Chapter 37:  Ranch Racers (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

A brief stop at Hazel Town crossed my path with Danielle’s, and a couple of 
idiot Rockets by the names of Becky and Ben had tried to steal her Pokémon, and 
ended up hurting her in the struggle.  
Still, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, except, Danielle made something out of 
nothing, as if my bringing her to the Pokémon Centre meant that I was in love 
with her.  
Unfortunately, I couldn’t convince her not to come along, and she’d invited 
herself onto the party.  

Abby kept behind, while Danielle close a tight grasp on my arm.  
“Does she ever stop?” questioned Abby, “She’s like a deranged puppy.”  
“Just ignore her, she’ll get tired of this...  I hope.” I called back.  

It was soon approaching evening time, and we were close to the Pokémon Ranch, a 
well known landmark in the Pokémon World.  
Here, herds of Pokémon were raised in the wild, but with plenty of human 
interaction, this is turn gave the place a reputation for having great Pokémon 
for trainers who were willing to pay for them.  
There was a herd of Tauros, a herd of Nidorinos, Nidorinas, Rhyhorns, among 
many others.  
“Abby, you know how you’ve got a great high level Rhyhorn, did you get it from 
here?” I asked.  
“No, I’ve never been here before...” she replied hesistantly.  
“Hmmmm...” I thought to myself, I just couldn’t figure out where she had 
captured Armour, or how, probability and sense told me she’d got it from the 
Safari Zone, but Abby had somehow forgotten all about that, and about how she 
gave me a massive bruise by throwing a Safari Ball in my face.  
A dark shadow swiftly jumped from behind one tree to another, but I had barely 
caught a glimpse of it, and was suspicious.  
“Danielle, I mean it.  Let go.”  
“What? What’s going on?”  
“I think we’ve got a poacher problem...”  
“Where Tetsubo?”  
“That tree.”  
I ran forward, jumped behind the tree and prepared to kick the stalker, but it 
had disappeared.  
“Tetsubo, it Is rather late, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were seeing 
things.” offered Abby.  
“No, I know I saw something.” I said firmly.  
“Yes Tetsubo, we believe you...” patronised Abby.  
“No you don’t! I can read you look a book Abby.” I complained, “Except there 
are a LOT of pages missing.” I added in thought.  
“Hoooaaarrrggghhh!!!” wailed a group of Tauros.  
I gave a strange look at the girls that pretty much said ‘I told you so’.  
As we charged into the area, the darkened figure had just used a fearsome 
Pinsir to throw a Tauros to the ground, a Pokéball followed, and successfully 
pulled a Tauros inside.  
“Hey! Stop that!” I yelled.  
“What the?!”  
The figure recalled the Pinsir, and snatched the Pokéball, and tried to make a 
run for it.  
“Go! Twinkill!”  
“Star!” shouted my Staryu, appearing in the air, it fell down to be caught by 
me as I ran by.  
“Twinkill, Water Gun.”  
I held onto Twinkill as it fired, running as fast as I could to be within the 
range of an effective squirt.  
Most missed, but I eventually caught up with the figure to douse him down.  
“Put your hands up, or I’ll have my Pokémon use Thunderbolt.”  
“What’s so wrong with what I’ve done?!” shouted the figure.  
“Have you heard of the term ‘stealing’?!” I asked firmly.  
“You mean... those weren’t wild Tauros?...” questioned the thief.  
“Of course not!!!” I shouted.  
With that, I took a dive towards the figure, and tackled him with everything I 
had.  
The figure was buff, and probably more powerful than I, no, he was definitely 
more powerful.  
With one swing, I was deflected, and the figure picked himself up again.  
“You want to do this the hard way? Fine with me.” I smiled.  
Twinkill spun itself towards the poacher and rotated very fast, generating a 
large blast of electricity.  
“Yaaaaaa!!!” screamed the guy, before collapsing.  
Twinkill spun upwards, and came down on the guy, plunging two of its star 
points in the soil to restrain the guy’s neck under its body.  
“Good going Twinkill, would someone call Officer Jenny?” I called to the 
girls.  
“Please, I didn’t know they’d weren’t wild Pokémon...” pleaded the poacher.  
“Are you stupid?! Do you really expect me to believe that you didn’t know?!” I 
complained harshly.  
I lifted the black hood to reveal... Chad!  
“Okay, I was wrong, you probably Were stupid enough to make a simple mistake 
like that...” I sighed.  
Twinkill rose into the air, while I helped Chad up.  
“Do you realise how much trouble you could be in? Everyone knows you’re not 
allowed to catch Pokémon around these parts, you have to buy them.” I 
commented.  
“Tetsubo, did you-  Oh my god.” said Abby, with a cursing tone it seemed.  
“Hey, its the little girl!” said Chad cheerfully.  
“Don’t call me that.” she replied firmly.  
“I’ll get you, you mean mean man!” shouted Danielle, ramming her head into 
Chad, and then swinging her arms to beat him.  
Chad was too strong to be brought down by Danielle, she’d fallen back upon 
ramming him, Chad simply held a hand against her head, and it was enough to 
keep her grounded, while she harmlessly swung her arms around but not quite 
reaching Chad.  
“Cute.  What is it with you and younger women, Tet’?” smiled Chad.  
“What are you talking about? Emily’s older than I am, and I travelled with a 
guy for a short time.  Don’t go accusing me of what I haven’t done!” I yelled.  
“My Tetsubo, you’re getting all worked up, its almost as if you’re hiding 
something.” grinned Chad.  
“Actually, there is something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.” I said 
calmly.  
“Hold it!” shouted a female voice, and a large Growlithe tackled Chad and 
brought him down, the Pokéball with the Tauros was released, and unfortunately, 
this one was moody and angry.  
“Aw naw, whut were yuh thinking?! Yuh captured Heifer!”  
“Heifer?”  
“He’s the worst Tauros o’ them all, he hates authority!”  
“HOOOOAAARRRGGGHHH!!!” roared the bull, charging at the group in general.  
“Twinkill!” I shouted, and it shocked the Tauros, only it wasn’t enough.  
With one big head butt, Twinkill has hit remarkably hard, I quickly recalled it 
and searched for a Pokémon that was more adequate for the task.  
“Tetsubo.” called Abby.  
I looked up at her, and then turned to the Tauros, who had put me at the top of 
its hit list.  
“Go! Spaghetti!” shouted Danielle.  
“Tan-Gela!!!”  
With a quick Vine Whip attack, the strong attachments tied the four legs 
together and tightened, causing the Tauros to lose its balance.  
“Hoooaaaarrrgghh!!!”  
“Jus’ do us all a favour an’ recall that Tauros!” yelled the young lady.  
Chad quickly complied, and the struggling Tauros was dragged into its 
Pokéball.  
“Ah oughta drag yer butt ta jail!”  
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” begged Chad, kneeling down and 
holding his hands together, “I didn’t know!”  
“... Ah’m gonna let y’all off, Ah think having Heifer as a Pokémon will be 
punishment enough.  But you’re gonna hafta pay the owner something fer taking 
it away, else people’d do this all the time.”  
She wore a pale green shirt and blue shorts, brown boots, and a red belt around 
her left arm that went down to the right side of her waist, she also wore a 
light orange headband, and her blue hair fell to the sides, and down the back 
in a ponytail.  
“And what ‘bout you, do y’all know this fool?” questioned the girl.  
“I’m afraid so, Chad didn’t mean any harm.” I said.  
“Um, yuh wanna go ta town? It is gettin’ kinda late...”  

The village was bustling with activity, a festival of some sort was going on 
here, there was plenty of unique food for sale, many rare imported Pokémon 
goods, and carnival attractions here and there.  
“I must apologise for my friend’s rude behaviour.” I offered to the girl, “If 
there’s anything we can do to-”  
“Stop apologisin’, Ah’m tired o’ hearin’ it, name’s Lara Laramie, Ah’m the 
daughter o’ the leader o’ the Laramie Clan.”  
“The owners of the ranch?” I questioned a little surprised.  
“Uh huh.”  
“Well, Ah’m, I mean, I’m Tetsubo Capture, the red head’s Abby, the other girl 
is Danielle, and I believe you’ve already met Chad.” I explained, finishing 
with a slightly embarrassed look at Chad, stuffing his face with a large 
Magikarp-shaped sweet on a stick.  
“This is the best time o’ year, when everyone gets together an’ celebrates the 
day this here ranch wus built, we have stalls an’ exhibits, an’ then there’s 
the big annual race, ‘cept its going ta be the last one cos its so dangerous, 
Ah won it fer two years straight, until last year, but someone else represented 
an’ won fer the Laramie Clan instead.”  
“Race, huh?”  
“Yeah, anyone can enter, but Ah wouldn’t if Ah wus you.  Its very competitive 
among the villagers in this here place, especially-”  
“Hoo hah! Heya Lara.” laughed a loud and arrogant guy who came in riding a 
Dodrio.  
He wore a green shirt with an orange sash, yellow trousers, orange boots, and 
his long spiky black hair was tied in a pony-tail.  
Lara looked disgusted, this wasn’t one of her closest friends obviously, so I 
decided to take one good thing from this tense environment.  

“Dodrio, the Triplebird Pokémon.  Its three heads express joy, sorrow and anger 
as they plan strategies together, one of its heads will be awake at any given 
time.”  

“Are yuh ready fer the big race tomorrow Lara? Ah sure am!”  
“Of course Ah am Dario, whut makes yuh think Ah ain’t?”  
“Well that Rapidash o’ yers is kinda outta control, yuh should find some way o’ 
calming it down, wouldn’t want yuh ta fall off or anythin’!”  
Lara then gave Dario a powerful glare, as if she was ready to murder him, but 
then she let it go, “We’ll see whut happens, on the track.”  
Dario then took off, his Dodrio’s feet throwing dust around and making a lot of 
noise as he left.  
“What did he do to get you so mad?” I asked.  
“Ah know Ah don’t have much proof, but he caused me ta fall out o’ last year’s 
race.  He... arranged fer my ol’ Ponyta ta get scared, and Ah got bucked off, 
but Ah found another racer ta take mah place, an’ he won the race and taught 
Dario a lesson, but now that particular Pokémon Trainer’s moved on, an’ Ah’m on 
edge.”  
“You think Dario’s gonna try something?”  
“Uh huh.”  
“Lara, between the four of us, we own a lot of Pokémon, we could stick around, 
protect you from harm, I can’t stand people who bend the rules to get what they 
want...” I said, thinking of Bryan and several other members of Team Rocket.  
“Tetsubo, thank y’all, Ah ‘preciate it.”  

We returned to Lara’s place, and she led us to the stables, where a fine 
blazing Rapidash stood, looking peaceful.  
“Guys, this is mah Rapidash.”  
“Cool...” smiled Danielle, “How do ya get its flame that bright?”  
“Yuh like Rapidash?”  
“Of course I do.” replied Danielle, releasing one of her own.  

“Rapidash, the Fire Horse Pokémon.  It is unable to resist racing against fast 
moving objects or creatures, it can reach a speed of 150 miles per hour.”  

“I never knew you had a Rapidash.” I noted.  
“You never asked.” grinned Danielle.  
“Wish I had, we could have saved ourselves a lot of walking.” I grinned back.  
Danielle’s Rapidash noticed the other, and approached it, giving friendly 
snorts and conversing a little.  
“That’s a mighty fine Rapidash yuh got there, can ya ride it yet?”  
“I’m good at it, but yours looks so... sick.” explained Danielle.  
“Hey, don’t insult mah-”  
“Look!”  
Lara’s Rapidash had collapsed on the floor, while Danielle’s nudged it with a 
concerned expression.  
“Tetsubo, please, git Nurse Joy in here on the double!” pleaded Lara.  

“Lara...” said the Nurse Joy later on in the Pokémon Centre, “Your Rapidash 
will make a full recovery, it appears to be sick from something it ate.”  
“But that can’t be.  Ah give mah Rapidash the finest horse food.”  
“Well, there appears to be traces of the following...” said the nurse, giving 
Lara a list to look at.  
“That poor Rapidash...” moaned Danielle.  
“And right before the race...” added Abby.  
“No, this can’t be right, Ah’d never give this ta mah Rapidash.”  
“Well, that’s what we discovered inside of it, someone’s been feeding this to 
your Rapidash, or added it to its food perhaps?”  
“Dario.” I growled.  
“Grrrr, its one thing ta knock me offa mah horse, but ta poison mah 
Rapidash...  
He’s gettin’ desperate.” growled Lara.  
“Lara, what’s riding on this race?” I asked.  
“Originally a place in the Laramie Clan, but our pa’s are rivals, every year 
they bet something, and Dario an’ Ah race, an’ whoever does better wins the bet 
fer their pa’s, it may come as a surprise, but Dario an’ Ah used ta be friends, 
until our pa’s became more and more competitive, we were turned against each 
other more and more as the years went bah, ever since land became the prize, 
Dario’s been gittin’ worse and worse wit’ the cheatin’.  This year’s pretty 
special, whoever wins the race, wins ownership o’ the ranch...”  
“Can’t you get him disqualified for this?” I asked concerned.  
“Ah’m afraid Dario’s too smart fer that, he’ll have left no trace o’ his 
meddlin’.  Ah’ll just have ta endure his trickery and beat him through sheer 
skill.”  
“Lara, I don’t think it’ll be that easy.” said Nurse Joy.  
“But yuh said Rapidash would make a full recovery.”  
“Yes, it will, but not before tomorrow, I’m afraid it won’t be fit to run in 
the race...”  

Meanwhile Dario had a secret rendezvous with three certain individuals.  
“Yuh arranged fer Lara ta be put out o’ the race yet?.”  
“Don’t worry, we took care of it.” said a female.  
“Did exactly what you asked.” added a male.  
“Good, but there’s others Ah need yuh ta deal wit’, an’ no one mus’ see that 
yuh or Ah are behind it.” Dario briefed.  
“Don’t worry, Ah won’t let down a fellow neighbour.” smiled Cletus, “Ah was 
born an’ raised in dis here town, an’ Ah know exactly how the race works, an’ 
how ta bring down all the racers.”  
“Yuh do this, an’ Ah’ll reward yuh handsomely.” grinned Dario.  
“How degrading.” commented Cassie, “We’re Elite Rocket, the best of the 
soldiers in Team Rocket, reduced to mere mercenaries.”  
“Work is work.” replied Claus, “We’ve failed so many times, we’ll be seeing a 
lot of these oddjobs until we do something right.”  
“It Will go right Dario.” assured Cletus, “Don’t worry ‘bout a thing, yer 
friend Cletus’ll take care o’ Everythin’...”  

End of Chapter 37A  

Back to Chapter 36B
Chapter 37B
Back to Story List #21 - #40
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