~Igglybuff vs. Chatot~
Chapter Three: Foes
The next day, Igglybuff, Wooper, and Budew didn't see Chatot when they met up to play. "He doesn't want to play with us, no doubt," Igglybuff said coolly. "The only thing he wants to do is read his book."
Wooper and Budew said nothing.
So, after picking up Smoochum at her house, who was wearing a green hairbow this time, they went to their usual spot.
"So, what are we going to play today?" asked Smoochum.
"Let's play handball!" Wooper exclaimed, but he hastily added, "I'm with Budew this time!"
"OK!" Igglybuff agreed. "That means I'm with Smoochum."
As usual, he threw the ball to the middle of their playing field. "Ready... Set... GO!" And Wooper and Smoochum hastily dove for the ball again (well, at least now they're in different teams!).
Wooper got the ball. He threw it to Budew, who caught it and passed it back to Wooper who was running towards the other team's goal.
Suddenly Smoochum was in front of him and grabbed the ball from right under his nose.
"Hey!" Wooper cried out and ran after Smoochum. Smoochum, meanwhile, tossed the ball to Igglybuff, who bounced and sent the ball into Wooper's and Budew's goal.
"WHOOOO!" Smoochum cheered. "Way to go, Igglybuff! That's what I call not holding me back from excelling! See, I passed him the ball!"
"OK, OK," Wooper said, running over. "That's one point for you. But we're going to catch up, you can be sure of that!"
Igglybuff threw the ball to the middle again, and Smoochum got it. She wasted no time running towards Budew's and Wooper's goal, but then she saw that they were blocking her way. "Igglybuff!" she cried as she passed him the ball. Igglybuff caught it expertly and threw it at Wooper's and Budew's goal.
Only the ball didn't exactly go into it, it sailed over it instead! It missed the goal and straight into a tree. And it didn't come down.
"Oh great, Igglybuff!" shrilled Smoochum as she ran over. "Your ball's stuck!"
Igglybuff looked sheepish. "Uh... Whoopsy-daisy?" he chuckled meekly.
...
For the next few minutes or so, the four of them tried to get the ball down from the tree, but all their efforts were futile. The ball was stuck, and it seemed to be determined to stay stuck.
Igglybuff looked really sad. "My ball!" he groaned. "My lovely ball, and it was covered with pictures of Apples and Gummis. It's lost!"
"Don't give up yet, Igglybuff," said Wooper. "I'm going to try and climb the tree!"
He walked over to it and began to climb up, but in a matter of seconds he had slid down again. He tried again and again, but always got the same result. He looked balefully at his short arms. "Butterfingers!" he grumbled.
"Don't worry Igglybuff, I'll try and jump for your ball!" Smoochum said. She took Wooper's place but in a matter of minutes also admitted defeat - the ball was stuck too high up.
"Now what?" Budew wailed. "We can't play handball if we don't get it back."
"We can!" exclaimed Smoochum. "I've got a glittery pink ball we can use instead."
"But I've still got to get my ball back!" cried Igglybuff. "It's special." Then he added under his breath, "Maybe as special as that bookworm Chatot's Ancient Egyptian book is to him!"
Wooper, Smoochum, and Budew understood how he felt completely after seeing Chatot's reaction when Igglybuff had ripped his book.
"Hmm. Getting it would be easier if one of us could fly," said Budew. "If one of us had wings, he could just fly up and get it." Then he giggled when Wooper stared at him. "I'm just joking. None of us has wings, after all."
Suddenly Smoochum got an idea. "Maybe none of us can't fly," she said, "But I know someone who can!"
Igglybuff's eyes widened. "No. No. No. No. Please don't say...!"
"Of course you know what I'm thinking, Igglybuff," said Smoochum calmly. "Do you want to get your ball back or not?"
"Yeah, but-" protested Igglybuff.
"All right, I'll talk to him if you don't want to," Wooper said, frowning. "You don't have to do anything... Although I think you should talk to him sometime, Igglybuff, you haven't said sorry to him about accidentally ripping his book, have you?"
"No," snarled Igglybuff. "No way I'm apologizing to that moody, un-fun, bookworm of a Chatot. No way am I going to apologize to that foe."
Wooper, Smoochum, and Budew looked at one another. They all knew that if Igglybuff called someone his foe, it was a way for him of saying, "This is war."
⌣»̶✽«̶
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Mrs. Perap looked up from the pumpkin pie dough she was making. "Chatot, would you get the door, please?" she called.
Chatot, who was reading his bedraggled, taped-up and messy Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, shouted back, "OK Mom!" He set down his book and went to the front door. When he opened it, he was a bit surprised to see Wooper standing there.
"Oh. Hello," he said unenthusiastically. "It's you, Wooper." He looked around cautiously. "Where's Igglybuff?"
"Nowhere!" Wooper said cheerfully. "Igglybuff isn't with me. Actually, I was only going to ask you if you would help me. Hee-hee!"
"My help? With what?"
"Well you see," Wooper said, "My friends and I were playing handball, but then the ball bounced really high and got stuck in a tree! I was wondering if you would help me fly up and get it down."
"Hmm," Chatot thought for a second. Finally he said, "OK. I'll help you, Wooper."
"Brilliant!" said Wooper. "Come on, I'll show you where it is."
⌣»̶✽«̶
...
Banette and Skorupi are bullies. They have picked on Igglybuff's group more often than not, and so it was understandable if Smoochum, Budew, and even Wooper were afraid of them. Igglybuff was the only one who wasn't. By 'picking on Igglybuff's group', I meant scaring them and stealing their Gummis and challenging them to do stuff their parents not allowed them to do and calling them babies if they refused.
They have spent the last few days on 'expeditions' to a nearby forest called Murky Woods. It was rumoured to be the hiding place of a fierce monster, and Banette and Skorupi were determined to find that monster if it existed.
However, their expeditions were called to an end when they heard a single roar of the mysterious monster, and they decided that they'd had enough of expeditions to last them a whole year.
...
"What do we do now?" Skorupi grumbled. "I've had enough of expeditions, and picking on Igglybuff and his little friends are starting to get boring. They're such wimps!"
"Yeah, I know," yawned Banette. "Why don't you gimme a sec and I'll think of something." He sat back and his thought began to wander.
That was when Skorupi sat bolt upright. "Hey, do you see something?"
He pointed at something as Banette scooted over to look. Their wooden clubhouse - or villain headquarters as Wooper called it - stood in the middle of a small bog surrounded by gnarling trees. It was complete with a drawbridge they could lower to stretch across the bog, but it was a tight fit for the two of them. Skorupi had to shrink himself a little bit so Banette could sit next to him before the window.
Banette trained his eyes in the direction Skorupi was pointing. He saw Wooper walking with a Pokémon they have never seen before. He was a very colorful bird, and he was wearing a red-and-white polka-dotted bowtie. "New kid," said Skorupi.
Banette was silent for a moment. Then he and Skorupi exchanged meaningful looks. Suddenly smiles crept over their faces.
"Brilliant. At last we've got something to do," sneered Banette dangerously.
"Oh yeah! Kid-scaring time!" Skorupi whooped.
⌣»̶✽«̶
Wooper and Chatot were at the tree in no time flat. They only saw Smoochum and Budew, since Smoochum thought it would have been awkward if Igglybuff were there too.
"Where is it?" asked Chatot, and Wooper pointed up at a particular tree. "Oh, OK," said Chatot, and he easily flew up and took the ball down from the tree with him.
"There you go, Wooper," said Chatot as he landed elegantly this time. But he didn't know that Igglybuff was actually watching, hiding behind the clump of bushes behind him. Well, all of them including Wooper, Smoochum and Budew also didn't know that certain bullies were hiding behind another clump of bushes nearby!
"OK, Skorupi," said Banette. "It's almost time for action!"
Chatot reached out a wing to hand the ball over to Wooper, but exactly at that moment Banette and Skorupi suddenly emerged from the bushes behind them, waving their arms and making weird noises.
Wooper, Chatot, Smoochum, and Budew were surprised! They all jumped and shrieked, "Aaaarrghh!"
Chatot even accidentally let go of the ball, which began to bounce away and into a dark, dreary-looking cave.
Seeing that, Igglybuff sprang out of hiding. "My ball!" he cried.
Smoochum glared at Banette and Skorupi who were laughing their heads off. "It's you two!" she snapped indignantly. "Why, can't you even go through one day without pulling pranks on us?!" Banette and Skorupi took no notice of her, of course.
Chatot had now planted his wings on his hips. Igglybuff's sudden appearance had distracted him temporarily from the bullies' surprise.
"Squawk! Igglybuff!" he exclaimed. "Where did you spring from?!"
"Never mind that," snapped Igglybuff. "Look what you've done to my ball, Chatot! You shouldn't have let go of it. Now it's lost again!"
"What? YOUR ball?! I didn't even know it was YOUR ball! Squawk! And you say this is MY fault! Why, Igglybuff, you are such an ungrateful..."
"Never mind that," Igglybuff repeated. "I've got to go in there and get it!"
"Oh! But you can't go in there alone!" Budew cried out in fright. "I don't want to! It's very dark in there!"
"M-me too," Smoochum said meekly. "People say you can't even see your hand in front of your face in there!"
Igglybuff turned hopefully to Wooper. He nervously shuffled his feet. "Uh... I don't know... My mother told me to, you know, be home before dusk," he said meekly.
Banette and Skorupi laughed even harder. "Babies!" laughed Banette. He turned to Chatot. "What about you? Are you a wimpy baby, too?"
Chatot's face went red. "Of course not! Squawk!" he snapped angrily. "I'm not a baby! And I'm not a wimp! I'm-"
"Prove it, then," challenged Banette. "Go into the cave with Igglybuff if you're not a babyish wimp!"
Chatot stuck his beak into the air. "With pleasure!" Then he flew after Igglybuff.
"What are we going to do now?" Skorupi asked as Wooper, Smoochum and Budew stared after Igglybuff and Chatot.
Banette rubbed his hands together. "Let's go in there after 'em," he replied. "It's time for phase two of our kid-scaring plan!"