Chapter 143:  A Rocky Start (Part B) by Michael Keens/Exodus  

Ellie continued her run to catch a more reliable Pokémon, but again due to 
lack of food and exhaustion, she had to stop and regain her bearings and 
vision.  
“This isn’t fair, and it’s all Dad’s fault, I bet Sneak would prefer to be 
trained by him, I should have been allowed to train my Kecleon from scratch!”  
“Treecko Treecko...” said her target a short distance away.  
“What a spot of luck, I’ve caught up.  But how do I weaken it without Sneak?”  
Ellie searched her surroundings for a projectile, but only found dried berries 
lying around.  
“This won’t be enough, Sneak?”  
She scooped up the Pokéball and held it while activating it so that Sneak 
appeared next to her.  
“I promise I’ll reward you if you just help me catch this Pokémon, and, if you 
want or don’t want to battle, I’ll respect your choice.”  
“Leon?”  
“But only if you do your part to catch this Treecko.”  
“Kecleon.” it shrugged, climbing up another tree and standing there.  
“Is he preparing to attack or just slaking off?...  Guess I’ll find out...”  
With that Ellie hurled the berry with moderate precision, she enjoyed various 
sports activities and so had some experience when it came to pitching round 
objects, this was always a useful skill for trainers.  
The berry splattered on the Treecko’s back, and it turned its head slowly and 
glared at Ellie.  
“Oh no...”  
Before it reacted, another berry hit it in the face, its gaze shot up to 
Ellie’s Kecleon, holding a bunch of berries and laughing.  
Ellie sighed; it obviously found that amusing, and had luckily taken the 
attention away from her, the sole blame was on him now.  
“Treec-Ko!!!” shouted the Pokémon, dashing forward on all fours and scaling 
the tree, once it reached Sneak’s height, it pushed against the tree to propel 
itself away from it and towards its target.  
In mid-air, it’s spun its body so that its tails rotated around to deal the 
hit, but in the blink of an eye, its target had disappeared.  
Landing gracefully on the end of the branch, it didn’t have time to turn its 
head before an onslaught of dark energy clubbed it hard, it had to shake 
itself to clear its vision as specs of the attack floated around it which 
affected its sight temporarily.  
“So that’s Astonish.” smiled Ellie, “What a cool attack.”  
Sneak had vanished again and backed away slowly but the Treecko glared at the 
empty branch, save for the small pile of berries, and now that it was 
focussing rather than being hasty and overlooking things it now saw a red 
zigzag with red specs of berry juice dotted around.  
As it glared, Ellie shouted, “Sneak! Watch out! It can see you!”  
Too late, the Treecko pounced and tore forward with a white light shooting 
behind it.  
It smashed against Sneak as it shot past, and touched down against the tree 
and prepared another Quick Attack.  
Sneak had been tossed into the air due to the speed and power of the move and 
now fell, right into the path of the Treecko’s next attack.  
“Snap out of it! Use Tail Whip!”  
The Kecleon’s eyes shot open as it realised where it was and the imminent 
danger, its tail uncurled and stretched out to a line, Sneak spun once and the 
long tail shot down to hit the charging Treecko hard.  
Unfortunately, due to Quick Attack’s accuracy ratio, the Kecleon was still 
clipped and skidded across the tree branch towards the tree itself while the 
Treecko lost its balance.  
It fell off the tree and Ellie tightened her fists and breathed through 
clenched teeth in anticipation.  
But the Treecko spun, and landed on its curved tails which cushioned the 
fall.  
Ellie decided to give the Pokéball another try, she was glared at as she did 
so and the Treecko nimbly flipped over the Pokéball as it was thrown.  
As it landed, a black aura could be seen around it, rising like fire, and a 
dark expression showed in the Treecko’s eyes which turned to the Kecleon 
above.  
Ellie quickly took the opportunity to draw out her Pokédex in an attempt to 
analyse the attack.  

“Treecko, the Wood Gecko Pokémon.  Treecko has the ability to scale vertical 
walls with ease and has an exceptionally strong tail.  These Pokémon tend to 
be territorial and never back down from a fight.”  

“And now that attack.” Ellie stated, flicking through different menus until 
she found what she needed.  
“Pound, Leer, Absorb, Quick Attack...  Pursuit? That must be it.  Now what was 
it Dad said about that attack?...” Ellie noted, panic in her voice while the 
Treecko was done charging and ran forward with amazing speed towards the 
tree.  
“Sneak!” Ellie shouted upon realisation, “Don’t try to run! Stay there, 
concentrate and-”  
“TREEC-KO!!!” bellowed the Treecko, scrambling up the tree with the black aura 
still burning away.  
“Leon!...” shivered Sneak with clenched teeth and fearful eyes, before turning 
tail and retreating up the tree.  
“No! Pursuit has a greater chance of hitting and enhanced power if it damages 
a retreating Pokémon!” shouted Ellie, “It’s all show and weak if you stand 
your ground and brace it or even dodge it!”  
If Sneak had trust in its trainer it might have taken the rightful advice, 
after years of tutoring, Ellie knew virtually all attacks used by Kanto and 
Johto Pokémon, but her Kecleon neither trusted nor respected her, and its 
sudden fear coupled with the former two factors would be its downfall.  
Ellie had to hold a hand by her forehead to see the results in the highest 
point of the tree through the sunlight.  
A thundering sound echoed outwards, as did ring-like waves of black.  
“Leeeeeon!!!” squealed Sneak, catapulted out of the foliage and landing hard 
on the highest branch.  
“Tree-” the opponent growled as it dropped to land on the branch close to the 
trunk.  
“Leon!” cried a cross Sneak, its long tongue shooting out but missing the 
nimble Treecko.  
“Kecleon!” shouted Ellie’s Pokémon, lunging forward with a flash of black 
occurring as it attempted to use the technique Thief to deal Dark-type damage 
(and steal anything the Treecko might have on it).  
“TREE!” growled the Treecko, its eyes a red colour.  
“Don’t freeze up, Leer is just a scare tactic!” cried Ellie, but her Pokémon 
messed up its attack as a result of not doing so and crashed in front of the 
Treecko.  
“Treec-Ko!” shouted the opponent, and with a swift movement of its tail, the 
tree branch was sliced from the tree and the Kecleon took a fall.  
“Sneak!!!” screamed Ellie, running forward but not making it in time.  
The Kecleon hit the ground and bounced into a lake, the impact knocking it 
unconscious.  
Ellie selflessly and without thinking dived in and swam after her Pokémon, 
despite the lack of strength to do so.  
As she did, the Treecko standing above watched with interest...  

“Sneak!...  SNEAK!!!” shouted Ellie, her Pokémon just out of reach, “Wake 
up!!!”  
“Kec...” it muttered, “Kec...”  
“It’ll be alright, everything will-” said Ellie before looking ahead at the 
inevitable waterfall, “... Go horribly wrong.”  
A gust of wind could be felt whooshing by despite the pull of the river and 
the amount of water on Ellie, she wondered what it was before using what 
strength she had left to push forward towards her Kecleon, but she wouldn’t 
make it to him in time, and her Pokémon in its state might not survive the 
fall.  
A long vine suddenly uncurled and shot across the width of the river.  
“Sneak! Wake up! Grab the vine!” called Ellie.  
“Kec... Kec... Leon?...  LEON!” it said upon waking, its tongue shooting out 
and wrapping around a tree branch.  
“Well thanks for your concern for your trainer.” sighed Ellie, grabbing the 
vine herself and climbing her way out.  
She made it to the ground, but the vine broke under the strain, and Ellie took 
a small tumble down a steep slope down to the bottom.  
She lay on the ground a couple of minutes before observing the damages, her 
bag had opened up in the river and some items were missing, including her 
water flask, her hat had managed to remain with her and even her Pokéball was 
safely tucked away in her clothing despite the strong pull of the river, as 
for her Pokémon, it was up in a tree greedily munching on berries to get its 
strength up.  
“You’re okay...” said Ellie weakly, before wincing at her aching body, and how 
little strength she had due to the exhaustion and emptiness inside her.  
“Selfish Pokémon.” she added seriously, “What’s it going to take for you to 
care remotely about me?...”  
A tear ran down her face, “Because of you I was forced to run away from my 
parents, distance myself from my friends, I’m all alone and I’ve got no one 
now!...”  
Ellie’s crying was growing stronger as she lay motionless, “I’m starving, 
hurt, and I can’t even move anymore.  All because of you and because I went 
out of my way for you!... And you won’t even offer me any food from that huge 
supply up there...”  
“K-” Sneak was about to say something and maybe even be reasonable towards its 
trainer but a noise was heard which made it hide behind some leaves.  
“Treecko.” spoke the Treecko, brushing by some bushes with some items in its 
hands and tail.  
Ellie tried to speak but couldn’t seem to find or voice any words.  
In the Treecko’s hands were some berries and in its tail, curled up to make a 
bowl shape, was water within.  
It slowly fed the berries into Ellie’s mouth, making sure not to insert more 
than she could manage, and finishing by carefully tilting its tail to feed 
Ellie the water.  
“Treecko...  You were the one who saved us... well, me at least.”  
“Treecko.” it nodded, its expression fairly stern but some compassion hidden 
within.  
“Leon!” said Sneak crossly, before a long tongue scraped up the Treecko’s face 
strongly so that it paralysed it completely.  
“Sneak! We were having a moment!” snapped Ellie, before sighing, “Guess I may 
as well do this...”  
A fresh Pokéball was thrown, though not as hard and swift as Ellie had 
previously done, it contacted the Treecko and dragged it inside.  
Ellie stood patiently, unsure of what to feel for her choice, she’d return the 
kindness if the Treecko became hers but felt a little guilty for being 
heartless in catching it after what’d it’d done.  
“If this goes badly, I’m blaming you Sneak.”  
“Kec?!” spluttered Sneak a little, before frowning, who knows; maybe the 
Kecleon would have been more friendly towards Ellie there and then had she not 
said that, but quite frankly her Starter Pokémon had pushed her too far 
today.  

Within the Pokéball, surrounded in energy, the Treecko was a little weakened 
while the technology within attempted to lock and contain it, but it was more 
a struggle in its mind since it was quite a strong Treecko.  
It was a little surprised in being caught after it had made things right for 
the trouble it had caused, and a part of it simply felt sorry for the abysmal 
young girl, it made a decision...  
The Pokéball let out a low tone note and the button on it changed green to 
signify the Treecko’s capture.  
Ellie lifted the Pokéball and held it in a warm embrace, “I promise I’ll take 
good care of you, we’ll make Sneak jealous of Our friendship...” she smiled, 
before adding “My Shredder.”  
She turned to the tree where Sneak had a more uncertain expression on its face 
than usual, maybe now it would shape up now that it had competition, “Return 
Sneak.  I think my journey’s finally about to get...”  
Taking a couple of steps forward, Ellie’s body failed on her, the food hadn’t 
quite reached her stomach and therefore not restored her strength like she 
thought, so she collapsed on the ground.  
Luckily, a passing trainer noticed and ran towards her, Eric, the trainer from 
the beach, “Hey Miss, are you alright?...”  

End of Chapter 143B  

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