Chapter 26:  Lower Evils (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

After a couple of silent travelling days with Abby, we finally reached Saffron 
City.  
“We’ve finally here, Saffron City, one of the most busiest towns on the... 
map...” I said, noticing the people sleeping just about everywhere.  
“Talk about living rough.” commented Abby.  
“But they’re not poor...”  
People in posh suits were lying around on park benches, playground facilities 
and all over the floor, something was putting these people to sleep.  

“GO! HEADACHE!” shouted a familiar character.  
“Psy!”  
“You think this’ll stand a chance?” asked a man with tall dark purple spiky 
hair, wearing a pink coat and a long dark cape, he had a Hypno with him.  
“As soon as his headache grows...” replied Chad.  
“Hypno, use your Hypnosis.”  
“Hypno...”  
“Psy...”  
It fell to the floor asleep and a bubble grew from his nose as he slept.  
“No! No! No! Don’t put it to sleep! Attack it!” shouted Chad at his opponent.  
“Why should I?...  When I can just put you to sleep and steal your 
belongings?...”  
“... CHAD THE CHOSEN SHALL DEFEAT YOU FOUL VILLAIN AND...”  
“And what, hero man?” mocked the Hypno’s trainer.  
“I’ll... get you...  Right after I nap...”  
Chad fell to the floor and started snoring while the man checked his pockets.  
“Useless, he has nothing of value.”  
The villain left Chad and went about his way.  

I ran through the town, what if this did permanent damage to the people?  
“Abby.  You found anyone who’s awake?” I asked her.  

“No.” she replied looking over a muscular man.  
“Chad the Chosen...  I’m the best...”  
“Definitely not.” she said and walked away.  

“We’re on the way to Viridian City...  I’ve got my friends and the power to-  
What’s going on?” asked Danielle skating into town listening to her personal 
stereo, she switched it off and explored.  
“Is that...  It is! Tetsubo! My love!”  
“Looks like we missed one, Hypno.” said a sinister voice.  
“Who are you?”  
“I am The Juggler, the best thief in the world!”  
“You put those people to sleep?”  
“Yes, and I’ve stolen their belongings, as I will with you.”  
“Eeeeyyaaaaghhh! You can’t! The only belongings I have is my diary!”  
“Diary?! I-” spluttered Juggler.  
“Help me!” wailed Danielle throwing three Pokéballs wildly.  
“Seel!”  
“RAAII!!!”  
“Neeeeiiiggghhh!!!”  
Her Seel, Raichu and Rapidash appeared to protect her.  
“Hypno! Quickly!”  
“Hypno...  Hypno...  Hypno...”  
“Seel...”  
“Chaaa...”  
“Neiggghhh...”  
“Time... to dream of boys again...” groaned Danielle.  
The Juggler stood proud, “Good work Hypno, she didn’t get to use her Pokémon, 
I’m just awful in battles.”  
“Hey!” I shouted, just arriving in the area, “What have you done to her?!”  
“Put her to sleep, but all she has is this piece of junk...”  
He held up a book, “Day, yadayadayada...  I’m in love with an older guy...  
Gonna train Pokémon hard, win badges, da da da...  And I’ll make him love 
me...  
What a stupid girl...”  
“That sounds just like...  Uh oh...” I groaned.  
I looked down at the girl, it was Danielle...  
“Um, how long is she gonna be like that?”  
“I estimate two minutes before You wake up.”  
“Could you be a little more specific? I don’t want to be here when she wakes.” 
I grinned.  
“Oh, so You’re the lucky guy...”  
“Not so much lucky, more like unfortunate, heh heh heh.” I laughed with him.  
“Heh heh heh, wait a minute, why am I having a conversation with you?!” he 
suddenly realised.  
“So, you put people to sleep and steal their Pokémon, what division are you 
from?” I accused the villain.  
“I work solo! And I don’t steal Pokémon, I steal belongings!”  
“I should have figured a clown like you would be a loner, if you haven’t heard, 
I’m a regular hero, and I won’t allow you to steal from these people.”  
“Many have tried to stop The Juggler as have you, and they have all failed, 
I’ll just zap you to sleep and get out of here before the police arrive!”  
“I won’t allow it, Go Twinkill!”  
“Star!”  
“Hypno, use your Hypnosis!”  
“Water Gun!”  
The water splashed onto the Hypno and it couldn’t be seen within the blast.  
“No...” groaned Juggler.  
“If my Pokémon can’t see your Hypno, then the hypnosis won’t take effect!” I 
smiled confidently.  
“Gah!!! No! This can’t be! Return! Go! Kadabra!”  
“Ku-dabra!”  
“Double Edge, Twinkill!”  
Twinkill spun itself round and collided hard with the Kadabra.  
“Return! Go! Venomoth!”  
“VENOOOO!!!”  
“Psychic attack, Twinkill!”  
It went down in one hit.  
“You may be good at putting people to sleep.” I said to him, “But you’re really 
really bad at Pokémon Battles.”  
“I’m not done yet!” he yelled juggling Pokéballs, “Oh, where is it?...”  
“Twinkill!”  
Twinkill darted forward and tackled the man, he fell over and his Pokéballs 
followed, all hitting him on the head.  
“I’m gettin’ outta here!” he shouted, producing a unicycle and riding away 
fast.  
“Not without giving the people’s stuff back!” I shouted as I chased after him.  

He was fast, I gave him that much, and he was nearly out of town.  
“RRHHHYYY!!!” shouted a familiar Pokémon and rose its head up.  
The unicycle was shattered by Abby’s Rhyhorn and The Juggler dropped to the 
floor.  
“Where do you think you’re going?” asked Abby darkly.  
“I hate all these hero-types!” he yelled and darted into the only path that 
wasn’t blocked off by us, the Silph Co building.  
“After him!” I shouted.  
“I don’t know why such idiots think they have a future in crime.” commented 
Abby as she followed me in.  
The reception area was empty, no sleeping victims but deserted for another 
reason.  
“There!” I shouted, Juggler was scrambling up after taking another fall, and 
was darting towards the stairs, thank goodness he didn’t take the lift, this 
building was at least ten floors high.  

As we neared the stairs and started our ascent, there were exploding sounds and 
the cries of Juggler.  
Abby and I stormed up and I gasped, the room was full of Rockets, grunts, 
executives and a man in red.  
“More clowns?...  Deal with it.” said a man with short dark hair in a red suit, 
before walking away, out of our sight, he was dressed so impressively that it 
was a safe bet that he was the leader of Team Rocket.  
But we couldn’t really think about that, we were surrounded by grunts, all 
wearing the usual black uniforms and berets.  
Juggler was lying on the floor, shocked and smoking, they really hurt him bad.  
“Juggler!” I shouted.  
“He’s not dead... yet.” said a woman in a lilac top and a long skirt, she had 
short auburn hair which fell to her left side and overlapped her face a 
little.  
“Who the heck are you, and how did you know we were here?” asked the male, he 
wore a dark violet suit and had short black hair.  
“But I-”  
A memory shot through my mind, the Safari Zone:  

“Those are special TMs straight from Silph Co, they made these until the 
Rockets took possession of the company...”  

“I guess I do, its been a while since then...” I smiled.  
“Let’s get rid of these nobodies!” shouted the male executive.  
“If only you knew who I was.” I said confidently, even with all these Rockets 
around.  
“What? You’re a kid!” shouted the male.  
Abby and I, the grunts, and the male and female all charged forward grasping a 
Pokéball, and then a mobile phone started ringing.  
“Hold on.” said the female.  
We all fell to the floor in disbelief.  
“Yeah...  Aha...  Yeah...  Yes, he does have turquoise hair...  ...  ...  What 
do you mean, ‘You’re in big trouble’? Is he That good?...  Uh huh, uh huh...  
Every plan?...  Well don’t worry, he doesn’t seem too tough.” said the female 
over the phone.  
She hung up.  
“Okay, I’m ready.  Um, Jon’...  A word?...”  
Everyone else was leaning or sitting, this didn’t look like the first time this 
lady had done this.  
“You mean That’s the kid that’s caused the Elites so much trouble?”  
“Uh huh, Cassie told me herself, and that means it was him who beat the two 
J’s, the juniors and the brothers.”  
“Doesn’t matter! We have to get rid of him before he ruins the operation!” 
shouted the male.  
“Go!”  
The male unleashed a Raticate, a Koffing and a Pinsir.  
The female had an Ekans, Gloom and Shellder.  
The grunts simply used Zubats, Rattatas and Mankeys.  
“Oh...”  
I started to realise just how outnumbered we were, and not just by Pokémon, 
there were enough grunts to block off all the exits.  
“Go Twinkill! Pollen!” I shouted, Abby used her Rhyhorn and Hypno, I guess she 
wouldn’t risk her smaller Pokémon.  

Unfortunately there were enough Pokémon to stop ours, the room was too crowded, 
if only I could have taken them on, one at a time.  
They didn’t stop at the Pokémon, and came at us, we received many hits and were 
overwhelmed.  
Abby and I received light hits but they were coming from ten Pokémon at any one 
time, it was over for us...  

End of Chapter 26A  

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Chapter 26B
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