Ghastly Adventures: Cascade 2.2 (ch. 8) (Patreon)

“You boys did a good thing today, but I hope you understand how foolish it was,” a grizzled man said, his arms crossed. There were scars up his arms-- cuts, burns, and Lichtenberg scarring. He was heavily built like a strongman, with a bushy beard and a wide brimmed hat. A Ranger -- if Officer Jenny policed the cities, the Rangers policed the wild territories. From rampaging pokemon, to criminal trainers, to natural disasters. All of it fell under their umbrella.

“Team Rocket is an organization without scruples. We'll be leaving your names out of the report, but I want you to understand the danger you've put yourselves in. You should have called for help,” Ranger Wayne continued his lecture while Mimikyu was placing a bandaid over the stitches on my eyebrow.

“Are the pokemon going to be okay?” I accepted the lecture and the bandaid. I knew it was dumb going into it. Still, it felt nice to get back at Team Rocket.

I saw a crack in Ranger Wayne's persona by his lips twitching into a smile before he suppressed it. “They'll be fine with some time to heal. For now, they'll go to a reservation for abused and stolen pokemon where we'll sort them out. If we find any matches, we'll return them to their owners.”

That was reassuring to hear. “There was a mankey with them. He was a wild guy. I… don't really see him settling well at a reservation. Do you think I can see if he wants to come with me?” I asked, making Ranger Wayne’s eyebrow cock upward, inclining his head to my injuries. “He was just scared.

Ranger Wayne stopped fighting the smile, “You can ask, but it's up to him. You got a good heart kid. Just try to use your brain a little more,” he requested before tipping his hat to me. He started to turn away before he glanced my way, “There's no official reward for capturing members of Team Rocket, but we Rangers have an under the table arrangement. You can expect something in your account.”

Awesome. Stitches aside, today was a pretty solid day. I messed up some members of Team Rocket. I rescued some pokemon. I was getting paid, and to top it all off, I got my hands on a fossil. Because finders keepers was a legitimate law in the world of Pokemon.

Rubbing Mimikyu’s head, I got off the rock I sat on. The members of Team Rocket were being processed and treated, and I saw that one of them was glaring my way. I flipped him off before heading to where the pokemon were being sorted. There was something of a hope for me -- my pokemon had been stolen by Team Rocket. I hadn’t known them, but they had known me.

It didn't feel right. Were they hoping that I would find them? Free them? Maybe they would be among the pile of pokeballs. I honestly doubted that I would ever know -- the pokemon that I had were simply too common.

I was given the mankey pokeball where I walked off some distance, out of sight from the camp at the mouth of the mountain. On the other side of it, thankfully, which saved us a two week trip that everyone behind us would have to trek through because of the onix that were resetting. So, they were stuck taking the long way or waiting in Pewter city.

Finding a quiet spot, I opened my pack and took out some berries. setting them up, I released the mankey before me. He appeared, still battered but conscious. His guard was all the way up, every hair standing on end like a cat as he hissed at me.

“Mankey! Key!” He hissed, his black eyes narrowing into slits.

“The man that had you has been arrested. He'll be punished,” I began, and mankey stilled.

“Mankey?” It was less clear what he was asking, I couldn't quite ‘hear’ it like I did with Ghost pokemon. I caught the gist of it.

“I'm not with them,” I reassured Mankey. “They're my enemy. I think we might have that in common,” I said, and Mankey's eyes narrowed further. “You didn't seem to be happy with that trainer. May I ask how you ended up with him?”

Mankey didn't really have a face. Just a flat nose and eyes, the rest in light fur. However, I was stunned to see the breadth of emotion Mankey could convey. Tears started to well up in his eyes before he furiously blinked them away. “Mankey,” he spat at me, his hands curling into fists.

His trainer wouldn't be asking for him back.

“Want to know a little secret?” I asked him, tugging down my shirt to show the scar on my chest. I got used to it. It helped that I saw all of one mirror the past week and a half. “Team Rocket killed me too. They stole my pokemon, like they did with your trainer. If it wasn't for Mimikyu here, I wouldn't be alive today.” I explained and the disbelief washed away when Mimikyu supported my story with a ‘Kukuu.’ Mankey’s gaze was drawn to the scar on my heart.

“Mankey?”

“If I'm alive, then it could be possible. And if he is alive, I'll do everything in my power to reunite you two. I promise,” I told him, but the cold truth of it couldn't go ignored. The only thing crueler than no hope was false hope. “But I'm something of a special case. If I can't reunite you, then I want to offer you something. I want to offer you revenge.”

Mankey went still, not taking so much as a breath, waiting for me to continue. “Team Rocket is my enemy. They killed me and took my pokemon. I won't ask what they did to you during your stay with them, but I know you only attacked me to protect yourself.” I reassured him when his gaze flickered to the stitches and bandaid over my eye. “You don't have to accept. You can refuse, and you can go with the other pokemon to the reservation. Or I can release you here. Or I can help you find a mankey pack. You have choices.”

“... Mankey?” he questioned and I gave him a serious look.

“We’ll work together to stop Team Rocket. I'll train you to the best of my ability to make you strong enough to take your revenge. I'll teach you how to harness your rage. It won't be easy. It'll be hard on both of us in ways I don't think we really understand yet, but I promise you, I won't give up unless you do,” I continued, holding his pokeball in my palm. “What do you say?”

Mankey didn't think about it. His choice was made before even made the offer.

“Mankey,” he growled before he nodded.

And just like that, I gained my fourth pokemon.

…

The entire raid showed my inexperience. Things went well. I was the only one that took any lumps but when I looked back on the entire thing, I saw nothing but mistakes starting from the moment that I jumped down. I could have used Poltergeist to rip away Team Rocket’s pokeballs. I should have had Mimikyu use Mean Look. I should have had Phantump pick out targets to snipe.

I didn't. I simply hadn't thought of it at the time, and that was the issue.

“Alright team,” I said as we set up camp for the day. “Today marks a new day. We gained a new member… and from now on, our training is going to change up a bit. We're a day from Cerulean City, and that means another gym battle. It should be a tough battle for us.” Or, rather, Misty should be. Water types were a weakness for Litwick, but that was a relatively minor concern.

I had a gym badge now. That meant that every subsequent gym battle was going to be tougher and tougher. I stepped on Team Rockets' toes, and they wouldn't take it easy on me to begin with.

“Up until this point, I've only been training one aspect of your abilities -- Accuracy and Attack. That changes now. We're going to be putting our noses to the grinder. Mimikyu, Phantump, and Litwick -- I want you three to team up. Phantump, you'll be trying to hit Mimikyu with a seed. Mimikyu, I want you to dodge them.” I needed to be a better trainer.

I needed to give them more tools to use. Pokemon stats were broken up into: Health, Attack, Sp. Attack, Defense, Sp. Defense, and Speed. But that was just a game. There was more to it. I needed to give them better reaction times. Moves to use when they find themselves in a situation. Stronger and more varied attacks.

AJ’s gym was something of an inspiration. I didn't have it in me to whip my pokemon, but the core idea was sound -- to aggressively train a pokemon’s strengths while training out their weaknesses.

“Litwick -- I want you to train your Poltergeist. It's your strongest move, and I want to make it better. Gather up as many leaves as you can control and I want you to send them at Phantump and Mimikyu. Phantump, you'll be dodge training too but a little differently. I want you to phase and let them fly through you,” I instructed. This one was something of a gamble, but I was almost certain that it was possible.

Phantom Force proved that it was possible. Now that I had a little more experience with battling, I saw that Mimikyu was a rarer case -- probably due to his cloth, and his unique circumstances. Normal and Fighting Type attacks, from what I had seen so far, couldn’t hit Phantump. But Phantom Force proved that it was possible to take that a step further because the first stage of Phantom Force prevented the pokemon from being struck. Period.

I wanted to take that aspect of Phantom Force and make it the baseline.

“Mimikyu, I want you to use Shadow Sneak on the leaves.” It was going to be the start of a long road, but at mastery, the only way Phantump could be touched is if he allowed it. Likewise, Shadow Sneak would become more reactive and faster. It would also help Mimikyu identify safe zones to avoid an attack.

I wanted to flesh out Litwick’s move set a bit. Give her more fire type moves, but they would be of limited use in a water gym. They could come after. For now, we needed to train her strengths.

Then my gaze settled on Mankey, who watched me warily. “Mankey, we’ll be training with Brawly. He has a lot more experience training fighting types than I do.” Off to the side, Brawly was speaking to his pokemon in a similar manner.

Mankey narrowed his eyes at me. “Mankey?”

I nodded, “I'll be training too. As of right now, I'm the weakest link on this team. I'm your trainer -- it's my job to make sure you have all the tools that you need to win any battle you face. I've failed in that regard. We’ve never lost, but that says more about our opponents. I won't ask that you do anything that I'm not willing to do myself, so from here on out, it's aggressive self improvement for all of us.” I told them and I could see that I gained a little respect from Mankey for the little speech.

With that, three of my pokemon broke off. Litwick gathered up fifty leaves with Poltergeist, and she seemed less than happy when I instructed her to pick up ten more. She began flinging them at the two pokemon and their training began in earnest. Around the same time, Brawly broke out of his pow-wow with his pokemon.

“Mankey will be training with Tyrogue,” Brawly said as he took out his pokedex and scanned Mankey.

‘Mankey: An agile pokemon that lives in trees. They are prone to anger and will not hesitate to attack when thrown into a rage. This pokemon knows: Fury Swipes, Take Down, and Focus Energy.’

“He's on the younger side, but that's a solid move set. A good foundation to build off of,” Brawly praised. That must have come from Mankey's previous trainer. “Ready?” He asked me as we took up positions across from one another. Tyrogue stepped forward, and he seemed to be a serious little guy because his expression was one you'd expect to see on a man facing a war. “Tyrogue, use Low Kick!”

“Mankey-” I began but Mankey immediately saw red.

“MANKEY!” Mankey roared, breaking into a blind sprint at Tyrogue. Tyrogue put his hands up, his head bobbing underneath the first scratch at him.

“Chop!” Brawly seized the opportunity and Mankey caught the Chop in the ribs, knocking him flying. He rolled to his feet and continued the attack.

It was the same as it had been with me and I saw Brawly flick me a worried look. “Mankey! Fall back now!” My call went ignored as Mankry continued the attack, lost in his rage. “Return!” I said, holding up his pokeball and he vanished in a flash of red light. “Sorry,” I told Brawly but he waved me off.

“Abused pokemon are difficult to control, Blair. Once that trust has been lost in humans, it's hard to get it back. It doesn't help that mankey's are known for their anger issues,” Brawly told me, reaching down and patting Tyrogue’s head. “He agreed to come with you, but you need to find a way to get through to him.” Brawly sounded serious and I nodded.

“I'm pretty sure Team Rocket trained that response into him. I didn't hear any moves called, so I think Mankey was released as a distraction,” I muttered. A heat seeking rage missile that would head straight to the trainers to interfere with our ability to call commands. Brawly grimaced, agreeing with me.

Holding out the ball, I released Mankey and the moment he appeared, he was livid. “Mankey! Key! Key key key!” He stomped a foot, waving his arms around, pissed to all hell and seemed one sudden move away from throwing himself at me.

“Mankey, Focus Energy,” I told him, making his eyes narrow. He growled at me before he closed his eyes for a moment, taking in a slow deep breath, before he opened them. “Have you calmed down?” I asked him, taking a knee and I saw that the question was about to set him off. “Focus Energy.” That pissed him off and he began stomping again.

“Mankey, stop, taking a breath, and Focus Energy. This is part of your training,” I told him, my voice stern. I could tell that he didn't get it but, after holding my gaze for a moment, he nodded. He couldn't be lost in his rage and focus at the same time. “Right now, your biggest weakness is your anger. You don't have any control over it. It's too intense for you. I told you part of your training is harnessing your rage and this is that part.” I could tell that the criticism was getting to him, and the only thing stopping him from flying off the handle was spite to not prove my point.

“From now on, I want you to Focus Energy. Always. Every second of every day until you can do it in your sleep. Focusing Energy is going to be your natural state of being and every time it slips because of your anger, I want you to take a breath and reflect on what made you so angry. I want you to understand your anger. That way, one day, you can control it and it won't control you.”

The words reached him. I didn't really expect them to, but there was a yearning there. I don't think Mankey liked being so angry.

“Mankey?” He questioned and I gave him a soft smile.

“I'll show you -- it's called meditation,” I told him, going to reach out to pat his head, only to stop when I saw him start to shy away. He didn't like being touched. My jaw clenched and my smile grew, “Maybe we can help each other in that regard. I have some anger issues of my own to work out,” I admitted.

I returned Mankey to his pokeball and Brawly patted me on the back. “That went as well as it could have,” he reassured me. “The next step is up to him. I think a few sparring matches with Tyrogue will help him out too. It'll show him that battling is more than just extreme violence and channel his aggression in a healthy way.”

A sigh escaped me, “I hope so.” I was committed to helping Mankey, but I was a little worried. Litwick had a type disadvantage against the next gym, and Mankey had a long road ahead of him.

Brawly gestured for me to get up, “Come on. If you're serious about training with them, then I have a few tips that I could show you.”

“Thanks, Brawly. For everything,” I told him and I had a lot more to thank him for than just giving advice. He probably saved my life when he stopped me from jumping down to confront Team Rocket without a plan.

“Don't even mention it. It's what friends are for.”

…

The very first thing Brawly did when we arrived in Curelan city was to buy a couple of surfboards and run full tilt to the beach. Didn't bother checking in at the Pokemon Center, nor did he bother registering for the Gym battle. Which left me to take care of it. Thankfully, the Pokemon Center had a few free rooms available which I snagged. The Gym battle, however, was something of an issue.

“A five day wait, huh?” I muttered, looking at the nearest opening for me and Brawly. The Sensational Sisters, as they were called, had a very different battle schedule in comparison to Brock. Brock dealt with ten battles a day while the Sensational Sisters did three. And each battle was more of a show. They were pretty popular with the general public, but I had heard some grumbling back in the Pokemon Center about them.

They didn't take battles seriously was the sentiment that I heard, and given how they tried to give Ash the Cascade badge… it seemed like they were still putting in some effort and hadn't quite pivoted into pure showbiz yet, but they had one foot in the door.

“Is there an issue?” The secretary questioned and I broke out of my thoughts.

“Oh, none. Just thinking,” I said, putting us both down for a match in five days. They had been working through the backlog of trainers that started in Cerulean city at the moment. Pewter city didn't have to be the first, but it was the most common. The only places that you couldn't challenge your home city gym first was Saffron and Viridian. Sabrina and Giovanni -- Sabrina wouldn't face anyone with fewer than four badges and Giovanni wouldn't with fewer than seven.

Passing the clipboard back, the secretary wished me well as I left the building. We had five days to get prepared -- training, scoping them out, everything. To that end, I headed back to the Pokemon Center and got on one of the terminals. There were a few things that I needed to look up.

First things first was Cinnabar Island -- the lab there should have a scientist that could resurrect fossils. Looking it up, I found a number of research papers, some people raising a stink about the moral implications and the environment. However, what I hadn't found were any announcements that the technology worked, so I might be a little too early for it. Which sucked. A whole lot.

I wanted a tyrunt. I didn't have any real reason beyond that -- it was a T-rex pokemon. It was just cool.

“Cinnabar Island is the eighth badge. So, I guess I'll just hold onto it until then,” I sighed, a little disappointed. Even if I could bring Tyrunt back from extinction, I wasn't equipped to handle it. Which led me to tackling my next issue -- stabling rights.

It took some special allowances for someone's trainer limit to go over six -- a particularly valorous deed, a recommendation, or a number of years of training in addition to an evaluation. Valorous deeds were in the cards, but for now, I had to make other plans. I had to find a stable for my additional pokemon that wouldn't break my bank in upkeep.

With a little searching, I found a possibility.

It was a small village between Cerulean and Vermilion. In the anime, there was a girl named Melanie, who ran a small pokemon sanctuary for abandoned pokemon. It was where Ash picked up his bulbasaur. There was no mention of it online, and that was because it was a secret. A small village, way out of the way… it was as close to perfect as I could hope.

My hope was that I could make a deal with Melanie -- I helped protect the sanctuary in exchange for stable rights. There wasn't any documentation that needed ratifying, so it wouldn't compromise her secrecy. It was a good deal. And maybe, when the ball started rolling, it could become an official sanctuary. That was in the future, though. And I didn't even know if it existed yet.

I just took some snapshots of maps with landmarks that could be it -- a cliff side and a rope bridge, a river underneath and somewhere down river there was the sanctuary.

The last bits were confirming some things -- the storm around Dragonite Island. The island of the Crystal Onix. Pricing some things I would need in the near future, and so on.

I was also pleased to learn that the Rangers had deposited five thousand into our accounts.

Shove all of my findings into my bag, I got up as Mimikyu popped out of his pokeball. I rubbed his head, “Yup. Work is done. Let's go find Brawly on the beach.” I said, thinking that I was going to need some swim trunks. I had never gone surfing before, so I might as well try it out while I have the chance. So, I got changed from my usual attire and put on some bargain bin swim trunks, a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt, and a pair of flip flops.

“Kukukku,” Mimikyu cackled in excitement as we made our way to the beach.

“Huh? You've never seen the ocean before?” I asked him, starting to raise an eyebrow but the stitches stopped me. That was a little surprising. We hadn't been that far from it when we met. Not to mention that Mimikyu had first been introduced in Aola. “Well, no time like the present. Let's go, buddy.”

Mimikyu practically vibrated in excitement as we made our way there. The entire city was built around the ocean so we didn't need to travel that far.

Brawly was exactly where I thought he would be -- in the ocean, catching some waves, as he was joined by his pokemon. There was a heavy surfer scene, plenty of beach goers. Brawly and his pokemon were simply one of many, though he did seem to be attracting some attention with his effortless surfing.

Finding a spot on the white sandy shores, I let my pokemon out of their balls and every single one of them took a moment to absorb the view. People surfing, pokemon diving in and out of the water, the sun shining brightly, and breathing in the salty air. It was a pretty different sight for a lot of them, though, I don’t think that Litwick was much of a fan.

So, I ended up helping him build a sand castle while the others went out to play in the ocean a bit. And, as it turns out, Poltergeist was useful for building sandcastles too because it wasn’t that long until our little construction project caught some attention. I was in the middle of sculpting a tower was a twig, Litwick holding the sand in place as I did so to maintain the structural integrity when someone approached.

“What a cute little pokemon! Oh, you’re that trainer from TV!” I heard someone say and I looked over to see… Misty? I blinked -- it was Misty. Reddish orange hair, a bathing suit, a belt with a few pokeballs on it. She was younger than me, but I wasn’t sure by how much. In her hands were a stack of papers and she presented one to me. “The Cerulean gym is sponsoring a tournament that’ll be held tomorrow! It’s a hundred dollar entrance fee, but if you win, then you could get a water stone!”

It took me a moment to process that I was talking to Misty before the rest of what she was saying caught up to me. “A tournament?” I echoed, taking the flier and looked at it. It reminded me of an indie band poster -- Water-Jam. Preliminaries started tomorrow with the top ten battling it out for a grand prize.

“Thanks? I’ll check it out,” I said, looking up from the flier, only to see Misty had moved on to other perspective trainers. Watching her go for a moment, a small frown tugged at my lips before I looked back down at the flier.

A tournament, huh?

It’d be a good experience if nothing else.

…

Next week Gacha God will be returning. This story is doing better than I expected, so temporarily, it'll be bi weekly with Gacha God one week then Ghastly Adventures the next. Just to help me get back in the groove of things.