How Freakachu Came to Be (Lilja a trainer?!)
Part 8
By Freakachu
"Here Magmar, I've brought your food!" Almost a year after completing her Pokemon journey, Lilja, now 10, was doing odd chores around her uncles gym. She had lived with her Uncle Blaine since she could remember and had no recollection of any other family. She had managed to catch other pokemon, including a blue, otter like pokemon called a Liquiot. She had taken the Liquiot to her friends father, Martin, who worked at Cinabar's pokemon lab, but was more of a pokemon doctor and researcher than a tester and experimenter. She trusted him with her Liquiot, knowing he wouldn't let it into the public. Lilja had also gotten her favorite pokemon for her 10th birthday from her uncle. A Farfetch'd. She loved Farfetch'd with a passion and hadn't been able to find one on her journey since they were rare. Blaine had somehow came across one and given it to her.
The junior trainer Jerry was one of her very best friends even though he seemed 3 or more years older. She could tell by the way he flirted with her, that he wanted it to be more. But she knew they'd always just be friends. Jerry was nice, but he didn't seem boyfriend material to her. Besides, he was too old for her.
"Mag!" Magmar ran to Lilja, hugged her leg, then eagerly began eating it's food. Blaine kept his Pokemon in a pokemon barn type building, and that's where she worked, bathing and feeding the Pokemon, and putting clean straw for them to sleep on. Blaine only kept his Pokemon in pokeballs during battle, and it' was Lilja's job to care for them when they weren't in battle.
"Hmm.. I wonder where Uncle Blaine wants me to put this." She held up an odd looking object to examine it, and walked into the gym to find Blaine, with Xerox the ditto, and half a dozen Freakachu following her.
Blaine had some scaffolding up around the gym. He had workers re-modeling it and painting the walls a deep red. Lilja ducked under the scaffolding to aviod bumping it, but as she was straightening up on the other side, her head hit a metal bar.
"Ow!" She put one hand to the sore spot on her head and the other grabbed the scaffolding to steady her balance. She was too busy rubbing her head to have heard the small clink, as her hand knocked out a bolt in the metal bars.
"Playing around again? What's that in your hand?" Blaine called, after seeing Lilja on the other side of the gym.
She stood and held out the object.
"What's this? I was cleaning out your storage and found it and I don't know where to put it." It looked like a symbol of sorts, round, a bit bigger than a yen with a rainbow shape on it made of three precious stones. The red stripe made of ruby, blue of sappire, and yellow of amber. It hung from a green velvet cord, which was quite worn out looking. The round part itself, looked like it was made of silver, but it was hard to tell with the tarnish.
"Uh.. well, I had that, uh, I mean, you can have it! That is, if you want it." Blaine seemed a bit worried, or embarrased. Lilja was not sure which.
"Um, okay!" Lilja took it and ran back to the barn with it. She grabbed some silver polisher and a rag and began scrubbing it until it shone. It was beautiful. It shone like the sun, and when the light hit it, it sent little rainbows dancing around on the walls, ceiling and floor.
"I just beat your junior trainer, and now I want to try for a Volcano Badge." Ash said as calmly as he could, even though he wasn't as sure about himself as he thought he was. He was as nervous as could be, and he hoped it didn't show. After seeing Blaine, he knew that beating him for a trainer badge wouldn't be as easy as he thought. The guy looked stuck-up and had the authority of someone very experienced and of someone who didn't lose often. But when he heard his voice, that made him seem even more scary.
"Hmph. So be it. You better have strong Pokémon, or lots of potion, because when I get through with you, all your Pokémon will have to be rushed to the Pokécenter." Blaine put on an act of coldness. He was actually really nice, but he had to intimidate his challengers.
Ash decided to use his own icy tongue.
"Don't worry about me! Worry about your own Pokémon, because I am not a failure! You were beat before, and you can be beat again. If Gary can win a Volcano Badge, so can I!"
'Ah! My second battle today! I have to beat this guy, I just have to!' Ash's mind screamed.
Blaine stepped aside so Ash could stalk over to the other side of the arena. Ash noticed that workers had been fixing up the gym. They had some scaffolding up near where he was standing.
"Three Pokémon. I'll take it easy on you." Blaine said sarcastically.
"Three works for me. Go Bulbasaur!" Ash yelled. He was feeling better. Bulbasaur was a strong-willed, independant Pokémon. He had no doubts that Bulbasaur could handle this job by himself.
Blaine started laughing. He laughed and laughed so hard, Ash thought he was going to have a heart attack. All the laughter had made Blaine double up like he was in pain. Finally he straightened up, and with one last chuckle shook his head at Ash and wiped a tear out of the corner of his eye.
"Fool! You have no idea at the mistake you just made! Oh, well. It's too late to call back your Pokémon now! HAHA!" He laughed ruthlessly.
"Mistake?! Wha... what mistake?!" Ash stammered, because he believed that everything was just fine.
Blaine ignored him and called out Growlithe.
"Chu? Pika pi cha!" (Huh? Ash, you DID make a mistake!) Pikachu called from where it sat on the sidelines.
"Uhhh, Bulbasaur, umm...Vine Whip!" Ash was so confused. He didn't know what he did wrong.
"Growlithe, Take Down now!" Blaine was hardly trying, and already Ash could see that Blaine had the better of him.
"Groooooowwwwl!"
Growlithe had Bulbasaur pinned to the floor, but Bulbasaur was strong and refused to give up. It wrapped its vine whips around the fire puppy, and threw it off.
"Ok, Bulbasaur, time for Razor Leaf!" Ash was starting to sweat. If this didn't work, well, let's just say that Bulbasaur would become salad.
It didn't work. Bulbasaurs leaves were burnt to a crisp, as Growlithe used Flame Thrower against it. Flame Thrower didn't help Bulbasaur very much. As it tried to Leech Seed the fire Pokémon, Growlithes attack knocked the plant out of comission and spun it around like a top.
"What?! My Bulbasaur! You must be cheating! My Bulbasuar was strong, and it could have beat your Pokémon!" Ash was so stricken that his Bulbasaur lost.
"Your Bulbasaur may have been strong, but it was no match for me!" Blaine chuckled as Ash returned Bulbsaur to it's Pokéball. "Didn't you know that plant Pokémon are weak against fire Pokémon? How did you get this far without knowledge of Pokémon?" Blaine actually had the courtesy to tell Ash what his mistake was after the damage was already done.
Fire burned in Ash's eyes.
"I do so have knowledge of Pokémon!" He snapped "And you better keep your comments to yourself or it won't just be your Pokémon who will need a doctor! Go Butterfree!" Ash called out the very first Pokémon he had caught as a Caterpie. True, he had let it go to start a family, but while he and his friends were at Arti's trying to earn a Feather Badge, Arti had caught it and claimed it for her own then had the decency to give it back to Ash as a parting gift of sorts, along with a masterball.
"Ok, Butterfree! We have to show this guy who's boss! Stun Spore!"
Butterfree flew over Growlithe and sprinkled a powder on it. Almost immediately, Growlithe was paralyzed.
"Now knock it out with Psychic!"
Butterfree did so. Psychic hit Growlithe like a ton of bricks. One down, two more to go.
"Your Butterfree must be at a high level. Still, your Butterfree is no match for Ponyta!" Blaine tossed another Pokéball into the center of the floor.
"Whirlwind, Butterfree!" Ash shouted to the flyng Pokémon. "You can do it! I'm counting on you!"
All Whirlwind did was make Ponyta angry. It leapt up and came down on Butterfree with Stomp.
"Wauuggghhh! Not Butterfree too! You-you terrible...uh, terrible... man! I'll show you! Come on Pikachu. You're my last hope!"
"Chu pika pika pi!" (It's not my battle!)
"I said come on!" He grabbed at Pikachu and got ahold of its tail. Pikachu got a grip on something, and wouldn't let go. Ash pulled on Pikachu.
"Pi ka chu! Pi ka chuuuuu! Pi...CHU!" (Stop it! Stop iiiiiiiiiit! Stop IT!)
ZZZZZZZZTTT
"Please, Pikachu..." Ash whined, coughing up smoke.
"Pika pika pika!" (You have to promise me something!)
"Anything!" Ash was getting desperate. It was a good thing that Blaine was a patient guy.
"Kachu chu pikapi, pika?" (Let me zap the guy later, ok?)
"Sure thing!" Ash smiled, although he was getting desperate for Pikachu to get in there and fight.
"Ok, Pikachu. give it Thunder!"
"Thunder? You actually think some pathetic litle Thunder is going to hurt Ponyta?" Blaine scratched his head thinking Ash was quite dumb.
The Thunder wizzed by only inches from Ponytas head. This made it even angrier and it started to glow.
"Huh? What's this? Oh no! Ponyta's evolving!" Exclaimed Ash. He was feeling queasy. Things didn't seem to be going his way anymore.
"Hah! Rapidash!" Blaine was even more stuck up now than he was before. "I've been waiting for you to evolve! Use your Fire Spin!"
Pikachu was thrown backwards with the full force of Rapdash's attack. The mouse Pokémon hit Ash right in the stomach and sent him reeling backwards into the wall. He shakily stood up and attempted to get back into battle but a wave of dizzines swept over him and he fell to his knees. Above where Ash knelt, was the scaffolding, that came crashing down from the bang he had made into the wall. One of the boards fell on top of him, knocking him out cold.
"Lilja!" Jerry shouted as he came running into the barn where Lilja was grooming a Freakachu with a wooden handled brush. Her head snapped up in surprise.
"What is it, Jerry?" She asked him in confusion. He seemed out of breath and his brown hair was in his face. He looked about 13 or 14, but was really only 12.
"One of Blaines competitors got hurt in the gym. Blaine sent me out here to fetch you because he said you could help them!" He gasped.
Lilja jumped up with Xerox clinging to her.
"What happened to them?"
"Well, the scaffolding fell down on top of them. My guess is that someone knocked a bolt out of the metal and caused it to fall when it was bumped." Jerry commented, but more to himself since Lilja had already vanished into the gym before he could finish.
When Ash opened his eyes, everything was blurry. He could see something pink, but didn't know what it was.
"Ditto!"
"Huh?" The pink thing dissapeared and then something else came into view. A person. Ash blinked a couple of times trying to clear the mist that had settled into his mind. It wasn't just a person, it was a girl, and quite a pretty one too. She had very dark reddish brown hair, and clear dark greeen eyes.
"Are you ok? Here, let me help you." She whispered, her soft vioce barely audiable.
Ash tried to get up, but something was holding him back. A piece of wood.
"I'll get that for you. Just keep still." The girl lifted the heavy board from his chest and helped him up.
"Where's Pikachu?" He mumbled, looking around while swaying on his feet.
"The Pikachu? It's ok. Well, it wasn't squashed like you were. Xerox took care of it for you." The girl winked at him.
"Xerox?" He asked. He thought he was dreaming, a pink blob dancing around him, and a wonderfully pretty girl standing beside him.
"Xerox is my Ditto. My name is Lilja. I'm Blaine's neice. Who are you?" Lilja asked Ash. She didn't believe in love at first sight, but she was certainly taken with him. He had dark good looks, for someone who couldn't have been more than 12.
"Ahhhh, I'm Ash Ketchem. I live in Pallet Town." His hand was on his head. Lilja guessed he hurt quite a bit.
"Do you want to lay down or something? You look a little pale. Are you ok?" Even though she had just met him, already, she was concerned for his welfare.
"I'm fine!" Ash was undoubtably lying, "See?" He forced himself to take a couple of steps, as dizzy as he seemed to be.
"You don't look that great."
"Well thanks alot." Insulted, Ash turned his back on her.
She put her hand on his shoulder.
"That 's not what I meant. I meant that you look like you need some rest. You know, I think you're kind of cute..." Her voice faltered, then she turned and ran out of the battling arena through the door she had come through, embarrased.