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Emily's Sixth Gym Battle:  Crimson City (by Michael Keens/ Exodus)  

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It’s been about two weeks since I last wrote in this diary, during which time I 
caught a Vulpix and a Jigglypuff:  Tails and Harmony.  
Tails is one of the sweetest Pokémon I’ve ever seen and her firepower is 
amazing, I’m looking for a Fire Stone as she’s ready to evolve any time now, 
and Harmony is an amazing singer, and though not as powerful as some 
Jigglypuffs, her voice is good against enemy Pokémon but not humans, which is a 
good thing, I’ve heard of a powerful Jigglypuff that tries to make people 
listen to its song but always fails, so she draws on their faces with a 
marker pen while they sleep.  
Thank goodness Harmony isn’t like that, she gets on well with Miles, they’re 
both performers after all, and they’ve been great at comforting me at night 
with their personal shows.  

We arrived in a desert town known as Crimson City, it had been a day’s trip 
through sandy lands with many storms, its been hard on me and my Pokémon.  
Its times like this I wish I was better at keeping friends but fate had dealt 
me some cards that I couldn’t win with, my so-called friends couldn’t care less 
about me, and I’m still not ready to face Tetsubo, I need more time...  
Sometimes I wish that I had never got involved with Tetsubo.  
People had told me it was wrong to pursue a relationship with such a good 
friend and I ignored them.  
If I were only his friend, I might have been able to forgive him for lying to 
me, but he kept secrets from me after promising me that he’d be there for me 
and always be true.  
Couples shouldn’t do that.  
The only person I could think to consult with was Chad, but who knew where he 
was, or if he’d even want to be with me, what if he took Tetsubo’s side?  

Its too hard to think these thoughts, they make me so miserable that I’d rather 
just battle with or relax with my Pokémon, they’d never abandon me.  

The town wasn’t that cared for, with mainly tents or stone buildings located 
randomly around the oasis, I guessed that the Gym was in the huge white tent at 
the end of the city.  

“-Yawn...-” moaned a young lady, she had messy pink hair that fell to the sides 
like it was wet, she wore white ancient robes which were too big around the 
sleeves and legs.  
“-Yawn...-” she yawned again, “You’re here... for a Gym Battle?...” she asked, 
she looked like she needed sleep urgently, she talked tiredly and drowsy and 
this might give me an advantage.  
“Uh huh, I’m Emily Whyte of Fuchsia City, here to win a Gym Badge.”  
“-Yawn...- Yes, this Awakening Badge will be yours, if you can beat my 
Pokémon.” 
she said holding a round badge forward, it was half black, half orange with 
half a small yellow circle in the orange area, representing sunrise.  
“Maybe you shouldn’t be battling, maybe you should be resting.” I commented.  
“-Yawn...- Don’t make fun of me, I didn’t ask to be an insomniac, I have 
trouble sleeping, -Yawn...- but I’m still Sandy Resta, the best Pokémon Trainer 
in the city.  -Yawn...-”  
“O-Kay.  Sorry for doubting you.” I said firmly.  
“It’ll be a -Yawn...- three-on-three battle.  Go, -Yawn...- Wigglytuff...”  
“Go Harmony!”  

“Jiggly!”  
“Wiggly!”  
“-Yawn...- Do you really think your Stage 1 can beat a -Yawn...- Stage 2?” 
asked Sandy.  
“I’ve travelled around a bit and I can safely say, its possible.  Harmony! Sing 
it to sleep!” I said confidently.  
“Jig... g’... lyyy’... puff...” she sung at close range.  
“Wigg... ly...” moaned the Wigglytuff.  
“How I -Yawn...- envy you Wigglytuff, but now is not the time.” said Sandy 
calmly.  
“Body Slam!”  
“Jiggly!”  
“Pound it!”  
“Jiggly!” she yelled bringing down her fists.  
“Now Doubleslap it!”  
“Jiggly! Jiggly! Jigglypuff!” she yelled giving the Wigglytuff the slapping of 
its life.  
“Very impressive, but its not good enough.” commented Sandy.  
“No...” I moaned.  
The Wigglytuff yawned and immediately used a Double Edge to slam into Harmony.  
“Harmony, no!”  
“Jiggly...”  
“Now use your Psychic attack.”  
“Psychic?” I questioned.  
Harmony was held in the air and flashes of blue light hit her with a clashing 
sound, the light faded and so did Harmony’s hope of winning.  
“-Yawn...- You’re very optimistic, its rare to see a Stage 1 beat a Stage 2, 
but it only -Yawn...- happens when they have an advantage, such as type or a 
physical or special attribute, your Jigglypuff lacks those things.” said Sandy 
confidently yet tiresome.  
“I underestimated you I guess, but I’ve seen Stage 1’s beat Stage 2’s more 
often than you think, I’ll have to give you a demonstration of it right now, 
Go, Tails!” I shouted.  
“Vulpix!” cried my Vulpix happily, she stood ready for battle.  
“-Yawn...- Wigglytuff, use your Sing attack.”  
“Roar, Tails.”  
“VULLL!!!” she squealed and the Wigglytuff lost its concentration, she wasn’t 
scared though, boy was she in for a surprise.  
“Use your Confuse Ray!”  
“PIX!!!”  
“Wiggly...” groaned the Wigglytuff, holding her head.  
“Now use your Flamethrower!”  
“Vul-PIX!” squealed Tails, and the Wigglytuff was lost in the blaze.  
“Don’t hold back Tails, Fire Spin!”  
The blaze stopped but was replaced by the fiery tornado soon enough.  
Tails finally stopped and the Wigglytuff burst through blackened but fighting 
on.  
“Disable...”  
“Wiggly!”  
“Vul-”  
She froze totally.  
“Use your Pound.  -Yawn...-”  
Tails was hammered down by the Wigglytuff.  
“Now, -Yawn...- use your Double Edge.”  
“Dig Tails!” I shouted.  
The Wigglytuff leaped at Tails, but she was already under the ground, she 
erupted a little behind the Wigglytuff, who had its butt stuck in the tiny 
hole, pieces of earth rained down on the Wigglytuff.  
“Finish it, Quick Attack!”  
“Pix!”  
Tails knocked into the Wigglytuff, and it went into a forced rest.  
“-Yawn...- Return Wigglytuff.”  
I stared confidently, now the battle was back to an even standoff.  
“-Yawn...- Its not over yet, I choose -Yawn...- Hypno...”  
“Hypno...” it said with an echoing voice, I’d already faced one of these in a 
Gym Battle, but Sandy probably had different strategies.  
“Hypno, -Yawn...- Hypnosis.”  
“Hypno...”  
“Don’t look at it Tails, Tail Whip!”  
She charged forwards without looking, and stopped, spun and used her six tails 
to brush away the Hypno’s pendulum.  
“Hypno?!” it spluttered as its prized weapon flew into the air.  
“Quickly Tails, Ember attack.”  
“Vul!” she shouted spitting a small fireball which threw the Hypno away, the 
pendulum landed behind Tails so the Hypno would have to get past her to 
retrieve it.  
“Use your Head Butt...” said Sandy.  
It charged forward, head outstretched.  
“Use Quick Attack!” I shouted.  
“Poison Gas...” added Sandy.  
“Tails!” I screamed.  
She went spiralling into the toxic cloud and came out coughing.  
“Disable...” said Sandy.  
Tails was frozen, it turned out that this Hypno could get by fine without its 
lucky charm, but it went to get it anyway.  
“Now use Hypnosis.”  
Tails had no choice but to stare forward, the Disable wore off, but only after 
Tails fell asleep.  
“Now use your Dream Eater.  -Yawn...-”  
Purple spheres burst from Tails, weakening her a lot as they did.  
She fell to the floor weakened.  
“Vulpix...” she whimpered.  
“Its okay Tails.” I said, returning her, “You did your best.”  
“Do you not have Stage 2 Pokémon?” asked Sandy.  
“Of course I do!” I replied, “But they specialise in special attacks, something 
your Pokémon are trained in, I feel I need fast or powerful Pokémon for this 
battle.”  
“Good deduction, -Yawn...- but you’ll have to prove that strategy works.”  
“You caught me off guard with the first battle, but I’ll win it back.  
Graveyard! Go!”  
“Cubone!” he shouted confidently.  
I’d used him a lot and I was rewarded by a powerful growth from this Cubone, 
now he was one of my best Pokémon, one I could rely on for power and speed.  
“-Yawn...- Hypno, use your Poison Gas...”  
She was careless it seemed, using a Poison move on a Ground-type, I needed to 
use this rare opportunity to its best exploitation.  
“Graveyard, Bone Club!”  
“Bone!” he shouted, diving through the smoke and bonking the Hypno on the head 
really hard.  
“Bonemerang!”  
The bone hit once.  
“Head Butt!”  
He knocked the Hypno into the air and into the path of the returning bone.  
He went flying, and the pendulum landed next to Graveyard, who picked it up and 
observed it.  
“Give that -Yawn...- back.” said Sandy a little annoyed.  
“Hypno!” it shouted.  
“Don’t Graveyard, let him come to you.” I smiled slyly.  
“Head Butt...” said Sandy.  
The Hypno charged forward in a rage.  
“Bonemerang!”  
Graveyard threw the bone which was unexpectedly caught by the Hypno.  
“Hypno.” it said pointing at its pendulum.  
“You want your bone? Trade for it.” said Sandy.  
“Give it back to him.” I said, Graveyard turned to me and I motioned in an 
upward direction.  
He smiled, “Cubone.” he said gently, and threw the pendulum upwards.  
“Hypno!” it yelled, leaping into the air, Graveyard ran towards the bone.  
“Bonemerang!” I shouted, and Graveyard leaped for the bone and threw it 
upwards.  
“Confusion...”  
A blue light lifted Graveyard as the Hypno reached its pendulum, but the bone 
hit first and Graveyard fell to the floor only through gravity, because of the 
low height, no damage was received.  
The bone hit the Hypno one more time, and flew into Graveyard’s hand.  
He smiled confidently and turned away as the Hypno fell to the floor, the 
pendulum fell too and the Hypno weakly reached for it before fainting.  
“Just like a sleepy child with a cuddly toy.” I commented.  
“No fair, -Yawn...- you used Hypno’s love of its pendulum to win that one, only 
if you beat this Pokémon, -Yawn...- will I believe your skills.”  
“Para-Secta!”  
I remembered this Pokémon was Grass and Bug, if only Tails could keep battling, 
she had the advantage over both, if only I’d waited, the first Hypno fight was 
virtually a pointless battle for me, Tails had lost and refuelled the Hypno for 
another go.  
“Parasect, use your Spore.”  
“Spore...” I pondered, and then remembered, I’d seen this attack from a Paras, 
the unevolved form of Parasect, “Graveyard! Don’t breathe in, use Thrash 
attack!”  
Yellow dust filled the battleground.  
“Now use -Yawn...- Slash.”  
“Bone!” shouted Graveyard, flying through in a hitting, spinning flailing 
rage.  
“Para-SECT!!!” squealed the bug as it was bombarded.  
“Parasect, use your Growth.”  
“Sect!” it shouted, building up strength.  
“Go for it Graveyard.  Get it close and use Bone Club.”  
“Bone.” he nodded, and then charged.  
“Now, use Spore, Poison Powder, then Stun Spore.”  
“Can it do that?” I asked.  
“Of course, Parasect is a master of spores.  -Yawn...-”  
“Try to get through the Spore without breathing in, even if it means inhaling 
something else.”  
“Cu?” he questioned.  
“Trust me.” I said staring at him in an encouraging way.  
“Bone.” he nodded, and plunged through.  
The Parasect skidded away from the cloud as Graveyard burst through and swung 
his bone, and then touched down for a second blow and was off again.  
“Head Butt!” I shouted.  
“Hmmph.” said Sandy smugly, “Use Spore.”  
Graveyard couldn’t get close to stop it and got a full spray of the Spore.  
“Now that it’ll soon be asleep, I’ll just -Yawn...- use Mega Drain and finish 
your Cubone.”  
“I wouldn’t be so confident.” I smiled.  
“Neither should you, not when your Pokémon got a close range dose of -Yawn...- 
Spore.”  
A smile came to my lips, and Graveyard leaped through the dust and blasted the 
Parasect backwards with a clean hit.  
“How... could it have avoided Spore?” questioned Sandy.  
“Well...” I explained, “... Pokémon can only be affected by one status 
abnormality at a time, at least by the ones that require an antidote of some 
type to cure, if you look a little more closely at Graveyard, you’ll see...”  
He was panting a little, and Sandy noticed he was fighting on, even though he 
was poisoned by the earlier attack.  
“There are exceptions of course, like confusion or stat decreasing attacks but 
if Graveyard is suffering from poison, then he can’t be put to sleep.  Finish 
it with Focus Energy and Bone Club.”  
“We still have a chance, use your Mega Drain!” panicked Sandy.  
“Cubone.” said Graveyard confidently, moving to the side and focusing, he shot 
himself forward at the Parasect, and Sandy couldn’t believe his speed and was 
rubbing her eyes.  
“Bone Club!” I repeated, and Graveyard used the bone as a bat and swung it 
hard.  
“Paras... SECT!!!” squealed the insect and tore through the upper part of the 
tent.  
“He’s outta here.” I said, I couldn’t resist saying it.  
We turned to one of the entrances and Parasect scuttled back in, I couldn’t 
believe it still had some fight left in it, but it started falling to the sides 
and collapsed.  

“Well, -Yawn...- you proved your point, you’ve obviously raised those Stage 1’s 
very well, I wish you luck in the Pokémon League.” Sandy said walking tiredly 
towards me.  
“I know you don’t sleep well, but you have to be a little more careful in 
Pokémon Battles, you had a lot of opportunities to win back there but your 
carelessness probably made you overlook them.”  
“I... can’t help it...  -Yawn...-  Here is the Awakening Badge...  It’ll...”  
“Whoa!” I shouted, catching Sandy as she started to fall.  
“Are you okay?” I asked.  
“Uh huh...  A good battle... always wears me out... and helps me to sleep...  
That’s... why I became a Gym Leader, its too tiring to travel, and people... 
can come to me and help me to sleep...  Night night...”  
A monk of some sort wearing white robes came to her aid and picked up Sandy 
like a child.  
“I’ll take it from it here, this happens all the time, thank you for helping 
Mistress Resta to rest.”  

I left the Gym and prepared to brace the windy deserts once more, I was proud 
that I had done this on my own, that I had outsmarted Sandy’s strategy, but who 
was it that taught me how?...  That’s right.  
I wouldn’t have won if it wasn’t for a certain person’s teachings in status 
abnormalities.  
I just couldn’t forget about Tetsubo, he gave me a lot of gifts, but a lot of 
grief through one ongoing lie, I still wasn’t ready to see him, not until I 
had eight Gym Badges, only then would I follow through on my promise to my 
Nidorina.  
I left Crimson City, happy that I had helped out Sandy, and happy at my 
Pokémon’s abilities, though Harmony needed a little more work and perhaps the 
Moon Stone in my possession.  

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Rick's Forth Gym Battle
Rick's Fifth Gym Battle
Back to the Side Stories
Back to the Pokézone