Book Four : Forsaken, Chapter 1- The Fool, Fop, Dolt, and Dope
During the time of vengeance, the young woman marched herself down a path, studying an old map of her father’s as to the next destination that would be obliterated. Rei’s mind was preoccupied, calculating the next move, and not on the road or the parts around it. Traveling by a jagged slope, a blaring ruckus sounded from up high that completely eluded her ears as well as the pathetic spectacle of a boy tumbling down the incline in a stiff limbed cartwheel. When he hit the bottom, though busted and bruised all over, he only dusted off his jeans and blue jacket before pursuing the woman.
"Hey, hey, there lady," he called out in a nauseating voice, "Do you want to battle?" Everything that had transpired up to now had been ignored by her, in no way concerned with anything slowing down her mission. His face swelled as his sickeningly enthusiastic smile turned to a scowl. "Are you just going to pass up a battle with a top trainer?" Rei stopped in her pace.
"No, I’m passing up an easy victory and possibly killing you," she responded. "Which is really sounding tempting right about now." As she continued walking on, the boy shot what he thought to be a sly glare.
"Oh, I get it now. Okay, no worry. I understand perfectly," he spoke to apparently no one. "You’re afraid that I’m going to beat you, isn’t that it?" She stopped in her tracks once more but this time pivoted around a heel until she faced her insulter.
"Me? Afraid of you?" She hadn’t seen him before, but, now that she had, he was even more laughable. His height placed at a much older age than his voice would tell, and a pampered, stuffed-toy, yellow rodent was perched on his shoulder. Shrugging, she gave in to the battle.
"Great," the kid yelled out, leaping into the air. "My name is-"
"Why would I care?" The fool scowled again. Then, sliding down the rocky hill, came two more children, in Rei’s eyes, some slant-eyed fop and some scrawny redheaded dolt. They were apparently associates of the lad.
"Are you okay?" the skinny girl shrieked in a voice more hideous than the youngster’s revolting speech, in reference to his dislocated joints and streams of gushing blood. "You took quite a fall."
"I’m better than fine," the fool declared, throwing up his arm as straight as the dislocation would allow, "because this nice lady has agreed to battle me!"
"I’m not ni-" Rei started, but her words were cut off by the lecherous callings of the drooling fop, who appeared next to her at an alarming speed.
"Why, this fair skinned goddess is like an angel sent down from heaven to build Utopia in my heart ... of love," he dictated, holding her hand while kneeling before her.
"How... how do you even know I’m fair skinned?" she asked, waving her other hand in front of her face. "Can you even see?" An impatient noise came from the challenger. "Oh, right, you wanted to lose. Sorry." Turning back his cap, the fool sent his displayed Pikachu out to the field. "Gee, I didn’t see that 'unpredictable’ move coming," she sarcastically put while strategically pulling out Poppy. The toxic weed met face to face with the golden mouse, its sleek and shiny coat sharply contrasting the ragged leaves and dull appearance of Gloom, a token of its never ending struggles.
"That’s a Gloom," the bony dolt informed the battling fool. Making a loud noise of confusion, he pulled out a small video organizer to scan the creature.
"Gloom, a monster you have seen at least twenty times by now," the device informed its owner. "How could you not recognize it by now, you stupid, stupid boy? I can’t take any more of this!" At that, the gadget self destructed, taking off the youth’s hand. He did seem to mind.
"Okay, Pikachu," he began to order his beast, "you have to use- Hey!" The rat slid to its owner’s feet, thrown by a blast, covered in chemical burns. "You didn’t give me time to give it a command!"
"What is your monster? Stupid?" Rei continued mocking him, "And you actually named it Pikachu? That’s like naming a pet Dog!" Her words being too much for him to comprehend, he ordered his mouse to tackle the flower. Expecting some amazing result, the weakened rat merely bounced off Poppy. Almost feeling sorry for its foe, he slowly paced over to his foe and reluctantly began to twirl. Blossoms began to fill the vortex while it uplifted the nearly incapacitated Pikachu. Only delivering a few well placed blows, the funnel hurtled the rat, direly clinging to life, back to master, who received it with yet another unclassifiable noise. Kicking the slobbering admirer off her leg, Rei advised the fool to stop while before anything else was hurt.
"I’d disagree," declared a voice more abhorrent than the other two combined, spouting from fashion challenged dope wearing a turquoise shirt and pink head band who appeared from seemingly nowhere. "I’ve been watching him in a lot of battles and I must say that-" The ranting was cut by a terrified scream of Rei’s as she drew her dagger and drove it into the freak’s face. He fell dead immediately.
"You killed him," the fool whined. The fop and dolt shrugged, indifferent to the outcome.
"It wouldn’t be the first time," Rei admitted. "I think this is the guy I strangle daily in my nightmares." She reconsidered her word choice. "Well, dreams."
"There’s no way I’m backing down now," the boy attempted to intimidate. He failed, of course. "I’ll fight your Grass type with my Grass type! Go," he yelled, twisting his cap around a full three-hundred-sixty degrees, "Bulbasaur!" Almost caused physical pain by his naming process and strategy, Rei withdrew a stumbling Poppy to replace him with Cinder. "Hey," the whiny kid protested, "you can’t do that!"
"Yes, you can," the fop, the obvious wisest of the three, stated while the bud-backed lizard was swallowed in a sea of flame.
"You know," the redhead shrilled, "Fire types are weak to Water types." The boy wail a sound of utter amazement, as though he had never heard it several times before. As he repeated his recalling process to summon his Squirtle, the Flareon disappeared as well. He duly complained about that, too.
"Well, little miss loud mouth over there told you exactly what to do," Rei explained, "and, like the spineless loser you are, of course you obeyed her. You can’t expect to just forgot information like that." Flipping her next choice of orb into the air, a beam spilled out the amorphous shape of Squishy.
"Oh, no," the fool exclaimed, "she’s trying her Water type against my Water type! A master strategist. Well, my Water type is better! Go, Water Gun!" The weak stream of water trickled off the Tentacruel’s body. Rei could no longer hold it in. She fell to her knees, holding her sides, in outpouring laughter. Tears streamed from her eyes as result of the pain the boisterous guffaws brought. The remaining three stood around with looks of utter confusion about their faces as the woman caught her breath.
"Okay, okay," asserted Rei, "it’s bad enough that you’re trying to go against me with those pitiful babies of yours, but couldn’t you at least teach them some decent techniques? There’s nothing good about those things! I mean, how many badges do you have? None, right?"
"Sixteen." Her jaw dropped. "Alright then, you use your water attack now!" She silenced herself, just wanting to end the battle to teach the fool a lesson. The jellyfish wrapped its tendrils around the turtle. Lifting in up, it pounded the reptile’s head into the ground repetitively until it fell unconscious. Before discarding the tortoise, Squishy drained it of its fluids.
"Next?" Before another easy opponent could be selected, three silhouettes appeared atop the rocky slope.
"How about we take the next match," a very boyish woman suggested.
"And then your Pikachu," added a very girlish man, followed by something that was not really giggling but pretty close. They went into some chant, most of which Rei chose to not listen to, already tiring of it. Eventually, she heard the word "Rocket," and her went ablaze. Spilling her pockets, she instructed Poppy, Cinder, Goopy, and Squishy with a single word: Destroy. They sprang forward, tearing limbs from the duo. "U-hu-hu-hu! Go, Weezing," the mangled man squealed before while tossing out a sphere before losing that arm. The lumpy, merged orbs spouted clouds of gas. The quartet turned from their previous quarry and bombarded the poisonous gas monster. Cinder, hacking up a Meowth leg, fired a beam of raw energy from its cleared throat directly at the joining of the knotted globes. The monsters disjointed, one cracked and leaking, the other well off.
"Koffin’!" it joyously yelled. The other half was less talkative. Teetering, its levitation slipped away like its escaping gas. The spewing Koffing spiraled down to where the fool, fop, and dolt stood, too terrified to move.
"Gwah? What’s that?" were the boy’s last words.
When the smoke from the devastating explosion cleared, Rei and the Koffing blankly stared at the smoldering crater. Looking at the floating sphere, she shrugged.
Well, that all certainly was pointless," she admitted, continuing on her path. While walking away, she turned her head back. "You doing anything?" The monster gleefully smiled and followed after.
