Chapter 62:  Different Paths (Part B) by Michael Keens/Exodus  

Chad and Carrie quickly chased the suspicious characters through the alley 
they had come through, and travelled through it for about a minute before 
coming to a dead end.  
“Where’d they go?!”  
“Sneaky little so and so’s aren’t they?” mused Chad, before a loud clang 
occurred as he fell to the floor.  
The two characters, apparently male and female from their differing costumes 
had been hiding in a secret area in the walls above, and had just hit Chad 
hard with metal batons.  
“No good suspicious characters!” yelled the male, wearing blue with an orange 
scarf.  
“Thought you could sneak up on the Shadow Assembly huh?” added the female, 
dressed in purple but with cat-like ear shapes on her helmet and yellow 
ribbons.  
The two continued to beat at Chad until he fell to the floor, and then 
continued to hit him.  
This was an apparent mistake, as Carrie was left standing in all this and 
Chad’s apparent pain reminded her of the memories that made her fiery rage 
burn.  
“Take that! And that! And Ow!!!” screamed the male as a shrieking female 
tackled him and literally started to beat him after landing a short distance 
from Chad, “Ow! Oh God that hurts!”  
“Carrie?” questioned Chad as he looked up, one baton hit him in the back and 
the next swipe was easily caught in Chad’s large hand, “Stop that! It’s 
annoying!”  
With ease he threw the female by hurling the baton she held onto tightly, but 
didn’t think in that he’d thrown her in Carrie’s direction.  
“What’s going on over there, how is she?!...” stuttered the female in 
realisation before Carrie threw the male by his leg into his partner, 
propelling the two past a sidestepping Chad and crashing.  
“Damn what did she eat for breakfast?!” the male groaned, while his partner 
stood up and tried to look remotely in control of the situation.  
“You surprised us, we’ve never seen any non-evil team female act that way, but 
that’s all the fun you’re going to get.”  
“If you hadn’t noticed, you’ve just become trapped, and you won’t be able to 
fight off our Pokémon as easily.  Ready Sachi?”  
“You bet Caleb.  Go Shiver!”  
“Swinub!” answered the female’s woolly pig-like Pokémon.  
“Squash!”  
“Shuckleluckle.” grunted a strange yellow tentacled Pokémon inside a red 
shell.  
“Are you... you know...  Stable?” questioned Chad to Carrie.  
“They were hurting you; I guess I kind of snapped.”  
“They only caught me off guard, I can take far worse than that, these muscles 
aren’t just for show you know.”  
Carrie nodded and released a Pokémon along with Chad...  

Scott, Professor Elm, Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny and the male stranger entered 
the North Bark Forest.  
“So you are?” questioned Scott.  
“... Jayce.” the guy answered, “And I’m here to get back that Cyndaquil.”  
“I’m Scott.”  
Scott turned away from Jayce, something didn’t seem honest about the way he 
talked, he approached Officer Jenny instead, “What’s this thief looking at if 
she’s found?”  
“Depends on the circumstances I suppose.  If she’s in anyway connected to a 
criminal group, then a prison sentence, anything else and it’s a removal of 
her Trainer’s License if she has one.  Pokémon thefts are taken very 
seriously.”  
“Hmmmm...” sighed Scott, it didn’t sound good for whoever they were searching 
for.  
“That’s strange.” said Jenny, “Now Growlithe is picking up a similar scent but 
in three directions.”  
“Guess we should split up then, I should go with someone like Elm or Joy, the 
ones without Pokémon.”  
“That’s thoughtful of you Scott.” said Joy.  
“Then I guess I should travel with this trainer.” said Elm, before 
adding, “Have we met?”  
“I doubt it Sir, I’m Jayce.”  
“Okay, if any of you find anything, just yell or have your Pokémon give a sign 
that can be seen or heard.” said Jenny, carrying on alone, the others taking 
the other routes.  

Elm and Jayce didn’t get very far very fast, as Elm’s attention was constantly 
diverted by the wild Pokémon he insisted on studying, but after checking two 
Hoothoots and then a lone Spinarak sleeping, he turned back to his path to 
find that Jayce had forgotten about him... or ran off ahead to lose him...  

It wasn’t long before Jenny’s Growlithe tracked down something.  
“A Chansey? In the middle of the woods? Do you belong to Nurse Joy?”  
“Chan-Sey!” she shouted, sticking out her tongue and pulling on an eyelid 
before running.  
Jenny, unsure of what else to do decided to follow it for now.  

Scott and Joy on their route came across a passive Gloom, and since it was a 
Grass Pokémon in a forest, they disregarded it and passed by it... until a 
blast of Sleep powder shot by and nearly got them if not for Scott noticing 
and pulling Joy aside.  
“Little Gloom’s got a problem...” said Scott as he turned to it.  
He drew a Pokéball, staring down the Pokémon as he did so.  
“ONNNN!!!” growled Shard, appearing with its head at the height of the trees 
and having to bend and shift to get below the leaves and see what Scott called 
it out for.  
“Wait a minute.” said Scott, noticing something in the Gloom as it fell back 
wide-eyed and started shivering, before shaking away the fear and preparing to 
fight.  
“Return.” said Scott, “Sorry Shard, false alarm.”  
As it disappeared, Joy looked at Scott with a confused expression, “What are 
you doing Scott?”  
“That Pokémon’s expressions, the fact it thinks it can take on my Onix, and 
maybe win.  It’s not a wild Pokémon.”  
“The thief’s?”  
“No.  It’s Emily’s, and if I’m on the right track, she’s gonna need my help.”  
He tossed her a Pokéball and started running after the Gloom that had began to 
do so too, “I’ve got to get a move on, if you run into any trouble, use my 
Raichu!”  
Scott sprinted for about a minute before properly catching up, enough to dive 
on top of it.  
“Stop struggling, I won’t hurt you.  You’re Emily’s Pokémon, aren’t you?”  
“Gloom...”  
“Emily’s the one we’re looking for, isn’t it? That’s why she left you behind, 
to divert her scent around different areas.”  
“Gloom Gloom.”  
“Take me to her, you probably don’t remember who I am but she must have 
mentioned me, I’m Scott...”  

“I may have lost them, but now what am I gonna do? I’m sure Scott knows me 
well enough to believe me but what if I run into anyone else?...  If I don’t 
find him I’ll have to move on alone, avoid everyone until Tetsubo can help me 
out... provided he doesn’t hear of this and think I’m a thief.  It has been a 
long time since we actually saw each other...”  
“You Are a thief.  Or at least that’s what everyone’ll think.” said Jayce 
wearing a dark smirk, “Now give back My Cyndaquil, or you’re gonna be a thief 
with permanent scars.”  
“I wouldn’t give this to you if I wanted to.”  
“Scars it is.”  
“You wouldn’t...”  
“I Would.” smiled Jayce, drawing two Pokéballs and throwing them.  
“Stant-LER!!!”  
“GRAN-BULL!!!”  
The strange antlered deer and purple bulldog Pokémon wore evil expressions and 
charged straight for Emily with a look and nod from their trainer.  
Emily’s eyes widened and her pupils narrowed as she covered her face and 
screamed, she had no Pokémon to fight with... or did she?...  
“QUIL!!!” squealed the Fire Pokémon attached to her, the spots on its back 
bursting into a huge flame which shot outwards at the two Pokémon.  
They backed off to avoid some minor burns but even this wouldn’t be enough to 
defeat them.  
“Such power...” growled Jayce, “Why wouldn’t you do that for me?!”  
“Because you’re horrible!” shouted Emily, “I don’t know how you got your 
Trainer’s License, but you’re the last person that should be allowed to own 
Pokémon!”  
“Cynda!” nodded the Cyndaquil, letting go of Emily at last and facing the 
enemy Pokémon.  
“Oh...  It’s nice of you to stand up for me Quil… Cynda…  Whatever you are, 
but you’re low level, you can’t hope to-”  
“Stantler!!!”  
“BULL!!!”  
“Rill!!!”  
“Mareeeeeeep!!!”  
The latter two voices were a blessing, as a jet of water forced the Stantler 
to slip up and a bolt of lightning threw the Granbull back.  
“I told you to lead my pursuers away!...” moaned Emily to her Marill and 
Mareep, but sighing happily, “But you must have known I needed your help.  
Thank you...”  
“This isn’t over!” shouted Jayce, “Just because I’m out to steal a Pokémon, 
doesn’t mean I don’t know how to handle them! Attack again! Beat those 
amateurs!”  
As they charged, Elm appeared, “There you are, you forgot about me.”  
Jayce figured he didn’t hear his last statement and motioned for the Pokémon 
to stop for a moment, “She’s fighting back, I was just about to render her 
Pokémon useless and retrieve the Cyndaquil.”  
“He’s lying! It came to me willingly seeking protection from him!” Emily 
argued.  
Elm turned to Emily, and the Cyndaquil in front of her with its flame 
blazing, “Don’t speak.  I’m convinced...  Convinced that you’ve been lying to 
everyone Jayce!”  
“Excuse me?! I’m the innocent one!” Jayce shouted.  
“Then why is the Cyndaquil facing you with its flame lit? I trained that thing 
myself so I know what I’m talking about...  And I Do recognise you! You were 
hanging around my lab recently, obviously waiting for my back to turn.”  
“You’re right Elm, but stay back! You don’t have any Pokémon to defend you!” 
threatened Jayce.  
“Aqua! Water Gun!” called Emily while she had the chance.  
The frightened Marill sent several blasts forward but the Stantler was 
prepared, and moved to the sides to run around them, with a strong Head Butt 
Aqua went flying, bounced on the floor, and then simply hid behind Emily.  
Beam was next, and ordered to shock the Granbull some more, but each time it 
fired, the Granbull stopped moving and grounded itself to reduce electrical 
damage, and used Dynamicpunch once it was close enough to utterly defeat the 
Mareep with heavy damage.  
“All you have left is that Cyndaquil, and it’s not got the strength to beat 
these Pokémon, you’ve got nothing strong enough to overcome me.” Jayce said 
triumphantly.  
“Wrong!” shouted Scott, a strong punch hitting Jayce in the face and throwing 
him to the floor, “She’s got Friends.”  

“Shuckle!” shouted one of the enemy Pokémon, propelling itself forward in a 
spin to Head Butt Chad’s Pokémon hard.  
“You know what to do!” called Chad with a wide mouthed grin and a finger 
pointing forward to his Pokémon.  
“Wobbaaaa-Fet!!!” it squealed, its black tail rising and an orange shield 
surrounding its rubbery blue body.  
The Shuckle was repelled and though Chad’s Pokémon was dealt damage, the 
Shuckle was dealt double the pain.  
“I love your counter-attacks Agitate!”  
“Fet!” it nodded in agreement with a happy tone, which could be seen even 
through its thin triangular eyes and zigzag mouth.  

“Powder Snow Shiver.”  
“Zip, duck down!”  
Carrie’s dragonfly Pokémon, a Yanma with constantly fast moving wings easily 
hovered down as the Swinub sent a small flurry of ice into the air.  
“Sonic Boom!”  
The Yanma altered its position so that its thin body was vertical and aiming 
at the enemy, the wings buzzed faster and a small cyclone was produced from 
each one to slam into the Swinub.  
“Icy Wind!”  
Carrie’s Pokémon couldn’t come out of this stance quickly enough and the 
larger gale of ice hit it dead on and weakened it.  
The Swinub charged forward though its feet couldn’t be seen and leapt up for a 
Take Down assault.  
“Double Team!”  
The Yanma appeared to split into several to each side and the Swinub passed 
through one of the fakes.  
“Giga Drain!” cheered Carrie.  
“Swinnnne!!!” squealed the enemy as it was drained a lot of its health to 
restore the Yanma’s, but a flash twinkled in its eyes, and it grounded its 
feet for the remainder of the attack.  
“It’s over...  Isn’t it?!” smiled Carrie before gasping in shock, the Swinub’s 
twinkle dispersed as its Endure technique saved it from fainting and it ran 
forward, when it got close, it ran in a circle around the Yanma so fast that 
fakes followed it and it was too hard to tell which one was the original.  
Occasionally it used Rock Smash to pound the floor and send several shards up 
to hurt the Yanma little by little and deplete its defence to zero.  
“Yan... Yan...” it groaned and panicked.  
“Calm down Zip, you know how this attack works, focus and use Foresight.”  
“Yanma...” it hummed, the real Swinub was seen through its eyes in a red 
colour and everything else didn’t show, Zip then dived, taking a couple of 
small hits to get close to the enemy.  
Carrie figured it was over but the Swinub leapt out of its run and used Quick 
Attack, this cancelled out her Tackle and her Yanma crashed, while the enemy 
charged back to finish the battle.  
“Its too fast, and we only need one more direct hit.  I know! Use Swagger!”  
The Yanma weakly lifted itself up and hovered in random directions, white 
spheres floated towards the Swinub and raised its attack strength highly, but 
confused it too.  
The Swinub looked dizzy and uncoordinated; it leapt for Zip but missed and 
crashed into the wall.  
“We did it Zip!” cheered Carrie.  

“Sludge Bomb Squash!” shouted Caleb.  
“Don’t panic Agitate, quickly use Safeguard!”  
A white transparent wavering curtain was seen rising up and enshrouding the 
Wobbuffet before fading completely, the Shuckle had just attacked and hurled a 
Poison based attack forward.  
The glob of filth hit Agitate but was repelled in the same fashion as before 
through Counter, the Wobbuffet sunk down a little from the damage but the 
Safeguard technique protected it from status changes like becoming poisoned.  
The remainder of the attack was sent back at the Shuckle, the yellow slippery 
parts of it retreated into its shell but the poison hit regardless and dripped 
and ran into the holes, it came out soon enough, shaking and whining from 
being completely affected by its own move.  
“You can take a little poison, just go in for the kill Squash, use Rollout!”  
“Wobba...” groaned Agitate, as the enemy retracted into its shell and spun in 
a circle several times to build up speed and power, the Wobbuffet didn’t like 
the way things looked and the battle had been long and hard on it, many hits 
had been dealt to it although countered throughout all of Carrie’s long 
battle.  
“You’re getting tired...  We’ve no choice, use Destiny Bond!”  
“Wobba.” it nodded, though knowledgeable about how it would affect it.  
The Shuckle slammed into the Wobbuffet hard but hadn’t noticed a thin ring of 
purple form over it and the Wobbuffet to be joined together by a straight 
line.  
“Wobbaaaa!!!” squealed Agitate as it collapsed.  
“Shuckleluckle, Shuckle-  Luc!!!” chuckled the Shuckle, before the ring 
reappeared and shattered, and a shock shot through it, causing it to collapse 
as if it’d suddenly died from a heart attack.  
“What happened?!” shouted Caleb.  
“Destiny Bond.” explained Chad, “If my Pokémon faints when it’s in effect then 
so does yours.”  
“No! Return!” growled Caleb.  
Carrie had watched the remainder of the battle while her opponent Suchi had 
run back to her team-mate.  
“This would have been different if we’d had more Pokémon.”  
“But you don’t now, do you?” Chad assumed with a confident grin.  
“We’re just the tip of the iceberg.  The Shadow Assembly is large in number, 
and all that have ever opposed us will be made to pay for coming between us 
and our goal.  
They ran off, leaving behind the money as they dashed out the alley and 
swiftly to one side as police sirens could be heard.  
“Guess we’ll return... all this... wonderful money... to the authorities...” 
Chad said as he held the open bag and stared at the contents.  
“You’re drooling Chad.” moaned Carrie, aware why he was doing so.  
“They won’t mind if a little of it is missing, will they? You know, trainers 
should sometimes be rewarded for their efforts.”  
“I think I’d better hold onto that.” said Carrie suddenly, but with a smile on 
her face, “Besides, Real heroes don’t need material rewards, not the great 
ones anyway.”  
“Fine, give it all back...” sighed Chad before whispering to himself, “Maybe I 
can search the streets for some of that money those two dropped in their 
haste...”  

“Get him!” shouted Jayce to his Pokémon.  
Blossom leapt forward and Poison Powder cut the Pokémon off while Scott drew 
his Pokéball and brought his Eevee out.  
“More weaklings? You’ll never win.”  
“Sleep Powder Blossom!” called Emily, and her Gloom complied, aiming at the 
charging Stantler, it leapt to the side while maintaining forward momentum and 
dodged around it before lifting its horns, Blossom was rammed and raised into 
the air.  
“Gloom!” she squealed as she tore through the foliage, and then she spun 
quickly to use all the leaves to perform a supercharged Petal Dance.  
A green tornado tore down and pummelled into the Stantler, dealing more damage 
than Jayce ever figured Blossom could manage.  
The Stantler was even lifted up by the force, and became wedged between a 
couple of tree branches, it quickly struggled free and fell to the ground, but 
at the last moment Jayce ordered an surprise assault in the form of Earthquake 
as it landed, Blossom was caught off guard since confusion had set in from her 
last attack and she was hit dead on and hard by the tremor.  
Again she flew into the air and Emily worried that this fall might be too much 
for her.  
Blossom rose past the leaves and trees so that the sunlight she had been 
virtually cut off from was in plain sight, she smirked at this...  
Scott’s young Eevee had been trained a lot since receiving it from Carrie’s 
little sister, it took small leaps back as the large Granbull tried to bite it 
with its oversized jaws.  
He had yet to evolve it but couldn’t decide on which stone to use, but even if 
he never decided, his Eevee had made him proud just being as it was.  
On Scott’s order, it took a large leap back and scrambled its paws around to 
hurl dirt into the Granbull’s eyes and mouth, blinding it briefly and giving 
it a nasty taste to distract it long enough to get a clear Take Down attack 
in.  
The Granbull’s pain was evident which caused Jayce to stare in disbelief, the 
Granbull soon attacked but the Eevee used Double Team to form a running circle 
of Eevees, and used Quick Attack again and again to blast past the Granbull 
and back into the circle to keep the ring illusion going.  
“Dynamic Punch!” shouted Jayce, and the bulldog Pokémon pulled a fist back and 
punched forward with a white aura following it.  
The Eevee leapt up high and the fist ploughed through a tree and became stuck, 
the Eevee landed happily, and with a dark confident smirk on its face it dived 
forward and slammed itself against the Granbull’s back to Double Edge it into 
defeat.  
“This can’t be!” shouted Jayce, turning back to his Stantler moments before a 
huge and powerful Solarbeam exploded around it and caused it to fall to one 
side with no strength left.  
“Nice!” grinned Scott as the Gloom landed afterwards with no damage due to the 
beam slowing its descent.  
“It’s not over! Skiploom! Use Sleep Powder on everyone but me so I can get out 
of here with that Cyndaquil!” shouted Jayce.  
“Loom!” it squealed as it appeared, a green bulb with yellow petals on its 
top.  
“Cynda!” squealed the apparent prey, reacting quickly.  
The Grass Pokémon went up in flames, its short legs couldn’t reach the fire 
and rolling around on the floor wasn’t cutting it, Jayce was forced to recall 
it and run.  
“Don’t let him get away!” shouted Scott.  
“He won’t.” smiled Jenny, blocking his path.  
He turned to find Joy blocking another with Scott’s Raichu out to back her 
up.  
Jayce shouted out in annoyance and fell to his knees as he accepted his 
defeat.  

Back in New Bark, Jayce was relieved of his Trainer’s License, and his Pokémon 
were taken into custody to be reformed, it’d take a lot from their trainer to 
get them back.  
He left silently but the look in his eyes told Scott and Emily that they had 
just made a life-long enemy.  
The Cyndaquil had decided to attach itself to Emily again for the trip back to 
town.  
Emily approached Elm and finally handed him the package she’d meant to 
deliver, she then looked down and prepared to give a second item to the 
professor.  
“Okay, its time to go to your new trainer Cyndaquil.” Emily urged gently, 
before trying to pull it off again and suddenly removing her hands as a quick 
flame startled her as a result.  
“Um, that’s a problem actually.” said Elm worryingly.  
“You what?” questioned Scott.  
“Although this Cyndaquil was stolen, it wasn’t meant for anybody.”  
Scott snapped his fingers, remembering the three kids he’d seen earlier 
talking about which Pokémon they’d get, and how one of the three never 
actually said he was getting one, he just complimented on how cool it was for 
his friends to be doing so, “So what’s going to happen to this one?”  
“I don’t really know, I’ve always been booked with three trainers until this 
year, I suppose I’ll give it to any passing trainer who I deem nice enough to 
keep it... unless either of you are interested.”  
“Really?” purred Emily, scanning it with her Pokédex.  

“Cyndaquil, the Fire Mouse Pokémon.  Using the spots on its back it can shoot 
roaring flames from these, or from its mouth.  These Pokémon tend to be timid 
and the strength and appearance of their fire is sometimes linked to their 
stronger emotions.”  

“It’s a mouse? Looks more like a strange penguin thing.  Scott, maybe you 
should have it, for your collection, and I know it’d be in safe hands.” Emily 
commented.  
“But it’s been literally attached to you Em’.” Scott replied.  
“I know, but only because it wanted to be protected.  I insist Scott, the way 
you saved me and stood up for me.  It meant a lot, and I want you to have it 
in return for those things.” Emily explained.  
“That’s really nice of you Emily.” Scott smiled.  
Another flame made Emily yelp “Take it already! I can’t take that sudden 
shooting flame!”  
“Okay, that just ruined the sentiment, but I’ll gladly take it off your hands, 
or chest I guess.” Scott frowned lightly before chuckling, “I guess I’ll be 
training it, if that’s okay with you Elm of course.”  
“I have no objections.” smiled Elm.  
“Would you like to come with me little Cyndaquil? I know you’ve got a thing 
for Emily but I’d really like to train you.  That thief was wrong to ever call 
you weak but he was right in that you had potential, and I’d like to help.” 
Scott spoke to the Pokémon.  
“Cynda!” it cheered, large flames shooting up from its back and making Emily 
shiver throughout.  
“You’ve got your work cut out for you though; this particular Cyndaquil has a 
habit of shooting out those flames whenever it’s really happy, angry, scared 
or expressing any other strong emotion.” Elm warned.  
“I’ll have to be cautious then, but I’m still up to the task.” assured Scott.  
“Return Cyndaquil.” smiled Elm, recalling it into its Pokéball and handing 
that to Scott, “You’ll always be welcome in New Bark Town and good luck on 
your journey.”  
“Thanks.” called Scott and Emily, taking their leave and properly beginning 
their journey.  

End of Chapter 62B  

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