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Chapter nineteen, in which we learn a minor detail not mentioned in the book in chapter two and my fourteen-year-old self makes some truly inspired decisions.
Chapter 19: Good or Evil?
When Mark regained consciousness, he was still in the Pokémon Center, lying on one of the sofas. A crowd of people stood over him; murmurs of “He’s waking up…” went through the group as he opened his eyes. Most of the people left, but a familiar blue-haired girl still waited.
“Mark? You okay?” May asked. He mumbled something.
“What happened?” she inquired. “They’re saying your Scyther attacked you; is it true?”
“Nah,” Mark muttered. “It was just the excitement…”
May very obviously saw right through him, but as usual she didn’t ask and just changed the subject instead. “Hey, you’ll be happy when you hear why I waited for you to wake up.”
“Why?” Mark asked.
“I managed to find a guy with an Exeggcute who is willing to let it Teleport us to Green Town. How does that sound?”
“Great,” Mark replied, smiling. May could be very useful sometimes. “What time is it?” he asked.
“Quarter past two,” she replied. “Oh, yeah, did you get your badge?”
Mark blushed. “Eh, not really.”
May raised an eyebrow. “How did it go?”
“Well, Eevee and Gyarados lost to her Politoed and Vaporeon, and Sandslash and Dratini, who is now a Dragonair, beat her Feraligatr and Quagsire, but then I had just Scyther and Charmeleon left, and…”
“Did they almost kill Charmeleon or something so you had to forfeit?” May guessed.
“No,” Mark replied miserably. “I guess I never told you, but Scyther and Charmeleon hate each other.”
There was a short silence. “Oh,” May then answered, seemingly surprised. “I didn’t know.”
“Well, Charmeleon basically started taunting Scyther, and then Scyther came and was going to kill him, so I had to recall them…” Mark explained painfully.
“And then you fainted?” May asked disbelievingly.
“Er, I took them inside and Scyther, well… it was true, he did attack me.”
May’s mouth fell open. “What? How are you still alive?”
“He stopped himself just before…”
“But what are you going to do?” May interrupted.
“What can I do?” Mark yelled out in frustration. “If he’s going to kill me, he’ll do it before I can do anything about it! He hears through Pokéballs and can break out of them! Releasing him would be suicide, trying to get him disposed of some other way would also be, and keeping him in the Pokéball makes him a ticking bomb that can explode at any time! Is there anything at all that I can do?”
Suddenly, he felt hopeless, small and scared. “Why does everything like this happen to me?” he whimpered.
“Come on, you look silly,” May hissed. “Just get it through your thick skull that you’re not the unluckiest person in the world! Why are you always feeling sorry for yourself? You don’t even know if Scyther is a secret assassin – and really, if he was, wouldn’t he have killed you already? You’re being stupid, Mark. Just stand up, get your badge and stop whining.”
Mark felt like he had just been punched in the face, but somehow it was relieving.
“You’re right,” he said blankly, standing slowly up. “I’m just being stupid. I’ll just go and battle Marge again, and we can go off to Green Town.”
“Don’t take too long,” May called after him as he started walking out of the Pokémon Center. “Or I might leave without you.”
-------
Mark stepped into the Gym for the second time this day. Marge was still standing at the other end; she bowed slightly when he entered.
“Umm, yeah, I’m here for a rematch,” Mark said nervously. Marge nodded.
“And… since we were even after two rounds earlier, can we just take one round now?” Mark suggested.
“Using the same Pokémon?” Marge asked emotionlessly.
“Eh,” Mark got an uncomfortable sting in his stomach, “I’d prefer not; they won’t be able to work together anytime soon.”
“Then,” Marge began, pacing around her end of the arena, “you must send out your Pokémon first.”
“Sure,” said Mark, shrugging. Better than nothing.
“Go, Scyther and Dragonair!”
The mantis and the snake-like dragon came out of the Pokéballs, calling out their names.
“Interesting…” said Marge slowly before taking out two of her own Pokéballs. “Go, Lapras and Starmie.”
The sea turtle and the starfish from earlier emerged from the red light, facing Mark’s Pokémon. He took a deep breath.
“Okay, Dragonair, use a Dragonbreath, if you know that, or Twister or something, on Lapras. Scyther… can you use Fury Cutter? If not, just a normal Slash. Attack Starmie.”
It was first now dawning on to Mark that he didn’t know anything about his Pokémon’s attacks. He remembered Twister from the Pokédex since he checked Dratini’s stats in Rainbow Woods, but he had never battled with Scyther before and just vaguely remembered something about Fury Cutter being Scyther’s signature move. Marge had to think he was an idiot.
Either way, his Pokémon obeyed. Dragonair spun around at high speed, producing a green whirlwind of dragon flames and sending it towards the blue turtle. It let out a high-pitched wail before countering with an icy beam which blasted into Dragonair, clearly leaving him very hurt. Meanwhile, Scyther jumped up and darted towards Starmie. He slashed it loosely and his scythes started glowing faintly green. Starmie, seemingly not very hurt, countered with a beam of ice which sent Scyther flying backwards. He growled as he returned right to the starfish and slashed it again, more powerfully than before.
“Both of you, Ice Beam,” said Marge calmly. Her two Pokémon both leaned backwards, charging up new beams of ice.
“Quick, Dragonair, dive!” Mark blurted out. “Scyther, keep using Fury Cutter but try to dodge the attacks!” He knew that Fury Cutter would only increase in power if used many times with not too long between them. If the Pokémon that used it lost concentration, the power would fade completely.
Scyther zoomed down at Starmie and slashed it with his now-glowing blades. Dragonair dove into the pool, narrowly avoiding the Ice Beam as Lapras fired it. Starmie aimed well after being struck by Scyther and blasted him into the wall. He shook himself slightly before slashing at Starmie again. With each hit, the glow on his scythes intensified and the slashes got more powerful.
Finally, Scyther slashed Starmie sharply and the starfish collapsed. Marge returned it without words, and issued a command to her sea turtle:
“Ice Beam his pool.”
Lapras blasted a beam of ice at the pool. The water froze instantly; Dragonair, being underwater, was trapped completely in the middle of the completely frozen pool.
“Dragonair, come back,” Mark said worriedly, recalling his Pokémon through the sheet of ice. “Scyther, keep using Fury Cutter on Lapras! You can do this!”
The last words were encouraging, but not convincing. Lapras was not very hurt, but Scyther was getting weak now after having been hit by two Ice Beams from Starmie.
“Lapras, Blizzard,” Marge said in an icy voice as Scyther rushed towards the sea turtle. Mark clenched his fist while Lapras swung its neck back…
A vicious blast of snow and wind obscured the room – but it narrowly missed Scyther as he swung out of the way.
His brightly glowing scythe cut powerfully across the base of Lapras’s neck. The Pokémon let out a screech as blood gushed out; Scyther flew back and landed in the middle of the arena.
“I forfeit,” said Marge quickly, taking out another Pokéball. Out of it came the mermaid cat, Vaporeon. Without a command, it fired a soft stream of water at Lapras’s cut; for a moment, the stream obscured the wound, but when Vaporeon ended the Water Gun attack, the cut was no longer visible. Lapras winced, but appeared all right.
Marge recalled her Pokémon and walked gracefully across the arena, handing Mark a badge like the one May had.
“You battled fairly well,” she commented, “but rather brutally.” She turned to Scyther as she said the last words; he was just finishing licking his scythes clean. He turned emptily to her, looking into her eyes with an odd, blank but somehow tragic expression, and returned to his Pokéball.
“Sorry,” Mark excused awkwardly. “He’s a bit… strange…”
Marge didn’t reply; she just nodded and then swept around to walk out of the arena. Mark assumed that since he had his badge, he could leave. Hesitating, he turned around and walked out through the door.
May was waiting for him outside.
“Got your badge this time?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Mark replied.
“You sound pretty gloomy for somebody who’s just won a badge,” May commented as she started walking, Mark following.
“Mmm,” he answered. She just sighed.
“You really need to cheer up a little bit, you know. Feel good just once.”
Mark was too polite to tell her that he found her extremely annoying, so he didn’t answer.
“Hey!”
A brown-haired boy wearing a green T-shirt ran up to them. “It’s good I found you; I’m in a bit of a hurry, you see. Can you teleport now?”
May looked at Mark. “Umm, I think I have all my stuff, at least,” he answered.
“Great,” said the boy, taking a Pokéball from his belt. He threw it to reveal what looked like six pink, creepy eggs with evil grins. They hovered just above the ground, floating slightly up and down.
“Come on, Mark,” May said, leaning down to touch the eggs. Mark did the same; he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that those eggs would bite him, though.
“Okay, Exeggcute,” said the trainer loudly, “Teleport to the Green Town Pokémon Center.”
“Exeggcute!” answered six mischievous voices as the Pokémon started flickering. Then suddenly, Mark realized that he was in a Pokémon Center; it was one of the pink-furry-carpet ones.
May took her hand off the egg Pokémon, and Mark hesitantly removed his. The Pokémon started flickering again and disappeared.
Mark looked around. This Pokémon Center might have had the same architect as the ones in Cleanwater, Alumine and Aquarium City, but it was probably bigger than all three of them put together. That was no surprise, since Green Town was the biggest city in Ouen. It had increased so rapidly in size that it still had that name; in order not to seem like the name was just irony, trees had been planted all around to make it somewhat green.
But the Pokémon Center had no signs of green. Currently its white walls were covered in posters about the Pokémon Festival; it was also crowded with people who were mostly reading the posters and chatting excitedly. A big digital clock on the wall showed the time.
Mark suddenly noticed that May was already standing by a poster, reading. He walked up to her; the poster was a notice that the gym was closed during the festival.
“I think I’m going to challenge the gym leader now. When are you planning to do it?” she said, turning to him.
“Not now, at least,” Mark answered. “I mean, I just came back from the last gym.”
May shrugged. “Sure. Bye, then.”
“Bye.”
May hurried out of the Pokémon Center. Mark wasn’t sure what to do, but then his eyes found a poster with a big picture of Chaletwo. The left half portrayed him normally, on a white background; the right half had him colored darker, with the blinding yellow eye open, on a black background. Interested, he walked up to it and started reading.
CHALETWO: GOOD OR EVIL?
Since 870 AW, people have started doubting Chaletwo’s original claim of not intending to harm any living being. This, of course, is due to the famous Leah-Mary cases.
During his appearance in 870, Chaletwo murdered a twelve-year-old girl by the name of Leah Donaldson using his lethal Death Stare attack, without any apparent reason. After the act, Chaletwo left as he would any other year – but this time he took an innocent’s soul with him.
Leah’s family was devastated, and claimed that she could in no way have done anything that might have provoked the Legendary to do this. Most people were doubtful that Chaletwo would commit murder without a reason and the case quickly died down; however when Chaletwo killed another girl the next year, this time fifteen-year-old Mary Goldman from Johto, the voices rose up again fiercely. Two boys followed the next two years…
Mark stopped reading. He felt sick already. First Suicune, now Chaletwo! Why were all legendaries he got the chance to see brutal murderers of some sort? Of course, Suicune had been innocent, since Gyarados was the one who killed the people, but these were apparently murdered in plain sight of hundreds of people…
He must have looked very shocked or pale, because suddenly he felt a finger tap his shoulder.
“Can I help you?”
Mark turned around. The person who asked was a boy who looked a few years older than him; maybe fifteen or so. He had dark, messy hair and something about his face seemed distinctly familiar.
“Er… not really, I was just reading… didn’t know about this…” Mark pointed to the poster.
“Ah.” The boy looked at him with a somewhat troubled expression. “You don’t happen to have an interest in legendaries, do you?” he asked suddenly.
“Yeah, how did you know?” asked Mark, amazed that the boy could just know that from seeing him reading a poster. The boy’s expression turned still more worried; he bit his lip, but then said slowly:
“I think we should talk.”
Mark: has a big overdramatic freakout about how Scyther is probably going to murder him
Also Mark: uses Scyther in his gym rematch without comment five minutes later
This wasn't even something retained from the previous versions (where Mark instead had a Gyarados vs. Feraligatr one-on-one here); I just somehow chose to do it this way without even noticing how strange it was. Fourteen-year-old me scoring some real hits over here.
Mark just having no idea what moves his own Pokémon know is, bizarrely, a running theme for a while. Maybe you could just, you know, ask them, like they're people who you can talk to? (Also, what do you mean you've never battled with Scyther before, he kind of memorably fought in the second gym battle as well as the previous attempt at this one, and technically in the desert too.)
The whole poster thing is delightfully ridiculous. Why on Earth is there debate about whether the legendary who has indisputably been murdering children is "good or evil" (these being two intrinsic binary categories, apparently)? Like, even if you imagine he must have done it for "good reasons", surely that would still render him a bit questionable, right? Why is there a poster explaining this thing that is clearly common knowledge when you haven't been living under a rock like Mark has? Why is it written like that? And this was also new in this version. My fourteen-year-old self has a lot to answer for.
The year 870 "AW" is four years ago; today is 874 AW. The start of the modern calendar is explained in a later chapter. The reason I went with the specific year 874 is that that's the usually cited year of the initial settlement of Iceland, which made it an easy year to remember for me personally; it has no other significance.
Are you ready for the fic to take a brief casual swing back into chapter two levels of absolutely buckwild for no reason?
Chapter 20: The Warning
“Huh?” Mark asked stupidly.
“I said, I think we should talk. I really do,” the boy emphasized.
“Who are you, anyway?” Mark asked, puzzled.
“Oh, sorry,” the boy apologized. “My name’s Alan Ketchum.”
“Ketchum?” Mark suddenly remembered why the boy’s face was familiar. “As in Ash Ketchum?”
“Er,” said Alan and went beet red. “Yes, kind of.”
“Cool! You’re related to him?” Mark asked excitedly, forgetting all about a murderous Chaletwo.
“Well, yeah,” Alan admitted.
“How are you related to him?” Mark immediately asked.
“Well… he’s kind of… my father. Err…” Alan’s gaze darted awkwardly around; Mark barely noticed it as his mouth fell open.
“You’re his son? You’re Ash Ketchum’s son?” Mark stared open-mouthed at Alan, not sure if it would be appropriate to ask for an autograph or not. Several people heard him and turned around. Alan screwed his eyes hopelessly shut and looked like he wanted to sink into the floor, then grabbed Mark’s shoulders and steered him out of the Pokémon Center.
“What’s wrong?” Mark asked as they came out onto the sidewalk. Alan released him and sighed.
“This happens every time I meet somebody…”
“Oh,” said Mark blankly. “Sorry.”
Alan shrugged. “Well, it’s not your fault. Dad’s famous; of course everybody thinks it’s great to be his son and get a ton of attention.”
“Sorry,” Mark apologized again. “Man, I would love to be his son,” he added after a short pause.
“I doubt it,” Alan just said. “I’m sure having a famous father sounds nice, but when you’ve had a famous father for your whole life, you’re getting very sick of it.”
Mark didn’t answer. After all, he had no experience of it. “Where are we going?” he then asked, noticing that he had been following Alan as he walked down the street.
“Home; we’ll have peace there,” Alan replied.
“Home? You mean to your house?” Mark asked wide-eyed.
“Yes,” Alan answered.
“Your house? As in the one where your father also lives? And Pikachu?”
Alan sighed. “Yes.”
“Wow!” Mark exclaimed, amazed. “Can I see them?”
“Well, Dad is probably working right now – he’s one of the guys organizing the Pokémon Festival. But I suppose Pikachu might be at home, if he was too lazy to come with Dad...”
“Can I pet Pikachu?” Mark interrupted eagerly.
“…because of all the kids asking to pet him,” Alan finished, rolling his eyes. “Look, no offense, but you’re kinda predictable.”
Mark blushed. “Sorry… I just always dreamed of meeting Ash Ketchum…”
“Everybody does,” Alan muttered. “When people meet me, all they want to talk about is him. When people ask me about something, it’s always ‘Why did you stop Pokémon training after two years?’ or ‘Why didn’t you compete in any leagues?’ or ‘Is it true that Pikachu isn’t one of your favorites?’ or something else in the direction of ‘Why aren’t you an exact replica of your father?’… And then everybody thinks I like to have people stare at me just because my father is famous.”
Mark didn’t answer; he felt annoying and stupid.
“Anyway, we’re here.”
Alan stopped in front of a house that was rather normal-looking aside from being bigger than most of the other houses in the area. He stepped up to the door, dug into his pocket to find a key, and inserted it into the lock. After wrestling with the door for a few seconds while muttering some swear words under his breath, Alan opened the door and invited Mark inside.
Mark looked curiously around. The house was somewhat messy, but not exactly a garbage dump either. White walls, mostly green and blue furniture. A ton of photos were hung on the walls, some depicting Ash, some his wife, some Pikachu, some Alan. Both the quality and quantity of the furniture was a bit above what the average person could afford, but not much.
“Here, come on.”
Alan showed Mark into the kitchen, turned the lights on and invited Mark to sit down at the table. He hesitantly took the chair while Alan opened the refrigerator.
“Would you like something?”
“Er… I don’t really need…” Mark replied, mainly just for the sake of being polite.
“Something to drink? Coke? Pepsi?” Alan asked, perhaps feeling that tone in his voice.
“Uh, coke, thanks.”
Alan took out a bottle of coke and fetched two glasses. After pouring the drink into them, he sat down opposite him.
“Anyway…” Mark started after taking a sip of his coke.
“Chaletwo.” Alan finished for him.
“Yeah, did he really kill four kids?”
“Yes.” Alan nodded sadly. “I watched them all.”
“Huh?” Mark asked. “Why the heck did you keep coming back to see an evil, murderous Legendary Pokémon stare somebody to death?”
“He isn’t evil!” Alan protested.
“Killing four random kids sounds evil to me,” Mark said.
“Once you see him, you’ll change your mind,” Alan assured him. “You’ll just know it. It’s impossible that he’d kill those kids just for the sheer purpose of being evil.”
“How do you think you know?” Mark argued.
“It’s just… a fact. I’ve been there to see him every year since I was born. If there is anything in this world I know, it’s that Chaletwo isn’t evil. Trust me.”
They were distracted by a low purr. A big, creamy yellow catlike creature with three stiff whiskers on each side of its muzzle and a gleaming red gem on its forehead trotted into the kitchen. The Persian rubbed itself against Alan’s hand; he scratched its ears in return.
“This is Pamela; she’s my pet Persian. Pamela, this is... uh, what’s your name again?”
“Mark,” he said. Pamela looked suspiciously at him.
“She has a thing about judging people,” Alan explained. “Either she hates you, and will hiss if you come anywhere near her, or… uh oh, I think she likes you. Prepare to be sniffed.”
Pamela walked over to Mark and started sniffing at his shoes. She gradually went up his legs, and then put her front paws on the chair to be able to reach his upper half. After looking him in the eyes for a few seconds with a hypnotizing stare, she lowered herself down again and wrapped her tail around his legs, giving him a “Pet me” look. Alan laughed.
“Umm, yeah,” Mark said in an attempt to start their conversation again as he stroke Pamela’s fur, “what were you going to tell me about Chaletwo?”
“See… oh, hi, Vicky.”
What looked like a black, floating head drifted through the ceiling. First it freaked Mark out; then he realized that it must be a Ghost Pokémon.
The head floated down and started circling Mark, surveying him with curiosity. The Pokémon had long black hair that hovered behind her in uneven, wavy strands, each tipped with red. Red pearls formed a necklace around her neck, which wasn’t connected to a body. Her big red and yellow eyes twinkled.
“This is my Misdreavus, Victoria or Vicky. Vicky, this is Mark,” Alan introduced them.
“Misdree!” squealed the ghost happily. Mark smiled; there was something just funny about a head floating in mid-air looking both creepy and cute.
“Oh, we get no peace…” Alan groaned. Mark turned to see what he was looking at. A Vaporeon, like the one Marge had, was walking into the kitchen. Following it was a green raptor with a bright red belly and dark blue leaves on its hands and head, and a nervous Charmander.
“Um, this is Mist, my Vaporeon, my Grovyle Racko, and Charlie, who was my starter. Guys, this is Mark.”
The Grovyle walked right up to him and grinned.
“Grov,” said the Pokémon in a greeting of some sort, offering his clawed hand. Mark shook it carefully so he wouldn’t cut himself. The Vaporeon started sniffing at his feet like Pamela had, but stopped fairly quickly and curled up on another chair. The Charmander just stood near the wall like he didn’t want to get himself noticed.
“You kept your Charmander unevolved?” Mark asked. “Was it because of your father’s Charizard, or did he himself just not want to evolve?”
To his surprise, both Alan and Charlie blushed.
“Er… not exactly,” Alan muttered. “Charlie… uh, just… show him…”
The lizard took a deep breath, faced Mark and closed his eyes. He immediately took on a bright white glow and started growing. In a matter of seconds, he changed into a Charmeleon. He smiled awkwardly and then started glowing again; as quickly as before, he changed back into a Charmander.
Mark stared.
“Wow,” he breathed. “Can he become a Charizard like that too?”
Alan nodded, still blushing.
“Was he born like that or what?” Mark asked curiously.
“No,” said Alan miserably. “It’s a long story… oh, and that’s Pikachu.”
Mark watched open-mouthed as a well-known yellow rodent stepped inside. Ash Ketchum’s Pikachu. Mark couldn’t believe it. One of Pikachu’s long, black-tipped ears stood straight up, but the other was almost horizontal, indicating slight surprise. He looked between Mark and Alan, seemingly puzzled.
“Pika?” he asked quizzically. Pamela, who had been sleeping on the floor, looked grudgingly up and walked out of the kitchen with her tail in the air. Pikachu sneered after her.
“Erm, Pikachu, this is Mark,” said Alan. “Mark, this is Pikachu.”
“I know this is Pikachu!” Mark replied, still staring at the yellow mouse Pokémon. “Who do you think I am?!”
Pikachu stepped closer to him and tilted his head. Mark reached out with his hand, not really thinking; he just wanted to get to touch the most famous Pokémon in the world…
“Mark,” Alan whispered, “you smell of Pamela.”
Mark didn’t realize his point until it was too late. Upon smelling his hand, Pikachu released an electric shock from the red pouches on his cheeks. The electricity coursed through Mark’s body; he stiffened up for a second and managed to fall out of his chair.
“Pikachu!” Alan scolded, still unable to contain his laughter. “Shocking people is rude! When are you going to grow out of it?”
Mark crawled back onto his chair. “Ow…” he muttered. “That… hurt…”
“Piii,” said Pikachu, scratching his head.
“Sorry about that,” said Alan, laughing. “He’s never liked Meowth, so he wasn’t very happy when Dad bought a pet Meowth for me. Then she evolved, and now they’re full-fledged rivals. Hate anything having to do with each other.”
“Oh.” Mark paused. “What were you saying about Chaletwo, anyway?”
“Oh, yes… see… the four kids had something in common.” Alan was slowly getting back to the dark expression he had worn in the Pokémon Center.
“What?” asked Mark.
“They wanted to catch him.”
Mark choked on his coke. “What?” he spluttered out. “You go around saying Chaletwo is oh-so-nice, and next thing you tell me is that he kills people for something that isn’t even conscious? You’re contradicting yourself.”
“I said that was the reason I went back to see him all those years and will do the same now. You, on the other hand, apparently like legendaries, and looked very taken aback when you saw the poster, so you are definitely within the high-risk group. Can you tell me honestly whether you want to capture Chaletwo? Just whether you want it, regardless of the fact that it’s impossible and all that?”
Mark considered this question with a knot in his stomach. He couldn’t deny it to himself.
“I’d want to catch any legendary… but I still think it’s wrong to do so.”
Alan grinned. “Look who’s contradicting himself now.”
“It’s not the same!” said Mark, frustrated. “I’m not contradicting myself; I’m saying that my conscious and subconscious minds don’t agree!”
“Well, either way,” said Alan, now serious again, “I suggest that you don’t watch Chaletwo if you don’t want your name on the poster next year.”
Mark gulped down some more coke. He really wanted to see Chaletwo. After all, he had thought Suicune was a crazy killer… but Chaletwo was a real one…
“Is there any way I can see Chaletwo without the danger of getting killed?”
“Not really,” said Alan. “What kills is supposedly not looking into his eyes, just having him direct his eyes at you. Nobody knows whether Chaletwo can kill through video cameras, and nobody has wanted to test that so it’s not aired on TV anymore. But of course… you can probably make yourself a bit safer by concentrating on the risk and not allowing yourself to want to catch him.”
Mark still felt uncomfortable about this, but something made him really want to try, however crazy it was – it was like something pushed away his fear and told him that he had to see Chaletwo, no matter the cost.
“I think I’ll try that,” he heard his mouth say.
“I really, really think you should just forget about it, though,” said Alan worriedly.
“Nah, I’ll be fine,” Mark said, more trying to assure himself than Alan. “I don’t even really want to catch him that much. Just see him.” He wasn’t sure if this was true. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.
“Well…” Alan sounded nervous, “good luck.”
“Thanks for telling me all this,” Mark said. “Oh, yeah,” he mentioned, looking at Charlie, who was still standing by the wall, “what is that long story of Charlie?”
“Er…” Alan blushed yet again, “do you know about Molzapart?”
“Yeah?”
“Well… er, see, I guess it all started when I was nine. I had a dream one night where Molzapart was talking to Dad. I didn’t hear what Molzapart said, though. I told Dad about the dream, and he told me that he had also dreamt Molzapart, and Molzapart had talked to him. I asked what Molzapart had said, but he told me that it was a secret and he mustn’t tell anybody, not even me. So basically, I just forgot about it. Well, then I started my Pokémon journey when I got ten, Dad gave me a Charmander, I named him Charlie and headed out. I caught… erm, a Pokémon, and then one day Charlie evolved. He didn’t want to evolve, but we couldn’t stop it so he evolved, and… um, well, then I was training with… er, my Pokémon, and… well, Molzapart appeared to me. And he said that… er, he needed my Pokémon for something, and in return he would devolve Charlie. So he did, but Charlie ended up with that ability. So… yeah.”
“Huh?” asked Mark, confused. “I didn’t get one word of that.”
Alan sighed. “You know, Rick? The Cleanwater City Gym Leader? His first Legendaries were Raikou, Entei and Suicune. He made an attempt to clone them and modify their genes, crazily trying to fuse them into one. The embryo apparently died, and Rick… well, threw it out.”
Mark nodded. He remembered hearing a vaguer version of this story sometime.
“Well, ‘Rainteicune’ either wasn’t dead or was somehow brought back to life.”
“Wait a minute,” asked Mark in disbelief, “you’re saying you caught a Raikou, Entei and Suicune super-clone fusion?”
“Well,” said Alan, blushing yet again, “not a super-clone. Just a slightly more powerful clone. And he was just a cub, really,” he added. “Well, either way, I took him to Dad – he was really cute and I didn’t know what he was – and naturally Dad was freaked. He took him to Gary Oak to do some research on him, but then he was already attached to me, so they asked me just to keep him.
“Well, then, a while later, Charlie fainted in a battle. When I took him to the Pokémon Center, he regained consciousness when nobody was with him and started to evolve, and because he was still really weak and hadn’t gotten any medicine, he couldn’t resist the evolution. Because he didn’t want to evolve, he got a bit depressed – well, very depressed – and I started keeping him more and more inside his Pokéball, using Rainteicune instead. When people asked me what he was, I just claimed he was newly discovered and nobody questioned me further because, well, after all I am Ash Ketchum’s son. Only time that’s done me any good, but anyway…
“Then, one day, I was training in the mountains, and I saw Molzapart. He flew to me, and naturally I was really scared and all, but he told me to wait so I stopped. Molzapart explained that Rainteicune was a Legendary even if he was man-made and he should be wild – he was pretty grown up then, too – but because I really loved Rainteicune, he offered to devolve Charlie instead. In order to do that, he needed to get energy for his technique Devolution Beam, and this energy had to be gotten from another living creature. He therefore used something called Power Drain on Rainteicune – which must have been horrible; he was in real pain – and then used Devolution Beam on Charlie, but it turned out that because Rainteicune was a modified clone fusion, it didn’t have the effect it was supposed to have. Instead, it made his form unstable so that he started to randomly evolve and devolve at the unlikeliest moments, but we didn’t find out about that yet since it appeared to have worked.
“Anyway, I released Rainteicune, who was very hurt from that Power Drain thing but Molzapart said that he would be all right, and he went away with Molzapart. Then we discovered Charlie’s instability, and first I thought it would be even worse, but Charlie started gaining control of it after a few days, and now he can evolve and devolve as he wants. So yeah, that’s how it happened.”
There was a long silence after this story. Mark, naturally, was amazed. Charlie appeared to have discovered something very interesting about the wall. Alan just sat there awkwardly, every now and then lifting his glass to drink. After a while, Mark looked at his watch.
“Um, my friend went to the Gym and she must have finished the battle by now… thanks for the story, though. And the coke.”
Alan suddenly seemed to snap out of a trance. “Wait!” he said worriedly. “I’ve told you way too much – I don’t even know you – you won’t tell anybody about Rainteicune or anything, will you? I might just have saved your life and all.”
“Of course I won’t,” Mark said simply. “Oh, yeah – thanks for the warning too.”
Alan smiled. “You’re welcome.”
“Bye,” said Mark as he stood up before leaving the house.
He was deep in thought.
Ash's Pikachu is very out of character in this and I am disappoint. Unfortunately, this was written before the eighth movie came out, wherein Pikachu and Team Rocket's Meowth spend a fair bit of time together and Pikachu is perfectly friendly towards him the whole time (it's very good and you should watch the eighth movie); I was just going off Pikachu usually being hostile towards Team Rocket within (the first 52 episodes of) the show, and I guess his attitude towards Ash in the very first episode.
Wanting to catch legendary Pokémon should not actually be a remotely normal thing in this universe, subconscious or not. Legendaries are seen as important, and having important roles to play in the world - and capturing is a ritual way for a wild Pokémon to test the skills of a trainer before joining them. Legendaries don't need or want trainers, and would not consent to being captured; all in all, capturing a legendary in a ball should be generally regarded as a thing only some kind of sinister villain would do - which is what the fic has already been doing with Mew, with Rick and the Mew Hunter wanting to capture him but Mark immediately releasing him. Of course kids would dream about somehow befriending a legendary and getting their blessing, but capture? The idea that Mark just has some weird subconscious drive to want to catch a legendary anyway, in that context, is really weird, and it will be subtly retconned much later.
Alan is the main character (for some value of main character) of my very first Pokémon fanfic, a sort of prototype of The Quest for the Legends, called Molzapart and Rainteicune, and the bizarre meandering story he tells Mark about Charlie is the main story (as it were) of that fic. It's even more wild than it sounds, and goes off on some much wilder tangents; I recommend checking it out for a laugh. There was literally no point to retelling it here; Charlie's ability to evolve and devolve at will is going to get like one more mention ever, and zero actual relevance, but I didn't know that at the time because at this point I had no actual idea how the plot would shake out. I would also go on to try hard to make you forget Rainteicune is a thing, though he does get brought up a couple of times.
We kick of the first of the fic's three specially labeled five-chapter arcs, the Pokémon Festival, with a fun family event where people throw rocks at Pokémon.
The Pokémon Festival – May 21st: Evolution
Mark was nervous.
He hadn’t told May anything about where he had been; he had just claimed he had been “doing stuff”. Her being her, she didn’t question him about that. They had then spent the rest of the day reading the posters in the Pokémon Center, deciding which events they wanted to attend over the next four days and signing up for them. Mark couldn’t concentrate on anything; all he could think about was why Chaletwo would kill people for wanting to catch him – he couldn’t help wondering why only one person each year had wanted to catch a Legendary Pokémon. Even if Alan said it, and even if he was Ash Ketchum’s son and all, it just didn’t make sense. There was no way anybody who stood in front of Chaletwo with a Pokéball wouldn’t want to throw it. And if that wasn’t the reason, what was it then?
He also wondered about Alan’s claim that Chaletwo “couldn’t” be evil. That made no sense either, unless Alan could read Chaletwo’s mind. And Mark just couldn’t figure out in what other way Alan could have just “known” that Chaletwo wasn’t evil. Maybe he was just biased or something… but why would he be biased in favor of a murderous Legendary Pokémon?
Whatever he started thinking, it always ended in a cold shiver running down his spine as he came to some creepy conclusion. He had not had much of an appetite for the rest of the day, and had then had a very hard time sleeping. When he did fall asleep, he dreamt nothing but glowing yellow eyes and the four pearly ghosts of the kids Chaletwo had killed. He felt no better now, as he lay awake in his bed in the Pokémon Center, his mind still revolving around Chaletwo.
There was a knock on the door. “Mark? We have to be at the evolution-thingy in an hour. If you’re still asleep, wake up already, and if you’re just sitting there doing nothing, get a move on.”
Mark groaned, slowly getting up. Today there was something that had the cliché name of “The Evolution Solution”. It was for trainers with Pokémon who evolved by evolution stones; Mark had spoken to Eevee and he had decided that he was ready for evolution.
After Mark fastened his Pokéball belt around his waist, he hesitated, but then took Eevee’s ball. He looked at it for a few seconds. “Go, Eevee,” he then said absent-mindedly, dropping the ball onto the floor. The brown furball materialized out of red light and looked up at Mark.
“This is your day,” Mark said. Eevee just nodded unsurely.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Mark asked, concerned. “We can still quit.”
“I think so,” said Eevee nervously. “Does it hurt to evolve?”
Mark recalled his conversation with Charmeleon after evolution. “Well, Charmeleon said it mainly felt amazing… but he did mention a bit of pain at one point, yes. He spoke of it like it was very little, though, so it’s probably not that bad.”
Eevee thought a bit. “I – I think I’m ready…”
“Are you sure you want to evolve now?” asked Mark softly.
Eevee swallowed, collecting his courage for a second, but then replied: “Yes.”
“All right.” Mark smiled. “I’m sure it won’t be so bad.” He paused. “Would you feel better if you got to be out of your Pokéball for a while?”
Eevee nodded slightly; Mark bent down and picked him up. His fur was so soft; Mark realized sadly that he could probably never stroke it again.
“Mark, are you coming?” came May’s annoyed voice from outside the room. He adjusted Eevee in his arms so that he could unlock the door and open it. May was tapping her foot impatiently.
“Finally,” she grumbled, but still took the time to smile at Eevee and stroke his bushy tail. He soon fell asleep in Mark’s arms, like he just wanted to be comfortable for his last hour of being an Eevee. Mark felt odd; he kind of wanted to quit suddenly now, but Eevee had made his decision.
“Why aren’t you entering Pikachu, anyway?” Mark asked May, curious. “Doesn’t Pikachu evolve with a Thunderstone?”
“Yeah,” May answered, “but once Pikachu evolves, it loses almost all of its ability to learn new techniques. So in the long run it’s a big disadvantage to evolve a Pikachu too soon.”
Mark hesitated before daring to ask the next question: “What does he think?”
May shrugged. “I don’t know. Haven’t asked.”
Mark wasn’t feeling nosy enough to comment on that further, besides that May had always done him the favor of not asking too much; instead, he just changed the subject. “Are we getting breakfast anywhere?” he asked in spite of himself; he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to eat much either way.
“We can pick something up at a fast food restaurant,” said May. “Then we have to be at the Green Town Stadium an hour before it actually starts so that you can confirm that you’re entering Eevee, and then… well, I don’t know what exactly happens then. We’ll find out. Somehow Eevee gets evolved, and we can relax for the rest of the day.”
“Okay,” Mark replied. He shot a glance at Eevee; he was still fast asleep, purring softly.
-------
“Are you signed up for the Evolution Solution?”
A green-haired woman with butterfly-shaped pink glasses asked this question politely with a smile pasted over her face. Mark was probably one of the first people to arrive; at least no line had formed yet, which wasn’t that surprising considering that even with the rule of entrants having to arrive an hour before it actually started, they were very early.
“Yeah, Eevee is entered,” he replied through the hole in the glass that separated the gray outside world from the woman’s booth. “The name is Mark Greenlet.”
The woman turned to her computer and entered something. She peered uninterestedly at the screen and then stretched out her hand without looking at Mark.
“The entrant, please.”
Mark cautiously woke Eevee up. The Pokémon looked noticeably more content than he had before; Mark still felt a little twinge of guilt.
“Are you still positive you want to go on with this?”
“Vi,” Eevee yawned, stretching. Mark nodded slowly, taking the Pokéball and touching the Pokémon so that it dissolved into red light. As Eevee was zapped into the ball, Mark realized with sadness that he would never hold Eevee again.
The woman still waited, her chin resting in her palm as the other arm, still outstretched through the hole in the glass barrier, moved impatiently. Mark slowly minimized the Pokéball and put it in her hand; the pale, delicate fingers closed around the sphere and she looked uninterestedly at it before putting it under a tube connected to the computer. She pronouncedly pressed a key, and the ball was sucked up into the end of the tube.
“Here,” she said, fetching two buckets from under her desk and handing them to Mark through the glass. He curiously read off one of the buckets:
EVOLUTION STONES – FULL SET
“Why are you giving us the evolution stones?” May snorted from behind Mark. “Are we supposed to throw them at the Pokémon or what?”
“That’s the basic idea, yes,” said the woman coldly. May shoved Mark aside to speak to the woman directly.
“What? We’re supposed to go in there and throw rocks at our own damn Pokémon? That’s totally barbaric!”
“You might want to keep your temper a little bit until you’ve heard the full story,” the woman replied calmly. “Your Pokémon will now, with the aid of the Baton Pass technique and some of our special Pokémon, get their defensive abilities strengthened to the point that they wouldn’t feel a Snorlax stomping on them. We guarantee that to your Pokémon, this will simply be a game, and everything would be much easier if you would just look at it the same way.”
“Oh…” said May blankly. “Well, then it’s not that bad, I guess.”
“It certainly isn’t,” the woman stated, somehow not sounding convincing. “Also,” she continued as she observed her long, perfect, blood red fingernails, “as a safety precaution, we will keep your other Pokémon until the Evolution Solution is over.”
She took out two empty, white Pokéball trays from a big stack beside her and handed them to Mark and May. They took out all their Pokéballs just as a blond-haired boy sped up to them. He ran right into May’s back, and she fell over. Mark was reminded of when he himself had met her for the second time, and smiled as May stood up, muttering swear words under her breath.
“Look what you’ve done!” she snapped at the boy. “My Pokéballs are all over!”
She started picking up the spheres that were rolling around on the ground.
“Sorry,” the boy panted. “Mine fell too.”
He also started picking up the Pokéballs while May groaned.
“Just great! Now we need to send out all the Pokémon to know whose are whose!”
“No need for it,” said the woman in the booth calmly. “We do an ID check on all the Pokémon before giving them back to you, anyway.”
“Oh… all right.” May took the nearest six balls and placed them in the Pokéball tray, handing it to the woman. She glared nastily at the boy, who was still picking up his Pokéballs, as they continued into the stadium.
The stadium itself was medium-sized and rather plain; it had standard Pokémon arena markings and many rows of seats. There were a few people already there, but not many. Mark and May found themselves good seats and then just sat and waited as time passed and the seats around them gradually filled up.
This whole thing was a temporary distraction from anything having to do with Chaletwo; however, Eevee had taken his place as what kept haunting Mark as he sat in his seat and waited for the Evolution Solution to start. Maybe he was just paranoid, but if he were subjected to something that was supposed to make him not feel if a rock hit him in the head, he would be very nervous and constantly afraid it would wear off or not work or something. Was Eevee feeling the same? Was he perhaps now wishing that he had just said ‘no’ when Mark asked him if this was what he really wanted? And what if the stones did hurt him?
But Mark could only wait. It seemed like ages until finally, the crowded stadium silenced and the Pokémon stepped in.
They were all kinds of stone-evolving Pokémon. There weren’t that many Eevee seeing as most would rather choose their own evolution, and Mark also noticed that Pikachu were somewhat in a minority – there were too many Ash Ketchum wannabes in the world. Some of the Pokémon looked a bit nervous; others just seemed excited. Mark noticed one of the Eevee looking up at him; he wasn’t sure if it was really his Eevee, but he waved slightly anyway.
“Well, the rules of this game are simple,” boomed a voice over the stadium. “You throw the stones at the Pokémon, and once a Pokémon evolves, it will also help throwing the stones that you didn’t hit with. The game goes on until all the Pokémon have evolved. The stones will absolutely not hurt your Pokémon, so don’t worry! You may now start throwing!”
The crowd excitedly started opening buckets. Mark wasn’t going to throw any stones; May opened her bucket, took out a lime green, smooth stone with a yellow lightning bolt shape inside it, and put it in her pocket – admittedly half of the stone was still poking out. All around them, people were throwing evolution stones down into the arena.
The Pokémon scattered, trying to get away from the rain of evolution stones despite knowing that in the end they would get evolved no matter what. All of the stones at first either missed and fell to the ground or hit Pokémon that they didn’t affect; the claim that the Pokémon wouldn’t be hurt was proven when a Growlithe that got hit by a Thunderstone shook it off easily. The first Pokémon that evolved, however, was a Pikachu that tripped over a Thunderstone lying on the ground. When the rodent came into contact with the mineral, it became enveloped in a white glow as it lay sprawled on the ground and grew, its ears becoming butterfly-shaped, the tail threadlike with a lightning bolt on the end, and the general shape more chubby. The glow faded, and the newly-evolved, orange-colored Raichu stood up. Some people in the crowd cheered.
The Raichu spotted a green, fossil-like stone with a leaf pattern in it, grabbed it and hurled it at a nearby Weepinbell. The Leaf Stone hit, and the green bell-shaped plant Pokémon started glowing white; its body lengthened and a leaf with a long stalk grew on its back. When the white light faded away, the Victreebel was upside-down; the Raichu helped turn it over, and then Victreebel smacked its leaf into a bright yellow, flame-like stone so that it hit a reddish brown fox Pokémon with six curly tails – a Vulpix. Mark watched it evolve, growing three more tails as the others straightened, and become a creamy yellow Ninetales.
The Pokémon were evolving faster now. Mark saw an Eevee being hit by a blue stone and evolving into a Vaporeon as the Raichu who first evolved offered a Thunderstone to another Eevee. He saw two Flareon at a glance, but as far as he could see, there were no unevolved Eevee left. His stomach churned uncomfortably; his second Pokémon ever had evolved now. There was no turning back.
A weary, golden starfish Pokémon with a ruby core was finally now hit by a Water Stone; once it had changed into a purple, ten-armed Starmie, there were only two unevolved Pokémon left, both of them being chased by some of the evolved ones. One was a Growlithe who was clearly enjoying himself a lot; the other was a Pikachu who wasn’t enjoying it at all – it was in fact giving off flurries of electricity as if to fend the others off. Most of them stopped when they saw this, but some were still following it determinedly.
“That’s my Pikachu!” May suddenly realized.
Mark’s eyes widened. “The guy who bumped into you must have intended to enter his own Pikachu, and they just used a Pokédex to identify the Pokémon inside… so after the balls got mixed up, he entered your Pikachu without knowing it wasn’t his…”
“Pikachu, come up here! It’s a misunderstanding!” May called out to her Pokémon. A few people turned around to see what was going on; Pikachu, now the only unevolved Pokémon in the arena as the Growlithe had given up just a second earlier, answered with a quick ‘Pika!’ and then hurried upwards past the first rows of seats. Once he came to the row that Mark and May were sitting in, he ran quickly past all the feet and finally jumped into his trainer’s lap, exhausted.
Then he started emitting a bright white glow as Mark noticed that he had accidentally touched the Thunderstone halfway down May’s pocket.
Everybody’s eyes were on the blue-haired girl whose Pikachu apparently shouldn’t have been there but was still somehow evolving now. She just watched, stunned, as Pikachu grew into a Raichu like the first one to evolve.
“Rai,” said Raichu, scratching his head.
“Oh,” said May blankly. “No more attacks for you, I guess.”
May could be so strange. Mark knew that if there was one thing he would not care about if this had happened to his Pokémon, it was whether it would learn some attacks or not.
“Well,” May sighed, “guess this event isn’t going to be any longer.”
“It looks like all the Pokémon have evolved – and we even got to see an interesting twist at the end! We would like to wish you all to return any evolution stones you may not have used at the entrance. Goodbye, and enjoy the rest of the Pokémon Festival!” came the booming voice.
-------
“The name is Mark Greenlet – I’d like to get my Pokémon.”
The same woman from earlier sternly handed Mark his Pokéball tray. He attached the balls carefully to his belt; then he had to move out of the line. May had already gotten her Pokémon sorted out, and they walked off.
“What did Eevee evolve into, anyway?” May asked curiously.
“Didn’t check yet,” Mark admitted, blushing. He stopped and took out Eevee’s Pokéball. He took a deep breath.
“Go.”
Mark dropped the ball. A beam of white light shot out of it and took shape into something with a catlike head, long rabbit-like ears…
And covered in spikes.
In the original version of the fic, Eevee had already evolved long before this point (before Rick's gym!), so this festival event was originally just twelve-year-old me thinking throwing evolution stones at Pokémon sounded awesome and wanting to write a bit of drama with May's Pikachu getting mixed in by mistake. The way the mixup happens is incredibly dumb, though - the idea nobody checks whose Pokémon are supposed to be entered, and Pikachu can't just go "Uh, what's going on, I'm not supposed to be here" sometime while they're buffing him up with Baton Pass, is extremely contrived.
Mark is still bizarrely asserting surely anyone would want to throw a Pokéball at Chaletwo and it is baffling.
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The Pokémon Festival - May 22nd: The Attack Approval
Thank you for the awesome art and reinterpretation of Monarking! :D Also thrilled because I had been thinking to myself that I'd kind of missed an opportunity by not showing Aquarium City in the chapter art, but here you've provided exactly the kind of image I was thinking of. Excellent!
Meanwhile, here's chapter 22, which is late because it's very long and it took a while to get through edits. Annoyingly, the length is mostly because it has an extended almost completely unnecessary battle in it. You can more or less feel free to skim or skip most of Mark's battle here, if you can't be bothered. (Please don't skip May's, though, which is much shorter and actually has a point to it.)
The Pokémon Festival – May 22nd: The Attack Approval
“Mark! Wake up already if you want to train for the Attack Approval before it starts!”
He hadn’t been sleeping, actually. He had been lying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling and thinking. He had dreamt about Chaletwo, with Eevee and May’s Pikachu mixed in, between waking up abruptly. Usually the last thing he remembered before waking up was a pair of glowing, yellow eyes – Chaletwo’s, presumably. If only he knew what it meant…
He sat up and rubbed his eyes. The Attack Approval. That was something May was very enthusiastic about; she had picked up a booklet on it on their first day in Green Town, and according to it, the contestants would battle judges and were supposed to basically show their ability to create techniques in battle. If they did it well enough, they would get a license that would allow them to use such moves in the Pokémon League. Mark was really just entering it in the hope of getting official permission to use Gyarados’s strange, powerful attack in the League. The sea monster’s color had now returned to normal and he seemed to be at full power, but it had taken him a while after having used the attack three times in a row.
Mark stood up and quietly dressed; then he opened the door and found that May had given up waiting for him. He sighed and decided just to go and train by himself.
As he exited the Pokémon Center and walked slowly out of the city, he looked around for some sort of a pool of water which Gyarados could be released into. It was very grassy around Green Town. A huge forest called Ruxido loomed in the west and Mark knew that the last gym of Ouen was located in the south somewhere. He wandered off towards Ruxido, figuring that he could just as well go there as somewhere else.
After about ten minutes of walking aimlessly around in the woods – making carefully sure, of course, to know where the exit was – Mark still found himself in a completely dry forest. Sighing, he sat down on a rock to think.
A sound was heard. Mark jumped, his heart beating against his ribcage as he stared intensely at the spot where the sound came from.
“Leee…” came a small squeal. A small, curious white head poked out from behind a tree. The head looked kind of alien-like; it would have reminded Mark of an Eevee if it hadn’t been for the fact that it had absolutely no visible features except for two big, cute, ruby red eyes that were pointed at him in a hypnotizing stare.
Mark sat still, and the Pokémon stepped out to observe him better. It was about the size and shape of an Espeon apart from having a bigger head; the limbs were slender and catlike. The whole body was pure white, covered in fine hairs, with absolutely no markings or special features at all. Behind it, the creature whipped an incredibly flexible, thin tail back and forth like a pendulum; left, right, left, right, left, right…
Ten seconds or so passed before Mark came back to his senses and realized that the Pokémon had just attacked him with Hypnosis. He blinked a few times; the creature, which still stood in the same spot, stared at him without blinking. There was something very creepy about it.
Mark slowly took out his Pokédex and pointed it at the Pokémon. A beep was heard.
“Leta, plain Pokémon,” said the Pokédex electronically. “Its tail has no bones in it and is very flexible. It is usually shy and tends to use its Hypnosis attack to lull its opponent to sleep instead of fighting.”
Mark nodded and closed his Pokédex. He stood slowly up and grabbed a Pokéball.
“Go, Jolteon! Paralyze it with a Thunder Wave!”
Mark had checked Jolteon in the Pokédex the day before, just after seeing what Eevee had evolved into. In addition to the evolution, he had gained the ability to use Thunder Wave and Bite.
The yellow Electric Pokémon sprang out of the Pokéball. The long spikes he had in place of fur crackled with electricity, and when he came down on the ground, he sent a flurry of sparks flying at the Leta. The terrified Pokémon attempted to run for it, but its muscles stiffened up before it could get away.
“Now, Jolteon, use a Bite!”
Jolteon nodded and sank his small but sharp fangs into the Leta’s tail. It cried out in pain and managed with difficulty to raise its paw and attempt to scratch Jolteon, but just hurt itself on the spikes. Mark felt a bit sorry for it, but he shook it off; he was going to catch it.
Slowly, he reached for an empty Pokéball.
“LEEE!” screamed the Leta. Mark understood it as some kind of a call for help.
“Leeee,” came a chorus of deeper but similar cries from deep inside the forest. The parents were answering. And the relatives. And the friends.
Mark stopped dead, but then threw the Pokéball quickly, his heart beating hard. The immobile Pokémon was sucked into it, it wobbled once, twice, thrice…
As the ball stilled with a small ping, a deafening roar sounded. Mark quickly recalled the unnerved Jolteon and picked up the Pokéball containing Leta. Meanwhile, a whole herd of large, shining beasts emerged from behind the trees and surrounded him.
They were large, resembling horses in size, but had paws with big, intimidating black claws. Like Leta, they had fine, white fur, but their backs and tails were covered in shiny, metallic armor. In comparison to the rather long neck, the rounded head seemed small; in each head, two red eyes like Leta’s glinted. But the most noticeable feature of these Pokémon was definitely the metal mask that covered the face. It consisted of three two-foot-long blades: one started between the eyes and continued upwards past the forehead, bending slightly backwards; the other two covered the cheeks, grew below the eyes and then continued on backwards, bending inwards. A spike grew upwards out of each of those two blades slightly behind the eyes, its length varying between individuals; on some of them it stood pretty straight up, but on others it started off growing backwards but then started bending forward. The three blades met in the muzzle, which was like a rounded chunk of metal.
The Pokémon stood perfectly still while Mark stared at them, terrified. Some scratched the soil impatiently while shooting glances at each other. Mark just stood there, the Pokéball still clutched in his hand, staring at the monsters.
“What is this?” asked one of the Pokémon’s voices from the back; it was noticeably one of the deeper ones. A few of the Pokémon stepped aside to make room for the asker.
Mark gasped at the sight of the Pokémon that stepped forward. It was a bit different from the rest – its armor was black like its claws and its fur had a bluish tint, appearing to sparkle slightly. It was a shiny, and also appeared to be the leader.
“This human caught Hope,” said a voice that sounded female. “We must do something.”
The shiny stared at Mark and the Pokéball in his hand for a while.
“Leave it,” he finally said, turning around. “She’s old enough to be caught, and if she was not strong enough to prevent this, she belongs to him now.”
“Vigor, she is your daughter!” the female protested.
The leader turned his head slowly. “She doesn’t have the Shine.”
“But she’s your daughter! She’s my daughter!” screamed the female as Vigor turned and started walking sadly away. He ignored her, and, hesitating, the herd followed him. The mother turned desperately to glance at the Pokéball in Mark’s hand, but then followed the herd.
Mark, who had been frozen with fear since the Pokémon arrived, quickly whipped out his Pokédex.
“Letaligon, metallic Pokémon. They are an unusual species in that shinies are unusually common. They live in groups of around thirty, each with one shiny leader. The armor on their bodies is very strong, but light as well.”
He closed the device. He realized that the right thing to do would probably be to release the Leta and let her go back to her mother, but even though he didn’t want to admit it, the greedy part of him just wanted a new Pokémon. He made up some quick excuse about her father being mean, and decided to keep her.
“Leta, go.”
The Pokémon came out of the ball, looking around.
“Are they gone?” she asked. Mark nodded.
“Can I come back here when you’ve made me strong?” She was staring in the direction that the herd had gone off to, clearly upset about her father and determined to prove herself to him.
Mark nodded again. “Yes, you can.” He paused, but then added: “Can you do me a favor? Do you know a lake or something here?”
Leta smiled and disappeared behind some trees to the left. Mark followed, laughing.
-------
“Your mother called you Hope…” Mark said curiously to Leta as she bent down to drink. She had taken him to a clearing in which there was a largish pond; he had sent out his other Pokémon too and they were now drinking or just relaxing and stretching. “Is that your name?”
“Pokémon names don’t work like human names,” Scyther commented before Leta had the chance to answer. “In our language, any sound you make is strictly connected to a meaning, which isn’t the most comfortable way to have one special name that everybody is supposed to know you as. We introduce ourselves as members of our species, and then we give each other nicknames as we see fit.”
“Oh.” Mark paused as Scyther lapped up some more water. “It doesn’t really make any sense, but it still does. I mean, I’ve always known that you use the word Trainer as a name when referring to your own trainers, so I kinda should’ve figured that if you used names for each other you’d probably also use names for humans… but somehow I’ve never thought of it that way.”
Scyther chuckled. “We don’t mind just being referred to by the name of our species. Especially if we’re used to that. You can just keep up what you’re doing now; you’re not offending us.”
Mark smiled. “Well, that’s good.”
“I wouldn’t want you to call me that anyway,” Leta said quietly. Mark nodded.
“Er, well, guys, anyway, what I originally came here with you for was training for the Attack Approval that’s going to be…” he looked at his watch, “in approximately forty-five minutes. Basically, we’re supposed to battle some judges and show off our creative skills. Gyarados, you were what I really had in mind…”
Gyarados just nodded.
“Does your special attack have a name?”
“I call it Dragon Beam,” the sea monster replied.
“How did you learn it?” Mark asked curiously.
“I don’t know,” Gyarados answered dully. “I just could do it after I evolved.”
Mark was still puzzled about it, but he was at least positive that Gyarados weren’t supposed to be able to use anything that resembled a red laser beam that could chase the target, freeze, burn, paralyze and defeat a legendary in one hit.
“Oh – why do you stay gray when you’ve used it often?” Mark asked, remembering what he had been intending to ask.
“Don’t know that either,” Gyarados just said. “But my strength always comes back, even if it takes a while. I experimented a lot with it in the Lake of Purity.”
“Well, at least, then I’ll tell you to use Dragon Beam when I want you to use it,” Mark concluded. “Guys, any of you got anything special to show off?”
The Pokémon looked at each other and shook their heads.
“Well,” Mark said, shrugging, “if you think of something, you’ll use it. All right?”
His Pokémon nodded in agreement; Mark noticed Dragonair giving him a look.
“Great.” Mark looked at his watch. “We’d better get going, I guess.”
-------
“Hi, Mark!”
Mark turned around. It was Alan, who was standing just outside his house.
“Oh, hi.”
“You going to the Attack Approval?” Alan asked. “It’s not starting yet. Dad overslept, and he’s one of the judges, so he’s getting ready now.”
“Oh.” Mark paused. “Er… are you leaving soon? You came out of the house…”
“Well…” Alan muttered. “I like to be a bit ahead of him. Entering with him is kinda embarrassing.”
Mark nodded. “Well, then we can go now.”
Alan shrugged and they started walking towards the Stadium.
“How does the Attack Approval function, anyway, if you get your technique-creating license?” Mark asked.
“Well, the judges add a thingy to your Trainer card…”
“Trainer card?” Mark stopped abruptly. “It’s added on your trainer card?”
Alan looked puzzled at him. “Yes, of course. What else?”
“But what if…” Mark twiddled his thumbs nervously. “What if you didn’t have one?”
Alan responded with a rush of laughter. “Wait, you’re serious?” he then added worriedly.
“Erm…” Mark replied, blushing. “Kind of.”
“But you have Pokémon!” Alan said in disbelief.
“Yeah… I found Charmander outside, bought a Pokédex and set off… didn’t remember I had to get a license…” Mark felt horribly awkward, but he couldn’t train illegally forever.
Alan stopped to think for a moment. Then he said: “Come. Let’s speak to Dad.”
Mark followed him doubtfully back into the house, only to meet the famous Ash Ketchum in the doorway.
Mark was stunned for a second. He stared at the dark-haired man who looked like an adult version of Alan. What he found funny was that every time he had seen Ash on TV, he had looked very tidy and formal. Right now he was just wearing rather normal, boring clothes, looking tired and clearly having had absolutely no time to comb his hair, which all stood on end. The yellow mouse Pokémon stood just inside, seemingly saying goodbye.
Mark grabbed the man’s hand and shook it nervously. “Mr.… Mr. Ketchum… delighted to meet you… err… um… eh…”
“Nice to meet you. Are you a friend of Alan’s?” Ash asked, smiling slightly.
“Not a friend exactly… we met the other day…”
“Well,” Alan interrupted, “basically, he’s an illegal trainer and needs a license.”
Mark looked nervously at him, worried that this had been way too bluntly put, but Ash just peered thoughtfully at Mark.
“Send out your Pokémon, please.”
Mark doubtfully reached for his Pokéballs, sending out his non-aquatic Pokémon. Charmeleon glared at Scyther, but he ignored it. “I have a Gyarados too,” Mark said.
“My name is Ash Ketchum,” Ash addressed the Pokémon. “You might have heard of me.”
Mark’s Pokémon nodded in agreement; Charmeleon, however, looked him in the eyes.
“Heard of you?” he said with a small smile.
“Oh!” Ash’s expression brightened. “Nice to see you all evolved and grown-up! I gave you to Rick’s brother, though, didn’t I? Did he trade you?”
Charmeleon shrugged. “Long story.”
“Alan,” Ash said, turning to his son, “that’s Charlie’s younger brother! Did you know that?”
“No,” Alan replied, looking at Mark. “It’s a small world, eh?”
“Well, anyway,” Ash continued before Mark had the chance to answer, directing his next question at Mark’s Pokémon, “what do you honestly think of your trainer?”
“He’s nice,” Charmeleon answered. “A little foolish, though…” He shot a glance at Scyther and then at Mark, who just blushed.
“He is very kind and cares about us,” said Sandslash. “Not the best battler, but a good person.”
“He saved my life,” said Jolteon quietly.
“Mine too,” Charmeleon added.
“He’s not bad,” Dragonair just said.
“I don’t know what he’s like, he just caught me earlier,” said Leta.
“And you?” Ash inquired, turning to Scyther.
The mantis took his time to answer. He looked into Ash’s eyes for a long while, and then at Mark.
“I came with him,” he then began slowly. “I needed him… something to give me a purpose after leaving behind all that I ever loved… something to make life worth living so I wouldn’t lose all sanity I had left and slit my own throat…”
He raised his scythe in front of his face, staring at his own reflection in the shiny surface.
“I guess,” he finished softly, “he saved my life too.”
Ash looked at Mark in silence for a few seconds, but then said: “Your Pokémon have judged. You deserve to be a Pokémon trainer. May I have your Pokédex, please?”
Mark handed it to Ash, and he gestured to Pikachu, who darted into the house before returning, holding some kind of a small, box-like device that was around two thirds of his own size. He gave it to Ash, who scratched Pikachu in return before somehow attaching Mark’s Pokédex to the device and pressing a few buttons on both. A small card, not unlike a credit card, popped out from a slot on the box’s side.
“Done,” said Ash, handing the card to Mark. He looked at it; it had his name, that horrible photo, little icons of his badges, and a bit of other information. On the back were empty spaces for showing his placements in various competitions – such as the Attack Approval.
“Thank you,” Mark said gratefully.
“Thank your Pokémon,” said Ash and smiled.
“Um, Dad? Shouldn’t we get going?” Alan interjected. Ash quickly looked at his watch.
“Yes, we should,” he replied, immediately starting to walk quickly down the street. Mark and Alan ran after him.
-------
Mark waited in a line. He had been very late, of course; therefore he got the honours of being at the very end of the line. There were three matches going on at a time, thankfully, so it wouldn’t be too long to wait.
May had, of course, arrived before him, and was currently battling fiercely with her Lapras against a small, green fairy with two roses, one blue and one reddish pink, on what could be called its hands. The judge, who was a blond-haired woman, commanded her Pokémon to use a Leech Seed.
“Rooseeeelia,” the fairy chanted, swaying slightly to the sides before pointing its roses straight forward and firing two dark green, sharp seeds out of their middles. The seeds embedded themselves into Lapras’s skin; she let out a whimper as they sprouted roots which dug into her hide and started absorbing her energy. Two vines extended out of the seeds and crawled along the ground to the Roselia; it lowered its arms down and allowed the vines to twist and curl around them.
“Lapras, use an Ice Beam to get rid of it,” May commanded. The sea turtle swung her head back, forming an icy blue orb in her mouth before firing a blast of ice crystals at the long vines that now connected the two battlers.
“Roselia, Sunny Day!” said the judge quickly, and Roselia raised its roses into the air, looking at the sky while emitting a sweet note. Incredibly, the blanket of clouds high above ripped apart to reveal a gap through which intense sunlight shone, casting a golden aura on the battle between the turtle and the fairy.
“And now, Solarbeam!” the judge ordered, her Roselia raising both of its roses into the air again. Two golden orbs of light grew in the middle of each rose in a matter of seconds; then the fairy, with a shrill cry, pointed them down at the frost-covered vines from the Leech Seed. Burning hot sunlight blasted at the ice in a bright beam, melting it instantly but leaving the vines mostly unharmed. Lapras seemed to be getting weaker by now, while Roselia was still brimming with energy.
“Lapras, use Surf, and be ready.” May said these words with the utmost determination, staring at the cute, feminine fairy with disdain. Her Lapras obeyed the command, spewing out a rather weakish-looking wave of water which rushed at Roselia.
“Ice Beam!” May shouted as soon as the water reached the fairy, who didn’t appear to be very hurt by it. Lapras fired another beam of ice towards the Roselia; it braced itself, but its weak, plant-like structure wouldn’t last long against an Ice attack. The Ice Beam, however, had another effect, which might have been what May had been aiming for: it froze the water flowing past the Roselia, resulting in it getting completely stuck in a sheet of ice. The fairy moaned; its trainer nodded, looking at May, before removing a Pokéball from her waist.
“Roselia, return,” she announced, recalling the fairy. “Go, Arcanine!”
She threw forth a new ball; out of it came a huge, orange, striped dog with a thick creamy mane and tail. Mark remembered it as one of the Pokémon the first junior trainer in Rick’s Gym had owned; this one, however, seemed nowhere near as aggressive and just stood gracefully still, looking its opponent in the eye, while the damaged vines of the Leech Seed found its feet and wrapped around them.
“Lapras, Surf!” May said quickly.
“Arcanine, Overheat,” the judge countered. May’s turtle was, unfortunately for her, not as fast as the great dog, and the Arcanine started glowing with a hellish red aura before opening its fanged mouth and releasing a big blast of flames. The fire was intensified by the sun, which was still shining through the gap in the clouds that Roselia had created earlier, and Lapras screeched in a high-pitched voice before dropping weakly down.
“Come on!” May hissed. Her Pokémon rose with difficulty, spurting out a wave of water; the stream hissed as it came into contact with Arcanine’s blazing fur. The dog was panting; the attack it had used earlier had clearly used a lot of energy. Once the water attack dissolved, the dog shook itself violently with a small bark.
“Surf again!” May ordered, but as Lapras prepared to send another wave of water crashing at Arcanine, the judge issued another command:
“Extremespeed!”
Her Arcanine leaned backwards with a growl and then leapt at Lapras, turning into a blur of cream, black and orange in the air for a split second due to its lightning speed, but then ramming powerfully into Lapras and knocking her unconscious.
“Lapras! Lapras!” May gritted her teeth as she prodded her Pokémon’s body with her foot. The turtle was still limp, and May swore loudly before recalling her Pokémon.
“You have passed,” said the judge shortly. “Give your Trainer Card to the guys over there.” She pointed at a desk near the entrance. “Next!”
May walked past Mark on the way out, still fuming.
“You weren’t supposed to win, you know,” Mark reminded her. “I mean, they’re professionals. I doubt they’re going to lose a single battle today.”
“Oh, shut up, Mark,” she snapped rudely. He shrugged and turned his attention back to the battles, discovering that there was now only one boy left before him in line. The judge on the right, an elderly man, was just finishing his battle with a girl, and the boy went to him. Mark felt odd being the next person to go; his stomach fluttered uncomfortably. Just a few meters away from him stood Ash’s opponent, a very nervous, small boy; the two of them appeared to be finishing their battle, and indeed, soon enough the boy recalled his Pokémon and walked, beaming, towards the desk. Mark took a deep breath and stepped forward.
“Hi, Mark,” said Ash brightly. “Have you decided which Pokémon you want to use?”
Mark hadn’t, but he still nodded, making a quick decision to leave Jolteon out. He took out his Pokédex and made the change.
“You said you had a Gyarados, didn’t you?” Ash asked. “Are you going to use it?”
Mark nodded; Ash took a little remote out of his pocket and pressed a button. The floor on the right side between them started sinking down and then moved to the side under the rest of the floor, revealing a pool of water.
“Oh, yeah… I should make it clear that your objective is not to win the battle,” Ash added. “Just battle with as much style and creative use of your Pokémon’s abilities as you can.”
“You won’t be using your strongest Pokémon, will you?” asked Mark nervously. Ash chuckled.
“Of course not. We don’t want your Pokémon to go down before you can display anything worth seeing. We’re using Pokémon around level 50 – it tests you better to have you battle against something stronger than you.”
“Oh… I see,” Mark just said.
“All right…” Ash began. “Six on six, recalled Pokémon is a defeated Pokémon.”
He smiled slightly and took out a Pokéball.
“Go, Breloom!”
The ball opened, releasing a sphere of red energy that formed into a very weird Pokémon resembling a kangaroo in shape. Its lower body was green, but the long tail, the neck, the petal-like collar and the rounded head were beige in color. On the top of its head was a growth, resembling a mushroom, and finally it had blood red claws on its oddly tucked-in arms and the more powerful, bouncy feet.
Mark figured this Pokémon had to be a Grass-type and reached for Charmeleon’s Pokéball.
“Go! Flamethrower!”
“Breloom, dodge it and then put it to sleep with a Spore attack!”
Charmeleon, as soon as he materialized from the ball, took a deep breath and blew out a blast of fire. Breloom, crying out in a high-pitched voice, jumped skillfully out of the way, and one of the four round seeds at the end of its tail started glowing with a bright green aura. Swinging its tail powerfully forward, the kangaroo sent a cloud of sparkly green powder at Charmeleon.
“Don’t inhale it!” Mark shouted stupidly, but the lizard’s eyelids started to drop and he collapsed within five seconds.
“Great job, Breloom,” Ash cheered. “Use a Leech Seed while it can’t dodge, and then wait for it to wake up.”
“Charmeleon!” Mark screamed, but he couldn’t hear anything through the unnatural sleep. Meanwhile, the kangaroo fired two parasitic seeds like the ones Roselia had used against May’s Lapras, and they sprouted roots that in no time embedded themselves into Charmeleon’s skin. Two vines grew from the seeds and wrapped around Breloom’s legs. Mark knew that the seeds were sucking energy from Charmeleon to Breloom, but he couldn’t do anything about it…
The lizard stirred and heavily opened an eye. Ash immediately gave the next order:
“Mind Reader, now!”
The kangaroo’s eyes glowed red as it fixed its glare on Charmeleon while he rose up; it didn’t appear to do anything. He fired silky flames towards Breloom, but it again jumped out of the way.
“Use a Dynamicpunch!” Ash cried out.
“Dodge it!” Mark countered. Charmeleon growled as he jumped up, but the kangaroo, its eyes still glowing, jumped up too. In mid-air, its arm sprang out and struck Charmeleon in the face. He was thrown backwards and crashed dizzily into the ground; Breloom landed on its feet.
“Charmeleon, Flamethrower!” Mark commanded desperately. Charmeleon rose slowly up, but his gaze was unfocused and he dropped down again.
Mark bit his lip, but then remembered that he was supposed to be thinking up new techniques. He wondered for a second; then the part of him that paid attention in Battle Strategies took control of his mouth.
“Rage!”
Charmeleon stood up again and rushed towards Breloom. The Rage attack would turn pain into power, and was just about Charmeleon’s only chance. What was more was that this would give Mark time to think over his situation.
While Charmeleon madly slashed and bit the kangaroo while steadily having his energy drained by the parasitic seeds, Mark thought as quickly as he could. May had also gotten Leech Seed used against her; she had gotten rid of it with…
“Charmeleon,” Mark shouted, “attack the Leech Seed’s vines!”
Mark knew that once Rage was used, its power would be lost if another attack was ordered; therefore he didn’t want to tell him to use Flamethrower. The Rage attack had to be getting very powerful now, anyway.
Charmeleon started scratching and biting the vines that linked him to his opponent. Ash told Breloom to use a Stun Spore, realizing that it would not help to attack Charmeleon while any pain he felt would just power up his attacks, but Charmeleon wasn’t affected a lot by the paralysis; the sheer power he had gained through the Rage attack was enough to move his limbs despite the stiffening powder that he had breathed in. Finally, he managed to hack through one of the vines, but having focused his attention on the Leech Seed for too long, Charmeleon wasn’t aware that Breloom was at full health by now and one more order from Ash, this time a Mach Punch, brought him down.
“Return,” Mark muttered. He thought for a bit; the Breloom seemed like a part-Fighting type since it could use all those punches. He vaguely remembered that kicks and punches did not harm Bug Pokémon a lot… or ones that could fly. Nor did Grass attacks.
He smiled. “Scyther, do it!”
“Breloom, Leech Seed!” Ash ordered.
Just as Breloom fired two more seeds, Scyther zoomed out of the way. Before Breloom was able to attack, the mantis’s scythes started glowing faintly green, and he dashed at the kangaroo to slash it across the chest. It cried out, blood leaking from the gash.
“Breloom, are you all right?” Ash asked with concern. The Pokémon nodded determinedly.
“Great. Mind Reader!” he roared, his Pokémon’s eyes turning bright red as Scyther returned to slash it again. This time he cut a gash on its shoulder; the kangaroo winced slightly, but nothing more.
“Leech Seed!” Ash then shouted, and Breloom fired two seeds. They hit dead-on this time, despite that Scyther was still moving. Mark suddenly remembered that Mind Reader caused the next attack to hit no matter what.
The two seeds sprouted roots and grew into Scyther’s armor, but as the vines started growing out of them to connect with Breloom, Scyther simply cut them in two with a swipe of his scythe. He prepared to attack Breloom again; Ash meanwhile gave another command:
“Strength!”
Mark suddenly got an idea, and blurted out: “Scyther, wait! Stay there and defend yourself!”
The mantis looked at him, seeming somewhat puzzled, but still did as Mark said, leaned backwards and held his scythes out in front of him as the kangaroo came rushing towards him. Just as Breloom was almost within Scyther’s reach, Mark made the next order.
“Fury Cutter! Slash, slash, slash! Quick!”
Scyther’s super-fast reflexes enabled him to attack immediately. His scythes glowed green again and he slashed Breloom three times: once with the left scythe, once with the right one and once with both. The kangaroo was thrown backwards, bleeding in a few places. Ash hurriedly recalled it and took out another ball as Mark smiled to Scyther.
“Go, Graveler!”
Ash sent out a big, rugged rock-like Pokémon. Its hide was a dark brownish gray; the body was round with four small, bulgy hands and two stubby feet.
“Okay, Scyther…” Mark inhaled deeply. “Try a Fury Cutter.”
The mantis dashed immediately towards the rock Pokémon, his scythes glowing. Ash didn’t attempt to order his Pokémon to dodge it; it probably wasn’t made for trying. Scyther struck the Graveler with his scythe, barely scratching the rock-like hide at all.
“Rock Tomb!” Ash ordered, and his Pokémon slowly raised its arms. At the same time, the ground in a circle around Scyther exploded upwards and the mantis was buried under rocks, ranging from large chunks to fine dust. He broke out of it in a few seconds despite being severely bruised; unfortunately he had lost his concentration and the glow on his scythes had faded away. Mark took out his Pokéball and recalled his Pokémon; Scyther didn’t stand a chance.
“That was the right thing to do,” Ash commented. “You know when your Pokémon would only get unnecessarily hurt.”
Mark just smiled slightly and blushed. After a short pause, he took out Gyarados’s Pokéball.
“Go!”
The sea monster emerged in the pool and apparently did not decide to roar as he usually did when entering battle. His little red eyes just fixed on Graveler and watched.
“Defense Curl,” Ash told his Graveler. The rock curled up into a tight ball, tucking its arms and legs into its body. Mark hesitated, wondering if Ash was about to try to surprise him.
“Graveler, Rollout!” Ash commanded, and his Pokémon started rolling slowly towards the pool, picking up speed as it went. When it came to the bank, it suddenly bounced upwards and rammed into Gyarados’s head before landing on the other side and rolling a bit on.
“Gyarados, Dive!” Mark shouted, thinking as quickly as he could. Rollout got more powerful each time it was used, he seemed to recall, so it would be best to try and dodge the attack. The sea monster dove into the pool, avoiding the rock Pokémon as it rolled back with more force than before. After missing Gyarados, the Graveler started rolling back again, but as it was in the air flying over the pool, Gyarados’s shape rose from the surface. He seemed like a figure made of water as he crashed right into the Graveler’s body and threw it aside; then the water illusion faded and his real colors were revealed again. Graveler, hit hard by the blow, rose slowly up, but Gyarados breathed out a blast of crimson flames of his own accord and Graveler cried out before falling unconscious when the dragon flames enveloped its body.
“Return, Graveler,” Ash said, holding forward the Pokéball to recall the rock Pokémon. “Manectric, do it.”
Ash sent out a dog-like Pokémon. It was blue and yellow with spiky fur and a very odd, pointed mane on its head. Everything about it looked like an Electric Pokémon, so Mark didn’t get his hopes up for Gyarados; however, nothing said he couldn’t go out with a bang.
“Gyarados,” Mark shouted, “Dragon Beam!”
Ash seemed to be about to command Manectric to attack, but paused after hearing the command, most likely wanting to see what Mark was about to pull out of his sleeve. Gyarados closed his eyes with a low growl, and his colors started fading away. Manectric watched alertly, seemingly ready to attempt to dodge. Then, when Gyarados’s body had turned completely grayscale, his eyes opened and fired a red beam.
Manectric attempted to leap out of the way, but the beam followed easily. Ash looked at it with clear astonishment. As the beam hit the dog, it was sent flying backwards, landing harshly by its trainer’s side.
“Do you want to be recalled?” Ash asked, concerned. The Pokémon shook its head and growled, standing up again.
“Thunderbolt, then.”
Manectric jerked its head upwards and howled as its fur started sparkling with electricity. Then it fired a bolt of lightning that struck Gyarados as he was still recharging his energy. With a terrible roar, the sea monster collapsed and didn’t get up again.
“Gyarados, return,” Mark said softly. “Go, Sandslash!”
The pangolin emerged from the Pokéball and observed his opponent.
“Sandslash, Earthquake!”
“Manectric, Crunch!”
Manectric was faster than Sandslash, jumped at him and bared its fangs. Sandslash defensively slashed the dog across the face, but Manectric aggressively locked its jaws around Sandslash’s front paw. Sandslash sank his other claws into Manectric’s hind leg and as the dog yelped in pain, it released him and staggered backwards. Sandslash grabbed the opportunity and slammed his weight into the ground, causing the eerie Earthquake ripple to reach Manectric and take the Electric Pokémon down. The dog howled in pain and then dropped weakly to the ground.
“Return, Manectric,” Ash said, recalling his Pokémon. “You did a good job.”
Ash stopped to think for a second, but then sent out his next Pokémon.
“Go, Hitmontop!”
Hitmontop was an odd creature – it balanced upside-down on its cone-shaped head, with its clawed legs and spiked tail sticking out into the air and its arms held in a boxing position. Its head also had funny hair-like flaps on either side of it. Despite not looking very muscular, Mark knew it was a Fighting Pokémon like its relatives Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, and that family of Pokémon was famous for having quite a bit more muscular strength than could be seen on the outside.
Mark nervously looked at Sandslash, whose injured front paw was still bleeding. He wouldn’t exactly last very long, and he wasn’t very fast either. Mark wondered if he should switch. The Pokémon he had left were Dragonair and Leta. Leta was a Normal type so that was out of the question, but Dragonair wouldn’t do so bad…
“All right, Sandslash, return.”
Mark tried to recall his Pokémon, but Sandslash moved out of the beam’s way and smashed his paws into the ground again. A second Earthquake attack formed, shaking the Hitmontop badly as the waves hit it.
“Hitmontop, Triple Kick!” Ash commanded quickly, his Pokémon instantly starting to spin around like a top. Still spinning, it rushed at Sandslash and delivered three blows to his head – one with each foot and one with the tail. The pangolin looked unconscious, but while Hitmontop was slowing down, Sandslash suddenly extended his claws and delivered a powerful slash. Hitmontop cried out in pain and somehow managed to leap backwards while still balancing on its head.
“All right, Sandslash… I guess you want to go on?”
Sandslash nodded determinedly.
“Hitmontop, Revenge attack!”
From Hitmontop’s scratches, red started spreading out and taking over the Pokémon’s body. Mark thought it was blood at first, but it was too bright red and was more like a glow than a liquid. Once it was completely red, it rushed into Sandslash again. The pangolin was thrown backwards by the force of the attack, but still stood up again. Mark was amazed; he had greatly underestimated Sandslash when he had intended to recall him earlier.
“Now, use a Quick Attack!” Ash ordered, and the Fighting Pokémon darted in a blur towards Sandslash again. The blow knocked the pangolin out before he could do anything to protect himself.
“Return, Sandslash,” Mark said softly. “You did a great job.”
Slowly, he picked Dragonair’s Pokéball and threw it into the arena. The blue snake-like dragon formed on the ground.
“Give me another good Triple Kick now,” Ash said.
“Dragonair, try to dodge!” Mark quickly yelled.
Hitmontop spun towards Dragonair and prepared to perform the attack it had used on Sandslash earlier; Dragonair twisted his body to avoid the two kicks from the legs, but the tail hit him and knocked him down. The dragon recovered quickly as Hitmontop got out of the way of a possible counterattack, but all of a sudden, startling both Mark and Ash, Dragonair’s body burst out in flames. Mark panicked for a second, but the fire died down quickly and Dragonair looked normal.
“Dragonair,” Mark started hesitantly, “try a…”
The dragon interrupted by breathing a cloud of flames into the air. Mark looked at him, puzzled, having no idea what had just happened. He quickly glanced at Ash; he was nodding absent-mindedly to himself while examining Dragonair.
“Hitmontop… try a Rolling Kick,” Ash then ordered thoughtfully. His Pokémon curled itself into a knot of sorts and rolled towards Dragonair at high speed. The dragon blasted out fire, hitting Hitmontop dead-on; the fighter screamed in pain, but nonetheless performed the attack, delivering a sharp kick to Dragonair’s snout before dropping down, exhausted. Ash quietly recalled it.
“Mightyena, do it!”
Out of his next Pokéball came a big, wolf-like Pokémon. Its body had gray, fine fur; however, its back was additionally coated with thicker, pitch-black hairs, along with some black markings on its face and its legs. The canine Pokémon growled quietly at Dragonair.
“Crunch!” Ash commanded, his Pokémon leaping towards the snake-like dragon and baring its fangs. Dragonair countered with another fire attack – Mark was still very confused as to how he could use them – and Mightyena, yelping in pain, stumbled backwards without actually coming into contact with Dragonair.
“Try a Shadow Ball,” Ash suggested, his Pokémon leaning slightly backwards. A jet-black orb of shadow started forming in front of Mightyena, rapidly growing in size. Then the Pokémon barked sharply and the orb shot towards Dragonair. He was hit by it and thrown backwards; the dragon appeared to be shivering as he rose up again with difficulty.
“Use a Howl,” Ash ordered, and Mightyena raised its head into the air before letting out a long, eerie howl. Mark really had no idea what was up with Dragonair suddenly using Fire attacks and was a bit too confused to be able to give proper instructions to his Pokémon; he just watched Dragonair breathe a long silky tongue of fire which the wolf avoided without much effort.
“Another Shadow Ball, now, and make it count!” Ash shouted to his Mightyena. It leaned backwards again, but this time it was much faster charging up a much bigger orb. It was fired straight at the dragon and he was sent flying back towards Mark. He finally got up again after straining for a few seconds, and then…
He flew.
Dragonair just put up a strange expression and floated elegantly into the air, his sleek, snake-like body moving as if he were swimming. He seemed astonished at his own accomplishment for a second; then he appeared to snap out of a trance and focused on Mightyena again.
“Shadow Ball!” Ash shouted. Mightyena reared up, forming a big orb of shadow in a matter of seconds, and sending it at the dragon. Dragonair retaliated with another Fire attack, but the Shadow Ball took in the flames somehow and the fiery orb hit the dragon in the face. Dragonair dropped limply to the ground, defeated.
“Return,” Mark said as the Pokéball absorbed the blue dragon. He suddenly realized that he had only Leta left, and she was very low-leveled compared to the rest of his team. He bit his lip, but nonetheless grabbed the metallic sphere.
“Go, Leta!” he yelled, throwing the ball. It bounced off the ground and popped open; the plain-looking shape of the Pokémon he had caught earlier emerged from it and looked timidly at Mightyena.
Ash hesitated. “Mightyena, Take Down, but be careful.”
The wolf leapt towards the much smaller Leta, growling. It smashed powerfully into her body; she let out a high-pitched squeal, but stood up and stared at Mightyena, waving her tail rhythmically. The wolf was quickly hypnotized, and moments later its muscles relaxed, causing it to drowsily drop down as its eyes closed completely.
“Great job, Leta!” Mark cheered. “Now, um…” He had no idea what kind of attacks Leta might be able to use; finally, he just decided to make his best available guess:
“Tackle!”
He was relieved to see that Leta recognized the attack and rammed her small body into Mightyena’s; he’d have hated to make a fool of himself in front of Ash Ketchum by showing that he didn’t even know his Pokémon’s attacks. The disappointing part was that the wolf was way too big to be even affected by such a tiny Pokémon’s Tackle at all. Leta did her best a few times, but Mightyena didn’t even move and Mark saw Ash smiling slightly at Leta’s unsuccessful efforts. The white Pokémon seemed to give up, walked a few steps backwards and crouched down. Then she charged towards Mightyena.
“Yeah, Headbutt!” Mark quickly said in some kind of subconscious attempt to make it look like he knew what he was doing. Leta slammed her head into Mightyena’s body, but unfortunately this woke the wolf up. Mightyena growled and bared its fangs.
“Recall her, Mark,” Ash sighed. “She doesn’t stand a chance.”
Mark had to admit that he was right. He reluctantly took out Leta’s Pokéball and it absorbed her inside. He looked nervously at Ash.
“You passed,” he said, smiling. “Tell me, though… what was that thing your Gyarados did?”
“Er…” Mark thought a bit. “I don’t know, to be honest. He just can do that.”
Ash looked puzzled, but like he was realizing something nonetheless. “Ah well,” he finally said, “it probably all has some natural explanation.”
“Do you know what Dragonair did?” Mark asked.
“Dragonair? Oh, that was just some clever usage of the Dragon type’s association with fire. Your Gyarados, however… he did something that shouldn’t even be possible.” He furrowed his brow, seemingly thinking hard.
“Well, thanks,” said Mark doubtfully before walking off to the judges’ table.
I turned fifteen while writing this chapter! So from now on I have slightly less of an excuse for things being ridiculous.
Leta, Letal and Letaligon are a fakemon evolution line I created in 2004/5. This also means Leta was actually a new character in this version, which awkwardly meant I didn't really make much proper use of her at all until I'd overtaken the previous version, but expect to see considerably more of her after chapter 30.
I chose to make Mark a real dick capturing Leta for some reason and it's weird. Maybe if a Pokémon screams for help when they see a Pokéball it might indicate they're not entirely psyched to be caught? Just a thought? So maybe you should not let the "greedy part of you" just decide her questionable father is an excuse to decide unilaterally to keep her? It's extra frustrating because Mark was kind of good last chapter, too.
The Pokémon naming worldbuilding in the fic is finally (awkwardly) explained here. I made it sound super like I was making this up on the spot here to handwave why Pokémon not having names totally isn't weird, suddenly declaring that Pokémon call their trainers Trainer and all while there's been zero indication of this in the story so far, but actually I'd explained how this works in chapter 35 of the version prior to this one and just for some reason never included anything even hinting at it in this revision started after that, because fourteen-year-old me was a master of good writing decisions. This also means Mark, who you may recall is supposed to be good at Pokémon speech, is somehow learning for the first time now how something as fundamental as names works in their language and culture. Great job, me. (In a later revision of the first few chapters, I wrote an extra wherein this was covered in the very first Pokémon speech lesson, as it should be.)
Love to resolve the entire illegal training debacle by having Ash just give Mark a license the moment he first actually needs one, problem solved. What a silly plot thread that is now mercifully wrapped up for good. Also making Charmeleon randomly Charlie's brother, which also makes him a son of Ash's Charizard. Granted, I was imagining Ash's Charizard has fathered at least a few dozen Charmander who've been starter Pokémon, so he wasn't exactly meant to be unique, just incidentally related.
Scyther's extremely hilariously melodramatic bit there in the Ash scene is only a taste of what is to come; be prepared.
Annoyingly, the Attack Approval event itself was much more fun and interesting in the previous versions, where it involved Mark workshopping specific new moves with his Pokémon, testing them out on high-tech Clefable dolls that record statistics, and then performing them for the judges, instead of consisting of just having a battle. Fifteen-year-old me still making stellar writing decisions.
The Pokémon Festival - May 23rd: The Pokémon Frenzy Tournament
Time for chapter 23, wherein the Pokémon Festival continues to have a very questionable taste in officially sanctioned events.
This chapter went and did this thing of including some of the Pokémon's thoughts in italics in the middle of battle, stepping out of Mark's POV randomly. I was going to use this for a particular moment much, much later on. By the time I got to that moment, I did not actually do it this way, so instead it's a thing I did randomly in this one chapter and then never again. I'm saying this here in an author's note because there's no actual way to tell within the text that these are the Pokémon's thoughts and not Mark's, other than the content of the thoughts. Fantastic writing decisions all around.
Also, heads up that this is one of the chapters with heavier themes of suicide, and in particular, it handles it quite badly. Apologies in advance for this.
The Pokémon Festival – May 23rd: The Pokémon Frenzy Tournament
Mark woke up before May the next day. He had never thought he’d ever be relieved to wake up from a nightmare about creepy yellow eyes, but it was not at all pleasant to be woken up by May’s yells every morning, either. He quickly got dressed, and just as he pulled on his socks, there was a loud knock on the door.
“Hey, sleepy!”
“I’m up already!” Mark called back, walking towards the door and opening it. “What event is today again?”
“The Pokémon Frenzy Tournament,” May replied.
“What was that again?” Mark asked, yawning.
“It’s a thing where your Pokémon battle without trainers,” she explained. “Look, I have a thingy on it.” She held up a booklet and then started skimming it.
“It says here that it’s ‘a competition of how well Pokémon can handle their own battles without the limits set by trainers and standard battling rules’,” she read and looked up. “That translates to ‘something where your Pokémon beat each other up and you have nothing to do with it’.”
Mark considered this. He wasn’t the best battler, after all – maybe his Pokémon would like to get some time to shine by themselves.
“It also says here,” May continued, “that trainer-free battling ‘helps your Pokémon’s ability to think independently within battle’, and to ‘know their own limits’.”
Mark nodded. That would definitely help him get some badges; after all, he did usually rely on his Pokémon’s abilities rather than his own when battling.
“Umm, are you entering?” he finally asked.
“No,” she said. “I prefer to win thanks to my own strategies, not my Pokémon’s.”
A part of Mark decided to take that as a personal attack, but the other part prevented him from saying anything.
“Well, I like the idea,” he said decisively. “I’m entering… all of my Pokémon.”
“Well, the same trainer may only enter a maximum of three Pokémon,” May read from the booklet. “So that won’t work.”
“Oh.” Mark paused for a second. “Well, I won’t enter Leta, the Pokémon there are probably all much stronger than she is… Jolteon really deserves to be in, though; he didn’t get to take part in the Attack Approval at all...”
“It says here you can’t enter Pokémon that rely on water to battle,” May pointed out.
“Then I guess Gyarados can’t be entered either,” Mark said. After a short pause, he sighed.
“I’m being an idiot – of course I have to ask them.”
May didn’t reply; he took out his Pokéballs and sent out all of his Pokémon except Gyarados. He started by briefly explaining the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament.
“So,” he finished, “who wants to enter and who doesn’t?”
“I want to,” Leta said quietly.
“But…” Mark protested, startled. “There will be really strong Pokémon there…”
“Yes,” Leta replied emptily.
May’s booklet saved Mark from trying to convince her otherwise: “Well, the minimum level to enter appears to be 30. It says here that there are five groups: level 30-45, level 46-60, 61-75, 76-90 and 91+. Leta is level 22, isn’t she? So she can’t enter. The rest of you can, though.”
Leta didn’t say anything. She just looked down.
“I’m sorry,” said Mark, although he actually felt very relieved. “What about the rest of you?”
“I’ll volunteer not to be in,” said Dragonair after a moment’s pause. “As fun as it would be to fly some more, I’m not that interested.”
The rest of the Pokémon looked at each other for a while.
“I guess I’ll pass too, then,” Sandslash said finally. “I don’t really care either way.”
“Great,” said Mark cheerfully. “That’s all settled, then?”
All the Pokémon except Leta nodded. She just stared emptily straight forward.
“All right,” she finally sighed after everybody’s eyes had been set on her for a second.
“I’m sorry, Leta,” Mark said quietly. She just nodded shortly.
-------
What had been done with the stadium since yesterday was amazing. Tall walls now divided the arena into five parts, one for each level group. The one for level 30-45 was the smallest, while the level 91+ one was the biggest by far. There weren’t many people accompanying Mark and May on the small section of seats that faced towards the 30-45 part; Mark guessed that almost all of them were probably the trainers of participating Pokémon, like him, or their friends, like May.
Mark noticed that the walls were much thicker than they needed to be; just as he was wondering why, doors slid open on either side of the mini-arena.
“Welcome to the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament!” a voice boomed out. “I will be commenting on the battles today. Let’s just start round one!”
Two men holding Pokéballs appeared in the doors, ready to throw them.
“And the first match is between a level 35 male Jolteon and a level 35 female Vibrava named Terra! Let the battle begin!”
The men threw the Pokéballs; out of them came Jolteon and a weird, green and yellow dragonfly-like Pokémon. It flapped its wings and floated lazily a little above the ground.
It’s a dragonfly… Pokémon that fly are weak to electricity, aren’t they? I think May always used Pikachu for them…
Jolteon crouched down, charging up electricity in the spikes on his back. The Vibrava watched him calmly; naturally he found it a bit odd, but he nonetheless released a bolt of lightning that shot towards the dragonfly Pokémon. She didn’t even attempt to dodge; in fact it was almost like she took the full blast of the attack on purpose.
“And it’s a Thunderbolt!” shouted the announcer.
Jolteon tilted his head with a confused “Jolti?” as the Vibrava kept floating there without reacting to the attack at all. There were no signs of her being in pain, or even having taken the attack at all.
Suddenly she jerked herself upwards and then dived down. She slammed hard into the ground, causing an explosion of ripples as if she had dived into water. Jolteon was too startled to avoid the attack and cried out in pain as he was hit, accidentally releasing a flurry of sparks.
“Terra used an Earthquake, but Jolteon is not quite down yet!”
Earthquake?
The Vibrava tried diving into the ground again, but this time Jolteon was ready and leapt up just before she landed. He came down on her back, locking his claws into her wings. The Vibrava screeched, flying upwards again in an attempt to shake Jolteon off. In the air, he started charging up more electricity and sending it pulsating directly into her body; she was just as unaffected as the previous time. The Vibrava turned her head around in an attempt to bite Jolteon; he leapt off her in time and she crashed right into the wall.
“Ouch! That must’ve hurt!” came the announcer’s voice as Terra dropped weakly down to the ground. After looking unconscious for a second, she suddenly got up and blasted sparkly flames at Jolteon. Taken by surprise, he was hit; he felt his muscles stiffen but managed to shake it off.
“Nice Dragonbreath there! It almost paralyzed even the limber Jolteon!”
Earthquake? Dragonbreath? Electricity not working? This is weird…
“Jooooolt!” he screamed as he turned around and fired the spikes on his backside in a flurry towards the Vibrava. Like tiny, sharp needles, they tore into the dragonfly Pokémon’s skin and wings; she screeched in pain.
“Ooh, clever Jolteon!” the announcer said. “He gets it! It’s safe to reveal now, folks, that the Bug/Flying type that most people assume when they look at a Vibrava is in fact a brilliant disguise, because it is really a Ground/Dragon type!”
Everybody in the audience except May was surprised to hear this, Mark included.
“But back to the battle, Jolteon is using another Pin Missile in an attempt to eliminate Terra from the match! She was weakened earlier when she crashed, so now we just have to wonder whether he’ll make it in time!”
As Jolteon took a short break to breathe, Terra shot into the air again, clearly preparing for another Earthquake, but Jolteon suddenly leapt at her at incredible speed, becoming a streak of yellow in the air as he struck her with his whole body.
“And it’s a great Quick Attack!” the announcer shouted. “Let’s see if Terra makes it!”
Both Pokémon landed on the ground, Jolteon on his feet but Terra on her side. She twitched slightly but didn’t get up again.
“And Jolteon is the winner!” came the announcer’s voice as the doors on the sides opened again and the men recalled the two Pokémon. Mark noticed that Jolteon was very tired after this battle; he hoped the Pokémon were healed before they had to battle again.
“The next battle is between this level 45 female Scizor and Blade the male Sceptile, who is also level 45!”
Two new Pokéballs were thrown, and the Pokémon emerged on the arena. Mark compared the crimson red, metallic bug with pincers of some sort on its arms and the large, green, bipedal reptile with a fern for a tail. He had always thought Sceptile was ugly when he looked at the illustration in his Pokémonology textbook, mainly because the tail always reminded him of a Christmas tree; now that he saw one in real life, he thought it didn’t look so bad.
Meanwhile, the Scizor had been performing weird ninja tricks of some sort on the air, seemingly lost in her own world. The Sceptile raised an eyebrow before suddenly roaring and leaping at her, hoping to take her by surprise; however, she somehow grabbed him by the arm in mid-air and threw him to the ground as easily as a sheet of paper.
“Ooh, Scizor pretended to be playing around while she was really building up her power with Swords Dance! Clever move there!”
The reptile got up, seemingly mad about being fooled like that. He suddenly plucked a leaf off his own tail; it started glowing as he leapt at her again with a roar, attempting to strike her with the edge of the leaf as if it were a sword. She narrowly blocked it with her pincer, but then said something. The Sceptile nodded and they turned around, walking a few steps back.
“I think Scizor just challenged Blade to a duel!” said the announcer as the two Pokémon turned around and rushed at each other. Their arms moved like blurs, attacking and blocking attacks, and the audience could only guess what was really happening from the occasional roars as one of them got hit. Finally, they stopped to catch their breaths. The Sceptile was notably more hurt; he had a big bleeding gash on his forehead and quite a few scratches and bruises, while Scizor’s shiny armor was barely damaged. The reptile looked a lot more tired, too, but he had no intentions of giving up; he grabbed another leaf from his tail and held it in his other hand, and then rushed at the bug again.
“Poor Blade doesn’t have much of a chance here, I’m afraid,” the announcer explained. “His Leaf Blade attack is not very effective on Bug and Steel Pokémon like Scizor at all.”
This announcement only made the reptilian Pokémon all the more furious; he started slashing faster and harder with his leaves, and Scizor showed signs of starting to have a hard time keeping up with his speed as she blocked one strike after another. Finally Blade made a fatal mistake; one strike was too low, Scizor saw her chance, and she leapt into the air and smashed her pincers into his skull.
A sickening crack was heard. A red-haired teenage girl in the audience screamed, presumably Blade’s trainer. The reptile dropped limply to the ground, his head covered with blood.
The two Pokémon were recalled; Blade was at least still alive since the Pokéball worked.
“Blade will now be escorted to the Pokémon Center to be taken care of,” the announcer assured. “He will be fine. The next battle is Fury the level 40, and obviously male, Hitmonchan, versus Happy the level 38 obviously-female Chansey! It’s a battle of the sexes! Who will win?”
Mark rolled his eyes. They were selecting Pokémon of at least similar levels to battle, but they kept giving one Pokémon a type advantage over the other. This Chansey was probably dead meat.
The doors opened. A rather humanoid-looking brown creature wearing a purple tunic and boxing gloves walked out on one side, and an egg-shaped pink creature with a happy expression emerged from a Pokéball on the other. Fury stretched and yawned while keeping an eye on his opponent and then faced her to bow deeply. As he rose up again, he suddenly delivered a sharp punch to her head and then a kick to her stomach. Her eyes widening in surprise, the Chansey bounced backwards like a rubber ball, landing on her back and flailing around. Fury walked up to her and smiled apologetically before raising his right fist into the air; his glove sparkled with electricity before he gave the Chansey another punch. She screamed and stopped moving.
Fury stroked nonexistent sweat from his forehead as the Chansey was recalled; Mark saw a dark-haired boy in the audience smack his forehead and guessed that he was Happy’s trainer. Then the Hitmonchan walked out of the arena. Mark wondered why he wasn’t in a Pokéball; maybe his trainer was one of those anti-Pokéball people.
“Umm, after this, er, great match, we’ll see Jaws the male Feraligatr, level 42, battle Cannon the Blastoise, level 41 male.”
Two Pokéballs were thrown, opening to reveal two huge, blue Water Pokémon. One was a bipedal alligator like the one the Mew Hunter had possessed; this one was undeniably larger, though. The other was a gigantic tortoise, also bipedal, with two shiny metallic cannons poking out of holes in his shell.
For a while the two just growled, staring at each other and baring their fangs. Then the Feraligatr ran towards Cannon and they started wrestling. Jaws bit the Blastoise’s cannon; the tortoise Pokémon started pumping water through it with tremendous force, pushing the alligator slightly back. He moved out of the way and then used what was, according to the announcer, a Dynamic Punch. This sent the Blastoise tumbling backwards until he fell over, and while he lay helplessly on his back, flailing around, the Feraligatr smashed his tail into Cannon’s stomach. With a loud groan, he fell unconscious and Jaws celebrated victory with a few roars. The two Pokémon were recalled.
“Next battle! We have this level 36 female Raichu against a level 37 male Umbreon called Wraith!”
The two Pokémon were sent out. One was an orange rodent, most likely one of those that had been evolved in the Evolution Solution, and the other was a sleek, black catlike creature with long ears and tail; Mark recognized it as the Dark-type evolution of Eevee. It had glowing, yellow rings on its forehead, ears, tail and legs.
The Raichu charged her yellow cheeks with electric sparks before sending a bolt of lightning at the Umbreon. He took the attack and shrieked slightly in pain, but shook it off. His rings started glowing as a black orb of shadow formed in front of him; then it was fired at Raichu and hit her. She was thrown backwards and moaned in pain before standing up again with difficulty.
“Raichu started off this battle with a Thunderbolt, but Wraith countered with a nice Shadow Ball! Good start!”
Wraith now started kicking sand that appeared under his feet into the Raichu’s eyes. The mouse Pokémon retaliated by starting to sparkle and slamming her lightning bolt-shaped tail into the Umbreon’s body. His muscles stiffened, leaving him paralyzed and forcing him to stop – but suddenly Raichu’s body also stiffened with a flurry of electric sparks.
“Ooh… Wraith used a Sand-Attack, and then Raichu countered with a neat Thunder Wave, which would have given her a nice advantage if only it weren’t for Umbreon’s Synchronize ability which causes all special conditions to rebound upon the user!” the announcer called. “Bad mistake there, Raichu!”
Wraith suddenly opened his mouth and sprayed out a dark purple liquid. The sticky substance went all over the paralyzed Raichu and started seeping into her fur. She moaned.
“Wraith uses a Toxic! Oh, this is deadly!”
With some difficulty, the mouse Pokémon sent a bolt of lightning at the Umbreon. He couldn’t avoid the attack thanks to his condition, but he clearly had the endurance that his species was known for and took the attack without much trouble while Raichu shivered from the poisoning. Wraith’s red eyes glowed, and he seemed to be healed slightly.
“That, folks, was an example of a Moonlight attack used in daylight,” the announcer explained. “You can’t really see it because the sun lights everything up, but Wraith just made the moon shine brightly on him, giving him added energy. The Moonlight attack is quite a sight to see in nighttime – it’s a shame you didn’t get to have a good look at it. Oh, look, Raichu is using a Thunder Punch!”
While he talked, the mouse Pokémon’s fist had started sparkling, and now she slammed it into Wraith’s face. He cried out in pain as the electricity surged through his body, but he clearly knew that he was going to win this battle; he gave a small smile as Raichu moaned and dropped to the ground, fainting from the poison.
“And Wraith has claimed victory!” the announcer roared as the two Pokémon were recalled back into their Pokéballs. “The next battle is between this level 35 male Charmeleon, and a level 37 Jynx who is, obviously, female.”
Mark looked hopefully up; Jynx had a slight level advantage, but Charmeleon had the types in his favor.
The two Pokémon were sent out at the sides. Charmeleon’s opponent was a humanoid-looking Pokémon in a red dress. This was, of course, just the standard Jynx outfit, similar to Hitmonchan’s gloves and tunic, and mainly served the purpose of keeping the people who were bothered by naked humanoid Pokémon at bay; it really limited the Pokémon’s ability to move freely. Jynx’s face, framed by straight blond hair, had purple skin, scary, white eyes and a round, pink mouth.
Charmeleon, who stood on the other side of the arena, looked calmly at Jynx, his arms folded. Then he moved his hand up to his mouth and breathed out a small flame. He absent-mindedly stared at it for a while; in the meantime, Jynx watched him suspiciously.
All of a sudden, the lizard hurled the small ball of fire at his opponent. Jynx’s dress was hit by it; she let out a very eerie scream and her purple hand glowed icy blue as she cooled it down.
“Clever,” the announcer commented. “Charmeleon has made up an attack. Wonder if he was at the Attack Approval yesterday?”
Jynx all of a sudden ran up to Charmeleon. He seemed somehow hypnotized and didn’t try to run away or attack; she came right up to him, closer, closer, closer… and then she planted a kiss on his cheek.
His eyes opened wide for a second, but as Jynx backed slowly away, he looked dizzy; Mark could’ve sworn he was drunk when he started teetering and muttering something while trying to reach for Jynx’s dress. A few people started laughing, including May; Mark felt his face go red.
“This Sweet Kiss confused Charmeleon thoroughly! What will he do now?”
He didn’t manage to do anything at all before Jynx started smiling eerily while staring into his eyes. Mark saw his Pokémon slowly put up a very dorky grin, before his mouth simply fell open.
“Jynx’s Attract keeps Charmeleon charmed!” The announcer snickered at his own pun while Charmeleon stood there drooling. Mark was probably the only person who wasn’t in hysterics by now; he wanted to sink into the ground when Jynx approached Charmeleon again and kissed him again, this time on the lips. Charmeleon joined heartily in; while they kissed passionately, Jynx slowly lowered Charmeleon onto the ground and closed her eyes. Charmeleon did the same.
As their lips were about to part, Charmeleon’s eyes suddenly opened. Realizing what he was doing, he ripped himself free of Jynx’s arms, wearing a disgusted expression.
“Charmeleon resisted Jynx’s Lovely Kiss! That is quite an achievement, mind you!”
How could I let myself be humiliated like this?!
He spat on the ground a few times, looking at his opponent with disgust before releasing a Flamethrower. It hit Jynx in the face, but before she could do anything, Charmeleon’s tail flame flared up to double its normal size as he leapt at Jynx and started clawing and biting like crazy.
“Charmeleon clearly doesn’t like being seduced! He expresses his anger with a Rage attack, and… yes, I think Jynx is down!”
It was true; Jynx was unconscious, her dress charred and ripped. Charmeleon shot her a nasty glare as they were both recalled.
“Our next battle is between a level 43 male Scyther and a male Absol by the name of Armageddon, level 45.”
Mark smiled to his mantis as he was sent out; his opponent was a big catlike creature with thick, white fur, a black face, red eyes and a sickle of sorts sticking out of the right side of his head.
“Absol!” Armageddon hissed, crouching down and leaping at Scyther. He jumped out of the way, but the Absol landed gracefully and turned immediately around to face Scyther again. They circled each other for a few seconds, but then Scyther flew straight at Armageddon with his scythes raised, glowing green. He managed to get a few rapid slashes in before the Absol swished his white-glowing blade and gave Scyther a cut across his chest. They stopped for a second to catch their breaths, but then Armageddon rushed back at Scyther, who blocked the blade with his scythes. He tried attacking back, but the Absol blocked that too.
In the long run, though, what gave Scyther an advantage was the fact that he had two blades while Absol only had one. It didn’t take him long to figure out the perfect way to use this to his advantage, and after that Armageddon was dead meat, receiving one slash after another without being able to do anything to prevent it. Finally, the Absol gave up and crouched down on the ground. Scyther’s expression showed no emotion as the two Pokémon were recalled.
“Armageddon surrendered, so Scyther is the winner!” said the announcer. “The final battle of round one is Casey the female Pidgeot, level 45, and a male Haunter, level 44.”
Two Pokémon were released, one of them an eagle-like bird with a crest of very long, golden and red feathers on her head, and the other a weird, wispy, purple shape with sinister eyes and a jagged red mouth. Two disembodied hands which clearly belonged to the creature appeared out of thin air at his sides.
Casey started rapidly flapping her wings; in a matter of seconds, she had whipped up a small whirlwind and sent it towards the Haunter. He let out some comical screams as his gaseous form was beaten around by the whirlwind and finally sent flying in a random direction; Casey destroyed the whirlwind with a few flaps of her wings in the right places as the ghost Pokémon floated dizzily back into the arena.
The Haunter’s hands started glowing bright red, along with his eyes. The flapping of Casey’s wings gradually slowed down as she floated irregularly towards the ground; as she landed there, her eyes closed and she collapsed, fast asleep.
Satisfied, Haunter started muttering to himself and then floated down to the sleeping bird Pokémon. His left hand touched her head lightly and he got an expression like he was trying to remember something; then he nodded and suddenly, a freakishly long, pink tongue came out of his mouth and licked Casey’s head crest. As her feathers dripped with saliva, she twitched violently, but didn’t wake up.
“And Haunter uses a Dream Eater attack on the defenseless Casey!”
As Haunter licked her again, Casey’s eyes opened. She shook herself while standing up, beating the ghost away with her wings at the same time. Haunter hurriedly floated to a safe distance as Casey took off into the air; then the ghost charged up a black orb of shadow in front of him, picked it up in his left hand and threw it at the bird Pokémon. This was a fatal mistake; Casey quickly started flapping her wings fast and the strong gust of wind turned the orb back to the user. Haunter let out a sound somewhere midway between a scream and a laugh before the orb clashed with him and they somehow negated each other out so they both vanished.
“Haunter’s Shadow Ball wouldn’t have worked on Casey anyway, as a Normal type,” the announcer explained as Casey and what was left of Haunter were recalled. “That concludes round one; now it’s time for the winners of round one to go on to round two!”
Mark suddenly now properly realized that all three of his Pokémon had won their battles. He smiled as it struck him that he himself not being a skilled battler ultimately meant that his Pokémon were more skilled than most of the other ones.
Still, it was a fact that a few levels could always beat skill.
“You’ve already been introduced to all the Pokémon, so now it’s just starting the next battle! Jolteon versus Scizor!”
Mark was startled. “Wait a minute,” he asked May, “wasn’t Scizor level 45? Why are they pitting her against Jolteon? They were pairing Pokémon of similar levels earlier!”
“They probably wanted to avoid making two of your Pokémon fight if possible,” May whispered back. “Besides, they weren’t exactly always fair earlier either. Maybe they like seeing one Pokémon get beaten to a pulp and another not needing much effort to win.”
“But still…”
May pointed down into the arena, where Jolteon and Scizor had been sent out, and Mark shut up.
Scizor has wings… I guess electricity is worth a try.
Jolteon charged sparks in his body and sent a bolt of lightning towards the big red bug. She easily leapt out of the way and then zoomed straight towards Jolteon with her pincers raised. She clamped both of them around his right front leg.
A sickening crunch followed by Jolteon’s scream of pain caused Mark to avert his eyes. He immediately regretted having entered Jolteon in the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament at all.
Jolteon, feeling pain like he had never felt before, pumped electricity into Scizor’s body in order to make her let go. She leapt backwards, leaving Jolteon to look at his awkwardly-angled leg and cringe. He whimpered; Scizor charged at him again, evaded a Thunderbolt and then knocked Jolteon out with a heavy blow to the head.
“Scizor has won this battle, and thus we proceed to the next one,” the announcer said as Jolteon and Scizor were recalled. “Fury the Hitmonchan and Jaws the Feraligatr are next up!”
“See?” Mark directed at May. “Those two are somewhere in between Jolteon and Scizor! They could have made Jolteon battle one of them and Scizor battle the other!”
May just shrugged. “Well, maybe they’re just lazy and are making the winners of the first two battles battle now or something.”
The two Pokémon were sent out – again, Fury walked by himself rather than being sent out from a Pokéball.
Fury was adjusting his gloves for a while, absent-minded; then all of a sudden, he sprang up and gave the alligator a good punch in the stomach.
“Fury’s decided to start this one with a Mach Punch!” cried the announcer. “Jaws – Jaws – he uses a powerful Slash attack, but Fury evades it!” he continued as the humanoid leapt out of the way of the Feraligatr’s claws. “Fury uses a Comet Punch – Jaws bites his arm – ouch!”
The red boxing glove on Fury’s free arm glowed white before he drove it into the alligator’s jaw.
“Fury gets Jaws to release him with a Mega Punch attack! And what does Jaws do…”
The Feraligatr, stumbling backwards, opened his mouth and sprayed a jet of high-pressure water at the Hitmonchan.
“It’s a Hydro Pump, but FURY EVADES IT! Wow, that’s some agility there! Fury charges – he Dynamic Punches Jaws right in the skull! Oww, that must’ve hurt a lot! Jaws is kinda dizzy – no, wait, he’s down! Jaws is down! Fury has won the match!”
The Hitmonchan smiled slightly as he walked out of the arena; a Pokéball recalled the unconscious alligator.
“Next up are Wraith and Charmeleon!” the announcer declared as the two Pokémon were sent out. “The ringwraith meets the lovebird!”
Charmeleon growled threateningly; some people laughed. Looking at Wraith with a gaze that could kill, he breathed a small flame into his hand like he had done in his battle with Jynx and clenched his fist. Then he darted towards Wraith with a roar; the much slower Umbreon couldn’t outrun him before Charmeleon slashed him with white-hot claws. Wraith shrieked in pain as his side was torn up.
“Ow, ow, ow!” was all the announcer said.
Charmeleon now breathed out a cloud of silky flames as Wraith tried to run away. Not built to dodge, he was hit by the full blast, screaming.
“Charmeleon is using quite a strategy here, folks!” the announcer explained. “He clearly knows that an Umbreon’s skin is very tough, and therefore heated up his claws before his Slash attack to cut deeper. Then, with open wounds there, Wraith is vulnerable, which serves Charmeleon’s main goal: making that Flamethrower hurt.”
Mark stared at his Pokémon, who was watching closely as Wraith attempted to stand up. That was, to say the least, very well thought-out for a relatively young Pokémon.
Wraith, who had been struggling to stand up, collapsed again. Charmeleon smiled victoriously as the two were recalled.
“The next match of round two is between Scyther and Casey the Pidgeot! It’s a match of talons and scythes!”
The eagle-like Pokémon was sent out on one end and Scyther on the other. Mark noticed that he was exhausted and the cut across his chest was just as bad as earlier – the Pokémon were clearly not healed between rounds.
Casey stood on the ground, tilting her head and looking at Scyther with an expression of disdain. The mantis just stared into her eyes until she suddenly looked up, spread her wings and took off. Scyther did the same, and they flew at each other. Unlike the very planned duel between Scyther and Armageddon, this was more of a cat fight; they scratched aimlessly at each other as quickly as they could, feathers raining down onto the ground. There was no way to see what was really happening until they took a short break to breathe after kicking each other backwards.
Casey’s missing and ruffled feathers were giving her a slightly hard time flying; Mark noticed that she was clearly flapping her wings faster than in her earlier, healthier state. Her left wing bled; Mark wasn’t sure if the red in some other places of her body was just blood from the wing or if they were individual wounds. Scyther, on the other hand, had gotten his slash from the earlier duel scratched up to bleed more, along with some minor scratches on various parts of his body.
The two Pokémon flew at each other again; Scyther’s strategy had changed, however, as he now focused especially on Casey’s injured wing like she had been focusing on his cut. Casey started having a harder time maintaining her altitude now, and this enabled Scyther better access to her wing. Finally Casey dropped to the ground, exhausted. Scyther also landed, panting. Mark was surprised to see that only Casey was recalled; Scyther was left in.
“And now it’s the semi-finals! Four Pokémon have gotten this far – which of them will compete in the final match? We’re about to find out, and in quite a battle – Scyther versus his own evolved form, Scizor!”
Scyther looked oddly up as the red, armored bug was sent out on the other side of the arena. He got up very slowly, clearly completely out of energy but determined nevertheless.
Scizor…
Scyther’s gaze attempted to tear the Pokémon in front of him apart.
Nobody can stop me now… I’m getting my revenge…
He dashed towards her as fast as he could in his current state; she leapt out of the way with relative ease.
Fast for a Scizor, are we?
Not that that’s saying much…
He darted towards her again; she was about to dodge him in the same manner as before, but he predicted her movement and tackled her to the ground. Scizor locked her pincers around Scyther’s arm and tightened her grip. This wasn’t quite as effective as it had been on Jolteon, since Scyther didn’t have any bones to break, but it bought her a second which she could use to get up. Scizor then zoomed at Scyther to attack him, but he smashed his scythe into her as she came within reach and sent her unexpectedly flying through the air, crashing down on the ground. As she tried to stand up, he jumped on top of her and pinned her down, quickly bringing his scythe to her throat.
Prepare to die, Scizor.
“STOP THE BATTLE!”
Scyther looked up; a tall, red-haired boy in the top row had stood up.
“He’s going to kill my Scizor!” the boy yelled.
“Scizor’s trainer,” the announcer said simply, “when you entered your Pokémon in the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament, you signed a waiver stating that you were aware of the rules of the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament. Trainers must not interfere with their Pokémon’s battles.”
“I DON’T CARE!” the trainer screamed. “THAT’S MY POKÉMON DOWN THERE!”
“The Pokémon Frenzy Tournament is free of all rules and restrictions of normal trainer battles,” the announcer said calmly. “The Pokémon are free to do whatever they want.”
“NO!” Scizor’s trainer roared as Scyther turned his attention back to his opponent. But his scythe didn’t move.
His gaze traveled back to the trainer, then to her again; then he slowly released her and stood up. Scyther said something, but nobody heard it through the roars of the other crowds. Scizor didn’t stand up, clearly admitting defeat; Scyther stared oddly at her as the two of them were recalled.
“That was quite a battle!” said the announcer cheerfully in some kind of a failed attempt to liven up the dead silence.
“I… I wouldn’t have wanted my Pokémon to be a murderer…” Mark whispered to May.
She shrugged. “Technically, he already is. Even if the Mew Hunter didn’t make him kill anybody, he’s a predator and…”
“Thank you, May,” Mark interrupted coldly.
“Well, our next battle is between Charmeleon and Fury the Hitmonchan,” said the announcer awkwardly; Fury walked into the arena on one side and Charmeleon was sent out of his ball on the other.
“I might add, if you don’t hate me too much,” said May shortly, “that if Charmeleon wins this, the final battle will be Scyther versus Charmeleon.”
Mark froze completely, his heart skipping a few beats. She was right; how could he not have noticed?
“Oh God…” he muttered. “They’re going to kill each other…”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that if I were you, Mark,” May pointed out. “See, even though Charmeleon has the type advantage, Scyther is at a much higher level, and a bigger and stronger Pokémon in general, besides being one of the very reasons that the Agreement tells Pokémon to specifically not aim their attacks to be fatal. So basically, Charmeleon is going to get sliced up.”
Mark would have commented on how stupidly calmly she said that, like she didn’t care, but he was too busy worrying.
“And I can’t interfere, as we saw when Scizor’s trainer tried to…”
“So we just need to hope Charmeleon loses big time now,” May finished. “Come on; Fury is at a higher level and fully evolved. Charmeleon isn’t very likely to win.”
“I guess,” said Mark, despite being absolutely not convinced. Charmeleon had proven himself to be very clever so far in the tournament, and he didn’t look at all about to lose very easily. Mark shifted his attention back to the battle; Charmeleon was just firing a Flamethrower which Fury dodged before punching the lizard in the stomach, chest and jaw in rapid succession.
“Fury used a Comet Punch, and Charmeleon doesn’t appear to be feeling very good…” said the announcer’s voice as the lizard bent over and spat some blood onto the ground. He looked up again, narrowing his eyes, and then breathed a flame into his hand. Fury leapt forward; Charmeleon grabbed the opportunity and threw the fireball. It singed Fury’s shoulder and he slightly lost his balance; landing awkwardly, he was vulnerable for a second and this allowed Charmeleon to jump on his back and dig his white-hot claws into the Fighting-type’s skin. Fury, while obviously in intense pain, didn’t let out a sound and stayed on the ground, slowly enveloping himself in a light blue aura. Charmeleon jumped off his back, and while Fury turned around, the lizard formed flames in his throat and released a bright blast of fire that hit Fury straight in the face.
“A nice Flamethrower, which has an even greater effect due to Fury’s current state – he used the energy he uses to perform Ice Punch to cool down the pain in his wounds, but this made him more vulnerable to sudden exposure to more heat.”
The Hitmonchan stumbled a few steps backwards, but then suddenly darted forward again as his fist glowed and delivered a punch to Charmeleon’s skull. The lizard was thrown harshly backwards, landing on his side. His consciousness seemed to be drifting away when he forced his eyes open and stood up.
“Charmeleon is clearly tough! That Mega Punch should have knocked him out for sure!”
Charmeleon fired another Flamethrower; Fury was getting too tired to dodge well and was partially scorched by the flames. After being hit, he held both of his gloved hands into the air before walking out of the arena. It was clear what this was: he had given up. Mark’s heart sank.
“And Charmeleon is the winner! It’s time for the final match: Scyther versus Charmeleon! Incidentally, they both belong to the same trainer – this will be interesting…”
“No, no, no, please, no…” Mark moaned. “I’m not watching…”
He started staring at an ancient, moldy piece of pink chewing gum that had been stuck on the back of the seat in front of him. May rolled her eyes and sighed.
Charmeleon grinned with satisfaction as Scyther was sent out on the other side of the arena. He growled an insult, but the mantis barely seemed to notice. He seemed absent-minded and strange.
It’s time… time to advance…
“Char…” he growled. “CHAARMELEON!”
He closed his eyes in deep concentration and clenched his fists.
“Mark,” May whispered, poking his shoulder, “you have to see this.”
Mark looked up. Charmeleon was slowly being wrapped in a white glow…
“Would you look at that!” the announcer yelled. “Charmeleon is evolving, here at the start of the final battle of the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament! Now, this is something you don’t see every day!”
Mark stared as his first Pokémon changed in shape for the second time. He grew much larger, the horn on his head split into two narrower ones, his head grew longer and more dragon-like, his neck and tail lengthened, and two leathery wings sprouted from his shoulders. The glow faded away to reveal a fully grown Charizard.
He let out an ear-splitting roar, glaring madly at Scyther. The mantis was clearly astonished, but kept calm. Mark noticed that he didn’t look about to attack at all for some reason.
Charizard bent over and started coughing up a bit more blood; however, he then appeared to get a better idea and spat it at Scyther instead. His face was covered in it and...
Blood.
Blood is red.
It clicked in Mark’s brain: something red in a Scyther’s eyes equals disaster. He quickly focused on the chewing gum again.
Charizard took off from the ground, trying out his new ability to fly. Scyther looked at him through a layer of bright red and then darted towards the nearest moving object with his scythes in the air: Charizard’s wings.
The dragon growled, swung his powerful, flaming tail and smashed it into Scyther’s body, throwing him to the ground. He got up again with some difficulty, blinking; the blood was clearing out of his eyes now, but this hesitation gave Charizard a perfect opportunity to smash his powerful tail into Scyther’s head, knocking him out and driving him face-down into the ground. Charizard flew slowly up with a triumphant smile, raising his tail.
One more attack is sure to get rid of him for good!
“No, please, no…” Mark prayed, still staring at the gum and refusing to look at what was happening.
Charizard lowered his tail slightly.
Why am I doing this again?
We hated each other… but why? I don’t remember him ever doing anything to me.
I… I got him to hate me back… I wanted him to hate me back…
I was afraid that he would attack Mark…
No… I was a jealous little idiot and convinced myself that that was why.
I’ve matured now… but my actions can’t be taken back…
Charizard stared at Scyther, lowering his tail completely.
What have I done?
He suddenly stopped flapping his wings and crashed into the ground.
“It… it looks like this terrifying battle ended in a draw,” the announcer said in a slightly trembling voice. “Charizard has given up, but Scyther doesn’t seem to be in very good condition either.”
-------
Mark never really remembered what happened after that. He just came to his senses as he lay on one of the couches in the Pokémon Center and looked at Nurse Joy’s face going in and out of focus as she told him that Scyther was no longer in critical condition.
He looked confusedly around. The windows were dark and the few people in the Pokémon Center were asleep. May appeared to have been sleeping on the next couch, as she was now sitting and rubbing her eyes as she listened to Nurse Joy explaining something about Scyther.
Mark stroked his forehead and shut his eyes, trying to recall what had happened. It all seemed hazy. He just remembered the battles. He checked his watch; it was half past two in the morning.
“Any questions?” Nurse Joy asked.
“Er, no,” Mark replied, not having listened to what she had been saying. “May, could you come over here?” he asked as the nurse walked back to the counter. Everything seemed out of order in Mark’s brain.
“What?” May asked as she sat down opposite him.
“I can’t remember anything.” Mark was getting a slight headache too. “Can you fill me in on what happened after the battle was over?”
May raised an eyebrow. “You don’t remember it? That’s weird.”
“No…” Mark muttered.
“Then again, it makes sense, because you were strange, to say the least.”
“What happened?” Mark repeated in frustration.
“Well, you suddenly stood up, walked down from the audience stands, cussed your head off at the Pokéball people for not recalling them earlier, took your Pokéballs to the Pokémon Center, handed them to Nurse Joy without an explanation so I had to tell her what happened, and then lay down here and stopped responding to anything. I waved my hand in front of your face and you didn’t even blink.”
“Huh?” Mark asked. “That’s weird… I don’t remember it at all…”
May just had a puzzled look on her face.
“It’s odd, really, I… wait, Nurse Joy! Charizard! How is Charizard?” Mark asked worriedly, suddenly remembering that Charizard existed. The nurse came back and sighed.
“Physically, he’s pretty much fine – just the normal Pokémon battle stuff. But he seems very depressed for some reason; he’s refusing to eat or drink, or even respond at all. I’m worried he’s trying to starve himself.”
“Can I talk to him?” Mark asked, concerned. The nurse nodded and led him into a blue room akin to the one where Mark had talked to Eevee at the Cleanwater City Pokémon Center. May followed doubtfully.
Most of the Pokémon inside were asleep or unconscious, lying in beds with various accessories for each one. Charizard was awake, however; he was lying flat on his stomach in a corner near a window, completely motionless and staring blankly straight forward.
“Charizard?” Mark asked carefully. The dragon didn’t react at all. Mark stood right in front of his eyes, but Charizard still seemed to be staring through him.
“Scyther is going to be all right, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
No reactions.
“Can he even hear me?” Mark whispered to Nurse Joy. She nodded gravely.
“He definitely can. He just ignores it.”
Something stirred on the other side of the room; Mark was surprised to see Scyther rising slowly up from one of the beds. Finally Charizard showed some signs of being alive; his eyes moved to the mantis and followed him across the room.
“Killing yourself won’t help.”
Scyther said this in a very calm voice, looking straight into Charizard’s eyes. The dragon closed his eyes and smiled weakly.
“Says who?”
Scyther chuckled. “At least I know what I’m talking about. My situation is very different from yours. Your problem is a thing of the past, a foolish mistake, which didn’t have any grave consequences.”
“It could have,” Charizard muttered. “I could have killed you…”
“But it didn’t happen, and that’s what matters,” Scyther simply said. “It is not going to make you suffer in the future unless you consciously let it.”
“I was despicable,” Charizard breathed. “I deserve to die.”
Scyther sighed deeply. “All right then. I’m coming with you.”
The mantis raised his scythe to his own throat. They looked into each other’s eyes for a while.
“You wouldn’t do it,” Charizard said suddenly.
“Wouldn’t I?” asked Scyther dangerously. “I’m not afraid of death. I’ve already died.” He chuckled slightly. “You know, it actually isn’t that bad in itself. But it isn’t the ultimate solution you think it is…”
He paused for a few seconds, but then continued: “I can’t say I was glad to be back, but I had no intention of killing myself again. Mark keeps me alive – being a trainer’s Pokémon gives me a purpose. And speaking of which… suicide would be a very bad way indeed to thank him for saving your life.”
That hit the spot. Charizard looked at Mark for a second; not much, but definitely an improvement. The two Pokémon stared at each other for a little while.
“Well, I guess you’re right,” Charizard finally sighed. “I’ve been an idiot.”
“You’re already forgiven,” Scyther just said.
“Besides… we can always die later, can’t we?” Charizard smiled as he stood up. The mantis smiled back.
“Death is not to be feared…” Mark heard him mutter as the two Pokémon shook hands.
Look at Mark finally deciding to actually consult his Pokémon about a thing oh my god
The Pokémon Frenzy Tournament is pretty amazingly unethical. At least I was consistent enough about it to make a point of how slimy it is throughout, with the way they deliberately match the competitors to make for unequal, more brutal matches, but that really doesn't excuse "By the way, the vague waiver you signed means your Pokémon can murder each other and not only are we not going to do anything about it, you're not allowed to do anything about it either!" Fun for the whole family at this public festival, eh?
The idea that Scyther was in critical condition after the fight with Charizard, which consisted entirely of Charizard spitting some blood at him and then smacking him down twice with his tail, seems pretty weird, given how many battles I write where the injuries sound a lot more serious than that. I guess I also established they don't heal the Pokémon in between, so Scyther's also been through the fights with Armageddon, Scizor and Casey by this point, but nonetheless, I didn't make this actual murder attempt super convincing.
Back in the day, when I wrote this, this was possibly my favorite chapter of the entire fic (up to where I'd rebooted the previous version). A bunch of attempted murder and suicide was just exactly my idea of a chef's-kiss chapter of my Pokémon fanfic. Today, oh boy do I cringe at that final scene wherein Charizard is randomly suicidal and then gets over it in seconds because Scyther tells him it'd be ungrateful to Mark. I am sorry.
(Also why did I think I had to write every single battle of this 16-participant tournament including a bunch between random throwaway Pokémon we've never seen before and will never see again)
Thank you for your most excellent reviews, I will treasure them. <3 And light a candle for Spikeon
Aaaand here's chapter 24, in which Mark continues to inexplicably have an uncontrollable compulsion to throw a ball at a legendary.
The Pokémon Festival – May 24th: The Threat
“There are two events today,” May explained to Mark as they headed towards the Green Town Stadium. “First they’ve got Ash Ketchum’s starter Pokémon giveaway. Then there’s the Trainer’s Market, which sells stuff cheaper than you can get it anywhere else. I’ve heard they even have Master Balls.”
“Master Balls?” Mark asked curiously. “Do they sell them?”
“Only here, they’re expensive and there’s only one per trainer,” May replied. “But I’m still getting one.”
Master Balls, Mark thought, biting his lip. He couldn’t deny what he had first thought of when she said that. The uneasy feeling he had had in his stomach since he woke up to yet another nightmare about yellow eyes grew.
“Hey!” called a familiar voice as Mark and May were about to enter the stadium to watch the starter Pokémon giveaway. Mark turned around to see Ash and Alan walking to them and waving.
“Is that…?” May whispered in his ear.
“Yep,” Mark replied with a grin as she started staring at her fingernails. “Hi, Alan!”
“Hello, Mark,” said Ash. “I heard about yesterday’s incident. Are your Pokémon okay?”
“Yes…” Mark said. “Err, what Pokémon are you going to be giving out now?” He quickly changed the subject.
“We’ve got a very wide selection, but only one or two of most of them,” Ash explained. “This year we’re giving out most small Pokémon that evolve except really rare ones and ones that can’t battle out of water. Then we’ve got a Ditto, and that’s the only Pokémon we have that doesn’t evolve at all. Of course, the traditional starters are always the most popular, so we keep a bunch of them handy.”
“How does the starter giveaway happen, anyway?” Mark asked.
“Well,” Alan answered, “the kids get in line, tell us what Pokémon they’re considering, I say some stuff about the Pokémon they’re thinking about, and when they’ve confidently made up their minds, they get their Pokémon and trainer license and it’s the next person’s turn. Pretty basic.”
“Oh, so you’re in it too?” Mark asked curiously.
“Yeah,” Alan replied. “Dad thinks it makes the kids less nervous if they’re talking to a teenager, and at least not directly to him. Dunno if it helps, but I don’t mind doing it.”
“Oh, all right.” Mark paused. “Should we walk down to the stadium together?”
“Sure,” Alan answered. His father shrugged.
“Mmmm,” May mumbled.
-------
A horde of nervous ten-year-olds entered the stadium and looked timidly around at the audience. Ash was seated at a table beside a Pokéball transfer machine on the far right; Alan stood in front of the table with a microphone.
A very childish-looking blond-haired girl with a pink ribbon in her hair was first in line. She teetered unsteadily towards Alan and muttered something. He turned his microphone off and muttered a bit back, presumably to make her feel less shy.
“Umm, this is Joanne,” Alan announced, turning his microphone back on. “She was thinking about picking a Pichu…”
“NO!” screamed the small mousey-haired boy who was next in line. Joanne looked anxiously at him and then muttered something again.
“All right,” said Alan, “she’s changed her mind. She’s considering Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur is a Grass/Poison type and one of the original starter Pokémon that Professor Oak gave out to children in Kanto. It’s also Pokémon number one in the National Pokédex. It evolves into Ivysaur and later Venusaur, and likes to use spores and powders as well as direct offensive Grass attacks. They’re usually loyal, but tend to be a bit secluded and not the most social Pokémon around. So… Joanne, is this the Pokémon you want?”
She looked doubtfully at Alan like she had had an overload of information, but then nodded shyly.
“Great!” Alan said cheerfully as his father pressed some buttons on the Pokéball transfer machine and a red and white sphere fell out of the tube. Ash took the ball and handed it to Alan, who in turn passed it on to Joanne and gestured for her to send out the Pokémon. With a quick questioning glance at Alan, she lightly dropped the ball onto the ground. It popped open and the orb of red light inside it took shape into a green, spotted toadlike creature with a large plant bulb on its back. It blinked its bright red eyes a few times, looking up at its new trainer before extending two long, green vines from the base of its bulb and grabbing her hand with them. The crowd cheered, Joanne blushed and then recalled her Pokémon. She went up to Ash’s table and was handed a green Pokédex and a trainer card; then she shook Ash’s hand, her face bright red, and set off running out of the arena.
“And now,” Alan started, but didn’t get to finish his sentence; the mousey-haired boy ran up to him and screamed “PICHU!”, causing the microphone to produce an ear-splitting screech.
“Err,” said Alan, covering his ears, “Pichu is a…”
“I just want my Pichu!” the boy yelled as Alan quickly pointed the microphone away.
“Um, well… all right, I guess.” Alan shrugged and Ash quickly handed him a Pokéball to give to the hyperactive kid. The little boy tossed the Pokéball to the ground, jumping around in excitement as a small, yellow mouse-like Pokémon with diamond-shaped ears formed. It looked confusedly at the boy as he picked it up and hugged it.
Alan poked the boy’s shoulder. “Er… can’t you do that later? Go get your Pokédex.”
The boy hurried over to Ash’s table and stared at him with an expression of deep admiration. Ash smiled slightly and gave him a red Pokédex; the boy almost forgot to get his trainer card before bouncing out of the arena with his still confused Pichu.
A red-haired, tall boy was next; he walked up to Alan, cleared his throat and said into the mirophone: “I’d like a Ditto, please.”
“There goes the most unique one,” Alan said as a few kids groaned in disappointment. “Ditto is the only Pokémon we’re giving out that doesn’t evolve, and also the only non-legendary Pokémon in the world with the ability to transform into other Pokémon. Ditto is perfect for strategists, because when Ditto has transformed it is exactly as powerful as its opponent and the more skilled trainer will win. Is this your choice?”
“Yes,” said the boy nervously. Alan nodded; his father handed him a Pokéball which he then gave to the boy.
“Thanks,” the boy said, smiling as he dropped the Pokéball to the ground. A pink blob resembling a blotch of chewing gum with two tiny eyes and a thin mouth came out of the Pokéball.
“Ditto!” it squeaked before transforming into an exact replica of its trainer. He smiled and shook Ditto’s hand before recalling his Pokémon again.
-------
Once the starter Pokémon giveaway was over, they had a bit of free time while preparations for the Trainer’s Market were being made.
“I think I’m going to call home,” Mark said as they exited the arena. “Nothing better to do, and my parents would probably be happy to hear from me. After all, it would be the first time since I started my journey.”
May shrugged. “My parents know I’m doing fine, even if I don’t call them.”
“I still want to call,” Mark said decisively. “You coming with me to the Pokémon Center?”
“No,” she said simply. “Your parents, your call.”
“See you at the Trainer’s Market, then.”
“Bye.”
Mark walked to the Pokémon Center and got permission to use the videophone. He picked up the receiver and dialed the number nervously.
“Hello? Mark?” came a deep male voice at last. The black screen displayed a picture of Mark’s father; he looked very worried. Mark saw his mother in the background hurrying up to the videophone. She looked worried too.
“Hi, Dad,” said Mark.
“Where are you?” Mark’s mother interrupted.
“Um, Green Town Pokémon Center,” he replied confusedly. His parents looked at each other; then his father turned back to the camera and sighed.
“Look, Mark… you’re not about to go see Chale-thingy tomorrow, are you?”
“Well,” he replied, “I’m not sure…”
“You’re not going!” his father hissed, narrowing his eyes and leaning towards the camera. “You’re not coming anywhere near that thing! Do you understand me?”
“Why?” Mark asked, confused. “How do you even know what Chaletwo is?”
“Look,” came his mother, pushing his father away, “we just wanted to keep you safe.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mark asked hotly.
His father sighed. “We didn’t allow you to go on a Pokémon journey. We talked to the librarian about putting books involving Cha-whatever somewhere away. We did our best to prevent you from hearing about the Pokémon Festival. We did it all because we knew that as soon as you found out about it, you would want to see it and get yourself killed. Now, don’t let all that effort be wasted.”
“What?” Mark asked furiously. “You’ve been trying to keep it away from me? What sort of parents are you?”
“Parents who care about you, that’s what sort!” Mark’s father hissed. “Now promise me you’ll stay away tomorrow. Just lie somewhere in your hotel room and pretend not to exist or something. Do you understand?”
Mark didn’t answer.
“Mark? Mark? Can you hear me? What…”
He placed the receiver on the side of the videophone. The image on the screen flickered and disappeared.
Anger boiled within him. He had thought his parents were overprotective before, but this was the last straw. He couldn’t stand the idea of having had all that kept from him for so long. So that was why they had never seemed to have anything against him going on a Pokémon journey until five years ago. And why he had never found any books about the Ouen legendaries before, and didn’t know anything about the Pokémon Festival. So many mysteries were explained by this one phone call.
To get his mind on something else, he looked at his watch and decided that he might as well walk down to the stadium again for the Trainer’s Market. He kicked some stones along the way and decided that this call was nobody’s business but his own.
He momentarily forgot about it when he entered the stadium. Dozens of sale stands were now standing there in neat rows; trainers of all ages were gathered around them to buy all the items they could dream of. The biggest crowd, however, was gathered around one stand, which Mark guessed was the one with the Master Balls. Hesitating, he walked up to what he presumed was the end of the line. Slowly the crowd thinned and he finally got to the stand. He took out his trainer card, remembering that they could be used as credit cards.
“You’re selling Master Balls, right?” he asked, just to be sure. The brown-haired man on the other side nodded as he adjusted his sunglasses slightly.
“Okay… I’ll have one.”
The guy inserted Mark’s trainer card into a slot on a small box. It beeped and a purple and white sphere with a small white ‘M’ on the front materialized on top of it.
“Here,” the man said, handing it back to Mark along with his trainer card and a booklet. He quizzically looked at it; the front of it said ‘Master Ball safety manual: Read before use.’
“Hey, get a move on,” a voice said behind him, and Mark moved to the side. He bumped into a boy with a pale face and long, black hair.
“Victor?”
“Mark!” Victor exclaimed. “I thought I’d never find you! We were going to meet at the festival, remember?”
Mark blushed. “Oh, I forgot.”
“It’s all right,” said Victor. “Um… is May here somewhere? Oh, there she is.”
Victor waved to her where she was somewhere in the crowd. She doubtfully waved back and then came to them.
“You’re the Mutark guy, right?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Victor confirmed. “I wanted to speak to you two.”
May raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”
“Well…” Victor began, swallowing, and then sighed and gestured for them to follow him out of the stadium. He was only happy when they were standing by the side wall, out of everybody’s earshot.
“What is this all about?” May asked impatiently.
“Er…” Victor started again. “Well, after you two had both left Scorpio City, Mitch told me that… that he had a feeling something would happen to you.”
Mark got a sinking feeling in his stomach; May just raised her eyebrow further. “And? It’s not like he’s psychic or something.”
“He is,” Mark muttered miserably, remembering what Victor had told him when they had met outside Scorpio City.
“It’s just a rumour, of course,” Victor quickly added. “But I’d still be careful if I were you – they say he has foreseen deaths and stuff.”
“I don’t believe in rumours,” May said firmly, not looking very convinced. Mark didn’t say anything. He just thought about Mitch’s odd, hypnotic stare, the strange things he said and the way he had asked if Mark had dreamt anything. As much as he’d have loved to label it as just a rumour, it didn’t seem all too unlikely that there was more to Mitch than met the eye.
“Well, that’s all,” Victor said nervously. “I’ll… see you around, I guess.”
“Bye,” said May doubtfully. Mark mumbled something. Victor waved slightly and walked off.
“Do you think he’s just trying to scare us?” May asked after a moment’s pause.
“He didn’t seem like it,” Mark muttered.
“Mitch could be wrong, too,” May suggested.
“Could I be wrong?”
Mark jumped and turned around to find Mitch suddenly standing there with a mysterious smile on his lips.
“Was what Victor said true?” May just asked.
“We had that conversation, yes,” said Mitch and nodded slowly.
“But what…” Mark began, but Mitch was already walking off. Puzzled, the two kids looked at each other.
-------
Mark felt uneasy for the remainder of the day. May was quieter than usual too; he felt a strange need to keep her company. They stuck together until they went to their Pokémon Center rooms in the evening.
Mark didn’t feel like going to sleep for some reason, so he picked up the booklet he had received at the Master Ball stand.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
The Master Ball, while capable of holding any Pokémon no matter how powerful, will not automatically sway a Pokémon to obey you any more than a normal Pokéball will. Remember that Pokémon respect their trainers in accordance with their training experience and kindness, not their equipment! Always show caution when attempting to capture powerful Pokémon. If it appears unhappy about being captured, release it straight away and do not give it a reason to dislike you.
The Master Ball is best kept until you are an experienced trainer, and is wisest to use on a Pokémon that is rare rather than one that is powerful.
Mark read the words dully. He wasn’t an idiot; this text basically translated to, “Don’t do anything foolish like trying to catch Chaletwo even though he’s appearing tomorrow.” He put the booklet down and sighed before taking out his sketchbook and starting to draw.
He was lost in his own world for a while as his hand shot across the paper and drew the outlines of a Lugia. After the Lugia, he added a Zapdos, and a Moltres, and an Articuno…
He slowly got drowsy and in the end he realized that he had been dozing off for a few minutes while drawing. He stared at what he drawn while half-asleep.
Wow, that’s my best Mewtwo ever, was his first, somewhat sleepy thought. Then a cold shiver ran down his spine as he realized that its eyes were closed.
PLOT TWIST: Mark's parents pulled strings with the local librarian to ensure Mark somehow manages to never hear about the legendary Pokémon who appears publicly every year at the festival where he wanted to go to get a starter, and who has murdered four kids in the past four years which one would have assumed was pretty big news discussed by someone in town. And this worked, somehow. And they did this instead of just... talking to Mark about why maybe he shouldn't go see a legendary Pokémon who will probably murder him. Excellent choices all around.
This was a new scene in this version, and it wasn't planned when I started this one either. It was just kind of an ad-hoc twist I came up with to try to retcon how Mark didn't know anything about Chaletwo, but unfortunately it's quite ridiculous and really doesn't make the whole thing make a whole lot more sense.
I love Mark asking "How do you even know what Chaletwo is?" as if everything he's been learning shouldn't have made it extremely clear that it's super weird he'd never heard of Chaletwo.
Starter Pokémon in the QftLverse are volunteers, but of course I didn't do a lot to show or emphasize this here. Wouldn't any of them want to screen their prospective trainers, rather than just being handed off to them after they pick a species? Shouldn't they, you know, get to see if they click, at all?
It's pretty silly that I went out of my way to make Master Balls a thing that is sold to regular trainers in this fic. As the booklet points out, a Master Ball won't cause a Pokémon to actually consent to being captured any more than any other ball - so why is people buying them even a thing? What legitimate purpose is there to a regular trainer using a Master Ball in this world? At best it could make sense as a self-defense tool, to stop a powerful rampaging Pokémon.
The Pokémon Festival - May 25th: Chaletwo's Arrival
Dun dun duuuun... it's time. Time for Chaletwo arriving, the start of the plot proper, and some legendary bickering.
The Pokémon Festival – May 25th: Chaletwo's Arrival
Mark just suddenly realized that he was awake. He couldn’t recall waking up, or dreaming anything. That was a relief.
He reached for his watch and looked at it. It was seven in the morning. He sighed, closing his eyes. He didn’t feel tired at all.
His stomach fluttered as he thought about what day it was. His father had told him to stay in his room, lie on his bed and pretend not to exist. That was probably the wisest thing to do. His inner voice of reason told him that over and over with convincing, step-by-step arguments.
And there was really no voice to speak against it, because there was no question about it. There was no way to logically argue that he should rather take the risk and see Chaletwo. There was just a power that could silence all logic immediately. And Mark knew that there was no way he could lie in a room and wait while the most powerful Pokémon in the world was appearing outside. He just couldn’t.
He had a funny, numb feeling as he sat up in his bed and reached for his Pokéball belt at the foot of his bed. He took Sandslash’s Pokéball – no particular reason why, he just felt like it – and dropped it lightly onto the floor. Sandslash came out of it and looked around.
“What is it?” he asked.
Mark shrugged. “Nothing. Just felt like talking.”
“About what?”
“Anything.”
They didn’t say anything for a while. Finally, Mark sighed.
“The other day when I got my trainer license… it made me think,” he muttered. “I… do you really like me and the way I train you?”
“Well,” Sandslash sighed, “there is something I wish you would do.”
“What?”
“Let us outside a bit more. We would all love to be able to run around freely for a bit sometimes when you’re not doing anything. Pokémon don’t like being stuffed inside Pokéballs for too long.”
“Yeah,” Mark muttered. Neither of them said anything for a little while.
“I’m not sure I’m such a good trainer,” Mark said quietly.
“You are,” said Sandslash softly. “I am very grateful for you.”
“Why?” Mark asked. “I’m lousy. Take May…”
“You are a much better trainer than her,” Sandslash said immediately.
“But how?” Mark asked miserably. “Are you really being honest?”
“Well,” the Pokémon began slowly, choosing his words carefully, “when you first caught me, I thought you weren’t a very good trainer at all. I always lost and stuff…”
He trailed off, but then continued: “But then I slowly started realizing that… Well, when you’re a young Pokémon, you think of a trainer as a method of getting strong and nothing more than that, which was why I wasn’t happy to find that you didn’t appear to have much more skill than I did by myself. But then I just started to realize that you cared and really hated not being better, because you felt like you were being a lousy trainer for us. And that… touched me. The reason Pokémon tolerate the limits set by being possessed by a trainer, and thus the reason Pokémon training can work in the first place, is that it usually gives Pokémon an opportunity to be stronger, but in the long run, Pokémon don’t live for that. The reason Pokémon stay true to their trainers after the trainers retire and the Pokémon have reached the physical limits of their strength is that through a trainer’s journey around the world, strong bonds are formed between trainer and Pokémon. This is what keeps Pokémon training alive and what makes it so magical – and this is why you are a better trainer than for example May, who is an extraordinarily good battler, but will never feel like anything more to her Pokémon than a temporary training stage in their lives. It’s sad that so many Pokémon stay with a trainer for years, never realizing how much more there is to life with a trainer than battling.”
“I… wow,” Mark just said.
“Take now, for example,” Sandslash said. “When you’re a young, wild Pokémon, you don’t expect your trainer to send you out just to talk to you. It’s just not in your image of what you believe the purpose of a trainer is. When that happens, though, you realize that this is one of those moments that make you really appreciate your trainer, more than winning some battle will ever do. You’re a great trainer, Mark. May is everything a Pokémon looks for in a trainer – you are much more.”
Mark felt strangely warm. “Wow… thanks…”
“But as I said,” Sandslash continued, “we’d really love some more outside time. You should try that sometime soon.”
“I will. Thanks,” Mark said, smiling.
-------
Mark spent the day as if it were his last. He didn’t encounter May at all, but he was feeling so different that he was kind of glad for that. He focused on enjoying himself, such as by buying a lot of candy, and had a weird, hyperactive ‘happy’ attitude throughout the day. He had no idea why he wasn’t more nervous. He just felt crazy.
That changed, however, when it drew closer to four o’clock. Suddenly the voices in his head were all screaming again; he wanted to go back to the Pokémon Center as he walked past it, but his feet wouldn’t obey and continued towards the slowly gathering crowd of people in the patch of grass just outside the city borders.
A circle with an approximately five-meter radius had been marked off in the grass. Nobody stepped into it. Mark felt numb as he found himself a place behind a few other people; he could peek out between them.
He waited for what seemed like an hour; then somebody in the crowd shouted “Ten!” The rest of the audience joined in with the countdown.
“…Four! Three! Two! One!”
And suddenly Chaletwo just stood there in the middle of the circle.
He wasn’t like Mark had expected. The illustrations in the book about the Ouen legendaries didn’t capture the way he looked at all. Yes, he had the exact same, lavenderish-white skin as Mewtwo, same strong legs but thin arms, same bulgy toes and fingers, same distantly human torso and catlike head – and, indeed, his eyes were closed. But the artist had missed two important details. One was that it was clear that Chaletwo was looking through his eyelids; he didn’t even distantly look like Mewtwo with closed eyes. The other was that Alan had been absolutely right: Chaletwo was obviously not evil. It wasn’t hard to imagine him as evil from looking at the pictures, but Mark just realized suddenly that he had been wrong. He had no idea why, but it didn’t seem like something to question. It was just true.
Everybody was immobilized as Chaletwo looked over the crowd. He then started turning slowly around to see the rest of the audience. Mark’s heart hammered in his chest as the legendary turned towards where he was.
And stopped.
The people in front of Mark automatically shifted to the sides before he knew, and he found himself rooted in place, looking straight at Chaletwo’s closed eyes. After what seemed like an hour, during which Mark’s mind and body were completely frozen, Chaletwo finally turned away.
Mark released his breath as Chaletwo was no longer looking at him.
He’s facing away. You could just throw the Master Ball.
The voice spoke clearly out in Mark’s head before he could help it. Chaletwo turned sharply back towards him; Mark stared desperately at the legendary with only one thought in his head: I don’t want to die now.
Chaletwo’s eyes opened.
The first thing that occurred to Mark was that the ‘Good or Evil?’ poster in the Pokémon Center had gotten Chaletwo’s eyes completely wrong too. On the poster they had been bright yellow, but they were so much more than that. They were terribly, blindingly, unearthly yellow, their brightness piercing through his eyes like a knife, yet so oddly beautiful that he didn’t want to look away.
Then, all of a sudden, Mark felt a burning hand ripping his heart out through his chest. The pain was unthinkable; he screamed, but the sound seemed unrealistic and far away. He faintly heard an echo of other people’s screaming as his vision faded to black, all except for the horribly, horribly bright eyes that were somehow the worst part of all.
-------
Suddenly, it all stopped. The pain was gone. Everything around him was eerily dark and silent.
What happened? he thought.
“Your consciousness has been separated from your body,” answered a calm, telepathic voice. Mark somehow knew it was Chaletwo.
“What… wait a minute… are you saying I’m… dead?” he asked slowly.
“That’s the basic idea, yes,” Chaletwo replied.
“But I can’t be dead!” Mark protested. “I’m right here!”
“Here is nowhere,” was Chaletwo’s confusing answer.
“That doesn’t work,” Mark argued. “We’ve got to be somewhere, if you’re here.”
“No,” Chaletwo said firmly. “I took you to a place that doesn’t exist. We’re in a void of nothing.”
“Why can’t I see you?” Mark wondered.
“You are dead. A floating consciousness,” Chaletwo replied. “Without eyes, you cannot see.”
“But how can I be dead? I mean, if my brain isn’t here, how can I be thinking?”
Chaletwo sighed. “You are as dead as a brick, human. If you’re still not convinced, tell me if you’re breathing.”
Mark waited a few seconds; he couldn’t deny it.
“I don’t think I am,” he muttered. “Fine, I’m dead. But why did you kill me? And those other kids?”
“I needed to talk to you,” Chaletwo answered.
Mark was getting slightly annoyed. “Can’t you talk to people without killing them first?”
Chaletwo sighed. “No, I can’t. Somebody can always overhear, and I can’t teleport a living body to a place that doesn’t exist – there’s no oxygen here, so you would die. And humans are exceedingly easy to fool if you know how to do it. You always think in this ‘If you can do something, you’ll do it’ fashion. Very stupid, of course, but makes it infinitely easier for me to convince you that I kill people for no reason without anybody getting even slightly suspicious. Humans are so blind, it’s entertaining.”
“Huh?” Mark asked confusedly.
“Well,” Chaletwo said, “your parents will cry their eyes out, and those crazy people will write some more articles about how evil I am, but after a while your death will be accepted and you can peacefully walk around with nobody the wiser.”
“What do you mean, walk around?” Mark asked, puzzled. “I can’t walk around if I’m dead.”
“You won’t be dead anymore,” said Chaletwo impatiently. “What good can a floating consciousness do even after you talk to it? I’m going to resurrect you after we finish talking. I just hope Molzapart is coming.”
“Molzapart?” Mark was even more confused now. “Is Molzapart in this with you?”
“Of course,” Chaletwo said like it was something obvious. “We’re good friends… Oh, here he is.”
Another telepathic voice sounded out of the void.
“Hmm… kinda foolish, that one, don’t you think, Chaletwo?”
“Foolish is fine,” Chaletwo replied. “Better, even. We don’t want logic to get in our way. Molzapart, would you imagine some sight for him?”
Mark could suddenly see the two Legendaries as if it were a memory he was recalling in his mind. Molzapart looked like a golden-feathered bird with blue tips on his wing feathers, a long beak and a flame burning on his head. He also had a long, wavy tail feather that Mark recognized from Articuno.
“Wow,” he said, astonished. “This is cool. Why didn’t you let me see like this earlier, Chaletwo?”
Chaletwo sighed. “Only Molzapart can mess with memories.”
“While poor widdle Chaletwo can just kill people,” Molzapart teased.
Chaletwo glared at him. “Don’t listen to him; I’m keeping balance in the world, while Molzapart’s powers are just toys to play around with.”
“Will you two just tell me what this is all about?” Mark said in frustration.
“Sorry,” Molzapart said. “We got carried away. What we wanted to tell you is… well…” He looked at Chaletwo. “Where to begin?”
“See,” Chaletwo began, “once every thousand years, a great disaster happens.”
“Yes,” Molzapart confirmed. “This disaster is called the War of the Legends. What happens is that the legendary Pokémon will lose power, at different rates depending on how powerful they already are, until they are all equal and virtually powerless.”
“Why does this happen?” asked Mark, confused.
“Because of a Pokémon,” Chaletwo replied, “which we have never seen, but is called the Destroyer. It appears to drain power from the legendaries, very slowly at first but becoming more noticeable over the course of the last hundred or so of those thousand years, always faster and faster. When the legendaries are almost out of power, the Destroyer sends the power multiplied back, and all this power finds all the Legendaries in the world again… and when they suddenly gain all this power, they all go insane somehow. Basically, once the legendaries are all mad, they will seek each other out, kill all the other legendaries they can find, and fight so viciously that everything in their path is destroyed. They will keep fighting until only one of them is left alive.”
“And the one that is left alive,” Molzapart said, “will then have the responsibility of creating new life and making the world whole again.”
“Wait a minute, how do I come into this?” Mark interrupted.
“We’re getting to that,” Chaletwo said. “The thing is… if there were no legendaries to receive that power, the War of the Legends couldn’t happen. Molzapart and I started noticing our power loss around twenty years ago or so, so we talked to Mew about it. And Mew told us about this – he was the survivor of the last War of the Legends – and we became very concerned. So we asked Mew if we couldn’t just get all the legendaries to agree on being inside Pokéballs when this happened, as that might prevent it all from happening. Unfortunately, though, Mew just said some nonsense about not trying to avoid the inevitable and refused to help us, and the other legendaries we talked to weren’t too happy about us telling them to get caught when Mew had forbidden us to tell them what it was really about. So we decided that we’d have to take them by force, and Molzapart started killing kids, erasing everybody’s memories of them, and trying to get them to go out and try to capture the other legendaries. However, we didn’t have as much success as we’d have hoped – the kids were terrified of legendaries and didn’t want to come anywhere near them. Then, a few years ago we were getting really worried, and we had the idea of letting me try – after all, everybody knew where and when I appear every year, and people who are passionate about legendaries always came to watch me. So I could just look over the crowd and search for someone more suitable to trying to capture legendaries. I was a lot more successful than Molzapart ever was.”
Molzapart snorted. “Successful, maybe, but you’ve always done it rather sloppily. Too busy being a guardian to even attempt to cover your tracks. Look at the reputation that has gotten you.”
“That was never the plan,” Chaletwo snapped. “I have a protective aura that should be convincing everybody that my intentions are good. Humans are just too stupid to see it.”
“And…” Molzapart looked at Mark, “the human thinks your way, even if successful, could use some improvement comfort-wise.”
“I… I don’t know what Death Stare feels like!” Chaletwo said defensively. “And I’m not ‘too busy being a guardian’! That’s what I exist to be!”
Molzapart snickered. “What a lovely guardian, with lethal weapons in his eye sockets.”
“Chalenor had them too!” Chaletwo said sharply.
“Yeah, how come the guardian before you had lethal weapons in his eye sockets? Bit hypocritical if you ask me.”
“Don’t you dare insult Chalenor in my ears!”
Mark wasn’t feeling that nice at all. Something about them arguing made the atmosphere very uncomfortable.
Stop it, he thought desperately.
“Are you asking to be attacked?”
“I’ll show you an attack!”
A dark purple orb formed between Chaletwo’s hands while Molzapart took an electric blue glow.
“STOP!” Mark’s mind screamed. The two Pokémon looked at each other; Chaletwo pressed the orb together into nothing and Molzapart’s glow faded.
“Sorry,” Chaletwo sighed. “This is all putting us under a lot of stress. We keep arguing… it’s lucky this didn’t turn into an early start of the War of the Legends.”
“So basically,” Mark said, getting back on topic, “you want me to somehow go out and magically catch all the legendary Pokémon?”
“Well,” Chaletwo said, “we got some unexpected help. Rick, the Cleanwater City gym leader, has simplified the problem immensely by catching a great many of the Legendaries for us. He released some of them, such as Suicune, but most he kept for further experiments. And the other trainers have seen successes too, but admittedly it’s getting so close now that you’re the last trainer we’re asking for help. The legendaries yet to be caught are Articuno, Mew, Entei, Suicune, the Waraider herd, the Color Dragons, and Rainteicune.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” asked Mark miserably. “There’s no way I can catch like twenty Legendaries before they all go mad! You’re not even sure if it’s going to work in the first place!”
Chaletwo sighed. “At least you can try.”
“Why me?!” Mark asked.
“Because you’re a foolish little kid who confronts Legendaries when he knows he shouldn’t,” said Molzapart tiredly.
“We just need help here,” Chaletwo said. “If you do it, we’re probably still all going to die. But if you don’t do it, we are all going to die.”
“I guess,” Mark replied doubtfully.
“So, is that all?” Molzapart asked questioningly, turning to Chaletwo.
“I think so,” Chaletwo answered. “Make him remember all of this before you leave, though.”
Molzapart’s eyes glowed deep blue and the memory of the conversation in Mark’s mind was strengthened. He wasn’t sure if it was really needed; he felt like he could never forget even the smallest detail of this. Then Molzapart flickered and disappeared, and Mark could no longer picture what was happening.
“Well,” Chaletwo said, “any questions?”
“Why do you look like Mewtwo?” Mark asked, having wanted to ask this question during the whole conversation. “And why do you have a two in your name? Are you a super-clone?”
“That’s not the kind of question I was hoping for,” Chaletwo mumbled.
“Can’t you still tell me?”
Chaletwo sighed deeply. “Before the last War of the Legends, there was a Pokémon called Chalenor – you heard me mention him when Molzapart and I were arguing, didn’t you? – and Chalenor was like me. The Destroyer isn’t alone; there is a triad, the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer. The Creator is Mew, because Mew survived the last War of the Legends. The Preserver is me, but used to be Chalenor.
“Chalenor had the same powers I do, so he could travel through time, just like me. Once he happened to venture far into the future and find Mewtwo there. Mewtwo was interested in Chalenor’s time when he heard that Mew had existed then – Mew and Chalenor were good friends.
“So Chalenor agreed to take Mewtwo to his time, but what they didn’t know was that at that time, the War of the Legends was rapidly approaching. And while Mewtwo was still there, the Destroyer made all the legendaries mad – including Mewtwo.
“Chalenor died in the War of the Legends, like everything else. So did Mewtwo. Only Mew was left alive. When his madness wore off, Mew found Chalenor’s body and realized that the Preserver was no more. But his left eye was lying there and was still loaded with power, and in a desperate attempt to save everything that could be saved, Mew transferred the life force contained in the eye to the nearest whole body – Mewtwo’s – and created new life in it. That was me. Chalenor’s powers in Mewtwo’s body.
“I was Mew’s first creation, helping to create new Pokémon under Mew’s supervision, and the new Preserver. Mew called me Chaletwo, because I was Chalenor’s heir as a guardian of life, and in honour of Mewtwo, whose body I was created in.”
“Wow.” Mark was surprised; nothing he had managed to think of since learning about Chaletwo had come close to any of that. “Can I ask another question?”
“Fire away.”
“Can I tell somebody about all this?”
Chaletwo took a bit of time to think, but finally answered: “You should not flaunt it – the legendaries might hear it. If you really trust somebody, you can tell them, but Molzapart is really getting too weak for the trouble of mass memory modification. You should talk to Ash Ketchum, though – that’s very important. I’ll resurrect you a little while in the future so you’ll be pretty much forgotten – Molzapart will help with that too. At first when you’re back to life, you’ll be unconscious, but when you wake up, I will be in one of your Pokéballs and might communicate with you occasionally for as long as I have the power to.”
“Is that all I need to know?” Mark asked nervously.
“Should be, yes,” Chaletwo replied.
“I’m never going to manage this,” Mark muttered.
“Just remember that you’re our last hope.”
Mark felt himself fading away. The last thing he heard was Chaletwo’s echoing voice:
“You… have… to… try…”
Sandslash: You're an amazing trainer, Mark. Look how you let me out just to talk.
Also Sandslash: We kind of never get to spend time outside of our balls, maybe you can let us out sometimes?
It's silly because I sort of enjoy the core of what he's saying there, about the difference between what Pokémon expect from trainers and what makes for a really good trainer, but singing Mark's praises for doing stuff like sending out his Pokémon just to talk, when this is literally the first time he's done this, just feels so shallow. Please imagine this is a thing Mark's actually been doing the whole time.
So the answer to why people like Alan were convinced Chaletwo is Just Good is... he has a magic brainwashing aura that's supposed to convince people of this, and he's very mad that apparently some humans are so stupid it doesn't work on them. Totally not sinister at all. This is also about to get quietly ditched and never brought up again. What a bonkers concept.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this wild introduction to the main plot wherein Mark's main reaction to being murdered and asked to capture every legendary is, somehow, confusion and mild irritation. As one does.
Chapter 26, in which people don't act like people, we learn more about Mitch, and Mark is cajoled into battling another gym leader even though the world is ending.
Mark lay with his eyes closed. The stinging grass underneath him tickled the back of his neck. His hands grasped the cold, dewy blades. He inhaled deeply, taking in the fresh, earthy smell.
Mark felt his heart beat steadily in his chest. His whole body ached, but he felt wonderful. He was alive. Funny how he had never appreciated it before.
After a few minutes, he opened his eyes slowly to look at the canopy above. He sat up and blinked a few times, wondering where he could be; it was clearly the middle of a forest of some sort.
“Hello, Mark.”
He sprang to his feet in surprise when he heard the familiar, soft voice. It belonged to the only person who could appear out of nowhere like that: Mitch. He was leaning against a tree, facing away from Mark, and looking into the air as he tended to. Mark walked slowly up to him.
“I guess we’re in the same boat now,” Mitch continued calmly.
“What do you mean?” Mark asked, leaning against another nearby tree. Mitch didn’t look surprised to see him at all.
“We’re both dead,” said Mitch with a faint smile.
Mark was puzzled. “How?”
“Seven years ago,” Mitch said slowly, still staring into the air, “ten-year-old Richard Brown started his Pokémon journey with a Venonat. He wandered into the Black Desert, encountered a Scorplack, and was tragically killed on the first day of his quest.”
It took Mark a few seconds to realize that Mitch was talking about himself.
“A few months later,” Mitch continued, “a confused teenager named Mitch entered the city with a bad case of amnesia and no identification whatsoever. He looked a little bit similar to poor Richard, although a lot thinner, with more hair and different-colored eyes. He just muttered senseless things about death for the first few days, but then his memory started coming back and he remembered his name and that he was going to study biology in Green Town. He did, and later went on to study poisons exclusively. He got a job as a gym leader in Scorpio City.”
Mitch paused for a little while, and finally went on:
“Richard Brown doesn’t like him at all, but what can poor Richard do? Long ago he cloaked himself with Mitch, and now he thrives on the disguise.”
“So you’re… you’re seventeen?” Mark asked slowly, still digesting this information. Mitch suddenly looked right at him; his shiny, gray eyes didn’t seem to blink at all.
“Richard is afraid of Mitch. He fears this man who has seen so much death, so much pain, so much sorrow. It is too much for a young boy. He never got to grow into an adult, having hidden away for so long.”
Mitch still stared into Mark’s eyes. He was starting to understand why Mitch liked to look up when he talked; something about his gaze seemed to disconnect Mark from his surroundings and prevent him from looking away, giving Mitch’s words odd importance. A cold shiver ran down his spine as he realized what Mitch’s eyes reminded him of: Chaletwo’s. Like a weaker, non-fatal version.
“I’m not real,” Mitch said softly, looking up again, to Mark’s relief. “I’m a dead boy and a made-up character. Do not make my mistake. Cloaking one’s true identity will never cause anything but trouble.”
They were silent for a long while. Mitch’s lips finally curled into one of his faint smiles.
“You’ve heard about the animal world?”
“Yes,” Mark replied, not sure why Mitch was asking. He had learned about it in history – it was another world that had been discovered 874 years ago, marking the start of the calendar used now. After nearly 200 years of trying, Pokémon world scientists had finally managed to open a gateway between them. The humans in the two worlds had apparently shared their technology and something until the animal world was destroyed.
“I think humans came from there,” Mitch continued.
“What?” Mark asked in disbelief. “Humans were here long before that.”
“I think that wasn’t the first time a gateway between the two worlds opened. Because you see, it makes perfect sense. Humans are animals. All other animals in this world were moved here from the animal world. And what are the odds that as complicated a species as humans would evolve in two separate worlds?”
Mark nodded slowly; that made sense.
“Look here…”
Mitch moved away from the tree and knelt down.
“This tree is all life. I’ll put the most basic life forms at the bottom, here at the roots, and they become more complicated as they go up. We have viruses here at the bottom, not quite alive by most standards.”
He ran his finger a short way up the tree’s trunk, stopping at a speck.
“Bacteria. Still basic.”
He slid his hand slowly up the tree. “We go on… we come to fungi, plants and finally animals, which humans are among…”
At this point he was pointing at a spot at his chest level or so.
“But all the way up here…”
He moved his hand dramatically as far as he could reach without standing on tiptoe.
“…Pokémon.”
He looked straight into Mark’s eyes again, his eyes shining brightly.
“Pokémon are powerful, Mark. Extremely. If other animals came here with the humans, they landed in direct competition with the Pokémon and didn’t survive. Humans, on the other hand, figured out that they had one advantage over the Pokémon, and used it. They knew that their only hope to fight Pokémon was with other Pokémon, and they managed to cooperate with them. Very clever indeed. But when you think about it, the Pokémon’s end of the deal is still cleverer. They weren’t driven into the deal by any need. They could have wiped us out if the wanted – but they didn’t. They figured it would be for the good of everyone to make the deal.”
“I never thought about it that way,” Mark admitted.
Mitch smiled slightly. “I didn’t expect you to. Farewell, fellow dead boy… remember what I told you. Remain who you are.”
And with that, Mitch turned and walked away, only to disappear as soon as Mark took his eyes off him.
“Chaletwo?” Mark muttered, looking down at his Pokéballs.
“Yes?” answered a familiar telepathic voice.
“Where am I and how far in the future?”
“The middle of Ruxido, two weeks after your death,” Chaletwo said. “Molzapart did a slight mass memory modification and now everybody’s memories of you are buried a bit deeper. They will find you distantly familiar, but won’t remember who you are unless they’re specifically reminded of it. The people who knew you well will still recognize you if they get a good enough look at you, though.”
“All right,” said Mark nervously. “Are my Pokémon still in my Pokéballs?”
“Yes,” Chaletwo replied. “I made a copy of your body and clothes before you were buried and snatched your Pokéballs before your Pokémon were released. Naturally, Molzapart helped by giving the person who was supposed to release them a fake memory of doing it.”
Mark smiled. “Thanks.”
Chaletwo chuckled. “No problem, Mr. Last Hope. And remember to talk to Ash Ketchum; Green Town is to your left.”
Mark took a deep breath, turned left and walked as straight as he could. As the trees thinned, he heard a voice he recognized:
“Pupitar, just Thrash the stupid thing!”
“May!” Mark called, running in the voice’s direction. He caught a glimpse of blue hair behind a tree and soon the whole of May, hissing angrily at her Pupitar as a yellow-and-black-striped Beedrill fluttered frantically away. She looked blankly at him at first, then furrowed her brow like she was trying to remember something.
“Mark!” she suddenly realized. Then she shook her head. “Oh, never mind. I thought you were somebody else.”
Mark walked up to her; she stared at him.
“You can’t be…” she said slowly.
“It is me. I have to tell you…” Mark started.
“But who got killed?” she interrupted blankly.
“That was also me,” Mark said, “but let me explain…”
May raised her eyebrow. “Have you been out in the sun for too long?”
“No!” Mark yelled in frustration. “I’m trying to…”
“You can’t both be dead and be here.”
“SHUT UP!” Mark screamed. She raised both of her eyebrows this time.
“Thank you,” he said angrily before beginning to recount his conversation with Chaletwo and Molzapart. Unfortunately, May was about the worst listener imaginable. She interrupted every few sentences, usually with something he was just about to get to, and after he had finally struggled through the whole thing, she raised her eyebrow yet again. That, Mark had learned, was never a good sign.
“That sounded like some kind of drug-induced hallucination,” she said.
“It’s true!” Mark said hotly.
“Then prove it. Send out Molzapart and Chaletwo.”
Mark was about to yell something angry at her when another voice broke in:
“He’s not lying.”
Chaletwo, Mark thought with relief.
“Chaletwo?” May asked, eyes widening.
“Indeed,” the legendary replied. “He can not send us out of our Pokéballs. It is too risky as the other legendaries might spot us. And now that you have learned about all of this, we have no choice but to erase your memory or...”
“I’m not getting my bloody memory erased!” May hissed. “He decided to tell me, for crying out loud!”
“Either that or you help him,” Chaletwo said simply.
“Fine, I’ll help him!” May snapped. “Are we going to see Ash Ketchum, then?”
“Yeah,” Mark replied. Getting her to help was why he had gone to talk to her in the first place; he wasn’t sure why, but he enjoyed her company.
-------
They set off on an uneventful journey towards Green Town. They didn’t meet anybody on the way, although Mark was constantly worrying about it. May seemed rather grumpy; she was walking very fast, staring straight ahead and not talking to Mark – although he wasn’t really trying to start a conversation either.
When they finally reached Alan’s house, May knocked on the door. Mark stood slightly behind her, nervous about Alan’s reaction to seeing him. They heard footsteps and the door opened.
Alan looked uninterestedly at May for a second, and then his gaze slid over to Mark. Alan stared at him for a few seconds, his mouth falling slightly open.
“You’re dead,” he said blankly.
“I’ll explain inside,” said Mark tiredly as Alan stepped aside, still staring at him. They walked into the kitchen.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” Alan continued weakly. “Chaletwo opened his eyes and… I’ll eat Pamela if it wasn’t you.”
“Can’t you see he’s no more dead than you are?” said May, annoyed, as they sat down.
“I… I’m not dead,” Alan said confusedly.
“Let’s just pretend both of us are alive for now, okay?” Mark suggested. “I’ll explain.”
And he started telling the whole story again. This time it was significantly easier, since Alan listened quietly without interrupting (except for one “I told you Chaletwo wasn’t evil!”).
“Wow,” Alan breathed as Mark finished.
“So…” Mark said hesitantly, “are you having problems believing me?”
Alan shrugged. “Well, I really should have known. Chaletwo had to have a reason to do that. And you’re alive, which makes it sound sensible enough.”
Mark almost laughed at how different Alan’s reaction was from May’s, but he held it back.
“Um, where’s your father?” he asked.
“Who, me?” came a voice from behind him. Mark turned around to find Ash walking into the kitchen. He stopped in his tracks as he spotted Mark.
“Ah,” he then said. Mark and Alan stared at him with a puzzled expression. Ash slowly sat down.
“You were killed by Chaletwo, weren’t you?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” Mark replied, slightly confused.
“You won’t need to explain,” Ash sighed. “Molzapart told me years ago about the War of the Legends and requested I try to catch some of the legendaries, but as much as I’d have liked to try, I was extremely busy; if I cancelled everything and went on a journey suddenly, it would look very suspicious. He suggested killing me and bringing me back, but I didn’t want to because of Alan, who was young at the time. I also pointed out that there was no guarantee the kids couldn’t do it themselves in a few years. So he gave in and told me that they would send somebody to me as a last resort if they were getting really desperate.”
“Why?” Alan asked. “Why you?”
Ash smiled slightly. “I’ve had extraordinary luck with legendaries. Molzapart said it was some sort of a subconscious connection that brought us together.”
“So you’re going to come with me to make it easier to find them?” Mark asked slowly.
“That’s the basic idea, yes,” Ash sighed. “Of course I’m still busy, but I can make some kind of an excuse since we’re running short on time.”
“Dad,” said Alan suddenly, “do you think I have that too?”
“Have what?” Ash asked.
“That subconscious connection with Legendaries.”
“Hmm,” came Chaletwo’s telepathic voice, apparently having listened to everything, “we never thought of that. Have there been any signs of something like that in the boy?”
“Rainteicune,” said Ash, looking at his son.
“Maybe I should go in your place,” Alan said. “After all, you’re busy and stuff. Much easier for me to go.”
“It’s worth a try,” Chaletwo commented. “After all, a 15-year-old suddenly deciding to leave on a journey sounds a lot likelier than a 37-year-old.”
Ash raised his eyebrow. “You never struck me as the type to have any interest in saving the world, to tell you the truth, Alan.”
Alan shrugged. “Sounds more fun than sitting here itching to know whether the world is going to be saved while thinking about how my father is yet again proving how much better he is than me.”
There was a short, uncomfortable silence.
“I’m sorry, Alan,” Ash sighed. “It would probably be better if you went.”
“It’s okay, Dad,” Alan muttered.
Suddenly he grinned and ran upstairs. A few seconds passed; Mark, May and Ash gave each other puzzled looks until Alan came sprinting down the stairs again, holding a battered Pokémon League cap. Ash suddenly cracked up.
“Can’t go on an adventure without Dad’s old cap, can I?” Alan laughed, putting it on. The white front of it was decorated with a green, fancy L-shaped Pokémon League symbol. Mark recognized it as the famous cap Ash Ketchum had journeyed with and smiled slightly.
“Well,” Ash said cheerfully, “let’s pack.”
-------
The three of them left the house, waving goodbye to Ash. After walking only a few steps, Mark stopped.
“What now?” he asked emptily. “Where am I supposed to go? You have a subconscious connection with Legendaries, but if it’s subconscious, we don’t know where we should go to find them.”
“Well,” Alan said, “don’t they say the best way to find something is not to look for it? That certainly seems to apply here. I wasn’t looking for Rainteicune, and Dad wasn’t looking for the legendaries he found.”
“But what, does that mean I should just continue along my merry way and battle gym leaders like nothing happened?”
Alan shrugged. “For example.”
“I can’t just go around battling gym leaders when the world is ending!” Mark said in frustration.
“Got a better idea?”
Mark fell silent. It didn’t feel right at all to just continue his journey.
“Suicune,” he suddenly realized. “Suicune always appears at the Lake of Purity. We should hurry there and then we can worry about gym battles.”
“The fastest way to Cleanwater from here is through Stormy Town, which actually is the next city with a gym,” Alan pointed out. “You could just as well grab a badge there as we pass through, if you did go with the badge thing.”
“But…” Mark protested.
“Look, Mark,” May interrupted, “whatever you’re going to do, I want my badges. I’m going to Stormy Town and challenging the bloody gym whether you like it or not, and if you’re not going to get your badge too, that’s your problem.”
“Err…” Mark sensed that he was alone; deep down, he also wanted to get the rest of his badges, since he had been through the trouble of getting half of them already.
“Fine. But I don’t even have the badge from the Green Town Gym yet.”
“Go ahead and get it,” said May. “I can just talk to Alan or something. There’s a bench over there.”
Mark sighed as they walked over there. He waved absent-mindedly and started walking towards the Green Town Stadium, where the gym battles supposedly took place. He couldn’t help feeling he was actually more determined and confident as a trainer now than he had been before – he wanted to continue his journey and compete in the Ouen League, although that wasn’t what he was supposed to be focusing on.
Why couldn’t that have happened earlier?
He nervously walked into a small building beside the stadium that had a rusty sign saying GYM CHALLENGERS HERE above the door. It contained a small table, a coffee machine and two girls sitting by the table. One looked around eighteen years old, with long, dark hair and wearing a green outfit. The other looked maybe twelve or thirteen, had light green hair in pigtails and wore a white T-shirt depicting various Grass Pokémon.
“Hello?” said the older one in a bored voice.
“Er, I’m here for a badge,” Mark said.
“Of course you’re here for a badge,” she replied snappily. “Why else would you be here?”
“Um,” Mark said unsurely, a bit surprised by her reactions, “I guess.”
“So anyway, junior trainer first,” she said lazily as the younger girl stood up and gestured for Mark to follow her. He walked hesitantly with her out of the building and into the huge arena, where they took their places.
“Three on three. Ready, go, Tangela!” said the junior trainer in a high-pitched voice. She threw a Pokéball into the arena, which popped open as it landed on the ground and allowed a weird Pokémon to take shape – Mark was reminded of a bundle of turquoise spaghetti with two round eyes in the middle. It didn’t help that for some reason, it was wearing bright red shoes.
Mark took one of his Pokéballs off his belt.
“Charizard, go!”
He hurled it forward and a red beam of light materialized into the orange dragon. He had heard that Tangela were rather weak, but he would rather stay on the safe side.
“Tangela, Sleep Powder!” yelled the girl.
“Charizard, beat your wings to blow it away!”
Two of the vines that covered her Pokémon’s body shot forward and held Charizard’s wings in place while it shook itself vigorously, causing a cloud of green, sparkling dust to be released into the air. Charizard, rather than risk inhaling the powder while attempting to attack the vines, shut his mouth tightly and turned his head away in order not to be affected by the spores, but unfortunately he soon relaxed in the Tangela’s grip and sank down to the floor, fast asleep.
“No!” Mark shouted in frustration. “Wake up!”
“Tangela, Slam!”
The Tangela started smashing its vines into Charizard’s body like whips, muttering “Tan-gela! Tan-gela!” as it did. After a bit of beating while Mark tried desperately to wake his Pokémon, Charizard’s eye twitched slightly and then opened. He got up with a roar, took a deep breath and spewed a blast of bright flames at the Grass Pokémon. It stood there charred for a second, but then collapsed.
“Tangela, return,” said the girl. “Sunflora, do it!”
She sent out a peculiar flower Pokémon. The petals were bright yellow, surrounding a happy-looking face, which Mark found creepy for some reason. Then it had a green stalk-like body with leaves for arms, which it was currently waving around like it was trying to fly or something.
“Sunflora, Sunny Day!”
The flower sang a sweet note and the sunlight above intensified greatly; the arena grew very hot.
What the heck? Mark thought, stroking sweat off his forehead. Why would she be powering up my Pokémon’s attacks? And Solarbeam isn’t exactly the attack of choice to use on a Charizard…
“Flamethrower!” he shouted, and the dragon fired a great stream of flames at the Sunflora. It was engulfed in it completely and shrieked in pain; when the fire cleared, it was already down.
The girl silently recalled her Pokémon and took out the third and last ball.
“Go, Jumpluff!”
The Pokémon that came out was ball-shaped and blue, with two tiny legs. Its arms, however, had puffy cotton-like balls on the ends, almost as big as the body. It also had a similar cotton ball sticking out of its head. Mark found it rather freaky, especially when it just floated into the air like a balloon.
“Err… Charizard, another Flamethrower,” he ordered. Charizard shot forth yet another Flamethrower, but Mark was surprised to discover that the Jumpluff was unbelievably fast. It zoomed easily out of the way in the air, agile as a Taillow, and stuck its tongue out at Charizard.
“Jumpluff, Cotton Spore!” the girl yelled. Again, the Grass Pokémon moved quickly; it shook its puffs, releasing a cloud of cotton-like material that covered Charizard. He coughed and was having a hard time moving in it, but he flapped his wings and managed to blow it away.
“Jumpluff, use a Poisonpowder!”
“Jump!” the Pokémon cried, shaking its arms again. This time the puffs released purple dust.
“Charizard, fly out of the way! Don’t inhale it!” Mark shouted desperately. Charizard took off from the ground, but the Jumpluff followed him, still at this bizarre speed. It was faster than the dragon and rapidly caught up with him; Charizard blasted a Flamethrower over his shoulder but the Jumpluff dodged it easily and then suddenly dived down and covered Charizard’s nostrils with the cotton balls. He coughed and spluttered, but it wouldn’t let go; he breathed a bit of fire that lit the puffs, and Jumpluff shrieked in pain before letting itself float a bit farther into the air, waving its arms frantically to put out the fire. Meanwhile, Charizard landed, looking rather sick and in pain. Mark figured that he had inhaled some of Jumpluff’s poisonous spores.
“Charizard, return,” he sighed, absorbing the dragon back into the ball. He reached for another Pokéball.
“Scyther, finish it!”
The mantis emerged from the ball and flew into the air, raising his scythes. He took aim at the grass Pokémon and shot towards it, but it darted out of the way. Scyther looked around and then suddenly shot in the opposite direction.
The junior trainer looked surprised. “Sleep Powder,” she ordered with a hint of doubt. The Jumpluff darted towards Scyther, but slowly the sunlight started fading and the Grass Pokémon slowed down…
This seemed to be what Scyther had been waiting for; he shot towards Jumpluff and started slashing it like mad. It shrieked and released a cloud of green spores in self-defense; Scyther coughed and attempted to slow himself down as he crashed to the ground. Mark looked at his Pokémon with a puzzled expression as he realized that Scyther’s eyes were still open.
The mantis winked.
“Jumpluff, Sunny Day!” the trainer ordered triumphantly as the Jumpluff started doing a weird dance and chanting something to get the bright sunlight from earlier back. Scyther lay completely still, pretending to be asleep.
“And now, Leech Seed!”
“Pluff!” squeaked the Pokémon, firing two dark green seeds from its puffs. They embedded themselves into Scyther’s exoskeleton and then vines started growing up towards Jumpluff. They wrapped themselves tightly around the Pokémon.
Scyther suddenly rose up. He stretched out his scythes and then started spinning around in marvellous dance of flashing movements. At the same time, the Leech Seed vines wrapped around him and literally reeled Jumpluff in. The Grass Pokémon desperately tried to get away, but was bound by the powerful vines and pulled closer and closer to the mantis.
“Scy,” Scyther growled as he stopped, the Jumpluff having been dragged almost up to him. Then he slashed it powerfully, and the Grass Pokémon slipped into unconsciousness.
“Jumpluff, return,” said the girl, recalling her Jumpluff and the Leech Seed in a beam of red. “I’ll fetch the gym leader for you.”
Mark smiled at Scyther and recalled him. The junior trainer hadn’t been too hard – after all, he had defeated her three Pokémon using two of his – but the actual gym leader was sure to be harder.
The older girl entered, holding a Pocket Healer. She gave it to Mark without words and walked over to her place on the arena as Mark put Charizard and Scyther’s Pokéballs into it, healing them.
“My name is Flora and I am the leader of the Green Town Gym,” she announced as Mark put the Pocket Healer down on the ground. “However, there are a few things you should know.”
Mark nodded.
“Firstly,” Flora began, “I hate perfume.”
“Huh?” Mark asked in confusion, not sure what that was supposed to mean. She ignored him.
“I train Grass Pokémon because they can use powders, damn it! Why do I always have to be met with that stupid stereotype? I’m not a flower hippie, get it?”
“Um, okay,” Mark replied unsurely.
“Secondly,” Flora added in an even more disgusted voice, “my name is my parents’ fault, not mine! It’s not MY fault if my parents happened to give me a name that sounds like a pun! I hate it! I hate it all!”
She kicked a rock off the arena and took a few deep breaths.
“Now,” she said after calming down a bit, “let’s get this damn battle over with. You’re probably going to win like everybody else, because as the fifth gym leader, I can’t use Pokémon past a certain level, but nobody’s limiting you from training as much as you like. And Grass Pokémon have a lot of weaknesses, so people just stroll through here with their Fire or Ice or Flying Pokémon, just because gyms are forced to have some kind of a strict theme to the Pokémon they use. Heck, I could just give you the damn badge right now, because we all know that even if you lose, you’re just going to train a bit, come back and eventually beat me. I don’t know why I even bother…”
During this speech her voice went back to that disgusted one, but now she paused.
“Oh, wait, I do know.” She smirked and took out a Pokéball. “It’s fun.”
Flora hurled the ball forward. “Five on five! Go, Victreebel!”
The red energy from the ball formed into a gigantic pitcher plant with two evil eyes and a heart-shaped leaf draping over the fanged, gaping mouth. Mark shuddered; it was another one of those horror-movie Pokémon. He remembered seeing a gory scene with one crunching up a Growlithe sometime on TV.
Mark took out Charizard’s ball. Using Pocket Healers felt odd; it didn’t seem like Charizard could suddenly be at full health again.
“Go, Charizard!”
The dragon materialized from the ball and took off the ground, watching Victreebel closely.
“Charizard, Flamethrower!”
“Victreebel, Sludge Bomb!”
Flames formed in Charizard’s throat as he got ready to send a blast of fire at the pitcher plant; the Victreebel meanwhile shut its mouth with its leaf and closed its eyes.
Charizard fired the Flamethrower and the silky flames struck the Grass Pokémon. It let out a deep sound but as soon as the fire cleared, the singed Victreebel lifted its leaf from its mouth and spewed out deep purple acid straight at Charizard. The dragon didn’t have time to dodge and was struck by the blast; he was thrown backwards in the air and needed a bit of time to regain his balance. Flora seized the opportunity.
“Stockpile!”
Mark watched in disbelief as the Pokémon started munching on its own leaf. Stockpile, Stockpile… there had been an entire lesson devoted to it in Battling Strategies at school, but as usual he didn’t remember any of it. He had been too busy drawing an Arcanine. He silently cursed his lack of attention in school.
Charizard, having landed with a sickly look on his face, stumbled back towards Victreebel, flapping his wings in an unsuccessful attempt to fly.
“Victreebel, Spit Up!”
The pitcher plant suddenly bent forward, aiming its rounded mouth at Charizard like a cannon, and spat out green goo – what Mark presumed to be the remains of the leaf mixed with some acids. It hit the dragon right in the face as he seemed too sick to dodge; he roared in pain.
“Charizard, don’t give up!” Mark shouted desperately as Charizard shook his head to get the disgusting slime off his muzzle. If a Fire Pokémon lost to Flora’s first Grass type, Mark had practically no hope of winning with his other Pokémon that didn’t have a type advantage.
He suddenly had an idea, seeing Victreebel back in its upright position and remembering how it had closed its mouth with its leaf earlier when Charizard attacked. “Charizard, if you possibly can, fly above it.”
The dragon managed to take off unsteadily.
“Victreebel, Sludge Bomb!”
“Charizard, Flamethrower straight down! Now, before it attacks!” Mark yelled quickly, hoping for Charizard to make the first move. His first Pokémon didn’t fail him; Charizard fired a bright tongue of flames downwards into the pitcher plant’s mouth. It let out a scream of pain, but still managed to retaliate with another spurt of purple acid. Charizard crashed into the ground, his eyes closed; Mark got that stinging feeling of having driven him too far as he recalled his Pokémon.
His hand almost instinctively reached for Scyther’s Pokéball, but he stopped at the last second. No, this wasn’t working. He’d have to try to be a bit clever.
Mark thought hard; meanwhile Flora commanded her Victreebel to use Stockpile again and it started eating one of the large arm-like leaves on its side by flexing its body. What Pokémon did he have again? Charizard, Scyther, Jolteon, Dragonair, Sandslash and Gyarados. Wait, hadn’t he switched one of them for Leta? He took out his Pokédex and ran it past his Pokéballs. He didn’t have Dragonair.
Sandslash was pretty much crossed out; he was weak to Grass attacks. Since this was a five-on-five, he would probably be using all his other Pokémon. But what about Leta? She was so low-leveled.
“Victreebel, Swallow!”
Mark looked up; Victreebel swallowed the leaf if had been chewing and looked a bit healthier afterwards. Something in his mind abruptly told him wait a second.
Pokémon were restricted to using four moves in official matches like gym battles.
Victreebel had used Sludge Bomb, Stockpile, Spit Up and Swallow… four moves. No more surprises from Victreebel if Flora played by the rules.
What was more, this meant Sandslash wasn’t useless. Mark smiled; he did know that Ground-types were resistant to poisons.
“Go, Sandslash!”
The pangolin emerged from the ball and stretched. He blinked, eying his opponent more with interest than fear.
Mark felt a little guilty for the strategy that struck his mind; something told him it was a bit nasty. But hey, if getting a Victreebel’s saliva all over one’s face wasn’t nasty, what was?
“Sandslash,” Mark ordered, “tear up its leaf.”
Both the heart-shaped one that had covered the mouth and the right arm-leaf had already fallen victim to the pitcher plant’s own attack; Sandslash dashed towards the left one with his sharp claws in the air and started slashing at it. The Victreebel shook itself violently and sprayed a shower of acid over the two Pokémon, but Sandslash didn’t seem to be affected very much by it. Within seconds, Victreebel’s last leaf was in shreds.
No more Stockpile.
And if Mark remembered correctly, Spit Up and Swallow didn’t do anything unless the Pokémon Stockpiled first.
“Damn you!” Flora hissed. “Victreebel, Sludge Bomb that thing! Swallow it whole! Whatever!”
The Grass Pokémon hesitated, not sure what to make of those orders, and Sandslash grabbed the opportunity to stab both of his right claws into Victreebel’s body. It screamed in pain and twisted around in agony for a second, letting loose another spray of acids, but then fell limp.
“Oh, great, return.” Flora rolled her eyes as the red beam from the Pokéball recalled the pitcher plant. “Bellossom, do your thing.”
She sent out a very small, cute Pokémon. It appeared to be wearing a skirt of leaves in different shades of green; two red flowers decorated the top of its head.
“Bellossom, Sunny Day!”
Mark wanted to smack himself for bringing Charizard out first even right after a demonstration of Grass Pokémon becoming annoying with Sunny Day.
“Sandslash, Slash it quickly!”
Bellossom chanted something and made the sun brighter as the pangolin ran forward with his claws raised. Sandslash slashed across the Bellossom’s body, leaving three red streaks; the Grass Pokémon squealed in pain.
“Bellossom, Solarbeam!”
A golden orb of light formed on Bellossom’s head, and then it bent forward, pointing straight at Sandslash. It fired a great beam of solar power that sent Sandslash skidding backwards and left burn marks on his hide.
“Sandslash, try to…”
“Another Solarbeam!”
Bellossom immediately fired a second beam, and Sandslash couldn’t take it anymore. He tumbled backwards and collapsed.
“Sandslash, return,” Mark muttered. This time he didn’t have to think. “Scyther, do it!”
The green mantis came out of the Pokéball and smiled slightly at the sight of his opponent. Flora hissed.
“Okay, do a Fury Cutter!”
Scyther instantly took off into the air and swooped down towards Bellossom, his scythes glowing slightly green.
“Bellossom, Stun Spore!”
Bellossom was incredibly fast and shook itself to release a cloud of yellow, sparkling spores. Scyther couldn’t avoid inhaling them as he struck Bellossom with his glowing scythe. The paralysis quickly came into effect, making Scyther’s flight more irregular. He managed to get down and strike the Grass Pokémon one more time with his scythe, but then he gave up and landed with difficulty.
“Bellossom, Synthesis.”
“No!” Mark protested, but the plant closed its eyes in concentration to absorb sunlight and heal its wounds. Great. Now all the effort had been for nothing.
“Scyther, um…” Mark blushed as he realized that he honestly wasn’t sure what Scyther could do. He had only made him use Fury Cutter and Slash.
“Wing Attack?” Mark said unsurely. Scyther nodded and ran towards Bellossom to beat it with his glossy wings. The Grass Pokémon cried out in pain.
“Bellossom, Synthesis,” Flora simply said, and the plant healed itself again.
“Scyther, try attacking it a few more times,” Mark ordered, forming a plan. Scyther was having a bit of a hard time since he was still paralyzed; once he tried to slash but wasn’t fast enough and Bellossom shot out of the way. Hitting with Wing Attack was a bit easier. Flora just kept telling her Pokémon to heal itself, but Mark saw how Bellossom was clearly growing tired and it was taking more effort to use Synthesis.
“One more Wing Attack,” Mark finally said, and Scyther (who was also growing tired) struck Bellossom with his wings again. Bellossom was clearly getting too fatigued to heal itself.
“Slash!”
Scyther growled, bringing his scythe down on the Bellossom’s body and cutting some leaves off its skirt. It squeaked like a plush toy and moved no more.
Flora sighed and recalled it. “Venusaur, go.”
Mark looked at Scyther and bit his lip. The huge, green, dinosaur-like toad that Flora sent out was healthily enjoying the sun as the flower on its back released a sweet aroma, but the mantis was paralyzed and additionally the heat didn’t seem very good for him. He was panting weakly.
“Scyther…” Mark paused, “do you think you’re going to be able to get a hit in?”
Scyther didn’t answer; then he suddenly took flight, his scythes glowing lime green as he slashed across his opponent’s face. The green glow steadily grew as the Venusaur tried to back away or bite and the mantis kept cutting it. Then the paralysis kicked in; Scyther’s body stiffened up and he collapsed.
“Scyther, come back,” Mark sighed. Two of his best Grass-beating Pokémon were down, as well as the only one who was resistant to Poison. And Leta… what use could she be? She was still much lower-leveled than the rest of his team. He would have to leave her out. That left him with Gyarados and Jolteon against three Pokémon that Flora had left.
Well, Jolteon had Pin Missile, didn’t he? That would be good against pure Grass Pokémon, but not especially so against Venusaur if he remembered correctly. Using Gyarados would be his best bet.
“Um…” he asked hesitantly, “can you open that pool?”
Flora smirked, clearly figuring that if Mark was resorting to Water Pokémon, the win was in the bag. She took a small remote like the one Ash had used to open the pool in the Attack Approval and pressed a button. A square-shaped section of the floor sank down below the rest and then slid under it, revealing the Water Pokémon pool.
“Go, Gyarados!”
Flora slapped her forehead at the sight of the blue sea monster, probably realizing he wasn’t weak to Grass attacks.
“Damn it,” she swore. “Venusaur, Solarbeam!”
Before either Mark or Venusaur managed to do anything, Gyarados lifted his head and roared loudly. In an instant, the bright sunlight faded; dark clouds started gathering on the sky instead, blocking out the sun. Venusaur started charging a Solarbeam as the first raindrops fell; Flora’s expression resembled an annoyed Tauros more than a human girl.
“Gyarados, Dragon Beam!” Mark shouted over the sound of the rain, wrapping himself in his jacket. Venusaur fired the Solarbeam, but in the rain it was just a pathetic little beam of light that Gyarados barely seemed to notice as he closed his eyes and started graying. The familiar red beam was fired from the sea monster’s eyes at the Grass Pokémon; it was too slow to even attempt to dodge and was blasted with the beam. It roared; small icicles formed on its body and it became unable to move within seconds.
Flora let out an array of swear words directed at Gyarados, the stupidity of the Attack Approval and being wet from some stupid Rain Dance.
“Venusaur, return,” she said and took out her second-last Pokéball. “Go, Meganium!”
Out of the ball came a large light green dinosaur of sorts with a large head. It also had antennae and bright red flower petals in a circle around its neck.
“Meganiii!” it cried out in a high-pitched, feminine voice at Gyarados. His expression remained the same.
“Gyarados,” Mark told him, “use another Dragon Beam.”
“Meganium, use a Light Screen!”
As Gyarados closed his eyes and turned greyscale, Meganium’s eyes glowed deep golden and a translucent yellow shield of energy formed all around it. Gyarados shot forth his attack, but the Light Screen absorbed most of the beam, rendering it relatively harmless before it struck the dinosaur.
“Now, Meganium, use a Sunny Day!”
Meganium looked at the sky with a small cry, but as the rain started subsiding, Gyarados let out a deafening roar, and as if the clouds were scared of him, the rain worsened even past what it had been earlier.
Flora cursed a bit more.
“Gyarados, try something physical!” Mark could never remember whether it was Reflect or Light Screen that countered special attacks, but at least it was either one or the other. And since Light Screen had countered that Dragon Beam…
Gyarados lunged forward with a roar. Indeed, the Light Screen wasn’t solid and he got right through it, slamming into Meganium. However, this ended up as a kamikaze attack; Gyarados couldn’t get back into the pool after this. He roared and thrashed madly around.
“Meganium, Razor Leaf!”
The dinosaur Pokémon let out a cry and fired a flurry of razor-sharp leaves from the petals around its neck. They all plummeted straight into Gyarados’s body; none of them really did much to his armour, but one of the last leaves went straight into his eye.
Gyarados let out an ear-splitting roar of pain; blood spurted out from his eye and Mark looked away before recalling Gyarados into his Pokéball.
“All right, go Jolteon.”
Mark was losing his hope of winning as the spiked Eevee evolution appeared; Jolteon’s Electric attacks wouldn’t be very effective especially with that Light Screen up, and Jolteon just weren’t known to be particularly good users of physical attacks – although his Jolteon had actually used them fairly well. And Flora had two Pokémon left.
“Jolteon, try a Pin Missile!”
He crouched down and fired a flurry of small sharp hairs from his rear end towards the dinosaur. It passed through the Light Screen and Meganium cried out as it was bombarded by the attack.
“Razor Leaf!”
“Return!”
Jolteon was faster; he sped towards the dinosaur, charging a pink aura around him, and rammed into Meganium. The dinosaur seemed dizzy after the blow, but fired another bunch of leaves – much fewer than last time, though. Jolteon tried to avoid them and his wiry fur stopped some of the ones that came from the wrong angle, but he was struck by some and got a few cuts. Meganium, however, had had enough and collapsed on the ground, fainted.
Mark wasn’t surprised to hear Flora swear as her Pokéball absorbed the green dinosaur. “Well, it’s time for my last against your last,” she said. “Cacturne, I choose you!”
Out of her last Pokéball came what looked at first like a green scarecrow – it was probably the face with that evil mouth consisting of several holes lined up in a creepy grin along with creepy emotionless eyes. The weird head shape that resembled a hat didn’t help. Then Mark noticed the spikes along its sides and realized it was more of a very creepy cactus. It had been sent out inside the protective Light Screen that Meganium had put up earlier.
“Jolteon, Pin Missile!” Mark shouted, and Jolteon fired more fur needles towards the cactus. It screeched eerily as it was hit, bombarded with severe cuts. Instead of blood, the Pokémon seemed to bleed water, which only made it seem creepier.
“Cacturne, use an Ingrain!”
Brown, twisted roots grew out of Cacturne’s feet and dug into the ground. Mark saw its wounds start to close. He would have to act fast.
“Jolteon, try another Pin Missile!”
“Cacturne, Sand-Attack!”
Another barrage of pins showered through the rain to cut Cacturne up while the cactus prepared for its own attack. It somehow whipped a bit of sand out of nowhere and then made it fly straight into Jolteon’s eyes. He cried out, staggering backwards while trying to get the sand out of his eyes. Meanwhile he managed to continue firing the Pin Missile although his aim was suffering greatly. The spiky fur on his back was growing considerably thinner. Cacturne let out more screeches as Jolteon got the sand out of his eyes. The rain was still falling.
“Jolteon, try a Return!”
“Needle Arm!”
Jolteon leapt towards Cacturne and struck it, glowing with pink energy, but then the cactus swung one of its spiked arms and smashed it into Jolteon. He was thrown out of the Light Screen.
Jolteon stood weakly up, and Mark realized he was on the edge of fainting. Around Cacturne, the yellow bubble was fading into nothing.
Then it was as if a realization came over Jolteon.
“Jooolt!” he cried, sparkling with electricity as he manipulated the electric charge both in the clouds above and his opponent. A magnificent bolt of lightning shot right from the clouds into Cacturne’s body with a roar of thunder, practically lighting the cactus on fire as it let out a piercing scream. Then it dropped to the ground, deep-fried and unconscious.
“Damn your Rain Dance!” Flora shouted, recalling her smoking Cacturne. “Fine, you’ll get your badge!”
She threw a small object to him; it was a rather simple round silvery plate like the others, but this one was carved with a leaflike pattern on top. He put it in his pocket as he smiled at the exhausted Jolteon and recalled him.
“Nice match,” he commented as they walked out through the doorway. Flora merely stormed back into the small building without answering.
Mark shrugged, felt the badge in his pocket and headed back towards Ash’s house.
In which I stick far too closely to my thirteen-year-old self's envisioning of these events, where everyone is bizarrely willing to argue with a friend who's just come back from the dead. Chaletwo is also bizarrely willing to sit there silently while May argues with Mark about whether any of their conversation happened, without either trying to stop Mark from telling this random girl about their plan or just butting in to confirm. I have no explanation for this.
Ash's mysterious subconscious connection to legendaries, and everyone deciding sure, it's probably heritable so Alan will do fine instead, sure is something. Like a lot of things I ended up doing absolutely nothing with this, other than it serving as an excuse to have Alan join them, but... I could have just had Alan join them without this thing about how actually they were going to ask Ash for a very specific reason but they wind up with Alan anyway because uhhhh sure the specific reason applies to him too for flimsy reasons. Strange, strange choices by fifteen-year-old me.
In this version I was more conscious than originally of the fact badges shouldn't really be a priority anymore, and thus had Mark be a lot more reluctant to just continue journeying, but instead I just had May and Alan convince him by being hilariously insistent on it for some reason, which comes off even sillier than if he'd just been less reluctant. (May would insist on collecting her own badges, to be fair, but why on Earth is Alan so determined to convince Mark to keep collecting badges.) Also, why does Chaletwo have nothing to say about this whole discussion.
I haven't been remotely consistent about the four-move limit in official battles up to this point, because this was where I came up with it, but it will continue to be a thing from here.
Chapter 27! Get ready for a stretch of several chapters where it's very obvious that Scyther was my favorite character when I wrote this.
Heads up that this is another one that heavily discusses suicide, suicidal feelings, and societal glorification of suicide. I told you this would be a recurring theme.
Chapter 27: Past, Present and Future
The three headed together towards Ruxido. This was the fourth time Mark had walked this path; by this time he was getting dead tired of it. Every bush seemed dull. What made it worse was that May and Alan were chatting excitedly while he just walked behind them, sulking and not wanting to participate for some reason he wasn’t even sure about himself.
It slowly grew darker as they entered the forest, and while battling some wild Spinarak uneventfully on the way, Mark thought of not recalling his Pokémon after battle, so he could have some company. He sent out his Pokémon one by one (aside from Gyarados, of course); Leta, Jolteon, Scyther and Sandslash walked alongside him while Dragonair practiced his flying skills high above in Charizard’s company.
Mark wasn’t sure what to say to Jolteon and Sandslash. He realized his Pokémon did not yet know of his hopeless mission, but he figured it would be best to tell all of them about that at once, so he didn’t say anything at all. They seemed to feel there was something he wanted to tell them but was keeping to himself for the moment, and none of them said anything either as darkness fell upon the forest of Ruxido.
“It’s biting cold,” Mark finally called, shivering and wrapping his jacket around himself. “We should camp or something.”
Alan turned. “Yeah, that might be a good idea,” he replied, stopping and taking his backpack off his shoulder as he looked around. “Oh, look, there’s even a little pond over there that we can send our Water Pokémon out into. We can actually all send out our Pokémon here; there’s plenty of room. This place is great.”
“I can light a fire,” Charizard suggested helpfully as the kids and other Pokémon sat down on the damp grass one by one. Alan pulled some firewood out of his bag. As Charizard’s fiery breath latched onto the wood and started slowly consuming it, Mark felt a stinging in his chest; he’d have to tell them now.
He sighed. “Guys,” he said, looking between the Pokémon at his sides, “we’re no longer on a Pokémon journey.”
They blinked and looked at each other. Mark had heard that Pokémon had no sense of time while in a Pokéball, so they wouldn’t be able to tell how long they had been in there.
“Then… what?” Sandslash asked hesitantly.
“We’re on a quest to save the world.”
The Pokémon blinked again.
“Save the world?” Sandslash repeated blankly.
“From what?”
“How?”
Mark sighed and started telling the whole story about Chaletwo and the War of the Legends again. It was starting to make him sick, so engraved in his memory in its finest details. With a painful twinge in his heart, he realized that even if he succeeded at his task, he would never be the same person again.
When he finished, there was a long silence. Everybody was at this point staring into the fire, him included, finding the warm, dancing flames comforting in some way when faced with the very hard-to-swallow truth once again.
“How are we ever supposed to find and catch them all?” Gyarados said darkly, finally breaking the silence. “Suicune evaded me for years, even when returning to the Lake every evening. And that’s just one legendary. This is an impossible task, Mark.”
He sighed, feeling like he was sinking into a black hole. “I know. But the other ones have been caught…”
“Maybe there’s a reason the ones that are left haven’t been caught.”
Mark didn’t answer. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, it did seem very impossible. But he had to try. He’d been entrusted with this.
He looked at May and Alan. Alan had a grave look on his face, clearly nervous about the task ahead; even May, who had up until now acted like the end of the world was no more worrisome than a piece of particularly boring homework, was busily examining the details of her fingernails while biting her lip.
“Well,” Mark finally said, “we’ll all need to work together in this. We should get to know each other better. How about we all tell everybody something about ourselves? Nobody has to say anything, of course… but it would be nice.”
Sandslash shrugged and looked around. There were no objections; however, as Mark looked over the group, he noticed some of the Pokémon’s reactions. Scyther stared bitterly into the fire; Mark saw he was trembling a bit. Gyarados moved his lips without making a sound. Jolteon’s ears dropped. May’s Lapras closed her eyes and looked away. Alan’s Vaporeon, Mist, just sighed sadly.
“Should I start?” Mark asked carefully. Nobody objected to that either.
“Well, I live in Sailance, which is a town in North-West Ouen. You might have heard it called ‘Poképhobe Heaven’. I’ve always been really interested in legendary Pokémon and wanted to be a trainer, but my parents wanted to protect me from Chaletwo so they didn’t let me out. So, yeah.” He shrugged, indicating that somebody else could speak.
“I was a Magikarp,” Gyarados started. “Magikarp mothers lay thousands of eggs and from each surviving egg hatches one Magikarp. I was a bit darker in color than the rest, but nobody really saw that.
“I always used to hang out with the Carvanha rather than the other Magikarp. I thought my own kind was below me; the Carvanha laughed at me behind my back because they thought I was below them. When I found out, I proved myself by beating them up. I never realized the other Magikarp were so much weaker than I was until then. I found fighting fun, and I started going to the surface to tease trainers.” Gyarados smiled grimly. “I wasted their Pokémon. The look on their faces was priceless.
“But naturally, when I battled too much I ended up evolving. That was when I turned into a predator. It wasn’t really a problem at first… I could hide in the murky water, there were plenty of Pokémon and I had never really felt any attachment to my fellow Magikarp. I may have eaten my mother sometime, for all I know. But at least I ate a bit too much for the lake. It was too closed off to suddenly have a huge predator disrupt the balance of life. The humans in Cleanwater City didn’t like me because I caught all their fish and destroyed the lake’s image as a tourist attraction and training spot, and they got all their best trainers to come and try to defeat me. I could just hide by the bottom and beat the ones who dared to dive down to me.
“But then Suicune came along.” Gyarados spat the legendary’s name hatefully.
“Suicune cleaned the lake, made it so clear I was easily visible. The other Pokémon could see me and hide from the other end of the lake. The trainers could see me and have their Pokémon direct their attacks at me from safety above. Weak and hungry, one night I found a small underwater cave and managed to squeeze myself into it. I lurked there in hiding, grabbing the occasional Magikarp or Goldeen that swam past during the night, and tried to talk to Suicune. After all, it was for the good of the rest of the life in the lake, so I could understand why he did it, but he'd left me starving.
“But Suicune avoided and ignored me. He came back every night as if to rub in my face that I was at his mercy. I called, I waited, I tried everything to talk to him, but he never answered, always got around my attempts; he never told me why he had to torture me in this manner. He just didn’t care.” Gyarados’s voice trembled. “I hate him.”
“Why would Suicune do that?” Mark asked blankly.
“I don’t know,” Gyarados said gloomily. “All I know is that Suicune tortured me for years.” He looked at Mark. “That’s why I ate that Sharpedo on the way to Aquarium City. I saw it as fresh prey and just couldn’t resist.”
“It’s all right,” Mark muttered. “I’m sorry.”
Gyarados sighed and started staring into the fire again, making it clear that he wasn’t about to say more. Some of the other Pokémon shifted uncomfortably. The flames still reflected off Scyther’s eyes as he sat there motionless apart from mouthing something to himself.
“I’m the son of Ash’s Sceptile!” Racko said in an awkwardly happy voice, considering what Gyarados had been saying. “And I was born in Hooooooennn, the place of all places!” He bolted up and made a salesman-like gesture with his arms. “I love it,” he finished dramatically, sitting back down.
“Ignore him, he’s always like that,” Alan said, chuckling.
“Well,” Sandslash finally said, “Sandshrew live in groups. We used to have mock fights and competitions about who was the fastest digger. I remember when one of my friends evolved and I became so frightened that I ran away.” He chuckled. “It was fun, but I don’t know if I’d go back if I could. It was kind of… irresponsible.”
Mark nodded, looking around the group yet again. May’s Butterfree finally spoke.
“Well, I don’t really remember any of my life – our brains as Caterpie and Metapod aren’t made to remember much. But Butterfree basically evolve, find a mate during the mating season, and then die. Males die right after they mate, and females die as they lay their eggs.” She sighed. “Wild Butterfree barely ever live longer than a single year.”
“That’s… sad,” Mark said. He couldn’t imagine a life that short. “Why do you even mate, if it kills you?”
Butterfree shrugged. “Different view on death. We’ll die anyway; why not ensure that our genes are passed on?”
Mark couldn’t help being slightly disturbed, but said nothing.
“Well,” said Mist heavily, “I had four siblings. We were left in the trash in a cardboard box in the city.”
“Cardboard box?” Mark asked blankly. “A human left you in the trash in a cardboard box?”
“Yeah,” Mist said gloomily. “Without our mother. We were barely old enough to survive on our own.”
“That’s just… cruel,” Mark said with disgust. Alan sighed; May was sitting with her legs crossed, looking down at the ground while absent-mindedly snapping some grass blades in half.
“Well, at least I’m alive and well,” Mist said with a friendly bump against her trainer’s hand; he scratched her head fin with a smile. “I don’t know about my siblings, though.”
“Mother was a Flareon,” Jolteon murmured. “We had a little nest somewhere nobody would find us. One day she went out to get some food… but she didn’t come back.” He was shaking as he talked. “I had two siblings, but they wanted to wait for her. I think they must have died. But I went out to look for her and didn’t find her. I was about to lie down on the road when I saw a human and a Charmander…”
“And I wanted to throw a Pokéball at you,” Mark said quietly, staring down to the ground. He had been such an idiot. It seemed unbelievable how little time had passed since then.
“It’s all right,” Jolteon said softly. “What matters is that I’m here now.”
“She just threw a ball at me while I was crying,” Lapras commented. May herself was messing with her fingernails and pretended not to hear anything. Lapras looked accusingly at her but didn’t say anything else.
“My past wasn’t interesting,” Skarmory said to break the uncomfortable silence that followed. “I was brought up in a nest on a cliff near Alumine, and then I flew on my first flight and got caught.”
Raichu shrugged. “Well, Mom used to live in Kanto. She told me she met Ash Ketchum’s Pikachu once and he saved her out of a river.”
“Oh, yeah, he told me about that,” Alan said. “He meant to release him since he was having such a good time with those wild Pikachu.”
Mark was about to express his opinion on Ash’s weird tendency to release most of his Pokémon, but figured it wouldn’t be a good idea to start insulting Alan’s father now. “Well, anybody else?” he finally asked. “Pupitar?”
The blue pupa continued staring expressionlessly at him.
“He won’t say anything,” May said, speaking for the first time as she stroked her hand over the grass, still too preoccupied to look up. “He’s not very social.”
“Oh,” Mark said. None of the other Pokémon appeared to be about to speak; both he and Alan looked at May.
“What, me?” she asked when she finally looked up. “Well, I live in New Bark Town in Johto, where Professor Elm lives. My birthday is in February so that was when I went to the Professor to receive a trainer licence, but instead of getting a starter and starting my journey right away, I worked as Elm’s assistant for two years, studying Pokémon anatomy, moves and battling. After that he gave me three starters to choose from, and I went to Ouen to get a Skarmory, but that thieving idiot Taylor stole my Quilava so I decided to stick around to find him and participate in the Ouen league instead and save Johto for next year or something.”
Mark nodded; he had heard the last part before, but she had clearly been discussing something else with Alan earlier since he didn’t appear to be aware.
“Taylor? Stole your…?”
“I can tell you later,” May just said with a careless wave of her hand as she resumed her previous activity of being a human lawnmower. Alan opened his mouth, but closed it again and shrugged.
There was a long silence after this. Everybody looked at everybody else.
“Scyther live in swarms,” Scyther suddenly said, not taking his eyes off the dancing flames. “There is a single leader, the strongest in the swarm, and the others follow them. We like to spend our time duelling; nothing is as refreshing as a good duel. Rob let Kabutops and me duel, but it’s not the same as with another Scyther. Kabutops was a good friend of mine, though…”
He suddenly seemed to realize he had wandered off the subject. “Well…” He sighed deeply.
“Like the Butterfree, we have a different view on death than humans, summarized by that saying I told you, ‘Death is not to be feared, for it is the only thing that we all have in common.’ It’s the first rule of Scyther ethics. Do not fear dying, because we will all die one day. Fear of death only leads to doing dishonourable things to save one’s own life.”
“How did you end up with the Mew Hunter, anyway?” Mark asked curiously.
Scyther sighed again. “That’s what I was about to say, actually. Three years ago, I had my last duel in the wild. It was a female. I didn’t particularly like her – well, of course I liked her, but I ‘liked’ everything female I came across, so she wasn’t anything that stood out. We got into an argument, and she insulted me… a bit too harshly. So I challenged her to a duel. A true duel, not a friendly or a mock duel. The unofficial rule is that a true duel ends with a death, a friendly duel ends with a bleeding, and a mock duel ends with a wound.
“But, well – I had nothing on her. She had the fastest reflexes I’ve ever seen, and her cuts landed just where she meant them to. She was just… perfect. It would’ve been a shame if I had won by some chance and had to kill her, I realized. She had everything. I considered it an honour to let her kill me; I was ready for death that moment.” The mantis swallowed a few times.
“But… as you know… she didn’t kill me,” he finally finished in a quiet voice.
“Well, that’s good,” Mark commented.
“Good?” Scyther glared at Mark. “It was the most unfortunate thing that ever happened to me. It ruined my life. I was ready to die. I couldn’t imagine a better time to die. But she didn’t kill me, and we both had to leave the swarm.”
“Why?”
“I told you, Mark. The first rule of Scyther ethics, the Code, is not to fear death. Humans think of mercy as a noble thing, don’t they? We do not. We’re predators; we can’t feel sorry for somebody we’re about to kill. We believe that if you can’t kill without remorse, it is because you fear your own death. In a Scyther’s mindset, she did something very dishonourable by letting me live, especially with the unofficial rules of the true duel. And I had lost; it is generally a bad thing to show weakness by losing a duel, but when the duel is one of life and death, there is no way they will accept one who loses but still lives back into the swarm. The only right thing for a Scyther to do in my situation is suicide – which we believe to be a very natural thing after violating the rules of our society. But I didn’t… because I had fallen in love with her. Or so I called it. A dumb crush, I should say.” He said the last sentence with a hint of self-loathing.
“I followed her. I hid, but kept an eye on her. I don’t know what I was planning to do, but I didn’t want to take my eyes off her. But while she slept, a trainer found her. He caught her in her sleep… and I watched it without daring to help or even wake her up.”
Scyther bitterly screwed his eyes shut. “Cowardice. We hate it with a passion, but I let her be caught. I followed the trainer, but didn’t attack, and of course he had a Metal Coat. He did an inter-Pokéball transfer and… evolved her.” The word ‘evolved’ sounded more like a swear word than simply a term for Pokémon maturing in the way he said it.
“What do you have against Scizor, anyway?” Mark asked, having wondered about that for a while but never dared to ask.
“Everything,” Scyther said darkly. “Scyther’s evolution is an unnatural process. It can’t happen unless the Scyther is exposed to metal and their energy converted, such as when being traded. Of course we didn’t take kindly to it when it was discovered, especially since we already consider simply being caught at all to be a sign of extreme weakness. And the two things that are our pride and joy are our speed and our scythes – when we evolve, we lose both for a metal armor and pincers. To us the trade-off is far from worth it, but to a human it usually is. Do you realize just how high a percentage of trainers would evolve a Scyther if they obtained one? Thanks to Scizor’s existence, Scyther are sought after among trainers – which we do not care for – only to be mutated into scytheless freaks. We loathe Scizor and everything about them. The word ‘evolution’ alone makes us twitch. That was what prompted our duel – she called me a Scizor.”
An array of questions popped up in Mark’s mind, all getting in each other’s way and making his head spin. In the end he asked the simplest question:
“What happened then?”
Scyther sighed. “In a moment of weakness I lost it. I broke into the Pokémon Center through the window and started blindly slashing anything – no,” he added as he saw the look on Mark’s face, “I didn’t kill anybody. The trainer himself wasn’t even scratched – some kid got a nosebleed when I kicked them and that was it, I think. Then some guy took out a shotgun, I came to my senses and figured I’d better get out of there, and I tried to get back out through the window. I cut myself on the glass, and the shotgun blast hit me in the back. I only made it a short way away from the Pokémon Center before I collapsed.
“Then Rob found me. I couldn’t move. I prayed he wouldn’t notice me or at least that he’d be scared and run away, but he didn’t. He looked at me for a second, fiddled with the one empty Pokéball he had, and then after a pause threw it at me and caught me – I couldn’t fight the ball. I thought I was doomed to the same fate as her. But he didn’t evolve me. I found out that he liked my scythes the way they were. I had never known there actually were humans like that, but I still went through a long period of depression. I often raised my scythe to my throat but didn’t have the courage to take my own life. Kabutops tried to tell me that Rob wasn’t really that bad, but I didn’t listen. I was still convinced that there was no such thing as a good human.”
“Did you like him?”
Scyther chuckled.
“Like him? He’s the best damn person I’ve ever met,” Scyther said with an emphatic but scary swing of his scythe. “He was a great man in every way. Trainers like to say with pride that they treat their Pokémon as equals; when you’ve seen Rob, you can’t help but laugh at that. He didn’t treat us as equals; it was like he didn’t even know the difference. He treated us just like human friends. It was incredible, the way he could reach his Pokémon – even Fangcat, who usually wanted to be alone and never really felt as much like one of us as the others, could spend hours on end just sitting with him and growling about her life. And he didn’t put any pressure on me when I came in. He didn’t make me battle; he didn’t even keep me in the Pokéball. He just let me stay in the gym and take out my anger on whatever was available while he went out with his Pokémon in the evening. He caught me in a few suicide attempts, and every time, he asked me why, but I never answered. When I started calming down a bit, he let me come with him and his Pokémon one evening. I found out that the place they always went to was a bar. He actually bought drinks for all of his Pokémon. He offered me some, but I thought it smelled funny and didn’t accept it. He just shrugged and let me stay there. After drinking a bit, the Pokémon started talking about their former lives, and I found out that they had all been miserable. And Rob just nodded and drank with them, and shared some of his own experiences in return.
“At the time I just found him weird. The way he just kept going on got on my nerves. But one day he caught me trying to kill myself yet again. He took me to a back room of the gym, gave me a drink again and said it would do me good. I drank some and after finishing enough and talking to him for a bit, I just – broke down. And I told him everything that had happened, everything I had been thinking and feeling. And he just looked at me and nodded, not trying to fix my problems, just feeling for me. I realized that was what I really needed, I let it all out, and then he got some more drinks and started telling me the full story of himself. I realized that we weren’t that different. We both had a passion for something that was lost, we had both attempted suicide but not had the guts, and we had both been rejected by the rest of our species, seeking company and purpose with others.
“Well, I ended up falling asleep, but when I woke up, I had changed. I think Rob just has this effect on you – after being around him for a while, you become just like him. Soon I was rambling about my feelings and drowning my sorrows in alcohol just like Rob and his other Pokémon.
“Then one day, he frantically told us all that he had found Mew again. While his excitement grew, I was filled with dread. He was a completely different person when Mew was around. He figured that he’d be best off getting you to tell him where this ‘you-know-where’ was, and cooked up a plan which he got me to participate in. I tried to make him change his mind, but he didn’t listen. He told me again and again that he had to get Mew. I slowly realized that he had changed. Even then I kept trying until the last moment.
“But when I flew out that window, I just started thinking… what next? I would not be accepted back into the Scyther swarm, and I realized that I had no purpose in life anymore. The only thing that had kept me alive was my trainer, the purpose of battling for him and doing my best and listening to him and the others. And I thought of you, remembered that you hadn’t seemed too bad, and in desperation I came back to you and let you catch me.”
“And we know the rest,” Mark said.
“No, you don’t,” Scyther said, turning to him. “I managed to focus on you, my trainer, but one day you entered me in the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament, and I battled a Scizor.”
The mantis looked back into the fire. “I was prepared to kill her, just to get my revenge on the species of Scizor for existing. But then I looked into her eyes, and I recognized her. I had always assumed she had to have killed herself or at least that she was not battling like… like that.”
“Wait, that was her?" Mark asked in realization. "That was why you didn’t kill her? Not because of the trainer?”
“The trainer?” Scyther snorted. “I’d like nothing more than see him burn in agony for the rest of his pathetic little life. But I… couldn’t kill her. I just couldn’t.”
“But why didn’t you say anything to her?” Mark asked, puzzled.
“I did,” Scyther replied. “Just before we were recalled, I said, ‘Look who’s evolved now.’”
“And nothing more?” Mark asked incredulously. “Even when you were in love with her and all that?”
“She’s a Scizor,” Scyther spat. “And she ruined my life – I hate her for not killing me that day.”
The mantis Pokémon stared at the flames once again. “And it wasn’t love,” he added quietly.
There was a very long silence after this. Everybody looked at Scyther, but he didn’t appear to notice; his eyes were fixed at the campfire and his face showed no expression.
“Um,” Alan said hesitantly, “maybe we should go to sleep. We have a lot of walking to do tomorrow.”
“Right,” Mark said. “Um, so…” He took out his Pokéballs.
“Wait a second, Mark,” Sandslash said. “Remember what I suggested to you on the twenty-fifth?”
Mark racked his brain and found it quickly.
“Oh, right, about letting you have some time outside your Pokéballs?”
Sandslash nodded. “I think we would all like to get some time to stretch – we can just make sure to be back by morning.”
Mark smiled. “Of course you can. Just be careful in case there are powerful wild Pokémon here somewhere.”
All of Mark’s Pokémon seemed to be happy to hear those news; Leta looked a little nervous, but Jolteon, who was beside her, nudged her with his head and assured her that he’d be watching out for her.
“Can we stay out of our balls too?” Lapras asked, turning her head to May. She made some kind of a shrug with a faint mutter of, ‘Yeah, I guess.’ Alan let his Pokémon go too as the kids prepared their sleeping bags. Mark watched the Pokémon head deeper into the woods one by one. After he had gotten into his sleeping bag, he saw Scyther slowly stand up and fly off between the trees. The buzzing of his wings quieted soon and there were only the hoots of the Noctowl to be heard anymore.
Pupitar, who was of course immobile, just lay beside May’s sleeping bag, his eyes closed. Mark noticed her arm wrap around the cocoon in her sleep.
You have been given a mission about catching all the legendaries for another legendary. This mission will involve journeying around, and you will continue to collect gym badges as you do this. As you're about to explain this to your Pokémon, do you say:
a. "We have been given a mission"
b. "So, uh, did you notice the bit where I died and then came back, at all? With your established ability to hear some things that happen outside your balls?"
c. "Guys, we're no longer on a Pokémon journey"
The thing about Butterfree dying when they mate was based on common fandom wisdom at the time, namely the idea that this was canon in the Japanese version of Bye Bye Butterfree. Only one problem: this was actually a total mistranslation that the English-speaking fandom was parroting amongst each other without having any idea what they were talking about. In actuality, nothing of the sort was said in the Japanese episode, and Ash's Butterfree may well still be alive. I did think it was canon, though. So don't blame me for this one.
Anyway, enjoy me enthusiastically deciding look all my Pokémon characters have backstories, even though it's very obvious only a couple of them actually matter. Also several random irrelevant connections to Ash's Pokémon for some reason. How and why did Raichu's mom make her way to Ouen before having him? Who knows.
Mark randomly having Opinions on Ash "releasing most of his Pokémon" here after being totally uncritically starstruck previously is pretty weird. Ironically, in the previous versions they had an actual exchange about this where Alan pointed out that he released these Pokémon because he cares about them, but for some reason in this one I cut that out and just left this in as something that sounds like an eye-roll-worthy jab at the anime. Ash releasing his Pokémon when they find a greater calling elsewhere is good actually, Mark.
Thank youuuuu for the art, Bluwii! Love those amazing expressions! :D
Chapter 28 is finally here; apologies for it being a bit late. I've had no time to finish editing it over the past few days, until today. Get ready for some more Scyther, as well as a surprise return from an earlier bit character.
Author's note: some Hitmonchan headcanons here were borrowed wholesale (with acknowledgement) from Iveechan's Guilty by Design at the time. Ivee no longer endorses them but here they remain!
Chapter 28: Scyther's Revenge
Mark woke up to the smell of fried eggs. He opened his eyes, taking a second to remember where he was, and then sat up.
Alan and May were already up, and indeed, Alan was frying eggs on a pan on the remains of yesterday’s fire. May was repacking her sleeping bag. The Pokémon were back, some sleeping and some just standing around, perhaps engaging in conversations with one another. May’s Pupitar was now standing straight up, his eyes open, dark and staring. Mark shuddered; that creature was creeping him out more with every passing day.
“Good morning, Mark,” Alan said, handing him a plate with an egg. “Hey… do you know where Scyther went?”
Mark quickly looked over the group of Pokémon again, first now noticing that Scyther wasn’t there. He froze.
“No,” he said worriedly, his heart beating hard. He wasn’t sure why he felt so suspicious – after all, he had probably just forgotten about time or something – but something gave him a bad feeling about this. He told himself to calm down and at least wait a bit, and stabbed his fork into his egg.
“Who’s that?” May asked, pointing at a human-shaped shadow walking on the path they had come from. Mark squinted at it; it was too small to be an adult at the very least. He took a bite of his food, watching it with interest. As the shadow neared, he suddenly realized what it was.
A Hitmonchan.
What made him realize it was the shape of the head; the top of the forehead took a shape distantly reminiscent of a crown. However, the nearer it came, the less human it looked; it had a flat face without a nose, for example, and was not wearing any clothes (not even the standard Hitmonchan boxing gloves and tunic, which Mark found slightly odd). Some details of Hitmonchan anatomy which were rarely seen by others than the people who trained them, such as the muscular chest being creamy yellow rather than the brown that the rest of the skin and that the natural fists had red, blue and yellow jewels embedded in the knuckles, were plainly visible. Puzzling as it was, considering his lack of clothing, he was carrying a backpack.
“Good morning,” the Hitmonchan said politely, having stopped at reasonable talking distance from them. He looked between the kids and Pokémon, awaiting a reply.
“You’re…” Charizard started slowly, “you’re Fury from the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament.”
Fury grinned. “I’m glad you remember me.”
Mark looked to the sides, confused. “Where is your trainer?”
“I am my own trainer,” Fury replied with a slight nod of his head. Mark stared at him.
“Huh? You mean you’re wild?”
“I mean exactly what I said,” Fury simply said. “I am the fully qualified trainer of myself.”
He smiled as he looked at everybody’s expressions, seemingly enjoying being a bit of a mystery. “I have a licence,” he added for clarification.
“But Pokémon can’t get trainer licences!” said May, the first person to voice what everybody was thinking.
Fury smiled again. “I’m the first, but I hope many will follow in my footsteps.”
“But…” Mark stuttered, “why?”
“Well,” Fury replied, “it just so happens that I am interested in the Pokémon League, but not so interested in having a trainer. I spoke with the authorities and presented my idea, and finally convinced them that this would be an important step forward for Pokémon. My journey is an experiment, and I hope it will go well and that they will get the League to make an exception of the six-Pokémon rule in the case of Pokémon on their own.”
“How does this work, though?” May asked, clearly interested. “Can you catch other Pokémon?”
“Technically,” Fury replied. “I currently have a normal human trainer licence. But I don’t want to catch other Pokémon. I am myself and have no interest in battling unless I do the fighting.”
“What about when you faint?” Mark asked.
“I know myself better than to let that happen,” he said with a slight smile. “Besides, I’ve got a Focus Band just for safety.” He pointed to a red and yellow band he was wearing on his head. “A Focus Band is something that will allow you to survive anything without falling completely unconscious. It’s not very likely to leave you in a state to battle, but it will at least give me a chance to forfeit and heal myself.”
May nodded thoughtfully. “You battle trainers, then, just one-on-one?”
“Yes,” Fury confirmed. “In fact, I thought perhaps one of you would like a battle?” He put up a slightly mischievous smile. “I’ve found much satisfaction in trying out trainers to see how they will fare against Pokémon and trainer who are one and the same.”
He looked between them; Alan shook his head but May looked interested.
“I’d like to try,” Mark said, shrugging, mainly looking for a way to kill time while he waited for Scyther.
“Can you battle both of us?” May asked. “I’d like a try too.”
“Well,” Fury replied with a smile, “that depends on whether I feel I can battle after the first one.”
“Oh, all right,” May said thoughtfully. “Mark, you can try first.”
“I request, by the way,” Fury added, “that because I am incapable of choosing my own weaknesses, you should pick a Pokémon that does not have a physical advantage over Fighting Pokémon.”
Mark nodded. “Sandslash?”
The pangolin Pokémon nodded back and came to Mark’s side. There was a reason he chose Sandslash: remembering Charmeleon coughing up blood at the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament, he wanted to use a Pokémon with considerable defensive abilities. He looked nervously at his Pokémon; Sandslash seemed fearless, which made him a bit more confident.
Meanwhile, Fury had taken off his backpack and opened it to reveal that that was where he kept his gloves and tunic. “I hope you don’t mind me battling tunic-less?” he asked, pulling on his gloves. “They only require it for official battles because some people don’t like to look at naked humanoids.” He chuckled slightly and looked at the kids; they just shook their heads.
“The gloves are necessary, though,” he explained with slight resentment as he adjusted them and examined them from all angles. “Without them slightly absorbing the force of the punch and spreading it around a larger area, Hitmonchan can smash skulls. Well, are we starting now?”
Whether Fury realized it or not (at least he had just started stretching as if nothing were more natural as he said the last sentence), the news about Hitmonchan smashing skulls was not the most comfortable Mark had ever received. He glanced at Fury’s thin and weak-looking arms, finding it very creepy that they could contain that kind of muscular power. Nonetheless, he reassured himself with the fact that at least Fury did have his gloves, and replied, “Yeah, sure.”
Fury nodded, smiling, and got into a defensive fighting stance, his keen eyes watching Sandslash closely.
“Earthquake!” Mark shouted, sensing that Fury was waiting for him to start. Sandslash rose to his hind legs and smashed himself powerfully back into the ground, releasing a flurry of shock waves through the earth. However, the moment before being hit, Fury suddenly leapt up. He then turned in mid-air, kicking into a tree to jump sideways at the pangolin with his fist pulled back. This was all too fast for Mark to work it out and blurt out a command in time, but thankfully Sandslash had faster reflexes and curled into a tight ball of spikes. Icy blue energy seemed to circle Fury’s glove for a fraction of a second before he smashed it into Mark’s Pokémon with enough force to send him flying right at Mark – he narrowly managed to duck – and into a tree while the Hitmonchan landed. When Sandslash uncurled and shook himself slightly before returning to his normal position, he thankfully didn’t look that hurt; Mark owed it to the timely Defense Curl.
“Sandslash…”
Mark didn’t have time to issue an order; while Sandslash was waiting for him to finish his instructions, Fury caught him off guard with another Ice Punch in the gut. Sandslash flailed a bit as his vulnerable underbelly was covered with frost; the Hitmonchan grabbed the opportunity to punch him again in the jaw. Sandslash staggered painfully backwards and finally lost his balance and fell helplessly onto his back, blood trickling from his mouth.
Mark painfully recalled his Pokémon, feeling a bit embarrassed by how quickly and easily Fury had won the battle. He looked around and suddenly remembered his previous worries.
“Er,” he said, “I think I’m going to go look for Scyther now. I’m getting a bit anxious.”
May, who was getting ready for her battle, nodded; Alan just shrugged casually while his expression had a small hint of worry. Fury walked up to him and held out his hand, having taken that glove off.
“Goodbye, then.”
“Yeah, bye,” Mark replied. “Thanks for the battle and all.”
“You’re too slow,” Fury suddenly said.
“Huh?” Mark asked, a bit surprised by the abrupt announcement.
“You’re too slow,” Fury repeated. “It’s what made you lose. Your Pokémon battle better without you than with; they have to wait for you to tell them an order or act of their own accord. You’re too slow making the orders.”
The words stung. In essence, Mark knew that; ever since he started his journey, he had felt slightly embarrassed by how long it usually took him to think of an attack. However, having that broken down to him by somebody else was another thing entirely, and it was a bit painful.
“You have potential,” Fury started again, looking into Mark’s eyes. “While you aren’t born with the reflexes and thought speed for a master trainer, your Pokémon stick with you. I don’t know you enough to be able to tell why that is, but something is there – perhaps you know. Don’t try to battle with a talent you don’t have. Change your strategy to bring your true abilities to use.”
Mark stared at him, feeling oddly numb. “Thanks,” he muttered. “I will.”
Fury turned, giving him a perhaps slightly too powerful pat on the back. “Good luck,” he said and walked back over to face May. Mark waved doubtfully and headed into the forest alone.
-------
Scyther wasn’t too far away. Mark was surprised by how quickly he caught a glimpse of glossy yellow wings between some trees.
He stepped off the road and almost immediately got his leg tangled in the undergrowth. While attempting to get himself free, he shouted, “Scyther!”
The mantis turned around suspiciously quickly and hid his scythes behind his back. As Mark untangled himself, he walked slowly nearer, feeling a bit uneasy.
“What are you hiding?” he asked doubtfully, looking at his Pokémon. That kind of pose was laughably awkward for a Scyther. As he heard no answer, he suspiciously came even closer and tried to walk around the mantis; Scyther turned along with him so his blades were kept out of view. By turning left suddenly enough, Mark managed to catch a glimpse of something red.
He immediately froze, feeling suddenly cold as the color drained from his face. His heartbeats doubled in speed within seconds as he looked frantically around. In between the branches of the bush right behind Scyther, he saw something white.
A shoe.
The world seemed to stop as Mark’s vision faded to reddish black; his brain protested with dizziness like the world around him was being sucked into a black hole, and he felt like he was about to faint. This horrible state lasted for an eternity of a second.
“Scyther, you… you killed someone,” Mark said weakly when the world had more or less returned to normal, backing away slightly.
“No,” Scyther said in his usual, calm voice.
Mark raised himself up with an expression of horror and disgust, his legs trembling like jelly in an earthquake. “Don’t lie to me,” he said shakily. “There’s a body. You’ve got… you’ve got blood on your…”
“He’s not dead,” Scyther said coolly.
“What do you mean, he’s not dead?” Mark screamed, explosive anger taking over his mind. How dare he be so calm, how dare he use that voice…
“He’s not dead yet. I’m letting him bleed to death. Mark, listen to me.”
“Why would I listen to you?” Mark shouted back. “Why are you killing him? Who is that, anyway?”
“It’s Scizor’s trainer,” Scyther spat with utmost loathing.
Suddenly, a wave of understanding washed over Mark. He felt a little bit calmer; squeezing his eyes shut, he replied, “Even though it’s Scizor’s trainer, it’s no excuse to kill him. We need to get an ambulance now. I think May has a cellphone, we need to go and borrow…”
“Do we have to?” Scyther interrupted. These four words shattered everything that was left of Mark’s former view of Scyther to pieces.
“Yes, we have to,” Mark said, trying to keep calm.
Scyther sighed deeply. “You don’t understand, do you? I just saw him as I was returning to you, and I – I had to…”
“You didn’t ‘have to’!” Mark snapped. “You’re an idiot! Do you even realize what you’ve done? This is an attempted murder by a trained Pokémon! It breaks the Agreement! It’s…”
“I never meant to get you into trouble,” Scyther said. “I didn’t think that far.”
“You’re the one who needs to understand, you know,” Mark said heatedly. “You don’t kill people, no matter how much you hate them. That’s not how it works with humans. Now come into your ball so I can go get May’s cellphone; we’re wasting way too much time here and the guy is dying.” Mark cringed and swallowed as he glanced nervously at the shoe.
“That won’t work,” Scyther said slowly, first now bringing his blood-stained scythes into view. “You will have to lie about what really happened, and your story will be very hard to believe while you’re carrying a Pokémon with the victim’s blood on his scythes.”
Mark paused. “Hurry and wash up, then… I’ll wait here.” He immediately had doubts about his suggestion, fearing that somebody might come across the body with him standing there like an idiot beside it, so he added, “Well, maybe I should come with you.”
Again, he had doubts after making that suggestion. The obvious place to go would be the pond they had spent the night by, but did he really want May and Alan to know the truth either? And what if Fury was still there? They’d have to look for another spring or something, and meanwhile the trainer was bleeding.
“I know the best thing to do,” Scyther said, interrupting Mark’s thoughts. He looked sceptically at the mantis.
“I wash my scythes, and then I come back and wait here. You go to where May is and make that call. Tell them he was attacked by some wild Sneasel – they sometimes attack in the morning even though they’re mostly around at night, and they sometimes let their victims die slowly. Wait there until they come, take them here and tell them you left me with him to make sure the Sneasel wouldn’t finish him off.”
Mark almost laughed. “And leave you here conveniently alone with somebody you’ve just been attempting to murder? Nice try, Scyther.”
The mantis took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I am not selfish enough to kill him when it is so important to you that I don’t,” he said quietly, clearly pained by what he was saying. “Now go, if you are so bent on letting him live.”
Mark stared at Scyther for a few seconds, racking his brain for any other possible solution but to his horror not finding one.
“Would you really keep that promise?” he asked softly.
“I don’t make promises,” Scyther simply said.
Mark stared at him with helpless terror, his mind blank. After all, had Scyther ever given him a real reason not to trust his words?
In some moment of foolishness, Mark turned around and sped back onto the road.
Man, the way Scyther acts in this chapter is just so bizarre. I wrote the damn thing and I really can't tell what on earth is going on in his head.
Also why does Mark feel in any way better about this knowing it's the trainer of the Scizor i.e. the guy who stood up to yell when Scyther tried to kill his Pokémon. Why with people just not acting like people.
Love Fury just casually roasting Mark over his lackluster battling ability, though. Delightful.
Apologies for how long this has taken, I have been in Blacklight hell. Here's chapter 29, featuring... even more Scyther, what more could you possibly want
Content warning: another one with some poorly-handled suicide content, as well as discussion of self-harm.
Chapter 29: Stormblade and Shadowdart
Mark couldn’t get over just how stupid he had been. Obviously Scyther would kill the trainer. Why was he even taking the paramedics there? He really didn’t know. Maybe he should be telling them he couldn’t remember where it was or something. Yeah, he really should.
But his legs walked on and his mouth stayed closed, even while the worry built up in his mind.
The past fifteen minutes or so had been a nightmare. First May had found it suspicious that some Sneasel would have not only been around but also not even been in a hurry to kill their prey at that time, and had wanted to ask endless questions while Mark gradually turned into a nervous wreck. When he finally got her to stop stalling and lend him her cellphone, he had first dialled the wrong number, and then the lady who answered the phone call had not understood him because he spoke too fast. Thankfully, only seconds passed from when he managed to make himself understandable and until two paramedics teleported there with an Abra, and he was now leading the way into the forest with the whole group to show them the victim.
“There?” Alan asked, pointing. Mark jumped, looking distractedly over in that direction; he could see Scyther there, seemingly fighting something. Mark’s first crazy thought was that the trainer had regained consciousness and they were having some sort of hand-to-hand fight about his life; however, he quickly realized that didn’t make any sense, nodded and hurried ahead to see what was going on.
What he saw when he entered the clearing was what he had least expected. The trainer, who had been moved more into the open, was still there, and meanwhile Scyther was fiercely fending off two black, catlike creatures with bladelike claws.
The Sneasel ran for it and disappeared into the forest as they realized they had been outnumbered. Scyther turned to the group of humans, his eyes expressionless; the paramedics hurried to the trainer with their yellow Psychic Pokémon and started to check him for signs of life.
“He’s alive,” one of the paramedics confirmed after checking his pulse. “It was lucky you came around and had the sense to leave your Pokémon here to guard him.”
Mark nodded.
“You may be contacted later for a report. Abra, Teleport!”
The yellow Pokémon yawned and stretched out its clawed limbs as the paramedics each placed a hand on the brown armour on its shoulders, also holding the trainer’s hands. Then all four of them disappeared.
“Well,” May said after a few moments of silence, “nothing more to see here. Stormy Town is that way.”
And she strode back towards the road, Alan quickly following behind her.
“Why did you move him?” Mark asked Scyther quietly as they walked after the others.
“I realized it wouldn’t look very convincing that some Sneasel would drag him into a bush after bringing him down but before killing him,” Scyther replied simply. Mark shuddered yet again at how calmly and casually the mantis talked about the incident.
“Why were those Sneasel there, anyway?”
“Attracted by the smell of blood.”
Mark wondered for a split second if it was a good idea to ask, but went ahead: “May said Sneasel are never around this late in the morning.”
Scyther smiled faintly. “The ones in Ruxido hunt later than most other Sneasel because many of the Pokémon they eat here first turn up in the morning. I know; I lived here when I was wild.”
Mark looked at him, surprised. “You did?”
Scyther nodded, looking fondly around at the trees. “I wonder…” he started like he was thinking aloud, but never finished the sentence. They walked on in silence for a little while.
All of a sudden, Scyther started to laugh. It immediately took the prize of the creepiest sound Mark had ever heard; perhaps it was some ancient instinct that made it so chilling, but it sent a cold shiver down his spine.
“That was the last one,” Scyther said and chuckled some more, in a way more ironic than amused.
“The last… what?”
Scyther turned to Mark with a crazed smile. “Remember ‘Death is not to be feared’? The first rule of Scyther ethics?”
Mark nodded.
“There are five,” Scyther said quietly. “And I’ve broken them all now.”
“What?” Mark asked, confused.
“Ever since that duel… Ever since she beat me, I’ve been breaking them one after another. The one I had yet to break before now was not to inflict unnecessary pain… but now I have.”
He giggled insanely with an odd expression for a second; then he suddenly stopped and jerked his scythe up to his throat. The blade trembled for a few seconds as the mantis Pokémon gritted his teeth. “I’m pathetic, pathetic, pathetic…”
Finally, Scyther lowered his scythe and sighed. He looked at it for a second. “Only rule I’ve followed to this day is keeping them sharp.”
“That’s a rule too?” Mark asked, still a bit wary in case Scyther decided to attempt to cut his head off again. The mantis nodded.
“Yes. It’s included in the one about no unnecessary pain, actually. A blunt blade hurts more than a sharp one.”
Mark didn’t reply as he figured Scyther might not want to dwell on the subject, but the Pokémon continued of his own accord:
“I sharpen them every day. I’m proud of them. I sharpen them until they don’t hurt anymore.”
“Until they…?”
Scyther held his arm out in front of Mark; he was about to ask what that was for when he noticed a row of small cuts on the soft yellow upper arm.
“You… you test them on yourself?” Mark asked with a hint of disgust. Scyther shrugged.
“Nobody else to test them on.”
Suddenly, Scyther froze and looked quickly around.
“Scyther? What…” Mark was cut off by the buzzing of wings; he stepped slowly backwards as two green blurs approached and landed on the ground in front of Scyther, revealing themselves to be two other members of his species.
“Well, Razor, we never expected to see you again,” one of them said in a hoarse, deep voice. He was missing an eye, and the green armour on his body was strangely light, giving him an overall sort of faded, ‘withering away’ look. The other Scyther had a large chunk missing out of its left scythe, but was a very dark green compared to the others.
“Stormblade.” Scyther looked at the lighter one with a small nod and turned to the dark one. “Shadowdart…”
Mark looked confusedly at him; Shadowdart looked suspiciously at Mark.
“What is the human doing here?” He narrowed his eyes and looked sharply back at Mark’s Scyther, who hesitated. He seemed upset and alert.
“He’s… my friend.”
Shadowdart gave Mark a nasty glare before jerking his head back towards Scyther. “Your ‘friend’? Since when did you make human friends?”
“None of your business,” Scyther replied quietly.
Stormblade appeared not to like this subject and changed it. “Well, did you ever find Nightmare?” he asked.
Scyther nodded. Shadowdart didn’t object to the abrupt change of direction in the conversation, but looked at Mark every now and then.
“So how did it go?” Stormblade asked with interest.
Scyther swallowed, looking at the two other bugs, and then whispered, “She… She got caught…”
Shadowdart looked at Scyther with angry disbelief. “Caught?”
“How did that happen?” Stormblade asked slowly. “She was the fastest I’ve ever seen.”
“He caught her in her sleep,” Scyther said bitterly. Stormblade nodded absent-mindedly before suddenly looking sharply back at him.
“How would you know? Were you there?”
Scyther sighed and nodded, looking down. Stormblade’s expression changed to one of disdain.
“Then you didn’t do anything. You just watched.”
Scyther was very visibly uncomfortable, but simply sighed again, nodding.
“I thought I knew you,” Stormblade muttered, shaking his head. “I never thought you’d…”
“Screw that,” Shadowdart interrupted, looking at Mark once again. “What are you doing with the human?”
“He’s my trainer,” Scyther said after a short silence. Shadowdart snorted.
“You let a human stuff you into a ball? I thought you had some dignity. Then it’s probably true what they all say, that you begged for your life, too…”
“Don’t,” Stormblade warned. “You didn’t watch the duel. I did.”
“Fine,” Shadowdart spat, “then she was just weak. I bet both of you just sit there with your trainers now doing whatever you’re told, like little slaves under their…”
“NO!”
Scyther swung his scythe straight at Shadowdart’s face. For a second Mark thought he’d kill him, but Shadowdart quickly raised his own blade to block the blow. Scyther attacked faster and more fiercely than Mark had ever seen him, gritting his teeth as Shadowdart’s scythes clashed with his again and again. Finally slashing forward with both of his blades, Scyther stared murderously into the other’s eyes as Shadowdart blocked.
The two Scyther glared at each other while each pushed with all his might; finally they both leapt backwards and Shadowdart lowered his scythes.
“All right,” he said nastily. “Fine. Be a slave. You’re not worth duelling.”
Shadowdart looked at Mark again. “And your so-called trainer isn’t worth killing, either.”
With that, he took off and buzzed back into the depths of the forest. Stormblade looked doubtfully at Scyther, shaking his head before flying after the other bug.
“What was that?” Mark asked when they were out of sight.
“My friends,” Scyther sighed. “Only proves how worthless I’ve become.”
They walked on, not in a hurry to catch up with May and Alan. Mark hesitated a bit. “They called you Razor – is that your name?”
Scyther shook his head. “Pokémon don’t have names like humans, remember. We made those silly names up ourselves to use for each other. I’d prefer if you didn’t call me that – too many memories I’d rather not think of.” He paused for a second. “I do like calling her Nightmare, though,” he added softly. “Ironically fitting… but I can’t stand the thought of you calling her ‘Scizor’.”
Mark nodded. They silently kept going; Mark could see the sunlight between the trees and realized the forest’s exit was not far ahead.
“It’s funny, actually,” Scyther suddenly started. “Stormblade hasn’t changed one bit, but Shadowdart was always a wuss. He got scared easily. The day of his First Prey, he couldn’t face ending a life and it took him many, many failed attempts before he finally caught something he had the guts to kill. That was actually the same day as my fateful duel with Nightmare…” He trailed off.
“First Prey?” Mark asked.
“A kind of growing-up ritual,” Scyther explained shortly. “You go out on your first hunt and need to catch and kill something all by yourself, and once you’ve done that you’re officially an adult.”
He seemed to be thinking hard for a second. “I just don’t get it,” he muttered. “You saw that piece that was cut out of his scythe?”
Mark nodded.
“It was always our Leader’s trademark to cut a bit from those he defeated. This means Shadowdart has challenged him for leadership, but not just once – with that much cut out, it must be three, four, five times. He wants to be Leader.”
Scyther paused. “Damn it, where did all that determination come from?” he suddenly asked loudly with a hint of annoyance simply about the mystery itself. “Not Stormblade. He’s turned into Shadowdart’s toy…”
He sighed and shook his head. “I’ve changed too, but for the better. This is… I really have a bad feeling about this.”
They exited Ruxido into the glorious sunlight of Route 312, only to be greeted by an endless field of tall grass. May and Alan stood hopelessly in front of it.
“We might be able to get around it,” Mark heard May saying as they approached.
“Yeah, but it would take ages,” Alan argued. “It can’t be that bad to walk through…”
“Oh, hi,” May said as she turned around and saw them. “As you can see, this is a very annoying patch of grass.”
Mark stared out at it. “I can imagine.”
Scyther looked at the grass and just smiled before taking a step backwards and then zooming into it with his scythes aloft. Grass blades flew in all directions. Within a few minutes, he had cut down a clear path through all the grass and returned.
“Nice,” Alan said, raising his eyebrows and heading into the newly-cut path. May followed after him, and Mark came last.
“I haven’t done that in years,” Scyther recalled. “Fun, though, and harder than it looks. As soon as our scythes harden – they’re soft when we’re born – we start doing this for practice, all the way until our First Prey.”
“What is the First Prey thing like exactly?” Mark asked. He had always found this kind of thing interesting; wild Pokémon’s culture were something he wished there was more of at school.
Scyther shrugged. “They send you off, and two witnesses follow you to make sure you do it all by yourself. Then you just find something living, kill it, and bring it back to the swarm, eating it there and giving some to those you respect, which always includes the leader unless you plan to be banished. Usually we just catch small Pokémon like Rattata or Nidoran. The more ambitious head for bigger targets and greater glory.”
Mark nodded. “What did you catch?” he asked out of curiosity, wondering what kind of a target Scyther had headed for when he was younger.
“Well…” The mantis looked around, reluctant to answer. Mark looked at him with suspicion.
“You don’t want to know,” Scyther finally said quietly. Not sure if the hint was intentional, Mark felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
“Don’t tell me you…”
Scyther nodded without looking at Mark. He immediately felt sick.
“Why a human?” he mumbled.
“Why not?” Scyther whispered. “Do you think the Nidoran wouldn’t be horrified if I had caught one of them? And the Rattata upset if I had killed their offspring? We are all sentient, Mark… and none of us want to be killed deep down, no matter how many rules of your ethics tell you to be ready to face it.”
Mark said nothing. It still felt wrong, but in a way Scyther had a point. He shivered as he thought of all the Pokémon families that the mantis might have ruined, the children he might have left motherless, the eggs that cooled and died with nothing to warm them, all because he was a predator.
Scyther suddenly started to laugh again. “Isn’t this ironic? I could kill you. I could reach out with my arm and cut your head off if I wanted. But here we are talking like best mates…”
Mark didn’t particularly like this twist of the conversation, but Scyther didn’t notice; he was looking straight forward and muttering to himself.
“You know about the animal world?” he suddenly asked, looking back at Mark.
“Yeah?”
“The humans there were too powerful for their own good. They practically took over the world, and it… went to their heads. Because they had no natural enemies, they made other humans into enemies instead – those who were different in some way, lived in different places, looked different or had different customs. Of course, it all ended with their society going to hell. They went to wars, blew each other up and made the animal world into the radioactive wasteland it is now. Thankfully the portal between the worlds had been opened and refugees fled into the Pokémon world…”
Scyther stared ahead at the plains below as they started to walk downhill. Wild Pokémon were becoming less prominent in the area; it was clear that they were entering the Pokémon-devoid part of Ouen from the East. Mark had forgotten that Stormy Town was so close to Sailance; he looked with regret back towards Ruxido, so lively compared to the dull sand ahead.
“Of course, the animal world brought animals here,” Scyther added, snapping Mark away from the sight of Ruxido. “Pokémon are really made to eat each other. Animal meat such as humans doesn’t contain nearly the energy and nutrition that Pokémon need, and when Pokémon started teaming up with humans and fighting the predators, it simply wasn’t worth the bother to hunt them anymore. Since humans don’t even eat Pokémon anymore, having their farm animals, it was possible for this kind of inter-species co-operation to emerge. In the Pokémon world, both humans and Pokémon evolved differently from how the humans did in the animal world. The presence of a technical threat – some sort of a Pokémon revolution – brings more unity among the humans, and trained Pokémon are the glue that ties both species together, because they are loyal to some portion of both sides. It works out, so strangely perfectly.”
Scyther nodded absent-mindedly to himself and then turned back to the uncomfortable subject of earlier: “Are you really never afraid of me, even though I’ve both threatened you and almost killed you?”
“Not… not really,” Mark muttered. “Well, when it happens I am, of course, but…”
The mantis chuckled. “It’s a good thing. A perfect example of the kind of ridiculous trust between humans and Pokémon who have been together for a little while. The species could as well fuse into one by now. If this development continues, all trainers will be like Rob in ten years. Pokémon will be viewed exactly like human friends. Perhaps Pokémon training will even be stopped; it’s not even needed anymore to connect us. We are as one.”
Mark listened, but said nothing; Scyther didn’t appear to mind, and in fact it looked like he had mostly been wondering aloud without expecting an answer. They were all distracted from this conversation as the sight of Stormy Town came into view; scattered buildings that looked depressingly deserted formed an irregular area around a large neon pink, blue and yellow brick-shaped building in the middle. Black thunderclouds loomed over the town and the mountains to its northwest, producing an occasional flash of lightning and thunder.
“Let’s hurry up,” Alan suggested as the first drops of rain wetted their clothes. Mark quickly recalled Scyther and they ran down the last hill.
-------
By coincidence, Mark happened to glance at the shadow under a large rock near the road to Stormy Town. He stopped.
“What was that?”
May came over and looked. “What?”
“I just thought I saw something,” Mark muttered, still staring into the shadow. “Like red eyes…”
“You must be seeing things,” she just said. Mark shrugged and turned around.
May stared into the shadow for a few seconds before finally shaking her head and running to catch up with the boys.
Mysterious~
Scyther continues to be unbelievably melodramatic, while Mark barely reacts to any of it, and it's kind of hilarious.
We also continue to have characters randomly start infodumping about the animal world at random moments. The animal world is not even important; I just thought this worldbuilding was cool and wanted to tell you about it. I'm sorry.
This is one of the places where somehow, this revision made the chapter worse than it was in the original - originally, there was a bit more about Scyther's worldview and culture, the kind of interesting stuff, and a lot less of him just being incredibly melodramatic and feeling very sorry for himself. Alas.
Chapter 30 time! In which Scyther gets drunk, we meet everyone's favorite gym leader, and we try to raise the stakes further, because saving the world isn't urgent enough.
Chapter 30: The Dragons of Ouen
Stormy Town had once been a normal town that happened to have somewhat frequent thunderstorms. It had been lively and populated as shown when its formerly unofficial gym was given official status. ‘Stormy Town’ had in fact only been a sort of nickname affectionately given to it by its resident gym leader.
However, around twenty years before the three soaked kids made their way towards the flickering neon lettering they could just barely read through the thick sheet of rain as “P.C.”, the thunderstorms had begun to get more frequent. No one had been able to explain why. Scientists had claimed that it was just a period that would pass, but it never did, and as the city only got fewer and fewer hours of calm weather, the inhabitants had eventually given up. They had started referring to it as Stormy Town themselves, the rest of Ouen following. Many had moved away; a few had stayed but more or less stopped going outside. The Pokémon League had offered to move the gym’s badge elsewhere, but the leader had promptly refused, saying that he would stay loyal to his city forever as long as the lightning did not strike him. He and later his son had fought to let the town keep its city rights, and the son had gotten Nurse Joy of Stormy Town to team up with him. Gradually the two of them had then taken over all services in the city. But despite their attempts, Stormy Town was now only visited by trainers who got their badges and then left as quickly as they could. The sad fact was that Stormy Town was dying.
Bells chimed as the door to the small Pokémon Center burst open and Mark, May and Alan quickly squeezed themselves into the warmly lit room despite that the desk by the opposite wall was abandoned. The door closed behind them as Mark threw himself panting into a red sofa, appreciating the pink Pokémon Center carpet like he never had before. Alan and May sat down too as the bell chiming died away, leaving the rain’s beating on the windows, the distant thunder and the kids’ breathing as the only sound in the room.
“Good evening,” came a soft, polite voice. Mark looked up, eying the face of a red-haired nurse as she closed a door to a back room quietly and walked behind the desk. She gave a small bow. “Would you like me to heal your Pokémon?”
Mark felt too exhausted to stand up, so as May and Alan prepared to hand theirs over, he simply detached his minimized Pokéballs from his belt and gave them to May. She rolled her eyes but didn’t object.
After putting the Pokéballs into the healing machine, Nurse Joy sighed. “This building is in bad shape. Soon we’ll have to move the Pokémon Center services into the gym too…”
Mark nodded, not sure how to answer. May did not appear to be listening; she was raising her eyebrow at an advertising poster of some sort for the Stormy Town Gym, which bore the caption ‘LET THE SPARK OF YOUR MIND LEAD YOU THROUGH A SHOCKING EXPERIENCE’.
“Well, either way,” Nurse Joy went on, “the gym has free accommodation for trainers if you’re looking for that, and also a rather cheap restaurant. Sparky is a lovely cook.”
May snorted. “The gym leader’s name is Sparky and he trains Electric Pokémon?”
The nurse giggled. “He sees the humour in it. He’s quite an odd fellow, but you’ll like him. Everybody does.”
May didn’t look convinced, but Alan ignored her, standing up. “Well, it’s more or less dinnertime, so we should probably head over to the gym, shouldn’t we?”
-------
The gym was an extremely lively building and in such contrast with the look of the rest of the town that it almost seemed like a spaceship or gateway into another, happier world; the outside was painted in neon pink and blue while warm yellow light flooded through the large windows on the many floors. Of course, given how depressing Stormy Town was overall, something to cheer it up had to be a good thing, even if it was a bit extreme.
The pink tiled floor made a slight squashy sound as the kids stepped on it and the automatic door closed behind them. Mark eyed a large door just ahead of them, set with navy blue letters that said, “CAUTION: BATTLE ARENA – DO NOT ENTER WHILE A BATTLE IS TAKING PLACE.”
“Are you looking for food or just hurrying to battle and get out of here?”
A short, thin man was walking down a staircase to the right while looking at them through stylish silver shades, wearing a blue T-shirt and shorts. The short electric blue wavy hair and small blue goatee looked dyed, but Mark wasn’t quite sure. A gleeful, friendly expression filled his young face.
“Food for now,” Alan replied. “Sparky, right?”
The man smiled. “Who else could it be?” His voice was the kind that seemed to constantly sound like he was in an internal laughing fit of some sort. “So are you going to battle later, or just coming to say hi?”
“Maybe tomorrow?” Mark suggested, looking forward to getting to bed. May shrugged.
“Tomorrow, why not,” Sparky replied cheerfully. “Shouldn’t you change your clothes, though?”
“Eh, right,” Mark muttered, looking down at his waterlogged jeans. Alan nodded too. May merely gave a “Mmmh.”
Sparky smiled. “Follow me,” he said, turning back towards the staircase he just came down.
-------
“Well, that guy was creepy.”
“Creepy?” Mark asked. “Maybe a bit weird, but not creepy.”
“He’s creepily weird,” May insisted.
“I found him nice,” Alan just said, shrugging.
They were walking back down the stairs from their rooms after changing. Sparky seemed to have disappeared for the moment, but when they came back into the entrance hall they caught a glimpse of him behind a half-closed door marked “RESTAURANT” at the other end of the room and hurried into it.
Mark was surprised by the sudden change of atmosphere; the restaurant was rather dimly lit and cozy, with wooden furniture and not so much as a speck of the neon colors of the main gym. Even Sparky himself had put a white chef’s hat on his head and taken down his shades.
“Sit down,” he offered, pointing them to a table by the right wall and reaching for a small notebook on a counter in the corner. “Would your Pokémon like to have something too? As long as they fit in here, of course,” he added. “You’ll get their food free – Pokémon aren’t very picky in my experience.”
“Eh… our Pokémon?” Mark asked as he sat down. “Do Pokémon usually eat at restaurants?”
Sparky smiled. “Usually not, but we can always make exceptions, can’t we? Especially since you’re the first staying guests in quite a while. Most trainers come here and run off as soon as possible like they fear being struck by lightning.” He giggled, like the notion of being struck by lightning in Stormy Town was absurd.
“Um… All right.” Mark sent out all his Pokémon except Gyarados, shortly followed by Alan and then May. They quickly explained what was going on, but when it came to ordering, the Pokémon doubtfully asked for either raw meat or raw salad with nothing, the only exception being Scyther, who sat uninvited down on the chair beside Mark and ordered beer.
Sparky raised his eyebrows. “Are you quite sure?”
“I’m used to it,” Scyther just said.
“And how are you planning to hold the glass, if I may be so bold?” Sparky asked, his eyes twinkling in amusement.
“If you’ve got a large bowl or something… I’d like a lot of it.”
“I see,” Sparky replied, scribbling it down. May and Alan both looked at Mark, who merely answered with a freaked-out expression, having no idea what to say.
“Well, your food will be ready soon,” Sparky said, looking over them again and disappearing into the kitchen.
It wasn’t long before the gym leader returned with the drinks for the kids and then what looked like a big kitchen pot, putting it in front of Scyther.
“Don’t drink too much of it all at once,” he said cheerfully before walking back into the kitchen.
May and Alan stared at the pot; Mark subtly peeked into it to see it was around three-quarters full of a golden, fizzy drink. Scyther smelled it and smiled before plunging his whole head into it. Mark jumped, edging slightly further away from Scyther in his seat.
“What the hell were you thinking?” May hissed at Mark, leaning forward across the table. “You should have stopped him from ordering it!”
Mark glanced anxiously at Scyther, who still had his head completely subdued. “I just didn’t know how… And Scyther is used to that stuff, isn’t he?”
The mantis’ head emerged from the pot; he shook his head, sending droplets of beer flying at the kids. May moved backwards from the table in disgust.
“Refreshing,” Scyther mumbled. Mark looked at him; the Pokémon’s eyes had already lost some of their normal alertness, which was slightly worrying. Scyther’s head dropped back into the pot.
When he came out again, he was actually getting slightly cross-eyed. “This reminds me of back when Rob and I used to go to the Gamesharked Skarmory. Great place, that… Crunchy… Caterpie…”
He reached dizzily out with his scythe in a much too careless manner, coming very close to knocking down a candle. The mantis didn’t appear to notice this, continuing to lap up the drink for a second before looking at Mark.
“Love is fake,” he announced randomly. “It’s all just a bunch of hormones that want you to have sex and kids. Sickle was nice, but love… it’s not.”
The mantis closed his eyes. “Mmm… delightful. If you want a piece of advice from an adult, kids, don’t ever fall in love. Not worth it. Yes, very enjoyable… killing is kinda fun when you’ve been doing it for your whole life, you know…”
“Scyther, you’re drunk,” May said bluntly.
Scyther looked stupidly at her for a few seconds. “Whatever,” he then mumbled and collapsed on the table.
“Oh dear,” Sparky said, entering the room with the kids’ food. “I guess Pokémon are rather sensitive to alcohol. One more lesson in running restaurants, isn’t it?”
He turned to Mark as he gently laid the plates down on the table. “If I were you, I’d recall him.”
Mark nodded and touched Scyther with his Pokéball to absorb him in, feeling slightly guilty for letting this happen. He mentally smacked himself. Stop being so responsible… It’s his problem.
Scyther still stayed at the front of his mind during dinner.
-------
Mark decided to let Jolteon, Sandslash, Leta and Dragonair sleep outside their Pokéballs. Jolteon curled up on the end of the bed and Leta followed suit; Dragonair and Sandslash curled up on the floor.
He lay down in the bed, pulled the blanket over him and was quickly fast asleep.
-------
Mark stood in the grass outside Green Town, people counting down all around him. All of a sudden, Chaletwo’s grayish shape stood in the middle. Two immeasurably bright eyes opened and the world turned black as horrible pain took over him…
-------
Jolteon knew he was unbeatable. He wouldn’t have to worry about the Dugtrio and its menacing three heads, glaring evilly at him with six small eyes.
The heads started moving up and down, gaining speed until the ground trembled. Jolteon suddenly felt weak and powerless against it and his eyes hopelessly snapped open. He blinked, discovering that the earthquake had only been the movement of the blanket as Mark flailed around and mumbled in his sleep. Jolteon looked at Leta; she had not noticed it and was still fast asleep. He quietly stood up as his trainer stopped moving, tiptoed over to his head and gently touched his forehead; it was cold and sweaty.
Jolteon stroked his fur against Mark’s hand, hoping to give him some comfort. He was soon fast asleep again.
-------
Chaletwo’s eyes slowly shut again as the pain faded away. The colors of the world returned to normal, but they were no longer outside Green Town, but on top of the mountain above Stormy Town. Black clouds loomed over them, releasing bolts of lightning every now and then that lit up the town far below.
Chaletwo stared down at the city, his expression showing fear and regret, bordering on despair.
“I sense power,” said his telepathic voice emptily.
“The thunderstorm?” Mark said as Chaletwo showed no sign of being about to continue. The legendary shook his head.
“No… It is a Pokémon’s power. But yes, it is what is behind this thunderstorm.”
“Raikou? Zapdos?” Mark suggested.
“Rick has them captured,” Chaletwo replied, still staring down at the town.
“What is it then?”
“It could only be a Pokémon nobody knows exists,” Chaletwo said softly. Mark was about to say something when the legendary added in a whisper, “It’s Thunderyu, the first Dragon of Ouen.”
“So you know it?” Mark asked blankly.
“Of course I know, I created it!” Chaletwo suddenly snapped, looking at Mark.
“Er…” Mark paused. “What?”
Chaletwo sighed. “I was naïve. Way back when Mew and I were creating the Pokémon, Mew wanted to create all the legendaries… and I thought it was unfair.”
The legendary shook his head hatefully. “Kanto, Johto and Hoenn all had three elemental legendaries… so I made three for Ouen on my own, three dragons who loathed each other more than they loved life itself. I sealed them away and put them into a deep sleep where Mew could not find them, and intended to bring them out later and show Mew that I could create and be in control… that I could do it all just as well as Mew. But I grew up and never woke them up, and in all the hassle about preventing the War of the Legends, I forgot that my powers that were keeping them asleep were fading. As soon as they are fully conscious, they will break out of their chambers and do whatever it takes to destroy each other.”
Chaletwo looked down at the mountain they were standing on. “Thunderyu is right under our feet, and he is waking up. And there is no way we can reach him until he breaks out.”
He looked at Mark again. “Ouen is in grave danger.”
I'm sure you all wanted to see a drunk Scyther rambling about his sex life. My fifteen-year-old self gleefully provides.
Anyway, MOAR DRAGONS (who also hate each other), because the six I already had weren't enough! And the deadline of the world ending wasn't enough either; I needed these three new specific legendaries that are going to wake up Soon(tm) and cause abject destruction, so they need to get those specific ones quickly. How quickly? loud shrug
Time for chapter 31, wherein we get a random lengthy filler battle followed by a plot twist I thought up before I started this revision.
Chapter 31: Spirit
Mark blinked, not sure where he was. He stared into the white ceiling for a few seconds while hearing the thunderstorm roar outside, and slowly remembered the events of the previous day.
Chaletwo broke into my dream, he then realized. I have… I have three more legendary Pokémon to catch…
He stroked over his face with his right hand, finding that he was a bit sweaty. He sleepily reached for his digital watch on the bedside table and looked at it; it was ten AM on the ninth of June.
Ninth of June.
He had turned twelve a few hours ago.
He blinked again. Twelve. He had looked forward to turning twelve. It was a much nicer number than eleven, somehow. Now he’d have to remember to answer twelve when asked about his age.
Of course, the nice, pleasant birthday thoughts didn’t take long to turn into Perhaps I’ll never live to be thirteen. He shook it off, quietly sat up and got dressed before waking his Pokémon up.
There was a knock on his door. “Mark? We should train for the gym a bit, shouldn’t we? I’m going, at least, and Alan is tagging along – if you want to come, then come now.”
“Yeah, I’m coming,” Mark called back and recalled his Pokémon. He took out his Pokédex and switched Scyther to the computer; the mantis was still slightly ahead of his other Pokémon in level, and it might be good to let him rest after yesterday, anyway.
He walked up to the door and opened it to find both May and Alan outside.
“Slow,” May muttered as they walked along the corridor and down the stairs to the entrance.
Outside, the weather had gotten somewhat better since yesterday – it was not raining as much, although the clouds still loomed in the sky and released occasional bolts of lightning. Perhaps Thunderyu is sleeping more soundly now, he figured, soon afterwards realizing that May and Alan didn’t know about his dream.
“Um… Chaletwo sorta… broke into my dream last night,” he muttered as they were coming close to Ruxido. A small stream flowed in soft bends out of the forest close by.
May turned around and raised an eyebrow. “He ‘sorta’ broke into your dream? Did he or didn’t he?”
Mark gritted his teeth. “Either that or he woke me up and teleported me up on that mountain over there in my pajamas in the middle of the night.” To emphasize his point, he pointed frustratedly to the mountain, which he was quick to recognize as definitely the same mountain as the one in the dream. He could almost feel Thunderyu nearly conscious in some hidden chamber deep inside the rock. He shivered.
May shrugged. “Well, if all you wanted to tell us was that Chaletwo took you on an imaginary mountain hike…”
“It’s not all I wanted to tell you!” Mark shouted. “Will you just listen to me?”
“Then what…” May couldn’t finish the sentence; Alan elbowed her very hard with a just-shut-up sideways glance before she could finish it. She trod down on his foot without looking at him.
“So, er… what did Chaletwo say?” Alan asked in a pained voice, making no attempt to get her off his feet.
Mark stared at them. “Um, he just told me there are three crazy dragons added to all those insanely many legendaries I have to try to catch somehow.”
They blinked.
“More?” May asked. “What the heck? Weren’t you already supposed to catch all the legendaries?”
Mark wasn’t sure whether to tell them the whole story of the creation of the dragons; something told him not to, and he had a distinct suspicion that this something was Chaletwo’s doing. Going around the truth, he said, “Well, basically, he thought those were already taken care of, but they weren’t.”
May’s left eyebrow ascended on her forehead. “Umm… so… where are those new legendaries of yours? Does Chaletwo even know?”
“One is inside that mountain over there,” Mark said and pointed. “Supposedly it’s what’s causing the thunderstorms here.”
“In Thunderclap Cave?” Alan asked curiously. “My dad went there with some scientists to research the cause of the storm, but their sensors didn’t find any signs of a powerful Electric Pokémon.”
“Thunderyu has been closed away sleeping in a chamber that only my eyes can see for nearly a thousand years,” Chaletwo’s telepathic voice said before Mark could reply. “To any other sensors, he is invisible. Thunderyu will most likely break from his chamber into Thunderclap Cave once he is fully conscious, and then crawl out of it and find the other dragons. We will have to be ready to meet him when he comes.”
Alan blinked. “When should this happen?”
“Soon,” Chaletwo sighed. “Very soon…”
“Why don’t we just break in and take Thunderyu while it’s still half-conscious?” May suggested.
“The chambers are made so that only the dragons themselves can break out of them.” In a spiteful tone, Chaletwo added privately to Mark, “I was too ingenious when I was young.”
Wait… Mark suddenly thought, you’re keeping them asleep, right? Can’t you lift it off for example Thunderyu, and then you’ll have more energy to keep the others sleeping?
“Mark just had a good idea,” Chaletwo said quickly to all of them. “I can wake them up one at a time, you can fight them, and then the others will sleep longer.”
May looked skeptically at Mark and frowned. “That doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Why would the others sleep longer if one is awake?”
Chaletwo sighed. “Don’t you think I know it better than you?” he said grumpily.
May raised an eyebrow and glanced suspiciously at Mark, but didn’t ask. He was very relieved.
“Still,” Chaletwo added, “it’s not a good idea to fight Thunderyu immediately. He is too powerful. You should have time to train your Pokémon some.”
“You know, Chaletwo,” May said slowly, “why don’t you just Death Stare them? That way we’re rid of them for good in just a few seconds, without having to put ourselves or our Pokémon in danger. Sounds like a much better idea if you ask me. I get why you wouldn’t want to kill the other legendaries in cold blood, I mean, they’re actual people and you’ve probably known them for a while, but hasn’t this Thunderyu guy just been stuck inside a mountain sleeping for a thousand years? Nobody can be very personally attached to him, he probably doesn’t even understand what’s going on, and we’re talking about saving the world.”
There was a very long silence. May folded her arms; Alan looked shocked.
“I… they… I couldn’t…” Chaletwo said shakily after a long while. “I mean… I’ve gotten weaker.” Then his voice died down.
Mark got another very skeptical look from May, but she still did not say anything.
“Chaletwo?” Mark asked carefully, but got no answer.
May shrugged. “Well, if we have to do things the hard way, he told us to train, didn’t he? Sounds like a good idea to me.”
Still a bit worried, Mark nodded and looked anxiously at his Pokéballs as if worried that one of them had disappeared. He shook his head at himself.
“Um… is there anything I can help you with?” asked a hesitant voice. Mark jerked his head upwards and saw a young man of maybe nineteen or twenty approaching them along with two bipedal Pokémon that resembled strange hybrids of rodents and reptiles. One of them was a purple, masculine Nidoking with a long, pointed horn; the other was a more feminine-looking blue Nidoqueen.
“What? Help? No. Why?” May asked.
The man shrugged. “Well, my Pokémon noticed something although they aren’t sure what exactly it was, and when I went to check on it, you looked a bit upset for a second.”
Mark looked at him. “We’re fine, but are you a Pokémon trainer? We were about to train for the gym. A battle would be nice, if you have the time.”
“Sure,” the man said, digging into his pocket and taking out a few Pokéballs.
“Wait a minute,” May interrupted, “either you’re seriously overgrown or you’re several years older than him. How strong are your Pokémon?”
Mark felt stupid not to have considered that, but the man shook his head. “I’m studying to be a breeder. I don’t really battle a lot, so they’re just level forty-ish. Four on four?”
Mark nodded and walked a few steps away to leave room for the Pokémon to act. “Go, Sandslash!” he shouted and threw forward a Pokéball which burst open and sent out his pangolin Pokémon.
“Oh, yeah, and my name is Dan,” the man added with a slight smile, looking at the Pokéballs in his palm and picking one. “Go, Lanturn!”
He threw the ball and it popped open just above the surface of the stream, sending out a blue anglerfish Pokémon with a yellow mask around its eyes. The natural fishing rod extending from its head had a yellow bulb at the end of it.
Mark looked at it and narrowed his eyes. This would be rather difficult for Sandslash if he didn’t want to get wet; Earthquake’s ripples would not affect it through the water, and other than that, Sandslash only really knew Slash and maybe Poison Sting. Defense Curl. Something like that. None of it would be of much help without taking risks.
Oh well. He was feeling brave on his birthday.
“Sandslash, I know it sounds crazy, but jump into the water and try to get a Poison Sting in.”
“Lanturn, don’t let him get you!” Dan quickly countered as Sandslash rushed towards the stream and dived in without question. He gasped for air and it suddenly dawned on to Mark how loyal Sandslash always was. He couldn’t ever recall him disobeying a command, no matter how much he could get hurt. He felt a little bit guilty; did Sandslash really have a reason to trust him so much? He watched as Sandslash attempted to swim, but Lanturn was much faster and avoided him fairly easily while he tried to attack.
“Spark,” Dan said simply, and in an instant the stream was filled with showers of electric sparks. Sandslash screamed somewhere in the middle of it all; he may have been a Ground type, but in the water he was still vulnerable to electricity.
“Get out of there!” Mark shouted in a panic, but then he heard the Lanturn screech and saw that somehow, Sandslash had managed to stab a claw into the fish’s body. A few drops of purple fluid were dissolving into the water while Sandslash desperately climbed back onto the bank, cold and shivering.
“Water Gun!” Dan ordered, and the Lanturn, after shutting its eyes briefly in pain as the poison hurt it, raised its head above the surface of the water and squirted a stream of water from its mouth at the weak pangolin Pokémon. Sandslash shut his eyes and allowed his consciousness to drift away. There was nothing Mark could do.
He paused. “Err, go, Jolteon.”
Mark’s own Electric Pokémon let out a battle cry as he materialized from his Pokéball on the ground. He crouched down and watched the fish Pokémon carefully, charging up electricity in his fur, and then, without an order, released a bolt of lightning at Lanturn.
Mark didn’t have anything against this turn of events; he had been planning to do that anyway. However, the fish did not seem hurt at all by the jolt of electricity – if anything, it looked healthier than before – which was very puzzling.
Jolteon looked with annoyance at the Lanturn and did the same again, equally unsuccessful at hurting it.
Dan smirked. “Water Pulse.”
The fish jumped up and spat out waves of water that hit Jolteon powerfully. He moaned and squeezed his eyes shut; then he shook his spiky fur and retaliated with a flurry of needles. The Lanturn responded by diving down deeper, but the stream was not deep enough for it to avoid being hit at all and it came up with some minor cuts.
“Thunder Wave,” Mark said quickly, and Jolteon sent another wave of electricity towards Lanturn. This time it did seem to have an effect; the anglerfish slowed down, moving more stiffly, which gave Jolteon the opportunity to fire a second Pin Missile.
“Another Water Pulse,” Dan said sharply, and Lanturn sent another wave of water at Jolteon. This time he had a harder time standing up again; he looked a little dizzy.
“Bite,” Mark ordered worriedly. Jolteon shook his head to focus and leapt into the water at Lanturn. After succeessfully sinking his fangs into the fish’s tail thanks to Lanturn’s paralysis, Jolteon clawed a bit at the anglerfish, but then Lanturn shook him off and he climbed back up to the bank.
“Water Gun!” Dan shouted, but Lanturn flinched for a second, which gave Mark another opportunity to act.
“Quick, Pin Missile!”
Jolteon started raising his fur, but then the confusion got the better of him. For a few moments he just stood there like he was trying to remember what he was going to do next; then he dropped to the ground, unconscious.
Mark bit his lip. Two of his Pokémon were already down. He desperately hoped Dan was not capable of anything more than this, but hesitantly picked Dragonair’s Pokéball.
“Do it, Dragonair!” he shouted and threw the ball.
The slender dragon ascended into the air as soon as he gained material form and watched his opponent.
“Ice Beam!” Dan called, and Lanturn fired a beam of ice crystals towards Dragonair. He cried out in pain as he was hit, struggling to maintain his altitude while he shivered. He was clearly having trouble with it and Dan was about to open his mouth again…
“Wait, Dragonair, lie down flat, quick!” Mark blurted out. The dragon heard him and immediately practically dropped to the ground right at the bank of the stream. Despite taking a hit when he landed, he was still conscious, and could flatten himself against the grass.
Dan frowned. “Lanturn, jump out of the water and Ice Beam from there.”
The fish made a respectable attempt to jump, but the paralysis made it unable to get to a height where it could hit with another Ice Beam. Mark looked hopefully at Dragonair.
“Now, uh… What moves do you know again?” Mark asked hesitantly. He heard May snort behind him. Dan just raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.
“Twister,” Dragonair muttered, still lying where he was. “Dragon Rage. Slam.”
“Dragon Rage, then,” Mark ordered, figuring that both Slam and Twister would require Dragonair to move out of his safe position.
“Dive deep into the water,” Dan countered. Mark immediately realized that this would not work; Dragonair breathed dark flames but they barely licked the surface of the stream while Lanturn was safe below it.
“Okay, then…” Again, Mark was feeling braver than usual. “Slam.”
Dragonair suddenly sprang up with a loud, frightening hiss that seemed to oppose the serene air of his usual appearance, and dove into the water headfirst. Lanturn jumped, obviously having not known what the dragon was doing up on the bank, and started charging up electricity to counter him, but Dragonair quickly whipped his tail at the fish and smashed the two shiny blue pearls on the tip into its head.
Lanturn was instantly knocked unconscious by the heavy blow, turned upside-down in the water and floated lazily to the surface. Dan recalled it without words and pulled out a second Pokéball. It occurred to Mark that by now, the notion of actually managing to win was downright ridiculous; one of Dan’s Pokémon had taken out two of his and worn a third one down quite a bit.
But he wouldn’t go down without a fight. Not on his birthday. Besides, it was just for training.
“Go, Clare!”
The ball sent out a large, graceful, brown bird with a golden and red crest of long feathers on her head. She let out a cry as she flew high up and looked down at her opponent. Dragonair flew into the air and faced her.
Dan looked proudly at his Pidgeot before issuing an order: “Featherdance!”
Clare flapped her wings in Dragonair’s direction, and thousands of small, soft down feathers flurried from her body towards the dragon, limiting both his vision and his ability to move. Dragonair said something, but his voice was so muffled by the down that Mark didn’t hear it.
“Twister to get them away!”
Mark could see Dragonair start to spin in mid-air and attempt to reach the speed required to create a whirlwind, but he was unsuccessful; the down limited his movements too much, and Dan’s Pidgeot was making sure there was always more and more of it.
Most ordinary trainers with Mark’s level of battling experience would at this point have issued a Dragon Rage to burn the feathers, after being so conveniently reminded of its existence just moments before, but he was no ordinary trainer. He had an obsession with legends, and it just so happened that the Dragon type, with its mythical qualities, fell somewhat within his range of interests. And therefore he knew that while dragon flames had none of the disadvantages of regular fire, they had none of the advantages either.
Additionally, he happened to have some very creative Pokémon.
“Dragonair, remember that Fire attack of yours from the Attack Approval? Use it!” he said quickly. Somewhere within the cloud of down, Dragonair appeared to have gotten the same idea: just as Mark made his order, the innermost feathers burst into flames and for a split second, the dragon was surrounded by a ring of floating flames. Then the fire dissolved, the charred remains of the Featherdance drifting lazily to the ground.
“Clare, use an Aerial Ace!”
When Dragonair managed to comprehend his surroundings again, the Pidgeot had folded her wings nearer to her body and was already swooping down at him at such a speed that he hardly saw her coming.
“Look out!” Mark shouted, but only a fraction of a second later, Clare made a razor-sharp, precise cut across Dragonair’s body with her talons. The dragon screamed in pain as silvery dragon blood lined the area of his skin around the cut; somehow, however, he was able to breathe a plume of fire at the Pidgeot before she assumed he would be able to counterattack, taking her by surprise. She cried out as she rapidly flapped her scorched wings to put out the last flames; she did not appear particularly hurt, though.
“Okay, Fly!” Dan ordered, and Clare shot upwards in the air. Mark had one of those rare sparks of old Battling lessons that had sunk in:
“Twister!”
Just as the Pidgeot was diving back down, Dragonair managed to produce a tornado that could strike her even as high in the air as she was. Granted, it did not hurt her that much, but at least Dragonair went out with a bang; a second after the Twister died, Clare tackled him harshly in mid-air and knocked him unconscious.
“You did a good job,” Mark said as he recalled his Pokémon. It was true. Dragonair had been more successful than either Sandslash or Jolteon, as much as he hated to differentiate between his Pokémon.
“Now…” Mark paused. He probably would have sent out Charizard, but then he realized that it was not like he was about to win this anytime soon. This was meant as training, and he hadn’t even sent out the Pokémon that was most in need of some.
“Go, Leta.”
The little white Pokémon came out of the Pokéball in a sitting position and looked around. She saw the huge bird, but for some bizarre reason, she didn’t seem the least bit afraid. Mark thought to himself that if he were her size, he definitely would be.
Dan looked at her and smiled at her cuteness.
“Fly. Just try to finish her off quickly.”
Clare nodded and ascended quickly into the air.
“Umm, Leta, try to dodge it, like by hiding under a tree or…”
Mark shut up when he realized that Leta showed no sign of noticing that he was talking at all, let alone doing what he said. She sat there on the ground in plain view where she would be extremely easy to hit, and looked innocently upwards at the Pidgeot while swishing her tail back and forth.
Mark glanced upwards; Clare seemed to be preparing to dive, up among the clouds. “Leta, get out of the way!” he hissed.
But his Pokémon blissfully ignored him, staring up at the bird that was most likely about to knock her out in one hit, with those large red eyes that never blinked.
Seconds before Clare would have hit her, Leta stepped to the side a little bit. Ordinarily, the Pidgeot would simply have changed her direction, but surprisingly enough, the bird crashed headfirst into the ground, actually a meter away from where Leta had originally been. At first Mark was puzzled, but then he saw the bird’s peacefully closed eyes and realized that Leta had hypnotized her while she was focusing on her target in the dive. The tip of Clare’s outstretched right wing was just an inch away from the spot where Leta was now sitting; either she was extremely lucky or a great deal more clever than Mark had ever thought she was.
“Clare, are you all right?” Dan asked worriedly, pulling out a Pokéball. When there was definitely no response at all, he let the red beam of the ball recall her.
Dan frowned and it was clear he hadn’t expected the small, innocent-looking Pokémon to pull something like this either. He fiddled with his Pokéballs, but meanwhile Leta closed her eyes and lowered her head, and she was slowly wrapped in a white glow.
“You’re evolving!” Mark realized in delight as the small Pokémon started to grow. Her proportions became more adult-like, her body, legs and neck lengthening while her head stayed more or less the same size. A pointy mask grew on her face, similar to that of the Letaligon Mark had met in the forest, although the blade on the top of her head was much shorter while there were no blades at the side of her head at all, just metal below the cheekbone that pointed upwards behind her eyes.
“Leee!” she cried in a deeper voice than before, examining the new coat of metallic armor on her back and her rather stiffer tail. Mark pointed his Pokédex at her.
“Letal, armored Pokémon,” it announced. “These Pokémon love to…”
Mark closed the Pokédex before it could finish; he was in the middle of a battle after all.
“Hmm,” Dan said, looking at the newly-evolved Letal.
“Should I take care of her?” asked his Nidoking, looking up at him.
“Yeah, you can,” Dan replied. “Go, Elvis!”
The reptilian rodent stepped forward and faced Letal with his horn pointed forward. Letal growled at him.
“Earthquake!” Dan ordered. Elvis leapt into the air and slammed himself down into the ground again, producing a series of ripples in the ground as if it had turned liquid. Letal, having most likely never experienced an Earthquake attack before, was confused and didn’t figure to jump before the waves reached her; she stiffened as the ripples hit her paws and started to shiver uncontrollably while the Earthquake faded away. Her metallic armor continued to echo the waves like a chiming bell for several seconds afterwards.
“Now, Megahorn,” Dan said. “Try to hit it where it’s vulnerable.”
While Letal was still confused and scared, the Nidoking ran towards her with his long, sharp horn glowing with a lime green tint. Letal realized this and attempted to leap out of the way, but the horn stabbed into her side just below the armor and she collapsed when she landed with a weak moan. Mark recalled her with a truthful “Great job.”
“Good battle,” Dan said, but immediately had his mind on his Pidgeot. He sent her out into the grass and pulled out two spray bottles, one of them labelled as an Awakening but the other as a Super Potion. As he sprayed Clare with both of them, the bird Pokémon opened her eyes and managed to stand up and fly in a couple of circles without much difficulty.
“All right,” he said, “I guess I’ll be going, then.”
Dan shook Mark’s hand, as well as May’s and Alan’s, and then walked off towards Stormy Town with his Nidoking and Nidoqueen.
“Um,” Mark said after a moment's pause, “shouldn’t we get a bit further into the forest and see if we can find a good place to send for example Gyarados out at?”
They decided it would be a good idea to walk up along the stream and see if there was a lake there somewhere. What they found was not much of a lake – more like a slightly wider and deeper part of the river – but they figured it would do.
Mark threw out Gyarados’s Pokéball, and the sea monster emerged in the water.
“What now?” he asked dully.
“Training,” Mark said and shrugged. He realized suddenly that he was highly unlikely to use Gyarados for either this gym or for fighting Thunderyu, since he would be fried within one or two Electric attacks, but he figured he might as well prepare himself for later battles as well. Nonetheless, he decided it would not be a good idea to focus on a Pokémon he would not be using for what he was actually training for, and therefore sent out his other Pokémon too. Letal’s wound got sprayed with a Potion from his bag and more or less healed within a few seconds.
“What’s that?” May asked suddenly, jerking her head towards the right.
“What?” Alan asked, turning where she was looking in confusion.
For a few seconds nothing happened, but then all of a sudden, right from where May was looking, a great white beast emerged, leaping straight at her with gleaming ruby red eyes.
“What the…”
The Pokémon landed right in front of May, and Mark realized it was a large fox-like Pokémon with nine long tails and a long, graceful mane. It was the evolution of Vulpix: a Ninetales.
“…Spirit?” May asked in a tone of disbelief.
“You know this Ninetales?” Mark asked, puzzled.
“Of course I do, she’s my pet Vulpix!” May replied in a voice that sounded quite as weirded out as Mark was. “Or well, she was a Vulpix. Where the hell did you get a Fire Stone? And that necklace?”
Mark now noticed that the Ninetales was much lighter than all other Ninetales he had seen – a regular Ninetales was a sort of light brownish-yellow, but this one was creamy white. She also had a black chain around her neck holding a symbol: an upside-down semi-triangle, maybe two inches tall and one wide, made of two small rubies and one larger.
“One question at a time,” the Ninetales said – in plain English. Mark was immediately reminded of Gyarados and glanced at him; he looked just as confused as everybody else.
“I expect you want to know what has happened since I saw you last,” Spirit said. “Well, some time after you left, I was paid a visit by the legendary Entei.”
Mark’s attention was instantly caught by the mention of Entei, especially now that knowing anything of Entei’s location would be of great help.
“Entei told me that I was chosen, and that all my previous troubles were a test of my strength. He said I would learn why eventually, but would not tell me anything more.”
Everybody stared at her; she smiled slightly at the attention.
“I did not evolve from a Fire Stone, but from Entei’s magical touch, and when I had evolved I found that Entei had vanished and I was carrying this necklace. When I examined myself, I also realized that instead of being darker than normal as I used to as a Vulpix, I was lighter.
“Now, I set out to find you. My special Ghost abilities which you will remember have proven to be exceedingly useful in this search, as they helped me sneak on a ferry to Ouen and also provided me with the ability to feel when you were close. I caught up with you in Black Desert, and there my special skills proved useful for you as well, when I interrupted your dreams and woke both of you in time to escape the Scorplack. I myself was in spirit form at the time and was therefore in no danger. From there on I followed you.”
“Why didn’t you come out of hiding earlier?” May asked.
“You know what we decided on when you left,” the Pokémon replied. “It was not safe to emerge until you were alone where no one could find us. Additionally, I did not know if Entei would wish for me to reveal myself at all. However, I had to step into the light now that I felt his presence.”
And the Ninetales turned her head towards Gyarados and bowed deeply.
“What is this all about?” the sea monster asked in a shaking voice, staring at Spirit. “What do I have to do with it?”
“You are the other,” Spirit said softly. “You were chosen by Suicune and have only yet to receive his final blessing, which will make you light instead of dark.”
“Suicune tried to starve me,” Gyarados spat angrily. “Suicune made my life hell. I hate Suicune.”
“It was your test,” Spirit went on, calm. Gyarados looked both furious and scared.
“To hell with tests,” he said, his voice trembling even more than before. “I don’t want to be chosen. Nobody could have chosen me for anything.”
But it was clear that he was not so sure about that last part – his ability to speak human, his dark color, his abnormal powers and his Dragon Beam all hinted that there was something very unusual about him – and from what they could make out of Spirit’s story, the two were completely parallel. Starting out dark-colored, having unusual powers of a type not usually fully attributed to their species, being able to speak English – it all fit perfectly.
“No,” he finally said. “I don’t want it. I hate Suicune.”
“Very well,” Spirit said, with the air of a parent giving in to a child’s continuous claims of having an imaginary friend. “Perhaps Suicune has decided to give the final blessing to another Pokémon. After all, you are evolved and yet still dark.”
Gyarados did not answer.
“Umm,” Alan said, poking May in the shoulder, “you might want to explain her story a little bit better. I don’t get it.”
May sighed. “I found her starving on the street as a Vulpix when I was seven and thought she was cute, so I got my parents to let me keep her as a pet. It turned out she had all sorts of weird abilities like turning herself invisible and insubstantial, which we called her spirit form, and stuff like that which seemed like Ghost moves. I always planned to start my journey with her, and I liked to take her around town and show off what she could do. Once when I was nine we met this rich kid from a very well-respected family in town and he was bragging about how he was going to start with a much better Pokémon and blah blah blah. A couple of days later he crawled in through the window and stole her. I woke up and saw him there, but I didn’t realize she was gone until the next morning. I got my parents to call the police, but when the police came, they just said that most likely Spirit had run away. I tried to tell them what I had seen, but they didn’t believe me because the kid’s dad was rich and I was nine, and they just said that even if she had been stolen, there was no chance the thief would be found. I took matters into my own hands, did a bit of spying, found out where she was held in a Pokéball in the rich guy’s house, and stole her back and let her destroy the ball.
“Well, unfortunately they suspected me, and turned out to have gotten me on some stupid security cameras or something. I got to keep Spirit only because she herself insisted that she was mine, not theirs. She couldn’t convince them she had been stolen, though, because she remembered nothing after falling asleep and the rich guy said some junk about her crawling in through their window in a confused state. After that happened, I realized that it wasn’t a good idea to carry a unique and valuable Pokémon like her on a Pokémon journey where she could get stolen and asked her to stay at home when I left on my journey. I think she said everything else that matters.”
Alan stared at her. “You broke into a house?”
“Oh, stop taking the details out of context,” May said, annoyed. “That’s what the police did, and that’s why I don’t like them.”
Alan still looked slightly unnerved by the thought. Mark, of course, had heard the vague version of this story before at the police station in Scorpio City. The most important new detail was what exactly it was that May had retrieved from a supposed thief in such a controversial way, and he had to admit he was more comfortable with knowing (at least if May was telling the truth) that Spirit had been more unambiguously stolen than her Quilava. Of course, she had left out a couple of details in this version of the story (namely her supposed attack on a police officer), but perhaps Alan was better off not knowing.
“May,” Spirit said, looking at Mark with her red eyes, “if this Gyarados has been travelling with him for all this time, perhaps I can try coming with you. I will no doubt be of more help on your team than I have been so far.”
“I… guess…” May said, looking doubtfully at her Pokéballs.
“Come on, May,” Alan said. “No need to be paranoid. Pokémon thefts are ridiculously rare, and if you carry your Pokéballs around your neck and we are always walking beside you anyway, there is no hope for a thief to steal her. Besides, as she said, Gyarados has been with Mark for a while and nobody has tried to steal him, right?”
Mark thought of the Mew Hunter and smiled. “Well, not specifically to steal him, anyway.”
May hesitated. “She doesn’t want to be in a Pokéball all the time, though.”
“Well, even better,” Alan countered. “If somebody tried to steal her now, she could just turn herself to the spirit form thingymabob. And just ‘catching’ her now and letting her go again would prevent anybody from catching her in another Pokéball, right?”
“Right,” May replied. “Okay, then.”
She reached for her pocket, took out a normal Pokéball and held it forward in her hand. Spirit touched the sphere gently with her muzzle, and it popped open, transforming her into a shape of red light and sucking her inside. The ball fell to the ground and pinged.
As May reached for the ball again to let Spirit out, Gyarados closed his eyes painfully and turned away.
His hate was stronger than ever.
Love May just casually suggesting murder. I actually toned her down a little bit here because she sounded truly sociopathic before, good job sixteen-year-old self.
Also love Dragonair just telling Mark what moves he knows when Mark fails to know any of them in the middle of the fight. Mark, how have you not learned by now.
Dan is a cameo by somebody who's no longer in my life, which is how we get this big lengthy random battle against a throwaway trainer, which isn't something I really do anywhere else in the fic. It's a bit weird.
Finally Leta gets to do something, though! This chapter is the first one that wasn't a rewrite of an earlier version of the fic - chapter 30 was the equivalent of the last chapter I wrote of the previous version (what a cliffhanger to leave people on). Since Leta was a new character in this version, none of the previous chapters had originally contained her at all and she only got the tiniest, awkwardest little new bits inserted, but from here on she becomes a much more prominent character, and I hope you enjoy her.
Despite that this wasn't a rewrite of an earlier version, though, Spirit the Ninetales appearing here in this way and a lot of the dialogue that goes on here was thought up for the previous version (I just never actually got there), and it shows. She is hilariously sparkly-special and it's pretty cringe. I like to think I took her some fun places, but I facepalm pretty hard at this chapter and the extremely clunky way in which she's suddenly introduced to infodump at us.
The whole aspect about whether Spirit will inevitably be stolen if she's with May is just baffling, as is the way Spirit herself doesn't participate in that discussion at all. I have no idea.
This is the last chapter that I truly facepalm at, though! After this point there is less nonsense!
Chapter 32! In which we suffer through the fic's last junior trainers, Mark gets to celebrate his birthday a bit, and we see Spirit in action in all her pretty broken glory.
Chapter 32: The Birthday Party
“Chaletwo,” Mark muttered as the three kids walked back towards Stormy Town after their training session, “you don’t happen to know anything about this chosen-by-legendaries thing, do you?”
“No,” came Chaletwo’s voice. It sounded a bit empty, and Mark figured he might still be upset after May’s uncomfortable suggestion earlier. “I don’t get why I don’t know about this. Mew would have told me if he knew about it, too. How can they just do something like this without consulting us? We created them! What a way to thank us!”
Mark decided to ignore the last bit to avoid making him more upset. “I don’t assume you have any idea what exactly they were chosen for, then?”
“No.”
“Well, it doesn’t look like Spirit knows, either – she’s kinda cryptic about it. What about Raikou? Do you think Raikou chose anybody?”
“What would I know?” Chaletwo replied in frustration. “Well, Raikou is held captured at the Cleanwater City Gym, so most likely not. Now stop bothering me. I have more important things on my mind.”
Mark fell silent. He watched May and Alan walk a few meters ahead of him with Spirit trotting along beside May, and wondered why he always let them walk ahead of him while he himself was sulking somewhere behind them having depressing conversations with Scyther or Chaletwo. It was his birthday, after all. He should be having a good time.
He quickened his pace and caught up with the others.
-------
Sparky walked out of the restaurant just as the kids entered the gym.
“Oh, hello again!” he said cheerfully. “Were you going to battle today?”
“Not me,” Alan replied, but Mark and May nodded.
“Forgive me for asking,” Sparky said, peering at them with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes, “but aren’t you both a little bit older than kids normally start?”
“Yeah, I’m twelve,” May replied.
“Me too,” Mark said, feeling some strange pride as he said it. May looked at him.
“I thought you were eleven.”
“Not anymore,” Mark answered with a grin. “It’s my birthday today.”
There. He had said it. Mark watched Sparky’s smile widen.
“Oh, really? Have an absolutely fantastic birthday! You don’t mind me making a birthday cake for the occasion for you and your friends, do you?” Sparky said eagerly.
This was a little more than Mark had expected. “Uh, sure,” he said awkwardly, blushing slightly. “What about the battle?”
“Oh, you can warm up against my junior trainers while I’m making it,” Sparky replied with a shrug. “You can go first, since it’s your birthday after all. Then I can maybe get your friends to help me make the cake, too?” He looked questioningly at Alan and May.
“Sure!” Alan said immediately. “And happy birthday, Mark.”
May didn’t look like she was particularly keen on delaying her gym battle to make a birthday cake. She took a quick longing look at the door to the battle arena, but then gave Mark a forced smile. “Happy birthday.”
“Thanks,” he said, smiling happily back at May just to rub it in. “So do I just walk in through the door or…?”
“Yes,” Sparky answered. “He should be in there somewhere, at least if he hasn’t forgotten we had a challenger. I wouldn’t be surprised.” He giggled a little but then waved Mark towards the door. “Go ahead and don’t worry about us.”
Mark took a deep breath and walked the few steps up to the door with the navy lettering, looking through the glass. The room behind it was huge. It suddenly occurred to him that perhaps he would have been better off watching May battle those guys first so he could pick up strategies, but he was not about to turn back. He grabbed the door handle and opened.
“Hello?” he called as he closed the door behind him. It did not echo; the walls appeared to be covered with a layer of rubber that absorbed the sound. Mark guessed that was mainly to prevent damage from electricity.
“Hi,” said the voice of a blond-haired boy who was sitting in the middle of a ladder on the wall to the far right which led up to a door. He wore a red jacket with white linings and was most likely around Alan’s age or so. “You’re the kid who was going to battle?”
Mark nodded. “Yeah.”
The boy jumped down and landed on the floor with a soft thump. “All right, then. Go, Magnemite.”
The boy hurled forward a Pokéball which popped open a few meters closer to the middle of the room. A round, metallic Pokémon with two horseshoe-shaped magnets on either side of it popped out. It hovered a meter or so above the ground and watched Mark; it had only one huge, round eye with a tiny pupil.
Mark had one of those rare sparks of Battling class memories: Mrs. Grodski had mentioned fleetingly on a hot day in one of the earlier Battling classes that despite hovering in the air, Magnemite would be affected by an Earthquake. The only reason he remembered it was that he himself had been the one who had demanded an explanation and, upon not understanding a word of what the teacher said, started an argument about it. This had been more or less the start of their mutual dislike. Much later, when he was old enough to be able to grasp how it worked, Mark had found the answer again in a library book. For short, he knew exactly what to do now.
“Go, Sandslash, and use an Earthquake!”
He threw the Pokéball powerfully out. The junior trainer’s expression became a bit sheepish as Sandslash materialized in the air and prepared for the attack, landing harshly and producing ripples on the ground. As they passed under the magnet Pokémon, they disturbed the electromagnetic force holding it in the air, and it dropped to the ground after teetering in the air for a couple of seconds. Now exposed to the full force of the super-effective attack, the Magnemite easily fainted.
The junior trainer shrugged and recalled the Magnemite. “Go on, then,” he said, pointing loosely at the ladder he had been sitting on when Mark entered.
Mark looked at him in puzzlement. “That’s all?”
The trainer shrugged again. “Well, we’re just here to warm you up a little bit so you don’t get creamed as bad by Sparky. Nobody loses to us, really.”
Mark decided not to take that as an insult, thanked the trainer for the battle and walked towards the ladder. Once through the door at the end of it, Mark had to walk up a staircase, through another door, and then finally arrived at another arena, identical to the previous one. A brown-haired girl walked impatiently back and forth at the other end and looked up when Mark closed the door.
“Oh, hi,” she called. “One on one, okay?”
The girl threw out a Pokéball without waiting for an answer. The ball opened and the red light inside it formed into a cute pink sheep Pokémon that sat down on the arena and wagged its tail.
Mark took a deep breath. Flaaffy was not a final form Pokémon. Additionally, the other junior trainer’s Magnemite had been a joke to take down. He had to train some other Pokémon than Sandslash, anyway; Thunderyu might be able to fly, and in that case, Earthquake would be rather useless…
The Flaaffy looked at him with dark, beady eyes as he grabbed Dragonair’s Pokéball and threw it into the battle arena.
“Go, Dragonair!”
The snakelike dragon Pokémon spun a few circles in mid-air as he materialized from the Pokéball and breathed a plume of dark-colored flames into the air before settling down on the ground and perking up his feathery ears.
“Show-off,” Mark muttered with a slight smile.
“Flaaffy, Thunder Wave!” the girl yelled. Her Pokémon got down on four feet with its tail raised into the air. Small sparks circled the pink orb at its tail tip as it charged towards Dragonair.
“Fly up!” Mark blurted out, and the dragon obeyed immediately, raising himself up from the ground with graceful, swimming-like movements. For a moment he thought Dragonair would evade the attack, but then –
“FLAA-FY!” the sheep cried, leaping fiercely after the dragon Pokémon. Now entirely sparkling with electricity, the Flaaffy smashed its tail into Dragonair’s body and then landed on its feet on the floor below. Dragonair was thrown backwards but managed to keep his balance, and he countered with a Dragon Rage, engulfing Flaaffy in crimson flames.
The sheep stood quickly up again with a determined expression, charged up further electricity in its tail and sent a bolt of lightning flying at the blue dragon. Dragonair wasn’t fast enough to dodge it now that he was paralyzed and cried out in pain as the electricity coursed through his body. He was getting too weak to maintain his altitude and dropped stiffly down to the floor.
“Dragonair, Slam!” Mark ordered, quickly followed by the girl’s fast-spoken command:
“Flaaffy, Body Slam!”
The Flaaffy was quicker, and with a high-pitched cry, it jumped into the air and slammed its whole body onto Dragonair’s. A muffled “Draaa” came from the dragon to indicate that he was all right. Dragonair then managed to smash his tail into Flaaffy’s head, causing the sheep to fall off him and allow him to slither out of the way.
“Dragon Rage!” Mark shouted as the Flaaffy prepared for another assault. Dragonair tried to focus as the sheep charged at him; then, unexpectedly, he managed to fling himself over Flaaffy somehow and then blast out dragon flames for the finish as Flaaffy attempted to turn around. It let out a weak “Flaaaaa…” before closing its eyes and giving up.
“Nice job, Flaaffy,” the girl cheered as she recalled her Pokémon into the ball. “Go ahead,” she then said to Mark and pointed to a ladder similar to the one in the arena on the below floor.
A dark-haired teenager greeted Mark on the next floor. He wore a simple white T-shirt and ordinary jeans.
“Okay, another one-on-one,” the boy said indifferently. “Go, Raichu!”
He threw forth a Pokéball that burst open quickly to have the white light inside it materialize into an orange mouse-like Pokémon with a long, black tail, tipped with a lightning bolt shape.
Mark paused to think again. This was a Raichu – an evolved Pokémon – so he couldn’t expect it to be particularly easy to beat. Flaaffy had been a nasty surprise for Dragonair, too. Charizard and Scyther were ruled out, having a weakness to electricity (he had switched Gyarados to the computer before the kids walked back to Stormy Town earlier, figuring that he was definitely not going to use him), and Dragonair was hurt. That left Sandslash and Letal. The question was: would Letal be able to beat the Raichu?
Oh, come on, he thought to himself. Sparky has got to have something up his sleeve against Ground Pokémon. If Letal can’t beat that guy, I’m not going to have a chance against Sparky anyway, period. Besides, she did very well while we were training, and the battle with Dan only showed that she’s full of surprises.
“Go, Letal!” Mark called out and hurled the Pokéball towards the center of the arena. Letal emerged from the ball and let out an intimidating, metallic cry as she fixed her gaze on the Raichu.
“Okay, start this off with a Thunder Wave,” the trainer said to his Pokémon – he looked somewhat impressed by Letal, unless Mark was just imagining things. “Better to play it safe.”
“Letal, try to avoid it,” Mark said slightly nervously. “Paralysis is a nasty thing.”
Letal suddenly turned towards him and growled, and Mark realized with a wince that she would know – he had caught Leta while she was paralyzed.
Just then, the Raichu released a wave of electricity.
“Quick!” Mark yelled, his eyes widening. Letal turned sharply around but had no time to attempt to avoid it; she cowered as she was hit, and her body sparked.
“Great, Raichu,” the other trainer cheered. “Now do a nice good Thunderbolt.”
“Rai!” the Pokémon said hoarsely, got down on all fours and started to sparkle in preparation for the attack. For a second Mark watched Letal as she strained to move despite her stiff limbs, making strange, wheezy sounds as she breathed; then suddenly, just as the Raichu fired a bolt of electricity, Letal leapt upwards with a roar of effort and pain, dodged the attack and landed on top of the mouse Pokémon with her sharp, black claws digging into the skin on its back.
The Raichu squeaked but didn’t hesitate to charge itself up with electricity that was directly conducted into Letal’s body. She roared in pain again, lighting up with sparks like a gigantic light bulb.
“Get away from it!” he shouted, but either Letal couldn’t hear him or didn’t listen to him. Her eyes blood red, she let her now white-hot claws slice into the mouse’s body. It let out another squeak before finally giving up; its eyes rolled into the back of its head and closed. Letal stepped away, her body shaking.
The other boy ran into the arena with some sort of a potion bottle and sprayed it quickly on the ugly, half-burnt gashes that Letal’s claws had left on his Pokémon. She watched it with shocked eyes, her breathing turning wheezy again while her body still shivered like she was freezing cold. The vapour rising from her body told a different story.
Mark looked worriedly at Letal, wondering whether he should recall her. She seemed to calm down a little bit as the Raichu’s wounds closed in front of their eyes and the mouse Pokémon stood up with difficulty, coughed and shook its head.
“Here,” the other boy said, throwing a pale yellow spray bottle to Mark. “Paralyze Heal,” he added when Mark seemed puzzled. “Since Sparky is next up and it would be a bother for you to have to go all the way down and outside to get to the Pokémon Center, I’ve got a supply of items to heal all your Pokémon for the big battle.”
Mark nodded and sprayed Letal’s body with the Paralyze Heal spray. Her breathing quickly returned to more or less normal and her body stopped shaking.
The boy handed him a potion bottle too. “Hey,” he suddenly said, “how about you just send out all your Pokémon that are hurt or tired, and I’ll give them all the sprays they need? I think your Letal needs a bit of calming down, and you’d better handle that.”
Mark nodded, agreeing especially with the last part, and sent out Dragonair and Sandslash (he assumed that Sandslash would need all the energy he could possibly have for the match against Sparky, even though he wasn’t very worn-out after his brief appearance in battle). While the trainer busily sprayed them with various potions, Mark slowly reached out to touch the fine white fur on Letal’s neck and stroked it. She seemed slightly startled at first, but appeared to like it soon enough and ended up closing her eyes and giving a sort of purring sound of appreciation. He sprayed her body with the potion as he continued to stroke her.
“Is she okay?” the trainer asked concernedly after a couple of minutes. “Your Dragonair and Sandslash should be in top state now.”
Mark nodded and patted Letal’s neck one more time before recalling all three of his Pokémon. “Do I just go up the stairs?”
The trainer nodded, and Mark smiled as he walked towards the final ladder.
“Hey,” the boy suddenly called. Mark turned around again.
“You’ve got nice Pokémon,” the trainer said. “You looked like an average kid with maybe a Meowth or something, but I was surprised when I saw you had a Letal, and even more when you had a Dragonair too. You must be really lucky or trying really hard.”
“I think it’s just luck,” Mark replied nervously, desperately hoping he would continue to be so lucky on his oncoming quest.
The boy laughed. “Well, it’s nice to have luck now. You’ll need it.”
Mark smiled faintly and walked up the ladder to Sparky’s arena. He took a deep breath as he opened the final door between him and the gym leader battle.
When he entered, he was showered with paper ribbons.
“Surprise!” Sparky shouted from another ladder near the door. He was holding a bucket of shredded, multicolored paper. After shaking it empty, Sparky threw the bucket carelessly to the floor, where it landed with a loud clatter, and jumped down to shake hands with Mark.
“What do you think?” the Gym leader asked with a grin. “If you liked my confetti, you should wait for the cake. I can tell it’s going to be great.”
Mark was kind of freaked out but still enjoyed the attention. He grinned back and looked around. In the middle of the battle arena stood a small table with four chairs around it and a particularly large and tasty-looking chocolate cake neatly placed in the middle. May and Alan stood by the table laying down plates and forks; Spirit sat in a corner watching them.
Sparky took Mark over to the table and all four of them sat down.
“Happy birthday again, Mark,” said Alan, beaming. “And, uh, sorry if the cake is a little burnt; I left it a couple of minutes too long in the oven. And May put the ingredients in in the wrong order. I just hope it doesn’t really matter.”
Mark laughed as he saw May’s beet-red face. Alan just rolled his eyes.
“Thanks, all of you,” Mark said. “Except May, if she messed up the cake,” he added as a joke. Her face only went even redder.
Sparky cleared his throat as he cut a large slice of cake and put it on Mark’s plate.
“My father always used to say that there were two reasons you should make each and every one of your birthdays the best party you’ve ever had,” he said gleefully while cutting a slice for Alan, May and finally himself. “One: It might always be your last birthday, and in fact that becomes likelier every year, so it’s good always to assume it is. Two: It’s well worth celebrating that you were wrong about it last year.”
The kids glanced nervously at each other, all thinking the same thing: it was in fact unusually likely that it was his last birthday. Sparky either didn’t notice or pretended not to.
“So well, cheers to Mark for not having dropped dead yet!” he said, raising his glass of milk. Mark laughed in spite of himself.
“Uh, cheers,” May and Alan said doubtfully in unison, raising their own glasses.
Mark discovered to his delight that May hadn’t messed up the cake, at least not too badly, and while they ate, Sparky questioned him about his journey so far, his Pokémon and his plans for the future. Mark, of course, carefully avoided having to mention anything about the search for the legendaries or that they were planning to wake up a homicidal dragon sleeping inside a nearby mountain the next day. Sparky ignored the plot holes.
“So,” the Gym leader said after they had all finished eating, “how about battling now?”
Mark had nearly forgotten about the upcoming gym battle by this time, but quickly regained his directions. “Uh, okay.”
Sparky smiled and stood up. “You can go downstairs and battle my junior trainers in the meantime,” he said to May. “But first we need to get this table out of the way.”
They quickly moved the table and chairs aside. Alan offered to do the dishes and disappeared down to the kitchen. Sparky told May she could go and challenge the first junior trainer now, and she walked towards the staircase with her Ninetales after her.
Suddenly she turned around.
“Mark… good luck,” she said and smiled awkwardly.
“Thanks,” Mark replied and smiled back. May had almost disappeared down the stairs when he suddenly found himself opening his mouth.
“Wait,” he called and May turned around again. “You… you can battle Sparky first if you want. You made me a birthday cake and everything.”
May walked a few steps back towards them; by the astonishment on her face, she would never have done the same. “Really?”
Mark nodded. “Yeah, you can. I’ll just wait while you fight the junior trainers and watch when you battle Sparky.”
He could literally see the familiar battle glint burst forth in May’s eyes while her mouth broke into a wide grin.
“Thanks, Mark,” she said. She opened her mouth again, paused for a split second, but then added, “Happy birthday again.”
Mark smiled. How very much like her to start caring about his birthday when he let her battle first.
She ran back to the staircase and disappeared down it with Spirit.
“Was that nobility or just a clever trick to get a sneak peek at my Pokémon and strategies before your own battle?” Sparky asked with an even more highly amused-looking expression than usual after a short pause.
Mark blushed. “I’m not sure,” he said truthfully.
“It’s fine,” Sparky whispered, leaning closer to him. “I always used to do that too. I journeyed with Nurse Joy, and I always let her battle first while I watched. A bit evil of me not to offer to go first myself sometimes, but I couldn’t resist.”
Mark laughed hollowly. “It’s not evil of me. She’s probably thankful for any opportunity to prove she always wins through her skill alone and doesn’t need any cheap tricks to do it.”
Sparky smiled. “Truth to be told,” he said, “I think we all have that in us when it comes to things we’re good at. The only thing that varies is how much we have of it and how good we are at hiding it.”
Mark laughed, but couldn’t help thinking he had a point.
-------
It wasn’t long before May was back. Mark hadn’t expected it to be, either; three one-on-one battles weren’t anything she would generally have a particularly hard time with.
“So well, here I am,” she said and shrugged. “Are we going to battle now or what?”
“Yes, why not?” Sparky asked without waiting for an answer and walked right over to a rectangular box, outlined by red tiles, on the floor. May glanced quickly at Mark before positioning herself in the opposite box; Spirit stood beside her, blinking her ruby-red eyes. Mark leaned against the wall right where he was at an approximately equal distance from each of the battlers and imagined himself as a referee. Sparky put up his silver shades and smiled, grabbing a Pokéball from his belt.
“Battles in this Gym are generally six on six,” he stated. “I hope that is okay with you?”
“The longer, the better,” May replied, grinning as she reached for her Pokéball necklace and plucked one of the minimized balls from it.
“Manectric, I choose you!” Sparky called out. The shape of a dog was only beginning to materialize on the floor when May maximized her Pokéball and threw it out into the arena as well:
“Go, Raichu!”
Mark was a bit surprised as May’s orange mouse Pokémon started to form. He had expected her to send out Pupitar, as he was of course a Ground-type. Then he suddenly realized that if he had battled Sparky first, he would have made the very same mistake as in Flora’s Gym battle – to waste his best Pokémon at the very start. He blushed; the battle hadn’t even started, but he was already benefiting from getting to watch May first.
“Raichu, Thunder Wave,” May ordered calmly.
“Thunder Wave it right back,” Sparky told Manectric.
The two Pokémon crouched down and charged up electricity; the blue and yellow dog-like Pokémon growled as sparks danced around its peculiar, pyramid-shaped mane while Raichu glared at Manectric and charged the yellow spots on his cheeks. May’s Pokémon was a split second faster and sent a wave of electricity at Sparky’s dog Pokémon. Manectric’s muscles stiffened as it was hit and it lost its concentration momentarily, the sparks vanishing.
“Now use a Quick Attack,” May commanded.
“Manectric, Crunch!” Sparky ordered.
With unnatural speed, Raichu leapt at the Manectric and tackled it with his body. The dog Pokémon barked and managed to seize Raichu’s tail in its jaws before he could get away. A second later it had caught up and was tearing into the mouse’s flesh with its teeth while Raichu moaned in pain.
“Seismic Toss!” May shouted, and Raichu clenched his teeth before swinging his tail into the ground and grabbing Manectric’s body. Using the tail for extra support, the mouse Pokémon made for a high jump.
Up the two Pokémon soared, Manectric giving a quick yelp of surprise which Raichu immediately utilized. With an angry “Rai!”, he threw Manectric headfirst into the floor, Raichu himself landing on his feet a second later.
The dog rose painfully up.
“Crunch again, Manectric,” Sparky said after a brief pause.
“Dodge it, Raichu!” May quickly countered and smirked as the paralyzed Manectric made an attempt to run at her Pokémon.
But something was wrong. Raichu was frozen in place, and while he strained to move with despair in his eyes, Mark heard May mutter, “Oh, damn, stupid Static.”
The dog Pokémon leapt on top of Raichu and gave him another nasty bite while May reached for a Pokéball. The mouse’s body went limp.
“Raichu, return.”
He was absorbed into the red beam of light while Manectric panted. Sparky looked at his Pokémon and frowned, but said nothing.
“Butterfree, do it!” May shouted in determination, throwing out a Pokéball. It popped open and the butterfly flew out of it, looking towards her opponent while flapping her wings lazily.
“Psychic to finish it off,” May simply said, and Butterfree began to glow with a faint purple aura.
“Manectric, come back,” Sparky said, recalling his Pokémon before the attack hit.
Butterfree looked unsurely back at May, who hissed, “Keep it charged!”
Sparky frowned slightly again as the Pokémon obeyed. He reached for another Pokéball.
“Ampharos, brace yourself for a Psychic attack.”
The light from the ball materialized into an odd, yellow, bipedal sheep-like creature with flippers in place of arms. It cried out with a sort of wail before covering its head comically with its flippers.
“Release the Psychic attack, Butterfree!” May shouted, and the butterfly Pokémon’s glow slowly took over Ampharos’s body as well. The sheep whimpered as Butterfree attacked its mind, but a few seconds later the glow faded and Ampharos looked carefully past the flipper. Butterfree looked exhausted after having kept her concentration for so long. May frowned.
“Ampharos, Thunderbolt.”
The red pearl-like orb at the end of Ampharos’s striped tail sparkled with electricity. The sheep quickly got down on all fours, holding its tail in the air, and a moment later, a bolt of lightning shot from the orb and struck Butterfree. The butterfly cried out in pain and nearly crashed into the ground, but managed to pull herself up at the last moment. Her flight was getting a little jittery.
“Safeguard!” May ordered quickly. Butterfree started concentrating, emitting a slight white glow as she did so, and seemed to successfully avoid paralysis. Sparky stroked his goatee thoughtfully and paused while May grabbed the opportunity to issue the next attack:
“Sleep Powder!”
“Cotton Spore,” Sparky countered calmly.
The still-glowing butterfly was faster. She fluttered to right above the sheep and flapped her wings powerfully, releasing a cloud of fine, green dust. However, just as she did so, the Ampharos crouched down on all fours and shook its body. From out beneath the fine yellow hairs sprouted sudden layers upon layers of white cottonlike wool, covering Ampharos almost completely. May mouthed a few swear words as she watched every speck of Sleep Powder get lost somewhere between hairs in the wool, unable to reach Ampharos’s well-hidden nostrils.
“Thunderpunch,” Sparky said suddenly, and without warning, the yellow shape of his Pokémon sprang out of the pile of cottonlike material, somehow clenching the end of its flipper into a fist while small sparks circled it. Butterfree, taken entirely by surprise, had no time to get away, and Ampharos’s punch smacked her right in the side of her face. The bug crashed uncomfortably into the ground.
May’s eyes spelled murder.
“Clever,” she commented coldly.
Sparky just smiled. “Don’t you think?”
May didn’t answer and just picked the next Pokéball from her necklace. Mark couldn’t help snickering to himself; now May had lost two of her Pokémon while Sparky had only lost one.
“I can be clever too,” May said and smirked, throwing out her next Pokéball. “Go, Skarmory!”
Mark wasn’t sure what she considered so clever about using Skarmory, but he was about to find out.
“Whirlwind that cotton right back at it.”
The metallic bird let out a piercing cry, swooped down close to the pile of wool and then suddenly flapped his wings powerfully. The Cotton Spore drifted back towards the Pokémon it originally came from, still green-tinged with Sleep Powder. Ampharos attempted to run out of the way, but the wool was everywhere, making the sheep trip over it a few times before finally its eyelids gave way to the overwhelming urge to close and the Pokémon collapsed.
“Indeed,” May agreed. “Now use Spikes while it can’t hurt you,” she instructed Skarmory. “And I want a lot of them.”
Skarmory flew upwards above Ampharos and sent a rain of metallic feathers down onto the ground. Some of them hit Ampharos, cutting its skin a little, but most simply fell down on the ground, leaving their sharp edges ready to make things difficult for the upcoming Pokémon.
“And now, Drill Peck!”
Skarmory spun around in mid-air, diving down at the sleeping sheep Pokémon on the floor, but just then, its eyes popped open and widened in surprise at the approaching bird. Ampharos’s body was almost immediately sparkling with electricity, and when Skarmory’s sharp beak drilled into the sheep’s side, the electricity pulsed into his body and caused him to screech in pain along with his opponent. The metallic vulture crashed nastily into the floor and didn’t move.
“Looks like a double faint, eh?” Sparky said cheerfully, recalling his battered Pokémon. May nodded curtly and did the same.
The gym leader put his hand into his pocket and presumably pressed a hidden button; a rectangular section of the floor on his end of the arena started sinking down with a rumbling noise. Some steel feathers on the edges of the rectangle fell down onto the disappearing platform as it started to slide under the rest of the rubber-covered floor to reveal a basic Pokémon pool.
“Go, Lanturn!”
Sparky threw a ball towards the pool, and it quickly burst open to reveal a blue anglerfish Pokémon in a flash of light. It dove into the pool, seemingly happy about the exercise, but then stuck its head up out of the water again to be able to see the opponent it was about to face. The yellow bait on its natural fishing rod flashed.
May nodded thoughtfully to herself and picked a Pokéball. “Go, Lapras!”
The sea turtle-like Pokémon was sent out on the opposite end of the pool. Mark wasn’t sure what she was thinking there; after all, it would be even easier for Lanturn to harm Lapras than a land-based Pokémon. But then again, he suddenly realized, the other two Pokémon she had left were both weak to Water.
“Body Slam!” May ordered quickly, and Lapras threw herself at her opponent with a cry. The Lanturn released a jolt of electricity in surprise, shocking Lapras just before she crushed the fish against the wall of the pool with her body.
“Confuse Ray, Lanturn.”
“Lapras,” May shouted, thinking quickly, “freeze the water with an Ice Beam.”
Small icicles formed in the turtle’s mouth as she craned her head backwards, but meanwhile Lanturn swam up to the surface of the water and let its light bulb glow brightly. The wispy light detached itself from Lanturn and floated lazily in the air, causing Lapras to watch it curiously.
“Lapras!” May warned, and the Pokémon blinked, suddenly realizing what she was doing and then firing the beam of cold from her mouth. Starting at the spot she was aiming at in the middle of the pool, the water rapidly turned into a sheet of cracking ice. Lanturn, knowing better than to be trapped at the bottom inside the ice where it wouldn’t be able to do anything at all, stayed at the surface as Lapras trapped both the anglerfish and herself in place.
“Ice Beam the ceiling, Lapras!”
Mark looked at May in puzzlement at this command, but her expression was inscrutable. While Lanturn, trapped in the layer of ice, attempted to gain a little more room to move by letting its light bulb emit small, hot sparks, Lapras fired another beam of ice at the ceiling above the pool.
There were strange cracking sounds.
Sparky looked worriedly upwards just as shards of frozen rubber rained down onto the two immobile Pokémon. Lapras could bend her head down and had a protective shell, not to mention thick skin, but Lanturn had a frail build and was stuck with its head sticking out of the ice and could only close its eyes before being hit and cut by the sharp edges.
“Lanturn, Thunder,” Sparky said as the last bits of the ceiling hit the iced pool.
Lapras whimpered as the battered Lanturn’s glowing bait turned white in preparation for the attack. Attempting desperately to wring herself loose from the ice, she turned her head towards May with shining, fearful eyes that begged to be recalled.
“Ice Beam,” May ordered. “Now, before it hits you.”
“Lanturn, maybe you should…” Sparky began, but the fish Pokémon ignored him, not at all planning to let the Pokémon that had pulled that devilish ceiling Ice Beam trick get off so easily.
“Come on, Ice Beam!” May shouted, but Lapras only responded with an anxious wail. Mark's heart thumped sickeningly. Was she really not going to…?
A bright flash of lightning blinded the room. Lapras’s scream of pain was barely audible through the deafening roar of thunder.
May sighed. “Come back, Lapras,” she said, recalling the limp turtle. Spirit looked up at her trainer, but the glance was not returned.
“Pupitar, finish it off with an Earthquake.”
She threw the next Pokéball, which opened in mid-air and released the blue cocoon-like creature. He spun around in the air as soon as he had gained material form and threw himself down at the floor. Ripples formed in its surface, travelling across the ice and hitting the now-weak Lanturn. It unwillingly released a flurry of electric sparks, but then closed its eyes and let itself slip into unconsciousness.
“There,” May muttered as Sparky recalled his Pokémon. He reached into his pocket again to close the pool.
“Electabuzz, do it!” Sparky said, tossing a new ball into the arena. The light from it revealed a bipedal tigerlike creature with black stripes shaped into a bolt of lightning on its belly. Sparks flew from the small antennae on its head as it emitted an electrical cry, and it took a moment for Mark to realize that it was because Electabuzz was standing on Skarmory’s Spikes. It looked down at the floor, trying to find a spot to place its feet.
“Earthquake again,” May just said.
“Ice Punch,” Sparky ordered. “And try to evade the attack.”
Pupitar bounced up into the air somehow (Mark had no idea how, considering it had no legs to kick off with) and then smashed himself into the floor, but meanwhile Electabuzz was charging towards him while delicately avoiding the steel feathers covering the floor, and at just the right moment, it leapt into the air, roared as icy blue energy circled its fist, and then gave Pupitar a powerful punch. Small needles of ice flew in all directions and melted quickly on the floor.
“Pupitar, use a Rock Tomb,” May said quickly.
Pupitar closed his eyes, and all of a sudden, the floor around Electabuzz exploded, burying the Pokémon under large chunks of concrete. It didn’t take the Electabuzz long to blast the rocks aside with its powerful arms, but in doing so, it lost a few precious seconds just as May ordered Pupitar to try another Earthquake. As the floor rippled under its feet, the Electric-type lost its balance and fell back to the ground with sparks flying around it.
Electabuzz opened its eyes again, growled at Pupitar and crawled weakly to its feet, looking about to faint at any moment. May watched it with a triumphant glance in her eyes, already mentally celebrating that she was about to even the game.
Suddenly, the Electric-type sprang up with a loud roar. Both of its fists icy blue, Electabuzz threw itself at Pupitar and smashed into the pupa, sending both Pokémon flying backwards.
Electabuzz took a few heavy tumbles on the ground. Pupitar rolled in a large semicircle with frost damage in two spots on its head.
Pupitar’s eyes opened, but Electabuzz’s did not.
“Return,” Sparky said, a red beam from one of his Pokéballs absorbing the tigerlike creature. May smirked as Pupitar managed (again, in some magical way) to raise himself back to balancing on his narrow end.
Sparky looked at Pupitar and then pulled out another Pokéball.
“Electrode, finish it.”
The Pokémon he sent out looked like a huge, upside-down Pokéball with eyes and a mischievous grin. Sparky hesitated for a second before giving it an order:
“Explosion.”
At bizarre speed, the rounded Pokémon rolled straight at Pupitar. There was a fiery explosion in the middle of the arena and Mark had to shield his eyes for a second, but when the smoke dissolved, both Pokémon lay immobile on the floor.
“Return, Pupitar.”
“Come back, Electrode.”
May and Sparky looked at each other.
“Down to our last Pokémon, then,” Sparky said with a smile. “I love it when battles are exciting.”
May’s expression stayed cold and focused. She said nothing.
“Go, Magneton.”
Sparky sent out what looked like three of the Pokémon that the first junior trainer had owned stuck together. It levitated in mid-air in a similar fashion to the Magnemite.
May grinned. “Spirit, go!”
The Ninetales slowly walked forward into the arena.
“Thunder Wave, Magneton.”
“Spirit, assume the weak spirit form.”
While the metallic magnet Pokémon started charging up electricity, Spirit’s eyes glowed red. Mark watched in astonishment as her form turned ghostly white and semi-transparent. When Magneton released a wave of electricity, it passed through Spirit without harming her. She walked calmly towards Magneton.
Sparky stroked his chin. “Interesting.”
“Spirit, Flamethrower,” May ordered. Spirit faded back into her physical form and breathed out a plume of flames that torched the Magneton’s metallic body. It buzzed a little and started to charge electricity, but before it managed to hit, Spirit was back in her ghostly, insubstantial form.
“Rain Dance,” Sparky said. Magneton started turning slowly in mid-air, letting out a soft electric hum. Wispy vapour began to form near the ceiling, quickly spreading and becoming a thick layer of dark clouds. Within seconds, the two Pokémon were in a local rainstorm.
May frowned, most likely realizing that this would wreck her plans of defeating Magneton with Fire attacks.
“Stay in spirit form,” she told her Pokémon.
Sparky nodded thoughtfully. “Magneton, see if a Sonicboom will help against that.”
The magnetic Pokémon sent a blast of compressed sound waves at the ghostly Ninetales. Hearing a horrible sound that no one else could, Spirit laid her ears back, staggering backwards a little, but soon recovered and shook her head.
May looked a little worried that Sparky had caught on so soon. “Spirit, assume the strong spirit form,” she finally ordered.
Spirit’s eyes glowed again, but this time she faded completely away, becoming entirely invisible.
“I don’t assume I can ask if there is any way to hit her like this, can I?” Sparky asked amusedly after a short pause.
“No, you can’t,” May said shortly.
“How about whether she can do anything to Magneton like this?”
“Not that either.”
Sparky paused. “Well, then I’ll wait and see, I guess.”
He waited. May waited too.
“All right, fine,” Sparky finally said and chuckled. “Use Lock-On and see if you can locate her.”
The three staring eyes on Magneton’s bodies glowed blue as the Pokémon concentrated.
“She’s not here,” Magneton said, sounding about as puzzled as an electronic voice can sound. “She’s not in the room.”
Sparky raised an eyebrow. “You know that any Pokémon that leaves the arena has by official rules lost the…”
“She hasn’t left the arena!” May snapped. “Spirit, use Curse!”
The Ninetales reappeared in physical form at exactly the location she had been at before, like she had never moved at all, and yet again, her eyes glowed a hellish red.
“Thunderbolt!” Sparky shouted immediately.
Spirit stretched her head upwards while letting out a long howl. Devilish whispers mixed in with the terrible sound, her eyes glowing more intensely with every passing second – and then suddenly both Pokémon burst into black flames, letting out cries of pain.
Mark stared as Spirit’s eyes returned to normal. No sooner had she shaken her head weakly than Magneton fired a bolt of electricity through the heavy rain.
Spirit was thrown backwards with a yelp and landed harshly on the floor nearby. Meanwhile, Magneton seemed to be in great pain, and Mark realized why when he noticed the black flames that circled its bodies. Nervous sparks flew around it as it struggled to keep its balance.
A clatter was heard through the sound of the pouring rain as the Electric Pokémon fell fainted to the floor.
May clenched her fist as Sparky recalled his Pokémon. Everybody stared at the fallen Spirit, all wondering the same thing: would she get up?
Spirit raised her head slowly and blinked a few times with difficulty.
“Come on,” May mouthed.
The rain-soaked Ninetales finally managed to rise shakily to her feet and look at Sparky with a victorious smile.
“I knew you could do it!” May shouted in triumph. “Great job, Spirit! Yes!”
Sparky just smiled as the rain in the arena subsided and the clouds slowly started to dissolve into the air. When it was sufficiently dry, he walked across the room, pulling a small silver badge out of his pocket.
“You have an… interesting Ninetales,” he commented.
May grinned. “You’d never imagine.”
“So,” Sparky said, turning to Mark, “I think my Pokémon would like a nice rest with Nurse Joy now. You don’t mind waiting a bit longer, do you?”
-------
“How does this spirit form thing work?”
While Joy was tending to Sparky’s Pokémon, the kids and the gym leader sat in the Pokémon Center waiting room and chatted. It was Mark who first dared to ask May about Spirit’s unusual battling abilities, although he strongly suspected Sparky had been wondering too. Alan, of course, had missed the battle, and looked curiously at May.
She was still wearing a triumphant expression, petting her Ninetales with one hand and reaching every now and then for a cookie from a bowl on the table (which Joy had placed there earlier) with the other.
“Well,” May explained through her cookie, “there are two types of it. In the weak spirit form, she is insubstantial so she can’t be hit by any physical attacks, fire, water, electricity or anything. Only stuff like Hypnosis or Sonicboom that don’t rely on attacking her body directly can affect her in that form. Then there’s the strong spirit form, in which she stops existing except on a spiritual plane, and then she can’t be hurt at all. She can hear me telepathically or something when I give her orders in that form, I think.”
Alan blinked. “That sounds pretty invincible.”
“Well, it applies both ways,” May added, shrugging. “She has to turn back to physical form to be able to attack, and while in spirit form the opponent could be powering itself up or something, so it’s not always a good idea. It takes skill to know when to…”
A soft ding was heard and they all looked up. The door to the treatment room opened, and Nurse Joy stepped out.
“Your Pokémon should be ready to get themselves beaten to a pulp by a little kid for the second time in one day,” she said sarcastically to Sparky, rolling her eyes a little.
“I love you too, Joy,” he giggled as he picked up the Pokéballs she handed to him on a tray and reattached them to his belt. “So, Mark, should we battle now?”
“Uh, okay,” Mark replied nervously, standing up. “You guys going to watch?”
Alan looked at May and she shrugged. He ended up pulling her out of the chair. Mark thought he could see him elbow May for the umpteenth time as they walked to the door. Crossing over to the gym building and walking up the staircases didn’t take long, and Mark hardly noticed where he was going while he was lost in trying to remember May’s strategies. Before he knew it, he was facing Sparky on the battle arena.
“Six on six again,” Sparky said. “Go, Manectric!”
As the doglike Pokémon materialized, Mark’s hand automatically slipped to Sandslash’s Pokéball, but he realized what he was doing before he sent him out.
“Don’t make the same mistake as against Flora,” he muttered to himself. “Right.”
He shrugged. If it worked for May, it might work for him.
“Go, Jolteon!” he shouted as he threw the Pokéball.
“Manectric, Thunder Wave,” Sparky ordered as Jolteon appeared on the floor.
“Thu… no, Pin Missile!” Mark blurted out, suddenly gripped by the nervousness he tended to feel in battle. He could see May shaking her head by the side wall and Alan elbowing her again.
Jolteon was faster. Crouching down, he fired a flurry of needles towards Manectric, causing it to stagger back as it was stricken by the hundreds of small pins.
“Try to dodge!” Mark shouted as he watched Manectric start to charge. A wave of electricity shot at Jolteon, but he leapt into the air. The wave struck one of his back legs and he cried out, but he landed fairly safely on the floor.
“Return!” Mark said quickly.
“Manectric, Crunch.”
Jolteon closed his eyes as Manectric dashed towards him. A pink aura circled his body. As Manectric bared its fangs, Jolteon charged towards it as well as he could (he had a slight limp due to his paralyzed leg) and rammed it with a full-body tackle. Manectric yelped as it was thrown backwards, but stood up, shook its head and leapt at Jolteon, sinking its fangs into the smaller Pokémon’s side. Jolteon cried out and bit Manectric right back.
“Uh, Sand Attack!” Mark ordered.
Jolteon leapt a short distance away from Manectric and kicked previously nonexistent sand into the dog’s eyes. Manectric growled, startled, and attempted to get rid of the sand by shaking its head, giving Jolteon an opportunity to strike again.
“Another Return!”
“Manectric, Quick Attack.”
Jolteon concentrated on his trust in Mark, gathering the same pink energy as before, but Manectric meanwhile sprang up at great speed to try to tackle Jolteon. Thanks to the sand in its eyes, however, it missed him by an inch and crashed on the ground, giving Jolteon a good opportunity to tackle it. It growled in pain.
Manectric got to its feet and, without Sparky’s command, released a powerful blast of electricity at Jolteon. Mark was sure he was going to faint now, but to his surprise, Jolteon appeared unharmed.
This is strange… I feel better than before…
Manectric looked surprised too. Mark turned to May, puzzled.
“Volt Absorb,” she called. “Jolteon’s ability. Electricity heals him.”
“Oh,” Mark replied, dumbfounded. He had never known that, except perhaps for a few minutes while he read it in a textbook. Maybe that had been why the electricity wouldn’t affect Dan’s Lanturn.
“Manectric, Crunch.”
The dog attacked Jolteon again and managed to pin him down, locking its jaws around his body, but he responded with a quick Pin Missile right into its face.
“Manectric, return,” Sparky said as his Pokémon roared and staggered backwards. It was recalled into the safety of the Pokéball as he reached for his pocket with the other hand.
The Water Pokémon pool opened in the same manner as it had before, and Sparky sent out the same anglerfish which, Mark made a mental note, it was not a good idea to attack with Electric attacks.
“Jolteon, Thunder Wave!” Mark shouted, remembering that this had nonetheless worked on Dan’s Lanturn.
“Confuse Ray, Lanturn.”
Jolteon was faster again, despite the bleeding gash on his side. He crouched down and sent a wave of lightning at the fish in the pool, who retaliated by sending the same kind of wispy light as it had used on Lapras floating through the air at Jolteon. He watched it curiously.
“Don’t let it distract you!” Mark yelled in frustration.
“Hydro Pump,” Sparky ordered calmly.
Lanturn swam to the surface and sprayed a powerful blast of water from its mouth. Jolteon yelped as it bombarded him, blasting him a few meters backwards. He weakly stood up and angrily responded with a Pin Missile (which admittedly did not hurt Lanturn very much because it had dived underwater again) until he was again distracted by the playful light. Mark gritted his teeth as Jolteon started to sway on his feet, seemingly hypnotized.
“Jolteon! Keep your mind on the battle!”
“Another Hydro Pump, Lanturn.”
Just as Jolteon turned around, he was blasted with a second Hydro Pump. He screamed as he was blasted halfway to the wall and did not stand up again afterwards.
“Return, Jolteon,” Mark said disappointedly as the Confuse Ray light faded away. He pondered for a few seconds before picking the next Pokémon to use:
“Dragonair, do it!”
Sparky watched with interest as the slender snakelike dragon materialized out of the Pokéball Mark threw out. Dragonair flew into the air and looked down at Lanturn.
“Lanturn, use an Ice Beam.”
Oh, crap, Mark thought.
“Quick, Agility! Dodge it!”
Lanturn’s paralysis slowed it down, and thanks to that combined with Dragonair suddenly zooming to the other end of the room, the Ice Beam missed by a long shot.
“Great, Dragonair,” Mark cheered. “Use Slam.”
“Thunder Wave.”
While Dragonair dived at great speed, Lanturn was charging up electricity. Just as the dragon smashed the dark blue pearls on his tail into the anglerfish’s head, Lanturn pumped paralyzing electricity into his whole body. Dragonair screamed, retreating into the air.
“Now use another Ice Beam.”
This time, Dragonair couldn’t move out of the way soon enough and was struck by a beam of ice from the anglerfish. The dragon dropped to the ground.
Then, curiously, he closed his eyes and started to focus. Mark stared in horror as Dragonair’s skin seemed to rip apart on his head, but then he realized what was happening – Dragonair was just shedding his old skin.
The dragon slithered along the floor as quickly as he could, letting his old scales scrape against the rubbery floor enough to start to tear off. And indeed, the more of his body he managed to pull out of the old skin, the faster he seemed to become.
“Yet another Ice Beam, Lanturn,” Sparky said and Lanturn aimed, but just before it fired the attack, Dragonair shot upwards in a shiny new body, leaving his old skin lying useless on the floor. The beam of ice crystals covered the skin with frost.
“Twister!” Mark yelled. Dragonair started spinning fast, helped by the power of the Agility, and formed a whirlwind of green flames. Lanturn attempted to swim into a corner of the pool as the Twister began to suck up the water, but had no arms to hold on to the bank and was thus pulled inevitably towards the draconic whirlwind.
Lanturn screamed as it was tossed around in the tornado of dragon flames, but then the whirlwind finally dissolved and the water rained back down. Lanturn landed helplessly on the floor beside the pool.
“Return, Lanturn,” Sparky said as the beam of the Pokéball absorbed the fish. Mark couldn’t believe he was actually – somewhat – about to win the battle now.
“Ampharos, go,” the Gym leader said after a short pause. He sent out the electric sheep which Mark remembered from earlier only from the Cotton Spore trick.
“Okay, um…” He paused. “Try another Twister?”
“Light Screen, Ampharos,” Sparky ordered.
As Dragonair tried to whip up a whirlwind again, Ampharos concentrated and created a translucent pink bubble around itself.
“Now, Cotton Spore!” Sparky said quickly as the Twister started forming. Again, fluffy wool sprouted on the sheep Pokémon, but this time, it shook itself to send the cottonlike material out of the Light Screen. It was sucked into the whirlwind, but Ampharos itself was safe behind the protective shield and hardly affected at all.
What happened now was a very interesting development that Mark had not expected at all. As Dragonair realized this wasn’t doing any good and stopped powering the Twister, the room filled up with floating bits of the Cotton Spore that the Twister had torn up.
“Dragonair, try a Slam now,” Mark said unsurely, figuring that at the very least he’d have to do something physical to get through the Light Screen. The dragon faithfully dived, but the shreds of wool everywhere were slowing him down.
“Mega Punch,” Sparky simply said.
Dragonair attempted to smash his tail into his opponent, but Mark could just barely see him miss. Then Ampharos punched Dragonair hard with its curled flipper, and Mark miserably watched his dragon Pokémon collapse on the ground.
“Return,” he muttered as Dragonair disappeared into the Pokéball he held out.
He took a deep breath (taking care not to inhale any of the Cotton Spore, of course). What did he have left again? Letal, Charizard, Scyther and Sandslash. Wouldn’t it just be best to go for it now?
“Sandslash, go!” he shouted, hurling forward a Pokéball. The pangolin Pokémon appeared, taking in the situation carefully.
“Earthquake, quickly,” Mark ordered.
Sandslash leapt up, turned around in mid-air so that he faced downwards, and then smashed into the ground with his forepaws. Ripples spread through the floor; Mark could hear Ampharos’ wail of pain, even though it was hard to see anything when both the floating wool and the Light Screen blocked his vision.
“Ampharos, Fire Punch,” Sparky commanded. Mark watched the pink bubble disappear as the sheep started making its way towards Sandslash. The Cotton Spore was slowly but surely settling on the ground, but there was still a great deal of it getting in the Pokémon’s way.
“Sandslash, try to use another Earthquake!”
Sandslash jumped into the air again, but at the same time, Ampharos jumped. Sandslash was hit by a fiery punch in his vulnerable underbelly and flailed around a bit before slashing powerfully across Ampharos’s body. The sheep cried out, momentarily distracted as Sandslash landed on the floor and produced an Earthquake – not quite as powerful as the earlier one, but it was enough. Ampharos flailed around as it was shaken by the Earthquake shockwaves, the air around it sparkling and lighting a few hairs of wool briefly on fire, and then fell down.
“Ampharos, return.”
Sparky waited a little bit for the last strands of cotton to sink to the ground while Mark considered the situation. Sandslash might be able to take out one or two more Pokémon with his type advantage, and even after that, he had three of his Pokémon left. Admittedly, two of them had a weakness to electricity, but this was still not a bad situation. His heart thumped.
“Go, Electabuzz.”
Sparky threw a Pokéball and it popped open to release the bipedal tigerlike thing from before. It growled at Sandslash, who looked back at it calmly.
“Okay, Sandslash, just keep using Earthquake,” Mark said, trying to keep himself together. “It’s really your best bet to keep using it for as long as you can.”
“Electabuzz, hit it with an Ice Punch.”
The Electric Pokémon dashed forward, but it didn’t manage to reach Sandslash before he smashed his paws into the ground yet again and sent a flurry of ripples around the floor. Electabuzz tripped, releasing some accidental sparks, but then rose up, shook its head and jumped at the pangolin with icicles circling its fist.
“Slash!” Mark screamed, and Sandslash heartily agreed. The pangolin slashed with two claws right across Electabuzz’s body and then, at amazing speed, curled himself into a tight ball before the Electric-type struck him with the punch.
Sandslash bounced like a ball from the rubber floor, rolling all the way up to the wall, but there he uncurled and was still conscious. Electabuzz, however, looked exhausted.
“Just one more Quick Attack, old Buzzy,” Sparky encouraged his Pokémon. “Then you get to rest.”
Electabuzz took a deep breath and then zoomed at Sandslash at incredible speed. The pangolin had no time to attempt to dodge it, and was tackled into the wall.
“Electabuzz, return,” Sparky said calmly, absorbing the Pokémon into the Pokéball.
Mark looked at Sandslash. He had been knocked out.
“Sandslash, come back,” he sighed and recalled the pangolin. Sparky had two Pokémon left and he had three. He was still a little better off.
“Go, Electrode,” Sparky said, sending out his ball-like Pokémon.
“Letal, go!” Mark shouted and threw out his Pokéball.
He took a deep breath as Letal materialized on the floor. “Okay, Letal, try to hypnotize it. It’s very important.”
“Electrode, Thunder Wave!”
The ball Pokémon charged up electricity in its body at remarkable speed and released a wave of sparks straight at Letal. She was hit by it, but strained valiantly against the paralysis and stared hypnotically at Electrode, waving her tail softly from left to right. Mark’s expression brightened as the ball’s small pupils followed the tail and its eyelids started to sink.
“Oh, snap out of it,” Sparky said and rolled his eyes, but his Pokémon was too fascinated by Letal’s tail to notice that he was talking and slowly it fell into a deep sleep.
“Great, Letal,” Mark cheered. “Now, uh…”
He frantically tried to remember what attacks Letal knew. “Headbutt!” he quickly realized.
Letal growled and charged towards the Electrode. Halfway there, she nearly tripped when one of her legs stiffened in mid-step, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep going. She had managed to gather pretty good speed by the time she lowered her head and smashed it into Electrode, sending it rolling backwards to the wall. She did not stop here, however; she followed it and proceeded to extend her claws and scrape them madly across Electrode’s hard surface. Only after she had been doing that for a few seconds did the ball Pokémon wake up.
“Finally,” Sparky said with another theatrical roll of his eyes. “Thunderbolt.”
The Electrode smirked back at Sparky released a jolt of electricity into Letal’s body. She cried out in pain, jumping slightly away, but then she had a very nasty idea and stabbed her claws into Electrode’s eye.
“Ouch,” Sparky commented as Electrode let out a scream of pain. Mark was half-expecting blood to come gushing out and averted his eyes, but then remembered that Electrode had no blood.
“Electrode, return,” Sparky said. “Don’t your Pokémon have any manners?” he added to Mark as the Pokémon was absorbed back into its ball, sounding way too light-hearted to be taken seriously.
Mark just shook his head. Why did somebody keep getting stabbed in the eye in his battles? He thought he could remember Gyarados getting stabbed both by Moltres’ beak way back in the Cleanwater City Gym and by a Razor Leaf in the Green Town Gym.
“Go, Magneton.”
Mark looked up at the Pokémon that had faced Spirit earlier. He suddenly realized that this was Sparky’s last Pokémon. His heart beat faster: he had three Pokémon left while Sparky only had one!
“Okay, Letal, try to hypnotize it.”
“Magneton, Thunderbolt.”
Letal attempted the same trick she had used on Electrode, but the magnetic Pokémon seemed unaffected as sparks flew between its magnets. A bolt of lightning flew towards Letal and hit her squarely in the chest. She staggered backwards and then decided to take matters into her own paws: she leapt straight at Magneton and attempted to tackle it down to the ground. To her surprise, it bounced right back up to where it had been before.
“Thunderbolt again.”
Letal growled and tackled it in the air again, but the Magneton gave her another electric shock and she collapsed in a heap on the ground.
“Return,” Mark muttered, letting the red beam of the Pokéball take her in again. “Well, Charizard, show him what you can do.”
He threw out the next ball. It opened in the air and released his first Pokémon, who stretched his wings and flew up to hover close to the ceiling.
“Rain Dance,” Sparky ordered quickly.
“Flamethrower!” Mark shouted.
Charizard was faster. With a mighty roar, he inhaled deeply and breathed a blast of flames downwards at Magneton. It buzzed as it was scorched by the flames, but retaliated right back by doing the same kind of awkward magnet-dance in mid-air as it had in May’s battle. Again, clouds gathered near the ceiling and started to rain. Charizard winced, looking worriedly at his tail flame.
Now Mark was getting a little nervous again. “Charizard, smack it with your tail!”
“Thunder, Magneton.”
Charizard dived down, raising his flaming tail up and then smashing it into Magneton with all his might. The magnet Pokémon was thrown backwards and now had a nasty scorch mark on one of its bodies, but then it pointed all of its magnets at Charizard and a bolt of lightning from the clouds above struck the dragon, who was already weakened by the rain, before he could even attempt to defend himself.
Charizard roared in pain, struggling to keep himself airborne. Sparky quickly gave another command:
“Sonicboom!”
Mark could see the raindrops swaying in the direction of the sound waves that Magneton started emitting. Wide-eyed, he watched Charizard, just recovering from the Thunder, attempt to cover his ears, roar and then finally crash on the ground.
“Charizard, return.”
Mark looked at Magneton. It was hurt, and acted it, too; it was sending off unintentional sparks every now and then and teetering slightly in the air.
“Scyther, finish it!”
As soon as Scyther started to materialize from the Pokéball, Mark had a feeling something was wrong. But he didn’t realize what it was until he saw that Scyther wasn’t steady on his feet.
“Oh dear,” Sparky said with an amused grin, voicing exactly Mark’s thoughts. “He’s still under the influence.”
“I’m fine,” Scyther mumbled. “Really…”
He made a respectable attempt to run towards Magneton and slash it, but missed it by a couple of feet.
Sparky shook his head. “Thunderbolt.”
It only took one bolt of lightning from Magneton’s magnets to make Scyther’s eyes roll backwards into his head and his body crumple uselessly down.
Mark stared down in embarrassment as he held out Scyther’s Pokéball and let him be absorbed by the beam. How could he have forgotten that Scyther had been suspended inside a Pokéball ever since yesterday evening, obviously keeping his physical state completely static?
Sparky walked up to him while the rain started to subside and shook Mark’s hand.
“Good game,” he said cheerfully.
Mark realized as Sparky let go off his hand that a small object was left in it. He stared at his palm in astonishment to see a shiny silver badge with a bolt of lightning engraved on it.
“I… didn’t win,” he just said.
Sparky smiled. “I was the one who served him the alcohol.”
“I wouldn’t have won anyway!” Mark said in frustration, contrary to his optimism in the battle itself. “What do you think a Scyther can do to a Steel Pokémon?”
“Don’t forget, your Charizard put a dent in him. And come on, it’s your birthday after all,” Sparky said and winked. “Keep it. You’d win later anyway.”
Mark still stared at the badge, but then closed his fist around it and smiled. While part of him wanted to earn the badge properly, the other part was glad he didn’t have to repeat that.
“Thanks, Sparky.”
“You’re welcome,” the Gym leader said with a smile and shook his hand again. “Now, let’s get your Pokémon to Joy. We might be able to bribe her for some more cookies.”
As they all headed down the staircase and Alan congratulated him on his badge, Mark’s thoughts wandered to the task of tomorrow.
More pointless junior trainers! Fortunately, these are the very last junior trainers in the fic. Unfortunately, that wasn't because I'd finally wisened up and realized there was no reason to drag out gyms just to be like the games, but rather because in my plans from when I was twelve, I'd already decided the final two gyms just wouldn't have any, like Christopher and Mitch's gyms.
Fun cheerful fact about Sparky's father's philosophy on birthdays: it was a coping thing after his mom had been diagnosed with cancer, which eventually killed her. Only the cheeriest backstories in this fanfic.
This is another chapter where I thoroughly fail to show May as being actually a competent battler; instead she's behind until she just wins through cheese because she has a Ground-type that Sparky sacrifices an entire Pokémon to take out and a Ninetales with special legendary-given powers. Good job, sixteen-year-old me. Spirit's Curse intentionally works as if she were a Ghost-type; her additional powers are Ghost-themed.
A random one-time return of the thing where we see Pokémon's thoughts in battle for some reason. Pretty sure this really is the last time that happens.
I decided randomly in this chapter and the last to make Thunder Wave not activate Volt Absorb, unlike the games. I will then go on to contradict this in a later chapter, because I had completely forgotten about this by then.
Like a lot of kids, I hated the thing in the anime where Ash'd not properly win a gym battle but get the badge anyway. But I wound up doing it anyway in my fic, because I'd realized the same thing the anime writers did: the protagonist winning a Pokémon battle, just like the last five thousand times they won a Pokémon battle, isn't actually all that interesting or memorable as a narrative. Mark losing because Scyther is drunk? Fun! Mark rematching Sparky to actually win after that? Ehhhh. They've got a legendary battle to get to; who has time for another gym battle? And thus, Mark just gets the badge anyway because Sparky feels he's responsible for this. I'd do it a bit differently if I were writing this today, but I don't regret not doing a rematch here.
Chapter 33 is here! Wherein things start to heat up for real with our first legendary battle.
Chapter 33: Thunderyu
Mark woke up feeling sick. He wasn’t quite sure why for the first few seconds, but it quickly sank in: he would be battling a legendary Pokémon today, and as much as he’d have liked to think otherwise, it was hard to believe that they would succeed in weakening and catching it.
Thunderyu.
He sighed and sat up on the bed. The day before, he had been feeling fairly confident, but of course, that had been his birthday. Now he was just a random twelve-year-old who was completely rubbish at battling, about to stupidly confront a highly dangerous creature that was most likely capable of defeating all his Pokémon in one hit.
I’m not that rubbish anymore, he thought decisively. I have six gym badges, my Pokémon are great and… well, May is with me. And Alan. We’ll be fine.
Still not at all convinced, he stood up, quietly dressed and then wondered what to do next.
“Chaletwo?” he asked the air nervously.
“Yes?” said the smooth telepathic voice. Mark was relieved to hear no traces of the previous day’s grumpiness.
“How are we going to do this?”
“Well,” Chaletwo said after a moment’s pause, “it’s best that you three all send out six Pokémon each, I wake him up, we wait for him to break out since that will tire him a little, and then you just attack… I guess.”
Mark was a little unnerved – while Chaletwo was no longer upset, he had a clear hint of nervousness to his voice. He tried to convince himself that that was to be expected, but somehow he had expected to be able to trust in Chaletwo as the calm voice of reason throughout this quest, and now he wasn’t sure anymore.
“So…” he began, “when are we going to do it?”
“As soon as possible,” Chaletwo replied. “Are your friends awake?”
Mark laughed. “Wouldn’t you know it better than me? You’re the psychic.”
“What do you think I am, omnipotent?” Chaletwo replied, suddenly annoyed. “Non-psychics have such faint psychic signals that unless you previously know what location to concentrate on as I’m doing for you, you can’t read their minds or communicate telepathically with them. Enjoy your privacy.”
“Oh, right,” Mark said quickly to avoid arguing. “I didn’t know.”
“Don’t waste any time. Go find them.”
Mark stood up and walked out of his room, crossing the yellow-tiled corridor to knock on May’s door. To his surprise, it was not May who opened it a few seconds later, but Alan.
“Morning, Mark,” Alan said. “We couldn’t sleep so we’ve been keeping each other company. So um… are we going now?”
“Chaletwo said so,” Mark just replied.
Alan opened the door a little more. Mark could see May and Spirit both lying on the bed, the former absent-mindedly stroking the latter’s fur. Looking at the boys, May stood up, followed by her Pokémon.
“All right,” she just said as she came towards the door with Spirit trotting behind her. “Let’s go.”
They walked silently down the stairs at the end of the corridor and out of the gym. It was still rather dark outside, although the eastern sky was lighting up; of course, the looming thunderclouds above may have made it seem darker than it really was. The mountains to the east were shrouded in foreboding shadow that stretched on along the ground below. Approaching them gave an eerie sensation of dread. Mark shivered.
“Okay,” came Chaletwo’s voice suddenly, “can you all hear me?”
The kids stopped abruptly and each muttered some words of confirmation.
“Good. Now… As I said yesterday, Thunderyu will most likely break out into Thunderclap Cave, so you need to be ready and facing the cave exit. This location is just fine. But try to spread yourselves out a little; there won’t be room for all your Pokémon like this.”
May stayed where they were, but the boys each walked a little away from her in either direction.
“Still hear me? Okay. Release all your Pokémon.”
Mark took a deep breath. “Go! Charizard, Jolteon, Sandslash, Dragonair, Scyther, Letal!” he shouted as he hurled all of his Pokéballs forward. One by one they opened and released his Pokémon. May and Alan were both doing the same.
“Right,” Chaletwo’s voice said. “Pokémon, you all hear me too, right? Okay. Great. So.”
He gave a telepathic sigh before continuing. “Okay. You all know what we’re doing now, I hope? This is the first of many very difficult battles against legendaries that you will have to fight, this one in particular against Thunderyu who is a dragon with control over electricity, as I hope you know.
“In a moment, I will use my powers to wake him up. He is located in a hidden, closed chamber inside this mountain. When he has been woken up, he will most likely break through the most cracked wall and thus into Thunderclap Cave, whose entrance you may be able to spot here in front of us. When I say ‘us’, I am referring to Mark, of course, as I’m connected to his visual cortex. Which reminds me, Mark – don’t ever look away from Thunderyu, because I want to be able to see what he’s doing, all right?
“Well, once Thunderyu has emerged, you will have to show some independent thinking, all of you Pokémon. Your trainers can’t command six Pokémon at the same time. Just do your best, and of course, if the trainers have an idea of a strategy, it would be a good idea to listen to them because chances are they have a better overview of what’s happening than you do.
“A word of warning: Thunderyu is at least twice as powerful as anything you’ve ever battled before, and that’s optimistic. He also has no idea what the Agreement is and wouldn’t follow it if he did, so if you’re really getting in his way, he’s not going to be deliberately dampening his attacks to be nonfatal. The only hope we have of winning lies in numbers, so don’t even think about rushing out there alone. You who can fly, it would be a good idea to get a little closer to the entrance to the cave before everything begins.
“Now… any questions?”
The Pokémon looked nervously at one another. A couple of seconds’ pause passed before May’s Butterfree dared to speak:
“What about you?”
“Me?” Chaletwo asked, seemingly taken aback by the question.
“Yes. Will you be fighting with us?”
“Of course not,” Chaletwo replied. “Nobody must see me.”
“But…”
“I have better things to do with the little power I have left, anyway,” Chaletwo interrupted. “It’s not possible, okay?”
Butterfree didn’t say anything.
“Okay,” May suddenly started. “We’d better think this through. Butterfree, you should try to put it to sleep with Sleep Powder. Pupitar, you can attack it with rocks – Thunderyu can fly, right? – and maybe try to knock it down to the ground where you can attack it with Earthquake, okay? Lapras, you…”
“I will not battle for you,” the turtle Pokémon said quietly in a shaky voice, only barely audible from where Mark was. Lapras’s eyes were filled with tears.
“What the hell do you mean, you won’t battle for me?” May asked angrily, raising her voice.
“I mean I’m not going to battle for you,” Lapras repeated. She took a few deep breaths and swallowed. “I hate you. I hate your insensitivity, your lack of concern for our wellbeing and your shallow, mindless love for this… all this fighting and…” She had to swallow again before she could continue. “You’ve made my life hell. I don’t want this.”
“I treat you just fine!” May shouted at her Pokémon, her cheeks reddening. “I don’t beat you or starve you or…”
“May.”
May was immediately silenced by Spirit’s voice. She turned sharply towards her Ninetales.
“As much as I hate to criticize you, Lapras is right,” the fox said. “I watched your battle yesterday. Perhaps you have changed in your attitude towards Pokémon, but I do know that you would not have made me take that Thunder.”
The fierceness vanished immediately from May’s face to be replaced with dumbfounded incredulity. She opened her mouth to say something, but only a small, stupid sound came out.
“Well, it’s true,” Alan commented quietly. “That was ugly battling. You don’t make a Pokémon suffer an extra attack, let alone one that powerful, if it doesn’t serve a very clear purpose, and even then, if the Pokémon asks to be recalled, you should always do it.”
All this did was point May’s shocked gaze towards Alan instead of Spirit. Lapras looked once spitefully at her trainer and then recalled herself into her Pokéball.
A few awkward seconds passed before May suddenly seemed to snap out of a trance, her face returning to the determined expression she ordinarily had when battling like nothing had happened.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Wake Thunderyu up already.”
There were a few seconds of stunned silence.
“Right,” Chaletwo’s voice said, apparently deciding to act like nothing had happened too. “Get into position. Maybe move a bit farther from each other.”
Mark and Alan doubtfully, but with some relief, backed away from May.
“Okay, ready?” Chaletwo asked. “I’ll wake him, then. One, two…”
A large bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. A thunder roared a split second afterwards, but beneath that roar was a deep rumble that seemed to come from the mountain itself. Mark’s heart was pounding already as the rumble rose to a high-pitched cry.
“Here he comes,” Chaletwo’s voice said.
There was an earth-shaking boom from deep inside the mountain.
Boom. Another one.
“Oh, damn it,” Chaletwo muttered. “He’s more powerful than I remembered.”
The booms grew quicker and at the same time louder, each sending a chill of fear through Mark. Just what was going to crawl out of that cave?
“He’s not going to break out through Thunderclap Cave!” Chaletwo suddenly realized with a hint of panic in his telepathic voice. “He’s… he’s… he’s going to smash out of the top of the mountain! Quick, flyers, be ready at the top! Now!”
No sooner had Charizard, Butterfree, Dragonair, Skarmory, Scyther and Charlie in Charizard form flown up to circle the mountain’s peak than it exploded. The six Pokémon had to fly quickly out of the way of falling chunks of rock; in the middle of it all, Thunderyu finally climbed through the newly-formed hole, spread out his great wings for the first time and shot into the air with a cry.
He was a slender golden dragon, lightly built, but with very large wings that gave his flight a certain grace despite still being a little shaky. Mark could only barely make out his face: a long narrowing snout, two white horns and two deep blue gems embedded into his scaly forehead, like in several other places on his body.
Then Thunderyu opened his mouth wide and cried out again – and a bolt of lightning struck one of the flying Charizard directly. Mark’s heart stopped for a second – then the one who was still airborne nodded towards him and swooped upwards.
“Charlie!” Alan screamed as the unlucky dragon crashed pathetically into the ground below.
“You can think about him later!” Chaletwo’s voice shouted. “Don’t be distracted! Attack him! Go! Go! Go!”
“Dragonair, use a Twister, quick!” Mark yelled, his eyes wide at the proof of just how powerful a Pokémon they were facing. “Slash it, Scyther! Flamethrower, Charizard! Don’t let it hit you, no matter what!”
He glanced quickly towards Alan; he was very pale, but shouting orders at his Pokémon nonetheless while the unconscious Charlie was absorbed into his Pokéball. May was determined as ever, but visibly nervous.
“Watch Thunderyu!” Chaletwo hissed into his mind, and Mark quickly looked back at the dragon. He was firing a bolt of electricity at Charizard while the orange dragon was breathing a plume of fire. Charizard narrowly dived under the Thunderbolt; Thunderyu swooped sideways to avoid the flames, but miscalculated his own wingspan, and his sensitive wing membrane was scorched by Charizard’s fire. He let out another one of his piercing cries, but the momentary distraction that arose from this was chance enough for Scyther to zoom at the dragon’s back with his scythes raised.
Thunderyu turned around quickly, narrowly managing to prevent the mantis from succeeding in his intentions to damage the wing even more, but instead the slash hit his side. Scyther slashed at the wing again and hit this time. Roaring in pain, Thunderyu retaliated with a Thunderbolt which the insect Pokémon had no chance of avoiding, and Scyther dropped weakly to the ground.
Right at that moment, before Thunderyu could regain his sense of direction, a green tornado from Dragonair came speeding towards him. The legendary quickly countered by whipping up his own Twister; while the two tornadoes destroyed each other, however, Thunderyu barely had time to look up before Charizard’s tail came flying towards him at high speed and smashed straight into his head. With a cry of pain, the electric dragon struggled to keep himself in the air.
“Return, Scyther!” Mark said worriedly, recalling the mantis. He saw May’s Butterfree make a brave attempt to use Sleep Powder, but the legendary flew easily out of the way and fried the butterfly with a Thunder. Meanwhile, down on the ground, Spirit and Vicky, Alan’s Misdreavus, had finished charging up a large Shadow Ball together and fired it at the dragon.
“Mist, Ice Beam!” Alan yelled, and his Vaporeon crouched on the ground, aiming carefully before shooting a magnificent beam of ice. Thunderyu, in swooping down to dodge the Shadow Ball, was instead hit by the Ice attack; he was knocked backwards in the air and shivered there for a split second. Then, in retaliation, he angrily fired a Thunderbolt at Mist, but she leapt out of the way.
The dragon sent another bolt of electricity at her, and again she dodged; this only angered Thunderyu even more, but instead of continuing the chase, he began to spin around in a kind of eerie mid-air dance.
“I don’t like the look of this…” Mark muttered. “Dragonair, use a…”
He forgot how to speak when he saw what Thunderyu’s dance was doing. The clouds above the dragon were swirling along with him while strands of them stretched downwards, reaching all the way to the ground in a few moments and half-engulfing the dragon in a vortex of clouds. Electric sparks danced across the surface of the towering cloud structure, the form of the dragon only barely visible deep within.
A bolt of lightning now struck Mist from the cloud without warning. She shrieked in agony as the electricity coursed through her body and struggled to remain on her feet, but her consciousness was quickly swept away and she collapsed on the ground, defeated.
“Return,” Alan called with worry in his voice, recalling the Vaporeon.
“Skarmory, dive into there and attack it with a Drill Peck!” May shouted while Mark was still too stunned to say anything.
“Ska-a-a!” the steel vulture cried in confirmation, swooping straight towards the cloud pillar. Mark watched with dread as the bird penetrated the wall of clouds and screamed in pain as the electricity surged through him. Skarmory’s metallic body was beginning to glow with heat, and he used his last power to drive himself to spin and crash violently into Thunderyu beak-first. The dragon let out yet another cry, knocked backwards by a few feet, but then smashed Skarmory down at the ground with his tail while the gap in the clouds closed. May silently recalled her Skarmory.
“You’re not participating, damn it!” Chaletwo suddenly yelled in frustration. “Pokémon, where are half of you? You’re just sitting around on the ground! Do something! Don’t wait for your trainers! Pupitar, use a Rock Slide! Charizard, why aren’t you Flamethrowering it through those clouds? Make yourselves useful already, for Mew’s sake! This is the most damn important thing you’re going to do in your pathetic little lives, and you’re just standing there!”
This kicked all the Pokémon into action, to the point of everything becoming extremely chaotic. Mark caught a glimpse of Dragonair diving through the clouds with his tail orbs glowing, but then Charizard breathed a blast of flames through it at another end, and then he noticed Jolteon and Raichu had joined together to attempt to absorb the electricity from the cloud swirl. A series of boulders ripped out of the mountain and zoomed at unnatural speed straight at Thunderyu so that Dragonair only narrowly escaped after his attack. Thunderyu managed to destroy a few of the rocks with bolts of lightning, but one large one smashed straight into the legendary and knocked him harshly backwards, the cloud structure moving along with him. He quickly recovered, although he now seemed to need to flap his wings instead of gliding as he had before. Just then, Racko, Alan’s Grovyle, emitted a loud, high-pitched screech that made Thunderyu roar in agony. They were weakening him; there was no question about it.
Mark suddenly noticed a blur of fire heading towards the vortex and realized that it was Alan’s Rapidash, Diamond, with a familiar sand-colored pangolin riding on her back.
“Sandslash!” he exclaimed in surprise as the fire horse Pokémon made for a giant leap straight up to where Thunderyu was hidden behind the swirling clouds. The Rapidash whinnied painfully as the electricity shocked her, but she was ready with her horn glowing, and Sandslash was not affected by the sparks at all.
Through the large gap in the clouds, Mark could see Diamond stabbing her horn powerfully into Thunderyu’s underbelly. The dragon cried out in pain, pumping powerful electricity into the horse’s body, but meanwhile Sandslash leapt off her back and landed on Thunderyu’s, digging his long claws through the dragon’s scales.
The legendary roared in pain and thrashed violently about in the air in an attempt to get Sandslash off, flapping his wings irregularly. The cloud vortex seemed to be starting to dissolve, and Vicky and Spirit used the opportunity to charge up another combined Shadow Ball and fire it just as Dragonair dived at Thunderyu again and smacked his tail orbs into the other dragon’s head.
The legendary Pokémon roared in pain as he was struck by both attacks. Suddenly his eyes glowed blood red, and the thunderstorm intensified with showering rain. Steam rose from the dragon’s scales.
“He’s using Outrage!” Chaletwo shouted. “Watch out!”
Mark watched in horror as Thunderyu’s entire body flared up in blue flames. Sandslash, still embedded into Thunderyu’s back by the claws, screamed in pain as the dragon flames enveloped him, and as the legendary shook himself violently yet again, Sandslash dropped off, fell and hit the ground below.
Just as Mark recalled Sandslash, Thunderyu emitted an ear-splitting cry, and in an instant, three bolts of lightning struck Charizard, Vicky and Racko. While Charizard roared and crashed into the ground, the legendary’s form disappeared almost completely in the intensifying blue flames and he swooped straight at Dragonair.
“Don’t let him catch you!” Mark yelled, but it was too late: Thunderyu had already engulfed Dragonair in the blue fire, and the snakelike dragon had no way of escaping from the super-effective attack. Only seconds passed before he dropped limply to the ground.
“Return,” Mark whispered as he recalled both of his dragon Pokémon. Now all he had left was Jolteon and Letal.
Thunderyu roared and breathed a tongue of eerie dragon flames down towards where Jolteon and Raichu stood, but a creamy white shape leapt into the way.
“Spirit!” May screamed as the Ninetales shielded the two smaller Pokémon with her body, giving them an opportunity to run.
“Curse!” May gasped in realization. “If you manage it, we’ll just have to survive long enough and we’ll beat it!”
Spirit’s eyes began to glow a hellish red as they had in the gym battle, but Thunderyu instantly dived down and threw the fox Pokémon to the ground, wrapping her in dragon fire.
“No!”
The red beam of a Pokéball absorbed Spirit into it, leaving Thunderyu crouching on the ground for a second. May’s face was paper-white by now, but she made a quick command:
“Pupitar, Earthquake!”
The pupa was very weakened by the pouring rain, but used his last powers to bounce into the air. When he crashed back into the ground, he closed his eyes in exhaustion and allowed his consciousness to drift away while his final attack produced unnatural ripples in the ground. It looked like it would be futile: Thunderyu was already spreading his wings for flight.
“Hold him down, hold him down!” Chaletwo yelled frantically.
Letal, Pamela, Raichu and Jolteon did not need to be told this twice; in an instant they all leapt onto the dragon’s back, knocking him back down at the ground and doing their best to attack him at the same time.
Thunderyu roared in pain, exhausting a flurry of electric sparks while the blue fire flared up anew. The four Pokémon on top of Thunderyu screamed, exposed to both Thunderyu’s Electric and Dragon powers and Pupitar’s Earthquake, but faithfully endured it and remained where they were, preventing Thunderyu from escaping the last attack.
When the Earthquake ended, they had all fainted.
Thunderyu shook them off and rose slowly up before taking off again.
“Damn it!” Chaletwo swore in their heads. “Damn it, damn it! Ultra Ball, quick!”
Mark grabbed a black and yellow Pokéball from his pocket and tossed it with all his might at the ascending dragon. Miraculously, the ball hit.
The dragon roared as he was absorbed into it and the ball dropped down to the ground, wobbling.
Wobble.
Wobble.
The ball popped open.
“No!” Mark whispered as the dragon materialized in the air again. Thunderyu roared and glared at the three kids.
His body flared blue.
He dived.
Time seemed to slow down to a snail’s pace just then. The dragon descended with murderous eyes. Mark was frozen with fear.
May took out a Pokéball.
She threw it, her lips barely moving as she whispered three words:
“Lapras, I’m sorry.”
Time sped up again. The light from the Pokéball materialized into the shape of the blue turtle, and she fired a beam of ice at the approaching Thunderyu. The dragon cried out in pain, layers of frost forming on his wings, until he crashed into the ground just in front of them, frozen.
It took Mark a couple of seconds to snap out of his trance and reach for a second Ultra Ball. He threw it weakly at the immobile dragon.
Thunderyu’s shape dissolved into red light and was drawn into the ball. It closed tightly and began to shake.
Wobble.
Wobble.
Wobble.
It took a sharp violent twitch which made Mark’s heart stop for a second – but then the button on the ball stopped glowing and it stilled on the ground with a ping.
Everybody just stared at it for a couple of seconds.
Finally Alan was the one who stepped forward and carefully picked it up. He looked at it in his hand, broke out in a grin and started laughing.
Alan handed the ball to Mark, and Mark couldn’t help laughing too.
“YES!” Chaletwo cried triumphantly.
“We did it! I can’t believe it, we did it!” Mark shouted, still laughing.
May didn’t laugh. She just looked at Lapras, her fingers squeezing her Pokéball, and whispered, again, “I’m sorry.”
Lapras only hung her head miserably.
Mark watched the Pokéball disappear from his hand. Now Thunderyu was sealed safely away on the PC. One legendary Pokémon down, many more to go.
And he realized, inexplicably, that the experience of the legendary battle, while terrible while it was going on, had been the most exciting and exhilarating event of his life.
He wanted to do it again.
“I’ve just gone insane,” he muttered to himself, still with a grin plastered on his face.
High above, the skies were clearing.
Definitely my favorite chapter so far, especially since I tweaked the main thing that really bugged me about it. Getting to some actual chapters that I still vaguely like, finally!
It's kind of funny everyone else just sort of tactfully decides to ignore the Lapras thing at the end. No wonder she looks miserable.
Chapter 34! In which I murder an innocent bystander.
Chapter 34: Return to Cleanwater
They were on their way back to Stormy Town to get their Pokémon healed when they met Sparky on the road.
He looked at them with one of his amused grins. His silver shades were now appropriate for the first time: the sun was shining brightly, and nothing indicated that the town had before been eternally plagued by thunderstorms.
“Lovely weather, isn’t it?” Sparky said when none of the kids were saying anything.
“Um, yeah, I guess,” Mark replied awkwardly. Sparky raised an eyebrow, grinning even more.
“Oh, come on,” he chuckled. “We all know you had something to do with it. Or at least you can tell me why our beloved Mount Flash has lost a few of its meters above sea level since yesterday, since you happened to be positioned so close to it. I daresay all the evidence suggests that the explosions that woke up the whole town were connected to that.”
Mark looked quickly back at the mountain. Loose rocks and pebbles were still rolling down the slope, leaving behind a trail of swirling dust.
“Eh, well…”
“Or perhaps,” Sparky suggested, “you know something about the peculiar cloud formation I eyed through my window earlier? Or the intense Pokémon battle that appeared to be taking place in mid-air?”
“Oh f… crap,” Chaletwo groaned.
What should I tell him? Mark thought desperately.
“I don’t think he’d buy anything but the truth,” Chaletwo sighed. “He knows too much already, and if it’s true you woke up all the people in town… You know which bits to make up.”
Mark took a deep breath. “Well, see, we came here this morning to do some training…” He suddenly realized this wasn’t working out in an area devoid of wild Pokémon and quickly added: “…just against one another, I mean – more space here, you know – and then suddenly the mountain exploded and out came this electric dragon thing that attacked our Pokémon so we let them attack it back and finally defeated it.”
Sparky raised an eyebrow and looked around. “I don’t see a dragon anywhere. You didn’t catch it, did you?”
“We did,” Mark replied, not sure how else he could explain the dragon’s absence; he had after all already said they had defeated it, and then saying it had flown away would not make any sense. “And when we had caught it, the thunderstorm stopped, so we were thinking maybe the dragon was causing it all this time.”
Sparky surveyed him with interest. “Well, that’s strange.” Looking at Alan, he continued: “I thought your father had come here along with a team of researchers to do measurements in Thunderclap Cave, exactly because people suspected that sort of thing, and concluded that there was no sign of the presence of an Electric Pokémon powerful enough to be a cause for this kind of constant storm?”
“Well, he was wrong for once, then,” Alan said loudly. “Because you see, that thing nearly killed seventeen Pokémon, and if that’s powerful enough for you, we’d very much like to be able to get them to Nurse Joy as soon as possible, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, of course – how very inconsiderate of me,” Sparky replied apologetically, got out of the way and then walked along by Mark’s side. “So, say, is there any way I could see this dragon you speak of?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mark said unsurely. “I mean, it might attack us or something.”
Sparky nodded. “Shame as it is, that does seem to make sense. Well, let’s not waste any more time on that for now, and instead let’s get your Pokémon under care.”
They hurried on the road back towards the city.
Once they entered Stormy Town, they saw something quite unusual for the town: there were people outdoors. The few remaining inhabitants all seemed to be standing on the streets, stretching their arms towards the beautiful sky in wondrous astonishment. Sparky only smiled as he watched them look questioningly at him, but strode confidently towards the Pokémon Center, the kids following his example. As they entered the familiar building once again, May handed her Pokéballs faintly to Mark and then collapsed into one of the waiting chairs.
He hadn’t really paid any particular attention to her from the end of the battle until now for some reason, but now he could see that she looked awfully pale and distraught. She sort of stared forward at nothing in particular with a blank expression on her face, like a guy in a movie Mark had seen once whose brain had been taken over by a group of evil Psychic Pokémon. He couldn’t help smiling slightly at the thought for a second, but forced it off his face, handed the Pokéballs quickly to the concerned-looking Alan and sat down beside May.
“Are you all right?”
“What?” she asked distractedly, snapping out of a trance. She looked at Mark. “Yes… yes, I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“Well, I am,” May insisted. Mark sighed and decided not to bother her further; instead he just folded his arms on his chair and waited. May looked at Alan a couple of times, but Alan was too busy pacing around by the counter to notice it, occasionally running his hand through his messy hair in distress while he waited for Sparky to get Nurse Joy.
“Alan, you know your Pokémon’s state is stable for as long as they’re in their Pokéballs,” Mark pointed out. “There’s no need to feel pressed for time.”
Alan abruptly looked at him. “Yeah, I know, but I’d still prefer to get my Pokémon under the hands of Nurse Joy as soon as… oh, there she is.”
Sparky and Joy entered the room, both giggling at something they had been talking about. Alan looked even more frustrated at the fact Nurse Joy didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all. He thrust the eighteen minimized Pokéballs at her and she took them, still giggling. “Any that need special treatment?”
Alan looked blankly at her. “I… I think they’re all pretty severely injured, actually,” he said in a weird, high-pitched voice.
“Oh, dear,” the nurse said, rubbing her eyes. “Better get to work, then.”
She looked apologetically at Sparky, quickly organized the Pokéballs on trays and carried them into the back room.
“Don’t worry, she’ll fix them up in no time if they’re not dead already,” Sparky said cheerfully to Alan as he opened his mouth. Alan closed it again and suddenly looked over at May.
“My God, are you okay?” he asked, hurrying over to her.
“I’m fine,” she emphasized. “That battle was just… a little haunting.”
She wiped her face quickly with her sleeve and shook her head.
“I… Do you think Lapras is going to be all right?” she murmured after a pause.
Alan sighed, knelt down in front of her chair and took her hand in his. “Of course she’ll be all right,” he said. “You heard Sparky. Nurse Joy can fix them up.”
May shook her head. “No, I mean… is she going to stay with me?”
Alan inhaled deeply. “I… I really can’t say. That’s Lapras’s own decision. Don’t think about that.”
“I need a Water and Ice Pokémon on my team,” May muttered. “There are Fire and Dragon Pokémon all over the League and…”
Alan let go of her hand, stood up, turned around and grabbed his hair with his fingers again. “Oh my God,” he groaned before abruptly turning back again.
“Look, May… stop thinking about your team for once. Stop thinking about type-matchups and statistics and technicalities. Never mind all that. It’s trivial. Didn’t you ever read… or learn… at school… God, why don’t you get it? You’re not supposed to be concerned because you need a Water or Ice Pokémon in your team! You’re supposed to be concerned because of Lapras’s feelings!”
May didn’t really react at all; she was too busy staring intently at her fingernails. Alan ranted a little more in the same direction; he looked as if he were about to have a nervous breakdown over it, but Mark couldn’t help feeling that in fact May’s Water and Ice Pokémon remark had been more of an attempt to rationalize her feelings to herself. In a distant way he could identify with her – in his mind’s eye he saw Miss Taintor criticizing his eight-year-old self’s drawings and recalled the feeling of that horrifying realization of being imperfect.
But it was only after that that he’d improved as an artist, in the end. Lapras might have just done her and her Pokémon a big favour.
“I’m starving,” May suddenly muttered, looking up as Alan stopped to breathe. “Sparky, do you serve breakfast?”
Sparky, who had been absent-mindedly examining his own gym poster, turned innocently around. “Oh? …Oh, yes, we do! Let’s head over to the restaurant, shall we?”
Alan stopped tearing his hair out and nodded, taking a few deep breaths. “Okay. Breakfast. Sounds good.”
Mark was just realizing how hungry he was as well.
-------
They ate a nice cooked breakfast at the gym before returning to the Pokémon Center to wait for Nurse Joy to bring their Pokémon back. Alan appeared to have calmed down after having taken his frustration out on May earlier, and she looked subtly grateful for that. They just hung around and talked half-heartedly for a couple of hours before finally the nurse walked out of the back room with the Pokéball trays.
Alan sprang up immediately. “Are they all okay?”
“Not quite,” Nurse Joy admitted. “The Scyther and one of the Charizard are in a pretty bad state – they seem to have fallen down from a great height after major electric shocks from what I can see, which is a nasty combination – and Butterfree is of course a frail Pokémon and is suffering from similar levels of electric shock, although she doesn’t have the fall injuries. I think the Vaporeon is just barely conscious; I wouldn’t really advise her to battle very seriously for a couple of days. And that Skarmory is in poor shape – half of him seems slightly melted and the other half bent. I think the Sandslash broke a bone, but you know how Pokémon are – it heals quickly, so he is technically okay although he’s going to have a bit of a limp today. Oh, and your Jolteon seems to be in slight shock, but physically he’s all right. I think that’s all.”
Alan stared at her in horror.
“I’ve seen much worse than that,” Joy said helpfully. “And as I said, you know how Pokémon are – they’ll all be all right by tomorrow, I should think.”
Mark quickly went over the Pokémon in his head. This meant he had Charizard (assuming Nurse Joy had meant Charlie when she mentioned “one of the Charizard”), Jolteon (if he was willing to battle), Sandslash (albeit with a limp), Letal, Dragonair and Gyarados. May had Raichu, Pupitar, Spirit and – well, did she or did she not have Lapras? And Alan had Racko, Vicky, Diamond and Pamela – and technically Mist, but she was being advised not to battle.
“Thanks for taking care of them,” he said when no one else said anything. “We’ll just head out on our way, then, won’t we? You can transfer the Pokémon to other Pokémon Centers, right?”
Sparky nodded and smiled. “All right, then! It’s truly been great knowing you, and I sincerely hope we will meet again and that you will be bringers of more such fortune as what you have now brought to Stormy Town. No more thunderstorms! Who would have thought?”
Mark smiled slightly. “It’s been nice knowing you, too. Thanks for the birthday party.”
“Goodbye, then,” Nurse Joy said pleasantly. “Just ask the nurse wherever you’re heading to ring up the Stormy Town Pokémon Center sometime tomorrow and I’ll update you on the status of your Pokémon and send them over, all right?”
“Goodbye, both of you,” May said. “Thanks for the badge, Sparky.”
“Bye, and uh, I hope I’ll see you again sometime,” Alan said in an attempt to be cheerful.
“I hope so too,” Sparky replied. “Unless we’re going to be too busy with all the new business we’re going to get now that the town’s weather conditions aren’t as unattractive anymore.” He grinned widely under his shades.
The kids picked up their bags and Pokéballs. “Well, bye, then,” Mark said awkwardly as they turned to exit. As they left, he looked over his shoulder and could see Sparky waving enthusiastically.
-------
Chaletwo? Mark thought once they were walking southwest on the road that led towards Crater Town. Where do we go now?
Chaletwo’s ever-present voice sighed. “Suicune,” he said. “Go through Thunderclap Cave, and then take the Route 317 shortcut to Cleanwater City. You should easily make it before nightfall.”
Mark was taken aback. But we can’t battle another legendary now! he protested. At least four of our Pokémon are seriously injured!
“No matter,” Chaletwo replied. “You can still try. Suicune is different. He won’t kill you if you don’t beat him. He’ll just run for it and return the next evening as usual. I know what he’s like.”
Mark was a little skeptical, but did not reply.
“All right, Chaletwo says we should go to Cleanwater City to fight Suicune,” he said aloud. Yet again, May and Alan were walking ahead of him; Alan turned around.
“Huh?” he asked quizzically. “With half of our Pokémon still recovering from the last legendary battle at a Pokémon Center? Is he nuts?”
“I’m perfectly sane, thank you,” Chaletwo said coldly. “I just happen to realize that if there is any chance we manage to get Suicune tonight, then we should get Suicune tonight. As I was saying to Mark, Suicune won’t kill you if he defeats your Pokémon, he won’t kill them, and he will still return tomorrow evening, guaranteed.”
Alan looked every bit as skeptical as Mark, but did not protest. May said nothing.
So Mark had no choice but to say what they were probably all thinking himself: “Eh, just how sure are you of that?”
“Absolutely sure!” Chaletwo replied, irritated. “Suicune is one of the traditionalist legendaries. He follows Mew like a sheep. As far as he’s concerned, cleaning the lake is what he is ‘meant’ to do, and if it is his ‘fate’ to be caught while doing so, so be it. Suicune isn’t the type to kill anybody.”
Gyarados would beg to differ, Mark couldn’t help thinking.
“Well, he doesn’t look dead to me, does he?” Chaletwo snapped. “Just do it! You already agreed to take part in it. Now trust me and do as I say. Go through Thunderclap Cave; it’s a shortcut.”
Mark couldn’t help thinking he hadn’t really agreed to do anything and Chaletwo had never presented this as a choice of any kind, but if Chaletwo picked that up from his mind at all, he didn’t respond.
“Cleanwater City sounds fine to me,” May muttered at last. “I caught Lapras at the Lake of Purity. It would be a nice place to talk to her.”
Mark looked at her. “Well, okay, I guess,” he said. “Let’s go, then.”
They walked on back towards Mount Flash on the same road as they had that morning, but this time the sun was shining brightly and there was hardly a cloud to be seen. May’s mood seemed to be getting better as well. She had released Spirit, who was now trotting along with them, and her presence seemed to cheer her trainer up considerably.
“I should really get to catching some more Pokémon,” May said randomly. “I’ve only got six, after all, and it’s always nice to have some backup, right? You need six for the League here like in Indigo, don’t you? I’d better get a few more.”
Alan just smiled awkwardly. “Well, don’t… I mean, don’t treat them as replaceable or anything. If Lapras goes, then… having another Pokémon in her stead doesn’t just fix it.”
“I don’t think it does!” she replied defensively. “I just want to have a full team of Pokémon!”
“Stop bickering,” Mark said and sighed. “You’re like a sitcom couple.”
“We’re not!” May shouted, her face beet red, and strode ahead of the boys in frustration. Spirit smirked and galloped after her.
Mark couldn’t help giggling.
“Oh, shut up,” Alan said and elbowed Mark loosely before hurrying to catch up with May again. Mark just shook his head, grinning, and kept on walking. He didn’t mind so much that he was last anymore. Bizarrely, he was also feeling much more at ease about the upcoming Suicune battle than he had about Thunderyu, even though reason told him he should be very concerned about the considerably reduced numbers of Pokémon they had to fight it with. In fact, he felt mildly excited.
Feelings, he concluded, were insane.
They climbed the mountain at a steady pace and it was not long before they reached the entrance to Thunderclap Cave in roughly the middle of the hillside. The mouth of the cave was a large crack that was wide at the bottom but narrowed to nothing a few meters up the cliff. The darkness inside was decidedly eerie.
“Okay, who knows Flash?” Alan asked, looking at May.
She shook her head. “It’s an awful move,” she just said.
“Mark?”
He looked blankly at Alan and shook his head, but then realized, “Well, Charizard’s tail flame should do the trick.”
Alan slapped his forehead. “Oh, yeah,” he muttered. “I forgot your Charizard was still okay.”
Mark somehow felt a little bit guilty that Charizard had recovered but Charlie had not, but said nothing. He just took out Charizard’s Pokéball and dropped it onto the ground so that the dragon emerged. He looked around quickly and then smiled awkwardly at Mark.
“Nurse Joy told me you caught whatever we’d been fighting, so congratulations, I guess.” He paused for a second. “Why did you send me out?”
Alan pointed at the cave entrance. “We were just hoping your tail flame would be able to light up the interior of the ca…”
He stopped dead as a loud, threatening bark sounded from the shadowy insides of the mountain. A sudden flash of light lit up the dark cave so that momentarily they could see the tunnel sloping down into total darkness; the source of the light and the bark was a small, green, doglike Pokémon with an oddly cone-shaped head and ears, which had just flashed with electric light for a second to illuminate its surroundings.
“Trike!” it barked again from the darkness and growled.
“Let me handle it,” Charizard just said and stepped towards the mouth of the cave. He let out a quiet, frightening growl before breathing a tongue of fire straight forward. The orange light illuminated the cave again; they saw the little Electrike yelp and recoil in fear before its head sparkled with electricity and a bolt of lightning rushed towards Charizard. The dragon roared in pain, his fire clearing away and leaving the cave in darkness again before he angrily fired a Flamethrower at random into the crack. The fire lit up the rocks; the Electrike appeared to have fled.
Charizard growled in annoyance but climbed into the cave, swung his tail flame to his side so that it would light up their surroundings, and led the way in.
The descent was slow; numerous times, Charizard was forced to wait with his tail flame over some particularly rough terrain while the kids attempted to cross it. Occasionally they saw a flash of light from deeper within the cave, illuminating the tunnel for a brief moment.
“Dad told me that in Thunderclap Cave, the Electric Pokémon have evolved to know Flash from birth and use it to see around,” Alan told them. “If they get lost, they just use Flash for a quick look at their surroundings, go however far that allowed them to see, and then Flash again. They have also evolved a photographic memory to save energy between individual uses of the move. Then many other Pokémon in the cave have evolved to depend entirely upon waiting for an Electric Pokémon when they need to see. It’s pretty amazing.”
“Really?” May asked with interest. “Then what sort of Pokémon are the others? Just the typical cave stuff, or…”
She recoiled backwards after realizing she had stepped on something too smooth to be a rock. Charizard quickly swung his tail forward to reveal a startled little Pokémon. It looked like a bug with a brown shell and a massive round head which May had apparently stepped on; it screwed its shiny black eyes shut at the light of the fire while snapping randomly at the air with its jagged mouth.
“A Trapinch!” May exclaimed in delight. “I’m catching it! Go, Butterfree, and use a Sleep Powder before it gets away!”
She threw a Pokéball, and her butterfly emerged in a bright shower of light.
“Piiiinch!” the Pokémon screamed and ran for it into the cave.
“Charizard, follow so Butterfree can see!” May hissed, running after the Trapinch with her two Pokémon. Charizard clumsily dashed after them, his legs not made for running; the boys followed hesitantly.
They were in luck: the Trapinch, without an Electric Pokémon’s Flash to guide it, had stumbled into a dead end, bumped into the wall and was cornered when Charizard’s tail flame illuminated the scene.
“Piiiinch!” the Pokémon shrieked and ran at May’s leg, clamping its powerful jaws around her ankle.
“Youch!” May’s mouth curled into an expression of disgust as she attempted wildly but unsuccessfully to shake the Trapinch off her. When she realized it was holding on strongly as ever, she changed her strategy and began to kick at the cave wall, smashing the Trapinch repeatedly into it.
“Stop it! You’re hurting it!” Alan shouted, horrified.
“It’s hurting me too, isn’t it?” May snapped, but stopped anyway. “Butterfree, Sleep Powder! And don’t get any on me!”
She held her leg out, and the butterfly Pokémon flapped her wings while May turned in the other direction and held her breath. Sparkly, green dust sprinkled over the horrified antlion Pokémon, and within seconds it was fast asleep, its eyes peacefully shut and its legs limp.
“Oh, damn it,” May muttered as she recalled Butterfree. “Its jaws aren’t loosening.”
“We’ll have to pry it off, I guess,” Alan said, sounding a little worried. “Mark, help me with this.”
The boys knelt down and grabbed the Trapinch’s jaws to try to force them apart, but they wouldn’t budge. May’s leg was bleeding a little underneath the jagged edges of its mouth.
She slapped her forehead. “Oh, of course. This is a much easier way. I should have thought of it before.”
And she plucked a Pokéball off her necklace and dropped it at the Trapinch so that it dissolved into red energy and was absorbed into the ball.
She cringed in pain and examined the bleeding teeth marks on her ankle as the ball wobbled on the ground and stilled with a soft ping. “Nasty. Hey, Alan, will you get some bandages out of my bag?”
She reached for the Pokéball with Trapinch, minimized it and reattached it to her necklace while Alan opened the blue bag slung over her shoulder and browsed through its contents. He quickly found a box of bandages and applied a few to May’s ankle while Mark looked around in the light of Charizard’s flame. Spirit was standing there calmly as usual, looking at her trainer with an inscrutable expression; behind her, the path split into two tunnels, and by the short-ranged light of Charizard’s flame, he could make out that at least one of them split again.
“This place is like a maze,” he said. “How are we going to know which way to go?”
“Easy enough,” Spirit said and smirked before turning semitransparent and dashing into the nearest wall.
“You show-off,” May said and smiled as she stood up. “Thanks, Alan.”
“Don’t mention it, but uh…” Alan asked hesitantly, “exactly what is Spirit doing?”
“Oh, she likes to do that when people get lost. She just runs through the walls to find the exit and then tries to trace the way back in solid form. It’s not that efficient – back home, we were once stuck in Ilex Forest for two hours even with her running around back and forth between Goldenrod and me. In the end she got so exhausted from keeping herself in spirit form that we needed somebody else to help me.”
But just as May was giggling at the thought, Spirit reappeared in one of the tunnels; Mark couldn’t help thinking she looked slightly offended that May had actually told them that story.
“The way out is not long,” she said. “Follow me.”
They followed Spirit and Charizard ahead in silence; they saw the occasional flash of electricity, but the Pokémon appeared to have mostly noticed their presence by now and reached the general consensus that they were best left alone. They walked on in silence for a while.
May sighed. “Well, I got that Trapinch,” she said in an attempt to start a conversation. “It won’t be of much use against Suicune, though.”
“A Pokémon’s value isn’t measured in…” Alan began.
“Yes, I get it already!” May snapped, interrupting him. “Love your Pokémon and all that! No need to beat it into my head. I’m just trying to say that Trapinch isn’t going to be a big help in that battle, okay? And don’t say any Pokémon can beat any Pokémon, because that’s not how it works and you know it.”
Alan opened his mouth, but closed it again in defeat.
“Thank you,” May said shortly, but was just turning around when a sudden flash of bright electrical light momentarily illuminated the entirety of room they were in. She gasped in astonishment: they had just entered a gigantic chamber full of magnificent stalactites and stalagmites, often joined into great columns of many meters tall, reaching from floor to ceiling.
“That’s awesome,” Alan breathed in the darkness. “Dad told me about this, but I never saw it for myself.”
Charizard swung his tail quickly towards one of the columns and the source of the previous flash of electricity was revealed: a Manectric stood beside it, bared its fangs at them and growled, its pyramid-shaped mane sparkling with electricity.
“Spirit, Flamethrower!” May yelled.
The Ninetales leapt out in front of them, opened her mouth and breathed out a swirling tongue of flames, but the blue dog quickly shielded itself behind the column while charging up electricity. Just as Spirit stopped to breathe, it jumped out again and fired a bolt of electricity at her. She growled in pain as the electricity singed her fur, but quickly shook the ash off; flames formed in her mouth as she leapt around the column and breathed a blast of flames straight at the Manectric. It yelped in pain as it was scorched by the fire, but shook it off quickly and countered with a Thunder Wave before leaping to the other end of the column again to growl at Charizard.
Spirit tried to jump after it, but the paralysis made her clumsy, and instead she crashed harshly into the column of rock. The Manectric used the opportunity to turn quickly around and fire a powerful Thunderbolt at her.
Spirit lay there weakly and didn’t move; Mark wasn’t sure if she was on the verge of fainting or just fully paralyzed, but had no time to think about it before Charizard shot a Flamethrower at the dog Pokémon. It leapt quickly out of the way and the fire instead engulfed Spirit; Mark was worried for a second, but then looked at May and saw she looked perfectly calm.
“She has the Flash Fire ability,” she said to Mark as Spirit, unharmed but glowing with an orange aura, rose painfully up. “Fire just powers her up.”
The tired Manectric crouched down, growled and leapt at her, but miscalculated the jump by an inch and landed right on the column, where it dropped back down to the cave floor. It stood up, but just as it got to its feet, Charizard swung his tail with a roar, smashing it into the dog Pokémon’s body and, at the same time, the column.
It wasn’t a particularly strong column. It had been hit by blasts of fire and electricity and rammed powerfully by three different Pokémon, and now it cracked.
As Charizard’s tail swung into it, the column shattered into pieces. Mark watched in a panic as it collapsed, bringing down some of the ceiling with it; the kids and the Pokémon scattered around the chamber as the earth rumbled, chunks of rock crashing into the floor. It took a little while after the last pieces had settled before anyone dared to move.
“You guys all okay?” Alan asked from somewhere in the darkness and Charizard moved his tail flame to illuminate him. They all confirmed they were fine.
“So where’s the exit to this room, Spirit?” May asked shakily.
“This way,” Spirit said, fading back into solidity from the spirit form, which she seemed to have narrowly managed to get into while too paralyzed to escape the rocks. Mark thought he could just barely make out her ghostly white form still emitting just a slight glow where she was; then she breathed out a small flame to show herself, illuminating her form with orange light, and he figured he must have been imagining it. He began to walk carefully across the room after Spirit by the light of Charizard’s tail flame.
There was a loud bonk and an array of swear words.
Charizard quickly swung his tail flame in the direction of the sound; May had tripped and fallen headfirst to the floor. She rubbed her head, pained, wiping some blood off her forehead with the back of her hand before pushing herself to her feet.
“I’m fine,” she emphasized, and Charizard momentarily turned his flame away from her. Then she let out a yelp of fear.
“What is it?” Alan called and hurried over. Charizard once again moved his tail flame in May’s direction. She was staring in horror down at what she had tripped over. Mark’s heart skipped a beat.
It was the limp body of the Manectric, half-crushed beneath a large boulder. The blood that May’s leg was drenched in was not her own, but originated in a large puddle at her feet.
Alan stopped dead in his tracks. “Oh, God,” he just said.
“Is… is it dead?” Mark asked quietly, unable to think of anything else to do or say.
“I don’t know,” May just said in a broken voice. “Oh, God. Damn it.”
Mark approached carefully, not sure what he was planning to do, if he was even planning to do anything at all. May walked unsteadily around the Pokémon to its head, which was facing towards Mark.
Its eyes flicked open, glazed over; he could see its furred chest rising and falling irregularly as it struggled to breathe. It took a look at them, one of pure hatred, and spat out three words in its own language:
“Let me die.”
“If I capture it, we can maybe get it to a Pokémon Ce…” May began, but was cut off by a low, intimidating growl.
“I don’t want your help, human. Let me die in peace.”
The Manectric closed its eyes; its irregular breathing slowed down, and then it stopped.
May took a couple of steps back away from it. Mark could see her shiver even from where he stood.
“I should have caught it anyway,” she muttered.
“No, it’s… if it didn’t want… I… oh, God,” Alan replied incomprehensibly.
Mark just couldn’t think of anything to say. His mind was numb; he looked again at May’s bloodstained clothes and felt a little nauseous all of a sudden. They had watched the Manectric die. They had been unable to do anything about it – or just unwilling?
“Trike?” came a little squeak from the darkness. Mark watched with dread as a tiny version of the Pokémon they had first seen when they entered the cave stepped carefully into the light of Charizard’s flame. The Electrike pup looked at them hesitantly through large blue eyes, sniffing the air, but apparently came to the conclusion they were not dangerous; it winced as the smell of blood wafted through its nostrils and then unsteadily approached the Manectric’s body. It instinctively searched the dead Pokémon’s underbelly for a nipple and found one, but just poked it with its nose, sensing that something was not right.
“Oh, God,” Mark said limply. “It… she was a mother.”
The Electrike poked its mother with its muzzle but got no response. It tried again.
“Hey, there, little guy,” Alan whispered, taking a careful step towards the Electrike. It backed fearfully away and gave its mother another desperate prod. “I don’t think your mommy is coming back.”
It understood the words, but did not comprehend their meaning. It gave Alan a puzzled look and its mother another push.
“She’s dead. She won’t stand up.”
At first it mystified Mark how this seemed to have a meaning to the Electrike unlike Alan’s previous way of putting it; the Pokémon stared up at him in disbelief, but the puzzlement was gone. Then he realized that a wild Pokémon would be bound to have an idea of death early on; he recalled when he had found Jolteon as an Eevee and again felt a little nauseous as he realized maybe something like this had happened to Jolteon’s mother.
“Here, why don’t I just take care of you instead?” Alan asked softly. “You’ll be okay. Trust me.”
The Electrike looked skeptically between its dead mother and Alan and then growled.
“It’s okay,” Alan repeated. “You still need somebody to take care of you, right? I don’t want you to die too.”
The Electrike looked sadly at its mother and considered it. “Trike trike,” it muttered; it was clearly too young to speak proper Pokémon speech yet.
“I’m just going to make sure you get food and shelter, all right? No battling or anything – you’re too young and I quit training, anyway. Just relax. I won’t hurt you.”
Alan was now squatting on the ground and extended his hand; the Pokémon backed away.
“Come on,” he said desperately. “You’re going to die if you’re alone! Your mother died because she refused our help!”
Mark could see that Alan immediately regretted having said the last bit. The Electrike barked loudly at Alan and growled with newfound conviction now that it knew its mother had preferred death over human help, and then it turned quickly around and sped back into the darkness.
“No!” Alan yelled, but the Pokémon had vanished like it had never been there at all. He waited for a second as if to see if it would come back.
“We… we killed them,” he muttered at last.
“It’s not our fault,” May said shakily, averting her gaze from the Manectric’s body. “The column collapsed, and if that Electrike didn’t want to be helped, that’s its own business.”
Nobody said anything for a while.
“Come on,” May finally said. “Let’s go. No point staying here.”
“Are we just going to leave her like that?” Alan asked unsurely, wincing as he looked at the dead Pokémon again. “I mean… shouldn’t we bury her or something?”
“This is nature,” May said in an unusually harsh voice. “You think wild Pokémon normally get buried when they die? At least this way she’ll be useful if some other Pokémon in the cave need some easy food. Maybe that Electrike can eat her while it’s still too young to hunt on its own. We have no business doing anything with her. Let’s just go.”
“But…”
“I… I think I agree with May,” Mark finally said, swallowing a lump in his throat. “Let’s get out of here as soon as possible. There’s nothing we can do for her. I mean… whatever we do won’t bring her back to life.”
“Chaletwo!” Alan suddenly yelled, looking wildly at Mark. “Chaletwo! You can resurrect people, right?”
“Not if their bodies are crushed like that,” Chaletwo’s voice answered with a sigh. “It’s sad that Manectric died and all, but you kids really have more important things to think about. You have to get to Cleanwater City before sunset. Just go.”
Alan winced hopelessly, clearly not satisfied with this conclusion but not too keen on arguing with Chaletwo. “I guess,” he muttered.
Charizard spared a long look at the dead Manectric, but said nothing before they continued the walk through the cave, following Spirit as she trudged on despite the paralysis making her movements stiff and awkward. They walked in silence now, all fighting spirit gone; they saw a few wild Pokémon that illuminated the cave with the occasional bright Flash, but they were all small and did not pursue a battle, intimidated by the sight of Charizard and Spirit.
At last they saw light and climbed out of a wide crack on the other side of the mountain.
They admired the view. Rainbow Woods hugged the roots of the mountain below; past that, Cleanwater City stretched out over most of the area with Routes 301 and 302 on either side, Sailance just barely visible in the distance to the northwest, and the Lake of Purity southwest of the city, also surrounded by the beautiful forest.
“So yeah,” May said finally. “We’re out.”
Alan nodded stupidly.
“Yeah,” May repeated, staring transfixed at the lake in the distance before suddenly snapping out of her trance and looking at Mark. “So are we going to continue?”
Mark nodded dully. “Well, no use lingering here.”
It was an uneventful walk. While Thunderclap Cave had had Pokémon, this part of Rainbow Woods seemed to have extraordinarily few, most likely because Pokémon in the area could so easily simply move a bit south to an area of the forest they felt more comfortable in. They saw a couple of Pidgey, but they seemed wary and nervous, suggesting that they had only ventured into this area of the forest in daring hopes of finding more food where there were fewer Pokémon to compete with. The kids arrived in Cleanwater City around five o’clock, tired, hungry, still in shock and generally not at all up for fighting another battle of epic proportions in a couple of hours.
“Chaletwo,” Mark moaned when they had signed into their rooms at the hotel and were all resting in Mark’s room with a few bags of fast food, “are you sure we can’t just do this tomorrow?”
“You can try again tomorrow if necessary! There’s no need to delay the battle before even trying it. You beat Thunderyu, and Suicune can’t fly. Of course you can do this.”
“We only have two thirds of the Pokémon we had this morning, for Christ’s sake!” Alan said hotly. “There’s no way we can do this and it’s putting ourselves and our Pokémon in unnecessary danger!”
“You have a chance,” Chaletwo insisted. “And I told you nobody’s going to die, okay?”
Alan opened his mouth to say something, but abandoned the plan midway through and just closed his mouth again.
“Just finish eating and then get over to the lake. Hurry up a little.”
They ate their food nervously and then headed outside; Spirit had been healed at the Pokémon Center when they had first arrived in the city, so her movements were sleek and graceful again, and she repeatedly trotted ahead of them on the road before waiting for them, walking for a moment by May’s side and then dashing ahead again. They watched nervously as the sun moved slowly but steadily down in the western sky ahead of them.
“Suicune arrives at the northwestern bank of the lake,” Chaletwo told them as they walked. “And you should not get yourselves seen, so it would be best for you to go into the forest about there and wait there until everybody is gone and then get ready to take on Suicune. Oh – he might just dip a paw in the lake and then run away, which might be a problem. Any of your Pokémon got Mean Look?”
“I do,” said Spirit, who was at the moment walking alongside May.
“So does Vicky,” Alan replied, “but does that mean they’re going to be in some particular danger?”
“No, no,” Chaletwo said distractedly. “Both of them can turn invisible, right? It’s best if you kids hide in the forest with your Pokémon inside their balls so Suicune won’t notice anything while Spirit and Vicky wait somewhere closer, invisible. Then when Suicune is purifying the water, they pop out, work together to trap him with Mean Look as quickly as possible and then immediately you jump out, send out your Pokémon and bring him down. Sound like a plan?”
Alan shrugged, not seeming overly impressed. “I guess so.”
When they arrived at the lake, the tourist crowd was already beginning to thin, but it was nonetheless easy to sneak unnoticed into the forest.
“Why does the forest have to be so dense in here?” May complained, disentangling her foot from the undergrowth for the umpteenth time. As she shook her shoe out of the wiry roots, she suddenly froze.
“Wait a minute,” she said. “What’s that?”
“What?”
Then Mark saw it too: he caught a glimpse of something moving, half-hidden behind a tree not too far away.
The end of a leek stuck out from the side of the trunk.
“Farfetch’d,” Mark and May realized at the same time. Alan came up to see what they were looking at.
“Spirit, Quick Attack!” May shouted, startling the brown duck Pokémon to fly clumsily up from the ground just as the Ninetales dashed towards it at amazing speed and tackled it back down to the ground.
“Flamethrower now!” May ordered. The Farfetch’d quacked and slapped Spirit in the side of her face with its leek so that it managed to make another attempt to fly up, but she quickly breathed a plume of fire that scorched its feathers and sent it crashing back into the ground, seemingly already defeated.
May looked at it.
“Going to catch it?” Alan asked.
Mark saw her upper lip quiver slightly in something close to disgust. “No,” she said. “Farfetch’d are really we…”
She stopped there, squeezed her eyes momentarily shut and then inhaled. “They’re rare,” she corrected herself. “It’s better for the species if… you shut up, Mark,” she added in a hiss as he began to giggle at the much too obvious attempt to evade Alan’s ever-critical gaze. Alan, however, either didn’t notice or pretended not to; his face was now beaming with some mixture of pride and encouragement.
“Come on, Spirit,” May just sighed and they went on.
The sun was rapidly approaching the horizon and already most of the people by the lakeside were gone. The kids waited just inside the forest and watched some of the last tourists leave.
“Isn’t it amazing how easily you can forget about the existence of your Pokémon while it’s in its Pokéball?” May suddenly muttered. “I need to talk to Lapras. Can’t I go down to the lake and send her out?”
“I think everybody’s gone, pretty much,” said Mark, watching a couple of women on the other side of the lake recall their Pokémon and begin to walk towards the city. They couldn’t see anybody else in the area.
“Okay,” May replied, walked the few meters down to the lakeside and reached for her Pokéball necklace.
Then she stopped.
“Um…” she began forcedly, “maybe it would be nice if we… you know… we caught quite a few of our Pokémon by this lake, didn’t we? Maybe they’d like to… dunno, see their families again or something? Just while we’re here?” She looked questioningly between Mark and Alan.
“That’s a great idea, May!” Alan said happily, sending her another beaming smile. Mark suppressed a giggle.
“Well, yeah, it’s not a bad idea,” he concurred, shrugged and took out his Pokéballs. He took a last quick look at the other side of the lake; the two women were gone and there was nobody in sight anymore. “Go, everybody!” he declared and threw his Pokéballs along with the others.
As the Pokémon materialized on the bank – with the notable exception of Gyarados who of course appeared in the lake – May hesitated before taking out her last ball.
“Lapras, go.”
The giant turtle appeared in the water and looked around before turning to her trainer and waiting for her to say something.
May sighed, opened her mouth, closed it again and sighed again.
“What do you want, Lapras?” she asked finally. “Should I release you or… try to be a better trainer or something?”
Lapras looked around the lake again and shivered uncomfortably. “I never liked it here,” she just said.
“So then you’ll stay with me?” May asked, perhaps a bit too quickly.
Lapras swallowed. After a long silence, she answered: “No. You’ll take me somewhere else, maybe to the sea, and release me there.”
May’s gaze flicked from Mark on her left to Alan on her right. She nodded slowly. “What about until then?”
Lapras took a while to think about it, glancing between Mark, May, Alan and her own reflection in the lake.
“I won’t battle for you,” she then reiterated. “But I understand I may be needed in the legendary battles. I will fight then, but not for your gain.”
Mark could tell from the awkward expression on May’s face that the words stung, but she managed herself pretty well regardless. “Okay, then,” she said quietly. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
There was a second of silence as May and Lapras looked momentarily into each other’s eyes.
“Thank you,” said Lapras softly, dissolved into red energy and disappeared back into her Pokéball, which May shakily replaced on her necklace.
Alan patted her on the back. “Cheer up,” he said. “My dad had to release a lot of Pokémon who wanted to go, and you know what he became. Well, granted,” he added as an afterthought, “I don’t think any of his Pokémon actually made the choice to leave out of dislike for him per se, but… having to release a Pokémon isn’t the end of the world.”
May took a deep breath. “I’m fine,” she insisted for the third time that day. “Really. Stop worrying about me.”
Then she turned to all the Pokémon. “Okay,” she announced, her voice trembling a little bit at first but otherwise sounding normal. “We’re going to try to battle Suicune in a little while, but now, if you were caught here, this is your chance to go back to where you used to live or something. Just be sure to be back in…” She looked at her watch. “…half an hour, okay? Then we’ll go over strategies and such before Suicune actually appears.”
“Jolteon, are you all right for this battle?” Mark asked his Pokémon quietly. “You don’t need to take part if you don’t want to.”
“I’ll fight,” he replied. “It’s scary, but we have to do it, don’t we?”
Mark nodded. “Okay, then. So now you have half an hour… Why don’t you just relax and try to enjoy yourself or something?”
Jolteon responded with a nod and trotted off with Letal; Dragonair was already in the air practicing his flying skills and Sandslash had presumably gone to see the Sandshrew he had grown up with. Mark felt somehow alone with only Gyarados and Charizard by his side now that almost all the other Pokémon had left; only Spirit stayed with May, who was stroking her absent-mindedly, and all of Alan’s Pokémon had appreciated the fresh air and disappeared into the woods somewhere.
“Mark.”
He looked up. It was Gyarados; the sea monster’s eyes flicked back and forth in visible discomfort.
“I hate this place. I hate Suicune. Do I need to take part in this battle?”
Mark was slightly taken aback by the question. “Well, if you don’t want to,” he said, “but why don’t you want to fight Suicune? You seemed pretty enthusiastic about it before.”
Gyarados stared at the woods where Suicune would come out. “I know, but I don’t want it now. Can you be without me?”
Mark honestly thought the situation looked pretty hopeless. Gyarados had an extremely powerful attack that he had been hoping would perhaps be able to make up for the fact they had considerably fewer Pokémon to fight with this time. But ultimately, he had just been watching May have to release a Pokémon because she had forced it to fight battles it didn’t want, and he wasn’t planning to have to repeat that episode.
“Well, I think it will be a pretty hard battle without you,” Mark finally replied, “but if you really don’t want to, that has to be up to you, I guess.”
For a moment something flashed in Gyarados’s eyes; then, in an instant, it was gone.
“Thanks,” he said, and like Lapras, he recalled himself into his Pokéball.
Mark sighed, glancing at Charizard, the last of his Pokémon remaining. In fact, now that he thought about it, it was a bit funny Charizard was sitting there staring into the air rather than flying with Dragonair.
“Anything bothering you?” he asked, sitting down beside his Pokémon.
Charizard sighed. “I killed that Manectric.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Mark said immediately.
“It’s not that,” Charizard said slowly. “It’s more that… I didn’t feel bad about it. I mean, not instinctively. My conscious mind did, but there was also something just telling me ‘Fresh meat’.” He shuddered. “Sorry. I was raised in captivity. I’m not used to hunting, but the basic programming is still there. I guess it creeps me out a little bit.”
Mark nodded, but the subject of the dead Manectric still made him feel an uncomfortable sting in his heart. Neither of them said anything for a while.
“Well,” Charizard said slowly, “I guess I’ll just go with Dragonair, then.”
Mark nodded again and watched his first Pokémon take off and join Dragonair in the air. He looked at his watch; it had been twenty minutes now. He saw Sandslash already approaching from the other bank where he had been. For some reason he felt butterflies in his stomach at this point. Second legendary battle in one day. And it was rapidly approaching.
The Pokémon gathered back with their trainers and Chaletwo got ready to make his speech.
“Okay, then,” said the telepathic voice in their heads. “It’s time for the second legendary battle. Some of you got very hurt this morning, but this time there will be no air chases and no electricity, which ought to make things a little easier for at least some of you.
“The basic idea is much the same as against Thunderyu. Remember that Suicune is very powerful. However, the fundamental difference is that Suicune is not dangerous. He will not kill you. He will not attack your trainers. Most of all he would like to avoid having a battle at all, but of course that means we have to force him into one. For this, we need Vicky the Misdreavus and Spirit the Ninetales to make a joint effort to trap him with Mean Look before the battle itself begins. The plan is that they will wait, invisible, while Suicune arrives, and only after they have trapped him will the trainers send the rest of you out, at which time you need to be quick to rush in and distract Suicune, because if he manages to beat both Victoria and Spirit into unconsciousness, he will no longer be trapped and will be sure to have escaped from our grasp within seconds. Like this morning, you need to think for yourselves some; your trainers can only think about one or two of you at a time.
“Remember teamwork and cooperation. Together you can hopefully bring Suicune down. If not, you can try again tomorrow. Try not to get yourselves injured too much. Don’t do anything too bold. We have time here.
“And Mark – like last time, keep your eyes on Suicune so I can see what’s going on, all right? Now, let’s get you all recalled except Spirit and Vicky, and then we’ll just wait.”
Mark looked nervously at the others as he recalled all of his Pokémon. In a few seconds of flashing red light, only the Ninetales and the Misdreavus remained out.
“Okay, both of you turn yourselves invisible and wait there just by the edge of the lake. Suicune should be arriving any moment now. Kids, get into the forest there by the sides.”
Mark backed away on one side and May and Alan on the other, disappearing behind the trees. Again, Mark felt butterflies in his stomach as he watched Spirit and Vicky fade away and disappear entirely from sight. Now it was just waiting.
“Kids?” came Chaletwo’s voice suddenly. “Just making one thing clear. In the case Suicune does defeat all your Pokémon… you run for it, understand?”
“I thought you were ‘absolutely certain’ Suicune wouldn’t attack us,” Alan replied with some mixture of disdain and terror.
“Well, I am,” Chaletwo said shortly, “but you can never be too careful.”
It was getting cooler with the evening. Mark shivered, perhaps from cold or perhaps from fear.
With an increasing feeling of dread, they waited for nightfall.
Sparky truly is taking this remarkably well. Seems like these children caught a rampaging legendary, but whatever, no need to ask further, town's good.
Mark's feelings on the tension between May and Alan over the Lapras thing really are pretty bizarre, seventeen-year-old self. Chastising them for 'bickering' and thinking it's hilarious is just strange. Why aren't you taking this seriously, Mark. It's not like they're arguing about something petty and trivial.
Hey, Alan, you know what you should be telling May to do in your determination to encourage her to be better to her Pokémon? Maybe to actually talk to the Trapinch that she caught in its sleep before hauling it off with her? The one who initially ran away, and only attacked when cornered? You know, having given no indication he wanted a trainer at all? No? Really?
The random Manectric that dies here was simply a bystander victim of me finding this chapter a slog to write. I literally killed her off just to make the chapter a little more interesting for me. I wound up having plenty of fun with everyone's reactions to it (love to write me some characters feeling bad), and some of them are even kind of telling and/or meaningful for ongoing character development, but that was all purely improvised/accidental. Deciding to go for this shameless self-indulgence allowed me to speed through the rest of this chapter that I'd been bashing my head against for six months in the space of a week, though, so honestly worth it.
Mark shivered as an icy chill blew past them and a being of unimaginable grace dashed by through the forest, eerily close to where he was hidden. He watched the slender blue creature slow down and walk calmly towards the lake, tossing his head so that the billowing purple cape streaming out from his neck swished back in a peculiar, rippling motion.
He was gripped by a weird feeling of immense respect, something he had not felt for Thunderyu since he was not one of the creatures he had been reading about since he was a kid. Something about seeing Suicune so close gave him a sensation of thrill and, in some bizarre way, honour. He bowed his head as the legendary Pokémon approached the bank of the lake, feeling somehow that it was wrong to watch Suicune perform the purification while sneaking up on him.
“Look at him, damn it!” Chaletwo hissed in his mind. “Remember you’re seeing for two!”
Mark forced himself to look up as Suicune bent down on the bank of the lake, extended his paw and touched the surface.
“NOW!” Chaletwo’s voice shouted, and all of a sudden, Spirit and Vicky popped into existence on either side of Suicune. The legendary looked quickly up, but both of their eyes were already glowing with an eerie red color. As Suicune attempted to dash back into the forest where he had come from, it was as if he were hit by an invisible wall in mid-air and thrown backwards from the impact. Blood red ripples formed momentarily in the seemingly empty space where the Pokémon had rebounded.
“Go send out your Pokémon! Quick!” Chaletwo ordered frantically. Mark sprang up from his hiding place; he saw Suicune look at him in surprise and then at May and Alan who were sending out their Pokémon on the other side.
“I’m sorry, Suicune,” Mark whispered. Somehow he felt slightly better having said it, even knowing Suicune couldn’t hear him. He took a deep breath, grabbed his Pokéballs (at first he took Gyarados’s as well but realized his mistake at the last moment and hurriedly replaced it on his belt) and threw them.
“Everybody, go!”
The Pokémon’s cries filled the air as eleven Pokémon materialized on the ground. Dragonair and Charizard immediately took off into the air to make it more difficult for the earthbound Suicune to attack them; meanwhile, the legendary crouched down in a defensive position and shook his cape. Suddenly, dark clouds gathered in the air above them, and with a roar of thunder, it began to rain heavily.
“Spirit, assume the weak spirit form and keep it up as long as you can!” May ordered quickly through the sound of the raindrops falling onto the leaves of the trees. “Pupitar, Rock Slide! Raichu, Thunderbolt! Damn, why didn’t I teach you Thunder sometime?”
Spirit began to fade slowly away while Raichu started charging up electricity in his cheeks. Meanwhile, however, Suicune picked Pupitar out as the easiest target, and while large rocks were heaving themselves up from the lake, the legendary Pokémon fired a high-pressure jet of water at the pupa, who was immediately blasted into a tree. The rocks dropped back into the lake with a splash of water that sprinkled all over the Pokémon on top of the rain as May recalled the fainted Pupitar.
“Raaiiiichu!” Raichu cried as he crouched down on all fours and released a bolt of electricity that flew straight at Suciune. The legendary only shuddered slightly as he was struck by the blast of electricity, but seemed otherwise dismayingly unharmed.
“Just being offensive won’t get you anywhere!” Chaletwo shouted irritably. “Confuse him! Paralyze him! Put him to sleep! Strategy, guys, strategy!”
Lapras let out a loud cry and released a small light from her mouth that started dancing around Suicune to distract him, but the legendary Pokémon forced his eyes away from it.
“Thunder Wave, Raichu!” May yelled. The mouse Pokémon quickly crouched down and began to sparkle with electricity.
“Racko, Leaf Blade!” Alan shouted. “Diamond, Stomp! Slash, Pamela!”
“Raiii!”
Raichu fired a wave of paralyzing electricity at Suicune. The legendary howled in pain as his body stiffened up; meanwhile the Grovyle leapt at him with a screech, the leaves on his wrists glowing, and slashed across Suicune’s body just as Pamela raked her claws across his other side.
“Sui…” growled the deep voice of the legendary Pokémon as Suicune lowered his head, closing his eyes in concentration.
“Calm Mind…” May muttered to herself. Then: “Physical attacks, everybody! Quick! You too, Charizard, since it can’t break its concentration by attacking you!”
Charizard glanced once doubtfully at her, his mortal fear of the water shining clearly through, but then dived. Wow, Mark thought with a bitterness that made him feel slightly mad at himself. Even my Pokémon are willing to bet their lives that she’s always right.
Charizard smacked his wing powerfully into Suicune’s head, but the legendary Pokémon didn’t defend himself; he let the blow push him harshly to the side so that he only barely stayed on his feet. Meanwhile, Jolteon jumped at him with a cry and sank his fangs into Suicune’s slender paw. Eerily, he didn’t even wince: the legendary’s eyes were still closed in deep concentration.
The other Pokémon attacked Suicune more or less all at the same time, using whatever physical measures they had for inflicting damage. Suicune’s eyes snapped open and he appeared to be trying to move, but the paralysis kept him rooted on the spot.
“Ice Beam, Lapras, quick, before it can move again!” May yelled. “Spirit, try a Shadow Ball! Thunderbolt, Raichu!”
“Jolteon, help Raichu!” Mark called and then figured he might as well give some other orders to his Pokémon. “Try another Wing Attack, Charizard,” he added. “Slam, Dragonair! Sandslash, Slash him! And Letal, use Take Down!”
Meanwhile, Alan gave some orders as well, and all the Pokémon sprang into action during those few seconds when Suicune was fully paralyzed. Charizard and Dragonair dived down together and Charizard beat Suicune with his wing while Dragonair smashed his tail orbs into the legendary’s head. Letal rammed her body powerfully into Suicune’s side just before Jolteon and Raichu sent a joint Thunderbolt and a beam of ice from Lapras struck the crystal formation on Suicune’s head. Meanwhile Racko kept slashing with his leaves, and Spirit and Vicky both faded to material form as they together charged an orb of shadow energy. Diamond stabbed her horn into Suicune’s side, creating a bleeding wound, while Pamela and Sandslash ran up and slashed him.
Finally Suicune regained the ability to move. He wrestled away from his attackers, leaping gracefully over their heads to the bank of the lake where he faced them. Suicune’s crystal glowed and a tidal wave rose up from the surface of the lake behind him, rushing towards the bank.
“Look out!” Alan shouted stupidly while the Pokémon scattered. They tried desperately to get out of the way, but the wall of water quickly crashed down upon them and submerged the area completely, neatly avoiding the trees where the trainers were hiding.
“How does Suicune know Surf?” Mark called, directing his question at May. “Isn’t it an HM move?”
“I don’t know,” she just answered, shaking her head while staring fixedly at the scene of the battle. “It is a legendary Pokémon…”
The water flowed back into the lake and the Pokémon scrambled to their feet – all except Sandslash and Diamond, who the water seemed to have gotten the better of. Mark and Alan silently recalled them while May continued to shout orders to the Pokémon. Mark watched with worry how Vicky flickered in and out of visibility, clearly getting too tired and hurt to keep it up. Spirit had apparently managed to escape it entirely by staying in her spirit form.
“Dragonair, try a Dragon Rage,” Mark quickly told his Pokémon, who was now circling above the scene with Charizard. Dragonair nodded, took a deep breath and breathed crimson fire down towards Suicune, but the legendary Pokémon had heard Mark’s command and was already prepared. Mark watched, stunned, as the crystal formation on Suicune’s head apparently absorbed all the fire and then, after a moment’s pause, sent a blue, somehow liquid-looking mirror image of the attack right back at Dragonair. The dragon squealed in pain as he was hit by the blast, but managed to recover his position in the air.
“It has Mirror Coat! Don’t use special attacks unless Suicune is immobile!” May yelled.
Suicune growled, raising his head, and then blasted a rainbow-colored beam of ice crystals up towards the dragon, who was still regaining his composure. Hit by the super-effective blast, Dragonair was thrown a few feet backwards and then hung still in the air momentarily before dropping down into the lake.
“No!” Mark quickly ran towards the lakeside with Dragonair’s Pokéball. It was lucky the lake was so clear; he could see the light blue, snakelike body even as it sank. He hoped the beam would reach as he pointed the Pokéball towards it and pressed the button. A red beam of light penetrated the water’s surface, hit Dragonair’s body and zapped back towards the Pokéball in a zigzag motion.
“Look at Suicune!” Chaletwo hissed.
He quickly turned his head and realized that Suicune was looking silently straight at him, the legendary’s expression inscrutable. Again, he was overcome by guilt over what he was doing to the creature. He heard May command his Pokémon as if they were her own and the thought to just stand back and watch rather than participate in this dreadful battle seriously occurred to him.
“No, you don’t,” Chaletwo said coldly. “You’re who I picked out from that crowd. Don’t disappoint me by standing there being useless while letting those two nobodies do all the work.”
A hateful thought flashed across Mark’s mind; he hopelessly realized that Chaletwo would be able to detect it, even if he didn’t say it aloud.
“You self-absorbed moron,” he found himself suddenly having the courage to mutter. “I’ll do it, but for the sake of preventing the War of the Legends, not to make your idiotic method of picking people to help you with it look good.”
He clenched his fist until it hurt, not getting any answer, and then looked back at Suicune.
“Jolteon, Thunderbolt!” he shouted. “Another Take Down, Letal! Charizard, use Slash!” He looked at the legendary and added in a whisper, “I’m sorry, Suicune, but I’m hoping some good will come from this.”
For a moment he thought he saw Suicune nod, but then realized that he was just preparing for another Calm Mind. Jolteon released a bolt of lightning but it didn’t seem to harm the legendary Pokémon as much as it should have.
Charizard used the opportunity while Suicune was concentrating to dive down and rake his claws across the legendary’s body, and he narrowly managed to escape to a greater height before Suicune’s eyes opened again. The legendary Pokémon eyed Racko darting at him with the leaves on his wrists glowing and turned towards him. Suddenly the air around Suicune’s mouth filled with vapour before he fired another, considerably more powerful-looking rainbow-colored beam of ice crystals. It hit the Grovyle squarely in his chest; the reptile staggered backwards, gasping for air, and then collapsed on the ground.
“Return!” Alan shouted and recalled his Pokémon into the Pokéball.
“Mark! Look at the lake!” May yelled. He quickly looked around to see that Suicune was raising another tidal wave on the water’s surface, dangerously close to his own rather stupid location right at the bank. He stood there panicking stupidly for a second, but then ran for it towards the forest. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the wave was rising much, much higher than the one before…
“Lapras, Ice Beam it!” May shouted.
The wall of water froze in place just as Mark got to safety behind the trees. He couldn’t help looking at Suicune and finding it rather bizarre that he had been standing in the same place taking all the other Pokémon’s attacks for the whole battle and he still didn’t look hurt at all. He had, of course, read about Suicune’s amazing defensive powers, but never realized he could be this hard to take down.
Suddenly, Suicune lifted his head and blasted a jet of water towards Charizard.
“Look out!” Mark cried as the dragon dived, but the Hydro Pump followed just behind his tail flame. Mark could see the fear in his first Pokémon’s eyes as he tried desperately to go faster and swing his tail flame out of the way, but Suicune’s attack followed. Mark wondered with dread whether Suicune might just kill one of them to make the others leave.
He saw that underneath the frozen wall of water, both Spirit and Vicky seemed to be too tired to keep up their immaterial forms. And even while Jolteon, Letal, Raichu and Pamela were still joining their efforts to attack him, Suicune ignored it almost completely, only wincing slightly when Pamela’s claws tore into his flesh and Letal rammed into his body – in fact, Letal was just now collapsing from exhaustion after her futile efforts with the multiple recoil attacks. Mark recalled her, still focusing on Charizard who was already tiring out after flying as fast as he could muster. He was flying very low now and looked at Mark as if to ask to be recalled just as he was approaching where the frozen wave still towered over the lake.
Suddenly, Mark realized what Suicune was trying to do.
As Charizard was just in front of the giant wall of ice, the legendary Pokémon turned his head suddenly and a moment later a jet of high-pressure water hit the Fire Pokémon’s body and threw him straight at the ice.
It took only seconds of Charizard roaring in pain for the heat of his body combined with the pressure to make the base of the ice wall melt halfway through. During that second, Mark managed to take out Charizard’s Pokéball and recall him before he would be fatally pushed into the lake, but during that second the ice wall collapsed straight onto Lapras.
“Return!” May shouted, recalling the Pokémon through the block of ice as Suicune began to raise yet another tidal wave from the water. “Spirit, try to get back into spirit form, quick! And Vicky too!”
They tried. Spirit gritted her teeth as she tried to summon the energy to make herself insubstantial and Vicky flickered.
But the Surf came crashing down first.
The water enveloped the whole lakeside, running smoothly past the trees as if there were an invisible wall in front of them. The clarity of the water allowed Mark to see plainly how the water enveloped Spirit and flurries of bubbles rose up from her thick fur, how Vicky floated around like a piece of cloth, how Jolteon, Pamela and Raichu were drifting upwards. All of them had fallen unconscious from the sheer force of the wave when it crashed down on them. He saw the others recall their fainted Pokémon and did so too while the water began to flow back into the lake. They had lost.
“All right,” said Chaletwo, speaking for the first time since Mark had snapped at him. “Remember what I said. Just get away now.”
May and Alan were already getting ready to run for it. All that stopped Mark was a momentary desire to have a look at Suicune one more time, from a little closer. It was an extremely stupid desire, he realized, but he wasn’t obsessed with legendary Pokémon for nothing.
The water cleared away and he ran a few meters towards the lake, staring at Suicune. The legendary’s eyes met his, and Mark wondered momentarily why Suicune wasn’t either attacking them or running away.
Then he realized that one of his Pokéballs had popped open.
“What the…”
May and Alan looked back to see what was going on and all three of them stared as the blinding beam of the Pokéball materialized into the looming shape of Gyarados. He faced Suicune with a twisted smile.
“Finally,” he growled in his language. Mark realized it was the first time he had heard Gyarados speak Pokémonish. Suicune took a step backwards.
“Scared of me, are you?” Gyarados snarled. “I knew they would lose if I didn’t take part and then I’d be able to face you alone.”
Suicune just looked at him, the legendary’s expression as inscrutable as ever.
“Why do you do it?” Gyarados spat. “Why do you go around ‘choosing’ random Pokémon for some selfish purposes of your own? What do you want with us? Were you hoping I’d be as brainwashed as that dumb Ninetales and become overjoyed at the news, prancing around and thinking I’m special? You don’t even tell us what you want with us, goddamn it! What if I don’t want to be ‘chosen’ and would prefer not to have been put through your idiot ‘test’? Why do you do it?”
Suicune looked up at Gyarados, straight into his eyes, but said nothing, his expression unchanging.
Gyarados started to laugh. “You’re not going to tell me, are you? There is probably no reason. You’re probably just doing it to feel like a high and mighty legendary Pokémon, then, aren’t you? Or is it just something so grand and secret that I can’t be in on it?”
Suicune didn’t move.
“Answer me, damn it!”
The two Pokémon looked into each other’s eyes for a few seconds. Then Suicune looked down and ever-so-slightly shook his head.
“Fine,” Gyarados replied, closed his eyes and began to turn gray. “Fine!”
Mark quickly reached for Gyarados’s Pokéball.
“Don’t,” said Chaletwo quickly. “If he weakens Suicune, you have a chance to try to go for the capture. Wait.”
Gyarados opened his eyes and blasted a bright red Dragon Beam straight at Suicune. He didn’t even try to dodge; it hit straight into the crystal on Suicune’s head, causing the legendary to stagger backwards slightly. Suicune closed his eyes in concentration.
Thin blue bands of what appeared to be electricity suddenly shot from Suicune to Gyarados. For a moment Mark thought Gyarados was surely done for, but then realized that he didn’t appear to be in any pain. In fact, if anything, his attack was growing stronger.
“What’s going on…?” Alan whispered as more and more of those strange blue lightning bolts connected the two Pokémon. Gyarados’s beam was steadily growing brighter and brighter and blue sparks circled all around Gyarados, enveloping him completely in blue and white until it looked almost like he was evolving. Mark shielded his eyes from the brightness, still wondering what on earth was happening; he could see Suicune, with his eyes closed, straining against the power of the now-white Dragon Beam. It was first now that Suicune showed any signs of being hurt.
Then it stopped. Suicune staggered backwards a couple of steps before collapsing on the ground.
“Yes! Throw the ball!”
Mark didn’t want to obey. He looked at Gyarados, who was still enveloped with white energy although it was fading away, and wanted to see if he would be all right. But he grabbed an Ultra Ball anyway and threw it at the fallen legendary Pokémon.
It bounced off as if he’d just thrown it onto the ground. As if Suicune weren’t even alive.
Mark’s mind went completely numb. All he could do was stare as Alan ran towards Suicune and touched him, first carefully and then pushing him roughly. He checked for a pulse at Suicune’s neck and looked up, horrified, shaking his head slowly.
Suicune is dead. Gyarados murdered Suicune. Oh, God. Oh, God.
He looked quickly back towards Gyarados and watched as the white faded away, but something was wrong.
“Was…” May hesitated. “Was Gyarados this light-colored before?”
It was as some of the white light had seeped into him permanently. Instead of his previous unusually dark color, his scales were now unusually light for his species.
But what had caught Mark’s attention were the three gems, two smaller and one bigger, that now seemed to have embedded themselves into one of the sea monster’s upper segments to form a pattern.
Gyarados, after taking a quick look at Suicune’s body, looked at them. “What do you mean, light-colored?” he asked sharply.
Mark just pointed, and Gyarados looked down to see the gems.
“It’s the same pattern as on Spirit’s necklace,” May muttered, and Gyarados seemed to have realized the same. He raised his head hatefully towards the dark night sky and roared. Suicune had placed the mark on him, taken him to the next step of ‘chosenhood’ – as if it had all been planned. As if Gyarados had killed Suicune for nothing.
“Well,” Chaletwo said finally after a long silence, “I suppose we’re one step closer either way.”
His telepathic voice was shaking, but Mark hardly noticed it. There was no joy of victory, no feeling of triumph or relief. There was only dull silence as he recalled Gyarados and they dragged Suicune’s body into the forest where it hopefully wouldn’t be found.
Hahahahaha you thought Mark's good feelings about legendary battles from chapter 33 might last? THINK AGAIN
Remember when a Pokémon knowing an HM move naturally was almost unheard of? In Molzapart and Rainteicune, the precursor to this fic, I insisted that Molzapart is just so strong that he can learn HM moves naturally, and I guess that carried over to here, with the idea that somehow Suicune knowing an HM move is something mysterious and impressive. It just sounds kind of silly, especially today when HM moves are no longer special.
So, plot twist, Gyarados kills Suicune. Nobody quite responds to this here like he did something wrong - everyone's just sort of reacting as if it were a total accident that just suddenly happened, and it's weird. I'm not really sure what was going through my head there. Going to get some mileage out of this in the future, though.
Welcome to chapter 36, in which Mark tries to convince the inhabitants to evacuate a town built on the inside of a volcano.
With this, I've finally caught up with the chapter art again, so chapter 37 will be coming when I've finished the art for that.
Chapter 36: The Crater
It was a gloomy group that walked quietly back to Cleanwater City that night.
They were not met with any suspicion when they entered the Pokémon Center and left their Pokémon, and they heard no one there talk about a battle taking place at the Lake. Apparently it had gone by unnoticed, but they didn’t feel much relief.
“Where do we go now?” Mark finally muttered as they exited, breaking the silence that had lasted since they’d left the lake.
“Well,” Chaletwo sighed, “I think you should just let your Pokémon rest for now. Just… go to the hotel and get a good night’s sleep, and then… well, maybe you should just take it easy tomorrow. Two legendary battles in one day really isn’t working out.”
Everybody seemed content with this conclusion, and nobody talked while they walked the short distance to the hotel and went up the stairs.
“I think I’m just going to bed,” Mark said emptily.
“Me too,” Alan muttered. May just shrugged.
“Good night, then,” Mark said and went into his room, throwing himself down on his bed.
Suicune is dead.
A nightmarish memory of pulling a limp paw while dragging Suicune into a bush flashed across his mind and made him feel a little nauseous.
“What does this all mean?” he muttered, thinking of the sparkles that had enveloped Gyarados. Maybe it has to do with Gyarados attacking Suicune with the power that Suicune himself gave him, he speculated to himself.
“Well,” Chaletwo replied, “I don’t know, but we might get to the bottom of this if we can talk to Entei before we…”
“Who asked you?” Mark snapped.
He waited for a few seconds. No reply.
He thought of himself standing there, watching while Gyarados fired the fatal Dragon Beam, and shuddered.
I let him do it. I let Gyarados kill Suicune.
A little voice in his head disagreed. Why are you taking the blame? You were going to recall him. It was Chaletwo who told you not to. It’s his fault.
Yeah, Mark thought grimly. It’s all Chaletwo’s fault.
“I wouldn’t say…”
“Go away!” Mark shouted at Chaletwo in exasperation. “Why don’t you just mind your own business instead of sitting here spying on my private thoughts?”
Again, there was no reply.
Chaletwo? he thought.
“Yes?”
Mark gritted his teeth. “You’re still there! Get out of my head for real or I’m not taking part in your stupid plan anymore!”
A few seconds of nothing passed.
I should resign anyway, he thought airily. May can do it all better than I can.
Again, there was no reply, but there was no way for him to tell if Chaletwo was really not reading his thoughts or if he was just resisting the urge to comment in order to make Mark think he wasn’t.
“Well,” he muttered, “if you really are listening, you’ll have to act like you never heard it for the rest of your life.”
He sighed, now fairly content that even if Chaletwo heard him, he’d at least not interrupt.
Suicune…
Did you mean for that to happen? What is so special about Gyarados, anyway? What is he chosen for? I don’t get it.
And anyway, how could he kill Suicune just like that? A legendary Pokémon? Just like…
He bolted upright. “Chaletwo!” he called at the air. “Couldn’t you have resurrected him? The body was in perfect shape aside from those little battle scratches we gave him!”
“Impossible,” Chaletwo replied shortly. “The body was whole, but the ghost was gone. I don’t know what Gyarados did to him or if Suicune did it to himself or what, but I felt around for his consciousness immediately and didn’t find it. Now, you don’t want me around – and for your information I was not reading your thoughts until you shouted, thank you very much – so I’ll just pretend I don’t exist until tomorrow. Good night.”
For a moment Mark wondered if it had really been a good idea to get him that worked up.
Yes, a voice in his head answered, and that was the end of that.
-------
It felt great the next morning to be able to finally relax and not worry about travelling to the next destination yet. Even though Suicune’s death still loomed over them, it somehow seemed a little less horrible when they weren’t out to find whatever legendary was next on Chaletwo’s list – Mark could even imagine that Chaletwo actually cared that they had killed Suicune and that that was the reason he didn’t want them to go on yet, which made him feel a little better. They took their time eating a good breakfast at the hotel and then retrieved their Pokémon from the Pokémon Center.
“Well,” Alan said once they were back at the hotel, “shouldn’t we fill them in?”
Mark nodded quietly.
They sent out all the Pokémon except Lapras, Diamond and Gyarados in Mark’s room, and he realized as they all began to feverishly ask questions that some of them had missed the outcome of not one, but two legendary battles.
“Okay, just settle down,” Alan shouted over the cacophony of Pokémon speech. “You need to catch up.”
The Pokémon eventually stopped talking to listen to Alan. He looked nervously around, realizing he had been silently elected as the one to explain.
“All right,” he said, biting his lip. “Um. Better start at the beginning. Well, thanks to Lapras’s step-in at the last moment, we succeeded in defeating and capturing Thunderyu.”
Charlie, at the moment in his Charmander form, smiled in relief along with Mist the Vaporeon, who was standing beside him.
“Figured,” Scyther said indifferently. Butterfree looked at him and at Mark, but didn’t say anything.
“So, well, then we went on to Cleanwater City, where we obviously are now, to battle Suicune…”
“And did you catch him?” Charlie asked with worry in his voice.
Alan smiled awkwardly. “Eh. Not exactly.”
“We lost,” Jolteon muttered emptily. “We’ll have to go battle him again tonight.”
All the Pokémon looked up at Alan for confirmation. He took a deep breath, but Mark beat him to it.
“No,” he said bitterly. “Suicune is dead.”
Every single one of them stared at him for a moment, and then the room exploded in chaos.
“What?”
“How?”
“Can legendary Pokémon die?”
Jolteon and Sandslash stared at him in disbelief. Racko tilted his reptilian head and blinked questioningly up at Alan, and Mist just looked devastated.
“After we lost… Gyarados came out of his Pokéball,” Mark said, sounding more spiteful than he intended. “And he killed Suicune. With Dragon Beam. And when Suicune died, Gyarados got marked with that… that symbol on Spirit’s necklace, except blue.” He pointed at the Ninetales.
“That can’t be right,” Spirit said, shaking her head. “I have long since concluded that the symbol is the legendary Pokémon’s ultimate mark of approval and…”
“Well, either Suicune approved of being dead or your conclusion is wrong,” Mark said rudely. This conversation was all making him a great deal more upset, as cheerful as he had been to be able to relax that morning. Spirit shook her white mane with a slightly offended expression, but didn’t reply.
There were a few seconds of silence. Mist seemed to be taking the news the worst; Mark figured a Water Pokémon would be more upset about the death of one of its own protector deities, so to speak. She stared emptily into space, ignoring entirely when Charlie came up to give her a reassuring hug.
“I’m sorry,” Mark muttered. “But it happened. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”
“What about Gyarados?” Mist asked shakily. “What are you going to do with him?”
Mark looked blankly at her. What, indeed? Part of him suddenly screamed vengeance; Gyarados surely shouldn’t just get away with this. He got all sorts of ideas he immediately wished he hadn’t gotten and for a moment seriously considered just dumping him off at the Lake of Purity, since he hated the place so much. Then reason sank in.
“We need him,” he told her. “Gyarados may be the most powerful Pokémon we have. We need all the power we can get if we’re going to defeat all the other legendaries.”
Mist looked down at the floor, saying nothing. There was an awkward silence.
“What do we do now, then?” Jolteon asked quietly.
Mark looked at him. “Well, Chaletwo says we have the day off, at least.”
“I say we should eat before we do anything else,” May said, and everybody liked the idea.
-------
They ate lunch, and eventually, at a loss for what to do in the afternoon, decided to go out to the Lake of Purity again, both to subtly try to make sure that nobody wandered too far into the forest in the direction where they had left Suicune’s body and to just spend some time trying to think about something other than their quest.
Chaletwo, Mark had noticed by the time they were on their way to the lake, had not said anything at all since yesterday evening. He wasn’t quite sure if it was because he was offended or he just hadn’t felt the need to say anything, but it caused him to start musing about what Chaletwo did during the night, anyway. Was he just sitting in Mark’s head getting bored to death? Or maybe watching his dreams to relieve the boredom? (This thought brought up the priceless image of Chaletwo sitting alone in an otherwise empty movie theater with a bag of popcorn trying to figure out why the May on the screen was wearing a fake mustache.) Or did he maybe sleep in some sense – submit to the ordinary half-consciousness of being contained in a Pokéball? But then how did he know when to wake up? He got as far as psychic alarm clocks before he realized that May was starting to look oddly at him out of the corner of his eye while he was snickering to himself.
But once they were at the lake, watching the crowd of people walking obliviously past the trees they had dragged Suicune’s body off between, he felt altogether differently and experienced that strange feeling of being angry at himself for being emotionally capable of fooling around when his sense of morality was telling him he should spend the rest of his life mourning and never laugh again. The silence in the group was awkward, and Mark kept thinking he was seeing somebody walking in just the right direction to find the body.
“So uh,” Alan said at last, “what are we going to do here besides stand around? Shouldn’t we use the time for something? Get the mind occupied with something else?”
May shrugged. “We could battle.”
Relieved at the idea of something to take his mind off Suicune again, Mark immediately said, “Yeah, I like that idea.”
Alan looked at him. “Well, I haven’t battled a person in a long while. I wouldn’t mind a friendly match.”
Mark smiled. Battling Alan sounded a lot better than battling May, mostly because he had a distinct feeling that he would lose to her no matter what he did.
“So May, do you mind…?”
She shook her head. “I can be the referee. And I’ll keep an eye on that place so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Sometimes Mark was amazed at how emotionally tough May could be. Alan at least seemed uncomfortable about Suicune’s death. May was just… there. Like she didn’t care.
“All right, then, we’ll make it a six on six match,” May announced formally as they walked over to a less occupied spot where they would conveniently get in the way of anybody straying too close to where the body was. “Let’s allow switching for a change. No move restrictions, those are boring. Both battlers send out at the same time. Go!”
It took Mark a second to realize they were starting. He quickly reached for one of his Pokéballs to hurl it forward. The white shape from the ball materialized into Scyther while Alan’s ball released Mist the Vaporeon. Mark figured Alan had decided she was probably the one of his Pokémon that most needed to get her mind off Suicune.
“Okay, Scyther, um… X-Scissor!” Mark blurted out.
“Mist, use Aqua Ring!” Alan ordered.
Scyther zoomed forward with his scythes raised as they were enveloped in a faint green glow. The Vaporeon braced herself as he slashed at her body with both of them, forming red, crossed cuts on her back. As Scyther retreated back towards Mark, Mist breathed out a spray of water that began to orbit her, some of it dousing her wounds and slowly closing them.
“All right, um… try a Double Team?” Mark suggested. He wasn’t sure why he suddenly felt like using techniques he’d never really used before, but something made him want to do something new.
Two copies of the mantis split out of Scyther’s body on either side of him while Alan ordered Mist to use an Ice Beam. She crouched down and fired a beam of ice from her mouth at the Scyther in the middle, but the copy dissolved into the air.
“Scyther, Swords Dance!” Mark yelled, figuring that it would be best to boost Scyther’s attack power so the Aqua Ring wouldn’t heal too much of the damage in between. Both Scyther started spinning around on the spot while moving their scythes in elaborate patterns.
“Haze!” Alan shouted.
The Vaporeon breathed out a fine mist that quickly engulfed both Pokémon. Mark saw the two Scyther lose their concentration in the Swords Dance and one of them flickered out of existence while the haze faded.
Mark’s gaze quickly ran over to May; she shook her head, making it painfully obvious that Haze was something he ought to have expected. He gritted his teeth.
“Oh, fine, I won’t even try to pretend to know what I’m doing. Just slash away.”
The mantis was all too happy to obey and zoomed at Mist with his scythes aloft.
“Acid Armor!” Alan quickly retaliated. The Vaporeon’s flesh dissolved into liquid water just before Scyther’s scythe touched her, and it easily chopped through her watery form, lodging into the ground instead. Scyther jerked it out and growled in annoyance, staying just next to Mist while remaining tense, waiting for her to turn back into solid form. Alan shifted on his feet, not daring to make an order; Mist waited, turning her head toward him.
Finally Scyther just lost his patience and started to hack madly away at the Vaporeon-shaped blob of water, and to his astonishment, Mark realized that it was working to some degree. While she obviously wasn’t chopped to pieces, Mist flinched under it and tried to get away, and finally the water turned back into her solid form while Alan watched with a worried expression. She looked more like she had just been bludgeoned by something heavy than cut up with scythes.
“Mist, another Ice Beam!” Alan called, and the Vaporeon quickly shot a thin beam of ice up at the mantis, who had only gotten an opportunity to step slightly back. He was hit squarely in the chest and staggered backwards, but quickly regained his balance and countered with yet another swipe of his scythe, hitting Mist’s shoulder and leaving a deep, bleeding cut there.
Alan shuddered. “Mist, come back,” he said and recalled the Vaporeon to her Pokéball. He hesitated only a moment before picking the next ball. “Charlie, do it!”
The Charmander emerged from the ball and immediately began to glow in evolution. Mark realized that it would be wisest to switch, and his hand travelled down to his Pokéballs.
“Eh…” came Chaletwo’s voice suddenly, sounding notably awkward. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I think… I really think you should get going.”
What? Again? Mark thought, pausing. Why?
“Remember when I told you about Thunderyu? The next dragon, Volcaryu – he’s sealed inside Mount Fever. It’s close by, and I think he sensed it through his sleep when we woke Thunderyu. Since then he’s been struggling pretty fiercely against the sleep, and… I’m not sure how much longer I can hold him back. I may lose my grip on him as early as tomorrow.”
Well, Mount Fever isn’t that far away, is it? Mark argued. It would be easy to reach the roots of the mountain before that time. We deserve to take it easy for a little while, right?
“Well, sure, you do,” Chaletwo replied coldly. “I was just thinking, you know, since some human idiot got the brilliant idea of building a town in the middle of the crater of a dormant volcano and Volcaryu’s release would cause it to erupt…” Mark’s stomach twisted uncomfortably at this point. “Well, I figured that, you know, you wouldn’t want all those people to get fried. Sorry I got that impression. I’ll leave you to your happy fun battle now.”
Mark stared at May, Alan, Scyther and Charlie, who were all clearly confused as to why he was standing there still with a horrified expression in the middle of the battle.
“Okay, this is bad,” he muttered. “Really bad.”
-------
There wasn’t really anything for them to do, once Mark had briefly explained the situation, other than cancelling the battle, heading gloomily back to Cleanwater City, checking out of the hotel and heading out into Rainbow Woods again.
Mount Fever was a very large and prominent volcanic cone that could easily be seen all the way from Cleanwater City. It had been dormant for the past thousand years or so, but about a hundred years ago, a man known as ‘Pyromaniac Paul’ had gotten the insane idea of locating the unofficial Pokémon Gym he had been planning to found on the inside of the crater, and after getting a few friends into it with him, they had built a platform into the side of the crater of sufficient area and strength to hold Paul’s gym building and home. Eventually they had created a wide walkway going around the entire crater on its inside. The gym became famous and extremely popular as a tourist attraction thanks to the unique location, and somehow, eventually, a town had started to spring up around it while the walkways were gradually broadened. Now Crater Town, as it had come to be known, had gotten its gym declared official thanks to its current leader Carl, and consisted of a roughly circular wooden floor with houses scattered around it and a hole, perhaps five meters across, surrounded by a fence in the very middle of it, allowing travellers and inhabitants alike to gaze into the still fiery depths of the volcano beneath.
But the journey towards the volcano was slower than it had sounded like it would be. After going through the Pokémonless part of Rainbow Woods again and climbing up the mountainside there, sunset was growing dangerously close, and they weren’t even close to the roots of Mount Fever yet.
“You’re not going to make it,” Chaletwo told them with strained panic in his telepathic voice. “Well, you’re going to make it, but never in time to convince them to evacuate the place and get it done. I should have said something sooner…”
“Yes, you definitely should have,” Mark agreed. He wasn’t really sure how he felt. Part of him was screaming about all the people who might get killed, and another part insisted that it didn’t matter anymore because Suicune was dead. He really hated his emotions today.
It’s all Chaletwo’s fault, the third part said confidently, and it was the one he felt most inclined to agree with.
“Well, how about you speed us up, then?” May sighed. “Can’t you, like, teleport or something?”
“I can’t just…” Chaletwo began, but then trailed off. “Well, it is an emergency… I suppose it would be possible to…”
“Then do it already, for God’s sake!” Alan said angrily. “Why have you been making us walk?”
“I need to use as much as possible of the power I have left to keep Volcaryu asleep, don’t I? I think it would be too risky to try to teleport with three people. I’ll take Mark, and you two will catch up, all right?”
Alan rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything.
“Right… nobody’s watching…”
Chaletwo’s body materialized by Mark’s side and he bemusedly realized that despite Chaletwo having been a nuisance in his head for so long he’d gotten entirely used to it, this was only the second time he had actually seen him.
“Come on,” Chaletwo just said, placing one of his pale, bulbous fingers on Mark’s shoulder. The next moment, he found himself standing alone on reddish rock and looked around to realize that he was near the end of the path going up to the crater of Mount Fever.
He carefully took the final few steps up to the very edge of the crater and marvelled at the sight of Crater Town: disorganized houses were scattered around the huge wooden platform, the prominent white gym building with the red dome roof was just about right underneath him, and in the middle of it all was a large hole emitting clouds of steam, in the middle of which he could just barely make out a faint orangeish glow.
He took a deep breath and walked down the steep steps in the side of the crater wall onto the platform. He looked around. He hadn’t seen any people at all. Granted, it wasn’t a large town, but it still struck him as odd there wouldn’t be anyone around.
“Hello?” he shouted. Nobody answered. He figured there had to be something going on in town since nobody was around, and the first place he thought to look was the gym, but when he came to the door, there was a piece of paper taped to it that said ‘Away for Town Community Meeting’.
Well, he thought. If I were running things in this town, where would I hold town community meetings?
He looked around and noticed a building larger than most of the others a short distance away to the left, with faded lettering above the door saying ‘COMMUNITY CENTER’. Duh.
He walked up to the building and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” came a cheerful voice from inside. Mark opened the door carefully to enter a large hall that was apparently now being used as a meeting room – there was a round, red table in the middle of it with something more than a dozen people sitting by it, and the rest of town seemed to be standing somewhere by the walls, listening. Everybody looked at him.
“Ah, a traveller,” a chubby, friendly-looking man by the far end of the table said; he recognized his voice as the cheerful one that had invited him in. “I am Mayor Daniels of Crater Town. I’m glad you found the people; we always have community meetings on Thursdays and we were just getting started. Now why don’t you…”
The sight of all those people somehow kicked the danger their lives were in properly into Mark’s head. Stupidly, the only way he could think of expressing this for the moment was interrupting the Mayor’s speech with a frantic shout of, “Evacuate the town!”
Mayor Daniels blinked at him. “I’m sorry?”
“You must evacuate the town,” Mark repeated, realizing how dumb he sounded but figuring it couldn’t get a lot worse than it already was. “The volcano is going to erupt.”
The mayor blinked at him again, but then laughed. “Now, you cannot honestly think we would live in this town if we didn’t have the volcano constantly monitored for any signs of revived activity.”
Everybody was staring at him and Mark was beginning to feel decidedly like just getting out of there instead of pointlessly making himself look even more ridiculous when somebody at the table cleared his throat. It was a short, brown-haired man with glasses.
“Actually,” he said, glancing nervously at Mark, “don’t ask me how he could possibly know this, but the volcano did make a slight twitch yesterday morning – no definite sign of an upcoming eruption, of course, but still more than it’s been for a while. I was going to bring it up.”
The mayor looked visibly unsettled by this, but still maintained his composure. “Now, exactly where does your information come from, young man? We have a team of expert scientists in the field such as Mr. Adams here watching the volcano for us. Why would you feel so certain that it is going to erupt?”
Mark was trying to figure out how to answer this when an aloof-looking old woman seated on the mayor’s right side suddenly let out a gasp. “Oh! You’re in the paper!” she said happily, prodding a page of the newspaper she had been reading under the table and beaming up at him. Now it was Mark’s turn to blink.
“What? Give me that,” the mayor said quickly, tearing the paper out of her hands and holding it up to read the page she had been pointing at, leaving the front page in plain view.
It contained a blurry photograph of a young, thin, dark-haired boy twitching in agony as he was about to fall over backwards. His mouth was open in a silent scream, his eyes wide and staring straight towards the Pokémon on the left side of the photo.
And despite the blurriness, it was unmistakably Mark himself.
The Mayor lowered the newspaper slowly onto the table, his face white as a sheet of paper, staring at Mark in pure terror. The pages he had been looking at were now visible on the table, showing a few more, clearer photos of him and of Chaletwo.
He heard Chaletwo swear loudly in his head. “Why the hell was that woman reading a two-week-old newspaper?!”
Recognition had dawned on the faces of everybody in the room who had managed to take a peek at the newspaper by now. The memory modification had been enough to make them fail to associate his face with anything when they had initially seen him, but a direct comparison just made it undeniable.
I’m in a room full of people who know I was murdered a couple of weeks ago, he realized, dumbfounded, not sure what to do. He blinked and looked around.
“Are… are you dead…?” the Mayor whispered.
“Just tell them they’re mistaken, that it’s just somebody who looks like you, that everybody wears those clothes over where you live, that your name is really John Smith. Something!”
He was going to. He was definitely going to. But something made his lips decide otherwise.
“Yes,” he heard himself saying. “I’m dead. I returned because… I had to warn you.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Chaletwo hissed. “Nobody must know about…”
“Warn us?” Mayor Daniels stammered.
“Yes,” Mark improvised. “Chaletwo killed me, and he is going to kill all of you. There is a dragon Pokémon called Volcaryu sleeping inside this volcano, and Chaletwo’s going to wake it up, which will make the volcano erupt and destroy Crater Town.” He really had no idea what he was saying, but it just came out of his mouth. Miraculously, he kept a straight face saying it, and somehow, he was enjoying the moment immensely. “The only way to stop him is to be prepared when he wakes Volcaryu. And it will try to fly off to join him so he can take over the world, so we have to capture Volcaryu to prevent that from happening.”
He may have had no idea what he was saying, but damn, it was the best lie he had ever told. He watched the Mayor nod with a horrified expression on his face, buying every word of it. Priceless.
“But he mustn’t know that we know about his takeover plan,” he went on, starting to get excited. “He mustn’t know that I’ve returned, or he will take precautions. So you can’t tell anybody about this, in case he ever catches wind of it, all right? You just claim that you’re evacuating because of what your scientists were picking up from the volcano, and…”
“Now, wait a minute,” some sensible person in the audience objected. “How do we know you don’t just look like that kid who died and aren’t trying to exploit us somehow?”
“Well…”
He paused, not sure how he’d convince them. His hand wandered down to his Pokéballs as he considered the possibility that the newspaper mentioned what Pokémon he owned. But they found his Pokédex first.
He grinned. “Watch this.”
Mark turned the Pokédex on and held it up to his eye, allowing it to scan his iris. There was a little beep, and he put the device down on the table, showing his trainer profile on the screen with his name and even the old school photo which, to Mark’s dismay, had also been printed in the newspaper that still lay open on the table.
He looked over it along with everybody else who was close. He shuddered when he saw the word ‘DECEASED’ written in large red letters by the label ‘Status’ – the League didn’t delete trainer profiles after their deaths. It was unsettling to see his death written out so bluntly.
“I’m not convinced,” somebody mumbled.
“Well, either it’s him or he swapped eyes with that kid,” somebody else countered.
“A Ditto?”
“Pokédexes can recognize Ditto.”
“But how could he just come back from the dead?”
People looked at him. And more people looked at him.
“Well,” he said, his mind racing, “I was resurrected… by Mew. Mew is trying to stop Chaletwo’s plan, and he told me all that.” Mew was definitely the best source he could claim, he figured – after all, Mew had always had a reputation of goodness and purity. Sometimes he really loved being knowledgeable about legendary Pokémon.
“Well, I still say we’d need more evidence…”
A man in maybe his fifties or sixties with short, graying hair stood up from the Mayor’s left side. “Enough is enough,” he said loudly. “Let’s be reasonable about this. When do you say Chaletwo will release this Volcaryu you speak of?”
“Tomorrow,” Mark said firmly. “In the morning. We need to have the town evacuated before then.”
The man smiled. “Well, then it is easy enough to find out whether you are telling the truth. We evacuate the town – I think we would all agree that if there is any chance of an eruption, it is wiser to do so than not, and even our representative of the scientific community claims there is something fishy going on with the volcano – and tomorrow morning, I will go with Mark here and see if this Volcaryu really does burst out of the mountain. Sound all right to you?”
The man looked around the room. It was obvious he held a lot of respect in the community because everyone stopped talking and nobody objected. Mark had already guessed who he was when the man turned back towards him, shook his hand and said, “Welcome to Crater Town, Mark. My name is Carl, and I think I’ll keep an eye on you until tomorrow when we can test your claims. I will miss my gym if you are right, but you will be very sorry if you’re wrong.”
Pretty weird how Mark speculates about the strange sparking around Gyarados like it had something to do with him attacking, when it's pretty clear the exact same thing happened to Spirit (her turning lighter, getting those gems, etc.) without her attacking Entei at all. Not sure why I went for this random thought.
Surely, Mark, there's some middle ground between shrugging off Gyarados murdering Suicune completely and intentionally leaving him back in the lake where he was starving, right? Like, at the very least have a serious talk with him about this? It's very weird how I just... didn't make that happen here, and my honest best guess at why is Gyarados's presence being a logistical hassle to engineer by the time they were back in the city because I need to get the characters in a place with some kind of body of water before Mark can send him out. One of many, many things I would be rectifying in the next revision.
Mark randomly lampshades how he's using moves he hasn't before here, including stuff like X-Scissor. Well, Diamond and Pearl were out by the time I was writing this, so I could now freely use fourth-generation moves and Pokémon, and the way I handled new generations over the lifetime of the fic was simply to act like the new Pokémon/moves were always there and just happened to never come up before. Convenient!
Chapter 37 time! In which Pupitar gets punted into lava.
You are allowed to just skim the Mark/Alan battle here; it's not bad as my battles go but it's very long and not really relevant to anything other than a couple of fun pieces of thoughts/dialogue.
Chapter 37: Carl
“I have to hand it to you,” Chaletwo said grumpily, “that story was pretty good, but could you really not have, you know, antagonized me a little bit less?”
Oh, shut up, Mark replied. It’s not like they didn’t think you were evil and murderous already. Why do you even care what they think of you? It’s not like it matters.
It had turned out that one of the citizens had an Abra, and it was now teleporting the inhabitants of Crater Town, family by family, to safety with friends and relatives. The townspeople stood in a line, looking worriedly at their watches every now and then. The Abra’s trainer, Carl, and Mark by the gym leader’s side watched the procedure from a distance.
In his head, Chaletwo sighed. “Look, Mark…” he said, his telepathic voice pained. “I… I know we haven’t been on the best terms for the past couple of days. You don’t like me. I’ve snapped a little at you. I know. But…” Mark could almost see him wince. “I… I hope you realize that I… really appreciate what you’ve done for our cause so far, and… I must hope you didn’t mean that thing about resigning. We need you. You can’t go on being all rebellious like this. It won’t help anyone. Please just… be reasonable.”
Mark sighed. Part of him wanted to just say okay and amen and continue being nice-Mark who was a good boy and did everything Chaletwo told him to. No responsibility, no need to think. Definitely comfortable.
On the other hand the past evening had made him feel better about himself than he ever remembered feeling in his life. Standing up to Chaletwo, supposedly the most powerful Pokémon in the world, and making up some silly story with him as the villain that everybody believed every word of – it seemed almost hilarious. Certainly not like the wimp he felt like he’d pretty much always been. He was liking it.
“I’m… I’m sorry about what happened to Suicune,” Chaletwo muttered at last. “I’m every bit as puzzled as you are, believe me. I don’t know what happened out there or what Suicune was thinking, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. We have to move on.” He paused. “It wasn’t my fault,” he added bitterly. “Stop acting like it is. How should I have known Gyarados would kill him? Blaming me for it is not fair at all.”
Stop making excuses and try to make yourself sound like you actually care, Mark thought resentfully.
“I do care!” Chaletwo’s voice shouted in frustration. “But it’s still not my fault! Look, Mark, I know human teenagers supposedly like to rebel and something like that, but…”
I’m not rebelling, Mark thought, irritated. I’m just finally thinking for myself for once. I’m tired of having you boss me around in my head. From now on, I’m going to make my own decisions.
There was a short pause. “Mark, you are being ridiculous. You don’t know…”
I’m not going to sit here refusing to do anything you say or anything. I’m just going to make the final decisions for myself. You can give me information, but you can’t boss me around. No more yelling at me for not looking at the right thing during battles, okay? If you don’t want to see what I want to look at, then for the love of God just come out of your Pokéball and use your own eyes! Mark felt the rant appearing in his head without him really deciding to think it. You know, that’s what gets me the most. You’re always sitting on the sidelines bossing us around, but you’ve never once done anything to deserve it. You’re just making us do all the dirty work for you. That’s not very legendarylike of you, is it?
“Oh, kind of like Pokémon trainers who sit on the sidelines ordering their Pokémon around?” Chaletwo replied coldly.
That’s different. Trainers don’t constantly yell at their Pokémon if they do something not quite the way they want it, and the trainers have done something to deserve it, since they defeated the Pokémon in battle when they caught them and that’s all part of the game. I mean, you know things, sure, but… you don’t really have any more of a clue what you’re doing than we do. And… how is that relevant, anyway? If you do something wrong, you’re not suddenly right when you point out somebody else doing it too.
There was another pause. Finally Chaletwo sighed. “Okay, look, we mustn’t fight. I’ll… try to let you figure things out for yourself more in the future, okay? Let’s just… be friends.”
Mark nodded grimly to himself, but if Chaletwo was going to reply, he didn’t get the chance, because now Carl turned to Mark.
“Well,” he said, “how do you suggest we go about this tomorrow? Surely you had some sort of a plan?”
“Eh…” Mark racked his brain quickly. “Well, Chaletwo is going to release Volcaryu at seven o’clock tomorrow morning. Since we can’t really stand on the volcano while it’s erupting and Volcaryu can fly, or so Mew told me – I guess we would be best off in the air, maybe riding some Pokémon with Fly if poss…”
He stopped abruptly. Speak of the devil.
In the left side of Mark’s field of vision, he had spotted an all-too-familiar blue-haired girl sitting on the back of her Skarmory as it ascended above the edge of the crater, shortly followed by Alan riding Charlie in Charizard form.
Carl looked in that direction too upon realizing where Mark was staring. May and Alan spotted them, landed on the wooden floor of Crater Town, recalled their Pokémon, and hurried towards Mark and the gym leader.
“Hey, Mark!” Alan called on the way. “We are idiots! We only realized after you left that it would be much quicker to…”
“I… I’m not who you think I am,” Mark said quickly and loudly, silencing Alan and turning his relieved expression into one of puzzlement. May raised an eyebrow.
“Do you know them?” Carl asked, his tone of voice somewhere midway between suspicious and conversational so that it was impossible to tell what his real intention was. Mark’s mind raced.
“I… I lied to you,” he continued, what he hoped was not too soon and not too late, ignoring Carl’s comment. “I… I’m really Mark Greenlet, the guy who was killed by Chaletwo on May 25th.”
Alan just stood there and blinked.
“Mark, what the hell are you…” May began, but Mark quickly cut her off, desperately hoping she’d get the hint.
“No, it’s true,” he babbled. “I’m sorry, I really am. It’s… I’m really resurrected and working for Mew trying to stop Chaletwo from releasing an evil dragon named Volcaryu that’s going to make this volcano erupt tomorrow and… I’ve been undercover so Chaletwo wouldn’t hear that I’m alive and take precautions. All I told you was… just to prevent the news from getting out to where he could hear it. I’m sorry.”
Mark could almost see the light of understanding flash on in Alan’s face as he caught on. May was still staring at him like some sort of lunatic, but one elbowing from Alan made her close her mouth and give an ever-so-slight nod to indicate that she got it.
“So, Carl… do you maybe think they could help tomorrow?” Mark asked, trying his best to act natural. “I’ve been travelling with them, and they’ve got some good Pokémon that would help when we battle Volcaryu. Actually I… I intended to try to get them to help from the get-go, but I had to come warn you first. So guys, would you mind helping, if… if you can forgive me for lying?”
“Sure.”
“Of course.”
It didn’t sound at all believable in Mark’s opinion, but Carl made no comment.
“Thanks,” Mark continued. “I didn’t think I’d be able to defeat it all on my own, and…”
Carl looked at him out of the corner of his eye. “You wouldn’t have needed to be all on your own anyway. Obviously I will help.”
For a moment Mark wasn’t sure if that would be overkill. The next moment he wondered why the heck that would be a bad thing. Then he realized that it wouldn’t be overkill at all.
“Wait,” he said, glancing at May and Alan. “This would have to be pretty much entirely a battle in the air. We can’t have our Pokémon on the volcano while it’s erupting. So all we can do is…” He winced. “We can only use Pokémon that can fly. Or maybe Fire Pokémon that don’t mind the lava and heat. Depends on how Mount Fever erupts.”
He quickly evaluated this in his mind. He would have Charizard, Scyther and Dragonair. May would have Skarmory, Butterfree and possibly Spirit. Alan would have Charlie and maybe Diamond – and Vicky, of course. They would need whatever backup Carl might have.
“Well,” Carl said simply, “since I specialize in Fire Pokémon, that will not be a problem on my part.”
“It will be on ours,” Alan answered, looking back at Mark. “That changes things,” he said anxiously. “That’s… not a lot of Pokémon. It’s like at most ten between the three of us. How are we going to defeat Volcaryu with ten Pokémon?”
“I have a team of six that would be fine in the battle,” Carl repeated. “That makes sixteen, and my Pokémon are fairly powerful if I do say so myself.”
“Okay,” Mark began, “I’ll probably ride Charizard, then, and…”
“Wait a moment,” Carl interrupted. “Let’s discuss this in private.” He turned towards Mayor Daniels, who was standing a short distance away assisting a family with the teleportation.
“How’s the evacuation going?” Carl called.
“Fine,” the Mayor called back.
“Would you mind if I took these kids over to the gym to talk about tomorrow?”
“I can handle this,” the Mayor said and smiled as he made sure that a little girl was definitely holding the Abra’s hand before it teleported.
“Good,” Carl simply replied and motioned towards the kids to follow him into the gym building. They went in through automatic doors into a clean room the size of a small battle arena but lacking the standard floor markings; the floor was all polished white. Mark looked questioningly up at Carl.
“I never liked the traditional way of handling gyms,” Carl said without looking at him. “It’s always the same standard battle arena. They’re not interesting to work on. Today we only use this room as an… entrance hall, if you will.”
Carl led them to the far left corner of the room, where a metallic spiral staircase took them down through the floor. The smell of sulphur that had been consistently present in the town now intensified greatly as they stepped onto bare rock in a cavernous space lit by the glow of molten magma below. Mark looked around; they were in the crater, below the town. Maybe twenty meters above them was the wooden floor they had been standing on only minutes earlier, held up by an elaborate system of support beams, with the evening sky visible through the round hole in the middle of it.
The town looked a lot more fragile seen from below.
Tomorrow, Mark thought, his stomach lurching uncomfortably, this will all be gone. Burned.
An entire town wiped out of existence. The very idea felt absurd and insane. Towns weren’t supposed to be the sort of thing that just ceased to exist one day. And all the inhabitants would be homeless. He shuddered at the thought. He had lived in the same house his whole life; he couldn’t imagine it just suddenly being gone.
“This is where I hold my gym battles,” Carl said, snapping Mark out of his thoughts. “Quite a bit more dramatic than that silly old building, don’t you think?”
Mark couldn’t shake off the feeling that as far as challengers were concerned, it’d be a great deal less dramatic than it’d be simply intimidating: the boiling heat, the smell, the uncomfortable knowledge that it was quite possible to fall to one’s death, and the feeling of being far out of one’s home field no doubt made this gym considerably more of a challenge than it would otherwise be. But he nodded and muttered some words of agreement anyway.
“So,” Carl then began. “Why don’t you three kids show me what Pokémon you’ve got so we can do some planning and training?”
They reached for their Pokéballs and Pokémon cries soon filled the crater. Carl looked at each of them in turn, stroking his bearded chin as some of the more heat-sensitive Pokémon whimpered.
“Could be worse,” he finally concluded. “Mark, you will be able to ride your Charizard, your Dragonair can fight, and your Scyther may be able to battle for a limited amount of time, but being a Bug Pokémon he will not last very long. You, boy…”
“Alan,” Alan corrected. “And her name’s May.”
“Yes, Alan, you have a Charizard too, and your Rapidash may perhaps be able to make herself useful, as well as your Misdreavus. Girl – May – your Ninetales can probably fight, and your Skarmory can carry you, but your Butterfree won’t last long. How strong is the shell of your Pupitar?”
She blinked. “I don’t know.”
“How well can it resist magma?”
She shrugged in a manner that failed to be as casual as she intended. “I don’t know.”
“Only one way to find out,” Carl said, walked straight up to the blue cocoon Pokémon near the edge of the rock they were standing on and pushed him roughly over with his foot so that Pupitar tumbled down towards the red flow of the magma below.
Mark and Alan stared.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” May shouted heatedly, running pointlessly over to the edge to see her Pokémon fall, motionless, into the lava. Carl ignored her and simply plucked a Pokéball off his own belt.
“Get the Pupitar, Charizard,” he said calmly as he threw it.
The Pokéball split open and a blob of white light quickly formed itself into the shape of a slenderly built, golden orange dragon Pokémon – a female, Mark realized as his Charizard and Charlie simultaneously craned their necks in her direction. She glanced at the males with deep green eyes, a hint of a teasing smile around the corners of her mouth, before she took a graceful dive down after Pupitar and picked him up in her arms just as he was about to disappear entirely below the surface of the magma. She swooped back upwards, placing the cocoon Pokémon on the rock in front of a stunned May, and then settled beside her trainer, whipping her tail casually around while looking between Charlie and Charizard in mock disinterest.
Steam was rising from Pupitar’s body and small orange splotches of cooling magma still stuck to his hide, but his rocklike skin did not look hurt and his expression remained the same cold, distant and staring it seemed to have been frozen as ever since his evolution. May looked blankly at him and apparently deduced that since he had no visible injuries and wasn’t complaining, he must be all right.
“Hmm, he’s damned strong from the looks of it,” Carl commented after walking a circle around Pupitar to see him from every angle, sounding as if kicking other people’s Pokémon into molten lava was something he did regularly. “Shouldn’t have any problems using him tomorrow. If I were to guess, I’d say he’s pretty close to evolution. Am I right?”
The angry expression on May’s face had vanished completely and been replaced with a smile of pride. “Yes,” she answered. “He’s around level fifty right now.”
Carl nodded. “If we’re lucky, we’ll get to use a Tyranitar for the battle, which could improve our chances. Now, I expect you want to see what I’ve got?” He gave the boys a calculating look.
“That would be great,” Alan replied.
“Indeed,” Carl agreed, taking his five remaining Pokéballs off his belt. “Come out!”
Five Pokémon formed on the rock around him to join his Charizard: an Arcanine, a Magcargo, a Flareon, a Magmar and a Camerupt. They looked calmly around between the kids and their Pokémon.
“They can all battle tomorrow, obviously,” Carl continued. “I will be flying on Charizard, but the others will fight. To try to make the Pokémon who carry us fight at the same time would be foolish at best; a Pokémon should not have to try to concentrate on keeping a rider steady while trying to fight and dodge. The Charizard and Skarmory can therefore be disregarded while we plan our strategy, but if they foresee getting good ranged moves in without trouble, they can do so.” He looked around as if waiting for complaints or questions before going on.
“Now, I presume that this Volcaryu will be resistant to Fire attacks, and none of the rest of my team can fly, so their usefulness in the battle may be rather limited, as that of the Ninetales and Rapidash. The primary role of responsibility, I would say, goes to May’s Pupitar, who is not only obviously a very well-trained Pokémon,” – he nodded towards May, who beamed with pride – “but can also use Rock attacks and is very resistant to extreme heat, which is something we should expect to be dealing with. Of course, this does not mean that every Pokémon should not do his best. However, they should be ready to take some risks to protect Pupitar and ensure that his attacks hit their target. The Dragonair will most likely be able to be of some help as well, presuming that he knows Dragon moves and that they will be effective against Volcaryu. Any objections to this plan?”
Alan shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
Carl looked at him out of the corner of his eye. “I was asking your Pokémon, not you.”
“Oh.” There was a chorus of muttered agreement from the Pokémon.
“Great,” Carl replied. “Now we can battle. Recall all the Pokémon you’re not going to be using tomorrow.”
Alan looked at Carl, his expression puzzled. “Battle? Why?”
“Our Pokémon need to get a feel for one another,” the gym leader answered as if it were obvious. “It will be easier for them to battle together if they’ve had some insight into each other’s battling style. Recall the others, and then it’s you three’s Pokémon against mine, here.”
Mark looked at him. “O…kay?” It made some sense, although he had never really thought of it that way before. He recalled Jolteon, Sandslash and Letal into their Pokéballs. Beside him, six of May and Alan’s Pokémon disappeared into their balls. The rock they were standing on seemed a lot bigger now that half of their Pokémon were gone, but it was still no full-sized battle arena, and if there were going to be many Pokémon on it at once, Mark couldn’t help thinking that it was awfully likely for someone to fall.
“Six on ten?” May asked skeptically.
“Six and home field,” Carl just said.
May frowned. “Are you sure we can’t battle you one at a time? Our Pokémon have already fought together, so they don’t need any introduction if that’s what you thought. Six on ten sounds pretty chaotic, and I’m not sure there’s enough room here.”
“But isn’t it technically better to emulate the atmosphere of the actual Volcaryu battle better?” Alan commented. “It is going to be chaotic, after all.”
“That’s one opponent, though,” May argued. “This is six. I don’t like the idea. I want to be able to focus on taking one Pokémon down without having five others running around and attacking mine while I’m looking elsewhere.”
“Well, tell you what,” Carl said. “How about I battle the lady in a traditional battle first if that’s what she likes, and then you two boys in a six-on-six simultaneous melee? Hm?” He looked between Mark and Alan.
“Eh,” Mark said hesitantly, “I… I don’t know. It sounds a little much to be dealing with six Pokémon at the same time.” He looked doubtfully over at Alan, hoping for some support.
“Fine, fine,” Carl sighed. “I will take on the two of you in two simultaneous three-on-three melees. Three of my Pokémon battle yours, and the other three battle his. Does that sound more manageable to you?”
Mark looked at Alan again, but judging from his expression he really liked that idea. Mark threw his arms in defeat. “Fine, then. Might as well. Are you going to battle May first?”
“Sure,” May said immediately, clearly happy enough with this conclusion not to want it changed. Carl did not object to it.
“It will be six on six, then,” the gym leader said.
May looked at him. “What? Why?”
“The intention is to introduce all the Pokémon who will fight tomorrow to one another, isn’t it? And I will not battle with a handicap. Least of all against a woman.”
“Is that so?” May asked in an icy voice, giving Carl a glare.
“Yes,” he replied coolly. “Women should be equal, should they not?”
May opened her mouth to reply, her face flushed, but apparently decided not to get into an argument. “I could beat you easily four on six,” she grumbled.
“No,” Carl just said. “Six on six. You’ve already been the one to decide you will battle alone. Let me decide the number of Pokémon.”
May glared. “Fine.” She looked at Mark and Alan. “I think you should go upstairs or something so you won’t get in the way.”
Alan shrugged and walked off towards the staircase without objection. Mark followed him up into the original gym battle arena. They heard a faint echo of Carl’s barking voice from below as he laid out the rules of the battle.
“So,” Alan said after a short silence. “What do we do to pass the time?”
Mark shrugged. “We could continue that battle we started earlier today.”
“Oh, yeah,” Alan replied. “That. Sure.”
There were no floor markings in the room, but Mark just walked to the other end of it, closer to the front door, and faced Alan. “Okay. We start again where we left off, right? Same rules and same Pokémon?”
“Right.”
Alan plucked a Pokéball from his belt and sent out Charlie. Mark watched the Charizard stretch and felt for his own Pokéballs with his hand. There was no pool to send out Gyarados – and he wasn’t sure if he’d have wanted to use Gyarados even if he could. The next best thing he had, then, was electricity.
“Go, Jolteon!” Mark shouted as he threw the Pokéball forward. Jolteon materialized on the floor and looked at Charlie as the dragon Pokémon kicked off the ground.
“Scary Face!” Alan ordered, and Charlie’s draconic face twisted into something demonic: his eyes rolled back into his head, his mouth opened creepily wide, his fangs seemed to lengthen…
Mark saw Jolteon flinch. “Don’t let it get to you,” he muttered to his Pokémon despite himself being uncomfortably reminded of a horror movie he had watched in a burst of rebelliousness sometime when he was little and his parents were out. “Thunderbolt!” he said more loudly.
“Charlie, Fire Spin!” Alan countered. Mark looked down at Jolteon, but the Pokémon hesitated with a quiet whine of fear while the Charizard took a deep breath and flew towards him. Charlie flew in a rapid circle around Jolteon, spinning a wall of flame in his path; Jolteon whimpered somewhere in the middle of the flames.
“Fire Fang!”
The dragon Pokémon dived down through the flames, more fire licking his teeth, and Mark quickly took out the empty Pokéball. “Jolteon, return!”
Nothing happened, and Mark looked in confusion between the Pokéball and the two Pokémon, barely visible through the flames; he saw Charlie bite Jolteon’s side with white-hot fangs while the panicking Electric Pokémon yelped. Then the dragon let out a roar of pain, falling backwards and landing harshly on the ground as his muscles convulsed in electric shock.
“Fire Spin blocks the Pokéball beam,” Alan called helpfully. “Are they both all right?”
Oh, yeah. Fire Spin. Those moves. Mark vaguely remembered the class on trapping moves. He hadn’t been listening, but the Moltres he’d been drawing had been great.
Charlie stood up and gave his trainer a nod to indicate that he was fine. Jolteon was still standing inside the ring of fire, although he didn’t look all right at all; he was crouching down in the middle of the ring and tried not to move.
Then, all of a sudden, he let out an electrified cry and sent a bolt of lightning flying straight at the unprepared Charlie. The dragon Pokémon received another powerful shock and roared in pain before shivering and flying back up into the air.
“Nice one, Jolteon,” Mark said and smiled grimly. “I guess you’ll have to stay out for a little while longer.”
“Charlie, use a Slash,” Alan ordered, and the Charizard swooped down through the Fire Spin with his claws raised. Jolteon let out a cry and sent a jagged wave of electricity up towards him. It hit the dragon Pokémon in mid-air and his wings froze; Jolteon leapt out of the way, over the rapidly shrinking wall of flames, and Charlie landed in the middle, paralyzed.
Alan furrowed his brow. “Charlie, that’s enough,” he said and recalled the Pokémon back into his Pokéball. He paused for a moment. “Do it, Racko!”
The Grovyle was in mid-leap as he emerged from his Pokéball, focusing his reptilian eyes on Jolteon.
The Fire Spin had died down, the last embers sizzling away near the floor, and Jolteon looked like he was in pain. “Come back,” Mark said and recalled him back to the safety of his ball. He thought a bit. Was there any particular reason not to send out Charizard?
Nope.
“Go!” he yelled as his own dragon Pokémon was released from the Pokéball. Racko, despite being faced with a Fire-type much larger than himself, was unfazed; if anything his grin widened.
“Racko, Screech!” Alan ordered, and the Grovyle let out a high-pitched nails-on-chalkboard sound that made Mark wince. Charizard grimaced.
“Flamethrower!” Mark said quickly.
“Racko, come back!” Alan said before Charizard could fire the attack, the red Pokéball beam dissolving the Grass Pokémon and zapping him in. “Go, Mist!”
Charizard fired the Flamethrower anyway, since he’d bothered to prepare for it. As the Vaporeon materialized out of the Pokéball, she was caught in the middle of a column of white-hot flame.
“Aqua Ring!” Alan said as the flames dissolved and the crouching Mist stood up and shook some soot off her body. She breathed out a thin stream of water that began to circle her and douse her burns.
“Charizard, Air Slash!” Mark shouted.
Charizard flew up into the air and made a slashing movement with his wing. A white ripple of energy shot down through the air and hit Mist head-on. She was thrown a little backwards, but resisted it fairly well.
“Hydro Pump,” Alan said, and the Vaporeon raised her head. Without warning, a jet of water hit Charizard straight in his belly and literally smashed him backwards into the ceiling. The dragon gasped for air and then managed to wriggle quickly out of the stream of water and swoop downwards.
“Slash!” Mark blurted out without thinking, and his first Pokémon turned as he neared the floor to head straight towards Mist on the other side of the room. The Vaporeon had stopped firing the Hydro Pump but now opened her mouth for another one…
Charizard pulled up, narrowly escaping the high-pressure jet of water that emerged beneath him. He raised his claws with a growl and raked them across Mist’s body. The Hydro Pump was cut off as she yowled in pain.
Mark was about to pick up Charizard’s Pokéball to recall him when Alan screamed, “Mist, Whirlpool!”
A vortex of water sprang up around the two Pokémon in a similar fashion to the Fire Spin before, and he heard Charizard growl. Mark did remember that Whirlpool was also a trapping move. He sighed. “Charizard, uh… Dragon Rage.” He wasn’t sure whether Charizard had learned that move yet, but he seemed to remember that the Charmander family could use it…
Bingo. Dark red flames erupted out of Charizard’s mouth inside the Whirlpool, enveloping Mist as she cried out in pain. The Vaporeon took a leap through the wall of water, emerging with her wounds doused.
“This is impossible!” Mark complained in frustration as her scratches began to close before their eyes. Alan laughed.
“It’s not impossible. You just have to be quick enough to bring her down before the water heals her.”
Mark racked his brain, trying to think of something Charizard could do while trapped in the Whirlpool. If he flew through it, the water would hurt him, and it would probably dissolve any attempts to use special moves.
“Charizard, uh,” he said as an idea shamelessly stolen from one of the stories he had heard of Ash Ketchum’s Charmander popped into his head, “try a Rage.”
Charizard closed his eyes in brief concentration behind the swirling water and then let out an earth-shaking roar before rushing out through the Whirlpool. He let out another roar, this one of pain as his tail flame was briefly drenched in water, but as soon as it came out it flared up with renewed power. Fire burned in the Pokémon’s eyes as he leapt at Mist, fangs bared.
“Water Pulse!” Alan yelled, and the Vaporeon spat pulsing waves of water from her mouth into Charizard’s face. He scratched at the Water Pokémon for a second, but then stopped, a blank look on his face, and lost his balance, falling clumsily onto the floor.
“Confused,” Mark muttered to himself. “Charizard, snap out of it!”
As the Pokémon stood up and shook his head to clear it, his tail flame flared up again. Then he ran towards Mist again, but the Whirlpool moved into his way.
Mark heard himself let out an awkward yelp as Charizard was sucked back into the watery prison, but the dragon emerged out of the other side with a determined growl, his tail flame burning still brighter, and attacked Mist with tooth and claw.
“Hydro Pump!”
For a moment, Mark thought Mist had fallen unconscious under Charizard’s sudden assault, but then Charizard was thrown harshly backwards by a jet of high-pressure water. He landed on the floor and didn’t stand up again.
“Charizard, return,” Mark said, recalling the Pokémon. “Jolteon, finish this!”
Jolteon didn’t look his best; there was still a bleeding, charred wound on his side from his battle with Charlie, and he came out of the ball in a crouching position.
“You can do it, Jolteon,” Mark muttered to encourage him. “One Thunderbolt ought to do the trick.”
Alan fiddled with his Pokéball belt, but then apparently decided not to recall Mist. “Ice Beam,” he ordered, and the Vaporeon fired a thin beam of ice crystals from her mouth while Jolteon charged up electricity.
Both attacks hit at the same time. Jolteon was struck with freezing cold while Mist was shocked with powerful electricity, and both Eevee evolutions collapsed on the floor, unable to battle.
Mark reached down for a Pokéball and decided, for no particular reason, to send out Letal next. Alan reached for a Pokéball too, and they threw them at the same time.
“Go, Letal!”
“Racko, your turn again!”
The two Pokémon emerged on the battlefield. Letal looked calmly into the Grovyle’s eyes.
“Leaf Blade, Racko!” Alan ordered. “Aim for a spot that’s not armoured!”
“Letal, use… use Iron Defense!” Mark blurted out, remembering the move vaguely from looking at Letal’s stats in the Pokédex after she’d evolved.
While the leaves on the reptile’s arms began to glow with white energy, Letal closed her eyes in concentration, and miraculously, the fine white hair covering her body smoothly transformed into metal. The Grovyle slashed his sharp leaves at her neck; tiny metallic hairs broke off and flew out from the spot where he had struck, but they took out most of the force. When Letal turned to slash back, there was only a shallow cut on her neck, glistening with blood. Letal’s blade cut across Racko’s belly and he cried out in pain.
“Racko, come back!” Alan yelled. “Go, Diamond!”
The reptile was called back into the Pokéball while Letal growled after him. Diamond the Rapidash emerged instead, towering over Mark’s Pokémon.
Letal didn’t look intimidated, but Mark had his doubts that she could beat a Fire-type, especially now that she had metallized her whole body. He was about to pick up her Pokéball when…
“Diamond, Fire Spin!”
Mark threw his hands in frustration as the Rapidash breathed out a vortex of fire that enveloped Letal in a matter of seconds. “Stop doing that!” he called across the arena. “You don’t give me any time to switch!”
Alan grinned. “They’re League-approved, officially recognized attacks. That’s fair game in my book.”
Mark smiled. He was only pretending to be annoyed, really, and Alan knew it. He hadn’t had this much fun in what felt like a very, very long time – although now that he thought about it, it wasn’t. It gave him a headache to think of all the things that had happened in just the past couple of days.
But here he was now, in the middle of a Pokémon battle with a friend, and he didn’t intend to let worries about legendary Pokémon take over the moment. It wouldn’t help anyone.
“Letal, Hypnosis!” he shouted, and Letal jumped out through the flames, wincing in pain while the column of fire followed. As she landed on the floor, she stared intently into Diamond’s eyes, wagging her tail rhythmically.
“Diamond, Fire Blast!” Alan yelled.
The fiery unicorn neighed in response and reared in preparation for the attack, but then stopped. She dropped down to her feet, a blank look on her face as if she couldn’t remember what she was doing. She was starting to sway from side to side in rhythm with Letal’s tail.
“Aw, come on!” Alan said as the Rapidash’s eyelids steadily closed and her head drooped. Mark smiled in triumph.
“Letal, Headbutt!”
Letal charged, the Fire Spin licking steadily at her body as she did so, and rammed her head into Diamond’s side. The Rapidash swayed on her feet, but did not wake up from her hypnosis-induced sleep, and fell awkwardly over on her side.
“Slash!”
Letal motioned to swing the blade on her head, but Alan had picked up Diamond’s Pokéball. “Return!” he said quickly as the sleeping Rapidash dissolved into red energy and was drawn into the ball.
“Vicky, do it!” Alan said after a moment’s pause, throwing forth a new Pokéball. Mark was ready when the ghost Pokémon began to materialize and recalled Letal. He knew she would lose the defensive bonus of the Iron Defense if she went back into the ball, but he knew well that the Misdreavus knew Mean Look, and he had only the day before been reminded thoroughly that it was also a move that prevented a Pokémon from escaping. And Letal’s main moves wouldn’t affect a Ghost Pokémon.
“Dragonair, go!” Mark yelled as he threw the next Pokéball. The slender dragon Pokémon materialized in mid-air and floated calmly as he watched his opponent.
“Vicky, Confuse Ray!”
Mark groaned as the Misdreavus’s eyes glowed and a small orb of light appeared in the air in front of the Pokémon. As Vicky opened her eyes again, it darted towards Dragonair and began to wave through the air in front of him. Mark could see the dragon’s eyes flick back and forth between the little light and the Ghost Pokémon as Dragonair tried to concentrate.
“Safeguard!” Mark blurted out as he remembered that the dragon knew the move. Dragonair shook his head to clear it and his feathery ears perked up as the faint form of a sparkly white bubble of energy formed around him. The ghostly light of the Confuse Ray bounced against the shield a few times in failed attempts to penetrate it before fading away into nothing.
Alan sighed, thinking for a moment. “Shadow Ball,” he then ordered.
“Dragonair, Dragon Rush!” Mark countered quickly.
Dragonair shot up into the air and flared up in blue flames that gave Mark uncomfortable flashbacks to the battle with Thunderyu. As Vicky finished charging an orb of shadowy material in front of her, the dragon Pokémon dived.
The Shadow Ball rushed upwards. Dragonair’s flaring form rushed downwards.
Mark stared, open-mouthed, as Vicky’s attack collided with Dragonair’s body and didn’t even slow him down. It did, however, cause the blue fire enveloping his body to darken and intensify, as if it had somehow sucked in the Shadow Ball’s power.
Dragonair’s body slammed into the Misdreavus’s ghostly form and caused a momentary explosion of dark blue flames. The Misdreavus screamed in pain, her voice something shrill and inhuman.
When the flame cleared, Dragonair was lying on the floor, shaking his head as he tried to rise, and Vicky was floating weakly in mid-air, letting out pained moans.
“Vicky, are you all right?” Alan asked, his tone concerned. The Pokémon squeezed her eyes shut and tried to steady herself, nodding in a rather unconvincing way. Dragonair got up from the floor and took off into the air again, apparently not hurt too badly.
“Think you have the strength for…” Alan looked at Mark out of the corner of his eye. “For our standard techniques?”
Vicky shook her head.
“Okay, then.” Alan straightened himself. “Pain Split!”
The Misdreavus smiled slyly and her eyes glowed with a hellish red color. Dragonair cried out in pain as small, white orbs of energy ripped themselves loose from his body and rushed towards Vicky instead, smearing across her burns and healing them a little in a matter of seconds.
“Vicky, return,” Alan said quickly before Mark could issue any additional orders. “Pamela, go!”
Mark fiddled with his Pokéball belt while Alan’s Persian materialized on the floor, but decided against switching. Dragonair didn’t seem that hurt, and the Dragon Rush attack, which he had never used before, had thoroughly impressed him; he hadn’t really realized how powerful Dragonair could actually be before. Or rather, he had read plenty about it, but getting one of his own had left him ever-so-slightly disappointed as Dragonair hadn’t quite lived up to Mark’s overblown expectations. Until now.
“Dragonair, use another Dragon Rush!”
“Fake Out!” Alan roared.
Pamela sprang up with an intimidating hiss, startling Dragonair as he was preparing for his attack. The dragon flames died abruptly as the feline Pokémon pounced, slamming her paw and raised claws into the dragon’s head and smashing him down into the floor with practiced accuracy. Dragonair completely lost his concentration for the Dragon Rush attack and shook his head to regain his directions while the Persian retreated to a safe distance.
“Swift,” Alan said with a triumphant grin, and while Dragonair was still heaving himself off the floor, the Persian opened her mouth to release a flurry of spinning, bright white stars of energy that scattered in all directions before centering in on Mark’s Pokémon. Dragonair looked hopelessly up and closed his eyes while the attack bombarded him, and when the last of the stars had smashed into his body, he had already been knocked unconscious.
Pamela responded to Mark’s blank stare with an expression that reeked of superiority complex.
“She’s a Technician, Mark,” Alan said and grinned. “Master of simple moves that people don’t expect to be that powerful.”
Mark sighed momentarily, his hand wandering over his Pokéballs, and then remembered that the Technician ability wasn’t actually anything he was completely unfamiliar with.
“Scyther, go!” he shouted, hurling the mantis’s Pokéball forward.
“Pamela, another Swift!” Alan yelled as Scyther materialized in the air. The Persian fired another flurry of stars that homed in on Mark’s Pokémon as soon as he had fully taken shape. Scyther shielded his head with his scythes, wincing in pain as the stars struck him.
Mark decided to strategize momentarily. Alan’s remaining Pokémon were the paralyzed Charlie, the sleeping Diamond, Racko, Vicky who was pretty severely injured, and of course Pamela herself. None of them were anything Mark would definitely have to switch Scyther out against.
So it wouldn’t be a waste of time to buff him up a little bit.
“Scyther, Swords Dance!”
The mantis Pokémon nodded briefly and spun quickly around in an elaborate dance accented by the fluid motions of his scythes.
“Taunt!” Alan ordered quickly.
Pamela tilted her head with a sly smile. “Come get me, Scizor,” she purred, the gem in her forehead gleaming. Scyther stopped the Swords Dance, something red flashing in his eyes, and in an instant he was leaping towards Pamela, roaring in fury.
“Fury Cutter,” Mark called, not sure if Scyther had the mental capacity to register the order at the moment. The Pokémon’s scythes began to emit a faint, lime green glow as he swung them madly at the Persian, the glow accumulating with each strike while the feline tried to evade him.
“Power Gem!” Alan shouted.
Pamela took a leap just out of Scyther’s reach, and while the mantis was turning around, a beam of energy erupted out of the red gem on her forehead, striking Scyther straight in the chest and throwing him backwards as he cried out in pain. The glow of his scythes faded while he landed and regained his bearings. Pamela was rather badly cut in many spots, but Scyther looked severely weakened.
Mark sighed in defeat, holding out the mantis’s Pokéball. “Scyther, return.”
He knew just who could really kick Pamela’s behind, and mentally slapped himself for not having realized it earlier.
“Letal, go! Use Iron Defense!” he yelled as he threw the next Pokéball and Letal emerged. She had some burns and still that faint cut on her neck, but overall she wasn’t in such a bad state. She immediately began to concentrate and the fine coat of hair on her body turned metallic as it had before.
“Return, Pamela,” Alan said, recalling the Persian. “Diamond, go!”
The Rapidash was again lying awkwardly on her side, fast asleep, when she materialized from the Pokéball. Being sent out again didn’t seem to have gotten her one bit closer to waking up.
“Letal, Slash!” Mark called, knowing that recalling her now would only waste time that Diamond could use to wake up. Letal ran towards the Rapidash, readying the blade on her head, and slashed across Diamond’s shoulder with it.
The Fire Pokémon’s eyes popped open.
“Letal, come back!” Mark shouted quickly while Diamond frantically attempted to stand up; he didn’t want to end up trapped by Fire Spin again. He replaced the Pokéball on his belt and didn’t hesitate before picking Sandslash to replace her.
“Do it!” he cried as he threw the ball that contained the first Pokémon he had caught. The pangolin materialized quickly and looked at the Rapidash on the other side of the room. She had now managed to rise fully.
“Sandslash, Earthquake!”
“Bounce!” Alan yelled.
Sandslash leapt into the air and smashed his clawed paws into the floor, but Diamond had already undertaken an impressive leap. Mark watched the Fire Pokémon soar through the air up by the high ceiling, evading the attack entirely while the floor rumbled with powerful but useless ripples.
“Look out!” he cried as the Rapidash began to descend, aiming straight towards Sandslash. The pangolin curled himself quickly into a spiky ball and began to roll out of the way; Diamond quickly changed her direction in the air and landed with her hooves on top of Sandslash’s body. There was a worrying crack, but then the curled Sandslash slipped out from underneath her, rolled a short distance, and finally uncurled. The pangolin shook himself, but didn’t seem too hurt.
“Flare Blitz!” Alan ordered quickly.
“Earthquake again!” Mark countered.
Diamond’s body flared up in bright flames as Sandslash leapt into the air. The Rapidash rushed towards him as he plunged downwards, and just when he had smashed his paws down and produced a further flurry of ripples in the floor, Diamond’s fiery body smashed into him and briefly enveloped him in flames. Sandslash cried out in pain and was thrown a few meters backwards, but as soon as the flames had faded, the Rapidash collapsed, shivering, onto the floor.
Sandslash uncurled from the ball he had assumed for protection while flying through the air, and although he had nasty-looking burn marks, he was still standing.
“Diamond, return,” Alan said, immediately picking his next Pokéball. “Racko, go!”
Mark recalled Sandslash while Alan’s ball was still in the air, knowing he was very hurt and wouldn’t be able to stand a chance against the Grass Pokémon. He replaced the ball on his belt and took out Scyther’s instead.
“You can handle this!” he shouted as he threw the ball. The Grovyle had already materialized on the floor; there was a deep cut across his red belly from where Letal had slashed him earlier, but otherwise he hadn’t been hurt very much. Scyther, on the other hand, had been weakened considerably by the battle with Pamela.
Alan looked between Racko and Scyther for a couple of seconds, but then picked up a Pokéball. “Racko, come back,” he said, holding out the ball, and a red beam shot out from the Pokéball button and began to dissolve the Grovyle into red energy.
Scyther glanced at Mark for a fraction of a second and then darted forward without warning, dark energy circling his scythes. Mark stared, dumbfounded, as the mantis slashed the rapidly dissolving shape of red light – and the Grovyle’s distorted voice actually cried out in pain for a second before he was beamed into the Pokéball.
Alan rubbed his forehead. “Forgot Scyther could use Pursuit. See, this is why I quit training.”
The older boy took out another Pokéball. “Charlie, Flamethrower him and finish this.”
Mark had only a panicked second to consider his options. If he switched Scyther out, he’d have to switch to Letal since Sandslash couldn’t really hurt the flying Charizard, but then Charlie would get an entirely free hit in and his Flamethrower would probably finish Letal off anyway since she was a Steel Pokémon.
So he’d have to keep Scyther out and hope he, weak as he was, would be able to attack at least once before Charlie roasted him.
“Scyther!” he shouted as the white energy from Alan’s Pokéball formed into the shape of a dragon. “Be ready to Slash!”
The mantis charged, raising his scythes. Charlie materialized fully on Alan’s end of the room with flames already licking the corners of his mouth.
The Charizard attempted to throw his neck forward, but it was still stiff and paralyzed after Charlie’s battle with Jolteon. This bought Scyther the extra fraction of a second he needed to slash his scythes across the dragon Pokémon’s belly, just as Charlie, with a roar of effort and pain, released a bright blast of flames.
Scyther was already unconscious by the time the flames cleared. Charlie dropped down to all fours, took a few exhausted breaths, and then collapsed in defeat.
They both recalled their Pokémon. Mark had two Pokémon left; Alan had three. It wasn’t looking very good for him. Alan had Racko, Pamela and Vicky left; if he sent out Racko, Sandslash would certainly be screwed.
So Mark took out Letal’s Pokéball.
“Go!” the two trainers shouted at the same time, hurling their balls forward. While Letal materialized, Mark looked desperately at the shape coming out of Alan’s ball, hoping it was the Grovyle so that Sandslash wouldn’t have to deal with him later – and his wish was granted.
“Letal, Iron Defense!” he yelled as soon as he realized that she was up against Racko. Yet again, the fine hairs of her body stiffened into metal.
“Use an Energy Ball,” Alan said.
The Grovyle jumped up and an orb of pleasant green energy formed in front of him. With simply a flick of his wrist as he landed, it was sent flying towards Letal. She let out a metallic cry of pain as it smashed into her body.
“Hypnosis!” Mark blurted out.
“Detect!” Alan yelled. As Letal began to stare intently at Racko, his eyes flashed and he jumped skilfully to the side, out of her hypnotic gaze. Before she had even fully turned, he had jumped out of the way again. Letal growled in annoyance.
Mark was fairly sure he could remember that nothing could strike the Grovyle now unless he were to be distracted with another command from his own trainer. “It’s no use, Letal,” he said to his Pokémon. “Use Agility.”
Letal turned to run, accelerating with unnatural speed as she darted across the room. Alan looked quickly at her and then issued the next order: “Okay, Racko, another Energy Ball.”
“Iron Tail!” Mark shouted.
The Agility had made Letal faster. She zoomed towards the Grovyle, her body almost a blur, and swung her tail at her opponent.
Mark didn’t know if it was just luck or if her aim was really that astoundingly good – he had seen her accurately predict where a diving Pidgeot would land after being hypnotized to sleep, after all – but her tail sliced right into the previous cut from when she had slashed him with the blade on her head.
The reptilian Pokémon screeched in horrible pain as blood gushed out of the deep wound. He lost his concentration for his planned Energy Ball completely, and Letal happily used the opportunity to slash once more at his chest. His eyes rolled backwards into his head as he began to fall limply to the ground.
“Racko, return,” Alan said hastily, recalling the Pokémon before he ever fully hit the floor. He gave Letal a freaked glance as he put the Pokéball back on his belt.
Well. Incredibly enough, the battle was now even. So to speak. At least they both had two Pokémon left.
“Go, Pamela.”
The Persian emerged from her Pokéball. Letal faced her, shivering in exhaustion.
“All right, Letal, you can do this,” Mark murmured. “You’ve got boosted defensive abilities and speed and you’re a Steel Pokémon. Don’t give up on me.”
Letal looked at him strangely, as if the suggestion was something absurd. Mark couldn’t help smiling.
“Okay, Letal!” he shouted. “Use Hypnosis!”
“Fake Out!” Alan yelled.
Again, the Persian jumped at Mark’s Pokémon with blinding speed and a menacing hiss. Letal flinched as Pamela struck her down with heavy paws, but her metallic armor made it significantly less effective than it had been on Dragonair. Letal stood up again after Pamela had retreated to a safe distance and gave the Persian her hypnotic stare.
Pamela snorted, about to turn around to demonstrate how ineffective it was, but seemingly forgot what she was doing in mid-turn.
“Pamela,” Alan groaned as her eyelids sank downwards and she lay down on the floor to announce her newfound happiness with dreamy purring.
Mark broke into a smile, his heart pounding as he eyed a possibility of actually winning the battle. “All right, Letal! Iron Tail!”
Letal rushed towards Pamela, her metallic tail taking on a white glow, and then smashed it into the cat Pokémon’s body. Pamela rolled backwards like a ragdoll, but then her eyes snapped open and she leapt to her feet with a hiss.
“Shock Wave!” Alan yelled.
The Persian crouched down and the red gem on her head turned yellow as she sent an electric pulse straight at Letal.
The Steel Pokémon screeched in pain as the electricity coursed through her body, and Mark could tell she wouldn’t stay conscious for very long. He bit his lip.
Letal opened her eyes, straightened herself and stared straight forward with glazed-over eyes – Mark was sure she was about to collapse in exhaustion – but then she lowered her head, her face mask began to glow, and suddenly three beams of pale energy shot from the three ends of the mask, striking Pamela simultaneously.
The cat shrieked in pain as her body erupted in simultaneous sparks, icicles and flames, and while Letal gave way to unconsciousness, the sparks lingered behind.
Pamela was paralyzed.
“Get a Swift in on Sandslash when he sends him out!” Alan shouted.
Mark quickly recalled Letal. “Go, Sandslash!” he yelled, throwing his last Pokéball. “Use an Earthquake, quickly!”
Sandslash appeared in mid-air and smashed down onto the floor while Pamela struggled to move without success. As liquidlike ripples spread through the arena, the Persian mewled in pain and finally collapsed onto the floor, defeated.
Alan raised his eyebrows. “This would be much better TV material than some trainers getting creamed 3-0 at the League,” he said as he plucked his own last Pokéball off his belt and threw it.
Vicky, still rather weak, appeared in a burst of white light.
And Mark realized that Earthquake and Slash wouldn’t be able to do a thing to her.
“Sandslash, what else do you know?” he asked frantically.
“Gyro Ball,” said Sandslash, curling himself up into a ball that turned strangely metallic, rolling a little backwards and then driving himself forward.
Alan watched as the shiny ball that was Sandslash hurled itself through the air towards the Misdreavus.
“Destiny Bond!” he roared.
Sandslash made contact with Vicky’s clothlike physical body and she screamed eerily in pain as she was thrown backwards in a high arc across the room. And, glowing with a ghostly purple color, Sandslash was thrown in an identical arc in the other direction as well, crying out with her. Vicky bounced back up after falling below a certain point in the air. Sandslash just kept going and crashed pathetically into the floor.
And neither of them moved.
“It’s a draw,” Alan said at last, recalling Vicky. “Whoa. Good game.”
Mark recalled the immobile Sandslash as well. “Destiny Bond? That was just cheap.”
But he grinned as he said it, and Alan grinned back. He hadn’t had this much fun battling since… well, unless his memory failed him, actually, it was the most fun battle he had ever had, period. He didn’t even know entirely why.
“So, should we check on May and Carl?” Alan asked, pointing at the hole behind him with his thumb. Mark nodded and followed him down the ladder.
He almost laughed.
May was standing there with a perfectly serious expression, holding the Pokéball of the Trapinch that was materializing in front of her while Carl’s Charizard, her green eyes twinkling in amusement, stood on the other side of the rock, tilting her head. She had clearly been hurt by whatever May had had out before, judging by her bruises. Behind Carl stood his other five Pokémon, watching; all of them were slightly cut and bruised, but a supply of Potion bottles beside them and a few empty ones lying around indicated that May’s Pokémon had left them far worse than they looked now. It took a moment for Mark to realize that of course, without Lapras, any six-on-six battle she had must include her Trapinch. She’d given Carl that handicap after all.
“Last Pokémon,” May said, glancing at the boys before looking back at Trapinch. “Now, use a Sand-Attack.”
She looked very strangely calm for someone left with a weak, freshly caught, unevolved Pokémon against a strong, loyal, evolved one, and just that tipped Mark off that she had to have something up her sleeve. Carl, on the other hand, didn’t know May well enough to be able to jump to such conclusions, and simply raised his eyebrows before giving his Charizard a command:
“Flamethrower.”
The Trapinch was already preparing for his attack and quickly kicked a cloud of previously nonexistent sand straight into the Charizard’s eyes before she had time to move. Blinded, she growled in annoyance, but then breathed out a blast of flames which, despite her lack of sight, hit Trapinch head-on.
The antlion Pokémon screeched in pain and emerged when the fire cleared covered in soot. He looked miserably at May.
“Come on,” she muttered. “I checked you in my Pokédex earlier.”
And as if in response to her words, the Pokémon took on a bright white glow. Trapinch doubled in size in a matter of seconds, growing a leaner body, smaller head and diamond-shaped wings as he did, and finally the glow faded from the newly-evolved Vibrava. He shook the remaining soot off his wings and looked at May with a questioning gaze. Mark stared open-mouthed at him.
“Charizard, finish it off with Heat Wave,” Carl ordered calmly.
“Sonicboom!” May said sharply.
It was first now that Mark noticed Carl’s Charizard was paralyzed. She grunted as she strained to move her stiff muscles, and meanwhile May’s Vibrava took off the ground, his wings buzzing as he tried them out for the first time. The Charizard took a deep breath, but while she did, Vibrava’s wings broke the sound barrier with a deafening crack and a sonic shockwave was sent straight at Carl’s Pokémon.
“Follow up with a Dragonbreath!” May shouted while the Charizard roared in pain, spluttering flames from her mouth and in the process losing her concentration for her own attack. Vibrava opened his mouth and breathed a cloud of sparkly fire at his opponent. The Charizard’s paralysis intensified and she turned her gaze towards her trainer with a soft growl.
Carl nodded. “I forfeit. Good battle. I guess we have an eleventh Pokémon for tomorrow now.”
His Magmar had already picked up a few potion bottles and Carl took them without words, roughly spraying the Charizard’s entire body with a Paralyze Heal and a Hyper Potion. “Use the time to heal your Pokémon,” he said to the kids while his Charizard stretched her wings so he could give them a nice dose of anti-paralysis agent. “I’ve got enough supplies, and the Pokémon Center is being evacuated so you won’t get any help there.”
Mark and Alan sent out their unconscious Pokémon, picked up some of the bottles and began to work on reviving them. None had sustained any terrible injuries, so it was a fairly quick job. Meanwhile Carl finished healing his Charizard and applied some final potions to his other Pokémon’s wounds.
“All right,” he said, standing up after spraying an injury on his Arcanine’s paw, “let’s get started.”
Alan raised his eyebrows. “Already?”
Carl glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “Why not? Unless your Pokémon have any objections?” He looked questioningly at Alan’s Pokémon, but they collectively shook their heads. Mark couldn’t help finding the thought of them not being tired kind of bizarre, but it was undeniable that Elixirs did their job well.
“Great,” Carl just said. May had walked up to the wall of the volcano after recalling Vibrava and stood there with folded arms, watching. The gym leader walked to one side of the rock, followed by his Pokémon.
“Well,” he said, looking at Mark and Alan. “Keep your three each and recall the others so we can get started.”
Mark recalled Letal, Sandslash and Jolteon, leaving Scyther, Charizard and Dragonair out in front of him while Racko, Mist and Pamela were sucked into their balls as well.
Carl paused thoughtfully. “Magmar, Charizard and Magcargo, you can deal with Mark’s team. Arcanine, Flareon and Camerupt, get ready to fight Alan’s.”
His Pokémon did as he instructed, three of them settling opposite Mark’s Pokémon. He tried desperately to form some sort of strategy in his head, but no matter how he thought about it, Carl’s Pokémon inevitably had the offensive advantage.
“Camerupt, use Earth Power on the Rapidash!” Carl barked. “Magcargo, hit the Charizard with Ancientpower! Arcanine, Crunch the Misdreavus! Charizard, Dragon Claw on Dragonair! Everyone else, use fire! Go!”
Carl’s Pokémon swooped into action before Mark had time to think. Thankfully his Pokémon were more focused than he was. Charizard raised his claws, diving down towards Carl’s Magmar just as the ducklike Pokémon took a deep breath and fired a Flamethrower towards Scyther. The mantis dodged out of the way, helped by Charizard’s Slash which prevented the Magmar from keeping up and reaiming the attack. Meanwhile, blue flames formed around the female Charizard’s curled fist and she dove gracefully towards Dragonair while he waved his tail in a threatening manner.
“Dragonair, what are you…” Mark began, but was cut off as the Charizard went for it, lunged down as dragon flames circled her razor-sharp claws and raked them sharply across Dragonair’s belly. In retaliation, Dragonair’s entire tail turned liquid and he slammed it into the other dragon’s body. Droplets of water were sprayed all around, and Carl’s Pokémon flinched as the minute amount of water hit them. The warm rock they were standing on hissed as drops landed on it and evaporated.
“Mag!” cried the Magcargo’s deep voice as large chunks of lava tore themselves out of the rock they were standing on and hurled themselves at Charizard. He froze for a second, but then tried to throw himself to the side. With a simple movement of his head, Magcargo made them follow him.
Mark was startled by a cry of pain and quickly looked towards the source of it: Scyther, being roasted by a combined Flamethrower from Carl’s Magmar and Charizard. The golden dragon had a large, bleeding cut across her stomach that looked like Scyther had inflicted it while Mark was looking elsewhere. It was far too confusing to keep track of three opponents at once. He was vaguely aware of Carl barking commands to his Pokémon on Alan’s side as Scyther dropped down onto the rock, unconscious.
Mark took out his Pokéball, thinking frantically. “Dragonair, use another Aqua Tail!” he blurted out. “On... Magcargo.” As he remembered the lava snail Pokémon again, he jerked his head around to see where Charizard was and at first couldn’t see him, but then he emerged, battered and bruised, from below the rock. “Charizard, attack Magcargo too. Maybe use Dragon Rage.”
He recalled Scyther’s unconscious body just as he saw Carl turn around. “Magcargo, use a Lava Plume on Dragonair!” the gym leader ordered sharply. “Magmar, get Dragonair with a Confuse Ray. And Charizard, stop the male.”
Magmar, to Mark’s great dismay, was faster than Dragonair. The duck-billed Fire Pokémon breathed out a small, bright, bluish-white flame, which began to dance around Dragonair’s head, trying to distract him. While Charizard took in a breath, aiming towards Magcargo, the female growled and flew straight at his back, forcing his head down so that the blast of crimson flames that he released from his mouth only hit the lava. She locked her jaws around the horns on his head, forcing his mouth to point away from her as she lodged her claws into his shoulders; he roared in pain and could no longer stay aloft. The two dragons tumbled down past the edge of the rock, snarling and growling as they plunged towards the magma below.
Mark’s heart jumped in panic before he reminded himself frantically that Charizard could withstand that kind of heat. Dragonair cried out in pain and Mark turned quickly towards him to see him enveloped in a fountain of molten lava that had risen from the lake of magma below. Carl’s Magcargo looked weak and was in a puddle of water, meaning Dragonair had managed to use Aqua Tail once, but it was not enough.
“Dragonair, try to get Magcargo again with Aqua Tail!” Mark called quickly before hurrying closer to the edge of the rock so that he could see Charizard.
Far below, the golden female was trying to push Charizard into the lava. Her claws still dug into his shoulders while he flapped his wings in feeble attempts to shake her off. His fiery tail lashed around, beating against her back, but she countered it by wrapping her own tightly around it and wrestling it down while his body sank slowly further into the magma. Charizard wrenched his horns free from her jaws with a jerk of his head, turned his neck and then blasted a Dragon Rage into her face. The female jerked in pain and surprise, giving him an opportunity to slam one of his wings into her and push her off his back. He attempted to get out of the magma, but it took him only a second to realize that he couldn’t get out without any support.
Charizard looked quickly to his side, seeing where Carl’s Charizard was seemingly trying to somehow swim towards the rock the trainers were standing on, and dug his claws into her tail, pulling himself closer to her. She jerked, sinking a little deeper into the lava as she turned quickly onto her back while dark flames formed in her mouth, but meanwhile Charizard had climbed on top of her, pushing her body down into the magma just as she had done to him.
She breathed the Dragon Rage into his face with a roar, but he was ready for it and persisted in pushing her down. She slammed her tail into his wing, causing him to growl in pain, but he wrapped his own around hers. She glared at him in a manner that suggested she found it extremely cheap of him to steal her techniques, and the corners of his mouth curled up into a grin in response. He was bigger and heavier than her; he could almost certainly keep her down more easily than she had him.
The female raised her neck out of the lava, suspiciously slowly. Charizard seemed too surprised to realize he could take advantage of this until she had already reached up to his neck and… licked it?
Mark stared. Yes, she was actually licking him… and curling her tail all-too-lovingly around his… and running her claws lightly around his shoulders…
He felt himself blushing furiously and quickly turned around. Dragonair was no longer being chased by the Confuse Ray, but his skin looked badly charred and his flight was weak; Carl seemed to have recalled Magcargo and was now apparently about to issue an order to Magmar.
“Um,” Mark said, pointing vaguely down. Carl looked at him and raised his eyebrows in mock surprise, seeming extremely amused.
Alan looked at Mark and then to where he was pointing, and immediately burst out laughing. May walked curiously towards the edge. Something made Mark look again too.
He had looked just in time, because the moment he did so, Carl’s Charizard suddenly rolled over in the magma, throwing the male off her now that she had gotten him to almost completely relax his hold on her and let his guard down. Charizard grunted in surprise as she quickly made her way towards the bottom of the rock and climbed up on its side, blasting a cone of crimson dragon fire down towards where he was still struggling in the magma. Charizard roared in pain, coughing and spluttering, while Carl’s Charizard prepared for another Dragon Rage.
“Stop,” Mark said, shaking his head. He took out Charizard’s Pokéball and recalled him. A dragon-shaped hole in the lava was left, filling up in a couple of seconds.
Mark replaced the Pokéball on his belt, feeling a bit embarrassed on Charizard’s behalf, before looking quickly back towards his battle. His heart sank when he saw that Dragonair was already lying unconscious on the rock with Magmar still standing and felt a little guilty for having one of his Pokémon faint without him even noticing it.
“Dragonair, return,” he muttered while Carl’s Charizard landed on top of the rock. He had not only been beaten, but beaten badly: his team had only taken down one of Carl’s Pokémon, and the weakest of them to boot. Alan’s battle, on the other hand, was still ongoing, and he quietly moved to the wall of the crater where May stood to watch it.
Alan’s Pokémon had apparently brought down Carl’s Flareon and Camerupt, but they had taken out both Diamond and Vicky, leaving Charlie facing Carl’s Arcanine. Neither of them seemed particularly injured so far, but Charlie was swooping down with his claws raised to rake them across the Arcanine’s face.
“Thunder Fang!”
The fiery dog growled and sparks circled his fangs before he jumped and sank his teeth into Charlie’s tail. Electricity coursed through the dragon’s body and he fell harshly down onto the rock. Carl’s Arcanine took a leap backwards, allowing Charlie to stand up, and then sped towards him again and tackled him powerfully back to the ground.
“Charlie, Air Slash!” Alan yelled desperately.
“Extremespeed,” Carl said calmly, and before Charlie had the time to fly up again, Arcanine had in a blur of motion tackled him down again. Charlie attempted weakly to get up again, but then fell back down, unconscious.
“Good battle,” Carl said simply, taking out all his Pokéballs again. “Let’s all heal up and then go to bed, shall we? Big day tomorrow, and the Pokémon Center has plenty of empty rooms.”
Mark muttered something in agreement and sent Charizard, Dragonair and Scyther out again while Alan brought him a few potion bottles. Charizard looked with embarrassment at Carl’s Charizard, who winked with a teasing grin before turning around to let Carl spray some Potion on the cut on her belly.
“Well, that battle was… interesting.” Mark coughed, not sure how to finish the thought.
“Awkward,” Charizard agreed, and Mark could have sworn he saw the dragon’s face slightly reddening.
“Very.”
“Although at the same time, it was… kind of nice.”
Mark couldn’t help snickering. “Charizard in love.”
“I hate you sometimes,” the Pokémon muttered.
It didn’t take very long to finish healing all of the Pokémon, and everyone agreed that it would be smart to let them sleep outside their balls before the big battle. Carl’s Pokémon, apparently, always slept down on that rock in the crater where they’d just been battling, but the kids let theirs out to sleep in the actual gym building, where it turned out Carl had a few old mattresses that they could use to make themselves comfortable. Only Spirit refused to sleep in the gym, insisting that she sleep in May’s room.
When they stepped out of the gym building, having left the other Pokémon, it was dark. Only a few people remained in the evacuation line as the Abra reappeared and the Mayor ushered a young couple towards the Pokémon.
“How goes the evacuation?” Carl called.
“Fine, fine,” Mayor Daniels replied distractedly. “We’re nearly done, as you can see. Will you stay until we finish?”
“No,” Carl said. “We have to wake up early tomorrow. We’d best get to bed.”
The Mayor nodded as the Abra teleported off with the couple. “All right. Good night, then.”
“Good night to you too, Mayor.”
“Well,” Alan said. “So don’t we just go to the Pokémon Center, and you go home?”
“Yes,” Carl replied, but when Mark prepared to go after May and Alan, he put a hand on his shoulder. “Not you. I said I’d keep an eye on you, and I will. You can sleep on my couch.”
Mark shrugged. “Okay, then,” he said to May and Alan. “Good night.”
“Good night.” They looked at him, clearly puzzled, but just shrugged and turned away.
Mark hurried after Carl, who took him to the building beside the gym. It was a rather small house, and for some reason he noticed when they stepped in and Carl turned on the lights that there were no photos or pictures on the walls anywhere. The living room consisted of one old couch and a television in front of it, with one end of the room seeming to serve as the kitchen. There were two doors on the left wall, one to a small bathroom and one to a bedroom, but otherwise the house had only that one room.
“That’s the couch,” Carl said, pointing at the old one in front of them. The upholstery was a kind of sickly grayish-yellowish-green color, but it did look soft. Mark shrugged and put his backpack beside it.
“Let me tell you one thing,” Carl then said, his voice harsh. “I’m not buying it. Your story makes little sense, I never much believed in legendary Pokémon, and it’s blatantly obvious that your friends know more than they say they do. I don’t like liars. I’d have thrown you out on the spot but for that you happened to come here the very day after our scientists picked up something fishy with the volcano. If this is your idea of a sick joke, you are one very, very lucky prankster… for now.”
Carl made a point of locking the door very carefully, removing the key and putting it in his pocket. “But any responsible man who cares for his hometown would have it evacuated if anything seems to suggest it might be destroyed. I don’t know how you could have found out about the volcano stirring, but it forces me to give your explanation the benefit of the doubt, and that is the only reason why I’m playing along with it. The evacuation would have happened even if you hadn’t come. Don’t think you’ve fooled anyone with this just because appropriate precautions for the situation are being taken. And I swear that if your Volcaryu does not burst out of the mountain tomorrow, the consequences for you will not be amusing in the slightest. Do you understand?”
Mark shivered. “Yes.”
“Good,” Carl said, went into the bedroom and closed the door. Mark stared after him, still unnerved by the speech and how easily something could go wrong.
This is the longest chapter of the entire fic, and that's chiefly because it contains a full 5500-word six-on-six battle between Mark and Alan in the middle of it that's basically filler, which I spent most of the writing process of this chapter complaining about having to write. There are some fun character moments in there, but at the absolute least it did not have to be a six-on-six to get such moments in. Please, seventeen-year-old me, you don't have to write a six-on-six battle, who is holding a gun to your head.
The treatment of the volcano here is largely nonsense inspired by video game lava levels and the climax of the Return of the King movie, but some way or another I did manage to reasonably accurately show Pupitar (made of rock) sinking slowly in magma while Charizard (much less dense than rock) seem to float in it and need to actively push each other down. I'm still amazed that I managed this.
This chapter contains a historic moment for the fic: when Carl sends out the rest of his Pokémon, I don't stop to describe what all the Pokémon look like! A miracle! For years I'd dutifully described every Pokémon species the first time it appeared in the fic, because everyone was told to do this on Serebii back in the day, but here, alongside Mark's rebellion, my 17-year-old self finally had the courage to just... not. I always hated doing it and this felt so much better.
There's this bit during the Mark/Alan fight where Mark talks about how he'd had these overblown expectations for Dragonair (that we haven't seen) and how Dragonair's disappointed him, when basically every time Dragonair's lost has involved... Mark just not knowing any of his moves. I just kept on being weird about Dragonair for some reason. I'm sorry Dragonair, you deserved better.
In general, Alan distinctly uses way more interesting strategies than we've seen in any battle in the fic so far, and when May is supposed to be the actually good strategist of the three of them, that's pretty incongruous. Granted, Alan is a much more experienced trainer, who's had years to get to know his Pokémon and their moves to figure out something that works for them, but for characterizational reasons it's really unfortunate that he honestly comes across as a better battler than May by a mile here.
Get ready for some more Carl and our next legendary battle!
Chapter 38: Volcaryu
“It’s half past six. Get up.”
Mark opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. He recoiled and squinted at the bright light above him, first not sure where he was, until his eyes found the middle-aged, bearded man that held the flashlight whose bright beam was searing through his pupils. He shielded his eyes with his hand. “Are you insane?” he mumbled. “Get that thing away.”
Carl flicked the switch on the flashlight off, and the world plunged into darkness. Mark blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the dim twilight from outside that did little more for the lighting than to allow him to spot the windows. He sat up and looked at Carl’s tall, looming silhouette. “Half past six,” he muttered. “Right. I said Chaletwo would wake Volcaryu at seven o’clock.”
“Yes, that’s what you said,” Carl said coldly and Mark wanted to slap his forehead; he was too half-asleep to be careful. He rubbed his forehead, crawled out of the sleeping bag and began to roll it up while silently cursing that seven in the morning had to be the first arbitrary time that had come to mind.
The wheels in his brain creaked metaphorically as the numbers began to register properly in his mind. Half past six. He jumped.
“Wait, what?” he asked quickly. “In half an hour?”
“Yes,” said Carl and nodded.
“Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” Mark blurted out, stuffing the sleeping bag hastily into the far-too-small containing bag without bothering to finish rolling it. “I won’t have time to eat breakfast or brush my teeth or…”
“Isn’t it strange how you didn’t seem to be concerned enough yesterday evening to even mention when we would wake up?” Carl asked, his voice dripping with icy sarcasm. “One might even get the impression you don’t actually believe that the timer to the destruction of this town by dragon-induced eruption is ticking.”
I believe it’s ticking all right, Mark thought dully as he attached the sleeping bag to his backpack, this time making very carefully sure not to say it aloud. It’s just that I know it would wait for me to get breakfast if I asked.
“I’m an it now?” asked Chaletwo’s voice in his head.
Mark rolled his eyes as he put his backpack on, for once grateful that the darkness prevented Carl from seeing it. He would probably interpret it as something decidedly not in his favour.
Chaletwo, Mark thought darkly as the gym leader dragged him towards the door, if we’re flying up there over the volcano and you tell me Volcaryu won’t wake up or something, I’m going to kill you.
“Maybe if Carl doesn’t finish you first.”
Mark shuddered as they left the house and headed towards the Pokémon Center, where May and Alan might even still be sleeping. Carl turned the flashlight back on to illuminate the wooden floor in front of them.
No, I mean it. Is there any chance that you could fail to wake up Volcaryu?
“No,” Chaletwo responded. “Not really. I’m the one keeping him asleep, after all. It’s not a matter of doing anything, but of not doing something anymore. I’d be very worried if I were capable of messing that up.”
Mark snorted, but Carl cast a suspicious glance at him that made him remind himself to be quiet. He looked around the town and found it eerily deserted, somehow clearly more so than it had seemed the previous evening when he had arrived there. Maybe it was that all the windows were dark or that the sun just below the reddening horizon provided only barely enough light to see around. Or maybe the hole in the middle of the wooden town floor that now, more than then, provided a prominent second natural light source: the warm, fiery glow spilled faintly out over the floor closest to the hole and painted the fronts of the houses with an eerie translucent orange. It struck Mark suddenly what a truly unique place Crater Town was in the world, and again he was hit by painful guilt when he reminded himself that it would all be gone within the next hour.
The boards he was walking on creaked uncomfortably.
You’re not about to lose him early or anything, are you? Mark thought nervously as Carl stepped in front of him and opened the door of the Pokémon Center using a key – Mark presumed the electricity must have been taken off the town, hence the flashlight and the nonworking automatic doors.
“No, no, no. Everything is fine for now.”
To Mark’s surprise and relief, May and Alan were already dressed and ready, standing in the lobby of the Pokémon Center and waiting for them while Spirit curled up on a bench. Carl held the door open for them without words and locked it pointlessly again once they were out; the kids muttered some brief greetings.
Carl checked his watch. “Twenty minutes. Let’s get our Pokémon.”
Mark wondered crazily whether Carl would kill him if they were still in town at seven o’clock and Volcaryu still hadn’t burst out from under their feet. A fit of anger over not being dead yet. For some reason the thought made him chuckle, but he stopped quickly when Carl narrowed his eyes at him.
They walked back towards the gym building in silence. Carl stopped to take a long look at the exterior before he finally walked up to the front door and opened it with a key. Some of the Pokémon were apparently already awake, while others still lay sleepily on the dirty mattresses; as they entered, several ears perked up, and the ones who were awake quickly prodded the ones that weren’t. Carl walked straight towards the ladder that led down into the crater, presumably to get his own Pokémon.
“Come on, guys,” Mark said, walking further into the room while the Pokémon stood up and stretched one by one. “Wake up and get in your balls. Well, except Charizard, I guess.”
He waited for all the Pokémon to wake up and stretch and then recalled them while May and Alan did the same, so that only the two Charizard, Skarmory and Spirit were left in the room among the scattered mattresses. It seemed strangely empty; they moved a little closer to one another and stood together in complete silence in the middle of the room for a few awkward moments. Finally Carl came back up the ladder and they walked outside without words.
“Twelve minutes,” Carl said as they exited the gym building, and Mark felt himself shiver uncomfortably. The gym leader looked at him, May and Alan in turn. “You’re in awfully little of a hurry, aren’t you?” he said.
Anger and irritation that had been building up the whole morning flashed through Mark’s mind. “Just shut up,” he replied and didn’t really remember deciding to say it. “You have no idea what this is about. Can’t you save the judging for a few minutes?”
Carl raised an eyebrow and looked at him for a long moment. Mark felt oddly satisfied with his own daring for a split second despite knowing what a stupid thing that had been to say here and now. He was uncomfortably aware of Alan staring at him like a lunatic.
“Fair enough,” the gym leader said at last, sounding surprisingly calm. “Let’s get up there, then.”
And Carl grabbed a Pokéball from his belt and sent out his Charizard. She looked coolly at the two males; Mark saw his Charizard blush and look away as Carl climbed with surprising agility onto her back. The dragon took off from the ground with far more grace than a creature of her size carrying Carl’s weight ought to be able to and then hovered in circles above the crater. Carl looked down at them.
“Right,” Mark muttered, ignoring the surprised but somewhat impressed expression that May was still wearing, and it occurred to him that he had never ridden Charizard before. “Uh, can you bend down somehow so I can get on your back?”
Charizard crouched down on all fours and lowered his wing to the floor. Mark stepped hesitantly onto the leathery wing fabric and then climbed awkwardly onto the dragon’s back, wrapping his arms around his Pokémon’s neck. Charizard raised himself up, very slowly, and Mark still felt like he was about to fall. He watched May and Alan mount their Pokémon (far more easily, his disgruntled mind added with envy) and took a few deep breaths.
“Ready?” Charizard murmured.
Mark closed his eyes but wasn’t sure if it would help at all. “Try, at least.”
He yelped as Charizard’s muscles flexed under his thighs and spread the dragon’s majestic wings out in full. He felt his Pokémon crouch ever so slightly down and then jump with a terrifying lurch.
I’m going to fall, Mark’s brain said frantically as the dragon’s wings flapped and his body was thrown irregularly up and down while Charizard tried to steady his flight. Oh, God, I’m going to fall into the volcano and burn to death, or maybe drown, whichever comes first, and Volcaryu’ll destroy the town and the legendaries will kill everybody –
But then the movements of the Pokémon’s wing muscles became more rhythmic, their ascension began to feel steadier, and at last he dared to open his eyes. He caught a glimpse of the volcano shrinking below and the gaping hole to Hell in the middle of the town and immediately regretted it, squeezing them shut again.
“Charizard, can you fly in some wide circles like Carl’s Charizard is doing while I get used to this?” he called into the wind around his face. He actually felt Charizard nod through the muscle movements in his neck. It was a weird sensation.
Charizard smoothly adjusted his flight to be horizontal and after a minute of regular, rhythmic forward-flight, the feeling that he was about to fall had subdued a little, enough for Mark to dare to open his eyes again. Learning from his past mistakes, he resisted the urge to look down and looked at Carl, May and Alan instead. They were all hovering on their Pokémon around the same plane as he was.
“Pokémon out,” Carl barked, taking out his own Pokéballs and throwing them down towards the crater. Alan took out two of his; Vicky came out of one to hover beside her trainer while the other, presumably containing Diamond, fell down towards the ground. May sent out her Butterfree and newly-evolved Vibrava to fly beside her while the third ball fell down to let Pupitar join Spirit. Mark got out Dragonair and Scyther’s balls and sent them out to fly by Charizard’s side.
“Five minutes,” Carl said, looking at his watch, and Mark couldn’t help being briefly envious of how easily Carl could hold himself still on his Charizard’s back without having to cling to her neck with more force than would have been necessary to strangle a human being. “I don’t assume you know which clock Chaletwo goes by.”
Mark didn’t dignify that with an answer. He was feeling a little distracted. Something seemed to be missing before they could actually start.
Chaletwo’s pep talk, he realized and grinned to himself, mentally prodding at the part of his brain that Chaletwo was residing in.
“With him around?” Chaletwo responded.
It was a good point. Since supposedly Chaletwo could only communicate either privately with Mark or by sending out a local psychic signal that everyone in the vicinity could hear, it would be a bit difficult for him to make any sort of a speech without Carl hearing. Mark sighed.
He’d have to do it himself.
“All right,” he said and cleared his throat. Carl looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
“So this is it. Volcaryu is a – a fire dragon. And he’s powerful. So we all have to work together to bring him down. Try to take the other Pokémon into account while you fight. And, uh…”
He looked around, first at Alan, then at May, then at all the flying Pokémon (he was still not going to look down if he could help it), and then finally at Carl. The gym leader was watching him with calm interest.
“Right. And Pupitar. Try to support Pupitar. And, uh, all you guys down there, you should get on the edges of the actual crater on the outside of the volcano if you aren’t there already if you don’t want to get caught in the eruption.”
He looked awkwardly at everyone. He was increasingly realizing that he sucked at pep talks, but the fact he was doing it felt strangely good at the same time.
“All right, then. Do your best, and… we can do this.”
He saw Alan nod and smile in encouragement and felt a little warmer, despite knowing that he could have been the worst speaker in the world and Alan would still have done that.
“One minute,” said Carl. They waited and Mark frantically went over everything he remembered about Fire Pokémon in his head. This was so crazy. What would the eruption be like?
“Ten,” said Carl, “nine, eight…”
Chaletwo, be ready, Mark thought.
“…five, four, three, two, one…”
Carl looked up. They waited for a few more seconds. Nothing happened.
“Well?” asked the gym leader. “Where’s your Volcaryu?”
“I don’t know,” Mark said, reaching for Chaletwo in his mind. He was more angry than anything else for some bizarre reason.
“He’s awake just fine,” Chaletwo replied. “But I mean, I can’t make him come out if he doesn’t feel like it. I assumed he’d…”
“Hell with it,” Mark hissed. He wasn’t sure what it was that made him think of it, much less go ahead and do it, but he whipped out his Pokédex and began pressing buttons.
“What do you think you’re…?”
“Thunderyu, GO!” Mark shouted, folding his Pokédex as he threw one of his Pokéballs forward.
May and Alan stared at him like he was insane, which he probably was, come to think of it. He watched the white shape from the Pokéball form into a slender dragon with broad wings, stunned by what an insanely risky thing he had just dared to do.
The light faded from Thunderyu’s form, and the dragon didn’t so much as look at his captors. Instead, his eyes stared, transfixed, at the crater straight below him while he flapped his golden wings with slow graceful movements that somehow made Mark think of heartbeat.
There was a deep rumble in the depths of the volcano.
“Are you mad?” Chaletwo hissed. “Recall him before Volcaryu gets to him, or they’ll tear one another apart and wipe us out as collateral damage before we can even blink!”
“Not yet,” Mark muttered, squeezing the maximized Pokéball in his hand. There was another roar from within the volcano below, more powerful than the first. Thunderyu’s eyes, which had begun to wander and notice the humans’ presence, were instantly fixed back on the crater, and the dragon let out a wild, screeching cry of excitement, daring the creature in the volcano to break out of its prison.
Mark looked briefly at Carl, who was watching Thunderyu in disturbed fascination. Alan looked terrified. Even May was a little pale as she watched the legendary Pokémon so close by. Above them, dark clouds were already beginning to gather in obedient response to Thunderyu’s presence.
There was another deep roar from below, laced with poisonous loathing as Volcaryu recognized the challenge of his nemesis. There was also a much deeper, somehow more terrifying rumble from the volcano itself.
Mark couldn’t help it. He looked down.
The glow in the hole in the middle of town was much brighter now, and it took a second for Mark to realize that it was because the lava had risen – and it was still rushing upwards with unsettling speed. The floor began to crumble as the heat vaporized the support beams below it, seconds before molten lava spluttered out through the hole, shattering the wood into burning splinters that crumbled into ash in the air. The sheer destructive power of it was terrifying but fascinating; Mark couldn’t look away as fiery magma enveloped the gym building and it began to sink and melt. The wooden houses all around had become a blazing inferno whose ashes crumbled into the lava in a matter of seconds. The white-hot liquid squeezed its way through every crevice to flow down the sides of the volcano, and the Pokémon hurtled out of the way while the lava began to sink again.
Then suddenly it was rushing back upwards, and a dark shape burst out of the middle of it, sending splatters of lava flying in every direction as the creature roared with hatred and headed straight up towards Thunderyu. The electric dragon cried out in glee and swooped downwards to meet it.
“Return!” Mark yelled, although his voice could hardly be heard, pointed the Pokéball at Thunderyu and pressed the button. A red beam of light shot out of the ball, hitting the descending dragon’s back.
Thunderyu cried out in surprise as his form began to dissolve into red. Mark felt the Ultra Ball shake in his hand as the dragon strained madly against the power that was pulling him into it, the piercing roar garbling into an incoherent mess of sound waves. He squeezed the ball in his sweating hands and prayed that what they were always told about Pokéball beams being impossible to escape once the Pokémon had been caught and hit by the beam was true.
The ball stopped shaking, Thunderyu let out a last, distorted cry of frustration and finally vanished into the Pokéball. Mark replaced it on his belt and somehow it took him a second to remember that there was a whole battle yet to be done.
He jerked his head back towards Volcaryu, who had now flown up to the same height as they were and was looking frantically around for any traces of the other dragon. Mark couldn’t help thinking, in the split second he spent taking in the sight of him visually, that Volcaryu was nowhere near the creature of grace that Thunderyu was, but he was bigger and bulkier and at least ten times more frightening. His muscular body was covered with dark red scales and some larger plates of black armor, and coupled with the twisted horns and pointed snout, the color scheme made him look unsettlingly demonic. The relatively small, black wings really shouldn’t have been able to keep his weight aloft, but somehow they did.
Volcaryu turned his head towards Mark, his eyes shining with nothing less than psychotic bloodlust, and apparently decided to give up looking for Thunderyu for the moment and take his frustration out on the Pokémon flying around him instead.
Charizard swooped upwards, and Mark screamed as he narrowly avoided falling off by clinging on to his Pokémon’s neck. Just below them, a tongue of bright flames erupted from Volcaryu’s mouth and enveloped the spot they’d been at only seconds earlier. He shivered. “Pokémon, start attacking him already!” he shouted as he tried to steady himself better on Charizard’s back. The other flying Pokémon scattered out of Volcaryu’s way as the dragon turned around to attack them.
“Magcargo, Ancient Power!” he heard Carl bark somewhere behind him. Below them, chunks of glowing rock tore themselves out of the crater’s edge, making way for more lava to pour our down the sides of the volcano as the boulders smashed into Volcaryu’s body, tossing him off course from where he was chasing after May on her Skarmory. The dragon cried out in pain and turned sharply towards the crater instead while the metallic vulture turned back around and tried to stay still in the air.
“Pupitar, Rock Slide!” May shouted from the bird’s back. “And Spirit, use Curse!”
The Ninetales on the edge of the crater looked up at Volcaryu as her eyes began to glow bright red – but then Volcaryu roared, lava rushed upwards again, and it spilled violently over the edge of the crater while globs of it were sent flying through the air. Charlie swooped out of the way of a splatter of magma, narrowly saving Alan from being hit by it, while an entire flood burst out on Spirit’s side of the mountain, enveloping her and disrupting her concentration as she tried desperately to fight her way out of the molten rock. May quickly grabbed a Pokéball and recalled her.
Mark tore his eyes away from the Pokémon below and looked at Volcaryu again. Satisfied with the distraction that the eruption had provided for the Pokémon on the volcano, he turned to the humans again, this time looking at Carl. The gym leader’s Charizard growled threateningly, and the taunt seemed to draw Volcaryu’s attention well enough for the other Pokémon to finally dare to approach and attack.
Scyther darted towards the dragon with both of his scythes raised and glowing with a dark aura while Dragonair flared up with blue fire and zoomed in the same direction. May’s Butterfree began to glow purple. The first attack to actually hit Volcaryu was Vicky’s Shadow Ball that smashed into the dragon’s head while he was gathering flames in his throat; he roared and turned sharply around, realizing too late that he was being attacked from all sides.
His head began to glow with the same purple that Butterfree was, and he screeched in pain, momentarily unable to move, which gave the other Pokémon the chance to strike.
Scyther drove his scythes at Volcaryu’s underbelly, but it was apparently pretty strongly armoured and the blades barely even left a mark. Scyther quickly retreated back to Mark’s side to avoid being attacked in retaliation while Dragonair smashed his fiery body into the much larger dragon’s side, causing Volcaryu to let out yet another roar of pain. He was shaking the Psychic off now.
“Dragonbreath, Vibrava!” May yelled.
“Diamond, use Bounce!” Alan shouted.
“Scyther, Swords Dance!” Mark blurted out. “Dragonair, use another Dragon Rush!”
Scyther began sharpening his scythes in a peculiar dance in mid-air while Dragonair flared blue again, but meanwhile, Alan’s Rapidash leapt up towards Volcaryu in a humongous leap as she neighed ferociously. Volcaryu turned around to inspect the noise just as she smashed into his side, throwing him a bit downwards.
Up to this point, Volcaryu probably hadn’t quite realized that all of the creatures around him were actually there to attack him, but Mark suspected it was starting to dawn on him now. Volcaryu roared and spewed a column of flame towards May and her Butterfree; Skarmory swooped quickly out of the way, but Butterfree wasn’t as fast a flier and was caught in the blast. May recalled her without words while her Vibrava fired a cone of sparkly flames at the legendary Pokémon and Dragonair smashed into his other side.
“Camerupt, use a Rock Slide!” came Carl’s barking voice. “Another Ancientpower, Magcargo! Magmar, Confuse Ray! Flareon, use Helping Hand to assist Magcargo! Arcanine, Extremespeed!”
“Everybody, another synchronized assault!” Mark screamed, and Scyther, Dragonair and Diamond all rushed towards Volcaryu again just as Carl’s Arcanine shot into the air at supernatural speed and smashed into Volcaryu’s body. Mark eyed Vicky charging up a Shadow Ball. They were actually not doing too bad this time.
And just as the thought crossed his mind, Volcaryu let out a deep roar and his entire body burst into a humongous sphere of white-hot flames. All the Pokémon that were closing in on Volcaryu were caught in the inferno and screamed as the blazing heat scorched them; Mark stared in horror as even the boulders that Magcargo and Camerupt had summoned were literally melting in mid-air before they could reach the dragon Pokémon, sending splatters of glowing magma flying all around. The three Charizard and Skarmory recoiled to a safer distance with their riders; Mark’s stomach took an uncomfortable lurch as he very nearly fell off Charizard’s back at the unexpected movement. He saw Scyther, his armor blackened and charred, fall limply downwards before ever reaching the legendary Pokémon, and quickly recalled him back into his Pokéball. Dragonair managed to actually deliver his attack, if with rather less power than otherwise, but Mark could see his skin flaking by the second in such close vicinity of the source of the heat, and within seconds Dragonair was unconscious as well and had to be returned to the safety of his Pokéball. Diamond swung her horn at Volcaryu, but she missed; however, she actually didn’t seem at all hurt, and in fact her flames were burning brighter than before if anything as she descended back towards the crater.
The fireball from around Volcaryu dissolved. The dragon looked a little tired after having kept it up for so long, but still immediately allowed his body to flare up with new fire, this time blue dragon flames, and dove straight at May’s Vibrava.
“Dodge!” May yelled from the back of her Skarmory, but Vibrava just screeched in panic, seemingly frozen with fear, and when Volcaryu smashed his heavy body into him, he didn’t even stand a chance. Vibrava was sent flying through the air, enveloped in blue flames, and May silently recalled him while Volcaryu’s still flaring form turned downwards to the part of the crater wall where Carl’s Pokémon and Diamond were standing.
“Get out of the way!” Alan and Carl shouted simultaneously. Diamond was quick to leap over Volcaryu’s body and land on the other side of the crater while Carl’s Arcanine and Flareon ran along the edge to either side, but Camerupt and Magcargo weren’t fast enough to get away and Magmar had apparently decided to sacrifice himself so that he could form another Confuse Ray as a distraction.
“Magmar, don’t…” Carl began, but then Volcaryu’s body rammed into all three Pokémon on the crater’s edge, enveloped all of them in dragon flames and knocked them flying down the side of the mountain. Carl quickly took out their Pokéballs and recalled them. His Charizard growled.
The flames on Volcaryu’s body died down and the dragon shook his head to clear it before flying back upwards and heading towards Vicky.
“Grudge!” Alan shouted, and the Misdreavus’s eyes glowed purple while Volcaryu approached her, opening his jaws wide. As the dragon snapped them around the Ghost Pokémon and shook her violently around, she let out a shrill scream of pain, and Alan recalled her. Volcaryu briefly shuddered and closed his mouth. If Mark remembered his battling class correctly, Grudge was supposed to give him an aversion to the move that had finished Vicky, but he couldn’t help thinking that preventing Volcaryu from using Crunch wasn’t much of an improvement on their situation. By now he was really getting worried. Only a minute ago it had actually seemed like they were about to win; now Volcaryu had brought down most of their Pokémon in the space of a few attacks.
“Where’s Pupitar?” May suddenly yelled, looking frantically around the crater below her. Mark looked down as well (it fleetingly occurred to him that flying was in fact surprisingly easy to get used to) and indeed he couldn’t see the pupa anywhere. Carl turned his head sharply down towards the volcano to scan its sides. Mark was vaguely aware of Diamond leaping up to ram her body into Volcaryu’s while the dragon countered with a blast of sparkly flames.
“Arcanine, Flareon, look around the volcano and find Pupitar!” Carl barked. The two Pokémon nodded and began running up and down the sides of the mountain, avoiding the streams of lava still flowing down from the crater.
“Diamond is paralyzed!” Alan shouted. Mark looked where he was pointing and saw that Diamond was standing stiffly on the brink of the crater, her eyes wide with fear while Volcaryu, whose body was now covered with blue flames again, was about to smash into her. Mark looked quickly around and realized in a panic that aside from her and the missing Pupitar, Carl’s two remaining Pokémon were all they had.
“Come on, Pupitar!” May screamed down from her Skarmory’s back while Diamond was knocked over the side of the mountain and Alan recalled her back to her Pokéball. “What are you doing? Are you hiding? Scared of Volcaryu? You were meant to be the most important Pokémon in this fight, and then you just disappear before… before you even pull off a single attack! Come here and make yourself useful!”
Mark could see Alan wince at her words while Volcaryu swooped down towards Carl’s Flareon; the Arcanine leapt up in a blur to knock the dragon Pokémon off his path, but was instead the target of Volcaryu’s terrifyingly powerful dragon flames. Carl recalled him, giving his Flareon a worried look.
Then there was a rumbling roar from the crater.
Mark’s first, crazy thought was that somehow there was another Volcaryu coming, but of course he realized as soon as his common sense kicked in that it could only be…
A reptilian head burst out of the lava by the crater wall and roared, followed by the rest of the body of a red-hot Tyranitar crawling up from the bowl of lava.
Mark goggled at him – had he actually been buried in lava since the beginning of the battle? How had he breathed? He wondered momentarily if Pupitar even needed to breathe very often. Perhaps his desperation had just now brought him over the edge to evolution, giving him the arms that he’d needed to climb up.
May stared at her Pokémon in surprise that turned into triumphant admiration as a grin broke out on her face. “YES! Tyranitar, Stone Edge!”
But Volcaryu had already noticed the Pokémon that had emerged from his crater. The flames enveloping his body intensified as he roared and swooped straight down towards the exhausted Tyranitar who was struggling to concentrate…
“Flareon, Helping Hand!”
Carl’s last Pokémon glowed white as he ran towards Tyranitar and placed his paw on his leg. Crying out in defiance, glowing with warm light, he managed to give Tyranitar the power boost that he needed. With a triumphant roar, the dinosaurian Pokémon raised his arms, and chunks of rock by the two Pokémon’s sides ripped themselves loose from the crater wall and shot straight upwards, hitting the diving Volcaryu at a great speed and smashing him up towards the sky. Carl’s Charizard swerved out of the way while the legendary Pokémon was thrown up past them, roaring in agony.
An Ultra Ball flew through the air, hit the falling dragon and sucked him inside before falling towards the ground. Mark’s heart jumped in excitement as Charizard dived down after it. The ball on the ground wobbled once, twice, thrice…
And it stilled with a confirming ping.
“YES!” came Chaletwo’s voice in Mark’s head; he had almost forgotten about Chaletwo’s existence after he’d been silent for the whole battle.
Charizard landed on the ground and Mark almost jumped off his back to pick up the Pokéball. “We got him!” he shouted and held it up as he watched the other two Charizard and the Skarmory land and their riders step down from their backs. May replaced a ball on her Pokéball necklace, presumably Tyranitar’s, while Mark could see the flow of lava down the mountainside slowing as the magma inside the crater presumably retreated back under the Earth’s crust. He found himself laughing stupidly in glee.
Carl walked up to him and extended his hand towards the Pokéball in Mark’s hand. “Well done,” he said in satisfaction, nodding towards May before looking back at Mark. “It turns out you weren’t lying after all. I suppose I owe you an apology. Now give me that.”
Mark lowered the ball quickly; the adrenaline rush was quickly wearing off. “What? Why?”
“Because I threw that ball.”
Mark stared. He had assumed May or Alan had thrown the Ultra Ball. Definitely not Carl. Had he even known that they needed to capture the dragon? “You… you can’t just take Volcaryu!” he blurted out. “He’d never battle for you!”
Carl looked at the Pokéball. “Make it battle for me?” he said, his voice harsh and disdainful. “Of course not. But it destroyed my hometown, and it needs to be kept where that ball will never be opened again. It’s not as if it will battle for you.”
“Don’t let him!” Chaletwo said frantically. Mark’s initial inclination was to agree, but after a second of thought, he wasn’t quite sure. After everything today and yesterday, the thought of making an enemy of Carl wasn’t a pleasant one. And in the end, they’d already had to put their trust in Rick not sending out any of the legendaries he was keeping, while Mark had a distinct feeling that Carl meant it when he said he would make sure Volcaryu was never sent out again.
“All right,” Mark replied. “You can take Volcaryu. But it needs to be kept where it can’t be sent out ever again to cause more destruction. Not even to look at it. Okay?”
Carl nodded firmly, peering at him with interest. “Can I ask you a question?” he then said. Mark shrugged.
“What was that thing you sent out before Volcaryu emerged?”
Mark racked his brain; he’d forgotten that he had done that. He quickly came to the conclusion that the truth was the only thing he could really tell. “It was Thunderyu. Chaletwo created it along with Volcaryu and one other dragon, and they hate one another and can sense each other’s presence.” He paused. “I guess Chaletwo didn’t want to do it when the town’d been evacuated and was going to delay it until everyone was back home. So I tried sending out Thunderyu to lure Volcaryu out now, and it worked.”
“What’s the third dragon?” Carl asked, stroking his beard.
“Polaryu, Champion Cave,” Chaletwo answered in Mark’s head, “but you really…”
“It’s called Polaryu, and it’s in Champion Cave,” Mark responded, ignoring Chaletwo and enjoying every minute of it. Carl nodded thoughtfully.
“All right, then. Thank you for warning us. Perhaps we will see one another again eventually.” He paused. “I suppose there’s one thing left to do.”
Carl reached into his jacket, took out a box and looked at May. “I forgot to give you this yesterday,” he said, opened the box and handed her a round, silver badge from it. “And…” He turned to Mark and Alan, his eyes narrowing. “Well, with my gym gone, we can’t exactly have a rematch, can we? I suppose you’d get it eventually anyway, and the fact is that you’re not going to be allowed on Champion Island if you don’t have all eight badges of the Ouen League. So… in the interest of preventing more disaster such as what happened to my town, you’d better take these.”
And Carl handed them one badge each, with an obvious note of reluctance. “Now, promise me that you’ll get Diana’s badge in Acaria City fair and square, will you? I won’t feel at ease with myself unless I know that by the time you are at Champion Island your Pokémon would rightfully deserve these badges.”
“Definitely,” Alan replied, and Mark nodded. “Thank you.”
Carl turned away. “Well, go on, then. I’ll have to get to my friends and relatives and tell them that I’m fine.” He mounted his Charizard with practiced ease. “Goodbye.”
The female dragon winked at Mark’s Charizard before taking off with her trainer. Charizard blushed and looked away, and didn’t look up again until they were just a dark spot on the reddened eastern sky.
“Oh, stop complaining,” Charlie muttered. “Some of us aren’t getting any at all.”
Alan snickered. “Well, since you guys have been carrying us all morning, you should probably get in your balls and make us do the walking to Acaria City.”
“Good idea,” the two Charizard replied simultaneously, and the three kids recalled their Pokémon before heading on along the road towards the rising sun.
May and Alan just kind of waiting at the Pokémon Center well past half past seven, without making any attempt to make sure Mark and Carl are even awake, is a bit funny - May at the very least should have been pretty agitated there.
The second badge in a row that Mark gets without actually winning the battle against the gym leader. I remember being kind of mortified when I realized this. In the original plan for chapter 37, Mark was supposed to just win his battle - but then they did this weird three-on-three melée thing, and Mark just wound up losing spectacularly (I tend to write battles in a very spontaneous way where I just feel out how it plays out as I go), and I just shrugged and made this happen rather than try to get the battle to work out in a way where Mark wouldn't lose. At least Carl makes them promise to get the eighth badge properly.
