--- Emily's Forth Gym Battle: Saffron City (by Michael Keens/ Exodus) --- Its terrible, everything’s gone wrong, after everything I did for Tetsubo, it turns out that he’s been lying all this time, his bully Bryan did and said such horrid things to me when I was his captive, yet, I felt more anger towards Tetsubo than I did for Bryan, and to think, I gave up a passionate kiss to him and shared everything with him. He knew how much I despised lies after the incident with Bianca and he went and lied to me anyway. I walked into Saffron City lonely and upset. People went by their business, men in suits casually walked to work, while couples sat around kissing passionately, I couldn’t watch, why couldn’t I have that, with someone trustworthy? Well, there was one couple with its problems, I could barely see the guy but the woman was shouting a lot and the male cleared off behind the wall. I sighed, I should just get on with things, I had a lot of able Pokémon now and I knew my way around, I’d just continue the journey alone and get my eight badges, I still had a mission to beat Bianca in a Pokémon Battle. I checked my Pokémon into the Centre and switched Lucky for Buzzer. Professor Beech didn’t suspect a thing, I covered up my sadness because I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I rushed to the Saffron Gym, realising that Tetsubo might come to Saffron City, and I wasn’t willing to talk with him until I could clear things up in my own mind. In the Gym, I walked up the hallways, there were strangely shaped support poles and no obvious clues as to what type of Pokémon the Gym Leader used. At the end of the corridor was a large set of double doors. I hesitated, and then pushed them open. A woman sat on a strange monstrous-shaped throne, she had long straight dark green hair, and a red uniform and skirt, with large black boots. She smiled confidently, “So, you want a Gym Battle.” “Of course I do, you’re the Gym Leader, so you should know.” “I do, but I knew that the moment you entered my Gym. It will be a two-on-two Pokémon Battle.” Then something amazing happened, she floated off the throne and slowly descended to the floor. “Go!” “I choose you.” “Beeee!!!” “Ku-dabra!” Uh oh, the first thing that I realised was Buzzer’s Poison-type weakness, but then remembered that Bug-types had an advantage over Psychic-types, an even set-up. “Kadabra, use your Psybeam.” “Agility, Buzzer! Then use Twineedle!” He slipped around the blast and jabbed the Kadabra hard. “Confusion.” Buzzer was surrounded in a glowing blue light, and then thrown up into the ceiling. “Bee-eee!” “Buzzer, use your Toxic attack!” He shot down the poison straight after the Kadabra was done with its attack and so it couldn’t counter-attack it in time. It might be strong against Poison-types and strong against damaging Poison-type moves, but the effects of poison worked just as well as on any other Pokémon, given time it would destroy him. “Use Fury Attack and keep him busy!” I shouted. “Bee!!!” “Kadabra. Reflect attack.” Buzzer was stopped by a solid golden shield and couldn’t break through it. “Alright, Focus Energy!” I said after some thought. He backed down and grew in strength. “Try your Poison Sting!” He shot down some poisonous needles but they bounced off the shield, it was invincible as long as it could hold it up. I had a brainstorm. “String Shot!” “An attack like that won’t bother my Kadabra.” said the Gym Leader confidently. “Not in the way you think...” I said confidently. He kept at it, Buzzer had locked on to my plan, the sticky string had covered up the shield totally, the Kadabra couldn’t lock onto Buzzer because it couldn’t see. “Disable.” “Ku-dabra!” The gold shield shattered and Buzzer was frozen. “Confusion.” said the Gym Leader confidently. Buzzer was slammed to the floor. “Quickly, Fury Attack!” I shouted. He jammed his claws into the Kadabra constantly. “Psybeam.” said the Gym Leader calmly. “Beeeee!!!” he squealed as the blast shot him away from the Kadabra. “Hold on Buzzer, I think you can win this.” I said a little nervously. “Think again. Recover.” retorted the Gym Leader. I gasped as the Kadabra glowed blue and emerged looking totally undamaged. “Return Buzzer!” I said recalling him. I didn’t know Kadabras could recover their energy, this was going to be harder than I thought. “Psychic-types are known for their special skills.” I thought out loud, “So we have to use physical attacks over special ones. Graveyard, do your best.” “Cubone, bone.” This was risky, though he had the power, he didn’t have much special defense, I just hoped that his speed could rectify that. “Bone Club!” “Kadabra, use your Psychic attack.” “Ku- Dab!” Poison struck it and distracted it for long enough. “Do it Graveyard!” The Kadabra was struck on the head hard by Graveyard’s bone. “Head Butt!” I shouted. “Cu-Bone!” It struck the Kadabra hard, but now it had recovered. “Confusion.” “Tail Whip!” I’m not sure why I chose this, but not many attacks could counter this force. Graveyard spun round and the blast didn’t quite lock on, Graveyard simply fell rather than being shunted into walls. “Bonemerang!” As he fell, he threw his bone, it clubbed the Kadabra hard on the head and returned to Graveyard. “Recover.” “Ku-dabra!” “No...” I groaned. “Ku!!!” screamed the Kadabra suddenly, then it fainted. “How could this be?” asked the Gym Leader darkly. “The Toxic was growing more and more powerful inside of Kadabra, no matter how many times it recovered, it didn’t affect the ongoing Poison attack, until it grew too powerful to withstand.” I explained confidently, I had forgotten totally about that strategy because the battle with Kadabra took all of my concentration. “Smart little girl.” said the Gym Leader, and I recognised her personality to be virtually just like Abby. I had beaten that dark withdrawn girl in battle and I would outsmart even this psychic. “I choose you Hypno.” “Hypno...” “Graveyard, use your Leer attack.” “Counter it with Hypnosis.” It tried to put him to sleep but Graveyard looked totally evil and threatened the Hypno. “Hypno, don’t let him intimidate you, you’re stronger than him in a different sense.” “Graveyard, use your Bonemerang.” “Dive and Hypnosis.” It rolled to the side and shot a wave of hypnotic waves towards Graveyard. “Cu... Bone...” He lost his concentration and fell asleep. “Dream Eater- No wait! Duck!” shouted the Gym Leader with a surprising amount of emotion, I guess Abby was one of a kind. Hypno stopped its attempt to drain Graveyard and dropped to the floor as the bone fell over his head and slammed into Graveyard. “Cubone!!!” “Head Butt.” said the Gym Leader calmly. “Cu!!!” “Finish it off with Psychic attack.” she added. “Cu!!!” That did the trick and Graveyard lost the last of his health and collapsed. “Graveyard... Buzzer’s still got a little health left, please, win this for me.” “Beeee!” “Use your Rage attack!” “Beeee!” shouted Buzzer flying forwards. “Confusion.” Buzzer ploughed through, the force of the psychic blasts collided hard but he was flying too fast to be held in the air by the after-effect. Worse for the Gym Leader, each hit only pumped up his attack power. “Pin Missile!” He shot out two shards which the Hypno blocked with its Confusion attack. “Twineedle!” He got in close and stabbed away at an extreme speed. ‘Hyp!... Hyp!... Hyp- No...” It collapsed to the floor and dropped its pendulum which rolled forward and spun to a stop. “I should have saw this coming.” said the Gym Leader, “Here is your Marsh Badge, Emily.” With that she gave me a badge that looked more like a rare coin. “How’d you know my name?...” I spluttered, “That’s not fair, you’re using psychic powers!” “Then to be fair, my name is Sabrina, it was a great match and you should be proud of your Pokémon.” I took the badge and held it into the air, “Alright!...” I returned to the Pokémon Centre and handed my Pokéballs to Nurse Joy and sat down, though proud of my victory, I couldn’t think straight. “Why Tetsubo?... Why did you think I wouldn’t understand... Why did you lie?...” “Hey.” said a total stranger, he wore a leather jacket and had a large quiff of red hair. “Do I... know you?” I asked wiping away my tears. “No but you looked so sad, I just had to see what’s eating ya.” “I broke up with someone... That’s all.” I said vaguely. “Well a pretty girl like you shouldn’t be crying, I bet you have a beautiful smile.” I blushed a little and put on a small smile. “Come on now, I’ll buy you a coffee.” I picked myself up and took his hand, he seemed genuine and he tried to sweep me off my feet. I sure needed a friend and perhaps a little more than that. --- Abby's Fifth Gym Battle Chad's Sixth Gym Battle Back to the Side Stories Back to the Pokézone