Author's Notes: As previously mentioned, chapters will see a significant increase in length from this point on. I'll try to keep them under ten pages, however. I have difficulty reading things on the screen and proofreading anything longer than that would be a real nightmare.
Anyway, this chapter features my first Pokemon battle. I want to know how I did with it, so let me know, please! I really enjoy reading battle scenes in other fics, so I want to try to make mine enjoyable as well. Also let me know what you think of the longer chapter format.
Chapter Eight: The Answer
It wasn't long before Arcanine had galloped through the gatehouse that separated Ilex Forest from the route beyond, bringing himself and his riders out onto a sunlit, grassy road. In the distance huge buildings rose, most notably a tall, black tower that quested towards the sky. Closer by was a cheery cottage with a large, fenced-in enclosure. Katherine could see trainers eagerly hunting through the grass, searching for the Pokemon that made their homes there. Arcanine, still intent on his destination, continued onward without slowing his pace, although he skirted the patches of grass at his trainer's command.
Katherine was fuming. Jeremy refused to come out of his little daydream, or whatever it was, and Katherine got the feeling that he was simply trying to be unhelpful for some reason. This caused her to nearly be thrown over Arcanine's head as he braked suddenly, short claws digging into the ground. Katherine grabbed his luxurious white mane reflexively. Jeremy, who had not been paying attention either, maintained hold of Katherine's sweatshirt by only a single hind paw. Katherine straightened up angrily, peering over Arcanine's head to see what had made him stop without warning.
A trainer had run out, nearly in front of the Arcanine, and was now eagerly making his way around to Katherine's side. "Hi!" he called cheerfully, waving as though he had just done something incredibly clever.
Kathering glared at him with distaste. He wore a red windbreaker with a white stripe running down each sleeve and similar pants. A cooltrainer, she thought, and a rather dumb one at that. He had red hair to match his attire and green eyes. "What are you, stupid?" she snapped at him. "Only an idiot would try to run out in front of an Arcanine running full tilt." Although he had acted rashly, he was apparently a competent trainer, his jacket displaying five badges, only one less than the six that Katherine had pinned on her pack.
"Oh, I knew he wouldn't hit me," the trainer said dismissively, waving a hand. "You've obviously trained him very well. So, what about a battle? You're the first decent-looking trainer that I've seen come through these parts."
Katherine ignored the flattery as she considered the matter. Jeremy had successfully clambered back onto her shoulder and was now hissing wordlessly in her ear, clearly against the idea. Katherine was still annoyed with him, however, and hadn't had a good battle in a while. It wouldn't take very long, anyway. "All right," she replied grudgingly.
"Great!" the cooltrainer cried enthusiastically. "How's a four-on-four sound to you?"
Katherine slid off of Arcanine's back and returned him to his Pokeball. Her trainer's intuition was already trying to assess the battle and size up the opponent before the battle even started. "That would be fine," she decided. The cooltrainer must have at least decent Pokemon, as he was willing to challenge her even after seeing her Arcanine, a very powerful specimen. Most of the trainers who had looked up eagerly at the sight of the approaching beast got a good look at it and then hastily returned their eyes to the sea of tall grass around them.
The trainer nodded and backed up, while Katherine moved off in the opposite direction. "I'm James, by the way," he said, a little belatedly.
"Katherine," Katherine replied curtly, continuing to walk away from him. When they were a good distance apart, they turned to face one another again, and the battle began.
"Go, Charizard!" James cried, throwing out Pokeball. It disgorged a large red dragon-like Pokemon.
"Zaarrrrrrrrrrrrrdd! Charizard!" it roared, and the flame on its tail roared higher as it anticipated the battle.
After a brief moment of decision, Katherine grabbed a Pokeball off of her belt and threw it ontot he battlefield. "Let's do this, Electabuzz!" she yelled, and her ball opened to release the yellow and black electric Pokemon onto the field.
"Buzzzzzzzzzz!" she howled, and electricity began to spark between the nodes that rose out of her head.
James didn't hesitate to issue commands. "Get out of there with Fly!" he ordered. His Charizard spread its blue wings and beat them forcefully, slowly rising into the air. He wasn't nearly as fast or as maneuverable as Katherine's Pidgeot, due to his greater bulk relative to his wingspan, but he could still avoid many attacks while he was in the air. Katherine had to strike before he flew out of Electabuzz's range.
"Electabuzz, let's keep this fight down to earth! Use Thunder Wave!" she ordered.
The electricity coursing between Electabuzz's nodes intensified to a steady stream. She closed her eyes and concentrated, releasing a nearly invisible blast of electricity at the Charizard. Distinguishable only by a rippling distortion in the air, the attack struck the Charizard dead on and began to wreak havoc with his nervous system. His wings began to jerk and twitch spasmodically, then locked up all together, sending the fire-type crashing back to the ground.
"Hit him with a Thunderbolt!" Katherine yelled to her fighter, who began to prepare for the attack. She concentrated once again, and electricity began rippling across her yellow and black fur, coalescing as it reached the nodes on her head.
"Quick, Charizard, use Flamethrower!" James cried desperately. Though experiencing great difficulty moving as a result of Electabuzz's initial assault, the Charizard had managed to rise again and opened his jaws.
Electabuzz unleashed her attack, sending a powerful blast of electrical energy straight at the Charizard. He was unable to dodge and was enveloped by the attack, but not before firing a shot of his own. A steady torrent of fire gushed from his mouth, reaching across the arena towards Electabuzz. Normally, the speedy electric-type would have been able to dodge out of the way, but she had been concentrating on her own attack and wasn't able to dodge. Fortunately, Charizard's paralysis prevented him from aiming his attack properly and it only grazed Electabuzz's side. Still, it charred a swath of the electric-type's fur and crisped the skin beneath, eliciting an angry bellow from the Pokemon.
James's Charizard succumbed to the electrical blast, slumping over, extremities still twitching uncontrollably.
"Return, Charizard!" James said with disappointment at seeing his Pokemon so quickly done away with. "Go, Parasect!"
The Pokeball that he threw opened to reveal a large, insectoid Pokemon with a massive mushroom growing from its back. Its two eyes were a milky white and sightless.
"Sctsctsct! Parasect!" It chattered, clacking the massive orange pincers on its forelimbs.
Katherine smiled inwardly at the sight. She had been hoping that her opponent would make a choice like that, sending out a grass-type, which was resistant to electricity.
"You can take one more, can't you, Electabuzz?" she asked her fighter.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzz! Buzzzzzz!" Her Electabuzz snarled, enraged.
"Alright then, send this bug packing with Fire Punch!" Katherine called out gleefully. Electabuzz dashed towards the opponent, holding her right fist high. Sparks crawled across it, igniting into small gouts of fire that encased the Pokemon's fist.
Katherine's opponent gaped for a second at the unexpected attack, then cried, "Slash, Parasect!"
The mushroom creature lashed out with one of its foreclaws, opening a bleeding gash in Electabuzz's chest. Electabuzz kept on coming, slamming her blazing fist into the creature's mushroom to the right of its eyes.
The Pokemon hissed and chattered in pain, its legs lashing out convulsively, cutting Electabuzz in several places and driving her back. The electric-type's attack had eaten a huge chunk out of the Pokemon's mushroom.
Katherine saw that Electabuzz was tiring quickly, blood oozing from the nasty cuts that crisscrossed her pelt, but hoped that the Pokemon had one last good attack left in her. "Hit it again with Fire Punch!" she ordered, and Electabuzz sprang to obey.
"Spore!" James yelled.
The Parasect began to spew a faintly green cloud of spores into the air from the underside of its large mushroom.
Though Electabuzz bravely pressed through them, fist ablaze yet again, her eyes began to droop and her steps faltered as the attack began to take effect. She lashed out at the Parasect, but only scored a graze across its side as her lunge degenerated into a slump as she fell to the ground, asleep.
"Return, Electabuzz!" Katherine cried hurriedly, seeing the Parasect about to pounce on the defenseless Electabuzz.
The bug- and grass-type Pokemon would be weak to her Pidgeot's arsenal as well. She unclipped the Pokeball from her belt and threw it out, calling "Go Pidgeot!"
The large brown bird hopped dutifully from his Pokeball and shrieked at the Parasect. "Pidgeoooooooooooooooooott!"
"Parasect, use Spore again!" James commanded his Pokemon, hoping to repeat Katerine's performance and hit her flying-type before it could fly out of range.
Katherine's Pidgeot was far faster than his Charizard, however, and darted out of the way of the spore cloud as Katherine cried, "Pidgeot, Fly!"
Pidgeot complied, soaring up and away to hover over the Parasect's head. The opponent ordered Parasect to try to hit it again with another Spore blast, but the sightless Pokemon could not even attempt to aim at Pidgeot and the attack proved useless. Pidgeot dived, talons open, to hit the Parasect squarely at the top of its mushroom. The bug was knocked to the ground, crablike legs clawing the air frantically as it tried to regain its balance. Pidgeot darted up and away again as the creature managed to right itself.
Its strength was nearly spent, spindly legs shaking as they tried to support the weight of the massive mushroom. Katherine ordered Pidgeot to dive again, and James gave his Parasect its last order.
"Aerial Ace!" he shouted.
Pidgeot was unable to change course quickly enough to avoid the raking foreclaw of the Parasect as he dived to assault it again. It connected, knocking him off course and sending feathers flying. He still managed to rake his talons across the bug's mushroom, however, and it collapsed beneath his assault.
"Return, Parasect!" the trainer cried.
Katherine awaited his next move warily. He wasn't half-bad. It was then that she noticed that all was not well with Pidgeot. He had landed on her side of the arena again, but he was slumped over and panting heavily. He had barely taken any damage at all, so such an action was worrying. She quickly grabbed her Pokedex from her belt, flipped it open, and told it to analyze his condition.
"Subject has been poisoned," it droned informatively.
Of course. Katherine had forgotten about Parasect's ability, Effect Spore, which was triggered by physical contact. Pidgeot's Fly attack must have allowed some of the Poisonous spores from Parasect's mushroom to get into his wound. It looked like no matter what the cooltrainer used next she'd be switching Pokemon.
"Go, Sneasel!" James said, throwing his next Pokemon into the fray. The Pokeball opened to release a sly-looking black Pokemon. Humanoid in form, it had a strange red growth protruding from one side of its head and a row of red feather-like formations growing from its back.
"Snixxxx!" it hissed.
"Return, Pidgeot," Katherine commanded, throwing down her next Pokeball almost before Pidgeot had been completely returned to safety. "Go, Heracross!"
Her Pokeball released a stocky blue Pokemon, a beetle-like creature with a single pronged horn growing from his forehead.
"Crrroosss!" He crowed excitedly, tossing his horned head proudly.
The Sneasel eyed its opponent coolly, then nonchalantly popped her claws out. Even after numerous battles against Sneasels, Katherine still couldn't understand how such small, innocent black paws could conceal such wicked claws. Each paw was adorned with two wicked claws that were nearly a foot long.
"Slash, Sneasel!" James yelled.
"Counter!" Katherine yelled hurriedly. Heracross braced himself for the attack, bringing his own, shorter claws up into a ready position.
The lightning-fast Sneasel darted up to Heracross and lashed his chest with one of her long claws. Heracross bore the attack unflinchingly, then allowed his opponent's own attack to work against her. While she was still unbalanced from her powerful strike, he lashed out with his own claws, clouting her a hefty blow that sent her rolling head over tail back towards her trainer. She was already looking badly beaten up when she dragged herself to her feet, covered with bruises.
"Icy Wind!" James tried, seeing that physical attacks probably weren't wise.
"Brick Break, Heracross," Katherine said triumphantly, knowing that this round was won. Heracross charged as the Sneasel began to prepare her attack.
The Sneasel blew a fierce blast of cold air and ice particles at Heracross, which encrusted his carapace. It didn't do much damage, but the freezing blast did slow him down a bit. He kept on coming. The Sneasel tried to use her superior speed and agility to dodge away from him, but she was tired and he caught her easily. Heracross delivered three crushing blows to her torso and she was down for the count.
James was down to his last Pokemon, and Katherine still had her Heracross and either her Donphan, Muk, or Arcanine to back her up.
James had apparently saved the best for last, however. "Go, Nidoking!" he commanded, throwing down his last Pokemon.
The beast that emerged from the Pokeball was a massive, bulky purple creature. Heavily armored, it stood on two stocky hind legs. His thick, articulate tail slammed into the ground, sending tremors through it. His back was adorned with huge purple spikes, and his face bore a single purple horn.
"Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!" he roared.
Heracross looked uncertainly across at the Nidoking, who was clearly very powerful.
"Earthquake!" James commanded, grinning. The Nidoking stomped heavily on the ground, his massive bulk sending tremors through it. The ground trembled and rocked, forcing the Nidoking's own trainer to retreat or be caught in the attack.
"Endure!" Katherine ordered in the face of the massively powerful ground attack.
Heracross closed his eyes and concentrated, standing solidly despite the violently trembling earth that threatened to knock him over. When the attack ended, he was clearly very tired, but still standing.
"Reversal!" Katherine ordered, and Heracross darted forward. Though by no means graceful, he was still faster than the hulking Nidoking.
The blows that he dealt to his opponent were filled with all of the pain that he had endured during the battle, and the power behind the attack knocked even the mighty Nidoking back a few paces. The huge Pokemon recovered quickly, however, and responded to his trainer's command.
"Mega Punch!" James called. The Nidoking threw all of his considerable bulk into the attack, and it connected with Heracross with a crunch as the bug-type's carapace cracked under the assault.
"Heracross, good fight! Return!" Katherine yelled to her fallen fighter, sending him back to the safety of his Pokeball. She then selected and released her last fighter.
"Donphan, go!"
Her compact elephant-like Pokemon entered the fray with a loud "Don! Donphan!"
"Hyper Beam, Nidoking!" James ordered.
Nidoking opened his fanged mouth and a blinding white ball of energy began to collect there, slowly expanding.
"Donphan, Protect!" Katherine ordered, knowing that if the mega-attack connected it would most likely knock out her fighter.
Donphan curled into a tight ball, his rocky back the only part of his body exposed. A shimmering bubble appeared around him.
The Nidoking released his attack. The huge beam of light caused Katherine to throw an arm up to protect her eyes. There was a loud roar as the bolt of pure energy struck Donphan's shield and ricocheted off, sending minor blasts off in all directions. They gouged furrows in the ground and one even glanced off at an angle that caused it to scythe through the long grass to the right, nearly decapitating a curious junior trainer who had been watching the fight. He scurried away, and the bolt of energy dissipated soon after.
Donphan, unscathed, uncurled himself and returned to his fighting stance.
The Nidoking was drained of energy, slumped over on his side of the makeshift arena. He wouldn't be immobilized for long, though, and Katherine would have to attack it while she had the chance. "Earthquake, Donphan!" She cried.
Donphan brought his forelegs down on the soil, once again stirring it up. Nidoking couldn't keep his balance and was thrown to the ground, where he struggled to get up but failed, bounced along the ground like a rag doll as the soil bucked and heaved. When the attack was complete, he was still unable to rise, although he gave a last defiant roar before the James grudgingly recalled him.
"Looks like you won," he said sheepishly. "You really are good."
"You're not bad yourself," Katherine admitted grudgingly, accepting the money that he offered her and stuffing it into her pack without looking at it.
James walked off towards the Ilex Forest, and Katherine sent out her Arcanine again. Pidgeot's poison condition was steadily worsening and she would need to get him medical attention soon. Fortunately, they were close to Goldenrod's Pokemon Center.
"Arrrrr..." Arcanine sighed as Katherine clambered up onto his back. He was disappointed at not being allowed to battle.
Katherine patted his broad back as he turned around to face Goldenrod. "I know, I know. I just didn't want to send you out against that Nidoking, that's all. If you had gotten hurt, then I'd be without a ride, wouldn't I?"
Arcanine nodded slowly, then set off at his ground-eating pace once more.
"You battle very well," a small voice said, nearly in her ear.
For the third time that day, Katherine nearly fell from her mount. Regaining her balance she inwardly reprimanded herself for having forgotten about Jeremy, who was still riding on her shoulder. He had been completely silent throughout the entire battle.
She turned her head so that she could get a glimpse of Jeremy out of one eye. He was grinning at her, having noticed her slip. Apparently, he was out of his little trance and feeling much perkier. "Yeah, I know," she agreed. "Feeling a little more talkative now, are we?" She tried to keep the edge of annoyance out of her voice, but Jeremy's ears twitched as he listened and he gave her an exasperated look.
"I wasn't about to talk in front of that trainer, you know. Do you want to get me kidnapped by Team Rocket or something? Because I'm sure they'll be interested in any talking Pokemon, even if it's just a Rattata."
"You talk to me," Katherine pointed out. "How do you know that I'm not just taking you to my boss to turn you in?"
"Oh, you're not their type," Jeremy said absentmindedly, grooming his white chest fur.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Katherine asked coldly, her eyes narrowing.
Looking up from his fur, the Rattata realized that he had made a diplomatic error. "Oh, I just meant that you seem, um, really nice, and stuff. Listen, you wanted to know about me, right?" he asked, hastily changing the subject.
"If you're not about to zone out on me again, sure. I'm looking forward to a few answers."
Jeremy nodded solemnly and launched into his tale without introduction, talking quickly as though he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. "I was a trainer like you, once. Always looking for adventure and new places. I had conquered the gym leaders of the Johto region and was honing my team in preparation for the final League match. I happened to stumble upon that little island as I surfed across the ocean. Naturally, I made landfall and set out to explore the forest. From the instant I entered the trees I knew that something was wrong. A funny feeling passed over me as the tree's shade enveloped me. I didn't think much of it, though, and pressed deeper into the woods. I was jumped by a Ninetales, which I at first thought to be an extreme stroke of luck. I mean, who's ever heard of a wild Ninetales before? I was all prepared to catch it, Ultra Ball in hand, when I happened to look into its eyes." Jeremy stopped and shivered, the fur on his back bristling. Katherine, who was trying to keep up with his lightning-fast narrative, attempted to consolidate her thoughts, but Jeremy shook himself and moved on again, skimming over events as though they were hot coals. "They burned horribly, with a sort of inner fire. It's hard to describe. I felt pulled into them, thinking that I saw images dancing in the flames. In a moment, it seemed I was falling into them, and I saw what the pictures were. They formed a scene wreathed in fire, a helpless Rattata running for its life from the flames. And then I was the one in the fire, running as it closed in on me. I wasn't fast enough, though, and it caught up to me. Before I knew it, I was ablaze, my former self burning away. I grew smaller and smaller, shrinking to the size of a Rattata. It was horribly painful, as though I had been consumed by ice-cold tongues of flame. I tried to cry for help, for all the good that it would have done me, but all that came out was a sort of wordless squeak. In the end, I could take it no more, and I gave in to the flames." Jeremy was stopped by a sudden jolt as Arcanine's great paws hit cobblestones instead of dirt. They had entered Goldenrod City.