Chapter 30:  Familiar Faces (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

We’d been on the road for a couple of days now, fast approaching Delft Town, 
home of one of the new Gym Leaders.  
Scott was now with us and I was soon seeing that he was a pretty cool guy and 
that I misjudged him totally.  
He was untrusting of me until he saw me in battle and saw me for who I am.  
We still didn’t know his intentions or past, and I didn’t dare ask about the 
whole money incident.  
“So Abby.” I said, as Scott was ahead of us on his own, “What do you think of 
him?”  
“He’s not so bad, but I remember him.  He once challenged me to a Pokémon 
Battle for money.” explained Abby.  
“I know about this money thing too, but I think its a touchy subject.  We 
should just forget about that and get to know him while we have the chance.” I 
added.  
“I suppose so.” said Abby.  
It was reaching night time and the storms were picking up.  
We wouldn’t make it to Delft Town tonight, well maybe we could, but we’d have 
no sleep and we’d be drenched, there was a large house up ahead, perhaps we 
could spend the night there.  

As we entered the house, a mysterious figure was watching us from above in the 
tower, it disappeared into the darkness.  

“Hello? Is anyone there? We could use a place to sleep, we’ll help you out with 
anything in return...” I called out.  
“Hmmmm.” mused Scott.  
“There must be someone around, no one would leave their door unlocked like that 
and not be around.” I thought out loud.  
A figure stepped forward, I gasped, it was... me.  
“Hi, I’m Tetsubo Capture, who are you guys?”  
“I’M Tetsubo Capture!” I shouted.  
“You sure about that?” joked Scott, “That one looks a little more authentic.”  
“Scott!” I complained.  
“I was the star of ‘Star Crossed Lovers’ in the Cerulean Water Theatre.”  
“That was me!”  
“Looks like we have a problem, well don’t worry, I’ll solve it.”  
“Hey?...”  
“With a Pokémon Battle!”  
I couldn’t even reason with this pseudo, so I threw Twinkill’s Pokéball.  

“Star!”  
“Go!” shouted the fake.  
The Pokéball opened and a glowing blob formed into a Staryu.  
“Go Twinkill! Thunderbolt attack!”  
“Thunderbolt attack!” said the pseudo at the same time as me.  
The two Pokémon sent off a shower of bolts towards each other and cancelled 
each other out.  
“Copycat...” I grumbled.  
“Psychic attack!” we said together, though the pseudo said it slightly after 
me.  
A ripple of energy distorted the surroundings between the two and exploded.  
“He copies everything I do, and his Staryu knows all the same attacks as 
Twinkill.” I thought to myself, “If this keeps up, the best I can hope for is a 
double knockout, unless...”  
I had an idea.  
“Twinkill! Fly!”  
“Fly-  Huh?”  
“Thunderbolt!” I shouted.  
With that distraction since Staryus couldn’t learn Fly attack (they could only 
spin themselves to a great height, but Fly attack was only for Flying-type 
Pokémon only), the pseudo had fallen for my trick and I was able to strike 
before he could copy me.  
The Staryu was shocked, but instead of fainting, it fell to the floor, glowed 
white and melted into a pink blob.  
I should have realised it was a Ditto, and this one was fast to have 
transformed without my seeing its true form.  

“Ditto, the Transform Pokémon.  Usually a shapeless blob, it can copy a 
Pokémon’s genetic code to transform into a duplicate of its enemy.”  

“And you sir, are an impostor.” I said confidently.  
The pseudo giggled and it turned out this wasn’t even a guy.  
“I’m sorry, I do this all the time, I enjoy imitating people, its my hobby and 
my profession.” she said.  
“Come again?” I questioned.  
She walked ahead and we followed her into a large dressing room filled with 
many, many costumes.  
She reappeared dressed like Officer Jenny.  
“I just love taking on different roles...  You’re under arrest for Grand Theft 
Pokémon!...  Playing a different role was never enough for me.”  
She disappeared and came out as Nurse Joy.  
“Your Pokémon will be just fine!...  I surpassed my peers in all aspects of 
drama, and when I discovered Ditto’s ability, I knew I wanted to be just like 
it.”  
She came out as herself, wearing an orange T-Shirt with a star design on it, 
along with blue jeans, her hair was a dark shade of green and came out to the 
sides in pig-tails.  
“My name is Duplica, and this is the House of Imite.”  
“Well you already seem to know my name, this is Scott and this is Abby.” I 
introduced.  
“Why shouldn’t I? I visit every theatre and show, I have to keep up with the 
times in order to keep my act from getting old.  You were great as the prince 
and that mermaid girl was excellent...”  
I hung my head low, I was already missing Emily, but she had made it perfectly 
clear how much I had hurt her, I’d have to wait until she forgave me, surely 
she’d outweigh that one lie with everything else I had given her, or maybe she 
wouldn’t...  
Abby noticed and gave me an inquisitive stare, I think she knew exactly what 
was wrong.  
“Uh...  Thanks, but it was my first time.” I quickly answered.  
“Hey...  You said you’d do anything for a place to stay tonight, how’s about 
you help me out in my show?” asked Duplica.  
“I guess we haven’t got a choice, I did say we would.” I agreed tiredly.  

It turned out that the show was to be shown tomorrow night, Abby and I had made 
such good time because of the Snorlax incident that we were able to give up a 
day to help Duplica out.  

Scott tried his hand at juggling, and failed many times, but he wouldn’t give 
up.  
Abby refused to tell jokes and ended up becoming a dummy for the magic section 
of the show.  
I got stuck with the joke telling duties and some of our Pokémon would join 
Duplica’s Ditto in entertaining the crowd by being themselves.  
Duplica loved to dress up and act like someone else, and even as different 
Pokémon, she was a true actor and compassionate about imitating others.  

“Come on Scott, give up and do something else.” I advised.  
“I never quit, you made a promise and I will keep it.” groaned Scott.  
I walked away and Scott dropped his balls, one rolled underneath my foot and I 
slipped and fell.  
Scott offered a hand and I noticed that the contents of my bag had spilled all 
over the place.  
“Let me help.” Scott groaned and picked up the pieces.  
“How many books do you carry?” groaned Scott as he lifted the four large books 
I used to keep my studies in check.  
“I’m a Pokémon Tech student, you never really drop the old habits.” I said, 
almost forgetting my nugget.  
Scott’s eyes widened a little, “Tetsubo, where did you get that?”  
“This?” I said, noticing how dirty it had gotten, and so wiping it down a 
little with a cloth, “Some place called Nugget Bridge.  I got it off a Rocket 
so I’m not sure what to do with it.”  
“You could sell it, but make sure not to get ripped off.” advised Scott.  
“But if I do sell it, how will I carry around so much money and not get 
robbed?” 
I asked concerned.  
“This from the kid that wants to win the Pokémon League cash prize?” said Scott 
with a smirk.  
“I’m not in it for the money, just for a little glory, fame and recognition for 
my studies, and you?” I explained.  
“Its a necessity.” he answered.  
Scott picked up the balls and continued to try his hand at juggling, Abby was 
sitting on her own so I went to talk to her.  
“You okay?” I asked.  
“Uh huh.” she answered.  
“You wanna switch jobs?”  
“No way, I don’t do jokes.” she said firmly.  
“You sure? It does a person good to loosen up and laugh a little.” I smiled.  
“I don’t know why I’m like this, I’m sorry.” she apologised.  
“Don’t apologise, come on, tell a joke, I won’t laugh, I mean, I Will laugh 
but...  You understand.” 
“Well...  I heard this from an old man so...”  
“Just say it.” I urged gently.  
“Um, er...  How do you get one hundred Pikachus on a bus?...” she asked.  
I nodded as if to ask for the answer.  
“Poke ‘em on.” she replied.  
A smile came to my face and some laughter came out, but it was the fact that 
Abby was showing emotions I’d never seen from her before that brought on the 
main part of my smile.  
“See, I told you that you could do it.”  
She hid her face away, obviously blushing.  
“But still, I barely managed to do that with you, I’d be too nervous in front 
of a crowd so you’ll understand if-”  
“Sure thing, still, you must be brave to let Duplica do dangerous magic tricks 
on you.” I smiled.  
“I’ve had worse.” she said with a confident smirk.  

I was understanding my friends so much better today.  

I went to Duplica who had her Ditto and all our Pokémon to practice with, well, 
Scott only released his Onix, Raichu, Poliwag and Snorlax, I was sure he had 
more Pokémon, but I guess he chose not to show us.  

The Ditto reformed back into itself after imitating all the Pokémon.  
“That’s great Ditto.” cheered Duplica.  
“You mean it can imitate all these Pokémon in one go?” I asked amazed.  
“Uh huh, my Ditto also wants to be the best entertainer ever, about a year ago, 
he couldn’t transform perfectly.” she explained.  
I sat down, this sounded like a big story.  
“We tried everything, but whenever he transformed, he always kept his original 
face, you should have seen how silly he looked when he transformed into a 
Machoke with that smile and beady eyes.  Then one day, I was visited by some 
trainers similar to you three, and then my Ditto was taken by these two people 
and a talking Meowth.”  
“I’ve met them.” I mentioned, rolling my eyes a little.  
“Well, somehow they managed to teach my Ditto how to transform properly, and 
then they decided to try and transform it into a rare Pokémon, but Ash and his 
friends helped me retrieve my Ditto from those strange people.”  
“I wouldn’t bet on people like that treating your Ditto very nice, they must 
have scared it into transforming right or something.” I suggested.  
“Oh, well...  I guess I never really thought about that, Ditto might have 
suffered and I never thought about it one bit, while I was enjoying all the 
benefits of a fully developed Ditto, he might have felt he’d be hurt if he 
didn’t transform properly...”  
“Ditto...” groaned the Ditto, already leaving the room.  
“I’m sorry Duplica, this is all my fault, I shouldn’t have said those things.” 
I apologised.  
“Don’t say that, what you said was probably true, I never thought about how 
Ditto felt after that experience.  I should apologise to it and perhaps act 
gentler towards it.”  
“Let’s go find it.” I said.  
“Diiiiitttto!!!” came a scream from outside.  

Duplica and I charged out, and Cassie was sprinting towards a hot air balloon 
with Ditto, where the other Elites sat.  

“We strike during day or night!”  
“We attack, with all our might!”  
“Don’t mess with us, or we shall fight!”  
“We’re pretty good at our rhyme.”  
“The masterminds, of crime.”  
“We always succeed, every time.”  
“Cletus!”  
“Cassie!”  
“Claus!”  
“If y’all got valuables, yuh’d better block it!”  
“We put Pokémon in our pocket!”  
“We’re the best, so don’t knock it!”  
“We are... Elite Rocket!”  

“Stop!” I shouted but they paid me no heed.  

“This little Pokémon is going to save our jobs!” shouted Cassie.  
“Looks like our luck’s-a-changin’!” said Cletus.  
“With this, we’ll finally have the rare Pokémon we need!” finished Claus, and 
the balloon floated away.  

“No...” muttered Duplica, “Ditto!!!...”  

End of Chapter 30A  

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Chapter 30B
Back to Story List #21 - #40
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