Chapter 10: Through the Rainbow Forest
“So, Rick is cloning Twos?” May asked as they walked out of the town towards Metal city. There were lots of mines around the town, and Skarmorys were very common there. That was why it was called Metal city.
“Yup,” was Mark’s answer. He was thinking. There was one thing on the wayto Metal city: The Rainbow Forest. It had lots of pokémon, but they were pretty low level, so Mark thought he shouldn’t be catching any pokémon there. However, he might encounter Mew again. Its hideout was in the middle of the forest, by what Mew said. Mark really had the feeling that he’d see Mew soon.
All this floated through Mark’s mind.
“...and... Mark, are you listening to me?” May asked. He hadn’t heard anything of her speech.
“Sorry, I was... thinking, could you repeat that?”
“Never mind,” said May looking offended.
“Hey, May, we could have a battle! We battled at the Lake, but it’s been a long time, and we’ve caught more pokémon...”
“That’s a good idea! Go, Larvitar!” May stopped and sent out Larvitar.
“Now? Here? No, I mean – Gyarados can’t battle here where there is no water. There’s a pond over there, see, let’s battle there.”
“Okay,” said May and they went over to the pond.
“Go, Dratini! Wrap!” Mark shouted.
“Larvitar, Sandstorm!” May yelled.
“Draaa!” Dratini wrapped itself around Larvitar. Larvitar made a sandstorm strike both of them, but Larvitar was unaffected by it, being a rock-solid pokémon.
“Dratini, tighter!”
“Larvitar, Bite!”
Dratini tried to wrap itself tighter around Larvitar, but Larvitar bit Dratini, causing it to release Larvitar.
“Larvitar, Rock slide!”
“Dratini, Twister!”
Some rocks appeared behind Larvitar and Larvitar started sliding the rocks at Dratini, but Dratini made some kind of a whirlwind which blew the rocks away and hit Larvitar.
“Dratini, Dragon rage!”
“Larvitar, Sandstorm!”
Dratini blew some sort of strange-looking flames which shot at Larvitar, but the sandstorm blew the flames back to Dratini.
“Oh no! Dragons are weak to Dragon attacks!” Mark shouted as Dratini became enveloped in those flames, fainting.
“Dratini, come back! Go, Gyarados! Use Surf!”
Larvitar didn’t have much of a chance against Gyarados’ Surf. It fainted.
“Larvitar, return! Do it, Pikachu! Thundershock it!”
“Pika CHUUUU!” Gyarados, having an extreme weakness to Electric, fainted instantly.
“Gyarados, come back! Go, Sandshrew! Earthquake!”
“Pikachu, quick! Double team!”
Five Pikachus appeared in a ring around Sandshrew, who was very confused. It didn’t use Earthquake, but looked at Mark, puzzled.
“Sandshrew, use Earthquake! Now!”
“Pikachu, Quick attack!”
The Pikachus all leapt into the air, dodging the Earthquake, and struck Sandshrew. But only one of them really hit; that was the real Pikachu.
Suddenly, Sandshrew glowed white. It became larger and spiky. Its claws lengthened. A Sandslash now stood there in its full glory.
“Oh! I never asked Sandshrew if it wanted to evolve!” Mark said.
“Sandslash!” the Sandslash said.
“Well, Sandslash, Earthquake!”
Sandslash’s Earthquake was more powerful than Sandshrew’s, that was easy to see. The Pikachus jumped up for a Quick attack again, but when they landed on Sandslash’s back, they got hurt by the spikes and the copies disappeared, leaving only the real Pikachu. It fell of the back and the Earthquake hit it, it still didn’t faint, though. It’s a tough Pikachu, Mark thought.
“Pikachu, come back! You’re too weak to battle! Go, Lapras, use Surf!”
May had obivously tought Lapras Surf, because Lapras used a powerful one, making Sandslash almost faint.
“Sandslash, Earthquake!”
Sandslash used an Earthquake, but Lapras was in the pond and was not very much affected by it.
“Lapras, another Surf!”
Sandslash fainted.
“Well done, that’s enough, Sandslash,” Mark said, recalling it. “Go, Jolteon!”
Mark knew May was now in trouble, because her three pokémon left were all weak to Electric.
“Lapras, you must do it – Sing!”
Lapras started singing a tune that made them all feel drowzy. Mark and May took before their ears so they wouldn’t fall asleep, but Jolteon fell fast asleep.
“Lapras, Body slam!” May shouted. Lapras went out of the pond, then slammed hard onto Jolteon, of course waking it up, but Jolteon was stuck. It growled and used Thundershock, and much to Mark’s surprise, it was enough to make Lapras faint. Looked like he had a strong Jolteon, too. However, when May recalled Lapras, Jolteon had fainted too.
“Go, Charmeleon, Fire blast!”
“Go, Butterfree, Confusion!”
Butterfree was quicker and fired a blast of psychic energy at Charmeleon. Charmeleon blew flames at Butterfree, causing it to faint.
“Go, Skarmory! Do it!”
Mark was pretty sure of his victory now. Skarmory was weak to Fire.
“Skarmory, you must! Stay where you are, and wait for me to instruct you!”
“Charmeleon, Fire blast!”
“Skarmory, Whirlwind... now!” May bellowed. Skarmory flapped its wings very fast and blew the Fire blast back to Charmeleon.
“Skarmory, quick – Drill peck!”
“Skaaaaaaaar!” Skarmory dived down at Charmeleon, spinning very fast with its sharp beak being like a drill. Skarmory hit Charmeleon, and Charmeleon fainted.
“Charmeleon, return,” Mark said. “By the way, how did your Skarmory get Drill peck? Baby Skarmories can learn it from their parents, but...”
“There are some things you can teach your pokémon by training them hard enough. Like you can teach a Skarmory Drill peck if you train it well and practise.”
“Well, you won. I better go back to Cleanwater’s pokémon center,” said Mark.
“Okay, I’ve got some revives, so I’ll train in the forest until you come back. Oh, as there’s a lot of pokémon in the forest and it might be dangerous to go around it with only fainted pokémon, I’ll lend you Larvitar, let me just revive it first,” said May. Then she took a revive out of her backback and used it on Larvitar, then she gave it to Mark.
“Thanks, May.”
Mark went out of the forest and healed his pokémon at the Cleanwater pokémon center, then came back and found May.
“I’ve trained my pokémon a lot while you were away,” she said. “But I had an idea – we can go to the Rainbow café and have something to eat. It’s at the other end of the forest.”
They went through the forest, but sadly without seeing Mew. They encountered some pokémon, which Mark beat with Charmeleon or Dratini. He was eager to make them evolve, as he had asked Dratini just the other day if it wanted to evolve. Dratini had wanted to get wings, so Dratini was also very excited, even though Mark told it it would evolve into Dragonair first, and then to Dragonite in a long time.
“Look! The rainbow café!” May pointed at a small house. A little ahead of it was the edge of the forest.
“A café? This is tiny!” Mark said, but when they got in, he realized he was wrong. It was one of those houses that seem much larger from the inside than the outside. They sat down at a table, ordered some food and ate. Everything was just like normal until they got outside. There was a Spinarak there.
“Alright! I’ll take it!” said Mark. “Go, Char... hey! Where are my pokéballs?”
“Mark, you can’t just lose your pokéballs like that! They should be attached to your belt!” said May.
“But... oh, I get it. Give me my pokéballs, May. This isn’t funny.”
“Me?? Are you saying I stole your pokémon?”
“Give them back or I’ll get angry!”
“STOP ACCUSING ME OF STEALING OR I’LL GET ANGRY!” May shouted in Mark’s ear.
“Okay, but who stole them, then?” asked Mark.
“Well... hey! It might have been that guy who came in just after us! He sat at the next table, remember, and he didn’t order anything! He went out before us, also, and headed towards Metal city!”
“Okay! Let’s go!” shouted Mark and ran to the end of the forest.
“Mark!” May shouted after him. “Wait for me! That guy also stole my Larvitar! I’m helping you as I can!”