Bonds | Pokémon Fanfiction

Chapter 4: Not So Easy

CHAPTER FOUR: NOT SO EASY

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"Do you have any sort of defensive plan devised for when you use Infernape?" Ken questioned.

Alice shared a look with her Fire-and-Fighting-type partner and shrugged. "I guess so? Infernape usually goes against Pokémon that fight close combat and blocks their attacks by hitting them with a Mach Punch. What do you do for Manectric?"

"Manectric is one of the fastest Pokémon in the world. If she's having trouble during a battle she uses Thunderwave to keep her opponent still," he explained. "It works nearly every time." You happened to be one of those rare exceptions.

"So you're saying that we need to work on defense?" Alice queried. "'Cause I think our attacks are fine the way they are now."

He nodded. "It'll give us a good start. We'll continue on with it tomorrow."

The burning determination in Alice's being simmered down as a cold wave of dread washed over her. Ken's plans were ruining her routine! A new episode of her favorite web drama came out tomorrow and her original plan of locking herself away in her room free from responsibilities was thrown out the window. Spoilers of who the main character picked to be her lover would be everywhere! How was she going to survive?

"Oh," she mumbled.

Ken tilted his head to the side. "Do you have problems with the training regimen?"

She grimaced and reluctantly admitted, "I did have plans tomorrow, but I guess they'll be put off."

Ken refrained from questioning her further. Instead, he brought weights out of his backpack and strapped them to their Pokémon. Alice gaped at him as he finished attaching them and stared at him incredulously.

"What the heck are those for?" She gasped as she took a closer look. "Oh Arceus! Leg and arm weights?" She bent down and checked the weights on Manectric. "Weights on each leg? Ken, this is a lot."

"Training with the weights will help them gain strength quicker than if they weren't. In addition to that, they will be even faster once the weights are removed," Ken replied.

"Isn't that a little much?" She frowned. "The weights will make them exhausted in no time and then they'll be too tired to train."

"The weights are just for exercises. You can take them off when they battle."

Alice cringed as she watched Infernape run up and down the field with Manectric. It took him much longer than usual to complete a lap as he grew increasingly sluggish with each lap. She assumed Manectric was used to it considering how she was trotting at the same pace she started with. By the ninth lap, Alice had enough of it.

"Okay, okay, that's good for right now," Alice interjected before Infernape could run another lap. She quickly undid the weights and put them on the ground. "Rest up, Infernape. Return."

Ken returned Manectric as well and as they were walking back to the house, he pointed out, "Infernape could have ran at least two more laps."

She nodded despite disagreeing with him. "I don't like to watch my Pokémon suffer," Alice grumbled under her breath.

Unfortunately, he caught that. "Infernape wasn't suffering, he was exercising. It appears to me that he has been lacking in that area for quite some time now."

'It appears that he has been—' oh shut up! she thought, thoroughly annoyed with him. "I haven't trained my Pokémon in a while."

He noticed the rise of bitterness in her tone. "Why is that?"