Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon and am in no way affiliated with Nintendo or Gamefreak, or other companies that write or produce pokemon. Now that that legal stuff is out of the way, on to the story!
Pokemon Legends: Kanto Saga
Chapter Eight
Vs. Ying and Yang
"Finally! We're here!" Ashley cried out in joy upon finally arriving in Vermillion City. "My back is killing me..." Ashley let out a sigh and slung the heavy backpack off her shoulders, dropping it on the ground with a thud.
The trip to Vermillion City had taken a lot longer than Ashley had thought it would, as it involved a long trek through the underground tunnel leading between Cerulean and Vermillion. While the tunnel was easier to travel through, Ashley had intended on stopping for a break in Saffron. The road into Saffron from Cerulean City was closed, however, and it took them until the evening to reach Vermillion.
"At least we're here with enough time for you to challenge the gym leader." Rina reached into Ashley's bag and took out her cellphone, flipping it open to check the time. "Still have about an hour, so we should hurry to the pokecenter and get your pokemon checked out, then you can challenge him."
"-Checked out? All we've done since we left Cerulean is walk!-" Bulbasaur growled in frustration, standing between Ashley and Rina. "-And only I actually did any walking, Pippi just sat on your shoulder the whole time!-"
"-What can I say? I like it up here!-" Pippi said to Bulbasaur, sitting lazily on Rina's shoulder.
"Good point, Bulbasaur, but stopping by the pokecenter is just a good habit trainers get into." Rina said in response, giving Bulbasaur a smile that completely defused his anger.
"Yeah, I wonder if I should do some training first though?" Ashley picked up the backpack and carried it with her as she continued off into the city. Rina and Bulbasaur followed along beside her. "Bulbasaur is the only pokemon I have resistant to the attacks of Surge's pokemon, and none of my pokemon have an attack effective against them."
"Well you could always..." Rina began, but both her and Ashley stopped in their tracks when they saw a scene unfolding only a few dozen meters ahead.
"Stop right there! We have you surrounded!" Several men in blue uniforms, accompanied by small, orange-furred canine pokemon had two individuals backed up against the front of a building and were in a semi-circle around them. Two pokemon were also with them, a Wartortle and a Charmeleon. Both were wearing collars around their necks.
"Give yourselves up, Ying and Yang! We're taking you in!" One of the officers boldly declared.
"Fools...do you think you can catch us so easily?" Yang taunted the police and sneered at them.
"You may have us cornered, but we still have one trick up our sleeves." Ying added. Ying and Yang simultaneously reached for a small black ball at their waists and dropped them on the ground. Smoke filled the area, and the police officers moved closer together to keep the two hunters from slipping by them. When the smoke cleared, however, they were gone despite this.
"The hell?" Several officers said simultaneously, to varying degrees. They looked all around, even straight up, to see where Ying and Yang might have gone to. There was no sign of them anyway.
"How do they keep doing that?" Rina wondered aloud. "Even surrounded by police they can just disappear in a cloud of smoke..."
"Its just something we're going to have to account for when we go after them ourselves..." Ashley commented quietly. "Anyway, they're gone, so nothing we have to worry about. Lets get to the pokecenter..."
Ashley, Rina, and the two pokemon left the scene and, after only a short walk, arrived at the Vermillion City pokecenter. Ashley recalled Bulbasaur before heading inside with Rina. Rina had decided there was no point in handing over her own pokemon, so Pippi remained on Rina's shoulder when they went in.
Once inside, Ashley stepped up to the reception desk and handed over her pokemon for a quick check-up. Rina sat down in one of the chairs in the waiting area and picked up a pokemon research magazine to leaf through. Ashley joined her as well after handing over her pokemon.
"I wouldn't get comfortable with that magazine, Rina, we probably won't be here long." Ashley said as she sat down next to her.
"-Rina! Whats it say about that big pokemon there?-" Pippi asked Rina, pointing at a large bear-like pokemon. "-I can't read it...-"
"Its called a Snorlax..." Rina turned the magazine towards Ashley to show her the page. "All it does is sleep and eat. It eats a lot, and then falls into such a deep sleep that it can't be woken up at all! Isn't that odd?"
"I've heard of that pokemon before, they're supposed to be really rare." Ashley noted as she looked over the picture.
"Yeah, but get this! There's one outside Vermillion City!" Rina giggled in her excitement. "We should go check it out! Maybe its still there!"
"Really?" Ashley blinked in surprise and took a closer look at the article. "Could be worth checking out at least, I can always battle Surge tomorrow. We'll be staying here overnight anyway..."
"Great!" Rina turned to look over her shoulder to look at Pippi. "Hear that, Pippi? We might get to see a rare pokemon!"
"-Wow! That'd be fun! I can't wait!-" Pippi squeaked happily in response.
It didn't take long after that for the nurses to finish checking over Ashley's pokemon. As expected, they were already in perfect health. Rina put her magazine back and the two girls left the pokecenter. Ashley released Bulbasaur from his pokeball once she was outside the pokecenter. Then the group set off to the east on what was almost an hour-long trek out to where the Snorlax was supposed to be.
Along the way, they eventually came upon a building separating two routes and serving as a rest house. They stopped inside for a moment, as they had expected to have seen the wild Snorlax by then.
"That Snorlax must be gone, we didn't see it around anywhere on the way here..." Ashley sighed in disappointment.
"Well we could still check just on the other side of this building?" Rina suggested.
"Fine, but if you don't see it as soon as you open the door we should probably head back." Ashley replied, folding her arms and standing off to the side while she waited for Rina to check. Aside from a single nightwatch, they were the only people in the building.
Rina approached the door at the eastern end of the building, opening it and poking her head out to take a quick look. She spotted her target almost immediately, only a few dozen meters further to the east. She stared in disbelief for a moment, unable to believe that after almost giving up hope it was now in plain view, lying on its back in the middle of the road between Lavender and Fuschia.
"Ashley! Its right outside!" Rina practically shouted, forcefully throwing the door open and rushing outside.
"It is? Hey, wait up!" Ashley took off out the door as well, following behind Rina.
"-Unless you're planning to catch it, I don't see why you're getting so excited.-" Bulbasaur stated as he calmly followed the girls out the door.
Rina ran straight up to the pokemon with Pippi on her shoulder. Pippi hopped off as Rina stopped in front of the pokemon, jumping onto Snorlax's stomach. Rina turned sharply to face Ashley. "Ashley, look at the size of this thing! He has the path between Lavender Town and Fuschia City completely blocked!"
"It is, isn't it?" Ashley noted thoughtfully. "Maybe we should try waking it up?"
"That magazine said it couldn't be woken up though..." Rina replied, looking back over her shoulder at Snorlax. "It couldn't hurt to try I guess, but still..."
"Ok, Bulbasaur! Try waking it up with your Vine Whip!" Ashley called out to Bulbasaur, extending her arm out to point at Snorlax.
"-I'm with Rina. This isn't going to work, but since we're trying anyway...-" Bulbasaur extended his vines out and raised the ends up. He then lashed out at the sleeping Snorlax, a snap echoing through the air as his vines struck Snorlax like a pair of whips. The sleeping Snorlax remained sleeping, however. In fact, it didn't even flinch.
"Ok, Pippi! You try now! Thundershock!" Rina called out while quickly backing away from Snorlax to avoid getting shocked herself.
"-Here I go!-" Sparks erupted from Pippi's red cheeks and shot straight down, through her own body and into Snorlax's stomach. Again, Snorlax didn't even flinch or show signs of waking. It continued to snore away in a state of deep sleep. Pippi blinked in surprise and looked up at Snorlax with a shocked look on her face.
"-But...not even a jolt of electricity? I thought that would wake anyone up!-" Pippi stated in her surprise.
"Where would she get that idea?" Rina wondered. "Well, Bulbasaur and Pippi couldn't do it. Should we try our other pokemon?" Rina turned around to face Ashley as she addressed her, just in time to spot two individuals and their pokemon creeping up from behind her.
"Ashley, look out!" Ashley looked back when Rina warned her and quickly distanced herself from the people sneaking up on her. Bulbasaur took notice as well and took up position next to Ashley.
"You two again!" Ashley shouted in her surprise. "But you disappeared when the police had you cornered!"
"So you saw us, then?" Yang chuckled. The two individuals that had been sneaking up on Ashley were none other than the same hunters they had fought at Mount Moon and had seen the police corner only a short while ago.
"We had a minor slip up and the police managed to catch on to us." Yang stated as he continued, giving a light shrug. "Of course, we couldn't just stay away. Afterall, we needed to redeem ourselves after the incident at Mount Moon. So now we're going to catch the rare and powerful Snorlax."
"Running into you here is just a bonus." Ying added smugly. "Now we will catch a rare pokemon to sell on the black market, and we'll have your pokemon to go with it!" Ying gave a wide, sinister grin. "Of course, there's probably a market for young girls like yourselves as well..."
"We're ready for you this time!" Ashley boldly declared. "We're going to take you down and bring you in!"
"-I have a new attack I'd love to try our on your Wartortle, too.-" Bulbasaur remarked with a grin.
"This time, we'll fight to!" Rina declared as well. Pippi hopped down off Snorlax. Rina and Pippi rushed forward to stand next to Ashley, ready to fight off the two hunters. Rina and Ashley looked at each other and nodded, then both reached for a second pokeball.
"Mankey, time to get serious!"
"Berry, come on out!"
Ashley and Rina held up their respective pokeballs and released their pokemon. Ashley sent out her hyperactive and wild tempered Mankey to join Bulbasaur in battle. Rina released her Butterfree, Berry, to accompany Pichu in battle as well. Rina and her pokemon were standing ready to battle Yang and his Charmeleon, while Ashley and her pokemon would battle Ying and Wartortle. Despite being clearly outnumbered, the two hunters were grinning from ear to ear.
"So you think you're ready for us this time? Lets see how you handle this..." Yang took out a small syringe and motioned for Charmeleon to step forward. Once Charmeleon was in front of Yang, he injected the greenish substance within into Charmeleon's neck. The fire pokemon cried out in agony, and soon his body began to to bubble at the skin and bend out of shape.
"What the? Whats happening to him!?" Ashley cried out in confusion and disgust.
"Oh my god..." Rina gasped and covered her mouth as she witnessed the horrid sight before her. "What did you do to him?!" Pippi looked on as well with her face frozen in an expression of absolute horror.
Yang offered no answer and simply grinned. Charmeleon was clearly in a great deal of pain as his body seeminly bubbled and expanded. Its tail was the first to truly grow, however, shooting straight out behind it as it increased in length and width. His tail became even longer than his body was. The increased size of the tail was then followed up by a pair of draconic wings sprouting painfully from his back and his skin changing color from dark red to bright orange.
"-Damn it, man! That just ain't natural!-" Bulbasaur growled angrily, watching as Charmeleon went through what seemed like an unnatural and forced evolution.
The rest of Charmeleon's body finally seemed like it was catching up with the tail and wings as it began to grow as well, its head and body reshaping itself to look more like a Charizard's body and its neck finally extending a bit as well. When the process was finally finished, the newly evolved Charizard hung his head weakly and was panting heavily. The process was clearly painful to it and had taken a great toll on its body.
"My turn..." Ying declared with a smug smirk, motioning for Wartortle to move in front of her while she took out a similar syringe. Despite having witnessed what happened with Charmeleon, Wartortle showed no sign of resistance courtesy of the collar around its neck.
"Team Rocket might be a lousy bunch of criminals at times, but they have some very interesting toys." Ying commented before plunging the syringe into the back of Wartortle's neck, beginning another force evolution.
Wartortle screamed in pain as his ears and tail suddenly shriveled up into the pointed ears and stubby tail of a Blastoise. His body began to grow out in all directions, his shell expanding as well to accompany his new body. His head shifted slightly as well as it grew, shaping into the head of a Blastoise. Even throughout the evolution, the slave collar around Wartortle's neck remained in place.
When Wartortle's body was finally finished expanding and growing, the evolved Blastoise hung its head weakly. Just when it thought it was over, however, a pair of gun barrels painfully broke through its shell. Instead of the usual flaps over its shell where the guns would be on a Blastoise, it had two broken holes.
"I knew you hunters were monsters but this is insane!" Ashley cried out in a rage. The enslaved Blastoise and Charizard had many cracks and wrinkles all over their bodies, a result of the forced growth. They looked like they had a skin condition of some sort.
"Your opinion hardly matters to us." Yang calmly stated with a shrug. "While they might not be as strong as a naturally evolved Charizard and Blastoise, these forced evolutions will be sufficient to defeat your puny pokemon."
"Now lets see what we gained from that..." Ying reached into her pocket and took out a strange black device, slightly larger than a pokedex and with two prongs sticking out the end. She pointed it at Blastoise, then at Charizard, and whistled appreciatively.
"Seems this Blastoise learned Blizzard, and Charizard learned Iron Tail." Ying informed Yang and put the device away. "This will be over before it even begins..."
"Those really are powerful attacks!" Ashley thought, though she wasn't about to let that fact slow her down. "We won't give you the chance to attack! Bulbasaur, attack with Sleep Powder! Rina, follow my lead!"
"Right! Berry, you use Sleep Powder too!" Rina called out determinedly. Rina realized that, by using Sleep Powder, they could remove Ying and Yang's pokemon from the fight without causing further harm to them and then try to apprehend the two hunters.
Berry flapped her wings, releasing a green powder from them while Bulbasaur shot out a similar powder from his bulb. Both Blastoise and Charizard were sprinkled with the powder while they were still too weak from the evolution to attack or even defend themselves. Within only seconds, both pokemon were asleep and Ashley and Rina grinned at their success.
"Blastoise, awaken and take those two down with Blizzard." The red gem-like lights on Blastoise's collar glowed briefly, causing to pokemon to snap awake at Ying's command. He took aim between Berry and Bulbasaur with his two cannons and fired out a blast of ice and cold air that engulfed all four pokemon as well as their trainers. A thin layer of ice began to form on their bodies where the wind was striking first, forcing Ashley to back up out of the line of fire before they became frozen.
"This isn't good! They can just order their pokemon to wake up!" Ashley shouted out in surprise. She quickly brushed the snow off her and looked to Rina. "Rina, you need to climb over Snorlax and get out of here! I'll cover you!"
"This is our fight too, Ashley! No matter what it comes to!" Rina looked to Pippi standing on her shoulder and nodded. Pippi hopped down and ran back to the front lines as the Blizzard attack was ending. "I can't just run away, not after what they just put those pokemon through!"
"-Me neither, what they did was horrible!-" Pippi shouted her agreement. "-I don't care what it takes, someone has to help those pokemon!-" Pippi's cheeks flared up with electricity as her anger got the better of her and she found herself unable to control her electricity, as she often did in heightened emotional states.
"Well isn't this one feisty!" Yang remarked with a grin. "Charizard, awaken and strike that one there with Iron Tail!" Charizard's eyes shot open as the lights on its collar glowed, much like with Blastoise before. Charizard then raised its tail, which gained a metallic coating, and lashed out at Pippi with it.
"Mankey, grab that tail!" Mankey bounded forward, shaking off the ice that had gathered in its fur as it put itself between Pippi and the attacking Charizard. Mankey grabbed Charizard's tail with both hands, catching the attack and managing to hold it back. Charizard tried to push down on Mankey, but Mankey held strong against it.
"What?! That monkey is strong enough to block Charizard's attack?!" Yang shouted in disbelief.
"-You know, that wasn't much of a Blizzard attack either...-" Bulbasaur commented as he shook the snow off himself. "-I've taken stronger Water Pulse than that...recently I might add.-"
"-I'm with Bulbasaur...-" Berry said, nodding in her agreement. "-Strong, fully evolved pokemon...strong ice attack...I thought I'd be a goner for sure!-"
"-Yousuckyousuckyou SUCK!-" Mankey shouted at Charizard, throwing its tail off to the side. Charizard didn't even have enough power in its Iron Tail attack to overpower Mankey.
"It seems that forcing them to evolve has left them incredibly weak..." Ying noted to Yang. "We will need to hold off their pokemon long enough for them to get their strength back..."
"You won't have that long!" Ashley declared. "Bulbasaur, Mankey, lets..."
"Ashley, wait!" Rina called out, interrupting her. "Let us try first!" Ashley blinked in surprise at first, but then nodded to Rina to let her take the first attack.
"Ok, Pippi! Try breaking Blastoise's collar with a Volt Tackle!" Pippi nodded quickly and charged up electricity. Sparks flowed out from her cheeks and surrounded her body, creating an electrified aura around her.
"Just go ahead and try it, kid. These collars are nearly indestructable." Ying said to Rina. "Blastoise will hardly be affected by that Volt Tackle, but trying to smash into the collar will likely hurt a lot and leave her open to be finished off..." Ying smirked to herself as she formulated her plan, intent on bringing down Pippi this time.
However, what Ying thought would happen and what actually happened turned out to be entirely different. Pippi charged towards Blastoise at full speed and jumped up, shooting towards the collar on its neck like a missile. The electricity around Pippi's body first short-circuited the collar momentarily, but it was long enough so that the collar snapped at the point of impact when Pippi hit it full on.
"What?! Thats impossible!" Ying cried out in disbelief at the collar being broken. Pippi bounced off and landed on the ground in a bit of a daze, while Blastoise himself seemed largely unaffected. The effects of Pippi's attack was soon clear, however, as Blastoise reached up and struggled for a moment to remove the broken collar from around his neck.
"-I've been wanting to do that for weeks now...-" Blastoise tossed the broken halves of the slave collar to the side. He winced as he felt pain surging through his body. "-Damn it! The hell did you bastards do to me?!-"
"Way to go, Pippi! Thats one freed now!" Rina cheered excitedly. Pippi slowly lifted her head off the ground and smiled weakly at Rina. She was rubbing her head with her paws, still a bit dazed by the
"Wow...I have to admit, I wasn't sure it'd work either..." Ashley commented to herself. "Well looks like you two are at quite the disadvantage now! Why don't you give up and turn yourselves over to the police?" She then said to Ying and Yang.
"We seem to have lost the upperhand once again, thanks to you." Yang muttered to Ying, who shot him a furious look at the accusation. "Looks like we'll have to retreat again..." Yang drew the familiar looking smoke ball from his belt, but before he could throw it to the ground a Pidgeotto swooped down and grabbed it out of his hands. "What?! No! That was my last one!" He called out angrily after the Pidgeotto.
"Nice one, Ashley!" Rina said to her. "Now lets free that Charizard!"
"But...that wasn't me..." Ashley stated with a perplexed look on her face. Rina looked at her increduously.
"Like you could ever come up with a plan like that." Gary Oak said to Ashley as he emerged from the shadow of the building behind them. He held up his hand as his Pidgeotto came around and passed off the smoke ball to him. "You guys seem to magically disappear whenever you drop one of these, so I think I'll be holding onto it."
"Gary?!" Ashley cried out in surprise. "Why are you helping us?"
"I've been in Vermillion for two days now and finally decided to check out the rare pokemon here. I was busy up until now, being the great trainer I am I was invited to a party on the S.S. Anne." Gary said to her, grinning. "Seems like it was worth my time. As the future champion, its only natural that I should be the one to take in the elusive Grand Hunters."
"Ashley...who is this guy?" Rina asked, a little put off by Gary's attitude.
"Gary Oak..." Ashley replied stiffly. "He's a jerk, and thats about all there is to it..."
"I'm not going to give up that easily." Yang quickly hopped onto Charizard's back. "Charizard, take off! We're leaving!" Charizard began flapping its wings and slowly began to lift off the ground.
"What? You're leaving me behind?!" Ying asked angrily.
"Its your fault we're in this mess, you can take the fall." Yang replied flatly. Charizard began to lift off further from the ground, but before it could get away it was suddenly stopped by something holding on to its tail. "What now?!" Yang looked back with a glare to see what was stopping him and saw Blastoise holding on to its tail.
"-I'm not letting you go anywhere...-" Blastoise said weakly, putting all of his strength into holding onto Charizard's tail. The flame at the end of its tail was pressing into Blastoise's stomach and making a burn mark there.
"Bulbasaur, grab Charizard's legs with your vines! Mankey, help Bulbasaur reel it in!" Ashley quickly took control of the situation once Blastoise grabbed Charizard. Bulbasaur lashed out with two vines, each grabbing onto one of Charizard's legs. Mankey then grabbed the base of Bulbasaur's vines and began pulling back on them, slowly pulling Charizard back to the ground. With all the attention on Charizard and Yang, Ying decided to try to make her escape.
"Pidgeotto, quick! Tackle her to the ground!" Gary's Pidgeotto quickly took off towards Ying as she made a break for the water, tackling into her from behind and knocking her to the ground. Pidgeotto then landed on her back to hold her down. While Gary was busy with Ying, Yang decided to try to make a run for it as well. He jumped down off of Charizard and took off running.
"Berry, quick! Stop Yang with a Stun Spore!" Berry nodded and quickly flew off on a path to intercept Yang. Yang stopped as Berry appeared in front of him and was about to run the other way when she started flapping her wings and blowing spores at him. The spores landed on his body and brought him to the ground as his muscles became paralyzed.
At that point, the combined effort of Bulbasaur, Blastoise, and Mankey finally brought Charizard crashing to the ground. Blastoise grabbed Charizard from behind and lifted him up into a standing position, locking his arms around Charizard's to hold him still. "-You there!-" Blastoise addressed Pippi. "-Do that Volt Tackle thing again and get this guy's collar off!-"
"-Right!-" Pippi looked back at Rina and got an approving nod. Pippi's cheeks sparked with electricity as she powered up for another attack. With a veil of electricity around her, Pippi charged towards the grappled Charizard and jumped up to streak towards the collar like a missile. She struck the collar dead on, cracking it slightly and disabling it with the electricity she was generating.
Blastoise released Charizard once Pippi had successfully cracked the collar, and Charizard immediately reached up and ripped it off the rest of the way. The combined physical impact and electric shock once again proved to be enough to break the collar, and Charizard looked pretty pissed when he finally got the collar off.
"-I'LL KILL YOU!-" Charizard shouted in anger as he turned to Yang, raising his claws and moving towards the paralyzed hunter. Before he could get any closer, another Wartortle put itself between Charizard and Yang. Charizard looked back at Blastoise, making sure he wasn't seeing things.
"-Can't let you do that, pal.-" Wartortle said to Charizard. "-Getting clawed to death tends to be bad for a human's health.-"
"-That, would be the point!-" Charizard growled in response, pointing his claws at the Wartortle. "-If you don't want the same I suggest you move!-"
"Wartortle, blast it with Water Pulse." Wartortle opened his mouth and fired out a blue pulse at Charizard. The attack was aimed directly at Charizard's face and the fire pokemon recoiled from the impact and then fell forward, collapsing with just one attack. It was already weakened by the forced evolution, and after just one Water Pulse attack it was struggling to get back to its feet.
"Gary, thats cruel!" Ashley yelled at him. "They were just forced to evolve, and painfully!"
"Nothing I can do about that..." Gary replied with a shrug. "Anyway, he would have attacked if I didn't stop him. You can deal with those pokemon, I'm taking these two in..." Gary roughly pulled Yang to his feet and dragged him off while Pidgeotto and Wartortle escorted Ying on foot.
"You jerk! You don't care about anyone but yourself!" Ashley shouted at Gary, but her accusation fell on deaf ears as Gary continued on into the building and left the area with the two hunters.
"We should get these two checked out at the pokecenter..." Rina suggested to Ashley. "Maybe they can find some way to help them there."
"Right..." Ashley replied with a nod. "If we could put them in pokeballs, this would be much easier though. They were probably owned by someone else before the hunters got to them..."
"-We were at a research facility prior to being captured by the hunters...-" Blastoise explained, addressing the girl's pokemon. Despite what had happened, Blastoise was managing to remain fairly calm. "-We were being raised to be given to a trainer one day. If I were to be trained by one of you, then that would be fine. I can tell you both care about pokemon, unlike the hunters. I cannot speak for Charizard, however...-"
"-I want nothing to do with anymore trainers...-" Charizard growled while making another attempt to get back on his feet. He collapsed again and stayed down, taking several deep breaths as he tried to regain his strength.
"Blastoise says its ok, and he's willing to stay with us to." Rina explained to Ashley, to the surprise of both Blastoise and Charizard. "Charizard isn't, though."
"-She could understand me?-" Blastoise asked increduously.
"-Oh, yes! Master is very talented!-" Berry replied happily. Rina sighed at Berry's continued use of the word 'master'.
"Well, I'll take Charizard then." Ashley replied while taking out a pokeball. "Maybe he'll change his mind. If not, I'll release him after we get him checked out at the pokecenter..." Ashley tossed the pokeball at Charizard. Charizard tried to reach out with one of his clawed hands to block it, but the ball struck him and pulled it inside. The ball shook for a moment and then locked shut with the weakened Charizard inside.
"Well I guess I'll catch Blastoise then?" Ashley nodded to Rina. "I can't just catch a pokemon out of the blue though..." Rina looked at Blastoise for a moment and thought hard. "I need to give you a nickname first...how about Berg?"
"-Berg? Sounds good.-" Blastoise replied with a nod.
"Ok then, Berg it is!" Rina took a pokeball out of one of the pockets on her large backpack and threw it at Blastoise. The pokeball drew Blastoise inside and then locked shut without any struggling from the pokemon at all. Once both pokemon were in their pokeballs, the two girls picked them up and placed them on their belt.
"Doesn't this seem a bit too easy?" Rina said to Ashley with a concerned tone. "I mean, we've just sent two of the hunters off to jail! There's only twelve of them to begin with, right?"
"They didn't seem very competent though..." Ashley replied, sounding a bit disturbed by this fact. "The other hunters won't go down so easily I bet, but we won't stop until we've brought them all in." Ashley then tried to put on a light smile, "Wonder if I'm getting in over my head? Challenging gyms, taking pictures, and going after a powerful group of hunters..."
"As long as we never give up, we'll be fine!" Rina replied, giving Ashley a thumbs up. "Now lets get Blastoise and Charizard to the pokecenter." Ashley nodded in agreement, and the two girls and their pokemon left the scene.
Once everyone was gone the Snorlax, who had been sleeping peacefully the whole time, gave a yawn and rolled over onto its side.
It was another long trek back to Vermillion, but the girls walked quickly and eventually caught up with Gary. They stayed behind him, but kept a close eye to make sure Ying and Yang didn't escape. Though Ying made at least one attempt, Pidgeotto quickly brought her down and the two eventually made it to the police station in Vermillion while Ashley and Rina went to the pokecenter.
Once inside the pokecenter, they handed over all of their pokemon to be checked over. They made special mention to the nurse, however, to get Blastoise and Charizard checked out. Ashley sat down in one of the chairs to wait while Rina paced around anxiously. After only a few minutes, their own pokemon were ready. They still had to wait around a while for the nurses to finish with Blastoise and Charizard, however. It was almost half an hour before the nurse finally emerged with the two pokeballs.
"We did what we could to help them recover." The nurse explained as Ashley and Rina approached the desk. "It seems as though their bodies were forced to grow into their evolved forms, but they didn't evolve themselves. I had to look through old medical records, but I believe they would have to be trained so they complete their evolution normally. That should heal their injuries from the growth and restore their strength, but there's nothing else we can do for them here..."
"Thanks, miss..." Ashley replied before she and Rina took Charizard and Blastoise's pokeballs respectively and placed them on their belts.
"Looks like you might have to keep Charizard afterall..." Rina said to Ashley. "He seemed pretty mad though...how will you convince him to stay?"
"I'll think of something I guess..." Ashley replied with a sigh. "For now I'll just have to keep him in his pokeball as much as I can." She looked to Rina and grinned sheepishly. "Maybe I could bribe him with food?"
"I think he might be past that stage..." Rina replied, also grinning sheepishly in response. "I guess for now we should try to find a place to stay before all the hotels are booked up for the night."
"Right, though at least we only need to get one room between us." Ashley replied with a light smile as she took her cellphone out of her bag, which Rina was carrying.
"Yeah!" Rina giggled in response. "It'd be awkward travelling with someone you couldn't share a room with, and then getting stuck together because the hotel only has one vacancy..."
"Yeah, really awkward..." Ashley giggled quietly as well as she pictured the scene in her mind, wondering to herself how anyone with that problem could travel together in the first place...
Author's Notes: I felt a bit guilty when I first put this chapter into concept, as it was seemingly giving Ashley and Rina two very strong pokemon early on. As one might expect at this point, though, they won't be as much help to them as a fully evolved Blastoise and Charizard should be for a while.
Also, made a reference at the end there to a certain event in a certain chapter of a certain story. If you've read it, you'll recognize it ;)
