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

I felt guilty about a lot of things today, about not being there to support 
neither Emily or Abby as they battled today, but now even worse for what I’d 
said to Danielle, I know it was harsh, but it had to be said.  
I couldn’t be the one for her, and the sooner she realised that, the sooner she 
could get over me.  
My Pokémon were ready for battle, if only it didn’t have to be against her...  
Still, I had a score to settle with Bryan and I intended to go all the way 
until we got our battle, in a secure place where he’d not be able to twist or 
desecrate the rules, it was the only way I could grow as a person, by standing 
up to my fears and overcoming them.  

Meanwhile, Rick was in the Ice Field against one of Cody’s friends.  
“MaAaAaAaAgGgGgG!” wailed the three spheres of a Magneton as the sheer heat of 
a Flamethrower attack overpowered it and hurled it skyward, only to fall back 
down and smack into the ice, its floating abilities had left it along with its 
health.  
“And Tom’s Magneton is outta here!” cheered the announcer, “Rick’s Arcanine is 
a small and young Pokémon but its really proved itself out here in the heart of 
battle.”  
The battle had basically been Dodrio Versus Kingler, which ended in a win for 
the swift but difficult bird of Rick’s, it had then been shocked by the 
Magneton which caused Rick to use his Arcanine, ending in a win of course.  
“Return...” sighed Tom, “This’ll get you, time to reflect on this battle!...”  
The Pokéball clattered on the ice and unleashed:  “Dit-to!”  
“A Ditto folks! But don’t let this Pokémon’s small size cloud your judgement, 
that’s about to change.”  
The Ditto glowed white and grew into a silhouette of Rick’s slightly small 
Arcanine, the brightness disappeared and the opponent looked exactly like 
Rick’s Blazer.  
“Darn.” whispered Rick, “If I’d just brought my Poliwrath into the battle, I 
could have switched and quickly took advantage of the Ditto’s new type, at 
least I’ve still got two Pokémon to fight with.”  
The two Pokémon rushed forward and slammed into each other, the skills, 
strength and defense of these two Pokémon equal due to the Ditto’s 
transformation, Blazer went in and bit the opponent, but it retaliated with 
Flamethrower that made it retreat due to the melting of the ice.  
“Its got Flamethrower, that took us months to learn.  I guess its also true 
that Ditto takes in all the abilities of the Pokémon it transforms into, and 
Blazer’s got less health due to the last battle...” pondered Rick, before a sly 
smile appeared on his face.  
The enemy Arcanine was rushing around with Agility, and slyly tore past Rick’s 
and used Dig at super-speed, almost making an instant pit to drop the original 
Arcanine but failing as it used Agility and moved before the dug ice crumbled 
into the water below.  
Rick’s Arcanine roared out and intimidated the opponent little, no matter how 
different the body was, it still had the mind of a little Pokémon.  
“Okay, that’s stopped it running around, Return Blazer, Go Overload, take it 
out in one hit!”  
“What?” pondered Tom, but he was too late to stop the next event.  
Rick’s Electrode moved from its Pokéball so fast, it looked like the Pokéball 
had hit the Ice Field, and continued to bounce forward, only bigger.  
“Electrode!” grinned Overload as it flew towards the Ditto/ Arcanine at top 
speed, and began glowing.  
The explosion took out a circle of ice around the two, the Electrode rolled 
back to Rick, out of power due to its willing sacrifice, while the Ditto, still 
an Arcanine since it didn’t have time to transform again, fell right into the 
water and took damage from it.  
“Nice one Overload, I know how you like to do that, Return.”  
“Electrode.” grinned Overload as it was recalled, and replaced by the 
Arcanine.  
“Dragon Rage!” shouted Rick, and the Arcanine finished the match by blowing 
blue flames out of its mouth and torching the opponent so that it reverted to 
its true form and fainted.  
“An outstanding win for the crafty trainer Rick, the Green Trainer wins!!!”  

And shortly after, by coincidence, Abby’s and Emily’s battles happened 
simultaneously, against a couple that had previously got Emily depressed around 
the time of our separation.  
“Chan...” groaned Emily’s Chansey, Lucky, as the yellow gas sprayed on it made 
it fall into a deep sleep.  
“Hah!” laughed Camille, “You really are pathetic, you have no talent for 
anything!”  
“I’ll make you eat those words Harpy.” called back Emily, recalling her Chansey 
and throwing out her Cloyster to take on Camille’s Parasect.  

“I can’t believe it...” moaned Abby, “Nightmare, do it again...”  
She wasn’t having much more luck, as the first Pokémon she had to face was a 
Snorlax.  
“Its no use Pipsqueak, I don’t know why you’re being so aggressive towards me 
but its all for nothing, Snorlax, enough of the Rest, Body Slam...”  
“Laxxx!!!” mumbled the Snorlax, dropping onto Abby’s Hypno.  
“Return...” scowled Abby recalling the weakened Hypno before it was crushed, “I 
won’t lose to a creep like him.”  

Back to Emily, and things were looking up, as a Parasect within a block of ice 
spun upwards and then crashed through the Ice Field’s surface.  
“What do you think of my talent now?” smiled Emily slyly, “I admit, the guy I 
was with earlier wasn’t my man, but even if I am working to fix a relationship 
with someone, I realise that a person’s worth shouldn’t be measured by 
popularity or having some guy by her side, but by what’s in her heart, I was 
stupid to let you make me think otherwise, I love my Pokémon, and they love me, 
and together, we’re going to knock you out of this tournament.”  

Back to Abby, things had gotten interesting, as Elvin hadn’t seen the extent of 
aggressiveness until Abby’s Rhydon was out, it unleashed all its rage on the 
Snorlax since Abby was fighting to get back at the man that had hurt her 
friend.  
It was almost hard to believe that Abby considered Emily a friend, let alone 
see eye to eye with her because of their differences, plus their liking to a 
certain someone, but things had changed during the last few months.  
With one final punch, the Snorlax fell back and crashed into several structures 
on the Rock Field, and fell unconscious.  
“Plenty of time to sleep now.” said Abby, “You can’t use the Rest technique if 
you’re distracted every second.”  
Elvin’s next Pokémon, a Pinsir appeared and screamed out, Abby smiled, “Piece 
of cake...”  

“A Double K.O!” shouted the commentator, “One last battle, and these two 
battling ladies will discover which of them is superior.”  
“Its going to be me!” shouted Camille, recalling her frozen Magneton and using 
a Marowak, while Emily recalled her shocked Cloyster and brought out the same 
Pokémon.  
“Maro!” they both growled to each other.  
“A Marowak Trainer, huh? I guess you’ll at least learn something after this 
battle, like how to train a winning Marowak.”  
“I once battled a Cubone Versus Cubone battle and only scored a draw, but 
Graveyard and I have come a long way since then, we’re going to win, and you’ll 
learn a lesson in trusting your Pokémon, you’ve done nothing but bark orders in 
this battle, you have no compassion for this sort of thing...” pondered Emily 
aloud.  
“Take your compassion and stick it, strength and technique is everything in 
Pokémon, ask the last two guys I beat.”  

“I can’t believe it...” said Abby again this battle, as her hefty Rhydon was 
lifted up by the battered Pinsir and levitated as it jumped up and then landed 
with the Rhydon taking most of the impact from the Fighting move Seismic Toss.  
Abby’s Rhydon collapsed, a rare thing to happen, while the Pinsir was a little 
dazed from its well earned victory.  
“But its no big deal, Go Foxfire.”  
“Vul!” screamed Abby’s Vulpix, immediately using Flamethrower to burn up the 
Pinsir and make it faint, Elvin’s confident expression changed to a worried 
one, “Uh huh huh-  Uh oh...”  

Two strong bones clashed together but no stronger Marowak was getting past.  
“This is one of my first Pokémon, its going to be stronger than yours.” boasted 
Camille.  
“Its not always strength that ensures victory in a Pokémon Battle.” whispered 
Emily, “Its technique and strategy.”  
With that, she gave a look to convey a message to her Marowak, and then 
shouted, “Bonemerang!”  
The bone was thrown, but its aim seemed off as it tore across the ice, curved a 
little, and stopped, having cut a semi-circle around the opponent but now 
trapped in the ice.  
“Its over for your wannabe.” smiled Camille, “Show her a true Bonemerang.”  
The bone was thrown, and Emily’s Marowak seemingly had no defense against the 
bone, wasn’t Camille ever wrong to think that!  
A loud clapping sound occurred as Graveyard caught the bone in its hand, and 
smiled slyly.  
“That’s the thing about Marowaks, it doesn’t matter if its their bone or not, 
they’re good at catching any that come their way.” smirked Emily as she spoke 
confidently.  
“But...  But...” spluttered Camille.  
“Its over.  Finish it Graveyard!”  
With that, the Marowak forward rolled across the field, picked up its bone, and 
simultaneously threw both weapons, they crossed past each other and descended, 
right onto the ends of the semicircles carved earlier and continuing to slice 
across the ice, completing a circle around the Marowak so that its weight 
caused the now floating disc of ice to tilt, and forced it to fall into the 
water, without its bone, it had lost a certain degree of balance, and the match 
was over.  
“What a way to break a stalemate! Emily’s Marowak has definitely proven its 
uniqueness over Camille’s and knocked her out of the tournament!”  
“I lost...” moaned Camille, slumping to the floor of her platform after 
recalling the drenched Marowak (plus its bone).  
“Like I care.” called Emily, “Why not go cry to your boyfriend, even though I 
have a feeling he’ll be crying also.”  

Crying wasn’t what he was currently doing, but he would be soon.  
Elvin laughed as his Dugtrio tore through the Rock Field, bringing down many 
rocks upon Abby’s Vulpix.  
“You’re doing no good like this Foxfire, take the battle to its level.”  
It nodded, and dug its own hole, and the next battle was unseen, occasional 
explosions blasted throughout the field, until a victor was revealed.  
Foxfire blasted out of the ground, with the Dugtrio’s three heads following, 
she smacked into an overlooking rock structure, and fell right back down, 
defeated.  
“Its over Little Missy, the King has got you beat.”  
“Or so you think.” shouted Abby, recalling her Vulpix and throwing out her 
Hypno, who immediately blasted the rock structure with a Psychic blast and 
brought it all down on the Dugtrio.  
“But... I beat that Pokémon earlier, I-”  
“I wisely recalled it, I had a feeling I’d need it, and that you’d forget all 
about it.”  
“The Red Trainer Abby wins!!!...”  

I would come to learn of the full details of Emily’s and Abby’s battles later 
on, currently, I’d seen many battles on the monitors in the Pokémon Village, 
including the best part of their battles, but also the end of another of 
Bryan’s battles, as his Machamp pounded a Rhydon into the ground.  
I saw the face of its disappointed trainer, Rita, one of Emily’s old group and 
quite a stubborn and nasty girl, I can’t say she didn’t deserve a definitive 
loss with all of Bryan’s Pokémon still in good health, but it meant that Bryan 
would continue to knock out good and honest trainers until someone like me who 
was wise to his style could get rid of him.  
I dismissed the thoughts of that and reminded myself of the battle I was headed 
for...  

“Okay folks, prepare for a great battle from the up and coming Green Trainer 
Tetsubo Capture.” announced the familiar voice of the commentator I kept on 
getting paired up with.  
I stepped into the Ice Field, already hearing my name being called out, it made 
me feel good about myself, I wondered if people watching from around the world 
on their televisions thought of me so highly.  
All that glory left me as I saw Danielle on the other side of the arena, her 
face pointed down so that her hair covered up her eyes, her face showed the 
obvious sign of cleared away tears.  
I know it was horrible of me to get at Danielle like I did, but her crush on me 
had to end, I was wrestling with a decision about Emily throughout the 
onslaught of Pokémon Battles and I wanted to make an informed sensible choice, 
and Danielle’s presence now was too much for me to hold in my protests about 
the way she was around me, I couldn’t keep it in.  
“And his opponent is the young but able Red Trainer from Celadon City, Danielle 
Timmons.”  
I stepped up to the trainer platform and released my Magmar, while Danielle’s 
Dewgong followed, before the battle started, I looked sadly at Danielle.  
“Danielle...  I’m sorry...  I should have-”  
“Dew-Gong!” screamed Basher, having propelled itself forward and swung its long 
tail to batter my Magmar.  
“Don’t speak.” she said, her voice low, calm but down, “Just fight.  I got here 
for you, not for the League, not for the prize, but for You.  What a fool I 
was.  
Well I’m here now, you wanted me to battle my hardest, and you’re getting your 
wish...”  
“Whoa, I’m glad I wasn’t the one to tick that girl off, her Pokémon are really 
lashing out at Tetsubo’s!” commented the commentator.  
The Dewgong growled as my Magmar picked itself off the floor, the Dewgong 
charged forward again, but slipped, the icy surface of the arena wasn’t good 
for those without a good grip, the Dewgong being no exception.  
“Smog!” I called.  
“Bubblebeam.” said Danielle, quiet and almost emotionless.  
The dusty cloud was briefly cleared, and the hard projectiles exploded all over 
Lavos.  
“Flamethrower!” I called, before thinking the consequences through.  
My Magmar shot a long flame directly at the Dewgong, who stopped itself and 
remained where it was, the fire slammed into it and burnt into its chest, but 
with a quick flip, the fire was deflected into the icy floor and created a tiny 
hole.  
“Fire Blast!” I called, but the star-shaped blast of flames came too late, and 
flew over the hole in the ice that the Dewgong dived into.  
It popped its head up moments later as the heat of the last attack expanded the 
hole of ice, but it looked straight into a glowing eyed Magmar, scaring it 
stiff.  
“Mega Kick!” I called, and Lavos practically skated over and swung its leg 
around to put as much power as possible into the attack.  
Danielle’s Dewgong went tumbling back, now above the surface and far from 
water.  
“Let’s not use any Fire attacks Lavos, use Normal moves until it faints.”  
My orders were quickly nullified, as a red recall laser touched the Dewgong, 
changed it into energy and drew it back, immediately being replaced by 
Danielle’s Clefable.  
“Fable.” it said, and upon looking at Danielle, it growled at us, “Fable...”  
Lavos had its eyes glow again in an attempt to scare it, but the two were 
fairly even in fierceness to scare the other.  
“Doubleslap...” spoke Danielle, and the Clefable rushed at us screaming, as if 
it felt the anger rushing through Danielle and expressed it on her behalf.  
Aria was upon us swiftly, and literally smacked Lavos around with sore cheeks, 
it glared and used Flamethrower but the fairy Pokémon vanished with the 
Minimize technique.  
“Keep alert Lavos, she’s-”  
An eerie tune could be heard, by the time Aria returned, Lavos was asleep, and 
instead of beating it around some more, it waited, and all the while, Lavos 
slept.  
“Looks like Tetsubo’s Magmar is out of this battle, its just not waking up.” 
explained the commentator, and one of the lights on the display board next to 
my picture went black to symbolise Lavos’s defeat.  
I sighed, recalled him, and threw in my second Pokéball, hopefully more than 
enough to take out the fairy.  
“Booooarrrghhh!!!” squealed my Dragonite, hovering above the field, all I had 
to watch out for was the Ice Field being used against him.  
Danielle sniffed, “Aria, I believe in you, do what you must to win...  I might 
feel better about myself if we do...  To surpass the one I idolised for so 
long.”  
Aria nodded and now wore a face of sheer determination, she leapt up and 
slammed her head into my Dragonite’s stomach, winding him but damaging 
herself.  
Bahamut slammed down on the ice, and rolled aside as that area crumbled and 
exposed the cold water beneath, it turned back to Aria who sent a blue psychic 
sphere its way.  
The force of the attack was astounding, obviously Danielle had learned 
something from our first battle and taught her Clefable how to use Psychic, 
just as I’d taught my first Pokémon.  
Bahamut was lifted off the floor and crushed by the blue energy around it, and 
then let go to drop, this time he fell through and got splashed by a lot of 
cold water before it could crawl out, it turned again to Aria, who was waving 
its fingers to the sides and using Metronome.  
Danielle was relentless during this bout, and it was just unlucky that the 
random attack generated, was Dragon Rage, the small flame floated through the 
air, spinning and growing vertically, it surrounded my Dragonite and exploded, 
sending it tumbling away from the small hole in the ice.  
Still Bahamut wouldn’t accept defeat and still Aria ran forward not holding 
back.  
“Wing Attack!” I called at the last moment, and the sudden movement knocked 
Aria back and into the hole in the ice, “Now Ice Beam!”  
The cold beam fired from Bahamut was aimed at the hole, it went without saying 
what with my Pokémon generally being on the same wavelength as me, as the beam 
swept across, the hole was gone and the Clefable trapped under the ice, the 
other holes too far for it to reach before her defeat.  
She slammed against the ice with all her might, expending all her energy until 
finally, cracks formed and she got out to breathe.  
“Back at you Aria.” I called, “Dragon Rage!”  
The blue flames were blown out and exploded upon Aria, taking the last of her 
strength.  
“Aria...  I’m very proud of you...” sighed Danielle, before her Dewgong 
appeared again, but in one of the holes in the ice.  
“Get it...  Get it good with Ice attacks...” she spoke, and it was so, her 
Dewgong shooting one Ice Beam after another, forcing Bahamut to fly up and 
constantly stay on the move.  
I noticed her Dewgong was beat up from the last fight, and realised that 
Danielle had placed us in a trap, her Dewgong stopped firing and was 
regenerating its health by resting.  
Bahamut charged down and slammed into it, but the Dewgong immediately woke, and 
threw its weight around, activating a Surf attack to drench Bahamut, and then a 
quick Ice Beam close up not only damaged it, but froze the water on my 
Dragonite so that it was wearing a coat of ice.  
I couldn’t believe that Danielle was fighting so methodically, so 
resourcefully, so... calmly.  
Danielle was almost like a coin, different things on either sides, usually I 
had to deal with the impulsive, childish and frivolous side, but today, it was 
her calmer, calculating, and quite frankly wiser side, and that was how I’d 
underestimated her.  
With the last of its strength, Bahamut charged a Thunderbolt attack, and 
shocked the Dewgong into defeat, right before the ice around it sapped what was 
left in him, and had him collapse as well.  
“Well, that’s a Double K.O for Tetsubo’s Dragonite and Danielle’s Dewgong, they 
only have one Pokémon left folks, prepare for the gripping final bout!”  
“Ex-Egg-Gutor!” bellowed my Exeggutor as he appeared.  
“Neeeeiiiggghhh!!!” bellowed Danielle’s Rapidash, lifting its front legs into 
the air and slamming them down.  
“I don’t care what it takes...  Beat that Pokémon...” spoke Danielle, and that 
it did.  
I was in a great deal of trouble, I’d hoped that by beating her Dewgong, the 
final Pokémon I’d chosen wouldn’t have a weakness to prey on, but Danielle 
chose a Pokémon I’d forgotten about since I’d never battled it before.  
The Rapidash was by far the most relentless Pokémon, it ran around the field 
swiftly, planning every route so as not to fall into a hole but passing by 
Scramble at every opportunity and burning it as if a living fireball was 
shooting past it, it used Agility as soon as Scramble started sending out Egg 
Bombs at it, and so it missed every time, at least the blasts created more 
holes and made the Rapidash work more to get at Scramble without falling in.  
Occasionally it would come in close and stomp down on my Exeggutor with its 
hooves, and any physical hits thrown at it were deflected by bright Ember 
attacks that forced Scramble to bend over and rub its heads on the cold floor 
to extinguish the small flames.  
Scramble was on its last leg before long, and the Rapidash hadn’t taken a full 
hit yet.  
“There’ s just gotta be a way to win...  Some way to tip this battle over...  
The Field!...  Scramble! Scatter your Barrage attack all over the field!”  
“No!” shouted Danielle, but it was too late, her Rapidash was too far away, 
circling for another run and wouldn’t make it back in time.  
Egg-shaped projectiles popped out at a surprising rate so that the field was 
rained down upon with small bombs, as soon as they contacted the floor they 
exploded, and the combined forces of each other egg caused a chain reaction 
that sent cracks forming across any of the ice that hadn’t been blown apart.  
Virtually the whole field shattered and Danielle’s Rapidash lost its balance 
and fell into the water, much of its health leaving it because of this.  
Scramble sat on a chunk of ice slowly floating towards the sunk horse (because 
the Barrage had been fired outwards, Scramble had remained unharmed and secured 
a safe place to stand), and a sly grin appeared on each of its faces.  
“Psychic!” I called out, and the Rapidash was lifted up, seeing as it had 
finally been grounded and stopped, it was raised into the air and crushed, but 
it was struggling and might escape the hold and counterstrike, unless I 
finished the match right away.  
“Egg Bomb!”  
“TOR!!!” roared Scramble, a large glowing egg rising from the centre of its 
leaves and hurtling forward, it exploded on the Rapidash and brought it 
crashing down back into the water, too weak to fire another attack or even 
stand.  
The Rapidash fell on its side and was recalled, while the crowds went crazy, “A 
stunning upset to this battle! Tetsubo forges an ‘eggseptional’ victory and 
makes a great comeback! The Green Trainer wins and progresses to the next 
round!...”  
“I lost...” sobbed Danielle, dropping to her knees, “I guess I’m not as good as 
I thought...”  

After the battles, Emily, Chad, Abby and I went to see Danielle in the locker 
rooms, “Danielle?...”  
“What do you want?...  To mock me?...” she asked sadly.  
“Not at all...  You put up a great fight, in fact, the best I’ve had so far...  
Please don’t think of yourself as a failure, I couldn’t bear that...” I 
replied.  
“Why? Its not like you care, before, you said-”  
“I shouldn’t have said those things, its just what with our battle...  I didn’t 
mean to-”  
“You didn’t mean those mean things?...” she sniffed, “Of course you didn’t!” 
she shouted suddenly.  
Danielle’s expression changed, back into the carefree persistent girl I could 
barely stand to be with, “Oh Tetsubo.” she said, rushing at me and hugging me 
tight, “How could I have believed you didn’t like me, it was just the stress of 
having to battle me, but I understand now.  I meant what I said though, I came 
here for you and I do want you to recognise me for the great trainer I  am, I 
don’t need a trophy to tell me that, only you.”  
“Danielle, I think you’ve misunderstood, I-”  
“He’s very proud of you, Danielle.” intervened Emily.  
“Yes, he thinks you’ve come along nicely, but you’ve still got a little way to 
go as a trainer.” added Abby.  
“I do?” I whispered quietly.  
“I understand Tetsubo, you couldn’t love me absolutely until I prove that I’m 
your equal in terms of Pokémon Training, I thought I was when I battled you but 
obviously there’s a little more work to do.  I’m going to leave now and train 
my Pokémon and catch a bunch of new ones right away, I’m sorry I can’t stay to 
cheer you on as you go on to win this tournament but becoming your equal is 
much more important right now.  Remember that my heart will cheer for you and 
that I’ll be with you wherever you are.”  
“Hopefully not in the literal sense...” I thought.  
“Well, I’ll see you again soon my love.” said Danielle, before briefly kissing 
me, on the lips of all places, and rushing out the room straight afterwards.  
I wiped my mouth clean and turned to the girls, “Why did you lie to her like 
that? Becoming my equal won’t convince me to be with Danielle, I don’t think 
anything will.”  
“We know, but after seeing how sad that girl can get, how could we hurt her 
with the ugly truth?” smiled Emily.  
“Besides, what are the chances she’ll actually become your equal? You’re quite 
the trainer Tetsubo, its a hard thing to ever be as good as you, maybe while 
Danielle tries to do this, she’ll mature, and find someone else to love her...” 
added Abby, complimenting me in the process.  
“When you put it that way, thanks guys, I can concentrate more on my battles 
now rather than checking for strange little girls chasing after me.” I 
smirked.  
“How about we celebrate our third wins? We might not be able to do it again 
tomorrow.” suggested Abby.  
“Of course we won’t.” added Chad, “Cos we’ll be celebrating our forth wins.”  
“I didn’t mean that, I meant we might not all be winners tomorrow.” frowned 
Abby.  
“As if!” grinned Chad, “We’re all gonna be winners, just you wait and see!”  
With that, he put his huge arms around Emily and I and walked us out of the 
room.  
“But this is a tournament, we can’t all win it, and-  Was Chad speaking 
figuratively or just plain dumb? Hey wait for me!...”  

End of Chapter 54B  

Back to Chapter 54A
Next Chapter
Back to Story List #41 - #60
Back to the Pokézone