Chapter Thirteen: Dig With Leah on Route 11, Fire Strike's main defence against electricity was gone. Luckily, they still had a few Ground and Rock types to work with. "Sandslash, go!" Uiru shouted. "Marowak, I choose you!" Jessica almost wasn't allowed to go, but Uiru had convinced the nurse that you only needed one arm to throw a Poké Ball. "Primeape, go!" Yes, it still had the bone. "Rhyhorn, go!" Thomas shouted. "Dugtrio, I choose you!" Allison had her own Dugtrio, in addition to the ones that would (hopefully) be joining them soon. The ground was shaking even as the first wave of defenders ran out to meet Fire Strike head on. The electric trainers tripped and stumbled up to them. "It's Fire Strike!" they shouted. "Get them!" A wave of Electric Pokémon appeared. The ground shook again as the Ground types used Earthquake in tandem. Magnemites and Magnetons flew up out of the way and shot Sonic Booms down into the party. The explosive attack damaged Pokémon and trainers alike. Marowak and Primeape sent their Bonemerangs flying into the flying magnet cloud. Most of them dodged it but a few were struck down. They landed with a loud clank and were struck by another Earthquake. Strangely, the Electric trainers had Flying Pokémon with them. A Raichu jumped on a Pidgeot and flew at them. Pidgeys and Spearows held Voltorbs in their talons, dropping them on the Ground types and causing them to explode. "What works on Flying types?" Uiru asked Robert. "Rock!" he replied. "Great. Sandslash, use Sandstorm!" Sandstorm was a version of Rock Slide Uiru had been perfecting. It started out the same- the ground around Sandslash crumpled. However, instead of large boulders of solid stone slowly rising from the earth, Sandstorm caused a ton of fist-sized rocks to fly straight up at high speed. Many of the Flying Pokémon were caught inside the Sandstorm, and pounded by the rocks. The Electric Pokémon took heavy damage as well. The Sunder Force guards were not thrilled when they saw Sandslash walking towards them, Sandstorm in full swing. The few magnet Pokémon that had evaded the attack were brought down by Primeape and Marowak. Their Electric Pokémon fired everything they had into the middle of the cloud of flying rock. No effect, of course. The Pokémon and their trainers were caught in the storm, and beaten to a bloody pulp. When Sandslash finally stopped Sandstorm, all the guards were bloodied and many were unconscious. Sandslash was totally wiped out, however. After keeping up such an attack for so long, it needed to recuperate. Uiru recalled it, and they headed into Vermillion. The Lavender nurse wasn't kidding when she said they had fortified. Fire Strike didn't take three steps into Vermillion before being assailed by dozens of Electric Pokémon. Jigglypuff formed a large Light Screen to shield the party from the Thunderbolts being directed at them. The Ground type Pokémon had their own defence against lightning. "Gengar, go!" Jessica summoned her ghost. "Hypnosis!" Gengar laughed and sent it's hypnotic waves bouncing down the street, disabling many Pokémon and their trainers. Her next attack was Scyther. Patrick and Geoff summoned theirs as well, and the three psychotic Bug types ripped down the lines, disabling anything they slashed. Unfortunately, they were weak against Electric attacks and were soon brought down. "Weezing, Muk, Arbok!" Erin shouted. "Smokescreen, Sludge, Poison Sting!" Erin started cleaning out the street with her Poison Pokémon. Retaliations were useless because the enemy couldn't see where they were aiming. From out of nowhere, however, a ton of water dropped on the Ground types, knocking out every single one of them. The supercharge of Electric energy from the enemy Pokémon finished off Primeape and weakened Gengar. Uiru summoned Alakazam and Hitmonchan. "PSY Sword and Chi Slam attack!" he shouted. Alakazam's twin short swords appeared while Hitmonchan fired bolts of spiritual energy into the crowd of Electric types. "Arcanine, go!" Allison shouted. "Fire Blast!" Arcanine sent blazing rays of fire lancing through the enemy lines. "Venomoth, Pincir!" Patrick summoned more of his Bug types. Pincir grappled an Electabuzz from behind and Seismic Tossed it while Venomoth shot a Raichu with String Shot and Disabled it's Electric power. By now, the Water Pokémon that had dumped on Fire Strike earlier made their appearance behind the Electric types. A very lucky shot of Hydro Pump rendered Arcanine unconscious. Allison recalled it and sent Magneton. Uiru's Raichu and Jessica's Electabuzz hitched a ride on Magneton over the Electrics and dropped in on the Water Pokémon. Electabuzz started the party with it's Electric Piston attack, combining it's great strength with it's shocking power. Many Water Pokémon felt the effects of Electabuzz's Electric power slamming into them repeatedly. Magneton sent a Thunder Wave over the entire Water regiment while Raichu simply opened up with Thunder Bolt. "Dragonair, go!" Geoff called out Dragonair. It was strong against Electric Pokémon and had powerful physical attacks. Dragonair used Head Butt and Slam moves to clean out the area. Alakazam seemed to be doing fine cutting down Electrics and their trainers with it's swords and Hitmonchan was pounding away with it's Ice Punch. Uiru looked to Raichu. Although Magneton was shielding Electabuzz and Raichu with Thunder Wave, they were heavily outnumbered. A Vaporeon Quick Attacked Raichu and when Raichu turned to shock it, a Wartortle Skull Bashed it. "I think Raichu and the others could use some help," Uiru mentioned to Jessica. "Okay. Machamp, go! Go help Electabuzz over there!" Machamp charged the enemy lines. Most of the Electrics jumped clear of the giant pounding Pokémon, and those that didn't were swiftly beaten and thrown out of the way. It wasn't long before Machamp had cut a line straight through the Electric Pokémon and their trainers, and engaged a Blastoise. "Gengar, warp over there and put the Water types to sleep!" Jessica sent Gengar to back Machamp up. Gengar vanished, and reappeared next to Machamp. Jigglypuff was getting very tired blocking out all the energy. Geoff summoned Kadabra to restore Jigglypuff's health with Recover. Then it shot Psychic blasts into the fray. "This is taking longer then I thought," Uiru muttered to himself. Leah, Pittman, Matt and Eric successfully snuck into Vermillion City from Route 11. "There's Diglett's Tunnel," Leah pointed. "But there's guards in the way," Eric informed her. "I'll handle that," Matt declared. "Vileplume, come out!" "What will you do with Vileplume?" Pittman asked. "Watch. Sleep Powder!" Vileplume sent a cloud of blue spores over the guards. Hacking and wheezing, they all fell asleep. Inside Diglett's Tunnel, Eric's Mr. Mime used Flash to light the place up. Leah summoned her Sandshrew and Cubone. "All right guys, we gotta find a Diglett," she declared. It wasn't hard- Digletts were the only thing down there, besides the occasional Dugtrio. Four Diglett popped out of their holes as they approached. Cubone sent a friendly greeting, and the meeting was underway. It wasn't long before the Diglett understood their predicament. The naturally friendly Diglett agreed to help, and three of them burrowed underground to tell their friends. The other looked at Leah, then chirped at Cubone and Sandshrew. "What's it saying?" Eric asked. Cubone put an arm around where Diglett's shoulder would be, if it had them. Sandshrew nodded. "Oh... I think Diglett wants to come with me!" Leah declared. The three Ground types nodded. "Okay Diglett, climb aboard!" Diglett entered Leah's Poké Ball. The other three Diglett reappeared. "When this Diglett comes to get you, we'll attack, okay?" Leah asked. The three nodded. "Wow, that was easy." Fire Strike had gained a lot of ground. All the Water types were gone, so Raichu, Magneton and Electabuzz were returned to prevent confusion. Machamp, Hitmonchan, Gengar and Alakazam strongarmed their way through the enemy trainers and Erin's Poison types cleaned up whatever was left. However, Vermillion was a large city, and there were a ton of trainers left to be dealt with. Electrodes started appearing in large numbers, and only Alakazam's Reflect shield prevented most of their Explosion attacks from scoring mortal damage. All their Rock types were unconscious so they had no natural defence against the powerful kamakaze attacks. Uiru decided it was high time to take the Pokémon Center- partly because the trainers were getting tired and mostly because they were running out of Pokémon. However, to get there, Fire Strike would have to battle through a glut of trainers while defending from back attacks. Luckily, Leah and the others showed up right about now. "Diglett, go!" she shouted. "Ultimate Dig, now!" Diglett dug underground. A moment later, four dozen Diglett all used Dig in the same area. Although the street would never be the same, most of the Electric Pokémon were knocked unconscious. Leah would have prefered to use a multiple Earthquake attack but that would do more damage to the city then to the enemy. With Leah's Diglett army leading the way, the trainers quickly made it to the Center. Leah, Pittman, Matt and Eric guarded the doors while the others recharged their Pokémon. "This might take a couple of minutes," the nurse told Fire Strike. "There are a lot to be cured." "That's all right," Patrick said. "The Diglett troop should buy us some time." At the vending machine, Uiru was chugging a can of juice. Then he bought another one and chugged it too. "Thirsty?" Jessica asked. "Yep," Uiru replied as he bought a third one. "Can I have one?" Uiru bought her a drink. Robert sat down on the couch. "Sorry guys," he stated. "I'd love to help but my Flying types are weak against Lightning." "That's okay," Heidi declared. Jigglypuff was being rejuvinated. "Your bird Pokémon are strong against Grass so you can fight when we attack Fuchsia." Robert nodded. Outside, any Electric Pokémon that tried to attack was hit by Dig, and anything that could hover was hit by Bonemerang. Just for good measure, Leah summoned her Onix to terrorize the Sunder Force soldiers. "Mr. Mime, Kadabra, go!" Eric shouted. "Defend the Center with Light Screen and Reflect!" As it turned out, the Digletts wore out the Sunder Force guards, and Vermillion City was liberated. Fire Strike emerged from the Pokémon Center to see the exhausted soldiers heading for the hills. "Well..." Uiru said. "I guess that's that." Meanwhile, Nick had quickly enlisted the aid of the Cerulean defence force and the Cerulean Gym. Several dozen trainers headed down Route 9 towards Rock Tunnel, and the Lavender reserve force was just exiting when they got there. "In the name of the Pokémon League, you're all under arrest," Nick declared. Five seconds later, a half dozen Onix and Rhydon appeared and charged. The group of Water trainers summoned their Water Pokémon, and the Rock types were beaten to a pulp in an instant. "Omanyte, go!" Nick shouted. Omanyte shot a charging Graveler with Water Gun. It fainted immediately. This battle was extremely short. The Rock trainers of Lavender Town were soundly beaten, and Nick's Omanyte evolved into Omastar! The defence captain congradulated Nick. "Whatever that thing is, good job!" he stated. "Thanks," Nick declared. "Okay, you all did great!" he shouted. "All we gotta do is drag their carcasses off to jail." The Cerulean trainers rounded them up and brought them home to face charges. "Where's Nick?" Patrick asked. "I wanna go to Fuchsia." "It's a few hours both ways," Thomas told him. "So give it time. We'll probably attack tomorrow." The nurse hailed them. "Reports are coming in from all over the city," she declared. "Although you guys trashed our main street, the Sunder Force is gone!" A great cheer came up from Fire Strike and the other trainers in the lounge. "Well, that's that. I'm going to bed," Uiru announced. "Wait, Uiru," the nurse said. "Come with me." Uiru was led off to the hospital area. "Yeah, what's up?" "I thought I should tell you. Your Hitmonchan was electrocuted pretty badly during the battle." "What? Will it be okay?" "Of course, I just thought I should tell you because it's not a case where we can just spray it with Parlyz Heal and be done with it. It'll be all right in a few hours." Uiru sighed. "Great. Where is it?" "Right in here," the nurse declared. She brought him into Hitmonchan's room. "It's asleep. We neutralized the excess voltage and now it's recovering." Uiru nodded. "Incidentally, your Hitmonchan probably didn't let you know it was in trouble out of pride." "Fighting types tend to be like that," Uiru stated. "Are my other Pokémon okay?" "They're fine, but I'd let your Raichu take it easy for a few days," the nurse suggested. "It had a few nasty bruises." Uiru nodded. "I don't think I'll be using it in the next battle."