CHAPTER 3: Something Fishy



The wind whisked past Sofia's ears as she was carried again by Marco the fearow. 
She had become somewhat accustomed to the new routine, of waking up each 
morning, being transported to the training ground, crushing a few caterpie or 
pidgeys, and then returning back to the headquarters once more. She held out her 
left arm, newly unbandaged, and let the air rush over it. She had been expecting 
horrific wounds, when Nurse Joy had unwrapped the bandages that morning, while 
also hoping deep down that the nurse was wrong, and that her arm and leg would 
be unscarred. In the end, it was neither as bad as she had expected, nor as good 
as she had hoped. There were several livid red sears, angry streaks that lined 
her limbs. She readjusted the old backpack that Alex had given her. Within was a 
small bottle of water, a minimal lunch, some pokefood for Killer, and a couple 
of potions. That was all that Nik had been willing to give her. "What a scumbag" 
she muttered to herself. "I bet it's the mankiest lunch he could get!"

Marco landed gently, and she undid her blindfold, blinking in the bright morning 
light. "Huh!?" She looked around, and realised that they had come to a different 
destination from normal! They had arrived at a large field, some golden-yellow 
grasses dancing gently to soft zephyrs. The occasional tree punctuated the view, 
as Sofia took in the surroundings. She saw that she was standing on a dusty 
path, which looked as if though it hadn't been walked in a long time. Briefly, 
she considered how far she would get if she tried running away now... but the 
realisation that she had no real supplies, and the angry glare that Marco 
directed at her soon made her reject that idea. Sighing, she realised just how 
much she missed her family, even her father... she missed her friends from 
school, and even her old enemies! It was painful to appreciate so suddenly just 
how much her old life meant to her, as much as she had complained about it.
"Sofia!" Alex's voice snapped her out of her reverie, as he came running up the 
path. "Hi!" Turning to Marco, he said, "OK Marco, you can go back now." Marco 
gave a shrill cry, and launched himself into the sky, soon disappearing from 
sight. 
"Alex! Why are we here? Aren't we supposed to be training?" Sofia had soon come 
to realise that training a pokemon could be most tedious. Not at all like the 
glamorous TV shows, where after a few exciting battles, the trainer's pokemon 
would evolve. She must have beaten countless caterpies and pidgeys, and even the 
occasional nidoran, and yet Killer showed no sign of evolving! 
"Yeah, we are going to train, but first..." He reached into his backpack, and 
pulled out five pokeballs. "You're gonna get a new member of your team! You 
can't expect to get very far with only one pokemon!"
"Hah, I knew that!" Sofia was never one to take advice gracefully. "Gimme 
those!"

Taking the pokeballs, Sofia walked over to the grass, and released Killer. "OK 
boy, lets see what we can find!" Turning around, she called to Alex, "Hey, what 
kind of pokemon live around here, wherever this is!"
"Well... you said you wanted an aggressive pokemon, right..." his voice trailed 
off, whether from mischievous laughter, or nervousness, she couldn't tell. 

Suddenly, in a flash of dust and with a loud shriek, a ball of feathers and rage 
charged at Killer! "Whaaaargh!!! Spearow!" Sofia screamed out loud, having read 
about these aggressive pokemon, as an infuriated spearow delivered a vicious 
peck at a stunned Killer. Clutching his head in pain, Killer staggered 
backwards, and fell onto his rear. Seemingly satisfied, the spearow gave Killer 
a contemptuous look, before preening itself arrogantly. "Killer! Are you 
alright!"
Sofia started to run forwards to her pokemon, who still sat on the ground, with 
both paws on his head. Killer stood up quickly, and looking round at Sofia, who 
pointed forward, charged towards the shocked spearow. The infamous scratch 
attack scraped across the spearow, who was whirled around with the force of the 
blow. 

Grinning confidently, Sofia threw a pokeball hard. It trapped the spearow with a 
bright red flash, but almost instantly burst open once more. "Aw! What!? How!?" 
Sofia spluttered, as the spearow, more angry now than before, if that was even 
possible, screeched and lunged towards Killer. Needing no commands from his 
trainer, he let loose another Scratch attack, and smacked the spearow once 
again. Seriously dazed, the spearow faltered. Sofia prepared another pokeball, 
but before she could throw, Killer ran at the spearow, and gave it a lick! 
"Killer! What are you doing!? Yuurgh, that's disgusting!"
"HAHAHA!" Alex was bent double with laughter. 
"What are you laughing at!? That's just unhygienic!"
"Lick is a ghost type attack! Didn't you realise that Killer must have learnt 
another move since you got him? Always check your pokedex, that way you'll know 
when more attacks become available"
"Oh... Huh? What's up with that spearow? Wow, it's paralysed... Good going, 
Killer!"

The spearow lay on the ground, twitching, and weakly calling out its name, while 
a smug Killer sucked his paw in front of it.
"You flukey..." Alex could hardly believe Sofia's luck. "You managed to paralyse 
it! Gah, how can you be so lucky!?"
"Yeah! I clearly intended to do that!" Before Alex could point out that she 
hadn't even known that Lick was an attack, let alone that it could induce 
paralysis, she threw another pokeball at the spearow. It put up a commendable 
struggle even in its paralysed state, but was eventually captured.

Breathing out loudly in relief, Sofia opened her pokedex, and listened to the 
information on spearow. "Spearow: Male..." There wasn't any real need, since 
she'd memorised the entry a long time ago. She noted that the attacks that 
spearow knew were Peck, Growl, Leer and Fury Attack. "And now, for a name..." 
She paused. "How about... Grouch?" Taking out Grouch's pokeball, she released 
him, and was instantly pecked on the foot for her trouble, before Grouch 
collapsed under paralysis again. 
"Ow!" Sofia cursed angrily, before glaring at Grouch. "Look, do you want any 
potion? Or would you rather I left you like this?" Muttering darkly at him, she 
gave him a liberal helping from one of her potion bottles. 
"Alex, have you got anything for his paralysis?"
"Well..." Alex looked away reluctantly. Paralyse Heals were expensive...
"Please! Pretty please! Something about cherries!" Sofia pleaded, clasping her 
hands in front of him in a ridiculously melodramatic manner. Alex broke.
"Oh, ok! Fine, have this!" 

Sofia gave him a quick hug in thanks, and then gave Grouch the treatment. He 
came immediately back to life, flapping his wings angrily, and hopping around 
madly. Reaching Sofia's foot, he looked up at her now angry expression, and 
thought better of pecking her. He pecked Alex instead, who howled in pain, much 
to Sofia's amusement. "You're quite funny when you dance like that Alex!" 
Still hopping, Alex glowered at her. "Well, we'd better get moving. I have one 
more place I plan for you to go looking for pokemon."
"Where?"
"You'll see... Or rather, you wont!" With that cryptic comment, Alex marched off 
down the path, leaving Sofia scurrying to keep up.

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After walking for over an hour, and having a brief lunch break they arrived at a 
large cave. It looked pitch black inside, almost as if all light was absorbed 
away, from its deep, dank interiors. Sofia gulped apprehensively. "That place is 
totally dark inside! We wont be able to see a thing!"
"Not scared of the dark are ya?" Alex taunted her gently. Before she could reply 
indignantly, he released his butterfree. "Xander! Go, use your Flash to light up 
the cave!"

Alex stood a short distance away from the mouth of the cave, as Sofia stumbled 
around in the wan light from Xander the butterfree. Tripping over a rock, she 
cursed loudly, and suddenly realised that it was a geodude! Yelping in shock, as 
the normally docile pokemon reared itself up to attack, Sofia ran away from it 
to the cave entrance.
"Why'd you run away?" Alex sounded disappointed.
"Well... " Sofia tried to think up an excuse, to hide the fact that she had in 
fact just come close to loosing bladder control and had simply run through sheer 
terror.
"Oh, I see! You haven't got any pokemon that can really hurt a geodude... It's 
resistant against Killer and Grouch; good thinking Sofia!" 
"Uh... Yeah...!" She managed weakly.
"Well, get back in there! See what else you can find!"

Once again, Sofia began searching around in the dim light, more carefully this 
time round. Suddenly, she saw a silhouetted shape moving behind a large boulder. 
Making sure that the boulder itself wasn't a pokemon, she quickly ran round 
it... And was attacked by a machop! Grabbing a pokeball at random in her terror, 
she released a pokemon... Killer appeared, sucking his paw. "Geez, is that all 
you do!? Go, Lick that machop!"
Killer ran forward, and received a rapid Karate Chop to his skull. Thrown 
backwards, Killer lay stunned on the stony ground. Worried that the machop would 
finish him off, as she suddenly remembered that normal types were weak against 
fighting types, Sofia recalled Killer. But rather than attacking, the machop 
started to back away, almost as if it was ready to run. "What's going on!? 
Machop are supposed to be aggressive!" Now nervous that the pokemon would 
escape, she released Grouch, who instantaneously pecked her on the head. 
"Yoooow!! Attack the machop, not me, you idiot bird!" She flailed an angry arm 
towards the machop, which began to run away.

Grouch shot forwards with unbelievable speed, and pecked the machoke viciously 
on the back. "Maaachooooop!" The small grey humanoid fell over under the force 
of Grouch's onslaught, and tried to shield itself against the cruel beak. Again 
and again, Grouch stabbed forwards with his beak, showing now mercy, as the 
machop howled in pain. A quickly thrown pokeball ended its suffering, as it 
disappeared from Grouch's range to inside the red and white globe. A brief 
attempt to escape was soon halted by Grouch roughly pecking the pokeball, 
reminding the machop what awaited it, should it escape.
"Great job, Grouch! Return!" However, Grouch had other ideas, and started 
shrieking angrily. Suddenly, Alex and his butterfree were there.
"Xander! Sleep powder!" A spray of white powder shot out from some nameless 
region of the butterfree into Grouch's face. His wings flapped more slowly, and 
suddenly he dropped to the ground. Returning him to his pokeball, Sofia looked 
sheepishly at Alex. "Um... thanks... I..."
"Don't worry about it. But I'm concerned that Grouch is becoming disobedient..." 
While he mused to himself about the solution, Sofia checked up on her new 
pokemon. "Machop: Male" The pokedex droned. "Attacks available: Low Kick, Leer, 
Focus Energy, Karate Chop" 
"And what should I call you? A fighting pokemon who'd rather run away!? Fleance! 
That'll do!"

Alex suddenly yelled, "I've got it! You'll have to take on other trainers, to 
gain your pokemon's respect. Normally trainers would battle gym leaders to gain 
badges, but obviously that's not an option here. Well, we'd better head back."

As they walked out from the cave, Sofia realised that it was already late 
afternoon. The sky, which at the beach had previously been constantly a bright 
blue was overlaid with grey cloud. The sun weakly shone through, at their backs, 
and the wind was beginning to pick up, as they began the journey back to the 
pick-up point. 

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As they neared the pick-up point, Sofia saw another person walking towards them 
in the distance. "Who's that?"
"Dunno... Don't worry, it's not the authorities. Probably another trainer, out 
on a journey."
Wondering if the authorities would really be her enemy, and if Kaspar really did 
want her dead, she asked, "Do you think it's another trainer? I want to battle!"
"What!? You've used up all your potions, your pokemon are all really new, and 
just think, what if this person has a load of powerful pokemon!? You'll get 
creamed, in all likeliness."
Scowling, Sofia realised that Alex was right. Not that it made her feel any 
better.

As the person approached, Sofia realised that it was a man, with short blonde 
hair that, wearing the tightest t-shirt and jeans that Sofia had ever seen. He 
had a belt with five pokeballs hanging from it. He greeted them in an 
extravagant voice, "Hey there! You guys trainers?"
Before Alex, or common sense could reason with her otherwise, Sofia replied, 
"Yeah, I am!"
"Great, want a battle!? I've been searching all day for someone to battle with!" 
As he rubbed his hands together in overly dramatic glee, Alex pulled Sofia 
aside, calling out, "Just give us a moment!"
"What are you doing!? He's got five pokemon!"
"So? It's about quality, not quantity!"
"You can't trust all that rubbish you watched on TV! It doesn't work like that! 
And anyway, your pokemon are hardly of the highest quality, and one of them wont 
even listen to you!"
Stung by this, Sofia lost all reason, and clenching her jaw, turned round to 
face the other trainer. "OK, shall we go?"
"Well, what do you want to wager?"
"Huh?" Sofia was taken aback.
"OK, rookie, huh? Well, how about I wager one of my pokemon against one of 
yours? But we wont tell eachother which pokemon, OK? And to make it even more 
fair, I'll even let you use her, to even out the odds! Four on four, can't get 
any fairer than that, eh?"
"I accept! But I don't need your pokemon to win this one!" 
"Well... I'll let you have lil' Grace here anyway!" He looked as if though he 
was struggling to contain laughter, while Alex looked on in utter despair. 
"How can anyone be so stupid! You don't even know what pokemon he's giving you!"
"I wont need it! He doesn't know which pokemon I'm wagering either!" Sofia 
snapped. She knew, deep inside, that what she was doing was incredibly stupid, 
and most likely to end in an embarrassing and most costly failure, but she 
didn't care. She was mainly doing this out of sheer pig-headedness, and so logic 
played little in influencing her decisions. Facing her opponent once more, Sofia 
selected Killer's pokeball and released him. 
"Ah, a teddiursa, eh? Go, Ratty!" A tiny rattata appeared opposite Killer, who 
was, as per usual, sucking his paw. Glancing back at his trainer, Killer awaited 
a command. "Killer, GO! Scratch that little punk!"

As Killer waddled towards it, the rattata looked back at its trainer. However, 
he was in no condition to issue commands, kneeling on the floor struggling to 
breathe through his laughter.
"...Killer! Hahahahah!..."
Even as Ratty turned round, Killer's paw slapped it in the face, sending it 
twirling away on the path. Finally escaping from his fit of hysterics, the 
trainer, seeing his pokemon in trouble, ordered Ratty to tackle Killer. 
"Killer, give it a leer!" 

Ratty charged forward with blinding speed and smashed hard into Killer, who was 
Leering in vain at Ratty, and couldn't dodge. Thrown backwards, Killer landed 
and rolled in the dust of the path, as it started to rain. "Get up Killer! I 
know you can do it! Please! Give it another scratch attack!" Killer picked 
himself up, and even as the rattata charged at him again, suddenly scratched its 
face, sending it flying away off the path, yowling in pain. His trainer decided 
that he'd had enough.
"Return, Ratty. OK, no more Mr. Nice-guy! Go, Mankster!"
A mankey appeared in front of the panting Killer, and hooted out angrily. 
Without even waiting for its trainer to command it, it started to run at Killer. 
"Killer! Dodge, and scratch it!"
"Haven't you got any other attacks than scratch!?" The man seemed genuinely 
annoyed. "Mankster, Karate Chop!"

The two pokemon clashed, and Killer managed to get in his Scratch attack, but 
Mankster, despite howling in pain, was not deterred from his attack in the 
least, and delivered a crushing Karate Chop to Killer. Flung away with 
tremendous force, Killer landed with a thud, and stayed down.
Sofia gasped with shock; she had never seen her pokemon faint before, and the 
situation was not a pleasant one. "Killer! No!!!" She rushed forward to her 
fallen partner, and gently picked him up. 
"Hey! We're in the middle of a battle here! Hurry up and choose your next 
pokemon!" 

Feeling anger building up, Sofia decided to play a risky game; she released 
Grouch, who had slept off the Xander's Sleep Powder, and called out to him, 
"Grouch! Peck, NOW!"
Grouch flew forward and launched an impressive peck attack at the mankey's face 
before it could defend itself. Screaming its pain, it stumbled backwards, losing 
its grip in the mud that had now formed from the rain. Landing heavily, it was 
slow to rise. "Grouch, give it a Fury Attack!" Sofia's face was set in a 
determined grimace lined with anger. Grouch swooped forward again, and threw an 
unremittent flurry of blows at the mankeu. However, the fight was far from over. 
"Mankster, use rage!" Even as more of Grouch's blows rained down on it, the 
mankey's already volcanic temper was exacerbated. Suddenly, with unrestrained 
fury, the mankey released an immensely violent attack, which smashed into Grouch 
with a sickening crash. Knocked so forcefully from the sky, Grouch rolled along 
the ground, spraying mud as his wings slapped the floor. "Grouch!" Sofia's voice 
suddenly radiated concern for her new pokemon. But as she reached for his 
pokeball to call him back, Grouch gave a visceral shriek and righted himself. 
"Grouch, are you ok?" Sofia was stunned that he was still able to battle. "OK... 
Try using another peck on that thing!" Grouch didn't need to be told twice. 
Maddened by the thrashing he had received, he was only to happy to throw himself 
back at Mankster.
"Mankster, that spearow's so stupid it thinks it can still fight us... Use 
another Karate Chop on that fool!"

Flying straight at Mankster, Grouch watched as the mankey prepared to karate 
chop him from the air. "Grouch, DODGE!" Sofia screamed out loudly, and as 
Mankster's fist cut through the air, Grouch flipped to the side at the last 
minute, and impacted into Mankster with a huge boom! It was the mankey's turn to 
be sent tumbling through the air. Landing in a fountain of mud at his trainer's 
feet, the exhausted fighting pokemon was unable to continue. 
"Grrr... I'll fix you good! Go, Geode!" 
A large knobbly pokemon, with two powerful arms appeared, and smashed its rocky 
fists into eachother with a mighty cry, "GEOOOO!!"

Utterly spent, Grouch panted on the ground, looking up at his new opponent.
The man smirked, "Geode, rock throw, NOW!" Hefting a large stone, Geode lobbed 
it at Grouch with amazing accuracy. Barely able to move, Grouch managed to 
dodge, but only just! 
"Groucho, keep dodging!"
"Oh, wow, any more amazing advice you'd like to add?" muttered Alex 
sarcastically from the sidelines. 

The geodude continued to throw a seemingly endless supply of rocks at Grouch, 
who could do nothing but scurry out of the way. Getting even more drained of 
energy, Grouch was almost ready to collapse. However, the geodude was also 
running out of energy, speed and stamina not among its strengths. With a cunning 
twinkle in its eye, it lifted another rock to throw. As Grouch prepared once 
more to dodge, Geode skimmed the rock towards him. It bounced off the ground 
with a vicious slap and slammed into Grouch, knocking him out cold.

Once again, Sofia was forced to call back an unconscious pokemon. Thinking back 
to basic pokemon strategy, she knew at once that Fleance would have type 
advantage.... But Fleance was a completely new pokemon! She'd never used him in 
a battle before. Would he obey her? "Or maybe he'll try to run..." she thought, 
thinking back to when she'd caught him. "But better to use him than whatever 
joke pokemon this guy's given me."

Fleance appeared in a flash from his pokeball. "Maaa..." He saw the furious 
geodude in front of him. "Fleance, quick, use low kick!" Before he could though, 
Geode sped across and tried to pound him into the ground with one huge fist. 
Leaping out of the way, Fleance slipped and struggled to maintain his balance as 
Geode lumbered after him. Turning, and giving Sofia a quick nod, Fleance faced 
his giant rival. Launching himself with immense force from the ground, he 
delivered a mighty flying kick onto the face of the stampeding geodude, sending 
it down and out.
"Aaargh! Geode! No!" Sofia's rival clenched his fists in rage. "Return! OK... 
That's it... Go, Static!"

Fleance's new foe was a pokemon who in many ways resembled the pokeball that it 
emerged from... a voltorb! Sofia had read about these pokemon... incredibly 
fast, but also liable to explode! But before she could think much more about 
strategies, the aforementioned lightning speed came into play, the voltorb 
slamming into Fleance with a tackle attack before she had even realised that any 
commands had been issued! Fleance staggered backwards slightly, but wasn't too 
injured. "Next time, give it a Low Kick!" 

Again the voltorb sped towards Fleance, faster than Sofia's eyes could follow, 
and again, Fleance was hit before he could retaliate. Again, and again, each 
individual attack not that powerful, but the cumulative effect of repeated hits 
was beginning to take its toll on Fleance. Suddenly, as Static smashed into 
Fleance once more, he managed to get his timing right, and slammed his foot out 
into the voltorb, sending it flying away like a football. He ran after it, as 
Sofia yelled out, "Quick, Karate Chop now!" and crashed his hand into Static in 
a punishing stroke.

However, even as he made contact, Static's trainer called out to it, "Quick, 
Thunder Wave!" Waves of paralyzing energy coursed through Fleance's body, 
causing him to spasm uncontrollably, before falling to the ground. Sofia 
realised that there was no point in continuing with Fleance; there was nothing 
more he could do. "Well done Fleance, you did great. Now return..." She looked 
at the voltorb, who looked ready to collapse as well. "Well, whatever this is, 
it can't be that bad, right?" Trembling slightly with nervousness, she wiped the 
sweat and rain from her brow, and released the pokemon... 
"WHAT!?" Sofia's cry of rage could be heard reverberating around. "MAGIKARP!?" 

Flopping about helplessly on the ground, the magikarp was a hapless target for a 
quick thundershock from Static. The bolt of electrical energy slammed into the 
fish, and knocked it out with one hit! Sofia fumed silently, cursing her luck. 
Magikarp!

"I'll take... Your spearow! It's the only worthwhile pokemon you've got!" Her 
opponent stood opposite her with a huge, smug grin pasted on his face. 
Reluctantly, and still raging inside, Sofia handed over Grouch's pokeball. If 
looks could kill, Sofia's opponent would have been leaving in a coffin; as it 
was, he was leaving with a new pokemon. 
"Keep the fish, young woman, and thanks for the battle!"
"Patronising little..." Sofia muttered profanities just below an audible range, 
"Damn magikarp, what use is it?"

Sofia turned to face Alex, looking downwards, since she couldn't bear to make 
eye contact, when she saw Nik standing with him. Suddenly shocked, she just 
gaped. "When did you get here?"
"I've been here long enough... long enough to see you lose! Well, at least Ted 
here was kind enough to let you keep Grace, eh!?"
"Wha...?" Sofia was completely bemused.
Alex looked at the ground, embarrassed. "Well, it was all... sorta planned... 
Nik wanted to see how far you'd progressed..." he muttered.
"You mean... You mean all of that was... a test!?" Sofia almost shouted. She 
couldn't believe it. But somehow, she managed to stay calm, suppressing the 
anger that was welling up inside her again; her priority now was to get her 
pokemon healed. That didn't stop her from feeling resentment towards her 
opponent, towards Nik, but most of all, towards Alex, by whom she felt betrayed. 
"He could have told me!" she fumed in the privacy of her own head, where it made 
no difference to her that he had indeed warned her not to battle.

"At least I got a new pokemon out of it; and it's not like Grouch even liked me, 
and I certainly didn't like him... Hah! I didn't even have him for long enough 
to hate him properly!" She tried to console herself, as she was blindfolded and 
led towards Marco, but she realised that she felt such raw anger, and at the 
same time was so close to tears. Losing a hard earned companion for a pathetic 
fish hurt! "Stupid magikarp..." She climbed onto Marco's back in high dudgeon, 
feeling more alone after Alex's 'treachory' and missing home more than ever. 
Pokemon training was certainly not as fun as she'd hoped.

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