Welcome to the next chapter of Holly Rising! This one has no prompt, but it's still quite important. As always, I do not own Pokémon, and see the author's notes for details.
52. Evening Chat
Kris eventually stepped back, holding a Max Revive in her hands.
Holly's eyes widened.
This golden, star shaped, item could take Pokémon, no matter how badly they were injured, and restore them to full strength as though nothing had happened.
Holly continued staring.
It was clear what Kris wanted her to do.
Anabel's eyes went wide, and she screeched.
"No, you-"
Kris gazed at Anabel darkly, and abruptly cut her off.
"Want this to be over quickly, right? Mawile is Holly's best hope against Dragon types, so reviving it is the easiest way to win."
Holly glared at Anabel.
She wasn't about listen to another angry lecture from the woman!
"Anabel, this is my journey now! And I want to continue fighting with Mawile!"
Anabel winced, but did not say anything.
So, Holly quickly released Mawile from its Poke Ball and tossed the Max Revive at her Pokémon.
She heard Trainers usually made their Pokémon swallow medicine, but for an unconscious Pokémon, that could be dangerous. Apparently, throwing it was just as good.
The Max Revive exploded in the air, pouring its medicine down on Mawile. The Pokémon twitched, then slowly opened its eyes. It looked around a bit, before cautiously getting to its feet.
Holly beamed as she glanced at her Pokémon.
"Come on, Mawile, let's go fight some more Dragon Tamers!"
Mawile let out a roar, and Holly interpreted it as a challenge.
The Dragon Tamers did too, as they hesitantly headed back to where Holly was waiting.
Holly grinned. "All right, let's battle!"
Luckily, it didn't take long to defeat the Dragon Tamers. After Mawile Mega Evolved and used Play Rough a few times, even the fiercest looking ones fell.
Before Holly knew it, the group had crossed the bridge, night had fallen, and Anabel indicated they should rest for the day.
Yet almost as soon as Holly fell asleep, a familiar voice sounded in her head.
"Holly, wake up."
Holly's eyes flew open, but she did not have to look at the person to know who was.
Mentally, she responded.
"Kris? What are you doing up?"
"Apologies for waking you, but I have one more thing to show you."
Holly clearly opened her eyes, and saw Kris staring back at her. The disabled Trainer was calmly sitting on the grass, her Delphox standing beside her.
Holly could see a shadow, and realized Anabel was in the distance.
She frowned, remembering that she had fallen asleep with Anabel close by.
Holly could hear Kris's voice in her head again.
"Don't worry. I teleported us away from Anabel. This is something I don't want her knowing about."
Holly let out a sigh of relief, smiling and nodding.
No matter what situation they were in, it felt good to get away from the woman.
Kris smiled back, and held a Poké Ball in her hands.
Holly flinched back, expecting crazy Mallory.
However, when Kris tossed the ball, a familiar Pokémon stood before Holly.
Poliwag.
Holly blinked. How was this Pokémon here? She hadn't taken it out of the box…
Holly opened her mouth to ask what was happening, but quickly shut it.
A bright white light surrounded Poliwag, and Holly looked away.
In a few minutes, the light cleared, and Poliwag was no longer familiar.
Instead, there was a blue Pokémon, with huge white gloves. The creature had black eyes, with a black swirl on its white stomach.
Poliwhirl.
Holly blinked.
How did this happen? She had not trained Poliwhirl since she put in the box!
Holly looked at Kris and realize she was grinning.
But before she could as the disabled Trainer was going on, Kris replied.
"Not done yet. Where is your King's Rock?"
Holly's eyes brightened. She may not have understood what was happening, but she understood what this meant.
"Right here!" She responded, tossing Kris the rock.
Kris quickly held up out rock to Poliwhirl, and the Pokémon delicately took in its gloved hands.
Rapidly, Kris recalled Poliwhirl, then sent it out again.
Holly wanted to ask why she had done that, but then the bright white light came a second time.
In another moment, there was a different Pokémon.
This Pokémon was green, with a green swirl on its stomach. It had a yellow stomach with yellow toes and hands. The creature also had a yellow mouth and pink cheeks. Its eyes were still black, but Holly thought she could see a tinge of brown in them.
Holly smiled again.
This was Poliwag's final evolution, Politoed.
But one question lingered in the back of her mind.
She turned to Kris, asking through thought.
"How did this happen? I never took Poliwag out of the box…"
Kris stated in a matter-of-fact voice.
"You didn't, but I did."
Holly's eyes went wide.
"You have access to my boxes, then?"
Kris nodded.
Holly clenched her fist. She had a feeling she knew who had done this, and she knew it wasn't Kris's idea.
"Is this because of Anabel's punishment?"
Kris replied in an even tone. "Partially."
Holly gritted her teeth.
How dare Anabel invade her privacy like that! She would make her pay!
Kris only continued in a steady voice.
"Even though I couldn't take over your journey, Anabel and the others gave me access to your PC."
The disabled Trainer's voice hardened.
"It was in case you wouldn't listen to me, or in the event that I wanted to handle things a bit more… directly. Needless to say, effectively hacking someone's PC left a bad taste in my mouth. So I decided to do something a little different."
Holly's eyes widened.
"Something different. You mean…"
Kris nodded.
"How else were all those Pokémon supposed to get stronger, even when you weren't battling with them?"
Holly found herself with a huge grin.
To think that Kris had been helping her all this time, and she didn't even know it!
Kris continued, her voice softening. "Even if my physical abilities are limited, I have my ways in other areas. Training all those Pokémon with no one noticing has become almost habit to me."
Holly cocked her head, wondering what Kris meant.
She suspected it had to do with all those psychics and ghosts she had. Maybe she talked to Pokémon in dreams in order to train them there. Holly heard that skilled trainers could do that, and Kris was definitely skilled… Holly had even heard someone ran an island that was a Pokémon paradise, and that the Pokémon could also become stronger there… It was unlikely Kris was using that, though, because Anabel would definitely notice if all of Holly's Pokémon suddenly disappeared onto an island…
Holly smiled again.
If Kris could train so many Pokémon without anyone noticing and even if a regular team was full…
Then maybe they actually stood a chance against Anabel!
Holly was glad that when speaking normally, because she shouted gleefully.
"You're such a powerful Trainer! And you can connect to others PCs! We can easily teach Anabel a lesson!"
Kris shook her head, and sadness entered her voice.
"As much as I would like to, I can't actually hack into someone's PC. I used to be able to, but not anymore."
Holly's face fell, and Kris must've noticed.
She tried to make her voice cheerier, but her efforts were halfhearted, as sadness crept in again.
"To be fair, I would like to teach Anabel lesson myself. I've been wanting to give her a piece of my mind for a while now. However, with what's happening recently, I doubt I'll be able to."
Holly clenched her fist.
Anabel had been doing more and more harm to them. Now she had suggested killing one of Kris's Pokémon!
Someone needed to put the woman in her place, before she hurt anyone else!
Holly's attentions were drawn away from Anabel as Kris spoke in a grave tone.
"There's something else I want to tell you."
Holly's eyes went wide, surprised by the disabled Trainer's seriousness.
"What's that?"
Kris simply replied.
"Look at your cell phone."
Holly's eyes continued to go wide as she fished around for the device. She finally found it, noticing the light was flashing.
There was something on the device that had been not there before.
Holly let out a gasp.
This was a bunch of numbers. A code.
And Holly had a feeling she knew what it was for.
Kris explained anyway.
"It's for my PC. If something happens, I want you to take care of my Pokémon. All of them. Even those who don't fight."
Holly could barely keep herself from shaking as she stated.
"Those powerful Pokémon… They won't listen to what I say… I'm just a rookie trainer…"
Kris gravely responded.
"They will if I'm not around. I asked them to, and they will follow my commands to the bitter end."
Holly couldn't help showing her shock.
She had heard stories of Pokémon like that, but this was the first time she'd actually met some.
That meant every Pokémon Kris had was completely loyal to her.
Even crazy Mallory.
Holly shut her eyes.
Did her Pokémon have the same type of loyalty? Would they follow Kris if Holly was the one in this situation?
Was the relationship between Holly and Kris like that of Kris and her Pokémon? Built on absolute loyalty to each other?
After all they'd been through, Holly wondered if it was.
Holly heard the sound of Kris's voice, and it carried a desperate air to it.
"Please, for their sake as well as mine."
Holly opened her eyes, giving a resolute nod.
"I'll do it."
Author's notes:
-So I wrote this chapter to foreshadow a future event, and also explain something in the RP. The RP uses something commonly called leaked experience. This means that whenever there is a battle scene, all party members get experience. This happens even if Pokémon are stored in boxes. Furthermore, if there is not a battle scene for a while, it's assumed that the party trains off-screen and Pokémon are leveled up anyway. This is how Poliwag is able to evolve, despite not being in Holly's party for a while.
There's not many equivalents in the games for this, and it's not given an opportunity to be mentioned in story. However, I thought I would create a chapter for it anyway, because it's important and explains a few things. What exactly Kris does to train the Pokémon will be revealed in later chapters, although there have been subtle hints to it before.
-As for the equivalents in the games, Holly refers to them in this chapter. In the Unova games, there was an online service called Dream World. Players could send up their Pokémon play mini games, but also to gain experience. Pokémon in the Dream World would gain experience even if a player wasn't playing. However, only one Pokémon could be sent to the Dream World at a time, and the service no longer functional.
-The other method of leaked experience is more recent and from the Alola games. In these games, after the player progressed to a certain point, there was an island called Poké Pelago. The player could build more and more facilities on the island, including an area for training their Pokémon. Pokémon trained in the island would continue to gain experience even if the player wasn't playing or did other things in the games. This is because the experience gained is in real-time. However, the player can only do up to 48 hours (real time) of training before they have to visit the island again in order to collect their Pokémon.
-Poliwag's evolution is portrayed the way it is because of several things. One is that it got to the level required for evolution offscreen. Another is to use the King's Rock that was gotten a few chapters earlier. Poliwag evolving twice right away has to do with the fact that Poliwhirl doesn't learn very many good moves before evolving. So I didn't see the need to keep it unevolved. The way Kris evolves Poliwhirl has to do with the criteria in the games. In the games, Poliwhirl has to be traded while holding the King's Rock. However, I thought the trade would be difficult to portray. So, since Kris is not the original Trainer, I just had giving Poliwhirl to her count as the trade.
-The Max Revive works exactly the same in the games as it does here. Holly throwing the maximum five comes from my interpretation of the games. In the games, it's never specified how the Trainer uses healing items on their Pokémon. However, in later games, it looks like they're dropping or throwing the item at the Pokémon. So I chose to use this interpretation for Mawile's healing.
