Beyond the Adventure - A Pokémon Story

Chapter 13: Atonement pt4

        Jess grabs one of her Pokéballs.  Darius follows suit, while Jaws prepares himself.  “Hey losers!” Jess shouts.

        The thug with the titanic Pokémon looks over at us.  He frowns.  “What did you say?” he asks.

        We square off with the gang.  All five of them glare angrily at us, Pokéballs in hand.  I look around and assess the situation.  They outnumber us by two, and if the leader has a powerful looking Pokémon such as this behemoth, who knows what the others have.  The shop is small too, with little room to maneuver, not to mention the several customers whose lives are at risk.  “We need to defuse the situation,” I mutter to Darius and Jess.  “This is too small an area for a battle.”

        A big guy with a beard comes out from behind the counter.  “Hey!” he shouts.  “No battles in my shop!  Get out!”

        The gang leader points his finger at the bearded man.  “Shut your mouth!” he growls.  “You should have thought about that before serving us this inedible slop!”

        “’Inedible…!’” the man says.  “How dare you…”

        The leader looks at us.  “You think you children can take on all of us?” he says cockily.  The titan roars loudly, echoing off the walls.  “My Aggron alone can take you three out… wait.  Where’s the girl?!”  He looks around, only to find a fist flying to his face.  He screams in pain as his nose erupts blood.  He stumbles back, dropping his Pokéball.  Jess quickly scoops up the ball and pulls the Aggron back in.  The rest of the gang swarm her.  Darius, Jaws, and I rush in.  The bearded man sees the opportunity and leaps over the counter to join the fight.  Jess tackles the gang leader, mounting his chest, and she unleashes a series of brutal blows to his clearly broken nose.  Darius takes on one of the guys, grabbing his arm before he can throw his Pokéball.  He swings him around and slams him into the wall.  The two exchange blows.  The bearded man grabs the third guy with a surprise Ursaring hug, lifting him off the floor.  The guy growls, struggling to free himself from the man’s grip.  The two girls come after me.  I hesitate, uneasy about hitting these girls, but they do not seem concerned.  I am not much of a fighter, but I can perhaps distract them long enough until Jess can come knock them out.

        “Skarmory,” I whisper.  “Go fly somewhere safe!”

        “Skaaa!”  Skarmory flaps his little wings and flitters onto a light fixture.

        Jaws runs past me.  He leaps up and bites into one of the girl’s pigtails.  She yelps and tries to pull herself free, but he locks on and refuses to let go.  He pulls on her hair and drags her around the shop.  The other girl grabs one of her Pokéballs.  “You’re a vile boy, to make a Pokémon attack a person!”  She tosses her Pokéball out, but I run toward it and catch it before it hits the ground.  The girl’s eyes go wide.  “What?!  Give that back!”

        I shake my head and pocket the ball.  “Come get it!” I taunt her.  She growls and charges after me.  She throws a punch.  I block it with my face and stumble backward.  She comes at me with another punch.  I drop to the floor just before she hits me.  I sweep my legs out and trip her, causing her to fall backward.  I then quickly tie her shoelaces together and scramble to my feet.  As she tries to get up, she stumbles.  I back away, pointing and laughing at her.  She growls and pulls her shoes off.  I frown, but just as she pulls the second one off, Jess slams into her, shoulder first.  The girl yelps and crashes into a table.  Jess then picks her up off the floor and throws her into the gang leader, who is struggling to get back on his feet.  The two collide and roll out of the shop door.  Darius pushes his guy toward the door, the guy’s arm locked behind his back, and throws him out, followed by Jaws pulling the girl by the pigtails.  Finally, the bearded man carries his guy out, tossing him onto the growing pile of beaten thugs.  He dusts his hands off.  “Stay out of my shop!” he says.  The thugs scramble to their feet and slink off, licking their wounds.