Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Pokemon Quest ❯ Bird of Pray ( Chapter 20 )

Pokemon Quest

 

At last, the group of friends had arrived in Newheart City where the fifth gym leader lived. Jacob and Lucario were pumped and felt very confident about this… that was until they noticed a sign on the gym door.

 

“Let me guess,” Jacob groaned, “the gym leader's not here, right?”

 

Izy looked over the note and nodded saying, “It would seem so,” Jacob and Lucario sighing in disappointment. They felt really prepared today, too.

 

“Hold on, there's something else written here,” Anna stated looking at the note herself, Izy blinking, ashamed of herself for not noticing… that is until Anna pointed to the message and revealed it to be in a rather tiny print.

 

“How can you even read that?” Jacob asked as Anna blinked, obviously unable to understand how the others couldn't read it. She then cleared her throat and was about to read it when a man walked over to them and asked, “Are you here to challenge my gym?”

 

Jacob smiled and sighed with relief, satisfied that the gym leader had, indeed, arrived. Now the long trip would truly be worth it. The man was about seven feet tall and was quite lanky. He had fancy black shoes and a scythe on his back. (Special thanks to jcogginsa for this one)

 

“Sorry for my lateness,” the man said, “I was off on an important discovery. Anyway, the name's Aragon Schiffer.”

 

The man turned to the gym door and knocked on it, a strange trap latching out, a vine trap to be precise. He grinned and pulled out his scythe slicing open the vines with the grace of a Scyther, Izy's eyes sparkling for the first time. Being a Scyther owner herself, she found this to be most intriguing.

 

“Don't just stand there,” Aragon said when he entered his house, the kids and Lucario in shock, “Come on in. I don't have all day.”

 

The kids shrugged and entered, not even bothering to ask why he needed to clear a vine trap just to enter his own gym. Maybe he just liked showing off his skills with the scythe, who knew?

 

Upon entering, Aragon grinned and said, “Here's how it works. You can use as many Pokemon as you want while I use three of mine.”

 

Jacob grinned and said, “That works for me,” Izy rather alarmed by this. Was Aragon just a good sport of did he have an ace up his sleeve?

 

Well, there was no time to think about that now as the man hurled a Pokeball into the battle area sending out a small swallow-like Pokemon with red, white and blue feathers. This was unexpected. Aragon had just sent out Taillow of all things.

 

`That's a rather low level for a gym leader,' Jacob thought, `but then again, Jonathan had a Ledyba that ended up causing me some trouble, so I shouldn't take Taillow too lightly.'

 

With that, he hurled a Pokeball of his own sending out Electrike. Aragon nodded and folded his arms, a smile on his face as he said, “That was smart of you to pick an electric type to go up against a bird type, but I'm afraid this won't be all that easy.”

 

Izy, Anna and Jacob weren't too worried by these words. At this point, they had pretty much come to expect this. Gym leaders were more skilled than average trainers, so it only made sense.

 

“START US OFF WITH AERIAL ACE!!!!” Aragon shouted as Taillow soared towards Electrike at a very fast speed. Jacob knew this attack couldn't be dodged, so he shouted his own command as the electric wolf stopped the bird in its tracks with a small electrical shock called Spark.

 

Taillow started to steam as it fell to the ground, but despite the damage dealt to it, it was still able to stand. Jacob's eyes narrowed as he prepared for the worst.

 

“Taillow, show them your Wing Attack!” Aragon exclaimed as Taillow flew at the wolf with its wings ready to attack, but unlike Aerial Ace, this could be dodged and Electrike was quite a fast specimen, so he leapt to the side and when Taillow passed him, he pounced at the bird knocking it to the ground and sunk his fangs into its back delivering Thunder Fang.

 

Taillow let out a cry of pain as it passed out, a bit of blood coming from its back as Aragon returned it. Jacob was glad that he'd won the first round so easily, but he was also disappointed. Over the past, the gym leaders had always had this strange ability to overcome any weakness their Pokemon had. So far, Aragon seemed incapable of that. Was this guy really a gym leader?

 

“Go Swablu!” the man shouted unleashing a small round blue bird with clouds for wings. Once again, the teens and Lucario were surprised to see such a weak Pokemon being used. Nevertheless, Jacob couldn't let his guard down no matter what.

 

The battle began with Swablu spreading out its wings as an array of ice rained down upon Electrike. This was known as Blizzard and the wolf hadn't been given the time to dodge it. Despite that, the electric wolf was still standing and to make a long story short, the rest of the battle was pretty much in his favor as Swablu went down with ease, not laying another finger on the wolf.

 

Aragon returned the ice bird with a smile and said, “Well, you're good. I'm already down to my last Pokemon. How embarrassing.”

 

As the man laughed, Jacob didn't find this so funny and fumed. He felt like he was being insulted. This man had proven himself to be a total weakling. After all the others Jacob had faced before, he never expected to have such an easy time.

 

“GO HONCHKROW!!!!” Aragon shouted sending out a large crow-like creature with the feathers atop its head shaped like a fancy hat. This was the first threatening Pokemon Aragon had used, but Jacob was unfazed by this.

 

“So now you're trying to impress me, is that it?” he asked as Aragon tilted his head to the side, the boy continuing, “This battle has been a disappointment! You don't deserve to be a gym leader!”

 

Izy and Anna would have felt rather worried by these remarks if not for the fact that they agreed with Jacob on this one. Aragon had really shown no signs that he was all that great of a gym leader let alone all that great of a trainer.

 

“LET'S END THIS NOW!!!!” Jacob shouted, “HIT HIM WITH SPARK!!!!”

 

But as Electrike sent the jolt of electricity towards the crow, Honchkrow took off into the air and dodged the attack. He then put on a half smile and soared towards Electrike with his beak spinning like a drill. Electrike and Jacob were both too shocked to even respond as the attack sent the electric wolf reeling into the wall, Izy and Lucario's eyes wide open, Anna with her neutral expression.

 

Jacob saw that Electrike was too weak after that and quickly return him, turning towards Aragon who laughed, “You let your poor judgment get the better of you. Now the best Pokemon you had for this battle is useless.”

 

“Who said Electrike was the best I had?” Jacob remarked, Aragon's eyes wide open as the boy continued, “I may not anything that your Honchkrow is weak against, but I trust my other Pokemon equally and they've all had more experience than Electrike.”

 

With that, he hurled a Pokeball sending out a small cactus. Everyone's eyes were wide as Cacnea took a stand. This was a very stupid mistake as Cacnea was weak against flying type moves. But Jacob felt confident.

 

“First, use Leer!” the boy shouted as Cacnea nodded and let his eye glared at Honchkrow, who was currently flying towards the cactus for an Aerial Ace. The Leer had worked, but as an addition, Cacnea took in a hard blow to the face. Nevertheless, he rose to his feet as Jacob shouted another command, Cacnea firing one of his spikes at Honchkrow. Since neither the crow nor Aragon had expected Cacnea to survive Aerial Ace, both were unable to respond as Honchkrow took a poison sting to the back.

 

Unfortunately, this did not go quite as planned. Despite taking in the attack, the crow had not been poisoned and only had a small bleeding spot on his back as he turned around to fly towards Cacnea preparing another Aerial Ace.

 

Jacob bit his teeth, Lucario snuggled up against his leg while Izy and Anna were starting to look unsure. The strategy was a good one, but that one negative result had cost them the battle.

 

But just as Cacnea took in the blow at full force, he ended up climbing to his feet, breathing heavily. There was no way this was possible. The first time was already unbelievable enough, but a second time was just pushing it.

 

Then something strange came over Cacnea as he started to grow in size. Now he no longer just a head with arms with limbs but rather had a true body, torso and all. As usual, he was covered in spikes, but now his mouth was composed of more but smaller circles. His head looked like a roof of a temple only green and Anna's eyes sparkled at the sight of this, Jacob feeling so proud. Cacnea had evolved into Cacturne all for the boy's sake.

 

Aragon smiled and said, “Not bad,” as Honchkrow delivered one last Aerial Ace, this time taking out the opponent for good. Despite that evolution, Cacnea, I mean Cacturne had still lost.

 

Jacob called his Pokemon back and said, “I'm very proud of you. You deserve a nice long rest after that.”

 

With that, he sent out Infernape. This time, his choice hadn't been such a bad one as Infernape wasn't weak against Honchkrow. The battle started with Infernape unleashing its ember attack.

 

Honchkrow easily dodged and soared towards the monkey not for an Aerial Ace but a more powerful flying move known as Sky Attack. Luckily, Infernape wasn't as slow as Cacnea was, so she simply jumped into the air as the crow closed in, landing on the big bird's back and sinking her claws into the spot the poison stink had it and adding to the bleeding.

 

Honchkrow cried out in pain and fell to the ground as Jacob grinned confidently, Izy and Anna cheering from the sidelines. Izy sighed with relief and said, “Even though the poison sting failed to its job, it managed to do another.”

 

Honchkrow lay on the ground as Infernape continued to hack at the bleeding spot with fury swipes, Aragon actually looking worried now. He then rose his voice shouting, “HONCHKROW, IGNORE THE PAIN!!!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!!!”

 

The crow's painful expression turned to one of confidence as he rose up to his feet, Infernape losing her balance and falling off of the bird's back. Then the crow glared at the monkey as its eyes glowed, a pain going through Infernape's veins as she'd taken in a Psychic Attack. While the monkey was unable to recover quickly, Honchkrow soared towards her with his wings turned to steel for the moment and struck her side hard with a Steel Wing attack. Infernape growled and fell to the ground in defeat, Jacob lowering his head and returning the monkey.

 

Anna had her neutral look on as Izy had a look of fear. She understood Aragon's strategy. He used his first two Pokemon to lower the opponent's guard so Honchkrow could make quick work of the best Pokemon that challenger had. Aragon was right about one thing: Electrike truly was the best Jacob had for this battle and thanks to Aragon's strategy, Electrike was too weak to battle further therefore Jacob's advantage was gone.

 

But despite this, Jacob still had a look of confidence. Izy couldn't see it, but Jacob had understood the man's strategy. What was with this look of confidence? The plan had already worked. What was Jacob up to?

 

“Let's see how you handle Floatzel!” the boy shouted sending out the weasel wearing a floatation device. Floatzel managed to land a couple of blows to the bird, but Honchkrow easily defeated her in a short time. Next up was Heracross, but as Heracross was a bug type, he wasn't the best choice and also went down fairly easily.

 

Sure, Honchkrow had taken in a bit of damage from those last two Pokemon, but it wasn't nearly enough to really hinder his performance. This crow Pokemon was truly spectacular and Jacob, while feeling unsure, was just glad to have a real challenge now.

 

“Well, it would seem you're down to one last Pokemon,” Aragon said as Izy started to worry. Lucario didn't have much of an advantage over a flying type. Sure, he had those hidden powers, but he still had no control over them.

 

“You're right,” Jacob said, shrugging and juggling a Pokeball in his pocket, then he shouted, “GO…”

 

Aragon expected Lucario to come rushing into the battle field only for Jacob to finish with, “ELECTRIKE!!!” hurling the Pokeball in his pocket too fast for the naked eye to see while the electric wolf emerged and hit Honchkrow with Spark as the crow cried out in pain and fell to the ground.

 

Aragon's eyes went wide as Jacob grinned saying, “Don't forget, you never actually defeated Electrike. You only dealt a little damage to him.”

 

Izy let out a sigh of relief and said, “Of course. I knew that Drill Peck hadn't actually knocked Electrike out, and even I'm surprised.”

 

Anna smiled warmly saying, “I knew this was his plan,” Izy groaning in response. What was it with Anna being so calm most of the time?

 

Aragon grinned and said, “That was amazing. You took a risky move, using my own strategy against me. The only way it could work was for me to forget that your Electrike was still in good enough condition to continue. It certainly helped wonders, but not quite enough.”

 

Jacob's eyes went wide as he realized Aragon was right. Despite the incredible amount of damage dealt by the electric attack earlier, Honchkrow was still able to move. This was ridiculous. How much more was it going to take? The crow had a large wound in his back, had taken in a few good blows and had just succumbed to an electric attack. What more did Jacob need to do? Izy and Lucario were afraid now as Anna looked neutral once again.

 

But just as Honchkrow was about to respond, an angry expression in his eyes, something came over Electrike as his body started to grow. It had now turned blue and the fur atop his head was now in a spike. There was a lot more yellow and he looked a lot more like a wolf now. Jacob and Anna's eyes sparkled as Electrike had evolved into Manectric.

 

Aragon had no time to respond as the wolf howled, charging towards Honchkrow with lightning surrounding his body. His head rammed into the bird's chest as Honchkrow's eyes became emotionless, the bird passing out as Aragon sighed, returning him to his ball.

 

But the bird trainer was also in shock. Had that Manectric just used Volt Tackle? It couldn't be.

 

But just before he could contemplate this further, a ringing came from his pocket as he pulled out a small cell phone. He nodded along with what was said and hung up saying, “Sorry, kid, I gotta take off. But take this, you've earned it.”

 

Jacob smiled as he was handed a badge shaped like the front-side view of a beak. Not much was said after that as Aragon sent out a large bird known as Pidgeot and took off in a heartbeat.

 

“I wonder what's up with that,” Jacob said as Izy shrugged and said, “Hey, you just won without Lucario's help. That's good, right?”

 

Lucario folded his arms with a disappointed look as Jacob let down a sweat drop saying, “Sorry. I kinda need you to still be standing for that strategy to work.”

 

As Aragon took off through the air, he smiled and thought, `So someone finally caught that Electrike. And here I was worried no one would catch him after he escaped from the lab.'