A/N
This one's a little short, but the next one's a bit longer.
Disclaimer: The letters upon this page were put into order by mine self, howeverfor thine eyes, mine, they are not.
Cobalt didn't feel particularly great about mugging children for their lunch money. He still did it, of course - because he was cultured - but he didn't feel good about it.
No, he felt far more befuddled.
He and Kong had just finished up their second battle of the morning. The first of which had been a somewhat challenging fight with some dude in his mid-twenties with another meowth. The little bipedal cat had been weirdly well trained for how scant its moveset was - making really good use of growl, and fake out, but not much else.
The little bastard was nimble as hell, too. He had thrown Kong off his rhythm immediately with a fake out, buying time with the flinch that it caused, and then proceeded to growl for the rest of the fight - tossing in more fake outs whenever Kong showed an opening. None of it did much damage, but the strategy would have been sublime against a normal mankey. It was basically being as annoying as possible to try and make Kong too angry to think straight.
Probably would have worked, too - if Cobalt hadn't been spouting sarcastic nonsense from the sidelines, making Kong much more pissed at his trainer for mocking him than the annoying cat.
Cobalt thought it might have something to do with his starter's ancestry. With his innate, dark type proficiency. Anger ran hot in his species as a general rule, but if there was one thing that the newly minted trainer had learned about him, it was that Kong could focus his rage up to a point. He could dull it, bottle it, save it for later. He could redirect it, and use it as fuel.
He could also be a vindictive little bastard - as seen by the fact that he had ended the fight with a seismic toss, aimed directly at Cobalt. The move being the only one in his repertoire that wasn't affected by growl, made the boy smile at how Kong was able to think through his anger. Make decisions based on logic, even through the throbbing blood vessels on his forehead.
Cobalt didn't give a single order during the match, wanting to see how his partner could handle his first real trainer battle on his own. Even while he was peeling the knocked-out meowth off of him, he grinned widely at how his starter had handled the situation.
The second battle of the morning, however, was just plain stupid. It was also why he was reflecting on the ethics of mugging children.
Some kid, maybe a year younger than himself, had thrown out the buffest fucking magikarp he had ever seen. Not the biggest. The buffest.
The damn fish had pecks. Its voice was deep and concise, and it stood upright on its tail, instead of flopping on the ground. If it entered into a strength contest with his father's machamp, he wasn't sure which pokemon would win.
The thing that really threw him, though, was that it had no way of dealing damage, and just stood there as Kong punched it.
Magikarp could learn tackle, and flail, right? It shouldn't have been as helpless as it was, but it had just glared at Kong the entire time until it passed out. The whole situation reminded Cobalt of the crazy metapod on Route 5, just without all the taunting.
The opposing trainer even looked satisfied by the end of it all - like they had put up a good fight, or something. Cobalt had just stared at the kid in utter fucking confusion as he took his winnings, and promptly turned to leave without a word.
Kong, though, had left that fight with a smile - just as satisfied as the opposing trainer for providing an outlet for his anger from the previous fight.
Cobalt resolved to never meet the kid ever again. If he managed to evolve that fucking fish into a Gyarados, it would eat legendaries for breakfast-
He stopped dead in his tracks, and turned back around - making Valerie stumble a bit, who was still following him, by the way. "Kid." He said gravely, getting the boy's attention, and knelt down on the ground in a deep bow. "Teach me your ways, I beg you."
"Uh…"
An hour later found the entire group on the side of the river that ran through the Easternmost bit of Route 4. A borrowed Old Rod held loosely in Colbalt's hands, as he stared into the water - like it held all of life's secrets.
Valerie and Kong sat a few feet away with their feet in the water. Valerie with that same crazed smile, seemingly content to observe whatever happened next, and Kong in a meditative position - trying to continue the type energy training that Cobalt had laid out for him.
When he had first bowed to the magikarp trainer, Kong had just sighed, sat down, and started meditating. Cobalt wasn't entirely sure if the spherical monkey was just getting used to his bullshit, or if he was just tired from wailing on that stacked fish.
Both? It was probably both.
"The trick is in how you hold the rod." Easton, Cobalt's new, prepubescent teacher, explained with an excited smile. "Magikarp are drawn towards easy meals, so if your line is all twitchy, they'll just ignore it unless they're desperate. You've gotta relax, then pull them out of the water in one, hard tug once they bite."
"Got it!" Cobalt responded dutifully, ignoring the fact that he had been pulling up nothing but magikarp for the past twenty minutes. He had caught four in that time. The last of which was trying desperately to flop back into the river in utter fear of Valerie - who was watching it struggle with perverted glee.
Cobalt would have been disgusted by that, but he was too busy trying to catch more magikarp under the tender tutelage of Easton. The young magikarp master had taken a single look at each of the fish that he had pulled from the river, and told him to try again. None of them were meeting his standards, and Cobalt was fully content to continue the process.
He had seen The Karate Kid. He knew the value of tedious, ambiguous minutia - even if he didn't know what the current lesson was going to impart in the future, he knew it would be important.
Probably.
"If you don't mind me asking, Master Easton," Cobalt began deferentially, and adjusted his grip on the rod slightly, "what qualities are you looking for?"
The boy put his hands on his hips proudly, obviously ecstatic that he could talk about this with someone who listened. "It's in the eyes! The aura! The shine of the scales, and the rage in its soul!"
Cobalt blinked, and turned to the boy. "Aura?"
Easton nodded confidently, and walked over to the fish that was still desperately trying to get away from Valerie. "Take this one for example." He picked up the fish, making the girl frown in disappointment, and shoved it in Cobalt's face.
Each of the magikarp's eyes were as big as his fist. Wide, and unblinking in utter terror.
"This little one only has fear in his heart! He is stupid! Living off of his base instinct alone will see him serve as nothing but food for his fellow denizens of the great, deep Blue!"
How old was this kid, again?
Looking a little closer, Easton seemed to have been through a lot. His clothes, while fitting with the standard, youngster vibe, and not being particularly stand-out, were old. The design, and such were normal - just a T-shirt, shorts, athletic shoes, and a baseball cap. Kids these days wore similar things all the time, and Cobalt wasn't an exception.
He rubbed the hem of his own T-shirt, and looked down at the simple pokeball logo that was emblazoned on its front. He had forgone the shorts and hat in his own ensemble - hats looking terrible with his head shape, and jeans just offered so much more protection when hiking through nature.
Easton, though? While he, himself looked perfectly fine, everything he wore looked like it had seen better days. The blue of his hat was sunbleached into a sky shade, where it had probably been royal, originally. He could make out specs of yellow on his shirt, making it clear that its current white, was not the original color. The stitching seemed to be fraying on it all. His hat was lopsided and creased, the buckle on the back - broken entirely. His shoes were nearly worn through with the sole of the left flopping with every step.
Even so, it was all clean. Well cared for, if old and worn. Cobalt would have called them hand-me-downs, if they didn't fit the boy so perfectly.
Easton turned the fish onto his side, and ran his hand over the scales. "And look at this spotless, orange sheen!" He yelled in outrage. "This pathetic creature hasn't shed its scales even once! It has avoided every confrontation for sustenance-" he pressed down on the fish's side, making it give under the pressure slightly, "-and has become malnourished because of it!"
"Karp!" The fish sputtered in outrage, despite its fear, and wiggled against the boy's hold.
The boy grabbed the poor, insulted magikarp by its whisker, and flung it dismissively back into the river. "We're going to find you a fighter! A magikarp with rage in its heart, a fire in its soul, and a will to fly!" Madness did shine in those eyes.
Cobalt wasn't entirely sure what played into the next bit. Was some god looking down on them, and laughing? Did the Universe decide that dramatic timing was its raison d'etre? Were Fate and Destiny guiding him overtly - either to a fantastic doom, or incalculable success?
"Oh my." Valerie intoned quietly from her spot on the riverbank.
And then there was light, and the Lord said, Fucking Run.
From the depths of the river, the bright glow of evolution surged. Water was immediately displaced and crashed over the banks. Valerie and Kong scampered backwards, but not before getting utterly soaked. Cobalt was hit square in the face by the wave, completely unable to avoid it, and was thrown back.
Then slowly - oh, so slowly - the massive, serpentine head of a livid dragon rose from the river. Its gaze directed straight towards Cobalt - the promise of death hanging over him with all the subtlety of an explosion.
"The hell did I do?" He asked the sea dragon, his incredulousness only overshadowed by his fear.
"The rage of the sea is blind. Indiscriminate in its destruction, and unyielding in its path."
Cobalt blinked up at the boy who stood next to him - somehow utterly dry and unafraid of the angry dragon in front of them. "...Did Dialga bitch-slap you into your nine year-old body, or something?"
Easton's eyes widened. "You know of the Time Dragon?"
"Is that a 'yes?'" Cobalt asked with narrowed eyes.
The gyarados roared.
"Nope!" The boy grinned at him, and laughed.
"On the plus side," Easton continued, and pointed towards the towering Gyarados, "We have found you the perfect friend!"
Cobalt's face convulsed. Thirty or so very distinct emotions fought for control over the next words out of his mouth, but only one ended up the victor.
Confusion won, but not so much in response to Easton's current bullshit. No, once Cobalt's eyes fell back on the raging sea dragon, he saw what the boy was pointing at.
There, hanging from one of the gyarados's whiskers - biting into it for purchase, and only holding on through sheer determination - was a magikarp.
"The fuck?"
A/N
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