Chapter 5: Legendary pokémon


Finally, after a lot of work, all three of Mark’s pokémon reached level 15.

“Whew... well, that paid off. We can find a hotel and then challenge the gym leader tomorrow,” Mark said and recalled Sandshrew back to his pokéball. “Charmander, go first so I can see the road by the light of your tail.” But they had only taken a few steps when Mark suddenly felt something, like the presence of something. There was an eerie silence. He turned around, and Charmander seemed to feel it too as he also turned around.

Something large and blue raced to the lake at incredible speed and stopped there. The clouds revealed the moon, showing its graceful shape.

It was Suicune.

It dipped one paw carefully into the water, and then it rushed off. Just as it was in safe distance from the lake, a large Gyarados emerged from the surface and roared in Suicune’s direction.

“It’s the Gyarados that disappeared!” Mark whispered. “Oh, I’m going to catch it... I swear I’m going to catch it...” For a second that seemed dreadfully long, he tried to think of something to catch the Gyarados’ attention so it would stay and fight him but not just go and hide again.

Then, he shouted: “Hey, Magikarp! Did you learn Tackle yet?”

“Gyaaaaro!” it roared and turned its head towards him. Mark actually thought it looked very insulted and wondered if that had been wise to say.

“Go, Eevee!” he then managed to say as he hurled the pokéball forward.

“EEEEEE!” Eevee shrieked when he saw the Gyarados, running back towards Mark.

“Eevee, I know this is a bit scary, but you’ll be all right, I won’t let anything appen to you – Sand attack!”

Eevee collected his courage, ran forward to the bank of the lake and kicked some sand into the Gyarados’ eyes. It shook its massive head, trying to see, and roared again.

“Eevee, Tackle, however you’re going to do that...”

Eevee charged forward and tackled the Gyarados in the air, then managed to land on the bank anyway. The Gyarados blindly tried to bite Eevee, but missed him narrowly as Eevee rolled over.

“Eevee, Tackle again! And just keep doing it!”

Eevee flung himself at the Gyarados again and again between Gyarados’ attempts to bite even though it didn’t see anything. Finally, the Gyarados managed to clear the sand and managed to bite Eevee’s tail. Mark quickly recalled Eevee so he wouldn’t become the Gyarados’ next meal.

“Do it, Sandshrew!”

“Shreeew!” Sandshrew cried as he came out of the ball. He didn’t seem to be afraid of the Gyarados.

“Sandshrew, Sand-attack!”

Sandshrew obivously had more experience at kicking sand than Eevee. He sent a whole sandstorm at the Gyarados, which roared even louder. It tried to bite Sandshrew, but turned completely in the wrong direction.

“Sandshrew, Scratch... if you can... man, battles where the enemy is in water are sure difficult...”

Mark didn’t really know how Sandshrew could scratch the Gyarados, but Sandshrew knew. He jumped at it, landed on its neck, held himself with his claws and then scratched it powerfully. The Gyarados roared in pain and tried to shake Sandshrew off, but Sandshrew didn’t let go. Then the Gyarados dived, and Sandshrew being weak to Water, Mark recalled it before something bad would happen. The Gyarados came up again, to Mark’s surprise.

“Go! Charmander! Smokescreen!”

Charmander opened his mouth and blew thick black smoke all over. Mark couldn’t see the Gyarados through the smoke.

“Gyyaaaaar!” he heard the Gyarados roar deep inside the cloud.

“Charmander, uh... well... do something!”

Charmander used Ember. The Gyarados didn’t seem to notice. Either it didn’t harm it at all, or it missed through the smoke. Mark heard the Gyarados snapping its jaws somewhere in the smoke cloud. Charmander powered up the attack before attacking with Ember again. It seemed to hit and hurt the Gyarados, judging from the painful roar he could hear.

“Pokéball, go!!!” Mark shouted and threw a pokéball through the smoke. When in finally cleared, the ball was wobbling on the ground. It eventually stopped wobbling.

“I did it! I did it!!!!! I caught the legendary Gyarados that disappeared!” Mark said in disbelief.

“Char!” came from Charmander.

“What’s wrong, Charmander?” Mark asked as he turned. Charmander was glowing white, and he was growing larger. A horn appeared on the back of his head. Then he stopped glowing.

“Meleon!” the resulting Charmeleon spat. For some reason, Mark felt like Charmander was a lot nicer. “Congratutations, you evolved!” he said anyway.

“Char...mele...on!” he said like he really didn’t care.

Mark pointed the pokédex at Charmeleon.

“Charmeleon, flame pokémon. This pokémon is known to blow out blueish-white flames when excited. At level 16, Charmeleon should know Scratch, Growl, Ember and Smokescreen.”

“Meleon!” Charmeleon then said and nodded, like agreeing with the pokédex entry.

“Let’s go. I’m sure we can beat that Rick guy now, but first let’s find a hotel.”

Evolving seemed to have changed Charmander’s personality. At least now he didn’t care about being put it a pokéball.

When they were back in town, Mark healed his pokémon and went to the Cleanwater hotel, a large building beside the gym. He got a room for him and his pokémon at the tenth floor. When he was up in the room, he looked at the city through the window. Who would know what challenges awaited him in the gym? Would he catch Suicune sometime, since he wanted to be a legendary collector? Or should he just give up that dream? He let Eevee, Charmander and Sandshrew out of their pokéballs, but Gyarados was too big for the room. He told them to find a place they liked to sleep, but he went to sleep in the bed.

“Good night, Charmander, Eevee and Sandshrew. We’ll cream that Rick tomorrow.” Then he fell asleep.


Mark woke up early and went to the gym. Outside it, there was a sign saying: “CLEANWATER CITY GYM – LEADER: RICK – The Low Level Legendary pokémon trainer!” When he entered, he saw he was on a large battlefield with a pool of water in the middle. On the other end there was a large door. A trainer approached him and said: “Hey, I’m first up! You can’t battle Rick just like that!”

“I’m ready,” Mark said.

“Go! Arcanine!” the other trainer said. He had a very boring voice, exactly the type a stereotypical politician has.

“Go! Gyarados!” Mark wanted to try out his new pokémon, of course. Gyarados roared when he came out of the ball.

“Arcanine, Extremespeed!” the other trainer commanded. The Arcanine shot across the arena at incredible speed, tackling Gyarados hard. Then it was back in front of the trainer quicker than you could say “Pikachu”.

“But... Arcanine doesn’t learn Extremespeed until level 50!” Mark stammered. At least he had learned something in all those pointless pokémonology classes.

“It’s cloned, of course,” said the trainer in the same boring voice.

“Cloned?” Mark questioned before he remembered his talk with Nurse Joy.

“Yes. Arcanine, Extremespeed!” said the trainer. The Arcanine shot across the room again in the same way. “Low level legendary pokémon” fit it very well. At least the level must be pretty low if two Extremespeeds barely harmed a completely untrained Gyarados at all. But Mark didn’t waste time thinking about that, as that trainer obivously used every opportunity to make his pokémon get an extra hit in.

“You... you... okay, Gyarados, Bite!”

Low level indeed. Gyarados bit the Arcanine’s leg once and it fell unconscious to the ground.

“Arcanine, return! Go, Zapdos!” the trainer said. His voice really got on Mark’s nerves now.

“How the heck did you get... oh, forget it. Gyarados, come back! Go, Sandshrew!”

“Zapdos, Drill peck!”

The Zapdos dived at Sandshrew, spinning like a drill.

“Sandshrew, quick! Dig to dodge the... oh yes, you can’t dig through the floor... uh, just curl up and roll out of the way!” Mark ordered. He felt stupid. Sandshrew obeyed, curled up and rolled to the side.

“Zapdos, Drill peck again!”

“Sandshrew, keep rolling so it won’t hit you!”

Then, a very funny pursuit began. Sandshrew rolled around the whole battlefield, closely followed by the Zapdos, which flew at its highest speed after Sandshrew, trying to peck him. In the end, both of them fell to the floor, completely exhausted.

“Zapdos, return! Go, Articuno!”

“Sandshrew, come back! Go, Charmeleon!”

“Char meleon!” Charmeleon spat as it came out of the ball.

“Articuno, Mind reader!”

The Articuno’s eyes glowed a scary red, focusing on Charmeleon.
“Charmeleon, Ember!”

Charmeleon scorched the Articuno and it appeared to melt into a pool of water with feathers in. Mark was disgusted, although he knew Fire attacks could have that temporary effect on Ice pokémon. When chilled down, the pokémon would take shape again.

“Articuno, come back! Go, Moltres!”

“Charmeleon, that’s enough! Go, Gyarados!”

“Gyaaaaaaro!” Gyarados roared. He appeared to like roaring a lot.

“Moltres, Sky attack!” The Moltres started glowing. It looked very hot, both burning and glowing like that. Actually, Mark wasn’t sure it would be a good idea for Gyarados to bite it in that state. The other trainer obivously knew that too.

“Gyarados, I know it sounds stupid, but – Splash!”

Gyarados started to laugh, that is, to roar wildly between catching his breath. The other trainer also laughed. Even the Moltres’s glow was flashing, like it wasn’t concentrating. Finally, even Mark started to laugh.

“No, really, Gyarados, use Splash!” he choked in the end.

“Gyar...” Gyarados said lousily and tried to look like a Magikarp. Actually, he did pretty well in looking stupid. What Gyarados didn’t realize was that being big and heavy, Splash actually had some effect, namely making them all wet, including Moltres. And a wet Fire pokémon usually faints. Which was exactly what happened.

“Moltres, return,” the trainer said, his voice sounding even worse than normally. “Okay. You beat me. But the next trainer will cream you!”

The door opened into another identical battlefield. When Mark was at the other side of the door, a nurse Joy stopped him and said: “Wait. You want me to heal your pokémon, don’t you?”

“Oh, thanks, I forgot,” Mark said and handed her the pokéballs. She put them one by one into a Pocket healer (A small machine you can put a pokéball in and press a button to heal the pokémon inside, banned in the Pokémon league and other big tournaments). Then she gave them to Mark again, smiling.

“Good luck,” she said.

“Thanks,” Mark replied and went on to the middle of the battlefield. He saw the door he came through closed automatically. Then a trainer came.

“Let’s begin!”

“Fine for me,” Mark said and took out Sandshrew’s pokéball.

“Go, Raikou!”

The tiger pokémon emerged from the ball and stared at Mark.

“Sandshrew, I choose you!”

“Raikou, Crunch!”

“Sandshrew, curl up, but be ready with a Poison sting!”

The Raikou tried to catch Sandshrew with its teeth, but biting in a ball is very hard, so it failed. Sandshrew quickly un-curled himself and stung the Raikou with one claw.

“Raikou, Swift!”

“Sandshrew, Defense curl!”

The Raikou fired a barrage of stars at Sandshrew, but Sandshrew curled up and most of the stars repelled off his hard skin.

“Raikou, Swift!”

The Raikou fired more stars before Sandshrew managed to curl up again. Sandshrew seemed really hurt, but still managed to hold on.

“Sandshrew, Defense curl!” Mark ordered. Sandshrew curled up, ready to repel another Swift.

“Raikou, Roar!” said the trainer. The Raikou roared, and Sandshrew turned into a red beam of light, then disappeared into the pokéball.

“Hey, Sandshrew! What do you think you’re doing!? Well, go, Eevee!”

“Veeeeee!” Eevee cried as he faced his enemy. Eevee seemed to be a lot braver now. He looked at the Raikou like any Pidgey. Or maybe Eevee just had no idea that Raikou was a legendary pokémon and far stronger than anything he had battled before.

“Raikou, Thunderrrr!” the trainer said and pointed at Eevee. It sounded very funny. Raikou’s tail sparkled and a blast of lightnings shot from it straight at Eevee. Eevee got badly shocked. The Raikou didn’t seem to feel very good, either. This was, of course, because if the poison from Sandshrew’s poison sting earlier in the battle. It looked very weak now.

“Raikou, come back! Go, Entei!”

“Go! Charmeleon!”

“Entei, Stomp!”

“Charmeleon, quick! Smokescreen!” The whole room got covered with smoke and whatever the Entei hit with that Stomp, it wasn’t Charmeleon.

“Entei, Sunny day!” the trainer said. The Entei roared, and suddenly, light shone from it and cleared the smoke. Only legendary pokémon have the power to use a Sunny day inside a building, Mark remembered having read somewhere.

“Charmeleon, Ember!” Charmeleon blasted flames from his mouth at the Entei, however, it didn’t seem to hurt it much, as Entei is a Fire pokémon.

“Entei, Stomp!” The Entei lifted its paw, roared and stepped on Charmeleon’s tail. Charmeleon bit the Entei’s leg back, and then held on with its teeth and started scratching it too. The Entei shook Charmeleon off, only to get him in its face instead, scratching madly. It lost its balance and fell down.

“Entei, come back! Do it, Suicune!”

“Charmeleon, you don’t stand a chance against a water pokémon! Go, Gyarados!”

“Gyaaaar!” Gyarados roared, particularly madly, at Suicune. Understanding the roars was a lot harder than understanding normal pokémon, but he was getting hang of it. Although this was probably no more than just a roar, he couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“Suicune, Bubblebeam!”

The Suicune fired a blast of bubbles the size of cannonballs at Gyarados.

“Dive, Gyarados!” The bubbles covered the room, but couldn’t reach Gyarados, who watched just under the surface of the water.

“Gyarados, Bite!” Mark roared.

Gyarados rose from the water and bit the Suicune’s leg, lifted it off the ground and shook it violently. Then Gyarados dropped it and it stood heavily up again, looking into Gyarados’ eyes. The Suicune didn’t do anything, just stood there.

“Suicune... it’s cloned from the one that cleans the lake! It must remember Gyarados!” Mark whispered. “But why won’t it battle?”

“Cune,” Suicune said weakly and then fell to the floor.

“Suicune, come back!” said the trainer. “Okay, you beat me, but you won’t stand a change against Rick! He’s strong, you know. Very strong.”

Mark went through the door to the next battlefield. There was also a nurse there. She healed his pokémon and then Mark checked their levels. Charmeleon was level 17, Eevee was still level 15, Sandshrew was level 16 and Gyarados was level 21. Then the trainer of this battlefield came.

“I’m tough, don’t expect a stupid trainer like the ones you’ve already beaten. I’m the only junior trainer in this gym with real power!”

“Okay, can we begin now?” Mark said, confident. “Go, Sandshrew!”

“Go! Mew!”

“WHAT? You have MEW?!” Mark questioned and stared open-mouthed at the cat pokémon floating in mid-air.

“Yes, we’ve got about twenty in all,” the trainer said like Mew was a common Rattata. “Can’t we start?”

“But... but...”

“Are we going to start the battle or not? Mew, Psychic!”

“Sandshrew, Sand-attack!”

Sandshrew kicked sand at the Mew, but it closed its eyes, glowed purple and somehow reflected the sand back at Sandshrew with double the power.

“Sandshrew, Poison sting!”

Sandshrew charged at Mew and managed to sting it with one claw.

“Mew, Transform!”

Mew’s shape sort of melted and turned it into a Sandshrew.

“Sandshrew, Scratch!”

Sandshrew jumped at the Mew, but it curled up and rolled away. Then, when Sandshrew lay on the ground, the Mew scratched him with its own Sandshrew claws. Sandshrew was getting weak...

“Sandshrew, return! Go, Gyarados!!!!!”

“Mew, Ancientpower!” Mew transformed back into its real form, glowed green and some of the rocks on the arena flew towards it, danced around it and then Mew flung itself at Gyarados, the rocks hitting Gyarados hard too. Gyarados used the opportunity and bit Mew with his vicious fangs.

“Mew, come back! Go, Mewtwo!”

A Mewtwo emerged from the ball and looked at its trainer with deep disgust.

“What do you want now, kid?” came Mewtwo’s telepathic voice, echoing inside Mark’s head.

“Oh, shut up, kitten. Just use Psychic on that Gyarados over there,” said the trainer and pointed at Gyarados.

“Why should I obey you, kid? I could hypnotize you any time and take over the world. What can stop me from doing it?”

“Don’t get any ideas, you overgrown cat,” the trainer said. “We changed your genetic code so you can’t. Actually, you were also supposed to obey after we did those changes...”

“I don’t care what I was supposed to do. I’m on my own now. Goodbye.”

And then the Mewtwo teleported away.

“Mewtwo, what are you doing?!!!” the trainer yelled. “Oh well, the last one also did. Go, Mewtwotwo!”

“Uh, are you sure you said that right?” Mark asked, but out of the pokéball came a weird pokémon. It looked like a Mewtwo, but it was larger, darker in color and had much longer arms and legs. The ears were also longer and the eyes were smaller and more evil-looking.

“What is that?” Mark asked.

“It’s Mewtwotwo, of course – cloned from Mewtwo and much stronger.”

“Whaddayawant?” said the Mewtwotwo.

“Psychic,” said the trainer.

“Okay,” said the Mewtwotwo lazily and waved one finger. At first, that seemed to be careless, but the effects were incredible. The water in the pool all went up into the air and stayed there, leaving Gyarados in a deep, dry hole. Then he started to headbutt the walls until he fell down and didn’t move. Then all the water fell down again and Gyarados floated up at first, but then he sank to the bottom.

The Mewtwotwo yawned. “Anything else? Maybe something a bit more... challenging?”

“Just wait a minute. He’ll most likely send out another pokémon,” said the trainer like Mark wasn’t there.

“I choose you! Ember!” Mark sent out Charmeleon. How dare you calling Gyarados weak, he thought...

“Mewtwotwo, Psychic!” The Mewtwotwo made the fire bounce straight back at Charmeleon and then lifted him into the air and dropped him to the floor without moving at all. Charmeleon looked unconscious. The Mewtwotwo turned to its trainer and asked: “Is there anyone here who TRAINS pokémon, not just catches them? Same boring challenges day by day! I feel like battling something powerful...” But in the meanwhile, Charmeleon stood up again with difficulty, and then rushed at the Mewtwotwo and used all of his attacks at once. The Mewtwotwo also did something and the two pokémon then blasted away from each other and crashed into the walls. For a few seconds, both of them lay next to the walls, looking knocked out, but then Charmeleon opened his eyes and stood up.

“Chaaaaaaar,” he said and walked dizzily to Mark. “Charmeleon...”

Then he fell down, fainted.

“It’s a draw,” said the other trainer.

“No, it isn’t! I still have Eevee!” Mark said and sent Eevee out as a proof.

“Okay then,” said the trainer angrily and made the door open. Mark went through, healed his pokémon and found out that Charmeleon had grown to level 18 and Gyarados was level 22. The next trainer didn’t even bother talking to Mark.

“Go, Ho-oh!”

“Go, Sandshrew!”

“Ho-oh, Sacred fire!”

“Sandshrew, Defense curl!” Sandshrew curled up in a ball and his skin repeled the super-hot flames Ho-oh blasted at him.

“Sandshrew, Sand-attack!”

“Ho-oh, Gust!” The sand was blown right back at Sandshrew by two flaps of Ho-oh’s powerful wings.

“Sandshrew, you can’t beat it, come back! Go, Charmeleon! Smokescreeen!”

Charmeleon blew thick, black smoke all over the room.

“Ho-oh, Gust!”

Ho-oh blew the smoke away, just like the sand before.

“You’re a tough guy, but I’ll beat you!” Mark announced. “Charmeleon, jump and scratch it!”

“Ho-oh, Fly!” The Ho-oh flew high into the air, where Charmeleon couldn’t reach it.

It’s way too strong, and my pokémon’s attacks are too wimpy, Mark thought. “Wait, I give up,” he then said aloud to the trainer.

“You’re giving up?” the trainer asked. “You’re really GIVING UP now??!!!!”

“No, I’m not really giving up,” Mark said. “I’m just asking you to stop and I’ll come back within ten minutes and battle you again – from the start.”

“Well, okay,” said the trainer. “But you’ll still have to battle the other trainers again, you know.”

“Okay! I’ll be back!”

Then Mark went out, healed his pokémon, and went to the Pokémon market.

“I’m going to buy... uh, one Thunderstone, one Fire blast TM, one Surf HM and one Earthquake TM,” he said to the woman at the counter. She got it all from the shelves and said: “It’s 96700.”

“That’s exactly what I have left,” Mark said and handed her the money. Then he tought Fire blast to Charmeleon, Surf to Gyarados, Earthquake to Sandshrew and then let Eevee out.

“Eevee, now I have a Thunderstone for you. You will become a Jolteon. At first, you’ll feel a little strange, but you will get used to it. But if you’ve changed your mind, I can still return the Thunderstone. Are you sure you want to evolve? You’re also a bit younger than I originally intended for you to evolve so, this is just a warning, pokémon that evolve too young can change a lot in personality too, but I don’t know if that’s the case with you, because you’re very tough for your age. So...”

Eevee nodded, although he seemed a bit nervous. Then Mark took out the Thunderstone and gently made it touch Eevee’s head. He started glowing white. Then he grew larger and spiky and stopped glowing.

“Jolteon!!” He scratched himself but got a spike in its hind leg. Mark drew it out, laughing.

“You should not scratch yourself, even if it itches,” he said. “You will get used to it.”

“Jolt!”

“Now let’s just train a bit, and then we’re ready for the gym!” Mark recalled Jolteon and went to the Lake of Purity.

“Feaaarow!” he heard from somewhere above.

“A wild Fearow! Go, Jolteon!”

The Fearow immediately dived to peck Jolteon.

“Jolteon, you’re quicker! Evade it!”

Jolteon ran to the side and the Fearow missed. Angrily, it shot up again and prepared for another attack. It shot down again.

“Jolteon, Sand-attack and then Tackle!”

Jolteon kicked sand at the Fearow, then jumped up and tackled it in mid-air. The Fearow attempted to use Fury attack, but missed due to the Sand-attack.

“Jolteon, Tackle, Tackle, Tackle!” Mark said enthusiastically.

Jolteon flung himself at Fearow again and it fell to the ground, then Jolteon tackled it two more times and it was knocked out.

“You did great, Jolteon! Let’s see your level, now...” Mark pointed his pokédex at Jolteon.

“Jolteon, Lightning pokémon,” the pokédex voice said. “This pokémon is the Electric evolution of Eevee, very fast and powerful. It can shoot its spikes very accurately. At level 17, Jolteon should know Tackle, Tail whip, Sand-attack and Thundershock.”

“Great! You’ve learned Thundershock! Now we can surely take on Rick!” And Mark recalled Jolteon and went back to the gym, ready for anything.