Chapter 51:  Welcome to the League (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Mid afternoon, and Emily and I were trekking down the Indigo Plateau, our 
destination:  The Pokémon League.  
We were cutting it a little close in getting there on time for the Opening Day 
Ceremony, but we still had a few hours ahead of us to find our way.  
Unfortunately in the excitement of leaving home to head out to the Pokémon 
League, I’d somehow managed to drop the map detailing the Indigo Plateau, so 
we’d have to improvise given a choice of paths.  
“This almost doesn’t feel real.” I stated, “I’ve been dreaming of this for so 
long, and now we’re so close to the Pokémon League.”  
“Its only been a year.” corrected Emily, before realising, “Oh, that’s right, 
you’ve been thinking about this moment since the start of your stay at Pokémon 
Tech.”  
“Uh huh.  But I’d still say that’s wrong, in fact I’ve been dreaming of this 
since I was a kid, I don’t know how I managed to stick with Pokémon Tech for 
five long years, but I’m glad I did.”  
“You’d be a different person if you hadn’t, you’d probably have gone on your 
journey during a different year, we wouldn’t have become so close, and you 
wouldn’t have made the friends you have now.  Plus, you’d probably have ended 
up like Chad in his early days.”  
“Thank goodness for Pokémon Tech.” I reminded myself.  

Soon afterwards, the two of us veered off the path into the forest for a rest, 
luckily, the wild Pokémon weren’t too bothersome around these parts, provided 
no one aimed to catch them, which we weren’t.  
To be catching new Pokémon at this late stage would be silly, if we weren’t 
ready for the League with the team we had now, then there wasn’t really too 
much point in competing.  
Emily had her full set of Pokémon and I had mine, and while we rested and ate, 
I gazed into the calm skies and thought about our Pokémon...  
Emily had her Gloom, which wouldn’t evolve into a Vileplume like mine since it 
was female, and said to evolve differently given the right stone.  
Her Magneton was said to be still taking Emily’s orders very seriously, but 
nowadays it showed signs of independence.  
Her Chansey was still not much of a battler, but a dedicated healer to the 
team.  
Her Beedrill we hadn’t seen much of, but it was quick and deadly (well not so 
much deadly, more like being able to defeat an opponent within a few strikes).  
Emily’s Ivysaur was continually growing, but not yet evolved, all Pokémon 
evolved at different times even with the best of care, but it was big enough to 
be a match for anyone.  
Her Mr Mime had grown exponentially, its attitude towards battling had changed, 
and it was dedicated.  
The Marowak I’d once befriended was one of Emily’s favourites nowadays, it was 
strong and fast, but still retained the softer side when around her.  
Emily’s newer Pokémon:  The Ninetales, Wigglytuff, Cloyster and Omanyte were 
pretty strong, but hadn’t changed that much in personality since they became 
her Pokémon recently in her journey, but their strengths were up by a lot.  
I then started to think about my own Pokémon:  
Scramble was a more gutsy Pokémon than it was when I first caught it, they used 
to fear everything, but it was my own bravery and compassion that saved it from 
a rare condition and evolved it into a huge Exeggutor, it wouldn’t have to 
worry about large opponents now, but I hadn’t had much time to view the 
personality differences, but I’m not worried about unruliness after seeing it 
in action.  
Whirlwind was still a brave battler, but not quite up to carrying people on a 
regular basis, that took time and training, and quite frankly I didn’t want to 
affect this Pokémon’s battling skills until after the League, maybe then I’d 
train it to fly us around.  
Psychot was still a Kadabra, but I didn’t mind that it hadn’t evolved into an 
Alakazam, it was very powerful and a changed Pokémon since its days as a 
retreating coward, now it was confident and strong.  
Pollen had changed for the worse during evolution, due to horrible 
circumstances, it was very powerful, but I had to be specific about what I 
wanted done, and I missed the excitable little Pokémon it used to be.  
And speaking of getting worse, my Charizard Inferno was still no different, I 
hadn’t really been able to train him, and to use him in the League would be a 
great risk, its a good thing I had a new Fire-type to take his place.  
Digda the Dugtrio was still a happy Pokémon, during trainer’s leave Blossom let 
them burrow around a rocky area of her research centre, it was good for them to 
do that regularly, as they liked to do it most of all, plus it improved their 
digging skills.  
Flutter the Butterfree was still a tad aggressive during battle, even when 
sparring against its own allies it didn’t like being a target, and usually hit 
back for every time it got hurt, when Abby used to train it she must have 
trained Flutter knowing it would turn out this way because winning the League 
was important to her, I had to remember to try everything in my power to locate 
her parents after the League, unless she had found them during the last two 
months.  
Next was a reliable Pokémon of mine, my Electabuzz Shockwave, it used to draw 
on electricity to increase its strength, but together we rid it of that habit 
and it was really powerful now, it took a lot to bring this Pokémon down.  
Then there’s Spectre, given the freedom when not battling, this Gengar was a 
bit of a prankster, as was Emily’s Shellder/ Cloyster.  
When those two were together, we could bet on things going wrong just to fuel 
their jokes and entertainment.  
The rarest Pokémon I owned was Bahamut, the Dratini I saw at the start of my 
journey, and now a Dragonite.  
I’d been training with this Pokémon a lot to make up for our just becoming 
friends, and we’ve got a lot to show for it.  
The newest Pokémon is Lavos, the Magmar found in Cinnabar Island Tower, even 
though its level was low, it battled until the very end to protect a child and 
prove its innocence.  
It appeared gruff and moody most of the time, but I also made the effort to 
train with this Pokémon to make it strong.  
Finally, my first and favourite, my Staryu Twinkill, we’d been together since 
the start, most trainers had a special bond with their first Pokémon, and ours 
burned brighter than the stars.  
Twinkill almost felt like a part and extension of myself, since we now thought 
along the same wavelength during events and battles.  
When I thought about it, I’d never had the heart to leave this Pokémon at 
Blossom’s, Twinkill had literally been there with me throughout the entire 
journey.  
And although it was still the same Pokémon, it had grown up a lot, I could 
barely visualise the first time we met, when I got squirted at because I called 
it strange.  
I had the means to evolve it, and Twinkill was happy to grow up, but we’d both 
decided that the day it learned how to use Hydro Pump (its last natural 
attack), would also be the day it evolved.  
I was about to think further about me and my ‘star’ Pokémon but I was shaken 
out of my calm state by Emily.  
“Tetsubo, are you listening to me? Don’t you hear that?”  
I shook myself out of the calmness and thoughts and focussed on the sound, I’d 
actually heard it but hadn’t really reacted on it during my reminiscing, it was 
a melody, but a peaceful one, soon after I’d judged it on its mood did the song 
change to a slightly sadder theme.  
“Its coming from that road...” pointed out Emily.  
Ahead of us were two paths, one that went upwards, and loomed over the second 
path on the left, which was surrounded by rocky walls.  
“Um, Emily, do you remember the way back to the road?” I suddenly realised, 
every tree in the forest looked alike, and I’d completely forgotten which way 
we’d come.  
“Um, I think it was in the direction of those roads, so they should lead us to 
the stadium all the same.”  
I sighed, “Let’s just find out where that song is coming from, whoever’s 
playing it is probably on their way to the stadium...”  
The light high pitched notes were coming from the lower path, the tightness of 
the surrounding walls causing them to echo out towards us.  
We walked down the narrow path for a few minutes, during which the song had 
gone in a full circle and started over, ending the depressive part and starting 
again on the calm serene portion of the song.  
Soon the music’s source sounded as if it was in the immediate area we were in, 
but we couldn’t see where it was coming from, plus the echoes threw us off a 
little so we couldn’t quite locate the instrument’s owner by the loudness of 
the song.  
I closed my eyes, and forgot about where we were, but concentrated on the song, 
to hear past the echoes and locate the original piece.  
Suddenly it hit me, and I could hear the song being played a fraction earlier 
than the echo, I turned my head upwards and opened my eyes.  
Sitting up on a rocky perch sat Abby, her eyes closed, her mood calm, and all 
that mattered to her being the song she played on a silver flute.  
I motioned towards her with my head so Emily could see this also, we waited for 
a moment before deciding to make our presence known.  
Emily started to sing along deliberately, and a small surge of annoyance could 
be seen immediately hitting Abby and changing her mood.  
She stopped blowing on the flute, “This isn’t a sing-along, if you want to join 
in, then just record  the song and hum to it elsewhere...”  
Only after the speech did she look at us, “Oh... its you!”  
She tried to hide the smile that appeared on her face, but it was obvious to us 
that she welcomed our company after being away from us for so long.  
She leapt off the wall and nervously stepped towards me, before giving me a 
light hug, I smiled and wrapped my arms around Abby to return it, understanding 
that doing this sort of thing was new to her but she wanted to express 
herself.  
Emily huffed a little, unable to hide her annoyance, and Abby soon turned to 
her and gave off one of her snide remarks, “Nice to see you too Green.”  
“Whatever...”  
“Hmmmph.” snorted Abby, but with a light smile following it, “Now you sound 
like my old self.”  
She broke off the hug and stepped back, still a little flushed at the simple 
action of hugging a friend, “I missed you Tetsubo.”  
“Me too.” I replied, “How have you been?”  
“Maybe we should talk on the way.” said Abby, walking ahead of us so that we’d 
have to follow.  
“Is this the way to the Indigo Stadium?”  
“My, the great planner Tetsubo Capture, lost?” questioned Abby sarcastically.  
I couldn’t help but laugh, “And you, the calculating quiet Abby, making a 
joke?”  
We both laughed at that.  
“Point taken.” smiled Abby lightly, “I was told by a gentleman that this is the 
way to the Indigo Stadium, I was just resting and practising my song.”  
“It was good.” said Emily genuinely.  
“I never knew you knew how to play an instrument.”  
“I picked it up recently, the friend I was staying with taught me how, she was 
right about it being able to relieve a person of stress and worry.”  
“You always surprise me with how much more outspoken and talented you’re 
becoming.” I complimented, “... Have you found your parents yet?”  
“No, afraid not, that’s why I’ve been training hard, if I can get my face on 
television long enough, my family might see me and come looking for me.”  
“But you’d have to win the League in order to speak out to the world about 
anything other than how your battles went, there are so many battles in the 
League that you’d be lucky to get an interview.”  
“Not to get you down, but that’s the plan, I’ll do anything to win, to get the 
fame I need to find my family.”  
“You know I’ll do what I can to help after this is over, don’t you?”  
“Yes, I thought you might say that.”  

Soon enough, the path ended, and all that lied ahead of us now was a large 
cave.  
We didn’t have time to double back, as we’d been walking this way for over an 
hour, and now the cliff walls were too high to be climbing up.  
“Abby, are you sure that man gave you the right directions? I don’t think 
there’s supposed to be a cave between Victory Road and the stadium.” I 
inquired.  
“Well, um, he mentioned that for years trainers have had to find their way 
through this cave in order to be worthy of competing.” she answered.  
“Okay, but if we’re late, I’m going to be really ticked off at you...”  
“No! No! No! No! No!” we heard, it was a loud voice that echoed around the 
cave, a voice we all recognised.  
“Oh dear god, no.” commented Abby.  
“Sounds like he’s in real trouble.” added Emily.  
“As usual...” I finished.  
We ran around the corner in time to see a huge Onix slam its head into a 
battered Primeape, which landed upside-down, and then flopped face first on the 
floor.  
“And the money is mine.” said another familiar voice.  
“Aw man...” moaned Chad, as just ahead of him, Scott recalled the Onix into its 
Pokéball and then stepped towards the centre of the ‘arena’ and picked up 
several notes of cash on the floor and pocketed it, “I needed that money for 
souvenirs!”  
“Well you should have thought about that before you agreed to battle me.” 
replied Scott.  
“My Primeape should have battered your Onix!”  
“Type knowledge only takes you so far, you can’t rely solely on it to win your 
battles, remember that.”  
“Scott.” I called, “Still doing the same old routine, eh?”  
“You wouldn’t understand Tetsubo, no one does...” he answered, before looking 
at the others.  
Emily he just passed by, but he stopped at Abby and spoke, “’Cept her 
perhaps.”  
“You know this guy Tet’?” questioned Chad, “Get my money back, would ya?”  
“Scott, did you run Chad through your conditions before you battled?” I 
questioned.  
“Of course I did, I’m not a thief, everyone I battle knows what’s on the line 
and agree to my rules, I can’t be held responsible for how it affects them.”  
“Sorry Chad, I tried.” I said unconvincingly while shrugging my shoulders.  
“You did not!” he moaned.  
“Who’d have thought it.” I commented, “All four of my travelling companions 
here in the same place.”  
“What about Danielle?” whispered Abby.  
“All four of my travelling companions that I willingly wanted to travel with.” 
I amended.  
“I bet you’re all heading for the Pokémon League.” commented Emily.  
“Give the lady a prize...” said Scott sarcastically.  
“I was just trying to be friendly.” Emily complained, “Why don’t we all travel 
together?”  
“With him?!” complained Abby, motioning towards Chad.  
“With him?!” complained Scott, pointing towards Chad.  
“With me?! I mean, with him?!” complained Chad, for some strange reason 
pointing to himself, and then quickly changing to Scott.  
“Maybe everyone but Chad should travel together.” I joked.  
“Hey!...” moaned Chad.  
“Just kidding...”  
“Fine, whatever, let’s just go, the sooner we get to the stadium, the sooner we 
can separate from Chad.” spoke Abby, getting ahead along with Scott.  
“Hey hey hey hey hey!” shouted a hurt Chad, “Why’s everyone picking on me!”  
“We’ll keep you company, won’t we Tetsubo?” said Emily, putting an arm around 
Chad’s and leading him away.  
“Well I guess Scott and Abby won’t want me getting in their way...” I sighed.  

I was right about that, as Scott and Abby shared secrets even I didn’t know, 
Abby had eventually shared her past with us, but not Scott’s, she knew why he 
was so withdrawn, and why he battled for money.  
“How’s your money collection going?” she asked.  
“Not well enough, looks like I’ll have to win the League after all.”  
“Scott, I wish I could help, but I’m broke, Tetsubo’s been paying for 
everything lately.”  
“He obviously comes from a wealthy family.”  
“Not really, but they get by, Tetsubo’s not so bad you know, you have this idea 
of him that he knows nothing of the sort of life we live, but he tries his 
hardest to help everyone, he’s changed the lives of many people, including 
me.”  
“And what? He’d hand over the prize money to me if he won? I don’t think he’s 
That generous.”  
“People can surprise you, Tetsubo’s competing for glory and acknowledgement, 
he’s never talked about the money.”  
“If that’s all he’s after I doubt he’ll get far.  Why so protective of him?”  
“I’m fond and grateful of him, that’s all...” sighed Abby, looking slightly 
embarrassed.  
“Does that mean you’ll go easy on him in the League?”  
“I’m grateful, but not that grateful, I need to win the League.”  
“Same here.”  
“But if I do, the money’s yours.”  
“And if I do, I’ll speak out for you, I don’t think the Tech student would 
waste his minute of fame on people like us.”  
“Tetsubo’s full of surprises, but no, I can’t guarantee he’ll speak out for me 
like you would, he’s worked too hard to waste his chance for fame on me...”  
“Once we’re done with the League, and sorted out our problems, we should hang 
out sometimes, just you and me.”  
“Of course, but speaking of the League, I need a big favour...”  
“Sure thing Abby, just tell me what I can do, I still need to repay you for 
covering up my tracks with the nugget incident...”  
“Its my Pokédex, one of the main reasons I don’t know who I am, is because this 
Pokédex belonged to someone else.  I’ve been terrified of what’ll happen when 
I’m supposed to get registered.”  
“Used to be a guy’s, huh?”  
“Yeah, I was hoping to see you again, you seem to know a little about machines 
seeing as you came up with the idea to transfer your Pokédex data to that 
device of yours.”  
“Pokégear.” named Scott.  
“Yeah, whatever...  So do you have any idea how to change the Pokédex to my 
name and identity.”  
“That is illegal you know, but I’ll see what I can do, I’ll talk with my 
sponsor about it after the ceremony.”  
“Won’t he be against this sort of thing?”  
“I doubt it, he’s a psychologist, and he enjoyed helping me out with my 
problems, I think he’ll be ecstatic after hearing about you, of course, in 
return you’ll have to talk to him about your situation.”  
“I don’t mind, provided I’m allowed to compete...”  
The last group of sentences were slightly louder than the rest of the 
conversation, obviously they had forgotten about us to be talking aloud so 
freely, it wasn’t loud enough for us to hear, but it did disturb a Pokémon that 
had long been resting here.  
A piercing shriek shot through the whole of the cavern, and Emily, Chad and I 
rushed ahead to see the source.  
When we arrived, Abby was on the floor, and Scott shielding her, his trenchcoat 
covered with small flames.  
We then turned our heads nervously to the side, and gasped.  
“Of all the Pokémon to upset...” spoke Scott, “Why’s it got to be this one?!”  
I stared at the fiery Pokémon, and froze up, I could only utter its name.  
“Moltres...”  

End of Chapter 51A  

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Chapter 51B
Back to Story List #41 - #60
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