A Story About Red - Part 8
8.
Pokémon Trainer felt sick to his stomach. Why did they have to face Snake and Falcon in the Semi-Finals?? Why not the Finals?? Why???? There was no way they were going to win against them. Snake and Falcon had been steamrolling the competition, have two extra lives left each in the last match, while he and Pit had been averaging one life left each. They were doomed. They weren’t going to win.
They. Were. Doomed.
The little angel boy next to him, however, seemed unaware of their cruel fate. Hopping from foot to foot, Pit peaked in and out of the crowd, his wings quivering.
“Oh boy, Pokémon Trainer, I can’t wait! Aren’t you excited?”
Excited? Didn’t he realize they were about get pummeled by the two strongest Smash Brothers?
Finally, Mario motioned for both teams to come out into the arena. The crowd of their fellow Smashers clapped and cheered as Solid Snake and Captain Falcon advanced from the left, and Pit and Pokémon Trainer came on from the right. The teammates shook hands, with Pokémon Trainer adamantly avoiding Snake and Falcon’s eyes. The two men just towered over him. As they stood in front of the portals, he fingered Charizard’s Pokéball for encouragement…Charizard was at least bigger than them…
The four appeared on arena and the countdown began as the stage began to grow around them. Oh man, WarioWare…one of his least favorite stages. You had to accomplish tasks WHILE TRYING TO PREVENT YOURSELF FROM BEING SMASHED TO DEATH by your opponents. Pokémon Trainer personally thought the stage should be banned from tournaments, but hey, nothing he could do about it…this was Super Smash Bros. Brawl, after all. He stood off to the side of the main fighting stage like he always did, and took in the situation quickly: Snake was on an above platform to his right, Pit was directly above him, and Captain Falcon was right next to him, posed to launch in a fighting stance. Pokémon Trainer’s hand inched toward his Pokéball…he didn’t like Captain Falcon wearing his helmet, he couldn’t tell what the racer was thinking with it on…the racer looked so much more intimidating…
The match started. Pokémon Trainer whipped out his Pokéball and Squirtle flew out, landing right in front of Falcon. Next to the tall man, Pokémon Trainer immediately wished he could switch the tiny Pokémon out, but knew that wasn’t an option yet.
“Withdraw, Squirtle!” he exclaimed, and Squirtle popped into his shell, shooting out water. However, before he could slide very far, a grenade fell from above, sending the Pokémon spinning out of control. From above Solid Snake descended, and Captain Falcon leapt to the top platforms to take on Pit. Throwing out another grenade, Snake sent Squirtle rocketing across the stage like a pinball machine.
Oh great, Pokémon Trainer thought in panic at the sight of the mercenary, So now he was going to have to take on Snake?? The mercenary was tough. True, most of the Smash Brothers were determined to win, but they all also wanted to have a good time. Solid Snake, however, was just determined. It was a joke among the Smashers that Snake only smiled once a year: on his birthday. Pokémon Trainer himself thought that might be a little generous.
Stopping Squirtle from sliding with his foot, Snake placed a well-aimed kick against the turtle’s shell, sending him flying. What the heck-what did the mercenary think this was, soccer??
“Hydropump, Squirtle!” Pokémon Trainer started to yell, but Snake then took out his rocket launcher and delivered a missile at the turtle’s shell. Pokémon Trainer gritted his teeth in frustration. All right, that was enough. Snake was just toying with him. Try kicking Ivysaur across the stage, why don’t you?-
As soon as Squirtle was recalled Ivysaur’s vines came whipping out of his Pokéball, wrapping around Snake’s ankles. The mercenary fell backwards, landing hard on his elbows-yes. Sweet revenge! Snake seemed confused as to what to do next, and both he and Ivysaur gripped their ground. Suddenly, Snake whipped a hand out and grabbed Ivysaur by the vines around his feet, yanking Ivysaur closer to him. The bulb Pokémon’s eyes widened. It tried desperately to dig its feet into the ground, but Snake was too strong. Pokémon Trainer didn’t know what to do-he knew he should replace Ivysaur with Charizard, but he watched in horrible fascination as Snake gripped the vines in front of Ivysaur and slammed him down next to him. The determined little Pokémon didn’t let go, however-he didn’t even loosened his grip. Gripping his third Pokéball, Pokémon Trainer thought about replacing him with Charizard again, but Ivysaur seemed to be enjoying his little tug-of-war game with Snake. However, Snake whipped out his rocket launcher again and blasted bomb into Ivysaur’s face. Although the little grass Pokémon still clutched his ground, Pokémon Trainer knew he should recall him before Snake had a chance to charge up again. Immediately upon swapping Ivysaur with Charizard he shouted, “Flamethrower, Charizard!!”
Snapping open his jaws, the giant Pokémon heaved a gust of flame at the Snake, but the mercenary ducked under his cardboard box just in time. The edges of the box darkening, Charizard intensified his assault, but the mercenary refused to reappear. Smiling, Pokémon Trainer waited patiently, knowing Snake’s shield would soon break and he would be greeted with a blast of fire to the face. Unfortunately, something else happened first.
Hearing a deafening whoosh above his head to the left of the stage, Pokémon Trainer saw out of the corner of his eye the flash of light signifying that someone had been eliminated. His stomach contracted horribly-Pit had been eliminated. Pit had been eliminated! Pokémon Trainer felt his limbs grow numb as Captain Falcon descended from the platform above right in front of him. The bounty hunter delivered a Falcon Kick right into Charizard’s back. Surprised, the hulking Pokémon twisted his neck and roared in anger. Snake suddenly sprung from his box and launched his Nikita right into Charizard’s torso. Enveloped in flames from both sides, Charizard roared in pain and confusion. Smacking his hand to his forehead, Pokémon Trainer groaned-beaten by his own flames-
After a few moments, Pit finally descended, back from having been eliminated. The angel boy tried to hover weakly over Charizard’s head, aiming his Light Arrows at Snake and Falcon, but he couldn’t maintain it. Pulling himself up onto the platform above, he tried to shoot at them from there, but Snake followed him up. Pokémon Trainer’s stomach dropped again-don’t let Snake get to you, Pit…
Finally, the stage began to change. They had been lucky so far-the stage had remained relatively tame, only rapidly changing colors and backgrounds. Now, however, was challenge time. Giant floating words flashed in front of them, and Pokémon Trainer skimmed over them quickly: Dodge! They had to dodge the arrows showering the stage. Well, Charizard was already getting pummeled by arrows, and so was Captain Falcon. Suddenly, a ringing noise sounded-time was up! Both Captain Falcon and Charizard exploded in a burst of flame, as if a bomb had been set off under them. They were both thrown backwards to opposite sides of the stage. Suddenly, a Bob-omb appeared in front of Charizard. Struggling to get back up, the big lizard didn’t see it. He charged towards Captain Falcon just as the Bob-omb’s little wick lit up and it began toddling back and forth.
“Charizard, look-” Pokémon Trainer began, but he was too late. The fire Pokémon ran head-on into the Bob-omb and was blasted off the edge of the stage. Beat his heavy wings, Charizard tried to heft himself back on stage, but Captain Falcon ran right at it as he was inches from the edge. Falcon kick, punch, SMASH-Charizard was eliminated. Pokémon Trainer could only watch as Captain Falcon leapt up onto the platform above to take part in the battle waging overhead. Pokémon Trainer tried to catch a glimpse to see how Pit was doing, but he couldn’t see much-only the tips of Pit’s wings, falling feathers, and the edge of Snake’s form, making quick, striking movements.
Charizard suddenly appeared at the top of the stage again, and Pokémon Trainer ran to the other side of the stage to see the battle better. Roaring angrily and scratching, Charizard descended upon Captain Falcon, needing to take revenge. But suddenly, there was a whooshing sounded behind Charizard-Pit had been eliminated again! Wasting no time, Snake siderolled and pummeled Charizard in the side. The large creature beat his wings and swung his tail haphazardly, trying block both sides at once-oh gosh, not this again…
Suddenly another command flashed in front of them: Stay Dry! A giant umbrella appeared in the middle of the stage, and all three fighters fell under. With rain pelting around them, Snake and Falcon took up their positions on either side of Charizard, but Pit flew in, dashing off Light Arrows to beat the two men off of Charizard.
“Yeah Pit!” Pokémon Trainer shouted, and he replaced Charizard with Squirtle just as the two men were distracted. “Hydropump, Squirtle!!”
Nodding, the little Pokémon snapped his head into his shell and rotated rapidly, shooting out jets of water into Snake and Captain Falcon. Before they could recover, Pokémon Trainer immediately replaced Squirtle with Ivysaur, and the grass Pokémon lashed out his two vines and pulled an ankle out each from under the two men. Seeing his chance, Pit dive-bombed Captain Falcon, while Ivysaur took over against Snake again.
The stage changed, this time back to the regular platform arena, as they all had managed to ‘Stay Dry’. Pokémon Trainer suddenly realized how weird it was the four of them had to work together while pummeling each other on this stage. He didn’t have much time to ponder such things, however, as Snake pulled out a grenade. However, the mercenary didn’t aim for Ivysaur-he tossed it between Pit and Captain Falcon. The bomb knocked Pit off of his feet, giving Captain Falcon a chance to recover. As Pit struggled back up, an item appeared right next to his foot: an Assist Trophy! Snatching it up, Pit raised it above his head and the capsule began to glow. A flash of light, and a frighteningly huge gray shape appeared over their heads. Pokémon Trainer looked up-ah, Andross!! Andross titled back and then forward, huge square slabs barreling out of his mouth. One smacked Snake in the face, and the mercenary dropped to the ground. Captain Falcon, however, was not so lucky. The bounty hunter got smacked by two slabs at once, and Pit placed several determined blows. Dodging and dipping Captain Falcon’s subsequent punches, Pit slashed back with his double blades once he got an opening, throwing the captain off of his footing.
Meanwhile, Snake couldn’t do much with Andross’s tiles flying everywhere, so Pokémon Trainer took his opportunity to build up some damage on the mercenary.
“Razor Leaf, Ivysaur!” he shouted, pointing at Snake. Ivysaur twisted, spinning out leaves right into Snake’s face. Wincing, the mercenary tried to back up, but a Pokéball appeared beside him. Ivysaur eagerly snapped it up before Snake could, and in that split second Pokémon Trainer recalled him and threw out Charizard. The Pokéball released a Piplup, a tiny water Pokémon that did minimal damage, but every little bit helped.
While Piplup washed against Snake on a wave of water, Charizard lunged forward, knocking head-on into the mercenary. Before he could get back up, Pokémon Trainer shouted “Tail Whip!” to Charizard, and the giant lizard whipped around his tail and whapped it into Snake. Pokémon Trainer then threw out a few more Rock Smashes and Flamethrowers, trying to build up enough damage on him to smash him off of the stage in one blow.
“Headbutt, Charizard!” Pokémon Trainer shouted suddenly. Charizard lurched forward and smashed his head into Snake’s torso, tossing the man off the edge of the stage. Snake was knocked a few feet off the stage but recovered easily with his Cypher whisking him back up onto the stage. Ugh, he should have know better-Snake was heavier than most of their opponents so far, so he wouldn’t be smashed off the stage as easily. Hopefully it would just take a few more tries. Pokémon Trainer instructed Charizard to headbutt again, and again, but although Snake was flying further back each time, he just kept jumping back onto the stage. Charizard couldn’t keep this up much longer-
Suddenly, Pokémon Trainer heard a whoosh on the other side of the arena. He whipped his head around, but it was Pit who was there, grinning at him triumphantly. Pokémon Trainer grinned-Pit had eliminated Falcon!! Now, if only he could do the same for Snake…
“Headbutt, Charizard!! A really strong one!!” he shouted, and Charizard delivered a strong thrust into Snake’s chest again, throwing the mercenary off his feet. Before Snake could make it back on stage, he switched out Charizard with Squirtle.
“Waterslide, Squirtle!” he instructed, and the little Pokémon ducked into his shell again and spurt out a trail of water. Pit looked at his partner curiously, and Pokémon Trainer nodded vigorously at him.
“Go for it, Pit!” he shouted. Taking a running leap, Pit smashing his foot into Squirtle’s shell, and it went flying. It smashed Snake in the face, sending him of the stage-but not nearly far enough. Just as Snake was about to grab on to the edge of the stage, though, Squirtle popped out of his shell and slammed his tail down on Snake’s head, causing the mercenary to just miss the edge. He made another grab for it, but it was too late-he fell in a whoosh of sound. Pokémon Trainer leapt to cheer, but then there was another whoosh…oh no…Squirtle had been eliminated, too!! Well, that was okay. The little guy hadn’t quite made it back up in time after knocking Snake down, but he had made a great save right then, and Pokémon Trainer was proud of him.
By now, Pokémon Trainer was beginning to realize that they probably weren’t going to win. He and Pit only had one life each, now, while Snake and Captain Falcon both had two full ones. He was determined not to go down without a fight, however-thinking about Samus Aran and how she had still fought so fiercely to the end of her battle, Pokémon Trainer prepared himself to emulate her. He looked to Pit and nodded, and the two crouched down into defensive positions as Falcon, Snake, and finally Squirtle reappeared.
The two men immediately made their way to Pit and directed several blows at him, but the angel boy snapped his dual blades at him. Squirtle looked to Pokémon Trainer anxiously.
“Go Squirtle! Help Pit out!! Water Gun!” The little Pokémon nodded resolutely and spit a stream of water into Captain Falcon’s face. Taking a step back, the bounty hunter tried to swipe at the little turtle but he ducked out of the way. Pit slashed Captain Falcon across the face, but Snake elbowed the angel boy hard in the side…ugh…looks like this was going to be a fist fight to the end…
But suddenly, bright red warning signals flashed. Ugh, another challenge! Bright words screeched across the field a final time: Avoid! Bracing himself, Pokémon Trainer prepared to give quick instructions to Squirtle, because the command “Avoid!” could lead to anything on this stage-from high-speed traffic to Bob-ombs. Pokémon Trainer scanned the stage, watching for the first signs of any moving objects, while the battle raged on overhead.
Captain Falcon and Pit dropped down to the main platform, dragging Squirtle and Snake down with them. The four were sort of interlocked now, in a flurry of fists, blades, and feathers. Suddenly, large Bullet Bills lumbered out in almost perfect formation. Bullet Bills?? Pokémon Trainer thought in horror. Seriously?? Bullet Bills??? One hit from those and you were dead. Pokémon Trainer and Pit would be lucky if they both made it out alive…well, they had to try!
Pit shot an Arrow of Light into Snake’s face, opening the mercenary up for Squirtle to deliver a headbutt into him. Pokémon Trainer briefly thought about replacing Squirtle to give all his Pokémon one last chance to fight, but Squirtle seemed to be holding up pretty well on his own. However, the tip of a Bullet Bill caught Squirtle on the edge of his shell, sending the Pokémon rocketing off-wait, not quite. Pit grabbed Squirtle’s foot just in time. Pokémon Trainer smiled and gave Pit a thumbs up, and the angel boy would have smiled back, except Snake punched him in the face. Furrowing his brow, the angel boy jerked his arm and sent Squirtle’s shell spinning like a discus into Snake, knocking the mercenary in the chest. Nice! Suddenly, the buzzer went off…time for the challenge was up. Everyone had avoided the Bullet Bills except Squirtle-oh gosh, could Pokémon Trainer call him back before he-?
Too late. In an explosion, Squirtle flew back and landed heavily on his shell. The little Pokémon slowly got up, and nodded at Pokémon Trainer. Nodding back, he returned Squirtle…he was glad give his youngest Pokémon a rest, even though he hated to end Squirtle’s turn on a down note. Standing tall and resolute, Ivysaur took his place.
By now, Pokémon Trainer was pretty sure his damage meter was very high. He knew Ivysaur was going to have a tough time with this one, and may even get eliminated during his turn, but he knew the grass Pokémon could take whatever was thrown at him.
What Ivysaur wasn’t prepared for was a stealth bomb Snake had planted in the floor of the stage. Ivysaur took one step forward and was blasted backwards, but managed to snag the edge of the field with his Vine Whip. Unfortunately, then Captain Falcon picked up an Assist Trophy. Oh gosh…out whipped Samurai Goroh, who was actually Captain Falcon’s arch nemesis. The bounty hunter looked away in disgust, and then horror, as Samurai Goroh slashed, slashed, slashed with his katana into Ivysaur. The grass Pokémon tried whip out his vines again but there was no fighting Assist Trophy characters-they were invincible here. Captain Falcon made as if to jump after Ivysaur but it was too late-Ivysaur was tossed far off of the stage and in a flash of light, he was eliminated. Pokémon Trainer was through. Giving a smirk to Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh disappeared in a puff of air, his duty done. Captain Falcon looked away, and even through the mask Pokémon Trainer could tell he was sorry. Pokémon Trainer gave Captain Falcon a small smile, although he wasn’t quite sure the bounty hunter saw. Sighing, he then turned to cheer on his teammate until the very end.
Pokémon Trainer felt awkward standing on the side of the arena, watching the battle ensue, but he wasn’t allowed to cross onto the main fighting field. He could only shout to Pit encouragingly and dearly wish to help him. Seeming discouraged, Pit flapped and whipped around to defend himself from Snake and Falcon’s blows, drowning in the air. But the angel boy still managed to flash Pokémon Trainer a smile where he could. Finally, it became pretty clear Pit would be eliminated in the next one or two strong attacks. Taking a running leap, Snake delivered a kick into the boy’s chest, sending him flying off the stage. Whoosh. They were done. Pokémon Trainer sighed as the Wario Ware stage dissolved around them, revealing them to the cheering crowd. He shook a little…it was official. They were done. He and Pit were out of the tournament.
Pit appeared beside Pokémon Trainer and the crowd cheered and screamed around them. Giving Pit a small smile, Pokémon Trainer was surprised to receive a dazzling grin in return.
“You were great, Pokémon Trainer!” the angel boy exclaimed, throwing his arms around him. Pokémon Trainer blinked, losing his words for a second.
“Oh-well-so were you!! Sorry you had to fight all by yourself, but you were great!” He smiled down at the shorter boy with the wide blue eyes.
“Thanks!!” he exclaimed, and hopped up and down when Snake and Captain Falcon walked quickly over to them.
“Pit…sorry about that…” Snake mumbled, extending a hand. Giving another huge grin, Pit dove at him, hugging the mercenary around the waist. Pokémon Trainer snorted and his eyes teared up in laughter as Snake’s eyes widened.
“That’s okay, Snake!! Congratulations!!” Pit exclaimed. “You were so great!”
“Uh…thanks…” Snake said, awkwardly patting the boy on the head.
“Congratulations,” Captain Falcon smiled, offering his hand to Pokémon Trainer. Pokémon Trainer gladly took it.
“You too!” The bounty hunter smiled again and then looked around him, as if checking to see if someone was there. Then taking off his helmet, Captain Falcon brushed his hair back into place and then gave a much larger grin to Pokémon Trainer. Pokémon Trainer felt himself return it.
“You’re a pretty sharp kid, PT,” the captain said, winking at him. Pokémon Trainer felt himself well up a little bit. Wait, PT? Huh? …Ohhh. “I’ll be sure to watch out for you once Singles come around.” Captain Falcon then bent down (he was still almost as tall as Pokémon Trainer) and looked intently at Ivysaur. “I’m sorry about this little guy, though…” Ivysaur gave Captain Falcon a red-eyed glare and turned his back to him. Pokémon Trainer nudged him with the edge of his foot and then bent down next to him.
“Aw, come on, Ivysaur…be a good sport…you did a great job…” The grass Pokémon slowly turned and faced his trainer.
“Come on…” Pokémon Trainer coaxed, petting him on the head. Ivysaur then turned and gave Captain Falcon a half-hearted smile.
“There we go…oh yeah, high five,” Falcon said, smiling, and he held up the palm of his hand. Ivysaur slowly pulled out a vine and smacked him across the palm. Pokémon Trainer laughed.
“Yes! Awesome,” Captain Falcon said. “Okay, you too-” Pokémon Trainer ended up giving him about eight high fives. Snake then gave him a much more conservative handshake, although the mercenary did give him a rare smile and told him he was deeply impressed by his intuition (on the battlefield). Pokémon Trainer grinned, and then grinned even wider when Samus came and told them they lasted much longer than she had excepted (she had given them a few tips on battling Snake and Falcon earlier, although she said there was little hope of beating them), and grinned some more as all his friends congratulated him, and then again when Pit gave him another huge hug and told him how much he had enjoyed being his partner and that he wanted to fight with him in the Singles Tournament, too, and again then when Squirtle ran up and hugged him, and then when all the other Super Smash Brothers lined up, one by one, and told him what a good team they had been.
This is so weird! Pokémon Trainer thought as he celebrated with all his friends and Pokémon. This feels like winning!