From: Rob (robfrompw@yahoo.com) Subject: [PW!] Bugsy's Bugs Bug Sarah Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2001-07-19 00:07:49 PST Sarah walks into the Azalea Town Gym, admiring all the plants within the structure - the shrubs here are even more impressive than what's outside. Barbie the nervous Mareep is right behind her, her eyes shifting left and right, since she senses other Pokemon in the area but doesn't see any. Sarah continues to walk through the Gym, trying to find the Gym Leader with no success. The greenhouse-like building looks abandoned, so she puts her hands next to her mouth and shouts out, "Anyone home?" That's when a bunch of Kakuna and Metapod fall from the ceiling, dangling from String Shots next to Sarah and above Barbie. "Reeee!" Barbie goes ballistic, Thundershocking all the Bug Pokemon above her while running in circles, "Ree! Reeep!" Sarah isn't very composed either. While she doesn't have a fear of Bug Pokemon, she doesn't like to have a bunch of them dangling next to her face, so she falls to the ground, to find a bunch of Weedle and Caterpie inching towards her. She screams, then hears another loud voice, that of a young boy who says, "Return!" All but two fainted Kakuna and a nearly fainted Metapod immediately zip back up to the ceiling and all the Caterpie and Weedle about to crawl over Sarah also flee. Sarah sits up, both hands on the floor and both legs to one side, then searches the area to find the origin of the voice that told the Pokemon to return to their hiding places. She's surprised when a purple-haired boy dressed in what looks like a camping outfit hops down from a tree branch, landing in front of her face. She smiles at the boy. He reminds her of her little brother Teddy, and because of this, he does not intimidate her, "Hi. Those bugs were crowdin' me, so I'm glad you..." "Ugh, it's another dumb girl who hates Bug Pokemon." The snide little boy crosses his arms, "Since you're so ignorant about how great Bug Pokemon are, you probably don't know what my name is either, so I'll just tell you. I'm Bugsy, the Azalea Town Gym Leader. What're you called?" Bugsy's snide remarks intimidate Sarah, so she stutters when she says her name, "S-sarah." The young boy narrows one eye at the older girl, "I guess you're here since you think Bug Pokemon are 'icky' and want to beat mine up using non-Bug Pokemon?" Sarah fumbles as she stands up, "W-well, I do wanna ch-challenge you, but I... I don't think..." "That's right, miss, you don't think if you hate Bug Pokemon so much. Follow me and I'll teach you why Bug Pokemon are the best kind of Pokemon." Bugsy rudely turns his back to Sarah and walks away from her, towards the arena in the middle of the Azalea Town Gym. Sarah narrows her eyes, annoyed by Bugsy's rude behavior. Since she's pretty sure that he can't hear her, she suddenly regains her confidence and exclaims, "C'mon, Barbie! We're gonna go teach this kid some manners!" No response. "Barbie?" Sarah turns around to see her Mareep sneaking away. Barbie, after hearing Sarah's tone, is trying to escape since she's scared that her trainer's going to become particularly aggressive in her upcoming battle. Sarah's Pokemon doesn't get very far before she feels a wooden crook around her neck, "Eep." Sarah the shepherdess leads her Mareep towards the Azalea Town Gym arena and takes her place across from Bugsy. While holding her crook with her left hand, to keep Barbie from running away, she rummages through her leather satchel with her right one until she finds Cyndaquil's shrunken Fast Ball. Bugsy calls out, "We're gonna have a three on three match!" "Uh... but I've only got two Pokemon..." Sarah is embarrassed by her lack of Pokemon. She enlarges her Fast Ball, then tilts her head towards her squirming Mareep, "At least only two with me. I really got three, but the third one's a fat Slowpoke, and I don't wanna carry him around... do I have to go get him?" "No need, miss. I can beat you with ANY ONE Bug Pokemon if I wanted to." Bugsy smirks, "Hey, that sounds fun! We'll have a one on one match. I'm confident there's no way I can lose since I'll be using one of the strongest competitors in my Bug Pokemon arsenal - a Pokemon I've been training for years. He'll probably evolve after I win. I choose Spinarak!" Bugsy pulls a Pokeball out of one of his pockets and hurls it at the arena. A small Spinarak flies out upon impact, "Rak!" Sarah is unaware of the fact that Bug Pokemon are weak against Fire Pokemon, but she decides to choose Cyndaquil because she can tell, by the way her crook is being tugged on, that Barbie is clearly too afraid to step into the battlefield. She tosses her Fast Ball onto the arena, and when it pops open, Cyndaquil emerges, his eyes no longer shaped like upside-down "U"s, but like forward-slashes instead. The small Fire Pokemon rubs his back with one arm and snarls, "CYNDAQUIL!" Bugsy laughs at Sarah's choice, "Oh, so you plan to use Ember to take down my Bug Pokemon? How predictable. Spinarak, use String Shot." "Actually, I didn't know Cyndaquil knew Ember, but I do now." Sarah looks down at her angry Fire Pokemon and commands, "Cyndaquil, Ember!" Her Pokemon turns his head to his trainer and shakes it, "Quil." Since he has his head turned, when Spinarak spits String Shot from his mouth, it hits Cyndaquil's back. Bugsy narrows one eye at Sarah, "Your Cyndaquil must really hate you if he doesn't obey your orders. Of course, if I were a Pokemon, I sure would hate someone who hates Bug Pokemon as much as you do. It's a shame that I gotta have my Spinarak beat up such a smart non-Bug Pokemon. Spinarak, Poison Sting!" Sarah is getting annoyed that Bugsy keeps accusing her of hating Bug Pokemon when she's actually just indifferent towards them, but she doesn't have time to tell him that now since Spinarak is about to attack Cyndaquil. She is concerned by what Bugsy just said. If Cyndaquil really does hate her now because she put him in a Fast Ball and thus and isn't obeying her orders, then not only is there no way she can win this one-on-one Gym battle, but her friendship with her most loyal Pokemon has been ruined. Sarah's not sure if Cyndaquil has rebelled against her and thus will disobey every order given to him or if the Pokemon just hasn't learned how to use his Ember attack yet, so the next thing she tells Cyndaquil to do sounds more like a question than an order, "Cyndaquil, Smokescreen?" Cyndaquil turns away from Sarah and sighs... releasing a huge cloud of black smoke from his mouth in the process! The resulting Smokescreen makes Spinarak's Poison Sting miss him when the Bug Pokemon shoots the projectile attack. Sarah smiles and calls out, "Good! Tackle!" while Bugsy calls out, "Poison Sting!" "Cynd... daquil." Cyndaquil narrows his already very narrow eyes, angry that Sarah put him in a Fast Ball but not willing to disobey her orders because he was taught by Professor Elm to be completely loyal to his trainer, leaps through the Smokescreen to Tackle Spinarak. When the smoke clears, a hurt Cyndaquil is standing before a fainted Spinarak. Cyndaquil, Bugsy, Sarah, and Barbie are all incredibly shocked that Cyndaquil was able to beat Spinarak using just one Tackle attack. Cyndaquil is shocked further when he feels a tingling sensation on his back and strong flames shoot out of the red spots there! "WHAT?!" Bugsy shakes his head, more surprised by his loss than anyone else, "My Spinarak's fainted after just one Tackle attack once before, but that was years ago in a match against one of Ash Ketchum's quasi-omnipotent unevolved Pokemon! How could some Bug-Pokemon-hating girl's little Cyndaquil beat Spinarak? This can't be!" Bugsy runs into the arena to make sure his Spinarak really fainted, and his eyes go wide when he figures out what happened, "Oh no! This isn't one of my strongest Pokemon! That's a Spinarak I caught the other day. He was probably still weak from when I captured him. This isn't fair! Do over!" "Do over?" Sarah's hazel eyes widen and she shakes her head, "I won fair and square!" The normally shy shepherdess is enraged at Bugsy's statement, so she drops her crook, stomps up to him, and puts her hands on her hips, "You were so arrogant you said you could beat me with 'any one' Bug Pokemon, and you didn't, so I won. You should really think twice before openin' your mouth like that, especially when talkin' to a young lady! And another thing, I don't hate Bug Pokemon. It was very rude of you to say I was a dumb Bug hatin' girl without knowin' me and if I don't get what's comin' to me, you'll be very sorry, you hear me?!" Now it's Bugsy's turn to be intimidated, so he says, "Y-you're right... I did say that..." The Azalea Town Gym Leader pulls a Hive Badge out of one of his pockets. He pins the Hive Badge on the leather strap of Sarah's satchel, then lowers his head in shame, "I'm really sorry I insulted you like that, miss." "And I'm sorry I got so mad, but I was always taught to respect people older than..." It suddenly dawns on Sarah that she has earned her very first Badge. A big grin appears on her face and she reaches down to pick up Cyndaquil to hug the Pokemon who helped her win the Badge, but when she sees that his back is set on fire, she decides against this, "I guess you just now learned how to use an Ember attack, huh? That's great! I'm so proud of you, Cyndaquil!" The Cyndaquil is not in a celebratory mood, since he's sure he's going to be crammed back into his Fast Ball again soon, so he replies in a bland voice, "Cynd." Sarah grabs Cyndaquil's Fast Ball off the arena floor, looks at it, then looks at Cyndaquil... and drops the Fast Ball in her leather bag, saying, "I'll let you roam around free for a while, Cyndaquil. That's my way of thankin' you for a job well done! Now let's go to the Pokemon Center to get you healed." "Daquil?" Hearing the good news, Cyndaquil cools down, and the flames on his back disappear. Moments later, he's hefted up on Sarah's shoulder. "Bye, Bugsy! I hope you learned a lesson in humility and respect..." Sarah pats Bugsy's shoulder the way she usually pats Teddy's after she's taught him something new, then turns around to see that her Mareep has strayed once again, just like she did on the way from New Bark Town to Cherrygrove City. She figures the Mareep must've run the moment she dropped her crook and started lecturing Bugsy. Fortunately, Sarah's crook was still on Barbie's neck when she ran, so she's left a trail on the dirt in the small forest within the Azalea Town Gym by dragging the staff behind her as she ran. Sarah follows Barbie's trail... -Sarah