Just finished Chapter 4...
Chapter Four - The first battle
“Where is he?” asked James, him and Joe were waiting outside the pokémon center for Ben who was late. A few minutes later, Ben came running round the corner carrying Nidoran in his arms as usual.
“You should really put that thing in a pokéball,” said James disapprovingly, “Anywhere where were you?”
“I just needed to buy something,” said Ben panting heavily, “Shall we get going?”
The boys set off towards Viridian Forest. They all knew this would be the real start of their journey. Viridian Forest was inhabited by many different varieties of pokémon, mostly bug types. The forest would also take a couple of days to walk through, so the boys would have to camp out for at least one, possibly two nights. This was a prospect they were thoroughly looking forward to.
“Tonight we’ll have to get a proper fire going, we can roast marshmallows!” said Joe enthusiastically.
Ben and James nodded in agreement, and the talk of plans for camp that night lasted for a good few hours. They suddenly realised that they had walked deep into the forest, and were completely lost. They came to a clearing and decided to stop and try to work out where they were. While James and Joe were reading the map, Ben pulled something out of his bag.
“What is that?” asked James, looking around as Ben placed it on the ground. It looked like a miniature green punching bag.
“It’s a training bag,” said Ben, “I thought I’d see what attacks my Nidoran knows.”
Nidoran, who had been lying on the ground relaxing, looked up at Ben. After a little encouragement from Ben, he stood up and walked over to the training bag uncertainly. Ben pulled out his Pokédex and looked up Nidoran♂ attacks. Ben turned back to Nidoran and smiled, “Ready buddy?”
Nidoran moved closer to the training bag looking nervous, but Ben nodded encouragingly.
“Okay Nidoran try a Double Kick attack,” said Ben. Nidoran just looked at its trainer confused. “I guess you don’t know that one yet... okay try a Peck attack!”
Nidoran just sat down and shook its head, Ben was beginning to get worried... did his baby Nidoran know any attacks? “O-kay, how about a Poison Sting?” asked Ben. This time he got a reaction as Nidoran hopped back to his feet and sprayed a few needles in the general direction of the training bag, but they all missed. Despite this Ben looked a little happier, “Okay cool, that’s a poison sting... got to work on your aim a bit though. Do you know any more attacks?”
“Ni,” said Nidoran sadly, shaking his head.
Ben thought for a moment, and then had an idea. “Okay, why don’t you try this? Just charge at the bag and ram it with your shoulder,” Ben explained. Nidoran looked uncertain, but had a go. He walked slowly up to the bag and knocking it gently with its head.
“No, that’s not it... You have to run at the bag quickly and hit it hard,” said Ben, “Like this.” Ben dropped to his knees and rammed his shoulder into the training bag hard, in an attempt to show Nidoran what to do.
This time Nidoran took a big run up and jumped into the bag, knocking it over. “That’s it!” said Ben happily.
“Ni, Ni,” said Nidoran, jumping up and down happily.
“There you go buddy, that’s two attacks you know already,” said Ben encouragingly, “You don’t need to be afraid of battling anymore!” This seemed to make his little Nidoran very happy. “Now let’s try improving you aim with that poison sting.” After half an hour of training Nidoran’s aim had improved, if only slightly.
“Okay that’s good Nidoran,” said Ben, as a couple of needles found their target. He looked over at James and Joe who were just rolling up the map, which Ben took to mean they had worked out where they needed to go. “I think that will do for now, we should get going.”
Ben walked over and picked his backpack up and the group was just about to leave, when there was a voice from behind them.
“Hey do any of you want a battle?” This caused Ben, James and Joe to turn around to see where the voice was coming from. Standing there were two boys, who looked twelve or thirteen, and were both wearing the exact same outfit. They were both wearing khaki shorts and a white t-shirt. “How about you big guy?” asked the boy on the left looking at James.
“I’ve got a better idea,” cut in the other boy, before James could answer, “How about a double battle?”
Ben looked down at Nidoran, who certainly seemed to have gained confidence from his training. Nidoran was walking forwards as if he wanted to battle. “Okay I guess,” said Ben, looking over at James who looked surprised but nodded.
“Good,” said the two boys, sending out their pokémon. A second later a Rattata and a Caterpie were standing in front of the two boys.
“Okay the, Go Cubone,” called James, releasing Cubone from his pokéball.
“You ready Nidoran?” asked Ben. The little pokémon nodded, “Okay then start with a poison sting on Caterpie?”
Nidoran shot a number of purple needles from its horn, but the needles flew way left of Caterpie and missed the bug pokémon completely.
“Hey Nidoran knows Poison Sting! Need to work on his aim though,” said James laughing, “Oh well... it’s a start
I guess. Cubone show him how it’s done! Use Bone Club on Rattata.”
“Counter with tackle Rattata,” called Rattata’s trainer. Rattata began to run at Cubone to tackle him. Cubone saw Rattata coming and the tackle only added momentum to Cubone's bone club, as Cubone’s bone crashed straight into the oncoming Rattata's face... sending the rat flying backwards. The Rattata struggled back to its feet looking dazed. Cubone then ran in and used a second Bone club attack on Rattata, causing the small rat pokémon to faint.
“Damn, Rattata return.”
“Two on one now!” called James happily, “Ben go for it.”
Ben looked at Nidoran, who still seemed upset that his Poison Sting had missed Caterpie earlier. “Nidoran use that Tackle attack I taught you.” This perked Nidoran up again and he started charging at Caterpie.
“Caterpie tackle as well,” called the Caterpie’s trainer. Nidoran and Caterpie collided into each other, causing both to be knocked backwards off of their feet.
“Nidoran are you okay?” asked Ben concerned. Nidoran struggled back to his feet momentarily, before collapsing back to the ground. Caterpie however, did manage to struggle back to its feet, however the bug was panting quite hard.
“Cubone finish it with Headbutt,” called James. Cubone dropped his head and rammed into Caterpie head first, with its hard skull. This sent Caterpie flying backwards, and when it landed Caterpie was unable to get up.
“Yeah we did it!” yelled James giving Ben a high five, “We won!”
Ben made his way over to Nidoran, and picked the exhausted pokémon up. “You okay?” he asked, “You did great Nidoran. I’m really proud of you.” Nidoran looked up at his trainer, smiled and gave a weak “Ni.”
“You were great too Cubone,” said James to his pokémon, “That Headbutt was awesome wasn’t it Joe?”
Ben looked up and Joe was nowhere to be seen. “Where did he go?”