Hey guys! Extra long chapter! Happy Fourth of July! *Nova and Gold send up Swift attacks*
Also, I just turned 18 so I'm excited about that.
whakamole: It makes me indescribably happy that you are so supportive and involved in this story. The fact that you try to review for every chapter is completely makes my day. Ha ha, I'm glad you liked the red star thing. I enjoy putting little references to the games in there :) Thanks for PM-ing me, that was a great surprise! I hope this chapter meets your expectations!
MewFanGirl: Thank you! I'm always glad to hear that it's different from other stories, sometimes I have concerns about that, what with starting with an eevee. Thanks for catching that mistake. The first repeat was a literary device, the second not so much. Enjoy!
I also just started a full time job three weeks ago so it's been a struggle to get everything ready but here it is!
It only took half an hour to arrive at the apple orchard. Finding the small, green roofed, wooden house among the apple trees took another fifteen minutes.
Finally, we located the overly-recluse house and Sam knocked on the door, eager to finish the job and continue our journey.
A girl younger than Sam opened the door for us."Are you the trainers from Vermillion?" She blushed, hiding part of her face behind the wooden door.
"That's us, nice to meet ya," Kurt smiled, extending a hand.
The young girl breathed a sigh of relief and touched Kurt's hand quickly in lieu of a handshake. "Thank goodness, my big brother said you'd be coming. If you could help us harvest the apples that would be very helpful!
"Usually, we can do it all ourselves but there's a mysterious grass Pokémon that keeps attacks us and the Butterfree that live here! Sometimes, it'll eat an entire tree's apples in one night!"
Sam and the others released the other Pokémon as the young girl brought us baskets half her size to carry the apples. The other Pokémon and I—uninterested in the whisperings of the young human—dissolved into the orchard, intent on starting the job.
"Wouldn't it be amazing to climb to the top of a tree?" I sighed, looking longingly at the branches as our group walked through a row of fruit-bare trees.
"No, that sounds awful. If we were meant for the sky we'd have wings." Gold replied, snapping a twig in half in his paws.
"That's pretty narrow-minded," I observed mildly.
"There's some!" Poison shouted, jumping up in excitement. I followed the direction of his flaring nose. Apples! We all ran to a large group of dozens of trees heavy with the weight of fresh apples.
"Wow, they're so many," squeaked Cleffa, squeezing her hands together in delight.
"And they look so good! Nova, do you think Rae would be angry if we had one?" Igglybuff asked, unintentionally using her big, puppy-dog eyes.
"No, I don't think they'll mind as long as we do a good job afterwards," I told her thoughtfully.
"But how do we get them down?" Poison frowned.
"Ram into the tree with your face!" Azurill chimed in. Gold laughed.
"No way! My horn'll get stuck…or I could damage the tree!"
"Then I'll just…" I scooted over to the closest tree and stretched my front legs onto he trunk, digging my small claws into the bark. I jumped up with my hind legs, intending on beginning my ascent towards the tallest branches.
Instead, I found myself flat on the ground. "Ugh," I groaned, picking myself back up.
Missile lowered the basket he had been carrying and fluttered easily to a bunch of apples. With some difficulty, he managed to remove two apples and carry them down to us. I nosed them over to the police Pokémon before Abra could take one.
"Cool. Can you grab some more?" Gold asked.
"Absolutely…I only wish…that I had paws like yours, Nova."
"Yeah, must be hard to do much more than shish-kabob, huh?" Gold laughed bad-humoredly, catching an apple that fell from Missile's stingers.
After Igglybuff finished her apple, which was incredibly quick, considering her stature, she hopped onto Missile's back and landed on the branch of the nearby tree. Below her, Azurill sent up a line of three large bubbles. As the apple popped each bubble, it slowed down and Azurill caught it safely on top of her head.
"Hurry up and eat your apple, slacker!"
"Right, actually, I'll just eat one later, I want to get to work." I told him, dropping the apple in the basket.
"Whatever," Gold said, slamming his fist into a smaller tree behind him. He managed to catch the apples that dropped and I did my best to not be impressed.
Even Abra was doing something, using Telekinesis to pick the apples. Albeit, one at a time.
The trainers came and met us and Kurt took our full basket back.
"Remember, we've got to watch out for the grass-type."
"Yeah, it sounds tough," Sam said, gripping the tree and scooting his way up.
"What? You can climb trees?" I jumped pathetically at its base.
"Wanna come up?" Sam asked.
"Yes, I want to come up! How?" I grunted, frustrated. I tried again, this time more slowly. Sam smiled and jumped down, landing in a crouch.
I jumped on his back and wrapped my front legs around his neck. He climbed the tree again and set me next to him on the branch. As soon as the vertigo dissolved, it was amazing. I pulled down some apples, jumping from branch to branch, starting to enjoy that split-second sensation that you didn't know if the branch beneath you was swaying or falling.
"Suck it, Gold!" Yelled down at him, jumping to the closest tree,
"Careful, Nova!" Sam called after me.
"Yep!" I called, jumped to another branch.
Finally, I found myself in Igglybuff's tree.
"Nova!" She was alone now and it looked like we had both strayed a little from the group.
"Hey, how's it going?" I panted.
"Great! Wha-What's that?"
I narrowed my eyes in the direction Igglybuff was pointing. "That's a vine! Watch out!" I pushed her in to the air so she landed on my back. I jumped to another branch just in time.
"I-It's getting closer." Iggly cried, holding onto my collar. I realized the Pokémon must have been following me, waiting for me to stop moving in order to attack.
"Crap, hold—ahh!"
A vine wrapped around my front leg and pulled us down to the ground. I struggled back onto my feet quickly despite having the wind knocked out of me from the tall drop.
Standing in front of our attacker, the first thing I noticed was her size—or lack thereof. Her body was bulbous and blue with a clump of weedy leaves sprouting on top of her head.
"Get out of here and stop eating my apples trees!" She spat with a surprising amount of ferocity. Even her little red eyes looked hateful.
"We'll only fight you if you refuse to stop attacking others and hogging all the fruit," I told her, wanting to end the conflict without violence if at all possible.
"Well, maybe I don't wanna stop!" The Grass-type stuck out her tongue, sizing me and Iggly up.
"If you don't want to stop, then we'll fight. And I have four limbs over you so it won't be pretty," I dared her.
"Hold on, Nova!" Iggly said from my back.
"What's wrong?" I asked, whipping my head back to face her.
"I want to fight this battle," Iggly told me.
"You…what?" I was unpleasantly surprised. My protective instinct over them was too strong and I didn't want to see any of them hurt, "Why?"
"Because I want to protect you this time, because this Oddish is really mean and because Rae's about to show up."
I swiveled my head around to look behind me as Rae burst through some shrubs.
"Thank goodness you guys are alright! Oh, who is this?"
The Oddish lashed out at me with a Vine Whip. I dodged neatly to the side.
"Wow, an Oddish who can use Vine Whip! Is this Pokémon causing all the trouble?" Rae asked Iggly.
"Yes she is!" Igglybuff nodded affirmatively.
"Alright then, Iggly! It looks like you're ready to fight so let's go!"
"Idiots, I'll whip your lardy butt from here to Johto!" As the Oddish spoke, a vine whipped toward Igglybuff. I squinted in the shade of dozens of trees. There was no doubting it, the vine wasn't coming from the Oddish.
I skirted around the battlers and pounced into a bush several feet behind Oddish, catching a Bellsprout in my jaws. Quickly, it countered with a Razor Leaf but it wasn't strong enough to cut through my furry collar. I backed up slightly and fired off a quick Shadow Ball, leaving a smoked, unconscious Bellsprout behind. The Oddish had just aimed a Poison Powder at Igglybuff when I emerged from the bushes.
"Send them back!" Rae ordered. Iggly sucked in air and sent the spores flying back. Unfortunately, they seemed to have no effect on Oddish.
"You're doing great, Igglybuff, try Pound." Oddish, having no arms, had no proper way to block Iggly's attack and got hit right in the face. Iggly was about to go in for a second hit when faint green bubble rose out of Iggly's body and went into the Oddish's mouth. Igglybuff panted slightly but Oddish seemed to have recovered some.
Oddish stuck out her tongue, "Now your energy's mine, fatty!"
"Don't think you'll win…weed-face!" Iggly told her, bringing her tiny arms in toward her chest and tucking her legs closer to her body. "Defense Curl!"
Iggly charged again with one fist pulled back. I grinned widely as her Pound turned into a critical hit and Oddish fell back with a scowl.
"Great work, Iggly!" I said, bounding over to her. "You've gotten a lot stronger!"
"Yes, we did it! Well, we can't just leave this oddish here or it'll just cause more trouble. I'll just catch it!" Rae threw a Pokéball at the downed mutant plant. It shook from side to side at least four times before they heard a click and the faint red light on the release faded.
"I caught an Oddish! Thanks, you two!" Rae grinned, enveloping us in a hug. I didn't really do anything in the battle but it was nice to see Rae so happy.
"Let's go find the others," Rae told me, scooping up a coo-ing Igglybuff.
Sam, Kurt and Rae explained what happened while we lay in the grass, hoping the trainers would treat us to a big dinner.
Finally, at about 3 PM, we were on our way to Vermillion City. We passed a boy a few years older than Sam with straight, red hair.
"Hey kid, battle me!" He called rudely. Sam ignored him and kept walking.
"Blue, how about you get your nice ass over here?" We all stopped moving instantly. Gold had said that word more than I could count on my claws. This was different.
Rae looked shocked, Kurt who had been grinning at a joke he'd made was now making a startled grimace and Sam spun around to face the boy.
The jerk smirked. "Alright, looks like we'll be the ones battling. I'd much rather it have been Blue over there but we did make eye contact so you can't get out of it."
Sam looked angry. As angry as he had been in Boulder when Flint had talked about how he left his children. "You're disgusting!"
"Kick his ass, Sam!" Rae called, getting over the initial shock of being treated so rudely. Part of her seemed to want to fight him herself, another part knew it was unlikely she'd win—even with a new team-member.
"The battle will be one-on-one, the challenge-e picks their Pokémon first and we're playing Black-Outs." Jerk sneered, pulling his jacket back to reveal a full team.
"Whatever, you're going down!" Sam snarled, ignoring the fact that the other trainer had given him a considerable disadvantage—picking the first Pokémon in a one-Pokémon match. A bad type match-up could easily spell a premature loss. "Nova, let's win this!"
I ran half-way between the two trainers and growled fiercely, trying to break the red-head's confident air. It didn't happen, however. Instead he tossed a Greatball into the air and a canine Pokémon nearly three times my size appeared. It was orange and red and very furry.
"Destroy it, Flareon!" Jerk said. My blood went cold. Flareon? The fire evolution of Eevee? I was battling an evolution of myself?
I had only faced two evolved Pokémon before—a raticate and a pidgeotto. But this was different. Truly, intimidatingly different. I looked back at everyone—Rae, Kurt, Cleffa (who was watching with careful eyes), Sam (who looked stressed), Missile (wearing a relatively blank expression), Poison (whose eyes were wide and whiskers were twitching), and Gold (who looked tense). I turned back to my opponent.
"Hello, Flareon," I said coolly.
"Hello, deadmeat," Flareon responded.
Before I could properly react, Flareon sprung at me. I rolled out of the way in time to avoid a bite that might have ended the match right there. I heard a protest from Sam but I was more concerned with the heat waves emitting from Flareon's Fire Fang attack.
"Alright, if that's the way you want to play it! Nova, put some distance between you two!" I jumped back a yard, still facing my opponent.
"Flareon, Double Team," the boy said. Flareon started moving quickly around me as I tried to follow his movements. Soon there were half a dozen Flareon standing around me.
"Nova, use Swift!" Sam called. I grinned and let loose a trio of stars—not my best attack, by far, but they dutifully sailed toward the correct Flareon, causing the copies to falter for a moment.
"Flamethrower!" Flareon and the illusions shot powerful attacks from all sides, I tried to dodge but I got lost in the illusionary firestorm. Which meant I was unprepared when I ran straight into the real one.
It only took a few moments until the sensation of drought multiplied into the feeling of boiling skin and burning fur. I ran blindly out of the fire, tripping onto the ground. I tried to think what Gold would do as the Flareon approached me again and smoke wafted from my burned fur and raw skin.
Gold would storm right up to Flareon, fists swinging and if the fire-type tried another Double Team, he'd fire off a powerful Swift. I couldn't really do either. I strained my mind to think faster as I pulled myself to my feet.
I wasn't familiar with Poison's fighting style but he would probably keep distance and shoot Poison Stings. Missile would fly quickly with projectiles and come in to finish it, in a typical Beedrill fashion. Even if I was a Beedrill, I doubted I'd be typical.
I had zoned out for a moment and only my instincts prevented me from getting locked in the Flareon's jaws. I stood up on my hind legs as best I could and snapped back at the fire-type. For a few moments, we tried to capture each other between our teeth. Before I became horribly aware that Flareon's mouth was much, much larger than mine. I performed a Quick Attack, pulling away again safely.
The burns I'd sustained were starting to take effect—I was losing energy and it was getting increasingly harder to charged and again, I tried to dodge to the side. This time, he grabbed my back foot. Terrified, I ripped it out of his tightening hold.
It didn't take me long to regret it. Half a dozen stinging, deep cuts now lined my back-leg vertically. I rolled away and upon facing my opponent again, tried to put weight on it. I winced and raised it from the ground again. I had been using my back legs to execute quick dodges. Running away didn't seem to be an option anymore. I charged and fired a Shadow Ball, hoping the weight of my anger would drop the Flareon instantly. Of course, it didn't but he did lose his footing and collect a few scratches on his chest. I panted, feeling dizziness creep up on me.
His wound was almost nothing but it let me know that this Flareon wasn't invincible. Flareon came at me again and I dug my teeth into his shoulder, effectively stopping his charge. He growled and sprayed a wall of embers in my face, the attack was enough to unlatch my teeth from his shoulder and put me back on the ground. My eyesight started fading.
No, I don't want to lose. I struggled and tried to get up again but couldn't. I felt my body relax as my eyes closed and my breathing became more regular. I even sensed my wound starting to staunch.
It felt like longer, but fifteen seconds later, I woke up again; with a start. I wasn't healed—far from it. I had woken up because every nerve in my body was screaming 'you're still in danger'. My paws felt tingly and I felt light-headed but my leg didn't hurt so bad and I had more energy so I stood back up.
The two trainers seemed to be in a dispute.
"What do you mean it's not over?" Sam shouted, he had stepped up almost to the middle of the field, near me. Jerk had done the same. His Flareon was sitting primly at his feet.
"It's not over, wimp! You agreed to a Black-Out battle. I bet you don't even know what that means!"
"What are you talking about?" Sam yelled again, clearly frustrated. I sat up as Gold walked up to me. He looked angry too.
"Damn sadistic Flareon. What'd we get ourselves into?" He growled. I just shook my head, too dazed to answer. My adrenaline was pumping, getting me upright. Gold held out a closed paw. First, I wondered if he wanted a fist bump but he impatiently grabbed my clumsy paw and turned it around. He dropped an Oran Berry in it.
"Thanks," I told him, nodding gratefully before chewing on it. It was small so it didn't a big difference but it filled me with more energy and some confidence. Gold and I diverted our attention back onto the two trainers.
"Normal battles, a Pokémon is unable to battle and that's it. But Pokémon have an instinct that shuts them down when they're hurt so they don't destroy themselves fighting the average battle, dumb-ass. Black-Out battles are fights that keep going past cowardly limitations. Pokémon automatically suppress fainting when the danger doesn't end. It doesn't stop when the Pokémon faints, it ends when they black-out," Jerk sneered, in a faux-helpful way. "Get to your side of the field, loser, this battle isn't over yet."
Please review!
I'll do my best to get it out soon! Please review!