Chapter 29: Cerulean Speed Chase I

You know how they say that there's no place like home for the holidays. For Zack, he's thinking of home, yet it's far from the holidays. But as for a special holiday update, we have our favorite Triforce of Friends back in yet another Zack flashback. So read up and please review. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sprinting straight into a Quick Attack, I gave chase after Ted who was giving chase after Skitty who was giving chase to the three robbers on their wheeled contraptions as they fled the area we were in. I had managed to successfully bowl over the fourth robber that Charcoal had managed to subdue as I gave chase, laughing in victory as I did so. "He's all yours!" I yelled back at him. "Enjoy!" I then turned my concentration upon the three who were fleeing in time to see two of them split off in different directions while the lead guy continued on straight with Skitty right behind him.

"Zack!" Ted yelled back at me. "I'm going left. You get the right."

"Right," I said as Ted suddenly skidded, a claw on the ground to slow his speed before shooting off around the corner. I made my way to the intersection afterwards, skidding to a slow while turning my body right. And by that I mean the opposite from left. After making my full forty-five angle turn, I shot forward once again with Quick Attack, continuing my chase, the robber having a head start on me. But I managed to catch up in no time flat thanks to doubling my speed up a little. Just as I neared the wheeled contraption the robber was on, everything was speeding up like before, only, my speed was slowing down while his was speeding up. I watched as the robber took a quick look back at me before pulling out his weapon again and firing more of those whizzing, metal objects, which all slowed down for me to see the direction they were heading.

Luckily for me this time, the objects were scattered, making dodging them easier. Of course, I did see at least one gap I would have to take in order to avoid some damage. The robber himself, I noticed, kept looking back at me and then looking forward to steer his wheeled contraption, right before everything went in reverse again and I found myself right where I was when everything sped up. Taking the exact opportunity, I slowed my speed down just a bit and shifted over to where I saw the gap just as the robber pulled out his weapon and fired. Must have been hard trying to hit an opponent while trying to maintain sight ahead of one. Sure enough, none of the whizzing objects came close to even remotely hitting me. I was beginning to charge up a Psybeam at this point when, once again, everything sped up once more. Only this time, I slowed down greatly while I watched the robber's contraption speed up and turn a corner. By this time, I had slowed down completely, almost like I was frozen. And for some unexplained reason, I had decided to turn my head in the direction the robber turned.

To my right was one of those alleyways that separated most buildings instead of those side by side. And this alleyway appeared to be very long. Something else I couldn't explain was why I was counting the seconds off in my head, reaching ten when everything stopped suddenly. Still looking down the alleyway, even from this distance, I could see something there, not moving. Narrowing my vision to get a better look, I instantly recognized the robber by the wheel contraption I was chasing. There he was, stopped, not doing anything until he suddenly began moving backwards out of sight, the seconds in my head counting down. By the time it had reached zero, the robber came out from around the corner, quickly backing up to me as I began running backwards myself, my speed quickly returning to me.

By the time the wheeled contraption backed up right in front of my face, time resumed back to normal as the noise the thing made returned and I was back chasing it, readying up a Psybeam. I slacked up my speed however, allowing the robber to get ahead of me just as I reached the spot where I saw the alleyway. Halting abruptly, I watched as the robber turn in the same direction he did in my future vision. The moment he disappeared around the corner, I shot off into the alleyway, counting the seconds off in my head while preparing a Shadow Ball instead. The darkness of the alley boosted up my speed immensely, well more than a Quick Attack would have done. That kind of reminded me… no. I had to stay focused. I only had one shot at this and I could not fail.

Quickly speeding through the alleyway thanks to the darkness increasing my speed, I made it to the other side of the alleyway just as I counted to nine. At the same time, I shot out my Shadow Ball, keeping it aimed straight and true. I could hear the roar from the wheeled contraption nearing fast and by the time I had counted to ten, the robber came zooming by, my Shadow Ball making contact with the front wheel, causing it to blow. Doing so sent the robber flying off his machine as it spun out of control, flipping end over end before smashing against a building and coming to a dead stop. You know, seeing that all happened kind of reminded me of the first time I learned Shadow Ball in a different way no one else would have.

(Flashback begins)

"Ooh!" I moaned waking up, placing a paw upon my head. Despite the fur that covered my body, I could feel how warm my head was. That would probably explain why the den was spinning, even as I struggled to get to my feet. I could feel my body trying to lean one way and then the other as I tried righting myself. To top it all off, I could hardly breathe with my nose feeling like it was closed up. Why was I feeling like this this morning? What had I done to make myself feel this way? I didn't recall doing anything out of the ordinary yesterday as I tried to think of it. It did make my head hurt all the more as I did, so I just quit thinking altogether.

Taking a quick look around the den, I noticed that it seemed empty. Parents were probably out for a stroll this morning or something. That or they were collecting food. Probably doing their daily thing and all, which reminded me. I needed to go meet up with Pooch and Lizzie. We made everyday our day to play and doing so was always an adventure! Breathing was rather difficult though, even as I staggered out toward the opening of my den. It was amazing how I knew such big words at this age. They just came to me like this unknown feeling I was feeling. I seemed to have been really out of it, for the next time I was aware of anything, I was out in the middle of the forest somewhere. It would have been really easy to tell where I was if it weren't for the fact that everything kept spinning.

I looked back to see if I could see the den. Maybe leaving it wasn't such a good idea, but I couldn't just leave Pooch and Lizzie waiting all day and then never show up and make them wonder where I am. Of course, looking back made everything spin out of control, forcing me to look back forward and slump against the nearest tree. I placed a paw up to my head again, trying to keep everything from spinning when I heard someone yell out, "Zack!" Bringing down my paw, I looked around and soon spotted Pooch running toward me, though he kept running from side to side. Curse you spinning world!

"Booch!" I said happily, trying my best to smile. Wait. Did I just call him Booch? Must have been a slip of the tongue. Propelling myself off the tree, I tried making my way over to greet him, trying the key word, yet failing horribly as my spinning world made me go one way and then another.

"Zack?" I heard Pooch say, a hint of concern in his voice. "Are you all right?"

"Neber better," I said, focusing my attention on him, only to slump forward onto my face. You know this really wasn't helping me any. I did note that when I spoke, my voice sounded kind of funny. Today just wasn't going all that great. "I meant do do dat."

"Um, okay," Pooch said uncertain as he helped me up, only for him to have my entire weight leaned upon him. "Whoa Zack. What's gotten into you?"

"What are you dalking about?" I asked. "I dold you I'm hine."

With a grunt, Pooch managed to shift my weight over back onto the same tree I was leaning against. "Just wait here a minute," he said. "I'm going to get Lizzie. I'll be right back."

"Hurry back," I said, my head drooping as my entire body slid down to the ground. My head felt like it was burning at this point, like someone started a fire in my head with no possible way to put it out. And all this thinking was really making things worse. Perhaps if I just closed my eyes for a few minutes I would feel better, so I did just that. The next time I opened them, both Lizzie and Pooch were standing over me, Lizzie trying to gently wake me.

"Zack," she said softly. "Zack."

"Hn?" I said with a start, opening my eyes tiredly. "Oh! Hey Lizzie! Didn't hear you guys gome back."

"Come on Zack," Lizzie said as she shifted my weight upon her while Pooch got on the other side of me. "We need to get you back home. You're sick."

"O.K.," I said, not arguing with her. I just wasn't in the mood to either. So being led by my friends, we began heading back to my den, my head the only part of my body that kept swaying back and forth.

"You know you shouldn't be outside when you're sick you know," Pooch said as we made our way back. "It'll only make you sicker."

"I didn't want do leave you guys waiting on me," I said weakly, my breathing becoming shallow, my legs feeling wobbly.

"We would have come to see what was taking you eventually," Lizzie said. "Don't think that we wouldn't have."

"I know," I said. "It's just dat I-I-I-ah-ah-!" Great. So now I went from talking to wanting to sneeze, the sneeze almost coming out, but it died out as quickly as it came. A relief. I'm pretty sure that if I did sneeze, it would be a bit of a mess. And for some strange reason, I could feel a tingling sensation spreading through my body. Was this how one felt when not feeling completely well? And to make matters worse, I felt completely tired, like I was ready to just drop to the ground where I was and sleep. Perhaps- "choo!" I was interrupted mid-thought as the sneeze quickly returned and managed to get out. Of course the moment, I sneezed, I felt a little bit of my energy drain. That would have been a little odd to me if Lizzie had not taken that precise moment to yelp in surprise.

"What was that?" she said surprisingly.

"What was what?" I asked, not sure what she meant.

"What was that thing you just shot from your mouth?" she asked.

"What ding?" I asked back.

"You didn't see it?" Pooch asked.

"My eyes were glosed," I told him.

"Then try sneezing again," he said.

"Gan't," I said weakly. What did they expect? I couldn't just command a sneeze to come whenever I wanted it to. Besides, my stuffed up nose probably wouldn't… wouldn't. Huh. Guess my sneezing wasn't finished. I could feel a little bit of my energy being focused right in my mouth, my tingling nose ready to let loose another one. "Ah-ah-ah-!"

"Keep his eyes open!" Lizzie said right before I brought my head down. I felt her pull back on my right side while Pooch had my left, the both of them trying to keep my eyes opened. And it worked. As I let loose the 'choo, I saw a very small blackish thing shoot off from my mouth, hitting a nearby tree and dispersing into nothing. What was that? Maybe I really was sick, perhaps sicker than I thought. "Come on. Let's get you back."

I wasn't even aware of how quickly we moved through the forest after that. The next time I was aware of anything, I was lying back in my den overhearing Lizzie tell my folks about what had happened on our way back. "…then this blackish looking ball shot out from his mouth and hit the ground several feet from us! It was incredible!"

"Hmm," I heard my father say. "Blackish ball. Did it look anything like this?"

Silence fell for a split second before Lizzie said, "That's it! That's the thing he sneezed out!"

"What was that anyway?" I heard Pooch ask.

"That was a move called Shadow Ball," my father said. By this point, my ears were starting to hurt with all the talking. And my stuffed up nose made me tired. As I closed my eyes, I felt something cool and damp be placed upon my head.

"My poor Zachary," I heard my mom say. I smiled. It was nice to be home for once being taken care of. I felt her paw gently brush across my face. My breathing began to slow as my ears picked up the sound of paws shuffling over.

"How's my Zack doing?" I heard my dad ask.

"Need to rest," I said quietly. Hopefully he heard me say that and the next thing I said. "Dad?"

"Yes son?"

"Do you think you can teach me that shadow thing when I'm better?"

A moment of silence went by before my dad replied with a, "Of course, son."

"Thanks," I said as I drifted off to sleep.

(Flashback ends)

As the memory of me first discovering I would use Shadow Ball came to an end, I realized that that was the one and only time that I have ever been sick in my life, I think. I really wasn't quite sure. There's a lot about my young life that I vaguely remember. I'm surprised I remember some of them at all. Snapping out from my thoughts, I took notice that the robber was standing up and threw a poke ball into the air. "Go, Absol!" he yelled. Bursting out from the ball came a four-legged, white furred creature with what I could only guess was a horn sticking out from his head. Really. How did that not bother them? "Use Take Down and then Crunch!"

The Absol came charging at me, building up speed and power while I just stood there, taking the hit and flying straight onto my back. But that was only half the attack. The Absol followed in pursuit, leaping at me as I skidded to a halt and landed on top of me, teeth bared and closing down on me fast. Thinking quickly, I lifted a paw to intercept his teeth from my throat, sharp pain spreading through my entire body, causing me to growl in pain. Strange though. This didn't hurt as much as I thought it did. In fact, I barely felt the Absol's teeth digging deeper into my paw. That didn't really matter to me at all.

"You know something," I finally said, catching the Absol's attention. "You can do all horrible things to me that you want to do. You can snap my paw clean in two and I'll continue on with just three legs. Your trainer can run me over with his wheeled contraption for all I care and I wouldn't really care. If I had to die right now because of it, I'd be glad to do so. But let's just get one thing straight and I hope you remember this well enough to make you think what you've been doing. When it comes to shooting at the people I care about, no one, and I do mean no one, hurts my friends!"

With that, I used my free paw and smashed the Absol's nose as hard as I could. The Absol released his grip with a yelp as I immediately formed a Shadow Ball, rolling over, spinning around, and firing it with all the power I had. The Shadow Ball slammed right into the Absol's chest and sent him flying straight into his trainer, the two of them flying into a group of tall, metal cylinders. Crashing into them, the metal cylinders made a loud clanging noise, spilling bags and trash upon the ground. Even though I was quite a good distance from them, I could tell that both human and pokemon were knocked out cold. I've never known my Shadow Ball to be that powerful before. I guess me protecting my friends boosted my powers greatly. That or it was the anger. I wouldn't really know.

Plopping myself down, I awaited the arrival of backup, making sure that the robber didn't get up anytime soon before then. As I heard the sounds of sirens not far from where I was, I wondered how the others were doing. I had faith that they were fairing out well. After all, they are my friends!