Blue Mountain League: Prologue
Disclaimer: The show would be different if I owned Pokémon
Chapter 6: Run Silent, Run in Your Sleep
The last chapter was so short, there's no reason to review it. Anyway, John and Charmander were following a creek, when Charmander saw the sunlight. John, on the other hand, was really tired, because of all that had happened over the day. Running ahead, Charmander exited the cave to see rolling plains, ending only so that a forest could begin. Charmander gaped at the sight of majestic mountains that rose into the sky. As Charmander took the sights in, John managed to get out of the cave. After that, though, he fell face-first into the creek, which Charmander soon noticed became a river.
John woke up several hours later, and was surprised by how dark it was. Getting up and looking around, he realized that he was far from the cave. Checking his surroundings, John saw that Charmander was asleep. John soon understood that they had gotten down-river somewhere in the time since he collapsed from exhaustion. Surprisingly, John was pretty dry; only his head was wet.
Charmander woke up around this time, and looked over towards the river. Though earlier that day it was quite peaceful, it seemed like a raging torrent of water was there instead. Fire-types really don't like rivers, especially fast rivers. Charmander noticed John beside the torrent, however, and went against instinct. He probably acted against common sense, too, because the torrential power behind the river could probably have been predicted by anything to not just be a random flux in tides or anything like that at all.
John noticed something was wrong for a few reasons. Number one, the river was splashing onto the bank, and moving much faster than before. The second reason was that Charmander was looking scared. Number three was that a pair of eyes was upriver, just floating there. And the final reason was that the torrent only started a short distance away. Getting up, John realized he was stiff from inactivity. Struggling to stand properly, John was alarmed at the increasing speed of the river. Once he managed to get up and stay up, however, he found it easy to follow instinct: run away from the river, towards the cover of near-by trees. Charmander followed John as he dashed by. Looking back, Charmander saw that, where John had been moments earlier, was part of the river.
John stood under a tree, panting and looking around for Charmander. John was relieved when his pokémon appeared right beside him. Glancing back towards the river, John saw that the torrent had ended. Strangely enough, he thought he also saw a flash of blue. Charmander pulled at John, and when John looked down, the lizard motioned that he was tired. So, tired as they were, they set up a makeshift camp under a tall tree.
Hours later, Charmander opened his tired eyes, and looked over to where John had gone to sleep. To Charmander's horror, John wasn't there! Searching the area quickly, he noticed an odd shape by the river. Running over there, he found John, fast asleep. Curious, Charmander looked around for signs as to how John could have moved back towards the river. Hearing something behind him, Charmander looked up. What he saw was almost as startling as the fact John woke up as Charmander was turning around. What he saw was a Totodile, a water-type. As John tried to figure out what Charmander was looking at, he realized that Totodile was what he had seen in the river when the torrent was destroying the bank. With this new knowledge, John made a split-second decision.
"Go, Charmander!" yelled John. The fire-type knew that John only wanted him to use scratch. However, Totodile just kept on trying to dodge. Because of this strategy, only one out of five scratches hit. Then, Totodile started using water gun, very inaccurately. Though most of them skimmed the surface of the river, Charmander was angered because of when Squirtle used water gun on him. Because of this, Charmander's attacks went faster and did more damage. Soon, Totodile was out of breath. Charmander was about to finish Totodile, when John shouted, "Hold up, Charmander."
John searched through his pocket, and found what he was looking for. 'Two left,' he thought, 'Better make the first one count.' Taking the item out of his pocket, he pressed the button. "Hope this works," he muttered. Then, he shouted, "Pokéball! Go!" and hurled the pokéball with all his might. It hit Totodile squarely on the head, and the big jaw pokémon entered the sphere. As it shook, John hoped that the little crocodile would be captured. And so he was. The light went out, and John approached the ball. Popping it open, the energy from inside the ball solidified into Totodile. John went into explaining how he and Charmander worked, but Totodile was much more preoccupied with the river. Actually, he was preoccupied with the gigantic sea serpent rising from the river, to be more precise.
John noticed Totodile's distraction and turned in time to see the creature's gargantuan head reaching for them. The three of them promptly did the smartest thing possible: run away. Looking back, however, John saw that a tadpole-like creature was strolling towards them from under the serpent. "Gyarados," he muttered, "and Poliwhirl." As Poliwhirl approached, Charmander realized all that had been going on. Since John had been asleep, he obviously didn't understand. But Totodile tried to tell him how Poliwhirl hypnotized prey into going right to Gyarados. John was more concerned with Gyarados than Poliwhirl, not understanding how both were threats. The fact that Gyarados was at least twenty feet long makes sense as to the confusion.
On the other hand, John knew that anything strolling along under a Gyarados was dumb, ignorant, or had a good reason to be unafraid. Considering Poliwhirl aren't strong against Gyarados, and since the species was highly intelligent, he knew it was the last reason. Noticing the spiral on Poliwhirl's chest, John realized he had seen it momentarily in the river. Remembering that it hypnotizes when it's undulating, he figured it out. John knew how to deal with this situation. Breathing in, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Go, Totodile!"
The big jaw pokémon appeared startled for only a moment before entering battle mode. Hitting Poliwhirl with a water gun was Totodile's main objective, as it would block visual contact with the spiral, and thusly hypnosis. Poliwhirl, however, had better evasion tactics than Totodile. Almost every shot missed completely. To the shock of everyone watching the battle, Poliwhirl messed up and stepped into a patch of dirt that had recently been hit with Totodile's water gun. 'He always aims where they'll be messed up the most,' thought John. As Poliwhirl's foot became hopelessly stuck in the mud, Totodile began to walk away from the battle. Angered, Gyarados launched a hydro pump technique at Charmander.
Charmander looked towards the flood with recognition. It looked just like Squirtle's water gun from his angle. This was also the cause of the torrent. This was his problem. Then, so fast that no one could understand it, the attack stopped in mid-air. The water stayed in the air in front of Charmander, though a lot of steam was coming away from the area. Gyarados looked at the scene in utter shock. As the massive amount of water evaporated, John saw something that, to this day, he still swears as to have actually seen. He says he saw two birds, each focusing their energy completely on the hydro pump. And atop one of them, he saw someone. A person who seemed familiar.
The remnants of the attack were sent hurtling back towards Gyarados. The mighty water dragon recoiled at the blast, now heated to unbearable temperatures. As the atrocious pokémon was bathed in the scalding flood, John decided that then would be the best time to leave the area. The fact that the water was beginning to approach him was a good incentive. Reaching the forest, John couldn't help but wonder. The mysterious figure seemed far away, but despite this, he seemed familiar. And the birds made even less sense. How could their powers have reached the blast AND still have enough strength to send it back to Gyarados? Looking around him, he saw Charmander and Totodile on a nearby hill surrounded by trees. Going to join them, John put the figure out of his mind.
AN: Well, John now has another pokémon. With this new addition to the team, will his luck get any better? Who knows! You'll just have to wait to find out.