--- CHAD THE CHOSEN’S Victory in Juniper City Gym (by Michael Keens/ Exodus) --- A lot has happened since I last wrote, I didn’t do anything particularly heroic on my own and I travelled with Tetsubo for a bit. Now there were some stories, Tetsubo and I entered the Fighting Tournament, and he actually lost, that sure was a surprise, and I was hoping to battle him again, I sort of got that chance later, but I was distracted, so I lost. I did my usual good in the tournament and won myself a Hitmonlee, which I named after that famous martial arts star, the one who died, you know, Jackie, something... Tetsubo, that girl and I crossed a bike bridge with two opposing gangs, I ended up in the one that opposed the side that Tetsubo and that little girl with an attitude were on. Now for once, I was in the right, and Tetsubo and I thought of the same strategies, you should have seen me beat that Chopper guy’s Pokémon, my Tangela tied up his Golem, my Primeape beat up his Weezing, and Boulder shook up his Electrode. Unfortunately, Tetsubo had beaten Rush, the guy I had sided with, and Tetsubo got real annoyed at that since Rush was a formidable trainer, but I made it clear that neither gang was particularly good, and after that, we sided the gangs together and went on our way. Next, a Snorlax blocked the path, and rather than being stupid and waiting for it to move, I took off, and trained. Tetsubo would probably do the same, and we renewed our promise to train hard and meet in the Kanto League in Indigo Plateau in a few months. I worked better alone anyway, no one to laugh at my Pokémon or tell me what to do, and every trainer around got to battle me. Even though I got some training done, its been boring, I seem to enjoy myself when Tetsubo’s around, cos he has so many enemies and he always seems to be in the middle of a battleground. Ragecage evolved a while ago and had done enough recently, and so I sent him home in order to train my newest Pokémon, Grind, a tough agile Pinsir that I caught in the Safari Zone. And now I’m here, the luscious Juniper City. Inside the Gym, a large transparent dome full of flowers, I grinned to myself, “Heh, Grass Trainer, this is going to be a piece of cake.” “You have cake?” spluttered a female voice from above, “Can I have some, Hunk?” Standing on one of the many high up walkways was a young girl, looking strangely at me, she wasn’t like most other girls, who laughed at everything I had to say, even when I wasn’t telling jokes, you know, the ones who secretly respect me, but this girl was staring at me with wide eyes and a mischievous smile on her face. “Um, I... don’t actually have any, it was a figure of speech.” “Oh.” she said turning around, “I suppose you want a Gym Battle.” “Sure I do, this’ll be fun, I haven’t battled a Gym Leader in a long time.” She jumped down from the large height, but used a few acrobatic skills to swing off a tree branch, and down a strong and strange leaf that was shaped like a twirling spiralling children’s slide. The girl was no older than fourteen, I think, and had pink and purple hair, and wore a yellow and green dress. “I’m Alora. I run the Gym, and I run this place, do you like my flowers and plants?” “I’m Chad the Chosen, and sure, flowers are good.” I grinned, after all my experience with Erika of Celadon City, this battle would be a synch. “Let’s make this a three-on-three battle, you ready?” “GO, GRIND!” “PINSIR!!!” “Hmmm, then I choose Venomoth.” “Veno!!!” “What?!” I spluttered, “You tricked me! I thought you were a Grass Gym Leader!” “But... isn’t there already one of those?...” pondered the girl, “Anyway, I’m not a simple Gym Leader, they usually get beaten through type advantage by guys like you, I’m into Bug, Grass, and Pokémon that use spores.” “Great...” I sighed. “Oh come on, surely you know how to handle a Bug Pokémon...” “No, not really.” I muttered under my breath. “Venomoth. Stand guard.” “Heh, we’ll just power through and end this quickly. GRIND! USE YOUR SLASH ATTACK!!!” “PINSIR!!!” I have to admit that this Pinsir was almost as loud as I was, but he rocked! “Poison Powder.” smiled Alora. The Venomoth flapped its wings and thousands of tiny purple spores were showered down, and blocked Grind’s path, poisoning him. “Come on Grind, let’s do it!” “PIN... SIR...” he groaned, and then I realised that Bug Pokémon didn’t deal with poison well, it wasn’t my fault, I’ve never had a Poison or Bug Pokémon before, I never got round to studying those types. “You can do it. SUBMISSION!!!” “Psychic.” Grind leapt into an upward spinning corkscrew, crashing into the Venomoth before being surrounded by a fierce shimmering blue light. “I hate Psychic attack...” I muttered, “But... Bug-types are strong against Psychic attacks...” “True.” smiled Alora, “But you’ve forgotten the use of Psychic. It holds Pokémon in place and crushes them, only certain Pokémon have what it takes to break free, and your Pinsir is too weak to do so.” “What do you mean?! Grind is strong!” “No he’s not.” I looked up, and Grind looked positively ill, Alora was holding him in place so that the poison could spread. “Um, um, um- RETURN!!!” I shouted, recalling him before he fainted. “Try again...” grinned Alora, I couldn’t believe that a young girl was getting the better of me. “Venomoth... Tetsubo had one, its part Poison, I know that, but it could also be Flying, oh well... GO BOULDER!!!” “GRAVELER!!!” “USE YOUR TACKLE!” “Psybeam.” The Venomoth took a light hit, before Boulder was blasted by the multicoloured beam. “ROCK THROW!!!” “GRAVELER!!!” “Veno!!!” wailed the Venomoth, as Boulder bounced back, and spun into it, causing it to fall and be crushed under him. “Use your Stun Spore!” shouted Alora, and the Venomoth somehow released the green spores without flapping its wings. “GRAV!!!” wailed Boulder, stumbling away, while the Venomoth was up again, but looking weakened. “Use your Sleep Powder!” “If its a Bug and Poison-type, then Ground moves Can affect it.” I thought, “BOULDER! USE YOUR EARTHQUAKE!!!” “Grav.” he nodded, and stomped the floor, a tremor travelling towards the Venomoth and exploding, soil and tiles overwhelming the Venomoth and then burying it. “ROCK THROW!!!” Just to be thorough, I had Boulder throw himself on top of the Venomoth, now shouting out its surrender. Alora sighed, and recalled it, “Okay, so you beat Venomoth, but you won’t be so lucky with this one.” “Vileplume!” “BOULDER! USE YOUR-” He looked ill, and then I realised that the paralysis had kicked in, he slipped, and tumbled towards the Vileplume, with its hands glowed green, I could see the inevitable Absorb move that would defeat him, so: “BOULDER! EXPLOSION!!!” “Huh?!” “Plume?!” The explosion threw me and Alora back, and I opened my eyes to see her desperately putting out a couple of fires with an extinguisher. “You big meanie!” she shouted. “Oops, sorry about that.” I apologised, looking at the Graveler, with no Vileplume in sight, only a spiralling tower of leaves. “Ahem.” said Alora, “Above?” I saw the Vileplume, in its Petal Dance attack, it was the only way to minimize the damage since it had risen in height through the tornado, otherwise Boulder surely would have taken it down. The Vileplume came down on Boulder and knocked it out, before succumbing to confusion. “Since its handicapped... GRIND! USE YOUR SEISMIC TOSS!!!” “PINSIR!” he screamed, practically leaping out of the Pokéball, lifting up the plant, and throwing it up. “HOW ABOUT AN UPWARDS GUILLOTINE?!” It didn’t always work, but I’d proudly seen this attack secure a Trainer Battle for me once. “Acid attack!” called Alora, and the Vileplume shook itself off and spat a purple blob, one that damaged Grind, added to the poison, and caused him to faint, I had to think carefully about my final Pokémon. “So far, Alora has used part Poison Pokémon, surely Headache won’t have a problem against a damaged Pokémon, and he’ll have enough time to use his Psychic attacks.” I pondered. “Psyaiyai.” he squawked. Alora could barely hold back her laughter, “What an odd Psyduck.” she grinned, “Do you expect my Vileplume to lose?” “Stranger things have happened...” “Use your Poison Powder, Vileplume.” “Duck!” “Psy?” he questioned, looking around for a fellow duck-like Pokémon. “No, not like that, get down!” He actually tripped after that, and the dust passed by while Headache lay face flat on the floor. “Acid attack Vileplume.” “Vile!” shouted the plant, quickly hitting Headache in the face with the hot liquid, and burning it a lot, yet, Headache took a little while to feel it. “SCRATCH ATTACK NOW!” It wasn’t worth trying to force the Psychic-type stuff so soon. He ran forward, waddling a little, but the Vileplume was already starting a new attack: Solar Beam. “Vile...” “HEADACHE! YOU HAVE TO USE YOUR CONFUSION!” “Psy...” he groaned, still hurting from the burning acid. “... Plume!” finished the Vileplume, shooting the bright beam forward, this environment must have sped up the process of drawing solar energy. “Headache...” I groaned. “Looks like I- Huh?!” shouted Alora suddenly, “Vileplume! Acid!” “HUH?!” I shouted, turning to Headache, who was obviously still a threat to Alora. “DUCK!!!” he screamed in a dark tone, though I couldn’t see him, and the second acid burst was deflected, and hit the Vileplume with great speed, knocking it out through type advantage. “It couldn’t be...” “Golduck!” yelled Headache, having finally evolved into one of the coolest Pokémon I ever saw, with its tall blue humanoid body, evil eyes, sharp claws and a red gem in its forehead, I’d finally received the Pokémon I wanted ever since the S.S Anne incident. “OH YEAH! I’M THE BEST!!!” I yelled. “You still have to beat another Pokémon, congratulations and all, but its not over yet. Go! Exeggutor!” “Ex-Eg-Gutor!” I looked over the silly features of the palm tree-like Pokémon, “The evolved version of Exeggcute, a Grass/ Psychic...” Not much to hope for in the types, this would take creativity and power, something I was good at. “HEADACHE! USE YOUR FURY SWIPES!” “Gol-Duck!!!” he screamed, a constant evil expression on his face, well he always did go psychotic whenever his psychic powers kicked in. “Exeggutor, use your Mega Drain.” Headache was jolted by the green sphere as it hit him and stole some of his life force, but with a swift Hydro Pump, that energy was destroyed, preventing the Exeggutor from making good on it. “Use your Leech Seed!” “CONFUSION!” The extra powerful Psychic attack ripped through the seeds and tore them apart, my Golduck RULED!!! “Use your Hypnosis.” “EX-EGG...” “Gol...” yawned Headache, having been too intent on staring down the opponent to avoid being put to sleep. “Double Edge!” “TOR!!!” shouted the Pokémon, throwing all its weight on Headache. My Golduck stumbled back, dazed from the massive strength of the Exeggutor. “Use your Solar Beam!” “Do something!” “Gol... Duck...” said Headache, shooting a wave of water from its mouth, and using its gem to turn it into a tidal wave. “What are you doing?!” questioned Alora. “Egg!!!” screamed the Exeggutor, slipping up and collapsing, but the beam was fired, and Headache was blasted by the range of the explosion, but kept flying forward. “FURY SWIPES!” The Golduck tore past the Exeggutor and slashed away, and added to its advantage by blasting it with Confusion. “Exeggutor! Use your Egg Bomb attack!” “EX-EG-GUTOR!” The bombs rained down on Headache, blasting him down. “Do it again!” “GOL-DUCK!!!” A powerful Confusion attack deflected a bombardment of eggs, and caused them to fall on Exeggutor. “EGG!!!” “Use your Solar Beam, that’ll finish it!” “I couldn’t stop it the last time, I need a powerful attack that’s faster than Solar Beam, that’s it! HEADACHE! USE YOUR HYPER BEAM!!!” I’d taught him this attack a long time ago to make up for his sluggishness and stupidity, but he no longer suffered from that, Hyper Beam was fast and powerful, but usually took a while to recover from, while Solar Beam had to be charged first, and fired second. “GOL... DUUUUUUCCCKKK!!!” screamed Headache, concentrating, and shooting a bright golden beam from its central gem, the blast exploded the Exeggutor, and the Solar Beam was fired upwards, and through the top of the glass dome. It was utterly defeated. “Here you go, its the Pollen Badge, I was so close, but you’re lucky you got an evolution in, Hunk.” She gave me a badge that looked like many green bubbles all stuck together. “Uh, yeah...” I said, I couldn’t handle kid girls with silly crushes. “Um, I’m gonna go now.” I said upon taking the badge. “You’re welcome to visit me anytime!!!” I quickly left the Gym, and stopped at the highest hill of Juniper City, once again, my Pokémon had come through for me and succeeded, I was definitely on a roll towards the Pokémon League, where I’d show the world what I was made of. I must admit that Alora’s Pokémon helped me in my ability of choosing type advantages, and how to win when the odds were against me, except, I’m a little unsure about that one actually, but I’ll figure it out soon enough. --- Emily's Eighth Gym Battle Rick’s Eighth Gym Battle Back to the Side Stories Back to the Pokézone