Chapter 41: Sooner

Daniel

The beginning of the fight had not been fun. My extremely extensive knowledge of this suit was that I could use the force field by holding my right arm in front of my torso, palm facing myself. The running and jumping with super strength was easy. And that was it. Fighting? I'd never really fought anyone before. I'd gone to the most expensive private school money could buy (against my will). If you even thought about creasing your blazier you'd almost get suspended. Besides, I usually got along with everyone. So throwing a punch at someone already felt as foreign as having extra limbs.

I thought about my basic knowledge of the tech I was wearing. The whole point of designing the suit was so that Trainers would be able to wear it and battle with their Pokemon. They couldn't actually get hurt from being attacked, but they could store up the energy and use it a lot like Pokemon attacks. Or use the energy as a shield.

But I had no idea how to do that. There hadn't been a manual. I had cool ideas, not the science to actually make them happen.

The red suit guy slammed into me. He'd been flying around like a Beedrill because of Metagross' Psychic attack. I really didn't like how Metagross could multitask. It wasn't fair to have to climb in the limbs of trees and launch myself at this guy. With no fighting experience or Pokemon to help me.

Really, it was a good thing Emma was stubborn and stayed to help me, or else I would have been toast.

"Daniel, act like you're throwing a punch!" I heard Emma scream at me. "Fight like you!"

What did that even mean? Fight like me? Like this was normal. Oh, sure Emma. The amount of sarcasm I wanted to throw at her. But, of course, I didn't have time to do anything but fight like me. Honestly, woman.

A fist drove into my left arm, causing me to wince as the metal crushed, but not enough to suffocate my arm. Only enough to make moving it uncomfortable. I grabbed at his neck, holding on for dear life as I tried to kick him, but missed. His body was falling forward because of my extra weight. He pushed at my elbow, breaking my grip.

I fell to the forest floor, dropping to a squat and rolling like the thirty foot drop was nothing. My eyes scanned the trees for him. I caught him kneeling on a thick branch to my right and started climbing as fast as I could. It was nice that the suit would pinpoint branches for me to grab or else I would have taken forever getting up there.

Right when I was about to fling myself at him, he turned and said, "Why didn't you listen to me?"

"You almost killed my friend," I said, shocked that he could even think that was a good question.

"Don't meddle. Everything will be taken care of," he said in this adult voice I hated, like they knew everything would be all sunshine and rainbows if we followed their stupid, fun sucking system.

"Who are you to tell me what to do? You almost killed someone. You can't just come back in time and act like I'm the one ruining everything." I changed my stance, really ready to mean my next punch.

"It would be best for all of us."

"If what?"

"If she died."

Everything inside me stopped as I took in those three words. What it would mean if that actually happened.

"You couldn't possibly mean that," I said. "Emma? Emma Ketchum?"

"You have no idea how much of a nuisance she is to the future."

"Your future?" I asked.

"Your future," he emphasized.

Mine. I took a deep breath, feeling lightheaded. "You have to have this all wrong. I mean, that's Emma. What could she possibly ever do?"

He just stared at me.

I shook my head. "You're a liar. I don't care if you're from the future. You're messed up and whatever you think is going to ruin my future, you're wrong. I trust myself to make the right decisions and I trust Emma, no matter what happens."

"I know. Which is why I plan to not give you a decision in the matter," he said as if it was a simple equation, a decision on whether to eat a piece of fruit or a vile of poison. Except his choice was the poison.

"Oh, you'll see my decision," I said, my stance changing. Along my line of vision, I saw the text 'Fighting Mode Activated' flashing. Perfect. Because I was ready to fight.

I extended my right arm out, fingers straight. A whirring unsheathing sound made me glance over, noticing a two foot blue light saber-like dagger extending from the armor above my wrist.

Also perfect.

I sprinted forward, ducking and swinging my right arm at his stomach. His shield pushed me back, but I dug deeper into it with my blade. He lost his balance and fell off the tree to be caught by Metagross' Psychic attack. He rushed up at me with his own red blade. I blocked with my own, getting low to sweep at his legs. He floated higher and jabbed at my head.

Instinctively, I blocked with my left arm, which formed a three foot high force field shield. He battered away at it, giving me an opening. I hit his side, causing the metal to spark and bash in. He kicked out with both feet, making me smash into the tree trunk. Before I could recover, I fell off the limb, cracking the one underneath as I landed on it. His feet were about to slam into me again, so I dropped to the next branch and used it to rebound, slicing my right arm at him. Unprepared, he used his force field until my blade was past him, then kicked at my right sore shoulder.

I grunted as I used my shield at the last shred of a second, but was thrown with the momentum to the left. I landed at the very end of the branch and looked down to see Emma standing in front of Metagross with no Pokemon left to protect her. My best friend. Defenseless.

"Emma!" I called out. There was no way this could end. That this guy seriously wanted to kill her. She was harmless! She had always been there for me. Ever since I met her, she'd invited me into her life. Into her home. Into her family. I would never regret anything in my life that Emma had anything to do with. Not the fights. Not the sleepless nights. Not the heartache.

But I would always regret if something bad happened to her. Especially if I could have prevented it.

Something slammed into my face in my distraction and I realized we were falling. Without thinking, I threw my weight and pulled him down underneath me. I was surprised we kept falling and he wasn't being levitated anymore, but guessed Emma had something to do with it. Either way, we hit the ground hard, though I was on top and the suit made sure I was only jarred slightly.

A high pitched sound came from his left arm and I jumped off before a red blast of energy, like a laser, missed me by inches.

"You never know what's best for you." He stood up and pointing his left arm at me.

"Not usually," I said. "But I'm willing to keep living like that. And my friends come first."

"The future," he said, starting forward with his right arm's saber extended, "is much bigger than fantasies of friendships."

"The future is my friends. It's about us. People. How we treat them. Love. And unless you see that, then there isn't a future." I dodged a swipe, but got hit by a laser blast, getting thrown backward and onto my back, the wind knocked out of me.

He stepped over me, the blade at my throat. "Stupid boy."

"I've heard worse," I said, trying to figure my way out of this. But then I saw a shadow.

I caught a glimpse of Emma standing behind him, something raised over her head. But a second later, he turned around, catching her by the throat.

"No!" I yelled, trying to get up, but his foot was pressed firmly on my chest. I tried to pry it off of me, but I didn't have a good angle to get that much force. "Let her go!"

I heard a roar. And then the pressure on my chest was gone in a flash of pale blue, Emma dropped to the ground. Crikey had him pinned to a tree, but not before being hit by a laser blast.

"Emma," I breathed, scrambling over to her body. She was gasping for breath. "Are you ok?"

Her eyes watered and she nodded, coughing.

"Stay away from here," I said firmly. "He wants you dead."

She gave me an odd look, which I took to be a mixture of fear and 'no, really?' Before I could move, she pushed something into my hand. The gun.

"Do you know what it does?" I asked.

She shook her head.

I studied it as if I would get some sort of idea what it was. Which actually turned out to be a good idea as the computer screen vision gave me some more help.

So that's what it does.

"Go hide," I said to Emma.

"What if something bad happens?" she rasped, trying to breathe. It was painful to hear.

She was right. What if something bad happened? I hadn't taken that question seriously until I knew he wanted to kill her. This really was life and death. And if I never wanted to regret anything, I wanted to make sure she couldn't ignore the obvious any longer. It didn't matter that I was in this stupid suit, and it wasn't my voice, and she couldn't see my face. She knew me and that's what really mattered.

"Emma, I will never give up on you," I promised as firmly as I could. "I love you."

I only gave myself a few seconds to study her shock. Her fear. Her vulnerability. I didn't have to hear her say anything. I knew. I'd known for years.

Maybe that was my regret. Not saying it sooner.

I stood up and pulled out the gun, ready to end this for good.

YO TRAINERS!

Daniel here again. I get end note privileges when it's my chapter. And yes, I did write this marvelous piece of work. You know how Flips was all "Oh, this story wasn't supposed to have this kind of ending!" a couple chapters back in the end note? Thank me for that. These were my ideas. Not too spiffy, right? Not bad at all.

I got distracted by a sandwich. I was hungry. And I find that important to tell all you readers out there. Oh she always thanks people for reading. Thank you, reader. You personally. Random reader. Who is reading this right now. Good job. I'd pat you on the back, but I'd rather not stalk people. So just imagine me giving you a thumbs up. With a giant grin. That'll work. But seriously, thanks for reading. Flips is great. She's got all these great stories on here and I get to be in them. And I love the attention. Then I get to write some too? Wow. I'm honored. Truly honored. Plus she buys me donuts for the work I do. So that's also a plus. I love getting paid in sugar.

Oooh I get to think of another question! Oh I can make this good.

Pokemon Question of the Day: What is the best Pokemon themed food you can think of? Make it up. Come on, make me hungry. (I'm being told this isn't a good question by a certain author. And I'm ignoring her because food is good. You ignore her too. That's what I always do.)

As much as I love writing novel end notes, I better leave you guys :P This is my chapter so as long as Flips remembers to let ME answer the comments (she's stingy like that) I should. So ask whatever questions. I love talking if you can't tell. Besides, this was a good chapter. Five stars, guys. Five stars. Encore. I'll keep using my Write attack. And it's super effective.

PEACE.

-Daniel