CHAPTER 10

Only two of us hadn't fought yet: Rachel and I.

"Do you wanna go next?" Rachel asked me.

"No, you can."

"Okay." She started morphing to Charmander.

As soon as the flame had appeared on her tail, TM1 said, "Ah, fire! TM7, you can fight."

TM7, the other female member of the gang, took a Pokéball out of the Pokédex. "Vulpix, go!"

˂Aaaawwwww... isn't it cute?˃ Rachel said to me in private thought-speak.

"Vulpix!" the Vulpix said.

"Vulpix, Quick Attack!"

The Vulpix raced forward, knocking Rachel off of her feet. Rachel was startled, but got up.

"CHAR!" She fired a ball of flame out of her mouth. The Vulpix dodged.

"Vulpix, Tail Whip!"

The Vulpix whipped at Rachel with its tail. In response, Rachel jumped forward and scratched viciously at it.

The Vulpix jumped back.

"Vulpix, Ember!"

The Vulpix opened its mouth and fired off its own ball of fire. Rachel dodged and leaped in, scratching the poor Vulpix again and again.

"Vulpix, return!" TM7 said quickly.

"Why did you stop?!" TM1 demanded.

"Because the poor thing was getting hurt!" TM7 said. "She looked down at the Pokéball in her hands. "Aw, are you okay Vulpix? Don't worry..." She kept talking like that as TM1 turned to us.

"Your turn," he said to me.

I started morphing. I shrank and grew a jagged tail. My cheeks went red and the rest of me went yellow, with some brown fur on my back and tail.

I felt the electrical surge within me. It was like I had grabbed a power line, only instead of being hurt by the electricity, I was harnessing it.

I was a Pikachu.

TM1 grinned. "Electric. I've got just the Pokémon." He took out a Pokéball from the Pokédex, then threw it.

Out of the Pokéball came... another Pokéball. Only it was bigger, about the height of my Pikachu morph.

And it had eyes. Voltorb!

"Voltorb!" it said.

"Voltorb, Sonic Boom!" TM1 called.

The Voltorb fired a huge wave of sound. Right for me!

WHAM!

I was knocked over. I quickly got up, then released a wave of energy.

The Voltorb's determined expression suddenly became a horrified one. I had paralyzed it!

"Voltorb, Tackle!"

The Voltorb suddenly rushed forward - don't ask me how - and hit me. I quickly raced forward and hit it in return.

BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP!

What the...? I quickly glanced around for the source of that noise. It was TM1's Pokédex. He opened it.

"Voltorb has just learned Self-Destruct," it said in a mechanical voice.

"Cool," TM1 said. "Let's try it out! Voltorb! Self-Destruct!"

Gee, he must know a lot about Pokémon. In case you didn't know, I was being sarcastic.

"VollllllTORB!" The Voltorb exploded! The shock-wave hit me with full-force. I was thrown back.

WHAM!

I hit the dumpster.

My vision went black for a second, but then when it returned, I could see the Voltorb on its side with a silly grin across its face. It was definitely knocked out.

"Voltorb!" TM1 cried in horror. He brought it back into its Pokéball.

I struggled to my feet.

˂Are you okay?˃ Bounce asked, running over.

˂Yeah, I think so,˃ I answered.

˂Now that was a blast,˃ Boris said. ˂Those Voltorbs sure are strong.˃ He lowered his thought-speak voice. ˂They always knock themselves out, though.˃

˂We won! We won! Wewonwewonwewon!˃ Blitz cried, jumping around.

"Don't count on it," TM1 said. "I've still got another Pokémon I want to use."

˂But... but it's supposed to be six on six!˃ I said.

TM1 shrugged. "So? I changed the rules!" He took a Pokéball out of the Pokédex. "Raticate! Go!"

The other Muks looked horrified.

The huge rat appeared. "Raticate!"

"Raticate, go get them!" TM1 said.

But the Raticate didn't. Instead, it turned on its master.

Author's Annotation: I'm not sure why they're still fighting. After 4 wins shouldn't they have won the competition? It would make sense that it was a best-of-6 setup, so Rachel and Lisa shouldn't have had to fight at all. Oh well, let's just sit back and enjoy the Pokémon battles.