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

The journey through the destroyed Slate Town continued, while we were talking, 
we’d walked along the roads of the town, making several turns, we’d climbed 
into and through a garden almost devoid of life, in and out of old empty 
buildings, and to our final stop.  
“Tetsubo, are you sure this is the only way through?...” asked Emily nervously 
as she looked towards out final destination, so to speak.  
An old prison, barely standing by the looks of things, and somewhat haunting 
despite it being empty, or so I thought.  
“Don’t worry, I’m the guy, I’ll be brave for the both of you.”  
There was a loud thunderbolt accompanied by a lightning strike, and when it 
cleared, somehow, I was holding on to Emily, and she was doing the same with 
me, while Abby looked at the both of us with a snide look on her face.  
“I guess the role of brave leading individual goes to me...”  

The map was very clear about which directions to take, which made me wonder, 
what were Bolt’s intentions to make sure me and my friends made it out of here, 
as if I were meant to go on to something greater, greater than the Pokémon 
League anyway.  
I kept a brave face, trying anything to comfort Emily who was holding onto me 
tightly, I had to wonder though if this was intentional, or because she was 
genuinely scared.  
Abby sure wasn’t, she led the way without fear on her face, it was nice to see 
that sort of quality in a girl like her, she really was capable of getting on 
with her life despite losing most of it.  
“Are... we almost out yet?...” questioned Emily.  
“No, not yet.” I answered.  
“How about now?” she asked a moment later.  
“No.” I sighed.  
“What about-”  
“This is going to get boring if I let it go on.” I said firmly.  
“We’re almost out, just a large room and a couple of hallways to go.” stated 
Abby as we stepped into the said room.  
It looked like an old dining area, as tables were toppled all over the place 
and what might have been food was splashed around the floor, there were cracks 
in the hard walls, but no real damage here, and looking above, I could see an 
extra addition, a control booth with shattered windows, probably to keep an eye 
on prisoners during mealtimes without being immediately in the room, and 
finally, there was movement, although it was too late to do anything about it.  
Large shutters came clattering down, sealing off all the entrances and exits 
here, and the girls cautiously stood close by me as we waited to see what had 
caused us to be trapped.  
“Scared little rats, stuck in a trap...” said a dark voice from the darker part 
of the room, and someone wearing heavy boots walked slowly out of the darkness, 
his steps echoing around the entire room.  
“No...” I panicked as I saw the face.  
“Capture...  You didn’t think I’d find you so soon, did you?” smiled Bryan 
darkly, “Well it was easy...  You have a traitor in your midst, two in fact.”  
I turned to face the two Pokémon that belonged to Bryan, but they gave off 
arguing looks to defend themselves.  
“These may be your Pokémon, but they don’t want to be with you anymore, they 
didn’t betray us.” I said firmly.  
“Oh but they did, how about taking a close look in Whirlpool’s spiral, and 
Trap’s stalk.”  
We did so, and noticed extremely tiny mechanical items stuck to them.  
“You put tracers on them, that’s despicable, you Knew they would run away from 
you.” I complained.  
“That’s true, I’ve been very busy doing Rocket work with my four Loyal Pokémon, 
I didn’t have the time to go searching for these failures, so I thought the 
Elites and those brothers would find them for me, seeing as I’m more successful 
than them, they had no choice but to take the job.  Of course, I didn’t think 
the Pokémon would come looking for you, the one that hurt them so much in the 
past.” explained Bryan calmly.  
“That was because you challenged me to Pokémon Battles, I didn’t hate them, I 
hated you...” I growled.  
“Hmph.” snorted Bryan, turning to my allies, “So I see you decided to forgive 
your lying boyfriend, Emily.  But what’s going to keep him from doing it 
again.  
It always starts with one, and then it becomes an addiction...”  
“... Shut up!” shouted Emily, “You forced him into it! Tetsubo would never have 
lied to me if you hadn’t threatened to hurt everyone close to him! It wasn’t 
even an idol threat, you work for Team Rocket so you have the means to go 
through with your ultimatums.  Tetsubo was wrong for thinking that you’d honour 
your word, and I was wrong for blaming him after all he’s done for me...”  
“Emily...” I said, trying to sound grateful, but the mood of the situation kept 
me from speaking, that and Emily.  
“You’re the one I despise, you not only steal people’s Pokémon, their friends, 
from them for money and evil, but you’ve became obsessed with Tetsubo because 
he’s better than you.”  
“What?!” said Bryan rather angrily.  
“You heard me...” said Emily, strangely bravely considering her fear of the 
environment, “Tetsubo is better than you, in every way.  He has a better heart, 
he’s a better person, and a better Pokémon Trainer than you’ll ever be.  It 
won’t be long before all your Pokémon run away from you, and when that happens, 
you’ll have nothing to fall back on, not even the Rockets.”  
“I’ll make you eat those words.” said Bryan darkly, as he turned to Abby, “So 
what about you? Surely you’ve heard how Tetsubo can’t be trusted, he lets guys 
like me exploit him and betray those around him.”  
“You don’t want to mess with my head.” warned Abby darkly, “I don’t know you 
and never want to know you, so you have no right to talk to me like I care what 
you say.”  
“You should care, because you’ve allied yourselves with a fool like Tetsubo, 
you’re about to lose everything you care for.  My Pokémon are coming back with 
me one way or the other, and I’ll take all of your Pokémon too.  You can’t 
escape this place, its a prison, and now I’m in control of it.  Cooperate with 
me now, and you can leave.  Don’t, and this prison will be your final home, 
either way your wretched Pokémon will belong to Team Rocket.”  
“You can’t beat all three of us Bryan.” I said, standing up to him, “Even with 
your enhanced Pokémon, we’ve got two of our own fighting for us, and eighteen 
regular ones to beat you.”  
“You think my Pokémon will fight for you? They ran away from me, they’re scared 
of me, and they will never have the strength to confront me.” said Bryan 
confidently.  
“So if these Pokémon are such ‘failures’, then why are you so dead set on 
getting them back?” I asked angrily.  
“Those Pokémon are worth a lot.” he answered.  
“You mean you spent a lot of your group’s money to provide the drugs that 
enhanced their skills.” I corrected.  
“True.  When you lot are starving to death in this dump, you’ll know I am 
superior to all of you.  Go get them.” finished Bryan.  
Bryan’s newly evolved Machamp and Golbat appeared, followed by a new Electrode, 
and finally, the newly evolved Arcanine exploded from its Pokéball and roared 
out at us, this battle would take everything from the team.  

Emily unleashed her Ivysaur, Marowak, and Chansey (presumably the latter was to 
heal), Abby brought out her Rhyhorn, Hypno and Clefairy, and I brought out my 
Gloom, Butterfree and Staryu.  
It was best to attack in waves of three Pokémon each, and call on more if necessary, 
this wasn’t a regular Pokémon Battle, this was a battle to save ourselves.  

A harsh fight began, and the Pokémon, good and bad alike, were taking many 
hits, while the targeted Pokémon of Bryan’s stayed close to Emily and Abby, too 
afraid to face their master.  
“Can we win, Tetsubo?...” questioned Emily.  
“We Have to.” I replied.  
Graveyard and Nightmare teamed up against the large Machamp, using a 
combination of Psychic attacks to damage, and/ or slow the Machamp down while 
Emily’s reliable Marowak beat it repeatedly with its bone.  
Abby’s Rhyhorn faced off against Bryan’s Golbat on its own, and attacked it 
wildly, while the Golbat flapped around and looked like it was planning 
something, then suddenly, it swooped down and bit into the Rhyhorn’s neck where 
the armour didn’t protect it, it was either draining blood, or using Mega 
Drain, it was hard to tell which, but both spelt trouble for the Rhyhorn, until 
an electric sphere shot from elsewhere and paralysed the Golbat, Armour turned 
to face Abby’s happy Clefairy, and gave a tiresome nod of thanks.  
The Golbat wasn’t down though, and attacked again...  
The newest Pokémon of Bryan’s, an Electrode (name unknown as yet), was being 
knocked around by Solar, and being a ball, it didn’t have much resistance and 
bounced into walls after every hit.  
My Butterfree tried to sprinkle dust on it, but it rolled aside quickly, having 
made itself faster.  
And in the fight between the Arcanine, Gloom and Staryu, my first Pokémon was 
taking heavy damage despite having used Bubblebeam to weaken the opponent, but 
it wasn’t enough, Pollen had retreated behind Twinkill after a failed Poison 
Powder attack.  
Burner was a Stage 2 Pokémon, enhanced by illegal drugs, Bryan seemed to have 
no trouble admitting that now, although in the past, he kept it secret to 
discourage me from training, and now thoughts of all the battles I’d lost were 
creeping into my head, since he started training Pokémon, I hadn’t been able to 
beat him in Pokémon Battles, only melees.  
Good thing he wouldn’t be in the Pokémon League, but I’d have to make it out of 
here to enjoy that luxury.  
We seemed to be getting somewhere, until a laser shot out from nowhere and hit 
the Ivysaur, giving the Electrode a chance to charge an Electric attack and zap 
it.  
“Hey!” shouted Emily, while her Chansey saw to the hurt Pokémon and healed it.  
We traced our sights back to the original firing place, the control booth, the 
lasers must have been used in the most extreme circumstances to stop criminals, 
but with the Rockets in control, we’d be the victims.  
“Flutter!” I called, “Use Sleep Powder in that booth!”  
“Freeefreee!!!” it chanted, and floated upwards, but then the laser fire was 
directed at him...  
“Poli...”  
“Bell...”  
The two fugitive Pokémon groaned, and I turned to them, “We could use your 
help, if you face up to Bryan now, with us to support you, you can overcome 
your fear.  We’ll get you out of here but you’ll always be running from Bryan 
until you face up to him.  He’s not your master anymore...”  
They nodded, and bravely jumped into battle, Whirlpool blasting the Arcanine 
with water, and the Weepinbell shooting Acid at the Golbat.  
Twinkill nodded to the Poliwhirl in mutual respect and joined in the water 
fight, while Armour gave Trap a look of acceptance before slamming its weight 
into the dizzy Golbat.  
“Freee!!!” came a sudden scream.  
Abby and I gasped as the Bug-type dropped like a stone, after being hit by 
several lasers at once, and Emily reacted, “Lucky, Soft Boiled, now! If Flutter 
goes down, everyone else will be in danger!”  
“Chan-Sey!” she replied, and a white sphere burst into Flutter and restored its 
health, Lucky was growing weary of lending her strength to others, and fell 
into Emily’s arms and was recalled.  
“Flutter! Use Confusion!”  
“Freee!!!”  
The psychic wave targeted the cannon and drew away the fire.  
“Get those traitors!” shouted Bryan, and two of his Pokémon instinctively 
turned and used projectile attacks.  
The Electrode spun away from its opponent and blasted Whirlpool with a 
Thunderbolt followed by Thunder Wave, and then rolled back to the Ivysaur.  
Twinkill had been forced to leap to safety as the electricity would have been 
just as damaging to it, but this gave the Arcanine a chance to charge a Fire 
Blast attack and seriously damage Trap.  
While the Golbat took advantage of the help by spitting out a nasty Toxic 
attack on the Weepinbell, the Arcanine quickly used Take Down on Whirlpool, it 
then used Agility to avoid Twinkill’s Ice Beam and bit into its gem, which was 
starting to lose its colour due to fatigue.  
Burner now leapt into the air to finish off Twinkill as it lay weak on the 
floor, when several lasers caught it in mid-air and shunted it to the side, 
Twinkill got up and blasted its opponent with Thunderbolt to slow it down, 
before helping up its hurt ally.  
Meanwhile Flutter charged forward, its Psychic attack over and the cannon 
turning towards it again, lasers fired, but Flutter spun as it rose up, until 
it finally reached the control booth and rained Sleep Powder inside, making the 
Rockets drop to sleep, and making them stop firing on our Pokémon.  
The Arcanine and Machamp were backing away to rethink their strategy, the 
Golbat flapped back violently, eager to go for another round, and the Electrode 
though beaten, remained in the field.  
“Sphere! Do it!” shouted Bryan.  
There was only one possible thing an Electrode would be doing at this stage, so 
Solar waited as it glowed white, and then tackled it.  
The timing was perfect, and the Electrode landed in its group of allies, it 
tried to jump forward, but its trigger was set and it exploded, damaging our 
opponents but blasting one of the walls and sending debris and shrapnel 
everywhere.  
“Watch out!” I shouted, but it was too late, and Pollen, Whirlpool and Trap 
were buried under the rock.  
I ran forward to retrieve them, but Bryan’s Arcanine leapt forward to intercept 
me, and although Twinkill spun and slammed into it, Bryan had enough time to 
dig out the hurt Pokémon and drag them behind his damaged but standing 
Pokémon.  
“Watch this Capture, I’m not a one trick pony like everyone else you’ve faced, 
constantly fighting you for your Pokémon instead of seizing opportunities, I 
have a way to win back my Pokémon, but since you’ve been slow to evolve yours, 
I’ll add them to my team and beat you with them.”  
Out of his pockets, he drew out some Evolution Stones, but they looked slightly 
different, they weren’t natural, but manmade, two were blue, the other two 
green, all were slightly transparent, and had a moving swirling spiral on the 
inside.  
“The Slave Stones, they evolve certain Pokémon, but during the change, their 
minds are altered to obey humans, perfect for making true warriors.  They fight 
until the bitter end without fear for their own pitiful existence and they’ll 
do whatever I ask of them.  Whirlpool and Trap need to be reprogrammed, but 
your Gloom shall dance to a different tune now.”  
“No!” I shouted, “Pollen!...  Twinkill! Tackle attack!”  
“Star!!!” it shouted, dodging the onslaught of enemy Pokémon and slamming into 
Bryan, making him drop two of the stones on the floor.  
They cracked a little, but didn’t break, Bryan grinned darkly at me, and picked 
up his Pokémon and hurled them onto the relevant stones.  
“Poliwhirl...”  
“Weepin... Bell...”  
“No!...” I shouted, as their evolution took place, instead of the white light, 
the Pokémon turned black and came out in their next stages, but they stood 
there looking at us with still emotionless eyes, meanwhile, Bryan had leapt 
onto my Gloom as it tried to flee, and planted the other green stone on it.  
“Pollen!...” I screamed out, as it glowed black, flashed white a few times, and 
emerged as a Vileplume.  
“I’ve lost him...” I said with tears streaming down my face, to lose one of my 
greatest, and energetic Pokémon to Bryan, now it would obey him and attack 
us...  
I sadly drew out the Pokédex to scan the Pokémon, but primarily to learn of 
anything we could exploit:  

“Vileplume, the Flower Pokémon.  This Pokémon is known to flap its broad flower 
petals to disperse poisonous, sleeping and paralysing pollen into the air, its 
large head is heavy and hard to hold up.”  
“Poliwrath, the Tadpole Pokémon.  This Pokémon is a champion swimmer and swims 
faster than humans, upon evolving, it gains properties of the Fighting-type 
Pokémon.”  
“Victreebel, the Flycatcher Pokémon.  It attracts prey with the sweet aroma of 
honey.  When swallowed whole, the prey is melted within a day.”  

“Yes you have lost, Tetsubo.” smirked Bryan as he recalled the other Pokémon 
but left the evolved ones out, “You haven’t the force to take on these evolved 
Pokémon, and I doubt you’ll bring yourself to hurt the Pokémon you called 
friends once upon a time.  All of you, prepare to retrieve that Staryu, it’ll 
guarantee my immediate success once its evolved.”  
“Tetsubo, don’t give up so easily, call out to it, surely Bryan can’t control 
one of your Pokémon, it must remember the love and care you’ve given to it.” 
suggested Abby.  
“Okay...  Pollen!...  You have to try and escape! Come back to me!” I called 
out.  
I couldn’t believe it when Pollen spun its large body around, the petals 
knocking Bryan back, and then scurried over to me.  
“Oh Pollen, you evolved without losing your mind, I’m so glad you’re okay.”  
“...”  
It wouldn’t say a word, it just stood like the other two evolved Pokémon.  
“Go get them!” shouted Bryan, but something was up with his Pokémon, they were 
acting a little sluggish.  
“Poliwrath!”  
“Viiii!!!”  
“Pollen...  Use your Solar Beam.”  
“Vile...” it said quietly as it charged energy, with a real lack of 
enthusiasm.  
“Why didn’t it work?!” questioned Bryan, “And why are my Pokémon acting so 
slow?!...  The Stones!...”  
“Looks like they didn’t work as well as you thought, it didn’t brainwash my 
Vileplume, and because you cracked your ones, they’re having an effect on the 
Pokémon, I’m sorry for failing you Trap and Whirlpool...  Pollen, finish 
it...”  
“... Plume...” said Pollen as he fired a huge blast at the two Pokémon and sent 
them crashing through a large stone support, defeating them even with their 
stamina because of the damage done to them during the battle.  
Bryan shouted out in anger, right before the room started to shake, the battle 
had taken its toll on the unstable prison.  
“You think this counts as a victory?! I was unprepared, I’m still better than 
you as a trainer, and I Will take your Pokémon away from you!...” shouted Bryan 
angrily.  
Bryan disappeared through the hole that his Electrode had made, but rocks caved 
in shortly after and sealed it off.  
“Return your Pokémon!” I shouted, and the girls did so, “Go Inferno!”  
The large Charizard appeared but didn’t roar, and turned to me angrily as if 
I’d deliberately brought this place crashing down, “Inferno, please, we need 
you to blast us out of here and carry us three just a little.”  
Inferno turned to the girls and looked uncertain.  
“If we perished and you got out of here, who would find food for you, find 
opponents for you to fight, or find the patience to put up with you?!” I 
questioned him.  
He tilted his head to the side as it to tell us to hold on.  
As we did, Inferno breathed a large flame at the ceiling and stood away from it 
as debris crashed down, then the light from outside shined through, and the 
Charizard took off, while the prison collapsed beneath us...  

We landed soon enough and I recalled my Charizard immediately before it went 
back to its usual manner, and because it was tired having gone airborne with 
three people.  
“Tetsubo, that was really close...” said Emily, “It Is dangerous to travel 
around with you...”  
“Doubts?” I asked, although I knew the answer.  
“Of course not, friends have got to stick together...  But once again I’m sorry 
for blaming you for Bryan’s treachery...”  
I called out my Vileplume to check on it, “Pollen, I nearly lost you today, I’m 
sorry you had to evolve against your will, just give me a hug right now...”  
It did so, but something was missing, Pollen lacked that energetic edge to it, 
its eyes didn’t have the usual fire in them and its mouth was just a straight 
line.  
“Uh oh...” I panicked, “Pollen, smile.”  
It did so immediately, but it was forced and fake.  
“Jump up three times and spin around once...”  
One...  Two...  Three...  And a spin...  
“Oh my...” said Emily sadly, “Its lost its individuality, its nothing more than 
a puppet.”  
“I thought the stone hadn’t affected him when he escaped and ran to me, but he 
was just following my orders cos I’m his trainer...  God I hate Bryan so much, 
he’s destroyed the heart and soul of my Pokémon...” I growled with tearful eyes
“Tetsubo...” said Abby, “Don’t give up hope, I was once cold, stubborn and 
uncaring, but look at me now, I’ve changed and I’ve learned to express my 
emotions, even if its just a little.  You’ve trained your Pokémon to be 
winners, but more than soulless warriors, you’ve given them the time and care 
to give them a sense of self and individuality, I’m sure deep down, Pollen’s 
energetic side exists, just give it time and I’m sure it’ll remember who it 
really is...”  
“Thanks... Abby...” I said sadly as I recalled my Pokémon.  

I’d lost something special today, something in Pollen had died, and I think 
part of my spirit died with it, I didn’t have much faith that Pollen would ever 
become what it used to be, but I wouldn’t discard him either.  
Pollen would still receive the love, care and devotion I’d always given it, and 
perhaps one day...  I’d see that energetic Pokémon in the future.  
In the meantime, we still had a long road to walk, apparently, a tough and 
harsh one, with a lot to lose...  

End of Chapter 42B  

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