Chapter 11

Port! Starboard! Slateport Ho!

The newly founded group of six walked under the bicycle path, the sound of rolling bikes above them. Knocking the tall grass away from them, a strange noise was heard. Leo, who was at the tailfin of the group looked up and screamed.

"Everyone get down!" Everyone followed his command and dove to different sides, the blades of grass scratching their cheeks as they made contact. A Motorbike fell off the highway, followed by several others. The lot of bikers parked in front of them. Kari got to her knees and stood up, examining the delinquents. One of them resembled a Cue Ball from her old yellow version game, the one that she threw away a while ago, and the others were just random looking guys. Oh, wait, one of them was a girl.

Groaning, the others got up as well, shaken and stirred. "What do you want?" Kazo said. They smirked. "Tax! Pay up, 500$!" Leo raised an eyebrow, even making the muggers feel intimidated. But they quickly regained their posture.

Selena leaned closer to Felix. She began whispering in his ear and a grin formed across his face.

"So are you going to pay up or not?" said the Cue Ball.

Selena frowned. "Now! Felix!"

Felix grinned and pointed a finger at one of the bikes. A wheel popped loose and went rampaging everywhere, controlled by Felix. He made it slam into a few bikers, before bringing it two inches in front of the Cue Ball's face. He then focused harder and said one word.

"Pop!" With that syllable, the wheel exploded, leaving rubber everywhere. But the sheer force of the explosion and contained air sent the Cue Ball staggering back and falling. He got up, growling, and said:

"So that's how you wanna play?"

Xero stepped forward. "Yeah." He smacked his left fist across the Cue Ball's face, sending him into his newly handicapped motorbike.

"That's it! Boys!" The girl in the group frowned. "… uh, and girl. Let's take him!"

Cue ball quickly threw a pokeball in the air, followed by 5 more pokeballs a bunch of pokemon fell from the sky. They landed on the ground, one on its head. They were immediately identified by the group of trainers. There was a Marowak, a Magnemite, a Minun, a Plusle, a Seviper, and the pokemon that landed on its head was an unlucky Wobbafett. It then bounced back up. Cue ball's Marowak was charging at Leo. Leo reacted fast and took out a pokeball . He threw it and out came a small dragon type pokemon. Leo said:

"Bagon! Force him back with a headbutt attack, then follow with an ember!" The small dragon got its head into proper positioning and began charging towards the ground type.

"Marowak! Charge back with a bonemerang on him!" screamed the Cue Ball. The Marowak jumped in the air, and shot the bone at Bagon, who hit it with its skull, shattering the bone. Marowak fell to the ground and landed on its feet, with Bagon charging at it.

Meanwhile, Kari was in a battle of her own.

"Sunflora! Use Petal Dance on that Magnemite!" A blast of petals hit the one-eyed levitating pokemon. It then retaliated with a Thunder Wave, paralyzing Sunflora on the spot.

Kazo and Felix were in a double battle.

"Chinchou! Use Water Gun on Plusle!"

"Kadabra! Use Confusion on Minun!" Both attacks scored direct hits, but were hit soon after in the chest from a direct and powerful quick attack by the troublesome duo.

Selena and Xero were in their own battle as well.

"Lotad!'' Use Rain Dance!" Rain began pouring from the sky.

"Pikachu! Use Thundershock!" The rain powered up the attack, and it was sent towards Seviper, who dug underground and became oblivious to the attack. Fortunately, it hit the Wobbafett, giving it severe damage. The girl grinned.

"Mirror Coat!" Blasting a ray of light twice as powerful as thundershock was towards Lotad and Pikachu; the Wobbafett gave a loud cry. Both pokemon were hit by the attack and were knocked absolutely senseless.

Leo saw what was going to happen and tried to prevent it. Marowak had an extremely thick and powerful skull, and if it started to use a headbutt as well, then Bagon was as good as gone.

"Bagon! Ember!" The dragon pokemon stopped in it's tracks and blasted a ray of flame at the Marowak's skull plate, heating it up. Unfortunately, that made matters worse, for when Marowak headbutted Bagon, which it did, Bagon was also burned from the impact!

"Bagon! Use Focus Energy!" Bagon began glowing, but not of evolution. It suddenly unleashed an extremely powerful blast of heat, a flamethrower, scalding the Marowak to almost nothing! Bagon then headbutted it into the tall grass, fainting it mercilessly. The Cue Ball looked down and returned the Marowak.

"Sunflora!" Kari yelled. "Unleash that Solarbeam! A blast of white light was ejected from the two footed sunflower and completely engulfed Magnemite, fainting it with no hope of survival at all.

"Plusle! Use Helping Hand!"

"Minun! Thunder!" Minun blasted a powerful thunder attack straight at Kadabra.

"Teleport!" Kadabra vanished into the air, and the thunder was useless. "Disable!" A blast of blue came from the skies where Kadabra had teleported and shocked Minun all over. Minun was now surrounded by a strange blue aura, disabling it from using thunder!

"Kadabra! Finish them with confusion!" Both pokemon were slammed backwards and fainted from the strong psychic energy. Kazo and Felix exchanged hive fives.

"Seviper! Now!"

"Pikachu! Dodge it with agility!" The battle-scarred Pikachu jumped in the air and swiftly moved out of the way of Seviper, who flew out from an underground tunnel.

"Lotad! Use tackle on Seviper and send it flying into Wobbafett!"

"Wobbafett! Use counter! Seviper! Dodge!" Seviper dodged the tackle, and Lotad slammed headfirst into Wobbafett instead. Wobbafett growled, and slammed Lotad backwards with amazing power, fainting it.

"Pikachu! Use Thunderbolt on Wobbafett and then use Double Team!" Pikachu promptly blasted a large ray of electricity at the blue blob pokemon, paralyzing it badly. It then proceeded to make copies of itself. "Use Mirror Coat on the one on the left!" the Wobbafett's trainer ordered. It blasted a ray of red light at the second Pikachu, who dematerialized instantly. It was the double! Pikachu then used a quick attack into Seviper, sending it into Wobbafett. The impact fainted both pokemon instantly.

The Cue Ball groaned. "Fine. We'll leave you off with a warning," he returned Marowak, and all the other bikers returned their pokemon as well. "Let's jet." Everyone got on their bikes and left, and the Cue Ball lifted the bike on his shoulders. (To the amazement of everyone there, considering the bike's weight, until they saw two Swellow helping him as well, using strings tied to it.) They ran back to the highway entrance, waiting for some other prey.

---

Music played loudly in the midst of Slateport city by the lighthouse. Loud speakers were everywhere, even in houses, playing the same catchy tune over and over again. The group had just entered the city, and after a quick visit to a normal pokemon center, were about to split into groups.

"Kari and I'll go into the huge marketplace." That got the stares from all the guys. "…To find… items for the journey! Bye!" They both fled into the hustle and bustle of the Slateport city pride, the marketplace. Leo spoke up next. "I'll head to the museum; see if I can unearth any clues." Xero answered. "I'll tag along too." They left.

"I guess that leaves you and me, Felix." Kazo said. Felix rolled his eyes. "How are we supposed to find that guy that Eli was talking about? This city's huge!"

"We should probably start in the pokemon center; ask around for someone named Nicolas O'Dell."

Felix groaned. "This may take awhile." They walked into the pokecenter, starting to ask around.