Ghastly Adventures: Teardrop 3.4 (ch. 18)

If Misty was being honest with herself, she had no clue if Blair was right or not. What he talked about sounded far-fetched, a legend of old leading to a way to evolve a magikarp. He seemed to believe it, though. And she wanted to believe that he was right, which is why she dove into the cold waters of the ocean with her rebreather in place. Night swimming in the ocean was familiar to her, even if the shiver wasn’t only from the water.

For as long as she would live, she would remember the sensation of the water swirling around her. She couldn’t tell up from down or down from up, caught in a raging current with that swept her wherever it wished. Misty half expected to wind up in Gyarados’ mouth. She might have if it wasn’t for Squrtile breaking out of his pokeball and swimming her to shore, breaking through the currents. She owed him.

It hadn't taken her eyes long to adjust to the dim light, revealing the pokemon beneath the rippling waves. The cove wasn't that deep, but she saw a variety of pokemon -- freebas, shellder, krabby, and remoraid. She also spied a handful of magikarp swimming around.

What Blair said echoed in her ears as she swam over to them. The analogy that he used. Magikarp were considered useless pokemon by just about everyone -- except for food for other pokemon. She never really gave them much thought beyond how such a terrifying pokemon like gyarados came from such an otherwise dimwitted fish. Misty never saw one being mistreated before her, but she had heard stories…

Shame pooled in her gut as she approached the half dozen magikarp. She tried to imagine what it would be like in their position -- forced to endure until she became so angry that she was finally able to lash out.

Taking the rebreather, she did an old Water Trainer trick that let her speak to pokemon underwater before saying, “Erm… hello? Would one of you want to become one of my pokemon?” She tried -- Brawly mentioned that Blair asked for all of his pokemon to join him. And given all that she learned, she wanted to try it too.

“Karp?” One of the magikarp questioned and she smiled lightly. Magikarp couldn't really… talk. Not in the same way Squirtle could, where what he meant was conveyed easily enough. With magikarp, it was more… ‘Question’ rather than asking the question ‘What do you mean?’

“I'm a pokemon trainer -- I have a squirtle, starime, and a poliwhirl. I was hoping that, if you felt like it, you could join my team? I… I want to help you evolve into Gyarados-” immediately, five of the six magikarp swam away. Misty flinched back with a start, surprised and even more worried about that reaction.

“Karp?” Magikarp questioned and her brow furrowed, trying to decipher what he meant. “Karp kar.”

“Like Weiss’ gyarados?” Misty guessed and Magikarp nodded. An image flashed of the hulking monster that glared at her with nothing but hate in his heart. It felt like her own was going to burst until Squirtle shocked her into action. If what Blair said was true, then that meant… “No. Not like that gyarados. He’s… sad. And hurt. I don't want you to evolve like that. I want to help make you stronger so you evolve in a better way.”

Magikarp stared at her blankly at first a long moment, and she wished she could see what was going on in his head. However, after that long moment, he said, “Karp.”

He wanted to get stronger. “I promise,” Misty swore. It was a promise that banked on Blair’s word, but as far as she was concerned, his word was golden.

Magikarp swam forward as Misty presented him with a pokeball. He eyed it for but a moment before he bumped his head into it, capturing himself. A thrill of excitement ran through her -- she captured another pokemon! Releasing him, the two swam up to the surface where she could speak a little easier.

However, even as she petted his shiny orange scales, she couldn't help but wonder what made him agree so easily? Was the allure of strength that strong? All pokemon wanted to get stronger, to reach their final evolved form. It was a natural instinct for most of them and very few wild pokemon could resist it. And maybe that had its part to play, but Misty couldn't help but suspect that there was a little more to her newest pokemon than what meets the eye.

“Are you ready to start training?” Misty asked and there was determination burning in the eyes of Magikarp. He nodded with his whole body, and she noticed that he was on the smaller side for a magikarp. “A friend of mine told me a super secret special training method for you,” she said, turning to the beach to find Blair walking into the forest.

If it was true, then no matter what he had to say about it -- she owed him. A lot. If not for helping her earn the Teardrop badge, then because the secret that he gave her was priceless. He could do what so many others had done before him and use that secret to set up some kind of breeder farm for docile gyarados. He could have used it to make all the money in the world, but he didn't. He didn't ask for anything and waved the entire thing off.

Misty wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. What she did know was that she was in Blair’s debt.

“Karp?”

Misty smiled as she stroked his scales, “Come on over to the waterfall and I'll tell you all about it.”

…

A few days passed in no time at all, it felt like. “You can do it!” Misty called out, watching Magikarp swimming up the waterfall, carried first by a burst of initial speed. That quickly ran out under the forceful flow of the water, and Magikarp swam hard to fight against it. His record was a quarter of the way there.

And he came just shy of his record before he was knocked back, falling into the waters below. He vanished for a few seconds, only to emerge near the shore. Misty stood in the shallows, “You almost broke your record.” She told him, patting him reassuringly. “Your issue isn't your endurance, it's your strength. Do they sell fish training weight?” She wondered before she shook her head.

“Magikarp, just give it your all! From start to finish, don't worry about holding anything back!” She instructed, knowing that the waterfall was their training tool. Magikarp nodded before vanishing under the water, and a few seconds later, she saw him appear in the stream of the waterfall. He wiggled his body back and forth with all of his might, desperate to reach higher than he had before. Desperate to reach the top.

He had a very strong start, swimming up faster than he had before. However, the momentum slowly bled off, even if it did carry him past his previous record. However, unlike all the times before, Magikarp fought to stay in the current. Rather than be pushed out of it, he was pushed back and back and back until he fell back into the water.

His next attempt began almost immediately, but Misty instantly spotted that his endurance was flagging. He could manage over a hundred attempts a day, but you could only go full throttle for so long. “Magikarp! Keep trying! You've already beaten your record! You just have to keep beating it until you reach the top!” She called out to him, seeing him fight to climb up the waterfall. This time, he fell out of it before he reached the halfway mark of his last attempt.

Yet, no sooner that he hit the water, he was swimming right back up.

Had Grandpa trained his gyarados like this, Misty wondered, her heart falling alongside Magikarp when he failed once again. He had died when she was pretty young, so she didn't have that many memories of him -- just that he had a very warm voice, but his hands were rough with calluses. She also remembered his gyarados, how quiet he was. How calm, like a still lake.

Like Blair’s Mankey, now that she thought about it. She grew up in the area and saw plenty of them, but she had never seen a mankey sit still for hours at a time. Not fly off the handle for any reason or no reason at all. Grandpa’s gyarados used to be like that. She remembered the change all too well -- Gyarados went from a pokemon that she couldn't imagine ever hurting anyone to suddenly being so terrifying that the stories about them made so much more sense. He had nearly destroyed the Gym.

Her sisters didn't have the heart to release him into the wilds, so they released him into their stables. In the five years since, no one had managed to one close to him -- person or pokemon. He simply stayed in his cave, leaving only to eat. Grief, Blair called it. That probably was it, wasn't it?

They thought he simply turned into a normal gyarados, but the truth was he was hurting. Mourning for his friend. And they left him all alone.

“Magikarp!” She called out as he failed to make it even a third of his record. “Let's take a break!” The first day, he hadn't listened to her. The moment he heard about the story, Magikarp threw himself at the waterfall until his strength gave out. The next morning, he didn't manage to accomplish a fraction of what he did before because his strength was spent. Now, two days after that, Magikarp swam over obediently.

“Looks like I came just in time,” Misty heard Marnie’s voice behind her. Looking over, the dark haired girl offered a small wave before holding up a backpack of pokemon food. Blair’s special recipe, as he called it. “How is it going?” Marnie asked as Misty took the bag and started feeding Magikarp. The berry block vanished in his mouth and Misty all but saw his stamina returning.

“We’re a quarter of the way there,” Misty admitted, feeling both proud and… nervous. It had been four days since they began training, but at the rate things were going…

“Misty. Don't worry about it,” Marnie said, watching Magikarp ‘stealthily’ slip away to make another go at the waterfall. “We’re staying because we want to. It's not like you're the only one using the time to train,” she pointed out, but still Misty felt bad. Guilty.

Marnie, Blair, and Brawly were all delaying their travels for her. So she could challenge Weiss again and beat him. They could say that they had their reasons, or they were using the time, but in the back of her mind was this whisper that reminded her that they all would have continued on if she won.

“I want to see him lose,” Marnie continued. She was hard to read most of the time, and rarely expressed any emotion beyond mild annoyance or dry sarcasm, but she scowled openly. “I can't stand people like him.”

“Jerks?” Misty supplied, earning a huff from Marnie.

“People that think the world needs to share their beliefs about everything. And, yeah, jerks,” she added, crossing her arms.

“... is that why you left Galar?” Misty questioned, sensing that it was a sore subject. She knew that Marnie avoided her own region's circuit -- first Kalos, and then Kanto.

However, Marnie shook her head. “No. I avoided Galar because of my older brother. He's a Gym Leader there. I made the decision for a couple of reasons, but mostly… I didn't want to succeed just because I was his little sister. So, I applied for Kalos. I did better than I expected there, and I was going to head home, but then your Champion announced that the Indigo League was accepting all comers to Kanto and Johto.” She finished with a shrug, and Misty recalled hearing about that.

Mostly through her sisters, who complained about dealing with more trainers. Misty hadn't thought much of it beyond that, mostly because it seemed political and thus she had no interest. She had just been excited to see more pokemon, which was why she participated in the Water-Jam tournament.

She turned her attention back to Magikarp to see him valiantly fighting to swim upstream, managing to stall his fall in little bursts. He wouldn't manage it that time, but he was still giving it his all.

At the rate things were going, he wouldn't reach the top of the waterfall by the end of the month. And Misty felt terrible for it -- that she was delaying her friends, and that she was diminishing Magikarp's progress by thinking he wasn't going fast enough.

“This is Blair's style of training, through and through. You won't believe what he has his pokemon doing now -- especially his Trevenant,” Marnie continued, distracting Misty from her thoughts. “I almost feel bad for Surge,” she said with a smirk in her voice.

Misty wasn't even sure she wanted to know. “He's not challenging Weiss?” She asked and Marnie winced ever so slightly, as if she realized she let something slip. Had he already beaten him? That was-

“Blair lost all respect for Weiss and doesn't view him as worthy of a challenge. He used different words, but that's what he meant,” Marnie confessed after a moment of holding Misty’s gaze. “I'm not much different. Has he always been like that?”

Misty watched Magikarp fail again, searching her memory. “I don't really remember him too well. He only came around occasionally when I was a kid. But Grandpa always said that he could trust Weiss -- like he was a brother. That's why we all called him Uncle Weiss,” she began, a frown tugging at her lips. “But I don't think I remember a single time I saw them together that didn't end with them arguing about something.”

She knew more about him from other people. That he was Grandpa’s rival. That he was one of the strongest Water Type trainers in the world. She also knew that her sisters didn't like him, but they had shielded the reason why from her. “I think Grandpa was the only one that ever had anything nice to say about him,” she added, knowing his reputation well enough as a rival Water Type gym.

It’d probably be more accurate to say that only people had bad things to say about him.

“Hm. Then his word isn't worth much. Misty -- if this plan works… you'll win.” It was a reassurance, but Misty couldn't ignore the whisper in the back of her mind that it wouldn't be so simple.

To win the badge, it was a 3v3. Even if they did somehow beat that gyarados, they still had two other pokemon to deal with. His Ace team. It was entirely possible that even with all this effort, Weiss would beat her with another one of his Aces. And that, Misty feared, would be the final nail in the coffin.

Her gaze followed Magikarp as he once again tried to make his way up the waterfall. He gave it his all, fighting against the current with all of his strength. His momentum stalled and he started to fall in stuttering bursts.

Then something changed.

For the first time, Magikarp managed to swim forward after he lost his initial momentum. It was just a few inches, but even as he came crashing down, it still felt like a victory.

…

“Hey, Blair,” Brawly said as the two of us stood to the side, watching the matches between Makuhita and Mankey while Riolu and Tyrogue also went at it. Free sparring with no moves allowed. Working on the fundamentals, as Brawly called it.

“Hm?” I muttered, a notebook and pen in hand as I had been busy pulling possible moves for my pokemon to learn. Mankey had his Focus Energy while Riolu had Aura. Both were already coming a long way, so it was time to start setting milestones.

“Are you trying to use Aura?” Brawly asked so suddenly I nearly dropped my pen. I looked over at him, blinking a few times as I replayed what he said to make sure I hadn't misheard.

“How do you know about Aura?” I felt compelled to ask him and he simply cocked an eyebrow at me.

“I was trained by a member of Kanto's Elite Four. I feel like I should be asking you how you know about Aura,” He remarked, and that was a fine rebuttal. Too good of one, in fact, because I really didn't have an answer. “Not many people do. I didn't think much of it at first -- I figured you meditating was your way of killing time until everyone else woke up. But, recently, your Aura has been getting stronger.”

This was one hell of a conversation to just drop on me out of the blue. “It has?” I asked, feeling a thrill run through me. I had been blindly groping in the dark, hoping I was going the right way. And, apparently, I had. “Wait, do you have Aura?” I asked because I was going to start kicking myself if he knew all this time.

And I was about to start when Brawly nodded. “It's how I got scouted by Master Bruno,” he confirmed. “Remember when I said you had an affinity for Ghost Types? That's part of Aura. Everyone has it, and just like Pokemon, it leans towards a certain type with some leaning more strongly than others. It's just that most people can't actively access it or use it. Which is why it took me so long to notice,” he said, glancing at me.

He wanted to know how I knew. I pursed my lips, wondering how I was going to explain it. “I know the Aura Guardians were a thing. When I… died, I felt something. And ever since, I've felt it connected me to my pokemon -- the Ghost Types in particular. It seemed useful, so I just focused on it to see if I could improve it.” That was more or less exactly what happened, but I was surprised that was something that Brawly could apparently sense.

Brawly nodded, as if I confirmed one of his suspicions, “That's Aura. I don't really know much about ghost type Aura, but that's more or less how it was with my fighting type Aura. I always felt a… connection, I guess, with them and one day a couple years ago, Master Bruno showed up and told me I was his student before taking me to Kanto.”

“I… feel like you just described a kidnapping…” I couldn't help but note, but Brawly chuckled.

“He got my parents permission after the fact.” I don't think that makes it any better, dude. “Getting training from a member of an Elite Four is a huge honor. And it wasn't like I wasn't excited -- I already wanted to be a Fighting Type trainer, and eventually a gym leader. The first year started with the basics, but the last two years, he started teaching me about Aura. What it can do.” I… feel like he just described Stockholm Syndrome…

I feel like this was a little more important than Aura, but Brawly seemed oddly cool with the fact that he was kidnapped, trained, and apparently traumatized by a member of the Elite Four. So, I was tentatively going to call this a cultural difference. “What can it do, exactly?”

“Depends on the type, I think. Master Bruno only taught me about fighting type Aura,” he began, only to scratch his cheek. “But he swore me to secrecy, so I can't actually tell you what it does.”

Annoying, but unsurprising. “And how to teach it falls under that, I imagine?” Brawly confirmed my suspicion with an apologetic smile. It was annoying, but it made sense. I'm not sure I should use Ash as a baseline, but Aura essentially turned him into a literal superhero. He had superpowers. He just never used them.

Still, Brawly had done me a favor. He confirmed my Aura was getting stronger, which meant I was doing something right.

So, I did him one. Riolu managed to land a strong upper kick to the bottom of Tyrogue’s jaw and he went flying through the air before landing heavily. Brawky went to step forward, but I placed a hand on his shoulder as Tyrogue struggled to get up on shaky legs, his eyes burning to pay back the blow.

It was something that I noticed beforehand -- even back when we first met when Brawly recalled his Makuhita after taking a strong blow. He had been hurt, but he was ready to continue the battle. I saw it in his training too. I never said much about it, because it wasn't my place, but he told me the reason why without telling me.

Brawly always recalled his pokemon before they were done. I don't think it was a bad thing. It was certainly more reckless to keep pushing them until they gave out or fell unconscious. But, it also meant they never reached their limit to push it just a little more.

“I know Bruno shook your faith, and the last thing I'm going to tell you is that you should be like him. So, have a little faith in your pokemon,” I said, inclining my head to Tyrogue, who had squared up once more.

Brawly's lips thinned. “Fighting Types will always push themselves too far,” he argued, but he didn't pull out of my grip.

“Then stop them before they go too far, not far enough,” I told him as Tyrogue and Riolu clashed again. Both of them were on their last legs, though Riolu had more gas in the tank. Tyrogue blocked a high kick from Riolu, countering with a liver shot, only for Riolu to jump and deliver a spin kick. Tyrogue hit the ground, glancing over at Brawly.

I could feel Brawly hesitating. He crossed his arms, holding Tyrogue’s gaze.

Then he nodded and a wide smile spread across Tyrogue’s face. He pushed himself to his feet and we watched as the two clashed again, going in for the final attack that would decide the match.

Yet, as Tyrogue ran forward, he began to be enveloped by a blinding white light, his from beginning to change. That was one hell of a coincidence, I decided, as Tyrogue began to evolve. I was rather curious to see what he would become, and within a handful of seconds, I had my answer.

Hitmontop appeared as the light faded and, instinctually, he knew how to battle because he threw himself forward to land on his draidal like head and began to spin. Riolu hesitated, not quite sure how to deal with the sudden change, and because of it he got kicked in the face. He went flying, hitting the ground and the sudden difference in power was too much for him.

“Hitmontop!” Hitmontop cheered, flipping to his feet as the sparring paused so he could excitedly run to Brawly, who was smiling wide.

It seemed like Misty wasn't the only one using the time to evolve her pokemon.