Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ The Forgotten Son ❯ Smile For You ( Chapter 3 )

The idea of being allowed to battle brought new life to many of Luke's pokemon- especially Kenshin. As they walked down the route they lived, Kenshin jumped up and down in place and would run around, with a grin. Luke was happy to see him so excited, but he wasn't sure if what made it so; because of the workout or because it wanted the chance to hurt other pokemon? The thought of the second possibility scared Luke, but seeing his Treecko happy for the first time gave him confidence to go through with this.

 

Eventually, Luke came upon a young girl with long black which went halfway down to her waist, looking to be about 15. She wore a mostly green uniform, with a round green hat resting crookedly on her head. She seemed bored, with her eyes staring in an uninterested way at nothing in particular, but at her waist Luke saw a collection of pokeballs- a trainer! Just what he wanted.

 

“Hi!” He said, nearing the girl and startling her. “Um, I was wondering… would you like to, uh… um….”

 

Kenshin kicked him in the leg.

 

“Battle?!” Luke's voice jumped up considerably, making the girl jump.

 

“Battle? Uhh… sure, okay. I was getting bored anyway. How many against how many?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Will 2 on 2 be okay?”

 

“Ummm, sure, whatever.”

 

“Cool. Uh… let's begin, then! Go, spearow!”

 

With a wave of her arm and a toss of a pokeball, she released the small brown bird, accompanied by a bright flash and a loud squawk.

 

“Well, Kenshin, this is the moment you've been waiting for, right? Give it a try!”

 

Kenshin nodded and leaped in front of the bird, who looked at the lizard deeply with its reddish eyes.

 

“Spearow, use peck!”

 

The bird nodded, and with a flap of its wings raised itself into the air. A second flap accelerated it forward with a speed the startled Luke. Kenshin, however, turned back to look at Luke, watching him intently.

 

Half a second passed as the spearow drew closer, and Luke began waving his arms.

 

“Wh-what are you doing looking at me?! Do something!”

 

The green lizard raised an eyebrow, and was immediately afterward stuck straight in the stomach. Unguarded, the blow did a lot more damage than it should have. Kenshin growled as the spearow flapped its wings and raised itself even higher, and it looked back at Luke with a rage in its eye.

 

“Wh-why're you looking at me like that?! It isn't my fault you just stood there and let it hit you!”

 

The girl gave a laugh. “Have you ever even battled before?! You're pretty old to start. You're supposed to COMMAND your pokemon on what to do in a fight!”

 

“Command them?”

 

“Uh, yeah genius!”

 

“But that can't be right… to command pokemon and have them obey you would make them a slave to your will. How can pokemon like that? There's no way they'd want to be friends being ordered around like that…”

 

“How should I know! If you don't tell them what to do, they're just gonna stand there and get hit. Now I don't mean to be rude but do yah think they'd be happier standing there and getting the snot beat out of them over being told what to do to save themselves?”

 

“I… I guess not, but… either way, it seems like they'd be unhappy... and Ken said that-”

 

“You know, whatever kid. More money and victories for me. Spearow, another peck!”

 

With a nod, the bird craned its beak down and shot towards the reptile's head, gravity boosting its speed. Once again Kenshin looked back at Luke, awaiting a command.

 

However, Luke stood still, unsure of what to do. He frowned. Kenshin bared its teeth and began growling. Luke looked back at it with shining eyes and a small frown. In that moment, time felt like it was slowing down….

 

Kenshin's teeth disappeared under its lips. It turned away from Luke, now unsure of what to do. Through Luke's eyes it saw how uncomfortable he was with commanding it. It closed its eyes, and decided that as his pokemon it should do what makes him happy. Sure, getting commands would help, but when had that stopped it before? Time's flow seemed to return in that instant as the pokemon's eyes burst open.

 

With a sharp yell it leaped up, creating its favorite grass blade from its wrist and grabbing onto it, bringing it forward just in time to meet Spearow's beak. The stiffened blade of grass was tough, especially with the reptile's firm arm behind it, and so it repelled the attack.

 

“Huh?” The girl was appalled. “It did an awesome move like that… without a command?”

 

Spearow flapped its wings and tried to push itself back from the lizard, but as it pushed back the lizard whirled around with its blade extended and managed to land a good slash across the bird's body.

 

Both pokemon landed simultaneously. The reptile on its feet- the bird on its back. Luke blinked. He felt mixed emotions… on one side, his treecko was very strong. On the other… he couldn't stand to look in the pained eyes of its opponent as they blinked open.

 

“S-spearow! Can you fight?”

 

The bird pokemon gave a weak nod and flap of its wings, landing on its skinny legs uneasily. It looked pained.

 

“Rrgh! I'm not gonna lose to some beginner! Spearow, use fury attack!”

 

A flame re-awakened in spearow's eye as it thrusted forward. Luke could barely watch as it got closer and closer to the green lizard. With a loud, prolonged squawk it jabbed its head furiously at the lizard, delivering several hits in an instant.

 

Or, tried to deliver. To everyone's surprise, the green lizard was not harmed.

 

In the last moment, Kenshin had raised his sword and allowed the blade to receive the first impact. In a twisting motion it spun around on one foot using the centripetal force as it leaned to the side, allowing the bird to pass right by it. By the time it spun a full 180 degrees, the bird was directly behind where it had just been facing; but now it was facing the bird's back.

 

In the continued spin, it held out its blade and just as the bird zoomed out of reach the lizard was able to deliver a clean slash right across its back, sending the bird flying forward, eventually losing its momentum and skidding across the ground. The lizard, however, was not really prepared to handle the attack itself, and fell over along with the bird. Still, Luke was impressed. Three years of attacking wild pokemon had gone a long way in training its battle instincts.

 

Spearow, however, was able to raise itself. Because the blow was received while it was flying away from the blade, the wound wasn't very deep. A normal attack would have done decent damage, however- it seemed Kenshin still had a lot to improve on.

 

Before the treecko could stand back up, the spearow had taken its chance and dove forward again, this time successfully landing several blows and blowing the lizard back while it was off-guard.

 

Although he didn't command his pokemon, Luke still was still watching the battle intently, watching Kenshin's moves and noting their weaknesses. Thus, he forwned when Kenshin leaped into the air, raising his sword and yelling.

 

After all, taking the battle back into the air was a mistake that only someone inexperienced in battling aerial pokemon would make. With a swift motion spearow snapped forward, its peak intercepting the lizard's leap and knocking it back to the ground.

 

The grass pokemon raised itself weakly, but it was unprepared for the spearow's dive right into it which came without warning. With a last gasp its stomach became intimate with spearow's beak in a painful rush. Kenshin's eyes faded shut and his head lolled, the pokemon having lost consciousness.

 

The girl blinked. Luke blinked.

 

“Umm… what now?”

 

“Now's when you recall it to its pokeball.”

 

“It's pokeball? Ummm… oops, I think I left it at home. I never really use it.”

 

“What?!”

 

“Um, I never use it. Eheh, I just felt like it'd be unhappy if I were stuck inside that little ball all the time.”

 

“What don't you do to make your pokemon happy?! Sheesh…”

 

“Miltank, can you get him, maybe? Give him some milk, please, if you can.”

 

With a nod the cow pokemon trotted into the battlefield and lifted up the lizard, carrying it away.

 

“Alright, alright. Now, can you send out your next pokemon? I'm getting rather bored.”

 

Luke frowned, and looked behind himself to see what he could use. Treecko was out… miltank was busy tending to it. That left just magikarp and wooper. Left with a choice like this, Luke was unsure of what to do. Before now he thought Kenshin was really strong, and he was certainly stronger than any of Luke's other pokemon. But now he lost… not much was certain at this point for Luke.

 

Well, his wooper looked much less helpless than magikarp, so that was his choice. He felt guilt as magikarp seemed to sag, but he'd feel guiltier sending it out to fight that spearow.

 

Wooper cheerfully hopped out to battle, even after watching Kenshin's loss. Nothing seemed to dampen the pokemon's spirit…

 

Entering battle, it was already aware of Luke's wish not to command his pokemon. However, he still surprised everyone when it almost immediately began gushing a stream of water out from its mouth, which struck the bird pokemon precisely and drove it back.

 

“Whoah… what a neat move…..” Luke thought to himself. Maybe wooper could win this after all?

 

“It's gonna take more than that! Spearow, use peck!”

 

The bird pokemon rushed forward, smashing its beak into the wooper's small blue body. Wooper let out a pained squeal, but after a moment of discomfort regained that goofy smile on its face. Spearow seemed irked by its imperviousness.

 

It then fired another stream of water, this one at the ground. It thoroughly soaked the dirt beneath it, then kicked it up with its tail; the mud splattered on the bird with little effect, although it seemed to sort of blind the pokemon.

 

“Oh come on, this is pathetic. Spearow, shake off that muck then use fury attack!”

 

The spearow shook its feathers furiously, the mud flinging off in all directions, then sped forward and began ramming wooper with its beak faster than Luke could keep track. Wooper was sent flying back, landing on its back and sliding across the grass. However, it stood up again, grinning.

 

Luke blinked. Did this thing really feel no pain?

 

With a growl the spearow braced forward again, ramming its beak into wooper's stomach, then whipping its head back so that the beak threw the small blue pokemon up into the air. From there, the bird pokemon raised itself with its wings, chasing after the stupidly grinning prey.

 

“Spearow, attack at will!”

 

The bird grinned ferociously, zooming around and jabbing its beak into wooper. It made certain to keep it in the air, the little blue pokemon bouncing up and down in a circle of pain. When the bird finally stopped, wooper crashed into the ground, and its eyes slowly closed, although its mouth was still grinning.

 

“Argh! So, now I choose another pokemon?”

 

“Ummm, no. You lost. It was 2-on-2, genius.”

 

She loved saying that to people being stupid…

 

Luke's eyes widened. His mouth frowned.

 

“Alright, pay up. Half your trainer dollars.”

 

“My what?”

 

“Oh right, you've never battled, of course you have none.” The girl sighed. “What a waste of time…”

 

“Can you at least give me some battling tips?”

 

The girl bared her teeth. Before she was happy for her easy victory, but the lack of a prize sure had her a bit upset.

 

“How about next time you try commanding your pokemon?!”

 

And she stomped off, her spearow following her. Luke looked around at his pokemon. To him, the loss only meant he had to train some more. To his pokemon, that meant that they got themselves wounded for nothing. With a sigh, he sat down beside his pokemon, and in sad tone said “I'm…sorry, you guys.”

 

The glare from his treecko and the depressed frown from magikarp and miltank were no comfort to him, but wooper, still wounded, fought its way back onto its feet and wobbled toward Luke and then fell into his lap, grinning up at him.

 

Luke smiled for the first time in a while.

 

“Thank you, Woop.”