Chapter 7:  Route 3 or not Route 3? (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

One day since Pewter, Emily and I walked down Route 3, we saw many young ones 
battling their Bug-types, except one, he was quite old, spiky black hair, and 
dark blue clothing.  
I wasn’t close enough to do the Pokédex thing, and it was a big crowd around 
the challengers, a Poliwag squirted water defeating a tiny Rattata.  
“I win,” he said, “Now, the money please.”  
“Yes sir...”  
“Hey!” I shouted running in.  
“What’s the big idea mugging this kid. Oh I get it, knock out his Pokémon and 
then you can push him around as much as you want!”  
“I don’t have to answer to you.” he said rudely, walking away.  
“Kid, do you want me to go after him?”  
“No, we agreed to it, we agreed that the winner of the mini-tournament take the 
money we all contributed.”  
“But Pokémon Battles shouldn’t be for money, they should be to help Pokémon 
gain experience.”  
“Well, he plays by different rules, don’t worry about it, I’ll be okay.”  
I walked away, deep in thought.  
“How could someone just take money from a child?...”  
“Maybe he really needs it for something.” commented Emily.  
“Like what, a new car? Grown up people are so selfish.”  
She looked at me, “Who else is there that’s selfish?” she asked.  
I realised I had let thoughts of Bryan slip into my mind again, “Um, just 
people I saw on TV.”  
Luckily we were interrupted at the right time for once, as a blonde bug catcher 
kid ran up to us.  
“You wanna battle?”  
“Sure.” I said.  
“Not you! The pretty one!”  
Emily’s eyes opened at this comment, “Okay then, no hard feelings Tet’”  
She stepped up, “Three-on-three?”  
“Sure thing honey.”  
They released their Pokémon.  
“Funny.” I thought, in all the time I knew her she never called me names like 
that, I guess it was because she didn’t know his name.  
“Caterpie!”  
“Poisoness!”  
“Piieee!”  
“Ni!”  

“Caterpie, the Worm Pokémon.  This tiny Bug Pokémon has short feet tipped with 
sticky suction pads to tirelessly climb slopes and walls, they are quite easy 
to catch.“  

“Caterpie, use your String Shot!”  
“Poisoness, Poison Sting!”  
The Nidoran was tied down, but the Caterpie was also hit.  
“Caterpie! Use...  What’s wrong?”  
The Caterpie looked poorly.  
“Agh! Its poisoned!” screamed the kid.  
“Yup,“ said Emily confidently, “Poison attacks work rather well against the Bug 
variety.  Finish it, Scratch attack!”  
“Ni!” shouted Poisoness bursting out the string web and attacking the 
Caterpie.  
The Caterpie fell down.  
“Ugh, okay, next I’ll use my Metapod!”  
“Metapod, Metapod.”  

“Metapod, the Cocoon Pokémon.  The stage between Caterpie and Butterfree, the 
external shell is hard while the inside remains soft and tender.”  

“Poisoness, Return, we’ll need my other Poison-type, Buzzer, Go!”  
“Beeee!”  
“Metapod, Harden!”  
“Metapod.”  
“Buzzer, use your Poison Sting!”  
“String Shot!”  
The Metapod rolled forward avoiding the attack that would have destroyed it and 
restrained the Beedrill.  
“Buzzer! Use Twineedle, now!”  
“Beeee!”  
Buzzer tore through the string, and started lunging with its stingers.  
The Metapod leaped from side to side, but Buzzer took one strategic stab and 
the Metapod fell down.  
“Kakuna! Go!”  
“Kakuna...”  

“Kakuna, the Cocoon Pokémon.  If you see a swarm of Kakunas, keep very quiet as 
they could hatch into Beedrills at any given moment to protect their swarm.”  

“Kakuna jump at it as hard as you can!”  
It leaped, Buzzer defended itself by jabbing its claws into it, Kakuna turned 
its face to Buzzer and gave off a confident and menacing look in its eyes.  
“String Shot!”  
Buzzer was blinded by the string at such a close range.  
“Poison Sting!”  
A stinger emerged from Kakuna and stung Buzzer, who floated up wearily and fell 
down.  
“Uh oh, nice job hon’, but you’ll never beat Discharge, Go!”  
“Mag-na-mite!”  
“String Shot!”  
“Duck down and Thunder Wave!”  
The Kakuna was bedazzled by the minor shock that left it a little paralysed.  
“Now, Supersonic!”  
The Kakuna leaped up, its black eyes widened, and then it did the weirdest 
things like leaping and bouncing around, it was exposed totally to the 
confusion.  
“Discharge! Thundershock!”  
A mild explosion and the Kakuna was down, shaking from the electricity.  

“Tough luck, honey, you’ll do better next time.  Just have your Pokémon learn 
something other than String Shot.”  
“Yeah, see you gorgeous!” he said cheekily, running away.  
Emily watched him, apparently fascinated by the kid.  
“Hello? Anyone home? No? I’ll call back later.” I said sarcastically.  
“What? I was just wondering how a little kid can be so cheeky.  Let’s move on.  
How’s your Pokédex coming?” she asked me.  
“I can’t believe I’ve got 41 entries already.” I answered.  
“Any that you need from me?” she asked nicely.  
“Well, I haven’t recorded Weedle’s data.”  
“I used to have a Weedle, and that little guy grew into Buzzer.  So I’ll copy 
the Weedle over for say a copy of Exeggcute and Staryu?”  
She looked ashamed.  
“Two for one, eh?”  
“Well I’m majorly behind, I haven’t recorded as much as you, and Professor 
Beech wanted me to get as many entries as I could.”  
“Seeing as we’re friends, I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to trade all our 
entries between each other.”  
“You’d really do that?”  
“Being a Pokémon Master shouldn’t be about being stubborn or keeping things to 
one’s self, I think all the Pokémon experiences should be shared.  Provided we 
someday record them all  for our sponsors, and I get into the League, then 
that's good enough for me.”  
“Okay then.”  
She smiled deeply at me, a sight I’d come to love.  
We connected our Pokédex together and Emily did her stuff.  
“That’s it, and now I have a gift for you, if you really want to share stuff 
with me, type in your password, our Pokédex will be linked to each other until 
such a time as one of us cuts off the link, you won’t have to be the bookworm 
all the time, and you can concentrate on your battles while I do the recording 
thing.”  
“Sure.”  
I typed it in thinking about the future, who would be the first to cut off the 
link, when we had such a stable friendship?...  
I checked afterwards, I had a few more entries:  

“Weedle, the Hairy Bug Pokémon.  Slightly more dangerous than the Caterpie, 
because it has a large stinger on its head which can secrete poison.”  
“Ekans, the Snake Pokémon.  This Pokémon slithers silently and stealthily 
through grass and eats Pidgey and Spearow eggs whole.”  
“Tentacool, the Jellyfish Pokémon.  Floats around in shallow seas, clumsy 
anglers that hook Tentacools by accident, are often badly stung.”  
“Ponyta, the Fire Horse Pokémon.  Capable of jumping over towers, this 
Pokémon’s hooves are ten times stronger than diamonds and can trample anything 
flat in no time.”  
“Seel, the Sea Lion Pokémon.  It likes to swim in freezing cold conditions, the 
horn on its head is very hard and used to plough through thick ice.”  

It was a lot, I guess those were the Pokémon her ex-friends owned, that was 5 
new Pokémon recorded and an offering to prolong our friendship.  

We continued on, into another surprise as a strange person dressed in purple 
robes dived in, he had seemingly glowing white eyes inside the dark hood.  
“I have been on your trail for quite some time.”  
“Who are you?”  
“I am Sansuke, master ninja from Fuchsia City.”  
“Fuchsia?”  
I figured he must have come from the Gym there, it was known for its ninja-like 
theme and poisonous Pokémon.  
“So you’ve come all this way just to battle me?”  
“You doubt yourself? Then maybe you aren’t the one I respected so.”  
“Enough talk, I say a two-on-two match will settle this, draw your Pokémon!”  
“Hypno.”  
“Pidgey!”  
I could hear Emily doing me a favour and using her Pokédex, to update mine at 
the same time.  

“Hypno, the Hypnosis Pokémon.  If you make eye contact with this Psychic 
Pokémon, it will try to hypnotise you or put you to sleep with its precious 
pendulum.”  

“Trance! Use your Confusion!”  
“Use Quick Attack, Whirlwind!”  
Whirlwind lived up to its name once again and hit the Hypno cancelling out the 
powerful Psychic attack.  
“Hypnosis!”  
“Sand Attack!”  
The dust cloud blocked Trance’s sight and Sansuke was suddenly feeling looking 
a little drowsy.  
“Not... me... Trance... “  
He shook his head around to overcome the sleepiness, then noticed I had already 
started Whirlwind on the next attack.  
A large Gust attack lifted the Hypno up, and dropped it down hard.  
The Hypno looked really beat up, but I heard no word of retreat from Sansuke.  
Looking back, I shielded my eyes for a moment, Whirlwind was evolving, hah, I 
told that kid how a little work and care would result in evolution.  
If only he could see me now.  
“Pidgeot-to!”  
“Wow...” said Emily.  

“Pidgeotto, the Bird Pokémon.  This Flying Pokémon constantly flies around its 
large territory and pecks at intruders, its powerful talons are used to snatch 
prey.”  

“Finish it off Whirlwind, use Wing Attack!”  
Whirlwind got into the swing of things quite quickly and pulled off the next 
attack that Pidgeottos learned and flew past, crashing its wings against the 
dazed Hypno.  
It fell back dropped the pendulum it always carried.  
“I admit, I haven’t trained that Hypno very much but you’ll never defeat Venom! 
Go!”  
“Ch’arbok!”  
“Whirlwind, hang in there, you can beat it!”  
“Venom! Use your Poison Sting!”  
“Whirlwind! Duck and Wing Attack!”  
Too late, the needles flew out fast and hit my Pidgeotto, it looked a little 
sick.  
I wouldn’t allow it to stay out there like that.  
“Dusty!”  
“Venomoth!”  
“Venom! Another Poison Sting!”  
“Ch’ar!”  
This Arbok was very fast, I gave Sansuke that much, Dusty was hit, and floated 
up before hitting the ground.  
He looked okay but then it shook a little.  
It was poisoned, and being partly a Poison-type, it was holding off the poison 
as best as it could, I had to finish this soon and prove myself to the one that 
had been watching me.  
“You can’t beat me, they may hold a Poison similarity but your Venomoth is of 
the Bug-type, they are easily consumed by Poison attacks, Venom! Acid!”  
“Dusty! Move!”  
It was about to take off but the poison was preventing it from doing so.  
“Venomoth!”  
“Dusty! No!”  
The searing liquid hit Dusty hard.  
It couldn’t stand any more, and collapsed.  
“Moth...”  

“That’s enough!” I shouted running in, “No more, please...”  
“You show great honour and care when it comes to raising Pokémon, but you’re 
just not aggressive enough, you have to know your enemy and strike at their 
weaknesses!”  
“Are you happy now, you’ve come all this way to find me and won.”  
“I fight only worthy opponents, I shall go now, but I’ll be watching out for 
you.  Train well, I might battle you again...”  
With that, he leaped up and over the rocky mountains with grace, speed and 
agility.  
I recalled Dusty, a little upset, but I rubbed my eyes and gave a convincing 
smile to Emily.  
“Oh well, can’t let one little loss bring me down.”  
“Tetsubo...”  
I came to realise that I was holding back too often but still, I cared a lot 
about my Pokémon and didn’t want them getting overly hurt in a battle.  
I needed to put in more training if I would beat everyone in the League 
someday.  
It had been a long day, and Emily and I had both battled hard.  
It would be another half days walk until we reached Mount Moon, which led 
through to Cerulean City.  

We sat down, and let out our Pokémon, they were feeling a little better and 
those poisoned were cured with some antidotes.  
It was okay to keep them out of their Pokéballs, provided they didn’t get 
involved in any more battles.  
I looked at my impressive team I had formed within the two and a half weeks I’d 
started out.  
Twinkill, a well built Pokémon for special attacks, my first and favourite, 
after I taught my Staryu some secret special attacks, no one would beat him.  
Next was Scramble, my beloved Exeggcute, a strange Pokémon consisting of six 
egg shaped seeds, they were the best Grass-types I knew of, because they didn’t 
have a Poison-type weakness like most other Grass-types, but could still learn 
some of the Poison-type moves.  
Then, Dusty, my happy little Venomoth, I knew we had a loss today but I 
couldn’t be prouder of it, well maybe a little if it had actually won, but I 
was still very proud.  
Whirlwind, now a Pidgeotto, we had reached a great understanding of each other 
after it was abandoned by its trainer and joined me.  
And Needle, my Poison-type Nidoran, it was so small now, but I knew it would 
become a powerful Nidorino, and one that wouldn’t attack me like in the Safari 
Zone.  
If I could get my hands on a Moon Stone from Mount Moon, then it would become a 
Nidoking, but I was thinking too far ahead, and not considering Needle’s 
feelings, it liked Poisoness, Emily’s Nidoran, and it was up to them when they 
evolved, I couldn’t force it on them.  
I looked over at Emily’s squad, she was a little careless in the way she acted 
at times, but she was a good solid trainer who cared for her Pokémon too.  
Poisoness was happier with her as a trainer, and the way we brought her and 
Needle together.  
Lucky, her Chansey, more of a healer than a fighting Pokémon, nothing wrong 
with that.  
There was Buzzer, her Beedrill, a quick moving fierce Pokémon that respected 
her skills as a trainer.  
Discharge, a Magnemite, it was hard to tell what this Pokémon thought as it was 
mechanical but I could see the love they shared none the less.  
Finally, Blossom, her Oddish and first Pokémon, it was still young and sweet, 
it would feel strange if that little gal evolved.  
We ate a quick lunch, as did the Pokémon, we had taken advantage of the free 
Pokémon chow at the recent Pokémon Centres, since we weren’t breeders, we 
couldn’t make the food ourselves.  
Afterwards we continued our walk.  

End of Chapter 7A  

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Chapter 7B
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