3058 words. I'm going for the +2, obviously.
My child-hood friend. George thought over what the strange, blue-haired, white-coated man running after him had said earlier. It was crazy. Jack thought back on what he had done to get him stuck in his current situation, desperately sprinting away from the ominous figures behind him.
It was down to the wire, with one Pokémon each. Candice’s Medicham was dancing around on the spot, eager to have a go at its opponent. Floating in mid-air, was Rotom, who was giving off peculiar, aqua sparks. The orange, bolt-shaped ghost floated around, its large round eyes staring deep within Medicham’s soul.
I’ve got this in the bag! George thought, his grin nearly spanning his entire face. Candice’s Medicham’s attacks can’t touch my Rotom!
Candice giggled, her long pony-tails blowing around in the winds set off by the hail falling from the ceiling. Even in the cold conditions, she wore her jacket wrapped around her waist, rather than on her body to warm her. She was not very well dressed for the conditions at all, choosing fashion over conventional clothing, as was apparent with her brown mini skirt.
“Let’s go!” She yelled, giving off her anticipation. She was much too cheery for George’s likings, and straight away he could tell she had a trick up her short sleeves.
“Rotom, use Shadow Ball!” George commanded. George was wearing an oddly-rounded red hat, a black t-shirt with white arms, and blue trousers. He had a small backpack on his back. He was far better dressed for the conditions, but that was unlikely to help with the task at hand.
What would help him, however, was Rotom’s complete resistance to Fighting attacks, the area of the foe’s specialty. He laughed as Medicham was knocked down by the cocktail of spirits, strands of evil and plasma known as Shadow Ball that Rotom had served up for him.
The Medicham got up off the ground and onto his legs, which were made to support the Pokémon’s massive thighs, which would probably have crushed Medicham if it wasn’t for his strong muscular structure.
The Medicham groaned as his owner yelled out her instructions.
“Medicham, use Fling!” Candice giggled, as the Medicham executed the Dark-Type move. The Medicham pulled a small, metallic ball that had been hiding on his arm and chucked it at the little ghost.
Rotom and George watched in horror as the strong move played out and as the ball hurdled towards Rotom with extreme force behind it. The poltergeist tried his hardest to dodge the attack, but it hit with perfect accuracy and Rotom fell to the gym’s icy floor. George’s heart sank as Candice giggled once more.
“That was close. But next time, remember that Pokémon aren’t bound to one type of attack!”
The boy left the seventh gym, empty handed. Snow was pelting down on him from all angles, and the air was bitterly cold. George stared into the abnormally white world around him, with a sense of depression lingering in his heart.
The very next morning, George departed from the inn the weather had forced him to stay at. He headed for the edge of a nearby mountain. He looked up at the colossal pile of rocks and dirt, capped with snow. It was flattened over across the top, making it easy to walk across.
If it was possible to get up there in the first place… George pondered. He shrugged and continued scanning the area for opponents.
Right near the mountain’s edge he saw an odd person standing with a strange contraption. It was a large white box, with black lining around the edges. It had a radio dish on top of it and little gauges showing various statistics.
Straight out of a science-fiction movie. George thought. The machine was quite intriguing, and was not a common sight.
George ran up to the machine, and as he got closer, he noticed the person was dressed in a grey, rubbery body-suit, much like a diver’s swim suit. It had black shoulders, and a yellow “G” printed like a crest. The body suit spanned out like a skirt, but then folded back in and went down to the woman’s big, white boots. She reminded George of an alien.
The person in question was a tall woman, with red hair that spiked at the front and back. She looked intimidating as she pushed around the mechanical box. She was wearing a head-set, and was busy in discussion.
“Pluto, I’m getting it in position now,” She said in a low voice.
“Right? Okay,” She said, pulling the machine in said direction.
“Too far?!” She seemed to be getting impatient already. She squirmed around with the machine for a few minutes before finally letting go of it. She put a relaxed smile on her face.
George looked up to see that the laser attached to the contraption was perfectly aligned with a hole in another box. This one was in the air, struggling to stay up with fans whizzing around rapidly, shooting winds downwards.
The red-haired lady hit a button on the ground-lying box and it whirred into action. Lights flashed and dials moved rapidly all across the magnificent creation. Suddenly, the machine shot out a long, metal rope directly along the path of the laser, landing exactly into the hole on the air-borne machine. The rope hooked onto something hidden inside the machine and a grapple of sorts was formed. The woman grinned at her success.
“Excuse me,” George approached the odd lady. “But what are you doing?”
The lady spun around to face the boy.
“I’m trying to get on top of the mountain. Isn’t that obvious?” She said hurriedly.
“Why would you want to do that?” George enquired. She groaned impatiently.
“I have business there,”
George noticed the top of a trainer card sticking out of her back pocket.
“Tell me what you’re doing here or I’ll force you to battle!” He grinned. The woman groaned once again.
“Very well. I’ll battle you.” She took a Pokéball out of her back pocket and got into a menacing stance.
At that moment, George caught sight of another alien-suited person approaching from around the other side of the mountain. This one was a male, who was stocky, with short, mauve hair. He must’ve been at least fifty years old, with a white lab coat and red-lens glasses. He was the typical mad scientist character, and was slowly trudging through the thick snow towards George and the red-haired lady.
“Mars!” he exclaimed at the lady, picking up the pace slightly. “Is the machine in working order?”
“Seems to be,” Mars said proudly. “Took a bit of moving around, but it got their in the end,”
“Good,” the old man said. He turned towards George. “And who would you be?”
Before he could answer, Mars stepped in. “An annoying kid who insists on battling me,”
The man looked stern.
“Hello, little boy,”
“George,” he interrupted.
“Hello, George. My name is Pluto, and I have to insist that you let us get on with our business, and revoke your challenge.”
George smirked.
“I will on one condition. You tell me what you’re doing here!”
Pluto sighed.
“You leave us with no choice. Mars, do as you will.” The scientist stepped to the side, leaving the two opponents directly in line with each other.
“Let’s get this over and done with quickly,” Mars yelled across the snowy plains. George had carved out a large box in the snow with a stick in which they could battle.
“Go, Staraptor!” George flung out a Pokéball onto the ground in front of him, and out of it rose a large, black bird, with a fierce sharp beak the size of her face. The bird cawed before taking off to the skies.
“Go, Skuntank!” Mars threw a Pokéball into the air and it opened on landing to reveal a putrid, purple skunk with cream stripes lining his body. He stood proudly, the air around him picking up a vile scent. George couldn’t help but wave away the air in front of him.
“Staraptor, use Aerial Ace!”
The raptor looped round the opponent before diving down and striking the skunk in the head. Skuntank was knocked off his stubby feet but quickly regained his footing. The rancid-smelling Pokémon was ordered to crunch his opponent. He ran up and jumped at the bird, his teeth sinking deep into her wing. The bird shrieked before falling out of the sky. She squirmed around on the ground for a while, but George knew even though the bird hadn’t been hit that badly, without both wings she was useless.
“Too bad, Staraptor!” he said, holding out her Pokéball. It opened up and sucked the bird into it.
George knew what he was about to do would put his Pokémon at a disadvantage, but he was confident that his Rotom could handle the typing.
“Go, Rotom!”
The small ghostly Pokémon shot out of its Pokéball, eager to battle.
Pluto’s eyes widened.
“Rotom?!” the old man cried, running towards the small Pokémon. “Give that to me!”
George quickly returned his Pokémon in shock and panic.
“What are you doing?”
“Give me my Rotom, boy!” There was a fire burning in the old man’s eyes.
“What? He’s my Rotom!” George replied, confused.
“Look, just hand it over to him!” Mars exclaimed.
“No!” George shouted.
“Fine then,” Pluto said angrily. “We’ll have to take it from you!”
George broke into a run, but he could hear the two odd-balls running behind him.
“Give back my child-hood friend!” the old man shouted. George kept running onwards.
My child-hood friend. George thought back on what the strange man running behind him had just said. He couldn’t work out what he had done wrong to get him in this situation.
He kept running and running and running, but Pluto, even in his age, managed to keep up. George spotted a run-down house, with chipped paint and missing panes of wood. It didn’t look like a great place to go, but George didn’t particularly care about how pleasant his hiding spot was.
He ran into the building and prepared himself for a fight. The two oddly-dressed people ran into the building, smirks on their faces.
“Hello, George,” Pluto said menacingly. “Where’s the Rotom?”
George held up the Pokéball containing the banshee.
“Right in my hand,” he struggled through the short sentence, his fear hindering his words. His heart was racing and his body was aching from all the running he had just done. He wasn’t sure why he chose to go inside the building. It was probably to give him more weapons against the two evil people. Or maybe he wasn’t thinking in his fear. Now he thought about it, trapping himself in this small room was a very, very bad idea.
He scanned the room for objects that could help. The dilapidated room contained very little. There was a small fan swirling around slowly, hanging down from the roof, a few stray floor boards and some chairs positioned around a dusty table.
Nothing. He thought in dismay. Time for a traditional two-on-one fight then.
“Go! Skuntank!” Mars cried, the vile Pokémon re-entering battle.
“Purugly! Get him!” shouted Pluto, a large blue cat lazily emerging from his Pokéball.
George had to think fast.
“I choose you, Rotom and Empoleon!”
From his first Pokéball emerged the little Rotom, who was getting tired by this stage. But from the second came a large, blue penguin, standing proudly, with its wings spread threateningly.
“Empoleon, use Surf!”
A large wave of water shot up from the ground, with Empoleon skillfully running along on top of it. It came crashing down on the two four-footed foes, causing them to roll around in pain. They both stood up, with displeased looks upon their faces.
“Purugly! Fury Swipes!” yelled Pluto. The cat sprang at the land-bound bird and started scratching him furiously. The cuts barely marked Empoleon’s skin, which had small bits of metal hiding under it.
“Rotom! Thunderbolt!” A bolt of lightning shot out from the minute Pokémon, hitting Purugly square in the face. He staggered around dizzily, before finally falling to the ground. Pluto cursed under his breath before returning the fainted Pokémon. Mars decided to get revenge for him.
“Crunch on Rotom, Skuntank!”
The skunk jumped at Rotom, jaw wide open. He clamped down on the poor ghost-like Pokémon. He fell to the ground, with no signs of consciousness. Pluto laughed and ran up to the Rotom. He picked him up.
“Hello Rotom! It’s your old buddy, Pluto!” The Rotom twitched around a bit. Pluto hung his head down in sorrow and placed the Rotom back down on the ground.
“It’s not him,”
“Oh well. Too bad, Pluto,” Mars said sympathetically.
“Sorry? Oh, that’s good to know. In a shack in the middle of the snow. Okay boss. Could you come here? We have a kid to deal with,” Mars suddenly started speaking into her earpiece.
“Did he get it?” Pluto asked. Mars nodded. They both grinned and stood in front of the exit.
“Well, George, we have some bad news for you,” Mars said menacingly.
“You don’t have my Rotom and we need to rid of you,” Pluto laughed.
“And our boss is arriving soon, with a nice little surprise for you!” Mars continued.
A few minutes later, George heard a knock on the damaged door the evil people were guarding. They stood to the side and allowed a man to enter the room. The man was wearing a pitch shirt and trousers, with a grey jacket with black stripes across it. It also had the yellow G placed on it. He had spiky, aqua hair and a stern face. He didn’t look very friendly, and seemed like a serious bloke.
“So this is the boy?” he questioned. His voice made George’s heart skip a beat.
“Yes,” Pluto answered.
The man smirked. He walked up close to George and stared down at him intimidatingly.
“Listen, punk,” he said darkly. “My name’s Cyrus. I think today you’ve learnt a valuable lesson about meddling in adult affairs,”
George tried to reply, but his voice was choked up by Cyrus’s scary persona.
“But if you haven’t,” he continued. “I’m about to teach you one,”
The man sprang into action, whipping out a Pokéball from behind his back. He cackled before slamming it down onto the ground in front of him.
“Go! Giratina!”
A wave of energy shook the room as the mighty beast emerged from its Pokéball. It was the most amazing Pokémon George had ever encountered.
Its body was like a very long snake. It had six black “streamers” coming out from its back, each ending in a sharp, red spike. Its body was white with yellow bands covering the top half of it. Its black belly was lined with red stripes and it had a big, yellow mask covering its face.
The dragon spiraled around George, giving ferocious roars as it went. The three mysterious people in the room laughed diabolically.
“You don’t stand a chance!” Mars cheered from across the room.
“Giratina! Draco Meter!”
Up from the ground rose Rotom. The persistent Pokémon stood at his owner’s side and gave out a yelp. Cyrus laughed once more.
“That little pip-squeak won’t help you at all!”
The dragon rushed at Rotom, its body glowing. It smashed right into the small ghost.
Giratina moved away after the attack, but Rotom was nowhere to be seen. George stepped back in panic. Rotom?!
Suddenly, a long red chain emerged from inside Cyrus’s jacket. It flew into the air, before snapping itself in half. Both halves gleamed brightly. Out of nowhere, three small, blue pixie-like creatures appeared. Cyrus groaned.
“How did you escape?!”
The three fairies flew around the room before striking down Pluto and Mars with a beam of energy. George took this chance to run out of the room.
Dazed and confused, George ran for a minute or so before crashing down onto the snow in front of him. He turned to find that amazingly, no-one was following him.
Just as well.
He watched the house and saw brilliant flashes of colour through the window.
What’s going on in there? he wondered. After a few minutes of watching the dazzling fight, the house erupted in a huge, white explosion. George watched in shock as the flames engulfed everything for the next few metres.
When the explosion had finished, George could make out a large, spiraling vortex. As George’s curiosity drew him towards the black hole, George saw that the entire house had become nothing but rubble.
He got as close as he could to the house without stepping on the debris which was probably thousands of degrees hot. He peered into the vortex. Nothing.
“Rotom’s dead!” he thought aloud. He crashed to the ground and cried.
When he looked up, he got the shock of his life.
*
It was down to the wire, once again. Medicham had just knocked out George’s Empoleon.
“Ready to lose with Rotom?” Candice mocked.
“No,” George said solemnly. “I have a better plan!”
Out of his Pokéball shot Rotom. But something was different this time. It wasn’t like the Rotom Candice had defeated before. It had a fan-like structure on its head.
“What?!” Candice staggered back in surprise. “What happened to Rotom!”
“I don’t know, be he has ways around your Medicham now!”
Candice bowed her head. “We’ll see about that. Medicham, use Fling!”
“Rotom, use Protect!”
The metal ball was met by a blue force field, knocking it back and shattering it into tiny pieces. Candice was in shock as her plan laid in ruin. She and George both knew she could only use Fling once.
“Rotom! Use Air Slash!” The fan whizzed into air before coming down and slamming the Medicham into the ground.
“Rotom can’t learn Air Slash!” Candice protested.
“Rotom doesn’t look like a fan either!” George laughed, returning Rotom and heading up to collect his seventh badge.
*
He was back at the scene. George stared at the junk spread across the ground. He stared at the spot that Rotom had sprung up from in his new form. He stared at the big, black vortex.
I want answers. George thought, running towards the darkness.
I need answers.
(I used the Platinum Pokedex BTW)
I'll get started right away.
