Chapter 3
Jerry quickly turned round and got up to look at the person sneaking up to him. "Hey! Who are you?" Jerry demanded.
The young teen Jerry was demanding to was wearing a black leather jacket, blue jeans, multi-coloured trainers and black fingerless gloves. He also had spiky blond hair and a bandanna was covering his mouth and nose.
"My name is Keith Marsden," the young teen replied as he took off the bandanna, showing his face. He had a pretty looking face, pretty enough for girls to have a crush on him, not that he cared.
"What the heck do you want?" Jerry demanded.
"Chill out, little guy," Keith replied coolly. "I only want to have a pokemon battle."
A small sweatdrop came flowing down on Jerry's forehead. "Oh no," he thought. "I can't afford another loss, not to this creep."
"What's the matter?" Keith asked, waiting for an answer. "Jigglypuff?"
"Me? Jigglypuff?" Jerry shouted, taking it as an insult. "No! I'm not a Jigglypuff! I just had a couple of tough battles today and they were real tough! And I'd appreciate it if you'd leave me alone!"
"Whatever," Keith said as he turned his back on him. "You're not worth my time anyway, puffy boy."
"Puffy boy?" Jerry yelled feeling insulted. "Say that to my face, ya limp noodle!"
Keith smiled as he turned to face him. "Care to make some conditions? Fine then. If you can beat me, you won't have to see me ever again. I'll beat you anyway but you won't be seeing much of me so I won't ask for any favours."
"I'm gonna beat your pokemon to a pulp!" Jerry said, still being angry.
"I think you've accepted my challenge," Keith said. "Fine by me."
Keith and Jerry took out their respective pokeball at the same and tossed them out. "Go!" they both cried.
A spitfire pokemon Magmar materialised when it became released from its pokeball that Keith threw out. "Magmar!" he yelled as he breathed out a lick of flame out of its beak. Jerry's Hitmonlee materialised when it came out of his pokeball, but there was one problem… it was still unconscious from his battle with Chan! "Yikes!" Jerry thought deeply when shock was showing on his face. "He's still unconscious!"
"What?" Keith thought in surprise. "Why would you send out a pokemon that's already unconscious?"
He then let out a small snigger, noticing how weak Jackie was and how stupid Jerry was. "Jerry," he said. "I know that some pokemon would recover some time after a battle but you should've known that you should give your Hitmonlee some time to do that."
"Wrong one, man!" Jerry yelled defensively. "Wrong one!"
He placed the pokemon back onto his belt and took out another one. "Go! Ratty!" he yelled as he tossed it out.
The pokeball opened, revealing a small brown furred rat. "Raticate!" he cried.
"Ratty!" Jerry yelled. "Use your Headbutt!"
Ratty quickly ran towards the fire type pokemon on his four feet and dived his head towards his abdomen.
"Dodge it, Magmar!" Keith ordered.
Magmar did exactly as he was ordered as he easily dodged the Raticate's incoming attack, much to Jerry's shock. "What the heck?" he said.
"Double Fire Punch!" Keith ordered, using Jerry's distraction to his advantage. Magmar lifted up both of his paws, engulfed them in flames and shaped them like a hammer. He then slammed them onto Ratty's back, knocking his front body first into the sand.
"One more Fire Punch should finish it off, Magmar," Keith said. "Use it now!"
"Oh no, you don't, Spiky!" Jerry yelled, noticing Magmar's flaming fist. "Ratty! Counter with Iron Tail!"
The Raticate's tail glowed brightly as he swiped his tail towards his opponent. "Watch yourself, Magmar!" Keith warned quickly.
Magmar saw the attack coming and leapt into the air. "Say what!" Jerry yelled in shock and disbelief.
"Withdraw your Fire Punch and use your Iron Tail!" Keith yelled.
Magmar immediately performed a rolling somersault while his tail glowed vigorously, slamming it on top of Ratty's head, making him scream in pain before coming unconscious.
"Ratty! No!" Jerry yelled in disbelief.
"So, whatever-your-name-is," Keith said confidently while Jerry zapped Ratty back into its pokeball. "Any more losers for Magmar to knock silly with?"
"It's Jerry, spike head," Jerry said as he took out another pokeball. "And this pokemon is gonna knock yours around silly." He tossed out his chosen pokeball. "Go! Amazon!"
A white mongoose-like pokemon with battle scars on different parts of her body materialised after being released from her pokeball. "A Zangoose, huh?" Keith commented. "Pretty rare around those parts… weak but rare."
"Funny!" Jerry yelled angrily while Amazon's eyes narrowed, as she didn't like hearing what Keith said either. "You're gonna be laughing on the other side of your face when Amazon beats ya! Amazon! Slash attack!"
The Zangoose leapt into the air and dived down towards the Spitfire Pokemon. "Magmar, dodge it," Keith commanded in a confident tone.
As Amazon was becoming inches away from slashing the face of her opponent, Magmar confidently stepped to one side making her claws hit the sand instead. She looked angrily at his direction as he got into his fighting stance. "How slow is your Zangoose?" Keith asked with criticism. "If you ask me which one's faster between your Zangoose and a random Slowpoke, I'd pick the pink dumbo any time."
"Say what?" Jerry shouted, not liking the insult. "You take that back!"
"I will… if you can beat me," Keith said, still with the smirk on his face.
"You ask for it! Amazon! Use your Crush Claw!"
But the Zangoose looked around, as though she was sniffing for something. "Er… Amazon?" Jerry said, looking confused.
She looked directly towards Keith and made a loud, angry hiss as she charged towards him. "Amazon! What are you doing? Magmar's the opponent here!" Jerry yelled.
"Magmar! Body Slam attack!" Keith commanded quickly. Magmar did as he was told as he leapt into the air and performed a somersault, landing his body on top of his opponent's.
Magmar jumped off Amazon's back. As the weakened Zangoose slowly got up to her hind legs, Magmar landed a hefty, fiery punch in her abdomen, sending her flying. Amazon became unconscious when she landed badly on her back. "Amazon! Darn it!" Jerry yelled as he ran towards her. "Why were you attacking Keith instead of Magmar?"
"I see that that Zangoose has strong sense of smell," Keith said as he placed his hand on one of the pokeballs that were attached to his belt. "And it smelt my Seviper."
He took out the pokeball out, enlarged with a touch of the device's button and released a black snake with different coloured patterns on different parts of his skin. "Wha…?" Jerry said in a confused tone.
"Sevipers and Zangoose had been enemies since probably the beginning of time, moron. How come you didn't know that?" Keith said with criticism.
"I did!" Jerry lied in defence. "I just er… forgot, that's all!"
"Yeah, whatever," Keith said, knowing that his opponent was lying. He returned his Seviper back into the pokeball, without noticing that the black snake was looking at the Zangoose in a curious manner. "Now, let's see what you can do… not much, I'm sure."
"This pokemon is gonna knock your Magmar all the way into next month," Jerry said as he tossed out his third pokeball. "Go! Bulko!"
A huge Snorlax materialised after being released from his pokeball, much to Keith's shock. "How did the dweeb catch a pokemon that rare?" Keith thought.
He decided to ignore his shock and pointed towards the over thousand pound pokemon. "Magmar," he said. "Fire Punch attack!"
Magmar nodded and jumped towards his opponent while a ball of flame engulfed around his clenched paw. He went to punch the Snorlax in the gut but as he did the paw became stuck because of fat skin of the opposition's stomach. "Magmar, pull the paw out," Keith instructed.
Magmar did his best to pull his paw out of Bulko's stomach but Bulk let out a loud growl, pushing the paw out of his thick belly, sending Magmar flying until he fell and harshly skid through the sandy ground. "Good going, Bulko!" Jerry yelled, thinking of his next attack. "Finish him off with Body Slam attack."
Bulko patted himself on the chest a couple of times before running and jumping into the air. Magmar looked up with fear in his eyes, knowing what was coming next. "Magamr! Out of the way!" Keith yelled.
But Magmar wasn't able to move because of his shock. He became crushed and flattened by the thunderous force of the Snorlax's huge and heavy body. A brief moment later after the sickening impact Bulko slowly picked himself up, revealing Magmar totally paralysed and unable to move.
"Alright!" Jerry yelled. "Thanks to Bulko here, I've invented a new kind of pancake! Haha! What do you say to that, flatline?"
"I'd say that your chance of winning against me is a flat line itself," Keith replied, still feeling confident, as he returned his Spitfire pokemon back into his pokeball.
He picked out another pokeball and tossed it out. "This pokemon is worth his name," he said. "Go! Darkness!"
A black dragon materialised standing on its small hind legs and yelled out his battle cry. "A… a Dragonite?" Jerry said in bewilderment. "But that thing's not normal. It's got black skin, black and blue devil-like wings and red eyes… what's going on here?"
"Scared, I take it, Jerry? You should be, this pokemon can eliminate every pokemon you have on you and I can prove it to you," Keith said. "Darkness! Hyper Beam attack!"
Darkness's eyes glowed red as he opened his mouth and quickly shot a strong light energy beam out of his mouth towards Bulko. Jerry and Bulko had no time to react against a devastating attack because of the shock they received when they saw the pokemon that Keith had released as the beam collided on the Snorlax, making an explosion upon impact.
Jerry had his eyes covered to protect them from the sand and the dust of the explosion. When the dust cleared, he turned his attention back to the battlefield only to find his Snorlax lying unconsciously on his front body meaning that he was no longer able to battle.
After Jerry returned his Snorlax back into his pokeball, he fell to his knees in defeat. "Darn it," he said to himself. "I've lost."
"That's it?" Keith said disappointedly as he returned his Dragonite back into his. "Three of your pokemon got knocked out and you give up already? I'm disappointed."
"I told you," Jerry replied, gnarling his teeth in frustration. "I had some tough battles today, okay?"
"Excuses," Keith replied back as he turned away from him. "Unless you want to disgrace your reputation as a pokemon trainer, never tell anyone what we did."
With that, he walked away and out of the scene. Jerry was still on his knees, feeling humiliated… not once but twice in one day. He badly needed help by one of the best pokemon trainers there was today but got turned down when he confessed that he never won a pokemon battle in the last four years of his life. He no longer had the strength or spirit left in him to go on training.
"Maybe I ought to call it quits and go home… become one of those guys who serves burgers and fries behind counters," he mumbled.
Suddenly, a gloved hand came into his view. He looked up and saw the person he asked for help before… Black Jack, who was showing his expressionless face. "Black Jack…" he said as tears of joy began to form in his eyes. "I thought you wasn't gonna help me."
"I'm not," Black Jack replied. "I was gonna ask if you have some spare change for gas for my motorbike."
"Oh," Jerry said in a down tone as he reached his hand down his pocket. "Well, I could help you out here…"
"Jerry, you're such an easy guy to pick on," Black Jack said while shaking his head. "Of course I've come back here to help you out."
"You are?" Jerry asked excitedly as he sprung to his feet feeling his spirit growing back while Black Jack withdrew his hand noticing that there was no need to help this young lad up. "But why?"
Black Jack let out a small sigh while shaking his head. "Look at you," he began. "I said no and you're still sitting here waiting for me. I refused to help you out at first because I thought you were wasting your time with your training. Now the only reason why I came back to help you is because you're going to be a challenge… and I like a challenge every now and again. But if you want to be my student, I'm gonna set up some rules."
"I'll follow anything!" Jerry said enthusiastically. "Even it means losing lunch every single day!"
"Believe me," Black Jack said. "You're probably gonna lose more than that."
With that, as they walked back to the pokemon center, Black Jack made some rules for Jerry not knowing how he would be coping with the passionate yet unintelligent underdog in future.
Next episode: Alice meets another old friend... and discovers more about him while they take a night out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
More coming! Reviews please!
