Lisa the Legend - Chapter 52 up!!
Seriously sorry everyone. I've been inundated with homework for a couple of weeks so time on the net has been limited. For your patience, i'll repost as much as i can in one go (hopefully, to chapter16)
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Chapter 10 - Fighting the Ocean.
“ Aipom!” Lisa yelled, racing to the reef’s edge and throwing herself in the water after Aipom, ignorant of Irene’s smug face. Irene didn’t care if her opponent’s pokemon was cruelly drowned … she just wanted to win. Usually speaking, pokemon battles never resulted in death, but battling on a water-based field with a non-water type pokemon was really an accident waiting to happen.
Lisa forced air out of her mouth in order to sink down deeper. Trying to recall the swimming lessons she had taken in the Ecru Lake back home earlier in her life, Lisa used Breastroke to slowly catch up to Aipom. Being unconscious already, Aipom was sinking and drowning at the same time – unable to save himself from he cruel fate which Irene and Poliwhirl had bestowed upon him. Lisa strained her lungs, swimming deeper into the murky depths of the ocean … reaching desperately for Aipom’s tail.
She grasped her left hand around Aipom’s tail, and breathed … or bubbled … a sigh of relief. Placing Aipom underneath her arm, Lisa used her right arm to slowly swim upwards, towards the surface. She had been underwater for quite a long time now, and her lungs were bursting, begging for air … Lisa looked up to see the water lightening and the surface glimmering only a few feet away …
Lisa’s head broke through the surface, as she gulped down oxygen at last. Aipom, however, was seriously injured. He had swallowed a lot of water, and was hardly breathing. “ Aipom!” Lisa cried, clambering onto the shore and dragging her Pokemon onto the reef, trying to block out Irene’s “ Hah! Your pokemon can’t even swim!”, and concentrating on the matter at hand; reviving Aipom.
Quagsire, behind Irene, looked steadily on as his former friend was suffering. ‘ If it wasn’t for me, this wouldn’t have happened.’ Quagsire felt a tear of sorrow spill out of his eye and onto his cheek. ‘ After all, I caused Aipom to…’ Quagsire couldn’t bring himself to say, or even think, the word. There might still be hope … but only if he hurried. Would he be able to revive his friend?
“ Quag!” Quagsire called, running over to Lisa and Aipom on all fours. His buttocks wobbled slightly as he ran, and it slowed him down, but the Water type Pokemon dismissed the minor hindrance and ran on. He had to save his friend! Lisa glanced up from Aipom and suddenly saw Quagsire leaping onto Aipom’s middle section, forcing Aipom’s mouth to open and a small blast of water to escape. Lisa watched as Quagsire slowly drained all the fluid out of Aipom’s lungs, and after a short silence, the monkey opened it’s eyes.
“ Aipom, you’re alright!” Lisa rejoiced, scooping Aipom back into her arms and smiling. “ Thank god you’re OK.”
Quagsire smiled too, it had saved Aipom. Even though abandoning Lisa had eventually caused this to happen, Quagsire had fixed the conflict … although there was one more problem to be settled.
“ Oy, Lisa!” Irene called, Poliwhirl still standing patiently before her. “ Are you gonna finish this battle or what?”
Lisa was infuriated by the question; was Irene for real? Lisa’s first pokemon had nearly been killed by an attack from Poliwhirl, and Irene hadn’t even given Lisa to recover physically or emotionally. Just as Lisa went to yell out “No Way” Quagsire jumped in front of her. “ Quag!”
“ Quagsire … a-a-are you going t-to battle … for m-me?” Lisa stuttered, partly due to pleasant surprise and partly due to her teeth chattering; the ocean had been surprisingly cold for a warm day. Quagsire was ready to fight for it’s true trainer again … even if she had abandoned him, Lisa had been willing to fight for him – twice! The Loyal Quagsire was ready to fight for Lisa in return.
“ What are you doing, fighting for HER?” Irene spat at Quagsire. “ You’re MY pokemon, remember?”
“ I think Quagsire has returned to ME.” Lisa smiled a sickly sweet smile. “ Sorry, Irene.”
“ Traitor.” Irene was in no mood to end a battle half way through. Spoilt as a child, everything had always gone her way. Having a pathetic novice trainer – even if she was older - order her around infuriated her beyond Lisa’s perspectives. “ We’ll finish this battle NOW.”
“ But I already won back Quagsire.” Lisa gloated, still overjoyed that she had regained Quagsire.
Irene had to think of a new scheme – and she had the perfect one ready. “ Alright, we’ll finish this battle off, using only one Pokemon each. But if you win – you get a badge.” Irene pulled out a pink badge from nowhere and showed it to her new enemy.
“ No way – what? A badge?” Lisa asked, suddenly wondering whether she should have been so hasty about cancelling the fight. “ What are you on about? Does that mean you’re a Gym Leader?”
“ Yeah,” yawned Irene, seeing that her trick had worked. It was true, she was a gym leader, for the Whirlpool Cup. But she was sure she could beat anything this novice threw out.
“ So what’s the catch?” Lisa asked her opponent, unsure whether or not to believe her Gym leader story.
“ Well, if you win you earn a Coral Reef badge, if I win, I get to keep Quagsire.” Irene’s eyes flashed evilly.
Lisa sighed. A badge would prove to her pokemon that she was a worthy trainer, and may persuade them to obey her. But the risk of losing Quagsire was too great – Poliwhirl had already beaten Aipom without much effort.
“ Sorry,” Lisa said firmly. “ No badge is worth losing Quagsire again. Besides, I don’t need a badge to make my pokemon obey me … they judge me myself, not my level of experience.”
“ You’re been watching too much Sleepless in Saffron,” Irene’s eyes flashed again. She had felt sure Lisa would be foolish enough to accept. “ Why don’t you battle? Afraid of losing?”
“ Reverse Psychology won’t work on me. I’m a bit too old for that,” Lisa chuckled. “ C’mon Quagsire, let’s go.”
Quagsire held it’s ground, not moving an inch. “ Quagsire, c’mon.” Lisa said. “ You came back to me, remember. You can’t go back to that cow.”
“ Quag! Quag si!” Quagsire resisted the pull of Lisa’s hand on his arm. He shrugged her off.
“ Quagsire … you want revenge, don’t you?” Lisa muttered to her friend, interpreting his outburst. “ You want to finish the fight for Aipom.”
“ Quag.” Quagsire nodded, glad that Lisa was catching on.
“ Well, if that’s really what you want …” Lisa said, rather reluctantly. Then she raised her voice and turned back to Irene. “ I accept the challenge. What Pokemon will you use?”
Irene grinned. “ I’ll stick with my Poliwhirl.”
“ Well, I’m using Quagsire.” Lisa said, as Quagsire wobbled over to face Poliwhirl, who only minutes ago had been it’s battle partner was now it’s adversary.
“ Tackle it, Quagsire.” Lisa called, to begin with.
“ Poliwhirl, use technique C.” Irene called.
Lisa and Quagsire alike were puzzled by this command. Technique C? “ What does that mean?” Lisa cried angrily.
“ Gym Leader’s secret strategy.” Irene put on a smug face. “ Top secret.”
“ Well, in that case, Quagsire, dive into the water.” Lisa called.
Irene laughed to herself, and said under her breath, so that Lisa couldn’t hear. “ Well, that’ll just save us the trouble of having to get you in there ourselves.”
Quagsire jumped swiftly off the reef and into the icy water. Water was Quagsire’s home ground. It was safer and more adept at it’s attacks in the water than on land. Poliwhirl, who had begun to charge at Quagsire on land, now averted course and jumped right in to face Quagsire. Poliwhirl swam a few quick strokes of breastroke before diving underwater and away from where Quagsire could keep track of it. Lisa shuddered. Now Poliwhirl had an advantage; it could see Quagsire, but Quagsire could not see it.
“ Quagsire – just wait there.” Lisa cried, deciding none of Quagsire’s attacks would be able to find or damage Poliwhirl where it currently was hiding. Lisa and Quagsire both waited in a nervous silence, waiting for Poliwhirl to make a move. Just when Lisa’s nervousness was beginning to turn to boredom, a blast of light from deep below began to soar up towards the surface. Lisa spotted it at once. “ Quagsire – um … DOUBLE TEAM!”
Quagsire wondered why Lisa was ordering an attack when they had been awaiting Poliwhirl’s move, but it had just regained it’s trust for her; it had to obey. With shocking speed, Quagsire created a dozen holograms; shadowy images of itself, then switched into one of those clones, kind of teleporting into another’s position. The light from below barrelled on, closer and closer. The light was of rainbow colours, and Lisa recognised it as an Aurora Beam, seconds before it broke through the surface and shattered one of Quagsire’s doubles.
“ Great going Quagsire.” Lisa called to her Pokemon, as he realised he had just moved in time. Thank god he was listening to Lisa now. Poliwhirl broke through the surface a few seconds later, looking for a fainted Quagsire, but instead seeing a ring of Quagsire, strong and healthy, and viciously glaring at the opponent.
“ Poliwhirl – Hyper Beam.” Irene called, seeing her strategies failing. Poliwhirl began to spin around, powering up for the devastating beam, which would be fired out while Poliwhirl spun - Lisa realised that all the Quagsire, including her real one, would be hit. She had to act fast.
Lisa thought quickly about the details. Any physical attack would be useless; Quagsire would take more damage than Poliwhirl. Any elemental attack would do little – from the side. Lisa looked up – maybe Quagsire could attack from the top of Poliwhirl – it was much less defensive on it’s head. Lisa wondered how until the answer came to her.
“ Quagsire – listen carefully - Water Gun the ocean! Make it really a high pressure blast!” Lisa called.
Quagsire’s doubles disappeared, and Quagsire himself breathed in deeply, filling his lungs and hydrogen chamber with oxygen. The hydrogen and oxygen mixed strangely, and when Quagsire exhaled, a jet of water blasted into the surrounding sea, propelling Quagsire into the air, where he floated above Poliwhirl. “ Ice Beam!” Lisa called. Quagsire prepared it’s quickest ever ball of energy, and fired it within seconds, aimed right for Poliwhirl’s head. The attack hit home right as Quagsire landed back in the water. Poliwhirl froze over, into a solid block of ice, just as the Hyper Beam was fired. A large chunk of ice exploded from the block, and landed on Quagsire’s head, delivering the damage of a Tackle.
Irene and Lisa both surveyed the scene. A frozen Poliwhirl, a headachy but hardly damaged Quagsire. The winner was obvious. “ We won, Quagsire!” Lisa rejoiced, diving back into the water and hugging her pokemon, regardless of the temperature. “ You did it!”
“ Quag!” Quagsire called, happy to win a fight.
Lisa expected Irene to ‘chuck a psyche’, however, she took the whole thing rather calmly. “ Dammit Lisa. You beat me.”
Lisa smiled as she clambered onto the reef again, as Quagsire grinned. “ You put up a really tough fight, if that’s any consolation. Your Poliwhirl is trained very well. I can’t believe you only had to say two words to order an entire strategy.”
Irene enjoyed the words of praise, but she was still unable to be happy about her defeat. “ Here Lisa. The Coral Reef badge. It makes Pokemon below level 25 obey you.” She paused. “ But you’re right. Badges are just there to show a pokemon who’s boss. If you have a real connection with your pokemon, a badge isn’t needed.
“ It’s also one of the badges required to get into the Whirlpool Cup.”
Lisa took the Pink badge which slightly resembled a Corsola. “ The Whirlpool Cup? I thought it was for Johto? The Whirlpool Cup – what’s that?”
“ It’s a mini-pokemon league held in the Whirl Archipelago.” Irene explained, returning Poliwhirl.
“ Go on …” Lisa said, placing the badge carefully in her pocket. It would be safe there.
“ The Whirlpool Cup is held very soon – the first round is in a week or so … Wednesday the 6th ,” Irene told her. “ Water Pokemon only are allowed. You can sign up at Red Rock Island.”
Lisa thought about it. She was on the way to Cianwood Island anyway, so why not compete? The Whirl Islands were close by, and might have some rare legendary Pokemon there. “ I might check this Whirlpool Cup out.” Lisa said.
“ Thanks for telling me, Irene. And thanks for giving Quagsire back.”
“ Pleasure.” snapped Irene, not sounding at all as though it WAS a pleasure. Lisa waved to the young gym leader, as she walked across the reef and threw a pokeball.
“ Dratini – I choose you!”
*
Lisa cruised along on Dratini, the late afternoon breeze blowing her hair back over her face continually. Gavin, five feet away, was cruising along on his Staryu, sitting on one of Staryu’s strong and sturdy arms, and grasping tightly onto it’s top point, still not totally trusting his pokemon not to accidentally throw him off into the ocean.
It was a warm Saturday afternoon. Lisa and Gavin were on their way to Cianwood Island, now only an hour away from their destination after two days of almost constant surfing, stopping nightly on occasional reefs. Lisa fumbled with Granbull and Mankey’s pokeballs as Dratini progressed through the water. She had six pokemon already, but now she could give Granbull and Mankey to their Sailor trainer, Jack, somewhere on Cianwood. It seemed like a long time ago that Lisa had received the two Pokemon from Gavin’s Uncle Eusine, but in reality it was only a mere 5 days. Lisa sighed, contented. Although she had nearly lost Quagsire to Irene, and Aipom had nearly drowned, it would all be worth it when she handed Jack Criddle his pokeballs and he thanked her. Maybe even a reward would be given, since Lisa had gone out of her way to deliver pokemon to a stranger?
After that, Lisa and Gavin would finally be on a new adventure. To the Whirlpool Cup. Gavin was going to compete with his Staryu, hopefully he could get far enough for Staryu to evolve into Starmie. Lisa knew Quagsire had already reached it’s final form, unless it could evolve again somehow, but maybe Dratini could evolve if she used it instead.
“ Ai ai pom!” Aipom called, tugging at Lisa’s wavy black hair.
“ Yeah, this is fun.” Lisa agreed.
“ AI POM!!” Aipom screamed, seemingly frantic.
Lisa guessed she was misinterpreting Aipom’s words. “ Tell me Aipom, what’s wrong?!”
“ Ai … Ai Pom. Po a ai pom!” Aipom said, obviously straining to stop itself screaming.
Lisa tried to translate what Aipom was saying. “ Coming up … what’s coming up?”
“ Um.. Lisa?” Gavin called, from her left.
“ Hang on, I’m trying to understand Aipom.” Lisa said impatiently and ignorantly, as Aipom repeated itself. “ Let’s see… something’s coming up on my right…no, my left. What’s that, Aipom? Whirlpool? No, you can’t compete in the Whirlpool Cup, it’s only for water…”
“ THERE’S A WHIRLPOOL TO YOUR LEFT!” Gavin yelled at Lisa. Finally, she turned towards Gavin where she watched him and Staryu become pulled into the swirling fury of the whirlpool, which was very deep but not too large. Lisa began to panic as Gavin was swept away into the swirling water, not knowing how to save him. Gavin was gradually being pulled in further, and finally Lisa realised what had to be done.
“ Dratini – use your Whirlpool attack!” Lisa cried, nearing the whirlpool as close as possible without being pulled in. Dratini had to be very close to the Whirlpool for the technique to be pulled off. Once they were close enough, Dratini turned it’s neck, opened it’s mouth and let out a stream of powerful water, rushing against the flow of the whirlpool. Gavin, meanwhile, was trying to keep calm while his Staryu also attempted to conquer the currents with a Whirlpool attack.
But the two pokemon were not enough. Even after Lisa released her Quagsire into the sea to battle the whirlpool, the pool still raged on, sucking Gavin and Staryu in further by the second. Just when the trainers and their pokemon were ready to give up and give in, three creatures popped their heads up out of the water and began spurting water out from their mouths. The creatures were in fact three Lanturns, but there was something odd about them. They, instead of being yellow and blue, were yellow and green. Floating next to each other, their whirlpool attacks were strong enough to combat the force of water, and drive it backwards into itself, until the whirlpool all of a sudden ceased to exist.
Lisa blinked, and when she again opened her eyes, the ocean was flat once again. Gavin and Staryu were floating, cheering weakly, a few metres away, drenched but glad to be saved from one of the whirlpools which frequently occurred in the Cianwood Sea. Quagsire was panting, as was Dratini. But the Green Lanturns were grinning – as though they had enjoyed the experience. “ Thank you!” Lisa called to the Lanturns, but Gavin seemed much more interested.
“ Oy, you Lanturns, come over here!” Gavin called, drifting towards them on Staryu’s aching right arm. Two of the Lanturn flinched, and began to swim away, but one Lanturn stretched out one of it’s antennae and shook Gavin’s hand in a sign of peace.
“ Lanturn, would you like you come in here?” Gavin pulled out a pokeball.
Lanturn shook it’s head mischievously, then it’s antenna crackled with sparks seconds before in thundershocked Gavin. The electricity shocked Staryu, and weakened it. Suddenly, Gavin became extremely angry. “ Oy, don’t do that to my Staryu!” he cried indignantly.
The Green Lanturn grinned cheekily, and shocked Gavin again. Gavin cried out, and threw an Ultra Ball, which appeared in his hand as if from nowhere. The ball flew at Lanturn, snuffling it up in a swift movement and catching it, the ball flying through the air to Gavin. Lisa stared, stunned.
*
It was late Saturday night, or early Sunday morning - about 3am, when Lisa and Gavin finally arrived on Cianwood Island. Lisa’s Quagsire and Dratini were both exhausted, so Lisa swam through the pitch black water of the ocean for about 100 metres before arriving at the shore, so as to give both of them, who had taken turns in carrying Lisa, a good rest. As for Gavin, his Staryu was pooped, and Lanturn was of no use for surfing. Apart from the fact that it was a bit undersized small, it was very disobedient. Gavin had tried to ride the Pokemon twice during the journey – both times Gavin and Staryu had ended up fried from a Thundershock.
Lisa recalled Quagsire and Dratini, and Gavin recalled Staryu as the duo trudged slowly up towards the beach in the dark. Lisa was finding it hard to see, but the pale moonlight which reflected off the ankle-deep water gave her some vague direction. Finally, Lisa half walked, half-dragged herself and Gavin’s cold, dripping forms up onto the sandy beach. Gavin let out a weak groan as he flopped down on the damp sand, and Lisa reached to her belt for a Pokeball to return him with when she remembered; Gavin wasn’t a Pokemon. Lisa slapped herself on the forehead, clipped the ball back on her belt, and shook Gavin awake.
“ C’mon, we have to go now,” Lisa whispered softly in Gavin’s ear. “ I think we’re both ready for a good night’s sleep at the Pokemon Centre.” Gavin mumbled something and heaved his dripping body up. He threw an arm over Lisa’s shoulder, Aipom barely dodging the limb as it scampered over to Lisa’s other shoulder. Lisa hauled her friend up to a standing position and dragged him along the beach, Aipom attempting to pull Gavin’s arm off Lisa’s shoulder but not succeeding. “ Leave him there, Aipom,” Lisa said, approaching the Town of Cianwood slowly, where a few weak lights indicated the small port town. “ Just help me drag this idiot to the Pokemon Centre.”
“ Ai ai pom?”
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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