Valerie had an understanding look on her face, “I see…Hmm, I think it’s a good idea. We haven’t really had the time to do anything properly since, even though I promised you we’d go ahead and try to improve it.”
There was only one problem the two were inevitably going to come up on, and Valerie tackled it right here and now, “It’s just…How do we even train our bond?”
Larry shrugged, he didn’t have anything concrete, but he guessed the best way was emotional rather than any real logic or training regimen, ‘With how much all Pokemon media talked about the bond between Pokemon and Trainer being a special thing, I doubt we’ll be able to do any exercises…’
“The last time it triggered was back in Mt. Silver, when you were really emotional.” She recounted, a hand on her chin, “Do you think it only works if we’re both really fired up?”
Nodding to her question, Larry began entering the words ‘empathetic bond’ in the search engine on Valerie’s phone and handed it back to her, ‘I doubt we’ll get to the bottom of this alone. The last thing I remember about bonds in Pokemon is that somehow Pikachu revived Ash in the first movie by crying or something? Doesn’t Mega-Evolution also work around it? I think there was also something about Ash getting a special Pokemon that used their bond in the anime later on? A Greninja? I never watched it that far, though…’ Again, Larry was mad at himself for not following a children's anime into his adulthood.
“Good idea, let’s see if the internet has anything interesting about the topic!”
…
Sybil was busy practicing her two new moves in the distance as Larry and Valerie both tried and failed to get to the bottom of the weird phenomena that intertwined them. Trainers and teachers loved to talk about it, but it was always veiled in multiple layers of tropey and largely useless language. Like an Ace being interviewed about their Gym Fights and them mentioning how they managed to feel out their Pokemon’s location in an obscured battlefield, helping them snag a win from the jaws of defeat.
Another was an old woman who, after spending almost her entire life together with her Fairy-Type Pokemon, seemingly managed to communicate entirely nonverbally with each other, just through a variety of gazes and expressions. Even complicated things, like describing scenes only presented to one of them, could be understood by the other with nothing more than a few glances.
There was also one about a veteran trainer, who, while defending himself from a wild gang of Pokemon, accidentally managed to synchronize his movements with his Pokemon. It allowed his Fighting-Type Pokemon to mirror a fighting stance it had never shown any interest in learning, without even a single look at him while fighting off droves of wild Pokemon.
Yet, none of the reports ever explained the phenomenon they experienced in detail, falling back on vague language about the bond and friendship between trainer and Pokemon and how proud and happy the two must be to be so connected. By the third story, while both Larry and Valerie were happy to read the amazing things possible, there was also a nagging annoyance from the still-unexplained phenomenon.
“I get it's all emotional, but how hard can it be to give a bit of an explanation?” Valerie whined.
“True that…” Larry noted. Back at home, he’d never really taken a deeper look inward, so his reincarnation had been a real wake-up call. It forced him to somewhat combat the more traumatic parts of her life.
In that way, he’d managed to grow up, at least a tiny bit. If what he needed to rediscover the bond with Valerie was to be emotional, maybe he could find something out if the two of them simply got…more emotional? Suggesting it to Valerie via text, the girl looked even more confused.
“You really think that’ll work?” She wondered, “I get your point, but…how do we even do that?”
“I guess…think of something that’ll make you mad or sad?” Larry had enough of writing and simply mimed a motion for sadness and madness, Valerie seemingly catching onto what he meant.
“Getting angry or sad…” His trainer looked unsure, “Ok…I think I’ve got to get into the mood…What to think of…”
Larry followed suit, focusing inward as well. Mentally, he certainly had enough material to think about, his past wasn’t that rosy. But now that he was actually forced to think back, he noted once again how extremely little he still remembered.
It felt so distant now, his past life. He felt a general vibe for almost anything, but if he really wanted to get into detail, only a few things were able to be brought to mind.
‘Sad and angry…Yeah, that's a word for it.’
…
BANG!
A fist struck him squarely in the nose, and with the clatter of a food tray, he fell to the ground, clutching at his nose.
“Fucking lard-ass! Next time I see you, you’re getting more than a single punch!” Snickers from the boys' friend group could be heard as they turned and walked away.
“Sigh…” Wiping the blood dripping from his nose into his black shirt, Larry fought to keep the tears back as other kids made wide berths around him to get to the benches where their friends sat. A few of them jeered, while others only looked down at him with pity as they continued walking, not even showing interest in helping him out in any way.
Picking his meal off the ground, Larry stacked the items back onto the plastic serving tray of his school, intending on simply throwing the things away now and getting out of here. Usually, his bullies were the first in the cafeteria, but he must’ve simply gotten unlucky today, since he’d normally entered late to avoid them.
Before his hand could grab the last part of his meal, a foot stepped on top of the milk carton, splattering him and the ground he was kneeling on in a spray of milky white, his pants included.
“Oh, fuck man. My shoe’s all soggy now!” The kid complained, not even sparing him a glance.
Grabbing the container, another kid mimed a stomp at his outstretched hand. He flinched back, only to hear a quiet giggle from the girl as they continued walking.
‘Hold it in…’ He chanted mentally, fighting his hitching breath as he finally got everything back onto his tray, ‘If you cry, they win…’
…
“What are some of your previous work experiences?” The interviewer asked in a bored tone as his pen moved on a clipboard. The ticking of the clock behind the man sounded more akin to a bomb timer.
“I-I…I unfortunately didn’t have a job yet…But I’ve worked an internship at multiple companies!” Larry wasn’t a great speaker, but he always gave it a good-natured try.
“I can see from your curriculum…” The interviewer spoke with another glance given at his CV, “It is just irregular for a twenty-year-old man to have never worked a job.”
“I-I’ve been in multiple programs in an attempt to get one!” Larry tried, a bit more desperately than required, “It was the program that recommended this place to me for your willingness to work with people with little experience s-so…”
He knew he was getting too worked up again, the interviewer was already looking at him funny. Scribbling on his clipboard, the suited man let out a sigh, “Indeed, we do. The position you’re applying for is quite a desirable one, you aren’t the only one applying.”
The man's words had the desired effect, and Larry had never been the best under stress, his breath grew slightly heavier.
“Now, tell me a bit about your positive attributes.”
“U-Um-!”
…
“No!” Larry shook violently at the memory, sniffing snot and wiping at his eyes, ‘God, that sucked…Fuck those guys…’
It felt like some part of his memories was still missing, but Larry was emotionally spent for now, and he really didn’t have the heart or motivation to look deeper to try to find out what his brain was seemingly repressing.
“Larry!”
“Huh?” Only now did Larry catch that Valerie was holding onto him, clutching him in her arms. The tears were still flowing, but he didn’t know why.
“I think I felt it.” She whispered to him, “I don’t know what it was, it was very faint…but I felt it.”
He turned to face her and saw that his trainer was also in tears, just like him, “What…What was that, Larry?”
“W-What was what?” Larry wasn’t even sure how much of his memories and emotions his trainers got.
“All that sadness…no, humiliation.” She spoke quietly, “and anxiety…about being seen as not good enough.”
Larry sniffed again, the reminder hurt like a thousand stabs. He wanted to get out of her hug right now, “Please don’t bring it up…”
“I get it…” She slightly loosened her grip, not deciding to let go, “I’m sorry if this…is prying too much…I’ll drop it for now…”
He decided to nod simply, he wasn’t in the mood to be prickly. He wanted to calm down for now and recuperate, “That was too much…”
“Yeah…I didn’t think your emotions would come through so clearly, it was like I was in your shoes, literally…” Valerie agreed heavily, “Back in Mt. Silver, I was in such a rush to get to you, I didn’t even think to dwell on it too long.”
Still in slight shock, Larry could only nod.
…
The two took a small break to recuperate before Valerie finally asked the important question to him.
“So…we were able to recreate it…but…” Holding a water bottle to his mouth, his trainer wondered, “How will we use it?”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Knowing what he knew, Larry could see a few applications for whatever their bond amounted to for now. The one obvious thing was locating eachother in an obscured battlefield. He was bound to use Sandstorm in Battlefrom now on, its a Tyranitar staple and a way for both of them to have a way to know where the other was would be invaluable when the din of a storm would wash out any commands she could give him, ‘That’s another one, I have good hearing, but its no guarantee I’ll be able to once I evolve. If we could somehow get some idea of what feelings equate to what moves, I’ll be able to do a lot of moves without Valerie ever moving her mouth.’
There was still the obvious question of how ok Larry was with intruding into the privacy of his own emotion, and that one was a big thing he’d still need to tackle, ‘I’m ok with it when it happens accidentally, like in Mt. Silver or consentually like right now, but anytime we seriously fight? Thats a big jump…’
One thing was nagging at him now that he was thinking of it, ‘Have I ever felt Valerie’s emotion? I don’t think so…or at least if I did, I’ve never noticed.’
Noticing her Pokemon was deep in thought, Valerie asked him the obvious, “Did you think of some reasons?”
An arm on his chin, Larry looked up at her, “I don’t think I’ve ever felt your emotions…”
“You haven’t?” She wondered, “I guess so…I’m just not a very emotional person, you know?”
“Well…Can you try to do so?” Now she’d caught Larry’s curiosity, “I want to know what it feels like.”
‘She’s a teenager, isn’t she?’ Larry wondered, ‘Everyone has a few temper tantrums during that age. I doubt Valerie is calm and collected all of the time. Even if I haven’t seen her get emotional much yet…’
“Well…I can try, I guess?” She spoke unsurely as she closed her eyes in focus, “Get emotional…Get emotional…”
Quieting down, Larry allowed Valerie to get into the mindset, he guessed she didn’t have the same list of misery as he did to fall back upon, so this wasn’t going to be a quick procedure. ‘Let’s see how this’ll go…’
Sitting next to her, for a moment, Larry simply went ahead and watched the surroundings, watching Sybil experiment with her two new moves, peering through the treeline to spot the others training between the brush, and finally just turning his head to the mountainline in the distance, with Mt. Moons imposing mountaintop drawing a quite wonderful scene.
His gaze turned back to Sybil, who was experimenting with her new moves, as she floated multiple items around herself like a psychic juggler. She also seemed to be playing with the shield Reflect created, using it as a shield against the Rocks.
The Reflect certainly worked, but it wasn’t an impenetrable shield. Instead, it worked more like a thick liquid, slowing things that passed through it. In Sybils case, she used Reflect to stop the boulder from dropping onto the floor by letting it fall through her shield, which gave her just enough time to continue juggling the other rocks she held in her Psychic grasp.
‘Impressive,’ Larry nods encouragingly in her direction, but she is far too focused to notice, ‘Now I kind of want to be a Psychic-Type…Must be really fun to have all of that brainpower.’
Valerie was still focusing herself next to him, and Larry didn’t notice any weird feeling yet, so he allowed her to continue trying as his gaze traveled towards the treeline where he spotted a shimmer of Skarmory's metallic wings.
Just when his curiosity peaks, Skarmory flies above the treeline into a loop. He rolls over at the top of her loop and comes barreling back down with increased speed, disappearing into the trees with an explosion of leaves.
‘Whoa…’ Now there was another thing Larry was jealous of, ‘Flying seems so convenient…’
At least that one was a bit more attainable to him, even if the means were a slightly ‘out there’. There were still a lot of mysteries regarding the mechanics of propulsion, but he’d just have to deal with it when he got there.
‘I just can’t wait to be able to fly!’ Larry kicks his feet in giddy excitement, ‘I wonder how fast a Pupitar can fly! Will I be like a jet?!’
Pupitar were strong enough to topple mountains with their pressurized air propulsion, so they were bound to be strong. Now he was seriously curious, but Valerie was still holding the phone in her hands, and Larry could only eye the device held deep in her meditative grasp.
He tries to inch towards her, but just then, something changes as he brows furrows in concentration.
Something comes through, an emotion.
Even Larry isn’t sure what it is, but he feels something invade his mind. It feels like an extra pressure deep inside his head, the pressure seems to originate from his chest as it rises up his neck with a shivering motion and finally terminates just in the middle of his skull…
‘So this is it…’ Now Larry gets it, the emotion wavers for a short moment before a sudden strain can be felt. Exertion and a slight tinge of frustration can be felt, and Larry watches Valerie's expression with clear interest, ‘Is she getting annoyed it took so long?’
Not daring to touch his trainer in such a sensitive moment, Larry sits back down next to her side, just letting whatever feeling he’s feeling wash over him, ‘It doesn’t feel simple that’s for sure…’
With another person's emotions whirring deep inside his brain, Larry feels…something…He isn’t quite sure what it is, but it feels like he is the one experiencing it, ‘Is it regret? No, more complicated than that…I’m feeling…what’s the word…ruefulness?’
It was a mighty complicated endeavour for Larry to distance himself from the emotions suddenly invading his head, but he needed to if he wanted to actually keep himself together, ‘But why is Valerie feeling rueful?’
The emotion begins to warp, transforming and melting into another right in front of him. First, his- no, Valerie's sadness at her inability to do…something…seems to deepen, Larry feels it deepen and grow until even Larry feels himself grow concerned at the extreme change.
Larry's emotions flare at the sudden change in his trainer's mental state, ‘She’s always so calm, why’s she spiraling now?!’
His eyes shoot open, and he sees as his trainer slowly shrinks in on herself, cowering deep into her own arms with silent gasps. The emotions still wrack his brain, the ruefulness now turning into a deep despondency. She’s feeling helpless and hopeless.
“Valerie! Snap out of it!” Practically tackling her, Larry lunged into her side, throwing Valerie off the boulder they’d sat down on and onto the ground with a heavy THUD!
“Oof!” Thrown out of her emotional musings, the emotional thread connecting the two snapped with a harsh feeling like Larry had just been sucker punched on the chin. He also slipped off the rock, heading directly to land on top of Valerie, “Watch out!”
“Oooof!” He smashed head-first into Valerie's sternum, his large horn bouncing off of her with an uneasy CLANG!
Hastily, Larry situated himself and stood next to Valerie, who was hissing in pain as she rubbed at her chest, “Ooowww…Fuuck…”
“I’m sorry, Valerie!” Larry bowed to her, almost smashing his horn into her face, “S-Sorry!”
“I-I’m alright…Koff! Koff!” She waved him off, fighting a coughing fit as she fought to raise her back off the ground.
“What…was that?” Larry asked in a concerned tone, “What just happened?”
Valerie did catch his words, but shied away when prompted to answer, “It-...I…Um…”
‘She was obviously disappointed in herself for doing something…’ Larry thought to himself as he looked her over in concern, ‘But what could the problem be?’
Sybil appeared next to them in a flash of Psychic-TE. Her tone was clipped, “What happened to the two of you?”
“I don’t know!” Still slightly shocked, Larry's response came out more energetic than expected, “We tried experimenting with our bond and when Valerie tried to get me to feel her emotions-” He cut his response short, closing in on Sybil and whispering in her ear, “She feels really bad about herself for some reason, and I can’t imagine why.”
“I got that,” Valerie muttered behind them. She’d since sat back up, pulling her legs close to her chest, “I’ll tell you…just don’t take it too seriously, ok? I mentioned this to Matt before…back in Viridan City…”
Both Sybil and he nodded, awaiting their trainer's response.
Staring down at her feet, she twiddled with her thumbs, far more meekly than before, “How do you explain this…When I got you, Larry, so much responsibility dropped onto me and I didn’t really know what to do, so I did whatever felt right for a trainer to do…”
“Obviously,” Larry nodded along again, ‘I mean, what else are you supposed to do? Valerie already said she didn’t have many expectations of becoming a Pokemon trainer before we met.’
“Then I got Sybil, and that responsibility doubled…” She continued, her brows furrowing, “And all the while, I was still just going along with it, but I felt so unsure about everything I was doing.”
“Go on…” He really didn’t know where she was taking this.
“The trainer school helped.” She noted with a gaze cast towards the two of them, “But I still got it wrong and almost starved you…It’s like I keep taking steps forward and then tripping back a step.”
“People keep taking pictures of me. I don’t mind it particularly, but I can’t help but worry…Team Rocket already targeted me…” She shakes her head, the energy sapped from her body, “It’s just…a lot for a girl, you know?”
“I see…” Now the problem has become evident.
Valerie wasn’t a bad trainer, far from it, she was simply someone who had been thrown into the trainer experience at lightning speed. While others strive to become trainers from a young age, she became one on a whim and has shown herself to be extremely capable.
‘And that’s exactly the problem.’ Larry thought, ‘It's a case of Imposter Syndrome, isn’t it?’
She feels as if she doesn’t deserve her success because her circumstances don’t appear to foster a positive environment for a talented trainer to grow.
“I thought I got over this back after beating Giovanni…” She spoke, swaying from side to side as she pulled the badge out of her pocket, “I was so ecstatic when I held the badge…and then I remembered it was all just some sting operation of the League…”
“When that Agent escorted me out, I was so shocked I just thanked him and went on my way…” She balled her fist, the badge deep inside, “Obviously, it's good that Giovanni was almost arrested, but I don’t want to be some pawn for other people to use when it's convenient. Not the League or anyone else…”
“...I just want a normal journey.” Her hand fell to her side, despondent, “But I guess it isn’t that easy…”
‘So its not just Imposter Syndrome.’ Larry noted, ‘She’s also generally just unsure and doubtful about it all…’
Sybil stepped forward fist, her wings held in front of herself like a housemaiden, “Rest assured, your worries are largely mentally imposed. We’ll protect you regardless of what you decide.”
“That’s right! You’re not a bad trainer, Valerie!” Larry jumped in, “We’ll keep you safe as long as you need us!”
“That’s nice of you. Thank you, guys.” She gave both of them a pat on the head as she rose to her feet.
“You’re a great trainer!” Larry reiterated, “Don’t let anyone, even yourself, tell you otherwise!”
‘I doubt any other random kid from around these parts could’ve done a better job at training us than Valerie!’ He thought to himself as he hugged himself close to his trainer, ‘She’s not some snot-nosed young girl! She knows what she’s doing!’
Sybil followed suit, enveloping the girl in her wingspan, “I concur.”
“You guys…” A grin was forming on her face as the girl fought to get her hand to her face to wipe away a tear, “Thank you, I don’t know what I’d be doing without you…”
After the heartfelt moment, she shakes the thoughts away and quickly extracts herself from the hug, “Alright! We’ve still got Self-Defense and Teleport Training! Let’s get this done!”
“Yeah!” The two throw an arm and wing into the air in response.
…
Heather
Deep in the depths of a dingy back alley cellar in Pewter City, a projector spins to life. In front of it, ten men and women in black uniforms with red Rs on them kneel in a perfect arrangement.
The call connects, and the leader of the group rises with a crisp salute, “Boss! It is wonderful to finally hear from you!”
“Likewise.” Giovanni is swirling a glass of wine in his left hand, and the ever-present scowl on his face seems particularly pronounced after what has happened to him. “It is fortunate to see you haven’t been discovered yet.”
‘Whew, he looks fucking pissed.’ Heather keeps a measured expression on her face, ‘Better keep my head down. I’m lucky these morons were already stupid enough to let me back in.’
“We’ve managed to induct more of the locals into Team Rocket,” The head grunt points out, “It seems the League's stunt hasn’t ended with only negative publicity for us.”
‘And he isn’t mentioning me, good.’ She notes, ‘Keep my fucking name out of your mouth, and we’ll both have a longer run in the end.’
Heather had managed to do some of her best sweet-talking on the young leader. When a pretty, well-endowed older girl twirls her hair for you and allows you to extoll all of your biggest local pickpockets and robberies, you’re bound to lap it up and at least feel a few flutters of the heart,
She rolled her eyes, ‘Though I doubt this moron will get any more action in his life, only a really stupid girl would throw herself at a crook like him.’
A huff of amusement escaped her, ‘Guess I’m a good fit.’
“Perfect, I have just the plan for you.” Giovanni's gaze traveled over the gathered members, “The Pewter Museum of Science is holding an exhibit soon…”
‘At least for now…’ She added on hastily.
