WHIZZBANG!
Their noggins clashed. Both Vandalgeist and Trenton fell onto their backs. The hoverboarder rubbed her head, moaning. "Ow..." Trenton murmured, rubbing his head as he sat up. That had not been fun at all.
"Watch where you're standing!" Vandalgeist roared angrily. "We could have been seriously injured! Move out of the way next time."
"..." Trenton was left speechless by this girl blaming himfor the collision. "Well you should be paying attention to what's in front of you!" he shouted, folding his arms over his chest in anger.
"Oh, really? Not blaming yourself at all for this, are you?"
"It's partly my fault, but it's also your fault!" He glared at the girl.
Vandalgeist returned the glare, for a moment. "True enough." She stood up and grabbed her hoverboard, dusting herself off with her free hand. "Good job taking responsibility for it. I guess this is my turn to introduce myself to you. I'm Vandalgeist, nice to meet you." Although judging by her tone of voice, she didn't really care.
He nodded as he stood up and brushed himself off as well. "I'm Trenton, but you can just call me 'Trent,' if you want." He shrugged and tilted his head. "Are you sureit's nice to meet me? You don't sound very pleased with it." He would have said her name, but he was afraid he'd mess up the pronunciation.
She would have come up with a snappy comeback ("this is just how I sound!"), but decided against it. "Yeah, you're right. We just met in a crappy way, and now I have a headache," she admitted.
"I also have a headache," he agreed, returning the smile.
"It's kind of a shame. So let's get off on the right foot, a'ight?" Vandalgeist managed a smile.
"It's probably a good idea to get off on the right foot..." Oh man, now he didn't have anything to say! Wait, yes he did. "Hey, do you have any Pokemon!" It wasn't really a shout, more of an excited question. Trenton was always excited to meet new Pokemon.
Vandalgeist flinched. "Yyyyeah, I do," she said. "You must really like Pokemon. I could show you if you want." She stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out a black-and-yellow Ultra Ball.
"That looks cool, man." Trenton had never before seen an ULTRA Ball.
"This is the high-quality stuff. You use it to catch high-quality 'mons." She revealed a second Poke Ball from her other pocket. It was of the standard variety. "Aaand I have this."
"Sweetness! I have SIXPokemon, man. But they're all in standard balls so I guess they're standard quality?" He'd never heard about the high-quality Pokeball thing.
"I take it you want a battle?"
"Oh yes."
"Of course! My standard-quality guy goes out first." She opened that bad boy up. From the regular Poke Ball came...a Machop! The Machop landed delicately on the sand and started to flex them muscles. "This is Machi," she introduced.
"All right, cool. Let's see here..." Trenton looked at each of his Pokeballs, then back at the Machop. "I guess..." He flicked open one of the Pokeballs and out popped a Scyther. "Constantine will be a good choice here."
Holy-!A Scyther! Those things were hardcore. Scyther was bug- and flying-type, and it had a clear advantage against the fighting-type Machi. She was quite clearly in trouble. "Get ready for battle," Vandalgeist warned Machi, who stopped flexing and began getting really pumped. "Throw some rocks or something! It's flying-type, right?"
"Muh?" Machi looked at her strangely.
"Look under the sand?" Machi started digging through the sand with her meaty hands.
"...Scy?" Constantine had no idea what his opponent was doing, but he was finding it kind of funny the way she was digging into the sand.
"Don't just look at her!" Trenton said exasperatedly, having thought that the Scyther would know what to do on his own. "Use...Slash, I guess!" He said, and the Scyther took off at the Machop, swinging one of his arm blades at it when he got close enough.
"Stop digging! And, uh, Cross Chop!" Vandalgeist said hastily. She had meant for Cross Chop to act as an awesome, all-offense guard of sorts. Machi would break that blade right in half! Instead, Machi's choppers smashed painfully against the sharp blade, making it kind of a sucky guard. They were caught in a pushing match.
"Good job." Trenton praised his Scyther. Sure the guard had sortof worked in the sense that it had hurt Constantine a bit, but it had mostly hurt Machi, so Trenton considered it a great success!
Och. Bad move, but whatever. "Get some Revenge!" Heh heh. Revenge. It was a word, as well as a move. Not knowing exactly where to exert this revenge building up in her fist, Machi attempted to shatter Constantine's blade-arm-thing. Her fist started glowing with black flames, she pulled it back, and she gritted those teeth...!
"Agility, quick!" Trenton commanded, and the Scyther glowed a kind of Psychedelic pink as he sped up. Alas, it wasn't fast enough, and the Scyther took a blow to the arm-blade-thing! A few cracks appeared in the middle of it.
Machi winced, hissed, and wiggled her hand around to dull the pain. The strange black fire started to dissipate. "Don't...don't give up," Vandalgeist insisted. "Incinerate that bad boy!" Again, Machi didn't know where to aim since that Scyther was so fast, so she just aimed any old place. The Machop suddenly gained fire breath and huffed a few flames at where she kind of figuredConstantine was. Turns out she guessed right.
"Scy!" The Scyther called out in pain, as the flamed whisked over his back. It wouldn't have hurt asmuch if it wasn't for Fire's ability to light bugs so easily. He had to do something else and quick, before he was outmatched by this Machop.
"Use...use...uh..." Vandalgeist took another thing out from her pocket: a scrap of paper labeled "MOVE LIST FOR MACHOP". She scanned the list, trying to look for anything that might be useful for this situation. Finally, she came to a good-sounding move. "Rock Slide!" she said, suddenly feeling more confident.
But again, Machi was a bit confused. There weren't any rocks around, after all. So she crouched down on the ground and started digging for rocks.
"Dangit! Isn't there a better way to use Rock Slide?" Although it was kind of what they deserved, for not practicing this stuff beforehand.
"Now's your chance, Constantine! Use Toxic, then come in with a X-Scissor attack!" Constantine was pleased with his trainer's choice and did as he asked, spitting off a purple ball of GOOat his enemy, then charged in after it, holding his arm blades in a dangerous X formation.
The big ball of goo landed on Machi's head, thoroughly poisoning her...and just when she'd found a good rock, too. Her skin started glowing a deep purple, to make it obvious that she was poisoned. As Constantine came in for the kill, Machi whacked Constantine with a rock.
CRACKALACK
That was the sound that came from the Scyther's head as it hit the rock then collapsed, fainted. Trenton frowned, having not expected to lose this battle. But there were still more Pokemon! He returned his Scyther then waited to see what happened to the Machop before making his next choice.
"Mah!" Machi said dozily, looking at the rock with a grin. That rock had given her hope. Its bludgeoning convinced her that she could carry on. So rather than collapse from the pain of poison, Machi told herself to hang in there.
'Good job, Machi!" Vandalgeist cheered. "Just don't faint!"
Now Vandalgeist was reallyputting on the pressure. Didn't she have, like, an Antidote or something? Because this Toxic stuff was really painful...
Vandalgeist seemed to ignore that. "Are you done battling? About ready to give up?" Vandalgeist said to Trenton with much overconfidence.
"Never," Trenton said, grabbing his next Pokeball. "Go, Caesar!" he said, and out came the grand Caesar the Cyndaquil.
"Quil?" it asked dumbly, looking over at Trenton, who pointed at the Machop.
"Go get 'er! Ember!" He shouted and the Cyndaquil did just that, shooting off an ember attack at the opposing Pokemon. Flecks of fire hovered through the air, nearing Machi.
"QUICK, DO-" Machi was hit square in the face, falling backward. She seemed to be knocked out. "-dge it." Vandalgeist looked down at her shoes. "This is bad news."
Well, actually, on second thought...it might have been good news. See, if that type advantaged Scyther lost to Machop, then logicallyher next Pokemon would win! It's not like she had a choice, anyway. She owned no more than two Pokemon.
"Return, Machi," she said with a groan, recalling the Pokemon. "And now, my high-quality 'mon Typhoon!" She opened her other Poke Ball and let loose a Tropius, a six-foot-tall leafy menace with a banana beard. Typhoon was kind of a small dragon, though, so the extent of his menacing-ness was questionable.
Vandalgeist flipped to the other side of her paper, "MOVE LIST FOR TROPIUS". She didn't need it right then, though; she already knew Tropius kind of well. " Use Gust to fling him in the air," she commanded, and Typhoon got right to work. His leaf-wings started to stir up a little storm, kicking up sand.
The Gust attack actually did lift Caesar into the air, but Trenton wasn't worried about the Cyndaquil. He was newly rested and would be able to win this battle! Especially since his enemy was essentially a giant leaf.
"Aerial Ace! Fly past and slash him with you fragile leaf-wing!" A risky move, but it would totally work. Typhoon flapped his wings a few times, then lifted up off the ground somewhat slowly. All of a sudden, he sped up, heading for Caesar.
"Now, Caesar, use your Swift attack but enhance it with a FLAMETHROWER!" This was Caesar's signature maneuver, something he and Trenton had spent hours working on. The porcupine-like thing spat out the stars of Swift as Typhoon neared him, then, right after shooting the stars, covered them in the fires of his Flamethrower attack.
BURN, BABY, BURN!
A dastardly mixture of flames and stars! Just after his Aerial Ace, a leafy slice across Caesar's side, they blazed through Typhoon's wing, causing him to fall dramatically back down onto the sand. A tear came to Vandalgeist's eye.
"We can...we can still do this," she told him. "Synthesis!" The slow process of regeneration began. Typhoon's wing began to glow green and heal itself.
This battle was turning out to be harder than Trenton had expected it to be. In fact, the young man had never came this close to losing before. Caesar had taken quite a bit of damage from the Aerial Ace and would be too tired out from the Fire Swift to use anything else, at least for a few minutes.
"Just..rest a minute, Caesar." Trenton said, unable to ask much else of the Pokemon.
Good. Now they were both resting. Perfect!
But that wasn't good enough for Vandalgeist. In order to win, you had to take initiative! If Typhoon didn't get in another attack before Caesar, could she still win? "Stop using Synthesis for now," Vandalgeist demanded. With a low groan, Typhoon halted the healing process, still unable to fly.
"Bulldoze him down!" she said with renewed vigor. A wave of sand began to rise in front of Typhoon and make its way toward Caesar, moving like a tidal wave..
"Caesar, Dig down," Trenton ordered and Caesar did as he was told; albeit a little slowly. He was almost in his hidey hole before the Bulldoze attack came crashing over the place he'd picked to hide. It tagged him on the back half and he squeaked, but still had more in him.
That move, in Vandalgeist's eyes, was a complete and utter failure. The Bulldozed mass of sand collapsed in a pitiful heap. She sighed.
"Right then. Come up now!" When he heard the order, Caesar popped up out of the ground, "And now use Ember again! More power this time!" With the order from his trainer, Caesar spat out more embers in the direction of Typhoon.
When the flames came for Typhoon, she got back into action. "Gust!" she said almost reflexively. With his one good wing, Typhoon gently fanned away a small percentage of the flames. The rest of them got caught all over his wings, practically disabling all of his future flying-type moves.
"Augh," Vandalgeist groaned. "Synthesis, but make it quick!" But to heal all of the damage, he couldn't have possibly healed himself any quicker. He glowed green and sat there motionless. Wasn't there something she could do? At this rate, they were done for!
She just thought of the most great, yet most terrible and stupid solution. "Sunny Day first," she said. Typhoon sighed. Using his innate magical powers to change the weather, the Tropius cleared the clouds and let the light shine right down on them. This caused Synthesis to work faster, Caesar's fire-type moves to gain power, and Vandalgeist to shield her eyes.
Sunny Day, huh? Trenton frowned. Either Vandalgeist was really smart, or she was really dumb. Or a mix of the two. What does raising the sunlight do?the boy thought to himself as he shielded his eyes. It didn't do much other than increase the power of his Pokemon's flame attacks, right? Well, it was time to check on Caesar's condition after that righteous Gust
The Gust attack hadn't done much, only succeeding in hitting Caesar with a few of his own flames, which didn't hurt that much. Mostly because he was made of fire! Fire was seeming to be a very helpful thing in this battle, and he'd use it again as soon as he could.
But first, Trenton had to tell him what to do. It was still his turn, right? Right.
"Caesar, use...Flame...Wheel!" Trenton said eagerly, sticking a finger out at Typhoon. "Don't let him heal all the way up!" Caesar nodded affirmatively and leaned back onto his hind legs then jumped onto his bely, offering a loud shout of QUIL!as he did so, spitting off a wheel of flame that rolled toward the Tropius.
The pressure of Caesar's jump caused his stomach fire to fly through his mouth? Ew. Weird. The stomach-flames spun through the air and seemed to latch onto Typhoon's head and bananas, causing worse damage than a blow to the wings would have. The Tropius went sort of limp.
"Typhoon!" Seeing her Pokemon get defeated like this almost made Vandalgeist feel sick. There's got to be another move he can use right now,she told herself. "This is our other last chance! Solarbeam?" She knew Solarbeam was weak against fire-types, but she also knew it charged up faster in heavy sunlight, gathering its energy from solar power. So it would do, um, something, riiiiight?
Typhoon gathered all of his remaining strength into this one last move. He raised his charred head as far as it would go, opened his mouth wide, called on all the light of the heavens... A small orb of concentrated grass-type power appeared in his gaping dragon maw. Lame.It wasn't even a real beam.
He pitifully spat this energy ball at Caesar. It sort of tumbled through the air, slowly, like a bowling ball.
"Uh. Dodge it?" Trenton offered to Caesar, who stepped to the left of the slow moving ball, which continued to slowly move until it hit the water and created a big BOOM.
Had they done it!
Had Trent and Caesar reigned victoriously over Vandalgeist and her so called 'HIGH-QUALITY MON'!
Well, Typhoon thought so. He collapsed.
"...I guess that means I'm down. Return," Vandalgeist recalled Typhoon into his high-quality, black-and-yellow capsule. She walked over to Trenton and told him, "Good game. I actually kind of thought I would sweep you with my team of two guys... I mean, it was close, but you still won. Eh."
Ha! Victory! This was so much more satisfying than his last victory against the fisherman type dude. He didn't want to gloat though, besides, he'd almost lost at quite a few different points in that fight! It was time for congratulations and things. Maybe a cookie for Caesar. Did Trenton have a cookie?
...No. Maybe Vandal did? "That was a great fight! I had a lot of fun, and you really gave Caesar a run for his money." Trenton smiled widely as he spoke, "So, uh, you wouldn't happen to have a cookie, would you?"
"Cookie?"
You. Are. A freak.
"No, I don't. Go buy one somewhere."
Good grief. First he wins a match, then he expects her to pull out the snacks for him? She knew it. Everyone had a hidden motive and a greedy goal. Trenton had a reason for starting this fight...
"Oh, okay. I just wanted one for Caesar cuz this is his first major victory!" He smiled and knelt down then petted the Pokemon a few times before returning him to his ball. "I'll get one later, but thanks!"
Trying to cover his tracks, eh?
Well, no matter. Vandalgeist thought about ditching this weirdo for a moment, but decided there was a more interesting path to take. "So...I've taken a mission from the THA - Trainer's Help Agency - and apparently I'm a sucky Trainer. Do you wanna team up on it?"
THA? Trainer's Help Agency?
Mission? That sounded entertaining.
"Sure," Trenton said. "That sounds like a lot of fun, man."
It felt kind of strange to her, to actually get help from somebody who wanted to help. Not because of a traumatic past or anything - she was just kind of mean. "Okay," she said, taking a deep breath for some reason, "so I got this note, this is from the THA -" she handed him that fateful note, "- and I tried to go visit that North lady who sent it in. And she said, uh...yeah, go ahead. She really wants that ring back."
Trenton nodded as he scanned the note quickly, then looked back at Vandalgeist. "All right. We should be able to find this ring eventually. It's not like," as he spoke, he looked out at the sprawling city of Boatswain's Beach with its ten or twenty different amusement parks, then looked back at Vandal, "Yeah I was going to say the city isn't too big, but I don't like to lie."
"Well, it's gotta be somewhere around the beach-"
Then she realized it. This place was called Boatswain's Beach. In order to find the ring, they might have had to go running all around this whole city-sized beach. Too...much.
Her blank expression twisted into one of fear.
"Exactly! The whole city is technically a beach. So I think we should probably go to the Pokemon Center and heal up your 'Mons just in case we get into a fight!" Trent was thinking ahead, so as to ensure that in case they didget into a big fight, they were both ready to lump some heads.
Lumping heads is fun man.
"You know what? That...is a very good idea." Vandalgeist rediscovered her hoverboard and tucked it under her arm. "I'll avoid riding on this thing, to make sure you can keep up. Plus...I don't know where the Pokemon Center is."
"I know where the Pokemon Center is!" Trenton said, then began walking.
IMAGES OF LIFE
(supplemental images with no bearing on the story whatsoever. i'm sorry for how hard they are to access - this website doesn't make it easy. like, at all. it's a...really bad system, actually.
first, add img + (#) to the beginning, then a period, then imageshack, then add "png" to the end. the number to go after "img" will be inserted to the left of whatever picture i put up.)
(96) .us/img96/9919/request20 - North Winde opens the door
(684) .us/img684/3646/geist3 - Vandalgeist has a message
(824) .us/img824/6070/geist1 - Then Vandalgeist surfs away
(641) .us/img641/6903/request21 - eventually leading to a climactic battle which definitely went something like this