Chapter Text
File: MACHOP [Owner: Matsuda, Thomas]
Origin: Persimmon Town (Kanto Region)
Entry Author: Joy, Persimmon Town Center.
Classification: Training Incident — Observation Record
Internal Access Only - Not to be forwarded to League Systems
Summary:
Demonstration requested to verify cause of extreme trauma in a Mankey following inter-team sparring. Said Mankey suffered severe muscular and skeletal damage consistent with amplified kinetic feedback.
Trainer insisted on full-contact reproduction under controlled conditions. Subject Pokémon selected for resilience: Kadabra, defensive-trained, League-registered.
Conditions:
Observation staff present: Containment: Alakazam ×2 (Volunteers), Medical personnel: Myself and Chansey.
Trainer command: Revenge following controlled Psybeam impact.
Machop executed on command with immediate response.
Results:
Observed energy output exceeded expected parameters for current developmental stage by well above 50%.
Auditory event registered at 118 dB (approximate to thunderclap). Shockwave dispersion: localized. Mostly.
Kadabra sustained heavy abdominal trauma, temporary destabilization of psychic field, no loss of consciousness.
Estimated damage correlation: above 80% total health reduction under battle simulation model.
Post-strike, Machop displayed no signs of exhaustion, tremor, or feedback strain. Respiratory recovery within 6 seconds.
Assessment:
Energy amplification consistent with Revenge, impact velocity and energy output exceeded baseline projections. not documented in standard case files.
Behavioral observation indicates heightened muscle control, emotional restraint atypical for age/species.
Trainer displays advanced understanding of move mechanics, possible overexposure to high-level conditioning environments. This should not be possible. The trainer is 11 years old. The war has been over for over 2 decades, his parents were not known to be active participants during it.
Recommendation:
Tag incident towards research.
Flag as “potentially hazardous technique expression” for future Joy review should a similar event happen again.
Invest in thicker clipboards.
Personal Note:
I’ve seen Machoke hit like trucks. I’ve seen Machamp break them. I have never seen anything similar from a Machop, until today.
The raw power is worrisome, but I'm more worried about where or how this boy figured it out. The boy knew exactly what would happen and chose to showcase it. Keep an eye on this one.
—Joy, Persimmon Town, Medical Archive.
_____________________________________________________________
The rain had been steady all evening, a low hiss against the glass. Arianna sat at the kitchen table with one of her old League lamps burning beside a tray of seedlings. The light was white and clinical; each plant threw a sharp little shadow. She’d been meaning to turn in hours ago, but her hands kept finding work to do, pinching wilted leaves, adjusting the moisture pad, anything to keep from thinking about the conversation she’d had with Thomas earlier.
Robert came in quietly. He carried the same look he’d worn since Ape came home from the Center: half guilt, half disbelief. “You heard, right?” he said. “That whole speech he gave me about strength in the right places? He sounded like he was quoting a manual I’ve never read. He almost sounded like,”
Arianna interrupted him quickly "Don't go there Robert, if what little you've told me is anything to go by, Thomas acts nothing like that. You think I understood it any better? I spent years cataloging soil reactions, and even I couldn’t follow half of what he said.” She snipped the top from a stem and set it aside. “He’s measuring something, though. I think he's following some kind of Mold. You can hear it in the way he talks. Not guessing, recording.”
Robert dropped into the chair across from her, rubbing his face. “He said Chop needed to pick his battles. I wrote it down. What does that mean?”
Arianna sighed. “It means he’s teaching his Pokémon to push specific parts of their body past their limits. We did something similar after the war with Grass-types, forcing regrowth in burnt zones. It worked, mostly. But we lost whole patches because we pushed too far too fast.” She looked toward the hallway where faint light bled from under Thomas’s door. “He’s doing the same thing. On instinct.”
“Instinct?” Robert said. “He’s eleven.”
“Instinct doesn’t care about age,” she murmured. “Some people just see systems where the rest of us see effort.”
He sat back, watching her hands move. “You don’t sound angry.”
“I’m not,” she said. “I’m scared, mind you I'm slightly less scared now. You saw what happened to Ape. He can’t even name the process he's using. He believes in it, though. That’s what frightens me.” She set the scissors down and rubbed her eyes. “He’s shaping them, Robert. He used that word with me; shapes. He talked about Chop like a structure, not a creature.”
Robert exhaled. “He’s not wrong about the results.”
“That’s what everyone said in my department before half the projects failed.” Her voice softened. “Growth without rest isn’t growth. It’s strain.”
For a long moment the only sound was the rain and the faint hum of the lamp. Then she pushed the phone toward him. “Call Kenji. Tell him everything Thomas said. If anyone can make sense of it, it’s him.”
Robert hesitated, looking at the receiver like it might bite. “He’s going to think we’re overreacting.”
Arianna shook her head. “He’s going to recognize the pattern. Thomas is doing something deliberate. Kenji’s the only one we have close who’ll recognize if it’s brilliance or danger.” She stood, turned off the lamp, and gathered her tray of seedlings. “Do it tonight. Before this gets away from us.”
--
The clock read close to midnight when Robert finally gave in and reached for the phone. The house had been quiet for hours by now, too quiet. Thomas was upstairs with his Pokémon, the Pokémon Center had cleared Ape a few days ago. Arianna sat at the kitchen table, a mug of tea cooling between her hands, eyes fixed on nothing.
Robert hesitated only a moment before dialing.
Kenji picked up on the second ring, voice rough with fatigue but steady. “Robert. You realize It’s late.”
“I know.” Robert rubbed his temple, searching for words that didn’t sound like failure. “I wouldn’t call unless I had to.”
A pause on the line, the faint hum of a ceiling fan. “It’s the Machop?”
Robert let out a long breath. “It’s Chop,” he said. “He’s grown, Kenji, too much. Getting stronger by the week, but it isn’t the kind of strength you notice until it’s too late. Thomas keeps talking about ‘shapes’ and ‘strength in the right places’ some new routine he came up with. Said something about how Chop’s body adapts faster if they battle certain Pokémon instead of others.” He paused, rubbing a hand over his face. “I don’t know what any of that means. But Ape’s the one who paid for it. Three weeks in the Center, Kenji. Thomas swears it was an accident, but it sounded more like a formula than training.” Arianna rose and took the phone gently. “It isn’t just the strength,” she said. “It’s how Thomas reacts. He doesn’t blame Chop. He blames himself. Says he wasn't fast enough. That’s not normal for a boy his age.”
Kenji was quiet for a while. When he spoke again, his tone had shifted, measured, thoughtful. “No, it isn’t. And you’re right to worry. Power’s come quicker than discipline. That’s a bad equation.”
Robert swallowed. “So what do we do?”
“I might have an idea,” Kenji said slowly. “But I’ll need a little time to set it up. The right people. The right place.”
Robert tightened his grip on the receiver. “All right,” he said quietly. “We’ll wait.”
“You’ll do more than wait,” Kenji said, his voice turning firm again. “Keep them steady. Make sure the Mankey rests, no need for Thomas to push unnecessarily."
Then softer, almost to himself: “The League preaches peace these days, has for a while, but peace breeds a different kind of strength.”
Before Robert could answer, Kenji added, “I’ll be in touch,” and the line went dead.
Arianna set the receiver down carefully. For a moment neither of them spoke. Upstairs, the house creaked.