Pokémon GS, The Johto League

12: A Wild Duck Hunt

by: KentaMarina

A/N: The thing that's keeping me update frequently is my Winamp player and some Nintendo Sound Files. :hums "Together, We Ride!" from Fire Emblem:

Also, you may call a part in this fic as a sort of a reference to the NES/Famicom game, Duck Hunt, or not. It's up to you.

        "Yeah, I know I told you two that I'd be done in at least two days, but hey, the faster, the better, right?"

        "Thanks a whole lot Kurt!" said Matt as he got a orange-topped PokéBall with a red V shape near the center, and a black-colored space on the inside of the V.

        "Your PokéBall is the Level Ball, designed to catch Pokémon whose level is lower than yours. It's very effective on wild Pokémon who are at least 3 to 10 levels lower," explained Kurt as he handed Kenta a blue-topped PokéBall with three straight yellow lines inside of a wide, red-colored shape that was from near the center of the PokéBall all the way to the back side.

        "This is a cool PokéBall, what is it?" asked Kenta.

        "That's the Lure Ball, and it's very effective when used on Pokémon that are hooked with a Rod. It could also work on some Water-Type Pokémon too," explained Kurt.

        "Thanks a lot Kurt, I really appreciate you doing this for us," said Kenta.

        "Don't mention it, and besides, I owe you two for saving the town's Slowpoke," replied Kurt.

        "Well, we gotta get going, see you around, Kurt. Matt, let's go."

        "Anytime Kenta, and good luck on your journey!" said Kurt as the two brothers left.

        As the two made their way towards the west part of town, they ran into an angry-looking Blackbelt, standing outside a gatehouse with his arms crossed and tapping his foot. He was so angry, the two brothers could tell by the little pulsing anime vein cross object behind his head.

        "Where is that darn kid?!" he shouted loudly, making Cyndaquil fall off of Kenta's shoulder again.

        "Let's try to avoid him," whispered Kenta to Matt after he picked up his Cyndaquil quickly. "Follow me."

        Kenta flattened himself on the wall and when the man wasn't looking, would simply run through the doors as if he was like a ghost. Matt stared after his brother in disbelief, then decided to try it, although unfortunately for him...

        "You there!" he shouted as loud as ever.

        "Why me?!?" said Matt to himself while having anime tears falling down from his eyes. "M-me?" he asked as he slowly turned his head and faced the huge man. He seemed a lot taller than Matt thought, thus making him panic more and speed up his heartbeats.

        "Yes you, who else would I be talking to?!"

        "Uh, somebody else?" replied Matt stupidly. To his surprise, the huge Blackbelt looked around. This gave Matt a chance.

        "Well, I don't see-"

        "That's nice, but I gotta run, bye!" Matt said suddenly and made a mad dash for the door in front of him, getting through it and leaving nothing but a hole his size. The person guarding the gatehouse yelled at the now gone Matt.

        "Hey you! You're gonna have to pay for that, you know!"

        As soon as he realized that he was now long gone, the guard sighed. "Kids these days, always in a rush..."

        "Hey little brother, what took you so long?" asked Kenta as he saw Matt emerge from the gatehouse.

        "Let's just go, I don't want to talk about it," replied Matt.

        They wandered around a dark forest covered in tall trees that covered the sky. Along the way, the two encountered several Bug Pokémon, but nothing they seemed to want to catch, until Kenta saw a strange silver thorn in a normal bush.

        "Huh, I wonder what that one is," said Kenta as he pulled out his PokéDex.

        "Weedle, the Hairy Bug Pokémon. Use extreme caution when challenging this Pokémon, as the sharp stinger on its head contains a deadly poison."

        "Well that's interesting," said Kenta as he put his PokéDex away, and looked at Cyndaquil. "Just ease up on the flames, I don't want to be the one responsible for a forest wildfire."

        Cyndaquil jumped off and approached the silver thorn with curiosity. Following its Trainer's orders, it fired a small Ember attack at it, effectively scaring it out of the bush.

        "Perfect!" exclaimed Kenta as he pulled out a PokéBall. "PokéBall-"

        Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a large bird Pokémon holding what seemed to be a leek came out of a bush near them and attacked the poor, defenseless Weedle and scared it away.

        "I guess you have some competition around in scaring off things," remarked Matt.

        "What's that supposed to mean?!" said Kenta as he glared at Matt threateningly.

        "Farfetch'd, hey, Farfetch'd, where'd ya go?" said a voice from behind the trees as a young boy emerged. Kenta put the PokéBall away and recognized the boy.

        A young boy suddenly collided with Kenta as he just came out of the Gym.

        "Watch where you're going, will ya?!" shouted Kenta as he replaced his yellow and black cap on his head and picked up Cyndaquil, who jumped out of the way just before Kenta was hit. Obviously, the boy was already gone and didn't hear Kenta.

        "Hey, you're that one kid who almost ran me over!" exclaimed Kenta, also meaning it as an insult.

        "Oh, well, sorry about that, it's just that my Master's Farfetch'd just ran away from me," explained the boy.

        "You mean that darn bird who scared away a Pokémon that I was about to catch was yours?" asked Kenta in one go.

        "Uh, Kenta, it's a duck, not a bird," corrected Matt.

        "Quiet! Bird, duck, what's the difference?!"

        "Hmm," said Matt, crossing his arms, pretending to think intently, "let's see, a real duck quacks while a real bird chirps, does that help?" he finished, looking at Kenta.

        "I will get you one day, just watch," threatened Kenta, and Matt decided to keep his mouth shut. Cyndaquil couldn't help but laugh at the two.

        "So will ya help me find it? I'm gonna be so dead if he finds out," pleaded the boy.

        "Once again, the next Pokémon Master gets sidetracked from his journey," said Kenta with a sigh.

        "So is that a 'yes?'" asked the boy.

        Kenta put his hand to his face and groaned.

        "Farfetch'd, where are you? Come out, or I'll have to burn you and have fried bird-"

        "Duck," corrected Matt who was behind Kenta once again.

        "WOULD YOU STOP THAT?!" screamed Kenta loud enough for a whole flock of Pidgey and Spearow to fly away from the trees. Matt was quickly out of the way before Kenta could spot him. After that, and a good five minutes of searching, Kenta came across something green and white poking out of a bush. To him, seeing that thing wiggle was just too weird for him to handle.

        "Uh, Cyndaquil, attack that thing, whatever it is! Go, Ember!"

        "Cyndaquil!" it shouted as it released a small burst of flaming bullets which burned down the bush and revealed...

        "Hey, there you are! Come back here!" shouted Kenta as the Farfetch'd began to run away. Kenta picked up his Cyndaquil and chased after the fleeing bird-

        "Duck!"

        Alright, duck. There, ya happy? Ahem, as I was saying, Kenta picked up his Cyndaquil and chased after the fleeing duck, jumping down ledges and almost tripping on things on the ground. Matt also saw the Farfetch'd, running away from his brother.

        "I think it's time to play a little game of Duck Hunt!" exclaimed Matt as he pulled out a small plastic gun that he used in some of Kenta's video games from his small backpack and joined the chase, taking a separate way.

        "Just...a little...closer," said Kenta as reached his arms out to grab the Pokémon, when he bumped into the boy who had the Farfetch'd. Literally. The echoing sound of "Fetch'd, fetch'd, fetch'd" slowly faded away.

        "Ow, are you alright?" asked Kenta as he helped the boy up. Kenta then noticed that nothing happened to Cyndaquil. "You know Cyndaquil, you could've at least took that hit with me," he said as Kenta picked up his Pokémon.

        "Come back here, you duck!" shouted Matt as he suddenly appeared over Kenta and ran away, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. The two simply stood there and watched Matt go, when Kenta realized the object that Matt was holding.

        "Hey, that's my light gun!" exclaimed Kenta. "Why did you have to bring it, Matt?"

* * *

        "Farfetch'd, where are you? Come on out, you wild ducky! I won't hurt you!" said Matt as he tried to find the fleeing duck, pretending he was like a hunter of sorts with Kenta's light gun. After a few seconds, Matt saw slight movement in one of the bushes. He put went closer to it, and Farfetch'd head bumped into his. The Pokémon immediately got out, and ran away once again, only to be stopped by a familiar-looking man.

        "Hey, you're that-!" began the man, who was the huge ticked off Blackbelt right outside the gatehouse.

        "Bye, gotta run!" shouted Matt quickly as he began to make a run for it. "Hey, how come I'm not moving?" he suddenly said, noticing that he was kinda running in place and going nowhere. As Matt looked back, the huge man had held on to his backpack. Matt sighed and stopped moving. "I guess I have no choice," he said and closed his eyes. "Do your worst..."

        "Huh?" asked the man. "What are you talking about?!" he suddenly shouted, and also, like Kenta, scaring away bird Pokémon from their nesting places, only this time, a whole flock of Fearow and Pidgeotto flew away quickly. "What are you doing, chasing around my sweet Farfetch'd with that-" He pointed to the light gun Matt was carrying, "plastic, electronic gun for which I just thought was a real one, hadn't it been for the little lens on the end of that thing!"

        Matt could do nothing but blink at what the man had just said. First, he called his Farfetch'd "sweet," then he knew that this gun wasn't real, and also knows about video games in one go!

        "Um...that would be your Farfetch'd, right?" asked Matt.

        "Of course it's mine!" shouted the man. "Don't you know who I am?"

        Matt shook his head sideways slowly.

        "I'm Charcoal Kiln, and my Farfetch'd uses Cut to collect some wood to turn it into valuable charcoal," introduced the man.

        "Hey Matt, there you are!" said Kenta as he appeared behind Matt, but he stepped back a little bit after recognizing the loud man from the gatehouse.

        "Are you with him?" asked Kiln, glaring suspiciously at Cyndaquil and Kenta, who made a sound that resembled a squeal. The two then nodded very slowly.

        And finally, the boy caught up, but as soon as he saw Charcoal Kiln, he started to make a run for it. Unfortunately for him, Kiln grabbed him by the shirt in almost the same manner as he did to Matt's backpack, thus making the boy run in place.

        "What took you so long?!" shouted Kiln.

        "I'm sorry, it's just that your Farfetch'd wouldn't listen to me and it ran away, and I asked these two to help me catch it," apologized the boy.

        Kiln looked at the two brothers. "You tried to catch my duck-"

        "Yeah!" shouted Matt in triumph. "Told ya it was a duck, big brother!"

        "You don't have to rub it in, Matt!" shouted a defeated Kenta, "Let him finish!"

        "Ahem!!" shouted Kiln again.

        "Yup!"

        "Yes!"

        "Quil!"

        "Well, in that case," said Kiln, reaching for something in his backpack. Kenta and Matt immediately began to think of what horrible object he would use to hit, when Kiln suddenly gave Kenta a grey CD with a small, blank, white label on it.

        "A Hidden Machine?" asked the two brothers at the same time, blinking.

        "My way of saying thanks, I give you the Cut HM!" shouted Kiln proudly as he handed Kenta the CD, but Matt snatched it away and placed it in a yellow cylinder-shaped case, with all of the Technical and Hidden Machines that they've received so far. Kenta, Kiln, and the boy blinked at what Matt had just done, and at the case.

        "Wow," said the boy.

        "Nice case you got there," remarked Kiln

        "Where'd you get that?!" asked Kenta.

        "Prof. Elm's Aide dropped by while I was eating and while you were battling Bugsy a while ago in the Pokémon Center and gave me this," explained Matt as he neatly put the HM in front of their HM Flash CD.

        "How come you don't tell me anything anymore?" asked Kenta, squinting at Matt.

        "I forget things," said Matt, grinning.

        Everybody else collapsed anime-style.

        "Now I know why your Farfetch'd won't listen to me, it's because I don't have the proper Badge," explained the boy to Kiln.

        "Well, if you're planning to win one, Bugsy likes to attack with stealth techniques. Your Farfetch'd has the type advantage if you use the correct moves, and if it obeys you," said Kenta.

        "Good luck, buddy! Bugsy's tough to beat!" said Matt.

        "Well," shouted Kiln, "good luck to you two on your journey, and I hope that my HM will prove handy!"

        "Bye guys, thanks again for helping me get Farfetch'd!" shouted the boy as the two brothers continued their way through the dark woods.

        Having earned a new HM for their efforts, Kenta and Matt continue to go on their journey towards Goldenrod City and the next Badge.