"Haha! I win again!"
"No fair! One more time, please?"
"I've just beaten you eight times in a row at this.
Why do you bother?"
"Grrr... I know I'm better than you at this."
"Alright, one more time, just to prove I'm better."
With a few buttons pressed, the two battle screens
came up. Both combatants stared deeply into the screens of their handheld
systems. The pokémon battle begun.
Both players were avid pokémon obsessionists.
Each imagined himself in a real battle, the stadium seperating them as
they both reached for their first pokéball.
"Go, Charmeleon!" Cried Andrew, throwing the ball
in. It split, fell open and revealed the powerful fire pokémon.
"Squirtle, I choose you!" His opponent, Callan,
threw forth his own ball, bringing out the blue turtle.
"Scratch, Charmeleon!" The fire pokémon hit
it's opponent with it's claws, throwing it back powerfully.
"Squirtle, use Water Gun!" Callan called. While
all that showed on the screen was a few drops falling onto his opponent,
they vividly imagined the pokémon unleashing the huge water jet.
The life counter for Charmeleon ticked down to just above halfway.
"Use your Rage attack!" Cried Andrew in their imaginary
battle. Charmeleon unleashed a massive clawed punch on Squirtle.
"Use Water Gun again!" Squirtle caused a critical
hit, hitting the burning tip of Charmeleon's tail, which had been exposed
by the rage attack. This weakened Charmeleon down until it collapsed, fainted,
but Squirtle had been badly hurt too. Callan jumped for joy while Andrew
lay in shock over the defeat of his strongest pokémon.
"Now you've done it!" He cursed Callan, looking
up from his Gameboy. "See how you like this!"
As Callan watched the screen, Andrew's Pikachu appeared.
It was six levels down from his level fifteen Squirtle, but super-effectiveness
coupled with Squirtle's already serious injuries made it dangerous. Squirtle
only got in a single Water Gun before being taken down by a thundershock.
"How about a Geodude?" Callan brought out the pokémon,
immune to electric attacks. "Rock throw!" Several rocks were brought down
on the poor pokémon's head.
"Enough, Pikachu." Andrew returned the almost-dead
pokémon. "Go, Nidoran!"
Looking at Andrew's second-strongest pokémon,
Callan felt a twinge of fear. "Tackle it, Geodude!" The Rock pokémon
flew forward into a full miss.
"Double Kick attack!" Andrew called. The super-effective
fighting technique left Geodude for gravel.
"Good job, Geodude. Go, Kadabra!" Callan unleashed
his newly-evolved, level sixteen, very high-speed psychic pokémon.
"Confusion attack!"
Nidoran was swept back from the force of the blow.
It retaliated with a Horn Attack, before being hit back with another confusion.
Almost defeated, it lay on a Poison sting attack.
Callan watched in horror as the words 'critical hit' came up, closely followed
by 'Kadabra has been poisoned!'
"Oh man..." He muttered, imagining his Kadabra growing
green, swaying from side to side gently. It lay out another confusion,
knocking out Nidoran.
"Yes..." Callan knew if he could beat two more comparitively
low-level pokémon, he'd win.
"Zubat, I choose you!"
"Kadabra, confusion!"
Maybe it was the effects of the poison, or just
general bad luck, but the attack missed.
"Zubat, supersonic attack!"
"Oh, no..." Callan mumbled as the attack connected.
The poison took it's toll again, weakening Kadabra further. He knew his
next attack would backfire, but he tried anyway.
"Confusion!" As expected, it backfired. Combined
with Zubat's leech life and the poison's effects, Kadabra fainted.
Knowing his Pidgey would probably be able to beat
the Zubat, Callan brought it out next. But he had forgotten about the half-dead
Pikachu sitting in his opponent's list...
"Pikachu, Thundershock!" The attack pulled Pidgey
down well past halfway, as well as Paralyzing it. The paralysis prevented
Pidgey from attacking, and the next thundershock killed it.
"Oh man..." He brought out his fifth and final pokémon,
which he had barely started to train. Andrew's Zubat took down the level
4 Rattata easily.
"See? Told you!" Andrew laughed as he taunted his
opponent. "Face it, you can't beat me!"
"Yeah, 'cos you get fluke after fluke. I keep missing,
you get critical hits, poison my my Kadabra and Paralyze my Pidgey with
one single shot!"
"Don't be a poor loser."
Callan grumbled quietly, the glanced over to the
clock, which showed 10:50. "Whoa, I didn't realise it was that late. Come
on, we should get to sleep."
As Callan fell into his bed, he thought he heard
Andrew laughing softly from the mattress where he was staying the night
at Callan's house. Callan's expression turned stony, but this went unseen
in the pitch black room.
"If pokémon were real, I know I could beat
him." He said to himself, very softly. "That might be cool..."
He shrugged, turned over, and was asleep within
minutes.