Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 31: A Blue Lie.
"Go, Jynx." Green said while releasing his new Pokemon out of her ball.
After appearing, she did a few motions with her hands before clapping them hard, creating a slight breeze that reached even the opposite side of the room.
"I must confess that while I have big hopes for Red, I'm still not sure about you. I want you to be as good as he is... maybe even better. What I mean to say is that while I obviously have the advantage, I don't want to completely destroy you. I have one Pokemon that could finish this fight way too fast so I'm..."
"Shut up." Green interrupted him.
Alex was clearly surprised but he didn't want to lose his cool, especially with Red watching them from the viewing area. He hesitated a little while touching the pokeballs on his belt but he calmed himself and went with his original plan, even though the feeling of wanting to overpower Green was strong in him.
"Maybe winning with her will be even better. I can still do it... quickly." he thought to himself before rising the hand holding the pokeball and announcing out loud "I choose Jolteon!"
His Pokemon closely resembled Vaporeon, the main difference being that she was covered in yellow, spiky fur. Little sparks of electricity traveled through the surface of her body as she roared at Jynx, seemingly trying to intimidate her before the battle could even begin.
"Now that's the spi..."
"Powder Snow!"
Jynx was about less than a second late to realize that her trainer didn't want to give the Admin a chance to speak but she listened and blew on top of her open palms, creating a gust of wind carrying white particles toward the opponent. That short delay was enough to allow Jolteon to side-step the attack.
"Ice Punch!"
Although this time Jynx was prepared for the order, she didn't immediately understand that she was supposed to hit the ground and wondered for a moment how to reach Jolteon who was far from her. Her punching the floor caused a trail of ice form and move towards the opponent who unfortunately was wise enough to avoid it, even though she seemed confused as to why her trainer wasn't as fast at giving her commands.
"That guy is really unpleasant." Alex commented "Well... That's probably my fault. I already have a plan for putting him in his place. Thunder Wave!"
Jolteon used the energy in its body to create a curtain of electricity which reached Jynx in a flash, flying past her body before disappearing in a shower of sparkles. It didn't cause any damage but when the Ice Pokemon tried to check if everything was alright with her, she felt her limbs stiffen for a short while before moving again. She gave her trainer a worried look but he seemed to be more focused on Alex than on his new buddy.
"If only I could defeat him right now... What else?" he thought to himself "The luck has been on my side. I managed to guess two of the moves that Jynx can use but they were the most obvious one. Surely, she should have something besides Ice type moves... Probably nothing too advanced..."
"If I give him time to think, there's a chance he could come up with something. But he hasn't been too kind for me so I see no reason to." Alex said to himself before giving an order to Jolteon "Pin Missile!"
The dog made her fur stick out even more before shooting out parts of it, in the form of big and ridiculously fast needles which immediately reached their target. Even though Jynx tried to protect herself by putting her hands forward, hoping to freeze the incoming projectiles, she was still hit in the shoulders, legs and one of her cheeks.
Without giving Green a second of rest, the Team Rocket member was ready with another move "Approach her with Agility!"
"Try Double Slap!" the teenager shouted the first thing that came to his mind, realizing that overthinking could be detrimental to them.
Jynx swung her arms around, hoping to hit Jolteon, whose speed rose sharply a second before that, but she wasn't actually able to harness the power of the move chosen by her trainer, making her vulnerable to a simple physical attack performed by her foe.
"That's not it." Green whispered while gritting his teeth, slowly losing his cool demeanor "Use Pound! Or Lick!"
The long-haired Pokemon kept getting pushed around by Jolteon's attacks, unable to satisfy her partner's demands.
"Wait... I've been going about this the wrong way. I shouldn't just choose any moves. Team Rocket wouldn't teach their Pokemon moves in a way that makes sense to a normal trainer. For regular grunts it's probably easier to just play into the Pokemon's strengths." Green analyzed his mistakes while keeping an eye to make sure that he hasn't lost yet.
"I guess that's enough for now." Alex said, seeing that it looked like his opponent still hadn't come up with anything that would at least allow him to put up a fight "Finish her with Thunder Fang!"
"Heart Stamp!" Green shouted finally, prompting his Pokemon to put one of her hands forward and shoot out a heart-shaped projectile at Jolteon who was about to jump at her.
The dog was pushed back but the attack didn't hurt her much and it looked like she planned to continue her attack but something stopped her at the moment she was about to take the first step towards her foe.
"She flinched! Quickly, use Powder Snow!"
"You underestimate us. Even if she can't move, there's still ways to deal with this!"
The gust of wind carrying the pieces of snow was obliterated by a shield of electricity formed by using Thunder Wave. After that, Jolteon tried out if she could move again and it turned out that she was fine already.
"He's already learning how to fight together with his new Pokemon but I'm also learning what to look out so the advantage is still mine." Alex observed "Agility and Thunder Fang!"
"That should be enough for now." Green thought to himself before putting up his right hand and announcing "We give up."
Jolteon stopped mid-run while Jynx, who already put up her hands in order to protect herself, turned around with a confused face. Alex seemed similarly shocked by the boy's words. The only one who wasn't surprised by it was Red. Right after Green made his decision, his friend started walking down the stairs towards the battlefield.
"Wait, wait, wait. You can't do that." the Admin said while waving his hands, having not taken enough time to form a proper thought, instead uttering the first thing that came to him.
"I don't remember there being a rule about not giving up. Besides, you allowed Red to back out without defeating his Pokemon." Green said while approaching him and returning Jynx to her pokeball.
"You know that is not the same thing. He was about to lose but you still could fight on. Make it interesting."
"I'm not the same as Red. I'm not hot-blooded like him. I also don't plan on indulging you more than necessary..." he stopped himself, even though it looked like he wanted to say more.
"I guess your names really do fit you. But if I had to describe you I would say that he's like a bowl of spicy curry while you... you're like a single mint candy. To be honest, I didn't have any expectations even if I knew you were "his" grandson."
Red, who just arrived next to them, noticed that Green's hands were twitching ever so slightly.
"Green... Oak. Hmm." Alex said while looking as if he was pondering something very hard, although at the same time a slight smile appeared on his face.
The teenager who usually remained completely calm, allowed his emotions to take over and, in less than a second, reached the Admin, ready to deliver a punch to his face. He stopped himself right before doing it, coming back to his senses. If he didn't, Jolteon was right behind him, ready to sink her fangs in his leg the moment he would do it.
"This relationship would go a lot better if you didn't make me want to kill you every time I see your face." Green stated while pulling his hand back.
Alex, who seemed to know that the boy wouldn't actually punch him as proved by his satisfied expression, replied in a sarcastic voice "It would go better if you weren't so stubborn."
He leaned over to Green so that Red couldn't hear what he was about to say "If you were like any normal grunt, I would knock out a couple of your teeth right now. But you know that I can do much worse things. Don't forget that and never pull another stunt like that. I may seem like I'm enjoying teasing you but I really just want you to become an obedient pet. You annoyed the worst person here. Someone like Alex would probably already have you dead... I'm going to enjoy breaking you and soon you'll also start to enjoy it."
He patted him on the shoulder before calling Jolteon back to her pokeball and starting to walk towards the doors. He smiled at Red while they passed each other. The teenager looked at him with a confused expression. He hoped to learn what was going on from Green.
"Were you going to punch him? What happened?"
"I... I guess I just got frustrated... a little." the other teenager responded while hoping that the fake concern he was trying to show with his face would prevent his friend from seeing how angry he actually was.
"We just need to train for a couple days and we should be good. We don't have our Pokedexes but I'll ask Nets to help me with learning more about Nidorino."
Red's optimism slightly cheered up his rival.
. . .
"Are you alright?" one of the restaurant staff asked Blue who was sitting in a corner, holding a hand up to her forehead.
"Yeah. It's just... overwhelming." she answered while trying to smile in order to show that there was no reason for that person to worry about her because she genuinely felt like she didn't deserve it.
"I'm not sure. You look like you're about to pass out. Are you sure you didn't catch a cold?"
"No. I'm fine. Just leave me alone."
The person looked a little embarrassed, probably wondering about whether they were too nosy but Blue was so occupied with her current problem that she didn't pay any attention to others, even though her not being able to connect with people was part of what she was thinking about. The news about her faking her fights in order to gather money were probably spreading to everyone in the camping grounds but what bothered her was that she didn't feel remorse. She wasn't sad for herself or for the other people. She was just mad that her moments of weakness were about to destroy everything she worked for. Was there even a point in trying to save face by winning against the guardian if everyone already knew that she was a fraud? The only thing that made her consider this was that she would probably need to try and start collecting badges again and she didn't know if going back through Vermilion and Cerulean wouldn't take her too much time.
"I should probably..."
"Hey, you b#$!" someone shouted while quickly moving towards her before slamming both their fist on the table she was sitting at, causing her drink to spill and the glass to roll off and smash on the floor.
It was a young man with short, blonde hair, wearing typical winter clothing. His actions attracted some attention. It seemed like a bunch of people were worried about what was going on but many looked like they were unsure of what to do, probably having already learned the truth about Blue.
"I guess that you're mad at me?" she asked, not really showing interest in what he had to say, although being observant in case he tried to communicate with her in a more physical way.
"No! I mean... Yes! But I'm also mad at myself!"
Although she couldn't understand what he meant by that, the words were enough to pique her curiosity "What do you mean?"
"Of course I'm angry that you used your fans here just to make money but there's all sort of other things to be angry about. I'm angry that I ever considered that it was impossible to defeat the guardian, even though I saw many times how close you were to doing that. It's not like we didn't have fun watching you fight... There were probably many battles where you actually lost and didn't just throw them so it's not like there weren't good experiences. Even the fake ones looked great since you still put effort to look like you were a hair away from winning. I can appreciate the effort you put in that, but... I still fill terrible... Even if you had something that you considered a good reason for doing that... Well, it's over... I..."
"You should take responsibility." said another person.
"Yes! That's right! I don't know if it's going to be what people hoped for or if it's going to change how we feel about you after learning the truth but it's at least better than you just sitting here and crying about this blowing up in your face!" added the blonde man.
"Do I look like I'm crying?" the girl asked with an annoyed voice.
"You... You are crying." someone said after a short while of silence.
She touched one her cheeks and found out that they were telling the truth. The fact that she didn't feel it before worried her almost as much as not knowing what was the reason for her tears. Was it her parents? Was it Red? Or maybe she actually started to care what these people wanted after hearing this man speak about his feelings? The only possibility that didn't cross her mind was that she could be crying for herself.
"Shut up already." she said while wiping away the tears "I'm going to do it."
Everyone fell silent again but after realizing what her words meant, they started to get louder and louder until finally most of them were cheering, happy that the day they waited for has finally come.
. . .
Blue walked through the crowd of people. The news that she decided to actually try and defeat Snorlax must have spread as fast as the ones about her faking it until then since everyone moved to the sides, making an almost empty path leading towards the guardian. She already packed all her things and was ready to leave as soon as the battle was over, even though she wasn't sure where she would go. The people responsible for taking care of Snorlax didn't even ask her for a ticket since everyone agreed that it was the last chance they were going to give her. The Pokemon itself also acted different than normally. Usually it was pretty calm, waiting for its opponents to get close before beginning the battle, but this time it started walking at the girl before stopping about a meter away from her. It looked down and shook its head disapprovingly.
"I..." for the first time, she actually felt ashamed of what she's done.
The blow she dealt to Snorlax's pride must have been bigger than any damage her actions caused to the others. She couldn't look it in the eyes without her conscience acting up so she lowered her gaze but suddenly she felt its palm on her head, patting her gently. It smiled at her and gave out some noise before returning to its regular spot. She understood that it wanted to say something along the lines of "It's going to be okay" but she didn't get the feeling like anything was actually different from any of their previous encounters. The guardian wanted to fight her just like he always did. She never considered that it, just like Maiia, could have developed friendly feelings towards her since at first she saw it as an obstacle and later on as a tool she could use to further her agenda.
"It's not like everything's going to magically be fine just because of me fighting seriously. But I really feel like I owe it to it." she thought to herself as she got into position and put her bag on the ground.
She already decided which of her Pokemon she would use. When she reached towards the pokeball, something cold touched her nose. She looked up. It was beginning to snow.
"Huh. I guess some people would consider this as some sort of sign..." she commented before throwing the pokeball "Go, Tori!"
The Water Pokemon spun around while hidden in his shell before jumping up and landing near his opponent.
"I wonder if they want me to put on a show? Is going all in from the start going to disappoint them if I win too easily? No, no. I have to abandon this type of mindset. The only thing I need to is win and I know I can do that."
While the girl was battling her thoughts, Snorlax already went on the offensive by slamming both its fist on the ground, causing the move Earthquake to come into effect, making Wartortle jump up and spin around until landing back on the ground, too dizzy to get up.
"Oh no. If I look bad even for a second, they may start to think that I'm pretending to lose... But... Why do I care?"
Snorlax continued by using Power-Up Punch to scoop Wartortle off the ground and send him flying high above.
"Focus, Blue. Focus." she said to herself while slapping both her cheeks before looking up at Tori who tried to position himself for a good landing "Use Rapid Spin to circle around it!"
He did as ordered, although it was hard to start rotating, and moved through the air, making his way past Snorlax before coming out of the shell.
"Water Gun!"
The cold air made it sting much more when the attack hit Snorlax in the back of its head. It grabbed the spot instinctively before turning around and making a charge at Wartortle who still hasn't reached the ground. It looked like it was about to deliver another strong punch but the Water Pokemon's trainer finally was in a state of mind where she could make quick decisions.
"Use it again to dodge!"
Wartortle moved out of the way right as he was about to receive the blow but Snorlax didn't intend to give up, letting the weight of his punch carry him into a spin that positioned it in such a way that the next move would be sure to reach the target. It formed a ball of electricity in one of its hands and threw it at Tori who was unable to avoid it, falling to the ground after taking damage.
"Did... Did the guardian ever use Electric moves? That was a Thunderbolt, right?" said someone in the crowd of spectators which was more dense than ever before.
"I don't think so." someone else replied.
"I've never seen it use any Special moves. Just Physical ones." added another person.
More and more people started discussing this surprising turn of events until one by one they started coming to the same conclusion "Wait... Does that mean that the guardian also never fought seriously?"
Having realized what was happening sooner than the others, Blue was still confused by why Snorlax would hide his true abilities. Was that pat on the head she received from it a sign that it understood what she was going through? Was revealing its power a way for Blue to not look as bad in other people's eyes?
"No. That doesn't make any sense. I've never treated it like a friend. Why would it do something for me?"
"You don't have to act friendly towards someone for them to do the same for you." the words came from Maiia who stood next to Blue after approaching her from the back "Even if someone is a total asshole, there still may be something that makes you like them. I, for example, never expected anything back for being your friend. I just came to like you and wanted to see you happy. I guess I messed that one up."
"How can I try to understand others' feelings when I'm confused about my own?"
"You're overthinking it. Just be yourself and see if they like it. If they don't, then there's no point in forcing yourself, yeah?"
"How is that going to help me in this situation?" she asked while pointing at the battlefield where Wartortle was running around in order to avoid a bunch of other Thunderbolts Snorlax was sending its way.
"The guardian is doing exactly what I told you to do. It must have seen how conflicted you were so it's showing you its true self in order to become your friend. Now it's up to you whether you accept these feelings or not."
"But... I don't feel like I deserve it. I know what I did was wrong and yet I don't feel any regret. Does someone like that deserve a chance to be happy?"
"Sure you do. You've already taken the first step by deciding to fight seriously. I don't want to tell you what to do since I never saw you as someone who needed help in knowing what they want but if you want my advice, I'm here for you." she stopped for a second to think of something "You know how there's different types of lies depending on who benefits and who loses from them? What you did was a black lie but I don't think that there's classification for a lie that stopped being a lie."
"A blue lie? That's what you wanted me to say."
"Yeah. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"
"I..."
They were forced to stop talking when Wartortle was sent flying through the small space between their bodies.
"I will finish this fight... and let people decide how they feel about me... But I'll be leaving this place no matter what." she said before running towards her Pokemon to check out if he was okay "I have an idea, Tori. There's already a bit of snow lying around. We can use that to our advantage. Use Water Pulse very low!"
The Water Pokemon did as ordered not knowing that Blue's plan was for the energy of his attack to cause the snow to rise rapidly, obscuring Snorlax's view.
"Rapid Spin!" she shouted and Wartortle acted accordingly, delivering a blow to Snorlax's head before bouncing away and receiving the next command "And now Skull Bash!"
Tori spun around some more before he was positioned in a way that would allow him to attack Snorlax from the front. He focused energy in his head as he pulled it backward before delivering a headbutt so strong that it caused his enormous opponent to take a step back while trying to push Wartortle away. The guardian managed to somehow move out of the way, causing its foe to fly past him and land on the ground after doing a quick flip. Although it was visibly in pain, Snorlax decided to use Earthquake before jumping away from Wartortle in order to prepare its next move. Even though it was harder to use that attack in such weather, Blue realized that it was preparing to fire a Solar Beam.
"Get up, Tori!"
The turtle was already in much pain but it started to slowly rise from the ground. Snorlax finished charging its attack and shot a beam of green energy at his foe.
Seeing that, Blue yelled "Water Gun!"
The two attacks collided but it wasn't even a contest. Solar Beam was slowly pushing Wartortle back. Its already slippery body made it easier not to trip up on the snow but that wasn't much consolation.
"I can't lose." Blue said, overtaken with passion that she hasn't felt before.
"Wait! Where are you going?!" Maiia could only yell at her friend since she was too scared to follow her as she ran to her Pokemon who was still struggling.
Blue put her back against her Pokemon's in order to stop him from being pushed away, allowing for a more steady release of the water. Noticing the unusual effort put in by his trainer, Wartortle got to a whole new level of motivation and pushed as hard as he could, momentarily causing Solar Beam to get overpowered but the guardian also kept on trying harder and harder. It was looking like despite Blue's help, there was no chance of victory when suddenly something started to change.
The girl felt the Pokemon grow several times his size and his shell become harder than it ever was. She tilted her head and saw that he was so big that she couldn't even get a glimpse of his head while on the ground. He wasn't being pushed back any longer so she assumed it to be safe to stand up, even though the effort she just put in left her a little tired. She walked around and saw Tori, now a Blastoise, in his full glory. Instead of using only the mouth, he tripled the strength of his Water Gun by also shooting it out of the cannons on his back. Snorlax was as surprised as the girl but it didn't intend on giving up, using as much power as it could.
Blue saw this as a chance, reminded that a power struggle wasn't her usual style of fighting "Rapid Spin out of the way!"
There was only a fraction of a second for Blastoise to move away after stopping using Water Gun, in order for it not to be hit by Solar Beam. This sudden move was enough of a surprise that when its attack exploded after hitting the ground, Snorlax wasn't immediately able to follow its opponent's movements.
"Skull Bash!"
This time the turtle positioned himself behind the guardian and was able to land a much more powerful headbutt than the one before, causing Snorlax to fall down before he himself landed on his back.
"Finish it with Water Pulse!"
This was another move that became more dangerous thanks to the evolution. Blastoise put his cannons against Snorlax's skin and the pulsating energy felt like a barrage of powerful punches to the guardian. After some time, Blue put up her hand and signaled her Pokemon that it was okay to stop.
One of the nurses ran up to them and checked various things about Snorlax before taking a megaphone she had someone deliver to her and speaking through it, and in doing so through various speakers set up around the camping field "This just in! The guardian has been officially defeated in battle by Blue and her Blastoise! I repeat, the guardian has lost... For the first time in history!"
I'm terrible a this stuff. I hoped to complete both the stories in this chapter but it looks like I'm gonna need to put the epilogue to Blue's story at the beginning of the next chapter and the rest of it will be about rematches against Alex and some other things.
I did pretty much all I wanted with this story. I tried to lessen Blue's burden by having Snorlax show that it wasn't fighting seriously until this point and by having her show how much effort she could put in when she needed to. I also used other characters like Maiia and that random guy to point her in a specific direction without forcing her to do something. As of this chapter, she's still not sure about almost anything but her connection to Snorlax was a big step. The next one are probably relations with humans but you'll have to wait some time for that. It's kinda weird how she's the most developed of the main characters even though she has a lot less appearances than Red. But then again, Red is a fairly simple guy while he's not actively trying to come up with something.
On the other hand we have Green who's also getting his development. I really hope that I don't make some of the hints too obvious or the reveals I have planned won't be exciting to read. But if you correctly guess what's coming, that just means that you're as good(or better) reader than I am a writer.
I have some bad news. Well, not necessarily bad. I was very annoyed for a couple minutes but after calming down I realized that what happened wasn't so bad. The file where I keep my plans for future chapters somehow got corrupted and deleted around half of the stuff I had in it. I tried to recover it but wasn't able. I have the plans for all but like 3-4 last chapters of Kanto but I lost all the plans for the Johto part. I have about 16 of the Johto chapters plans somewhere on paper but when/if the times comes to write the rest, I will have to go from memory so instead of my usual tweaking of plans, it may be me completely building stories from the ground up. Which isn't necessarily a bad things. I just don't feel like writing them down again and I wonder how much I'll still remember when I reach that point(which at this speed definitely won't be this year). Let's just hope that it's one of Bob Ross's "happy little accidents" and the story actually turns out better than it would originally have.
If you want to help me deal with this loss, leave a review. Or don't.
Red. Team: Nidorino.
Stasis: Eevee, Charmeleon, Raichu, Gloom, Gyarados, Pidgeotto.
Badges: 4
Green. Team: Jynx.
Stasis: Venusaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, Horsea.
Badges: 3
Blue. Team: Weepinbell(Bell), Blastoise(Tori), Zubat(?), Graveler(?).
Badges: 3
Alex. Team: Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, ?.
Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash.
Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.