"Be careful, Pidgeot," Tails told his pokemon, "we don't want to end up at Lavender again."
Pidgeot acknowledged with a shrill chirp and kept its course towards the ever darkening eastern sky. Three more locations in Kanto, then Orre, and then finally back to Fortree... he knew he had taken much longer than the two hour time that RC set, but he wasn't looking for a record. He was looking just to finish the race. Perhaps beating either Winona or Falkner to the finish line would be fun. That would definitely make his day.
But whenever the end would come, he hoped it would be soon. He thought he was doing well, keeping his breathing under control, but Pidgeot was showing fatigue and that was causing Tails' comfy position mounted on its back to be flooded by the cold air again, chilling him from the inside out, almost as bad as the area around the Weather Institute, minus the water droplets.
One thing he learned about sky high Earth: breathing in the cold thin air hurt. It was bad enough that it stung his eyes, bad enough he had to endure it at mach 2 speeds, bad enough he had to do it at so young an age. But he couldn't just go back now. He just let the thought of snuggling curled up in his bed or the couch, hugging one of his tails and using the other as a pillow encourage him to hold on tight, and hope it would warm him up at least a little bit.
He finally saw the checkpoint off in the distance, flying above the power plant north of Lavender and let out a fatigued sigh when he saw Winona, Falkner and a few others fly past him, back to where he had just came.
When Pidgeot made it to the checkpoint, he could see that they'd be aiming just a little north of Palette. For the first time in the race, he rested his head on Pidgeot's neck for just a little bit. His nose was biting cold and his eyes were watering. Just a little rest, he told to himself.
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It didn't even feel like a few seconds went by until Tails felt some turbulence, and a shrill chirp from Pidgeot. He quickly raised his head, wondering what the heck was up until he felt a sharp pain surge through his body causing him to let out a pained yell, followed by a fierce tingling and burning and a very unpleasant taste in his mouth, almost knocking him off Pidgeot, who also felt it from the erratic way it was flying. Tails shook his head, keeping a firm grip on Pidgeot, his eyes squeezed shut. He felt that pain before. He'd just been a victim of a thunderbolt attack. But from where?
He heard laughing, but it wasn't from his headset. That was probably fried from the jolt.
"Now!" someone yelled, "Now it's time for my revenge! Say your prayers, Fox Boy!"
He coerced his head to look toward the source of the voice and he saw a Charizard, a Magneton hovering just beside it and that store manager from earlier in the day.. But why would he want revenge on him? He only met him today and beside running into him on accident, he was sure he didn't do anything to incur any sort of wrath.
But since the 'manager' made the first strike, Tails felt an obligation to repay the favor and then some.
"I don't know what I did to you," he told him, still cringing a bit from the surge of electricity, "But if you're after me, then I'm not gonna hold back!"
He took out two pokeballs, Pidgeot's and his Salamance's and got ready to jump.
"Oh, I'm sure I'm shaking in my boots," the manager taunted.
Tails jumped from Pidgeot's back and returned it before tossing the other pokeball out below him. It erupted in a red light, and the scaly pokemon that was Salamence appeared and Tails landed right on its back.
"Salamence, we got trouble!" He called to his pokemon. Salamence replied with a snort. "We gotta take this guy out! I don't know who he is, but he's no good!"
"You're too kind."
If that was a compliment for the guy, then Tails was sure he'd make Ransai pull out his hair in frustration, even his insults not working.
"Salamence, we gotta get some distance! Use Agility!" Tails called out.
Salamence complied and it shot forward with momentum that exceeded that of Pidgeot's for a short while and thankfully, it kept Tails from having to endure another stinging thunderbolt. Salamence shifted its direction to aim any attack Tails would call out.
"Now, go for a Dragon Claw attack, Salamence!" Tails ordered.
Salamence surged forward in a barrel roll, Tails hanging on tight all the way and Salamence slashed both the Charizard and the Magneton on the way by and it continued on before turning around again to ready another attack.
Another attack was called by the manager and a bright streak of lightning shot toward Salamence and Tails and Tails felt another electric surge through his body, but it wasn't as bad as last time, probably because of the properties of the scales on Salamence, but getting shocked by a thunderbolt was still near the top of his things smart people try to avoid list. He squeezed his eyes shut trying to shake the ringing out of his ears.
"Oww..." he moaned. "Salamence, You gotta take out that Magneton. Fire a Flamethrower at it!" he called out before coughing. That thin air was definitely not the best thing for yelling out attacks in a pokemon battle.
Salemence inhaled air and exhaled a burning streak of fire aimed right at the magnetic pokemon and it hit where it hurt. Apparently it was a good attack, because it forced the guy to return the pokemon. Then Charizard charged forward with its claws outstretched and it slashed at Salamence just like Salamence did Charizard earlier.
Tails was almost shaken off when Salamence's flight faltered, but Tails was thankful when it regained its posture. He let out a sigh of relief before Salamence twirled in the air once again to face Charizard.
"Salamence, show him we won't lose!" Tails shouted before wishing he hadn't shouted. "Dragon Claw again."
Salamence let out a snort, then barreled for Charizard once more, slashing it as it passed by. Charizard didn't look like it could take anymore and it fell from the sky. The evil-manager-Nazi-guy pushed off his Charizard before calling out two more pokemon, a Butterfree and Crobat-- leaving Charizard to plummet to the ground as Crobat fetched its falling trainer. Tails could hardly believe the blatant disregard for the safety of the trainer's own pokemon and that seriously ticked him off.
"How could you just leave your pokemon to fall like that!" he demanded. He didn't care about his voice or breathing in the cold thin air right now; he was far too peeved at the guy to think as clearly as he was before having to engage the guy.
"You know, I seriously don't think it matters anymore," the guy sneered. "For a fox, you're not too clever. I feel so upset that you don't remember your igood/i friend Julian," he falsely lamented.
Tails' ears twitched. He knew he looked familiar earlier, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. But he remembered that name. Julian was the one who was trying to deforest the area around Fortree. Julian was the one who wouldn't quit and even joined Turanade. And in every encounter, Tails had the better hand. He wasn't about to let him win now.
"It pains me so that you just don't look too happy to see me," Julian continued, "And since we're so high up, I'll be long gone before you ever hit the ground."
"What do you mean by that!" Tails demanded.
"I'll give you a hint. Crobat, show them to a Gust attack!"
The large four winged bat started to flap its wings furiously, whipping up a strong gust of wind aimed at Salamence and Tails but Tails held fast onto his pokemon, bent on not being blown away.
"It'll take more than that to blow me off!" Tails shouted at Julian.
"I would expect nothing less!" Julian replied. "Butterfree, fire your stun spores into Crobat's gust now!" he ordered.
The butterfly pokemon started flapping its wings now and a yellow shining powder was exuded from them and drifted into the gust of wind. Salamence couldn't maneuver out of the way, because one false move could have destabilized its flight and thus got a face full of the powder and its flight started to falter already. Tails tried holding his breath, but it was no good, since oxygen was already thin enough in his lungs. He was soon rendered numb by the foul powder.
"No...Salamence, hang on," Tails laboriously said through his numbing face and the onset of paralysis through his body. Now he knew what Julian meant. He was going to paralyze him and his pokemon and blow them away to fall from the sky and land with a crushing fall to the ground where most likely the landing would utterly wreck his body, leaving him a mangled mess. A gruesome thought. For the first time, Tails felt very much acrophobic, fearing what could happen in the next few minutes.
Salamence did the best it could, weakly flapping its leathery, scaly wings, struggling against the gust, breathing in more of the powder. But breathing was the bane of the moment. It let out a weak roar filled with courage as faulty as its flight.
"Now, Crobat," Julian shouted with finality, "Finish them off! Pour all you got into your gust!"
The Crobat started screeching from all the effort, emitting supersonic waves that made Tails' ears ring, flapping its wings faster and faster until the wind actually started to distort Tail's sight of Julian. Salamence couldn't hold its form any longer from the paralysis and force of the wind. It finally gave in and was blown away by Crobat, and Tails was flung from his pokemon's back.
He let out a stifled scream of fright, watching Salamence plunge from the sky with him, just as helpless as he was. He couldn't reach his pack, his hand was already so crippled from the paralysis, and he couldn't even save Salamence the fall. His eyes shifted in a panic down below, towards the ground. If he weren't paralyzed, it would have been exhilarating, fun. The land was stretching out in all directions, met by the sea in the west, looking like a patchwork quilt, just like every skydiver would tell you. The wind from falling too had a fake ecstasy, playfully buffeting his fur, stinging his eyes all the while.
Maybe Ransai was right, he thought. Maybe he couldn't handle this kind of stuff. Not without something bad happening. And now here he was, falling at a terminal velocity of around a hundred miles per hour and he couldn't even use his tails to helicopter him out of it. He squinted his eyes shut. This was it, taken out in a dogfight, though it was a cheap attack that downed him. Now he couldn't bear looking down, knowing that it would be the last thing he'd ever get to see. So he just closed his eyes, on the verge of crying.
"No..." he heard himself say, "I don't wanna die..."
After just listening to the deafening roar of wind in his ears for he didn't dare recall how long, it felt like he landed on something, but it was soft and maintaining the same momentum he was, then resumed in whatever direction it was flying.
Tails chanced opening his eyes to see what saved him, or if he had already went splat on the ground, if it was an angel that was carrying him up into the heavens. He found himself in Falkner's arms, and he was soaring on his own Pidgeot. He was saved. But the sinking feeling in his stomach didn't go away.
"Salamence..." he said, "Where's Salamence?"
Falkner said nothing but grin. "An Altaria that knows the Heal Bell maneuver works wonders," he assured.
As if it had rehearsed the moment, Tails' Salamence soared level with Falkner's Pidgeot and Tails let the feelings of relief sweep over him. "Falkner...Thanks..." he said finally.
Digging into a pack, Falkner nodded, then took out a tied satchel. "Well, try and open your mouth. I have some berry powder here that will fix you right up," he told Tails.
Tails complied by slowly but surely coercing his mouth to open and Falkner poured some of the powder in. As soon as the powder hit his tongue, he almost coughed, not expecting it to be a spicy powder. But sure enough, the sensations of feeling trickled from his mouth throughout his body, from the points of his ears, down through his belly, his tails and his toes.
"Kinda spicy..." he said, ears twitching a bit from the taste.
"It's a blend of Cherri and Lum berry powder," Falkner said, "specifically mixed to treat paralysis brought on from pokemon attacks on humans. But I figured in your case, you'd be close enough," he added with a bit of a chuckle.
Tails let out a sigh. "If it weren't for Julian, that wouldn't have happened..."
"I heard something strange from the headset," Falkner interrupted, "Like something just got short circuited. I left my position to see what was up and there you were with your Salamence, falling from the sky toward the Viridian Forest. What happened?" he questioned.
"I got attacked."
"By this Julian you said?"
"Yeah. He was one of the racers today..."
"As far as I know," Falkner recalled, "there weren't any entrants named Julian."
"I didn't even know it was him until he told me," Tails said. "He looked so different, I couldn't even tell."
Falkner's face turned into a slight scowl. "Hmm... did he look like a business type person?" he asked.
Tails nodded. "Yeah... why do you ask that, though?"
"I knew it," Falkner said, "Winona warned me that the guy seemed suspicious. He entered under the name of Vince. And from what you and Winona said earlier today, it would seem as if he wouldn't really like you too much."
Tails started to sit up, stretching and trying to get himself into a position where he could get back onto his Salamence.
Falkner grabbed Tails by the arm, however. "You sure you should keep going?" he asked. "I wouldn't doubt you and your pokemon are still stiff."
Tails looked back at Falkner into his eyes and said, "I gotta go after him. He might try and go after someone else."
Falkner shook his head. "I doubt that. After I saw you falling, I gave a warning to the racers to look out for anything suspicious. And after an act like that," he said, "I bet more than anything he'll go into hiding."
"Then...what do I do?" Tails asked uncertainly.
Falkner grinned "You do have a race to finish, don't you?"
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Now that that fox was out of the picture, it was time for Vince to skedaddle. As much as he wanted to go after Winona now, the current condition of his team wouldn't allow for his safe assault on a gym leader without seeming foolhardy.
But how dare that kid try and tell him what's right and wrong! Just a self righteous brat that hasn't seen the real world for what it was. And after an act of revenge, one can't use the same weapons over and over again without starting to leave a trail for others to follow and ultimately lead to hard time behind bars.
The best thing he thought for himself was to just lay low for the time being. There was no need to rush into a battle; often the most prepared wins out, anyhow. It'd be a good time to toast to his achievement of vengeance, build up the perfect team, relax... he wasn't in any particular hurry. He knew where to find her. That's all he needed to know.
He could already taste the red velvet port he loved so much to sip from.