Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 14: Sunny Day and Solar Power

Rio nodded to himself inwardly.

The talent tiers for Pokémon were: Novice, Ordinary, Elite, Quasi-Elite Four, Elite Four, Champion, and Legendary.

Quasi-Elite Four talent—he hadn’t seen a single one so far. He had originally guessed that only Gym Leaders’ ace Pokémon or the Pokémon of elite family heirs would have such talent.

Just then, another prompt appeared.

[Would you like to use the Move Disk?]

"Use."

Rio didn’t hesitate. The next moment, a disk only he could see appeared before him. It displayed six moves: Flame Charge, Fire Spin, Sacred Fire, Sunny Day, Blast Burn, and Flare Blitz.

"Sacred Fire!"

Although all six were powerful Fire-type moves, Rio immediately locked onto Sacred Fire. That was the signature move of the legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh and Entei—if Charmeleon could master that, it would be incredible.

The disk began to spin. Rio chanted Sacred Fire frantically in his mind.

Three seconds later, the spinning stopped. The pointer landed on Sunny Day.

Rio sighed and could only console himself: "Too bad, but it’s acceptable. From now on, Charmeleon can basically buff itself—Fire-type moves will deal double damage, and it won’t have to fear Water-type moves as much either."

He pressed the Poké Ball.

With a flash of light, Charmeleon was released.

Now, after the system’s talent upgrade, it had undergone noticeable changes. Its body was much more robust, and the flame on its tail burned brighter and hotter than before.

As Rio looked at the newly transformed Charmeleon, his eyes widened—surprise and joy flooding in at visible speed.

The reason: the Ability slot on Charmeleon’s info panel had changed. Blaze was gone, replaced by a new Ability.

[Pokémon: Charmeleon (Shiny)]

[Level: 20 (Currently in a winning streak, positive emotions, eager to battle; leveling speed is doubled. Time until next level: 29 days.)]

[Talent: Quasi-Elite Four]

[Friendship: 42 (range: -25 to 42)]

[Ability: Solar Power]

[Gender: Male]

[Moves: Scratch (30%), Growl (30%), Ember (30%), Smokescreen (30%), Dragon Breath (30%), Sunny Day (10%)]

[Description: This is a Charmeleon that has regained its will to fight. When it was still a Charmander...]

"This is great—Charmeleon’s Ability actually changed to Solar Power! Under Sunny Day, the power of its Fire-type moves will be absolutely terrifying," Rio thought excitedly.

The effect of Solar Power was: in harsh sunlight, it sacrificed a small amount of HP to boost Special Attack. Under Sunny Day or extremely harsh sunlight, it sacrificed a small amount of HP to boost Special Attack by 1.5×.

That meant Charmeleon would effectively be stacking two buffs.

At this thought, Rio was so pumped that he wanted to use the Golbat across from them as a test subject right now.

"Charmeleon, use Sunny Day!" He waved his hand grandly.

"Rua~"

Charmeleon received the command and roared toward the sky.

This scene stunned all five people present.

"Sunny Day? A Charmeleon that knows Sunny Day? Is that guy out of his mind?" Kishi cursed directly.

"What the hell is going on? Ever since that Smokescreen, I just can’t make sense of this battle anymore," Temu muttered, scratching his bald head in confusion.

"Grandpa, can Charmeleon learn Sunny Day?" Rina asked Mr. Fuji.

"Er... our lab once did a study—Charizard, Charmeleon’s evolution, can learn it, but the process is extremely difficult. It requires not only high talent but also massive resources to practice," Mr. Fuji said, looking at Rio. He felt like he understood this young man less and less.

Charmeleon had only just evolved from Charmander—which meant Sunny Day could only have been learned while it was still a Charmander. But if Charmander had been talented enough to learn a move like Sunny Day, would its previous trainer have abandoned it to the underground arena?

So it could only have been mastered after Rio arrived. But how long had he even been at the Pokémon House?

Moments later, something truly shocking happened.

The overcast, chilly sky suddenly turned scorching hot. Dazzling sunlight pierced through the leaves and fell upon the ground.

Sunny Day had actually appeared!

Under the sunlight, Charmeleon seemed to glow as brightly as the sun itself. It roared, and the flame on its tail gradually shifted toward a bluish-white hue.

Solar Power—activated!

"Charmeleon, use Ember!" Rio commanded decisively.

Charmeleon received the order and swung its tail. A massive fireball nearly a meter in diameter—blazing bluish-white—shot toward Golbat in midair.

"Golbat! Air Cutter!" Temu, seeing Rio attack again, hastily ordered a counterattack, while inwardly reeling at that bluish-white fireball.

The hell is that supposed to be Ember?!

"Gol~" Golbat obeyed, swinging its wings to create multiple wind blades that sliced toward the bluish-white fireball.

But when the wind blades struck the fireball, they were like blades plunging into flames. Though they weakened it slightly, most of the fire continued surging toward Golbat.

Whoosh—

The fireball slammed into Golbat, engulfing it in bluish-white flames. Golbat let out a agonizing screech.

"Golbat, hang in there! Use Wing Attack to fan the flames off with speed!" Temu yelled anxiously. He couldn’t understand how Charmeleon’s combat power had undergone such a dramatic change after being recalled and released—it had been getting dominated by Golbat just moments ago.

On the other side—

Golbat, still wreathed in flames, spread its wings again and burst out of the fire. The flames visibly weakened during flight, but it was still afflicted with a burn—some flames clung stubbornly to its body.

Seeing this, Rio gave a new command: "Charmeleon, Dragon Breath—fire it at the moment Golbat falters from its burn!"

Charmeleon opened its mouth, gathering scorching energy within.

With Solar Power’s boost, Dragon Breath’s charge time and power were both enhanced.

About three seconds later, just as Golbat’s flight speed slowed from the burn, a searing, intense blast of energy erupted from Charmeleon’s mouth.

"Golbat, dodge!" Temu shouted frantically.

But it was too late. The blast sent Golbat crashing through four trees in the forest before finally stopping, and it dropped pitifully from the trunk, completely incapacitated.

Faced with this outcome, Temu found it hard to accept. He’d never imagined that a Charmander could first defeat two of their Pokémon, evolve, and then take down his ace.

"Dammit—if only I’d had better eyes and spotted that Poké Ball, this Charmeleon would have been mine!" Temu seethed with regret.

"What do we do, Temu? This mission seems like a bust," Kishi said nervously as he came up beside him.

"What else can we do?! Since we can’t win, we run—unless you want to go to jail?" Temu shot him a glare, took out a Poké Ball, recalled Golbat, and bolted.

But as he fled, he didn’t forget to leave a parting threat: "Kid, you’d better watch your back. I’ll remember you."

What he got in response was Rio ordering Charmeleon to fire another Ember at him. The scare only made Temu run even faster.

On the other side, seeing their leader flee so quickly, Kishi looked for Kurohana to call her to run too. But when he looked around, she was already gone.

By the time he tried to escape himself, Charmeleon was already standing right in front of him.

"Running away so hesitantly and half-heartedly—bro, you’d better just go eat prison food."