Wow, over 2,000 words. That's a first for me. It also has quite a bit of character development, as well as a little emotion (which is hard as hell to write in a humor story). I hope I get a lot of reviews for this one.
Chapter 16: Mark's First Battle
The ball was moving in slow motion for Jonathan as it headed towards him. The wheels in his brain were spinning at full power, but he could think of nothing. Just as the ball was about to hit him, however, a rock flew through the air and came in contact with the poke ball, throwing it off course and away from Jonathan.
"Hey, who did that?!" yelled Jim. He turned around and found a trainer with crutches and a rock in his hands. "What'd you do that for?!"
"Keep away from those pokemon!" Mark yelled, "Can't you see how badly they don't want to be captured?!"
"What do you know?!" Jim yelled, "Pokemon are caught like this in the wild all the time!"
"We're in the city you idiot! Those rules don't apply here!" Mark responded, "City pokemon could belong to anyone!"
"Or they could not!" Jim countered.
"The Charmander's mine, the Ralts is Jennifer's, and who knows who the Pichu belongs to!" Mark counter-countered.
Jim opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't think of a response. "Fine, you win this round!" As he was leaving, he stopped. Turning around to face Mark, he asked, "So that Charmander's yours?"
"Yeah, why?"
Jonathan could've sworn he saw an exclamation point appear over Jim's head briefly when Mark answered, "I challenge you to a pokemon battle!"
At first, Mark just stood there with a stunned look on his face, which slowly grew into a grin. Jonathan's horns felt a mix of excitement and joy. "I accept!"
"Good!" Jim said, "Meet me in three hours at the park nearby," he reached into his backpack and pulled out a purple spray, "Give this to your Charmander so he can fight at full strength!"
Mark received the POTION!
"Don't worry, I'll meet you there!"
Jim then ran off in the direction of the park, Finn following close behind. Mark turned towards the pokemon, who weren't in the best of conditions. Ember was soaked to the bone, Rocky was smoldering on the ground, and Jonathan was trying to shake them awake. "Move over, Ralts," Mark said. He aimed the potion at Ember and pulled the trigger, spraying him with the healing medicine.
He then looked over at Rocky, then to the tree that Jonathan and Ember used to reach the fire escape. He went up to the tree and pulled off some of the berries growing on it. After putting some in his pockets he gave one to Rocky. "It's an Oran Berry," he said, "It should help you heal." Within minutes, Ember and Rocky were up and about.
"That spray worked wonders!" Ember said.
"The berry was delicious!" Rocky said.
"I'm happy I didn't get hurt!" Jonathan said.
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Mark was searching through his stuff at home for a backpack he had misplaced. Jonathan, Ember, and Rocky were helping out too. "So, what's a backpack?" Rocky asked.
"It's where Mark'll keep his stuff in when he goes out to travel with me," Ember explained, "It's also where he keeps his money."
"Say, do any of us have to battle?" Jonathan asked.
"Don't worry, only I have to," Ember assured him.
Mark found his backpack and withdrew Ember into his poke ball. Mark, followed by Jonathan and Rocky, then left for the park for his first battle.
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Jim was standing in the park, watching the cars pass by. As he was wondering how much longer until Mark arrived, he heard footsteps behind him. "So, you're here at last!" he said as he turned around.
"Ummm… I don't know you," said a little boy.
"Oh, sorry then."
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"So, you're here at last!" Jim said.
"I said I'd be here, didn't I?" Mark replied, "One on one ok with you? That's all the pokemon I got."
"Sure, I only have one too."
Both trainers threw their poke balls in front of them to reveal the starter Charmander and Mudkip. The battle began immediately.
"Finn, use water gun!" Jim commanded.
"Dodge now!" Mark commanded!
"Yes sir!" Ember dodged the attack.
Now, to simplify the battle that is taking place, I am going to speak as if the trainers are not there. By this I mean that when I say something such as 'Ember used scratch' it does not mean that Ember had decided to use the attack, it meant that Mark had told him to use the attack and I was merely to lazy to say so. To remind you of this, I shall have the pokemon utter a phrase such as 'Alright' or 'Yes sir', though not always.
Finn slapped some mud at Ember, but he managed to duck under it and charge towards her. Finn noticed him coming, and managed to dodge in time for Ember to scratch thin air. In return, she tackled him to the ground and shot a water gun at him before he could get up.
Ember managed to get up, eating a berry Mark had given him before the battle. The force of water gun had caused Finn to lose a bit of balance, so she had to spend a bit of time to regain it. Mark and Ember noticed her inexperience with water gun, and, both realizing she had just learned it, took advantage of that.
"Yes sir!" Ember exclaimed. He ran at Finn and was about to scratch her, when she let out a fierce growl. The growl surprised Ember, who slowed down the attack slightly.
After the attack, Finn shot another water gun at Ember, throwing him a few feet away. Using the distance, Fin used it to gain speed for a tackle, but before she could reach, Ember used a growl of his own. It had the desired effect, and, as with Finn, he didn't get hurt as much, giving him time to scratch her unimpeded by a growl.
Unfortunately, the close distance made Ember unable to dodge when Finn slapped mud into his eyes. As Ember was scratching the air in front of him, Finn shot him with water from three feet to his right.
Mark reached into his backpack and pulled out another of those purple sprays. He aimed it at Ember and pulled the trigger. A thin, almost invisible needle shot out with the spray and hit Ember, disintegrating in the process. Energy returning him, Ember got up.
Charging once more towards Finn, he tripped on one of the mud puddles Finn had caused during the battle. Of course, Jim and Finn weren't going to miss this chance.
"Gotcha!" Finn yelled. She, once more, ran towards Ember in his vulnerable state. As she was running, Ember's mind began to recall experiences. He remembered holding back Leaf and Powder from Jonathan's fight with howler. He also remembered struggling to escape from the Murkrow who were throwing them into a cage, knocking some out in the process. And finally, he remembered driving off Finn earlier that day with Jonathan and Rocky's help. He had quite a bit of experience.
Aiming his mouth at Finn, he took a deep breath. He could feel the air heating up within his body. The moment Finn was an inch from his face, Ember exhaled a ball of fire at her.
Ember used ember.
Mark was excited that Ember had learned a fire move earlier than he had expected. Ember was excited too.
Finn, however, wasn't fazed. "You think a fire type move like that is gonna hurt me?"
Ember just stared at her with a blank expression on his face.
"I am a water type! Those attacks don't hurt my type a lot!"
Ember kept staring.
"What are you, an idiot?! That attack will not help you!"
"You're on fire," Ember said.
With this sentence, Finn finally noticed the burning heat coming from her back. During the battle, she had come in enough contact with the grass that some of it stuck to her back, which is the reason she was running around screaming, "AAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
As Jim panicked as he searched for a Burn Heal in his backpack, Mark began to think of a strategy. Fire attacks wouldn't hurt her that much, so they had to take a different approach. Noticing a tree they could use to their advantage, he yelled "Ember, get below that branch!"
"Affirmative, sir!" he yelled and followed instructions.
Once healed, Finn ran towards Ember using tackle. Following orders, he held his ground and braced himself for impact. As soon as she made contact, Ember grabbed onto her yellow gill things. Following further orders, he shot an ember attack straight up onto the branch above.
Once it burned through, Ember jumped away, just as the flaming branch fell on Finn. She heaved the branch off with much effort, and slowly approached Ember. "You clever… little…." She then collapsed from exhaustion.
"Finn, you did good," Jim said, "Get back in your poke ball for some rest."
"Way to go, Ember!" Jonathan cheered. Rocky was cheering just as hard as he was.
"No… sweat…" Ember panted, "I'm gonna… take a nappy… now… (thump) zzzzzzz…" Mark then withdrew Ember.
"Good job, Ember! You did extremely well out there!" he then said to Jim, "I think you owe me something!"
"Meh, you got lucky. If the tree wasn't there, Finn would've beaten your Charmander," he said, "Here's your money." Once he handed Mark the money, he headed towards the Pokemon Center. "I'll want a rematch someday, who ever you are."
"The name's Mark," he said.
"Jim," he responded, "See ya around."
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It was late at night. Rocky had already gone home (accompanied by a pokemon assigned to guard him) and Jennifer was due to arrive any moment now.
"(Yawn) Jonathan, you're not sleepy?" Ember asked.
"A bit, but I'm used to staying up past ten," Jonathan responded.
"Oh," Ember shifted as he sat to get comfortable, his tail burning Jonathan as he moved. "Whoops, sorry," Ember apologized after the flame was put out.
"It's alright, it was a great waker-upper. Burns as hell though..."
Ember gave another yawn, "Quite a day, wasn't it? We met Rocky, I had my first official battle, and you almost got captured."
"Yeah…" Jonathan commented, "Hey, Ember, can you do me a favor?"
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The door opened and Jennifer entered her apartment, "I'm home!" she announced.
Jonathan immediately entered the room. "Hey, Jenny," he was getting a bit used to talking without her understanding him.
"I got a call from my dad today!" she announced.
Haven't heard from him in a while, Jonathan thought.
"I told him I got a Ralts living with me, and he told me a lot more than the internet could!" she then pulled a pizza box out of nowhere, "It turns out Ralts can eat pizza, as well as other human food!"
Jonathan's mouth hung open until he said, "Whatever almighty deity that did this thank you." Well, I wouldn't call myself almighty….
"Let's dig in!" She set the pizza on the table and cut it into the appropriate ten slices. She noticed that the Ralts was nowhere to be seen. "Ralts, where are you?" She then saw him come back in holding a banana.
He went through the futile process to open the banana. "Here, let me help you." Jennifer opened the banana and gave it back. Now, if any of you were to see what Jonathan was doing right now, you'd think something around the lines of 'cute' or 'so what?' Jennifer's expression was more like '(stare in shock).'
Jonathan was cutting off parts of the banana and putting them on his pizza. He noticed Jennifer's expression then looked at what he was doing, "Oh."
Back when Jonathan was human, he and Jennifer knew almost everything about each other. One of those things were what pizza toppings the other preferred, so Jennifer was surprised when the Ralts, who she thought had never eaten pizza, had the same favorite pizza topping as her deceased best friend.
Jonathan's horns began to feel a great burst of sadness, equal only to when he first approached Jennifer as a Ralts. She was trying her best to hold back tears, which Jonathan knew she was very good at. However, Jonathan felt she was very close to breaking down.
He walked up to her and held her hand, patting it in a 'don't cry' sort of way. This seemed to cheer her up a bit, not only because Jonathan felt it in his horns, but because she smiled a little. "…Thanks," she said.
Jonathan heard a tapping coming from the fire escape window. "I'll be back in a while, Jenny," he said. She seemed to get the message.
After he opened the window, he was greeted by Ember with a pounce, "Hey, Jonathan!"
"Hey, Ember," Jonathan said, "You're pouncy for a sleepy guy. So, do you have it?"
"Yep! So you're going to go through with it?"
"Yeah, Jenny seems to be in a bit of an emotional stage. This'll probably help."
"Alright then, I have to go back before Mark notices one is gone, even though he still has four of them."
"See ya Ember."
Jennifer was taking a bite out of a piece of pizza when Jonathan entered the room. The first thing she noticed was the thing he was holding in his hands. "Y-you want me to…."
Jonathan nodded and gave her the item. Jennifer had no idea what to say, so she just settled with "Ok." She pushed the button in the middle and watched enlarge in her hands. She gently threw the ball, which hit Jonathan, and watched him get covered by a red light before being drawn into the poke ball. It then shook three times, but you'd have to be looking at it really hard to notice the struggling, before it stopped. She picked it up and noticed the words that had appeared on the red area of the poke ball.
Give a nickname to the caught RALTS?
"Yes," Jennifer answered. The ball then instructed her to come up with a name. Looking around the room, she saw the pizza with the banana toppings. She also remembered the day she tried to give the Ralts a bath, and all the mishaps that happened to him.
"Jonathan," she told the poke ball.