REBIRTH
?WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Ch. 21

After my own little crying fit, I started to look at the bigger picture. What was I going to do now? This Cubone was so small and innocent that it needed to be protected, though I didn't know if I was the right person/Pokemon for the job. It was like coming home one day to see a previous girlfriend, she hands you a bundle of joy and says, 'Congratulations, you're a father'. Talk about being thrust into an early fatherhood. Suicune obviously looked up to the task as she seemed to practically glow with pride and joy. I only wish it were that simple for me, or any guy out there.

'What should we do now Suicune? Part of me wants to go back to the center and see to this little guys needs. The other wants me to continue through this gym and then go to the center to take care of it.' I said in a worried tone through my psychic abilities to make sure that I didn't wake the sleeping bundle. 'I don't want to be selfish after all.'

'I have a solution then.' She said with a warm smile. 'I can go back to the center with our little bundle here and await your return in the room at the center.'

I didn't know how to exactly take this as my mind was contemplating what might go wrong with this. 'She could mean what she's saying or it could be just a farce to yell at me later.' I thought as I looked around the room. 'It's alright Suicune,' I said to her in my Gallade tongue. 'I can come back later and continue on.' I told her with a smile to which she mirrored with a nod of her head. After a few minutes, we were ready to go. The little Cubone was laying across Suicune's back while still using her mane as a blanket to which he was clutching to quite tightly.

'Now,' Suicune said as she began to look about. 'How do we get out of here? The entrance to he maze has been sealed off and I don't see that man that we battled anywhere, to which we could have asked for an exit.'

I gave her a nod as I stood up from my kneeling position and looked down the maze. 'I guess there's no helping it. We'll just have to continue on and hope that we can meet up with another person who'll allow us to exit.' Though those were some good thoughts, they did little to actually come to fruition.

Just as we turned the next bend, I could see that there was another trainer down at the end, eagerly awaiting us to challenge us to battle. It was at that moment that I realized that their was a flaw in what the voice had told us. Even if we wanted to exit the maze, we would have to ask someone after the rule of meeting the others eyes begins a challenge to a Pokemon battle. 'I think that we're stuck.' I said to Lady Suicune as I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head. 'Maybe even a setup.' I thought as I looked at the kid who was impatiently tapping his foot in the nook at the end of the hallway right where the maze turns again.

Suicune looked up at me then down at the boy. 'So, in order for us to be released from the maze, we have to defeat him, and then he will tell us how to get out.' She simply just shrugged her shoulders and played it off as no big deal. 'Well then, lets go defeat him.'

Suicune took a step forward and proceeded to head down the corridor only to be stopped when I placed a hand on her flank. 'Not so fast Lady Suicune. Have you forgotten who's on your back. You can't take on that guy when you have that little guy there. No, you'll be sitting this one out while Trisha or I take him on.'

Suicune looked at the sleeping Pokemon on her back then gave me a mischievous smirk. I caught the smirk out of the corner of my eye and knew that she'd probably planned this from the beginning. Taking a long and slow breath I straitened up and continued to walk forward.

"Hold it right there Gallade. Our eyes have met so you know what that means," The young man said as he mirrored the previous challengers cloths almost exactly. The only difference between the two was the fact that he looked five years younger and several inches shorter. "It's time for a battle." He finished what he was saying as he pulled out a Pokeball at the same time and showed/thrust it outwards to me.

'Very well young man. I'll be glad to take on whatever you have within that Pokeball.' I told him as I took off my backpack, Pokeball belt, and placed them both beside Suicune. Walking forward a bit so that I was within an acceptable range to begin the battle, the boy smirked and started to laugh. 'What's so funny?'

The boy continued to laugh as slowly lowered his hand with the Pokeball in it and laughed some more. "What's funny? I'll tell you what's funny. You have no chance to defeat my Pokemon. Especially when I can see that you'll have nowhere to run." Just then he threw out the ball with an underhanded toss, then quickly ducked into his cubby hole and awaited what came next.

I didn't have the slightest clue as to what he hoped to accomplish by doing that, but if I'd known what was within the ball, I'd have taken several steps back as well. Because once the light had been released from that Pokeball, it took up practically all the rest of the corridor and then some. 'Oh, crud. It's a...' I didn't get the chance to finish what I was going to say as the thing quickly brought down it's monstrous head in a sweeping motion of a tackle attack.

It's monstrous head barely had enough room to go on ahead and fit between the walls of the corridor as it's head swept across the ground towards me. My first instinct was to jump over the head but I knew that was going to be a mistake as cone I did the rest of the serpents body would rise up under my feet and slam me against the roof of the maze. So thinking quick, I leapt backwards as I extended my elbow blades which quickly became engulfed in a green glow and did a somersault motion with my arms while I spun horizontally backwards with the leap.

The effect was almost instantaneous as the Onix tackled into me while I was doing my own Leaf Blade attack. I received only a little bit of damage from the attack, while it received the full force of the type advantage from mine. I landed in a kneeling position a little in front of Lady Suicune as she hastily started to back further away from the battle.

The Onix had a look of bewilderment as well as shock in it's eyes at the mark in-between it's eyes. It quickly pulled back and reared up it's head for a moment as it assessed the situation against it's nimble opponent. 'Now that was an impressive move there Gallade. I must say that it really caught me off guard.' The Onix said in a slightly grumbling like voice of it's kind. 'I would love to sit and chat with you on how you learned such an impressive feat, but this is a battle and I must complete it.'

The Onix reared back some more as if getting ready to strike again with a Tackle attack, but this time it did something else entirely. As it's head went back, it's tail was brought forward almost like the motion of a bull whip being brought around. Once the tip of the tail was brought out, the Onix made it look like it was going to bite it's tail, until it lashed out with it like it was a falling tree.

'Aw, this is going to hurt.' I thought as I brought up my arms and did my best to protect myself from the falling tail, which as it turns out was being used in an effective Slam Attack due to the fact that I really didn't have anywhere to dodge. At the last moment, I side stepped the attack so that the tail just barely missed me, but didn't see that the Onix had predicted this move and did another sweeping motion and slammed it's tail into my middle and into the wall which I had against my back.

Spit an phlegm came shooting out of my mouth as the tail struck my stomach as I was slammed into the wall. All the air had been forced out of my lungs from the hit and when the Onix let me go from pinning me against the wall I fell to all fours and gasped deeply, then began to cough as the blades at my elbows lost their green glow and shrunk back into their normal state.

'Now would you look at that. Only one attack into the match from me and your already down on your knees. Here I was thinking that I was going to be getting a workout. Such a shame.' The Onix said as it started to make this disappointed clicking sounds from it's mouth. 'Maybe I should take on that Suicune over there. Maybe she will give me a bit more of a challenge.' It said as it slowly started to advance towards Suicune.

It was almost out of nowhere as a crescent shaped moon of energy came out of nowhere and struck the Onix right behind it's neck and next segment of it's rock/bolder of a body. 'Don't...you...touch....her.' I said between gasps of air as I staggered to my feet after I'd launched out my Psycho Cut attack. The look on the Onix's face said that the attack had scored and hurt quite a bit, but hadn't done as much damage as I'd hoped.

'What is this? Still trying to put on a brave face and take me on? I will give you that you have some guts kid, but your beat. Stay down.' He said as he brought around his tail, brought it under my chin to lift my face up, then began to slap me across the face with it's tip. This last only for a few times as my face began to puff up from the hits.

After a few more minutes of this, I'd had enough. Quickly ducking under his next slap, I let the tail go past and extended my left elbow blade. In a flurry of motion, I used my blade on his tail and was shocked to hear a clunk sound right after. Time seemed to stop as I looked down at what had made the sound and was shocked to see that...I'd cut off the last boulder of the Onix's tail.

The Onix was in a state of shock as it looked down at the stump/tip of it's tail, the tip of it's tail laying on the floor, and gave me a shocked look. Time quickly caught back up with the Onix or the sensation of having the tip of it's tail cut off finally reached it's brain, and he let out a monstrous roar. The sound of the roar was so loud that I feared that it was going to burst my eardrums, but fear start to rush up my spine as the Onix stopped roaring and looked down at me with the blood vessels in it's eyes clearly enlarged and full of hate.

'Why you little stain! You shall pay dearly for that.' With that he quickly started to lash out at me with his tail, like that of a whip, but due to his blind rage he wasn't that accurate as he was before. His attacks become more clumsy and were a great deal easier to dodge, even within the narrow corridor. With each failed attack, and every slash of my blades, the Onix was slowly being brought to exhaustion, as only so much adrenalin can pump through ones system.

Finally his tail was moving as fast as that of a falling feather and every time that it made a pass at me, I would simply just brush it away. His body just radiated exhaustion as he was panting for breath, his eyes slowly drooping down, and he no longer had even the strength to keep his massive/heavy head aloft. A moment later, the large serpent's head came crashing down towards me, but I simply just stepped out of the way and allowed it to fall to my right.

After the dust had finally cleared, I looked over and saw that there was only a foot between where his head had landed and where I stood. 'Impossible. Nobody has ever...' And those were his last words as his eyes slowly sank and finally closed in utter exhaustion as he passed out. And just like him, my adrenalin induced moment finally passed and I too slumped to the floor and sat down with my back against his head.

'GENII!' I heard someone yell but was to tired to lift my head back up. It was a moment later that I saw the form of Lady Suicune standing before me with a worried expression on her face. I slowly looked up at her and gave her a sleepy smile, to which she let out a relieved sigh and smiled at me. 'What in the world happened there? I could not see what was going on one that thing got between us.' She looked to the passed out Onix and then back to me.

'I won.' I simply stated as I reached over my head and patted the big guys head with my hand. 'He put up a really good fight, and if I hadn't awoken from my dizzying spell, I might have been the one laying here passed out.' I said with a chuckle then lay my head back and lightly closed my eyes.

"I can't believe it. Nobody has ever defeated my Onix. How in the world did you manage it?" Someone said which brought the two of us to look over and see who it was. We saw the young boy who'd ducked back into his cubby hole had finally emerged and was currently climbing over his Onix's tail to get closer to us. "Man, even without an inch to really move around here you were able to dodge some of his attacks."

'Winnings and exit.' I said mentally.

"What?"

'I want my earnings and the location of the exit.' I said again mentally as I tried to stand but Lady Suicune stopped me as she put a paw on my thigh and pushed me back down. 'I have defeated your Pokemon so that entitles me to my winnings from beating you, and when the doors closed to this maze the voice said that I could ask one of you to tell me how to get out of here.'

The boy just stared at me for a few moments then threw back his head and laughed. "You think it's that simple?" He said with another laugh. "Well your dead wrong. This is only one of my two that I have." He pulled off a Pokeball and recalled the Onix in a flash of red light, then pulled off another ball. "So if...if you defeat my next Pokemon, then I'll hand over the winnings for your trainer and tell you where the exit is."

'Damn,' I thought as I tried to get up again but Lady Suicune pushed me down again.

'Do not move Genii. You are hurt pretty bad.' She said then reached behind her to grab something in her teeth, then turn back to face me and placed my backpack at my feet. 'I know that you have some potions in here, so why not use some of them to treat your wounds first, before you decide to take on another opponent.'

I didn't waist a second as I quickly reached into my medical pouch of my backpack and pulled out the first potion that I could find. 'A Super Potion. That'll work nicely.' I thought as I looked over my shoulder and could see the boy quickly running away only to turn and throw out the ball that he'd been carrying. 'He must be wanting to put some distance between us before we continue the battle.' I thought as I quickly sprayed the medicine over my body and winced as the spray took effect, healing my body. 'You need to get back Lady Suicune. I don't want you caught up in the next fight.' I said aloud to which she nodded and quickly jumped back to where she'd been during my fight with the Onix.

As the Pokemon from the released ball began to take on it's small form, I slowly stood and winced as there wasn't enough time to let the potion take full effect before I had to take on another opponent. 'I'll just have to avoid the attacks from whatever solidifies out of that white light.' I thought as I used up the last of the spray and tossed the bottle away. I must have done something right, as the light from the Pokemon exploded outwards and revealed the Pokemon to be a Geodude.

"Quickly Geodude, use Rollout before that Gallade has a chance to fully recover from the last battle." The boy yelled as he pointed at me and the Geodude raised both it's arms into the air and yelled.

Thinking quick, I needed to put some distance between us so that the rest of my wounds would heal and I could be back up to full strength. On unsteady legs I took my usual battle stance and extended my both my elbow blades, though this time I tried for something new. 'If I can get catch that Geodude off guard with a Psycho Cut from my right blade when he's moving in, then I can jump in and attack it with the Leaf Blade from my left.' Though all this depended on getting that thing off guard, though I was ill prepared for what that Geodude did next.

Just as I was bringing around my right blade that had a strange whitish glow to launch my Psycho Cut at it, the boy pointed at the Geodude and shouted out an order. "To the wall Geodude." I launched my attack which just barely missed the rock Pokemon as it quickly jumped to the side and sped along it, still using the Rollout move.

'How is that possible? Surely it can't...' I didn't have a chance to finish that thought as the Geodude launched itself off the wall and came careening towards me in it's roll. Still a little wobbly on my feet, I wasn't fast enough in my dodge and was clipped in the shoulder by it's passage. After a bit of a spin I was facing the opposite direction and was facing the wall. 'That's how he did it.' I thought as I could see the small holes within the wall along the Geodude's path along it. The Geodude had used it's fingers like spikes to puncture the wall and gain purchase while it sped along the wall. 'This kid is more than he appears, though I do have to wonder...' The sound of crunching gravel was heard just behind me and I didn't have time to avoid the return of the Geodude.

"Well done Geodude. Keep it up and we'll win this yet." The boy said as the Geodude skidded to a halt in front of him and finished it's Rollout Attack.

I slowly got back to my feet and looked up at the boy, as the Geodude had taken out my legs from underneath me with it's last pass. 'I must say that you've trained your Geodude quite well.' The boy happily preened at that comment. 'If it were yours that is.' He instantly lost his preening look then stared at me slack jawed as I pointed to my head.

"Quickly Geodude, your fastest Rollout!" The boy said in a most urgent tone.

"Dude!" The Geodude said, then quickly shoved itself forward and into a Rollout.

'Not this time Geodude.' I thought as I quickly pulled back my right arm, extended my right elbow blade, and channeled the energy into my blade so that it glowed green. 'This time, I'm ready for it.' I said mentally as the Geodude sped strait along the ground. As soon as it was three quarters towards me, I released my stored up psychic force and the Geodude caught air. The Geodude was so shocked at this that it continued it's Rollout attack and right into my glowing Leaf Blade attack as I spun around like a top.

There was a momentary pause as the two attack collided and then time started moving again. The Geodude went past and slowly stopped rolling as it rolled to a stop in front of Suicune. It looked up at her for a little while, gave her a long smile, then passed out right at her feet.Chapter End Notes:Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended