So here's the second chapter. It's better than the first chapter, and we even have a battle. Yay!
Remember, it's the second part of the first chapter, so make sure you read that first. But either way, enjoy this chapter of Legends of Existence!
Chapter 2: Fun at the Zoo: Part II
Soon enough, the next day had come. I was refreshed now after waking up to the pleasant sound of Pidgeys and other bird pokemon chirping, and not the constant repetition of "Totodile! Totodile! Totodile!" from, who else, Totodile. Now, the entire class was waiting for the boat to take us to the zoo (We were on Five Island, the zoo is on Seven Island). While I was waiting, Tobias decided to come up to me.
"Hey." he greeted.
"Hey." I greeted back. What exciting conversations we shared.
"So," he continued, "what pokemon did you choose to study? As for me, I chose some of the Bug types. Specifically Butterfree, Mothim, and Ninjask."
"Bug types?" I sneered. "While I agree Ninjask is extremely fast, almost all Bug types are weak. Are you just observing how pokemon with little strength can manage to survive?"
"You certainly have a thick skull, don't you? Just answer the question."
"Well anyway, I'm going to be looking at some of Johto's powerhouse pokemon: Skarmory, Heracross, and, my personal favorite, Tyranitar."
"Hmm… Heracross, huh? I thought you just said that all Bug types are weak."
"I said 'almost all.' Heracross, Scizor, and Yanmega are the only exceptions."
"Whatever you say…" his voice trailed off.
After that short bit of banter, the boat finally arrived. Everyone boarded it, and after a short roll call, we were off. Nothing important happened on the ride there, so after an uneventful half-hour, we had arrived.
"Ah, finally," I said, stretching out my stiff arms. "Now, to just finish this project and-"
"Hey there, Ressey!" shouted an annoying, squeaky voice behind me.
I sighed. "Hey, Sam."
Samantha was one of my childhood friends, along with Tobias. In truth, I never became friends with her myself; Tobias did, and eventually he started bringing her to hang out with us. Over time, I guess we had formed a friendly relationship, but she was, more often than not, more annoying than Totodile's constant yammering.
"So, what pokemon are you lookin' at today?"
"Must you call me 'Reesey'?"
"Of course! What else would I call you?
"Possibly, I dunno, Reese?"
"Nah, it's more fun this way," she giggled, then continued with "So answer my question already."
"Skarmory, Heracross, and Tyranitar. Happy?"
"Well you don't have to sound so grumpy about it. Anyway, I'm going to be looking at some of the baby pokemon, though I'm not sure which ones to choose."
"Tch, foolish." Was my arrogant response. "What's so special about them? They can't battle at all, why would you want to study them?"
She dropped her nice attitude and became serious. "Y'know, did it ever occur to you that there may be more to pokemon than battling and getting stronger?"
"Keep telling yourself that, Sam, keep telling yourself that." She grumbled, and we finally made it to the entrance of the zoo. I shoved the ten dollar admissions fee into the man's face, the one who collected the money, and began to climb up the stairs to the gate.
The zoo sat on top of a large cliff overlooking the vast ocean. The cliff was at least a good fifty feet above the ground, and below it lay a collection of sharp, jagged rocks, hungry for foolish people who were stupid enough to fall off the edge. Of course, the entire perimeter was guarded by a short guardrail, but it was probably too small to stop anybody from falling.
"That's safe," I said sarcastically, to nobody in particular. Leaving Sam behind, I dashed over to the large billboard-like sign labeled "Directory."
"Now, if there will be no further interruptions, I'm off." I scanned the sign for Fighting type section and walked of into the direction of it.
Who would've thought that Heracross and Skarmory could be so boring? I thought to myself.
An hour after we had arrived, I was now headed toward the Rock-type section for studying Tyranitar. During said hour, I had visited Heracross (who was actually in the Bug type section. Surprisingly, I didn't run into Tobias at all there) and Skarmory. The three Heracross they had on display had done nothing the entire time but eat tree sap and polish their horns. Two of them almost got into a fight when one pushed the other off a tree while it was eating, but the third stopped them from escalating any further than that by cutting some tree sap for the second Heracross
The Skarmory exhibit had been even more of a letdown. Half of them were sleeping the entire time, and the two that were not sleeping only flew around the whole time. One of them flew right over me when it suddenly decided that it had to take a crap right above me. I jumped out of the way just in time, but I still wanted to throttle that thing's neck just for attempting.
But now I was headed toward the one exhibit that I knew would not disappoint the Rock/Ground type section. And, of course, my beloved Tyranitar. On the way, I passed all the little Geodudes and Arons and Digletts, knowing their contempt for not being as strong as the mighty pokemon I was to behold. Eventually, I passed by a large, barren field with a few large rocks jutting out of the ground to fill the space. In the corner was a large cliff at least ten feet off the ground. On top of that cliff was a sleeping Rhydon. Littered all over the ground of the enclosed area were bunches of Golems, Lairons, Nosepass, a pair of Nidoking and Nidoqueen, Cubone, and way too many other Pokemon to list.
And that's when I saw it.
The famed Tyranitar, in the close corner of the large enclosure. Motionlessly it lay on the ground, breathing heavily. Even though it was doing nothing, it still managed to appear majestic, towering over the smaller, weaker pokemon with the same Rock type it had.
But why is it just lying there, I thought. Tyranitar, by nature, is a violent, powerful species. It can destroy mountains, for Christ's sake! Why would it just lay there?
While I was pondering this, I noticed a rather giant Golem inch close to the Tyranitar. Instead of pick a fight, though, it looked close to the ground where the Rock and Dark type was laying on top of, with a hungry look in its eye's. The Golem took a small step forward, but stopped dead in its tracks as the apparently pissed Tyranitar let out a low, yet ferocious "Tyyyyyyrrr…" Knowing better than to take a chance against one of the strongest non-legendary pokemon in existence, it stepped backward slowly and eventually walked away.
"That's strange," I wondered aloud. "Tyranitar usually want to challenge other pokemon to prove their strength. Yet that one just sat there." I noticed how it didn't seem to move from that spot at all, even after ten minutes of silent observation. During that time, other pokemon came close to the Armor pokemon and received the same reaction as the Golem did: a vicious growl that told them to get away from it without truly saying anything.
"I wonder if it could be… protecting something, maybe?"
"Aww, look," said the unmistakable voice of annoyance, "I think he actually has some brain cells in that inflated head of his."
"Hello, Sam," I breathed out, accompanied by an exasperated sigh. "What are you doing here, anyway?"
"The project, duh. Why else would I be here?"
"I thought you said you were researching the Baby pokemon, though."
"I am. I've got Cleffa and Igglybuff down, but when I heard there was a Pokemon Egg here, I thought it would be perfect for my report."
"An Egg… so that must be what it's trying to protect."
"Bingo."
"But why don't I see it? Shouldn't it have the egg close to it?"
"You know, we did an entire unit on this in Biology class. 'Unique Mating Patterns of Pokemon.' You don't remember any of it at all?"
"I had other things on my mind…" In truth, I was coming up with new training drills for Totodile while we did most of that unit. That's how I came up with the strength training exercise.
"Whatever. Anyway, Tyranitar bury their eggs underground. That one Tyranitar must be the mother, since it doesn't move from that spot and snarls at anybody who passes by." Just then, we noticed an Aggron walk up to the Tyranitar, clearly oblivious to any threat that the maternal rock behemoth might pose. Surprisingly, though, instead of threat the Aggron, the Tyranitar let it walk up to her; in fact, the Aggron laid down beside her, nuzzling his steel head against her's. Sam continued with: "You see that Aggron there? He's more than likely the father, since the mother clearly accepts him with her."
"Wow… you certainly know a lot about Pokemon mating."
"Well, I actually like to pay attention in class, unlike some people."
"Ha ha," I laughed sarcastically. I stayed for a few moments more, taking notes about the strange Tyranitar/Aggron pair, and closed my notebook, saying, "I should probably get going now. The project's over, and I promised Tobias I'd battle with him today."
" Okay, then. Have fun, Reesey!"
That name still annoys me to no end.
I navigated my way over to the Bug type section. Even though I hadn't run into him the last time I was there, I was confident that he would show up some way or another. All of the pokemon he was studying were Bug type, so I knew he would be here somewhere.
I ended up finding him near a densely forested area (artificial forest, of course), observing some Metapod and Kakuna.
"Tobias, you ready to battle?" I asked aloud. He whirled around and jumped slightly, taken by surprise by my challenge.
"You seem to be in a hurry," he stated bluntly. "Why do you want to battle so bad?"
"Because I've been looking for you for about half an hour." I actually found him within a matter of minutes. I only said that because I honestly had no real reason for wanting to battle so badly. Maybe I just wanted to feel the rush of being superior to my best friend by means of crushing him in battle. "Now can we begin already?"
"Dang, calm down, Reese. I accept, but we can't battle here. Near the battle simulators, they have a small field for pokemon battling. Let's go there."
"Sounds good." Finally, to have some fun today.
We walked through the zoo together until we reached the battlefields. There were ten total arenas in the park. Surprisingly, most of them were empty. We picked an arena towards the back; I stood on the side closest to the main zoo, while Tobias took the far side.
"Alright, let's start this," I began. "Simple one-on-one battle; first pokemon down loses. That okay with you?"
"We only have one pokemon each," he replied. "Those are the only rules we can use. Of course they're okay with me" I grumbled something about his sarcasm, then grabbed Totodile's pokeball from my belt.
"Let's go, Totodile! Destroy him!" I shouted as I launched the Ball into the air.
"Synth, prepare to battle!" was Tobias's battle cry. In two flashes of white light, both pokemon appeared on the field, one of which looked eager and ready to fight.
Surprisingly, that pokemon was Synth, Tobias's Turtwig.
Totodile groggily stood up from a nap as he emerged from his pokeball. He seemed unwilling to do anything at all. That is, until he turned around. He saw my face, and instantly his exhausted expression contorted into an angered glare. He turned back around, with a new will to fight, though it probably wasn't because he was in a battle.
"Synth, start it off with Razor Leaf!" came the opening command. The leaves on Synth's head spun, sending out a barrage of smaller leaves to attack Totodile.
"Totodile, dodge it. Then use Bite!" Totodile sluggishly jumped out of the way, with a few deep-cutting gashes from leaves that cut him when he didn't jump fast enough. He then ran up to Turtwig and snapped his jaws tightly against his head.
"Shake him off. Use Withdraw, Synth!" Synth drew his head into his tiny shell, simultaneously pushing Totodile off of his head.
"Now respond with your own Bite!" Synth's head, as quickly as it had retracted, re-emerged, snapping it's large mouth wildly. His jaws clamped onto Totodile's arm, receiving a yelp of pain.
"Ignore the pain, Totodile, Use Trash." With a cold, silent glare towards me, The small crocodile wildly flung its limbs about, throwing the Turtwig off his arm. The attack didn't stop there though, Totodile rapidly punched and kicked the turtle while it was down, so fast it seemed like it was all in one motion.
"Hang in there, Synth! Try to get in a Razor Leaf if you can!" When brief intervals of time opened between Totodile's rapid blows, Synth shot off a few sharp leaves from his head. Totodile was oblivious to the pain during his Trash attack though, and the hits continued.
Eventually, Totodile visibly grew exhausted and stopped attacking Synth. He wobbled back over to my side of the field, now feeling the sting of the Razor Leaf attacks.
"Okay, now finish him off with Ice Fang!" Totodile's teeth magically glazed themselves over with a layer of frost and ice. Unfortunately, as Totodile began to move, he stumbled slightly and clamped his jaws around his own arm, the same one Synth had bitten. It screamed out loud as a new wave of icy pain overwhelmed him.
"Damnit, he's confused," it finally occurred to me, as I remembered the side effect of the Thrash attack. "Get your head together, you useless alligator!"
"Hey, don't talk to your pokemon like that!" shouted Tobias from his side of the field. "It's just a friendly match; he's doing the best he can!"
"Shut up, Tobias! Let me worry about how to handle my pokemon!" He sighed angrily and grumbled something I couldn't hear.
"He can't attack, Synth. Use the opportunity to heal yourself with Synthesis!" The Turtwig stood up slowly, then began to glow a soft yellow-green color. Absorbing the light energy from the sun, the various bruises from the brutal Trash attack began to disappear. Synth looked completely recharged from the move.
"Great, now he's winning," I grumbled. "Attack, already! Ice Fang!" Totodile finally managed to move forward at a fast enough speed to clamp down on Synth with icy jaws before he could react.
By comparison, Totodile looked a lot worse off than Synth. Totodile's skin was layered with bruises and deep gashes from many Razor Leaf attacks. On his arm especially was a deep cut from Turtwig's earlier Bite attack. Blood would be flowing from it, if the blood were not frozen from the self-inflicted Ice Fang attack from when he was confused.
Synth, on the other hand, seemed mostly unharmed. There were a few leftover bruises left from Thrash, unhealed by his Synthesis tactic. The only other scar he bore was a thin layer of ice on his shell from another Ice Fang.
"Quick, use Absorb!" flew the command from Tobias.
"Get back here before it can hit you!" I shouted, but it was too late. A green aura formed around both Totodile and Synth. From Totodile, small green orbs of energy flew and were absorbed into Synth's body. While Totodile was clearly and utterly writhing in pain on the ground, Synth healed himself even more, melting the ice on his shell and making a few more bruises disappear.
"Rrrrrrggghh…" I growled. I couldn't let him win, I had to win. I had to be stronger, more powerful. "Water Gun, NOW!" Totodile crawled up on all four limbs and managed to open his mouth wide, letting loose a weak jet of water from it. But, blinded by his pain, the stream went wide, completely missing the target.
"Gah! We just practiced this yesterday, Totodile!" I was screaming now, blind with fury. "Is everything we trained for going to waste? You're useless!"
"Shut up, Reese! He's doing his best! You screaming at him won't help the situation at all!" Tobias was as pissed at me as I was at Totodile.
"Leave me alone! I'm fine! Totodile is the one that can't do anything!"
Tobias sighed, trying desperately to calm both himself and I down. "Fine. Synth, finish this fight with a Tackle."
The Turtwig ran full speed at Totodile and slammed into his side with all of his weight. Totodile was knocked forcefully onto his belly and, too exhausted to stand up, lay like a rag doll on the ground, panting so loud Tobias could hear his exhaustion from his side of the field.
I was stunned speechless. After all of our training, after all of our endeavors, Totodile still lost in an epic display of disgust. I heard Tobias say "Good job, Synth. You can rest, now," as he recalled him back into his pokeball and saw him walk over to me, hands clenching and unclenching into fists every few seconds.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" said Tobias, as he approached my position. "This was a friendly match, and all I heard you do was yell at Totodile and call him useless. What kind of trainer are you?"
"A good one," I began. "It's just the pokemon I have that's bad." I took the pokeball from my waist and recalled Totodile back into it, without another word.
"You…I… I-I can't believe you! You can't even be nice to your own pokemon!" He sighed, and I could almost see his anger flood out of his body. He turned around, allowing me to see his back. "Tell me something, Reese. You used to love pokemon. You took care of them, and fed them. You used to be my friend. Now, all you care about is power and strength. Pokemon aren't friends to you anymore, they're tools. What happened to the first Reese? What happened to my best friend?" The entire time he had an icy calm to his voice, a ferocious serenity, if you will.
"God, ever since that accident at the beach…"
At the mention of that phrase, I snapped. Not willing to let him utter another word, I grabbed his shoulder, spun him around, and dragged his face close to mine by his shirt collar.
"Don't you dare bring that up, Tobias," I said. It was more like a vicious whisper into his consciousness. "You know what happened there, you know why I don't want to talk about it. So don't think you can relate this battle to that." I pushed him as far away from me as I could, turned around and walked away.
The accident Tobias was referring to was… an event in my life. I don't want to bring up specifics, but it left both of my parents dead. Afterwards, my older sister was so depressed that she insisted on leaving the Sevii Islands. She left with her starter, a Chingling, and I haven't heard anything of her since. I was too young to leave, so my grandparents adopted me and I've lived with them ever since.
Fuming with rage, I stalked through the park. Other people could probably tell I was angry, since every person I passed obviously tried to keep their distance. At one point I passed Samantha, her hands full with papers from her project.
"Hey, Reese," she started to say. She then noticed my angered expression and said, "Oh, are you okay?"
"Don't talk to me right now." I stated bluntly, and continued walking.
"You shouldn't avoid your problems. Come on, talk to me." She was clearly just trying to be polite, but in my anger, I couldn't recognize it.
"Shut up!" I yelled, and ran off. I wasn't mad at her, I was at everything. I had lost the battle, and my best friend reminded me of the slaughter of my family. I couldn't take it, I needed to get away. I ran out from the entrance of the zoo and rested at the guardrail on the side of the cliff, panting heavily. I turned around, expecting to see Jessica behind me, but to my surprise, she hadn't followed me.
I brought down my breathing rate and just stood there gazing over the edge. I could see Six Island from where I was.
"Whose bright idea was it to build a zoo on top of a cliff, anyway?" I wondered aloud. It was a feeble attempt to get my own mind off the subject I couldn't stop thinking of, my parents' deaths. It didn't work. I took my Sharpedo-tooth necklace off my neck and held it in front of my face. "This is all I have left to remember you by." I said. I sighed and set it down on the ground. My hand moved to Totodile's pokeball on my belt.
"After everything we practiced for, you still couldn't win," I began. "Tch, what was he talking about, anyway?"
His words echoed in my head:
"You used to love pokemon. You took care of them… Now, all you care about is power and strength. Pokemon aren't friends to you anymore, they're tools."
I couldn't stop thinking about that, either. There was way too much on my mind right now, I just wanted to forget today even happened.
"Maybe… he has a point," I said. "But it's just training. How is that bad?" I set the pokeball on the ground and sat down, gazing over the ocean.
"What happened to that Reese? What happened to my best friend?"
What does he mean by that? I'm still his friend, aren't I?
"God, ever since that accident at the beach…"
I winced at the thought of it. They didn't deserve what happened to them, and apparently Tobias didn't want me to forget. But the way he said that, does he mean that there's some connection between my training methods and the accident?
I was about to get up, but when I reached my hand down to grab Totodile's Pokeball, I noticed that it wasn't there.
"Gah, where did it go?" I pointed my eyes forward to see the pokeball rolling down a slight slope toward the edge of the cliff. I had been too busy contemplating Tobias's words that I didn't notice.
"Shit, Totodile!" I screamed. I jumped up and ran toward the edge, where the Ball was moving precariously close to. But it was too late. At the moment I reached for it, it rolled underneath the guardrail and all the way off the edge. "NO!" I screamed again. Faster than I ever thought it was possible for me to move, I jumped over the guardrail with one hand grasped as tightly onto it as I could will it to. I shot my free arm down and grabbed the pokeball before it fell down any farther. I looked down and realized that I was suspended over the edge of the cliff, above the menacing, jagged rocks below.
"Urgh, this isn't good," I said, dangling over the edge of the cliff. "Alright, first you, Totodile." I threw the ball back onto safe land. The ball landed on its switch, causing Totodile to be released. He appeared to me, angry yet surprised at the situation. He was still covered with scratches and bruises on his skin.
"Oh thank God! Totodile, help me up!" I ordered. He grunted and grabbed the hand I used for throwing the ball up. He pulled, but was simply too weak to do anything. "Come on, I'm in a situation, damnit! Help me, already!" And what he did next took me completely by surprise.
He snidely grunted at me, then dropped my hand, allowing me to dangle there helplessly. "What are you doing, Totodile? Don't leave me here!" Without saying another word, he backed off, leaving my view. As he did, I could swear I saw a wicked smile in his jaws…
I grabbed the guardrail with my other hand, but they were both sweaty and slipping from the rail quickly. I scrambled to hoist myself up, but it was futile. In a desperate attempt to survive, I let go of the guardrail with one hand and grabbed the edge of the cliff, clawing and struggling to save myself.
Unfortunately, my second hand slipped off of the rail, causing me to involuntarily jerk my other hand back. With nothing to save myself, I fell, fell down to the cruel rocks below, to die.
They say when you are about to die, your entire life flashes before your eyes. Well, mine didn't. If someone were to die more slowly, say, from some sort of disease while they were lying on their deathbed, they may have enough time to see their life. I was killed too quickly for anything to flash before my eyes, save for the sharp boulders below. I helplessly fell below, screaming in utter terror.
I didn't land; I was impaled through the chest by a spiky boulder before I hit the ground. My death was too quick to feel pain; therefore, I painlessly blacked out as the life drained out my body.
And now, all that is left of me is my corpse.
Now is when I want you guys to review. Did you like the chapters? Or not? Either way, please review the story, I really want to know what you guys thought of it and what I could improve on.
On another note, I'd like to send my personal thanks to fellow author XoXfirebirdXoX. You helped me get the story started and gave me some much-needed inspiration to write. Thanks so much :)
If you hadn't read her story, you should. It's called Living In The Moment, and it's a great story. I'm sure she'd appreciate more reviews too.
Like I said, make sure you reviw if you have something to say about the story.
-Finalsmasher13