Tried to make this one a little longer and encompass the entire fight rather than breaking it up. For the next two weeks I'll be on vacation in Florida, but I've got around 3 or 4 ten plus hour drives within those two weeks so I'll hopefully be able to put in some work on decent length chapters for you guys. and maybe finish up the next chapter of Marowak's Revenge
18.
Lappe leaned backwards, falling lazily from Jack's shoulder as the Timburr took a few more steps forward, mimicked in opposite by the human boy.
"So, you're one of the Republic then?" Lappe waddled awkwardly from behind his friend, his eyes still set on the ground.
Eff smiled, "Yes, although not originally. I was rescued from a certain... other... organization by our Leader, Mewtwo." The Timburr closed its eyes and tapped the crowbar against its hand once more as it inhaled deeply, his smile disappearing momentarily. "Those are dark times that I would… rather leave in the past." The Pokemon's eyes opened and the smile returned to its face. "Why do you ask? You couldn't be familiar with us, could you?" The Pokemon chuckled quietly to itself as Lappe continued to waddle in its direction.
"As a matter of fact…" Lappe threw his left arm behind himself, covering it in a ghostly aura as he glanced down at his right. "We've got a bit of a debt to settle with them." The Croconaw raised its head and stared straight into the eyes of the Timburr across from him.
"Oooh, I like those eyes. Dull and empty, nearly devoid of emotion, much like mine before the Republic found me." The Pokemon put the crowbar behind its back and then began to twist from side to side. "Tell me, what is it that keeps you with that human, and what has your life been like while you've been by his side? Has it been fun for you, fighting all of his battles for him? Taking all of the hits while he sat idly by waiting for you to either fall or return to his hand?"
Lappe stepped forward, his eyes drifting to his side as he listened to the words of the Timburr. As he drew nearer, Eff flung the crowbar around from behind him, spinning it around in the air above him in a circle. The Croconaw shook his head and grit his teeth, leaping at the opposing Pokemon. "None of that matters right now. All that matters, is that you're part of the reason we've ended up like this!"
The Timburr smiled wildly, a light shone upon its eyes as the crowbar spinning above its head began to glow with a fiery red light. Lappe's claw rushed for Eff's face, only to be knocked away by the spinning crowbar. The Croconaw continued forward, unable to control its own momentum due to its recent disposition and simultaneous evolution. Lappe attempted to adjust itself with a Water Gun as it had been previously suited, well after its shadow claw had dissipated only to be struck in the gut with the crowbar.
The Timburr's smile slowly began to fade as the weapon in its hand lost its flame, and instead became encrusted with shards of ice which the Pokemon let loose on the Croconaw's backside as it was recovering from the previous attack.
"You're too slow, Croconaw. Perhaps if you'd remained a lowly Totodile you'd be able to dodge me with one of your other attacks. As you are now though, you're simply no match. It's pitiful really." As Eff degraded Lappe, he continued on with his rapidfire attack strategy, smashing the crowbar across the Croconaw's body in various locations as the weapon switched between ice and fire infusions.
The onslaught was quickly taking its toll on Lappe. The Pokemon's skin began to glow red in several places, and had begun to rip and tear in certain places on his back and stomach where he'd been repeatedly bludgeoned with the elemental crowbar. For nearly three minutes the abuse went on with no interruptions. The Timburr continued to whack away at the Croconaw with its crowbar, leaving numerous injuries upon the Pokemon before it finally relented.
"So, this is the relationship the two of you have? How pitiful." The Timburr looked over in Jack's direction and spit on the ground. "You've done nothing but stand by idly, like every other trainer. What use does this world have for yet another person like you?" Eff took a step in Jack's direction, shooting a momentary glance at the Croconaw beside himself before continuing on towards the boy. "You're meaningless to us free Pokemon. You provide nothing for us, only take. How can you call yourselves superior to us when all you do is-" Eff was stopped by Lappe wrapping his claw around the Timburr's leg, only seconds after the Pokemon had begun tapping the crowbar against its hand once more.
"D-don't." Lappe's eyes were swollen shut and his breathing was labored. The Croconaw struggled to lift its body, but the grip that it held on Eff's leg was like a vice. "Regardless of what happens… I…"
Eff scowled and then with two hands, swung the crowbar at Lappe's head. The attack proved to be the finishing blow, as the Croconaw immediately fell to the ground after the weapon rebounded from its head with a loud crunching sound, chipping one of the spikes atop his skull.
"Lappe!" Jack screamed out as the Timburr swung at his friend for the final time. The boy rushed over immediately, punting Eff nearly thirty yards away with a well placed, and unexpected kick to the diminutive Pokemon's chest. The boy quickly tossed his bag down beside him and fumbled through its contents, haphazardly launching them in every which direction as he searched for the potions he'd previously stocked up on. "Don't you fuckin' pass out on me again man! It's too soon for you to get the shit beat out of you like this again! Come on! Stay with me!"
Finally, Jack found the item he'd been searching for after having upturned his bag and letting every single thing drop out from within it. The boy fumbled with the potion, removing the nozzle and spraying his friend's entire body with it rapidly. Several seconds went by before Jack wrapped the Pokemon up in his arms and held it against his chest, rocking back and forth as his whole body shook. His lips were pursed, but every so often a muffled whimper would escape them as tears ran quietly down his face.
"Fuckin' hell man." The Timburr rose to its feet slowly, coughing up a small pool of blood as it used its crowbar as a crutch. The Pokemon was still in the same spot as where it had landed, but soon after it rose to its feet it began to quickly close the distance. "The fun and games are over kid. I'll give you that one cheap shot, but no more. Never again will I be mistreated by you humans! I'll fuckin' kill the lot of ya!" The Pokemon lifted its crowbar up into the air as if to attack, but quickly fell flat onto its face.
Jack took the few additional seconds granted to him and shuffled through the pile which was the contents of his bag in search of another potion for Lappe. A number of berries and dehydrated meatballs rolled away from him as he rapidly searched to no avail. "Fuck! I know I bought more than those two potions!"
"Oh, you mean these potions?" Eff was laying on his back, leaning up as he smirked at Jack. The Pokemon's crowbar had three potions attached to its split end, which he quickly pulled free and began using on himself. "I really do appreciate the gift. If you hadn't so haphazardly tossed your shit about as you people tend to do, I'd be in a real dire situation right now. But as it is, well, you know."
Jack scurried backwards, kicking away his pile of belongings as the Timburr leaped to its feet and bore down menacingly on him and Lappe, still cradled against his chest. Eff began to tap the crowbar against its hand in a much more rapid fashion before gripping it tightly at both ends. Flames trickled up the weapon at one end, and ice formed in crystals at the other as the Pokemon tossed it into the sky, reaching its hand up and catching it in the center of its length.
"Let me ask you something, boy. Did you know that Pokemon are not normally limited by the constraints that you humans place upon them? And by that, I don't mean the theft of our free will or anything of that nature, but rather, something else that I suppose you might personally find mundane. However, to us free and freed Pokemon alike it is most important to our survival."
As the Pokemon spoke, small sparks of electricity began to trickle down its arm and into the crowbar, causing the flames to turn a bright white color and the ice to shatter into smaller pieces which slowly hovered around the opposite end of the weapon, sparking with electricity which held them close to the weapon.
"The moves we can use at any given time, are and always have been greater than four. Your attempts at domestication may strip from us a portion of our memories, but we will never forget the power which we held once when we were wild and free. The Pokemon of this world have never been under the control of man, nor shall we ever! Mewtwo, our leader is strong and proud! A free Pokemon to his very core! A Pokemon with only the best wishes of Pokemon kind in his heart!" Eff slammed his feet together and struck his left hand across his forehead, standing like a statue as he saluted a figure circling high in the sky.
Jack looked above him, finally noticing the shadow which had been floating around almost since the beginning of the fight. In the instant that his head tilted to the sky, he felt something strike his chest and was filled with a number of different sensations. His whole body fell numb for a moment, and then was bombarded with a chilling wind and heat so powerful it caused his whole body to perspire.
"It's over, kid."
Jack looked down and saw the crowbar pressed against his chest, his clothes singed away and a crater slowly forming in his chest. Before he could open his mouth, an explosion caused him to fly far off into the distance along with a number of the bags that the trainers from before had dropped in their panic. Lappe landed only a few feet away from him, the Pokemon's eyes slowly opening and closing as it drifted in and out of consciousness. Lappe was completely immobilized, unable to do a single thing following the explosion. His head drooped as he tried to make out the wound on his own chest from which blood was beginning to trickle out from.
"I've done it." Eff slowly walked out from the smokescreen caused by the explosion. The Pokemon chuckled wildly to itself as it tapped the crowbar against its shoulder, its outfit and body torn to shreds and bruised from the effects of its own attacks. "My promotion," the Pokemon continued onward as one of the bags which had been blown away in the explosion slowly tilted over. "My promotion is secured now. I'll finally be able to sit at the big table with Mewtwo and the Alakazam."
Eff swung his crowbar down to his side as he approached Jack. The Pokemon used the boy's body as a pedestal and wrapped its hand around his face, tilting the boy's head up to the sky, revealing that a Pidgeotto had been the shadow hovering above them all along.
"My superior," the Timburr smiled, "he is most pleased with my results."
The Pokemon released Jack's head, causing it to dangle limply once more while the Timburr continued to stare into the sky. Jack noticed that one of the bags - no, his own bag had a Pokeball tucked away within one of the side pockets. His backpack was slowly tilting more and more every second, and was within arms reach. If only he could move, if only…
Jack struggled with all of his might to move as Eff continued to howl ever louder in triumph. The Pokemon wouldn't have noticed if an entire herd of Pokemon came rushing down the path it was so caught up in itself at the moment. Jack closed his eyes and prayed, hoping for a miracle that could help him get even just the tiniest bit closer. The Timburr's laughter slowly faded as it stepped down from the boy's lap.
"Oh? You wouldn't be falling asleep on me now, would you?" Eff placed the split end of the crowbar under Jack's chin and lifted his head, tilting the boy's face side to side as the Pokemon looked over his eyes which were sealed shut as he prayed for anything at all to help him. "Couldn't be letting you go and do that now, could I? I've got to drag you down to the headquarters yet... which won't exactly be easy if you're dead weight... that being said..."
The Pokemon let loose a series of sinister chuckles as it traced the end of the crowbar along Jack's body, lightly tapping against various points as he gauged the boy's response. After the crowbar had trailed over the entirety of Jack's body, Eff wrenched the weapon back and let loose a barrage of attacks to the boy's rib cage, causing him to instantly spit up a large amount of blood before falling over in pain, landing him just the tiniest of bits closer to his backpack. Jack clenched his eyes in pain as the weapon bounced against his body, cracking his ribs and tearing open the skin around them. He leaned backwards ever so slightly, just barely glimpsing the bag in his peripheral vision as the Timburr slowly walked up to where his head was, the crowbar still in hand and slowly being covered once more in the three elements from earlier.
"I wonder..." the Timburr smiled as he kneeled down next to Jack's face and stared into his eyes. "What do you think the higher ups would say if I only came back with the Croconaw? Surely, there's no need for yet another human clogging up our processes over there."
The Pokemon grinned menacingly as it lifted the crowbar above its head. Jack's left hand reached slyly behind him, pulling the Pokeball from his bag. He'd had no idea how the Pokeball ended up in his bag in the first place, but at the moment, that wasn't what mattered. What really mattered, was finishing this battle and saving both his and his friend's lives. He had only one chance; there was only one ball, and in the state he was in, it wouldn't even take a single strike from the crowbar to put him out of his misery.
"Jack," Lappe croaked out from a short distance away. "Jack..." the Pokemon called out again, its eyes foggy, but slightly open.
"Ah, you're just in time my friend!" Eff smiled and stayed his hand for a moment. "As liberation is my designation, I've finally come full circle with the duties of my current voyage. Lappe the Croconaw, open your eyes. Watch in awe as I liberate you from this filth you've come to call a friend." Eff smiled and then turned his attention slowly back towards Jack, who'd gained a stronger grip upon the ball still held behind his back.
The haze covering Lappe's eyes quickly faded, sobering up to the realization that Jack was about to be killed. "Jack! Run, Jack! You don't have to fight for me! I-"
As the Croconaw called out, the Timburr dropped the crowbar towards Jack's head, only to be met by a Pokeball shoved into its chest.
"You son of a fuckin' bi-"
Eff was instantly transformed into a red light and absorbed through the center button of Jack's Pokeball. The boy's eyes were wide as he dropped the item from his hand, allowing it to roll around freely on the ground as the Timburr attempted to escape. After a few moments, the ball fell deadly still and glowed with a faint, green-ish light. Nearly a minute passed before Jack threw his head back and let out a sigh of relief. The hole within his chest however, reminded him that the time to celebrate was not yet near. The boy rummaged about blindly in his bag and pulled free one of the potions he'd been previously unable to find. Jack popped the top of the bottle and poured the liquid across his chest, causing him to scream out in pain as the liquid filled in the hole and solidified itself into a blue-ish goop.
Jack slowly rose to his feet and hesitantly grabbed up the Pokeball before looking over at Lappe, who was sitting with his jaw ajar and his eyes wide, filled with fear. The Croconaw's entire body was trembling, and as Jack drew nearer, the Pokemon scrambled to its feet. The boy took a step back and clutched his chest, feeling his heart drop at the sight of his friend.
"Lappe, what's wrong man? Why are you looking at me like that?"
The Pokemon slowly closed its mouth, tears filling its eyes as its face twitched. Lappe placed his good hand against his forehead, covering his eyes before letting loose a powerful water gun, propelling himself to the other end of the path that they'd started down on.
"Lappe!" Jack screamed out at the top of his lungs, clenching at his side as he felt the fractured bones digging into him the more that he moved. "Lappe! Lappe! Lappe! Come back dammit!" The boy screamed out time and time again despite the unbearable pain building up across his body before finally falling to his knees. Jack dropped Eff's Pokeball and wrapped both of his arms around his stomach as he called out his best friend's name, over, and over again.