Okay, this took a long time to update... Well at least it's here now. Sorry about the wait, and... huh, that's about all I can think of to say for now. Well, enjoy!
Chapter 36: Fateful Re-Encounter
"Hey! Watch were you're shoving that elbow!" an irritable voice cried from behind a thick, conveniently placed bush with two figures shuffling from within it.
"Sorry," a second voice whispered and shifted where he was. "Hold on, now I can't see anything!" he cried, panicked.
"Then turn around, you moron." The first one spat and shook his head.
The second figure blinked in confusion as he realized he was facing the wrong way. "...I knew dat." Indignantly, the second figure scrambled around, and the other snorted in disgust.
Under the conspicuously placed bush in the middle of the geyser sight, unknown to the world, hid the red crimson topped, heinous purple costumes of the Team Crimson Bros., John and Ernie.
John, the older of the brothers peered from outside of bush he hid in and his brother soon did the same. Soon a growl came from John. "There he is," his gaze was centered on a certain sorrel haired trainer, whom was standing near two strikingly familiar girls. A blonde and brunette. The sorrel haired trainer seemed to be shocked at the sight of something, but random tourist blocked John and Ernie's view of what.
"The spiky haired, smug little..."
Before John could go on ranting, Ernie interrupted. "Uh... John? Wat was da plan again?" he asked. John let out an exasperated groan.
"For the hundredth time: We're going to steal all the brat's–and his brat friends'–Pokemon, once they lower their guard." John explained, and though he was irritable with going over their plan again, he couldn't suppress a malicious smirk. "Wait until we see the look on his face once all his Pokemon or ours!"
Ernie looked thoughtful. "But... that didn't work last time..." he didn't get to finish since his brother let out a squawk of disbelief. "What?"
The tourist in front of them had moved and John finally saw what had shocked the sorrel haired trainer. "It's that Goth brat!"
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Gleaming streaks of twilight still shone down on the auburn surface as another series of rumbling began underground. Sky and Kyle still stared at each other for only a short moment longer before all havoc broke loose when one of them spoke.
"What the heck are you doing here, you loser?" Kyle demanded through a sharp, venom filled glare at Sky. And all while the dark haired trainer's eyes were fixed with resentment and irritation, Sky's widened in disbelief at his luck.
"Unbelievable!" Sky cried in utter disdain. "It's that psychopath Goth kid again! Of all the people in Kleeto; why did you have to be here?"
"SHUT UP!" Kyle screeched furiously. "You idiotic loser! I would have been better off playing in traffic than coming here today!"
Pearl heaved a heavy sigh as she watched the two trainers bicker. "Oh, boy; not this again..."
Hearing her remark, the dark haired trainer caught sight of Pearl, and narrowed his eyes over Sky's shoulder and murmured, "What's she doing here...?"
Pearl returned his steady gaze with a mocking grin. "Once again: it's nice to see you too, Kyle." she answered, then Kyle recalled Pearl had mentioned before she planned to travel with Sky, yet the trainer didn't seem to care much anymore, or seemed to care about her sarcastic remark.
"Is this a friend of your's?" Melena asked, seeming half-confused half-interested.
Kyle immediately recognized the brunette as a stranger. "Who the heck are you?"
Stunned, Melena found it hard to reply and simply blinked. She had just met him! But instead of gracing him with an answer she turned to Pearl, "Polite, isn't he?"
Pearl smiled at her friend's reply, Kyle fumed. However, the impolite raven haired trainer wasn't the only trainer subjected to a new face. Samantha had briefly introduced herself to Sky and his friends, though how she came to know Kyle was beyond him.
"Anyway, you know this guy?" Sky inquired, ignoring Kyle's rudeness as if he didn't exist, and turned his attention to the young red-head.
Samantha stood a little taller as she replied, "Me and Kyle are traveling together! I'm a trainer, too!" she announced proudly.
At this, Sky then turned and threw a cheeky grin at Kyle. "Stuck babysitting, eh?" He whispered, then before Kyle could shout a threat in reply, Sky turned back and continued with a good willed smile, "Well, Samantha, these are my friends; Pearl and Melena." He made a gesture to his two companions in turn. The raven haired trainer simply smoldered with impatience.
"Nice to meet you!" Samantha greeted warmly. "Don't mind Kyle. He's always like this." she added and seemed completely unfazed by the Kyle's behavior.
Sky stared. "...How can you stand him...?"
Kyle interrupted. "So loser," he began casually, temporarily banishing his anger and replacing it with smug confidence as he faced Sky with a grin and folded his arms. "has the great hero of Silver City done anything heroic lately?"
Sky was thrown off by his question. He had saved a Pokemon Center in Silver City from Team Crimson once before, but what made Kyle resurface that now Sky could only wonder. Sky then guessed it was some part of a cynical plot, but he answered anyway.
"Well, I stomped a few goons, not too long ago," Sky began, recalling the jokers he faced though couldn't recall their names. "They were pushovers."
"Typical." Kyle remarked, as if sharing equal disgust in Team Crimson members. "I guess that's something, but, " A wide grin spread across Kyle's face as he went on. "It doesn't really compare to taking down their forest base."
Sky was too stunned to form words. Surely Kyle wouldn't help anyone, would he? The thought it was solely for his own benefit ran through Sky's mind but he still couldn't answr. Luckily he didn't need to speak at that moment since Samantha began speaking.
"Yeah, and I helped! It was my idea to take out the security cameras, and how to sneak in, and–"
Kyle abruptly cut her off. "As I was saying!"
Sky then quickly realized with a pang Kyle was trying to show off and make himself sound like a better trainer, compared to himself. Sky knew this couldn't be possible since this was Kyle, and he had just won his second gym battle. "That all? Well I've won Meritina Town's Gym Badge!" he declared viciously and immediately pulled out the gem shaped badge as proof.
"Big deal." Kyle said unenthusiastically and suddenly pulled out an identical badge to show the sorrel haired trainer, but Kyle gave no sign it was difficultly obtained, or that he even seemed to care much. Sky fumed. "I bet the Gym Leader gave you that badge after you dropped to your knees and begged." The raven haired trainer smirked.
"Oh no..." Pearl muttered with a sense of foreboding, and Melena smacked her forehead. When her eyes glanced over at Sky, she was sure he was about to bust an artery.
That pulled the trigger. Sky thought that was the worst possible thing Kyle could say, and rage engulfed him completely. "OKAY, KYLE–THAT CROSSES THE LINE!! THIS MEANS WAR!!!" A completely enraged Sky yowled with all the fury of their rivalry. Almost immediately he pulled out a PokeBall amid his unfathomed fury and shot Kyle a venomous glare capable of melting through steel. "You - are - dead!"
Kyle smirked, shut his eyes, and pulled out a PokeBall as well. "Fine. Ending battles with a tie always did leave a bad taste in my mouth. This time I'll teach you your place, loser."
"Bring it on!" Sky replied with a shout, waving his arms around in sheer fury. He immediately snatched a PokeBall from his pocket.
"Oh, great–well this was inevitable enough," Pearl remarked, severely irritated at the time they had met with Kyle. It would be dark soon, and there wasn't any places to sit down and watch this unstoppable battle-to-be, but Pearl decided she would try anyway as Kyle strode off calmly for some battle ground distance.
"Sky," Pearl began to try to reason with the infuriated sorrel haired trainer. "Do you have to battle now? It's getting late, and who knows how long this could take..." She pointed out, unwilling to stay much longer. Then she was Sky was gritting his teeth.
"No way! He's not getting away with that!" Sky replied as he turned to Pearl, then cast a glare back at Kyle who stood an arena's length apart from him now.
Pearl glared in annoyance. "Fine. Shall I shine your PokeBalls as well, O great trainer?"
Sky didn't pay much attention to her last statement and simply focused his attention on his opponent. He held up two fingers. "Just like last time, we'll each use only two Pokemon!" he stated, holding a murderous glare.
"Fine by me, loser. This only means your defeat will be that much faster." Kyle replied coolly while smirking. He tossed a PokeBall he had drawn into the air and in a flash, a small grayish wolf Pokemon with amber eyes and night black paws appeared standing on all fours on the auburn rock surface.
Sky quickly recognized the small wolf as a what he thought was a Poochyena, although he wasn't sure and he pulled out his PokeDex for confirmation.
"Poochyena. The bite Pokemon.
At first sight, Poochyena takes a bite at anything that moves. This Pokemon chases after prey until the victim becomes exhausted. However, it may turn tail if the prey strikes back."
As he put the portable encyclopedia away–now knowing information that was close to useless–Sky's attention shifted to what Pokemon he would call first. Sky ran through the thoughts that Spike and Scruf would be fit to battle by now, but still wondered who to battle with. Then the realization that one of his Pokemon hadn't battled yet or ever before, for that matter; and this was the perfect opportunity.
"Hope this works..." Sky placed Scruf's PokeBall back into his pocket he had dawn earlier in his fit of rage and pulled out another, followed by tossing to the air. "Give it your all, Tank!"
With another bright flash, said pig-monkey Pokemon appeared on the auburn surface only a few feet in front of Kyle's Poochyena, and was soon confused.
"Tank, this will be your first battle, so let's give it everything we got!" The cream furred Mankey heard Sky call.
Tank's eyes gleamed with excitement. "All right! I finally get to hurt something!" He smashed a fist into his hand and turned to Kyle's Poochyena to strike a fighting pose with a leg and an arm outstretched in front of him, the other arm cranked beside him; his remaining leg to balance him. His tail swung slowly yet anxiously, his hazel tail-tip flashing at the movements in the twilight.
Kyle was slightly disgruntled he was stuck with a type disadvantage, but he did hear when Sky had said this would be the Mankey's first time in a battle. "First battle, huh?" he repeated. "This will be quicker than I thought," he smirked with self-reassurance and began to think.
"Hey, Tank!"
At the call, Tank spun around to see the ever hyper-active Spike jumping up and down excitedly next to Pearl and calling over to him. "Don't get massacred out there, bug-breath!"
Tank's ear twitched. "I'm coming after you next, thief! Then that sweet snow murdering Growlithe friend of your's!" Tank shouted his threatening reply and shook a fist.
"We'll see just how quick this goes! Let's go, Tank! Use...uh..." Sky paused and drew a blank to what Mankey's moves were at first, and shouted the first move he could think of. "Er, Scratch!"
"Get real." Kyle mocked, "Fang. Bite this loser's Mankey." he ordered calmly, Fang nodded, and the Poochyena dashed forward.
Before he could use his own move, Tank flinched and was caught off guard by the charging Poochyena and by the time Fang had reached him, the Poochyena had sank his fangs into Tank's arm. The Mankey screeched and tried to jerk his arm free, but the Poochyena's jaws were strong, and it held it's ground so firmly it hardly budged. Then Tank remembered his own order, and lifted an arm, before raking down his claws on the side of Fang's face.
Tank immediately felt the Poochyena's teeth release their grip at once and the small wolf's head jerked back with a yelp, and then Tank followed his ordered attack with a sharply rounded, un-ordered kick to the muzzle and the Poochyena was knocked off it's feet.
"What the?! Hey, Fang! Pull yourself together!" Kyle called through his slight alarm Sky felt just as stunned. He hadn't ordered that kick, but Tank's attack had also jogged Sky's memory of what he had read on his PokeDex that morning. 'Low Kick, Karate Chop, Focus Energy...' He reclaimed the lost moves one by one and once he did, he turned his gaze back to look at Tank, a smile of newly-found excitement on his face.
"Great move, Tank! Now, use Focus Energy!" he called enthusiastically. Tank had an array of moves as Sky had read, and the sorrel haired trainer was eager to try them all.
Tank shot a sharp glance back at his trainer with obvious resentment towards following orders, but he decided it would probably be better to follow them anyway. The Mankey closed it's eyes, and let his mind go blank as he took deep breaths and focused on nothing but what his next attack would be. He reopened his eyes once he thought his mind was clear enough, and cast them onto Fang.
"Fang, use Howl!" Kyle ordered.
Standing back on it's feet, the Poochyena relaxed and sat down. Once the miniature wolf raised it's muzzle, a loud wail sounded throughout the craggy geyser site, and when he had fished, Fang returned to all fours, fur bristling and lips drawn back in a snarl.
Sky wondered what good that did, but didn't care. It was Kyle's wasted move, not his. "Tank, Karate Chop!" Sky ordered.
Tank's lost most of his focus during Fang's howling, and Sky's next call had sealed the deal. Tank wasn't strong enough yet to maintain the attack, so he simply decided to follow Sky's next order and charged toward Fang.
"Fang, Tackle!" Kyle countered, and the Poochyena crouched lower in response. Tank quickly swung the straightened paw of Karate Chop once he was in range, but the Poochyena hopped back, then darted into Tank's side. The Mankey stumbled backwards, clenching his ribs and tried to refill his lungs with the air he had lost after the sudden impact, and Sky noticed Fang's Tackle was a little stronger than it should be and wondered if the Howl earlier had anything to do with it, and why Fang looked more vicious then he did at first. Whatever the reason, Sky thought they would have to be careful.
"Good, now use Bite!"
Almost immediately after his Tackle, Fang dashed toward a stunned Tank, and ripped his fangs along Tank's arm before as he ran by and stopped behind him.
Tank hardly managed to suppress a screech of sheer agony and instead tightly gripped his wounded arm, feeling the warm red liquid running down his arm while staining his cream colored fur as it drip onto the ground.
Sky flinched. "Tank–are you okay?" he called, extremely worried. He was certain now Kyle's Poochyena was small, but dangerously vicious.
Kyle grinned with pride in his Pokemon. "Heh, if that's the best you got, I suggest you give up now." he boasted.
Sky threw his gaze onto Kyle and growled. "Damnit..."
However, Tank's arm still bled, but the Mankey managed to get over it for a while, to glance behind him and take note on where Fang stood. He expected the sharped toothed Pokemon to be eyeing him intently, but the Poochyena's gaze was on it's Trainer, staring with delight that Kyle took so much pride in him while his tail swayed back and forth.
"Smug little bastard..." Tank mumbled and turned around, re-obtaining Fang's attention as he began growling again.
"Like Kyle said, you should give up!" Fang growled.
"Hate to ruin you little moment of recognition," Tank smirked back, yet he was still holding the wound on his arm, it had stopped bleeding as much but was still hurt.
Sky also noticed Tank and saw the injured Mankey's eyes still burned with the fire to battle. "Fit to fight?" he called, Tank gave a curt nod.
"Oh, please." Kyle remarked, half-laughing.
"Tank, Low Kick!" Sky called, ignoring Kyle, and the raven trainer noticed a little too late with a pang of alarm he had dropped his guard.
Tank, releasing his arm for a moment, took a quick step forward, and spun around sharply with his right leg extended. The outstretched leg spun around to gain moment, and collided into Fang's leg, and Tank was satisfied when he heard a sickening yet satisfying crunch and the Poochyena's yelps of pain. The fact the hit was super-effective helped.
It fell to the ground, whimpering pitifully, and it's leg looked disturbingly misplaced and as the Poochyena tried to move it, he gave another sharp yelp, and lay back down without moving it.
"Damnit!" Kyle spat with unrestrained fury. "Lucky!" he could easily see Fang's leg was broken or misplaced.
Sky found it a little extreme for Tank to break Fang's leg, but sighed with relief nevertheless. He knew Tank couldn't continue battling, but now neither could Fang. "Great job, Tank!" he called congratulations proudly to his Pokemon.
Tank glanced briefly in acknowledgment at Sky, but didn't seem too exited.
"That's enough for today." he finished, before Tank heading over towards where Spike sat watching. The Totodile's eyes held a mix of fear and excitement.
"You won, but screwed up so badly!" he teased. Tank punched him with his good arm on the head. "Ow!"
"Shut up, I didn't win." He said sounding more morose than ever. "And I don't need you to tell me I screwed up! At least I got the bastard back for this bite..."
Spike was stunned by his Tank's sudden outbreak and couldn't respond immediately, even though he thought he should be used to Tank's behavior by now. Then he realized what may have upset Tank so much. This had been his first battle since Tank became part of their team, and since neither he nor Fang could continue, that would mean it ended in a tie. Not what Tank would've wanted. "Hey..." Spike tried to comfort, but then Spike noticed Pearl had bent down next to Tank to examine his arm. With the pain in his arm stinging badly, Tank didn't argue.
"It looks pretty nasty..." she remarked grimly, then took out a few bandages and a potion from her backpack. "Don't worry, you'll be okay with these." she said cheerfully to Tank, though the Mankey still looked dully ahead of him, and Spike felt sorry for his teammate.
Meanwhile, Sky realized he and Kyle were both down one Pokemon, and both had only one left to use, but he was glad at least he wasn't behind. "So, Kyle? Just like old times, huh? Another tie." he added pointedly and was happy enough he and Kyle seemed equally matched.
Kyle flinched. "Hah. Real funny, loser. Remind me to laugh, once I kick you're a–" Samantha sharply butted him with her shoulder. "Watch you're language, numbskull!" She scolded. Kyle glared, but said nothing else. Sky realized Samantha must be the only person who could say that to Kyle and get away without a messy confrontation.
"Anyway, you loser, that may have been a tie, but this won't." he threatened, but seemed completely calm as he drew his next PokeBall, which made Sky slightly uneasy. "You're going down. Finish it, Blaze!" he called and tossed his last PokeBall of this battle into the air.
After the bright flash cleared, amid the battle field, stood a jet blue and yellow pelt belonging to that of what looked like Blaze, except Sky noticed with a jolt it was a Quilava now. It had a threatening gleam in it's serious ruby-toned eyes.
"Well, loser? Pick you're next Pokemon." Kyle invited calmly, and Sky was sure he was grinning.
Then with a pang of regret and envy, Sky realized his own starter, Spike, had yet to evolve. Sky wished he could battle with Sora who had newly evolved as well, but knew that was impossible what with her being unable to battle for the entre day.
Sky dashed through his thoughts of who he would use against the newly evolved Blaze. Spike was the only logical choice, since Sora and Tank both couldn't battle, and Scruf and Blaze are the same type, and that would just leave speed and strength and Blaze looked as if he had plenty.
Sky closed his eyes and took a deep, relaxing breath. "Spike," he called, and hoped his Pokemon would be enough to win alone. "Let's finish this."
Spike seemed equally shocked that Blaze had evolved, but Spike stood up and briskly dashed into the arena anyway. Glaring at his threatening opponent.
Spike spotted flicker of amusement in Blaze's eyes. "You're still a Totodile," he pointed out. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised."
Spike growled. He seemed more like Kyle now than ever. "Yeah, so what? I'll show you personally fangs stronger than your little wolf friend's!" he retorted.
Casting their evolutionary difference aside, Spike held Blaze's gaze; a chilling autumn breeze blew by as a clash old rivalries was soon to take place.
And here's to another rival battle! I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can, but school starts soon so I don't know if that will be very soon... anyway, reviews make good motivation.