Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ In Lieu of Perfection ❯ 05 - The Perfect Battle ( Chapter 5 )

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This was not a good situation.

Blaze shifted his sight continuously, maintaining a view of the different approaching enemies from all around. He placed an arm to herd Hikari to his back, to attempt to keep her out of harm's way as much as he could.

Hikari in turn shrunk behind him, the situation must have caught her by surprise...

He returned his gaze to the various enemies around them. The assorted group of pokemon and their two trainers, they who claimed to be of a new Team Rocket.

There was no way Blaze could just lift Hikari up and make a run for it. They were surrounded. Their only option was to fight or be captured. Neither felt particularly pleasant to him. At least fighting would give him the chance of winning, no matter how slim his chances were.

There were snares, hisses and other guttural threatening noises emitting from their adversaries, a pokemon version of a call to arms. Blaze returned the noises with a roar of his own, hoping that it could sufficiently scare the other pokemon somewhat and to hopefully boost Hikari and his own confidence.

The air of tension thickened, each side anticipating the other's move, waiting for the first move.

There were pokemon that he had fought and defeated before. Dangerous if underestimated, but ultimately defeatable. Still, he had never fought all of them together before, he had no idea what they knew and what they might do.

For a while, for a very short while, he wished Komicer was here to lead and give commands. Quickly, he shook the thought out of his head. Komicer's maddening schemes and obsession had been the cause of all these. He would not be the one to look to. Blaze would have to look out for Hikari and himself, himself, relying on his own battle-hardened tactics and experiences to fend them off.

Ironically, he noted that most of them came from fighting alongside Komicer.

With a snarl, the Meowth made the first move, pouncing forward with its ten claws fully extended. Blaze held on to Hikari and with a side-step of pure instinct just barely avoided the fury swipes. The claws connected with air, making a soft, slinking sound and then, the Meowth landed on the other side on all fours.

The scratch cat returned its view to its target and stood up; light from the sun gleaming on the gold plate on its head as it hunched its body slightly to a more suitable fighting position.

Its tail waved carelessly in the air as it started to speak in human to Blaze, “You cannot effectively dodge trying to protect the Gardevoir all the time, why not surrender and just join us, Nyasu~”

Blaze allowed that thought to flash through his mind, as long as Hikari and him were safe and together, he did not really mind but...

Back with Komicer, one of his policies would be to never attack or provoke an attack from any innocent pokemon. Fighting wild pokemon was mainly an act of self-defense. Even when he was at his maddest, that principle of non-aggression stuck.

Luckily, wild pokemon tend not to take the hint, most of his pokemon such as the Pelipper had attacked first only to be caught but at least, he had principles.

Even if that did not include consultation before providing one-way matchmaking services for his own personal gains.

This Team Rocket had attacked Hikari without provocation. Blaze highly doubted it would be better to join them.

In reply, he aimed a wrist at where the Meowth stood and shot a flamethrower at him. The Meowth made a jump from it with a squeal of fright. The flames flashed past the cat, charring the ground he previously stood at. The whiskers on its face singed with smoke rising from it. The flame had not totally missed.

The Meowth rubbed its sizzling whiskers frantically and then gave them the evil look. Blaze had effectively hurt its pride.

“Cacnea! Use Pin Missile!”

The shout rang out just as the green, barrel-like pokemon pulled back its arms and then trusted it forward, releasing multiple sharp needles shooting towards Blaze and Hikari.

Thinking fast, Blaze took hold of Hikari, moving her further back and using his larger frame, shielded her from the attack. He could feel a stinging sensation on his back as the barrage continued.

"Stay back! Run! Don't get involved!" He pushed Hikari away as needles rained on his back.

Stumbling forward, Hikari looked back at Blaze, <What about you?>

He grimaced at the pain on his back, "I'll deal will them. Just go. Now!"

“Seviper! Use Poison Tail attack now!”

There was a hiss and a snare as the serpent pokemon, Seviper reared its ugly head. Red, slitted eyes looked at its target, venom dripping slightly from its long, yellow fangs protruding from its jaws. Then, with an unusually agile leap, the serpent propelled itself through the air, its sickle tail aimed forward, glowing a sickly-looking purple.

Blaze spun around to meet the attackers face on. With the momentum of the spin, he hit the incoming Seviper by the body using the back of his arm, causing a diversion on the serpent pokemon's path. The Seviper was flung away, landing on the ground with a hiss of pain before returning to its upright position, ready to attack again with the additional motive of vengeance.

The other adversaries were on the offensive again. The Meowth was pouncing once again at Blaze, leaving bleeding scratch marks on his body whenever he was not fast enough to dodge. The Cacnea maintained its constant flow of pin missiles against Blaze while he had to keep his eyes on avoiding the deadly touch of the Seviper's poison tail.

Blaze raised his arms to guard against another attack from Meowth while pin missiles left a series of pins stuck on his leg like a demented acupuncturist. He turned himself away to avoid Seviper's forward lunge. This was no way he should be fighting, he barely had time to defend himself, let alone go on the offensive. There were simply too much enemies for Blaze to handle alone.

He needed something that would allow him to attack all the enemies in one go... but what...

“Cacnea, use Leech Seed!”

With a cry of acknowledgment, the Cacnea started to spin furiously like a runaway Hitmontop. Then, three seeds flew out of the spinning ball of green, landing with precise accuracy on the feet of Blaze.

To Blaze's horrors, the seeds grew almost immediately upon hitting the ground, ingraining itself and sprouting into long, intertwining shoots. These seedlings then proceed to entangle around his feet, holding Blaze firming in place and bringing his footwork to a halt.

Blaze could feel his energy slowly sapping away as the entangling seedlings fed on nutrients from his body to grow. He would have to burn them off before he got too weak to fight.

As he aimed his wrist at the shoots, he saw at the corner of his eyes, the approaching Meowth again ready to inflict more damage on him. By instinct, Blaze turned his attention back to the Meowth, focusing on his taloned fist the energy and discipline required for brick breaking and brought his fist to connect with the scratch cat as it landed.

There was a certain sense of satisfaction on seeing the repelled pokemon but then...

<Blaze! Watch out!>

That was when he felt two sharp pain puncturing his foot from below.

* * *

Hikari watched on with helplessness as Blaze fought off the enemy pokemon with emotions of anger, desperation, worry, frustration all emitting from him. The sudden change of the friendly looking Team Rocket had been so sudden that she was at a lost of what to do. Coupled with the fact that she was admittedly too weak to fight properly at the moment due to fatigue...

Waves of pin missiles filled the air along with the cries of battle from the melee. Individually, Blaze might have been stronger than all of them but there were just too many enemies surrounding him, concentrating their attacks on him and giving him no time for retaliation.

The Cacnea managed to leech some of the energy-draining seeds onto Blaze, tying him up on the spot. Blaze fended off another vicious attack from the Meowth, then Hikari noticed that the Seviper was up again and on the move.

Silently the Seviper slided towards Blaze whose attention was on the other pokemon involved in the battle. With a smirk, the serpent pokemon opened its gaping jaws, purple deadly venom dripping from its protruding fangs.

For Hikari, what happened next felt surreal, she could not shout, she could not move. She could only looked on as Blaze fought the losing battle for their safety. The Seviper dislodged its jaws, allowing the fearsome fangs more space and then started to close them onto Blaze's foot like a vice.

<Blaze! Watch out!>

Lifting her dress-like covering, she running towards the fight. Regardless of her current strength, Blaze needed her support.

She could no longer stand aside helplessly and do nothing.

The Seviper sank its fangs into flesh, venom coursing from it into the fire pokemon's body. Blaze reacted with a blast of flamethrower downwards to his feet, burning both plant and serpent below. The Seviper released his bite on the feet as the fire drove him away. With the encumberment gone, he stumbled backwards unsteadily, the effects of the toxic taking place.

<Blaze!> Hikari reached his side and held him up, <Are you fine?>

“I told you to stay away...” Blaze murmured and steadied himself, shaking his head to get the coming dizziness away, “It is too dangerous...”

Another wave of Cacnea pin missiles came through the air with the Seviper closely behind, the venomous tail blade raised, ready to slice flesh.

Hikari felt Blaze pushed her weakly, just enough for her to avoid the pin missiles. He himself took the full impact of both enemy attacks. With a swing of his arm, he forced the Seviper back again.

<Stop! You're too weak! I can fight!> Hikari cried, then she concentrated on her images of Komicer in her mind. In the past, her move they called 'Return' was her best move. All she had to do was to visualize her Master and strong energy would course through her body, allowing her to beat back the opponent.

Yet, somehow, this time the images were not forthcoming... “Hikari, you're getting married!” rang through her mind, the reflecting glasses obscuring his eyes, his enthusiastic grin on his success... the usual strength was not in her.

Her body started to glow faintly, signaling the time to attack.

Rushing towards the Cacnea in defiance, Hikari brought the outpour of emotional attachment energy on the cactus pokemon.

<Return!>

With a grunt, the Cacnea winced and stumbled slightly back. But that was all.

Then with a snicker, the Cacnea unleashed a barrage of pin missiles on Hikari. She fell back on the onslaught of needles, the piercing pain stinging on where the needles hit.

She had to try again. The 'return' was too weak; she did not remember being affected by all those war cries, this must be a fluke. Hikari got up quickly to dodge another wave of attacks from Cacnea. As she scrambled to avoid the painful needles, she concentrated once again on the image of her Master.

She tried to draw on the past memories, when he rescued her from the wild pokemon when she was still a Ralts, her determination to climb the tree back at the secret base.... but the energy was not forthcoming.

Hikari could sense the gleeful emotions from Cacnea. He knew he could win.

Putting her faith in her attack, once again she made another rush towards and released the emotional power of 'Return' on the Cacnea. The Cacnea took the hit in its strides with nary a shock. It merely snickered again and prepared to attack once more.

She sensed the faint emotion of anger behind her before she felt the talons of Blaze on her shoulder, forcefully grabbing her and pulling her away from the incoming projectiles.

Then another turn to avoid the purple serpent's slash from its tail blade.

The toxic was taking its effect on Blaze, his emotions were getting weaker, his reactions slightly slower.

Yet, he still held on tightly and protectively on Hikari, keeping her out of most of the harm, shielding her with his own body if necessary.

“Don't fight... you are not in the right mood...” Blaze wheezed as he pushed her go away before turning back to the opponent. His flames were spluttering in vain.

<But...>

“No, if you insist, just help me get some berries nearby... “ Blaze waved his hands tiredly, then returned to draw himself as the target.

She knew she could still fight... somehow anyway. But Blaze needed medication, there had got to be some anti-poison berries around... Hikari looked around her into the forest, unsure where the berry bushes were located.

<I'll be back!> she shouted as she ran into the forest.

* * *

“Don't let that Gardevoir escape!” the red-haired female Team Rocket shouted to the pokemon. Blaze forced his body forward, placing himself between the enemies and Hikari.

Summoning his remaining fire, Blaze shot the flames before him, creating a wall of flames.

“Don't think... about it!” he struggled against the drowsiness creeping towards his consciousness.

The enemies stopped their advance, and then laughed heartily. Blaze could make out a “First victory” or “happy boss” in there some where.

Three clicking sounds.

The human Team Rockets and the Meowth leveled three futuristic rifles on him, the glow of gathering energy growing brighter as the device hummed threateningly.

Sensing danger, Blaze grabbed a branch from the ground and threw it towards them.

They fired the rifles.

The energy blast from the rifles hit the incoming branch, reducing it to smaller fragments and continued to hit Blaze squarely on his chest. That knocked him back into a tree nearby.

Intense pain and sore traveled from both his chest and back to his brain. His chest sizzled from the energy beam and his back felt raw... he might also have broken some ribs there.

Ignoring the pain, Blaze rolled over from where he fell, just in time to avoid the next wave of artificial hyper beams. The tree behind was left with a smoldering black spot on where the blast hit.

The Meowth lowered his rifle. "Still not interested, Nyasu~?"

"Weapons and trainer intervention are against the rules!" Blaze shouted.

"We're Team Rocket. We DON'T care about rules!" the Meowth replied before raising his weapon on Blaze. The other two humans snickered along and did the same.

More pin missiles from the left. A snare as the Seviper also launched another poison tail attack. It propelled itself through the air, intending to end the battle with a final blow.

<Blaze! Catch!>

Blaze looked up to see a berry coming towards him, Hikari waved frantically at Blaze as she prepared to throw another one.

“Run away!” he shouted.

<Shut up and just eat!> Hikari retorted as she prepared to throw another berry.

Blaze grabbed the berry from the air and managed to turn to avoid the Seviper's attack. Then he bit into the berry, eating it as fast as he could. The humming from the rifles was getting louder. The serpent pokemon rose again to attack.

Slight amounts of energy was coming back to him, delaying the poisonous effect on him, hopefully enough for him to win the fight. Another blast of the energy beam, another dodge, this time somewhat faster.

If Team Rocket can ignore rules, Blaze figured that so can he. It was time to get unconventional.

He took a step back, one to the side, allowing the Seviper's tail blade to cut air. Then he swiftly thrust his talons forward, grabbing hold of the serpent by the base of the tail. Closing his claws around it, Blaze muttered a quick apology to the Seviper for what he intended to do next.

“What?!” was all the Seviper had to say before he found himself swinging wildly in the air. Blaze swung the hapless Seviper before him, forming a defensive shield of dizzy serpent against the incoming pin missiles.

“Seviper! That's against the rules!” the red-haired woman shouted, “Release my Seviper!”

Turning a deaf ear to the fervent shouts of foul play, Blaze concentrated on the closest of the Team Rocket, the Cacnea. Spinning deftly like an insane but talented gymnastic performer with a chain instead of the simple ribbon, he closed the distance between them, the Seviper still swinging before him.

“Seviper!” The Cacnea cried frantically as it unleashed barrage after barrage of pin missiles towards the purple spinning tornado of doom. The needles scattered everywhere as it hit the approaching purple blur.

Finally, Blaze brought the Seviper in contact with the Cacnea with a calculated swung. There was a squeal as the impact threw the rotund cactus pokemon into the distance like a clubbed golf ball.

“Cacnea!” The male Team Rocket cried as his pokemon flew past him, “That's cruelty to pokemon! Just because you are also a pokemon...” He returned his sight to Blaze just in time to see the poor Seviper heading his direction.

“Arrr!” he cried as he stepped back to avoid the Seviper-go-round, the Seviper hit the rifle instead, sending the weapon flying into the air.

The strength was leaving him once again. The grip on the Seviper was slipping, he needed to act fast to act on his temporary advantage. Blaze brought the Seviper into the next closest target, the talking Meowth.

The Meowth did not have enough time to react, save for a “Nyasu~” before it was sent flying behind the Cacnea.

Before he had the time to at least disarm the female Team Rocket, he lost his grip. The Seviper slided out of his talons, joining the previous two pokemon on a journey through the sky.

Blaze stumbled in dizziness before collapsing, the darkness was slowly approaching.

All that stood before him was the two human Team Rocket.

“You... you... cruel beast!” The female Team Rocket wailed in melodrama, “How can you do that to my poor Seviper?” she leveled her weapon on Blaze.

This was the end, he had defeated the pokemon but not the humans. He could only wish Hikari had went ahead and escaped.

<Stop!>

The word sounded off in their minds.

Hikari stood at his side with a look of fear and determination. She held one of the rifles in her arm, the one that the male had dropped. The muzzle was glowing bright blue and the hum of the rifle growing gently.

She pointed the rifle towards the Team Rocket, evidently struggling with the weight.

On their side, the Team Rocket paused, not knowing what to do when they themselves was faced with their own weapon.

They stood their respective poses for a while, each side waiting in anticipation.

Hikari finally ended the standoff by shaking the rifle with frustration, <How come it is not shooting?>

“Oh!” the male Team Rocket swelled with pride, “This is our Rocket Hyper Beam Master 1.6. To use it, just aim and press the trigger. While not as strong as a real hyper beam, it is more than sufficient to subdue the enemies of the glorious Team Rocket. In fact, it is considered one of the best inventions of our Rocket Labs...”

<Here?> Hikari pointed to a trigger and aimed the rifle back at Team Rocket.

“Yes...” the male tried to say before he was stopped by the female Team Rocket.

“Stupid! You just told the Gardevoir how to...”

It was too late. Hikari pressed the trigger to the rifle, unleashing a direct shot of hyper beam at the enemy. There was an explosion and then, before Blaze's eyes, in a gravity defying manner, the humans were sent flying into the air, after their pokemon.

There was a faint scream of “Team Rocket blasting off again...”

Hikari threw down the weapon and went to Blaze, a look of concern on her face.

“That... was a very good move...” Blaze managed to say as the darkness approached.

<Berries! Quickly!> she said hastily as she dropped some berries before Blaze.

It felt quite peaceful actually.... now he could feel tiredness coming to him.

In the daze that followed, he felt himself fed, lifted and led off... and then...

and then....