Chapter 54

"Now then," Aurum turned to Cherry where she stood behind Mark. The small Charmander-girl was too nervous to hide it any longer. Her lower lip quivered slightly as she stared at him. She had seen many powerful trainers while she awaited Master Vince's return in the Team Deus prison, but none came close to this grouchy, old man. He commanded six obscenely powerful human Pokémon. She couldn't possibly be capable of training underneath him.

Mark looked back at her and began to wonder if it was too late to forget the whole thing. Cherry had agreed to fight and train, but she was clearly terrified. She looked far too much like the scared, lonely little girl that had cried into his shirt when he had rescued her.

"Cherry," he began, gently, "you don't have to do this if you don't want to."

But then, the moment passed.

Cherry swallowed and managed to compose herself. She had been weak again and Mark had seen it. She had thought that was all behind her, but she had slipped all over again. She had to remind herself that she had been through worse than this already. If anyone could stand up to this, she could.

"I'm fine," Cherry snapped at Mark, using her anger to hide her weakness, "I said I could do this and I'm going to do it."

After that, Mark had no choice, "okay…" he sighed.

Aurum came up to them and looked between the teenage boy and his newest human Pokémon companion, studying the girl. There were always signs to indicate how powerful a Pokémon was, and human Pokémon were no different. Sometimes they even showed the same signs. It was that way with the Charmander-girl. The flame on the tip of her tail was a small one. This girl had a long, hard road ahead of her.

"What do you know?" Aurum asked, bypassing her trainer.

"Not much…" Cherry looked at the ground so she didn't have to meet Aurum's piercing gaze.

"Show me," he commanded.

"Okay…" Cherry turned around in order to aim her attacks away from the humans, "let's see…there's this…" Cherry flexed her hand and in an instant it became covered with orange-red scales with the fingers tipped in gleaming claws. She swiped through the air a few times, striking at an invisible foe. Sadly, the movements were slow and had very little power behind each one.

Scratch, Mark thought. One of the most basic Pokémon abilities in existence.

"And this…" Cherry's hand returned to normal as she picked a new attack. She cleared her throat and let out a loud snarl.

Growl, Mark thought with growing apprehension. The sound was hardly menacing coming from the little girl.

"Ooo! This is my favorite!" Cherry squeaked with delight before showing her third attack. She drew in a deep breath and exhaled, spewing a small barrage of tiny flames through the air. After they traveled about twenty yards, each one began to flicker and fade.

Ember, Mark bit his lip. It was just as he feared. Cherry had told him that she had evolved into a girl after spending just a short time with her first trainer. She knew only the most basic of a Charmander's abilities. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"Is that everything?" Mark asked, hoping for more.

"Well…" Cherry dropped her gaze to the ground again, "there is one more…but Master Vince said I shouldn't show it to anyone," she paused, "I'm not supposed to know it."

"Cherry," Mark bent forward, "if there's anything that can help, we need you to tell us."

Cherry bit her lip as she thought about it. Even after she had been abandoned by Master Vince and rescued by Mark, she was still reluctant to reveal this. It was a secret that she had only shared with Master Vince. If she showed it to Mark…

But Master Vince wasn't coming back. She had evolved for him and he had abandoned her just as quickly. The truth of it still hurt. She wanted to bury that hurt somewhere deep inside herself and forget it was there. Her first trainer…gone…

"Okay…" Cherry nodded, "I'll show you."

She did not turn around this time. She closed her eyes, remembering the secret ability. She shouldn't know it and had only used it a handful of times for fear of discovery.

She moved her right foot back as she readied herself. And then, quickly kicking her leg back up, she leapt a foot into the air, spinning in a tight spiral. She bounced up and down twice before stopping.

"That's it," Cherry shrugged, "it's not much…"

"Dragon Dance," Mark recognized the ability. Much like Maple's Swords Dance, Dragon Dance was more of a ritual than an attack. Many dragon Pokémon used it. It enhanced both the attack power and speed of the user. In the right hands, it could be devastating.

But Charmander did not learn it through training. It was an ability that many called an Egg Move, which meant Cherry had been born knowing it. Cherry's father had been a dragon-type. No wonder she thought that she wasn't supposed to know it.

"Thank you, Cherry," Mark smiled at her, "that was very helpful." He reached down and ruffled her bright red hair. Half-frowning, the girl rolled her eyes and tried to smooth it back again.

"But could you do me a favor?" Mark continued, smirking, "don't show that to Lily."

Cherry grinned evilly, sensing Mark's intentions, "absolutely." If they could train Cherry enough, then she would become his best chance of defeating Lily in Round Two. She could already safely predict most of what Cherry was capable of, but Dragon Dance could be the extra edge they needed.

Scratch, Growl, Ember and Dragon Dance. It was not an impressive move set, but it was the best that Cherry had. Now there was nothing left to do but train.

"So, what now?" Mark asked, "I guess we teach her the Red State?"

"No," Aurum shook his head, "she's too young to use it."

"What?"

"You heard me," Aurum snapped, "she's too young. Human Pokémon need to be at least thirteen or fourteen to be able to use the Red State."

Mark stared at Aurum, bewildered by this new information. But he had learned better than to ask why. Aurum would not answer him if he did and it was entirely possible that even Aurum did not know the reason. Besides, he still had a tight grip on his fishing pole.

"And don't think I'm teaching your friends to use it, either," Aurum continued in the same grouchy tone, "It's far too dangerous to teach to everyone. I only did it so you would have a chance."

"Alright…" Mark agreed. He did not argue with that point. It was clearly a dangerous ability to use. He had seen that first-hand. And the more he learned about it, the more he realized that they didn't really know anything about it.

And whenever Maple used it, he had to wonder what it was doing to her.

"First, offensive training," Aurum dropped the subject and moved on, "Nails!"

Aurum's Ferrothorn-knight, newly healed, began to stomp his way over to them. Cherry began to feel the cold grip of terror around her again as he marched towards her. Even with an overwhelming type advantage against the steel and grass Ferrothorn, the difference in power was enormous. It would be like trying to burn down a redwood with a candle.

But Aurum was undeterred, "start using Ember. This is going to take a while."

Cherry groaned as Aurum and Mark backed away to leave her alone against the immovable Nails. She drew in a deep breath and sprayed the small sparks of flame at the armor encased knight, but after the first attack, his armor was not even singed. Nails never reacted. At least he's not going to fight back, Cherry thought. But it was little consolation.

She hit him with attack after attack, slowly trying to burn her way through the thick armor. Each blast appeared to have little or no effect on Nails, but she kept trying anyway. Even if all she could do was chip away at him, it was better than nothing.

As Cherry continued attacking, Maple edged her way around to stand near Mark. She watched her new little sister, near sick with worry. Cherry's training was very different from what her own had been. It was hard to tell whether Aurum was being kinder or harsher.

"Umm…hi," Maple said, timidly, to Mark. Suddenly, it felt hard to talk to him.

"Hi," Mark nodded, but his attention was fixed on Cherry. He was rubbing his chin and biting his lip, just as nervous as the rest of them.

"Umm…can we…talk, I guess?" she tried, again.

"Can it wait?" he asked.

"Umm…I think so," Maple nodded, though her long ears drooped forward ever so slightly.

Panting from the effort, Cherry finally noticed progress after her tenth spray of Ember. It was impossible to read Nails through the restricting spiked helm around his head, but there was no mistaking the burns that were showing up on his armor. His chest plate was slowly turning black and she had managed to hit a weak spot in his armor, just below the shoulder-joint.

She began to pour more effort into it. There was still hope. She was not so weak that she could not defeat an opponent that did not fight back.

Heedless of the tiny flames of Ember in the air, Aurum began to circle the Charmander-girl and her living dummy target. He inspected Nails' armor as closely as he could. The damage was so slight; it was difficult to tell the difference between attacks. However, Aurum knew his Pokémon better than anyone and Nails was clearly in pain.

"Stop," when it felt like Cherry could not fire another attack, Aurum raised his hand. She sank back onto the ground, winded and exhausted. It had taken twenty-two attacks and nearly fifteen minutes of constantly spraying Ember, but, at last, Nails dropped to one knee and Cherry was the victor.

Aurum bent forward to offer Nails a Hyper Potion. The knight flipped open his visor just enough to drink the blue liquid. Then, without a word, he flipped it shut again and rose back to his full height.

Grinning with relief, the Charmander-girl collapsed onto the ground, laughing and swishing her tail. But then a strange realization came to her. She couldn't explain it, but suddenly something clicked in her mind. She rose to her feet and Aurum backed away, sensing what was coming. The rest of the group stared at her, wondering what she was up to.

Cherry took another deep breath, but this time, instead of blowing flames out of her mouth, a thick, black smoke began to spread in a cloud around them. It spread out to encompass the entire group, with the onlookers shutting their eyes against the thick, stinging smoke. She grinned as she realized that the Smokescreen did not seem to hurt her eyes as it did those around her. She liked this new trick.

But it wasn't the only one she had learned. After the smoke began to dissipate, she drew in another breath and exhaled a stream of strangely colored bright blue flames. Even stranger, the flames did not seem to be emitting any heat. Nevertheless, if she wanted it, the flames of Dragon Rage were hers to use.

Mark walked forward and messed up her hair in his big brother fashion, again. This time, Cherry didn't mind the odd show of affection. She had earned it this time.

"Smokescreen and Dragon Rage," Mark grinned at her, "good job."

"Thanks," she grinned back, but then a sharp pain stabbed at her head, "owowowowowowow!" Cherry clutched her head, dropping down to her knees.

"It's okay, it's okay," Mark bent down and tried to soothe her, "I know what's happening. You're trying to remember too much."

"But why does it hurt?" Cherry cried out, gritting her teeth to try and make the pain stop.

"It's okay," Mark continued, "Cherry, listen to me. You need to forget about Growl, you don't need it anymore."

"Okay, okay," she had no idea how it happened, but her head was starting to feel better.

"And…" Mark had to think for a moment, "I want you to forget Dragon Rage. It's not important."

"Really?" Cherry did not want to say goodbye to those pretty blue flames so soon after learning it, but sweet Arceus, her head felt like one of Nails' spikes was jammed inside!

"I'm sure," Mark nodded, "just let it go." Mark wasn't sure. Dragon Rage was an odd attack that always dealt a fixed amount of damage to an opponent. If she were going to fight opponents like Nails, an ability like that might actually help.

"Okay, okay," Cherry nodded and her head began to feel loads better as the knowledge of Dragon Rage felt like it was leaking out of her overstuffed brain. She could breathe easier now that the spike was gone from her head.

Scratch, Smokescreen, Ember and Dragon Dance, Mark thought. Four abilities was the limit. Four techniques, whether they were for attack, defense or support, a Pokémon could only safely remember four. It was up to the trainer to decide which ones were the best.

Cherry did not have many strong options, but she was still learning. It would be a long time before she could replace Scratch with the more powerful Slash and Ember became a Flamethrower. Time and training, and they were short on both.

"Move," Aurum told Mark. He said it in a tone that left no room for argument and Mark quickly dashed away.

"It seems your offense is better than I expected," the old man nodded, but Cherry wasn't sure if he was praising her or not, "next is defense." Then, without warning, "Power Whip."

From her spot on the ground, Cherry began to shake so badly that she couldn't move. Nails' vine-extensions spun round and round over his head. Cherry watched them, near mesmerized as the individual vines blended together into a whistling green circle.

He's going to hit me, she thought. It was just enough to get her moving, but when the whip came down, she was a moment too late.

There was a loud crack as Cherry felt her tail break. The blow had caught her halfway down the length of her orange-red tail. The lower half of it hung limp and useless behind her, flopping here and there.

She stared at it in horror, not really understanding what had happened. Then the shock wore off and the pain flooded through her.

"My tail!" she whimpered, clutching the broken thing. The top half of it throbbed while she could feel nothing at all in the bottom half. Then Maple was with her, holding her close and stroking her hair.

"It hurts! It hurts! IT HURTS!" Cherry called out, clutching tightly to Maple's dress while her tail flopped lifelessly onto the grass.

The next thing she knew, cold glass was being pressed against her lips and she was drinking something that tasted awful. Maple was telling her it would be all better soon, all she needed to do was drink the medicine and it would stop. Everything was okay.

An eternity later, she felt the sickening sensation of her tailbones going back together. A pricking touched the scales of her tail as the feeling returned. She flicked the flaming end of it a few times and smiled, giddy with relief.

Mark was sitting next to her, his face as the color of milk. The empty bottle of medicine was in his hand. She realized that he must have snatched it away from Aurum when she fell to the ground.

"I've warned you, before," Aurum stood over the three of them, "if you don't keep up, I will leave you behind," he shook his head before continuing, "but you do have potential. If you can accept the pain, then I will continue to train you."

Cherry looked up at him, past Maple's big eyes, grown wide with worry. Her tail still throbbed, but it was fading quickly. She had never been in so much pain her entire life. What had that accomplished? The old man broke her tail and for what? Just to teach her what pain felt like?

But even still, she felt as though she had been through worse. Heartbreak and solitude weren't physical pain like that was, but they hurt worse. The pain from her broken tail was almost gone and already she couldn't remember what it felt like when it had first hit her. But if she thought about Master Vince, the hole was still there, just as fresh as if he had abandoned her yesterday.

Would that ever go away? The small Charmander-girl had no way of knowing.

She put on a brave face before answering Aurum, her broken tail was nothing compared to the hurt that Master Vince had inflicted.

"Is that the best you can do?" Cherry grinned.

AN: man, I'm mean…she's only ten…

You gotta love the rapid-leveling, though. I wish I could throw a level 8 against a level 80 that won't fight back. She probably should've gained more levels to be honest. And for those keeping score, that DOES mean that she's passed where she's supposed to evolve into a Charmeleon. Mark just hasn't realized it yet…maybe next time.

Speaking of next time, we are coming up on the one-year anniversary of the start of The Children of Jirachi! (Saturday, the 23rd, to be specific). It's come a VERY long way in that time-span, though I honestly thought it would be further along. At the very least, I expected Round One to be over.

So, I was going to post another Mewtwo chapter, but sadly the story isn't REALLY at a good stopping point to do that. I know I'm teasing you now, but it has to wait until Round One is over.

Incidentally, Round One will be by FAR the longest section of the tournament. The way I have it planned, there's only two days between Round Four and the Finals. They're a hectic two days, but at least there won't be 50 chapters devoted to a single round.

Anyways, back to the subject at hand.

I still want to do something special for the one-year anniversary and I think a small one-shot set a few months before The Children of Jirachi is what we need.

So, I have a few ideas of what I'd like to do, but I also feel like taking requests. Audino is already under consideration, though I think he'll be passing Wish to allies rather than using Fire F-ing Blast…but that's just because I like to stay loyal to my metagaming roots

Pokemon, moves, battle strategies, game mechanics, character types, all of these are up for grabs. I can't promise I can include all requests in one story, but it could be a fun challenge to see just how many I can do…

This could be bad, but you know what? I'm gonna do it, anyway!

So, yeah, that's the longest AN in a while…let me know what you think and I'll get cracking!

Thanks for reading!