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

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A lot has happened to us recently, Scott left us after the Gym Battle at Delft 
Town, we left on good terms, but not Tetsubo.  
We became a little closer over the last few days and Tetsubo has become quite 
open with me.  
I wish it could be this way forever, better yet, I wish I was a little older, 
Tetsubo’s so nice to me that I wouldn’t mind trying out the strange term known 
as love.  
I’m as mature as someone his age but I’m sure he thinks of me as a sister or 
something.  
He’s constantly thinking of Green, and his heart seems to be hers even though 
she turned her back on him.  
We’re going to his home soon and that’s where the Safari Zone is, the place 
where he first saw me, and probably a clue to my past.  
It would either make my life better, or worse...  

We arrived in Terracotta City after some travelling, and I persuaded Tetsubo to 
let me go first, he knew a lot about the Gym Leader, so I was hoping he’d watch 
me in action, without help from him, but unfortunately, he had to use the time 
of a Gym Battle to find the official Gym Leader.  
The girl with pink hair and fighting robes led me into the stone temple, to an 
arena in a rectangular room with no ceiling, but several ruined support poles.  

“I am Mina, and you?”  
“Abby.” I said simply, not having Tetsubo around dulled my spirits a little, I 
really wanted him to see me in action.  
“This will be a three-on-three battle.  Choose your Pokémon.”  
“Rhhyyy!!!” growled Armour, I needed what strength I had.  
“Hah!” laughed the assistant Gym Leader, “Go, Hitmonlee!”  
“Hitmon-Lee!” screamed the Fighting Pokémon performing a practice roundhouse 
kick, Chad had one of these, I knew what they could do.  
I’d need to strike quickly, this Pokémon was tricky.  
“Use your Take Down.”  
“Rhhhyyy!!!”  
“Double Kick!”  
As Armour charged forward, the Hitmonlee moved a leg to the side and swung it 
forward, the spring-shaped leg stretching further than I’d anticipated, I only 
had the experience of Chad’s Hitmonlee to go by, and that didn’t help at all.  
Armour was hit once, and the Hitmonlee swung back and forward incredibly fast 
and performed a second kick that knocked Armour backwards and onto the floor.  
“Use your Horn Attack.”  
“Rhy!!!”  
“You know what to do...”  
“Hitmon-LEE!!!”  
The Hitmonlee performed many kicks that started to knock back all five of 
Armour’s horns back at him, hitting for double damage.  
“This is hopeless.” I groaned as he was getting hit, but then I thought about 
things quickly, “Fury Attack, Now.”  
“Rhy!!!”  
The immediate flurry of horns confused the Hitmonlee, as it was barely finished 
with the first wave.  
Before it could properly react, it was dazed by the first hits, and then the 
next four before it fell to the ground.  
“No...  Nothing’s faster than Hitmonlee.”  
“RHY!!!”  
Armour came down on the Hitmonlee with its Take Down attack.  
Mina stared at me in disbelief, since I had directed this attack with a simple 
motion, Armour was a close friend even though we never really showed it, and he 
was getting used to my battle style.  
“Use your Horn Drill.”  
“Jump Kick!”  
Armour ploughed forward with its front horn spinning, but the Hitmonlee was 
ready, and leaped up as the deadly attack was hitting the area it was in, and 
then came down on Armour in the form of a flying kick.  
“Use your Leer.”  
“Hi Jump Kick!”  
The Hitmonlee leaped up and turned away from Armour so as not to be scared, and 
then came down.  
Stupid mistake.  
Hi Jump Kick was hard enough to perform, and even the most able of Fighting 
Pokémon made mistakes sometimes, in missing the opponent, they usually hit the 
nearest wall and dealt a quarter of the damage meant for the opponent to 
themselves, to be closing his eyes guaranteed a miss.  
“Hitmon!!!” wailed the Hitmonlee as it kept going and crashed.  
“Stomp it.”  
“Rhy!!!”  
Surely this would end it.  
“Mega Kick! Rolling Kick!”  
“Huh?”  
Before Armour could flatten the opponent, he was lifted by the force of the 
kick, and went into the air a fair bit.  
The Hitmonlee was rolling across the floor, and leapt up, the speed adding to 
the kick.  
“Hitmon-Lee!”  
The Hitmonlee somersaulted as the kick connected, and scraped across Armour’s 
underbelly.  
Both landed, but Armour was too weak to continue.  
“Silly girl, you couldn’t hope to win, don’t you know that Rock-type Pokémon 
are weak against Fighting Pokémon?”  
“No...” I muttered, not showing my frustration, Tetsubo didn’t own any Fighting 
Pokémon and Chad was hardly the sort worth studying.  
“Return.” I said a little grumpy.  
“Rhy...” groaned Armour, a sad look on his face.  
He’d failed me, something that was happening all too often, perhaps because he 
was a high level Rhyhorn, and I’d been concentrating on my other Pokémon 
recently, and not trained Armour unless I needed him rather than any other 
Pokémon.  
I sighed and drew the next Pokéball, weakness or not, the greatest strength of 
that Hitmonlee was its speed and range.  
“Go... Sparky.”  
“Pika!”  
“A Pikachu, no problem.  Hitmonlee, use your Meditate and Focus Energy.”  
“Sparky, use Thunder Wave.”  
“Pikachu!”  
He swung his tail and a small electrified sphere came shooting out.  
“Up! And finish that Focus Energy!”  
It did so, and the electric sphere hit the ground and dissipated.  
“Sparky, use Double Team, and Slam.”  
“Pika Pika Pika Chu Chu Chu!”  
Ten Pikachus were now standing in the arena, Sparky’s Double Team got better 
every time.  
“Hitmonlee, Double Kick!”  
The fakes spread out and charged, but the Hitmonlee swung its legs to curve 
around and hit five Pikachus with one kick, the second knocked Sparky back to 
me.  
He picked himself up, growled and leapt up, wanting to charge right away.  
“Wait Sparky, we didn’t prevent it from powering up, all that's left is to keep 
our distance and fry it.”  
“... Pikachu.”  
“Hitmonlee! Double Kick!”  
“Up, and Thunder.”  
The first kick missed and Sparky rose, the second was shooting at him, and he 
wasn’t done charging.  
“Pika...”  
“Brace it Sparky.”  
The foot smacked into him, but he quickly grabbed it and clung to it, just as I 
wanted.  
With that, he let out a strong:  “Pi... Ka... Chuuuuu!!!” and unleashed the 
electricity, which travelled down the leg of the Hitmonlee, since the leg was a 
coil, it had plenty of time to see its fate, and realise that there was no way 
to stop it.  
“Hitmonlee!” cried Mina.  
“Hit... Mon... Lee...” it groaned, and fell over.  
“Grrrr, but still, your Pikachu is finished!”  
The next ball fell to the floor and a large white silhouette appeared before 
revealing its form.  
“ONIXXX!!!”  
“Pika!...” shuddered Sparky.  
“Don’t back down Sparky, we can do this.”  
“Bind it!”  
The tail swept across, and caught Sparky in its grasp.  
“Pika...” moaned Sparky, “CHU!!!”  
A lot of electricity was shot into the Onix, but a reflective-sounding ‘ping’ 
occurred, and Sparky’s attack had been cancelled out.  
“Don’t you know better than to waste electricity on a Ground-type?”  
“Sparky, don’t do that again, its useless.” I scolded, I was being embarrassed 
not because of my command, but because my Pokémon took initiative and failed, I 
just hoped Tetsubo wouldn’t hear of this.  
“You’re not very good with type advantages, are you? I can’t wait to tell Bruno 
about you.”  
I sunk my head down for a moment, and then looked up, glaring at Mina and her 
Onix, the first time was an mistake on my part, this was not, and I didn’t want 
Tetsubo to think any less of me.  
“Swift attack.” I said firmly and darkly.  
Sparky pushed and pulled, and got its tail free.  
“Chu!”  
The magic stars shot out of his tail and into the Onix’s face, causing him to 
let go of Sparky.  
“Tackle attack!”  
The Onix slammed its head down blindly, and missed.  
“Slam it.”  
“Pika...” growled Sparky, and it charged forward on all fours and leapt into 
the Onix.  
“Chaaaa!!!”  
A hard ringing sound followed and Sparky fell back, spiral eyes and a drunk-
like stumbling walk.  
The Onix was too hard to beat through such a small Pokémon’s attacks, and he 
couldn’t use his electricity at all.  
“Use your Rock Throw!”  
“OOONNN!!!”  
Sparky was practically buried, only his tail was visible so I homed in on it 
with the recall laser.  
“You’ve only got one Pokémon left, I still have a third, and this Onix is as 
strong as ever.”  
“Not when inner strength is involved...” I muttered.  
“Hypno...”  
“That little Pokémon? Onix! Slam attack!” laughed Mina.  
“OOONNN!” shouted the Onix, charging forward, and then falling over and 
sliding, looking to put Nightmare between a rock and a hard place, namely, his 
body and the concrete wall.  
“Use your Hypnosis.”  
“Hypno...  Hypno...”  
The Onix fell asleep, but kept skidding along, and Nightmare had to leap on top 
of it.  
He landed on its back and held on tight as the Onix’s face ploughed into the 
wall, yet, he continued to snooze away.  
“Psychic.”  
Nightmare floated off the Onix as he lifted it into the air, and then the 
almost invisible force contracted and crushed the Onix.  
“Dream Eater.”  
An explosion of purple orbs burst out of the Onix and transferred into 
Nightmare, with no more use of the rock snake, the Onix was dropped to the 
floor, where it continued to snore away.  
“You snooze, you lose.” I said, a little confidently.  
“I am far from losing.” growled Mina, throwing the last Pokéball.  
“Maaa-Choke!”  
“A Fighting Pokémon, weak against Psychic.” I muttered.  
“Unlike you, I’m using this Pokémon because I have no choice, not because I’m a 
silly trainer.”  
I frowned, “You’re a hypocrite, you have no right to tell your master of my 
mistake, aren’t there policies against that?”  
“Shut up and battle!” shouted Mina, “Machoke! Karate Chop!”  
“Confusion.”  
“Maaaaaa...  Choke?”  
His fist had become stuck in the air, just above Nightmare, who was wearing a 
confident yet dark expression.  
“Maaaa!!!” screamed the muscle-bound Pokémon as it was shot back into the wall, 
it hit with a slamming sound, and slowly peeled off it, and fell to the floor.  
“Low Kick!”  
“Machoke!” shouted the Fighting Pokémon, and leaped at Nightmare in two steps 
and swept him off his feet.  
“Mega Punch!”  
“Maaaa-Choke!”  
The Machoke was quickly over Nightmare and I reacted quickly.  
“Disable.”  
“Maaa-”  
The Machoke was frozen in mid-air, and fell down like a statue, stuck in its 
attacking position.  
“Head Butt.”  
“Hypno...”  
Nightmare leapt forward and sent the Machoke flying, the psychic force 
shattering as he did.  
The Machoke recovered quickly and slammed its hand into Nightmare head, a 
successful Karate Chop.  
“Now Submission!”  
“Hyp!!!”  
Nightmare was hit by the spinning uppercut, and fell to the floor.  
Mina was wearing a snide grin, “You were saying? If you lose now, I’ll surely 
tell of this match.”  
“And if I don’t?”  
“I’ll tell anyway, just so I feel better.”  
I was growing angry, but it wasn’t in me to explode, especially not in an 
Official Gym Battle, so I concentrated on battling.  
“Pound it.”  
Nightmare hit the Machoke rather hard, probably having realised my temper 
growing short and wanting to help.  
“Do it again.”  
“Counter it!”  
The Machoke caught both of Nightmare’s fists, and threw him to the ground as if 
in a wrestling match.  
“Now finish it with Seismic Toss!”  
“Hypno...”  
Nightmare was tired, and he’d soon be out of power, I couldn’t let this last 
attack go through, nor any other attacks.  
Nightmare was lifted into the air, the spinning and throwing would follow.  
“Confusion.”  
“Hypno.”  
“Maaaa!” screamed the Machoke as it was blasted away, Nightmare slowed itself 
down with psychic powers and came back to me.  
“Its over.” I said, but Mina wasn’t convinced of that.  
“Attack it!”  
“Maaaa!!!”  
“Its very persistent, give a dose of reality, and Psychic.”  
“No! Use Rock Slide!”  
A thin blue line shot at Machoke, looking to ensnare it in a blue forcefield, 
but the Machoke clawed into the ground and pushed forward, causing rocks to fly 
forward, any one could defeat Nightmare.  
“Cancel Psychic, protect yourself.” I ordered, and the rocks bounced off a 
psychic shield created by Nightmare, the only thing I overlooked was my 
position in this battle.  
A stray rock came flying towards me fast, I gasped, and tried to duck, but it 
was too late...  

The next events written here aren’t by my experiences, but rather, what Mina 
did, and told me afterwards.  

“Oh no!” shouted Mina, as I fell to the floor.  
“Machoke, Stop!”  
“Hypno!” roared Nightmare, and blasted the Hypno with an explosive Psychic 
attack, winning me the match, but I wasn’t conscious to witness it, or claim 
my badge.  
“I’m so sorry...  Please don’t hurt me, kind Hypno, I’ll get her to the Pokémon 
Centre, Nurse Joy will know what to do...”  

Mina carried me to the Pokémon Centre, with Nightmare close behind, always 
giving her a vengeful glare, and Nurse Joy soon saw to me...  

I woke up to Mina’s nervous face looking over me.  
“I’m so glad you’re okay.  I’m so sorry I let this happen to you, I guess I’ve 
got to learn a little more about controlling the intensity of Gym Battles.”  
I groaned, and looked around, I had a bandage around my head, and I felt weak, 
and my eyelids were too heavy...  
“No don’t! Nurse Joy says you might have a concussion, you can’t go to sleep, 
or you might never wake up!”  
“Fine...” I muttered, and kept my eyes open.  
“This’ll keep you awake, look in your hand.”  
I hadn’t noticed the cube-like object in my right hand, a flat circular base, 
and a 3-Dimensional clenched fist with a brick texture to it.  
“Its the Fist Badge, I doubted your Pokémon could be stronger than mine, but I 
was wrong.  I’m pretty new at this Gym Leader thing, Bruno said I wasn’t ready, 
that I hadn’t learned what true strength was, but... I think I understand 
now.”  
“True strength comes from within, that’s why my Pokémon are so determined, 
because my determination to succeed has rubbed off on them.”  
“That’s very true...  Abby, I’m sorry about today.”  
“I’ll be fine.”  
“No, I mean for threatening to tell Bruno about you just because of a couple of 
type mistakes, in case he tells your turquoise friend, I bet he means a lot to 
you.”  
“Yes...  He really does...”  

I had to put up with Mina for another hour before Tetsubo returned and took 
over, I suppose Mina wasn’t too bad, now that she had seen her own errors 
rather than that of others.  
Unfortunately, this bump on the head made me miss out on seeing a brilliant 
Flying Pokémon Trainer in action, and Tetsubo, actually convincing the young 
Rocket twins to quit being evil.  
At least he came back for me, and we continued our journey together, though I 
now had access to the Kanto Pokémon League, I had to travel wherever Tetsubo 
went, he was my guiding star, my inspiration, and the best friend I could ever 
ask for.  

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Rick's Sixth Gym Battle
Rick's Seventh Gym Battle
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