Chapter 15 - The Bug Catching Contest
We headed North of Goldenrod City, towards the National Park. I rode on Tauros, with Flamefox sitting on my shoulders, while Firestorm and Vaporeon walked beside us, and Fearow flew above us. I always felt well protected by my Pokemon.
When we reached the National Park, there was some kind of big event going on. I dismounted from Tauros, and recalled all of my Pokemon except Flamefox and Firestorm. I walked up to another trainer and asked him, "What's going on here?" He answered, "It's Thursday! Every Thursday, they have a bug catching contest. Whoever catches the best bug type Pokemon wins a sun stone, and they get to keep the Pokemon they catch!" I said, "That sounds awesome! I should enter." He looked at my Vulpix and Ninetales and said, "Yeah, you should! With cool fire Pokemon like those, you'd be a shoe-in!" Then I said, "Come on, Flamefox and Firestorm! We're gonna enter!" We ran over to the registration tent and got in line. Flamefox jumped back up on my shoulders to sit on my head, while Firestorm stood faithfully next to me. When we reached the desk, the man asked me, "Which Pokemon are you going to use?" I asked, "I can only bring one?" He said, "Those are the rules. You can bring one Pokemon, and you get 30 park balls." I had to think about this. I hated to leave Flamefox or Firestorm out of this. I finally decided. "Firestorm, you got the last battle. Is it okay if I take Flamefox?" He looked back at me and nodded, graciously allowing his brother to have this opportunity. That kind of took me by surprise, because I'm sure if he'd still been a Vulpix, he would've been bitter about being left out. But as Ninetales, he was so much more at peace with himself, that he didn't seem to mind being left out of battle once in a while. I said to him, "Thanks, buddy! I promise you the next one, okay?" He smiled at me, then went to lie down next to the desk, and I handed the man my other 3 pokeballs. He then gave me my park balls, and said, "Here you go! Good luck!" I replied, "Thanks", and with that, Flamefox and I headed out to the field.
We searched around in the high grass for a long time. There were lots of Caterpies and Weedles. "We're gonna need something really impressive in order to win, Flamefox! Keep your eyes open!" I said to him. "Vulpix!" he replied. We kept walking, amongst trainers who were either searching for bug Pokemon, or battling them. In a wooded area further off, I heard some rustling in the bushes. Flamefox ran up to the bushes, when all of a sudden, he was knocked back as a Scyther burst out from the foliage! "Scyther!" it shouted, as it took to the air. I couldn't believe our luck! "Flamefox, quick, flamethrower!" I shouted. He launched the flames from his mouth into the air after the Scyther, but only grazed it's wing as it quickly flew off. "We can't let it get away!" I yelled. Flamefox and I gave chase. It had been hit, so I figured it would have to stop and rest. We kept running after it until it landed in a tree. "Okay, Flamefox, get ready to do your flamethrower!" I told him. He got into battle stance, and just as he was about to do his flamethrower, a Growlithe came along and shoved him over, knocking him to the ground. "Hey!" I shouted at the rude dog Pokemon. I asked Flamefox, "Are you okay?" He stood back up, shook off, and said, "Vulpix!" Then I heard a voice yell, "Good, Growlithe! Now hit that Scyther with an ember attack!" It was another trainer, a boy, and he was after OUR Scyther! "Hey, we had him first! Go find your own bug Pokemon!" I yelled. "Too bad! You had your chance! He's ours now!" he smugly yelled back to me. Growlithe hit the Scyther with an ember attack, but it just flew off again. "Don't lose it, Growlithe!" he shouted, as they ran after it. "We'll show him, won't we, Flamefox?" I asked my Vulpix. He nodded at me, and we also gave chase again. The Scyther landed in the grass further ahead, where Flamefox and I came at him from one direction, and the boy and his Growlithe came from the opposite direction. "Growlithe, while he's not flying, use take down!" he shouted. We watched as his Growlithe ran up to Scyther, and Scyther used slash, sending Growlithe flying backwards to the ground. He got up and tried again, but Scyther just slashed at him with it's scythes again, and knocked him down. "Flamefox, use flamethrower!" I commanded. His attack hit the Scyther, but it was not willing to give up so easily. Even after taking a direct hit, it still stood, and it did a slash attack on my Vulpix, knocking him down, before it flew off again! This was one tough Scyther! I knew I wanted it on my team! We gave chase again, as did the boy and his Growlithe. After taking a hit like that, I knew it couldn't fly far. It landed in a tree up ahead. The boy and I reached the tree at the same time again. "Flamefox, launch your flamethrower up that tree!" I ordered. Unexpectedly, the boy commanded, "Growlithe, use take down!" and I heard a loud "Vulll!" as Flamefox took a direct hit, and he crashed to the ground. "Flamefox!" I shouted, running over to my downed Vulpix. "That's cheating!" I yelled at the boy, as I petted Flamefox. He ignored me and gave his Growlithe the next command, "Now hit Scyther with your ember!" Flamefox stood back up, and he was mad! "Use dig, Flamefox!" I ordered. He quickly burrowed under the ground, and as Growlithe was about to use his ember, Flamefox erupted from the ground underneath him, sending him flying into the air, and he crashed down to the ground, as his ember attack flew off into the open air. "No fair!" the boy said, as he ran to his downed Growlithe. "Now you know how it feels!" I said to him. Then I commanded, "Flamefox, use flamethrower!" He did so, directly hitting the Scyther, and it fell from the tree onto the ground. "Park ball, go!" I yelled, and tossed it at Scyther. The boy also threw one of his, and the balls hit each other in the air, and both fell to the ground, where one of them engulfed the Scyther. "Whose ball caught it?" we both asked. "This wouldn't have happened if you'd just given up!" the boy yelled at me. "We had him first! You're the one who came along and messed everything up!" I yelled back at him. "Well, we can't both have it! We'll just have to battle for it!" he responded. I replied, "But thanks to you, our Pokemon are both pretty beat up! We can't battle weakened Pokemon!" He said, "Then it will be a short battle! Growlithe, use take down!" As Growlithe sprinted at my Vulpix, I commanded, "Flamefox, use agility!" Flamefox managed to dodge the attack. "Now use dig again!" I ordered. Flamefox burrowed under the ground once again, and the boy yelled, "Growlithe, use YOUR agility!" This time, Flamefox erupted from the ground, but missed Growlithe. Then he commanded, "Use an ember attack, Growlithe!" His ember attack hit Flamefox, knocking him to the ground. He was already weak, and couldn't possibly take another hit. But I deducted that his Growlithe must be in about the same condition. "Flamefox, use flamethrower!" I shouted. He launched the flames from his mouth. "Growlithe, use agility again!" ordered the boy, but Growlithe couldn't outrun the flames, and was engulfed by them. When the flames dispersed, he still stood! I couldn't believe it! "Ha!" the boy laughed. "One more take down, Growlithe!" he shouted, pounding his fist on a tree. Suddenly, 3 Kakunas dropped down, followed by 6 Beedrill. The boy screamed, "Forget it, Growlithe! Just run!" The Beedrill chased him and his Growlithe. Growlithe managed to knock one out with an ember attack, but he took a direct poison sting from another. "Growlithe, no!' the boy shouted, and he ran back to his Pokemon. He picked up Growlithe and continued to run, the other 5 Beedrill right behind him. "Please help!" he shouted to me. I looked at Flamefox and said, "Use fire spin!" His little body began to glow, and his eyes glowed bright white as he released the tornado of flames from his mouth. The 5 Beedrill were wrapped up in flames, and once the flames dispersed, they were knocked out! We ran over to the boy, and I took out some antidote, which I now had an ample supply of, from my pack. "Here, give him this" I said. The boy administered the antidote, and Growlithe was as good as new shortly. Then he said, "Listen, I'm sorry I was such a jerk. We shouldn't have interfered with your battle. Thank you for saving us. I think you should take Scyther." I said, "It's okay. I just hope you learned something from all this." He replied, "I just wanted to catch a good bug type Pokemon." I said, "Well, there's 6 knocked out Beedrill. Why don't you take them?" He answered, "That's not a bad idea", and he threw 6 of his park balls, capturing all of them. Then he said, "Thanks again. By the way, my name's Brian. I hope you win the contest today." I said, "I'm Joe. Come on, let's go back to the judging area."
We returned to the contest headquarters with our Pokemon, and the park balls containing the Pokemon we had caught, along with all the other trainers. I got my other 4 Pokemon back. I thought for sure I would win! The announcer soon came on, "Third place goes to Brian for the Beedrill he caught!" I told him, "Way to go!" The announcer continued, "Second place goes to Joe for his Scyther!" I was a little stunned, especially when the girl who won first place caught a Pinsir! Brian said, "Sorry you didn't get first place!" I said, "Yeah, well, at least we got some really cool Pokemon out of it, right?" He answered, "Well, I can always try again next week. How about you?" I said, "No, we really have to get going to Ecruteak City for our next gym battle." He replied, "Well, good luck to you on your journey. And take good care of that Scyther!" With that, my 6 Pokemon and I departed from the bug catching contest, and headed for Ecruteak City!