Grey's POV
Surge started helping me with the exercises, and I was slowly stretching my muscles and trying to walk without a crutch. The doctors had told me that I would heal naturally within a week, but there would still be some strain. These exercises would ensure that I got used to walking properly again.
I had also given specific instructions to each team member for today's training and used some of Surge's Pokémon as training partners for them.
For Cloyster, I had a talk with it and explained that it had grown bigger and stronger, no doubt about that, but due to the size increase, its momentum had taken a hit. It needed to rework its Rapid Spin and Counter Shield tactics again. When it uses Shell Smash, its offense and speed increase tremendously, but its defenses take a huge hit as well. Because of that, being able to use Protect or Counter Shield would be key. Any attack it uses after a Shell Smash would already deal massive damage.
Cloyster nodded in understanding.
I paired Ampharos with it so it could relearn Counter Shield to a workable degree and maybe even use its enhanced speed after a Shell Smash to improve upon it.
For Persian, the poor cat was paired with Raichu, and it immediately glared at me.
I told it I would give it some treats after training, which pacified it a little.
Surge and I had a simple goal for this Pokémon. I wasn't planning on getting an Electric-type anytime soon, so Persian was basically the Electric-type of the team. Raichu would help it improve its Thunderbolt further.
My second idea for Persian wasn't something Surge was particularly fond of, as I was essentially using his Pokémon to train Persian to beat Electric-types.
The plan was to teach it Iron Tail.
Blue's trick with Steel Wing could work with Iron Tail as well. That way, Persian could tank Electric attacks and disperse the electricity into the ground. The best part was that I didn't need a TM to teach it the move. Surge's Raichu knew Iron Tail, and if Pikachu in the anime could learn it through training, then so could my Persian.
With so many Electric-types helping by hitting the cat with Electric attacks, it would learn the trick much faster.
Persian liked the part where it could counter Electric-types.
It hated the part where it had to get hit by said Thunderbolts in order to learn how to counter them.
For Exeggcute... sigh.
I told it what Surge had said and also shared my own thoughts. Personally, I didn't think it could squeeze out much more from its current stage since it already abused Confusion so well. Still, I gave it some ideas on how to improve as much as possible during this week.
It nodded to that.
Firstly, taking inspiration from Yoda from Star Wars, Exeggcute would lift multiple heavy tiles that were three times its own size. At the same time, an Electric-type would use Thundershock to attack it while it was levitating and lifting the tiles. It would have to multitask by maintaining the levitation while also blocking the incoming attacks.
That was why a weaker Pokémon like Pichu would be paired with it. The goal wasn't power. The goal was getting the multitasking right and pushing Confusion to its absolute limits, hopefully upgrading it into the move Psychic.
Exeggcute agreed.
If it could learn Psychic in this stage, it would be willing to evolve afterward. Generally, the line doesn't learn Psychic while still an Exeggcute because it requires a massive amount of psychic energy. However, the unique way I had been training my Pokémon made me confident that pushing it further might help it learn the move.
For Axew and Charmander, I arranged Electabuzz and Pikachu as their training partners.
Axew had lost to Electabuzz the last time, so now its role was to learn as much as possible from the Pokémon. According to Surge, Electabuzz had also taken to intense training after losing to Persian, determined to reach its full potential.
For Charmander, Pikachu would be a good partner to slowly build the young Pokémon up, as it was still around the level of a one-to-two-badge Pokémon.
Axew would teach Charmander Dragon Claw, something it had already been doing before I woke up, while Charmander would teach Axew Dragon Pulse, which it knew as an Egg Move.
This way, both of them would expand their movepools while also improving their combat skills by sparring with their respective partners.
Later, I would teach Charmander how to counter Electric-types as well through the use of Metal Claw once Persian figured the technique out first.
For now, I wanted Charmander to learn how to battle properly and improve its battle IQ.
Luckily, Axew was a great teacher, and so were Surge's Pokémon.
I continued supervising their training while also working on my own rehabilitation under Surge.
After about an hour, Surge had to leave because a trainer had arrived to challenge him.
However, his veteran Electabuzz looked after the training room in his place, so it wasn't an issue.
After a while of exercises, I rested, and so did my Pokémon. Surge also entered at that time and asked me if I wanted to come for lunch, to which I nodded. We then went to a café to eat some good food.
I gave my Pokémon their Pokéfood and told them I would get them some food from the café as well, to which they happily nodded.
At the café, I got a call from Bill regarding the fact that the League had approached him about my health. Since I had been in a coma, they wanted to take a statement from me regarding the incident.
Luckily, Bill had already told them to book an appointment for tomorrow at eleven o'clock and had also informed them that they could contact him directly since he was my sponsor now.
Bill had already answered questions from League officials regarding his own experience, as they had apparently visited him around the time I was still unconscious last week.
I asked Surge about it, and he told me it was a routine procedure from the League. They not only wanted to check on the trainers involved but also gather various perspectives on what had happened that day, who the Rockets involved were, and how the attack had unfolded.
Apparently, most of the Rockets had gotten away because they seemed to have Psychic-type Pokémon capable of teleporting them out.
Surge also told me they might have wanted to meet me specifically to check if I still had all my Pokémon, as targeting rare or strong Pokémon had been one of the main objectives behind the Rocket attack. The League was probably paying special attention to me because the Champions and League officials knew I was a budding trainer with a lot of potential.
Surge also shared his own feelings regarding the incident, and it was clear it had left a foul taste in his mouth.
Terrorists were bad enough, but the fact that so many Pokémon and trainers had been injured made the whole situation worse. What bothered him even more was how brazen and confident such organizations had become, launching an attack on a ship carrying four Champions.
The fact that it had happened near Vermilion City, the city under his jurisdiction, also didn't sit right with him.
Sure, he wasn't the mayor, but a Gym Leader was effectively the military leader of a city, and despite that, such a disaster had still happened.
Because of that, Surge had begun intensifying his own training. He had also agreed to help me because training my Pokémon would simultaneously help train some of his weaker Pokémon as well.
Surge did tell me that while the international media was hounding Kanto over the incident, the Champions themselves had come out in full support of the region.
International relations at the government level would probably only improve after this.
The Rockets had definitely made headlines, but because of that, they would likely have to go into hiding as well. The entire regional police force and government were actively hunting them now.
I nodded to that while eating a burger.
After lunch, I went back with Surge to the rehabilitation center, continued my training alongside my Pokémon, and then eventually returned to the Pokémon Center for some well-earned rest for the day.
Author's Note : Honestly I think slowly Grey's team might be more stacked than even I thought before as a lot of his pokemon's can be written of well , cloyster is a menace so would excegutte be after evolving , axew would become one by the time it becomes a haxorous so will charmander to charizard , persian gets access to such a huge move pool to abuse . That said I have a sixth pokemon in mind , its a bug type thats not the most popular or used one , for the seventh or eight pokemon i will float a poll later. And dont worry about this chapter being short next 2 chapters are very big and took a lot out of me to write , they arent chapters a typical pokemon fic would have one is the talks with the official for the league and the next one is a therapy chapter that would hit right at the feels , at least it did for me even while writing , a kind of chapter that was long overdue since lavender after both those chapters , 2 more chapters on vermillion and then will wrap up the rehab arc.