Chapter 8: Fishing at the Lake
May showed Mark how to attach a bait to the line. Then she cast out the line and a nearby Seaking hooked on. It kept trying to get itself free, and it was too strong for May to reel it in. She sent out Butterfree.
“Butterfree, Confusion!” Butterfree fired a blast of psychic energy at the Seaking and it became dizzy. She reeled the Seaking in.
“That’s how you do it.” She released it off the line and dropped it back into the lake. It swam off.
“Now you try,” she said and handed the Super rod to Mark. He attached a bait to the line and cast it at a Poliwhirl. He sent out Jolteon, but before he ordered Jolteon do do anything, May stopped him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Mark,” she said. “If you use Thundershock, it will affect every pokémon in the lake.”
“Of course,” Mark said and recalled Jolteon. “I should have thought of that. Go, Charmeleon!”
“Meleon!”
“Charmeleon, do something good... hey! What’s that?” Mark saw a small, light blue thing. It swam quickly across the lake, deep at the bottom. Mark got all excited, reeled in the line before Poliwhirl hooked on and cast it out. He waited a second and reeled it in shaking – could this be? Mark saw at once he had missed. He had missed the Dratini.
He stared blankly at the Super rod in his hands. He could have caught a Dratini, evolving into Dragonair and then Dragonite. A Dragonite. But he failed.
Mark suddenly looked at May. Her face looked very much like she was trying not to laugh.
“What’s so funny???” Mark asked furiously.
“Just that you thought you were catching something very rare, and then, you didn’t catch anything – and that you look so awfully serious!” Now she couldn’t hold herself back anymore, she exploded in laughter, but only for a second. Because the Dratini was now swimming up, and it stuck its head up right where Mark stood.
Mark bent down. He couldn’t believe it! The Dratini looked curiously at him, and he took a pokéball, and dropped it just above the Dratini. It dived down in fear, and the pokéball sank down after it. As the water was so clear, Mark could see the Dratini stop by the bottom for a second, and then it swam forward, looking back at the pokéball. It rolled a little, and the Dratini went behind a rock. The pokéball stopped. Dratini watched it for a second, and then came and touched the ball carefully. It popped open, and Dratini disappeared into the ball.
Mark stared at the pokéball at the bottom. He had a Dratini. One of the strongest and rarest pokémon once it evolved. But the ball was in the water, how could he get it? Charmeleon and Sandshrew were weak to Water. He couldn’t send them down to get it. It was too risky to send Jolteon, it could let off some electricity. And Gyarados had no legs and its mouth was to big to take a small pokéball. The rod? No, he was being stupid. Pokéballs don’t hook on rods. His Dratini was lost forever – except...
Mark dived into the lake. He swam deeper and deeper, but the ball didn’t seem to come any closer. He had to breathe, but he couldn’t, he was halfway there... no, he wouldn’t drown... he wouldn’t...
“Mark! Wake up!”
He opened his eyes. He was at the bank of the Lake, and May stood over him and seemed not at all pleased.
“Finally!” she hissed. “Get up now, or I might do something you don’t want me to do!”
Mark stood up. Now he saw why May was so angry; the two boys they had met on the way were there.
“Sad you woke up so quickly! If you were lucky, she might have used a kiss of life!”
Now Mark was seeing red.
“Go, Charmeleon! Show them!!!!!!”
Charmeleon used Fire blast. But May’s pokémon also joined in. Pikachu used Thundershock, Skarmory used Swift, Butterfree used Confusion and Lapras used Water gun.
“Should Lapras Perish sing you now?” said May. The boys walked dizzily away and one of them said something like “you’ll have to pay for our clothes...”.
“How stupid can two boys possibly be?” said May as she recalled her pokémon. “How could Lapras know Perish song? Lapras doesn’t learn Perish song until level 29! And trainers still here are very unlikely to have pokémon over level 25! For short, Lapras is very unlikely to know Perish song!” But Mark wasn’t listening. He was thinking about how he could get his Dratini.
“How can I get my Dratini back? How?”
“Mark, just think!” May snapped. “Very obivously not by drowning!”
“Oh yes, what happened?” Mark asked. May seemed upset.
“What else than just that you dived into the second-deepest water of Ouen, and I had to go after you, just to save you, and when I got you up to the surface, I just had to discover that the stupidest creatures of Ouen and Houen put together were watching all the time! I’ll never save you from drowning again, take that from me!”
“Thanks...” Mark began, but May interrupted.
“Yes, you better be thankful! All I did for you! There must be something wrong with me! Why did I do that????”
“Okay, May, but how do I get my Dratini?”
“Like I said, think! What are pokéballs made of?”
“Uh... steel... I guess...”
“Yes! What is the best way to get steel?”
“Uh... hey, I know! Magnet!”
“Exactly. And...”
“...then I can use a Magnemite!”
“And where are you going to get a Magnemite, if I may ask?” said May. “However...”
“We could use Jolteon and Pikachu!” Mark found out.
“Okay, now we have to wrap a wire around something made of steel, and then make Jolteon and Pikachu put some electricity on it...”
“Like the hook! The hook on the rod!”
“Yes! Well, I have a wire here somewhere,” May searched her bag and pulled out an enormus roll of wire “and it’s plastic-folded, so we won’t shock every pokémon in the Lake, and we’ll just need to pt the ends of the wire at Pikachu’s cheeks and then we’ll have a magnet.” She unwrapped the roll, cut a long piece of wire and held one end touching Pikachu’s cheeks and wrapped the other one around the hook. Then she handed Mark the rod. “Be quick,” she said, “Pikachu can’t keep using Thundershock for very long. Pikachu, Thundershock!”
“Chuuuuu!”
“Now it should work like a magnet,” said May. “Okay!” Mark cast the line out and gave it all free. He just hoped the line was long enough. He saw the hook sink down, but it stopped. The line wasn’t long enough after all. He lowered the rod down until only the end of it was above the surface, then he lowered his hand down too, then he decided to make his pokémon help him.
“Go, Charmeleon! Go, Jolteon! Go, Gyarados! Go, Sandshrew!”
“Char!”
“Jolt!”
“Gyaaaro!”
“Shreeew!”
“Hold my legs so I can go a little down, but take me back up just after you’ve lowered me down as much as possible!”
They grabbed hold of Mark’s legs and he took a deep breath, then put his head underwater. Then he went a little lower, until he could see, when looking up, that his pokémon were just at the bank and couldn’t go farther. But the line had still not reached the ball. Then Mark did something very risky. He let go off the rod and then dived down after it. He could see the hook reach the ball and stick to it. Then he caught hold of the rod again, and swam back up. He crawled up on the bank, and started to reel in the line.
“Just to warn you, Pikachu has given up and the hook will stop working like a magnet in a few seconds,” May said like she hadn’t noticed when Mark dived down. But now, he suddenly got an idea.
“Gyarados, dive down and go under the ball, then push it upwards on your head!”
“Gyaaaaaaaaro!” roared Gyarados as it dived down. But Mark could see that the ball was sinking down agagin. Gyarados went under it and pushed it up. When Gyarados reached the surface, however, the ball fell off its head, but Mark quickly leapt into the lake, caught hold of the pokéball and then swam to the bank. He looked at the pokéball, then at May.
“Look! I caught a Dratini! Yeah!” he said and smiled. He recalled his other pokémon and felt like he owned the world.