Chapter 9:  Ties of Friendship (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

It took a day to get as far as we did, walking slowly, discussing our 
adventures.  
“So you won a battle against one Rocket and lost against the other?” asked 
Chad.  
“Well it wasn’t my fault, my Pokémon were inexperienced then.” I complained.  
“Well CHAD THE CHOSEN NEVER LOSES, you’ll all be safe with me.”  
“You there!”  
A boy with dark green spiky hair and green clothing with leaves all over jumped 
down to confront us.  
“Are you addressing CHAD THE CHOSEN? Because you’ll have to get through me 
before you harm the lady Emily.”  
“I guess so, I am one of the 4 Pokelementals, and He has been chosen to battle 
the group one by one.” he said pointing to me.  
“The kid is also under the protection of CHAD THE CHOSEN! YOU SHALL NEVER PASS 
BY ME!”  
Chad released his Raticate, which was too tired to get up.  
“Chad! Your Pokémon are too tired, he’s no threat, he just wants a Pokémon 
Battle with me.”  
“In that case I will let you battle him.”  
“Sheesh!” I said, annoyed at how dramatic Chad aimed to be when with people.  
“I am known as Branch, the Grass Trainer, it shall be a three-on-three battle, 
and try to reframe from using the obvious weaknesses.”  
He meant Fire, but I didn’t have any Fire Pokémon yet.  
I couldn’t help but think tactically, Flying and Poison-types were pretty good, 
I knew which three to go with.  
“I’ll start with my own Grass-type, Scramble!”  
“Exeggcute!”  
“I choose you Gloom!”  
“Gloom, Gloom!” shouted the Gloom excitedly, I heard Emily taking action.  

“Gloom, the Weed Pokémon.  Nectar drips from Gloom’s mouth which attracts 
prey.  Gloom is known for its foul stench but it emits this by choice.”  

“Gloom, use your Petal Dance!”  
“GLOOM!”  
“Scramble, dodge that attack!”  
The Gloom spun itself round, becoming a mini-twister.  
“Exegg?!”  
They waited until Gloom locked on before the six eggs leaped out of harms way.  
“Don’t dodge! Attack it!” yelled Chad, but I knew what I was doing, the Gloom 
returned to normal and looked very dizzy indeed.  
“Sorry Branch, but I revised that Grass-type attack before my exams, Petal 
Dance is very powerful but leaves the Pokémon confused by the spinning.  
Scramble! Use your... Barrage, and take your time and make it good!”  
“Exegg... Cute!” shouted Scramble after preparing the attack for some time, all 
the bombs hit dead on, and the Gloom rolled back hurt.  
“Now, try your Confusion!”  
“Ex...”  
The Gloom was shunted back, defeated by its type weakness.  
“Agh! Gloom...  Okay, now it’s for real, Tangela!”  
“Gela!”  
“Hah! That thing wouldn’t stand up to my Entwine.” commented Chad.  
“Even though its burned and frozen?” commented Emily snidely.  
Chad groaned facing the reality.  
“Scramble! Return, I choose Needle!”  
“Ran!”  
“Tangela! Use your Constrict!”  
“Poison Sting!”  
Needle reacted first and stuck it to him, the vines followed and wrapped around 
him.  
“Bind it! Huh?”  
Tangela was looking drowsy, or sick.  
“Horn Attack!”  
With the Tangela poisoned it was easy to break free and charge into it.  
It bounced back and was recalled.  
“You got lucky, but you won’t beat my Ivysaur! Go!”  
“Ivy-saauurr!”  
“Needle! Return! Whirlwind! Go!”  
“Pidgeo!”  

“Ivysaur, the Seed Pokémon.  The bulb on Ivysaur’s back grows larger and opens, 
revealing a bud, it grows by drawing solar energy.”  

“Ivysaur! Razor Leaf!”  
Whirlwind dodged around the leaves except a couple which grazed it.  
“Whirlwind! Gust attack!”  
It barely moved the Ivysaur.  
“You think a little wind will defeat my Ivysaur, hah! Ivysaur, finish it with 
Vine Whip!”  
The vines came out of Ivysaur’s sides and flew at Whirlwind.  
“Whirlwind! Try your Wing Attack!”  
Reacting quickly, Whirlwind dived, flying through the gap before the vines 
closed together to produce extra damage.  
Now past the main defense, Whirlwind had it easy, and charged down hitting 
Ivysaur with its wing.  
“Quick Attack!”  
Even before the vines retracted, Ivysaur was down.  
I had won.  

“Ivysaur, Return...” said Branch sadly.  
“Don’t worry about it, kid, I won through the type advantage, mainly, your 
Pokémon were great.” I said to the kid, hoping to cheer him up, he produced 
something.  
“They were right about you, you’re a good trainer, but I don’t think you’re 
ready for the others, take this Grass Stone and use it on your Exeggcute 
someday.”  
“Me and Scramble have got a lot more training to do before I evolve it.” I 
replied.  
Evolving it now would sacrifice the more cunning attacks it could only learn as 
an Exeggcute.  
“The Pokelementals shall continue to watch you and shall challenge you again 
when you are ready.” he said running away into the bushes and disappearing into 
them.  
“Good job Whirlwind, Return.”  
“Wow...” said Chad walking over to me, followed by Emily.  
“So you used type advantages?” he asked me.  
“Yes Chad, Grass-type Pokémon are weak against Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying and 
Bug-types, but can easily beat Water, Rock and Ground-types, and Poison-types 
are weak against Ground and Psychic but strong against Grass and Bug-types.  
Consider that your first lesson from me.”  
“Okay, Master.”  
“And don’t call me that.” I said.  

We later arrived  at Cerulean City, but unfortunately, found the Pokémon Centre 
to be fully booked, Chad was more upset than Emily and I, he needed to get his 
Pokémon rested if they were to fight for him, he was forced to wait on the 
sidelines.  
“Tetsubo, why don’t we split up and look around for someone who can put us and 
our Pokémon up for now?” advised Emily.  
“But the Gym...” pleaded Chad.  
“Chad, our Pokémon aren’t ready for a Gym Battle.” said Emily walking away, 
with Chad following her, explaining that she was still under his protection.  
I walked the opposite way slowly, and saw an Oddish walking by, I thought about 
capturing it, but was curious of where it came from and where it was going.  

I followed it back out into the fields of Route 4.  
It appeared fine, but how did it end up in the city? Oddish preferred grassy 
areas.  
It stopped and saw me, then ran, perhaps it ran away from someone, I would have 
to grab it and look for the owner, if they showed a reason for it running away, 
then I’d rely on my intuition on what to do.  
I chased after it and stopped suddenly, something had teleported in front of 
me, an Abra.  
I had read how rare these were, I kept very, very still in an awkward position 
while I considered the next move, one wrong move and it would teleport away 
forever, I needed something to disable it, aha!  
“Scramble! Hypnosis!”  
“Exegg!”  
The Abra looked drowsy, but shook itself back to normal and was teleporting.  
“No! I really want this one! Scramble! Try again!”  
“Exegg...  Cute?”  
Stun Spore flew onto the Abra, it stopped and looked weak.  
“Pokéball!”  
It hit and shook an awful lot inside the ball, then stopped.  
“Yeah! I caught an Abra! I’m gonna nickname you... Psychot.  Good job Scramble, 
couldn’t have done it without you.”  
“Ex?”  
“What? You didn’t do that? But I thought you learned that attack to-”  
“Oddish!”  
“You used Stun Spore? Well... thank you and, gotcha!”  
I leaped onto it and held it close, not applying too much force.  
“I should take you back to your trainer...”  
The Oddish didn’t attack me, or blow powder in my face, it was quite 
cooperative.  

I knocked on doors, asking for the owner, but no one knew it, I even tried the 
Pokémon Centre, nothing.  
It was a shame they were booked up, there weren’t pleasant weather forecasts 
being predicted right now and sleeping outside would make it a terrible night.  
I tried the last house, the door was open.  
 
“Oh, what are you doing here Oddish?” asked a sweet female voice, it belonged 
to a young lady, with blue hair tied in a green bow, wearing red and pink 
clothing.  
“Is this your Oddish?” I asked.  
“Oh no, you misunderstand, I look after sick Pokémon that are abandoned by 
their trainers, I was just picking up some things here before returning to my 
secret hut, and Oddish was all set to go back into the wild, but I guess you 
thought he was running away.”  
“I’m sorry, you’ve done a good job, thanks to that Oddish I’m the owner of an 
Abra now.”  
“Thank you...” she blushed a little, “My name’s Melanie.”  
“Tetsubo.”  
I dropped the Oddish and shook hands with her.  
As I did, I saw another Pokémon under the table.  
“Hey, that’s a...”  

“Bulbasaur, the Seed Pokémon.  A strange seed is planted on Bulbasaur’s back at 
birth.  As this Pokémon grows, so does the seed.”  

“I thought so.”  
“Yes, this Bulbasaur was also abandoned by its trainer, but unlike Oddish, it 
doesn’t trust anyone, because of its past trainer.”  
“That’s too bad, I know some people that would love to train a Bulbasaur.”  
I knelt down, “Hi there...  I know you probably don’t trust humans much, but my 
friends are really nice people, perhaps you could be trained by one of 
them...”  
I was answered by a rude “Saur!”, as the Bulbasaur turned its back to me.  
“I see...”  
“I’m sure all Bulbasaur needs is to see how well Pokémon get on with humans, 
then maybe it would find a good trainer.”  
“Melanie, if me and my friends could stay the night, I’d be happy to try and 
make Bulbasaur see differently.”  
“Um... okay,” she answered nervously, “But tomorrow I have to go back to the 
secret village, there are probably new Pokémon to take care of.”  
“Then its settled, tomorrow morning, we’ll teach Bulbasaur that not all humans 
are the same as its last trainer...”  

That night, I had found Emily and Chad in the bike store, except there was no 
chance of them buying a bike, they were so far out of our price range, and they 
were only bikes.  
We stayed with Melanie, discussing her work. and what we had done.  
Our Pokémon were able to rest up and Melanie healed the ones that were sick 
like Chad’s Tangela.  
“Just let it rest and it should be just fine.”  
“Yes Ma’am.”  
“You’re a good Pokémon doctor, how come you don’t work in a Pokémon Centre?” 
asked Emily.  
“Oh, I’m not qualified to be a Pokémon Doctor, besides, I like to take care of 
Pokémon that don’t have trainers to rely on.  My hideout is secret so people 
won’t try to capture the Pokémon while they’re under my care, but some Pokémon 
end up becoming too attached to me and can’t grow if they remain with me.”  
“Like that Bulbasaur.” said Emily with interest, I concentrated on her while 
she talked with Melanie.  
“Yes, that Bulbasaur was abandoned and it took it quite personally, he doesn’t 
trust anyone except me, and that’s because I showed him that I take care of 
Pokémon.”  
“So all we have to do is show Bulbasaur differently, and then he might come 
along with me, I mean us.”  
Bingo.  
Emily was interested, and I knew she was a good trainer, unfortunately, the 
Bulbasaur didn’t think so.  
“Bulba...”  
“Tetsubo said you would try.” Melanie reminded the group.  
“Of course we will, CHAD THE CHOSEN and his followers shall-”  
“No way! I shall not be known as your follower, if anything, you're following 
us!” I said louder than usual.  
I could hear a slight giggle, was the Bulbasaur showing some happiness?  
I felt tired, and departed to bed.  
“I’ll see you in the morning, don’t worry Melanie, we’ll keep our promise.”  

End of Chapter 9A  

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Chapter 9B
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