Chapter Two: Smokescreen Pidgeotto returned to it's trainer- a rather evil looking person by the name of Jeremy. "Hey, Sunder," he called. "Pidgeotto found Uiru and his buddies." Sunder had taken his first lieutenant into the hills. "All right," Sunder answered. "Stop Uiru, understand?" "Yes, sir," Jeremy replied. "Are you going to the Tower, sir?" "Yes," Sunder answered. "I think we have enough Fire Pokémon collected for our little project." "Are you going to unleash it on Uiru?" Jeremy asked. "You'll burn the whole forest down." Sunder shrugged. "I'm sure they have a few Water Pokémon, the little goodie-goodies will probably try to fight the fire as well as our little pet. Try to keep them on this mountain as long as you can. Even if they beat what's coming for them, which I seriously doubt, they might get caught in the fire." "Yes sir." The next morning, the four awoke, stiff and uncomfortable. Geoff stretched. "Well, that sucked," he declared. "Guess we'd better head out," Nick declared. "Can I borrow your Nidorino, Geoff?" "I think it might still be tired," Geoff stated. "Let's just walk for a while," Jessica suggested. "Stretch a bit." Uiru pointed. "Path's this way," he declared. As they headed down the path, a loud stomping was soon audible. From around a turn stomped a Kanghaskhan! Atop it was Jeremy, Sunder's 1st Lieutenant! "Hold, Uiru!" he shouted. "You can't go past..." Jeremy's attention was drawn elsewhere. "Geoff?!" "Jeremy!" Geoff shouted. "You son of a bitch! I'll smash you hard!" "Need some help, Geoff?" Nick asked. "No. I can handle this guy." Geoff thought of the Pokémon Jeremy had the last time he'd seen him, and chose Scyther. "Come out!" "Kanghaskhan, go!" Jeremy declared. What was a narrow path through the forest was a large clearing seconds later. Scyther's incredible speed and destructive power was matched by Kangaskhan's rocky hide and powerful punches. Several trees were unfortunate recipients of missed shots, however, no tree took more then one hit. "Kanghaskhan, Dizzy Punch!" Jeremy ordered. "Scyther, Double Team!" Kanghaskhan wound up and gave one of the images of Scyther a mighty blast that WOULD have sent it flying, had it been the right Scyther. Scyther ended the attack and gave Kanghaskhan a viscious Slash from behind. "Kanghaskhan, return! Graveler, go!" "Scyther, Slash!" Scyther wound up and brought it's blades down on Graveler's head. CLANG. Graveler delivered a Body Slam, sending Scyther flying. "It can't fight Graveler, it's too hard!" Jessica shouted. "I know that! Scyther, return! Go, Gyarados!" Graveler whipped up a Rock Slide attack at the same time Gyarados delivered a Hydro Pump. Amazingly, the rocks went through the water and smashed Gyarados! It wasn't beat yet though, and the next Hydro Pump did Graveler in for good. "Clefairy, I choose you! Metronome!" "Gyarados, Hyper Beam!" Clefairy dove out of the way of the powerful concentration of pure physical energy and struck back with Thunderbolt! The very lucky result of Clefairy's Metronome attack was enough to knock out Gyarados. "Return! Arcanine, attack!" Arcanine charged and struck with Take Down. The small creature couldn't take much more after that. Jeremy recalled it and sent out Kabuto. "He's got a Kabuto?" Uiru asked. "The only other person I've seen with a Kabuto is Allison." "The only person I know with an Omanyte is me," Nick replied. Arcanine could Flamethrower and Take Down until it was blue in the face, it wouldn't affect Kabuto one bit. It's Hydro Pump attack finally beat Arcanine. Although Kabuto was at a much lower level then Arcanine, Kabuto's Rock-Water heritage ensured that no Fire type would be able to beat it. "Go, Kadabra!" Geoff shouted. His fourth Pokémon was the mighty Kadabra, one of the most powerful Psychics known to the world of Pokémon. Kabuto charged, but Kadabra glowed a brillient yellow, and Kabuto bounced right off it. Then Kadabra started glowing purple, and Kabuto was blasted repeatedly from all sides by it's Psychic Attack. Jeremy could see Kabuto couldn't take much more. "Kabuto, return!" But before he could decide which Pokémon to use, a loud rumbling was heard. "What's that?" Uiru asked. "An earthquake?" Jessica asked. "You'll wish it was," Jeremy stated. "Uiru, do you remember the giant Gengar you fought?" "I sure do, you bastard," Uiru snapped back. A few weeks ago, they had battled a huge Gengar at the Battle of Ivory Lake. The giant Gengar used a special Ghost attack that quite nearly killed many of their Pokémon. "Did you ever wonder how Sunder came about it?" "Yeah," Nick replied. "How did you do it?" "Well, I can't tell you that, but I can tell you one thing," Jeremy replied. "What's that?" Uiru asked. "LOOK." Jeremy pointed behind them. Geoff looked. "Oh, frig," he stated simply. "See you later!" Jeremy waved. "Enjoy playing with Ninetails, our new giant Pokémon!" Ninetails was, like the Gengar before it, averaging 50 feet in height. It caught sight of the four and moved towards them, breathing fire. "I'll distract it!" Jessica declared. "You guys better come up with something, fast! Starmie, come out!" Jessica jumped on Starmie. Flying up near the monster's head, Starmie fired repeated blasts of Hydro Pump. "Uiru, is she always that spontaneous?" Nick asked him, trying hard to conceal the half-grin. "Yeah, most of the time." Uiru didn't catch what Nick had meant right away, but when he did, he hit him. "Guys. Plan," Geoff stated. "We need one. Dragonair, go! Use the Bubblebeam!" Being a marine dragon Pokémon, it was quite simple for Dragonair to learn Bubblebeam. It fired the stream of powerful soapy bubbles straight at the beast, which was trying to Flamethrower Jessica and Starmie. It suddenly changed tactics and used Fire Spin, but wasn't aiming at anyone in preticular. "It missed," Nick stated. "No it didn't," Uiru answered. "It's set fire to the forest!" Behind them, a whole row of trees had burst into flame, effectively blocking off any conventional escape. It started using Fire Blast to clear away the trees left between the four and itself. Fire Blast was strong enough to just incinerate whatever it hit, without setting fire to it. "Getting mad now," Nick declared. "Everybody, come out! Hydro Pump on the big bastard!" Nick's six Pokémon, Kingler, Tentacruel, Horsea, Omanyte, Squirtle, and Golduck appeared. Although it seemed odd having three unevolved Pokémon in his crew, Omanyte wasn't ready to evolve, and Horsea and Squirtle just didn't want to. They were just as powerful as their evolved companions, however. The six reared back and launched powerful Water blasts at the giant Ninetails. It didn't seem to be damaging it much. Uiru summoned his anti-Fire squad, Blastoise and Sandslash. "Blastoise, Hydro Pump! Sandslash, Earthquake!" If Ninetails and Gengar were any indication, these giant Pokémon were very slow to attack. Like Gengar before it, the fighters got in a few rounds of damage first before it made a move against them. Now, however, it launched a Flamethrower at Nick and his team. Squirtle raised a Withdraw circle around it so large it encompassed Nick and Horsea as well, effectively blocking out the fire. The others recieved a fair amount of damage- although strong against Fire, from something this big, it didn't matter anymore. Nick was soaking wet. Jessica flew down next to Nick. "Give me Horsea," she demanded. He handed it over. "What do you need it for?" "Gonna slow down Ninetails," she declared. Behind them, the fire was burning away the forest in all directions, and slowly moving towards them. Jessica flew up near Ninetails with Horsea in her hands. "Smokescreen, Horsea!" she shouted. To maximize the effectiveness of the attack, Starmie hovered all around Ninetails while Horsea deposited it's cloud of inky smoke around it. Ninetails now could not see. Horsea was pooped, however- generating a cloud that big took a lot out of it. Jessica returned Horsea, who went back to it's Poké Ball, and then flew up to fire Hydro Pumps into the cloud. Uiru's Blastoise lined up with Nick's five and fired continual Hydro blasts at the murky darkness. Ninetails started launching Flamethrowers and Confuse Rays in all directions. An unlucky shot of Confuse Ray nailed Golduck and Tentacruel, requiring them be returned. "Sandslash, Rock Slide and Earthquake!" Uiru ordered. If the fire hadn't done enough damage to the land already, this next combo of attacks would. While the ground under Ninetails shook and cracked, huge chunks of it flew up and smacked into the giant fire fox. Unfortunately, the Smokescreen wore off right about now. Ninetails attacked anew with Fire Spin and Flamethrower. Jessica barely dodged a searing blast by leaping straight up off Starmie while it dodged low. She landed on it and almost fell, but it balanced out, then fired at Ninetails again. The ground under Ninetails crumpled and shattered a second time as Uiru had Sandslash use it's destructive attacks again. Jessica landed, then ordered Starmie to use a new attack she had been working on. "Starmie- use the Water Cyclone move!" Starmie flew up directly above Ninetails and fired water blasts from each of it's eight points. It pointed these blasts straight down, and began to spin! The raging column of watery power very soon became exactly what it was named- a cyclone, formed from pure water. It blasted Ninetails repeatedly, and it couldn't escape the cyclone's grasp. Sandslash used a third Earthquake, adding to Ninetails' problems, and the others continued blasting away at it. When the water tornado finally disappated, Ninetails stood for a moment, then collapsed. Within a few seconds, it faded and disappeared. "All right!" the four shouted. "We beat it!" "We're not done yet though," Jessica reminded. "Half the forest is burning!" Ninetails' repeated Flamethrowers had started huge fires in many places. Although the Pokémon were tired, they started spraying the flames without being told. Starmie went to a preticularly large blaze and Water Cycloned it. In the end, the PLM wound up waterbombing the fires out. Matt and Allison showed up along with Patrick and Erin. "Hey guys!" Uiru shouted. "How'd it go at the base?" Jessica asked. "Totaled," Allison replied. "It was so pathetically easy. I think that's where all their rookies were training." "Me and Allison fought with Arctic Point and like nine other units. I'm sure we could have beat them with half that," Matt informed them. "There, see?" Nick said to Geoff. "Aren't you glad you came with us now?" "You two alright?" Uiru asked Patrick and Erin. "Yeah, we're fine," Patrick answered. "Allison's Dugtrio burrowed right into our cell, and we got out that way." Nick looked over across the clearing. "Hey! Who's been at my helicopter?!" Fire Strike had it's own helicopter. Nick was the only one who had any idea how to fly it. "Well..." Erin started. "It was fast, and a lot better then most of the PLM's fleet." Nick nodded, and laughed. "I remember overhearing the Boss chew out Booster for letting us have it. That was one of the funniest things I'd ever heard. But who flew it?" "It's not as hard as you'd think," Matt explained. "One of the Arctic Point guys knew how to fly, so he took off and landed it. But I got it here." "Yeah, that's why we're late," Patrick stated. "Anyway, what happened?" This was big news on the unfamiliar side of Mt. Moon. Pewter City and Cerulean City, the towns at the base of Mt. Moon, were abuzz with the news of a giant Pokémon rampaging through the mountain forest. As well as the news of the four trainers who took it down. As it turned out, the nurses in this country were just as stubborn yet kindhearted as the ones Fire Strike were used to back home. And they STILL looked identical. When she saw Uiru and the others being dogged by reporters, she managed to singlehandedly clean out the entire place. "I don't think real mosquitos suck as much blood as those people," the nurse declared as she threw the last of them out. Fire Strike were seated on some of the many couches littering the Pokémon Center's living space. "So there's another giant Pokémon?" Patrick asked. "Yep. This one was a Ninetails," Jessica replied. "You know, this is a really big problem," Uiru began. Nick sighed. "Here we go, the long depressing plotline-revealing speech about the fate of all humanity." Uiru ignored him. "Sunder Force apparently knows how to spawn giant Pokémon monsters, which they probably have at least some control over. Gengar was the first, which we tanked, and now Ninetails." "This is where one of us has to ask why, right?" Matt asked. "Yes." "Okay. 'But the question is, why?'" He said it with such fake enthousiasm that the others couldn't help but laugh. "That's a very cliché line, you know," Erin stated. "Could have been worse. He could have done it in a Spanish accent," Uiru stated. "ANYWAY. Why is it. Do they use these monsters against us or just to smash things?" "It looks like they use them against us, but there've only been two so far," Allison replied. "It might just be coincidence we're around when they unleash them." "So what do we do now, O Great One?" Geoff asked, looking at Uiru. "Will you stop that? It's getting annoying. And I'm not sure. Sunder could be a thousand miles away from here by now." "Maybe the PLM has some information," Erin suggested. Uiru nodded. But before he could reply, a very upset nurse came into the room. She went to where Uiru and the others were seated. "You're Fire Strike of the PLM, correct?" she asked. Uiru nodded again. "My cousin just called- there's a giant Arbok attacking Viridian City!" "Bastards!" Nick cursed. "I'll fire up the chopper."