Chapter 7: A Terrible Pokemon Trainer
(From the perspective of the human, Lilac)
I don't like the way that Mightyena is looking at me; I know he's planning something involving me that I won't like, but he'd wait till after we beat this mystery lady before trying anything, of course then Kitsune would be free to deal with what ever plan he's… who am I fooling? This lady is probably some sort of unbeatable assassin and I'm just some girl who let's herself be pushed around by her Pokemon, the victory here will be completely Kitsune's — Well maybe the Mightyena will deserve some credit too.
I know I should say something, try to get out of this without a fight but nothing came into my mind, there was just something out-of-place about the whole situation that made it seem scarier… I could see no motive for her trying to spark new conflict between Team Aqua and Magma, as seemed to be her goal from what she said back at the Pokemon centre, a gang war would just harm both teams and everyone else in Hoenn. Sure it might allow Team Rocket to start up operations here but it just didn't feel like that was what she wanted, meaning the real reason must be buried deep in my subconscious.
The Lady, still sitting upon her Rapidash, grabbed her hooded robe, ripping it off and tossing it high into the air revealing herself: her shoulder length hair looked like it had been dyed with blood; her eyes were completely black, which would only be possible with specialized contact lenses; her body was slim but didn't look too weak; and she was wearing what looked like some sort of black swimsuit with a black leather belt with two Poke Balls attached to it as well as various odd looking…
Kitsune pushed me to the ground next to the Mightyena, shocking him as much as me, and her all nine of her tails began to glow a bright white. Iron tail, a technique not easily learnt, making the fact Kitsune was using it that much more impressive.
I looked up into the air, catching a glimpse of the black robe being ripped to shreds as a shower of white needles poured from the sky, before Kitsune's white tails blocked my view as they were sung round to make shield to protect us.
I heard the sound of the needles hitting the iron tail shield that was protecting all three of us, just before I heard the needles hitting the ground around us. As comforting as it was beneath Kitsune's shield, I was worried… She was going out of her way to protect someone who wanted her dead, what made it worse was that I had a feeling that doing such a thing wasn't what she was used to.
I risked a glance at the surrounding scenery: The grass had been shredded, as had most other plants in the area
"That must be a first, Iron Tail being used as a defensive technique," the lady insulted the very use of method of defense that had just saved my life, "it's insane to waste such a perfectly good offensive technique to protect your lives when it'd been a quick painless death if you didn't and now you'll end up dying a slow painful one… odd how you must of signaled her to do that, yet I didn't pick up your command at all, truly such signals are never used by normal trainers.
There was a clunk as a smoking metal device hit the ground, without doubt it was what shredded the robe and shot those needles. I could see that it wouldn't have been possible for a human to see that sort of sneak attack coming, everyone is too used to every else using Pokemon for combat and villains only throwing off an outfit to make themselves look impressive (And ultimately too vain to be a real threat).
A large piece of black fabric slowly drifted down; only as intact as it was because it was on the other side of the device when it went off.
She grabbed one of her Poke Balls and tossed at the ground between us.
"Go, Katar. Kill the girl at any cost. Make sure to give her Pokemon a slow painful death after you've killed her as you still need to harden your heart a bit," she commanded as the Poke ball opened releasing a blurry red glow that faded as it took the form of an average looking absol, though I couldn't remember whether absol were meant to have yellow eyes like this one did.
"Hey, I'm the one who's meant to be going straight for killing the opposing trainer," Kitsune whined, most likely upset that someone had copied a strategy that she considered her own, and as disconcerting as her admitting that she thinks that attacking trainers is the correct way of winning a battle would be in any other circumstances. Well it still scared me a bit anyway.
The absol charged towards me, Kitsune charged towards him, both focusing entirely on each other, watching for any little mistake that'd let them past the other or deliver a quick and deadly strike…
"Wow," Katar, the absol, suddenly exclaimed stopping on the spot, giving Kitsune a chance to jump over him unopposed, swinging a glowing tail under her to whack him in face as she passed. It was a bit disappointing that Katar managed to dig his head blade and tail blade into the ground.
"I still don't see why her presence feels as wonderful as an incoming city leveling earthquake," Katar quickly got to his feet and resumed charging towards me, though the Mightyena leapt into a defensive position in front of me, "or why I feel a little bit queasy because of that, or even why that suddenly hit me like a crowbar… but I'll never let such a thing get in the way of my orders."
"You worthless Absol," I heard the Lady scream out in anger, "don't hesitate, don't stop to make a few meaningless sounds, Don't you dare fall in love with the enemy… hurry up and kill the girl and I might think of reducing your punishment to a painless death."
My eyes drifted away from Katar to Kitsune. She leapt at the Lady, knocking her off the Rapidash, but slipping off her and having to quickly
"Flamethrower," the lady called out. I wasn't surprised that she didn't… why wasn't I surprised that she didn't say the Rapidash's name when she clearly said the Absol's, what was my subconscious hiding from me?
Kitsune bathed in the fire, the way she moved made it look like she was trying to get it to hit all her fur equally.
Kitsune looked quite disappointed when the flames stopped coming, and she leapt into the air, flipping over in midair with her glowing tails flailing. The lady easily managed to roll out of the way, though the Rapidash was not so lucky. One of Kitsune's tails hit its leg; I could hear the crack as the bone shattered under the force. The Rapidash didn't even flinch and merely got back to its feet.
"Hey let go of my tail blade," it snapped me back to watching what was happening much closer to me: the fight between the absol and the mightyena, which was a great contrast to the other fight in a few ways. The absol was certainly strong to be dragging the mightyena around; the mightyena's claws were digging into the ground to attempt to stop Katar's movement but without success.
"Try a Fire Wheel," I barely noticed the lady's voice.
Katar's tail glowed as he swung it with the mightyena still attached, though the black dog's grip on the tail was quickly lost and it tumbled across the ground before getting back on its feet.
Mean while I was left undefended and Katar charged at me, my fear was over powering but somehow my desire for survival managed to come through to protect me.
"I could arrange for you to have a date with Kitsune," I cried out, realizing how stupid saying such a thing must have sounded and my voice quickly trailed off, "that is if it's okay with your master…"
"This isn't working… try using an attack that isn't a fire technique."
"A date?" Katar tilted his head on its side as he paused again; his ears and tail drooped a little out of confusion, "I'm a little confused about the terminology. I think I know what you mean but I don't think I want my throat slit and my lifeless body used as a punching bag… also what do you mean by my master?"
"Katar, how can we win if you keep hesitating? Katar Return. Return," I heard the lady's voice call out and she once again failed to say the name of her Rapidash, though that didn't stop both her Pokemon from dissolving into red energy that then was sucked into their Poke Balls. She grabbed a black ball from her belt and tossed it at the ground, "next time I won't play nice!"
There was a flash of light and she was gone, though oddly a strong smell of vanilla was in the air.
I paused for a few moments trying to gather my thoughts after my first Pokemon battle; I'd never be any good if I couldn't think in a combat situation and couldn't even stay focused enough to see what was happening. I should have stayed in my home valley and become just another person pretending to be a Pokemon breeder, taking credit for all the Eevee own hard work…
The mightyena suddenly leapt at me. I gripped on to his paw and began to struggle as he tried to push it down onto my throat. Odd how he seemed to put only enough weight on it to make me struggle and how easily I managed to roll out from under him.
Of course when I felt his paw on my back I understood why: He didn't want to harm me or even scare me, only to hold me prisoner.
"I have your human and I know you'll do anything to protect her," the mightyena growled and I could easily imagine that its tail must have been wagging, "is she worth enough to you that you'd let me kill her if it meant I'd let her go unharmed?"
I heard myself giggle; it felt like my mind was no longer in control… Kitsune cared about me more than anyone else ever had, but she only cared because she needed me for something and it couldn't be too hard for her to find a replacement. Still it was comforting to know there were trainers worse than me out there.
