Chapter 21 - Flying Pokemon Competition part 3

Intro-kun: Zane's pokemon are reaching the final stretch but Team Rocket won't miss out their chance! What will Team Rocket do!? Will Zane be able to thwart their plan!? Will Pidgeotto or Beedrill win!? Find out now!

POV change

I grinned as I saw my pokemon deal with their opponents. Misty complained, "Hey! Where is my Pidgeotto!?" I shrugged and said, "Not sure. We are at the very front. Having train it personally I say it has good potential but it couldn't rival my own though. It should be nearby but slightly in the back." Misty turned around and began looking before saying, "There it is!"

I was confused and asked, "How can you tell?" She had a smug smile and said, "I put a strand of cloth on its leg so I can identify it." I nodded and said, "Oh! I thought you could tell by just looking at it like me. There are small differences that you notice when you look at them carefully and you always get a sense of familiarity when it is your own."

Norzu smiled and said, "He is right! I trained my own Spearow to compete and I could easily tell it apart after having bond with it so long." Misty shouted, "Quiet you two! Come on Pidgeotto! You can beat them!" I laughed and said, "Good luck!" Looking back at the competition I saw Butterfree begin to fall behind.

Looking at it I asked, "Hey Norzu, mind driving us closer?" He said, "Sorry Zane. I can't do that since it may be seen as interfering." I smiled and said, "I understand. Well, then. Hey Butterfree! Try your best! You can do it! You will always be my winner no matter what!"

Butterfree looked tired but happy as it cheered happily and tried to keep pace. Sadly, it already flew for over 15 minutes and reached the halfway point. It could only be left behind over time. I smiled and said, "Don't give up Butterfree! You can make it! We will be waiting for you at the finish line!"

The next 10 minutes came and went with my pokemon keeping a tight lead against another 5 other pokemon. I said impressed, "Wow! Those must be very well trained pokemon! This will be a tight race! It also appears that they only want to focus on racing meaning that there won't be any accidents with one of them crashing against the other."

Norzu said, "What is more impressive is your pokemon. Two of your pokemon are staying in the lead and your Butterfree beat any previous Butterfree speed record! You must be very proud of them huh Zane!" I laughed and said, "Of course! Sadly, Misty's Pidgeotto appears to be ready to cave in."

Misty shouted, "Come on Pidgeotto! You can do it!" Pidgeotto did not get much motivation from it considering that Misty did not personally train it. It felt slightly abandoned when Zane did not cheer for it. I sighed and said, "Come on Pidgeotto! You need to stay in the top! I did not train you for nothing! Show them that next time you race you will do even better! This is your debut!"

Pidgeotto chirped feeling more determined. Misty complained, "No fair! Why did Pidgeotto respond to you and not me?" I shrugged and said, "Who knows." Of course, I knew but did not want to say anything.

Another minute later we saw the finish line. I grinned and said, "Almost there!" Suddenly a net fell down upon all the pokemon. I was shocked as I shouted, "What a large net!" Misty shouted angrily, "Forget the net! Our Pokemon were just captured!" Norzu shouted, "We need to free them or we will be in trouble! We can't have the competition be called off!"

A voice echoed, "Did you say trouble!?" "And make it double!" "To protect the world from devastation!" "To unite all peoples within our nation!" "To denounce the evils of truth and love!" "To extend our reach to the stars above!" "Jessie!" "James!" "Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!" "Surrender now, or prepare to fight!" "Meowth! That's right!"

I face palmed and said, "Crap! Blue haired man, shameless woman and weird Meowth are back!" Jessie shouted furiously, "Who you call a shameless woman!" I pointed at her and said, "Aren't you one since you are revealing so much skin?"

Jessie began to fume angry as she shouted, "I'm not shameless! This is just the team rocket uniform!" I waved my hand dismissively and said, "Excuses." James threw himself stopping Jessie from jumping down the hot air balloon and attacking. He shouted, "Jessie control yourself! Remember you got all his pokemon!" I clicked my tongue and shouted, "Not for long!" I jumped off the Jeep and began sprinting towards them.

Meowth said, "Oh no you won't twerp!" He began increasing the hot hair in the air balloon it to rise up. I gave one final boost and jumped barely grabbing onto the net. Misty shouted, "Zane! Get down from there!" I shouted, "Screw that! No one takes my pokemon from me unless I'm dead!"

Meowth hearing the conversation shouted angrily, "Get off kid! You will hurt yourself!" I shouted, "Shut up! Give me back my pokemon!" Pulling myself I bit onto the rope and grinded it using my teeth. Becoming angry James pulled out his Pokeball shouting, "Go Koffing! Take down that twerp using Tackle!"

Seeing that my gnawing wasn't working I shouted, "Misty! Have Staryu use Swift against the net line!" Misty nodded and shouted, "Staryu use Swift!" Staryu shot out golden stars and broke the rope between them.

And then I realized that I couldn't fly. "Aaaaah! I should have grown wings huh…" Turning around I faced the approaching ground and readied my arms and legs to resist the impact the most I can. Just before landing I felt my body be grabbed from behind. I turned around to see a Fearow.

Norzu shouted, "Good job Fearow! Bring him over! Pokemon! Start racing again quickly! The others are already catching up!" All the flying pokemon began moving but Jessie got up and shouted, "You aren't getting away from us this time! Go Ekans and use Poison Sting!" She threw Ekans on top of the Hot Balloon and Ekans used Poison Sting.

I clicked my tongue getting ready order Beedrill to deflect the attack but Misty beat me to the punch. "Staryu use water gun and block them!" Staryu shot water gun against the needles destroying them. Jessie shouted, "Stop messing with our plans you twerp! Misty shouted, "I won't let you ruin the competition! Staryu use Bubble Beam!"

Staryu suddenly shot out hundreds of bubbles and made a hole onto the hot air balloon. The hot air balloon began to violently leak out air and made it fly away. The trio shouted, "Team Rocket is blasting off again!"

I sighed as Fearow brought me back onto the jeep and we began following the competition again. Annoyed I asked, "How much time passed since they interfered?" Norzu looked into his watch and said, "Should be about ten minutes. This should affect who is in the lead though. Most pokemon at this point lose most of their speed. It takes about 40 minutes to get there anyway so we should be fine if it is just 10 minutes later. It takes some pokemon an hour and a half to finish. I asked, "The Butterfrees right?"

He nodded and said, "That is right! Most Butterfrees don't have the stamina to hold high speed for long periods of time." I nodded in understanding and said, "Indeed, Butterfree can become strong but they aren't suited for high speed racing. My Butterfree is much stronger though. Hopefully it manages to get a good position.

POV change

Butterfree was tired already but seeing the commotion it was shocked. Butterfree looked at the situation carefully and wondered if it should stop to help. Thinking again it decided to continue. This might be its only chance to win. It might even come out in first place if it continues going at high speed.

Butterfree was beginning to reach its limits already and felt like just falling. Thinking back about the day it met with Zane it remembered how it was captured from surprise. At first it was furious and did not respect the fact it was captured like that and soon after it was brought to the PTF where it was given a chance to gain its freedom.

It thought that the human was saying nonsense of being able to beat it but surprisingly it was outsmarted and defeated. It was then promised that they will train together and reach new heights. It will become powerful.

The next couple of days it struggled desperately to train and then it struggled even harder to fight other pokemon to build up experience. It faced many hard times as multiple Caterpies attacked it and parental Butterfrees took part to drive them away.

Eventually though it really did become stronger. It evolved into a Metapod and the evolved into a Butterfree. It fought rock pokemon that was supposed to be difficult for it to defeat and then defeated dozens of others. It even fought against water pokemon that had a field advantage and won!

After so many struggles it felt touched and happy to be with Zane. Now though the finish line was in front of it and it was thinking about collapsing. It felt a fire form in its heart and it shouted, "Butterfree!" It was furious for being so weak! Sure! Butterfree were not in an advantages position considering its own weakness but it can't simply give up! It needed to push itself even farther and win!

Butterfree struggled to reach the end. Behind it all the other competitors noticed. Beedrill shouted, "Look Pidgeotto! It's Butterfree and it is about to reach the finish line!" Pidgeotto shouted, "Amazing but at this rate we will surpass it and so will the others!"

Beedrill said, "Hey Pidgeotto! We should take a dive! Let's try to slow them all down and let Butterfree win!" Pidgeotto hearing this became pumped up and shouted, "Hell yeah! Let us do this! For Butterfree we will whack all this fools down!"

Beedrill and Pidgeotto began bumping onto all the other nearby pokemon causing a large disturbance. This effectively slowed them down. Nearing the end they were only a few dozen meters away but the finish line was at least 10 meters away.

Butterfree began wavering unsteadily in the air and now all the pokemon were rushing desperately to surpass it. Pidgeotto shouted, "It won't make it like this!" Beedrill nodded and shouted, "I got it! Use Whirlwind and push it to the finish line!"

Beedrill who was tying with another for the lead right behind Butterfree used Tackle and shouted, "Win Butterfree!" Butterfree was surprised as it was tackled from behind to reach the finish line a few inches before the Fearow beside it.

POV Change

Norzu shouted, "We have a winner! Butterfree won! It is unbelievable! Beedrill pushed Butterfree to the victory! What an incredible display for friendship!" I was shocked and said, "Tell me about it! Butterfree! You won!" Butterfree collapsed in exhaustion surprising me.

I hurriedly got off the Jeep and rushed towards it. Arriving next to it I asked worriedly, "Butterfree are you alright!? Come one buddy! Here! Have some water!" I poured some water into my hand and raising Butterfree head it drank it slowly. It smiled happily and said in an exhausted tone, "Freeee." I smiled and said, "You sure did Butterfree. I am proud to be your trainer. Please rests up well you deserve it." It nodded and closed its eyes falling asleep.

I smiled as I picked it up gently from the ground. Norzu came over and said, "Congratulations on your victory Zane! I never expected a Butterfree to win." I smiled and said, "I know. I didn't either but I'm really happy for it. It must have gone beyond its limit to win." Norzu nodded in understanding and said, "Let me get you your reward." I smiled and said, "Can you send it to the pokemon center? I want to take my Butterfree there right away."

Smiling, Norzu nodded and said, "Of course! Please take care. I hope your Butterfree is alright." I looked behind and said, "Hey Pidgeotto! Beedrill! Let us go!" They nodded tiredly and followed from behind. Misty said, "Well Norzu! I will be seeing you later! Please take care of Pidgeotto. Here is its pokeball" Norzu took it and waved us goodbye shouting, "You are welcomed to visit our town any time!"

Arriving at the pokemon center I handed my Butterfree over to Nurse Joy and had her take care of Pidgeotto and Beedrill too. Half an hour later Nurse Joy walked out. Worriedly I got up and asked, "Are my pokemon okay?" Nurse Joy said, "They will be alright."

I sighed in relieve before she began reprimanding, "You shouldn't push your pokemon to the limit! You were lucky to bring it here right away or it may have suffered a lot." I nodded and said, "I'm sorry. I will be more careful next time."

She nodded and said, "I hope you will for your pokemon." She walked away causing me to sigh bitterly. Misty walked over and said, "Don't worry Zane. They are alright." I nodded and said, "Yeah but I'm kind of sad."

Misty became worried. She knew that I would stay positive regardless so it was shocking to hear such bitter words from me. She thought back at the accident and realized it held some truth. I may have behaved fiercely but I did not achieve anything. Shaking her head she said, "You shouldn't beat yourself up for it. You didn't have any pokemon with you at the time. Next time you will definitely be able to protect them!"

I smiled weakly and said, "I hope so even if I don't have any pokemon at that time." Misty began feeling annoyed and grabbing the back of my coat she pulled me out and shouted, "Let's go out to eat! Your pokemon wouldn't want to see your sorry figure once they felt better!"

In the end Misty lectured me throughout the dinner we ate about how I was not supposed to become depressed or I will cause my pokemon needless worry. I knew that already but I couldn't help feel down when thinking that I was more useless than Ash.

She became more irritated and ended up using her pokemon to shoot water at me. That helped to a certain extent since I found the situation ridiculous. In the end, I shook my head and smiled. This caused Misty to smile in relief.

Looking at my clothes I complained with a smile, "Well dang it! Now I need to change!" Misty let out an angry humph and said, "You deserve it! Now go back to the pokemon center and change up. I don't want you getting sick and your pokemon are waiting for you."

I nodded and said, "Thank you Misty. I better do as you say this time! Usually, I'm the right one haha." Misty shouted, "What did you say!" I ran away shouting, "Nothing!" Misty shook her head but couldn't hide a smile from crawling up her face and saying, "Silly kid. He didn't realize how dangerous it was and was unhappy to not be able to do anything himself. If I leave him then he might really not make it to the league. I better keep an eye on him."

Arriving at the pokemon center I quickly took a shower and changed. Nurse Joy brought over my pokemon in their pokeball. I smiled and said, "We will get even stronger! Come out guys!" The three pokemon appeared happy. I laughed and said, "You all did incredible! You sure surprised us all Butterfree! Congratulations! You are the first Butterfree to win a race between other flying pokemon!"

Butterfree cheered happily while Pidgeotto puffed its c.h.e.s.t as it said, "Pidgeotto!" I smiled and said, "I know you both helped out Butterfree and I'm really thankful for that. Next time though be more careful. I glad you are all safe and sound. I thought you were going to fall over before reaching the end. I don't want you guys hurting yourself for a bit of money or other silly things. Understood?" They nodded but their cheerfulness did not subside. It was even stronger.

Sighing I said, "What will I do with you guys. Well, let us celebrate today and head out tomorrow! Our next gym shouldn't be too far away now and our training really paid off with you guys moving much faster than before! Hopefully we can get into some battles on the way and win them all!"

Misty's Pidgeotto also paid us a visit with Norzu. We had them celebrate with us too. They left right before night and we went to sleep and rest for our next journey!

Cliff-Kun: Our young Zane has just won the competition but suffered some damage to his confidence! Fortunately, Misty helped rekindle his spirit with a good splash of water to his face! Now, where will our young duo go!? What will they encounter now!? Find out in the next few chapter of System in Pokemon World!