Chapter 284: Ducks Can Fly

Baimu hoped that Porygon had a lot of moves to learn.

Among them, Trick Room was undoubtedly a rather important skill, able to effectively make up for the generally low-speed shortcoming of his team.

But to be honest, in the games, Trick Room was used far less in singles than in doubles. Because setting up the room, sending the room-user out, and switching in an attacker to launch an offense all took time to complete, and the whole process was too drawn-out for the fast-paced singles rotation of six pick three.

If the opponent read what you were going to do, that stretch of time was more than enough for them to finish buffing their team and sweep yours.

Another point was that priority moves took precedence over speed, so sometimes even after you set up Trick Room you still didn't get to move first, and the opponent still attacked faster than you.

All things considered, in a six-pick-three singles match, Trick Room teams were a relatively difficult style to use.

However, the above was the situation in the games.

Under the anime backdrop, there were far more things to consider — for example, no longer being limited to four move slots, the Hoenn region's Gym Challenge and League tournament mixing in doubles matches, and full-party singles where all six Pokémon took the field.

There was much more room for Trick Room to perform than in the game's six-pick-three singles.

Porygon could also learn more attacking moves to let it switch back and forth between room-setter and attacker; Porygon2's Attack wasn't particularly high, but it wasn't low either.

"Hyper Beam learned after evolution… then Trick Room, Psychic, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Hidden Power… no Trick? Looks like Porygon and Porygon2 can't learn it at those stages."

Baimu flipped through Porygon's learnable moveset data, unable to wait to command it in a Pokémon battle.

The opponent was, without question, Chansey.

When it came to durability and staying power, if little egg claimed first place, no one dared claim second — it was the most suitable training partner Pokémon.

"Psybeam!"

Baimu stood to Porygon's side so it could see him, and waved his hand toward Chansey.

"Pory!"

Porygon swayed its leg components, its whole body lighting up with rings of blue light-waves that finally gathered at its tail to form a point of light, which shot toward Chansey as it raised its tail!

The motley, dazzling rainbow beam streaked through the air, but failed to hit the nimble Chansey, who sidestepped slightly and let the Psybeam hit the ground.

Crack!

Psychic force kicked up a thin cloud of dust.

Porygon was clearly taken aback.

"No need to be surprised — Chansey is quite skilled at dodging, that's its specialty." Baimu patted its head, signaling it to relax.

"Pory!"

Porygon replied softly.

The most pleasing thing was that this one's actual demeanor wasn't as weird and monotone as Baimu had worried. The Pokédex called it something that could only perform basic actions according to its program, with every behavior being man-made.

It looked very much like the cold, mechanical feel of a computer system.

Actually interacting with Porygon, however, he found it was basically no different from a normal Pokémon — at least so far, both joy and surprise came across quite naturally.

"Again, use Signal Beam!"

Baimu gave the order again.

Porygon once more raised its tail and fired a glowing green beam at Chansey.

Whoosh—Bang!

The beam missed again, easily dodged by the latter.

Porygon was taken aback once more.

Then.

Without waiting for its trainer's command, it fired another Signal Beam at Chansey, as if some combative spirit of "I refuse to believe I can't hit it" had been stirred up.

Baimu silently noted this naturally arising emotion and promptly called it to a stop.

"Missing from over ten meters away is perfectly normal — the opponent was already prepared, watching the direction of your tail to dodge, so not hitting is normal."

He turned Porygon's face toward him, looked into those blank eyes and said: "Want to hit a nimble opponent like that? Simple — just be nimbler than it. Move, circle around to a spot where it can't react, then shoot."

"Pory~"

Porygon nodded as if suddenly enlightened.

As a man-made Pokémon, one of its big advantages was that it could understand human language far better than other Pokémon. Unlike when Baimu and Aron first met, when the thing they did most all day long was guess what the other was trying to express.

It really was a headache.

"Charge at it! Agility!" Baimu gave the order.

"Pory!"

Porygon swung its leg components and suddenly rushed toward Chansey at a fairly swift speed.

This one could hover even without using Magnet Rise, moving by unconsciously releasing its 【Magnet Float System】; Professor Akihabara stated that the source of this function added when manufacturing Porygon came from Magnemite.

Of course.

Being able to fly was one thing, but Ground-type energy couldn't be nullified — if you really wanted to avoid Ground-type, you still had to rely on Magnet Rise.

"Lucky!"

Chansey wasn't startled by the speed Porygon displayed, but its expression did grow considerably more serious, its eyes fixed tightly on the approaching Porygon, patiently observing the opponent's movements — the swing of its tail.

"Get around its front!"

Baimu's shout suddenly rang out.

Porygon's body paused slightly, then immediately circled around Chansey's front, attempting in an arc to get behind it.

Little did it know that Chansey's dynamic vision and reaction speed were both extremely strong — no matter how it circled, it couldn't successfully get the other to turn its back, and its low-altitude flight speed unconsciously sped up a little.

Agitation.

Another emotion born naturally.

But even so, what still faced Porygon was Chansey's front.

"Stop!"

Baimu's loud shout made Porygon abruptly halt, but just like a car on the highway slamming on the brakes, inertia carried it an extra half-circle before it finally stopped.

At that moment, something interesting happened.

Hearing his voice, Chansey stopped spinning almost at the same instant, but Porygon, due to inertia, went around an extra half-circle, so that it finally saw Chansey's back.

"Now! Psybeam!"

"Pory!"

Porygon raised its tail and fired a beam of dazzling, multicolored light forward!

Squeak—

A piercing sound rang out.

But just as it was about to hit Chansey, a translucent glass barrier materialized on the latter's back; the beam's power was reduced by more than half as it sank into it, and when it struck Chansey, it was already harmless.

【Light Screen】.

A miraculous wall that effectively weakens special attacks.

The system inside Porygon swiftly retrieved this data from its database and gave it the answer.

"What a quick reaction — as expected of you, Chansey."

All Baimu walked over and praised Chansey for its swift reaction; even though this little egg had been thrown under the bus by its Trainer, it still reacted at the first instant and worked out a plan.

Without a doubt, all of this was the fruit of effort accumulated day by day.

"Lucky~"

Chansey rubbed its little hands together a little sheepishly, and when it looked at Porygon, its gaze held a touch of apology.

Personally, it was inclined to go easy on the new little partner and let it land a few hits to boost its confidence, but unfortunately the Trainer firmly disagreed.

yawenku.

It could only be like this, then.

Porygon stared at Chansey just as blankly, and then a trace of admiration surfaced in its gaze.