Trainers Fic: Three for the Road

[Wailord_Fan]

Well, it is a work in progress, but I have a few chapter done. Some might recognize it from SPP. Also, please don't read without replying...give me any *constructive* criticism.

Prologue
The Beginning (Redunant++)

The day before.

“But, daaa-aaad, I don’t want to go.” A sandy haired teen whined. Ethan Brandy was tired of it. Tired of his dad, tired of the shop, tired of the stupid Pokemon journey that he was being forced in to, and he was tired of his dad who kept comparing him to his older brother, Robert. He was damn tired of having his life lived for him.

Ethan’s dad ran an antique shop that sold trinkets, like classic pokeballs, tapestries of ancient Pokemon or an odd fossil. He got a lot business by trainers passing through Saffron. Like the old Real Estate saying, it was about location, location, location. His shop was about a 10 minute walk from the Saffron City gym or the Pokemon Center. His business depended on two things, Sabrina being able to put the hurt on her opponents, and his oldest son Robert sending the items he found on his journey. But a few weeks ago, they heard something terrible. When Robert was exploring a cave, a bunch of punks thought it would be a laugh to cause a cave-in, and with one punch by a Golem, it ended Robert’s life. Unacceptable. Mr. Brandy needed a new flow of items. So, the next day, his son will be leaving on a train to a league to the north, the Ettu region. It was sparsely populated, but it had a long history of Pokemon trainers, so there was bound to be a few rare items. Plus, it was only a 2 hour ride away from Saffron. Now, Mr. Brandy just hoped his useless son wouldn’t screw this up.

“You’re gonna go, and you’re gonna get me some items, ok? Or do you want me on the street begging for change and hiding from a guard Houndour? Now pack your bags.” He said through teeth clenched tighter than a Feraligatr.

“Dad, I don’t wanna leave my friends just to train a bunch of freakish little rats and bugs to fight.” He squealed, his voice high enough to get him into a choir as a soprano.

“Well, that’s not what you’re going to do. You’re going to be getting me items for the store, and keeping your pokemon strong enough to protect you and get the items.”

“Dad…”

Finally, Mr. Brandy snapped. His first son was a hard-working young man who actually had hope of a future. This dunderhead was a spoiled brat, but there was no chance that Alan Brandy was going to let that continue. He raised his arm and then suddenly and quickly slapped Ethen. Tears welled up both of their brown eyes, Ethen for obvious reasons, and his father because he realized he just became a monster worse than the most horrendous Pokemon.

Meanwhile, in Cath Town, Ettu.

“Excellent, my son, you’ve proven most worthy of deserving a Pokemon. Your test scores prove that to me. I will draw up the papers, and have them notarized. You’ll have your trainer license within 24 hours.” Mrs. Ratic was proud of her son, Will, and she hoped that he would do what she could not, become the most powerful trainer in Ettu. She came close, but when it came down to it, her Tangela just wasn’t powerful enough to win the league championship, though she still contends that if her opponent hadn’t had a Steelix, she would have won. But she moved to plan B. She entered Law School. Her husband died, protecting his bank from the horrific Team Purge, a gang that followed an ideology of that modernization of culture was a bad thing.

“Did you clean your room today, Will?” She inquired. Her firm belief was that keeping her child focused on tasks would help her son on his quest. She thought her mistakes lied in that she spent too much time helping others. If she spent more time training, she thought, she might have been able to get Tangela to learn Giga Drain which would have defeated that nasty Steelix.

“No, ma’am, but I cleaned it yesterday.” He replied. He didn’t want to go over this. He had to clean his room everyday, he had to have all his CDs approved, his books censored, and his TV time was closely monitored, making sure it did not exceed an hour. Frankly, he began to hate the order, and longed for the freedom in Pokemon Training.

Moreover, he hoped that he could finally wear something that wasn’t plain white or denim. Maybe he could have his haircut in the way he wanted.

Meanwhile, in the orphanage of Goldenrod.

Sam had a plan. He snuck out and got his Trainer License, and a ticket to Ettu. He hated the walls that separated him from the real world. Sure, every now and then, Whitney would come and let them play with her pokemon. Whitney was cool, but she just made him more envious. He wanted his own adventure. He wanted to get away from Goldenrod. So he planned to go north. Maybe he could get a Clefairy too, and maybe someday he could come back and show the kids here. Or maybe not. Tomorrow, he wouldn’t be made fun of for being an orphan. Cath Town would be the first stop on his emancipation train.

[Chris 2.1]

Nice beginning, no Gyms? Interesting. Nice idea for a quest....I hope Ethan can get an Anorith of Lileep, that's an awesome idea!

Nice to see the three coming together, but it could be a bit longer.

[Wailord_Fan]

What? There's gyms. Where did you get the idea that there isn't gyms?

“Is everything ready, Igor?” Professor Magne asked a short chubby assistant.

“I told you, sir, my name isn’t Igor, it is Ralph,” The young man responds despondently.

The tall man smirks. His young assistant wasn’t a film OR a literature fan. The professor was going to correct him, but decided against it, he had more pressing matters.

“Are you sure these are battle ready?” He asked the Pokemon Breeder who stood before him. He poked one little monster on its tough epidermis. It growled to warn him. The one next to it stomped its hoof to show disapproval, the third seemed to just giggle.

“Hey, c’mon, Charlie, have I ever let you down before? Just trust your brutha, okay?” The Breeder, Pepin responded, and he was being literal, they were brothers. However, just by looking, you can tell they weren’t twins. Both had dark complexions suggesting that they were natives of the Caribbean, and both were tall and built, however the way they dressed gave it away. Pepin, the Breeder, wore tropical clothing, laid back, and he didn’t particularly care for shaving as he had at least 3 days growth on him.

On the other hand, there was Professor Charles Magne. He never let his clothes become dirty, or torn. Not that he didn’t do field work, but this was a special occasion. It was part of a deal that Professor Oak worked out with the Pokemon league. Pokemon Researchers would help trainers get their first pokemon, and in return, any Pokemon that wasn’t of their battling six, the researcher studied and took care of. Today was a rare occasion, 3 trainers from all over Pokeia were starting their journey, and were coming to him. So he called to his brother, a renowned trainer and breeder for three Pokemon for them.

“Will you have any trouble getting back to Marin?” Charlie asks his brother.

He laughs and takes out one of his personal Pokemon. “Naw, its raining offshore, and that mean my Gorebyss goes faster.” His brother, Charles, also responds with a laugh.

“You had a theory about that, didn’t you? I remember you trying to explain it, but at the time we were being chased by an angry Golduck, if memory serves.”

“Lanturn actually, but yeah. See the Gorebyss’ cells absorb the rainwater that hits it, which gives it more mass. This should cause it to sink but the oils in its scales prevent that. So, at first it needs to exert more force, but once it hits top speed it can just let inertia take over.”

Meanwhile, on the train from Saffron to Cathu (With a stop in Indigo Plateau)

Sam was free. He just had to get on a train. That was it. Now, he’s free. He brought along his only possession worth bringing. His Walkman.

“This speech is my recital, I think it's very vital, To rock a rhyme that’s…” He sings along.

His cabin mate, an older boy, if Sam had to guess, around 18ish, sighed.

“You sure are happy,” The elder boy muttered gloomily.

A smile flashed through Sam’s round features. “I’m kinda on the run, I’m happy.”

Another sigh, “Lucky you, I feel like I’m on the way to my execution.”

Sam cocked his head to the side, “Can’t be that bad, can it?”

“Forget about it, not important, besides, we’ve arrived.”

Sam got out quite quickly. It was a stuffy train, and the guy with him was kinda creepy.

Back to Cathu Town.

“Well, Will, the train should have arrived; you can wait a couple minutes can’t you?” Professor Magne asked, trying to elicit a response from the quiet boy. Again, his mother answered for him.

“Of course he can, though I, I mean, we would like to know what Pokemon you have procured for us.”

Magne replied coolly, “I’d rather not, and I also like that you would be absent from when he chooses. No disrespect intended, but this is his first step into becoming a man. He should be allowed a degree of independence.”

Her face falls, but within a second she recomposes herself. Then the door swings open. Two boys enter. One, the younger, shorter, and just a touch of roundness, rushes in, obviously very eager to get a pokemon. The other saunters in, showering the room in a wave of confidence. He shakes his head, allowing his sandy blonde hair to wave just slightly. His beak-like noise faintly cringed. His eyes almost seem red, like he was crying, but it’s not obvious.

“Ah, you two must be Ethan and Sam. This is Will, he also is starting today. Enter.” Charlie Magne pointed at the large sliding opaque glass door.

Will enters first, his face mirroring his red hair. The other two follow him. Sam is about to ask what Pokemon Magne has. But Magne already drew 3 high-tech PDAs.

“These are your Pokedexes. They contain your map, and a guide to all known Pokemon, including the legends. I want you three to take them.” He holds them out, and the three boys grab them, “Now, for what we all are here for.”

He draws three Pokeballs from his belt. With a quick motion, the three of them open and three different pokemon are exposed. One is a little green ball with arms. Spikes protrude from its bottem and top, and two baseball bat-like appendages extend from the sides. A yellow crown-like flower is on top, its eyes open. "Cacnea" it shrieks! The other is like a massive dog made of stone plates, or perhaps a stegosaurus whose plate grew too rapidly. It growls out “Rhyhorn.” The third and final one is a pony. A pony with fire for hair and tail. Will knows this one before it can even stand up, it’s a Ponyta.

“So, lets see, we’ll go in alphabetical order. Ethan, you pick first. Then Sam and then Will, since they’re guests to the region, I guess you get the leftover.” Magne smiles.

Ethan points at the Rock pokemon Rhyhorn. “That one.” Magne took a pokeball and withdrew it into it and throws into the 17-year old’s arms. “Sam?”

He took out his pokedex, and pointed it at Cacnea and selects the “Evolution” button. It showed him Cacturne, and then he did the same to Ponyta.

“I’ll take Cacnea.” Sam said after a second of deliberating. Charlie took both balls and withdrew them both and gave them both.

“You have 48 hours to become a Pokemon Master or I confiscate the balls. Go.” Magne said, his face set in stone.

A feeling of dismay enters both Will and Sam. Ethan’s heart jumped.

“Just kidding, leave at your leisure.” Magne said, “Oh, and for those who wish to participate in the Caesar League Challenge, the nearest gym is in Brutay Town, which is 2 days to the west.”

Ethan raises a finger, “I'll pass. Where is the nearest cave?”

“Ghost Cave to the east.”

Without so much as a thank-you, Ethan leaves, as confident as before. The other thank the calm professor and they leave the research room and into the lobby.

So with that, 3 trainers start their quest.

[Chris 2.1]

Because Ethan's practically being forced to go on a Pokemon journey to get ITEMS for his Dads artefact store. Why would he haste his time 'train a bunch of freakish little rats and bugs to fight'?

And his dad responded by saying: “Well, that’s not what you’re going to do. You’re going to be getting me items for the store, and keeping your pokemon strong enough to protect you and get the items.”

So WHY is he training for Gyms?

[Wailord_Fan]

Well, you do realize that there's two other characters, one who is expected to become a league champion, plus Ethan is quite rebellious.

A sidenote, Ethan is NOT the main focus of the story, he appears regularly, but not in every chapter.

[Nefarious]

Wow, you have quite a lot of talent. It's a good fic. I can't wait to read more.

[Chris 2.1]

Of course. I take back what I said. Thanks.

[Wailord_Fan]

“So, Will, what did you get?” His mom demanded as soon as he walked out the door. He took out his single pokeball, clicked it, and showed his thoroughbred Ponyta.

“I saw the older boy-“

“Ethan,” Will interrupted.

“Whatever, he had a Rhyhorn, and I heard the third Pokemon shriek Cacnea. Explain why you chose Ponyta.” She queried.

“Well, according to my Advanced Pokemon Care class I took, Rhyhorn evolves to a powerful Rhydon, which one of the most powerful Pokemon, but it takes a lot of time to do that, and is the hardest of the three to train correctly. On the other hand, Cacnea becomes Cacturne which is still quite powerful, but it doesn’t provide much challenge to train. I picked Ponyta because it provides some challenge, but it doesn’t give me too much, since I’m just beginning. Also Rapidash is one of the fastest pokemon known to man.” Will said, counting his points on his fingers.

His mom nodded, her hair the same hue of Ponyta’s. “I’ve gotten you some provisions.” She hands Will five pokeballs, and a potion, “Are you sure you don’t want me to give you my Tangela? Or how about my Slowbro? Perhaps my Masquerain? My Vigoroth? My Dragonair? I know, I’ll give you my Relicanth!”

“Uh, mom, I don’t think I can control those. I mean, I just started, and you trained your pokemon to the extremes in battling,” Will said and threw up one hand for her to stop.

“Nonsense, you’ve had them help you weeding the garden and such,” She responded almost pouting. Obviously, she wants her Pokemon on the winning team.

“That’s not exactly battling, plus, you were there supervising them,” Will countered, “I better get goin’ though. I don’t want to take too long.”


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“So, Ethan, why are you in Ettu?” Sam asked, hoping to befriend the tough 17 year-old.

He smirked, and tooks out a book of matches, and a pack of cigarettes. He called out his Rhyhorn, and struck a match on the craggy Pokemon. It didn’t do any harm, but Rhyhorn growled to warn Ethan.

The younger boy hid his shock, “You smoke? I thought you said you were 17.”

“And I am. These are a little make-up present from my dad. He’s forcing me to go out here and get him items. So, he gave me these as a little bit of a push.” “Oh.”

With that, Sam left to talk to Will, and Ethan set off for Ghost Cave.

“So, Will, this is a little hard for me to ask, but do you think we could, uhm, travel together?” Sam asked, unsure how to approach the guy.

Will ran his hand through his fiery hair, and looked back at his mom. After a second, he consented with “Sure, why not? But, lets, uh, get you some Pokeballs first, you’ll want them.”

So, the two set down on the long road to the Pokemart.

“So, Will, how old are you?”

“14. I wanted to start last year, but my mom wanted me to take all the advanced placement classes concerning Pokemon at the academy. She’s weird like that.”

“Oh, I’m 13 by the way. I came from Goldenrod.”

“Why’d your parents send you this far?”

“Don’t got any. I’m an orphan. I wanted to get away from the orphanage, and I figured if I already had a Pokemon by the time they sent out any word about a missing child, I would blend in. Plus, I could then claim that I was a Pokemon trainer, and it was my right to pursue this.”

Will wasn’t quite sure how to respond to this, so he remained silent. “Uh, we’re here,” he mumbles.

Sam didn’t have enough money for five pokeballs on him, so Will had to cover for him. As Will handed him the pokeballs, Sam opened his mouth.

“I’ll make up for it, don’t worry. Just don’t charge interest,” Sam quickly assured Will.

“Hey, no problem, just don’t waste them on 5 Magikarps okay?”

“Hey, that’s not a bad idea. Five Gyardos? That would rock. But anyways, what are we waiting for? Let’s get this show on the road.”

The red headed companion nodded and they set off. While Will was trying to make an primitive reign and saddle, Sam was exploring.

“Will, come quick!” Sam yelled. His voice contained enough urgency that Will briefly thought Sam caught an Articuno or something, but that was nonsense, Sam’s Cacnea would never be able to weaken it enough for an Articuno to be caught. Besides, there is no proof any “legendary” Pokemon exist. “Will, HURRY!”

Will broke into a run, his Ponyta at his side. Something was up, and Will didn’t want to miss it.

When he arrived, he saw a Meowth wrestling with a Hoot-hoot. Hoot-hoot? He thought, That’s impossible. Hoot-Hoots are nocturnal. Its 2 in the afternoon. He vocalized this concern to Sam.

“I saw the whole thing, Hoot-hoot was sleeping and the Meowth snuck up on her, and attacked. So which one do you want?”

“Uhm, the Hoot-hoot. You know how to catch a Pokemon right?”

“Of course. Jeez, I’m not a baby. GO CACNEA, separate Meowth and Hoot-hoot.”

Cacnea hissed at both of them. Then its eyes turned bright blue. The cat and the bird immediately turn their attention at the Cactus monster behind them.

“That must have been a Leer attack,” Sam said to himself, “Ok, now use your Absorb attack on Meowth.”

Cacnea shot out two thorns out if its arms, however this thorns were connected to Cacnea. Green energy flowed from Meowth to Cacnea.

“Ok, now use your uhm…” Sam pulled out his Pokedex, and brought an attack list of Cacnea. “Grasswhistle it!”

The two leeching thorns retracted and the walking plant held its arms to its mouth. It whistled directly into Meowth’s ear. Meowth collapsed immediately, its breathing slowed and it looked restful.

Will’s urgent voice called out, “Use your pokeball! It’s asleep.” Obviously, Will was having some trouble with the Hoot-hoot. Sam threw his Pokeball. It struck Meowth on the head. The Meowth dematerialized into a red glow and flowed into the open Pokeball.

It shook once…twice…thrice. It dinged, Sam had his Meowth. He turned to watch Will handle his Ponyta.

The Hoot-Hoot seemed to be untouchable. Whenever Ponyta got close it used its Quick Attack to get out of the way, just out of the pony’s reach.

“Y’know Will, Ponytas have more than just Quick Attacks and tackles in them,” Sam whistled.

Will’s composure fell. His mind wasn’t working that day. If his mom saw this, she would be mad.

“Ponyta, launch an ember!” Will commanded. A ball of fire launched out of Ponyta’s mouth. Again, the Hoot-hoot used its agility to get above the attack.

Wait a sec, that’s it! Above the attack, the Hoot-hoot is just quick attack upwards and then coming down. Will thought.

“Ponyta, can you make a big column of Fire with your ember?” Will asks, “If you can, you do it.”

Ponyta unleashed a large ball of fire and nodded its head, keeping the fire moving. The poor Hoot-Hoot was burnt. Will threw his pokeballs, his dream of becoming the league master followed it. Hoot-Hoot dematerialized in the same fashion as Meowth.

Again, the ball shakes. It shakes for what seems to be ages. Eons pass, gods and demons live and die. No, actually, it was only a few seconds. The ball dings. Will and Sam both had caught their first Pokemon.

"Why didn't you catch both of them, Sam? You could have done it," Will asked as he jogged towards the towns Pokemon Center.

"I could have caught them, but they would have been in your balls. I figured I owed you."

"Where did that Ethan guy say he was going?" Will said with a jump.

"It was something like...uh...Ghost Cave. Why?"

"Crap! His Rhyhorn won't be able to do a thing to those Pokemon. He could be in trouble."

Will and Sam turned and stared at each other, the words Will just spoke reaching them. Should they rescue him?
__________________

[Nefarious]

Oh, neat chapter. They each caught their own Pokemon ^_^. Well written. Good job. Ethan seems pretty stuck up. Not sure if I like him or not. =P

[mistysakura]

Nice fic you've got there! I like the early characterization of Ethan and Will's mom, and the different motives to go on Pokemon journeys are original. Poor Will. Good he's gotten away for a bit. The third chapter was cool, showing the battling abilities of the three. Like the cliffhanger at the end, too. Description could be further improved though, and there were some points where you went into present tense. Otherwise, fine.
Have fun writing!

[Wailord_Fan]

Sorry the pause people. There will be a bigger pause for the next one as it needs severe reconstruction.

Chapter 3 Heroes?

Sam started to freak out, “What are we gonna do? What are we gunna do? What ARE we go-ing to do? Omigod, omigod.”

“Hey, hey, calm down, boy. I’ll go with my Ponyta and Hoot-hoot and rescue him, they’ll be able to do much more damage to the ghosts then Cacnea and Meowth.”

“What should I do then?” Sam rubbed his forehead to calm down.

Will checked his watch, “Uh, go train your Pokemon, if I’m not out if 45 minutes come to the cave, its in that direction,” He pointed out the path, “After that, wait 15 minutes, if I still don’t come out run to the police station. Officer Jenny received some pokemon from the Brutay City Gym Leader to use against Ghosts.”

Will ran his fingers through his hair, steeled his nerves and then released his Ponyta from her ball. He muttered something to it, and the slung his left leg over it. They rode off, silent, Ponyta could tell Will was worried.

“Wow, those guys were in a hurry. You know ‘em?” A large man said with a chuckle.

“Yeah….uhm, wh-wh-who are you?” Sam stammered out.

The man let out a bigger laugh, “My name is Arthur Lin, I'm a gambler by profession. I recently took up this Pokemon battling. Let me cut to the chase, young man, and challenge you to a battle.”

Sam looked over his shoulder, back towards Ghost Cave. He hesitated but remembered what Will told him. He turned back to Arthur, and responded with an exasperated“Sure.”

“Let’s make this battle interesting. You have two Pokemon so do I. Why don’t we each put up one pokemon as a prize, whoever wins gets the Pokemon in the prize pot. Sound ok to you?”

Sam shuddered at the thought, but for some reason, he had a feeling that he would win, so he consented.

“Ok, ante up, I contribute my Torchic to the pot, I reckon you should put in one too. ”

Sam crossed his fingers, and then grabbed one of his pokeballs. “I put in my Cacnea.”

“Alright, the cards are dealt. I choose you, Clefairy!” The man threw his Pokeball underhanded, and out of it came a Pokemon that Sam knew intimately. It was an almost exact replica of Whitney’s Clefairy, but it looked less trained, less pretty, less cared for. One could tell that it was in the hands of an amateur.

“Go, Meowth!”

Meanwhile, inside Ghost cave…

“ETHAN?” Will called out, “ARE YOU IN HERE?” Will grumbled as he opened up his green backpack for a flashlight.

“Who dares come into my home?” A voice bellows.

A giant face appears, its features were grotesquely fat. It definitely was mocking Will, for it was him, just his head was 10 times as big, and he put on 50 pounds just on his face.

“Get out.” It shrieked. It stuck out it tongue, which began to turn black. It cackled with energy, little black bolts began running along it.

It fired. Will jumped to the ground, and the beam seemed to recalibrate itself for that. Will covered his head, and prayed that he wouldn’t die or something. Then he heard Ponyta neigh. She had jumped and blocked the beam.

“Ponyta, can you attack?” She nodded, “Then use your Ember attack!”

The fire ball just passed through the ghost pokemon.

“Go, Hoot-Hoot. Use Mind Reader, and pass the info to us.”

Hoot-Hoot’s eyes began to glow. Searchlights, really. They shot into the giant face, and caused whatever the light to hit to disappear. Hoot-hoot calmly and deliberately went over every single square inch of that apparition. When it found its culprit, Hoot-Hoot hooted softly, as to show that it was done.

It frankly wasn’t that impressive. It was gray and small. Very small, Ponyta had a good foot above it, and Hoot-Hoot was bigger by at least five or six inches. Most of its height came from its head, which was an oval with a spike on top. Its body was like a limp cloth. Suddenly it grew red and zapped into a pokeball. The pokeball was in the air, and it dropped to the ground.

Ethan walked up and picked it up. “Thanks, I figured it was the strongest since it made it could, y'know, make something like that.”

Will raised a finger, (No, not that finger.) “Actually, that may have been an act, y’know try to throw off stronger enemies.”

The ball had long time dinged at this point, “Meh, its still good. Oh, and for future reference, I don’t need your help,” He walked out, “Oh, and there’s no good items left here.” Ethan pointed to his backpack, it was bulging with items, Will even saw a Thunderstone poke out of the zipper.

“Prick… C’mon, Ponyta, Hoot-Hoot. Let’s go find Sam."
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“Another Metronome, Clefairy!” Arthur yelled. His Clefairy began twirling its fingers. Its mouth opened open a blast of water cascaded out, creating a wave, “’At was a Surf attack, lil boy.”

“Thanks for watering the grass, mister,” Sam muttered, his Meowth was able to go with the flow well enough, and was able to avoid most of the hurt, “Faint Attack, Meowth!”

Meowth disappeared. Clefairy looked around in confusion. Suddenly, it staggered to one side, then to the other. Meowth reappeared, landing from a jump.

“Err…Slam it back!” Clefairy jumped into the air and landed on Meowth, “Hah, you’re finished now, use another Metronome!

Clefairy’s arm glowed, and turned silver. It bashed into Meowth’s head.

“Heh, tough luck kid, that was an Iron Claw,” Arthur said, “Hope you weren’t too attached to your Cacnea.”

Sam glared at Arthur, his eyes peering up at him, “Meowth ain’t out yet.”

Meowth grabbed Clefairy and started to roll. It shook back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It wrestled to the top. It held out Clefairy by the scruff of its neck and drew its own leg back.

BWHALM! Meowth just sent the Clefairy back to the moon with a Mega Kick.

“Hope you liked the time you and your Torchic had together.”

Arthur dropped to his knees, “This ain’t fair…but…but…my Clefairy’s never lost before, I got seventeen Pokemon this way…My luck can’t run out…n-now, ca-ca-can it?”

Sam grabbed the bridge of his nose, and rubbed his eyes, “Listen buddy, you’re a professional gambler, you should get used to losing. Now, settle your debts.”

“Fine, take the damn Torchic.” He threw the Pokeball to Sam. Sam released the Torchic to meet and greet. However, the Torchic just seemed to strike a pose. It raised one leg and spread its wings. It vaguely resembled the crane kick from Karate Kid. It had sunglasses on.

“Great, I’m stuck with Keanu-Torchic-Reeves, just wait til Will sees this…”

[Nefarious]

Haha, nice chapter. Good job.

[Wailord_Fan]

“Uh, Will, why are we camping out when we’re like 100 yards from the Pokemon center?” Sam moaned, as he was cleaning Meowth. (Torchic was throwing threatening glances at Meowth from the corner)

“I told you, my mom would check the Pokemon Center if I was still in town. If I was still in town, I would get my brain chewed out of my head and then placed in a large jar in our basement.”

“Meh, works for me.” Sam proceeded to sanding his Cacnea’s thorns.

“You really were willing to bet one of your Pokemon for that Torchic?” The Torchic in question was cleaning itself, and wasn’t looking too majestic.

“I didn’t get a chance to look at the merchandise before the battle. And I won, didn’t I?” Sam mumbled, stifling an urge to hit Will.

Will sighed as he preened over Hoot-Hoot’s feathers, “Still, that was a bad move.”

“Uhh, anyways, what happened at the cave?” Sam whistled, eager to change the subject.

“That Ethan guy just acted like a jerk and caught a Shuppet,” Will said, he was busily polishing Ponyta’s hooves.

“Those are those little Ghost tissues thingies right?” Sam was helping his pokemon stretch out before going to bed.

“Yeah,” Will changed the subject, “So, did you ever watch CPPN?”

“Competitive Pokemon Programming Network? Oh Yeah, that’s like the only thing I watched, that and the direct feed from Whitney’s Gym.”

“A direct feed? Even when she’s like, uh, you know?”

Sam smacked Will, this time not able to withhold his urges “Only…during…bat-tles…id-i-ot.”

“Hey, watch it! Anyways did you see last years Championship? Ash vs A.J?”

“Yeah, that Sandslash vs. Pikachu match was frikkin’ amazing.”

“Oh come on, the highlight of the match was Charizard against Beedrill. Ash, even though he won, should have been embarresed by that.”

“Be fair,” Sam interjected, “Charizard was tired from fighting A.J’s Dewgong.”

“Granted, but Charizard should just have done a quick Fire blast or something instead of trying to do a Seismic Toss. Ash made a big mistake going with physical attacks with a high-level Beedrill like that .”

“Oh, don’t try to make Ash sound like some idiot new trainer. I saw him in action live. He went to Goldenrod a few years ago, to talk to Professor Oak and Mary, and he did an exhibition match against Whitney. The whole orphanage went… Alright, and I don’t know if you know this, but nowadays Whitney has became the strongest Gym leader in Johto, you know that monthly poll in Pokemon Monthly. Anyways, Ash used his Donphan, the one he calls his weakest pokemon, and just flattened her. Absolutely killed her. Her Snorlax was out in like eight seconds. Her Nidoqueen was taken out in one Rapid Spin attack. Game, Set, Match and he didn’t even need to switch Pokemon.”

“That’s not what I’m saying. I know Ash is a great trainer. Well, just forget it. So, did you hear the big news on the train ride over?”

“No, what is it?”

“Ash Ketchum has come out of Mount Silver and is going to be participating in the Ettu Pokemon League.”

“OH MY FRIKKIN’ GOD!” Sam just sat down, “That totally sucks, there goes any chance of us winning that tournament.”

Will turned to look at their Pokemon. They were by no means bad, with the possible exception of Sam’s Torchic, who insisted on those damn sunglasses.

“Ok, point taken, so anyways...Whats the next Pokemon you want to get?”

“Well, I heard from passing Trainers a long time ago about a Shiftry village somewhere to the north. I figured tomorrow we could go hunt for it.”

“A Shiftry? Uh, Will, I know you think you’re fully prepared to become a Pokemon Master on Day 2, but uh, Shiftry is a fully evolved Pokemon. There ain’t a chance that you could handle one at this point.”

Will’s face soured, he pouted, “I know. I don’t want a Shiftry, I want a Seedot. Or a Nuzleaf. Probably a Seedot.”

Sam rolled his eyes, “Alright, if it will make you happy, we’ll go find us a Shiftry Village and get you a Seedot, but seriously do I hafta go? Here’s an idea, you get a Seedot, and I walk ahead to Brutay Town and fight the Gym Leader, deal?”

Will considered it as he withdrew his Pokemon back into their balls. “Good night, my friends,” he whispered, then he turned back to Sam, who had done the same, “Deal.

That night, Will went to sleep with Nuzleaf dancing in his head. Sam went to bed with thoughts of a giant Fearow eating a bus, but that’s not important…

[Wailord_Fan]

Oh my god, I'm a terrible terrible person. I completely forgot that I posted it here, which is really crappy of me since I get more reviews here then I do at SPPf, so I'm gonna flood a little bit and get you guys back up to where I'm at SPPf. However, this will be identical to the chapters at SPPf (no corrections, I think), so if you already read it there, well screw you, you probably didn't reply anyways. I might refine chapter 4 and 5 later on since they completely suck, but bear through them, my readers, bear through them.

so without further adieu, I present to the fifth installment of my glorious fan-fic (Arrogant little bugger, aren't I?)

Chapter 5: Even Monkeys fall from Shiftrys!

“Man, where the $&!^$ is that village?”

Will was not in a good mood. He had gotten up at 7 AM to find that Shiftry village. It was nearly 11:30. Still not a single sign of an acorn, let alone a living one.

<God, this is taking forever,> Will thought, <Why can’t I find that stupid Shiftry village….Wait, Shiftry? Shift-Tree? Five would get a fictitious 2nd party ten that the Shiftry Village is at Treetop level.>

Will smacked himself on his forehead, his 2nd day as a trainer and he’s already made a number of mistakes. Won’t Momma be pleased? And jeez, what’s with Sam? Not even two full days of training and he wants to fight a Gym Leader? Real smart there.

“Hoot-Hoot, go!” Will threw the Pokeball, “Pan out, if you find a bunch of Shiftry, or Seedot, or whatever, come back here and lead me there.”

Will had just gotten out his lunch for the day, an energy bar, when Hoot-Hoot came back. Will called out his Ponyta and jumped on to her.

“Hi-Ho, Silver!” He pulled back on his homemade reins, “YEE-HA!” Ponyta snorted and rolled its eyes, “Ok, just follow Hoot-Hoot, ok? Hmmph, just ‘cause I wanted to inject some drama, I’m the bad guy.”

Hoot’s, as Will had decided to call him, decision didn’t cheer him up much, “Uh, Hoot, this is a group of Rattata. Just for clarification, I meant Shiftry, Seedot, or Nuzleaf, or any combination of the three.”

Hoot sighed and lifted one wing to the tree. There was wooden planks nailed to the side of the tree. “Oh, like a treehouse. Its probably for Nuzleaf, ‘cuz Seedot have spikes on their feet to climb up, and Shiftry have strong enough arms and legs to jump up there or blast their way up there.”

Considering that there was a Nuzleaf using the ladder at the time, Hoot and Ponyta weren’t amazed by that remark, and consequently rolled their eyes. What was wrong with their trainer?

Meanwhile, on the path to Brutay, Meowth and Cacnea were having the time of their lives.

“No, no, its like this.” Sam set one foot behind the other and then spun down, eventually he spins on his butt. He’s breakdancing. “I want us to look good when we fight. I’ve gotten in a fight or two, and that always seems to faze ‘em or at least dodge a hit. Ok, Meowth, you seem to get it, you try.”

Meowth did what Sam did, but better. She was able to spin, but actually was able to spin on her tail.

“Very good, Meowth, that’s very well done for a beginner, do you have some Hitmontop blood in ya?”

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“Friggin’ Fraggin’ Seedot… Makin’ ya jump from treetop to treetop to get to their secret village… I’ll murderise ‘em.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Ok, Torchic, you wanna try?” Sam asked the little bird.

It stuck up its beak and shook its head profusely. Then, it posed in another karate/kung-fuesque pose.

“Suit yourself.” Sam rolled his eyes at the funny little fire Pokemon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Another round for my friends here!” The sandy-haired teen yelled to the short, bald barkeep. The man rolled his eyes. He wasn’t sure if the kid was of age, but he spent a lot. No need to chase off business. Hell, at least two-thirds of the people here were connected to illegal business of some sort. For example, that woman was a Crawdaunt Claw seller, and that midget was a Wigglytuff pelt trader.

BLAM!

“THIS IS A STING! EVERYONE, HANDS UP!” A young pretty, blue-haired woman yelled.

“It’s Offica Jenny! RUN, people!” A hag yelled and called out a Tentacruel. Jenny’s Growlithes and a pair of Wobbuffet jumped in front of the group of officers.

“Sludge Bomb, Tentacruel!” The wrinkled woman yelled. The old man sent out his pokemon. “Thunder Punch, Raichu!”

“Mirror Coat, and Flamethrower!” The young lieutenant commanded.

Oh CRAP! was the first thing that ran through Ethan’s mind. Getting arrested was not a good way to get Dad happy with you. And if his dad wasn’t happy, then he wouldn’t be happy.

“Shuppet, go and disable them!” He called out his second pokemon. The grey ghost complied and its eyes glowed pure white. A black aura surrounded the Officers and their Pokemon. They froze. At the present, Ethan’s face was blocked. If he played his cards right, he could get out without any the wiser. “Flash, Shuppet!”

This ghost Pokemon liked its master. He was a sullen young teenager with enough rage for Shuppet to get fat off of. But, rage directed at Shuppet was a bad thing, so Shuppet decided to work with him, for the time being. Its eyes grew brighter and then sent a blinding flash toward the officers.

“Now, Rhyhorn, lets get out of here!” Ethan yelled, but he said it strangely, his way of masking his voice.

He jumped on top of his saurian pokemon and rode off. Dude this totally rocks. I’m like Billy the Kid. Jeez, I should be a smuggler…Wait, no, Dad wouldn’t like me to be a smuggler. No smuggling. Though maybe…No, no, no. I just said it, no smuggling.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Jeez, Cacnea, you spin like an Electrode.” Sam said, complimenting his starter, “Man, if Gregor could see you…”

Cacnea jumped back to his feet and eyed his trainer suspiciously at the mention of this Gregor. “Oh, don’t give me that look. It doesn’t’ matter who he is, just a guy I knew who taught me how to dance like that, okay?” Sam rubbed his eyes, “Okay, we’re in sight of Brutay Town, lets just get down there and get us a Badge!”

Torchic, who at that time was grumbling, began to cheer up at the possibility of a battle. He placed his black sunglasses back onto his head and struck one last pose, this one the crane kick, and the jumped off the steep hill that they were on.

“Torchic can’t fly, can they?” Sam muttered to Cacnea. He shook his head profusely.

“Well, crap…” Sam muttered but then, something happened. A black swirl had jumped out of seemingly nowhere and caught Torchic mid-freefall. It caught it between two claws. It had a pink somethin’ or other coming out of its head. Where had he seen that before? Some trainer had it at the Johto League Semi-Finals last year…Sneasel! That’s it! It was a Sneasel! But those things are rare, what would one be doing in a backwater town like Brutay? Without touching the ground, Sneasel threw Torchic back to Sam. It touched ground and then treaded off to parts unknown.

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Finally, Will had found his Shiftry village. He treaded softly, luckily, they were taking a siesta. All were sleeping. He was looking for a Seedot that wasn’t asleep; he wanted this capture fair and square. He searched for one that was alone. There was a small building made of leaves, that barely hid away the Seedot. It didn’t look like it had anything to lose.

It was a beggar you could tell, it had the smell of apple cider, maybe something a bit stronger, wafting over it. Will poked it.

“Heya buddy, I’m a Pokemon trainer…” Will began, but he was rudely interrupted by Seedot jumping and kicking him right in the face.

“Hoot, peck!” Will muttered and sent out his bird. The owl followed its commands and began hitting the acorn with its beak.

Seedot grew red and sent a small shockwave at Hoot-Hoot and Will. Will absorbed the blast, he was far too big for it to do too much damage, but Hoot-Hoot fared worse. It was sent back several feet and seemed to be damaged.

Will knew that Hoot-Hoot couldn’t stand another one of those, so he threw his Pokeball. Seedot jumped out of the way. “Come back!” Will yelled.

Seedot jumped off the tree. With a soft ping, it landed. It looked up at Will with contempt. Will jumped out of the tree. He landed, with a thud, on his stomach. The air was pushed out of his lungs. Will with the last bit of strength he had threw the pokeball.

By the time the ball had settled, and Will owned a Seedot, Will was unconscious.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sam and his Pokemon ran to follow that mysterious Sneasel. Meowth was in the lead following its scent. That Sneasel would be Sam’s and Sam’s alon-

They found the Sneasel. It had a trainer, that trainer had his picture on the Gym.

“You, with the Meowth, are you a challenger the Gym?” The boy’s hair was black, blacker then naturally, and he had it clinging to his skull. His skin was deathly pale. He had purple eyeshadow, and black lipstick on. Frankly, he looked like a cartoon character.

“Uh, yeah, I am.”

“Then you will fight me, Azrael, Lord of Darkness! I am the Gym Leader!”

“Oh, crap, what am I getting myself into?” Sam muttered as he entered the gym…

[Wailord_Fan]

Chapter 6
Hit the Gym!

“So, Sam, you still wish to challenge me, Azrael, Lord of Darkness?” The leader asked menacingly.

“Dude, you’re like, 15. I doubt you’re some Satanic High Priest.” Sam answered.

“Not afraid, eh? I’m impressed, though, you should be.” The boy turned on his heel, and swung his cape. He lost his balanced and fell.

“Err…So as I fall in this hallway, so shall you in battle!” Sam stifled a giggle. Unless he was a much better as a trainer than he was as a walker, this would be a piece of cake. A badge on his second day of training would be something. Even the great Ash Ketchum didn’t get his first badge until almost a week later.

Azrael, Lord of Darkness, led him into the stadium. It was dark and damp. The only light source was a swinging chandelier and four torches, 2 on each side of the battle arena. Sam assumed that this Lord of Darkness trained dark types.

The referee, a small old lady with a walker, came up to Sam and tapped him on his shoulder.
“Where you from?” She asked

“Goldenrod City.”

“How many Pokemon do you have?”

“Three, ma’am, and I want to use all of them.”

“Boy, how many badges do you have?”

“None, ma’am.” Sam grinned, “Though, I think that will change in about 15 minutes.”

The woman’s eyes twinkled, and she remained silent. She inched into the Ref’s box.

“This will be a three-on-three Pokemon battle between Maur-I mean Azrael, Lord of Darkness, and Sam of Goldenrod City for the challenger’s first badge.”

“From the depths of hell, I chose the insidious pokemon, Poochyena!” The gym leader threw a Great Ball. It cracked open and released a horrific, a terrible, a most frightening…puppy. That’s right, the depths of Hell have puppies in them.

“What is that supposed to be, Hitler’s dog?” Sam muttered to himself, “Go, Torchic!”

To be honest, with the sunglasses, and the nonchalant attitude, Sam’s Torchic looked a lot more impressive then a puppy, which was chasing its own tail.

“Poochyena, as you toy with yourself right now, we shall toy with them, taunt them!” Poochyena glared at Torchic and then pointed its nose up, and growled a bit. Torchic became furious. He lost its nonchalant body language and he launched himself in a double kick attack.

“Poochyena, counter it!” Poochyena turned around and kicked back with its hind legs. “Foolish mortal can’t even control his own pokemon, is this its first battle?”

“No, I used it against a Caterpie and Wurmple on the way here.” Sam said, embarrassed.

Azrael, Lord of Darkness, kneeled over with laughter. “Yeah, a Gym leader is going to be using a Caterpie and a Wurmple. Did you hear this guy, Grannie?” He pointed at the ref.

“What did you say?”

“Never mind. Counter again, Poochyena.” Torchic launched himself again and Poochyena did a perfect counter.

“Torchic, listen to me, don’t try to kick it. Use your ember attack!” Torchic stared back at Sam, but then nodded and shot out a small fireball.

It floated up into the air, and came down and landed on the black puppy’s tail. Said puppy’s tail started on fire. The noxious odor of burning hair filled the room. It began rushing around the room.

“Now you can kick it!” Sam ordered. Torchic jumped into the air and bashed into the side of Poochyena’s skull. The Bite pokemon staggered to the left, and the veered back to the right. It let out one pitiful cry and then fainted.

“Lucky mortal! Return Poochyena! Go, my messager of hate, Murkrow!” He called out, sending out a crow with a witch hat. Again, not that impressive.

“Take a rest, Torchic,” Sam recalled his pokemon, “Go, Meowth!” What better to kill a bird (besides a stone) then a cat?

“Malediction on you and your cat, Sam of Goldenrod! Faint Attack, Murkrow!”

“Counter with your own Faint Attack!”

Both pokemon turned red and then disappeared. It sounded like the air was swishing above their heads. Sam grabbed his head, fearing getting hit by one of the invisible pokemon.

Finally after nearly a minute, a gigantic crash was heard. Both Pokemon returned to sight.

“What the HELL just happened?” Sam yelled.

“You idiot. When a pokemon uses a Faint Attack, they sidestep to a pocket dimension. Since they were in such proximity to each other, they went to the same dimension. Not enough room so they fought each other for room.”

Both pokemon looked tired. Meowth more so than Murkrow. “And since Murkrow is a Dark Pokemon, its more fit for a fight in the pocket dimension,” Sam muttered to himself.

“So you’re catching on! Yay, the idiot has a clue.” Azrael, Lord of Darkness said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “Wing Attack, Murkrow!”

“Mega Punch, Meowth!” Sam ordered.

The Darkness Pokemon flew in, with same manner of trained pilot. Everything was in it’s control. Meowth shifted her weight back, and waited until the Pokemon was about two feet away.

“Jump, Meowth!” Meowth jumped over the bird, but not without punching the neck of the bird directly.

The bird crashed from shocked, and rolled several times.

“Murkrow is unable to battle, Meowth wins the battle!” The ref yells.

“I know, Grannie. Well, no matter, you’ll fall to the Morning Star. Watch out for my…SNEASEL!”

“Return, Meowth, and go Cacnea!” Sam orders, while switching out pokemon. “Wait a Sneasel? Lets see what the Pokedex, says. I don’t want to lose now.”

Sneasel, the Sharp Claw Pokemon. Sneasel scales trees by punching its hooked claws into the bark. This Pokemon seeks out unguarded nests and steals eggs for food while the parents are away.

“Alright sounds pretty sadistic. Fitting. But lets play this safe, Leech Seed!” Cacnea sent some little pods on to the black cat-like pokemon.

“Slash ‘em, Sneasel!” The mysterious quality from Azrael’s voice disappeared. In one quick motion, Cacnea was thrown across the room. It fainted on contact.

“Cacnea is unable to battle. The Pokemon count is 2 to 1 in favor of the challenger!” The tiny old woman yelled.

Meowth is probably too tired to fight. Plus, didn’t the announcer at that tournament mentioned somethin’ about Sneasel being weak against fire attacks?

“Torchic, go!”

“Swords Dance, Sneasel!”

The Sharp Claw Pokemon did a quick run around Torchic, all the while spinning its arms.

“Fire Spin, Torchic!” Sam ordered, hoping what he remembered was right.

Azrael’s eyes shook open. He didn’t like taunting about Sneasel’s ice characteristics. Unfortunately, because he didn’t want a trainer picking up on this, he never bothered to come up with an effective counter strategy.

Sneasel, like Poochyena before it, had its fur caught on fire. It fainted. What luck for the beginning trainer.

“Sneasel is unable to battle! The winner is Sam of Goldenrod City!”

Just then a bright light filled the room. Torchic was glowing. Arthur, the man who had lost Torchic in a battle, must have kicked himself right then. Torchic was evolving. The tiny chick became larger, like a chicken, and his colors inverted. Its legs became muscular and powerful-looking.

“Combusken!” He yelled, his voice fluctuating. This must have been the version of Pokemon puberty.

“I get you some acne cream,” Sam said, as he petted the much larger fire chick Pokemon.

Azrael, Lord of Darkness, came over and presented to Sam a black and grey emblem resembling a octagon. “This is the Shadow Badge,” He handed Sam what looked like a video tape, “This is my PTV for Faint Attack. You can use it at any Pokemon center.”

“PTV?” Sam looked at his fallen enemy.

“Pokemon Training Video. On the back shows a list of Pokemon that can learn the move. Just have them watch it while sitting in the special PTV Seat at the Pokecenter, and they’ll learn it.”

Azrael turned on his heel, this time without tripping on his cape, and walked to his quarters. But the door burst open. A red-haired boy with a Ponyta at his side entered.

“Will! I won!” Sam yelled as soon his eyes readjusted.

Will nodded, and then pointed at Azrael. “I’m your next challenger!”

[Wailord_Fan]

Chapter 8
Raving Tech

The morning after, Will and Sam had gotten up early, eager to get off the hard ground.

“That is the last time we sleep on the sidewalk,” Sam complained.

Will held out his hat that had sat next to him all night, “But look how much money people just gave us?”

“That’s because they thought we were hobos, ” He held his pointer finger to shut Will up before he could say anything.

That day was particularly uneventful. They saw a movie about a blind Hitmonchan in a red leather costume guarding the streets of Saffron City. They ate lunch, and now they were strolling around in the park of Brutay Town.

Sam thought aloud, “So we both got badges, eh?”

“Tell me something, Sam, do you have a badge?”

“Why, yes, I do.”

Will held out his hand containing the grey octagon, the Shadow badge, “And what is this?”

“A badge.”

“Now, would you say we both got badges?”

“Yes, sir,” Sam said crestfallen. For good measure, Will slapped the back of Sam’s head. Sam turned around and punched Will. Will retaliated, a kick to the shin. Sam seized Will by the shoulders and wrestled to the ground.

They were on the edge of a hill. They wrestled down the hill.

“Take that you little…” “Eat dirt, you big sonafa…” They yelled at the same time.

“WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?” Both boys were shocked that there was anyone near them, for it was late. They turned, and stood up to find a scrawny man, no more than 27 years. He had a greenish-blonde tone to his hair. Odd, but not too odd, perhaps the man just went swimming. He had tears running down from his eyes.

“Uh, dude what’s wrong?” Sam asked. He hoped he could help. Will sighed. He didn’t want to help.

The young man looks up, “My...my…my Pokemon were stolen.”

“What Pokemon?” Sam said instantly, “’Cause I’m gonna get ‘em back for you.”

The man looked up, “You would do that for me? Thanks! My name is Dustin.”

Will rolled his eyes. He so did not want to do this. His mom told him to keep to himself and let others deal with their own problems. But Sam seemed determined to help the little guy, and he did owe Sam some money for dinner last night. He ran his fingers through his bright red hair. He’d only been gone a couple days; nevertheless it seemed wild. It was rougher than before. He was definitely going to grow it out, so his momma won’t recognize him when he wins the championship.

“Well, the Pokemon stolen were my Lickitung and my Electabuzz,” Dustin said.

“Do you have any other Pokemon? Did the kidnappers leave a note?” Sam obviously watched CSI, or at least read Encyclopedia Brown books.

“I have my Pelipper…Uh, I have their note around here something…” The scrawny man searched his jean pockets, and only came up with a receipt to a donut shop. He unzipped his red and white jacket, and finally came up with the white paper. Instead of handwritten letters, or being printed, it had letters cut out of magazines and newspapers. It read the following: Bring Project: Rubber to the abandoned warehouse on the corner of 69th and Cherry Road, on the 12th at 11:45 PM. If you are not there by 12:00, then we’ll kill your Lickitung and Electabuzz. Love, Team Tech.

Sam passed the note to Will who quickly read it. Sam seemed to be content with that information, but Will wasn’t.

“What’s Project: Rubber? And why would Team Tech steal your Pokemon?”

“Wait, hold up, what’s Team Tech?” Sam said, very confused.

Will sighed, “In Ettu, there is two organized crime labels, the horrific Team Purge terrorists, and the noble misunderstood Team Tech.”

“What? Noble? They stole this dude’s Poke-...”

Dustin nodded, “You knew someone in the bank, right?”

Sam was more confused than ever, “Excuse, foreigner here, what in the name of Celebi are you guys talkin’ about?”

Will didn’t feel like spreading the light on this one, so Dustin filled him in, “Team Purge about 5 years ago led an assault on a bank in Cath Town. They killed everyone in it.”

“My dad owned it,” Will said after a pause. Both Dustin and Sam turned in surprise at Will.

“You’re a Ratic?” Will nodded, “Ratics are one of the richest families in Ettu,” Dustin quickly followed, for Sam’s benefit.

“Wow…uh, but how did these teams form?” Sam was still a bit shocked, but an Electabuzz and Lickitung were depending on them.

Dustin again covered this one, “When John Ketchum, more commonly known as Giovanni, (and an uncle to Ash Ketchum) and founder of Team Rocket was captured, the team went to a pair of brothers, Thomas and Caleb. They were both sure of Team Rocket’s success of conquering the world, but they had very different views of what to do after that. Thomas wanted to start a space program and keep the engines of technology running, like Russian dictator Joseph Stalin. Caleb, on the other hand, had views similar to..Uh…Cambodian dictator Pol Pot. He wanted to start everything over. They had generals on each side. Eventually Team Rocket split into Team Tech and Team Purge. They, for some reason, have been migrating to Ettu in the last couple years, right after the Cath Town Bank incident.”

“Why don’t you, Dustin, go to the police?” Sam asked.

Will smirked, “This is Team Tech’s headquarters. It is well-known knowledge. If the police do anything against the team on their home turf, it would cause a war.”

“Yeah, now about my Electabuzz and Lickitung....” Dustin started.

“You never told us about Project: Rubber.”

Dustin nodded his head and bit his lip, “I’m a Pokeball Engineer, I do freelance work out of Judeah, and well, Project: Rubber is one of my ideas.”

“Do you have it with you? ‘Cause we have about two hours to get to the warehouse and confront them…and I think I have a plan…” Will said slowly. He rested his head on his palm, “This is what we’re gonna hafta do…”

10 minutes later, “One last time, everyone knows what they’re doing?”

Dustin and Sam nodded. Dustin had already checked out the warehouse, and was able to get them there within half an hour. They had everything set up by 11:35. Now just to wait for Team Tech.

“Mr. Dilans?” The front door flew open. In walked three operatives. One was a young woman with strangely enough purple hair, most likely dyed, and green eyes. Another, a man who was around Dustin’s age. He had somewhat more traditional blond hair, but it seemed bleached, and in actuality he was a natural brown. His nose was blunt, most likely a result of it being broken multiple times. The third had a bald-correction, shaved- head, and was wearing sunglasses, at night even. It was hard to gauge his age, since he lacked any identifying features. Of course, none of them could see where Will or Sam were, they were hidden behind a piece of rusted machinery and a moldy box, respectively.


Dustin trembling stepped forward with the box containing his Project: Rubber, “I’m Mr. Dilans.”

“Ah, of course,” the bare-headed male stepped forward, pointing at the box,“I take it that is Project: Rubber?” Dustin nodded; the man smiled, and commanded “Hand it over.”

“Show me Electabuzz an’ Lickitung first.” The man nodded, and his two associates showed the Pokeballs, one was a Great Ball held by the girl, and the other was a Luxury Ball held by the other man, “Show me them, not their Pokeballs,” Dustin snapped. The Pokeballs opened. Dustin’s eyes filled with tears. Indeed it was his Electabuzz and his Lickitung. “Ok, return them to their Pokeballs.” The punks did.

“On the count of three, we hand each other our respective objects,” The man in Sunglasses said.

“One,” The young girl smirked.

“Two,” Her partner continued.

“THREE!” Will yelled, his heart pumping. A blur rode through the hands of Dustin and the Team Tech man.

“Get that thing!” The girl yelled. The bald man drew his gun.

“Ice Beam, Pelipper!” Sam commanded. The waterbird jumped onto the box and fired a blast of cold. The man’s arm in both sense of the word was frozen.

“*KZAAP* Holographic projection integrity compromised.” The voice emanated from the man but his mouth didn’t move. He shimmered, and disappeared. In his place was a small Pokemon. It resembled a duck, made out of blue and purple construction paper. A Porygon was disguising itself as a human. However, Porygon’s fin was still covered in a blue frost. It turned to the humans, “Get them, you dumb-at symbol-dollar sign-dollar sign!”


“We really should get rid of its censor program, eh Joaquin? Go, Mantine!” The girl called out. Her Pokemon was a large Pokemon. It had wings and was floating above the ground. Unlike the average Mantine, there was no Remoraid tucked underneath the wing.

“Indeed, Marietta. Tropius, take care of that Pelipper!” The man, apparently named Joaquin, sent out his Pokemon. It too was a large Pokemon, though not as large as Mantine. It was a dinosaur, Brachiosaurus to be exact, however it was veiled in leaves, on its head, its shoulders, it even had leaves sprouting out of its tail! Oddly enough, bananas hung from its neck. It flew, its tail leaves were acting as a propeller.

“Ember, Combustken!” Sam ordered his yellow chicken Pokemon. The bird jumped and began breathing fire upon the rare bannanasaurus.

“Whirlwind, Tropius!” The dinosaur blew back the flames at the group of Sam, Pelipper and Combustken.

“Fire a Water Gun, Pelipper! Then another Ice Beam!” The water hit the fire, causing a great pile of steam. The Ice Beam quickly followed, causing a slight down pour of water on the people below. The Ice Beam kept going.

“Protect yourself, Tropius!” Joaquin commanded of his Pokemon, “And go, Muk! Bombard them with sludge! Sludge Bomb! Whatever!” The gigantic bag of purple puss joined into the battle. It began shooting packets of itself at the group.

Meanwhile down below, Will had to put up with Mantine. “Seedot, use your Quick Attack!” The little acorn rushed forward at an uncharacteristically quick speed. “Geez, I didn’t think that would work.” Will muttered to himself.

“Mantine, Agility, then take it down!” Marietta told her aquatic Pokemon. It sped out of the way from Seedot, and turned on a dime and hit it from above. However, Mantine got quite a shock from Seedot’s kick to the head.

“Electabuzz, Thunder Wave!” Dustin yelled out after freeing his Pokemon from his Great Ball.

“Two on one isn’t fair!” Marietta grinned as she grabbed her second Pokeball, “So, I choose Marowak!”

“NO!” Dustin yelled as she called out her ground type Pokemon. For some reason, the wave of electricity moved from its path to Mantine to Marowak.

“Of course, you realize that any electricity looks for the nearest path to the ground,” Marietta smirked, “Bone Rush, Marowak! NOW!”

“Seedot, Leech Seed on Marowak!” Will urged his Pokemon. Out of the top of his stem, a few seeds sprang forward. Seedot launched them at Marowak. These slowed down the Pokemon. They glowed green, and so did Seedot. Seedot’s bruises went missing. They could be found on Marowak.

“Return Electabuzz!” Dustin ushered his electric Pokemon into his containment, just before the opposing Pokemon threw its bone. “Go, Lickitung, Screech!” The long-tongued Pokemon came out of his Luxury ball. His tongue began vibrating up and down at high speeds. It caused a ghastly hiss. All the humans grabbed their ears. “Now, Lickitung, show them your swagger!” The Lickitung let out a cloud of gas at Marowak and Mantine. Within two seconds, both Pokemon came out of the swinging. They were different. They were bigger, not literally, but they carried themselves with more projection, more confidence. Their eyes were red. They were maaa-ad!

“Marowak, use a Skull Bash!” Marietta commanded. It lowered it’s head. It charged…directly at Mantine! Mantine countered with a Bubble beam. Marowak used a Sky Uppercut, Mantine, a wing attack. Within 2 minutes both Pokémon were knocked out.

“Way to go, Lickitung!” Dustin commended his Pokémon, after all it didn’t make sense to give it a tongue-lashing.

Up in the rafters, Sam had Joaquin stalemated. Combustken and Pelipper were too adapt at dodging attacks, but Tropius knew Protect and Muk knew minimize. Neither team was able to get a hit in.

“Muk, use your Mega Punch!” A frustrated Joaquinn said.

“Counter, Combustken.” Muk’s stretchy limbs flew forward at Sam’s bird-fire-fighting thingy. Combustken flushed red. The stretchy arm reflected off the red aura, back to its owner at double the force. The pole that supported Muk wobbled.

“Heh, Will, a little help here?” Sam called out.

“Certainly , my companion. Seedot, why don’t you kick that pole over there?” Will smiled on his overly-sophisticated accent he used; he wanted Joaquin to know what happening. The little Plant Pokemon waddled over, and using his powerful legs, knocked over the pole. The box that Muk was set upon fell, Muk and all. From the fall, Muk was knocked out. However it fell upon Will’s poor little Seedot!

“Seedot!” Will screamed. He jumped into the pile of unconscious gloop. He vigorously shoveled away pockets of the gunk. He had to find his Seedot. The smell assaulted his nostrils.

“Razor Leaf!”

“Pelipper use your Ice Beam!”

Normally Will would watch the battle but he had to get his Seedot. Finally he came upon a solid bump, not the viscous ooze that Will now sported a thin film of. He pulled and he pulled. He saw the familiar nub of Seedot’s stem. He pulled and pulled, but a suction cup kept Seedot down. Finally, with one mighty heave he freed his poor Grass-type Pokemon. Will grabbed the Pokemon and held him tight to his chest.

Seedot began to glow; however, this time it wasn’t glowing red like it was in the Gym battle. It was glowing white! It was evolving! Seedot began to elongate and become pointed at the end. Then out of his stub, a human-like body formed. Out of the very top of Seedot’s came a leaf. Will smirked, he had his Nuzleaf! Nuzleaf seemed surprised at this development but it did not seem to dislike the new form. “Nuzleaf, use your Faint Attack on Tropius!”

Nuzleaf disappeared and then his leafy arm appeared and hit Tropius on the head. “Now, pound it to the ground.” Nuzleaf reappeared fully and jumped onto Tropius’ back and began hitting it over and over with his head. “Go, Ponyta, ember! Nuzleaf, jump off it!”

But before Ponyta could come out, Porygon spoke up, “Tactical recaliberation….Barrier.” Yellow bubbles appeared around the trainers and their Pokemon, “Light Screen,” The bubbles took on a greenish tint, “Now, retreat.” Team Tech ran off at top speed.

Dustin sat down and sighed, “Thanks you guys? Say, are you guys going to Judeah?”

Sam climbed down from the rafters and leaned into Will, “There’s a Gym there right?” Will nodded, so Sam continued, “Yeah, man, sure.”

“Well, as a thank you, how about I drive you guys...” BOOM! In through the window crashed a license plate…“That was my license plate,” Dustin said matter-of-factly, “I know, you guys are pretty good trainers. You escort me to Judeah, and I’ll make you a custom Pokeball each…and give you 175 dollars?”

Sam was about to mention that wouldn’t buy them two antidotes, but Will stepped on his foot, he mean “He means American money; I saw his billfold…That’s 175,000 at our current exchange rates.”

“Yes, sir, that’s sounds like an excellent idea.” Sam said, “Oh, Will, congratulations on your Nuzleaf…But my Combustken could beat it, fo sho.”

“I’d like it to see it try. It may have a type advantage, but it could still beat your puny..”

Dustin looked up at his Pelipper, and mouthed the words "ICE BEAM" to it. It winked and fired two rapid-fire Ice Beams. One hit Will in the move, the other hit Sam in the groin.

“Ouch…”

[Wailord_Fan]

Chapter 9.
A Winning Entry!

“Y’know Dustin, I’m gonna hafta spend like all my money of reconstructive surgery…” Sam said. He was walking; Dustin and Will were sitting and lying respectively on the cart carrying Dustin’s equipment. Will’s Ponyta, Sam’s own Meowth and Dustin’s Pelipper was pulling it, Nuzleaf, Combustken, Electabuzz were pushing it. Cacnea and Lickitung were playin’ checkers and Hoot-Hoot, being nocturnal, was sleeping.

“Not my fault. Pelipper usually has better aim,” Dustin winked at his bird.

Will sat up, “Tell me something, Dustin, why do you have your Pokemon?”

Dustin smiled, a strange sight considering how gaunt his face was, “I have maybe 10 or 20 pokemon, but those three are my favorites. They help me in my work.”

Sam, forgetting about his abused groin, looked confused, “How so?”

“Well, I use all natural materials for the actual body of the Pokeball, like apricrons and certain amounts of iron ore, Pelipper has a keen eye for spotting such materials. Lickitung is really good at getting berries and ore with its 7 foot tongue, and Electabuzz allows me to have a personal electrical generator right by me wherever I am.”

“Then why do you have like 20 others?” Will asked, half-way interested.

“Test Pokeballs. I find ‘em in the wild and see if the Pokeball works in the right way,” Dustin explained, he too seemed barely interested in this.

“Where do you keep ‘em all?” Sam asked, he was the only one that seemed very intrigued by this.

“Well, I have a pretty extensive estate in Judeah, so they have plenty of room. I bought the land after the patent on the Baby-Ball went through,” Sam opened his mouth, Dustin rolled his eyes, “The Baby-Ball makes it easier to catch a Pokemon if you are battling it with its evolved form.”

Minutes passed. Then a half-hour, then a hour…

“I’m bored. Can we stop?” Sam asked.

“For what?” Will asked, half-asleep. It was warm and sunny, and he was lying down.

“Train or somethin’. Maybe we could find a Trainer or something.”

“Well, that is a good idea…Dustin, is that ok with you?” Will said as he jumped off the cart.

“Sure, it’ll give me time to fine-tune Project: Rubber,” Dustin got out his toolbox and box that contained the main part of the mysterious Project: Rubber. Sam was about to ask about it, but decided against it. He wanted to train up his Cacnea and Meowth. Both Will and Sam untied the ropes connecting their Ponyta and Meowth to the cart and then with rest of their Pokemon walked off.

When they were out of what Dustin thought was an earshot, Dustin popped in a CD.

Crocodile on my feet
Fox fur on my back
Bowtie 'round my neck
That's why they call me the gangsta mack
In the Cadillac!! Yeah!!

“Is he listening to rap?” Will asked his companion.

“Yeah,” Sam said as he surveyed the land.

“But, he’s white…” Will said, “And rich!”

“Dude, its Outkast. Outkast knows no borders. Plus you don’t think like Warren Buffet or Ash Ketchum get down and party?”

“But…but you got mad when I turned the TV at the Pokemon Center to BET.”

“Yeah, but y’know, 1. rap in of itself isn’t black, just look at Eminem or Vanilla Ice plus one of the founders of Russel Simmon’s label was Jewish, 2. BET is Black Entertainment Television and 3. Shut up.”

“Fair enough. Hey look, a Zubat! That’s odd, its day…”

“Finish it off Yanma, Sonic Boom!” A green and red dragonfly accompanied this loud familiar voice. The owner of the voice was familiar, the way he didn’t walk but he sauntered, the harshness he yelled his commands, the lack of joy he had. It was Ethan, the boy who received his Rhyhorn the same time Sam and Will received their starters.

Will elbowed Sam and pointed out the odd spectacle. Yanma weren’t often seen under the care of trainers, especially in Ettu. It was too mountainous and cold for most bugs to survive. As a result, most of the bugs here could beat the bugs in, say, Johto.

Ethan bent down a picked up a stone that was tied around the Zubat’s tail. “Pa will like this, Water Stone’s always go at a high price,” He stood up and saw Will and Sam staring at him, “Well, I’ll be, look at dem fools, eh Yanma?” The toughened Pokemon just snarled.

Will walked forward and extended his hand, “I wouldn’t touch him if I was you, he isn’t exactly house-trained.” Yanma zipped about, “Hey, why does it keep doing that?” Ethan asked.

“It’s Yanma’s Speed Boost ability. The longer it stays out of its Pokeball, thus in a adrenaline-pumped battle state, the faster it becomes,” Will explained. His mom had made sure he could function without a Pokedex, plus he kinda liked Bug Pokemon

“Pfft, ok,” Yanma snarled some more, “I’m even a bit scared of that bug.”

“Hey, I could take it,” Sam said instantly.

“I don’t think you could, even if Yanma was asleep, or poisoned,” Ethan grabbed one of his Pokeballs, “You probably couldn’t beat any of my Pokemon even if they were frozen solid.”

“I’m sure I could, I just won my first badge,” Sam glared up at Ethan. The older boy smirked.

“You wastin’ your time tryin’ to get badges? That proves it, I’ll take you on, and beat you in a heartbeat.”

“Ok, lets see, I’ll choose Cacnea!” Sam threw down his pokeball, revealing the Cactus Pokemon. It shrieked at Yanma, Yanma started foaming at the mouth.

“Looks like your little peapod is makin’ my Yanma fuss up, so let’s works some of that negative energy out, I choose Yanma.” The bug hissed and flew forward.

“Great, Yanma has the upperhand...” Sam muttered, then decided he might as well set something up, “Leech Seed, Cacnea!”

“Sonic Boom!”

Cacnea stretched out his limbs, and giggled. The spikes off his arms shot onto Yanma. They settled on it. Yanma, in response, flapped its wings so fast that it broke the sound barrier. The shock wave struck Cacnea, doing a lot of hurt.

<Gotta think evasive> Sam thinks to himself. He takes out his pokedex, he had a feeling. He murmered to it, “Cacnea’s special ability.”

It beeped out, somewhat passionately, like the machine cared for Sam, “Sand Veil, During a Sandstorm, Cacnea is more evasive.”

On another intuition, Sam orders Cacnea “Use Sandstorm!” Cacnea’s spikes hadn’t reformed, and suddenly a strong wind shot out of it. Debris and dust and rock began flying around. In this, Cacnea disappeared.

“Hidden Power, Yanma!” Ethan commanded, not sure at what the younger trainer is aiming for. Yanma’s wings began vibrating more. White energy poured from them. The energy flew in orbs at the sand storm. They flew past harmlessly. Green energy came from Yanma and into the sandstorm. This strategy just might work. A shrill giggle came from the Sandstorm.

“Hah, that was fun. Fire a Poison Sting at Yanma!” Sam yelled. Purple darts flew from the sandstorm, but the source couldn’t be seen.

Ethan gritted his teeth, then he remembered a move that would hit a Pokemon no matter what, “Yanma, swift attack!” Stars formed at Yanma’s mandibles. They flew into the sandstorm. But green energy poured from Yanma to Cacnea. A faint hiss could be heard over the crash of the sandstorm.

“Try another one!” Ethan yelled, his confidence coming back. Yanma tried, but its eyes glowed purple and more green energy flew from it to the sandstorm, “Damnable Cacnea, try a whirlwind!” This time, Yanma complied. A small tornado formed. It counteracted the forces in the Sandstorm. It died down. But Yanma’s eyes grew purple again, and it hovered closer to the grown. It was worn down again by green energy being sapped from it.

“Swift!” Stars fired again, and behind it so did green energy. The stars hit Cacnea dead on. It shrieked. It hit the ground, unable to move. But the same could be said of Ethan’s Yanma.

“Well, it looks like you’re better than I thought.” Ethan recalled his Yanma, and placed over the button, a bottle that was custom fitted to fit over it.

“It’s a revitalization potion,” Will whispered to his Hoot-Hoot, “They’re very expensive.” Then louder, so that Sam could hear, “Yo, Sam, I saw Dustin had the same machine as a Pokemon center. He could heal your Pokemon for you.”

Ethan murmured a good-bye. Sam and Will walked slowly back to the cart. “Hey, man, no worries, you can’t win ‘em all. You’ve done amazingly well so far.”

“Yeah, but…I don’t know, I just thought that I-HEY!” Sam pointed yonder at an oak tree and elm tree. A Scyther and Pinsir were there, gripped in locks of mortal combat.

“Dude, lets go!” Will said. Sam ran at them, “NOT THAT WAY!”

“I’m gonna get me a Scyther, and beat that Ethan!”

Will begrudgingly followed. He might as well catch a new Pokemon. “Yo, Dustin, we’ll be back in just a little bit!” He yelled out.

[Wailord_Fan]

Chapter 10
*Lame Title about Bugs not found*

Sam was in a full out run now, Will closely following. “Dude, Sam, wait up!” Will called out. Sam threw out his arms, and sighed, but the battling Pinsir and Scyther were too busy to notice. “You can’t just go off running into a battle like this!” Will whispered.

“That’s a Scyther and Pinsir down there! That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!” Sam hissed.

“Exactly! You can’t just goin’ chargin’ in and screwin’ it up!” Will said, his eyes glaring, “Now, I know you want a Scyther, but, you lost to a Yanma. A Scyther is above a Yanma like…” Will sighed, but he had to finish the analogy in something that Sam would get, “Outkast is above the Eastside Boys in terms of artistic fulfillment. A Scyther from Johto could beat a Yanma from Ettu, so think what a Scyther from Ettu could do.”

“My God, really?” Sam said, “I’m mean Outkast is really good, so that means that a Scyther…OH! Well, no worries, I’ll just use Combusken, Fire-types are totally awesome against Bug-types.”


A look of disbelief convulsed across Will’s face, “Fine! But it looks like those two aren’t going anywhere for a while, so we can take a minute to run and grab a Great Ball from Dustin.”

“Dude, Dustin has Great Balls?” Sam looked awestruck. Will held back a giggle as Sam said that, and just nodded, “Oh, you can just go to hell,” Sam deadpanned as he took off to the cart.

Sam was the faster, again. However his face was flush, and his black hair was greasy. He ran his fingers through his hair. They had residual grease on them. He wiped it off on his red and yellow with black trim black jacket. “Hey, Dustin, Will said you had some Great Pokeballs?”

Dustin looked up at him, and removed his safety mask. His gaunt features were pulled back, his eyebrow cocked to one side, he was puzzled. Then he snapped back into the know, “Oh, yeah, I have some Great Balls.”

Will began to giggle some more. Sam knocked him in the stomach with his elbow, then Sam continued on, “Can we please have one, each?”

Dustin searched around the tiny cart, but apparently, it had a lot of hidden compartments, because he took out more mass than the cart, itself. Finally, after a few minutes, Dustin came up with a pair of blue balls with red crests curving on the top. The pair of trainers grabbed both of them.

This time, Will was the faster runner. He was feelin’ fine, and it showed. His features were full of energy. He thought of something, he could have just hopped on Ponyta and ran to Dustin, but it didn’t matter. Scyther and Pinsir appeared on the edge of horizon. They were tired out. Pinsir was slipping; Scyther’s blades were coming closer.

CLANG! The scythe struck Pinsir right in the antler. Will winced.

“Combusken!” Sam called out his Pokemon, which immediately entered the Crane Kick position, “Combusken, we’re not on the Karate Kid.”

Combusken looked over his shoulder, and then jumped towards the two Bug Pokemon. Sam didn’t want to admit it, but that was a big jump, his Combusken was strong.

Scyther drew its breath; Combusken was staring it down. The Mantis Pokemon was standing strait, and then it lunged at Combusken, aiming at the abdomen.

Combusken leaned back, so far that his back formed a 90° angle. The blade past just millimeters from the top, but it missed nonetheless. The Combusken kicked Scyther in the leg knocking it over. He then jumped and spun and kicked Scyther in the mouth. The green ninja flew back. It then flew upwards and began to dive towards its new challenger.

Combusken looked around for some object to block the incoming scythes. He picked up a log, and went into a batting stance. Scyther crossed the plate, and BAM! Scyther goes back a few yards, but that doesn’t slow it. It begins to flap its wing furiously. Pieces of debris began to fly and hit Combusken.

“Ember, Combusken!” Sam commanded, finally taking control of his Pokemon. The young fowl began to spit flames at the bug. They overcame the wind, but were so weak that they caused little damage.

Will approached the Pinsir with an item in hand. It wasn’t his Great Ball, but a Super Potion. While Dustin was searching for the Great Balls, he found the potion.

“Hey, it looks like you can use some help,” Will said tenderly. The stag beetle picked up a rock with its spindly arms and chucked it at the red-headed trainer. It whizzed by his ears, but Will did not flinch. He let the rock hit the ground and then inched forward.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” Will stated, “I’m gonna help you.” He grabbed the head of the bug, and opened up the mouth and poured in the concoction. The bug who previously seemed very injured seemed to become vibrant and alive within mere seconds.

“Wow, those really work,” Sam hollered over his shoulder. Sam probably shouldn’t have taken his attention off from the battle, but Sam, even though they only knew each other for a couple days, felt a bond between him and his older traveling partner.

THWAP! Combusken made solid contact on Scyther’s neck. It staggered a bit, but almost immediately returned into a fighting stance. It glared past its scythes at Combusken and then flew forward. It threw its scythes down at the yellow and orange chicken. The scythe were a blur, but the blur left a gash on Combusken’s left arm.

“Crap…” Sam said, he thought perhaps that his Pokemon could physically dominate the Scyther, “Fire Spin, Combusken!” The beak of Sam’s Pokemon opened and through it, flames shot out. The peculiar way of spitting fire caused the flames to curve. The bug panicked, and flew threw the flaming wall. It was hurt, but not too badly.

Sam wasn’t sure of what to do. “Uh, Combusken, use…Will-o-Wisp!” The chicken cleared the smoke from its sunglasses, and then breathed out flames. But these flames weren’t red or yellow, or whatever. They were black, and spherical. The spheres assaulted the bug. It staggered. But it hovered closer and slashed the chicken legs of Combusken. Sam knew Combusken was down and out, so this was the moment of truth. He grabbed the Great Ball off his belt and took careful aim at the panting bug. He chucked the ball. It spun in the air at the bug, Sam held his breath. The ball struck the severely weakened bug. The blue and red top half creaked open. The bug turned into orange energy. It was sucked into the ball. Before the ball even hit the ground, it began to shake, violently. Scyther wasn’t going out without a fight. It was out of Sam’s hands.

For nearly a minute, the ball shook back and forth. Back and forth, back and forth. But eventually, the burn and pain were too much. The ball clicked. Sam had caught his Scyther.

“Pinsir, I don’t want to fight you, but I will if you force me too. You’re still injured. Finish off this Potion.” Will tossed Pinsir the bottle, “If you don’t want to come with me, I guess I can’t force you to.”

Will slowly walked away from the bug. It choked down the rest of the Super Potion and got up. It staggered over to Will and pulled something off his belt. A Pokeball. It threw the ball at itself. The ball clicked immediately.

“Geez, I guess Pinsir was effected by the Super Potion’s vapors,” Sam said, he witnessed the whole thing.

“Yes, I agree, that’s something you don’t see everyday,” The two boys turned to meet the voice. The black-as-coal-hair, the eyes that lacked color, the official Pokemon League hat. The Pikachu sitting on his shoulder, and last but not least, the royal Pokemon Master Cape? It was the envy of all trainers, the beater of all the gyms, the coolest guy to ever handle a Pokeball, Ash Ketchum.

[Wailord_Fan]

Chapter 11. Mystery explained!? Ash Ketchum’s Family Heritage!

Will’s mouth was agape. Ash was standing in front of him. ASH KETCHUM WAS FRIKKIN’ STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM! The 7-time MVT(Most Valuable Trainer), VIP, Vice President of the Pokemon League, head of the Pokemon League Lobby in Kantonian Congress, and receiver of Venonat Weekly’s Nicest Person award was standing in front of Will, a 1-badge noobie. The best part of it was that Ash complimented him on his capture of Pinsir, kinda. Well, at least he acknowledged that it was unusual. He took notice…well, actually he was talking over Will to Sam.

Then Will, still almost hyperventilating, noticed that Ash was not alone. There was a boy and a girl accompanying Ash. And they struck uncanny resemblance to him, the boy more so than the girl. In fact, the boy was almost the spittin’ image of Ash in his younger days, he even had the old Pokemon League hat. He wore a black T-shirt and Jeans. He had wild, unkempt black hair coming creeping out his hat. He had 4 Pokeballs clinging to his belt.

The girl’s facial structure resembled Ash and the boy, but her hair was a brilliant shock of lilac. She had it tied back in a ponytail, and had a blue and black bandanna tied around her head. Will had to admit, she was cute. She also wore jeans, and a black shirt, and 5 Pokeballs clung to her jeans. Will wished he could magically get rid of the dirt that was sprinkled over him by Combusken and Scyther’s fight.

Will turned away from them and stole a glance at Sam. He too was shocked. However, his Combusken kept nudging him in the stomach, and Sam motioned him off. Combusken grew angry and kicked Sam in the back, sending Sam flying.

The boy and the girl giggled, they weren’t much older than Sam, but Ash Ketchum, ever the hero, went forward and helped him up. “You should pay more attention to your Pokemon, I’m not that awesome,” Ash said with a manly chuckle.

“So, uh, who are the kids?” Sam asked with much reluctance.

“They’re my kids,” Ash said simply, “Miranda and Hunter.”

The kids walked forward, and both of them bowed. Its obvious that they are children of the 13-year reigning champion, Pokeia royalty.

“Uh, I’m Will and that’s Sam, and we also have a guy name Dustin, whose that-a-way.”

Hunter looked shocked, “WHAT? Didn’t you read the signs? A dangerous Pokemon is on the loose out here! Our mom was attacked by it!”

“What signs?” Sam said confused.

“The big billboards we put up,” Miranda said quietly. Will sighed, she was shy, “Don’t you ever look up?”

Will regretted these words as he said them, “I was sleeping…And Sam here, I’m pretty sure he can’t read.” At these words, Sam smacked the back of Will’s head. Miranda giggled. Mission accomplished, Will.
“Boys, this is no time to fight, lets just get to this Dustin character, and make sure he’s alright,” Ash tried to stop anything from going forward.

“Pika!” The yellow rodent on his shoulder agreed.

“Yessir,” Sam said immediately. Something was nagging him though, and he followed up, “Do you know what kind of Pokemon that attacked Mrs. Ketchum?”

“All I heard was a big buzzing sound, and then I heard Sakura scream,” The World’s reatest Pokemon Master said.

“We were out camping and I jerked awake, I saw a glint of red fly away. I’m thinking it was a Salamence and I saw its wing,” Hunter added.

“I think you’re wrong, I saw black. No part of a Salamence is black, besides, I was with Mommy, and I heard a ‘snip’” Miranda countered, “It cut through the tent.”

“You think it could be a Vibrava? A shiny one?” Sam thought aloud.

“I doubt it; they prefer desert areas than wooded ones like this,” Ash answered knowingly. Two shrill hoots filled the area. “Ah, here they come.” Two large birds came flying in towards the party as they trudged forward, “Anything, you two?” Ash asked his Swellow and Noctowl, who was a shiny type. The birds clucked sadly.

Meanwhile, in front of Ash and just out of earshot, “Is it me, Sam, or did Ash gain a little weight?” Will asked.

Sam stared at him incredulously, “Can you blame him, after what was discovered? He’s going through a ridiculously rough patch.”

“What was discovered?” Will asked.

Sam stared at Will like he was an idiot “Jeez, this is a hick region, it’s the talk of the town in like everywhere else,” Sam paused and made sure no one could hear him, “Ok, y’know how no one would say who Ash’s father was?”

“Yeah, go on,” Will responded.

“Well, 9 months before Ash was born, there was a rape reported in Pallet Town,” Sam whispered.

“Wait, what? Whoa…You’re saying that Ash Ketchum is a result of a rape?” Will stammered.

“Yeah, Delia Ketchum was never married, and according to her mother and some friends, they weren’t aware of Delia seeing anyone at that time.”
“My God…So, Delia’s maiden name was Ketchum?” Will asked, still in a bit of shock

“Yeah, and Delia never told Ash, so he was just as shocked as anyone when this news came out, he must be depressed,” Sam said solemnly, and then turning to the rest of the group, “Here we are, DUSTIN! CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

Dustin walked forward with a wry smile; he leaned in behind Sam and yelled in his ear, “YES, I CAN!”

“Ow…” Sam said, “Joking aside, did you run into any trouble with a Pokemon?”

“You mean that pregnant Scizor running around?” Dustin asked, suddenly the fact hit Ash, Hunter and Miranda. A Scizor would be fast enough to get away, it was mostly red, but it had black on them, its wings caused a buzzing sound, and it could cut open a tent, “It was mad but Electabuzz was able to fend it off. Then I escorted it to its eggs. I think it was angry over someone disrupting where it laid its eggs. Looked like some idiot pitched their tent there. Oh, hey, Ash!”

“Oh, that makes sense. Female Scizor are very protective about their eggs, and hello right back to ya, Dustin.”

Hunter spoke up, “You guys know each other?” Both grown men nodded. For a few minutes, the two reminisced, while Sam steeled his nerves. After they caught up with each other, and a pause presented itself, Sam walked up to Ash.

“Can we battle?” Sam mumbled. Ash looked stunned, he was not expecting an obviously new trainer to challenge him, but he really didn’t have a choice now did he? But a thought struck Ash.

“How about if either of you can beat both Miranda and Hunter in a battle, you can try to beat me. So, we’ll have Will fight Miranda and Sam fight Hunter and if either of you win, then you get to face the other one.”

Miranda smiled at Will, and Hunter opened his mouth to say, “Whoever is fighting me has to have double battle with me. I’m training to be the greatest double battler of all time.”

Sam shot right back, “Then I guess when you write your memoirs, you’ll leave our battle out of it.”

“We’ll see about that, Ekans, Koffing, go!” Hunter ordered.

“Wait a sec, let me heal my pokemon.” Sam placed all 4 of his Pokeballs onto Dustin portable healing machine, “Ok, go Meowth and Combusken!”

Meanwhile, Miranda was telling Will, “ A 2 Pokemon battle okay?” Will nodded, “I like water Pokemon. Do you have any?” Will shook his head, “Alright, then I guess, I’ll have to go with Squirtle!”

“Go, Nuzleaf!” Will ordered, hoping to bank on an easy Type advantage, “Use Bullet Seed!”

“Withdraw and Rapid Spin!” Miranda ordered. The tiny blue turtle tucked itself into the shell and began spinning at great velocity. The organic shells that were fired at the Water Pokemnon harmlessly bounced off, up over the turtle. “Now headbutt them back at ‘im!” When she is battling, Will noted, she comes out of her shell, no pun intended. The turtle complied and surprisingly enough, it was able to deflect the seeds back at Nuzleaf.

But, Will had a little ace up his sleeve too, “Faint Attack, Nuz!” His Pokemon disappeared, “Upward slash!” Like it was possessed, Squirtle shot up in the air. “Reappear and give it another round of Bullet Seed.” Nuzleaf did appear, and Squirtle relatively soft undercovering was shot by Nuzleaf.

“Skull Bash!” Miranda ordered. Squirtle positioned itself as it fell.

BOOM! Nuzleaf’s head was hit by Squirtle’s. Both Pokemon were injured. Both staggered. “Squirtle, Mega Punch!”

“Nuzleaf, Nature Power!” Squirtle lunged forward, but Nuzleaf created a green aura. The Green aura turned into leafs, that knocked away the turtle. Squirtle flew back into a tree. It was too tired to move.

“Squirtle is unable to battle! The match goes to Nuzleaf!” Dustin declared.

“Good job, Squirtle,” She said as she recalled her Pokemon, “You too, Will, but I’m afraid this will probably be too much for you! Go Lombre!”

“Take a rest, Nuzleaf,” Will recalled his tired lead-off batter, “I thought you said you like Water types? He sure don’t look like a Water type.”

“Check your Pokedex, silly. Lombre is a water and grass type!”

Several minutes beforehand, Sam and Hunters match began.

“Koffing, Smokescreen! Ekans, maneuver three-dot-six-one-zero!” Koffing blew out a cloud of smoke, masking the two Pokemon.

“Ember, Combusken, cause the smoke to lift! Meowth, protect Combusken from whaterver Ekans is up to!” Combusken opened its beak and began to shoot flames at the smog. Meowth ran around Combusken. Ekans wasn’t in sight. The flames caused the smog to become lighter. Lighter than air, it began to flow away.

Suddenly the ground underneath Combusken split open. Ekans dug itself underneath the Pokemon. Combusken was injured. “Meowth, tackle and wrestle Ekans! Combusken, use Double kick on Koffing.”

“Ekans, wrap around Meowth! Koffing, use a Sludge on Combusken,” Hunter ordered his two poison type Pokemon. Meowth grabbed Ekans and held it over its head, Ekans responded by wrapping his body around Meowth’s arm.

Meanwhile, Ash was having a slight panic attack at seeing Koffing, Ekans and Meowth all on the same battlefield. Back at the battle of Will and Miranda, Lombre kept getting the upper hand on Hoot-Hoot. It was quicker than Hoot-Hoot, not by a lot, but enough to throw off most strategies.

“Hoot, Hypnosis!”

“Lombre, Uproar!” Hoot-Hoot’s eyes glowed bright yellow, but Lombre let out a large yellow and began swinging its arms around, “Sorry, Will, but Lombre can’t go to sleep if its causing a uproar like that. And I wouldn’t advise getting close to it, you probably will get hit.”

“So, you’re trying to restrict my move, make me wait? Not gonna happen, Hoot-Hoot, do you think you could use a Confusion technique?” Hoot-Hoot rocked back and forth, Will took that as a yes, “Then do so!” Now, Hoot-Hoot’s eyes shimmered blue. An veil of blue surrounded the green human-shaped Pokemon. The water spilled out of its lily pad water collector. It floated up above the trees. It soared even higher, until it was hard to see the four-foot-nothing Pokemon.

“Now, drop it!” Will commanded. The blue aura disappeared as quickly as it came about, and Jolly Pokemon plummeted.

“LOMBRE! USE YOUR WATERFALL ON THE GROUND!” Miranda screamed at her Pokemon. Will saw what she was doing. That stream of water would slow its descent and considerably soften its landing.

“Hoot-Hoot, it’s uproar has ended. Use your Wing attack and make sure it can’t keep its head aimed towards the ground,” Will said a split-second after.

Vicious tactic perhaps, but Will wanted to battle Ash.

Miranda’s eyes bulged, “Call off your attack!” She ordered Will, “I give, you win!”

“Alright, agreed. Hoot-Hoot, don’t follow through. Let Lombre go through with it!” Will hollered. “Go, Nuzleaf and Pinsir! Catch Lombre!” His two humanoid Pokemon, hesitated, and then Nuzleaf sped towards Lombre shadow. Lombre was about to hit…Will’s own second stage grass Pokemon jumped and caught the larger Lombre in his arms.

“Thanks, Nuzleaf,” Miranda patted the little guy on his leaf, which apparently was very pleasant for Nuzleaf. It jumped on top of Miranda’s head. The shins, Will’s shins were what Miranda kicked. “You could have killed my Lombre, you big goober!”

“AHGK!” Will fell forward and began to massage his horribly tortured shin, “OW-OW-OW-OW-OWIE! And on a more serious note, who says ‘goober’?”

Dustin walked past him, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially if she used to play soccer.”

Back on the other battle, the score is 1-2 in Hunters favor. Combusken had been poisoned, and just moments before, he collapsed on the field. Its all up to Meowth.

“Ekans, use your Poison Fang! Koffing go in, and take down Meowth!”

“Meowth, use your quick attack to get up out of there.” Both Poison Pokemon jumped towards Meowth. But Meowth jumped out of their way quicker than the eye could follow. Ekans was quicker than Koffing, and as a result, it got the brunt of the Take Down attack. “Meowth, Pay Day, pay check to Ekans! ”

Out of seemingly nowhere, Meowth hands produced coins, coins that shot at Ekans. The Take Down and the Pay Day were too much for it. Its tense muscles slackened, it fainted.

“Ha! Now Ekans gonna have to file for bankruptcy!” Sam chuckled, Hunter just stared at him, “See, those were coins, and that’s money.”

“No, I get it, its just not funny, Koffing, get close to Meowth and…Self-Destruct!”

Koffing flew towards Meowth. Meowth gallantly tried to sprint away, but Koffing doesn’t tire from traveling distances. Finally after a minute of chasing, Koffing was close enough, and he turned a bright white.

BWOOOOOOOOM! Both Meowth and Koffing were sent flying. Both fainted.

“HA!” Hunter called out. “Now you can’t move on!”

“What?” Sam immediately responded.

“My dad said you had to win against me. You didn’t win, we tied, so you don’t get to move on.”

“Ack, dude, that’s not fair.”

“Its what my daddy said, so you can just eat it.”

“Technically, he is correct,” Ash said grimly, “But as a consolation, I’m giving you this, Sam.” Ash pulled something out of his knapsack.

Oooh, is it a Masterball? A Pichu egg? Some cash?

“I give you this!” It was an autographed Pokemon card. A picture of him and his Pikachu. It was part of the Fleer Pokemon Trainer Card set. Sam didn’t even collect these. “Thanks….” Sam said half-heartedly.

The red-headed trainer, and his purple haired opponent came forward. “I won, sir, so now I face your son, am I correct?”

Ash looked around, and then after a few awkward moments, “No, you don’t, its getting dark. You’ll face him tomorrow. First thing in the morning, then after that battle, and possibly our battle, we’ll go to Judeah, and check in with my wife.”

“Give Sakura my best wishes,” Dustin said, as he steered Will towards the cart, and whispered“Boy, you gotta win this one. I don’t like that Hunter, he is not a nice kid. You saw him weaseling out of battle with sam. We’re gonna train tonight.”

“Oh, I will,” Ash affirmed and then pulled his son to the side, “You must win that battle, I don’t enjoy Will’s techniques. His battle with Lombre makes me nervous. He could of killed your sister’s Pokemon, so we’re gonna train throughout tonight.”


“Ok, Will, what two Pokemon are you going to use, ideally?” Dustin said to his trainee

“Ponyta and Pinsir? Double P’s”

“This isn’t a time for jokes.”

“Ok, Hunter, what team are you going to use?” Ash said sternly at the exact same time, 40 yards away…However, if I let hear what Hunter replies, that’ll ruin some of the suspense of the next chapter, and that’s not what a good writer does, so here comes those three little dots that signify “To Be Continued!” …

[Wailord_Fan]

Chapter 12.
Double Battle! Hunter snipes for Will!

“So, Dustin, do you think Will has a shot?” Sam said. He was reclined against the cart, nursing a sweet tooth with a Cherry Coke.

“You heard us training through out the night. Ponyta was doing well, but Pinsir still isn’t completely trustful of Will’s decisions,” Dustin yawned and flipped the eggs on the portable oven. He took a water bottle and squirted some onto his face, “Remind me never to stay up all night training Pokemon.”

“Will do, Dusty,” Sam murmured as he called out his four Pokemon. Cacnea shook itself awake, his Combusken was already awake, Meowth was still asleep. His Scyther seemingly was meditating. It had its legs crossed and its claws pointed at the sky, and its normally blazing eyes (from what Sam saw during their battle) were closed.

“What’s Scyther doing, Dustin?”

“Well, y’know why the Scizor was so antsy? ‘Cause its mating time, and females get very stressed out during that time, so they meditate,” Dustin said

Sam’s eyes popped open and his jaw dropped at this comment, “You mean, my Scyther’s a girl?” he half-asked half-murmured.

Dustin smirked as he used a fork to dig out some egg caught in his teeth, “Well, yeah, can’t you tell? If I remember correctly from Bug Pokemon Anatomy 101 back at the university… I mean that’s obviously a 45 degree angle knee crest, instead of a 50 degree, and the arches of the blades are much too round to be of a male. ”

“Oh…oh… Oh yeah I must be blind,” Sam rolled his eyes as he turned back to his Scyther, “So, what are the genders of my other Pokemon?”

“Well, Combusken is obviously male, look how it tall his head feathers are,” Dustin dug the fork deeper in his mouth, “Cacnea is also male, since it’s crown isn’t concave, and Meowth, judging by the number of serration’s on her head coin, is female.”

Will walked towards the cart, and picked an apple off the table. He rubbed it on his orange t-shirt and took a bite with a satisfying crunch. “Hey, Dustin are you gonna eat that fork now, or are you going to put some in a doggie bag.” Will poured himself a glass of root beer. “Down the hatch,” he said, “Sam, whatchu drinking?”

“Cherry Coke,” Sam responded, not turning to look at Will.

“Kinda fruity drink, don’t you think?” Will said as he yawned, and flattened a cowlick of his vibrant red hair.

“Well, it’s Cherry Coke, emphasis on Cherry.”

“I don’t think we’re on the same page here, Sammy”

“So, I take it you’re fed and watered?” Ash said as he and his son walked towards them.

“Yeah…” Will said, his head slight bowed, glaring at Hunter underneath his brow.

“Then, let’s do it,” Hunter said, his head pointed upwards, gazing down at Will past his nose.

They walked up to a plateau, a grassy, gnat-filled plateau. It was seemed to be completely flat. Little did they know that 50 years ago, a casino resided on these grounds. However, Ettu banned casino gambling, and the casino was mowed over completely. An environmental group came in and planted seeds on the plot.

“After the technical knock out of Sam in the previous match, it has been decided that as long as Will does not lose his match, he will be granted a chance to fight the Pokemon Master Ash Ketchum,” Dustin declared, as he took his spot between the trainers, who stood at the opposite ends of the flora-filled former casino, now meadow. He raised both hands, “Trainers, present your teams.”

“Go Ponyta! Go Pinsir!” Will’s first Pokemon was his starter, a crème-colored horse, though the mane and tail of this black-as-coal-eyed Pokemon were pure flames. His second Pokemon was a large, humanoid brown bug. Two mandibles extended from his head, snapping wildly, and giving him his namesake of Pinsir.

“Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee, its your turn!” Hunter called out the two other Pokemon in his possession. Both of Hunter’s pokemon were fighting types. The first, Hitmonchan, resembled a mocha colored boxer, whose hair was styled after Don King. It wore a green tunic and red gloves. Hitmonlee resembled a large potato with eyes, teeny arms, and legs that slightly resemble a coil. Will decided to check his Pokedex.

“Hitmonchan, the Punching Pokemon. An evolution of a defense-oriented Tyrogue. Its punches slice the air. They are launched at such high speed; even a slight graze could cause a burn.” The grating metallic voice paused and then continued, “Hitmonlee, the Kicking Pokemon. An evolution of an attack-oriented Tyrogue. This amazing Pokémon has an awesome sense of balance. It can kick in succession from any position.”

“Hitmonlee, High Jump kick Ponyta, Hitmonchan, Earthquake.”

“Pinsir, focus your energy and then Vice Grip on Hitmonchan! Ponyta, use your hind legs to stomp Hitmmonlee in the air!”

Hitmonlee jumped into the air with his right leg extended. Hitmonchan swung his powerful arms towards the ground however, the impact never reached its target. Using a burst of speed only attainable after focusing its energy, Pinsir had used his giant mandibles to clamp the arms. As Hitmonlee throttled forward, Ponyta turned around and bucked her hips, knocking the Kicking Pokemon back, and blocking his attack.

“Pinsir, Seismic Toss!” Will commanded. Pinsir clicked his actual jaw, and then begun swinging his head around. He spun it wildly and then unlocked his giant antlers. Hitmonchan went flying, in fact, right into Hitmonlee.

“Ha, I couldn’t do that better if I planned it! Fire Spin, my little pony!” Will commanded his little pony.

Off the field, Sam muttered, “And he calls me fruity… So, Miranda…”

Back on the field, Ponyta blew flames at the two evolutions of Tyrogue. However, instead of having her mouth completely open, like what she would do with an Ember or Flamethrower attack, she had it part-way open and had her tongue placed firmly in the center. This caused two streams of flames, that curled into each other, around her opponents, trapping them.

“You give, Hunter?” Will called out.

“Naw, I’ve been in tighter situations. Hitmonchan, try another Earthquake, Hitmonlee jump in the air, and use Rock Tomb on Pinsir!” Hunter said, wiping his brow.

Hitmonchan slammed his fists on the ground; the resulting shockwave extinguished the fire. Just before the gloved fists hit the ground, Hitmonlee leaped 20 feet into the air. His eyes radiated yellow, and several rocks appeared out of seemingly nowhere. These rocks launched at Will’s Poor bug.

“Pinsir, Brick Break those rocks, except for that big one!” The sides of Pinsir’s arms shimmered white. He sliced through the boulders, “Now use your antlers to catch the last one!” Pinsir ducked and just as the boulder passed over him, the pincers snapped and caught the rock.

“Good job, Pinsir, now, Seismic Toss the rock towards Hitmonlee!” Will grinned ear-to-ear as he said this. Pinsir spun and let the rock loose at Hitmonlee. The rock sent Hitmonlee flying.

“Hitmonlee, endure!” Hunter called out. As Hitmonlee hit the ground, he blazed with a yellow aura. He struggled to get up, but, amazingly, Hitmonlee was made of sterner stuff, because he succeded.

“Endure?” Will said as he fumbled his red PDA, the Pokedex, out of his pocket.

“Endure. A Pokemon draws its focus on survival, allowing it to withstand even the most powerful attacks. Success drops as a Pokemon repeats this technique.”

“Pinsir, Brick Break on Hitmonlee!”

“Geez, Will, you don’t learn good,” Hunter smirked, “Hitmonlee, endure!”

“You mean, ‘Geez, Will, you don’t learn well. Learn well,” Miranda called out as she massaged her Totodile, “So, Sam, you have a Scyther, too? My uncle, Tracey gave me the baby of his.”

“Oh, really? Maybe we could discuss this over a coffee somewhere.”

Away from Sam’s flirting, Pinsir had his arms pressed against the yellow aura.

“Double Kick, Hitmonlee,” Hitmonlee did two rapid kicks on Will’s giant bug.

“Ponyta, use your quick attack on Hitmonlee!” The aura went away while Hitmonlee attacked. Ponyta stopped dodging Hitmonchan’s Comet Punches and with, blinding speed, did a full-on body slam onto the potato-shaped Fighting Pokemon.

The fighting Pokemon without his defense, went down. “Hitmonlee is unable to battle. The count is 2-1, in favor of Will. Recall your Hitmonlee!”

“Yeah…Yeah…” Hunter said as he withdrew his injured Kicking Pokemon back into his Friend Ball, “Hitmonchan, use Fire punch on Pinsir!”

“Pinsir, dodge it, Ponyta, Stomp!” Will ordered.

“Switch to Thunder Punch on Ponyta.” The Hitmonchan lunged forward, his fists ablaze. Pinsir jumped back to relative safety, but Ponyta too was lunging forward. Spinning on his heel, Hitmonchan’s fists become electrically charged.

WHAMPH! Ponyta is struck hard by Hitmonchan, “Mach Punches!” Hunter ordered. Then, suddenly faster than the eye can see, the Punching Pokemon let loose with a fury of body blow to Ponyta, “Finish Ponyta off with Body Slam!”

Ponyta was already on her knees struggling to get up. Hitmonchan dived on top of her, letting his weight do the pain. Ponyta passed out.

“Ponyta is unable to battle,” Dustin ruled, “The score is 1-1. Next knockout wins! Recall your Ponyta.”

“Good job, Ponyta,” Will said as he returned her to the Pokeball, “Its all up to you now, Pinsir!”

“Well, he ain’t able to do nothin’ about it!” Hunter called out, “Try another Earthquake!”

“Hunter, your grammar is dreadful,” Miranda shouted from the sidelines.

“Let it hit you, Pinsir,” Will ordered, humbly.

Once again, a shockwave went through the ground. It caused Pinsir to fall flat on his face.

“Now, use Revenge!” Will ordered, his gamble paying off. Pinsir got up, and his eye turned red. He made a fist and put his other hand on top of it. He rushed up at Hitmonchan, and…

POW! Hitmonchan is knocked up into the air. Pinsir begins a volley of punches, juggling Hitmonchan in the air. Finally, after a good 15 seconds of this, Hitmonchan hits the ground. Understandably, he did not get up.”

“Hitmonchan is unable to battle, Will is the winner! He moves on to fight Ash Ketchum on a 2-on-2 match!”

Hunter recalled his Hitmonchan, bowed slightly to Will, and walked back towards his camp. Ash came over, shook Will’s hand, and took his spot on the other end of the field.

“Present your first Pokemon, Ash,” Dustin pantomimed a throwing motion to the Pokemon Master. The Master nodded.

“I choose you, Croconaw!” Ash sent out the evolved form of Totodile, a blue and tan colored crocodile, with red spines thrusting out. Will whips his Pokedex out and scans the water-type.

“Croconaw, the Big Jaw Pokemon. The evolved form of Totodile. It opens its huge jaws wide when attacking. If it loses any fangs while biting, they grow back in.”

“Go, Nuzleaf!” Will called out his Grass-and-Dark Pokemon, “Grasswhistle!” A leaf appeared on Nuzleaf’s arm, a glowing leaf, that is. He slides it across his pointed beak creating a low pitched, almost soothing noise, that caused the Pokemon to become drowsy.

“Ancient Power, Croconaw,” Ash ordered calmly. Croconaw curled up into a ball. A haze of white energy surrounded him. Croconaw tensed his muscles and then forced it out. The energy drew rock and ground with it. The energy struck Nuzleaf along with pelting him with chunks of earth. A few remnants of that energy remained with Croconaw though. The energy then flew into Croconow. The alligator suddenly seemed to become bigger. The crocodile began a rapid dance, waving his arms and legs all over.

“Ah crap…” Will said as he looked at his opponent’s Pokemon, “Nuzleaf…Torment Croconaw, and then launch a Leeching Seed.” Nuzleaf’s eyes became a blood-red and he faced Croconaw. The red glaze shot from Nuzleaf’s eyes to consume Croconaw. Then, the leaf on top of his head grew a tiny green bud. Nuzleaf rolled his head half-way very slowly, and then whipped it through the air, striking Croconaw on the chest.

“Gotta finish this quickly. Focus Punch!” Ash hollered. Croconaw’s claws formed a crude fist. The fist drew in energy from the surroundings and Croconaw itself.

Will stared at Ash, just for a second. Focus Punch was one of the most powerful moves available to a trainer. However, it needed a long time to charge up, and an attack would throw the focus off, making the previous effort useless.

“Nuzleaf, Faint Attack!”

“Finish it!”

Too fast for most eyes to see, Nuzleaf disappeared, and reappeared above Croconaw. It hurtled down at the evolved stage of Totodile. However, Croconaw did a Focus Uppercut, connecting Nuzleaf directly on the chin. The Wily Pokemon was sent flying.

“Slash it, Croconaw!” He followed his master’s commands. Croconaw used his vicious claws on Nuzleaf before he hit the ground. Nuzleaf wasn’t getting up.

“What?!” Will screamed, “No Pokemon could perform a Focus Punch in that short of a time! I should know, I did a report on it for school!”

“When Croconaw used his Ancient Power, he increased all of his statistics. Stamina, strength, and speed. Croconaw was operating on a different clock than us,” Ash explained, again with a chuckle. That annoying chuckle.

“Nuzleaf is unable to battle, the count is 2-1 in favor of the champion!” Dustin called out, “Choose your next Pokemon!”

“Go Pinsir! Beat that punk!” Will really wasn’t sure about this, but Hoot-Hoot wouldn’t have a shot against an Ancient Power. Ponyta was still nursing her injuries from her battle with Hitmonchan. Pinsir didn’t seem too banged up from the battle, plus, Pinsir seemed like the obsessed-with-battle-type, like Ash’s Sceptile, Charizard, or Crawdaunt. Ironically, the last assignment he did before he went on his journey, Will did a report on Ash Ketchum, the man he was battling. He was going to do it on Drake, the Orange Crew Leader, but his pal, Petey probably would have mocked him. No one gave a damn about the Orange League. Amazing how off-topic someone’s mind wanders in these type of situations.

“Croconaw, Double Team!” Ash ordered, remembering that Croconaw’s Screech would have no effect on Pinsir and his Hyper Cutter ability. Croconaw suddenly split into three identical Croconaw.

“Pinsir, focus your energy! Then use your Vice grip on that Croconaw,” Will ordered, pointing at his selection. His Stag Beetle Pokemon glowed red, and then lunged towards the Croconaw on the left. However, Pinsir just passed through, as if he were diving through a hula-hoop. Both Croconaw taunted him by sticking out their tongues at the poor Bug. But the joke was on them. Green energy flew from one to Pinsir.

“Double team failed! You can make a copy of Croconaw, but you can’t emulate the effects of Leech Seed!”

“Hmm, that turned out lucky for you. I mean obviously you couldn’t have planned that.”

“Shut the-” Will realized that the Pokemon Master could get his license revoked for use of profanity in battle. Darn etiquette by-laws.

“Croconaw, use Double Edge!” Ash said.

“Harden, Pinsir!” Will responded immediately. Evidently, his battle with Hunter was still occupying quite a bit of his brain space.

Croconaw launched himself at Pinsir at a verifiable vicious velocity (Nice bit of alliteration there, kudos to all my ghost writers.) In fact, it was so fast that Pinsir was knocked flat on his back, and Croconaw still sped forward in the air.

“Flying Croconaw!” Sam yelled as he tackled Miranda, as she was in the flying Water-type's way. Croconaw landed shortly after this. The Pokemon rushed back to the battle field

However, something was askew. Little globules of seemingly floating blue energy circled the Johto starter Pokemon.

“Ha, just like I planned!” Ash said, “That’s Croconaw’s Torrent ability. I started thinking about Pinsir’s Hyper Cutter, and realized that I could use my Pokemon’s ability to an advantage. I trust you know what Torrent does?”

“Actually, sir, Pokemon Abilities was an elective, and I choose Pokemon Evolution over it. I never covered it.”

Ash, in a seemingly impossible speed, fell on his face, not unlike what one could find in a cartoon, possibly made in Japan. He got back up at a pace equal if not exceeding his original speed. He then rolled his over-expressionistic eyes, “Torrent causes Croconaw’s water abilities to become more powerful. So, now without further adieu, Croconaw, HYDRO PUMP!”

“Stop that from happening. THRASH!”

The crocodile sucked in a bunch of air, containing a lot of water vapor. His lips filled, and he kept them clamped shut, letting the pressure build. But the gigiantic stag beetle charged him. Suddenly, Croconaw’s mouth was aimed upwards at the sky. A strike to the throat caused all that H20 to go straight up. After almost a full minute of a righteous beating, Croconaw was trapped in Pinsir’s pincers.

“Croconow, Brick Break!”

“Vice Grip!”

These attacks were carried out at the very same time. Croconaw struck Pinsir as Pinsir choked Croconaw. Both fainted.

“Pinsir and Croconaw are unable to battle, the winner is Ash, the reigning champion!”

“Holy…” Will began…

“CRAP!” The rest of the group followed.

“Good game, Will!” Ash said almost immediately, “I figured you didn’t have a snowball’s chance in a very hot, bad place that the etiquette Pokemon League by-laws won’t let me mention. My Croconaw is not an easy Pokemon to beat.”

Will was estatic…just in pure bliss. Even as the three other trainers jumped into their custom Benz, Will felt like the richest, most powerful, best dude in the universe. He had beaten one of Ash Ketchum’s Pokemon, one who had been in his possession for years.

Lets just say for the next day or, say, two hundred-fourty-freakin'-six days, Will wouldn’t let Sam or Dustin forget that fact.

[Wailord_Fan]

Well, this is just a little diversion. Its chapter 12.5. This is kinda confusing, so as a guide, anything thats not in quotation marks is the narrator.

Also. PLEASE RESPOND!

Chapter 12.5
Shocking Revelation! Sam’s dad is an Onix!?

It had been one week since Ash’s Croconaw had done battle with Will’s Nuzleaf and Pinsir.

“We kicked that Croconaw’s ***, you forgot about that part, Mr. Narrator man.”

You guys can hear me?

“Yeah, since, like half an hour ago, and frankly we’re not pleased,” Sam spoke up, “I think we may need to switch to one of your competitors, maybe someone younger and sexier. Frankly, some of the stories you’ve tried out kinda sucked, and our ratings plummeted. And this new one? An Onix? Really?”

What? You can’t switch! I’m omnipotent! Besides, my stories would be a comedy bistro, if you guys would just put a little more effort into it! C’mon, I need this job!

“And we need good ratings,” Dustin answered the all consuming voice, presumably of a very, very sexy man “Stop doing that. Look, can we table the stories issue, and focus on how your describing this? C’mon lets look at how you’re describing us. What do we know about Will? He has red hair. Sam? Brown hair and just a teensy bit chubby. Me? I’m gaunt? What the hell is gaunt?”

Well, you’re skinny, very skinny. Its kinda like some stretched your skin so you just skin and bones.

“Care to take another whack at it? And what do we know of our personalities? I’m made out to be some mentor/sensei/mechanic, instead of the hard-boiled mouth-like-a-sailor rogue with a heart of gold like I truly am.”

Listen buddy, that may have been what I originally thought you up as, but I’m digging what I have you as now.

Suddenly everybody bust out some phat new dance moves. Heh, break dancing satisfies all!

“Stop the rockin’ track!” Don’t step, Will. Ok, you may now take quotation marks, “Thank you. Dustin brings up a good point. So far, this has been kinda cliché. You got to admit that.”

Well, it’s the 90s type of cliché, like the movie ‘Scream.’ Did any of you ever see that? It sucks, but we know it sucks.

“Well, since you conceived this universe, and never thought of that when thinking of it, no. And your attitude just won’t cut it, in this economy.” Sam responded to the incredibly hilarious chap, who by the way, ladies, is single.

Will sighed, then giggled, and snorted, and then became Godzilla, and turned back, then threw down an elaborate martial arts-y move that makes ninjas jealous, “Look, we’re tired of this juvenile treatment. Can we discuss this like adults?”

Fine.

“Ok, we want some personality. Me and Sam are practically identical in terms of id, ego and superego,” Will continued shifting from Godzilla to human while he said this.

“Ethan seems like the typical rival character that is oh-so-common in these types of fics.”

“While you’re praised for your originality when it comes to the Gym Leaders, and Pokemon choices,” Sam said, (I have nothing funny to do to him, it IS Sam, fer Chrissakes!) “Main character personalities are barren. Devoid of personality, almost.”

“Second, we would like a little personality in the Pokemon. You were going to have Pinsir disobey Will, but nothing came to being with that. Combusken probably has the most of them, what with him being obsessed with being the Tough guy,” Will continued.

The omnipotent, omnisentient, all-encompassing being nodded.

“Third, would it kill ya to throw in some hot chicks? This is like the Testerone-fair of 2004.” Dustin demanded. Then he turned into a gigantic ape and fought the God-willa.

“Last, I’d like to see a spark of originality. Something odd concerning legendaries…uh… Me being the son of Onix or something.”

I had something like that planned! Exactly as you said. Sam=Human mom, Onix Dad.

“On second thought, that sucks, forget that.”

Alright… Let me get this straight. Differentiate Sam and Will in terms of personality. Make the Pokemon have personalities. Have some hot chicks around, and make something original?

“Yep.” All three said in unison, then turned into three hot chicks.

“This isn’t really what we were thinking when we said hot chicks. Turn us back”

Fine.

If I do this, you’ll return my omnipotence, and act like you don’t know I exist?

“Sure, but, if we find you lacking, we will find a replacement,”

So, I guess I’ll be seein’ ya?

“Can we borrow your omnipotence just for a second?” Sam asked. To which the handsome deity consented. Will was turned into a dwarf by Sam. Dustin apparently started dating Kirsten Dunst and Britney Spears. Sam got a pudding pop…with magic ninja powers.

[Wailord_Fan]

Chapter 13

Legal Battle! Off with their heads?

The three boys had been traveling for about two weeks now on that damn cart. Dustin insisted on cart, saying that that a car wouldn’t have enough room for his equipment, and trucks take up too much gas.

Normally, Pelipper, Meowth, Scyther and Ponyta would be in front, tied to the cart and pulling it. Nuzleaf, Combusken, Pinsir and Electabuzz would be in the back, pushing it. The three trainers would be sitting on the cart or walking aside it. But they were within a mile of Dustin’s compound. Everyone was pitching in to get there. Hoot-Hoot was pulling, as was Sam. Dustin was making sure the equipment was steady.

Will was tucked in between Dustin’s Electabuzz and his own Pinsir. He was pushing just as hard as the pokemon on either side of them. He was clothed in a red t-shirt, however, he had a white long-sleeved shirt on too, almost acting like a jacket. He had denim shorts, but was regretting this, because gnats kept biting his thighs. He stopped for just a second and wiped the sweat off his brow. The last few days were way too sunny for Will’s fair skin, and he had developed bad sunburn on his face and shoulders. Luckily, a Pokemon Center located in the woods sold sunscreen, though, now, Will had to wire home for more money.

Sam was up front, walking backwards while pulling the heavy cart. He weighed himself at the Pokemon center. He lost 11 pounds since the 16 days of their Pokemon journey. That wasn’t too healthy, but Sam was feeling good, and better yet, looking good. When they first started the journey, Sam was just a little bit jealous of Will, who actually had muscle mass. But Sam reminded himself that Will was 14, a year older than him. He was farther along in puberty. Sam sighed and realized he wasn’t too bad to look at. His dark brown hair was acting particularly well today. It was luscious, as they said on the commercials. He almost looked like what he saw on E!, or maybe, if Ben Affleck was cloned. He was wearing a green t-shirt, with the only pair of pants he had, a pair of old jeans, almost too tight, but Sam was losing weight, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Plus, Miranda told him he had cute eyes. He wasn’t sure what that meant, but they were bluish-green, and looked sensitive, according to the ladies. What Sam really liked about himself was his smile. His teeth were perfect. He didn’t need braces, they just came out perfect. They are real, and they are spectacular!

“Well, guys, job well done!” Dustin yawned as he jogged to the back and put down the brake lever, “We’re here, this is my little shack.” Dustin pointed to a large house that laid about 20 yards ahead of them. Huge was probably an understatement. It was enormous! Gigantic! It was so big that no word could adequately describe it, in fact, I must make up a word to describe its size, and that word is gremaninesque! Not only was it gremaninesque, the land that was contained in the fence was well, seemingly as large as Cath Town, Will’s home town.

“Wow…” muttered Sam.
“Whoa..” said Will.

“Combusken?” said the Combusken

Those three phrases were the most his stunned guests could utter, “You like?” Dustin asked, then he snapped, and called out, “Shedinja!”

A second passed, and suddenly, a bright light appeared. It took form into what looked like, a bug, with only one pair of legs, and almost angelic wings. A halo hovered over it. Sam took out his Pokedex, and scanned it.

“Shedinja. The Shed Pokemon. Nincada’s mind after evolution. Shedinja's hard body doesn't move - not even a twitch. In fact, its body appears to be merely a hollow shell. It is believed that this Pokémon will steal the spirit of anyone peering into its hollow body from its back.”

“Hey, this Shedinja is brighter than the one in the Pokedex,” Will said, looking over Sam’s shoulder.

“Well, it should be. This Shedinja is a shiny one.”

“Shiny?” asked Sam, innocently.

Will sighed, and then responded, “A small percentage of Pokemon are genetic mutants, which make them look different than their parents or the normal specimen of that species.”

“Shedinja is my personal assistant,” Dustin after he murmured something to the Bug/Ghost Type. Shedinja disappeared and then reappeared again. A minute afterwards, a Nidoking came and dragged the cart into Dustin’s garage. “Can I convince you to take a day of rest before going to your gym battle?”


“Sure thing man,” Will said, “I think, it’s my turn to fight first so, Sam, you’re gonna hafta wait.”

“Whatever,” the boy responded.

“Man, what’s with you?” Will snapped, “You’ve been acting weird for like a week.”

Shedinja popped up in front of Sam before the boy could answer. “I hate to interrupt, but there is a Pokemon League official at the door, Master Dustin,” The genderless Pokemon nodded, and then pointed at Sam, “He is inquiring about a trainer named Sam.”

“Uh, okay, c’mon, lets go,” Dustin motioned his two young friends towards the front entrance. At the doorway was a man, wearing a suit and tie. Clean-shaven and it looked like a speck of dirt never touched him. Compared to Dustin, who was wearing a pair of torn-up jeans and a tank top, and who was covered in grease and dirt, the man looked like a demi-God.

“Are you Sam of Goldenrod City’s Jewish Orphanage?” The man said, “I’m Agent Jonathan Storm, of the department of Pokemon Licensing of the Pokemon League.”

Will shot his hand up, like he was in class, and ventured a inquiry “You mean you’re the one that gets Pikachu’s face on catsup bottles?”

“No, that’s Pokemon Advertising. My department deals with Pokemon Trainers Licenses, Wailord, Steelix, and Gyarados Licenses, Pokerus Quarantine, and of course, Pokeball Registration,” The man ticked off each responsibility on his fingers, and then ran his hand through his blond hair, which oddly enough wasn’t that different than Dustin’s, just shorter, “Anyways, we’ve been tracking Samuel here for a while, and after he won his first badge, well, your Trainer’s license was scanned, and no match was found on our database. You don’t have a valid license. It’s a forgery, a well-made forgery, considering neither Maurice nor his grandmother was able to tell, but a forgery nonetheless. Then Ash Ketchum mentioned meeting a Sam when he called from his wife’s hospital bed.”

“Uh, Will, why don’t you go out and train for your Gym Battle tomarrow?” said Dustin, summoning his Shiny Shedinja with a snap of his fingers, “Go escort Will to the Ariados infestation.”

“Wha?” Will questioned. Ariados infestations are usually not a place to be, for obvious reasons. They have venomous horns, and the last time Will went anywhere with venomous horns was the zoo…where he saw an Ariados…eat a Charmander. “This way young sir,” The Shedinja said in an accent not unlike a British one.

“You can talk?” Will said, surprised, “I mean,” he paused, “How did you learn?”

“All Shedinja that serve a human can speak the language of their masters. I was with Dustin since we were a Nincada,” The bug said, almost indignantly. Will stared at the side of floating bug, carefully reminding himself not to look at the back of this seemingly harmless Pokemon. “We? What do you mean ‘we’?” Will slowly backed toward the wall of the long hallway.

“My other half…” Shedinja said this, and then began to mumble something inaudible to Will. Suddenly, the entire length of the hallway was filled with the highest pitched noise Will had ever heard. He grasped his ears, and hunched over. Shedinja ordered the mysterious noise to “slow yourself.” Then, gradually, the noise became less and less high toned. The source of the noise appeared. A bug with a golden body and a golden colored head was circling the pair. This, too, was a Shiny Pokemon. Even when it’s slowed down, it was still the fastest Pokemon Will had ever seen. He recognized now that it was squealing.

“No, Ninjask, you aren’t my better half,” said Shedinja, glaring dangerously at the sprightly bug Pokemon, “You see, Will, when a Nincada evolves, it splits in half, one side recieves 90% of Nincada’s mentality, and the other 90% Nincada’s physical form. I am the mental, receiving all the memories of Nincada. Pokemon understand your language. They just lack the necessary brain connections to speak, however, when I evolved, both sides became significantly boosted. Ninjask is stronger, I’m smarter, this increase allows Ninjask to be so fast, and me the necessary brainpower to create those connections.”

“Okay, you could have summed that all up by just saying, ‘I’m Shedinja, and I’m smarter than the average Teddiursa!’”

Ninjask flew into the door and opened it. Will looked around at the outside. It was a pasture for as far as the eye could see. Stantler, Tauros, Miltank, Pidgeotto, and Rattata were scattered all over.

“Are these all Dustin’s?” Will asked, awed. Shedinja scoffed, “These? Of course not. Most of his Pokemon work in his house. You should see some of the meals our Vulpix fixes us…Anyways, Dustin allows Wild Pokemon to stay on his land, as long as they aren’t violent. However, a group of Ariados, about 4 or so, have been using a Toxic attack on these poor things. We’re nearly out of Antidote, and if it goes untreated for too long, the Pokemon dies. So, we’re cutting it off at the head, we’re going to scare away them…Well, I’ll be seeing you.

“Wait, you aren’t going to come?”

“No, Ninjask will escort you. If I get even touched by that toxic goo, I’ll faint. My mind power of Wonder Guard isn’t strong enough to combat that much poison.”

“Ok, whatever, lead the way, Ninjask” Will said, as he called out his Ponyta. He began to swing his left leg over her, but she ducked and pulled out behind him, “Hey, c’mon, Ponyta…” She jumped back again, “Oh, c’mon, I’ve ridden you before…” Ponyta neighed.

Shedinja reappeared, “Ponyta wishes to inform you that that was for emergency purposes, if both of you did not sincerely think that this ‘Ethan’ chap was in mortal danger, she wouldn’t have done it.”

“Alright, Ninjask, take it slowly,” Will sighed and recalled his Ponyta. Ninjask took off, and Will sprinted after him. Even at its most achingly slow pace, this weak human couldn’t keep up. Ninjask amused itself with this thought for a minute, but within a second after, it was at the Ariados’ tree. The beginning of their territory.

“Well,” Will panted, “Aren’t-humph-you gonna-puff- gonna go?” Ninjask clicked its mandibles once and then extended one of its legs the land beyond the tree.

“Damn…I’m doing this all by myself?” Will said to himself.

A second later, in the house, something almost as interesting was happening.

“Kid, I’m sure you feel bad about this, but you don’t have a Trainers license, you can’t own Pokemon,” Agent Storm hissed as he tried to pry Sam’s 4 Pokeballs from his hand.

“I caught them fair and square!”

“We can’t have unlicensed trainers running around!”

“Stop!” Dustin yelled out fiercely, and then became cool again, “ I’m sure there’s a way for Sam to keep his Pokemon AND his Shadow Badge.”

“How many times do I have to you two? He captured Pokemon without a license! He’s lucky all that he’s getting is them being confiscated!”

“Well, why don’t you guys just issue him a license? He’s thirteen, and unless things have changed since last year, a 10 year old is eligible for a license,” Dustin said, quite convinced at this solution.

“Yes, a 10 year with his guardian’s permission can become a trainer. His guardian, the Orphanage, never consented to him leaving,” Agent Storm uttered, “Besides, even if he did get his orphanage’s approval, due to our changes in out-of-region trainers policy, he has no place to put extra Pokemon if he gets more than 6.

Sam started to feel the hot tears in his eyes to roll down his chin. He would have to say goodbye to his Cacnea, his Meowth, his Combusken, and his Scyther, before he really gotten to know them. He slowly unclasped his hand. The Pokeballs rolled out his hands. They expanded into the normal orange-sized versions of themselves, and then each clacked open, revealing a bright light. From the light came a cream colored cat with a coin attached between the ears, a ball with legs, arms, spikes, and a crown, a three-foot tall orange chicken, and finally a green humanoid, taller than her owner, with wings, spikes, and most frightening of all, two curved blades for where her hands should be.

Agent Jonathan Storm, a former trainer, could not deny that the Cacnea, Meowth and Combusken were well-trained, but the Scyther seemed wary of the others, “Did you just catch that Scyther?”

Sam sighed, “Why do you care?” Jonathan suddenly realized that question was a little insensitive. “Oh, never mind,” He turned to look at the other Pokemon. He step forward and took a closer look at Sam’s Combusken. Sam step to side to block him.

“Yes?” Sam said in a falsely sweet voice.

Jonathan laughed, “I used to train under both Blaine of Cinnibar and Flannery of Lavaridge; I fancy myself as a Fire-connoisseur…And I really do feel bad about having to confiscate them…You have talent. That Combusken is one of the finest I’ve seen. Ever.”

Sam’s face flushed red at this, but then he realized what this man was going to do, “Shut up.” He turned away from the man as the tears began to run down his face. He mouthed to Dustin, “Help me. Do something.”

“Sir, I’m sure there’s a…Wait I got it,” Dustin snapped, “Sir, could you give Sam a one day reprieve from that? I think I figured out a solution.”

“What?” Jonathan said with an intrigued expression.

“I adopt Sam,” Dustin said simply, “I’ll call orphanage right now and then my lawyer.” He snapped his fingers and whistled. A Roselia, one taller than the average, nearly 3 feet, comes forward and presents a cellular phone. “Thank you, Rosie,” said Dustin, as he tapped the ‘0’ button to bring up information. “Hello, Information? Yes, I’d like to the phone number to a ‘Goldenrod Jewish Orphanage?” Dustin paused, “Yes, I’d like you to connect me,” Another pause, “Alright, I accept that charge,” a pause for 30 seconds, “Ok, Can I speak to the director of the Orphanage?” He gave a thumbs-up to Sam and Jonathan.

Meanwhile, outside, nearly a half a kilometer from the mansion, Will was marching forward cautiously. He sighed and closed his eyes, just for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes, a gigantic spider, red and purple in color, a dangerous looking spike on its head, and some powerful looking mandibles was staring, nay, glaring at him. Will looked around him. Another one, and another, he turned around, and there was another.

“Dang these are fast little, no, big buggers!” Will said, as he grabbed his 3 Pokeballs, and the one Great Ball. He spun on his toe throwing a ball in front of each of the Bug-Poison types. His Ponyta and Hoot-Hoot would have an advantage; Pinsir and Nuzleaf would not.

One Ariados leapt at Pinsir, “Counter it! Ponyta, use a Fire Spin to trap Ariados, and help Pinsir!” Pinsir knocked away the jumping spider, which landed on its feet. Ponyta began a ring of fire, a la Johnny Cash, and then galloped towards Pinsir. The Ariados trapped in flames called out. The other three scuttled to it, and, surprisingly, all shot webs onto it, which extinguished the fire.

Will looked slightly worried. He didn’t think they would work together. He noticed the one in the fire was larger than the others. He could be the one that was leading them. Suddenly the four Ariados turned around and then shot a punch of purple goop onto Nuzleaf.

“That’d be Toxic…and I don’t have any antidote…” Will said. He had no choice, Nuzleaf will have to faint, but Nuzleaf might as well cause some damage. “Nuzleaf, use Swords Dance, and then Mega Kick!” Nuzleaf began spinning his arms around very quickly. Then, grinning, it kicked the Ariados in front which was knocked back into the one behind it. Ariados Bowling.

“Now, Razor Wind!” Nuzleaf spun his head-leaf around amazingly quickly, and a vortex began. It picked up some gravel and it hit the four Ariados. But after he did this, Nuzleaf staggered to the left, and then the right, then he fell.

“Nice work, Nuzleaf,” Will recalled his fallen Grass-type. He noticed one Ariados didn’t get up. Will kept looking over his shoulder. Shedinja said there was “about 4.” Caution would be keen. If they had another behind him, Will would be ready. “Hoot-Hoot, Wing attack on those two!” The Ariados were positioning themselves in front of the larger one. Hoot-Hoot swept forward and hit both of them with his wings. The bugs were knocked back. They hissed, Hoot-hoot hooted back as a retort. This must have really ****** them off. They circled the poor bird. However, Will was ready, “Fly up!” As the owl lifted off, the three bugs jumped at the bird.

“Ponyta, shoot an ember!” Will ordered. Ponyta neighed in agreement, and a burst of flames cascaded towards the opponents. However, the three spiders jumped away from incoming flames. “Okay, plan A-and-a half…Hoot-Hoot swoop down and tackle them!” Hoot-Hoot dove in towards one of the gargantuan spider. The hit connected, and the target was knocked back nearly 3 yards.

The three remaining spiders glared, and taking the hurt one’s cue, shot a Spider Web at Hoot-Hoot. They then bum rushed the bird and began jabbing him with their horns. “They’re not playing’ fair!” Will said, to no one but himself, but then realized that they were wild. “Pinsir, knock ‘em off Hoot-Hoot.”

Will’s own Bug-Type clicked his mandibles happily.

Pinsir rushed and threw the big one off them off his comrade. The other two regrouped behind their leader. Pinsir ticked his jaws again, and then extended his arm, his wrist facing himself. Two of his fingers extended and pulled back. ‘Come and get me!’

Will pulled off his knapsack and drew a Swiss Army knife from one of its compartments. He flicked out a rather large menacing knife, and began cutting the webs off the first Pokemon he ever caught. After a few seconds of work, he was able to pull out the tiny owl.

An Ariados lunged at Pinsir. Pinsir stepped to the side, and then he hit the spider in the head with his elbow. Another jumped at Pinsir. He jumped too. He flipped over the bug, hitting the bug as he did it, and as he landed, he kicked the remaining Ariados. All of the sudden, Pinsir’s giant horns began to glow.

“What the…?” Will wondered aloud as he shuffled out his Pokedex. The Pokedex scanned Pinsir, and then after a second, searching its massive databanks…

“Guillotine, Pinsir’s special technique. After an intense physical fight, the adrenaline might trigger this. If Pinsir uses this technique, it will cause a knock-out, however, it can only be used once before it wears out.”

“Well, no reason to drag this out. Pinsir, Guillotine!” The glowing horns swiftly wrapped themselves around an Ariados head. That said Ariados’ eyes closed, and it slumped over. However, Pinsir was breathing heavily. Guillotine took a heavy toll on Pinsir’s stamina. The two remaining Ariados took note.

“Ponyta, make a wide Fire Spin around Pinsir, so they can’t attack him!” Ponyta consented to this command, and blew a bunch of fire that formed a protective circle, with a radius of 2 yards, centered around Pinsir. Pinsir sat there and breathed deeply.

“Ponyta, ember!” His crème colored foal followed his command, and shot fireballs at the enemy. The particular Ariados that the fireball hit caught on fire; The Ariados ran into its partner, which also caught on fire. They began scrambling around.

“Finish it, Hoot-Hoot, use WHIRLWIND!” He commanded. Hoot-Hoot began flapping furiously at the two alight Ariados. This flapping eventually formed a vortex around them. The flames became a column of fire, something straight out of the Bible (Exodus, I believe, though it could be the one where they get to Israel…I mostly doodled during religion class.)

As the Whirlwind died down, the two remaing Ariados were near-death. 3rd degree burns. Will felt bad for them, until he realized that they were nothing but Spider-Gangsters.

Will began to speak,“Good jo-”

“ARIADOS!” That scream came from behind. If he thought the leader was a large Ariados, this one was massive. Nearly 8 feet in length, and 4 feet tall. It began to scramble towards Pinsir who was still resting. It’s mandibles began to click ferociously.

“NO! PINSIR!” Will ran forward into the path between them. Almost by instinct, Will withdrew his Swiss-Army Knife. He threw it at the giant bug. It hit it in the neck. Blood began to stream from it. It faltered, and stopped. Will just stared at it for minutes. Finally the breathing seemed to stop. “I’ve killed it…”

Hours later, as Will returned to the house, he overheard this…

“Congradulations, Sam, you’re official Sam Dilans, and you get to keep your Pokemon and Shadow Badge,” Agent Storm said curtly, and then left.

“You have a good time, Will?” Sam asked. Will just stared at him.

“I’m going to bed,” Will said as he plopped onto a couch

[Wailord_Fan]

Interlude...Yes I use the word 'interlude' often.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The time? 4:03 AM. The place? The giant Ariados corpse. The person? A cloaked man. He dragged something out of his long flowing cape. A cellular phone…Very odd, one would think, this doesn’t match his image.

“Remind me why this Ariados represents…what it does? It attacked the Pokemon because it was jealous of the trainers? Ok…whatever you say boss.”

He put away the two way cell phone, and pulled out another object. This one was a rather tattered book. He opened up to a page. He breathed in deeply and then read out aloud, “Charity rejoices in our neighbor's good, while envy grieves over it.” He then took out a black and gold Pokeball, the Ultra Ball, and unleashed the Pokemon within. A Vaporeon emergeed from it.

“Envy is represented by the dog…and the color green…” The man continued to read, “The Punishment for it in hell is…submersion in icy water,” He then turned up from the book, “Use Aurora Beam on the spider,” he muttered. The greenish water dog barked, and then opened its mouth to release a multi-colored (though mainly green) beam of light. The spider became encrusted in ice crystals.

“Now, for the coup de grace…” The cloaked man pulled out a scroll…no, not a scroll, a painting. The painting depicts a man, who is staring at another. The other man has an impressive looking Dragonite next to him, and seems quite happy. The first man’s eyes are blazing green.

The cloaked man took the painting, and placed it on the Ariados corpse. The Ariados dissolved into nothingness.

Later, in the morning, Will woke up silently. He went to sleep on a couch, and he woke up in a bed. He still feels terrible about what happened yesterday. He checks his watch. 7:48? Seemed much later than that. He checked the clock on the wall, it confirms this. He pulled himself out of bed, and decided to check on the Ariados corpse. He sneaks silently out the house. After a half hour of groggy jogging, he reached where yesterday’s battle took place. Strange thing was…There’s no Ariados corpse.

“No way could it have decomposed this quickly…” Will said, “Maybe the other Ariados took it?”

A light caught his eye. Sun was reflecting off the blade of his Swiss Army knife. There were still drops of blood on it.

“This is way too weird…Why would someone take out the knife?” Will thought out loud, “And…If they pulled it out, they would have wiped off the blood. It wouldn’t be pooled like it is…It would have streaks in it…” Will picked his blade up, and walked back to the house.

“Where have you been?” Dustin asked as he flips a pancake.

“Taking a walk…” Will said quietly.

“Ready for your gym battle today?” Dustin asked trying to stir up a conversation.

-End Interlude-

[Wailord_Fan]

-Chapter 14-
Insect Battle! Will’s Herculean Effort against Cassie!

Will was tired, he wasn’t speaking much, only to ask where Dustin’s healing machine was. He plopped down all four of his Pokemon in their ‘balls onto it, and then, after a few seconds, returned to the kitchen.

Will was quiet this morning, Dustin noted to himself, Usually, Will was very talkative in the morning, much to the dislike of Sam, who by his own admission was not a morning person. Something went wrong when he went on that errand. Perhaps, he is infected with Ariados venom? Or perhaps he saw the entrance to the Hypnocave. If he knew that billionaire industrialist, Dustin Dilans was in fact Hypno-man, crime-fighting vigilante, he would be very much traumatized! In addition, he saw my plans to turn my young ward, Sam Dilans into my sidekick, the Red Drowzee, he would be freaked out the hizzy, fo sheezy! CLUTCH!… Ok, Dustin, lay off reading comic books while listening to Rap music, while under the influence.
Dustin flipped the pancakes over again, and then put them on a plate in front of Will, “Hey, go wake up Sam…Tell him breakfast is ready.”

“No need, Dad…I’m already up,” a voice from the hallway called out. Will’s head snapped around to face it.

“Whaddya mean ‘Dad’?” Will cautiously proceeded to question.

Sam and Dustin turn to look at each other, and then Sam turns back to Will, “We didn’t tell you? Dustin adopted me!”

“Wha?” Will was surprised. His mouth went agape, he slouched over, and cocked one eyebrow, “What?”

“Hey, the gym should be open by now,” Dustin checked his watch, and grabbed his ring of keys, “We’ll tell you on the drive over.”

“Shotgun!” Sam called out, and rushed out like a Tauros.

“SAM!” Will called after him, “Wait up!” Sam twirled around, his face screwed up with anticipation.

“What?” He snapped.

Will rolled his green eyes, and sighed, “Do you know where the garage is?”

“…No,” Sam said, suddenly feeling very small.

“And do you have your Pokeballs with you?”

Sam clutched at this belt; Nothing was there, “Yea-no.”

“Yeah,” Will nodded his head, knowingly, “You left them on the kitchen counter.”

“Ok…” Sam blankly uttered, but Will motioned his arms to go on, “Thank you…” He said emotionlessly.

“Damn right, you’re thanking me.”

Sam chose not to respond to Will. He just dragged himself back to the kitchen and grabbed his three Pokeballs, and the singular Great Ball. He then followed Dustin to the spacious garage.

“So, which car do you want to take?” Dustin said casually, slowly pointing to each of the seven cars in his monstrous garage. Will noted three motorcycles, and two SUVs, and a limo were to the side. 13 different vehicles were in the garage at the moment.

“What happened to my truck?” Dustin wondered aloud. Shedinja appeared at his side with a pop.

“You lent it out, Master, for Electabuzz’s award, remember?”

“Oh, quite right…” Dustin said, resting his chin on his palm. Will decided that the question must be asked, “Your Electabuzz can drive?”

“As long he doesn’t have to parallel park…Or back up for more than a couple yards…Yeah, he broke a few fence posts…And children’s legs…” He nodded his head, almost apologetically, “So, anyways, which car?”

Sam ran to the red 1962 Ford Thunderbird Convertible, and yelled out “This one! Its pimpin!” while jumping up and down.

“Well, I guess, that will work,” Will said, “Shotgun!”

“What? I already called shotgun!”

“You weren’t in sight of the car. Standard shotgun rules. You must be in sight of the car to call shotgun! Otherwise, you could call shotgun when you wake up, and it’d be valid. DUUH!”

“Oh,” Sam snapped, “Cheated by a technicality…Pretty sneaky, Will.” Will bowed majestically.

“Alright, we better go, or I’m gonna be late for my meeting with Devon Co.”

Surprised at this, Sam blurted out, “What you’re not gonna watch us? After all this?”

“Oh, that reminds me, I owe you two some money…” Dustin pulled out his bulging wallet, “Lets, see, it was 175 dollars right?” They nodded, “Ok,” He mumbled and after fumbling around for a minute or two, he pulls out two 100 dollar bills, fourteen 10 dollar bills, and two finskis . He hands them each a hundred dollar bill, seven of the ten, and a single five dollar bill. It was all American money. At the current exchange rates, it came to 349650 Pokeia Union dollars.

“You carry around 350,000 dollars in your wallet?” Will rubbed his eyelids, “How rich are you?”

Dustin rubbed his chin, “With stocks, and all my possessions…Uhm, US 400-450 mil, somewhere in there? I’m pretty sure it depends on how much Silph Co. Stock is doing.”

“Why Silph?” Sam said as fastened his seatbeat, and yawned.

“I own about 15 percent of it.” At this, both boys eyes widened.

“C’mon, you want a gym battle,” He put his keys in the ignition. For the entire car ride, Sam and Will were silent, just staring at Dustin. 400 Million dollars…in American dollars. Will, who was better at math, figured out that that was three-hundred-ninety-nine-billion-six-hundred-million Pokiea Union dollars. Now that he thought about it, his grandmother had mentioned an energetic young billionaire. Of course, his grandmother was the same, except for the young part.

Sam just realized something. He was a really rich kid now. He figured that much money was at least 6 bazillion dollars, and he would inherit it, if Dustin never married. Alright.

After about 10 minutes of very uncomfortable silence, Dustin switched on the radio. The crass voice of Rush Limbaugh rant and babble, “-berg stuff is still stewing out there? I was watching people talk about this. I had some tapes of some TV shows last night, I don't remember, and there's so many obvious retorts. All these libs are upset that this is "a violation of free speech," and, "She ought to have free speech. She's just a comic! Why, she's not even a political comic. She's just a comic, and it's censorship. It's a violation of-"

Will’s hand snapped forward and changed the station. Highly engineered music overcame them; a female voice said, “There’s no escape
I can’t hide
I need a hit
Baby, give me it
You’re dangerous
I’m lovin’ it”

“Ugh, Britney Spears...She’s Americas sweetheart?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, I know! What a bunch of sickos! The guys listening to this are either 12 or 40, and she’s twenty-two,” Will responded. He fiddled with the radio. Nothing. Finally, he changed it to an classic rock station, and 3 Dogs Night’s ‘One is the Loneliest Number’ came on, and all were happy for it contained awesome melodies and music, powerful lyrics, and just about the greatest song around in the universe, ever.

Finally, they reached a four-story building with the words “Judeah Pokemon Gym and Recreational Activity Area” painted over the entrance.

“Well, this is it,” Dustin said, “I’ll pick you up in an hour! If you are done sooner than that, stay in that building!”

Will & Sam got out of the car, and checked their Pokeballs. All things were go. Pokeballs in hand, Will gulped and pressed open the door. After the dank conditions of Maurice’s AKA Azrael’s, Supreme Lord of Darkness gym, Will wasn’t expecting much better. However, as soon as he entered, and looked around, he was amazed. He didn’t see a place where a Pokemon Battle could take place. He did however see where Ping-Pong matches,arcade video game races, Foosball tournaments, and TV-Watching endure-a-thons could take place.

“Uh, hello?” Sam called out behind Will. Will jumped several feet forward, almost like his skeleton was going to pop out. “Agh, that was my ear! Ya mind not doing that?! ‘Kay thanks?”

A pretty young woman came up to them. She couldn’t have been more than 22-23. But dang, she was Hott! With a capital H and two Ts! She had long blonde hair, that seemed to made out of clouds, and she had deep blue eyes. She had a cute face. And her body, oh man, her body… Well, considering Sam and Will are ages 13 and 14, respectively, their descriptions were a bit more “gracious” but let me tell you this, this was like a Level 79 on the hotness scale. And I remind you that only the most exceptional supermodels and beautiful people get like, even close to 75, so she was workin’ it. And she was wearing tight pants…and a short-sleeved t-shirt that was about two sizes too small. I can hear the melting.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled non-chauvinist fantasy-story….Ahem. As we were saying, this attractive young woman comes up to them. She put on a smile, and said sweetly, “May I help you?”

“Uh, yeah, we’re looking for the Gym…leader?” Will ventured.

“Oh ok,” She said, still smiling, “Well, I’ll do that right after the boys finish up downstairs with their battle.” She then noticed the confused and wandering looks Sam and Will had. “I’m sure you’re a bit confused about this place,” She said, still not dropping the smile, “Well, after I became the Gym Leader, the building they were using was really crappy, and degenerate, so me and my mom, we did some fund-raising, and well, we were able to build this huge building! Well, since we weren’t using the space, and there, at the time, was problems with kids on the street, the City Fathers asked us to make part of the gym just a place for them to hang out, and play, and stuff like that.”

Sam and Will were silent at this deluge of information. Finally, Will spoke up and said, “So, what your name? I’m Will, and this is Silent Sam.” Sam’s head whipped around and he mumbled, “I’m not silent.”

“My name’s Cassie,” She said airily, and then her tone dropped back to earth, “How many badges do you guys got?”

“We both have one badge. The Shadow Badge.”

Her grin grew bigger, if that even is possible, “Good, I can use my Rookie teams. I’m pretty sure my Venomoth was getting tired of battling,”

Venomoth, Will thought, is a Poison and Bug Pokemon, so Cassie could use either of those types. Will’s mind immediately snapped to thought of an Arbok clasping its wretched jaws around his Hoot-Hoot, and Victrebel swallowing his Nuzleaf whole. He shuddered.

“Here, follow me. I’ll show you where we’ll fight…Wait, just a second,” She walked over to the welcome desk and picked up a microphone. “Hey, kids, its me, Cassie, and I’d just like to invite you to the basement where I will be fighting two trainers in a row, each in a 3-on-3 match,” At this, Ping-Pong paddles were slammed on the table, and children rushed to a very non-descript door. Cassie walked forward, and they formed a path. She opened the door. Will and Sam joined the line at the end. The line quickly disappeared into the door. Will looked around. It was the basic Pokemon Battling field. A field about 50 yards from each trainer box and 25 yards across. In the center was a Pokeball design, where each trainer presented their Pokemon. Two boys already occupied the battling field. A Beedrill slammed into a Dustox with its bottom stinger. The Dustox fainted.

“Good job, RJ!” Cassie called out, “And from what I saw, Dustox is trained very well, Joseph.”

The two boys blushed and ran off. Will noted that there were bleachers around the field. Children filled them. He turned to Sam, and nodded, “I’m going first.” Sam nodded, looking a little green in the cheeks. Neither of them has battled before a crowd.

Will entered the green challenger box. Safety railing shot up, and then suddenly, tremors shook the box. It raised above the ground. Cassie’s red box did the sam. He noticed in a blue box on the side of the field, an older blonde woman, in her late 40s. She looked incredibly like Cassie, and he assumed she was Cassie’s mom. She would be the referee.

She had a laptop in front of her. Sam saw that on it, she was accessing the Pokemon Trainer Database. A flash went off and Will’s picture came up. That must have a been some sort of scanner.

“This will be a 3-on-3 Pokemon Battle between Judeah Gym Leader Cassie Nova and Will Ratic of Cath Town! The Gym Leader will not be able to switch Pokemon, but the challenger will be. Let the battle begin, choose your first Pokemon.”

The ever-present goofy grin on Cassie’s face disappeared, and replaced by a much more determined smile. She shakes her head, and grabs a Pokeball off the beltloop of her pants. “I choose you, Pineco!”

Cassie apparently chose a pinecone with eyes to fight Will. It was baby blue, had several rows of bark, and a spike on top. Will, who usually really liked Bug Pokemon was unfamiliar with this one. He pulled out the red and silver Pokedex, and scanned the Pokemon. “Pineco, the Bagworm Pokemon. It hangs and waits for flying insect prey to come near. It does not move about much on its own.”

“So, it won’t be able to dodge an attack well…” Will slowly said, “And if nothing comes close to it, then it won’t be able to attack much….” Will then put two and two together, and got, “Ponyta, I choose ye! I mean…you. I choose you.” He threw his Pokeball out revealing his first Pokemon.

“Ponyta, I want you to stay still, unless I tell you. Now, Ponyta, fire an ember!” Ponyta, without moving a hoof, fire a stream of fire towards the Bug Pokemon.

“Pineco, Rapid Spin!” Pineco shot a thread to the top of the ceiling, and it began to furious twirl around it. The flames past it. But the centrifugal force caused the flames to split, and go around the bug. It stopped. “Continue the Ember!” Ponyta shot more flames. Pineco resumed spinning.

“Hmmph, this won’t work,” Will fumed, “Ponyta, quickly attack it! You can move!” Ponyta galloped forward and bashed the tiny bug Pokemon with her head. It was knocked off its string.

“Use Double Edge!” Cassie said confidently, as she examined her painted fingernails. Pineco shot out another string, this time at Ponyta’s nose. Another spike appeared on the bottem of Pineco. It sprung forward at Will’s Pokemon. Another second, and Ponyta would a Ponyta-on-a-stick. Suddenly a thought struck him. It kinda hurt, but Will won’t press charges.

“Ponyta, jerk your head to the left!” Ponyta pulled her head back to the left, and with her head came the string connecting her and Pineco. Pineco was jerked towards the left. He missed hitting Ponyta, by inches, but a miss nonetheless. “Now, use an ember!” As Pineco drooped down, Ponyta fired off a stream of flames which hit Pineco and the string connecting the two. The string broke.

“Finish it off, Ponyta, use Sto-”

Cassie cut in, “Pineco, Self-Destruct!” Her Pokemon turned an almost alien shade of white. Brighter than the sun, brighter than anyone’s eyes could handle. Then the smallest of noises, a teensy pop, was heard. The light stopped being just from Pineco. Everything was white. Will’s eyes were clamped shut, but it was still white. For several seconds, everything was white. Then color returned. Shadows reformed. Pineco was on its side, it fainted. Ponyta was on her stomach, struggling to get up. But, its eyes were open. She put her hoofs down and struggled to get up. Finally, it got up.

Sam started to clap. The children around him stared at him. Another boy started to clap. Then another, then another, then another. Ponyta looked around. More people clapped. Everyone was clapping. She smiled.

The referee’s voice drowned out all the other noise however, when she said, “Pineco is unable to battle. Cassie, choose your next Pokemon.”

“Wow, Will. Your Ponyta is pretty tough. But, unfortunately, I don’t think it’ll be able to handle Spinarak!” She said, her smile looked strained. She threw a Luxury Ball onto the field. From the black and gold Pokeball came a green spider, who had a horn, and what looked like a smiling face on its abdomen.

Will’s mouth froze. His eyes glazed over as he remembered the events of yesterday. He could still remember the feeling of touching the dead Ariados. His breathing became hurried. His left arm began shaking, uncontrollably. He thought to himself, Take a deep breath, you were able to beat all 4 of those Ariados yesterday, this should be easier than that.

But he did not follow his own advice. He kept breathing in short increments. But he was ready. “Ponyta, use…[huff]…your Fire Spin!” He managed to get out. Ponyta jumped back from the Spinarak, and used her Fire Spin technique. A ring of flame surrounded the bug.

“Spinarak, jump out of there, and use Poison Sting,” Cassie ordered, in a stark contrast of Will’s nervous state. The green bug leaped out of the ring of fire and launched itself towards Ponyta.

“Ponyta, use your agility to dodge it!” Will croaked out. Ponyta galloped, faster than the eye could see, out of the way.

“Spinarak, use your String Shot to slow it down!” Cassie commanded. Spinarak, from between its mandibles, shot a thin cord of thread.

“Another agility!” Will commanded his Ponyta, his confidence slowly starting to return. The thread floated harmlessly.

“Use a Web!” Cassie called out, her smile non-existent. Spinarak pointed its mandibles to the sky, and shot out a mass of silk. Will smirked ever so slightly; he still was having a minor panic attack. “Use an Ember to burn through the web!” Ponyta pointed her mouth to the Web over head. Flames trickled upwards towards the web. It dissolved.

Suddenly, the flames on Ponyta began to flare up. She was consumed in them. The shadows became darker. It was like a campfire.

Will whipped out his Pokedex. It scanned Ponyta, and then said, “Flame Wheel. After a period of adrenaline-boosts, Ponyta will enter this stage, and will unleash a powerful fire attack.”

“Well, whoopdeedoo!” Will said enthusiastically, “Flame Wheel, Ponyta!” The fire began to become spherical. Then it rolled off towards Spinarak. Spinarak ran away but the wheel followed it. It struck the poor spider after a few seconds, and Spinarak flew up into the air. Ponyta reappeared. It landed and then…it was knocked out.

“Good job Ponyta!” Will said, thrusting his arm up into the air. He noticed it stopped shaking. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. Finally, his ears started working normally. He could hear the crowd clapping. He rubbed his hands together, and then stretched his leg.

“Spinarak,” The judge said monotonously, “is unable to battle. The count is 3 to 1. Cassie, choose your next Pokemon.”

Cassie giggled just a tiny bit. It was shrill and high enough to annoy. Will noticed that without her smiling, she didn’t look nearly half as good. She wasn’t one who was ‘heroin chic.’ Without smiling, she looked like she took the full blast of a Koffing into her nose. Will noted that, unlike the past two Pokemon which were in Luxury Balls, this one was white on bottom, like all pokeballs, but the top, well, the top was different. It was black as coal on the sides, and had a singular thick stripe of gold in the center. An Ultra Ball, which of course, meant that the Pokemon in it was stronger, at least when it was first captured.

“Now, Will, this is son of my very first Pokemon. If you fought me for your 8th badge, I’d use my little Heracross’ Mommy!” She threw the ball onto the field. It popped open to reveal a glowing light. The light formed into humanoid shape. Bulky would be the first word to describe it. It was about a half-foot shorter than Will, maybe a bit less than that. It was wide though, and it wasn’t like a fat person, where wideness pools in a few areas. It was solid like a block. It was blue, a deep blue; a hue that was reminiscent of a washed blueberry. From the top of head, between its yellow eyes were three growths. Two resembled antennae; the third made this Pokemon bigger than it was. It was a menacingly large horn, with Viking Battle Axe on top.

“Ponyta, use your Fire Spin!” Will ordered, hoping that Ponyta still had enough energy to sweep through the gym leaders final Pokemon.

“Heracross, Bulk Up!” She said, her sweet smile returning. Ponyta succeeded in trapping Heracross in a low circle of flames, but Heracross inhaled deeply. It looked even wider and stronger too. “Now, Heracross,” The losing gym leader said triumphantly, “Fly out there, and use attack Ponyta with your horn.” Two buzzing wings extended from the back of Heracross. He flew above the flames. Heracross then dove towards Ponyta. Ponyta’s lost her footing and was knocked back several feet. It didn’t get up.

“Well, well, well, Will…Try saying that ten times fast…I think tha-”

“Ponyta is unable to battle, Heracross wins!” The ref said, interrupting her daughter. Just as many people clapped for this victory as they did for Ponyta’s two victories.

Will started to mutter to himself, “If I recall correctly, Heracross has qualities of the bug type, and the fighting type. Both types are weak to flying types, so putting two and two together to get 2 squared…” He grabbed a Pokeball on his belt, “I choose Hoot-Hoot!” yelled Will.

The tiny bird hooted as he came out.

“Oh, of course, you choose Hoot-Hoot thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll be sly. I know Heracross is weak flying, so I’ll use my flying type.’ Well, I’ll level with you, Will. Heracross is too good for that. Go ahead, attack it with flying move, I dare you,” Cassie said almost angrily, like Will insulted her by using his Hoot-Hoot.

“Um, ok… Hoot-Hoot, Wing Attack!” Will said out loud, and muttered under his breath, “Freak,”

“Counter it, Heracross!”

Hoot-Hoot flew in towards Heracross and smacked with his wing. Bitch(Wing)slap! However, apparently, Heracross isn’t a broad you slap around, since when Hoot-Hoot tried to slap him with the other wing, Heracross punched it with all his weight, throwing Hoot-Hoot into the air, and across the clay field. He hit Will’s Trainer box, and slid down. Heracross k.o-ed Hoot-Hoot in one hit.

“Hoot-Hoot is unable to battle, Heracross wins!” The referee called out, “The count is 1 to 1. Will, present your next Pokemon!”

Will hesitated for a second. Nuzleaf is weak to bug type moves and fighting type moves, but he could use his Razor Wind attack…But I doubt Cassie would let Heracross stay far away and let it hit him. I gotta go with what can take a hit. Will grabbed the Great Ball on his belt. He chucked it up into the air and onto the field. “I’m gonna fight fire with fire! Go Pinsir!”

The ball released something that looked like a second cousin to Heracross. It was tan instead of blue, and instead of one huge horn in the center, Pinsir had two smaller, but still quite large, curved horns on edge of the top of his head.

“Pinssaaa!” He called out, a war cry.

Heracross issued a low guttural grumble in response, “Heraaa.” They stared at each other for a minute. Their eyes examined each nook and cranny of the opponent. Finally, the chilling silence was broken.

“DO SOMETHING!” The boy who had the Beedrill stood up and called out. , RJ KJ JK, something like that, was his name. Joesph, his fried with the Dustox, yanked him down by the arm, and hissed something that Sam couldn’t make out.

Cassie laughed, “I think I’ll take his advice. Heracross, horn attack!”

“Dodge it and use Seismic Toss!” Will ordered.

The Heracross, the steely look of determination still deeply etched into his face, ran forward and tried to jab Pinsir with his horn. Pinsir jumped to the side. He then grabbed the torso of Heracross. Heracross rolled around Pinsir’s arm. Pinsir chucked his opponent towards the other end of the field. Heracross hit the ground and skidded into Cassie’s trainer box, just like Hoot-Hoot did, like two minutes ago. However this time, Heracross got back up, unlike Hoot-Hoot.

“Heracross, tackle Pinsir!” Heracross jumped to his feet. The wings on his back extended again, and he took off. Much quicker than one would think, Heracross smashed Pinsir into the ground. The blue beetle (No superhero jokes…yet) (For those who are superhero impaired, go read Formerly Known as Justice League) landed on top of him, and pinned Pinsir to the ground.

“Use Focus Punch, Heracross!” Cassie said, her voice almost estatic.

“Pinsir, thrash out! Fury Attack!” Will ordered, his voice for the most part steady.

Heracross’ fist began to glow white. However, Pinsir smashed his fist into Heracross’s. The white aura faded. Another fist struck into Heracross. And another, and another.

“Pinsir, bind Heracross!” Pinsir grabbed Heracross, and wrapped his arms around his opponent, and locked them in place.

“Heracross, Bulk up!” Again, Heracross drew in a deep breath, and became bigger, pressing Pinsir’s arms outwards, “Now, unflex your muscles!” Suddenly the bulk disappeared and Heracross was free. “Now, finish Pinsir off with Megahorn!”

Heracross’ gigantic horn began to glow. It jabbed it towards Pinsir.

“Duck, Pinsir!” Pinsir’s legs flailed out, and Pinsir was resting on his hands. The horn passed through the space between Pinsir’s horns. Surprisingly enough, as Heracross’ horn faded, Pinsir’s began to glow.

“That’s…” Cassie said mesmerized.

“Guillotine!” Will called. Pinsir bowed his head, and his glowing horns snapped onto Heracross. Heracross’ eye dropped, and he slumped over. Heracross was knocked out.

“Heracross is unable to battle, Pinsir is the winner! Will wins the match!” The referee called out. Both trainers returned his or her Pokemon. The platforms on which they stood returned to the ground.

“That was pretty good,” Cassie began as she rummaged something out of her pocket.

Please be a nude picture and my badge; please be a nude picture and my badge, Will chanted in his mind. He only got half of his wish as she pulled out a small green square, which had what looked like hundreds of black dots on it.

“This is the Swarm Badge. Take it as proof that you were able to beat me,” She said calmly, as if she emoted, she would cry, “I’ll get you your PTV after Sam’s match.” She wandered off into a swarm room and came out with a pokeball, a Net Ball, and a green and orange ball. Will didn’t recognize it, but when he asked Dustin later, he was told it was a Nest Ball.

“Sam!” She called out, “I’m ready!” Sam popped out of nowhere onto the trainer’s platform. He nodded, and looked enthusiastic.

“This will be a three on three match between Sam Dilans of Goldenrod City, and Cassie, the Judeah Gym Leader!” The referee said, “Sam will be able to switch out his Pokemon while Cassie will not. Present your first Pokemon.”

She grabbed the Nest Ball, and tossed it onto the field. It revealed a small red and black humanoid thing with wings. Sam fumbled out his Pokedex and scanned it.

“Volbeat, the Firefly Pokemon. Volbeat's tail glows like a light bulb. With other Volbeat, it uses its tail to draw geometric shapes in the night sky. This Pokémon loves the sweet aroma given off by Illumise.”

“Go, Meowth!” Sam threw a Pokeball onto the field. His cat Pokemon popped out.

“Volbeat, Confuse Ray!” Cassie ordered. A purple ray extended from the orb on Volbeat’s tail.

“Dodge it, Meowth!” Sam called out. Meowth ran away from the purple light, but it followed it, “Alright, go on the offensive, Screech, and then, use Pay Day!”

Meowth let out a horrendous meow, that caused all those to hear it to cringe. Then from her paw, several coins appeared. She chucked them at Volbeat. Each one struck the bug.

“Volbeat, use Tail Glow, and then Shockwave!” The orb on Volbeat’s well, did glow. Then, from it, several waves of what looked like lightning shot out. The waves hit Meowth.

“See, Tail Glow makes special attacks way more powerful. Shockwave is a special attack!”

Meowth was hurt, but not too badly, “I guess then, Volbeat isn’t that good with special attacks in the first place?” Sam muttered.

“What was that?” His opponent snapped.

“Nuthin’… Meowth, Bite Volbeat’s tail!” Sam answered. Meowth jumped and snapped her jaws around Volbeat’s massive blob at the end of his tail. Volbeat’s half-open eyes popped open. An intense look of both pleasure and pain crossed his face. Apparently, he couldn’t handle the both of them. He fell over and didn’t get back up again.

“Volbeat is unable to battle, Meowth wins!” The referee called out, “The count is three to two. Cassie, choose your next Pokemon.”

Cassie grabbed the Pokeball on her waist, and flung it casually onto the field. It popped open to reveal…

To be continued...

[Wailord_Fan]

Will: Ponyta, Hoot-Hoot, Nuzleaf, Pinsir
Sam: Cacnea, Meowth, Combusken, Scyther
Dustin: Pelipper, Electabuzz, Lickitung (several others not on him at most times including Shedinja and Ninjask)
Ethan: Rhyhorn, Shuppet, Yanma

-Chapter 15-
Battle the Pretty Girl! Versus Beedrill!

“Volbeat is unable to battle, Meowth wins! The count is three to two. Cassie, choose your next Pokemon.”

Cassie grabbed the Pokeball on her waist, and flung it casually onto the field. It popped open to reveal Yanma! The same red and green dragonfly Pokemon that Ethan used. Sam was able to fight it to a standstill with his Cacnea. If Sam had an ego, he’d use Cacnea. But as big as Sam’s ego was, it wasn’t big enough to throw the Gym Badge.

“Return, Meowth,” Sam withdrew the Scratch Cat, “Ch-ch-che-check it out, Combusken!” He called out the orange and red Fire-and-Fighting-type chicken. The chicken pulled on his dark sunglasses, so he could further imitate being Keanu Reeves.

“Yanma, Sonic Boom!”

“Combusken, dodge it, and use Ember!” The blast of air passed towards Combusken, who leaned all the way, back, just bending his knees. “Jeez, where did Arthur get you?” Sam muttered. Then, Combusken popped back up and shot a mass of flames at Yanma.

Up in the stands, the RJ kid leaned towards another kid, Lucas, “You gotta admit, that was pretty cool.” Another kid, Mike said the same to Jeff, who responded with merely that he needed to go potty.

“Yanma, Wing Attack!” Cassie told her Pokemon. The left wing of Yanma turned white. In a burst of sped it flew towards Combusken.

“Combusken, counter it!” Sam ordered just as Yanma was about to hit Combusken. Combusken drew his fist back, and then swatted that bug back.

“You got swatted!” The group of kids admiring Combusken’s battling skills was chanting.

Both Combusken and Sam bowed, but as they did this, Yanma hit Combusken with a Wing Attack. The group of kids gasped. Some swore.

“Cheap shot!” Sam called out, “ref?”

“No foul!” She said after a second of deliberation, “If Combusken wasn’t ready, that was not Cassie’s fault.”

“Ok, whatever, Combusken, use an ember!”

“Whirlwind, Yanma!” Cassie ordered. Combusken shot a blazing cascade towards Yanma, but Yanma began to furiously flap its tiny wings, which caused a small vortex to spring up. The flames were absorbed into it.

“Keep piling on the flames, Combusken,” Sam said, acting on a hunch.

“I guess, keep up your whirlwind,” Cassie said just a wee bit confused.

Eventually, as more and more flames were poured into the dust devil, it became a spinning inferno!

“Launch the Whirlwind, Yanma!” Cassie shrieked, “I guess, you didn’t think I’d be able to do that, Sam?”

“Absorb the heat, Combusken!” Sam said the second after Cassie ordered her Yanma, “No, m’dear, in fact, I was counting on it!”

Combusken braced for impact. The tornado consumed him. Every fiber of his being cried out in agony as he felt the flames lick him. He cleared his mind, and let the fire come inside of him. Fire on the outside, fire on the inside. Suddenly, the flames were extinguished, and a few flaming cinders danced about him. No, they weren’t dancing, they were circling him.

“That, Cassie, is Combusken’s special ability, Blaze. His fire type moves are jacked way up! And now, Flamethrower, Combusken!” Combusken breathed in deeply, and then let out an impressive stream of flame. Yanma didn’t stand a chance. The flames spread out, and covered just about all the field.

It dropped to the clay floor; it was fatigued, and couldn’t move.

“Yanma is unable to battle, Combusken is the winner!” The referee called out, “The count is 3-1, Cassie, choose your last Pokemon.”

“I already had it chosen way in advance. I choose Beedrill!” She threw the Net Ball onto the field. The contents was, like all her others, a giant bug. This one had cold, conniving blue compounded eyes. Most of its body was yellow, urine yellow. The yellow seemed acidic; in fact, the yellow seemed to have green in it. Then, on its abdomen, several jet black bands circled the greenish-yellow.

“Hey, waita minute, that Beedrill is one of those genetic mutants Will was telling me about…A shiny Beedrill!” Sam said, slightly shocked, “Y’know my, heh, dad has a Shiny Shedinja? And a Shiny Ninjask.”

“Riiiight,” Cassie said almost bored, “Are you gonna switch your Pokemon?”

“I don’t think so…Combusken Flamethrower!” Sam yelled to the field.

“Double team ‘im, Beedrill,” The Beedrill nodded, and split into two! Then, four, then eight! Eight identical Beedrill were on the field.

God, I’m gonna have to get rid of the Beedrill clones one at a time… Sam thought, ‘Cuz, Combusken doesn’t have any moves that always hit, like Swift...

“Beedrill, use Twin Needle!” Cassie ordered. The Beedrill flew in menacingly.

“Combusken, Double kick any Beedrill that come near!” Sam decided that the best defense was a good offense.

“Cancel the attack, let’s do a Giga Drain!” Cassie said hastily. The Beedrill flew into a wide line perpendicular from Combusken. Then, the two hand spears of each Beedrill glowed green. Then Combusken was surrounded by a green aura. The aura flew towards the line and disappeared into one of the Beedrill.

Combusken was hurting, but he was still willing to fight, “Combusken, I have an idea, use Sand Attack!” Combusken acknowledged this, and struck his massive foot into the ground. The clay that made up the field was forced up and it sprayed over the Beedrill. Sam noticed only one was struck by the clay, the other 7, well, they just stood there. They shimmered and disappeared as the clay rained down on.

“Wow, creative way to get around the Double team. Too bad its too late! Beedrill, Poison Sting!” Cassie half-commended half-condescended.

Beedrill flew in and stung Combusken with the stinger residing on its abdomen. Combusken wavered back and forth, and then fell face first into the ground.

“Good job, Queen Beedrill!” Cassie rewarded her victorious Pokemon, by throwing a piece of candy, a Pokeblock, at Beedrill which devoured it. It looked pleased.

The referee yelled out, “Combusken is unable to battle, Beedrill is the winner! The count is 2-1, Sam, choose your next Pokemon!”

“Go, Meowth!” Sam shouted, recalling his Cat Pokemon back from her rest. She yawned and got up, “You ready to battle?” She nodded slowly, eyeing her large opponent, “Ok, screech at it!”

Meowth smiled and then hissed ferociously at Beedrill. It cringed back, “Now, scratch it!” The cat leaped forward, her claws extended. She swiped them at the bug twice her size. It flew back.

“Twin Needle, Beedrill!” It flew back and struck Meowth with both of its drills. Meowth was knocked back. “Finish it off, Fury attack!” ordered Cassie. Beedrill kept striking Meowth with its stingers. Meowth hit the ground hard. She wasn’t gonna get up for a long time.

“Meowth is unable to battle, Beedrill is the winner. The count is 1-1. Next knockout wins. Sam, choose your Pokemon!” The referee called out.

Lessee, I don’t think I can go with Cacnea, so I have to go with Scyther. Sam thought as he grabbed the Great Ball on his belt. He called out his own Bug type, a ferocious looking female Scyther.

Scyther grunted as she came out of her ball. Then, she noticed the Beedrill, and a small grin was etched into her face.

“Scyther, Double team!” Sam ordered, copying what Beedrill did earlier. Several copies of Scyther appeared, flying in crisscross patterns.

“Beedrill, Fury attack,” Cassie ordered, and frankly, she didn’t seem that concerned.

Beedrill flew into the midst of Scythers and tried to strike them with its stingers. However, there was a few too many. They flew in and struck Beedrill with their scythes.

“Good initiative, Scyther!” Sam cheered his Pokemon, “Use Sword Dance, and then Quick Attack!” The Scyther threw their scythes into the air, and began spinning them in intricate patterns. Then, with a burst of white following them, they smashed into Beedrill, throwing it into the air.

“Rage, Beedrill!” Cassie hissed darkly. Beedrill was surrounded in a red flare, and then it flew and cut through the copies of Scyther. “Cut, Beedrill.” Beedrill sliced into Scyther.

“Scyther, use False Swipe!” Scyther extended her scythe and then threw it forward, but it decelerated just a second before striking Beedrill.

Beedrill was thrown back. However, it slowly got back up.

“Sam, False Swipe won’t ever finish off a Pokemon,” Cassie said solemnly.

“Oh, I know, but it leaves them weak enough for the next attack to finish ‘em off. Scyther, Quick Attack.”

Scyther with a blast of white behind it, struck Beedrill in the face with her elbow. Beedrill fell flat on its back.

“Beedrill is unable to battle. Scyther wins! Sam wins!” The referee yelled. The group of boys on the bleachers stood up and cheered. Will smirked from where he stood.

The boxes lowered as the two trainers recalled their bug Pokemon, both congratulating them on their excellent performance.

Cassie stormed towards where Sam and Will stood. She thrusted a Swarm Badge into the hands of Sam, and then told them to stay still. She marched towards a door, opened it, and grabbed two video tapes.

“These are the Judeah Gym PTVs. They teach the Twin Needle technique,” She said, crestfallen after being defeated twice in succession.

“Coo’,” Sam said as he grabbed one. Cassie left to usher the kids out of the basement. Sam elbowed Will, “You use the Brutay ones yet?”

“Nah, I talked it over with my mom, and I decided not to use ‘em till I have the team I want for the Caesar League tournament.”

“Good plan, my man,” Sam said as they walked up to the Recreational Center. They promptly exited to find Dustin there waiting. The radio was audible from here.

“…in to a burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down
and the flames went higher.
And it burns, burns…*”

Dustin noticed them walking towards the Ford Thunderbird, and he jumped forward to switch the CD player off (custom installed, of course.)

“First Outkast, then Johnny Cash?” Will stared at Dustin, disbelievingly, “You are one odd man.”

“Uh…Did you guys win?” He said, slightly uncomfortably. They nodded and proceeded to grill him on his eccentric music tastes.
__________________

*That'd be Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire, of course, you knew that already.

[Wailord_Fan]

-Chapter 16-
Acceptance. Pinsir’s Oddity.

“Here, let’s stop at the Pokemon Center,” Dustin said as he shifted the car and turned into the parking lot.

“Well, thanks for letting us choose,” Will said sarcastically.

“Oh, come on, Will, our Pokemon are hurting. Pokemon Centers make Pokemon not hurt, thus, we can deduce that we need to go to the Pokemon Center,” Sam said, as he unbuckled his seat belt and climbed out.

“He’s got you there, Will,” Dustin chuckled, as he too got out of the car.

Will undid his seatbelt grumbling and jumped out of the convertible. Dustin grimaced, “You know, it does have a door.”

“What’s the fun of that?” snickered Will, as he bounded towards the Pokemon Center door. It swished open, like the doors on Star Trek, except there wasn’t a guy with a rope doing it.

The past Pokemon Centers Will had seen were little ghetto Pokemon Centers. They had normal doors, run down furniture, and the lighting was bad. This was different. It was clean. It was robust. At the others, Pokemon Trainers left as soon as possible, but not here. They were chatting, some were showing off their Pokemon. Some were even doing Pokemon Contests. Will sneered at the thought of doing that.

He strutted forward to the front desk. He made a point of flashing his new Swarm Badge to the trainers he passed. The head nurse popped up to the desk. She had long blue hair, tied back into a ponytail. She was kinda short, not much taller than 5 feet, and she looked haggard, like she hadn’t slept for a week or two.

“Hello?” She almost snapped at Will.

“I just came back from my Gym battle, and my Pokemon need healed,” Will said nervously.

“Alright, hand over the Pokeballs.” She said, in a slightly less alarming manner. Will handed over the four Pokeballs. She snatched them and handed them to a Blissey to her side.

“It’ll take a few minutes,” She said, and then she hurried off. Sam called out from behind Will, “Miss, wait a second, I’m in the same boat as him!” The Blissey turned around and extended her hands to Sam. He put all four of his Pokemon into her hands. The fat pink Pokemon bowed to Sam and ran after the head nurse.

Sam and Will walked back to Dustin.

“’Ey Dustin, what do they do when they heal our Pokemon?”

“Well, Sam, it’s mostly smelling-salts, and muscle stimulants. They also have salves and antidotes for things like burns and poisonings,” Dustin answered knowledgably.

“Fair enough,” Will said as he rolled a Pokeball around in his hand. He threw it up in the air, and then started to play with it. Sam stared at him for a minute or two, smiled, shook his head, and walked away.

Will got bored of waiting, and called out the only Pokemon that wasn’t tired from the Gym Battle. His Nuzleaf stood by his side.

“You wanna go grab a bite to eat?” He asked his Grass-Dark Type. Nuzleaf’s eyes popped open and he nodded furiously. The Pokemon jumped onto the shoulders of his trainer. Will’s knees buckled under the weight.

“You’re not light…” Will gasped as he trudged forward. Nuzleaf issued a repeated gasping noise; Will assumed it was a laugh. He passed a couple of trainers battling. He and his Nuzleaf stopped a second. A white bird with blue and red marks on its body, Togetic, was battling a large and bulky Rock-Type Pokemon, a Graveler. Surprisingly, enough was the fact that the Togetic seemed to have the upper hand. Graveler rushed forward but the Togetic fluttered over it and then struck it’s opponent in the back. Graveler stumbled over and fainted. Graveler’s trainer recalled his Pokemon, and bowed. His face was red with embarrassment. Togetic’s trainer tipped his golf visor, and turned away, with only a “Maybe next time, Colin.”

Will stood there; his Nuzleaf had already entered the cafeteria. The man turned around and noticed Will. The man was around 28-29, maybe early 30s. His hair was corn silk blonde, and he had light blue sparkling eyes. He smiled, and rubbed his chin, which already had a five-o’clock shadow on it. He was slightly overweight, you could see that in his stomach, but overall, he looked charming.

“You enjoy that?” He asked warmly. Will nodded, as Nuzleaf returned with a French dip sandwich, and a cup of au jus. The Pokemon used his Razor Wind technique to cut the sandwich in half, and handed Will half of it.

“Yeah, I thought it was pretty neat,” Will said, “Thanks, Nuzleaf.” He took a bite, and then introduced himself, “I’m Will Ratic.”

“Troy Timberlake,” the man nodded, and he tipped his visor again, “Are you a trainer?”

“Yeah,” Will said, slightly embarrassed that the man couldn’t see that, “I’ve got 2 badges.”

“Good for you, how long have you been training?” Troy asked, as he toyed something out of his green and white jacket.

“Oh, three weeks maybe?” Will said, “A little less? How many do you have?”

“Oh, that’s very good,” Troy said, then he smiled, and his Togetic laughed, “I just got my eighth badge a couple days ago, here in Judeah.”

“Wow…” Will gasped breathlessly.

“Yeah, I started getting badges last year before the Caesar League, but I didn’t have enough to compete, so I had to get two more badges afterwards and now I have to wait nine months,” He rolled his eyes, “So I decided I’d train another Pokemon for the League. He’s probably about your caliber.”

“Is that a challenge?” Will asked suspiciously. Will felt slightly uncomfortable about Troy. Troy was tall, and he was big. He seemed nice enough, but for some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was hidden underneath.

Troy nodded, and then snapped his fingers. “Jessica, Eric please,” he said to seemingly no one. The Togetic, which was resting on his shoulder, sprung to attention and fluttered down to his belt. It, or rather, she grabbed a Pokeball from the belt loop and flew back, dropping the ball in his expecting hand. “Thank you Jessica.”

“Well, my other Pokemon are healing, so I only have Nuzleaf…”

“That’s no problem, just a 1-on-1. Eric isn’t that tough,” roy laughed.

“Alright,” Will said, as he took another bite of the sandwich. He looked down at his Pokemon, which had already finished his portion. “Wanna battle, man?” Nuzleaf wiped some of the au jus from his chin, and smiled. “Ok, Nuzleaf will take on your Eric.”

“Good,” He strutted across to the other side. The conditions were cramped, so neither Pokemon would be able to dodge a whole lot. He threw the Pokeball onto the field. A curious creature came out. It was purple, about as tall as bar stool. Its head had two horns coming out of it, like the spawn of the Devil, and its tail had an ominous-looking spike on the end of it. Instead of hands, each arm was ended with snapping pincers, and connecting its arms to its legs was two leathery wings, like a bat. ‘Eric’ hissed at Will, “Gliiiiiiiigeer.”

“What the deuce?” Will murmured cautiously, as if talking would upset the strange looking Pokemon. He whipped out his handy-dandy Pokedex, and scanned it.

“Gligar, the Fly Scorpion Pokemon. Gligar glides through the air without a sound as if it were sliding. This Pokémon hangs on to the face of its foe using its clawed hind legs and the large pincers on its forelegs, then injects the prey with its poison barb.”
“Sounds tough,” Will said, “In fact, that’s a bit frightening! Don’t let it grab you, Nuzleaf, and keep your eyes open.” His Nuzleaf nodded.

“Gligar, lets start this off, use Poison Sting on the light switch,” Troy ordered, pointing on a small panel on the side of the room. Gligar fired a purple dart at this. The lights shimmered, and then with soft hum, went out. The room didn’t have windows, and the doors were closed. Only bits of light were coming in from underneath the doors. Will heard Troy laugh, “Eric doesn’t need light to function. Eric’s hearing is so astute that he can hear a pin drop in a room full of loud conversation. Quick Attack, Eric.”

Only the softest flutter could be heard. Will wasn’t even sure he heard it. He remembered what the Pokedex said. Gligar could be silent if it wanted to.

Will definitely heard the smack on the tough floor. Gligar struck Nuzleaf hard.

“Nuzleaf, Bullet seed randomly!” Will said; his hope that Nuzleaf had better luck than Will ever did at poker.

Nuzleaf let off several loud pops, each one giving off a small spark. Will thought for a microsecond if he could use that to his advantage, but then Troy yelled. “OOOW! MY LEG! YOU SONAFA*****! YOU HIT MY LEG!”

“Oh, c’mon. You shut off the lights. If a projectile attack gets wild in the dark, it ain’t Nuzleaf’s or my fault,” Will sneered, not that Troy could see him.

“I think I’m bleeding!” Troy shriekd, “Eric, make it pay! Use another Quick Attack!”

Somewhere in Will’s head, most likely the brain, a spark went off, In the darkness…Of course! Nuzleaf is dark type…Which means he can go to the dark dimension.

“Nuzleaf, faint attack!” Will ordered.

If they had nightvision goggles, they would see the outline of Nuzleaf just disappear into oblivion.

“Eric, use your own Faint Attack!” Again, if it was visible in the first place, Gligar would just seem to fade out of existence.

Will smirked, “You never fought the Brutay Town Gym Leader, I take it?”

“I’m from Brutay Town, I didn’t want to seem like a Gym leader would take it easy on me since he knew me,” Troy sniffed.

“Well, if you did, Maurice would be more than happy to explain to you that, if a Pokemon uses Faint Attack while it’s opponent just used it, that they’ll go to the same part of the mini-universe,” Will said, remembering Sam’s recounts of his battle with Azrael, Lord of Darkness, “And since Nuzleaf is a Dark type in addition to being a Grass type, its more adapted to the dark dimension, and kick Gligar out.”

Another pop. A crash. Gligar wasn’t so silent now. It hissed.

“Well, then this is pointless, Eric,” Troy said, “Use screech as sonar and fire another Poison Sting at the light switch.”

A loud hiss, and the lights flickered back on a second later.

“Ok, Nuzleaf, you can attack it, now!” Nuzleaf reappeared over Gligar, and he stomped onto his opponent.

“Counter, Gligar!” Troy yelled, still clutching his calve. Gligar spun and struck Nuzleaf which fell to the ground. He had fainted.

“You gave me a good run for my dough, but I pulled out in the end,” Troy recalled his panting Gligar, “Good job, Eric. Why don’t you come to the cafeteria after you get your Pokemon healed?”

“I guess. I’m sure my Ponyta could use some food,” Will muttered as he nodded slowly.

“ ‘Kay, seeya,” Troy said with a smile.

The intercom came on, “Will Sam Dilans and William Ratic please come to the front desk?”

“Dammit, my name is NOT William. If it was, I’d be Bill, not Will,” Will muttered to his Nuzleaf as he picked him up and ran to the front desk. Nuzleaf was awaken by the jostling.

“Oh good, you’re awake…Listen the nurse seems a bit moody, so how about you just take it easy, have a bowl of soup, and get better just by taking some rest?” Will asked.

Nuzleaf agreed to this, and started to take a nap.

He arrived just as Sam did. The Blissey working there handed them their Pokeballs. Both bowed their heads and thanked the happy Pokemon.

“Hey, Sam lets go to the cafeteria, I told a guy I’d meet him there,” Will said. Sam just eyed him with one eyebrow raised, but he kept up a brisk pace.. “Not like that, ya idiot. He just got all eight badges and I almost defeated one of his Pokemon,” He said in a loud, bragging voice, and then in a quieter voice, “Not one that he used to fight the gyms but still, he trained it.”

Sam laughed as he pushed open the doors to the cafeteria. Quickly, Will spotted out Troy and his Togetic. He also had his Gligar out, who was eating what looked like beef jerky. Next to him was an impressive Alakazam, who was enjoying a Sloppy Joe. Finally, next to the Alakazam was Manectric, who was eating from a bowl on the floor, like a dog.

Sam noticed that Dustin was also in the cafeteria, about to chow down on some lasagna, as was his Electabuzz and Lickitung. Pelipper was sipping a Mountain Dew.

“ ‘Ey, Will, over ‘ere!” Troy yelled to him, through a Sloppy Joe in his mouth. He motioned for him to come.

“That him?” Sam asked.

“No, he’s talking to the guy named Will behind me,” Will paused as Sam turned his head, “Don’t look, it was joke.”

Sam made a whimpering noise that sounded like I know.

Will walked over to Troy. They chatted a bit, and then Sam and Dustin came over.

“So, show me your Pokemon,” Troy said.

“And show you possible opponents in the league?” Dustin said with a laugh.

“Its okay, heh, Dad,” Sam said as he let loose his four Pokemon. Will did the same.

“Wow, I like your Combusken, Sam,” Troy said.

“People keep sayin’ that. I didn’t do anything that special,” Sam said, almost complaining.

“Well, remember Sam, that you weren’t its first owner. You won it from Arthur, who made it sound like he won it from someone else.”

“True,” Sam said, bored. He was sitting next to the Alakazam. He looked up at it’s face, and it looked towards him. Sam smiled, and so did the Alakazam. Then, the Alakazam’s eyes shimmered blue. It gave him an odd look, and in his mind, Sam heard, “What’s so funny?”

Sam pointed at Alakazam’s bushy mustache. It had several large bits of hamburger in it. Alakazam sensed what was wrong, and suddenly the bits of hamburger levitated out of his mustache and into his mouth. Sam was quaking with silent laughter.

Meanwhile a strange sight was to be see. Pinsir was getting close to Gligar. In fact, he became so close to this Eric that they were rubbing up against each other. Pinsir seemed to like murmur something in Gligar’s sensitive ears, and Gligar did not seem to like it. Gligar flew away, behind his trainer.

“Odd,” Dustin said slowly, “Very odd…Odd, odd, odd, odd…”

Troy was just staring at Pinsir, and then Will, then back at Pinsir, disbelievingly. His head snapped to Dustin. “What the hell is odd, already?”

“I’m thinking back to the Pokemon classes I took back in university, and if I recall, that’s part of Pinsir’s mating ritual.”

“Why would Pinsir try to mate with a Gligar?” Will asked, laughing, still not seeing what was wrong.

“Well, a Gligar is a Pokemon capable of mating with a Pinsir, but not that Gligar…” Dustin said solemnly.

“Whaddya mean?”

“Well, both of them are male Pokemon, and unless you never had the talk, I think you can figure out what’s wrong,” Troy said, his voice excited and higher than his normal baritone.

“Wait, what? What? What!?” Will said, staring and slowly turning his head looking over Dustin and Troy’s steely grim faces, Gligar’s fright, and what looked like embarrassment on Pinsir. “Is that Gligar, like really feminine, y’know maybe Pinsir made a mistake?” Will asked, praying that was the case.

“Not particularly,” Troy said, “He never acted femininely when I was watching him.”

“Plus, there is several physical factors that would make sure Pinsir knew this was a male,” Dustin said, almost sadly.

Will just sat there. He waited until Hoot-Hoot, Ponyta, and Nuzleaf had finished their meals, and turned to Dustin, and almost whispered, “Can we go home, now?” Dustin looked and saw all the others had finished their meals, and he nodded. Will recalled his Pokemon in silence, and he walked back to the Thunderbird.

Even on the ride back, when Filter’s “Take a Picture,” came on, he was silent. Dustin finally took the initiative, as he pulled into the garage.

“Listen,” said Dustin, “Why don’t you have Pinsir talk to Shedinja, and then have Shedinja tell you everything?”

“Fine.”

Dustin snapped his fingers. An odd whizzing sound entered the room, as did a dusty, old smell, something like a really old book being opened for the first time years.

“Shedinja, at your service, Master.”

“I want you to interview Will’s Pinsir. Have him tell you everything about his life before Will captured him, and then repeat this, in simple English, to Will.”

Will trudged up to the room he was sleeping in. He wanted to go to sleep. Or perhaps, he wanted to wake up. He still just wanted to think that everything that happened since coming out the Gym was just a dream. Maybe he was struck in the head by a low-flying Swellow. Maybe a wild Ping-Pong ball got stuck in his throat and he just coughed it out.

He waited. Nothing. This was reality. He laid down on the comfortable mattress. For a surreal moment as his head hit the pillow, he noticed that the room was decorated very lavishly. He drifted off to sleep.

He began to dream. Pinsir was chasing him. He ran as fast as he could, faster than he ever could before, but Pinsir kept up. In fact, Pinsir started to close in. Will stopped and turned around. Pinsir wasn’t just five foot anymore. He was nearing fifty foot. Will screamed.

When Shedinja entered, Will was on the bed, with none of the covers on, just tossing around in his sleep. It was like watching a Magikarp on land. Shedinja paused for a second, wanting to let the very troubled sleeping dog lie.

Finally, his orders from Dustin made him do it. Shedinja began buzzing loudly. Will woke with a start. He jumped to his feet and threw his fist forward. He hit Shedinja, but his fist, it just passed through. He froze. The fist was withdrawn very quickly, like it just touched a hot stove. But Will was feeling a different temperature. He felt like he was covered in ice. The ice was inside him. His brain…it felt a coldness that no blizzard could ever replicate.

“I advise you not to do that again,” Shedinja said curtly.

The cold slowly left him, and he was just left with the worst headache he had in years. He flopped back on the bed. Shedinja called its other half, Ninjask, and told him to get some Aspirin.

Ninjask returned quickly, like it did all thing and handed the bottle of medicine to Will. He swallowed down two tablets, and the headache began to lift.

“So shall we get started?” Shedinja said.

“I guess so,” said Will, his hand covering up his eyes.

“From the beginning, Pinsir always knew he was odd. He was different. He was an excellent battler, who wouldn’t accept defeat…But at puberty, he was different. Not all of his friends wanted to spar anymore. They gawked at the girl Pinsirs. He wasn’t interested. He was interested in his best friend. The friend didn’t reciprocate,” Shedinja stopped and sighed, then continued, “Gay Pokemon are rare, and ones that are caught are even rarer. Pinsir aren’t the most understanding of Pokemon. This former friend and a group tried to bum rush Pinsir. They came close to killing him, but Pinsir threw them off. He left the colony of Pinsir in search of a different life.”

“He traveled for God-knows-how-long. No one would accept him. That is until one day, outside of Judeah, he met a Scyther who was also an outcast. This Scyther was part of a particular sect of Scyther known as the Strike,” Shedinja paused and shuddered violently, “The Strike were Pokemon Assasins, though their kind had dwindled since more and more trainers came to Ettu. The Strike prided themselves on finishing the job every time, no questions asked.”

“So, you can imagine that after being assigned to kill a Ninetales, and coming back empty-handed was detrimental to this Strike warrior-ess. She was kicked out, and told that if she ever came back, she would be killed on sight. She too had traveled long. She found a companion in this odd little Pinsir. His battling skills were close to hers, and his compassion was unknown in its length. They began to do what Pinsir loved most. Sparring, increasing their skill, and that, as they say is history. They sparred every day until you captured them.”

Will sat up and held his head in his hands. Finally, he came up with a question worth asking, “Does he like me?”

“Sir, um, he normally sticks to Pokemon…”

“No, I mean, does he enjoy having me as a trainer? Does he mind that I caught him? What does he like about me, and what doesn’t he like about me?”

“Well, he was happy at the fact that Nuzleaf, Hoot-Hoot and Ponyta do not care. He wished that you wouldn’t care either. He’s helped you, and you liked him before. He wishes that he could see his old friend Scyther to spar.”

Will let this sink in. “Where is he now?”

“Oh, off in the pasture, not too far from here. You can see him out of the window from here.”

Will peaked out. He could make out Pinsir, but then two flashes went off. Pokeball flashes. People were attacking him!

“He’s in trouble!” Will hissed. Shedinja appeared above, “Yes that’s correct.”

“I’m gonna go save him.”

Will grabbed his Pokeballs and stomped downstairs and out the back door. He ran towards his Pokemon.

“Wooper, use Magnitude!” One of two people attacking him yelled out. The small blue armless water-type smacked the ground hard with its tail. The earth shook slightly. The other person had a Drowzee blasting Pinsir with a purple beam.

“Get away from Pinsir!” Will screamed. He called out Nuzleaf which jumped between Drowzee and Pinsir. He called out Hoot-Hoot which began pecking Wooper furiously.

“Dude, what’s your malfunction?” One of the offending trainers, the one with Wooper, asked. He had green hair, and dressed in all black, “You didn’t see what this thing was doing. He looked at my male Pinsir like he was in love. Don’t you get it? This one’s well, it is gay. Homosexual…Queer.”

“Yeah, well, guess what?” Will sneered, “This Pinsir is mine, and y’know what? I don’t care that he’s gay. He beat one of Ash Ketchum’s Pokemon. He beat Cassie’s Heracross. I don’t care if he loves girl pokemon, boy Pokemon, Magikarp, Magnetmite. Heck he could even like a couple of idiots like you, and he’s still mine.”

Will snapped his fingers, and Shedinja appeared, “If you will, Shedinja.” Shedinja flew through both of them, causing them the same discomfort Will felt earlier.

“That’s for being idiots,” Then, he urged Pinsir to go ahead. Pinsir struck both of them bedridden for the next day with a well placed kick to the crotch.

“C’mere, Pinsir…” Will smiled at his Bug type, “I meant every word I said to them. You go ahead and be yourself,” He hugged the hard carapace of the tall bug Pokemon, “Just keep winning dem battles,” He said with a laugh.

Both Will and Pinsir slept a bit more soundly that night.

--

Just like to add that I'm not gay.

[Wailord_Fan]

Ok, last of my flood for a while, this is it.

Chapter 17.
Goodbye Dustin. Back to Traveling!

“So…” Sam said during breakfast.

“Yep,” Dustin said as he read the editorial.

“Uh-huh…” Will mused, “Well, Sam, where do you what to go?” With these simple words, Will broke the barrier. Today, Sam and Will would be leaving Dustin.

Sam breathed heavily, “Whaddya mean?”

Will stared at his younger companion, “Well, there’s two Gyms around here, and they’re about the same distance apart, and so I figured I’d let you decide,”

“Wait, won’t we need to go to both of them?” Sam stared at Will.

“No, not really, no.”

“Well, I want to go the Caesar League Tournament, so I’m gonna need, like eight badges,” Sam said, looking at his red-haired companion like he was a madman.

Will tossed an apple to his Pinsir who caught it, sliced some bread for Ponyta to eat, and made sure Hoot-Hoot was done with his cereal, “So?”

“So I should try to get both of them.”

“No, dude, there’s 15 different Gyms in Ettu. You just have to get eight for the tournament,” Will coughed out as he buttered a piece of toast which he handed to his Nuzleaf.

“15?” Sam asked incredulously.

“Well, yeah, its like that in Kanto too,” Will explained, “There is a gym for every type except Steel and Dragon. You get half the badges; you get to try to qualify for the Caesar league.”

“Well, that takes a load off my mind,” Sam said as he recalled his Pokemon into their Pokeballs, “So, which gyms are close to here?”

“Well, There is a gym in Gaoler City to the west and, and a Gym in Spookane Forest,” Will cited as he double-checked the map feature of his Pokedex.

“What types do they train?” replied Sam.

“Oh, the Ettu League has very strict ordinances about that,” Dustin spoke up, “A trainer who blabs that information to another could get his badge revoked. Of course, if you lost, you know, but, you can’t tell no one.”

Sam lamented, “Well, that’s dumb.”

“Just choose one,” Will said sourly.

Sam sarcastically put his fingers on his chin, like he had to think about it, “Hmm, forest or City, miserable forest with trees for toilets, or a city with restaurants, hotels and probably several cafes? What will the city-boy choose?”

“Cut the crap. Just a simple ‘Lets go to Gaoler City,’ would work.”

“Ok, let’s go to Gaoler City,” Sam mocked, in a falsetto tone.

Will glared at Sam. Sam sneered a bit back. Probably not the smartest move since Will had 20 pounds, and a couple inches on Sam. Will struggled from clocking Sam right in the nose.

“Dude, I’ve asked this before. You’ve been a heck of lot more moody since Brutay. Just what the hell is your major malfunction?” Will said through deep breathes.

Sam shook his head, turned around and threw his arms into the air. He turned on his toes, and said, “You can’t tell? You can’t possibly tell? My God, you’re dense! It’s you that’s making me tense. How come when Hunter did a cheap cop-out to make sure I didn’t battle Ash, you didn’t try to stick up for me? You kept bragging about beating Ash’s Croconaw! How come you tried to make me not go after Scyther? Plus you keep trying to make fun of me! It’s like you want me to fail!”

Will was taken aback at this. He looked away, and tried to collect his thoughts. It took a few seconds, so when Sam got up to leave, he spoke up, “You should have said something man. Like how am I supposed to know you didn’t like me bragging about beating Ash’s Croconaw? Plus, its not like I didn’t want you to catch a new Pokemon, I just didn’t want you to go off there unprepared! And, that thing with Hunter? At the time, I was on the ground, rolling, clutching at my knee!”

Sam harrumphed and waited for more. Will sighed, “If you didn’t want me to rag on you, you should have…you should said something. We’ve traveled for quite a while, and I hadn’t heard a peep that you had a problem with it.”

“Don’t try to blame your problems with friendship by blaming that on me,” Sam snapped back.

Will sighed, and then extended his hand, “Alright, I’m sorry, Sam.”

Sam stared at Will and reluctantly shook his head, “All’s forgiven, I guess.”

“C’mere, you mook!” Will said as they gave a quick manly hug, and a slap on each others back. “We ok?”

“As long as we never do that again.”

Dustin threw his arms in the air, and in a shrill feminine voice shriekd, “Drama!”

Both Will and Sam jumped at this noise. Sam backed away from his dad, “Uhm, we’ll be seein’ ya, I’ll call when we get to Gaoler City.”

“Oh, wait, just for your information, Sam, if you catch more than 6 Pokemon (or three more,) then the extras will be sent here,” Dustin called after his son, who was walking away.

“Gotcha, Dad,” Sam said, “Well, keep in touch!”

They left the glorious mansion for the charm of the wilderness. They exited the grounds of Dustin and into the City.

“Now, we just follow this highway route, and we should hit Gaoler City in like 2 days,” Will said, discretely looking past the map at a girl in a tight pink shirt. “Hoibodoby.”

“Let me see the map,” Sam snatched the large paper from Will’s hands. He glanced at it, found Judeah, Gaoler, and traced the highway with his finger, “ ‘Ey, Will, this path takes us directly through the mountain range!” He cried out.

“No, man, its cool; don’t worry. There’s a pass between two mountains that’s like almost perfectly straight, so it doesn’t take much to go through. A bit chilly, but nothin’ much.”

“Great,” Sam muttered, “Well, at least it won’t take long…”

Will smiled, “Yeah, if we keep a decent pace, then we’ll be through that path by like 4 PM.”

Sam sighed at his partner’s enthusiasm, and a little bit at himself for his earlier outburst, “What time is it now?”

“Nine-ish…A quarter past nine,” Will said, glancing at his watch. They walked down a busy street. Men were hollering about their fresh vegetables. Seedy-looking old women asked the boys if they wanted their fortune told.

“Told to whom, madam?” Will said, through a snort. She pointed her crooked nose upwards and left them.
“God…you’re a jerk,” Sam wheezed through laughter. Finally, after a half hour they were out of the city and on the open planes.

“Dude, cool, look at that!” Sam pointed at a tree where a Snorlax was rumbling out of sleep. A man with a cowboy hat, and blue baggy t-shirt, ordered something, inaudible to the pair, and the Snorlax jumped up and head butted the tree.

“Oh, cool…” Will smiled and walked on.

“Dude, c’mon lets go check it out!”

If they could, Will’s eyes would roll so fast they broke the sound barrier, “Dude, I can tell you all about that dude. His name is Mac, he came in 4th at a Tough Contest with that Snorlax. He also used a Kingler in a Cool Contest and came in second to last. He was on TV a few weeks ago.”

“Oh, well, since he sucks, then forget him. It’d probably just fill up time from now and the time we get to Gaoler,” Sam said without a second thought.

“Yep.” They walked on without turning back. Another hour passed, and they were a good four or five miles from the loser Coordinator. “So, see any good movies lately?” Will said absentmindedly.

“Just that one that starred that hack Hitmonchan actor. The superhero one.”

“Yeah, who decided that Vincent Chan was a movie star?”

“Same person who decided that Molly Wigglywald was going to be one.”

“Molly who?”

“Exactly,” Will said with relish.

“Whatever, man,” Sam said as he looked above at the mountains in front of them.

Suddenly, in a miracle of convenient exciting events, a boy, wrapped in a orange tunic, and spiky black hair jumped in front of the two trainers.

“Hey, either of you two wouldn’t happen to-be-traiiinners?” The boy yelled in a booming crescendo.

“Uh, yeah, we are…” Sam said taken aback.

“Then-I-shall-fight-you-with-my-Skiploooooooooom!” The boy said, again, putting all the emphasis on the last few words.

“Uh, dude, we’re kind of in a hurry, so, maybe another time,” Will said gently.

“Cowards are you? Then maybe I should fight with my Surskit!” He said in the same fashion as he did before. His arms were up like he was going to hit either of them

“Uh, no thanks,” Sam said like he was talking to a baby. He muttered to Will, “Just keep smiling and back away.”

The boy didn’t seem to take notice as the two trainers left him. Sam looked over his shoulder and saw the boy doing pelvic thrusts shouting, “My SKIPLOOM! MY SKIPLOOOOOOOOM!”

“I’m not even going to say anything,” Will whimpered, shaking his head.

“My entire world doesn’t seem to fit together like it used to,” Sam agreed.

Will shook his head as they walked away. The boy yelled, “SKIPLOOOM! SUUURSKIT! WHOO!” The two protagonists ran on, away from that freak.

They passed the time talking about several things. Will summarized the book he was reading, a biography of the discoverer of Porygon. Sam injected some humor into the conversation about the latest episode of the Simpsons. They reviewed notes on what happened in a recent tournament. (“I don’t think Wally should have lost to Vito Winstrate,” Sam complained, “Wally’s Azumarill still seemed able to battle that Camerupt.”)

They ate up a few hours in small talk, and realized that they were walking on a path wedged between two mountains. They stopped for a minute just to look around at the surrounding beauty.

“Wow, this really kinda makes you think of how small and insignifica-” Sam started to say as he turned to the left, to face Will. CLUNK! Something interrupted Sam. More specifically, something hit him the back of his head.

Sam threw his arms up to grab the pained area, thinking it was a barrage. Will tapped Sam on the shoulder and pointed at what hit him.

It was small and black. It had arms and legs but they were small and stubby. Its head came up into a point, and it seemed to be chattering. This Pokemon was cold, even though it appeared to have musky yellow blanket wrapped around it.

Both trainers whipped out their Pokedexes and scanned it. Both came up with the same results.

“Snorunt, the Ice Hat Pokemon, SNORUNT live in regions with heavy snowfall. In seasons without snow, such as spring and summer, this POKéMON steals away to live quietly among stalactites and stalagmites deep in caverns.”

“That’s odd,” Will mused, “These mountains aren’t tall enough to stay snowy all year, round, aren’t they? I don’t think they could support a Snorunt…”

Sam held up a hand, stopping Will from rambling on. “I’m gonna catch it,” He said, his hand latched onto a Pokeball on his belt.

“Why?” Will inquired, “Don’t look like much.”

Sam glanced over his shoulder, and said, smirking, “Gotta catch ‘em all, man, gotta catch ‘em all. Go, Combusken!” He called out his yellow and orange fighting type Pokemon that conveniently could breathe flames. “Shoot an ember, but try not to knock Snorunt out.”

The young fowl Pokemon jumped and shot a burst of fire at the opponent. The little Ice Pokemon staggered around. Sam threw one of his remaining Pokeballs.

The ball sucked in the hooded enemy, in a flash of red. It hit the ground and began rolling around. Back, forth, back, forth. Heh, forth is funny word if you look at it.

Suddenly, the bag dinged, showing that it succeeded in trapping that Pokemon.

“Alright,” Sam picked up his newest Pokemon, and jumped up and down, “I caught a Snorunt!”

“Well, that was anti-climatic…” Will murmured, “Hey, cool, we’re like right near a Pokemon Center. We should see it just over the horizon.”

“I caught a Snorunt, I caught a Snorunt,” Sam chanted in a sing-song voice. Will was about to sock him, but he remembered this morning’s outburst. Plus, last time he hit Sam they ended up meeting Dustin, and Sam got adopted. If he hit Sam again, there’s a small chance Sam finds a wife.

They entered a small building, a Pokecenter. Again, this one was completely different from the last one. Last one was expansive, this one was tiny. Last one the blue-haired nurse looked haggard from all the work, this blonde one was snoozing in one of the recliners.

“Should we wake her?” Sam asked, but his question was answered for him as a Chansey came out and tapped the nurse back out of the dreamworld.

“Wha?” She said groggily, “Oh, vistors! What can I do for y’all?”

“Uh, he just caught a Snorunt and needs it healed, and…yeah, that’s it,” Will stammered, trying to hold back the urge to make fun of her drawl.

“Well, mosey on over and give me the Pokaball(sic),” She ordered Sam, who strided over to her and gave her two Pokeballs.

“You might as well make sure my Combusken’s all right,” Sam said, shrugging his shoulders. He walked back to Will who was thumbing through a magazine.

“Man, I’m kicking your ***,” Sam bragged, trying to spark up conversation.

“How so?” Will said half-heartedly.

“Well, you have four Pokemon, I have 5,” Sam said, nudging him in the shoulder, “That’s like 150 percent more than you.”

“125, actually,” Will said, more interested in the magazine than whatever Sam had to say, “Frankly, I didn’t want that Snorunt, and if it wasn’t for me, you’d probably get decapitated by Scyther.”

Sam shut up until the nurse returned with his two Pokeballs. “Well, shall we go?” Sam asked his partner.

“Naw, lets eat lunch, we made good pace, we’re like a half hour faster than what I planned,” Will said. Then, snapping to get the attention of the nurse, he asked, “Hey, do you have a cafeteria?”

“No, we don’t honey. We don’t get a lot of visitors, so we just have a cook. I’m sure I can tell him to make some for two more,” She said, switching her expression from sadness to joy, mid-way through.

“Hey, can we also get some food for our Pokemon? There’s nine of them.

She ran away and into a back room, from which steam poured out. “Hey, 2 more human meals and nine Pokemon meals more than usual today, mmkay?”

“Arr.”

Sam and Will decided to past the time for their lunch by calling out all their Pokemon. Cacnea, Meowth, and Ponyta all introduced themselves to Snorunt and began to chat. Combusken, Scyther and Pinsir were practicing different fighting techniques against each other. Hoot-Hoot was taking a nap since he was nocturnal. Nuzleaf was doing push-ups.

Will watched his Nuzleaf closely. Suddenly, he got up from the push-ups and began running towards Pinsir. This isn’t going to turn out good Will thought.

But just at the last second, Nuzleaf jumped over Pinsir, spinning in the air.

“Whoa, cool,” Will said. The three sparring Pokemon seemed to agree since for the rest of the time, they let Nuzleaf hang out with them. Will went back to looking at a magazine. Another five minutes passed, and the nurse rang a bell. She and her Chansey sat at a large table that took up quite a bit of the Pokemon Center. The eleven vistors piled into a line and sat down. Will made sure that Hoot-Hoot awoken and got something to eat.

“Hey, there’s an extra chair,” Sam said, pointing at the spare besides him.

“Well, chefs have to eat to,” The nurse’s eyes sparkled. The back room door burst open a large red lobster Pokemon burst through. Light reflected off the star that was affixed on top of its head. It pulled a creaky cart towards the table, its powerful claws clasped onto the handle.

Will got Sam’s attention, and said, “That’s a Crawdaunt. Ash has one. They’re Water-Dark Types, and really powerful.”

Crawdaunt’s eyes flashed when it heard this, and gave a joyful “Arr!”

It sat down next Sam after it passed out food to the patrons.

“Hey, cool, burgers and French-Fried ‘taters!” The nurse exclaimed, again in her Southern Drawl.

They ate quickly, and speedily began more small talk. They found out that the nurse, Melissa, had looked up at the Nurse Joys of the Kanto-Johto-Hoenn-Orange Island leagues and set up her own Pokemon Center.

Just as Sam was explaining how he beat Cassie’s Shiny Beedrill, the door burst open. A woman with bright green hair ran in. She had harsh brown eyes, and upturned nose. She looked deadly serious. Behind her flew a familiar bird. A Murkrow, the same Pokemon Sam battled back in Brutay Town Gym.

“Nurse, are there any trainers around? I have quite the sight to—I take it you two are trainers?” The woman asked. They nodded.

“Recall your Pokemon and come with me. It’s going to be amazing,” Her eyes sparkled.

The two boys recalled their Pokemon into their Pokeballs, took a few more bites of the burger and a few fries.

They followed the woman who promised to explain on the way.

“I’m paranormal investigator Rebecca. For the past two weeks, this mountain range came under a freak snowstorm cell, and the storm is not moving. The temperature in the valley melts the snow before it can hit the ground but up here, its being pummeled by snow. Now, I came here to see if a Pokemon is related to this. I thought it must have been, because of the mass immigration of Ice Types from the north.”

“And, this about?” Will asked as he huddled down, trying to keep warm.

“I found the cause…” She said dreamily, “Ah, here we are.” A bright light enveloped the trio and they disappeared from sight. The two boys had their eyes open and were blinded. Then, slowly, their sight returned to show that they were at the top of the mountain.

“Thanks Kadabra,” Professor Rebecca stated as she recalled a yellow human-shaped Pokemon back into its Great Ball.

Both boys were shivering now. The icy rain pelted Will’s and Sam’s eyes. They could barely make out something Rebecca who was not 10 feet away. She pointed at something excitedly.

Will shielded his eyes against the biting cold at saw something moving in the distance. It was a diamond walking through the snow. Each time it took a step, it caused a loud clunk. It was like a bomb exploding.

“Go ahead, get closer,” Rebecca pushed them forward to the gigantic icicle.

“What the hell is that?” Sam said as whipped out his red Pokedex.

“Regice, Legendary Pokemon. No substantiated information available. Rumored to not melt even in the hottest magma, and that the 7 dots on the front hold the key to its power.” The Pokedex then did something unusual. It gave off a bright flash, like a camera. “Message/Photo sent to the Samuel Oak Foundation of Pokemon Researchers. Message/Photo received.”

The two boys crept forward. They were within fifteen feet of it when it stopped. It turned towards the two boys, the seven dots on its head ablaze. Sam muttered “Uh-oh.”

They were buffeted by a blast of the most intense cold either of them had felt. They collapsed and blacked out.