[PKMN OPEN] The Pokémon Trainer Academy (T) [Best Veteran 4Q '11]

Samantha Felicity Cooper
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Sammy just laughed at her own reaction, shaking her head. "Nah, it's cool, I shoulda been more alert. You could've been an Ursaring or something and eaten me whole. I should count myself lucky it was just you."

So, here she was bumping into Mark again already. She'd hoped that by the next time she saw him her team would have undergone a lot more training than beating up a lonely Caterpie, but that was life. Eager as she was to challenge him again and regain some pride she knew it was too soon. All she would get was another sound beating from a more experienced trainer.

"Berries, huh? Can't say you've found the right person to help with that, not many berries out at sea. And, uh, yeah... Cubone and I were just training a little. Oh! Before I forget..."

Rummaging around in her bag Sammy pulled out a spray capsule, jogging over to the fallen Caterpie and settling down on her haunches, spraying the bug pokemon from top to bottom. Gradually it opened its eyes and rolled over, looking around in confusion. Once it realised Sammy and the Cubone were still there it immediately started to wriggle off into the undergrowth as fast as its little suction cup legs could carry it.

"Don't want the little guy becoming Spearow food just because of me, you know?" She shrugged as she stood back up.​

Samantha Felicity Cooper
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"Ah, the Caterpie didn't do anything... Cubone here just needed a bit more practice, didn't you buddy?"
"U... ubo..."
"Quit it with the shy guy stuff, you were great. But yeah, we can tag along if you want. I don't really know anything about berries or held items, I'm actually pretty new to the whole Pokemon scene, so I'm learning as I go. Having a blast so far though," she grinned. She was enjoying herself, but the thought that Cubone's original trainer was still out there kept playing at the back of her mind.

It flashed into her head that making friends here could be useful if he ever came looking for her, but she quickly pushed that idea away. She'd never been the sort to use people and she wasn't about to start now. If she made friends with Mark, then cool. If not, then that was fine too. But either way if things came crashing down on her she'd handle it by herself.

"Let's go then, fearless leader," she joked, punching him on the arm, "I'll keep Cubone out in case anything jumps out at us."​

Samantha Felicity Cooper
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Snype seemed like he was Marks go to, number one Pokemon. Once she could take down the little sprite then she could call herself better than Mark... it wasn't her most admirable quality, but a competitive spirit had been part of her from an early age, a desire to prove that she could anything as well as anyone else could. And even do it better.

"Sounds like a fair deal to me. Just depends on how much you wanna learn really. I can show you a couple of really simple things in twenty minutes. They won't win you any championship fights, but if you remember them in a real fight they might make a difference. Or I can teach you properly, really go for it you know? On one of the ships me and Pops served on, passenger vessel, we had this guy that trained with his Fighting type Pokemon. He said that Fighting types, even though it looks like they know martial arts, are doing it all from instinct and... like... genetic muscle memory, or whatever. They don't actually know all the technique naturally, yeah? So he learned it for himself, then taught it to them. Said it gave them an edge when they came up against other Fighting types."

She shrugged and pushed her hands into her pockets as she walked along, Cubone trotting at her heels. "I dunno if it's true or he was just talking a load of trubbish, but it's something to think about for Len I guess. I don't have any Fighting types myself."​

Samantha Felicity Cooper
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"No problem. I'm sure we can find an empty room or something back at the Academy."

When they arrived at the berry patch Sammy took some time walking around and examining the different kinds on display while she listened to Marks explanations.

"So you just give them to your Pokemon, but tell them not to eat them until they need to in a battle? It seems a bit unfair if your Pokemon have berries but your opponents don't have any, or is that just part of battling? Like, if I have them and you don't, tough, you should have thought ahead?"

It did seem unfair, but if things like this were available to everyone and they just didn't bother then maybe that was the sort of thing that seperated good and bad trainers. If that was the case it was definitely going to be something Sammy would give more thought to.​

Samantha Felicity Cooper
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"Huh. So I guess there's a lot more to think about than I realised... types, moves, effects and now all this held stuff too. So how come you just carry that around?" She asked, gesturing to the Destiny Knot. "You won't know a trainer uses Attract a lot until after you battle them, right? By then the Destiny Knot doesn't do you any good. Why not give it to one of your Pokemon?"

Sammy slipped her bag off of her shoulder and set it on the ground, taking a closer look at some of the berries.

"Do you think that teacher would mind if I nabbed a couple of these berries? So I can see how they work and stuff. That's educational, right? And sure, we can train out here. Nobody is gonna bother us out in the woods."​

Samantha Felicity Cooper​

"Alright. I'll just grab a few, no point stocking up on loads when I'm still figuring it all out," she said, grabbing a single Sitrus Berry and Lum Berry, carefully stashing them in a seperate zip compartment in her bag. She could give them a wash once she got back to the Academy. "I'll need to look into all the different stuff you can give your Pokemon, but for now I think I need to focus on the basics with Cubone and Shuppet before I confuse them too much with advanced strategies."​

Cubone was standing off to one side, practicing swinging his bone club. From the looks of things that particular Pokemon was going to need a lot of work before he struck fear into the hearts of any opponents...​

"So what was what you wanted to learn exactly?" Sammy asked, closing her bag and pulling off her purple Arbok hoodie, draping it on top of the bag. Underneath she was wearing a plain, long sleeved black top. Rolling the sleeves up she stepped closer to Mark. "I don't know a lot about any one style of self defense, but I know a little about a lot of different kinds. I probably know the most about boxing, but still not a whole lot."​

Samantha Felicity Cooper
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"Okay, well... I guess I'll keep it simple then, just about self defense in general rather than about a specific style."

She walked towards Mark and stopped directly in front of him. "If someone is coming at you personally, looking to do you harm, you don't have long. They already know what they want to do to you, and you're reacting to them. So you need to be fast and you need to be efficent, okay? You've gotta do as much damage to them as quickly as you can, while using up as little as your energy as you can. Imagine it's a Pokemon battle and someones poisoned Snype. If you don't act fast, you're gonna lose. So, be fast. Be smart. Be efficent. What are the most vulnerable places to hit someone?"

She pointed to her eyes with her index and middle fingers of her right hand, then pointed to his. "Eyes. Nose," she lowered her hand to point at his nose, then pointed from one ear to the other, "Ears. Neck," she pointed to his throat, "Legs, Knees and Groin," she pointed to all three, apparently unphased by pointing at his groin.

"Those are the places you can hurt someone the most, the easiest and the fastest. They might be 'dirty' places to hit, but if you're defending yourself you don't have time to worry about fair play. Make sense so far? Eyes, nose, ears, neck, legs, knees, groin."​