Shedding Skins

Chapter Two

Training Hurts


"Come on!" I shouted, losing my temper. I knew I shouldn't be getting angry but I did anyway. I had been trying to get my Chikorita to obey commands. Obviously, it wasn't going too well.

I neglected to mention earlier that I'm from Ecruteak. From Ecruteak, I made the half an hour walk to route thirty-seven. I was at the edge of route thirty-seven, picking out the young, weak Ledyba and occasionally a Spinarak for my Chikorita to battle and trying to avoid the likes of Growlithe, Stantler and Pidgeotto.

My Chikorita was mostly taking down Ledyba by tackling and headbutting them. I had found TM 02 - headbutt - lying in the grass and taught it to my Chikorita. It had no trouble taking out the smaller, weaker Pokemon but it wasn't listening to me, it was just fighting the way it saw fit. It had learned that "Hey," meant I wanted it's attention and it knew what "Here," meant, although it would only occasionally respond to that command.

I tried to get it to headbutt some Pokemon out of the surrounding trees but it didn't know what "Headbutt," meant. Bullying the Ledyba into submission was getting too easy for my Chikorita, so I took it upon myself to try and get a stronger Pokemon out of a tree for my Chikorita to battle. I really didn't think this idea through as well as I should have.

I walked up to a tree, leaving my Chikorita to abuse some Ledyba for the time being. I fought my way through some branches, earning myself various cuts and scrapes in the process, until I found the trunk of the tree. I brought my right foot back and swung it forward, kicking the tree as hard as I could. Kicking a solid pillar of wood seems like a pretty stupid idea in hindsight but it didn't seem stupid to me then. I barked out a curse at the new pain in my foot. At least the tree shook a little.

I then thought of a much smarter idea. I simply reached up with both hands, grabbed a branch in each hand and started shaking the tree. A clawed foot came out of nowhere and raked across my face. I grunted and my hand shot to my now bleeding face.

I cursed again and looked up to see what had attacked me. I saw a small, brown bird that could have been a Spearow retreat to the safety of the upper branches. I also saw something much more alarming, however. A giant, blue, angry beetle was glaring at me. I turned and fought my way out of the tree and sprinted towards my Chikorita as fast as I possibly could. That was a bad move.

I had always been told that I needed a Pokemon for my protection if I wanted to walk through the tall grass. When it comes to protection, any starter Pokemon is useless against an angry Heracross.

Heracross are also a lot faster than you'd think. I felt it's fist hit me hard in the back as I was fleeing from it. I cried out in pain and fell on my face, wishing for the pain in my back to just go away. Obviously, it didn't. Instead, the Heracross followed through with a hammer fist to my upper arm while I was still on the ground. I growled to myself in an effort to avoid screaming.

I heard an inhuman screech and I knew immediately that it had came from my Chikorita. I somehow managed to force myself to my feet. Before I knew what I was doing, I was diving at the Heracross while it's back was turned. It fell onto it's face like I had done moments earlier, only I was actually latched onto it's back. I pulled my fist back and punched it in the back of the head with all my might.

Unfortunately, I had not taken into consideration the insect's exoskeleton. The exoskeleton that was there to protect it. The exoskeleton that felt like some form of metal alloy. I cursed under my breath and for the second time in about a minute, found myself in pain from hitting something.

The pause that I took after I punched the Heracross was all the time the beetle needed. It jerked it's body to the side, making me lose balance. I fell off the Heracross' back and landed on my injured arm. I quickly bit back a scream. The Heracross punched me in the ribs and then punched me in the stomach, sending me into a coughing fit. I actually brought up a little bit of blood. It then decided that I had been punished enough and stalked off back towards it's tree. That's about the time I learned that you just don't fuck with certain Pokemon.


After the beating I took from the Heracross, I just lay there, wishing for the pain to stop. My back, arm, stomach and ribs all hurt like hell. I had a bruise the size of a tennis ball on my arm and even bigger ones on my ribs and stomach. I couldn't twist around to see my back because it was too painful but I was fairly sure that had a similar bruise.

I found that my Chikorita had been knocked out by the Heracross after a not so successful attempt at fighting it. There was a bruise on my Chikorita's face, about the same size as the one on my arm. I lay there for nearly an hour before I stood up again. I was still sore but the pain had dulled considerably in that hour.

I returned my Chikorita to it's Pokeball and hobbled to the nearest Heracross-free tree. I sat against the trunk, under the shade of the branches and released my Chikorita. I managed to grab the pokeball before it rolled off somewhere. The plant-thing was still unconscious and fell onto it's side as soon as I released it. I felt good that the Chikorita had tried to protect me from the Heracross. It had failed but I suppose it's the thought that counts.

It was late afternoon but it was still warm and the sky was a strange shade of orange. I leaned back against the tree with my hands behind my head and noticed something out the corner of my eye.

There was a Pokemon about ten feet away from me. It had a long, coiled, mainly purple body - although it's underside was yellow - with a yellow band around it's neck, a yellow rattle on it's tail and yellow eyes with slit pupils. It was an Ekans. I found it strange because I knew they weren't usually found on route thirty-seven. Maybe it was an escaped or a released trainer Pokemon.

It's jaw was hanging open, with it's forked tongue flicking in and out of it's mouth every few seconds. We just sat there, staring at each other. I don't know how long that lasted but I know it was a long time. I wasn't particularly scared of it since - unlike the Heracross - I figured I could take it in a fight but I did find it intriguing. It wasn't attacking me or running away from me like every other wild Pokemon I had seen that day.

I had gotten up early that morning and I had not gotten much sleep the night before. It was late afternoon and I was already tired. The Ekans' stare was strangely relaxing and I found my eyes closing even though I didn't want them too.


When I woke back up it was night and the strange Ekans was nowhere to be seen. I wondered if it had used some move to put me to sleep or if I had fell asleep on my own. Either way I was thankful the thing didn't poison me while I was asleep. My Chikorita had also woken up, which was a plus.

The bruise on it's face was a lot smaller and it seemed to be acting fine. It was lying on it's side, facing away from the trunk of the tree.

"Hey, come here. We're going," I told it. It got up and waddled over, knowing what the words "Hey" and "Here" meant. I took out the phone I had bought earlier and checked the time. It was roughly half past nine. I stood up and winced as my bruises decided to remind me that they were still there. It was kind of cold so I took my jacket out of my bag and put it on. It didn't help very much.

I walked slowly through the grass, looking around for any signs of life. There were birds and insects in the trees but nothing seemed to be on the ground. I did find that a little strange. My Chikorita was trotting along beside me, apparently not sharing my feelings. It was as carefree and laid back as ever. I started to get nervous. I figured that there had to be a reason no Pokemon were on the ground.

I guessed that we were heading into the middle of route thirty-seven, where the stronger Pokemon were. I considered turning back but we were about half way through the route so we were about as close to the start of route thirty-six as we were to Ecruteak so there wasn't really any point in turning back. I found that my nerves were only getting worse.

That nervousness soon turned into dread and it wasn't long before I was looking all around us with each step. There was something that didn't seem at all right. I had the feeling that something was watching me but I just blamed it on me being paranoid.

That's when I felt something hit my foot. I gasped and flinched in surprise. It felt like a rope of some sort. I felt the rope move as my Chikorita walked into it. I tried to pull my foot away but it was stuck to the rope. I ripped my foot away and looked down at it. I saw a thin, fine, silver wire. I stared at in confusion for a fraction of a second before realization struck. I wasn't looking at a rope. I wasn't looking at a wire. I was looking at a web.

I looked down just in time to see a gigantic, horrifying, red spider jump up at me. Although I saw it time, I was incapable of reacting in time. It's fat, round body hit me in the stomach, right where the Heracross had hit me earlier. I screamed and fell onto my back. I waited for the thing to attack me but it didn't. Instead, I felt it's weight suddenly lifted from me.

My first thought was that I had been saved. Maybe by a ranger. Maybe by an experienced trainer with a really strong Pokemon that could protect me and my Chikorita. I hoped that maybe a bigger Pokemon had just eaten it as a snack. I didn't hear any other Pokemon, though. I hoped that it had maybe run away. A dozen other ideas filled my head in the short few seconds it took me to struggle to my hands and knees. It was none of those.

The grass was particularly tall around that area and I kept tripping over the web that I now found myself in. I stumbled through the grass, looking for the Ariados or my Chikorita. Unfortunately, I found my Chikorita first. What was left of the right side of it's face was covered in blood. It's right eye was missing and there was little to no skin left. Bones and the remains of muscles were the only things visible on the right side of it's face.

I screamed a scream of pure horror. I fell back after seeing it, leaning on my elbows and scrambling back to get away from that terrible thing that used to be my Pokemon. The red bug appeared out of nowhere and landed on top of me, pulling it's head back and readying itself to sink it's vicious fangs into me and poison me. My anger at the thing and my instinct to survive drowned out my fear.

I grabbed it's two front legs and threw it off of me. I heard a sharp cracking noise as I did so and felt something sticky and wet spill over my hand. The spider-thing let out an incomprehensible screech. I took no notice. I looked to my side to see it lying on it's back, helpless, all three legs flailing. Wait...three? I felt something in my hand. I looked down and saw what looked like a blue and yellow stick. A blue and yellow stick that was bleeding out one end. It then occurred to me that it was part of the Ariados' missing leg. I must have accidentally snapped it off when I threw it off me. That would explain the crack that I heard.

It was still lying on it's back, squirming and wriggling, belly and face exposed. I was still on the ground so I crawled over to it and raked the jagged end of it's snapped leg across it's disgusting face. It let out another of it's screeches. I hit it with it's own leg again, jagged end piercing it's skin and sending blood flying through the air. I hit it over and over and over again. I hit it so many times that I lost track of how many times I did so. It's face ended up resembling ground meat and it had stopped moving long before I had stopped hitting it.

So that's how I ended up covered in blood with a torn off Ariados leg clutched in my right hand, in front of the corpses of both said Ariados and my Chikorita after my first long, painful day of training.