Chapter 42:  Force of Will (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Days after releasing our Nidoking and Nidoqueen into the wild, Emily and I were 
feeling better about our old friends’ leaving.  
Abby acted like her usual self, but did her part in putting us down if we had 
sad thoughts until we perked up.  
We had some way to go in order to reach Ocean Town and hitch a boat to Cinnabar 
Island, but we’d be there within a few weeks.  
We’d stopped off at a few Pokémon Centres along the way and switched our 
Pokémon around.  
Abby had her usual six, plus the Weepinbell on her shoulder, Emily still had a 
Poliwhirl to look after, and had brought back her Marowak as Poisoness’s 
replacement, and sent her Shellder home in return for her Chansey, and I 
replaced my Nidoking’s space with my Ground-type, Digda, now a Dugtrio, and 
dropped my Dragonair off for now to train up my Butterfree.  

The next landmark was close, Slate Town, we didn’t have much of a choice but to 
go through here, as far as the map was concerned, all paths in the area led 
down to this place, and unless I wanted to double back and endure a few 
unnecessary weeks of walking, we had to pass by here.  
“I’ve heard a lot about Slate Town, its very much an urban city, not much 
green, but they have tons of Pokémon items that are made here.” I explained 
excitedly as me and the girls reached the end of the mountain road.  
As we peered over the edge, we were all very surprised, and I had a look of 
total disappointment on my face.  
The whole town was a total mess, practically ruins, the ground was uneven, 
buildings were falling apart or had fallen apart and collapsed all over 
streets.  

We carefully walked through the wrecked city, there were no people, and since 
the sun had set, the darkness gave this town an eerie feel to it.  
“Great place.” said Abby sarcastically, “Its really nice, but I wouldn’t want 
to live here.”  
“What happened here? Its like there was a war...” I said in disbelief.  
“Might as well had been.” commented a new voice.  
We all turned to face a man with shocking yellow spiky hair that fell to the 
sides and centre.  
“Earthquake.  Destroyed a lot of people, and a lot of lives, and no one lives 
here anymore.  They were meant to clean this place up, make it a safe route for 
passing Pokémon Trainers, but unfortunately for you, you’ll have to take the 
complicated route, or go back the way you came.”  
“You know an awful lot about this place.” accused Abby.  
“Who are you exactly?” I asked.  
“They call me Bolt, and whoever ‘They’ is, know about you Tetsubo.” answered 
the man.  
“Either you’re here to congratulate me, or battle me and take my Pokémon, right 
now I’m thinking the latter.” I said darkly.  
“Nothing of the sort, well, actually a battle Is involved, but for something 
else.” smiled Bolt.  
“Uh huh, and what would I possibly want to battle you for? I’ve heard about 
you, I don’t need a Thunder Stone, and this is hardly a safe area to fight 
anyway, I don’t want to be here longer than I have to.” I said firmly.  
“Then you have no choice.  I’ve been waiting a long time to battle you, and I 
decided to move from my old waiting spot and go to you, I explored this city a 
lot and I believed that you’d need directions to get on with your journey.  So 
how about it?” offered Bolt smugly.  
I sighed, “If it’ll get us directions out of here, then I suppose I must.”  
“Follow me to my field of choice...”  

We shortly arrived in the courtyard of some sort of factory, the floor was 
mostly flat, but some of the lighting that surrounded the field flickered 
occasionally, it didn’t feel immensely safe.  
“Why here?” I asked, “Surely your Pokémon are at a disadvantage with this 
uneven floor.”  
“Yes, but the energy that can be harnessed makes for an interesting battle.  I 
know Branch and Wildfire were too impatient to wait in their allotted fields, 
but you battled Stream in her environment, so the last battle should be the 
same for me.” explained Bolt.  
“The forth and final Pokelemental...” I noted, “Its a good thing for you that 
there’s something worth my battling for, cos I’m getting incredibly tired of 
being tested all the time.” I sulked.  
“Whine now, but someday you’ll thank us for this.  We’ll use three Pokémon, and 
just to make things interesting, it’ll be three separate battles with no 
switching Pokémon until the end of each bout, if one Pokémon falls, the next 
two Pokémon fight.”  
“Puh-lease, I Am familiar with the rule.” I said rudely.  
“Choose your Pokémon wisely.”  
“Oh I will.  Let’s go! Shockwave!”  
“Let’s start with the strongest of the team...”  

Two Electabuzz were now standing on the field glaring at each other, I looked 
over at Bolt, who gave me a confident snide smile.  
I was in trouble, I alternated between my 13, well, my 11 Pokémon.  
Its sometimes difficult to remember that I was down 2 Pokémon, my Venomoth and 
Nidoking.  
Anyway, the point is, I wasn’t a small-time trainer that kept 5 or 6 Pokémon 
and trained them all the time, I kept around the 12 area, alternating around my 
varied types of Pokémon to end up with a team that could take on any opponent.  
It might take some extra work, but the rewards would be worth it.  
Bolt however probably had less than 6 Pokémon, seeing as he specialised in 
Electric Pokémon (if the rest of the crew was anything like him), and since 
there were only about 5 or so Electric-types (excluding evolutions), his 
Electabuzz was probably always with him.  
I’d need technique rather than relying on Shockwave’s speed and power.  
“Use your Quick Attack!” I shouted, and Shockwave drove forward, his arms 
flailing wildly up and down and his fists clenched as he ran towards his 
opponent to deal a quick hit and retreat.  
“Heh heh.  Screech.”  
A piercing scream was emitted by the opponent, and Shockwave’s eyes closed in 
reflex and his arms hastily covered his ears.  
It was too late to stop his running, and the opponent held out its arm to the 
side and charged it with electricity, and Shockwave’s running did the rest, the 
arm slammed into Shockwave’s neck sharply and made him fall on his back.  
The opponent loomed over him, preparing something, he was skilful, and it 
looked like we’d have to rely on power after all, a lot of it.  
“Use Swift attack!...”  
Whatever the Electabuzz had been planning, it was cancelled as Shockwave hurled 
tiny stars forward and pushed the opponent back.  
“... Now the Mega Punch!”  
“BUZZ!!!” yelled out Shockwave as he lifted his arm upwards to slam into the 
opponent’s large belly and push the Electabuzz upwards.  
“Counter-attack.” spoke Bolt.  
I was shocked as the enemy, while rising, reached out and held onto Shockwave’s 
arm, with Shockwave’s weight holding it down, the upward force was nullified, 
and the opponent was able to get his feet on the ground.  
He leapt back, still keeping hold of Shockwave, and rolled backwards, before 
his feet lifted and threw Shockwave over him in a half-hearted Seismic Toss, 
the follow up Thunderbolt caught Shockwave as he fell, and pushed him hastily 
into a wall that collapsed on him.  
“Shockwave...” said Emily in concern, I was concerned too, but surprised that 
Emily had seemingly come to trust this Pokémon after the rocky start she had 
with it.  
“Bleeeeehhhbuzz...” he roared out, punching a hole in the heap so he could 
climb out.  
The opponent wasn’t giving him time to breathe, and charged another 
Thunderbolt.  
“Light Screen!” I shouted, and a rainbow shield rose just in time, but the 
enemy’s attack just kept going on, and Shockwave looked tired.  
“You can take advantage of the field Tetsubo.” called Abby, “Look.”  
The collapsed wall had unearthed some wires, and they were flailing and 
twisting around like snakes, sparks flying off the end of them.  
“If Shockwave absorbs them, he could enhance his Electric attacks for the 
battle.”  
“No!” I shouted, a little more loudly than I realised, making Abby jump.  
“I won’t make Shockwave that way again.” I shouted firmly.  
“Again?” questioned Abby.  
“He means, his Electabuzz used to steal immense amounts of electricity, Tetsubo 
made a promise that he’d train Shockwave so he wouldn’t have to rely on more 
electricity.  Its sort of like a drug, and having got this far, Tetsubo doesn’t 
want Shockwave to become addicted again.”  
Well, Emily had taken care of explanations so I could concentrate on the 
battle.  
I noticed the opponent backing away as its power ran low from discharging so 
much electricity at once.  
“You just cost yourself the match, why aren’t you letting your Electabuzz up 
its power?” questioned Bolt.  
“We don’t need it to win matches, my Electabuzz is just fine on its own!” I 
argued.  
“It doesn’t look that way to me...” noted Bolt.  
I turned to Shockwave, breathing heavily and turning back to look at the 
wires.  
“No Shockwave! Do you want to rely on that for the rest of your life? You were 
mean and horrible when you drew on excess power, it was almost all you cared 
about, I don’t want you to risk going back to that.  You’re one of my best 
Pokémon just the way you are...” I pleaded.  
Shockwave gave me a tired smile, and walked forward.  
“Thanks...  Now use Leer.”  
While moving forward, Shockwave’s eyes glowed red, but the opponent turned away 
from him and drew energy from loose wiring.  
“That’s not fair.” I complained, “We’re not relying on that, why should you?”  
“Because my Electabuzz obviously doesn’t have a problem with it, it can use the 
energy and be done with it, it doesn’t crave for it like I think yours does.  
Thunder attack.” grinned Bolt.  
“Shockwave! Charge at it!” I shouted.  
The Electabuzz outstretched its hands and fired energy upwards, the clouds went 
blacker than before and the cracking sounds of thunder echoed around.  
Shockwave leapt forward and slammed his weight into the opponent, right as 
beams of lightning rained down.  
I sadly knew that with so much energy to power it, Thunder would be impossible 
to dodge, so at least in getting close, the opponent would get its share of the 
damage.  
A yellow sparkling explosion blasted the Pokémon to either side of the area.  
The opponent was in shock, literally and figuratively, while Shockwave still 
had strength in him.  
The Thunder attack had taken a lot out of the enemy, only for it to be hit by 
50% of it, we had to strike now.  
“Quick Attack!”  
Shockwave ran forward for the last time, but Bolt glared forward.  
“Thundershock!”  
Again and again, small shots were fired to repel Shockwave, because of the loss 
of power, unfortunately, the aim was true, and each normally weak shock, was 
magnified still by the power increase.  
Shockwave was growing weak now, and slowing down, but with the last of his 
strength, Shockwave lifted the opponent, and attempted to throw him, but a 
Thunderpunch with added force distracted him, and the opponent fell away, its 
limbs moving out of Shockwave’s reach, but not its other appendage.  
“Shockwave! Grab its tail!” I shouted.  
The tiger-like tail was swinging about in the air, and within Shockwave’s 
range, and he grabbed it, and swung the other Electabuzz in a circle.  
“There’s enough room in this stadium to swing a tiger-like Pokémon.” I joked, 
as Shockwave didn’t let up on the spinning, with a satisfied grin on his face.  
Finally he let go, and the Electabuzz went flying, but not before firing a 
final Thunderbolt that fried Shockwave with the force, and exploded the floor 
around him, forming a small crater in which Shockwave lay defeated, while the 
opponent luckily managed to land on its feet and skid back until it balanced 
itself.  
“Shockwave...” I said in disbelief, we’d worked so hard for nothing, and 
because of a problem outside of the Pokémon Battle.  
“Nice try kid, you almost had me.  Time for the second bout.” said Bolt 
smugly.  
“Go Pollen!”  
“Go Magneton!”  
“Gloom Gloom!”  
“MAG-NA-TON!!!”  
“Tetsubo!” called Emily, “Try not to use physical attacks! Magnetons are pretty 
strong against them!”  
“Not a problem, Emily.” I whispered, “Seeing as my Gloom doesn’t have any.”  
I didn’t really want a lot of help, I’d taken on Bolt’s other buddies and did 
fine without advice.  
“Use Sleep Powder Pollen! That’ll make this match much easier!”  
“Gloom!!!” yelled Pollen, spurting up a wind of yellow dust at the robotic 
Pokémon, but since it could float around in the air, it was easy for it to 
dodge around the dust.  
“Good trick, Bolt.” I said with a snide smile but holding back my frustration, 
“Making me battle on this uneven field but using a Pokémon that can avoid it 
all.”  
“You’re just upset that you never thought of it.” replied Bolt.  
“Oh I thought about it.” I said to myself, “But I’m not going to let Inferno 
botch up my one chance to beat you...”  
“Magneton! Use your Sonic Boom!”  
“MAG-NA-TON!!!”  
A swift wind storm was built up from underneath the Magneton, and quickly swept 
across the field and drew in my Gloom, spinning it around violently inside the 
mini-twister.  
“Pollen! You know how to ride the winds, do it!” I shouted, trying to make the 
next attack deceptively hidden from my opponent’s ears.  
“What are you getting at?” asked Bolt suspicious, but he was answered when the 
small windstorm started pulling at the fallen trees, tearing off their dying 
leaves and bringing them inside the cyclone, now under Pollen’s control.  
“Petal Dance.” stated Bolt too late, as my Gloom took the cyclone forward and 
tore past the Magneton, the leaves doing a little damage to the metal plating 
of the Pokémon, and the force throwing it down on the floor.  
The three silver spheres rose up separately, and joined together again, Pollen 
came spinning back in the twister, but the Magneton was ready this time, and 
spilt into its three Magnemite parts and dispersed, avoiding Pollen 
completely.  
The winds wore off and my Gloom landed, spinning around as it slid down the 
sloping surface of the arena.  
It was confused, and I’d wished there was another way to have got the element 
of surprise without paying the price for it.  
“Thunder Wave.” ordered Bolt, and a sphere made up of electricity bolts was 
flung at Pollen.  
“Pollen, move!”  
He tried to run, but the dizzy Pokémon on an uneven surface was very vulnerable, 
he tripped up, and the sphere slammed into him, and surrounded him in shocking 
waves.  
“No...  Confused And paralysed...” I groaned, the outcome of this match was 
looking grim.  
“Now use Swift attack.” said Bolt.  
Swift was quite an accurate move, not too powerful though, so I called out for 
my Gloom to use Acid, and hoped he would comply.  
The stars rained down on Pollen, but he stood still and shook off the 
confusion, and fought the paralysis, and then pushed out a blob of burning acid 
from his flower petals.  
The Magneton didn’t see it coming, and worse still, its stars hit the acid blob 
and dispersed it all over the Magnemite parts, burning its silver bodies and 
leaving horrid marks.  
“Hang on, Magneton, use Screech and Tackle!”  
The noise made my Gloom back away, it was about to attempt a Mega Drain to 
hinder the opponent more, but the crackling of electricity made it freeze up, 
and the Magneton flung itself down and smashed across Pollen before rising up.  
Pollen was angry and blasted a wave of yellow spores as the Magneton took off, 
the Stun Spore overtook the Magneton and affected it, now the Magneton was 
paralysed also, and the dust appeared to clog up the mechanical Pokémon’s 
parts, one thing was for sure, it was stuck together for the rest of the 
match.  
“Oh you’ll pay for that, use your Thundershock!” shouted Bolt.  
“Mag...” groaned the Magneton, unable to move.  
“Now’s our only chance, use Solar Beam!” I shouted.  
I realised that it would take a while to charge the energy with so many clouds 
blocking out the sun, but we had a little time on our hands, or so I thought.  
“Magneton! Self Destruct!”  
“Mag...  Na...” it growled, slowly floating towards Pollen but slowing down 
because it was jammed up with dust.  
“Gloom...  GLOOM!!!”  
The Magneton had started to descend, Pollen fought off the crackling 
electricity, but his eyes turned to spirals, the confusion had remained with 
him as it turned out, and it affected the Solar Beam, as a small shot totally 
missed the Magneton, who was glowing white and about to explode, Pollen took a 
second shot, but was a little off despite the Magneton not making an attempt to 
dodge.  
“Pollen!” I shouted, and he took his final shot, which hit the Magneton at 
last, and flung it upwards.  
The ultimate Grass attack hadn’t finished off the Magneton, but it did the work 
itself as it couldn’t stop itself from exploding.  
The shattered magnets and silver eyeballs rained down on the field, and Bolt 
hastily recalled all the pieces.  
“What was the point in that?” I questioned.  
“If your Gloom had been blown up, it would have been a draw, but I would have 
won overall.  Now draw your final Pokémon.”  
Bolt’s Electabuzz might have been most physically strongest of his team, but 
his other Pokémon had strengths in other areas.  
I didn’t know what tricks Bolt would pull off, especially with this area, and 
then I remembered Digda, Electric attacks couldn’t harm him at all, and the 
uneven field would be no problem for a Pokémon that could dig underneath it 
all.  
“Go Digda!”  
“Go Raichu!”  
“Trio Trio Trio...”  
“Raaaaiii-Chu!”  
“Go Digda! Use your Rock Slide!” I called.  
“Swift attack.” said Bolt.  
I couldn’t believe what happened next, the stars generated for the Swift attack 
fired forward and repelled most of the unearthed rubble back at Digda.  
They managed to duck down before they were buried, the Raichu gave off a snide 
grin, and then one of the rocks landed on its head and made it stumble about in 
dizziness.  
“Chaaa!!!”  
“Its vulnerable now, use your Earthquake!” I shouted.  
The three heads did their thing, and a rumbling started underneath the whole 
field, the Raichu shook off its temporary confusion and awaited orders.  
“Use Agility of course.”  
Several hills of rubble rose due to Digda, and then collapsed, but with leaps, 
dives and spins, the Raichu got past the rubble that tumbled down.  
That particular Earthquake wasn’t very powerful, I thought, I found out why 
soon enough.  
“Trio!!!” squealed Digda, climbing up the earth to rest in one of the high 
hills.  
“What?...” I questioned, before part of the field broke away and splashed down 
in liquid.  
Just under the field was what appeared to be a pool of water that wasn’t going 
anywhere, the sewers had obviously stopped flowing, but a great volume of 
liquid remained under the arena.  
I glared at Bolt, “You are such a cheat! You knew that a Ground-type would be 
endangered if it tried to dig or shake the earth!”  
“I didn’t cheat, you accepted to battle here.  I’d pay more attention to your 
surroundings before you challenge anyone, fields with special features may seem 
helpful, but you’ve got to make sure other features aren’t used against you.” 
lectured Bolt firmly.  
“Point taken.  Still, its a little too convenient that an Electric Trainer like 
you would battle where a Ground-type would be hindered.” I argued.  
“Heh.” chuckled Bolt, “Slam attack!”  
“Rai!!!” screamed the Raichu as it leapt from one hill to the other in an 
attempt to bury Digda under and force it into the water.  
“Slash attack!” I shouted, and the three heads ducked underground, and a quick 
claw, too fast to see it exactly, swept up and lifted the Raichu upwards while 
tearing into it a little.  
“Dig underground a little and catch that Raichu!” I called, and the three heads 
burrowed under, I heard rumbling, splashing, and then the three heads 
reappeared with sad expressions, right before the Raichu landed on its head, 
then they sniggered.  
Digging was proving more and more dangerous, I was just lucky they hadn’t got 
drenched.  
“Raaaiii!!!” growled the Raichu in anger, it turned and ran away, but stopped 
at a pipe and used Thunder Shock on a machine to bring it to life.  
“Surf.” smiled Bolt, and I gave off a shocked expression, I’d read about a 
surfing Pikachu in a newspaper, but I didn’t believe it.  
This Raichu used the field to generate the water, by zapping a machine to life 
that sucked out water and spurted it out the pipe, but to surf on it, the 
Raichu grabbed a flat piece of metal and rode the wave that appeared from the 
pipe.  
“Rai Rai Rai!!!” it cheered.  
“Digda! Burrow away! Gain some height!”  
Digda burrowed away and made a sharp turn as the water splashed down and filled 
the small trenches that the Dugtrio had made in the battle.  
“Go!” I shouted, and the Dugtrio climbed up a hill to the top, the water seemed 
unable to climb up the hills as Digda could, but the Raichu leapt off its 
makeshift surfboard and scampered up the hill to confront Digda.  
“Double Team.” called Bolt.  
“Rai Rai Rai Rai Rai Rai Rai Rai.” said the Raichu’s echoing voice as other 
Raichus appeared around Digda, eight of them in total.  
“Grab it and throw it in the water.” smiled Bolt darkly, and the Raichu’s 
walked forward menacingly, while I noticed something, the Raichus were in a 
circle, all standing in fairly equal positions compared to the next, if we 
could hit them all at once with a Ground attack, we could wipe out the fakes 
and find and damage the authentic opponent.  
“Digda! Use Fissure strike eight ways!” I shouted.  
“Trio!” they yelled, seemingly understanding what I meant, they burrowed under 
the ground, and cutting tremors with exploding rocks followed.  
If someone was watching from directly above, they’d have seen the tremors go 
vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, blasting all of the fake Raichus into 
nothingness, and the real one into defeat.  
But the blast caused the whole hill to collapse, I glared at Bolt, waiting for 
him to recall the Raichu, but he wouldn’t, because it landed away from the 
falling hill, and Digda might still be defeated by the falling debris, or by 
falling into the water.  
I clenched my teeth in anger, and waited, Digda burrowed in many directions to 
avoid the falling rocks, and then a miraculous thing happened.  
As the hill of rubble hit the water underneath, the force caused an explosion 
at the top of the hill.  
A portion of the heap came flying to the side, with Digda halfway inside it, 
and while the rest of the rocks splashed and sunk, the rock with Digda in hit 
the ground and skidded to safety.  
The Raichu upon seeing this gave an astonished stare, and then passed out from 
the battle.  

“I don’t... believe it...” said Bolt moments afterwards, “Well I guess you 
won...  You surprised me Tetsubo, you don’t look all that, but you show real 
strength even when the odds are against you.”  
“Thanks...  I think.”  
The moment was interrupted as a deep rumbling was heard from beneath us, urging 
Abby and Emily to run towards me.  
“Is it another earthquake?” asked Emily.  
“No.  The field is collapsing!” said Abby, “Don’t stand there like dummies, 
move!”  
We didn’t need to be told twice, as we ran for the exit opposite the gate we’d 
originally come in, the collapse of the field started from around the hole in 
which Digda had performed Fissure strike, the ground around that hole fell and 
crashed into the sewers, and then the hole grew and grew until it threatened to 
consume the whole field, Bolt had vanished in all the confusion.  
The girls and I dived out of the courtyard as the floor gave way and fell apart 
totally, but luckily, that’s as far as the new destruction went, nothing was 
immediately crashing down outside.  
“Bolt!...  Bolt!...” I shouted, surely someone that supposedly knew his way 
around could have made for an exit.  
“Quit yelling.  I’m fine, I never knew you cared.” he called out, we looked up 
to see him standing on the wall that surrounded the courtyard, his Electabuzz 
standing with him having most probably grabbed its trainer and leapt out of 
harm’s way.  
“I don’t.” I replied, lying through my teeth, he might have got under my skin, 
but I wouldn’t wish an untimely death on anyone, “I just expect a reward for 
that battle.”  
“Fine.  Take.” said Bolt, hurling a small cloth bag secured by string, “You 
have beaten all four Pokelementals, you should be proud, but don’t think this 
is the end of our tests.  Be on your guard and train hard Tetsubo...  Be seeing 
you...”  
With that he recklessly ran across the thin wall, jumped off the end, and 
disappeared.  
I opened the bag to find a map of the town, and a Thunder Stone.  
The map had lines and notes marked with red ink, zigzags signified roads that 
were blocked, and crosses appeared to be where locked doors were, I could also 
see an exclamation mark at the west side of the map, and I traced back a route 
to our position, neat the courtyard of the factory, which had a mixture of 
circles and zigzags where we had just battled.  
“How did he?!...” I spluttered, realising that the damage done to the courtyard 
floor was accounted for on the map, there wasn’t time to add this and get out 
like Bolt did, so did he know that the whole arena would crumble or...  
I thought it best not to think about it, and pocketed the Thunder Stone before 
leading onwards.  
“Well I don’t really need this, but I’ll keep it anyway I guess.”  
“Why don’t you let Abby have it? That Pikachu of hers must be tired of being so 
little.” suggested Emily.  
“You know what I’ll do to you if you even think about making Sparky evolve, 
Tetsubo, so please don’t.”  
“The thought hadn’t crossed my mind Abby, I’ve got a fair idea why, but maybe 
you explain it to Emily.”  
“Haven’t you figured it out, Green? Haven’t you noticed how different those 
Pokémon are compared to me and my newest?...  They know who I really am, who I 
was, if I evolved them, they might change their personality, or forget who I 
used to be, or make my parents overlook them if they were to be watching me in 
the Pokémon League.” explained Abby with an annoyed tone.  
“Oh...  Its pretty important that you find your family I guess.” she replied.  
“They’re the only ones who know who I really am, and the only ones who will 
genuinely care for me despite my being a total stranger...” added Abby.  
“Abby, we care about you too.  Don’t we Emily.” I stated, before emphasising my 
question.  
“Of, of course we do.” stuttered Emily.  
“Yeah right, you can’t stand to be around me Green.” said Abby smugly.  
“Well, if you stopped being so uptight and serious all the time, maybe we’d 
actually get on.”  
“Anyway.” I interrupted, “The point is, Abby, if you ever need anything, we’ll 
be happy to help you.  You deserve whatever you need after coming this far, 
getting by without your memories, walking the hard road of a Pokémon Trainer, 
and for being so compassionate and strong even though you’d prefer to hide 
that.”  
“Tetsubo, you’re going to make me blush...” said Abby nervously, “Look, I know 
you care about me, I’m just not real good at expressing myself cos I sometimes 
feel very insecure.  I’m happy for your concern but I don’t want to be a 
special case or anything.  How will I ever lead a normal life if you treat me 
like I’m sick.  I may never be able to be whoever I was, if I even discover 
that much, but I’ve really enjoyed my time with you and I think my life will be 
fine as long as I have friends...”  
Abby trailed off after that, she didn’t say very many words at a time, but 
occasionally, she was able to express herself in a huge burst of sentences.  
Instead of going against what Abby had asked, Emily and I simply smiled and 
continued on our way.  

End of Chapter 42A  

Back to Chapter 41B
Chapter 42B
Back to Story List #41 - #60
Back to the Pokézone