Chapter 72: Worse Than Ever
As they continued their way towards Ash's next Area Boss challenge they found themselves walking next to a beautiful meadow. Nikki made the suggestion that, with the day as perfect as it was they couldn't pass the opportunity up to have a day to themselves. Ash agreed and soon they were setting up a small campsite for themselves.
"Let's let our Pokémon out," Nikki said.
"Good idea," Ash agreed. "Okay, everyone! Come on out!" He tossed his Poké Balls and one by one Scyther, Onix, Swellow, Kirlia and Arcanine appeared.
"You guys come out, too!" Nikki shouted, calling out Ninetails, Persian, Shinx, Swablu and Kirlia. As soon as all the Pokémon were called out Ninetails and Arcanine were by each others' side while Scyther, in typical Scyther fashion, went off to be by himself.
"I guess he's just going to be a loner," Nikki assumed.
"Maybe so," Ash agreed. "Still, I wish he'd just try and be a team player." Looking over at Scyther Ash decided to try and talk to him once more. He walked over towards the Mantis Pokémon, who watched him with a wary eye.
"Scyther?" Ash called.
"(What do you want now?)" Scyther spat. Ash was a bit taken aback by his tone of voice, but he continued on regardless.
"I just thought that you might want to socialize with the others," he said.
"(And why would I want to do that?)" Scyther asked.
"Listen, we're all part of the same team here. Why not get to know your teammates," Ash suggested.
"(I didn't want teammates and I certainly don't want to get to know them,)" Scyther refused.
"But why not?" Ash asked.
"(Look, I don't care about you or anyone else. All I care about is getting stronger, and I can do that just fine on my own,)" Scyther said.
"But…"
"(Just leave me alone!)" He took a swipe at Ash, knocking him down.
"Ash!" Nikki shouted. She hurried to his side, followed by all the Pokémon.
"Are you alright?" Nikki asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ash replied. Now that Ash was confirmed to be okay everyone turned their attention to Scyther, glaring at the rebellious Mantis Pokémon.
"That was uncalled for!" Nikki chastised. "He was jut trying to be friendly!"
"(I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to get stronger,)" Scyther retorted. By now Ash had made it back to his feet. After hearing what Scyther just said he had an idea. He ran over to his backpack and started looking for something. He soon returned carrying the Metal Coat Grant had given him a while back.
"What are you doing with that?" Nikki wondered.
"He said he wants to get stronger, right? I figured I'd help him in that regard," Ash replied. "Maybe if I do I can earn his respect and maybe he wouldn't be so cold towards me." Nikki didn't like the sound of that idea.
"Are you sure about this? What if his behavior just gets worse?" she asked.
"That's a risk I'm going to have to take," Ash told her. He approached Scyther and showed him the Metal Coat.
"(What's this?)" the Mantis Pokémon asked.
"You want to get stronger, don't you? This will let you evolve, and then you'll be stronger," Ash told him. Hearing this Scyther looked at the Metal Coat in Ash's hand. Slowly he reached out and touched it. As soon as he did he felt a power coming from it. He focused on the power, and soon both he and the Metal Coat took on a bright glow.
"Here we go," Ash said. Moments later the glow faded, revealing Scyther in his newly evolved form. Nikki walked back to her bag and grabbed her Pokécomm.
Name: Scizor
Species: The Pincer Pokémon
Pokécomm Entry: Its wings are not used for flying. They are flapped at high speed to adjust its body temperature.
Scizor looked himself over, marveling at his new form. A smirk crept across his face as he felt his new-found power flowing through his body.
"So, does this prove to you that I only have your best interest in mind?" Ash asked. He offered his hand to him in friendship, but Scizor just slapped his hand away.
"(Don't think this changes anything between us,)" he said. "(I still don't need you to get stronger.)"
"What are you talking about?! If it wasn't for Ash you wouldn't have evolved," Nikki argued.
"(I would have found a way to evolve on my own eventually. He just saved me the trouble,)" Scizor responded.
"(Geez, talk about ungrateful,)" Arcanine commented. Scizor turned his eyes to Arcanine upon hearing that comment.
"(You got a problem, doggy?)" he asked.
"(Maybe I do,)" Arcanine replied. "(What are you going to do about it?)" Everyone could sense a fight brewing and did everything they could to diffuse the situation.
"Come on, guys, let's not fight," Nikki said.
"(You know, just because you have a type advantage over me doesn't mean you're stronger than me,)" Scizor stated.
"(Trust me, I wouldn't need a type advantage to take you,)" Arcanine said.
"Alright, you two. That's enough," Ash said.
"(Someone need to teach him some manners, and I think I'm just the one to do it,)" Arcanine declared.
"(I don't need anyone teaching me anything,)" Scyther said. Despite their efforts both Pokémon were determined to battle each other. It was starting to get to the point where Ash felt he wouldn't be able to stop it from happening.
"What are we going to do? They really want to go at it," Nikki commented.
"At this point our only option may be to just let them," Ash said.
"Are you sure that's wise?" Nikki asked.
"No, but at this point there's no deterring them," Ash told her. Nikki still wasn't too sure about this idea but she figured that Ash knew what he was doing seeing as how he had so much more experience with this sort of thing.
"Okay. Just… promise me you won't let them get too crazy with this," she said.
"I won't," Ash promised. He then turned his attention to Scizor and Arcanine, who were still staring daggers at one another.
"Alright, you two. I'm going to let you blow off some steam with a sparring battle," he announced. "I'll let you two battle, but when I say stop I want you two to stop, got it?"
"(Fine by me,)" Arcanine said.
"(Whatever,)" Scizor said. With the ground rules set Ash, Nikki and the other Pokémon got out of the way as Arcanine and Scizor stood across from each other.
"(You sure you still want to do this?)" Arcanine questioned.
"(Afraid you'll lose?)" Scizor teased.
"(No. I just wanted to save you some embarrassment after all that big talk,)" the Legendary Pokémon said.
"(We'll see who's embarrassed!)" Scizor challenged as he charged forward with a Slash attack. Arcanine jumped out of the way and bit down on Scizor's arm with a Thunder Fang, eliciting a grunt of pain from the Pincer Pokémon. He then threw him off to the side and fired off a Flamethrower. Scizor, however, was able to recover and used his Agility to increase his speed. He was then easily able to dodge the incoming Flamethrower attack.
"(You're just too slow, puppy!)" Scizor taunted.
"(Am I?!)" Arcanine replied. In a move that shocked Scizor Arcanine seemingly vanished from sight right before plowing into him with a shoulder tackle, sending the Pincer Pokémon rolling across the ground.
"(No matter how fast you are my Extremespeed will always be faster,)" Arcanine bragged. Scizor glared at him before launching into another attack. As they battled Ash and Nikki were keeping a close eye on things.
"Scizor's attacks are sloppy. Arcanine is having no trouble predicting them," Ash commented.
"In that case don't you think you should stop this battle?" Nikki wondered.
"Not yet. I want to see if Scizor can turn this around," Ash said. They continued to watch as Scizor tried an X-Scissor. Arcanine simply dodged him and once again used his Flamethrower. Scizor countered by once again increasing his speed with Agility. Now that he was faster he once again tried a Slash attack, this time making solid contact. Arcanine shook the attack off and struck back with Extremespeed. Scizor, however, was expecting this and hit him with a Night Slash, knocking him back.
"(You're mine now!)" Scizor yelled as he charged in for another attack.
"Okay! That's enough!" Ash announced. Scizor, however, didn't seem to care as he continued with his attack.
"Scizor, I said stop!" he shouted.
"(I already said I don't take orders from you!)" Scizor replied. He was just about to strike Arcanine when his body froze, surrounded by a blue aura.
"(What the?!)" he shouted.
"(I believe Ash told you to stop,)" Kirlia said, her eyes glowing blue as she used her Psychic attack to stop Scizor before he could do more damage. He glared at the Emotion Pokémon.
"(You're going to pay for that,)" he said in a threatening manner.
"No she's not!" Ash told him, Scizor's Poké Ball in hand. He recalled Scizor and glanced down at the Poké Ball before letting out a long sigh.
"Scizor… why are you like this?" he asked himself. With Scizor a non-factor things were starting to calm back down.
"Thanks for intervening, Kirlia," Ash said.
"(I just did what was necessary,)" the Emotion Pokémon responded.
"Well it was thanks to you that things didn't get too much out of control," Ash said. After adressing her he turned his attention to Arcanine, who looked a bit dejected.
"Are you alright?" Ash asked.
"(Yeah,)" Arcanine answered. "(I just wish I could have been the last one standing. He's strong, I can tell you that.)"
"I don't doubt that one bit," Ash agreed. "Still, he needs some work with his attacks. He started off real sloppy there at the beginning."
"(That he did, though he got better as things went on,)" Arcanine said. Right then Ninetails walked over and stood next to him.
"(I think you were wonderful,)" she commented, getting a blush out of the Legendary Pokémon. Ash chuckled at this before going to join Nikki.
"Seems like Scizor's behavior has gotten worse now that he's evolved," Nikki commented.
"Yeah, you're right," Ash agreed. "I just wish there was some way I could get through to him."
"Well, you said you were able to get through to your other two Pokémon that had attitude problems. Maybe you could do the same with him," Nikki said.
"Maybe, but it'll take some doing," Ash told her.
"In the meantime how about some lunch," Nikki suggested.
"Now that's an idea I can get behind," Ash said. The two of them laughed as they went about fixing a good lunch for themselves and the Pokémon.
Ash's Scyther has grown stronger since evolving into Scizor, but his attitude has grown worse as well. Will Scizor ever listen to Ash? Or will he be a loner forever? Find out in the next chapter of Search for Power!
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