Pokemon: Crimson and Azure

Chapter 8: The Cerulean Cape

In this chapter:

~Third Rival Battle!-New Pokemon-At the Cape-Back to Cerulean City~

~Third Rival Battle!~

This is getting old … not!

Because of the time Crimson had to spare, plus the new Pokemon in the area, she was heading towards the Cerulean Cape, a beautiful faraway spot in the Cerulean City Area, resting at the north-east edge of the Kanto region. On the way there however, there was a faint but familiar figure approaching our hero from the distance.
Stopping for a second and squinting her eyes, Crimson could make out who the figure in the distance, that was heading her way was. Her rival again ... Azure. It wasn't much of a surprise as they met at the peak of Mt. Moon the other night. As soon as Azure could make out the shape of her rival, she sped up like a madman.
"Yo Crimson! …" The blue haired girl finally stopped in front of Crimson, panting from the short-distanced run she just had.
"I… *pant* … I was … *pant*…" Azure couldn't catch her breath. She knew she was out of shape, but this much?
"Calm down, you don't have to run towards me every time you see me, you know." Crimson said with a serious and unimpressed expression on her face.
"I … wanted a … rematch…" Azure coughed out after that sentenced and finally managed to store enough breath in her lungs to start breathing normally again.
"A rematch, huh?" Crimson smirked. "Have you even gotten the Cerulean badge yet?"
"No… Not yet at least … but that doesn't mean I can't beat you! I've gotten a lot stronger thanks to the trainers up at the cape! Wanna see?"
Azure pulled out a pokeball, ready to attack, but then she noticed the Cerulean badge next to the Pewter badge above Crimson's right breast. "Oh boy … she's tough … already has the second badge … no, focus! I mustn't let her notice I'm scared!" Azure thought to herself.
"Bring it on!" Said Crimson, pulling out one of her Pokeballs as well.
"Go! Oddish!" Azure sent out her recently caught Pokemon, an Oddish with only one move: Absorb. Crimson already knew that, as she had already made research on Pokemon in this area, along with their most common movesets. Oddish always knew only Absorb until they evolved.
"This will be easy…" Crimson played it smart and retrieved her Pokeball, then took out Pidgeotto's pokeball and sent it out to battle.
"Oh wow, so your Pidgey finally evolved eh? Well get a load of this, Oddish use Absorb!"
"Oddish!" The Oddish began to glow in green, along with it's opponent as a beam of light began connecting both of the Pokemon. Oddish was draining Pidgeotto's HP, although it didn't seem to do much …
Crimson had an evil grin at that moment, knowing this battle was hers.
The Pidgetto easily and quickly broke free from Oddish's spell.
"W-What?" Azure jumped back in confusion. "W-Why didn't that work?"
"Oh, poor little Azure … you see, grass types aren't only weak against fire … they are weak against ice, bug and flying as well. Pidgeotto, use gust!"
"Curoo!" Crimson's bird pokemon began flapping it's wings swiftly, creating a gust twice stronger than any gust Azure had seen yet. This was her first battle against a Pidgeotto after all … especially such a well trained one. Her poor Oddish stood no chance, as it was knocked down in an instant.
"Darn it! Oddish, return!"
Azure had to do something, and fast. She already screwed up the first part of the battle, she couldn't keep doing it.
"Go, Abra!" Little did she know, her next move was even worse …
Crimson grinned again.
"Don't tell me you didn't look at your Abra's only move after catching it."
"Uh….I-I have! I-I just uhm … forgot, that's all! Which is why I need to check…"
Azure turned around and pulled out her dex in an instant, looking up Abra's only move …. Teleport. It's only use was to get out of sticky situations, as it could teleport it's trainer as well.
"Well… I'm done for …" Azure thought to herself, turning around to face the battlefield again and letting out an embarrassed giggle.
"Pidgeotto, use gust again!"
"Abra, use teleport!"
The abra teleported just before the gust of wind was about to hit it. It moved to a safer location behind Pidgeotto, and in front of Crimson. If Abra stood no chance in battle, mind as well at least irritate the opponent…
"Grrr, Pidgeotto, use gust one more time!"
"Abra, teleport!"
The same thing happened again. But then, Crimson got a brilliant idea. Since the area of where Abra could teleport was random, she could utilize it and hope to get lucky with her next move. In order for an Abra to be able to control it's teleport, it would have to evolve to an Alakazam.
"Pidgeotto, use gust!"
"Abra, teleport again!"
The same thing happened. Things were looking up for Azure … but then, the Abra had teleported to a dangerous spot on the top of a small hill that was dangerously close to Pidgeotto.
Crimson chuckled to herself.
"Pidgeotto, quickly, use tackle!"
"Curoo curoo!"
Her Pidgeotto charged with a high amount of speed. Such speed, that the poor Abra couldn't teleport away in time, so it was knocked down instantly.
"W-Wha…? What just happened?"
"You see, your Abra cannot control where it teleports because it is still young. It also cannot teleport you or itself to any long-distanced locations. It has to evolve into a Kadabra in order to master that move."
"You did your research, haven't you?" Azure smiled, returning her Abra back to it's pokeball for a nice long rest. But deep inside, she wasn't so happy … She felt terrible for not doing proper research on her Pokemon. It was because of her that she was losing this battle.. it was because of her that her Pokemon were getting knocked out … no more! She said in her mind.
"Let's … let's stop it here. I know I'll lose in the end. You win. "
Azure sighed.
"Huh? What's all this now?" Crimson asked confused. Was she too rough with the poor girl?
A cartoonish shadow had appeared over Azure's eyes. She approached Crimson, gave her the prize money, then continued back to Cerulean City without saying a word. Crimson and her faithful bird companion just watched, as the girl slowly sped up her steps.
"W-Wait!..." But before Crimson could say another word, Azure had started running with tears in her eyes. Of course, Crimson couldn't see them, due to the distance between them. She just let out a sigh, thinking Azure would get over it, and moved on, letting her Pidgeotto fly around for a while.
After only about 10 minutes of walking, she had reached the famous Nugget bridge. It had exactly five trainers all across it, eager to battle. They said they'd give her a reward for beating all of them. And so she did. It didn't even wipe out her high level pokemon too much. She beat all five trainers quite easily, including the last one.
"Splendid! What an excellent battle that was!" The suspicious man said, retrieving his Ekans to it's pokeball. "You deserve this!" He said, approaching the girl and giving her a golden nugget, obviously worth a lot of money.
"Gee, thanks so much!"
"You're the first trainer in quite a while to beat all of us. Congratulations! On another note. .. would you like to join Team Rocket? We are an evil organization specialized in stealing Pokemon?"
"Team Rocket? … I remember you … you guys tried to steal fossils at Mt. Moon."
"That's what we do best! So, care to join?"
"No …"
"Oh come on! You don't know what you're missing out on! We pay good!"
"No…"
"Tough kid … listen, with your skill and power you could become an executive in no time! Come on!"
"Listen, I'm fully aware of what you freaks are capable of. One of your goons tried to do something to me … If it wasn't for my Pokemon to protect me, who knows if I would have even been here. You are dangerous people and should be put behind bars as soon as possible. I should call the cops…"
"Shute, another law loving princess! I gotta run, don't tell anyone you talked to me here today … or else, you'll pay …. BYEEEE!"
The goon ran off in a goofy way, however the cliché "you'll pay…" part he said in a serious tone … Crimson wasn't sure how much to worry yet though. She returned her Pikachu in it's pokeball and looked back at the trainers on the bridge. They were all kids, so she doubted they'd work with Team Rocket.

~New Pokemon~

New members to the family!
After all of that was over, a weird little boy jumped out of the nearby bushes and greeted the young lass.
"I watched your battles from the grass! You are a truly awesome trainer and person! You really showed that Team Rocket guy a thing or two!"
"Gee, thanks … but didn't your mom ever tell you that stalking people is bad?"
"I know… I'm sorry … but you see, I have this Squirtle that really dislikes me … I guess I'm just not fit to be it's trainer."
"Aww, don't say that … say, what's your name?"
"Billy."
"Don't say things like that, Billy.." Crimson kneeled down to be on eye level with the boy. "You're still really young, I bet you will make a great trainer one day."
"Thanks …" The boy blushed lightly. "B-But lack of confidence isn't the only problem.. you see, my mom highly dislikes Pokemon. I got this Squirtle from Prof. Oak secretly, but she found out and wants me throw it away … but I don't want to do that. I want it to have a nice trainer like you. So will you please take it?"
"Oh… that's a bummer … Well, okay then. It'll help me in my Pokedex quest."
"Wow! You have a Pokedex too? You really are amazing!"
"Hehe… it's nothing …" Crimson smiled awkwardly. She never really liked being praised like this.
"Well, here's Squirtle's pokeball!" The boy said, putting a pokeball in Crimson's palms. "Thank you, and please, take good care of it…"
"I will, don't you worry about a thing."
"Bye!"
"Bye, Billy!"
The boy ran off. Crimson got up on her feet again and looked at the Pokeball. Pulling out her Pokedex, she checked the squirtle's moves. It already knew Water Gun, which was impressive, considering it was trained by a little boy with no confidence whatsoever. Clearly their bond was strong, and she felt bad for taking in the offer.
"Come on out, Squirtle!"
The Squirtle looked up in confusion, seeing a different face.
"Hey… Your trainer and friend had to give you away, as I'm sure you were fully aware of … I'm your new trainer. My name's Crimson, nice to meet you~"
Crimson got on her knees and smiled at the little turtle. However, the turtle didn't feel the same way and just splashed water straight in her face, then returned to it's pokeball. Pokemon were full of surprises… Flare could come out of her Pokeball at any time, while this squirtle could manually return to it's ball. "Brilliant … getting to this one will be tougher than I thought …"
Crimson sighed and let it go for now. On the way to the cape, she had caught a few new Pokemon, adding more pages to her pokedex, including the Pokemon Azure had used so poorly in their last battle, which took place only an hour ago.
She also battled a few trainers and tried using squirtle, but to no avail as it just wouldn't listen to her.

~At the Cape~

Crimson meets Bill, the boy-genius, in the most bizarre way imaginable…

Finally, she had reached the house at the top of the Cape.
"Sea Cottage: Bill lives here!" Was written on it.
Bill … that name rang a bell… people were talking about this Bill person and his amazing rare Pokemon collection. But that's all Crimson knew about this odd individual.
She entered the house, knocking as a warning beforehand.
She was however greeted by something unusual. The main hall was complete chaos, machines were everywhere, the body of a 16 year old was constantly acting weird and kept saying 'Clefairy' over and over. And then there was a Clefairy, that spoke!
"Oh thank god somebody came! I'm a Pokemon … NO I'M NOT! You gotta trust me on this one, I'm not joshing you! I'm Bill, the famous inventor and creator of the pokemon trading, storage and healing system! I got mixed up with a Pokemon in my latest experiment! As you can see, my body belongs to that Clefairy now!"
"O…kay….?"
Crimson couldn't quite follow up what was going on. Just what sick experiments was this guy doing? And why?
"… uhm, just do as I say, okay? First, make my body go into the right pod over there." He pointed to one of the two large pods in the center of the room. "Then, when I go in, push the button on my computer that says 'Activate cell separating system'. How do you lure my body in? I dunno, think of something, quick!"
"Hmmm…"
Crimson pulled out a packet of the remaining Pokemon food she had. All of her Pokemon had snacked a while ago, so she could spare the rest. Hoping the Clefairy was hungry enough, she poured the last bit of food in the right pod, and watched as the clefairy in Bill's body fell for the bait and began eating the food inside the pod.
"That's a brilliant idea! Okay I'm going in now, press the button!"
he said, running inside the other pod.
Crimson sighed and approached the computer, pushing the correct button. The doors closed and a bunch of sounds could be heard as the machinery was working. Finally, the doors opened with a lot of smoke coming out of both of them. Then she was greeted by the real Bill, and the clefairy, which had mysteriously fallen asleep.
"Blergh … that Pokemon food tastes terrible … I never understood how Pokemon can like it. Anyway, thank you very much! So, I take it you came to see my Pokemon collection, like everyone else passing by through here?"
"Um, not really, I just decided to drop by …"
"Aw, how nice of you! Hey, you saved my life back there, so I feel like I should reward you somehow … I know, take this!"
He pulled out a ticket-like piece of paper out of his jean pocket and handed it to her. "It's a ticket to the S.S. Anne Cruise ship. It departs in 3 days. I've been invited to the party, but I just can't stand fancy-do's. So why don't you go there instead of me?"
"Wow… isn't that a bit too much? I mean, all I did was push a button.."
"Hey, you still saved me. God knows how long I would've been stuck in that clefairy's body … being a scientist sucks. "
Crimson took the ticket after some hesitation, and stuffed it in her breastpocket. "Thank you very much, Bill." She smiled
"Hehe, no problem. You have fun there!"
"I sure will. Well, I would stay, but I'm running low on time … how did it get 5 already?"
"I dunno, but you should head back. The Pokemon Center will be closing soon."
"I will. See ya around, Bill!"
"Bye!"

~Back to Cerulean City~

And back to sleep…

She didn't even tell him her name. She hurried THAT much.
Running outside of his house, she took a detour that made her journey back down to Cerulean City a lot quicker. She was back in town by 6:30, did some quick shopping until 7:00, rented the same room for one more night in the Pokemon center, stored her newly caught Pokemon for now, and relaxed until it was bed-time. After dinner with her Pokemon and a quick shower, she went to bed. Tomorrow would be a big day, when she would set out on foot again, so she had to recover her strength. That night however, she had nightmares about Azure… and how she had acted towards her that same day…

/Author's note: I know I said I'd do two chapters this week, but I'll be honest with everyone: It wasn't my eyes or anything, I just felt really lazy. It just happens, I'm a very lazy person, and I'm sorry for that … But at least the good news is, my eyes are feeling a lot better than they were last weekend. I just hope the same won't happen again, especially during the weekend when I can usually write this. But anyway, another side-chapter next week, about Azure's drama. But until then, adios!

Next time: Azure's painful gym battle.