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

We had chased after the balloon, but it disappeared into the distance after 
some time, and so we were forced to return to the House of Imite where we 
rested and informed the others.  

Duplica was rocking slightly on her chair clasping the drink I had made for 
her.  
Accepting some circumstances about her Ditto was hard enough, but now she had 
lost it to Team Rocket.  
Her tears had been wept during the struggle to try and keep up with the Elites, 
now, she was simply silent.  
“I wish there was something we could do for her...  I guess we won’t be able to 
do the show now...  I hate breaking promises...” I muttered.  
“You can’t give up.” said Abby concerned, “Surely you can keep this promise, 
just like when you saved Flutter.”  
“Abby, you’re a genius.” I said happily.  
“I was? I mean, I am?” she spluttered.  
I ignored it and continued, “When we were searching for you, Emily used her 
Bulbasaur to locate you by your scent, surely between you, me and Scott, we’ll 
have a Pokémon that knows the Elites scent or can sniff it outside.”  
“Of course.” smiled Abby.  
We released all of our Pokémon.  
“Anyone who’s got a good sense of smell, please step forward.” I said.  
“Do it.” Abby told her Pokémon.  
Inferno and Shockwave stepped forward, along with Sparky, Foxfire and Armour.  
“Good, with five Pokémon-”  
“Meleon...” said Inferno taking a nap.  
“You can be so heartless.” I commented, recalling him, “With four Pokémon, 
surely we can track down the Elites.”  
“You’re going after Ditto?” asked Duplica.  
“Duplica, I-”  
“I’m coming along.  I think we should make them reflect on what they’ve 
done...” she said.  
“Scott, you should-”  
“I’ll stay here.” he said firmly, “Guard the mansion in case someone tries to 
steal something.”  
“That’s very nice of you Scott.” Duplica said, “I think we should take some 
things with us before we leave.”  
“Leave your stuff behind.” smiled Scott, “Surely you don’t battle with those 
heavy books all the time?”  
“So what if I-  No, of course I don’t, I was kidding.” I said unconvincingly.  

Meanwhile at a small cottage that the Elites had broken into, Ditto couldn’t 
escape with the three Eevee evolved Pokémon around him.  
“But this is madness! You didn’t tell me you were going to trick the Boss.” 
moaned Cassie.  
“We have failed to capture a new Pokémon for six months, let alone a rare one.” 
explained Claus, “Even the Lunar Crew have picked up more than us, and they’re 
an even more messed up group than we are.”  
“Who’re ya callin’ messed up, Blue Boy?” asked Cletus darkly.  
“Anyway, if we can convince this Ditto to change into a rare Pokémon, then 
it’ll buy us some time, we’ll get praised in the next meeting, and by the time 
the Boss finds out its not real, we’ll have surely captured something new.”  
“Why am I not convinced?” asked Cassie suspiciously.  
“Why so fast? Let’s teach it some tricks, wouldn’t it be cool ta have da exact 
powers of any opponent? We should keep it fer ourselves.” mused Cletus.  
“Idiot!” shouted Claus slapping him on the head, “We were given enough Pokémon 
for ourselves, its our fault they’re not as developed as they could be, and if 
we don’t go through with this, then the Boss might kick us off the team!”  
“He can’t do that, he’s got to fire the two J’s and the Meowth first.” argued 
Cassie.  
“There’s rumours going around that he just might do that, when he can find them 
that is.” explained Claus.  
“Didn’t they try to pull a stunt like this once?” asked Cassie.  
“Yeah, bah stuffing dat annoying Meowth in a costume, but we’ve got Ditto.” 
smiled Cletus.  
“Let’s get to work.” said Cassie getting out a book, “Ditto! Change into this! 
Now!” she shouted, holding the page open to a Dratini.  
“Ditto...” groaned Ditto.  
“Do it!” the Elites shouted, and the Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon roared at 
the little blob.  
It trembled, and then growled, and then put on a cross expression.  
“Dit-to!” it said firmly, and turned its back on the Elites.  
“How dare you!” shouted Cassie.  
“Do it or I’ll turn you into a pink chewtoy!” shouted Claus.  
It turned, and then changed, it had a perfect tail, body and head, but not the 
face, it had returned to its old habit of not changing its face, but on 
purpose.  
“Do Dratinis really look dat goofy?” asked Cletus.  
“No!” shouted Claus, “Its not changing its face! Maybe its broken...”  
“Try again.” urged Cletus.  
“Ummm...  Try one of our Pokémon then.” said Cassie pushing her Flareon 
forward.  
It did so, but retained a stern beady eyed look.  
“Grrrr, what gives! Maybe we should scare it into changing properly.” smiled 
Cassie pointing a finger, “Heatwave! Flamethrower attack!”  
“Flare!” said Ditto blocking the flames with its own, it was ticked off and 
leaped in front of the Vaporeon and morphed into it of its own accord, and came 
out looking virtually like it, except for the face.  
“Vaporeon!” it said in a little voice, and squirted a large Water Gun on the 
Flareon, knocking it out, it was as powerful as Claus’s Vaporeon, and the 
Elites’ Pokémon were fairly even in their development.  
“Get that fake!” shouted Claus, and Liquid used its Aurora Beam, but Ditto 
leaped up, and the blast froze Cletus’s Jolteon, Lightning.  
“Vapor.” grinned Ditto changing into a Jolteon and using Thunder Wave on the 
Vaporeon, “Jol-teon!”  
All three Pokémon were down and looking dizzy.  
“He beat all of our Pokémon!” shouted Claus, “This Ditto is much more valuable 
than we thought!”  
“Make it change inta somethin’ else!” grinned Cletus, and was rewarded by 
another slap.  
“Forget the scam plan, the Boss would love such a powerful Ditto, especially 
when it has the power of all Pokémon.” mused Claus.  
“Ditto, why not change into, say, a Caterpie?” suggested Cassie.  
“Or a Magikarp?” added Claus.  
It growled and looked ready for another round.  
“Whut do ya want such stupid Pokémon fer? Surely we should make it a Mewtwo, 
like da one dat da Boss lost.” shouted Cletus.  
“Don't give it any ideas, we need to capture it!” shouted Cassie and Claus 
covering his mouth hastily.  

The windows broke open and the Elites were looking at themselves.  
“Who are you?!” shouted Claus.  
It was Duplica, Abby and I in costumes of course, Duplica had suggested the 
idea, as it would distract them.  
“Whut in tarnation are yuh talkin’ ‘bout?!” said Duplica imitating Cletus’s 
accent perfectly, I had run her through things on the way over.  
“I’m a stuck up stick in the mud.” said Abby, but not even bothering to try and 
imitate Cassie perfectly, she didn’t even shout like Cassie was known to do.  
“And I can’t remember anyone’s name.” I finished, pretending to be Claus, “I 
think I’ll call you Navy, Red and Purple.”  
“Quit... imitating us...” growled Claus, “You’re no Elites! I bet you can’t 
even do the motto!”  
We stood in a group pose and recited:  

“Ah’m da stupid one, Ah’m not too bright!” shouted Duplica in Cletus’s accent.  
“We never get anything right...” muttered Abby.  
“We always fall, from a great height.” I said, enjoying this, it was kind of 
fun to do this motto, that’s probably why so many Rockets had one.  
“Ah’m just full o’ grime.” grinned Duplica.  
“We’re never at our prime.” said Abby.  
“We’re several cents short of a dime.” I finished.  
“Cletus!”  
“Cassie...”  
“Claus.”  
“We’re always causin’ a ruckus!” screamed Duplica happily.  
“We always let the good guys sock us...” added Abby.  
“We’re claim to be good, but people mock us.” I finished.  
“We’re the Elites, always making a fuss.” we finished together adopting a group 
pose.  

Duplica and I giggled while Abby held a light smile.  
“That Was fun.” I said to Duplica, “I don’t think I’ll ever get a chance like 
that again.”  
The Elites looked enraged.  
“How dare y’all...” growled Cletus.  
“You look nothing like me, Violet!” shouted Cassie.  
“I Do know people’s names, Turquoise!” shouted Claus contradicting himself.  
We flung the outfits to the floor and stood ready for battle.  
“Get the Ditto!” shouted Claus, and Cletus threw a box on it and sealed it up, 
though when he did, he stuffed several other objects in the box as well.  
“Back off!” shouted Cletus, running to the window, we stopped where we were, 
this cottage was quite next to Oil Lake, a place with a rapid water currents 
and a waterfall downstream, Ditto wouldn’t stand a chance inside that box.  
“Ah mean it, if we can’t have Ditto, den no one can!” shouted Cletus.  
We stepped back cautiously.  
“Out of the cottage, copycat, isn’t it better to have your Ditto fighting on 
our side than for it to die here?” asked Claus menacingly.  
“Ditto!” she shouted, “You have to change!”  
“Uh uh uh!” teased Cassie, “We know it needs something in front of it for it to 
transform.”  
The box glowed blue and tore apart.  
Looming over the Elites was a huge purple humanoid cat, but it had Ditto’s 
angry face, it looked strange.  
A book fell to the floor and landed on a page showing a Pokémon whose existence 
was questionable, something simply known as Mewtwo, even Pokémon Tech didn’t 
have any information on it.  
I’d seen barely visible images of it on the news and Ditto looked really messed 
up, having such a menacing body and a beady eyed, frowning smile.  
“Myu-tu!” it said in its usual voice, and sent the Elites and their Pokémon 
crashing through the wall.  
“That was the most powerful Psychic attack I’ve seen, perhaps the rumours are 
true, perhaps Mewtwo does exist.” I commented.  
The Elites fell down the chasm but Ditto (as a Mewtwo) floated through the hole 
and lifted the Elites and Pokémon up before they hit some sharp rocks.  
It reformed after that and returned to Duplica.  
“Oh Ditto, that was amazing, but it looks like you’ve returned to your old 
ways...”  
“Ditto!” it said, leaping off, turning a page of the book and then transforming 
into a perfect copy of a Dratini.  
“Oh...  You were just doing that because you were angry with them.  Ditto, I’m 
sorry I never checked about your feelings of transforming perfectly, I should 
have been more understanding of what you went through.”  
“Ditto.” it said, reforming and smiling.  
We left the house and the Elites were then with their battered Pokémon, Ditto 
must have been good to beat them all.  
“Go!” the Elites shouted, and all three ‘Eons stood ready, but Cletus went a 
step further, it looked like they were willing to have one Pokémon battle at a 
time.  
“Sparky, Armour.” said Abby dropping two Pokéballs.  
“Go! Twinkill!...”  

“Lightnin’! Dundershock!” shouted Cletus.  
“Jjjolt!” it growled, charging up electricity through its spines.  
“Armour, Horn Attack.” said Abby, wisely taking the first battle.  
“Rhy...”  
It stood strong through the attack and knocked the Jolteon up with its horn.  
“Double Kick!”  
The Jolteon hit Armour hard and damaged him a little, Fighting moves broke 
through Rock Pokémon easily, it was Lightning’s only chance at success.  
“Now use Agility, and den Take Down!”  
“Stomp.”  
The Jolteon ran circles around Armour, who tried to crush it beneath his feet, 
it came from behind and knocked Armour forwards, he ground his feet down and 
stopped.  
“Sand Attack!”  
Armour was blinded.  
“Now go in and Bite it!”  
“Earthquake.”  
The Jolteon failed to break through Armour’s defense, and upon stomping on the 
floor, Armour shook the ground, the Ground-type attack shook Lightning and 
threw him back in a dizzy spin.  
“Lightnin’!” shouted Cletus, running to its aid.  
“Half Pint Porcupine!” insulted Cassie, “I’ll show you what an evolved Eevee 
should look like.”  
“Flare!!!”  
“Go! Twinkill!” I shouted, stepping forward.  
“Star!” yelled Twinkill.  
“Tail Whip!” yelled Cassie.  
It flicked its tail across and seared Twinkill with its surprising amount of 
heat.  
“Now use Smog!”  
“Use your Bubblebeam!”  
Heatwave flew swiftly into a cloudy darkness that consumed Twinkill as well.  
“Swift attack!”  
“Take Down!”  
Twinkill used the known accurate attack to hit Heatwave, but it wasn’t enough, 
and it was knocked out of the cloud.  
“Sta!” it growled.  
“Use your Double Edge!” I shouted.  
It spun forward and knocked the two back inside the darkness.  
“Leer.” said Cassie.  
Two glowing eyes could be seen within the cloud, but Twinkill didn’t look 
directly into them, he used the opportunity to vaguely look at Heatwave and 
track her down.  
“Bubblebeam!”  
“Rage.”  
The bubbles hit home, but Heatwave wasn’t finished and blasted Twinkill with a 
little extra juice.  
“She’s using Rage to pump up its attack power...” I thought out loud, “We can’t 
fuel it, we need to affect it with a status abnormality.  Twinkill! Ice Beam!”  
“Star!”  
Heatwave was encased in a block of ice and incapacitated.  
“That’s what it should look like, huh?” questioned Claus sarcastically, “Well 
I’m giving it the cold shoulder.  Liquid! Finish them off!”  
“Vaporeon!”  
“Go, Sparky.” said Abby.  
“Pik-ka!”  
“Use your Mist.”  
“You won’t cloud my judgement.” said Abby, “Thunder Wave.”  
Sparky shot an unpredictable array of bolts, and one of them hit.  
“Haze.”  
Blue light flew into the cloud and swirled around Liquid.  
“Tackle it, Liquid.”  
“Vapor!” it shouted, coming out just fine, he erased the paralysis and hit 
Sparky hard.  
“Tail Whip.”  
“Thundershock.”  
The two tails collided and Liquid’s tail conducted the electricity.  
“VA-POR!!!”  
“Take Down!” shouted Claus.  
Glowing with electrical sparks, Liquid dived forward and slammed into Sparky, 
he tumbled down hurt.  
“Pika...” it groaned.  
“Pull out, Abby, I’ll handle this.” I said.  
“No.  We’re playing a group battle here, I won’t dishonour you by forcing you 
to break the rules.  Sparky, I know you can do better.” urged Abby firmly.  
It groaned but nervously smiled at her choice.  
“Growl!” shouted Claus.  
“Chaaa!!!” squealed Sparky, cowering at the Vaporeon’s fierceness.  
“Focus Energy, while the chicken’s scared of you...” said Claus darkly.  
“Sparky! Are you going to let him insult you like that?” said Abby loudly, 
which surprised us all.  
“Pika?”  
“Use your Thunderbolt.”  
“Vapor?”  
“Pika... CHUUU!!!”  
The Vaporeon was fried by the dazzling show of lights and an explosion 
followed, throwing Liquid into its trainer.  

“Its... Not... Over!” shouted Claus, “Liquid! Heatwave! Lightning! Snatch that 
Ditto!”  
“Ditto! Transform!” shouted Duplica throwing a book up into the air, it landed 
next to Ditto and gravity caused it to fall on a certain page.  
“Ditto...” it said changing into the Pokémon on the page, Mew.  
“Myu...” it said, having transformed into a perfect copy of the legendary pink 
cat.  
Abby stared in awe and curiosity, I was amazed too and stared with her.  
“Myu!” it shouted, sealing the Elites and the ‘Eons in a pink bubble, and then 
shooting them high into the air.  

“Whut a turnabout!” screamed Cletus.  
“Ditto to that.” added Claus.  
“I’ve kinda got used to losing...” moaned Cassie before they disappeared.  

Later on, the show was all clear to go, and Duplica’s theatre was full.  
I returned backstage after warming up the crowd.  
“Thank you for everything Tetsubo, thanks to you I understand Ditto so much 
better, and I might have lost him if it wasn’t for you...” smiled Duplica.  
“That Ditto deserves some credit, its abilities are astounding and it saved the 
day.” I added.  
“Its time for Scott to go on, do you think he learned how to juggle yet?”  

We saw Scott dropping all his Pokéballs and several of them opened.  
“Snorlax...” smiled Bob and picked up Scott, Raichi, and Squirt and started to 
juggle them, that sure impressed the crowd.  
Scott covered his mouth as he was juggled to great heights.  
“My Snorlax is hurling me, and I’m about to hurl...”  

“Come on Abby, its showtime...” said Duplica happily and the two went out on 
stage to do their thing, and save Scott.  

The show turned out to be a big success and helped to fund Duplica’s mansion 
for further use.  
That Ditto sure was a really interesting Pokémon, it was definitely worth 
pursuing this Pokémon, in order to have the powers of every other Pokémon 
within its grasp.  

End of Chapter 30B  

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