Chapter Four. Here's the next chapter I really hope you guys like it!
"Get down!" A soldier cried out as he ran across the grassy field as his Ponyta had been killed and his last means of escape was on foot, but before he could get very far a green vine quickly pulled him high into the air and simply dropped him. His screaming finally coming to an end as his body dropped to the ground like a rag doll that a little girl just carelessly threw in the air. Another soldier was ripped right off his Ponyta as he tried to retreat from the deadly vines, but it was hopeless as he was faced with the same fate as the last solider.
Gary and Brock watched in horror as before them was a large Venusaur, the large Shadow Pokemon hadn't been brought up in the mission briefing and no one had really faced off against a Venusaur in combat before. The grassy type cut down incoming soldiers with his razor sharp Razor Leaf attack and would snatch retreating soldiers right off their Ponyta with its oversized vines from its back.
"What should we do?" Gary asked Brock as he watched the Venusaur violently attack the incoming soldiers, a sight that horrified him. Joining the two of them were Ritchie, Dawn, Ryker, and two other members of the Military Police. All of them looking at Brock for orders as he was the ranking soldier among them at the moment.
Brock was silent.
"Sergeant?" Ryker called out as he shared a concern look with the two other soldiers who had joined them.
Brock wanted to speak, but he couldn't.
Sudowoodo was just as silent as he had been riding on the back of the Ponyta with Brock.
"Brock say something!" Dawn cried out fearful that their leader had lost hope as well.
Then it hit Brock like a ton of bricks, "We do what we were sent here to do... We fight."
Everyone was silent.
"But how?" Dawn muttered lowly nearly in tears as the Venusaur was coming closer and closer.
"With our blades," Gary spoke up as he pulled out his sword.
"With our Pokemon," Ryker stated calmly as he patted Growlithe and Rapidash on their heads.
Brock simply nodded and then he spoke up, "Move out!"
The sounds of hooves smashing into the ground echoed loudly as the group of soldiers advanced towards the Venusaur, the grass type grinning as he spotted them and unleashed a barrage of Razor Leaves. Gary was able to deflect two with his sword but was quickly forced to move farther to the left to avoid the incoming leaves, Ryker used his Growlithe's Ember attack to burn the leaves with ease, and Brock placed Sudowoodo in front of him as the grass type move didn't effect him.
"Mike!" One of the soldiers cried out as one of the two who were following them was hit by a razor leaf and was thrown off his Ponyta. It was obvious that the leaf had cut right through his neck and killed the poor soldier.
Dawn fearfully grasped her reins even harder at this sight.
Gary quickly ordered Umbreon to use Shadow Ball, but the attack did very little to damage Venusaur who now had brought out his oversized vines. The first victim to the large vines was one of the other soldiers who had been following him, his Ponyta and him being crushed under it. The veins were powerful as that ripped apart the ground around them, Dawn and Piplup doing their best to avoid the vines but their Ponyta was near exhaustion.
"Keep moving in!" Gary cried out as he sliced a vine right down the center with his sword and then had Umbreon use Scratch to separate the rest of the vine from the Shadow Pokemon. Venusaur cried out in pain as Ryker quickly had Growlithe burn the ends of his vines and then quickly cut off the rest of the vine with his sword.
"Sergeant, watch out!" Ryker cried out as a vine quickly swiped the feet right from under his Ponyta, sending both Brock and Sudowoodo crashing into the ground as their Ponyta was mercilessly thrown into the air like it was nothing.
Gary and Ryker both shared a look of fear.
Brock's vision slowly returned to him as he opened his eyes to see no other than Sudowoodo standing over him, his loyal Pokemon was struggling to hold off an incoming vine with his bare hands. Brock coughed weakly as Sudowoodo was slowly being pushed back by the overpowering vine, Brock was nearly brought to tears by this sight.
"Sudo!" Sudowoodo yelled out in pain.
Rising to his feet Brock quickly picked up his war hammer and with one might strike he brought it down upon the vine, pinning it down with both Sudowoodo and his war hammer he watched as Gary leaped off his Ponyta and jumped onto the vine. Racing down the vine Gary knew that the Venusaur couldn't attack him while he was on the vine as that would involve the Shadow Pokemon hitting his vine in the process, thus hurting himself. With Umbreon close behind Gary raced forward the Venusaur who was too busy with the others to notice Gary.
"Umbreon use Sand Attack!" Gary called out as Umbreon quickly blinded the Venusaur and with this Gary had his opening. Throwing three throwing knives at the grass type he nailed the Venusaur right in the face, but that wasn't all. Gary launched himself high into the air and landed feet first on Venusaur's face, using his feet to dig the knives deeper into Venusaur he pushed off into the air and landed right on its head.
"Die already!" Gary roared angrily as he stabbed his sword downwards into Venusaur's head the Shadow Pokemon roaring out in pain as his vines thrashed around violently. Gary struggled to stay up as he grasped his sword's hilt tightly, the Venusaur not going down without causing more damage as his vines were smashing anything that was close by.
Loosing his footing Gary was being flung through the air as his sword had found itself deep within Venusaur's skull, hitting the ground with great force Gary watched in horror as his sword was left in the Venusaur's head but had failed to kill him. Gary just whimpered lowly in sorrow, "We're doomed."
"Sparky use, Thunderbolt!" Ritchie cried out as the small mouse Pokemon unleashed a powerful bolt of electricity that stuck Gary's sword. Gary watched in amazement as Ritchie had used Gary's sword as a conductor, thus allowing the flow of electricity to run down the sword and into Venusaur's brain thus frying it within seconds. Ritchie grinned as he watched Venusaur cry out in pan, but just before Venusaur collapsed in defeat he had one more trick up his sleeve.
"Ritchie, watch out!" Dawn cried out as just before the Venusaur died it had used, Frenzy Plant.
A collection of thorny roots ripped through the ground in a straight line heading directly towards Ritchie, realizing he couldn't run away from the incoming attack Ritchie quickly threw Sparky out of the way. The roots slammed into Ritchie with full force, the thorns tearing at his skin as they ht him and his body being thrown aside like he was nothing.
With this the Venusaur finally died.
"Ritchie!" Gary cried out in horror.
"Kid," Ryker muttered lowly.
Dawn just screamed in horror.
"Pika!" Sparky cried out tears running down his face.
"I can't believe you were just stranded out there," Misty chuckled softly as she blushed gently from how tightly Ash was holding onto her as he was riding on the back of her Ponyta. After, realizing that Ash was no longer part of their formation Misty had gone back to find him fearing the worse, but was beyond relieved when she found Ash and Pikachu slowly making their way towards the front line by foot.
"Shut up," Ash growled back with a grin at Misty's usual teasing. The herd had came to a stop and the only major Pokemon that remanded were the, Tyranitar and its two Aggron followers. The Military Police had sent two more squads of reinforcements along with a platoon of Infantry soldiers who had arrived from Pewter City after being informed that two of their platoons had been wiped out. The Infantry wanted to send more, but Koga reassured them that more soldiers would just make the battlefield more chaotic and that a platoon was enough as Koga truly had all the faith in the world in his won men.
"What's going on?" Misty muttered lowly as she caught sight of the rest of their squad all in a circle, Gary waving them over.
Misty and Ash quickly made their way over to the circle beyond confused, they both pushed their way into the center of the circle to see no other then, Ritchie. Weakly smiling at the sight of his two closest friends he coughed lowly, blood was gushing from his stomach where a thorn had sliced right through him and several of his broken ribs had punctured his lungs. Misty covered her mouth in horror as her eyes began to fill with tears and Ash's hands formed a fist as he tried to hide his tears with his cap.
"Hold in there, Ritchie!" Drew called out as he helped the medic that Brock had found patch him up, the medic's face looked doubtful as he ordered Drew to put some pressure on the wound as he tried his best to patch it up to stop the bleeding.
"Pika?" Sparky muttered lowly as tears ran down its face as Ritchie placed his blood hand on its back to reassure his friend that everything would be alright. Sparky simply weakly nudged his head against Ritchie's face as the two had been best friends since day one.
Ash stuttered weakly, "W-what h-ha-happened?"
Everyone was silent.
Paul and Ryker could tell that although Brock's squad had lost other friends from other squads, that this was their first casualty within their squad.
No one could answer Ash.
"I want to see my m-mother," Ritchie cried out lowly as the last time he had seen his mother was the day he left for basic training.
May buried her face within Dawn's shoulder as she cried loudly.
Brock looked away in pain as he felt as if this was his fault, he was the squad leader and he should of been the one that took the hit not Ritchie.
Ritchie could tell by everyone's faces that it wasn't looking good, so with the last of his strength he reached into his upper left breast pocket and pulled out a blood stained letter. Weakly lifting it into the air he looked at Ash, "My mother always liked you Ash... S-so it w-would mean the wo-world if you delivered it to h-her."
Ash quickly dropped to his knees and grabbed the letter along with Ritchie's hands, "You'll make it don't worry! The Military Police have the best medics!"
Ritchie just grinned as he pulled his hands from Ash's and looked at Sparky with a weak smile before speaking up, "Was I a good soldier?"
There was silence.
No one knew what to say.
Brock wanted to express how Ritchie was the best soldier he could ask for, but he just couldn't speak.
"You were a good soldier. From what I saw you acted on your feet and if wasn't for you we'd all be dead probably, you may be just a kid but you fought like a warrior that had seen years of combat today. I'd fight along side you any day soldier."
Everyone was shocked.
Paul the one who had been so strict and cold hearted had just spoken up for a soldier he barely knew, but yet his words suited Ritchie's act of valor so perfectly.
"Thank you," Ritchie whimpered lowly as a single tear escaped from his eye and with this his body went limp.
He was dead.
Sparky cried out as he buried his face in Ritchie neck.
The Medic slowly stood up and whipped his hands off on his uniform, his face tired and aged by combat.
Ash's tears ran down his face as he slowly shoved the letter from Ritchie into his pocket, Pikachu hiding his face in Ash's neck as he refused to look at Ritchie.
"I'm sorry for your lost, but we still have three more Shadow Pokemon to take care of... You must mourn latter and fight now," Paul stated as he stood apart from the group along with Ryker and the Medic all of them a bit uncomfortable with standing around while the rest of the unit was fighting.
Everyone knew he was right.
"Forget about him, we must continue fighting!" Paul called out angrily as no one was moving.
Dawn suddenly stormed forward and grabbed Paul by his collar, "Forget about him! What kind of monster are you! You speak heart filled words before his death and then tell us to just forget about him seconds latter!"
Everyone was shocked at her action.
Ryker rushed forward pulling her hands off Paul and pushing her to the ground, "You don't touch the Corporal like that!"
Paul simply turned around, got on his Rapidash, and rode off. The Medic nodded at the others in sorrow as he got on his Ponyta and quickly followed Paul, realizing that the battle was far from over.
"I'm sorry," Ryker muttered as he got on his Rapidash and rode off.
There was silence.
"Lets move out," Brock stated in a cold voice as he climbed onto Ritchie's Ponyta and prepared to ride off.
"How can you say that? We should stay here with Ritchie's body?" Dawn cried out in sorrow.
No one knew what to say.
"Private, you will get on your Ponyta like I ordered or I will have you thrown into jail once we get back to base for failing to listen to orders!" Brock roared angrily as everyone was shocked as they had never heard him speak like that before.
Ash would always remember that day, it was the day they lost Ritchie and the day that Brock had changed.
Share your thoughts about this chapter with a review and stay tuned!