Chapter 10

I'll try to upload 2 chapters today and two on thursday to make up last week's missed chapters.

'...' for thoughts

"..." for speech

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Jasper just sat there for a moment, not reacting even though the Ultraball was still in front of him, it took his tense nerves a moment to realize it was over...well, at least partially.

But when he finally calmed down from the most intense seconds of his life, he rushed to the Ultraball to check that Zorua was really caught and that the ball didn't have some kind of defect. It was irrational as every signal from the ball was correct, but Jasper just had to check it out or he couldn't quite calm down. He also chastised himself for closing his eyes at the last moment, as that was a big part of his fear of a somehow false capture, and since if Zorua had broken out of the Ultraball, Jasper would have had zero chance of defending himself with his eyes closed.

After seeing that everything was normal with the Ultraball and that Zorua was truly captured Jasper slumped down with his back leaning against Zorua's training rock and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Ye....." Jasper began to shout but quickly clasped his mouth with his hands. 'Damn, that capture excited me so much I nearly forgot in which situation I am and more importantly how bad Magbys situation is. Now, Jasper, think calmly and follow the plan.'

Thinking that Jasper turned around and peeked behind the rock.

There he saw Magby stretch his arm back and then shoot his clenched fist forward with a mega punch.

Zoroark responded in kind, unleashing a Night Slash.

The punch and slash collided between the two combatants and just for a moment Jasper thought that Magby could win that confrontation, but that hope quickly died down when Zoroark started overpowering Magby and launched him away.

Magby hit the ground and rolled a few meters before stopping, he tried standing up again, but despite all his efforts he couldn't get back up. He finally had to give up and slumped to the ground, bleeding and totally exhausted. It was literally a miracle that Magby was able to stand against the much stronger Zoroark for so long.

'Magby is a real fighter' Jasper tought admiringly. 'He cleverly leveraged his small size and combat training against his overwhelming opponent.'

'In addition, this Zoroark seems to be quite young and has little combat experience since it drives away all other Pokémon with its strong illusions. Zoroark was only able to fight with its inborn instincts, but this is good for me as that means Zoroark only had minimal or even no contact with Pokémon-Trainers and has no idea about what we are able to do.' Jasper observed. He would have noted these things down in his reseearch log if the situation wasn't as dire.

Just then, Jasper saw Zoroark walking towards Magby, his claw still wrapped in Night Slash's dark-type energy, ready to finish off that pesky foe once and for all.

Jasper quickly reacted and jumped out from behind his hiding place. "Hey Zoroark, stop right there."

Zoroark actually stopped and turned, even Magby lifted his head, although desperation was building in his once clear eyes and he was preparing to offer his last stand.

When Zoroark let its gaze wander around and couldn't find its child, Zoroarks eyes turned bloodshot and it fixed its gaze onto Jasper, seemingly just waiting for him to move so that it could rip him to pieces.

'What an absolutly frigthening gaze' Jasper shuddered.

Zoroarks eyes narrowed and its musceles tensed, it was ready to pounce on its enemy, but then they abrubtly slackend and its eyes ripped wide open when a shout echoed through the otherwise quiet grove.

"I kidnapped your child, so don't you dare take a single step more!"

SILENCE!

...

For a few seconds time seemed to stand still, nobody said anything or moved an inch,frozen in place. They tried to understand what was being called. It was an absolutely surreal situation.

Jasper felt utterly ridiculous after yelling that sentence. Altough there was a certain part of him that danced in joy for having done somthing so crazy, that only someone from another world could have thought of.

'I better take the intiative now or Zoroark may do something drastic.' After a short few moments Jasper raised the Ultraball in his hand and began speaking again. "You see this Ball here in my hand? Zorua is inside it."

Zoroark immediately fixed its eyes on the ball as if trying to poke a hole in it with just its gaze.

"I can set it free and capture it again whenever and whereever I want." Jasper sent out Zorua, but just when it finished materializing he immediatly re-captured it. "See? You can do nothing to stop me."

When Zoroark saw its kidnapped child in front of it and how it was immediately called back to the ball, Zoroark let out a really terrifying low-pitched growl, it sounded like it came straight out of the mirror dimension, and slammed its Night Slash clad hand so hard on the Ground that grass and dirt spattered in all directions and Jasper even felt a slight tremor under his feet.

This display of strength and anger was so intimidating that the 11-year-old froze, wide-eyed. He even almost dropped the Ultraball, but he quickly fixed his grip and held it even tighter in his hand.

Then Jasper quickly took out Magbys Pokeball, that was also a Ultraball, and recalled him before Zoroark came to its senses.

Realizing it had lost its leverage, Zoroark seemed to get even more angry for a moment, but eventually let out its breath and calmed down. Its anger wouldn't help it, so Zoroark let it go.

"You will clear the fog now, then I will let go of Zorua and me and my friends will go our way and never come back. If you try attacking me or my friends I will immediatly warp this ball away into the humans territory and you won't get to see your child again. Do we have a deal?" Silence reigned again after Jasper proposed this deal. A bead of sweat slowly trickled down his face, but he didn't dare wipe it away while holding eye contact with Zoroark instead.

Internally Jasper was praying that Zoroark doesn't know that only by using a Pokedex you could warp away a Pokéball and he didn't have one yet. A Pokedex is a simply miraculous machine.

Zoroark thought for a long moment, but finally agreed. It lifted the mist and then waited for Jasper to do his part of the deal. Jasper quickly bagged Magbys Ultraball, released Zorua and then switly retreated the way he came from. He walked backwards though, having long since learned to never show your back to an enemy.

Zorua ran behind Zoroark and then together with its parent gazed at the retreating human boy. There was quite a bit of respect in Zoruas eyes, it followed all the events from inside the Ultrabll, so it knew what happed and had grown to admire the young humans mind.

After a few tens of meters Jasper met Ducklett, Elekid, their trainers and Cynthia and upon seeing that the five were okay he dragged them away before they could ask him any questions.

It wasn't until they left the grove that Jasper exhaled deeply and sat down, leaning his back against a tall tree, eyes closed.

The others waited a bit with their questions when they saw Jasper being this exhausted and him having no Magby by his side, though there was intense curiosity burning in their eyes.

Roughly ten minutes later, Jasper finally opened his eyes and stood up. "Let's continue our walk to the Pokémon Center, I'll tell you what happend on the way."

The others agreed with him and they started walking while listening to Jasper recount the exciting and frigthening events of his lifes most intense Pokémon encounter.

Jaspers three friends also told him that shortly after they entered the fog the sounds stopped and since the silence inside the mist terrified them they swiftly made their way back outside.

When the battle between Magby and Zoroark started they wanted to come to Jaspers and Magbys help, but the fog suddenly started to warp and undulate so they didn't dare enter it and could only wait anxiously. The three girls were really glad that Jasper came out on top in this scary encounter.

After fifteen minutes the four humans and two Pokémon finally reached to Pokémon Center. Jasper and Cynthia immediately ran up to nurse Joy so that she could heal their Pokémon. Nurse Joy naturally accepted them and tasked her Chaneira to begin Magbys and Gibles treatment at once.

Only then could the four trainers relax completly. Jasper lied down on one of the lounge couches and not even two minutes later he was deep in the dreamlands.

The three girls settled down too, made a few jokes at Jaspers expense, but switched the topic shortly after.

Jasper was woken up about one hour later as the treatment was finished. The Pokémon were perfectly healed and the trainers were all too happy about that.

Then the four teenagers informed their parents that they would spend the night at the Pokémon Center and then retreated to their roomes to rest.

Jasper quickly changed into sleepwear and Magby and him then immediately slept again, totally exhausted from the long day.

What nobody saw was a Pidove that sat on a branch right outside of Jaspers window, staring at Jasper and Magby unblinkingly.

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1599 words