CHAPTER 9
You know the drill
Messa ownen nuttin'
Hope you enjoy my humble offerings.
Ben had never considered Stephanie a friend in the traditional sense. He'd grown up with her, known her most of his life, but never really connected with her on any level. She had always been pretty and in spite of not liking Goth poetry Ben had considered her talented, but in spite of all that Ben had to confess, he'd never gotten close to her for a simple reason. Stephanie was contagiously miserable.
But somehow the beginnings of their journey had softened his view of her, possibly because she complained the same amount as she always did which at the moment was less than Ben and Cory. Ben was waiting for Cory at the door to the Pokemon Centre when three people swaggered towards Eric's Poke-Mart. Ben watched them at first out of boredom which then grew to curiosity and finally suspicion.
Ben decided to see what was going on.
…...
Eric raised his hands and whispered "Dammit" he had no intention of becoming poke-chow for the orange fire type, but he couldn't just let its owners rob his store. Eric's mind raced as he watched the three thugs and their pokemon dig into his stock. The same thugs as before to be sure, but like last time it was still a case of them having pokemon while he didn't.
Eric's eyes landed on the fire alarm and a plan began to form in his mind.
The fire pokemon growled as it noticed the change in Eric's posture, the fire on the tip of its tail intensified as it planned to thwart whatever its charge had in mind.
Eric moved.
In a single motion he pushed away from the wall and dove at the counter, elbowing the fire alarm as he rolled past and activating the sprinkler system. Eric was already in motion as the little fire type howled in pain and frustration, he grabbed the service bell from the front counter and hurled it at the water type pokemon, striking it in the shell with a loud ping but doing little real damage, still, the little blue pokemon squawked in surprise and toppled over, withdrawing into its shell to avoid further projectiles.
Eric dropped his shoulder and rammed one of the thugs, slamming him into the wall, the thug wheezed as his shaggy haired head smacked against the wall. Eric reached past the crook's green shirt as he dropped and grabbed the CO2 fire extinguisher. He swung around and hugged the cylinder to his chest just as the grass type monster flew through the air towards him. The pokemon struck the cylinder with its front paws and bounced away, but a shield had never been Eric's main intention for the extinguisher. He quickly ripped the locking pin out of the handle and tossed it away, he pressed it down on the handle/trigger and grabbed the hose and nozzle with his free hand.
The grass type monster took the freezing blast in the face and roared. Cold and robbed of oxygen the roar quickly became a gravelly bleat.
Eric turned the cold blast on the fire type and it quickly raced out the kicked-in door, water, ice and blasted CO2 proving too much a risk to its fiery tail. Eric hoisted the extinguisher and prepared to lob it at either of the remaining thugs when the guy he'd shoulder charged into the wall kicked the back of his knee.
Eric dropped the extinguisher as he collapsed, the cylinder landed on the thug who made what Eric considered to be a satisfying grunt of pain, still, Eric considered sadly after all that effort he'd only really taken out one thug and one pokemon.
"WHAT THE!" Eric looked at the ruined door as Ben stormed through. Maybe I was right to trust him after all Eric thought as he tried to get back to his feet.
Ben swept his dark eyes around the room, noting the shelled water type and bulbed grass type that Eric had mentioned when he described the thugs who'd attacked him, he also counted three people besides Eric, so the only thing missing was the fire type "The store doesn't open till nine am guys" Ben stated in the coolest voice he could muster, at least he hoped it sounded cool and not trembly "You should show some patience, or somebody might consider what you're doing breaking and entering"
Ben lobbed a poke-ball as one of the thugs started to move forwards "Zubat SUPERSONIC!" the little blue bat screeched loudly causing the two trainers to cover their ears and the water type to duck back into its shell.
The grass type shook its head sluggishly, few reptiles functioned well in the cold. Ben took the opportunity and called an attack for his pokemon "Zubat LEECH LIFE!" he pointed at the green monster and his Zubat swooped down to latch on to the bigger monster's hide. It sunk its fangs in with gusto.
Ben recalled the bat as it finished its meal and swapped for Pest. The little Rattata roared as it exited its poke-ball "Alright Pest, attack everything that isn't me or Eric" Ben hated giving general orders but this situation called for it. The rat monster roared again and charged towards the thugs "RATA-TATA-TATA!"
One of the thugs, wearing an orange neckerchief over a white shirt yelled "Squirtle WATER GUN!" the little water pokemon opened its mouth and fired a torrent of water at Pest. The Rattata took the blast in the side and yelped as it was washed across the store and into the wall. Ben watched the Rattata struggle for a moment before calling it back to its poke-ball "Sorry mate, that thing is packing some serious water works...sprinkler is probably making it stronger to boot" Ben put the Rattata's poke-ball on his belt and grabbed another "Go KIT!" the Eevee was bigger than Pest but not a fire type like Flareon. Ben prayed it would have the weight to stand up to the Squirtle's powerful attack.
The punk in the neckerchief grinned "Squirtle BUBBLE!" Ben began to yell for a counter attack, but paused when he noticed the bubbles barely making it out of the pokemon's mouth before popping in the sprinkler water, but this seemed to be with its trainers plan because the smug grin never left his face "Squirtle WATER GUN!" the blue pokemon launched its water attack at Kit.
"Kit QUICK ATTACK!" Ben roared, hoping that a dodge and counter attack would get him a decent shot on the enemy's pokemon. Kit launched itself and cried out in surprise as it slipped over. Ducking under the blast of water but face planting on the slick tiles.
"Now do you see it? This place is soaked!" the thug announced proudly "And to add to it Squirtle's saliva is like detergent. The stuff is slippery and everywhere. Your only chance is to out power it and I know that Eevee was your best hope. Now back out and I might not give you something to remember me by"
Ben recalled Kit and considered his options.
"Pikachu Thunder shock"
Electricity arced around the room, zapping everything that had been soaked by the sprinkler and Squirtle's water attacks.
In short...everything.
Ben glared at Stephanie's shoes while he waited for his muscles to stop twitching and his teeth to stop chattering, he lost sight of her as she stepped over him to look behind the counter. That was another thing he'd never really liked about Stephanie, to her the ends justified the means. "Oh NO! Eric! Are you alright? I'm so sorry, I didn't think you'd be in the thick of it. I'm sorry!" Ben gritted his teeth What was he, chopped liver? Ben pushed aside such thoughts when he heard Eric's chattered reply of "Ttttitititititssss coo coo coo coool".
...…...
Stephanie sat on the counter beside Ben and Eric and tried hard to understand how the police had failed to catch these morons, something about them being a hit and run crew and yadda yadda yadda...personally Stephanie failed to see what the fuss was about, the thugs were nothing but zoiks; bell bottomed trousers and hippie pride. Hell, Stephanie wouldn't have been surprised to find out that they drove a Volkswagen Combie van with flowers painted on the side. Stephanie admired the irony of that though, hippies who mugged people...must have finally realised the era of love had come to an end.
Officer Jenny thanked them again for their efforts and prepared to leave but was confronted by Professor Oak and Cory as she reached the door "Please excuse me but I honestly can't stand to see those pokemon remain with those thugs or get abandoned" He paused to let Officer Jenny ponder this "They would come in quite handy for breeding purposes"
Jenny nodded "I could think of nobody better to set these three misguided souls straight than the retired Pokemon League champ"
Oak scratched the back of his head, looking both abashed and humble as he took the three Pokemon. Cory padded over to his travelling companions "So, you decided that rather than looking for Stephanie you'd bait her with the most miserable scene you could imagine and bring her running?" Ben stood up and drew back his fist, his muscles that had only minutes ago stopped twitching bunched in preparation then relaxed as Stephanie's fist dug into Cory's cheek, sending him spinning to the ground "You know what? I don't feel too miserable at the moment" Eric looked at his three friends, he was kind of sad to know they'd be moving on soon, but his common sense told him if he spent too much time in the company of these three idiot he was bound to find stupid rather catching.
...…...
Ben stretched for what must have been the thousandth time, his muscles ached but he and his companions had a job to do and a monster that needed to be neutralised. Neutralised...I like that term, makes me think of tough guys. Ben stretched again and kept walking.
The three headed down the road towards the Legends Road and the Indigo Plateau where the Pokemon League was held. They set up camp at the base of the cliff so they would be ready to hunt in the morning, as they pitched the tent all three reflected on their experiences so far in their journey, it was difficult not to in such a place. This was the path that all past legends had walked down before competing for the title of 'The Greatest Trainer'.
Ben stretched and gazed over the raised tent at the forbidding cliff face Tomorrow is going to be interesting he decided.
Yeah, I bet you all have better things to do than listen to me prattle, but I want to lay a thank you at the feet of my reviewers. It's been a while since I've gotten reviews that were so...critical. Noticing my errors is taking a bit of time, so updates might be a bit more delayed but hopefully they will be BETTER for the effort! Thanks for the feedback guys!