Chapter 8: Mount Moon Monster (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus “Aha! Now is my chance to prove myself to you two kids!” shouted Chad picking out a Pokéball. “Sure you don’t need any help? Like last time?” “No siree, I SHALL DEFEAT THIS VILLAIN BY MYSELF! CHEWTOY! PREPARE FOR BATTLE!” “Rattata!” “A Rattata, puh-lease. Chemical! Appear before me!” “Muk!!!” It was a Muk, and it looked a lot more intimidating than the one I had seen at Oak’s, it was like its trainer. “Sludge attack!” “MUK!” The Rattata was too slow, and was hit hard, its sights blinded by the blast of chemicals, it ran away blindly. “OH NO! CHEWTOY HAS BEEN BLINDED BY THAT UNFAIR SNEAK ATTACK, I GUESS I SHALL HAVE TO CHANGE POKÉMON. RAGECAGE! FIGHT!” “Mankey!” “RAGECAGE! USE FURY ATTACK!” “Chemical! Use Sludge!” “RAGECAGE! DODGE THAT SLIME!” “Man-Key!” it screamed leaping over the sludge and punching into the Muk, it got its hands stuck in the sticky form of the Muk. “Man?” “Muk! Uk! Uk!” “Chemical! Poison Gas!” “Muk! Uk!” chuckled the Muk before breathing toxic gas on Ragecage, its eyes turned into spirals and it fell back doused by poison. “Pound it!” Chad’s second Pokémon was down. He recalled it and prepared another Pokémon. “ENTWINE! I-” “Chad...” “What?!... Oh, Grass Pokémon are weak against Poison, I need to study more.” “Don’t you have any Ground-type Pokémon?” “Funny you should say that, I caught this one just a moment ago. BOULDER! I CHOOSE YOU!” “Geodude!” “Geodude, the Rock Pokémon. They are often found in mountains, people often trip over Geodudes, mistaking them for boulders, usually resulting in angering the Geodude.” “Chemical! Use Disable!” “Geo-” “Now Poison Gas!” “Geo... Dude!” he said triumphantly, not being affected. “Wha?!” screamed Claus. “Didn’t you listen to anything we were saying, Santa? Poison attacks are weak against Ground-types!” I explained. “Don’t call me that! Grrrr! Chemical! Pound it!” “MUK!!!” “MEGA PUNCH! NOW!” “GEO!” The Muk went flying, hit the ground, and splattered. While it pulled itself back together, Chad took advantage of the time he earned. “ROCK THROW!” “Geo-Dude!” “Muk?! MUK!” The rock splattered Muk once again. Even slower than last time, it pulled itself back together but out of strength, it melted. “You may have beat my Muk, but now you’re out of luck, my other two Pokémon are great against Rock-types! Liquid! I choose you!” “Vaporeon!” “Vaporeon, the Bubblejet Pokémon. This Pokémon has a beautiful mermaid-like tail and its cell structure is similar to water molecules. It can melt away and become invisible in water.” “Start off with a Water Gun!” “BOULDER! USE DEFENSE CURL!” It closed its arms around itself but was hit hard by the water blast, he didn’t stand a chance, it was barely trained. “Not so courageous now, huh?” mocked Claus. “I’M NOT DONE YET, FOUL VILLAIN! ENTWINE!” “Gela!” “ENTWINE! CONSTRICT!” “Ge-la!” “Liquid! Bite it!” “Vapor!” It was tied up and squeezed by Entwine but it didn’t stop it from plunging its teeth into the little guy. “Gela!!!” “QUICKLY! ABSORB!” “Tangela!” The Vaporeon shuddered as green light was drawn out of it, and into Entwine. “Now that you’re at full strength, USE YOUR BIND ATTACK!” The Vaporeon was caught of guard from the last attack and was wrapped by vines which tug and squeezed the Vaporeon. “Liquid!” shouted Claus angrily, “Use a Sand Attack!” “BREAK AWAY AND SLEEP POWDER!” Entwine only got a little dust on it but the Vaporeon didn’t stand a chance against the Grass-type special and fell asleep. “Grrrr, Liquid! Return! You are so dead! So Dead! Knockout! Punch spaghetti boy into the next century!” “Hitmon!” “Hitmonchan, the Punching Pokémon. This Fighting Pokémon can perform lightning quick punches. It can punch through concrete walls in the same way as a drill using a corkscrew technique.” “Tan...” shuddered the Tangela. “DON’T GIVE UP, YOU CAN DO IT ENTWINE!” “Tan!” “Knockout! Use a Comet Punch!” “POISONPOWDER!” The Hitmonchan was as surprised as Claus, as the powder went all over it, it couldn’t help but breathe some of it in. It looked sick, and turned back to Claus, his expression enough to make the Hitmonchan go on. “You think you have an advantage, well so do I! Knockout! Ice Punch!” “What?” “Chad, Hitmonchan can learn Fire, Ice and Thunder Punch, you have to be careful!” “ENTWINE, USE- Agh!” The Tangela was hit by the fast punches, somehow forming ice on them, the Tangela picked itself up, it was quite good to withstand a hit like that. “Fire Punch! Now!” “NO! ENTWINE! WATCH OUT!” Too late, the gloves burst into flames, and the flames started to pick up on Entwine’s Grass body, running in circles, it was recalled by Chad. “Aw no, I’m outta Pokémon, I can’t... lose! SURELY, CHAD THE CHOSEN’S REIGN CANNOT BE OVER SO SOON.” “Knockout! Punch all of their lights out so they don’t remember this encounter!” Still poisoned and losing strength, it was prepared to do whatever its master told him, and charged forward. Emily and I were genuinely scared, this would hurt. “Rattata!” The Rattata jumped forward and bit the Hitmonchan with a Hyper Fang, it fell back and collapsed. “That’s a powerful Hyper Fang.” I commented. “His Rattata was never recalled after battling that Muk, it must have been focusing its energy and fought on, to save Chad and us.” explained Emily. “What a sneaky son of a gun, just like his trainer.” I added. Emily looked pleased with Chad, I was a little jealous, I had beaten a Rocket once, but of course, Emily wasn’t travelling with me then. “Rattata! Rattata! Rat- Ta?...” Chad’s Pokémon Chewtoy emitted the familiar light, and grew into a fierce looking Raticate. “Yes! You did it Chewtoy, you beat that Rocket and finally you’ve evolved!” Chad was very happy, I suppose any trainer would. Evolution symbolised a reward for the training and care that one had put into the Pokémon. “RATICATE!” screamed Chewtoy at the Rocket. “Grrrr! I’m gonna go heal these Pokémon, and then I’ll be back to do you in!... Wait right there!” said Claus, before running away with his Pokémon. “As if, let’s go before he gets back.” I said, “Thanks Chad, you actually did it, you beat him on your own.” “I know, that’s because I’m CHAD THE CHOSEN!” “Of course, you did win a four-on-three battle.” I explained. Chad counted the Pokémon he had used. “Oh yeah, oh well, it was against a Rocket and they don’t play by the rules. So it doesn’t count. Once again CHAD THE CHOSEN has prolonged his winning streak even in the FACE OF EVIL!” We were already walking away. “Guys! Wait for me! CHAD THE CHOSEN’s Pokémon are weak now, so you have to fight for the team!” No luck on the way we had gone, Emily had talked about woman’s intuition before, but now she simply said that good things came out of going this way, but the reality of it was: Apart from the Clefairy and the Moon Stones, meeting Chad and beating Claus, it was a total dead end. We walked through the other route for the rest of the day, keeping out of sight from other Rockets. We were looking out for Rockets so much, we tripped over some strange rocks next to a nerd. “My fossils! You thieves! Grimer! Subdue these criminals!” shouted the teenager, he had messy black hair and he wore a lab coat and glasses. “Hey hold on, we, heck with it, Whirlwind! I choose you!” I gave up trying to defend myself and threw my Pokéball. “Pidgeo!” “Grimer, the Sludge Pokémon. This awful smelling Pokémon is made of hardened sludge and appears in filthy areas, sucking up polluted sludge that is pumped out of factories.” “I’m the only one who hasn’t battled today.” “Nice job kid.” congratulated Chad. “But I haven’t won yet.” “I mean your Pidgeotto, good job on evolving it.” “Er... Thanks Chad, now, Whirlwind! Gust attack!” “Grimerrr!” It flew into a wall, it hadn’t had much training. “No! No! No! They are mine!” screamed the nerd, "Voltorb!” “Vol-Torb!” “Voltorb, the Ball Pokémon. It looks very similar to a Pokéball and so zaps a lot of people who think that, they are known to self-destruct with very little notice.” “Whirlwind! Return. Scramble! Go!” “Eggsecute!” “Voltorb! Sonic Boom!” “Hang in there Scramble! Hypnosis!” Scramble took the force of the Sonic Boom, and their eyes glowed white, Voltorb appeared lost in a trance, and rolled towards Scramble. “Voltorb! Self Destruct!” “Why would you?!” ‘KA-BOOM!’ The Voltorb detonated, taking out most of Scramble’s health, but leaving the Voltorb totally weak. “Desperate times call for desperate measures!” screamed the paranoid nerd, “Now Koffing! Finish them off!” “Koffing!” “Koffing, the Poison Gas Pokémon. This Poison Pokémon is like a thick-skinned balloon, harbouring several kinds of gases in its body. It is known to occasionally explode.” “I choose you! Needle!” “Ran!” “Koffing! Smog attack!” “Needle! Charge right through it and use Horn Attack!” It had no problem getting through the gas, being a Poison-type itself. It jammed its horn into Koffing, I knew chances of poisoning the Koffing were minimal but the hit was enough to render Koffing unconscious. “Okay! Okay! We’ll each take a fossil, okay?!” “I tried to tell you, we’re not here to-” “This one.” interrupted Emily, picking up one. “You want the Helix Fossil?” asked the nerd, I gave Emily a look to ask ‘What’s going on?’, she signalled an ‘A-Okay’ with her face and fingers. “If you take that to the lab in Cinnabar, you may be able to regenerate Omanyte.” “Really? Cool!” I suppose he was okay with us taking one of the fossils, even though I never planned for it to end up that way. Putting it away into her bag, Emily held onto the fossil for now. Finally, we reached daylight again, it had taken one day and one night in total to get through the long tunnel, and this was just a small cave. “I was afraid we might not see daylight again.” said Emily. “Oh well, with the fair maiden out of danger, CHAD THE CHOSEN’S job is over, I SHALL DEPART NOW.” “Wait!” I said, surprised at what I was doing, “Why not come with us?” “We could use some help in case those Rockets show up again.” added Emily. “Well I really have to continue my Pokémon Journey, but... I guess I could stick around for now. Um... What’re your names? My name is-” “Chad the Chosen, We Know!” said Emily and I simultaneously. “I’m Tetsubo.” “And I’m Emily.” “Nice to meet you two, I respect your skills as a Pokémon Trainer, Tetsubo, but I’m afraid you’ll never beat me.” “I’d like to see for myself, you’d do well to catch up on some reading, your inexperience of advantages and weaknesses could cost you big.” “CHAD THE CHOSEN needs no advantages or weaknesses to win a battle, HIS POKÉMON ARE STRONG ENOUGH!” “You may not need them, but I’ve seen you send out Pokémon that have disadvantages and inexperience compared to your opponent, you really do need to learn a thing or two from me.” “Okay then, CHAD THE CHOSEN shall be tutored by your immense knowledge, as long as you keep it a secret. I don’t think the world is ready to know such things about their hero, CHAD THE- Hey guys! Wait up!” He was overconfident, overdramatic, a klutz and just plain weird, but he was a decent trainer and his heart was in the right place. It was a long road ahead, and there was no need to walk it alone. End of Chapter 8B Back to Chapter 8A Next Chapter Back to Story List #1 - #20 Back to the Pokézone