Update Ten: Power Surge
I wasn’t sure where I was. The scenery surrounding me was blurry and didn’t adhere to any particular form. The only thing that was clear as day was Bepis towering in front of me, an awful look on his face. “Why did you rush me?” he asked, but his voice was heavily distorted.
“I didn’t mean to-” I started to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. Bepis had worked hard to get where he was, but now that he was so strong, he didn’t know what to do with himself. That had to be awful, and I couldn’t bear to think about what he was going through while he trapped himself in his Poke Ball.
“I just wanted you to be…proud,” he said, his voice breaking and distorting. Everything went black in that moment, but a few seconds later, Bepis’ giant mouth came up and swallowed me.
***
I awoke with a scream. I jumped out of the bed and looked around, finding myself still safe in the Vermilion City Pokemon Center. My heart was racing and my breaths felt labored as I opened the window. The sun was just starting to rise.
So, it was coming to nightmares now. I knew the path to becoming a Champion wasn’t easy, but this really was starting to get tough. I gathered my things and walked out the door without even sending any of the team out from their Poke Balls.
I finally checked out of the Pokemon Center after several days. After today’s Gym Battle, I couldn’t get out of this city fast enough. As I walked out through the revolving door, I took a moment to appreciate the breathtaking morning view of the city. It seemed like nobody was outside yet, so it was quiet and peaceful. The market was totally empty, and the beach was completely clear. The S.S. Anne was nowhere to be seen, which was fine by me. I wanted to shove the memories of that ship all the way back to the deepest corner of my mind, never to be seen again.
With a yawn and a sigh for good measure, I made the quiet trek to the Gym.
***
Vermilion City was beautiful, truly it was. The Vermilion Gym, however, was not. It was…rather gaudy, to say the least. The building itself was a bright blue, with weird lightning bolt patterns streaking across the walls. It looked so out of place compared to the rest of the city.
I took a deep breath, and grabbed the team’s Poke Balls out of my Bag. After kind of…dumping them out on the ground, the whole team came out. Well, almost all of the team. Bepis’ Poke Ball didn’t activate. He must have been having it really rough.
Caesar, Ray, Javelin, and Gonz all shook themselves awake and looked up at me. Caesar, ever observant, looked around and didn’t see Bepis. “Where’s Bepis?” he asked immediately.
I looked down at the ground, avoiding eye contact with the rest of the team. I tried to speak up, but words failed me. The expressions on the team changed from confusion to shock.
“No way,” Raymundo said quietly. “There’s no way Bepis is…dead?”
“No…he’s not dead,” I confirmed slowly as I walked over and picked his Poke Ball up. “He’s just…taking some time to process.”
“Process what?” Javelin asked, as if she knew I was purposefully keeping something from them.
I couldn’t deal with this right now. I was barely keeping up enough energy to strategize for the Gym Battle. “We’ll talk about this later. Right now, I want to talk about our strategy for this fight. This guy apparently uses Electric-types, so Javelin and Bepis are on the bench. Caesar, Raymundo, you’re going to act as backup. Gonz, you’re taking the main stage. Electric types can’t touch you, after all. You up to this?”
Gonz looked at the team, and then back to me. He looked to be thinking for a moment before he said. “I guess we’re going to give them…a real shock.”
We all stood in silence before laughing like a bunch of madmen. Even Javelin had a smile on her beak, as weird as that sounds. With that out of the way, we all walked inside.
The inside of the Gym was just as out of place as the inside. It literally looked like it was still under construction. Other than the regulation arena, which was pristine, the surroundings looked like the inside of a garage or workshop.
On the other side of the arena, a familiar figure awaited me. The blonde guy that had made it to the finals of the tournament on the ship yesterday was none other than Lt. Surge, the Gym Leader. He towered over me, his intimidating presence already making me nervous. Adding to this, he was pretty ripped, which is green tank top made obvious.
“Ah, it’s you,” he said calmly. “The kid from the tournament with the ridiculously strong Gyarados.”
“That’s…me,” I confirmed. This guy probably had a terrible opinion of me after what I had done to Colin’s Raticate last night.
“Don’t beat yourself up about what happened,” he said, throwing me off guard. “These things tend to happen in this line of work. I’ve seen more than enough of that in my day. Things were a lot rougher in the war.”
The…war? I didn’t remember anything about a war. This guy looked too young to have participated in a war since I had been alive. “Can we just get this done?” I asked. “I’d kind of like to be out of here as soon as possible.”
Lt. Surge sighed. “Have it your way, kid.” Without another word, he threw out a Poke Ball, revealing another Poke Ball. A quick check of the Pokedex told me that it was actually Voltorb, an Electric-type Pokemon.
“Go on, Gonz!” I called, pointing forward. The Diglett came out quickly, already lodged in the ground. Lt. Surge didn’t look worried in the slightest.
“Go for it, Gonz!” I ordered. Knowing what to do immediately, Gonz burrowed under the floor.
Voltorb rolled around a bunch, but didn’t know where to go or what to do. Lt. Surge seemed similarly lost. I don’t think he expected us to act so quickly. After a few seconds, I could hear Gonz yelling something as he began to emerge from the ground. “Can…you…DIG IT?!” the mole shouted as he popped into view underneath Voltorb. The ball-shaped creature went flying out of the arena and slammed into the nearby wall.
I nearly screamed with excitement. Caesar, Ray, and even Javelin whooped rowdily. Gonz always made everything seem so much cooler with those fun little quips of his. Even though the first battle of the match was over so quickly, it felt more…exhilarating.
“Not bad, kid,” Surge admitted, “but kids like you come in with those stupid little moles all the time. If you think I don’t have a way around them, you’re terribly mistaken. Magnemite!” The good lieutenant’s second Pokemon, a strange looking ball with screws and magnets sticking out of it, floated out over the field. This created a bit of a problem for Gonz, since he wouldn’t be able to attack a floating opponent. Still, I was sure that I could come up with something. Magnemite wouldn’t be able to do much to harm him, anyway.
While I was lost in strategizing, Surge wasted no time. “Sonic Boom!” In an instant, Magnemite spun its magnets at amazing speeds, causing a burst of wind to shoot straight for Gonz. The little guy wasn’t able to get out of the way in time, and took the force of the attack head-on.
“Hey, chief, I’m not sure how many of those I can take,” he said to me, his voice showing the slightest hint of wavering. “You have a plan yet?”
I snapped back to reality, my plan in place. “I think I’ve got it!” I confirmed. “Use Sand Attack!” Gonz was quick to act, tunneling around at high speeds and kicking up clouds of dust all over the place. A few seconds passed, then my plan finally came together. The dust of the arena floor interfered with Magnemite’s ability to float, and it fell to the ground.
“No way!” Surge shouted.
“Now, finish it up with Dig!” Gonz was quick to act, and popped up underneath Magnemite and finished it with a single, decisive blow. That was two Pokemon down, and just one more left!
Lt. Surge returned the Magnemite to its Poke Ball and sighed. “That was pretty resourceful. The floor of this arena is made with some special materials that increase the polarity of magnets. It normally helps Magnemite float around faster, but throwing it around the air like that scrambled the poor thing. Very smart, kid!”
“Thanks!” I said, smiling a bit. This was Gonz’s big debut, and the two of us were doing so well! Though, he seemed to be unusually quiet. He had a pretty good one-liner earlier, but it felt like something was up. He was probably trying to focus.
“This is my last Pokemon,” he stated. “Not many kids get past this one! Come on out, Raichu!” Surge chucked the Ball with full-force, summoning the evolved form of Pikachu. Compared to Gonz, this one was larger than life.
“Marshal,” Caesar said quietly, “I think Gonz might be in a bit of trouble, here.” He was right, but I wasn’t sure what else to do. This Raichu couldn’t have had many moves that could do much to Gonz, anyway, so I decided to pass it off.
“Gonz, you still good?” I asked.
“I think I can carry on,” Gonz confirmed. “I’m not fried, yet!” Jokes aside, this fight would decide everything.
“Dig!” I ordered. “Get the drop on him!” Gonz was under the ground before I even finished talking.
“Get ready, Raichu!” Surge cautioned. Raichu took a fighting stance and waited for Gonz.
“What are they doing?” Raymundo wondered. “They can’t have any moves to finish this off!”
We would be shown how wrong we were the instant Gonz started to pop out of the ground. “Now, Mega Punch!” Raichu backed up slightly as Gonz started to pop up, and the mouse’s fist began to glow white. The team could only watch as Gonz was forced back into the ground by a powerful fist. I could swear I saw the poor guy squish like an accordion in his final moments.
A moment passed. Then another. “…Gonz?”
There was no answer. No clever one-liner. Just like that, in an instant, it was all over for Gonz. I quickly fumbled around for his Poke Ball, but when I finally got it in my hand, I saw the crack on the button.
The team looked on, shocked. Caesar and Javelin were totally stunned and couldn’t even speak, much less move. However, Raymundo stepped forward. He told me later that he didn’t even realize what he was doing until after the fact; his body just started moving on its own.
“Marshal, the stone.”
I was still trying to process the fact that Gonz was dead when Raymundo’s words snapped me back to attention. “Wh-what?”
“The Moon Stone, Marshal! Give it to me, now!”
“Oh, r-right.” I rifled through the Bag quickly and found the rough, black stone. Surge looked on with curiosity as I threw the stone out to Ray. The Nidorino sighed and looked down at it for a moment before closing his eyes and stomping on the stone, breaking it. I wasn’t sure what that would do, but it apparently managed to trigger Raymundo’s evolution. The familiar light flooded the arena as I watched my first captured teammate morph into his final form.
Once it was over, Ray was standing on two legs, and now was twice the size of Raichu, and probably came up to my shoulders. He also looked pretty bulky, which was good. Strong and durable was what we needed at this point. The transformation had barely finished before Ray was charging straight at Raichu. I could feel the ground shake when he ran.
“Thunderbolt!” Surge shouted out in a desperate attempt to keep the Nidoking at bay. Unfortunately, he had miscalculated. As Raichu shot lighting from its whole body, the attack had no effect on Raymundo, who now sported a Ground typing. His charge didn’t let up, and before I even had a chance to utter a move, Ray grabbed Raichu with his giant arms. He slammed the poor mouse to the ground and gave it a quick Body Slam, ending the fight instantly.
Everything had happened so fast that I still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. There was no way Gonz could have died that quickly! He didn’t even get to say a cool one-liner before he died. I was still so shocked that I didn’t noticed Raymundo come back over to me.
“Hey, bro,” he said, quietly. “You alright?”
I snapped back to reality again, having lost my focus for a second time. “I’m…not sure,” I admitted, but then another thought came to me. “You…evolved,” I said, stating the obvious. “That’s a good look for you!”
“We’ll talk about this later,” he said, clearly not happy with something.
Everything felt like it was going wrong again. First, Bepis had decided to quarantine himself in his Poke Ball, and now Gonz was killed in a battle that should’ve been so easy for us. I felt like I had barely gotten to spend any time with him before he was so quickly taken away.
Lt. Surge came up to me, star-shaped Thunder Badge in hand. “That was quite a match,” he admitted. “I’m sorry for your loss, kid. You seem to know the drill though. This is the life we both chose, you and me.”
The team looked at me, expecting some sort of response, but instead I just accepted the Badge and turned to leave. What else was there to say?
***
The rest of the Gym staff had assured me that they would take care of Gonz’s remains and bury them near the cave he was found in. I figured it was for the best. I couldn’t bear to see him beaten down like he had been.
It was early afternoon as I made my way out of Vermilion City. Caesar, Javelin, and Raymundo were close behind. We were told that the gate past Route 11 was being blocked by a sleeping Snorlax, so we had to make a huge detour to get to our next destination.
After a long period of deafening silence, I couldn’t take it anymore and turned to Ray. “Something’s been bothering me,” I told him. “Why were you so hesitant to use the Moon Stone before? You always struck me as the type who wanted to be constantly improving.”
Raymundo sighed. “On Route 22, where you found me, there is a big clan of Nidoran, both male and female. At any given time, there only exists one Nidoking and Nidoqueen. These two watch over all the younger members and protect them. For some reason, I thought that using the Stone would be a disgrace to my people. To my culture.”
That was a good enough reason for me. “But then, why did you do it?” I pressed.
“I realized that even though Route 22 is my home, you guys are my family now,” he said. Those words sounded familiar to me, because I remembered Bepis saying something similar to that just a few days ago.
“I see,” I said, looking down at the ground. “I never knew.”
“Well, now that we’re being honest with each other,” Caesar said, changing the subject, “can you finally tell us what the hell is going on with Bepis?”
“It’s not my story to tell,” I said firmly. “When he decides he’s ready to come back out, he’ll tell you all himself. For now, we’re going back to Cerulean City.” With morale at a low point, we left Vermilion City worse off than when we came.
means a lot to hear that. The first 13 updates are from two years ago, and I like to think I've even improved a bit since then. We'll see how things shake out.