Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Day 22 since setting out for Kanto. Overcast.

When Reiji woke up at the hotel that morning, the sky outside was still a solid sheet of dark cloud. Not a trace of sunlight. Living in a city like this would wear anyone down.

After breakfast, he didn’t head straight for the Pokémon Center. He had caught a second shiny Koffing the night before.

[Koffing (shiny)]

[Type: Poison]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 49%]

[Level: 18.21%]

[Ability: Levitate/15.22%][Hidden Ability: Stench/15.12%]

[Moves...]

He had found the second shiny Koffing inside a chimney, which meant his guess had been right. Plenty of Koffing were hiding in there, and one of them had turned out to be shiny.

Its potential wasn’t as high as the first one’s, but it was still a shiny Koffing, so he had caught it anyway.

Even if he hadn’t found one, he could still have forced the line into a shiny mutation. It just would have been a lot more trouble.

Today, he planned to make the two shiny Koffing evolve together and push their potential all the way into Champion tier. After that, he was leaving Gringey City. The place was miserable, and he had no intention of staying longer than necessary.

After breakfast, Darkrai and Gengar went out to hunt for toxin crystals. Reiji already had more than three hundred of them, all gathered by those two. Gengar always brought back a good pile, and Reiji had already warned it not to gorge itself.

Once Darkrai and Gengar were gone, he got to work on the Koffing.

Bonding could wait until later. Right now, all he cared about was raising Koffing’s potential. It still had time to grow, and there would be plenty of chances to build a bond during that stage.

As long as he had strong bonds with his main team, the Pokémon he caught later wouldn’t be able to cause much trouble even if they started out disobedient. Sooner or later, those bonds would form too.

He didn’t play tricks with simple-minded Pokémon. He dealt with them honestly and hoped they would answer him the same way.

Thump. Thump.

He released both Koffing in the bathroom. Toxicroak stood at his side. Poliwhirl was still at the Pokémon Center keeping Riolu company, so Toxicroak had been the one staying with him lately.

”Kof, kof?” The two Koffing froze the moment they saw each other, like a pair of twins staring into a mirror.

After giving them both a quick look and confirming they were in good shape, Reiji pulled on a pair of rubber gloves, picked two toxin crystals out of the basin, and tossed one to each Koffing.

”Eat those. Then evolve together. If you don’t, Toxicroak beats you to death.”

He stuck with threats for now. If he tried to build trust first, who knew how long it would take before he could even test the combined evolution.

Scare them first. Reward them later. The bond could come after that. No need to rush it.

”Kof, kof...” Both Koffing stared at the toxin crystals on the floor and started drooling at once. They knew what those were. Just like exhaust fumes, they counted as food—strong, delicious poison.

The problem was that toxin crystals usually showed up in Grimer territory, and Koffing didn’t dare provoke Grimer. Good stuff like this was hard for them to come by.

The second Reiji said they could eat, the earlier threat vanished from their heads. Both of them dove straight to the tiles and each gulped down a crystal.

With the crystals in their mouths, they glanced at Toxicroak again, then at the basin full of more toxin crystals by Reiji’s feet. Between the threat in front of them and the food they wanted behind him, the answer was obvious.

The two shiny Koffing drifted toward each other. Evolution light burst out in an instant, and the pair fused into a Weezing—still black, still shiny.

The moment Weezing appeared, Toxicroak moved. It leaped forward and punched each head once, knocking Weezing cold on the spot.

”Kof...”

The second Weezing blacked out, Reiji recalled it into its Poké Ball and opened its panel.

[Weezing (shiny)]

[Type: Poison]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 59%]

[Level: 32.31%]

[Ability: Levitate/25.12%][Hidden Ability: Stench/16.32%]

[Moves...]

Not bad. The fusion had kept the shiny mutation. The moment he saw that, he finally relaxed.

One Koffing had 53 potential. The other had 49. After evolving together, the result came out to 59. Good, but still short of what he wanted.

One had been in the low twenties. The other had been in the teens. After fusing, Weezing jumped straight into the thirties. That gain was solid too.

Levitate had nearly doubled in proficiency, while Stench had barely moved.

The first Koffing had only one ability. The second had two. After the fusion, Weezing kept the two-ability setup. That meant he might really be able to build whatever ability combination he wanted.

Koffing had three possible abilities.

Levitate let it float off the ground and avoid Ground-type attacks.

Neutralizing Gas shut down every Pokémon’s ability on the field while the user was present.

Stench released a foul odor that could sometimes make the target flinch when it attacked.

Too bad his two shiny Koffing only had Levitate and Stench. There was no way to fuse Neutralizing Gas out of that pair.

His guess was that Koffing capable of releasing that kind of special gas had to feed on special gases in the first place. Both of his shiny Koffing lived on exhaust fumes, so not having it made sense.

And honestly, Neutralizing Gas came with a nasty tradeoff anyway. It disabled every ability on the field, including the user’s side. Hurt the enemy, hurt yourself.

If that gas filled the whole battlefield, nobody got to use abilities anymore. Both sides got dragged back to the same baseline.

That would be brutal for Pokémon that leaned heavily on high-proficiency abilities, but great for Pokémon that didn’t need abilities much in the first place.

Missing that ability wasn’t a big deal. In open ground, one strong gust would thin the gas out fast enough. Tight, enclosed spaces were the real danger.

With that out of the way, his attention returned to the fusion itself.

He guessed the panel boosts were basically the result of stacking the two Koffing together—potential, level, abilities, even moves.

And the moves had given him a huge surprise.

The two shiny Koffing he had caught were both unusually strong on the Poison side, but one knew Flamethrower and the other knew Thunderbolt.

After they fused into Weezing, both moves appeared on the same panel.

That was a much bigger payoff than he had expected.

If he could combine abilities this way, then maybe he could combine moves too—as long as one of the base Pokémon already had what he wanted.

Next, he released Weezing again and had Scyther cut it apart.

Just like yesterday, the connection point was severed, and the fused Weezing split back into two Koffing. Reiji recalled them immediately and checked the changes.

[Koffing (shiny)]

[Type: Poison]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 54.02%]

[Level: 20.91%]

[Ability: Levitate/20.12%]

[Moves...]

He checked the first Koffing first. Its potential had gone up by a little over one point. Its level had dropped a fraction, but not by much.

Levitate hadn’t changed much, while its Poison-type move proficiency had risen a bit, which was more or less what he had expected.

[Koffing (shiny)]

[Type: Poison]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 49.51%]

[Level: 17.21%]

[Ability: Levitate/15.22%][Hidden Ability: Stench/15.12%]

[Moves...]

The second Koffing had gained half a point of potential, lost about a level, and showed almost no change in its abilities. Its Poison-type move growth was also smaller than the first one’s.

It clearly hadn’t been the dominant side during the fusion. After splitting apart, it had gotten smaller, while the first Koffing looked slightly larger than before.

Reiji set down his pen and looked over his notes. The split had barely affected the first Koffing. The second had taken a bit more of a hit, but still well within an acceptable range. That was probably because it hadn’t been the main body during the fusion.

During the combined evolution, most of the second Koffing’s poison energy and exhaust had been absorbed into the first.

Then he checked the toxin crystals the two Koffing had swallowed. Toxicroak’s punches had knocked them right back out.

The dark purple surface had faded to a chalky gray-white. Reiji pulled one closer with his gloved hand and found it shedding powder. A light rub was enough to make even more fall off.

Once the gray outer layer crumbled away, the dark purple crystal inside showed again. So the crystal was solid all the way through. One evolution clearly wasn’t enough to digest it completely.

Pshh. Pshh.

Reiji wrote all of that down, then dumped a basin of water over the two Koffing to wake them up. After that, he took out two Poison-type Pokéblocks and spoke in a patient, coaxing tone.

”Koffing, help me finish this research, and I’ll give you one of these every time you evolve together. How about it?”

”Kof...” The two Koffing sniffed the Pokéblocks, catching a scent completely different from the toxin crystals. It smelled even better. Which meant, in their minds, it probably tasted even better too.

Reiji smiled. ”If you don’t cooperate, I’ll have Toxicroak beat you up again.”

A reward in one hand. A threat in the other. He wanted them to understand one thing clearly: cooperate, and the food kept coming. Refuse, and they got punched.

”Kof! Kof!” The two Koffing agreed instantly and in perfect unison. They hadn’t wanted to resist in the first place. Once food got involved, resisting became even less appealing.

Unless their lives were on the line, they were too lazy to do much of anything besides hanging off chimneys and eating exhaust fumes.

Now they had rare treats right in front of them, and they didn’t want another beating either. Submission came very easily.

Compared with stubborn little Riolu, these two were refreshingly easy to handle. Reiji let out a quiet breath, tossed the Pokéblocks into their mouths, and then fed them the same toxin crystals again.

By his estimate, one toxin crystal was roughly equal to two Poison Gems. With how cheap and common they were here, this city was practically paradise for a Poison-type Trainer.

He had spent over six hundred million raising Gengar. The part before Champion-tier potential hadn’t actually cost much—just over a hundred million. Pushing it from Champion-tier potential up to around 90 had taken another 270 million.

The remaining three hundred-plus million had all gone into grinding from 90 potential to the limit of the panel.

Getting Gengar to 90 potential had cost him roughly 270 million. At an average price of 460,000 per Gem, that came out to about six hundred Gems.

Koffing was different. It only needed Poison-type resources, because Poison was its only type. Toxin crystals alone were enough.

If one toxin crystal equaled two Poison Gems, then three hundred crystals should be enough to push Koffing to around 90 potential—solid Champion tier.

If he bought them outright at 30,000 each, the total would only come to 9 million.

Ridiculously cheap.

If he had known a place like this existed, he never would have played sucker and spent all that money on Poison Gems.

Still, toxin crystals were messy. The toxins inside were mixed and impure, so digesting them had to be harder than working with Poison Gems. What was done was done.

No matter what kind of poison it was, Gengar still needed Ghost-type energy alongside it. Tai’s Gengar was the perfect warning. Too much poison and not enough Ghost energy would tilt it too far toward Poison, and without that balance, even reaching Champion tier later would get hard.

Koffing and Muk didn’t have that problem. They could live on toxin crystals just fine.

He spent the entire rest of the day in the hotel, making Koffing fuse, split, then fuse again. He even ate lunch there.

As for Riolu and Poliwhirl at the Pokémon Center, he had Pelipper deliver food to them. Reiji stayed put and kept hammering away at the Koffing experiments.

After that first round, the Koffing cooperated completely. As long as food was involved, they didn’t care how many times they had to fuse and split. The only real problem was that Weezing couldn’t separate itself, so every split required Scyther’s blades.

By the time all three hundred-plus toxin crystals were gone, the result lined up almost perfectly with his estimates. In a single day, he had produced a Weezing with Champion-tier potential.

[Weezing (shiny)]

[Type: Poison]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 88.46%]

[Level: 12.21%]

[Ability: Levitate/25.12%][Hidden Ability: Stench/18.32%]

Poison-type [Moves: (Toxic Spikes/37.82%)(Venom Drench/27.11%)(Poison Gas/35.92%)(Smog/31.57%)(Clear Smog/33.55%)(Sludge/30.15%)(Sludge Bomb/31.23%)(Toxic/26.63%)(Belch/35.56%)(Acid Spray/32.35%)(Venoshock/29.45%)(Gunk Shot/29.63%)(Sludge Wave/28.67%)]

Normal-type [(Pain Split/19.14%)(Stockpile/16.22%)(Spit Up/11.41%)(Swallow/13.55%)(Screech/17.74%)(Tackle/17.38%)(Smokescreen/14.94%)(Self-Destruct/13.32%)(Explosion/11.25%)(Take Down/23.45%)(Scary Face/12.44%)]

Ghost-type [(Grudge/12.41%)(Destiny Bond/13.12%)]

Psychic-type [(Rest/13.64%)(Psybeam/7.44%)]

Fire-type [(Flamethrower/9.61%)(Will-O-Wisp/7.64%)]

Other [(Assurance/7.54%)(Haze/7.35%)(Gyro Ball/6.24%)(Thunderbolt/3.72%)]

Weezing’s potential had climbed to 88, while its level had dropped all the way to 12. The abilities had barely shifted. That was the tradeoff with this kind of rushed evolve-split training.

Even so, Reiji still thought 88 was a little short. He could keep raising it slowly with more toxin crystals later.

There was no need to keep forcing the process now. Every time Scyther cut Weezing apart, it clearly hated the experience. Better to stop torturing it and start building an actual bond instead.

That worked out anyway. Weezing still needed time to grow, which gave them time to build that bond.

Its Poison-type moves had all risen past its current level, which was obviously the result of all that forced evolving and splitting. That didn’t matter much, though. Weezing wasn’t exactly flesh and blood.

What surprised him most wasn’t the pile of Normal-type moves.

It was the Psychic-type moves.

That had been a total whim on his part. While Weezing was fusing, he had fed it a few Psychic Gems and Psychic-type Pokéblocks just to see what happened.

And somehow, it had actually awakened two Psychic-type moves.

Then there were Flamethrower and Thunderbolt. Before the fusion, each Koffing only had one of them. After the fusion, Weezing had both.

Seeing that made one thing very clear.

He needed to study this properly.

If other combination-evolution Pokémon could be trained the same way, the results would be outrageous.

Take Slowpoke, for example. He could pair it with a Shellder that had especially strong Ice-type talent. That would strengthen Slowpoke’s Ice side, and when combined with Slowpoke’s own Water- and Psychic-type leanings, the result would be outstanding talent in three different types—Psychic, Water, and Ice.

As for other Pokémon, he could study them case by case later. Abilities could be combined. Moves could be combined. Even weak points in a Pokémon’s talent could be patched through the pairing.

The more he thought about it, the bigger the possibilities looked.

Most of those ideas had already proven themselves on Weezing. Next came the other combination-evolution lines. He needed to see whether the same logic held up there too.

He was lucky he could see the panel and take shortcuts.

If he had to rely on the same slow fusion-style training Tai was using on Muk, the shiny Muk alone would take at least a month or two to produce. After that, it would still need half a year to a full year just to reach quasi-Champion tier, and Champion tier would take even longer.

Gengar had mutated successfully too, but that came with its own cost. It would be asleep for at least half a year, and even after waking up it still had the Elite Four wall to break through—though it might manage that immediately.

After that, though, the level growth alone would still take a year or two, and Champion tier would take longer still.

His own Gengar and Weezing also needed time to grow. The difference was that he had already slashed the time needed to raise their potential. From here on out, they only needed to build their levels, and toxin crystals could still speed that along.

If he and Gengar didn’t already have a bond, he would have kept suppressing its growth too. But that wasn’t necessary anymore. Gengar could go all out now, and reaching Elite Four tier shouldn’t take long.

With that many resources poured into it, Gengar had gone from Elite tier to Advanced tier in just over a month—faster than Poliwhirl and the others. That kind of growth was practically rocket speed.

Once he gathered a little more toxin crystal—enough to serve as growth food for Weezing and snack stock for Gengar—they could leave Gringey City.

There was no such thing as too much toxin crystal. It could raise Weezing’s potential and strengthen it at the same time.

Gengar just couldn’t eat too much of this kind. Weezing, on the other hand, could eat it as much as it pleased. Gengar needed Ghost-type energy mixed in while it absorbed the poison.

Luckily, the last batch of dirty work had left him with plenty of Ghost Gems, enough to last Gengar a long time. And if Gengar ever ran short, it would come looking for him anyway. That glutton had no intention of starving.

Once he was done with Weezing, Reiji rinsed the bathroom clean with hot water, looked outside, and saw that night had already fallen. He decided to head over to the Pokémon Center, spend some time with Poliwhirl and Riolu, then come back later to sleep.

[End of chapter]

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