Important! I do not own Pokemon nor am I associated with Nintendo or Game Freak.

Chapter 12

Rival Strike

Having put the Pokemon thief behind bars, Jason and Lexi entered Cerulean City. For all of their help, Jason earned an Oddish and Lexi got a rare candy.

Jason and Lexi decided that after leaving the Police Station it would be fun to explore Cerulean City before moving on to bigger and better things. It wasn't long before they noted everything there was, and decided to move on. They stopped to ask one of the Police Officers where else there was to go.

"Excuse me, do you know where to leave Cerulean City?" Lexi asked.

"Well," the Police Officer replied. "If you haven't and still want to challenge Misty, then I would go up through Route 25, a lot of Pokemon up there. And you may even be able to meet Bill, a Pokemon scientist!" Lexi and Jason thanked him and started to make their way to Nugget Bridge, the only way to go to Route 25. However, who would they find waiting by the bridge, but Greg.

Lexi glared at him. "What are you doing here?" Greg, busy admiring his three Poke Balls, shot around at looked at her.

"You again," he scoffed. "I thought I would meet up with you eventually, and here we are. How is your Bulbasaur doing? My Charmander is really strong and can kick your butt!"

"Let us through, Greg," Lexi said through gritted teeth. Greg looked like he was thinking about it for a while.

"Um, no," he finally said. Lexi jumped at him, but luckily Jason was there to hold her back. She pulled at him, but he would not let go.

"Lexi, LEXI!" Jason shouted, pulling her back. Lexi finally gave up and regained herself. Greg was laughing the whole time.

"How about this," Greg offered. "We'll have a Pokemon battle, three on three. If you win, you can go on your way, but when I win, you'll leave. All right?" Lexi nodded her head in agreement and the battle was on.

"Go! Butterfree!" Lexi called. Butterfree popped out of it's Poke Ball and started to flutter around. Greg released his first Pokemon, a Spearow. "Butterfree, use Confusion!" Lexi commanded. Butterfree's eyes turned blue, and then Spearow started to be thrown all around the place. Spearow got back it's composure pretty quickly and then was ordered to use a Peck attack.

Spearow flew at Butterfree, who flew out of the fly to dodge the attack. However, Lexi was not expecting it to make a full circle back and hit Butterfree, making it crash to the ground. Lexi yelled for Butterfree to get up, and Butterfree immediately replied.

It flew up into the sky, ready to use the next attack. "Now, use Stun Spore!" Lexi called. Butterfree flew up and started to release a yellow powder, much of which fell right on Spearow. It froze up, and fell to the ground, as stiff as it could be.

"Come on Spearow, get up!" Greg called. But Spearow just laid there, frozen. Greg rummaged through is backpack until he brought our a spray bottle. He ran over to Spearow, sprayed the liquid on it, and ran away. Spearow once again was able to fly, and to battle. "Use Peck again!" Spearow once again flew at Butterfree, hitting it on the first try. Butterfree, faltered but was not done.

"Spearow, use Peck one last time!"

"Butterfree, use Confusion!"

Spearow flew at Butterfree the same time Butterfree's eyes glowed blue once again. Both Lexi and Greg closed their eyes, not wanting to see their Pokemon be the one to be knocked out.

When they were finally brave enough to open their eyes they found that both of their Pokemon had fainted by the last attack. Both trainer cursed under their breaths and debated which Pokemon they should send out next. I know he still has his Charmander, or Charmeleon if it evolved, so which Pokemon should I send out? She made her decision just as Greg released, as she expected, his Charmander.

"Go! Pikachu!" Lexi called as she released her Pokemon. "Use Thundershock!" Pikachu was released from his Poke Ball and immediately sparks were forming in it's cheeks. A thunderbolt came out of it's cheeks, but it missed Charmander by a good margin. It then retaliated with an Ember attack. It swung it's tail around and around, shooting balls of fire in all directions. Pikachu was hit, and then thrown back from the attack.

"Pikachu! Trying using Quick Attack!" Pikachu started to run at amazing speeds, so fast you could barely make out a yellow blur. It slammed into Charmander, but did minimal damage.

"You're weak attacks won't work!" Greg shouted. "Now, Charmander, use Ember again!" Charmander once again shot balls of fire, but this time Pikachu was ready. With it's amazing speed, Pikachu was able to dodge every one and use Thundershock to do some major damage to Charmander. Greg shouted again, this time making it's Charmander use repeated Scratch attacks.

Greg's Pokemon would not stop the attack once it pinned Pikachu down. It kept scratching and scratching, never stopping. Pikachu tried to escape, but to no avail. It looked very bleak for Pikachu, and it was. Pikachu didn't last long before it fainted and had to be recalled.

"All right, let's do this! Go! Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur popped out of the Poke Ball and growled at Charmander. Greg and Charmander stood their laughing.

"My Charmander is fire type and it will incinerate you Bulbasaur!" Greg said, still laughing. Lexi ignored them and thought up her battle strategy. She commanded her Bulbasaur to use Leech Seed. The spores shot out of Bulbasaur's bulb, but once they landed on Charmander, they incinerated instantly. Greg laughed again and then had his Charmander shoot another Ember attack.

Bulbasaur was only hit once, but it was enough for it to start and feel weak. Lexi had to pull out a potion from her sack to heal it a bit. It then used Tackle attack. Bulbasaur slammed into Charmander, pushing it back a couple of feet and knocking it over.

"Get up NOW!" Greg shouted. But Charmander did not get back up. The two battles it had participated in had wore it out too bad, and just couldn't fight anymore. Greg recalled it. "Now, my final Pokemon. Go! Mankey!" Mankey, a white fighting monkey appeared it front of Greg. "Use Karate Chop!" Greg commanded.

Mankey flew at Bulbasaur and hit him hard right in the face. Bulbasaur growled and used Vine Whip on instinct. It hit Mankey a few times upside the head as payback for the hit. Mankey's eyes grew red, and it started to run around, with Greg having no control whatsoever.

"What are you doing?" Greg screamed. He ducked right as Mankey came head first right where he was standing. "Please, stop!" Mankey didn't listen as it continued to run around. Bulbasaur tried to use Vine Whip again and again to make it stop, but it only added fuel to the fire.

Finally, Greg had no choice to return the Mankey and declare himself the loser. He hung his head low and didn't say anything. He moved out of the way to let Lexi and Jason go by him. They even thought they saw him start to tear up a bit.

They continued on toward the Nugget Bridge when they heard a man coming down it. "Welcome to the Nugget Bridge, where if you beat us four wonderful trainers, you can cross and win a prize!" He looked at the two of them and smiled even wider. "Oh, there are two of you, we'll have to split you up then! You each will face two trainers. Good luck!" A red headed lady walked in front of Lexi as a man with jet black hair stood in front of Jason.

Coming Up In Chapter 13A: Jason has to beat two Pokemon trainers to get across the Nugget Bridge!

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, hope you enjoyed!