The preparation for the battle with the Nido gang continues, as Flame meets an old enemy.
Episode Seventeen: Meeting the troops
A few hours later, the paralisis had completely worn off and the swellings had gone down. I had taken stock of my surroundings, the Ekans had taken up residence inside a large hollow oak tree. But, impressed as I was by its determination, there were still things I needed to know.
"What are we up against, numbers wise?" I asked the Ekans
"There are about thirty of them, but if we take out the leaders then the rest should run off. Besides, we're not the only two in this," the Ekans laughed as he slithered out through the entrance, bekoning me to follow. I was a little pencive but decided to follow, Ekans seemed to know what he was doing.
I climbed through the hole and followed my companion through seemingly random bushes and fields, all the while keeping a close check on my surroundings. There was no way in hell that I was going to let those rabbit things get me again. Eventually, we came to a stop in the center of a field of flowers. There was a small clearing up ahead which Ekans headed for.
"What are we doing here?" I asked, completely clueless.
"Introducing you to the troops," Ekans replied. 'Well that made a lot of sense,'
A shrill whistle sounded out and suddenly, a hoard of blue furred rodents burst out of the undergrowth. There must have been at least fifty of them, all crowding around us. It was somewhat disturbing, to say the least. Many of them were speaking at the same time, making everything sound like gibberish. Ekans managed to stop them with a shake of his tail rattle thing.
"Charmander, meet our troops," he said, leaving me to wonder what I had gotten myself into.
"Who's the new guy, General?" One of the rodant Pokémon asked.
"General?" I piped up, the Ekans laughed at my confusion.
"I used to live near a Human Military base, I picked up some of the lingo."
Well that made much more sense. Anyway, General Ekans soon explained that this load of Rattata were our trooper. They had all agreed to fight in order to save their families, unfortunatly they were a little skittish and prone to running away at the slightest noise.
"So we can go kick butt now?" I asked, eager to get underway.
"I'm 'fraid not, while we outnumber them. They have poison attacks and we don't have enough berries to heal the wounded a head on assault would result in. Besides, we don't want to take any casualties," General Ekans sighed.
"So what's the plan then?"
"We attack suddenly, without warning, then melt away before they can react."
"A hit-and-run. Should work nicely, but we need to know exactly what they are doing," I said, thoughtfully. General Ekans chuckled.
"Way ahead of you there. We already have a scout. He should be arriving in a minute," he said. Right on cue, a pidgey landed amougst us. A very familier looking Pidgey. It turned to look at me, and recognition flashed across its face. (well, what little expression it could show, its hard to be expressive when all you have on your face is a beak)
I immediatly raised my arms, ready to deflect the attack I was sure was going to come. The Pidgey just laughed at my reaction and stepped foward.
"Relax, we're on the same side now. You put up a damn good fight back in Viridian Forest. I'm known as Scout," it said, offering its wing.
It took me a few seconds to process that information. A Pokémon who tried to kill me, and who I nearly killed back, was telling me too relax. I decided to proceed, but very cautiously. I reached foward and shook his wing with my hand. The Ratatta troop cheered as I did so. I had passed some sort of test.
"I'm Flame."