Glory's Long Road: Episode #05 "The Pit"

Sitting on the edge of an abandoned open pit mine, a cold twilight wind 
flowed. Memories of the loss continued to burn within Erik's mind. Like a 
tape playing in a loop, Hassamu's final blow on Sandopan mentally repeated 
itself. Throwing a rock, Erik cursed aloud, although nobody could possibly 
hear the expended rage. Sandopan looked up from tending the wound. Never 
before had Erik become as volatile as he was now. He went to stand, but 
decided against it. Silence would do more to calm Erik's fury than words 
would.

Battles would have to be lost. Erik had over come hurdles before. Defeats 
would be no different. Over a shoulder, a glittering rock was thrown, 
landing in a metallic clank. The fact remained that nobody liked to lose, 
even though half would. Erik sighed. Losing was inevitable. Even the 
greatest lost. What set the greats apart from the rest was how they lost. 
Each and every downfall suffered merely added to their drive for victory. 
Rolling a stone veined with cobalt in his palm, Erik realized that he must 
adopt that way of thinking in order to ascend. Finally freeing his mind, 
Erik again tossed a stone over his back. The same metallic clank resounded.

Clank? He had heard the same noise before, yet was too involved with his 
train of thoughts to think anymore of it. Turning around, Erik looked to see 
what exactly he has been hitting. Down in the lowest point of the shallow 
pit, restrf a pokemon. In spite of all Erik's knowledge about the more than 
three hundred known pokemon species, this one escaped him.

Nearly five metres in its full length, stretching from snout to tip of tail. 
Short limbs armed with thick talons held the underside only a few 
centimetres from off the ground. Heavy metal plates shone in the last rays 
of the dying sun, except for a twisted ridge running the full course of its 
back.

Surely a pokemon this rare had to be good, especially in a rematch with 
Niko. Throwing caution to the wind, Erik engaged the unknown. "Sandopan, go 
for it!" The pokemon awoke with a start as Sandopan dropped down into the 
pit. The silver alligator anticipated this arrival, swinging around its 
massive tail. Hitting like a semi, the collision threw Sandopan into the 
embankment.

Before dust and rock could settle, the unknown ripped a beam of white energy 
at Sandopan. He evaded the attack itself, but not the wave that came after 
it. The silver aimed another beam ahead of Sandopan. Kicking off a boulder 
kept the hedgehog from suffering the energy beam. Several more times, the 
silver attempted to strike with the beam. And several more times Sandopan 
evaded the attack by jumping around the pit. The silver halted its attack, 
leaving Sandopan to rest his lungs.

"You're a fast little bastard, aren't you?" Unexpectedly, the silver spoke 
in a deep voice. Normally, pokemon could only speak a sole thing, their 
name. This was proving to be a truly unusual monster. "See if you can dodge 
this." The silver taunted, before forging a ball of energy in its mouth, and 
launching it like a mortar shell.

Gracefully, it arced in the air, and exploded only a short distance from 
Sandopan. Many orblets scattered around the small area, detonating as they 
hit rock. The mine filled with the continuous blasting of the energy rain.

The dust was cleared off by the gentile wind. Sandopan still stoods, arms 
crossed over his face. Bloody, yet still able for combat. The silver leered 
at him. "Managed to survive that? Most impressive, but here be the end." 
Great talons tore into the rock, bracing for the upcoming attack. The silver 
opened its mouth, allowing streams of energy to condense within. Bigger and 
bigger, the ball of power grew, eventually filling the alligator's open 
jaws. With a tremendous recoil, the silver activated the attack. Knifing 
through the air, blue-white energy flowed toward Sandopan.

Leaping back and kicking off saved Sandopan from the devastating explosion. 
High into the air, the hedgehog radiated a light. The radiance reminded Erik 
of Sandshrew's evolution into his present form, but however slightly 
different. The light was forced off into a shell, and Sandopan torpedoes 
into the silver.

Like the impact of a meteorite, the slamming of Sandopan into the silver 
sent tremors through the earth and debris into the air. The cloud receded, 
leaving the strewn bodies of the two fighters on the ground. Erik pitched a 
capture ball at the downed silver. It entrapped the alligator inside, but 
violently quaked after closing. The ball nearly broke open, stopped only by 
Sandopan holding it together. Continuing still, the ball shuddered. 
Gradually, the motions degraded into a light shaking, ending with the 
extinguishing of the red light.

Victory at the Oxide gym would surely go to Erik with this new capture.


End Episode #05

Pokemon Report
*-----*-----*-----*
The Silver
A mysterious new pokemon, not going to say anymore. =>

Hyper Beam as form of battle
While Hyper Beam is known as a draining attack, by reducing the energy put 
forth into the beam, it can be utilized as a form of ranged combat.

Area Blast
An energy attack that acts like a cluster bomb. (Paragraph 12)

Hyper Cannon
An enhanced version of Hyper Beam. Damage potential is increased, as is 
stamina consumption. (Paragraph 13)

Breakers
A pokemon's last attempt to do damage. Breakers are special attacks used 
only under certain circumstances. While very powerful, breakers are very 
difficult to use. Intense fights, with the user badly injured are enough to 
trigger a breaker, but not always. (Paragraph 14)