Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ The Forgotten Son ❯ Explosive ( Chapter 13 )

Scyther was not prepared to keep going. To see victory and then watch is slip it away was one of the most powerful attacks on an opponent's psychology there was, even if it wasn't intentional. Luke himself stood in awe for a moment, looking a his newly evolved Grovyle.

 

“Uh…” he stammered, “Kenshin… attack!”

 

Scyther wobbled back, but Kenshin rushed at it, using its two leaf blades to strike it. It mirrored the green bug's earlier X-Scissor, forming an imaginary X in the air with its two simultaneous attacks and cutting over an existing wound on the praying mantis' abdomen. Now it was scyther who fell to his knees in pain, but he quickly leapt to his feet again. This couldn't be happening. He wasn't about to be bested like this.

 

It charged forward, straight at Kenshin. Kenshin responded by running at it, too. The two pokemon's eyes were locked with the others, blades slowly pulled back and tension in their arms slowly increased. And within instants, they met.

 

Leaf blade met arm blade, and after a brief struggle in strength the two pokemon began strafing around the other, an endless circle. Each flowed from one strike to the next gracefully, almost rhythmically. With the new evolution both were very close in speed and strength, and that began to show as scyther failed again and again to land a single blow faced with Kenshin's twin blades.

 

The tension between the two trainers was palpable. They constantly dared a glance at the other, waiting for their opponent's companion to make a mistake, daring the other to break the sword contest going on in the center of the room. Seconds began to crawl by like minutes.

 

Kenshin and scyther continued to stare into the other's eyes, not wielding. It was scyther who broke the circle, suddenly stopping its strafing and kicking out a leg. Before Kenshin, who had been completely focused on scyther's eyes, had time to react it had stumbled over the praying mantis' foot and was immediately struck down with a slash attack to the back. It almost lost balance, clumsily stumbling out of the circle, but was able to stay standing, just in time for scyther to stab at it again, this time with a Pursuit attack.

 

Kenshin fell over, rolled and hopped back onto its feet, facing its opponent again while scyther charged at it once more. Scyther struck at the dragon-like lizard, but was blocked; this time, not by a blade, however. Kenshin held up its arm, and scyther's blade was caught inside the rows of dagger-like leaves protruding from Kenshin's wrist. The edge of scyther's blade dug a shallow wound into Kenshin's arm, but it was worth it; with a single motion it threw back scyther's arm and struck back with its own leaf blade, another hit atop the existing wounds on scyther's abdomen.

 

Attack after attack on the same spot began to wear scyther down. It stumbled back, hardly standing anymore while Kenshin rushed at it one last time, stabbing at its abdomen with both blades simultaneously and then slashing both outward, creating an excess of blood before the green bug finally collapsed.

 

Kenshin and Luke had won.

 

“No…” the blade master growled, his fists trembling, “If it wasn't for that evolution mid-battle to throw us off… you'd never have won!”

 

“Evolution or not,” Luke said coldly, “We flat-out bested you. You lose.”

 

Kenshin glanced back at Luke, grinning. He really liked this new Luke, actually.

 

“Kenshin,” Luke ordered, “Take him out.”

 

Kenshin didn't need to think twice about it. Before the blade master could object he was hit by Kenshin's leaf blades and collapsed, blood spilling across the floor. Luke stared down at him.

 

“Is… is he dead?” he asked, a slight tremble growing in his voice. Kenshin shook his head. Luke looked at him, then nodded and continued his ascent up the tower, followed closely by th rest of his pokemon.

 

* * *

 

The next room was another office, but this one was nicer. The carpet was softer, the plants more exotic, and the desk of a higher quality. There was even an excellent view; an entire wall was just glass, which gave view to Goldenrod. Luke peered out the window, estimating that he was about 4 stories up at this point.

 

Luke looked around the room cautiously, but it seemed vacant. Muffled yelps erupted from behind the desk, and Luke rushed over to find the source. There, gagged and bound, was a finely dressed man with nicely combed black hair. Luke pulled out the gag, and the man gasped for air gratefully.

 

“Thank you for helping me,” he said, “I'm the president of the radio tower! Team Rocket held me hostage… what are they doing?”

 

“I'm not entirely sure myself,” Luke conceded, “but they're up to no good, that much is certain.”

 

“The broadcasting rooms are all higher up,” the president said, “I'd come with you but I would only hold you back.”

 

Luke nodded, then walked toward the stairs. An odd sound caught his attention, however, and he turned just in time to see the president leaping back while a dark pink and blue abstractly shaped pokemon spawned beside him, a Porygon-Z. It cast a solid light blue Protect shield around itself and the president while another pokemon spawned; this one closely resembled an upside-down pokeball, with a face. Electrode rolled at Luke and his pokemon at a speed that was hardly comprehendible.

 

“Electrode!” the man commanded, “Explosion!”

 

* * *

 

Passerby were shocked when an awe-inspiring explosion erupted from the radio tower, glass showering out from the fourth floor. A pale young man with dark clothes and hair was sent airborne out with the glass and a handful of smaller pokemon; half jumping out himself and half propelled by the explosion, his backside burned a bit. Luke's reaction had been instant and completely thoughtless; the window had been his only route for escape, but now he found himself falling toward the sidewalk below. Falling, falling, falling…

 

But he didn't hit pavement. The dark teenaged trainer landed on the back of his gyarados, who had stretched out and caught its master within moments; Woop, Kenshin, and Miltank all were somehow able to land on it too on different segments, though together they weighed him down a bit. Luke was filled with a gratefulness to be alive, but this was only half lived—before a word of thanks could be uttered, gyarados swung wildly below Luke and he was forced to hold tight onto the sea serpent as he was yanked out of the path from a powerful beam attack.

 

Hyper beam soared past Luke, just missing him and striking the ground below instead. The “president” followed soon after, gently gliding down while holding tightly to the feet of a black crow pokemon, Honchkrow, with Porygon-Z sitting comfortably on its back. He began circling around gyarados's head, an infuriating smirk on his face while gyarados' slow Hydro Pump attack failed to connect. Luke was just beginning to regain awareness of his surroundings, but bravely called out attack orders.

 

“Gyarados! Ice fang—knock him into the ground!”

 

Luke's voice sounded unusually loud in his ears, and that's when he discovered the temporary deafness he had from the previous explosion. A dull ringing filled his ears, blocking all the noise of gyarados snapping forward at Honchkrow, the bird squawking in pain between gyarados' teeth before being slammed down into the pavement with frozen wings, porygon-Z unceremoniously landing beside it.

 

The “president” rolled out from under honchkrow as gyarados pulled back, staring up at the sea serpent half with fear and half with respect. “Where's the real president?” Luke called down to him from gyarados' back, the sea serpent looming over the decoy rocket. The rocket yelled something back; presumably witty and aggressive, but Luke's poor hearing didn't catch it at that distance one bit. “Whatever you say,” Luke yelled back, pretending to have heard him, before gyarados charged at the man headfirst, prepared to finish him.

 

Gyarados' head met a protective blue shield; porygon-Z had regained its wits and saved its trainer at the last moment. Luke and the rest of his pokemon quickly rolled off of gyarados' lowered back and onto the street as Luke ordered a point-blank hydro pump. Gyarados gaped its mouth open to attack, but porygon struck first. A bright yellow beam erupted from it, a bit angled, but it still managed to grace the side of gyarados' head. Instantly an electrical spasm was spent through gyarados' entire person, and he roared in pain and fury while he reared back.

 

While electrical power built up in porygon-Z, a side effect of its charge beam attack, the rocket substituted his injured and grounded Honchkrow for his last pokemon—a houndoom. The dark skeleton dog appeared with a snarl, double-teaming the monstrous gyarados with a stream of hot fire from its mouth.

 

Luke glanced back at his pokemon, hoping for a suitable partner to help out gyarados. All of his pokemon looked barely conscious, however; miltank, in fact, seemed to already have fainted on gyarados' back. Without any pokeballs to protect them, that one explosion attack dealt a great deal of damage to Luke's entire arsenal.

 

“Woop, Kenshin—I know you're both hurt, but I'm counting on you to take care of that porygon together!”

 

“Hurt” was an understatement. Hearing those commands, the rocket jeered as he had porygon prepare another charge beam to finish gyarados. Those pokemon wouldn't do squat.

 

Just as charge beam erupted again from porygon, however, a small blue proectile flew into its path; Woop, thrown by Kenshin, took the attack. And because of its typing, it not only absorbed all of porygon's built-up electricity, but it took no damage. The porygon-Z stared wide-eyed as the injured Woop continued its trajectory and fell face-first onto the ground. It didn't even realize that Woop's diving save was not only defensive, but a distraction as Kenshin charged at it.

 

“Porygon! Look out!”

 

Porygon-Z twisted back just in time to meet Kenshin eye to eye. In a last ditch effort it released a dark pulse attack while Kenshin's twin leaf blades made contact at full force. The samurai grass pokemon was blasted back, but porygon-Z at the same time succumbed to the slashing attack and he, too, collapsed.

 

It was down to only one against one.