Chapter 6:  Rock Hard Opponents (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

I woke up in one of the single beds to see Twinkill, Scramble, Dusty and 
Whirlwind at the end,  soundly asleep.  
That’s right, I decided to let them stay out of their Pokéballs last night, but 
where was Needle? Sleeping on Emily’s bed with its love Poisoness.  
Emily looked so peaceful there, she needed to rest as she was active all day 
and of course, last night in the forest.  
I wondered what would happen if we were... together and I couldn’t really see 
it, I was too withdrawn compared to her, she’d never see me as anything other 
than a good friend, but that was the next best thing.  
I stretched and walked out into the main hall and ordered breakfast, I produced 
my card to pay for it.  
Nice, fried eggs and sausages, one of my favourites.  
I sat down to eat, it was nice and quiet.  
‘Was’ being the operative word here.  
“Oh yeah! I’m number one! In your face Bert!” said a large muscular man.  
He had tanned skin and he wore a red sleeveless shirt and yellow trousers with 
a yellow scarf, his hair was spiky black, some of which, hung over his head and 
other parts spiked outwards.  
“So you got the badge before me again.” said a second man, thinner than the 
first, he wore a light blue shirt, blue trousers, glasses and he had a much 
paler complexion and straight brown hair.  
“Hurry up, and try to win then.”  
“I can’t, I only have Electric and Fire-types, Flint’ll just beat me again 
until I get some new Pokémon.”  
“Then get some.  I can’t wait all week for you, I’ve gotta get another badge!”  
“Then go! Chad, its not working out, we both have to go our own ways, I’ll meet 
you again in the Pokémon League.”  
“But Bert...  Go on then, I’ll see you around.”  
“Don’t take it personally Chad.  I’ll catch a range of Pokémon, then I’ll be 
back to get even with you.”  
They shook hands and the man called Bert walked out the Pokémon Centre.  
“Hey wait a minute! You’ve got all the money!” screamed the man named Chad 
running out.  
“Weird.” I said simply.  
Emily walked in and yawned.  
“Hey Tetsubo...  If its okay with you, I was wondering if I could take my Gym 
Challenge by myself and do some training alone.”  
“Alone?”  
“Its something I have to do, you said I was a hypocrite, well I’m going to 
listen to my own advice and take my first steps alone.  I’m still travelling 
with you, right?”  
“Of course.”  
“You don’t mind, do you?”  
“I think there’s rules about trainers watching Gym Battles anyway, they 
probably wouldn’t let me watch if I was going to battle straight after.  I’ll 
meet you here at...  Say... six? Don’t stray away from Pewter, okay?”  
“Okay, I’m going there now.  Oh, your Pokémon are awake, I told them to wait 
for you.” she said walking away, a little sadder than usual, it must have been 
because of her loss that made this change.  
Finishing my breakfast, I brought my Pokémon out and got some free Pokémon food 
from the Joy of this place, it was hard to take in that a family could look so 
much alike.  
Perhaps the maker of this world ran out of faces and so recycled some.  

I had a look around the town, there was a museum up on the hill.  
Since I wouldn’t be back here for a while, I decided to take a look.  
“Hello sir, it’ll cost fifty credits to get in.”  
I passed him my card, there was enough credits on it to pay for food and 
supplies for the next year with a little extra for special events.  
I decided to let my Pokémon out to see it.  
“Star!”  
“Shhhh!” I quickly said, Twinkill looked down guiltily.  
“You can have a look around too, just keep it quiet.”  
We saw a very rare Moon Stone, there were other Moon Stones in the world but 
most of them were dug up and sold at a high price.  
They were commonly used to evolve four types of Pokémon, and my Nidoran was one 
of them.  
There were also some fossils around, apparently the bones of Aerodactyl, 
Kabutops and a recent exhibit, an Omastar, these Pokémon were so rare, that 
most people considered them extinct.  
I skimmed through the notes on these Pokémon, I was eager to get around the 
place before it closed up.  
There were a lot of historical artifacts as well as rare Pokémon, not real of 
course, and a rack of trophies sold by winning trainers of the past, in order 
to preserve their name in Pokémon history.  
Looking around the trophies, I saw one that dated five years back and my eyes 
widened.  
She couldn’t have, after all this time...  How dare she...  I cleared my head, 
it was someone who I grew up to despise, and now I had found out that she had 
won the League...  
“Star?”  
“Its nothing Twinkill, nothing you need to know.”  
I suddenly felt a little sick and not up to looking around anymore.  
There was an explosion in the ceiling, and a couple of people dropped down 
through the hole on a mechanism connected to a blimp, in black uniforms.  
A green haired man and a woman with long orange hair with spiky parts at the 
bottom.  
I could see only too well, the familiar symbol on their shirts.  
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” laughed the two simultaneously.  
“Who are you?!” shouted the man at the ticket booth.  

“To infect the world with devastation!”  
“To blight all peoples in every nation!”  
“To denounce the goodness of truth and love!”  
“To extend our wrath to the stars above!”  
“Cassidy!”  
“Butch!”  
“Team Rocket, circling Earth all day and night!”  
“Surrender to us now or you will surely lose the fight!”  
“CATE!!!” screamed a Raticate.  

More members of the Rockets, and they had their own entrance speech.  
“We’re here to take the rare Pokémon Fossils.” said Cassidy.  
“With them we shall bring back the forgotten Pokémon and present them to the 
Boss.” finished Butch with a croaky voice.  
“Rockets, grab that Kabutops, the Omastar and the Aerodactyl...” ordered Cassidy 
and many men in black Rocket uniforms and hats, entered to take the exhibits:  
Rocket Grunts.  
Cassie smiled fiendishly before noticing something, “What are you hiding?” she 
asked to a man behind the counter, cowering in the corner.  
“Leave me alone, its nothing!”  
“I think we’ll check it for ourselves, Raticate?...”  
“Cate!”  
The Raticate crunched its teeth together many times, the man dropped what he 
was holding.  
“Amber, eh?” pondered Cassidy giving it to a Grunt, there was nothing I could 
do, me against all those Rockets, I wouldn’t stand a chance.  
I wasn’t ready to rally any Pokémon after the last time.  
Then a Vine Whip hit a couple of Rockets, it was the big guy from before.  
Even in this situation, I didn’t forget to record the Pokémon.  

“Tangela, the Vine Pokémon.  The identity of this Pokémon is obscured by 
countless blue vines similar to seaweed, the vines shake as it walks.”  
“Raticate, the Rat Pokémon.  It is much more fierce than Rattata, it has two 
large fangs which can bite through practically anything.”  

“ENTWINE! USE HYPER BEAM!”  
“Uh oh!” shouted a lot of Grunts simultaneously, the large blast blew them out 
the open hole in the roof, and they landed in their airship, but probably too 
weak to get back up.  
Now I had a chance.  
“I choose you, Whirlwind!”  
“Pidgey!”  
“Whirlwind, use the Whirlwind attack we’ve been working on, blow these Rockets 
away!”  
“Pid-gey!” screamed Whirlwind flapping its wings ultra fast and lifting five 
Rockets into the air.  
“Whirlwind, Return, Twinkill! Use your Water Gun.”  
The blast lifted a couple more Rockets into the air, but Twinkill was 
interrupted by the Raticate that charged into him.  
“Cate!”  
“Twinkill! Another Water Gun!”  
“Raticate, Super Fang!” called out Butch.  
“Quickly Harden!”  
The Raticate went straight for the jewel and tried to break it with its large 
fangs.  
“Twinkill! Do something! Get that thing off you!”  
“Staaar!”  
A burst of small star images blasted Raticate back.  
“Cool, you just learned Swift attack.  Do it again Twinkill!”  
“Raticate, Focus Energy!...”  
The Swift attack was accurate, but not powerful enough as the Raticate held its 
own, then I realised, it was getting pumped and empowering the next attack.  
“Hyper Fang!”  
“Twinkill! Watch out!”  
Too late.  
Twinkill avoided it biting its gem, but fell back, weakened by the Raticate.  
“Return, I don’t want that stuff to happen to you again...”  

I was out of my league, so to speak, that Raticate must have been trained for 
at least a year, it had all its attacks and was very powerful.  
“But Twinkill did some good out there, I have to try-”  
“Move aside kid, I’ll take it from here.” said Chad, “RAGECAGE!”  
“Mankey!”  

“Mankey, the Pig Monkey Pokémon.  Mankey is extremely quick to anger, it can be 
docile one moment , then angry the next, it is unsafe to approach this Pokémon 
as it is very nimble.”  

“RAGECAGE, KARATE CHOP!”  
“Caaatte!” screamed the Raticate as it was beaten back by the Mankey.  
“Oh yeah, I rule.” said Chad as people cheered him on.  
Fighting moves worked well against Normal-types but still, me and Twinkill did 
most of the work and this guy was taking all of the credit.  
“Cassidy! Raticate got beaten!”  
“What? I’ll get him! Drowzee! Go!...”  

End of Chapter 6A  

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Chapter 6B
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