Pokémon - The Journey Begins
Chapter 13: Intensified Training
"That trophy's as good as mine," Jordan said.
"Will you shut up about that?" Matt said. "How do you know you'll win that thing; I mean I've only seen your Pokémon ONCE since you started traveling with us, and, well we all know what happened then, didn't we?"
"It doesn't matter. My Charizard wouldn't have to do any work for more than a year, and he could still kick all of your butts if he's thrown into battle right away!" Jordan said, chuckling.
"You know, I'm getting REALLY tired of you putting us down!" Lizzie said. "Saying stuff like that REALLY lowers my confidence level, ya know?!" Lizzie angrily walks away.
"Lizzie, do the villagers a favour and don't kick any trees," Matt said. He then looked at Jordan. "As for you, if you really don't want to be noticed in such a large, public area, I really don't recommend you use the Pokémon which you won against the Elite Four." Matt picked up Squirtle and began to dash after Lizzie.
"Oh come on, I was only teasing!" Jordan yelled.
"Then SOUND like it next time!" Matt shouted, still running after Lizzie.
Jordan let out a grunt, kicking a nearby rock. "Oh, come on now, did you really think I was going to be so cheap as to use those Pokémon? I'm up for new challenges; I can use other Pokémon I've captured." Shaking his head, he walked inside a shelter -- which partially resembles a small Pokémon Center -- and sat down, reading a magazine.
Lizzie was walking in the other parts of the villiage, as Matt was following her behind in close persuit.
"Lizzie, please wait!" Matt called.
Lizzie turned around. "Are you here to ask me to be easier on Jordan? Well if you are, I don't want to hear it." Lizzie turned back around and continued to walk. Matt caught up with her and walked directly beside her.
"It's not that, at all. I just wanted to know where you were headed, that's all."
Lizzie stopped dead in her tracks and stared into Matt with deep, heavy, angry eyes. She sighed heavily and then took a deep breath, continuing to stare at Matt. "I DON'T need protection you know. I'm pretty capable for taking care of myself!"
"What the hell?!" Matt shouted. "I'm not here because I'm worried about you. Look, what Jordan said didn't particularly please me either, but that doesn't mean that--"
"Just leave me alone. I don't want to be around anybody for the time being..." she sharply said, walking off in the distance.
"Women!" Matt muttered, turning around, walking in the opposite direction of Lizzie. "Why did I have to pick such traveling companions."
"Squirtle?!" Squirtle asked, trying to keep up with Matt's pace.
Matt looked at him. "Oh, I wish I could understand what you were saying." He then remembered a building near the shelter. "There's a library here; I'll study the Squirtle language! Lizzie's book won't do; it just shows the other languages that a Squirtle can speak."
Matt then left the forested area of the city and went into a small library. It was small, but not too small. There were still plenty of shelves packed with very useful books: trainers guides, Pokémon guides, along with other books. In the communication department, Matt pulled out a book, entirely on the communication with a Squirtle. In a study carrel, he placed Squirtle on top of it and looked through the book. There were at least fifteen detailed pages of what just the word 'Squirtle' can be and how it's pronounced with the tone of its voice.
Matt looked at it for half an hour and shook his head in amazement and disappointment at the same time. "This could take some time..." He then flipped towards the grammar and sentence structure, which was more than triple the amount of pages for the pronounciation section. "This is far too much." Matt then closed the book and picked Squirtle up to return the book.
"Squirtle-squirt?" Squirtle asked.
"Hmm..." Matt thought hard to what Squirtle had asked. "Okay, the way the 'Squir' was pronounced had to be was definitely a question, but I can't remember that much at all. Maybe I was supposed to take Jordan's 'joking' with good humour." Matt sighed. He then looked at his watch. "It's getting pretty late, maybe we should go into the woods to try and get more Pokémon?" Matt suggested.
Squirtle nodded in agreement. "Squirt squirtle squirtle," he said in reply.
"All of the 'good' Pokémon come out at night. Plus, it would be good for my Pokémon to get some more fighting experience." He took out some of his Pokéballs. "It would be nice if I had that baby Pikachu of mine to learn how to defend itself anyway." He sighed. "Oh well, come on Zenigame, let's go into the woods. We need to strengthen ourselves up before the tournament!"
Matt and Squirtle exited the library and walked into a heavily forested area nearby. In his pocket, Matt placed some minimized, empty Pokéballs along with an empty Greatball just in case. There was a rustle in a nearby bush. Matt with Squirtle now on his shoulder slowly crept up and looked behind it. There was a Caterpie there.
Matt backed up and enlarged an empty Pokéball. "This is the easiest to capture." Matt threw the Pokéball on top of the Caterpie, containing it inside. A few seconds later, the Caterpie broke free of the Pokéball, as Matt scrambled to catch it. Fortunately, the Pokéball wasn't broken. "Hey! That's not fair! Zenigame, tackle it!"
"Squirtle!" Squirtle leaped off of Matt's shoulder and attempted to jump on top of the Caterpie. In its defense, Caterpie leaped to the side and fired a thin, sticky lair of string all around Squirtle. Matt was surprised.
"This isn't good, I've never heard of a strong Caterpie before..." Matt called back Squirtle beside him and threw another Pokéball onto the field. "Pikachu, your turn!"
"Pika pika!" Pikachu squeaked upon its entrance to the battlefield. Most of its wounds have nearly vanished, which was a rather big surprise to Matt. Squirtle slowly managed to make his way back next to Matt.
"Pikachu, Thundershock!" Matt commanded.
The small Pikachu quickly ran into the battlefield and unleashed a small electic attack on the bug Pokémon. While the Caterpie was having short spasms, Matt quickly tossed his empty Pokéball again as Caterpie was once again contained inside. This time, it was caught. The Pokéball then vanished, returning to Professor Oak's laboratory.
"Good work, Pikachu! Stay out for a while, I need to keep training you." He then walked over to Squirtle and helped him pull off the sticky substance fired by the Caterpie. "You okay now?" Matt asked. Squirtle nodded, however still somewhat uncomfortable with the remaining stickiness on its body.
"Okay, let's try to find some more Pokémon," Matt, Squirtle, and Pikachu looked around in the forested area some more.
* * *
Much later that evening, Matt returned to the village, with a pleasent grin on his face. He had managed to increase his Pokémon collection by a fair amount, and during that time, his Pokémon's battle experience have increased a bit. Matt checked his bag. "Not good, only a few empty Pokéballs. I won't buy anymore until I've earned some more money. Anyway, let's go to the shelter to find our camping spot."
When Matt entered, there were Lizzie and Jordan inside, sitting on chairs.
"Hey guys!" Matt said.
"Matt! Where the hell were you?! I was so worried!" Lizzie said.
"Worried?" Jordan teased. "Do you have a crush on Matt?"
"Oh, shut up!" Lizzie smacked Jordan over the head. She then looked at Matt who was now laughing. "Hey, what's so funny?"
"Oh..." Matt had a hard time explaining, for he was trying to prevent laughter while explaining to Lizzie. "Just...your reaction...oh, that's priceless." Matt laughed some more, and Squirtle began to laugh. After a while, he stopped and took a deep breath. "Okay, okay...I'm okay. why were you worried? I went training, and managed to capture some more Pokémon."
"Interesting. What did you find??" Jordan asked.
"A Caterpie, a Weedle, and surprisingly a Staryu." Matt said. "There was a small lake nearby, and I had no idea that water Pokémon would just hang around there."
"They got some more people to sign up for the tournament. So we only have one more day to train for it. Let's get some rest." Jordan said. "And I'm sorry about my comments to you earlier. I realized what I had said, and I hope that I didn't lower your confidence, and self-esteem."
"Don't worry about it, we all make mistakes," Matt smirked.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't really use my Charizard. I'll keep him with me in case trouble comes around, but other than that, I have some other Pokémon I've captured that I haven't even used yet," Jordan said.
"Good. Now, have you decided on a spot?"
"Yup. I found the perfect place."
Jordan, Matt, and Lizzie removed their previously purchased sleeping bags and tent recently purchased from their backpacks. Outside of the shelter, Jordan pointed out to the exact spot where he wanted the tent to be set up. Matt liked the spot; it was really close to the forest, and still close to the shelter. They managed to up the tent in just a few minutes, as, without changing clothing, they went to sleep, inside the tent.
Hmm...Matt thought to himself, having some trouble sleeping again. I shouldn't get too nervous thinking about the tournament; I'll lose a lot of sleep over it and I'll pay for it sometime tomorrow. Hett yawned, as he and Squirtle wrapped themselves up in the sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep.
About an hour later, Matt was about to finally fall asleep when he heard whispers outside.
"So many trainers here..." somebody whispered. "I bet they're all dirty, too; look! They have to sleep in tents!"
"I wonder if they have a lot of valuable Pokémon with them..." somebody else whispered.
"Ouch!"
"What?"
"Will you watch where you're going?! You keep stepping on my feet; look, my boots are covered entirely in mud stains that you can barely tell what brand they are!" a voice shouted aloud. Matt recognized it as Zach.
"Oh, come now, I--" Cloë started, but stopped when she realized she was being too loud. "Come, let's do some browsing."
Matt gently shook Squirtle awake. "Team Rocket's here," he whispered; "let's go, Jordan and Lizzie need their rest." The two slowly crept up and slowly exited their tent. Matt looked right and saw Cloë and Zach going into seperate tents.
"HEY!" Matt yelled loudly, startling Team Rocket, and waking some people up in the process. "What do you two think you're doing?!"
"Squirtle!" Squirtle yelled.
Cloë quickly turned around. "Oh, fantastic; it's just HIM again. I'm getting tired of meeting each other all the time. So, I'm going to use a little weapon that will surely put you in your place, you little rat."
Zach was chased out of one tent by some female trainers who were kicking him out and screaming: "Thief, thief!"
From inside the nearby shelter, a Nurse Joy appeared through the emergency exit. "Team Rocket!" She quickly ran and pressed the silent alarm inside.
"So, you want to battle?" Zach said, as trainers whose sleep was disturbed came out of their tents, wondering what was occuring. Others just tried to go back to sleep, and others weren't awake at all. "We have finally discovered a way with which we will use to put you and your stinking friends in your place!"
"Zach, would you do the honours?" Cloë asked.
Oh, but I couldn't; I did it last time," Zach insisted.
"Well, if you insist." Cloë from her pocket pulled out a minimized Greatball. She then enlarged it and threw it up into the sky. "Greatball, go!" Springing open in the air, a large blue bird-like Pokémon sprung forth. Matt had never seen such a creature before with his very own eyes. He had read stories and legends about these types of Pokémon, but never before has he witnessed one for himself. Soaring in the sky was an Articuno, a bird with vast, wide-spreading wings; a large, grey beak, capable of splitting open the toughest stones; a long, silky tail; two large, glaring red, intimidating eyes; and three very thick, very tall feathers springing out from the top of its head. Matt gasped.
"A Legendary Bird! Where on earth did you steal THAT from?!"
Zach pretended to choke on Matt's words. "Such insensitivity! Because we are honourable members of Team Rocket does not necessarily indicate that this Pokémon was stolen! This Pokémon was flying wildly near the building of Silph Co. in the outskirts of Saffron City. This marvelous creature was given to us, as a gift from the great Giovanni himself. I sincerely believe that if there is one way out of which we'll gain respect, it's from this very bird here!"
"A Legendary Bird..." Matt took out a Pokéball. "This is just perfect," he muttered sarcastically.
Jordan and Lizzie suddenly came out of their tent, looking around. They originally ignored the noises which occured outside, however when Lizzie looked next to her and saw that both Matt and Squirtle were not in their sleeping bag, she and Jordan went outside to look.
"Matt, what's going on?!" Lizzie yelled. "I didn't know Team Rocket was here!"
"None of you would have either if I wasn't being so loud." Matt threw the enlarged Pokéball onto the nearby grassy area. Charmeleon appeared.
"Against a Legendary Bird? Matt, maybe you should let my Charizard handle this," Jordan said.
"I'm plenty capable of handling Team Rocket!" Matt said. "These idiots have followed me long enough, and I want to take care of them once and for all!"
The increased level of volume was unable to keep the other trainers asleep for very long. One by one, the tents emptied, pointing and staring in awe at the Articuno flying above. Some loud chatter began to take place, as they noticed Team Rocket.
"Articuno, Ice Beam!" Cloë yelled.
"Charmeleon, Fire Spin!" Matt commanded.
People in the crowd began to yell what Matt should use as an attack and began to cheer him on. Charging from the Articuno's beak, the Articuno launched its head forward towards its target on the ground, while at the same time Charmeleon unleashed its attack from its mouth.
"Fight, fight, fight!" the crowd began to chant.
The fire attack used by Charmeleon managed to weave its way around the ice attack by the Articuno. At the last moment, Charmeleon jumped a side, rolling while the fire attack struck Articuno head on. In pain the bird shreaked, and Matt saw this as the perfect opportunity to strike.
"Charmeleon, Slash Attack!" Matt yelled.
"Char!" Charmeleon quickly jumped from its position on the ground and held its claw up high. When it reached the height of the Articuno it brought its claw down heavily, swiping directly across the large blue bird's face. Charmeleon landed, while Articuno continued to shreak in pain.
"Articuno, Ice Beam! Aim for the tail!" Cloë growled.
Quickly charging another beam in its mouth, the tip of Charmeleon's tail was Articuno's target, launching it directly at it. Charmeleon, uncertain of the attack, turned around and jumped in the nick of time. However, the attack grazed its foot, as it landed roughly on the hard, dirt ground below.
"Get up, Charmeleon, warm up your foot a little!"
"Ha! It's too slow; it's mine! Articuno!" Cloë shouted.
"Stop this at once!" a voice shouted appearing next to the shelter. Nurse Joy pointed towards Team Rocket, with several other officers standing around her, including Officer Jenny. Jenny turned towards her officers. "Get them!"
The officers chased the Rocket's as Cloë secretly pulled out a smoke bomb and held it behind her back. "It's funny how they always think they can catch me."
Jordan, noticing the smoke bomb hiding between Cloë's fingers quickly dashed and struck it out of her hands. "No you don't!" The smoke bomb landed in one of the tents, exploding. Trainers who were still asleep suddenly awakened as they came out coughing and brushing away at the air with an empty hand.
"Damn you!" Cloë shouted, and held up an empty palm, preparing to slap Jordan. However, her hand was caught by an officer behind her as it was forced behind her back. Her other hand was also forced behind her back as two clicking noises could be heard, which was the sound of the handcuffs. Zach, next to her was also cuffed, as both of them were being violently pushed into the back of a police car. The driver sat down into the driver's seat and drove away.
"Thanks, guys," Officer Jenny said, "these guys were some of Team Rocket's best members; I'm glad you were able to handle them. They'll be behind bars for a while."
"Return, Charmeleon." Matt absorbed Charmeleon back into his Pokéball. "Thanks officer, will Team Rocket still be on the loose?"
"Well, we've managed to capture several of them just recently; new trainers these days aren't stupid, they're actually quite clever. They helped us in those captures as well. Well, I have to get back, I'm sure you all want to go back to sleep now. Sotake care." Jenny then left as the trainers who were rudely awakened returned to their tents. However, others were still outdoors chattering.
"I could have done better; I would have taken that Articuno and make it pay," a kid muttered. "Did you see what he did out there? That was one of the sloppiest fights I've ever seen."
Matt looked around. "That's right, where did it go?!"
"Got it!" Jordan said, tossing and catching a Greatball repeatedly in his hand. "I put it back inside; here, you can have it if you want."
"What, me? I couldn't take that!" Matt said. "You know, I remember Lizzie saying she needed a stronger Pokémon with her; why don't you give it to her?"
"All right then," Jordan said, tossing the Greatball to Lizzie; "me, I prefer Moltres and Zapdos. Well, I'm tired, let's go to sleep." Jordan re-entered his tent, while Lizzie, now excited about her new Pokémon, followed.
"I'll join you in a minute," Matt said, following the kid who commented on his performance. "Hey! Kid!"
"Yeah, what do you want?" the kid replied, staring at Matt. The kid was short, very short according to Matt's 6'0" frame. He had dirty, blonde hair, which was thick and shaggy, with blaring green eyes. He was also wearing a baggy shirt, along with long, baggy jeans. His shoes could not be seen.
"What right did you have to comment on my performance, anyway?" Matt asked.
"Heh, I'm a better Pokémon trainer than you would ever be. I already caught 56, most of them rare." The kid crossed his arms.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Matt asked. "How old are you, anyway?"
"Ten," the kid replied, "I've been training since I was eight, because I was allowed. And look, I have two badges already! I bet you don't have any!"
Matt tried not to laugh. "Two in two years?! I already have four, in only a week!"
"Ha! I've been training my Pokémon, and making them really strong; I catch what I see. I can tell that you're entering the tournament tomorrow. I hope I face you, because I want to kick your butt and show to everyone what a crummy trainer you are." The kid stuck out his tongut, and then re-entered his tent.
"That no good son of a--" Matt started.
"Matt, come on, don't start arguments now!" Lizzie yelled.
"Yeah, I'm coming."
* * *
The next morning, the morning before the day of the tournament, Matt was not in the tent when everybody else was awake. Lizzie had awakened, as she looked around. Neither Matt nor Jordan was in the tent; she quickly stretched and exited, seeing Jordan right outside.
"Hey, where's Matt?" Lizzie asked.
"He was rather upset when he came back last night, and he told me he was leaving early to train his Pokémon," Jordan replied. "I have no idea how long he's been gone.
Lizzie checked her watch; it was 8:30 and not many of the other trainers participating were awake yet. "Well, I guess he should train; I have to start going, too. Tell you what, how about we go training for about an hour and a half then come back here for something to eat?"
Jordan nodded. "Yeah, let's just grab some fruit bars from the shelter and move out."
* * *
"Pokéball, go!" Matt threw an empty enlarged Pokéball, which captured the weakened Cubone inside upon striking it. There was little resistence, as the Pokéball stopped moving. "Nice! Our first capture of the day!" He checked his watch. "Yikes! We've been out here for nearly four hours; I should go back to camp. I'm getting hungry." Matt, with Squirtle, walked back through the woods to his tent nearby. He sighed in relief, for he thought that he was lost.
Squirtle yawned.
"Hmm?" Matt looked at Squirtle. "Zenigame, you look really tired. Don't worry, there won't be anymore training. You can relax for the rest of the day; you've worked hard." They entered the tent and sat down on the sleeping bag. Matt yawned. "Yeah, that's the price to pay for training."
Matt whipped out a new magazine featuring new types of Pokéballs. The Greatball was mentioned in an article. It's contents read: 'The Pokéball XB20 with the abbreviation and preferably called a "Greatball" is the latest type of Pokéball available by Silph Co. It obtains twice the materialistic strength as a Pokéball, which proves useful for capturing Pokémon which are much more stubborn to capture. Starting price is 14.99 for one Greatball.'
"Wow," Matt said, "that's expensive. I'm glad I only paid ten for one of them." He then put down the magazine, as he heard Lizzie and Jordan's voices. Lizzie opened the entrance to the tent and saw Matt lying down.
"Matt, why did you leave so early?!" Lizzie exclaimed.
"Training," Matt replied. "Why, were you worried about me again?"
Jordan checked his watch. "Well, it's still rather early before we have lunch, so I'm going to go back out into the forest. You want to come with me?"
"Nah, go ahead. I want to stay here for now," Lizzie said, nervously.
"Ooh, you're going to give the flirting a try?" Jordan teased, he then laughed.
"Shut up!" Lizzie kicked Jordan in the shin. Jordan, wobbling in pain, left the tent to train some more.
Matt sat quietly, not commenting on Lizzie's violent action. He continued to flip through his magazine, checking for potentially interesting articles.
"Hey, what's with the anti-social attitude suddenly?" Lizzie asked.
Matt slowly turned his head towards Lizzie. "This is my quiet time," he replied quietly, "I rarely speak while I'm having time to myself." He turned a page.
"Oh, do you want me to leave you alone?" Lizzie asked.
Matt shook his head. "No, but Zenigame's a little tired, so I don't want to do much speaking."
"He looks so cute when he's asleep."
Matt turned another page. "Hey, a Trainer Tip column!" Matt read on.
"So, ready for tomorrow's tournament?" Lizzie asked, trying to spark up some kind of conversation.
Matt nodded. "Yeah, we've really did some hardcore training, we should be ready. I hope I face that little brat..."
"Huh? Who?" Lizzie asked.
"This little ten-year-old brat that commented on my performance against Team Rocket last night. He said that he could have done much better." Matt scoffed. "Then he goes on and on saying what a crummy trainer I am, and that he has more Pokémon than me, then goes and says he only has two gym badges while training illegally for two years."
"Oh, come on. You're letting a little kid get you down? Why didn't you punch him in the face?"
"I'm not going to punch a kid!" Matt shouted, pulling down his magazine, staring into Lizzie's face. "Besides, I'd rather deal with him in the tournament. Just hitting him would only make me look bad."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You just seem like a tough guy to me. You should lighten up a little." Lizzie lay back on her sleeping bag and stretched.
"Who says I'm too serious?" Matt asked, continuing to look at Lizzie. "I just don't take lightly to those who comment on my performance when in reality they couldn't do that much better." He pulled the magazine back up towards his face.
"You seem to just compress anger, then let it out suddenly. But that's all right if you do it against Team Rocket, I don't like them that much either."
After a few moments of silence, Matt spoke out again: "Well this isn't really related to the subject, but my birthday is next week."
"Really?! How old will you be?" Lizzie asked, sitting up.
"Sixteen."
"Wow...." Lizzie replied, almost in complete guilt. "I should buy you something..."
"No, don't. We need the money for supplies." Matt yawned, putting down the magazine. "Staying up late and getting up early to train has started to come back to haunt me. I think I'll just relax for the rest of the day."
TO BE CONTINUED.
Chapter 13: Intensified Training
"That trophy's as good as mine," Jordan said.
"Will you shut up about that?" Matt said. "How do you know you'll win that thing; I mean I've only seen your Pokémon ONCE since you started traveling with us, and, well we all know what happened then, didn't we?"
"It doesn't matter. My Charizard wouldn't have to do any work for more than a year, and he could still kick all of your butts if he's thrown into battle right away!" Jordan said, chuckling.
"You know, I'm getting REALLY tired of you putting us down!" Lizzie said. "Saying stuff like that REALLY lowers my confidence level, ya know?!" Lizzie angrily walks away.
"Lizzie, do the villagers a favour and don't kick any trees," Matt said. He then looked at Jordan. "As for you, if you really don't want to be noticed in such a large, public area, I really don't recommend you use the Pokémon which you won against the Elite Four." Matt picked up Squirtle and began to dash after Lizzie.
"Oh come on, I was only teasing!" Jordan yelled.
"Then SOUND like it next time!" Matt shouted, still running after Lizzie.
Jordan let out a grunt, kicking a nearby rock. "Oh, come on now, did you really think I was going to be so cheap as to use those Pokémon? I'm up for new challenges; I can use other Pokémon I've captured." Shaking his head, he walked inside a shelter -- which partially resembles a small Pokémon Center -- and sat down, reading a magazine.
Lizzie was walking in the other parts of the villiage, as Matt was following her behind in close persuit.
"Lizzie, please wait!" Matt called.
Lizzie turned around. "Are you here to ask me to be easier on Jordan? Well if you are, I don't want to hear it." Lizzie turned back around and continued to walk. Matt caught up with her and walked directly beside her.
"It's not that, at all. I just wanted to know where you were headed, that's all."
Lizzie stopped dead in her tracks and stared into Matt with deep, heavy, angry eyes. She sighed heavily and then took a deep breath, continuing to stare at Matt. "I DON'T need protection you know. I'm pretty capable for taking care of myself!"
"What the hell?!" Matt shouted. "I'm not here because I'm worried about you. Look, what Jordan said didn't particularly please me either, but that doesn't mean that--"
"Just leave me alone. I don't want to be around anybody for the time being..." she sharply said, walking off in the distance.
"Women!" Matt muttered, turning around, walking in the opposite direction of Lizzie. "Why did I have to pick such traveling companions."
"Squirtle?!" Squirtle asked, trying to keep up with Matt's pace.
Matt looked at him. "Oh, I wish I could understand what you were saying." He then remembered a building near the shelter. "There's a library here; I'll study the Squirtle language! Lizzie's book won't do; it just shows the other languages that a Squirtle can speak."
Matt then left the forested area of the city and went into a small library. It was small, but not too small. There were still plenty of shelves packed with very useful books: trainers guides, Pokémon guides, along with other books. In the communication department, Matt pulled out a book, entirely on the communication with a Squirtle. In a study carrel, he placed Squirtle on top of it and looked through the book. There were at least fifteen detailed pages of what just the word 'Squirtle' can be and how it's pronounced with the tone of its voice.
Matt looked at it for half an hour and shook his head in amazement and disappointment at the same time. "This could take some time..." He then flipped towards the grammar and sentence structure, which was more than triple the amount of pages for the pronounciation section. "This is far too much." Matt then closed the book and picked Squirtle up to return the book.
"Squirtle-squirt?" Squirtle asked.
"Hmm..." Matt thought hard to what Squirtle had asked. "Okay, the way the 'Squir' was pronounced had to be was definitely a question, but I can't remember that much at all. Maybe I was supposed to take Jordan's 'joking' with good humour." Matt sighed. He then looked at his watch. "It's getting pretty late, maybe we should go into the woods to try and get more Pokémon?" Matt suggested.
Squirtle nodded in agreement. "Squirt squirtle squirtle," he said in reply.
"All of the 'good' Pokémon come out at night. Plus, it would be good for my Pokémon to get some more fighting experience." He took out some of his Pokéballs. "It would be nice if I had that baby Pikachu of mine to learn how to defend itself anyway." He sighed. "Oh well, come on Zenigame, let's go into the woods. We need to strengthen ourselves up before the tournament!"
Matt and Squirtle exited the library and walked into a heavily forested area nearby. In his pocket, Matt placed some minimized, empty Pokéballs along with an empty Greatball just in case. There was a rustle in a nearby bush. Matt with Squirtle now on his shoulder slowly crept up and looked behind it. There was a Caterpie there.
Matt backed up and enlarged an empty Pokéball. "This is the easiest to capture." Matt threw the Pokéball on top of the Caterpie, containing it inside. A few seconds later, the Caterpie broke free of the Pokéball, as Matt scrambled to catch it. Fortunately, the Pokéball wasn't broken. "Hey! That's not fair! Zenigame, tackle it!"
"Squirtle!" Squirtle leaped off of Matt's shoulder and attempted to jump on top of the Caterpie. In its defense, Caterpie leaped to the side and fired a thin, sticky lair of string all around Squirtle. Matt was surprised.
"This isn't good, I've never heard of a strong Caterpie before..." Matt called back Squirtle beside him and threw another Pokéball onto the field. "Pikachu, your turn!"
"Pika pika!" Pikachu squeaked upon its entrance to the battlefield. Most of its wounds have nearly vanished, which was a rather big surprise to Matt. Squirtle slowly managed to make his way back next to Matt.
"Pikachu, Thundershock!" Matt commanded.
The small Pikachu quickly ran into the battlefield and unleashed a small electic attack on the bug Pokémon. While the Caterpie was having short spasms, Matt quickly tossed his empty Pokéball again as Caterpie was once again contained inside. This time, it was caught. The Pokéball then vanished, returning to Professor Oak's laboratory.
"Good work, Pikachu! Stay out for a while, I need to keep training you." He then walked over to Squirtle and helped him pull off the sticky substance fired by the Caterpie. "You okay now?" Matt asked. Squirtle nodded, however still somewhat uncomfortable with the remaining stickiness on its body.
"Okay, let's try to find some more Pokémon," Matt, Squirtle, and Pikachu looked around in the forested area some more.
* * *
Much later that evening, Matt returned to the village, with a pleasent grin on his face. He had managed to increase his Pokémon collection by a fair amount, and during that time, his Pokémon's battle experience have increased a bit. Matt checked his bag. "Not good, only a few empty Pokéballs. I won't buy anymore until I've earned some more money. Anyway, let's go to the shelter to find our camping spot."
When Matt entered, there were Lizzie and Jordan inside, sitting on chairs.
"Hey guys!" Matt said.
"Matt! Where the hell were you?! I was so worried!" Lizzie said.
"Worried?" Jordan teased. "Do you have a crush on Matt?"
"Oh, shut up!" Lizzie smacked Jordan over the head. She then looked at Matt who was now laughing. "Hey, what's so funny?"
"Oh..." Matt had a hard time explaining, for he was trying to prevent laughter while explaining to Lizzie. "Just...your reaction...oh, that's priceless." Matt laughed some more, and Squirtle began to laugh. After a while, he stopped and took a deep breath. "Okay, okay...I'm okay. why were you worried? I went training, and managed to capture some more Pokémon."
"Interesting. What did you find??" Jordan asked.
"A Caterpie, a Weedle, and surprisingly a Staryu." Matt said. "There was a small lake nearby, and I had no idea that water Pokémon would just hang around there."
"They got some more people to sign up for the tournament. So we only have one more day to train for it. Let's get some rest." Jordan said. "And I'm sorry about my comments to you earlier. I realized what I had said, and I hope that I didn't lower your confidence, and self-esteem."
"Don't worry about it, we all make mistakes," Matt smirked.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't really use my Charizard. I'll keep him with me in case trouble comes around, but other than that, I have some other Pokémon I've captured that I haven't even used yet," Jordan said.
"Good. Now, have you decided on a spot?"
"Yup. I found the perfect place."
Jordan, Matt, and Lizzie removed their previously purchased sleeping bags and tent recently purchased from their backpacks. Outside of the shelter, Jordan pointed out to the exact spot where he wanted the tent to be set up. Matt liked the spot; it was really close to the forest, and still close to the shelter. They managed to up the tent in just a few minutes, as, without changing clothing, they went to sleep, inside the tent.
Hmm...Matt thought to himself, having some trouble sleeping again. I shouldn't get too nervous thinking about the tournament; I'll lose a lot of sleep over it and I'll pay for it sometime tomorrow. Hett yawned, as he and Squirtle wrapped themselves up in the sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep.
About an hour later, Matt was about to finally fall asleep when he heard whispers outside.
"So many trainers here..." somebody whispered. "I bet they're all dirty, too; look! They have to sleep in tents!"
"I wonder if they have a lot of valuable Pokémon with them..." somebody else whispered.
"Ouch!"
"What?"
"Will you watch where you're going?! You keep stepping on my feet; look, my boots are covered entirely in mud stains that you can barely tell what brand they are!" a voice shouted aloud. Matt recognized it as Zach.
"Oh, come now, I--" Cloë started, but stopped when she realized she was being too loud. "Come, let's do some browsing."
Matt gently shook Squirtle awake. "Team Rocket's here," he whispered; "let's go, Jordan and Lizzie need their rest." The two slowly crept up and slowly exited their tent. Matt looked right and saw Cloë and Zach going into seperate tents.
"HEY!" Matt yelled loudly, startling Team Rocket, and waking some people up in the process. "What do you two think you're doing?!"
"Squirtle!" Squirtle yelled.
Cloë quickly turned around. "Oh, fantastic; it's just HIM again. I'm getting tired of meeting each other all the time. So, I'm going to use a little weapon that will surely put you in your place, you little rat."
Zach was chased out of one tent by some female trainers who were kicking him out and screaming: "Thief, thief!"
From inside the nearby shelter, a Nurse Joy appeared through the emergency exit. "Team Rocket!" She quickly ran and pressed the silent alarm inside.
"So, you want to battle?" Zach said, as trainers whose sleep was disturbed came out of their tents, wondering what was occuring. Others just tried to go back to sleep, and others weren't awake at all. "We have finally discovered a way with which we will use to put you and your stinking friends in your place!"
"Zach, would you do the honours?" Cloë asked.
Oh, but I couldn't; I did it last time," Zach insisted.
"Well, if you insist." Cloë from her pocket pulled out a minimized Greatball. She then enlarged it and threw it up into the sky. "Greatball, go!" Springing open in the air, a large blue bird-like Pokémon sprung forth. Matt had never seen such a creature before with his very own eyes. He had read stories and legends about these types of Pokémon, but never before has he witnessed one for himself. Soaring in the sky was an Articuno, a bird with vast, wide-spreading wings; a large, grey beak, capable of splitting open the toughest stones; a long, silky tail; two large, glaring red, intimidating eyes; and three very thick, very tall feathers springing out from the top of its head. Matt gasped.
"A Legendary Bird! Where on earth did you steal THAT from?!"
Zach pretended to choke on Matt's words. "Such insensitivity! Because we are honourable members of Team Rocket does not necessarily indicate that this Pokémon was stolen! This Pokémon was flying wildly near the building of Silph Co. in the outskirts of Saffron City. This marvelous creature was given to us, as a gift from the great Giovanni himself. I sincerely believe that if there is one way out of which we'll gain respect, it's from this very bird here!"
"A Legendary Bird..." Matt took out a Pokéball. "This is just perfect," he muttered sarcastically.
Jordan and Lizzie suddenly came out of their tent, looking around. They originally ignored the noises which occured outside, however when Lizzie looked next to her and saw that both Matt and Squirtle were not in their sleeping bag, she and Jordan went outside to look.
"Matt, what's going on?!" Lizzie yelled. "I didn't know Team Rocket was here!"
"None of you would have either if I wasn't being so loud." Matt threw the enlarged Pokéball onto the nearby grassy area. Charmeleon appeared.
"Against a Legendary Bird? Matt, maybe you should let my Charizard handle this," Jordan said.
"I'm plenty capable of handling Team Rocket!" Matt said. "These idiots have followed me long enough, and I want to take care of them once and for all!"
The increased level of volume was unable to keep the other trainers asleep for very long. One by one, the tents emptied, pointing and staring in awe at the Articuno flying above. Some loud chatter began to take place, as they noticed Team Rocket.
"Articuno, Ice Beam!" Cloë yelled.
"Charmeleon, Fire Spin!" Matt commanded.
People in the crowd began to yell what Matt should use as an attack and began to cheer him on. Charging from the Articuno's beak, the Articuno launched its head forward towards its target on the ground, while at the same time Charmeleon unleashed its attack from its mouth.
"Fight, fight, fight!" the crowd began to chant.
The fire attack used by Charmeleon managed to weave its way around the ice attack by the Articuno. At the last moment, Charmeleon jumped a side, rolling while the fire attack struck Articuno head on. In pain the bird shreaked, and Matt saw this as the perfect opportunity to strike.
"Charmeleon, Slash Attack!" Matt yelled.
"Char!" Charmeleon quickly jumped from its position on the ground and held its claw up high. When it reached the height of the Articuno it brought its claw down heavily, swiping directly across the large blue bird's face. Charmeleon landed, while Articuno continued to shreak in pain.
"Articuno, Ice Beam! Aim for the tail!" Cloë growled.
Quickly charging another beam in its mouth, the tip of Charmeleon's tail was Articuno's target, launching it directly at it. Charmeleon, uncertain of the attack, turned around and jumped in the nick of time. However, the attack grazed its foot, as it landed roughly on the hard, dirt ground below.
"Get up, Charmeleon, warm up your foot a little!"
"Ha! It's too slow; it's mine! Articuno!" Cloë shouted.
"Stop this at once!" a voice shouted appearing next to the shelter. Nurse Joy pointed towards Team Rocket, with several other officers standing around her, including Officer Jenny. Jenny turned towards her officers. "Get them!"
The officers chased the Rocket's as Cloë secretly pulled out a smoke bomb and held it behind her back. "It's funny how they always think they can catch me."
Jordan, noticing the smoke bomb hiding between Cloë's fingers quickly dashed and struck it out of her hands. "No you don't!" The smoke bomb landed in one of the tents, exploding. Trainers who were still asleep suddenly awakened as they came out coughing and brushing away at the air with an empty hand.
"Damn you!" Cloë shouted, and held up an empty palm, preparing to slap Jordan. However, her hand was caught by an officer behind her as it was forced behind her back. Her other hand was also forced behind her back as two clicking noises could be heard, which was the sound of the handcuffs. Zach, next to her was also cuffed, as both of them were being violently pushed into the back of a police car. The driver sat down into the driver's seat and drove away.
"Thanks, guys," Officer Jenny said, "these guys were some of Team Rocket's best members; I'm glad you were able to handle them. They'll be behind bars for a while."
"Return, Charmeleon." Matt absorbed Charmeleon back into his Pokéball. "Thanks officer, will Team Rocket still be on the loose?"
"Well, we've managed to capture several of them just recently; new trainers these days aren't stupid, they're actually quite clever. They helped us in those captures as well. Well, I have to get back, I'm sure you all want to go back to sleep now. Sotake care." Jenny then left as the trainers who were rudely awakened returned to their tents. However, others were still outdoors chattering.
"I could have done better; I would have taken that Articuno and make it pay," a kid muttered. "Did you see what he did out there? That was one of the sloppiest fights I've ever seen."
Matt looked around. "That's right, where did it go?!"
"Got it!" Jordan said, tossing and catching a Greatball repeatedly in his hand. "I put it back inside; here, you can have it if you want."
"What, me? I couldn't take that!" Matt said. "You know, I remember Lizzie saying she needed a stronger Pokémon with her; why don't you give it to her?"
"All right then," Jordan said, tossing the Greatball to Lizzie; "me, I prefer Moltres and Zapdos. Well, I'm tired, let's go to sleep." Jordan re-entered his tent, while Lizzie, now excited about her new Pokémon, followed.
"I'll join you in a minute," Matt said, following the kid who commented on his performance. "Hey! Kid!"
"Yeah, what do you want?" the kid replied, staring at Matt. The kid was short, very short according to Matt's 6'0" frame. He had dirty, blonde hair, which was thick and shaggy, with blaring green eyes. He was also wearing a baggy shirt, along with long, baggy jeans. His shoes could not be seen.
"What right did you have to comment on my performance, anyway?" Matt asked.
"Heh, I'm a better Pokémon trainer than you would ever be. I already caught 56, most of them rare." The kid crossed his arms.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Matt asked. "How old are you, anyway?"
"Ten," the kid replied, "I've been training since I was eight, because I was allowed. And look, I have two badges already! I bet you don't have any!"
Matt tried not to laugh. "Two in two years?! I already have four, in only a week!"
"Ha! I've been training my Pokémon, and making them really strong; I catch what I see. I can tell that you're entering the tournament tomorrow. I hope I face you, because I want to kick your butt and show to everyone what a crummy trainer you are." The kid stuck out his tongut, and then re-entered his tent.
"That no good son of a--" Matt started.
"Matt, come on, don't start arguments now!" Lizzie yelled.
"Yeah, I'm coming."
* * *
The next morning, the morning before the day of the tournament, Matt was not in the tent when everybody else was awake. Lizzie had awakened, as she looked around. Neither Matt nor Jordan was in the tent; she quickly stretched and exited, seeing Jordan right outside.
"Hey, where's Matt?" Lizzie asked.
"He was rather upset when he came back last night, and he told me he was leaving early to train his Pokémon," Jordan replied. "I have no idea how long he's been gone.
Lizzie checked her watch; it was 8:30 and not many of the other trainers participating were awake yet. "Well, I guess he should train; I have to start going, too. Tell you what, how about we go training for about an hour and a half then come back here for something to eat?"
Jordan nodded. "Yeah, let's just grab some fruit bars from the shelter and move out."
* * *
"Pokéball, go!" Matt threw an empty enlarged Pokéball, which captured the weakened Cubone inside upon striking it. There was little resistence, as the Pokéball stopped moving. "Nice! Our first capture of the day!" He checked his watch. "Yikes! We've been out here for nearly four hours; I should go back to camp. I'm getting hungry." Matt, with Squirtle, walked back through the woods to his tent nearby. He sighed in relief, for he thought that he was lost.
Squirtle yawned.
"Hmm?" Matt looked at Squirtle. "Zenigame, you look really tired. Don't worry, there won't be anymore training. You can relax for the rest of the day; you've worked hard." They entered the tent and sat down on the sleeping bag. Matt yawned. "Yeah, that's the price to pay for training."
Matt whipped out a new magazine featuring new types of Pokéballs. The Greatball was mentioned in an article. It's contents read: 'The Pokéball XB20 with the abbreviation and preferably called a "Greatball" is the latest type of Pokéball available by Silph Co. It obtains twice the materialistic strength as a Pokéball, which proves useful for capturing Pokémon which are much more stubborn to capture. Starting price is 14.99 for one Greatball.'
"Wow," Matt said, "that's expensive. I'm glad I only paid ten for one of them." He then put down the magazine, as he heard Lizzie and Jordan's voices. Lizzie opened the entrance to the tent and saw Matt lying down.
"Matt, why did you leave so early?!" Lizzie exclaimed.
"Training," Matt replied. "Why, were you worried about me again?"
Jordan checked his watch. "Well, it's still rather early before we have lunch, so I'm going to go back out into the forest. You want to come with me?"
"Nah, go ahead. I want to stay here for now," Lizzie said, nervously.
"Ooh, you're going to give the flirting a try?" Jordan teased, he then laughed.
"Shut up!" Lizzie kicked Jordan in the shin. Jordan, wobbling in pain, left the tent to train some more.
Matt sat quietly, not commenting on Lizzie's violent action. He continued to flip through his magazine, checking for potentially interesting articles.
"Hey, what's with the anti-social attitude suddenly?" Lizzie asked.
Matt slowly turned his head towards Lizzie. "This is my quiet time," he replied quietly, "I rarely speak while I'm having time to myself." He turned a page.
"Oh, do you want me to leave you alone?" Lizzie asked.
Matt shook his head. "No, but Zenigame's a little tired, so I don't want to do much speaking."
"He looks so cute when he's asleep."
Matt turned another page. "Hey, a Trainer Tip column!" Matt read on.
"So, ready for tomorrow's tournament?" Lizzie asked, trying to spark up some kind of conversation.
Matt nodded. "Yeah, we've really did some hardcore training, we should be ready. I hope I face that little brat..."
"Huh? Who?" Lizzie asked.
"This little ten-year-old brat that commented on my performance against Team Rocket last night. He said that he could have done much better." Matt scoffed. "Then he goes on and on saying what a crummy trainer I am, and that he has more Pokémon than me, then goes and says he only has two gym badges while training illegally for two years."
"Oh, come on. You're letting a little kid get you down? Why didn't you punch him in the face?"
"I'm not going to punch a kid!" Matt shouted, pulling down his magazine, staring into Lizzie's face. "Besides, I'd rather deal with him in the tournament. Just hitting him would only make me look bad."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You just seem like a tough guy to me. You should lighten up a little." Lizzie lay back on her sleeping bag and stretched.
"Who says I'm too serious?" Matt asked, continuing to look at Lizzie. "I just don't take lightly to those who comment on my performance when in reality they couldn't do that much better." He pulled the magazine back up towards his face.
"You seem to just compress anger, then let it out suddenly. But that's all right if you do it against Team Rocket, I don't like them that much either."
After a few moments of silence, Matt spoke out again: "Well this isn't really related to the subject, but my birthday is next week."
"Really?! How old will you be?" Lizzie asked, sitting up.
"Sixteen."
"Wow...." Lizzie replied, almost in complete guilt. "I should buy you something..."
"No, don't. We need the money for supplies." Matt yawned, putting down the magazine. "Staying up late and getting up early to train has started to come back to haunt me. I think I'll just relax for the rest of the day."
TO BE CONTINUED.
