Author's note: Hey, guys!
To whoever's reading this, you're a star. I know this is one of my less popular fics, but it's very fun to write, so I plan to continue. Plus, it's a nice break from my other fics.
Anyway, on with the story! Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Best mistake of the day: 'he was back to fishing form.'
(I guess Pikachu's found a new career as a fisherman. Maybe they should make that an attraction in the PokéPark!)
Chapter Four: Game Plan
From his pokéball, Pikachu had heard the entire fight. Oh dear. It seemed that Piplup had tried his best, but had fallen a bit short.
Ah well. He'd just have to do his best to make up for it!
"Go, Pikachu!" Marcus called out.
His pokéball jolted, pulling him out and materialising him on the field. He looked around himself in intrigue. Wow, so this was what a gym looked like! Wait, why were there boulders around him? And why were they floating and glowing white?
Suddenly, they closed in on him at light speed and smashed into his body, exploding into dust on impact. He yelped in pain.
Owwww... Ow, ow, ow...
Somehow still standing, he panted, every inch of him of him stinging. Jeez, he was suddenly glad he wasn't weak to rock-type moves. That would've sucked.
He'd certainly never been hit by that move before.
Glancing across the field, he saw his opponent. A geodude, who already seemed to be panting slightly.
Huh. Maybe Piplup had done a number on him, after all! All he had to do was finish him off!
... Though he was pretty sure that geodude were ground-type and ground-types were immune to electricity. He'd learned that the hard way once, when he'd battled a wooper. The darn thing had fooled him by being part water-type!
Either way, this ruled out his Thundershock. So all he had left was...
"Use Feint!"
Dashing forwards on command, Pikachu rammed his body into the geodude.
Ow. Headbutting a rock was rather painful.
"Geodude, Rock Throw!" Roark called out.
Geodude punched the ground, causing rocks to fly up into the air. They plummeted back down towards Pikachu.
"Pikachu, dodge it!"
Well, here was where he shined! He may not have been very fast at running, but he was pretty darn good at dodging!
Swiftly jumping from side to side, he avoided each rock as they crashed into the ground around him, one after another.
"Now Feint again!"
Dashing forwards again, he rammed into Geodude. Ow. Glancing up at him, he noticed that his opponent had barely flinched from the attack.
Welp.
He heard Marcus growl behind him. "... Thundershock!"
He blinked. What? Thundershock? Really? Well, he supposed Marcus was the trainer...
Charging up electricity in his cheeks, he fired it towards Geodude. It certainly hit him, but it didn't look like it had done an ounce of damage. Geodude looked at him strangely.
"... You do know that Geodude's ground-type, right?" Roark asked. "Electric attacks won't work against him."
"I was just checking!" Marcus snapped.
"Hmph. Mind your tone. Geodude, Rock Throw!"
Once again, Geodude punched the ground, sending rocks into the air. As they fell back down, Pikachu prepared himself.
"Dodge it!"
No need to tell him twice! He jumped around the field, avoiding the rocks a second time.
"Now Feint!"
He rammed his head as hard as he could into Geodude. Owww... If he kept this up, he'd be seeing stars in no time.
Suddenly, Geodude crashed to the ground in front of him, groaning in pain.
"Geodude!" Roark called out in panic.
Wait, was he about to...?
"Feint!" Marcus screamed.
Dashing forwards again, he put all of his strength into his headbutt. The pain rang throughout his entire body, but it caused Geodude to roll backwards and hit the ground.
He'd... fainted?
... He'd fainted! Everything hurt, but he and Piplup had beaten the geodude! Together! He wanted to do a backflip and punch the sky to celebrate, but he was a bit too sore right now.
"Nicely done," Roark said, returning Geodude to his pokéball. He pressed a button to shrink it, then swapped it for another one. "But don't get too comfortable." He pressed a button to enlarge it, then threw it. "Onix, come out!"
There was a flash of white light. Once it cleared, a giant rock snake appeared before Pikachu, completely towering over him.
Oh dear.
... Wait, he was ground-type, too, wasn't he?
Ohhh dear.
"Pikachu, Feint!"
He ran forwards on Marcus' command, bracing his skull for impact. Slamming into the onix, he felt pain reverberate throughout his entire body.
Owww... He didn't think he could take much more of this.
"Onix, Screech!"
Bending down, Onix opened his mouth and let out an ear-piercing shriek. Pikachu cringed, suddenly feeling a lot more vulnerable.
"Feint!"
Again? He wasn't sure he could do it again.
Then again, he didn't have any other choice, did he? Dashing forwards, he rammed into the onix. He was going to have a monstrous bruise when he was done...
"Rock Throw!"
Onix swung his long tail, slamming it into the ground. Rocks flew high into the air, then immediately fell back down again.
"Dodge it!"
He... couldn't. He just couldn't. He tried, though. He jumped to the side, avoiding one rock, but wasn't fast enough to avoid the second. Or the five that followed.
After that, everything went black.
Sometime later, Pikachu felt refreshed. Wow, if only they'd had these 'pokémon centres' in the wild! They were so useful after a gruelling battle! All of his aches and pains had gone away and he was back to fighting form!
He wondered when they'd be taking the gym on again. After all, they needed to win Marcus that badge thing, right? And didn't Piplup say they needed eight of them? Would there be seven more gyms that were just as tough as Roark's?
That thought was both exciting and intimidating.
Suddenly, he felt himself being pulled from his pokéball. Materialising on the grass, he was surprised to see that Piplup had been called out, too.
"Alright, you two," Marcus said. He looked very irritated. "Go out and find me a grass-type. We're not going back to the gym until we get one on the team. Got it?"
Smiling, Pikachu nodded. Ah, so that was the plan, was it? Get a grass-type to make the battle easier!
Marcus pointed in a general direction. "Alright, go!"
Pikachu and Piplup ran off to find him a grass-type.
A while of searching later and Pikachu still hadn't found any grass-types. A few flying-types and bug-types, but those weren't what Marcus had asked for.
Eventually, he ran into Piplup, who had been searching elsewhere.
"Found anything?" Pikachu asked.
Piplup shook his head. "Nope," he replied. "Not a thing."
"Dang. Me neither."
Piplup heaved a sigh, then parted some tall grass to look inside it.
Pikachu did the same. He found nothing.
Shrugging, he turned to smile in Piplup's direction. "Oh, great job in the gym battle, by the way!"
Instead of looking at him, Piplup continued to rummage around in the grass. "Mmm. Thanks."
"You did really well."
"Hmm. You too."
"We'll get 'em next time, I'm sure!"
Piplup stopped what he was doing, heaving a sigh. After a moment, he turned to Pikachu.
"Look, I know I did awful, okay?"
Pikachu blinked. "Huh? No, that's not what I said."
Piplup sighed again, softer this time. "I know, but... well, I did awful. That geodude had a double weakness against me... plus, I had a same type attack bonus... and I still lost."
"... Well..."
"I've always been awful. The whole time I've been with Marcus, I don't think I've gotten any stronger."
"... Really?"
"Yeah." Piplup shrugged. "In theory, I should've destroyed that geodude... but I didn't. I couldn't."
"Well... that's okay!" Pikachu smiled. "Like I said, we'll get 'em next time!"
Piplup heaved another sigh. "... You just don't get it. I try, but it's never enough." He kicked the dirt beneath his feet. "It's frustrating."
"Well, you'll get better!"
"No, I won't." Piplup paused a moment. "... You remember the breeding centre I talked about?"
"Yeah?"
"The other piplup used to pick on me all the time for being weak."
Pikachu's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?"
"Yeah. They'd call me pathetic and stupid and... I didn't have any friends."
Pikachu's smile dipped. "No friends?"
Piplup shook his head. "Nope. Though I did have my breeder, Albert. He'd tell me all sorts of cool stories."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. Of when he used to be a trainer. He told me about all the places he'd been to, all the things he'd seen." Piplup's eyes shone with wonder. "I wanted that. To see the world. To go where he'd been. That's why I was really looking forward to getting a trainer. So I could travel, too!"
Pikachu perked up as he heard this. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!" Piplup paused. "Buuuut then I ended up with Marcus... and Marcus only really cares about the battling."
"Oh..."
Piplup shrugged. "But hey, at least I'm travelling, right?" He smiled. "It's better than nothing!"
Pikachu smiled back.
Gosh, Piplup could be so negative. It was nice that the penguin could find some good amongst the bad, but he wished his friend was happier.
Well, he'd just have to keep doing his best to make him happy!
"Ho there!" a voice suddenly called out. "You looking for something?"
Mildly surprised, Pikachu turned in the direction he'd heard the voice. Standing by a tree some distance away, he saw a budew smiling at him.
... Wait! A budew!
He beamed. Time to make good on that promise to himself!
He got on all fours, battle-ready. "Yeah and I just found it! I challenge you to a battle!"
The budew blinked. Then he smirked. "Ooh, is that so?"
Pikachu smirked back. "Yep... and, if I win, you let my trainer catch you. Deal?"
"Oh yeah? Hmm... well, I did always want a trainer..." The budew pondered it for a moment. "... You know what? Sure." He took on a battle stance. "Have at you!"
"And you!" Pikachu dashed forwards.
Piplup waddled as fast as his plump body could carry him over to where Marcus was waiting. As he approached, the boy looked down at him, wearing the same frown he always did.
"What?" he asked. "Did you find a grass-type?"
Piplup nodded enthusiastically.
Marcus' eyes widened in surprise. "You did?"
Piplup nodded again.
"Where?!"
Piplup pointed in the direction that Pikachu was currently fighting the budew. With any luck, he was winning. Though, knowing the mouse and how strong he was, he probably was winning.
Grabbing an empty pokéball and enlarging it, Marcus went running in the direction he'd pointed.
With a sigh, Piplup waddled after him.
Panting, Pikachu released another Thundershock, electrocuting the budew. Wow, the little guy had put up quite a fight! He'd drained a lot of energy from him and was hanging in there, but he had him on the ropes now!
Dashing forwards with Feint, he rammed his body into the budew, knocking him over. The budew lay there, motionless.
At that moment, Marcus ran onto the scene, pokéball in hand. The moment he saw the budew, his eyes lit up. In hope. In relief. In... happiness? It made Pikachu's heart leap.
Without wasting any time, Marcus threw the pokéball. It soared through the air, striking the budew. Turning him into red energy, it sucked him inside and landed on the grass. As it sat there, it wobbled to and fro.
Pikachu frowned at it, silently pleading for the budew to stay inside it. After all, he'd won the battle, right? And the budew had promised to be caught if he won.
It wobbled a few more times. Eventually, the red light on it turned off and it went still.
... Had it worked?
Silently, Marcus walked forwards. Stopping by the pokéball, he knelt down and picked it up. He stared disbelievingly at it.
"... I got a grass-type," he muttered. He glanced down at Pikachu. "... Good job, Pikachu."
Pikachu beamed up at his trainer.
Piplup waddled over to stand next to Marcus, smiling happily at Pikachu. He also congratulated him. Pikachu beamed at him, as well.
Standing on two feet, he walked over to Piplup and lifted up his paw. He held it there.
Piplup looked at it curiously for a moment. Then he seemed to get it.
Smiling, he lifted up a flipper and gave Pikachu a high-five. Neither of them could stop beaming afterwards.