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 Twenty Two
Still Asleep
With Ashley's fifth badge in hand, the two girls left Fuschia City and headed north along the Silence Bridge. The plan was to go through Vermilion City to get to Saffron. Of course, in the pokmon world, one doesn't get very far without running into a pokemon trainer eager for a match. Or two.
"Nidoran, go!" Both trainers, a boy and a girl each wearing a white sweater with a heart on the front, released their pokemon. Two Nidorans, one male and one female, appeared before their trainers and. Ashley and Rina already had their pokemon set to battle, with Bulbasaur and Pippi taking up point in front of them.
The battle was taking place near a fisherman's house, on a relatively small plot of land connecting two long bridges. The bridges themselves were fairly wide, though still meant only for people to be crossing them on foot or on bikes. The plot of land they were battling on was near where the bridge split off with one path leading toward Vermilion City.
"Ashley, let me and Pippi start this off!" Rina said to Ashley. "It'll be a good chance for us to try 'that' technique!"
"'That' technique?" Ashley scratched the back of her head while trying to figure out what technique Rina was referring to, with Volt Tackle immediately jumping to mind. "If you want to start off then go right ahead."
"-Just don't go defeating them in one hit. I'd like to get a chance to fight for once.-" Bulbasaur said to Pippi.
"-Hehe...I'm so not making any promises.-" Pippi replied, grinning widely as she stared down the two Nidorans.
"Ok then! Pippi, lets do it! Use Surf!" Rina called out, pointing with her finger in an overly dramatic fashion.
Pippi nodded enthusiastically and began to focus as she had been instructed to by the surfing Pikachu. Water began to rise from the ground behind her, building up like a wall.
"Eek! That Pikachu knows Surf?!" Gia, the female trainer, cried out in surprise and latched onto her boyfriend, Jes.
"Fear not, Gia! Our love will prevail through any attack!" Jes declared, trying to act tough in front of his girlfriend. The two Nidorans clinged to each other as well, mimicking their trainer.
"Oh please let this attack finish them both..." Ashley thought, resting the palm of her hand against her forehead.
The water continued to rise up, though Pippi didn't seem to realize anything was happening. She stopped concentrating and looked at the ground under her, where she was expecting the water to rise up and not noticing it was behind her. With Pippi no longer focusing on it, the water crashed down on top of her, leaving her stunned briefly.
"I guess we need more work then..." Rina said, sighing. "Pippi, are you ok there?" Pippi struggled back onto her feet, looking around in confusion.
"-I can't believe I just got hit by my own attack...-" Pippi mumbled, shaking her head sadly.
"Looks like they need more practice. So much for ending it with the first attack..." Ashley thought, smiling lightly. "Ok, our turn now Bulbasaur! Get them while they're together with a Sleep Powder!" Bulbasaur tilted his bulb toward the two Nidoran and released a green powder from it. The powder sprinkled down around them, making the two drowsy as the powder came into contact with their skin. Soon enough, the two of them fell fast asleep while still hugging each other.
"Oh, Jes, aren't they just adorable!" Gia said dreamily.
"Yes, but they are only the second most adorable thing I've ever seen!" Jes replied, pulling her closer to him. "The first, of course, is you!"
"I never want to hear a guy using corny lines like that on me..." Ashley thought, suppressing a gag reflex. "Bulbasaur, attack them both with Razor Leaf!"
"-Don't mind if I do.-" Bulbasaur grumbled in response. "-I've learned more about human mating habits in the last few minutes than I could ever care to know!-" Bulbasaur fired out several sharp leaves from the base of his bulb to attack, sending them flying toward the two sleeping Nidoran. The leaves cut across their bodies, causing both to flinch in their sleep without waking up.
"Ok, lets forget about Surf for now! Pippi, attack them both with one Thunderbolt attack!" Pippi nodded, though she looked a bit disappointed. She quickly gathered electricity in her cheeks and fired out a single large bolt toward the two Nidorans. The electricity passed through each of them, shocking them both simultaneously while they slept. When the electricity finally passed through them, they both collapsed. With only two attacks, they were out.
"We were beaten before we could launch a single attack!" Gia cried out in dismay.
"We may have been beaten, but our love shall never fall!" Jes boasted proudly.
"Oh puh-leeze..." Ashley rolled her eyes.
With the battle over, the young couple recalled their pokemon. They congratulated Ashley and Rina on their win, throwing in another comment about 'their love', and continued on their way toward Fuschia.
"The trainers we run into are starting to seem like less and less of a challenge..." Ashley commented with a sigh. "Its like there's no serious trainers around."
"I don't think thats the case at all..." Rina said to her, shaking her head. "Most trainers have enough trouble just trying to beat one trainer. Trust me, I know from Brock. He doesn't lose very often..."
"-He doesn't?-" Bulbasaur raised an eyebrow. "-Didn't I practically take on his whole team, all two of them?-"
"-You had help from Mankey though.-" Pippi reminded him.
"If thats true, then I guess that makes us both above-average trainers?"
"Well, of course!" Rina replied with a nod. "We fight a lot tougher competition, like the hunters and the gym leaders."
"Thats true I guess." Ashley nodded. "But...its usually not like you to battle other trainers without a good reason, so what made you want to battle Gia and Jes with me?"
"It seemed like a good chance to work on Pippi's Surf technique since you were battling them anyway..." Rina said, then looked down at Pippi. Pippi rubbed the back of her head in embarassment.
"-I'll get it eventually. Its no fun being hit by your own attack though.-" Pippi kicked shyly at the ground. "-Its like being a Pichu all over again, only with water this time...-"
"Don't worry! You'll get the hang of it eventually!" Rina assured her.
"Anyway, lets keep going. We're almost to Vermilion City now."
"About that...why didn't you just use Charizard to fly there?" Rina asked Ashley. "I mean, its not very far from Fuschia if you're flying in a straight line. Or we could have gone up the coast instead, we're kinda taking a roundabout way here."
"Most of the area north of Fuschia is part of the Safari Zone though, and we can't go through there without paying another entrance fee." Ashley said to her. "As for Charizard...well what kind of a trainer would I be if I forced a pokemon that doesn't like me to fly me everywhere?"
"Thats true I guess, you'd have to be pretty mean or uncaring toward your pokemon to do something like that." Rina replied, nodding in agreement. "Still, Berg could have ferried us along the coast without any problems. We could have been there already if we did but now its almost evening and it'll probably be really late by the time we get there..."
"You could have said so before we left then!"
"I DID say so before!" Rina shot back.
"-Having Rina as the voice of reason is pointless when Ashley won't listen to her.-" Bulbasaur stated, nodding sagely.
"Well there's no point arguing now. The longer we stand around here the longer it'll take us to get to Vermilion. Come on, Bulbasaur." Ashley started off on her way. Bulbasaur shrugged and followed along behind her.
"Ashley's a nice girl and all but...sometimes she just doesn't seem too bright." Rina said quietly. Pippi nodded in agreement. The two of them started off as well, following behind Ashley. They weren't walking for more than twenty minutes, though, before they could make out a large, rounded object ahead blocking their path.
"Hey...whats that up ahead?" Ashley stopped for a moment to examine the object from a distance. "Don't tell me the bridge is blocked off!"
"Doesn't that kinda look familiar though?" Rina said to Ashley. "Big...round...black and white..."
"Actually I think its more of a shade of blue than black." Ashley corrected her. "Wait, now that you mention it, it does look kinda familiar..."
"-What do ya want to bet its still asleep too?-" Bulbasaur said with a grin, having already figured it out.
"Asleep?" Rina repeated in confusion, but then it dawned on her. "Its that Snorlax again! Its still asleep on the road!"
"WHAT?!" Ashley cried out in shock at the realization. "Its STILL asleep and hasn't even moved from that spot?! Its been there for weeks now, at least!"
"-Maybe I should try shocking it again?-" Pippi suggested. "-I'm stronger now, so maybe it'll work this time!-"
"We don't really need to wake it up though." Rina said to Pippi. Pippi snapped her fingers in disappointment.
"Yes we do! How else are we going to get around it?"
"Umm...we REALLY don't have to wake it up, Ashley..." Rina said to her, baffled by her response. "We could climb over it, use Berg to cut across the water, or even use Charizard to fly over even though that'd just be silly..."
"OR we could wake it up and battle it!" Ashley replied with a wide grin. "You've still got that pokeflute?"
"Now I'm even more confused...you want to catch it?" Rina asked her. "Why would you want a pokemon that's la-fmph!" A vine wrapped around Rina's head and over her mouth, cutting her off.
"-Thou shall not dissuade Ashley from catching a pokemon.-" Bulbasaur said to her, nodding sagely. Rina bit down on Bulbasaur's vine. "-OW!-" Bulbasaur quickly withdrew his vines, releasing Rina, then turned around and growled at her. "-THAT wasn't necessary!-"
"Neither was putting your filthy vine in my mouth! Bleh!" Rina spat and then wiped her mouth on her sleeve.
"Quit clowning around, you two! We've got a pokemon to catch!" Ashley started off toward the pokemon again, already reaching for one of her pokeballs. She had a vague idea of what pokemon she should use against it.
"Ok...but I don't know if this will work..." Rina, Bulbasaur, and Pippi followed Ashley over to the sleeping Snorlax. Rina then set her backpack down and rummaged through until she found the pokeflute, meanwhile Ashley released her pokemon.
"Mankey, we'll give you a shot at this one! Come on out!" Ashley held out her pokeball and pressed the button on the front of it, releasing Mankey. Mankey looked around quickly when it appeared, getting its bearings and readying itself to fight. He hopped from side to side while eagerly awaiting instructions.
"Ok, we're ready whenever you are Rina." Ashley informed her.
"I don't really know how to play this though, I doubt it'll work. But here goes..." Rina held the flute to her mouth and blew through it, playing a soft note. She experimented with the three holes on the flute to see what sort of sounds each of them produced until eventually settling into a rather simple pattern of notes. She played the same tune on the flute for a few moments, then stopped to catch her breath.
"That didn't sound too bad you know." Ashley said to her.
"It wasn't that great really, I just played something I thought sounded good..." Rina replied, blushing lightly.
"-It was...great...-" Pippi said, sounding as though she were in a haze.
"-Yeah...great...-" Bulbasaur agreed, likewise sounding out of it. Bulbasaur and Pippi both had a rather calm expression.
"Well it seems to have had an effect on those two anyway, but..." Ashley looked up at Mankey and Snorlax. Snorlax still seemed to be asleep and Mankey was still hopping around as it waited eagerly for a fight. "It doesn't seem like it affected those two at all..."
"See? I told you it wouldn't work..."
"I think you're wrong about that..." Ashley said, pointing to Snorlax. Rina looked at the sleeping pokemon again.
Snorlax began to stir from its rest, stretching its arms and feet before sitting up and scratching its back. It turned its head and saw the girls and their pokemon and realized they were responsible for waking it up. Snorlax frowned and stood up. The pokemon towered over the rest of them at almost seven feet tall and was massive enough to crush any of them under its bulk.
"Oh...it worked...he doesn't look too happy about it though..." Rina mumbled nervously, slowly backing away from the angry Snorlax.
"-How dare you trainers awaken me! I was having a nice nap until you came along!-" Snorlax growled at them.
"Oh yeah? Well this guy doesn't scare us at all!" Ashley boldly declared. "Right, Mankey?"
"-Come on, fatso! Letsgoletsgoletsgo!-" Mankey screeched, stopping his hopping and raising his fists.
"-I'll have you know my weight is normal and healthy, jerk!-" Snorlax shot back, glaring down at Mankey.
"Ok, Mankey! Lets hit this guy hard from the start! Take it down with Low Kick!" Mankey jumped toward Snorlax and spun in the air, sideswiping Snorlax's left foot as he came down toward it. Snorlax staggered back a step and then tripped, landing on his back.
"I hope Ashley knows what she's doing..." Rina thought, standing far back from the battle with Bulbasaur and Pippi at her side doing likewise.
"Good job, Mankey! Now hit it while its down with Karate Chop!" Mankey jumped toward Snorlax again aiming to strike Snorlax in the head with a Karate Chop. Snorlax moved his head to the side, narrowly avoiding Mankey's chop. Mankey found itself sitting on Snorlax's neck when it landed, and couldn't avoid the headbutt that Snorlax struck back with. Mankey was knocked into the air and landed on Snorlax's stomach.
Snorlax then stood up, knocking Mankey off his stomach, and gave a yawn while breathing out a white gas. Mankey finally shook off Snorlax's attack and stood up as the gas began to surround him. It had no effect on Mankey, though. Mankey was a rather restless pokemon, whose 'Vital Spirit' gave it an immunity to the sleep that would be induced by Yawn.
"Looks like Snorlax tried to use Yawn, but that won't work on Mankey!" Ashley thought with a smirk. "Mankey, its left itself open! Use Karate Chop again!" Mankey nodded quickly and held his hand flat, getting ready to use Karate Chop again. He quickly jumped up and spun around, striking the side of Snorlax's body with his hand. Snorlax grunted from the attack but showed little sign of weakening.
"-Hmph. You're strong for your size, but you're still a wimp.-" Snorlax said to Mankey. Snorlax dropped to the ground and curled its body into a ball, protecting his more sensitive areas. With its face covered, Snorlax's voice sounded muffled. "-Lets see you try to hurt me now!-"
"Thats a Defense Curl technique. Simple yet it makes physical attacks less effective." Ashley thought to herself. "Mankey, try using Seismic Toss! Snorlax's Defense Curl won't help it then!"
"-Seismic Toss? Like heck Mankey is lifting that thing!-" Bulbasaur said with a laugh. "-Oh, this is going to be good.-"
Pippi nodded quickly in agreement with Bulbasaur. "-I'm with Bulbasaur, thats NOT going to work!-"
Mankey rubbed his hands together and then grabbed under Snorlax's body. He tried to lift the heavy pokemon but to no avail, Snorlax didn't even budge. Snorlax snickered at Mankey's attempts to lift him, at which point Mankey decided he had enough. He let go of Snorlax and let out an angry screech, unintelligible even to the other pokemon and Rina.
"Oops...guess thats not going to work, huh?" Ashley rubbed the back of her head in embarassment.
"Ashley! What even made you think it WOULD work?" Rina yelled at her. "Thats the third stupid decision to made today!"
"HEY! I thought it would work!" Ashley snapped back. "Fighting pokemon are supposed to be strong, right? So I thought it'd be reasonable for Mankey to be able to lift a Snorlax."
Mankey eventually grew fed up with waiting for Ashley to tell it to attack and raised his hand back. Mankey attacked fiercely with a loud screech, striking Snorlax's body with the side of his hand. Snorlax didn't seem to react at all, though. In fact, while Snorlax was curled up to protect itself, it went back to sleep using Rest to restore any damage Mankey had inflicted.
"Right, the battle..." Ashley said to herself quietly, returning her attention to Mankey's fight with Snorlax. "Ok, Mankey, use..." Before Ashley could finish, Snorlax let out a loud snore. The sound reverberated through the air and Mankey actually felt the snore hit him like a punch to the face. Mankey staggered back a foot and looked rather confused to have been hurt by a snore.
"Was that an actual attack or does Snorlax just snore very loudly?" Ashley wondered. She took out her pokedex to check, but it was too late for her to find out what it was. Fortunately for her, she would get another chance. Snorlax let out another snore, and again Mankey staggered back and fell over, taking a hard hit. Mankey slowly got back up and was starting to look tired from enduring Snorlax's attacks. Ashley's pokedex revealed the attack to be Snore and gave a description of the technique.
"Says here Snore can only be used while the pokemon is asleep. So Snorlax must have used Rest..." She thought, then reached for Mankey's pokeball. "Mankey, you did enough for now! Jolteon will take it from here!"
Ashley's words rang through Mankey's ears. He remembered the battle at the pokemon tower, where he was shown up by the evolved pokemon and found himself jealous. As Ashley raised his pokeball and fired the beam from it that would recall him, Mankey decided he wasn't finished and dodged to the side of the beam.
"Mankey! Return already!" Ashley tried again to recall Mankey, pressing the button on his pokeball to fire out another beam.
"-NonononononoNO!-" Mankey screeched as he dodged to the side of Ashley's second attempt to recall him.
"Thats odd...Mankey isn't letting Ashley recall him?" Rina said, blinking. "I know he's eccentric but I've never seen him outright disobey her before..."
"-Looks like he went berserk when Ashley said she was going to recall him!-" Pippi said.
"Fine, but when you get yourself knocked out its not my problem..." Ashley muttered, finally lowering the pokeball. Mankey wasn't quite done yet though, turning to Snorlax and letting out another enraged screech.
"-I DON'T NEED HELP! DON'T! DON'T! DON'T! I AM STRONG! I WILL BE STRONG! I WILL BE STRONGER! I CAN HANDLE YOU ON MY OWN!-" A white glow surrounded Mankey's body when he finished his speech. He grew to over double his original height at roughly three feet tall, and his small hands took on a shape similar to a pair of boxing gloves. The glowing then faded as quickly as it started, revealing Mankey's new form as a fully evolved Primeape.
"-You've evolved now. Big deal.-" The wild Snorlax finally uncurled from its protective pose and stood up. "-You still can't beat me.-" Snorlax began to pound hard on his chest, producing a sound like a drum.
"No mistaking that attack!" Ashley thought. "Man-Primeape, be ready to dodge Snorlax's next attack! It'll hit hard!" Though Primeape was hardly in a mood for listening to Ashley, he took heed of her warning. Snorlax jumped forward, aiming to land on top of Primeape, but Primeape was ready and quickly jumped back. As Primeape had been standing on the bridge, Snorlax landed hard on the structure. The power he put into his attack combined with his bulk was too much for the bridge to take. The structure began to crack under it.
"Ok, Primeape! Now lets try..." Before Ashley could finish, Primeape was already moving around behind Snorlax. He had already decided he was defeating Snorlax on his own, without even Ashley's orders. Primeape grabbed Snorlax from behind and, with seemingly little struggle, rolled back to flip Snorlax behind him with Seismic Toss. Snorlax landed with a heavy thud, cracking the ground where he landed slightly. Both pokemon were slow to get back on their feet, the act of throwing Snorlax had hurt its back.
"-So...you've gotten quite a bit stronger...after all...-" Snorlax muttered as he stood up.
"-I am lots stronger! LOTS LOTS LOTS!-" Primeape shot back.
"Now he's just ignoring me entirely!" Ashley grumbled.
"Well, he IS a bit of an eccentric and tempermental pokemon. Not a good combination..." Rina said to her.
"Maybe you're right, but I didn't have any problems before now." Ashley replied, folding her arms over her chest. "Well, he's on his own now." Ashley thought back on what she said before Primeape evolved, trying to determine just what it was that set him off.
"-You may have gotten stronger, but this will end you!-" Snorlax crouched down and then jumped several feet into the air, aiming to land on Primeape in another attempt at a Body Slam attack.
"-NO! NO! NO! This ends you!-" Primeape let out an enraged screech and summoned all its strength, drawing power from the injuries Snorlax had inflicted on him. Primeape jumped into Snorlax's attack, striking Snorlax shoulder first and putting all his strength into the attack.
Snorlax and Primeape slammed together in the air over the spot where Snorlax had been sleeping and fell to the ground together, landing next to each other. They both hit hard, and neither seemed like they would be getting up again anytime soon. Their colliding attacks inflicted enough damage on each of them to knock each other out.
"Knew this would happen. Sorta..." Ashley mumbled to herself. With Snorlax knocked out she had an easy catch now. Ashley set her travel bag on the ground and opened a side pocket to take out an empty Great Ball and then threw it at Snorlax. The great ball opened up and a red beam shot out at Snorlax, pullingit inside. A quiet click was heard as the ball locked shut, and then it glowed white and vanished as it was transported off to storage.
"And now for you..." Ashley took Primeape's pokeball from her belt again and held it out, finally recalling her pokemon without any trouble. She then placed the pokeball back on her belt.
"Glad thats over..." Rina breathed a sigh of relief. "Between a grumpy Snorlax and an enraged Primeape, I thought for sure we'd be getting hurt when it was over..."
"-Please, like I couldn't handle that.-" Bulbasaur muttered, rolling his eyes. "-At least Ashley's caught another pokemon. That makes what...-" Bulbasaur thought for a moment, counting them off in his head. "-Eleven pokemon, not counting evolved pokemon or Rina's. Eleven pokemon does not a pokedex make!-"
"-Why do you care so much about Ashley's pokedex anyway?-" Pippi asked him.
"-Look, kid, Professor Oak raised me since I first hatched.-" Bulbasaur said to her. "-I don't like Ashley, but I've got nothing but respect for Professor Oak. If he wants to write a pokedex, then I want to help him to do it. Unfortunately, that means working with Ashley in my case.-"
"-Oh...-" Pippi replied, staring blankly.
"I don't know...you really think Primeape would have attacked us?" Ashley asked Rina. "You'd know that better than I would since you could understand what he was saying..."
"He's just so hard to understand though!" Rina replied. "He talks quickly, repeats himself, and sometimes just doesn't make any sense at all. He did say something about 'being strong' and 'not needing help' though..."
"Oh...huh..." Ashley scratched her head then shrugged. "Oh well. Anyway, Snorlax is out of the way now and we've still got another route to go through to get to Vermilion!"
"You make it sound like its far away from her...we'll be there soon!" Rina giggled and smiled lightly. "We could have gotten there faster though, but I'm sure you'd tell me this was worth taking the long way."
"Of course!" Ashley replied with a grin. "Now lets get going!"
Author's Notes: Short chapter, meant to focus on Ashley catching Snorlax. The double battle at the beginning was so I could have a brief scene where Pippi tried (and failed) to use Surf and was going to be against two random trainers from the route. Since there was already a double battle there (Young Couple Gia and Jes) I went with that instead.
There actually ended up being a fair bit of exposition in this chapter too. I don't think I show enough interactions between Ashley and Rina, come to think of it. Often end up focusing on one or the other with brief dialogue between them.
Also, next chapter (23) was going to skip through Vermilion and straight into Saffron. However, next chapter will take place in Vermilion instead. Gives Lt. Surge another chance to appear since I'm trying to give gym leaders more appearances outside the gym this time around. I kept debating up until now whether or not to actually include the upcoming chapter, but I think its better if I did.
Title of this chapter was meant to be a play on "Still Alive"
