Chapter 38: Rival Gang Battle Part 2
Having been released from within their Pokeballs in bursts of white, blinding light formed three different species of Pokemon Ted, Skitty, and I were to battle against, two of which I have come across a few times while the other one I have never before came across. Just where in the world do most of these Pokemon live? I've traveled all about the world and not once have I ever come across Pokemon like them. Then again, the world is such a big place that I had yet to come across a group of them or at the very least come across one or two of them to remember just what kind of Pokemon they were.
Back to the matter at hand, starting with the unrecognizable Pokemon on the left, his skin, I had noted, was a rather unusual color of purple perhaps? Could be indigo but I couldn't be quite sure. For some strange reason, he wore brown, baggy pants with shoes matching the color. I never really heard of a Pokemon wearing clothes before, unless of course Pokemon living in human society did so, in which case I should be more attentive to such things I'm not usually attentive towards, like the bandages wrapped around the Pokemon's torso and arms. While I could understand the bandages around his torso, the bandages upon his arms, however, baffled me. What did he get into some sort of fight that resulted in both is arms being broken? That was something I suddenly had the urge to ask of him, including the spikes that protruded from atop his head.
Having to turn my attention away before the urge became too strong for me to contain, I brought all said attention upon the Pokemon on the right side; easily recognizing the pig-like snout, the tuft of scruffy fur upon its head, and the half-drooped eyes of a Slakoth as it lied upon its stomach. You know it's rather hard to tell most of the time whether or not Slakoth are even awake. I mean with the half-drooped eyes, one might actually concur that they could fall asleep in an instant before a battle against them even began. Tingling shivers were sent down my spine the more I thought about how creepy Slakoth were suddenly becoming.
And bringing my attention about to the final Pokemon standing out from between the other two, my entire body froze instantly as a memory from long ago made its way up to the forefront of my mind. While this Pokemon was not as tall as the Pokemon to the left of her, which would be on her right having facing me, she was rather slender in form. In one hand, she held a red flower while in the other she held a blue one. From her shoulders protruded leaves while atop her head protruded spikes or something similar to the Pokemon next to her. And from her neck down was a streak of color of yellow. For whatever purpose that streak of yellow was there was beyond me. I was, however, more or less afraid of the Roselia that stood before me, my heart racing in fear that it may have been a Roselia that I had last encountered.
"Are you all right?" the Roselia asked suddenly, snapping me out of an in-coming panic attack.
"What?" I asked.
"I asked if you were all right," the Roselia said again. "You kind of tensed up there. First battle?"
"Ye- uh, I mean no," I corrected myself. "Sorry. It's not that I've never battled before, it's just… the last time I ran into a Roselia… it's a bit of a long story involving a cult and a lot of confusion."
"Well I'd definitely like to hear about it sometime," the Roselia said. "In the meanwhile, how would you like this battle to pan out? All-out brawl or one-on-one battle with whom we wish to fight?"
"Um…" I replied with uncertainty, trying to make the decision that best benefited everyone.
"I only thought I'd ask since your trainers can't seem to come to an agreement with how to battle," the Roselia pointed out, causing me to look back and scowl as they were in fact arguing on how to battle and making no headway in the matter. Was it really that hard to come to an agreement on picking a battle style?
Turning my attention back towards the Roselia with a sigh, I gave her an immediate response. I suppose we can go with the one-on-one fight with whom we wish to battle.
"Exactly what I was hoping for," the Roselia said, nodding in agreement. "I'm Rose by the way. The Tyrogue on my right is Leon and the Slakoth on my left is Daniel."
"Nice to meet you," I greeted back. "I'm Zack. Ted's on my right and Skitty's on my left."
"Well," Rose said with a smile. "This should make for an interesting battle. So who exactly shall be paired against whom?"
My mind went into lockdown at that point, unable to come to any kind of decision. What was with me all of a sudden? Sheesh! Luckily for me, Ted stepped forward to answer the Roselia's question, being that my hesitance was drawing out rather long. "Speaking for Zack bro, I'd say that the two of you would be best for battling the other."
"That would seem best," Rose agreed upon.
"Which should leave Skitty and I to do battle with the other two," Ted finished, turning to Skitty as he did. "Skit sis, whom do you wish to battle against?"
"It does not matter," Skitty said. "Either way, they shall all bow down before my might! And if not, then perhaps my adorable fluffiness!"
"She's fluffy?" the Tyrouge, Leon, questioned as I turned my attention towards her, only to no longer find her in the spot she was momentarily standing in. "Where'd she go?" I turned my attention back toward Leon in time to see Skitty, standing behind him, raise a paw and unsheath her claws.
"You dare question the power of fluff?" she asked as she swiped clean across Leon's back.
It took a good few minutes, but once the pain registered, a sharp, loud "YEOW!" followed as Leon dropped to his knees, clutching the area where he was scratched all the while Skitty remained where she was, acting as though she hadn't done anythign to begin with. How she did what she did is still a mystery to me. Not quite sure I wanted to find out.
Luckily for me the awkwardness was suddenly broken by an exasperated sigh coming from Rose. "You would think he'd learn to keep his foot in his mouth in these kind of situations."
"Looked like it hurt," Daniel spoke up without bothering to turn his head, let alone bother getting up.
You want a turn?" Skitty asked, snapping her head towards him.
"I'm just saying," said Daniel as he made the motion of an attempted shrug and failed doing it.
"Right," Rose said. "Well, seems like Leon's got the Skitty and you got- um- what was your name again?"
"Ted," Ted responded. "And may I just say that this battle be something to look forward to."
"Definitely at that," said Rose as Ted walked over to his opponent to do battle with whom somehowmanaged to stand up in the moment it took me to blink. In what exact world can I do one simple thing without someone doing something completely spontaneous? "You sure you're all right?" Rose asked, bringing my attention back upon her. "If it makes you feel any better we could always swap opponents."
"No, no!" I responded. "I'm fine. Just in thought there for a second."
"Oh," was all Rose said as the two of us stood facing the other while Ted's battle with Daniel got underway. Turning my attention away for the moment, I caught a quick glimpse of Ted's face as his claw attacks were dodged with ease. It seemed rather perplexed as Daniel swayed from one side to another, not a single scratch being inflicted upon him.
All matters aside, I refocused my attention upon Rose who remained standing where she was, waiting patiently. "So," I said. "Shall we begin?"
"Just awaiting your move," Rose responded.
"Right," I said as I readied a Psy Beam and fired, hitting Rose dead on. I ceased my attack instantly, surprised that she allowed the attack to hit her.
"Uhh," she moaned as she fell over. "That was a really smart idea."
"Are you all right?" I asked.
"Perfectly fine," was her response. "Sorry. I probably should have mentioned that I'm a pacifist. I'm not all that gung-ho about battling."
"Wait. If you're against battling, then why are you traveling around with a trainer?"
"I may not like battling, but that doesn't mean I can't be a part of it," was her response.
"How can you be a part of battling when you don't battle?" I asked, not understanding what she meant.
"Let's just say that there's a particular reason as to why I'm on a trainer's team," Rose said.
"And that reason would be...?"
"The only way to find out would be to attack me," was Rose's response.
"Uhh...," I replied, uncertain how to respond to that. "I don't know if that's a good idea. I kind of have a thing about attacking someone who won't fight back."
"It's nothing to worry about," Rose said. "Besides, I have a feeling that you won't even be able to hit me."
"I did before," I stated.
"Doesn't mean you'll be able to do it again."
"If you say so," I said with a reluctant sigh as I fired off another Psy Beam, the attack making contact with the Roselia once again until she vanished suddenly. "What?" I said, caught off guard as she spoke up from behind.
"I have to admit, that was rather close, but not quite close enough."
I turned about, firing off another Psy Beam, only for Rose to vanish again.
"Nope. Missed me!"
I turned and fired.
"Missed me again!"
I fired yet again in her direction.
"Valiant effort, but you might want to try over here."
As I turned again in the direction she stood, she suddenly spoke up from right behind me. "Or perhaps you'd like to try behind you."
I paused, glancing back behind me to see another Rose standing behind me. I took a quick glance before me to see the other Rose still standing there before looking back at the Rose behind me. "Let me guess," I said as I concluded what was happening. "Double Team."
"You got it!" the Roselia in front of me. "Double Team's one of the greatest moves to help boost evasion to avoid attacks more effectively."
"I know," I told her. "I had Double Team myself though I traded it in upon earning Detect."
"Ah! Detect! A marvelous move to have to know what's coming. Sadly, Detect can't always show you what's going to happen, sort of like the situation you're currently in."
It took me a moment to process what she meant by that. Taking a look about, I now noticed that, while in the midst of having a conversation with the Roselia before me, the Roselia behind me had used Double Team to create copies of herself to surround me. Only one thought had come to mind at that moment and one thought only. "Oh!"
"So Zack," the same Roselia continued. "What do you plan to do now that we have you surrounded?"
There wasn't much I could do. Very few options came to mind, some better to more effectively use than others. Deciding on my course of action, I responded to Rose's question. "This," I answered her as I fired off a volley of stars, having striken the Roselia who vanished. Continuing my attack, I turned my attention upon the Roselia on the right, continuing on to hit the next Roselia after the previous vanished. After having done a full three sixty in an attempt to try and hit the real Roselia, I ceased my attack and scanned about the area having no such luck in hit every single one of them and not finding said real one.
As I searched about for wherever it may be Rose was hiding, my gaze came to rest upon a nearby tree. Normally I wouldn't have any reason to hold my attention upon a tree unless it was doing something out of the ordinary, but since we were in the middle of a battle, my gaze held, locked onto said tree and wandered up to spot Leon climbing up it, aiming for a branch that Skitty was currently sitting upon. Her gaze, I took notice of, wandered out across the field rather than down at the Tyroog (as I believed his species was pronounced) as he neared her location.
Watching as he hoisted himself up, I noticed that Skitty had moved from where she sat and found her sitting on another branch that was higher up and adjacent prior to the branch Leon had just managed to reach. "Oh come on!" he said in annoyance, catching Skitty's attention.
"Ahem!" I heard Rose suddenly say from behind me right around the same time my my trainer yelled for me to look out behind me. A little bit late to be yelling out a warning, thank you very much. Not all that attentive of a trainer, is he? At least the battle managed to break up his fight with Laura. "You certainly do get distracted rather easily, don't you?" Rose asked as I craned my head back to look at her, the blue rose being pointed directly at me as I did so. "Might want to hold your attention more often on your opponents. Don't want them gaining the upper hand after all, not even for a second."
"And what makes you think I'm allowing myself to be distracted?" I asked with a smirk. "Perhaps it's all part of my plan to lower your guard."
"Well if that were the case then I'd have to say that it's a poorly thought out plan," Rose said. "Seeing as how you just admitted to me your plans."
"Ah!" I said. "But telling you what I have planned is exactly what I want you to know so that defeating you will be a piece of cake."
"And by telling me what you expect to happen is only increasing my guard against you further," Rose said. "Which only means that I'll be able to counteract your surprise attack when you go to do so.
"Yeah but by expecting me to surprise attack you only means that um... that um...," I began to say, only for my train of thought to trail off. Attempting to think up of a witty come back which only lead to a frazzled mind, I quickly spun about to face Rose fully, charging up for an attack. As I did so, however, a bright, blinding light suddenly emitted from within the blue rose.
"Flash!" I heard Rose yell out as my entire vision blurred to the point I had to shut my eyes.
"AAHHH!" I cried out. "My eyes! I can't see!"
"Well that"s what you get for looking directly into an attack at such close range," Rose said.
"Like I was supposed to know what you were going to do!" I pointed out irritably.
"Point taken," Rose said after a moment's silence. "But in all fairness, I did yell 'Flash.'"
"Like I was supposed to know what that meant!" I pointed out again, focusing my hearing as to pinpoint where she was. However, Rose remained silent as I was doing so, worrying me a little that she may have taken notice of what I was doing. Thinking quickly, I took the opportunity of her silence, making the attempt to open my eyes while keeping my hearing sharp. My vision was still blurry unfortunately, but not as bad as it was a minute earlier.
As I strained to rid the blurriness from my eyes, Rose spoke up suddenly saying, "Perhaps we should end our battle here. Taking an attack like that at such close range can do some major damage to the eyes."
"What are you kidding me?" I asked as I slowly turned in the direction her voice was emitting from while trying to make it look like I hadno idea where she was. "I'm just getting started. I'm not going to let this temporary blindness keep me from battling." With that, I snapped my head in the direction I had hoped her to be and fired off a Shadow Ball, hoping that my aim was straight and true.
Unfortunately, upon my attack making contact with what lied in its path in the direction I fired it, I heard Rose say, "Well... it seems that I have clearly underestimated you. I forgot to take your hearing into account."
I fired another Shadow Ball in her direction, following up with two more, one for each side on the off-hand she dodged to either direction. "Nice try," she said from behind me as my attacks failed to hit her. "You'll have to do better than that."
In response to that, I turned about and fired off another attack, growing rather frustrated due to having miss her yet again. And it was all due to the fact that my vision had not yet returned. With my frustration steadily growing, I began forming Shadow Balls and firing them off in random directions in the hopes that I would hit Rose at some point. However, my barrage had to come to an abrupt end as I heard my master cry out, "Watch it, Zack! You almost hit me with that one!"
"Sorry," I mumbled as I rubbed a paw across my eyes to seeit it would help any. Nothing changed, unfortunately. It wasn't my fault that all I could see were a bunch of dark splotches in among the light. He ought to have something flash in his face. Maybe then he'd have a better understanding of what I was through. And what was that heavenly smell that suddenly wafted past my nostrils? Hello! It was so sweet and alluring that I completely forgot what I was frustrated about, what I was doing, where I was, what was even going- Whoa! Whatever this smell was, I felt like I was compelled to follow it, find out where its source was, claim it all for my own, and never to let it go, not even to that crazy Skitty.
Before I could come to terms with what was happening within the next instant, I found myself coming to a stop as something soft, yet firm pressed up from under my muzzle. My eyes widened as best as they could as I realized the predicament I put myself in. I wasn't even remotely aware of moving from where I stood. I could hear Rose's steady breathing, feel a smirk coming off her as she drew her breath in to speak her next attack.
"Rose!" I heard Adzel call out suddenly. Rose caught herself as she was just starting to call out her next attack. "That's enough. You too, Daniel. This battle's ours."
I felt Rose remove her rose as I overheard Ted commenting on his battle with Daniel. "I have to admit," Rose said, drawing my attention back upon her. "You're a pretty decent fighter. The way you thought your way out of being encircled was pretty impressive."
"Uh... thanks," I said. "Your fighting style was't so bad either though blinding me was a bit over the top."
"Yeah," Rose said sounding not too thrilled about that. "I'm terribly sorry about that. I should have made sure I was at least a couple feet back. How's your vision? Any better?"
"Not really," I replied. "Everything's kinda splotchy."
"Oh dear!" Rose said with concern. "I hope your eyes aren't too badly damaged."
"Me either."
"Nonsense," Ted said suddenly from beside me, causing me to go stiff for a moment. "If it's temporary blindness, it'll be a piece of cake for me to fix."
I felt Ted's claws touching various spots around my eyes and before I knew it, all the splotchiness had cleared asmy vision had returned. "Thanks, Ted," I said with a relieved smile. "I don't know what you did, but I wouldn't have known what to do without you."
"Glad to be of service," Ted said as I turned my attention back toward the tree to see how Skitty's battle fared, only to be surprised by what I saw. All the way at the very top of the tree was Leon who was clinging to a branch looking down like he had no idea how he got up there to begin with.
"Somebody help me!" he cried out, catching the attention of the humans. I stared blankly up at him, my mind trying to register something that was missing. I automatically lowered my head down to the bottom of the tree to see Skitty sitting there looking up.
"Silly Tyrouge!" she said. "Skitties can't climb trees!"
After doing a bit of coaxing from the humans to get Leon to climb down, Adzel managed to recall him to his pokeball seeing as how he refused to come down any further since Skitty sat there watching him. Once Leon was safely back in his pokeball did the humans exchange some words. I took that opportunity to have some words of my own with Rose. "So explain to me," I said to her. "You never once called out an attack that would actually do some sort of damage to me yet I feel drained having barely done anything other than waste my attacks. How exactly were you able to tire me out so quickly?"
"I'm afraid that's a secret I can't tell," Rose said with a smile and a wink. "But what I will leave you with is a bit of advice. Always remember that the key to winning any battle is that having a good offense can be made into a having a better defense while vice versa a good defense can be made into a better offense."
"Huh?" I asked, not sure by what she meant.
All Rose did was chuckle. "Slow this one is, isn't he?"
"I'm sure with some thought he'll bound to get it," Ted said. "Some day."
"Uh... right," I said, unsure of what either one of them was talking about as our attention was diverted toward our trainers; Adzel making his way over towards us.
"Finish up, Rose," he said. "We're moving out." I could see my trainer behind him not looking too thrilled between whatever it was they talked about. Adzel pulled out his pokeball and enlarged it as Rose turned to us once more.
"Well it was a pleasure getting to battle against you, Zack," she said. "I hope you can figure out my little advice and look forward to wehn we next battle."
"Yeah," I said. "Same here."
"And perhaps then you could tell me the story of the Roselia cult you ran into," Rose said. "I'd definitely like to hear about that enocounter."
"It'll definitely be a story for you to look forward to," I said as Rose was recalled into her pokeball. Adzel then placed her ball back on his belt and began walking off with Ted and I watching after.
"Adzel!" I heard my trainer call out to him. "Some day I wil beat you. You'll see. I'll train my pokemon to be the strongest they can be and then when next we meet, I'll be strong enough to beat you."
In response to that, Adzel raised up his right arm without turning around and gave my master a farewell salute as he continued walking off to wherever he was originally going. I turned my attention towards Ted after a few moments of silence as he exhaled an exhausted sigh. "You all right there, Ted?" I asked.
"A bit,"was his response. "Just need a moment to rest. That battle certainly took its toll on me."
"Yeah," I said in agreement. "They're pretty strong in their own way."
"It's not that they were strong, Zack bro," Ted stated. "They used what they were good at to their advantage and overwhelmed us in the end. A sure fine lesson to learn from them if I do say so myself."
"I guess," I said nonchantly as I turned my head to the other side of me to see Skitty standing there, looking like something was bothering by the way she kept turning her head from one side to another every few seconds. "Are you all right there Skitty? Is there something troubling you?"
"I'm not sure," Skitty answered. "There's something about that guy that's bothering me."
"Like what?"
"Not sure," Skitty replied again, falling silent for a moment. "What did that guy say his name was?"
"I believe his name was Adzel," I told her. "Right, Ted?"
"You would know, Zack bro," Ted replied with a shrug.
"Right," I said as I looked back at Skitty. "Why do you want to know anyway?"
"I don't know," Skitty replied. "I feel like there's this sudden urge that I have to destroy him." She paused for a moment. "No! That I must destroy him." She slowly brought her head back to into an upright position and stared after Adzel who had already walked a good distance from us as she began walking in his his direction like she was in a trance. "Must. Destroy. Adzel!"
"Uh, Skitty?" I said after seeing what I wasn't entirely sure I saw.
"Huh?" Skitty asked, snapping out of her sudden trance. "What? Where am I? What's going on?" She looked back at me and smiled. "Ah! Zack! Ted! How are you both doing?"
"Uh... we're doing all right?" I said in question. Honestly, I wasn't all entirely sure I was all right at this point.
"That's good!" she said. "Well, we best get ourselves a move on. Don't want to waste the day staying around here now, do we?" With that, Skitty walked past us heading straight back to our trainers who were just finishing packing their belongings.
"Let me guess," I said to Ted after a minute. "Typical Skitty?"
"Don't know," Ted replied. "That's the first time she's even freaked me out a little."
Huh?