In this chapter, Ned and Chris are going to climb up the Sprout Tower...in the process, they're going to meet Jerry again. He was hoping not to see them again...but guess what? He will. This time he's going to get in a battle with Chris. And yes, just because they're in a different region doesn't mean that they won't be fighting each other anymore. Some things don't change like that.

Chapter 8: Sprouting Up

Curious, Ned decided to visit the local Sprout Tower. The first thing he noticed was just how tall it was. Hopefully he would still be able to breathe up there.

It seemed to be a popular tourist attraction. Of course, it was also possible that he could visit the Ruins Of Alph. They were awfully mysterious...and for some strange reason they reminded people of the alphabet.

As he could tell, it was full of Bellsprouts. Apparently people liked bringing them here.

It suddenly occurred to him that maybe he should bring his Victreebel. It was the final evolution of Bellsprout, after all.

He went to the Pokemon Center to retrieve it. Fortunately for him, it wasn't far from the Pokemon Center. Since there were many monks that enjoyed battling Pokemon trainers inside the tower, it really wasn't a bad thing.

Immediately, he turned on the PC. Fortunately, his Kanto Pokemon were all there, just as he left them. However, he got the feeling that some Johto Pokemon were going to be joining them pretty soon.

He came back with it a few minutes later.

"Alright, now I just need to send her out of her Pokeball..." thought Ned. Hopefully Victreebel wouldn't end up tackling him once she was released. However, it was possible that she had learned to restrain herself during her stay with Professor Oak.

At that very moment, Chris showed up. Curious, she noticed that there were a lot of bald men inside the tower. Were their barbers insane or something?

"Where are you going?" asked Chris.

"I figured my Victreebel would like it here..." explained Ned.

"And why is that?" questioned the girl.

Ned pointed to the various Bellsprout statues.

"Oh..." stated Chris. That made sense. Victreebel WAS a Bellsprout once...before she evolved into a Weepinbell and then found a Leaf Stone, of course. It sure had been a long time.

Ned sent out his Victreebel.

"Victreebel?" inquired Ned's Victreebel. Where was she?

She looked around and noticed that she was in the Sprout Tower.

She felt rather ecstatic.

"Victreebel!" cheered Ned's Victreebel. She was so happy that her trainer would take her here.

Curious, Ned noticed that some of the monks inside the tower seemed unhappy.

"What's the matter?" asked Ned.

"It's this boy named Jerry...he's not treating the Bellsprouts with respect at all...he even broke one of the statues we used to decorate the tower..." stated the monk.

Sure enough, there was a shattered Bellsprout statue nearby. The Bellsprouts certainly were unhappy.

"Hmm...I think Chris will want to know that..." acknowledged the boy.

Immediately, he went to go tell Chris.

"So...Jerry's up to no good again, huh? Why am I not surprised?" remarked Ned's Pokemon partner.

Once again, she was going to teach him a lesson by beating him in a Pokemon battle. That would usually get him to leave her and Ned alone...for a while.

Personally she was a bit surprised to see him in Johto.

She decided that she was going to have to straighten things out with him.

"Hey, Jerry! Don't you have something better to do than harass elderly men?" questioned Chris. Once again Jerry was lacking in chivalry.

Slowly, Jerry turned around.

He jumped in surprise.

"Oh, it's you! I cannot believe that you would show up to bother me here of all places!" exclaimed Jerry.

"Oh yeah? Well, I'm on a Pokemon journey too, buddy." answered Chris.

"I am not your buddy!" shouted the youngster.

Chris rolled her eyes.

"You're not stopping me this time! I'm going to beat you!" exclaimed Jerry.

Immediately, he sent out his Dunsparce.

"Dunsparce!" exclaimed Dunsparce.

"Huh. I've never seen a Pokemon quite like that." acknowledged Chris.

"It's going to pulverize you!" exclaimed Jerry.

"We'll just see about that..." remarked Chris as she sent out her Spinarak.

"Spinarak!" exclaimed Spinarak.

"Your itsy bitsy Spinarak isn't going to save you!" bellowed Jerry.

"Really? We'll just see about that..." remarked Chris.

Immediately, Dunsparce began to burrow into the ground, hoping to sneak up on Spinarak.

However, Spinarak could burrow too.

"Where did they go?" inquired Chris.

"Beats me..." answered Jerry. He bet that Dunsparce was fighting Spinarak down there...and winning.

Suddenly, Spinarak and Dunsparce resurfaced.

"Spinarak!" exclaimed the spider Pokemon.

Before Dunsparce could react, Spinarak shot a burst of webbing in his face.

"Dunsparce!" exclaimed the drill Pokemon.

"Gotcha!" bellowed Chris.

"Darn it!" shouted Jerry. Unfortunately, it appeared that Spinarak had faster reflexes than Dunsparce did.

Spinarak then followed by biting Dunsparce.

Since Spinaraks were part poison, this did not bode well for Dunsparce.

"Dunsparce..." murmured the drill Pokemon.

"Where did I put my Antidotes?" questioned Jerry.

Dunsparce fainted shortly afterward.

"Dunsparce..." remarked the digger.

"Darn it! My Dunsparce fainted! Curse you, Chris!" exclaimed the youngster.

"Still not much of a sportsman, I see..." remarked Chris.

"I'm still going to win this! Go, Totodile!" shouted Jerry.

"Totodile!" exclaimed Jerry's Totodile.

"Are you sure you want that as your Pokemon? He looks rather mean..." questioned Chris. She wasn't sure if even SHE wanted that as her Pokemon.

"Relax...I can handle him..." stated Jerry.

"Your Totodile's biting through one of the statues..." explained the female Pokemon trainer.

"Totodile!" exclaimed Jerry's Totodile. He had no respect for other people's property. Of course, neither did Jerry himself.

Chris instructed Spinarak to shoot webbing at Totodile.

However, Jerry's Totodile countered by simply biting through the webbing. Apparently, not even Spinarak's sticky web could get past Totodile's strong jaws.

"Spinarak..." murmured Chris's Spinarak. That had never happened before.

And unfortunately, it appeared that Jerry's Totodile wanted to bite Spinarak as well.

"Totodile!" exclaimed Jerry's Totodile.

Immediately, he lunged towards Spinarak and bit her.

Spinarak fainted.

"Spinarak..." murmured the fainted bug Pokemon.

"So much for your little Pokemon!" exclaimed Jerry.

"Don't get so excited Jerry. I still have one Pokemon left." retorted Chris.

"I'll beat that one too!" shouted the youngster.

"We'll just see about that..." stated the teenage girl.

Immediately, Chris sent out her Jigglypuff.

"Jiggly!" exclaimed Chris's Jigglypuff.

"Your Jigglypuff again?" questioned Jerry.

"Yes...I brought my Jigglypuff with me to Johto..." explained Chris.

"Shouldn't you be making balloon Pokemon out of her?" asked Jerry.

"That is not something that I would do to my Pokemon, let alone Jigglypuff." answered the teenage girl.

"Jiggly!" exclaimed Chris's Jigglypuff. Jerry should be ashamed of himself simply for suggesting that.

"Have it your way...Totodile, use Bite!" bellowed Jerry.

Totodile nodded. It would be his pleasure. Unlike Charmander and Paras before him (who had decided to join his opponent, incidentally), he actually liked working with Jerry, due to him not showing respect to his opponents. Neither did he.

Immediately, Totodile lunged at Jigglypuff with his jaws.

However, Jigglypuff pulled out her microphone and began to sing.

"Let's see if music has charms to soothe the savage beast..." thought Chris.

As it turned out, it DID soothe the savage beast.

Totodile fell asleep in moments.

"Totodile..." murmured the reptile Pokemon.

"I'm so sick of this!" exclaimed Jerry. It was bad enough that this had happened back in Kanto.

"It's my fighting style. Deal with it." answered Chris.

Jigglypuff then inflated herself and body slammed Totodile, fainting him and winning the battle.

"Darn it! I lost again! And this isn't the first time I lost to a trainer in Johto either!" bellowed Jerry.

"Really? Who was it?" asked Chris.

"It was this girl who had a Totodile like mine...she got upset with me for stealing a girl's baseball cards...so she made me give them back...and to think that I lost to someone who wasn't you!" shouted the youngster. It was bad enough that he always lost to Chris and Ned...but now he had lost to Sarah too. He was so tired of all these blows to his ego.

"A girl who had a Totodile...wait a minute..." stated the teenage girl.

As it turned out, she in fact had heard of that girl. Apparently, Jake and Lucy had met her.

It was nice to know that she had done something good...even if she was a Team Shadow Grunt.

Immediately, Jerry ran out of the tower.

"Thanks for getting rid of him..." stated the monk elder.

"You're welcome!" exclaimed Chris. It was always her pleasure to keep Jerry out of trouble.

Ned showed up shortly afterwards.

"Are you here to battle me?" questioned the elder.

Ned raised an eyebrow.

"Why would I want to do that?" inquired the boy.

"If you manage to beat me, you'll get a prize..." explained the elder.

"Sounds good..." nodded Ned.

Immediately, he sent out his Hoothoot.

"Hoothoot!" exclaimed Ned's Hoothoot.

"Funny you should mention that...I have a Hoothoot too..." pointed out the elderly man.

"I thought this was the Sprout Tower..." questioned Ned.

"We like to have a bit of variety with our Pokemon..." explained the man.

"Oh..." comprehended the blonde boy.

Immediately, Ned's Hoothoot used Confusion.

The elder's Hoothoot ended up becoming confused.

He ended up pecking his own wing.

"Hoothoot!" exclaimed the elder's Hoothoot. What was he thinking?

Unfortunately, this meant that he was having trouble flying.

"Hoothoot..." murmured the flying Pokemon. How was he going to fight if he couldn't stay in the air?

As such, Ned decided to have his Hoothoot use Peck.

Hoothoot fainted.

"Hoothoot..." murmured the fainted owl Pokemon.

The elder withdrew his Hoothoot and sent out his Bellsprout.

"Bellsprout!" exclaimed the elder.

Ned decided to withdraw his Hoothoot and send out his Victreebel.

"Victreebel!" shouted the pitcher Pokemon.

As soon as the elder's Bellsprout saw Victreebel, he began to bow down to her.

"Bellsprout! Bellsprout!" exclaimed the elder's Bellsprout. He was not worthy!

"I wonder what's going on..." questioned the elder.

"Maybe because my Victreebel is a Pokemon that a Bellsprout would look up to?" inquired Ned.

"Oh..." stated the elderly man. That made sense.

Since Ned had won, he could receive a prize.

"Why don't you have this Poliwag that I got from the local fisherman? He said that it was really valuable...but he doesn't seem interested in obeying me..." pointed out the elder.

Immediately, the elder released his Poliwag from the Pokeball.

"Poliwag..." murmured the water Pokemon.

"I wonder what he wants from a Pokemon trainer?" questioned Ned.

"I think he wants a Pokemon trainer that's rather strong..." stated the elder.

"A strong Pokemon trainer, you say?" inquired the boy.

Suddenly, he had an idea.

"I know just the one..." answered Ned.

Immediately, Ned brought Poliwag to where Chris was.

"Huh? Is that Pokemon for me?" questioned Chris.

"Yeah..." nodded Ned.

Curious, Poliwag decided to take a look at Chris.

"Is there something that he wants?" inquired the female Pokemon trainer.

"He wants a Pokemon trainer that's rather strong..." explained Ned.

"Oh..." answered Chris.

Immediately, she lifted Poliwag by the tail and held him above her face.

"Is that strong enough for you?" inquired the girl.

Poliwag nodded. He was actually impressed...and he wasn't easily impressed either.

"Good." stated Chris.

Wasting no time, she tossed a Pokeball at Poliwag. A few seconds later, he had been caught.

"Alright then. Since he thinks he's so strong, maybe I'll use him against the gym leader..." acknowledged the Pokemon trainer.

Meanwhile...

Curious, Lucy and Jake noticed that there seemed to be a man standing in Route 32 not letting in any Pokemon trainers without the Zephyr Badge.

"What are you doing?" questioned Lucy.

"There's been a group of shady individuals gathering around Azalea Town lately..." explained the man.

"Oh really?" inquired Jake.

"I figure that they should get the Zephyr Badge from Falkner before heading there..." stated the adult.

"I suppose you probably make a good point..." nodded Lucy.

"Clefairy?" questioned Lucy's Clefairy. Did they have a connection to Sarah?

Perhaps it would be best if they fought the gym leader before coming through.

"I wonder what we should use to fight him..." questioned Lucy.

"Well, there seems to be some Pokemon hiding in the grass..." answered Jake.

Lucy nodded. This just might be a good place to catch some more Pokemon.

She got the feeling that one of them would be effective against the gym leader.

Unfortunately for Jerry, he's still not having any luck fighting Chris, even with his new Pokemon. Better luck next time, eh?

In the next chapter, the Ruins Of Alph are going to show up. The first Gym Leader will be fought soon, I promise. I will admit that there is a lot of content to cover though.