From: Grift60056 <grift60056@aol.com> Subject: [PW!] A Duel to Discovery Date: Thursday, May 06, 1999 11:00 PM "Ahhhhh.." Joel smiled as he finally got his backpack the way he wanted it against the tree. He leaned his head back on it and closed his eyes. Near him, resting against the same tree was one of his new two friends, Clarissa Del Fuego. The other one, Jake Fledge was doing some training with one of his Pokemon, a Scyther named Reaper. Jake had asked if Joel would have liked to joined in the training with his own Pokemon, Swirl, a Poliwag. Joel decided not to though. He still felt embarrassed over Swirl getting stolen right in front of him, despite Jake and Clarissa's help in recovering him. The last thing he wanted was to show how really sorry of a trainer he was by pitting Swirl in some duel. So instead he had opted to rest up with Clarissa, while Swirl was let out so he could soak himself in the small stream that was just a few feet by the tree. Nothing to do but relax.. Twang! Twang, twang! Twang? Joel sat up and looked around. What the heck was making that sound? He spotted Jake and Reaper and found his answer. He also found out how Jake was training Reaper. Using some sort of sword, Jake was actually using it to duel with the Scyther, reflecting blows from it's blade-like arms. What was even more fascinating was Jake's sword. It appeared to be made out of some sort of crystal, all of it. Still, it looked strong enough to stand up against the blows from the Bug/Flying-type Pokemon. "C'mon Reaper, you gotta do better than that!" Jake yelled. Joel thought to himself that the Scyther was doing pretty good actually. Then he saw Jake pull something out of the trench coat he always seemed to wear. Joel blinked a few times as he saw it, not sure if his eyes were wrong, but as he saw Jake use it, he knew he was right. It was one of those packets of ketchup you can get in fast-food restaurants. Jake, for some reason, had opened it, poured some of the ketchup on his crystal sword, and tossed the packet away. Joel would have thought it weird if he didn't see what happened next. Reaper's eyes actually turned bright red, then he jumped at Jake, attacking him madly. Curious over this reaction, he pulled out his PokeDex and after pressing a few buttons found his answer. "Certain rare Pokemon, such as the Scyther and Electabuzz, will attack wildly upon anything with the color red. Extreme caution is warranted, especially to trainers with red clothing or hair." Well, that explained things somewhat, though he wasn't sure if it was such a wise idea to use such a reaction to aid training. He looked back up and saw that Jake was beginning to agree with him as he found himself ducking and dodging more attacks from Reaper then he was actually blocking. The last one almost made the trainer fall, with stuff falling out of his coat's pockets instead. That's when he saw a baby Pidgey, coming out of nowhere swoop down and snag on of the items in it's beak. It wasn't until it had flown back up over Jake that it broke, and let Joel see what it caught. Another packet of ketchup. Some of it fell and hit in the worse place it could, right on Jake's back. Jake didn't appear to notice, he was too busy fending off Reaper. Before Joel could say anything, Jake had already turned around, in the middle of another dodge, giving the Scyther full view of the red on the coat. "Scyyyyytherrrr!!" Reaper yelled, his eyes becoming even more red as it made a quick dash and sliced right down Jake's back. Jake was barely able to get out of the close slice, escaping only with his coat and shirt split right down the middle. It was enough to give Reaper and Joel something they didn't expect. Out came out a pair of silver wings, the color matching Jake's stripe down his hair. Joel couldn't help but stare. Reaper was the same, pausing in it's attack and looking at the one thing he didn't expect a human to have. Joel and Reaper both looked away when they heard something new though, someone running across the grass. It was Clarissa, running to get Reaper's fallen Pokeball, something else that had fallen with the extra packet of ketchup. Suddenly, Reaper let out a yell and started to run after Clarissa with deadly speed, his arms poised to cut her. Joel didn't understand, not till he remembered the PokeDex's entry and Clarissa's hair, a beautiful shade of red. "Look out!" Clarissa turned, saw Reaper and ran faster towards the Pokeball. It looked to be close, till Clarissa tripped over something in the ground and fell sprawled out, her hand only inches away from the Pokeball. It might have been miles since her fall allowed Reaper to catch up. He raised one arm, ready to bring it down right on her red-haired head, only giving Clarissa time to gasp..and Reaper to get out of nowhere a blast of bubbles in the face. Clarissa, Joel and Jake turned to see where it was coming from. It was Swirl, a stern look on his face as he continued to pelt Reaper in the face with a fast burst of bubbles. Joel was surprised, not knowing his Poliwag could do that. Reaper was just plain angry, and started to walk as well as he can towards Swirl, using his arms to hack and shield his eyes from the attack. Swirl didn't move though, just kept blasting away. Reaper had finally got to the small Water Pokemon and was about to swing at it when a red light enveloped him. Clarissa had reached the Pokeball and sucked Reaper back in. With the threat gone, Swirl stopped the blast. Then the Poliwag's eyes rolled up and it fell back in a faint. Joel ran over and picked up Swirl. He appeared to be ok, but Joel bit his lower lip. He should have done something more then just watch what happened. Just like with the thief. Some trainer he was turning out to be. "Is he ok?" Joel turned and look. Jake was standing behind him, his torn coat and shirt off, leaving him bare waist up. Clarissa was behind him, staring at him, her mouth open in surprise. Joel doubted it was due to Jake's good looks. "He's fine. You?" Jake said, "I'm cool." He looked back at his wings and back at Joel with a worried look. "Uhh, about these.." "Yeah. Nice wings. So..where did ya get 'em?" TBC...