Blazing Pathway, Freezing Sky
Chapter 6
Epic enough for ya?
Hi!
I'm just firing these off - being trapped in a little vehicle with my sister is killing me.
So, the way for everybody to benefit is for me to write these, wearing headphones and playing music full blast.
ERM.. (Do I really have to say this?)
Disclaimer: Everything relating to Pokemon that already exists belongs to Nintendo and the Pokemon dudes... although, the amount of stuff that already exists is rapidly going down… WELL, no matter. Heres chapter 6 for ya!
Human's POV
Ash wasn't as proud of his catch as he normally was.
Even after being congratulated by Misty and Brock (who had only gotten a few pictures before the trainer mob had shoved them aside), and posing with his new, full Poke Ball and Rusty, he was still getting the evil eye from everybody, and Ash (yes, its sad but true) STILL couldn't figure out why.
The trainer who had yelled for them to throw walked up to Ash five minutes after the capture, and began to speak in a strangely powerful voice. He was just a kid, with brown, sharp hair (think yu-gi-oh style) maybe eleven years old. Ash wasn't sure how he was the one who called the shots (he was bossing everybody around after they failed to catch Romulus), but he looked harmless enough.
"You tourist! You stole my Romulus!" He half-yelled, half speaking quietly. It was eerie, making everybody save for Ash and Rusty take a large step back. Ash STILL couldn't get why he was feared… he was short, didn't look very strong, and looked overconfident. "I oughta get my assistants to beat you up, but im going to take this to the next level. Im going to beat you myself.!"
Everybody in the crowd gasped. "Tourist! Run away if you want to keep your dignity!" Someone cried, not sounding threatening or commanding, but scared and weak.
As usual, Ash wasn't one to back down, or use his brain in diplomacy. "I don't know why those guys are so scared of you, but I'm taking you down!" Yelled Ash, pulling out Rusty and holding him up, making Rusty let a big tear thing roll down the back of his head. He was still weak from his battle with Romulus, how could he fight a person everybody feared?
But, fortunately the opponent guy was much smarter then Ash, and with a sense of fair play. "No cheating guys" he called back to his goons, three large, muscly men who looked really dumb. "My name is Dare. I am the person you have to beat once you win all six league badges and defeat my three assistants. I guess you could call me your worst nightmare, or, as my official title is, Llolian Master."
At this, Ash, Misty, Brock and Rusty let out a gasp. This guy was only twelve years old at most! How could he be rumored to be the best Pokemon master on the planet?!? Ash looked a little sick. The first battle in the new region was with the person who should be the last one he should encounter.. Just great..
"Don't worry. Ill go easy on you, just to give you a taste of what's to come. Besides, I half admire you for catching that Romulus. The first catch of his kind, I was hoping it belonged to me, but anyone who could catch him should be a good opponent. Lets try this out, newbie." When he finished, one of his goons threw him three white capsules. "These will bring your Pokemon to full power, give them a temporary boost, and make them quite a bit stronger and wiser. Think of it as one of the many rewards you will get for catching that Pokemon don't waste them. Now here are these, and a full restore. Now lets go outside, I would hate to wreck this terminal any more then it already is."
He threw all four items at Ash, who barely managed to catch them all. He dropped the three capsules into his pocket, and used the full restore on Rusty.
"Lets go get him, Pikachu!" Yelled out Ash, pointing to the battlefield. Rusty grumpily trudged on.
Brock walked up to the top of the field, grateful to be out of the cold glares of the crowd. "This will be a one on one match! Last Pokemon standing is the winner!" he yelled out, waving his flag for the battle to begin.
Dare grabbed one of his Poke Balls, this one had a blue top instead of the average red. "So, an electric type? I'll give you as much of an edge as I can then." He smirked. "I choose you, Hurricane!" He yelled, throwing the Poke Ball. When the Pokemon emerged from the red light, a couple people flinched, remembering previous battles. Hurricane had a transparent body, with clear orange eyes. The only spectacular thing about it's appearance was the way it emitted water the way fire-types emitted fire. Water shot out of where it's legs should have been attached, hitting the ground and suspending him a few feet above. His arms were also made of transparent material, and as with the rest of his body you could see veins of water flow through them, coming out to form large, flat fingers.
Out of habit, Ash pulled out his Pokedex and scanned Hurricane. Dare rolled his eyes and relaxed a bit. This wasn't the first time this had been pulled on him.
"Tidus, the whirlpool Pokemon. Tidus can produce water from the moisture in the air, and its transparent body allows it to blend in perfectly in the water, being nearly impossible to find. Tidus are mischievous and will disobey their trainer if a strong bond does not exist. Tidus can use water attacks of incredible power and accuracy, it's only weakness being the time it takes to charge these attacks and it's extreme weakness to electricity." The Pokedex blipped off after the last line.
Ash grinned a bit. Dare chose a Pokemon who's biggest weakness was electricity? This was going to be easy! "Pikachu, use thunderbolt!"
Rusty knew that this wasn't going to work, and he was half right.
A second before Ash had called the attack, Hurricane had began to hum silently to itself.
As the thunderbolt connected, Hurricane staggered taking a whole lot of damage. The lightning created strange flashes passing through the transparent body, giving the whole landscape a little fireworks show.
When the thunderbolt finally cut off, Rusty using most of his energy on it, saving enough to dodge and attack again if nessesary.
Hurricane was smoking, looking very angry, but still standing. His hum cut off, and he spread his arms. Rusty was expecting something bad, but not anything that was as bad as what to come. Hurricane, not making a sound, blasted into the sky with a quick burst of water. Rusty was helpless. There was no way he could hit Hurricane with a thunderbolt, there were no clouds to spread the thunder, and you can't aim a thunderbolt with too much precision. So, until he came down, Rusty was ready to dodge. Dodge whatever was thrown at him. Then, out of the sky, a little speck started to get larger quickly.
"Pikachu, dodge and use quick attack!"
Pikachu swerved quickly from where he was standing, waited a second, then quick attacked the spot where he was standing a moment earlier about six times before realizing that nothing was there.
Ash and Rusty were expecting that, at the rate of how the speck was getting larger, it should have hit just then! Then, when they saw Dare laughing a little, they looked up, and were struck with horror.
The speck, which they originally thought was Hurricane coming down at them, was still really high up in the air. It was actually an enormous sphere of water, Hurricane was somewhere around it, making it larger by the second.
Dare stopped laughing, but still looked in a good mood. Apparently, he was having more fun then he was angry at loosing Romulus. "Now, whats your name, trainer?" He asked Ash, grinning as the orb, now as big as half the field, suddenly stopped growing and started to spin. All of the trainers started walking backwards, away from the imposing attack.
"Its Ash, Ash Ketchum." Said Ash, forgetting to say the 'and im going to be the greatest Pokemon master!' part, still looking straight upwards.
"Well Ash, I hope that you had as much fun as I did! I hope we meet again soon.", said Dare, sounding quite confident. "You did much better then others have, for the first try."
Rusty snuck a glance at Dare. That was nearly the same thing Romulus had said, was it just a coincidence that they both said that?
"Hurricane, use elemental strike." And with that, Dare looked up and smiled.
Just about then, Ash regained his senses. "Pikachu, use all of your power and shock him!!!!"
Hey, it was a good a plan as any, thought Rusty, so, using all of the power in his electric sacs, he shot a thunderbolt with unnerving accuracy, smacking the orb of water with all of his force.
Then Rusty and Ash realized that Hurricane wasn't in the orb of water, he was above it.
The orb split into nine parts, still containing the electric charge, and swirled around Hurricane, just as Romulus's particles spun around him. Then, with a clear show of power, at least ten times greater then Rusty's, the water went up, curved, and smacked Hurricane in the back, propelling him downward faster then a thunderbolt, encased in water.
Then, with the force of three barreling pickup trucks, Hurricane hit the exhausted Rusty in the face.
"PIKACHU!" cried out Ash, standing back as the electrically charged water poured on his friend.
Forty seconds later, it was over. Rusty was undoubtedly and without a chance of being otherwise, knocked out cold. Ash knew that Pokemon could take a lot of hurt, and felt grateful that Dare went easy on him.
As Dare turned to go, Ash called one question at him.
"Dare, your only twelve or so. How did you become the Llolian Master?"
Dare smiled, a true smile, not an evil, mischievous one. "Ash, I became the Llolain champion because I have true talent, not fake, overconfident talent. I sense the same in you, but can you use it? I became Llolian Master at age eight, and have not lost an official match since. I have met Cloud, guardian of Llolia and all of it's magic, in a time of need, and I helped her, without capturing her. She is the life force of Llolia, and I have gained her favor. She does not aid me, as that would be cheating. Instead, she stops Delkin from re-entering this land."
"Now, Ash Ketchum, I can't stay and chat, but perhaps my sister, Paige, could show you around." Said Dare, seeming quite happy, in his own, cool way. "She has been very bored, and I was hoping that you could put a bit of excitement into her life. I know you can, Ash, you saved the world a few times. How hard could it be to bring a bit of joy into one person's life?"
Suddenly, one of the three assistants stood up, and began speaking in a thick French accent. "Monsieur Dare, le scanner has been on for eh good two minits. We mazt be off. Au devours monsieur Ketchum".
And with that, the three assistants stood up and bowed to Dare, making him sigh and walk off, the enormous group of trainers following him, only one person was left, standing partly in the shadows.
"Hi, I'm Paige." Said the stranger, the pop of bubble gum bouncing around the terminal. "Mind if we get started with the tour? Ive been waiting months for some action, and I just know you can get me a slice of it."
With that, Paige walked out of the shadows, revealing her appearance. She looked like Dare, but with a few subtle differences. She had a small scar running down the side of her face, long black hair with a small black bow in it. She was an inch or two taller then Ash, and her skin was pale white. She had piercing blue eyes, and she wore a pair of dark blue jeans with white streaks on it in places. Also, like any sane person in Llolia's brisk cold, she wore a small, thin black jacket, with White stripes running here and there, and a white leather shoulder plate, which served the purpose of holding all of her shrunken Poke Balls, which were all either dark blue, white or black. All in all, she was quite intimidating.
She sure had her own sense of fashion.
"You know, you should stop looking at how I dress and get that Pikachu to a Pokemon Center. My brother has a knack of making them go there."
Everybody snapped out of their trance, and began following Paige, who gave them a couple windbreakers from the table behind her. And then, walking calmly and surely, Paige led the group away from the terminal and into the city of BlueWood, into another adventure.
Finished writing this on Christmas day, and hoping that yours was great,
Xaviertrix