Chapter 11
Meeting Team Blue. Mix-up in the Mail!
It was early in the morning when Team Supernova gathered in the Pokemon Village. By now it had been roughly a week since the night of the intense storm. Seeing the village now, one would never have guessed that such a storm had even occurred. The repairs were finished and the town was back to normal. During that time the team had gone on several minor missions, giving them time to fully recover but still allowing them to get in some much-needed practice. It even took a couple of days for Torchic to stop sneezing.
Some of these missions included finding Poliwag’s missing stamina band in Thunderwave Cave and rescuing a lost Rattata in the early levels of Thunder Mountain. The team was improving greatly with every task they completed, becoming more efficient and skilled in their work. In turn, this boosted the morale of the team, especially Totodile, who proudly wore his shiny new bronze-ranked badge. His sorrow and doubt from the night of the storm had diminished.
This morning would be spent in the Pokemon village, preparing for tougher and more challenging missions to come. Totodile went to re-supply their items at Kecleon’s shop, while Torchic went to Felicity Bank to deposit their earnings from a previous mission. Tristan had wandered over to Gulpin’s Link Shop, one of the taller buildings in the village. It was shaped like a cylinder topped with a dome-shaped roof. Above the walkway on the side of the building hung a small lantern, which would be lit every night. On the other side of the building was a tall, oddly shaped chimney that reached as high as the building itself. Standing in front of the elaborate door to the building was Gulpin, reading the Pokemon News behind the counter as he waited for customers. Tristan was curious as to what linking was.
“NO WAY!!!” he exclaimed, as he got his answer, “You mean you can combine my moves so I can use’em all at once!?”
“Yep,” Gulpin answered, “Though you’re not really doing both the moves at once, rather, you’re doing the moves in very quick succession. You may as well say the moves are done at the same time, though.” Gulpin had the appearance of a small green blob with the shape of a black diamond on his back, as well as a yellow leaf sticking out on top of his… head… or was it his body? Probably both. “And just for the low price of 150 poke, you can link all the moves you like!”
“Ummm…” Tristan muttered, checking his money. He’d asked Torchic to give him some in case he saw something interesting. Well, this sure sounded interesting. He quickly counted the money in his hand. Sweet! Just enough! “Okay, I’d like to link some moves,” Tristan said handing Gulpin the money.
“Let's see… yep, that’s enough,” said Gulpin after he finished counting, “now, what moves would you like linked?”
“Um…” Tristan said, taking a moment to think, “How about Tail Whip and Bone Club.”
“A good choice…” commented Gulpin as he immediately got to work. Most of what he was doing was under the counter, so Tristan couldn’t tell what he was doing. Gulpin made conversation as he went about his business, “Weakening the enemy, then using a powerful attack afterwards, a good strategy. Usually people who come here just link two attacks with no strategy in mind.” Suddenly he jumped out from behind the counter smacking Tristan on the head with his tiny blob for a hand. Tristan gave a startled cry as he fell back “There, you're done,” he stated from behind the counter again, “Will that be all for today?”
“What was that for!?” Tristan exclaimed getting to his feet again. It hadn’t hurt, thanks to his protective skull, but he was annoyed that he’d just been attacked.
“You wanted me to link your moves didn’t you? Tail Whip and Bone Club? Well I just did it for you.”
“Oh…” Tristan said, embarrassed from acting up. “Yeah, thanks. And that will be all for now.”
“Alright then. Oh! And I almost forgot.” Gulpin recalled. Tristan was about to turn and leave, but was stopped by this comment. “Since this is your first time here, you get this as well,” he handed Tristan a strange box from under the counter that appeared to contain a bunch of disks.
“What is it?” Tristan asked, holding it in his hand.
“It’s a link box,” Gulpin answered, “With that, you can link moves wherever and whenever you want. They can come in handy when facing a tough opponent, but remember, it can only be used once and then it’s useless.”
“Cool,” replied Tristan, “Thanks for that.” Tristan started to head back towards Pokemon Square waving as he started down the walkway. As he was turning, however, a slightly larger Pokemon, about twice his height, brushed passed him. His fur was an orange colour and he had brown paws. His cheeks were yellow, as was the lightning shape on the end of his long tail. “Oh, sorry,” Tristan said turning around.
The Raichu looked back at him lifting a paw behind his head, “Hehe… I’m the one who should be saying sorry, so… sorry about that!” With that he continued on his way, which happened to be Gulpin’s link shop. Tristan decided he’d spent too much time here and walked away briskly. He was becoming excited to try out his newly linked moves.
“Hey Gulper,” the Raichu said cheerfully from behind, “I’d like to delink a move today.”
“Wow!” Gulpin exclaimed, getting to work, “I haven’t seen you in a while Dave! That must have been some mission to take such a long time! And when will you remember that my name is Gulpin?”
“Hehe, sorry, I must have forgotten again.”
“Dave!?” Tristan thought, freezing in his tracks. The name had rung out loud and clear, even though he was barely in earshot. Not too far away from him was the person who had once been his best friend. He was standing right there. The person with whom he had to meet, that’s what Gardevoir had said. Tristan considered going back, to try to talk to him, but for some reason he couldn’t muster the courage to do it. His nerves kept him there, only permitting him to gaze at the new face of his old friend. He wondered what Dave might say if he did go see him.
“There, you're done,” Gulpin said, suddenly bringing Tristan back to his senses. Tristan decided that now wasn’t a good time to talk to Dave anyway. He would wait until he could talk to him without any distractions. He headed back to Pokemon Square, behind him he could hear Dave speaking.
“Thanks! I can always count on you when it comes to linking.”
“That’s exactly the kind of thing Dave would say,” Tristan thought, reflecting on his recently discovered human memories. He arrived at the Square to see Totodile and Torchic talking excitedly to two larger Pokemon. Totodile noticed Tristan coming.
“Hey Tristan!” he called, “Come meet Team Blue!” Tristan walked up to the group like Totodile had requested; though he would have headed here anyway without being asked. “So, here is the final member of our team!” Totodile told them, “This is Tristan.”
Both Pokemon in front of him were very tall, even taller than Dave. “Hey,” the one on the right said. It was a lizard-looking Pokemon with green scaly skin all over his body, except for a red stripe across his belly, as well as red under his chin. He had a bush for a tail, what appeared to be leaves growing out of his arms, and strange yellow buds growing out of his back. He seemed to be chewing on something, though Tristan couldn’t tell what. “I’m Sceptile.”
The Pokemon next to him had his eyes closed. He, too, was tall, and rather plain compared to his fellow team-member. His back was covered with blue shaggy fur, with bright yellow softer fur on his front. His posture was hunched over, though he still seemed pretty tall. “Zzzzzzzzz.”
“He’s sleeping…” Tristan said, looking blankly back at Sceptile.
“Typhlosion! You idiot!” snapped Sceptile as he spat a seed which hit him square on the head.
Typhlosion slowly lifted his head, rubbing his eyes as he mumbled, “Why’d you wake me…?”
Sceptile rolled his eyes impatiently. “Because you fell asleep in the middle of a conversation!” He sighed, “Typhlosion, meet Tristan.”
Typhlosion glanced around blearily at his own eye-level, not seeing anyone he looked down face to face with Tristan. “Oh… s'up,” he said lazily lifting a hand making a slight wave.
“This is the team that saved the world, Tristan,” Torchic said looking over at Tristan once Sceptile and Typhlosion had started to talk amongst themselves, “They are diamond rank!
“That’s higher than gold!” added Totodile, “I heard they are striving for Lucario rank, too.”
Tristan couldn’t help but give a skeptical look. Torchic responded with a dark and threatening glare. “Oh! Yeah, yeah.” Tristan said hastily, “I… I never had a doubt. C’mon. You can stop that now.”
“That’s a little better,” she muttered.
“H-Hey! There’s Dave!” Totodile shouted in excitement pointing directly over Tristan’s shoulder. It was so sudden that it caused Torchic, Tristan and even Sceptile and Typhlosion to jump. Tristan turned to where his friend was pointing. Surely enough, the same Raichu from earlier approaching. Tristan froze again, he couldn’t help it.
“Hey, Dave,” Sceptile greeted, his arms crossed, “How did the delinking go?”
“With Gulpin in charge,” Dave started coming up next to Sceptile, tilting his head up slightly, “Did you even need to ask?”
“Hehe,” Sceptile said with a grin, raising one arm behind his head, “that’s right, I guess there was no point in asking. I guess I don’t need to ask if you got his name right either?”
“Aw, come on, you know I can’t help it. Hm?” Dave turned noticing Tristan, a curious look in his eye, “Have I seen you somewhere?”
“H… have you!?” Tristan asked still frozen, “You remember me!?”
Dave thought a moment, then snapped his fingers, “Oh right! I bumped into you a couple minutes ago. Silly me." He stuck his tongue out slightly, grinning impishly.
“Oh… yeah… right,” replied Tristan, heavily disappointed. He had high hopes raised that Dave would recognize him. But, then again, Tristan was in a completely different body from when they last met. It was understandable.
“Well, anyway, nice meeting you,” Sceptile said to Tristan, Totodile, and Torchic. He turned to Dave. “Why don’t we head back to the base” he suggested, “Then I’ll be off to Overgrown Forest for a little rest.”
“Yes,” Typhlosion said blissfully. He’d only caught onto the word rest. “Sleep.”
“Sure thing,” Dave replied, “That mission sure took a lot out of me. I think we all need a break.” He turned back to Tristan; “I didn’t get your name, by the way.”
“It’s Tristan,” answered Tristan quickly.
“Oh, okay then, maybe I’ll see you some other time.” With that, Team Blue left the Pokemon Square back in the direction of the team base area. Team Supernova was about to head to the bulletin board to pick up a mission for the day, for some reason they hadn’t received any mail.
Voices could be heard coming from behind. One of these voices called out to Team Supernova. “Why are you heading to the board!?” Before they even saw the speaker, to their dread, the team recognized the voice to be that of Machop, the leader of Team Supreme. Machop, Aipom, and Misdreavus came up from behind as the Supernova trio turned around. Machop was wearing an annoyingly smug look on his face. “Now, what was it that you said the other day… hmm… Ah! Yes. Didn’t you say you were too ‘popular’ to get a mission from the board? That’s what they said, right Aipom?”
“Ooh ooh, ah ah! Sure did!”
“And yet, here you are,” Machop continued, “Are you so lousy that people will stop asking you for help?”
“You should talk,” answered Totodile, refraining from becoming aggravated.
“Ooh ooh, ah ah!” replied Aipom, “We got mail! Looks like we’re the popular ones now!”
“To top that,” added Misdreavus, “It's an SOS from another rescue team.”
“Oh, really?” asked Torchic skeptically, “let’s see that mission.”
“Read it and weep,” Machop said, flicking the mission over to them, “And don’t even try to run off with it, or you’re gonna get it!” To back up his words he began cracking his knuckles, as if he thought it were somehow threatening.
Totodile read the mission to his team, “Client: Team Charge-Net, Objective: SOS please save us, Place: Frosty Forest Floor 15, Rank: A, Reward: ???” Totodile gave a disappointed sigh, “Darn, you probably just got lucky,” he was about to hand the mission back when Tristan snatched it from his hand.
“Hold on a sec!” Tristan said, scanning over the mission. He thought for sure that he’d seen something suspicious. After thoroughly scanning the front, he turned over the letter and began to scan the back. Looking at the back of the letter for some reason made Team Supreme suddenly nervous.
Machop stepped forward, pointing at Tristan, angrily demanding, “Hey! Give that back! You’ve had that long enough!”
“Here!” Tristan said, finding his cause of suspicion. He showed it to the other members of his team.
“Addressed to… Team Supernova,” Totodile read.
“Hey! What’s the big idea!” Torchic interrogated, “What are you doing with our mission!?”
“If you think we stole it, then you’ve got another thing coming!” Machop shouted back.
“We found this in our own mailbox,” Misdreavus said backing her team-mate up, “not yours!”
“Ooh ooh, ah ah! That means it our mission!”
“No, it doesn’t!” Tristan shouted, “It was addressed to us! But thanks for returning it.”
“Oh no! Oh no no no no no no no!” Machop growled tightening his fist, “You're gonna steal our mission! Again! This is unbelievable! We won’t let you go on that mission!”
“Just watch us,” replied Totodile, “This is our mission, so we’re finding Team Charge-Net!”
“Oh yeah, well you’d be wasting your time!” yelled Machop furiously, “We’ll already have saved the team by the time you get to them!”
“No!” Torchic countered, “We’ll have found them before you even enter the forest!”
“That’s what you think!” Misdreavus shot back, “We’ll be leaving the forest before you get into it!”
“No way!” argued Tristan, “We’ll be back before you even leave the village!”
“Ooh ooh, ah ah! Um…” Aipom thought a moment, they didn’t leave him with much to work with. Everyone was watching at him. “Ooh ooh, we already saved them?” he said quietly not knowing what else to say. Everyone rolled his or her eyes.
“Well, team,” Machop said, calming down, “Let's get ready, let's show these losers who’s the better rescue team.” They were about to head towards the Kecleon shop.
“You're on!” Totodile shouted at them as they were leaving, “It shouldn’t be so hard, being a bronze-ranked rescue team and all!”
Machop stopped in his tracks. “You!?" he turned back, "Bronze!?”
“Yep,” replied Torchic, showing her new shiny badge, “We really don’t have time for lowly normal rank teams like yourselves.”
Through gritted teeth Machop pointed, and burst, “If we win, we get the bronze rank, and you go back to normal!”
“But, if we win,” responded Totodile heatedly, “you take back everything you told people about us! And you leave us the heck alone!”
“Psh! Like that’s gonna happen!” answered Machop, “But, deal!”
“Fine!” Totodile shouted as he and his team left Pokemon Square. He turned back to his team, completely free of anger. In fact he was grinning. “This is great! We’ve done our preparations already! We can leave right now!”
“Heh,” Torchic replied, “Not that we would have lost without a head start.”
“I bet they’ll catch up to us at the last second,” Tristan accidentally thought aloud.
“Don’t say that!” Totodile gasped, “You’ll jinx it!”
And so, the team set off for Frosty Forest at the fastest speed they could, hoping they’d maintain their lead. With their rank at stake and as their motivation to keep going faster, they pushed onward. The team wondered what the weather had in store for them in Frosty Forest. It was said to be among the coldest places on earth, and within it resided a Pokemon of legendary and fearsome power. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to fight this Pokemon.
“So, you said you linked a move, Tristan,” Torchic said, “What moves did you link?”
“I linked Tail Whip and Bone Club,” Tristan answered, looking forward to being able to try it out. Hopefully on Machop.
“Hmm,” commented Totodile, “I would’ve linked two attacks instead, but that’s just me.”
To be continued…
You've definitely improved grammar, spelling and logic-wise. My current rating of this fanfic is....9.8/10, for the occasional little 'blip'. (Wait, wouldn't spelling count for grammar??? lol)