Episode 37: The angry gyarados!
The group eventually reached Mahogany Town in the afternoon after hoothoot evolved into noctowl. Tired from the journey, they went immediately to the pokémon center and took a quick nap before eating a late lunch and going to explore the town.
As they were told before, there wasn't much to do in Mahogany Town. It was small, quaint town that apparently used to be the "Home of the Ninja." However, during their relatively brief tour they saw no ninjas of any sort. The only thing worth taking a look at was their market which, according to people in the town, used to be a headquarters for Team Rocket. As they walked into the store this became quite evident, as there was a sectioned off corner in the back that looked like it used to lead to a set of stairs.
Nevertheless, the market had an oddly creepy vibe to it. As the trainers looked around, they saw old knickknacks and weird-looking pieces of jewelry.
However, as they were perusing the shelves containing old artifacts and other oddities, they heard a loud sound coming from outside. Rushing to check it out, the group noticed that it was the new Champion of the Silver Conference—Lance—and his dragonite landing.
The red-haired, cape-bearing champion looked around for a moment, as if he was expecting someone. Once he realized that the only people in the area were the four young trainers standing in the market's doorway, he smiled briefly, waved, and walked away with his dragonite in tow.
"Wait, Lance!" Fay said as the champion turned around.
"What is it?" Lance asked, clearly looking like he was in a hurry.
"What are you doing here in Mahogany Town?" He asked.
"I'm here on league business. There's been some odd activity happening around here recently, and as champion it's my duty to come and check it out before we get the police involved. And in any case, I was free, so I figured I'd stop by."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Fay wondered. The other three nodded behind him, clearly wondering the same thing. Yet Lance shook his head.
"Not that I can think of kids. It's dealing with some odd sound coming from this town. We think it might be due to seemingly unrelated strange activity up at the Lake of Rage. But until we figure out what's going on down here, we can't be too sure."
"Well, we could go up to the Lake of Rage and see what's going on over there, and re-group after?" Brittany suggested.
Lance sighed. He recognized that while he might need the help, he didn't want to burden these kids, or get anyone else involved that didn't need to be. Nonetheless, he agreed to have them check out the lake, summoning his two other dragonite for them to ride on.
Niko and JJ got on one dragonite and Fay and Brittany on the other. Niko and JJ initially seemed frightened of flying in the air, but got used to it a little more as the dragon pokémon flew low to the ground in a northern direction before reaching a rather large lake. The dragonite settled down onto the ground to let the group get off before flying back to Lance.
"They're just leaving us here?" JJ asked as he gestured to the dragon pokémon flying away.
"Guess so. Let's see what's going on over here," Niko suggested, motioning them to the edge of the lake. For a moment it didn't seem like anything was happening. While they waited, an elderly man approached them from their right.
"Ah, is this your first time here?" He asked, turning to Brittany in particular.
"Yeah…yeah it is, sir," the brunette responded. "We were sent here to see if there is anything wrong with this lake."
"Ah. I see. Well, as the name implies, the Lake of Rage is always chaotic. According to legend, it was created when a large number of gyarados gathered together and created a storm, thus creating this lake in the crater that remained. It has since been a place of wonder for travelers, and a lovely fishing spot for fishermen. However, some years back Team Rocket conducted a variety of experiments on the pokémon in the lake, many of them forcing evolution upon magikarp. Only one pokémon was affected—a red gyarados. It was Lance who defeated Team Rocket, alongside some kids, and put an end to this mess by capturing the red gyarados. But you're right—there has been some odd activity recently. The gyarados in the lake have been acting strange, and we're not quite sure why."
Suddenly, the group heard another explosion as the house nearby burst into flames. The old man cried out as he ran to the house.
"Horsea, use water gun!" Fay shouted, summoning his water type to douse the flames out. Brittany did the same with wartortle, while Niko ran after the old man.
Once the flames were extinguished, the old man came out with an old woman—presumably his wife—around his shoulder. They both collapsed onto the ground, gasping for fresh air. Niko got down next to him and offered his water bottle, since the woman clearly looked dehydrated.
"Thanks…" she said, drinking the water and laying back on the grass next to her husband. "What happened there honey?"
The old man turned to her and shook his head. "No idea."
As he said that, a trio appeared from the flames—two humans and one pokémon. Niko immediately recognized them as Team Rocket from the incident at the Goldenrod museum.
"Did you bomb this couple's house!?" He shouted, standing up and whipping out a pokéball.
"Oh, child," Jessie said, smirking evilly. "Do you really think that we would stoop so low as to terrorize an old married couple?"
"Yes. Yes I think so," Niko said, "Magneton, use thunderbolt!"
"Oh no! Oh no no no!" James shouted, summoning his ghost type once again. "Yamask, use shadow ball!"
The two attacks collided in midair, resulting in an explosion. Magneton rushed forward to challenge yamask while Jessie and meowth did battle with Brittany and JJ.
"Why are you here? What do you have going on?" JJ shouted at Jessie as his umbreon fought wobbuffet.
"Fine, we might as well tell you now, since it looks like you won't be able to stop us soon!" Jessie said, cackling. "We are re-creating the experiments done on the gyarados years ago, using radio waves to control them and produce more red gyarados. Now, meowth, if you'll do the honors…"
"You've got it Jess!" Meowth said, grabbing a small remote control from a bag slung around his shoulder and pressed a series of buttons. Suddenly, out of the water, dozens of gyarados shot out the water, many of them also red.
"What the…" Fay said, pulling out two pokéballs. As he was about to release his pokémon to begin fighting, he saw Lance and his three dragonite descend to the ground.
"What's going on here…?" He asked hurriedly, turning from the gyarados to the group and Team Rocket. "Oh, not you guys again…"
"Oh no! It's Lance of the Elite 4!" James said, genuinely looking frightened.
"You've got that right. Dragonites, use hyper beam!"
The three dragon pokémon then unleashed three orange energy beams at Team Rocket, sending them into the burnt house, knocked out from the impact of the attack.
"Now that that's taken care of…we need to find a way to stop these gyarados. Calm them down, or something," Lance said. "What caused this in the first place?"
"Meowth from Team Rocket had some sort of remote control that turned on the radio waves?" Fay said, still unsure of what exactly was happening. "I'm not completely sure, but that seems to be it. What did you find in Mahogany Town?"
"Turns out, nothing actually. It must have been Team Rocket down there testing the range of their radio signal. Once they realized it wasn't strong enough, they must have come back up here to finally use it."
"Well, that solves that, but why are they still uptight?" Niko asked, almost as if he was demanding an answer.
"No clue. But it looks like they aren't going to be calmed down by turning off whatever those radio signals were. We might need to fight them."
"Fight the gyarados!?" JJ shouted out. "Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. I think it's the only way to make them come to their senses. That's what happened last time, at least."
"Alright, we can do that. Right, guys?" Niko asked, standing up next to the old couple. "Before we do, I want to go check out the remote control. If it's still working, then maybe we can shut it off. If not, we're on our own."
"I'll go and help you. Horsea, flaaffy, go and fight the gyarados in the meantime!" Fay said, tossing out two of his pokémon to do battle with the gyarados. Niko did the same, instructing magneton to unleash a series of thunderbolts. Lance, Brittany, and JJ all joined in the fight, using pokémon that would have a chance of beating a gyarados.
Niko and Fay looked through the broken down house for Team Rocket, eventually finding them still unconscious from the impact of the hyper beams. Rummaging through the area around them, they found a broken remote control. Picking it up, Niko tried a few times to turn it on and off, but nothing seemed to work.
"Looks like it's broken. What do you think, Fay?" Niko asked, surrendering the remote control.
"Yep, definitely broken. Since the gyarados are still throwing a temper tantrum, it wouldn't matter whether or not these radio waves were even on. Anyways, let's go tell the others and join in on the fight."
Niko nodded as the two ran back to the lake's edge. The old couple had gotten on a dragonite to go down to Mahogany Town and alert the police there of what was happening. Meanwhile, the other two dragonites were flying around the lake, launching flamethrowers, ice beams, hyper beams, and thunderbolts at the gyarados, none of which were falling easily. Flaaffy and magneton were both fighting a pair of gyarados; Umbreon and beedrill another pair, and horsea and wartortle were fighting on the red gyarados. Some of them fell rather quickly; others took significantly more time. It seemed that horsea and wartortle were having particular difficulty. The turtle pokémon quickly fell to a series of dragon rages, leaving horsea largely on its own.
"Horsea, use twister!" Fay commanded. "Flaaffy, use thunderwave!"
The latter attack, combined with magneton's own thunderwave, caused the gyarados nearby to suddenly stop moving in the water. Both trainer's then commanded them to use thunderbolt and thundershock, while horsea used another twister to carry the red gyarados into the air and crashing back down into the water.
Then the gyarados, now recovering from the momentary paralysis, all turned to magneton and flaaffy, each focusing their dragon rages on the two electric types. As they unleashed the attacks simultaneously, Niko and Fay shouted out, pulling out their pokéballs to return them. As they were about to do so, however, horsea jumped in front of them and used a powerful twister attack, which sucked up the dragon rage into a spinning tornado of purple fire, eventually dissipating.
The little dragon began panting heavily, as it had expended nearly all of its energy doing so. But as it was about to faint from a lack of strength, it started to glow brightly. It grew slightly larger, with its tail and snout getting twice as large. It also grew a pair of wings on its back. Feeling fired up, Fay pulled out his pokédex to examine the evolved form of horsea:
"Seadra, the dragon pokémon. Water type. Its fin tips leak poison. Its fins and bones are highly valued as ingredients in herbal medicine."
"Alright seadra! Let's show these gyarados what we're made of! Use twister!" Fay shouted out. "Flaaffy, use thunderwave!"
"Magneton, thunderwave! Noctowl, steel wing!" Niko commanded as he summoned his owl pokémon to join the fight.
"Umbreon, faint attack! Beedrill, pin missile!" JJ called out.
"Dragonites, use hyper beam!" Lance commanded, throwing out a hand as a gesture.
The attacks all hit individual gyarados, nearly defeating each one. As they all fired dragon rages and hydro pumps in retaliation, one of Lance's dragonites used protect to block the incoming fire and water bursts while the other pokémon fired off the same moves once more. Now stunned by flaaffy's thunderwave, the pokémon used one final move before ultimately defeating the gyarados.
As the last gyarados retreated into the water, Lance turned to the group.
"Well, I had my doubts about getting kids involved, but I think you all performed quite well. Thank you for the help."
"Anytime, Lance," Fay said, "You helped me train my pokémon back in Kanto. The least I could do to thank you."
"So that's where I recognize you from! How are you charmeleon and gyarados doing, by the way?"
"They're both fine. Charmeleon evolved into charizard, but their dragon rages are much stronger, thanks for asking."
As they continued chatting, a squad of police vehicles appeared near the house, the old couple and dragonite following. Lance approached Officer Jenny and explained the situation, and walked with them over to Team Rocket, who were still unconscious. The police took them back into town, along with the group, who had said their farewells to Lance before getting into the squad cars.
Back in the pokémon center, again finding themselves exhausted, the group had a meal while planning the day ahead of them.
"So are you two ready for the gym tomorrow?" Brittany asked as she bit into her salad.
Niko and Fay both nodded. "Yeah, I think we're ready, right?" Niko asked. Fay nodded again as he was starting his own meal. "Guess we could go early in the morning so that, if we both win, we can head off to Blackthorn right after.
"Sounds like a plan to me!" JJ said as he fed azurill. "Today was quite the day though, wasn't it?"
"How is it that we always end up finding trouble?" Niko wondered as he chuckled at the thought.
"No idea. Wrong place, wrong time?" Brittany suggested.
"Or maybe right place, right time?" JJ asked, playfully arguing with his brunette friend. Brittany smirked before getting back to her salad.
The four then went immediately to bed. It had been another long and exhausting day. Their pokémon, who were resting in their trainer's beds, certainly felt the same way.