Chapter 57:  Difficult Choices (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

After returning the young trainer’s Pokémon, I returned to the arena, but Rick 
and Veronica’s battle had long been over, instead, I saw the next two trainers 
battling:  Giselle and Bryan.  
I looked at the scoreboard:  Giselle had only been able to take down two of his 
Pokémon, and by the looks of things, it had taken five of her Pokémon’s 
strength to do so, Bryan outstretched a hand, and his Golbat descended on her 
Golduck and used Mega Drain up close, its teeth locked in place and not 
relinquishing its hold until all of the opponent’s life force was drained.  
I sighed, and made my way down to comfort my old friend...  

“Giselle...” I spoke, “I’m so sorry I missed the whole match, and that you 
lost.”  
“Well what are you gonna do?...” she exhaled.  
“Beat Bryan for you?” I suggested.  
“That wasn’t a question Tetsubo, that was me accepting defeat rather than 
crying about it like I used to.”  
“Oh...”  
“But one thing does bother me, I attacked head on with most of my Pokémon, and 
it took five of them using up everything in them to take down one Poliwrath and 
Victreebel.  It isn’t possible for them to be so strong, even if they are well 
trained...”  
“Giselle, I’m sorry, but there are things about Bryan I was forced not to talk 
about...  By rights, he shouldn’t even be here and I feel responsible for 
that...”  
“I know he used to pick on you because you did better than him, but how is this 
your fault?”  
“If I weren’t competing here, I’m sure Bryan wouldn’t have, but there’s more to 
it than that, he-”  
“Stop Tetsubo, you’ve said enough and I don’t care.  But get one thing 
straight, you have every right to battle here after all the work you’ve done, 
and promise me that you’ll try your hardest to beat that bozo and win the 
League, if anyone can accomplish those things, its you.”  
“I promise.” I said, slapping one hand against Giselle’s and grasping it as I 
nodded to my dear old friend before making my way to the last battle of the 
sixth round.  

“Flutter will only be able to mess up one of Tetsubo’s bouts, the rest will 
have to be done fairly with my other Pokémon.” thought Abby as I entered the 
field and stood ready.  
“Begin!”  
Two Pokéballs exploded and the two dragon-like Pokémon owned by us two 
appeared:  My Dragonite and her Gyarados.  
To summarise the first match, both Pokémon dealt several physical hits to each 
other, even though Abby’s Gyarados was on land, it worked hard when moving to 
drag its long body around.  
“Thunderbolt!” I called.  
“Thunder.” spoke Abby calmly.  
As the dazzling twisting rays of yellow fired from Bahamut’s antennae, the 
Gyarados glowed and expelled a huge blast of electricity, the stronger attack 
won, and both Electric attacks were deflected onto the airborne Pokémon, Abby 
wasn’t done there, and had Leviathan use Ice Beam to deal even more type 
advantage damage to my Pokémon.  
“Hyper Beam!” we both called, the Pokémon initiated these attacks swiftly but 
simultaneously.  
Two golden beams collided with each other and exploded, blasting both Pokémon 
back, and to the floor.  
“Bahamut, we’d better-”  
“Bite!” called Abby, and moments after she’d ordered it, the Gyarados was upon 
Bahamut and slamming its teeth against my poor Dragonite’s neck.  
I panicked for a moment, fearing for my Pokémon but I quickly shook it off and 
ordered for a Thunder Wave attack, it easily affected Leviathan at such a close 
range, and as my Dragonite rose up into the air, a Fire Blast attack came 
hurtling up at it.  
“Surf!” I called, and the secret attack, a huge tidal wave’s worth of water 
erupting from Bahamut’s mouth, hit the fire star and extinguished it.  
Abby wasn’t giving us time to breathe, as soon as that brief occurrence 
happened, the Gyarados had snuck around and attacked viciously with Thrash, its 
head, teeth and tail hitting my Dragonite in quick concession.  
Bahamut struggled but showed it couldn’t escape the vicious combo, it looked at 
me for guidance with a scared and hurting look, and with a nod, I managed to 
communicate a way to come out on top.  
Bahamut took a defensive stance and grounded its feet, and then remained still 
but protecting itself as best as it could until Leviathan ran out of energy.  
I was about to order Bahamut to release the energy it had gathered by biding, 
but Leviathan was quickly up and attacking again, a blue tornado of fire 
erupting and hitting my Dragonite, it grounded its feet and pushed against the 
attack, but it was noticeably taking its toll on Bahamut since it was a 
Dragon-type attack, strong against Dragon Pokémon.  
The attack dissipated but Abby was merciless, and next a Blizzard attack was 
unleashed, freezing my Dragonite in a thick layer of ice.  
“Its over Leviathan.” said Abby, panting slightly, “You did good.”  
“Bahamut, if you can hear me...” I called, “Release the power you’ve gathered 
with Bide!”  
The ice exploded and the pieces were jetted hard into the Gyarados, it opened 
its eyes after this stopped just in time to see Bahamut pulling its head and 
neck back, and throwing itself forward, a white aura around the front side of 
its body as the results of the Bide technique gave this attack double the power 
of what Thrash, Dragon Rage and Blizzard had done.  
Abby’s Gyarados went flying far, and crashed into the side of the arena, 
leaving a huge dent in it, it was defeated, twice over it would appear.  
A roar of cheers went up as the crowd voiced their comments and opinions of 
that extreme match, which made Abby frown.  
“I can’t lose.  I Won’t lose.  Go, Pixie.”  
“Clefairy...” spoke Pixie, hiding her fear rather well and sounding as tough as 
she could.  
It was an odd line-up, but Abby made it work for her with several new taught 
moves that I didn’t expect.  
I first had my Dragonite use Strength to tear out a chunk of the arena floor 
and hurl it at the little Pokémon, but she used Counter, she flew back a 
little, taking the full force of the hit, but after that a flash of gold around 
her occurred and the piece went hurtling back at double speed to hit Bahamut 
hard.  
Pixie was up first, and launched a Flash attack to blind Bahamut with a glare 
of extreme light, and then followed up with a Thunder Wave, which had full 
chances of hitting since my Pokémon was stumbling around on one spot rubbing 
its eyes.  
The electrical hold buzzed up my Dragonite, but luckily he resisted it, and 
went through with the next attack I’d ordered:  Slam.  
Pixie meanwhile had held up a finger in each hand, and was waving them 
simultaneously from side to side, I noticed too late that this was the 
Metronome attack, but couldn’t plan ahead since I had no idea which random 
attack would be generated.  
Pixie leapt into the air as Bahamut flew at her, he missed and came crashing 
down instead, Pixie flipped once and descended, an almost transparent shape 
taking form in front of her, into a sharp blade.  
“Bahamut! She’s activated Guillotine! Your only hope is Fire Blast!”  
“Booooaaarrrggghhh!!!” he roared, immediately shooting the flame from his mouth 
and knocking Pixie aside to cancel out her move.  
“She’s more dangerous than I ever gave her credit for, finish this with Hyper 
Beam.”  
Bahamut twisted his head to the side, brought it forward, and expelled a 
searing golden beam, Pixie turned at the last moment to face it before a huge 
explosion shot up.  
I wanted to believe it was over, but knew full well that victories weren’t 
always declared just by what I thought I saw, I waited for the smoke to clear, 
as did Bahamut, until the small shape within was clear:  It was a fake.  
The real Pixie was at the side of the poorly constructed doll that made her 
Substitute technique work, and finished the match, first using Bubblebeam to 
drench Bahamut, and then Ice Beam to freeze him totally, he had no more 
strength to break free.  
“Return Bahamut.” I sighed, “This Pokémon may do a little better, but Only a 
little better than the others could...  Spectre!” I called, tossing its 
Pokéball high into the air, it activated, and a beam of energy spiralled down 
to form into my Gengar.  
Abby had her Clefairy use Solar Beam, not highly effective against Spectre but 
better than using physical attacks that didn’t affect him at all, Spectre was 
blasted but swiftly moved out of the way so at not to take all of the attack, 
and then I had it use Mimic, to repeat the attack back at the Clefairy, because 
she was still unleashing her version towards the same place, my Gengar had time 
to charge and fire upon her as the first Solar Beam dissipated.  
An explosion rose up, but it was soon clear that the Clefairy had somehow 
gotten to the side, my Gengar was stuck until it finished the Solar Beam, and 
the Clefairy used Ice Beam, despite being a ghost, Spectre was highly chilled 
and damaged.  
He took a fall, and the second Solar Beam’s energy and light was gone revealing 
the Clefairy to have used Substitute again to take some of her health away in 
order to create a fake of herself to take the attack.  
My Gengar used Strength, and hurled a chunk of the arena floor forward, it flew 
past the Clefairy’s position without a sound, because she’d teleported above 
and let loose a Fire Blast attack.  
I next had my Gengar use Toxic, but Pixie was ordered to use Psychic, rather 
than immediately contain my Gengar, she used it to shield herself, the searing 
spray of poison splashed off it and brushed by Spectre instead, now the 
Clefairy threw the energy forward to trap my Gengar in its tightening hold.  
I had him use Thunderbolt to overload the Clefairy’s trap, it soon broke 
through and gave her a shock with the remainder of the attack.  
“Double Edge.” I called, my Gengar could take solid form when it wanted to, but 
was immune to Normal attacks, unfortunately, Normal-types were immune to Ghost 
attacks, so both Pokémon had to stay away from their normal moves.  
The Clefairy skidded back but used Thunder Wave in the process, both Pokémon 
were tiring, they’d both received heavy damage and were down on health, the 
Clefairy because it had battled a lot and used Substitute two times without a 
rest.  
I called for Psychic but the Clefairy used Substitute again to escape it, but 
in doing so, barely had the strength to stand, or run.  
“Finish it Spectre, Body Slam.”  
He loomed over the fairy Pokémon, took solid form, and dropped on her, ending 
this match.  
Abby audibly grunted her frustration and growled, “Nightmare...”  
“Hypno...”  
Confuse Ray was immediately initiated by my Gengar, the Hypno was hit and sent 
into a dizzy spin, but with perfect timing, hurled a yellow sphere forward at 
the correct time during its rotation and Spectre was paralysed and dropped to 
the floor.  
“Mega Drain!” I called, and Spectre raised a hand to draw out Nightmare’s 
health.  
“Metronome!”  
The randomizer technique was lucky again for Abby, a wave of darkness 
overwhelmed and evaporated the stolen energy and pushed through to Spectre to 
hit hard with Night Shade.  
“Psywave!”  
“Psychic.”  
The rings of energy pushed forward, but a curling crescent of blue navigated 
between them and reached Spectre first.  
“Gen...  GAR!!!” he screamed as he was crushed again.  
“Hypnosis!” Abby and I both called, the Hypno dodged the Psywave, breaking up 
without Spectre’s concentration, and got the technique done first.  
Spectre grew drowsy and dozed off before it could completely lull the Hypno to 
sleep, and through tired eyes, the Hypno used Dream Eater to drain the last of 
my Gengar’s health.  
“Stay awake my Hypno, you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you.” said Abby 
calmly.  
“You’re damn right he does.” I commented, “Go Shockwave!”  
“BUZZ!!!” he roared, only to be slammed into by the Hypno, head first with 
Skull Bash attack.  
“Counter it!”  
Before the attack was finished, Shockwave slammed his fists against the Hypno 
and dashed it to the floor, its head landed first and dealt it a harsh hard 
blow.  
“Submission.” glared Abby.  
I waited until the last moment and called “Thunderpunch!”  
The Hypno fell back with sparks around it and retaliated with Tri Attack.  
“Reflect!” I called, and a shield was raised but the energy of the attack was 
so great that some of it filtered through and the shield only prevented a 
fraction of the attack.  
Nightmare then used Strength, so I had Shockwave use Bide to brace the hit, and 
retaliate with double the power.  
The Hypno dodged the fired blast of white energy but a blast of lightning 
followed and hit it dead on, unfortunately, Abby had also taught her Pokémon 
Bide, and a very powerful retaliation was being fired.  
“Buzzz!!!” yelled Shockwave, initiating a bright flash of light and blinding 
the Hypno, its aim was now off and it missed, but I underestimated its 
recovery, its eyes shot open and my Electabuzz froze from the effects of 
Disable.  
“Shockwave...” I said in concern, he was vulnerable, the Hypno leapt forward 
and used all its physical attacks, Mega Punch, followed by Mega Kick, and then 
a powerful Submission.  
It jumped back to catch its breath, and to await what Shockwave did as it 
started to move again.  
I noticed a white glow in his hands that he was trying to hide, “You’ve been 
biding even though you should have been frozen...  Release it!”  
“Bllllaaaa-BUZZ!!!” he roared, the white energy letting loose and overwhelming 
the Hypno with the power of six attacks in one.  
“No Nightmare, don’t you-”  
“Skull Bash!”  
The Hypno was slammed into, rolled across the floor with a couple of bounces, 
and collapsed.  
Abby gave me a dark scary look, she was mad at how this match was going, 
despite her words earlier that led me to believe this could be a friendly 
battle.  
“Trample them Armour!!!”  
“RHY-DON!!!”  
“Shockwave, you up to this? Remember you can’t use Electric attacks.”  
He nodded, and ran forward, took a leap, and spun, arms and fists held out to 
deal a hard Submission attack.  
“Fissure.” ordered Abby.  
Shockwave had been with me long enough to have been taught about knockout 
moves, and to take extreme caution to avoid these.  
He fell out of the attack to touch the ground and leap back up as the tearing 
tremor blasted under him, but he hadn’t the time to try Submission again, or 
even take a decent fighting stance.  
The Rhydon used Submission itself and batted Shockwave back, he skidded across 
the torn arena floor, his body bruised from the rough and rocky parts, he rose 
up only to be punched down with a lot of force.  
I gasped as the Rhydon leapt up and threw its foot down, “Reflect!”  
The feeble shield shattered upon contact and most of the force of Armour’s Mega 
Kick slammed into the stomach of my Electabuzz and winded him immensely.  
“Hyper Beam.” said Abby darkly.  
With its foot holding Shockwave down, the Rhydon loomed over him, and prepared 
to charge the devastating attack and fire it at close range.  
“NO!” I shouted, “Submission!”  
Shockwave slammed his fists into the Rhydon’s legs and broke free as the gold 
shining beam blasted the floor where he’d been, Shockwave felt the heat of the 
attack on his back and tripped during his escape.  
It was over, the Rhydon took a mighty leap, and upon hitting the ground, and 
caused a mighty earthquake that stole the last of Shockwave’s health.  
“There’s only one way to go now, Twinkill, you’ve got to win this for me, or 
its definitely over.”  
“Miiieee!!!”  
I had Twinkill use Hydro Pump, but the Rhydon bravely leapt through it, taking 
all the water damage but getting close enough to use Skull Bash to slam my 
Starmie hard and crack its gem a little, Rock Slide followed and Twinkill spun 
in several arcs to reduce the amount of times it was hit by the many upturned 
rocks.  
Twinkill landed, and I had it use Psychic, the Rhydon was blasted but broke 
free of the attack’s hold, I followed with Confuse Ray, but the Rhydon shifted 
its weight and dodged to one side, slamming a foot on the floor and forcing 
Twinkill to rise from its grounded position to avoid the quake.  
“Ice Beam!”  
“Submission.”  
The cold ray was only partially effective, coating the Rhydon’s body in harsh 
cold ice but didn’t freeze it, it was spinning too much to be held in place, 
and my Starmie was punched again.  
The last punch changed into a grab, and Twinkill was thrown down and held 
against the floor, it used Ice Beam again, this time taking better effect on 
the stationary opponent.  
It had been hiding its damages behind angry and focussed expressions, with the 
last of its strength, it slammed Twinkill down again, and then struggled to 
break free of the ice completely covering it.  
Twinkill weakly floated up, but instead of recovering its health, I decided it 
was best to take this opportunity to finish Abby’s strongest physical Pokémon, 
and had my Starmie use Surf.  
The Rhydon squealed in a low tone as it crashed down, Abby was breathing 
irregularly, her worries about this match getting to her.  
“Pika!” squealed her next Pokémon.  
“Now Recover.” I ordered.  
Twinkill began, but cancelled it and flew aside as lightning crashed down on 
its position.  
The Pikachu came out of its Thunder stance and ran forward, then dived into a 
leap and slammed itself on my Starmie, and followed up by falling into a spin 
and slamming against Twinkill with Submission, both Pokémon crashed to the 
floor.  
The Pikachu picked itself up, but Twinkill collided with it using Double Edge 
attack, as the Pikachu fell back towards Abby’s side of the field, Twinkill 
recovered, but it only got a fraction of its health back, the Pikachu had used 
Thunder Wave to paralyse.  
“Psychic!”  
“Light Screen.” countered Abby, a rainbow coloured slate rose up to block the 
attack, but wouldn’t hold, “Now run!”  
The remainder of the attack overwhelmed the tile, surrounded it and crushed it 
to pieces.  
“Hydro Pump!”  
Twinkill attempted to hit the Pikachu as it scrambled around the arena, 
spinning in the air in the centre of the field and its water spiralling 
everywhere.  
The Pikachu came out of temporary hiding and used Thunderbolt, Twinkill quickly 
stopped its easily conducted attack and dodged.  
Before the Pikachu realised this, it was tackled, but retaliated with Quick 
Attack.  
Both Pokémon fell back and grounded themselves.  
I needed a quicker way to win this, and noticed the several holes in the arena 
made by Ground and Rock attacks, “Maybe we can push Sparky into one of those 
holes with your water, and then easily freeze it in place.” I whispered.  
Twinkill nodded, and used Surf to generate a wide blast of water to flush out 
the Pikachu from a group of rocks, I was surprised at what it did though.  
Leaping between several rocks and using them as a gradual staircase, the 
Pikachu leapt over the height of the Surf attack, and ran across the top of it 
all with Quick Attack, before I could stop Twinkill, the Pikachu used Thunder, 
lightning hit the electric mouse, and then Sparky unleashed all its power, some 
hitting the water, the rest hitting Twinkill directly, and growing in strength 
as Sparky got nearer.  
Twinkill fell to the ground, attempted to lift itself but failed, tried to use 
Recover, but was interrupted for the last time this match as the Pikachu 
tackled it and pinned it to the floor.  
“I have to take that Pikachu down quickly, I know just how powerful they can 
be.” I thought, referring to last year’s League as I hurled the next Pokéball 
and entered Flutter into the battle.  
“Freee...” it said in a worried tone.  
“Don’t worry Flutter, we can win.”  
Unknown to me, Abby was giving Flutter a certain look, one only its enhanced 
sights could pick up on.  
Her Pikachu initiated a Thunderbolt attack, to which I ordered “Hover to the 
side!”  
It did so, but slower than I thought it would, in fact, very slowly, it was 
hit, shocked a lot, and dropped a small distance before its wings started 
flapping again.  
“No worries, you’re still fresh to this battle, Stun Spore!”  
It unleashed a spray of green pollen, but again slower than normal, the Pikachu 
was easily able to run to a different part of the arena.  
“Flutter, what’s going on? I know you’re faster than this because I saw you 
battle today...” I pondered, Sparky dashed forward and initiated Double Team to 
run in a circle around Flutter and show many fakes of itself, I would have 
ordered a technique to outsmart it but my mind was wondering, just what was 
going on with my Butterfree?  
The Pikachu came out of its ring and slammed hard into Flutter, it fell back 
while the fake Pikachus disappeared.  
“Last chance Flutter, go for Supersonic.”  
It did so immediately, but its aim was off, the Pikachu was far from the 
intended target.  
“Thunder.” said Abby with a confident look, I swiftly recalled the Butterfree 
as lightning crashed down on the field.  
“I don’t know what’s up with you Flutter, but you let me down.  Hopefully my 
other Pokémon can make up for your loss...  Go!”  
“MAGGG!!!...”  
“Lavos, use Psychic!”  
The Pikachu was hit and raised into the air, spinning in blue energy, but it 
unleashed Thunder before it could be crushed, and Lavos was hit in the face, 
causing a lot of discomfort.  
The Pikachu came down on it from its aerial position and its Slam attack from 
that height gave it a little extra kick.  
I gasped as the Pikachu then found the strength to lift Lavos over it, and hurl 
it into one of the holes, one I’d forgotten, was filled with water from 
Twinkill’s earlier match.  
Lavos screamed and desperately tried to crawl out but the Pikachu swiftly used 
Thunderbolt to take advantage of my mistake.  
Lavos was shocked, but stopped struggling when it saw me nod, and closed its 
eyes until the attack was over, it calmly walked out of the pit towards its 
opponent.  
The Pikachu gave a suspicious glance, shrugged, and used Submission to spin 
itself into a powerful projectile, it slammed itself against Lavos and then 
threw its tail across his face, leaving a heavy bruise.  
“Now!” I shouted.  
A red glow rose from Lavos’s feet to his head, and a brighter than normal flame 
shot out of his mouth.  
“He used Rage.” realised Abby swiftly, “Quick Attack out of the way!”  
Sparky pulled back and catapulted himself out of harm’s way as the flame 
devastated the area he was just in.  
“Grrrr, Flamethrower!” I called, getting a little desperate.  
Lavos tried, but it didn’t last long, he was growing tired due to the Pikachu’s 
power and the desperate continuous attacks I’d been making it perform, the fire 
hit the Pikachu, but didn’t remain active long enough to knock it down.  
The Pikachu shook its head and swiftly recovered its bearings, and sent one 
final Thunderbolt to blast Lavos into submission, but Abby was also surprised, 
her Pikachu was exhausted.  
“Mag...” Lavos coughed, before falling face first to the floor.  
“Pi...  Pi-ka...” the Pikachu cried weakly, falling to one side.  
“Sparky, I didn’t mean to exhaust you...  You’re such a great Pokémon, rest 
now.” cried Abby.  
“I’m so sorry Lavos...  I pushed you too hard...” I apologised, my eyes closed 
as I recalled it.  
With five lights out on the scoreboard as did Abby, it suddenly hit me how far 
into this match we were, the last fight had snuck up on me, and the one Pokémon 
I had left wasn’t reliable.  
Abby’s Vulpix was out, and I released Flutter but spoke to him before the match 
could begin, “Flutter, I’m willing to forgive whatever was bothering you 
before, provided you obey orders and perform them to the best of your ability 
and-”  
As I was speaking to Flutter I briefly saw a look of concern from Abby, and 
then it hit me, “I thought you were willing to fight for me even against Abby, 
but she said something to you before the match, didn’t she? Reminded you of 
what she was fighting for, That’s why you’re not battling your hardest, Abby’s 
using you as a last resort to win.  Well I’m sorry Flutter, but I know what’s 
ahead, even if you did sabotage my match, there would be no way to help Abby in 
her later matches.  Only I know Bryan well enough to defeat him, if Abby has to 
battle him, she’ll lose for sure.  You’ve been with me long enough to know I’m 
telling the truth about Bryan.  Flutter, help me win this match and I promise 
I’ll give everything I’ve got to beating Bryan and fulfilling Abby’s wish of 
getting her face on TV.  Please...”  
Flutter had been staring at me the whole time with a nervous expression, torn 
between its two different trainers, but at the end of the speech, that changed 
to a confident expression and a nod to signify that he would help me.  
“Alright, let’s do this!” I called happily, Flutter shooting forward.  
“What?! How?!” cried Abby in dismay, “Why?!...”  
As Flutter flapped its wings hard to produce a small hurricane to pummel the 
Vulpix, Abby frowned hard, feeling betrayed by us two, “Foxfire! Dig!”  
As Flutter took it into his own hands to follow up with Tackle, the Vulpix 
burrowed underground, as soon as it appeared, it fired a Flamethrower jet 
upwards, but Flutter was nowhere to be seen, at least not from her current 
position, it was behind her.  
Before Abby could warn it, I had him use Mega Drain to regain a little health 
lost to unfair circumstances.  
A Fire Blast attack was launched, to which I countered with Psybeam, the fire 
and psychic energy pushed against each other and erupted in an explosion that 
blasted both Pokémon back with high damage, despite being on the receiving end 
of some fire damage, the psychic sort hadn’t done much, and Flutter was the 
first to rise, taking initiative and using Double Edge to smack his weight into 
little Foxfire.  
The Vulpix next leapt up to hit with Skull Bash, but instead of dodging, I had 
Flutter use Rage to hold back and enhance its strength by taking the hit.  
“Confuse Ray!” shouted Abby, she’d normally not be this loud but things were 
getting desperate for her.  
I had Flutter fly to the side to avoid it, but still remain in the Rage stance, 
a Flamethrower attack followed which grazed Flutter’s wing as it moved, and yet 
that small hit gave Flutter a big boost, I was done waiting and called “Solar 
Beam!”  
Flutter circled above the Vulpix, and launched several small shots of Solar 
Beam, they exploded around it and one blast sent Foxfire hurtling 
uncontrollably upwards.  
I followed up with Psywave which sent the Vulpix hurtling in the opposite 
direction and hitting the ground hard, she weakly stood up and tried to roar to 
force Flutter to back off, but I called for Sleep Powder to be sprayed at her 
as he did so, the dust drifted down on the Vulpix and she fought to stay 
awake.  
Sadly for her, a little time was all we needed rather than a successful 
technique, and Flutter used Whirlwind to send Foxfire flying and smacking into 
an arena wall.  
“No...” spoke Abby in shock, dropping onto her knees, “This can’t...  NO!!!”  
“The Green Trainer Tetsubo wins this close battle and moves to the next 
round!”  

“Abby...  I know what you did, I know you tried to cheat by using your 
influence over Flutter...” I said softly, offering a hand, Abby seemingly 
accepted it and stood up but then she threw her weight into me, I didn’t fall 
back because of her small size, but then she starting beating on my chest 
several times, something that added up to a lot of pain a few moments later.  
“You knew how important this match was to me Tetsubo...” she sobbed, “YOU 
KNEW!...  And yet you were able to disregard everything we’ve ever done 
together and ruined everything I’ve worked towards!”  
“Abby...  I’m sorry...”  
“I may have made out as if it was okay to battle, but anyone could easily have 
seen that was a lie! You of all people should have realised that, and as my 
friend, you shouldn’t have even battled me! You’ve betrayed me Tetsubo, you and 
Flutter both!”  
I frowned, and backed away, no longer able to contain my protests, or continue 
to let Abby beat me, “Abby, calm down.  You have no right to blame me for your 
problems, there’s not even a guarantee that you’d have even won the next two 
rounds of the tournament, in fact, knowing the remaining trainers that are here 
I’m convinced you wouldn’t have won the League.”  
“W, What?...” questioned Abby in dismay.  
“If you could have lost against me even though you cheated, you surely would 
have lost against the next opponent.  I can win this Abby but I’m not convinced 
you could have.”  
“How... dare you...  You’ve been with me long enough to really know how much 
finding my family means to me, more so than you wanting to prove yourself to 
the world, and my Pokémon Would have beaten the remaining trainers! You just 
got lucky!...  I hope you’re very happy with your victory Tetsubo, because you 
just lost a friend.”  
With that Abby ran away swiftly out of the arena.  
“Abby Wait!!!” I called, but she was gone before I’d finished the sentence, 
“Abby...  If I win, I was going to help you exactly like you wanted...  You 
have to understand that...” I spoke quietly, “Why did it have to be me that 
knocked her out of the tournament? Why?!...” I cursed.  

The sixth round was over, and including myself, only four trainers remained in 
the League, there was a one in three chance of me battling Bryan, and the same 
went for Scott, either way, it would only result in harder battles, and more 
difficult events to play on my mind and conscience, battling in the League was 
just no fun anymore, the next two battles would be all-important and 
personal...  

End of Chapter 57B  

Back to Chapter 57A
Next Chapter
Back to Story List #41 - #60
Back to the Pokézone