Pokémon: Midnight Blue

Lt. Surge

I charged into the Gym, my thundering footsteps echoing off the walls. Surge gave a hearty laugh.

“So this is my opponent today?” he scoffed, “This puny little runt?”

“That’s the second time in two days someone’s called me a runt,” I declared, “And frankly, I’m not all too fond of it. Keep grinning, I’ll have that look wiped off your face in no time.”

“You’re pretty cocky there, aren’t ya? Alright, here’s the deal. We’ll have a one-on-one battle. My best against your best.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Let’s go then,” the Lighting American held out a Pokéball and released a Raichu.

I smirked. I was originally going to use Charmeleon to fight Surge, but I felt it would be a lot more poetic for Pikachu to fight against its evolved form. Pikachu proved the be the fastest of all my Pokémon in any case.

“Interesting choice,” Surge cocked a smirk, “But your little mouse isn’t nearly as strong as my Raichu. Raichu, use Mega Punch!”

Raichu jabbed at Pikachu, but it was not even halfway across the battlefield before Pikachu jumped out of the way. Raichu tried to change direction, but the momentum sent it plummeting toward the ground. It was actually kind of ridiculous seeing how slow Raichu was.

“So, you’re one of those speed trainers, aren’t you?” Surge smirked at me, “Well, I have ways of dealing with kids like you. Raichu! You know what to do!”

Raichu leapt up into the air, fistfirst. It looked like he was about to use Mega Punch again. After reaching a terminal height, Raichu dove down and pounded the ground, causing large chunks of rocks to shoot up from the battlefield. Raichu used Mega Kick to shoot the rocks at Pikachu. Pikachu dodged most of the attacks but still took a hard hit by a few of the rocks.

The wheels in my head started to spin at the speed of light. If Raichu attacked again, it could slow Pikachu down severely, and then they would never have any chance of winning this fight. Raichu was pretty slow to jump, but was heavy enough to plummet down very quickly. We would have to hit it on its way up if we were going to avoid this attack again. Pikachu would have to attack at the perfect moment. I had to take into account how long it took Raichu to jump into the air and how much the previous attack had slowed Pikachu.

“Raichu!” Surge assumed victory too quickly, “Give ‘em another one!”

I watched closely as Raichu crouched down, and as its legs began to push it off the ground, a voice in my head said, Three... Two... One... NOW!

“Pikachu! Use Quick Attack now!” my voice boomed with a powerful authority that even shook Surge up a bit.

Everything was slowed down in my mind. Raichu was reaching the climax of his jump. Just as it stopped in midair, Pikachu flew into the picture and slammed it right in the gut. The look of pain on Raichu’s face was freeze-framed into my mind and the larger Mouse Pokémon slammed onto the ground with a loud thud. Pikachu jumped off its opponent and finished it off with a critical Slam attack. Raichu was down for the count.

The Lieutenant looked up at me, somewhat disturbed and confused, but not necessarily at the fact that I won. He returned Raichu to its Pokéball and walked toward me.

“Congratulations,” he said, “Here’s your Thunder Badge. It’s weird. Three years ago, I had one kid about your age beat me the same way you just did. Same type of Pokémon and everything.”

“Really?” that seemed really odd to me, “What was his name?”

By the time I asked, Surge was already headed back to his office. With his back turned to me, I heard him say, “You may have heard of him. His name was Kira Fakir.”