Chapter 54:  Case of the Ex’ (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Another day dawned on my hotel room, the bright light waking me up and the 
thoughts of my next battle already on my mind.  
Chad and Scott were sleeping in, and I promised I’d go and wake them up if 
either of them had an early match.  
“Okay, Emily’s up against Camille, Abby against Elvin, Chad against David, 
Scott against Clementine, Rick against Tom, Cody against Clint...  Bryan 
against Rita...”  
I shuddered as I read the next one, “... And me... against...  Oh no...”  
I heard an extremely high pitched giggle from across the room, followed by “Oh 
my gosh, I’m up against Tetsubo, Woo Hoo!”  
“Danielle...” I groaned, trying to creep away, but almost like a predator 
discovering its prey, Danielle turned and saw me.  
Within seconds she was upon me, and playfully covering my eyes with her hands, 
“Guess who...”  
“Um, someone who can hand out restraining orders?...” I answered nervously.  
“No, silly, its me!”  
With that, her arm locked around mine, and removing it was always difficult.  
“Where did you run off to back at the ranch? Chad thought he was following you 
but got us completely lost.”  
“What does it matter?” I grinned nervously, “Cos here you are with your vice 
grip now.”  
“Isn’t it great? Once again, us two soulmates are going to risk our love and 
engage in a Pokémon Battle, I could write a novel about it.”  
“Why don’t you go do that, and return to me when you’ve written... the 
sequel?”  
“Oh stop teasing, I know you don’t mean any of that.”  
“You are impossible!” I groaned...  

Meanwhile, Abby caught up to Emily in town, the two had become slightly closer 
as of recently, but they still had their disputes, “Emily, I checked in with 
the battle set-up, we’ve got at least four hours before our battles, you’re in 
the Ice Field against Camille, while I’m up against someone called Elvin in the 
Rock Field and-  What’s wrong?”  
“Elvin...” she said through clenched teeth.  
“Em, Emily.” he stuttered, standing right in front of her with a woman.  
He had a large red quiff and a leather jacket, while the woman was dressed in a 
tight pink leather outfit with long dark green hair.  
“And you’re Camille.”  
“Honey, isn’t that the floozy from Saffron City?” questioned Camille.  
“Um Camille, maybe you should go get a coffee and I’ll join you in a-”  
“No, I think Camille should hear what I have to say to your jerk of a 
boyfriend, I was depressed when he came onto me, the last thing I needed was to 
be used and thrown away like a tissue.” accused Emily rightfully.  
“Don’t you say such things, he never liked you.” replied Camille, “We had a row 
and he got the wrong idea about it so he ended up getting unwillingly involved 
with you, things are normal now, and I don’t care where you go.”  
“We’re to battle in the Ice Field.” reminded Emily.  
“Then I’ll also have to steal your dreams from under you.” smirked Camille.  
“You don’t scare me, nor do you get to me, I’ve got a great guy who treats me 
right, here he is now and-”  
“And that’s not him.” intervened Abby, pushing Emily’s pointing finger away 
from me and Danielle and redirecting it to Scott, “There he is.”  
“Hey girls, what’s up?” he smiled lightly.  
Emily hastily hooked her arm around Scott’s, “See you soon...”  
With that, the two turned around and started walking.  
“Abby, care to explain what’s going on?” questioned Scott.  
“You’re Emily’s fake boyfriend for the day, I’ll explain it in a second.”  
“You say you’re up against Elvin, Abby?” questioned Emily.  
“I’ll beat him good for you.” she nodded.  

Closely happening at that time on the Ice field was Chad’s battle against a 
once proud and arrogant trainer known as David Parish, who Chad had met on an 
earlier adventure.  
Chad’s arrogant Tauros had fallen to David’s Scyther but had at least done a 
great deal of damage to it and David’s Charizard beforehand, Chad’s Pinsir 
Grind took over and dealt a final blow, but was surprisingly overwhelmed by 
David’s Golduck even though Bug-types were usually resilient to Psychic 
attacks.  
Now a spectacular battle was waging as two Golducks fought it out.  
“GO HEADACHE! PSYCHIC ATTACK!”  
“Dodge it Golduck.”  
The opposing Golduck leapt upwards as a blue swarm of energy shot down and 
shattered the centre of the field.  
“Now you’ve done it.” smiled David, “Golduck, use Surf!”  
The cold water under the field rose up magically like a twister towards Chad’s 
floating Golduck.  
“HYPER BEAM!” shouted Chad, and a golden light glowed in Headache’s head gem 
and fired, evaporating half the water shooting at it and aimed correctly to 
blast David’s Golduck hard.  
The only downside was that to aim at the enemy took attention away from the 
water, and the remnants hit and flushed Chad’s Golduck down to the field and 
blasted it under.  
“I know Golducks are good swimmers, but can Headache withstand the cold?...” 
thought Chad.  
David’s Golduck surprisingly got up after the big hit, but very weak.  
“Chad, I’m proud of you.” said David, “Your Pokémon have risen to such a high 
level that they match my own and perhaps go beyond, its made this great battle 
less about level and type and more about skill...  But I do believe its over.”  
Chad’s Golduck hadn’t resurfaced yet, and the crowd, trainers and announcers 
were on the edge of their seats.  
“Has Chad’s Golduck succumbed to defeat in the watery depths, or-”  
“DUCK!!!” wailed Headache in its usual psychotic fashion, the area around the 
enemy glowing gold, and then exploding, as yet another Hyper Beam blasted the 
enemy upwards.  
It landed for the second time, but didn’t get up.  
“A spectacular end to a spectacular match!” screamed the commentator, but David 
reached for a Pokéball.  
“Its not over, I still have my weakened Charizard, and your Golduck is on its 
last leg.  Go!”  
“ROOOOOAAARRR!!!” bellowed the bruised Charizard, David had previously 
underestimated Chad’s Tauros, and for that his Pokémon had been battered a 
lot.  
“This is it folks, both Pokémon are on critical health, one good hit will 
probably end this match and decide the victor.” announced the commentator but 
quieter than usual.  
“Fire Blast!”  
“DODGE IT!”  
The Golduck backflipped as the burning star was generated and blasted down, 
shattering part of the still solid arena and melting the majority of pieces.  
Chad had to have his Pokémon avoid the attacks but stay above the water in the 
process, being under all the ice for years on end made it extremely cold 
(Pokémon League workers had machines to freeze the surface of the arena after 
every match), if Headache fell back in, it could end the match.  
“Keep your distance Charizard.” called David, “Don’t get splashed.”  
Chad smiled, a plan forming, “Get in close Headache, but don’t go all out on 
attack yet...”  
The Golduck continued to leap, as fire rained down, but the arena was slowly 
falling away and so Headache had to plan a path to the Charizard, who was 
flapping its wings to stay stationary in the air, in the middle of the field, 
where a complicated winding curving route led around the field to where it 
was.  
Headache leapt around the course and closed in on the floating Charizard.  
“Fire Blast!”  
“DISABLE!”  
The Charizard was very close to its target but this was its downfall, Chad’s 
Golduck flipped over the fire, its gem glowing with activity.  
As the Fire Blast destroyed the only ice piece nearby, it realised that its 
body was frozen by a hidden Disable attack, which had caused it to slowly 
descend.  
The water blown up from the explosion splashed against it hard, it wouldn’t 
defeat it, but it made for a final distraction.  
Chad’s Golduck had landed on top of it, and had used it as a stepping stone to 
survive, it opened its mouth and:  
“Hydro Pump!” shouted Chad.  
The blast not only pushed the Charizard deep under the water’s surface, but 
propelled Chad’s Golduck far, until it landed on the only remaining piece of 
ice in the arena, located in one of the corners.  
The Charizard quickly rose up, but its strength left it, and it floated until 
recalled.  
“What a great finish! Chad’s Golduck performs an awesome technique that defeats 
its opponent and saves itself! The Red Trainer Chad wins the match!”  
“Hey Chad.” called David, “You’ve come a long way since the S.S Anne, count on 
another battle in the future.”  
“Absolutely.” grinned Chad, before raising his arms and taking in all of the 
crowds cheers...  

After a long and harsh battle against the southern gal Clementine (someone 
Scott was familiar with apparently), it was coming to a close.  
Scott’s Sandslash had triumphed over a Primeape but lost to a Golduck, Scott’s 
Poliwhirl didn’t fare much better and inevitably lost, but the energetic Raichu 
Raichi finished it up, but had to fight a hard battle against a Pokémon with a 
type advantage.  
“Marowak! Y’all gotta use a Bonemerang now!”  
The battle had taken place on the Water Field, a large square of fluid with 
five round ice platforms positioned in a cross formation, the Marowak sat in 
the centre, hurling its bone around.  
Raichi had done a little damage, but without its electricity to fall back on, 
the only likely way to win was to push the opponent into the water.  
He couldn’t do that currently, and was circling the opponent, leaping from 
platform to platform to avoid the several rotations of the dangerous spinning 
bone.  
Raichi was battered and bruised, and barely had to strength to continue the 
run.  
“Come on Scott, don’t run away like last time.” called Clementine.  
“I didn’t run, I stopped the fight at Saffron because I care about my Pokémon, 
and I’m going to win this tournament.”  
“It don’t look like it, your Raichu’s pretty tired an’ at a loss.”  
Raichi spun upwards as the bone passed by once more, and after growling, it 
frowned and leapt at the Marowak, tackling it but not pushing it over the 
edge.  
“Raichi! The bone!”  
It was hurtling back, so Raichi leapt up, hoping it would hit the opponent, but 
it was caught in its hand.  
Raichi pushed forward, biting into the bone, and with all its strength, 
wrestled it free of the Marowak’s grip, it then pulled back, and swung it 
forward like a bat.  
The Marowak went flying and crashed into the water, its defenses lowering to 
zero before it couldn’t swim back in time.  
“Score one home run and a win for Scott once again, the Green Trainer is the 
victor!...”  
“Clementine, I don’t care if you were betting on me back then when I quit the 
dark tournament, nor if I just took away your chance to win the prize money 
here, I’m working for a noble cause, and nothing will stop me from 
succeeding.”  
“... Ah understand Scott...”  

Speaking of the dark tournament that took place close to Saffron City, Cody was 
up against the victor, one that had apparently gone as far as destroying one of 
his Pokémon opponents in battle and would have done the same to one of Scott’s 
had he not chose to quit.  
Out on the Grass Field, the last two Pokémon were relentlessly battling it out, 
Cody’s Nidoking and Clint’s Nidoqueen.  
The previous battlers were Cody’s Fearow and Clint’s Alakazam, then Cody’s 
Arcanine against Clint’s Electabuzz.  
Both were close battles but left each victor on critical health, Clint was 
merciless and Cody’s Pokémon had to get tough.  
This final battle had waged for several minutes, but neither evolved Nidoran 
would back down, a situation that could be bad for my little brother.  
“You know what they say Kid, the female of the species is more dangerous than 
the male.” laughed Clint, as his unladylike Pokémon continued to punch, kick 
and swing away.  
“Its learned all its natural attacks unlike mine.” cursed Cody, “I may not be 
able to do this...”  
“Cody!” shouted Forest from the sidelines, “You can do this, but you need to 
know how or Clint’s Pokémon will vanquish yours, his Pokémon are brawlers more 
than fighters, use that to your advantage.”  
“Brawlers...” thought Cody, “They generally live for the moment, and strike 
whenever they can, regardless of consequence, thanks Forest.”  
Cody turned to his Nidoking Poisonpin, being smacked around by the Nidoqueen, 
and shouted “Retreat!”  
“You’re weak kid!” laughed Clint, “Nidoqueen! Go in for the kill!”  
As the Nidoking jumped back, the Nidoqueen chased it in an all out run, looking 
to strike as soon as it landed.  
“Earthquake!” added Cody.  
“What?!” shouted Clint, “They can use that?!”  
As the Nidoking touched down, the ground on the grassy field shook and the 
earth upturned hard on the Nidoqueen, damaging its Poison side and causing it 
to lose balance, as soon as the tremors stopped and it regained some degree of 
control, Cody had used his opportunity and had his Nidoking strike again.  
“Thrash!”  
The Nidoking went into a crazed combination of punches, kicks and swings 
himself, and didn’t let up, just as Clint had done with many of his past 
opponents, only, Cody wouldn’t overdo it.  
The Pokémon finished with one final punch, which lifted the opponent into the 
air, making it crash down hard and stealing the last of its power.  
“No! Get up Nidoqueen! Get up! How did your Nidoking learn that move?!”  
“I used to be as naive as you.” spoke Cody, “I overlooked the natural 
development of my Pokémon and only believed in the win, but things have changed 
and now I look out for all of my Pokémon.  While you’ve constantly done 
whatever it took to win your battles, you let the wins cloud your mind so that 
you’ve never explored the depth of your Pokémon’s abilities.  Pokémon need more 
than battles to grow...  I dedicate this battle to the memory of Forest’s 
Flareon, who fell at your Pokémon’s hands, now get out before I report you to 
the police.”  
Clint growled as he recalled his Pokémon and left the arena as the commentator 
went wild.  
“Cody...  Thank you for everything...” said Forest, almost tearful, “You had 
nothing to gain from helping me so much, but you did it out of the kindness of 
your heart.  I almost lost mine when I lost my Flareon.”  
“I did what most other people would...” spoke Cody solemnly.  
“If that’s true, then I guess I still have a lot to live for...  I’m going to 
raise a new Flareon and get back to legitimate Pokémon Battles, and I think I 
already have a name in mind for it...”  
“Aw thanks Forest, and good luck...”  

Scott exited the arena of his latest victory, soon to be joined by Emily and 
Abby.  
“So girls, what did you think?”  
“I think-  You should be holding Emily’s arm.” exclaimed Abby.  
“Hmmph.” snorted Camille at Emily, “Now I’ll have seen you three times before 
the day is done, how unlucky.”  
“Oh it will be after I’ve beaten you out of the League, I’ve got the support of 
my friends and my guy so I won’t lose.” spoke Emily.  
“You won’t, you’ll be obliterated, see you in an hour...” said Camille, turning 
her back to Emily.  
Emily waited for Camille to leave before turning to Scott, “Thanks for doing 
this, I’ll pay you back somehow.”  
“It’s no problem I guess, you and the rest of Tetsubo’s little band of friends 
interest me, and I suppose I have no objections to getting into that circle.” 
Scott replied before saying with a slightly sad tone, “It’s been a while since 
I had friends I could trust...  But tell me, why not just ask Tetsubo to 
pretend to be your boyfriend, acting out this lie might have been what you 
needed to get him to see what he’s missing.”  
“What are you saying? Did Abby tell you-”  
“She didn’t have to, you guys are so predictable, I reckon you two have liked 
each other for years, when I first met you, Tetsubo looked at you in a certain 
way, and behaved differently when you weren’t around.”  
“And what do you think about the present feelings?”  
“He’s totally into you, as you plainly are with him.  Haven’t you two ever told 
each other?” grinned Scott slightly.  
“I’ll give you the short version.” said Abby, “They’ve been friends for years, 
apart from the five or so years that Tetsubo was in Pokémon Tech, they 
travelled together for a while, Tetsubo explained his feelings but Emily wasn’t 
interested at first due to a bad experience, next Emily secretly started to 
develop her feelings for Tetsubo until she rushed into a relationship with him 
due to her fear of losing him.  Anyway, things ended badly due to reasons out 
of Tetsubo’s control, and they split up, Emily felt betrayed and Tetsubo was 
hurt.  The two went their own way for a while until they met up and travelled 
around as friends, Tetsubo confused as ever while Emily wanted to get into a 
relationship again.  Which brings us up to date.”  
“Well, you two seem okay now, but I’m sure these feelings are hanging over your 
head.” pondered Scott out loud.  
“There’s one final part to the story.” sighed Emily, “And I guess I feel 
comfortable enough to tell you:  Before meeting up with you guys, I gave 
Tetsubo a polite ultimatum about our situation, that I needed to know how he 
felt about me, and that if he didn’t feel we could be more than friends, then 
we wouldn’t be... ever.”  
“What did he say?” asked Abby with sudden interest.  
“He said he’d tell me after the Pokémon League, I’m a little nervous of how 
it’ll turn out but after the League, one way or the other, I’m going to make a 
new start of things.”  
“If Tetsubo’s too confused to see what he could lose, then don’t take it 
personally if it doesn’t work out, I know for certain that he really cares 
about you so either way it should work out for the best.”  
“Thanks Scott.” said Emily, realising they were still holding hands, letting 
go, and then reaching up to kiss him on the cheek, “It means a lot.”  
Scott smiled lightly, but then turned to see someone else, a disappointed 
expression on her face before she left.  
“Carrie was watching, she probably got the wrong idea about all that.” he 
thought, before shouting, “Carrie, wait!”  
She didn’t, and started walking away, and Scott left Emily abruptly to catch up 
with her, and Abby followed him, unfortunately Camille had returned.  
“And another thing...  Oh I get it, that handsome guy’s not your boyfriend, how 
could someone like him like someone like you?”  
“But he-”  
“Save it loser, you’re incapable of finding a boyfriend, you are so pathetic.”  
Camille left, laughing to herself and Emily sighed miserably, “Tetsubo...  
Why’d you have to desert me for Danielle now?...”  

“Scott, did you find that girl?” asked Abby.  
“Nope, she’s long gone, I guess That’s all over.”  
“Scott, do you like Carrie?”  
“... I don’t know, she’s a likable person and I was hoping to find just that 
out.  She seems to like me so I wanted to give her a chance, I guess that’s not 
gonna happen now.”  
“All these relationships going on, I’m starting to feel left out.” sighed Abby 
jokingly.  
“But that’s not true, is it? You know Tetsubo very well, well enough to want 
him as your own.”  
“How did you...”  
“I’m not too big on socialising, but I watch people very well and pick up on 
things.”  
“Don’t tell anyone please...  I’d rather not get hurt by saying, Tetsubo treats 
me like a little sister, and I’d rather not come between him and Emily.”  
“That’s very mature of you.”  
“I’m very mature for my age, surely you’ve picked up on that...  If whatever 
those two have is meant to be, it’ll happen regardless of what I do, but if 
not, then maybe I stand a chance...”  

“Danielle, would you please just let go so I can go off and prepare for my 
battle, I need to choose my team and it would be unfair if you knew which 
Pokémon I was using.” I complained.  
“You don’t have to worry, I could advise you on which Pokémon to choose.” 
smiled Danielle innocently.  
“Danielle, that’s my point, you’d know, so how about we meet next in the arena, 
we’re supposed to be opponents and you shouldn’t be getting too close to me.” I 
pleaded, removing her arm from mine was close to impossible without her 
concession.  
“Because you’re going to battle your hardest, I understand that, and it would 
be insulting to you if I were to hold back or let you win.  Tetsubo, I did what 
you asked me to, I trained hard, got my badges, and became a great trainer, 
what else do you want in order to prove myself?”  
“I want you to stop, Danielle, this crush of yours, this stupid, immature and 
hopeless crush you have on me.  End it.” I explained calmly, having lost my 
temper.  
Danielle almost froze up, her arm fell away from mine as if she were a robot 
that had run out of power, and she remained where she was long after I left her 
to prepare for the upcoming battle.  

End of Chapter 54A  

Back to Chapter 53B
Chapter 54B
Back to Story List #41 - #60
Back to the Pokézone