I need another Pokémon thought Jack as he was ferried out of Viridian City or I'll never be able to beat Misty. His loss was at the forefront of his mind, but instead of being crushed by the loss he used it to motivate him to be even better. Because all the Pokémon north of Cerulean had migrated, Jack was heading south towards Saffron and Vermillion City to pick up a third member of his party there.
It wasn't the best place for finding Pokémon, a huge road had been cut arrow straight the land and the grass either side had been trimmed short and even. It was the kind of habitat that the powerful Pokémon who dwelt in the furthest and remotest corners of Kanto hated and any trainer would be hard pressed to find a Pokémon worth catching there.
Apart from the ever present Pidgey and Rattata Jack couldn't see any Pokémon worth his time battling, let alone catching. Jack had avoided Pokémon battles mostly, he wanted to catch a third Pokémon first and practice battling with it after. After nearly an hour of searching he found his Pokémon. It was perfect, exactly what he needed. It didn't look particularly formidable, but then again most psychic Pokémon don't.
Physically it was less than impressive, a circular white body with a purple spot at its centre, stick thin arms and legs ended in clownishly oversized hands and feet and a large, pink, round head that sat neck-less on its equally squat body.
None of that mattered to Jack though. It was what it was doing that attracted him to it. It was in the middle of a heated battle with a huge, battle scarred Fearow and easily winning. The enraged bird charged towards it and began to jab viciously with its deadly looking beak but was stopped in its track by a quickly erected barrier of shimmering, transparent energy.
The Fearow collided with the barrier and for a second the barrier bent inwards and it looked like it would rip, but then the wall of light rebounded back and tossed the bird to the floor. The bird hit the dust and quickly got to its feet, squawking madly all the while. It was truly a formidable creature, by its looks the long time leader of a successful flock of Spearow, and had taken affront to this strange Pokémon invading its territory.
Jack pointed his Pokédex towards his chosen Pokémon and listened intently to the metallic message. Mr Mime, the barrier Pokémon. A skilled mime from birth, it gains the ability to create invisible objects as it matures. If interrupted whilst miming it will slap the offender with broad hands. The Mr. Mime almost seemed bored by the battle.
With a bit of carefully chosen conjuring it could practically make itself invincible, easily keeping its attacker from landing a hit. It drew a faint square in the air and a shimmering barrier appeared in the air in front of it, created just in time for the crazed bird to crash into, headfirst. The bird was starting to get dazed, its bloodshot eyes were glazed over and it seemed unsteady on its feet.
Finally the bored Mr. Mime decided to end the battle. As it narrowed its eyes in concentration a small halo of psychic energy began to circle its head slowly. The Pokémon pointed its broad hands towards the Fearow and a ball of psychic energy exploded from its hand and smashed into it. The energy had more force than a punch from a Machamp.
The ball of energy smashed its face to a bloody pulp and snapped its neck back, the loud crack echoing through the landscape. The Fearow dropped to the ground with a dull thud, sending small plumes of dust motes rising slowly through the air. Jack winced and looked away from the dead Pokémon, but in reality the show of strength really excited him.
Whilst the Mr. Mime was facing the other way Jack released Dante. 'Dante use iron head,' he whispered. Dante ran towards the Mr. Mime's back, bearing down on the psychic Pokémon like a steamroller. At the last moment it span round and cross its arms over its chest. A thin, spherical barrier appeared in front of it. Dante hit the barrier at full speed and it bent inwards elastically, before shattering, sprinkling the ground with tiny, purplish specks of energy.
The barrier had taken most of the strength out of the attack and Dante was moving slowly when he hit the Mr. Mime, tossing it high into the air with a flick of his powerful neck. The psychic Pokémon back-flipped in the air and landed lightly on its feet, the relaxed, disinterested look on its face replaced by a look of anger. Huge balls of energy formed in its hands and he tossed them towards Dante.
Dante effortlessly dodged the first attack and caught the second on his steel skull. The steel plates absorbed most of the attack and Dante was able to shake off the attack with ease. 'Take it down with flamethrower,' ordered Jack, admiring the Pokémon's battling ability. Dante belched gouts of flames out of his mouth towards his opponent, only to see them be repulsed by another screen of condensed light, this one multicoloured. 'Dante, keep it up.'
Dante's attack began to weaken but before it spattered out completely the light screen burnt away and the Mr. Mime was awash of flickering red and orange flames. It fell to the floor, burnt and struggled to its feet. It was in bad shape, a huge, irregular burn mark showing on its stomach and one of its arms hung limply at its side having been dislocated by Dante's iron head attack.
'Dante get closer and use bite.' Dante responded by charging towards the Mr. Mime, running surprisingly smoothly and quickly for such a bulky and heavy creature. He opened his mouth wide and jumped through the air, jaw muscles clenches as he was ready to bite down on the other Pokémon. In one fluid movement the Mr. Mime pirouetted to the side and shot a beam of swirling psychic energy out of its right hand.
The beam hit Dante on the side of his head, just behind his metal plated skull, and tossed him onto his back. The beam had struck the place directly behind his ear with powerful force, and the placement of the blow knocked immediately knocked Dante out cold.
Quickly Jack recalled Dante and released Asrael, not giving the Mr. Mime any time to escape. 'Asrael use twister,' shouted Jack and Asrael roared in anger, focussing his mind to manipulate the weather. A vicious twister suddenly whipped into existence around the Mr. Mime, the strong winds nearly wrenching it off its feet. Its frizzy black hair whipped around wildly as fear finally showed in its eyes.
The twister strengthened and ripped it completely off its feet, spinning it around faster and faster in the clutches of the powerful winds. Suddenly the psychic Pokémon was thrown out of the twister, a good twenty feet in the air, and hurled hard onto the rocky cement of the road. There was a loud crack as it landed, followed by a dull thump.
The Mr. Mime lay spread-eagled on the ground, clutching its broken shoulder and arm and groaning in agony. The impact had also shattered its spindly legs, which lay at awkward right angles, the bone breaking through the thin skin. Jack recalled Asrael and threw a Pokéball towards the badly injured Pokémon and watched in satisfaction as bright white light enveloped it and pulled it into the Pokéball.
Even though it was injured the Mr. Mime still struggled against its confinement and the Pokéball rocked for a full minute before it was officially caught. Jack scooped up the Pokéball and released his Pokémon so he could heal it completely. After a full minute of healing the Mr. Mime was fighting fit and ready to talk.
Bastard. The word was pronounced coldly but the anger behind it was palpable. Bastard. How dare you catch me? It was obviously in half a mind to attack its trainer, but the terms of capture stopped that in its tracks. Jack just raised his eyebrows and endured the onslaught.
'You can fight for me if you want,' he said calmly, 'but if you don't I'll have to leave you in a box to rot. I don't want to do it,' he grimaced at the thought of doing that to a Pokémon, 'but if you don't fight for me I may be forced to.' At this the Mr. Mime was silent for a while, obviously deep in thought. Finally it sighed I will fight for you. I can't believe that I got caught by an amateur!
It began to mutter angrily under its breath for a full minute before finally burst out in a smile, 'thank God,' he said, the relief obvious in his voice, 'I really didn't want to leave you to rot in a box, uh....' he trailed off and looked questioningly at the Mr. Mime. 'What's your name?'
Harry answered the Mr. Mime shortly, promptly turning his back to Jack and refusing to speak anymore. Jack let out a bark of laughter before catching himself, 'Harry? That's an....understated name!' he said, the amusement plain in his voice. Harry said nothing, but Jack could see that his large hands were clenched in a fist. 'Sorry,' Jack said finally, banishing all amusement from his voice, 'I'm sorry.'
Harry still had his back turned, blatantly ignoring his trainer. Jack shrugged at the obnoxious behaviour and carried on talking, 'I'm going to battle with you a bit so we can both get used to each other then after a couple of days of training we will challenge Misty again.' Harry still didn't react. Sighing Jack recalled the belligerent Pokémon and started training in earnest.
The trainers around Cerulean weren't particularly strong. Harry was able to take out all of their Pokémon with relative ease, but there was clear friction between him and his trainer. In the fifth battle this friction really came to head. Harry was facing off a mediocre trainer who looked about sixteen. Though he had been training for over two years he still didn't have a badge and his Pokémon were unimpressive.
'Go Meowth,' he cried, seeing the stick-thin trainer in front of him and mistakenly sensing an easy win. A tiny cat Pokémon was appeared from the swirling, starry light of the Pokéball, hissing viciously. It had a cream coloured, slim body with a large head, large yellow eyes and six thick, quivering whiskers leaping out of its cheeks and head. A solid gold crest nestled snugly between two large, black ears and needle sharp fangs bared themselves over furry lips.
'Harry, come out and smash it,' said Jack calmly, smirking at the mistakenly hopeful trainer rubbing his hands together enthusiastically in front of him. Harry appeared and landed lightly on the ground, his expression deadpan as usual. The
trainer attacked first, seeing only a physically weak specimen in front of him not a psychic master. 'Meowth use tackle, then use bite whilst it's on the floor.' One thing that the trainer could not be faulted on was in the way he raised his Pokémon. The Meowth obviously loved him very much and was extremely eager to please its trainer. Too eager to please. With surprising speed it bounded towards Harry and jumped into him in with a shoulder charge.
Harry calmly erected a barrier between him and the attacking Pokémon and watched in satisfaction as the cat Pokémon bounced off accompanied by a faint tinkling sound, like a faint orchestra. Even that had tired out the Meowth. Though it was only covered in superficial cuts and bruises it already seemed nearly out of the battle, a large red tongue lolling out of its wide mouth.
Jack felt sorry for the trainer, obviously out of his depth against a much stronger trainer, and had flashbacks to his own encounter with a trainer much too strong for him and felt pity. 'Harry, wrap this up with a psybeam. Don't hurt it too badly.' Harry seemed to listen, but his psybeam attack was thick and powerful. It smashed into the Meowth's chest and smashed its ribcage open like a mallet splits a nut.
The force also threw that cat Pokémon onto his back and sent the broken Pokémon sliding backwards through the dirt. Jack bit his lip angrily, 'what the hell are you doing? I told you to go easy on him!' Harry spoke as if Jack did not deserve a reply the weak should be weeded out. Only the strong should survive in this world. That is how God intended it. The Meowth was weak. It deserved to be-
Jack recalled the Pokémon it mid sentence and held up his hand in apology. 'I'm sorry for that, I did not mean to hurt your Pokémon so bad.' He looked at the pathetic teenager in front of him, 'I suggest you get another Pokémon and train yours up better. Who knows what could happen then? You could even be a Champion!' The boy smiled and thanked him, 'I'm Enrique, I got this Pokémon in Hoenn – it was considered very rare there – but when I moved to Kanto I found that it was actually quite common.'
He smiled ruefully and his eyes unfocused slightly, 'just my luck eh...' His eyes suddenly focussed, 'how long have you had your Pokémon?' Jack shrugged as he counted up the days in his head, 'about a week, maybe less.' Enrique sighed and sat down on the ground heavily, 'and you beat me that easily. I've had my friend here for two years! I'm going to train harder and I will beat you soon.'
Jack nodded and left to find more Pokémon trainers to train against. He hoped that the disobedience was just a one-time thing, and searched for ways to try and make his peace with the troublesome Pokémon. He decided that talking it out was a good place to start. He released Harry again, and watched in disgust as the psychic Pokémon flicked a ball of energy towards a young, chattering Pidgey. The ball hit the bird Pokémon in the neck, killing it instantly. The small, helpless bird collapsed heavily on the ground, lying there pathetic and pitiful and Jack prepared to lock Harry away in a box and to try and forget about him. That is when the family of the Pidgey came calling. They were very, very angry.
A group of seven, powerful looking bird Pokémon with huge, well muscled feathered wings and a long feathered, red, yellow and white crest blowing out behind him. They were the rare Pidgeot – a shy, rarely seen bird that was brutal when provoked. The loud battle cries of the birds preceded them, but their speed was so great that they were only fractions of a second behind.
Just before the Pidgeot reached them there was a loud bang, and clouds began to form in the low pressure around the bird Pokémon as they broke the sound barrier. At the last moment they flared their sleek wings wide, immediately slowing them down to a more controllable speed. Still travelling at quite considerable speeds the Pidgeot suddenly angled into a steep descent and smashed into Harry with sickening force.
The seven Pokémon bowled him over as if he was a piece of straw caught in a strong wind, knocking him heavily into the ground. The bird Pokémon savagely attacked Harry, ripping into him with a flurry of razor-sharp beaks and talons. Jack could hear the pitiful moaning of his Pokémon even above the savage shrieking of his attackers and began to shout instructions to his Pokémon.
'Harry, use barrier to stop them, quick.' Harry ignored his advise again and a crushing psychic force knocked off two of his attackers, sending them rolling across the floor like skittles. They got up slowly but didn't rejoin the fray, instead they slowly took off and painfully winged their way back to their roost.
'Damn you, listen to me or you will get killed!' screamed Jack, 'use barrier!' Harry still ignored him and another blast of psychic energy smashed through his attackers. Jack clenched his fists in frustration and released Dante to help his stricken Pokémon. 'Dante use flamethrower to clear off the birds.' Dante complied with his demands and a powerful jet of flame sent the rest of the Pidgeot scampering away.
They squawked angrily, raising their winds to make themselves look bigger, but a warning jet of flame sent them retreating even further. With a final defiant shriek the remaining four Pidgeot finally rose into the air and flew away, leaving a heavily mutilated Harry in their wake.
Jack had heard the term ripped to shreds, but he never thought he would see it in the flesh. There was not much of Harry's body that was in one piece. His hands and half of his torso had been completely cut off his body and deep, bloody cuts covered the rest of his body.
Jack sadly recalled his Pokémon and quickly ran back to heal his Pokémon. That would not keep him for long from returning to his training. He just hoped that after this event Harry would decide to comply with him.