Lisa the Legend - Chapter 52 up!!
Chapter 3 - The Contest.
“ Cheer up, Lisa,” Kris said, a few minutes later, as Lisa and Hiro followed her along the serene trail which supposedly led to Goldenrod City, “ we’ll still help you find legendary pokemon.”
“ Yeah,” Lisa said, slightly depressed. “ It’s not that I don’t want to travel with you guys … It’s just … well, I hate losing. Anything. Especially Pokemon battles.”
Aipom gnawed on her ear pointlessly.
Kris laughed. “ Lisa, surely you know you can’t always win.”
“ Yeah,” Hiro added. “ You’re just a rookie, and so are me and Kris. Each time you win, you get better. Each time you lose, you learn a little. Losing is a part of Pokemon. If a trainer never lost, they wouldn’t get as close to their Pokemon. And if a battle was never challenging, there would be no fun in Pokemon.”
Lisa blinked as she prised Aipom’s teeth from her poor ear. “ I can’t believe those words just came from your mouth!” she laughed. "You sound all wise and professional."
“ Uh … well, living near Professor Elm all the time we kinda learn this stuff,” Kris replied, answering for Hiro, who looked deflated after giving a knowledgeable speech and being laughed at for it. “ Take Hiro’s advice Lisa, it’s good.”
Lisa nodded: despite laughing at Hiro's short speech, she had a feeling he was right, and she resolved to remember his words of wisdom and take them with her on her quest.
The trio walked onward. As they forged their way along the gravel road through the woods, they all eagerly shared their stories. Hiro and Kris, it transpired, had been friends for most of their childhood, and were now on a journey together, having received their starting pokemon from Professor Elm in New Bark Town just weeks ago. They seemed like very close friends, and even though they tended to argue at the simplest things, they always seemed to make up instantly, and with good humour. Lisa found herself hoping she would find her own friend like this - someone she could travel and share her journey with.
Lisa, meanwhile, told the other two about her past, about how she had grown up in Ecruteak City and had just finished High School a couple of weeks ago. She was still unsure if she would return next year, for advanced studies, or get a job instead: she thought she was too young to decide on her future just yet. She also told Hiro and Kris about her parents and how they had given her Aipom; about her siblings, Tom, Wes and Jean; and about her best friends Tuscany and Charmaine. She had gone to school with Charmaine and the three of them had played basketball on the same team, forging a very strong friendship, especially over the last year. But with the end of the school year, they had not kept in touch quite as well as usual. Both Charmaine and Tuscany had been talking about taking their own separate trips - maybe backpacking over the summer or the following year. Lisa's envy of them being able to travel while her own parents wouldn't allow her to was partly the reason she had not been so inclined to stay in touch.
"But you're travelling, too, now," said Kris, with a grin, as Lisa explained about her old friends' plans. "That's gotta be better than nothing!"
"It is," said Lisa. "But when my parents find out, they'll make me come home ..."
Kris opened her mouth to reply, but before she said anything, Hiro cut her off.
“ C’mon! Goldenrod’s just up ahead, I think,” he cried suddenly, as they crested a low hill. “ Check your pokegear, Lisa.”
Lisa checked the satellite map, while Aipom ran on ahead and began conversing with some tree borne Pidgeys. “ We’re about ten minutes away from the Bug catching contest.” She read off the map.
“ Alright!” Hiro yelled excitedly. “ It’s a Thursday too, which means we can compete!”
Hiro ran up ahead to see more clearly over the hill.
“ What’s with him?” Lisa whispered to Kris.
“ He has a thing for bugs.” She whispered back, rolling her eyes slightly. “ He has two already. One is a Venonat, and his other one ...”
“ Look! There it is!” yelled Hiro excitedly. “ The Bug Catching Contest. And I can definitely see Goldenrod from here!”
At the mention of Goldenrod, the girls sped up, and finally joined Hiro at the hilltop. Below was an absolutely massive plain, although to the three new companions it seemed more like a valley. Their small party had barely infringed upon it’s boundaries. The bug catching contest was close by, a large collection of tents and a couple of buildings near acres and acres of greenery which was the national park.
“ Whoa!” Lisa breathed. “ Goldenrod isn’t really that far away.”
Beyond the Park was a huge, misty mass of buildings and skyscrapers, which stretched for a long way. Beyond it, Lisa could make out a thin, hazy stretch of blue – the ocean.
“ Goldenrod’s just beyond the national park,” added Kris, glancing around. “ And there’s a whole bunch of stalls and stuff near the gatehouse; today must be a special festival.”
Hiro started running again. “ I can’t wait!” he yelled, wind rushing through his hair and excitement surging through his body. “ I can see the crowds, cheering as I hold up my prize bug Pokemon.”
“ What’s so great about bugs?” Lisa asked, rolling her eyes slightly.
Kris sighed and slapped her own face. “ Now you’ve done it, Lisa.” She mouthed behind Hiro’s back.
Hiro stared at Lisa. “ What’s so great about bugs? Everything! They have some of the coolest attacks, and they’re so buggy. They hide in places and they’re small. Some, like my Venonat, can even use a form of Radar to track people down. And as for other bug pokemon…”
Hiro went on and on. Just when Lisa was trying to think of a way to tell him to shut up, without hurting the boy’s feelings about bug pokemon, a man appeared on the road and approached them calmly. Hiro silenced as he approached them, but Lisa could tell almost instantly he wasn’t a threat to them.
“ Will you three be entering the bug catching competition?” he asked, twirling a grey moustache the same colour as his hair.
“ I will!” Hiro yelled instantly.
“ I might as well.” Lisa said, thinking suddenly. “ I’ll be able to get more pokemon!”
“ I guess I’ll join you.” Kristal nodded slowly.
“ Well, meet me inside the east gatehouse of the National Park in ten minutes.” The man said. “ And don’t be even a minute late. We don’t allow any latecomers in once the contest has begun.”
The man walked back to the gatehouse and stalls. The girls, ignoring Hiro’s requests to go straight to the gatehouse in case the contest started early, began to browse the stalls.
“ There’s a pokemon healing centre.” Lisa said. “ We’ll have to go there to heal all our pokemon before the contest.”
“ Hey, look over here.” Kris called to Lisa. “ Pokegear repair shop.”
“ Uh, my Pokegear’s working alright.” Lisa said.
“ Yeah, but mine isn’t,” Kris grinned. “ Come on, let’s take it in. They might be able to fix it before the contest.”
“ Alright.” Lisa said, enjoying the downgraded shopping spree.
“ Wait!” Hiro yelled. “ The contest begins in eight minutes. What if they start eight minutes early?”
Lisa and Kris entered the store, which Lisa thought was an overrated tent.
“ Excuse me?” Kris said in a soft voice, waiting at the counter. The space behind the counter was vacated.
“ Hello?”
The girls waited about five minutes before a woman popped up. Her red hair was very frizzy and seemed to be shaped like a circle around her head.
“ Good morning, kids. Sorry about the wait. How may I help you?”
“ My Pokegear’s not working.” Kris said quickly, fumbling with the catch at the back of her pokegear. “ Ah, there we go.”
Kris pulled her pokegear off and handed it to the lady.
“ Hmm… this is a simple problem.” She said. “ I should be able to fix this in about two sec-”
There was a loud click, and the pokegear turned back on.
“ Just a slight problem with the wires at the back,” the woman said. “ That’ll be three hundred dollars.”
“ Um ... you must mean three dollars, right?” Kris said.
The lady blinked. “ Yes… right…”
Kris placed the money on the counter. “ Thanks for fixing my ‘gear.”
The girls came back onto the path and saw Hiro waiting grumpily on a bench. A Cyndaquil and Venonat were beside him. He was juggling another pokeball. “ I hate shopping.” Hiro fumed. “ You were in there for five minutes … there’s only another minute or two before the contest begins.”
“ It’s alright.” Kris said. “ We’re done. Although, we need to heal our pokemon. Chompy's tired and Aipom's pretty exhausted too.”
As if to emphasise her statement, Aipom dropped to the ground and rolled in the dirt as though it were in pain.
A bell echoed throughout the area. “ Could all competitors in the bug catching contest please make their way to the eastern gatehouse. The contest begins in one minute precisely.”
Hiro stared at Kris and Lisa with a smug look.
“ No time to heal pokemon!” he cried. “ Let’s go.”
“ But Aipom’s got barely any health!” Lisa protested, as the trio rushed into the gatehouse, Hiro in the lead.
A small crowd was gathered around a platform, where the man from outside was standing, a microphone to his mouth. “ Welcome, all trainers.” He boomed. “ As you should all know, today we have our three times consecutive champion here to tutor some bug catchers at the end of the contest. The better pokemon you get, the more likely you are to win a whole day with … Kipp Anderson!”
A tall, teenage boy entered the gatehouse from inside the park. He was fair-haired, good-looking, tanned and was extremely well-built, muscles bulging out of his shirt as he looked out at the small crowd. Lisa looked at him and rolled her eyes at the boy who seemed to love himself.
“ Hello, everybody.” Kipp said in a deep voice. “ Good morning, girls!”
A gathering of girls in the front row all screamed in a pathetic way.
“ He smiled at meeee!” One girl shrieked.
“ Well he WINKED at me.” Another girl cried.
Kipp heard all of this but looked completely unfazed; if anything, Lisa thought, the girl's cries seemed to inflate his ego further. Lisa and Kristal exchanged glances; what was so great about this guy? Hiro, meanwhile, looked downright sickened by Kipp's self-involvement.
“ Alright, now, pokeballs ready?” the Manager cried, reaching over to the doors. “ Please give all your pokeballs to Kipp and I, except the one you wish to use.”
All the trainers did so.
“ Now receive your twenty Park Balls.”
Every trainer received the green, odd pokeballs.
“ Now, let’s begin!”
The Manager opened the glass doors wide, and trainers spilled out into the vast, grassy national park. Hiro ran off immediately, to the path on the left, but Kris and Lisa stood together.
“ I’ll go right then.” Lisa said slowly.
“ That means I get to go straight forward.” Kris said, after a moment’s hesitation.
Suddenly the sound of a pokegear phone ringing penetrated the area.
“ Hello?” Lisa and Kris said in unison, both snatching up the pokegear.
“ It’s me!” Lisa yelled. “ Mine, I mean.”
Kris waved to Lisa silently as she tramped off through the knee-deep grass. “Yeah, hello?” Lisa asked, holding the pokegear close to her face.
“ Lisa, is that you?” Tom asked. He sounded panicky.
“ Of course it’s me, who else would answer my phone?” Lisa said, stopping herself from giggling in a childish way.
“ Lisa, where the hell are you?” Tom’s voice changed promptly from panicky to furious.
“ The National Park,” Lisa replied, struggling to keep her voice calm and steady.
“ LISA!” Tom thundered. “ You should know better. Running away from home, leaving the kids alone …”
“ OY!” Lisa cried. “ I did not run away. I had no choice.” She almost had herself convinced of this - but how could she have simply allowed Suicune to escape?
“ Oh, cut the crap.” Tom retorted. “ You left home and left Wes and Jean by themselves.”
“ I didn't mean to go this far away! Besides, Nanna’s there!” Lisa argued, her face growing hotter.
Tom lowered his voice. “ She doesn’t count. If the kids asked to go to the Burned Tower she’d probably let ‘em.”
Lisa smiled at the thought of her amusing, rather carefree old grandmother. “ What’s so bad about that?” Lisa cried. “ I’m on a pokemon journey, and lots of kids younger than me are, too.”
Tom snorted in disgust, and Lisa could picture his face as though he was standing there before her. “ A Journey? Lisa, you only have one pokemon, that pathetic little Aipom that’s never been able to beat a trainer.”
Lisa felt anger welling up inside her like a ball of hateful fire.
“ DON’T EVER INSULT AIPOM! EVER!”
There was such rage in her voice that it was several seconds before either of them spoke again. After a lengthy, awkward silence, Tom’s voice came through the pokegear.
“ Lisa…. If you really think you didn’t run away, then what did happen?”
Tom’s voice was calm and almost soothing now. Lisa felt the redness drain from her cheeks as she explained the entire tale, from when she first decided to leave the house to when she battled Kris. Tom listened patiently, sounding astonished when Lisa told of Suicune and the other legendary pokemon - but he believed her. As a trainer at Ecruteak's ghost type gym, he was more inclined to believe strange tales involving supernatural and unusual things.
“So … what is your quest.. or journey?” Tom asked, when Lisa had finished.
“ I want to find the secrets behind all the legendary pokemon, but especially Suicune,” Lisa calmly replied.
“ Lisa … I know I shouldn’t really be doing this, but ..." Tom seemed to be suffering some kind of internal stuggle - his voice was strangled.
"But what?" asked Lisa.
" Well - this is amazing, what's happened to you. And I always thought Mum and Dad were being too restrictive, they should've let you go on a pokemon journey like this ages ago ... there's kids a lot younger than you doing it, have been for years ..."
"I know," said Lisa, thinking of Hiro and Kris.
" So I’ll let you go along on your quest … on one condition.”
“ What’s that?” Lisa's heart had leapt up in her chest.
“ That you come back to Ecruteak two days before Mum and Dad are due back. That way you’ll be there to explain everything, and I won’t get the blame.”
Lisa nodded, then remembered that Tom couldn’t see her. “ Yeah, of course Tom, that sounds fair.” It was all she could do not to hug herself with glee.
“ Be careful, Lisa; stay attentive, but also have fun,” Tom said, nearly whispering his final words. “ Ring me tomorrow, and keep in touch, you know, every day or two. Good luck, Leese.”
*
Lisa wandered around the park, oddly silent as she traipsed through the long overgrowth. Aipom ran alongside her, playfully calling out “ Lisa!” - the only English word he could speak.
Lisa suddenly found her path blocked by a Heracross, who had leapt out from the grass. “ It’s quite cute.” Lisa said to herself. “ But it’s not something I’d want.” She kept on walking, but the combination bug/fighting pokemon leapt out in front of her and blocked her way again.
“ Excuse me.” Lisa said, lightly, pushing past the bug.
“ Heracroo!” Heracross yelled.
“ Well, there’s no reason to get angry.” Lisa said, astonished at the Pokemon’s odd behaviour.
“ Ai, Aipom!” yelled Aipom.
A group of Heracross suddenly emerged from the grass, joining up with the first Heracross. Then they all ran to a tree and began headbutting it.
“ What’s their problem?” Lisa wondered aloud, confused.
Suddenly, dozens of Caterpie and Metapod began toppling out of the tree. Lisa realised at last what the Heracross were doing.
“ Stop that right now!” Lisa ordered.
“ AI!” Aipom agreed.
The Heracross ignored Lisa. She felt helpless. The Heracross were pokemon bullies, and they were injuring pathetic pokemon that couldn’t even attempt to stand up to them. They were knocking the littler bugs from their home.
“ Aipom, go!” Lisa yelled, feeling she had to at least try something.
One Heracross turned to fight, but suddenly a collection of Butterfree flew out from the highest boughs in the tree. They had been waiting for a distraction so they could take the Heracross off guard.
“ Alright, Butterfree!” called Lisa.
The Butterfrees all used Whirlwind, injuring the Heracross greatly and almost knocking them out. Then, with a final group Gust, the Heracross blew away; they were knocked out and had learned a lesson.
“ Now, Butterfree is mine.” Lisa said, choosing a huge butterfree. “ Go!”
Lisa tossed a ball at Butterfree, who unfortunately spotted the impending Park Ball, and created a gust that blew the ball backward, onto a sleeping Metapod. The Park Ball zapped open, and the cocoon Pokemon disappeared inside.
“ No!” Lisa cried, picking up Metapod’s Park Ball and opening it. Metapod appeared.
“ Sorry, Metapod, but I’m going to have to release you.” Lisa tossed Metapod up into the tree again, and prepared a new ball. Butterfree had its back to Lisa now. The girl picked up the ball, and tossed it. However, a freak breezy wind set the ball off course, and on course for a Caterpie.
“ Not again!” Lisa cried, as Caterpie was sucked into the ball and it latched closed. Lisa picked the ball up to release the bug, when suddenly a bell sounded.
“ BING, BONG. The Bug catching tournament is now officially over. The service attendants will now take you to the Western Gatehouse.”
Lisa couldn’t see any attendants nearby, so she threw Caterpie’s pokeball to release it. Just before the Park Ball hit the ground, an Abra teleported next to her, and caught it.
“ Thank you.” It gurgled, taking hold of Lisa’s hand. “ Now we will judge your pokemon.”
“ An Abra that can talk?” Lisa cried. “ What the ...”
But the next thing Lisa knew, she was in a gatehouse identical to the Eastern one; the Abra had teleported her back. All the Park Balls were being judged by the manager, who stood up on the platform. Abra released Lisa's hand and handed Caterpie up. Lisa met up with Kris and Hiro.
“ Hiro thinks he might win,” Kris whispered to Lisa.
After a few more minutes, the Manager stepped up to the platform. “ The winner of Thursday the 24th of October Bug Contest is …" He paused suspensefully. " Hiro Ferguson, from New Bark Town, with a Heracross! Runners up were Josh McMahon and Kristal Williams.”
Lisa applauded as her two friends received a Sun Stone and Gold Berry from the manager; she was not particularly fussed about not winning, and besides, with a small Caterpie, she hadn't had much chance.
Hiro and Kris came back; Kris looked elated at the berry for some reason, but Hiro didn’t look very happy.
“ What’s wrong, Hiro?” Lisa asked.
Hiro sighed. “ My prize is the rest of the day with that boring Kipp guy.”
Lisa and Kris couldn’t help but to laugh at him.
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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