Chapter 48:  Reach for the Skies (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Both Pokéballs flew high into the air, and bright light spiralled down onto the 
field and formed into my Staryu, and a Charizard.  
“Sta-”  
“ROOOOAAARRR!!!” interrupted the opponent loudly.  
“Aw man...” I groaned, “I was kinda expecting some Dragon-type Pokémon.”  
“Well Charizards are dragon-like.” pointed out Abby.  
“Cool, we’re about to see a Charizard that’s actually trained.” whispered 
Emily.  
“Hey! My Charizard’s not that bad!” I protested.  
“Charizard! Use Flamethrower!” called Lance.  
“Minimize!” I shouted.  
As the Charizard swept its flames to the side, Twinkill vanished as if turning 
into a piece of paper, and the Charizard stopped firing, although it had a look 
on its face, one that showed it was wise to this technique.  
Twinkill came silently spinning from behind and descended on the Charizard, but 
at the last moment, it swiftly turned to face it, and blasted it with a second 
Flamethrower.  
I could just about see Twinkill in the middle of the ongoing onslaught of fire, 
I knew it had some level of resistance to Fire attacks, but just how much could 
it take?  
Apparently it had reached its limit, the Charizard’s firepower was much higher 
than expected, and suddenly a glowing blue sphere shot out of the blaze and 
surrounded the Charizard in an eerie light.  
The flames immediately stopped, and the Charizard was being crushed by psychic 
energy, but it wasn’t frozen, it fought off the invisible force and spun its 
head around once, a motion I was fairly familiar with.  
“Twinkill! Back down! Its gonna Fire Blast you!”  
Too late, the star-like fire projectile was cast and flung at Twinkill, and hit 
it hard, breaking off the psychic assault and leaving Twinkill very burnt up, 
surely adding the ‘Burn’ status to my ‘star’ Pokémon.  
It wobbled around, slightly shocked by the power, and the Charizard acted on 
it, with one swoop of its wings, it propelled itself forward, picked up 
Twinkill and rose up, soon spinning in a circle and performing an aerial 
Seismic Toss.  
“Thunderbolt!”  
Twinkill regained consciousness and acted on one of the few times the Charizard 
was vulnerable, and yellow energy buzzed up and hit the Charizard, shocking it 
until Twinkill impacted with the ground.  
“Ooh...” groaned Emily, “You don’t want to try that again, I don’t think 
Twinkill can take much more drops.”  
“ROOOAAARRR!!!” bellowed the Charizard, diving and extending one clawed hand to 
swoop at my Staryu and Slash attack it.  
The force flung my Pokémon towards me, and the little starfish slapped me hard 
in the chest, dropping us both to the floor and causing my Pokéballs to fall 
everywhere, one of which hitting the ground hard enough to register as if I’d 
thrown it.  
My own Charizard Inferno appeared and glared at the other.  
“Inferno, don’t do anything, I didn’t mean to call you out.  Return-”  
“Wait Tetsubo.” said Abby.  
“Yeah, Twinkill still wants to fight, but I think it would do Inferno some good 
to see another Charizard in action.” stated Emily.  
“If you say so, but if I see one tiny flame from him before the battle’s done, 
then he’s staying inside his Pokéball.” I warned.  
“St, Star...” stammered Twinkill, falling to the sides as it simply tried to 
stay up.  
“Twinkill, Recover, and then hit it hard.”  
White light spiralled around the Staryu and it leapt up and spun once in the 
air, its health back and its spirit burning as brightly as mine.  
“STAR!!!” it shouted, propelling itself forward and slamming into the 
bewildered opponent hard in the chest.  
At least, I thought it was surprised, but as Twinkill didn’t let up:  Using 
Tackle attack and Double Edge several times over, I realised what was 
happening.  
“Twinkill! Stop! Its using Rage! Switch to special attacks!”  
“Too late Tetsubo.  Its all over.”  
The Charizard roared out again as it pushed itself forward with its wings and 
scooped up Twinkill once more, it spun round again and launched Twinkill back 
down.  
I considered using Thunderbolt but that would ensure Twinkill would hit the 
floor, and with that Rage powering the throw, Twinkill would surely go down in 
one hit.  
“Save yourself! Use Water Gun!”  
“Trying to exploit the Fire weakness, eh?” guessed Lance, “Charizard, use Fire 
Spin to evaporate that attack.”  
As the Charizard prepared for the hurricane-like attack, Twinkill turned away 
from it, and blasted out a jet of water at the ground, slowing down its descent 
until Twinkill could propel itself to the side.  
The red hot tornado hit the ground and rose up but Twinkill wasn’t where the 
Charizard thought it’d be, and flew around the attack and generated an Ice 
Beam.  
“No!” shouted Lance, showing that I’d outsmarted him.  
The cold ray hit the Charizard near its neck, and ice hardened around its 
wings, and since it had just expelled a lot of fire, it couldn’t generate more 
before it took a fall and hit the ground hard.  
Lance almost growled at this, but breathed in and calmed himself before 
ordering:  “Dragon Rage.”  
A blue ball of fire was now being generated in the Charizard’s mouth, but this 
would be more effective than any Fire attack against a Water-type.  
“Twinkill! Surf!” I shouted, not entirely sure this would work.  
“RRROOOAAARRR!!!”  
“Ssstar!”  
A huge blue flaming tornado was unleashed, as was a blast of water that 
resembled a tidal wave.  
The two attacks hit each other and sent parts of each in both directions.  
Twinkill and the Charizard fell back with both dragon fire and water on their 
bodies.  
“Charizard, Smokescreen.” called Lance, but to be using an attack like that 
meant I must have been getting somewhere, but still, one physical attack would 
probably give him the win.  
“Let’s see you hit Charizard now.” challenged Lance.  
“Okay.” I said, and the Charizard could be seen briefly, getting pummelled by 
star-shaped projectiles.  
“Swift attack isn’t too powerful, but its deadly accurate, and now we know 
where your Pokémon is.” I said confidently.  
“But your Pokémon thought out that technique by itself, you never gave it the 
order.” protested Lance.  
“That’s what happens when a calculating trainer has a special bond with their 
Pokémon.” I smiled, before turning back to the battle, “Twinkill! Bubblebeam!”  
The Charizard roared out in pain, and it fell out of the temporary black smog, 
followed by a spinning Twinkill.  
“Now!” shouted Lance, and before Twinkill could follow up with a Tackle attack, 
the Charizard spun round and whipped my Staryu hard with its tail, and followed 
up with a huge Fire Spin that dragged Twinkill in and sucked it upwards.  
“Its over Tetsubo, no Pokémon has taken that much of my firepower and continued 
battling.”  
“Until today.” I added, and the Charizard was suddenly hit by a shower of water 
that soaked it from above.  
“What?!”  
A blue sphere followed and overwhelmed the Charizard, it was too wet to 
initiate a Fire attack to counter, and soon out of strength totally.  
Twinkill spun down slowly, its Psychic attack holding and crushing the 
Charizard until it collapsed.  
The girls cheered, and Lance was a little shocked as he recalled his Pokémon.  
“See that Inferno? Don’t you want to be more like that Charizard, but as 
successful as Twinkill?” I questioned, but he was still staring at the arena, 
obviously deep in thought.  
“Hmmmph, you beat one, but its not like it was my specialty, I was planning on 
saving this Pokémon for last, but I may very well need it now, Go! Tiamat!” 
shouted Lance.  
“Boooargh!!!” screamed out a Dragonite as it appeared.  
“Whoa.” I simply said as I drew out the Pokédex for this rare moment:  

“Dragonite, the Dragon Pokémon.  Its intelligence matches that of humans and it 
is said to be capable of flying around the globe in about 16 hours.”  

“Twinkill, I know you’ll probably faint, but I need you to weaken that 
Dragonite a little, its the only way, you okay with that?” I questioned.  
“Star.” it said confidently, as if it could go all the way and win, but I 
suspected the burns and the strength of this Pokémon would be too much for it.  
“Ice Beam!” I said as soon as the second round seemed active, and Twinkill 
dived to the side, targeted the enemy and hit it hard with ice, taking its 
double Ice weakness as far as it could manage.  
The Dragonite struggled and soon broke up the binding ice, but the damage had 
been done, and I aimed to follow up with another weakness of his, Electric 
attacks.  
“Thunderbolt!”  
“Boooargh!” shouted the Dragonite as shocks ran through its body, but it 
resisted, and didn’t take a fall, instead flapping its wings and darting 
forward despite the electricity all around it.  
It obviously used Agility, as it buzzed forward faster than I could keep track 
of it, and its wings tore across Twinkill and took out the last of its 
strength.  
I sighed as I recalled it, sure I could have had Twinkill use Recover before 
the match, but the Dragonite would have had an opening to attack, and we’d lose 
our opportunity against it.  
I now needed a Pokémon that could match up to the Dragonite’s speed, strength, 
and possibly its ability to fly.  
I took a deep breath, and turned to my Charizard, “Inferno, I bet you want a 
shot at that Dragonite, well I’ll let you, but only if you follow any 
instructions I give you.”  
Inferno growled and took a step forward.  
“I mean it Inferno.” I said firmly, “You’re free to make your own choices but 
when I guide you or order you, its for your own good.”  
I was glared at by the Charizard and many people wouldn’t dare wish that upon 
anyone, but I held mine for the sake of this win.  
“You disobey me, and you’re going straight back in the Pokéball, even if I have 
to forfeit the match.” I threatened.  
Inferno nodded, I didn’t much like having to risk so much and be so hard on my 
Pokémon, but Inferno was a special case, somehow, I just knew that a battle of 
this much proportion would be too much for my Charizard to pass up, and that 
this would make it listen to me.  
“Interesting, but I know what Charizards are capable of, no Charizard can stand 
up to my Dragonite.  Attack.” said Lance confidently.  
The Dragonite stepped forward and sprayed a Water Gun from its mouth, dousing 
down my Charizard a little.  
It roared up in protest but didn’t give into rage, in fact, it was using it to 
help itself enhance its power, now I know some part of me rubbed off on 
Inferno.  
“Tiamat, Hyper Beam.”  
“Inferno, its your call, attack it, dodge it or take it, I trust you to make 
the right choice.” I advised.  
My Charizard stepped forward, to attack it seemed, the Dragonite blasted a huge 
golden beam forward and Inferno suddenly stopped, and stretched out its hands 
and pushed against the energy, using the pain and force that got through to 
good use.  
The Dragonite nor Lance could see from their side, and assumed they’d hit 
Inferno.  
They were surprised when a blue tornado rushed forward immediately after the 
Hyper Beam and hit the Dragonite hard.  
Dragon-type moves for some reason were effective against Dragon-types, and 
although Rage wouldn’t enhance it, the surprise and the full devastating hit 
was enough.  
Both Pokémon panted at being on the receiving end of powerful attacks, and 
Inferno reacted first, now aiming a red tornado forward.  
The Dragonite flew up fast, and got over the Fire Spin, powering up an attack 
on its own.  
“Flamethrower!” I shouted, but Inferno was already on the job.  
The Dragonite unleashed a Blizzard attack, which showered down ice on my 
Charizard, its Flying-type side making it vulnerable.  
Inferno began sweeping the long flame to the sides to nullify the ice, but it 
couldn’t melt all of it, and it was occasionally hit.  
This distracted Inferno, making it shake its head and close its eyes in 
discomfort.  
“Inferno! Look out!”  
The Dragonite swooped down and aimed a Thunder Wave, generated from its 
antennae, and Inferno was bedazzled by the paralysing sphere, the Dragonite 
continued to fly, and rose up holding Inferno.  
It quickly dashed him down, and he hit the floor so hard, he left massive 
cracks, and a small crater, he soon picked himself up and took off towards the 
dragon, vengeance on its mind.  
The Dragonite was surprised that any opponent had recovered so fast and was 
slammed by Inferno, lifted up, and thrown back down, it unleashed an Ice Beam 
that hurt my Charizard but didn’t freeze it, and then crash landed.  
“Tiamat...” muttered Lance, and it lifted itself up, and charged up another 
Hyper Beam.  
“Inferno! Don’t hold back! Attack!”  
“Booooargh!!!” wailed Tiamat as the beam blasted forward, Inferno spun around 
as it pushed forward and circled to the side of the beam, it clipped him 
slightly but he didn’t stop, and the Dragonite soon came down with a little 
fatigue, and was powerless against the next attack.  
“Time to let off a little rage.” I called out, and Inferno pushed past the 
Dragonite, slashing it hard in the chest.  
The Dragonite fell back and expressed its pain, but quickly reached out and 
grabbed Inferno’s tail, pulled him back, and swung the massive Charizard over 
its shoulder and down to the ground.  
“Dragon Rage!...” I shouted, and although my Charizard was falling fast, it 
unleashed a ball of blue flame, that upon colliding with the Dragonite, 
exploded into a blue fiery cylinder that heavily damaged the Pokémon trapped 
inside.  
Inferno landed hard on the ground and lay there exhausted, but it was followed 
in kind by the Dragonite.  
Lance gasped, but cleared his face of the expression and soon put on the usual 
look, “Well I told you no Charizard could stand up to my Dragonite.”  
“Uh huh.” I smiled, “But I still beat it.”  
“That you did, this one’s the decider.”  
With that we recalled out Pokémon, but Lance immediately released his third 
Pokémon:  
“AERO!!!” it wailed.  
“Aerodactyl?!” I shouted, and Abby reacted to it too, “The last time I ran into 
one of those, it tried to kill my Pokémon!”  
“This Aerodactyl is trained, so there’s nothing to worry about, I wouldn’t let 
it come to that.”  
I had to think this over, I’d need a certain Pokémon to take on this rare Rock/ 
Flying combination, my Grass-types wouldn’t help me even if I had them on me, 
Twinkill was down, and Shockwave wasn’t with me, the only Pokémon I’d dare use 
would be risky, but more likely to win than the other Pokémon:  “I choose you 
Bahamut!”  
“Nairrr!” it cried out as it appeared.  
“Gutsy move using a Dragonair in my Gym, I like you.” smiled Lance darkly.  
“You might know what its capabilities are, but I don’t think that’ll help you.” 
I smiled in kind.  
“Hmmph, Aerodactyl, use Supersonic.”  
The Aerodactyl let out a horrible wail, and Bahamut was in agony, it had no 
limbs to cover its ears, so it glared at the opponent with a frightening Leer 
technique, but the Aerodactyl wasn’t scared by this, and dived down.  
“Bahamut!”  
He tried to slither away but the Pokémon dived down and trapped it in its jaws 
like a bird hunting a worm.  
“Thunder Wave!” I shouted, and sparks hit the opponent, I’d nearly forgotten 
that Electric attacks worked on Rock-types, it was the usual Ground-type 
addition that prevented those sorts to work.  
The Aerodactyl flapped its wings with difficulty as it sparkled, but it dove 
down and used Take Down, my Dragonair went spiralling back.  
“We have to strike back with special attacks, its the only real advantage we 
have.” I called out.  
“Use Razor Wind.” ordered Lance.  
The Aerodactyl rose up, and white needle-like projectiles swarmed around it, 
soon they would target my Pokémon and shoot down at it.  
“Ice Beam!”  
The cold beam hit many of the projectiles and caused them to fall straight down 
and shatter, some of it hit the Aerodactyl, freezing up its rock hard body and 
damaging it.  
“Again!”  
Now the process of activating Razor Wind was complete, and the remaining 
needles came showering down, Bahamut swept the beam to the sides and took out 
some more, but not all of them, which resulted in a little damage from the tiny 
spears, but he picked himself up and aimed at the Aerodactyl again.  
Unfortunately a fire star was charged in front of it, and melted the beam, but 
luckily for us, Lance hadn’t quite thought it through.  
The ice was aimed at the Aerodactyl, and blocking it with Fire Blast caused it 
to melt, and because Fire attacks weren’t the Aerodactyl’s specialty, it wasn’t 
strong enough to evaporate the water, and the hot liquid splashed all over the 
Pokémon.  
Bahamut would have cheered, but it was trapped, its tail had been nailed to the 
floor, and it was desperately trying to remove them with its mouth and teeth.  
The Aerodactyl sniggered despite having taken a big hit, and dived down, its 
jaws open wide.  
“Naaairrr...” panicked Bahamut, generating a Hyper Beam.  
“No!” I shouted, “Its strong against it!”  
Too late, the golden beam was fired, and the Aerodactyl flew right through it, 
it didn’t even flinch or react to it, and it ended up clamping down on Bahamut 
again with its teeth.  
I could barely watch this, as the Hyper Beam wore Bahamut out so it took a 
while to recover, in the meantime the Aerodactyl was gnawing it, biting it, and 
really hurting it the best way it knew how.  
“Give it up Tetsubo, if you know what Aerodactyls are capable of, you’ll know 
you have to quit.” warned Lance.  
“It can’t end like this!” I shouted.  
Bahamut gave me a stare despite the pain he was in, turned back to its 
opponent, and glared at it, but it didn’t react at all.  
“NAIR!!!” it screamed, and a bright light overwhelmed it and the invisible 
power blasted the Aerodactyl away.  
“At last...” I smiled, as the little snake morphed into a huge humanoid dragon 
and sprouted magnificent wings.  
“Booorgh Boooargh!” it shouted out.  
“I’ve got a Dragonite of my own...” I said with a wide smile.  
“That won’t help you!” shouted Lance, “Aerodactyl is still too powerful for 
you!”  
“We’ll just have to see.” I smiled.  
Both Pokémon came at each other, their speed enhanced by Agility, and both 
clipped each other with their strong wings, the Aerodactyl turned and powered 
up a Hyper Beam, and since it had been a popular move this match, I quickly 
thought of a crazy but possible way to overcome it.  
“Blizzard!”  
“Aero...”  
“Boooargh!”  
A huge storm of ice raced through the ice and hit the Aerodactyl as it fired 
the golden beam, but to everyone’s surprise, the end of the beam became hard, 
and it froze, this effect continued all the way back to the Aerodactyl, and 
across it face.  
Now a long line of ice was connected to the Aerodactyl, and it couldn’t stay 
airborne.  
The Aerodactyl dropped, turned a little as it fell, and landed on its back, the 
long pillar of ice on its face now standing up like a flagpole until the energy of the Hyper Beam burned through and exploded into tiny particles.  
The Aerodactyl was too hindered to move, and the cold stole away the last of 
its health.  

“Its hard to believe, but it happened.  I’ve been beaten in a three-on-three 
battle.  And in part by yet another Dragonite with so much potential.” sighed 
Lance.  
“Another Dragonite?” I thought, before thinking “Maybe it was Rick’s or 
Scott’s...”  
“I haven’t seen so much potential in a trainer for a long time.” congratulated 
Lance.  
“You hear that girls? I’ve got potential.” I boasted.  
“Don’t let it go to your head.” complained Abby.  
“That’s right, you get overconfident, or neglect training your Pokémon, and 
you’ll lose that potential in a second.” added Lance.  
“I promise I’ll continue to train hard, and to do my best in the Pokémon 
League.” I announced.  
“You’d better.” smiled Lance, “Or else I’ll feel bad about losing to you.”  
With that, he stepped forward to shake my hand, and in the process, placed my 
final badge there too.  
“Its the Legend Badge, wear it with pride.”  
I couldn’t help but lift it up into the air, and catch some light on the green 
disc with two black dragon wings attached to it.  
“Thank you Lance, thank you for the battle, I don’t think I’ve had a more 
challenging battle yet, I now feel prepared to take on the world.” I smiled.  
“You’re welcome Tetsubo, be sure to reach for the skies, and be the best that 
you can be.” advised Lance.  
“Will do.” I answered happily.  
“I’ll have my students take you back down on their Flying Pokémon.” offered 
Lance kindly.  
“This day just keeps on getting better.” I laughed.  

And so on this glorious day I finally earned my eighth Gym Badge, and from one 
of the best trainers the world has ever known.  
I felt strong, I felt secure, and I was filled with more energy than I knew 
what to do with it all.  
I finally had access to the Pokémon League that would begin in just over two 
months.  
All the hardships, all the training, and all the effort, it had all been worth 
it.  

End of Chapter 48B  

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