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Gym Battle in Celadon City (by Michael Keens/ Exodus)  

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Shortly after arriving in Celadon City, I reported to the Pokémon Centre, where 
I had my Pokémon rest up and I tried to freshen up myself, only there were no 
showers available.  
I had no time to hang around, I had to get my badges and train harder so I 
spent the morning to locate the Gym.  

I arrived at the Gym later that day, it was a huge centre that resembled a 
flower in its design, there were many females attending to the plants around 
the building.  
I went straight for the automatic doors.  
A female with long purple hair and a beige outfit greeted me at the counter.  
“Hello, welcome to-”  
She stopped and observed me, she looked a little disgusted.  
“You’re not a perfume fan are you?”  
“Excuse me?”  
I sniffed and realised that, basically, I stunk, a lot.  
I hadn’t really found the opportunities to wash out in the open, and the dress 
I wore was the only clothing I had.  
I decided to open up a little, the reason I kept quiet, mostly, was to not 
embarrass myself, I was already much more mature than most girls my age and I 
wanted to be seen as such.  
“I’m sorry, but I’m far from home and I can’t afford to check into hotels on a 
regular basis.  I’m very much poor at the moment.”  
“Trust me, Erika doesn’t like people who don’t present themselves well, nor 
does she like bad smells, even though she used to own a Gloom.  Come with 
me...”  

Later on, I had been given the facilities to clean myself up.  
I reached out of the shower and found...  Not my usual dress.  
It was white and had flower designs on it.  
Still I had nothing else to wear.  
“Excuse me, where’s my dress?” I asked the girl, Sandra, after putting on the 
sickeningly brightly coloured outfit.  
“I arranged for it to be washed.” smiled Sandra, “I know what its like to be 
poor, I ran away from home a while back and I was in the same boat as you.”  
Little did she know I had no choice in the matter.  
“... I ended up here and Erika let me stay with her and gave me a job working 
here and at the perfume store.”  
“Um, my beret?” I asked a little nervously, “I’m kind of attached to it.”  
It was strange to be taken care of in this manner and I really wasn’t used to 
it.  
“I had that washed as well, don’t worry, I did what the label said, so it won’t 
be damaged.”  
“I... kinda need it, it feels wrong without it.” I said looking downwards.  
“Well I don’t think so, you have lovely hair, not that you should be hiding 
your face with it.”  
I exhaled with a slight smile, not that anyone saw it.  
“Okay okay, take this.” said Sandra hastily.  
She gave me a sunhat, which I took and wore, I usually hid myself away for two 
reasons, one was that the world was so strange to me, seeing as a great deal 
was new and overwhelming.  
The second reason was that ever since I remember, I had a scar across my right 
eye, it wasn’t damaged, the scar only cut across the skin, and I really didn’t 
want people asking questions about it, since I really didn’t know where it came 
from.  
Not having any real memories or people to rely on made the world somewhat 
daunting at times, travelling around places unknown to me was difficult, but it 
would all be worth it once I found my family.  

“You look beautiful, you should dress like this more often.” smiled Sandra.  
“Don’t count on it.” I thought, but she was so kind that I dared not break her 
heart because of my coldness.  
“Erika will see you now.” she said and led me out.  

In the large room that followed, was a surrounding hill of stairs with a small 
audience of other females, I felt really embarrassed in my alternative outfit.  
“Oh, hello little girl, you look very beautiful.” said a blue haired woman on 
the opposite side of the arena.  
I blushed a little, I was embarrassed enough wearing this, but no one had 
called me beautiful, not as far as I remember anyway.  
“Sandra told me you wished to challenge me.”  
“That is correct.” I said a little proudly.  
“Let’s do it to it.” said Erika preparing her Pokéball.  
“Two-on-two battle.  Go Tangela!”  
“Go Foxfire.”  
“Gela!”  
“Vul!!!”  
“Tangela, use your Vine Whip!”  
“Dodge it Foxfire, and follow up with Ember.”  
The vines circled around randomly but Foxfire leaped right through and blasted 
the source.  
It fell back and retracted its vines.  
“Try using your Stun Spore!”  
“Flamethrower.”  
It burnt right through and the powder exploded.  
“Quick Attack.”  
“Try your Bind attack!”  
Many tentacles shot out in all directions and Foxfire tried as best as she 
could to avoid them all, bless her, but a couple snapped around her legs and 
hoisted her up.  
“Squeeze it...”  
“Vul!!!”  
It just stood and watched, but inside, my heart was racing.  
“Vulpix!!!” she squealed.  
“Now, Slam it into the ground.” said Erika.  
“Flamethrower.” I countered.  
She shot out a blazing flame but the Tangela ducked.  
“Slam!” shouted Erika.  
Foxfire landed hard on the floor, picked herself up and looked confident.  
The Tangela was worried why she was, until it smelt the smoke, it ran around it 
circles in total panic as what started as a small candle-sized flame had grown 
into a large one on its head.  
“Tangela! Use your vines!”  
“Gela! Gela!...” it squealed as its vines collided with the flames rapidly, 
“Gela...” it finally relaxed as the flame was put out.  
“Tangela, try your Sleep Powder...”  
“One dose of that stuff and Foxfire would be out of here.” I thought quickly.  
“Try digging.” I said out loud.  
“Vul!” she cried happily and dived in before the powder consumed the area.  
“Gela?”  
“Growth now!” ordered Erika.  
It glowed green just before Foxfire hit it from below.  
Erika figured that there was no point in resisting, but to instead, boost her 
Tangela’s stats before the impact.  
“Tangela, Vine Whip!”  
It flew faster than ever and with a painful cracking sound, one of the vines 
had hit Foxfire’s leg and entwined around it, the impact looked painful enough 
but she would definitely try slamming her again, this had to end.  
“Foxfire, Fire Spin.”  
“Vul!!! Pix!!!”  
The blast hit dead centre and surrounded the Tangela who spun around the sides 
getting burnt at all angles, but I still saw battling spirit in its eyes, the 
Growth had empowered its special stats so this attack would not be as effective 
as it was in the past.  
“Quick Attack, Foxfire, dive into the hurricane and finish it.”  
“Vul!” she agreed and dived in, the hurricane tore apart, widened outwards and 
dissipated.  
Both Pokémon were burnt but the Tangela was unconscious.  
“I didn’t expect such a nice looking girl to own such a powerful Fire-type...” 
commented Erika.  
Usually I’d think less of trainers for doubting me, but Erika was 
complementing... my beauty, and I couldn’t think badly of her, since she was 
the only one that told me these things about myself.  
“I choose you!...”  
“Exeggcute!”  
“Foxfire, use your Tail Whip.”  
A strange attack, I know, but I had to see what Erika’s next strategy would 
be.  
Foxfire ran forward and turned around slapping her six tails into the 
Exeggcute, they fell back but bounced and jumped around each other in order to 
get into a stance.  
“Exeggcute, use your Confusion.”  
“Vul!!!”  
Foxfire was blasted back but landed on her feet.  
“A Psychic-type.” I thought, “But its still part Grass.”  
“Foxfire, Flamethrower.” I said out loud.  
“Vul!!!”  
“Exeggcute, Sleep Powder!”  
“Egg!!!”  
They shot out a blast of dust, Foxfire was trying to resist it.  
“Now use your Solar Beam!”  
“Foxfire...”  
She could hear me and tried to stay awake but the blast was charged and fired, 
and she fell down weak.  
“Return.”  
I couldn’t risk Armour, they’d steal his health in no time, same for Leviathan, 
and my Clefairy and Nightmare would probably be outsmarted, Exeggcutes had a 
good range of attacks.  
“I’ll giving you this chance Sparky, show off your speed to this Pokémon.” I 
said kindly.  
“Exeggcute, use your Stun Spore!”  
“Agility.”  
He streaked aside and the dust totally missed.  
“Growl.”  
“Pikkkaaaa...”  
“Egg?” asked the eggs confused.  
“Swift attack.”  
That wiped the smile off their faces.  
“Exeggcute, use your Solar Beam!”  
“Stop him Sparky, use Quick Attack.”  
“Chu!”  
He hit them hard but didn’t stop the Solar Beam from charging.  
“Thunderbolt.”  
“Pika... CHU!!!”  
“Ex... Egg... CUTE!!!”  
“Sparky...” I groaned, assuming the worse.  
I had pushed it too close and the Exeggcute shot out its attack at the same 
time Sparky did, causing a huge chain reaction explosion.  
“Exeggcute!” shouted Erika, while I remained silent.  
The smoke cleared and both Pokémon were on the floor, except Sparky had a 
flickering barrier around him...  Light Screen.  
It had taken the major damage of the attack and Sparky was more or less okay, 
the Exeggcute however was extremely damaged.  
“Finish it Sparky, use your Thunder Wave.”  
He ran up to the Exeggcute and contacted its tail with it before sending a 
charge through all six eggs.  
“EeeEgGGgSSs!!!” they squealed as the shock fried them, so to speak.  
“Now, use your Slam attack.”  
“Pika!”  
He slammed them hard and all the eggs cracked and fell to the floor, spinning a 
little.  
“Pika!” cheered Sparky happily.  

A little later, Erika presented me with a colourful flower-shaped badge.  
“Here’s your Rainbow Badge.  You’re a very able trainer and I wish the best of 
luck to you in the Pokémon League.”  
“Thank you.” I said genuinely.  
I went back to Sandra, the girl with the purple hair, she had my dress wrapped 
up in a protective cover.  
“I suppose you want these back.” I said, referring to the clothes I was 
wearing.  
“No, no, you take them, they’re too small for the other girls anyway and it 
looks good on you.” she replied.  
I handed back the sunhat, it really wasn’t me, but it was nice to be 
complimented for my looks and during the battle, I had forgotten I was even 
wearing the hat and dress.  
She took it back and gave me my dress and my beret which I hastily put back on 
my head.  
“If you ever need help, please don’t hesitate to come back here, the girls here 
are always happy to help.”  
“Thank you.” I said simply and departed.  

The next nearest Gym was the one in Saffron City, except a huge flaming wreck 
had destroyed the tunnel and blocked up the way there, I tried to get by, but 
safety inspectors prevented me from doing so until they could clean it up.  
Still, this was a good place to wait around, people were so rich, that money 
was dropping out their pockets, literally.  
I could use them to gamble a little to expand the money I needed for food.  
There was a lot of time until the Pokémon League started and I’d need all the 
money I could get just to survive until then.  

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Emily's Third Gym Battle
Emily's Forth Gym Battle
Back to the Side Stories
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