Lisa the Legend - Chapter 52 up!!
Whoa. I can't believe it but I finished the chapter over the weekend, and it is LONG ... well above 6000 words anyway. I hope the quality is as impressive as the quantity - it was a struggle to write!
I also changed the name but I'm sure you guys can live with that!
Cheers!
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Chapter 37 – More than a Battle.
“Aerodactyls don’t evolve,” stated Gavin, staring at the huge illuminated creature perched up on the small mountain. “Maybe that’s just how Ancient Power works …?”
The faces of Lance, Hiro and everyone in the stadium proved his statement wrong.
Lisa exchanged confused glances with him. “Well … I spose we didn’t think Girafarig evolved, then it turned into Girafury. And the same thing again with Fiskmire. It probably is evolving.”
“That’s different,” said Gavin sternly, staring at the scene with a look of confusion. “If we had have taken the time, we would’ve found that they DO actually evolve. The pokedexes all say so, it’s just very rare. But Aerodactyls DO NOT EVOLVE.”
“Whatever,” muttered Lisa. The transformation was almost complete – the light had subsided now, and the shape of the new creature was made apparent.
“WHOA.”
‘Whoa’ described the creature very well. It was like Aerodactyl had been mixed with a Steelix during the transformation; it was big and shiny and silver and strong. Its teeth were only slightly bigger, but infinitely more deadly looking. Danger lurked about the pointed fangs.
“IT’S A … THING!” declared the commentator. “AERODACTYL HAS EVOLVED … FOR THE FIRST TIME IN GLOBAL HISTORY!”
“I told you so,” Lisa said smugly to Gavin, who squirmed in his chair, but she looked amazed all the same.
“Well maybe the scientists still knew,” said Gavin dully. “Maybe they just kept it a universal secret.” Darius gave him an amused look, but turned back to see his father.
Lance looked just as surprised as anyone else in the grandstand. Lisa took a sidelong glance at him but his amazement soon faded into strategy, his face as emotionless as before. Hiro’s amazement also faded – into concern. His Dewgong had had a clear advantage at first, but with the evolution, the tables might have turned.
“Where’s Dewgong anyway?” muttered Lisa to Darius. He responded by pointing to a patch beneath the ice. Lisa looked just in time to see not a beam of blue, but a massive column of crystalline icicles burst out from beneath the snow. Like a solid pillar, it shot up into the air; then, like a gas, it enveloped the Aerodactyl evolution with stunning speed and accuracy. There was a squeal from the inside the icy cloud, then the sparkly-Aerodactyl came bursting out, its wings iced up but otherwise looking unharmed. It plummeted into the side of the mountain with another squawk, and the ice broke off its wings, melting to the icy floor.
“Gong gong gong!” Dewgong burst out happily from the water. It was greeted with a blast of rocks, sliding down the mountainside that the Aerodactyl-thing was slamming into. The Rock Slide was successful in creating an avalanche of boulders and stones towards the ring-shaped pool. Dewgong looked up to see them, and goggled at the sight.
“No, Dewgong, don’t just watch them, RUN AWAY!” urged Hiro anxiously. With a confused look, Dewgong flopped back underwater, and out of sight. Very shortly after, the Fossil Creature gave up with the rock slide and instead swooped down with a light splash – into the water to follow it’s enemy.
Lisa watched with bated breath – never had she seen a rock pokemon dive into water; not purposely, anyway. Aipom yanked her long hair again, giving her an intense desire to get a haircut.
Dewgong surfaced again.
“Get out, get out!” yelled Hiro. Dewgong obediently thrust its heavy body out of the water and began sliding along the ground as though it were having the time of its life. Only seconds after, the fossil shattered through the ice sheeting and rose into the air, water streaming from its crystalline form. And then the beam formed at its mouth, a hyper beam. The fossil was looking even more enraged now; it’s prey kept dodging it.
Lisa covered her mouth and the crowd held its breath again. The white orb grew in the mouth of the fossil as it flew wildly and swiftly, catching up to its prey slowly. Darius was whispering something to himself. Gavin was looking half at the battle and half at somewhere else, halfway up the grandstand.
“Aurora beam!” roared Hiro, as a last ditch effort. The Hyper Beam was formed now, and almost fired.
Dewgong heard him, and looked up to the creature above him.
The Fossil roared and released the white beam at the still-sliding Dewgong.
Dewgong looked stunned.
The beam raced at it.
Dewgong realised the beam was not aimed at where he was now, but where he would be in a moment.
The beam raced further.
Dewgong stopped gliding.
The beam pierced the ice pointlessly.
Dewgong watched as …
… the fossil exhausted itself …
… then he sent out his own beam of rainbow light from the spike on his head, washing over the Fossil and blinding it.
“GO DEWGONG!” yelled Lisa, accompanied by a few hundred others.
“That was cool,” stated Gavin.
Hiro was looking on, tears almost clouding his vision, but he blinked them away, cheering louder than anyone. “Dewgong, secure this! Headbutt!”
And then the sealion, filled with a rush of adrenaline, launched himself into the air using his tail as a spring, thrusting the spike on his head at the slightly less rocky underbelly of his opponent. The attack struck perfectly, and a small gash opened, a trickle of blood oozing out before the fossil dropped to the ice, cracking it.
“HIRO FERGUSON WINS ROUND THREE OF THE MATCH!”
Amidst the cheering, Lisa saw Lance’s smug face waver again. Halfway there, and Hiro had only lost one pokemon to his three. Surely her would be getting concerned by now? Lisa knew she would be downright panicky if she was in his position; the Champion of the Elite Four could not afford to lose to anyone who had as little experience as Hiro.
“Return!” The voice was sharp and Lisa sensed that maybe, beneath the steely nerves, Lance WAS panicking. “GO!”
Before the commentator could ramble on too much, Lance had thrown out his pokeball to face Dewgong. The reaction from the crowd was as could be expected – not many had seen a real-life Dragonair. Lisa knew even her Dratini was an incredibly rare find.
The indigo serpent plopped neatly into the water and the pokeball reeled back to Lance’s hand. He clenched it shut tightly. Dewgong looked determined but exhausted, and Hiro quickly recalled him.
He’s a very smart battler, thought Lisa, stronger and smarter than when I first met him. He knows when to save his pokemon and when to let it go. But he used to be so fiery.
“Charcoal, do your best!”
What a name, thought Lisa. But she said nothing.
Hiro could have told himself in an instant that the field was against him, but as long as Charcoal stayed well away from where the snow met the ice, everything should work out. His fresh-looking Typhlosion stepped out of its pokeball, looking experienced and dignified, as though it knew everything that was coming and was ready to accept the challenge.
“DRAGON RAGE!”
“DRAGON RAGE!”
The attacks went by the same name but were both incredibly different from each other. Charcoal inhaled with a steely gaze of steadiness – it was not a look of anger or a look of determinedness, both of which Lisa would have expected – it was simply an air of “This is what I have to do, I’m going to do it and I’m going to do it well.”
A column of flames flared out at the loop of icy whiteness (which Lisa thought looked a lot like a very thick stream of toothpaste). The vermilion flames shot through the loop and both attacks hit where they were supposed to. Charcoal reeled back in pain and Dragonair gave a slight squeal. But neither seemed too injured. As for the trainers, they were both looking determined to win.
“Thunderwave!” called Lance, throwing his head back as he commanded his soldier to do his will.
“Char, listen up. You have to be really careful. Stay well away from the ice.” Hiro said, not giving any direct attack command but looked concerned all the same. The flames on Charcoal’s back were heating the snow, creating water. It was becoming mush, wet, slippery mush.
“If his Typhlosion falls into the water, Hiro has effectively lost,” said Gavin slowly. He was speaking to Lisa, but Darius broke in.
“I think either way he’s going to lose this round. Not to sound biased, but Dad’s dragons are really strong. The first couple of fights were really just warm-ups.”
Gavin scowled at him, and muttered something that he didn’t wish Darius to hear.
On the Ice Field, Dragonair had speared the air with a few sharp shocks of blue electricity. As yet, they had not hit the bulky form of Charcoal, who was trying to dodge and be nimble, but the result was inevitable. A bolt finally struck him, and Dragonair maintained the connection of electricity for a good few seconds before Lance ordered it to halt. When it did so, Char was frozen in mid-step – except for the flames on its back, which still roared wildly, occasionally letting off tiny sparks which never reached the ground.
“Wrap attack!”
Hiro knew he was doomed now – the paralysis had well and truly set slithered towards its target. Helplessly, he watched as Dragonair Hydro Pumped the fire on Charcoal’s back in and there was no breaking it now. He could not fight back now. Helplessly, he watched as Dragonair’s thin body entwined itself around his pokemon, and the Typhlosion did not move, although odd strangled screams came from its mouth. Helplessly, he watched as Dragonair clung tightly to the firebeast, then with strength that was not purely physical, the dragon hauled its prey across the snow to the ice and water. It was a lost cause.
But a fire in Charcoal’s eyes, that Hiro did not see, said otherwise. It said that there was still a chance for a win. Slowly, Char began to search within itself for that little hidden chamber – that chamber he had only ever had to use twice before in his life. The little section within him that had the extra ammunition. Not just will power. A bit more.
Dragonair had hauled Charcoal almost to the ice now. The stiff Typhlosion was trying to make himself heavier, but of course that didn’t really do much, so he called upon that little reservoir of strength and protection. Just as Dragonair turned to look at him with gloating pools of eyes, Char squeezed his entire body as best he could – and then he found that little chamber. Hot, glowing, burning red coals came flying out his mouth, from somewhere deep down. They were red-hot bullets, coals shooting out at his enemy, the last defence mechanism that Typhlosion had left. One hit Dragonair in the eye, others struck him elsewhere. The crowd ‘ooohed’ again.
A smile flickered across Hiro’s face. Perhaps some hope remained, after all.
*
“I told him and told him,” said Marina with a smile on her cherry lips. She picked up the tall, clear glass and sculled the remains of her apple juice. “But he wouldn’t listen, of course. He was very disappointed in himself.”
Miki Langston, soon to be Miki Walters, faced her at the table. The two were in the back garden of the Ecruteak Dance Theatre. It was a massive wooden building, very old but sturdy, and very beautiful. The garden was a delight in itself – there were lush green lawns everywhere, interspersed with trees of all kinds – mostly ones which offered much shade and required little maintainance. Miki had taken Marina through a dancing lesson that morning, and now they were relaxing under the shade of an Teak tree.
“Well, I’ve only known Gavin a short time, but that really seems like him,” Miki smiled, picking up the shallow china tray which held an exotic assortment of fruits. She offered it to Marina, who took a couple of grapes.
“Thanks Miki,” said Marina. “So do you take people through these routines very often or was I just an exception?”
Miki was halfway through an orange quarter. She was holding it in her mouth as she adjusted the clip in her sleek black hair. “Sorry,” she muttered at last, taking the orange out. “No, we always do things like that. Although we don’t treat our customers to fruit and juice every time. That’s just a perk of being a friend of Lisa’s.”
“Thank you very much,” Marina said for the millionth time. Miki smiled to herself but ignored her otherwise. “When is Lisa coming back, by the way?”
“Well, any day now I think,” said Miki. “She’ll have to come home soon, Christmas is only a couple of days away, and I suppose you can’t wait forever.”
“Well, I was just coming to see Anna’s memorial,” Marina said with the tiniest of sniffles. “and we arranged to meet over Christmas anyway. So I can wait. It would be great to catch up again. Could you please pass the apple juice?”
Miki complied by passing the half-full carafe to her newfound friend.
“Thanks. I’m not taking up your time, am I?” asked Marina. “Like, you don’t need to be back at work do you?”
“No, it’s alright. I’ve finished for the day – Tom’s taking me out to finalise plans for the catering. The wedding’s only a couple of months away.”
“Oh, of course. Where are you going to have it held?”
“The ceremony will be at St Lucia’s Church near the lake. The reception is actually going to be here – right in this garden. It’s like a fairyland at night. The only problem is making sure that that stupid gym isn’t operating during the reception.” Miki jerked her head to the ugly stone building just beyond the green hedge that bordered the dance Theatre.
“MIKI! I’m here,” called Tom, approaching from the side door.
Miki smiled to Marina. “Looks like I have to go now. Thanks for coming. I’ll show you to the door.”
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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