Burton's training topic

Burton got out into the sunlight outside Cerulean gym. He let Charmander out of her Poke Ball; there had been far too much water inside for him to comfortably allow Charmander out of her Poke Ball. She stretched and turned to Burton, questioning what they were going to do next.
"Well, Charmander, you've wanted to train for a while now, so that's exactly what we're going to do," he said, smiling.
"Char!" exclaimed Charmander, quite pleased. She turned and ran off into the forest, Burton jogging behind her. When he got through the treeline, Burton realized he was in a small clearing with a pond, rocks of all shapes and sizes, and a lone tree right in the middle. Charmander stood at one end of the clearing, looking happy with her find.
"Wow, Charmander, way to go!" exclaimed Burton. And with that they began their training. Burton picked up a small twig from the ground and positioned himself about five feet away from Charmander. He lightly lobbed the twig.
"Use Scratch on it," he called. She reached out, extended her claws, and brought them down hard on the twig. It didn't do much; the twig was slapped to the ground. They tried again with the same result. Charmander stopped Burton from trying a third time and ran over to a very square, smooth rock. She placed one claw on the corner of it and dragged it down along the whole length of the boulder. She poked the tip of it with another finger and laid it back on the rock, dissatisfied. After dragging it across the corner several more times, tapping it against her finger each time, she finally nodded and set to work on the next claw. She repeated this process for each claw on her right hand, then went back to her previous position across from Burton and nodded. He tossed her a twig. She brought her right hand down on it hard, and it snapped easily in half.
"Char!" she said happily. An hour later, all of Charmander's claws had been whetted to extreme sharpness, and she was slashing through even the fattest of sticks with ease. The ground around Charmander was littered with sticks, sliced cleanly in half.
"Think that's enough for today, Charmander?" asked Burton. She surveyed the ground around her and nodded, walking over to stand beside Burton. With that the two turned around and headed back to the Pokemon Center.

(The above is exactly 401 words.
First 50- 5 EXP, level up to 6.
Next 60 [total 110]- 6 EXP, level up to 7 [Ember learned]
Next 70 [total 180]- 7 EXP, level up to 8
Next 80 [total 260]- 8 EXP, level up to 9
Next 90 [total 350]- 9 EXP, level up to 10 [Smokescreen learned]
Next 50 [total 400]- 5 EXP)

The next day, Burton and Charmander walked back out of the Pokemon Center where they'd slept. Today it was colder than it had been the day before- but Charmander was just fine with that. She pointed to the clearing where she and Burton had trained the previous day, spitting out some sickly sparks and a tiny puff of smoke.
"I see," said Burton, smiling, "you want to try out your new moves today." Yesterday Charmander had learned both Ember and Smokescreen- obviously, she was very keen to try them out. Nodding furiously, she bounded away to the clearing (as fast as such a tiny Pokemon can bound, at least.) When Burton caught up behind her, she was holding a crisp, brown autumn leaf in her right hand, her lips puckered up in an attempt to burn it with her new Ember move. As Burton watched, several tiny bits of flame plopped feebly to the ground.
Charmander tried again, this time holding an even crunchier leaf under her mouth to catch the embers. The leaf still resisted burning- Charmander was quite new to the move after all. She set down the leaf, with a frustrated "Derman!"
"It's okay, you'll get it," encouraged Burton. But as the minutes passed and no obvious progress was made, Burton's reassurances sounded emptier and emptier. After 20 minutes, Charmander was totally winded and she sat down, huffing and puffing. Wisps of smoke came from her mouth. Once she had regained her breath, she stood up. Looking down at the dead blade of grass she'd been fruitlessly trying to ignite, Charmander took another deep breath: "Chhhhhhharrrrrr," she breathed- a huge cloud of smoke billowed forth- Charmander seemed to be a Smokescreen natural. Burton coughed and stepped back, his eyes watering. He didn't have even the faintest clue where Charmander was.
"Wow," he hacked, pulling his shirt over his mouth and nose, "I guess you're more adept at that one than the Ember move, huh?" Once the smoke had begun to clear, Charmander stood proudly in the middle. "Char dar, mander archar," [Not bad for a first try,] she said smugly, as she nonchalantly examined the tips of her claws. After that, she began getting fancy. She blew a smoke ring. She blew a smoke heart. She blew an opaque smoke circle. She even managed a smoke square. Then she began to work on the amount of smoke she could blow- after half an hour the fire department came, with a wide arrangement of Water-Type Pokemon ready to put out a nonexistent forest fire. Burton explained what was going on to the firefighters as a Gyarados leered down at Charmander. She puffed smoke in its face. Soon, Burton came back to Charmander as the firefighters walked away, slightly miffed.
"They said that we can't practice Smokescreen anymore," he said. Charmander looked disappointed- she had just managed to blow smoke in the shape of Burton's hat.
"Oh well, now we can practice Ember some more," said Burton cheerfully. Charmander's face clouded even more. She sat down, her face invisible to Burton.
"Hey, smoke comes from fire, right?" said Burton, kneeling down next to Charmander. She nodded without looking up. "And you were able to produce all that smoke, right?" said Burton. Charmander looked up.
"So, if you have all that smoke, you must have just as much fire in there somewhere!" Charmander didn't look very convinced, but she stood up anyway.
"Great!" said Burton, also standing up, "Let's get started." He picked up one of the dry leaves littering the ground, holding it awkwardly in front of Charmander.
"Now just, um, blow, and uh, er... Umm... Oh I don't know, I can't spit fire-"
("Man der nander," [Join the club] muttered Charmander,)
"- Just let your instincts take over. Do what you did with Smokescreen, but make it more... fiery."
Charmander sucked in air, squeezed her eyes shut tight and balled her hands into fists. She exhaled and-- ft flt fllppp. The three tiny pricks of flame died before they even hit the ground. But that was the last straw. Charmander knew how to do this move, she had learned it yesterday, and now she was absolutely determined to get it right.
Snatching the leaf from Burton, she lifted it high above her head and puffed at it with no results. She pressed it to her lips and heated it without any effect. Then, when she looked like she was about to burst with frustration... she calmly set the leaf down and closed her eyes. Not even very tightly. She almost seemed to be meditating. But when she opened her eyes up again they seemed to be almost glowing. Her tail flame roared up all of a sudden. Her fists clenched. Her lips parted. And all of a sudden, a stream of blistering hot embers were ejected from between them, reducing the leaf to ashes.

((End training session here. Nothing from the double-open parentheses onward counts towards the training, including the paragraph closing the post.
The above training is exactly 802 words.
First 50- 5 exp, plus Charmander's current 5 = 10, level up to 11
Next 110 [total 160]- 11 EXP, level up to 12
Next 120 [total 280]- 12 EXP, level up to 13
Next 130 [total 410]- 13 EXP, level up to 14
Next 140 [total 550]- 14 EXP, level up to 15
Next 150 [total 700]- 15 EXP, level up to 16 [Dragon Rage learned]
Next 100 [total 800]- 10 EXP
[Evolve!]))

"Great job!" Burton congratulated Charmander.
"Charm-" she began to say but was cut short as she suddenly began to glow white. Her claws extended, then elongated with her toe claws, and Burton could see them all sharpening as if by some magical file. Her mouth puffed out and became a snout as the back of her head poked outwards and grew into a horn-like protrusion, as if someone had grabbed the front and back of her head and stretched them like putty. Next, starting at the tip of the horn on the back of her head, a wave of red swept down her entire body like she was diving into a pool of red paint. Then the same thing happened in reverse as the scales around her feet grew harder, and this hardness swept up her body. Finally, she simply expanded in every direction at once and the white light exploded into infinite sparkling particles, floating down like snow and blinking out like light bulbs. Charmeleon's tail flame flared up.
"-meleon!" she finished, in a deeper voice than she had started the word with.
"Charmander! You evolved!" exclaimed Burton. He ran to her and embraced her; she hugged him right back.
"Well I guess it's not exactly Charmander anymore- it's Charmeleon now!" He laughed as she shot a massive Ember victoriously skyward, flames swirling around embers the size of coals. The two turned and walked into the city.

(Hatching my Egg, which should have happened months ago...)
Burton felt something shaking in one of his pockets. He took it out- it was the rainbow colored Egg that he had found Snivy with. He instantly let Snivy out of her Poke Ball- she was going to want to see this. A piece broke off. And another. And another! Finally, the Egg split open entirely, but strangely, six more were inside. No, they were one thing: an Exeggcute, but in Easter colors.
"Sni!" said Snivy excitedly. She ran up to the Easter Exeggcute and sniffed at it, then turned and hugged Burton's leg. It seemed that all she had wanted was to find someone to safely hatch it from its Egg. She turned and began heading into the forest.
"W-Wait, where are you going?" called Burton. She turned and shrugged, waved, and disappeared.
"Maybe we'll see her again some day," he said to Charmeleon.
"Now then, Exeggcute," he said, turning to the newly hatched Pokemon. He reached out to it and it flinched with an "Exegg!"
Charmeleon walked up to it and poked at its green segment, and it practically took her arm off with an "Exegg! Cute exegg!" [Hey, be careful with those claws!] It seemed to flinch and shy away from even the most slightly dangerous thing. Though it did seem to rather like Burton, even if it did flinch back from him. Soon it was huddled up against Burton's legs, hiding from any danger imaginable. He laughed, to Charmeleon's slight chagrin. Not for long, though, because Burton said, "Charmeleon, I'm anxious to try out your new skills in a battle. Want to?"
"Char!" she said excitedly, and she raced off to find a trainer.
"Exeggcute, you can have Snivy's old Poke Ball," said Burton. He opened it and drew Exeggcute inside. Then he rearranged his belt, making his party Charmeleon, Watchog, Quagsire, Mew, Epillar, and the Lucky Egg. He jogged after Charmeleon. When he caught up to her, she'd found ________!

[Whoops, left a topic out, sorry.]

When he had caught up to her, she'd found a wild Pidgey ♂ level 16! The wild Pidgey chirped sweetly. Pidgey seemed to enjoy the moment until it saw Burton and Charmander. The look on their faces made Pidgey scared, it never battle a trainer before! Pidgey stepped back and whimpered, "Pidgey!" he slowly put a foot forward. Then, out of nowhere, it practically screamed, it had a loud, high voice as it screamed like a baby going nuts. Pidgey bent down a little and gave a second scream, as it got ready for battle!

(I think I'll come back to this now, after 7 1/2 months :3 )
"Aha!" exclaimed Burton, catching sight of the Pidgey. "Charmeleon, how about it? Think you can take a Pidgey?" In response, Charmander stepped forward determinedly.
"Good," said Burton, "Now let's start this battle off right with an Ember attack!"
Charmeleon's eyelids closed halfway, then shot back open. She took in air and then blew it out again as burning embers, making the air between her and the Pidgey shimmer as the attack found its way toward the Pidgey.

The pidgey took the flamethrower. It was blown of course of its attack. The pidgey shook the flames away. It had caused some moderate damage to the pidgey. It rose up for an attack and attempted a tackle to the Charmeleon.

The Tackle hit Charmeleon squarely in the face and she stumbled back, but kept her footing.
"Hmm.... Try Dragon Rage," said Burton, hoping it would do more damage than Ember had. It was Charmeleon's first time using the move, but it didn't matter much anyway seeing as it always did the same amount of damage. Charmeleon opened her mouth and a blue ball of fire formed inside. Black lightning crackled around the edges of the ball, and when she launched it at the Pidgey, the Dragon Rage grew into a whirlwind shape of the same pattern.

The Charmeleon's Dragon Rage overwhelmed the Pidgey's body, and it shrieked. It crashed against a tree from the force of the attack, which had, by luck, caused some additional damage. The Pidgey was very stubborn, however. It picked itself up, staggering weakly, trying to attempt another attack.

The weakly staggering Pidgey didn't seem coherent enough to figure out what it wanted to do, so Burton took the moment as an opportunity:
"Charmeleon, finish it off with Scratch!"
Charmeleon took off towards the Pidgey with a "Chhaaaaarr..." When she was only feet from it, she jumped up into the air with her claws held up high. "MELEONNNNNN!" she screamed as her sharp claws whistled down through the air, ready to connect with the Pidgey.

The Pidgey was hit clean on, due to its current state of fatigue. It was easily knocked over, rolling, until it stopped. The pidgey tried to get back up once again. Despite the stubborness of the pidgey, after a final shriek, it then fell in defeat. The Charmeleon had won this battle.

(I'll edit my EXP and stuff)
"Great job, Charmeleon," said Burton. He was going to give her a high-five, but when he considered her claws he resolved to pat her on the back instead. She was looking rather worn-out, so he returned her to her Poke Ball and asked Spearow to give her a ride to the Pokemon Center. Spearow was happy for the opportunity to stretch his wings (even though he didn't explicitly show it) so he grabbed Charmeleon's Poke Ball and flew away.
At that moment, Mew emerged from his Poke Ball.
"Hey, Mew, you're still fairly untrained. What do you say to trying to find something for you to battle?" In response, Mew grabbed Burton's hat, threw it up into the air, and did a loop the loop with the hat settling on his head.
"You're getting good with that hat... So, I'll take that as a yes?" said Burton.
"Mew," said Mew, nodding. So Burton looked around in the bushes for a low-leveled Pokemon to fight Mew.

As the bushes were searched, a wild Sandshrew ♂ level 5 suddenly popped out at Burton and Mew. It looked just as energetic as the Pidgey battled before was. It looked as if it was already prepared for a battle.

"Aha!" exclaimed Burton, jumping back. "Mew, I found your opponent! Get ready for your first battle!" Mew floated down lower to the ground and took on an air of determination.
"Use Pound!" shouted Burton. Mew flew forward with his fist raised in the air. When he realized that his stubby little paw wasn't going to make for an effective bludgeon, he stuck his tail out in front of him and when he reached the Sandshrew he flipped head over heels, bringing it down towards the enemy's head.

"Shrew?!" Sandshrew exclaimed, not expecting Mew's long and bulbous tail to suddenly come crashing down on him. He rubbed his head a bit, before looking up and snarling at the cat like Pokemon. "Sandshrew!" it called, jumping at the Mew with his claws ready to Scratch him!

Mew tried to bob away, but he wasn't quick enough. The Scratch attack landed on his stomach and he looked down at the lines that were appearing there. He looked back up at the Sandshrew with determined eyes.
"First time attacked, taken like a champ," encouraged Burton. "Hit him with another Pound!" Mew, having more experience with the attack now, floated upwards then came plunging down in the same front-flipping motion as last time, but with slightly more force.
"Meeeew!" he squeaked, very high-pitched and louder than Burton would have imagined Mew could have.

Sandshrew saw the attack coming, and so quickly curled his little body into a ball. The defensive curl raised his defense just in time, as Mew's tail came down on him right afterward. The ball began to roll around, as though trying to make it harder for Mew to hit next time.

Burton was growing frustrated.
"If only you had more moves," he said, consulting his Pokedex. What he found confused him. "Strange, you should know more than that," he said, scanning Mew to be sure he only knew Pound. "Also weird, it says you're a male, but Mew is normally a genderless Pokemon..." he t scratched his head, momentarily lost in the inconsistencies of his Pokemon.
"Well, maybe you'll learn the other moves when you level up," he said, uncertainly tucking away his Pokedex.
"Until that time, you'll have to keep using Pound," he said a bit louder. Mew nodded and flew up in the air. He tracked the Sandshrew's movement and gauged how long it would take the rolling Pokemon to get to a spot on the ground in front of him. When the time was right, he plummeted toward the ground again, his flipping tail on track to collide with the Sandshrew!

Sandshrew didn't take too much damage thanks to Defense Curl, but that certainly didn't mean he didn't feel it. "Shreeewwww!" he cried out, uncurling and climbing to his feet. He looked up angrily to the floating pink Pokémon, before slashing at it again with Scratch!

The Scratch hit Mew again, and he winced, falling back a bit. Burton quite suddenly realized that the odds were stacked against Mew in this battle and wondered how he hadn't thought of this before.
"Alright, Mew, this isn't looking good. But we have intellect on our side; Sandshrew is just some wild Pokemon!" (When Mew wasn't looking Burton mouthed "Sorry, little Sandshrew," to the surely indignant Pokemon.) Mew nodded that he understood Burton's reasoning, but he still wasn't sure how they were going to win.
"Mew, use Pound again," said Burton, "but this time target the claw he's using to Scratch!" Mew's face lit up, understanding the idea.
"Meeeeewwww," he shouted as he wound up and shot toward the Sandshrew again. As his tail came streaking down toward the Sandshrew's claw, Burton crossed his fingers.

Sandshrew was confused about Mew's attack, no doubt. It didn't even look like it was gonna hit him! That is...until it did. His paw was struck, rendering it weakened. He would have to scratch with his other claw for now, putting him at a disadvantage. "Shrew!" he exclaimed angrily, before rushing at Mew with a scratch from his able claw!

Mew was hit again, but he recovered much more quickly than he had done previously. Despite this, Burton recognized that Mew was getting weaker; his bobbing up and down in the air was a bit more erratic, and his breathing was slightly more rapid than normal.
"How are you handling, Mew?" he called out. Mew responded by doing a wobbly back flip, which Burton took to mean that Mew felt as though he was holding up.
"Alright, try that same thing on his other claw. He might be expecting it this time, though, so don't worry if he blocks it." Mew nodded. With a rather strained look about him, he flew up to build potential energy and released it with a flipping dive toward the Sandshrew's other paw.

Sandshrew was smarter this time, as Burton had estimated. Instead of his claw being hit, Sandshrew quickly curled into a ball once more. It increased his defenses again, causing the pound to his back to do less damage than before. He rolled backward, uncurling and hopping to his feet in preparation for the next attack. Mew's attacks were whittling him down, but thanks to the ground type's defense increases not as fast as might be liked.

Burton was frustrated at the slow progression of the battle.
"Just keep whaling on him, Mew," said Burton. After all, Mew still looked fairly capable of battle.
"Mew!" said the little pink Pokemon in affirmation. He flew up into the air and prepared to begin the familiar flipping pattern, but Burton wasn't satisfied. There had to be another way to do this. A quick glance around the clearing showed him what he'd seen the first time he'd been in this clearing: A small pond.
"Mew, hold it!" he called right before Mew dived at Sandshrew. Mew faltered in the air and turned to look questioningly at Burton.
"First, toss me my hat," he said. Mew took it off and threw it to Burton. "Now, don't use anything. If you keep attacking, he'll keep using defensive moves. But we want him to follow you, so just head that way," he said, indicating the general area of the pond. He hoped he wasn't specific enough to let Sandshrew know what he was thinking. Mew began darting around Sandshrew to get it to look at him, then he took off in the direction of the pond.

Sandshrew watched, confused as the Mew halted his attack. He quickly became annoyed, swatting at the Mew as if it were a fly. When Mew began to fly off, it had already enraged Sandshrew, who quickly rushed after, attempting to Scratch him again!

Mew arrived at the pond and stopped, hovering over it about a foot from the water's edge. He watched the Sandshrew draw nearer until it was close enough to Scratch at him. At that point, Mew dived under the waves, hoping for Burton's plan to succeed.
Burton watched all this, and when Mew went under all Burton could do was pray that the Sandshrew's momentum would do what he wanted it to do.