Part One, Chapter Two

Starring: Janet Harris, Sand-Cloud Pluff, Gelby Chu, Ace, Kat, Potow the pidgeot



'You!' said Ace, narrowing his eyes. 'Who do you think you are, attacking our beedrill like that! We need that HM!'

'You stole it!' said the man whose name I still didn't know. 'Nobody who steals deserves anything, whether they need it or not!'

'We'll see about that,' said Ace. 'Go, Rhyhorn!'

'Go, Clefable!' said Kat, throwing a pokéball.

So it seemed that Ace and Kat had actually caught some pokémon since the last time I had seen them. Well, so had I . . ..

'Pidgeo!' said Potow, getting ready for battle.

'Hold on Potow,' I said, taking out another pokéball. 'You deserve a rest. Wager, I choose you!'

I threw my pokéball to the ground, and as it broke open, my persian materialised. Wager was the first pokémon I had caught as a pokémon master. I had caught it only a week after winning my master badge, back when it was a meowth. Since then, it had become one of my most reliable pokémon.

'I'll handle the rhyhorn,' said Sand-Cloud, pulling her own pokéball from her backpack. My friend wasn't officially a pokémon trainer, but she did have one pokémon who she liked to take with her everywhere. 'Go, Slash!'

With a flash of light, Sand-Cloud's sandslash appeared. Though it had only evolved a month ago, it was a very strong and reliable pokémon. I knew we could count on it to beat Rhyhorn.

'We're not that stupid,' said Ace. 'Rhyhorn, attack that persian! Horn drill now!'

'Ha!' said Gelby. 'Good luck trying to get Horn Drill to work on Wager, it's much too fast!'

She was right. I smiled as my persian leapt into the air, dodging Rhyhorn's spinning horn completely. The big rock pokémon fell to the ground as Wager landed neatly behind it.

'Now Slash!' said Sand-Cloud. 'Get in there and use . . .'

'What's wrong?' I asked, as Sand-Cloud stopped her command.

'Well it's just that-' started Sand-Cloud.

'Clefable, Bubblebeam that sandslash!' ordered Kat.

'Fable!' said her pokémon. Sand-Cloud gasped as Clefable shot out a stream of bubbles which slammed into Slash.

'Sandslash!' cried Slash, trying to block the attack with its big claws. But it was no use, the water-type attack was too much for it.

'Even though Slash is a ground-type, it doesn't know any ground-type attacks,' said Sand-Cloud hurriedly. 'It's no use against Rhyhorn!'

'Oh no,' I sighed. I turned back to my own pokémon. Rhyhorn had managed to pull itself up and was ready to attack.

'Rhyhorn, Stomp that persian!' said Ace.

'Wager, dodge it!' I said quickly, but it was too late. Not even my speedy persian could evade Rhyhorn's powerful Stomp attack.

'Perrrr!' it cried out as Rhyhorn slammed its rock-hard hoof into its side.

'I've had enough of this,' I said. 'Fern, Bloom, I choose you!'

Taking out two pokéballs, I threw them to the ground and released my oddishes. Though they were unevolved pokémon who hadn't had all that much battle experience, I was confident that they were who I needed to win this.

'Fern, Bloom, Stun Spore!' I said.

'Oddish!' both pokémon leapt into the air and began shaking their leaves, sprinkling a huge gust of powder over the area. With two oddishes working at it, the Stun Spore was sure to work! The powder built up into a green cloud, and before long I couldn't even see the battle anymore.

'What was that all about, Janet!?' Sand-Cloud exclaimed from somewhere in the cloud of Stun Spore.

'Er . . .' I said, realising that perhaps it wasn't a great idea to use a double Stun Spore after all.

'Pidgeo,' sighed Potow. It began beating its wings together, blowing the cloud of stun spore away. When it cleared, I saw that sure enough, Rhyhorn and Clefable had collapsed on the ground. But unfortunately, so had Wager and Slash.

'Um . . . well we stopped them, anyway,' I said. Sand-Cloud and Gelby looked unimpressed at my battle strategy.

'Rhyhorn, return!'

'Clefable, return!'

Ace and Kat glared at us.

'That was the most pathetic battle I've seen yet!' said Ace.

Kat shook her head, disgusted. 'You may have one this time . . . but we'll be back.'

'I thought they would've gotten over that saying,' said Sand-Cloud as our old enemies turned and ran away. 'They were saying it this time four years ago.'

'That was amazing!'

I turned and noticed the man staring at us, his eyes wide with excitement.

'Your pokémon are truly great!' he said. 'You're an amazing trainer!'

'Try telling Slash that,' muttered Sand-Cloud as she recalled her paralysed pokémon.

'Er . . . I'm not that good, really,' I said, recalling my own paralysed persian. I picked up my oddishes and looked back at the man.

'No, really!' said the man. 'You handled a group of pokémon in a hectic situation, it was great! Plus you got my HM back! If you don't mind, I'd like you to come back to my place as a token of my appreciation.'

I looked to Sand-Cloud and Gelby. They shrugged. Well . . . after missing the plane to Aspen, we didn't have much to do anyway . . ..

'We might as well,' I said.

'She means, sure, we'd love to!' said Sand-Cloud, rolling her eyes.



~Janet~