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CHAPTER VII

A SKIRMISH IN THE FOREST

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(-o-)

Adrenaline surged through my body, and my mouth was ajar. There was no doubt in my mind that this was an aberration. A freak of nature. It had to have been.

It stared at me down from up there with majestic grace. Its scales sheened with vivid violet light wherever the sunrays that bore through the willow’s canopy met with them. Its eyes were large and predatory, but not nearly as disturbing as the pattern on its hood. That’s right, from its hood peered a set of fiery yellow eyes with a huge and malevolently smiling mouth beneath them.

Seeing this pattern was said to make most pokémon freeze in terror, and seeing it myself, I could imagine why. I shot Charli a look and he appeared to be in perfect horror, petrified like a statue.

Being one-eyed, many optical illusions were lost on me. As such, I considered that Arbok’s intimidating hood was having a much greater effect on my friend.

Natu flapped over to Charli’s shoulder and chirped, snapping him out of his horrified trance.

“Charli!” I cried. “We need to capture it!”

The Arbok hissed sharply, making every single hair on my head stand on end. I flinched and my first instinct was to turn around and jump for cover, but the rational part of me remembered that turning your back to a threat was never a good idea, so I took a step back and placed an arm in front of me.

Drowzee began glowing with psychic light but made no move. Natu hopped back onto Charli’s head and began glowing too.

“It isn’t a ghost type,” Charli moaned. “How do you know?”

Arbok lowered its head closer to our level and moved slowly towards us. Drowzee stopped glowing and let out a low purr.

What’s going on? I thought. Are they talking?

“It was invisible back there. Did you not see?” I replied to Charli after a long silence.

I gave Drowzee no command even as the giant Arbok slithered closer and closer. I noticed Charli stepping backwards and sideways towards the periphery of Arbok’s vision and slowly, my hand reached into the pocket with the professor’s custom pokéballs, grasping it firmly.

Arbok’s sights were on the Drowzee. Its albino-like coloring seemed great at catching the attention of not only people, but of pokémon as well. The great serpent flicked its predator eyes on me and blinked slowly. I knew it meant something, but I didn’t know what.

I don’t think it wants to fight.

Arbok stopped a yard or so away from Drowzee, who still purred and whined, though not in any way that made me feel like we were in grave danger. The pokémon were definitely talking.

Earlier, I had asked Drowzee what he’d seen, and through some telepathic link, he had shared his vision with both me and Charli. Now I would ask him what he was hearing.

Before I could though, Charli’s voice cut through the eerie quiet.

“Arrest!” he commanded.

Natu leapt into the air and numerous strands of psychic light shot toward Arbok with dazzling speed. Arbok’s head snapped toward the fast-approaching psychic attack, and it let out a monstrous shriek that rang through the woods. It was deafening, and I barely made out the sound of Drowzee’s own cry of confusion.

My body was working on instinct, and I yanked out the custom pokéball just as the dazzling strands of light struck the enraged Arbok. Its guttural shriek was silenced in an instant and I watched it being enveloped in coils of light.

“Drowzee, Arrest!” I commanded, and for the first time in my life I learned what it felt like to have a pokémon refuse a command during battle.

I frowned in confusion. “Drowzee -!”

Drowzee only gave me a passing glance, instead turning back to the willow tree and perking his ears up.

Arbok was writhing gently on the ground, all its fearsome power somehow subdued by a pokémon no bigger than a shoe.

Drowzee whined again and gave me another look.

“I don’t understand!” I said to him. “We need to capture this pokémon!”

Drowzee closed its eyes and like Natu, emanated several strands of light that enveloped the Arbok all the more. The great serpent stopped moving then, and cautiously, I stepped towards it with the custom pokéball in hand.

“Tom!” Charli cried out. “Hurry! There’s something else here!”

What? … I spun my head around, back toward the willow and spotted the undergrowth far to the left shaking.

I wasted no time and threw the pokéball at Arbox. It opened up, and the entirety of its body blinked with a faint blue light. The pokéball was scanning its target. The blue light quickly turned purple, then red and it began flowing into the pokéball. It fell to the ground with a thud, and the halos on its top and bottom started glowing white.

A shriek came from the shrubs to our left, and a Raticate came out, eyes glinting with hostility. To make things worse, another two stepped out behind it.

There was a rattling noise up in the trees to our right, and we saw a group of Spearow violently ruffling their tail feathers and eyeing us like the tastiest prey they had ever laid eyes on.

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Up ahead, there was movement up in the willow itself, and I counted no less than six Mankey chittering angrily as they nimbly maneuvered through the branches.

We were being surrounded.

“Let’s leave…” I said to Charli in as low a voice as possible.

Drowzee was gazing around at the other pokémon, producing a whining purr all the meanwhiles. When he looked past me, a prickling feeling of dizziness washed over me.

Even behind us…

I turned with my good eye opened as wide as could be and my heart sank. There was a pair of Nidorino, taking measured steps, sizing us up.

My mouth tasted metallic, and my mind was buzzing with a thousand ideas of escape.

Raticate were fast and were known for their ferocity.

Mankey were deceivingly strong and liked to steal things from people.

Spearow could fly, and all I knew was that they were a Pidgey’s nasty cousin.

Nidorino… well Nidorino, aside from being poisonous, were one evolution away from becoming one of the most terrifying pokémon in existence.

The choice was clear. Spearow were the weakest link.

I stepped backwards towards Charli and Natu, and slowly leaned down to pick up the custom pokéball with the aberrant Arbok.

Khhh!!!-Yiii!!!-Kyaa!!!-Grouuu … sang the choir of pokémon surrounding us. As my fingers clasped around Arbok’s pokéball, they began their attack.

The Spearow flew in first, screeching in a flurry of feathers and talons all aimed at me. I ducked for the ground, putting my hands over my head, still grasping the pokéball.

“Confuse Ray!” Charli yelped out.

I felt something smack into my backpack and I crawled on the ground away from it. When I peeked over, I saw a Spearow thrashing about on the ground, kicking up twigs and leaves as it did so. I stood up and turned to Drowzee, who had the three Raticate all squaring up to him with their menacing fangs bared. The other Spearow were flying wildly above us, buffeting against each other midair, in a frenzy.

“Psybeam, Natu!” Charli’s voice was desperate. The area flashed with light as Natu released a powerful beam of multi-colored light.

Grahhhh!!! cried a Nidorino, and my heart lifted. If we could fend off the Nidorino, we had a chance.

The attack had landed, and the Nidorino skid across the forest floor, rolling on the ground several times before coming to stop. It immediately stood up on shaky legs, but just as quickly stumbled on its paws and fell sideways, rolling on its back. Its legs extended out stiffly, as it gave a weak groan. One more of those beams would be enough to seal the deal.

I shot Drowzee a look, ready to give the command.

“Tom!!!” Charli’s voice broke. “Move!!!”

There was too much chaos. Mankey were dropping from the trees, feigning attacks. Spearow were taking to flight on shaky wings, likely still under confusion. Raticate were hissing and snapping. And the Nidorino…

The sound of galloping stomps came too late for me to do anything but watch.

The other Nidorino had charged at me. Its horn was shiny, glistening with poison-type energy. I was expressionless and peacefully vacant. There were no options. There was nothing to do. It was already upon me.

“Tom!!!”

At the last possible second, Nidorino was enveloped in a psychic glow and frozen in place. I saw its savage eyes, pupils expanding to the max, full of both fury and shock. It was lifted off the ground and thrown a couple of yards away, groaning as if a heavy weight had been placed on it.

My blind eye began to itch and Drowzee cried out in pain as the three Raticate lunged at his back.

He had done it again.

Back with Lenn’s Abra, I had flinched and given him no command, yet he had taken initiative and shielded us from Abra’s Psybeam.

Now he had turned his back on three evolved pokémon to protect me from almost certain death.

A raging fury of my own rose from the pits of my stomach and the blood in my veins pulsed, beating in my ears like a drum.

I let my bag drop to the ground and screamed with stinging in my eyes as I rushed towards Drowzee, kicking at the first Raticate I could with all my strength.

It shrieked in surprise as it fell off, rolling on the ground briefly before it found its legs. There was a flash of light as I turned my sights to another one, grabbing it by the scruff with both hands and yanking with a roar. It was gnawing on Drowzee’s shoulder and held on fast, so I made a fist and hammered it at its ear two times before it squealed in annoyance and let go.

Yet another flash of light zipped past me, bursting and crackling the earth, and sending a gust of splintering twigs against my back. I didn’t care, my eye was already on the last one, scratching away at Drowzee’s chest. My fist was still ringing from the last strike, but I hammered it down squarely on the Raticate’s head, and when that didn’t prove enough, I fiercely felt its face for an eye. When my hand found it, I wedged my finger into it, surprising even myself.

I was out of control.

I screamed along with its screeching, and when it finally let go, I reared up to give it one last kick but missed by an inch and I completely lost my balance, sprawling to the ground.

Drowzee let out an aggravated cry and blasted it with Psybeam. The Raticate produced a satisfyingly painful shriek as it flew more than a dozen yards away, back to the undergrowth from where it came.

I slumped on the ground, finally able to catch a breath. The troupe of Mankey had climbed back to the treetops and were retreating amidst loud bickering. It had been a lucky thing they had not joined the fight beyond just being a distraction.

One Raticate was whining as it scampered away, the other already long gone.

The Nidorino Natu had hit with Psybeam was on its side and heaving on the spot. It had likely never felt a psychic attack before. It must have been a great shock to its system. The one that had almost horned me was shaking its head from side to side, still tripping over its own paws. Its horn started to glisten again, and I inhaled sharply, forcing myself to stand.

It was for nothing though, because it only went a couple of steps in the wrong direction before tripping again and digging its horn into the ground, twisting on its neck painfully as its legs lost their strength momentarily.

Something grabbed me by the arm, and I whirled around to Charli’s panicked expression. He was breathing heavily and had worked up a nervous sweat.

“Let’s get out!” he said. I sighed and went straight for my backpack. A pang of panic pierced my gut when I realized I was no longer holding Arbok’s pokéball.

“The pokéball,” I muttered, scanning the forest floor with my eye.

“There,” Charli said, pointing near Drowzee.

There it was, with its glowing halos blinking every so often. I went over and stuffed it in my bag, then pulled out Drowzee’s pokéball and put my other hand on his head. He whined. I had a quick look at his body, and to my great relief, found nothing more than a few red lines where his fur had been scratched or gnawed off. It was a thin coat of fur but it had withstood fangs and claws exceptionally well.

“We’ll use a potion soon!” I said looking at his eyes and he purred in response. “I’ll put you back in for now, alright? We need to run.”

Drowzee made a trumpeting sound and extended his long snout towards me. I put my hand on it gently, asking, “What is it?”

“Tom, let’s go.” Charli was looking here and there, as frightened as I had ever seen him.

I reabsorbed Drowzee back into his pokéball and the pair of us, with Natu still perched atop Charli’s head, ran through the sun-streaked forest in the direction we had come. We kept looking back with every several strides, but none of our foes gave chase.

(-x-)