Monday, June 25, 2018

Emberwilde Comes: The Cascade Badge part 2

"Wait" said Misty as Emberwilde turned his back to her, his flaming tail swinging, "I've got one more Pokemon." She pulled another pokeball from behind her back, this one colored blue and white, polished to a shine. "That is, if you want a real challenge."

Emberwilde turned back to the gym leader. Curious, I stood up to get a better view of the arena which was basically just a giant pool with several floating platforms, Emberwilde on the center-most one. Misty's other pokemon floated lifeless in the water, knocked out by Emberwilde in a five against one fight. Just fighting five Pokemon at the same time, even for a Lord of the Inferno Clan should still be tiring. I bet the average trainer didn't need to fight this many opponents to prove their strength. But what Pokemon was she holding back that could take on Emberwilde one on one when her other pokemon combined couldn't?

Before I could say anything in protest, the match started. Misty's defeated pokemon disappeared from the pool. Emberwilde readied himself, letting loose a roar that shook the building and sent a tremor through the water. "I choose you," said Misty as the pokeball flew from her hand, "Golduck!" Relieved, I let out the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. Another Water Pokemon. Sure, it might have a little psychic abilities but nothing Emberwilde couldn't handle with pure brute strength. No pokemon out here in Kanto should even come close to the psychic attacks the Tartarus Isles pokemon train to defend against.

The red light solidified and the Golduck emerged. My body stiffened as I gasped, fear petrifying my body. The Golduck was a head taller than most, its skin a slightly darker shade of blue. It was the upper half of its body and the left half of its face that startled me though. Black lines of ash tattooed the upper-half of its torso and the left-side of its face. A marking of the Inferno Clan. "Char!" I shouted in warning, but it was already too late. Emberwilde was squared up and ready to fight.

"Golduck, use Water Gun!" Misty said, pointing at the Charizard, as if her pokemon needed any direction on who to attack. Instead, the water pokemon unleashed a beam of psychic energy, the red jewel on its forehead lighting up bright. A bright beam connected the two pokemon and Emberwilde roared in pain. The sight sent a shiver of fear through my spine, not only the sight of Emberwilde injured, but to see a typically invisible psychic attack in the Kanto region was unnatural.

"What are you doing, Golduck? I said use Water Gun!" Misty repeated. The Golduck's psychic attack continued. The beam intensified and the residual psychic energy radiating from the attack pierced into my skull like an ice pick. I clenched my teeth to try to fight it. I tried my best to stay focused by analyzing the situation. For a pokemon to openly defy its trainer, especially if they are a gym leader, it had to mean that the pokemon itself was too high a level, too powerful for the trainer to control. Powerful pokemon too strong for a gym leader to control with black tattoos covering its body. Yeah, it was definitely one of ours.

Emberwilde took the assault full-force, dropping to a knee and folding his wings over instinctively as if it would protect him. It was useless though, as if any physical defense could protect him from a psychic attack, especially from a pokemon of his own clan. How it got to Kanto was still a mystery, but one that we needed to solve later. Right now, we needed to win the match. I looked to the Golduck to find a weakness. The Golduck itself focused only on Emberwilde, its eyes never blinking as it continued the attack. Eyesight, or more importantly, Line of Sight.

In English, I shouted to Emberwilde, "Emberwilde, the water! Torch the water!" Emberwilde didn't move, continuing to cower to the psychic attack. I shouted again, "Flamethrower, now! Hit the pool!" Still nothing. Emberwilde dropped to both knees. It might be over. "Get up you stupid lizard and do what I say!" I didn't realize I spoke those words until they'd left my mouth. Bordering on blasphemous, not only to insult a Lord of the Inferno Clan, but the Champion I was chosen to bear across this land. Back home, I'd heard rumors that you could be eaten for saying such things.

My brazen words must've reached Emberwilde's ears. Either emboldened by my own courage, or enraged by my insults, he unfurled his wings and let loose a roar that rattled the arena and startled the Golduck for a second. With just enough time to lift himself into the air, he burst upward toward the ceiling and let loose a torrent of fire into the pool. In an instant, all the water in the pool emptied, filling the air with a thick steam. Several loud Booms! echoed throughout the stadium as the floating platforms hit the bottom of the pool. I stumbled and spent a second or two regaining my balance as the floor shook. I had no idea the platforms were that heavy. I could barely see my hand in front of my face through the fog, but more importantly, it should be impossible for the Golduck to establish line of sight with Emberwilde. Part of me hoped that its legs might break upon dropping 15 feet into an empty pool, but I knew we wouldn't be that lucky. The Golduck would search with its psychic powers. Without line of sight, it couldn't use its direct psychic beams or risk giving away its position. It would need to search with low-level psychic waves, sending out invisible psychic pulses like radar into the arena, waves of psychic energy to find their target. Though weakened, I knew Emberwilde could still win this fight with brute force. He still needed to see his enemy and I feared that the Golduck might find him before the steam cleared.

Soon enough, I felt a wave of psychic energy pass over me. Assuming the Golduck was at the bottom of the pool and Emberwilde was in the air, it was only natural that the psychic waves should find me first. I guess what I did next would be considered cheating if anyone else really understood what I was doing. I began to chant in my head an old battle prayer no one used anymore except as a training tool to teach us humans the language of the Chars. As mentally loud as I could manage, I shouted the words, dangling them like a lure. It worked! As I chanted, I felt the slightest of touches brush against my brain, an invisible hand gently passing over my mind. The psychic sensation made a couple passes, each a gentle brush as it locked onto its target. Then the Golduck struck. As if someone shoved my head in a vice and clamped it down in less than a second. Pressure began to build, but I continued the chant, holding its attention as tears started filling my eyes and streaming down my face. After all, as far as it knew, the only thing in this arena that could think like a Charizard was a Charizard. Technically now I could call for a disqualification as pokemon aren't allowed to attack trainers, but then Emberwilde would waste his time fighting another fight over again. No, I would hold its attention until Emberwilde could strike.

The psychic attack squeezed, pressure building on all sides of my mind as I dropped to all fours. Then came the fire, a burning sensation that worked its way through the inside of my skull. I ground my own fists into the sides of my head, a useless attempt to drive out the psychic fire. Blood dripped from my nose onto the tile floor. Every second of burning pain felt like an eternity, every moment ticked by slower and slower as I waited for Emberwilde to attack. Finally, unable to resist, I let out a scream, a high-pitched small child cry, a very human sound.

Realizing its mistake, the Golduck immediately released its attack. However, as were were taught in class, nothing hits that hard without letting the receiver of the blow know which direction the attack came from. It's true with punches, elemental blasts, and even psychic attacks. And, when you know the direction your enemy hit you from, then you can hit them back. After all, how can you sink your fangs or claws into an enemy if you don't know where his throat is? The Inferno Clan after all doesn't emphasize a lot of defense. If you want that lesson, go talk to a Blastoise. So as the pain eased, I reached out toward the direction it retreated. No way, I thought, as I realized I pointed directly in front of me, right were Misty released it. My only guess was that without water to submerge itself, it didn't feel comfortable it could escape in case Emberwilde caught it at close-range. "Emberwilde," I shouted, "it's in the same spot. Burn it away!"

In the next instant, hurricane winds gusted through the arena, blowing away the fog revealing the Golduck exactly where I predicted and Emberwilde still in the air, wings flapping. Showoff, I thought to myself as Emberwilde paused for a second, a fanged smile forming on its face while the Golduck's face turned to one of dread. Then the Charizard let loose and bathed the entire platform in fire.

Satisfied the match was over, Emberwilde swooped down and landed next to the defeated Golduck. "Char!" he roared, eyes shifting between Misty and the defeated Golduck as fire formed in his mouth as he spoke, "Char charizard chari!" He looked over to me and I made my way to the other side of the arena. By the time I'd reached the other side of the ring, Misty moved slowly back to the wall, the Golduck's pokeball still in her hand.

"Sorry, we've got some questions first," I said as I snatched the pokeball from her hand.

Putting up a brave front, Misty stepped forward, hands shaking. "What the hell do you think you're doing? I'll make sure the Kanto Pokemon League hears about this!" she said.

"Shut up, or I'll have Emberwilde eat you," I said as I moved toward the unconscious pokemon, "We're not from Kanto. The rules are different in Tartarus and we want some answers." I nodded to Emberwilde and he picked up the Golduck and shook him, roaring for answers. The Golduck just flopped in Emberwilde's claws, unconscious.

I headed over to the other side of the arena and filled a bucket of water. "Maybe this will help," I said when I returned. Emberwilde nodded and put the Golduck down, hard. I dumped the entire bucket onto the pokemon. It didn't move. Emberwilde must've really knocked it out. In the water though, black tendrils of ink swirled off the Golduck's skin and into a pool on the floor. I bent down and touched the ink.

"It's fake," I said, showing Emberwilde my blackened fingers, "not one of ours." Satisfied, Emberwilde nodded and pushed passed me, scratching my face with a single claw. Before I could say anything in protest, I remembered the "stupid lizard" comment. Instead I just lowered my head in silence and Emberwilde returned himself back to his pokeball. He understood that it wasn't our clan that sent another pokemon after him and that was all that mattered. I, however, was curious as it meant someone was brave enough to break the rules to actively work against a Clan Champion and its Bearer. I looked over the Golduck. The tattoos covered part of its face, chest and arms. Looking at those spots, I picked out small pockmarks, scared over as if something was violently torn out.

I put the Golduck back into its pokeball. Turning to Misty, her back against the wall but still holding that look of defiance in her eyes. "You got this in a trade. Tell me who gave it to you."

She glared at me for a couple of seconds, I guess deciding just how much information to give me, especially with Emberwilde returned to his pokeball and no longer threatening her in her own gym. "Some kid, about your age," she said, "same tactic as you, challenging all of my pokemon at once with just that Golduck. Then she offered to trade it to me for a Goldeen, just any random Goldeen I happened to have. Of course I was going to make the trade, seeing how strong that Golduck was."

I nodded, positive she wasn't lying. The point of course, wasn't to trade for a Goldeen, but to put that Golduck in our path. However, no subject of the Tartarus Isles was supposed to leave the island without consent from the leader of its clan. "I'm going to take this pokemon with me, back home," I said.

Misty nodded. "Fine with me. Honestly, that one gave me the creeps. Like it knew more than a pokemon should. I swear, at times it felt like it was trying its psychic attacks on myself." She then pulled something from her pocket. "Catch," she said as she tossed a shimmering blue pin toward me. The Cascade Badge. In all the excitement, I'd almost forgotten about the badge. I pinned it to the inside of my jacket as I turned to leave.

"Also," she said when I got to the door, "could we also forget about this Golduck thing? As an unwritten rule, more of a matter of pride really, Gym Leaders are only supposed to battle with Pokemon we've caught and raised ourselves."

I just shrugged my shoulders and walked through the door. "I don't care," I called back, my voice echoing in the almost empty gym, "Your pokemon, someone else's pokemon. The results will be the same. Emberwilde wins." Then I left the gym.




Welcome back to the longest running thing I've got here (currently at 5 episodes? though some do need rewrites). So, first off, no, you didn't miss a part. I was working on the next part, the arrival into Kanto (Pallet Town in near the ocean, right?) but then I got bored so I just skipped ahead to this fun idea. Actually, I seem to have a problem working linearly especially on something like this where I have so much I want to do, so I'm actually working on a bunch of different ... chapters? yeah, let's call them chapters at once. I have bits and pieces of different chapters being written at the same time because, when I'm writing one section, I'll have an idea I want to use later on pop-up and then all of a sudden I'm writing that part. Meeting Prof. Oak, Viridian forest, Brock rewrite, Team Rocket battle, etc. On a side note, I've been thinking about putting in some sort of picture to use, just so when I post this it'll have a picture associated with it, just in case you couldn't tell what it was from "Emberwilde Comes" but mostly to feed my ever-growing narcissism . The main issue is I can't draw and don't have the motivation to learn to draw, so that option is out. Also, I missed the Charmander Community Day for a chance at the Black Charizard so use as a picture. I meant to consult one of those artists booths at Kawaii Kon for some commissioned work. And I guess I should've gone to the NEET convention the other week. Oh well, I think there's still Comic-con or something coming up later this year, so I guess I'll try then.

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