Rival Trainers Battle Clash! Chapter 8 by Jam SBKidJamX@aol.com hometown.aol.com/sbkidjamx/Jeffpage.html Last time, both Jeff and Nathan defeated the Skyhigh Gym Leader and earned a Feather Badge! Now they're heading towards Necro Town, and the next Gym. But to get there they have to cross over Aqua Way. What adventures await them this time, hmm? Let's find out! "So Nathan, what's this Aqua Way like?" I inquired. Nathan pulled out his map and examined it. "Aqua Way appears to be a long bridge over a huge lake. They say that if you were to walk around the lake, it would take upwards of a week if you went quickly." Nathan said. "Wow! That's a BIG lake. Good thing they made the bridge for us." I said. "Yeah, and at different spots on the lake, they've got fishing spots that you can rent a fishing pole and line and fish for Pokémon!" he said. "Well, let's get going!" I said, smiling. "Maaaaaan, look at that lake!" I exclaimed, looking at it from the bridge as Nathan and I walked along it. "Yeah, it's really huge! Almost as huge as your mouth, Jeff." he remarked. "Eh, shut up. It really does look like it would take a week to cross around that thing. Now I'm even more grateful for the bridge!" I said. "Yep. Hey, look, a fishing point is coming up! Let's rent a pole and try to catch us some Pokémon!" Nathan said, and we ran over to the point. There was a small section of the bridge cut away for fishing purposes. I walked over to the booth and spoke to the man inside. "Hello, sir! We'd like to rent two fishing poles, please." I asked. "Sure thing, boys." he said. I handed him the money, and he gave us the two poles. "Enjoy your fishing!" "We will!" Nathan said. We plopped down near the spot and lowered our poles into the lake. Nothing happened for a while, and Nathan and I were becoming a big discouraged. That was, until, Nathan got a bite and pulled it in. The Magikarp he had caught flopped around on the ground madly. "Gee....it's certainly active, isn't it?" I said. "Yeah....but what good is a Magikarp?" he asked. "Umm...you can make food with them?" I commented. "Nope. They're nothing but skin and bones." he explained. He then threw it back into the lake. We sat there fishing for a little while longer until we decided to give up and were just about to leave when I got a hook on my line. I tugged at it, and it tugged right back. A fierce tug-of-war ensued, and I managed the yank the line out of the water, and the thing I'd caught flew into the air, and landed at my side. It looked like a blue ball. With large ears, stubby arms and a jagged tail that ended in what looked like a balloon. It looked at me and gave me the cutest look I'd ever seen. "Marril!" it said. "Whoa, Jeff! You actually snagged a Marril!" Nathan said, bewildered. I was just as shocked. "What are the chances of this happening?" I asked. Nathan just shrugged. I looked back over to the Marril...only to find it had gone! "Huh?" I said, looking around frantically. I looked over the side of the bridge and saw something splash into the water. "Aw, man!" I said, obviously disappointed. "Don't feel bad, Jeff. At least you got to see one!" Nathan said, trying to cheer me up. It didn't work much. We returned our poles and started to head across the bridge again. We still hadn't crossed the bridge fully, about an hour later. "Does this bridge go on forever?" I asked Nathan. "No, but we should be over it by the end of the day." he said. "The end of the day?! Ohhhh..." I said. "Well, would you rather have it be the end of the day, or a week?" he asked. "Point noted." I agreed. I still couldn't get my mind over what had happened earlier. I had a Marril right next to me, and I let it slip away. This was probably the biggest disappointment I'd ever had in my life. "Jeff, you shouldn't dwell on that Marril. Even if you had been paying attention, it probably would've escaped anyways." Nathan explained to me. "Y'know, you're right. Sure, I let a rare Pokémon get away, but so what? There are tons of them left out there! I'll catch one, and then I'll be the best Trainer ever!" I said, my spirits renewed. "Ha! Best trainer, really! The only thing you'll be best at is losing!" a voice remarked. "What the...?" Nathan asked, looking around. Suddenly, 5 figures burst from the lake below us and landed on the strip of bridge ahead of us. It was, of course, the Rocket Rangers. "You're not going to do that motto, are you?" I asked them. "Errr...no, we've found that it's too long and writing it puts a cramp in the author's hand." Red explained. "So, we'll only do it on choice occasions." "In any case, you know what we're here for, so let's make this easy! Hand over your Pokémon!" Black demanded. "You guys don't really plan this out very well, do you?" Nathan asked. The Rocket Rangers stared at him blankly. "I mean, you come up in front of us and demand for our Pokémon. No flash, no flare. What's the point?" "The point is is that we want Pokémon! So give them to us!" Pink yelled. "And our point is NO!" I yelled back. The Rangers started to advance on us... ...but from behind us, a figure faster than I could see flew at the Rangers and delivered a slash to each of their faces, sending them sprawling. It was a Spearow! I wondered where it had come from, but my question was quickly answered when none other than Tanner came running up behind me! "Jeff!" he said. "Tanner! What are you doing here?" I asked. "Well, I saw you were having trouble, so I decided to help you out!" he explained. "But...I thought you said you were taking a different path than me." I asked. "Oh, yeah....well, that path didn't really work out that well, so I took this one." he said. We just stared at each other for a few seconds. A tumbleweed rolled by. "Okay, cut the chit-chat! We're gonna take the Pokémon by force!" Red yelled, and they all sent out their Pokémon. "Growlithe!" "Persian!" "Magnemite!" "Paras!" "Clefairy!" "Jeff, we'll have to fight back with our own!" Tanner said to me. I agreed, and Nathan and I called on Squirtle and Farfetch'd. But we were still outnumbered. Red's Growlithe and Black's Persian started to gang up on my Farfetch'd, but luckily he was able to dodge their attack for the most part. He smacked Growlithe and Persian with his leek, and he kicked them a few times for good measure. He was doing pretty good for a 2- on-1 match. Squirtle and Magnemite were locked in a deadly match of Water and Electricity. Magnemite sent a bolt of lightning at Squirtle, but he dodged, and soaked Magnemite with Water Gun, but then Magnemite fired a Thundershock at Squirtle which connected. Squirtle got zapped and flew backwards. Tanner's Spearow was very fast and agile, dodging attack from both Paras and Clefairy. He was delivering Pecks and Scratches left and right, and Paras and Clefairy couldn't keep up. Even thought we were winning for the most part, our Pokémon were getting tired from having to fight off 2 Pokémon at a time. It seemed to be the end... ...until a huge blast of water knocked the Rangers and their Pokémon off the bridge and into the lake! I looked to Squirtle, assuming he did it, but the culprit happened to be the Marril from earlier! He walked over to me, and climbed onto my shoulder. "Marril!" he called. "Hey, it's that Marril!" Nathan exclaimed. "Why did he come back?" "I don't know..." I said. "...but I don't care!" I quickly asked Marril if it would like to come with me. It agreed wholeheartedly. "Yeah! I got a Marril!" I said, raising my fist into the air. I later found out that Marril left because it wanted to test me to see how good I was. Apparently, I had passed with flying colors. I put Marril into it's own PokéBall, and clipped it to my belt. "Tanner, thanks a lot for your...help?" I had turned around to thank Tanner, but he was gone. I guess he'd left during the confusion over Marril. I did want to thank him. Maybe next time we met. "Hey, Jeff, look!" Nathan said, pointing into the distance. I could make out Necro Town! We'd made it across Aqua Way! "All right!" I said. "Onward to Necro Town!" "And the Necro Gym!" Nathan exclaimed. We both started to run toward Necro Town, our excitement fueling us. What awaited us in Necro Town? Would the Gym Leader be hard? What plan were the Rocket Rangers cooking up now? Would Tanner show up again? And will I ever stop talking to myself? I guess I had to wait and let time reveal it for us. To Be Continued... "Well, that certainly was a good chapter!" Green said. "Good chapter?!" Pink exclaimed, and smashed him over the head. "What?! You guys wanted to be in, so you were!" Green explained. "Yeah, but we lost pathetically! That's not how we really are!" Red said. "That author guy is giving our image a bad rap. We need to put him out of the picture!" Black said. "But, Black...if we take out the author...who is going to write us into stories?" Yellow asked. "Ummm...I'll write the stories! I'm a great writer!" Black exclaimed. "Writer?! Ha! I like to read books with more than 3 words, Black." Pink remarked. "What?! Why, I oughta..." Black started. An argument erupted over who should write the story. Why don't you guys leave the writing to me, okay? "Well, I guess. Just make sure the next time you put us in, that we actually put up a good fight!" Red yelled. "Yeah!" the other agreed. Fine, fine! Sometimes I wonder why I made you guys... "What was that?!" Black asked, raising his fist. Errrr....nothing, nothing!