That Night in Viridian Forest
They didn't believe us. Lin tried talking to every adult she could after the police turned her away. No one listened. Eventually the police came to us and said that no one was at the gym. Giovanni had already left so we were to stop making up stories just because we failed the tests. That last part got me.
"Failed! We defeated two monsters and you say we failed? Ha, we could take on any test those losers could have-"
"Tell your eevee it should be quiet when humans are talking." said the police officer.
I would have gotten him but Lin scooped me up in her hard bony arms. "Sorry. It won't happen again." She said.
That bugs, you know. If he wanted to fight, the police should have just come to me. But noooo, he just had to talk to my trainer and label me as eevee. I guess that it's ok though. I am an eevee after all and dang proud of it. At least I wasn't human. Of course not all human were that bad.
"I guess I was just too jealous." Lin said. "Well, I'll stop right now, Sir!" Lin's voice wasn't built for fake sincerity. Jagged and scratchy, as it is, it probably wasn't built for anything but making little children cry. Whatever that voice sounded like to the police, I don't know, but he tipped his hat and left. I looked at my trainer.
Lin Ka Ota, the girl weirdo. Like most beginners, she was young and that's were most comparisons end. Not that normal sized, not that normal looking, not that average. She seemed to be faulting a lot of abilities that other trainers had. She did have one advantage, one killer cool Pokémon.
That would be me.
"Well, I tried," she said. "It's their own fault if something happens now."
"Gezz, Lin, I hope that's not your battle plan. If it is, please leave me out." I know she couldn't understand me, but at least the words were out there. "Are we just going to walk away then?"
"I guess it wasn't a complete waste though," said Lin. She used her free hand to reach into her jacket. Shifting me to the side, she pulled something out. "At least we got this out of it."
I realized that she had the ball that rocket had given her. What had she called it? An ultraball? It looked like a pokeball but the coloring was off. Oh well, it didn't matter to me if she never shoved me in there.
"You know, it is kind of funny," I said. "If you think about it, we totally robbed that from him. Really, we beat up his Pokémon then took that ultraball. Who's the bad guy here?"
Lin shifted my weight back onto two arms after putting back into her jacket. Then we started down a path I knew lead to the Pokémon center. "That ultraball's going to come in handy one day. That money we got will help, too. Ha, it's about time we got a prize."
"So prize is what you're calling it. Well I think I'm going to receive a prize when I break into the glowing box of food tonight. Unless, someone loves me enough to feed me now."
That was a bit puzzling. Why would Lin be happy to have the love of a rocket? Who cares, though if it was enough to eat something other than berries? This four-a-day fruit diet just wasn't cutting it. I needed sustenance.
Lin walks pretty quickly with her pair of small legs, so we soon arrived at the Pokémon center. She had already healed me earlier, so I got to avoid the dreadful trip to the back room this time. Of course with our luck I knew I'd be back soon. Ignoring the dirty looks from some of the trainers we had talked to earlier, we set up a place by a window.
I lept out of Lin's arms to check out the glowing box. I was confident that now I would get something. Now the only obstacle was choosing what I wanted. There were a lot of different shaped and colored wrappers to choose from. Blue or red, square or circle, maybe a green star shaped one. I glanced back at Lin. The chair, like most things in this world, was too large for Lin, but she seemed to adapt to it. It was one of those big, red, cushy ones. Her feet were on the seat itself. She was leaning back on the chair which was propped upon the wall by the window. The chair, resting on two legs, formed a 'v'. Lin sat in the middle, and was writing in one of the many books that she keeps in her jacket. One day I'd have to ask how she keeps so much stuff in there. I looked at the other trainers near the fire place. They all had fanny packs or backpacks. I'd never seen them write books either. All they did was play around with some little red toy.
I looked back through the glass that separated me from my food. I could have sat there all day it was so comfortable. Then I spotted it, my favorite food. There was only one left, up in the corner. I had missed it before because it was shadowed by a boring brown box, but that was irrelevant now. It was shaped like a triangle and it wasn't too big but it did have something that set it apart from all others. Three colors! Green, blue and red! Which could only mean one thing! It was three times better then all of the others! I checked around to see if anyone else had spotted it as well. All the Pokémon that were in the center at the time didn't look hungry, but looks can be deceiving. I looked at Lin who was still scribbling. If I was to pull this off I would have to use all of my skill, all of my class, and all of my cunning.
I calmly walked to my trainer, as to not give away my discovery. My body moved forward on its own. The true fight was to hold it back from running or shaking in excitement. The stretch between Lin and I seemed to grow instead of shrink. Even though I couldn't see them, I knew every other monster's eyes were on me. They were just waiting for me to give myself away.
Slowly I reached Lin. I didn't risk a glance at the other monsters, but I could feel their eyes bore into me. The battle wasn't over yet. I had to play cool. I jumped up to Lin's chair and nuzzled my way between her and the book. The book contained a drawing of an ekans and a few other words and numbers.
"You like the drawing?" Lin said. "This is the book I use to take notes on the Pokémon we find. We won't ever be caught off guard because I'll study them all. I'll be able to predict and form strategies against them and everything."
I looked back at the book. "The ekans that I fought had bigger teeth."
"I knew you'd like that idea."
Right. I tugged at Lin's jacket a little then jumped down. I took a few steps to the box of food then looked back to see if Lin had caught so obvious a hint.
"Oh," she said, "You must be hungry. It has been a while since you've had a good meal. Alright then, I guess we can splurge this one time to celebrate." She rocked back her chair, left her book and followed me. "After all, I want to check to see if this little guy works."
I was walking at her side as to not give myself away at this critical stage of my plan. Out of one corner of my eye, I swear I saw all the monsters waiting for a slip up. Out of the other corner, I saw Lin pull yet another object out of her jacket. With feigned interest, I turned my head from the box approaching me and looked at what was in Lin's hand. It was a smallish grey round flat thing. Woppdy doo.
When we got to the box instead of immediately seeing and buying the box of three colors, Lin decided to kneel down and give me another look at the grey thing. It was small, grey, round and flat still, but it did have a screen on one side which I hadn't noticed before. The screen just had lots of numbers.
"This is the electronic coin." Lin explained. "This keeps track of the money we have. When we win a battle, this connects with the pokedex of the other trainer and transfers half of their money over to our storage of money."
"So you're saying that when we are done beating up our victim, this metal thing steals peoples love and puts it into your metal heart there. Then you also get to take whatever is on him?" This talk about Lin's metal heart had bored me before it even started. I nudged the box to remind her of why we were here.
"Yes, it should work to open this up too." Lin got up and studied the box. She seemed to study it for eternity. Evidently, she didn't understand the urgency of the situation. At any moment another monster would come up and take the last of the triple colored boxes.
What's so difficult? Can't you see it?
"Humm…" said Lin. "Which one would be better at this stage of your training."
"What?" Training, she was thinking about training at a time like this? In a voice barely containing the impatience within me I said, "Lin, just buy the flipping box. You get it? The box with three colors. Buy the box!"
"I mean, I don't exactly know what your strengths and weaknesses are yet. I mean, if I give you the incorrect food now, I could set us back for years."
"The only incorrect foods would be the ones without three colors."
"I mean, what if I gave you a light meal but you needed the calories to buff up your muscle power. Or a heavy meal but you need to be light on your feet."
"Or a crappy one colored box when I needed a box with of three colors."
"Hmmm… what a difficult- hey! Why didn't I see that before?"
My heart jumped for joy! Had she found it? I tried to prevent myself from holding on to false hope by concluding that Lin would probably choose the wrong box.
"This box is designed for eevees!"
Hopefully not for their misery.
"No matter what three paths an eevee might take, this is perfect."
Oh my gosh, she's going to get it!
Lin extended her hand and put the metal heart to the box. Then she put her other hand to the big food box and pressed some numbers. The box made a weird, scratchy sound and started to move the food it kept locked from me. Then slowly, so slowly, the machine dropped the boring brown box.
"All right! No, wait. What just happened?" I said.
Lin reached down and pulled out the brown box. "Sweet! I can't believe our good luck. What are the chances of this vending machine having a meal especially designed for eevees?"
This can't be happening. I didn't even get a box with a color. Brown, I hate brown.
"And it's brown like you are."
Err… well…
She didn't give me the box. Instead she marched back to the chair. I had no choice but to follow. I grumbled back to the spot ignoring the mocking faces of the monsters which I just knew were watching me. When we reached the chair, Lin stooped down and quickly opened to box.
"Well, will you look at that," I said. "The food is brown, too." Mush, paste, weird textured meat, I couldn't tell what it was, but I could tell what it wasn't. It wasn't food.
"Here you go! Enjoy a well-deserved feast."
I thought back to the warm food at the farm. "We just don't have the same definition of that word."
Lin got back up in her chair, leaning it back no the wall. I just stared at my slop. I looked out the window. Slightly dark, no sun, hint of red, it was time for night. I figured that if I slept, I would forget how hungry I was and not have to eat this mush. The growl in my stomach protested, but my eyes voted yes. My taste buds threatened revolt. Nevertheless, I lowered my face and started to eat. It had the best flavor I could have asked for, water.
About half way through my halfway pleasant torture, Lin said, "Tomorrow we'll hit the forest. We'll have to wake up early to get there before everyone else."
Forest, forest… that word sounds familiar, but… wait! Viridian forest! The land of bug trainers? The one we weren't ready for two days ago? That forest?
"It shouldn't be too bad now that we've got our strategy down." Lin was looking out the window. She looked back at me. "What do you say?"
"Would you understand me if I said no?"
"All right! It's settled."
"Of course."
"I can't believe she beat me." The Rocket grunted. "She ruined everything. Thanks to her, I'm screwed."
He planned to be Giovanni's number one man and it all backfired on him. Now he was sitting on a bench in front of one of the offices in the Viridian Gym and having a lot of time to think over his mistakes in the last battle. The Rocket also thought about the punishment he was going to receive when the office door opened. Which it did at just that moment.
A woman in civilian clothing came walking out of the office. Even if she wasn't dressed in her uniform, there was no fooling the Rocket. He knew that the woman was a member of the team. She just had the look. She didn't even seem to have seen him for a second. Then, without looking at him, she just made a sound in the back of her thought and walked back into the room. The Rocket got up and walked through the open door.
The woman was now standing beside a man in a big chair which meant he must be important. The man had on his rocket uniform which tripled his scariness. The big scyther by his side magnified his aura as well.
"Well," the administrator began. "It doesn't look like anyone believed him. You got lucky."
That's funny. The Rocket thought. I don't feel lucky.
The administrator was silent for a while, then spoke, "I'm told that this kid beat your koffing and ekans with one eevee, is that correct?"
The Rocket knew better then to have the audacity to speak. He just nodded his head.
The administrator seemed to be in deep thought. "Well, what a wonderful example to you. It shows that even the weakest Pokémon can win if their opponent doesn't handle their Pokémon correctly. Don't you agree?"
The Rocket nodded.
"Yes! I think you can really learn from this. It's a marvelous opportunity. In fact I know how we can make sure you really learn this lesson." The administrator looked at the woman on his right and nodded. The woman walked around the table to where the Rocket was standing.
The Rocket didn't know what to expect, but getting kicked in the gut wasn't it. As he lay sprawled on the floor, he felt a hand take the two pokeballs off of his belt.
The Rocket caught his breath, and got up on one knee while holding his gut. His vision was blurry, but he recognized the sound of a drawer being opened. Something was tossed a few feet from him. When his vision cleared he saw two familiar pokeballs.
"Here are your original Pokémon. Two bug types right? Not that bug types are worth mentioning."
Does this mean what I think it does?
"No," the administrator said. "You're not fired, not yet. I just want you to learn that team rocket will not provide Pokémon to people that fail. If you want powerful Pokémon, you will have to earn them. Until then, you will have to settle for these. And don't worry about proving yourself. You will have an opportunity soon enough. Very soon, in fact, we are expecting a special delivery today, and I'm sure you will come in handy."
"Then let's go, kid!" Lin said.
"You have no mercy do you?" I said. The bug trainer looked just as small as Lin. He couldn't be over ten years old. "We're going to beat up a little kid now?"
The child picked out a ball from his waist and gave it an underhanded toss, more or less in my direction. "I'll show you stranger! This is my forest. Go caterpie."
The light filled the air and I found myself face to face with my first bug monster. It was some smallish, green, ugly looking thing. Compared to the monsters I had already fought it didn't look that scary, just a little pathetic.
"All right eevee, show him what's up! Tackle."
"Jezz, you make it sound like the end of the world here," I obeyed. As I bolted to the caterpie the kid said something that sounded like 'sling slop'. A white string shot out of the caterpie's mouth towards me. Maybe I should have dodged, but I honestly didn't think that it would hurt me. It didn't but it did coat me with a lot of sticky stuff.
"Great, this will take of ever to come out." I tackled the caterpie and backed off, waiting for some counter attack. The kid trainer just called out for the same technique.
"String shot," Lin said helpfully. "It's a move that will lower your speed."
"Oh, no, you mean that I'll be slower then I already am?" Still I decided to put that bit of info in permanent storage, just in case. I ran to caterpie, letting the string hit me, and then performing my tackle attack again. I backed off just a little this time, still expecting something to happen, but the kid just put in another order for string shot.
"You know, you might want to dodge that." Lin said.
"Don't worry Lin." I said. "I'll knock it out before it even gets to attack me."
I put some space between the caterpie and me so I could get a good running start I figured it I could just get a good hit in, it would be all over. I jogged towards my opponent. I tackled him, but it didn't receive the result that I wanted. What I did receive when I got back to Lin's side was another coat of string.
"You know, more than anything else, this is just kind of disgusting."
"Eevee, it's not like you're in mortal danger or anything, but you realize that it's only going to get more difficult to move?"
She's right. I have been slowing down. I could only make a slow walk over to my opponent. When I was no more than five steps, I was covered with another sticky string attack. The momentum of my walk carried me a half a step forward, and then I rocked back to my previous position. I could barely move my head to check my status, but from what I could feel and see, I must have looked fat.
Well, this is inconvenient. I thought because my mouth was covered in string.
"Good caterpie! Once more!"
Just wonderful. I felt one more round of string wash over me. I could only look at one side of the battle field. The trainer and the caterpie looked pleased with themselves. I can only move my eyes now.
"Now you're in for it! HA! This will be my greatest victory yet! HA! It's a good thing your eevee's attack is so weak." the kid said. He was lucky that my mouth was covered at the moment. "Now you'll see the true terror of my strategy!"
"Kid, relax." Lin said. Her words showed no sense of urgency or danger so I relaxed a little."It's just a caterpie."
"But look, my caterpie has a focus band!"
"Huh?"
"HA! I wouldn't think that a newbie like you would know what one was. It's an extremely valuable item that increases my caterpie's rate of growth. Using my awesome strategizing, my caterpie will grow to be the strongest butterfree ever! Tackle!"
The caterpie just stood there. I waited a few seconds, but nothing changed. No, wait! If I strained my eyes I could just make out the tinniest little nudge forward.
"Wait," Lin said. "Don't tell me that the focus band makes it harder for you caterpie to move."
"Yeah, well, that's the drawback. That's why I string shot you."
"Oh boy, eevee. Get ready for a long one. Here's what you've got to do. I want you to start rocking back and forth and when it gets close, I want you to tip yourself over on it."
Some plan. I strained everything in my body from my heart to my fur to make just the tinniest movement forward then to the back. This was going to take forever. Because I had nothing else to look at, I just stared at my opponent. He seemed to be as frustrated as I was. But where was his trainer?
"No, really, it's all about the poison types here." The kid's voice was coming from my left, just out of my sight. "Everyone's always after weedle's poison sting."
Then from not too far away from the kid's voice, Lin's said, "That's what I thought. I brought lots of poison cures up with me. I think that out of all the different status conditions, poison should be the most common."
What? What is she doing? I can't believe that she is fraternizing with the enemy!
"Really? Why do you think?"
"Well, it's sure damage. Defense or special defense doesn't even add in."
"True but a burn can be just as bad and lowers you attack. I know because a trainer recently came through here with a charmander."
"Hmm, you've got a point there. Hey, eevee!"
Oh, now you're paying attention to me.
"Keep up the good work!"
Come a little closer Lin. I want to tip over on you.
The caterpie approached me with the fury of a dead slakoth. I had... what, one or two hours till it reached me? I guess it was ok because my deadly fall over attack needed a lot of time to charge up to its full strength. A lot of time.
"All right, easy now. You don't want this guy to wake up. Trust me." The rocket handler waved the truck into the gym's garage. He kept one eye on the truck and one on the Pokémon inside the cage in the back of the truck. "We've already had some rockets take away something nasty from this guy. He's not exactly your friendly type."
The truck driver sighed. He knew that this wasn't for him, but for all the new grunts waiting to receive the boss's new Pokémon. He had been partners with this particular rocket from the days team rocket hadn't even gone public, and if he learned anything about him it was that he was a ham.
The new grunt's eyes widened. They were all there to receive the boss's newest weapon. They considered it a privilege to be trusted for such an important duty. The Pokémon must have been extremely dangerous if all of them were necessary to secure it.
"Yes, sorry," continued the member of Team Rocket. "This one's a hand full. Many Rockets have gotten a taste of this guy and were rushed off to the Rocket hospital."
He smiled at the grunts now ailing faces. The mention of the hospital always did the trick. The rocket's hospitals were a place of terror in the eyes of any rocket, from newbie's to the old ones. It's where rockets went to recover from inures that would start up too many questions. The thing was, the rocket hospital wasn't known to be the most advanced place in the way of anesthetics.
"I don't see the problem." A loud voice interpreted. The rocket turned around to see a grunt in the front looking directly at him. Unlike the rest, this grunts face wasn't any unusual color nor was he captivated by the rocket's speech. In fact, he looked rather bored. "It's not like it's very rare. You can see those things in this city, heck; even some of us here have that Pokémon. What makes it so dangerous?"
Even the truck driver grimaced. It truly had been a pain to get this Pokémon. If not for the Pokémon itself, then from the gym they stole it from. Some rockets had not come back.
The rocket focused his eyes on the grunt in the front. The act was gone. "You have no idea what power this monster contains, or how many rockets were sacrificed to steal it. Trust me," he held up a vile in front of their faces, "if it weren't for this you would all be in the greatest danger. Now shut up and back up. We don't want to wake it up."
But the rocket didn't have to worry about that. The Pokémon had been awake for quite some time.
The brush hit another snag in my hair. I knew that yelling out was pointless. Lin already knew what she'd done and knew that it was necessary as much as I did. That wasn't going to stop me complaining though.
"Ouch! Hey, softer and slower please!"
"Sorry," Lin grunted, which wasn't that attractive. "But this would be easier if I just used the pokeball."
That idea shut me up. Still, this brushing routine was not any more enjoyable. At least it was starting to take less and less time. I was getting better at dodging each caterpie's string shots and Lin's brushing ability was also improving.
Lin gave the brush one last jerk. "There, now you're clean, and it took less than half an hour!"
"Now it's ready for the next battle." I had gotten tired of caterpies really fast. Ever since I entered this forest, the only things I fought were caterpie. They weren't that difficult to defeat, but their string shot made these battle's way too long. The real challenge was not to fall asleep during our fights. The long grooming sessions after each battle weren't enjoyable either. Lin had suggested that it could all be removed instantly if I would enter the pokeball for 'only one little bitty second,' but there was no way I was going to let that happen. I'd sooner let her try out her other idea which was using scissors. Ha! Like I would let someone with hair as poorly kept as hers put shears to my coat.
"We've spent a lot of time here." Lin looked around; she seemed to be taking in the scenery or realizing that she was completely lost.
I took the opportunity to look around, too. Trees. Lots and lots of trees. I have to admit that I was impressed for a minute. It was my first forest after all, and trees weren't that common on the farm. However I quickly learned that once you saw one tree, you've seen them all. We didn't enter the thicker parts of the forest because Lin preferred the grassy meadows and large dirt paths that twisted and turned every which way like an ekans playing twister. Some paths lead to small quiet groves that looked like they hadn't been touched by man, eevee, or monster. Leaves were scattered over the forest floor resembling freshly fallen snow. It was super fun to rush in and mess it up. I felt like a grand explorer, leaving my dirty mark all over this pristine wilderness. Every once in a while we would run into a caterpie, or the paths would open up to a grand meadow filled with trainers with caterpies. Really, it got very boring very fast.
"It's getting-" Lin began but she gasped. Trust me; you never want to hear Lin gasp. It sounds like a small animal choking to death. "It's a metapod!"
I looked to her line of sight and saw a tree. Great, she's lost it.
"Perfect!" Lin said. "I was just thinking that we needed to step it up. These caterpie just aren't cutting it anymore. They aren't worth the time. This guy will be a new challenge for us."
"What, you want me to fight the tree?"
Lin picked up a dirt clod from the ground and tossed it at my leafy opponent. I was about to suggest that she leave this battle to me when a large green object fell out of the tree.
"What's that?" I asked. "Some kind of fruit?" The eyes opened and it started to wobble. "Oh, that's what I'm fighting. Looks like an unripe banana."
"Looks like its angry eevee. Get ready."
"Gee, I don't know, Lin. How can you tell an angry wobble from a happy wobble?"
"Alright, eevee, tackle."
"Of course, that's the only attack I know." I ran to my enemy. He just stood there. Man, why didn't my opponents ever take me seriously. I cleared the difference between us and leaped up into the air. I tackled the metapod. I might as well have tackled the tree. I bounced off and landed on my butt. "Uff, why do I feel like I did more damage to myself than to it?"
"It's using harden." Lin explained. "It's a technique that raises the defense. Just keep tackling it before it gets any harder."
"I can't wait until I learn some new attacks? These battles are getting repetitive." I ran into the metapod again. It was even less effective than before. "Gezz, no wonder everyone hates bug monsters."
I looked back at Lin. She was sitting on a grassy area eating some of her nasty berries. "What do you think you're doing? You're just going to sit there and let me do all the work?"
Lin looked at me innocently. "Just keep tackling it. A wild metapod doesn't know any attacks. Eventually it's got to give way."
I hoped it would be soon. I tackled and tackled and tackled. The metapod just felt harder and harder and harder.
"Hey, eevee, I've got great news!" I looked back at Lin. She had taken out one of her books again. "The metapod can't raise its defense any higher than it is right now."
Woopy! "Can't I use tail whip"
"Don't bother using tail whip though. It will just harden itself again."
This is going to be a long day.
"Who does that rocket think he is?" The Rocket mumbled to himself. The Rocket walked down the grey hall to the storage center. He had been made to look like a fool in front of all the others. The only consolation he could provide himself with was that at least he hadn't flinched at the older rocket's whip.
He took another glance at his watch. He wasn't late, but he quickened his pace anyway. It was his turn to watch the 'ever so deadly' Pokémon. Why did I have to speak out like that? he knew why though. The knowledge of what had happened to him had spread fast. It was hard to be demoted lower than grunt but he had managed it. He felt naked without his powerful poison Pokémon. Now, to be with his bug types again seemed more of a restriction of his potential than anything else.
He entered the storage room and received a reproving stare from the grunt on duty. "You're early."
I can't even overachieve right? "I guess I just walk too fast."
"A rocket should walk perfect, not too fast or slow."
Give me a break. The Rocket glanced around the room looking for the telltale signs of being a newbie. His eyes focused on a large and empty water bottle by the grunt. Bingo.
"Well if you want to use up all of your time I guess I could just go back and return later. I can't promise I'll be back in time though. After all, it's a long walk to the drinking fountains. I really need to take a nice long slurp, too. Hey do you know how those things work? It's all about the water pressure. Tons and tons of water pressure. It's in a big tank full of gallons of water that gush down into pipes under the earth. It passes through pumps which releases an explosion of liquid that drains into every house hold toilet, kitchen and drinking fountain. Then just the tiniest little twitch of your finger relieves the pipes of their burden and the water flows out into the open air."
"I HATE YOU!" The grunt bolted from the room.
"Not bad." The Rocket said. "Usually I don't even finish before they leave."
He took up the seat the other rocket had left. Now begins the boring part. He looked at his duty. He couldn't see it but it was in the large metal box in front of him. He could look through one of the air holes, but he wasn't ready to risk that yet.
"Why that Pokémon?" the Rocket wondered out loud. "It's not that rare. It's not that powerful. It's not even that tough looking."
But there was a reason, even though the Rocket didn't know it. What he did know was enough. Giovanni didn't make stupid moves. If this Pokémon was worth stealing from a prestigious gym then it must have a little something special.
The Rocket thought and thought but couldn't find a satisfactory answer. Finally he decided to risk a peek through an air hole. Maybe there would be something that he didn't see before.
He got up and walked towards the box. The Rocket took a quick look. He blinked then took another quick look. "It can't be!" he put his eye right up to the box and searched the interior of the box. "It's gone!"
"No!" the bug catcher's metapod fainted. "I can't believe that you beat my metapod. It was the best trained metapod possible!"
"Yeah, well too bad because my eevee is tougher than possible," Lin said.
"Heck, yeah!" I said. It took just a little bit of work to pick up the enthusiasm. That must have been the hundredth metapod today. The truth is I didn't think that I would ever find a Pokémon more annoying than caterpie. In fact I cursed the whole caterpie family line. If it wasn't the sticky stuff ruining my glossy coat, then it was punching a rock of a Pokémon. I almost ran out of the will to tackle, but Lin kept shoving some kind of nasty tasting berry in my mouth. I couldn't stand it, but it did keep me refreshed.
"The highest one right?" I turned to Lin. "Does that mean we're almost out of here?"
"I guess this forest doesn't have that many more challenges in store for us then." Lin said. "We mastered it in one day."
Has it really been one day? I thought. Wow, we've only spent one whole day in here. It feels like this had been a long week at the least.
"NO! No! AAHHHH! Curses! It's just not possible!" this bug catcher seemed to be taking his loss pretty hard. "How?! An eevee for heaven's sake! A pathetic eevee!"
Oh, you're toast, human. First, I should tear off his arm. No, I'll break his bones, or destroy future family… ah, that will work. I snuck up to his bag and ripped a whole in it. He seemed so disturbed over his loss that he didn't even see me. You'll be dropping this stuff all over the forest now.
"It's over! My career! My work! My life!" His face was planted to the floor, and he was pounding the ground with his fists.
Lin was looking at her metal heart when I got back to her. "Hmmm… it's getti-"
"There's no point in living anymore! Just take me now to the world of the dead!"
"Wow. I almost feel sorry we beat him," Lin said. "But it's getting late."
I looked up to the sky, but all I saw were leaves. However, it did feel like it was getting late. "So, are we heading back then?"
Lin didn't respond for a while, so I just listened to the wind blow through the tree canopy. The snapping twigs and cracking branches played the song of this old forest. And the crazy behind us provided the lyrics.
"I'm not good enough to live! I'm not worthy to take another breath of this air! I'd kill myself but I'm not even good enough for that!"
"I've got an idea," Lin said. "We've been here a while, and we should just about be out of the forest. I don't think this forest can offer us any more challenges. Let's go ahead and get out for good."
"You mean I can leave this place and never fight another caterpie again?" I said. "Count me in!"
Lin and Ricochet left the clearing, but someone was still there.
"Woe is me! How pitiful I am. I was to be looked on with distain, but now no one is even here to lend an ear to my sad story! How foolish I was to think that I could make it to Pewter town to face the gym leader. How vain was I to think that my one bug type could make it. Now my ignorance has been exposed me for the weakling I am. Behold, I'm not even a quarter of the way through the forest and I've already been forced to turn back."
"Is everyone in their group?" the administrator shouted. He looked over the crowd of black and red suited Rockets. "Remember, you should be in groups of three!"
There was some scrambling, and then everything settled down.
"Good!" The administrator said. He had some experience as a drill sargent for Lt. Surge. It gave him an ice cold authority over his troop even when his interior was boiling with fear. If Giovanni finds out before I have some good news to report…
"Let me repeat, we have a very dangerous and very valuable Pokémon on the loose. From what we can tell, it's in this forest. You have been assembled in groups of three. One of you can handle any trainer who stands in our way. The other of you will catch the Pokémon. The third will stand back. It is getting dark. You will be relatively unnoticed. Only the fanatical bug catchers out for weedle's will pose a threat to security. Still, I want you to go out in civilian clothing. Let's not take any risks here."
He motioned to a table in the midst of the crowd. "You get one package for every team. It contains everything you need including an antidote." The administrator paused. One grunt had raised his hand. Stuffing down his rage and impatience, with more ice he said, "Yes, it appears we have a question. What is it?"
"You've explained the roles of the first and second person on the team. Why do we need the third person?"
"Because, grunt," the administrator said, "the thirds' responsibility is to take the pokeballs off his team members' corpses if they don't get the antidote in time." The bustling noise of the crowd was snuffed out. "Any more questions? No? Then let's get going."
The grunts picked out their gear and started filing out of the gym into the thickening night. The administrator turned to the grunt behind him who had reported the missing beast. "You were a bug catcher, right?"
The Rocket smiled, "One of the fanatical ones. No one knows that forest at night better than me."
"Then you'll be traveling alone. This is your chance to redeem yourself. Don't disappoint me again."
"Don't worry. No one can beat me in my own forest. Just name the person that can."
"Lin, I've started to rethink my vote a little." It looked like she was too. Darkness was rapidly approaching, only made worse by the shield of leaves above us. "I'm thinking we should go back."
"I don't get it." Lin said. "We should have been out by now. The bug catchers go through this place twice every day."
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure their method for picking roads is better than a random guess. Face it, we are lost."
"Eevee, can you smell the way out?"
"What do I look like to you? Even if I could, my nose has been scarred for life because of you terrible rancid jacket."
"No, well I didn't think so."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Lin was walking a little bit faster now. She made a hideous growling sound in her throat as she scratched it through her checkered scarf. It was a struggle to keep up with her since she would make random jagged movements toward a certain path, then immediately change her mind, and then choose another.
"It's not like we have reason to panic or anything. The caterpie's and metapods will disappear now right? We might see some weedle's and kakunas, but I think we'll just ignore them, right. Yeah, we'll just ignore everything and walk straight towards Pewter town. That's what we'll do!"
I realized that Lin was going into panic mode. This was the same way she sounded right before Green beat her, right when she was at the end of her rope. It started to make me worry. Not for myself of course, just for her. That's just the kind of guy I am.
"Am I going to die?" I said. I remembered the bug catcher from the meadow. His screams crept back to my mind. "I'm a goner, aren't I?"
Lin gave a nervous laugh, something else that doesn't leave her lips right. "Don't worry, be happy. Besides, it doesn't matter if you or I get poisoned. Ha! Who cares? I've bought all the poison cure berries I could carry, right?"
Was she talking to me or to herself? I couldn't tell because I couldn't see her face. She kept a full pace ahead of me, now walking so fast I had to jog to keep up.
"All the trainers are gone now. No one will attack us. And besides, we have mastered this forest, right?"
"Pica!"
We froze. Standing directly in front of us was a small, yellow monster. It was just about my size, its ears making it look bigger than it really was. It stood on two feet like a human and had rosy cheeks like one two. Its tail looked as if it had been broken in several ways and run over.
I didn't understand exactly what kind of situation I was in until Lin said, "A pikachu! There are pikachus in this forest? Oh, crap!"
"Huh? That's usually my line." I said.
"Hi, fuzzy," the pikachu said. "Looks like you're a little lost and tired."
"Uh, yeah. Hey, you wouldn't mind showing us out, right?"
"Sure. I'll try to shed a little light on the subject."
I had just enough time to think, huh. He said that helpful phrase in a not so helpful way.
"PIKAAAA!" the monster lit up like a mini sun. Bolts of jagged energy danced off his cheeks and then pulsed out to me. Lin shouted something, but it was useless. The crackling energy was coming at me too spread out for me to do anything. I stood helplessly and let the energy wash over me. To my surprise it didn't hurt at all.
"What? What was…?" I tried to say because my mouth seemed to be frozen shut.
"Enjoy your stay in Viridian forest fuzz ball." The monster said. "You'll be here a very long time." It laughed and ran into the forest.
"Wha…" My mouth came unglued but still felt shaky. "What's happening to mmmm…"
"Paralyze condition," Lin's voice came. "The pikachu used the thunder wave technique to make stun your nervous system." This was the first time I heard Lin's voice this way. The unnatural sound and the mask of self-confidence that normally creaked out of her were drowned out by the clear ring for fear. "I only brought cures for poison. I don't have anything for paralysis."
I processed what Lin said. This had to be a joke. I jerkingly looked up into her face to make sure, but it was hidden from me by darkness. The last bit of light had slipped out of sight. Night had fallen in Viridian forest, and so had all my hope to get out.
"What happens now?"
The Rocket watched the group of rockets turn left, following the curving path. Fools. He thought. That path will only take them deeper into the forest but nowhere near their prey. This Pokémon will have gone into the most untouched place of the forest. But even if they had the brains to understand that, they still couldn't know where to go. No one knows this forest in the darkness like I do.
The Rocket turned down a small path hidden in the dark. He had only followed them this far to make sure they wouldn't follow him. Now that he knew there was no chance of that, nothing was stopping him from being the one to find the boss' Pokémon, and he was determined to do it on his own.
The Rocket didn't need a light; he knew exactly where he was. This path would lead him to an area relatively untouched by most bug catchers. In the day, it appeared unremarkable and it was way out of the way. It would lead to where the Pokémon was sure to go.
As he walked down the path for a time, he started to sense he was getting closer to a small field. Having walked this same path many times, he moved quickly, quietly, and even though he couldn't see, totally aware of what was going on around him. This was his forest after all. What could-
"Death!"
The cry made the Rocket's soul melt off his bones and puddle around his feet. He looked around franticly to identify the origin of this new threat.
"What a fool I was! Why, oh, why did I just sit here and anguish? Now my body will suffer the consequences of spending a solitary night in this forest of doom. Surely, a ravenous evil will make food of my flesh."
There appeared to be a delusional kid in this clearing. The forest was dark, and the Rocket didn't recognize the voice; He could tell, though, from a pathetic quaver in the sob of the stranded boy that it was some wannabe caterpie catcher. These disgusting little frauds just caught the same Pokémon over and over again. The Rocket despised them as did all the weedle catchers. Caterpie's were to be a starting base for bug catchers, not the end of the line. Some people just couldn't move on.
Ignoring the death throes ringing from the clearing, the Rocket strained his night senses and weighed his chances. Deciding that with the noise the fool was making and the veil of darkness hiding his dark apparel, it wouldn't be difficult to pass through undetected.
He directed himself towards the clearing, and in a few short steps he passed the unexpected trial. He laughed in his mind at the scare the fool had given him. I hope that's the last surprise I get tonight. The boy will probably be poisoned soon if he doesn't stop. Weedle's and kakunas in this part of the forest weren't used to a disturbance of the peace. If he kept up that much noise the weedle's would shut him up with their horns. Of course, I could call the police right now and tell them to pick him up but hey, I've got other things to do. And it's not like he deserves it. The Rocket continued into the dark until…
"An eevee!"
What?
"The weakest of all the furry Pokémon! The humiliation caused by losing to one so fluffy! Just as if this nasty normal type wasn't enough, it had to be a strangely dressed boy that backed him up! The winter outfit made me think that he was just full of hot air but no, no, it was I!"
"Well, that's worth an ambulance call." whispered the Rocket. "Looks like tonight will be my chance for redemption after all."
Lin yawned. "I have an idea."
I might have screamed but my body was going through another body spasm which kept it tight. Lin's ideas were doing us no good. Every one of them from the mold on the trees to the stares in the sky only seemed to make us more lost. I couldn't hear another idea.
"Let's try to sleep it off!" she said.
Great. Let's be sitting psyducks for some monster. No thank you.
Unfortunately I didn't have much of a choice. This paralyze condition made me helpless. Moving was such a pain that Lin just carried me in her arms. My last few fights hadn't gone well at all. The caterpie's and metapods we meet had become a whole new challenge now that I couldn't move correctly. I was getting beat so hard that… uh; I mean, Lin was getting needlessly scared and changed her strategy to taking me up in her arms and running. Luckily, caterpie's and metapods aren't that fast. Lin had previously given me some foul berries which kept me in fighting condition but I could see the desperation growing as she continually used them to keep me up. She was running out of berries and when she did I was out of luck.
Lin walked a bit more on the path, and then turned off into the trees. Responding to my silent question she said, "We'll go off the path. That way no trainer will stop us."
And more wild monsters will.
As we entered the thicker trees, it became clear to me that the Viridian forest on the path or even the meadow weren't the trip on the wild side I had thought they were. The path was quiet and peaceful. Off the path it was quiet by way of being super eerie. Although I would have sworn it was impossible a few moments ago, the nonexistent light dimmed. Even though I couldn't move my body, my spirit shivered with feaarr…rrosous desire to protect my cowardly trainer.
"This isn't so bad." Lin said. "Think of the great lesson we are learning. Ha! After this I'm sure we'll never make this same mistake."
We?
"Why, it's far better here than further in our careers to make our first mistakes. Imagine doing this on victory road. We'd be growlithe food. It's not like we can sleep in the middle of a cave full of dangerous Pokémon and tough trainers."
But in the middle of a forest it's OK.
"And paralyzing isn't the worst thing that could happen. There are status conditions much worse."
Like death?
Lin came to a halt, looked around and said, "This is the place." She set me down and started pulling out junk from her jacket. I couldn't get a good look at what she was doing because she carelessly placed me down in a position where I could only see her out of the corner of my eye. I started to move my head to her direction to see what she'd whip out this time. When I finally got over there though, she had already finished. A piece of cloth was hanging over a string attached from one tree to another. The four corners of it seemed to be nailed down, spreading it out in the air. In the middle of everything there was another piece of cloth. All looked as if it had been sewn together from old clothing.
"It's my tent and sleeping bag!" Lin said.
"It's a bunch of rags." I said.
"I made them myself."
"I see that."
"This is where we'll sleep tonight."
"Funny. I've grown past the point where my first reaction is to think that you are joking."
Lin swept me off my feet and took me into her mighty, two sided fortress. She selfishly went into the 'sleeping bag' and placed me on top of her belly.
"You have fur." She justified.
I had never slept with a human before. I had gotten used to it since then, but it was a bit awkward at first. I couldn't curl up in a ball like I normally do, or I would have fallen off Lin's stomach and onto the hard floor. Lin's stomach wasn't that big either so no matter how much I moved myself, part of me was being poked by her ribs or hips. Her oversized, puffed out jacket's ability to double as a pillow was symbolized by its color, crappy brown. Obviously, Lin had not thought this out all the way. There was no way I could sleep like this.
Lin could though. I felt her body relax and her ribs stopped jabbing up into me as often as they were. Well, she falls asleep easily. It's only been about two minutes.
Then I got very aware of how small it was in the tent. My senses seemed to tell me that the walls were closing in on me. The pitch black night showed no signs of retreating from its attack, slowly creeping in, as if it knew that I knew that it was there. It only crept slowly along until my terror grew to its awful peak. The two flap tent started whirling around me- no… wait. That was just Lin turning over in her sleep. Now a new kind of pressure built up on me. The one of Lin's bony body.
I tried to speak but all the air I could breathe had to go to oxygen. I may have wiggled, but in that moment, my body started to go into paralyzes again. I was as stuck as a mankey with his hand caught in a trap.
Lin! Listen to my mind. You're crushing me. Come on, you're supposed to be my trainer! Can't you feel my emotions or something? I'll give you a hint. I'm not happy, I'm not sad, and it rhymes with GET-THE-HECK-OFF-OF-ME!
Lin made a grunting sound.
Oh, what's that? I didn't understand you with the mankey accent.
Lin moved again and released me from my prison. Then she curled up in a ball.
I didn't like the cold ground but I decided to avoid further Lin contact for the time being. I curled up and… nothing. I couldn't sleep. I tried counting mareep. I tried singing a song. I thought of Lin, caterpies, boring brown box food, and other dumb stuff. I must have turned around several hundred times. Nothing.
"Dang. It's almost as if I can't sleep and be paralyzed at the same time."
Lin started to make noises, short and raspy sounding.
"Sure, laugh there in your nice thin sheeted- huh?"
A blade of moonlight seeped through the trees and slide onto the tent. In the pure light I saw Lin shivering under her blanket. The cold? No, she was sweating. At least that's what it looked like. Curled up and her hands were tugging at the scarf that covered her neck.
Ah! She must be too hot! Serves you right, wearing all those clothes and hogging all the blankets. Seriously. The only skin I can see is your face girl. I wouldn't be surprised if you were dehydrating in all that junk. How do you even sleep?
CRRRAACK! The sound jabbed through the quiet, unimpeded by the thick darkness that covered us. I heard crushing and snapping of leaves that sounded like braking bones and an echoing thud that like a grown of a dead man.
I don't know whether it was that or Lin's sudden jerk to the upright position that surprised me more, but, for once, I was glad I couldn't move or make a sound.
"What the dairy hecker was that?" Lin said.
"How am I supposed to know? You're supposed to be the expert! What's going to try to kill us this time?"
"Err…" Lin appeared to be in a deep meditation or maybe she wasn't all awake yet. "Maybe we should get going. I'm not sure what woke us up, but I doubt it was a caterpie."
Before I had time to make a negative comment, Lin packed the tent and blanket into her jacket. She took me up into her arms and raced off in no particular direction.
"I hope you run as fast as you pack, Lin!"
Oh, well. Thought the Rocket. He knew that it was a matter of time before the Pokémon gave itself away. Naturally, it would be running as fast as it could. It was only a matter of time before it hit something.
What had been a fast walk now turned into a jog. He knew he had time. The other rockets would be on the other side of the forest by now; no one would get there for at least an hour. Maybe even more if they didn't know the forest that well.
Although the tree-skape only allowed the smallest bit of light to revile the leafy forest ground, the Rocket moved through with ease. After all, he had grown up in this forest. Light or no light made little importance to him. While others would have their senses dampened by the dark, his came alive. This was his forest. This was his time. Nobody to stop him. Nobody even close to him.
"But what's this." Most of this part of the forest was untouched, but this part was broken in. it was as if a large Pokémon had been sleeping here. It couldn't have been the regulars though. "My prey?" the Rocket bent down and felt the floor. Through the leaves he felt holes. A tent had been here. "A trainer."
As he stood up, the Rockets eyes caught something in the narrow shaft of moon light. It was a long strand of black hair.
"Hello friend. Now who could you belong to?"
The Rocket felt his surroundings to figure out where they had gone. He was happy to find that it was straight into the path which his prey was headed.
"Lin," I said. "Why do I feel like we've gotten closer to what made that noise. That noise doesn't sound fun. That's the sound we don't want to hear. Lin, WHY ARE WE HEADED TOWARDS THE SOUND!"
"Shh." Was all Lin had to say.
Words that would have made my mother cry came to mind, but another spasm kept them from my mouth. I couldn't believe that I was still paralyzed. Doesn't this just wear off after a while or something? AAHHH! I hate pikachus.
Lin kept running through the dark, stumbling as she went. I guess I shouldn't have complained just yet though. With me in her front arms, it would be terrible if she hit a tree.
"Umf!" The air escaped out of me as Lin's body and the tree squeezed me in the middle. We all fell to the floor. Except the tree of course.
"Oh, great." I felt Lin scramble around. "All my berries fell all over the place."
I could only make gasping sounds but I'm sure Lin understood my message of deep sorrow for her loss.
"Here." Lin opened my mouth and through in a few berries. "These should help you if we run into any more problems. Chew fast now."
Ha! Run into problems. We've been doing that ever since we fought that stupid pikachu. What more could go wrong?
I heard a sound of someone clearing out their throat. I looked at Lin who was looking behind me. In one of my moments of fluid movements, I turned. A boy revealed himself. He was about Lin's age, with-
Wait! that's the member of Team Rocket we faught!
"Hello, miss. Can I help you with something? Are you lost?" He said.
"Uh, yeah." Said Lin.
The Rocket took a pokeball from his belt. "Good. Go weedle!"
Light from the pokeball energy briefly blinded me, and then took the form of what appeared to me a caterpie with a huge horn on the top of his head. Gee. I wonder if I can blame my standing still on the paralyze condition so nobody know that I'm afraaaaAHHH!" Lin picked me up by my tail and chucked me too the weedle.
"Go eevee!" she said.
I flew through the air storing energy for my future frustration attacks. I did manage to land a perfect hit though. The side of my body ran into the squishy body of the weedle.
"Hey, you can't do that!" said the boy. "Only bad guys are allowed to cheat!"
"Hey, I was only trying to put my Pokémon in battle." Lin edged out. "It's your fault for attacking me in the dark."
"I would rather walk in the future if you don't mind." I said.
"Would anyone listen to my opinion if I bothered saying it?" said the weedle.
"It doesn't matter, you'll be dead anyways." Said the Rocket. "Poison sting."
"Tackle, eevee!"
I got myself into position to attack. It was a pain to work through the paralysis. I realized soon that the paralysis wasn't my only problem. I couldn't even see my opponent. Even if my body could react quickly, my lack of vision made it impossible to attack. The disgusting bug monster might as well have been invisible. How can I get it to give itself away?
The answer came to me in form of sharp object to the side. "I wonder who that could be." I willed my body to the side, hoping my body would respond. Luckily I felt it move according to my wish and felt the weedle meet sweet justice.
"Nice strategy. You must have realized that weedle's can see in the dark," said the Rocket. "So you sacrificed the speed advantage of your eevee to overcome that disadvantage."
"Uh, yeah. Sure." Said Lin.
Right. It's totally not because I can't move that I'm standing here.
"All right weedle, get away as soon as possible after attacking."
"Just try your best, eevee."
"That's not very encouraging!" I said. I had no clue where that thing would come from. The front? The right? Or maybe right from behi-
"AHH!" I tried to turn around, but the spasm over took me and it was useless.
"Good job, weedle. He didn't even turn around that time."
"Eevee, keep turning so the weedle can't poke you with his horn in your-"
"Don't say it!"
I turned slowly in a circle. My nerves made me want to bust out running, but I couldn't move the right side of my body so I kept spinning. I just had to wait until the weedle spiked me. Within a few seconds it obliged me. Being ready this time, I lunged myself into the opposite direction of where I would go, into the pain. I was met with a satisfactory slam into a soft cushion. The weedle didn't get up.
"Ha! Lin!" I said. "This weedle makes a better pillow than you do."
"Return weedle." The Rocket said and then robbed me of my comfort. "It's just because you cheated."
"I couldn't see. Honest."
"Save it. I am going to save this for another chore, but something just became more important. Go kakuna!"
A flash of light showed me what suspiciously looked like a yellow metapod. Hm, I hope it's not another harden user. I might get bored into fainting.
"Don't bother with harden kakuna." Said the Rocket. "Just take it out with poison sting as soon as possible. It can't avoid being poisoned for too much longer."
I felt a large object in front of me and then a sharper and pointier object. "Ow, well, at least I know where you are."
"Just tackle it eevee."
"Yeah." I ran into it and it continued to poke me. Back and forth, over and over. It would get in a few more pokes than I would tackles on account of the paralysis condition. However it seemed like the outcome was still frustrating the Rocket.
"I don't get it. You should be poisoned by now. I don't have time to waste nor the hit points to spend on this. You should be dead by now."
"Maybe you should go back to the basics rocket." Lin said. "Even newbie's know you can't be poisoned, paralyzed, put to sleep, or burned if you have one of the previous conditions already. I guess you didn't realized that my eevee was paralyzed."
"It's what?"
"Maybe you should try and improve your night vision, rocket. It's kind of a shame really, after you've spent all your time in this forest and all."
"What are you trying to say? How do you know that?"
"Observation, rocket." Lin's voice got calmer, like she was bored. "You see, there is no way you could have gotten this far in the night unless you had previous knowledge of the forest which means you've spent quite some time here. Besides that, weedle's and kakunas are nocturnal Pokémon. Only a fanatical bug trainer would own one."
"Oh, is that all?"
"Yeah!" I said. "You tell him Lin. Wait a second. You mean you knew that I couldn't sleep like this?"
"I've got more," said Lin. "You don't waste time with string shot because you're impatient, wanting to finish this battle quick. You've got something else on your mind. You won't command harden to be used because you don't care whether or not your Pokémon faints."
"Oh, you're sooo good," the Rocket said. "How can I hide anything form you?"
"You come from a rich family," Lin said. "You got bored of that life and decided that such trappings were beneath you and would only drag you down. That's why you joined Team Rocket."
"Uhh… where did you come up with that crap?"
"I'm prepared, that's all." Lin made a growling sound then proceeded. "Part of my job is to read my opponents after all. I prepare the team for what awaits them."
"OK, this is ridiculous." The Rocket said. "I mean one: no way could you know about my past from what I've done. Two: you're way wrong. Three: prepared? Ha! Let's listen to one of my observations. You have a tired and paralyzed eevee. From that fool in the clearing I can tell that you've been in this forest a long time. The only way you could do that is if you had berries. If you've been fighting all day, then I'm sure you have gotten rid of most of them. You're eevee is too weak to perform too many more tackle attacks. You probably brought so many berries that you didn't bring any paralyze cures. You didn't come prepared so shut up about your observations."
"He's got a point, Lin." I said.
"So do I." I felt the kakunas poison pint sting into me. I tried to counter attack, but my body decided to take a lunch break.
"You know," I said. "Usually we just listen while they argue." My body came back from break and I managed to tackle my opponent. "Squish banana!"
"That's right Rocket," Lin continued. "I didn't bring any anti-paralyze berries. I made a mistake."
Gee, really? I continued fighting. Lin, I thought we were beyond the whole argue thing. Weren't we just going to focus on the battle? Then again, it's not like I really need your help at this point. The fight was pretty repetitious. It was clear that neither of us were going to be using any other moves.
"You're right to say I wasn't prepared. You're right to say I'm just full of crap. You saw right through me. You are the truly observant one." Lin's voice seemed to weaken as she talked. "You're right to think that I'm just a lying little girl."
"He's a girl?" the kakuna and Rocket whispered.
"I am just human after all. I am entitled to my fair share of mistakes. I am not perfect. But," A quick change shot through Lin's voice. The weakness disappeared and the confidence was so sharp that the Rocket retreated a step. "I am growing. I am learning. I am prepared in my own way. I am distracting you from this fight! Now eevee!"
"Yes ma'am." I preformed my tackle attack on the kakuna, pushing it off balance and knocking it into the floor. Permanently.
"What?" said the Rocket. "Wait, what just happened?"
"Keep your head in the game rocket." Lin said. Her voice sounded dead peaceful, but I couldn't believe that it would be after such a close battle. I glanced back at her face. It was a perfect reflection of her voice. "If you had, you would have seen that it was impossible to win with your strategy."
"What do you mean? Your eevee was hit a thousand times and paralyzed. It's tired. How did it just win?"
"Let me explain some of the basics rocket." I might have interrupted Lin here to point out that we didn't need to teach the Rocket anything but my body was still trying stop my lips from moving. "No one can be ready for everything. Eventually you'll run into a few surprises. I can't prepare my team for those times, but I will against as many as I can."
Lin looked right at me and said, "Eevee has been fighting metapods all day, he didn't need my help. He was prepared to fight your strategy."
I felt pride flow into me. Yes, that's right.
"Let me make a suggestion for next time," said Lin. "If you ever find yourself in a situation like this again, try hardening first until your opponent runs out of stamina. Then use a weak move like poison point to take him down while he destroys himself by struggling."
CRAAACK! Lin's speech was cut short by a horrible cracking sound. Somewhere nearby, I heard the sound of feet pounding towards me. "What in-"
"Hey!" Lin shouted. "What are you doing? I haven't finished lecturing you yet! Coward!"
The Rocket had recalled his Pokémon and run off. "This is just an effective strategy, oh Miss Observant!"
"Oh, yeah?" I wanted to tell Lin not to shout so loud because I could hardly hear the large creature running our way. "Well, just go back and tell that other rocket we beat that you can both come back anytime!" Lin finally looked at the direction of the sound. "Now what's that?"
The sound gladly obliged her by bursting out into our sight. It was a monster that I'd never seen before. It was bigger than me by a few feet, but that was probably do to the spiky ears. Its muscles were polished rock that stood out in the rough wood that surrounded us. It was all green I suppose, hard to tell with the light. It kind of meshed into the night and at the same time glowed in the light like some beautiful paradox. Oh yeah, it had a freaking huge horn on its head.
"A nidorino?" Lin said. From Lin's voice I could tell that this wasn't one of those things she'd prepared me for. "What's that doing way over here?"
The nidorino lowered its head, pointing its horn in my direction. "Not the time to be asking questions Lin!" The nidorino charged.
"Eevee, roll right." I tried, but the combination paralysis held me in place. The nidorino charged faster at me and all I could do was watch. Then-
The nidorino broke off to my right. As it did I felt myself get sprayed by a cool liquid of some sort. "What? Hey, did you just spit at me?"
I turned around to look at the nidorino. It had gone a ways behind me and turned to face me. It looked at me. That's it. In dead silence we just stared at each other.
"What just happened?" Lin said.
"You know, your comments lately haven't really helped my confidence in you grow," I said.
The nidorino put down his head and started to paw the ground. "Eevee, he's coming again! Get ready to tackle him!"
"Wow. What a great observer you are. Maybe we should call that rocket back."
The nidorino charged again, even faster this time. I swore that it was the paralyses this time. It definitely wasn't fear that made we stand like a stantler in the headlights. To my surprise, my silent prayers were answered and the monsters passed, now behind me. I felt a spraying again.
"Eevee, I'm not sure what it's trying to do but you need to tackle this time."
That surprised me. Lin almost always knew what attack the other monsters were using. I might have always complained about her yelling out usless information, but now I realized just how much Lin knew about the world. It just took this sharp contrast to see it.
"Eevee?" said Lin.
I heard the nidorino pawed the ground again. I've never been an expert on psycho monster behavior, but I didn't think my pointy head friend was going to get cold feet this time around.
"Lin, help me!"
"We've got to switch things up!"
"What?"
I managed to turn my head around. The nidorino stopped pawing and lowered its horn right at me. Through the darkness I thought I saw the horn twist to life. A whirling sound filled my already crowded mind.
"Lin! Lin! Help me!"
"Eevee, push the dirt up with your back legs." Lin's voice came clearly to my mind. It cut through the chaos.
"I can't move!"
A scream came from the monster as it started to charge at me. As I watched it coming closer, I threw my trust into Lin's words. An idea flushed into my mind. A horn filled my view and a whirl in my ears. No choice but to fall on my sword. Divinity graced me with enough movement. I rocked back a little, my feet were positioned underneath my body. I flung myself to the ground and pushed my back legs up into the air, pulling dirt with them.
When I first felt contact with the monster, I thought I was dead. The wind got knocked out of me and I was thrust to the ground. However my heart leapt when I saw the monster go flying over my head. It landed a few yards away from me.
"Sand attack." Said Lin. "Your first one and it was spot on."
Lin's statement rang a bell. I remembered that the pidgey I fought ages ago. Somehow, I had learned to perform the same attack by using my feet instead of wings to blind my opponent.
The nidorino wasn't close to being done yet. It crawled back to its feet and looked me straight in the eyes. Then it spoke. "Where is my home?"
"Ember!"
I was about to tell Lin that I didn't know that attack, but my mind worked faster than my mouth for once. Wait, that voice sounded too feminine to be Lin's.
From the tree line, a flame crept out and bathed nidorino in its waves. Nidorino screamed and looked to the source. I spotted it too. It came from a small reddish monster that stood on all fours like me. I would have sworn it was an eevee but not all of it fit. Its mouth, from which the flame came, was larger than mine, and this monster seemed to have just a bit more muscle than fur.
I heard more shouts of ember and I realized that these monsters had surrounded the nidorino, each attacking it with their flames. The nidorino looked as though it wanted to escape, but no matter where it turned it was met by the flames.
I saw one source of the shouts, a woman stepped from the trees wearing blue clothing and a bright piece of metal that reflected moon and fire light in my eyes. Beside her was a larger version of the monsters that were now attacking the nidorino.
"Arcanine!" she said. "Flame thrower!"
Unlike the fire of the smaller monsters which almost seemed gentle comparatively, the flames that left this arcanine were anything but soft. A solid stream of bright flame lit up the forest as noon day, and nailed the nidorino in the face. If it screamed, I didn't hear it.
A flash of pokeball light briefly accompanied the other new sources of light and seemed to extinguish them. The sudden change from day to night blinded me, but I could still hear the pokeball trying to contain the struggling nidorino. In a few seconds the sound died.
Lin's arms wrapping around me surprised me at first, but I found them to be a perfect place to rest. Lin walked over to the police woman and the large monster at her side.
"Hm, you got really lucky kid." The police officer said. "You couldn't have evaded that horn drill attack forever, especially against such a powerful nidorino. If we hadn't gotten here when we did, nidorino would have taken out your eevee then gored you. I wouldn't have tried to fight this thing on my own."
"I wasn't on my own." Lin's arms gripped me a little tighter. "I had the support of my friend, and my experience the entire time."
I couldn't tell if the police woman was impressed at Lin's bravery or astonished at her stupidity. "You've got nerve boy. You took on the Viridian forest at night, defeated every single trainer from both cities about this place without leaving the forest even once. You even fought against a high ranking gym's stolen Pokémon. All with a paralyzed eevee."
"Am I in trouble officer?" Lin asked innocently in her gravelly voice which made it sound very non-innocent.
"No child, but we will be keeping an eye on your career with great interest."
"Sir!" another police man interrupted. "What are we going to do with these two?"
"Oh, the humiliation! Oh, the agony of it all!"
I looked over to see the man we had defeated earlier today. At least I knew how they found us.
"All right boys, let's get back." The group started heading away on a path through the trees. Lin and I followed.
"What a strange Pokémon." Lin said.
Maybe I thought. The only words the nidorino had said stayed in my mind. I looked around Viridian forest. The thousands of ancient trees lifted their long branches longingly into the eternal sky. The flowing silence was only broken by the sounds of the group's footsteps as we walked underneath the giant roof of small leaves. Where was my home in such a place as this? Maybe that monster and I had more in common than I would have thought.
Calmly seeping through the forest leaves, a small bit of pure sun light showed me a different side of the forest I was in. I realized that the night in Viridian forest was ending.
