Chapter 66; A constantly growing team
"There I see it!" Tails exclaimed, looking ahead with his binoculars while flying.
"How far away?" Sonic called out to him.
"Five minutes tops".
"Great. Get ready gentlemen" Sonic joked "it's time to go hunting!"
Tails landed next to his two friends, wishing he could pull them both up and just fly them there.
"Oh man I'm so excited. The time has come".
"There are so many rare species leaving in unique and hard to find environments" Sonic said "with patience and a lot of luck we will find something as powerful as my pinsir but that will obey us, whoever catches it".
"Say what about a bet?" Knuckles suggested.
"What bet?" Tails inquired.
"Whoever catches the rarest species gets a chili dog. Loser's treat".
"Are you so eager to lose another bet?" Tails teased him.
"Nobody won either of the hitmontop bets buddy. We both guessed wrong both times. But this time? Only chance no one wins is if we both catch the same species".
"Huh. True. But I'll warn you; I can fly".
"And I can climb" Knuckles responded.
"Oh ok then. It's on" Tails concluded, his spirit fired up "you in Sonic?"
Sonic looked away, contemplating the answer.
"Sonic?"
"I… I'm not sure I'm going to catch anything Tails".
"You what?!" both his friends exclaimed at once.
"Well first of all whatever I catch I won't be able to call out so long as Blastoise is with us. But it's not just that…"
Pause. Only silence as they were approaching the gate of the safari zone.
"Well… are you gonna tell us or what?" Knuckles asked Sonic.
"… I know it will sound a little crazy… but I want my 6th pokemon here in Johto to be Entei".
Both Tails and Knuckles were surprised for a moment.
But after everything team Sonic had seen and experienced when it came to the beasts, wanting to tame one just made sense. Plus he already had a history with taming legendary pokemon.
"I get the feeling" Knuckles admitted "I was tempted you know… when Suicune came around and let me pet it… I wanted to catch it. But I didn't want to ruin that moment".
"Feeling's mutual for me as well" Tails also admitted as he looked at his hand. Small bolts of electricity crackled on command.
"This… and flight… they are both the result of Raikou's blasting of me. I can feel it. It and I are connected… and not just by these powers".
The three friends went silent for a few moments, lost in their individual thoughts.
"Well since we're here" Sonic said as they crossed the gates "I will enter as well. I will go to higher ground and observe the both of you with the binoculars. If I see something worth catching, I will go for it".
"Agreed" Tails went with the idea. It wouldn't be fair if Sonic joined either of them since they would be competing.
"Hey no objection from me" Knuckles' fists met each other "just make sure to have my chili dog waiting for me on the way out".
"I'll make you eat those words" Tails fired back in a competitive flare.
"And I'll make you eat my chili dog!" Knuckles fired back as well.
Sonic's head span 90 degrees as if it was fixed with a spring from the confusion. Knuckles' eye pupils went back and forth for a moment before realizing what he said and facepalmed himself.
"Can we forget I ever said that?"
"Nope" Tails tried desperately not to laugh.
Upon arriving, the three teammates went to get something to eat as they were starving from the long walk here. To their pleasant surprise, the place had chili dogs. The moment Tails and Knuckles realized it, their eyes crossed challenging each other again.
After a quick lunch, the time had come. Before entering, Sonic explained how the safari zone works. Unlike the Kanto zone, as they were informed, their pokemon could join them instead of being in their pokeballs, provided of course they wouldn't fight.
Upon entering, Tails and Knuckles were filled with awe with the vast open fields, the great lakes and the rocky terrains. There was even a small dessert habitat.
Sonic looked around as his friends were taking it all in and saw it; a hill of considerably higher altitude compared to the others.
"There" he said as he pointed to the hill "the high ground. That's where I'll be if either of you need anything".
"Got it" Knuckles nodded.
"Here you go" Tails gave Sonic the binoculars.
"All set them. Happy hunting mates. Come Raichu".
"Rai rai" the mouse pokemon followed.
After Sonic left, Tails and Knuckles again faced each other.
"May the best man win" Tails offered a handshake with a mischievous smile.
"Oh don't worry I intend to" Knuckles said before jolting off "better have my chili dog ready!"
"Hey no fair we didn't say go!" Tails called out before sighing with a smile and flying off.
Sonic looked over his shoulder as he heard Tails call out to Knuckles before giggling.
"Man they never change. I wonder who will win".
"Rai" Raichu cried out looking at Knuckles' direction.
"You think Knuckles will win?"
Raichu blinked.
"He is surely more adept to hazardous environment but Tails is smart and he can fly" Sonic said as he made it to the top of the hill.
"This will be fun" he said as put on the binoculars while Raichu curled to relax.
Tails, considering what his team lacked, decided he desperately needed something that countered bug weaknesses. Bugs were weak to flying, rock and fire.
"Steelix should be able to help with flying and rock. But fire will be a problem… in other words a water type will be the optimal pick… question is… what water types live here?" he monologued.
Tails and Espeon, which was out of its pokeball, following the airborne Tails, headed for the lake section of the safari. Tails landed momentarily to check his map and navigate on where to fly towards.
Espeon who was standing next to him, read his thoughts and, after locating a magikarp splashing in a nearby pond, tickled Tails with its forked tail, informing him of the fact.
"Good find Espeon" he scratched it on the head "but a magikarp will take a long time to raise. Time we don't have. Let's keep moving. Find us some more if you can too. Your help will be invaluable".
Espeon rubbed its head against Tails' leg crying out in joy before they went on their way, Tails airborne.
On the other side of the safari, Knuckles was also trying to find something to compensate for his weaknesses. Tails was smart but Knuckles had been actively battling longer. Therefore he had quickly come to the conclusion that he needed something to compensate against flying for his heracross as well as water for Larvitar and Quilava. Although Larvitar could counter flying and weepinbel could beat water, he wanted something to compensate for both. And only one type fit the bill.
"Eyes open, ears open Quilava. We're looking for an electric type".
"Qui" Quilava responded looking around and sneaking around.
Though both Tails and Knuckles knew what they were looking for, there was one major difference; Tails already knew what he was looking for and where to look. Knuckles only knew the first.
"Where do electric types usually live?" Knuckles inquired.
It was indeed a good question. And he had only 2 examples to go by. Sonic's raichu and Mike's Zapdos.
Sonic had caught Raichu as a pikachu in the woods. Mike had caught Zapdos in a power plant inhabited by other electric type pokemon.
"Forest and power plant right? Therefore…to the forest there. And it has got to be something both rare and powerful. Damnit what is rare and powerful?" he thought.
As both friends were heading towards their respective goals, Sonic was observing their progress, quickly identifying each of their goals. He smiled in pride as he realized that even now his two teammates didn't forget what they were up against.
Setting his eyes on Tails, he saw his two tailed pal carry Espeon up a small hill that the psychic type couldn't climb.
"Man seeing those two together just reminds me so much of Mike and Jolty" Sonic commented.
Raichu heard the comment. It was immediately bombarded with guilt.
"Why did you have to go and say that?" it thought as it looked away, not wanting Sonic to see it visibly sad. If he realized anything it was game over.
"Huh?" Sonic looked around in confusion.
"Did you hear anything pal?" he asked Raichu.
"Rai?"
Sonic looked around for a while then shrugged and put the binoculars back on.
"Forget it. I just thought I heard someone say why did you have to go and say that".
Raichu's eyes widened in shock. Sonic had heard? How?
Tails finally arrived at the lake, only to realize he had to find a way to attract water pokemon out. No one in the team possessed a fishing rod.
"Hmmm…" Tails thought as he sat by the lake rubbing his chin. Espeon cuddled beside him while sitting.
"We need to find a way to bait something out. But what… and how?"
An idea crossed his mind but it was incomplete. He could try loading pokemon cries into his phone and try calling water species towards him but wasn't sure they would hear the cries from underwater. And of course putting the phone even remotely close to the water was asking to drop it in.
"There has to be a way. Think" he said to himself.
While Tails was taking his time thinking over his options, Knuckles was acting. Climbing trees, sneaking through bushes and even hearing through the ground for vibrations had him locating several species, including but not limited to misdreavous, Mr mimes, bellsprouts and even a voltorb.
He considered catching the ball pokemon but decided against it. Although Eusine's electrode had given him some trouble, later on it would be ineffective in combat.
"Damnit am I thinking it wrong?" he yelled as Quilava jumped up taken aback by the yell.
"Sorry pal. Just frustrated. I can't let foxboy beat me. But at the same time I don't understand where electric types would live".
Suddenly Knuckles recalled another detail. Team rocket had managed to collect an entire cage worth of electric types during their last clash. Sure they had used a magnet-like device to bring them to them but they were in an empty rocky terrain. In other words…
"Yeah… electric types would prefer high rocky places. So they could be closer to lightning during storms".
Combining the two clues, Knuckles chose the perfect spot; the spot where the forest and the rocky terrain met. Electric types had to exist there.
"Let's go Quilava".
"Qui!" Quilava followed eagerly.
While the two friends were working through their approaches to finding their desired targets, Sonic kept observing, wondering most specifically where Knuckles was as he was no longer visible after entering the woods.
"What are you up to Knucks?" the blue hedgehog thought.
In the meantime Raichu was still trying to come to terms with its choice to keep the fate of Jolty from Espeon.
"It's not right but I can't. It will break his heart".
Sonic again looked around confused.
"Anybody there?" he called out.
"Strange. I could swear I'm hearing voices. Something about a broken heart this time".
Raichu heard this and felt the urge to thunder punch itself to faint. Sonic seemed to somehow listen to its thoughts.
"Is there a psychic type nearby doing that?" Raichu wondered, causally strolling around looking for the perpetrator of that mind connection.
Tails, having exhausted himself from all the thought had resorted to just staring at the sky.
"I'm totally unequipped for this. Damnit we should have caught that magikarp".
Espeon in the meantime was busy. Another magikarp was just below the surface. The two pokemon were staring at each other, communicating.
Tails took notice of this and then suddenly…
"Eureka! This is it!" he exclaimed taking out his phone again.
Espeon looked at him in confusion and a little annoyed as Magikarp had fled in fear due to the yell.
"Espeon I need your help big time. I will download some water type cries. I want you to use your psychic abilities to send them towards the lake like sound waves. Can you do that?"
Espeon nodded.
"Great. Let's start with this" Tails said downloading poliwag's cry. Chuck's poliwrath was strong and adding fighting to his roster would be good as well.
Nothing happened. Not losing hope in the least, Tails tried poliwhirl cry.
Espeon again used its psychic powers to disperse the cry but no result.
"We're not giving up. Drastic measures. Try gyarados" Tails said determined.
While Tails was executing his plan, Knuckles had finally arrived at the foot of the hill where the forest ended. He found some voltorbs there as well as magnemites, and even a species his dex identified as mareep.
Intrigued by mareep's seemingly innocent looks, Knuckles started pursuing it. Mareep of course run away.
"After it!" he told Quilava as they started pursuing it towards the open field habitat.
The mareep was faster but its terror of being chased made it swerve.
"We have to surround it. You go right I go left!"
The two split as Knuckles kept pursuing Mareep while baiting it towards a small hill that it wouldn't be able to climb.
Mareep reached the hill but got stuck. Trying to just run away again, it found itself cornered by Quilava.
"Nice work Quilava. We got it now!"
The excitement lasted mere moments as a new cry filled the air. And it seemed to come from something strong.
Sonic heard that cry as well as the habitat was close to his location. Looking there, he saw Knuckles having cornered a small, woolly pokemon but looking around frantic.
"He must have found something else. Or rather that has found him. But what is it?"
Raichu paid no attention to its trainers mumbling as it found a pokemon that a dex would identify as girafarig hiding in the bushes, using its apparently alive tail to observe them.
Raichu cried out in anger and tried to unleash a thunder punch towards it. Girafarig fled in fear.
"Raichu!" Sonic berated it, having heard the attack "what's gotten into you? You want to get us kicked out?"
Raichu looked away but still returned to his side. Sonic put down the binoculars.
"Raichu something's bothering you. Ever since last night when you wanted to exit the tent and slept outside. What is it?"
Raichu just looked away. Nobody could know.
"Raichu you know you can tell me right? We're a team" Sonic said softly as he kneeled "one for all and all for one right? There for each other. So please tell me what's bothering you".
Raichu contemplated it before a tall shadow was cast over them.
And then a breath.
A fiery breath.
Sonic's pupils shrank to a point.
"Oh boy" Sonic said shaken as he recognized the shadow and felt the breath on his back.
Turning around slowly, he was met by the ferocious look of Entei.
"Uh.. haha… hi".
Entei responded by preparing a stomp attack.
"Watch out!" Sonic screamed, grabbing Raichu and diving away.
Entei's stomp created a small crater on the ground. Looking at the duo of trainer and pokemon it roared. Somewhat angry too.
"Let's hope this won't get us much attention" Sonic thought as the two prepared for battle.
In the meantime Tails' trick had worked a little too well. An entire horde of the poliwag family had arrived. Tails had to bring out Steelix to keep them intimidated while deciding if and what to catch.
Steelix was doing a fine job holding the line, proving surprisingly obedient. Tails attributed this to his battle with Chuck as it had changed his whole viewpoint of himself as a trainer and Steelix probably felt that.
Right as Tails was about to decide to go for a poliwhirl, a hydro pump blasted Steelix, weakening it greatly. Following the attack back to the attacker, Tails gasped.
It was a Lapras that was racing towards them, swiftly swimming to the apparent defense of the other water pokemon.
"Wow! Now that is something. And a certain way to win the bet!" Tails exclaimed as he recalled Steelix and sent out butterfree.
"Butterfree I need you to bait Lapras! Do not use your moves just fly around it".
Butterfree obeyed and flew towards Lapras, flying around its before baiting it away from the shore. Tails, flying in pursuit took out a safari ball.
"Alright. Hope this works" he thought as he waited for the perfect opportunity to throw the ball.
On the other side Knuckles finally came face to face with the source of the cry he heard; a tall, yellow, familiar pokemon that first walked over from the other side of the cliff, then jumped down in front of mareep, giving it a chance to flee.
"No way! That's a…?!" Knuckles thought in awe as he let the pokedex do the work.
"Ampharos, the Light Pokémon. Ampharos is the second evolution of Mareep. Ampharos emits a strong light from the tip of its tail, which can be seen over long distances and serve as a beacon to those who are lost".
"I knew it!" Knuckles smiled in excitement "I knew it looked familiar! Now that is a worthy catch!"
Ampharos cried out and unleashed a thunderbolt. Knuckles and Quilava ducked out of the way.
"Dammit we can't fight back. This won't be easy" he said as the two prepared.
The three heroes had met their desired targets. All that was left was to do their best to catch them.
As butterfree dodged the attacks from Lapras as best it could, Tails kept putting off the attempt to catch it, trying to find the perfect opportunity but it just never came.
"Not good angle" he had thought the first time "too far away" the second time "it saw me" the third.
Lapras had quickly realized what was happening. Firing an ice beam towards butterfree, it clipped its wing, causing it to plummet into the water.
"Butterfree no!"
He remembered his lessons. No more inaction. Time to rise to the challenge.
As Lapras was preparing to fire another ice beam at the struggling butterfree, Tails flew in front of Lapras getting its attention for a moment.
That moment was enough.
The pokeball found its mark. Lapras was absorbed and the pokeball fell into the water.
Tails was hearing it wiggling but didn't look at it. Instead he rushed to lift Butterfree out of the water.
The ice clipping the big type's wing made his job harder and he made a self note to get some workouts with Knuckles to increase his strength enough to lift heavy loads.
"Butterfree you ok?"
The bug type cried out in discomfort. Tails immediately sent out scyther and tasked it with removing the ice without hurting butterfree.
The moment he gave the order, the catch sound was heard. Turning back he saw the pokeball peacefully floating in the water.
"Woah we caught it" he said in a joyous disbelief. That was one powerful pokemon. Both Mike's and Ash's were strong after all.
As Tails retrieved the pokeball, scyther managed to remove the ice from butterfree's wing by carefully slashing it off.
Tails praised his two pokemon for their help before all 3 were startled by a familiar roar.
The roar came from the direction Tails knew Sonic would be observing.
Turning his head he saw a thunder punch impact occurring as well as the billowing of a familiar mane.
"Entei?!" he exclaimed in shock.
Quickly recalling his pokemon, he took off, heading for his blue friend.
On the other side of the safari, Knuckles had adopted a similar battle style. Only difference was he tried throwing balls a lot more.
But ampharos just wouldn't seem to get caught no matter what. It kept breaking out of the balls.
"I just need some way to tank the thunderbolts until I can catch this thing. But how?"
Quilava slammed into the thinking Knuckles while dodging another thunderbolt, accidentally causing him to drop Larvitar's pokeball.
"Larvitar get back in!"
Larvitar however jumped in front of the next thunderbolt instead tanking it to perfection.
"OMG of course! You're a ground type! All right! Get ampharos' attention!"
Recalling Quilava, Knuckles decided to implement another crazy idea. In between thunderbolts he jumped towards ampharos holding the pokeball ahead.
The pokeball made contact with ampharos absorbing it. Knuckles then held the pokeball with all his strength to prevent it from breaking.
Many would tell him this was pointless and that he would get hurt if ampharos broke out while he was trying to forcibly hold it in. But Knuckles didn't care.
Two thoughts were prevalent in his mind at that very moment.
The first.
"Please join me Ampharos. We need you in the team".
The second.
"Just join us ok? I am not losing this bet".
The pokeball wiggled thrice and then beeped confirming the catch.
"Hell yeah!" Knuckles yelled raising the pokeball high in the air.
A fired flamethrower caught his eye. And it was coming from the hill Sonic was.
Knuckles looked that way and saw Entei attacking Raichu.
"What in the world?!" he shouted recalling Larvitar and racing there.
As both Knuckles and Tails were racing to his aid, Sonic was doing his best to dodge the attacks from the volcano pokemon. On the bright side, since Entei wasn't really a safari zone pokemon, Sonic decided to ignore the rules and had Raichu strike back.
"More thunder punches!"
Raichu jumped again and again trying to strike Entei, the legendary beast either absorbing the attacks with its mane or just dodging.
As Raichu was attacking again, it managed to deliver a thunder punch right at Entei's face. However the beast was barely phased.
The two pokemon crossed eyes for a split second as Raichu was still in mid-air ricochetting from the attack. And in that slow motion moment, Raichu heard Entei talk to it.
"Your conflict holds you back!"
Before Raichu could even process it, Entei had blasted it in the face with flamethrower, sending it rolling on the ground and pain through Sonic's body as he crouched groaning and grabbing his sides.
Raichu struggled to get up.
"I am not conflicted!" it cried out at Entei.
Entei roared and prepared to stomp down on Raichu.
Sonic took notice.
"No! Not this time!" he yelled.
With Tails and Knuckles arriving in that moment, Sonic moved like. A blur, getting in front of Entei and in a moment of deja vu, holding back the massive paw from stomping Raichu down.
"Sonic!" Knuckles called out to him, in fear that this was Ecutreak all over again.
"No not again!" Tails mumbled in concern.
Even though Sonic felt his body melt under the pressure he refused to back down. Instead letting out a battle screech, he shoved Entei to the side, causing the beast to topple and fall to its side, taken aback by the hedgehog's burst of strength.
Before Entei could react, Sonic had thrown a pokeball.
The ball absorbed Entei and then fell down.
Team Sonic held their breath.
One shake.
Two shakes.
Three shakes.
"No way!" Tails whispered under his breath.
The pokeball exploded in a burst of fire as Entei emerged, its body covered in a flaming aura and its look fierce and ferocious.
Sonic gulping, prepared to defend Raichu as he took out Quagsire's pokeball.
Entei however, stopped emitting the flaming aura and just looked at Raichu disappointed. Roaring one more time it started racing off.
"Rai!" Raichu cried out, getting up and chasing after Entei despite its injuries.
"Raichu where are you going?! Argh!" Sonic tried to stop it before kneeling again, exhausted from the effort.
As Tails and Knuckles rushed to tend to their injured comrade, Raichu managed to catch up to Entei who stopped.
"We're not done".
"Yes we are" Entei retorted.
"Why did you call me weak there?"
The final roar of Entei was the volcano pokemon calling Raichu weak.
"Because you are. I feel it. Your internal conflict is holding you back".
"I said I'm not conflicted!" Raichu jumped trying to thunder punch Entei again.
Entei again absorbed the attack with its mane and slammed Raichu down before pressing its paw against the electric type.
Entei looked down at Raichu, disgusted that this puny, torn electric type was meant to be its comrade very soon.
"Your inner conflict makes you slow and predictable. Go against your enemies with this mindset and what you fear will certainly come true!"
"Shut up!" Raichu tried breaking free using iron tail to no effect "you don't know me!"
Entei roared and prepared a sacred fire. Raichu's eyes were filled with fear.
The sacred fire was launched. And it missed on purpose.
"You have allowed fear to consume you" Entei said disappointed still holding down Raichu "such a disappointment. The mighty Raichu that stood against the monsters who captured my brother Raikou is a big fraud in the end".
Raichu felt broken at those words. Tears were now streaming down its cheeks.
Entei then let go and turned its back to leave. 3 steps away it looked over its shoulder or at least that's what it would do if it was a humanoid pokemon.
"Face your fear before it's too late. Or everything you cherish will be gone. And this time it will be your fault alone" it cryptically said before fleeing into the wilderness.
Raichu was left there looking at the sky, utterly lost. A crossroads was now before it. A choice.
A choice it thought had been made just that very morning.
Tell Espeon the truth and break its heart or lie to it and live with the guilt.
Either choice would mean the end of their friendship, whether that was sooner or later.