Chapter 6 – Mad Dash

Kat was fully aware of the humor (or was it irony?) of the situation.

In the first CEPBR virtual reality game, he had lost a very dear friend who happened to run into a cave where a Legendary Pokéball was. It was against his better judgement, but Whiz kid’s Sandshrew caused the cave to collapse, thereby sealing off the Legendary Pokéball and killing Kat’s friend.

Now, here he was, running up the beach, waving his arms frantically at Delibird, trying to tell it to grab the Pokéball and run. Meowth, Final, and their Pokémon had quickly let go of each other, and began to race for the Pokéball in the sand.

Kat took in deep breaths. He was merely 25 years old, but in the world of GameFAQs and CE, that was almost the equivalent of 80. He was in decent physical shape, but he was quickly becoming winded. He had knowledge and wisdom far beyond his years, and the fact that he was stuck with such a dumb Pokémon annoyed him.

“Grab the damn Pokéball!” Kat yelled, dashing to Delibird.

Delibird scratched its head, and pointed to the Pokéball.

“Yes, damn it!” Kat yelled.

Delibird reached down to grab it, but a ball of sludge flew from Octillery and landed directly on Delibird’s chest. Delibird cried out in exaggerated pain and stumbled backwards. Kat groaned and ran even faster when Meowth lunged for the Pokéball.

Meowth came up short, and his hands briefly brushed it forward. He crawled forward on his belly, determined to get that damned Pokéball and whatever was inside of it. Sentret scampered ahead of Final and jumped on Meowth’s back. It dug its claws into his back, and began whipping Meowth’s lower back with its tail.

Delibird was obviously having fun exaggerating its pain. It stumbled backwards, and put a feathered arm up to its forehead and sighed. Kat became infuriated.

Kat finally reached the Pokéball lying in front of the slot machine and bent down to grab it. He was quickly tackled to the side by Final, and he fell into the sand. Final landed a quick blow to Kat’s forehead, and leaned over and groped for the Pokéball.

Octillery was the slowest of the four, but that didn’t stop it from trying to fight. As it made its way towards the melee, it let out a near continuous barrage of sludge balls towards Final and Kat.

Final’s hand was blindsided by one of the sludge bombs, and he bit his lip and tried to hold in the scream. Had Octillery fired one of those bombs at point blank range, his hand would’ve been shot off.

Kat threw himself to his knees and looked frantically around for the Pokéball. He didn’t see it anywhere.

“Where is it?” Kat asked out loud. His hands began pushing and digging through the sand. Delibird saw its master in an almost comical state of frenzy, and mimicked him. Delibird threw itself onto the sand and began wriggling about, kicking sand up into the air.

Meowth reached behind his back and grabbed hold of both of Sentret’s ears. Sentret clamped its teeth down on Meowth’s shoulder, and Meowth cried out. Meowth pulled and pulled on Sentret’s ears, but Sentret wouldn’t budge. It just kept clawing and lashing with its tail even harder.

Meowth cried out and pulled even harder, and laughed in triumphant when Sentret finally seemed to let go. Meowth yanked his hands over his head and Sentret fell from his back into the sand. Meowth felt his stomach bubble when he realized he was holding Sentret’s bloody ears in his hands.

Meowth threw them to the side and kicked the Sentret behind him, who was bleeding pretty badly. Meowth made the mistake of turning his back on it, and Sentret grasped Meowth’s ankle with its tail and tripped him to the ground.

Final was now scrambling madly in the sand, trying to find the Legendary Pokéball as well. He paid no attention to the blood soaked Sentret, all his attention was on finding that Pokéball.

Delibird had gotten bored of the wriggling, and had climbed up to the top of the slot machine. It watched, obviously bored, and decided to make its own fun. It began hopping up and down on top of the slot machine, dancing.

Final crawled in the sand, incredibly frustrated at the fact that he still hadn’t come across the Pokéball. Where the hell was it? He threw himself in front of the sand in front of the now wobbling slot machine, oblivious to the fact that it was slowly tipping over.

Delibird leapt off of the slot machine just as it fell on Final’s legs.

Final roared in a combination of anger and pain, but was quickly silenced by a direct sludge bomb to the face from Octillery. Final felt his eyes burning, and he felt an immediate swelling. He kicked and squirmed his way out from under the slot machine and was greeted with a wave of pain in his legs.

Octillery, pleased that it made a direct hit, finally was close enough to Sentret and Meowth to do some real damage. Sentret was clawing and biting into Meowth’s legs, while Meowth was kicking back and forth in an attempt to get that bastard ferret thing off.

Octillery let out a torrent of sludge aimed at Sentret’s back, and Sentret flew off of Meowth and landed in the sand. Octillery quickly leapt on it and pinned Sentret to the ground. Sentret cried out and tried to escape, but it did no good.

Octillery fired a continuous stream of sludge directly into Sentret’s mouth. Sentret coughed and struggled, but Octillery knew it wouldn’t be long.

Meowth joined in the frantic hunt for the Pokéball. All three of the contestants were digging and moving the sand, trying to find the Pokéball… some, of course, were hampered by leg pains and the like.

Delibird began thoughtfully rummaging through its tail sack, and Kat saw this. He felt a burst of anger well up inside of him, but remembered something about Delibird and its powers that he should’ve remembered from the start.

This coincided with Final finally seeing the shiny Pokéball glittering in the sand.

“If you got any boom-boom gifts in that sack thing, use ‘em!” Kat yelled to Delibird.

Final grabbed the Pokéball just as Octillery stopped drowning Sentret in sludge. Octillery jumped off of Sentret’s dead body and stared at the Legendary Pokéball in Final’s hand.

Final was too shocked to move. He laughed at first, and that laugh soon became a maniacal giggle. He pulled his arm back, ready to throw the Pokéball and release whatever was inside… just as Delibird reached into its tail sack, pulled out a shining orb, and threw it at Final.

Meowth stood up and limped back towards Octillery.

Kat covered his head.

Delibird smiled and waved at Final, and did the same as Kat.

Final didn’t even get a chance to drop the Pokéball.

Delibird’s gift exploded in mid-air, directly in front of Final’s face. The force of the explosion first sent searing warmth over Final’s body, and then it was blackness as his face imploded and his body parts flew up and scattered across the beach.

Neither Meowth or Kat were far enough away to protect themselves. The blast was enormous. Meowth was thrown into the air along with Octillery. Meowth reached out and grabbed hold of Octillery’s tentacles.

Kat was sent soaring into the air with Delibird. Both Meowth and Kat felt like they flew nearly a mile before landing on the ground.

When they both finally landed far away from each other, neither cared about the Legendary Pokéball anymore. Immediately upon landing, Meowth, Kat, Octillery and Delibird fell asleep.

The Legendary Pokéball was now floating in the ocean. The explosion had tossed it out to the sea. The Pokémon inside of that Legendary Pokéball would have no idea how close it came to having a master.