Chapter 53:  Risky Line-ups (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Later on, Rick and I were in the Water Field once again, but now watching 
Emily’s match against the last of the trio, Bentley.  
Her Mr Mime had successfully trashed a once proud Cloyster, but an Ivysaur vine 
frenzy was too much, it was tied, and then blasted by Solar Beam.  
Emily then brought out her own Cloyster into the battle.  
“Shelly! Aurora Beam!”  
“Cllloysterrr...”  
The rainbow ray swept from one side to the other, and its target took a giant 
leap over it and then bounced and skipped towards the Cloyster from side to 
side.  
“Toxic!” shouted Bentley, and the purple spray came shooting out of the open 
bulb.  
“Dive underwater!” shouted Emily, and the Cloyster simply tilted back and its 
weight pulled it down and under as the purple liquid splatted in a twisted mess 
on the large ice disc.  
“Nice try ‘Jade’, but you can’t attack my Ivysaur from underwater when he’s 
above, and vice versa.”  
“Oh no?” questioned Emily with a smirk, and the ice platform shook violently, 
nearly throwing the Ivysaur off, the second hit did it just fine.  
“Saur! Saur!” it cried desperately, slowly getting back to land by thrashing 
its limbs, it wasn’t quick enough though as the spiked shell of the Cloyster 
rose up from under it and sent it flying with harsh marks on its underside.  
Both Pokémon landed on a particular piece of ice, the Ivysaur slumped on its 
side and the Cloyster there by choice.  
“Good one Shelly, we’ve nearly done it.”  
“Heh, what sort of name is Shelly?” sniggered Bentley, “Ivysaur! Razor Leaf!”  
The Pokémon upon hearing its orders leapt onto its feet immediately and a 
bedlam of sharp green projectiles was unleashed upon Shelly, but its shell had 
quickly closed and the hard armour was only cut up enough to leave several 
straight marks that did it no real harm.  
“Ivysaur, Tackle it until it cracks!”  
“SAUR!” it answered, and slammed into the hard shell from the front.  
Of course, it hurt it more than Shelly and rolled back, but it immediately got 
up and came at the Cloyster again.  
Five, and then six hits, and nothing seemed to change, until the seventh hit, 
in which upon slamming its head into the shell, it opened up, and Shelly’s core 
was exposed, its eyes spiralling from the rumbling that came out of the many 
attempts from the opponent.  
“Hah! Now we got it! Razor Leaf!”  
“Aurora Beam!” pleaded Emily.  
More spinning projectiles were released, half of which hit the dazed Pokémon, 
but it soon recovered, and a quick bright beam from the Cloyster froze the 
remainder of the attack in mid-air and dropped the frozen leaves to the 
ground.  
“Vine Whip! Keep that shell right open!”  
A flurry of vines shot out of the Ivysaur and tangled up the Cloyster, long 
green wires that looped over, under and inside the shell to form a network that 
kept it wide open no matter how hard Shelly tried to close itself up.  
“Solar Beam!”  
“Ice Beam!”  
Solar energy was being drawn into the Ivysaur’s bulb, while Shelly had to shake 
off a little dizziness before it could comply.  
It was close, the light particles drawn in and the energy building into the 
attack, but at the last moment, a wave of cold blasted out of Shelly and hit 
the Ivysaur and point blank range.  
Its vines were quickly frozen and out of its control and a surrounding shell of 
ice soon covered it.  
“Cllloy!” yelled Shelly, shaking loose the vines and pushing itself forward to 
tackle the Ivysaur and send it flying.  
But it waited until its spinning put its bulb in the direction of the opponent, 
and it fired off its Solar Beam before crashing down in the water and ending up 
being unable to battle.  
The blast hit its mark, but only fifty percent of the blast contacted Shelly, 
still, it was on its last leg, only it didn’t have legs.  
“This battle is mine ‘Jade’, your Cloyster can barely stand after that, this 
Pokémon will fill itself up and take out whatever Pokémon you have left!” 
threatened Bentley confidently, “Go Golbat!”  
“BAT-A!” it bellowed, and swooped down from its airborne position.  
“Ice Beam!”  
Several bright and cold beams shot into the air, but the Golbat was prepared 
and it spun itself in circles while moving to the sides to avoid every one of 
them, Shelly was getting tired and the shooting had to stop.  
This was the moment the Golbat wanted, and it quickly spat a squirt of purple 
that hit Shelly’s core hard before it could close its shell.  
“Ster!!!” it cried out, and before it or Emily could react to it, the Golbat 
was upon Shelly, sticking its teeth into the black orb and using Mega Drain to 
steal what was left of Shelly’s strength.  
Emily sighed, “Return...  I guess I can consider myself lucky, Discharge isn’t 
an organic Pokémon, and its got the type advantage.”  
“Mag-Na-Ton!”  
“Let’s see how your Golbat likes the taste of metal, and some electricity to 
go.” smirked Emily.  
The final match started out with several blasts of electricity flying at the 
swift Golbat, but this one was an adept flyer and it shot to the sides and 
avoided each one.  
“That won’t work Jade, Supersonic!”  
“You too!”  
The horrid wails were generated from both Pokémon, and cancelled out by the 
other, but the Golbat was quick to follow up, and swooped down and up to reach 
Discharge quickly and slap it hard with its Wing Attack.  
“Sonic Boom!” called Emily, and her metal Pokémon quickly generated a wide 
cyclone that the Golbat couldn’t dodge.  
“Hey!” complained Bentley, while Emily smiled.  
“Thundershock!”  
A weak attack, yes, but it was all Emily could do that would hit the Golbat 
before it escaped.  
Discharge quickly generated a small amount of electricity and shocked the 
Golbat, but it was far from defeated.  
“Use Confuse Ray, then Toxic!” shouted Bentley.  
“Discharge, counter it with-  Agh!” screamed Emily, as the Golbat was quicker 
to react and had already unleashed several shining rings which caused her 
Magneton to spark and get dizzy.  
“Its over now, you think you had a hard time hitting Golbat before? Just try it 
now!” laughed Bentley, as his Golbat followed up by spitting a spray of purple 
which split into several and covered up all three eyes of the Magneton, the 
poison not affecting it, just blinding it.  
“Time to take the victory.” laughed Bentley as his Golbat dived on Discharge 
and used Leech Life to drain away some energy, but Emily’s Magneton luckily 
took initiative and used Thunder Wave, the Golbat’s proximity not allowing it 
to avoid the attack.  
The Golbat fell back, finding it hard to flap its wings, so Emily took the 
opportunity as it might be her last.  
“Thunderbolt!”  
The Golbat was hit, but braced the shocking, slowly flapping its wings to 
retreat.  
“Don’t let it get away!”  
“Use Screech and then heal!”  
The Golbat let out a piercing cry that scrambled Emily’s Magneton a little 
while giving the Golbat time to back away, it then shot up a sparkling powder 
that showered itself, the paralysis fading almost instantly.  
“Its over, use Bite!”  
In a moment, the Golbat was upon the Magneton, bending its magnets out of place 
with its teeth, it tried to use an Electric attack, but it shot very much out 
of aim due to its broken parts.  
“No, we can’t use Electric attacks effectively...  Use Swift!” called Emily.  
Stars were generated in front of the flickering eyes of the Magneton, and 
pretty much locked on and spiralled upwards like heat seekers, distracting the 
Golbat as they punched into it.  
“I’ve got it.” smiled Emily, “Discharge! Tackle that Golbat, get it into the 
water!”  
“MAG-NA-TON!!!” the Pokémon noted, slamming into the Golbat and forcing it 
down, under the surface of the water.  
“What?!” spluttered Bentley.  
“NOW!” shouted Emily.  
The water in the entire arena glowed and turned yellow, and a desperate Golbat 
tried to fly upwards but was trapped by Discharge’s bent up magnets.  
The reason why was soon revealed, as clouds formed above the arena, and a 
jagged bolt of lightning rained down and hit both the Golbat and the water, no 
need for accuracy if the Golbat couldn’t avoid the Electric attacks 
underwater.  
The blast caused both Pokémon to land on the nearest platform, the Golbat was 
fried but the Magneton was okay, the water having washed away the poison.  
“A stunning finale for the Red Trainer Emily! The Red Trainer wins the match!” 
screamed the commentator, and the audience went wild.  
“I can’t believe it, beaten in the second round...” moaned Bentley as he 
recalled his Pokémon.  
“It doesn’t matter what round you or your friends were beaten.” spoke Emily, 
“Provided you learn from your losses and learn not to get so overconfident.”  
“... I guess...” sniffed Bentley.  
“Be sure to keep training, I’d be glad to give you a rematch in the future.” 
smiled Emily, recalling her Pokémon and leaving the arena confidently.  

Shortly after that match, Cody desperately ran towards the Rock Field, having 
searched through many trainers to first find out the vengeful trainer’s name, 
and then where Forest’s match was located.  
He ran into the arena and saw the match already underway, the two trainers 
fairly even, with one of Forest’s Pokémon defeated, and one of Clint’s recalled 
with a poison status.  
“You’ll pay!” shouted Forest, as his Jolteon finished the latest match by using 
Pin Missile to stab the Alakazam with several sharp needles, “Do it again!”  
The Jolteon was worn out, but unleashed another Pin Missile attack to finish 
the weak Psychic Pokémon, it missed though as it was quickly recalled.  
“And just what am I paying for?” questioned Clint, a dark haired man with an 
evil look.  
“You remember the incident south of Saffron City, you had your Scyther destroy 
my Flareon!”  
“Oh, is that all? Don’t you remember that it was your own risk to participate 
there? Its not my fault.”  
“You enjoyed it, I saw you, and now I’ll do the same to your Pokémon!”  
“You can’t, there’s different rules here, rules that someone like you should 
find just their style.”  
“I don’t care...”  
As Cody pushed through a standing crowd, almost hypnotised by the match’s 
ferocity, the battle went on, a Rhydon quickly finishing off the Jolteon, or at 
least forcing it to be recalled.  
“Forest, don’t...” muttered Cody...  
Next came a Vaporeon, which took back the match briefly, weakening the Rhydon 
with Water attacks, and then savagely attacking it without holding back.  
“That’s one of the Pokémon on the team of murderers, finish it off!”  
“Vapor!”  
The Rhydon was an easy target after the damage by water, and was being thrown 
around by the small Vaporeon despite the size difference.  
It unleashed a Hydro Pump at the same time the Rhydon released a powerful Hyper 
Beam attack, both attacks merged and exploded, throwing back both Pokémon.  
“You’ll pay...  You will...” growled Forest, recalling the Vaporeon and 
bringing out the more dangerous Jolteon, who was soon ordered to slam into the 
weakened Rhydon to pierce it with its spines.  
“Forest! Stop this! You won’t be happy if you do it!” called Cody from just 
above, “You’ll lose your Trainer’s Licence, have your Pokémon taken away, maybe 
even jailed, all for the opportunity to make yourself as heartless as him! I 
don’t understand what its like to lose a Pokémon, but I see clearly that your 
rage is blinding your true nature and making you act irrationally, just finish 
the match and you’ll have your revenge, there’s no need for killing...”  
“But I came here solely to get revenge...”  
“Yeah? Well I’ve been running around all day to find you and stop you, please 
don’t do it...”  
“Rhy!” cried the Rhydon, crashing into a large rocky structure and bringing it 
down on it, its armour weakened by water and unable to protect itself.  
The Pokémon was defeated, but one more stabbing hit would probably destroy it.  
“Jolteon...” called out Forest, wrestling with a decision, “... Fall back...  
There’s no need to continue the cycle of hate...  Flareon wouldn’t have wanted 
this...”  
Cody sighed happily, until Clint recalled the Rhydon, replaced it with a 
poisoned Victreebel, and had it overwhelm the Jolteon with Vine Whips, Razor 
Leaves, and a Mega Drain to finish it, and the Vaporeon that followed.  
“And this drawn out battle comes to an end, the Green Trainer Clint wins...”  

Soon after, Cody met up with Forest at Central Point, to see how he was doing.  
“I’m sorry you lost the match, but you did the right thing...”  
“I guess so...  I’m going to need time to heal before I ever Pokémon Battle 
again...”  
“Let me know how that turns out for you...  I’ve gotta go and prepare for my 
next match.”  
“Cody...  About that...  I’ve done a stupid thing.”  
“No, you did what was right.”  
“Not that, when I was switching matches in order to fight Clint, I remember who 
would be next to fight the victor, either a guy called Enrique or his opponent 
depending on who won.”  
“But I won, I beat Enrique...”  
“Exactly, which means you have to battle Clint in the next match, I’m so 
sorry.”  
“... Don’t be, this makes things better for us.”  
“You mean...”  
“I’d be happy to battle Clint, and halt such a dark trainer’s dreams of winning 
a Pokémon League Tournament and claiming the prize money...”  

As I headed towards the Rock Field for my match, I could see yet another 
familiar in battle, but not one of my friends.  
Biggs, an outspoken and overconfident trainer (much like Chad) that I’d once 
battled was against Bryan on the Ice Field, a Magneton floated over the field 
and threw electricity around, shocking a Machamp but not destroying its health 
as it probably should have, the Machamp leapt up and with one finishing blow, 
shattered the Magneton to pieces where it crashed down onto the ice.  
Biggs shrugged his shoulders and sighed happily, he tended to take his losses 
rather well despite his enthusiasm.  

Minutes later, I reached the Rock Field, and locked away three of my Pokéballs, 
leaving me with my Dugtrio, Kadabra, and unfortunately my Charizard.  
I’d cracked, and risked compromising the match just to keep Garland happy, and 
as I headed into the arena, I was fearful of my match again.  
As I swung the double doors open, the nasty voice of Bryan could be heard, 
“Scared again ‘Capture, you’re going to have to grow a spine soon, if you’re 
scared of battling against beginner trainers who got lucky in their first 
match, then you’re never going to have the guts to face me.”  
“I’m not scared because of the opponent, you wouldn’t understand my problems 
even if I wanted to tell you.”  
“‘Capture, you know I want a battle against you but I want a little challenge 
even though I’ll be the victor.”  
“I won’t allow myself to be tormented by you.”  
“I don’t need to lift a finger.”  
“You might be keeping me from exposing you, but I’ll fight against you with 
everything I have when the time comes.”  
“Please do Capture, but don’t get your hopes up.”  

I stepped into the arena and immediately heard my friends’ cheers over the 
total strangers in the audience.  
“Go Tetsubo! You can do it!” shouted Emily.  
“We believe in you!” added Rick.  
“Go Tetsubo! Go Inferno!” cheered Garland, and my expressions sunk a little.  
The only way to play it safe with a hazard like my Charizard would be to use my 
other Pokémon first and take out most of the competition, but not to have them 
fall in battle, I’d probably need them depending on if Inferno felt the 
opposition was worth its time.  
“And here’s the Green Trainer Tetsubo Capture again, a little less nervous than 
in his first match but nervous none-the-less.”  
“Stop saying that!” I complained.  
“And his opponent in this match is one of the few duos that have decided to 
fight together, please welcome once again the Red Trainers Larry and 
Lorraine!”  
The two stepped up to the trainer platform and smiled at me, “We’re not 
pushovers any more Tetsubo, don’t you dare hold back!” called Lorraine.  
I was familiar with their Pokémon, and thought in advance about what Inferno 
might be willing to battle, perhaps their Magmar or Fearow would be valid 
opponents, but those were 2 out of 6 of their Pokémon, and what if they caught 
some more since last time?  
“Begin!”  

“Go Bedtime!” shouted Larry, throwing his Pokéball.  
“Go Psychot.” I decided quickly, no way Inferno would take on such a small 
Wigglytuff.  
The fight started out strong, with my Kadabra throwing around several Psychic 
attacks and making the Wigglytuff expend a lot of energy simply dodging them 
all.  
“Disable!” called Larry, and in a moment the Wigglytuff came out of hiding and 
a flash later, my Kadabra was frozen by the surprise technique and slammed into 
hard by the Wigglytuff.  
He tumbled back, crashing through rock structures on the way, I couldn’t let 
this keep up, Larry must have known that a Psychic Pokémon’s weaknesses were 
Bug and Ghost attacks, but more importantly, physical attacks did the job too.  
“Use Sing!”  
“Stop it now!” I shouted.  
“Hey! No trainer interaction allowed!” protested Lorraine.  
“I wasn’t talking to you.” I replied.  
The two were confused for a moment, right before Psychot teleported itself 
right behind the Wigglytuff and grabbed it.  
“Try out the technique we worked on, Seismic Toss!” I called.  
Psychot floated into the air, the Wigglytuff in its grip, and then started 
spinning in a circle, buzzing through the air with its psychic abilities before 
hurling the opponent straight down.  
The audience was in awe as a huge dust cloud followed, but my opponent leapt 
right back up even though it was bruised heavily and slammed into my Kadabra, 
it picked itself up, but its movement was sluggish.  
“Good work Bedtime! Now use Doubleslap!”  
It was on us in a second, smacking Psychot upside the face many times, he 
turned slowly and subtly to look at a rock structure hanging over them and I 
nodded, “Good idea.  Do it!”  
“Kada-Bra!” he yelled, outstretching a hand and blowing up the rocks above so 
that they crashed down, but then catching the Wigglytuff’s attacking hand and 
restraining the entire Pokémon until the last moment where he teleported 
alone.  
“Bedtime!” shouted Larry, before the smoke cleared and the Wigglytuff was 
visible:  Alive, but unable to fight.  
“Return, Sis, its weakened, take it out.”  
“Go Landslide!” she cheered, and the Sandslash appeared in mid-air and dived 
into the ground and disappeared.  
“Not good, virtually all of its attacks are Normal-type and strong, just blow 
up stuff until you hit it.” I hesitated.  
Several random explosions occurred around the field, but the Sandslash wasn’t 
unearthed until it chose to be, slashing up my Kadabra, bouncing off a rock 
face and slamming its claw into the ground, causing a quake which hit Psychot 
hard.  
“Don’t stop there! Use Fissure!” called Lorraine.  
“Return!”  
As the area tore apart through cutting shockwaves, Psychot was returned to its 
Pokéball not a moment too soon.  
“I’d better match its skills, Go Digda!”  
“Trio Trio Trio.” the Dugtrio chanted before disappearing.  
The next battle was short, but intense and unseeable, as the two Ground Pokémon 
took the battle underground and with their own initiative.  
The proof of the intensity were the explosions erupting from spread out areas 
around the field, the uprooted soil showing the direction of the Pokémon, and 
the collapse of several high rock structures.  
Finally, the two Pokémon appeared, charging at each other and both slashing as 
they passed (almost like jousting), the blades clashed (as always, the 
Dugtrio’s not seen) and the two Pokémon pushed against each other for 
superiority, both were equal and I had to change that.  
“Earthquake!”  
“TRI-O!” the three heads shouted, the area shaking violently and bringing down 
an extremely tall structure made of heavy rocks.  
“Move!” I called, but the Sandslash looked ready to dodge too, the next 
occurrence was a surprise, as Digda raced under the danger to contact the 
Sandslash and keep it from running.  
But this technique turned out to be a sacrifice, as the rocks crashed down on 
both Pokémon and defeated them both.  
“Digda...  Thanks for your sacrifice, I suppose my other Pokémon wouldn’t have 
been able to defeat it without becoming very weak, Return.”  
“Return Landslide, time for my best.” announced Lorraine.  
I was about to reach for my Pokéballs when I heard my friends cheer for me.  
“Go Tetsubo! Just one more left!”  
“Use Inferno!” called Garland.  
Up to now, I’d forgotten about him, but it was too late to change Pokémon, I 
had to use him, and hope whatever Pokémon Lorraine used was big enough to 
psyche up Inferno for battle.  
“ROOOOOAAARRR!!!” he bellowed.  
“Jynx...” growled the opponent.  
“Oh... No...” I moaned, a Jynx? Inferno wouldn’t want to fight that.  
Just as predicted, Inferno snorted.  
“Please Inferno, look at where we are, we’re in the Pokémon League, just as I 
said we would be, all these people are here to see my Pokémon fight, that 
includes you, and don’t tell me that Jynx isn’t powerful enough to fight, a 
Jynx was the reason you evolved, and you must remember how tough it was.”  
Inferno turned to the opponent, waving her hands but not using an attack, 
instead using Meditate to strengthen herself over and over again while Inferno 
hesitated, he continued to look her over before exhaling a little smoke and 
standing there with an unamused expression.  
“Uh oh, you Do remember:  We battled that same Jynx long ago, and she was no 
match, but things are different now, she’s surely stronger!”  
“This is strange folks.” said the commentator, “Its hard to tell, but I think 
Tetsubo’s Charizard is under some sort of Psychic attack, although I can’t 
identify what kind.”  

“Inferno’s... not confused...  He’s...  Unruly...” noted Garland.  
“Yeah, about that.  Inferno’s been unruly ever since it evolved.” explained 
Emily.  
“Then why did Tetsubo risk using it in a League Match? I know I wanted to see 
Inferno battle, but not at the cost of Tetsubo’s success.”  
“Maybe you should have mentioned that before.” stated Emily, concerned about 
the way this battle was headed.  

“If your Pokémon won’t attack, then mine will! Black Widow! Psychic attack!” 
Lorraine shouted.  
My Charizard was trapped in a blue aura and slammed into a solid rock face 
where it remained pinned.  
“Do you believe me now Inferno?!” I said angrily, that hit must have wiped out 
around half his health, of which would have been higher if Inferno battled when 
I wanted him to throughout the journey.  
“Keep it up Black Widow, every moment it grows weaker.”  
Inferno struggled for quite some time before screaming out, shooting flames 
into the air, shattering the prison, and blasting a long flame to hit the 
Jynx.  
It was blasted head on, but unlike before, it still had the will and the 
strength to battle.  
“Ice Punch now!”  
“JYNX!”  
The female Pokémon floated forward fast, and its fist collided with Inferno’s 
jaw, the icy touch spreading fast and freezing it from the head down.  
I sighed as I recalled it, and watched as another tile on my side of the 
display screen turned black, I only had one Pokémon left, and thanks to my 
Charizard, it’d have to work for the victory.  
“Go!”  
The Kadabra reappeared and shot forward through the air to fight, this turned 
out to be another long battle in which both Pokémon fought with little orders.  
Psychic spheres spiralled through the air, some hitting their target but only 
damaging them rather than effecting them further, and the rest hitting the 
obstacles and sending many rocks clattering around them.  
All the while I believed in my Pokémon to do the right thing, and hoped that he 
felt my belief in him and became stronger from it.  
A flash shot through the arena and things felt like they froze as the turning 
point occurred.  
The Jynx had cast a successful Ice Punch, and from his torso, ice spread up and 
down, quickly gluing his feet to the floor, and stopping his hands from being 
able to cast a Psychic attack.  
“Its over.” smiled Lorraine.  
“Psychot!” I called, the ice spreading to its head, if that was frozen, then 
this battle would be over, “There’s one way to win, it involves something you 
haven’t done in a very long time, and something that may be hard to do.  If you 
share my belief that we can win this, then I’m sure you can do it!”  
He nodded, before his neck was frozen, followed by his head.  
“And this battle appears to be-”  
Before the commentator could finish, the ice surrounding Psychot exploded, and 
the Jynx had to cover her eyes to shield herself from the dangerous shards.  
Psychot was glowing, and had pulled off what I knew it could do after the 
months we’d trained together, my Kadabra represented my hard working and 
serious side, and he shared my determination.  
He grew slightly bigger, and a second spoon appeared in his opposite hand 
before he revealed to the crowd that he’d evolved into an Alakazam.  
“... Taking a massive twist!” added the man, “As Tetsubo’s Pokémon evolves and 
jumps back into the battle!”  
“Ala-Kazam!”  
“Psychic attack!” shouted Lorraine, but Psychot replied to the attack in kind, 
and having just evolved, his special powers were enhanced, although his health 
was still critically low.  
The attack soon dissipated, and Psychot was the victor, sending both attacks 
upon the Jynx before they faded.  
The Jynx started to sing an eerie tune, and Psychot had to fight to stay awake, 
but in that time, she pounced, pounded hard, and then slapped him many times, 
the meditation from earlier enhancing her strength to its highest point.  
“Finish it with Blizzard!”  
The Jynx outstretched its arms and a shower of ice was generated and shot 
forward, the area in front of it becoming incredibly cold and frozen, its just 
a good thing Psychot wasn’t there.  
“What?!”  
He’d teleported at the last moment and reappeared behind her, turning to me for 
a moment to take instructions.  
I reacted fast, “Psybeam!”  
His outstretched hand opened, and a rainbow beam appeared from it and blasted 
the Jynx hard, and sent her crashing through the cold snow and then a wall of 
rocks.  
She climbed up the fallen pile moments later, but fell down into a soft pile of 
snow, too weak to stand.  
“And Tetsubo and his Alakazam forge one of the greatest comebacks I’ve ever 
seen! The Green Trainer Wins!”  

Shortly after, me and my friends met up in the lobby, mostly to congratulate 
me.  
“That was the bomb Tetsubo.” smiled Rick, “You’ve raised an awesome Psychic 
Pokémon.”  
“In the old days I never dreamed Psychot would get so powerful, its hard to 
believe he was once a scared little Abra.”  
“I’m proud of you Tetsubo, you’re going to go far in this tournament, farther 
than you think possible.” added Emily.  
“Tetsubo...” spoke Garland in a tone that made me nervous, “You didn’t tell me 
that Inferno was still defiant.”  
“... Its just that you used to train him and you were so excited about seeing 
Inferno again that made me choose him for the battle, I thought that if I 
didn’t, you’d be insulted.”  
“Tetsubo, I’m not, what you did was really nice, but reckless.”  
“I hoped we’d get an opponent Inferno would be willing to fight properly, he’s 
a really strong Pokémon when given the right incentive.”  
“Its true.” nodded Emily, “I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”  
“In that case... I want you to continue training him.  I’m not disappointed in 
you for not taming him yet, you’ve done a much better job than I ever will, 
he’s evolved twice while in your care so you must be doing something right.”  
“Garland...  Thanks for understanding.”  
“Hey Tetsubo.” called Larry.  
“Great match, we’re not disappointed in losing, we’re actually happy you won.” 
added his sister.  
“You are?” I inquired with a confused look.  
“Of course, you’ve worked hard to get here, but at the same time you set us on 
the path to greatness rather than letting us remain in Team Rocket, we’ve 
really grown thanks to you, you’ve got our support.” nodded Lorraine.  
“But you’d better go far, it’ll make us look better if you do.” grinned Larry.  
I smiled and gave a thumbs up before leaving with my friends to celebrate.  
The former members of Junior Rocket had changed over the past year, partly 
because of me, but it reminded me of my own personal journey.  
I’d gone from a knowledgeable bookworm to a great Pokémon Trainer, in some 
instances, a hero, and a great friend in the eyes of so many.  
I might not win the tournament, in fact, probability was against me, but I’d 
take each battle as they came and fight with everything I’d learned and gained, 
and not let my fears intimidate me.  
The Pokémon League was an experience, and me and my friends would enjoy every 
moment of it and reach out as far as we could towards our goals.  

End of Chapter 53B  

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