Lisa the Legend - Chapter 52 up!!
Chapter 15 - Watered-Down Revenge.
Lisa and Anna stared on, dumbfounded and horrified at the indirect result of two simple Ice Beams. The crowd collectively held their breath, not daring to cheer for either side. Lisa glimpsed, from the corner of her eye, Jack the sailor, actually biting his nails like a petite school girl, acting the complete reverse of what his physical appearance suggested – big, tan man, bulging muscles, tall and broad shouldered – and he was biting his nails. Lisa would have found the trivial humour funny, if one of her few pokemon hadn’t been in a dire predicament. She turned back to the desperate situation at hand.
“ No … this just … it can’t have even happened …” murmured Lisa, unable to accept what she saw. The entire pool had been turned into a massive chunk of ice. Every drop of water had been frozen as it was when the ice-ball took effect – there were waves, still made from Psyduck’s splashdown, but they were solid, curved icicles.
On the barren, icy landscape before her, Lisa watched as the referee cautiously stepped out onto the rough, uneven freeze. The waves at the time of freezing had created a very hard to enter environment - the referee constantly was tripping over undetected ripples or heaving himself over larger waves. Lisa, tired of the slow pace, quickly formulated a plan and a strategy – quickly glancing around the glacier-ridden field, she discovered a virtually clear route into the centre of the pool, where both pokemon had roughly been at the time of freezing.
“ Go!” Lisa tossed out a pokeball onto the ice, which hit the slippery substance and zapped open, when slowly a Quagsire materialised. The crowd finally breathed out at once, and the commentator suddenly swung back into action, acting as though nothing had happened, and treating the absurd situation as an average battle.
“ The blue trainer, Lisa Walters, sends out her magnificent Quagsire out of it’s pokeball for the first time in this colosseum. Quagsire, the mud pokemon, has strange arms, which could determine the reasoning behind Lisa’s plan. From what I can make out, Lisa’s plan is to use Quagsire’s clumsy flippers to her advantage – sliding along the ice. But as of yet I am not sure why …”
“ Alright, keep sliding, Quagsire!” Lisa urged to her pokemon, as Quagsire propelled itself along the glazed, icy surface, approaching the centre very slowly. Lisa clung to Quagsire as he barrelled past a tall, pointy glacier.
“ Careful, Quag.” Lisa breathed, as they skidded to a halt near the pool’s centre, where Dratini was buried. “ Now go … Elekid! Go, Butterfree! You too, Vulpix!”
Lisa tossed out three more pokeballs, and in blasts of ivory, petite but fiesty Elekid, sweet, gentle Butterfree and loving but determined Vulpix appeared. The crowd exhaled as one over the new pokemon, and the commentator was speechless, puzzled over Lisa’s plan. “ Elekid, please use thunder wave to chip through the ice. Vulpix – you’ll be my best bet, so please use your Ember attack! Butterfree – Psybeam the ice NOW!” Lisa knew she would have to be more polite to Elekid and Vulpix, as they had never fought for her before.
“ Bi bi!”
“ Vul! Pix!”
“ Freeeh!”
Elekid glowed with fiery eyes and a transparent yellow hue, then the electricity was absorbed up through his ‘thunder conductors’. The gold/black striped pokemon made slow but constant progress, chipping a small hole after about a minute. Butterfree, however, was faring better, although it depended what aspect Lisa was judging on. The psybeams were far more effective, in terms of depth, but they were gradually wearing Butterfree down, as were very stop-start, stop-start, rather than the consistent attacks from Elekid. As for Vulpix, she was making excellent work, embering the ice and burning away large areas at a time. Quagsire was making short-lived Water Guns at the ice, sizzling them in a sense, but not making very much more progress than Elekid and Butterfree. Aipom leapt from Lisa’s shoulder and began furiously digging. Lisa looked on, feebly kicking the ice every so often in a fruitless attempt to help. Dratini and Psyduck were probably not going to live – if they did they’d probably get frostbite, of hypothermia. Lisa wasn’t exactly sure if that could happen to pokemon, but the fact remained that they could get seriously hurt in there. Lisa didn’t want to see them … dead.
Anna, still standing on her platform at the edge of which the ice reared up at stared at the scene. She looked from Elekid, to Butterfree, to Vulpix, to Aipom, and then to Lisa, who had now let go of her stiff feelings about Dratini and was kneeling down over the ice, scraping at it in a futile attempt to regain her pokemon. Her hands were rapidly becoming raw. Anna struggled inside herself. Psyduck … her first and strongest pokemon … she couldn’t simply stand by and watch as he was trapped – and maybe killed even.
As Lisa and her pokemon continued to dig through the ice, now having succeeded in making an oval crater about 20 feet wide and 3 feet deep, a pokeball popped open in the crater. Lisa looked up and saw Anna there, a Scizor next to her. Lisa grinned, and Anna reflected her smile. Their eyes twinkling, each girl somehow knew – they were no longer bitter enemies, but they were allies.
Scizor made a remarkable help to the team. Butterfree had been utterly exhausted now, and even Elekid was getting run-down. Aipom, Lisa realised, wasn’t in the crater. Standing up, she saw Aipom outside the crater on the surface – digging a tiny hole of his own. “ Idiot.” Lisa scoffed, picking Aipom up by his tail, and fighting down the urge to grin, despite her Dratini’s bleak horizon. She became serious for a moment. Turning back, she saw another figure sliding across the icy surface, from the trainer’s box many metres away. “ Gavin?!” Lisa cried, as the tall boy flipped over on the ice, and skidded to a halt at the edge of the crater.
“ Present.” Gavin muttered, stupidly.
Lisa hauled him up. “ Why are you here?”
“ We were watching the battle in the trainer’s room.” Gavin replied, his voice shaking slightly. “ When I saw, I came. It took a LONG time to get past the ref, though, he didn’t want to let me in.”
“ So … you’re here to help?”
“ Does THIS answer your question?” Gavin asked, waving his hand to his left, when Girafarig, Staryu, Lanturn and Natu were perched, ready for action.
“ GO!”
Now with 8 pokemon and 3 people on the scene, the hole was enlarging at a rapid pace. Seeing a fellow Psychic pokemon, Butterfree was filled with renewed spirit, and began fluttering into the air, Psybeaming all the way, next to Girafarig. Lanturn, however, seemed the only being not helping the situation. It flopped on the ice, sliding every so often, but utterly refusing to give a hand. “ Just help, dammit.” Gavin spat at Lanturn, whose green and yellow appearance was making some of the audience ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’. This somehow seemed to annoy Lanturn, and Lisa actually felt agitated too - those idiots were looking at a Pokemon’s appearance when two Pokemon’s lives were at risk.
But now, the two pokemon had been trapped for at least fifteen minutes, and Lisa was sure that they were going to die.
Suddenly, a cry rang out from the stands, and a dozen or so people pushed past the patrolling security guards and slid onto the icy grounds. Lisa, Gavin and Anna were all amazed, although still afraid of the entrapment’s outcome, until it sank in; these people were defying the law to help them! It took a couple of minutes until the small party of people arrived and quintupled the group. With many shouts, they assembled around the tiny crater, and each sent out one or two or even six pokemon, who all began scraping at the ice furiously. Lisa had tears in her eyes as a couple of girls comforted her and Anna, saying that they would all find the trapped pokemon and save their lives. And Lisa was nodding, saying yes; they WOULD find her Dratini, and Anna was agreeing.
It was so heartwarming to think that these people cared.
Lisa looked at the crater – it was massive now, and she thought for half a moment that she could see Dratini’s tail. It DID turn out to be a Dratini – belonging to a volunteer trainer. There were many pokemon excavating now – many water ones in particular, but she also spotted a Granbull and a Mankey, and …
“ You alright, Leese?” Jack Criddle asked her, while his Granbull chomped through the solid water and Mankey swiped at it.
Lisa nodded at her old enemy-turned-friend, a huge lump swelling in her throat. For her pokemon had now been stuck underneath the ice, with no air, for almost twenty five minutes. If there was still some water down below, there was some hope, because Dratini could stay underwater for long periods of time. The commentator was still speaking, but Lisa happened to catch the words ‘Ambulance’ amongst his rantings.
It was definitely some peace for Lisa’s troubled and anxious mind, as well as Anna’s, to have so many helping hands. However, their effect was felt more emotionally than physically, because barely ten minutes after they entered, their efforts were halted. It happened when every singled pokemon was helping to dig.
Except Lanturn.
“ C’mon, you lump o’ blubber, help us,” Gavin persisted with the stubborn Lanturn, trying to drag it along the ice next to Elekid, who had an apprehensive look on his face, and another trainer’s Arbok. “ Dammit, help us, just use your thunder -” The next thing Gavin knew, his entire body was vibrating with electricity, making his jaw freeze and his entire movements cease. Lanturn’s antennae were shaking with the sheer voltage, but persisted in giving it’s master a full-on attack. Lisa watched in horror. Lanturn was worse than ever – it was relentlessly attacking it’s trainer. Gavin was going to be knocked out soon, surely, It couldn’t be healthy to be shocked for so long. Almost everyone looked towards Gavin, but luckily, for the future events might have been catastrophic, the trainers and pokemon prevented the crowd, expect those very high up, from seeing this happen.
“ Cuh ih ow!” Gavin spluttered, trying to talk without moving his tongue or mouth at all. Suddenly, Gavin’s entire body took on a new, enveloping aura. Instead of the intense yellow glare from Lanturn, Gavin was suddenly surrounded by the new azure aura. Lisa guessed at once, and in a nano-second braced herself mentally, as Gavin clutched his hands to his head, and beads of cerulean light appeared from nowhere on his forehead.
BOOM!!!
An immense beam of cerulean light emitted from Gavin’s head, Lanturn flopping about directly in it’s path, and ripped through the pool of ice. The flopping fish was sent flying into the air – the crowd was no longer admiring it – but Gavin’s psychic travelled further. It tunnelled into the solid prism of ice beneath them all, making a fissure in the surface right to the bottom of the pool. It was a few seconds until the beam stopped, and Gavin fell over – into the fissure he had made, amongst panicked screams from the volunteers, who had seen it all and had barely dodged the beam, and the crowd, who had not seen where the beam had come from, but just that it created a chasm and that a human had actually fallen into it!
Natu flapped it’s minute wings, and swiftly flew down after Gavin into the crevice, and Lisa surveyed the scene with a look of heavy sorrow, fighting back tears which welled up in her eyes. Lanturn – flopping helplessly on the point of a glacier, Lisa saw, and also brutally wounded. Dratini and Psyduck – lost within the icy chamber below, possibly forever. Gavin – fallen metres down into a crevice, electrified and injured – dead?
*
“ Morning Gavin.” Lisa murmured, as Gavin’s eyes flickered open. He sat up in shock, unaware of his surroundings, but Lisa rubbed his arm, and pushed him back down.
“ Where am I?” he muttered.
“ Red Rock Island Hospital.” Lisa informed him. “ You were seriously hurt by that last psychic thingy, not to mention the electric shock, and the fall. I’m surprised you were … alright.”
Lisa had been about to say alive, but she really didn’t want to stress Gavin out any more than he was – the teen was very confused. It was Thursday now, the 8th. Gavin had actually been unconscious for a day or so – stable but unconscious - and Lisa had been extremely worried about him – crying and fretting. Jack had been great – he had stopped by to see Gavin – and Anna had also come to check how he was doing.
“ Gavin, you do remember doing that Psybeam, don’t you?”
He nodded, but then became concerned. “ What … happened to the pokemon? Drati -” Gavin asked slowly.
Lisa had been ready for this. “ Dratini and Psyduck were frozen – where your Psybeam hit, actually, but much deeper down. As Natu fluttered to see what happened to you, he saw Psyduck’s tail sticking out. Dratini was there too. They’re still in the Pokemon Centre, though, recovering.”
“ That’s good … what about the battle?”
“ Draw.” Lisa said. “ Me and Anna drew.”
“ So … ?”
“ We have a rematch again – tomorrow. It’s counted as my next fight in sequence – that is, it’s counted as my fight for round three, so there’s going to be an extra person competing in the overall tournament – dunno how that’ll work.”
“ What about … my battle?”
“ Taken care of.” Lisa smiled. “ You’re scheduled for noon on Saturday. You’ll be fine by then.”
“ But the Whirlpool Cup … ”
“ … has been postponed.” Lisa said, calmly. “ You’ll fight on Saturday, and I’ll fight tomorrow – me for round three and you for round two. Then you’ll fight again on Monday for round three, and if we both win the whole way – well, we’ll be in the semi finals. No other battles will take place, except the last four competitors who were supposed to battle after you.”
Gavin grinned slowly, trying to sit again, but Lisa pushed him down, and spoke again in a very serious tone.
“ Gavin – these Psychic things are becoming – worse.”
“ I know.” He said in an almost complaining voice. “ I can’t help it, though.”
“ The ghost gym leader from Ecruteak is coming here to talk to you later on.” Lisa explained, and Gavin’s face creased in worry. “ He says your attacks, from what I told him, are becoming much more frequent, and it could mean something serious. Don’t get too worried, but you should just be careful about getting into pain – especially with Lanturn.”
“ Yeah well – that thing deserves to be released. Dunno why I caught it.”
“ Gavin – he must be a good pokemon in SOME way. You just have to persevere – you only caught him a few days ago.”
“ I know – but I just thought … that he’d obey. Staryu does, Natu does, Girafarig does.”
“ Well, at first Aipom didn’t obey me at all.” Lisa said, a smile creeping up onto her face despite Gavin’s problems and Dratini still being in the Pokemon Centre. “ When I first got him.”
Gavin looked mildly interested. “ When did you catch Aipom?”
“ Well – I didn’t.” Lisa admitted.
“ Oh – you traded?”
“ Not quite.”
“ So – you got GIVEN Aipom?”
“ Yeah – my parents gave him to me.”
“ Explain?” a smile crept onto Gavin’s face too.
“ My parents got a job a few weeks ago – about a month ago, actually.” Lisa began, sitting down on Gavin’s white bedsheets, and suddenly recalling the Black Beast fiasco back in Goldenrod. Shrugging it off, she continued.
“ Mum and Dad got a job with a huge company over east last September. Dad was already interested in Fossils – he studied them all day and night, like a collector – and Mum was employed at the Ecru Lake as a Marine Expert. She knew all there was to know about the contents of the lake, like Salvao weed, and of course, fossils. She taught groups of other fossil experts through a tour of the lake – one particular company, Sterling and Son, or something like that, thought she was good for a job opening in Mt Moon.”
“ And then?” Gavin asked, listening intently as though the story was vital to his existence.
“ Then Mum said she’d only go if Dad went too – he had been looking for a job like that for AGES. It was about a week before the company agreed – and about a week later they left.”
“ To Kanto?”
“ Uh huh.” Lisa replied flatly. “ They left us at home.”
“ Who’s us?”
“ Me and my little brother and sister, and my older brother Tom, who stayed for about a week before he left. Then he just checked on us every morning and night – he trains at the gym.”
“ So where does Aipom come in?”
“ He came in a padded box about a week after Mum and Dad left,” Lisa swallowed her laughter. “ Bouncing off the walls … they sent him over for me. At first he wouldn’t listen to me at all – but after a while he got used to me and I really liked him.”
Gavin nodded, and felt a great surge of tiredness coming on. He yawned heavily, and then turned over. “ G’night – seeya in the morning.”
“ G’night Gavin,” Lisa sighed, then spoke in what was barely a whisper, scarcely a breath. “ I hope that psychic legend is wrong after all – it’d be a shame if you died now. I’m just getting to like you.”
*
Lisa entered the colosseum, the wind blowing back her hair into Aipom’s face, as she tossed Dratini’s pokeball up and down in her hand. The sun shone brightly as always – not a cloud in sight. Lisa was ready now – Dratini had been fully healed now – as had all the others. It was time for the rematch.
The crowd cheered on as Anna entered from the opposite side, stepping into the trainer’s box. Lisa entered hers. The water in the pool had been refilled over the past two days, and it reflected the radiant sunlight. The referee blew on his whistle, and called out “ One on one battle – start … now!”
Somewhere, a bell rang out, and Lisa grinned, arching her arm out to throw Dratini’s pokeball, then in a swift move of deception snatched up Quagsire’s from her belt, and threw it out. Anna dropped Psyduck’s pokeball into the water, and noticed Lisa’s different Pokemon. “ Not against the rules, is it?” Lisa smirked. Anna scowled, but only for a moment – she felt a little differently towards Lisa now. The battle began.
“ Psyduck – full on Aurora Beam.” Anna cried. “ Lisa, this time there’s going to be no ice beams, fair enough?”
“ I don’t see how Aurora Beam is much different,” called Lisa.
“ It’s a dilute version.”
“ Alright. Double Team, Quagsire.” Lisa ordered.
Both battlers took immediate action, Quagsire closed his eyes and squinted – rapidly producing replicas of himself – however, they were only images, not solid beings. Then the mischievous mud pokemon switched itself with one of the copies, in such a fast, obscured move that even Lisa couldn’t pick it. Psyduck, the slower of the two adversaries, was preparing an orb of azure light, forming it between it’s short, stubby arms as it grew larger – although nothing like the enormous proportions of the last one.
When the globe of cerulean brightness had grown to the size of an orange, he shot out the rainbow-coloured aurora from it, quickly releasing it off at Quagsire’s ring of copies – all of them were standing still, their eyes all glinting slightly, and their mouths curved upwards slightly in a child-like grin. The rainbow light raced at the Quagsires, who made no action to save themselves – only one was real, after all. The icy beam shot through two Quagsires and they dissolved immediately. Lisa clenched her fist – as a small sign of triumph.
*
“ Gavin – the ghost expert will see you now.” A nurse popped her head around the door of Gavin’s room. Gavin nodded, and sat up slowly, piling up his pillows to prop him up.
“ Alright then.”
As soon as the nurse vacated, a young man of about 18 years entered. He had light brown hair, cut short, and deep chestnut eyes. Gavin looked at him – he didn’t seem like Morty, the gym leader – although he did seem like the right age. “ You’re not Morty.” Gavin muttered, as the man, dressed in black pants and a blue shirt, sat down in the comfortable seat next to the bed.
“ No – Morty couldn’t leave Ecruteak.” The man said. “ He had some urgent business regarding legendary pokemon –” his voice lowered and he muttered under his breath to himself. “ My sister would like that.” But Gavin’s ears heard and his mind ticked into action. Sister? Legendaries? Gavin shook his head, and kept quiet.
“ So who ARE you?”
“ Hm?” the man said. “ Oh right … I’m a trainer at the gym. My name’s Tom Walters.”
Gavin let his jaw drop freely. “ Walters?” he spluttered. “ As in – Lisa’s … brother?!”
“ Wassat?” His eyes were suddenly sharp and glaring at Gavin as though he had just killed an innocent Cleffa. “ You know Lisa?”
“ She’s like – my best friend!” Gavin cried instantly. “ We travel together.” He added, in case Tom got at all suspicious.
“ Hm … small world … so she’s on the island?” Tom kept his shock fairly well this time.
“ Yeah – we’re both competing in the Whirlpool Cup. She’s battling right now, actually.”
Tom appeared deep in thought. “ I might see her later on today. But for now let’s get on with the reason that I’m here – your psychic – um – problem.”
[continued in next post ...]
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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