You kinda lost that fight,” Flora said with a sheepish smile as she continued to use her Heal Pulse on him.
“Like big time!” Soleil said as she chuckled at his recent humiliation. “Still, I can’t blame you I guess. She was pretty relentless. Like sheesh!” She doubted she’d be able to last long there. She didn’t think the sluggish Corgunk could move so fast.
“Hey, he said not to hold back,” Jezebel shrugged.
“You could have held back a little you know. Or at least stop hitting his face,” Saki pointed out.
“Meh, he said he could take it. Besides, couch said to take advantage of our opponent’s week spots.”
“She’s right you know. I hope you learned something today Keaton. You’re shell may be tough but if you’re cocky and let your guard down you’ll be back on the ground like today,” Marble huffed as she had her hands on her hips.
Keaton sighed and nodded. It wasn’t like he tried to fight back as much. He meant it when he said he hated fighting girls.
“Also good work back there,” she gave Jezebel a thumbs up. “Now then, onto the next set…”
~~
“Alright, that’s enough for now.” Marble said to the group of Pokémon now on the bleachers. They were all pretty exhausted from today. Even the usually laid back Croagunk looked a little winded. She still maintained that grin on her face. No one knew how she did it. “You may not be the best group of Pokémon out there, or even the most coordinated, but you have potential and made it through the day. Barely at least.”
“Hah. You’re a real inspiration to us all,” Jezebel quipped.
“Shut your mouth!” Marble huffed at her, making the Croagunk smirk. “Anyways, this is just the basic training course. There’s a lot you need to improve on before you got what it takes to be a Tracker. So um… keep working on that or whatever.” She said, clearly done with today like the others were.
As soon as they were dismissed Soleil moved towards Flora. “Ugh… My wings are gonna be sore tomorrow. Fighting each other is one thing but she’s a nightmare.” She groaned as she plopped on the ground. She stayed there before looking at Flora. “Whatca’ thinking about?” She asked her. She had a thoughtful look on her face.
“Hm? Oh nothing. I’m just tired I guess.” She said with a tired smile.
“Yeah, I’m beat,” Soleil groaned. “Help me back home?”
Flora sighed but smiled as she helped plop Soleil on her back.
“Don’t mention this to anyone,” Soleil said with a soft yawn.
“Never,” Flora responded with a small smile. Her smile faded when she went back to her thoughts. Looking back at today she realized just how behind she was compared to the others. She wasn’t terrible but she wasn’t the best either. Adequate was the word used to describe her and she was not satisfied with it. She’d need to improve herself quickly before she became a burden to her team. She looked back at Soleil and smiled faintly. I won’t let you down. I promise.
