Rattata Chapter 49: Scaled down Extinction event

If anyone had been there to watch the battlefield behind Professor Oak’s laboratory they would have perhaps been a bit confused about why exactly the former Champion had summoned a Venasaur to deal with what were obviously two prepubescent youngsters.

These people would of course not know the backstory of how Joey had gone to great lengths to piss off Professor Oak so that they could even get this battle.

The fact that the man at least hadn’t sent out one of his championship six was already mercy enough.

Nevertheless, looking at the dark green and extremely large Venasaur almost taking up a fourth of the space of the battleground, didn’t really fill Joey with too much confidence. 

The monster grumbled and sleepily blinked its eyes a few times, then it adjusted its stance, which made the ground shake and the tropical tree on its back swing back and forth.

Sabrina, next to Joey, sent him a reproachful look. 

‘Look what you got us, and more importantly, me, into,’ she complained telepathically.

‘We don’t have to win, just impress,’ Joey countered. ‘If the thought of that scares you then you’re obviously not as good as you think you are.’

Sabrina sent him the telepathy equivalent of a raspberry. 

“Sent out your two Pokemon,” Oak said from the other side of the field as he impatiently crossed his arms.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Joey muttered to himself.

“I heard that!”

Then the youngster pulled off his starter’s Pokeball from his belt and threw it up in his hand once, twice, thrice, before he pressed the button to unleash Rattata.

The little rat appeared on the field chittering angrily, and when Sabrina’s oldest Kadabra appeared beside him, it almost got attacked.

“Double battle against the behemoth in front of you please,” Joey was quick to say, at which the purple rat managed to abort its Quick Attack and settle down. There were some suspicious glances at Kadabra still, but that was probably as civil as they were going to get considering they’d just lost the tournament yesterday.

Kadabra for its part simply snorted and raised its spoons in anticipation, moustache twitching in a way that implied inherent superiority. Had Star Wars existed in this world, Joey would have accused it of trying to copy Count Dooku’s trademarked look of superiority. If that had been the case he could have probably won against Sabrina in their next battle by sending out a copyright infringement note. Was it possible that Disney had stopped being such an asshole on modern Earth since he’d died?

Very unlikely.

“Let’s start when this pebble hits the ground,” Oak called out from the other side of the field, holding a small stone in his hand.

Then, without waiting for an answer he threw it high into the air.

Joey and Sabrina shared a glance and nodded their heads.

A brief flash of purple suddenly enveloped the pebble and smashed it into the ground at a much higher velocity than would have been physically possible.

At the exact same time, Rattata jumped forward in Quick Attack which he dropped in midair to transition to Hyper Fang. Kadabra teleported right behind the rat as it approached the somewhat startled Venasaur head-on and formed an absolutely humongous Shadow Ball.

The Shadow Ball which was about as big as Joey shot forward and enveloped Rattata completely as Joey’s starter almost connected his Hyper Fang straight into Venasaur’s face.

Oak, for his part, blinked once in apparent surprise, before calling out a single move.

“Tackle,” he said calmly. 

Rather than dodging or defending itself, the Venusaur surged forward straight into Rattata and into the Shadow Ball.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been the end of it, but with Sabrina’s psychic linking, Joey’s reaction time plus his verbal command and then Rattata’s reaction time turned into just his reaction time.

‘Detect, climb it!’ he shouted mentally.

Rattata managed to quit his Hyper Fang just in time and then managed to find the perfect position and action with the help of Detect to springboard over the Venusaur’s approaching head and land on the tree on its back.

‘You don’t have to shout…’ Sabrina complained as Venusaur smashed into the Shadow Ball causing a large explosion which kicked up a bunch of dust.

‘Nothing you can say can extinguish my flames of passion!’ Joey replied quickly while sending another command at his Rattata. ‘Brick Break straight down!’

While Sabrina likely contemplated simply cutting off Joey’s connection, Kadabra had already teleported back, Rattata struck down with an orange fist and Oak called out his next command.

“Poison Powder updraft!”

At this, Venusaur did the full body approximation of clenching its butthole and nearly exploded the tree on the top of its body in an almost volcanic plume of purple powder.

Rattata, suffice to say, was blown straight off the grass-type Pokemon. This turned out to be a good thing as it meant that he dodged the Poison Powder for just long enough for Kadabra to bring together its spoons and bring the substance largely into his control. The purple rat contorted itself in mid-air and sent a barrage of Swift stars through the now-under-control cloud using it as a cover.

Oak didn’t seem to care too much and he was proven right as the stars pinged uselessly off the Venusaur’s tough hide.

‘Make a hole in the cloud, Hyper Fang through,’ Joey simultaneously ordered both the Pokemon through their shared link.

Sabrina added her own command. ‘Drop the control after and Hypnosis.’

Kadabra for all his many faults executed the command perfectly.

The poison cloud became a ring with a tiny hole in the middle where Rattata easily slipped through. At the same time, a ring of Hypnosis waves was already travelling at Venusaur.

Joey had wondered initially why Oak sent out a half-poison type against a psychic. Did he want to prove a point that he could beat them both even with a type disadvantage?

The next moment invalidated Joey’s assumption.

“Frenzy Plant,” the professor ordered.

Venusaur stomped its right foot on the ground.

The battlefield disappeared.

‘Detect/Teleport,’ the two youngsters urgently ordered at once.

Multiple thorny vines as thick as an Arbok emerged from the ground and pushed upwards towards the heavens. The entire battlefield was affected and Joey’s and Sabrina’s vision was basically completely obscured in less than a second.

“This is some Hashirama vs the third Hokage type of shit,” Joey complained to himself at the same time as he breathed a sigh of relief.

Rattata had switched to Detect just in time to ride the upward-pushing vines all the way to where he was now squeaking angrily about 33 metres in the air. 

Kadabra for its part had teleported even higher into the sky, before teleporting again to land on the highest vine.

The question as to why Oak had picked a Pokemon with a type disadvantage was also answered.

It literally just didn’t matter.

“Oi, old man, isn’t this a bit too extreme!” Joey called jokingly. He couldn’t even see the professor. The vines covered everything.

“You both managed to dodge, didn't you?” Oak called out. “Don’t tell me you get afraid when the situation becomes a bit thorny?” he then asked jokingly, mood seemingly improved.

“It’ll just make kicking your ass more entertaining!” Joey called back.

“Can you stop provoking him?” Sabrina hissed angrily.

Unfortunately, her anger just made her look more like a kitten.

“Can’t make a tiger change his stripes baby,” Joey replied. “I’m finally fighting the types of battles I was born for, we going all in,” he said confidently, but not really.

“Done talking over there?” Oak asked from the other side, but instead of waiting for an answer he already called out his next move. “Sludge it!”

‘I have a plan,’ Joey sent to Sabrina as an absolutely enormous ball of poisonous Sludge was shot out into the sky where it exploded into an acid shower.

The only thing that prevented Kadabra and Rattata from immediately being drenched was the teleportation of Kadabra to Rattata’s position and its protective Light Screen.

All of the thorns of the Frenzy Plant were now covered in poison. Making a single mistake had now become a death sentence.

‘Alright,’ Sabrina answered reluctantly after listening to his explanation.

She seemed slightly unwilling, but there was nothing they could do and Joey’s suggestion was as good as any.

‘Rattata,’ Joey addressed his starter, ‘the same thing as with the start. But this time, we’re going to see if this battle is enough to break our limits!’

A faint chitter resounded from all the way up the top of the Frenzy Plant forest.

Without any further prompting, Rattata then jumped downwards into the jungle beneath. He traversed the thorny vines by jumping in between them and pushing himself off in the rare spots where there weren’t any. This way his paws might have gotten covered in poison, but it wasn’t injected into his bloodstream.

Kadabra meanwhile teleported close behind in brief flashes, always staying in the air and not touching anything.

Oak of course wasn’t doing nothing in the meantime. “Growth, they have to come to you,” he ordered, further raising the special attack of his Pokemon.

As the unlikely duo got closer and closer to the now buffing Venusaur, the attack sequences started.

Kadabra charged another large Shadowball and Rattata blitzed downwards in a Quick Attack.

Joey’s starter was once again enveloped in the Shadow Ball making him basically invisible.

“This again!” Oak shouted from the other side of the battlefield. “Slam upwards,” he called out after.

It seemed that he was willing to sacrifice whatever damage Shadow Ball would do for potentially knocking out Rattata and making this a one versus one.

‘Clench your buttcheeks!’ Joey thought as loud as he could as the ground shook beneath them indicating that Venusaur had taken off into the air.

‘Prepare yourself Kadabra,’ Sabrina ordered meanwhile.

Venusaur, Rattata and the Shadow Ball met in mid-air in a loud explosion of force. The grass behemoth hardly seemed hurt by the impact.

But, if other Pokemon couldn’t hurt the monster, then what about itself?

Rattata was flung out violently, but he was caught by a psychic hold from the Kadabra who stood on one of the vines poisoning itself for the opportunity.

Rattata’s right paw, clenched in a fist, glowed with the brightest dark orange Joey had ever seen.

Kadabra sharply lowered his spoons downwards on the Venusaur which was finding its footing as it landed from its impromptu jump.

Rattata, enveloped in purple energy, fist shining orange, shot down faster than even his Quick Attack.

He became a nebula of purple peaking with burnt orange. A comet. A meteor. A god.

A blur of orange and purple slammed into the large warty head of the Venusaur.

A crack, like glass smashing, resounded through the clearing as for a single moment Venusaur was standing with a small rat, fist extended on the top of its head. Then, violently, abruptly, Venusaur’s entire body was slammed down like an asteroid cratering the ground underneath in concentric circles. 

After expanding all that energy Rattata was flung far away because he couldn’t yet perfectly control the move he’d just used, Counter. He landed roughly on the ground and tumbled to a stop.

But, this was a double battle.

Before Venusaur could collect itself Kadabra had already sent a blindingly bright Psybeam straight at it.

“Protect!” Oak shouted from the other side and Venusaur suddenly enveloped itself in the blue-green shell of Protect, one of the most popular moves in high-level battles.

The Psybeam slammed uselessly against the shield, allowing Venusaur to collect itself.

“Let’s end this farce!” Oak then called, apparently losing his patience. “Sunny Day then up!” he called.

Venusaur frantically shook itself, causing the sun rays above to brighten. Then, just in time to dodge another Psybeam, it shot out its vines and hooked them at the sturdiest and tallest of the vines it had created earlier with the Frenzy Plant.

Then, to Joey’s and Sabrina’s disbelief the Venusaur slingshotted itself into the air above the battlefield like it didn’t weigh more than 100 kilograms. 

It pirouetted elegantly and once it reached a height several dozen metres above the battleground, it reached the maximum of its ascent.

It was facing the wrong direction though, it was belly-up, tree pointing downwards.

Then, the top of the tree suddenly shone a brilliant yellow.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Joey mused out loud.

Sabrina for once, was more vocal.

“Fuck my life,” she said in a defeated tone of voice.

“VEEENAASSAUUURRRRR!” the flying titan roared.

Then.

The world became light.

Joey was forced to cover his eyes as the bright yellow was burned into his retina.

A crash, an explosion, an armageddon then resounded and the youngster was forced to stumble a few feet back from the shockwave that erupted.

The only reason he wasn’t panicking was that he could feel that Rattata was okay through Sabrina’s link.

As for the reason why?

He removed the arm from in front of his face and had to blink a few times to remove the spots.

What he found was… nothing.

The battlefield was clear again. The Frenzy Plant had dissipated, leaving behind only a crater.

And in that crater was Kadabra crossing its spoons protectively in front of itself as the protective barrier around it broke. Its eyes rolled to the back of its head, and it fell backwards before being recalled.

A second later Rattata dug itself out from underneath where he had been hiding and chittered in annoyance.

Joey suddenly wondered where Venusaur was. 

Then he looked up.

His eyes shined in opportunity, Venusaur was falling helplessly, obviously stuck in the refractory period of Solar Beam.

“Meet it head-on,” Joey shouted excitedly to his starter.

Rattata, well-versed in Joey’s commands, went to stand exactly underneath where Venusaur was going to fall.

A second later, the small purple rat was squished completely underneath the flying giant.

Then, another second later, Venusaur flew right back up in the air with a pained yowl.

Underneath was revealed Rattata standing triumphantly on its two legs, an orange fist extended towards the sky.

Then he promptly fell over face first onto the ground.

Joey recalled his starter while shaking his head.

Venusaur landed with a deafening crash before slowly getting back to its feet and groaning in pain.

Then it was also promptly recalled.

What was left when all three Pokemon disappeared was an absolutely obliterated battleground and three trainers looking at each other awkwardly.

Oak coughed into his fist. “I might have let that get a bit out of hand,” he admitted eventually.

“You think so?” Sabrina replied sarcastically.

Joey meanwhile jumped up and shook his fist at the sky. “That... was... Awesome!!!” he screamed. “Venusaur was like, Frenzy Plant, and then it was like shum, and then it was up and it was like blam! Then Rattata went underneath and was like kapow, and Kadabra was like bling bling bling!” he shouted, unable to contain his excitement.

He’d only seen battles like this on television before, being involved in one had brought out all the passion that a year of grinding out relatively low-level battles had started to suppress.

This reminded him, if anything, of the eighth-badge gym battles he’d watched in the past. If not maybe even a bit more.

“What’s the badge level of that Venusaur, you were never shown to use one before?” he asked Oak excitedly.

The old man reeled back at the young boy’s enthusiasm before thoughtfully scratching his chin. “It should be about low-tier Elite Four level in strength, she just doesn’t have that much experience so maybe more eighth badge. She’s one of the Bulbasaurs who wasn’t picked one season and who decided to stay at the ranch to train with the Pokemon there. I occasionally passed by to give a few tips.” He suddenly paused and narrowed his eyes at Joey. “Wait, you researched what Pokemon I had?” he asked suspiciously.

Joey blinked. “Of course. I came here to battle you after all. I prepared for Alakazam, Dragonite, Charizard, Arcanine, Exeggutor, and Fearow. Check out the competition and all that. Sorry for being annoying by the way, I only needed you to agree. It’s my best tactic for people who are reluctant to throw down. Make them want to show me my place,” he said proudly with his nose in the air.

The technique had worked on many notable characters until now. Lorelei, several older trainers who otherwise wouldn’t have given him the time of day, and now a former champion.

“Is being annoying something to be proud of?” He heard Sabrina mutter to herself as a head-shaking Oak walked around the crater in the ground that had used to be a battlefield to join the two youngsters.

“Where did you even get the information?” the professor asked curiously.

Joey knowingly nodded his head, it was understandable why the man was curious.

“Obviously the internet wasn’t a thing back then, and only a few of the tapes in the library survived the passage of time. I saw your battle with Agatha for example. Arcanine vs Gengar... sublime, by the way. Some newspaper clippings in the archives helped me fill out the picture. Then I actually went to the Pokemon Fan Club of Saffron and talked to the oldest members. They were able to tell me more. After all, they’re all battle enthusiasts and it's easy to remember a champion, no matter how long it's been,” Joey explained. The whole research hadn’t really taken longer than four hours, hardly notable, but Oak seemed impressed. And a bit embarrassed, going by the way that he was rubbing the back of his head.

“I didn’t know people still remembered to be honest. It’s been more than thirty years after all,” Oak said sheepishly.

“You can’t expect people to forget that easily. Some still remember their favourite childhood snack. The strongest trainer in the region at the time is a bit more memorable in my opinion,” Joey replied.

“So you planned all of this out after receiving my letter, what, yesterday?” Oak asked curiously, seeming somewhat impressed, but avoiding the word rejection that would have belonged in front of the letter.

“Time waits for no man,” Joey said with a smile. “Unless you have a Celebi I guess,” he joked.

Oak froze at the mention of the legendary, before laughing it off. “Not often that I meet a young man that knows his legends,” he remarked. Then he turned to Sabrina who had since the end of the battle simply been standing there with a pout. “I was very impressed by your Kadabra. The teleportation speed was incredibly fast, and the attacks were strong. Don’t be discouraged by Venusaur, she’s already older than twenty years and has been making steady progress the whole time.” Then he turned to Joey. “I must say, I’ve never seen such a well-trained Rattata. Most who try to make them competitive rely on speed and ranged moves. Teaching such a small Pokemon Counter, it’s a novel direction.”

Joey shrugged. “Rattata isn’t very talented at learning ranged moves, but he shines in physical confrontations. I’m just trying to leverage his talents. There will be time to acquire a ranged arsenal once we’ve hit a roadblock in physical attacks. The Counter, I’ll give credit to Bruno, he’s the one who helped us recognize the talent.” He was very proud of Rattata’s Counter today. It had been on the backburner ever since they’d met Bruno, but it seemed like the battle today had been hype enough that it had caused a breakthrough.

Oak raised an eyebrow. “You’ve met Bruno?” he asked curiously.

“Yeah, we had a short battle in the wilds near Saffron. He went to Kong to get some advice after his loss to Lance,” he explained.

It was at the mention of Kong that Oak made a face as if he’d stepped in dogshit. The older man quickly shook his head and returned to neutral, however. “I’m curious as to why your Rattata is still wearing an Everstone collar. You have the badges to evolve it from what I know.”

Joey nodded thoughtfully. Of course, the old man would notice. “He’s yet to exhaust his potential as a Rattata. The growth of the physical metrics has yet to dip below the fast curve of progress as described in the Variations of Pokemon Growth when considering Evolutionary Tendencies and there have been no issues in expanding the move set. Me and Rattata have discussed it and have decided to save the evolution for when we burn out the potential of the current form.”

“You’ve read my paper?” Oak asked curiously.

Joey thought back to the days when he hadn’t had Pokemon yet, and thus had nothing to do but study battles, debate people online and read academic and popular literature on the topic of training. He nodded.

The professor seemed to consider something, before sighing. Then he gave Joey and Sabrina a meaningful look. “There’s a reason I don’t support the youngster program,” he said eventually. “But maybe we can discuss this inside with a cup of tea. It’s getting dark anyway,” he said, before leading the way.

Joey looked around and noted that the sun was indeed setting. “Stupid winter,” he muttered. “It’s only 4pm.”

He and Sabrina followed Oak inside the laboratory.

Joey was curious as to what the man had to say.