CH30 (394), Handover

Jade/Gyarados' breakthrough was a bit flashier and took a bit longer than usual, but not to the extent of what happened when a truly major change occurred, so I was assuming that she had unlocked a talent or egg move, or maybe an ability variation if I wanted to be generous.

Truly, by now I had seen enough breakthroughs and their associated phenomena that I could discern some details just by observing the breakthrough's duration, flashiness, and the amount of additional energy siphoned by the Pokemon.

Anyway, I directly went up to Jade after her breakthrough was over to congratulate her. She was curiously sizing herself up but stopped to accept my praise.

Unlike Aby/Gyarados, and Medusa/Gyarados for that matter, who liked to be scratched on their chin, Jade preferred the area on her forehead, between her horns, so that was where I caressed her when she leaned down, obviously wanting some physical praise as well.

It was always an impressive thing to see a Gyarados purr in satisfaction like some happy cat or puppy. I had the privilege to do so quite a lot, and I still could not help but be awed by the contrast nearly every time. I truly hoped that I would never lose that wonder/excitement.

Anyway, while I was giving Jade a good rubbing, the others approached as well and began to congratulate her. I chose that moment to stop, and Jade actually released a whine of disappointment when I did.

Still, I just gave her a head pad in consolation and she got distracted by the enthusiasm of the others, so she did not insist. While everyone was busy asking Jade how she felt, I took a look at her new status screen. Yet, I still kept an ear on their conversation, so I heard her say how she felt more energized than ever.

'Name: Jade

Species: Gyarados

Gender: Female

Age: 8+ Years

-

Type: Water, Grass

Potential: Light Purple (80.3%) -> (88.86%) -> Deep Purple (48.86%)

(Genetic) Modifiers: Grass Variant

Abilities: Chlorophyll, Sap Sipper

Talents: Photosynthesis*

Affinities: Water, Grass

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: Peaceful

--

Parameters:

Stage: Gold Stage (mid)

Vitality: C

Strength: E

Endurance: D

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: C

Energy Density: D

--

Immunity:

Grass

-

Resistance:

Water (Major), Ground (Minor), Steel (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Poison (Minor), Flying (Minor), Bug (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Poison (in progress)

--

Condition: Healthy, Happy

--

Masteries:

Water Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

Grass Energy Manipulation (Beginner) -> (Advanced)

--

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

N/A

-

Beginner:

Thunder (new, +), Blizzard (new, +), Flamethrower (new, +)

-

Proficient:

Tackle, Flail, Bounce, Bite, Dragon Rage, Whirlpool, Twister, Ice Fang, Cotton Spore, Brine, Crunch, Dragon Pulse (new, ++), Leech Seed (new, ++), Wood Hammer (++), Aromatherapy (new, ++), Seed Bomb (new, ++), Magical Leaf (new, ++), Solar Beam (new, ++), Solar Blade (new, ++), Grass Whistle (new, ++), Hyper Beam (new, ++), Earthquake (new, ++), Thunderbolt (new, ++), Ice Beam (new, ++)

-

Advanced:

Splash, Swift, Aqua Jet, Water Pulse, Hydro Pump, Waterfall, Dragon Dance, Energy Ball, Rain Dance (+), Aqua Tail (+), Sunny Day (+), Scald (+), Surf (new, +++), Horn Leech (new, +++), Giga Drain (new, +++), Synthesis (new, +++), Chloroblast (new, +++)

-

Mastered:

Water Gun'

I always felt proud when I saw how relatively young my Pokemon were and the point they managed to reach despite that. Oh, sure, I had to accept that a big part of their success could be linked to the "unfair" advantages I was providing, but their hard work could certainly not be disregarded.

Otherwise, they would have never reached the power they currently had as fast as they did. Sure, they would have still reached this point if they/we went at it at a normal pace, simply due to the "unfair" advantages I was providing, but it would have taken them a century or two, or even a few to do so, which honestly was still kinda fast considering the overall situation.

Thankfully, I did not have to deal with that, and all my Pokemon were willing to work hard, partly because they kept spurring each other on. I had not yet thought about what I would do if I came across a Pokemon that I caught but that did not want to work hard, or as hard as the others.

Now that I thought about it, I believe that was the reason I avoided catching a Slakoth despite Slaking's high BS/RV. Even though the line did not have the Truant ability, they were still inherently lazy, and I subconsciously did not want to deal with that.

At least not now, when growing strong was kinda important in my conscious and subconscious mind. Huh, I did not expect this to turn into some type of self-reflection.

Regardless, I had to admit that I was still interested in Slaking. Mostly due to the species' high racial value, so I would catch one in the future when I had enough time for him or her to get stronger at his or her pace.

Anyway, I got derailed somewhat fiercely, but let's focus back on Jade's status screen. She had her potential raised to deep purple, and it was pretty close to the halfway mark, so Jade would also join the aurora-grade potential group once she broke through to the dark gold stage.

Well, or she would do so, as long as nothing came up, and she completed her limit-breaking. Moving on, I could see that she had not gained any new modifiers, but a bit further down the reason why Jade felt more energized became apparent.

As I had suspected, Jade had unlocked a talent. Photosynthesis was a useful and strong talent that was rather straightforward. It doubled her Vitality during Sunny Day or comparable circumstances, and there was no doubt that Chlorophyll served as a basis for this talent.

Regardless of whether it did or not, the fact remained that Jade now had two of her parameters doubled during strong sunlight, which was rather scary, at least for her opponents. I was understandably happy and when I shared the news with Jade as well as the others, they were similarly impressed.

Jade also got to know why she felt rather energized. While the sunlight inside Utopia was not as "strong" as that of Sunny Day, it was slightly enriched due to the energy-rich environment, so while the sunlight did not activate her talent, it still stimulated Photosynthesis enough for Jade to feel it.

Parameter-wise, Jade was pretty much at the limit of the (mid) gold stage, except for her strength parameter, which had an E-value. Still, her two C's made up for that. All in all, it was obvious that she would be able to reach the (high) gold stage with some good old hard work.

Like with the other Sinister Six members before her, I was expecting her to reach that point in much less than a year. It honestly depended on how much time she spent on her resistance training and how much on her parameter training since she, like the others, had been somewhat neglecting her resistance training so far, which was why she had yet to get rid of her poison weakness.

Similarly, her moves section had flourished, and I could proudly say that Jade was the only Pokemon I knew about, that knew the move Chloroblast. I knew from my canon knowledge that the grass variant of Electrode introduced in that historic version could learn the move, but I had not heard about anyone having one of those right now.

I could naturally be wrong since I was not all-knowing, but even if there was a trainer out there that had a grass-variant Electrode, Jade could still boast about being the only one besides the variant species to learn the move, pulling it down from being a species exclusive move.

She used Solar Beam, Solar Blade, and Hyper Beam as her inspiration while learning Chloroblast, and her horns played an important role as well in her success at learning the move. Jade mostly focused on increasing its mastery after she learned the move.

A side effect of her flourishing move section was that her grass energy manipulation reached advanced mastery, but that also seemed to be something the Sinister Six members had in common. At least if one looked at the way all of them had raised their second manipulation mastery to advanced.

Anyway, after looking through her status screen, I announced the start of the celebration but left an hour into the party for lunch with my parents. Well, after handing out everyone's lunch first. I rejoined them after lunch and stayed for two more hours, before excusing myself and spending some more time with my parents.

The next few days following Jade's breakthrough went by calmly, and we said goodbye to the third week before welcoming the fourth and final week of my vacation.

I got a call from the foreman on Giratiday, that they finished cleaning up everything yesterday evening, and that I could now accept the keys anytime. Well, that, and that I had to pay the rest of the money before receiving the keys.

He also told me that they would be starting on the playground today, so I could come over if I wanted to take a look at the finished building. Seeing no reason to delay it, I informed my parents that the orphanage building was done since they had been trying to stay up to date on the progress, and we set out together to inspect the finished product.

We saw the workers outside, preparing their tools as well as machines when we arrived at the property, and the foreman quickly came up to us once one of his workers alerted him of our presence.

He came up and enthusiastically greeted us before I asked him to give us a tour. He showed us everything, from bottom to top and I felt as if they had done a marvelous job, which I told him as well. He seemed happy that their work was appreciated.

Still, I could not be considered an expert on orphanages, and while my parents were no experts as well, they had been orphans at some point, so with them having lived in an orphanage for a few years, I naturally valued their opinion on the state of my building/orphanage since they could give an opinion from the perspective of an orphan.

Thankfully, both mom and dad thought that the orphanage was great. They even lamented the fact that they would have loved to have lived in an orphanage like this. According to them the facilities and rooms in my orphanage were miles above what the one they used to live in used to have.

The foreman also chimed in at that point and told us that from his experience most orphanages were like the one my parent used to stay at. I was not sure how many orphanages his company had built, but I accepted his word since it fit the image I had of orphanages in general.

Anyway, after spending more than an hour looking through all rooms and making sure all installations, such as taps/showers and lights worked, I wired the rest of the money to the company account.

The foreman handed me the keys and told me that I could call them if something was not working as it should with any of the installations such as a socket or the heaters since things like that were covered in their warranty.

The warranty itself was valid for 5 years, at least the one provided by the construction company, but he told me I could extend it before it ran out if I wanted to. He still recommended that I settle the building insurance at the fastest speed now that the construction was complete.

I thanked him for the tour and the reminder and we left the building. I locked the door behind us, and the foreman promised that they would keep an eye out on the building while they were working on the playground, which according to him should take a month or so.

He also recommended that I looked for someone to act as a security guard, at least until I had people living there to avoid anyone being tempted to rob the place while it stood empty. He offered to send me some recommendations and I accepted after thanking him once more.

On the way back home, dad told me that he could organize someone to act as the security guard and I jokingly told him that I did not mind looking at the portfolio of his recommendation.

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