Chapter 30: Cerulean Speed Chase II
"Zack!" I yelled back at him as the robber I was chasing made a sharp turn to the left. "I'm going left! You go right!" I shot forward just a tad more before skidding myself to a slow. using a claw to further slow my speed as I turned in the direction I needed to go before giving chase once more to the guy who had already placed distance between us. Thanks to my speed, luckily, I had managed to keep him in sight and soon was catching up to him. It must have been strange to people as I passed them by for them to see a Teddiursa giving chase to a guy on a four-wheeled machine. Initially, I realized the danger the people were in, given the fact that this robber may have had a gun on him. If that was the case, I would have to come up fast and prepare to focus on saving them first. Hopefully the robber wouldn't dare to have thought that.
As I drew closer to the robber, he did a quick glance back at me before looking straight forward again, a hand reaching around to his backside and pulling out one of those long, sleek guns, aiming it directly at me. Of course, the minute I saw him reaching around for his gun, I had already prepared to counterattack the bullets meant for me, focusing my power to the crescent moon upon my forehead. Just as the bullets began to fire out, so did my Swift attack. Mini explosions occurred as bullet impacted with Swift, making the scenery look like that of fireworks, only in the daytime, yet I had not broken my stride in chasing the robber as I charged straight through the smoke.
The robber looked rather surprised that I managed to stand, let alone continue to chase after him after all those small explosions that had occurred. Continuing my chase, I readied another Swift attack and let loose, the stars aimed at the right back wheel. Upon contact, the wheel would have blown and thrown the robber off, giving me an advantage against him. However, that is what not happened. Rather, seeing the Swift coming at him, the robber suddenly hit the breaks hard while turning his four-wheeled machine sharply to the right, spinning in a complete three-sixty circle. The Swift that was meant for his wheel passed by without hitting its mark as did I. When it had registered to me what he had done, I was now the one being chased.
I glanced back as the robber gunned his machine after me, whipping out his gun once more and easily aiming it at me. "I don't think so," I yelled as I immediately copied myself and fell back after doing so, using my Faint Attack to leap aboard his machine. Keeping low, I could see the look of surprise and confusion upon the robber's face, unsure of which of me to shoot. After a moment's hesitation, the robber just decided to start from one end and shoot all my copied clones to the other end. Probably not a good idea having them lined up so easily.
After shooting the last one, the robber slowed down his contraption, looking around for where I may have disappeared off to. I decided that now was a good time to up and end this. Exposing my hiding position, I raised up a paw, a Mega Punch at the ready. However, before I could bring it down, the robber saw me at the last possible second and braked hard. The force of the hard breaking sent me flying off his contraption and colliding with something hard, yet somewhat bendable as it prevented me from flying back any further, but wasn't quite strong enough to send me flying forward. Rather, all it did was bounce me off onto the ground.
I grimaced a little due to the pain, but quickly shook it off, getting to my feet in time to watch the robber take off to my left, which was his right. I growled a little, rubbing my aching back. I turned to see what I had hit and looked up upon recognizing it as one of those signs that humans often follow. The sign was yellow with a black connecting arrow pointing in both directions. An idea formed in my head and, grabbing hold of the pole the sign was attached to, focused using my strength to tear the sign out from the ground.
The pole itself was stuck within the ground rather well. The longer it took me to yank it out from the ground, the further the robber made it to freedom. My paws began to bleed due to the edges of the pole digging into them, but I wasn't about to give up. I breathed in deep and continued pulling, feeling the pole eventually slide up a little. "Come on!" I thought as I gave one great pull, the pole sliding out all at once.
The weight of the sign and having it come out all at once caused me to fall with the pole on top of me. Surprisingly, it was a lot lighter than I had expected it to be. I guess that goes to show you some things aren't always what they seem. Aside from that thought, grabbing a hold of the pole with one paw while pushing up with the other, both of which seared with pain due to the cuts upon them, not to mention the blood that was getting everywhere, I turned and searched to see the robber off in the distance, far ahead from where I laid.
Crouching into my usual position to make up for the loss of distance, I went to shoot forward and try to up my speed to overtake the robber. Unfortunately, my speed was greatly cut due to the sign I had decided to bring along. Aside from it being light upon my shoulder, dragging it, on the other hand, especially for a short guy like me, was rather heavy. I breathed heavily, struggling to gain speed. The more I tried, however, the slower I felt like I was going. By this time the robber was of view, his escape imminent. But I was far from letting that happen. But what could I do with two cut paws and a sign I was dragging? What would Charcoal do to gain the advantage?
I shut my eyes while continuing to try and catch up. I know for a fact I wasn't Charcoal, but even the most un-intelligent pokemon could come up with ideas as long as they thought about it thoroughly enough. So here I was dragging a sign, which cut my speed greatly while the robber I was chasing was gaining freedom. The window of opportunity for catching him was closing fast. At this point, I would need to have grown wings to fly to him. That's when an idea sparked. Remembering how the sign bent when I flew into it, I turned about, eyes opened, and returned to the spot I pulled the sign out of.
Finding the hole, I easily slid the pole back in before angling it in the direction I needed to go. After making sure it was in the direction I needed to go, I leapt up into the air and grabbed onto the sign, easily pulling it out of the ground. Grabbing onto the pole in midair, I swung the sign back as far as I could before shooting it forward. The sign shot forward like an arrow before embedding itself into the side of a building. Dashing over to it, I leapt onto the sign, bending it downward before it sprung me high up in the air, shooting me up the side of the building
I flailed my arms about in a circular motion as I shot past the roof, using my momentum to position myself right over the roof, landing on it moments later as I descended. Turning about, I rushed over to the corner of the building to see if I could still see the robber anywhere. I hadn't a clue as to how much time I wasted trying to get up here, but I could tell I wasted quite enough after I was unable to spot the robber anywhere. I sighed in disappointment and frustration. I had given the advantage over to a bad person who would probably start up his own posse and continue activities such as these. I could even hear the noise of the contraption he rode just a tad. It sounded so far away at this point, yet the noise sounded somewhat close, which caught my attention. I may not have had super sensitive ears like Zack, but even I could tell when something may have sounded like it was close, and it just so happened that the noise was coming from where I turned to chase him, which meant that I still may have had a chance.
Running across the rooftop, jumping from one building to the next, I made my way back down from where I began my chase, eventually slowing down as I reached the edge of the last building I was on. The revving of the four-wheeled contraption was loud at one point as I ran, but then it began to grow soft again until I reached the last building. Again I could hear the contraption grow loud before it grew soft again. I hadn't thought about the buildings reverberating the sound off them to make it seem like it was close, but it did seem like the robber was close every time he revved the contraption so often.
Perhaps the guy made a turn down the next street and slowed down upon thinking he lost me, but he was in for a big surprise when he came shooting around the corner. I knew I wouldn't have enough time to scale my way down the building, so I would need something to lob at him, something that wouldn't just drop like a rock. I took a look around the rooftop, wondering what I could use as a weapon. Not far from where I stood was a round, cylinder pipe with a metal top upon it, just big enough for me to hold. Ripping the metal top off the pipe, I focused on where I wanted to throw it, deciding what was the best way to throw it. Over the top or underhand? Underhand seemed better than swinging it downward.
As I was practicing what way would be best to throw, I could hear the four-wheeled contraption speed up a little before slowing down almost to a standstill. Something told me that the robber was close and was about to make an appearance. I judged the angle and direction I wanted the metal top to go, swinging back my arm just as I heard the machine instantly speeding up. It was now or never as I swung the top forward, releasing it and watching it spin around in the air as it flew down to where I targeted it at. I could feel my heart literally jump to my throat, the one percent chance of it hitting all up to chance.
Time seemed to have slowed down as I stood there watching the metal top spin closer to the ground each second, all the noise blotted out as my focus remained on that top. Just when I thought I had missed my window of opportunity, the robber suddenly shot out into view, the metal top smacking him straight in the head. The robber leaned over to one side as time resumed again. The contraption he was on spun around out of control, disappearing into the adjacent alleyway. Huh. Who knew that would work, let alone actually hit its target?
Sharpening my claws, I jumped off the building, using them to slow my speed down as I scaled my way down the building, keeping as much focus as I could to make sure the robber didn't start running again as I eventually reached the bottom. As I made my way over to the alleyway the robber disappeared into, I instinctively picked up the metal top I had used. Why? I really hadn't a clue. I just had one of those feelings telling me I was going to need it.
Sticking to the side of the building, I peeked around the corner in case the robber had decided to make an attack. I couldn't see much except for a wheel that had came off. After waiting a few moments, I made a run for the wheel, using it as a cover shield as I crouched. Peering over it, I quickly scanned around, spotting the four-wheeled contraption nearby, flipped over on its side, yet the robber was not present. I made my way cautiously from the wheel to what remained of the contraption, keeping my eye out for any kind of movement.
Something in my mind, however, was telling me that something was not right, especially when I examined the wrecked vehicle, yet had not found any trace of the robber. To make matters even worse, I was in a dead-end alleyway with only one way out. So I questioned how the robber had managed to get around me without my notice when I next turned about, his shadow darkening the light. He walked toward me, whipping out his gun as I backed up against the building. It was far as I could go as he aimed the gun at me. In the distance, I could hear the sirens of the police making way, but I doubted I'd be alive any longer as the robber went to shoot.
As he did, I did the only thing I could think of and used the metal top I had thrown at him as a means of shield. Strangely, I never noticed before how it matched my size. What was even stranger was why I was just noticing this while I was being fired upon, the bullets causing the metal top to rattle as they all plinked off the metal top, leaving me totally unscathed. The firing ceased not long after, indicating that the robber ran out of bullets. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't get the chance to reload.
"This is not possible!" the robber said in surprise as I lowered the metal top. "These pokemon are not normal!" That was his first mistake right there. We may have been through a few battles upon meeting, but no one was to ever mess with us, especially when it came to shooting us. Swinging the metal top toward me, I threw it like a Frisbee at the robber's hand, causing him to drop his gun and clutch his hand. I immediately followed it up by using Swift, causing him to defend himself as I crouched down into position. His second mistake was resisting giving up rather than doing the exact opposite.
I launched myself forward, rushing up to the robber before he had time to recover. Clenching a fist, I leapt into the air and swung it forward, clocking the guy right in the face as he lowered his cut up arms. "Mega Punch!" I yelled out as I hit dead on. The robber went flying out from the alleyway and into the building across from us. People yelled in surprise as he went through the glass and crashed into a desk. That would probably make things easy for the cops, aside from the fact that I was the reason he went through the glass in the first place. "Oops!" was all I said as I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, trying to pull of a fake smile.
The sounds of the sirens caught my attention as they came around the corner, one of the cops' vehicles coming straight toward my way. Perhaps it'd be best if I ducked back into the alleyway for the time being, at least until the cops had gone. Or I could just pick up the metal top and use it to sneak by unnoticed hopefully, which of course I decided to do. Besides, the cops were busy otherwise with the robber I sent flying. As I used the metal top to hide myself between it and the building to get back to Laura, it occurred to me that I hadn't even mentioned the last mistake the robber made. Then again, I never really had a final mistake to admit. Perhaps I've been hanging around Zack a little too much to actually think like him.
Scary!