When Dark Falls

Chapter 4

08th June 2005 (original)

28th June 2005 (rewrite)

"That wasn't bad for a first time Jeremy, don't be so hard on yourself; we just need to increase your stamina and strength." They were eating breakfast in the pokemon centre and Nurse Joy was attending to several other pokemon. Jeremy claimed he was still sore from the training the previous day, and Ranma assured him it would stop eventually. They discussed Ranma's plans for Jeremy.

"Well first of all, I can't teach you everything to do with Martial Arts. I consider myself a student because I try to learn more on the Art. What I believe I can do that will help you is to teach you the basic Kata, and start you off on exercises. You need to run; you need to run a lot. Endurance is key to the martial arts, and I can't emphasize this too heavily, you must run. Everyday, an hour at least, pure running.

"Secondly is the speed training. You can't win if you can't hit; you must train your speed, which is basically the second Kata I will teach you. As you strengthen your lower body with the first Kata, and speed up in the second Kata, you should be able to last long enough for you to escape at least.

"Lastly is power. Everyone likes to hit hard, and enjoy the feel of 'power'. But they don't know the real way you get power; yes muscles and weight lifting help, but it's also technique. Most use their arms only; punching involves the entire body. I expect you to do pushups, hand stands, jumping jacks, all apart from the third Kata I'll teach you." Jeremy frowned; it sounded like a lot for just the basics of matrial arts, "Is it really that much? I mean, do I really have to do all that?"

Ranma raised an eyebrow, "Well no you don't, but that's only if you don't want to learn. I won't force you, and really I won't hold it against you, but I'd like to think I taught you something, first of all, and secondly that idiot the other day showed that being a pokemon trainer doesn't mean you're all powerful or anything like that. When I learned, my pops made me run from wolves and fight for food, and I'm not going to put anyone else through that." Jeremy pouted, "I still think it's too much. Can't I run for just half an hour or something?"

Ranma laughed, "if that's what you're worried about you should have said so. I thought you meant all of it. Yes you can run less, half an hour or so, but later longer times alright? For today, three rounds round the centre, then half an hour long distance; mine's six and one, so don't complain." He chuckled and stood up; starting off on his running while Jeremy finished his breakfast.

………

Ranma and Jeremy had just finished their first set of Kata when Ranma stopped and looked straight at a clump of bushes and frowned, "You know you can actually come out? I'm surprised you've had the patience of an hour watching us without trying to challenge either of us." A man stepped out of the bushes seemingly like out of a cloak, "How did you know I was there? I was the best in the Ninjitsu course." The man was not pleased that his cloaking methods had been seen through by a seemingly upstart martial artist.

Shroud glared at him and growled; Kire would have raised an eyebrow if he'd had one; Jeremy's pokemon, on the other hand, seemed more disconcerted and immediately went into fighting stances. Ranma sighed, "you used a ki technique to mask yourself, which basically makes you bright as day to a practitioner of ki manipulation. Of course, your appearance would be startling to anyone not able to use ki, but that's understandable."

The ninja growled, "very well, I am Thorn, and I challenge you both to a match of our own abilities and that of pokemon." Ranma smiled, "me or my student? Two on two then, two of you, one each for myself and my student. I will personally show you the abilities of a ki practitioner. Shroud, your go." Thorn snarled and pulled a pokeball from an unseen pocket and threw it out, "Sneasel. Fury swipes!" Ranma smiled, "Shroud, your call."

Thorn heard this and threw his head back, laughing, "His call? You must be worse than I thought to give your pokemon such leeway, he'll leave you!" Ranma kept smiling, "Go on Shroud." "Umbreon…" Shroud disappeared just as Sneasel closed in with his fury swipes, appearing behind the Dark/Ice pokemon and viciously stabbed it on the back swiftly, "Umbrrr…" Ranma grinned, "Excellent choice, the Saotome Umisen-ken's White Snake Claw of Venom, derived from the White Snake Venom Reliable Fist of the same art. Show him another Shroud."

This time, Sneasel rushed forward with a Shadow Punch, but Shroud had different ideas; he faked forward so that Sneasel attacked too early, then bit Sneasel's arm before delivering a body slam that laid Sneasel out to Thorn's shock. Ranma laughed out loud at this, "that was the Saotome Umisen-ken's Armed Door Fierce Tooth Decision, executed slightly differently from normal because Sneasel's arms end in sharp claws. Your mistake was underestimating Shroud and going for mid to low leveled attacks. Shroud was most recently measured at about level 40, but your Sneasel looks to be around level 45. Never underestimate your opponents."

Ranma moved back to watch Jeremy. He still hadn't thought of a name for his Ponyta, but it hadn't hatched yet, so there wasn't too much of a concern as of yet. Thorn closed his eyes and recalled Sneasel, "you are right, I underestimated you. But I will not do that again; Scyther, start off with Swords' Dance!" Jeremy recalled what he'd learned, "A bug flying type with a powerful attack factor and speed. Wings give it maneuverability and amour gives it high endurance. Gyou, we start with ice beams at half power." Gyou the Staryu jumped in front and began firing beams of freezing ice at the fast moving Scyther.

Thorn had indeed learned his lesson and didn't start attacking immediately; instead, Scyther attacked only openings a few times, waiting for the ice beams to stop. Jeremy quickly caught on though, "Gyou stop! He's waiting for you to lose power; go with spinning tackle first." In the background, Ranma nodded. Jeremy was a quick study and took to his lessons swiftly. Only after a few shots he'd learned what Thorn was doing instead of becoming hasty like many new trainers he'd seen in the classes. Thorn smiled, "it's hard to believe you're just a beginner. Scyther, quit swords dance and move to wing attack."

Jeremy narrowed his eyes as Gyou and Scyther clashed repeatedly in their physical attacks, Gyou mostly coming off worse, "Gyou! Move to Freezing Rapid Spin!" Ranma was impressed; it was only a day or so since they'd talked about combining moves, and already Jeremy was combining rapid spin, one of Staryu's more powerful physical attacks with ice bean, an ice type attack that Scyther was weak against, "Good." Jeremy turned and winked at him.

Thorn was more impressed, "So you're as inventive as your teacher; I commend you. Scyther, use Mega Drain at range!" Jeremy grew worried, "Gyou! Evade first, attack second!" the match was turning into a long one and Gyou was showing signs of fatigue. Scyther, he guessed, was around level 35 or so, while Gyou was only level 25 to 30, a definite disadvantage. He hoped Gyou could continue dodging till an opening came up. Gyou mirrored his sentiments and the first opening that came along, quickly fired off an Ice Beam while Scyther charged for another Mega Drain.

Scyther wondered why he suddenly couldn't move. One moment he was charging to fire a Mega Drain at the annoying Staryu, next moment he couldn't move at all and the cold feeling started seeping in through his amour; a horrid thought struck him, he'd lost! He began struggling against the ice holding him, and felt it starting to crack even as his limbs started locking up from the cold. On the outside, Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief as the Scyther became encased in a block of ice. He knew the rules obligated him to allow about 10 seconds for the opposing pokemon a chance to break out, after which the match was his, so he sat and waited. 10 seconds passed and a small chunk of ice fell off, but no more came. Scyther had lost.

"YES! I DID IT! I WON! RANMA! DID YOU SEE THAT?" Ranma laughed and grabbed him in a hug, "That's great Jeremy, you did your best and read the situation correctly and won. That's great!" Thorn was shocked; how could he lose? Both his Sneasel and his Scyther? How could that be? They were two of his more powerful pokemon! He growled and recalled Scyther, "Very well, now you and me. Let's see what you can really do. He put his pokeballs away and got into a fighting stance.

Ranma pushed Jeremy away, Shroud and Kire falling into an audience with Gyou, as Ranma moved into his own fighting stance, "of course; show me what you Ninja can do." Thorn shot forward, swinging a medium length blade in what seemed to be wild arcs. But Ranma knew better and could see the strokes were deliberately trying to force him into something. He guessed darts of some sort, but wasn't sure. Instead he went with his original intention. He leapt upward so and drew his hands back, molding a tightly packed ball of ki energy. Throwing his hands forward, the ball went straight towards Thorn, who evaded swiftly but not far enough to escape the blast entirely.

The ball struck the ground; the ball left a crater; Ranma landed; nobody moved. Thorn bowed to Ranma, "you've won. I have no idea how, but you blew a 20 foot crater. I wish you well." And he leapt away. Ranma snorted, "And he thinks it's impressive. Oh well, his loss."

………

"So Ranma, do you know where we're going?" Jeremy was behind Ranma, walking through tall grass. Kire was jumping around having fun while Shroud was traveling from tree to tree instead. Gyou had returned to his pokeball because he didn't like the grass. Ranma frowned, "Well I thought I did, I mean the map says Cherry Grove should have been straight ahead from the turn, but apparently not. In fact, the map doesn't even say there's a field anywhere near there." He paused and frowned, "Of course, if we take the nearest tall grass field on the map as our location then we're just north of Cherry Grove City."

Jeremy eye twitched; if this had been a cartoon, he could just imagine the camera spanning out into space, showing them just a few meters north of Cherry Grove, walking around a tree wondering where they'd seen that set of footsteps before. Unfortunately for him, Ranma tapped a scratch mark on a nearby tree and muttered to himself, "I'm sure I've seen this mark somewhere before." Jeremy face faulted.

They did, however, find themselves a large lake where they decided to stop for lunch and let their pokemon play. Gyou enjoyed it immensely and Kire used the opportunity to practice his flying and hovering capabilities. Shroud humfed and settled for a nap in a nearby tree while Ranma went to look for firewood. Jeremy unpacked some food and decided to practice Kata to pass the time. Shroud must have sensed this because he woke up and watched Jeremy carefully, not unlike a hawk.

Jeremy froze when Shroud leapt down from his vantage point and nudged Jeremy's various body parts a bit, correcting his position. Jeremy was surprised, "You know this one too? Wow, I didn't think Ranma taught you guys this much." Shroud gave him a look that seemed to say, "Now you can't seriously be that daft can you?" Jeremy finished the Kata without too much further mishap and turned to Shroud, "So what else did Ranma teach you?" Ranma had returned and noticed the last bits of Jeremy's Kata, "You need greater concentration Jeremy, don't worry about Shroud, Kire, Gyou, whatever's going on around you.

"You need to decrease your speed and increase your precision. The speed you're going at is fine, except that you're making mistakes that an experienced person wouldn't; you need perfection here so that you'll have as few mistakes out there as possible. Just for your information, I modified those Kata you know so Shroud and Kire could use them. I taught Shroud everything I could saftely modify to his circumstances though the Umisen-ken proved most simple. Now lets see how you've come along; First kata, begin."

………

"That's them, no idea what they're up to though. You remember what the boss said right? Capture, no killing. Let me do the talking and just back me up." Two shadowy figures watched Ranma and Jeremy from a tall tree not so far away, no doubt planning another attempt by Team Rocket. One was female, had a pale face, long legs, and dirty blond hair, as well as 4 pokeballs attached to her belt. The other was male, with rough features, black eyes, green hair and 5 pokeballs to his name. The Girl leapt out of their tree to another nearby and pulled out 3 pokeballs and signaled her partner. He joined her and pulled out another 3 pokeballs, totaling 6 pokemon suddenly appearing in front of Ranma and Jeremy.

First was a Golbat. It was a large bat evolved from Zubat, and enjoyed sucking blood from larger creatures. Second was a Raticate, a large rat with large teeth which was known for its speed and learning capabilities. Third was an Arbok, a large cobra evolved from ekans with long poisonous fangs; following it was a Grimer which seemed to slough off layers of grime and filth. Fifth and sixth were a Geodude and Wheezing respectively. Geodude was basically a large rock with arms and eyes while Wheezing was made up of two purple lumps of poison. Jeremy turned to Ranma, "What do we do here?"

Ranma smiled at him, "Here we either wait for them to make their introductions and then attack us, or we wait for them to make introductions, and try to induct us, or we just take them out. Personally I prefer just taking them out of business straight away; what do you think?" Jeremy smiled at him, "If we take them out we can get to Cherry Grove after lunch. If we wait for them we'll have to wait till tomorrow, you know how slow they are with intros, don't you?" Ranma grinned at him, "Then taking them it is, Shroud! Kire! Let's go!"

The Rocket members were shocked that he'd not even let them do some talking, "Forget it then, just take them out." They threw out their remaining 3 pokemon: a Magma, Weepingbell, and a Cyndaquil. Ranma grinned at the new ones and made his move, "O-Ruoanashingu!" Three large balls of ki streaked toward the offending nine pokemon who tried to escape, unsuccessfully, and ended up just 4 left and 5 unconscious. Ranma dashed forward while Shroud and Kire took on the Arbok and Wheezing respectively; he evaded a jet of fire from the Magma and sent a ki enhanced punch into the Geodude, which flew back and crashed into the tree the Rockets were hiding in. He back flipped over a flame jet from the Magma again, this time such that it roasted the Team Rocket members instead, and landed behind the Magma.

From the Magma's point of view it was incredibly disconcerting. He'd never missed with a flame attack before, but this human had just evaded him twice. Speaking of which, perhaps he shouldn't be burning his trainers and instead find that elusive human. On the other hand, what's that burning feel on his back? Magma turned just in time for Ranma to land a fist of sharp ice, and Magma went down.

From Ranma's point of view, he decided Magma just weren't fast enough; he leapt behind the Magma and executed the Umisen-ken's White Snake Venom Reliable Fist, combining it with frozen fists and arms. When the Magma finally turned round, Ranma had decided that the long name just didn't suit the ineffectiveness of the attack against such a highly defensible pokemon. Instead, when the fire pokemon finally turned round, he combined the rock-breaker technique with his ice abilities and went for the clincher; Magma never quite knew what hit him.

Ranma turned to Jeremy, who was watching in awe, "Right then, power is actually important. So here's your chance to practice Gyou's water power." Jeremy blinked a few times then grinned, "Gyou! Hydro Pump!" a scream later the rockets disappeared. Ranma chuckled, "Surely they'd know better by now?" he turned round, surveying their surroundings, noticing the changes. Smiling he turned to Jeremy, who was patting Gyou, "Well it seems the obscured the way out, lets go."