72 A Daughter's Determination

*Brrring!*

*Brrring!*

*Brrring!*

I hurried out of the shower to answer my Pokenav as it rang first thing in the morning, curious who was calling me already since the sun wasn't even up yet.

"The professor?" I uttered curiously, even as I answered the call. Not the video call of course.

"Ace. Have you seen the news?" The professor asked the second I answered.

"The attack on the Seafoam Islands? Yeah. It's surprising Articuno would do something like that." I told the professor gravely.

"Not that! The Viridian city Gym has been destroyed!"

"!!!"

I blinked in shock from what the professor told me about Viridian city, and quickly turned the tv in our room on to see the broadcast for myself, even though the girls were still asleep.

"That's right folks! A mere few hours after the attack on the Seafoam Islands, the Viridian city Gym was completely destroyed! If you look behind me, you can still see the smoke billowing up from the building!"

And they did show us just that, as the Gym itself was completely unrecognizable after it had been reduced to rubble, and thick waves of black smoke rolled out from them. The camera then turned back to the reporter a second later as she continued,

"And as if the damage here wasn't appalling enough, Champion Lance himself has arrived with a team of ace trainers from the League, not to help the Gym Leader Giovanni, but to ARREST him!"

The screen then changed yet again to show us an interview with Lance shortly after he arrived in Viridian.

"And as such, we within the League have strong reason to believe that Giovanni is not only a member of the notorious criminal organization known as Team Rocket, but that he is also one of their top associates! As such, I have no choice but to issue the warrant for his arrest!

"Trainers of the League, go and bring this criminal and traitor to justice!"

"""YES SIR!"""

With a cry of affirmation, all of the ace trainers marched towards the ruined building to follow the Champion's orders.

When the clip had finished playing the reporter came back onto the screen, who stated, "that was a few hours ago now, and since then rescuers have discovered a massive underground facility beneath the Gym, complete with numerous pieces of evidence regarding the connection between Team Rocket and Giovanni.

"The rescue teams have also recovered numerous agents and scientists from Team Rocket as well, all of which were unfortunately deceased as a result of the accident. However, there has been no sign of Giovanni himself, or whatever it was that caused the destruction to both the facility, and the Gym."

"Mewtwo..." I uttered quietly when they mentioned whatever might've caused the damage.

"Thats my theory as well." The professor replied, having remained silent as I watched the new report.

Muting it so we could talk, I asked him, "has there been any witnesses or video footage?"

"Unfortunately, no. It was the middle of the night after all, and the few trainers who were up didn't realize something was happening until after it already happened. There are however reports of a blur streak moving through the air late last night, but no one knows if it's related or not."

"Yep. That's Mewtwo." I replied, having already seen firsthand that his psychic power is blue in color.

"I figured as much. But now we have no idea where Mewtwo is, or what he'll do next. We can take solace though in the possibility that he is no longer taking orders from Team Rocket."

"Yeah..." I replied, immediately recalling the first Pokemon movie where Mewtwo intended to strike back against humanity with his cloned Pokemon. Unfortunately though, I couldn't recall the finer details of the movie, such as the name and location of the island that he would build his facility on. I only recalled it being the same island he was created on himself.

But, that knowledge was only relevant if Mewtwo followed the same path as the anime. There was also the chance of him going and hiding in Cerulean cave like the game, or doing something else entirely.

Whatever it was he did, I just hoped Mewtwo wouldn't come after me next.

The professor and I chatted for a few more minutes, mostly debating on wether or not we should make any adjustments to our plans for the SS. Anne, and also discussing my Pokemon that were still with him. According to the professor, my Magikarp were the most motivated and driven Magikarp he had ever seen.

Once the call ended I finished up my shower before dressing and going to wake the girls, and then making my way down to the arena.

Waiting for me was my two new disciples along with their Pokemon, and Lucario.

"So you decided to join us?" Lucario asked testily as I arrived.

"The Viridian city Gym has been destroyed, Giovanni's whereabouts are unknown, and if he is alive there's a warrant for his arrest."

"!!!"

Lucario went wide eyed as I listed off everything the professor and I discussed, before he demanded, "what happened?"

"Don't know for sure. The professor and I have a theory, but no way to confirm it at the moment. The news has more information than I do" I told him.

"..."

Lucario was silent as he thought on this new information, before I nudged him lightly to regain his attention.

"Enough of that. Let's focus on our training for right now since there's still the rest of Team Rocket to worry about." I said seriously, to which Lucario nodded in affirmation.

I then turned my attention to our new disciples, and stated firmly, "now then, lets get down to business."

Resisting the urge to start singing about defeating the Huns, I then led Jackie and Bruce in our daily warm ups that my Pokemon did with me every day.

First was running several laps around the arena to warm up, followed by a yoga session before a series of strenuous exercises that made all of the muscles in their bodies cry. And while I could feel their desire to complain at my choice of workout, neither one could bring themselves to do so when Lucario and I upped the ante, by having Happiny use Gravity on us.

My bones felt as if they were going to be ground into dust, while my muscles felt as if they were going to become shredded as I used all of my aura to force my body to move. Of course, my workout in particular was made all the worse due to the weighted clothing I was wearing.

By the time we had finished our workout I was so sore and exhausted, that Happiny then began using Heal Pulse on me while Lucario also started using Life Dew as the two of us meditated on our aura.

"Master is so intense..."

"He's truly a monster..."

My two disciples uttered in awe as we mediated.

"Less flapping those lips, and more looking into your inner selves." I snapped at them, making both of them straighten their backs hurriedly as they tried to meditate.

In my case I could literally feel my body healing from all of the damage that had been done to it as a result of my super intense workout. But as they always say, no pain, no gain.

Our meditation lasted only until Joy arrived with breakfast, by which point Lucario and I had just about recovered from our workout.

"So what's on the agenda today?" Dawn asked as we ate.

"I was thinking about taking all of you to the river we found outside of the city yesterday. It'll be a perfect place to both relax and train." I told them.

"Oh! That's means I can try out that new swimsuit I bought!" May exclaimed excitedly.

"I've never been to a river before!" Joy said with both excitement and nervousness.

"Well then, let's go right after breakfast! We can fly there on Pidgeot and Tropius." I told them as the girls began to grow excited.

"U-um..."

"What about us master?"

I looked to my disciples thoughtfully before looking to Lucario questioningly.

"I'll stay here with them and deal with their next round of training." He said without hesitation.

""More training!?!"" They exclaimed as one.

"Of course. Growing up, all my partner and I did was train to get to the point we are now. If we weren't training, then we were either learning or resting in order to train some more." Lucario told them sternly.

I nodded in agreement with my partner before adding, "plus we only have a few days to get you two up to speed before parting ways for the moment. As of right now your biggest goals are to build up muscle, spar to improve your forms, and meditate in order to train your inner sense."

With every word I said my disciples deflated, until they appeared to be little more than mounds of gelato on the ground.

"They look almost like Swalot..."

"I was gonna say Grimer." May and Dawn said to one another behind me.

"Well, have fun~!" I told my two disciples before the rest of us quickly departed.

Soon we were soaring through the air on Pidgeot and Tropius, the former of which surprisingly let Joy and her Happiny ride him with no fuss. So, the two of us spent the entire flight listening to Happiny happily trill from flying for the first time.

Joy on the other hand kept her face buried in my chest from an apparent fear of heights. I guess flying wasn't meant for everyone.

She was quite grateful when we landed on the solid ground of the rock-strewn beach.

"P-please.... Never again...." Joy begged me.

"Sorry. Can't promise that." I told her, though I did feel a little bad as I said that.

"This is a nice little spot." Dawn said as she and May dismounted Tropius.

""Come on out!""

With a cry, the two of them released all of their Pokemon on the shore to join us, while I also released most of the Pokemon with me. Altogether we had our two Happiny, Tauros, Miltank, Charmeleon, Pidgeot, Geodude, Buizel, Houndour, Wartortle, Piplup, Luxio, Rosalia, Chatot, Glameow, Beautifly, Combusken, Baltoy, Pichu, Spheal, Tropius, Swablu, Caterpie, and Delkatty.

The only ones not present were Lucario and Vespiquen, the former for training, and the latter was nesting atop the Pokemon Center as she focused on expanding her hive. Aside from them was three more of my Pokemon that weren't present, but I'll let them out later.

Once our Pokemon were out and about, all of us set to clearing a section of the shore of stones so that there'd be some nice sand for the girls to lay on. And after that was done, the girls went to go get changed as I lined up Charmeleon, Houndour, and Geodude on one side while Buizel and Wartortle stood on the other.

"Alright, time for what might be the most intense training any of you will endure." I told the former three.

"Char!"

"Dude!"

"Dour!"

"Good." I said in the face of their determination, before looking to Buizel and Wartortle. "Now then, I want the two of you to use Water Gun on these three for as long as possible."

"War!?!"

"Bui!?!"

"You heard me." I told them, before looking to the other three. "For Geodude, Charmeleon and Houndour, water type attacks are one of their biggest weaknesses. I want to try and train them to the point where they can take water type attacks without injury."

"Is that even possible?" May asked curiously as she got back.

"I saw a battle on tv of a Marowak against a Poliwrath before, and it had trained itself to the point of being completely immune to water type attacks despite being a ground type. While I'm not sure about fire types, it should be doable for Geodude at least." I said while looking over them in thought.

"Char!" Charmeleon declared to both Wartortle and Buizel irritably, telling both of them to attack him immediately.

Both of them looked at him, before nodding resolutely as they prepared to attack.

"War!"

"Bui!"

With a cry, the two of them unleashed their most powerful Water Gun onto Charmeleon as he bore it without defending himself. The result though was an immediate drop in the size of the multicolored flame on the tip of Charmeleon's tail.

The flame was a representation of the life of the Charmander line, being present through all three of their evolutionary forms. If it went out, then they would die.

But, even as the waters started extinguishing his life, Charmeleon clenched his claws into fists as bore them without flinching away resolutely. The flame on the tip of his tail even enlarged in response to his will to resist the barrage of water.

Both Geodude and Houndour watched Charmeleon with awe on their faces at the spectacle, and their own auras became enflamed as they awaited their turn.

"Remember not to overdo it Charmeleon. This is just training." I told him seriously, as I didn't want Charmeleon to get hurt over this.

"..."

Charmeleon just jerked his head in a slight nod of acknowledgment, before turning his attention back to bearing the water striking his body. It was probably excruciating to a fire type to endure that, but hopefully Charmeleon would be able to grow to the point where he could shrug off even a Hydro Pump without problem.

And with Geodude and Houndour both waiting for their turns, I myself turned towards the river while stripping off my shirt, and then all my weights.

"Go!" I ordered while releasing my last three Pokemon, all of my Magikarp.

"""Karp karp karp!"""

They cried while splashing about in the calmest section of the river.

"Alright you three, time to get serious with our training!" I declared to fire them up.

"""KARP!"""

I then dove into the river and swam out to where the current was strongest.

"Now follow me!" I cried as I fought the current to try and swim upriver, before my three Magikarp tried their hardest just to join me.

***

Meanwhile...

"That's it! One more lap!" Hudson cried out through the intense wind and rain, even as a massive wave crashed down onto his daughter.

"Keep going Misty! To a water type master, some gentle waves like these are nothing!" He barked at her like a drill instructor, despite the fact that Misty was trying to swim up a twenty foot tall swell.

Alongside her were almost all her Pokemon, Seaking, Starmie, Carvanha, Horsea and Poliwhirl, while Psyduck and Krabby watched from beside her father. But each one was not only restricted from helping her swim through the waves, but they themselves were using their all to get through the stormy waters.

Misty herself gritted her teeth as she fought to keep her head above the surface, and to crest the next wave before it came down on her again.

These conditions easily classified as a hurricane, but Hudson didn't care as he watched over his daughter dutifully.

"I know she asked dad to train her, but isn't this a bit much?" Asked a girl with wavy pink hair, the second youngest of the four sisters, Lily.

"Apparently this is what dad went though as well when he was younger." Said the second eldest, a girl with long, wavy blue hair, Violet.

"Ugh... Don't make me remember when he did it to me..." Said the eldest of the four sisters, and the 'official' current Gym Leader(though they technically shared the title), Daisy.

She was the only other one to have gone through their father's hellish training when she took over the Gym, and still had a trauma from it as she watched Misty go through the same thing.

But, even as she watched Misty alongside her other two sisters, Daisy couldn't help but feel awed at her tenacity. All she could see on Misty's face was sheer determination to crest the next wave, and finish what she set out to do.

It was a far cry from the little runt she had been when she originally left their Gym on her own journey.

"And time!" Hudson declared as Misty finished her last lap with all her Pokemon, before pressing a button on the remote he was holding.

Immediately the rain, wind and waves all died down as the machines powering them shut off, leaving the interior of the Gym completely silent as the water quickly calmed.

"Twenty seconds better than yesterday. Good job!" Hudson said as he praised her improvement.

"Ha-ha... Thank you dad... Ha-ha..." Misty gasped as she tried to catch her breath, without even leaving the pool. Instead she let her body go limp as she bobbed on the surface.

"Take five, then we'll move on to the next round." He told her sternly, but all Hudson felt when he watched her was pride at how well she was doing.

Granted, when he'd gone through this it was when he'd gone overboard from his ship in an actual typhoon, but Misty was holding up in their simulator pretty well. At the very least, it would give her practice if she ever had the misfortune of going through the real thing, which there was a fairly high chance of as a water specialist.

As Misty was catching her breath though, Hudson was busy using his tablet to look through the League records for a certain trainer. The same trainer that was apparently in a relationship with his daughter according to his other three girls.

"There you are, Ace Ketchum..." He uttered under his breath as he located the file on him.