A Blond Ray of Sunshine

Part 3: Intervention

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— Part 3: Intervention —

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A scream, echoing in the forest. Sounds of explosions all around. Nostrils clogged with the scent of blood. Terrible, mind-numbing pain in every nerve. The horrifying image of Fireball near death.

'Fireball, no!' Antoshi cried out.

Latoshi's laugh echoed all around him. The sable-haired boy's sneering expression was so clear — cold, vicious, methodical.

"Join me, Antoshi," he said. "Let's make this world so much better by cleansing it of evil."

"I already know how to make this world better," Antoshi spat, "by cleansing you out of it!" He and Latoshi shouted as they rushed toward each other.

Antoshi gasped, jolting back to reality, sitting on the edge of a messy bed. Even though he'd only dozed off for a few minutes, he had to recollect himself and remember where he was: the hotel room they were staying. They were safe — far away from the site of the horrific battle between himself and Latoshi.

Only a couple of days had passed since his fight with Latoshi. He'd gotten almost no sleep since then. His thoughts had been consuming him and drawing him into dreamlike dazes, pulling him back into that point in time, causing him to relive the horrors of their fight over and over again. The brutal extent of their confrontation rendered him unable to think about much else. The lack of sleep left him agitated.

He looked over at Fireball. The Typhlosion stood staring out of the room's large windows, high above eastern Goldenrod City. It was a bleak afternoon, the sky was cloudy and overcast. The duo had opted to lay low for a while, staying put in their room. Their exploration of the city, and their Johto journey as a whole, was on hold, indefinitely. The mood between them had been abnormally quiet and somber as of late.

'What is this power inside of me?' Antoshi thought. 'Why? ... Why was I given this?'

"So," Fireball said, turning to face his friend, "Latoshi ... broke my Poké Ball?"

"Yeah," Antoshi replied. He looked down at the new, unblemished Poké Ball in his hands, slowly rotating it. "I should've stopped him. I should've ... done more to make sure that you weren't hurt, and that your Poké Ball was safe. Now, all that history and those memories with that ball, the one that brought you to me for the very first time, are gone."

The Typhlosion turned his gaze to the floor. "That's why you went out earlier and bought a new Poké Ball," Fireball remarked with a weak chuckle. "After I saw you with it, I thought maybe ... you were ready to get back on the road. I thought you were planning to catch a new Pokémon for the first time, or ... maybe even a bunch of new Pokémon."

"We can't get back to traveling yet. I have to deal with Latoshi first."

Fireball took a seat on a second bed across from Antoshi. His concerned gaze met with Antoshi's brown eyes. "Antoshi, you can't blame yourself over what happened in that fight. You don't have to feel like it's your responsibility to take him on."

"How can I not? I know I'm the only one who can stop him."

"That's true, but ... how? What can we do? You heard him before, he kept going on and on about his training and experience. He— ... he beat you ... badly."

Antoshi cut his eyes at him. "I know he beat me, Fireball," he said, raising his voice, "you don't have to keep reminding me, okay?"

"Okay, okay. I—I'm sorry, Antoshi. I didn't mean to ..." he trailed off.