"Winner, Larry!"

I didn't even understand what happened, I realized, feeling numb as I looked down at Litwick. She was unconscious, laying in the sand, and with a trembling hand I returned her to her pokeball. Across from her was the pokemon that defeated her and, in a flash of light, it shifted back into its true form.

A ditto.

I got absolutely crushed by a ditto. Part of me wanted to say that my loss was because I couldn't use Mimikyu. I had no idea if ditto would shift into a mimikyu with the costume on. But, that would be a lie, I knew. Larry crushed me by using my pokemon and their moves better than I could hope too.

The ditto vanished in a flash of light, and like all the others, we met in the middle so I could congratulate the winner.

"Would you like some advice?" He asked as we clasped hands, and I wanted to say no. It was frustrating. I never considered myself a sore loser before, but I was frustrated. I was pissed. I swallowed all that down as I met Larry's gaze and offered a small nod. "You're talented for a new trainer, but you rely too much on a single tactic - your Phantump's invulnerability, or your Mimikyu's shadow sneak. You recovered well enough, but it was clear that you hadn't prepared contingencies. How long have you worked with the pokemon you fought with?"

He hit me with a disable by Lickitung. I had absolutely no idea how a single move, and being denied a single move, could utterly wreck my ability to fight.

"I've had Mimikyu for about two weeks, Litwick about five days, and Dreepy joined the team yesterday," I answered and I was, however so slightly, mollified to see some surprise flickering across his gaze.

"You have a strong team. Give them abilities to use and develop additional strategies with them that synergizes with their strengths. Do that, and increase their physical conditioning, and you have all the qualities to become an Ace trainer," he told me. I could tell he was being sincere, which took the edge off the bitterness.

"Thank you. I think we'll jump right on that," I told him. "Good luck in the final match."

Larry gave me a wane smile, "Thank you. I'll need it," he remarked and with that, we parted ways. A very small part of me was glad that I lost to Larry. He was a great trainer, and he seemed like a good guy who gave some genuine advice. He revealed a pretty big hole in my abilities and told me how to fix it. That small part, however, was drowned out by losing.

I knew we wouldn't remain undefeated forever, but… fuck. I really didn't want to lose.

"You gave it a good shot, Blair," Brawly greeted me with, and based on his expression, he knew exactly how I was feeling. "You did better than I did," he pointed out.

I chewed on that for a moment before I released a long sigh, "If I faced him first, he would have swept me." I hated the words as I spoke them, but they were true. Lickitung would have been enough to sweep my team and the only reason why I managed to beat him was because I saw how he fought against Brawly.

"He's really good," Brawly acknowledged. "Are you staying to watch the next match?"

I chewed on that as Janine and Karen entered the ring. I had a pretty strong suspicion on who was going to win. "I'm going to take my pokemon to the Center first. And I think I'm going back to the drawing board for training," I answered, giving him a wave as I walked off.

…

After dropping off Mimikyu, Litwick, Dreepy, and Phantump - I went shopping instead of heading straight back to the tournament. Pokemart had what I was looking for, even if the prices were a bit much to swallow. But, fresh from my first loss, I was willing to pay the price.

"Mankey, come on out," I said, releasing Mankey and, instantly, I saw that he was sulking. He refused to look at me, his arms crossed, pouting like a child. I glanced around the aisle we were in to see that no one was around before dropping to a knee. "Are you upset that I didn't use you in the tournament?" I asked and I saw the question strike a nerve, Mankey visibly getting angry.

But he was lashing out.

"Do you know why I didn't?" I asked him and he rounded on me.

"MANKEY!" He exclaimed, stomping his foot once before he paused when I narrowed my eyes at him.

I chewed on what to tell him. The truth of the matter was that I didn't trust him yet in a battle, but telling him that would be counterproductive. He was trying to hone Focus Energy, but his heart wasn't really in it. I needed to give him a reason. Proof that his efforts would be worth it. "Did you know that you have another evolution after you become a primeape?" I asked and that caught his full attention. Evidently not.

I did wonder how much pokemon knew about their own evolutions, but now wasn't the time. "It's not well known. I think I might be the only one in the world that knows how to pull it off, but it requires something from you, Mankey. It's tied to your rage." I continued and I thought I saw understanding dawn on him.

"Mankey?"

I nodded, "The first step is teaching you how to control it, but when you evolve into a primeape, I'm going to teach you how to harness your rage. Because that's the key, Mankey. It's your rage. To trigger this evolution… two conditions have to be met. You have to die," I told him, and his eyes widened, so I quickly continued, "And you have to be so consumed by rage that you become too angry to stay dead. If you can't summon that level of rage? That's it. You're dead and that's it. Do you understand?"

Mankey chewed on that for a long minute before he slowly nodded, "Mankey."

A small tired smile tugged at my lips. "Good. Now, you have a long way to go, and we have to evolve you to Primeape first. Which is why we're here," I said, bringing his attention to the weights that lined the aisle. Only rather than weights for humans, they were weights for pokemon. Harnesses, dumbells, and so on.

I was pretty interested in seeing how far Mankey could go physically. Back in my old world, there had always been a question that I felt was never answered.

How strong could an animal get? Scientists gave estimates and so on, but… like… no one ever taught a silverback gorilla how to powerlift. That was probably out of fear of a Planet of the Apes scenario, but the question was still a valid one.

"We're going to start off light, then work our way up," I told him when I saw Mankey began eyeing the heaviest weights.

Mankey looked at me, "Key?"

To that, I lifted up my pants to reveal the five pound weights around my ankles. "I said I would be training with you," I told him and I saw that I raised a notch of respect in Mankey's eyes. With that, we got him outfitted in a harness - as a pokemon, he was generally much stronger than me. We settled on ten pound ankle and wrist weights while his torso was strapped with an additional thirty pounds. His tail was another ten pounds, but it was stretched out in one pound segments to avoid compromising his agility with it.

Mankey doubled his weight, and that was considered light for pokemon. It made me very aware of my five pound weights on my wrists and ankles, and the twenty pound harness that went under my clothes.

The shopping continued as I blew through my savings before I could think better of it. I got something for everyone - a headset that Dreepy could wear to train her speed and agility by going through hoops in the air on a time limit. A temperature plate for Litwick. Phantump and Mimikyu were a bit harder to shop for, so I settled on some more general training tools that I thought they could get some use out of - dodge, target, and power training.

Purchasing it all cleaned me right out, but I decided that it was going to be well worth it when I headed back to the tournament grounds.

As luck would have it, Janine and Karen's match had been a long one, even if Karen had won in the end. With another sweep. I arrived just as the finals were happening to find Marnie and Brawly standing together. I waved as I approached, catching Marnie's attention. She looked like she had calmed down after her loss, but she still seemed unhappy.

"What are you wearing?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow at me.

"Weight harness. Gotta match my boy," I said, letting Mankey out, who was eager to show off his new outfit. I was a little out of breath - I wasn't out of shape, but carrying around an additional ten pounds on my legs with a general walk was more tiring than I expected. Mankey wasn't showing it, doing a backflip and scratching at the air.

Marnie tilted her head to the side, "That's one way to cope, I suppose."

"What did you do?" I asked and her lips twitched.

"I ate some ice cream," Marnie retorted.

We both looked to Brawly, who just laughed in response, "I'll be fine. I think we should focus on the match," he said, inclining his head to it. And that… sounded like a deflection to me. I sent him a worried look that he didn't see before deciding to let the topic drop. He was right, because as soon as I looked over, the match began. The two finalists were Larry and Karen.

Karen released her Houndoom, who seemed weakened from back to back battles. Larry, likewise, released his Ditto. It was a gauntlet tournament, meaning that Larry was coming into the final match with the disadvantage of being down a pokemon. However, it didn't seem to bother him any as Ditto transformed.

I watched the match carefully, trying to gleam from it what I could. It was my first time witnessing two Ace trainers going at it and… I saw the road ahead was a long one. Houndoom was weakened from the battles, but he was still giving it his all against Ditto, who matched his form. And I saw how dangerous Ditto could be in the hands of the right trainer.

Ditto's entire thing was that he could transform into other pokemon - complete with their attacks and move set. For all intents and purposes, he became a Fire Type or an Electric Type, but he was still classified as a Normal Type. I made sure to check at the Pokemon Center. His strength and skill was determined by his 'energy.' In layman's terms, a level 100 ditto was going to rofl stomp a level 1 whatever, even if Ditto took the same shape because of the raw power difference.

As I saw with my own battle, Ditto couldn't copy the training of certain moves. Meaning that in various forms, he had to train his electric based attacks, his fire, water, and so on.

And that gave me ideas. I wanted to catch one. They were a rare pokemon, mostly because they were usually transformed into other pokemon, so most people only realized they caught a ditto after they released them from their pokeball, expecting whatever they thought they caught. It would be easier to buy one from a pokemon breeder because their ability to breed with any pokemon was a godsend for rarer pokemon, even if it was considered a 'black mark' on the bloodline of a pokemon.

Though, I did just spend all of my money. Fuck. I should have waited for the badge discount, huh?

Ditto ended up knocking Houndoom out of the fight pretty easily. Houndoom had the spirit, but the body wasn't up to the task. Her second pokemon was a murkrow, but interestingly enough, Larry kept the Houndoom transformation. The two went at it, trading attacks back and forth, and I saw that Larry was finding a much more even match in Karen than he had in either me or Brawly. Which said some rather terrifying things about him, if I was being perfectly honest.

The loss still stung, but watching the two go at it, it made something clear - I never had a chance of winning in the first place. And that thought helped less than one would think. It was foolish to believe that with a few weeks of training and some metaknowledge that I could reach the top so easily. It wasn't just foolish, it was obscenely arrogant. Yet, it still stung all the same.

The three of us watched in silence as the battle continued. Ditto was proving to be an absolute powerhouse of a pokemon because it managed to take out Murkrow, even if it was spent. Larry decided to recall Ditto as Karen, the smug smirk wiped from her face to be replaced with a serious expression, released her third pokemon.

Evee.

Larry sent out his third pokemon as well - a snorlax.

It was a poor match up in terms of size, but it was hard to believe that when I saw Mimikyu manhandling an onix not a week ago. With their pokemon, they clashed - Snorlax on the defensive while Evee darted around with surprising speed, striking at where Snorlax was weak and vulnerable. The single battle went on for longer than any of ours did with Evee whittling Snorlax down bit by bit by bit.

For a long minute, it seemed that Karen was going to eek out a win and taking home the victory. But, in a single moment, it all changed when Snorlax shifted from defense to offense. A Mega Punch was slammed into Evee's side, sending the pokemon flying and carving a trench through the ground even with a last second Protect. Evee was up a second later, but the damage was done. She didn't move as fast, and while it wasn't enough for Snorlax to catch up with her, it was enough to create an opening.

The battle continued on for another few minutes, but with a final Hammer Arm, Evee was knocked unconscious.

"We have our winner for this year's Water-Jam! Let's hear a big round of applause for Larry, and of course, our runner up, Karen!" The announcer called out and there was a big round of applause, the loudest cheering yet. Karen seemed every bit as frustrated with her loss as Marnie and I were with ours. And I didn't fail to notice the sly smirk that tugged at Marnie's lips as she clapped politely. "And let's hear another cheer for this year's sponsor - Rocket Game Corner! A one stop casino where you can place a bet on just about everything!"

Team Rocket. I twitched at the mention, the unnatural anger flashing in my chest but I managed to swallow it down. I knew that the Game Corner in Celadon City had a secret base underneath it, and I was all but certain that RGC was a front for Team Rocket - it might seem on the nose, but they were the same organization that slapped R on their secret bases. There would need to be some investigation into this branch, but I had little doubts that I would find something.

Only would I be prepared to handle what I found?

Looking at Larry, who accepted the Water Stone and the trophy with an indifferent expression…

I wasn't so sure.

…

My pokemon were released from the Pokemon Center some hours later with little issue, and as the sun settled down to the horizon for the night, I found myself on the beach with Brawly. Pretty much as soon as the tournament ended, he went out for a surf with his pokemon, leaving me to train my own way.

Litwick was given the hotplate - the goal was to increase the heat of her flames. How to focus them and increase the volume. It would be the foundation for future moves that I would be teaching her like Flamethrower, Will-O-Wisp, and a few new moves that I hadn't really seen in circulation. Being from another universe did have its advantages as I could shamelessly rip off techniques from other settings without anyone being the wiser.

Mankey was doing some agility training with his weights and working on maintaining Focus Energy at all times. After our little talk, he seemed to put forth more effort now that he knew the training had a purpose. Mimikyu and Phantump, however, were on move creation.

Mimikyu was learning how to perform Shadow Ball to give him a long range attack. Phantump was trying his hand at learning Seed Bomb - as the name implied, it made a seed that exploded, using the seed shell as shrapnel. In the future, I was hoping to turn that into a landmind type move for terrain control, but for now, he had to get the move down first.

Dreepy was a special case. "Dreepy, as of right now, you are my weakest pokemon." I told her outright, and I saw her recoil ever so slightly, wilting. "That's not your fault. We've only been together for a twenty-four hours. It'd be stranger if you didn't have some catching up to do" I reassured her, rubbing her head. "One day, you're going to be one of my strongest, but I won't lie - you have a long road ahead of you until you evolve into drakloak. So, I need a commitment from you. Are you going to see this through with me because the only way I'll give up on you, is if you give up."

I could see Dreepy's hesitance. It was a big ask, in the end. Dreepy caught herself without any input from me. It was a little late to have this conversation, but it was important that we had it now. Dreepy looked out at the ocean, considering her options. It would suck if she left, but in the end, it was her choice.

Then Dreepy looked to me and nodded, "Dreepy."

I smiled, "Good. In that case, I have two tools for you to get stronger. First, is this," I said, holding up a TM for Thunder Wave. It had hurt to buy, and it cleaned me out, but it was important. Ditto was the basis of the theory, and it was risky to base it off of another pokemon, but combined with my general knowledge, it felt like a safe bet - by learning how to channel Electric Type energy, learning more powerful Electric Type moves became possible.

I could be wrong, and it could be a waste of effort, but the only way I would know for sure is if we tried. Ghost pokemon didn't have the same physical needs as living pokemon, so we had a lot more time available for training. So long as their energy intake exceeded their expenditure, they could go on forever.

"Secondly, I have this," I said, putting the headset on her. She began looking around, and with the demo, I knew she saw hoops in the air. "The goal is to go through the hoops as fast as you possibly can. Now," I said before she could take off, "I know you know another move. I want you to channel it, Dreepy. Just like Mankey does with his Focus Energy. That's how you're going to be the fastest Dragapult there's ever been, okay?"

"Dreepy!" Dreepy exclaimed and I felt it when she channeled Ancient Power. It made my hair stand on end for but a moment before she took off, flying through the hoops as fast as she could. It would train her speed and agility.

When she started, I heard Brawly approaching, surfboard in hand. I glance his way and he watched my pokemon, though his gaze lingered on Mankey. "Blair… what did Larry tell you?" He asked me, his tone serious.

"That I had potential, but I'm too reliant on tried tactics," I answered and he nodded. That seemed to echo his own thoughts. "What did he tell you?"

"That I don't need to fear my pokemon's limits," he answered, making me frown. That wasn't what I expected. "When I trained with Bruno… it was intense. I had no idea what I was getting myself into at the start. We did what you're doing - training alongside the pokemon, and I always liked that part, but…" Brawly trailed off, looking out at the ocean as he scratched at his cheek. "Bruno is harsh. And if you couldn't keep up, he wouldn't hesitate to throw you to the side. That went for students and his pokemon."

I was silent, letting him get it off of his chest. Bruno sounded like a prick, though. Brawly continued, "I saw pokemon destroy themselves trying to meet his standards. Crippling themselves in ways that they can't come back from and Bruno threw them away like trash. They were happy to do it - Fighting Types don't give up, and they want to be the best. And there was no one better trainer for them than Bruno."

Brawly let out a sigh, running a hand through his wet hair. "I got through it, but when I left and got my starter… I don't have the stomach to do that to them."

"You say that like it's something to be ashamed of," I told him with a shake of my head. "Bruno sounds like a prick. He found what worked for him, so he doubled down on his methods. But there's a difference between pushing your pokemon and pushing them too far. You just have to find that balance your own way."

Brawly laughed lightly as he took a seat, looking out at the ocean. I couldn't tell if the words reassured him as I hoped they did, but he did seem a little less downtrodden.

"Thanks, Blair."

"Any time. It's what friends are for."

…

Originally, there was the battle between Larry and Blair in this chapter, but I ended up cutting it out because it was bad. I tried reworking it a bit to bring it up to parr, but it ended up worse, so I made the call to cut it, even if it's less climatic to be told that Blair lost rather than seeing it. So, sorry about that.