"Now, Sirius, focus on the Dark." Alec really wasn't enjoying the trip through the woods but it served an important purpose. "Focus on the concept, not the force of it. The idea behind it, the things connected to it. Sneaking in the shadows, the absence of light, spreading uncertainty and striking where you're least expected."
It let him focus on Sirius and Zeph, work on their training.
...And avoid the police and their burning need to ask questions like 'How did you know about the Rocket Base?' 'Did you have anything to do with the PokéMon breaking free?' 'Sir, do you have a license to operate a stand here?'
The trio would travel through the woods during the day, heading due west, then stop for training during the night. Alec figured they were making good progress, both in distance and in expanding the abilities of the living elemental engines that pretended to give lip service to things like 'physics' and 'common sense'.
Sitting next to the small campfire Alec had dug out, Sirius had his eyes closed in deep concentration. Touching on the more esoteric natures was far outside what the pup had ever done before.
Zeph, too, was following along though Alec was fairly sure she'd get less out of it. As a Dreepy, she literally had one of the most limited natures of any PokéMon. Beldum and Ditto learned fewer moves than her naturally but they also outweighed her significantly in most other categories.
Smeargle with their lone Sketch ability didn't count. That move could become almost any other move.
The Dreepy line, Alec had discovered over the past few days, literally lacked the energy or strength to make use of many abilities. He was hoping, though, that working with her naturally could expand things a bit. If not...
He only had limited access to the foods from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. A few pots of Strawberries grown from seeds taken from that world were coming along quickly but the trees he'd planted from the seeds of its apples, lemons and ambrosia were, well, trees. They wouldn't grow fruit for years which left him with the few he had left in the freezer.
...Some of which were thawing in the fridge in the demi-plane, alongside a few bottles of special milk, soda water and butter.
Losing his Inventory wasn't the -worst- thing that could happen but it did make some things inconvenient. Like robbing the Rocket Base. He'd had to open up a Gate and toss things through to get sorted later. Much more inconvenient than just running his hands over them and dropping them into the Inventory.
He'd been relatively certain there was a red eye watching him through the gap in the Gate. Staring at him. Judging him. It made things a lot more complicated for his initial plan to jump into the Reverse World and Gate out through there. He did not want to get into a fight with a primordial force of reality. Giratina was the local equivalent, alongside its siblings Dialga and Palkia, to the Primordial Gods like Nyx or Erebus.
"Good, good. Let the Dark flow through you." Alec had his own eyes closed as he focused on the feel his companions exuded. Sirius had a much stronger aura of Dark around him but Zeph was definitely imitating it, if at a lower concentration. "Now, focus on that feeling. Focus on the ideas hidden inside of it. Remember how it felt to track something in the shadows, to plan out how you intended to hunt it down. Focus on that moment, that clarity..."
Sirius accomplished it first, reaching crystal clarity with a loud, chilling "Hou~nd!" that echoed into the night. Somewhere in the far east, another voice responded as Sirius pulled off his first Nasty Plot.
"Good boy!" Alec congratulated, reaching into his hoodie pocket to pull out a dog treat. "Yeah, who'sh a shmart boy, yesh you are! And a shmart boy deserves a treat, yes he does."
The Houndour, now knowing the steps to produce a Nasty Plot, wagged his stumpy little tail and stood up on his hind legs to get the treat Alec held over his head.
In the games, attribute buffs could be mostly overlooked during standard play. Everything up through the Elite Four and the Champion could usually be handled in a straightforward manner using decent move selection and PokéMon that were at or above the level of the challenged trainer's.
Attribute buffs, like Nasty Plot which empowered a PokéMon's special attacks, could and did make things easier but it wasn't that significant unless someone was playing the Battle Tower where they fought opponents at an equal level or in multiplayer against people that actually made plans.
"You doing alright, Zeph?" Alec asked the little ghost quietly as she continued to try and focus on doing something with the little Dark-type energy she had access to.
The log burning merrily in the firepit popped and cracked, casting wicked shadows around them.
"Dree-Py!" She whined, her hold on the energy fading away as she slumped in the air where she floated.
"...It's okay." Alec consoled her, his voice soft. "It's close to Ghost energy but it also readily harms it, Dark types can hurt Ghosts with a lot more ease than most others."
He reached over and ran his fingers over her head, smiling softly when she latched on to his hand with her little flippers.
"I know you can already use Bite, that's where someone focuses some Dark energy into their mouth when they bite something." And it was a move she'd really enjoyed employing on the over-eager Rattata and Raticate that had occasionally accosted them in the woods. "Maybe we should work on something else for a bit? I know you can eventually learn Dragon Dance, making you faster and stronger for a little bit. Or we can try to figure out something Electrical? Maybe Steel?"
He had a deep, deep understanding of Steel.
Bone deep.
Sirius chomped loudly on his treat, breaking it apart with his teeth while Zeph seemed to be deep in thought.
"...Dree-ee." She finally settled on, nodding in certainty.
"Alright, Steel it is." Alec wiggled his hand, encouraging her to let go as he sat down and thought about how to explain to her what Steel was.
"Steel... Steel is Structure." He began, thinking on how he'd made his former body. "Success through repetition, the making of countless smaller parts to create a greater whole. From what I understand, many Steel type PokéMon didn't exist until recently with only a few very rare exceptions such as Lucario."
Sirius had finished his biscuit and sat down, listening with his whole focus.
"It's the reason Steel doesn't agree with Fairy. Steel has rules that it follows that absolutely remain consistent. The Fae, however, change and shift their rules, their being and beliefs, with every retelling of their Story." Which was why Steel hurt them so badly, not the mistaken belief in some non-existent material like 'Cold Iron'.
Shakespeare and his allegory making a mess of things. Or Wizards of the Coast. Either or.
"The more consistently the rules of Steel are followed in its construction, the stronger the eventual product. Every little piece has a purpose, reinforcing the whole." Alec continued, his thoughts meandering into memories of creating not just the structures but also the nuts and fasteners, the process of cutting threads and lubricating joints.
Metal elemental magic was -Rare- in the extreme. Whilst there were the occasional Steel Dragons, they didn't actually use their namesake in any special way. Mythril Dragons, however, could literally breathe shrapnel made of the mystical metal.
Alec held his hand out, the form of Conversion held at bay, barely, as he recalled the form of Living Steel.
"Steel struggles to have any impact on the non-physical. Its few Special Attacks tend to be either very slow or else harm the user in some way." Alec held that thought, the memory of Metal in mind and focused it on his hand, the appendage taking on a black, metallic hue. He slammed his hand down on the log he was sitting upon and his fist tore through the old, dead wood with ease. "But it readily and eagerly acts on the physical. Claws, your skull, maybe even coating your body in the energy, all of it works to easily channel Steel into the material world."
Extracting his hand from the log was a bit more work but Alec soon had it free and was sitting in a more relaxed pose.
Alec watched as both of the PokéMon thought on what he'd said. He felt it as both of them tried to apply that measure of thought to their energy. He didn't expect much given that Zeph barely had anything to work with and Sirius, being Fire and Dark, didn't have any native gifts in Steel.
He yawned widely as the two kept working at it, though. He knew Zeph could eventually learn Steel Wing, offering her some defense against the Fae.
Sirius, however... Alec was going to have to put some work into helping him overcome his weaknesses. The Training Machine discs that Alec had collected in the Rocket Base didn't work with the Teachy TV he'd found buried in the bottom of a closet in the cabin he used to sleep in. They were too old, the technologies didn't play well with each other.
So Alec was going to have to figure out what he actually needed to use the damned things. And he needed to get to Cinnabar Island to go digging around the wreckage of the old PokéMon Mansion.
One of the only Grass type moves Houndour could learn was Solar Beam, which would be the only real offense that Sirius could bring to a fight against a Ground type PokéMon.
"Houn!" The dog in question barked, his tail wagging happily.
His shining tail wagging happily.
"Well..." Alec didn't remember Houndour being able to learn Iron Tail... "Good job, boy! C'mere and I'll give you another treat."
Not that Iron Tail would really help the dog at all. Trying to hit anything with that tiny, stubby little thing would really just be a bad idea.
"Dra!" Zeph cried, her little flippers glowing with the same sheen. "Drah-Py!"
That one, that one Alec wasn't sure about. It could be Metal Claw, it could be Bullet Punch, it might even be Steel Wing. Her body was just too small for him to be sure.
"That's great, Zeph!" Regardless, it might not even be a proper move at all. She could just be channeling her limited energy to her limbs and expressing Steel. "Come on over, I picked some Oran Berries earlier. I think you'll like them."
As the two PokéMon ate their snacks and Alec snagged the seeds that Zeph spat out, he reflected on this moment.
By the firelight in the woods, just him and two friends that chose to join him...
He really needed this.
