The yellow blur raced around the room. Each jump left dirty paw prints on the floor. Or the wall. Or the ceiling. The little monster was like a Pikachu. But with muscles. And sharp claws. And teeth.
"Zuko calm down!"
Zuko looked at me with a manic grin. The remote in his mouth was long since dead. He had easily shorted it out with his electricity. The batteries were fried.
But Zuko didn't know any of that. He saw how the device had been a distraction for me. Something that took the attention away from him.
No, I wasn't allowed to try and learn this world through TV. Through the news.
Zuko was above such things.
And so he had snatched up the remote between his jaws, and been playing tag ever since. I didn't even care about the remote. I had a backup. I was just trying to get him to stop. He was destroying my apartment.
Azula was in the corner of the room, trying to look small. She could sense my anger somehow. And she didn't want it directed at her. She merely kept picking up and throwing down a dirty shirt that was on the floor. Sometimes she slapped it a little with her claws, but generally tried to be unnoticeable.
I didn't grab Zuko's pokeball. I'd already returned him plenty of times when he was erratic like this. It never helped. If anything it just made him worse the next time. No, there was no easy way out.
"Screw it." I muttered.
I grabbed the sheets from my bed. I started whirling it in my hand, curling it into a thick chord. I grabbed it at both ends and waited.
The yellow blur continued to flit through the apartment. It knocked over lamps, it tore up the wallpaper.
But finally. There!
I reached out with my impromptu trap and caught Zuko by the neck. The bed sheet clotheslined him, knocking him to the floor. I quickly capitalized on my advantage by quickly placing my knees on his legs and my hands on his arms. He would not be able to move now.
Zuko struggled under my grip, but failed to move. He growled.
I looked him straight in the eye. We stared each other down. His blazing crimson eyes were filled with determination. Mine were filled with anger. But not a burning anger. An icy anger of resolve.
Eventually Zuko turned away. He snorted. The electricity faded from his forearms. The red pouches had expanded out to catch more ambient electricity. Now that his adrenaline was gone, they flattened back out on his arms.
I let go of him.
Zuko scampered off to the corner. Azula gave a brief greeting in the form of headbutting him. Zuko rocked to the side, but rather than fight he just sat down. He looked up at me sheepishly.
I looked him right in the eye. "Who do you think has to clean all this up? Inconsiderate jackass." I shook my head. I picked up the broken pieces of the lamp.
"Look." Zuko looked away. "Look!" Zuko tore his eyes from the corner to look at me. His eyes were downcast. Defeated. "Do you think I can just superglue this back together? No! I'm going to have to buy another one. And you remember the lady at the store. Total asshole!" I grumbled as I collected all the shards to throw away.
"And you!" This time it was Azula's turn to look at me sheepishly. "Where was your help? We're supposed to be a team!" I sighed as I rubbed my face in my hand.
I unfurled the sheet. I sighed again. "Do you see this?" I pointed to the electricity burns. "This doesn't just wash out."
I continued to complain about all the broken bits in the apartment. Some parts were easy to fix. Others not so much.
…
I threw a sponge at Zuko's feet. I pointed to all the black paw prints on the ground in front of him.
I had filled a bucket with water and added some soap.
"See this sponge? He's gonna be your friend from now on." I picked up the sponge, dunking it in the water.
I scrubbed the paw print with the now soap filled sponge, wiping the paw print away. I made a big show of it, sarcastically waving jazz hands.
"And then the stain magically goes away! Your turn."
I threw the sponge back at Zuko. He caught it with his left hand easily. Starfallen Charmander had more developed limbs than the typical Charmander. His limbs were more similar to that of a Charmeleon, with a proper elbow joint. His musculature was also far more developed. The lithe but muscular limbs combined with his light bones let him move at incredible speeds.
Zuko looked at the sponge in his hand, then to the stains on the ground. His eyes trickled up to the stains on the walls. Then the stains on the ceiling. He looked at me with an exasperated expression.
"I know you understood me. Oak says some aura bullshit lets me imbue meaning in my words. You understand me perfectly. Get. To. It."
Zuko growled, but got down on all fours. He started scrubbing the first paw print.
I sighed and pulled out my notebook.
I'd been writing the different training regimens for the Charmander. Zuko was as crazy as he was talented. Azula was also a quick study.
They took to basic conditioning like a fish to water. Or like a superpowered animal with intrinsic fighting capabilities to basic survival training.
Zuko could run circles around Azula. He also could haul far more weight than Azula. But he had absolutely jack shit in terms of special attack.
Apparently Starfallen Charizard spent all their evolution points on becoming the most physical powerhouse on the planet. Zuko was still pretty young, but I reckon he could already beat a Machop in a fair brawl.
His speed combined with natural wit and speed made him a menace. And that wasn't even getting into his prowess with electricity or his exceptional motor control.
His thunder fang had the potency of a Luxio's. He could move as fast as a Rattata using quick attack with his base speed. He could move exponentially faster when he supercharged his muscles and nerves with electricity. He could nuzzle the red electricity sacs on his forearms onto an enemy to paralyze them with ease. His thunder punches were nothing to scoff at either.
Too bad his temper and penchant for violence and escalation was unprecedented. He was an attention whore with an ego the size of Texas.
Azula on the other hand was like an Eevee in comparison. I think it helped that Zuko was an absolute menace. She had been somewhat temperamental at first, but seeing Zuko take that to a different level helped her grow up a little faster. Even though she was the one with fire powers, she had been the one to stop Zuko from burning down the apartment. On two separate occasions. That I saw. There might have been more that I didn't see.
Not that I left Zuko unsupervised. Anymore. It's fine. I didn't like that mattress anyway. Or that TV. Or the bedframe.
I still don't know how Zuko managed to destroy every single piece of furniture in that apartment in the 5 minutes it took for me to get my delivered food from downstairs. That had been my first apartment. We had been kicked out within 3 hours of me signing the lease.
Azula was a natural. Her control over fire was incredibly precise. She could make her flamethrower wide to cover a large area, or condense it down in a cone to increase its intensity. She was far stronger and faster than a standard Charmander for her age. I think that had a lot to do with our training. And the fact that she had to compete with Zuko. But nevertheless, she was progressing smoothly.
Her endurance could still use some work.
I'd jotted down some notes about some potential breath training workouts. Making her burn a rock down to slag with one breath. Holding her breath for extended periods of time.
We'd been training for nearly a month now. I had been worried that Oak would be a constant presence. But he had disappeared after giving me the pokeballs and dex a month ago. Sometimes I had an itch in the back of my head that reminded me of him, but that was probably nothing.
All the better. That geezer creeped me out. I still kept updated notes on the Charmander for the next time I saw him.
Maybe I'd be able to squeeze more resources out of him. I wouldn't mind a couple Ultra Balls for myself.
Oak's lab had a massive underground facility. There were multiple environments for training. Rock walls and dirt. A lake. A dense forest. All small contained environments for training. And there was nobody else to use it.
I'd searched the entire lab and hadn't found Oak. He had apparently left Champion's Hold and not returned.
I set up my plan for tomorrow.
Even though I'm making Zuko deep clean the apartment, I don't think he's gotten anywhere close to learning his lesson.
So to start.
Suicides.
A floor above the training facility for the Pokemon was a gym. A human gym. With like dumbbells, a track, squat racks, you know. All the good stuff.
But since nobody else came to the lab, I decided that it would be a good place to train Azula and Zuko.
But suicides weren't fun.
Of course, it would be nice if I just sat on the side and watched them run. But Zuko probably wouldn't run if the only thing making him do it was my word.
No.
I ran alongside them.
This training, I did along with them. Of course when we worked on specific move training, I could only supervise. But any physical training, I did along with them.
I think it motivated Zuko. He probably wouldn't run his fastest unless it meant that he could lap me even more times around the track.
Some dragon trainers out there would vehemently disagree with this training strategy. They would say that to train a dragon, you must prove yourself better than them. Letting one beat you in a race will only inflate its ego, and make it lose its respect for you.
Well guess what?
Zuko never had any respect for me in the first place. This is where I get to prove that nothing will get in my way. Sure he can run laps faster than me, but hell if I'm going to let that stop me. I've always been able to keep running far longer than Zuko.
At the end of the day I come back to the apartment drenched in sweat. My bones ache. My muscles ache.
But I put everything out there. Every day, I push myself every way I can to get stronger.
I think it's rubbed off a bit on Azula. It might even start to be rubbing off on Zuko.
One day I'll have that stubborn little shit's respect. And then I'll make him the strongest fucking Pokemon to ever grace this planet.