Ghastly Adventures: Teardrop 3.1 (ch. 15) (Patreon)

I cracked a hundred wins. All I needed to do after the Gym battle was to hang out at one of the battle courts and they came lining up. It was a good experience for Trevenant, who rapidly got used to his new body in a safe competitive setting. He missed the mobility of being able to fly, but his offensive power had majorly been upped from his evolution. His attacks were stronger, he had finer control -- his strengths got stronger and more refined.

Mankey was another star of the show now that I felt comfortable battling with him. As it turned out, his Focus Punch was something of a fluke. A byproduct from constantly focusing his energy. It was a launching off point for him, channeling that energy onto his attacks. It helped him mentally too. A string of victories showed him that he was making progress, and being pushed to his limit gave him a direction to spend his energy on.

“I'm pretty sure Brawly meant it as a joke, not a challenge,” Marnie said as we walked through the aisles of a Pokemart. I came here as soon as I crossed the threshold of a 100/0/1 record -- the last thing I wanted to do in the city before moving on. “Should I expect you to battle every trainer we come across?” She asked, shopping for her own odds and ends.

Two days later and we all had the Cascade badge, as Brawly won his match handily. His pokemon were pretty used to the water and the battle was complete with Tyrogue using a platform to surf a wave.

“I'd say that would be a reasonable expectation,” I admitted, pushing my cart that was rapidly filling up with odds and ends. The payout from the Gym match was substantial -- a cool thirty thousand, double what I had gotten from beating Brock. With the winnings from my battles, I was hovering around a lofty hundred thousand in my account, just shy of six digits. Part of me wanted to keep battling until I crossed it, but we lingered enough as it was in the city.

There wasn't a point, in the end, because I was planning to spend a chunk of it. I'd keep a nest egg as a safety net, but I was about to drop a down payment for a house on supplies for my Journey and pokemon. TMs, a pokedex, pokeballs, care supplies for Riolu, training weights for Riolu, and some notebooks as with six pokemon to juggle, I needed a little help remembering everything.

Riolu sat on my shoulder as we approached the training weights. “We start off light, and then we work our way up,” I reminded him as I saw his attention instantly go to the heaviest weights there. Weights that I was probably going to have to start looking to get Mankey in preparation.

Pokemon developed fast. Far faster than I had been prepared for. I don't know if that spoke volumes about my training, or if it was some kind of aura shenanigans. But, already, a week later, Mankey was complaining about the weights being too light. I was going to give him another week just to be safe, but I probably needed to buy them in advance.

Riolu started curling thirty pound dumbells like it was nothing before going up to forty. Then fifty before he nodded in satisfaction. I'm not sure what kind of metal they were made out of, but generally, the weights were the same size, just denser and heavier.

“Why haven't you challenged me?” Marnie asked, catching me off guard as we tried out a harness similar to mine. Riolu would be walking around with an additional fifty pounds strapped to his body. And with a few flips, he proved to me he wasn't fibbing about it being comfortable.

“Every time we met before, you were either gearing up for a gym battle or I was,” I shrugged. Apparently, that was what she was looking for because she nodded to herself, seemingly pleased. “We can battle when we hit the road. It's about a three day trip to Halun village, so there's plenty of time.” Brawly had been convinced to edit our plans with minimal effort -- he went with the flow, and he was looking forward to hitting one of the minor gyms.

The village was a hop and a skip away from Maiden's Peak, where we could then sail down to Lavender Town. From there, it was straight to Elephant city to challenge Surge. It was an extra week to a trip that would have taken five days, but that wasn't really an issue when we were ahead of schedule.

“I'm looking forward to it,” Marnie said, and I heard the competitive spirit she had. I just gave her a light smile before I settled on my purchases. with the discount, it was less than I prepared for, but it was still more than what I wanted to spend. It was totally worth it though when I fed my trainer card into the pokedex, registering it under my name. Part of me felt giddy at owning my very own pokedex and the very first pokemon I scanned was Riolu, who was walking next to us to get used to moving with his weights.

‘Riolu: A Fighting Type pokemon. Riolu possesses the ability to sense emotions. While small, he possesses superhuman strength, capable of crossing a mountain in the span of a single night.

This pokemon knows: Protect, Swift, Quick Attack, and Counter.’

Oh, Protect. I couldn't wait to be on the other end of that move. Though, I did notice that the pokedex didn't mention anything about aura when I had it set to the most informative setting. I wanted to lean into it because I had ideas. As for the moves he knew… “You're pretty solid on defense. We just have to work up your power,” I told him and he nodded seriously.

Counter was an interesting move. It relied on taking physical rather than elemental damage, and punishing it. Combined with Protect, Riolu was oddly set up to protect himself. Or to get away, because while Quick Attack and Swift could be used to attack, they could also be used to get away. Given how young he was… the moves he learned struck me as a deliberate choice.

I hummed, cracking open my notebook and started taking notes as we walked through the city. Ideas and plans for Riolu -- he would be a good sparring partner for Mankey. And I should ask Brawly for some Fighting Type training tips. I would need to see what Aura could do and what it couldn't, but at the moment I was picturing Riolu performing a Kamehameha.

Without Marnie, I probably would have ended up walking in the wrong direction, but as we neared the meet up point, I saw that we had an unexpected guest.

“Misty?” I greeted her, idly noting that she had a backpack on. She looked up from where her and Brawly had been talking and greeted me with a wave.

“I talked to my sisters. You were right -- if I want the Gym to remain a gym, then I'm going to have to take it over myself,” she started, squaring her shoulders, “So, I'm competing in this year's circuit!” She declared, puffing out her chest, almost like she was expecting me to challenge her on it or something.

“Cool. Are you traveling with us?” I asked, a little hesitant about that. Team Rocket would be gunning for us, and I'm not sure how I felt about Misty getting mixed up in that. It was one thing to volunteer to step into trouble, and it was another to get dragged into it.

Misty blinked at the offer, then looked to Brawly, who shrugged. Then to Marnie, who shrugged. Then to me, “I… if you'll have me?” She tried, and I'm guessing that she expected this conversation to go a different way. Oh, was she trying to do the rivals, thing? Whoops.

This worked for me. Misty was going to end up becoming a strong trainer, and there was safety in numbers. “Welcome aboard,” I said, giving her a smile as we set on off on the next part of our Journey.

“Thanks? Where are we going?” Misty asked and Brawly snickered.

“Maiden's Peak,” he answered, unable to keep the smile out of his voice. I didn't react, content to let him dig his own grave. I hadn't forgotten that I still owed him for Brock.

Marnie chuckled at Misty's expression. “Seems like he's eager to return to his forlorn love.”

“Yeah, yeah -- laugh it up,” I muttered as Misty looked at me with a slack jaw.

And so they did, much to my chagrin

…

Setting up camp was almost refreshing after a week in the city. I'm sure I would be missing a hot shower soon enough, but camping was rapidly warming up on me. We headed north on Route 24, crossing a bridge, and now we were in the wilderness once again. The stars were out in force by the time we set up for the night. For the others, it was a time to unwind. For my team, training began.

“Riolu,” I began, dropping to a knee in front of him. “I want you to use Protect,” I instructed while the rest of my pokemon were getting into position for their usual routine. Riolu looked up at me and nodded, throwing out his hands and I saw a similar barrier that Larry had used on me. It seemed solid enough, but it could stand to use some improvement.

“Okay. Now, I want you to make it smaller,” I continued.

“Rio?” He questioned and I nodded, holding up my hand.

“Around that size,” I said and watched as the barrier shrunk down, barely covering his chest. “Is that easier? Less energy intensive?” I asked him and Riolu had no idea where I was going with this, I saw. All the same, he nodded. “Perfect. Now, I want you to use Protect as fast as you can, but it's the size of that hand.”

The time difference wasn't as pronounced as I would have liked, but it was still a few ticks faster. The barrier was a little uneven. Too thin in some places. Hm. “Very good. Could you do it again? Three times in a row, and I want you to manifest it in different locations.” Riolu nodded seriously, his eyes narrowing in concentration. The execution was sloppy, the barriers were uneven, some too large, others too small, but he managed to protect his leg, shoulder, and head.

“What are you doing?” Misty spoke up as the campfire got going.

“I'm going to make every trainer who ever fights us cry tears of blood,” I answered with an evil smile. “Riolu can't phase like my ghost pokemon, so I'm teaching him a different kind of Protect. The goal is to master it until he can use it instinctively. Even as he uses offensive moves,” I informed and I saw desire burn in Riolu's eyes. I also saw naked horror in Misty's.

“I've never heard of Protect being used like that before,” She remarked and I saw Brawky watching us curiously.

Probably because no one thought how to make the most annoying move more annoying. “Riolu, I want you to do it three times again. Except, I want you to try to shape them like this,” I said, drawing a hexagon in the dirt. Perfect to layer and expand if he ever needed to cast a larger Protect.

“Lu!” Riolu exclaimed, eager as he obeyed. The shape was more uniform, at least, though still sloppy.

“That easier or harder?” I asked and nodded when he gave his answer. Visualization played a component? I made a few notes in my notebook -- theories to test out.

The end goal was an almost autonomous barrier around him that would block or deflect any blow while Riolu could focus on overwhelming offense. I wanted him to master it to the point that it was effortless. The road to that level of mastery was a long one, but we had time and now was the best time to take the first steps.

I patted his head, “Then I'm going to teach you Reflect.” I chuckled as he seemed pleased, leaning into my touch. He would be both the immovable object and the unstoppable force. No counter close range. No safety long range. I wanted Riolu to have my opponents tearing out their hair coming up with a way to beat him. “And Disable.” One by one, he’d deactivate his enemy's attacks and defensive moves.

“This… might have been a terrible idea…” I heard Misty mutter under her breath. Too late, you're one of us now.

“Mimikyu,” I said, catching Mimikyu's attention. “I want you to throw this ball at Riolu. Slowly at first. I want to get him used to using Protect reflexively.” Riolu tensed a little bit when Mimikyu walked over. He got on best with his fellow ghost pokemon, but if Riolu was going to be a member of the team, he needed to make friends with my starter.

Mimikyu picked up the ball and began throwing it and Riolu managed to block it with Protect. So began his training, leaving me to look over at Trevenant. After some battles, I got a handle of his strengths and weaknesses.

Mobility was a huge one, but it was undercut by his ability to phase on command. He could still improve it, but I would say he was up to a satisfactory level. What he really needed was three things -- close quarter attacks, terrain control, and a wider variety of long range options.

“Trevenant,” I called out to him, pausing his Razor Leaf and accuracy training. “I want you working on a new move,” I said and he lumbered over in excitement. “I want you to figure out a way to delay the explosion of your Seed Bomb.”

“Venant?” He asked, tilting his head ever so slightly.

“We're going to call the move Seed Mine. You shoot a bunch of them into the ground, and the enemy is going to have to either enter where you want them to, or take an explosion to the face when they step on one,” I stated and his branches shifted, pleased with the mental image. “I know you can do it, so I'm going to have you pull double duty -- the excess energy that you take in from Leech Seed… I want you to find a way to store it in a seed. We'll call that move Heal… Seed? Eh, the name is a work in progress.”

I liked the direction we were going with Trevenant. Harvesting an opponent's energy to make himself stronger was a good start. But now I wanted to start looking to use that stolen energy to enhance attacks. Or to heal himself in a pinch, or even others. Which made learning some energy siphoning moves a must -- Drain Punch, Giga Drain, Horn Leech.

It was a bit of a specialist route, so it came with some risks. The benefits were worth the take off -- by focusing on energy utilization, he could learn how to take in more energy with a single hit. A Leech Seed could go from taking a sliver of health to half the health bar. Then Trevenant could power up his own attack with that stolen energy.

Trevenant seemed pleased with his given tasks and he immediately walked off to start learning Seed Mine. I wondered if he could store elemental attacks in them? Like Toxic?

I made a note in my notebook. It was worth looking into. I rather liked the idea of a fire type pokemon stepping on a mine and a surf hit them from underneath. The big weakness would be flying types and long range types, but I was kicking around ideas to deal with them.

The next two up were Litwick and Dreepy. Litwick had been working on her fire attacks -- strengthening them. Making them burn hotter and longer. The hearing plate measured their temperature, and her goal was to hit a consistent five thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Did that sound absolutely wild? It should because it kinda was.

When she developed the power behind her flames, I was going to start teaching her how to focusing them to intensify the heat. From there, it was a matter of channeling it into attacks.

Dreepy, on the other hand, “We have some options,” I told her, catching Dreepy's attention. “Trevenant showed me something -- everything that he learned as a Phantump was increased when he evolved. Right now, you have an electric move. It's good for now, but it could be better. Stronger. Is it difficult to channel both Ancient Power and electricity?” I asked her and Dreepy seemed a bit sheepish.

“Dreepy,” she admitted. I wasn’t surprised. Ancient Power buffed all stats, so I imagined it was more involved than Focus Energy. The fact that she managed to use both at the same time was commendable.

“Would you prefer to keep practicing with Thunder Shock?” I asked her, and she titled her head. “I have a few TMs -- fire, poison, and rock. They’re basic attacks, but they would flesh out your arsenal a bit, but I’m worried that it would divide your attention too much.” TMs unlocked the potential for channeling a type of energy, but you still had to train to make it stronger. I didn’t have any expectations for being able to match an Electric Type in terms of electric output, or anything like that.

The moves just needed some oomph behind them.

“Dreepy?”

“Why so many moves?” I echoed, rubbing her head. “Because one day, you’re going to be a dragapult with little dreepys of her own. And I want your help teaching them how to become elemental missiles when you shoot them at an enemy,” I told her earnestly. Extreme Speed + Ancient Power + Type Advantage -- all together, they were a massively powerful combo. It appealed to Dreepy because she had stars in her eyes, but I held her off. “But, I want you to be honest -- do you feel comfortable with Thunder Shock yet? Because there’s no rush, and if you take on too much… you’ll end up weaker for it.”

Dreepy cringed, and I saw her reluctance to admit the truth. To her credit, she did all the same. “Dreepy,” she sighed.

“Good,” I said, glad that she was being honest. This was an important time for her -- it set the stage of when she would become a powerhouse. To that end, I hoped her evolution was a little ways off -- there was a lot of ground to cover before then.

“I can’t tell if I want to battle you before you teach them all of that or after, just to see what it’s like,” Marnie observed from her position around the campfire. Her pokemon were out, and I saw them looking on with some interest. “The Protect -- how’d you come up with that?”

Shamelessly stealing ideas from other forms of media. “I’m lazy at heart, so I’m good at spotting ways of how to make things easier,” I answered, looking to Mankey who was already meditating. His legs were crossed, his hands were in his lap, and his eyes were closed. He took deep, even, breaths and let them out slowly. Out of everyone’s progress, if I was being perfectly honest, I think I was most proud of his.

“That’s going to be trouble when he gets used to it. You’re still going to teach him how to guard, right?” Brawly asked, and I nodded.

“I could use some help there. Would you still be up for that sparring sometime? Mankey and Riolu against Tyrogue and Makuhita?” I ventured and Brawly nodded easily enough. I really hadn’t planned it out, but it shook out pretty well with Brawly traveling with me. Going to my bag, I grabbed another training ball and turned to where Mimikyu and Riolu were training. Already, Riolu was showing signs of improvement with the shape of the barrier being cleaner.

“Do all of you train your pokemon like that?” Misty asked, looking out at the clearing off the main road we were in. It was pretty active with each pokemon working on their given task. “I mean… My sisters never did, but my grandpa used to train moves with pokemon.”

Brawly shook his head as I threw the ball at the back of Riolu’s head, it bouncing off, and he whipped around only to be pegged in the back of the head by Mimikyu. I chuckled lightly as his expression twisted for a moment before a fierce look entered his gaze. With that, the two of us began throwing balls at him, increasing the difficulty a bit. “It’s not uncommon, but I wouldn’t call it common either. Back with Master Bruno, he had pokemon spar against each other. If they had trouble on defense, he put them against heavy hitters. If they were too slow, he put them against the fastest. That kind of thing.”

“Most don’t bother on the road,” Marnie supported and Misty seemed a little mollified. I was coming to understand that my approach was something unorthodox. I couldn’t say that I fully understood why, if I was being perfectly honest. Something like this felt like it was part of the job of being a trainer. Brawly had his surfing, and I hadn’t seen what Marnie or Misty did yet. It felt like the same thing, just a different approach.

“Ghost pokemon are different than normal pokemon. They get tired differently,” I said, catching the ball as it bounced off of Riolu’s barrier. I think he was cheating a little bit -- reading my emotions to tell when I was going to throw the ball. But, that was a skill worth cultivating too. Ideally, he wouldn’t be able to be surprised with his emotional detection ability. “They feed off of my energy, so long as I have plenty, they can keep going.”

Misty stilled, “... eh? Wait, you’re letting your pokemon eat your life force? Wait, what about us?”

Maybe my pokemon were rubbing off on me more than I expected because, to that, I just smiled in the darkness. “Emergency rations?”

“This was a terrible idea! What was I thinking?!” Misty cried out, clutching her head in her hands regretfully, missing the stink eye that Mankey shot her way for interrupting his meditation. Litwick found my joke funny at least, because she was cackling even as she burned the plate. It was glowing a nice shade of whitish orange -- three thousand degrees. Not bad. Still needed some work because the real Fire Type monsters of the world could create flames as hot as the surface of the sun.

Like Moltres.

Using a Legendary probably wasn’t the most reasonable standard, but it’s what we were shooting towards.

“I wouldn’t worry about it. Apparently, he has so much energy he doesn’t need to sleep, so if he ever takes a nap…” Marnie warned and I wasn’t quite sure if she was joking around or being serious. I think that might have been the point. “It’s also the reason why he can train like this.”

“I would recommend it. Next up is a minor Water Type gym, but after that, it’s an Electric Type,” I said, and I saw a worried look flicker over Misty’s face. Her gaze turned to her pokemon, all of which were in their pokeballs at her hip. I hadn’t seen what she brought yet, but I think I was about to because she offered a slow nod.

“Would you mind?” She asked and I just smiled and nodded. More the merrier, I figured. Misty released her pokemon and, to my faint surprise, I saw that she had a squirtle, a starmie, and a marill. Starmie looked familiar, but I couldn’t tell if it was actually the one that I had battled against.

I don’t think my smile was as reassuring as I hoped it would be because Misty looked like she was about to walk into hell. And, now that I think about it, I probably should have led with something other than, “Welcome to bootcamp!”

…

Halun village reminded me a great deal of the village that I had stumbled my way into nearly a month ago. A handful of buildings that were arranged around a Pokemon Center as it sat on the corner that turned Route 24 into Route 25. It’s positioning so close to Cerulean city all but guaranteed that it would never become a fully fledged town -- it was just too close. It was a pitstop, of sorts. A milestone between Maiden’s Peak and Cerulean for any that needed a soft bed rather than roughing it in the woods.

It was located right on the coast, nestled in between the large rolling hills that marked the steep cliffsides of the coast. Brawly seemed pretty disappointed when he saw it, as it wasn’t great for surfing. It was more inland, so the waves didn’t pack as much power.

“I regret everything,” Misty muttered with sunken in eyes, stumbling with the group. She hadn’t believed that I didn’t need to sleep, evidently, so she tried to match my pace. She ended up passing out in the middle of the night, long after the others went to bed. She only got about three hours of sleep and she was feeling it.

“Just wait until you see those gains. They make it all worth it,” I said, reaching up to both Mimikyu and Riolu, who rode on my shoulders. They seemed to have come to an accord as Mimikyu got to keep his shoulder while Riolu got the other. Dreepy, naturally, was riding on my head. None of my pokemon seemed to like staying in their pokeballs.

Brawly cast a glance at me, “Is that why you do it?” He asked, and based on what he told me before, that question was more loaded than he was willing to let on.

“It’s fun,” I shrugged. For me, for my pokemon -- I did see what Brawly meant when he said that Fighting Types were too willing to push themselves past their limits. It was something that I had to keep an eye on. Beyond that, it was just fun. Brawly held my gaze for a moment before he offered a nod, a relaxed smile finding its way onto his face.

We entered Halun village, going straight for the Pokemon Center to hopefully snag some rooms there. Yet another Nurse Joy operated the center, and we let Brawly book the room for the night. There didn’t seem to be much demand for space because we all managed to get our own.

However, as we were walking to the gym to register for a match, we found a barrier in our way. Or, rather, I did.

A woman stood before the small squat building that was the Halun gym. She wore a black coat that fell to her knees, dress shoes, and expensive-looking but simple jewelry. I would put her around her late teens to early twenties. Her hair was cut in a short bob, the fringe over one eye pushed back with a rose hairpin.

There was no mistaking her. I knew exactly who she was, even as she approached. Stark white hair, pale skin, and reddish amber eyes.

She came to a stop in front of us- in front of me, her expression not betraying a hint of emotion as she spoke.

“Hello, little brother.”