Long time, long time, long time. I just had so much trouble with this chapter. I didn't feel it at all. I'm getting the plot going, but am also trying not to give too many hints away and
argh it's killing me. Anyway, next chapter.
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Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon or any of its related enterprises. They are the property of their respective owners.
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Chapter Eleven: Tumbling Emotions.
It was hard not to feel affected by the air of desperation that clung to the area. Trainers, locals, and pokémon alike were gripped by the death and destruction that their beloved park had become. By now the fires had been put out, though here and there some smoke still twirled upward. The fire-brigade had left, confident that they'd done their best, and had made way for the police-force and its investigators. Growlithe and arcanine searched the surroundings for clues, but no one expected them to find much. It was hard to find clues amongst nothing.
Watching with dull eyes, Amy gripped the bench she'd found. It had been one of the few left untouched, so close to the entrance that it had been surrounded by stone instead of grass, and the spot where she'd stayed for almost an hour now. Angela had wandered off, taking her pokémon to a friend's house to get some rest, and Jason had been in a spirited discussion with Bugsy, the leader of Azalea's Gym.
Amy had never seen the man before, but she'd heard the stories. He'd been gym-leader for nine years now, one of the youngest and most talented trainers of his day. Many had called him a fool for choosing to train the runts of nature, but he'd proven them wrong by remaining in his position for almost a decade. Now, having passed twenty, he was older, but had yet to lose his boyish charm and easy smile, though you wouldn't say so when looking at him now.
She couldn't hear what the two men were discussing, but the looks on their faces spoke of annoyance and anger. Not that she could blame them. So many lives had been lost, so many pokémon had perished, and no one knew why. Amy had caught a snippet of their conversation after having been introduced to the brilliant bug trainer, and realised that Officer Jenny from Goldenrod City suspected foul play. Not an accident, then, but arson. It caused Amy to shiver.
Next to her, becoming an expected fixture whenever she needed companionship, Weedle munched on a berry Bugsy had given him. Somehow seeing a happy bug pokémon in the park made Amy feel even worse, but his presence was comforting nonetheless. The small bug seemed to feel something was up, but Amy wasn't sure he knew the severity of what had happened. She hoped not.
Sullen faces everywhere made her sigh heavily. Most people had heard the story on the news, or been alerted by friends, but now and then a tired looking boy or girl would wander in, not having heard anything, and pause with a shocked look on their face. Expecting to find the vibrant National Park, bug catching contests in full swing, they'd found a vast expensive of nothingness instead.
“Amy?”
The girl looked up to find Jason and Bugsy standing next to her. The latter gazed over the park with sad eyes, finding it hard to deal with so much destruction.
“Do they know what happened?” she blurted out, wanting to know whether or not the suspicion had been proven yet. The two men looked at each other, then Jason shrugged.
“Very early yesterday morning a young couple who'd stayed in the park overnight discovered a small fire had started near the eastern entrance. It's been so dry the last couple of days that it spread like wildfire,” he explained, voice soft. Amy’s teeth gnashed together. “The boy raced to the Park's main entrance to alert someone, while the girl and her golduck attempted to contain it. Unfortunately, they didn't stand a chance, the blaze was too big, and they had to run to safety. It took the resident fire-squad nearly a full day to master the situation and even longer to completely eradicate it.”
“Do they know what started it?”
Jason shook his head. “No. It was a quiet night like all others, the boy and girl said, and aside from a predatory shriek by a hoothoot or noctowl, they hadn't heard a thing. It was too late at night to have been started by natural causes, though.”
Amy now shared their grave look. She'd pretty much figured that it couldn't have been an accident, but had still hoped beyond hope that the cause hadn't been vindictive human hands. No wonder the police were still all over the place, they had a criminal to catch! He, or she, could be anywhere by now, though, as the mighty wings and strong legs of pokémon could carry people far and wide. Heck, for all they knew the culprit was sailing pleasantly on his pokémon's back by now, lost to the sea.
It made Amy feel horrible. Her view of being a trainer hadn't included such grim occurrences. She'd expected a bit of trouble, sure, but the destruction of a beautiful park and all its pokémon? That hadn't been part of the plan. Glumly following Jason and Bugsy as they left the park, Amy held Weedle tightly.
-
They had a quiet, early dinner outside the park, relaxing on the grass while Bugsy handed out sandwiches and some soup. No one said a word and the same thing could be said for the countless of others who had occupied a spot on the field. Trainers had gathered there, no longer able to enter the park and too far from either Goldenrod or Violet City to go back now. They'd probably have some food and then head off, discussing the disastrous things they'd seen along the way.
Amy didn't have much of an appetite, but she gobbled down two ham-sandwiches anyway. Jason had been quite adamant that she couldn't stay, Bugsy had asked for his assistance, and had suggested she let Angela take her back to Violet City. At first Amy had tried to reason her way out of it, but she knew it made sense. The closest city was Goldenrod, which wasn't a place for little girls to wander around on their own. Plus, a girl with a totodile, weedle and gastly would find herself annihilated by the resident gym-leader and her normal type pokémon. No, going back to fight Falkner made more sense in the long run. It still hurt to leave her friend behind, though.
Luckily, there seemed to be a quiet understanding between Jason and Bugsy, both providing support for the other, and she was convinced the Azalea Gym Leader would take good care of her travelling companion. Indeed, Jason's anger had slowly dissipated after some quiet and comforting words from his mentor, something Amy hadn't thought possible.
Angela arrived not long after, smiles and bubbly personality gone after having had to witness such tragedy. She greeted Bugsy with a tight hug, then did the same to Jason, before walking over to Amy and flopping down on the grass.
“We should probably leave within the hour if we want to make it to Violet City before nightfall,” she commented, staring up at the glaring sun. It seemed to be mocking them, but Amy paid no heed.
“Okay,” came the mumbled reply, and Angela got up again. A hand rested momentarily on Amy’s shoulder, providing a bit of comfort, before the dashing woman walked off to go sit with the adults. It was getting pretty late, evening already upon them, and Amy had a feeling they wouldn’t reach Violet City on time. Still, she slurped down the remainder of her soup and checked her things. At least she’d brought her sleeping bag, that would be useful should they have to resort to sleeping at the side of the road.
Not soon after, Angela finished her talk with Bugsy and Jason, motioning for Amy. The young girl did as asked, smiling slightly as Jason gave her a pat on the shoulder.
“You’ll be fine, Amy, and I’ll see you soon enough,” he assured, winking. “Good luck against Falkner.”
“Thanks.” She sighed, not looking forward to leaving him here. She was, however, looking forward to returning to Carrie’s comforting presence. If she was honest, Amy felt like she was being thrown in on the deep end, having to deal with issues that were so far above her she couldn’t reach. Being in the presence of a gym leader, be it one of bug-pokémon, reminded her how far she still had to go.
A bright flash and Bold appeared next to his owner. The bird shook his feathers, calling out shrilly as nails pawed at the grass. He looked as imposing as ever, clearly not troubled by the long journey he had been on the day before. There was a hint of impatience to him, though, as he nearly pecked Angela in the hand.
“Well, someone’s eager,” the woman mumbled, hitting him on the head the second time he tried to lunge for her. Against her will, Amy was pulled forward, and Jason lifted her up in one swift motion. Soon Angela too mounted the bird, and slipped one arm around Amy’s waist. Today wasn’t going to be quite as fast, so there was no need to burden more than one of Angela’s prized pokémon.
“It was nice meeting you, Amy,” Bugsy called out from where he was standing. He’d been joined by several young kids, probably asking him for something, but smiled encouragingly anyway. “Perhaps I’ll see you at the Gym one day!”
Before she had time to reply, Angela gave her dodrio free reign. With a huge lurch, Amy was thrown back and only Angela’s vigilance kept her from fallen. Unable to look over her shoulder with her current companion blocking the view, she simply held on and let herself be carried. It was going to be a long evening.
-
Several hours into their run, it was clear they weren’t going to make it back to the city in time. Bold, having chosen to make the most of his bout of freedom, had eluded Angela’s angry shouting and dashed straight into the forest the minute the woman had let the reigns slack again. Once they were back on the road, they’d made good time, but the bird had done quite a bit of harm to himself and once Angela noticed they’d made one of many pit-stops.
At the moment they were setting up camp. Having retrieved some rocks to create a stone circle with, Amy focused on the fire while Angela fed her pokémon. Aside from the two dodrio and Timid, the doduo, she apparently also carried a crazy sounding sandslash, which had propped itself up against a tree and was digging at the roots with its hind legs while it ate. Amy was staying far away from all of them, lest she end up sliced to bits by razor-sharp claws.
Finishing lighting the fire – which took a lot longer than she thought it would, but ended up being easy when Angela handed her some matches – Amy pulled her bag close and huddled deeply into her comfortable sleeping arrangements. Comfortable, at least, compared to sleeping on dirty soil. Angela had chosen a good spot to stop at, sheltered completely by some large shrubs. They weren’t too far from the road, but wouldn’t be noticeable – even with the fire – leaving them as safe as could be. Still, Amy held her pokéballs close and just hoped that sandslash was good for something other than making scary looking sounds on a nearby tree. She could only imagine what it had done to the unfortunate tree’s bark.
It was hard to fall asleep, one side warmed by the blaring fire, the other cold in the night air. Not only chilly, there were sounds everywhere that Amy wasn’t used to. Angela was already fast asleep, but every branch snapping, or every call from deeper into the forest, made Amy shift closer to the fire. She much preferred the tent.
Eventually even the ten year old fell asleep, tired body just not coping with the stressful last couple of days. She had never been away from home longer than she’d been now, and it was beginning to get to her. Dreams of grand victories were chased off by images of charcoal and dust, and she was in for a rough night.
-
Very early in the morning, it was the proud calling of a dodrio family that woke Amy with a start. Bold, Curious and even Timid were happily cawing at the rising sun, clearly not intending to let them sleep much longer. Groggy eyes tried to find Angela, but the older woman had tied her three trouble-makers to a tree and left. Where, Amy didn’t know, but she’d probably taken the sandslash with her.
Happy to be given the chance to wake up slowly, Amy yawned. There was an urge to just stay in the warmth, but the watery sun was bravely attempting to brave the chill, so Amy did the same. Stretching aching limbs, she shook some sand out of her clothes. Sleeping in outerwear wasn’t too comfortable, but she hadn’t felt comfortable changing in front of someone she barely knew. Besides, she didn’t know who else could be watching. It meant, however, that some tossing and turning had dragged sand in, and that she’d be pulling twigs off her clothes the entire day.
Tugging at her hair, she sighed as she noticed how tangled it’d gotten. Grabbing the only brush she’d thought to bring, she attacked the mess with silent ferocity. If she was going to walk around in Violet City, then it was at least going to be presentable. Trying not to notice the way all three birds were eying her oddly, she walked around the area in an attempt to distract herself from the painful pulling at her head.
With a lot of gritting of the teeth and angry shouting, Amy eventually managed to free herself of hair resembling cobwebs, though the brown mess looked like it had seen better days. A good shower should rectify that, she supposed, but at the same time the person looking back at her – the small pocket-size mirror didn’t give a terrific view – looked worn-out and tired.
“Ah, you’re up!” someone called from behind her and Amy turned to see Angela and her sandslash coming through the trees. “Danny and I were just getting some water.”
The vibrant young woman was carrying a heavy pan, aided by a solid claw holding it steady. The humongous sandslash, scales slightly dusty, looked a lot more relaxed now and incredibly focused. Amy figured it had to be a set routine, this carrying of water, and she was proven right when the pokémon lowered carefully to set the pan down.
Angela wiped her brow, then grinned. “Nothing like a bit of hard work to wake you up. Anyway, there’s a little stream not too far into the forest, in case you want to wash up and stuff. You can’t miss it, really.”
“Don’t you want me to help you prepare breakfast?” Amy asked timidly, eying the trees with a bit of distrust. So far she’d seen quite enough of trees, and she had no intention of wandering around in there getting lost.
“Nah, that’s fine. It’ll go faster if I do it on my own.” The woman looked at her. “You can take Danny with you, if you’re afraid to go alone.”
“I’m not afraid ,” Amy started, but then smiled sheepishly. “Okay, perhaps I would prefer to take him with me. I’m not used to this whole ‘walking in the woods alone’ deal yet.”
Angela smiled. “Don’t worry about it, we all had that at one point.” She turned to the sandslash. “Danny, tag along with Amy here for a bit, would you?”
The pokémon turned his head curiously for a second, but eventually seemed to get the idea. Large claws swinging freely, his scales made a scraping sound as he walked, and Amy suddenly wondered if this was such a good idea. Swallowing, she dashed into the slight undergrowth in search of that stream Angela had mentioned. It couldn’t be far.
Then again, it appeared their ideas of ‘far’ differed a lot. After ten minutes of walking aimlessly from tree to tree – making sure to always keep her back to where she knew the road was – she had yet to find that stream the woman had mentioned. Danny trudged on regardless, though, and Amy just followed. He had to have an idea where it was, because he looked pretty determined.
The forest wasn’t as scary as she’d imagined, though, for there was a light air to it. The roof overhead wasn’t quite as thick, letting in a lot more light, and the wildlife was beautiful. Already she’d seen plenty of pidgey gawk at her from a tree, or a bellsprout quickly hiding behind a bush. Hadn’t it been for the pace Danny was moving with, she might have tried to catch it, but the thought of losing her temporary guide disturbed her so she hurried on.
There were rattata holes, too, neatly hidden by shrubs or tree-trunks. Amy was getting good at finding them, these little secret kingdoms tucked away underground, and had a pokéball in hand just in case she spied one of the critters inhabiting the dark holes. They wouldn’t get away, if she had anything to do with it.
It wasn’t until Danny stopped and his spiky back stood on end that Amy realised there was a soft trickling sound reaching her ears. With the large mouse pokémon by her side, she made for it, convinced she’d finally found what she’d been looking for. Indeed, once her companion slashed some tangled vines through, she caught a glimmer of blue up ahead. With hasty steps, she dashed towards it, pausing only when she noticed she wasn’t the only one looking to use the stream.
Near the small, snaking vein of water, amongst some boulders and rocks, sat three purple creatures. They were bigger than a rattata, though not by much, but had the same sharp teeth and purple hue. Large ears framed their face, beady eyes looking around in alarm every time something moved in the bushes. While two drank, one surveyed the area, as if afraid they were going to be attacked.
Holding her breath, Amy cautiously grabbed her pokédex, not wanting to alert the spiked critters of her presence. She was half-way sure she knew what these pokémon were, having been told of the poison pokémon that sometimes found their way into people’s homes to steal food. Many a meowth or growlithe had been poisoned trying to defend its house from these sneaky intruders. Still, some extra information wouldn’t hurt, especially regarding their gender. Pointing her bright red machine at the three, Amy pressed the button.
Nidoran, male. The male nidoran has developed muscles for moving its ears. Thanks- the pokédex began, its volume causing Amy to flinch. She’d forgotten to turn it down like she’d done with Tricks. Looking over at the stream, she could just see purple bodies dashing into the nearby foliage. They were gone.
“No!” Amy shouted. “Don’t go!”
- the ears can be freely moved in any direction. Even the slightest sound does not escape this Pokémon's notice, the pokédex finished, as Amy stood there, defeated, and slammed it shut with a growl.
Sulking, she stuffed the pokédex in her pocket again and tried to ignore the inquisitive looks she was getting from the sandslash standing next to her. Had he been human, she would have said he looked amused, but as it stood he was probably just wondering what she was doing.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she murmured, dropping her bag near the water as she grabbed her towel and started splashing water in her face. She was happy to be on the other side of the stream, though, as she didn’t want to worry about being poisoned. Who knew what the nidoran had left behind?
After finishing wiping her face and arms, she plunged a cup into the stream and gulped down as much cold water as she could. Having been used to a diet consisting of way more expensive beverages, it came as a surprise that she’d quickly learned to appreciate water in the way she did. Mere weeks ago, she’d never have dared to drink from a natural source.
Feeling refreshed and ready, though still a bit annoyed her pokédex had scared away those nidoran, Amy got up and trudged back through the forest. Danny made some noises now and then, but aside from that only the sounds of the forest floated her way. Distant calls, by pokémon she wasn’t familiar with, and constant rustling in the trees. While at first she felt anxious at that, she learned to take it as it was. She wasn’t going to be attacked if she stuck to her way and didn’t touch a thing.
Here and there, she caught a whiff of flowers, smiling at small, white droplets of beauty growing where the canopy had parted. It was amazing to see what life there was to a forest.
Once she got back to the camp, she felt she’d accomplished something. Sure, she’d had the protection of Angela’s sandslash, but still she’d managed to walk around in an unknown forest on her own. Not something she’d ever done before.
She could see the pan Angela had carried all the way from the stream – a huge accomplishment in itself – was already bubbling, and the air smelled of soup. Angela wasn’t the only one there, though, as Amy took note of a young boy slurping down some of the no doubt tasty food.
“Amy, there you are! I was getting worried you’d gotten lost,” Angela greeted her, immediately scooping up some of the soup into a bowl for the young trainer. Sitting down on a nearby log, Amy gratefully accepted it and dipped some bread into the liquid.
“It took a bit longer than expected,” she admitted, turning to the boy. “Hi, I’m Amy.”
The other trainer, grinning shyly as he wiped his mouth, nodded at her. He was large and bulky, for his age, speaking of years being treated to the best of food. Standing next to an enormous backpack, he looked rather imposing, but there was a shyness to him that Amy more than recognized. It was like looking in a mirror, when it came to that.
“I’m Jackson. Miss Angela here was kind enough to offer me some food.”
Angela grinned, grabbing some herself. “Jackson has only recently started on his journey, just like you.”
“I did train pokémon before that, though. A little, at least. My dad imported one from Kanto and we caught the others together.”
Amy felt slightly envious of that. Sure, she’d had plenty of experience helping train pokémon, but she could only imagine what rare pokémon this boy owned. Money sure did buy everything.
“I’m clumsy and forgetful, though,” the boy admitted, gulping down the last bit of soup. “I can never quite follow what’s going on. I have yet to win a badge because of it.”
“Have you tried often?” she piped up, and the boy nodded.
“Three times now. Falkner’s pidgeotto keeps taking us out. So I’ve been out here training.”
“Perhaps you two should have a battle. You both have three pokémon, right? It would do you good,” Angela suggested, throwing some bread to her sandslash. The two kids looked at each other, not too sure if they wanted to take each other on this early in the morning. A part of Amy felt too discouraged with the world to have a solid battle, but she knew the gym was coming up soon and if she wanted to win she’d better get in some practice.
“Okay,” she muttered hesitantly, causing Jackson to nod as well. Both finished their soup, though rather slowly, and with a rather gleeful referee explaining the rules, they were ready to begin.
It was odd, suddenly being forced to think about tactic and moves, especially after the disillusionment they had been subjected to at the National Park. It was clear life moved on, even after such tragedy, and Angela seemed very cheerful and composed already. Amy figured she had seen something like this before, though she couldn’t remember ever having heard about things this terrible on the news.
“Okay, who will send out first? Ladies first, or do you want to, Jackson?” Angela asked, sitting down comfortably on a log as both trainers faced each other on the sandy road. It was still early, so with any luck they wouldn’t be encountering any trainers while they battled. Up above a lone spearow cawed at them, then sped off into the distance. It was quiet.
“I’ll go,” the boy said, grabbing a gleaming red pokéball from his bag. Large fingers curled around it, then whipped the thing into the air. With a by now familiar flash of light, a pokémon appeared. It looked a bit confused to be out there, but large ears and beady eyes turned to Jackson soon after, waiting to be ordered what to do.
A large tail was used as leverage as the sand-coloured pokémon raised up, looking at Amy as well. She had seen plenty of pokémon like this before, but it was still a sight to see. Had Amy been more of the girly type, she might have squealed in delight.
“A sentret!”
Jackson grinned. “Yeah, this is Bess. I caught her a couple of weeks ago.”
She’d seen the speedy critters follow them through the tall grass, but never caught more than a glimpse. Like most pokémon, they were on their guard around humans, though these were rather notorious. Working well together, the scout pokémon always seemed to have an ace up their sleeve, something Amy had found out at a young age. Trying to protect her lunch from agile paws and quick feet had proved to be too much of a struggle and she’d ended up crying her eyes out. Fortunately there had been no extensive trauma for the little girl and she gazed at the tawny-haired beauty with appreciation.
“She’s gorgeous.”
The large boy opposite her smiled, petting the sentret on its head. Amy, not so enamoured she’d forgotten what the plan was, had already grabbed the pokémon she wanted to start out with. Her newly caught gastly would be of no use and she wanted to start out strong, so the choice seemed obvious.
“Come on out!” she called, almost dropping the pokéball in her haste to release her pokémon. Blushing, she was glad the resulting flash hid her awkwardness. Instead she focused her attention on the scaly water pokémon that appeared before her.
Toto looked overly pleased that he’d been let out, eyes gleaming as sniffed the air and pounded the ground with his tail. It was almost like he was wagging it. Amy had allowed him to walk around a bit whenever they took a break, but she had gotten the idea he wasn’t feeling all that well about himself. Tricks and him had an unbalanced truce going, mostly caused by the fact that Amy kept them well apart. Which was difficult when dealing with a creature that could pass right through her. She shuddered at the memory, as it had been a rather gross sensation.
“A totodile!” Jackson smiled, clearly pleased with his opponent’s pokémon. If that was because he thought he had a chance, Amy didn’t know, but she felt a scowl coming on regardless. Yes, Toto was awesome, but other trainers should be worried when facing him, not happy to see him.
Though she had expected her little blue critter to snap at the demure sentret facing him, Toto reacted quite the opposite. He chattered softly, but remained where he was. Almost as if dealing with Tricks had made him more hesitant to approach others. Amy wasn’t sure she liked the change.
“You can go first, if you want,” Amy offered, and Jackson nodded. Squaring her back, the girl waited for Bess’ first move. She knew enough about the basic move set of these common pokémon to know what to expect - a lot of fast and agile normal-typed attacks – but also knew that it was likely the two of them had a trick up their sleeve.
“Bess, use quick attack!” Jackson ordered, and immediately the sentret leaped into action. With a powerful push from the tail, she was off, and charged at Toto in a zigzag pattern. Amy felt startled, unaccustomed to having to react this quickly, and Toto too seemed frazzled by the tawny blur heading for him.
“Scratch!” she yelled frantically, asking Toto to use the first attack that came to mind. Glinting claws were raised, hind legs firmly planted. He wasn’t going to move, no matter what the scout hurled at him.
Bess had reached him in no time, crossing the distance between them like she was a spearows flying at top speed. Toto brought down his claw the moment his eyes caught sight of his opponent’s eyes, but it caught nothing but air. Almost like he was fighting Tricks all over again, he couldn’t touch the blur and the sentret connected with him heavily. Thrown backwards, the totodile gave a cry, landing on the dusty road and tumbling until he came to a halt against a tree.
“Toto!”
Jackson’s pokémon hadn’t stopped running, flitting between trees as she attempted to hit Toto once again. Amy recognized the worrying state her pokémon was in. Not so much physically, but the ever-moving eyes said quite enough.
“Dodge,” Amy said forcefully, just as Bess had jumped again. The young trainer had no intention to lose, even if her strongest pokémon wasn’t himself. Luckily, Toto seemed to agree, for he threw himself on the ground. The sentret kept on going, turning in mid-air to swerve away from the solid tree she almost flew into. She landed gracefully on four agile feet.
“Damnit,” Amy swore, wringing her hands as she watched Toto get back to his feet. He didn’t look hurt, aside from his pride, which was something at least, but she also knew he couldn’t keep up. Bess was slightly out of breath, but by the time she was too far out of it Toto would be done.
“Again!”
Before Amy had time to react, Bess was off again. Trainer and pokémon followed the movement with their eyes, Amy’s mind racing to come up with a plan. Such speed was really too much for them.
“Leer, Toto!” she tried, but he didn’t seem to hear her. His eyes had narrowed, anger apparent in them, and he’d thrown his arms backwards. To Amy’s surprise a jet of water suddenly sprouted from his mouth. The direction was off, and the execution weak, but there was no mistake; Toto had learned water gun somewhere along the way. She didn’t know when – perhaps he’d just figured he could – but she was both proud and annoyed. Proud he had grown enough to know it, and annoyed he’d just ignored her order.
Toto’s inexperienced water attack did nothing except occasionally make the sentret change course, but Toto didn’t seem to care. He just kept on using it, even when Amy repeatedly told him to use leer instead. He was ignoring her completely.
She could feel Angela and Jackson watching her, but Amy was too busy feeling petrified to look at them. Toto, of all pokémon, was ignoring her? Then what would Tricks do?
Forced to do nothing but watch as her starter was again and again thrown backwards, only to get up and continue his spray of water, she swallowed nervously. The attack was getting weaker and weaker – and Toto’s stance more uncomfortable – but the stubborn creature held on.
“Toto,” she begged after yet another painful meeting with a tree, but he didn’t even look at her.
Jackson didn’t have that problem. “Finish it, Bess!”
With a sickening crack part of the tree splintered as Toto was flung into it. He didn’t get up. Struck by the quick end of this one-sided battle, Amy wondered how this had happened so fast. Bess couldn’t be much stronger than Toto was, but her speed had been enough to blindside them completely. Even if she was completely winded now from all the running.
Gnashing her teeth together, Amy quickly recalled the passed out pokémon lying not far from where she was standing. It felt wrong, having to put the pokéball back on her belt even though Toto hadn’t been able to do much. Almost as if she was abandoning him.
Grabbing the next pokémon from her waist, she suddenly realised how important this next battle was. If Weedle couldn’t win, then things would get incredibly tricky. Attacking a normal type pokémon with ghost attacks was never easy.
“Go,” she whispered, releasing the small critter with a flick of her wrist. No grand gestures, she felt bad enough as it was. Appearing in front of her, Weedle looked a lot more relaxed than Toto, but she could see he realised they were battling again. There was an air about him when that happened, like his pride reared up whenever he was expected to fight for her.
“You go first,” Jackson said, not even reacting to the sight of the tiny bug. Clearly he was surprised to see such an unlikely fighter.
“Okay, thanks.” Amy swallowed. “Weedle, quickly, use poison sting!”
Amy had hoped to catch the tired sentret by surprise, but before Weedle had as much as moved the scout pokémon had already started zigzagging again. Amy could see the confusion on his face, a sense of terror to his eyes. She didn’t know if sentret ate bugs, but it couldn’t be a pleasant sight regardless. Had she been his size, she would have been scared out of her mind.
“String shot!”
They were valiant attempts, but none of the shots reached. They landed on a tree, or a nearby bush, or occasionally struck the ground. Amy was at her wit’s end, trying to figure out how to deal with the extreme speed their opponent was showing. As Weedle kept aiming his strong shots, but always missing, Amy’s nails dug into her palms as she hoped for a possible way out to present itself. There was even a flicker of hope that Weedle would evolve, but she knew better than that. He hadn’t won enough to get even close and luck never showed up when you asked for it.
It was then that something akin to luck showed up, though Amy wasn’t sure whose luck this was. Catching both Jackson and Angela looking behind her, Amy cautiously turned her head. Expecting the buzzing danger of beedrill heading for her, the vision before her was a sight for sore eyes.
A group of wagons, pulled by graceful looking ponyta, left tracks on the road as they made their way towards them. It was still early in the morning and the fire pokémon pulling those heavy wooden vehicles looked a bit drowsy, but it was a wonderful sight nonetheless. Three, four, five in total creaked and sighed as they rolled past them. Both trainers stood in awe as they were greeted by stagehands, acrobats and wranglers alike. Catching two charmeoleon and a Mr. Mime through one of the windows, it was clear what was going on. The circus had arrived and were heading for Violet City.
