"Hey, what's up, kid?" The older trainer asked the duo while he brushed the black bangs out of his eyes.
"Uh… Not much. Just training here in the park because the gym leader isn't around. I thought you were headed to Blackthorn? What brought you here?" Chance questioned the onyx haired boy.
"Well, I had some time to kill so I decided to stop in at Goldenrod to meet up with a friend and go do some training with him before he leaves for the Hoenn region." Blake explained.
"Training is kind of an odd way to say good bye, isn't it?" The redhead laughed.
"Maybe, but he and his pokemon have been on vacation for a few weeks, so we want to get them warmed up before the gyms out there." Blake explained. "By the way, who is your friend?" He asked while gesturing to the blonde who was kneeling down with his quilava.
"That's Adrian. We met up around Violet City and decided to travel together." The two younger trainers shared a smile. "He has made things a lot more interesting, that's for sure."
"Nice to meet you." Adrian said to the older boy, standing and offering his hand. Blake gave it a firm shake and nodded to the boy.
"You said you were waiting for Whitney, yeah?" The boys nodded. "Well, you might want to move on, honestly. She is up in Ecruteak City visiting the gym leader there."
"How do you know that?" Adrian asked with a puzzled look.
Blake laughed. "Because I was just with them. Morty and I are actually pretty good friends. Whitney is up there on a bit of a vacation. Morty is giving her a historical tour of the city." He explained. "But if you ask me she hasn't heard a word he has said the entire time she has been up there. Not really the scholar type." He laughed at this.
"Well then…" Chance started with a frown. "What do you think, Adrian? Should we head up there and just come back to Goldenrod later?"
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to head north. I mean, who knows. We may even be able to get Whitney to battle us in Ecruteak."
"It is certainly possible." Blake mused. "She battles semi-frequently outside of her gym."
"I guess that is the plan then. We can start heading that way tomorrow. Sound good?" The blonde asked his companion.
"Sounds good to me. Rest up the rest of the afternoon and get an early start." Chance said, confirming their plans.
"Well, if it's alright with you guys I wouldn't mind hanging out for a few hours and catching up. I would love to hear about your adventures so far. I mean, I am not meeting up with my friend until tomorrow anyways."
"Sounds good to me." Chance smiled at his friends.
The group decided to spend the afternoon with their pokemon in the park. The boys traded many stories about their adventures. Adrian spoke fondly about the lessons taught to them by Falkner, while Chance shared stories about Cassie and how determined she was. As the boys told the seasoned trainer about their adventures, he offered advice on things they can try in situations in the future. The hours passed quickly as they talked about their time spent traveling in the Johto region. Soon, the conversations turned to the pokemon the two boys had with them.
"You know," Blake started while examining the large onix before him. "I am kind of shocked your onix listens to you as well as it does."
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't it?" Chance asked with a frown.
"Well, pokemon of higher levels don't tend to listen to trainers unless they are very experienced. Your onix must really trust you a lot to obey so well already."
"Is it really that high of a level? How can you tell?" The redhead questioned.
"You see, onix grow to be very old, and a good judgement on age and level are the size of the onix. Your onix is actually a little over the size of a middle-aged onix. I would say that generally a pokemon of its level wouldn't listen to somebody who has less than six badges."
"Wow…" Chance said quietly as he approached his pokemon and placed his hand on its side. "I am honored you trust me that much." He was met with a low moan from the giant rock-type. "I guess I didn't realize how powerful you really are. I will do my best to be a worthy trainer." The rock snake lowered its head to its trainer and gave him a gentle nudge. Chance replied with a smile and a small hug to his pokemon.
The moment was short lived, however, as from deeper within the national park they heard a loud explosion. The boys looked over the trees to see a column of smoke rising quickly above the treetops.
"What the hell was that?" Adrian asked with wide eyes.
"Not sure." Blake said quickly while withdrawing a pokeball. "Let's go." He summoned his vaporeon as he began to run towards the source of the explosion.
The two boys recalled the pokemon around them and began to pursue their friend towards the smoke. Several minutes of running later they heard two more, much closer, explosions. Smoke quickly rose above the trees from the second explosions. The two younger trainers slowed to a stop as Blake broke through into a clearing before them.
Within the clearing they saw a large green pokemon chasing after a swarm of green, mantis pokemon. Behind the large pokemon ran a dark-haired man in a long black coat. The man screamed out to the large pokemon in front of him.
"Tyranitar, use hyper beam and stop those damn bugs!" He barked. The large dinosaur pokemon shot a powerful yellow beam from its mouth, which exploded in front of the swarm of insects, causing them to stop and shift direction, flying right towards the three trainers who had just entered the clearing.
"Down! Now!" The older trainer yelled as the swarm charged at them. The three trainers immediately dropped to the grass as the swarm of bug pokemon flew overhead and took shelter within the trees behind them. "Vaporeon, stop that thing with hydro pump!" The water-type pokemon jumped forward and launched a powerful stream of water at the larger pokemon. The blast slammed into the pokemon and slowly began to push it back, away from the group.
"Who the hell are you?" The man in the black coat yelled. "Get the hell out of my way!"
"Not a chance." Blake yelled back, positioning himself behind his vaporeon, between the tyranitar and the fleeing swarm that had huddled down in the trees and bushes behind the group.
"Bad choice." The strange man smiled. "I am here on business and you're bad for business. Time for you to disappear." The man's smirked widened as his pokemon shot another powerful yellow beam out. The blast flew past vaporeon and slammed into the ground in front of Blake, throwing him several feet across the grass.
"Blake!" Chance yelled, running to his friend. As he closed the distance between himself and his now wounded friend he threw a pokeball into the air, while snivy jumped from his shoulders. "Snivy, energy ball! Staryu use water gun!" Staryu emerged from the ball and shot a torrent of water at tyranitar, while snivy created a green orb and launched it at their foe. Vaporeon joined the assault, launching another hydro pump.
Tyranitar took the brunt of the assault before launching another hyper beam back at the pokemon attacking it. The blast exploded when it hit, causing snivy and staryu to faint immediately, while causing vaporeon a large amount of damage.
"Are you alright?" The redhead asked his friend, slowly helping him to his feet.
"I'm fine. You guys aren't a match for this guy. Get those scyther out of here. I will hold this guy off." The two younger trainers nodded to the more senior trainer, who withdrew another pokeball and tossed it into the air. "Nidoqueen, help me out!"
Chance quickly recalled his pokemon, even returning snivy to her ball, which was very rare. The younger trainers turn and ran into the forest to the cowering scyther and started to try and urge them to continue fleeing, but their eyes were all trained on a single spot within the field. Adrian followed their gaze past the battle that was now unfolding between nidoqueen and tyranitar and saw a green lump in the taller grass of the field.
"Chance, they aren't leaving because one of them is still back there." The blonde said with worry in his voice. Chance quickly spotted what his companion was talking about. The lump slowly tried to rise, but fell to the ground once more.
"Keep trying to get them out of here. I will go get that one." The blonde started to protest to his companion about the danger of running past the two pokemon that were trading hyper beams, but was swiftly cut off. "Onix and I can handle this. Now run!"
The blonde stared into his friend's eyes for a moment before nodding and turning to the bugs once more, ushering them to leave. Chance bolted across the field, onix's pokeball in hand just in case he needed it.
In the middle of the field, nidoqueen roared out in pain as a hyper beam slammed into its chest. Nidoqueen then retaliated with a light blue beam that slammed into tyranitar and starting to freeze it as the beam moved across its body. Chance took this moment as his chance to run past the battling titans.
He quickly neared the wounded pokemon on the ground. The moment he approached the pokemon took a swipe of its scythe toward the redheaded trainer. Luckily for Chance the attacked moved very slowly due to the injuries the pokemon had sustained.
"Whoa, buddy. It's okay. I'm a friend." He spoke in a slow, calming tone, noticing how terrified the pokemon was. "Just wanna help get you out of here. Okay?" He slowly moved his hand towards the pokemon once more, who eyed him nervously.
Chance's finger tips brushed slowly against the blade of scyther's hand, who quickly withdrew the scythe from the boy's reach.
"I promise, I won't hurt you. I just want to get you to safety." The boy's eyes scanned over the pokemon, seeing the injuries caused by the multiple hyper beam blasts. For the first time, Chance really noticed how small the scyther was compared to the ones he had been next to in the forest. "You're still young… Young and injured… I understand why you're so afraid, but you have to trust me. Please…" He moved his hand forward once more, more slowly than last time. The small scyther sniffed his hand a few times, not flinching away this time. Chance slowly placed his hand on the end of the bug-type's nose, moving his thumb in slow circles.
"Alright, time to get out of here, bud." The redhead stated, glancing back at the battle raging between his friend and the poacher. Chance slowly worked to pull scythe up onto his back, knowing he couldn't carry the wounded pokemon very easily. Scyther squirmed a little, but didn't have the ability to fight against the trainer too much. Chance positioned scyther's forearms on his shoulders, allowing the scythes to dangle menacingly in front of his chest. Once the pokemon was positioned as securely as he could hope, Chance began a quick trot across the field once more, praying to make it safely back to the forest without getting hit by a stray hyper beam.
The uneven weight of the injured pokemon on his back, as well as paying more attention to the battle than where he was running made the ride bumpier for scythe than either trainer or pokemon would have liked. One particularly hard jostle just before they reached the relative safety of the trees happened when a hyper beam hit a few feet behind the duo, causing Chance to stumble and scyther's blade to cut into his left shoulder as the mantis pokemon steadied itself. The sting of the cut across his flesh, as well as the heat of his blood running down his chest made the redhead quicken his pace once more. He soon made his way into the forest and towards the scyther swarm and his friend.
Within the clearing tyranitar took a powerful hydro pump from the vaporeon, who was nimbly avoiding the assault of the larger, rock-type. The man in the dark coat gritted his teeth as his pokemon rose back to its feet.
"Enough of this." He snarled. "Tyranitar, blow that damn kid away! Hyper beam!"
This time the tyranitar was not aiming towards the water pokemon that it had been losing to. It launched a powerful yellow blast of energy towards Blake, who had no cover to avoid the attack. Blake closed his eyes, preparing for the attack to hit him, however, just before he was hit, his vaporeon intercepted the attack with its own body. Vaporeon was blasted into its trainer, throwing them both across the grass. The dark-haired trainer let out a loud groan as he slowly sat up once more. He looked down at his vaporeon, who lay unmoving across his lap.
"Vaporeon…" He groaned weakly as he reached down to his pokemon. "Why would you do that?" His pokemon cried weakly in response.
"Looks like it's over for you." The poacher smirked as he approached the fallen trainer. "Tyranitar, finish this interference."
"You're wrong." Blake groaned. "This isn't done." As he spoke he grabbed a second pokeball from his belt and lobbed it a few feet away. From the pokeball burst his nidoqueen, who let out a deafening roar when she saw the state of her trainer.
Nidoqueen immediately let out a burst of white-blue energy from her mouth towards the tyranitar, who cried in pain as its chest and arms began to freeze over.
"Tyranitar! Don't you let these losers beat you! Attack!" The man screamed in fury.
Tyranitar and nidoqueen both released powerful yellow beams from their mouths, the hyper beams impacting between them and causing a large explosion. Both trainers were thrown back several feet from the shockwave.
Blake looked up from the ground at his pokemon once more. "You've got this, nidoqeen. Take them down." The large blue pokemon then charged tyranitar, who was struggling to get back to its feet.
The rock-type was breathing heavily, already exhausted from the battle with vaporeon, and nidoqueen was going to press its advantage. As tyranitar made it back to its feet it was met with a glowing fist to the face, which threw it once more to the ground. Nidoqueen roared once more in fury before launching a second hyper beam. The attack hit its mark, causing a large explosion with tyranitar in its center. Once the smoke and dust cleared, tyranitar laid unmoving in the center of a blackened patch of grass.
"Damn kids!" The poacher yelled as he recalled his defeated pokemon. The man turned and began to run back towards the forest edge, hoping to escape from the raging pokemon behind him.
Nidoqueen paid the fleeing man no mind. She quickly made her way to her trainer, who lay motionless in the grass. She slowly picked up her trainer as Adrian ran from the forest to aid the fallen man. The blonde quickly reached the duo and placed his hand on the large pokemon's arm, who cried sadly down at her trainer.
"Don't worry, help is on the way. Everything is going to be okay."