Disclaimer: Welcome to the wonderful world that is Pokémon. Of course everything related to Pokémon is owned and licensed by Nintendo, and I'm sure the author of this story will do his best to treat Nintendo and Pokémon with as much respect as possible. Now, the characters in this story are all original except for professor Oak, Ash, Gary, Misty, Brock, several Jenny's and Joy's and some other weirdo's that wander around in the game and/or series and of course, the Pokémon.
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Chapter 3 – Lake Rage
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I arrived at Lake Rage in less than a day, but there was nowhere sign of any gyarados, coloured or not. I checked in at the local pokécentre and went out scouting. Every fisherman I talked to knew nothing of the red Gyarados. Only one of them was of some use to me.
"I don't know about a red Gyarados," the fisherman said as he scratched his beard, "didn't even know the bugger existed, but on the other side of the lake, well, a bit westwards really," he pointed to a point at the other side, "there are a lot of Gyarados. It's too bad, since the best Magikarp are over there, but with those puppies, it's too dangerous to go fishing there, catch my drift? I think you would find that Gyarados there, well, with all those other ones there."
I nodded and gave him a fivehundred for his trouble. I looked through my binoculars and saw indeed a Gyarados dive up and snap at a passing Skarmory. Not a red one though, but a good place to start.
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I went back to the pokécentre to get the stuff I needed and after a some food, I went out. The trip to that point of the lake I needed was a long hike since I couldn't use my bike, but that was okay, I kidded myself I needed the exercise. Anyway, after a couple of hours I was where I wanted to be, but I still didn't have what I wanted to have. Since I was beat, I decided to rest a bit and observe the lake. A couple of Gyarados were there indeed, but no sign of the red one Jaeger had talked about. I decided to wait out here since I had no desire to become bait for some raging Gyarados, until I heard a sound. My heart stopped. Out of the bushes came… a Marril.
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"A Marril?" Ash frowned, "you mean you were scared of a Marril?"The kid started laughing. Tony did not.
"Have you ever seen a Marril?" he asked.
"Yes of course," he said between snickering, "and they're nothing to be scared of."
"That's right," Misty nodded, "what's an innocent Marril?"
"An innocent Marril indeed," Tony continued, "but have you ever seen a WILD Marril?"
Ash stopped laughing and frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"Marrils are very protective," Tony explained, "when you're on their breeding grounds they attack everything in sight to secure their offspring. And the more Marril there are, the more dangerous."
"I didn't know that." Ash had to admit.
"Hah, and you call yourself a pokémonmaster," Gary sneered.
"Like you knew that!" Ash shot back.
"Will you two shut the fuck up and let me continue?" Tony growled, "okay, there I was, surrounded by Marrils…"
"You said one Marril." Brock interjected.
"Oh, great, now I forgot where I was."
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So, I had found the Gyarados…
"You already said that."
"Kid, I have a gun and I'm not afraid to use it, especially on you."
"Eep!"Anyway, I had found the Gyarados, but still no red one. Being in the vicinity of some dangerous pokémon was nothing to me, since I knew no fear, and they couldn't come out of the water, which was also a big help. But now a Marril had appeared. I prayed to God it would be the only one, but since I don't believe in God and He knows it, a second one emerged out of the bushes. And another one, and another… To cut a long story short, I was being surrounded by about a dozen of Marril, none of them looking friendly and half of them young ones, making it dead certain they were gonna attack. I quickly look over my options. This didn't take me long, since I only had two. One, stay and be killed by the Marrils, or two, go into the lake and get killed by the Gyarados. Hmm, though choice.
"What did you…" Misty started but Tony's glance cut her off.
"Sorry," she mumbled, "please continue…"
Anyway. I reached slowly for my pokéballs, knowing sudden movements meant sudden death. Without looking I counted them until I reached the right one. I threw it in the air and out came Frostbite, my Articuno. The Marrils saw this as an act of aggression, and I can't blame them, and attacked. If Frostbite didn't react so quickly and grabbed me, I wouldn't be able to tell the tale, or at least not with some aid.
"To the centre!" I yelled out above their angry chirping, "take the shortest way, over the lake."
I don't know how, but somehow I had forgotten about those Gyarados. As Frostbite flew over the lake, one after the other jumped up and tried to attack. Needless to say, Frostbite took some hits, not to mention me. Frostbite flew up after launching a devastating ice attack. Well, it was devastating, but against about twenty Gyarados, it had as much effect as a simple tackle. We barely made it to the other side of the lake. Literally. We plunged into the water close to the centre. Somehow, Blaster, Warmonger and Turtle emerged from their pokéballs, and while I called back Frostbite, they helped me reach the shore. Well, Turtle did. A Gyarados felt lucky and had followed me, taking me for easy prey. Like hell I am. Blaster and Warmonger attacked the fucker and it proved once again, nothing can withstand an enraged Blastoise and Warturlte, not even a Gyarados. I dragged myself to the pokécentre and crashed right before their eyes, causing a widespread panic. I don't know, seems I have something about causing panic in a pokécentre. I didn't even have a knife this time. Well, I didn't wave it around this time.
"Huh?" Ash frowned.
"We'll tell you later," Oak shushed the boy, "please, Tony, continue."
When I came by in the hospital room, another bad habit of mine, my left arm was in a cast and a huge bandage was around my right leg and my chest. I rang the bell to let them know I was awake, and in walked nurse Joy.
"Good morning, Mr. Hunter," she smiled to me, "it's good to see you're awake. I must say, you were very lucky. But may I ask why you chose to fly over a bunch of Gyarados like that? If this was some crazy stunt just for the kick, I would be sorry you survived."
"It was a kick, I must admit," I said as I tried to sit up, causing a shot of pain running through my chest, "but it wasn't on purpose. I had stumbled on a nest of Marril with young and tried to get away."
"Then you were certainly lucky you had that Articuno," she nodded, seemingly pleased I hadn't planned the flight, "otherwise you would have been far worse off than just a broken arm and some bruised ribs."
"And my leg?" I asked.
"First degree burns, nothing that won't heal."
"I will never take Dragon Rage lightly again." I swore.
"It's better you don't, Gyarados are dangerous creatures and you were extremely lucky. Normally when a Gyarados attacks somebody, there isn't even enough for an open casket funeral."
"Somehow I doubt I will ever have an open casket funeral, but it's best to postpone such things."
"May I ask why exactly you where over there?" she asked, "I heard you were asking about Gyarados, so that made me think you were just a thrill seeker."
"I'm not," I told her, "well, you could say I am, but officially I'm a pokémon hunter. I go look for pokémon for other people. And somebody asked me to find a red Gyarados."
"Do you think there really is such a thing?" she asked almost instantaneously.
Too instantaneously, I thought, she knew something.
"I've seen pictures."
"Pictures can be forged," she shot back.
Again, too fast.
"You know something, don't you?"
"Wh… what do you mean?"
"What's so special about this Gyarados, except the colour?"
"I don't know what you're talk…"
"Don't bullshit me," I cut her off, "I can feel you know something about it, and now I want to know all about it. Tell me."
"Fine," she sighed, "but not here. Meet me tonight in the ladies restroom at twelve o'clock."
I nodded as she turned and left my room. I had no idea what was so special about that Gyarados, but since she reacted like there was more to it, I had become intrigued. I was just planning on capturing it, but now there was more to it, I wanted to know what it was. All I had to do was wait until midnight and go to the ladies restroom.
"Wow, you really went into the ladies restroom?" Brock almost drooled.
Tony gave him a worried look.
"Get a grip, man."
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AN: Sorry about the lack of updates, but I've started on a new project, and made a decent buffer for this story. But my next update will be a lot sooner. In the mean time, if any of you have any ideas I could work into the story, let me know, I'll do my best.