Chapter 55:  Payback (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Up in the audience area of the Rock Field, Emily and I had met up and were 
sitting together, overlooking Chad’s latest match, against his old buddy Bert.  
“You nervous?” she questioned.  
“Kinda, Chad and Bert are both great battlers.” I answered without thinking, 
kind of hooked on the match.  
“No, not that, Our matches.  Personally I’m really scared, the only two battles 
I’ve had with Bianca, I’ve lost.”  
“You’re different now, I’m sure it was just a difference in level that cost 
you.” I comforted.  
“Well, type advantage did come into it, but the first time round I was in 
disbelief that Bianca wanted to make me look bad, and the second time, well, 
you remember how that went...”  
“Some people can easily get under your skin and make you act irrationally, I 
know exactly what that’s like.  But at least Bianca plays by Pokémon League 
Rules which is more than I can say for Bryan.  I have faith in you Emily, this 
is one battle you’ve got to fight your hardest, I know it’ll eat you up inside 
if you lose for the third time.” I explained.  
“Thank you Tetsubo.  And Sebastian? Are you sure you’re ready?” she 
questioned.  
“I’ve never battled the guy, but yeah, that group of heartless phonies don’t 
scare me, and I’m extra psyched to put them in their place after all the hurt 
they caused you.” I declared.  
“... Sebastian may say some pretty bad things about me, please don’t listen, 
its just when I had a stupid crush on him, he was torn between two women, and 
upon choosing Bianca, he turned on me and blamed all we’d done solely on me.” 
pleaded Emily.  
“Emily, I understand, just remember who your friends really are, and what you 
mean to them.  Heck, even Abby has high regard for you nowadays.  We’ll be with 
you in spirit.”  
“Speaking of...  Hey Abby! Over here!” called Emily.  
Luckily there was a spare seat by ours, which Abby made her way to, “Hey guys, 
I won.”  
“Against Carrie’s little sister, right? She’s probably throwing a fit right 
about now.” I pondered.  
“It was strange, she used an unruly Pokémon right when things were getting 
hectic, but a win is a win.  How’s the big lug doing against his friend?” 
conversed Abby.  
“I’m not sure, we’ve kind of been talking all this time, we’d better support 
him...” I sighed.  
We tuned into the last part of the second bout, and with one final kick, Chad’s 
Hitmonlee batted Bert’s Blastoise across the field, crashing through several 
rock structures.  

“YEAH!” Chad shouted in triumph, the first match:  Primeape Versus Jynx had 
gone badly despite type advantage being available to both Pokémon, but his 
Hitmonlee had made a comeback by beating two Pokémon.  
“Don’t celebrate now Chad, you must remember my mightiest battler, and on this 
field, he’s a sure winner.” smirked Bert.  
“RHY-DON!”  
“I’ve still got an advantage.  GET IN THERE AND GIVE IT A HI-JUMP KICK!” Chad 
called.  
“Hitmon-Lee!” it cried out, leaping up and swinging its foot for a big hit, but 
the opponent ducked.  
“No!” yelled Chad.  
“Leeeee!!!” it cried out, not only missing and cutting through the centre of an 
enormous rock structure, but crashing into it and bringing a huge chunk 
crumbling down and burying him, while the Rhydon played it safe and ran for 
cover.  
“Return...” sighed Chad, “But its over Buddy, this’ll surely dampen your day.  
GO HYDRO!”  
“Blast!”  
“Hmmmm, another Blastoise, its too bad for you I know its limitations.” 
commented Bert.  
“But its sure to win, a double type advantage will guarantee me the win.” 
chuckled Chad.  
“Hmmmm.” smirked Bert.  
The two Pokémon ran at each other, firstly testing each other’s strength with 
physical blows, unfortunately, Chad seemed to overlook the fact that this was 
with Normal-type moves, which gave the Rhydon a huge advantage with its rocky 
hide.  
“That’s enough Hydro... PUMP!” shouted Chad, getting the jump on Bert with the 
coincidental name of his Blastoise.  
It was hit and skidded back, and Chad repeated the order to blast the opponent 
with the biggest Water attack once more.  
The Rhydon was aware of things and took cover, its energy was about even with 
its opponent after the beating it gave to the Blastoise, but the one blast of 
water took it down a fair notch.  
It dived behind a large rock, of which was weakened by the sheer force.  
“Strength!” shouted Bert, and the Rhydon appeared from hiding and hurled a 
large rock of earth which crashed hard on Chad’s Pokémon.  
“BLIZZARD!” shouted Chad, and Hydro took in a huge breath, and then exhaled a 
huge cold wind.  
The Rhydon hid again, the Rock Field was proving to be Chad’s undoing and 
Bert’s gain, what with the many random structures to be used as weapons and 
shields.  
“DON!” shouted the enemy, jumping off the rock and smashing its weight into the 
Blastoise, but landing awkwardly and damaging itself.  
“SEISMIC TOSS!” shouted Chad, and Hydro leapt forward and in one go, lifted up 
the huge and rocky Rhydon in its hands.  
“NOW-”  
“Hyper Beam.” interrupted Bert, and both Chad’s and his Blastoise’s eyes 
widened in shock, while the enemy’s went into a sly expression.  
Its mouth opened, and a huge gold beam shot directly down, and significantly 
cut down Hydro’s Hit Points to the minimum due to such a powerful attack at 
close range.  
“We’ve got to take it out.” noted Chad, “But it’ll just avoid Water attacks 
unless we beat it down first.  WITHDRAW AND SKULL BASH!”  
Hydro’s head disappeared into its shell, its body aimed at the Rhydon, and shot 
forward, its head appearing halfway through.  
“I’m sorry Chad.” said Bert, “Finish it properly Rhydon.”  
With that, its horn glowed, and the two Pokémon brushed by each other in the 
final moment of the battle, everyone froze, eager to tell the victor.  
Both Pokémon stopped, several metres away from each other and looking away.  
The Rhydon’s horn was spinning wildly, while the Blastoise took a fall, a 
horrid mark on its chest where the knockout move had hit.  
“Its over folks!” shouted the commentator, “We have a victor! Bert is going to 
the next round!...”  
Chad exhaled as he stared, almost in disbelief, we all figured he’d complain, 
but he rose up, his hair a sweaty mess and his expressions showing some 
weakness, and then he clapped for his opponent.  
“I admit, you finally got your types straight and revised like I wanted you to, 
but it doesn’t always guarantee a match win, you got overconfident Chad, and 
because of that, you lost.” explained Bert.  
“I’m okay, I’m not going to throw a fit or make excuses, you were the better 
trainer today.” replied Chad.  
“But still, I’m impressed at your skill.  I’d be honoured if we could go our 
separate ways and battle again in the future as rivals.” called Bert.  
“Its a date, well not a date date or a set time but-  You get the idea...” Chad 
said, before both trainers openly started to laugh...  

Shortly afterwards, we went to see Chad in the locker rooms.  
“Chad...” I said, lost for words that would help, “I really don’t believe you 
just lost.”  
“Yeah.” he said casually, “But at least I made it this far and lost to Bert.”  
“You’re not upset?” I asked.  
“If I break down and cry, I’ll just look childish and stupid.” he replied.  
“And we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?” stated Abby 
sarcastically, “But still, its nice not to see you making silly excuses, I 
admit you’re a pretty tough battler, its too bad we won’t get to battle.”  
“If you wanted to battle me, all you had to do was ask.” grinned Chad.  
“Maybe after the League.  Oh, guys, isn’t it time for your next battles?” 
realised Abby.  
“Yeah.” I replied, “Its a shame they’re virtually five minutes apart, but after 
today, there’ll be less competitors and therefore the matches will be spread 
apart a little more.”  
“Don’t worry Tetsubo, just beat Sebastian for me, and I’m sure one of these two 
will tell me about your battle and you about mine.” nodded Emily.  
“Will either of you be coming?” I asked my friends.  
“No, I think we’ll find a comfortable spot in Central Point and look for two 
cameras showing your matches that are reasonably close by, and then channel hop 
between you two.” suggested Abby.  
“Okay then.” I finished, “I guess I’ll meet you in Central Point after the 
match, pass the word around if you see Rick or Scott.”  

For once, I didn’t happen to see Bryan, or his battles before my match, which 
was for the best, no one was around to bad mouth or get me worked up before my 
match, I just hoped that wasn’t something that was actually helping me win.  

“I didn’t think you’d even show up.” smirked Sebastian, “I’ve beaten all my 
opponents without even breaking a sweat.”  
“You must have got paired up with lesser trainers, its probably where you 
belong.” I replied.  
“You haven’t even seen my Pokémon, and if that’s true, then you’re basically 
insulting yourself!” her laughed.  
“Oh yeah...” I sighed, cursing myself for pretty much walking into that.  
“So, whose honour are you defending today? Emily’s? Well you can have her, 
she’ll never be a real woman like my Bianca.” mocked Sebastian.  
“You deserve each other, you’re both heartless people, soon to be losers.” I 
replied.  
“Is that so? You must be confusing us with you.”  
“I’ve had enough of that big head, let’s resolve this with our battle...”  

Not too far away, in terms of time, not distance, Emily confronted Bianca.  
Bianca saw Emily step onto her trainer platform and smiled slyly, “Its not 
enough to be humiliated in front of the crew, and your man but now you want the 
whole world to see you fail? You should have just taken the easy way out and 
skipped the battle.”  
“Shut up.” said Emily firmly.  
“Oooooh, the little kitty wants another cat fight, but I’m a tiger compared to 
you.”  
“Shut... up.” Emily repeated, “I’m not here to talk, I can’t bare the sight of 
you or bare to hear anything you have to say.  I’m ashamed of myself from ever 
being associated with you, the only thing I’m grateful for, is that you taught 
me who my real friends are.”  
“What, that runt boyfriend Tet-what’s-his-face?” mocked Bianca.  
“He’s not my boyfriend, at least not yet.” answered Emily.  
“You keep saying that he isn’t, and that you’ll get together with him, but I 
bet he doesn’t even want you.” laughed Bianca.  
“When Sebastian finally gets tired and starts looking elsewhere for the girl he 
wants, don’t come crying to me when he ditches you completely.” added Emily.  
“He’d never do such a thing, you tried to steal him from me!” accused Bianca.  
“I didn’t know he was yours!” shouted Emily back.  
“Well folks, it looks like the battle has started, but with no Pokémon 
necessary, these two obviously have some private disputes between them, now if 
they are just about done, let the match begin!...”  

“Psychic!” shouted Sebastian, during the start of our first battle, his 
Exeggutor’s many eyes glowed and a blue sphere shot forward to crush my 
Vileplume.  
“Use Petal Dance! Circle right, then left, and then close in!” I said extremely 
specifically.  
“Vile...” said Pollen emotionlessly, unfortunately things hadn’t changed since 
that horrid evolution some time back.  
Still, the attack worked out, from now on I had to take every step of Pollen’s 
attacks into account, where the old Pollen would take itself into account, this 
one needed to be ordered to do so.  
“Plume...” muttered Pollen, dodging a second attack and spinning the tall 
opponent, he fell to his feet, and because of the lack of emotions and a sense 
of self, confusion didn’t register at all.  
“At least that’s one good thing to be said of such a bad event.” I muttered, 
“Solar Beam!”  
“Vile... Plume...”  
The beam of light was generated quickly and fired upon the Exeggutor, it tried 
to dodge, but its hefty size and weight guaranteed slowness and it was hit, but 
it was no big deal to it.  
“Sleep Powder!” called Sebastian, and a wave of dust was shaken loose as the 
Exeggutor waved its heads to the sides and spores flew from its palm leaves 
like dandruff from hair, only worse.  
“Poison Powder!” I retaliated, and the shooting of the poisonous variety of 
spores hitting the sleeping kind seemed to cancel each other out.  
“Mega Drain!”  
“Confusion.”  
The result of these two attacks was bad for me, the transfer of energy against 
a Grass-type didn’t much make for such a great steal, while the Psychic attack 
hit my Vileplume directly and slammed it on the floor, its Poison-type side 
made Sebastian’s attack highly effective.  
Sebastian ordered an Egg Bomb attack to follow, and several shining ovals 
spurted out of the Exeggutor and crashed on my Vileplume like bombs.  
Sebastian followed up with a Leech Seed attack, and the resulting vines that 
exploded from the pod tangled up my Vileplume so that it was restrained.  
And then Stomp, the Exeggutor rose a foot up and threw it down to crush my 
Vileplume.  
“How’s about we try a Barrage attack up close? Put that Pokémon out of its 
misery, and we’ll soon do the same for its trainer.”  
“Acid!” I shouted at the last moment, and a glob of purple was spat upon the 
opponent, the only weakness we could exploit in terms of type, but not by 
much.  
As the Exeggutor stumbled back on one foot, the vines around Pollen melted from 
residue of its last attack.  
“Petal Dance and Solar Beam!” I shouted, and it was so, first Pollen spun into 
another hurricane and tore past the enemy, and then it landed behind it and 
caught it off guard with a searing hot beam to the back.  
“Ex-Egg-Ex-Egg-  Tor!” it wailed as it crashed down on its face and stomach.  
“What a spectacular end to a long battle, Tetsubo takes an early lead, but 
Sebastian can easily take it back.”  
“Damn straight.” he added.  

“Gloom!” squealed Emily’s Pokémon, a stage down from the one I was using but 
still full of individuality unlike mine, as it fell back with several poisonous 
needles temporarily embedded in its body.  
She skidded to a halt and panted, a strange occasional light flickered from its 
petals.  
“Pathetic!” laughed Bianca, “That little Pokémon is no better than the day I 
beat it silly!”  
“Everyone changes Bianca, although in your case, not always for the better.” 
commented Emily.  
“Take it out with a Slash attack.”  
“Slash!” shouted Bianca’s Sandslash, driving forward for a big hit, only, a 
huge white beam was unleashed that overwhelmed it and threw it upwards.  
“What?!” spluttered Bianca.  
“Stop with the insults and concentrate on the battle, or else you might not see 
certain attacks charging right in front of your face, like Solar Beam for 
example.” smiled Emily darkly, “Petal Dance now!”  
Blossom squealed and spun into a tall tornado to catch the Sandslash as it 
fell, unfortunately, many small rocks were pulled into the tornado which 
battered poor Blossom inside.  
Worse off was the fact that as the Sandslash plummeted, it recovered, and 
reached out with its double claws.  
There was a clashing sound as the two collided, and the Sandslash fell on its 
feet, while a sore and temporarily scarred Gloom crashed down hard.  
“Fury Swipes!” shouted Bianca, and her Pokémon was upon Emily’s, tearing away 
at it with its long claws, “Now Fissure!”  
That would end the match immediately if it hit, luckily, it was an obvious 
attack and an easy one to dodge, as the Sandslash had to leap up and fall 
directly down, striking the floor in a precise way to cause a straight line to 
tear across the ground and hopefully hit its opponent.  
“Sand!” it squealed, Emily’s Gloom was too fast, she preemptively jumped, and a 
Mega Drain cancelled out the attack and healed Blossom while the Sandslash 
rolled back and crashed into a rock.  
“Earthquake!” shouted Bianca, and before the Sandslash fainted, it punched the 
ground hard, causing a tremor to shoot at Blossom and damage her.  
“Hey!” Emily complained, “That was cheap.”  
“That was effective.” corrected Bianca, “My next Pokémon will even things up 
without receiving a scratch!”  

“Ha ha ha ha!” laughed Sebastian loudly and proudly as a failed Petal Dance 
attack ended up positioning my Vileplume right in front of his large Nidoking 
so that he could be grabbed.  
He was punched soon afterwards and then laid into from several more punches in 
quick concession.  
“Vi-ile...” swayed Pollen, after a Poison Sting attack was used against it, he 
now had poison coursing through its body and compromising things, I could have 
sworn I saw some of the old Pollen show for a moment, but sadly this wasn’t the 
time to be thinking of such things.  
“Mega Drain!”  
“Horn Drill.”  
The energy was dragged out of the Nidoking and formed into a green sphere, it 
practically magnetised towards Pollen, but the enemy ran past and with its 
drill horn, destroyed the healing ball and tore past Pollen, instantly ending 
the round.  
“Even again pretty much.” noted Sebastian, “Bring on the next victim!”  
“Lavos wouldn’t be much of a fight, its time for you...  Whirlwind!”  
“Pidgeeeeot!...”  

“Scyther!” screamed Emily’s next opponent, having charged up with Focus Energy 
and enhanced its speed with Agility, it nimbly dodged Blossom’s Acid attack and 
dived upon the Gloom, hitting it with its wings and damaging it thoroughly.  
“Use Double Team and Slash!” ordered Bianca, “That’ll mess her up.”  
With that, the Scyther appeared to split into many, and all of those Scythers 
spun around the poor fearful Gloom, only one being real, and about to attack.  
“Use a fountain of Stun Spore!” figured Emily hastily, and as asked for, the 
Gloom blew its top and several spores fell upon the ring of Scythers, and the 
real one stopped spinning and started coughing, but still had the strength to 
glare and fly past and cut at Blossom before paralysis took hold of it.  
“Gl...  Gloom...” moaned Blossom as she fainted.  

“Razor Wind!” I yelled, this battle well into its final stages, and Whirlwind 
hurling its wings forward to produce sharp windy blades to tear into the 
opponent and blind it.  
“Horn Attack!”  
“Quick Attack!”  
My Pidgeot dived down swiftly, avoiding the sharp horns fired upon it, and 
collided with the opponent, it then hovered above ground not too far away.  
“Leer.”  
“Sand Attack.”  
My Pidgeot would have frozen with fear had he not kicked up a wave of soil and 
blinded the Nidoking further, I was keeping defensive in this bout as I knew 
how violent and tough Nidokings were having once owned one.  
“Its faltering, we have to end it quickly! Agility and Sky Attack!”  
“Pidgeeeot!!!” he squawked, enhancing his speed, his body then glowing red as 
if on fire, and then shooting past the enemy, flinging him upwards upon 
impact.  
“Fly!” I shouted, and Whirlwind flew above the Nidoking, its talons gripped it, 
and it rose even higher before dropping the opponent.  
As it crashed down, I cheered, “Talk about taking a fall.”  
“You’re Pokémon are gonna look like a joke once this last one’s through with 
them.” cursed Sebastian, recalling the Nidoking and throwing his final 
Pokéball.  
“BUZZ!!!”  
“Wow, that’s an unlucky coincidence Sebastian, you see, I’ve either owned or 
own the Pokémon you’ve used this battle.” I explained confidently.  
“And yet I bet I can teach you a few things about them...” retorted Sebastian.  
We started our battle with me ordering Sand Attack and Sebastian, Thunder 
Wave.  
The blast of soil was kicked up but the Electabuzz rolled aside and hurled a 
yellow wireframe sphere that exploded upon Whirlwind and sent shocks through 
its body.  
“Quick Attack!”  
Whirlwind shot forward, but electricity ran through it midway through the 
attack and forced him to waver and miss.  
The Electabuzz didn’t let that mistake go unpunished and Thunderpunched it, 
Whirlwind quickly crashed and found it difficult to rise.  
The Wing Attack that followed was countered by Swift, and the Whirlwind attack 
I asked for was surprisingly ineffective as the Electabuzz pushed against it 
until the winds dissipated, and then threw my Pidgeot across the arena.  
“Quick Attack!” I shouted, and Whirlwind rocketed towards the enemy, collided 
with him, but was held onto until a powerful Thunder attack crashed down upon 
the two and left my Pidgeot defeated.  
“Its still got pretty much full health, Lavos, we’ll have to work for this 
victory...”  

“No...” groaned Emily, “Its too fast.”  
Her Wigglytuff was finding this battle difficult, for whatever hits it dealt, 
it was dealt equal damage by its vengeful enemy.  
Its Strength attack caught the Scyther off guard when paralysis from its last 
opponent slowed it down, Psychic was used to slam the Scyther down and then 
followed up by Double Edge, but the Scyther came back with Swords Dance to 
enhance its strength, Focus Energy to promise a huge critical hit in addition, 
and then tore past slashing the poor Wigglytuff.  
“Please Harmony, end it, Body Slam!”  
“Wiggly...” she cried weakly, and crashed against the Scyther as it was taking 
a stance, and it in turn crashed through a rock structure which buried it, 
knocking out the Scyther but not Harmony.  
“Phew...” sighed Emily.  
“You think its over Em’? This battle’s far from it! Go!”  
“Neeeeiiigggghhh!!!” screamed out Bianca’s Rapidash.  
“You’ve never beaten her before, and it will stay that way.” shouted Bianca.  
“At least I have two Pokémon to use, I’m just sorry Harmony has got to fight to 
the very end though...” thought Emily.  
In short, the Rapidash growled, and then attempted a Take Down attack, but 
Harmony weakly rolled aside and used Strength to rip a chunk of ground and 
smash it into the wild unicorn Pokémon.  
Fire Spin was quickly used to trap Harmony in a tall ring of fire, and then the 
huge Rapidash stomped upon her with its front hooves, as if that wasn’t enough, 
Fire Blast, the most powerful Fire attack to date burned and damaged her 
immensely.  
The Rapidash rounded the field to trample her some more, but a quick Disable 
froze the Rapidash temporarily, giving Harmony a moment to throw another chunk 
of earth, seeing as the Rapidash quickly broke from the hold and sent a Fire 
Blast star shooting ahead of it.  
The rock repelled the flames, and continued to fly until it crashed into the 
Rapidash.  
Agility came next, and the Rapidash was burning across the field, literally, 
behind it wherever it went, its flames were leaping off it and remaining even 
on the rocky field.  
Harmony was whacked several times by the passing Rapidash, and Emily lastly 
attempted to use Rest to heal her, but this required time she did not have.  
With a strong crack of its tail, Harmony was flung upwards, and she was then 
the target of a Fire Blast attack that exploded into a black cloud upon 
collision, and Harmony came hurtling out towards the ground.  
“Return...  I’m sorry I had to push you so far, even though Spiral has two type 
advantages now, its still young.  You’ll get a huge treat later if we win 
Harmony.  Go Spiral!...”  

Thunderbolt attack Versus Flamethrower resulted in a draw, both attacks 
cancelling the other out, and the next attacks:  Thunderpunch and Fire Punch, 
both Pokémon’s fists collided with each other and sent both flames and 
electricity to opposite sides, effecting both Pokémon.  
The Electabuzz was scorched and burnt while my Magmar was shocked and 
paralysed.  
“Fire Blast!” I ordered.  
“Light Screen!” Sebastian countered.  
A magical shield rose up and repelled most of the flames, the barrier breaking 
halfway and the remainder of the blast throwing the Electabuzz back.  
Lavos was upon the enemy and rose its leg up and threw its foot down to wind 
the Electabuzz, but it recovered and Lavos went flying up as the fist of the 
Electabuzz rose up and smacked my Magmar hard.  
The Electabuzz next unleashed a horrid scream to distract us, and then sent a 
small Thundershock attack rushing forward, obviously it must have expended its 
electricity and needed time before the powerful stuff could be used again, but 
I would probably be better off doing the same.  
I ordered an Ember attack, and Lavos complied, the small spirals of fire 
cancelled out the Electric attack, and the two Pokémon stared at each other 
before the final scuffle.  
“Smokescreen!” I yelled, “You know what to do next!”  
“Flamethrower obviously.” figured Sebastian, “Use Thunderbolt!”  
Electricity went flying into the thick black cloud, but nothing else seemed to 
happen.  
“Wrong!” I laughed, as Lavos leapt high over it all while the Electabuzz 
dropped from having used up all its electricity, and Lavos cracked his foot 
upon the enemy once again, and then spat out a Fire Blast attack up close to 
finish the job.  
“The Green Trainer Wins!!!” yelled the commentator, “Another awesome battle is 
won by Tetsubo!!!”  
“You...  You...” growled Sebastian.  
“Lost for words? That must be a first.” I smiled, before remembering something, 
recalling my Pokémon and dashing out of the arena...  

“Water Gun...” shouted Emily, but the Rapidash was still too fast and avoided 
it, “Horn Attack!”  
Before it could be used, a rushing flame hit the Omanyte, and a tower of fire 
trapped it.  
The Rapidash had no problem taking the heat of its own attack to get to Spiral, 
as it constantly used Take Down every time it passed, trying to crack the shell 
of the small Pokémon.  
Emily tried using Leer, but the Rapidash quickly growled and distracted Spiral 
more than it could ever hope to do to the Rapidash in its current state.  
As the Rapidash rounded for another hit, Emily ordered her Pokémon to leap out 
and use Bite, which it did, on the Rapidash’s horn and face, unfortunately it 
was quickly shaken off, and then stomped upon several times.  
“No...”  
“Its about time we cracked this nut wide open!” said Bianca darkly, while 
cracks were definitely forming on little Spiral.  
“Water Gun!” panicked Emily, but the Rapidash moved its head aside to dodge it, 
and continued to stomp away.  
“Spiral!!!” shouted Emily, no longer caring for the battle but more for her 
Pokémon’s safety.  
“I give up...” she whispered, “Just stop hurting my Pokémon...”  
“Say that again Emily, I didn’t quite get that, and if its what I think you’re 
saying, then I want everyone to hear.” smiled Bianca, before ordering her 
Rapidash to stomp some more.  
“I...”  
“NYTE!!!...”  
Emily stopped, as a huge white explosion forced the Rapidash falling back and 
her Omanyte started to change.  
“Spiral...” she muttered, “Yeah!”  
“Omastar!” it grunted with a newer voice, before winking, showing traits of its 
former self, now that it was more powerful, its confidence was back.  
“Spike Cannon!” cheered Emily, and the fossil Pokémon spun its round body 
immensely fast and sent several spikes at the Rapidash, there were too many to 
dodge them all.  
Finally, Spiral leapt onto the Rapidash and its tentacles gripped hard around 
its face, the Omastar looked back at Emily and she nodded, both were thinking 
the same thing.  
“Hydro Pump!!!” she shouted out, and a jet of water pretty much exploded from 
the Omastar’s mouth and hit the Rapidash at possibly the closest range the 
attack could ever be used at.  
It went toppling back, crashed into a heap of rocks, and collapsed.  
“No...” growled Bianca, “No! This is unbelievable!”  
“At last, now that I’ve beaten you in battle, I no longer have to think of you 
as anything superior to me, I can get on with my life without any worries about 
you.” stated Emily.  
“I should have won! You cheated! You... little...” growled Bianca.  
“You might want to keep a lid on that foul mouth of yours, we’re on television 
you know.” smiled Emily darkly, before adding, “Feel free to go crying to your 
boyfriend, I have a feeling you’ll have something in common to talk about...”  
Emily turned away... to face me, it’d been a struggle, but I’d managed to get 
through the trainer’s entrance to watch the last part of Emily’s battle, and be 
there to celebrate her win.  
“Tetsubo...  I assume you won.”  
“Uh huh, I thought you might appreciate some company after such an important 
battle.”  
“Oh Tetsubo.” smiled Emily, running into a leap and hugging me, we spun a 
little and ended up with my back to Bianca, Emily could see her, and stuck her 
tongue out at her.  
Bianca grunted, recalled her Pokémon and stormed off through her exit.  

While waiting for the others to meet at Central Point, my mind wandered, and I 
ended up finding a screen broadcasting a battle between Cody’s friend Nat’, and 
Bryan.  
It was swiftly coming to an end, but only a few in my group truly knew why, 
with a huge explosion, the young girl’s Raichu was blasted to the other end of 
the Grass Field into defeat, while the Electrode that had caused it grinned 
darkly.  
“Oh no...” I sighed, “I have to put a stop to this.  I have to go all the way 
until I get a battle against Bryan.  I can’t let so many trainers get beaten 
out of the League and have a cheat like Bryan win the number one rank, it would 
be a disgrace to everyone.”  
I turned a few moments later to Cody and his friend, both sadly walking into 
Central Point to wind down.  
“Cody...  I’m sorry.” I said.  
“What for? You didn’t beat me, or Nat.” replied my brother.  
“At least you lost with dignity, the only Pokémon that went down in this battle 
did it of its own choice, my Pokémon were powerless.” sighed a disappointed 
Nat’.  
“Wait a minute, you lost too Cody? I’m sorry.” I realised.  
“Don’t be, its been fun, at least I can brag that I was in the top 32 trainers 
of this year’s League.  But I have to ask, why so concerned about Nat’?” 
conversed Cody.  
“I can’t say fully, but I feel responsible for the guy who beat her being in 
this tournament, I’m sorry you were taken out of the tournament Nat’, but I 
promise, I’m going all the way to teach the man a lesson, if not win the entire 
League.” I promised.  
“If that’s so, then I guess we should offer our support to you then.  Cody?” 
inquired Nat’, having to elbow him to force an answer out of him.  
“Yeah yeah, he’s got my support, even though I’m a little jealous he’ll 
probably go to the top.” sighed Cody in an annoyed tone.  
“Thanks.” I smiled, “I’ll make sure not to let your loss be in vain...”  
“Hey Tetsubo, everyone’s here, except Scott.” smiled Emily as the others 
approached, “I think I saw him with that girl from Ocean Town.”  
“Scott and Carrie?” I questioned, “Who’d have thought it?”  
With the day over and my victory taking me to the next round, we had the night 
and following day to celebrate before the finals that would take place in the 
Indigo Stadium.  
Its was time to wind down and have some fun, before the real fights began.  

End of Chapter 55B  

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