Chapter 11- The Indigo League (II)
The Whiscash jumped up out of the water and blasted a large stream of water at Luxray. Luxray was hit hard by the Hydro Pump, unable to dodge because of its restricted movements in the water.
"You're finished! Your most powerful attacks are useless and your Pokémon can't even dodge my Whiscash's attacks! Just give up!" Jake yelled mockingly at Kaleen.
Kaleen was shaking with anger, I could see that she knew she was in trouble but she wasn't the kind of person to just give up when things got tough.
"Luxray, swim as fast as you can and use Crunch!" Kaleen yelled at Luxray frantically. Luxray tried to swim fast but couldn't go more then a few miles per hour and Whiscash could maneuver every where in the pool. Luxray was unable to even get near the Whiscash.
"Alright Whiscash, let's finish this with Earthquake!"
Whiscash swam down to the bottom of the pool and began to violently bang its body against the floor of the pool. I could feel the ground shaking underneath me. At the bottom of the pool, I could see the destroyed platforms start to move and one shot up and nearly hit Luxray. The pool itself was in chaos; the water was splashing in every direction and Luxray could not keep its head above the water.
"Luxray!" Kaleen screamed but seemed to remember something at that point. "I know we haven't perfected the move yet, but we need to try it!" Luxray, who was finally able to get his head above the water, shot a confirming look at Kaleen. "Luxray, use Magnetrise!"
Luxray made an expression that looked like it was clenching every muscle in its body. I could see small sparks of electricity jet through Luxray's body. Suddenly, a small whirlpool formed around Luxray's body and it started to get bigger and bigger. After a few seconds, Luxray's body was floating in mid air and the water had settled underneath him. Whiscash's attack stopped.
"What?! How is your Luxray floating?!" Jake looked baffled as he stared at the floating Luxray.
"It's an attack called Magnetrise. The Pokémon excretes high levels of magnetic energy and repels particles of the same charge allowing the Pokémon to float. Now we're on even terms, my best attacks won't hurt you and your best attacks won't hurt me!"
"It's fine! I'll just win with my water attacks!" Jake yelled cockily but I could tell he was getting nervous. "Whiscash, use Water Pulse!"
Whiscash jumped out of the water and blasted a glowing orb of water at Luxray from its mouth. Luxray easily dodged, being incredibly swift in the air.
"Luxray, use Crunch!" Luxray sped at Whiscash and bit the fish in the side. Whiscash roared in pain and retreated back under water.
"Whiscash, use Rest!" Whiscash fell asleep under water and began recovering health.
"Now's our chance Luxray! Giga Impact!"
Luxray shot under the water, which formed around him like a bubble, and impacted Whiscash with immense force. The attack caused a pillar of water to shoot up over the area of the impact. Luxray blasted out of the top of that pillar and landed perfectly on the water. Whiscash lied at the bottom of the pool and was completely unconscious.
"The winner is Kaleen of Blackthorn City!" The crowd began to cheer and I swear I was the loudest. Riolu was jumping with joy on my lap.
Kaleen walked over to Jake and shook his hand. She then returned Luxray to its Pokéball and walked back into the waiting room for trainers. I ran to try and catch up with her. I asked where I could find the trainer waiting room and was directed to a large set of doors. I found them and walked in on a scene I wish I'd never seen. Kaleen was standing in front of the three Pokémon that she had just battled with.
"What the hell was that?" she was saying critically. Gardevoir, Absol, and Luxray looked down. "Gardevoir, you could have been very useful against Whiscash. But, you couldn't beat that Lanturn. I had to end up totally changing the strategy to make up for your blunder! Seriously, what's with your Psychic attack being that slow?! It's pathetic! Absol, why was it that you couldn't continue after that Extreme Speed? Are you really so out of shape that you couldn't keep it going? You were only running for like thirty seconds, you couldn't have kept at it a little longer? Luxray, I'm proud that you finally got Magnetrise down, but why didn't your Crunch attack defeat the opponent right there and then? This is our last chance and we almost lost to a stupid kid! We'll never win with this kind of effort! So stop messing around and start…" I grabbed her arm at that point.
"We need to talk." I pulled her to the other side of the room and sat her down on one of the chairs. "Return your Pokémon." I was using a very serious and critical voice so she obeyed me. I knelt down to eye level with her and Riolu hopped off my shoulder and left the room, he knew what to do. She was pouting as if she was annoyed and didn't want to be here, this actually made me pretty angry. "I may not know a lot about battling, but what you just did there was out of line."
"You saw the battle; you saw how close it was!" she yelled back at me but I pointed at her to shut up.
"I saw an amazing battle where your Pokémon gave it there all. I saw a battle that made me proud to have such a resourceful and strategic friend as you. What the battle didn't do for me was make me think that you needed to ring out your Pokémon."
"That's it! I don't want to see you at any more of my matches. You can't lecture me on how to handle my Pokémon." Kaleen stood up and started walking out of the room. I noticed tears developing in her eyes.
"I may not be able to lecture you on how to train your Pokémon, but I'm a Pokémon Ranger and it's my responsibility to make sure that all Pokémon are safe and being treated with the respect and kindness they deserve." Kaleen stopped after I said this. "And I will do whatever I can to make sure that ALL Pokémon are treated with respect and kindness."
Kaleen started to turn her head back to me, but decided not to and walked swiftly out of the room. I ran to the door and saw her as she started to run out of the stadium. I saw Riolu look down as he saw her run. I picked him up.
"It's alright buddy. She'll be fine." The moment I said that, my styler began beeping. I clicked the button and looked at the screen. It was the Police officer I had talked to in the Police Station.
"This is Chase Range, correct?" he said frantically.
"Yes, how can I help you?"
"We've had a few complaints, three to be exact. There have been three reports of men in black suits stealing their Pokémon with a capture styler."
"What?! When did this happen? Where did this happen?"
"One of the assaults was by the lake front, one was in a restaurant, and the other was by the cabins. It happened about five minutes ago almost simultaneously. The weird thing is…"
"What? What's weird?"
"The three Pokémon that were stolen… were all different Lucarios."
"Lucario… are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Alright, thanks for the reports. Tell your men to keep an eye out for any signs of them."
"Right."
I immediately contacted the Air Base. Rhythmi immediately picked up.
"What is it?"
"There have been three more incidents with the men in black suits."
"What's your report?"
"They stole another three Lucarios. What would they want with the Lucarios?"
"That's interesting; we've been getting reports of missing Lucarios from all over the world. We've had five reports already from Sinnoh and Kanto. One was stolen from the current champion of the Sinnoh Region and another was stolen from the leader of the Veilstone gym in the Sinnoh Region. I'll run this by the Captain Commander and Professor Hastings. In the mean time, continue your mission." She disconnected and I started walking out of the stadium.
"I just don't get it Riolu, what would these men want with a bunch of Lucarios?" I asked Riolu, annoyed that more kidnappings were committed and I couldn't do anything. I sat down in a chair started to think hard about what they could possibly do with that many Lucarios. I thought for twenty minutes without any ideas at all.
"Will Kaleen Terrance and Haley Jacobson please report to the Grass field?" a voice said over a big intercom system that was set up through out the Indigo Plateau. "Her next match is starting… I know she didn't want me to go, Riolu, but we're going anyways."
And I did! I found a seat and gazed down at the stadium floor that looked like a football field without any print on the grass. It was tall and lush grass and it looked like a paradise for any grass type Pokémon. People filled into the stadium and awaited the start of the match. However, the match didn't start at the designated time.
"I'm sorry people; we're having a little trouble in the trainer waiting room and will be starting in just a minute."
After hearing this, I had a feeling. I made my way to the trainer waiting room and walked in. It was just as I had thought.
"What do you mean you won't battle?!" Kaleen was yelling at her Pokémon. Meganium, Pidgeot, and Scizor all turned their heads from her in attitude. "I am your trainer and you will do as I say!"
"If you can't get your Pokémon to battle soon we will have to disqualify you," a referee was telling her, standing on the sideline of the argument.
"Come on guys! If we don't battle we can't win!"
"I don't think that's going to work Kaleen," I cut her off. She turned and threw a vicious look at me.
"What are you doing here?" she asked angrily. "Get out!"
"Not going to happen," I said smugly. "Riolu, do you mind?"
Riolu hopped off my shoulder and walked over to Kaleen's Pokémon. They began talking and agreed upon something. Riolu pointed his palm in the direction of Kaleen and, suddenly, Kaleen made an expression that looked like she had just gotten hit by a truck.
"Congratulations, you've just had your first Aura Message. Would you like me to decipher what you saw?" Kaleen looked at me with a look of fear mixed with an overwhelming regret.
"You all… you won't fight because…" she turned to her Pokémon and started to speak quietly. "You won't fight because of the way I treated the other Pokémon." Kaleen's Pokémon nodded. She cleared her throat and released her other Pokémon. They looked down and seemed to be completely depressed. "I… have to apologize. I shouldn't have treated you the way I did. You gave it your all and I didn't think it was good enough because of my obsession with winning."
Kaleen's Pokémon started looking a little more chipper. They nodded to each other and tackled her in forgiveness. Kaleen started laughing as tears poured from her eyes. She looked over to Riolu and me and mouthed the words "thank you."
"Well, what are you waiting for? You've got a match to win! Get a move on!" I cheered as she stood up, now more determined then ever.
"Right! Let's do this guys!" Kaleen and her Pokémon all cheered for victory.
I made my way back to my seat to see Kaleen and her opponent, Haley, facing each other.
"This match will now begin!" the referee yelled.
Both Kaleen and Haley released their first Pokémon. Kaleen released Scizor and Haley released…