Chapter 66
The gloom of the cloudy morning made the normally bright, vibrant surroundings of Palkia's Woods feel dull and lifeless. The squeaks and cries of a multitude of different Pokémon still filled the air, but even those felt just as dull. The world was just going through the motions today, with no real joy behind it.
Mark did his best to ignore the depressing atmosphere as he led Cherry through the woods. Aurum would already be in his usual fishing spot and Lily and Eric would be waiting for him as well.
He had been slow to get started this morning. Partially because of handing Maple over to Kim, but there were other reasons as well. For one, it had taken some time to decide how he wanted to train Cherry. Most trainers that underwent effort training suggested training Charizard to be fast and offensively powerful. However, Cherry was a Charmander, not a Charizard, and as regrettable as it was, she would not reach that potential. If Cherry was going to evolve, she would have done it by now and Mark's plans would be different.
The little Charmander-girl was glowing with joy at how powerful she was becoming. She still had no idea that she couldn't evolve again now that she was part human. Mark would have to tell her sometime. If he didn't, she was bound to figure it out and then she might start to hate Mark for not telling her. Their relationship was shaky as it was, he couldn't lose what little trust he still had.
Still…just three days ago Cherry had been a shattered, lonely little girl. Mark had never seen her as happy as she was when they were training. He didn't want to take that away from her until he had to.
"So, what are we doing today?" she asked, bursting with happiness in spite of the gray morning, "I already beat all those Aipom. Do I get to fight a real opponent yet?"
"I don't think so," Mark shook his head, "first we need to finish your effort training."
"And then I can fight a human Pokémon, right?"
"We'll have to see what Aurum thinks," Mark waved her down.
"Alright, fine," Cherry pouted, "I'm still fighting Shinobi, right?"
"Probably," Mark shrugged. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Cherry was absolutely their best bet at beating Lily in the tournament. The fire-type girl had the type advantage that Maple lacked, but she was still young and inexperienced. Shinobi was a powerful veteran on the battlefield. As important as typing was in Pokémon battles, Mark had seen enough of them to know that experience and strategy were worth even more.
"Awesome…" Cherry grinned and rubbed her hands together.
"You're not worried?" Mark asked her. She looked like a harmless little girl, but she could also be as bloodthirsty as they come.
"Why should I be?" Cherry peered up at her newly acquired trainer, "I mean, I'm a fire-type and he's a bug-type. He'll be tough, but I can beat him."
"Well, it's not as easy as that…" Mark warned, but Cherry went right on, anyway.
"Besides, once we're done with all my training, I'll probably be a Charizard by then," Cherry clasped her hands and looked up through the trees, "and then I can fly."
Oh, no, Mark thought. Was this it? Was this the moment where he had to tell her? She just said she wanted to fly and he had to tell her that it was impossible…
No, he couldn't do it. He couldn't shatter her dreams like that. What did he have as proof that it was impossible anyway? There could still be another way. Something they hadn't thought of yet. What harm was there in hoping?
He had to let her believe. If only for just a little bit longer.
"We're almost there," Mark said, instead.
Mark had expected to hear the shouts and screams of a Pokémon battle as they reached the clearing by the lake. Instead, the air was quiet and still. There was nothing going on and only Aurum was waiting for them, as they emerged through the trees.
"Where is everyone?" Cherry asked. She and Mark were at least two hours late and the morning was halfway over. They were supposed to meet Lily and Eric here, but they were nowhere in sight.
Mark approached Aurum, half-expecting the old man to give him a fresh scolding for the day, but he didn't rise from his seat.
"Still need me for advice?" Aurum growled. He hadn't so much as flinched as Mark walked over to him. For all he knew the old man had just woken up.
"Where is everyone?" Mark repeated Cherry's question. He took another look around, as if the others might come out of hiding.
"This is everyone," Aurum sighed. He began to reel in his line. The end of his hook was bare, no fish and no bait. "Bugger…" he muttered. He opened the tackle box, laying on the ground at his right side, and set to work fitting a new worm on the end of the hook.
"Uhh…" Mark stuttered. So far, not one day training with Aurum had been routine, but this was the strangest yet. The strict old man who insisted on rigorous daily training was just as gray and depressed as the rest of the world around them. What was going on?
"Is something wrong?" Mark asked him.
"Nothing that concerns you," Aurum growled back.
Mark hadn't expected an answer and now he regretted asking in the first place. Still, he knew the old man well enough to know something wasn't right.
"Where's Katana?" he tried again, "she's usually with you, isn't she?"
"Most of them are always with me," Aurum countered in the same gruff tone.
"Fine, then," Mark gave up, "but will you at least help us? Cherry needs to finish her effort training."
"Then finish it," Aurum said as he cast out his line again, "I've already shown you how."
"You showed us how to speed train," Mark pointed out, "but I think Cherry needs stamina training the most now."
Somehow, that seemed to reach Aurum better than anything Mark had said thus far. He turned to face his pupil and the small Charmander-girl he was training.
"You're missing the Leafeon," Aurum noted.
"Yeah, I know," Mark nodded, "she'll be fine. It's Cherry that needs training."
"Alright, then…" Aurum looked at Cherry with that piercing, analytical gaze of his that only experience could give him, "stamina training you say?"
Mark nodded, "she needs it more than anything else." Mark didn't want to explain his reasoning behind it.
A Pokémon's stamina was a general term that represented how much damage a Pokémon could take before it was defeated. Another, more technical term for it, was Hit Points or Health Points. But that was an idea invented by mathematicians that analyzed Pokémon battles and tried to assign numbers to them. They claimed they could do it, but it was impossible to be one-hundred percent accurate. Attack, speed, defense and stamina were general ideas and there was no way to measure them directly. Only general trends between different kinds of Pokémon could really be observed. Nevertheless, people continued to try.
Mark wanted to raise Cherry's stamina because he knew that it was the best and easiest way to help her stay healthy in a battle. She would never possess the attack strength of a Charizard and she would always be frail compared to other human Pokémon she fought. That meant the only way she could compete and surprise her opponents would be if she could take more punishment than what they expected.
He had no clue if it would work.
"You understand that effort training can only do so much, correct?" Aurum asked him. The boy had done his homework and had learned a lot about effort training in a short time. But there was always more to learn when it came to Pokémon.
"I do," Mark nodded. Once Cherry finished her stamina training that would be the end of her effort training. From there, the best way to train her would be to have her battle stronger and stronger opponents and train like any other Pokémon or human Pokémon.
"Then get going," Aurum paused before reaching into the bag seated on his left side. He tossed a colored band to Mark, just like the Power Anklet they had used the day before. This one was even heavier than the last one.
"It's a Power Weight. Put that on your wrist," Aurum turned back to his fishing pole, "if you really want to just train in stamina, then take that and search out Bidoof."
"Bidoof?!" Cherry cried out, appalled by the day's target.
"They're the little, brown, furry things that have a face like a beaver," Aurum snapped, "yes, Bidoof! They're not a glamorous opponent, but they're everywhere around the mountain. Fifty again."
"I'll be done before lunch," Cherry muttered, taking the Power Weight and slipping it on her wrist. The weight made her feel lopsided and keeping her arm up was hard work, but she could manage it. Bidoof was only the most boring opponent she could imagine.
"Alright, thank you," Mark sighed, though he didn't feel particularly grateful after Aurum's dismissal, "we'll be back soon." He guided Cherry away from Aurum, back towards the woods.
As they went, he couldn't help but wonder where Eric and Lily were. Mark had been running late and the others could be doing the same, but there was something off about this day. Something about it bothered him.
Maple wasn't by his side, true, but was there something else? He did miss the Leafeon-girl. The two hadn't been separated from each other this long since she had evolved. Well, that was without counting what happened on the first day of the tournament. And Mark preferred not to remember that.
He had been an idiot, then. Trying to forbid Maple from doing what she loved and fighting in the tournament. He had wanted to protect her. And now he was willing to send a ten-year-old little girl into battle so he could have a shot at winning.
Everything was happening so quickly that he could hardly process it all. He had to remind himself to focus on one thing at a time.
First, he needed to train Cherry. Once she was ready, they could take on Lily in the tournament and still be decent competitors. After that, Team Deus needed to be taken care of. After that, then maybe they could figure out what in the world Suicune wanted from them. One step at a time.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Was he forgetting something? No, that couldn't be it.
"Do you think Maple's okay?" Cherry suddenly asked as they left the clearing and entered the woods once more.
"She'll be fine," Mark assured her, "she has Kim and Volt looking after her."
"And Sprinkle," Cherry pointed out.
"Right, Sprinkle…" Mark nodded. He had heard about Kim's human Vaporeon from time to time ever since they arrived at the tournament. Seeing her was something else altogether. She was unbelievably attractive. Almost to the point where it was outright overwhelming to be around her. Mark wasn't afraid of girls, but had he ever met anyone quite like Sprinkle? He doubted it.
Maple was cute and one of the prettiest girls Mark had ever seen. But next to Sprinkle? Well, there were some things that Sprinkle had that Maple didn't…
Mark shook his head. What in the hell was he thinking about? He needed to focus. They were here to train Cherry. That needed to be taken care of first.
"Is something wrong?" Cherry asked, referring to Mark's brief panic attack.
"No, I'm fine," Mark reassured her.
"Is it a headache?"
"Never mind," Mark sighed.
Maple was already in better spirits as she followed Quickstep back to the hotel. The human Mienshao pointed out buildings and shops along the way and gave her a brief little story about each of them. He would also often stop to wave hello to someone through his ridiculous sleeves or make a quick joke that Maple usually didn't understand. He was a very pleasant, cheerful person to be around.
As they neared the hotel, Maple began to wonder how Flurry was doing. Quickstep had said that she was shaken, but otherwise okay. But that didn't make much sense to Maple. Usually a trip to a Pokémon Center was all it took for a human Pokémon to recover from a fight. So, what could be wrong with Flurry that she wasn't all better yet?
And what about PureBlueSky? Maple was about to meet the strongest Pokémon trainer on the island! She could tell him what they had found in the Team Deus base! She might even be able to convince him to help them!
She had a mission again. While Mark was training Cherry, she could get PureBlueSky to help them fight Team Deus. Everything would work out. They could go back to the way things were before. Mark was going to be so proud of her!
"That's more like it," Quickstep grinned when he took notice of the smile spreading across her face. Maple hadn't noticed, but she was walking with a distinctive spring in her step.
"What's more like it?" she asked.
"Nothing," Quickstep spread his palms, beneath his sleeves, "nothing at all."
Maple rocked on her heels and swished her tail as they rode the elevator up to the very top floor of the hotel.
As soon as they stepped off, Maple realized that the rooms on this floor must be enormous. There were only four doors, two on each side of the hallway. Each one had to be at least four times the size of a normal room.
Quickstep led the way to far left door. Rather than use a keycard, he knocked briskly a few times. The boy who opened it was not PureBlueSky and was not a human Pokémon, but Maple recognized him all the same.
"Hey, Quickstep," Ian greeted casually, "who's…Maple?!"
"Hi, Ian," Maple grinned at the boy. He ran forward and hugged her, leaving Quickstep to catch the door before it locked them out.
"I missed you!" the thirteen-year-old boy cried.
"I missed you, too!" Maple echoed.
"Geez, you would think it's been years…" Quickstep smirked, though his voice lacked any sarcasm.
But, for the two of them, it felt like it had been years.
"How are you?" Maple asked, breaking off from Ian, "is Flurry here?"
"Yeah…she's here," Ian nodded, "come on in, she'll be glad to see you."
Quickstep held the door as Ian led the way into PureBlueSky's suite. The room was as big as any apartment and twice as nice. It was complete with a fully furnished living room, bathroom, kitchen, and Maple could even see a study down the hallway. A hallway! A hotel room that had a hallway!
"Maple?" the gentle voice of Flurry coming from the living room distracted Maple from looking around the room. She looked over to see the Glaceon-girl sitting up on the couch, a thin bed sheet covering her legs. Flurry had always been pale, but she looked even whiter than what she had the last time Maple had seen her.
"Flurry!" Maple exclaimed, crossing the room in just a few bounding steps. She hugged the older girl as if she were a sister.
"What are you doing here?" Flurry asked, delighted at the unexpected company.
"That'd be my handiwork," Quickstep raised a concealed hand, "the little thing was fighting a nasty-ass Houndoom and I decided to interrupt."
"Oh…alright," Flurry seemed to withdraw into herself at the mention of the dark and fire-type.
"Are you okay, Flurry?" Maple asked as gently as she could. She knelt down on the floor next to the couch, but held onto Flurry's hand. It was shaking.
"It's…it's alright," she managed to stammer out, "but I'll feel better once we find him."
"Find…him?" Maple asked. This was something she did not know.
"Please tell me that you've made sure this isn't him," a deep, melancholic voice sounded from behind Maple. She turned to see none other than PureBlueSky leaning against the wall, next to the door. He was as tall as Quickstep, though much thinner. She had seen him before, at his Round One match. He had looked thin then, but in person he looked almost frail.
"I saw her use Dig and Leaf Blade," Quickstep answered, sneering at his trainer, "I'm sure."
"Fair enough," Sky ignored the contempt in Quickstep's words and turned his attention back to Maple, "you mind telling me who you are, then?"
"Oh…" Maple shot to her feet, nearly tripping herself as she turned to face the champion, "uhh…my name's Maple…and…uhh…"
PureBlueSky blinked and waited.
"Well, the thing is…" she couldn't stop herself from what came next, "see, mytrainer'snameisMark. He'strainingCherryrightnow. Cherry's a Charmander-girl who's also oneofhishumanPokemon. We-we found herinthissecretundergroundba se that's being controlled by these evilevilpeoplecalledTeam Dias, or Deus, I think, Iforgetwhich. But they're doing reallyreallyevilstuff like experimentsandandotherstuff onhumanPokemon. They triedtokidnapme and they're allfightinginthetournament and usingreallyreallyweirdhumanP okemon and I think they're tryingtotakeovertheworld or something 'cause they seemreallyreallypowerful and they're theonesthathavebeen kidnapping other human Pokémon andandand I said that already…Oh wait! We managed toescapefromthem, but there's something bad, like, reallyreallybad downinthebasement and we only gotoutbecausetheyletus and and…and…"
The only reason she stopped was because her throat was dry and her words were starting to crack.
PureBlueSky blinked again.
"Slower, this time," he said.
AN: I was kind of avoiding using Hit Points, but it does kinda make sense that people would still try to apply numbers like that to real Pokemon.
Anyways, I have to apologize for dropping the ball on that extra chapter idea…and then failing to post a normal one…basically, just don't believe anything I say.
I have been unusually tired and depressed recently. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with how depressed all the characters are right now, but i hope not. My thanksgiving break was really good for me, though. Very relaxing. Even though I got absolutely no writing done…
I'll take another crack at getting an extra chapter done again this week. But, again, don't believe anything I tell you.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
P.S. if the chapter title reminds you of a certain song (that shall remaind nameless), it was unintentional and i simply can't think of a better chapter title at the moment.
i hate that song with a passion.