Chapter 55: Payback (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus Another day dawned over the Pokémon Village in the Indigo Plateau, and I was up early along with Emily. With the third round over, there were only 32 trainers left in the tournament, it felt great to be one of them, and great that my close friends also shared that rank. It wouldn’t last though, there could only be one winner, and the closer I got to the finals, the closer I got to being in a Pokémon Battle against Bryan. We were on our way to Central Point to check up the next opponents we’d be facing. “Hey Tet’, you seen much of Danielle since your last battle?” smiled Emily. I turned swiftly to her, “She hasn’t been asking for me, has she?!” “Possibly, but I haven’t seen her, I know she claimed she was leaving to train some more but I wouldn’t count out the possibility of her changing her mind and stalking you.” she smirked. “Don’t even joke about it. Sometimes I wish that trainers no longer competing were asked to leave, Danielle might return for the closing ceremony, let’s just hope she doesn’t locate me. I don’t mind if she believes she has a chance with me, just as long as she’s nowhere near me and crawling over me like a rash.” “We’re nearly at Central Point, are you looking forward to seeing who your next opponent is?” “Not really, I’m worried that it’ll be Bryan, and equally worried that he’ll be against one of our friends.” “Tet’, I understand that you won’t report his doings because of his threats, but we’ll all battle hard to stop him, if he wins, then a decent trainer will be robbed of the chance for fame, and the money will be used for Team Rocket.” “I know Emily, I’m ready to fight him to the finish, but I’m not sure the scenario is in my favour yet, maybe if I get into Round 6 where I can use up to six Pokémon, I’ll stand a better chance against him.” Emily didn’t answer, but gave me a reassuring look to comfort me. “Tetsubo, I believe in you, you’ve got to overcome your problems, and the people that prevent you from moving on with your life.” “Speaking of which, did you know that your old acquaintances Enrique and Rita were beaten by Cody and Bryan?” “That leaves Sebastian and Bianca unaccounted for...” she sighed, that group did to Emily what Bryan did to me (not being a Rocket, but humiliating, hurting and affecting her greatly), “I wonder if they’re still in the tournament?” “Of course we are, we’re not beginner trainers like you.” said the snide voice of Bianca. “We’re in the tournament, and you two are our next opponents.” added Sebastian confidently. Emily glared forward at them, if looks could kill... “Emily, the next time you want to complain just because we kicked you out the group, do it yourself instead of sending your runt of a boyfriend.” “Runt?...” I questioned darkly, “I might not look much to you now, but just you wait until the fight.” “I’ve seen you fight.” smirked Sebastian, “You’re nothing special, I’ll beat you hands down.” “He’s not my boyfriend and I don’t need him to speak for me, but whatever he told you last, you deserved to be told, you’re one of the worst people around, and I’ll take your Pokémon down and prove how good a trainer I am!” said Emily loudly and with a pointing finger. “What-Ever.” she replied, and the two left. “Tetsubo, I wish I could battle both of them, but I guess I’ll have to rely on you to beat Sebastian for me.” stated Emily. “I’m not going to lose to someone like him, I’ve still got to fight Bryan, I’ll think of you during the battle and win it for you... Good luck...” I replied, before we parted ways for now. Meanwhile Scott wandered around the village, his battle was to be announced soon and he had time to kill. In the east side, cheery circus music echoed around, and there were many crowds grouped together in a semi-circle. Scott pushed through gently to get a better look, and saw several Pokémon performing tricks, and talented people doing the same. “Thank you, thank you.” said Stella, the ringmaster of it all, she had long blue hair and a red ringleader uniform with white trousers and black boots, “If anyone wishes to join in, for one day only we’ll be accepting volunteers to join in the show. Step forward if you want to be a part of it.” “Ooh! Me! Me!” shouted a young girl, pushing past Scott roughly but forcing him forward. “Wonderful, two great volunteers already, and one more over there, come on down.” announced Stella. “But I didn’t...” argued Scott, before giving up as three female assistants in pale green shirts and various hairstyles and colours pulled him onto the stage. “Do you have any talents?” asked one of them. “Aside from Pokémon Training, none... Well, I’m sort of alright at juggling. I performed once at the House of Imitae.” admitted Scott. “Great, here you go.” they said, handing him three balls, stuffed with tiny beans. Scott felt a little nervous, once again standing in front of a crowd, he peered over at the other volunteers, a young boy was performing simple gymnastics, and the girl that had got him into this was Eve, Carrie’s sister whom he’d briefly met a week ago, she was spinning plates on sticks. “Here goes...” Scott sighed, throwing the balls into the air, he managed to juggle them for about ten seconds before dropping one. “Damn, I was sure I had the hang of it.” muttered Scott, noticing disappointment among the crowd, he looked down at his Pokéballs, and smirked. Soon Scott had dropped the remaining balls and started to juggle three of his Pokéballs, he’d done this before and was better suited to the size and weight of them. The crowd picked up and cheered the three volunteers on, and Stella stepped up, “Okay, thank you three, but we’ll have to let you go and allow others to participate, thanks for performing.” With that, the boy was helped to his feet, and Eve was slowly relieved of the plates, all but one, which nearly fell and crashed if not for Eve stepping forward to balance it out and prevent that. Scott stopped juggling and held the Pokéballs together, when Eve bumped into him. Both fell to the floor, and Scott hastily picked up the three Pokéballs before they got away from him. “Will Trainers Scott Addison and the Collector report to the Ice Field, your match is due to begin in five minutes.” called a female voice. “Will Trainers Eve Summers and Abby report to the Water Field, your match is due to begin in ten minutes.” called a second female. “I’ve gotta go, you okay there?” asked Scott. “Sure Mister.” answered Eve. Scott left the area and hurried towards his designated field, while Eve picked herself up, realised one of her Pokéballs had fallen, and snapped it back onto the underside of her skirt and ran towards the Water Field... In the Ice Field centre, Scott exhaled as he prepared to fight, closer and closer he got to saving his sister, only 5 more fights and he would do it. He decided to call out some of his Pokémon to perform a pep talk. “Sandslash.” “Snor...” “Whirl!” “Mag...” “Rai!” “Eui!” Upon the final Pokémon’s appearance, all eyes turned straight to it, “What’s that doing in my party?” questioned Scott, before realising, “That girl... Our Pokéballs must have got mixed up.” Scott didn’t have time to chase her down yet, his match was due to begin, but on the plus side, he didn’t need his Onix for the battle, and he knew how to locate Eve, so he quickly said, “Same as always Guys, we play to win.” and then recalled them, separated the Pokéballs into two sets, and soon headed towards his next match with his chosen three Pokémon... Earlier on, Rick had engaged in his final field battle, against none other than my little brother Cody. Rick’s Mr Mime had earlier put a stop to Cody’s ferocious Nidoking, but he’d retreated it after Jet, a strong Blastoise now, was called in. Next was Rick’s Muk, who had thrown a lot of poison around but not hit the strong opponent, until Rick thought a creative way to stop the Water attacks, by blocking up the Blastoise’s hydro cannons with a thick hardening sludge, after that, things were easier and Cody suffered another loss. After that, Cody’s newly evolved Machamp came in to rectify things, and finished off the tired Muk, Rick’s Golem then engaged in a fearsome battle against the Fighting Pokémon. “Muscles! Karate Chop!” “Rocky! Dig!” The quick strike missed as Rick’s Golem dived underground, the Rock Field terrain making it easy for it to do so. “Low Kick!” ordered Cody next, and the Machamp sensed the Golem’s movement and hit it as soon as it appeared, caught it in its many arms, and finished the battle with a Seismic Toss, and then a follow-up Submission. “Is it over for the Green Trainer Rick?” questioned the commentator. “Of course not...” muttered Rick, “The only reason I might look ticked off to everyone right now is because I’d rather be fighting on the Red Side, since ‘Red’ has been my nickname for years, oh well, Pantomime, let’s finish this!” “Mime!” it cheered out, appearing, surprising Cody, and trapping the Machamp in its Psychic hold and draining the last of its strength. “Muscles... No...” groaned Cody, “I guess its all over... I was hoping to face Tetsubo one more time before the tournament was done...” “And the Green Trainer wins the match! But congratulations to the Red Trainer Cody Capture anyway for a great show during this and his past three battles.” “Capture?” questioned Rick, “Isn’t that Tetsubo’s second name? It is... Oh dear, I hope he’s not upset at me for knocking his little brother out the tournament...” Scott’s battles had lasted, and went into the time in which Eve’s battle had started, not that it meant that big a deal to him other than having to miss one of Abby’s matches. Still, Professor Yew was recording many battles on different channels with several video machines so that Scott could look back on them, catch up on how his friends did or whatever, after he’d saved his sister from death. The first battle had been Scott’s Sandslash against the man known as the Collector (a chubby man with a pony-tail, stubble on his face and a comic slogan on his large shirt) and his Alakazam, and after a psychic beating and several tearing hits, the battered Sandslash was victim to an enormous psychic explosion and hurled across the Ice Field. Scott had then sneakily thrown in his Poliwhirl, and then immediately recalled it as the powerful Alakazam blasted the area, and then summoned his Snorlax to appear over the Alakazam so that it fell on top of it with a Body Slam. Scott had revealed his whole team, but taken down the strongest of the opponent’s Pokémon, while only losing one of his own. “My Alakazam yields to your technique, just as Princess Mazgol did to the Great Karn in Issue 116 of Terror Trainers, but like the Butterfree Queen did to the Hive Master in Issue 248, I shall strike back and win.” stated Collector. “Do I have to put up with these comic references throughout the whole match?!” groaned Scott... Meanwhile, Eve had entered the Water Field, where her opponent Abby was awaiting her. “Doesn’t look too tough.” smiled Eve, “Even if she’s watched my matches, she won’t beat my trio on this field.” Abby stared down Eve for a moment and then threw out her Hypno, while Eve called on her Jolteon. “Nightmare, go all out with Psychic.” “Hyp-No!” it cried out, its eyes glowing and blue spheres spiralling around each other and then shooting towards the enemy. “Agility!” shouted Eve, and the Jolteon leapt off its ice platform to the next, as the barrage of crushing psychic spheres smashed into the disc, and crushed it into pieces. Nightmare continued to throw around its power, but on the centre platform, while the Jolteon ran and leapt in a full circle around the outer ones, Abby was aware that to destroy every platform would force her Hypno to expend energy to float. The Jolteon was fast though, and immediately after one of the outer platforms was destroyed, it closed in, shooting off a blue charge from its spines and paralysing the Hypno. As it fell and struggled for control of its body, the Jolteon stopped next to it, enhanced its power with a Focus Energy technique, and then showered the Psychic-type in its sharp spines. “Pin Missile.” stated Abby, “The enhanced power and the type advantage dealt Nightmare a hard blow.” “Finish it Jolteon!” “Poison Gas!” called Abby, her Pokémon reacting first. A whiff of purple smoke overwhelmed the Jolteon and drew the toxins into it. “And Disable.” “Hypno...” growled Nightmare weakly as it raised a hand, it froze the enemy and dumped it in the water. “Its over.” sighed Abby, but turned with shocked eyes as electricity leapt up and shocked Nightmare, pushing it into the water along with the paddling Jolteon. “Ha ha!” cheered Eve, “You didn’t think my Jolteon could swim? Did you? Thunderbolt!” The water went yellow and many rays of electricity sparked everywhere as Nightmare was blasted, finally the Jolteon leapt up and finished the bout with one last Pin Missile attack. “Ha! Ha!” laughed Eve, “Training a small amount of Pokémon may have lowered my chances of having different types of Pokémon for battle, but the Pokémon I have now are more powerful than trainers who have split experience among many Pokémon.” “I’ve got to shape up.” thought Abby, “And that girl has to be shut up...” Back on Scott’s end, his Snorlax was left to deal with a Machamp, type difference was currently in the Collector’s favour. The Machamp was punching and kicking away at the Snorlax, who continuously backed away, each footstep and its colossal weight cracking the ice arena slowly, any step in the same place would probably shatter the whole area. “Don’t stop Machamp! Think like Blitzer the Destroyer!” called out the comic fan. “What about the Beast of Burden?” asked Scott. “There’s no such character in any Pokémon Legendary Hero Comic Books.” he protested. “In reality he’s about to smack your Pokémon around, get out of the comics for once in your life. Bob! Suck it in and Head Butt!” called Scott. The Snorlax braced itself, and the Machamp’s next punch was lost in flab, with its hand stuck somewhere in the Snorlax’s stomach, it was hit hard by Bob’s large head and fell back in a dizzy state, to be tackled soon after. “Never give up Machamp, think like a Pokémon Ranger! Submission!” The Machamp clenched a fist and used the ice to slowly spin itself, while approaching the enemy, the spins gained speed and built up its power, before a rising uppercut was performed. “Defense Curl!” shouted Scott, and the large round Pokémon ducked for cover, while the Machamp rose right over and lost control. “Hyper Beam!” shouted Scott, and immediately the Snorlax looked up at the overhead Machamp, and shot a golden beam from its mouth directly upwards, blasting the Machamp quite some distance before it fell right back down and made a Machamp-shaped hole in the ice. “Very good there Mr Scott, had we met under difference circumstances, I’m sure we could have been friends, but I shall still win this duel!” called Collector. “In any circumstance I’m sure I’d ditch you for being such a fiction freak, I battle for the life of another, while you can only read about that sort of responsibility, its that mission that will help me overcome any opponent.” replied Scott. “Really?...” asked the Collector in awe, “Win or lose, I’ll have to incorporate that into my own comic book. Let’s finish this...” During that battle, Abby’s Rhydon had evened things out, even though one fall would weaken it with water, the Rock/ Ground Pokémon held its ground. Eve’s Jolteon grew weak with the poison from the last opponent, and found it hard to focus, electricity did nothing to the enemy and when it tried physical attacks to knock it over, the horn on Armour’s head spun into a drill and delivered a knockout blow to the Electric Pokémon. Now Eve’s Flareon took up the fight, even though the enemy was strong against Fire attacks, and that if either battler fell into the water, it would not go well for them. “Flare!!!” screamed the Flareon, shooting long flames at the Rhydon’s chest, but it simply stood there and took in the heat. But suddenly, the long flame was directed upwards, and hit the Rhydon around the eyes, blinding it for a moment so that the Flareon could tackle the Rhydon in the side and push it into the water. It held its ground, and blindly threw the Flareon down, but the splash of it hurt him as well as the Flareon, who had hastily gotten out before major damage could be done through the water. “Armour...” Its defenses were down, the water weakening its rocky hide, Armour had two types, and both were weak against Water, while the same could be said for the opponent but only with one type, out of the two battlers, the Flareon was still looking strong. “Horn Attack.” called Abby, and several sharp horns were grown and fired towards the Flareon, who deflected each one with simple Fire attacks. “Finish it, firstly with Smog!” called Eve, and a black smoke was unleashed to cover up the field and make the Pokémon and trainers fight blind. “Armour, use... No, any Ground attacks would destroy the platform and make you fall in, I can’t use Rock attacks because there is no ground to form those techniques, and any physical attacks would only be effective if I could see...” “DON!” shouted Armour, having taken an Ember attack to the eyes, again. As the smoke cleared, Abby saw too late, as the Flareon leapt to the next closest platform, and blew up the one Armour was on with Fire Blast, forcing him to fall into the water and be defeated by it. A roar of cheers went up for Eve having beaten a Pokémon that should have had the advantage, making Abby scowl, and think things over before using the last Pokémon. “I won’t be beaten by a showoff like her, I need to find my family, and the League is my best chance in doing that! Its a good thing I brought this reliable Pokémon, Go Leviathan!” “Gyyyyaaaaaggghhh!!!” it growled as it rose high above the Flareon, it didn’t need the ice platforms like the other Pokémon and by destroying them, would defeat most Pokémon unless they could swim... Bob had long been recalled, but out of choice, due to the large Golem throwing its weight around, the Snorlax’s stomach wasn’t working against the giant rock ball. Scott had called out his Poliwhirl, which should have guaranteed him the win, but things had gone awry. “Squirt! Use Water Gun again, and concentrate!” “Rock Throw yourself!” Somehow, the Golem was able to bounce in exactly the right way, in order to dodge the water blasts and go on to attack the tadpole Pokémon, but also to avoid any weak ice areas. “Whirl!” screamed Squirt, before picking itself up and enhancing itself with the Amnesia technique. “Crush it like a Titanus Warrior!” “Hydro Pump!” The large jet was fired upwards and collided, causing Scott to clench a fist in triumph, “Yes.” “Do it like Dizzy Pika Fairy!” The Golem spun its body in a stationary position in the air and repelled the most part of the attack, leaving little damage, before landing on the Poliwhirl, uncurling, grabbing it and leaping into the air to perform a Seismic Toss. The battered Pokémon skipped across the arena floor and came to a stop. “I underestimated it, I was sure I could win with type advantage.” cursed Scott. “In comic books, you’ve got to expect the unexpected.” laughed Collector. “You’re correct.” smiled Scott, noticing the whole arena was pretty much cracked, “Bob!” The Snorlax appeared for one last time, above the arena. The Collector saw what was to come, but could do nothing about it, this Snorlax couldn’t be prevented from doing what it wanted. Bob crashed down in a sitting position, and his sheer weight broke apart all the ice floor arena, leaving it a large bath with many ice shards. Bob was left sitting there peacefully, while the Golem struggled and squirmed, but was weakened by the water and fainted. “And Scott does it again and outsmarts the wacky Collector!” “Good going Mr Scott. I admit defeat to the superior trainer. If you aren’t too busy I’d love to make some notes and base my new comic character on you.” said the Collector pleasantly. “Just don’t make another comic reference and I’ll see what I can do...” sighed Scott. As Scott took his victory, things were looking up for Abby, as her Gyarados made short work of Eve’s Flareon, at first, it used Water Gun again and again to force the Pokémon to move around the two remaining discs, before using Dragon Rage to decimate the farthest one to catch the Flareon out easily after that. “Nice work Leviathan, but we’ve still got one last opponent, Thrash the platform its on then prepare to do the same to the last Pokémon.” “Gyyyyaaaggghhh!!!” it roared, slamming its side and head and breaking the platform in half. “Flare!” squealed the opponent as it fell into the water and couldn’t reach the platform due to waves made by the Gyarados. “Return.” called Eve, before drawing one last Pokéball, “Time for my secret weapon, this little Pokémon will be able to use even the smallest pieces of ice floating around, and the attacks I’ve taught it will be enough to reflect that Gyarados’s attacks right back at it. Go!” The last Pokéball opened, and out came... an Onix, which nearly fell off the half-piece of a platform and scrambled to leap onto the only full platform available. “Huh?!” she screamed, while the Onix looked at her and simply stared. “Well this is a surprise folks, throughout all of her matches here Eve has only used evolved Eevee, what sort of tactic could she possibly have in bringing out a large Rock Pokémon in this watery environment?” questioned the commentator. “I don’t know how you got here but please, just attack that Gyarados for me.” It gave her a look of judgement, and then one of disrespect, and then at the Gyarados, and to Abby, who it recognised. “I could have sworn that Onix just smiled at me, but what is that girl thinking by using it here and now?” questioned Abby. “Please Onix!” pleaded Eve. It turned away from her and Eve had to recall it, since it wouldn’t obey her it counted as a loss, the final light went out on the scoreboard and Abby was declared the winner. “Return Leviathan, I guess you won’t have to work hard after all, Eve defeated herself.” smirked Abby slightly. “Its not fair... How could this have happened, who could have stolen my super Eevee and replaced it with- That guy!...” realised Eve. As Eve broke down and cried, complained and moaned, Abby walked away with a small smile on her face, and her year long mission’s success getting closer to her now. As Scott walked out of the arena alone, pleased that he’d won his forth battle, rather than go celebrate it with us, he returned to the hotel room, and searched my scrap notes on the dresser until he found a certain address, and then headed there. “Coming!...” shouted a female voice pleasantly shortly after someone unexpectedly knocked for her at her room, “I’m not decent yet... Okay, I’m ready, hang on... Scott?” “Hi Carrie.” “Its been a while... What are you doing here? Not just to see me, surely...” said Carrie happily, before looking a little down. “No, but about the other day, I wasn’t going out with Emily, I was just pretending to be so that she could get back at someone. Besides, she’s crazy about Tetsubo, so-” “Scott, I believe you, you can stop being so nervous.” smiled Carrie, stopping him from saying more. “Thanks. Anyway, the reason I came here was to return your sister’s Pokémon, we had a mix-up earlier.” he said, releasing the Eevee from it’s Pokéball. “She’s due back soon, she always tries to watch me fight, she looks up to me, and- Are you okay?” “Yeah, yeah.” said Scott, who had just fazed out due to thoughts of his own little sister, but snapped back to reality as the Eevee jumped up onto his head, Carrie giggled. “You’re welcome to wait for her, I’ve got a match later this evening, that’s why I slept in today.” “I think I will.” “So... you’re obviously still in the tournament since you seem moderately happy.” figured Carrie. “You think? I’m usually not this way, maybe its something to do with your presence.” mused Scott. “Aw thanks... Um, would you walk with me to the arena?” asked Carrie, a little nervously. “I’ll do better than that, I’ll watch your match as well, I’ve got nothing on for the night.” shrugged Scott with a pleasant smile. “Then maybe we can hang out, I’ve got to say, ever since I met you, I’ve been really intrigued, you’re very handsome but just so secretive.” flirted Carrie. “You’re free to get to know me better, most people don’t seem to bother.” he replied. “Is that so?” smiled Carrie with a seductive look, before the door slammed open. “Sis!” whined Eve, “This mean man stole my Eevee and swapped it for a mean old Onix! I lost my match because of it and- That’s him!” she screamed as soon as she realised Scott was here. “I didn’t Steal her Eevee Carrie, honest, it was an accident.” protested Scott hastily. “I believe you Scott, Eve has a habit of exaggerating things.” she comforted. “Si-s!” whined Eve, “Why are you defending him? He-” Carrie approached her sister and whispered something in her ear, she seemed to cheer up a bit, “Oh, so That’s why he’s here.” She sniffed again and handed over the Pokéball, “I’m sorry for saying those bad things, Mister, here’s your Onix...” “And here’s your-” said Scott, trying to lift the Eevee from his head but failing to get it off, “Sorry but it doesn’t seem to be letting go.” “Oh, I guess you’re stuck with it then.” said Eve surprisingly. “But I thought you wanted it back.” asked Scott confused. “Only for my match, I wanted to surprise that mean cherry haired girl with it, but other than that I was trying to find a new trainer for it so I can raise more Eevees. Don’t you want it Mister?” explained Eve. “Well, sure, I guess.” admitted Scott. “I forgive you Mister, take care of that Eevee, and take care of C-” Carrie had just grabbed Eve and held her hand over her mouth, “That’s enough Eve, now why don’t you get ready to leave, we can get some food before my match.” “You’ll come too Mister, won’t you?” pleaded Eve. “How can I refuse the request of two lovely ladies?” he answered, causing them to blush... End of Chapter 55A Back to Chapter 54B Chapter 55B Back to Story List #41 - #60 Back to the Pokézone