Chapter 34:  Path to Disaster (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

“So what did you do while I was incapacitated?” asked Abby the next day, as we 
walked out of Terracotta City.  
“You? Asking questions, Abby? You’ve been changing, usually you barely utter a 
word unless someone speaks to you first.” I teased.  
She frowned a little, and I smiled, “Well, I met a Flying-type Pokémon Trainer 
called Faulkner, and he asked for my help to beat the Junior Rockets, it was a 
surprisingly tough battle, they’ve really evolved as trainers, and in a battle 
against a Fearow, my Pidgeotto evolved into a Pidgeot.”  
“And the Juniors?”  
“I scolded them a little, and convinced them to leave the Rockets, at least, I 
hope so.”  

The Birdwatcher Path was a necessary route to go through, a few more days 
ahead, and we’d reach the port that would get me back home to Fuchsia City.  
“Let me guess, you battled there.” said Abby, pointing to an area with many 
broken fences, but with a lot of Flying Pokémon resting around the area.  
“Great deduction.” I said sarcastically, and then laughed a little.  
Suddenly the birds in the area all took off, as if something had scared them.  
Abby and I stopped dead in our tracks, and looked around cautiously, and then I 
spotted someone.  
“Where are those annoying kids, if they’ve failed the Boss again, they’re in 
for the punishment of their lives.” complained a familiar figure.  
“Bryan!” I shouted.  
He turned to me, and smiled a little, “I thought I heard some childish 
laughter, and of course it would be the second-rate trainer friend of mine.”  
“We’re not friends!” I shouted, unable to control my rage.  
“But we used to be, up until the point that I revealed my identity to your 
girlfriend.  And seeing as she’s not here right now, I’d think she dumped 
you.”  
“Shut up!” I screamed, it was all because of him that Emily had left me, all 
the memories, all the friendship, all the love, had been destroyed because of 
Bryan’s ultimatum and tricks.  
“But it didn’t take long to rope in another girl to listen to your lies.  And 
she’s younger than you.  I didn’t think you went for the younger woman, but 
then again, there was that incident at Pokémon Tech with Giselle.”  
“Shut up Bryan!”  
He was trying to ruin everything I had worked for, all the talking, the 
friendship, and the trust.  
He was trying to ruin my friendship with Abby by lying, but this time, I had 
nothing to hide.  
“Please Abby, if you have any trust in me at all, you won’t believe what he’s 
saying, okay?” I pleaded quietly.  
“I guess, but I think I deserve an explanation afterwards.” she replied.  
“You might see another side of me, stay back, its for your own good.” I warned 
her.  
I stormed up to Bryan with an accusing pointing finger.  
“Someday, I am going to be the one to catch you and lock you away.”  
“Capture’, people already know I stole my Growlithe from Blossom’s place, and 
they haven’t been able to catch me.  What are you going to do?”  
I drew a Pokéball and held it out.  
“Beat you at your own game.”  
“Capture’, Capture’, Capture’.  You’re not a player in my game, you’re a 
pawn.”  
“So, you’re going to chicken out?”  
“You’re delusional, Capture’.” he replied, drawing a Pokéball, “I am better 
than you at everything.”  
“You don’t know how to keep a friend.” I growled.  
“You haven’t done a very good job of that yourself.  You shouldn’t have lied to 
Emily, we’ve been watching her carefully, she hates everything about you.”  
“No...  You’re lying...”  
But unfortunately, I couldn’t be sure about this, I hadn’t seen Emily since she 
ran away from me.  
“By the end of this day, you’ll be lonely, depressed, and without a friend in 
the world.”  
“You cost me my happiness.” I growled, “But I regained it, and you can never 
corrupt me or my friends again.”  
“Really? I bet that muscle-bound idiot would believe anything I told him, or 
have you admitted that you’ve been lying to him about my true identity?”  
My silence gave Bryan his answer, I still hadn’t explained to Chad about this 
old secret, even though he joined up with us a second time.  
“I thought so.  There’s a lot of people I know that could easily be turned 
against you.”  
“Stop it! Stop it!” I screamed, “Leave everyone alone! They’ll never listen to 
you! What you did to me was unfair and cowardly, and no one will believe you 
with your track record.  You won’t ruin my life with your words again!”  
“You talk a lot for someone who wants to battle me, second thoughts?”  
“No way! I’ve come a long way since that day, I can beat you now!”  
“Capture’...  However much training you can do, I can do equally as much, if 
you couldn’t beat me before, you’ll never beat me now.”  
I nearly exploded, and threw the Pokéball to the floor rather hard in my 
anger.  
“Buzz!!!”  
“Poliwhirl!”  

“Poliwhirl, the Tadpole Pokémon.  This Pokémon is capable of living out of 
water, if so, it sweats to keep its body moist, and it uses its spiral to put 
enemies to sleep.”  

This was especially lucky for me, usually I waited to see what Bryan would use, 
in order to have the edge over him, if I could win just one battle over Bryan, 
maybe he would leave me alone, instead of thinking he was better than me, and 
that he had the right to torment me.  
“Three Pokémon again, I’ve got a lot of new tricks to test on you.”  
“Go Shockwave! Thunderpunch attack!”  
“Hypnosis.”  
The Poliwhirl’s spiral started to spin, and got to my Electabuzz before he got 
close to the Poliwhirl.  
“Now use Bubble.”  
“Poli-Whirl!”  
The storm of bubbles beat down on Shockwave rather hard, with the mysterious 
strength of his Pokémon, type advantage battles were virtually regular strength 
battles, if that at all.  
“Buzz?”  
“Quick Attack!” I shouted.  
He charged away from the bubbles, and came down on the Poliwhirl.  
“Ice Beam.”  
Shockwave was blasted away by the Ice attack, which hadn’t froze him, but 
shattered, shards of ice fell everywhere, followed by Shockwave.  
“Use your Amnesia.”  
While Shockwave was down, Bryan had the chance to empower his Poliwhirl with 
extra special defenses and attack power, just like at Pokémon Tech a few months 
ago.  
“Bubble attack.”  
“Light Screen!”  
The shield came up and reflected the many bubbles, but barely.  
“Smash that shield.” said Bryan, and the Poliwhirl ran towards it and body 
slammed it.  
“Buzz...” said Shockwave a little weakly.  
“Use your Ice Beam.”  
“Shockwave!”  
He quickly dived to the side, cartwheeling to get away from the beam until the 
Poliwhirl was done.  
“Keep your distance Shockwave, we can beat it with your Electric attacks.”  
“Just try it Capture’!”  
“You heard him Shockwave, Thundershock!”  
Two dazzling beams curled around and hit the Poliwhirl, but it stood strong and 
stepped forward even while being shocked.  
“Hydro Pump.”  
An attack that powerful could actually end the match, but if Shockwave could 
hold on, it could tip the scales in my favour.  
“Just stand there!”  
“WHIRL!!!”  
“Thunderbolt!” I shouted at the last moment.  
“Bllllaaabuzzz!!!”  
The blast of water turned yellow and electrified, before reaching the Poliwhirl 
and blasting it back.  
“Don’t you dare lose to such a weak Pokémon!” shouted Bryan, but the Poliwhirl 
looked worried, it knew first hand of Shockwave’s power.  
“Quick Attack!”  
Shockwave charged by the Poliwhirl while he had the chance.  
“Now finish it off with Mega Punch!”  
Shockwave leapt back, spun round many times, and plunged his fist into the 
Poliwhirl’s stomach.  
I turned to Bryan, who had a confident smile on his face.  
I soon saw why, the spiral spun, and a small flash beam shot into Shockwave, 
making him drowsy.  
“Body Slam.”  
“WHIRL!”  
The Poliwhirl bounced up and forced Shockwave into the air, waking him up but 
damaging him.  
“Now Whirlpool, use your Doubleslap.”  
“Thunder!”  
As the Poliwhirl leapt over Shockwave to slap him during their descent, the 
lightning came down from the skies to surround Shockwave and empower the 
attack, but since the Poliwhirl was above him...  
“WHIRL!!!”  
The lightning had hit it first, and with no way to absorb or use the 
electricity, the Poliwhirl was damaged by an overly amount of it, an amount 
that spelt defeat for the Water-type.  
“Urrrghh!!!” shouted Bryan, “Again you let that weakling beat you with type 
advantage!”  
I thought about that and remembered how Bryan was angry that I had always done 
better than him in Pokémon Tech exams, perhaps he wanted me to lose faith in 
everything I believed in, by beating me with type disadvantage Pokémon.  
Still, if he was going to use Pokémon with super powers, the least I deserved 
was a chance to use Pokémon with some way to even the odds.  
“Go Trap, and don’t fail me this time!”  
“Weepin-Bell!”  

“Weepinbell, the Flycatcher Pokémon.  When hungry, this Pokémon swallows 
anything that moves, and melts them inside its body with strong acids.”  

“Come on Shockwave, let’s make this a double victory.”  
Unfortunately, I couldn’t promise this, I just needed him to wear the Pokémon 
down before I brought in a Pokémon with an advantage.  
Sometimes you had to use a Pokémon until it fainted in order to win a battle, 
that rule was very significant, seeing as it was Bryan that reminded me of it.  
“Thundershock!” I shouted, Shockwave had to use a lesser attack so that he 
could power up after that devastating Thunder attack.  
“Razor Leaf.”  
“Buzz!!!”  
“Bell.”  
The leaves deflected the electricity upwards, and away from both Pokémon.  
“Use your Mega Punch!”  
“Wrap attack.”  
Shockwave raised his fist and charged, but a vine flew forward and wrapped 
around it, before several others twisted around his limbs and raised him into 
the air.  
“Thunderbolt!”  
“Blllaaabuzzz!!!”  
The vines conducted the electricity well, but there was a simple fact, Grass 
Pokémon didn’t take too much electrical damage.  
“Slam it down.”  
“Weepin-Bell!!!”  
“Buzz!!!”  
The vines were flung down before releasing Shockwave to crash hard.  
“Quick Attack!” I shouted, and Shockwave immediately leapt up and dived 
forward, before dealing a big hit, but the Weepinbell caught his arm again.  
“Mega Punch!”  
“Bell!!!” wailed the Weepinbell as Shockwave smashed his fist into its face, 
and to be thorough, performed a big Seismic Toss attack.  
But in the middle of it, the Weepinbell opened its eyes and glared at 
Shockwave, before shooting a blue spray from its mouth.  
The two fell awkwardly and Shockwave pretty much crushed the little 
Weepinbell.  
Bryan and I stared, but Bryan was more confident, and for a good reason.  
Trap raised the sleeping Electabuzz with its vines and threw away.  
“Return.  Thanks Shockwave, you did your job.  Now I choose you Needle, make me 
proud.”  
“Nido-Rino.”  
“Use your Growth.” ordered Bryan calmly.  
“Focus Energy!” I shouted.  
If Bryan was getting a power up, then so was Needle, this would increase the 
chances of a bigger hit from his attacks, while the Weepinbell was enhancing 
its special attacks.  
“Keep on using Growth.”  
“Poison Sting!”  
As the Weepinbell attempted to power up again, Needle was able to hit it 
successfully with its needles.  
“Don’t you dare back down, use Razor Leaf!”  
“Horn Drill!”  
The spinning drill easily tore apart the projectiles, and then Needle sped up 
and dived towards the Weepinbell, who bounced aside to avoid it.  
“Bite attack!”  
Needle flew forward and opened his mouth, but the Weepinbell blocked it with 
one of its leaves that was surprisingly hard, but still Needle clung to it and 
shook around a little, unable to break through or lift the Weepinbell with its 
teeth.  
“Pathetic, use Slam attack.”  
“Bell!!!”  
“Riiino!”  
Needle tumbled back and landed awkwardly, he tried to stand, but his back leg 
slipped and he tumbled.  
“Oh no.” said Bryan sarcastically, “Baby Pokémon’s got a boo-boo, you’d better 
recall it before it gets hurt.”  
I stared up at Bryan slowly, “Bring it on, Needle’s gonna beat your Weepinbell 
silly.”  
“I knew you’d toughen up eventually, you’re several years too late though.” 
commented Bryan.  
“Needle, use your Fury Attack.”  
Needle braced the pain and tried to move forward, he was obviously hurting and 
so was I, inside, that I had to push my Pokémon to these measures just to shut 
Bryan up, so that he’d finally stop obsessing over me.  
“Stun Spore.”  
The Weepinbell released a cloud of gas, but Needle charged right through it and 
scratched away, freezing up every so often and getting hit by the Weepinbell in 
defense.  
“Trap, use your Slam attack!”  
“Rino...” said Needle nervously.  
And then the Weepinbell went cross eyed for a moment and slipped, the Poison 
Sting from the start finally did its work.  
I saw the relief on Needle’s face, and decided to return it to its Pokéball, 
I’d have to apologise to Shockwave later, for letting him battle when I 
knowingly knew he would lose, but exploited him too.  
“You can take your judgements of me and stuff them, I don’t need to be tough, I 
have heart.  Twinkill, I’m counting on you.”  
“Star!”  
“Use your Tackle attack!”  
“Mega Drain.”  
As Twinkill hit the Weepinbell, it blasted it back with a green light, the 
light stayed on Twinkill and drew out its strength, and returned to the 
Weepinbell.  
“No! Twinkill! Ice Beam! Quickly!” I yelled.  
“Star!”  
The beam shot into the Weepinbell and encased it in a block of ice.  
The energy sphere bounced off the Weepinbell and dissipated, at least the 
Weepinbell didn’t get it.  
“Stupid!” yelled Bryan, “Trap! I know you can hear me! Break through! Now!”  
I gave Bryan a confident smirk, he frowned, and replaced the Weepinbell with a 
powerful looking Machoke.  
“Maaaa-Choke!”  
“No...  The last time I fought a Machoke, it had extra power, and it took four 
Pokémon to bring it down...  I won’t hold back.” I thought, before ending the 
sentence out loud.  
“Really?” questioned Bryan, “Works for me.”  
Twinkill took initiative, we’d been together long enough to understand my 
hatred for Bryan, and it hated him because Bryan defeated Twinkill time and 
time again, but I had no other choice.  
Twinkill blasted the Machoke with an exploding Psychic attack, but it tore 
through the explosion without flinching, and beat Twinkill down to the floor.  
“Tackle!”  
“Counter.”  
Once again, Twinkill’s spinning edges were simply caught, and then twisted and 
thrown.  
A barrage of stars were thrown into the Machoke’s face on the way down, but the 
Machoke responded by ripping into the earth and pulling up a lot of rocks which 
crashed down on Twinkill.  
“Try and Recover, Twinkill!”  
“Star...” said Twinkill, before the Machoke swept its foot across, and 
cancelled it out, he then brought his fist down on Twinkill rather hard.  
“Seismic Toss.”  
“Twinkill! Minimize!”  
It disappeared and flew down from above, but the Machoke leapt upwards and 
caught it, and threw it down with its Seismic Toss.  
“Try your Bubblebeam!”  
The Machoke simply punched and karate chopped the bubbles.  
“Thunderbolt!” I panicked, and Twinkill surrounded the Machoke in electricity, 
so that it was unable to move.  
“Use your Leer.” said Bryan.  
With one fearful look, Twinkill froze up, and the Machoke was free, and started 
to walk forward menacingly.  
“Psychic attack!”  
With the last of its strength, Twinkill surrounded the Machoke in a blue light, 
and crushed it as much as possible, but the Machoke managed to creep forward, 
even though Fighting-types were supposed to be weak against Psychic attacks.  
“Star...” groaned Twinkill, its red gem flashing a little, it got this way when 
it was low on energy, its a general fact about Staryus, but I never really 
noticed before, but since now we had a good friendship, I was understanding 
every little detail about all my Pokémon.  
“Recover!” I shouted.  
“Stop it.”  
Before Twinkill could power up, the Machoke rolled forward and uppercutted 
Twinkill with its Submission attack.  
“St-Arrr!!!” screamed Twinkill, and flopped to the floor.  

“Twinkill!” I shouted, running to its aid and picking it up, “That was 
overkill.”  
“Was that supposed to be your demonstration of how well you’ve gotten?” 
questioned Bryan confidently.  
“I beat two of your Pokémon.” I spat.  
“In an Official Pokémon Battle, it wouldn’t have made a difference, all your 
Pokémon failed.”  
“You’re doing something shady with your Pokémon, and one day, I’m going to find 
out what it is.”  
“Good solid training, you might want to try it sometime, instead of playing 
with your Pokémon as if they were your friends.”  
“So what happens now, I know you’re with the Rockets, aren’t you supposed to do 
your job?”  
“I am.  I just made a promise to myself to beat you silly before stealing your 
Pokémon.  Boys, his Pokémon are weakened, take over.”  
Suddenly a tall robot, that resembled a Kakuna with pincers and legs rose from 
the ground, bringing up a lot of dirt and rocks, inside, were three Rocket 
grunts piloting it.  
“Seize his Pokémon, but leave the kid behind.” ordered Bryan.  
“Um, are you sure?” they questioned.  
“I’ve done a lot of good jobs for the ‘G Man’, he agreed that I could deal with 
Capture’ how I wanted!”  
“Abby!” I called out, and she quickly joined me.  
“Tetsubo...”  
“We’re going to need a lot of Pokémon.”  
Abby’s Rhyhorn and Pikachu were summoned, while I drew out Inferno and 
Scramble.  
“Inferno, please help me, that’s the guy that insults our skills at every 
opportunity.”  
“ROOOAAARRR!!!” shouted Inferno in anger.  
“Um, Bryan, maybe we should retreat...” said the grunts.  
“Urrrgh!!! I was sure that Charmander wouldn’t evolve for Capture’...  Attack 
it anyway!” growled Bryan.  
“Go!” shouted Abby and I.  
Scramble charged up a Solar Beam, while Armour charged forward with Sparky on 
its back, Inferno pulled his head back to prepare for a Flamethrower.  
The Rhyhorn slammed into the Kakuna-bot, and Sparky leapt onto it, clung on, 
and used Thunder, before quickly leaping aside to avoid the flames from 
Inferno.  
“Inferno! Watch it! You nearly hit Sparky!” I shouted.  
“Pi-Kachu.” said Sparky crossly.  
Inferno snorted, and turned away, Scramble was finished charging, and shot the 
ray across the ground and up the centre of the machine, tearing it in half and 
causing it to crash down.  
Luckily for us, it blocked off Bryan and the grunts from us.  
“Urrrgh! You fools! You didn’t even get close! And now you’ve blocked us off!” 
he screamed.  
“Sorry sir.” they apologised.  
“This Isn’t Over, Capture’!” shouted Bryan, but not in a tone that suggested a 
‘next time’.  
“Abby, recall the Pokémon, Now! Everyone, Return! Go... Whirlwind!” I shouted 
during a frenzy of Pokémon switching.  
“Pidgeot!” yelled Whirlwind, landing so that we could clamber on.  
A Pokéball flew over the robot and landed.  
“Growlll!!!” shouted Burner, charging blue flames in his mouth.  
“Go! Whirlwind! Go!” I yelled.  
Whirlwind took off quickly, and I had to grab Abby’s hand to make sure she got 
on.  
The Dragon Rage flames turned into a spinning blue tornado that rose fast, 
Whirlwind shot upwards, the flames barely behind us, until he outflew the 
tornado, which had started to dissipate at the height we were at.  
“CAPTURE’!!!...” screamed Bryan...  

We flew a couple of miles before preparing to land, Whirlwind was having 
difficulty flying with two people.  
“That was too close, I’ll show him someday...  So Abby, is this your first time 
on a Flying Pokémon?”  
“... No...  I don’t believe it is...” said Abby slowly, but looking a little 
confused.  
“You told me you’d explain everything to me, you promised.” said Abby, after 
some thought.  
I sighed, “I was kinda hoping I’d never have to tell you, but hiding it was 
what caused Emily to leave me...”  
Abby simply stared curiously, so I continued, “I hid the fact that Bryan was a 
Rocket, because he threatened to hurt everyone I cared about.  He exploited 
this and nearly got away with a theft at my college, the place in which I first 
met him.”  
“There was a mention about you two being friends, and someone called Giselle.” 
added Abby.  
“I swear Abby, we’re not friends, not anymore, not after what he’s become, and 
Giselle was just a friend, nothing more.” I explained.  
“Then why-”  
“She was just a good friend, and I suppose I did have a crush on her that I 
never really pursued, Bryan was just twisting things.  Its all in the past, I 
promise.”  
“And that’s why Green left you, because you were protecting her?” questioned 
Abby.  
“That’s not the way she sees it.” I muttered sadly.  
“If she can’t see how much you looked out for her, then she really doesn’t know 
what she’s missing.  But I believe you Tetsubo, you would never lie unless 
something big depended on it.  I believe everything you say...” explained Abby 
from her point of view.  
“Abby...  Thank you.”  

We landed soon after, and continued our journey, far enough for Bryan not to 
catch up with us any time soon.  
I was lucky for Abby to trust me, otherwise this day could have turned out far 
worse than just losing a battle, as close as it was.  
If Abby could understand why I lied, then why couldn’t Emily?  
Every day, as much as I tried to hide it, I was hurting deep inside, a hurt 
that only Emily could heal, and until I made amends, I would have to deal with 
the pain that Bryan alone had dealt me.  

End of Chapter 34B  

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