Part CXXXIV: Misty's Advice
Misty came out of the Pokémon Center and to the battlefield out back to see what the current situation was, putting away the Poke Ball she'd just transferred in as she did. It was as she had expected and in some ways arranged it. She had something that she needed to do, and it had to be done by her alone so most of the others had to be away for it.
Thankfully they were. Max and Owen had headed out to the north to look for supplies for the next leg of their journey as there were some good ingredients there for Owen's curry but as it was north it might break into the Bonnie exclusion zone around Laverre, so they had to go alone. Meanwhile May and Serena were having a two on one battle with Ash on the battlefield with their respective fairy types so that Ash got a sense of what to expect against Valerie as she'd be the first true fairy specialist he ever faced. The fact that she was the only one didn't change that.
The only one not doing anything was Bonnie and Misty knew the reason why. The day before they'd been attacked by Team Rocket in one of their most thought-out plans that had ensnared almost all of them in pitfall traps with nets in them. The only ones that were spared were Bonnie and her Litwick due to Bonnie's positioning when the trap was sprung and the fact that Litwick was in her lap at the time.
As a result, it had been up to them to save everyone. They did and Litwick evolved into Lampent in the process to beak Team Rocket. However, after they had won and freed everyone else, Lampent had gone to Bonnie's bag for the Dusk Stone she kept in there. She had intended on using it when he was ready to evolve as it was needed for Lampent to evolve a second time, but Lampent decided that he was already ready and proceeded to evolve again only minutes after his first evolution.
The problem was that Chandelure, Litwick's final form, was now too strong for Bonnie to control and wasn't listening to her. This had rocked the small girl's confidence as she was normally good with Pokémon, even getting a legendary, well part of one, on her side the year before that had ended up being critical in the end. Now all she was doing was sitting on a bench with Chandelure's Poke Ball in her lap looking at it as Dedenne and Flabébé tried to cheer her up.
Alas nothing was working, and no one really knew what to do. May and Max had never really dealt with misbehaving Pokémon while Ash was out of his depth due to Bonnie's age and gender and Owen was too inexperienced in standard training to help out. Meanwhile Serena's one disobedient Pokémon was still like that, so she hadn't figured it out yet herself.
However, Misty had seen the problem from the start and unlike the others, she'd been through something very similar as a rookie herself. She'd just needed to make a call and a transfer that morning and she had everything she needed to try and help Bonnie.
"Bonnie." Misty said quietly as she crouched down next to the girl on the bench, the younger girl jumping slightly at Misty's arrival. "Come with me, I think I can help you with your current problem."
"Huh?" Bonnie asked looking up at Misty. "You can? How?"
"I can at least tell you an experience from my past that is similar enough to yours right now." Misty said with a smile, Piplup doing the same from her head as he knew what was up. "And at least show you that this is only temporary and that in time Chandelure will return your love for him just as he did when he was a Litwick."
Bonnie just looked at the Sinnoh girl in confusion. Of all the people here, she knew Misty the least. Though she'd spent as much time with Ash as she had with Misty, May's and later Serena's blatant crushes on Misty's boyfriend had led to her learning more about Ash then Misty. That's not to say that she didn't learn about Misty as well, she knew all about her too just not as much as she knew about Ash, and she'd never really interacted with her other than to groom her Pokémon.
Still, there was something in Misty's blue eyes and the way she spoke to Bonnie that told her that the red haired girl understood in a way the others didn't. They didn't really know how to deal with Chandelure's problem and Clemont hadn't been much help as his disobedient Pokémon was more energetic and at least listened to him when there wasn't food or a lady Pokémon he fancied around. This was straight ignoring, and Bonnie wasn't sure how to deal with it. If Misty could help her then perhaps she could begin to figure out this situation.
"Ok." Bonnie said after a moment as she put Chandelure's Poke Ball away. "I'll take any advice you have for me."
"Good now come with me." Misty said holding out her hand to the rookie. "We need to go somewhere with space and it's best not to disturb these three."
Bonnie just nodded and took Misty's hand and let her lead her out of the Pokémon Center and through the village that they were still in not letting go of Misty's hand as they walked as it felt comfortable to hold it after all she'd been through. Misty had already determined the spot she wanted to go to and took Bonnie to the field to the southeast that held the berry grove for the berry picking competition from the Fire Festival. It was deserted, large enough for what Misty had to show Bonnie, and had a stone wall that they could sit on.
It didn't take them long to reach the grove and soon they were sitting on the wall as Piplup hopped off Misty's head to play in the field with Dedenne and Flabébé joining him as they could all tell that their humans needed space. Bonnie finally let go of Misty's hand and withdrew Chandelure's Poke Ball again to once more look at it morosely. It was time but Misty had to ease Bonnie into it.
"Bonnie, let me ask you something." Misty said as they settled on the wall. "How much do you know about me?"
"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked slightly confused by the question.
"What I mean is how much has May told you about me." Misty said. "You know like where I'm from, my past as a trainer and what not. Not the Ash stuff, that is between me and May though I know that you're a smart and observant girl on that front so you're well aware of how me, May, and Serena feel about him, and rest assured we're all in a good place on that front. However, what about me as a person?"
"Huh, well she's told me a bit when I asked, especially when she went to the Wallace Cup and afterwards as we saw her lose to you in the final last year." Bonnie said thinking on what she knew about Misty before she got to meet her when Ash and Misty came to Kalos. "She said that you're a coordinator, now a Top Coordinator, from the Sinnoh region with a Piplup, she mentioned him when we met some at an aquarium last year."
"Piplup, pip Piplup." Piplup said helpfully before going back to playing.
"She also said that you're a good trainer, easily May's equal." Bonnie continued. "You should have been a Top Coordinator before you became one as you lost two straight, close finals apparently but since your second time around with Ash you've really grown as a trainer in ways that May didn't expect, and I think she now believes that you're better than her though she'd never admit that out loud."
"That is all right and accurate." Misty said surprised that Bonnie knew that much. "And what of my Pokémon? What do you know of them?"
"I know that you have many Pokémon, second most to Ash, and that several don't fit your appearance or early style." Bonnie said thinking on it. "You were originally all about cuteness, grace, and elegance but in the last year or so you've branched out more for various reasons. You still have your typical ones with Ninetales and Pyroar, but you've got Pokémon no one would expect, mainly your Pinsir, Malamar, Skrelp and of course the ghost types you have in Banette and Spiritomb. I've met them all and they're all adorable, but I know that they don't really fit what one expects, especially your Spiritomb."
"All true and they are adorable." Misty said with a smile as she was led into the question that she wanted to ask. "But you're missing one and I know that May barely knows this story so you likely wouldn't have heard of it, but do you know what my first atypical Pokémon was?"
Bonnie looked at Misty for a moment and thought on that. She knew that Misty had a fair number of Pokémon, at least 15 from what she'd heard, but she hadn't met all of them. She'd met several as all Misty's Kalos ones were either on her or in Professor Sycamore's lab while several more of her Pokémon from the last few years had been sent in just in case but there were a few still in Kanto with Professor Oak.
The only ones of those that Bonnie knew about where Typhlosion as he'd come in for the Fire Festival and Togekiss due to her being the impetus for the research that led to the discovery of the sudden appearance of the fairy type. There were others though, Bonnie knew it, and apparently one of them was atypical.
"No, I don't think so." Bonnie admitted shaking her head. "Is it one of your oldest?"
"My sixth though he was my fifth on me as I traded Buizel to Ash for Aipom as they were better suited with the other due to their likes and of course as Piplup is my starter so he's my fourth capture." Misty said pulling out the Poke Ball she'd had sent in. "Why don't you meet him and see for yourself."
With that Misty opened the ball making sure that it was pointed away from her and at a large enough space. There was a burst of red light followed by a thud as over 600 pounds of Pokémon appeared before them and landed on the ground shaking it slightly.
"Mamo!" Mamoswine roared glad to be out and looking around confused at the new area he was in before seeing his human and lumbering up to her, his tusks forcing Bonnie to move to the side as she stared wide eyed at the massive Pokémon before her.
"Hey Mamoswine, been a while." Misty said patting Mamoswine's head as he nuzzled her and lent on her a bit which wasn't great given his size and weight, but she pushed through it. "Sorry I couldn't call you earlier, you're too large for the lab here but I needed your presence to help someone out. Give me a moment so that you can meet the others who are new or evolved. Later I'll make you a whole mess of special poffins just for you."
"Mamo." Mamoswine said happily before he backed up to give Misty space to let out her other Pokémon.
She did and soon Ninetales, Malamar, Pyroar, and Machamp were out as well and greeted Mamoswine. He was surprised to learn that Vulpix had evolved but was glad to meet the other new ones as they talked and moved away from Misty to give her some space, Machamp asking about Ursaring and how he was doing so Mamoswine gave him an update on that still unruly teammate of theirs.
"You're first atypical one was a Mamoswine?" Bonnie asked as the Pokémon played and chatted so that the humans could be free to do the same.
"Yup, you know the species I see." Misty said turning back to Bonnie. "Few do and most are surprised that I have one."
"We rode some last year." Bonnie said recalling the trip. "Between two of Serena's Showcases in fact so I've met them. They're rare though and I certainly wasn't expecting you to have one."
"That they are and that's got a lot to do with history and how they evolve." Misty said smiling at Mamoswine. "And that is where our similarities lie."
"Really?" Bonnie asked looking up at Misty. "Your Mamoswine evolved rapidly as well?"
"Not as rapidly as your Chandelure but pretty fast, probably held the record until Chandelure shattered it." Misty admitted. "Maybe a week at most as a Piloswine and that was when things went wrong for me."
"How so?" Bonnie asked.
"I'll start at the beginning though more for context and I'll gloss over a few things that aren't fully relevant." Misty said. "But I met Mamoswine as a wild Swinub, his first form, when we were in Sinnoh at an old man's mansion that we came across."
"Are Swinubs native to your home region?" Bonnie asked.
"No, they're considered a Johto native Pokémon though for whatever reason Mamoswine are considered native to Sinnoh, likely due to first recording if I had to guess." Misty said. "But we have Swinub in Sinnoh all the same though where we were at the time was too far south for them so how a Swinub ended up there is anyone's guess."
"I've noticed that at times Pokémon ended up where they shouldn't be or aren't expected." Bonnie said. "Run into that a few times over the last year and a half."
"Same and Swinub was one of them for us." Misty said. "He really liked food though, so he kept coming around for it from the old man's staff however when we showed up it was my poffins that he loved and was finally able to eat his fill. He couldn't get enough of them, and he ate like a Munchlax."
"That bad?" Bonnie asked, she knew May's well so she knew how gluttonous one could be.
"Not at May's level but I think that one is ravenous beyond what is normal for the species." Misty said with a chuckle. "But Swinub loved my poffins, I couldn't make them fast enough for him. Of course, as we were traveling at the time Team Rocket showed up, did their usual stuff, and took all the Pokémon and food because they do that thing all the time. Swinub helped me beat them and I decided to ask him to come with me afterwards which he agreed to, so I caught him. Back then he was cheery and happy and loved to eat."
"Sounds like a usual one for you, they're small right?" Bonnie asked.
"No bigger than a Fennekin I'd say or if so not by much." Misty said thinking back on it. "And I was really looking forward to using Swinub in a Contest. After my past failures, I decided it would be best for him to watch my next Contest to learn before participating in one himself, so he knew what to expect from them and I've pretty much stuck with that strategy since. The only exception was that Spiritomb didn't watch a Contest before being in one but he's so unexpected that he didn't really need to. As for Swinub, he watched me win the Celestic Town Contest and it looked like things were going to be good."
"But they weren't." Bonnie said seeing where this was going.
"Alas no." Misty said shaking her head. "We were out in Canalave City at the time at the far east of the Sinnoh region. Ash was there for his 6th gym badge, but the leader Byron was out on the Iron Islands to the north as he's a steel expert and an archeologist of sorts, so we had to wait for him to return so that Ash could face him. While we waited there was a fight between two legendary Pokémon from Sinnoh, Darkrai and Cresselia, well the latter is legendary I think the former is mythical but I'm not sure what the difference is there."
"May told us of how you guys ran into legendary Pokémon regularly when you traveled with Ash." Bonnie said. "I guess a bit of that rubbed off on May given our adventures last year with Squishy."
"Ash is a magnet for that stuff though for the last year and change it's been quiet, too quiet." Misty said pondering the quiet knowing that it meant that something big would come when the calm ended and deciding to not ask why Bonnie named part of a legendary Pokémon Squishy. "But yeah with Ash you meet legendaries regularly. Hell, we once met Arceus himself."
"You met the creator?" Bonnie said her eyes wide.
"Yup and the whole creation trio, his children I guess." Misty said. "A few times in fact for the creation trio, Arceus only once though. Those three are almost as scary as Arceus let me tell you but that is a long story for another day. The day in question regarding Swinub it was a Darkrai and a Cresselia going at it that we had to deal with."
"I see and I take it Team Rocket were involved somehow." Bonnie said.
"You may have only met them once but yup, back in the day they were always around." Misty said. "Seen them more this year than last but still less than usual which is good as they do get annoying to deal with. Back then it was almost daily though, and they were involved again. During the whole incident Swinub evolved into Piloswine to protect me and defeat Team Rocket."
"Ah so like Litwick into Lampent." Bonnie said.
"Pretty much and this kind of evolution is normal for us, it's how Litleo evolved into Pyroar and Ash's Goomy evolved into Sliggoo." Misty said. "And at first everything was good and Piloswine was affectionate and loving. He's a lot bigger than a Swinub, by far my biggest at the time, but I thought things were ok."
"Lampent was like that." Bonnie admitted sadly. "I wish he waited."
"Sometimes a Pokémon is ready before we know it, that was the case with Piloswine as well." Misty said. "We were still stuck in Canalave City, so we checked out an old chateau, that was where we had an adventure with a Rotom, and things were going well. However, that changed at the end of the week while we waited."
"He evolved." Bonnie guessed. "And then was disobedient."
"Oh, he was like that before he evolved." Misty said surprising Bonnie. "Yeah I decided that Piloswine would be used in my next Contest and decided to practice against Ash and his Grotle, Torterra's middle form, to see how Piloswine worked in battle as that was what I planned to use him in. That was when Piloswine just stopped listening to me and wouldn't attack unless he felt like it. I couldn't do anything, and he wouldn't listen."
"Why not?" Bonnie asked confused.
"Likely because he was too strong for me at the time." Misty said with a shrug. "I was still a rookie and a novice at the time, and I guess my inexperience hurt. That and Piloswine was already ready to evolve again. He showed that when he revealed that he had learned Ancient Power, so his evolution was imminent."
"Huh?" Bonnie asked confused.
"Sorry it's not a common evolution method outside of Sinnoh it seems as the few I know of are either classified as Sinnoh Pokémon or evolve into Sinnoh classified Pokémon." Misty said with a chuckle. "Piloswine can only evolve into Mamoswine after he learns Ancient Power. It's what's known as a move-based evolution."
"Move based evolution?" Bonnie asked.
"It's when a Pokémon can only evolve after it learns a certain move though why that is the case I don't know." Misty said. "Mamoswine is actually my second Pokémon with an evolution like that. The first was Aipom who evolved into Ambipom after she learned Double Hit and I think Brock's Bonsly evolved into a Sudowoodo after learning a move. With Piloswine the move is Ancient Power though. I think Yanma is the same move to evolve to Yanmega and Lickitung needs to know Rollout to evolve into Lickilicky but those are the only ones I know for sure. Ask Owen or Max, they'd know more I think."
"I may as that is interesting." Bonnie said before returning to the topic at hand. "So Piloswine used the move and evolved then?"
"No, it wasn't immediate for whatever reason." Misty said. "Not sure why that is the case, but it took a few hours. We fell for another Team Rocket trick that was designed to help a trainer bond more with their Pokémon and I tried it with Piloswine. We were caught but again he evolved, this time because he'd learned the move and whatever time period from using it to evolving had elapsed. It was the same with Aipom in fact, showed the move and then evolved a while later. Mamoswine beat Team Rocket but wouldn't listen, so I had to recall him. Thankfully he stayed in his Poke Ball."
"Ah so that's how you know what I'm going through." Bonnie said somehow relieved to know that Misty had experienced something similar and moved past it as she could tell that Mamoswine loved her. "How did you get through to him? It's clear you two now share a deep bond."
"Kindness, patience, and love." Misty said looking at Mamoswine with a smile. "That's all it takes."
"That I can do." Bonnie said with a nod. "I love all my Pokémon and I will show that to Chandelure every day until he's ready to trust me again."
"Get some experience as well but there is more for me, and it could help you." Misty said. "In fact, it was something similar for Ash and his Charizard or so I've heard. That's another story you should ask about for inspiration."
"What happened?" Bonnie asked curiously.
"At first Mamoswine just wouldn't listen to me." Misty said. "The only way I could get him to do anything was with poffins, he still loves mine, and he even stole a bunch a made for all of them by bowling me over and forcing them and Pikachu to catch me."
"That sounds painful." Bonnie said.
"It was." Misty agreed. "But I didn't give up on him. In the end it was circumstance and fate that helped me. Well, that and an angry Aggron."
"Max has one of those, he showed us it in his Pokedex one day when Owen asked what Pokémon Max had caught on previous adventures." Bonnie said. "That's a big, fully evolved, steel and rock type, right?"
"That it is." Misty said with a nod. "And one day as we were traveling I got separated from Ash and Brock, can't remember why but likely due to Team Rocket, and we disturbed an Aggron. Well, it's typing is weak against ground, one of Mamoswine's and it's size meant that the only Pokémon I had that could contend with it was Mamoswine, so I tried as I needed protection but, well, it failed, and we fell off a cliff."
"Come again." Bonnie said blinking at Misty.
"We fell off a cliff and the Aggron vanished for the moment." Misty said as if it was nothing. "But I dropped his Poke Ball atop the cliff, and he was injured."
"Oh, that's not good." Bonnie said.
"No, it wasn't." Misty said with a sigh. "But thanks to an incident earlier that year where our Pokémon got sick when Brock wasn't around and Ash and I were out of our depth, he taught us basic first aid to care for Pokémon when he wasn't there to do it himself."
"Yeah Owen has done that this year." Bonnie said. "Just in case."
"It's a smart thing." Misty said with a nod of approval. "And in this case it helped. Me and my other Pokémon, so Piplup, Buneary, Pachirisu and Ambipom at the time, helped heal Mamoswine as a team. Then Team Rocket showed up again and we protected him from them as well. This earned Mamoswine's respect, and he began to listen to me. With my instructions he beat the Aggron, and we all got along great."
"Really?" Bonnie asked amazed at the story. "That's all it took. I mean that's a lot and very impressive, but it came down to respect after showing kindness, love, and patience."
"Exactly." Misty said. "Of course, Mamoswine is still a bit of a rebel and has a shorter fuse then most of my Pokémon. He lost it and wouldn't listen in his debut Contest when a particularly flexible Carnivine under Jessilina's control avoided his attacks and ended up beating him because he wouldn't listen to my instructions. In fact, that was my last non finals loss in a Contest, Grand Festivals included."
"May did say that you had an impressive streak." Bonnie recalled. "It's a record isn't it?"
"18 straight finals berths." Misty said with a smile. "Though it's really only 15 straight by me but that's a whole other story regarding how I got my Togekiss from a princess. Still, it showed that Mamoswine was still a little rebellious and he can get frustrated. It took a while to find a battle partner for him for double Contest battles and that frustrated him but Cyndaquil as a fire type showed that he could do it, so they became a pair, one I continued as Cyndaquil evolved. Now though, he'll always protect me whenever I need it. He's one of my protectors along with Machamp."
"Malamar." Malamar yelled at Misty, she was a protector to.
"Malamar you're a chaperone and mother, not a protector." Misty said back to her annoying Pokémon. "Different role."
"Malamar." Malamar said with a shrug before turning back because Machamp was laughing at her, and she was going to put her rival in his place again.
"I see so it can be done." Bonnie said looking at Chandelure's Poke Ball again while Misty and her Pokémon were having their moment. "It's just something that happens to trainers as they grow."
"It can." Misty said with a nod. "If you want another example ask Ash about his Charizard, that was similar nursing back to health to show he cared for Charizard and thus earned his respect. As I said, show love, respect, and kindness and Chandelure will eventually see that. He's just too strong right now and needs see that you and he have mutual respect. Then you can bond again and he'll no doubt be a protector for you as well."
"I see, I will do that." Bonnie said before raising the Poke Ball to her eyes. "You hear that Chandelure, I will always love you and care for you no matter what. We will get through this together, I promise. I will be a trainer worthy of your respect."
With that Bonnie kissed the Poke Ball and put it away a small smile on her face. Misty smiled too at her glad that Bonnie was starting to come back to her usual self. It would take time, but Misty was sure that by the time they next saw Bonnie she'd have earned Chandelure's respect, and they could see how well the two worked together as equals.
That was for another time though. Now that Bonnie was happier and had hope for Chandelure's future it was time to properly introduce her to Mamoswine. Misty just hopped off the stone wall and turned to help Bonnie off as well.
"I know you will earn Chandelure's respect in time." Misty said to her friend. "And be patient because these things often take time. Now though, let's go meet Mamoswine, I'm sure he'd love some of your first-class grooming and he has a lot of hair to work on."
"I'd like that." Bonnie said with a smile as they headed off to meet Misty's big protector.
It would take time, but Bonnie would work every day, as would her team, to get Chandelure back to how he was. He was part of their family and family didn't turn their backs on each other.
Misty's tale and advice had helped, and Bonnie was excited to meet Mamoswine and hopeful for the future with Chandelure and all that it would entail. They all were hopeful for the future as soon they'd break apart again and continue on their respective journeys until their paths once again crossed.
