Yep, another chapter. (What did you expect? I don't have very many.) Anyway, I'd like to thank HeroGuardian, Blaze-Lover, and eli W. for their reviews. Anyway, sorry it's been a little while, but you've got to admit, it's not the longest I've been gone. I was busy with Easter stuff, and I was hardly able to get any computer time. Oh, and why do I always have to make excuses for when I'm gone for a while? Maybe I should see a doctor, or better yet, I could go see Sara the shrink…
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon
Derek was lying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He hadn't eaten or drank anything since the Gym Battle.
Sara sighed, and put down the pokeball that she was polishing. "Come on Derek! It was your first Gym Battle! You almost won too! If it wasn't for Cyndaquil getting stuck in that wall, you probably would have!"
Derek said nothing. He just continued to stare up at the ceiling.
"You can't get like this every time you loose a battle Derek. Most trainers…"
"I lost before, and I didn't get like this, now did I?" Derek said, cutting her off. It was the first time he had spoken to her since the Gym Battle.
"Well, yeah, but…" Sara started before she was cut off again.
"I can't believe I let you trick me into thinking that I actually had a chance to win. I was starting to even enjoy being a Pokemon Trainer. You are always encouraging me, making me believe I actually have a chance of winning. In the end, it just makes the loss hurt even more."
"Derek…" Sara said, at a loss for words. For the first time since she had become a Pokemon Ranger, she started to feel her eyes water, and she knew that tears were about to come.
"Please leave me alone Sara. I need time to think, not just about me, but about my Pokemon as well. Ironic, huh? You were the one that made me like Pokemon again, and now we need to figure out what to do because of it."
Sara quickly got up and left before Derek could see her start to cry. Just before she closed the door, she heard the sound of three Pokeball opening.
"Vee?" Eevee asked, concerned for her trainer.
"It's nothing Eevee." Sara said as she tried to control her voice. The two were walking aimlessly through the crowded streets of Violet City.
"Hey Sara!" A voice called from behind her. Blayze ran up and stood panting beside her. "What's wrong? I saw you leave the Pokemon Center, and you looked upset. What happened?"
Sara said nothing. She just stood there, waiting for Blayze to catch his breath.
"Did you loose your Gym Battle or something?"
"No," Sara replied. She had finally stopped crying, and was back in control. "But Derek did."
"That's too bad. Where is he?"
"He's back in the room, trying to figure out what to do I think."
"Okay, so why are you crying?"
"Because before I left, Derek said some…things."
"Let me guess, he blamed you for his loss, right?"
"No, not exactly. But he might as well have. At least that way I would have punched him in the head and stormed out of the Pokemon Center. Oh, and you probably wouldn't be standing right now, but on your way to the hospital." Sara said as she smiled slightly.
"That's better." Blayze said as he broke out into a wide grin. "Oh, and if I ever forget, please remind me to stay on your good side."
"I don't think you would ever forget after I was done with you."
"Okay, I'm really scared now. But seriously, I think I should talk to Derek. Maybe I can help him out somehow."
"That's probably a good idea, although his confidence wasn't very good before the Gym Battle. I doubt its any better now."
"Alright then. I guess I'll see you later."
"Bye Blayze."
Blayze ran back to the Pokemon Center, leaving Sara standing by herself in the street.
"Come on Eevee," Sara said as she turned away from the spot where Blayze had been moments ago. "Let's see what we can find in this city."
Twenty minutes later, Sara and Eevee found themselves on the edge of Violet City. A few homes could be seen here and there, but it was obvious that the city had ended.
Sara sighed. "I guess we should be heading back…" She started to say when suddenly, a large crash echoed around them, and a huge lightning bolt shot up into the sky.
"What was that?!" Sara yelled as she waited for her hearing to come back. Eevee moaned beside her. "Come on Evee, let's see what that lightning bolt was."
"So what do you think?" Derek asked his Pokemon after he finished giving his speech. Cyndaquil, Pidgey, and Sentret all looked up at him, different emotions on their faces. Cyndaquil looked determined, Pidgey looked angry (but then again, he always looked like that), and Sentret looked concerned.
"I see this isn't going to be easy." Derek sighed as his door burst open and a giant yellow wasp flew in.
"Twineedle!" A voice yelled, and Beedrill's spiked arms started to glow. He then flew forward, and started to jab repeatedly at Derek and his Pokemon. Cyndaquil and Pidgey jumped out of the way, while Sentret fainted from shock, and Derek had to pull him off the bed by his tail before he was stabbed to death. Beedrill continued attacking, and completely destroyed Derek's bed, before returning his attention back to Derek and his Pokemon.
"Follow it up with furry attack!" the voice yelled again.
Beedrill lifted both of his arms, before launching a furry of dangerous blows with his arms. Cyndaquil and Pidgey both easily dodged the attack, while Derek rolled out into the hall.
"Hey Derek!" Blayze said cheerfully as Derek looked up.
"Blayze! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Derek yelled.
"Oh, well, I'm training my Pokemon, thinking about my next Gym battle, and, uh…what am I doing here again?"
"Trying to kill me!"
"Oh yeah, that's right. Beedrill, he's out here!" Blayze yelled. The giant yellow wasp flew out of the room, and started chasing after Derek.
"Not again! This is worse than Pidgey!" Derek cried as he ran down the hall away from Beedrill. "Sentret, make yourself useful and use scratch!"
Derek turned, and threw the barely conscious Sentret as Beedrill. The two Pokemon collided, and Sentret fell to the ground holding his head. He looked up, and fainted a second time when he saw Beedrill.
"Cyndaquil, Pidgey, I could use some help over here!" Derek yelled as Beedrill started flying after him again. Just then, Cyndaquil and Pidgey rammed into Beedrill from behind with a double tackle, knocking him to the ground.
"Wow, your Cyndaquil and Pidgey are a lot stronger than they were the last time I saw you. But that won't be enough. Beedrill, use poison sting!"
Beedrill twisted around, and fired off a barrage of poisonous needles at Cyndaquil and Pidgey.
"Now use furry attack!"
Beedrill got back up, and flew at Cyndaquil and Pidgey, hitting them both several times before they could recover.
"See what I'm doing?" Blayze asked as Beedrill continued to hammer Derek's Pokemon.
"Yeah, you're hurting my Pokemon! Stop it!"
"No! I'm using combinations! That is one of the key things a trainer needs to win a battle. When you battle, every time you get the upper hand, you always let your opponent recover. You can't do that! You need to keep them off their guard, and constantly hammer them with attacks. Of course, you need to do this smartly, and possibly go on the defensive if you're Pokemon needs to recover, but you can't just let your opponent control the battle. That is why you lost against me, and that's probably why you lost against Falkner."
"Fine, how about this? Pidgey, use gust!"
Pidgey flapped his wings, and managed to push Beedrill back a little with a gust of wind.
"Now use tackle Cyndaquil!"
Cyndaquil ran forward and tackled Beedrill in his abdominal area.
"Now Sentret," Derek said as he picked the barely-conscience Pokemon off the floor. "Use scratch!" Derek yelled as he threw Sentret at Beedrill. Sentret covered his eyes with his hands as he flew forward, and three long claws extended out of each hand. Both Sentret and Beedrill were shocked right before Sentret crashed into Beedrill, causing the bee Pokemon to faint. Sentret looked at what he had done before fainting as well.
"Very nice," Blayze said as he clapped his hands. "But I let you control the rhythum that time. By the way, why does your Sentret faint every time he tries to battle?"
"Who knows," Derek said as he picked up his unconscious Sentret. "But he managed to win his first battle, even though it might have been an accident."
"That's good. And I take it from your smile that things are better now?"
"Pretty much, but now I've got to figure out what I'm going to do now."
"What do you mean…" Blayze started to ask, but trailed off when he saw an angry Nurse Joy stomping towards them.
"You two should know better!" She scolded. "No battling in the halls."
"Wait until she sees you're room." Blayze said as he grinned.
"Blayze, why is it that every time you come to my Pokemon Center you have to break something?" Nurse Joy asked.
"Hey! I don't break something every time! Just a couple of days ago I…" Blayze started to rant, but fell silent when a loud crash shook the Pokemon Center. Suddenly, a huge bolt of electricity shot up into the sky about a mile away.
"What was that?" Derek asked, his ears still ringing.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out!" Blayze said as he ran out of the Pokemon Center and started running to where the lightning bolt had come from.
"Hey, wait up!" Derek cried as he ran after Blayze.
"Be careful!" Nurse Joy shouted as she turned around and started to inspect the damage done by the two trainers.
Sara emerged in a blackened field with her Eevee close behind. The surrounding trees were charred, and all of the grass was burned. An electrified boy was being dragged by two men with red R's on their shirts. Many more men and women wearing similar clothes were standing around a giant plane being loaded with cages. In the center of the field, two more men and a woman were standing around two fainted Pokemon. One was a blue lamb with yellow fur and another was a yellow dog with spiky fur.
"Let's see…" Sara said as she dug through her backpack, and took out her Styler. She opened it up, and started to punch in some numbers in her browser.
"Mareep, the wool Pokemon. Its fluffy coat swells to double when static electricity builds up. Touching it can be shocking." Sara read out loud. She punched in some more numbers, and a new page came up.
"Jolteon, the lightning Pokemon. It controls 10,000-volt power and can raise all the fur on its body as if it were sharp needles." Sara read from the page.
"Alright, put them both in cages and let's head out. Are the repairs to the ship finished yet?" The women standing over the two Pokemon asked.
"Yes, sir." One of the men said as the other got two cages.
"Excellent. The boss will be pleased." The woman said before laughing.
"Stop right there!" Sara said as she ran over to the men and woman.
"A child! I thought I said to seal off the perimeter!" The women yelled. "You two, take care of her!"
"Yes sir!" The two grunts said as they threw one pokeball each. A purple snake and purple bat appeared.
"Eevee, Metapod, I need your help!" Sara said as Eevee jumped forward and Metapod appeared out of his pokeball.
"Ekans, use wrap on Eevee!"
"Zubat, use supersonic on Metapod!"
The purple snake shot forward and wrapped around Eevee, preventing her from moving. Zubat fired supersonic waves at Metapod, who became confused.
"No!" Sara shouted. "Eevee, try to break free. Metapod, you have to snap out of it!"
"Arbok, use poison fang." A voice said behind Sara. Sara turned in time to see a giant purple cobra bite her shoulder. Sara screamed, before the poison took effect and knocked her out.
"I want these Pokemon locked up and in the plane now!" The women yelled.
"Yes sir!" The two men replied as they gathered up the fainted Mareep and Jolteon. Ekans dragged the fainted Eevee and Zubat pulled one very confused Metapod behind them.
"Bring her too." The woman commanded her Arbok. The snake nodded, and dragged Sara's limp body to the ship.
"Sara!" Derek yelled as he and Blayze emerged in the clearing.
"It looks like we have more guests." A woman said. She was standing in the entryway of a plane.
"What have you done with Sara?" Derek asked when he noticed that the woman had a red R on her shirt.
"Do you mean that girl that came through here a little while ago? Don't worry; she's just going to take a little vacation." The women said as she closed the door, and the plane started to hover.
"Get back here!" Derek said as he ran forward.
"Hey, wait for me!" Blayze shouted as he tried to keep up.
The plane was turning around, and was about to take off when Derek and Blayze jumped, and grabbed a hold of a railing. The plane started to move forward, unaware that it was carrying two extra passengers.
Nope, no Derek or Sara at the end of this chapter. You can't really talk when you're holding onto a plane for dear life, or unconscious from a poison attack. When something like that happens, I'll just leave some notes here, just like I'm doing now.
The reason that Derek didn't have his rematch at the Violet City Gym is that even if he didn't have his confidence problem, he still has a lot to learn about battling. He would have probably ended up losing worse then before if I had decided to write it this chapter.
Still, that's no excuse for saying those things to Sara.
Blayze makes an appearance in this chapter! What do you think about him?
What is this mysterious plan that Derek was talking about with his Pokemon?
I doubt anyone can guess correctly what happened in the clearing. If you do, my writing is way too obvious.
I have a lot of notes here.
And finally, don't forget to review!