Chapter 68, everybody, and happy New Year! Hopefully it's better than the last two. And presumably the last update for now as I catch up on my active fics…my plan is to spend the month working on them and then doing some more updating in February—should be easier once the big event in one of my groups is over, plus I did finish one of my active fics so that's one less to worry about. Goal this year is to at least finish the writing of this fic, so…wish me luck. \.o./
Moving on…if the chapter title pun seems familiar, it's because I used it once before on one of my Temtem posts (friendship ended with Pokémon franchise, now Temtem is friend). Another reason it sounds familiar is because it's the first line in INXS' song "Suicide Blonde"—which I know because my Mom did a line dance to it. Ah me I miss the early 2000s….
Back to the plot…Giovanni what are you up to….Moving on—extra gyms is technically canon, since Gary had ten badges in the original Indigo League anime. We don't know what the spare ones were, but considering at least three of the gyms in canon were almost impossible to challenge, it makes sense that alternatives would spring up. As a few readers have guessed, the dojo gym is based on the dojo in the Fire Red/Leaf Green games, which offer you a Hitmonlee or a Hitmonchan if you beat them, but that's repurposed a little here.
In other news, evolved Frenzy is terrifying and while Sabrina couldn't actually go to the gym and watch, that's not about to stop a girl with psychic abilities. Also I think this was addressed in an episode of the anime (a girl liked Brock's eyes because she had a bunch of Pokémon with the same eye style) but I couldn't resist the little gag.
Sabrina's moment there comes from some other Pokémon fanfic I read a long while back, where Ash was travelling with Sabrina, Koga, Giovanni, and Lt. Surge instead of Misty and Brock. It's called Changing the Plan by Sand-wolf579 here on FFN and I recommend checking it out.
Also Staravia Wars is in reference to Star Wars with the quote to boot—like always, I see an opportunity and I seize it. XD Also a reference to The Incredibles but that's because it's so quotable.
…Oh that's what he's up to.
And now for reviews: griffin blackwood, Kayuri Igrimakeon Pax, Hashirama, DeathCrawler, Dragonkeeper10, LongNightDragon, Lunar Moon Butterfly, talesfanjmf, AverageHiveMind, Silverwing23, Th3Hybr1d, Johnny Spectre, Clow Angel, epantoja521, Cyan Quartz, and Urdeadnotbigsurprise, thanks for the reviews! Happy new year! :D
AverageHiveMind, thanks for the review! I know, but I'm working on it, I promise. And yes Frenzy is terrifying (and more of him this chapter!). Yes Sabrina pettiness is fun. XD Ah, I see the math. Maaaaybe…and go on I love essays (long reviews like this give me great joy :D).
Pokémon © Game Freak; Nintendo
And now, for something completely different:
In other news, the Village Pokés have dropped their new single, "Machoke 'Mon." Visit your local music store for your own copy of this catchy song.
Giovanni tucked the Master ball into an inside pocket he could close, dusted his hat off before putting it back on. Looked down at Persian cleaning the blood off his claws.
"A warning should do for now," he mused. "If not, it wouldn't take much to reshuffle the corporate ladder now will it."
"Mrrow," Persian noised, nibbling between his paw pads.
"Good. We agree." Stride out of the elevator when it opened, Persian keeping pace, sinuous and sleek, commanding respect from anyone who happened to see.
Fortunately, it was still fairly early and there weren't many people out and about to see them go. He paused momentarily to watch a boy and his two companions walk by, discussing challenging the dojo in town—i.e., the subpar replacement for the Earth Badge.
Cute, he thought. Bypassing the passive means of protest. But I'm close to a more…active means now.
Pat his pocket automatically before digging out his ringing phone, scowling as he answered it. "Report."
"Project M-2 is close to completion, sir," the voice on the other end said.
"Good," he said, hanging up. Yes, a Legendary in his pocket would be good for challenging the League….
But a manmade one would do just as nicely, he thought.
"Come along then," he said to Persian. "We've got a trip to Cinnabar to arrange."
"Mrow," Persian noised.
The dojo wasn't all that hard to find, mostly because it was happily advertising itself as a new gym.
"So it really counts?" Ash asked Brock.
"Eh," Brock noised, shrugging. "It's not one of the eight official gyms, but the League has been relaxing the rules recently—basically, if it calls itself a gym and offers a badge, it's close enough."
"All righty then," Ash declared, hopping up the steps and banging through the doors.
"My name is Ash Ketchum!" he announced. "And I'm here to challenge the dojo gym!"
A couple of meathead bodybuilders laughed at that, but several more lined up near a ring in the center of the dojo.
"Come on then!" one guy bellowed. "We do it a little different here: tourney style! You gotta fight the gauntlet before we give you the badge, no swap outs, your guy goes until he's beat! You with us so far?"
"Yup, totally," Ash said, nodding.
"Let's see," Misty muttered. "Where can we stand that's a nice view and safely out of the splash zone?"
"Over here seems good," Brock said, leading her around and up to a raised area around the ring. "And I think this is out of range of any blood splatter."
"Wow," the lead guy said. "Your friends have no faith in your skills at all."
Ash shrugged, working hard to keep his amusement internalized. "How do you know they're not talking about you?"
"Cute, kid. First guy up!"
"Go, Hitmonlee!" a guy yelled, throwing his Pokémon out.
Ash tossed his ball of choice up and down before throwing it out. "Go! Frenzy!"
This was the first time Ash was properly using Frenzy in a battle since his evolution, so he wasn't quite ready for the heavy thud as Frenzy's bigger bulk hit the mat. Did scowl at the guy laughing at him.
"Seriously?" he demanded. "My guy will squash that bug, bro!"
"So you say," Ash said, hands on his hips. Okay, time to see if Frenzy still properly followed battle orders. "And by the way, Sabrina of Saffron Gym sends her regards. Frenzy! Knock out anyone sent against you!"
Okay, so a foot-tall Paras ramping up and screaming before rushing something was terrifying no matter how you sliced it.
When something three times that size did the same thing and let out an unearthly screech with undertones of a bellow, it was enough to make everyone take several steps back.
And considering Frenzy had a good fifty extra pounds now, it meant that when he collided with the Hitmonlee he knocked it flat and sent it skidding for several yards before descending on it with a frothing, spore-laced furor.
The fight lasted maybe ten seconds.
"Oh…kay," Ash noised when Frenzy returned to his starting position. "So I have concerns…."
"GOOD," Misty hollered down.
"So this is nice," Sabrina's dad observed, Walter spooning some sugar into his tea. "Although I'm wondering what happened to the, eh, human guests?"
"They went to challenge the dojo," Sabrina said, sipping her tea.
"We should be hearing the screams anytime now," Darkrai informed them. "These are very nice scones, by the way."
"Thank you," Sabrina's dad said. Looked at Sabrina. "You sent them over there, didn't you?"
"I'm supposed to be supporting up and coming gyms, aren't I?" she asked. "They could use the foot traffic."
"Yes, but they're just starting out—you're supposed to send fresh trainers there, not trainers who just beat you."
"Hey, any traffic is good traffic."
"And she saw a chance to be petty and took it," Walter supplied.
"That's true. And I guess me going over to watch would have been too obvious."
"Very," Darkrai agreed, sipping his tea—paused to peer at her eyes, which had been distant the whole time. "You've got an Abra hiding in the rafters, don't you?"
"The carnage is glorious," she declared.
Walter pointed at Darkrai. "I blame you for this."
The gauntlet didn't last very long at all.
Nor did Ash's time in the dojo.
"Get out get out GET OUT!" the leader said, running them all out. "And take that THING with you!"
"Do you mind not hurting Frenzy's feelings?" Ash asked. "That's kind of rude."
"Rude—your Parasect tore through all our Pokémon AND our equipment for good measure!"
"Uh—yeah, sorry—I can pay for that," Ash said, wincing. "So…there's a badge for this?..."
Ash got the door slammed in his face for his trouble.
"Wow," Misty said. "That was impressive—in a totally horrifying sort of way."
"Never seen a weight machine go to pieces like that," Brock said.
"I've actually never seen a grown Primeape cry before."
"I think we can all agree that Frenzy as a Parasect is a level of terrifying none of us were quite prepared for."
"Agreed."
"Yeah, but—hey! I beat the dojo!" Ash yelled at the doors. "Don't I get a badge!?"
"Ash—Ash," Brock said, dragging him down the road. "It's time to let it go."
"Bogus," Ash muttered.
Sabrina was waiting for them when they came back.
"So, how'd it go?" she asked, trying to keep her smiling to a minimum.
"They wouldn't give me a badge," Ash complained.
"Ash, they wouldn't give you a badge because Frenzy all but tore the building down to nothing," Misty pointed out.
"Details."
Sabrina nodded—
Went down laughing.
"Are you okay?" Brock asked her.
"She's fine," Darkrai said, floating out. "Except she didn't give the play-by-play while she was watching the carnage. That was very rude, by the way," he told her.
"What?" Ash asked.
In response, Darkrai pointed at the Abra that had just popped in. "She was watching through Abra-TV."
"How?" Misty asked. "I mean—I'm sure it's some form of psychic thing, but how? It looks like its eyes are shut."
Abra tipped its head, looked at Brock pointedly.
"Don't ask me," Brock said, hands up.
"Is the dojo still standing?" Walter asked, leaning out the door.
"Yeah," Ash told him.
"Barely," Misty supplied.
"Also, did actually tell them you sent us."
"Ahhhh I'm going to pay for that later," Sabrina sighed, finally winding down and hauling herself up. "And you said they didn't give you a badge after beating them?"
"Nope."
"Well that gives me the opportunity to call them later and scold them for not acting like a real gym. You guys heading out now?"
"Seems like a good time to do it," Brock said.
"Before the torches and pitchforks come out," Misty added.
"True."
Sabrina laughed, raising a hand—
And then suddenly slamming it against Ash's chest, stopping him.
"What?" Ash asked, looking at her—and seeing her eyes wide and blank. "What? What is it?"
She blinked, seemed to come back to some of her senses. "I sense a great disturbance in the force. As though a thousand voices cried out at once and were just as suddenly silenced."
Sounded deep, like he wasn't the only Staravia Wars fan out there. "What does that mean?"
"It means Luke isn't going home anytime soon," Darkrai said.
Sabrina shook her head—like she had water in her ears—finally looked at him. "Sorry, that happens sometimes—usually when a natural disaster hits somewhere and wipes out a bunch of people or Pokémon."
"So you're like an Absol," Ash said.
"Nah—if I were, I'd predict them before they happened," Sabrina said, massaging her forehead. "That was probably an earthquake or a volcano or a tsunami somewhere in the wide world. Legendaries horsing around again."
"That sounds about right," Darkrai said.
"So that's why you have those Legendary meetings," Ash said to him.
"Are you okay?" Brock asked, touching Sabrina's arm lightly and eyeing her with concern.
Sabrina waved him off. "Yeah, I'm fine—it's just a thing that happens sometimes. I'll have some tea and a lie-down and be good as new tomorrow, don't worry. But be careful at Cinnabar."
Ash was certain he wasn't the only one who started at that sudden topic shift. "Do what?"
Sabrina shrugged a little, touching her head lightly. "Whatever it was happened at or around Cinnabar—I got the impression a volcano was nearby."
Ash hoped not, considering Cinnabar was on their planned route. "Maybe it was in Hoenn—they have that big volcano too. The one Groudon is supposed to be in?"
Sabrina shook her head. "No, it was an island—Mt. Chimney is in the middle of Hoenn."
Ash hesitated, looked at Brock for suggestions.
"We're going to be going to Celadon next," Brock said, hand half-up but poised to touch her arm again. "Maybe whatever it was will have time to sort itself out before we get there."
"Probably," Sabrina said, rubbing her head—but smiling at their concern. "I'll be fine—it's a thing that happens sometimes. Sorry if I scared you all."
Brock didn't seem convinced. "You're sure you're all right."
"Yes, I'm sure—now shoo. You have more badges to win—also come back sometime, I enjoy these chats. Especially you," she added, looking at Darkrai.
"It's so good to be loved," Darkrai sighed, paws to his chest.
"You know we could leave him here," Misty offered.
That didn't happen.
"You'd miss him and you'd know it," Brock told her as they left Saffron.
"Whatever," she grumbled.
Walter waited until they were gone to look at her.
"It was more serious than that," he said.
She nodded. "I told them the important bits, the parts I knew—they won't be caught too flatfooted, and whatever it is, it'll be at least a month before they get to Cinnabar anyway. It might not even be a problem for them."
"Tell me. Everything," Walter added, knowing she'd omit something if she thought she could get away with it.
Sabrina grimaced. "A lot of people died at once, screaming and in pain. And…in the middle…a Pokémon caused it."
Walter considered this. "A Magmar, perhaps?"
She shook her head. "It was a Psychic type—I could feel it. It—it's angry. Angry and seething mad."
Walter hummed pensively. "Is there no way to tell what it is?"
"I don't know—I don't recognize it. But whatever it is, it's powerful." She looked down the street, where Ash and company had vanished. "I hope they'll be okay."
Walter considered this, turning a spoon over in his hand as he did so.
"They'll be fine," he said finally. "Psychic, you say? I have never met a Psychic type that could affect a Dark type—they'll be fine."
Sabrina nodded, still with a hand to her head; he sent a mental ping to her father, gently clasped her free hand with his, transferring both spoons to one hand in order to do so.
"Come," he told her, smiling softly. "Let's go get some tea."
And with that, he led her to the house—led, because past experiences said that trying to Teleport with a headache made it worse—and to some tea, all the while hoping he hadn't been exaggerating for her benefit.
One could only hope.
Giovanni couldn't help but admire the carnage before turning his attention to the one responsible.
"Very impressive," he declared. "Oh knock it off, I'm not here to fight."
The artificial Pokémon, body still glistening wetly from being in a test tube, narrowed glowing eyes at him. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"Ah, me, an hour old and already the cynic. Let's just say I'm here to help you. Help you reach your full potential and finesse. Unless you enjoy leveling city blocks," he added, gesturing around. "Which is understandable, but not you at your best."
A long tail lashed. "And how can you help me?"
Giovanni smiled. "Let's just say I have the experience."