Guess what? They didn't. Yes sir, there I was, getting hugged by the prettiest girl in all of Rocket-Bane (at least in my opinion), and when she let go, I was unconscious and my arms didn't stop my fall. There was some debate later as to whether I had fainted from exhaustion or from happiness (a small percentage said from being embarrassed I was being hugged by a girl so ugly, but they better watch it, or they’ll have their clocks cleaned…once I get stronger…and more Pokemon…), but I always knew that I had fainted from exhaustion.

“I can’t believe I fainted!” I muttered to myself as I left the hospital, which was shaped, annoyingly enough, like a giant Blissey. This shaping thing was starting to get annoying. “I know I was really tired and all, but still!”

Erin laughed. “Well, it WAS against a Machop.”

Somehow that didn’t make me feel any better.

I had learned from that book of rules/info/whatever you want to call it about Rocket-Bane, that there were six gyms in the underground society. You could only have one Pokémon until you defeated a gym. After you defeated a gym, you didn’t get a badge, like most countries above the ground, but permission to get another Pokemon. This cycle kept going until you defeated the last gym leader. This last gym gave you official permission to try to defeat the five legendary birds (Ho-oh, Lugia, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres).

Fourtunately, while I was sleeping, the ruling council of Rocket-Bane and Shale himself, who seems to have a lot of power within this community, decided that my battle with Muscle’s Machop was enough to grant me the win over the Fighting type Gym, and permission to have another Pokémon.

.

It was two days before the soreness died down enough that I could even think about going to the breeding center again, since I was still aching from the fight-the doctor said that he would be surprised if I stopped aching in a week. When I finally got out of bed, Erin was there. She was ALWAYS there. She was quickly becoming my best, well, and only friend in Rocket-Bane. “So,” she asked, nodding at my leg, which had a brace over the knee, “How long are they making you keep that on?”

“A week!” I complained, “I explained to them that I’d get behind in Muscle’s classes, but nooo…They don’t care!”

Erin punched me in the shoulder, “If it didn’t heal properly, you wouldn’t be able to stay with the class anyway.”

I feigned being hurt, “Alas and alack! All my friends have left me, woe is me!”

Erin laughed, “Stop being so melodramatic, and let’s go to the Breeding Center.”

As I entered the lobby again, Choppy right behind me, I glanced around again, more carefully this time, and once again noticed the symbols on all the doors, and went back into the Fighting room. Erin followed after me and shut the door, and all the sounds washed over me again. I looked at all the different Pokemon that I could have. There were Tyrogues, the obvious choice if I wanted to be a Pokemon master of fighters, but I wanted a well balanced team, so I left the room, and went into the main lobby, where there were the doors to the different types of Pokemon. Slowly, I worked my way around the lobby, considering each door as I passed it. I hesitated in front of the Psychic Pokemon section, but then continued on. Their time would come, soon enough. I considered getting a pure ground Pokemon like Sandshrew or Diglett, but decided against it. I would go for an Onix when the time came. However this was not the time.

I glanced at Erin, “What should I get?”

Erin shrugged, "Your call, but what kind do you want?"

I was silent for a few moments, thinking it over. What kind did I want? Then I knew what type I wanted, and, without hesitation, entered the Bug Room. I looked around, now which one to get? There were Spinaraks, which had the Spider Web attack, there were Caterpies, which grew to be a Psychic Bug, there were Weedles, which grew into a fierce fighting machine, there were Pinecos, which grew into powerful Steel-type Pokemon, Yanma, the Bug/Flying type, which could come in very handy, Venonats, which grew into powerful Psychic Bugs, Scythers, which could be evolved into the powerful Bug/Steel Pokemon, Heracross-the obvious choice if I wanted to be a fighting champion-the Bug/Fighting Pokemon, Shuckles, which were the Bug/rock type, and they would undoubtedly be tough to defeat. Faced with all these and more crying out to me to take me with them as soon as I entered the door, and I slowly made my way up and down the rows of Pokemon, then paused in front of the Shuckle Cage. They all rushed over to my side of the door and cried out, "Shuck! Shuck!"

Slowly, I moved on, stopping in front of the Scyther cage, and they all stared at me silently, as if sizing me up. I held one of their gazes, and it looked away after a few seconds. Then I moved to the Weedle Cage, and they all looked up at me. Looking further on, I saw Beedrills beating against the side of their enclosure, trying to get out, and, in the enclosure next to them, Butterfrees sitting quietly. Looking down at the Weedles, I slowly smiled and let myself into the cage.

Immediately they all rushed over to me, and I watched carefully and noted the one that reached me first. Then I noticed another Weedle that was thrusting its way through the ranks of the Weedles, trying to get to me, using brute force. One of the Weedles turned and gave it a quick stab of its horn, and it cried out and crawled away. The one that had stabbed the other now began shoving its way through the other Weedles, and struck back at the other Weedles that struck at it.

Smiling, I called over at an attendant and pointed to the Weedle, "I want that one!"

The attendant's relief was palpable, and very noticeable in her face, "All right. You got it! That one has been a nightmare for us, and we don't have time to discipline it properly. Maybe you'll be able to." Suddenly the Weedle was dissolved into a bright red light, and that red light zipped inside a Pokeball. The attendant handed me the gray Pokeball, "Here, take him!"

That’s another thing I’m not sure if I knew before reading the Rocket-Bane rule-book thing. Each type has a particular kind of Pokeball. This weird guy named Curtis or something is part of the movement against the rockets, and he is like some super genius on Pokeballs…anyways, the ruling council of Rocket-Bane decided that each type of Pokemon would have their own color Pokeball. Bugs were gray, Fighting types were black, and I assume that the ground type is Brown.

Thanking the attendant, I moved out of the Weedle enclosure and made my way outside, where Erin was waiting for me, though I hadn’t noticed that she had left. "Got it!" I crowed, holding the Pokeball aloft.

"Great! What kind is it?" she asked me.

I grinned and let out my Weedle. She took one look at it and blanched. Her face went pale and she screwed her eyes shut. "What's wrong?" I asked.

Opening her eyes, she acted as if she had barely heard me, and whispered, "I found out that my parents were killed by Beedrills. I had nearly forgotten about it, but then you showed me your Weedle, and it brought it all back. I saw the videos where they were executed."

I looked at the ground, and said softly, "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I'll recall Weedle."

Erin lay a hand on my arm, "No, don't. I need to show you something. You both need training. Follow me."

I scooped up Weedle and put it on my shoulder. "Wee!" it said, as if it were a human kid that was having fun, and put its body around my neck.

Erin was already moving down the streets towards the large lake in the center of the large cavern, not to mention the lake. I caught up with her outside a building that read, TRAINING CENTER in glittering Golden letters. "Come on!" she said, her spirits seeming to have caught up with her again, and was nearly her old, energetic self again, "Through here!"

Following her, for some reason it seemed as if everything was a race to her, I found myself in a building much like the Breeding Center, but it had many more rooms and it was shaped like a Machamp. Okay, at first it was cute, but NOW it was getting annoying. "Okay, I give up, what is this place?" I asked her.

"The Training Center," she laughed, "Can't you read?"

Ouch! I deserved that though, "Yeah, yeah, but how do I train?"

Erin, still grinning, moved over to one of the doors, "Through here," she said, "There is an arena similar to the standard Indigo League arenas. There you can pit your Pokemon against Rocket-Bane Pokemon of your choosing. There is also a Pokemon Center for healing your Pokemon after battles, so that you can get back to training as quickly as possible." She opened the door and went through it, "Here," she said, "I'll show you how it works. Put Weedle out there on the Red side." The room was shadowed, but I could see the Nurse Joy in a corner, standing behind a desk, reading. In the exact Center of the room, there was a Pokeball etched onto the floor, one half of it red, the other half blue, in the EXACT center of the Pokeball, there was the button that would open up the Pokeball, if it were real.

Taking Weedle off of my shoulders, I put him in the red section of the arena. It looked at me, uncertain of what to do. I looked at Erin similarly. She motioned for me to come back to where she was sitting, at some kind of computer. "Alright, now what?" I asked.

Erin tossed a grin my way and showed me the layout of the desk which she was sitting at. Tehre were two monitors; one red, one blue, two keyboards; one red, one blue, two mouses; one red, one blue; and two buttons,a big red button and a big blue button. "First, look to see which side Your Pokemon is on, and push the respectively colored button." she pushed the red button, and suddenly, on the screen, all of Weedle's vital statistics appeared. Suddenly there was blinking on another screen. it said to pick a challenger.

"Next, what you do, with this blue keyboard here, or the red keyboard, if your Pokemon is on the Blue side, is to pick the Pokemon you want. Let's say, Chikorita for now, it's a pure grass type, and your Weedle should have little trouble defeating it." she typed Chikorita onto the Blue keyboard, and pushed the blue button. Suddenly, the button that I had thought merely to be a decoration on the floor opened, and a Chikorita quickly appeared on an ascending platform. On the blue monitor, the Chikorita's vital statistics appeared. Erin got up out of the seat and said, "Now you just command the battle as you normally would. Every Pokemon known to man, except for the Legendary Pokemon, are available to fight against. Don't forget about the nurse Joy after the fight. It's usually a good idea to heal your Pokemon after every match. And the opposing Pokemon are holographic, so don’t worry about them. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go."

“All right,” I growled, turning to Weedle, “Let’s do this. Weedle, Poison Sting!”

Weedle grinned and leaped forward, taking the offensive. The poor hologram never knew what hit it. “Again!” I called out, and the Chikorita was fainted. Moving back to the keyboard, I called up TWO Chikoritas, “Let’s see how you do against these!” I called out to Weedle, “Poison Sting!”

Okay, so he did GREAT! I could really see Weedle improving more and more with each match. Looking over his attacks, I grinned as I saw the two bug-type moves, and I promptly called Weedle Psybane. The name stuck, and she seemed happy with it. It took two months of hard training, but finally Psybane evolved into a Kakuna. after that, it was only three weeks before Psybane evolved into Beedrill. I felt bad, leaving Psybane at home while I trained Choppy at the Training Center, but it couldn't be helped. I wanted to give Psybane the most time that it could to rest up in her cacoon, since as soon as she came out, I would work her ragged.

After she evolved to Beedrill, Psybane was soon able to drop Psychics in two attacks with Twineedle, but I suggested using its Tail Stinger too and it could soon drop weak Psychics with one attack, and, after a while, we changed the name of the new move to Trineedle from Twineedle Alpha Zulu. After another week of hard training, we were ready for the next gym. the Psychic gym.

As soon as I entered the gym, I saw the gym leader directly in front of me, but as I walked towards her, I suddenly hit something. I stepped back and studied the air in front of me. "Hmm..." I thought, "There must be some kind of wall here. wait, how could there be? There's only air!" I stepped forward, and hit the something/nothing-thing-a-ma-bobber-stuff air again, "Aha!" I thought to myself, “so she has found a formula to make air into a substance that acts as a solid." I looked at the air carefully, but there was still nothing there. Then I remembered that it was a Psychic gym, and that it was probably nothing more than a Psychic barrier. I had Choppy and Psybane look for holes in the invisible wall and I finally made my way to her.

She nodded her head gracefully and said, "Greetings, defeater of Burt Thompson. Your strength will not avail you here, however, you must defeat the ways of the Psychic," she stood, reaching for a Pokeball when I stopped her, "Wait, can me and my Pokemon have lunch before we fight?"

She nodded, and I thought I heard a voice in my head, "She likes you."

I looked around, and thought, "Man, who was that?" I thought. Suddenly, an image popped into my mind. a figure that was standing on a pedestal with the three Legendary beasts beside it. A figure that was blue and had a long tail. Mew. "What do you want? Can't you see that I'm busy?" I thought, and I could feel a chuckle in my mind.

"I want to help you. I can tell you what attacks she is going to use and how to counter them and defeat her with Choppy. Erin would be impressed, wouldn't she? after all, she likes you and so does this girl. She is impressed, I could give you more fame. Why just defeat her with Psybane? Give the masses something to talk about, and you'll become the hero of Rocket-Bane, and the bane that the name speaks of of Team Rocket..." the voice went on, and I tried to sort out my thoughts, my desires, and the strange voice in my head. They all seemed like one, my desires and the voice anyway. And Erin liking me? there was no way that was possible.

I sat there, chewing a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, with my eyes tightly closed, but then a thought burst into my mind as I sorted out what it was suggesting that I do, yes, it might be easy, it might make me a hero, but I wouldn't be a good trainer. I would be cheating. Well, that thought hit me like a sledgehammer, and I have the bruise on my chest and back to prove it. When I thought that, the voice immediately stopped talking and I was hurled back into an invisible wall, but luckily I had just swallowed the last of my sandwich. Then the voice returned, so loud in my mind that I must have curled up in a ball, "ONE DOES NOT JUST REFUSE THE MIGHTY MEW! There is still time to change your mind..." the voice trailed off into silence, and I could almost feel the presence of Mew beside me, waiting for my answer.

I answered slowly, and out loud, "No." I said weakly, then, feeling my strength return, I said, "No, not while I have strength left in my body will I do that. It is cheating. While it may make me a legend, I would always know the truth, and it would haunt me all my life. So I will not cheat." The presence vanished as suddenly as it had begun, and I stood up, fully recovered, and noticed the gym leader looking at me with respect. Suddenly I realized that that had been a test, and Mew did it to every challenger, and that not many refused his "help".

Mew turned to the council and Carl Slate, with a satisfied smile on its face. "He has passed the test, he will not cheat."

Carl Slate blew out a breath of relief. He knew that the Council did not allow the cheaters to have more than six Pokemon, and they were never recruited for the army. So far only fifty people out of the hundreds that had challenged Sandra Tyfander had passed the test. And most of those passed only because of rumors spread by word of mouth. Tyco hadn't heard those rumors, of what kind of test Mew did, he was sure, but the Council did nothing to reprove the students that passed with help from the rumor, though the Council did try to squelch the rumors when they arose. They were at that moment considering making the tests vary from peron to person so that no test was used twice in a row.

I stood in a stance that showed me ready for battle but suddenly I had an idea, grinning, I said, "Choppy, go!" The girl's face showed surprise but shrugged and said, "I am Sandra Tyfander, and I will fight against you. since you chose your Machop, you will be easily defeated. Go, Abra! Get that peanut butter off of his face."

Hurriedly I wiped my face with my hand and sucked the peanut butter off of my hand. Then I studied the situation carefully and decided what to do. Abras knew at birth only teleport, and could learn any Psychic move from any Technical Machines that were out there, this much I knew from the books on the Abra evolutionary tree which I had read. I figured that she had taught the Abra Psybeam, but I would consider it as learning Psychic and confusion as well.

Confusion and Psychic, I knew, were an area of affect attacks that could be directed at a large area. I would have to be careful if she used one of them. It was easy to tell where Psychic and Confusion were passing through, because reality itself was rippled by the passage of so much raw power. Psybeam however, while more powerful than confusion, but less so than Psychic, consisted of several rings of circles of psychic energy. This was more easily dodged, but I wasn't sure if these invisible walls had refecting abilites, if so, we would have to be more careful.

I was the first to give my command, and said, "Choppy, Agility and dodge like you never have before when she orders her attack! Just like you would if you had some of her cooking, if it's anything like my sister's." Sandra eyed me, and only me, while the Abra tracked Choppy with its eyes, then I saw that it was preparing itself, and I realized that she had given her Abra a mental command. "DODGE NOW!" I shouted. startled, the Abra let the Psybeam go straight up and it hit itself in the reflection off of an invisible wall from above it. It glared at me, and I knew that it wouldn't make the same mistake twice, and while it was occupied with glaring at me, Choppy moved in and executed a Mega Punch and rolled away, using its Rolling Kick technic.

The Abra turned away from me and used Pschic, and Choppy wheeled away as it dodged out of the very edge of the attack, and so caught only a small amount of power to damage it, but still it was weakened considerably, but the Abra was just barely holding onto consciousness, and then I saw the Max Potion in Sandra's hand, and I decided to end everything right then and there, "Karate Chop!" The Abra began to dodge, but the Karate Chop hit it squarely on the head, and it fainted.

Sandra looked from me, to Choppy, to Psybane, which still was waiting patiently for its turn, to her Abra, and her jaw dropped. She was oviously amazed that a fighting Pokemon could defeat her powerful Psychic Pokemon, which had a type disadvantage over her Abra. While she was staring, Choppy moved over to me and I poured a Super potion, three X Attacks, and five X Speeds onto Choppy.

Sandra suddenly glared at me, and looked frustrated with herself, pronbably for giving me a chance to prepare Choppy, and Abra returned to its Pokeball and her Alakazam appeared. It immediately used Psychic, and Choppy and I dodged in two different directions, Choppy once again using Agility. Choppy flew out of the Psychic storm easily and danced in behind the Alakazam and pounded it with Mega Punches, Karate Chops, and Rolling kicks and when it started to turn and attack Choppy, however, He used Rolling Kick so that he could stay behind Alakazam. I, however, was not so lucky. The Psychic attack burned into my mind and I cried out in pain, then, just as suddenly as it began, it was over. I now knew how my Pokemon felt when they wre attacked by a Fighter or a Psychic. And it was frightening. When I could stop shaking enough to look up, an exhausted but grinning Choppy stood over the unconscious form of Sandra's Alakazam. "Choppy, return," I muttered, as my vision swam, but gradually it got better. "go, Psybane." I said, struggling to my feet.

Sandra got rid of the invisible walls at the same time that I tried to use them to get up, whether because she was mad or to let the Chansey that came to treat me through I never knew, but I fell back down anyway and glared at her. "Go! Hypno!" She cried.

"Psybane, it'll try to hypnotize you with its Pendulum so don't look at it, and-WAIT WILL YOU??? I'M TRYING TO BATTLE HERE!" This last part was directed at the Chansey, who was fussing over my bruises, and it scurried away and cowered a good ten yards away from me. Apparently it had heard about my strength. That was what saved Psybane from the same fortune as myself, since when Sandra's Hypno used Psybeam several times and scattered them all around Psybane, hoping that it would move, it wouldn't. Then the Hypno steeled itself and I could tell what was going to happen next, "Dodge the Psychic Psybane!" I shouted, and the bug was startled out of its momentary self-freeze. It jumped up to above the level of attack. Apparently the Hypno had been sure that Psybane wouldn't dodge, and concentrated its energy into a box smaller than usual, and thus making it more powerful. But it missed by a good three yards. "TAIL WHIP B!" I shouted, feeling the adrenalin soaring through my vanes, and I was jumping up and down now, and I must have looked like an idiot, well, actually I said I was myself when I saw myself in the film that they made of the battle later. Tail Whip B was another move that Psybane and I had thought up. It was similar to the Fire Spin of Fire Pokemon, but instead of heating flame up and sending it to the one being attacked, Psybane would get in close and spin around several times, tail stinger stiffened, hitting the enemy Pokemon up to five times.

It worked perfectly, the Hypno was still recovering from the massive blast of energy that it had sent out, and Psybane was as fast as Choppy had been with Agility and five X Speeds. Hypno was hit five times by the stinger, and with the last hit, it flopped over onto its stomach, but then got up and caught Psybane in a Psychic so narrow that it almost looked like a Psybeam, and I winced, remembering the Alakazam's attack. Psybane responded before I could say anything. It used Trineedle, over and over, absorbing Psychic after Psychic, until Hypno fell to the ground, unconscious. Sandra's face was getting redder and redder, and sent out both of her last Pokemon at once, and immediately I reached for Choppy's Pokeball, but then I realized that I too would be cheating if I did the same as Sandra.

Mew appeared between Psybane and Sandra's Drowzee and Kadabra and Psybane, and tried to stop the battle, but I, still mad at Mew for trying to get me to cheat, shouted, "Psybane, Trineedle and Tail Whip B!"

Mew looked up at me sharply, as if not believing what I had just ordered Psybane to do, but then it felt Psybanes stingers and howled in agony, then turned to smash Psybane, but she had already moved, and was now using Tail Whip B at Mew's face. Mew's tail lashed out at Psybane, and caught her and spun her away, but Psybane came back as surely as a boomerang and stabbed down Mew's tail with its tail stinger and used Twineedle on Mew.

I could see Mew's eyes go wide, and then Mew was able to rip its tail out of the ground and lash it at Psybane, who went off in the direction of the wall, but managed to stop herself just before she hit. Mew wasn't taking any chances and sent a Psychic at Psybane, but Psybane dodged and charged Mew's face, who teleported to safety. Psybane changed her direction slightly and gained even more speed, if that was possible, and moved one stinger to point at both Pokemon, who fell to the ground after the stinger left a gash in them, and Psybane used Tail Whip B once on Sandra for good measure, or at least she thought. "THAT IS ENOUGH PSYBANE!" I roared, "Psybane, Return, Go! Chopper!" Choppy appeared and looked at me like it was annoyed at my forgetting its name.

Choppy did a series of flips that Kadabra and Drowzee prepared for an attack that never really came. Choppy jumped to the ceiling and pounded both fists and both feet in, then dropped as two Psychics followed him up there. The Psychic attacks dropped two chunks of ceiling directly on top of Sandra's last two Pokemon, and Choppy rolled towards me. When the dust cleared, the Drowzee and Kadabra were unconscious. Then I saw why. this was no ordinary ceiling, no sirree. This was rock, I mean stone...LIMESTONE!!!! two feet thick!!!!

Choppy and I bowed to Sandra who scowled and returned her Pokemon. Suddenly, Mew appeared behind me, and, without thinking, I released Psybane. I don't know what it was, but maybe it was my anger at being tempted poking through, maybe I thought that Mew was somehow part of this gym's test, and it was supposed to be the last one visited, but, in any case, Before Mew could say a word, I spun and executed a spinning kick in the air which I had practiced a lot since the fighting gym battle, and hit Mew squarely in the side of the head, which drove it back. Choppy moved in to the side of me and we both charged, but were beaten to the draw by Psybane, who used Trineedle on Mew then danced away, just out of reach. Psybane danced out of the way of Mew's retaliation: Psybeams, occasionally getting caught in one, but VERY rarely, while I yanked on Mew's tail and Choppy moved in and attacked Mew with Mega Punches and Mega Kicks.

We kept doing this, and I have several scars from that tail when it hit me so hard sometimes. Suddenly Mew's fist connected suddenly with Psybane and knocked her clear across the room. Mew turned to Choppy and me, and I saw fury in its face. It roared and Choppy cowered, but I stood strong, Mew sent a Psybeam at me, and I dodged it, barely, and Choppy cried out and charged Mew, boy, was that a mistake. I was able to keep Choppy from fainting by grabbing Mew's leg, toppling Mew making it even more mad, another mistake. Mew glared down at me, still clutching its foot for all I was worth, and sent a Psychic drilling directly into me. My mind burned again with the same pain as last time, but this time it was magnified by ten thousand, and I succumbed to the blackness that so easily, it seemed, engulfed me.

As I saw from the vids later, Mew looked shocked when it saw me down on the floor, as if it had broken out of a Rage. Choppy and Psybane charged in at the exact moment that Mew bent down to see if I was ok. I think that I would have woken up sooner since Mew would have healed me, but Choppy's uppercut and Psybane's Trineedle hit at the same time on opposite sides of Mew's head. Mew shook them off and staggered back, looking around dazedly, and, I saw later, in fear. Psybane and Choppy pressed the attack, but Psybane was hit by Mew's tail then engulfed by a Psychic and flew up into the air. Psybane's wings came apart and she glided to the other side of the gym, a good three quarters of a mile across in and of itself, but Choppy dove in and delivered the final blows, glancing now and then at me and it became determined and rained blow after blow harder and harder, faster and faster as he was attacked by Mew with Psychics, and held on by sheer willpower and rage that I was down, and the Legendary Pokemon fell to the ground with a thud that could be felt, it was said, for a mile, at the same time as the unconscious Beedrill finally plowed into the ground at the far end of the gym.

Choppy stared down in disbelief at Mew, then hurried over to the Chansey and started chattering away pointing at me, then Mew, then Psybane. Ten Blisseys came in, I learned later to help me, just then, and saw Mew. All but two rushed over to Mew and fussed over it, and those two rushed over to me, which left the Chansey to run over to Psybane.