Hangwind's Omake

[Hangwind]

Sacrifice the Sky (Pokemon Trainer Vicky)

"Elder Ald," Lance called, bowing out of respect for the old man. "You called an emergency meeting of the clan?"

"Ah, Champion Lance," the old man said, waving him to come forward. "Yes, I called the meeting but the Clan Archivist was the one that determined such a thing was necessary."

"Hm." Lance folded his arms at that news. Archivist George was one of the oldest members of the Clan, well respected by all, but a bit reclusive. He had never attained the title of Dragon Master unlike most of the important Blackthorns. Instead it was his sheer knowledge of history and mastery of the ancient forms of the language that the clan respected. If he was calling a meeting, there could really only be one thing that this was about, the investigation into the torii arch in the Dragon's Den. Being called back to the compound was rare enough, but being called to the main hall for a closed door meeting of the elders?

Something was very odd here.

"Esteemed family, please enter," Earnest, one of the younger scholars that the clan taught and used to preserve their traditions, said. "Teacher is ready for you now." With that he slid open the main door of the hall, allowing the group to enter. Inside were traditional tatami mats and zabuton, facing the raised platform at the end of the hall where the Archivist sat with his head bowed and a folder in front of him. Everyone filed in and sat, the tension rising in the hall as seemingly no one knew what was happening.

Finally, all was silent and the Archivist raised his head. "Thank you for gathering today," he said. His voice was always quiet, but now it seemed raspy and thin. "Today we must discuss the lost history of our Clan, and what our path forward will be. We have been looking around for an answer to the mystery of the waterfall and the Dragon's Gate. It took time, but with some searching, some ingenuity, and the help of Doctor Smith, an archaeologist from Galar with a powerful and skilled Swoobat that could use it's echolocation to see voids in the rock, we finally found a hidden mechanism and room built into the rock. We figured out what the mechanism was and how to open the room with some trial and error. In order to open the room, you had to reverse the flow of the waterfall enough to backfill a reservoir which triggered the lock on the chamber. When we entered, there were several urns sealed using Beedrill wax and advanced preservation techniques. We found scrolls in each of them, with the one in the center being the most important."

George held the folder in his hands up to show the men in the hall. "This is a transcript of that scroll, named Sacrifice the Sky." With a rustle of paper, the Archivist opened the folder and began to read.

Descendants, forgive this, your most dishonorable ancestor. This shall be the only true recollection of Blackthorne Clan's true history.

Fifty years ago, when I was a young scribe, the clan was attacked suddenly. The Kantonians found a way to worm beneath the melting snow in the spring, using the sound of the runoff floods to avoid the cave patrols and the snow to avoid the sky patrols. When they attacked, they were already inside our defenses, barely outside the fortress itsel.

Worse, they had only attacked with half their forces. As our samurai rushed back to relieve the clan, they were ambushed by Kantonian ninja.

We fought them. Our elders stood on a battlefield for the first time in decades. Our uchi-bugeisha lifted their warmon in anger for the first time in living memory. Even our young fought with only a Magikarp. We were valiant! We were fearless!

We were doomed. We were pushed out of the fortress, our defense becoming a retreat. Then a rout. Our servants carried children and eggs.our warriors fought to protect them while grievous wounded. The fortress burned, and still it was not enough. Kanto had decided to cut off the Blackthornes, root and branch.

I, even I, thought we were finished. The Kantonians broke through the rear guard and began slaughtering the defenseless. But they made a terrible miscalculation. They did so next to the Blackthorne Reservoir.

And the Magikarp wept. They wept for the servants that had the duty of caring for the reservoir. They wept for the young that would never find their Magikarp now. They wept for the elders that had sat on those banks for decades. They wept in sorrow, but then in rage.

And they sacrificed the sky for the power to defend the clan.

If we have done our jobs properly, you will not understand this. Our Clan is known for Dragonite, yes, but young Dratini are rare and not to be passed out recklessly.

Dratini require time, care, and love to grow to their full potential. The shyness of youth, the aggression of their middle years, and the pride of their adulthood must all be channeled carefully. Therefore, while any Dragon type trainer will be proud, the best must be patient.

Therefore, Every young Blackthorne got a Magikarp. The test was when it evolved. If your Magikarp never evolved, your training was lacking. If it evolved through frustration, rage, hate, or fear, it would gain great power. That emotion would be forever locked in its heart though, and it would have eaten its own wings, never to touch the sky.

Only those that evolved through the joy of victory, through careful cultivation of power, with the patience of a great trainer could unlock their true strength and touch the sky.

The mark of a true Dragonheart of Blackthorne is not being given a Dragon, it is making their own. Then, and only then, can they be entrusted with the future of the clan.

All of this had long been explained to the reservoir Magikarp. They knew that if they evolved, they would never fly. That they would forever lock the sorrow and rage they felt into their hearts.

They did it anyway. The reservoir boiled with the power of their evolutions. The tears became roars of rage and hate. The ground was rent with the power of Hydro Pumps and Hyper Beams, shattering the banks and reducing the old road to rubble. Most horrifying were the youngest, having only Tackle and Bites to fight with and throwing themselves bodily on the enemy.

The Sacrifice was great, but effective. Without trainers, without prompting, with only duty driving them forward, the Gyrados swarm shattered the Kantonians and chased them back. Before they could regroup, the rest of the Clan's reinforced us and finished throwing them out.

For some, it seemed that the crisis had passed. But there was a new problem. The Gyrados had been killed in great numbers, but there were many more in the reservoir than before. And they were all rage evolutions. Many of the true Gyrados had been killed or crippled in the fighting and what were left were needed to guard the Clan. They could not be spared to quell the turmoil in the reservoir.

And worse, we lost our way. Our pride had been wounded. Our power had been shaken. And our patience was gone. We tried to keep the old ways alive. Please believe me, we tried. But things kept happening.

Rage evolutions are the only Gyrados we have seen in decades. And when they happen, they often turn on their trainer. The reservoir has gained a new name, "Blackthornes Rage", as there are so many incidents of enraged Gyrados attacking travelers on the shores. Young trainers have learned to fear a Gyrados roar, and we simply cannot take losses from the tradition going awry anymore.

We must protect the clan and our children from themselves.

We chose to seal our true history. All other scrolls and artifacts will be altered to reflect our new truth. This is the only record. Any time you run across a "fierce Dragonair" in our histories, it is actually a Gyrados. Any painting or sculpture of a Dragonaire with no jewels is a record of a Gyrados.

No longer will the true stories be passed down. There will be no more true Blackthorne Samurai, for none can pass the test. But our children, our future will live. And I will find duty in my dishonor.

The only way to access this archive is to have a Magikarp climb the waterfall and evolve, reversing the flow as it jumps the Dragon's Gate. If you are a descendant, congratulations, you are the first true Blackthorne samurai since my generation. If you are an outsider, you have surpassed the clan, so my ghost will bow to you in respect. And if you are a grave robber digging through the ruins of the clan, this was the beginning of our fall.

No matter who you are though, I have one, final, humble request. I beg you from Giratina's stomach, calm the Rage. Bring the tales of Gyrados back. Show the world their true glory, as we cannot. For we cannot sacrifice our future for them, but for us, they were willing to sacrifice the sky.

The Archivist closed the folder softly, looking around at the gathered leadership of the clan. "We have begun cross-referencing the records and found it to be as plausible as possible. Old stories that made little sense are now understood easily. Histories that seemed inconsistent now flow. We even found the death poem of that generation's Archivist." With a trembling voice he read the short haiku, "Whispers of the breeze/Clouds heavy with unspent hopes/A sacrifice made."

Lance felt a certain weight on his shoulders as the Archivist first knelt, then bowed in dogeza to the room. "I cannot atone for the dishonor of my ancestor, but I beg, whatever path the clan takes, we must make this right."

 

[WastelandGrunt]

Oh, the Lake of Rage... damn.

 

[Hangwind]

Oh, the Lake of Rage... damn.

Click to shrink...

There has to be a reason for the Blackthornes to have the Dragon's Gate, and there has to be a reason for it to have been lost.

The Lake of Rage is said to have been created by a Gyrados, but that doesn't actually make much sense, we know how powerful even very strong Hyperbeams are and they just don't match up. Many Hyperbeams though, that'll do.

It also solves the problem of Magikarp getting weaker in modern times-where once the failures and partially trained Magikarp would swim down the river on Victory Road and take over other areas, now there is none. Less competition meant less pressure to grow stronger since a Magikarp is below anything but a Magikarp anyway, meaning populations shifted towards other survival strategies; breeding large numbers, hiding, or swimming in very large schools.

It's not the only solution, but it does fit.

 

[Seras]

This was really sad! Cool idea thought.