Chapter 12:  Burning Desires (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Taking another step forwards, someone came running towards us.  
“Hey you guys were great.” said a young man with naturally white hair, he wore 
a red coat and white trousers.  
“Uh...  Thanks.”  
“You want a Pokémon Battle with me?”  
“Sure, I’m sure my Pokémon can keep on battling.  Okay, Scramble! Go!”  
“Exeggcute!”  
“Hah! Piece of cake! Inferno!”  
“Inferno?”  
“Char!”  
“A Charmander...“  

“Charmander, the Lizard Pokémon.  It is born with a flame on its tail, it is 
said that it will die if this flame ever goes out.”  

A Fire-type versus a Grass-type, I didn’t feel like holding back, if Scramble 
was going to get better, it had to battle more, and a win against a type 
advantage would help it grow.  
Provided I stayed away from Grass attacks and used Grass specials, combined 
with Normal moves.  
“Inferno! Use your Ember!”  
“Scramble! Try a Stun Spore!”  
“Exegg!”  
“Char...”  
The Stun Spore burst out and overcame the Charmander, but I saw no effort to do 
what its trainer asked.  
“Inferno, don’t do this, don’t you like working with me?”  
“Char!” it said sharply, spitting a small flame.  
“Scramble, use...  No, don’t...”  
It wasn’t even in a battling pose, attacking it now would just be cheap.  
This wasn’t a proper battle.  

“As you can see, my Charmander hasn’t been listening to me lately.”  
“Well, has anything happened to make him this way?”  
“Well, I don’t have any badges, and I haven’t trained my Charmander for very 
long.  My problem is that Inferno wants to be the best it can be, but I’m not 
sure if I can help it reach that potential, he doesn’t respect me.”  
“Guys, let’s stick around and help...”  
“Garland, my name’s Garland.”  
 
We walked up to the hill where Garland lived, and withdrew some of our 
Pokémon.  
“So, how do you get a Pokémon to respect its trainer?...” I pondered, “My Abra 
used to be a little unruly but now its willing to try and battle, even without 
knowing its attacks.”  
“And my Beedrill became unruly when I shouted at it, and it took a little while 
for it to trust me again.” added Emily.  
“But my Charmander doesn’t like me out of respect.”  
“We’ll make it respect you, if you can just prove to it you have what it takes 
to help it get stronger, it’ll respect you.  We’ll all battle your Charmander 
with equal strength Pokémon, no advantages.” I explained.  
“That’s really nice of you Tetsubo.”  
“Let’s try again! Scramble!”  

“Exeggcute!”  
“Scramble, start with a Barrage.”  
“Hear that Inferno, let’s counter it with a Ember attack!”  
“Char!”  
It made no effort to move, but quickly did when the eggs flew down.  
“Inferno, I’m just trying to help you, don’t you want to get stronger?!”  
“Cha-!”  
“You won’t fight that Exeggcute because of its appearance, but to me, it looks 
very strong.  Please battle with me.”  
“Scramble! Hypnosis!”  
The little eyes glowed, and Inferno appeared to fall asleep.  
“Inferno! Get up and use Ember!”  
“Scramble, use your Leech Seed.”  
Scramble approached the Charmander and prepared to shoot off the seeds, but the 
Charmander got up, gave it a look of acceptance, and slashed it.  
Scramble fell back, severely hurt.  
“Inferno, I said Ember attack! I’m not out to injure Tetsubo’s Pokémon!”  
“Char!”  
It spat flames and Scramble was set on fire.  
I quickly recalled them.  

“Its totally out of control!” I shouted, “Why did it suddenly start fighting so 
violently like that?!”  
“Inferno’s a very judgemental Pokémon, he chooses who he will and will not 
fight, but because of this, he doesn’t gain the experience from fighting weaker 
Pokémon, and loses to stronger opponents.  He only respects strong trainers, 
and I just can’t do it, I can’t train Inferno...”  
“You can and you will.  I’m sure Inferno knows how much you care about it, 
it’ll come through and you’ll make the right decisions for your Charmander.” I 
said loudly with compassion.  
I heard a twig crack from behind, and quickly turned around and released 
Twinkill.  

It was a young girl, a spiky red-head, except her hair was literally red.  
Her hair was pointy and outgoing, and she wore robes with cuts in them of fiery 
colours.  
“Mr Tetsubo, I, the fantastic Wildfire challenge you to a Pokémon Battle.”  
“Who?”  
“I’m the second Pokelemental.  Wildfire, the Fire Pokémon Trainer.”  
“Fine, I’ll have a quick match with you.”  
“Branch chose Pokémon with too many weaknesses, I’ll show you why Fire is best! 
Charmeleon!”  
“Char! Char! Char! Meleon!” it shouted in a gruff voice.  

“Charmeleon, the Flame Pokémon.  This Pokémon is easily excited by tough fights 
and tends  not to give up until the opponent is defeated.”  

“Charmeleon, let’s start with a Flamethrower!”  
“Twinkill! Don’t let yourself get overconfident! Leap over it and spin into a 
Tackle!”  
“Staryu!”  
It leaped up high, then flew down, nabbing the Charmeleon, and driving it into 
a nearby fence.  
“Charmeleon, Rage...”  
“Twinkill, use Water Gun!”  
“Star-Yu!”  
It spat a large blast of water towards the red lizard, who tried to shield 
himself, but failed to defend against the blast.  
“Keep going, it can’t withstand the type difference and your power.”  
It kept it up for 30 seconds before stopping.  
Now tired, it looked up, and the Charmeleon was charging fast.  
With a powerful strike from its claws, Twinkill was knocked back hard.  
“Huh?!”  
I couldn’t believe the Charmeleon survived a Water attack, especially of that 
amount.  
“Rage attack builds power from every hit the opponent gives to the user, then 
the user defeats the attacker like so!”  
“Twinkill, you okay?”  
“Star...  Star!” it shouted, shaking itself off.  
I smiled, Twinkill could always make me proud.  
“Yeah! Finish it Twinkill, another Tackle!”  
“Starrrr... Yu!” it shouted, spinning into the Charmeleon, it was lucky I used 
Water Gun earlier, another hit from that Rage attack and it would have been 
over.  
“Ugh...  Okay, Ninetales! Go!”  
“Nine!”  
It was a beautiful Ninetales, its fur was perfect and the nine tails shined 
bright.  

“Ninetales, the Fox Pokémon.  It grows three extra tails when it evolves from 
Vulpix.  Some say grabbing one of these tails could result in a 1000 year 
curse.”  

“Ninetales, use Fire Spin!”  
“Twinkill, Harden!”  
The shield came up, but the hurricane of flames followed, and the shield around 
Twinkill was changing to red, it was heating up, Twinkill was suffering.  
“Forget it Twinkill, break away and Water Gun!”  
It released the shield, which shattered, but was sucked into the hurricane and 
landed, burnt up.  
“Never mind Twinkill, you did your best and you beat one Pokémon.”  
“No one can withstand my Ninetales’s Fire Spin.” commented Wildfire.  
I thought before drawing the next Pokéball, “Pollen, Psychot and Scramble 
wouldn’t stand a chance, if anyone would avoid a tornado, it would be someone 
who could go anywhere they wanted.”  
“Whirlwind! I choose you!”  
“Pidgeoooto!”  
“Whirlwind, I want you to use Wing Attack, but don’t go near those Fire Spin 
hurricanes.”  
“Pidgeo!”  
“He won’t have a choice, not when the Fire Spins are coming right for him! 
Ninetales! Another Fire Spin!”  
It was all up to Whirlwind now, flapping its wings, he eyed the Ninetales 
closely.  
“Nine!”  
“Pidgeo!”  
The hurricane blasted onto the floor, and picked up, growing bigger and 
taller.  
“Whirlwind, its your call! Just avoid that Fire Spin and counter with Wing 
Attack!”  
The hurricane grew so tall, it appeared to engulf Whirlwind.  
“Hah, another one loses to Fire Spin.  Don’t take it so hard, all my opponents 
lose to that attack.”  
The flames dissipated and I looked for Whirlwind, he couldn’t have been burnt 
to nothing, could he? I then heard a soaring noise.  
“What?!” screamed Wildfire as Whirlwind dived down and smacked Ninetales hard.  
It flew right over the Fire Spin.  
“Sand Attack!”  
“Fire Spin again!”  
Whirlwind was on the ball and reacted first, kicking dust into Ninetales’ sight 
so that the next Fire Spin was not only off course, but it wasn’t aimed the 
right way to maximize it.  
“Finish it with Quick Attack!”  
It was over.  
The Ninetales fell back, its tails and fur didn’t look so nice now.  
Wildfire was a little angry, it was like she had fire in her eyes.  
“Ninetales, no...  But I still have one more Pokémon...  Ponyta! Go!”  
With its fine blazing neck and back, the Ponyta kicked into the air with its 
front legs.  
I remembered Bianca’s Ponyta, one stomp from those diamond hooves and it would 
be over.  
“Whirlwind, keep away from its feet!”  
“Ponyta, Ember into the sky!”  
“Whirlwind! Dive!”  
It did as told, but as Whirlwind did, the Ponyta leaped up to his level.  
“Ponyta, Stomp!”  
Whirlwind was trampled under.  
When the smoke cleared, he was out for the count, trapped underneath Ponyta.  
I recalled it.  
“I don’t think I’ve got another Pokémon who can tackle that Ponyta’s 
strength...”  
“Char!”  
“Inferno?”  
“I think Inferno wishes to fight alongside you, it must recognise you as a 
strong trainer and Wildfire’s strong Pokémon.” commented Garland.  
“Really?...  Inferno, this is an important battle, are you sure you’ll fight 
with all you’ve got, and listen to my orders?”  
“Char.”  
“Okay! I choose Inferno!”  
“Char!”  
“Ponyta, Stomp it down.”  
Ponyta screamed out and started charging.  
“Ember attack, follow up with Leer, Inferno...”  
“Char!”  
The flames blocked off Inferno, and the Ponyta had the sense to stop, the 
flames cleared, and the Charmander’s eyes glowed bright, invoking fear into the 
Ponyta.  
“Give it a Slash!”  
“Char! Char!”  
The Ponyta wailed as it took the blow, and shook its head around.  
It wasn’t ready to go down yet.  
“It’s risky, but Rage might be what we need here.”  
“Use your Tail Whip!”  
The Charmander took a blow from the fiery tail.  
“Stomp!”  
Inferno was ready and dived, no counter-attack while using Rage, but its tail 
was caught under the hooves.  
“Ch-Ar!”  
It grabbed its tail in pain, and Ponyta took initiative and tail whipped it 
down to the floor.  
Then again, and again.  
“That’s enough Ponyta...” ordered Wildfire.  
I thought for a moment that she wanted me to forfeit in order to stop the 
assaults, but I was wrong.  
“... Use Stomp instead.”  
Ponyta leaped up high and flew downwards, I had to do something now.  
“Inferno, release your Rage power!”  
“CHAR!”  
Inferno’s tail flame burst into an explosion as he flew upwards, over the 
attacking hooves, and aiming at Ponyta’s face, it started to slash at it hard.  
“Finish it with a Fire-powered Rage!”  
“Char! Chaaaarrrrr!!!” it screamed blasting even the Fire-type Ponyta to 
oblivion.  
They both landed, Ponyta on its side.  

“I don’t believe it, someone beat me...”  
She looked down a little upset, than suddenly smiled.  
“Oh well, tomorrow’s another day.  Here’s the Fire Stone, use it on Vulpix, 
Growlithe or Eevee to evolve it.”  
“Thank you.”  
“There’s still two more Pokelementals, I’m just the tip of the iceberg, which 
would probably melt cos I’m hot stuff.”  
“Uh huh.” I just agreed, confused totally by Wildfire’s final words.  
“Keep training, you handled that Charmander really well.”  
With that, she ran away.  

I felt great but the congratulations should go to the little Charmander.  
“See, I told you he’d come through.  Just brush up on your strategies and you 
and your Charmander will do fine against strong Pokémon.  We should be going 
guys...”  
“Wait Tetsubo.”  
“Uh huh?”  
“I want you to take Inferno with you.”  
“But-”  
“No, don’t argue, I was never truly aiming to going to the Pokémon League, and 
I know that Inferno wants to prove how strong it is, and it sees that you can 
help it reach its full potential.  You told me I’d do what was best for 
Inferno, and I am.  I know its for the best.”  
“You sure about this Inferno?”  
“Char.”  
Garland knelt down to his old Pokémon.  
“I know we never quite saw eye to eye but I always cared about you.  You go and 
get stronger, then come visit me, okay?”  
“Char...”  
It looked sad and guilty, sad for leaving him and guilty for not being nice to 
him, Garland recalled Inferno and handed the ball to me.  
“Welcome to the team, Inferno.” I said, the ball disappeared, but I knew it had 
been teleported to Blossom’s lab.  
“I’ll pick you up as soon as we reach a town.”  
I went back to Garland.  
“Me and Inferno will rise to be the best we can be.  Rest assured, I’ll take 
extra special care of your Charmander, friend.”  
“I’m sure you will Tetsubo.  Bye...”  

We said our goodbyes and continued our journey.  
With another Pokémon on the team, I would do whatever I could to keep my 
promise to Garland.  

End of Chapter 12B  

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