After receiving the supply bag from Professor Oak, I thanked him briefly and headed out. It took him quite a while to prepare all this stuff, and I'm usually quite patient. But if I don't hurry up now, I might not make it in time. There is a super rare event that's about to happen. Something that's probably a once in a lifetime experience, and I don't want to miss it.
"If I remember correctly... It should be this way." I say, as I run along the roads of Pallet town.
Using a map while being assisted with some of my memories, I was speeding my way through every shortcuts. Up this hill...into the open field...and..ah! Footprints! I followed the trail and it lead me to a waterfall. Down below in the waters ahead, there was a flock of birds chasing someone, as he desperately swam. Further along, there was land, where a spiky orange-haired girl was fishing.
"Nice, I'm close. Hope I don't miss this."
Using the map, I figured out a faster way to get down. Well, it technically wasn't the shortest path, but there was no way I gonna jump down a waterfall. Rushing through trees and skipping rocks, a few minutes later, I finally got to the place where the girl was. There, I saw her scratching her head while looking off to a direction, angered, and clearly confused by what just happened to her.
"Hey!" I called out to her, in which she noticed and turned around to face me. "Have you seen a boy with a pikachu anywhere around here?"
Her face brightened up and started looking more relieved.
"Yes I have! He stole my bike and went that way." she says angrily while pointing to a direction. "Are you his friend? If you could...maybe you can get back my bik-"
"Yea sorry, I'm kinda busy. See ya around Misty." I interrupted, and waved goodbye before running off into the forest road.
Her face turned red with fury. In only a short timespan, she had been treated badly by two separate people; and both times, she didn't even get a chance to speak up for herself as they ran off. Raising her fist, she was about to yell out her frustration, until..
"...Wait, how does he know my name?"
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I was running through the forest without rest. My 10 year old muscles were in hellish pain and bodily sweats were producing rapidly, soaking up every part of my clothes. Though, I couldn't just suddenly stop now, and a short break was not an option either, besides... For some reason, I was starting to see mysterious visions as if from another pair of eyes. And from what I could tell from these visions, I judged that if I rested now, I was definitely going to be late for the event...
"It should start raining by now." Words muttered out of my mouth.
And it did. So it's true... That was just a test but for some reason, I am able recall everything perfectly as if a power was gifted to me. It's like my eyes are connected to my past self's that was watching this very episode. Photographic memory can't even compare to this. It feels like I'm able to rewind through every collection of memory I had in my past life, and watch it in the present. The sensation was as if I had a video tape inside my head that I could watch every time I want to remember something. And if my memory serves right, that "thing" is going to happen a few minutes after it starts raining so I should pick up my pace.
Inside the heavy rain, even with mud stuck in my shoes and water dripping down my face, I continued running with a fast and steady pace. Then there it was, the biggest lightning strike I had ever seen. It's blinding light stretched wide and swallowed up the area around it. Still running, I had an arm wrapped around my face while looking downwards at the ground, trying to shield my eyes from it's intense brightness. As the lightning started to dissipate, so did the rain and soon afterwards, the sun started peeking through the dark clouds, brightening up the surrounding. Then, in the sky, a flock of spearows starting urgently leaving the area in fright.
Finally, I had made it. In front of me was small hill and as I reached the top, across from me on the other side of the hill, was a boy with his pikachu laying together on the ground, both covered in heavy scratches and minor bruises. That scene was great and all but it wasn't the reason I came here. I took out Indra beside me and before he could say anything, I gave him the "Shh" signal with my finger and we hid away behind the hill. A legendary moment was about to occur.
Not a minute later, a large brightly-colored bird was seen above us. I knew it wasn't just any bird though. The sight was unreal... It's feathers illuminated an orange glow that sparkled in the sunlight, a rainbow tone could be seen over the edges of its body and a trail of dazzling white sparkles brushed out from its wings as it flew above us before leaving from our sights. A quick glance is all that was needed for anyone's eyes to get hooked. I looked over to Indra. He was just in awe as I was.
Was this worth all the effort? Hell yea. Although my body ache all over, I don't regret a single thing. Seeing it as a cartoon on a 2D flat screen, I guess it still looks good and all, but as a realistic 3D version in first-person? That's a whole other experience man. Plus, I thought Indra would enjoy it.
As I started resting on the ground, I looked below and saw Ash starting to get up. In his arms was a badly wounded Pikachu with blood-dripping scratches and bruises all over its body. With an injured body of his own, he started walking north towards the city, with Pikachu resting on his arms.
"Heh.. What a nice scene."
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I was having a small break with Indra. The sunlight was warm and cozy, and there was a nice breeze stroking across my face. As I laid there on the grass bed, my eyes started feeling heavy and soon collapsed. Shortly after though, the bright red seen on the inner part of my eyelids, turned to a pitch black - a shadow was being casted onto my face. Slowly opening my eyes, a familiar face was seen.
"Oh hey! What's up Misty."
She didn't look as happy to see me. Beside her, she was carrying a black, fried-up bike that had multiple parts missing.
"What. Happened." Her eyes looked at me menacingly, clearly wanting straight answers.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
I pointed north. "The other guy did it. He went that way."
Sometimes you gotta be a snitch to protect yourself.
Her head instantly turned to where I was pointing. She went silent and walked forward. After positioning the bike onto her shoulders, she made a running stance with eyes locked on the target. With what seemed like a Usain Bolt level of speed, she sprinted ahead, blasting the soil behind her.
"Damn.. Aren't bikes like 10kg or something?"
I was gazing towards where Misty ran off to, still being able to see her orange spike, when Indra came and patted my leg.
"Hm?" I look over to him.
In one of his wings, he was holding a strange looking feather. It looked oddly familiar. I reached my hand towards him and grabbed it.
"Wait.. Isn't this a feather of Ho-oh?" I stared at it in confusion. "Strange, the show never mentioned a feather dropping. Where'd you find this?"
Indra pointed over to a thicket of bushes.
"Was Ash supposed to get this...? Uh whatever, I'll just put it away for now."
I reached down and gave Indra a pat on the head. "Good job buddy"
He gave out a happy cheer and scooted away. It looks like he wants to find more stuff now.
After resting a bit more, I looked at the sun and it seemed to be setting. The clouds were starting to turn orange and shadows began stretching longer across the ground. I guess it's time to head out.
Just as I opened my mouth to call out Indra, a loud crack on a nearby tree was heard. Startled by the sound, I quickly looked over. Indra was running back towards me while something followed him from behind. Looks like he got caught in big trouble, because what chased him...was a level 13 Mankey.
"Jesus... what did you do?" I looked at Indra, to which he swiftly shook his head in denial.
I bent down and whispered. "Is it alone?" To which he responded with a nod.
"Well.. I doubt we can outrun it. I guess there's only one way." I got up and cracked my knuckles.
"If you fail, I'll finish the job alright?"
Indra seemed a bit confused by what I said but regardless, he started approaching the Mankey, stopping halfway to give out a loud growl. The Mankey seemed affected by this - physically.
"Alright! Let's go!"
With that, both Indra and the Mankey rushed towards each other. From a distance, I could see the Mankey wavering it's arm to the side, readying it's claw.
"Dodge now!" I shouted at the last moment.
Without delay, Indra shifted to the left and the claw that was slashing downwards missed by a few centimeters. Indra quickly readjusted his form and with the momentum he accumulated, he pounded the right side of the Mankey's face with his wing and pushed it back a bit, almost having it fall over.
"Now use bubble!"
Spits of high speed bubbles came out of Indra's beak and crashed into the Mankey continuously, forcing it to fall on it's back. It recovered shortly though and rolled backwards, retreating for a bit.
Alright good, it looks pretty hurt now... Now that I think about it, if I'm able to see the status bar like in the games, why isn't it showing me the health bar as well? Does measuring the durability of someone's life not possible in the real world? Well, it would have been useful.
The retreated Mankey was now 3 meters away from Indra and it looked even more angry than before. It's hair was spiking up and the sharp teeth under its fur started being visible. Although to my surprise, it started relaxing it's muscles and took a deep breath. Wait is this..? Fuck, it's using Focus Energy!
"Keep using bubbles! And don't let it get close." I called out to Indra.
And so a barrage of bubbles was shot towards the Mankey. It succeeded in dodging some of them but was overwhelmed nevertheless. That didn't stop it though since with each passing second, it got closer and closer. Indra tried his best to stay away but the Mankey's quick and agile movements were outmatched. Not long after, it was finally in range of Indra. It's fur was soaked with drips of water and there was blood leaking out from multiple blasted-out skin. The Mankey would normally be quite agitated by now but the Focus Energy was still in effect, so it was able to calmly look for weak spots in order to get critical hits.
Quick strikes and slashes came from multiple direction but Indra made sure to dodge at least some of them while also countering back with hits of his own. At the same time, the Mankey kept looking out for vital spots it could hit and after a while, a chance was given to him. With a firm hand, it slammed it's straightened fingers towards the side of Indra's left shoulder; a devastating karate chop. A loud cry from Indra was heard. This attack sent him flying about two metres away, with him landing on his face. Indra hastily proceeded to roll to his back, trying to get back up but his shoulder emitted a sharp pain whenever he tried to move.
"A critical hit from a karate chop... This doesn't look good." I mumbled under my breath.
The Mankey had now lost all calmness and thoughts after seeing Indra in a weakened state, and was back to being a wild animal. It screamed out into the sky, declaring its victory, and started rushing towards Indra in a crazed manner. Just before it's claw met Indra though, a hard hit on the head was felt and it fell back on the ground.
"Haaah maan! This's the second time now..." I sigh, throwing a rock up and down. "Episode two of Man versus Pokemon huh?"
Watching the battle wasn't all I was doing. During the match, I was constantly picking up rocks around me and putting them inside my bag. Right now, I have a total of 43 rocks ready to attack at any moment. Also fortunately, the Focus Energy doesn't seem to be in effect anymore. Mostly likely because it lost focus and was in a wild state. Weird because in the games, it's supposed to be active until the match is over. I'm starting to see the differences this world have...
The Mankey wasn't pleased by this of course. It immediately lost all interest in Indra and started charging towards me. I wasn't as fast as the Mankey but still managed to keep my distance. Using the rocks, I would throw them at the more wounded parts of the Mankey, slowing it down by a lot. It would occasionally come too close and scratch me up here and there but I made sure to avoid any fatal hits.
After a series of back and forth, with my last 3 rocks, the wounds I've been aiming at had doubled in size and streams of blood were flowing down the Mankey's body. It could barely move and the attacks became more predictable. This would have been a good chance for me to win...if only I wasn't just as injured, or more. Dodging a wild animal is hard. There's no solid movement and they just throw themselves at you, not caring about the consequences. That's why even though I was able to deal tons of damage, vice versa.
My arms received several cuts and bruises while trying to protect my face. Bite marks could be seen on my legs as I would go for kicks, attempting to get away from it. On my chest was a long, deep slash. It was after I tried evading a Karate Chop but the tip of it's finger had enough reach to gash across me. The point is that, I probably won't be able to dodge his next few hits. Even the slightest of movement I did was always delayed because of a sudden pain rush.
"If only I had a fucking gun..." I grumbled.
I slowly backed away from it. With the rock in my hand, I was ready to fire. The Mankey though, was acting quite different. It wasn't chasing me anymore but instead was standing still.
"For fuck sake. Hope I'm wrong about this..."
But it was just as I feared. The Mankey had started relaxing it's muscles and took in a huge breath of air. After letting it all out, it looked at me straight in the eyes and smiled menacingly, as if knowing this was the end. Sweat dripped down my chin. This isn't good... I can't handle a Focus Energy right now.
As I continued walking backwards, it followed, slowly closing the gap between us. I could see it's eyes moving around, inspecting me, trying to find my weakest spot. It was trying to finish me in one go. I shifted my body in a way to not leave any openings. With every step I took, my anticipation grew. Every sweat dripping down my face was ignored and my eyes didn't dare to even blink at any second. The wait was killing me and I was itching to move.
"Come and get me you piece of sh-!"
My back had hit something. Taken aback by this, I instinctively glance behind and saw a tree. The Mankey made use of this distraction and got close without my notice. Was it waiting for this?!
Leaping across to me, it stretched it's arm and prepared a horizontal swing. My mind raced for solutions but ultimately I knew: There was nothing I could do. With the tree blocking my back, the escape routes I could have taken became even more limited. Plus, it had already gotten too close. All I could do was hold out my arms into a defensive stand, sacrificing them. As the Karate Chop reached closer, I closed my eyes and braced for impact.
All of a sudden, the Mankey gave out a loud cry. I took this as an attack roar from the Mankey and tighten my arms even further. It was only after a few seconds that I realized how nothing was hitting me. As I peek through my eyelids to check, a familiar figure was seen.
"...Indra?"
Below my legs was a fallen Mankey with it's back burst apart, soaked with water, and had blood gushing out. I immediately realized the situation and fell flat to the ground. All my adrenaline had faded and my body felt an intense spike of pain all over. Seeing this, Indra hurried and came checking on me with a worried look.
I placed my palm on his head. "Nice going."
After Indra helped me get back up, using some of the supplies in my bag that Professor Oak had given, I wrapped some bandages on myself to stop the bleeding. I found some potions as well which I sprayed on Indra, and it seemed to close the wounds quite well. I tried some on myself but it didn't have any effect.
The day was getting dark and the both of us were starting to get hungry. I threw out all the leftover rocks in my bag and seeing how tired Indra looked, I told him to rest and brought him back into his Pokeball. Though before I left, I tried using a Pokeball on the Mankey, but unfortunately it didn't work. I guess it's pretty dumb to use it on someone dead. Well it was worth a try.
And so the young man travelled north towards Viridian City, the place where Ash had his first encounter with the infamous Team Rocket.