Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Fear the Quintet ❯ The Girl and the Old Man ( Chapter 5 )

Kitty was sitting inside the largest hole in the world in a sexy (ish, it was only her dad's presentation) black dress, no shoes, and probably quite messy hair. She bet her mascara had smudged too. She sighed. Her ears were ringing now, as they rightly would if a group of boys had been screaming `HELLO?' and `HELP US!' for a good half an hour right next to her. She sighed once again.

“Who are you?” a voice demanded of them. Kitty peered straight up, a hand shielding her eyes from the direct glare of the sun, but someone's head was blocking it so that rays of light spilled all around their head, making it look like a halo or something.

“Finally!” the boys cried. “Get us out of here!”

“No way,” the stranger snorted. Kitty squinted. It was a girl. She had medium length shiny red hair.

“Come on,” she said, bored. “As much as we've enjoyed our stay in this hole, I think it's time we left.”

The others agreed desperately.

“Who are you?” she demanded again.

“We're no one,” Charlie said loudly. “Unfortunately.”

“This is all Adam's fault,” Matthew said grumpily. Adam's jaw dropped.

“How?” he yelled.

“If you had chosen a grass pokemon with some kind of bloody vine whip, we could have left ages ago.”

“Oh, shut up…” Adam narrowed his eyes. “If Elliot's pokemon could actually fly that would help too.”

“Hey!”

“Shut up!” Kitty shrieked. “And you, let us the hell out of here!”

“You lot seem too stupid to be Umbra… I'll give you that. Ok, I'll let you out. One sec.”

A rope slid down the edge of the hole and poked the top of Kitty's head. She pushed herself to her feet after swiping it away angrily. She yanked on it a few times to see if it was sturdy enough and then climbed out. One by one the boys did too, then, exhausted, muddy and confused, they looked at their saviour, although it didn't take much thinking to deduce that she was, at the same time, their captor.

“Who are you?” Matthew pointed at her. She wrinkled her nose.

“None of your business,” she hissed.

“Wow, charming young lady.” He raised his eyebrows and began to walk away. “Thanks for deciding to let us go…”

“Woooooow,” Scott breathed as the others all began to walk away. They turned back around to see why he was so happy. “You have Houndoom.”

“Yup,” the girl nodded. “Two.”

“I can see that.” Scott pointed at them. They sat near the tree, rubbing up against the bark or licking their paws. One had a red collar and the other had a blue.

“Can I have one?” he asked, sounding pained. She looked at him like he was insane and very smelly.

“Of course you can't have one,” she said, shaking her head slowly.

“Do you want a one-on-one battle?” Charlie asked, trotting up to her with a grin.

“What?” she squinted. “Why would I want that?”

“Because you're a trainer, aren't you?”

“Yeah, but you've all obviously just started out.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Because you can't find your way out of the forest.” She rolled her eyes.

“Please!” Charlie shrieked. She took half a step back.

“Fine,” she sighed. “But this'll be quick.”

“Whatever, whatever.” Charlie waved his arm impatiently. “So what's your name, then?”

“Cordelia,” Cordelia said a little icily.

“Charlie,” he replied, although she hadn't asked. “And this is Kitty, Scott, Matt, Fred, Adam, Saxen and Elliot.”

“Saxen?” Cordelia repeated. “That's weird.”

“Always nice to meet a fan.” He waved at her.

“By name and by nature, then,” she muttered, then stepped back. “Right, let's get this over with. One pokemon each. Take it, Orion.” The Houndoom with the red collar stepped forward with a happy woof.

“Ok, go on…” Charlie tossed the pokeball, and struggled to remember what he had named his Totodile. “Loki!” It burst out of the light and hopped around with inexplicable happiness. “Start it off with a…” He stopped abruptly and his ears went slightly pink.

“Oh, don't tell me you don't know its attacks…” Cordelia groaned. “Hurry up before I leave.”

“Tackle!” Charlie ordered. Loki chewed his tail. “Scratch!” Charlie tried again. It was as if a light had been switched on in the pokemon's head as it rushed forward and gave the Houndoom an almighty scratching. The opponent looked at Loki with mild distaste.

“Might as well give him a chance. Howl.” The Houndoom raised its head and howled at the sky. Loki shivered.

“Can you use Water Gun yet?” Charlie asked the pokemon. It squirted him with it a little as a yes. Charlie glared at the tiny blue thing and pointed to the Houndoom. “Use it,” he muttered. Loki complied, but the Houndoom dodged it with ease and rushed forward, and with its huge jaws clamped down on the little Totodile with Bite. “Hang on!” Charlie called. Loki winced but kept standing.

“Ok, Thunder Fang,” Cordelia said, looking really quite bored.

“Water Gun, full power!”

“You IDIOT!” Kitty screamed. The other boys looked at her in alarm. The Totodile squirted out a powerful jet of water and the Houndoom leapt straight over its head, causing the Totodile to get sprinkled instead of him. He landed behind him and bit him again, but this time electricity surged through Loki's now damp body and he slumped to the floor, unable to stay conscious.

“I win,” Cordelia stated, and the Houndoom trotted back to her side. “Good one, Orion. Although that thing was a bit pathetic.” She looked up at Charlie who was cradling his Totodile.

“You're really good,” he said sadly.

“I know,” she said simply. “You're not.”

He frowned at her and then walked away. “I hope this Umbra person gets you,” he said, then returned his pokemon and proceeded to sulk.

“Umbra's not a person, it's a team.”

“Ah, finally, a team. Are they like Rocket?” Matthew asked, looking pleased. Cordelia narrowed her eyes at him.

“You're all so strange.” She got over it. “They're really bad. They stole my… friend's… Abra.” She looked sad and dreamy for a moment. “I need to get him back.”

“Well I'm sure your… friend… is looking for him too,” Kitty said with a grin.

“He is,” Cordelia replied simply.

“Well would you like to come with us to find them?” Scott suggested. She looked at him once again with mild disgust.

“No way,” she said, indignant.

“But in the show, they always picked up new people…” he explained, as if she wasn't doing it right.

“What the hell?” she demanded. “You're all freaks. Anyway… I'm going. If you see anyone from Umbra, make sure you give them what they deserve,” she said carefully, and then walked off, closely followed by her two Houndoom.

“Nasty girl,” Charlie mumbled to himself from far away.

“You're just sore cos you're crap at battling,” Matthew observed, walking over. Charlie gestured at him rather rudely and strode off further into the forest.

“Awesome!” Fred exclaimed, pointing. “Adam, a Venomoth, look.” Adam's ears pricked up and he trotted in the direction of Fred's finger. There was indeed a Venomoth, engaged in a vicious battle with something tiny in a bush. He gasped and immediately sent out his Scyther.

“Quick Attack,” he ordered. The pokemon dashed forward and slammed into the moth, who wasn't expecting it. Adam immediately chucked a pokeball but the Venomoth panicked and flew off out of sight. “No!” Adam cried, but the familiar `ping' sound of a pokeball successfully catching something sounded out and he walked towards it with great confusion. It must have caught the Venomoth's opponent hidden in the bush.

He reached into the bushes and retrieved the pokeball, inspecting it carefully. “I wonder what it is,” he said excitedly. “I hope it's something awesome.”

“You caught it without attacking it once, it can't be that good.” Matthew was always the first to burst anyone's bubble.

“Yeah, but the Venomoth could've weakened it,” Kitty pointed out. Adam released whatever was inside it and a Budew emerged from the orange light.

“Budeeeew,” it said happily, waving its leaves about.

“You saved it from a scary Venomoth,” Kitty giggled. “It seems like it's grateful.”

“Alright, it could have been worse,” Adam shrugged. “Return.” It was sucked back into the ball.

Almost immediately after, there was another `ping' sound and they all looked around wildly to see who had caught the next pokemon, but it didn't look like anyone had.

“Oh my God!” They were interrupted from their thoughts as Charlie yelled and pointed at a lone Marill. “That is so mine…” He pulled out a pokeball from his pocket and chucked it at the unsuspecting pokemon, but inside of sucking it inside, something came out.

“Pidge,” it said, looking around sleepily.

Kitty couldn't help but burst out laughing. “It went to sleep in your pokeball!” she cried. The Marill squeaked and dove away into the trees.

“Noooo!” Charlie stared at the stupid Pidgey, and returned it. “How do you release pokemon?” He inspected the pokeball carefully as if there were some kind of secret button.

“Wait,” Elliot held out his hand. “I want it.” He looked at Charlie. “Please?”

“Sure.” Charlie tossed it haphazardly and Elliot barely caught it, cradling it for a moment before pocketing it. “If anyone sees that Marill again, please tell me.”

“Hey! I can see it!” Scott called out suddenly, looking straight ahead. Charlie's eyes widened.

“Where?” he looked around wildly.

“Not the Marill, moron, the exit!”

“Ooh!” Kitty shuffled to his side to see, and then beamed. “Finally.”

They all took off at the speed of light towards the end of the forest, but before they could reach the light at the end of this endless tunnel, someone interrupted.

“What do you know about the shortage of Sandshrew?” it asked accusingly.

Kitty looked at the old man sitting outside his cabin on a rocking chair. She half expected him to be cradling a gun, but there was nothing in his hands. Beside his chair lay a scrawny Delcatty.

“Umm…” she spoke up, as nobody else had anything to say to that. “Nothing?”

“I have a Sandshrew,” Matthew said brightly. The man's eyes bulged out of his head and he started to have what seemed like some kind of asthma attack.

“You… you… you… you… you… you what?” he wheezed. He paused for breath between each word and every breath whistled. Kitty stifled her snorts.

“I got it from Oak,” he said awkwardly. “Uh… is that a problem?”

“You… you…” he went on. “You aren't in… but you're too… so that means you must… actually… have one…” He calmed down a little. “So I can't let you carry on through the woods.” The Delcatty wearily got to her feet, took off and Tackled Rocky who was chasing a Beautifly gaily nearby. Rocky rolled on his side and squeaked.

“What the hell was that for?” Kitty roared. The man blinked hotly.

“This place is really not how I imagined,” Charlie moaned. The others all shook their heads sadly.

It really wasn't.