Cobalt in Red - Chapter 8

“Just so we’re clear, you’re talking about the little fish that’s hanging off the bigger fish, right?” Cobalt asked with a blank face. He wasn’t particularly sure if his body had caught up with the danger he was currently in, or if he was just done with today.

“Preciscely!” Easton replied with a jovial laugh.

Then they both had to run, since the ‘bigger fish’’s tail was coming at them like a wrecking ball. 

Cobalt was barely able to dive out of the way, and only managed to stay on his feet due to that one weekend he spent learning parkour recovery rolls back in college. Still though, that was close, and he did not particularly fancy the idea of becoming a pancake. 

The newly evolved water dragon opened its mouth, and Cobalt had trouble labeling what came out. He would sooner call it a shockwave, than a roar - as he felt it more than he heard it. 

Goddammit, his bones were vibrating!

He didn’t really have the time to sit there and rattle like a maraca, though, since the gyarados immediately flung itself forward towards the group. The resulting wave crashed over the bank of the river and washed the whole group backwards. He didn’t manage to keep his footing this time. Out of the corner of his eye, Cobalt saw Kong manage to leap over the wave, but Valerie was only afforded enough time to let out a high-pitched squeak before getting ragdolled in the surf. 

It wasn’t an actual surf, Cobalt noted numbly as he tried not to die. As the move would have been imbued with type energy, and would have been far more dangerous to contend with. This was just a large body displacing water - with extreme violence. 

“Kong! Throw shit at it!” He yelled, scrambling to his feet.

“Mank?!” 

“Impromptu lesson!” He ducked as the giant sea monster swung its head to the side, whipping the attached magikarp around like a flail. “Dark energy! Put it into rocks, then throw!”

This was probably not the best time to be learning a new move, but Kong didn’t have any ranged options at the moment, and while the spherical monkey could take a hit better than Cobalt, guerilla tactics were going to keep them alive for the next five minutes. Fling was something a mankey could learn via TM in the games, so Kong could theoretically learn it. 

He was banking on the fact that the little bastard could already use dark type energy, though. It might take him longer than they could-

A barely visible blur cut across his vision, and pelted the gyarados in the eye, making it reel backwards. 

Did-

What?

Another blur. Another hit. Another roar, courtesy of the mighty blue fish. 

“That’s bullshit,” Cobalt muttered. “I mean, it’s good bullshit - but still bullshit.” The gyarados’s attention had been suitably usurped, and he took that moment to bolt out of immediate reach.

“Keep peltin’ it!” He yelled out after coming to a stop. “Quick attack, and agility to keep out of reach! Stay in the trees, unless you’re getting ammo!” There were plenty of river stones to grab, so Cobalt would make himself useful and start collecting in a moment. 

“Man-key!” Kong called back, a few stones held in the crook of his arm as he hung from a tree by his tail - already a couple steps ahead.

Fling was a weird move. His first interaction with it was when he was four, when Haunter learned it. The asshole had spent a whole month throwing paper airplanes at his forehead, and only stopped because his mother had caught him in the act.

As a move, fling did three things, he found. The first was to disguise the projectile. Similar to how Kong looked when covered in dark type energy - light, sound, smell, every form of perception just seemed to glide over it. It became a void in your senses when properly mastered. Kong wasn’t entirely there yet, as seen by the fact that he could still see it fly through the air - however blurry it was. 

The second and third things the move did, were to augment aim and power. Cobalt wouldn’t say the move was homing - it wasn’t nearly as bullshit as swift, but the dark type energy seemed to emulate gravity to a certain extent - or maybe magnetism? Either way, Haunter’s paper airplanes never failed to hit him directly between the eyes. Always the same spot, even early-on in the move’s mastery. 

Granted, he was four, and Haunter was a professional asshole, so he didn’t necessarily have the skill to dodge all that well. Still, the move was pulled to the target as it flew, which is where the augmented power came from, as well. The thrown object seemed to speed up, as if it was falling, rather than given any particular boost. The actual damage of the move came entirely from the object itself, plus that ‘gravity.’ That was the reason - Cobalt supposed - that the heavier, or sharper items in the games, did more damage when flung. 

One thing he wanted to figure out was how the target was specified. Fling could feasibly be the best sniping move that existed - if it could be triggered from far enough away, and just let a fist-sized, undetectable, semi-homing rock reach terminal velocity. 

Cobalt briefly fantasized about giving Kong a tungsten rod, and pointing at a mountain from miles away. Images of glorious topographical devastation, however, were interrupted by more immediate problems. Namely the giant, blue noodle about to kill him.

He had gradually made his way towards the riverbank, to try and collect some rocks for Kong, but getting anywhere near the water at this point was not the best idea - especially not down stream. That point was punctuated by another wave getting sent his way, which he had to scramble to avoid.

“Is anyone gonna help?!” He yelled back towards Easton and Valerie.

“Why? You seem to be doing fine.” 

Cobalt yelped, and dropped all of his collected stones. Easton’s grinning visage appeared as if from thin air, just outside of his peripheral. The boy’s sudden appearance almost made him miss the gurgling noise, and shadow ball fly towards the gyarados from Valerie’s last known location. 

At least someone was helping. He saw Valerie’s sableye float away from a giant set of chomping jaws, so Kong wasn’t taking all the aggro. The other kid, though… Cobalt was starting to think Easton was an SCP - or some other, mildly benevolent eldritch horror in the shape of a child. It was either that, or this kid had the ear of a mythical, or legendary - and despite his denial, Cobalt was leaning towards Dialga. 

“Are you even human?” He asked, not expecting a clear answer.

“I’m a magikarp trainer!” 

“Yep.” Cobalt deadpanned.

Speaking of magikarp, the feisty one was still clamped firmly on the gyarados’s whisker, even though it was being used as a weapon against Kong, Sabie, and the surrounding foliage. 

Cobalt ducked around Easton, and bottled towards the action, tossing a few stones around the field. Kong was definitely out of ammo by now, and was just trying to avoid getting hit. The good thing was that the gyarados was out of the water, now. 

Time to stop playing passive.

“Quick attack in, then hit it with fury swipes!” He called out. “Do not get hit! Prioritize dodging over damage!” 

Kong didn’t hesitate. His form blurred, and then he was behind the raging blue fish. The following hits didn’t seem to do all that much, but Cobalt could tell it was starting to get tired. The accumulated damage from the flung rocks, and shadow balls, whatever energy boost it had gotten from evolution dispersing, and the fact that it was out of water was all piling up. Kong, on the other hand, seemed mostly fine. He was breathing heavily, but he hadn’t taken any damage yet.

Even still, he was starting to wish he had used that TM he was saving. It would have given Kong a bit of a safety net for this, even if he didn’t want to spread his starter too thin. Learning too many things at once was a detriment to understanding, after all. 

Whatever, he’d deal with it later. In the meantime, he looked back to his partner. “In and out! Make it turn its head! Magikarp!” He called, hoping the angry little fish would listen to him. “Use flail when I say!” 

Kong’s eyes gleamed in understanding, and dashed forward in a quick attack, getting the big noodle’s attention. He immediately had to jump over a tail, and sidestep a bite that cratered the ground where he had been standing, but he stayed close - in range. It was a dangerous place to be, but it kept the fish’s attention. 

The ground at Kong’s feet dusted as he started to run a circle around the gyarados, careful to time it in between attacks. Then with a burst of agility, he thrust back in the opposite direction, dragging the sea monster’s gaze with him - and consequently, the rest of its body, including the attached magikarp. 

“Now!” Cobalt yelled, and was not left disappointed. 

Through some fragment of the magikarp’s remaining consciousness, as it had to be on its last dregs, it heard Cobalt’s call. As the gyarados’s head spun, the magikarp swung like the tip of a whip off of the bigger fish’s whisker, right into the far side of its massive face. And, with a spike of normal type energy, the smaller fish flexed at the exact right moment, carrying all that momentum into a single hit. 

Later, Cobalt would swear he heard a sonic boom at that moment. 

The gyarados was sent tumbling with a pained cry, but annoyingly enough, it wasn’t down. 

This is where Cobalt’s understanding of the world started to die a confusing death. This was a newly evolved gyarados, so by video game logic, it should only be around level twenty, right? Maybe even less, if there was some sort of anger-induced evolution that the games didn’t let you trigger. 

Regardless, the damn thing should have taken enough of a beating to go down by this point. He had already established that there was a natural move-learning progression that seemed to go along with the games, so Cobalt had been under the impression that there was some sort of soft level system in the background. 

If he wanted to equate what he was seeing with the games though, he would have to assume that the great blue noodle was a much higher level, stat wise. Though it hadn’t used any moves past bite, tackle, and flail, so its natural progression was still relatively low. 

Really, the only conclusion he could come to was that there was a discrepancy in certain species’ abilities that wasn’t portrayed in the games. 

He always wondered why oddish had a higher attack stat than onix. He should have guessed that it was a bullshit effort to balance the games. He really should have thought more about this years ago, when he was re-learning the type charts. 

The games had simplified it. Pokemon weren’t limited to one or two types, for one, though most did lean heavily into a couple. Kong, for instance, due to his heritage, was more of a fighting/dark type, than pure fighting. So a trainer could never take one look at an opposing pokemon and be able to counter it. For instance, if a trainer was trying to beat a traditional bug type pokemon, most would say a fire type was a good answer. But what if that bug had a water type parent? 

Fire would be significantly less effective. 

Then there was the other thing. Being the fact that gyarados had obvious dragon type features and tendencies. And in this world? Dragons were broken. 

Cobalt had to throw out everything he knew about them from the games. They were resistant to every type of attack, except for other dragon type moves. Though… he was holding out hope for fairy type, which had yet to be discovered. Then, if that weren’t enough, dragon type attacks were also ‘super effective’ against everything - except maybe fairy. Cobalt was pretty sure that the random ice type weakness dragons had in the games was entirely because someone saw the fight between Pryce and Oak during the war. 

It was the only time Oak’s dragonite had been defeated. Ever.

So yeah. Dragons were OP, and it made sense why Game Freak nerfed them, otherwise nobody would play with anything else.

That’s not to say that they were the be-all, end-all, though. For one, they were stupendously rare. Gyarados were the most common dragon by far, and they barely counted as such - even the games said they were primarily flying/water types. Then there was the fact that they don’t respect anything less powerful than themselves. Any trainer that tried giving them orders was more likely to get eaten. 

It’s why the Blackthorns were so respected. It’s why, even after the musical chairs, hot-potato, champion seat confusion that happened after the first Indigo conference, Lance still held the seat. Basically, Blue Oak, had won the crown from Lance, then was overthrown five seconds later by Red. Then Red decided to fuck off into obscurity, and left it open for Blue - but then Blue decided to fuck off as well, and became the gym leader for Viridian. 

Lance was decidedly pissed off for a while after that. Two kids had essentially just invaded his home, took a shit on his pillow, and then left. 

But all of that was besides the point, and was an entirely out of place reflection when fighting for one’s life - as Cobalt was currently doing. The point was that dragons were entirely beatable, if with extreme effort - or insanity. 

“I have found a throwable object!” Easton’s chipper voice called from the riverbank. 

“Give it to Kong!” Cobalt yelled back, then got himself in position for the next bout of bullshit. The magikarp, somehow, was still attached to the gyarados’s whisker, so he might as well use it. 

“Kong!” He called. “On my mark, fling, low kick, then jump to me and fly high!” 

Kong glanced at him briefly with a look that said, “with what wings, asshole?!” 

“It’ll make sense!” Probably. If it worked. He then turned to the gyarados, who had just finished shaking off the last hit. “Hey! You great big, freaky dildo! It’s time for an anger management class!” 

A massive, utterly livid head turned in his direction, affording the ten year old a single moment to wonder if this was a good idea, before the beast charged.

Cobalt threw away his hesitation, grinned the grin of a madman, and started a charge of his own. 

Cobalt wished someone had caught the next bit on camera. He would forever lament the fact that portable cameras weren’t all that common. Hell, the Pokedex had only just been invented - the hardware only available to specific trainers under Oak’s purview. Pokenavs, xtransceivers, and the like were still in development as well, and would likely take another year or two to see storefronts. 

So with technology where it was, there would be no proof of the absolute badassery that was about to happen. 

“Fling!” He jerked to the side at the last second, feinting his charge at the gyarados, and grabbed hold of its other whisker - the one that the magikarp wasn’t attached to - (was that a quilfish?) - and held on as it staggered from the missed target, and Kong’s first hit. 

“Low kick!” He ordered, hanging on for dear life - (that was definitely a whole-ass quilfish stuck into the side of the gyarados’s head. The fuck, Easton? Those weren’t even native to Kanto!) - and swung around to the fish’s back, where he grabbed hold of its other whisker. 

A half second later, Kong’s attack landed and had the desired effect; making the big fucker fall over. He barely managed to hold steady, pulling back on the giant noodle’s whiskers, like the reins on a horse’s bridle, steering it into the ground. 

“Magikarp!” Cobalt grabbed the barely conscious fish, and pulled it from the whisker. “On the way down, use tackle.” 

It blinked at him in utter confusion. “Karp?”

He felt Kong perch on his shoulder - limbs tense, and gripping with more force than was probably necessary. Cobalt ignored it in favor of handing Kong the orange fish. 

“Hold this,” he said quickly, then, “Gonna throw you up now, bud.”

“Key?!/Karp?!”

“Here we go!” He grabbed Kong by the leg, reared back, and fucking launched the puffball, and accompanying fish upwards into the air. Then, after regaining his balance, he quickly dived off the downed gyarados, and started running. 

“Seismic toss!” 

Somehow, through some cosmic ordinance, or contrived bullshit - Cobalt’s plan worked. It shouldn’t have. It really shouldn’t have. A newly evolved gyarados is usually followed by disaster. By tragedy and destruction - by at least a few dead bodies. Objectively, there was absolutely no reason why Cobalt and his friends should have survived the day. 

“MAGIKAAAAARP!”

The orange fish came down as if sent from god. Like a comet with a vendetta.

Cobalt huffed, trying not to fall over in his exhaustion. The fight was over. He was pretty sure the gyarados was dead - as anything would be with their head caved in like that - but his new fishy friend seemed fine, breathing hard on the ground next to the corpse. He wasn’t sure how that worked out the way it did, but he wasn’t going to question it. 

Kong seemed too stunned by the whole ordeal to be angry with him, and Valerie just stared at the giant blue noodle like she was having trouble accepting reality. 

Everyone was waterlogged. Everyone was tired. Everyone was done with the day and just wanted to sleep. 

Everyone besides Easton, that is, who looked positively giddy. 

“You’ll do quite well, Cobalt Kent,” the boy grinned at him. “Quite well indeed.”