Chapter 43:  Not Far from the Truth (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Some time after the tragedy at Slate Town, Emily, Abby and I reached a 
significant town, as it was the location of yet another memorable adventure.  
We’d been on the road for some time, and so, training schedules for the Pokémon 
were enforced for the greater good, time was slowly running out and I was 
aiming to raise all of my Pokémon to their final stages of evolution, but that 
took time and commitment.  
If you didn’t train your Pokémon the right way, they’d remain small for years 
to come, which although suited some trainers, I wasn’t one of them, but that 
didn’t mean I was forcing my Pokémon to evolve at all, just giving them the 
opportunity to evolve if they wanted.  
I was walking rather silently, still thinking of what had happened during our 
last adventure...  
“Hey...” said Emily comfortingly, “You okay Tet’?...”  
I simply sighed, and then turned to her, “Yeah...”  
“You’re lying... but I won’t hold it against you, at least you only ever lie 
for the greater good, not out of selfishness or personal gain.  Now admit 
you’re not okay.”  
“Okay, okay, I’m not.  But you know why.”  
“I’ll try and do better next time, if only we’d battled harder, Whirlpool, Trap 
and Pollen wouldn’t have...”  
“Are you still talking about Slate Town? I think you should just forget about 
it and remind yourselves that we were lucky to get out alive.” interrupted 
Abby, she’d very much been able to express herself better, at least in our 
company.  
“You are so insensitive.” argued Emily.  
“I’m a realist, I’m sad that Whirlpool and Trap are back with their horrid 
trainer, but at least Pollen isn’t dead or controlled by Rockets, he’s still 
your Pokémon, you should just think of it as an evolution gone bad...”  
“But I didn’t do anything wrong...” I moaned quietly, “I didn’t do anything to 
deserve this...”  
“I know, but...”  
Abby trailed off, and we walked down the final hill that led us into Cyprus 
Town.  

We checked into the Pokémon Centre and gave our Pokémon a rest, while sending 
some to our sponsors.  
I sent back my Charizard and Butterfree to be replaced by my Kadabra and 
Pidgeot, while Emily did a complete overhaul and kept her Gloom, Wigglytuff, 
Shellder, Magneton, Beedrill and Mr Mime.  
Abby’s Pokémon had gone for a refresh last, and Emily and I joined her as she 
received her Pokéballs.  
I almost faked myself into thinking that Whirlpool and Trap would come through, 
but those days were over, we only had our actual registered Pokémon to look 
after now.  
“Here’s your Pokéballs.” said the Nurse Joy pleasantly, “You trainers have a 
full team of Pokémon each, I’d keep an eye out for them, and be careful while 
you’re in this place.”  
“How come?” questioned Emily.  
“You should have been told by anyone living in this town.”  
“We were preoccupied.” I stated.  
“Well, about a year ago, this town had an infamous kid running around, he was a 
skilled conman, and together with his Farfetch’d, they tricked and outsmarted 
trainers to get their Pokémon.  Someone taught him a lesson, and he returned 
all the Pokéballs to their trainers, and he wasn’t charged for his crimes.  We 
thought he’d learned that he didn’t need to use his Pokémon to steal, but I 
guess some people don’t change.”  
“He came back?” I asked.  
“Well, his Farfetch’d did, he hasn’t been stealing Pokémon, but money.  Still, 
I’d keep a close eye on your Pokémon, just until we catch him.”  
“Thanks for the information.” said Abby.  

We left shortly afterwards and walked down the streets of the town, kind of 
eager to just leave, the police could handle one trainer with a Farfetch’d, 
couldn’t they?...  
We were running a little short on time, and I had to plan ahead in case the 
Cinnabar Gym was typically closed when I needed a final Gym Badge.  
The trail of thought was interrupted as an alarm siren went off, and a 
Farfetch’d burst through the front doors of a nearby bank, a leak in one hand, 
and a bag presumably full of money in the other.  
The Farfetch’d leapt forward and ran away very quickly, it must have been using 
its Agility.  
I sighed, and did the human thing to do, and led the chase after it, the girls 
closely following.  
“Shockwave! Go!” I yelled, and I directed the energy laser to make Shockwave 
appear ahead of us, closer to the Farfetch’d.  
“Thunder Wave!” I shouted, and a few waves of electricity moved from 
Shockwave’s top and bottom, and headed towards his hands before an electrical 
cube was flung forward.  
“Far Har Har!” the Farfetch’d laughed as it leapt up high to avoid the shot, 
instead hitting the ground and dissipating.  
The Farfetch’d had got further ahead of us, and could be seen leaping over, 
onto and off a moving police car as it screeched into the area.  
It was no real surprise that one of the many Officer Jennys got out of the car, 
and hurled a Pokéball which unleashed a Growlithe.  
“Growlithe, Flamethrower!”  
“Growwwlll!!!” it barked as a long flame shot out of its mouth, but the 
Farfetch’d was long out of its range.  
“Nuts! It got away again.  I’d have the police posted around every bank if we 
could spare the resources...”  
“Officer Jenny.” I said.  
“Do I know you?...  How do you know my name?!”  
“I, er-  Every one in your family seems to be called that, so I just assumed-”  
“Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you, this Farfetch’d and Rocket 
problem is stressing me out.”  
“Rockets?” I inquired, this was a bad time to include those lowlives, unless 
the con artist we’d heard about joined them, that would explain a couple of 
things.  
“Uh huh, we’re not only looking for that con artist Conrad and his Farfetch’d, 
but Rockets have been spotted here too.”  
“Hold on a sec.” ordered Emily, “Everyone keeps saying that this Conrad is to 
blame, have any of you seen this person, or just a troublesome Farfetch’d?”  
“Well, just the Farfetch’d, but he used to cause trouble in the past, so we 
assumed-”  
“Uh huh.  You assumed, what if one of the Rockets owns a Farfetch’d and is just 
trying to frame Conrad?” inquired Emily.  
“Emily, have some respect.  The Rockets, the Farfetch’d and this Conrad are 
probably linked.” I said, pulling her away before Emily ended up getting us 
into some sort of trouble for insulting a cop.  
“Anyway.” said Jenny, “I saw you try to catch that criminal Pokémon, so if you 
see it again, do your best to immobilize it and notify me.”  
With that, she recalled her Growlithe and drove off hastily, leaving us in 
another of our usual dilemmas.  
“We’re not going to be able to just leave and leave this to the police, huh?” I 
questioned wearily, knowing the answer.  
“We should at least try to stop that Farfetch’d, we’ve got a good range of 
Pokémon and most are good at restraining wild Pokémon when we try to catch 
them.” explained Abby.  
“Guess you’re right...” I sighed.  
“But guys, we shouldn’t be blaming this Conrad kid, just because he made a few 
mistakes in the past.  I bet he’s not even here.” complained Emily.  
“Emily, its sweet of you to care about someone you haven’t even met, but its 
hard for people to change and stick to it, this person conned and tricked 
innocent trainers that worked so hard to raise their Pokémon, I can see why the 
Rockets would probably want to hire him...”  

We noticed the skid marks on the road, so we assumed Jenny had gone that way, 
so we crossed through alleyways until we reached a small forest in the centre 
of town, and decided to search where it was hard to drive...  

We were right on the money, although a fast runner, this Farfetch’d hadn’t been 
too cautious, and had been dashing so quickly, it had left visible tracks in 
the grass, I sped up so as not to lose the Farfetch’d, I could find the girls 
easier than the thief.  
Soon enough, the tracks changed from one Farfetch’d footprint every so often, 
to two, it must have been slowing down, as the two prints were in the fairly 
same pattern.  
I charged through a bush and noticed two figures, one, a young man with a red 
shirt, brown hair in a small ponytail with three strands sticking outwards like 
a Farfetch’d, and next to him, an exhausted Farfetch’d but minus the bag.  
“Conrad!” I shouted to make sure of things, and he looked up at me, proving he 
was the one I was after.  
“Do I know you?” he asked.  
“You will do, I’ll be the one who puts you away for what you stole.  You were 
let off for conning trainers, but now you’ve pushed things too far.” I accused 
him.  
“No, wait, you don’t understand! I didn’t steal that money!” he argued.  
“Really? So how did you know about the money, cos I didn’t mention that yet.  
There are other ways to get by in life, honest ways!” I pointed out.  
“You’ve got to listen to me!” he shouted.  
“So you can worm your way out? Go Digda!”  
“Trio Trio Trio...”  
“I’m no longer a con artist, I’m a decent Pokémon Trainer, I guess I have no 
choice but to prove it...”  
“Psy-Duck!”  

“Digda! Use your Dig attack!”  
“Trio!” they hollered, popping underground and turning up earth as they neared 
the Psyduck.  
“Psyduck, Confusion!”  
“PSY!!!”  
Nothing happened for a moment, and then Digda came hurtling upwards, a clump of 
soil covering its secret lower half as it spun into a tree and then to the 
floor.  
“Darn it...” I cursed, to underestimate that Psyduck just because of its 
appearance made me look like the fool.  
“Digda, Rock Slide attack!”  
“Tri, Trio!”  
They shunted forward and stopped, curling up a small hill of stones which 
rained down on the Psyduck, whose eyes glowed blue again.  
“Now Dig!” I shouted, as the second Confusion attack had focused on the stones 
and sent them back on Digda, who had disappeared by now and was already closing 
in on the Psyduck.  
“Psy...”  
The Psyduck was hit by the rising earth and spun backwards, it couldn’t change 
targets for its Confusion attack that quickly.  
“Follow up with Slash attack!”  
“TRIIIO!!!”  
The Psyduck screamed out as it bounced back, but it released a blue speck which 
hit my Dugtrio hard and lifted it into the air, but unlike before, Digda wasn’t 
hurled around, it was being crushed by Psychic.  
“Grrr, Return.” I growled as I abruptly recalled them, I couldn’t fight until 
the very end as Rockets were around and I had to be prepared in case they 
showed up today.  
“Hah, Return Psyduck.”  
“This isn’t over Conrad, Go Twinkill!”  
“Star!!!”  
“Hmmph, Go Bulbasaur!”  
“Bulba!!!”  
“We won’t back down, we’ve got to see that justice is done.  Twinkill, 
Tackle!”  
“Razor Leaf!”  
“Minimize!”  
Twinkill appeared to vanish as the many leaves blasted by, and reappeared 
behind the Bulbasaur and spun into it.  
“Bulbaaa!!!” cried out Conrad’s Pokémon, turning as it fell back and grounding 
itself with its feet.  
“Vine Whip!”  
“Saur!!!”  
“Twinkill! Get in close and use Ice Beam!”  
“Star!”  
The two vines were super fast, and whipped and curled and swung around the 
general area violently, but Twinkill was a fast aerial Pokémon, and twisted and 
turned, rose and descended at the appropriate times to curve through the vines 
and reach the Bulbasaur so it could shoot a beam of ice to encase the 
Bulbasaur.  
Conrad swiftly recalled it, as did I with Twinkill.  
“I believe in you, go make me proud...”  
“Farfetch’d!” shouted the Farfetch’d I’d seen before.  
“There’s our culprit, and he’s really quick, but I know how to sweep him off 
his feet.  Go Psychot!”  
“Ku-dabra!”  
“Psychot, use Psybeam.”  
“Farfetch’d, use your Agility.”  
The Farfetch’d took off and scurried away, but curved round the field to reach 
Psychot and cut across his body with its leak weapon in a Slash attack.  
Psychot skidded back and glared at the Farfetch’d, my plan was to hit the enemy 
hard and failing that, use either Confusion or Psychic to take away the luxury 
of gravity and the floor from it, but we had to hit it first.  
“I’ve got it, use Kinesis!”  
As quick as a flash, and with the appearance of one, in a moment, the 
Farfetch’d was stumbling to the sides in dizziness.  
“Now, Psychic attack!” I shouted, and the Farfetch’d was lifted up, and 
pulverised with an invisible force.  
“How do you like the taste of Psychic?” I questioned, before the Farfetch’d, 
out of strength, dropped to the floor.  

“No! Farfetch’d!” shouted Conrad, running to his Pokémon’s side.  
“I hope you’ll come quietly.” I stated, “Where’s the money?”  
“I don’t have it!”  
“Then who does? I know you’re involved in this, did you hand it over to the 
Rockets already? Talk!”  
“No, the Rockets aren’t involved in this either!”  
This was getting confusing, should I believe this guy would mean I’d be out of 
suspects.  
“Why should I believe you? And how can you be sure the Rockets aren’t involved 
unless you had some sort of deal with them to come by that information?”  
“I know who’s really responsible, that’s why I came back to the town even 
though I knew I’d be wanted.  Someone’s framed me and he’s gonna get away with 
it unless you let me go after him!”  
“Aw man...” I groaned, looks like this mystery wasn’t over by a long shot.  

End of Chapter 43A  

Back to Chapter 42B
Chapter 43B
Back to Story List #41 - #60
Back to the Pokézone