FURTHERMORE

~Part Two Of Forever Trilogy~

Chapter 23

My Little Ponyta and Pikachu

I peeked over the rock with Raiden. There stood a Ponyta, grazing on what meager grass there was on the little island. For the past hour of day two of training, I had been trying to catch a Ponyta. For the longest time, they had been knocked out in one hit by my shiny Pikachu. Hopefully, this one would be strong enough to withstand the attack.

I took out my last Poke Ball, an Ultra Ball. I jumped up from my hiding spot, as did Raiden. The Ponyta jerked up its head, startled. It was now or never!

"Go, Raiden!" I shouted; the orange Pikachu leaped forward, cheeks crackling.

The Ponyta whinnied, and turned to face us, moving into a battle stance. They faced off. I was glad it knew we wanted to battle. Pokemon were different in the future; they didn't know that trainers wanted to fight them. Of course, since we were in the past, things were different.

"Okay, Raiden," I said. "Let's try out Thunderbolt!"

He launched a wicked bolt of electricity at the Ponyta. But the fire horse leaped out of the way. I was impressed; in the future, I never battled a wild Pokemon that did that. I made a good choice. It then used Fire Spin, which Raiden expertly dodged. But then, suddenly, in its fury at the attack missing the Pikachu, the Ponyta coated itself with flames, and charged at Raiden. I gasped. That was Flare Blitz!

"Use Volt Tackle!" I quickly ordered.

Raiden rushed forward, surrounded by voltage. The twio Pokemon collided head on, and there was an explosion. Smoke was everywhere, making me cough. Raiden came tumbling back through the smoke towards me. He pushed himself back up.

"You okay?" I asked.

He nodded. "Pika." Yeah.

The smoke cleared, revealing the Ponyta. Somehow, it was still standing. It was trembling paralyzed from either the attack we just used, or Raiden's ability, Static. I grinned. This was my chance! I threw the Ultra Ball at the Ponyta. The device captured the fire horse. The Ultra Ball rocked back and forth several times until it clicked, signalling a successful capture.

"Yeah, we did it!" I exclaimed, punching the air with my first.

"Pikachu! Pika pi chu chu pikachu pika pi," said Raiden. Oh, yeah! About time! Those Ponyta were starting to piss me off. What are they, ninnies or something?

I laughed, and shook my head, and then I ran over and picked up the Ultra Ball. Tossing the ball into the air, I released the Ponyta. Then I used my powers to heal it, and Raiden. Of course, a moment of fatigue overcame me.

"Welcome to the team. I'm Topaz, and this is my partner Raiden," I said, brushing off the tiredness. Then I released the rest of my team. "And this is the rest of our little family - Demeter is the Ivysaur, Zeus is the Aerodactyl, and Neptune is the Gyarados."

Zeus cawed his greeting. Hello!

"Ivysaur! Saur ivysaur!" exclaimed Demeter. Hi there! Welcome to the team!

Neptune rumbled his own salutation. Yo.

Raiden hopped onto my shoulder. "Pikachu pi." Hey.

I tapped my chin, thinking deeply. "Hm...I'm going to call you Apollo."

Apollo whinnied. Alright. That works.

"That's good," I said. "Okay, gang! Let's get back to Red and Yellow and get some training done! We have to save Rubin ASAP!"

Stopping Groudon could wait.

...

I had never trained so hard in my life. My team worked hard, too. They knew things were serious; even Apollo caught on pretty fast. Raiden trained with both Pika and Chuchu. Demeter worked with Saur. Zeus and Aero trained in the sky. Neptune and Gyara battled in the ocean. Apollo mainly worked with Dody, Ratty, and Gravvy, since neither of the two Dex Holders that were working with me had a Fire type.

"Raiden is your main fighter, obviously," said Red, while we were training one-on-one with our two Pikachu. "He needs to be stronger, he needs to be hardy. If he can handle his own with Pika, you're ready to face whatever awaits us in Unova!" He paused to wipe sweat from his brow. "Pika, show them your MegaVolt!"

MegaVolt? What was that? I watched as a Thunderbolt blasted from the yellow Pikachu, streaking to the sky. The air was crackling with electricity, making my hair stand on end. MegaVolt was Thunderbolt...ten times stronger, maybe even more. I was astounded. Raiden's jaw dropped.

"Now aim it at Raiden!" said Red.

Raiden howled in pain as he was electrocuted by Pika's MegaVolt. I cried out for him to stop, but he didn't listen.

"I know Raiden can withstand it!" said Red. "He's tough enough!"

Then I realized what Red wanted me to do. He wanted me to have Raiden absorb the vast amount of voltage, and than counter attack. And he believed the Pikachu could. And if he believed it, then so did I. I realized the message he was giving me. I coddled, I pampered Raiden too much. I wasn't letting him use his full power. He was possibly stronger than Pika - well, Pika was his father, though Red did not know that - and he needed to start utilizing that power. I was no longer a five-year-old fending off Synis and Karen. I was now a sixteen-year-old who was taking the offensive on those two. It was time to accept out true power.

"Raiden, absorb that MegaVolt!" I shouted.

"Pikachu!" he wailed, but then he stopped taking in damage. His cheeks started crackling as he took the electricity into his body. All of that MegaVolt, that super-packed Thunderbolt. Pika cut off the electricity, and Raiden dropped to the ground, his whole little orange body crackling with electricity.

"Now release the voltage with Thunderbolt!" I ordered.

But the attack that came out was no ordinary Thunderbolt.

"PIKAAACHUUUUUUU!"

A lightning bolt thicker than Pika's MegaVolt shot out of Raiden, into the sky. It blasted up into the clouds. I had never seen so much power before in my life. Even when he was finished unleashing all that energy, we all just stood there, stunned into silence. I did not know what to say. I didn't even know what to think.

"Well, Pika, what do ya know?" said Red, grinning. "Raiden just used Megavolt, and that was the strongest I have ever seen. Don't you think so, Yellow?"

"Yes," she said. "And I just sensed that Raiden rose in level way more than normal. Or maybe something in the area caused that?"

She was right. I felt it too. Raiden stood there, his body still crackling. Pika and Chuchu went over to him, and gave him tiny zaps of electricity. He had just drained his whole body, and needed to be replenished. I just knew one thing: I still was stunned speechless.

"Well, Topaz," said Red. "You and your team are ready for Unova. So let's get going!"

I hope everyone is keeping updated on the charatcer files.

Ahem. So Topaz's fifth Pokemon is a Ponyta! His name is Apollo!

I think Raiden's ready to take Bolt on now, haha xD

Anyways, the writing contest is over. Only two people participated...and I have to come up with some sort of reward or something xD

Without further ado, go on and review! I'm in a rhyming mood!