In this chapter, Ned's going to rematch Falkner while Sarah attempts to sell Slowpoke tails. However, the price is quite absurd...
Chapter 11: Tails Of A Slowpoke
"So...why are we training Pokémon in the middle of the night?" asked Lucy.
"Well, back when I used to work for Team Rocket, they would encourage me not to go outside in the middle of the daytime since I risked being caught by Officer Jenny...maybe the habit just stuck to me," suggested Jake.
Of course, they had gone through places like forests and caverns in the past, but so far Jake and Lucy had simply gone through routes.
"Besides, I like looking at the stars at the night..." said Jake. If he saw a shooting star, then maybe he could make a wish. Of course, that shooting star might be a Clefairy spaceship. Lucy had told him about the night before she had a chance encounter with her Clefairy.
"So does my Clefairy, apparently." answered Lucy.
Sure enough, Lucy's Clefairy seemed to be enjoying herself, though she wasn't necessarily a nocturnal Pokemon. She just liked living in caverns.
Suddenly, a Wooper came crawling out of the mud, letting out a yawn.
"Huh? What Pokémon is that?" questioned Lucy. It looked like a water type...yet it seemed rather muddy.
"It looks like it's some sort of water Pokémon native to Johto..." suggested Jake.
At that very moment, the Wooper spotted them.
"Wooper?" inquired the wetland Pokémon.
Jake scanned the Wooper with his Pokedex. What could this Pokemon possibly be?
Well, he already knew that it wasn't a very big Pokemon, though he also knew that Pokemon that were small had a tendency to evolve into Pokemon that were bigger.
Eventually, the Pokemon appeared onscreen along with some information.
"Wooper, the Water Fish Pokémon. Normally it lives in water, but it's willing to go on land if it's cold outside." explained Jake's Pokedex.
"That explains why it came out at night." comprehended Jake. This particular Wooper was male. In addition, it was both water and a ground type.
"A water and a ground type? That's a rather strange combination." remarked Lucy. She wouldn't be surprised if Woopers were terrified of grass Pokemon.
The Wooper tilted his head to the side, gazing at the duo curiously. Apparently Pokemon Trainers didn't always visit this route during the day.
Since he had taken an interest in the duo, Jake decided to toss a Pokeball at him.
The Wooper was rather surprised, and he fell over. Of course, he had seen Pokemon trainers do that to other Wooper on a regular basis...but he never thought that it would happen to him.
As soon as he got up, the Pokeball dinged.
Jake decided to send out his new Wooper afterwards.
"Wooper, go!" exclaimed Jake.
"Wooper!" bellowed Jake's Wooper.
"I wonder if there's a Pokémon Center nearby..." questioned Lucy.
Curious, Jake's Wooper noticed that someone appeared to be selling Slowpoke tails. Who would be cutting off Slowpoke tails and selling them for money? It seemed like a pretty horrid practice.
He decided to alert them of the nearest Pokemon Center, though he didn't feel getting too close to whoever was selling Slowpoke tails. What if they started selling Wooper tails next?
Taking a closer look, he discovered that it was none other than Sarah.
"Sarah? What are you doing?" asked Jake.
"I'm selling Slowpoke tails. You want some? They're one million Pokedollars." said Sarah.
Jake's eyes widened in shock.
"One million Pokedollars?!" shouted the boy in astonishment. How exactly was he supposed to get that kind of money?
"I'll throw in a free egg!" exclaimed Sarah.
Curious, Jake wondered where Sarah had gotten such an egg. It didn't look any egg that he had ever seen. It had all sorts of different shapes on it.
"I don't have that type of money..." answered Jake.
"Aww..." complained Sarah.
Suddenly, she noticed Lucy.
"Wait a minute! I heard that your parents are loaded! Maybe you could afford the Slowpoke tails!" exclaimed the girl.
"There's no way I'm buying Slowpoke tails! That's Pokemon cruelty!" shouted Lucy. She may be rich, but there were still some things that she wasn't going to buy.
"Dang it!" bellowed Sarah.
"Totodile..." murmured Totodile. This was not a booming business. Was the Ekans that Sarah caught recently scaring away the customers?
"C'mon, let's go to Union Cave." said Lucy.
Jake nodded.
Back at Violet City...
"Hey Falkner, you up for a rematch?" asked Ned, knocking on the door to the gym.
Falkner answered the door.
"Is your Hoppip going to hop out of your Pokeball again? I wouldn't want any trouble..." questioned Falkner.
"I think my Hoppip is asleep right now..." answered Ned.
On the other hand, he had a feeling that his Hoothoot was wide awake, since it was in the middle of the night. Hoothoots were a nocturnal species, after all.
"You ready?" asked Falkner.
Ned nodded.
"Pidgey, go!" exclaimed the Gym Leader.
Unfortunately for Falkner, his Pidgey was currently taking a snooze.
"Pidge...pidge..." murmured Pidgey.
"Dang it! That's one of my Pokemon down the drain...I guess I'll just have to send out my Pidgeotto and hope he's not so tired..." said Falkner.
Falkner did just that, sending out his Pidgeotto.
"Pidgeotto!" exclaimed Pidgeotto. Fortunately for Falkner, it appeared that Pidgeotto was an early bird.
"Go, Hoothoot!" shouted Ned.
"Hoothoot!" exclaimed Ned's Hoothoot. Much like Pidgeotto, she could stay awake at night as well.
"Pidgeotto, use Wing Attack!" ordered Falkner, pointing at Hoothoot.
Pidgeotto agreed to his master's request and hit Hoothoot with Wing Attack.
"Hoothoot!" exclaimed the owl Pokemon. That really stung.
In retaliation, Hoothoot hit Pidgeotto with Confusion, confusing him.
However, Pidgeotto managed to temporarily shrug off the confusion and hit Hoothoot with a well-placed Peck. And no, it was not a peck on the cheek.
Hoothoot fainted.
Now that Hoothoot was down to the count, Ned decided to send out his Eevee. Hopefully he would be able to battle even at night...otherwise he would lose.
"Go, Eevee!" exclaimed Ned.
Fortunately, his Eevee could still battle at night. Apparently he had forgotten how energetic the rabbit Pokemon was.
"Pidgeotto, use Peck!" ordered Falkner.
Pidgeotto attempted to peck Eevee, but he dodged and scratched Pidgeotto in the face with his claws.
"Pidgeotto!" exclaimed Falkner's Pidgeotto. For such a cute-looking Pokemon Eevee was an efficient fighter. Of course, Ned had used his Eevee longer than any of his other Pokemon.
"Pidgeotto, use Wing Attack!" shouted Falkner.
Pidgeotto used Wing Attack...
...only to find his opponent had mysteriously disappeared.
Where did he go?
"Pidgeotto?" questioned the confused bird Pokemon. Were his eyes playing tricks on him?
"Gee, I sure hope that my Pokemon didn't suddenly walk out on me..." thought Ned. If so, he had already lost the Pokemon battle.
He was aware that each of his Pokemon reflected his personality in some way (though sometimes they were the opposite of what other Pokemon trainers would expect him to have) but he thought he and his Pokemon were braver than that.
Fortunately, it turned out that Eevee hadn't left him earlier.
Suddenly, Eevee popped out from a nearby hole.
"Eevee!" exclaimed Eevee.
"Pidgeotto?" questioned the bird Pokemon.
"Pidgeotto, he's behind you!" warned Falkner.
"Pidgeotto?" asked Pidgeotto.
Before Pidgeotto could spot Eevee, he hit him from behind with Take Down.
Pidgeotto fainted on the spot.
Eevee took some damage, of course, but it didn't really matter now. His trainer had won!
"Congratulations, you managed to beat me this time. Maybe you'll be as tough as my father someday. Anyways, here is your Zephyr Badge." said Falkner.
"Yes! I did it!" exclaimed Ned.
"Finally! Now we can challenge the next Gym Leader!" shouted Chris. She was getting tired of waiting for Ned to triumph over Falkner.
"The next Gym Leader? That's in Azalea Town, I believe." answered Falkner. Ironically, he heard that the Gym Leader closest to him was a bug Type trainer.
"I guess we better get going then." suggested Ned.
Chris nodded her head with agreement. She could hardly wait to get her second Johto badge.
Back at Route 32...
Unfortunately for Sarah, nobody had bothered buying Slowpoke tails from her. Why did the Team Shadow Grunts want to charge a million dollars?
It was a mystery.
At that very moment, two evil-looking individuals showed up, as well as their Pokemon, a Meowth. That's right. A Meowth.
"Who the heck are you guys?" questioned Sarah. For a moment, she thought that they were Team Shadow Grunts much like herself. However, she realized this was not the case when she realized that they were wearing red Rs on their uniform. Why were they dressed like that?
Likewise, the criminals noticed that she was selling Slowpoke tails...even though chopping off the tails of a Slowpoke was illegal in Johto.
It was none other than Jessie and James...and of course Meowth.
"We're Team Rocket!" exclaimed James.
Sarah was confused.
"Team Rocket? I thought that they were disbanded after their leader Giovanni got arrested and sent to the clink..." questioned Sarah.
"Yes, they did! It was because of that idiot and traitor, Jake! Curse him!" exclaimed Jessie.
"Wait a minute...Jake did this to you?" asked Sarah.
"Yes, he did! Now Team Rocket is no more!" cried James.
"Wow...Jake is quite the hero." remarked the girl.
"When we catch him we're going to pilfer him of all his hard-earned cash!" exclaimed Meowth.
"His hard-earned cash, you say? I think he was heading to Azalea Town..." noted Sarah.
"Thanks, kid! Maybe you're not a twerp like those other kids we run into..." stated Jessie.
Suddenly, Totodile noticed that Jessie's hair looked rather...tasty.
Since he was feeling hungry, he decided to take a bite out of her hair.
CHOMP!
"Ow! My hair!" exclaimed Jessie.
"How dare you! You're a twerp just like all the other kids we encounter!" bellowed the angry James.
"For that, we're taking all your Slowpoke tails!" shouted Meowth.
Immediately, Meowth, Jessie, and James grabbed onto the Slowpoke tails that she was selling and ran off to their hot air balloon, which was parked nearby.
Sarah attempted to follow them, but she ended up tripping and falling down on her belly.
As soon as she got back to her feet, the hot air balloon was already in the sky. She could hear evil laughter coming from above her head.
"Dang it! It looks like we're out of stock. We're just going to have to get more Slowpoke tails..." remarked Sarah.
"Totodile..." murmured Sarah's Totodile. Maybe biting down on Jessie's hair wasn't such a good idea. He was lucky this trainer had short hair so he wasn't tempted to munch on it.
Ironically, even though she was giving out for free, Team Rocket had not bothered stealing the egg that Professor Elm's assistant had given to her earlier.
Curiously, it was starting to feel rather warm. Had she left it in front of a heating lamp post or something?
At that very moment, she received a phone call from her boss.
"Hello?" asked Sarah.
"Hello, Sarah. How goes the Slowpoke tail selling?" asked her employer. His loyal agents were selling them as they spoke.
"Not very good. I got robbed!" exclaimed the girl.
"You did? Well, that's quite unfortunate...you'll just have to go get new ones...fortunately, we've managed to find a large supply of them...they're located at a well at Azalea Town...you should be able to get there by going through the cavern." explained the man.
"Really? Perfect! I wonder why the Grunts were selling them for one million Pokedollars..." questioned Sarah. Did her employer even have that much money? Being a Team Shadow Grunt did pay pretty well once you got past the whole running from the law thing.
"One million Pokedollars?! That's just plain ridiculous! There's got to be a more reasonable price than that..." said her employer.
"I know, right? I even tried throwing in a free egg but still nobody bought it..." remarked the young girl.
"An egg? I heard that they're giving those out at the Pokemon Daycare...there's no reason for you to head there right now though..." advised the man.
"OK." nodded Sarah.
"Anyways, there's a Team Shadow executive supervising the operation at the well...I would advise you to meet up with him..." informed Sarah's boss.
"You got it." remarked the girl.
Immediately, she headed towards Azalea Town.
I think we've just wrapped up the Violet City arc. Now it's time for the Azalea Town arc. In order to get to the next gym, and for Sarah to get to the Slowpoke Well, our protagonists have to go through Union Cave first. One of them will be catching a Pokemon too. How about that?
Oh wait. Hold on. It seems like another Pokemon trainer is going to get a Pokemon as well. That should make things more interesting.
See you!
