Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 33: The Raging Mankey (Part 1)

"Someone help! Can anyone stop this crazy Mankey?! Ah—watch out, it’s using a broom as a weapon!"

Hearing the commotion, Rio turned his head.

He saw Mankey—holding a broom in its right hand and a fainted, unconscious Rattata in its left—burst out of the Pokémon House and leap onto the top of the wall.

"Ho-ja~!"

"Ho-ja~!"

Standing atop the wall, it screeched in fury, wildly swinging and smashing the broom. Before long, the broom head flew off, leaving only the stick. At the same time, the Rattata in its hand was swung around like a fan by its tail.

A moment later, the Rattata was sent flying—tail and body separated midair.

Seeing this, Rio’s mouth twitched. Only one word came to mind:

Sun Wukong!

The Rattata’s body landed within the Lavender Gym’s grounds, right on the bricks a Machop was carrying, startling it. The Machop had been peacefully moving bricks when suddenly a tailless Rattata appeared.

Seeing its Rattata fly off, Mankey let out an enraged cry and leaped toward the Machop—clearing nearly ten meters in a single bound. It swung the stick with both hands, hurtling toward the Machop.

At the same time, a burst of energy surged from Mankey’s body—it had used Focus Energy, a move that increased its critical-hit ratio.

The Machop broke out in a cold sweat, caught in a dilemma. If it dropped the bricks to block, they’d shatter and its trainer would have to pay for them. If it didn’t drop them, it’d take the full force of Mankey’s strike.

In the end, it chose to protect the bricks. It carefully set them down—only to be knocked out cold by Mankey’s stick.

"Ho-ja~!"

Standing over the fallen Machop, Mankey crowed triumphantly.

"No—I can’t stand that smug look. I’m itching to send Gabite in there," Cynthia said, unable to hold back. But with the video showing Eevee still training, she was afraid that if she stepped away, Rio might collude with the people on the phone.

"What’s the rush? We have people here. This is a good chance for my Gym trainees to get some experience," Rio said calmly, stopping Cynthia.

He watched as several Gym trainees surrounded Mankey with their Pokémon.

Thanks to his guidance over the past days, their Pokémon were now around Level 20. Mankey had originally been Level 19, but after knocking out Machop just now, its stats had changed—it had risen to Level 20.

Two seconds later, Rio’s brow furrowed slightly.

He noticed Mankey’s changes weren’t just in level.

[Pokémon: Mankey]

[Level: 20 (Consumed by rage; while enraged, leveling speed is doubled. Time until next level: 255 days.)]

[Talent: Quasi-Elite Four]

[Friendship: -23]

[Ability: Vital Spirit]

[Gender: Male]

[Moves: Fury Swipes (20%), Focus Energy (18%), Low Kick (17%), Seismic Toss (17%), Swagger (16%), Close Combat (14%)]

[Description: This is a highly intelligent Mankey that cannot control its anger. It has repeatedly escaped its Poké Ball while its trainer was asleep and, unable to restrain its fury, would beat the trainer. Eventually, after suffering a sunken brow, fractured arm, and crooked nose, its trainer sent it to the Pokémon Center to be released.

If he remembered correctly, when Mankey had first been brought to the Pokémon House, its friendship was -16. After days of accumulating rage, it had regressed to -23—soon to surpass Charmander’s initial lowest friendship.

As Rio pondered this, the Gym trainees’ battle against Mankey began.

One trainee directed a Butterfree to use Sleep Powder on Mankey. But he didn’t know that Mankey’s Vital Spirit ability made it immune to sleep effects. The powder had no effect—only making Mankey angrier. With a cry, it vaulted over the Butterfree using its stick, delivered a flying kick, and then performed a Seismic Toss on the Butterfree midair.

Though Bug/Flying types had a 4× resistance to Fighting-type moves, that was only useful if the moves couldn’t land. But once Mankey got close and grabbed hold, a frail Bug/Flying type like Butterfree would be hit with 4× vulnerability instead.

So—

Whoosh. When Mankey slammed Butterfree down from the air, the ground shook. Dust billowed.

When the dust cleared, everyone saw Mankey standing on Butterfree’s head, stick in hand, roaring at the surroundings.

"Ho-ja~!"

The surrounding trainers and Pokémon were momentarily stunned. None of them had expected this Mankey to be so ferocious.

"This Mankey... is actually pretty strong. The fact that it used the stick to vault over Butterfree shows it’s smarter than the average Pokémon," Cynthia remarked, watching both the Eevee’s training on the phone and the Mankey battle nearby.

"Rio, I’m tempted to catch it. With proper training, it could become one of my aces for winning the Sinnoh Championship."

"Are you sure about that?" Rio raised an eyebrow. "Let me tell you—the reason its trainer abandoned it is that it would regularly break out of its Poké Ball in the middle of the night and beat up the trainer. Its previous owner ended up with a sunken brow, a fractured arm, and a crooked nose before finally releasing it. How many nights do you think you’d survive?"

"What?! That brutal?!" Cynthia’s eyes went wide, and she immediately shook her head.

"Never mind, then. I’m going to be the Sinnoh Champion one day—I can’t be dying at the hands of my own Pokémon in the middle of the night. That’d be a joke."