What I meant was to work your descriptions into the action. Bring it up in passing while things are happening and it won't seem so forced. <<"Don't think you'll last long," said Jane. The squirrel-like Firrel leaped forward, baring its teeth in concurrence.>> As an example I thought up in 20 seconds.
****“The Rivalry Orb?” Meredith asked. “Didn’t you kinda break that?”
****“Jane says it can be fixed,” I said. “It’s supposed to repair itself.”
****“If so, is it safe to give it to her? What if she’s on Team Rocket?”
****“No Rocket has been a Gym Leader since that snafu a few years back in Kanto. They have a good screening process.”
****“That’s true,” admitted Meredith. “And she didn’t really give off a sinister vibe. But what do you get out of it?”
****“Jane says I can have it after she uses it. And all I’ve got to do is go back to that alley and find the pieces. How hard could that be?”
****Apparently, it actually could be very hard. I told Meredith what it would look like and we split up, running down the various alleys to the south of Kalypso City. I thought it wouldn’t take long, but I couldn’t remember which alley I had run down with the Rivalry Orb. They all looked exactly the same; dark, disgusting, with an old dumpster near the end. So, Meredith and I ran around, looking for the right alley, avoiding the creepy-looking people lurking in the shadows.
****I was talking with Meredith on my Pokégear when I saw it; a dumpster with a huge dent in it. Almost as if something had exploded nearby.
****“I think I’ve found it,” I said to Meredith. “Yeah, I found it! The pieces are still here! Meet me back at Jane’s Gym, ok?” I hung up.
****I took a plastic bag out of my backpack and began sweeping the shards into it. All of the pieces were pretty big, so it didn’t take long to track them all down. Once all of the pieces were gathered in the bag, I zipped it closed.
****“Bzzzzzzzzz…” A faint humming filled the alley and the bag began to glow. The shards of glass began to move.
****“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” asked a feminine voice. I turned to face the source as the shards of the orb started fusing together. “Now, can you give it to me, please?”
****“Who are you? Why do you want the Orb?”
****“It’s a powerful object. Anyone who knows how to use it would want it. It is important that I am the one to receive it,” she said, ignoring my first question.
****“Well, I’m sorry, but you can’t have it. I’m not the kind of person to go around giving powerful things to strangers.”
****“We’ll have to see about that,” said the figure. She threw a pokéball and a green, komodo-dragon-like creature emerged. I quickly released Celsinge to counter it, and fumbled around for my Pokédex.
****“Drakodo,” Dexter intoned. “Its acidic saliva can eat through steel with little effort. A fierce predator, it stands at the top of its food chain, daring any soul brave enough to challenge its superiority.”
****Celsinge dodged a glob of Drakodo’s funky spit, and the green liquid started fizzling on the ground. “Flamethrower!” I ordered, and Celsinge obediently blasted Drakodo with fire.
****The lizard didn’t even try to dodge it. Instead, it stepped through the fire, approaching Celsinge, and grabbed her.
****“Scratch!” Celsinge’s claws left four parallel gashes across Drakodo’s face. Howling in pain, the monster threw Celsinge at a wall.
****The little lion crawled back to her feet and snarled. She leapt onto Drakodo’s head, scratching at its eyes with her back feet and biting the back of its neck.
****“Graaaaghur!” cried Drakodo. Once again he reached for Celsinge, but I was faster.
****“Celsinge, return!” I let Lupine out next. “Razor leaf!”
****The grass-type move wasn’t very effective, but Drakodo was already injured. My opponent returned the poisonous lizard, only to release an odd, purple and blue creature.
****“Kondria,” Dexter explained. “When hiding from prey, only the shoots on its head can be seen. Unfortunate Pokémon will nibble on these shoots, which promptly inflict the victim with a debilitating poison.”
****“Keep away from its head!” I advised Lupine. “Pick it up by the legs!” Lupine’s vines wrapped around Kondria’s legs and lifted it several yards into the air.
****“Ahh arr!” hissed the plantlike being.
****“Arf!” Lupine responded, and he slammed his foe into one of the alley’s walls.
****“Arr!” Kondria screeched as Lupine slammed him into the other side of the alley.
****Kondria’s pores began to excrete a purple dust as he slammed into various walls. I covered my mouth with the front of my shirt.
****“Enough!” shouted my opponent. She withdrew Kondria and released a third Pokémon.
****“Seviper,” babbled Dexter. “Its deadly venom has a unique chemical make-up. A pharmacy in Cianwood City has developed a compound out of the poison that cures a few rare conditions.”
****“Seriously? Three poison types?” I said. “You could use a bit of creativity.”
****My opponent smiled. “I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with poison types,” she murmured.
****Seviper sprang forward and wrapped around Lupine. Lupine held off the coils with his vines, leaving him just enough room to slide out of Seviper’s grasp. Seviper didn’t pursue him; instead, the snake sat and watched.
****Lupine tried to wrap his vines around Seviper’s head, but the snake twisted too quickly.
****“Ack,” coughed Lupine.
****“Are you alright?” I asked.
****“Probably not,” my opponent supplied. “Kondria’s poison powder should be setting in right about now.” Lupine threw up.
****“Lupine, return!” I said. I then released Ecco. “Fin-” I coughed. I had been careful to cover my mouth when Kondria produced the powder, but I might have injested some of it. I needed to get to a hospital soon. “Finish him off,” I managed to sputter before breaking into a coughing fit.
****I reached into my backpack for a bottle of water as Ecco sprang at Seviper, carefully avoiding the purple piles of poisonous powder. “Iron tail!” I coughed out. The water had only made my throat drier.
****Ecco’s tail shined in a metallic blue, and he swiped it at Seviper. CLINK. Ecco’s tail was matched by Seviper’s, glittering in a metallic red blade.
****For a few seconds they pushed against each other, but I knew that Seviper would overpower Ecco in enough time.
****“Water gun!” My shout was barely audible, and my throat started to burn. But somehow, Ecco heard me. He sprayed Seviper in the face with a blast of water.
****Hissing, Seviper backed up. The large snake bared its massive fangs and swung its tail back and forth.
****Ecco spat a stream of water into the snake’s mouth.
****Startled, Seviper recoiled, giving Ecco time to hit the snake with iron tail again. Seviper wasn’t fast enough to block it.
****“Stop,” my opponent demanded, returning her Pokémon. “You win.” She reached into her bag and withdrew a pink berry. “Eat this.”
****I eyed it suspiciously. “What is it, poison?” I tried to ask.
****“Poison? No. This is an antidote. It’s a pecha berry.” I took the soft berry and cautiously bit into it. My throat immediately felt better, and the berry was very sweet.
****“Thank you,” I said. “Why are you…”
****“Why am I suddenly being so nice? Because I’m not a terrible person. I never wanted to hurt you. And you won fairly. And that reminds me,” she added, pulling a small package out of her bag. “You’ve earned these.” She unwrapped the package and gave me a disk. “This is the TM Venom Strike. And, of course, here is my badge, the Elixir Badge. It looks like this is your third? So you can use the HM Surf now.”
****“Hold on. You’re a Gym Leader?” I asked.
****“Yes. My name is…”
****“Bella!” Jane supplied. “What are you doing here?” She and Meredith approached us from the end of the alley.
****“You know why I’m here, J. I heard the Rivalry Orb was around here.”
****“Well, you’re too late. Thanks for helping, Tony.”
****“This guy was working for you?”
****“That’s the problem, Bell. If you thought ahead and got someone else to help you, you might be the one who gets the orb.”
****I slid over next to Meredith as the two Gym Leaders continued bickering. “These people are crazy,” I whispered, dropping the Orb on the ground near them.
****“I’ll say,” she answered.
****“Let’s get out of here.”
****“But don’t you want the Orb? Jane was going to let you have it.”
****“Nah. I think the man who had it before me was right.”
****“How’s that?”
****“The thing’s more trouble than it’s worth. Jane and Bella will just have to work this out themselves. Let’s just go.”
****“Alright,” Meredith answered. While the two Gym Leaders fought, the two of us crept past them.
****“Where to next?” I asked.
****“Well, I hear Mistvale is nice this time of year…”
I have nothing interesting to say. Except that I have a new ending message that Imma put at the end of every TA post.
Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you liked or didn't like!
****“This better be worth it,” Meredith grumbled.
****“You need to live a little. It’s Halloween!” I said.
****“I look dumb,” she said, plucking at her Halloween costume.
****“The costume has nothing to do with that.”
****Meredith punched me in the arm a little harder than necessary. “Promise we can leave when this is over?”
****“Alright, I promise,” I said.
****Meredith wasn’t too happy to be staying in Roothaven for so long. She thought we should keep moving and make it to Mistvale faster. But it took us almost a week to get through Abaddon Swamp because of the rain, so I convinced her to rest in Roothaven for a while.
****Besides, with her schedule, we would be in the middle of nowhere for Halloween. I was not thrilled about that idea; a guy’s gotta be able to dress up as a monster and go to a party every once in a while. And I hear that Roothaven has some of the best Halloween celebrations.
****I was dressed as a zombie, and Meredith was the Grim Reaper. With the sour look on her face, she was pulling it off quite well.
****When we got to the center of the city, it was already full of people dressed as all kinds of monsters, mythical creatures, and video game characters. There were dozens of tents set up with party games and Halloween activities
****I pointed out a stand a ways to our left. “Let’s go carve a pumpkin,” I said.
****“Sure,” Meredith answered without enthusiasm. I dragged her towards the booth, but she stopped me about halfway there.
****“Hold on. Look at this fraud,” she said, indicating a tent labeled “Fortune Teller”. Inside, a woman wearing absurd purple clothing was waving her hands over a crystal ball.
****“How do you know she’s a fraud? I mean, you’re a fortune teller too, right?”
****“Yeah, but look at the way she uses her crystal ball. She clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing. It’s all for dramatic effect.”
****“Alright, but who cares? People are into that kind of thing. What are you going to do, call her out on it?”
****“Sure! Why not?” Meredith marched into the tent and began to yell at the fortune teller. I rolled my eyes. There had to be at least a dozen fortune telling tents here; Meredith would be at it all night. I waved goodbye to her and headed off to the pumpkin-carving booth.
****“Ahoy there! You want to carve a pumpkin?” asked the man at the booth. I nodded. The man appeared to have several teeth missing, but I avoided staring at his mouth so I wasn’t sure if it was just part of a costume. He was dressed as a pirate. “Alrighty, I’ll grab one for ya… What’s this? What are you doing there?” He reached into the pile of pumpkins and pulled out a small pumpkin-like Pokémon; a Jackalant. Fernando, gym leader of Roothaven, had one before it evolved.
****The Jackalant squealed, and several more pumpkins stirred. They were a mixture of Jackalant and Phantern, the evolved version of Jackalant.
****“ROOOooooOOOO!” one of the Phantern moaned before letting out a stream of fire. The other Pokémon followed suit, setting several of the nearby tents on fire.
****“Put out the flames!” I said, releasing Ecco. The little dolphin sprayed a shower of water over everything.
****By then several people were screaming. “What happened?” said a soft voice behind me. I turned to find Fernando, dressed as a man with underwear made of leaves. That is to say, he was wearing his usual clothing. Despite being a large man, the gym leader seemed to appear out of nowhere.
****“These Pokémon wanted to see some fireworks,” I said. I released Celsinge. “Fight fire with fire,” I told her. Celsinge sighed before leaping into battle.
****“This wrong,” said Fernando. “Peaceful Pokémon. Don’t fight for no reason.”
****“They were waiting in the pile of pumpkins until this guy picked one up.” I jabbed a thumb at the booth’s owner. “Is that enough of a reason for them? Getting picked up?”
****Fernando frowned. “No. Something controlling them. Must find it.”
****“Gotcha. Something’s making the pumpkins wacky. Any idea what it is?”
****He shrugged. “Ghost?”
****“How likely is it that a ghost happens to be messing around on Halloween?”
****“Halloween have monsters for reason,” Fernando answered.
****“Ok. I’ll play ‘Ghost Busters.’ Can you take care of theses Jackalant?” Fernando nodded. “Celsinge, help him out.” Celsinge meowed.
****The entire town was shrouded in light from lampposts, so I figured the ghost would be trying to stay a safe distance away. But it was obviously controlling the Poképumpkins somehow, and I didn’t think it could be too far away. So I searched the nearby forest.
****I briefed Ecco, Lupine, and Koffing on the situation. “We’ve got to find a ghost. I think it’s nearby. Any questions?”
****I don’t give very good mission briefings.
****Lupine’s mouth dropped open and he panted happily before bouncing deeper into the woods. Koffing dropped to the ground and fell asleep, while Ecco slithered off.
****CRACK. I heard a branch snap somewhere to my left.
****“Someone there?” I shouted. I stepped towards the source of the sound.
****Nothing was there except for a tattered old raincoat lying on the ground. I nudged it with my foot.
****“That’s kind of disgusting,” I muttered. I turned around and patted my right pocket, the one that held my Pokédex. “Dexter, if you see anything, let me know.” The blue light in the top corner blinked in response. I took one last look at the moldy raincoat before walking away and smacking into a branch.
****“Ouch!” A tattered, grimy piece of tarp covered my mouth.
****Dexter beeped. “Misticade,” it spouted. “They make their home in old, abandoned lighthouses. At night, one can see them floating out to sea, guiding the ghosts of shipwrecks and lost sailors back to shore.”
****“ARF ARF ARF!” Lupine barked from nearby. Something swished through the air and I heard the wolf cub smack into a tree.
****I pushed the tarp-covered hand far enough below my mouth to shout, “razor leaf!” Lupine happily obliged, battering my captor with dozens of unnatural leaves. His aim was good; only one of the leaves scraped me.
****The Misticade recoiled, and I took the chance to break its grip and get a good look at it. It hardly looked like a Pokémon; it was just the gray raincoat I’d seen, filled with an eerie purple mist. I jumped onto its back, trying to hold on to it, but it collapsed.
****I should have seen it coming. It was just a cloud of mist, after all.
****The raincoat slithered away and reformed itself behind me, wrapping its suddenly solid arms around me.
****“Razor leaf!” I demanded of Lupine again. Before the little pup could begin the attack, Misticade spun around, putting me between the grass Pokémon and itself. Lupine hesitated.
****“Just go!” I said, struggling with the raincoat. Lupine sent a ring of razor leaves around me. Not a single one would have hit if Misticade had been slower to counterattack.
****Misticade sent a pulse of water at Lupine, drenching the puppy and making its projectiles veer of course. Several of them hit me, tearing through my already-ragged zombie-clothing.
****Also, the water smeared the zombie makeup I was wearing. My costume was completely ruined.
****I tucked my head in and tried to roll forward. Misticade resisted, but it couldn’t hold up my full weight, so it let me go. I stumbled to Lupine’s side.
****“Lupine…” I paused. Misticade was hovering over one of the puddles it created. It didn’t seem to be paying us any attention. “Dexter… didn’t you say that Misticade lived near the sea?” I asked my Pokédex.
****“Affirmative,” it answered.
****“So why is it all the way out here, by Roothaven?” Misticade glared at me, as if I had interrupted its train of thought, and sent a ball of dark energies at me. I ducked out of the way.
****“ROOOO!” something howled in the distance. Shoot, another Phantern! I was having trouble holding off the Misticade. If a Phantern joined in, I’d need more than charm, good looks, and Lupine to hold them off.
****“Ecco, get over here!” I shouted. “Koffing, do something!” Koffing didn’t respond, but I heard the familiar “eee-ooo-eee” of Ecco squealing in the distance.
****Phantern crashed through the trees behind Misticade. The gray raincoat’s eyes glowed a brighter purple, and it waved at me.
****“ROOOO!” Phantern answered. It opened its mouth wide, and…
****…It swallowed Misticade whole.
****“Good,” said Fernando, marching from behind Phantern. He looked at the raincoat in his Phantern’s mouth, then at me. “What happened?” he grunted.
****“I think it must have got lost. Or a trainer released it. Or it was just adventurous. Or something. It’s supposed to live near the sea.”
****“Hm,” Fernando said. He lightly tossed a pokéball at the tattered raincoat. Misticade didn’t resist capture. “I send to friend. She bring back to sea.”
****“Alright,” I sighed. I looked down at my ruined costume. “You know what? Maybe Meredith was right. Halloween is overrated. I get beat up enough on a normal day.”
****Fernando put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back towards town. “Party not over. Get food. Have fun.”
****When we got back, Fernando left to bring the Misticade to a Pokémon Center. I staggered over to a refreshment stand and grabbed a cup of punch as Meredith came out of a fortune teller’s tent. She smiled at me.
****“You know what? You were right! This was fun!” Then she noticed my soaked, torn-up costume. “What happened to you?”
Confession: Didn't finish this episode until just now.
Also, I'm getting tired of shorter stories. I feel like their quality is declining. I wish I had time to write something longer.
****“Welcome to Mt. Mist!” Meredith exclaimed as the mountain became visible over the treetops. I felt full of energy despite the long journey from Roothaven; something about the air was incredibly refreshing. The mountain was beautiful, shrouded in rings of fog, with steam rising from the ground around it.
****Meredith was already dragging me along. “Can’t we stop and enjoy the view for a while?” I asked.
****“Walk and enjoy at the same time,” she responded. She was intent on sticking to our schedule and moving as fast as possible. With one exception; if she wanted to spend hours “getting ready” in the morning, it was an acceptable use of time.
****“Hold on,” I said. I dug a comb out of my bag. “My hair is a mess,” I explained.
****“It’s always a mess!”
****“A guy needs some time to make himself presentable,” I insisted.
****Meredith shouted something that I found rather rude, then stormed off to sit on a rock. “Fine, but this time is coming out of your next bathroom break,” she shouted.
****I stuck the comb in my hair and sat down, taking in the view. The sun made the mist seem to glitter. I don’t normally enjoy just staring at something; art has never been one of my interests. But the view of Mt. Mist was something that even I could appreciate.
****Eventually I slung my bag over one shoulder (my back was still too raw to wear the backpack normally) and approached Meredith. “Alright, I’m ready.”
****She glared at me judgmentally, but nodded and stood up. “Let’s get going, then.”
****We walked for a couple of hours before the land began to slope uphill. It was getting difficult to see, with all the mist surrounding the mountain, but Meredith had a map and new where we were going. At least, she pretended to.
****“Hold on,” said Meredith.
****This time it was my turn to complain. “We just stopped five minutes ago!” The thick fog was making it a bit uncomfortable to breathe and making me get tired faster, and I wanted to get through it as fast as possible.
****“Are those Rockets?”
****I immediately became more alert. I squinted through the fog and could just make out four or five dark figures on the road ahead of us. I recognized one of them instantly. “Yeah,” I said. “Let’s go say hello.” Meredith nodded; she might not be on the Orion’s side, but she disliked the Rockets as much as I did. Actually, probably more; Emily’s membership in the team has made me a bit more sympathetic to the Rockets.
****“Hey, Henry!” I said when we were close to the Rockets.
****“Why do you always show up on my missions?” Henry spat.
****“This is Henry?” asked Meredith. “The Rocket with the big nose?”
****“You haven’t met him yet? We’re, like, best friends!” I said. “It seems like I see him every day!”
****“All you told her about me was the size of my nose?” Henry protested. “It’s not even that big!”
****“Dude, it’s pretty huge,” said one of the Rockets. He was the only one not wearing Rocket attire. Instead, he was wore a black polo shirt and a blue checkered sweater vest.
****“I like you,” I told Sweater-Vest-Guy. “Ever consider joining the Orions?”
****“Nah. Just joined the Rockets. Gotta build up my resume.”
****“Hold on. Henry, you got put in charge of a bunch of new guys? Did they not think you could handle a big mission?” I teased.
****“This is a very important mission!” Henry said.
****“Mm-hm. I think your bosses just wanted you out of their hair.”
****“No! They sent us here to get a bunch of rare Pokémon! We’ve got seven Inflrae already! Mt. Mist is a treasure trove as far as the Rockets are concerned! They wouldn’t trust that to just anybody!”
****I can’t help but wonder why the Rockets hired Henry. I mean, he just spilled his plan like a comic book supervillain. All we had to do was release these seven Inflare, whatever they were. I’ve heard of them before, but I’ve never seen one; they had level five protection under the Caldera Protected Species Act. That meant that trainers were not allowed to catch them unless they had at least two badges.
****“Dude, you just told him why we were here. He knows what we want, and how many we already have,” Sweater-Vest told Henry.
****Henry swore. “You devious little jerk,” he said to me.
****“Devious?” asked Sweater-Vest. “Hardly. It didn’t take any effort on his part at all.”
****“Shuddup! Smokescreen!” Several of the Rockets released Koffing, and each began spewing a disgusting-tasting smoke into the already foggy air.
****“Get them!” I shouted.
****“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Meredith said from somewhere nearby.
****I released all of my Pokémon. Ecco went with me, while Celsinge and Lupine darted off in different directions. Koffing wheezed and contributed to the cloud of smoke.
****I’d imagine that Mt. Mist would be a difficult place to run even without the fog. The mountain was covered in rubble and large rocks that made it almost impossible not to trip every four steps. On the bright side, I could clearly hear one of the Rockets moving ahead of me. I tried to follow the sound of his footsteps.
****I chased him for about five minutes, and was very thankful that Meredith had convinced me to practice jogging regularly. The Rocket was out of breath when I caught up, but I was feeling fine.
****“Hiya, Sweater-Vest-Guy!” I greeted him. “Done running yet?”
****“Ok, ok,” he panted, raising his hands and collapsing onto a rock. “I give up.” Then he raised an eyebrow. “‘Sweater-Vest-Guy?’ Really?”
****“Well, you are wearing a sweater vest.”
****“It’s a logical fashion choice,” he sniffed.
****“Mhm. Now give me the Inflare,” I demanded.
****“Boss has most of them. He only let me have this one.” Sweater-Vest tossed a pokéball on the ground between us.
****“Thanks, dude,” I said, stooping to pick it up.
****“EEEeee!” Ecco warned.
****Something screeched, and I felt Ecco being lifted off my shoulder.
****“Iron tail!” I said. I heard Ecco thrash, but I don’t know what happened next. A loud, metallic click distracted me from the fight.
****“Leave it,” a girl said from behind me. I never heard her approach, but she rested something metal against the back of my head. I raised my hands in submission. What is it about Team Rocket and guns? The Orions never used them.
****“Pick up your pokéball, Freddie,” the girl demanded. Freddie complied. The girl returned her attention to me. “Don’t move, now,” she advised, carefully removing my belt of pokéballs. “And don’t say anything.”
Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you hated or didn't hate!
As an added bonus...
I'd like to incorporate a little audience participation. Meredith's going to be getting a new Pokemon in I'm-not-quite-sure-how-many episodes. It doesn't matter to the plot yet WHICH Pokemon she gets, so I'm taking suggestions: What should Meredith's new Pokemon be? It needs to be first stage or baby.
These ones are off-limits: Any starter, Lupine, Equill, Ampure, SLowpoke, Embear, Grimer, Koffing, and Fincherp. Any other Pokemon I'd be willing to take into consideration.
Kinda liking that Kondria idea. I could make that work.
Part 22: Bad Gas
****Ignoring her demand to be quiet, I searched my brain for something non-threatening and pacifying to say. All I came up with was, “Aren’t you a bit young to be playing with guns?” Apparently, stupidity was becoming a reflex for me.
****“I said, be quiet!” she repeated, kicking me to the ground. “Tie him up,” she ordered to Sweater-Vest. I head him stand up and approach.
****“So, just wondering,” I said while Sweater-Vest searched his bag. “What’s the plan here, exactly? You gonna shoot me, or leave me tied up here?”
****“That depends on whether or not you can keep your mouth shut.”
****“Mm-hm. Right. So, if I keep my mouth shut, which do I get? Shot or tied up?”
****“You get-”
****The gun roared. The sound of the gunshot echoed around the mountain, and I froze. After a split second, when I realized I hadn’t been shot, I rolled over, my legs kicking to get the Rocket’s feet out from under her.
****“You can stop that now,” said Sweater-Vest. I opened my eyes.
****Sweater-Vest was kneeling on top of the female Rocket, and her gun was lying just out of reach. He didn’t look very strong, but Sweater-Vest didn’t have any trouble holding the girl down.
****“Empty the gun,” he told me. I removed the clip of bullets and tossed them down the hill. “Alright,” Sweater-Vest continued, releasing the Rocket girl. “Now we can settle this like civilized people.” He turned away and called, “Gashawk!”
****The flying Pokémon flew out of the mist, torn up form battle. I heard Ecco hopping along behind him.
****I’m proud to say that Ecco was in much better shape than his opponents. He barely had a scratch.
****“Now, I’ve agreed to release my Inflare,” Sweater-Vest said. He picked up a pokéball and opened it. In a flash of green light, a small humanoid Pokémon appeared. It was made of flaming rocks, and scurried away as soon as it was released. “Do you two want to battle for her Inflare?”
****The female Rocket said in French what I assumed was something extremely offensive.
****“Well then,” Sweater-Vest snatched a pokéball from her belt and released it. “I think we’re done here. Sorry for the trouble,” he told me.
****“Thank you,” I said. “For, you know, not letting her shoot me.”
****“We’re human. We’ve got to look out for each other,” he said in a tone that implied he knew something that I didn’t. Then he and the other Rocket left.
****I retraced my steps to where we met the Rockets, and found Meredith, as well as my other Pokémon, there.
****“Did you find any?” I asked.
****“I released two. You?”
****“I got another two. That Sweater-Vest guy helped.”
****“That leaves three. And I bet Henry’s the one who’s got them.” She pointed up the hill. “The two Rockets I got them from ran up there. I think that’s where he’ll be.”
****“Let’s go.”
****Sure enough, we found him. He and the four younger Rockets were gathered on the edge of the cliff. They seemed to be waiting for us.
****“Boss, they’re here!” one of the Rockets said. Henry tuned to face us.
****“You can’t beat us all at once!” Henry said. “If you leave now, we won’t have to take your Pokémon!”
****Lupine and Celsinge snarled. “You won’t be able to take them,” I said.
****Henry and the Rocket’s let out their Pokémon.
****In addition to Henry’s Mermeidon, Gyrados, and Grimer, there was the girl’s Gashawk, three Koffing, two Zubat, a Mogel, and a Fincherp.
****“We can take you,” Meredith said with confidence. But she shot a nervous glance over her shoulder at me.
****“Koffing! Poison gas!” I ordered. Koffing wheezed at me, but otherwise did nothing.
****“Come on, Koffing!” Meredith said as she released he Slowpoke. “We’re outnumbered here! We need your help!”
****“Huh huh,” Koffing complained. But he did it; he participated in a battle for the first time in weeks.
****Gyrados began thrashing around when it inhaled the toxic fumes. It looked like it wanted to wave the gas away with its tail, but it was much more clumsy on land than in the water.
****“Celsinge, fire wave!” Celsinge sent a ten-foot-tall wave of flames into the opponents. The only a few of the flying Pokémon doged the attack. “Keep going!” I said as I picked up Ecco by the tail. Celsinge continued to send increasingly high walls of fire into our opponents.
****“What are you doing?” Meredith asked as I started spinning around, holding Ecco by the tail in front of me.
****“Eeee-oooo!” Ecco answered.
****“That about sums it up,” I agreed. Meredith shook her head, then ducked as the Fincherp came flying at her head.
****“Confusion!” she ordered Slowpoke. Slowpoke glanced at Fincherp and tilted its head to the side.
****“Uhhhhhhh…” it mumbled, and the Fincherp collapsed.
****Once I was spinning fast enough, I let go of Ecco. The little dolphin flew through the air and rammed into Gyrados’ head.
****“Graaaaah!” Gyrados protested. Using his tail, Ecco held on to Gyrados’s head.
****“Good work, Ecco!” I said, picking up Lupine. “Let’s go, buddy,” I told the wolf in my hands. “Koffing, follow me!” Between waves of fire, I dashed towards Henry.
****Henry was standing by the edge of the cliff, Sweater-Vest and the gun-toting girl by his side. I glanced over my shoulder to see if Koffing came with, and saw Meredith pushing the purple ball towards me.
****“Koffing, take out the girl with some sludge! We’ll get Henry!” I said. Koffing looked backwards for a moment, then hung his head.
****“Guh,” he grunted, spitting a ball of slime at the girl’s face, blinding her.
****Meanwhile, Lupine was wrapping one vine around Henry’s leg.
****“Gashawk!” Henry cried. I heard the bird caw from somewhere nearby.
****“Stop!” I said, reaching into my pocket. I withdrew the empty gun I’d confiscated from the girl. Of course, Henry didn’t know it was empty, and the girl was preoccupied with Koffing. Only Sweater-Vest could ruin it for me.
****“Toss me the Pokémon,” I ordered. Henry’s eyes were wide, and he removed three pokéballs from his belt and rolled them towards me. “Lupine, pick them up.”
****Lupine’s pair of vines curled around the first two pokéballs and handed them to me. I released them each with my unburdened hand.
****Just as Lupine’s vines wrapped around the third, Gyrados let out an awful shriek. Ecco was still on its face, and was beating up the Pokémon pretty badly. The Gyrados was defenseless, and it let itself fall to the ground.
****It fell right over Henry and Sweater-Vest.
****Henry lunged forwards, but Sweater-Vest wasn’t as quick. He stepped back in shock, but his foot slipped. I was too far away to grab him as he slipped off the cliff.
****“Lupine, help him!” Lupine was already releasing the last Inflare pokéball to catch Sweater-Vest. His vines wrapped around the kid’s ankle.
****“Everyone out!” Henry yelled, returning his Pokémon to their pokéballs. The other Rockets returned their Pokémon and fled.
****I looked up. Henry was holding on to Gashawk and flying away… with the last of the Inflare. I considered throwing something at him, but instead I helped Sweater-Vest back to his feet.
****“Thanks,” he said.
****“Hey. We’re human. We’ve got to look out for each other.” He smiled.
****I looked around at the empty battle field. The only enemy Pokémon remaining were a Zubat and a Mogel. Sweater-Vest quickly returned them.
****“Let’s go,” I said to Meredith.
****“Did you get them all?” she asked.
****“No, Henry got one of them.” I turned to leave. “See you around, Sweater-Vest.”
****“Hey. You can call me Freddie,” Sweater-Vest responded.
****I looked over my shoulder and grinned. “That’s not going to happen, Sweater-Vest.”
****“You know,” Meredith said as we left. “You’re the only one who thinks you’re funny.”
Today's bonus: I found this single line hiding in my list of characters and which Pokemon they have.
Need a character named Dave.
No context. Just that line. Not sure what I was thinking there.
Ah, yet another harrowing tale of Cyndadile's randomness.
Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, answers, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you liked or didn't like!
****“Raaaaa!” cried the Spinda as it was captured.
****“Stop!” I yelled as I reached for Ecco’s pokéball.
****“Hold on!” Meredith stopped me from releasing my Echoise. “He somehow caught that Spinda, even though it had a trainer. Ecco won’t be safe!”
****“Right. Then we’ll have to do this without Pokémon.” Snatching up a staff hanging on the dojo’s wall, I chased after the man. Meredith, selecting an unsheathed katana, followed.
****We had stopped in Mistvale City a few days ago, and decided to train in self-defense for a week or two. With all the fights we seemed to be getting into, we thought it would be a good idea to have some training. So far, it was going well.
****Until someone new joined the dojo today. They had one arm in a splint, covered in bandages, but our Master was teaching him good form for kicks.
****Then, halfway through class, he unwrapped his arm to reveal a weird metal contraption, and used it to capture the dojo’s mascot, a spotted panda Pokémon known as Spinda.
****The man, still wearing a white uniform, hopped onto a black ATV and started it up.
****Shouting, Meredith threw the katana.
****I don’t know if she meant to hit him or not. But she came really close. The sword flew right in front of the man’s eyes. If this were a movie or a book or something, it would have sliced off the tufts of his hair. But stuff like that doesn’t happen in real life.
****Stunned, the man paused and looked over at Meredith. His surprise gave me time to catch up and hit him in the head with my staff.
****The man swore and got the ATV moving, but I grabbed his arm and hopped on, stopping him from turning. Meredith caught up and threw herself at the man’s side, pushing all of us off the other side of the ATV.
****I struggled out of the heap of people and withdrew my golden Orion badge from the inside of my uniform.
****“Um,” I said, trying to recall Orion Defender guidelines for making an arrest. Just that week the Orions had sent me a box with supplies, including a rulebook, an ugly uniform that I do not expect to ever wear, and a few set of handcuffs, for both people and Pokémon. I guess that makes me an official Orion Defender. I probably should have read the rulebook a little more closely. “On behalf of the Orion Defenders… I am placing you under arrest?”
****The man spat out a fairly inappropriate suggestion for what I could do to myself, then pushed Meredith off of him.
****“This is your last warning,” I said as I drew Ecco’s pokéball from my pocket with my free hand.
****“Do it,” the man snarled, shaking the machine on his arm free.
****I did it. I brought my staff down hard on his arm and heard the sound of a bone snapping as I released Ecco. The machine on his arm let out a few sparks, and the lights on its side faded to darkness.
****“You broke my arm!” he yelled.
****“Yeah, Captain Obvious. I did. I warned you. Now put your hands up before I make you come with me.”
****“Eee-ooo-eee!” Ecco agreed.
****The man put a pokéball in his broken hand, provoking a puff of smoke from the machine, and weakly tossed it at Ecco. The little dolphin swatted it away.
****“Ooo-e?” Ecco requested.
****“Mhm,” I nodded.
****Ecco doused the man in a blast of water, and I held his good arm down with my staff.
****“Meredith, run back and get my handcuffs from my bag.”
****Meredith took off, back towards the dojo.
****“Why did you take that Spinda?” I asked.
****The man only shook his head.
****“Who are you?” I asked. Meredith, returning with my handcuffs, secured the man’s hands behind his back, and then came to my side.
****“You’re being a bit harsh,” she whispered.
****“This guy can capture someone else’s Pokémon. We can’t just let him run around with this machine thing!”
****“That’s true, I guess. But still…” her voice trailed off.
****“Can you find Spinda?” I asked out loud. Meredith nodded, and started rifling through the man’s stuff.
****I examined the broken machine. “What is this ‘Cipher’?” I asked, pointing at a logo on the back of the hand. The man jerked his arms away from me and spun around to face me.
****“I would rather die than tell you who we are!” he shouted.
****We? So there were a group of them, then. “That seems a bit extreme,” I said.
****“Tony, watch out!” Meredith screamed. I felt something heavy collide with the torn-up raw patch on my back and arched in pain. My eyes flooded with tears.
****With my blurred vision, I saw a black blob strike down Meredith and put one foot on her back. She put up a fight, but an arm attached to the blob reached down and hit her.
****“Ra!”
****I tried to blink the tears out of my eyes. A small, confused-looking tan-and-red bear was standing in front of me, its paws on its hips.
****“Ra!” it exclaimed again as it jumped and landed a punch in the stomach of the man holding down Meredith. The man doubled over, allowing Meredith to roll away.
****Spinda focused on my guy next. The panda twitched one ear, and jumped in a flying kick just below the man’s belt, eliciting a high-pitched stream of profanities.
****I struggled to get up as Spinda rounded on the handcuffed man.
****“Nonononono!” he yelped, jumping on the ATV and awkwardly steering with his knees. The other two followed suit, and Spinda, little paws on its hips, watched them go.
****“Ra,” the panda said.
****“Thanks,” Meredith said.
****“Yeah, good job buddy,” I told Spinda. “But we still need to find out who Cipher is,” I told Meredith.
****“Raooo,” Spinda interjected, holding up a small metal plate. I took it. It had three letters, “CIP” on one side, and an eleven-digit serial number on the other.
****“Thanks.” I said. “Maybe someone will know what to make of this.”
****“It’s a start,” Meredith agreed.
FYI, this story is going to end up showing why Nintendo never combined original Pokemon, XD, and Ranger in one game. THE TEMPTATION WAS IRRESISTIBLE!
Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, answers, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you liked or didn't like!
Spinda's such a silly Pokemon, it'd be terrifying to see a truly evil Shadow one. You kind of threw in Pokemon Special in there too right? Considering that the trainers are getting involved in the fights somewhat.
I'm sure once Nintendo realizes that 1k+ Pokemon is probably not very profitable then they'll look towards innovative ways of combining what they already have.
Actually, Pokemon Special is really where my idea for this came from! That is, if we're talking about the same thing. Although I haven't gotten too far into Yellow yet; I should resume that.
I never actually thought about Spinda becoming a Shadow Pokemon. Especially with how strong this one is, it'd be pretty scary.
I hope you're right about Nintendo combining (or at least reusing) old ideas. I really want Shadow Pokemon to return. Colosseum was probably the first Pokemon game that I really fell in love with. It may have had something to do with the fact that you really were being the hero in that game; you were stopping people from stealing Pokemon. The Rockets stole Pokemon, too, but they always seemed like more of an afterthought in the original games. It wasn't driven by Team Rocket, it was driven by being better than everyone else. In Colosseum, the game was driven by getting rid of the bad guys!
I'm so much more moved by a game's plot than my friends are.
****“What the heck do you think you’re doing?” I demanded, releasing Ecco and pinning my Orion badge to my chest.
****A pair of Orion Defenders turned to face me as I approached. They were both female. One of them was better than six feet tall, the other one a full foot shorter. I found myself wishing that Meredith was here, in case it came to a fight, but she was somewhere farther down Route 53, looking for dry firewood. I’d have to avoid a fight, or act quickly enough to gain an edge on both of them.
****The shorter Orion glanced from me to Ecco (who was giving his best glare), and responded, “this man is a member of Team Rocket. We are placing him under arrest.”
****“Really? Because it looks to me like you just beat up a child.” I looked down at the handcuffed kid. He couldn’t have been older than fourteen. He had a long gash along one arm, another along his leg, a black eye, and was covered in bruises.
****“He was attempting to resist arrest. We had to restrain him.”
****“Jeez. He’s a kid,” I said. Did he even do anything wrong?”
****“He’s a member of Team Rocket,” the shorter Orion repeated.
****“Yes, but did he do anything wrong,” I asked again.
****The taller girl began rifling through the kid’s bag. “In what world is being a Rocket anything but wrong?” she asked without looking up.
****I tore the bag from her hands. “Can you not see the problem here?” I demanded.
****“What the fudge is your problem?” the taller Orion asked. Except she didn’t say “fudge.”
****“My problem is that you just beat up a kid and are taking his stuff! That’s messed up!”
****“It’s our duty to stop the Rockets, whatever it takes,” the shorter one protested.
****“No, it’s not. That’s not what the Orion Defenders were founded on. We’re here to help Pokémon. To make people and Pokémon get along. To show that, working together, people and Pokémon can do great things. But if you target Team Rocket members who haven’t done anything wrong, you’re no better than the worst of the Rocket scum. Not everyone in Team Rocket is wrong, just because they’re on the other side. Some of them chose the Rockets for the right reasons. We, as Orion Defenders, have an obligation to act only against those who oppose our cause. And not all Rockets do.”
****The two girls looked at each other, then started snickering.
****“Who told you that garbage?” asked the taller one.
****“Matthew… Matthew the Ranger,” I said, which was true enough. I had embellished it a bit, and paraphrased the guidebook. But I thought I had captured the gist of the Orions pretty well.
****Clearly, the two girls disagreed. They just laughed harder.
****“Matthew?” the shorter one managed to sputter. “He’s always been such a romantic when it comes to the Orions.”
****My face began to get red. Whether or not it was against the Orions’ mission, I couldn’t let these two do stuff like this. It was just wrong.
****“Lupine, vine whip,” I said as I released the wolf cub. “Ecco, iron tail.”
****Lupine sent out a pair of vines to wrap around each of the Orions, binding their arms to their bodies, while Ecco broke the handcuffs on the young Rocket with a sweep of his tail. The Rocket picked up his bag and fled.
****“What the fudge?” the taller Orion demanded again.
****“I walked up to her and tried to remove the Orion badge from her chest without actually touching her chest. Because that would be inappropriate. Much more inappropriate than, say, having a Pokémon tie up a pair of girls in the middle of the forest.
****I managed to remove both of the badges, ignoring the two girls’ offensive words and struggles, then had Celsinge melt the badges into a brass-colored blob. I handcuffed both of the girls before I let Lupine release them.
****“Get out of here,” I ordered. I pushed the two of them away. “And if I see either of you threatening an innocent person again, you’ll regret it.”
****The coldness in my voice startled even me. And I had meant every word.
****Maybe I was becoming as bad as them.
Short. A quick look at some Orions with a different philosophy.
In a few episodes, I think I'm going to stop these regular updates. It'll give me time to produce (hopefully) higher quality stories, and lower my stress level a little. Although not really all that much. It's not like I spend more than a couple hours writing these.
Gracias por leer! Por favor enviar cualquier pregunta, comentarios o ideas! Quiero saber lo que le gustó o no le gustó!
****I hefted it onto the table of my hotel room in Softwind City and stared at it. It was about a foot and a half or two feet high, and it radiated some kind of tangible energy. The brilliant gold surface was incredibly smooth, and somehow the oils from my fingers didn’t manage to smudge the surface.
****“Just staring at it won’t tell you anything about it, you know,” Meredith pointed out.
****“I know.” I paused for a moment, then looked at her. “It seems warmed now, for some reason.”
****She shrugged and opened the window, letting in some fresh air. “Maybe…”
****THUMP. The stolen golden egg jumped up on the table and swiveled, facing out the open window. Celsinge and Lupine looked up from where she was sleeping on the couch, but Ecco didn’t budge.
****“What…” I looked in the direction it was pointing.
****It was facing the three Elemental Towers of Softwind City.
****“That’s got to mean something,” I said.
****Celsinge snorted.
****Meredith closed the window again, and the egg slowly lay back down. “Yes, but what?”
****“Let’s find out,” I answered.
****We went to the library.
****Softwind City is well known for its library. It has the largest collection of books in Caldera and Kirant, literature and fables from all over the world.
****Despite everything I heard about it, I didn’t expect it to be quite so big. We could end up searching for days for a book about any of the three eggs I saw back in Roothaven, let alone the gold one.
****But the egg had to be important. So we started reading.
****“I hate books,” said Meredith after about an hour.
****“You’re the one who won’t let us ask a librarian,” I pointed out.
****“If we want to keep the…” she glanced around and lowered her voice, “you-know-what secret, we can’t just ask someone what they know about it.”
****“What if we don’t ask about the egg? I mean, it responded to the towers. Maybe we just need to find out about them.”
****Meredith nodded. “It’s worth a shot.”
****The librarian was writing with a blue quill when we found her, but she quickly folded up the paper and stored the quill in her hair when she heard us approaching.
****“How can I help you?” she asked.
****“Do you have any books about the Elemental Towers?” asked Meredith.
****“The Elemental Towers…” the librarian repeated. “I’m sorry, but all of the information about them is stored in the towers themselves. All that I can tell you about them is that they supposedly hold powers of fire, electricity, and ice.” She tilted her head to one side. “May I ask why you want to know?”
****“We, uh…” Meredith hesitated.
****“We’re just curious,” I filled in. “They’re magnificent buildings, and we were wondering who created them, and why? What’s inside them?”
****“I’m afraid I can’t tell you. Only those who prove themselves by earning all of Caldera and Kirant’s Gym Badges may enter the buildings.”
****Meredith and I traded a glance. “Thank you, miss,” Meredith said.
****“Any time.”
****“Well, I guess we won’t be finding anything out,” Meredith said as we left the library.
****“Probably not,” I agreed. “But I want to take the egg out for a while this afternoon. See if it reacts to anything else.”
****“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Is someone recognizes it, you could be in trouble.”
****“I’ll be careful.”
****That evening, I wrapped the egg up in a sheet and put it in my backpack. As the sun began to set, my Pokémon and I took the egg out for a walk.
****I held my backpack in my right hand, with part of the egg visible, and held Ecco’s pokéball in my left hand. The egg pulled a little towards the towers. I walked in a circle around the fence guarding the towers, until I was on the opposite side of than the city. By the time I got there, it was dark out.
****There was no one around. Even if someone was there, they probably couldn’t see me. The information I needed to find out about the egg was just over that small fence. I could probably climb over without much effort.
****Then I could find out what the Rockets were up to. Why they needed the eggs.
****I leaned against the fence, looking for any guards inside. There only seemed to be one, and he was pacing around as if he had to urinate. I doubt he would have noticed if I went through the front gate.
****It was so easy. Break the rules, for once. Jump the fence. The egg seemed to wobble in my backpack, as if encouraging me to go.
****But I didn’t. I can’t just ignore the rules. First this, then what? I’d be starting on same path as those Orions I met a couple days ago, the ones who were beating up some poor kid. But that’s not who I wanted to become. I just had to be patient. Eventually I’d find out.
****I turned around and began to walk back towards town, covering up the egg as I did.
****I didn’t get very far before a flashlight shone in my eyes, ruining my night vision.
****I heard a Pokémon being released, and someone, a woman, spoke with authority. “Who goes there?”
(Arbitrarily) END SEASON 1
Oh, yeah. Here's a PDF of all 25 episodes of Season 1. 57 pages of storyness. At some point, I've got to go through and make improvements, but until then, this is the zeroth edition - (almost) no changes from what's been posted here.
I usually think of TA in terms of individual episodes, so I hadn't really thought of the fact that it's the biggest story I've written yet. But tens of thousands of words? And I only work on it for <however long it takes me to do laundry> a week. It's so much bigger than I ever expected it to be.
I've also noticed that, for some reason, my average paragraph length seems to be getting shorter as the number of episodes rise. I'm not quite sure why that is.
****I blinked. The bright light was bringing tears to my eyes. “Um. Hello there?” I said.
****The woman turned the flashlight away from my face, and I could just make out her silhouette.
****“What’s your name, kid?” she demanded again.
****Straitening my back a little, I tried to match the authority in her voice and reached for my Orion badge. “My name is Tony. I’m working with the Orion Defenders.” Which, technically, was true. I wasn’t currently acting with the Orions’ orders, but I was still one of them.
****I could begin to make out the woman’s features. Her eyes flickered between my badge and my face. “Ophelia would have informed me if she sent an Orion Defender.”
****“You’re that librarian I met earlier,” I realized. I didn’t mean to say it out loud, but it kind of slipped out.
****She nodded. “I am Therma, this town’s first librarian… and its Gym Leader. Now what why have you come here without Ophelia’s orders?”
****“I was just passing through when I saw the city’s library. There were a few things I wanted to do some research on.”
****“Including the Elemental Towers,” she noted. “You were attempting to break in.”
****“No, ma’am,” I assured her. “I just wanted to see them from a different angle.”
****“It’s rather difficult to see them in the middle of the night, is it not?” Therma asked. “What were you really doing?”
****As if waiting for the perfect moment, the egg in my backpack shook and the bag slid off my shoulder. It hopped around for a moment, then, levitating, spun to face the yellow Elemental Tower. I fell on top of it, careful not to break it, but keeping in pinned down.
****Maybe Therma hadn’t noticed. I picked up the bag, holding it firmly under my left arm, and faced Therma again. She stared at the bag, a puzzled expression on her face. No, she most certainly had noticed.
****“What’s in the bag?” she demanded.
****“It’s one of my Pokémon,” I said, releasing one of my pokéballs into the bag. Celsinge’s head popped out and arched an eyebrow at me.
****Therma’s eyes narrowed. “Why is it not in a pokéball?” she asked.
****“It just likes to sit in my bag. Isn’t that right Celsinge?” I said.
****Celsinge glared at me for a fraction of a second, but nodded at Therma. “Mrowr,” Celsinge confirmed.
****“See? Mrowr,” I repeated. Both Celsinge and Therma raised an eyebrow at me. I just shrugged.
****“Mhm,” Therma murmured. “I would normally turn you in to the police, hiding around private property in the dark,” she said. “But you don’t seem competent enough to be planning to break in. At least, not alone.”
****I stopped myself before I could argue. As long as she didn’t think I was capable of trouble, she’d probably just let me go.
****Of course, Meredith chose that moment to show up, and waved my Pokégear at me. “Tony! You forgot your…” she turned to look at Therma. “What’s going on here?”
****“Ah. So you do have an accomplice,” Therma said.
****“Accomplice?” Meredith asked. “What are you talking about?”
****“She thinks I’m trying to break in to the Towers,” I explained. I thought about it for half a second. “And by the way, I’m perfectly competent. I was the top kid in my class back home.” Of course, my class was only 15 people, all the kids my age from Neo Bay and Sunset Village. But Therma didn’t need to know that.
****“Book smarts aren’t all that matters,” Therma responded, with a dismissing wave of her hand.
****“That’s great, coming from a librarian,” I muttered.
****Therma didn’t hear me, or pretended not to. “If you’re not thieves, then prove it,” Therma ordered. “I challenge you to a Pokémon battle.”
****“Wait. How will a battle prove that we’re innocent?”
****Again, Therma ignored me. “We’ll use the standard rules of a Pokémon League Gym Battle. Are you acquainted with them?”
****I nodded. “Of course.”
****“Um,” said Meredith. “What do I do?”
****“Wait there,” Therma and I both said. “Please,” I added. Meredith just rolled her eyes and sat down.
****Therma marked off the boundaries of the field with string, firmly attached to the ground at each corner with a wooden stake. I guess she had made a habit of carrying around a battlefield with her, in case some trainer challenged her to a gym battle.
****Once the field was ready, we each released our first Pokémon.
At first, I planned on getting about halfway through the battle in this episode, otherwise it would seem too short, and the next one too long.
Then I realized that was a really dumb idea. So short and long episodes it is!
Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, answers, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you liked or didn't like!
Oops. A bit late. It's still Sunday somewhere, isn't it?
Part 27: Parting Words
****I began with Celsinge. Therma's first Pokémon was a small black crow with a hat, Murkrow.
****The bird immediately took off, flapping its wings loudly to get several yards above Celsinge.
****“Smokescreen!” I shouted. Celsinge filled the air with a thick black smoke, making it impossible for her to see. Murkrow flapped overhead, trying to see into the smoke. The small bird wasn’t blind, but its view of Celsinge was obstructed by the smoke.
****But Celsinge could see Murkrow’s outline in the moonlight.
****“Flamethrower!” I shouted. Celsinge let out a brief stream of flame, but Murkrow twisted off to one side. Murkrow dove towards the source of the flame, but Celsinge was smarter than that.
****“Kraaa!” Murkrow screeched, and the bird darted out of the fog, spinning to put out its flaming wings.
****“Return,” Therma ordered. “Go, Equill!”
****She released a dizzy-looking green creature. It looked kind of like an overweight bird that had flown into a window and stuck there; it stood upright, had a short, curved beak, and seemed a bit… flattened. It stumbled around for a second, but then took off. It was a surprisingly coherent flier.
****At Therma’s command, Equill spiraled through the smoke, clearing away Celsinge’s cover.
****“Confusion!” Therma shouted. The air pulsed with energy, invisible but almost tangible. The energy hit Celsinge and sent the small lion tumbling away.
****Celsinge recovered quickly, turning the tumble into a controlled roll just before she left the boundary of the arena.
****“Spice it up!” I said, and Celsinge let out a small burst of flame in a snort, setting herself on fire as she rolled back towards Equill.
****You’d think it would be painful, but Celsinge’s fur must be somewhat fire resistant.
****Celsinge’s back legs pushed out and, encased in a half dome of fire, she flew up towards the green bird.
****I felt the pulse of energy again, and the nimbus of flame surrounding Celsinge abruptly went out. Celsinge’s muscles seemed to relax as she reached the peak of her jump, and her eyes seemed to glaze over.
****“Return!” I shouted, throwing her pokéball out to catch her before she landed face-first on the hard ground.
****I chose my next Pokémon without a moment’s hesitation; Therma clearly specialized in flying types, and a grass type like Lupine would just get torn up. Koffing has never been happy with our relationship, so I saved him for a last resort.
****“Ecco, water pulse!” I shouted, releasing the dolphin.
****Before Ecco could begin its attack, Equill let out another pulse of energy. Ecco braced himself, and when the pulse ended sent out rings of water at the flying bird. Equill opened its beak to send out another wave of psychic energy.
****The two attacks passed through each other and seemed to cancel each other out.
****It was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Ecco’s water pulse seemed to move in time with the bird’s psychic pulses, and they met halfway between the Pokémon. Ecco’s water rings spread out as they hit that point in the center, as if they had hit an invisible wall and were expanding along it.
****The two Pokémon stood there for a good ten seconds, waiting for the other to run out of steam.
****Ecco won. The Equill, already tired from using confusion thrice already, stopped to breathe, and Ecco’s water rings enveloped the bird.
****“Eeee-oo-eeeee!” Ecco screeched as he rolled towards the fallen bird. The dolphin’s tail shined a metallic cyan before arching down onto Equill’s head.
****But Equill disappeared in a burst of red light.
****“Gashawk,” Therma said, releasing her third Pokémon, a large brown hawk.
****Ecco let out a blast of water as Gashawk descended and snatched the dolphin in its talons. It grabbed Ecco’s tail and lifted, giving Ecco no weapon to defend himself.
****“Water gun!” I suggested. Ecco flailed around, trying to get a shot at Gashawk, but he wasn’t strong enough to lift his entire body using his tail.
****Gashawk kept going up, and up, and up… and I realized that the bird was carrying Ecco high enough that even the cushioning techniques we practiced using Ecco’s water pulse wouldn’t stop Ecco from hitting the ground at bone-breaking speed.
****“That’s just not fair,” I muttered, and returned Ecco to its pokéball. “Alright, Lupine! Good luck!”
****My little wolf cub barked in defiance at the hawk circling around overhead. Two vines grew out of the collar of leaves around Lupine’s neck and grabbed the bird Pokémon’s wings, pulling it back to earth.
****“Kaaa!” Gashawk screeched, and it cut through Lupine’s vines.
****Lupine let out a startled “yip,” then unleashed a swarm of leaves onto the bird. Gashawk swatted them away, but a few of them tore into its tail.
****“Get him!” shouted Therma.
****Gashawk plummeted straight down at Lupine, at a speed that I was pretty sure would kill them both. Lupine flung himself to the side.
****At the last possible second, Gashawk pulled out of the dive and, without losing any speed, targeted Lupine again. Lupine crouched down under the bird, and Gashawk’s beak barely grazed Lupine’s back, but Lupine began bleeding profusely.
****Or maybe I’m over exaggerating. I’ve never really been comfortable with blood.
****I eyed Therma. She had two pokéballs stashed on her belt, and Gahsawk’s was still in her hand. So, unless she was hiding one somewhere sneaky (and the only possibilities that came to mind were somewhat disturbing), Gashawk was her last Pokémon.
****Lupine might not have been seriously injured. But it was hard to tell in the darkness, and it seemed like a lot of blood. I decided to play it safe.
****“Razor leaf!” I shouted. Lupine released another flurry of leaves into the air before I returned him.
****“Come on, Koffing, don’t let me down,” I muttered as I released my last Pokémon.
****I could immediately tell that I had made a mistake. Koffing spun around lazily once, then settled on the ground.
****“Please, Koffing!” I said. “Use poison gas!”
****Koffing just burped.
****“How about toxic?”
****“Huh,” the Pokémon answered.
****“Come on, Koffing! There’s a battle going on here!”
****Gashawk spiraled overhead, eyeing the purple sack lying on the ground. I didn’t think it was possible for a bird’s beak to curve in an amused smile, but somehow Gashawk was pulling it off.
****“Koffing!” came Meredith’s shrill voice. I cringed on reflex. Meredith only used that tone when she was pissed, or when I complained that I was tired. “What do you think you’re doing? Listen to your trainer!”
****Koffing just stared at Meredith. He opened his mouth.
****“No! Do what he says!”
****Koffing let out a dissatisfied grunt. Then he looked at me.
****I blinked at Meredith for a second. Then I managed to say, “p-poison gas?”
****A cloud of purple fog rolled out of Koffing’s pores.
****Wow. It actually worked. Maybe Meredith had some magic power of persuasion in addition to her fortune-telling.
****Gashawk whirled its wings around and created a small whirlwind, sending the poison gas spiraling away. I covered my mouth and nose with my shirt to make sure I didn’t inhale any toxins.
****I should have closed my eyes, too. They burned for a moment as they filled with the irritating fog.
****When I blinked them clear again, Koffing was bobbing up and down, avoiding the swooping Gashawk.
****“Spray some sludge!” I said. Koffing obeyed, spurting a glob of purple liquid out of one of its craters.
****Gashawk dodged the muck and came at Koffing again.
****“Get down here!” I said. Koffing bobbed over to me, and I whispered something to it. I’ve been getting better about non-verbal communication with my other Pokémon, but I hadn’t practiced much with Koffing.
****“Got it?” I asked.
****“Huh,” Koffing confirmed as he dodges a small gust of wind.
****Koffing flew up higher again and waited for Gashawk to lunge at him again. The bird was suspicious, and circles around wearily.
****“Tackle!” I shouted.
****Koffing tilted face-down and threw himself at the bird, but the bird dropped slightly to avoid the hit.
****Of course, it didn’t quite move fast enough. When Koffing was directly over the bird, he spat out a glob of purple fluid, trailing it along Gashawk’s back and into the cuts on its tail.
****“Hraaaaaaa!” the Pokémon screeched. It swung its wings viciously at Koffing, slashing wildly.
****“Stop that,” said Therma, returning Gashawk. “That’s no way to fight,” she murmured to the pokéball. She then turned to me. “Your passion in battle has proven to me that you are trustworthy. Take this badge and TM as proof of your victory.”
****“Uh. What?” I said. “Passion? How does this battle prove anything?”
****I felt Meredith put her hand on my shoulder and apply an uncomfortable amount of pressure on it. “Just take it,” she whispered.
****“A fair question,” Therma admitted as I took the badge and disc. “When you participate in as many battles as I have, you can learn something about a person by how they battle. Our battle showed me that, while imperfect, you do stand by a good set of morals.”
****I knew that Meredith would kill me if I pointed out that Therma hadn’t explained much, so I thanked the Gym Leader and departed to the Pokémon Center to heal my team.
****I awoke the next morning to find Meredith packing her things.
****“You’re finally up,” she noted.
****“Yeah. We leaving already?”
****“Well, I am.” Meredith sat down. “I’m going back to Hollowlog.”
****“You’re leaving?” I said. I felt a bit disappointed. Meredith and I were becoming close, after spending so much time travelling together.
****She seemed to sense my disappointment. “What? I figured you were planning to head home for the holidays, too.”
****“Holidays?” I checked the date on my Pokégear. “Next week is Christmas?”
****“Yeah. You didn’t realize?”
****“Apparently not.”
****“Well, we can meet up again in a couple weeks,” she said. “Think we can meet in Mistvale by 7th?”
****“Sure,” I said. Wow. Christmas was almost here. I can’t believe I’d forgotten. 12-year-old me would have been counting down the days since the end of October.
****“Alright. I’ll see you then,” she said, giving me a hug. It only hurt my marred back a little.
****I watched her put on her backpack and leave.
****“Wait!” I said as the door was about to close. She opened it enough to poke her head back inside.
****“I want you to take this,” I said, fumbling around in the pile of things beside my bed. I fished out Koffing’s pokéball.
****“What?”
****“Koffing will listen to you. He’s never really liked me, and I think he’ll be happier with you. Will you take him?”
****Meredith stared at the pokéball for a moment before taking it. “Are you sure Koffing will be ok with that?”
****“Koffing,” I called to one of the Pokémon on the couch. Actually, he was sleeping about half an inch above the couch. “I want you to go with Meredith.”
****Koffing looked sleepily between Meredith and I. “Huh huh,” it grunted, and floated after Meredith.
****“I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” I answered.
****Meredith paused. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll take care of him.”
****“I’m sure he’ll be better off with you.”
****“Goodbye,” she said.
****“Bye.”
****The door closed with a thud, and Meredith was gone. I was alone. The room seemed so much emptier without another person there.
****“Eeee-ooo,” Ecco pointed out.
****“Yeah, you’re right,” I admitted. “You guys are still here.”
****I got dressed and packed my stuff, then Ecco, Lupine, Celsinge and I headed home.
Hmm. Maybe I should append Season 1 to include Episodes 26 and 27.
Like Tony, I'm going to be with family next week. Don't expect a regular episode. I do plan to post something important and plot-related, though, so don't miss it. I just might have to post it early or late, depending on whether or not I'm actually going to have my laptop (and internet connection).
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Or just “Have a Nice Day” if you’re not the holiday type! Tony and I have been working hard to bring you this special Christmas installment of Topaz Adventures, and we finished it just in time! Any later, and I wouldn't have been able to upload until the New Year, which would have made it a pretty stupid Christmas present. Aren't I great at streching deadlines?