Chapter 3: Baby's First Boss Fight
"Blind 'em," Fang ordered, floating a few paces behind his toxic comrade.
"Already ahead of you," Crossbones replied as he inhaled deeply, expanding his plumpness more than I thought possible. "Hold your breath!"
As he exhaled, the Koffing sent forth a dark cloud of smoke at Sonchar and me, causing the two of us to cough as we shielded our eyes.
"Can't… breath…" Sonchar tried to get out as he wheezed.
Swish.
I felt a stinging slice across my left arm, followed by a few "heh heh's" from the Zubat. It seemed not having to rely on sight to get around made it easier for the bat to pinpoint us through the smoke.
"Ah!" Sonchar screamed as a he took a similar hit.
"Heh heh, you wimps ready to call it quits?" Fang taunted.
"N-no!" Sonchar answered. "You haven't beat us yet…"
"Good! Wouldn't be fun if you went down already, would it!" Gasping as another wing sliced my back, I caught myself on a knee.
These two were quite skilled in fighting dirty, so I would have to try to catch them off guard. I held still, listening to his wing movements. As I heard him flying toward Sonchar, I intercepted, jumping forth and catching the bat, pinning him to the ground.
"Eek!" the Zubat screeched, making me wince at the shrillness of its scream.
Though I held firm, I was knocked aside as Cross flung his body into me and released my hold on his comrade. As I rolled, I pushed myself back up to my feet. With the smoke starting to clear, I was able to catch the Koffing attempting to follow up. I sidestepped his tackle, and then delivered a blow to his back, knocking him onto the ground as he bounced away.
"Nice job, Kamon!" Sonchar cheered. In his excitement, he didn't see Fang latching onto his back, the bat sinking his teeth into his neck. "AAAGH!" I made a mad dash toward my companion to free him from Fang's clutches. However, once I got close to the two, the Zubat took notice, releasing his teeth from Sonchar and sending a shrill shriek in my direction.
Stumbling forward, I clutched my ears with my hands and fell to my knees. The high-pitched scream tore through my eardrums, making my head feel like it was going to explode. The room around me began to spin, causing me to shut my eyes as tightly as I could. Futilely, I tried shouting, breathing, banging my fists on the ground as hard as I could, anything to distract myself from the pressure that I felt building up in me. It was all I could do not to bash my own head into the ground to make the pain go away.
Through some miracle, the ringing began to fade, and the world around me slowly started to settle. Taking a breath, I saw Sonchar over me saying something I for the life of me could not make out. I could only guess he was trying to see if I was alright, and honestly, I wasn't even sure. Reaching out to an offered hand, I brought myself back up to my feet with Sonchar's help.
I caught a whiff of something burning and wondered if my sense of smell was also affected from that attack. That thought was immediately denied as I looked past Sonchar and saw poor, little Fang all but flopping on the ground as he desperately made his way to the pool of water.
"I-I didn't mean to!" Sonchar whimpered. "H-he was hurting you, s-so I-I had to stop him! I didn't mean to burn him that much!" So, he used a fire attack, it seemed? Part of me was impressed that he managed to bring our foe down so decisively. But even though the Zubat clearly deserved it, Sonchar still couldn't help but feel remorse for what he had done. I couldn't say I felt the same.
As I was about to attempt to soothe Sonchar and let him know he had done nothing wrong, I was blindsided by another tackle from Crossbones.
"Kamo-" Sonchar began to cry, but was silenced as a tar-like substance was splashed into his face. In a panic, the Chimchar rubbed his eyes, trying his best to stop the stinging sensation he was feeling.
"You're gonna pay for what you did to Fang!" Cross shouted in self-righteous fury. "Now, stay down, you little punk, and I'll make this quick, whoa-ho!"
"I've had enough of these scumbags!" I shouted internally, picking myself up and making one last charge at the Koffing. With all the force I had, I slammed my palm into the center of his back, sending him flying off into the side of one of the boulders sticking out of the pond. Slowly, the Koffing slid from where he was nearly stuck until he was floating over the top of the water.
"Owowow…"
As I went to retrieve the relic fragment, I was almost disappointed to hear the two muggers groaning in pain. Perhaps it was for the best, though, since it wouldn't be worth traumatizing Sonchar and having him fear me just to get back at those two worthless creatures.
Speaking of Sonchar, he was still sitting on the sand clutching his face from the smog attack. Placing a paw on his shoulder, I helped him up and gently guided him over to the water. I stopped myself when I remembered that water made him uncomfortable, but I had to do something to help him before he was permanently blinded.
"Please trust me," I pleaded, hoping Sonchar would not panic.
"It's OK, Kamon," Sonchar said. "I know I have to wash this out, don't I?"
I nodded, remembered he couldn't see me, and wanted to smack my own face. Instead, I slowly helped him down so he could bring some water to his face and wash the sludge from his eyes. I kept watch over the muggers, making sure they wouldn't try anything else while Sonchar was tending to himself.
"Eh heh…" Fang grunted as he and Cross made their way to the dry sand. "Yo-you punks got lucky…"
"Ho… ho… Yeah…" Koffing wheezed. "N-next time… we won't un… underestimate you…"
"You better watch your backs…"
"Because Team Skull always… always comes out on top, whoa ho ho!"
"See ya wimps later!"
If they had legs, the two of them would be limping away. Instead, they slowly drifted out of the cave, almost falling to the ground on multiple occasions. With a satisfied huff, I returned my attention to my companion, who managed to open his eyes and slowly regain his sight.
"We did it, huh?" he asked, perhaps in disbelief.
With a smirk, I held out my hand, showing him his relic fragment as proof of our victory.
"My relic…" Sonchar stopped as relieved tears now clouded his eyes. "Th-thank you!"
"Whoa!" I yelped as he suddenly wrapped his arms around me in gratitude. Unsure of what to do, I patted his back with one hand while I made sure not to drop the fragment in the other.
"Oh, sorry," Sonchar said, releasing his hold on me and looking awkwardly onto the ground. "Thank you. It really means a lot that you went through to help me here. Especially since I'm sure you got hurt too when we were fighting them."
He had nothing to thank me for. It was at least partially my fault that he was in this situation, so I owed it to him to see him through it. And besides, after he was there for me, all I could think was, "It was the least I could do."
Sonchar looked back up me, taking the relic fragment I held out to him. "We should get out of here. We've reached the end, so all we've gotta do now is head through that doorway we came in from."
Nodding in understanding, I turned to make my way toward the exit, ready to leave this place behind me.
"Wait," Sonchar halted. "Those guys were pretty banged up, huh? I think we should give them some time to get away before we head back."
As much as I wanted to leave, that was a good point. I certainly didn't feel like running into them again anytime soon.
"And um," Sonchar hesitated. "I know I asked before, but…"
I continued to give him my attention as he thought about what he was going to ask.
"You were talking to me, weren't you."
The way he said it made it sound like more of a confirmation than a question. But once again, I didn't know what he was talking about. I haven't said a single word other than my name. Unless... maybe I was saying something and didn't remember when Fang was using that Supersonic on me? No, that couldn't be it. Nothing like that happened the first time he asked me.
"So, uh, like before… I heard a voice say 'we can do this.' Just before we fought those two guys."
I recalled thinking that earlier.
"And the first time I thought I heard you, I think you were saying something like 'you have nothing to apologize for.'"
My eyes widened in recognition. I was thinking that before bringing him to the cave, but how did he hear it?
"There were a couple other things here and there, too. I thought I was just hearing voices, but after the last one, I knew that wasn't the case. After you said, something like, 'I'm sick of these scumbags,' I knew it wasn't just me going crazy."
It was actually 'I've had enough of' instead of 'I'm sick of,' but I felt this wasn't the time for semantics.
"So, what I don't get is why you acted so confused when I brought it up the first time? And now, too, I guess. You still look like you think I'm crazy or something…"
"No, that's not it!" I desperately wanted to say.
"Then, why did you act so confused?"
Wait, did he hear that? Did… did I have some sort of telepathy? Did that have something to do with my transformation into a Riolu? Or was it an ability I had while I was still a human? So many questions formed in my mind, and I had no way of getting any answers.
"If it was a secret, that's fine," Sonchar said, bringing me back from my thoughts. "I guess in the situation, you probably panicked and accidentally revealed that, huh? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this if you don't want me to."
Sonchar almost looked hurt at what he was inferring from my silence. I didn't want him to think that I was trying to keep something from him. "It's not that at all. I just wanted you to know what I was thinking at those moments," I said. "Please believe me."
"Wait, so… you-you don't realize when you're doing it, and it just… sort of happens?"
I nodded affirmatively.
"Wow…" Sonchar took a breath. I didn't know if he believed what I was telling him, but he did say that strange things have been happening. Hopefully, this wasn't out of the realm of possibility. "So, now that you know you can do this… do you think you can try to keep doing it?"
Thinking hard, I tried to capture whatever I was feeling at the times I "spoke" to him. As I said, during those times, I just really wanted him to know what I was unable to say. I wanted him to know that he had nothing to apologize for when he was breaking down from Fang and Crossbones humiliating him. I wanted to let him know that he and I were strong enough to face them and take back what they stole from him. And apparently, I really wanted to let him know what I thought of their stupid faces.
And at this moment, there was a lot more I wanted to say to him.
"Yes… I think I can."
Author's Notes
Here we have the first major fight in the story. I made Team Skull a little more dangerous than they usually are, since they're complete pushovers in the game. Their names are also a bit lame and sound like the cliché wannabe tough guys, but in fairness, that is kind of what they are. Anyway, I'm hoping I did OK when describing the events of the battle. We did have each of them using their first STAB moves, and Kamon learned that he now has a means of communication, so yay progress!
The next few chapters are going to contain a lot of dialogue and a little bit of world building, as the duo will start to get to know each other a little and Kamon will begin to learn about the world he fell into. I hope you're enjoying the story so far, and if you have any comments or criticisms, please feel free to share!
