"Journey Anew - Evil A Brew!"
Post Two
Turns out things got interesting sooner than Esposito expected.
He had only taken one step when there was an insanely loud explosion, something powerful enough to turn the corridor in front of him into rubble. Esposito was thrown backwards, losing grip on his new companion. Carlos skidded along the floor and stopped a few feet away. Esposito opened his eyes briefly and saw through the smoke and flames a large chunk of barely standing wall collapsing, bearing over the dazed Eevee. With a crumbling sound it toppled over on top of Carlos.
“NO!” Esposito shouted. He had just met his new companion and already he had managed to kill it. Groaning, he pulled himself up and started to crawl towards the small pile of rubble. Something moved in the corner of his eye and he glanced around to see a strange and creepy sight.
“What in the world?!” Professor Rowan was up, waving his arms to clear the smoke and staring at two figures standing in the charred hole in the lab. One of them was a woman, tall, slim and radiating cruelness. She had bubblegum pink hair and the letter G was emblazoned on the front of her futuristic looking jumpsuit. The second was not a person, but a Pokemon. It was hunched over and mostly dark blue in colour, with a large spike on it’s head and sharp red claws producing from it’s hands. The area under it’s throat looked swollen. Esposito recognized it as a Toxicroak.
The woman stared at Rowan. She apparently wasn’t interested in the four teenagers standing around the lab. “Well, well, well… You’ve been busy, Professor,” She said it in a creepy singsong voice, like she was a cat toying with a trapped mouse.
“What do you want?” roared Rowan. He was seriously pissed, and looked scary as hell. The woman wasn’t intimidated though. In fact, she was laughing! The hell?
“The boss wants the other orb,” Rowan backed up slightly. “He knows you took it from the ruins.”
Rowan recovered from his surprise and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about…” Then he turned around and… wait… did he just wink? He had winked at Esposito. This man was brave, Esposito thought. But this woman looked dangerous. Even Rowan might be over his head.
“Well, looks like I’ll have to torture you for it then! Toxicroak, knock him out.” The lady motioned at Rowan and the Toxicroak, which leaped at Rowan with an evil grin on it’s face. It raised it’s clawed hand and swung at Rowan with those claws that could cut him in half. Esposito gasped as it was about to hit…
…But suddenly the Toxicroak’s hand was grabbed by a large white gloved hand. Rowan had sent out a fighter of his own, a blue frog looking thing with a white and black swirl pattern on it’s chest. A Poliwhirl. Rowan faced the stunned teens and calmly ordered, “All of you, get out of here now!”
Esposito couldn’t, not without saving Carlos. He was about to turn around and sift through the rubble when suddenly four more men appeared. They were wearing the same stupid looking outfits, but they had blue hair and bowl cuts. They looked like absolute dorks, Esposito thought. They split up, and one of them walked towards Esposito.
“Hey there kid,” the man said. “Guess it’s your unlucky day! I’m afraid I’ll have to… clean up a bit here. And you look like just another bit of trash.” The man laughed sadistically and suddenly a pokeball was in his hand. It opened and revealed a Stunky, a purple and white Pokemon that looked like a skunk and reeked an odor that smelled like dead Magikarp that had been washed up on the beach for a few days.
The Stunky was stalking towards him, tail high and hairs all raised on it’s body. It was letting out a high pitched screeching sound and looked a little crazed in Esposito’s opinion. Esposito backed up against a wall, looking for something to defend himself with. To his left, a large metal machine with lots of flashing lights and buttons. It was almost falling over, stopped only by a bit of wooden support structure from the roof. No good. To his right, part of the piping on the wall had come loose and was hanging awkwardly. Esposito quickly lurched for it but the Stunky cut him off, baring it’s stained teeth.
“Pfft, come on kid. This isn’t some game. It isn’t some kind of piss weak kiddy wrestling, oh no. You’re fighting for your life, and don’t expect me to make it any easier for you.” The grunt was smirking.
Esposito looked back at him. Crap, what to do? He was completely screwed, he knew that. Everyone else was preoccupied with their fights. He was cornered. Carlos was probably dead. God, he hadn’t even started his life as a trainer yet and he had already screwed it up. He stood up straight, though, acting tough. He would take whatever was coming. The Stunky crept towards him and leapt through the air, but just as it was about to reach Esposito it was knocked away in a flash of brown and cream fur. Carlos!
“Oh my god, you’re alive!” Esposito held out his arms as Carlos jumped into them, huddling in a dirty, shaking little ball.
“Really? THAT is your Pokemon? Ha!” the grunt laughed again, grinning like an idiot.
“Dude, it kicked your Stunky’s butt,” Esposito stared at him. “And now I’m gonna kick yours.”
“Oooh, so scary. The newbie’s got his game face on. Alright then, bring it!” the grunt picked up his Stunky and practically threw it to it’s feet. “Get in there, you worthless mutt. Use Poison Gas!” The Stunky let out a growl and opened it’s mouth, releasing a vile cloud of black smoke at Esposito and Carlos, who dove to one side. The attack missed them directly but wafted up into the air above them and slowly began to lower. In a matter of seconds it would descend right around Esposito’s head.
Esposito looked desperately at Carlos. He had no idea what to do. “What moves do you know, little guy?” Suddenly, he remembered the Pokedex. That thing was a full on library of knowledge on Pokemon. It had to know something! He pulled it out and opened it up to find it covered in buttons on one side and a screen on the other. Desperately, he pointed it at Carlos and pressed the largest button he could see. The screen instantly came to life with a picture of an Eevee and a heap of information. And there was a list of moves.
“Quick, Carlos, use tail whip to get rid of this gas!” Carlos jumped out of his arms and clambered on top of his head, where it swung it’s tail around like a helicopter, wafting it to the other side of the room. “Good job, now use Tackle!” With a cry of ‘Vee!’, Carlos launched itself straight off of Esposito’s head and barreled into the surprised looking Stunky. It reeled back with an angry sound and fell to the ground.
“Come on you lazy thing, get the hell up and get them!” the grunt was screaming at the Stunky, who stood there looking up at it’s master. Esposito felt sorry for it. It was hurt, with blood coming out of it’s nose, and it was obviously afraid of this blue haired man. He wanted to help it, but he couldn’t do that if it was to scared to disobey it’s master.
“Use focus energy, mutt!” The Stunky obeyed the man and started glowing with a blue kind of aura. “Now Tackle it!” The Stunky looked up at the man, confused. ‘It must not know that move’, Esposito thought. Even though it must seem easy to them humans, Pokemon just couldn’t attack anything in a way that they hadn’t learned. “For god’s sake, come here.” The grunt picked up the startled Stunky and threw it at Carlos. Both Pokemon cried out in pain, but the blueish aura seemed to intensify the pain that hit Carlos.
“You freaking idiot! What the heck are you doing?” Esposito yelled at the grunt. “You’re supposed to help your Pokemon, not goddamn hurt it more than it has to be hurt!”
“Shut up kid! If this thing was as tough as it should be then it wouldn’t matter. It’s practically worthless to me.” The grunt smirked. “Even so, it still obeys me! These things really are stupid.” He moved slightly and roughly nudged the Stunky with his foot. “Get up. I said GET UP!” the Stunky whimpered and obliged.
“Carlos, are you ok?” Esposito addressed his partner with concern, not hatred. He wanted it to know that he was going to look out for it. Seeing this, Carlos smiled a bit and said ‘Vee’. Esposito didn’t know what that meant, but that didn’t matter. “Come here Carlos!” he knelt down and whispered a plan into Carlos’s ear.
The grunt made an angry sound. “Hey kid, don’t be stupid. This is a freaking battle, keep it simple!”
“Ok, you got that Carlos?” Carlos nodded and jumped into an action stance. “Now, go!” With a small grunt, it ran at the Stunky.
“Get ready, Stunky, and if you don’t tackle this time I’ll throw you again. Get it now!” The Stunky stood up and prepared to meet the oncoming attacker, but to it’s surprise Carlos ran around it and instead Tackled the piece of wood holding back the large machine. It cracked and split, letting the machine fall towards both the grunt and the Stunky. They both tried to dive out of the way. The grunt dived and got out of the way in time. The Stunky, however, was clipped on the head. It’s momentum carried it forward and out of the way of the main impact, but it was knocked out.
Wait a second… If the other trainer’s Pokemon was knocked out in a battle, that meant that it was over. Which meant that Esposito had won. Together with his new partner, he had actually won his first battle! He was absolutely ecstatic. This was the first step in making something of himself.
The grunt looked around, dazed. “You idiot! What have you done? Now the boss is going to be pissed.”
“I don’t care, you heartless idiot. You deserve to be treated like the way you treated your Stunky.” Esposito took a threatening step towards the man, who scrambled back and got up.
“Speaking of the mutt, I don’t want it. It’s as weak as the trainer I stole it from.” He turned around and ran back to his commander. The other grunts had all been defeated aswell, and they had all moved back to huddle near the woman.
Esposito looked over at Professor Rowan in time to see his Poliwhirl get knocked against a wall by the woman’s Toxicroak. The Toxicroak then leapt forward and jabbed Rowan with it’s red spike on it’s hand. Esposito was horrified at the sight. They couldn’t just kill Rowan! Why kill someone when you want something from them. But then he realised the Toxicroak must have only stunned Rowan. The four grunts ran forward and picked Rowan up, one limb each.
The woman stayed behind and looked at the four trainers. “See you around kiddies. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him.” Her mocking voice made Esposito want to punch something. Dark smoke billowed out of seemingly nowhere and surrounded the woman, her Pokemon, her grunts and her prisoner. “Scout’s honor!” And with that, they were gone.
Esposito sat down heavily on the ground and Carlos jumped into his lap. “Good job, buddy! You did so well.” Carlos looked up and happily licked him on the nose. Esposito looked over at the unconscious Stunky. What would happen to it? That idiot of a grunt had said that it was stolen from a trainer. Hopefully it would get back to it and it would be treated properly. Esposito’s thoughts swirled around in his head, going back over all he had witnessed in the past hour or two. One question appeared through the blur: what the hell had just happened?
(I'm sorry this took so long. Holidays have been hectic!)