Please forgive my tardiness on updating this story, my college work has a higher priority than this story, and maintaining my place on the Deans List is hard. Also its been awhile so my grammar my be a tad off. However I just want to let you know that the Johto legacy is still alive!
Chapter 55: Teach me to fight.
My life is as far from normal now more than it has ever been. No longer was it about trying to become a Pokémon Ranger, but rather being hunted by them. I haven't eaten a proper meal in over two weeks, and all the comforts I've come accustomed to from my normal life are now long gone. It's been nearly a week since Silver recovered from the knife fight he and Jordan had the night he rescued me from the Johto Ranger's Head Quarters. And ever since then, Silver has been forcing me to learn how to fight. However, his form of teaching is far from—forgiving. Such thoughts of how brutal Silver could be were persistent through my mind as I moved about the forest floor, drenched in sweat and trying my best to keep up with the intense combat training I was currently going through. My opponent was in the midst of hunting me, hidden somewhere in the dense forest. It was a race to see who could get the jump on the other and defeat them. But this wasn't your typical Pokémon battle; for all the rules of engagement were off. Which meant I was going to fight not only Silver's Pokémon, but also Silver himself!
My partner for this grueling exercise was my Machoke, Champ, and I was desperately looking for signs of Silver's location along with him.
"You think he's close?" Champ asked me as we both took a second to stop and evaluate our surroundings.
"I don't know." I heaved in response, my lungs on fire from the constant movement.
Hearing my raspy breathing, my Machoke looked to me and asked, "You alright, babe?"
"No…. I'm fine, I'm just not used to running this much—also quit calling me babe." I responded with irritation in my tone. My Machoke has a bad habit of hitting on anything of the opposite gender.
Then, just as I was ready to search for Silver again, I heard a low rumble coming from the ground beneath me. For a moment I was perplexed by the odd sound, before it suddenly hit me.
"Champ, move!"
But before my Machoke could hear me, suddenly two purple pincers shot out of the ground and latched on to Champ's ankles.
"What the—!" Champ hollered before the pincers crossed and caused Champ to fall.
It was then that the owner of those pincers revealed itself by erupting out of the ground, sending dirt flying everywhere. It was Silver's powerful Drapion, and it laughed to itself as it extended its segmented arms to try and strike the now prone Fighting-type.
"Ha, now this is what I call a right and proper slobber knocker!" Silver's Drapion exclaimed in its oddly Australian sounding accent, before it began to attack.
Exhausted and breathing heavily, I stood ready and ordered, "Champ, use Counter and follow with Hammer Arm!"
Hearing my order, Champ quickly avoided the scorpion's initial attack and shot up to his feet. He then poised his bruised body into the Counter position and readied for the next attack. I on the other hand, kept my eyes peeled for Silver.
He can't be far; he must've sent his Drapion to distract me before he came in to attack me. I thought to myself as I prepared to combat Silver's ploy.
"Oi ya wanna Counter huh? Try countering this!" the Drapion cackled as he swung his long lanky arms around and swept up some dirt, causing a large cloud of dust to spring up around us.
"Shit! He's using Sand Attack!" I cursed, unprepared for this new tactic as I lost sight of the Drapion, before I heard the arachnid scuttle toward Champ and completely bypassed his Counter to strike him in the back with a Night Slash!
"Champ! Quickly use—" I tried to order, but was cut off when in the corner of my eye I saw a shape emerge from the dust cloud and throw a punch toward me.
Fear overtook me, cause I realized that this was Silvers plan all along to hide his approach and attack me when my back was turned. Silver was hard enough for me to fight when I wasn't exhausted, but now he's straight up fighting unfair. However, my reflexes have become faster than they used to be due to Silver's grueling week of training and I was able to take control of my fear and I quickly avoided his attack.
Pivoting on the ball of my foot I was able to quickly face my attacker head on, ready to attack. However, I wasn't prepared for the follow up punch Silver had coming and he socked me in my left arm. It was then I realized his first attack was merely a fake out and he anticipated me to dodge it. Pain shot through my left arm, and I instantly tried to avoid the next attack. I knew Silver liked to pummel his foes and preferred to chain his attacks to make someone fall as quickly as possible, so I expected another round of punches to follow the one he just threw. It didn't help that Silver also possessed an unnatural strength for someone his size—he's almost as strong as Jordan and I've even seen him hold his own against my Pokémon for short periods of time.
Moving quickly, I was able to get away from Silver's attempted jabs. I tried to raise my arms to be able to block, but my left arm was shaky from that powerful hit Silver landed on me and it left me open on my left side. Silver tried to exploit my weak arm and aimed for my left side. I saw this coming and ducked under his punch. With easy access to his blind spot, I tried to land a few blows on him before he tried to attack again. My first jabs were blocked by his fast reflexes but I managed to land at least two solid hits in on his side. Silver recoiled from the sharp punches I delivered and without hesitation got ready for his retaliation, only to gasp when I felt my legs taken out from under me. I was so focused on his hands, I forgot to watch out for his legs and I quickly collapsed to the ground. The next thing I knew, I saw Silver pinning me to the ground and rearing back his fist for another attack.
Kris move he's right on top you! My mind screamed as my eyes fixated on his fist. Move! Move! Move!
Then with everything I had, I forced my legs to kick him off me before he could knock me out cold. With him no longer pinning me I immediately rolled out of the way and miraculously got up to my feet again. I need to get away from him; I can't keep up with his attacks! I need Champs help.
"Champ, use Seismic Toss and plant that scorpion in the ground, then back me up!" I shouted as I tried to avoid a roundhouse kick from Silver.
Hearing my order, Champ quickly did as I said and grappled with the Drapion, before exclaiming "Next stop rock bottom!"
He quickly tensed his legs before exploding up into the air with the heavy Drapion in his grasp, then flipped around and came back down to pile the drive the scorpion Pokémon in the dirt. Partially buried in the dirt, the Drapion was incapacitated for a moment allowing Champ some time to aid me. Dashing toward me and Silver, I quickly side stepped to let my fighting-type rush past me.
"Hammer Arm!" Champ shouted as he swept Silver aside with a powerful blow.
However, despite having just been attacked by a Pokémon Silver was able to quickly recover from the devastating blow and was back on his feet in no time. His endurance was simply astounding, if he could get up after a hit like that it makes me wonder just how powerful Jordan's punches were in order to make Silver fall to his knees in just a few hits.
Silver knows he can't take me and Champ on his own, even though he's abnormally strong. He quickly dashed away and regrouped with his Drapion—who just unearthed himself from the Seismic Toss. I'm not quite sure how Silver pulled off what he did next, but his Drapion seemed to know exactly what to do without Silver telling him anything. Upon reaching his poison-type Silver quickly grabbed onto one of his Pokémon's long lanky arms.
It was then that the Drapion exclaimed, "Gotcha now, mate's!" before swinging his arm around and launching Silver toward Champ.
Stunned by this new maneuver, Champ wasn't ready for when Silver delivered a flying kick to Champ's face, dropping him straight to the ground in one fell swoop. Landing not too far from me, Silver was instantly on the attack again and came up to me with his fists at the ready. Despite my initial shock from his previous stunt, I managed to instinctually raise my hands up to block his punches. But the intense blow my left arm suffered earlier acted up and I felt my arm freeze up even worse than before. This caused me to be completely open to attack and Silver immediately punished me for it.
Silver loves to finish a fight with a series of jabs and often finishes his barrages with a left or right hook. His jabs I've learned to be able to withstand with time, however it's his heavy handed hooks that I can't handle. With only my right arm to effectively attempt to block his quick jabs, it was a race against time for me to figure out which way Silver's going to throw his hook. Jab after jab I endured, before finally I was able to spot his right hand reaching back, readying to launch his finishing blow. Having spotted this, I immediately took this chance to throw a jab of my own. If I could strike him right before he launched his right hook, I thought I had a chance to finally turn the tide of the fight. However, my bruised body wasn't able to keep up with my thoughts and I lost out on my chance to counter him. Then just like every fight so far, Silver landed his right hook and knocked me the ground.
After slamming into the dirt I coughed painfully from having the wind knocked out of me. Staggered and beaten, I tried to get back up but my arms were too weak and I fell back down. It was over, I couldn't continue fighting, once again Silver has defeated me and I still don't feel any closer to being able to beat him. Seeing that I couldn't get back up, Silver relaxed his stance and said in a somewhat disappointed tone, "Alright. . .that's enough for now."
I breathed a slight sigh of relief at sound of this and I rolled over to look up at Silver. As usual he had a slight scowl on his face, but it was certainly far less menacing then the looks he would give me back when I was hunting him as a Ranger. In fact, I've noticed that Silver has been slowly becoming nicer to me ever since he rescued me. Well 'nice' isn't exactly the best way to describe his behavior, he still calls me a stupid girl and a moron a lot. He's even threatened to abandon me several times when my results from his brutal training were less than his expectations. But even so, he often apologizes after every insult and he throws at me, although he does it rather begrudgingly, it seems like he's trying to be nicer.
"Come on and get up already." Silver grunted as he grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. "We're going to start again and this time try not to fail so miserably."
Cringing at the thought of another round of combat I quickly begged, saying, "Silver wait. . . I can't I'm too tried. . . I need a rest, please."
Sliver gave me a stern look like he was going to yell at me, but when he saw how hard it was for me to keep standing, he looked away from me for moment before saying, "I'm sorry—we'll train some other time."
"Thank you," I replied as I sat down and tried to catch my breath, I then looked back up and see that Silver was still looking away from me.
That's another thing I've noticed about him, it seems like Silver has a hard time looking me in the eye when we're just talking, though we don't really have normal conversations. The only time he really looks at me is when he's fighting me, even then I feel like he holds himself back when he tries to train me. Though my left arm might disagree with that statement.
"Alright, you've got four hours." Silver said sternly as he turned his head to me and pointed, "Then we start training again, you got me?"
I nodded my head in agreement, despite my desire to object to that. I knew I was in no condition to keep fighting, but in the back of my head I also knew I needed to get stronger if I wanted to continue my fight against Team Rocket. I needed to push myself further and further if I ever want to get as strong as Silver. With that I instantly slumped backward and stared up into the canopy to get as much rest as I could before Silver and I needed to fight again.
"You stay here; I'll be back in bit." Silver said, like he was giving me an order, before walking off.
"Where the hell are you going? I asked, curious as to what Silver doing.
"It's nothing, just don't get into any trouble while I'm gone, god forbid you'll make happy." He replied with a scornful tone before disappearing.
What the hell is he up to?
Hello Everyone, I'm glad to say that this story isn't dead, I've just been having trouble finding time to work on it while at college. Also this chapter, as well as most future chapters are going to be shorter due to my lack of free time. It makes it so that I crack one of this chapters out in less than two days and makes it less daunting of a task. I hope to continue this story more frequently the summer.
