Chapter 2

Black Jack was in Petalburg forest just outside Rustboro city. He decided to take a break from his journey for a while as he read a newspaper. He read an article about children refusing to go into the streets, even when their parents were forcing them to. The reason why that is it’s because they’re afraid to. Black Jack took a swig of beer.

“They must’ve noticed me around,” he sarcastically thought. He puts down his newspaper and saw that Nidoking and Blaziken about to battle each other as part of their training.

Nidoking ran forward at Blaziken. Blaziken prepared to defend himself. Unexpected, Nidoking turned round to use his tail to smash him. Luckily, he dodged as he jumped high into the air and dived kicked Nidoking, but missed as Nidoking dodged the attack. As Blaziken landed, Nidoking ran at Blaziken to give him his Mega Punch attack. When he was about to hit him, a large slamming sound caught their attention. That noise also caught Black Jack’s attention. They decided to go the location where the sound was, hoping to get some action.

Sure enough, and not far away, Cassandra and Seed were battling a Steelix. They were using Kirlia and Scizor. The Scizor belonged to Seed and the Kirlia belonged to Cassandra. The Steelix was beating both pokemon. Seed and Cassandra shouted out their last attack, hoping that it would knock out the iron snake pokemon.

“Scizor!” Seed shouted. “Metal Claw!”

Scizor gathered up his energy.

“Kirlia!” Cassandra shouted. “Get ready to use Shadow Ball!”

“Scizor, attack!” Seed commanded.

Scizor flew towards Steelix like a speeding bullet. “Now!” Cassandra commanded.

Kirlia shot out his Shadow Ball. The force of Kirlia’s Shadow Ball slightly pushed her away. The attack inadvertently hit Scizor instead of Steelix. “Scizor!” Seed cried worryingly. Scizor was knocked out by the attack.

Realising this, Seed got Scizor to return back to his pokeball. “Return, Scizor!”

Seed turned to his attention to Cassandra. “Cassandra, call back your pokemon!” Seed ordered. “Your Kirlia is not strong enough to fight Steelix.”

But Cassandra was too stubborn. She just hates it when people order her around. “Kirlia! Use your Shadow Ball again!”

Kirlia, even though she felt weak, charged up her powers to unleash her ultimate attack. She couldn’t charge quickly enough, so Steelix took his chance to hit her hard with an Iron Tail attack, knocking her down.

Steelix was about to finish her off. But suddenly, a Feraligatr dived down to give Steelix a Headbutt attack to distract him, while a red blur dashed towards Kirlia and grabed her, it turned out that Blaziken was running towards Kirlia faster than a speeding bullet. Both Feraligatr and Blaziken belonged to none other than Black Jack. Cassandra turned round and gave Black Jack a rude stare as he walked into the battle scene.

“Now for some real training,” Black Jack said.

“We don’t need your help, twerp,” Cassandra rudely replied.

“Who’s helping? I just got bored of my way of training.”

Blaziken placed Kirlia near Cassandra’s foot. She was battered and bruised by Steelix, but Cassandra looked at her unemotionally. Black Jack didn’t notice as he and Feraligatr prepared themselves to battle Steelix.

“Get ready, Feraligatr,” Back Jack said.

Ferligatr nodded. “Feraligatr…”

Steelix used its Iron Tail to slam it on Feraligatr’s head, but luckily he dodged it.

“Feraligatr! Ice Beam attack!” Black Jack commanded.

Feraligatr shot an Ice Beam out of its mouth. The beam did hit Steelix in the face but it didn’t have much affect on it. “Huh, tough guy,” Black Jack said.

Again, Steelix used its Iron Tail. “It’s about to use Iron Tail again!” Black Jack warned. “Feraligatr! Grab it!”

As Steelix swung its tail, Feraligatr grabbed it. “Now, Feraligatr! Seismic Toss!”

Feraligatr grabbed Steelix’s tail with his other hand. “No way!” thought Seed, thinking that a Feraligatr could never lift a Steelix.

But to his surprise, Feraligatr lifted Steelix up and started swinging it around like a Tornado. “Release it!” Black Jack commanded. Feraligatr released Steelix and it flew into the air until it was out of sight.

Black Jack disappointedly looked at Cassandra and saw her emotionless face as she stared at her beaten Kirlia. “Jeez, kid,” he said. “If you knew you were going to get beaten, you should’ve quitted.”

Cassandra rudely stared at him. “I don’t need your advice, granddad!” she replied.

“Cassandra!” Seed shouted. He then turned to Black Jack. “I apologise for my student’s rude behaviour…”

“Rude?!” Cassandra interrupted rudely. “He’s the one who interrupted our training!”

“If he didn’t come to save your Kirlia from Steelix, she would’ve been killed.”

Cassandra looked at her Kirlia, who was withering in pain. “Return, Kirlia,” she said as she reached out her pokeball.

“Did you learn something, Cassandra?” asked Seed.

“Yes, sir,” Cassandra replied in a defeated yet rude tone.

“You may go.”

Cassandra walked away, feeling humiliated. “Next time, I train alone,” she thought.

At nighttime, Black Jack and Seed sat round a campfire. Black Jack was drinking some beer while Seed sat across the campfire.

“What a day,” Black Jack said. “And I am not talking about battling that Steelix.”

“I agree,” Seed replied, knowing whom Black Jack was referring to.

Seed couldn’t help being concerned, seeing Black Jack drinking a lot of beer as he noticed five empty bottles laying on the floor.

“How can you drink so much?” Seed asked.

“What’s wrong with beer?” Black Jack replied.

“Don’t you ever get drunk?”

“Not once. Surprised?”

“Indeed.”

Black Jack finished off another bottle of beer and tossed it aside. “There’s this one question I wanna ask,” he said.

“Fire away,” said Seed.

“What’s up with the kid you’re teaching?”

“I have noticed her a few times. Before she became a trainer, she used to get picked on most of the time. This made her feel very lonely.”

“When Cassandra reached the age of ten, she received her first pokemon, Ralts, I noticed that she was having a difficult time training. Having sympathy for the child, I started teaching her about pokemon battles, in exchange for her silence towards my existence. That’s when she became arrogant, stubborn and rude, not to mention tough. Ever since then everyone in her school feared her. Now, she is obsessed thinking about being the greatest trainer of all time.”

Black Jack began to think about Cassandra’s recent actions. She doesn’t show any respect for her pokemon, her theories about being a trainer were way wrong and the way she claims that she is the ultimate trainer when she’s not.

Seed stood up. “I must leave now. You should get some rest too.”

“I’ll be fine here,” Black Jack replied. “See ya.”

“Until then.”

Seed walked a few steps away from Black Jack. He turned round. “Black Jack,” he said.

“Hmm?” Black Jack responded.

“Will you promise me that you would keep silent of my existence?”

“Sure, I don’t boast about things. And I’m not the guy to ruin traditions”

“Thank you.”

Seed leaped up high in the air and far into the distance, leaving Black Jack to think even more.

Meanwhile, back at Cassandra’s house, Cassandra was in her bedroom looking at a pokeball she’s holding. She threw a pokeball and out popped her Kirlia. Cassandra looked at her nastily.

“Kirlia, you are supposed to be the most powerful of the team and you got beaten by some big no-brained snake?”

Kirlia looked down in shame, feeling bad about it. But Cassandra thought of something. What if it was Seed or Black Jack’s fault of Kirlia’s loss?

“Tomorrow afternoon,” Cassandra said. “We’ll be going into Petalburg Forest. We mustn’t let Seed know about this or else he’ll be giving us those boring lectures again. And this time, you’ll win against any pokemon you face without anyone’s help!”

Kirlia raised her head with excitement. She nodded with determination, knowing that she must win to make her master proud.

The next day, Seed was meditating on a beach in route 115 near Rustboro, waiting for Cassandra to arrive. He had been waiting for a long time. “Where could she be?” he thought. “I specifically told her to meet me here for her lesson.”

Cassandra was down at Petalburg Forest with Kirlia, waiting for any pokemon popping to challenge them. They have been waiting for an hour as well but for different reasons.

“Kirlia, kirl?” Kirlia asked.

“Not yet,” Cassandra replied. “I know that we have been waiting for an hour. But we’re not leaving until we have found a pokemon to challenge us.”

Suddenly, two Ariados jumped out of the tree branches in front of them. Cassandra sent Kirlia out into battle.

The Ariados’ began to strike at Kirlia, but she dodged the double attack as she jumped. While airborne, she used a Psychic attack at one of them, but the other one jumped in front her and gave her a tackle attack. Kirlia fell flat on her back, but quickly picked herself up momentarily dazed.

The Aridos’ prepared again to double team on Kirlia. They both spat out their Spider Web at Kirlia making her immobile. Cassandra looked at Kirlia with frustration. The ariados went for a double tackle attack on Kirlia, but Cassandra dived and saved her from getting hit.

Cassandra had a worried look on her face. “Kirlia, are you okay?”

Kirlia nodded.

Cassandra had tears in her eyes. “Kirlia… I’m sorry…”

The ariados interrupted Cassandra by shooting their webbing at her.

Kirlia warned Cassandra to get out of the way. But it was too late, as the webbing caught her. At that moment, it was almost impossible to move. Cassandra noticed that Ariados had got sharp jaws.

Both Aridos leapt to give Cassandra their Poison Fang attack. But Kirlia, with the fight left within her, leapt in the way, getting herself caught in their attack.

Seeing her Kirlia getting hurt, tears were running down Cassandra’s face. She used all her strength to escape the webbing.

Cassandra ran to Kirlia’s aid. The ariados cautiously jumped out of the way.

Kirlia was badly injured, almost unable to move. It looked as though Kirlia was near death. Cassandra couldn’t believe what she did.

“Kirlia,” Cassandra cried quietly. “What have I done to you…?”

“Kirlia…” Kirlia whispered. “Kirlia kirl…”

“Kirlia… please… don’t die,” Cassandra begged. “I… didn’t mean to put you through such pain… I… I only wanted to show the others how tough you are… and… I’m sorry… Kirlia… Kirlia?”

Kirlia became motionless.

“I can’t feel you anymore, Kirlia…” Cassandra said emotionally. “No… No… KIRLIAAAAAAA!”

A teardrop from Cassandra’s eyes fell on Kirlia’s face. Suddenly, Kirlia started to evolve into Gardevoir! It looked like that she has fully recovered, thanks to the evolution.

The two Ariados’ became shocked and scared. Cassandra had a surprised look on her face.

“Kirlia?” Cassandra asked.

“Gardevoir…” Gardevoir replied.

“Gardvior, I’m sorry… can you forgive me?”

Gardevoir nodded and turned her attention to the two ariados. They tried to run away, but she used her Psychic ability to throw them into the sky until they’re out of sight.

Gardevoir turned and looked at Cassandra. She quickly flew over to Cassandra and hugged her.

“Gardevoir!” Gardevoir yelled with excitement.

“Gardevoir, I…” Cassandra said while blushing.

“Gardevoir…”

“Do you want to go home?”

Gardevoir nodded. As they walked out of the forest, Cassandra said, “Gardevoir, can I ask you something?”

“Gard?”

“Don’t tell anyone what happened. I’ll lose my reputation.”

Gardevoir nodded. But unnoticed, two men were hiding behind some trees spying on them. It turned out that it was Seed and Black Jack.

“I knew that kid had a soft side,” Black Jack said with a smile.