Well, that threat sounded good in my head…
I didn't think at the time I could back it up. Heck, probably no one thought I could. This was bad; I didn't want to look like an idiot, yet I didn't want to break my promise to Zev. I suddenly felt a surge of sickness and dizziness go through my body and cause me to become disoriented. I quickly fell back on one knee as Sasuke was able to catch me before I fell. The Ariados laughed at us as I growled.
"I don't think I'll be taking any of your threats seriously, little mouse," he sneered at me, "Show me your so-called power!"
I growled as suddenly I felt something in my body rise up in me. It was a surge of excitement; like a generator of power. I couldn't explain the power that I had gotten so much energy. I felt sick, but I felt fine at the same time. I suddenly found my body running towards Ariados. I felt the find fly through my fur as every fifth or sixth step the blurriness flashed in my eyes. Ariados was surprised that I was able to advance to him as he fired a Pin Missile attack at me.
"Try to dodge this, wimp!" he yelled.
Sasuke immediately saw this and used Aqua Jet. Shooting past me, he used Water Pulse, sending the attack off course and into an open area. This allowed me to jump and come face to face with Ariados. The spider gasped as I flipped and brought both my feet into a downward kick. It connected, causing the spider to flinch. Seeing the opportunity to continue, I brought both of my arms above my head. I put them together and threw them down onto his head. It caused him to grunt in pain as he was then disoriented. Because I threw that punch, my body had flipped and caused me to do a front flip again. As I went in circles, I felt my right arm suddenly flair with electricity. I held it out to see it was creating a huge electric energy ball. My eyes widened; I knew how to do Electro Ball!
I quickly threw my arm forward, throwing the Electro Ball at him. It smashed into him, causing him to roar in pain. As he sort of leaned on his web, it shook, causing Zev to be freed. Although still in bondage, his body came loose as he rolled off and onto his feet. He landed and struggled on his bonds as I was brought down by gravity. I suddenly realized I landed on the web and struggled to maintain my balance. I grunted as I waved my arms in circles, trying to stay on.
Suddenly, my eyes went suddenly partially blind as I bent down on one knee. Sasuke immediately saw this as everyone gasped.
"Thomas! Get off that!" he said, running towards us.
Ariados growled at me as he raised his head to me and prepared to use Psychic on me. He glared with extreme hatred at me as he leaned forward to attack.
"NOW YOU'RE MINE, YOU LITTLE BRAT!" he screamed.
I closed my eyes, preparing for impact. But after a few seconds of nothing, I squinted to look, only for my eyes to go wide in shock. He was trapped in String Shot! But how!? Why would he trap himself? … no… wait a minute! We all looked to see that Caterpie had crawled into the battlefield and attacked him. He was scared, but brave enough to help us. He then turned to me and smiled.
"Thomas! He's yours now! Get him!" he yelled.
I nodded as I felt that this would be the last attack I could do. I slowly cocked my right arm back and formed my hand into a fist. I gritted my teeth and concentrated all my energy into my punch. I felt that energy come back again as electricity shot through my arm. I suddenly noticed I was doing Thunder Punch. I then brought my fist forward as it caught on fire in means of sparks and lightning. The Ariados widened his eyes in realizing he was done for.
"W-What!? NOOOOOOO!" he screamed as I drilled the punch into his face.
The impact sent him flying through the webs, breaking it, and causing him to smash into the wall. Because I was standing on it, I happened to fall through as well. Ariados thus slumped on the ground with spirals in his eyes, showing he was ko'ed after smashing into and falling from the wall. I, on the other hand, was able to land on my feet. I was exhausted as I looked at my unconscious enemy.
"You… ever try this again… and I'll hit you so hard, that web shoots out of your eyes…" I muttered a threat.
Everyone in the room was staring in awe at me. I mean, there was no way the alibi was gonna be so strong now. I mean, for an "unknown" Pikachu to have the memory and ability to attack beaten out of him, only for him to go on a simple rescue mission and remember three of his four attacks in one day? Wow, I bet you Batsu or King is gonna question about that once we start getting back to the Square. However, I suddenly felt a jolt of nausea that hit me SO BAD, I actually felt like I was going to faint. My hearing suddenly dampened and I went deaf. I'm pretty sure I heard Sasuke yell my name and he probably came running, but at the time, nothing. All I remember was my vision going and me falling to my knees. I don't know if I slumped or fell completely, but I knew that the poison had got to me… and had me rendered unconscious.
-
The next thing I remember was moving, but I wasn't walking; I was off the ground. My vision was a bit blurry and I still felt a bit sick, but I was okay. I noticed I was being carried in a piggy-back ride kind of way and my face was snuggling into something soft. I was able to open my eyes a bit and look around to see that Sasuke was carrying me and my head was on his right shoulder.
"S… S-Sas.. uke?" I managed to say.
My brother looked over his shoulder and once seeing I was okay, smiled and nuzzled my face gently.
"Hey, Thomas. Good to see that you're okay," he said softly.
I smiled at his nose nuzzling me. It felt so good, like his love as channeling into my body from it. I smiled as I widened my eyes. Wait a minute; where was everybody else? I struggled to lift my head a bit to see Batsu, who was carrying the bag, and King to the right, but that was it.
"Sasuke… C-Caterpie and Z-Zev… are they…?" I tried to ask.
"We're over here, kid," I heard a certain Grovyle say.
I turned my head to the left to see Zev walking with his eyes closed in a cool manner, and Caterpie enjoying a ride on Naruto's back. He immediately saw me and smiled.
"Yay! You're awake!" Caterpie exclaimed.
I smiled at him. Sure, I felt like someone had driven a blade through me, but if he and Zev were alright, that's what mattered the most. I softly and painfully chuckled as the blurriness started to kick in again. I moaned and that's when Sasuke showed me he had a Pecha berry in his right paw.
"Here…" he held the berry up to my mouth and said, "take small bites, okay? This will make you feel better. And don't worry; there's still some berries left in the bag for your promise with Zev."
With that, I started to dig in to the berry of poison antidote. Slowly by slowly, my strength returned and I could see again. As I was eating the berry, I noticed that we were approaching the fissure where we had come from. I blinked; you mean from when I passed out from battling all the way up to here, we got to where we came from without any battles? Maybe the Pokémon saw that we defeated Ariados and decided to leave us alone.
"Where's Ariados…?" I asked, as my felt my vision completely be restored.
"He passed out from that Thunder Punch you gave him," Naruto cheerfully said, "Zev was able to get free and cut the rest of us loose. We high-tailed it out of there in a heartbeat; he's still probably on the ground where we left him."
I nodded as we approached the fissure. At first, I wondered how the heck we were gonna get up there, but that was cut short when Sasuke jumped and started to wall-jump out of there. I held on tightly as the others soon followed. As we finally reached daylight and the beautiful Tiny Woods again, we noticed Butterfree was waiting for us. She gasped in joy and relief as she saw her baby was unharmed.
"Caterpie!" she exclaimed with joy as she flew over.
"Mommy!" Caterpie said as Naruto lowered him down.
Butterfree scooped him up into her arms and started kissing and hugging him. Caterpie giggled as his mom was so relieved to find that we helped him. She kissed his head and slowly brought them back down to the ground in front of us. I finally was able to get my energy back and stand with the five that I helped in this mission.
"My baby's safe!" Butterfree said happily, "I'm sorry, I don't know how I can ever thank you properly…"
"It's all right, ma'am!" Naruto said happily, "We were happy to help!"
"It has been getting rather dangerous lately with natural disasters like that; luckily, it's not that bad," Batsu said, folding his arms after putting the bag down.
"Please, may I have your names?" the mother asked.
"I'm Sasuke," my older brother said, "That's Naruto the Poochyena, Thomas the Pikachu, and I'm pretty sure you know Batsu, King, and Zev."
Butterfree was surprised to hear Zev's name as she smiled and said, "Really… Wow, that's wonderful. Thank you, all of you. Especially you, Zev."
Zev sort of blushed at this as he folded his arms, and closed his eyes while turning his head away. I giggled at him; I bet he wasn't used to getting compliments at all. Suddenly, all of us noticed that Caterpie was sort of staring at us. His eyes were sparkling and were staring in admonishment.
"… Cool…." He said in a dream like trance.
I kid you not; the six of us at the same time all blushed embarrassingly and had a sweatdrop go down. It was kind of a bit weird for him to stare at us like that.
"He's, uh… staring at us adoringly…" King said, trying to not sound weak, "Those sparkly eyes… it's a little embarrassing…"
Well, it didn't feel bad to me; I felt like a hero! Helping Pokémon in trouble might just be the greatest experience for me in my whole entire life. It was then Caterpie jumped in joy and giggled.
"Thank you! All of you!" he said joyfully, making all of us blush more.
"I know this isn't really enough, but this is a token of our thanks. Please accept it," Butterfree caught our attention.
She handed us three berries; Oran, Pecha, and Rawst. Sasuke put them in the bag. She smiled as she snuggled Caterpie after hugging him and holding him as she fly off the ground.
"Thank you so much. Until we meet again," she said as she flew away with her son reunited.
I felt great as they flew out of view. That was amazing. To be able to fight like this and protect people; yeah… I could get used to a life like this! My brothers and I as an unstoppable team! I could see it happening. It was then we all heard Zev clear his throat and start to walk away.
"Well, my time with you guys is done… I'm outta here," he said as he started to make his way from us.
Suddenly, I remember something and gently took the bag off the ground. I then ran a bit closer to Zev and called out.
"Hey, Zev, heads up!" I yelled as I threw the bag towards him.
The thief turned around and gasped at the incoming bag. He was able to catch it perfectly without anything falling out. He stared in a confusing manner back at me as I walked closer to him. I grinned as I began untying my headband.
"A promise is a promise, Zev," I said as I slowly began to hand him my headband as promised, "You helped us get Caterpie out of there; you get to have the bag, berries, and my headband."
"Keep it."
The five of us blinked in surprise at what Zev said. He held the bag as I looked back at the headband. I didn't understand what I just heard; maybe I was hallucinating and didn't hear him correctly.
"A-Are you sure?" I double-checked, "I promised you can have my headband. I mean, that's what you wanted at first, right?"
It was then I figured it out; Zev was blushing and looked away. Ah, I bet he wasn't expecting me to go through with my promise. He looked away quickly and scoffed.
"I… really didn't want the headband in the first place anyways," he said, "My original plan was to steal the headband and then trade for the bag."
It was then Zev actually smiled at me as he turned and said, "You know something, Pikachu? You're pretty cool. Consider yourself on my 'Not to steal from' list. Laters."
With that, Zev jumped into a tree and then tree-jumped out of our view in a heartbeat. We were all left stunned as I shrugged and tied my headband back onto my head. King had an hilarious face of disbelief as he put his hands on his head and raised an eyebrow.
"Since when does Zev have a 'Not to steal from' list?" he said suspiciously, "Before this mission, that thief would pickpocket anybody he could get his grimy claws on."
Batsu simply exhaled in a calm and uninterested manner as he closed his eyes and didn't really care. Naruto slowly walked over and rubbed his head into my left hip. He winked at me with a smile and giggled.
"Maybe he was touched by a certain act of kindness," he said to me.
I rolled my eyes with a blushing smirk; how dare my brother make me enjoy and bask in the moment of making a thief actually not steal when he's not supposed to. He giggled and I looked away as Sasuke smiled and walked in front of us, signaling it was time to get back.
"Well, whatever the case, mission success, guys," he said, "Let's get back to Pokémon Square and report the case to Whiscash Elder."
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