Title: The Pikachu Project
If you're thinking of sicking your lawyers on me, look at chapter one for a disclaimer.
Author's Notes: I had some real difficulty writing this chapter, seeing as how it focuses mainly on a Pokemon Battle. I had never really written one before, but I'm happy with the way it turned out.
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far!
The Pikachu Project
By: Tear22
Chapter Two: All's Fair In Love, War, And Pokemon Battles
"This will be a one-on-one Pokemon battle against Giovanni and Dr. Craig," Eric shouted, who had once again been allowed the privilege to accompany the lead scientist. He held up two different colored flags for the respective side of the gym and the trainer.
"Giovanni," he yelled, swiftly pointing the scarlet colored flag in the Boss' direction, "will be using the Pokemon Cloyster, and Dr. Craig," he pointed the black colored flag toward the opposite end of the gym, "will be using the Pokemon Pikachu! No time limit. Are you both ready?"
Giovanni smirked and nodded, producing a red and white pokeball from his jacket pocket.
"Ready as I'll ever be…" Dr. Craig sighed, releasing the electric mouse from its cage. Once released, Pikachu bounded into the battle arena, surprising both Dr. Craig and Giovanni. It formed a fighting stance, sparks already beginning to form around its body.
"That's funny … I didn't think it would want to battle with me," Dr Craig said, ruffling his black hair in confusion.
"Adamant one, are you?" Giovanni sneered, tossing his pokeball with ease. A large Cloyster appeared in a flash of red light. "Well I have just the thing for you."
"Cloyster!" the Pokemon cried, opening and closing its large shell, all the while Pikachu showing little signs of fear.
"Let the battle begin!" Eric bellowed, crossing the flags across his chest than proceeding to strike both flags up in the air and in opposing directions.
Before any attacks were made, Dr. Craig made one last attempt to call the battle off. "Are you sure about this Boss?" he asked, meanwhile racking his brain for any remembrance of Pikachu's attacks.
"I think that's up for the Pokemon to decide, and it seems more than willing to fight to me," Giovanni replied, and Pikachu gave a sure "Chu!" to defend his answer.
"Alright," Dr. Craig gave in.
"I'll give you the honor of attacking first," Giovanni said, obliviously apparent of Dr. Craig's struggle to remember Pikachu's attacks.
A slight blush appeared on Dr. Craig's face as both Giovanni and Pikachu pressured him to call an order. "Oh, right!" he cried, snapping his fingers. He had been shocked by several of Pikachu's attacks in the past days, and he now knew which one to use. "Pikachu!" he called to the Pokemon, whose ears perked at the sound of its name, "use thundershock attack!"
"Pika!" the Pokemon cried, immediately producing several large bolts from its cheeks, directly aiming them at Cloyster.
"Cloyster," Giovanni said calmly, "withdraw." On command, the large shells surrounding the Pokemon closed up, ultimately avoiding any chance the electric attack had on inflecting damage. "Now use hyper beam."
Small beams of light began to form around the Pokemon's spike adorning its head, indicating that it was charging up for the attack.
"Pi!" Pikachu cried worriedly, turning around to face its temporary trainer, clearing asking what it should do.
"Uh, uh," Dr. Craig stammered, struggling to remember another attack, but not wanting to look any worse in the company of his employer, struck a defiant pose and called out, "u- use… double team!"
Rapidly, Pikachu began making duplicates of itself, each looking as real as the last. It spread out the doubles all around the borders of the arena, making the Cloyster rather confused. Cloyster looked around, not sure as to where it should direct its attack. But before it could make a decision, the hyper beam fired, hitting several of Pikachu's copies, each one fading away as it was hit.
"Pi pika!" all the duplicates shouted at once, circling the baffled Cloyster. Although the Pokemon had been training under Giovanni's command for a number of years, Cloyster had never seen any opponent that moved as swiftly as this one did.
"Now Pikachu," Dr. Craig shouted, once again pointing at the Pokemon with a newly acquired air of confidence, "use your quick attack!"
The Pokemon duplicates faded away into one, and with lightning speed, Pikachu struck the Cloyster, sending it back several feet along the gym's floor. It skidded to a halt near Giovanni, looking up at its trainer in disbelief. Giovanni glared at it, demanding that it get back into the battle at once. Cloyster entered the main part of the battle arena again, and without any word from its master, fired a bubble beam attack at its opponent.
"What the heck do you think you're doing!" Giovanni shouted to his Pokemon, balling his fists in anger at Cloyster's disobedience.
Nevertheless, the attack hit Pikachu, leaving its fur slightly damp from the bubble's liquid. Pikachu shook its body vigorously, spraying the soapy liquid out onto the gym's ground. It then started to groom itself, licking its paws furiously as Dr. Craig stood behind it in the trainer's area, looking slightly sick.
"Pikachu," he cried, beginning to pull at the tips of his gloves in nerves, "You don't have time for that!"
"Cloyster," Giovanni said in a somewhat calmer tone, "Use your supersonic attack."
"Ster," the Pokemon exclaimed as several small rings of yellow light emitted from its sharp spike. Pikachu continued to stand its ground, completely ignoring its temporary trainer's calls to dodge the attack as it nibbled its paw.
The attack hit Pikachu head on, leaving a cluster of small specks of blurred light in front of its vision. It swerved slightly, nearly collapsing on the ground as it stumbled on its tail.
"Now use hyper beam, Cloyster."
"Pikachu!" Dr. Craig called, waving his arms like that of a madman, "You have to snap out of it!"
Small light crystals began to form around the Cloyster's charcoal black spike again.
As Dr. Craig called out to Pikachu, the rodent took on a determined look in the midst of its confusion. Its pointed yellow ears raised and, thoroughly surprising both its trainer and Giovanni, unleashed a large amount of static energy, shattering the small windows throughout the gym.
Cloyster, having been hit with the full force of the electricity, collapsed, completely exhausted.
"I- It looks like Dr. Craig and Pikachu are the winners," Eric muttered at length. He pointed the black colored flag in Dr. Craig's direction, his eyes mingled with shock and pleasure.
Giovanni put a hand to his head and sighed, took out his Pokemon's ball, and with a slight grimace on his face withdrew Cloyster. And without a word, Giovanni, followed by an equally surprised Dr. Craig and Pikachu, exited the battle arena.
"You know why I called you in today?" Giovanni asked in an uncharacteristically calm voice, lacing his fingers together on the surface of his polished, wooden desk.
"Yes sir," Dr. Craig responded, eyeing his Boss' Persian that was currently circling the caged Pikachu at his side.
"Now it has come to my recent concern that you might not meet what is required of someone of your position. You see, when employing agents I tend to look for someone with at least a decent knowledge of Pokemon, and someone of your status should surely by now know a great deal of not just Pokemon in general but their attacks as well. Perhaps I overlooked you when you employed." He chuckled to himself. "But that is highly unlikely."
"I'm aware of the that sir, but I --"
"And you did perform a full analyze of the Pokemon Pikachu before conducting all of your operations? Could it be that your many failures were a result of not having studied the Pokemon properly?"
"Sir, I can ensure you I gave all my time and effort into studying Pikachu as you asked," Dr. Craig stuttered, a slight blush spreading across his features as he realized the only proof that he had indeed done any research at all was now buried deep in his pocket, the small scrap of paper making a slight crinkling noise every time he walked a few feet.
"Of course," was the only reply Giovanni gave. "Well," he continued, directing a stern yet mildly pleased look toward Persian, who had wrapped its cream colored tail around one of the cage bars threateningly, "you did manage to defeat me in a Pokemon battle. But it did seem to be somewhat of a fluke," he added, taking another sip from his wine bottle.
"Well, you know how these things are," he chuckled uneasily while shifting his hand around in his pocket in an attempt to further bury the piece of paper with a poorly drawn Pikachu on it.
The Boss quickly wiped the remaining wine from his pale lips, clearly knowing he had the upper hand in this small battle of the mind.
"William," Giovanni said, addressing Dr. Craig, keeping his cold brown eyes steadily focused on the line of his agent's throat, "you've disappointed me."
Dr. Craig took a surprised step backwards, nearly stepping on Persian's paw with the tip of his heel. Hardly anyone ever spoke to him using his first name – his proper first name, at that.
"I- I'm sorry sir," Dr. Craig stuttered, immediately realizing once he said those words that a simple "I'm sorry" wasn't nearly sufficient. He gave a small bow, allowing his glasses to slip to the end of his crooked nose. "You'll have to agree though sir," he said slowly, seeming to weigh each word carefully, "that the Pokemon was certainly in very good condition." He then added cautiously, "It did beat your Cloyster like you said, sir."
"Yes, yes it did…."
Dr. Craig breathed a small sigh of relief as Giovanni said this.
"But," he continued, cutting through Dr. Craig's moment of relief like a knife, "that seemed to be more of the Pikachu's doing, rather than your own."
Dr. Craig gave no response, instead merely removed his stare from his Boss to the floor, which he noticed had several patches of what he guessed to be bloodstains smeared throughout the carpet.
"And isn't that what you wanted sir?" Dr. Craig asked, now fixing his stare on one of the legs of his Boss' desk, becoming fully aware that he most likely shouldn't have begun to question Giovanni at all, "…A strong Pikachu?"
Giovanni tightened the grip on his laced fingers, looking as if he thoroughly wanted to instead wrap them around Dr. Craig's throat.
"That may be true," The Boss admitted, "but that does not make up for your lack of knowledge about the Pokemon. Therefore, you are being put on probation. Consider yourself lucky, William. You've proved yourself useful, otherwise I would have fired you," Giovanni's eyes glinted slightly, "right here on the spot."
"Thank you very much, sir," Dr. Craig said breathlessly, bowing to a point where he looked somewhat ridiculous.
"You will report to the loading and docking lot tomorrow at nine a.m. to deliver Pikachu to Delia's address. You understand me?" he added, as if his agent was unable to recognize human speech.
"Yes sir," he said confidently, picking up Pikachu's cage and freeing the bars from Persian's grasp. "I'll be there at nine a.m."
Ooh, what will happen to Dr. Craig and Pikachu? Would you like to know?
I bet you do. I can feel it.
So, send me some lovely, charming reviews and you'll find out!
Till Next Time,
Tear22