Kris McKenna
Chapter 1-5 - The Acies Battle
Well, this was it, might as well go out with a bang.
She was about o swing her leg out, trying to trip the Acies grunt when she was stopped by a mean-looking Sneasel who seemed ready to inflict some damage. "No tricks," The grunt said smugly. "Or I'll have Sneasel here gut you. And he likes that very much."
Kris glared at him, frantically going over her options inside her head. She was pretty sure she could take the boy. He looked sturdy and strong, with black spiked hair and an air of superiority and smugness, but she'd fought guys like him before. It was the Pokémon that worried her. She'd seen how they used their Pokémon on people before, it hadn't been pretty. "Too bad you'd needed a pesty wild Pokémon to find me," she said casually, taking effort o keep he voice light and steady. "I'd been keeping an eye on you for about an hour now, waiting for the right moment to take you out," she bluffed.
"Of course you did," the guy said. "Which is obviously why you're shaking in your pants right now, isn't it?" Oh she could rip that smug-faced bastard's face off right now. "So why don't we keep things civil? You hand over your Pokémon and we'll go and take you back to headquarters. We'll see what they do with you, if you're nice you might not get executed."
She took that moment to aim a kick at the Sneasel it was too quick, side-stepping her and using its claw to pull her other leg out underneath her. Kris fell flat on her ass and it hurt. "I told you, no tricks," the grunt grinned. "Or, by all means, do! It should save us the need for another televised execution. The public's mood always gets a little dark after those."
Was he bluffing? Probably, but Kris didn't know anymore. They'd done worse **** than that.
"Thing," Kris said, slowly backing up and relying on the fact that the Acies trainer didn't know who Thing was. She heard a rustle in the bushes right next to the Sneasel and spoke quickly to cover it up. "Let us go or I swear, it'll bite you in the ass."
"You think you can threaten me?" The guy said, he truly seemed shocked by it. Just then Thing shot out of the bushes and, just like Kris had hoped she would, bit the Sneasel in the ass. The Sneasel jumped in panick, completely startled by the orange thing chomping on its hiney. Even its trainer was taken aback by the sudden appearance of Thing. "Now use your electric thing!" Kris instructed. While still stuck to the Sneasel, Thing released its blast of white light and electricity at its opponent, causing them both to fly backwards into adjacent bushes.
"A Trapinch…" The grunt said astonished. Kris took a mental note of the name, so that's what Trapinch was called. He recovered quickly though. "Sneasel use quick attack." The Pokémon flew from the bushes into the next ones like a blur and within seconds a cry of pain was heard and an orange Trapinch dropped back into view.
"Thing use that electric move again!" Kris instructed and Thing formed the white balls of energy in its mouth again.
"Don't give it time to use its Hidden Power Sneasel," The grunt instructed. "Use faint attack!" Out of nowhere the Sneasel materialized behind Thing and hit her with a claw shrouded in darkness. "Good, now finish it with a Slash," The guy said almost lazily. Sneasel executed a powerful uppercut at Thing, flinging her into the bushes again.
"What, you think that was it?" Kris said, feeling quiet insulted that the grunt would think her Pokémon so weak. "Thing's not even half-finished, use that Hidden Power move again!" From the bushes came another shot of white energy that hit the Sneasel and electric currents crawled all around it.
"Oh look at that, the girl has spunk," The grunt taunted. "Well then, Sneasel, let's make it hard to catch us. From now one it's Quick Attack only. You can't win when you can't land a hit!" Sneasel raced into the bushes, knocking Thing back out. Thing tried snapping at the Sneasel but it was too quick, speeding to and fro but not hitting her. When it did land a hit it did so multiple times, a series of strong cuts knocking Thing in the air and back to the earth again.
"Thing!" Kris cried out, she couldn't help it and the grunt laughed. If only Thing had one of those sure-hitting moves. Wait, Pokémon learned new moves after a while, did they? But how were you supposed to know about them? A Pokédex, for starters, but really only Acies officers have those at their disposal. She supposed she could ask Thing, it would probably just make the grunt laugh again. But really, who cared about that? It was all or nothing right now. "Thing, if you've learned any new moves, please, by all means, show them off now!"
And so Thing did.
She disappeared and then the sharp cry of Sneasel could be heard. Thank the Gods of luck it was a faint attack! "Follow it up with a Hidden Power move Thing!" She quickly instructed and thing obeyed. It was a close ranged hit and the Sneasel flew backwards.
"Quick attack again, Sneasel, same tactic," again the grunt said it in a lazy way, as if he didn't care that Sneasel was almost done for. Well, he probably didn't.
"Thing, let it," Kris instructed. "And when it tries to claw you, you bite. You bite like you've never bit before."
"What, that's your order?" The grunt challenged with a laugh. "You're not terribly good at this are you?"
"I'm good enough," Kris countered. "To beat the likes of you."
Sneasel sped towards Thing in a blur and scratched her. This time Thing was able to dig her feet into the ground and just as the claw hit her she bit back, and indeed bit like she hadn't before bit before. Sneasel cried out in pain, shaking its claw to try and get Thing off but she held tight, Thing did. "That's'right! Now a hidden power!" Thing opened her mouth and released the attack straight into Sneasel's face/ Sneasel twitched by the current and fell to the ground, out.
"Yes Thing we did it!" Kris cheered. The grunt just smirked though.
"Good job, you managed to beat the weakest link of my team. Try if this one will give you such an easy victory." He casually pressed the catch on the Pokéball and released… a spider. Except this one was bigger and meaner than the ones before.
Kris cursed, royally so too. She
hated those spiders. It was big, really, really big. About three times as big as the spiders from before and far bigger than Thing was. Than any of Kris' Pokémon really. "Ariados," the grunt commanded with a superior tone. "Use big bite." The spider scurried towards Thing and bit it, or, well, tried to. It bit at Thing's armor several times trying to gain purchase, but it was too rounded and tough to get through. It clicked its pincers in annoyance and instead just opened its mouth and spit several poison darts at Thing, who all bounced off anyway.
"Ariados!" The grunt said angrily. "How many times have I told you to listen ONLY to what I tell you!"
"Thing, bite it in the head, now!" Kris said quickly and Thing had the perfect angle to. Thing chomped down on Ariados' head hard. Then Thing was screaming even though Thing couldn't actually scream. It was a guttural sound, one of pain and fear combined, and it terrified Kris. "THING!" She called out. Ariados stepped backwards out of Thing's mouth, its eyes shining a bright red. Then it opened its mouth and shot purple sludge into Thing's who started violently choking on it. Kris just couldn't take it, it was the most she'd ever seen Thing suffer.
"ARIADOS!" The grunt almost screeched. If Thing hadn't been in such pain Kris would have laughed about the way the guy's head turned red and then almost purple in anger. His Pokémon seemed far out of his control.
"Thing, try hidden power again?" Kris posed it almost as a question. Thing had stopped screaming but she looked sick now. There was an almost purple glow about her and Kris knew the symptoms, though she'd mostly seen it in humans. Poison. Thing only had a little time left to harm Ariados as much as she could. If this hadn't been such a life threatening battle she'd have spared her the pain, but she didn't have a choice now it was eat or be eaten.
Thing opened her mouth, cringed, and let out a strong blast of hidden power attack. It was the brightest Kris had ever seen her use and the air crackled with the electricity. Ariados was hit full blast and cringed, however that was all that it did. Its eyes burned red again and Thing cried until a moment later she collapsed.
"Oh Thing," Kris whispered, calling her back. "You'll pay for that." She released Jorg, who was her only hope now. Poochyena couldn't be trusted to fight, in fact she didn't even know where the dog was. He'd been out when the grunt appeared but seemed to have run off into the bushes in fear. The first thing Jorg did was glare at the Ariados. Two bug and poison types together, the one more evil than the other, this would just prove who that was.
"Jorg, if you've any new moves to show me, do it now," Kris said.
The grunt laughed again. "You don't even know your own Pokémon's moves! That's rich! You're hoping to take on Ariados without knowing what your Venipede can do!"
"You can't even control yours," Kris pointed out. "Does that make you better than I? At least Jorg listens to me." To show just that Jorg opened his mouth and let out a bloodcurdling screech that made even Kris and the grunt cover their ears. Ariados twitched madly and scrambled about in pain, it had nothing to cover its ears with. Did it even have ears? Well it was affected alright. Then Jorg opened his mouth and shot poison darts at the Ariados. Of course that didn't do much but at least Kris made a mental note that he'd learned the move. "Now do your roll again Jorg!" Jorg folded himself into a ball and rolled forward, hitting the Ariados and rolling away again. Kris was starting to get the hang of what the move was all about: the longer he rolled the faster he got and the more he hurt his enemies.
"Ariados use night shade!" the grunt ordered, completely ignoring Kris' last comment. Ariados had a different plan though. It turned its bum towards Jorg and shot out a very thin web, quite different from the smaller spider's web . Instead of stopping Jorg's attack the web just got longer the farther Jorg rolled. "USE NIGHT SHADE!" The grunt yelled this time. Ariados' eyes turned red as it obeyed its trainer and Jorg stopped his rolling. He didn't have the ability to cry out either but clicked his pincers hysterically, his own eyes red as well and he was trembling all over.
"JORG!" Seconds time in far too soon to call out one of her Pokémon's names again. That was one evil move. It also made Kris realize how much she cared for the grumpy bug as well, nasty as he was. "Jorg snap out of it!" She tried. "Whatever it's doing to you, you can stop it!" And he did. There was a sort of white shine over him and his eyes stopped glowing red. This infuriated the Ariados visibly, it kept its eyes red, kept trying to get Jorg with it. It was a bit of a stalemate now, Ariados was stubborn and kept its attack up while Jorg kept his defense up. Kris had no idea what attack he was using but she was happy enough it worked!
"Can you roll with this?" She asked but Jorg didn't move so she assumed he couldn't. Still like this the battle would never end. "Alright Jorg, I want you to use that screech again, it can't attack you while your screeching. Can you do that while rolling?" Jorg stopped the protection attack and his eyes started getting a red hue before he let out another horrid screech. The Ariados stopped all it was doing, its eyes screwed up in pain. Right then Jorg started rolling, keeping his screech going, and hit Ariados head-on. It was the first time Kris saw a little bit of wear come over the Pokémon. It was feeling this attack. "Alright Jorg get into the bushes, it can't attack you if it can't find you!" Jorg did as told, rolling into the cover of the jungle and quieting his screech.
Ariados wasn't fooled however, the thin thread was still attached to Jorg. It quickly followed the thread into the jungle and it didn't take long before the frantic clicking of Jorg could be heard again. The grunt seemed to have just given up on ordering his Ariados around. The spider seemed too sure of what it was doing to listen and what it was doing seemed solid anyway.
"Jorg, do the defense move again!" Kris yelled, feeling panic rise up. The clicking stopped again, but there had to be a way to bypass that one night shade attack! "Wait, Jorg, shoot your darts into its eyes!" It was a small hope that the attack was situated in the eyes, but a hope it was. It was also maddening that she couldn't see what was going on, the jungle was still dense enough to hide a lot from the eyes. "You've been awfully quiet," Kris spat at the grunt.
"I'm enjoying this," he said with a smirk. "You all panicky, still hoping for your victory even if it's futile. It's good stuff, they could make a movie out of your expressions and I'd watch it over and over."
"Were you born a scumbag or did you just become that way?" Kris kindly offered him in return. "Jorg, roll over here!" It didn't take long for the Venipede to come crashing through the bushes."Don't stop, I've got this." As he rolled past Kris grabbed the spider thread and ripped it off of him."Go, go into the bushes!" she urged. "pick up speed, it won't know where you are now!"
Just then the Ariados came in sight from the bushes, looking more angry than ever. It looked for the thread of web and traced it to where it stuck to Kris' hand. "Too bad sucker," she commented, wiping her hand on a tree. It looked around, unsure what to do now its target seemed to have disappeared.
"What, now you're out of ideas?" The grunt snapped to his Pokémon. "First you embarrass me by just doing whatever you want and NOW you're not doing anything. You're so useless." The Ariados glared at the trainer and just in that moment of distraction Jorg came from the jungle, hitting Ariados so hard that it flew back out of sight. Quite a feat as Ariados was far bigger than Jorg.
"Yes, good job! Do it again!" Kris cheered. When the Ariados once again returned to view it was limping and battered, about as beat-up as Jorg was now. Kris saw she might have a shot of winning this! She prayed to the gods of luck that this was the last Pokémon the grunt had but she had a feeling it was. You usually send your strongest Pokémon last, and from the look of it this Ariados was so strong it didn't even obey its trainer.
Jorg shot from the brush again and hit the Ariados once more. The spider got sight of him just after it got hit however and its eyes glowed red again. You could see it panting, it was on its last straws. But Jorg's own last straw seemed to be burning quickly.
"Come on Jorg!" Kris encouraged. "It's almost over with, Poison Sting its eyes again, you can do it!" Struggling as he did he opened his mouth and shot the stingers at Ariados' face, thus breaking the night shade attack. He didn't have the energy to use a rollout again but he did have the energy to shoot the stingers for all he was worth. Apparently he was worth a little bit more than the Ariados, the battle was over. "Was that your last?" Kris said wearily, calling Jorg back into his ball.
"My last Pokémon, yes," The grunt said, but he was a bit too cheerful. Kris didn't trust it one bit. "But I don't need a Pokémon to drag your sorry ass back to hq, and you certainly don't seem to have any Pokémon left to defend you." He advanced on Kris and swung one punch at her face. She responded by ducking, hitting him in the stomach with an elbow, then punching him in the nose as he doubles over and elbowing him in the back of the head again as he came up.
"Cocky little ****," Kris muttered. "His kind always things all women are helpless." She dragged him to a tree and tied him up with a vine she cut from the jungle. She didn't want him to die so she left him in clear view of whomever might go looking for him. She did search his pockets for anything valuable though, sadly he hadn't carried a Pokédex, that might've been useful.
From the bushes came Poochyena, shaking and terrified as he made his way to Kris. "Oh sweetheart, it's okay," she cooed. "I think I can find the way from here, you go rest in your ball now." She called him back, wondering whatever would become of him on her team. She'd have to do some serious thinking about what she could do with him. She almost forgot to grab the Skorupi's ball too. She might in no way want the creepy bugger, but perhaps someone did. Plus, she couldn't just leave it.
And with that she was off to distance herself from the grunt as much as she could.
