Chapter 20:  Rock Tunnel Rampage (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

A lot later on, we were probably only halfway through the cavern.  
It had been 12 boring hours so far and we had a long way to go.  
We’d found a nice peaceful area to nap in as outside it was pretty late.  
Emily had slept on my shoulder and I’d been thinking about my future in 
general:  
My Pokémon were getting in tip top shape and I was winning all my battles, only 
a select few had beaten me, and I’d never won over them.  
Sansuke from Fuchsia City, and of course Bryan.  
My Pokémon were getting better, but would it be enough to beat Bryan?...  The 
creep must have been using something illegal since our Pokémon were at equal 
level.  
Still, I had managed to catch him off guard and beat one of his Pokémon, I was 
sure to do better next time.  
I had a more rounded team now, Digda and Shockwave covered the Ground and 
Electric side.  
Speaking of which...  
“Shockwave...  Come out...” I whispered.  
“Blleehh!-”  
“Shhhh, Emily’s sleeping.  I hope we can be friends Shockwave, I’m sorry I had 
to take you away from all that electricity but if you just listen to me I could 
train you to be strong without it.”  
I awaited his response.  
“Buzz!”  
He grabbed me and gave me a hug, he seemed a little overfriendly, but there was 
nothing wrong with that, I guess he liked what I promised him, and I’d do 
whatever I could to keep this promise.  
The slight shaking had caused Emily to wake up.  
“Eh?” she muttered, then gasped, “E, E, Electabuzz!”  
“Its okay Emily, he’s tame now.” I comforted.  
“Bleh?!”  
It released its firm grip on me and charged at Emily.  
“Wait, I-”  
It was okay and he was giving her a hug.  
“Emily, maybe it’d be best not to let Shockwave near Discharge, I’m trying to 
get him to stay off the electricity...”  
“Get... him... off... me...”  
She was still edgy about being with Shockwave.  
“Shockwave, Return.”  

We continued down the tunnel, and walked for a very long time before resting 
again.  
The time count was nearly 23 or so hours that we’d been in the caves, we’d 
hopefully be out by the afternoon, so that we could take on the Gym Leader 
before the day was done.  
We heard large solid footsteps from behind and we turned to face... a hiker, 
actually it was the hiker from Route 25.  
“Hey could you help?...  Hey, you’re that kid who beat me.”  
“Uh huh, what’s wrong Sir?” asked Emily.  
“My Machop, the one you beat, it was stolen and the thieves ran into these 
caves.”  
“What kind of thieves?” I asked.  
“I didn’t catch their face, but there were definitely two of them.”  
“Knowing my track record, its probably one of my list of enemies.  Maybe the 
Klutz Rockets, the alternative Rockets, the Junior Rockets or the Screwloose 
Brothers.  But why would they want just a Machop when you’ve got other strong 
Pokémon?” I pondered.  
“I have no idea Son, but I absolutely must get him back, he was to help me with 
digging and... he’s my friend...”  
“I suppose we have to, who needs sleep anyway...” I said unconvincingly, 
yawning a little as I talked.  

We hurried ourselves up, Emily seemed okay, but I was feeling just a little 
drowsy, if only I’d slept instead of pondering life.  
Quakes suddenly occurred in the new area we were in.  
“Ha ha ha, it works...” said a familiar voice.  
Charging in, we ran into the sights of a huge blue Pokémon.  

“Machoke, the Superpower Pokémon.  Machoke’s body is so powerful that it must 
wear a power-save belt.  Without it, this Pokémon would be completely 
unstoppable.”  

“Belt?...  Where is it?” I asked.  
“And if the Pokédex is right, we’re in big trouble.” exclaimed Emily.  
“You don’t know the half of it!” said another known voice.  
“You two...” I said darkly.  

“We specialise in drugs, and the odd chemical test.”  
“Machinery, genesis, we’re the best.”  
“Stay out of our way, or you’ll be crushed.”  
“You can’t tell of us, you’ll soon be hushed.”  
“Billy.”  
“And Willy.”  
“We’re the Screwloose Brothers, the Team Rocket Scientists.”  
“Mess with us and feel our Pokémon’s fists.”  

“Then that means this big Machoke is...”  
“Uh huh Fatman, we evolved it for you, well, not so much for you.” said Billy.  
“We removed the belt that limits its power and attached a slave band instead!” 
finished Willy.  
“Doing so gives us all that power under our control!” added Billy, and Willy 
extended a hand to give an order:  
“Machoke! Use your Karate Chop!”  
“Dive!” I shouted pushing the others.  
The fist burrowed into the rock and dragged down, leaving a large trail on the 
cavern wall, the Machoke was totally undamaged.  
“That’s powerful...” I said a little nervously.  
“Machoke! Stop this!” shouted the hiker.  
“No way Fatman, we’re having too much fun!” shouted Willy, “Machoke, Low 
Kick!”  
“MACHOKE!!!”  
We ran again, the foot knocked out a large chunk of rock, luckily for us, it 
was supporting the roof.  
Rocks fell and blocked off the Machoke, perhaps we’d have time to think.  
“You.” I said to the hiker, “See if you can reach out to it.”  
“What will you do?” he asked me.  
“Fight back, Emily...”  
“Okay.”  
“Psychot!”  
“Miles!”  
“Fighting Pokémon are weak against Psychic attacks.” I explained confidently.  
“Not this one boy!” shouted Billy.  
“Ku-dabra!”  
“Mime!”  
“Miles, no time for performances, this Pokémon means business.” said Emily 
kindly but firmly.  
“Mime.” he nodded.  
“Psychot, hit it with your best attacks.” I advised.  
“Ku-dabra!”  
“Go!” we shouted, the rocks were torn down and the Machoke made its way 
through.  
“Psychot! Disable!”  
“Miles, use Confusion!”  
Psychot went first, stretching out his fingers to freeze the Machoke.  
The Machoke clenched its fists and fought off the magic.  
“Mime!”  
Miles was next, shooting off a Confusion attack.  
“Machoke!”  
It blocked itself with its arms and held its ground.  
“Psychic isn’t working!” I shouted.  
“Machoke!”  
It karate chopped the Mr Mime and picked up my Kadabra.  
“Machoke, Seismic Toss!” ordered Willy.  
“Ma-CHOKE!!!”  
Psychot was thrown to the ground and was weakened.  
“Finish them off Machoke, whatever way you like.” smiled Billy.  
“Stop Machoke! Don’t you remember me? Your true trainer, your friend, all the 
times we shared...” said the hiker holding his arms out and blocking the way to 
the psychics.  
It looked into his eyes and stared.  
“I know there’s still a part of you in there...”  
“Forget him Machoke, you like the power we gave you, you can do anything now.” 
intervened Willy.  
“... Ma-CHOKE!!!”  
It swatted the hiker as if he was nothing, he landed hard against the rock 
wall.  
“No!” I shouted.  
“Maaaaaa...”  
“Mr Mime!!!”  
“Ku-dabra!!!”  
A hard barrier deflected the punch from Machoke, then Psychot shot its arm 
forward and a huge multicoloured beam shot out shooting the Machoke through the 
cavern walls.  
Barrier and Psybeam.  
“We did it...  Alright, let’s get the brothers, you comin’?”  
“Mr Mime!”  
“Ku-dabra!”  
“Oh no!” screamed Billy.  
I tackled him and pinned him to the floor, Willy grabbed a metal tool but 
Psychot shot it out of his hands.  
“Emily!” I shouted while wrestling Billy, “Grab the belt!”  
“Good idea!”  
The Screwloose Brothers had foolishly left it lying next to them, now we might 
be able to contain Machoke’s power and return him to normal.  
Billy pressed his foot against me and pushed me away.  
“You guys are going to jail this time, Pokémon aren’t tools for destruction!” I 
threatened.  
“You think you can capture us, forget it!” shouted Billy, and the two ran 
away.  
“Hey!”  
I was about to chase after them.  
“Look behind you Kid!” smiled Willy.  
“MACHOKE!”  
“You can’t restore Machoke before it hurts someone And take us in!” shouted 
Willy.  
They were right, I had to let them go and stop Machoke.  
“Psychot, use Psybeam ag-”  
The Machoke went straight for the psychics, picked them up, and slammed them on 
the floor.  
They were out of it, so we quickly recalled them.  
“Our Psychic-types can’t do it, what else are Fighting Pokémon weak against 
Tetsubo?” asked Emily panicking a little.  
“Flying, except we don’t have them! We need to slow him down, perhaps our 
Poison-types could do it.”  
“Our Nidorans can’t take him on!”  
“Why not let them decide?”  
“Ran!”  
“Ni!”  
“Needle, Poisoness, this Machoke is overly powerful, think you can poison him 
so we can put its belt on?” I briefed the Pokémon.  
“Ran!”  
“Ni! Ni!”  
They dived forward but were swatted.  
“Needle!”  
“Poisoness!”  
“Raaan...”  
“Niiii...”  
They weren’t giving up, they dived forward and ducked the next swat from 
Machoke, Needle started scratching over and over again with Fury Attack, and 
Poisoness bit it hard.  
“Machoke...  Machoke...  MACHOKE!”  
Quickly swatting them, they stayed down, Machoke ran forward but the hiker 
blocked its path again.  
“Don’t do it!” I shouted to him.  
“Now that those guys can’t interrupt, I know deep down there’s still a part of 
you listening.  We’ve been through so much, you can’t be a tool for 
destruction, fight that slave band...”  
“Ma...”  
“Fight it!”  
“MAAAAA!!!” it screamed, gripping its head in pain, his eyes shot open, and he 
looked even more dangerous than before.  
“MAAAAAAAAAAACHHHOKKKKE!!!”  
It was raising its fist.  
“Poisoness! Needle! Poison Sting attack!” I shouted.  
They dived over the hiker and stuck their claws, tails and horns into the 
Machoke before firing off their most powerful Poison Sting.  
“MAAAA...  Ma... Ma... Ma... Choke!”  
It looked drowsy and sick and then collapsed.  
“The belt!”  
We quickly strapped it on before it could pick itself up.  
It clenched its fists as if something was running through its insides, the 
power-save belt was working.  
“CHOKE!!!”  
But it still had that headband that made it so dangerous and unruly.  
I turned back to the Nidorans, who after that last attack, were ready to 
evolve.  
“RINO!!!”  
“Rina!”  
“They evolved together.” said Emily happily.  
I had already recorded a Nidorino on the ‘Dex, and now I had my very own, I 
scanned Poisoness:  

“Nidorina, the Poison Pin Pokémon.  The Nidorina’s horn develops slower than 
the male of the species, they attack instead with bites and scratches.”  

They had finally grown after all the training, now they probably had their best 
attacks.  
“Poisoness!”  
“Needle!”  
“Double Kick!” we finished together.  
They both leaped up and kicked it in the chest.  
“Choke!!!”  
It spun its foot round but the Poison Pokémon were too fast now.  
“Poisoness! Fury Swipes!”  
“Needle! Horn Drill!”  
While Poisoness scratched its chest, Needle leaped up, now the only one with a 
horn on its head, he took the finishing blow and the horn spun round really 
fast.  
He hit it square in the forehead where the metal band was and shattered it.  
Machoke’s arms fell down and it looked weak.  
“Machoke...  Please...  Remember me now...” pleaded the hiker.  
“Ma...  Machoke...”  
It smiled at the hiker, it was freed from its spell at last.  

A little later, the hiker departed.  
“How can I reward you kids? I never would have been able to beat Machoke 
without its belt.”  
“Don’t worry sir, that battle caused our Nidorans to evolve, and we’re happy to 
see you two together, that’s reward enough.” said Emily.  
“Are you okay that it evolved for those creeps?” I asked him.  
“Sure, I was hoping you’d evolve soon, I’m just glad I didn’t lose you.” the 
hiker said turning to his Pokémon.  
“Machoke...” it said gently.  
“Maybe I’ll see you around...” said the hiker departing, “Digging for gems is 
gonna be a synch now...”  
“Machoke...”  

We walked in the opposite direction and finally, light came our way.  
After 24 or so hours of caves, we were finally in the open, and we’d be in 
Lavender Town by tomorrow.  

End of Chapter 20B  

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