Copyright d2kfuture 2002-03-10 Comments, Queries and complaints: email at d2kfuture@hotmail.com Enjoy! THE BLACK LEAGUE Chapter 3 I woke up refreshed and ready to take on the Black League. Scyther was already awake but Houndour was sleeping peacefully at the foot of my bed. I got up and looked at my watch. It was only 7 o’ clock but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep again. I got out my Pokegear and had a quick look through it. There were 10 pokeballs, a few potions and 2 Full Heals. I woke up Houndour and we walked downstairs to the reception area. I signed out and when the receptionist enquired if I wished to take the free helicopter to the north of the land, I refused. I wished to train up my pokemon and maybe even catch some new ones before challenging the first gym leader. The kindly receptionist informed me that the first gym was the grass one and was located in a small wayside town at the far north of our land, Sayto. The gym leader was Janet, a grass trainer widely known because of her amazing Bellsprout. We set off at 8 in the morning without a care in the world. We stopped for some training after about 3 hours walking. Houndour romped through the undergrowth, using her ember on any stray Weedle or Caterpie she found cowering in their nests. Meanwhile, Scyther and I trained our minds. We sent messages to each other telepathically and with every passing minute we grew better at it. After an hour, we moved on to levitating objects. Scyther would pick up small objects and they would spin and turn at his bidding. Then he fired a rock at a small Mareep, who had been standing behind a tree, engrossed by our strange training. The Mareep fainted and I threw a Pokeball at it. The ball did not even shudder. The Mareep was mine. I released it and began talking to it telepathically. It was a male lamb who had been shunned because he had challenged the leader of the flock and defeated him. The other members of the flock had been horrified at the defeat of their leader and had cut the poor Mareep off completely. He was a very friendly little lamb, despite being so powerful and he joined Houndour in training, knocking brown Pidgey out of the sky with little sparks of electricity. After a while, Scyther too joined in the training and they switched from fighting wild pokemon to dodging each others attacks. Houndour was developing very good accuracy with her Ember and, during training, she even learnt Bite and Flame Wheel. Scyther flew around while the other two aimed flames and electricity at him. It was very good training and we continued it for about an hour. Then, noticing tat the sun was going down, I told Scyther to teleport us to the next town. We disappeared and reappeared instantly outside a shiny, well-kept pokecentre. The Nurse Joy behind the counter gave them a quick check up and a few minutes later, they were all perfectly fit again. Nurse Joy told us that Janet’s gym was about half a day’s hike from where we were. I decided to rest that night in the pokecentre and we spent a peaceful night in a warm, comfortable room. We woke the next morning to lashing rain and howling winds. We couldn’t leave because of the awful weather. I decided that Scyther could teleport us to Janet’s gym and we wouldn’t even get wet. We said goodbye to Nurse Joy and then disappeared. Janet’s gym, which, a notice-board informed us, was the grass gym of the league. Winners would receive a rare TM and the Plant Badge. We walked up to the doorway and entered. I felt awed when I the huge interior of the gym. It was like a tropical rainforest, with huge trees and strange plants all around us. We walked through it quickly, and after a few minutes brisk walk, arrived at a huge grassland area, with long, billowing grass. I called out into the stillness, ‘HELLO!’ There was no reply for a moment but then, I noticed a pretty girl, directly opposite us. I hadn’t noticed her before and concluded that she must have come from the trees at the opposite end of the grassland. I called out that I wished to challenge her and she walked up to me. ‘We will have a 2-on-2 pokemon battle. There is one special rule however. You will choose both your pokemon beforehand and they will battle in the manner of a tag-team wrestling match. Only one may battle at a time, but they may tag out whenever they wish. I chose Houndour and Scyther and they had type advantages over the grass pokemon while Janet used a Skiploom and a Bellsprout. They match began with Houndour facing the Skiploom. Houndour started off with a Flame Wheel but the Skiploom floated off above Houndour’s head. A blue powder began to fall from it and I recognised it as a Stun Spore. I ordered Houndour to get rid of it with an Ember. She opened her mouth and a ball of fire issued forth, destroying the pollen and burning the Skiploom slightly. The Skiploom was injured and it floated back to ground, with the tip of it’s flower, smouldering. It felt the heat from the burn and ran around hysterically, which served no real purpose. At a sharp order from Janet, however, it rolled in the grass and extinguished the flame. Meanwhile, I ordered Houndour to prepare a Fire Spin attack. Houndour quickly complied, and then let loose at the Skiploom. The Skiploom was trapped, and unable to do anything. Seeing this, I told Houndour to tag out and let Scyther take control. Houndour quickly complied and I telepathically told Scyther, ‘ That Skiploom can’t tag out like that and will eventually faint. Prepare yourself for the battle with Bellsprout while the Fire Spin runs it’s course. Scyther immediately set up a Double Team and an Agility. Now there were 5 Scythers running around the burning Skiploom. Scyther used Confusion, a move it had learnt earlier that day, to finish it off. Janet did not know how the Skiploom had fainted since nothing had visibly happened. She was unsure about what had happened but sent out Bellsprout anyway. She returned Skiploom and told it that it had fought bravely. Scyther circled around the Bellsprout, it’s many copies following his moves exactly. Then he attempted a Slash attack, but the tiny Bellsprout dodged it easily. Then Scyther got worked up, using Fury Cutter over and over to no effect. I sharply ordered the Scyther to calm down and focus. I told him that the Bellsprout would find it harder to dodge if it was being controlled. Then Scyther took control of the Bellsprout’s body. It straightened and stood rigidly, not even swaying as usual. Then Janet finally realised what Scyther could do. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. Scyther used Cut twice and the Bellsprout fainted. Janet took her defeat gracefully. She gave me the Solarbeam TM and the Plant Badge. It was shaped like a root and reminded me of her Bellsprout. She complimented me on my Scyther and I thanked her. She told me that the next gym was the water one and that it was located in a large city by the name of Crimson City. We went outside to find that the weather had abated so we made our way slowly to the nearest pokecentre. There I got my pokemon healed and spent the night peacefully.