Down at the Crossroads [Training]

[Sangui de Luror]

As Sangui made his way out of Turnstone Forest, he walked a road surrounded by grassy plains and calm farmland. After a brief walk, he came upon a signpost in the middle of an intersection. As he read the sign, he nodded in understanding. "This place can lead me to all sorts of places," he thought out loud to himself, "I have a feeling I'll be finding myself coming back here a lot."

As he read the signs, he decided that this would be a good chance to train before heading out again. Reaching for his belt, he grabbed the newly filled Pokéball on his belt. He tossed it into the air, letting Nincada out for some exercise. The bug Pokémon chittered in the open air. "Okay, Nincada. It's time to get to work. There's plenty of tall grass around here, so let's hone your claws by practicing with your Scratch attack." Nincada complied, squickly scuttling forward and hacking away at some of the nearby grass. As the grass fell over into an almost neat pile, Nincada was beginning to look rather smug with itself.

Sangui raised an eyebrow as he thought about his Pokémon's over-confidence in doing something so simple. "Okay, Nincada," he started, "if this was so easy for you, then you won't have any trouble mowing the grass around the crossroads here." The bug quickly set off to prove itself, quickly beginning to manage the grass and letting it fall aside into the road. As it worked, Sangui picked up some of the grass and broke it down, storing it in his pack to use as light material in a campfire later.

After a while, Nincada returned to Sangui. As he looked up from his Town Map, he realized that Nincada had somehow accomplished a lot more than he had expected it to. "Well, you've definitely been working hard, Nincada." Or maybe just very smart he thought to himself. "You've done a good job."

[Sangui de Luror]

Satisfied with Nincada's work, he reached for his other Pokéball. "Help me out with training Whismur, Nincada." He let Whismur out of the ball and kneeled down to pat its head. "Okay, Whismur, today we're going to train with Nincada helping you. No need to get scared or mad, it's our friend this time." After reassuring his first partner, he looked to Nincada, a plan forming in his mind. "Nincada, I want you to use Harden to toughen up as much as possible so that Whismur can practice sparring with you." It complied, its body becoming noticably tougher and tougher over the following moments. When it was ready, Sangui ushered his Pokémon to opposite ends of the crossroads.

"Okay. We're going to have a practice battle. Whismur, you'll try to hit Nincada as much as possible while Nincada dodges and defends itself. With its defenses raised, we won't have to worry too much about Nincada being hurt during the match. Are we ready?" The two Pokémon stared each other down, Nincada looking confident as Whismur just stood there looking almost unsure of the challenge. "Keep it clean, you two. Start!"

Whismur hurried down the path towards Nincada as best as he could, the target remaining still. "Hit Nincada with a Pound," Sangui called. Whismur attempted to strike Nincada with the attack, but Nincada was fast. This continued again and again, Whismur barely being able to keep up with NIncada's dodging patterns and landing very few hits. "If your opponent is too fast to hit up close, you may have to try something else," Sangui considered; "Use the loud noise of your Uproar attack to disorient it, then go in for the hit with Pound!" Whismur complied with a loud scream. As the sound waves washed over Nincada, it practically flinched at the noise as Whismur started to close the gap between them. Whismur finally managed to make a solid hit with its Pound attack. It continued trying to score additional hits, but found Nincada quickly dodging again.

"Okay you two, that's enough for now. You both did well." Sangui held up the two Pokéballs and returned his two companions to their resting place. "We'll have plenty to do later."