Chapter 17: No Firewood
"Ember!"
The bellsprout shrieked as Heat burnt it to a crisp, and it fell down with a light "thud".
Risa sighed. That was the fifth bellsprout they'd run into that day. She wasn't really complaining about it, since both Heat and Nanimo had offensive advantages, meaning it didn't take long to defeat the bellsprout hordes, but still...
She was trying to catch an ekans.
The least the wild ekans population could do for her was have an ekans actually show up.
Nanimo floated over to her trainer, her eye somewhat glazed over in boredom. "That was the fifth bellsprout we've seen today."
"I know, Nanimo," Risa grumbled, stomping off down the route.
"What exactly are you looking for, again?"
"An ekans. You know...like...a purple snake? That kind of thing?"
"I see. And what do you need this 'ekans' for? What purpose will finding one serve?"
"Um, so I can catch one."
"Yes, you said that before. But why do you need to catch one?"
"So it'll be easier to beat Bugsy and get that stupid second badge so I can go home." Risa glared at her unown. "Duh."
Her unown glared back, her single eye looking twice as menacing as two eyes could together. "Is that your only goal?"
"Well, yeah - oh," Risa said, remembering back to one of their previous conversations while stuck in the Ruins of Alph. "Saving the world. Riiiiiight. That too."
Nanimo narrowed her eye, looking suspicious. "You don't sound incredibly sincere."
Risa groaned. "Yeah, well, not many middle schoolers get told that they have to go save the world! You don't even know what we're supposed to save the world from. It makes no sense." She paused, then: "so, um, you want to tell me what I'm supposed to save the world from?"
The unown stared ahead blankly. "No."
"Um, is that a 'no', like...you don't know? Or you just don't wanna say?"
Nanimo didn't answer. The bush ahead of them rustled, and out popped - surprise, surprise - yet another bellsprout. Risa's unown shot forward, sending a barrage of icy energy spheres at the plant.
The grass-type shrieked and tried to wrap its vines around the unown, but she was too fast. She spun out of the bellsprout's grasp, sending a hidden power into the plant's mouth.
The bellsprout shuddered and fell, twitching and shivering. All Nanimo had to do was send another hidden power slamming down on top of the poor thing, and it was unconscious.
"Um," Risa said, eyeing the still bellsprout. "Good job...?" Perhaps flattery would convince the unown to give her some information about the whole "world-saving" thing she was allegedly supposed to be doing.
Once again, her unown stayed silent, opting to simply float along down the path. Risa and Heat exchanged a quick glance. "We're still keeping her?" the cyndaquil grumbled.
"Heat!" Risa hissed, trying to stay quiet. "Don't say that! She could've heard you!"
Heat shrugged, and the two of them jogged to catch up with the floating letter D. They walked (or hovered) in silence, save for when a wild bellsprout or - if they were lucky, a rattata or hoppip - ambushed them. Risa sort of liked the quiet, since it allowed her to enjoy the scenery. Route 32 had an abundance of lush plant life (probably leading it to become such an ideal spot for the annoying wild bellsprout population), a roaring river, jagged rocks and hills, and a bright blue sky above it all.
Just because Risa didn't really want to be a trainer didn't mean she didn't like traveling outdoors.
But that didn't matter, because she was on a training journey and a young boy with a blue baseball cap, a white shirt, and shorts the color of his cap was running towards her, a pokeball in his outstretched hand.
Risa paled.
She knew that look on his face - it meant he was a trainer that wanted to battle. And since she had both her pokemon out next to her, not only did it automatically flag her as a ready-to-be-challenged trainer, but it gave any potential challengers an edge because they knew what her team was.
"Hey! I challenge you!" the boy declared as he came within earshot. "I challenge you to a pokemon battle!"
Risa groaned, cursing Heat and Nanimo for being in battling condition. That meant she had to battle. "Fine. Rules?"
"Um," the boy said, glancing at her unown and cyndaquil. "I only have two pokemon..."
His tone of voice made it clear that what he really wanted to know was if Risa had any pokemon other than the unown and cyndaquil. Risa sighed. No use lying, especially since it would only take a second for the boy to catch her lie. "Same."
The boy grinned. "Single battle, two pokemon each! No switching!"
"Fine."
"Go, Ratty!" The other trainer dropped the pokeball in his hand, revealing a purple rat with large teeth. "Oh, I'm Albert. You can call me Al."
Risa nodded, taking a deep breath. A rattata. She could do this. Both Heat and Nanimo had beaten rattatas before. Granted, they were wild, and this rattata probably had at least some training behind it, but still. "I'm Risa. Um, Nanimo, I choose you."
Her unown floated forward, staring down at the rattata with her one eye. Ratty glanced back at his trainer, obviously a little confused as to what exactly he was fighting. Al shrugged. "Dunno. Never seen that pokemon b'fore."
The rat shrugged, then jumped forward when Al ordered a quick attack. Risa gaped at the rat's astonishing speed and accuracy, watching it slam right into Nanimo's single eye.
Nanimo shrieked and flew backwards, shaking a bit before sending her signature freezing energy spheres towards the rattata. The attack caught the rat off guard, scoring as much of a critical hit as his quick attack had on Nanimo, throwing him back and making him shiver when he got up.
"An ice-type?" Risa heard Al mutter. She tried her best not to grin - he was making the same mistake she did when she first battled the unown clouds. "Um...try a tail whip."
Staying back at a safe distance, Ratty lashed his tail back and forth, keeping his beady eyes locked on Nanimo. The unown twitched slightly, distracted and unnerved by the lashing tail. "Um, hidden power again!" Risa said, though she knew she really didn't need to. It wasn't as if Nanimo had any other attacks to pick from. Nevertheless, Nanimo shot out another swirling pack of ice spheres, most of which collided with the rattata on the other side of the battlefield.
Al frowned, then ordered a bite attack. Risa only had time to blanche, as Ratty used his speed to rocket forward and sink his teeth into the right side of Nanimo's body, right on the black curved half of the "D". Nanimo shrieked, wriggling until the rattata let go, but by then it was too late.
She still had enough energy to keep fighting, but Al saw the amount of damage the attack caused. A grin spread across his face, and Risa watched in horror as he put two and two together. "It's a psychic-type!" he exclaimed, and Ratty grinned in response.
"Get away -"
"Pursuit!"
Nanimo tried to move to the side, but Ratty used it to his advantage, locking in on her movements and shooting forward. He slammed into her eye, sapping her of her energy and slamming her into the ground below.
The unown, not exactly from the strongest species to begin with, lost consciousness upon impact.
"Hah! We won the round!" Al cheered, jumping up and down in a little victory dance.
Risa bit her lip, returning Nanimo to her pokeball and glancing down at Heat, who had been remarkably silent during the battle. "Um, y-you ready?"
The cyndaquil smirked. "Come on. It's a rat. And I'm no freaky letter thing."
He scampered onto the battlefield and took a deep breath. Risa noticed the smoke seeping out of his fire glands before Al did, closed her eyes, and put her hand over her nose and mouth.
Heat jumped forward, getting up close to Ratty. By the time Ratty opened his mouth to bite down on the cyndaquil, Heat exploded a thick cloud of dusty smoke out of his fire glands, blowing an additional mouthful out into Ratty's face. Al coughed and gasped as both Heat and Ratty disappeared from his view, though Risa could see Heat wriggling out from the smoke cloud back onto her side of the battlefield.
He grinned at her and winked one of his squinty eyes.
She chuckled a bit, feeling a little better. Even if Nanimo went down, that was just because she had a type disadvantage. Heat had been training for longer than her, anyway, and he had more attacks to choose from.
They could still win this.
"Ember?" she whispered.
"Ember."
He turned back to the rattata, who was swiping at the air with his eyes half-closed. Heat dashed up close and spat a barrage of hissing embers into the rat's face, then onto his underbelly when he reared up to try and fight back.
Ratty tried to run forward with a quick attack, but Heat only had to step a little to the right to cause the rattata to miss completely. "Tackle!" Risa ordered, and watched with glee as Heat threw himself against the small rat, knocking him unconscious.
Al grimaced, returning his rattata and wiping his eyes, which hadn't been closed when Heat released the smokescreen. "Fine. Batty!"
As their opponent threw his second (and last) pokeball onto the makeshift battlefield, Heat looked back at Risa. "Is he serious? Ratty...and Batty? Even your names aren't that bad."
"Oh shut up," Risa muttered as she sized up Al's zubat, annoyed at herself for not saving Nanimo for later. If Nanimo weren't unconscious, she could use her ice-typed hidden power to their advantage. But no, she had to be stupid and send Nanimo out against the rattata with dark-type attacks. She chewed her lip, then said, "flash."
Heat braced himself as the zubat flitted closer, Al having ordered a leech life, and when the bat drew close, he ignited his back. The zubat squealed and missed her target, though she regained her composure and managed to fly over towards her trainer without colliding with anything.
Al frowned. "Fine, you wanna lower my accuracy?" Risa wanted to tell him no, she didn't want to lower his accuracy, she wanted Heat to lower Batty's accuracy, but she kept her mouth shut. "Batty! Supersonic!"
"Heat! Cover your ears!"
But it was no use - Batty's shrieking came through Heat's paws and plunged into his ears, causing him to shudder. Even Risa had to sink down onto one knee, holding her throbbing head. "G-guh -"
"Now! Wing attack!"
Unfortunately, Batty didn't miss this time, and her sharp little blue-and-purple left wing smacked Heat right square on his forehead. He moaned, shaking his head and looking twice as dizzy as before.
"Heat!" Risa yelled as Batty dove down for another wing attack. "Try an ember!"
Heat opened his mouth at precisely the wrong time - Batty's wing smacked his jaw right as the embers began pouring out, causing him to accidentally swallow them. He squealed, rolling around on the ground, moaning about his stomach.
Al grinned. "We're winning now! Batty, use bite."
The little zubat dove down again, sinking her teeth in Heat's exposed underbelly. He screamed and flailed, but no matter what, he couldn't hit her. She bit down harder, blood dribbling out around her teeth, and finally, Heat slumped down onto the ground.
Risa's jaw dropped - Heat lost? To a zubat?
"Yes! We won, we won!" Al yelled, punching the air and dancing around as Batty flew back over to him, complaining in her zubat chatter about something - apparently, Al didn't have any sort of translation machine. As he recalled her, he looked back over to Risa, who was fumbling with Heat's pokeball. "Hey - um, you gotta pay me."
"R-right," mumbled the girl, fishing out some cash and all but dropping it when Al stepped over to take it from her. She numbly returned Heat to his pokeball, wallowing in her defeat at the hands of a boy with shorts that matched his baseball cap.
Al shrugged at her silence, muttering a simple "well, see ya" before heading in the direction of Violet City.
Risa sighed, sitting down on a nearby boulder and putting Heat and Nanimo's pokeballs on the rock next to her. Glancing up at the sky, she realized that it was already late afternoon, and she had just practically wasted a day battling random bellsprouts she didn't want and losing to some guy with pokemon named "Batty" and "Ratty".
"Whatever," she muttered to herself. "Guess I'll just camp here." Even though the sun wouldn't set for another couple hours, Risa didn't feel like making any more progress on her trek to Azalea Town. She just wanted to take a break, even if it meant camping on the same stretch of pathway that she just lost to Albert the shorts-wearer.
Slowly and silently she went about taking out various potions and revives, applying them in their digitized forms into the pokeballs to heal her fallen team.
---
The next day, Heat had more than bounced back. By the time they reached the fork in the road between the tall grass mountainside and the docks across the river, he had already decided that the zubat had only beaten him by luck, and that he would never again lose to a blind bat. (Who, for some reason, still fell under the effects of his light-based flash attack.)
Nanimo, on the other hand, seemed to take the defeat much more harshly. That, or she just happened to be in a bad mood the following day, perhaps because while Risa healed both of them back to fighting condition immediately following the trainer battle, she didn't actually release either of them from their pokeballs until the next morning. Either way, Nanimo seemed to be a lot snippier with both Risa and Heat post-morning after.
In fact, all three of them were locked in a heated argument when they reached the fork.
"I say we go in the tall grass area, because that's where the pokemon are! That's where I get to fight - AND I don't have to deal with stupid WATER," Heat snapped.
Risa nodded. "Yeah, you know, I really do want to catch an ekans."
"We're wasting too much time with these trivial battles," the unown replied curtly. "We should go across the docks."
"That's stupid! The grass path isn't that much longer! It'll probably take LESS time!"
"No, it won't. The docks will be shorter because we won't have to fight wild pokemon."
"Um, we need to fight wild pokemon. We're supposed to be trying to catch an ekans, remember?"
"We don't NEED an ekans."
"Yes, we do. Remember that fight? The one we just lost? AGAINST A GUY WITH SHORTS THAT MATCHED HIS HAT?"
Heat looked up at Risa, confused. "Wait - what's that got to do with anything?"
"It's ugly."
"Whyyy do you care?"
"Because I'm a girl."
"I'm a girl, and I most certainly do not care."
"You're not a REAL girl, though. You're some weird no-gender thing. You just THINK you're a girl."
Nanimo growled. "I. Am. Female."
Heat sneered. "No. You're. Not."
"Heat, maybe you should -"
"Whatever. Let's just go - both of US don't want to go on the docks, so that means we win," Heat said, already heading towards the first bit of tall grass on the land path towards Union Cave. "We can catch a girl ekans just to show that weirdo what a REAL girl pokemon is."
Risa glanced over at Nanimo, who looked livid. "Um, well, okay, but first we need to find an ekans. I'd take a boy ekans any day over no ekans at all..."
"Oh, we'll find a girl ekans," Heat yelled, glaring at the floating unown. "See? I'll even bet on it. If we get a girl ekans by the time we get to that cave-thing, you," he nodded towards Nanimo, "have to admit that you're not really a girl, you're just a THING. And if we don't," he shrugged, "I'll call you a girl. Heh, like THAT'S gonna happen."
One look at Nanimo told Risa otherwise. "Heat.." she said nervously, backing away from the seething unown.
"We'll see about that little bet of yours," Nanimo hissed before turning on Risa, slamming into her backpack and throwing the girl onto the ground.
"Hey! You can't attack our - mmph!" Heat yelled, but Risa, who managed to wriggle out of her backpack and run over to him, shut him up with a hand over his mouth.
"Maybe you should shut up before you say anything else that's stupid," she hissed, glancing back at Nanimo's attack on her backpack.
The unown managed to freeze-rip open the pocket containing Risa's empty pokeballs, all of which she promptly beat with hidden power ice spheres until they shattered. Luckily for her, Risa kept the two pokeballs that captured Heat and Nanimo in a different pocket, meaning they were spared from the unown's wrath.
Nanimo then turned to Heat, panting slightly (though why, Risa couldn't tell, because it wasn't like she had any sort of mouth - Risa wasn't even sure if Nanimo breathed). "Let's see you capture this ekans without any pokeballs."
Risa bit her lip, part of her hoping that she accidentally put an empty pokeball in the main compartment of her backpack, though she doubted it. "Um, let's take the docks, then," she said quickly, picking up her backpack-sans-one-pocket and heading over to stand by Nanimo. "Heat, um, you - you coming?"
He snorted. "Fine."
Nanimo glared at him as he caught up with them. "Well?"
"Well, what?"
"What am I?"
Risa prayed to whatever higher power there was that he didn't do anything else to anger her unown. Her backpack could only take so much abuse.
Heat growled, pawed, at the dock, and said through gritted teeth: "a girl."
Then he stomped off ahead, muttering about freaky floating letters and stupid girl trainers, his back sizzling with fire.
Risa sighed. Ten days left.
---
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. I am writing this merely for my own enjoyment.
Author's Note: I'm trying to get better at writing battles...so I decided to put a battle with one of the in-game trainers from Pokemon Crystal in this chapter. Youngster Albert really does exist, and he really does have a rattata and a zubat (though I bumped up their levels and used Platinum movesets). Oh - and it's not nice to say someone isn't the gender they identify with. Especially if they get violent when you say it. So if someone tells you a girl, just go with it, or your backpack may suffer.