Chapter 3: Some travel, some training!

Having made camp for the evening, Janine was currently going through a very basic set of movements, something she had long since ingrained into muscle memory even a decade ago, all the while Spinarak was wailing on a tree, his horn or front legs occasionally sparking with purple poison-type energy. 'He's getting better with Poison Jab every day. I still need to decide if I want him working on Cross Poison, Sticky Web, or Bug Buzz next though.' While Cross Poison and Sticky Webs were in the traditional training for Ariados, Bug Buzz was typically seen as a move only learnable by TMs - which just meant in reality, it was hard enough that it wasn't worth learning the normal way for most Pokemon.

But considering her and Spinarak's situation… 'Mhm… perhaps it would be better. With Sucker Punch, Shadow Sneak, Psychic, and Poison Jab, he's well-rounded for those types but is lacking in Bug. I suppose he has Pin Missile, but ugh. Multi-hit moves are even worse in real life than they are in the game.' Moving to an open-handed stance, Janine began to flow through completely different moves, and at the same time, Spinarak swapped from practicing Poison Jab to standing completely still, the occasionally blue glow of Psychic energy occasionally emitting from him. 'After having learned Psychic his ability to use Agility is getting better and better. By the time he evolves, he'll have mastered it to the point where his Species's major drawback in speed will be able to be practically ignored.' 

This world and the difference in Pokemon moves inside of it was interesting. In the Anime they had in fact transitioned to four moves as well, with some very rare exceptions. In this world; it was a tad bit different. Yes, you were likely to have four or so moves that would be your strongest due to practice, or just those moves outright being better, but that's not to say if you learned Sticky Web, you couldn't use String Shot. It was just that in truth, most techniques within the same typing are just variations of each other. 'Naturally, even if a fire type looks like they're shooting out an Ember, if they know Flamethrower, they're like just using a weakened short blast of Flamethrower. A Fire Blast is a compressed compressed burst of Flamethrower, etc.' 

As another example, Spinarak's strongest moves right now were Sucker Punch, Shadow Sneak, Psychic, and Poison Jab. Once he learned Bug Buzz, the chances of him using Sucker Punch were lower, as while it did fill a niche Shadow Sneak didn't, Shadow Sneak fit their fighting style better, and so it was just a waste of time to hone too further levels, especially with other future dark types on their team able to fill that niche.

This was how the four-move rule came into play. More often than not, when battling at their peak, a Pokemon was only likely to use four attacking moves, and then have supporting moves assisting them.

Finishing up with her open-hand martial arts practice, Janina turned towards Spinarak, introspective thoughts sputtering out, and a few seconds later he shifted to face her. Dipping her head in a bow, Spinarak did the same.

Then, he moved. Still enhanced by Agility he rushed forward, leaping off a tree and soaring through the air directly at Janine's face. Turning to the side, she calmly palmed Spinarak's back, sending him crashing to the ground, only to leap backward as he flipped around mid-air, spitting out a weaker Poison Sting. Remaining on the defensive for a few more moments, Janine dodged and weaved around the salvo of Poison Stings her Spinarak spat out the moment he was back on the ground, before slowly almost dancing her way forward between them all.

Yet, Spinarak as a trained Pokemon, knew how to judge when someone was attempting to make a move, and so he changed things up. Hidden in a flurry of quickly spat-out Poison Stings, he rushed forward, lurking in the shadows caused by the evening light and flying poisonous objects.

Seemingly not seeing her Spinarak sink into the ever-so-famous Shadow Sneak, Janine continue to duck and weave, all the while holding back a smirk.

Just as it seemed like Spinarak who had melded with the Shadows was about to reach her…

For the first time in the spar, Janine's hand glowed a bright purple that was barely able to manifest and was flickering in and out of existence, before she slammed it directly into the ground, in a mimicry of her own Poison Jab.

Thrown out of the shadows Spinarak did a small spasm from the small hole in the ground her punch had caused, before letting out a chittering noise. Janine in response smiled. "You've gotten a bit of a big head buddy; you forget that when you're holding back, all that matters here is Combat Skill, and just learning more moves or getting more powerful doesn't help that."

Spinarak chittered a bit more in response, causing Janine to let out an amused huff. "Fine, fine. I'm sorry for going heavy-handed, I'm sure my oh-so-powerful, barely usable Poison Type move, from my barely releasable Energy, it just must have hurt you so much." Leaning down she carefully picked him up off the ground, and cradled him in one arm much like a cat, while the other began to scratch his belly.

In response, he made a gleeful chittering noise, all six legs beginning to spasm. 'I swear you're more cat or dog than spider.' Amusedly shaking her head at her partner's antics, she sat back down by the previously set-up fire and closed her eyes.

Considering the weather and the fact that she only had one Pokemon, a sleeping bag would just be dangerous, so - she prepared to sleep sitting upright on this first night, at least until she understood Hoenn a bit more. 'If these trees were larger and packed more dense, I could have slept in one of them, but right now, that would just be a liability.' 

Twenty or so minutes after her evening workout and spar ended, Janine's mind fell into a rest, and her and Spinarak's first day in Hoenn ended much better than it had originally started.

— 

Munching on some dried berries while walking bright and early the next money, Janine casually tracked her Spinarak who was traversing through the trees, much more energetic after a good night of training.

Eyes flicking away as he started to stalk a nearby Zigzagoon, with practiced experience that most trainers inevitably had to get used to, she ignored the following thud and slurping noises. 'Even in the anime Pokemon ate Pokemon… doesn't mean I still don't feel weird about sentient creatures feasting on semi-sentient creatures.' 

Indeed, there was a difference in the intelligence of bonded and non-bonded Pokemon, but in the end, they were still Pokemon.

However, that didn't mean much considering even humans ate certain types of Pokemon.'I don't get why everyone doesn't just eat the highly nutritious and horribly bland pre-packaged synthetically made meals!' After all, that's what she did considering one day there would be enough blood on her hands from taking over the clan, and all the duties it held.

But, each to their own. She wasn't one to judge; she was the heiress to a ninja clan, and one of her natural typings was Dark of all things.

'Of course, if you're human and eating something like a Psychic type…' Honestly, at that point, you were basically a cannibal.

Shaking her head to get her mind off that dark topic, she rapidly blinked as it was all of a sudden dark. Taking a glance up was all the confirmation needed that she had walked far enough into the route that the Cycling Road for the second time on her trip was blocking the sun. 'Almost at Mauville, I should be there by noon.' "Spinarak, finish up your meal! We'll be getting near civilization soon."

At her call there was a chittering in the distance, before a few moments later he dropped out of a tree and landed on her shoulder, a happy vibration burbling up out and through his mandibles as he did so. "You feeling good buddy?"

"Raaak~" Giving him a scritch underneath the chin, Janine continued walking as the spider quickly fell into a slumber mere moments after landing on his resting place. 'It won't be too much longer before you get your nickname buddy.' 

In truth, she hadn't nicknamed her first partner not because she didn't believe in them - nor because he didn't want one. Instead, it fell back to clan traditions from before the Kanto League was even founded, back when death was as easy as blinking.

Simply put, back then, it wasn't even worth naming a Pokemon until it was fully evolved, much like how a babe wouldn't be given a proper name till they were 3 or 4 years old. Of course, most clan members ignored it, but alas, as the Clan Heiress, such traditions needed to be observed by Janine, at least until she gained enough clout to attempt to repeal them. 'Poor buddy… give it a month or two and you'll learn how horrible I am at naming.'