Chapter 59:  Get Ready to Rumble (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

“Go!!!” Bryan and I shouted, our Pokéballs landing and opening simultaneously.  
“Maggg-Mar!!!” bellowed Lavos.  
“Maaaa-Champ!!!” roared Bryan’s Machamp, Kara-tee.  
“Lavos!” I shouted out, “Confuse Ray!”  
If I were to stand a chance against Bryan’s souped up Pokémon, I’d need a 
combination of tricky techniques and successful status altering attacks.  
“Ignore it, and use Focus Energy.” ordered Bryan.  
The Machamp turned its back to Lavos, and an aura seemed to surround it as it 
prepared its next attack to be a critical hitting one.  
“Cancel!” I instructed, “Go for a Mega Kick instead!”  
“Magggg-MAR!!!” he roared out, charging forward, grounding one foot, and 
swinging the other hard into Kara-tee’s back, whether the attack was cancelled 
or not was yet to be seen.  
“Don’t stop there! Flamethrower!”  
Lavos wisely leapt back and shot out a long flame of fire to consume the 
enemy.  
“Strength!” shouted Bryan at the last moment, and quicker than I’d ever 
expected, the Machamp turned and tore into the arena floor and lifted a chunk, 
immediately hurling it forward to deflect the flames and going on to smash and 
crumble upon Lavos before he could dodge.  
He was recovering when Kara-tee went in for the attack, and started to chop at 
him several times with all four arms, damaging him severely.  
“Lavos! Smoke Screen!” I called, but the swinging arms were attacking far more 
rapidly and Lavos hadn’t the chance to recover and comply, it was hopeless.  
It was difficult, but I came to a decision, raised a Pokéball and recalled my 
Magmar from the battle to prevent further damage.  
“Let’s try this again.  Go Shockwave!!!”  
“BUZZ!!!” he growled, expressing the sort of anger I usually kept bottled up.  
“Go! Thunderbolt attack!”  
“Blleeeh BUZZ!!!” he roared as a lightshow of power shot into the Machamp, who 
despite being immensely shocked, slowly pushed forward until he reached 
Shockwave.  
Upon getting closer, the Machamp picked up speed despite the force against him, 
until he was close enough to take a big leap, he landed and spun forward.  
The realisation of the impending Submission technique succeeding came too 
late.  
Two strong fists rose up and punched Shockwave up some distance, while the 
Machamp crashed and damaged itself a little, this was a side effect to this 
powerful attack, and a godsend to me in this scenario.  
Shockwave landed hard but was already being attacked, as the Machamp now knew 
how to use Fire Blast and had generated a fiery projectile that would hit hard, 
Shockwave couldn’t stand in time and the fire star blasted into the area he 
was in and exploded.  
Luckily, I’d wisely recalled him before he was hit and moved on with my team, 
in a feeble attempt to whittle down the Machamp’s health bit by bit while 
protecting my Pokémon from being damaged too much.  
“Type advantage would be recommended.” I thought, “Especially from Old 
Reliable.”  
“Star!” called out Twinkill, my number one Pokémon, as it appeared, but it 
immediately leapt back as a tearing blast of energy cut across the floor and 
would have defeated Twinkill in one hit had it been victim to Fissure strike.  
“The starfish.” noted Bryan, “Take it out Kara-tee...”  
“Maaaaaa!!!” screamed the Machamp as it grew close to Twinkill, but at the last 
moment, Twinkill did as I swiftly ordered, and a beam flew from its gem into 
the Machamp’s eyes.  
Confuse Ray had successfully hit this time, and the Machamp stumbled around and 
continued to wind its arm in several circles for a Mega Punch, luckily for me, 
confusion caused it to somehow hit himself, and the fist collided hard with 
Kara-tee’s jaw and made him fall, but it wasn’t the end of this battle by far.  
“Champ...” it growled as it stood back up, snapped back to normal.  
“Psychic!!!” I yelled, and a blue glow filled the area around Twinkill and its 
opponent, trapping the Machamp in a powerful hold and then crushing it with an 
invisible force.  
“Don’t let up! This is our best chance!” I shouted.  
“Mieee...” groaned Twinkill, but continued to pump out the magic.  
“Earthquake!” shouted Bryan, and a foot slammed the ground, the effect 
immediately reaching Twinkill and throwing it around, while the psychic hold 
burst and vanished totally.  
“Still it keeps going...  Maybe I should recall Twinkill, I have a feeling I’ll 
need it a lot more, but who to replace it with...  Of course! Return Twinkill, 
and Go Spectre!”  
“Gen-Gar!” cheered my Ghost-type happily, then grinned darkly at the opponent.  
“Thunder!” I called, and upon noticing Bryan’s genuine surprise, I added “I’ve 
been keeping this Gengar’s newest techniques secret and for emergency use.”  
The Machamp was blasted but still pressed on, and then leapt to use Seismic 
Toss, both Bryan and I knew this was a mistake but couldn’t stop it in time.  
“Maaaa-Champ?!” it cried as it fell right through Spectre and crashed in an 
embarrassing heap.  
Bryan growled as the odd laughter could be heard among the audience, while I 
used the opportunity to hit the opponent with a Psywave.  
“Gar Har Har!”  
The Machamp was jolted back up and damaged with a random figure, hopefully 
high.  
“Use Fire Blast!” growled Bryan, and the fires were quickly generated and 
seared my Gengar as he failed to dodge it completely.  
“Don’t worry Spectre, especially when we have that Mimic at our command.”  
“Gar!” he nodded, “Gar Gengar!”  
A Fire Blast of Spectre’s own was generated, the Machamp pushed against the 
firestar, damage occurring, but before the full force hit, it actually pushed 
it back and then ploughed into the floor to build up a hill of rock and dust.  
The remnants of the Fire Blast contacted and faded on this and the hill grew as 
the Machamp pushed forward, it all turned into a Rock Slide attack which hit my 
Gengar hard, it could only become intangible to Normal and Fighting-type moves, 
but not Rock or other types.  
“Better not push my luck or get overconfident, Return Spectre...  Bahamut!”  
“Boooaargh!” cried my Dragonite cheerfully, immediately flying into the Machamp 
and its fists soon pushing against two of the opponent’s own.  
“Forget it ‘Capture, keep on switching, even a Dragonite is no match for...”  
Bryan suddenly went silent, and I wondered why, my attention went back to the 
two Pokémon, and strangely, my Dragonite was winning the struggle.  
Stranger still was the fact that a faint black aura was leaving it, this was 
barely visible to me and so the audience didn’t catch on.  
“No...  NO!” shouted Bryan, a device tucked away in his clothing displaying 
something, “It can’t be!...”  
“Boooarrgh!!!” shouted Bahamut, throwing its weight into the opponent and then 
charging a Hyper Beam.  
The opponent was blasted, but instead of jumping back into the battle, it was 
on the floor, having difficulty in recovering from the powerful attack... just 
like any Pokémon should...  
“It can’t be!” growled Bryan, “The enhancement wore off, and-”  
A faint blackness flashed on the buttons of his other Pokéballs.  
“They’ve all lost their stat gains and become as weak as regular Pokémon!...”  
A snide expression formed on my face, “At last...  Undeniable proof of your 
cheating...”  
“‘Capture...” said Bryan to me, “... Is it really? Only you and I can see 
it...”  
“What are you suggesting?”  
“I’m suggesting we finish this, I may have lost my extra strength, but I’m 
still better than you are at Pokémon Training, and besides, if the people knew 
exactly what I did, there would be anarchy and confusion, the whole League 
would have to be done over, it would be a complete debacle.”  
“Unless we finish this battle without alerting everyone to your deception.”  
“My Pokémon are weakened now, but so are yours.  I’d say we’re about even at 
this point.  Well ‘Capture.  Are you game?...”  
I scowled a little at the complications Bryan had caused to the entire 
tournament, but had to agree, the matches before this had been done, some of 
the losing trainers had already returned home, and the only thing that could 
come out of revealing Bryan's advantage would be all of the matches becoming 
void, the efforts of all the trainers being for nothing and this entire 
tournament not counting and breaking a tradition that had been honoured for 
years.  
I had no doubt that even without the enhancements, Bryan would have made it 
this far regardless from the memories of our past battles since leaving 
Pokémon Tech, provided he hadn’t any more tricks up his sleeves, this match 
could still be an official one that either of us could win, but still I'd 
genuinely worked hard to get where I was now and if I could be the victor even 
with the apparent disadvantage, I would have proof of being superior to 
Bryan's seven opponents and honour them by winning over him, “... I’m 
game.”  
I quickly switched for Scramble, with hopes of finally taking the Machamp 
down.  
I ordered a Psychic attack, but a Rock Slide came between it and sent stones 
flying everywhere, but mostly on my Exeggutor.  
He shook from side to side to recover but looked up straight to the attacking 
opponent, who punched Scramble hard in its coconut heads.  
The remaining arms latched onto Scramble while the others punched away, worse 
still was the fact that Scramble had been turned around so I couldn’t reach it 
with the Pokéball recall laser.  
Bryan smirked and ordered a Fire Blast which hit Scramble for double damage at 
such close range, the Machamp was hurt too but didn’t really show it.  
Drastic measures became an option, “Scramble, I never wanted to do this, but 
I’m left with no other choice, Explosion!!!”  
“You wouldn’t...  Not an attack like that.” said Bryan in disbelief.  
I’d done every fair thing available to me to prepare for this fight, including 
teaching one of my Pokémon a sacrifice technique.  
A huge explosion engulfed the two, and when it cleared, at last the Machamp was 
on the floor and defeated, though at the cost of Scramble’s part in the 
battle.  
“And stay down.” I added, recalling Scramble and timing my next Pokémon to 
appear with Bryan’s.  
“So ‘Capture’s finally taken the kid gloves off and done what it takes to win.  
Very Interesting.” smiled Bryan.  
As my Starmie appeared, so did his Golbat.  
A good choice for me, and Bryan didn’t seem to be changing Pokémon, the Golbat 
got things started quickly with a successful Mega Drain, but it didn’t gain 
anything as it was on full health.  
“Use Recover Twinkill.” I said, and it immediately complied, it only got a 
small amount back before it was interrupted by a vicious Bite attack, but a 
close range Thunder Wave made the Golbat back off, but too late to avoid being 
occasionally paralysed, and for a Flying Pokémon, that was a great loss.  
Siphon next let out a horrid sound that stunned Twinkill, and then its sharp 
wings tore across the Starmie as the Golbat shot past, rose into the air, and 
prepared something.  
“Don’t let it try anything Twinkill, Psychic!”  
It was a huge bonus for us as the Golbat was slammed from all angles by the 
attack, but it did something immediately after and showered itself with Haze 
dust to relieve it of paralysis.  
“BAT-A!” it screamed, its fangs plunging into Twinkill again to drain even more 
energy, but most of the wide range of attacks I’d taught it meant trouble for 
the Golbat, especially this one:  
“Ice Beam!” I yelled out, the Golbat first felt a nasty chill in its teeth, and 
then its body was quickly overcome by ice and it dropped to the floor.  
“Finish it Twinkill.” I said, giving it the choice of attack, it first spun 
into the enemy, tackling and lifting the frozen Golbat up, and then blasting it 
with Thunderbolt to finish the bout.  
“Good ‘Capture, but its far from over, Go Trap!”  
“Viii!!!” screamed the Victreebel, Razor Leaves flying everywhere and catching 
Twinkill off guard.  
A messy Toxic attack sprayed forward but Twinkill minimized itself and 
disappeared, surprising the opponent with an Ice Beam from above that stuck it 
to the floor.  
Twinkill attempted to recover its strength while the Victreebel was trapped, 
but it quickly sliced away the ice with its sharp leaves and sent it flying 
forward, Twinkill dodged the ice but this had masked the Victreebel charging a 
Solar Beam, and now it was ready to deploy.  
Twinkill attempted to minimize again but the beam was wide and swift, and I 
quickly recalled my Starmie before it could be defeated.  
“This won’t be too hard a choice.” I said, throwing in my Magmar.  
This battle was harder than expected, the Victreebel performed well and dodged 
our Fire attacks, Bryan was probably used to Mega Kick attack, so I altered.  
“Skull Bash!”  
As the Victreebel dodged the latest Flamethrower attack, my Magmar halted this 
and charged forward, head outstretched, the Victreebel was catapulted up but 
threw its weight down to land on Lavos, who at the last moment, caught the 
Victreebel and twisted around to hurl it to the floor hard with Counter 
attack.  
Upon landing, a squirt of Acid was fired and hit my poor Magmar in the eyes, 
blinding it, and giving the Victreebel plenty of opportunities.  
It whipped, wrapped, squeezed, sliced, rammed, drained and finally blasted with 
Sleep Powder, and all this time deliberately getting in the way of all my 
recall lasers I’d been shooting since the Acid attack, but due to Bryan’s cheap 
tactic, my Magmar fell into a deep sleep and wouldn’t wake despite my calling.  
Lavos’s square went black as I was forced to give up and consider him 
defeated.  
Next came my Dragonite who put our newest attacks to good use, a Water Gun 
first, of which Bryan laughed at, but followed up by Thunder to maximize damage 
due to the water conducting it, and then a Fire Blast to finish.  
As Trap fell, Bryan got in one last order before the Victreebel fainted, 
“Toxic!”  
The spray shot up, caught Bahamut off guard, and left it smeared, and 
poisoned.  
Next came Whirlpool the Poliwrath, who took advantage of Bahamut’s state, 
quickly rising up and using Submission to batter it, and then using Psychic to 
bring it down to earth literally, finally, a close up Blizzard attack to really 
weaken my Dragon-type.  
After that, the Poliwrath was fatigued, so I had my Dragonite strike with 
Thunder Wave, followed by Thunderbolt, and then a Hyper Beam for good measure.  
Sadly, the Poliwrath was stronger than I thought and got up even after those 
attacks and finished the bout with an Ice Beam,  hitting my Dragonite for a 
critical double type advantage hit, this was very bad for me.  
As my Dragonite crashed down I hastily had my Gengar appear and get the jump on 
the opponent with Mega Drain.  
The Grass attack dealt double damage due to type advantage but sadly my Gengar 
didn’t get to feed off the energy stolen because it was blasted by a powerful 
Earthquake attack.  
“Didn’t know I had that one up my sleeve, did you ‘Capture?” boasted Bryan.  
“GAR!” screamed Spectre, repeating Earthquake with Mimic, but on the Poliwrath.  
“Psychic!” shouted Bryan, the attack hitting Spectre hard and forcing me to 
recall him yet again.  
“That was reckless Tetsubo.” I said, “You can’t make silly mistakes now...”  
“BUZZ!!!” yelled Shockwave as it appeared once more, but quickly gasping as it 
leapt over an immediate Earthquake attack.  
He came down on the Poliwrath and spun his whole body, the following Submission 
punch bounced the round Poliwrath off the floor and upwards, so that it was an 
easy target for a Thunderbolt.  
Just for good measure and to take no chances, as it fell, Shockwave aimed a 
Mega Punch which threw it up one more time so that it landed unconscious.  
“Don’t get any ideas about winning ‘Capture.” growled Bryan, “I’m going to 
remove that Pokémon from the game!”  
“Elec-Trode!” grinned Sphere, rolling forward at an amazing speed.  
Shockwave tried several times to punch the ball Pokémon but it outsmarted and 
taunted him, tackling, shooting stars and sonic waves at him, when my 
Electabuzz attempted to shock it, it used Light Screen to protect itself, when 
he threw it, it bounced to reduce the damage significantly, and when he got 
close enough to do anything else, the Electrode screeched and distracted him.  
Finally my Electabuzz managed to punch the Electrode, so high it would be hurt 
upon landing, but Sphere grinned and looked down on Shockwave before a Hyper 
Beam shot directly down and stunned him, giving Sphere enough time to land and 
roll over towards him.  
“Game Over.” smiled Bryan, his Electrode glowing white and preparing to 
explode.  
“Return!” I shouted, and the Electrode gulped but held on so as to blow up the 
next Pokémon that appeared.  
The Pokéball opened but before the Pokémon inside could be revealed, a booming 
explosion and a white light overwhelmed it all.  
When the smoke cleared, all that remained, was a burnt out Electrode, and a 
Gengar laughing madly, having taken no damage from the Normal-type attack.  
“NO!” shouted Bryan, losing his cool and confidence.  
“One last Pokémon...” I noted as Bryan’s Arcanine appeared.  
“Enough to finish you off ‘Capture!”  
“Night Shade!” I called, but before the ghostly wave could hit, the Arcanine 
burrowed underground.  
“Rise up Spectre! Before-”  
The growl of Burner wailed out as it leapt from underneath Spectre, the rubble 
and dirt rising up fast to hit him hard, Spectre had taken a lot this battle, 
and finally fainted.  
“You see?” smiled Bryan darkly, “My first Pokémon is just as reliable to me as 
yours is to you, if not better.”  
I called out Shockwave for one last time, deciding to wear it down and use 
Twinkill to finish up.  
The Arcanine dug down again but Shockwave was cautious of it and leapt up, but 
the Arcanine didn’t burst out of the ground, it simply reappeared and roared, 
the sudden cry scaring Shockwave and making him accidentally drop awkwardly.  
The Arcanine crawled up and used Agility to dash towards Shockwave but stop 
behind him.  
The weakened Electabuzz turned around straight into white scary eyes which made 
it jump, enough time for the Arcanine to strike with a close range Take Down 
with reduced risk of a counter-attack, but at least a little recoil damage hit 
the Arcanine.  
As Shockwave tumbled back he tossed a small ring of electricity, that upon 
contacting the Arcanine grew and shocked it into paralysis.  
Shockwave struck now, punching the dog Pokémon first and then lifting it, he 
leapt into the air with the heavy Pokémon above him and tossed it down.  
Sadly, the Arcanine pointed up as it dropped and sent a powerful Fire Blast 
attack upwards.  
Burner crashed first, and Shockwave second, but the Electabuzz failed to rise 
up like its opponent.  
The second to last light turned black, with only one Pokémon left for me to 
use.  
I needed a moment to think, to calm myself, this would be the final battle, and 
although I was sure that Bryan’s Arcanine and my Starmie were on about equal 
health, this was scary for me.  
If I lost now, Bryan would still insult and humiliate me publicly, still rob a 
decent trainer of the trophy and rank, still give the prize money to Team 
Rocket to fund destructive machines, inhuman experiments or heartless schemes, 
and worse of all, I’d only be able to blame my own skills, and not Bryan’s 
enhancements if I lost to him in a fair fight.  
I turned to the audience for a little support, and then noticed the voices of 
people dear to me shouting louder than anyone else, along with others I didn’t 
expect to show up, all where situated in a certain area of the arena having 
watched the whole battle.  
Emily was there for starters, but many other people I’d met throughout my long 
journey were calling out my name and offering their support:  Giselle and Joe, 
George, Bert, Felicity, Sansuke, Melanie, Garland, Hiker Mike, Larry and 
Lorraine, Ryan, Nat’, Tom, Duplica, Veronica, Lara, Biggs, Conrad, Beryl, 
Black, much staff of the Rest Stop, and that’s to name a few.  
But to my surprise, my mom, dad, Aunt Betty, my favourite teacher Mr Takanichi, 
and my sponsor Professor Blossom were here as well, even though they’d claimed 
they hadn’t the money to get here, and more surprising was the appearance of 
Abby who had seemingly forgiven me and was cheering like crazy, and pointed out 
by Carrie was Scott, standing on one of the audience stairs with a look that 
said more than words to express his support.  
They’d all been watching and cheering me on all this time, now that Bryan had 
lost his unfair advantage and I had a chance now, I wouldn’t let such great 
friends and supporters down.  
“Time to prove yourself to your loyal fans ‘Capture.”  
“I don’t need to prove myself to anyone Bryan, everyone here knows I’m better 
than you, everyone but you it seems.”  
“Perhaps because I’m not a dreamer!”  
“Go! Twinkill!!!”  
“Star!”  
“Get it!” shouted Bryan, the Arcanine swiftly shot past and damaged Twinkill.  
“I forgot about the Agility.” I cursed, “Twinkill! Tri Attack!”  
As the Arcanine circled round, it didn’t see the attack coming and was blasted 
by three elements and halted.  
“Bubblebeam!” I shouted, taking into account that a Hydro Pump might make 
Twinkill tired and sluggish, and that the enemy might dodge.  
Good and bad was the result, the Arcanine didn’t dodge in time and was hit, 
that was the good part, the bad was that I hadn’t risked the more powerful 
Hydro Pump when I would have successfully hit Burner with it.  
The Arcanine charged forward, a Dragon Rage tornado making Twinkill move from 
its current position, but being lured straight into a planned out 
Flamethrower.  
Twinkill was scorched and part of its centre crystal cracking, Twinkill was 
beginning to fall apart.  
“Dig.” ordered Bryan, the Arcanine disappearing.  
“Minimize Twinkill, and make things right.” I instructed suspiciously.  
“He’s going to use another surprise attack.” pondered Bryan, “Fire Blast!”  
Instead of bursting out the ground, the Arcanine popped its head out and sent 
the star of roaring flames directly upwards, but it hit nothing and 
disappeared.  
“Now!” I shouted, a healthier looking Twinkill flew forward from behind and 
used Double Edge on the enemy, dealing a big hit, but expending some of the 
health Twinkill had just recovered.  
“Gain half your energy, sacrifice a quarter, smart thinking ‘Capture, I never 
thought you had it in you.” commented Bryan.  
“I’ve always had this creative mind, you were just too pig headed to notice!” I 
shouted in reply.  
“Burner! Stop fooling around! Finish this battle before it recovers again!” 
shouted Bryan.  
The Arcanine gave Bryan a surprised look, it was doing its hardest but Bryan 
only seemed to measure a Pokémon’s worth in strength and success.  
“I’m sorry Burner, but you won’t win this.” I spoke, noticing the next Take 
Down and Flamethrower attacks were becoming weaker and less organised, “Its not 
really your fault, you just have a trainer who doesn’t truly understand you or 
care fully about you.  Twinkill however is my friend, not just my Pokémon, it 
knows that by doing the best it can, win or lose, I’ll be proud of it, while 
your trainer only rewards you or cares about you if you win battles.”  
“Don’t interfere ‘Capture.  Strike that stupid starfish down already!” 
complained Bryan.  
The Arcanine threw its weight into Twinkill, who hardened its body to brace the 
attack so that the Arcanine lost more health than it did through recoil, but as 
soon as it let its defenses down to attack with Psychic, the Arcanine leapt on 
top of it and pushed it into a wall where it trapped my beloved Pokémon.  
“Star!” screamed Twinkill, attempting an Ice Beam to freeze Burner but a simple 
Ember attack was enough to prevent it from activating, and with the Arcanine’s 
paw pressed against Twinkill’s gem, some of its other attacks wouldn’t be able 
to manifest.  
“Finish it now Burner! Hyper Beam!”  
As a golden glow swirled in the Arcanine’s mouth, Twinkill struggled, its 
points were trapped and its whole body was very tired.  
“Twinkill...  I believe in you...” I said, reminding the Pokémon of how much it 
was worth to me.  
To me, Twinkill was priceless and irreplaceable.  
“S...  Star!!!” it cried out, bracing the pain to lift its points and aim them 
at the Arcanine.  
A Water Gun attack was initiated which stunned the Arcanine, delaying the Hyper 
Beam but not stopping it.  
“You can’t stop it ‘Capture! You’ve nothing left up your sleeves!”  
“If you haven’t noticed Bryan, I have really long sleeves.” I replied, 
“Twinkill! Flash!”  
The Water Gun had made the Arcanine’s paws fall away from Twinkill’s centre, 
and now its gem was free to perform certain attacks like this one, a blinding 
flash hit the Arcanine and it temporarily lost its sense of sight.  
It cried out and raised its head as the Hyper Beam fired, but kept its hold on 
Twinkill and aimed down, only half the attack hit Twinkill, who swiftly 
hardened again to reduce the still huge amount of damage.  
“Hold on Twinkill, just a little longer...” I called.  
“S...  Starmie...” it groaned as the last of the Hyper Beam flooded over it and 
ended, leaving the Arcanine very worn out.  
“NO!” shouted Bryan, “Its still functioning!”  
“Finish it Twinkill! Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt!”  
“STARMIE!!!” screamed Twinkill, expending the last of its attack strength to 
hit the Arcanine with all the water left inside of it, the Arcanine was blasted 
to the opposite end of the arena and continued to be walloped by the ongoing 
attack.  
Twinkill wasn’t done, and added Thunderbolt to the mix, but it was using 
Thunderbolt at the same time as the Hydro Pump continued to shoot out.  
The effect was devastating, for both Pokémon, though the Arcanine was by far 
the most hurt, water had splashed all over Twinkill and so it took a little 
damage from the electricity.  
“Twinkill...  That’s enough.” I said after a significant amount of time, the 
water ended, and the electricity immediately after.  
“Thank goodness, its-”  
“Grrrrr...” growled the Arcanine having leapt on top of Twinkill, it panted 
heavily, its expression full of rage, while Twinkill remained still, unable to 
do anything or risk fainting.  
The Arcanine breathed in and out a few more times and then attempted one final  
attack, but at last, its body gave up, the Arcanine collapsed and fell to the 
side, while Twinkill bravely and slowly stood up on its last leg, so to speak.  
The noise as the whole audience stood up and cheered was almost deafening, and 
the commentator had to shout louder than usual to be heard.  
“And its finally over! I mean this one hundred percent when I say that Tetsubo 
Capture has definitely earned this victory and provided us with possibly one of 
the greatest winning battles the Indigo Stadium will ever see! Tetsubo has won 
this year’s Kanto Pokémon League!!!”  
I couldn’t help but breathe heavily as it hit me, I’d won...  We’d won!  
I leapt forward into a run and lifted up my Starmie before it slunk down in a 
way not befitting of a winning Pokémon, and held it above my head for the world 
to see, although I owed all my Pokémon a great deal of respect, love and 
reward, I never would have done it if not for this Pokémon.  
It was only then that I thought to see Bryan’s reaction, but when I looked at 
his position, he was gone, along with his Arcanine.  
Instead I looked up to the scoreboard just to see his snapshot as the last 
light went black and his picture disappeared, leaving only mine and a lot of 
flashing colours and words.  
I’d really done it, I’d not only won the Pokémon League in my first year of 
training, but overcome the one that had set out to ruin my life, I didn’t think 
that Bryan would be bothering me any time soon after I beat him even with all 
his deceptions...  

Shortly afterwards, and all of the trainers who had remained in the Indigo 
Plateau were invited back into the Indigo Stadium to claim a rare badge as 
proof of their taking part here, it took some time to get through but 
eventually it was my big moment.  
Veronica was awarded a bronze trophy but Bryan never returned since the match 
to claim the silver trophy and a place on the winners’ podium.  
Finally, President Goodshow and several television cameras surrounded me as I 
was awarded a tall golden trophy and a cheque with several zeros in the 
figure.  
“Congratulations Tetsubo, I certainly didn’t think you would surpass all my 
expectations.” chuckled Goodshow, “Not after the Victory Cave fiasco.”  
“Mr Capture.” called several cameras, “Please say a few words to the camera, 
this is your moment of fame so please say anything you wish.”  
“Except for foul or inappropriate content.” added a short cameraman.  
“Ahem.” I cleared my throat before saying, “I was originally hoping to express 
how good I feel about making it this far, but...  I’m going to have to cut it 
short to include some equally important things.  Studying at Pokémon Tech has 
really paid off so I recommend it to those who have the patience to study 
before training Pokémon.  I want to thank my family and friends for turning up 
in person to watch my final battle.  But most of all, I want to thank my close 
companions, though most of them I only met within the year, they’re all dear to 
me.  Thanks Rick, Carrie, Eve... and Chad for being great and... interesting 
companions, and thank you Abby and Scott for letting me into your lives, and 
I’d like to reward you.  Get over here you two, as well as my brother Cody and 
everyone else I mentioned!”  
Scott and Abby looked at me with much disbelief, I don’t think either thought 
I’d be giving up my chance in the spotlight for them, but what sort of person 
would I be if I didn’t, certainly not the guy I’ve proven myself to be.  
Scott and Abby arrived first, “For Scott, I’d like you to take the prize money 
and use it to pay for the operation to save your sister, and for Abby, I’d like 
to plead to everyone watching, if you recognise this girl, or are related to 
her, please contact the Kanto Pokémon League immediately, as Abby has recently 
suffered from amnesia and badly wants to find her family.”  
“Tet...  I’m sorry for everything I said to you, I was angry because I felt 
like a failure and because I thought I’d never see my sister again...” said 
Scott, close to tears, “I never thought you’d do anything like this for me...”  
“I didn’t win this for the money.  Nor to talk to the world about myself...”  
“Tetsubo, thank you a thousand times, thank you!” cried Abby, hugging me with a 
tight embrace, “I’m sure to have a chance of finding my family now...  You’re 
the best thing I could ever have asked for!”  
“Its the least I could do for you Abby...”  
The two rewarded friends stepped back with the happiest expressions I’d ever 
seen them with, but there was still time to include an unmentioned friend of 
mine in my shortened speech.  
“Finally, I’d like to spare a moment to thank one of my closest friends who has 
been with me for the most part of my journey.  Emily...  I’ve thought long and 
hard about things, your compassion and advice is one of many things that helped 
me through the journey even in my darkest moments, and its made things 
absolutely clear to me.  My answer’s yes.  I want us to start again and make a 
go of things between us...”  
“Oh Tetsubo...” she cried out, rushing up to me.  
Before her lips locked around mine, I uttered, “Its important to have friends 
you can trust with your life! Oh and there’ll be a big party in Fuchsia City 
for all that want to celebrate this victory.  And that’s all, I’m done-”  
I turned away from the cameras and passionately kissed Emily back.  
“Does this count as inappropriate?” asked the little fellow.  
“Who cares? Its beautiful...”  
“Break it up you two, plenty of time for that later.” called Chad, separating 
us and herding the group together as did Rick.  
“Yeah, they’re about to take a picture for the newspapers and I’m sure the 
world doesn’t want to see you two with your faces buried in each other.” 
laughed Rick.  
We all looked at the camera and smiled.  
“Friends forever!...”  

End of Chapter 59B  

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