Lisa the Legend - Chapter 52 up!!
Chapter 9 - Battle on the Coral Reef.
Lisa stared out at the still, clear ocean. Not a ripple disturbed it’s calm surface. Tears welled up in her eyes, and one gradually spilled over, trickling down her cheek. Quagsire had abandoned her; that was virtually unheard of in Pokemon Training.
Lisa waded slowly back to shore from the knee deep water she had been standing in, her soaking shoes picking up large amounts of mud on the way. She straightened her face and made it into a would-be-determined expression, but inside she was burning with shame. Gavin stood, dumbfounded, as Lisa walked straight past him.
“ Lisa, go find it,” he murmured, half-hoping his friend wouldn’t hear him. Lisa looked up, and, although she was trying to put up a rather brave face considering the circumstances, Gavin could see in her eyes that she was deeply hurt by Quagsire’s quick getaway.
“ How?” Lisa inquired, saying the word slowly as though it hurt her to speak. Gavin pointed to his Staryu, swimming leisurely around in a rocky pool twenty metres up the beach. “ Take Staryu. Surf on it, and try to find Quagsire.”
Lisa’s sadness and shame vanished, and the space it left within her was replaced instantly with determination and hope; as though she had just been given a new lease on Pokemon Training. “ Thank you, Gavin.”
“ You’re welcome,” Gavin winked. “ Go on, get going. But don’t sit on his gem, it’s still a little fragile.”
Gavin and Lisa raced up the beach together, as the cool morning sea breeze blew on their faces, cooling the two friends down from their run when they finally reached Staryu.
“ Staryu.” Gavin panted. “ Go … with Lisa … obey her.”
“ Hi yaah!?” Staryu cried, ‘looking’ at the newcomer trainer to whom it was unfamiliar with.
“ Obey her, Staryu.” Gavin repeated firmly to Staryu. The water Pokemon agreed; it was either that or return to the pokeball … and Staryu detested it’s pokeball!
Staryu wobbled over to Lisa, looking very unbalanced as it used two legs to walk and the other three flailed around, more of a hindrance than a help to Staryu. Finally, it staggered to it’s position in the shallow water behind Lisa.
“ Alright, Lisa. I’ll wait here for ya,” Gavin called, as Lisa clasped her hands around one of Staryu’s points. “ Good Luck with your Quagsire Search! And be quick, it’s cold out here.”
“ Thanks, Gavin.” Lisa called back. Aipom leapt up onto her shoulder once again, and Lisa was ready to go. “ Alright, Staryu, full speed ahead, out to sea!”
Staryu pushed it’s body off the bottom of the shallow water, and surfed out to the clear sea. Lisa looked over her shoulder back at the beach, watching as Gavin shrank to a small speck. Then she turned to the front, and felt the cool seaspray blow in her face.
“ Ai! Pom!” Aipom laughed, thoroughly enjoying the ride. Staryu pelted on, slicing through the sea like a Pidgeot sliced through the air. After a good half hour, when Lisa was rapidly becoming bored, a small island came into sight.
“ Slow down, Staryu.” Lisa ordered her temporary Pokemon. The trainer and two pokemon approached the island sluggishly, and a closer inspection revealed that the island was in fact not an Island, but a surfaced reef. Staryu stopped a couple of metres away from the reef, and Lisa dismounted the pokemon and paddled awkwardly to shore, avoiding sharp pieces of coral on the way.
The reef was quite sharp and fairly small; it was about 5 metres long and 2 metres wide. Lisa scanned the island in a few seconds, seeing no Quagsire anywhere. Lisa sighed, disappointed, and began to walk back to Staryu, when suddenly she heard an odd squeak behind her.
“ What was that?” Lisa said aloud.
“ AI Aipom?” Aipom called out, swivelling around on Lisa’s shoulder. Lisa copied her Pokemon’s actions, making Aipom face the opposite way again. After some confusion, both Aipom and Lisa found themselves facing a tiny pink pokemon, standing next to a shallow and empty rock pool.
“ Ooh!” Lisa breathed, taking cautious steps toward the pokemon. “ A Corsola!”
“ Cree!” Corsola squeaked shrilly, grinning mischievously. It’s pink, coral-like body shone in the sunlight and it was quite large for a Corsola.
“ Alright, this thing is mine.” Lisa said, moving her hand down to her belt. “ Butterfree, go!”
Butterfree popped out of the ball, flapping it’s wide, regal wings hard to stay in the air. Corsola looked mildly amused, as though it knew nothing could happen to it. “ Sleep Powder.” Lisa ordered, despite the looks from Corsola. Butterfree flapped it’s wings again, and this time a fine blue powder drifted down upon Corsola, who, as soon as it felt the sleep powder taking effect, jumped into the rock pool and washed it off.
“ Dammit,” Lisa cursed, infuriated that her attempts had not worked. “ Butterfree, try Gusting it!”
“ Free! Reee!” Butterfree flapped it’s wings yet again, the wind blowing Corsola out of the pool and back onto the reef. Lisa hoped this had done some damage, however Corsola looked only mildly injured.
“ Pokeball, go.” Lisa threw a pokeball, hoping that she could catch a new Pokemon; she hadn’t really had one since Girafarig, and that was with Gavin now. The ball flew towards Corsola, but one second before it hit Corsola, a blast of water knocked the ball into the rock pool and out of the way.
“ What?!” Lisa cried, looking up in the direction of the blast. Standing there was a young girl of about 12 years old. She had a bright aqua shirt on, along with pink and orange shorts. Lisa thought she looked very vibrant, especially since she had purple hair. She was quite tall for her age, and her eyes were so blue they looked fake. But very soon, Lisa didn’t care what the girl looked like; she had noticed the girl’s pokemon.
“ Quagsire?” Lisa asked, sighting the large, upright, cerulean-blue water pokemon standing just behind the girl’s left leg. “ Hey, when did you get that Quagsire?”
“ Caught it today.” The girl said. “ Oh, my name’s Irene. I’m a water Pokemon trainer.”
“ Lisa.” Lisa began, but she couldn’t help not to ask questions … “ Where’d you get the Quagsire?”
“ It swam up to me and my Lapras while we were surfing. I spose near the Shellder Beach …”
Lisa had heard all she needed to. “ That Quagsire is mine!” she cried. “ I know it!”
Irene glared at her. “ Don’t be stupid.” She said. “ This Quagsire is MINE.”
Lisa gaped, the situation seemed so unreal.
Irene gasped. “ Look, kid, I caught this Quagsire in the wild. It’s mine, OK?”
“ It’s mine, I tell ya.” Lisa said. “ I can just tell by it’s smile, and it’s shiny coat…”
“ Lots of Quagsire have shiny coats!” argued Irene.
“ Well, mine was REALLY shiny.” Lisa cried.
Before either girl could say anything again, both received a sharp, stinging slap to the face. They both shut up at once, and began rubbing their faces. “ What was that for, Aipom?” Lisa moaned, massaging her cheek.
“ AI Aipom!” Aipom called. “ Pom!” Aipom gestured along with it’s speech, punching wildly at the air.
“ Translation please?” Irene asked impatiently.
“ Aipom says we should have a battle to see who should keep it.” Lisa said truthfully.
Irene snorted. “ You expect me to believe that?”
“ Well, if you’re too weak to accept..” Lisa said, putting on a superior voice.
The two-year-younger Irene fell for the trap immediately. “ I’m not too weak! I accept your challenge!”
“ One on one then.” Lisa set the rules. “ I choose Aipom!”
“ Well I choose Quagsire!” Irene said smugly.
Quagsire waddled out onto the reefy field, and Aipom leapt off Lisa’s shoulder to face it. Both Pokemon tensed their muscles. Aipom stared at Quagsire; it knew this Quagsire was Lisa’s, but the Quagsire was showing no recognition of Aipom or Lisa.
“ Begin!” Lisa called. “ Aipom, start off with your Swift attack.”
“ Quagsire, dodge it, then go in for an Ice Beam.” Irene said.
Lisa laughed. “ You’ll find it hard to dodge a Swift attack.”
Lisa was proved to be correct. Aipom curled up in a small, purple and white ball, and launched an array of bright, stinging stars directly at Quagsire’s wobbly body. Quagsire sat patiently as possible until the last moment, when the stars were nearly upon it. Quagsire jumped up into the air to avoid the attack, but Swift was the most accurate attack known to man. The stars averted course, curving upwards and stinging Quagsire’s large, floppy feet, knocking it down to the ground.
“ Take that.” Lisa called, although actually feeling slightly sorry for Quagsire.
“ Quagsire, get up now! Use Ice Beam.” Irene ordered sternly.
“ Aipom, try Agility.”
After issuing the commands, Lisa and Irene stood back to overview the outcomes of their orders. Quagsire absorbed energy in it’s mouth, while Aipom stood poised on the ground, ready to spring away at any moment. ‘ It won’t really attack ME, will it?’ Aipom thought to itself. ‘ I’m it’s friend…’
*
Lock the bug catcher sat quietly, his chubby frame hidden securely behind a thick bush. His wary, sly-looking eyes scanned around over the spiky leaves of the bush, onto the route to Shellder Beach. The Weedle he had been stalking for so long was waddling around, apparently unaware of Lock. The boy prepared the pokeball for it, and stealthily crept around the bush and peered out onto the gravel road, approaching his target with confidence, until …
A black shape shot out of a tree branch high above, dropping down with a whoosh onto Weedle. There was a flash of light as Weedle disappeared and Lock leapt out, enraged, at the person who had captured his Weedle.
“ That’s mine!” Lock demanded furiously, running at the man who stood there, clothed in black. He sent out Growlithe immediately, but the man held out a hand and produced a Great Ball, and threw it with a placid air onto the road. Opposing Growlithe was an evil-eyed Rhyhorn, it’s grey rocky horn pointed at the fire dog with ease. Lock recoiled as he realised Growlithe stood no chance, and recalled him angrily.
“ Excuse me!” Lock was still annoyed, and spat at the man, whose Rhyhorn was plodding menacingly towards Lock. “ What was that for?!”
The man grinned fiendishly, and ignored him. “ I believe you can help me with something … I’m sure I might be able to offer you something in return for a favour …” he held out Weedle’s pokeball to Lock, and the boy knew what he wanted.
After a few hasty minutes of talking between each other, Lock pointed a chubby finger down the road to Shellder Beach. “ She went THAT way!”
*
Quagsire wasted no time in idling – it fired the cerulean beam, catching Aipom off guard as it whispered to itself. Aipom was flung back toward Lisa, and landed on the hard, rocky reef, knocked out. Aipom had lost.
“ Alright, Quagsire.” Irene rejoiced. “ Looks like you lose, Lisa.”
“ Yeah, I guess.” Lisa said, trying to swallow a lump that was swelling up in her throat. Her first loss since fighting Kris, and this came with worse sideaffects. ‘ That Quagsire was mine, I know it.’ She thought angrily to herself.
Irene jumped on Quagsire’s back, even though they were both about the same size, and sped off. “ Sorry, Lisa.” Sounding completely like she didn’t mean it one little bit.
Lisa sat on the reef, dejected, all alone with her knocked out Aipom. All alone? “ Wait a sec!” Lisa yelled out. “ Staryu, where are you?” Lisa combed the entire reef, and finally sighted Staryu, floating in the sea, fainted. Lisa could not believe her eyes.
“ Staryu, what happened?” she cried, as she pulled the starshape Pokemon onto the shore. However, asking an unconscious Staryu a question is one of the dumbest things to do … so Lisa sat down with Staryu and Aipom and sighed deeply. She suddenly felt an urge of stubbornness within, and knew she wanted … she needed … to find Quagsire and Irene again, but how?
“ Now how am I meant to get away from here?” Lisa muttered, voicing her thoughts. “ I’m stuck on this tiny reef and I can’t get off!”
“ Tini!”
“ What was that?”
Lisa peered over the low, coral ridge which bordered the reef island. Behind it, in the clear saltwater of the Cianwood Sea, splashed a tiny blue Pokemon; which Lisa recognised as a Dratini.
“ Hey, maybe that Dratini can help me out.”
Lisa crawled slowly up over the edge of the ridge, and landed with a splash, scaring the Dratini away. Her clothes were saturated straight away, and the cold water froze her body. However, Lisa managed to tread water long enough to see Dratini slowly edging back toward her.
“ Hey, little Dratini.” Lisa said in a sickly sweet voice. Her voice charmed the dragon pokemon, and Dratini swam up so close that Lisa could touch it. Lisa stroked the smooth, silky body of Dratini before turning it’s face to hers.
“ Dratini, I have a problem …” Lisa began.
*
Five minutes later, Lisa was clinging to Dratini’s back, riding the cool waves and enjoying the sea breeze to it’s full extent. They were following the scent of Quagsire; Aipom was now awake and could sniff out it’s Pokemon friend for miles across the sea.
“ Land ahead!” Lisa cried, more to herself than to Aipom or Dratini. She sighed; finally she would see Quagsire again, and hopefully he would return to her. Lisa’s belt was feeling empty without Quagsire, even though she currently had six pokemon on the belt – she had recalled Staryu for Gavin and kept it with her – however, Quagsire was the first pokemon she actually CAUGHT, and she was sad without it.
Dratini finally arrived at a flat reef again, but this one was at least twice the size of the previous one. Lisa felt the last of the powerful wind whipping her hair back and then quickly brushed her hair through with her fingers. Dratini came to a complete halt, and Lisa dismounted the dragon. “ Thanks, Dratini.” She said, “ Wait here for me … I think Irene is here with my Quagsire.”
Dratini looked sadly at Lisa, it felt lonely all over again. Having been rejected from most of the other Dratini in its Deep Sea Colony for many months, it had learned to keep to itself. But now a human had opened up to it, and treated it with kindness, even told it to wait. However, Dratini wasn’t wanting to be left behind for even a moment … how could it stay with the human the whole time?
“ Tini! Dra ti neee!” Dratini called after Lisa, trying to jump out of the water at her. Lisa, who was walking slowly away, turned around at once . Aipom was confused by Dratini … it apparently wanted something, from what Aipom had heard.
“ Ai?”
“ Tini!!!”
“ What’s up, Aipom?” Lisa asked, curious about the conversation going on between the two Pokemon.
Aipom ignored Lisa, which was nothing new to the trainer. Instead, the Monkey like Pokemon reached down to Lisa’s belt with it’s arm-like tail, and pulled off an empty Pokeball. “ Hey, Aipom, that’s mine!” Lisa protested. Aipom continued to ignore her, as he threw the ball at Dratini, who called out a final, happy “ Dra!” and smiled as the ball hit it on the head, and snuffled it up in a swift movement. Lisa was stunned.
“ Did you just catch Dratini for me, Aipom?” Lisa questioned her Pokemon.
“ Pom!” Aipom nodded. “ AI ai pom!”
Lisa reached down to the water and picked up the ball. “ Dratini, I hope you like being on my Pokemon team. And Aipom …” She reached down to the purple monkey and picked him up, hugging him tightly. “ Thank you very much.”
Aipom clambered back onto it’s owner’s shoulder, suddenly feeling satisfied by the praise from Lisa, and the two friends continued along the reef, where on the far side they spotted Irene and Quagsire, eating some pizza. Lisa briefly wondered where they got the pizza, but she put that thought out of her mind. Sneaking up on them, Lisa called to Quagsire “ Oy, Quagsire.”
Quagsire turned around instantly, and saw Lisa. It almost ran up to her, then recalled that it had abandoned her. Quagsire glared at Lisa again, as Irene turned around.
“ Back again?”
“ Sure am.” Lisa said. “ I’m back for a rematch … 3 on 3.”
“ Let me see … alright,” Irene said. “ Winner keeps Quagsire.”
Irene took two paces back, and Lisa mirrored her foe’s actions. “ First up, I choose Poliwhirl.”
“ Whirl.” Poliwhirl gurgled, popping out of the pokeball that Irene threw. The large, purply froglike Pokemon had a large, swirling circle on it’s belly.
“ Go, Aipom.” Lisa called, sending out her best pokemon. Aipom jumped onto the flat reef, and growled at Poliwhirl.
“ Poliwhirl – start with Water gun.”
“ Aipom, begin with Sand Attack.”
Poliwhirl fired off a blast of water from his swirl, which Aipom just managed to dodge. Then the monkey-like creature turned it’s back on Poliwhirl and started trying to kick up sand. However, Lisa had made a critical error; there was no sand on the reef! Aipom kept trying, and ended up burning it’s feet on the warm, dry coral. Poliwhirl took advantage of the situation, and aimed a Water gun at Aipom’s back, knocking it over. Lisa, determined not to miss this time, ordered a Swift attack, while Irene called for a … Hyper Beam!?
Poliwhirl powered up for a Hyper Beam, slowly absorbing energy. It began to spin around very slowly at first, then more and more rapidly until it was barely distinguishable as a Poliwhirl. Aipom fired off the beam of stars, and as usual they hit right on target. Unfortunately, Poliwhirl was spinning too fast for the attack to damage it. Lisa was shocked. “ Aipom, agility! Jump into the air just before Poliwhirl fires the beam!”
“ AI!” Aipom sprinted around the small island, picking up speed and getting ready to jump. Poliwhirl had a large circle of bright white light around it now, and was ready to fire. “NOW!” cried Lisa. Aipom jumped up, and Poliwhirl fired. The beam was right on target, and somehow managed to hit Aipom in the air, knocking him directly. He fell into the surrounding ocean, knocked out, and slowly sank down into the icy, deep, swirly ocean currents …
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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