Chapter 2.5- All Aboard the S.S. Mantine! Part Two!
"Here Babe, feeling better yet?" Nathan asked his best friend soothingly while he caressed her back and handed her more tissues.
Natalie nodded softly as he wrapped on arms around her, and she rested her head against his right shoulder. They sat on their side of the battlefield, waiting until the blood pouring out of Natalie's nose finally froze stagnant. Julie and Brian avoided each other's eyes, trying not to shout out the obvious to the two oblivious teenagers in front of them. The four chattered for the next fifteen minutes, waiting for Natalie to heal and Jigglypuff to finally come out of her mini coma.
"Alright, I'm fine now. Thanks a lot Nathan, I believe it's time for your battle with Brian. Battle of the grass types…" Natalie commented as she stood up and wiped away the remnants of the blood from her nose with her hand.
Julie gave a small smile and pat on the back to Brian who stepped up to his part of the battlefield with a nervous Sunkern by his side. Sunkern pursed her tiny mouth tight and slowly hopped forward, keeping her eyes on the large vine pokemon in front of her. All the pokemon she ever fought were weak like Ratatta or buzzed like that Aipom from the heavy metal concert. Tangela would be the first real challenge she ever had. Meanwhile, the vine pokemon simply smirked to herself, not worried at all since she did inherit her trainer's over confidence.
"Bring it on Shorty! Don't know what Carrot Top over there sees in you…" Tangela taunted, drawing out a lone, teal vine and pointing it at herself.
"The only reason Surfer over there likes you is because he's into bondage!" the seed pokemon responded, giving herself a tiny boost of confidence. Brian smiled at the two pokemon, wondering what absolutely wonderful and pleasant things they were saying to each other, and looked down at his own Sunkern before kneeling down to her ear.
"All right Sunkern, here we go! First official battle… we've practiced pretty damn fiercely enough to make little Timmy's hat turn in its rocky prison! All right, Absorb and Mega Drain may be our only attacks now, but we also have Growth on our hands! Power up and then all out, that's our strategy! Hmm, wonder what this I-Poke thing has to say about Tangela…"
Sunkern gave an assuring nod to her trainer, who in turn pointed the tiny device of wonders at the opposing pokemon, after pressing the wrong button multiple times. A holographic image of a Tangela immediately projected forward from the I-Poke's screen and at the same monotonous voice began to speak once more.
"Tangela, the grass pokemon. This pokemon is famous for being one of the few grass pokemon who rely on powerful physical abilities (namely their vines) and has no evolutions or pre-evolutions. This one is currently at level sixteen and knows Constrict, Sleep Powder, and Vine Whip.
"Hey! It's that I-Poke Mini thing that you were telling me about earlier! Wow, it is such a technological innovation! I can't wait to get my mother to buy me one yet again for Christmas!" Nathan cried out with the same blank and rehearsed expression and voice Chuck had earlier. The three humans and four pokemon gave him an odd look for a few seconds, before looking back to the battlefield.
Sunkern and Tangela gazed at each other warily, anxiously awaiting for the first orders…
"VINE WHIP!"
"DODGE AND ABSORB!"
Tangela immediately clamped her eyes shut and shot forward two thick teal vines at the seed pokemon. Sunkern inhaled a good deal of air, puffing up her tiny chest and preparing to make her first move. She stood adamantly on the ground until the thick vines were only a few inches and a split second away from her. Right before they struck her, she hopped a few inches up into the air and leaned toward the right. Tangela's eyes narrowed in annoyance, considering it an insult that the seed pokemon could think she could escape the attack by simply jumping. The vine pokemon redirected her vines toward the right to finish the job, however, Sunkern giggled like usual and changed direction mid-air to the left.
"I hear surfing makes you lose brain cells!"
As Sunkern fell safely to ground left of the vines, Tangela lost control of her attack which kept on speeding to the right and couldn't change direction. The seed pokemon took advantage of this and began to use her Absorb attack. Standing very still, she closed her eyes gracefully and began to glow a light green shade. The light then began to surround the struggling Tangela as well. Tangela stopped trying to pull her vines in and temporarily looked at the dim light surrounding her before shrugging it off and going back to her internal struggle. Tiny bubbles of the same green color began to pop out and drift away from the vine pokemon and toward Sunkern, but they disappeared before they even floated two feet! Both Brian and his pokemon stood in disbelief at the failure of the attack while Nathan and his own pokemon just stood and laughed.
"Pssh, come on Brian I thought you were smarter than that. Grass attacks have very little effect on other Grass pokemon. You Phail!" Nathan commented.
"Have you been surfing, Shorty?"
Sunkern scowled at her opponent, and Brian began to scratch the side of his head vigorously, something he did whenever he thought particularly hard. Out of the blue, Tangela's vines finally stopped in mid-air and immediately swept toward Sunkern once more, this time with the auxiliary of a third vine. Brian immediately stopped thinking and decided to go with his gut and first instinct.
"Mega Drain!"
Sunkern screwed her eyes tightly in concentration, and the light surrounding her grew much larger to a bright yellow color, making her look like a tiny little sun. The same light surrounded Tangela once more, but it made little difference as all three vines came crashing into the seed pokemon! The four trainers let out a groan of pain as Sunkern struggled to get up once more, three bright red marks now on her chest. Tangela let her vines droop to the floor as she huffed and puffed; controlling three fifteen feet long vines going nearly fifteen m.p.h was no easy feat. Sunkern brought herself to full height, huffing and puffing as well. She stared at the cocky pokemon, who raised the tips of her vines toward herself, with burning disdain. There was no way she was about to let Brian down.
"SUNKERRRN!"
Though she didn't officially know the attack, Sunkern launched herself with considerable speed toward her opponent in a full blown tackle. Time seemed to slow down as Sunkern sped through the air, defying the taunts of all of her greatest critics. Julie and Natalie's eyes slowly followed the little yellow blur while Brian's fist circled in the air as he encouraged his pokemon. Nathan let out his hand and cried out the typical "Nooooo!" as the speedy Sunkern made contact with his wide-eyed Tangela…
She bounced off.
"Damn you Nature!"
Time immediately went back to normal as Sunkern struggled to stand once more after being knocked back from the excessive force of her own attack. Nathan struggled to command an attack while laughing his head off, but Tangela was also too busy to obey, rolling around the battlefield in a fit of laughter. Sunkern and Brian had turned a similar shade of crimson as they slowly shook in their spots. The seed pokemon turned to face her trainer who nodded back at her. No one laughed at them and gets away with it!
"Ok Sunkern, no more playing around! I have a plan; I want you to dodge all of Tangela's attacks and every single time you get even a split second of safety, use Growth! Keep this until that overgrown weed gets exhausted!" Brian commanded, with his eyes stone cold with anger and his finger quivering at Nathan and Tangela.
"Calm down Brian, yeesh! It's just a battle ya know!" Nathan said, looking worried at the looks of anger on the two opponents faces, though nowhere close to Natalie's rage against Julie. "Oh, and I have a plan as well! Tangela, bring Sunkern close to you! Don't care how, just do it!"
"Who are you calling a weed, Carrot Top?"
Tangela got up to her feet at once and stared at Sunkern who was flashing light green with a Growth attack. Rolling her eyes at the puny pokemon's attempts to be big and strong, Tangela shot off several vines toward the seed pokemon, in hopes of carrying out her trainer's orders and bring the enemy close. Grinning broadly, Sunkern leaped over the vines and hopped all around the battlefield, avoiding Tangela's vines which steadily increased in number and occasionally flashing light green with a Growth attack whenever she got the chance.
While this continued, Julie and Natalie began to talk to each other. They were no longer by their male friends but rather sitting together in the center of the right side of the battlefield with their pokemon, watching the battle from up close. Machop laid down on his stomach and watched the battle with his fists on his cheeks while Jigglypuff was awake and flaring, though struggling to get out of her trainer's arms to give Machop a nice slap for beating her in battle.
"This is a pretty good battle, though it will only be better than ours if Tangela 'accidentally' hits Nathan in the face with all those vines. I have no idea who'll win. What do you think their plans are?" Natalie asked.
Tangela was still chasing Sunkern with her vines, still standing in the same spot she started the battle in. Though exhausted from the constant motion all around her, she somehow managed to release more and more vines while Sunkern managed to jump over each and every one of them, managing to find time to sneak in a quick Growth attack as well.
"Growth powers up special attacks like Mega Drain right? Brian is definitely powering his attacks up. I have a bad idea about Tangela though…. Nathan wants Sunkern up close, and I think I know why," Julie replied.
"You beat her Tangela! And then cream that ugly fish-headed moron for beating me!" Jigglypuff screamed.
Machop gave Jigglypuff another leering eye and the balloon pokemon twitched in her trainers arms out of fear. "Sunkern, you have it in you! I'll understand if you want to lose because you don't want to face a strong pokemon like me..."
Sunkern smirked while dodging eight of Tangela's thick blue vines and flashing a strong green shade sporadically. When Sunkern jumped onto one of the vines and jumped to the right, Tangela's instinct proved correct as a strong ninth vine came hurtling through the arena and knocked Sunkern out of the air and onto the ground. All nine vines swooped downward toward Sunkern and struck her. The seed pokemon winced horribly at the painful blow, but it wasn't over as two of the vines wrapped around Sunkern tight while the other seven flew back into the main bramble.
"You should have taken Machop's advice!"
"Ah crap!" Brian moaned, trying to think if Sunkern would be able to get out of this situation as well.
"Oh yeah! Now Tangela, bring Sunkern face to face!" Nathan commanded with a big white grin. Tangela pulled Sunkern in closely when Sunkern closed her eyes tightly in coordination with Brian's command.
"MEGA DRAIN!"
Tangela's entire body was blinded by the bright yellow light and a sphere of energy roughly half the size of the vine pokemon herself came toward Sunkern and replenished nearly a sixth of her stamina. The pokemon's eyes widened as she saw the big chunk of energy Sunkern absorbed from her. Immediately, her endurance took a sharp fall and her vines collapsed along with bonded Sunkern, who was now only a few feet away from Tangela and still draining energy.
"Wow, all that growing sure helped. Looks like this battle is over," Natalie grumbled. Machop was rooting Sunkern on while Natalie struggled to hold an inflated cheeked Jigglypuff.
"It is over, but not for whom you think," Julie moaned with her face in her hands.
"Send Sunkern to where Greg and Slowpoke are!" Nathan ordered with a look of determination. Tangela's energy was diminishing fast, but somehow, along with another large sphere of energy, she released a cloud of green powder. Sleep Powder. Sunkern plopped asleep on the floor before she could even take in the life energy.
Tangela was released from the sooped up Mega Drain attack and sighed. She had little energy left, but was determined to finish the battle off. "Tangela, give it all you got!" Nathan commanded with his blue eyes shining brightly. It would all be over soon.
Tangela released about six vines and brought them to her right side, constricting them and combining them into one thick club like vine. Brian bit his lower lip hard and squinted, unable to watch the sight. With a great heave, Tangela swung the vines straight at Sunkern like a baseball! If it was baseball, Tangela would have definitely hit a home run as Sunkern soared across the battlefield, landing right at her trainer's feet, awakened by the blow and with her eyes swirling.
"Looks like you won. Oh well, it was a great battle. Is your Tangela okay?" Brian asked rather quickly, before even picking up his pokemon. His brown eyes were looking away from everyone. This was his first battle ever, and he lost. There would be other battles he knew that, but there was just something special about the first one.
"I suppose, those last Mega Drains did do a little damage though! And….my goodness! Stop looking so sad! You and Natalie take battling waaay too seriously, and that's why you guys lose! Yeesh!" Nathan yelped upon seeing the dejected look on his opponent's face.
Brian immediately looked up self-consciously and gave a rather phony grin and thumbs up while Sunkern began to stir from being knocked out. The other three also gave phony laughter in response. The poor losing boy immediately felt a little better as he laughed with everyone else about losing. After all, the only person who should feel bad was Sunkern, who was rather sore from getting clubbed by all those vines. She finally woke up, very groggy though. The two losers exchanged a small smile that said, "Yeah we lost, but it's cool!"
"So yeah, I think we should take a nice long break before Nathan and I go at it. Don't want to have too many battles at once and can't leave Greg by himself for too long. Alright with you guys?" Julie commented, breaking the rather tense mood among the four. Everyone nodded in agreement and walked toward the exit, prattling and behaving like normal teenagers once more.
When they turned to leave the room for their respite from battling, they heard the door open and slam fiercely from upstairs, while someone or something repeatedly banged it over and over. Then, the person entering the room revealed himself as Greg as he scurried downstairs with an unfazed Slowpoke by his side. At last, the pounding on the door ceased, but the lummox and his bitch were still panting heavily. Clearly, they needed to run a bit more rather than sitting at home and watching old episodes of Baywatch.
"T-t-here you guys are! Thanks for drugging and abandoning me jerks! I could have been raped you know!" Greg huffed, giving his bear pokemon a rather disgruntled glare. Before one of the abandoners/druggers could respond, Greg started to talk once more upon seeing the pokemon all worn out. "What the hell happened here? Did you guys battle without me? UGG! You guys missed out you know! Slowpoke and I here would have kicked all your butts! Give a roar Slowpoke!"
"Slow…" With one great yawn, Slowpoke shut his eyes and snuggled himself back to a deep slumber, leaving a fuming Greg, laughing Brian and Julie, and confused Nathan and Natalie.
"Yes Greg, I'm sure you and your Slowpoke would have cleaned the floor with us, look at that big scary face! We couldn't possibly stand up to you two since you guys are waaay out of our league! Anyway, Julie took on Natalie and won while I took on Nathan and…" Brian trailed off. Greg looked at the bruised Sunkern in horror and then moved his eyes up to the smirking Tangela before giving Brian a nice slap upside the head.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! HOW COULD YOU LOSE AGAINST GHETTO SURFER CONFUSED STEREOTYPE DUDE OVER THERE! YOU MUST BE HORRIBLE!" Greg roared while Brian just rolled his eyes. Putting his hands in his hair in rage to find his best friend defeated by his big pimpin' rival, the blonde boy walked in circles while everyone waited for him to do something stupid. He stopped in front of a flustered Nathan, beet red with fury. "You and me, RIGHT NOW! Brian only lost because he's a little sissy stapistics ana….OWW!"
Everyone gazed in shock at the sight they saw. Upon Greg calling him a sissy, Brian drove his fist into Greg's cheek, knocking him to the ground and now stood over him with his dangerous smile burning the air around him. "I may be a 'sissy stapistics analist', Greg, but please remember, that this sissy stapistics analist can also kick your ass!"
Julie grinned and gave Brian a thumb up for not taking crap from Greg, though it wasn't exactly a huge accomplishment to beat Greg down. Despite getting kicked to the ground, Greg stood up calmly and quietly brushed the dirt off his side, pretending nothing had happened. "So, what do you say Nathan?"
"Ehh, I dunno. My Tangela's a bit tired from the battle with Sunkern…" Nathan started, but he was stopped by his Tangela, who raised her vine and nodded, signaling she wanted to battle. Giving Slowpoke a particularly hard kick in the side, Greg and his pokemon walked to the battlefield with Nathan and Tangela. The other three remained at the stairs, knowing the battle wouldn't last too long.
"What are we doing?" Slowpoke droned as he looked lazily around the battlefield that he was dimly aware of standing on.
"We're battling so get ready ya dimwit!" the vine pokemon snapped from the other side of the battlefield. She really was exhausted from the previous battle, but didn't have a problem with finishing up this battle to protect her trainer's honor from the stupid boy with the tendency to get beat up. Slowpoke growled at her insult and got into the partial battling mood once more.
"All right Lummox, use your Water Gun attack!" Greg commanded confidently, as he pulled a tube of gel from his pocket and began to apply it to the front of his hair. Nathan opened his mouth to give an order, but Tangela was way ahead of him and already drew her vines out to quickly end this. Slowpoke opened his mouth nice and wide to release a foaming pillar of water, but before he could release the attack, Tangela shot her vines forward and wrapped them around the bear pokemon's mouth.
Like a scene from a cartoon, Slowpoke's mouth began to fill up with an immense amount of water, unable to escape from the binds of Tangela's vines. His cheeks slowly inflated as the water began to quickly and painfully stretch the pink flesh and threatened to make it explode! Finally, Slowpoke's tire sized cheeks could no longer hold any of the water and shot off with a great deal of pressure across the battlefield and into the wall safely away from Tangela and Nathan, leaving a drenched streak across the tiles and a rather foreboding crack on the wall of the ship. With the great force of the attack, Slowpoke backfired straight into Greg and now lay unconscious over his struggling trainer. While poor Greg struggled to get his behemoth of a pokemon off of him once more, Nathan and Tangela simply walked off, smiling at their second victory in ten minutes.
"We'll be upstairs now Gregory! You and Slowpoke play nice now!" Julie yelled as everyone else went upstairs, leaving their squashed friend behind. Greg cursed his sister as she walked off and continued his odyssey to escape the blubbery confines of his Slowpoke. When all hope seemed to be lost, he finally saw the grumpy sailor with the Fearow approaching him, with his rotting yellow teeth bared.
"Woah! Someone drank a bit too much coffee… Could you help me out, Mr. Ugly?" Greg requested, demonstrating his amazing disability of detecting people's dispositions.
The grumpy sailor gave a huge snarl and kicked the Slowpoke off of Greg with his hefty right calf and then pulled up Greg to full height by the newly created spikes in his hair. The idiotic boy still remained serenely unaware of the sailor's anger as he gave him a tiny thank you and began to walk off, before feeling a powerful grip on his shoulder. Greg turned around, ready to explain to the sailor that he had some ladies to try and hit, but instead, got pulled up by the man by his collar and right into his face. They were face to face now, terrified boy and ugly old man. The sailor's yellow tinted eyes quivered down at Greg, who tried to look away from the numerous lines and scars on the man's face. Finally, he moved his chapped lips and sprayed a good deal of sour spit and foul breath into his victim's face as he spoke.
"You stupid little kid, look at what you did!" He turned Greg mid-air to face the drenched battlefield and marched toward the crack in the wall, displaying a good deal of power as he still held a choking Greg high in the air by his shirt collar. "I have to mop this goddamn floor, and do you see that crack? The ship could have gotten a hole and sunk! Do you want us all to die? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?"
Greg shuddered in fear as his face was bathed in the grumpy sailor's spit. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that the other battlers in the room also stared in horror, ready for the insane sailor to pull out a chainsaw and start harvesting body parts. This truly was not a good day for Greg at all. "With all due respect, Sir, it was that pretty boy Nathan who ordered the attack that caused this huge me-"
"SHUT UP!"
Greg gave a painful groan as his head cracked against the floor when the crazy old sailor threw him down. He began to growl maniacally as he slowly cracked his knuckles and gave a nod to the Fearow flying besides him. The bird pokemon gave a menacing caw and immediately dive bombed toward the poor boy and his Slowpoke.
"OWW! What the heck is wrong with you! Ow! Ow!" Greg cried as the Fearow repeatedly jabbed him with his beak. As Greg struggled to get up to his feet, the bird then moved on the attacking the unconscious Slowpoke. After numerous pecks and bruises, the boy and his bear managed to get into a full fledged sprint and ran for their lives from the grumpy old man and his equally insane Fearow. At last, they reached the door which the quickly opened slammed it, right in the bird pokemon's face.
"Fearow…"
Greg gave a proud grin to himself and his Slowpoke as they surveyed the clear imprint of a squashed bird on the door. Turning around, he heard Brian calling out to him; he was standing with Sunkern on his shoulder at the edge of the nearest bookcase, clearly waiting for Greg.
"Bought time, it took you long enough. I assume from all the screaming I heard that you must have gotten attacked again?" Brian asked with a small smile. Greg nodded solemnly and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, it must be cause I'm so sexeh. Anyway, what are we gonna do now? Wanna go hit on those chicks over there? It would pretty nice if you got yourself a nice girlie for the journey since there is no way in hell you're going to get with Julie…"
"Keep it in your pants Greg! Nathan and Natalie went their own separate ways and now Julie is waiting for us in a couch back there. Let's go!" Brian hissed exasperatedly as he marched away with Sunkern on his shoulder. Greg scoffed at Brian's attitude and ran up toward him.
"Okay Brian, what's going on? In case you haven't noticed, you've been getting colder and colder toward me! We used to be the best of friends and now you're only friends with my sister while you guys treat me like some third wheel! Remember when we were partners in crime? What happened to that? Please tell me!" Greg snarled as he jumped in front of Brian and wouldn't let him forward. His red-haired friend gave a sigh of annoyance and rolled his eyes before snarling himself.
"I grew up Greg! I'm not some damn horny middle schooler like you still are! Yes, maybe I'm a little boring and a little sissy, but you know what? At least I'm not the laughing stock of the school, and I don't embarrass everyone around me by acting like some dorky five year old with a hormones of a sixteen year old!" Brian yelled, flushing crimson and causing people to look at him. Greg flushed as well and looked as if he wanted nothing better than to give Brian a nice punch in the face, but instead, just scoffed and marched on. The two walked forward silently, while Sunkern looked down at her trainer and one of his greatest friends, wondering why things between them were so turbulent.
They found Julie on a coach rummaging through her pack, looking intently for an item. It was then Brian finally realized he never looked at what his Mom packed for him, and horrible images of little frilly shirts and short shorts that went above his knees and worse of all, tighty whities flooded his mind! Immediately throwing his hiker backpack sized pack onto the couch, he searched through it, content that she just chose random regular clothes from his drawers. Along with a few pairs of clothes, he also saw some pokemon medicines (fresh from the PokeCenter), a compass, small snacks, a few guide books, and most interestingly, a white box and envelope marked "To Brian."
"Heya Brian! I found it! I bought your uncle, Bruno's, guide for beginner battlers! I know I got all battling strategies and basics pretty much covered, but this has some more interesting facts and things that might be useful to us later on," Julie prattled as she picked up a hefty magazine sized book with a big grinning picture of Brian's most famous relative, Bruno, member of the Elite Four.
"Oh come on Julie. You know he didn't write it; a bunch of nerdy journalists who have never seen daylight put it together from the information in old, copyrighted guides and then just stuck a big picture of Bruno on it. Anyway, check this out!" He showed Julie and Greg the white envelope and package before tearing open the envelope, revealing a letter inside.
Dear Son,
It is none other than I, your father! Yes, we talked on the phone the night before you left, but I told Jolene to put this in your pack as a surprise! I repeat yet again that I am really sorry I couldn't make it to see you embark on your journey. I'm still in Hoenn helping out your cousin Brawly with his new gym in Lilycove, and I can't get a ship out of here for another couple of months because of that incident in Mt. Pyre… It was always my dream to see you replace your Uncle Chuck has fighting pokemon gym leader, but it's all right kiddo! In fact, I think there are way too many fighting pokemon trainers in our family. Well, enough of that, we went over that about a million times since you got that little Sunkern. I'm sure your Uncle Chuck and your dear mother (she was a very good trainer back in the day you know?) told you all that you need, so I'll end this letter short. You train that Sunkern good; if she doesn't win at least five badges, I promise I'll feed her to my Heracross! Also, in the attached package are fifteen specialized pokeballs. You better share them with Julie and Greg. I'll be in the Whirl Islands sometime for a little event. Good luck!
Sincerely,
Marcus Arganaut
P.S.: Please remember my words of advice. Stay out of gangs, don't do drugs, and for the love of God, DON'T GET A GIRL PREGNANT!
"Emphasis on that last part Brian!" Greg snorted.
Brian gave a hearty chuckle at his father's humor. He sincerely missed him, but if the letter was correct, it wouldn't be too long before he saw him again. One of the big things about going to the Whirl Islands was not seeing his parents, but considering how he only saw his dad a few times in the past three years, it wouldn't be so terrible to see his father once more. Greg went to open the package that contained Pokeballs eagerly, but was stopped by his dear twin sister. After quickly shredding off the paper and opening the lid, Brian stared in astonishment at the ensemble of multicolored pokeballs.
"Holy crap! Your dad knows a good journey present! Look at all these! There's four normal balls, two great balls, four lure balls, two heavy balls, two love balls, and a friend ball!" Julie squealed as she grabbed one of the light blue lure balls. Greg and Brian gave her a blank look for spurting out that much information so quickly. "What? Greg and I went to Azalea Town last summer, that's where Kurt is!"
Brian smiled and put the package back into his pack, thanking his father under his breath for his generosity. The three got up and enjoyed the leisure of the boat for the next few hours from playing arcade games, to creaming everyone in Pool (which Greg and Brian were masters at), to talking to fellow classmates about what they would do in the journey. Halfway through, Julie parted ways with the guys to hang out with her fellow female friends, most prominently Melissa, the girl with the Shellder. Sunkern and Machop obediently followed their masters wherever they went and socialized with other pokemon, while poor Slowpoke still stood by the door to the Battle Room, completely forgotten by Greg and indifferently ignored by passerby. How he longed for tater tots…
"THE SHIP HAS NOW ARRIVED IN OLIVINE CITY PORT! PLEASE MAKE ROOM FOR THE NEW PASSANGERS!"
This announcement boomed throughout the entire ship and immediately caught the attention of the trio. Ten minutes later, they reunited along with Nathan and Natalie by the Battle Room door, finally catching sight of blissfully sleeping Slowpoke as well. Greg had managed to not hit on a single feminine shaped species for the entire break period and had loads of fun with Brian being slightly normal for once; besides the instance he started punching the ghosts on the Pacman screen of course.
"Yeah, we gotta finish up this little tourney before all those inlanders take up all the space!" Nathan stated. Everyone nodded, and then the two finalists gazed at each other briefly. "Good luck to you Julie! You're going to need it!"
"Luck? Luck is for novices? Good luck to you though!"
Nathan gave a wry smile as the five of them walked down to the Battle Room together. This time the Normal Battlefield was occupied, but the Grass Field was devoid of any annoying trainers and beckoned Tangela forward. Machop and Julie frowned; Tangela would have an advantage in the battle if the field was of her element. Sunkern also frowned at the grassy battlefield; she would have easily blended into the dying yellowish-green grasses that the whole field was rife with, but, alas, she lost. She wondered if her trainer was disappointed in her but was more worried at the possibility of Machop losing to the overgrown weed…
Brian, Greg, and Natalie sat in the edge of the battlefield's middle, eager to see Julie and Nathan dish it out. The actual combatants took their proper positions in the battlefield; Machop constantly ripping apart the skin of his legs which itched furiously upon contact with the tall grasses, and Tangela rolling around in the grass which had no effect on her whatsoever. The fighting pokemon growled at his opponent's physical taunting and decided to do a little name calling of his own.
"Yo Weedy! Tell your Momma I left the twenty bucks on the kitchen counter!"
"And you tell your Momma she's the finest Gyarados I ever wrapped in my vines!" Tangela responded, grinning behind the vast cover of vines.
"Where do you think I got my big muscles and power from?"
"And your dragon breath…"
The two would have gone on even longer about each other's mothers (who are probably dead now, Mew rest their souls…), but unfortunately, their trainers began to issue commands.
"Alright Tangy! Let's finish this up quickly, so Julie doesn't have to suffer. Vine Whip it with all you got!" Nathan ordered lazily. He was rather overconfident to a win lying ahead.
"Stand there and use Focus Energy until I give further orders!" Julie retaliated with the air of a commander to a private.
Machop returned to his typical battle stance with his left palm raised and his right foot kept back, shutting his eyes tightly and started to focus all of his energy into the palm. A fiery scarlet and orange aura began to circle and rotate around his palm until it began to slowly seep inside of the glowing white hand. Meanwhile, Tangela had launched three of her turquoise vines forward, ready to bring down the stupid Machop who fantasized about her mother. A sweat drop slowly inched down Julie's left temple; would Machop's attack be able to complete quickly enough to deflect Tangela's vines?
"Karate Chop!" She shouted smoothly and briskly.
In a typical clichéd manner, Machop chopped the vines down with his palm just when their tips were about to strike his chest. For a moment, they dangled helplessly in midair as Machop still stood in his striking pose. The vine pokemon winced painfully as she struggled to pull back the bruised vines that now drooped on the floor, but Machop wasn't about to let her get off scotch free when he had the clear advantage. Snarling madly, he pounced on the clump of vines and clutched them tightly in his grip. Tangela ran back quickly, desperately trying to get her vines out of his deadly clutches.
"Tangela! Get your vines out of there right now! Send some other vines too!"
But Tangela was too anxious and busy trying to pull in his already armed vines to listen to or obey Nathan's order. Machop slowly got to his feet and, with an evil grin on his face, began to pull in the vines as if it were a game of Tug-of-War. He could barely see Tangela because of the thick grass, but it mattered not because he could tell where he was from the pull of his vines. Finally, Tangela gave up and stopped his effort, leaving him fatally open.
"Get her!" Julie declared savagely.
Extending his evil grin even more, Machop flicked his wrist upward, bringing the vines and vine pokemon upward with his hand. Tangela let out a tiny yelp as Machop pulled him high into the air by her vines in a perfect arc. Upon reaching the zenith of the toss, the grass pokemon fidgeted and shook violently, hoping somehow he would avoid the painful impact…
"TANGELA!"
Everyone groaned as Tangela painfully crashed onto Machop's other side. Not willing to let her off that easily, the fighting pokemon continued to throw her back and forth by her vines over his head, like a scene from a cartoon. While this continued, the pathetic losers watched from the sidelines, shifting their eyes left and right, following Tangela's impacts. Natalie bit her lip, worrying that her best friend might lose. On the other hand, Brian and Greg were smiling and cheering Machop and Julie on.
"Jeeze, that Tangela's easier than I thought! How bad are you Brian?" Greg commented as Tangela continued to smash into the ground.
"Not that bad. Just wait till Machop gets a whiff of Sleep Powder," Brian responded. Sunkern frowned at Greg from her trainer's shoulder.
"I don't think Julie or Machop realizes this, but Tangela is retreating her vines and is drawing herself closer to Machop each time he swings," Natalie pointed out. She was right; the intervals between Tangela's smashes were getting shorter, and her vines weren't as long as they were before. Jigglypuff, Sunkern, and Slowpoke also yelled their encouragements to the two fighters.
"You can do it Tangela!" Jigglypuff shouted, leering at Machop dangerously.
"Don't let my loss go in vain Machop! WHIP HER ASS!"
"TA-TER TOTS! TA-TER TOTS!"
Julie finally noticed what Natalie was pointing out earlier, but Machop was getting too cocky and continued to lazily smash Tangela back and forth, ignorant to the evil grin that Tangela now wore. It was too late.
"Oh shi..."
The fighting pokemon finally caught sight of his enemy hanging only a few feet directly overhead, eyes closed tightly in concentration as a small cloud of green powder burst from her vines, engulfing Machop. Immediately, Machop released Tangela from his grip and started to cough and hack, covered his nose, and even ran around in circles, desperate not to fall asleep. But Tangela's attack proved to be too powerful as his running began to slow down and his hand slid off his nose. His eyes began to droop, despite his struggles to keep them open.
"That's what your mother looked liked last night!" Tangela snidely commented, panting and heaving as she eyed a spread-eagled, knocked out Machop sprawled face down on the floor. She knew she only had a limited amount of time before the powder wore off and her opponent would be at large again. Though her entire body ached incredibly and her vines felt like they could easily just fall off, she had to attack!
Tangela, unable to use her vines, rammed her entire body into Machop several times, groaning each time. Still heaving and panting, her entire body was drenched with a thin green liquid which was perceived by the others to be plant sweat. As she continued to attack, she began to wince more and more painfully while Machop barely even shifted from his spot!
"Wait a sec, is that a Struggle attack?" Brian asked.
"What's that?" Greg asked.
"Struggle is a move pokemon use when they can't use any other moves. Tangela's vines were severely hurt in my Machop's last attack, and she can't use them anymore. Also, there's no point in using Sleep Powder, so she has to use Struggle! It's not very strong, but takes stamina out of the pokemon using it too!" Julie yelled. Even though she tried hiding the fact she was smart, she loved being a walking fountain of information as well.
"Tangela! Don't worry. It's okay; you don't have to keep hurting yourself!" Nathan pleaded with his pokemon. Tangela shook her blue head and rammed into Machop one more time before finally collapsing. Machop finally began to stir and woke up. He rubbed his eyes and sore side, noting Tangela laying facing down on the hard floor. He flipped her over to see swirls replacing her eyes. He won.
Brian and Greg immediately got to their feet and chest banged each other, whooping and cheering for Julie's victory while Natalie rolled her eyes and walked over to Nathan with her baby face "Sowwy" look.
"I guess you won Julie…" Nathan mumbled. He failed to avoid everyone's gazes and instead let the whole room see his watering crystal-colored eyes and quivering lips.
He began to turn away, and everyone around him heard small sobs and cries while his hands began to wipe something away from his cheeks. Brian's look of victory faded away into concern, while Greg's smile just turned brighter and larger.
"Oh, wittle Surfer Thug going to cry now?" Greg mocked in a babyish voice. Natalie flicked him off.
Julie began staring at her feet and walked up to Nathan, whose sobbing became steadily louder and louder. "I am so sorry Nathan. I shouldn't have let Machop be so rough…" Julie said quietly.
Nathan's sobs became extremely audible, reaching the point of huge bawling, and other people in the Battle Room turned to look. Kids in Johto weren't really taught to mind their own business unfortunately. Then, his sobs began to change sounds. He was completely hysterical. Laughing hysterically. He turned to face them and began to really cry guffawing. "Oh man, you guys actually believed that? So I have one loss, big deal! I bet that's what Julie would have done, big lot of cry babies… Gosh, you people are so gullible," Nathan cackled, holding his stomach as he continued to laugh hysterically.
The looks of pity around him changed into looks of disgust and annoyance, though Greg looked rather disappointed. Natalie walked up with her black eyes narrowed in disgust and began to slap her best friend silly.
"Don't you ever do that again! You made us all look like fools!" Natalie screamed over his yelps of pain.
Nathan ran out the door with his best friend chasing after him. Jigglypuff walked up to Tangela, who was still laying face up and began to poke her. Tangela shook her body, refusing to get up out of misery for her loss, until Jigglypuff put the microphone to her mouth. Only then did Tangela jump on her feet and ran to the door.
"So, kill time?" Brian asked the twins. They nodded and called their pokemon back.
The battles were at last over, and it was determined Julie and Machop were the best of them all as of this point. During the final battle, the five trainers failed to notice the grumpy old sailor who was standing next to the crack Slowpoke's Water Gun made on the wall. His Fearow was perched limply on his right shoulder, beak bandaged and gauzed meticulously from the little smashing into the door incident. Tracing his pudgy finger along the crack of the wall, he began to laugh hoarsely before pulling out a small grey remote control, with a single, foreboding red button right in the center. Gently rubbing the button with his finger now, he looked around, making sure no sailors were around.
"Only a matter of time…"