It's been a while, I've been up to my neck in school work, that along with my utter lack of creativity and not wanting to abandon this story made me upload again. But now it's summer vacation, so you can atleast expect me to upload more than once every 7 months. Again, I apologize.
I woke up the next morning hyped. Jack was already up, doing push-ups whilst Lagoon sat atop his back. Lagoon saw that I was awake and hopped off of Jack; the force of the jump pushed Jack into the ground. He looked up annoyed; his chest spike had gotten stuck in the floor below him. Lagoon flashed his teeth at me, he was ready. I had guessed that Jack explained to him the concept of gym badges and The Pokémon League to him, and he saw the prospect as exciting.
XxXxXxX
I did my morning routine, brushing my teeth, taking a shower, etc. I got out, put on my shades and walked out the building as fast as possible. Pokémon centers had scared me; I might've been permanently scarred by them. The only reason I slept in them was because I had no other option. As I walked out of the building I decided I wanted to take a little detour through the town. I passed some restaurants that seemed good, but I didn't have money for any trivial bullshit. If I wanted a full belly, I could do it for free by killing a bird. What I really wanted to do was swing by the supermarket, I needed clothes, new boots, maybe some stuff to keep me from dying of boredom.
I walked through the market; the shelves were lined with all sorts of stuff. From clothes to electronics, this place had everything but a good name. It was called MarketMania! Which sounded like a goddamn scam if I'd ever heard one, it sounds like something you would read on an add on the door of a liquor store. I put some thick combat pants into my cart; I had found some waterproof combat boots with a neat shoestring that was strong enough to lift 4000 pounds, figured that might come in handy.
I walked up to the weapons section; that side had all kinds of stuff. I saw a crossbow and some rifles. I wasn't old enough to buy the real guns by myself, but for some reason they had no age restrictions on ammo. I put 2 boxes of 40 bullets in my cart. I bought a combat knife made from the steel of an aggron. It cost me a bunch, but it was more than worth it. Aggron steel was perfect for blades because it never dulled, no matter what you struck it against.
I pushed the cart to the counter; the store had charged me 1500 cash, which was the exact amount I had in my bag. I was now dead broke. It was fine though, after I won the gym battle I would get loads of cash. I loaded eight bullets into the revolver. I had bought hollow-point bullets, which were a lot more expensive but I figured they would be worth it in the long run. I would be damned if something like what happened in Goldenrod happened again.
I released my starter from his ball; it would be about a 20 minute walk to the gym, so I figured he could use the exercise. As we were walking, Jack spoke up.
Do you think we're ready? I mean, don't you think that we could use a bit more training? He looked at me; his eyes spoke of uncertainty in his own abilities. Jack was a powerful pokémon; his strength far exceeded many other pokémon at his age and even more experienced ones.
"I believe in both of you. Lagoon is still young, but he already knows the ins and outs of pokémon battling very well. You are one of the strongest pokémon I've ever seen, and I worked on a farm where I saw hundreds of powerful pokémon that were trained by champions. As long as you go by your primal instinct along with my commands, we should beat that gym no problem." I reassured him, he sighed.
I wasn't really talking about myself, I am confident enough in my abilities.
"Then who are you talking about? Lagoon? He is perfectly strong." I denied him, I genuinely believed in Lagoon. Not only because he was my favorite, but also because he was vastly improving compared to when we first got him.
No he isn't. Lagoon is way too young, he has only had a few trainer battles and he is horrible mid-battle strategist. The strongest trainer he ever faced was the bratty raticate kid, and I could've beaten him with a broken leg. He looked at me like I was stupid, even though he had a good point, I would never say that he was right.
"Then we are just going to have to use you for this gym battle. One measly lucario against a minimum of 2 league quality pokémon. This should go well, right?" I saw him shudder, he was lying to himself.
I'm not saying Lagoon can't help out, I'm just saying that you are VASTLY overestimating his abilities. He is still a little kid; he doesn't know what a real fight is. He is naïve and stupid. He takes after his trainer. Jack insulted, he gained a glare from me.
"We will see if your words hold any sort of truth to them. If Lagoon stomps this gym then I get to punch you in the nose." I gambled with myself, if Lagoon wasn't ready for the gym, what's the worst that could happen?
XxXxXxX
We walked into the gym; the receptionist smiled and greeted us.
"Hello, welcome to Cianwood City gym, the edge of the Pokémon League." She said, she was rummaging through her desk for some papers, which she laid on the wooded surface.
"Yeah, hi. This is my first time walking into a gym, so if there are some forms I'm supposed to fill out, or…? I trailed off hoping she would catch my drift.
"This is your first time? Well you have a great chance against Filipe, especially with that lucario." She waved at Jack, his face remained still however.
"Well then, take these forms and fill them out. It should only take you around half an hour. Once you are done, I'll look them over and you are free to meet Filipe." She slide a few papers across her desk, I read some of the questions. It was just stuff like, what is your name, date of birth, etc. "Here is a pen; while you are filling them out you can sit over at that waiting area." She handed me the pen and pointed towards the sofa in the corner.
XxXxXxX
She wasn't lying, it really only took me a few minutes to fill out the forms. I had rushed through it because if I completed it any later she would have left for her lunch break. I set the sheets on top of the counter as she skimmed over them.
"Alright then Mr. Ferry, you are now free to go." She pressed a button, which opened the sliding doors on to the right of the desk. "Good luck Ace, and here, take this with you." She gave me a little booklet called "The Edge of the Pokémon League. It was all about the ins and outs of the most dangerous 'incision' pokémon, as they call it. It had a bunch of pokémon in it, like seviper and beedrill. I would study the guide book as soon as I beat the gym.
The inside of the gym was gigantic; it had a big concrete arena at the center, the middle of which had a poke ball symbol in the center. There were a ton of seats, or better put it, there were rocks finely cut into benches on the side of the ring. Various gym trainers were sitting down, having small talk with all of their pokémon released. I saw a lobster pokémon with a claw at least 4 feet in length, the pokémon was blue and had sharp piercing yellow eyes. Its mandibles clicked and wiggled, it sent shudders down my side. Hopefully I wouldn't have to battle that, I thought.
A man walked in, he was suave, and his stride was fast and confident. He had shiny hair that was smoothed back; he ran his hand through it and stared at me with his eyes narrowed. He wore an expensive suit I found unfit for pokémon training, but to each his own I guess. He cracked his knuckles; his eyes were green and sleepy looking. Even as he seemed aloof and CCC'd as fuck, I could see the awareness in his eyes.
I didn't even notice that he was but a few feet away from me before spoke. "You on the choppin' block or sumthin' kid? Or are you just payin' respect to a god." He spoke with a slight rasp in his thick accent. I couldn't quite place it, but it sounded like Eastern Kalos.
"I'm looking for the gym leader here; I believe his name is Filipe?" I asked the mysterious man, who laughed at my question.
"If Filipe was a snake he would've bitten you." It took me a second to get the words he said. Then it registered, he was the gym leader here. "Your name is? I'm guessing its sumthin' close to 'genius.'"
"It's Aceves Ferry, I'm from Azalea." I informed him, he nodded.
"So you here for a gym battle, Aceves?" He asked.
"Yup, this'll be a perfect slaughterhouse for you." I bragged. a smirk crept across my face.
"Of course someone from South Johto would say something that retarded. You should be more worried about getting slaughtered than me, they usually only kill the inbred miltank's." I could literally feel the smoke rising from my pants as he roasted my ass.
"I have nothing for that, but back to my original statement. I want to battle you; I have no badges and a lack of time for fuckery. Battle or no?" I said frankly.
"If it wasn't against League rules, I would pop you in the mouth. Let's get it over with before I kick you out for being an ass." His mood sunk into the red, his CCC personality was completely depleted. His brows were furrowed and his eyes got darker somehow.
"Like I said, a lack of time. Unless you just want to give me the gym badge then you better hurry up." I said with an attitude, I got a nasty taste in my mouth from just looking at him.
"You think you don't have time? Try battling 50+ trainers a day. Shut your trivial ass up." He spat, his words were sharp as his pokémon. "Go to the over side of this field, you can freely switch between your pokémon as much as you want. No trainer interference, one pokémon out at a time. How many do you have?" He asked, all emotion disappeared from his voice. I kind of felt bad; I think he liked me at first but now I was just another challenger for him to wipe the floors with.
"I've got 2; do you want to know which species they are? I mean, it would give you an advantage, since you clearly need one." I joked, trying to bring back the mood. Now he REALLY wouldn't hold back, seeing as how I ruined his day with my rudeness.
"Hilarious, you'd be a better stand-up than a pokémon trainer." He called one of his interns over; they brought him a box of poke balls. He skimmed over the names of the pokémon, he picked up two of the spheres. One of them was an Ultra Ball; the other was just a standard one.
"Alright then, go to the other side like I told you to. We are going to get this shit goin' in a few second." He walked over to his side, and threw his ultra-ball. The object exploded in a flash, the ultra-ball was much louder than a regular poke ball, probably because it required more power to hold the strong creature inside.
An all-white cat-like creature appeared in the explosion. It had a large red streak that I would've confused with blood if it hadn't appeared to be completely imprinted on its fur. Its eyes were as red as the streak on its coat. Its claws were a solid 7 inches long, and sharper than a double edged sword. I smirked, this would be easy. Jack had a type advantage toward the creature, his attacks were likely stronger too.
I called Jack over; he was busy having a conversation with one of the pokémon in the gym, but he still sprinted my way, all the while glaring at the creature. His stare was still flaming, he was looking as if he wanted to burn a whole in the pokémon.
"Jackal, make sure you block those claws as much as possible, your steel typing will struggle to protect you against those things." I warned Jack. I finished up telling him our game plan; he nodded and turned back towards the zangoose. He smirked and rushed forwards faster than my eye could catch. He shot the zangoose point-blank with an energy blast. The zangoose sidestepped at the last moment, and slashed at Jack's flanked. Jack ducked under the blow and punched the pokémon with a flaming fist.
"Jack remember what I told you! Now get back and blast his ass!" I ordered, Jack growled and ran back to my side of the ring.
"Multiply, Gutter!" Filipe yelled. I had a confused look on my face for a moment before I realized what he meant.
"Jump up in the air and apply more energy to your shot!" He did what was told of him. His powerful legs allowed him to jump much higher than a regular person. He blasted the entire ring, but the zangoose just jumped up back to Jack's level and swiped him back down towards the field. Jack landed in with a loud thump; he sat up and discharged more energy at the pokémon. But he had trouble aiming however since the cat-thing (Gutter, apparently) had spread his numbers by about thirty. All thirty of the clones landed on the ground and sprinted towards Jack. Twenty-nine of them were still running but the one in the middle had his claw in front of him, almost like he was jousting.
"Skewer it!" Filipe smirked, my eyes widened. Jack spun around to that he was facing the zangooses back; he kicked it in the back of the leg. Gutter went down on his knees in pain; Jack smirked and held the back of Gutters head. His hand glowed and within a split second a sound reminiscent of thunder, clapped in the gym. The zangoose fell forward. The rear side of it's head was burnt so badly that it was bald, Jack laughed to himself.
Well then, I guess I just might take this whole gym myself. He bragged, referencing our previous argument.
"It's not over yet, he still has one more. Get ready." My confidence was boosted a bit, despite my words.
"No, no. It's fine, it'll all be over in a second. Cleaver, go!" The leader had a smug smile plastered on his face, my eyes narrowed as I waited in anticipation for his next pokémon.
He threw the ball and released a terrifying creature. It was a bright green velociraptor, it had bug-like wings and huge claws that trumped even the zangooses'. The edges of said claws were thinner than a human hair. It roared, it's mouth opened and revealed he had many teeth, with multiple sets of them lining his jaws. The thing growled and started scrapped its claws together, making a sound reminiscent of a cricket mixed with the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard. Faster than I could think, it was already face to face with Jack. It got quiet, I saw Jacks throat move as he gulped. That was the last thing he did before he was cut across the chest. His steel typing was the only thing keeping him from getting chopped in half. That pokémon really held up to his name.
I returned Jack before anything really bad could happen. I released Lagoon, his face wandered around the gym, before settling upon the pokémon a few steps away. Lagoon lost all of his childlike personality right there. His body became encased with water and he jetted into Cleaver's gut, knocking the wind out of it. The totodile's fangs became iced over as he snapped them down upon the scyther's side. It hissed in pain and took off high up into the air. Lagoon instantly let go, landing on the ground.
"Lagoon, shoot some water in its face and blind it!" He soaked the scyther head to toe in icy cold water. It dived back down onto the ground, right before its face hit the ground it snapped its jaws down onto Lagoon. My pokémon squealed and feebly attempted to hit the scyther on the sides of its head. But it was ineffective, the scyther applied more pressure onto Lagoon. I heard a crack, the totodile screamed bloody murder, tears fled his eyes, and he looked at me one final time. I saw Lagoon's eyes lose their color; he fell out of the scyther's mouth. In two.
I returned what remained of Lagoon. Anger bubbled into me. I was angry because Lagoon was gone. I was angry that it was mostly my fault. If I hadn't of been such a fucking rude asshole like I always was, then it would've just been a regular match. He got out that scyther because he knew it wouldn't hold back. He knew that if it killed one of my pokémon, he could blame it on 'predatory instinct' or some bullshit. Well two could play that game.
"Jackal, come on out." I said, calmly but angrily. Jack looked at the pool of crocodile guts and blood on the floor, then back at the scyther. He knew instantly what had happened.
I told you, I told you not to bring him. You dumb fucker. He was madder at me than the scyther. His anger switched back towards the gym leader. He was talking to him psychically, Filipe's eyes widened.
Jack leapt at the scyther, one of his fists was flaming, and the other was fully frozen. He punched the scyther in the face with the scorched one; its face was lit on fire. It screeched in pain, it swiped its claws back at Jack; Jack simply blocked the hit with the steel sickle on the back of his hand. He slammed the scyther in the stomach with his frozen fist. He gripped the scyther's side with his icy hand; keeping it still. He tore it apart. First he tore off its skin around its stomach, and then cauterized the wound. The cauterization made the skin soft enough to cut through, with the plus side of being extra painful. He ripped the scyther's claw off, and then skewered him through the cauterized skin above the stomach. The scyther was screaming until it fainted. Jack pulled the claw back out and threw it to the side. He grabbed the scyther by the legs and swung it in circles. Blood rushed to the scythers head and woke him back up; he went back to screaming in pain.
All of the trainers in the gym sat up and stared at me, amazed that Jackal was able to effortlessly and callously dispatch of such a powerful bug pokémon. Jack threw it on the ground in front of its trainer; it lay there, hissing at Jack, pain to excruciating to sit up. Jack ran up to it and kicked its body, right where he was skewered. Filipe recalled it, his face was priceless to me, but to everyone else, I was a fucking lunatic.
Killing pokémon wasn't illegal, it was just considered uncouth and rude. If you have two creatures fight each other using fire, pressurized water cannons, and enough strength to tear through concrete then you should expect deaths. Gym leaders especially could care less about harming a trainer's pokémon. They think that if a trainer wasn't prepared to have any one of his pokémon die, he didn't deserve to own them. In a way I agreed, until it happened to me.
Filipe had already called back his pokémon. "Your badge has been added to your trainer card. Looks like my scyther was a bit much for your totodile. Hope now you learned-" I punched him in the jaw. Jack spat on his face and stomped on his chest. If the badge was already programmed onto the card, I didn't have to waste any more time in that gym. I left without a word.
I stopped on my way out, I looked behind me and saw that every single trainer had released their pokémon in a frenzy, I guess they all thought I was gonna take my anger out on them. I would've laughed, had I not been pissed off past humor. Well, one good thing came out of that situation. I learned what it felt like to lose a friend.
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