Last time on Pokemon: Johto Quest! The battle with Falkner has broken Emily’s seemingly indestructible winning streak and left her uncertain. However, she has gained victory in other areas. The once fierce Skarmory has transformed into a loving companion, proving Emily’s theory about the Poke Ball right. During the battle with Falkner, Benny has evolved, achieving his dream of gaining arms.
Emily and Eddy walked along the streets of Ecruteak City, side by side once more. Emily’s head drooped to the ground, her hands in her pockets. Eddy placed his arm over her shoulders.
“Eddy,” said Emily. “Do you think that Falkner will let me try again?”
Eddy shrugged. Who Emily was talking about he wasn’t so sure. But, he patted her back, hoping to reverse the frown planted on her face.
Some time later, the duo entered the city where Falkner’s gym was headquartered. Emily stood frozen out front, her hands folded behind her back. Sweat slid down her face as the memory of her and Eddy being angry with the two pilots and the memory of her and Eddy arguing played back in her head.
But, Emily took a small step forward. Then another. Eddy followed.
Well, Falkner didn’t say that I couldn’t, thought Emily.
The gym doors slid open for her and Eddy. Within two steps inside, the pilots from earlier leapt in front of our heroes, their arms outstretched and scowls plastered on their faces.
“Oh no!” They shouted. “If you think you’re coming in here again—”
A young man’s laughter broke out. The pilots jerked their heads behind them. They bounced to the sides and gave a salute in the blink of an eye. Falkner walked between the pilots towards Emily and Eddy, a faint smile adorning his face.
“Now I’ve heard of determination,” Falkner said. “But, I can’t say I’ve seen someone wanna try again so soon after a loss like that.”
“Well, you didn’t say I couldn’t come back,” Emily replied.
“True. There is one condition however. Go recharge at the Pokemon Center and meet me back in the office. I don’t play around, but I fight fair.”
A few minutes later, the duo exited the Pokemon Center and entered the office. Falkner pointed to the hallway and moments later, the three took flight aboard the flying machine. Falkner snapped his fingers.
Cameras on poles poked out from all corners and switched on. After a brief re-introduction of he and Emily, Falkner tossed a black and yellow ball from his belt.
“Go! Crobat!” Falkner yelled as the ball flew.
The Crobat exploded from the ball, spinning and happily screeching. The bug zapper memory from her battle with Bugsy replayed in Emily’s mind. This time, however, the bug-like creature that flew into it and became incapacitated was replaced by the Crobat.
“Alright Eddy! Let’s do this!” Emily exclaimed.
After a smile and a forceful nod, Eddy leapt onto the battlefield, coming face to face with the Crobat.
“Eddy! Use Thunderbolt!” Emily shouted.
“Crobat! Dodge and use Cross Poison!” Falkner commanded.
Eddy thrusted his arm and a bolt of blue lightning rushed out of it. The Crobat barrel rolled across the battlefield as the bolt blazed through a gap between its left wings. Eddy delivered another bolt. It shot like a comet past the top of the Crobat’s head. Then bam! His third bolt crashed directly into the Crobat’s chest, sending it spiraling backwards and causing it to collide into the edge of the battlefield near Falkner, black spirals taking the place of its eyes.
Emily ran to Eddy and the duo gave one another a fierce high five.
“Yeah! We did it!” Emily shouted. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “No. Don’t get braggy.”
Falkner returned the Crobat to its ball. From his belt, Falkner grabbed another ball and sent it flying. “Go! Gligar!”
From the ball emerged a purple, bat-like creature much like the Crobat. However, it was much smaller, with blue, fleshy webbing spread across its wingspan, large pincers at the ends of its arms, feet with a single claw that resembled elf shoes, and a ribbed tail topped off by a large, spherical stinger.
“Eddy! Use Thunderbolt!” Emily commanded.
Falkner just stood there.
With a thrust of Eddy’s arm, the bolt surged across the battlefield and struck the Gligar right in the forehead. The Gligar laughed. Falkner smiled and turned away.
Eddy and Emily faced each other, a raised eyebrow plastered on their faces. They turned back to the Gligar. No marks were left in the bolt’s wake.
“B-But it’s a Flying type, isn’t it?” Emily asked no one specifically.
“It is,” Falkner replied. “But it’s also part Ground type.”
Emily groaned and slapped her forehead. Emily turned to Eddy, leaning in close and lowering her voice. “Okay Eddy. I think you’ve earned a break.”
Eddy jogged over to the part of the rail behind Emily and leaned against it.
Emily peered at her belt. Flying and Ground. Oh boy. Her eyes landed on the Skarmory’s ball. Within an instant, she swiped it off the belt and hurled it. The Skarmory popped out and eagerly screeched as it planted its feet on the battlefield.
“Okay Skarmory,” Emily said. “Uh—” She turned away, lowering her voice and making eye contact with the battlefield. “What was the name of that air move again?” She ran through the list of moves Skarmory could learn in her head. Her eyes lit up when the list stopped scrolling and glowed yellow around its eighth move. She spun back to the Skarmory, shouting, “Use Air Cutter!”
“Gligar! Use Slash!” Falkner shouted.
A bright, white light enveloped the wings of the Skarmory. Armies of razor-sharp winds shot from the Skarmory’s flapping wings and flew at the Gligar, bobbing and weaving around them as it glided towards the Skarmory with glowing pincers. Four of the winds whipped the Gligar’s arms and webbing, forcing it to corkscrew towards the battlefield.
The Gligar’s head bashed it as it slid in Falkner’s direction, stopping just short of his feet. But only for a second. As it flipped itself right onto its back and smirked. With a push of its pincers and some grunting, it slowly got to its feet.
Falkner folded his arms. “If you wanna dodge better, go faster, go harder, keep your eye on the ball no matter how horrifying the ball may look to you.” Falkner sighed. “Alright. Try Aerial Ace.”
“Skarmory,” Emily called out. “Do you uh... know Metal Sound? It was on the list.”
The Skarmory nodded.
The Gligar soared towards the Skarmory. But the Skaromory spat silver sound waves from its mouth and directed them right at the Gligar, filling the air with the cacophony of scraping metal. The Gligar screeched as it covered its pointy ears while wave after wave pelted it.
Emily, Eddy, and Falkner covered their ears as well. Blue arrows traveled down the Gligar’s body as it collided into one of the camera poles, bending it slightly.
“Skarmory! Uh... Swift?” Emily yelled as the Gligar unwillingly twisted back towards Falkner.
The Skarmory spun like a top, hordes of glowing, yellow stars tornadoing from its wings and rocketing across the battlefield, slamming the Gligar, strong-arming it into spiraling backwards faster and faster. Within a few moments, the Gligar landed on its back at Falkner’s feet, black spirals replacing its eyes.
Falkner returned the Gligar to its ball. “Using Metal Sound to lower its Special Defense then using a Special move? Not bad I have to say.” He pulled the last ball from his belt and flung it into the air. “Alright Noctowl! Come on out.” Sure enough, from the ball, the Noctowl emerged.
Emily jogged to the Skarmory. “You still wanna battle?”
The Skarmory grabbed Gnasher’s ball from her belt, sending it flying before pecking the middle of its own ball. A beam shot out from the ball and hit the Skarmory, pulling it back inside.
A loud howl emanated from Gnasher a moment later. Red arrows rocketed up her body. The eyes of Gnasher and the Noctowl locked. Gnasher barked as her hackles rose and the Noctowl squawked and flapped its wings in a crazy fashion.
“Hey hey!” Falkner and Emily screamed simultaneously. Their hands began performing a chopping motion across their necks. “C’mon wait a second!”
The quarreling parties grew still and silent in an instant. Emily and Falkner sighed, the latter also shaking his head. Even Eddy joined in.
“Okay Noctowl,” said Falkner. “Now you can attack. Use Air Slash!”
“Gnasher use Flamethrower!” Emily shouted.
The Noctowl hopped into the air and thrashed its wings with great speed, launching barrage upon barrage of light-blue sawblades all over the battlefield.
“Dodge ‘em as best you can, Gnasher!” Emily commanded.
Gnasher rolled in a zigzag fashion toward the Noctowl, only two of the blades grazing the sides of her body. She got within a few inches of the Noctowl shortly after, leaping into the air, eyes locking onto the top of its head. A beam of fire exploded from her mouth.
The Noctowl’s entire body became bathed in flames, growing stiff in an instant as it shoved a long, piercing screech into the air and slammed feet first onto the battlefield. Gnasher scurried back to Emily, a smile on both their faces.
The Noctowl panted, twisting and shaking as if its feathers were covered in water.
When Gnasher licked Emily’s face, she laughed. “Nice one, Gnasher! Now use Bite!”
“Noctowl!” Falkner shouted. “Go for Aerial Ace!”
Ghasher charged right for the Noctowl with her bared fangs engulfed in a white glow and ivory streams followed the Noctowl hurtling in Gnasher’s direction. Gnasher somersaulted into the air. But the Noctowl careened into Gnasher, sending her yowling and spinning through the air towards Eddy, her fangs no longer glowing.
Eddy didn’t leap out of the way. Oh no. Instead, he gripped the sides of Gnasher’s body and flung her just enough to allow her to land on her feet and face him. Emily ran over to Eddy with a grin and the duo gave each other a high five.
“Nice thinking, Eddy!” Emily exclaimed. Eddy rubbed the back of his neck and smiled with his eyes closed.
Moments later, Gnasher and the Noctowl came face to face once more.
“Noctowl, Reflect!” Falkner commanded.
“Gnasher, use Flamethrower!” said Emily.
Gnasher barreled towards the Noctowl spiraling into the air and spreading its wings and sparking a large, shiny, pink glass sheet to life as a beam of light floated across it. With a tilt of her head, a thick column of flame burst from Gnasher’s mouth. The beam bypassed the sheet without breaking it and slammed into the Noctowl before it or Falkner could do anything else.
The Noctowl plummeted listlessly at breakneck speed, colliding head first onto the battlefield within an instant and sliding just a couple feet afterwards. Moments later, black swirls became its eyes.
Falkner returned the Noctowl to its ball and Emily did the same with Gnasher. With a smile on his face, Falkner walked over to Emily, holding out his hand when he was close enough. Their hands met and a hearty handshake commenced. Although Falkner was not the victor, a sense of pride still welled up inside.
He fished through his pocket and a moment later, a TM labeled “Aerial Ace”, a stack of orange Poken, and a magnet-shaped badge with wings stamped onto it filled his hand. He handed them all to Emily.
Her eyes brightened and grew wide. She ran to Eddy. “We did it! We did it! We got all this stuff!” She and Eddy gifted each other a hearty high five. Emily turned to Falkner. “Thanks for fighting me again!”
“Thanks for improving your attitude,” Falkner replied.
“Wait!” Emily threw the Skarmory’s ball right up into the air.
The Skarmory emerged, spreading its wings for just a couple moments.
“I wanna give you a name, Skarmory,” Emily explained. “What about—” She shifted her attention to the newly acquired TM for a second before looking back at the Skarmory. “Ace?”
A grin spread across the Skarmory’s face as a screech exploded from its beak and its wings became spread as wide as they could.
“I agree!” Falkner said. “That’s a fine name.”
“Yeah!” From her backpack, Emily yanked a black marker and didn’t dare waste a single moment labeling the top of its ball with, “AC”, laughing quietly as she did so.
Falkner got out his walkie talkie. “Hector, you may return to the Violet City gym.”
With an adjustment in Emily’s attitude and another badge finally earned, Emily and Eddy are off to the next step on their adventure. Will they tackle the next gym they find head on? Will they train for a little while beforehand? Will they discover another path? Find out next time on Pokemon: Johto Quest!
Emily and Eddy walked along the streets of Ecruteak City, side by side once more. Emily’s head drooped to the ground, her hands in her pockets. Eddy placed his arm over her shoulders.
“Eddy,” said Emily. “Do you think that Falkner will let me try again?”
Eddy shrugged. Who Emily was talking about he wasn’t so sure. But, he patted her back, hoping to reverse the frown planted on her face.
Some time later, the duo entered the city where Falkner’s gym was headquartered. Emily stood frozen out front, her hands folded behind her back. Sweat slid down her face as the memory of her and Eddy being angry with the two pilots and the memory of her and Eddy arguing played back in her head.
But, Emily took a small step forward. Then another. Eddy followed.
Well, Falkner didn’t say that I couldn’t, thought Emily.
The gym doors slid open for her and Eddy. Within two steps inside, the pilots from earlier leapt in front of our heroes, their arms outstretched and scowls plastered on their faces.
“Oh no!” They shouted. “If you think you’re coming in here again—”
A young man’s laughter broke out. The pilots jerked their heads behind them. They bounced to the sides and gave a salute in the blink of an eye. Falkner walked between the pilots towards Emily and Eddy, a faint smile adorning his face.
“Now I’ve heard of determination,” Falkner said. “But, I can’t say I’ve seen someone wanna try again so soon after a loss like that.”
“Well, you didn’t say I couldn’t come back,” Emily replied.
“True. There is one condition however. Go recharge at the Pokemon Center and meet me back in the office. I don’t play around, but I fight fair.”
A few minutes later, the duo exited the Pokemon Center and entered the office. Falkner pointed to the hallway and moments later, the three took flight aboard the flying machine. Falkner snapped his fingers.
Cameras on poles poked out from all corners and switched on. After a brief re-introduction of he and Emily, Falkner tossed a black and yellow ball from his belt.
“Go! Crobat!” Falkner yelled as the ball flew.
The Crobat exploded from the ball, spinning and happily screeching. The bug zapper memory from her battle with Bugsy replayed in Emily’s mind. This time, however, the bug-like creature that flew into it and became incapacitated was replaced by the Crobat.
“Alright Eddy! Let’s do this!” Emily exclaimed.
After a smile and a forceful nod, Eddy leapt onto the battlefield, coming face to face with the Crobat.
“Eddy! Use Thunderbolt!” Emily shouted.
“Crobat! Dodge and use Cross Poison!” Falkner commanded.
Eddy thrusted his arm and a bolt of blue lightning rushed out of it. The Crobat barrel rolled across the battlefield as the bolt blazed through a gap between its left wings. Eddy delivered another bolt. It shot like a comet past the top of the Crobat’s head. Then bam! His third bolt crashed directly into the Crobat’s chest, sending it spiraling backwards and causing it to collide into the edge of the battlefield near Falkner, black spirals taking the place of its eyes.
Emily ran to Eddy and the duo gave one another a fierce high five.
“Yeah! We did it!” Emily shouted. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “No. Don’t get braggy.”
Falkner returned the Crobat to its ball. From his belt, Falkner grabbed another ball and sent it flying. “Go! Gligar!”
From the ball emerged a purple, bat-like creature much like the Crobat. However, it was much smaller, with blue, fleshy webbing spread across its wingspan, large pincers at the ends of its arms, feet with a single claw that resembled elf shoes, and a ribbed tail topped off by a large, spherical stinger.
“Eddy! Use Thunderbolt!” Emily commanded.
Falkner just stood there.
With a thrust of Eddy’s arm, the bolt surged across the battlefield and struck the Gligar right in the forehead. The Gligar laughed. Falkner smiled and turned away.
Eddy and Emily faced each other, a raised eyebrow plastered on their faces. They turned back to the Gligar. No marks were left in the bolt’s wake.
“B-But it’s a Flying type, isn’t it?” Emily asked no one specifically.
“It is,” Falkner replied. “But it’s also part Ground type.”
Emily groaned and slapped her forehead. Emily turned to Eddy, leaning in close and lowering her voice. “Okay Eddy. I think you’ve earned a break.”
Eddy jogged over to the part of the rail behind Emily and leaned against it.
Emily peered at her belt. Flying and Ground. Oh boy. Her eyes landed on the Skarmory’s ball. Within an instant, she swiped it off the belt and hurled it. The Skarmory popped out and eagerly screeched as it planted its feet on the battlefield.
“Okay Skarmory,” Emily said. “Uh—” She turned away, lowering her voice and making eye contact with the battlefield. “What was the name of that air move again?” She ran through the list of moves Skarmory could learn in her head. Her eyes lit up when the list stopped scrolling and glowed yellow around its eighth move. She spun back to the Skarmory, shouting, “Use Air Cutter!”
“Gligar! Use Slash!” Falkner shouted.
A bright, white light enveloped the wings of the Skarmory. Armies of razor-sharp winds shot from the Skarmory’s flapping wings and flew at the Gligar, bobbing and weaving around them as it glided towards the Skarmory with glowing pincers. Four of the winds whipped the Gligar’s arms and webbing, forcing it to corkscrew towards the battlefield.
The Gligar’s head bashed it as it slid in Falkner’s direction, stopping just short of his feet. But only for a second. As it flipped itself right onto its back and smirked. With a push of its pincers and some grunting, it slowly got to its feet.
Falkner folded his arms. “If you wanna dodge better, go faster, go harder, keep your eye on the ball no matter how horrifying the ball may look to you.” Falkner sighed. “Alright. Try Aerial Ace.”
“Skarmory,” Emily called out. “Do you uh... know Metal Sound? It was on the list.”
The Skarmory nodded.
The Gligar soared towards the Skarmory. But the Skaromory spat silver sound waves from its mouth and directed them right at the Gligar, filling the air with the cacophony of scraping metal. The Gligar screeched as it covered its pointy ears while wave after wave pelted it.
Emily, Eddy, and Falkner covered their ears as well. Blue arrows traveled down the Gligar’s body as it collided into one of the camera poles, bending it slightly.
“Skarmory! Uh... Swift?” Emily yelled as the Gligar unwillingly twisted back towards Falkner.
The Skarmory spun like a top, hordes of glowing, yellow stars tornadoing from its wings and rocketing across the battlefield, slamming the Gligar, strong-arming it into spiraling backwards faster and faster. Within a few moments, the Gligar landed on its back at Falkner’s feet, black spirals replacing its eyes.
Falkner returned the Gligar to its ball. “Using Metal Sound to lower its Special Defense then using a Special move? Not bad I have to say.” He pulled the last ball from his belt and flung it into the air. “Alright Noctowl! Come on out.” Sure enough, from the ball, the Noctowl emerged.
Emily jogged to the Skarmory. “You still wanna battle?”
The Skarmory grabbed Gnasher’s ball from her belt, sending it flying before pecking the middle of its own ball. A beam shot out from the ball and hit the Skarmory, pulling it back inside.
A loud howl emanated from Gnasher a moment later. Red arrows rocketed up her body. The eyes of Gnasher and the Noctowl locked. Gnasher barked as her hackles rose and the Noctowl squawked and flapped its wings in a crazy fashion.
“Hey hey!” Falkner and Emily screamed simultaneously. Their hands began performing a chopping motion across their necks. “C’mon wait a second!”
The quarreling parties grew still and silent in an instant. Emily and Falkner sighed, the latter also shaking his head. Even Eddy joined in.
“Okay Noctowl,” said Falkner. “Now you can attack. Use Air Slash!”
“Gnasher use Flamethrower!” Emily shouted.
The Noctowl hopped into the air and thrashed its wings with great speed, launching barrage upon barrage of light-blue sawblades all over the battlefield.
“Dodge ‘em as best you can, Gnasher!” Emily commanded.
Gnasher rolled in a zigzag fashion toward the Noctowl, only two of the blades grazing the sides of her body. She got within a few inches of the Noctowl shortly after, leaping into the air, eyes locking onto the top of its head. A beam of fire exploded from her mouth.
The Noctowl’s entire body became bathed in flames, growing stiff in an instant as it shoved a long, piercing screech into the air and slammed feet first onto the battlefield. Gnasher scurried back to Emily, a smile on both their faces.
The Noctowl panted, twisting and shaking as if its feathers were covered in water.
When Gnasher licked Emily’s face, she laughed. “Nice one, Gnasher! Now use Bite!”
“Noctowl!” Falkner shouted. “Go for Aerial Ace!”
Ghasher charged right for the Noctowl with her bared fangs engulfed in a white glow and ivory streams followed the Noctowl hurtling in Gnasher’s direction. Gnasher somersaulted into the air. But the Noctowl careened into Gnasher, sending her yowling and spinning through the air towards Eddy, her fangs no longer glowing.
Eddy didn’t leap out of the way. Oh no. Instead, he gripped the sides of Gnasher’s body and flung her just enough to allow her to land on her feet and face him. Emily ran over to Eddy with a grin and the duo gave each other a high five.
“Nice thinking, Eddy!” Emily exclaimed. Eddy rubbed the back of his neck and smiled with his eyes closed.
Moments later, Gnasher and the Noctowl came face to face once more.
“Noctowl, Reflect!” Falkner commanded.
“Gnasher, use Flamethrower!” said Emily.
Gnasher barreled towards the Noctowl spiraling into the air and spreading its wings and sparking a large, shiny, pink glass sheet to life as a beam of light floated across it. With a tilt of her head, a thick column of flame burst from Gnasher’s mouth. The beam bypassed the sheet without breaking it and slammed into the Noctowl before it or Falkner could do anything else.
The Noctowl plummeted listlessly at breakneck speed, colliding head first onto the battlefield within an instant and sliding just a couple feet afterwards. Moments later, black swirls became its eyes.
Falkner returned the Noctowl to its ball and Emily did the same with Gnasher. With a smile on his face, Falkner walked over to Emily, holding out his hand when he was close enough. Their hands met and a hearty handshake commenced. Although Falkner was not the victor, a sense of pride still welled up inside.
He fished through his pocket and a moment later, a TM labeled “Aerial Ace”, a stack of orange Poken, and a magnet-shaped badge with wings stamped onto it filled his hand. He handed them all to Emily.
Her eyes brightened and grew wide. She ran to Eddy. “We did it! We did it! We got all this stuff!” She and Eddy gifted each other a hearty high five. Emily turned to Falkner. “Thanks for fighting me again!”
“Thanks for improving your attitude,” Falkner replied.
“Wait!” Emily threw the Skarmory’s ball right up into the air.
The Skarmory emerged, spreading its wings for just a couple moments.
“I wanna give you a name, Skarmory,” Emily explained. “What about—” She shifted her attention to the newly acquired TM for a second before looking back at the Skarmory. “Ace?”
A grin spread across the Skarmory’s face as a screech exploded from its beak and its wings became spread as wide as they could.
“I agree!” Falkner said. “That’s a fine name.”
“Yeah!” From her backpack, Emily yanked a black marker and didn’t dare waste a single moment labeling the top of its ball with, “AC”, laughing quietly as she did so.
Falkner got out his walkie talkie. “Hector, you may return to the Violet City gym.”
With an adjustment in Emily’s attitude and another badge finally earned, Emily and Eddy are off to the next step on their adventure. Will they tackle the next gym they find head on? Will they train for a little while beforehand? Will they discover another path? Find out next time on Pokemon: Johto Quest!