Becoming The Best

Chapter 49

Sarah was sitting by the bank of the river, further upstream than any of the others, with all of her team out. She was insanely proud of the fight they had just had with the gym leaders, but she needed some time to think. Once again, she tried to sort out her thoughts on everything that had happened and-more importantly-what was going to happen. She couldn't fool herself, she knew something was going to happen and she didn't want to be part of it. She still yearned to become the best, but with everything that had happened, she hadn't trained or even battled much in a while. Her pokemon were getting restless; especially Arcane. It had been at least a week since she had battled the tag team leaders, but the other's hadn't wanted to move on-there was a festival in town later in the month and they all wanted to stay around to watch it. Sarah on the other hand was getting impatient. She was also getting angry with Seth and Kaleb-they were trainers too, and they were now both travelling for the sole purpose of getting stronger, so why did they want to stay in one place?

With a sigh, she pulled herself up and stared into the distance, past the town. It was nestled at the bottom of a deep valley, a large hill rose in the direction of the next town. Wanting nothing more than to go and climb it, she made up her mind. She was going to the next town tomorrow, whether the others did or not.


"Aww, but this is going to be a super cool festival with lights and paper flags in the streets and everything! People are coming from everywhere to see it-there'll be loads of people to battle when it starts!" Hayley pleaded, her eyes wide as she tried to convince Sarah to stay.

"I know, but I need to train now," she insisted.

"Sarah c'mon, you don't have to. Take a break from training for a while," Kaleb suggested. Involuntary image of Talia's scary strong pokemon flahsed in her mind.

"No. I need to train. I need to get all the badges then defeat the Elite Four and the Champion," Sarah said, more to convince herself of what she still needed to do than anyone else.

"What the point of becoming a trainer if you don't relax and enjoy it once in a while?" Kaleb said.

"I think Sarah's right," Seth said shortly. Everyone turned to look at him.

"I need to train too," he said simply. Sarah felt herself drop a little, truth be told she was looking forward to travelling on her own for a bit. But now she couldn't.


The next day, Sarah and Seth were ready to leave. There was lots of hugging and Hayley even started crying at point,

"I have a fragile soul," she insisted, before pulling them into hugs again. Then they were off. It took a whole week of travelling before they got to the next town, during which Sarah put her pokemon through intensive training, so when they finally reached their next destination, they were in their mid-30 levels.

That's when it happened.

A shrieking sound could be heard up above, a shrill cry that pierced through them and seemed to reach to their very soul. Looking up, they saw an Aerodactyl circling above them, with none other than Hazel astride it. But she wasn't alone-in her hand she was clutching a writhing pokemon, who was obviously in pain.

"YOU STUPID, PATHETIC, WEAKLING!" she bellowed, throttling the pokemon as she yelled.

"STOP THAT!" Sarah screamed, horrified at the brutal treatment of the pokemon. Hazel looked down and saw them staring up.

"Eurgh, not you two again! Fine, have it. What would I want with a stupid thing like that anyway?" and with that, she flung the pokemon from the great height. Sarah screamed and ran to catch it, Arcane at her heels. She wasn't quick enough however and it hit the ground with a sickening thud. A strangled cry of rage and horror left Sarah as she took the pokemon in her arms. She couldn't believe it. A Dratini.

Without stopping to think, she started running to the pokemon centre, as outraged with Hazel as she was, her main concern was getting the poor thing healed. A huge shadow loomed over her and the next moment, the formiddable Aerodactyl landed in front of her-blocking her entrance to the town.

"If you're taking that pokemon then you're going to have to battle me for it," Hazel sneered, sliding down from her pokemon.

"I haven't got time for this!" Sarah snarled.
"You're going to make time," Hazel sneered and sent out her Kabuto.

"You know what? FINE! Zen, you're up!" she struggled to throw the pokeball while keeping hold of the Dratini, but Zen emerged, looking calm and collected once again. She knew what she was doing.

"Pebble, use mud shot," Hazel sneered, sure that she would win,

"Zen, dodge it and use double kick," Sarah shot back. Zen obliged, rolling out of the way of the mud before dealing two super effective blows to the Kabuto, who whined in pain and shrunk away.

"And again," Sarah said.

"Stop being a wimp Pebble, use endure!" Hazel screamed. Pebble closed his eyes and strengthened his resolve, so when the two painful kicks came, he didn't get knocked out-but he was very very weak.

"Quick attack!" Sarah shouted, hoping to defeat it before any more ground moves could hurt Zen. The Kabuto was too slow and was knocked out by the move. A grin found it's way onto Sarah's face, despite her anger. The fact she was beating Hazel so easily was simply delightful.

"You won't beat my next pokemon so easily! Come on out Rocky!"

A huge, formidable form materialised on the battlefield, towering over Zen. The Bastiodon let out a ferocious bellow and charged at Zen, sending her flying. When she hit the floor, the Bastiodon let out another roar, and used ancient power, using all of it's power to knock Zen out.

"See, you'll never win," Hazel sneered.

"I wouldn't be too sure," Sarah said indignantly. Arcane barked at her side,
"Arcane, you wouldn't stand a chance. Let Mars handle this one," she said, releasing the Dugtrio. A small noise that sounded like it would break her heart made Sarah look down. The Dratini was in really bad shape, she was beaten and looked wasted-she might only have minutes left. But an Aerodactyl was blocking her way, and she was pretty sure a potion wouldn't do any good-the pokemon was too injured. Her mind whirring, she looked down at her determined Dugtrio, when inspiration struck.

"Mars, use magnitude over there, near the Aerodactyl,"

The Dugtrio cast her a confused look, the other trainer was over there and she had never had to attack a trainer before. Did Sarah know this?

"Go on, it's fine. Trust me,"

Mars nodded and turned, using her power to cause the land to quake with an unseen force, more powerful than any other move she had ever used before; even the Bastiodon got hit, sending it sprawling to the floor, knocked out cold. The Aerodactyl took to the air with a screech, flying as high as it could away from the quaking ground, and Sarah saw her chance.

"Guys, some on!" she shouted, and sprinted past a bewildered looking Hazel and into the town, heading straight for the pokecentre.


"What did you do?" Nurse Joy gasped, taking the Dratini from Sarah,

"It wasn't me, it was this girl-she was strangling it so I told her to stop and then. then she threw it to the ground and it hit the floor. It was horrible! Please, please make it better!" Sarah begged, staring into the eyes of the injured Dratini. As Nurse Joy wheeled it away, it didn't break eye contact with Sarah, staring right back until she had gone through into another room. Shuddering with the shock of it all, Sarah turned around to look at Seth,
"How could she do that? That was just cruel," she shuddered,

"I know. But you've done all you can. C'mon," he smiled sadly and placed his hand on her shoulder to steer her away, but she remained rooted to the spot.

"What do you mean 'c'mon'? You can't actually expect me to leave it here can you? I need to know if it's okay! I can't just leave. I don't know what happens to pokemon like that. It could get put in like a... A shelter or something. Or what if Hazel gets her hands on it again? She might kill it!" Sarah argued. She really couldn't just leave the poor Dratini alone, not after what she had just seen.
"I think you're over reacting Sarah," Seth sighed,

"No. No I'm not," she replied. Seth didn't reply. Instead, they stood there, waiting until they heard news of the small dragon.


"Are you the two that came in with the Dratini?" a voice called to them. Sarah turned quickly, seeing a nurse hurrying towards them

"Yes, yes we are. Will it be okay?" Sarah asked,

"He's going to be fine. But there's a small matter we have to sort out. You said the pokemon isn't yours? That it belongs to a girl?" Joy asked. Sarah started shaking again, the sight of Hazel throwing the pokemon from the back of her monster was still fresh in her mind and she seemed unable to talk for a few minutes, so Seth explained to Nurse Joy what had happened.

"That is outrageous! She should be locked up!" Nurse Joy exclaimed. It took her a minute to calm down before continuing,

"Well. Seeing as you brought him in, it is up to you what should be done with him," she explained, looking gently at Sarah.

"Can I see him please?" Sarah asked,

"Of course you can," Nurse Joy smiled and led her into the room where the Dratini lay. When it caught sight of Sarah, it straightened up and moved over to see her, his eyes boring into hers, as if looking deep into her soul.

"Do you want to be my pokemon?" Sarah asked, the words out of her mouth before she had even thought about it. Something seemed to glitter in the dragons eyes and he rose up to snake around her neck, before resting his head on hers.

"I think that's a yes," Seth laughed from the doorway, "And please pick a good name this time," he added. Sarah laughed and stroked the smooth skin of the Dratini, while Arcane jumped up to lick him.

"Well. It seems fair to say that I have absolutely no idea what to name him. Something dragony. Dragon. Dragreen. Hmm. Dragooooon," she played with the word dragon over and over again, Seth standing with his arms folded, knowing for a fact that this was going to end with a really stupid name.

"I've got it!" she exclaimed suddenly, clicking her fingers in the air.

"Let's hear it then," Seth smiled.

"He's called Dragoon,"


Yes, I know, I know-Sarah is terrible at naming pokemon. But look-a Dratini! That kinda makes up for the name don't you think?