Chapter 35:  Terror-Dactyl (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Another day of travelling for Abby and myself today, the area around here was 
pretty hot, no trees or grassy patches, just dusty roads and mountains as far 
as I could see.  
Abby was keeping quiet, but I could see that she was tired, and just trying to 
hide it.  
“Abby, if you’re tired, I don’t mind resting.”  
“No...” she panted, “I can manage...”  
“Well in that case, I’ll be honest.  I’m tired.”  
“Well let’s rest then.” she said, showing her strength and determination in 
front of me seemed special to her, I was special to her, but it seemed like she 
relied on me far beyond the levels of friendship sometimes, either she ‘liked 
me, liked me’, or there was a reason even I didn’t know for being so important 
to her.  
She could have left any time now, seeing as she had all eight of her badges, 
but she wanted to continue travelling with me to the end.  
“Abby...  How come you still want to travel with me, you’ve got your entry to 
the Pokémon League, and usually trainers go solo to train with their Pokémon.”  
“There’s still four months until the Kanto Pokémon League, two months is enough 
to train alone, and I want to stay with you because... you’re nice... and, I 
don’t actually have a whole lot of places to go to.  Tell me, what will you do 
after you get your final badge?”  
“I’ll probably go back home, my family aren’t around at the moment, but it 
means I have the house all to myself, and my Pokémon.  What about you? Where do 
you live, and what about your family? You’ve never really mentioned them before.”  
“Tetsubo, this is one of those times in which I can’t tell you, and you have to 
respect that.”  
“Sure...” I sighed, I hated it when people kept secrets from me, they were only 
ever preventing me from helping them to solve their problems.  
“How far is it until that port?...” questioned Abby.  
“I’d say... another week.” I sighed, looking at the map.  
“Tetsubo, we’re not going to last that long, seeing as we ran out of water a 
little while ago.”  
“I knew we should have rationed...” I sighed, “Wait a minute, perhaps Twinkill 
can help us out.”  
“Star.”  
“Twinkill, Water Gun attack.”  
“Star?” it questioned, looking around for enemies.  
“On us, Twinkill.”  
“Star!...”  
It fired, but little water came out, Twinkill wasn’t looking so good, it looked 
a little shrivelled up, we’d made a lot of stops on this route, and the heat 
was obviously getting to Twinkill.  
“Return Twinkill, I won’t let you out until we find plenty of water to 
rejuvenate your strength.”  
This spelt big trouble for us, but I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, if 
there wasn’t any water up ahead, then we could pass out and die in the heat.  
“We just have to hope that we’ll find water soon.  You’ve just got to have a 
little faith.”  
“You need water, do you?” asked a female voice from above.  
She sat on a rock located on a higher level, the one that was giving us shade.  
“Who are you?” I questioned.  
“I wish not to tell you yet.”  
“Are you a Rocket?” I accused.  
“You are very strange, I was just offering to save your lives, and you accuse 
me of something like that?”  
“I’m sorry, its just that you surprised him.” said Abby surprisingly subtly, 
“Please do help us.”  
The girl leaped down, and started walking, she had long blue hair and a white 
frilly dress without sleeves, her skirt was short and she wore long white 
boots.  
Abby and I packed away our things and followed the woman.  
We walked for about ten minutes, and finally, the girl changed direction and 
turned right.  
We could see a hole in the mountain wall that the girl was leading us to.  
“Watch your step, this is a natural cavern so the descending hill is a little 
steep.”  
The cave was extremely dark, and Inferno wouldn’t be of any help in here, sure 
he’d light up the path, but this cavern would be too tight for him at his 
size.  
Suddenly I heard a couple of small rocks bouncing down, followed by Abby, who’d 
taken a fall.  
I caught her in my arms but the momentum forced me down too, luckily, we landed 
in a wide underground lake, and though we were soaking wet, the cold water was 
quite refreshing for us.  
“I thought you just wanted a drink.” said the girl sternly, “Not a swim.  Its 
okay to fill up here, the water is quite clean.”  
“Oh, um, thank you.” I said, releasing Twinkill who dove into the lake and swam 
around to rejuvenate its strength, while Abby and I filled up all of our water 
canteens.  
“But, how do you know all this?” I asked the lady.  
“My Pokémon know these things.  They sensed where there was water and told me 
where to go, if you’d have taken better care of your Water-type, it could have 
sensed the water too.”  
“Are you accusing me of being a bad trainer? Twinkill’s my friend and I would 
never willingly put its life in danger, we just miscalculated the distance of 
the valley, that’s all.” I shouted.  
“If you say so.”  
“Look, thanks for showing us the water and everything but you’re a little rude, 
we’ll be leaving now.” I grumbled.  
“No you won’t...” she replied.  
The girl was standing in front of the only exit route.  
“... Not until you duel with me.”  
“So, it was a trap, she led us down here to have the advantage over us.” 
accused Abby.  
“You’re partly right.” said the girl, “But I’m not a Rocket, I am Stream, the 
third Pokelemental.”  
“Pokélement What?” questioned Abby.  
“Trainers that specialise in one type of Pokémon, I’ve battled two of them so 
far, the group seems pretty interested in taking me on.” I explained.  
Stream retained her expression, and held a Pokéball.  
“So, you must be the Water elemental.”  
“Give the trainer a trophy, how did you figure it out?” asked Stream 
sarcastically, “I brought you down her so that you could battle on the right 
territory for Water Pokémon, where there’s plenty of water.”  
“You used our needs to give yourself the advantage.” I accused.  
“Not that what you said is true, but if you’re as good as they say you are, 
then you should be able to beat us on any territory, some Water-types are very 
handicapped by nasty trainers who refuse to play by the water.  Just because 
they find it hard to battle on land, they get rejected, or insulted or looked 
over.  I want to show you a true Water-type Battle.”  
“Bring it on.” I smiled.  
Stream ran past me, dived into the lake, and jumped out and landed on the other 
side in record time, she was an above average swimmer, and a definite fan of 
the Water-type.  
At least she didn’t plead for me to use equal types like one of the 
Pokelementals did once, because Water-types only really had two weaknesses, 
Electric and Grass attacks.  
I simply assumed that the number of Pokémon to be used in the battle would be 
the same as the last two of the group.  

“I choose you Scramble!”  
“I choose Horsea.”  
Scramble appeared at the side of the lake, while the Horsea appeared inside 
it.  

“Horsea, the Dragon Pokémon.  If it senses danger nearby, it will vigorously 
spray a blast of ink to shoot it down.  Sometimes to pass the time, it will use 
its ink to shoot down flying bugs.”  

“That little pipsqueak is my challenge? I’ve beaten Seadras twice its size.” I 
smiled.  
“Just for that, I’ll sink your eggs, Horsea, use your Leer.”  
“Horrrrsss...”  
“Ex?” questioned Scramble inquisitively, the little Horsea wasn’t convincing 
enough to scare it.  
“Confusion.” I smiled, and Scramble lifted the Horsea into the cavern ceiling, 
and let it plummet into the water.  
“Piece, of, cake.” I smiled, but the Horsea leapt up and spat a blast of ink at 
Scramble.  
“Now use your Bubble attack.”  
The eggs were jumping into a new formation to see, and were knocked over by the 
bubbles, causing more confusion among the group.  
“Use your Barrage attack!”  
“Agility.”  
As Scramble fired a storm of eggs, the Horsea powered up, many bombs fell into 
the water and sunk to the bottom, but the Horsea had avoided them all.  
“I won’t let appearances deceive me again.” I admitted, and pointed my arm 
forward, “Okay! Use your Leech Seed!”  
“Water Gun.”  
“Do it.” I added.  
Scramble fired several seeds at the same time that the Horsea spat liquid, both 
went through each other seeing as the Horsea wasn’t too tough, Scramble took 
the blow, and the Horsea was tangled up by the vines, it tried to swim below, 
but the tangled mess forced it to float to the water’s surface.  
“Now use Stun Spore!”  
“Ex!”  
The Horsea was covered, and I clenched my hands in victory, but Stream was 
smiling, “In true Water Pokémon Battles, powders are useless.”  
I turned to the Horsea, who dived underwater, and though forced up soon enough, 
the dust had been washed off.  
“Another Smoke Screen please.”  
Before either of us could react, Scramble was hit again, and all the eggs were 
blinded.  
“Stalemate.” smiled Stream.  
“And I know just how to break it.  Scramble! It can’t move, remember where it 
is and power up your Solar Beam!”  
“Ex... Egg...”  
“What?! No! Use your Hydro Pump!”  
“Hors...”  
“... CUTE!!!”  
“... Seeeea!!!”  
The light from the entrance was enough to provide the light, and though 
Scramble was pummelled by water, it only made it easier to sense where the 
Horsea was.  
The beam was fired, it absorbed the water, and came down on the helpless 
Horsea.  
After a few moments, we all opened our eyes, and the Horsea was unconscious, 
bobbing on the surface of the lake.  
“I hope you’ve got more challenging Pokémon than that, or this won’t feel like 
a real victory.” I said confidently as I returned Scramble to its Pokéball and 
drew Shockwave’s.  
“Buzz!!!”  
“Colour me challenged.” I replied as I saw the next Pokémon appear.  
“Blaaast!!!”  

“Blastoise, the Shellfish Pokémon.  Its large back is exceptionally hard, and 
its two water jets blast water with even more force than a fire hose.”  

“Um, Shockwave, use your Thunderpunch!”  
As Shockwave leapt into the lake, the whole water shined with electrical 
activity, the Blastoise was thrown up by the light punch, but it used its 
weight to come down on Shockwave, and forced him under.  
This could be a problem, Blastoise might be able to breathe underwater, but I 
didn’t think Shockwave could, surely Stream wouldn’t use that to her advantage, 
it was just too cruel to think about.  
Shockwave rose above the water, and was bitten by the Blastoise.  
“Buzz!!!”  
“Use your Blizzard.”  
A wave of ice blasted Shockwave towards the edge of the pool, and a sheet of 
ice formed.  
“Mega Punch!”  
The ice that had trapped Shockwave within the frozen platform shattered, and 
blinded the Blastoise with their reflections.  
“Again Shockwave! Quickly!”  
The Blastoise was punched, and skipped across the lake like a stone, crashing 
into the rocky walls, but its hard shell prevented too much damage.  
“You want to play with stones, try this, Withdraw.” taunted Stream, as the 
Blastoise rolled up into its shell, and shot forward, skimming across the 
water’s edge occasionally.  
Shockwave was battered back, and retaliated with a Thundershock, but the shell 
prevented any damage getting through.  
“Skull Bash.”  
With one final skip, the Blastoise rose into the air, and its head, hands and 
legs shot out as the whole body plummeted, and forced Shockwave under once 
more.  
This water was simply not Shockwave’s territory, and he was suffering blow 
after blow.  
“Use your Thunderbolt to shock the water!” I shouted, currently fresh out of 
other ideas, but the Blastoise withdrew again, and little damage was dealt.  
“Hydro Pump.”  
“Thunderbolt through it!”  
“Tackle.”  
It was sudden and unexpected for the Blastoise to approach Shockwave during a 
Hydro Pump, it must have been strong to actually move around, since so much 
force was pressured on the Pokémon itself to shoot so much water at once.  
Before it could be affected by the electricity, it rammed Shockwave with all 
its weight, and knocked him out.  
“Shockwave?...”  
“Buzz...” it said wearily, one eye closed, and bruises all over, yet, he gave 
me a thumbs up to say he would continue battling.  
“Seismic Toss.” said Stream, and before Shockwave was ready, he was picked up 
by the Blastoise, who then leapt into the air.  
“Quickly! Counter it with Your Seismic Toss!” I yelled, and Shockwave leapt 
into action, twisting out of the Blastoise’s grip and restraining it, before 
hurling it down so fast, it would probably hit the lake’s bottom.  
“Now follow it and give it a Thunderbolt.”  
“Buzz.” he nodded, and dived down, but it soon rose, coming up short, shaking 
his head, the Blastoise had disappeared.  
“Dig.” smiled Stream, before the Blastoise completed the two step technique, 
and knocked Shockwave upwards with the Ground-type attack.  
Before I could recall it, the Blastoise was leaping at my Electabuzz, looking 
to crush it with a Body Slam.  
“Mega Punch!” I shouted, it was the only chance we had.  
Though it hurt his fist lifting up so much falling weight, Shockwave knocked 
the Blastoise upwards, my Electabuzz followed it by jumping up, and held onto 
the Blastoise, delivering a powerful Thunderbolt to the turtle.  
Finally it crashed down into the water, and floated up soon enough, the 
appendages inside its shell and its head sticking out with cross eyes.  
Stream exhaled, “Return.  Don’t think this is over, its not over until all 3 
Pokémon are down.”  
She was right, as I recalled Shockwave, I realised with his weak condition, and 
Scramble’s blindness still taking its toll, I had to win the next match for it 
all to count.  
“Will I receive an Evolution Stone if I win?” I questioned.  
“Of course.  Should you beat me on my home turf, I’ll be glad to give you a 
Water Stone.”  
“A Water Stone.” I smiled, just what I needed to evolve Twinkill, and I could 
think of no better Pokémon to take the final victory.  
“Go!”  
“Star!!!”  
“Hah.” smiled Stream, and threw the last Pokéball with extreme confidence, the 
ball plopped into the water, and returned to her, before a powerful psychic 
wave opened a hole in the water, and the last Pokémon floated into the air.  

“Golduck, the Duck Pokémon.  Its webbed hands make it a proficient swimmer, and 
it often swims gracefully in lakes.  The gem on its head focuses its psychic 
powers.”  

“Uh oh.” I panicked a little, if only I did have the Water Stone, there was a 
difference in types here, and Golducks were quite rare, and very skilled.  
“Use your Double Edge, Twinkill!”  
“Disable.”  
The Golduck’s gem glowed, and Twinkill spun into the air, and froze 
absolutely.  
“Fury Swipes.” said Stream, and the Golduck came down on my Staryu, slashing 
away until both dropped into the water.  
Twinkill was free now, and from what I could see, was trading big blows with 
the Golduck physically, using Double Edge to make up for Stage loss.  
“Use your Ice Beam!” I called out, and a spiky tower quickly rose from the 
lake, seeing as the effect of the beam affected the water in the general area, 
the ice tower kept on rising, with the Golduck trapped on top, until it hit the 
ceiling, and the Golduck was dealt big damage, except it didn’t look close to 
giving up.  
Its gem was glowing, and golden lines of light were being drawn in, my eyes 
widened.  
“Twinkill! Its gonna use Hyper Beam! Get away from the ice!”  
I could hear its reply, so I looked at the Golduck, a wide shining beam 
shooting from its gem and shattering the tower, Twinkill appeared far away from 
it, and spun towards the vertical beam, spiralling up it while the Golduck’s 
vision was filled with the light of its attack.  
“Thunderbolt!”  
I closed my eyes as the lightning added to the flashing of attacks, and when I 
opened them, the Golduck was angry, and used its tail to swat Twinkill back 
into the water.  
“Use your Bubblebeam!”  
“Surf.”  
A powerful blast of bubbles rose up, and beat down on the Golduck, knocking it 
out, and cancelling out its floating abilities, it fell into the water, but 
regained consciousness, and landed on the water’s edge, causing it to rise into 
a tidal wave with its powerful psychic abilities.  
The wave crashed down on Twinkill, and Golduck followed up with a Scratch 
attack that sent Twinkill under, while the Golduck charged up again, looking to 
end it before it could be defeated.  
“Finish it Twinkill! Thunderbolt!”  
The two attacks were shot, and a massive explosion followed, filling the area 
around the lake, and sending half the water out of it and crashing onto Stream, 
Abby and I.  
“And just when I was almost dry.” complained Abby subtly.  
“Twinkill!” I shouted, and ran to him, lying on the cavern floor, and still 
sparkling, I turned to the Golduck, who was paralysed by the electricity, and 
then back to Twinkill, bravely rising up to claim the victory.  

“You’ve definitely earned this.” smiled Stream, “And thank you.  Most others 
wouldn’t be willing to take me on in a true Water Pokémon Battle.”  
“Its my pleasure, I think I’m going to need all the experience I can get for 
the Pokémon League.” I replied, accepting the blue stone that was the key to 
Twinkill’s evolution, but until it learned Hydro Pump, and chose to become a 
Starmie, I would wait until that day.  

Stream escorted us back out of the cavern, and left.  
“You can expect Bolt to challenge you soon...” she said subtly, and left, but 
it was obvious that Bolt was the Electric Trainer, and that I would definitely 
be seeing him.  
Abby and I turned back to our destination, feeling refreshed, and energised.  
I felt satisfied with my Pokémon team after that battle, and Abby seemed 
pleased too, this was probably the first long and dramatic Pokémon Battle she’d 
seen me fight in, when I’d managed to come out on top.  
We continued the long walk, towards the challenges to come.  

End of Chapter 35A  

Back to Chapter 34B
Chapter 35B
Back to Story List #21 - #40
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