Disclaimer: I don’t own Pokémon, because if I did Misty would
still be in it right now. Silly creators…
Claimer: I claim all made up
characters in this fiction as my creations. Thou shall not steal them, for
stealing is a bad thing. You can ask permission though.
Category: General
Rating: PG-13
AN: Whoops, I didn’t take Jolt leaving into account. That means
I don’t know when this’ll come up. This week, or next week, depends on when
Jolt leaves I guess. But for now, enjoy the next chapter.
************
Fight For
Freedom.
By: WeirdDutchGuy,
email: swampthing1132[at]hotmail[dot]com
************
************
Chapter Six: It Starts… Well, Almost.
************
Ash and the others were just finishing their
conversation with
“Then it’s settled,” Ash said. “We’ll go with Ritchie
and beat Team Rocket away from Cinnabar.”
“Yes, we leave tomorrow night. It’ll be easier to
avoid any stray Rockets in the dark. And we will have some time to prepare.”
Chris added. And with that he turned to go after John who’d left moments
earlier.
************
“So this is where they hide, huh?” Butch said as he
watched the south exit of the Rock Tunnel. “I still don’t see why we don’t
overrun this place right now.”
“Because rushing in would result in a massacre. Not
just on their side but on our side too. Besides, I’m in charge and you don’t
have a say.” Kane said with a smirk. He knew Butch was easy to get at and he
loved angering him. He also knew they were the Boss’ favorites until he came
and that alone was enough to make Butch boil whenever Kane was around. Cassidy
never seemed to mind as she just stared at the entrance.
“He has a point Butch; just stay put and wait like he
tells you to. They’ll come out and then they’ll be vulnerable. That’s when we
strike.” She said, but she doubted if they could win with this little men. Why
hadn’t Kane brought more?
“Wrong. We don’t strike at all, not until we’re sure
Ketchum is among them, and not until they reach Cinnabar.” Kane filled in for
her. That was why he didn’t bring his men, because they weren’t needed yet. In
Cassidy’s eyes this plan was stupid. Why let them reach Cinnabar? It would be
harder to get at them if they did. But for now, all they could do was wait. And
it didn’t look like the resistance was about to show itself anytime soon.
“They’re not coming out. Not until tomorrow that is.
So let’s go, and Butts, go pick up all the men.” Kane said stressing the Butts
part. This time Butch couldn’t hold it. “IT’S BUTCH!!” He yelled as he turned
red with anger. Kane chuckled as he walked away. “So easy to get at.” He thought as Butch
continued to grumble behind him. All it did was making Kane laugh louder.
************
Meanwhile Ash and Ritchie had spent some time talking
with each other and ‘F’, as they knew him, to catch up on old times. When they
finished Ash had gone to look for Chris and found him staring at a large table
with maps spread about.
“Hey, Chris is it? What’re you doing?” He asked, just to start up a conversation. He had learned from Frank
that Chris mostly kept to himself, and he had set out to try and break the ice.
“Planning.” Came
the blunt reply. That didn’t help much. “So why were you so happy just now?”
Ash tried again.
“None of your business.” Ash was starting to get a
bit annoyed now. Only a few minutes ago Chris had been singing, and now he
refused to answer simple questions. “One last try.”
“How did you end up here anyway?” Ash desperately
tried one last time.
“You’re not giving up, are you?” Chris sighed. Seeing
Ash shake his head out of the corner of his eye he turned to face him. “Obviously
you’re not. I take it you have Pokémon, so how about this: we battle and if you
win I tell you everything, if I win you leave me alone. I got plenty of work to
do here, so make it quick.”
Ash didn’t need too long to think about that. Frank
had told him Chris was a great trainer. Never actually beaten, though a few
ties, this would be a nice battle indeed. “You’re on.”
“Good, meet me at the training facilities in 15
minutes. I’ll wrap this up.” Chris said as he turned back towards the table. Ash
walked out with a smile, feeling confident that he indeed broke the ice. At
least he got a battle out of it. As he reached the main hallway he realized he
had no idea where to go, so instead of searching he went back to the cafeteria
and asked. Frank was happy to show him the way and they set off.
“Oh well, it’ll be a good chance to give the gym Pokémon some practice.
After all, I’ve only been using my varied team lately.” Chris thought as he opened a
dusty cabinet. Inside laid four Poke balls, which he picked up before closing
it again. His gym being one in
************
“Is it true what you said earlier? Has he really never
lost a battle?” Ash asked Frank, just to be sure.
“Yeah, and he could’ve been the Champion too. He went
to the League once and ended third.” Ash found this strange. If he ended third
that would mean he lost in the semi finals, so how could he not have lost a
battle before? And so he asked.
“You’re right, he ‘lost’ a battle, but it wasn’t
really a loss. He forfeited because his Pokémon weren’t fit enough after the
last round and he wouldn’t risk them being seriously injured. By the time they
were fit again he had to battle for third place and won. If his Pokémon hadn’t
been injured before, he would’ve been the Champ. After that he didn’t try
again. Third was good enough for him and he wanted to start up his own Gym in
Lavender. One week after it was approved Team Rocket attacked and burned it
down. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if he used his Gym Pokémon for this
battle.” As Frank said this Ash was thinking, hard. If Chris used his Gym
Pokémon, they would most likely be Ghost types. If so, Ash had little to
counter with. Even if those Pokémon were out of practice the battle would be
tough if Ash didn’t play it right.
The doors to the training center opened as Ash walked
in and was greeted by Chris, who was standing on one side of a field, and John,
who was in the referee’s spot. “Good to see you found the place. Get ready and
hear the rules.”
“This will be a three on three battle
with no time limit. Both trainers may switch their active Pokémon between
battles. The winner is the first to take out all three Pokémon of the opponent.
The stakes are clear, the rules have been stated and we will now toss a coin to
see who picks first. Both trainers please approach.” John grinned as he took a
coin from his pocket. This promised to be quite a battle. Gym
Leader versus Champion.
“Heads.” Chris said as he came
closer. John tossed the coin up and caught it in his right hand. He then
slammed his right hand on top of his left one and removed it. Heads.
“Great, just great.” Chris muttered as he went
back to his side. Taking his place he took out a ball. “Guess I have to start
somewhere. I know it’s been a while, but you’re up. Go Misdreavus!”
As the Misdreavus appeared
and did its battle cry, Ash was thinking about his strategy. “A Ghost Pokémon, just as I feared. Great, I
don’t really have anything to fight it effectively. The only ones that can even
harm it would be Pikachu and Charizard.” As such, Ash ended up
sending out Pikachu.
“Chris will fight with Misdreavus
and Ash will fight with Pikachu. Oh, and before we
begin, don’t forget this is just a friendly match. Don’t take it too far, we
have a major fight coming up soon and you both need to be fit. Ok, begin!”
************
Meanwhile Kane was having difficulties getting Butch
and Cassidy to cooperate.
“Explain why we aren’t attacking now, and why we
aren’t going to until they reach Cinnabar.” Cassidy had her doubts about this.
Kane however seemed pretty confident. “Honestly, it’s so simple. Even you two
should be able to figure it out, but you aren’t trying. See, we’ve been passing
on information to
“That doesn’t make sense. Why let them reach full
strength if we can take them now by surprise.” Butch said, obviously still
quite skeptic of ‘the plan’. Kane sighed long in a bored way and decided he’d
let them in on his real plan.
“Ok, we passed on the exact time of the attack, yes?
They believe that is when we will attack, so they won’t be very alert before that time. You see, they don’t know we know that they
know, which gives us the –“ “Hold on a sec. I’m losing
it here, slow down. They don’t know that we know that… the heck?!”
Kane growled in annoyance. “It’s like this: we know
that they know the exact time of our attack. They don’t know we know that. Now,
if we were to attack, say, a few hours before that time, we would catch them by
complete surprise. They’ll still be preparing defenses for an attack that isn’t
due for hours, or so they think. After we take Cinnabar, the Faction guys will
arrive and walk straight into our arms. Or trap, really. Think of it, they’ll
land and walk into the city looking for Blaine, who is by then safely secured
in a prison, and are jumped on by dozens of grunts. You think you understand
now?” After hearing the extremely cunning and sneaky plan in its whole, Cassidy
and Butch only nodded. Suddenly one of Kane’s men spoke up.
“What if we haven’t taken Cinnabar by the time Ketchum
shows up? We’d lose our entire army.” Butch cocked his eyebrow at this and
retorts with a confused question. “What do you mean? This is just a fraction of
our army.”
“You’re right, it is. He was just saying we’d lose
this part of it. Get out you two.” Kane interrupted. After Butch and Cassidy
left he turned to the grunt. “Don’t ever say such a thing in front of them.
They’re still loyal to that arrogant fool in his red tux. You and all the others
are handpicked by me and loyal to me alone, but they aren’t. The only reason
they’re here is because the old fool doesn’t fully trust me yet and send them
to keep an eye out. More slip ups like this and he’ll know all about our plans.
And if he does, it’s over for not just me, but all of you too. And to answer
your question, we’ll retreat when things take too long. All of this is just to
get rid off all resistance. Once those rebels are taken care off we’ll focus on
Giovanni, and not a minute sooner.”
“I can’t afford more mistakes like this. Those two might not be the
brightest, but they’re not stupid either. If I don’t watch it they might be a
huge problem later. I have to get rid of them. Hmm… can’t make them disappear
without the boss noticing… They’ll just have to be killed in the fight, yes,
that’s what I’ll do. Have them disappear and tell the boss they were killed.” After his brilliant
brainstorm Kane returned to preparing the assault.
************
Chris returned his Misdreavus
after Pikachu’s last thunderbolt made it faint. Pikachu hadn’t come out of the battle clean though, and was
having trouble standing himself. “Go Haunter!” More
ghosts. Haunter came out and just stared at Pikachu.
Soon Pikachu fell asleep and Ash was baffled.
“No need to look shocked; it’s just a Hypnosis attack.
Haunter, finish it with Dream Eater.” After Chris gave the command Haunter and Pikachu started glowing and the glow around Pikachu made its way to Haunter. It didn’t look like Pikachu would be waking up soon so Ash got Charizard out.
“Start off with a Flamethrower!” Ash yelled and soon a
large amount of flames shot towards Haunter, who dodged with ease. “He’s too fast! I need to find a way to slow
him down, or trap him.” Meanwhile Chris had ordered Haunter to use Nightshade and Charizard was busy dodging the black rays shooting from its
eyes.
“Try using Fire Spin! Then when it’s trapped, use
Flamethrower again!” “Not going to work Ash, Haunter Shadow Ball!” Both Pokémon
fired their attacks at their trainer’s order, with the Fire Spin trapping
Haunter and the Shadow Ball hitting Charizard. Charizard, despite being in pain, shot his Flamethrower at
Haunter, who had no chance of escape.
“Haunter is no longer fit for battle. Charizard wins.” John said, pointing his arm in Ash’s direction.
“You put up a good fight Ash,” Chris said whilst
recalling Haunter. “But it’s not enough. Go Gengar!”
“Charizard,
return.
I’ll let you rest for a while and hope it’ll be long enough. Alright, Wartortle go!” Ash sent out Wartortle.
After picking up Charizard at the Valley, he went to
pick up Squirtle but learned he’d evolved into Wartortle not too long ago.
“I know what you plan on doing Ash, trying to save Charizard for later. I’m not stopping you, but I’m making
sure you aren’t switching this one out. Gengar, use
Mean Look!” Chris had to admit he was enjoying himself. He had missed the
thrill of battle. “Now, use the Hypnosis Nightmare combo!”
“Wartortle don’t look him in
the eyes and use Water Gun to stop him!” Gengar took
a direct hit from the attack and staggered back.
“Let’s try a different approach, use Night Shade!” Wartortle dodged. “Again!” He
dodged again. “This is getting annoying. Use Confuse Ray!” Gengar
shot an orb of light at Wartortle, who tried to dodge
but found the orb was following him. It caught him in midair and he fell down
flat on his face.
“Good, now Shadow Ball!” As Gengar
charged his attack Ash tried to get Wartortle to
move. Gengar fired and it was closing in fast.
“Jump up, now!” Ash yelled in a frantic attempt to
save Wartortle. He jumped alright, but when he landed
he fell again, still confused by the ray. Gengar shot
another Shadow Ball and this time it hit its mark.
“Wartortle is no longer fit
for battle, Gengar wins!” John stated. Out came Charizard again.
“Charizard, Flamethrower!”
Ash yelled. He had to win this battle if he wanted to know what had happened.
************
To Be Continued…
************
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AN: Hope this went up around the
time I send it in. If not, please don’t be mad because that means the next
chapter is probably up too, so you’ll have twice as much to read! Yes, number
seven is done, but eight was only just started. Don’t even know if I can make
it before I leave on a three week vacation. I have two weeks of spare time
before we leave though, but I can’t really utilize all of it. My social life
has gotten a sudden boost so my time spent behind the keyboard has decreased. My
recent appointment as moderator on a forum hasn’t helped matters much (not on
TPT Forums for those asking themselves why I don’t show on the mod list there).
But yeah, chapter seven will answer some questions and
raise more. Eight will most probably solve most of those again and so on. I’m
looking forward to actually writing again, it’s been too long.
WeirdDutchGuy