The forest was tall and so dark it was oppressive. The barely seen trees were shadowy monsters that spooked Steel with ever glance. It has clear that a path had been cut out of the trees long ago but the grass was tall and every so often he would trip over a sapling. At least Copper was here though despite putting her on such a high pedestal after all she'd done, such as guiding him, agreeing to travel through dangerous cities and helping him defeat Blair, he had to remember that she was only 15, probably not the whole year older than Steel.
They trudged through the forest cautiously when Copper stopped and called out Jolie and snapped a branch of a young tree. Jolie lit it with ember and Copper raised the torch which cast long shadows.
"Did you know that if you hit the trees, sometimes Pokémon fall out? Dangerous Pokémon like beedrill?"
"Yeah…" he said suspiciously, "That's how I caught Lancer." she nodded silently and slyly.
"Good, tackle!" she yelled and out of nowhere Jolie ran at a tree which shook violently on impact. Something fell to the overgrown ground with a thud and she turned to Steel and smirked.
"Here's my revenge!" she dashed away and left Steel alone with the Pokémon.
"Copper!" he fumed and she quickly brought Lancer out for the beedrill's first fight with Steel. The Pokémon hopped around to face Steel and Lancer with angry eyes.
It was about two foot and looked like a dark green pinecone with two eyes and it hummed in an enraged way. Steel decided to attack this thing quickly so he yelled, "Fury attack!" and Lancer advanced, his pin arms stabbing rapidly.
The Pokémon clearly wasn't very able at moving so it just had to take Lancer's stabs which grew more powerful with each blow. Lancer hovered back and the Pokémon jumped at it.
"Pineco!" it cried but Lancer dodged its tackle attack.
"Poison sting!" Steel commanded and Lancer unleashed a swam of poison needles onto the pineco. It was blasted back and the Pokémon didn't get up. Steel and Lancer cried out in victory and Copper appeared from behind a tree.
"Aww, it didn't know self-destruct." she walked back over to Steel and chuckled, "I wanted to see it blow up on you."
"Blow up?" Steel asked in a terrified voice.
"Don't worry, it just glows and released a shockwave that knocks it out which might have well have been an explosion." Steel sighed in relief. The thought of a Pokémon exploding... he shuddered with visible disgust and walked near to Lancer. The constant buzzing of its wings was loud in his ears but he trusted that Lancer would be able to hear him.
"Fly at Copper." he breathed and Lancer stayed still for a while until Copper became suspicious.
"What's going on?" she asked with a smile and that's when Lancer decided to charge. Her eyes widened as Lancer collided with her and she was knocked back onto the muddy grass. She smirked and accepted the challenge.
She hurled a pokéball and yelled "Ember!" Lancer dodged the pokéball which flew towards him and Jolie burst out spewing fire at Lancer.
"Fury attack!" Steel ordered and Lancer darted forwards but was caught in Jolie's rain of fire. If his Pokémon had been hit like that by a Zephyr or Blair he would have been angry but throughout this battle he couldn't stop smiling.
"Roar!" Copper commanded and Lancer was blown away from the pure sound that was emitting from Jolie's small mouth, even Steel had to dig in his heels.
"Use pursuit!" Steel called unsurely, during Lancer's check-up Bliss had told him all of Lancer's moves, Poison sting, Fury attack, Twineedle and Pursuit.
Lancer heard and with power granted by the attack he sped up and reached Jolie who he knocked over with a dark tackle.
"Quick attack!" Copper ordered while Lancer was still close and Jolie jumped at Lancer with impressive recovery. Lancer held his ground and shot Jolie with a poison sting that thankfully didn't poison her.
"Now use confuse ray!" she called and Lancer couldn't avoid the light that floated from Jolie to Lancer's mind. Its wings were starting to beat irregularly and when Steel ordered a twineedle it tackled the ground and did obvious damage to itself.
"He's confused now!" Copper called and then Jolie spat embers at Lancer who dizzily failed to dodge them.
"Twineedle! Come on Lancer, don't let Jolie beat you!" Steel said it like a insult because he still hadn't forgiven Jolie's attitude from route 36. Lancer shook its head determinedly and shot two large needles at Jolie who, in her arrogance, didn't notice them.
Steel beamed triumphantly and Lancer buzzed in victory. Copper walked over to Jolie and let the Pokémon climb onto her shoulder.
Copper grinned proudly at Steel, "Great work Steel," she said sincerely, "maybe next time we battle I won't go easy on you."
Steel chuckled, "Don't say that, you were fighting hard." he chastised but she smirked.
"I could have just used ember all the time."
"How would that have changed anything?"
Copper looked at him oddly. He battled so naturally that she often found herself forgetting he'd only been a trainer for three days."Moves have types and so do Pokémon. Brooke is water; Lancer is a bug and poison type while Lore is grass and Jolie's fire.
"Each type has a counterpart which is either super effective or not very. Ember's fire and fire beats bug so you would have lost soon."
Steel nodded in understanding and pressed her for more details as they once again resumed walking. She gave more examples and Steel was not happy to find out that she had several advantages against him.
Though sunlight didn't breach the vast thicket of trees in the first place, Steel felt that it was becoming night and they stopped to set up a small camp. The forest was dark and seemingly empty but every second they stayed gave Steel shivers like he was being watched. He and Copper were beginning to drift off when a thought suddenly occurred to Steel.
"Where's Blair?" he asked but Copper didn't even open her eyes as she answered.
"It's not a large forest and we spent that night in Goldenrod so he's probably gone by now." She yawned loudly and tried falling asleep again but Steel felt uncomfortable in the forest. He couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched by something. They lay in silence but weren't having much luck in getting to sleep. The silence allowed Steel's mind to wander and he found himself constantly thinking of Bliss and how she treated that man.
"Copper?" he whispered, checking is she was awake.
"Yes?" she asked exasperatedly. Steel rolled onto his back and watched the shadows sway.
"What did you think of Bliss?" Copper paused.
"Do you want the truth? I'm worried about Goldenrod. I mean Blair was obviously not the right choice and Bliss was there but…"
"She doesn't seem right for the job." Steel finished. He rolled to face Copper and had now accepted that he wouldn't be getting a lot of sleep that night.
"What types were Raticate and Furret? Did we have any advantages?" he wondered, still not getting the possibility of facing Blair again out of his head.
"They were both normal types. Normal was the theme in Goldenrod so I guess he wanted to keep it."
"So we didn't have any advantages." Steel confirmed and Copper nodded.
"We would have if he'd used a pidgey or something. There aren't any pure flying types so for the most part they're part normal." she frowned as she started to connect some dots. "He probably did have a flying type and Violet city's no too far away…" she thought aloud and then she shot upright.
"Damn!" she exclaimed and Steel sat up.
"What?" Copper faced him and smacked her forehead.
"He's joined the Zephyrs! Blair's told them about us!"
Steel's face fell, he wanted to deny it but the dots were already connected.
"Damn." he echoed and they flopped back onto the grass.
"Maybe we shouldn't have liberated Goldenrod." Steel said meekly as he faced away. "Maybe we should have just passed. That way Bliss wouldn't be in charge and Blair would be confined in the city and not working for the most evil people in Johto."
Copper frowned. "All our actions will have consequences we couldn't forsee but we'll have to just accept that and roll with the punches, landing as many as we can until we reach the Indigo city."
Steel sighed, "Maybe."
Steel wasn't sure when he fell asleep but he'd definitely heard rustling at the mention of Indigo city.
Once again sorry for the chapter with pretty much nothing happening. :P
Don't worry, next time will be interesting...hopefully.
I'll try to write A.S.A.P. and chapter 9 will be out.
