Tussle in the Tall Grass
It was late at night – so late that it was actually early morning – and the whole campsite was dark and still. The fire had burned down a while ago and all present were fast asleep. Camping outside under the stars was a new and amazing experience for some of the bladers and certainly for Hilary. At first they thought they would never get to sleep, looking at the wonderful blanket of stars above them and listening to the strange but hauntingly beautiful sounds of wild nocturnal Pokémon. Eventually all of these things lulled them into a peaceful sleep. That's why Tyson was confused as to why he woke up in the middle of the night. He didn't need the bathroom and after lying still and listening for a while he couldn't hear anything that didn't sound ordinary (that is, nothing he hadn't heard before he fell asleep).
He lay on his back looking up at the starry sky through the tree branches. Nothing would ever beat a view like this, he decided, city lights definitely couldn't compare. He was just about to drift off again when he swore something suddenly glided in front of him. He blinked and his eyes snapped open wider but it was already gone. He sat up and looked around frantically. He could have sworn he'd just seen a little green ghost. He tilted his head to examine the tree branches. There was no wind so the leaves were silent, refusing to give up the secret of the tree's longevity.
He looked around again. Something was definitely off. It was a warm night so they'd left their Pokémon out of their Pokéballs and they were all curled up or sprawled out near their trainers. Mari's corner of the camp was particularly crowded with six Pokémon, half of them quite large too. Tyson's gaze panned around the whole camp, counting heads. There was Daichi snoring next to him, then Hilary, Mari and her Pokémon, Ray and then… Kai! Kai's sleeping bag was empty.
Tyson squirmed to get out of his sleeping bag in a hurry, unzipping it noisily. On his other side, Max stirred a bit at the noise but didn't wake. Tyson inwardly growled. Kai had probably wondered off into the wild on his own again. He picked up his jacket, belt and shoes, folded neatly in a pile beside him, and nudged his Torchic awake. The chick opened his big, adorable eyes slowly and looked up at his trainer. He made a small noise that sounded like 'peep'.
"Shhh," Tyson whispered, putting a finger to his lips. "All the other guys are asleep but Kai's wandered off again. Come on, let's go look for him."
Tyson crept away into the forest and Torchic scurried after him.
The clearing near the old tree had been nice but within the trees the forest now looked spooky. It was only a half moon so there wasn't an awful lot of light and all of the shadows looked dark and smoky. The canopy shut out most of the moonlight, making the going more difficult for Tyson and Torchic. The little chick glanced around nervously and stayed close to his trainer. It squeaked fearfully at what sounded like an owl's hoot but carried on regardless. Tyson kept his ears open for anything that sounded out of place, which in this world were most things. A loud splash was caught on his human-level sonar. He started but in end just brushed it off as some random wild animal sound… until he heard another, almost exactly the same.
"Hey, Torchic, did you hear that?" Tyson whispered, looking around for the potential source of the noise. Torchic looked up curiously. He was huddled up against Tyson's leg. "Hey, what the matter little dude? Are you scared of the dark?"
Torchic seemed to panic and shook his head frantically. However when there was a mysterious snap in the nearby undergrowth he squeaked and pressed himself against Tyson's leg. His trainer chuckled and leaned down to pet his Pokémon. "Hey, that's cool," he said comfortingly. "The first step to overcoming fear is facing it. Or we can go back if you want."
He ended up petting the chick longer that he intended to, noticing how warm the feathers were. A normal animal would surely have a fever at that temperature but Torchic seemed to be just fine. He'd bothered to check out the information on Torchic in the Pokédex and found out that he was also a fire-type like Growlithe. Tyson wondered if that meant that Torchic would eventually learn to breathe fire too. The very thought was kind of exciting. Tyson grinned despite himself but quickly shook his head. Getting too excited about this was no good, he was only here to find the Porygon Z. They had to get back to their world as quickly as possible.
Torchic cheeped and took a few steps away from Tysons's leg. He looked up at his trainer and then looked forward. It seemed that he was ready to move on now. Tyson grinned. "You're a pretty determined little guy, aren't ya?"
There was another splash and this time it was accompanied by a low voice, too far away to be heard as anything above a murmur but recognisable as human. Tyson gasped and turned in the direction that he assumed the voice had come from. "This way!" he hissed, taking off in that direction. Torchic cheeped and hurried after him.
The forest began to open up and the grass was getting longer and longer until the forest ended at another one of those grassy fields that cut through the trees like rivers. The grass here was really tall, higher than Tyson's knees and in some places even a bit taller. Roughly in the middle of this field was a small tree with a gnarled, twisty trunk and spindly branches and only boasting some clumps of leaves. Beneath that tree Tyson managed to spot moonlight shining off something blue and a long streak of white.
"KAI!" Tyson yelled across the breezy field. He ran out into the grassland with Torchic trying to keep up and scurry through the gaps he made.
Kai looked up and sighed when he spotted Tyson dashing towards him. He turned away and tried to ignore him by resuming his activity. He lifted the collapsible training ball, this time in its closed position and showed it to his Magikarp. His fish Pokémon splashed about in the empty pond beneath the tree but calmed a little when she saw that her attention was required again.
"Here's the target," Kai said clearly, holding the ball out and tossing it in the air. "Use Bounce."
Magikarp launched herself out of the water in a way that could only be described as bouncy. She hit the ball back to Kai and he caught it, still in its closed position.
"Tch," Kai muttered. He opened the ball and held it out again. "One more time. Bounce.
He threw the ball in the air again and Magikarp bounced to hit it back.
"Hey, Kai! Stop ignoring me!" Tyson shouted, grabbing one of Kai's scarf tails and tugging hard. Kai turned to him with an expression of mild annoyance, hoping to convey his disinterest in whatever Tyson wanted but the effect was ruined when the training ball bounced off the side of his head. Tyson's cheeks puffed out and he snorted. It was too much to contain and he ended up doubled over in a fit of raucous laughter while Kai glared at Magikarp disappointedly. The fish Pokémon sunk deeper into the pond and blew apologetic bubbles.
"What do you want, Tyson?" Kai snapped, picking up the ball that had collapsed. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
"And can't you see that it's the middle of the night?" Tyson retorted. "Why couldn't this wait until morning? Whatever this is."
"I'm training." Kai opened up the ball again. "You allocated all of the training equipment to my bag."
"Only because it was the heaviest stuff." Tyson smacked his hands over his mouth and watched for Kai's reaction in wide-eyed fear. Kai just shrugged and turned back to Magikarp. "But why train right now?"
"Magikarp is weak. She needs to evolve if I want to be able to make use of her in Gym Battles."
"That doesn't explain why you need to be out here now but I guess it's just because you're Kai and you're weird," Tyson said. "I mean, seriously, can't you be reasonable about things? Ever since we got here people have only been telling us about how dangerous the wild is during the day, how dangerous do you think it is at night?!"
"Who knows," Kai said dismissively, throwing the ball to Magikarp again. "Bounce."
Tyson sighed exasperatedly. "Fine, next time I'll remember not to-"
Torchic suddenly squawked in alarm, grabbing the bladers' attention. Its cover blown, a dark-furred Pokémon sprang out of the tall grass, going straight for Torchic.
"Torchic, get out of the way!" Tyson exclaimed but Torchic stood his ground and ran up to meet its assailant head on. Scratch attack went up against Tackle but the element of surprise made all the difference in the end. Torchic tumbled back towards his trainer but got back on his feet and shook it off. "I told you to get out of the way! Listen to me next time!"
Torchic turned to him with a sorry look on its face. He hung his head and made a small 'peep'.
"Hey, it's cool, man. Just be better behaved next time. What is that thing anyway?"
The grey-furred Pokémon darted back into the grass but Tyson and Kai had already gotten a good look at it.
"That's a Poochyena," Kai told him.
"A pooch-a-what?"
"I said 'Poochyena'. You haven't seen one yet but they can be really tenacious, especially if they know that they can get the upper hand," Kai explained.
"Since when are you the expert on Pokémon around here?" Tyson grumbled.
"Would you rather hear it from the Pokédex?" Kai took his Pokédex out of his pocket and pulled up the entry on Poochyena.
"Poochyena, the bite Pokémon. This Pokémon chases after fleeing prey tenaciously but may turn tail if the prey strikes back. A distinguishing feature is how large the fangs are in relation to its body."
"Is there anything you're not prepared for?"
"Stop being a wise-guy for a few minutes and think about the situation here," Kai said with a frown. "This little puppy has obviously decided that one or more of us is its prey and is planning to keep using ambush tactics until someone drops. We'll have to fight our way past it."
"That shouldn't be too hard. It's just one puppy."
"Yeah," Kai agreed.
Just as they'd spoken the field became alive with the eerie sound of vicious growling and mellow howling. Kai and Tyson exchanged glances with the same doomed look on their faces.
"Crap… there's a pack," Tyson muttered.
"We still have to fight."
"Are you crazy?!"
Kai gave Tyson a deadpan glare. "It would be crazier to do nothing. We're clearly surrounded. With the cover of the grass they have the option of choosing who to strike so they'll go for the weaker-looking ones."
A Poochyena leaped out of the grass, bounced off the tree and pounced on Kai's Magikarp. She splashed about in a panic while the wild Pokémon tried to gnaw into her tough scales.
"Magikarp, don't freak out!" Kai commanded. "Use Flail!"
She flailed roughly in the muddy shallows until the Poochyena was shaken off. It dizzily tried to scamper back into the grass but Kai wouldn't have any of that.
"Tackle!" he ordered. Magikarp launched herself out of the water and tackled the Poochyena from behind, sending it flying back into the grasses in an impressive arc. She splashed about on dry land until Kai picked her up and tossed her back in the pond. He smiled and petted her forehead. "Good, she remembers the commands I taught her."
"Hey, Torchic, we should pitch in too," Tyson said. His Pokémon fluffed up his downy feathers to indicate he was ready. "Give 'em your fiercest Growl attack!"
Torchic took a big breath and growled into the night. It didn't sound fierce at all, in fact it was rather cute but it seemed to work as an intimidation technique all the same, judging by the rustling of grass stalks as Pokémon fled from the area.
"Aw, yeah!" Tyson pumped his fist but it was too early to celebrate. A loud howl cut through the air and the rustling stopped. It started up again but this time it was coming closer. Tyson gulped. "Uh… I guess that was the call to rally the troops."
"They're in a bigger group that the last ones I saw, that probably gives them more confidence," Kai pondered aloud, trying to keep an eye on all of the red-eyed, red-nosed faces peeking out of the grasses one by one. That's when Kai spotted an aberration among the group; a sassier and more tenacious glowing glare that leered from a pitch-black muzzle. "Either that, or they have a really good leader."
A sharp bark announced the beginning of the charge. A small infantry charged out with ferocious fangs bared. Two of them ran at Torchic and he ran headlong at them. Tyson ordered his Pokémon to duck as the Poochyenas pounced and they collided with each other. That gave Torchic the opening to land a Scratch attack on both of them. Magikarp tackled the one that was trying to tackle her and knocked it down while Kai threw his training ball at another. It hit the Poochyena on the nose and popped open on the impact, startling the puppy-like Pokémon.
The faces disappeared back into the grasses as the attacked fled and didn't turn back. The long grass swished and rustled again, keeping them surrounded. That familiar howl went off.
"If it keeps up like this we'll be here until morning," Tyson said.
"The chance of one of us getting seriously injured also increases," Kai added. "As long as they have us surrounded and have cover they'll stay at this all night."
"Heh. I think this place could use a little mowing," Tyson quipped, winding up his beyblade and setting it up on the launcher. Kai smirked and went through the motions of assembling the parts of his beyblade and launcher. "Whenever you're ready."
"Let it RIP!" they shouted in unison, pulling the ripcords.
Dragoon and Dranzer flew into action. Blades of grass were thrown high in the air as the beyblades sliced through them, circling the clearing around the pond until all the grass within a five metre radius was mowed. It rained down on an exposed pack that was smaller than Kai and Tyson had originally thought. There were only four left. Tyson and Kai collected their beyblades and surveyed the more manageable situation. Kai locked gazes with that aberrant Poochyena.
"That's the one that attacked Torchic earlier," Kai observed.
"How can you tell?"
"I saw it. It has a black nose, all of the others are red."
The black-nosed Poochyena snarled and them and then lifted its head back to howl. The other three growled and fluffed up the hair on their tails menacingly.
"I think maybe you're right. I'm getting a strong 'leader' vibe from it," said Tyson. It ran in for a reckless Tackle attack. "Torchic, meet it with Scratch."
Poochyena got the tackle first but Torchic regained ground quickly to scratch it across the face. The others followed it in to gang-up. Kai glanced nervously at Magikarp. She couldn't do much on land so he only had one shot with this move. He just hoped it was enough to scare the others away.
"Magikarp, use Bounce," he ordered.
Sensing the seriousness of the situation, Magikarp bounced as high as she could and slammed into one of the advancing Poochyenas. It yelped and fled before it could take any more damage. The other two skidded to a halt and whimpered. Magikarp was now just floundering on the ground and Torchic seemed to be losing his one-on-one with the pack leader. Kai's eyes darted between his helpless Magikarp and Tyson's Torchic and suddenly a new idea sprang to mind, one that was ludicrous in the 'crazy enough to actually work' kind of way.
He picked up Magikarp, flung her into the air and commanded her to use her Bounce attack. Magikarp flailed to get control while airborne and once she did she knew where she was supposed to land. The pack leader crouched low and tackled Torchic in the chest, sending him rolling back to Tyson's feet. Tyson crouched down to catch his Pokémon before he rolled any farther. The Poochyena growled at him.
Tyson stood up and readied his launcher again. "You want a piece of me, puppy? I'll make you pay for what you did to Torchic!"
Except he didn't get to because Magikarp bellyflopped right on top of Poochyena. It got a dizzy swirl in each eye and fell over, unconscious. Kai seized the moment and expanded an empty Pokéball. He threw it at the black-nosed Poochyena and it was swallowed up in a flash of red. The other two ran with their tails between their legs before the outcome of the capture was revealed. The ball calmed after only a few weak twitches.
"Whoa, so that's how you catch a Pokémon," Tyson murmured as Kai claimed his prize. "You know, technically that puppy should have been mine since Torchic did most of the fighting."
"Then you should have been quicker than me," Kai replied, shrinking the ball and putting it in his pocket. He knelt down to pick up Magikarp. She also seemed to be a little out of it. He figured that throw was too high and it had come down with a bad repercussion for his Pokémon too. He took the Oran berry from his pocket and offered it. "Sorry, that move was reckless of me. You did well."
Magikarp gobbled up the berry and Kai returned her to her Pokéball. "We should call it a night," he decided, standing up and crossing his arms.
Tyson pursed his lips confusedly, wondering if the sensitive Kai he just saw and the broody Kai he was looking at now were the same person. "What was that thing you gave Magikarp?"
"Oran berry," Kai replied tersely. Yep, definitely back to being a jerk, Tyson thought. "It helps with their healing."
"You wouldn't happen to have a spare one for Torchic, would you?" Tyson asked sheepishly, picking up the chick and cradling him. The poor thing looked so beaten up.
"No. We should get some sleep before the sun rises. Let's go back."
Kai retrieved the training ball and collapsed it, then walked off while Tyson glowered at his back. "Oh yeah, sure. 'We should get some sleep,' he says and totally forgets why we're both out here in the first place." He looked down at his Torchic. "Don't worry, little guy. You get to take it easy for the next few days."
He followed Kai into the forest, hoping the blunette remembered the return route because he sure as hell didn't.
The campsite was quiet when they got back. Nobody had moved, except to turn over in their sleep. Kai checked that Togepi was still snuggled inside his sleeping bag and fast asleep before he cuddled her close and settled into his own sleeping bag. Tyson gawked at him. This whole 'Mommy Kai' thing had seemed hilarious at first but the more Tyson saw of Kai actually taking care of Togepi, the weirder it looked.
Tyson tried to put it out of his mind as he settled into his sleeping bag with Torchic deciding to crawl in with him. The night's activity had tired him out. He didn't even register the ghostly green creature hovering among the branches as his weighted eyelids closed and he fell back into slumber.
A/N: Yay, now Kai has another Pokémon. You may have noticed that I've already started assigning genders to everyone's Pokémon. This allocation is completely arbitrary and decided randomly (except in the case where there divergent evolutionary paths based on gender, in which case it isn't random but still fairly arbitrary).
Thanks again to Serebii and Bulbapedia for the technical info!
Trivia notes: Kai's training ball
There are a whole slew of Pokémon training tools, some of which I made up myself. Kai's training ball in this chapter is one such thing. It's a collapsible ball that can be opened or closed depending on the training requirements (the denser closed ball is smaller and more difficult to hit). The opening/closing mechanism also responds to strong impacts; hitting an open ball closes it and vice-versa. It's more difficult to open the ball from a closed position than it is to close the ball from an open position. That should give you an understanding of the rationale behind Kai's training in this chapter. :)