Pokemon: Duty or Justice?

"I suppose we should talk, Roserade."

"Rose." Nodding, the now fully evolved pokemon stared at Janine for a few moments before asking a question that caused a contemplative frown to emerge on Janine's face. 'Plans… I feel like anytime I make one since being told I was going to Hoenn, I have to change it immediately.'

"That's… a hard question to answer in any succinct way, so I'll start explaining the best I can. My plan right now is a bit haphazard - I hadn't expected to have to worry about so many different Pokemon so early into my journey." The Roserade wilted slightly, causing Janine to add on hurriedly, "But that's not a problem! It just means we have to adapt. The first thing is getting you used to your new body, and your family and clan preparing themselves for you leaving. Alongside that, we'll do some training to polish up your moves, kickstart your adapting, and maybe by watching and some tips, the rest of your clan can be a bit better as well. That sound good so far?"

Roserade nodded, hesitation still clearly sparkling in her eyes. "After that, we'll be leaving. But don't worry - it won't be forever. In fact, I think you'll only be away from your family for a few months."

"Radeeee?"

At the confused yet happy cry, Janine nodded in assurance, a smile on her face. "That's right. I think you should be seeing them again in a few months - it won't be long at all. Worst case scenario, it will be before the year is out - after all, I'll be leaving Hoenn at the end of the league season."

Roserade tilted her head to the side, and at the prompt, Janine explained a tad more, "I'm from Kanto originally, and so I'm only in Hoenn temporarily. Honestly, I had expected to catch all my Pokemon as loners so that there would be no problems like this… but like I said, we'll make do. Either way, the reason I expect we'll be back in a few months is because of how I plan to do things. We'll be basically storming through the first four or so Gyms and taking a bit of a weird route to do so, and I'm thinking this route will leave Mauville as one of the later 4 gyms - which means we'll just be a small bit away from your home then."

What Janine didn't explain was that she had the beginnings of a plan to make sure that Roserade would stay with her at the end of the season - which needed her to have a bit of fame in Hoenn, and also more time for the clan's trainers to get embedded into the region. Pushing past that, Janine spoke again, getting into more details about the specific route. "I believe right now my planned route is along the lines of Flannery, Roxanne, Brawly, Tate & Liza, into, of course, Wattson here at Mauville, then Winona, Norman, and finally Wallace."

Roserade rapidly blinked before letting out a cry of confusion, causing Janine to slump theatrically. "Right - right! Sorry, I forgot. Those names are the leaders of the 8 major gyms of Hoenn - with Tate & Liza being twins. Flannery trains fire Pokemon, Roxanne rock, Brawly fighting, Tate & Liza psychic, Wattson electric, Winona flying, Norman normal, and Wallace water."

At that, Roserade finally nodded in comprehension, roughly understanding; albeit Janine knew she'd more than likely have to explain the league in more depth, although is was very possible the Pokemon being a wild 'mon near a Gym knew at least the rough basics. "Now, the most important thing isn't actually the Gyms; it's you preparing your family. Alright? I have full faith we'll be able to crush the League's badge challenge, and the true difficulty will be saying goodbye - no matter how short it will be. Why don't you come back bright and early tomorrow morning, and we can begin training?"

Roserade nodded, a happy trilly escaping from her, before she pushed herself off the ground. "Oh wait - Roserade, before you go."

"Rade?"

"Think about a name, will you? It's a tradition that Pokemon get nicknames in the human tongue to better distinguish orders and help grow the bond. Spinarak here only doesn't have one because he hasn't evolved yet."

Behind her mask, Roserade's eyes flashed with unknown emotion before she nodded. "Rose-roserade!" With that, the flower Pokemon made a small bow before turning around and walking off. 

A few moments later, Spinarak was chittering in Janine's ear, causing her to let out a huff. "What do you mean? That definitely could have gone a lot worse." The chittering got faster, causing her to chidingly swat Spinarak on the back of his head. "No, I'm not going to demand her obedience or deride her for caring about leaving her family for a while. Really, buddy, do you think me so cruel?"

Spinarak chittered a little bit more, causing Janine's lips to twitch. "I mean - yes, we did leave Hoenn without me asking about your mom and your Pokemon family, but…"

Spinarak dug his legs into her shoulder before letting out a cute little snort and closing his eyes, causing Janine to let out a sigh. "Fine, fine. You're right, I promise I'll make it up to you."

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Bright and early tomorrow morning, Janine was once more standing in a field filled with flowers, but this time with Spinarak and Roserade standing in front of her, and some Pokemon watching to the sides. "Alright, Spinarak, start with warmups before moving into move mastery, then move learning."

"Spiii~" Letting out a series of happy clacks, Spinarak began training, causing Janine to focus just on Roserade.

"Alright, Roserade, the first part of today's training will be about getting you acquainted a bit more with your body. Are you ready?"

"Rose!"

Janine nodded. "Good! Now, follow me through these stretches; this should help you begin to learn the limitation of motion you have and also help us see what we work on. First off, let's touch our toes…"

Needless to say, the stretching was enlightening, and seeing Roserade fall flat on her face while stretching her arms over and behind her head was amusing, albeit slightly concerning for balance purposes.

Of course, it was actually impressive the depth of split she could get into, not to mention how far her arms could rotate, or the fact that it seemed like Roserade's arm could bend all directions equally… Janine was jealous about that, actually.

Taking a few last moments to review the stretches, Janine eventually let out a smile. "That was pretty good, Roserade. Of course, we have areas to improve, but you definitely surprised me with how flexible you were in some movements!"

In response, Roserade let out an amused laugh with a knowing gleam in her eye - which Janine decided to ignore. "Next up, let's test your physical capabilities." Opening up the bag that she left on the ground nearby, Janine reached in. As her hand sunk into the bag, she felt nothing but empty air, something she had been baffled about as a younger girl but had long since gotten used to by now. Much like many fantasy 'space bags' from back in her old world, she expertly thought about what she wanted and, a second later, could feel it colliding into her hand, which she instinctively tightened.

Pulling her arm out of the bag, Janine showcased what she had grabbed - two small bands, about the thickness of a piece of paper. Seeing Roserade looking at the bag confused, Janine let out a giggle of amusement, drawing the Pokemon's gaze towards her. "It's a human invention, something we learned to do after studying the moves 'Metronome', 'Wish', and 'Aurora Beam'. In fact, while the bag only looks about the size of something you'd place on your hip, inside it has about the same size as a pretty large chest." During the time she was explaining the bag to Roserade, Janine had walked up to her and dropped to one knee.

"Now these bands here - one of them goes on an arm, and the other one goes on a leg - each on separate sides of your body. Their point is simple - when you exert, they exert. Before you get curious - these were made by studying the moves Trick Room, Gravity, and also Metronome again." What she didn't say was that Pewter City was revered - and the entire Clefairy and Clefable species were now sacred Pokemon because of the sheer breadth of technological advancements the Indigo League had been able to do in the last couple of decades. Of which, most of it was purely off of the back of the numerous mysterious and magical moves that specific evolution line possessed, and in turn their protectors had granted to the League.

Gently sliding the bands onto Roserade, Janine patted the Pokemon carefully on the shoulder. "Now, I want you to start by running around the clearing, okay? That should give us a good baseline - the more white lines the bands gain, the more force they're exerting. If they ever turn pure white, remember to stop immediately, okay? That means they've reached their tolerance and are about to snap."

Getting a bow and a few mutters in the Pokemon's native tongue, Roserade hurried off after doing so, leaving Janine still kneeling on the ground. Standing up straight, she patted off her knees before rolling her shoulders. 'Well then, first training going good so far. Let's hope it stays that way.'