Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon and am in no way affiliated with Nintendo or Gamefreak, or other companies that write or produce pokemon. Now that that legal stuff is out of the way, on to the story!
Pokemon Legends: Kanto Saga
Chapter Ten
Rina Vs. Brock!
Rina and Ashley made it through Diglett's Cave without incident. Though they left early in the morning, it was now nearing evening. They had been walking for quite a while, but for travelling from Vermillion to Pewter it was a relatively quick trip.
"I can't believe we didn't see a single Diglett in there..." Ashley said in disappointment as they emerged from Diglett's Cave just outside Pewter City.
"They must have been avoiding us." Rina suggested. "They can just hide underground afterall..."
"-What does it matter to you anyway?-" Bulbasaur asked rhetorically. "-Not like you'd actually catch one..."
"So much for solving the mystery of what a Diglett looks like underneath the ground then..." Ashley heaved a sigh, hanging her head in defeat.
"Maybe next time?" Rina suggested in an attempt to cheer Ashley up. The two were quiet for a moment after, which is when Rina took notice of Pippi sniffing the air. "What is it, Pippi? Smell something?" Rina's question got Ashley and Bulbasaur's attention as well, and now all three of them were giving Pippi a curious glance.
"-I smell...smoke!-" Pippi looked off in the direction of Pewter City. "-Its coming from that way!-" Ashley and Rina followed Pippi's direction and saw smoke rising in the distance over Pewter City.
"Its coming from Pewter City!" Ashley announced, pointing out the obvious.
"Come on! Lets go see what it is!" Rina took off running, with Pippi soon following along behind her, but she stopped and looked back when she realized Ashley wasn't following her. "Ashley? Come on!"
"Rina, there's no way I'm running carrying this..." Ashley motioned to the large backpack she was carrying. "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." Rina nodded and took off running again, while Ashley walked as fast as she could with the large, heavy backpack.
The smoke that the girls could see was coming from a fire in the northern end of the city. Specifically, the Pewter City museum had been set ablaze. Firefighters were gathered around, trying to put out the fire, but the blaze wouldn't die down. The museum was near completely engulfed in flames and the firefighters just couldn't seem to bring it under control. A bit further away from the scene, one firefighter was co-ordinating their efforts.
"I can't believe this...it couldn't have been burning for more than a few minutes!" One of the firefighters said to his partner in disbelief. "If we had a few pokemon ourselves we could have had this under control..."
"A fire this bad had to have been started by a pokemon!" The other firefighter replied. "I just hope no one's trapped inside, I don't think anyone could be alive in there right now!"
A loud roar could be heard from within the museum just before a rocky pokemon broke through the eastern wall of the museum. Shortly after the wall was broken down, several people could be seen leaving the building. Most were staff, but there were a few visitors who happened to be in the museum at the time as well. Aside from a few burns they appeared to be ok, but several paramedics rushed to check them over anyway.
Once everyone was outside, the rock pokemon fully emerged from the museum head first. It was an Onix, and it went straight to a trainer standing far from the burning building once it was outside. The trainer, of course, was the gym leader Brock.
"Onix, is that everyone?" Brock asked his pokemon. Onix gave a nod of its massive head to confirm. Onix had checked both levels of the museum, using its body to protect everyone it found from the flames and debris of the burning museum. Onix was able to get them out before the smoke could suffocate them.
"Good job, Onix." Brock looked past Onix to the burning museum. "Someone had to have set this fire, it couldn't have spread that quickly on its own..."
"Quite the observer, aren't you?" Brock turned around to find a girl about his age with blonde hair standing behind him. She was wearing a pair of black shorts and an orange and yellow shirt with a sort of a flame motif. Over the shirt she had a brown vest with the letters 'GC' and the number 4 in gold on the right side of the vest. Standing next to her was a Flareon wearing the standard Grand Hunter slave collar.
"You're a hunter!" Brock exclaimed angrily when he saw the girl. "You did this, didn't you?"
"Quite the observer indeed..." The girl rubbed under her nose with the side of her index finger. "You may call me Flare, and I only set the museum on fire to draw you out. Burned quite nicely though..."
"You set a museum on fire just to draw me out?" Brock replied in disbelief, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists in anger. "You're the lowest!"
"I've set things on fire for less than that." Flare replied with a slight shrug, resting her hands behind her head. "But what can I say? I like watching things burn."
"Well congratulations, you got my attention." Brock stated sarcastically. "As gym leader of Pewter City and a representative of the Kanto League, I'm taking you in!"
"You're welcome to try." Flare replied with another shrug. "You'll just bring me closer to my objective.
"What is her objective?" Brock wondered, calming himself down enough to think through his next course of action. "She's definitely one of the Grand Hunters, and they're notorious for stealing pokemon. She must be after one of my pokemon then, and Onix would be the obvious choice."
After thinking over his situation carefully, Brock managed to reach a decision on what he should do next. He quickly drew Onix's pokeball and turned to the side to face his pokemon. "Onix, return!" Brock held out the pokeball towards Onix and pressed the button. The pokeball opened up and pulled Onix inside, safely storing the pokemon within its pokeball.
"You're smarter than I gave you credit for." Flare said smugly, removing her arms from behind her head and folding them over her chest. "Of course, you now have no pokemon to stop me with. Unless you plan to release your Onix to fight my Flareon, I'm going to burn down every building in the city one at a time until you give in."
"I still have Geodude!" Brock replied, drawing his only other pokeball and holding it up to release his pokemon from it. "Geodude, go!" The pokeball opened up, and Brock's Geodude emerged from within. Geodude appeared just in front of Brock, putting itself between Brock and Flare.
"Oh, shoot...I forgot about that one..." Flare said, feigning a surprised look. "Not! Your Geodude doesn't stand a chance against Flareon."
"I need to buy more time..." Brock thought. "If those firefighters can get the museum fire under control, then they can turn their hoses on that Flareon."
"Geodude, attack Flareon with Rock Tomb!"
"Flareon, jump!"
Geodude slammed its fists into the ground, causing the ground below Flareon's feet to start to crack and fissure. The ground split open and several rock pillars shot up, moving to surround Flareon. Flareon quickly jumped up out of the rocks as they began to collapse around it. The rocks formed a cone-shaped structure, which Flareon then landed on when it came down from its jump.
"You see, your Geodude just isn't much of a threat to my Flareon." Flare explained in a bored tone. "Flareon, attack Geodude with Fire Blast." From atop the rocks, Flareon spat out a fireball that quickly expanded until it was about twice the size of Flareon's head. The fireball seemed to grow arms, legs, and a head as it approached Geodude, looking somewhat like a stick figure.
Brock dove to the side to avoid getting hit by the blast himself, due to Geodude's proximity. Geodude, however, wasn't quite so fortunate. Being so slow to move, it was forced to brace itself against the incoming attack. The fireball pushed back against Geodude, continuously burning it until finally it exploded in a small burst of flames that engulfed Geodude entirely. The attack left Geodude pretty badly scorched and already looking tired.
"Geodude's not holding up at all..." Brock thought as he got back to his feet. "But we need to hold out as long as we can..." Brock then cast his gaze towards Flareon and frowned. "If only there were some way I could remove that collar..."
"Geodude, attack Flareon with Dig!" Geodude curled its arms around its body and began spinning around, drilling down into the ground and disappearing into a hole.
"Flareon, stay where you are." Flare commanded, again sounding bored with the battle. "Geodude can't reach you while you're on top of those rocks." Geodude approached Flareon from underground, eventually popping up unseen inside the tomb formed by its previous attack.
"Geodude, bust out of there with a Tackle attack!" Geodude threw himself into one of the large rocks forming the tomb, knocking it over and jumping out. The impact threw the remaining rocks off balance as well, causing them to collapse under Flareon and throw it to the ground. Flareon seemed to be stunned for a moment and was knocked off its feet, giving Geodude time to attack it.
"Geodude, now! Rock Throw!" Geodude quickly picked up one of the rocks from the recently collapsed tomb and threw it at Flareon. The rock shattered into several pieces after smashing against Flareon's body, sending Flareon rolling onto its back. Flareon was stunned for a brief second but quickly got up, looking little worse for wear.
"Not a bad trick...too bad it didn't amount to anything." Flare said to Brock with a smug grin. "Flareon, finish that Geodude off with a Shadow Ball!"
Flareon focused on a point just in front of it, forming a ball of shadowstuff. Flareon then made a quick forward movement, flinging the ball at Geodude. Geodude recoiled as the ball struck it head-on, dispersing in a blast of shadowstuff. Geodude was knocked onto its back and weakly tried to pull itself upright, but had no strength left.
"And now your Geodude is defeated..." Flare stated, again with that smug grin of her's. "Now, you can either send out your Onix...or I'll set every building in Pewter on fire. I'll even start with the pokecenter!"
"Damn it...running out of options here..." Brock glanced over his shoulder to the firefighters, but they were struggling to put out the remaining fires from the museum. A small crowd had gathered nearby to watch what was going on, but no one seemed to be making any attempt to help Brock. He was alone against Flare, his Geodude already defeated. Brock recalled his Geodude and tried to figure out a plan of action. Fortunately, help arrived from an unexpected source.
"Pippi, disable Flareon with Thunder Wave! Berg, attack with Water Gun!" Rina had managed to sneak up from behind Flare, surrounding her and Flareon on either side with her Blastoise and Pichu. Both moved before Flare could react, Pippi firing a static-pulse of electricity that paralyzed Flareon immediately and Berg knocking Flare to the ground with a quick but powerful Water Gun.
"Ow!" Flare cried out, landing hard on her butt."Who the hell are you?!" Flare angrily demanded as she looked up at Rina. She moved to get up but both Berg and Pippi were already poised to attack her, looking more than a little upset at the hunter.
"My name's Rina, and you're under arrest!" Rina replied, trying her best to look and sound authorative despite her small stature.
"Right..." Flare sneered at her. "Sorry, kiddy, but I won't be sticking around..." Flare took a standard Grand Hunter smokeball from her belt and raised it above her head, preparing to smash it against the ground.
"Pippi, Quick Attack!" Pippi nodded and jumped towards Flare in a blur of movement, striking her hand.
"Agh!" Flare cried out as Pippi struck her hand, causing Flare to drop the smoke ball. Flare grabbed at her hand in pain as the ball fell to the ground and broke open. Rina wasn't particularly worried about this at first, as Flare couldn't possibly get up and run away that quickly after being struck. However, when the smoke cleared, Flare and Flareon were gone.
"But...but thats impossible!" Rina stammered in shock. "We had her right here!"
"Rina, I don't know why you're back here, but your timing couldn't have been better..." Brock said to her with a smile. "Quite the impressive catch, too." He added, casting a glance towards Blastoise. "He looks like he's in rough shape though, you oughta take him by the pokecenter..."
"Its a long story..." Rina said to Brock, rubbing the back of her head. "Blastoise was one of the hunter's pokemon, forced to evolve through some kinda serum made by Team Rocket." Rina added a defeated sigh. "I thought for sure I had that Flare cornered..."
"Rina's been fighting hunters?" Brock thought, frowning to himself. "I wonder how much stronger she's gotten then..."
"Rina, I wouldn't get too worried about how Flare escaped. From what I heard, they pull things like that off all the time." Brock reassured her.
"-Even I don't quite remember how those work...-" Berg added, nodding to Rina. "-Its as though my memory of what happens between the smoke ball being dropped and arriving in the storage area of their headquarters is missing. I believe they may have used the collars in some way to prevent us from remembering these things, in the event that we are either released somehow or sold...-"
"In any case..." Brock continued, once Berg was finished speaking. Brock couldn't understand a word of it, but he knew Rina could. "Rina, I would like to challenge you to a battle under the rules of a gym match."
"Wh-what?!" Rina stuttered in her surprise. "Right now? Why?"
"I want to see how strong your pokemon are." Brock replied in a serious tone. "We'll head back to my gym and battle there. By the way, where's Ashley? Weren't you two travelling together?"
"Well..." Rina began to reply, but a timely arrival by Ashley and Bulbasaur made it unnecessary.
"Its over already? Ugh..." Ashley groaned in exasperation. Brock finally looked back at the burning museum behind him, only to find it wasn't burning anymore. The fire was out and the battle was over. "I was hoping to get pictures too..." Ashley finally looked between Brock and Rina, noticing the tension in the air.
"Ok, what happened?"
Rina and Brock quickly explained the situation to Ashley after she arrived late to the scene. Ashley was as dumbfounded as Rina to hear how Flare had escaped, vanishing as soon as a smokeball was dropped like any other hunter they had encountered. Ashley snapped a picture of the burnt remains of the museum before they left the scene, even though she didn't think it'd be worth anything to anyone.
Brock lead the two girls to his gym and unlocked it, having closed it up for the day earlier. Ashely sat down on the bench at the side of the gym once they were inside, taking Pippi and Bulbasaur with her, while Rina moved to the challenger's square at the front of the gym. Brock went into the back of the gym to heal his pokemon before the match.
"Well this is a new experience..." Ashley noted as she sat on the bench, plopping Rina's heavy backpack on the floor. Pippi stood on the bench next to her and Bulbasaur sat on the floor. "I'm on the sidelines, and Rina's battling the gym leader..."
"-I want to battle a gym leader...-" Pippi mumbled bitterly, scuffing her foot against the wooden bench.
"-Forget it, kid, you wouldn't have any attacks you could use against Brock anyway.-" Bulbasaur said to Pippi. Pippi sighed in defeat and nodded. She knew Bulbasaur was right, thats why she was on the sidelines instead of with Rina.
After only a few minutes, Brock emerged from the office at the back of his gym. He was holding a pokeball in his hand as he approached the gym leader's platform on the otherside of the field. "I take it you know the rules, Rina?"
"Two pokemon each, no substitutions by the gym leader." Rina replied, as if she had heard it many times before. Brock nodded to her affirmatively. Rina took a pokeball from her belt at that point as well.
"Geodude, go!" Brock held out the pokeball he had in his hand, pressing the button and releasing his first pokemon for his match with Rina. Geodude appeared on the battlefield and smashed his fists together, making a showy entrance.
"Ok! Against Geodude, I'll use Berry!" Rina pressed the button on her own pokeball and released her Butterfree, Berry, onto the battlefield. Berry hovered over the battlefield when she appeared, her compound eyes having a serious look to them despite the smile on her small lips.
"She has a Butterfree too? Rina's been busy since she left..." Brock thought to himself. "Ok, Geodude! Start off with Rock Throw!" Geodude raised both his arms behind his back, producing a rock and then hurling it at Berry. Berry's distance from Geodude gave her plenty of time to react, though. She flew over a few feet to the side, taking her out of harm's way.
"Good dodge, Berry! Now attack with Confusion!" Berry's eyes seemed to flash as she focused her psychic powers around Geodude. Her power manifested as psychic energy blasted Geodude from all directions, stunning Geodude briefly with the mental attack. The rock pokemon was able to quickly recover, however, looking little worse off after enduring it.
"Geodude, use Rock Throw again!" Brock commanded Geodude. "Aim to hit it from above!" Geodude produced another rock and hurled it at Berry again, aiming high. Again, Berry had time to react before the rock would reach her. She flew forward and down slightly, putting herself only two to three feet above the ground. This seemed to be exactly what Brock had planned for.
"Now! Follow it up with Rock Tomb!"
"Ack! Berry, use Harden!"
Geodude slammed his fists into the ground, causing a small crack to rip across the gym towards Berry. Berry focused inward, stiffening her body against the incoming attack. Several rocks shot up out of the ground as the crack stopped under her, shooting up and then crashing down onto her from all sides and dragging her down to the ground. Berry was trapped under the rocks, at least for the moment.
"Berry! No!" Rina called out frantically. Berry was clearly in pain even with her increased defenses. She looked back at Rina and smiled weakly. Rina choked back a sob at seeing Berry trapped under the rocks.
"Rina doesn't seem to be very used to pokemon battling." Brock noted, her reaction not going unnoticed to him. "I hate to do this, but she and her pokemon need to be serious battlers if they're going up against the Grand Hunters..."
"Geodude, use Rock Throw again!" Geodude produced another rock and hurled it at the trapped Berry. Berry squealed in pain as the heavy rock landed on her, leaving only her head visible above the pile of rocks now as it struck her body.
"Isn't Brock being kinda harsh?" Ashley thought. "Whats with wanting to see how strong Rina's pokemon are anyway? Does it really matter this much to him? He's taking it as serious as a gym match..."
"Berry..." Rina was stunned for a moment and gritted her teeth as the seriousness of the battle began to dawn on her. "Berry, attack Geodude with Giga Drain!"
"-G-got it...master!-" Berry focused on Geodude and it wasn't long before a thick, green stream of energy was pulled away from Geodude. The attack dealt a tremendous amount of damage to Geodude and drew away a large portion of its life force, restoring some energy to Berry and stunning Geodude briefly as it recoiled from the powerful attack.
"Again! Giga Drain!" Rina called out again. Berry happily obliged, already starting to feel a lot better from the drained energy. It wouldn't get much back this time, however, as it absorbed the last of Geodude's lifeforce. Another green stream of energy flowed from Geodude to Berry, much smaller this time. Geodude fell forward, rolling onto his face as he was knocked unconcious.
"Your Butterfree has a strong technique in Giga Drain, I'll give you that." Brock said to Rina as he recalled his defeated Geodude. "There's more to winning pokemon battles than powerful techniques and strong pokemon, though."
"I know that!" Rina shot back. "Strategy is important too!"
"Its easy to say that, but how well can you come up with one?" Brock asked her in response. He placed Geodude's pokeball on his belt and retrieved his only other pokeball, the one containing Onix. "Onix, go!" Brock called out, holding up the pokeball and releasing the huge rock snake pokemon Onix out onto the battlefield.
"Berry, you've done enough for now! Take a rest!" Rina recalled Berry, finally freeing the bug pokemon from the pile of rocks she was trapped under. Rina quickly swapped Berry's pokeball on her belt. "Berg, your turn now!" Rina held up the pokeball and released her Blastoise onto the battlefield. Berg appeared on the field facing Onix, his twin water cannons popping out of the cracked holes in his shell and immediately training them on the rock pokemon.
"Onix, start off by using Dig!"
"Berg, hit Onix with Water Gun before it can escape!"
The rocks that formed Onix's body began spinning like a drill as the pokemon made its move. Onix dug its head into the ground and began spinning like a drill, its long body quickly disappearing underground. Berg shot off a quick blast of water from each cannon, landing a glancing blow with one of the shots on Onix's tail section just before it disappeared into the ground.
"Ok, think. When Brock used Dig against Ashley, his pokemon would dig under the gym and then pop up under Ashley's pokemon. So to counter that, I should..." Rina quickly went over Berg's attack list in her head, or what she could remember of it at least. She couldn't think of any that could attack Onix now, but she knew she could at least defend against its attack.
"Berg, use Withdraw and lie on your back!" Berg withdrew his guns, arms, legs, and head into his shell and fell onto his back. Berg had barely hit the ground when Onix emerged from underneath him, slamming into his shell and flipping Berg over as he was pushed aside. Onix only emerged partially from the hole, though, raising the top half of his body to tower over Berg.
"Berg, now's your chance! Get up and use Blizzard!" Blastoise quickly rolled onto its feet and extended his two cannons, quickly taking aim at Onix.
"It couldn't possibly..." Brock had a look of shock on his face as the possibility dawned on him, remembering where Rina received her Blastoise. "Onix, quick! Back into the hole!"
Onix began to spin its body, slowly reversing back into the hole. It was moving far too slowly, though. When Berg fired the blast of cold air, snow, and ice from his two cannons, Onix took almost the full blast. Onix roared and recoiled in pain but continued spinning, pulling its body back into the hole while enduring the Blizzard attack. Onix managed to endure long enough to escape, leaving a frozen landscape behind.
"To have such a powerful attack...and yet Onix survived it?" Brock thought in disbelief but then nodded in understanding. "Right...I bet whatever the Hunters did to force it to evolve must have left it in a weakened state, that would explain why its body looks so beat up. I wonder why a trip to the pokecenter wouldn't fix it up, though?"
"Ok, Berg! Same thing again, Withdraw!" Berg withdrew into his shell again and rolled onto his back, ready to defend himself against another underground attack from Brock's Onix. Brock, however, wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice.
"Onix, surface in front of it and Bind it!" Onix emerged almost as soon as Brock had finished speaking. The rock snake rose from the ground in front of Blastoise and moved to wrap his body around the perimeter of Blastoise's shell. Onix's body had Berg's arms, legs, and head trapped inside its shell while Onix started squeezing on it from all sides.
"Not good! How am I going to get out of this one?" Rina thought. Examining the situation, she quickly realized Berg could still get his cannons free. While he wouldn't be able to attack Onix directly, spray from a Blizzard attack would reach it.
"Berg, attack with Blizzard!" Berg's cannons quickly popped out of the holes in his shell. Cold air and ice began to pour out of the barrels, spreading out in all directions. The blast struck a glacing blow over the top of Onix's body, as Rina had intended, forcing the rock snake to let go of Berg so it could get out of the way.
"Now! Water Gun!" Released from Onix's Bind attack, Berg quickly got back on his feet and turned his guns on Onix. Berg took aim at Onix's head and fired a quick blast of water from each cannon. Onix let out a pained roar as both blasts struck simultaneously, collapsing to the ground. The last of Onix's strength had left it. As Onix lay still in defeat, Ashley took a quick picture.
"Rina defeating Brock...that'll be one for the scrapbook for sure!" Ashley said after taking the picture. Her camera printed it off in no time.
"-Whats a scrapbook?-" Pippi asked Ashley, forgetting for a moment that Ashley couldn't understand her.
"-I think its something humans put pictures in.-" Bulbasaur replied with a light shrug.
"Your pokemon are strong, and have powerful techniques, but there's still room for you to improve on a personal level." Brock said to Rina as he recalled Onix. "I would still be careful about challenging the Hunters though if I were you..."
"So thats what this was about?" Rina asked in response. Brock nodded to her.
"It might not be pretty if you were to lose to them, especially not with that Blastoise of your's." Brock said to her.
"We've already had a hand in capturing two of the Hunters though!" Ashley enthusiastically said to Brock. "Its not like we're purposely going after them, but we're not going to back down either. We both have our reasons for wanting to take them in."
"Well you can both tell me more after dinner." Brock said with a light smile. "I have a new pizza recipe I wanted to try out..."
"I can't wait! I love pizza!" Rina cheered in response.
"Didn't Rina make a pizza the last time we were in Pewter City?" Ashley wondered, thinking back to her first visit. "Brock usually looked after her...I wonder if he's the one that taught her to cook?"
After the battle at Brock's gym, everyone left and headed to Rina's place. Brock and Rina immediately headed off to the kitchen when they arrived, and Ashley decided to take a shower while they were getting the pizza ready. Bulbasaur and Pichu waited in the living room and ended up arguing over what to watch on tv. Bulbasaur wanted to watch nature documentaries, which Pichu found boring.
By the time Ashley was out of the shower, which was considerably longer than it needed to be, the pizza was almost ready. While waiting for the pizza to cook they stepped outside for a moment and fed their pokemon. As usual, Rina wasn't satisfied just feeding her pokemon normal food and tried adding various spices and seasonings. It didn't go over well, and the pokemon ended up eating their usual food anyway.
When the pizza was finally ready, everyone sat down in the living room to eat. The pizza was just a peperoni and cheese pizza, however Brock cooked the peperoni separately to season it and rolled cheese into the crust of the pizza. Rina had taken notes when he was making it, adding to her list of recipes. Most of the recipes Rina had were actually pizza, though she did have others as well such as the tomato soup she made at Mount Moon.
While everyone was eating, Rina was excitedly telling Brock what she had been through since leaving Pewter. She told him all about the hunters they had run into, the pokemon she caught, and mentioned the Snorlax outside Vermillion as well. She even went into detail about Ashley's gym matches.
"...but Lt. Surge wasn't expecting an unevolved Bulbasaur to be able to take his Raichu's attacks! Bulbasaur shrugged off the Thunderbolt and then finished Raichu with one Vine Whip!" Rina finally finished her story with the end of Ashley's battle against Lt. Surge. Everyone had long since finished eating by then.
"-What can I say? I'm a real piece of work!-" Bulbasaur grinned widely as Rina finished her story. Pippi gave him a playful slap to the back of the head to bring him back down to Earth.
"Sounds like you two are really climbing the ladder." Brock commented when Rina was finished. "Almost a full team each and already beat three gym leaders." Brock grinned as he looked over at Ashley, sitting on the other side of the couch. "Sounds like you and your friends from Pallet Town are quite something, glad you didn't stick to just being a photographer now?"
"Well...I still plan on being a photographer..." Ashley smiled lightly and rubbed the back of her head. "Getting badges on the side certainly doesn't hurt though, and I bet with strong pokemon I could get into some pretty dangerous places to take pictures."
"-Yeah, and while you're going into dangerous places you can try catching some strong pokemon there.-" Bulbasaur added bitterly.
"-Why do you want Ashley to catch so many pokemon anyway?-" Pippi asked curiously.
"-She's supposed to be working on a pokedex for Professor Oak.-" Bulbasaur explained. "-The old guy's been raising me all these years, so I feel like I at least owe him that much as well. Ashley isn't nearly as interested in catching pokemon though.-"
"-Oh...-" Pippi tilted her head to the side, pondering Bulbasaur's statement. "-But...what about Rina? Couldn't her pokemon count too?-"
"-Well...-" Bulbasaur began to reply, but Rina cut him off.
"Hey, thats a great idea Pippi!" Rina said. Pippi smiled at the praise. "Ashley, why don't you record my pokemon on your pokedex? Then you don't have to go out of your way to catch pokemon and still get pages added to your pokedex!"
"That is a good idea! Thanks, Pippi!" Ashley reached down and patted Pippi on the head.
"-Oh, wonderful, now she has an excuse to be lazy...-" Bulbasaur grumbled irritably.
"I should probably take off, I have a gym to run in the morning afterall." Brock stood up from the couch, but paused when he saw Rina's backpack in the corner of the room.
"...I'll leave after I help you pack a smaller backpack." Rina blinked in surprise at Brock's suggestion and Ashley mouthed a silent 'thank you' to him.
Author's Notes: Took a brief break from writing this one. As I mentioned in earlier notes, I'm trying to cut down on the number of pokemon I'm having trainer's catch. One would reason, then, that there should also be a reduction in the number of same-type pokemon. So I ended up re-doing the list of pokemon I planned to have Ashley and Rina catch.
I still have one character getting two water pokemon, but I figure they'll be distinguished well enough from each other. Originally it would have ended up with two normal pokemon, two fire, and two water on Ashley's team and two water on Rina's team. This also resulted in some changes to the plot. The first of these changes will appear in the next chapter.
Something to consider: When a fire burns, it needs a fuel source and oxygen. For a fire pokemon to make sense from a biological standpoint it would...well, actually, I don't know if you could really make sense of it in any form. Worst, though, is the 'tail fires' of pokemon like Charmander and its line. In the anime we see these pokemon with small fires, revealing a flat tail. That would suggest that their tail fires have NO fuel source!
Obviously we could go on for hours about the magical nature of pokemon in light of their attacks/abilities/etc, but this is just one I've been thinking a lot on lately. The reason I bring this up? Well, a fire with such properties as that produced by a pokemon might not be easily put out. Though one also has to wonder whether or not it'd actually burn anything...