--- Gym Battle in Terracotta City (by Michael Keens/ Exodus) --- 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. --- Rick's Sixth Gym Battle Rick's Seventh Gym Battle Back to the Side Stories Back to the Pokézone