Chapter 33:  Strength Within (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

It had been a few more days on the road with Abby, we’d talked a little more 
than usual about things, though she was vague about her past, but she talked 
about her Gym Battles, how she made a friend in Burnt Town, annoyed a cheerful 
Gym Leader at Aquamarine Town and how her Pokémon performed well after a simple 
petting at Delft Town.  

The next location was in sight now, for Abby, this was the final Gym Battle, 
for me, this was my seventh, but pretty important.  

“Terracotta City, at last, we’re here.” I sighed, my feet ached and I really 
needed a rest.  

After another regular phonecall and switch to Blossom, Abby and I deposited our 
Pokémon in the trays, which the Nurse Joy examined soon after.  
“Tetsubo, you’re not going to like this, but the Gym Leader is another of the 
Elite Four.”  
“I’m not surprised, this Gym location is fairly new and the other two Elites 
told of how their services were needed, Bruno’s well known for his Fighting 
Pokémon, that gives me an advantage in planning, but not the match, he’s pretty 
strong.”  
“Well, shall we be on our way, since you know so much about him, perhaps it 
will be okay if you watch my match.”  
“Who said you were going first?!”  
Abby simply grinned, and since it was such a rare sight, I let her be.  

We arrived at the Terracotta Gym soon enough, and a woman was sitting on the 
rooftop, legs and arms crossed, her eyes locked shut.  
She had tanned skin and a dark shade of pink in her hair, and she wore white 
fighting robes.  
We were pretty quiet, but she sensed us and leapt off the rooftop, flipped her 
body round and landed safely.  
She gave us a confident stare, “I sense your strength.  I shall be honoured to 
battle the female.”  
“And me?” I questioned.  
“Master Bruno says only he can challenge the men, and only after you pass a 
test.  Go east to the top of that mountain and prove your strength to him, the 
power that you and your Pokémon share.”  
“Okay, so if I can get up there, that ought to prove my strength.” I thought.  
“I guess I’ll see you later then.” smiled Abby.  
“Count on it.” I smiled back.  

The path to the mountains wasn’t as tough as it seemed, there were some mean 
Pokémon around like Geodudes, that were looking to explode on me.  
Nothing Twinkill couldn’t handle.  
We then had to climb a tall mountain, I hated mountains.  
“I don’t want to do the whole falling thing again...” I muttered.  
“Star!” said Twinkill excitedly.  
“Huh?”  
It flew away and came back with a long amount of rope tangled around it.  
“Rope...  And you can practically fly around...  Good job Twinkill...”  

We spent quite a bit of time with the strategy we instinctively agreed on, by 
tying a firm knot of rope around Twinkill, and letting it fly up and wedge 
itself in the mountain, I could climb up the rope and not put too much strain 
on Twinkill, I hadn’t realised it before, but Twinkill was actually growing 
over our time together, and someday, it would trust me enough to let me evolve 
it into a Starmie, but we both knew it wasn’t the time yet.  

We reached the top of the mountain, and at the end of a relatively flat path, 
was Bruno, a bare footed muscular man with caramel skin, spiky dark brown hair 
and wearing white trousers and black spiked rings around his wrists, he was 
sitting on a flat rock, and it looked like he was meditating.  
“Its really him, Master Bruno...” I said amazed.  
“What, What, What?!” shuddered Bruno, totally out of the character I had 
pictured him to be, “What do you want?”  
“I’d like a Gym Battle, but your daughter said I had to prove myself to you.”  
“Daughter?! I’m not that old! Mina’s just a strong student, so I let her 
challenge the girls.”  
“How come?”  
“Are you kidding? I don’t have the heart to beat up on Wigglytuffs and 
Clefables and all, you can count on male trainers to bring in the tougher 
Pokémon.”  
“O-kay...” I said, I wasn’t so sure that Bruno was what the world thought he 
was.  
“So, do you want to test me?”  
“Oh sure, sure.  Do what you want.”  
“Let’s not, I want to do this right, tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”  
“Really?...” said Bruno, getting my full attention at last, “You seem strong 
enough...”  

Twinkill and I were sent all around the mountain area, we had to collect 
several buckets of water (Twinkill’s water wasn’t feasible, it had to be river 
water according to Bruno), Twinkill handled itself quite well, floating around 
while carrying buckets of water by its star points.  
We also had to carry rocks around, probably to show him my own strength, but I 
just wasn’t as strong as my Pokémon, obviously, most Pokémon did grow to be 
more powerful than people, but if I didn’t try, then I wouldn’t get a Gym 
Battle, and I needed to hurry and collect two more badges.  
I panted as I dropped a pile of rocks on the floor, meanwhile, Bruno had been 
preparing a meal with the water and some ingredients of his.  
“Thanks for these kid, now take this twig and skin it with this knife.” he 
said, giving me the two.  
“Is this important?” I asked curiously.  
“Very.” replied Bruno, this was one thing that Twinkill couldn’t help me with, 
its points weren’t that sharp.  
After five minutes of scrapping and a couple of gashes on my left hand, I 
returned to Bruno with the twig, he then snapped it in half and sat down next 
to a cooking pot with a fire within a circle of stones, and used the twigs as 
chopsticks.  
“Um, what are you doing?”  
“Eating, my secret recipe, I call it Bruno’s stew.”  
“And how does that prove my strength?”  
“Strength?...  You thought we had started?”  
“But I-”  
“You said you’d do everything I said.”  
“Daaoohhll!” I growled, putting a hand over my face and falling to the floor 
tiredly.  
“Can I at least have some?...” I pleaded, feeling my empty stomach.  
“Sorry kid, I’m all done.”  
“That’s it!” I shouted, surprising Bruno, “You are totally not the man I 
pictured you to be, what happened to the great strong celebrity that everyone 
adores, and since when did you get so lazy that you have to make kids your 
slaves?!”  
“I’m sorry.” he grinned, “We’ll commence your test right away...”  

Bruno sat at the side while I prepared to show him my strength.  
“So how do I start?”  
“ALL THE ONIX ARE STUPID!” shouted Bruno, and his words echoed around the 
mountains.  
“What?...” I shivered, turning towards him, a rumbling could be heard and three 
huge Onix appeared, looking angry, they all stared at Bruno.  
“It was him.” he said simply, and they all turned their hateful expressions on 
me.  
“What did you do that for?!”  
“Prove yourself to me, you’ve got a Water-type, surely it can beat three low 
level Onix.”  
I dived as a stone tail came down on me, their level didn't matter to me, they 
could all kill me within a couple of moves.  
“Twinkill! Water Gun!”  
“Sta!”  
The first Onix went down, but another swung its tail at me.  
“Star!” shouted Twinkill, diving at me and lifting me up, it dropped me off 
away from the remaining Onix.  
“Thanks again Twinkill, you’re the best.  Now use your Bubblebeam!”  
A wave of bubbles hit the two other Onix and they fell, all three picked 
themselves up, looked at me strangely, and left the area.  
“Did you see that Bruno, that was easy, me and Twinkill can-”  
He was asleep, if this were a cartoon, you would have seen me turn totally red 
with frustration.  
“BRUNO!!!”  
“What What What! Oh you’re done already, what happened?”  
“Twinkill beat them all with Water Gun and Bubblebeam, is that enough? Are we 
strong enough?”  
“Oh...  No, it appears that you don’t share your strength with your Pokémon.”  
“But you weren’t even watching!”  
“By what you’ve told me, you aren’t good enough.  Now...  GRAVELERS ARE 
STUPID!”  
I glared at him.  
“Shall we continue?...”  

It didn’t get any easier, Bruno kept falling asleep and the battles got worse, 
from exploding Gravelers to wild Diglett trying to bury us, and savage Primeape 
trying to beat us in.  
I gave Bruno a summary of Twinkill’s Water and Psychic attacks, but he wasn’t 
interested.  
Twinkill and I had nearly died, well, more me than Twinkill, but Twinkill kept 
going out of its way to rescue me from the Ground and Fighting Pokémon.  

“I... can’t... take it...” I growled, “Me and my Pokémon are strong and if you 
could just stay awake for five minutes and make some effort to test us instead 
of handing your dirty work to insulted Pokémon, you’d see that! You’re a big 
phoney, you’re no superstar, I’ll find a worthy Gym Leader to battle 
against...”  
“Wait.” said Bruno.  
I turned to face him, “Try again, you’re not there yet.”  
“But I, We beat every Pokémon.”  
“Maybe you were there, you never know, just tell me Exactly what happened.”  
“Well first Twinkill blasted an Onix with Water Gun, but then an Onix tried to 
crush me and Twinkill saved me without my even asking it and-”  
“Stop, I’ve heard enough.”  
“What do you mean?!”  
A huge metal foot stomped down and interrupted us, it was a huge Hitmonlee 
robot.  

“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.”  

“What is the meaning of this?!” shouted Bruno, “We’re in the middle of an 
important test!”  
“We are?” I asked.  
“Move it big guy, stay out of our way or we’ll get you along with the Ground 
and Fighting Pokémon around here.” threatened Willy.  
“Do you know who you’re talking to?!” I shouted, even though Bruno started 
waving frantically, “This is Bruno, one of the Elite Four, he’s got Pokémon 
that’ll kick your sorry butts!”  
“Stop! Don’t tell them that!” yelled Bruno.  
“Why not? You’ve got Pokémon, haven’t you?”  
“Of course!...  But I left them in the cave.”  
“Uh oh.”  
The robot shot out a lot of smoke as the leg stretched back and shot forward 
with many jets attached to it in order to imitate the speed of a Hitmonlee’s 
kicks, except these legs were metal.  
“Star!” shouted Twinkill, hitting me hard to get me out of harm’s way, the 
amount of times it had done this for me was painful to think about, but it was 
better than the alternative fates.  
“That’s just what I’m talking ab-” said Bruno just before the leg shot towards 
him and dust filled the area.  
“Master Bruno! Master Bruno!... You’re going to pay for what you did to him!” I 
shouted.  
“Do we look like we care?” questioned Willy, and the leg returned through a 
strong thick stretchy wire that was retracted by some sort of pulling 
mechanism.  
“In the cave, huh? We’ll smash through the mountain to find his Pokéballs, 
after we deal with the kid.” smiled Billy darkly.  
“Do you really want to meet the same fate as muscle-boy?” questioned Willy.  
“You’ll pay! No one deserves what you just did! Twinkill!”  
“Star!”  
“For Bruno...”  
“Yu Staryu...” agreed Twinkill.  
“Double Edge!”  
It spun forward, but the robot performed a light kick that sent Twinkill 
flying.  
“Agh!...  Twinkill!” I shouted, running backwards to catch it, the force and 
speed of its fall caused us to fall back.  
“Its useless to resist, hand over that Pokémon!” shouted Willy.  
“No! I won’t let them take you Twinkill.  Do you hear me?!” I shouted at the 
brothers.  
“What a friendship...” sighed Billy, “Too bad it ends here.”  
“You’re going to get a real kick out of this!” joked Willy.  
The robot stomped the floor, sending rocks everywhere, Twinkill and I were 
caught in the tremor, and were flung backwards, as we gazed up weakened, the 
huge robot was almost upon us, I couldn’t believe it would end here, and that 
we’d face the same fate as poor Bruno.  

End of Chapter 33A  

Back to Chapter 32B
Chapter 33B
Back to Story List #21 - #40
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