Unpitched Battle

The two children smiled towards each other, they were beginning to think Noah was too mature for his age, too mature to the point it worried them, but seeing him like this made them realize he wasn't really as strong as he seemed.

Ashley pat Noah's back, "It's okay Noah, he's fine now isn't he?"

" I know."

After wiping his face, Noah slowly regained himself, and a familiar calm came over him as he turned to Mark, "Did you get that wild rattata?"

"No, we chased for a while, but we heard you shouting, so we came back."

" I see" Noah looked down at the ground, Mark was unsure what he was thinking when he heard those words from Noah, and he didn't know why, but Mark thought Noah was furious for some reason, but when he blinked he found Noah was the same as before.

.

Noahs Rattata was looking much thinner, it was clear the side effects of the potion had drawn out its body's reserves to recover from that fatal injury.

He hadn't realized it at the time, but he suddenly found that Top had leveled to four, but he put that aside for now,

"Are you hungry Rattata?"

Top looked up at him, and Noah swore those big red eyes seemed gentler somehow.

.

A short time later, and as if a gluttonous demon, Top managed to consume almost all the remaining meat despite his size, there seemed to be a strange force at work that allowed for such fast digestion and conversion of food into fat reserves.

He decided to have Top rest in his pokeball for the day and helped Mark and Ashley hunt, as there was still much light left, but Noah noticed that Mark and Ashley seemed more proactive now, and taking more of a leading role in their hunts, and he wondered why the sudden change, not that he was complaining.

The day came and went, and after a new day, Noah awoke to the familiar sound of the forest. He couldn't help but smile, he didn't know how long it had been since he woke up refreshed, or how long has it been since he didn't dread the day before him.

Releasing Top, he found him to be in good health, and was relieved and a bit awed, if Top were a human, he would be bedridden for months, but here he was right as rain.

Opening the tent he found Ashley and Mark sitting by the remains of the campfire talking quietly, Noah noticed their tents were already packed.

Mark gave a toothy grin as he turned his head in Noah's direction, "Hey Noah, did you sleep well?"

"Yes"

The two then offered to help him pack up his tent, so he obliged.

He noticed they were acting friendlier than usual, but then he recalled yesterdays failure and reasoned that his image as the leader had likely been somewhat damaged in their eyes.

'This damned body gets too emotional…"

As they were setting off, Mark put an arm around Noah's shoulder, and in response, Noah stiffened, "We are friends are friends aren't we?"

"Sure..."

Mark replied seriously, "You can think of me like you're older brother, and if you ever need someone to talk to, I am here so don't be shy okay?"

"Me too, you can think of me as your older sister, come talk to me anytime"

"Ok.."

Inwardly Noah didn't know what to think from this, being consoled by children was a novel experience to him, he hadn't had any friends outside of work, because he didn't have such a thing as free time, and when he was younger, he had put all his effort into study.

Now though, he couldn't help but wonder if this warming feeling was what having friends was like. It wasn't a bad feeling at all.

.

As they crunched the broken leaves, a noise came, then a voice, "Oh, it's you guys."

Noah turned around and saw four boys looking haggard, and a familiar face, Nathan.

Before he could step forward, Mark took the lead, he stood up straight and eyed them up and down, "What's up, were you following us?"

The five looked at each other, and Nathan smiled, while gesturing, "We just followed the marks in the trees, and it led here."

Nathan's eyes wandered to the meat Noah and Mark had been eating as they walked, "Where'd you get that food?"

Mark narrowed his eyes, as the boys kept moving closer, "That's far enough."

They paused their steps, as another boy asked, "Can we have some food?"

Noah answered for Mark, "My Rattata ate most of it, and the last of it is what you see in our hands.

"The four boys looked at Nathan, who then spoke, "We don't believe you, how about you open your bags up for us to see?"

Noah found the pokemons levels to be three, and with very little exp to their name. He had realized the night before, that experience will decay over time, his own Rattata had lost two exp over the night, which was more or less nothing, but it was still noticeable.

"There's five of us and three of you, just give us your food and we will leave."

Mark raised his voice angrily, "You think we are easy targets? What if I say no, will you go find your own food?"

Noah felt bad for the five boys, but he couldn't be soft, these were not his friends, they were wolves who had given up hunting in favor of robbery. Even if they relented, and gave what they have, he could see that they would not let them go, he gave a mental sigh, and he wondered where this beautiful world went wrong.

Noah whispered to himself, "In a world as magical as this, why is it chaotic to the point that children are forced to fight against children..." but nobody had noticed his murmurings through the tense atmosphere, It seemed he was the only one feeling like an outsider who was looking in.

He then snapped out of it when Nathan began to lose his patience, "DO IT NOW OR YOU MIGHT GET HURT!"

Narrowing his eyes, Noah nodded to Ashley and Mark, and the three released their pokemon in a red flash of light.

In response, the five released their own pokemon, three rattata, a pidgey, as well as a spearow.

With a new focus, Noah began to address the situation swiftly, "Mark, let's eliminate the flying pokemon first, "Rattata, quick attack the pidgey!"

"You better not!" Despite the dissuasion, Top was closing in with determination.

Since leveling up, Top had shown Noah a new move, which Noah had identified to be quick attack, not only that but Mark's Rattata now knew it as well, this seemed to be normal for Rattata upon reaching level 4, so, despite the disadvantage in numbers, Noah thought they could win.

Mark shouted as well, "NATH, GO FOR THE SPEAROW!"

Ashley then gave the same order to Sar, but unfortunately, Sar was still level three, and only had tackle in his arsenal.

Soon there was chaos, the five kids didn't expect things to turn out this way, so they gave whatever orders they could after the fact.

Speeding up at the last few meters, Top slammed into a wide-eyed pidgey like the cracking of a whip, the pidgey flew without flying, and when he landed, sharp mossy stones ripped him up before the momentum ceased.

His trainer ignored the battle, and ran over to his pidgey, meanwhile, Nath had already closed in, but the spearow had already flown away, so Mark changed his focus, "Get the Rattata on the left!"

The three Rattata had prepared to intercept the lone Nath, but when Nath sped up, the Rattatas hastily made formation collapsed, as a tackling Rattata and Nath collided, quick attack against tackle.

Quick attack was just a tackle with twice the momentum and speed, so the two traded better than Mark had hoped, however, Sar rammed the rattata after the fact, sending it tumbling back, but it soon got to its feet and joined up with the other two rattata. The spearow hovered above the three Rattata, clearly ready to intervene, so now the momentum of the battle seemed to have shifted.

That's when Ashley heard Noah's voice, "Mark, Ashley return your pokemon quickly, and come with me, it won't be good to fight them like this"

"Wait, why?!"

"Just trust me alright!"

Seeing their two opponents disappear in a red flash, the four pokemon looked confounded.

Nathan pointed with a shout, "They are getting away!"

The three boys called their Rattata to pursue, but they were not together, the Ratatta that took a side tackle was lagging behind, while the spearow was much faster than all of them.

Almost out of breath from the sprinting, Noah turned back, "they are coming, release your pokemon, and follow my lead!"

Normally, pokemon would only listen to their trainer, but Sar and Nath were familiar enough with Noah, that they would listen as long as their trainers agreed with it.

With a red flash, the three pokemon were back, "Sar, lead from the front with a tackle, and engage the Spearow, if it evades, we move onto the next closest enemy, Top and Nath, you will follow Sar from the left and right, prepare to speed up and quick attack before Sar collides!"

There was quick agreement from the two, and the plan went into motion.

Seeing the humans he was chasing turn around, the spearow slowed down its flight, he was intending to wait for the others to catch up, but the curses of his trainer in the back urged him on, telling him to peck right away.