Pro Trainer Chapter Four

Goldenrod City...

Johan watched the Eterna City video in silence.  When Jake's face came up on the screen, the mob boss paused the tape.  He stared at the meddling trainer for a moment, then pushed a button on his desk.

"Ms. Jones, run a search in the database for this trainer.  Send me the most relevant information."  Johan turned back to the report on his computer.  "Broad daylight, no attempt whatsoever at stealth, pokemon were not ready for immediate release..." he whispered as he read, contempt in his voice.

An icon flashed up on his computer, indicating the arrival of a new report.  Johan smiled slightly; Ms. Jones was much more efficient then his last secretary.  He would have to think about the possibility of a raise.

There was far more information on the trainer then he had expected.  Apparently 'Jake' had been part of the professional battling circuit, and had been a major threat to Poke-T.V's sponsored trainers.  Greasepan had rigged a match between the station's best trainer and Jake, causing the trainer to fall into a slump and eventually disappear.  The crooked producer had quite an extensive file on him, in case of his reappearance.

"So, a professional trainer has resurfaced, with new pokemon..."  Johan muttered to himself.  He scrolled down to the trainer's personality profile.  "Idealistic, tendency to vigilanteism, curious... fantastic potential to be a major threat to our operation."  Johan summarized.  He scowled for a moment, then pushed the intercom button again.

"Ms. Jones, I want a surveillance team put on this 'Jake.'  Ensure that we have experienced agents for this mission.  I am authorizing lethal force should the trainer become aware of the team.  And make sure that the two idiots who bungled the Eterna job are properly reprimanded."

The leader of World Galactic swiveled his chair around to face the window behind his desk.  His scowl had been replaced with a resigned frown.  Johan didn't like authorizing death; it was so difficult to cover up properly.

...

"Alright, Quote, try to penetrate the Geodude's defense."  The Larvitar nodded at his trainer, then dashed up to what looked like a rock with two arms attached.  As Quote tried to land a bite, the Geodude wrapped it's arms around itself, compacting it's body.  Quote let out a cry as it's bite attack bounced off the rock-hard defense.

"You okay?"  Jake asked, concerned.  He leaned down to check the young Larvitar, who was rubbing one of it's teeth.  After a moment, Quote nodded in response, then leapt at the Geodude for another try.
Lucona looked on, amused, from her perch on top of a nearby boulder.  "He's certainly eager!" She giggled as the tiny figure of Quote beat against the compacted Geodude.

Kirly wasn't nearly as amused.  "He's going to injure himself."  She thought at Jake.  The thought lost it's impact that same moment, as Quote finally managed to get a bite past the rock pokemon's defenses into a critical point.  Collapsing from the blow, the Geodude let out a groan that sounded like two stones grinding together.  Defeated, it dragged itself back into a small hole in the side of the mountain.

"Good work, Quote!"  Jake said cheerfully.  He bent down and offered the Larvitar a small pink pecha berry.  Quote dashed over, enthusiastically gobbling up the sweet fruit.  The trainer began lecturing to the olive-green pokemon, explaining the techniques the Geodude had used that Quote could learn from.

Kirly shook her head and sighed.  Jake and Quote shared a kind of innocent enthusiasm that got them into trouble far too often in her opinion.  Turning away from Jake's lecture, she gracefully settled into meditation, closing her eyes and expanding her psychic awareness beyond the rocky clearing the group was occupying.  She felt the pulse of human minds somewhere up the mountain, and investigated further.  She scanned their surface thoughts, a few images and words floating into her mind: Trainer, target, surveillance, Galactic, an image of Kirly's group through the lens of a camera...

The Kirlia's investigation was abruptly halted by a burst of psionic static.  Her eyes shot open, realization and panic on her features.

...

A purple light became illuminated on the surveillance teams equipment.  One of the spies, a tall, gangly man with pepper grey hair, groaned at the sight.  "We've been psionically tapped," He said to the other two surveyors, "And I think that Kirlia is the culprit."

One of his companions stood up from his position at one of the cameras.  He had bright red hair which was cut close to his head.  "No use risking that kid investigating."  He pulled at two pokeballs from his belt.  "We don't know how much info that Kirlia got, so best to just end this quickly.  Go, Steelix and Honchkrow!"  With his last shout, the thug released two pokemon: The first, a massive snake-like pokemon, with a segmented body that looked like it was plated with steel, and the second, a black bird with a inflated chest with a white marking over it and a headpiece that resembled a black fedora.

The last member of the surveillance party merely nodded, his long, dirty blonde hair obscuring his face.  He pulled out another two pokeballs, releasing a purple bat-like pokemon with two sets of wings and what appeared to be a reverse-colored pokeball with large, sinister eyes.

"Well then, let's go give this trainer a proper greeting."  The pepper-haired goon said, grinning wickedly.

...

"Someone's watching us, recording us.  They've got something to do with Team Galactic, I'm not sure what."  Kirly's thought shot to the rest of the group, urgency resonating inside it.

Jake leapt up from his kneeling position, concern on his face.  "If you're sure-" he started, and was interrupted by another thought from Kirly.  His face hardened, and he nodded once.

"Quote, you better go back into your pokeball."  He pulled out a red and white sphere, and in another second Quote disappeared in a flash of red light.

"Lucona, Kirly, you better get into defensive-" Jake began.  A deafening roar erupted around them, drowning Jake out.  The earth shook beneath them, and a Steelix tunneled out in front of the group, it's segmented armor twisting and it's steel face staring malevolently at the comparatively tiny form of Jake as it rose into the air.  Letting out a roar like the screeching of rusty metal, it dove towards the stunned trainer.

Lucona reacted without thinking, concentrating her aura down into her forepaws.  As the steel snake was about to flatten Jake, it was struck by a huge sphere of shining blue energy, hurling it to the side and knocking it out instantly.  Jake blinked as his life finished flashing before his eyes.  His head turned slowly to look at the Lucario.  "Well, how about that."  A grin spread across his face.  "You finally learned to use Aura Sphere!"

"Duck!"  The thought felt like a shout in his brain.  Jake hurled himself to the ground, and he felt a rush of wind as the Honchkrow narrowly missed his back.  Turning sharply, the dark bird let out an angry screech, then dived again, this time to dodge a burst of lightning Kirlia had launched from her hands.

Jake crawled behind a few boulders, taking cover as the battle continued.  He saw a purple blur pass over him, and then a cry from Kirly as the Crobat struck the psychic pokemon.

Kirly rounded angrily on the two flying pokemon, flapping up higher as they prepared another attack.  She sent a thought to Lucona: "Distract them with an Aura Sphere!"  The Lucario obeyed the command, launching another blue orb at the two pokemon.  Even as they narrowly dodged it, another lightning bolt arced from Kirly's hands towards them.  It struck the Honchkrow and leapt over to the Crobat, shocking them so intensely they flashed with light.  As the electricity dissipated, the two pokemon slowly fell towards the ground, unconscious.

Lucona and Kirly joined Jake as he climbed back over his shelter, a look of shell-shock on his face.  "Amazing work, you two."  He said quietly.  "I was almost a goner..."

"Electrode, use Explode!"  The command echoed around the walls as the Reverse-colored pokeball rushed towards Jake and his companions, moving far too fast for a creature with no arms and legs.  It began to glow with light as the energy within it prepared to burst out.  Lucona and Kirly leapt between Jake and the orb, bracing themselves for the impact.

The explosion slammed into the pokemon, hurling them back into their trainer.  They had taken the brunt of the impact, but Jake still felt the power of the blast rattling his bones.  Dust billowed up as the explosion spread across the rocky clearing.

As the dirt dissipated, Jake pulled himself up, coughing.  The Electrode lay motionless on the ground, knocked out from it's own attack.  Kirly and Lucona also lay prone, unconscious after the massive attack.

"Geez, what does it take to kill you?"  The voice belonged to the pepper-gray haired thug, who strode into the clearing with his two companions.

"Took out four of our pokemon, too."  The red-haired thug laughed maniacally.  "You're a tough little bugger."

"Too bad you're out of useable pokemon."  The first thug smirked.  "Go, Persian and Luxray!"  He tossed out two pokeballs, releasing a white, lithe panther-like pokemon and a black, blue and yellow furred lion-like pokemon.  They slowly moved to Jake's sides, trapping him against the rock wall.  Jake closed his eyes, waiting for the coming blows.

The ground began to shake, gently at first, but with growing strength every second.  The two feline pokemon looked confused, and the three Galactic thugs appeared surprised.  "I thought your Steelix was knocked out!"  The leader yelled at his red-haired companion.

The red-haired man's response was interrupted as the earth erupted beneath them, dirt churning up everywhere and rocks bouncing all over the area.  Thousands of small forms began leaping in and out of the earth; swarms of them tackled the Persian and Luxray, allowing Jake a closer look at his saviors.  They had weird, plump bodies, with a small tail ending in a drill and blue circles around their closed eyes.  Two small, vestigial wings were attached to each one's back.

"What the... Dunsparce?!"  The grey-haired thug yelled angrily.

"It's no use!  Retreat!"  His red-haired companion shouted.

Before the three could begin to run away, a massive thump shook the earth, and a huge form rose up behind the three thugs.  As the dust cleared around it, a huge armored tortoise was revealed, a massive bonsai tree and a few boulders growing out of it's shell.  Barely visible through the haze of dirt was a tiny orange tent, pitched on top of the tortoise's shell.

A human form emerged from the tent, sliding down the curve of the shell to land in front of the three figures.

"Hiya everyone!  Any reason why you're attacking my friend here?"  The voice was young, fast, and vibrating with exuberance.  As the dust finally cleared, the voice's owner was revealed.  He was  young, around thirteen or fourteen, with bright blue eyes and golden-blonde hair.  He was extremely thin, but he appeared perfectly healthy in all other respects.  His clothing was barely recognizable, with a simple dust-colored t-shirt and heavily stained jeans, and torn and beaten sneakers.

The surveyors were speechless for a few moments, until the grey-haired leader regained his composure.  "We aren't telling you anything!"  He yelled defiantly.

"Too bad!"  The blonde kid said cheerfully.  He whistled loudly, and the swarms of Dunsparce moved around the three thugs, knocking them to the ground as they circled around.  At another whistle from Jake's savior, the swarms moved quickly, carrying the trio on top of their backs as they dug their way towards Jubilife.

Jake sighed with relief, then smiled at his rescuer.  "You're a regular Dues Ex Machina, Mark."

Mark returned the smile tenfold.  "I was just floating past, so it wasn't a problem.  That reminds me!"  Jake's friend looked up and waved energetically.  "Thanks for your help!"  He called out.  Jake followed Mark's gaze and saw what appeared to be a purple air balloon with four long arms on it's sides climbing into the air.  One of the arms waved back to Mark, and the strange creature floated away into the sky.

Jake shook his head with a bemused grin on his face.  "You attached your Torterra to a Drifblim?  Crazy."
"Oh yeah, they're really helpful when you get to know them!"  Mark said happily.  He turned to the unconscious forms of Lucona and Kirly, and his smile turned into a worried frown.  "C'mon, let's bring your guys into my tent.  They've taken a real beating!"

Jake looked at the tiny tent on top of the massive Torterra.  "I'm not sure we'll fit..."

...

"Well, they just keep developing those extra-dimensional spaces, don't they?" Jake relaxed inside the deceptively tiny tent, which contained a spacious 1-room apartment, complete with kitchen and bathroom.

"Course!  It's like a pokeball for humans, really!"  Mark said as he sat upside-down in a comfy armchair.  Mark's blue-dyed Furret, Slinky, was comfortably wrapped around Mark's neck, his long, furry body and stubby legs wiggling slightly.

Lucona and Kirly slept soundly on the floor, an occasional growl coming from Lucona as she dreamed.  Jake stared apologetically at the fainted pokemon, then looked at the camera he had gathered from the surveillance team's position.  The Poke-T.V logo was pasted on the side.

Poke-T.V and Team Galactic, Jake thought.  So, they're connected somehow.  One of them wants me dead... Team Galactic might after I stopped that robbery, if they were the ones behind it.  But what would Poke-T.V want with me?  He thought back, sifting through his memories.  His mind worked against him, however; in the miasma of his mind, he couldn't find anything significant that had to do with the T.V network.

"You O.K, dude?  You look like you've got a massive headache."  Mark asked, puzzlement in his voice.

"Meh, just my memory screwing around."  Jake answered.  He looked back at his fainted pokemon, then turned back to his friend as a thought struck him.  "I just remembered.  I met your brother in Jubilife recently," Jake explained, ignoring the sudden disinterest from Mark at the mention of Andrew, "And he said your mom has been worried about you."

Mark popped back into attention at this statement.  "Oh jeez, Mom's worried?  I'm gonna have to take off for Sandgem Town first thing tomorrow!"  He cocked his head as a thought struck him.  "You'll be all right, right?"

"I'll be fine.  Lucona and Kirly should be recovered by morning.  I'm gonna have to put Quote's training on hold though. I'm going to head back to Jubilife to check around and see if I can figure out why I was attacked."

"Well, good luck with that!"  Mark responded, happiness in his voice once again.  "You've been doing this training thing forever, seems like!"

Jake smiled wanly.  "I'm just trying to make a comeback.  I've had to rework a ton of my training strategy, but it's been working amazingly well.  But we're not quite ready for a real battle yet..."  Jake's voice trailed off.  Taking a deep breath, he lay on the padded floor and slowly fell asleep.  Nightmares of his past downfall haunted his sleep.