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Rick’s Juniper City Gym Win (by Michael Keens/ Exodus)  

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Well, the recent events have been different, intriguing and difficult.  
Ever had a worst case scenario? Try topping this off:  My best friend was on 
the bad guys’ side and killed my mother.  
Veronica, my childhood friend, was Vertigo, the leader of the Lunar Crew, and 
though totally accidental, it was her that cut my mother’s life short.  
The only thing I was angry about after discovering this, was that she 
continued to live as a Rocket, tried to forget about what she had done, and 
selfishly continued to steal Pokémon from decent honourable trainers.  
I don’t know what I’d do if I lost any of my trained Pokémon, and I partially 
do know what it feels like, the Pokémon that I considered to be family were 
taken away from me, but at least I can go on, knowing that they’re reliving 
their glory days with good honourable trainers, even if they’re oblivious to 
the fact that they bought stolen Pokémon.  
Veronica promised me that she’d quit the Rockets this time, even though it was 
her home, and she really had me going when the Lunar Crew caught up to us.  
I thought she had broken her promise, but she only said such things to trick 
the group, giving us a chance to beat all five members.  
I surprisingly invited Veronica to travel with me, but she rejected that 
offer, not feeling as if we could really be friends again, and still believing 
that she deserved the worse.  
I have faith that she’ll become strong, and rise to be the best she can be in 
this world, if I can forgive her, then its possible for her to forgive 
herself, and I believe she’ll make a great Pokémon Trainer someday.  

Several days later, I had arrived in Juniper City, a peaceful town in a 
tropical setting, full of grassy fields, flowers and rare plants.  
Me and the Pokémon had actually rested here for a couple of days and trained 
pretty hard, along with myself giving a lot of thought to my past and present 
problems, keeping my cool and remembering that my mother would never wish 
vengeance on any living soul, that I did the right thing in forgiving her 
accidental killer.  
I was ready to continue winning badges, and keep the promise I had made to my 
mother.  
The Gym Leader of this place was apparently not just some Grass Trainer, I’d 
been told she was more than that.  
I’d overstayed my welcome here and had to get on with my journey, in order to 
catch up with other trainers, and have several months to train for the League.  
I was familiar with the city by now, and that the Gym was inside the huge dome-
shaped greenhouse at the edge of town.  

As I entered, I heard a beautiful young female voice, humming away at a 
compassionate romantic tune.  
I couldn’t help but stop, and simply listen.  
“... La la la la...  La, la la la, la laa la laa laaa, la-  Oh my goodness! 
You were listening to me?!”  
I looked up at one of many walkways on the higher levels to see a young girl, 
probably fourteen or fifteen, with pale purple and pink hair and wearing a 
luminous yellow and green dress.  
“You did! You did!...  Was I good?...” she questioned calmly after the 
childish shouting.  
“It was the best.” I replied.  
I saw a relieved smile appear on her face.  
“You’re the Gym Leader I suppose?” I asked with a smile.  
“Uh huh.  How’d you guess?”  
“I had to, this place is similar to a place near Pallet Town called Xanadu so 
I wasn’t entirely sure this was a Gym.”  
“Of course this place is similar, how Is my cousin?”  
“You mean... Florinda? She’s fine, she’s settled down with that Potter guy.”  
“That’s so nice, I’d sure like to have a nice boyfriend...”  
I saw her dream-like gaze, and then she turned to me.  
“Aw no, I’m just here for a badge.” I said waving frantically.  
“... You thought I was...  You silly dork!” she said playfully, “Or do you 
want to be my guy?”  
“Like I said:  I’m just here for a badge, can we please have a Gym Battle?”  
“Sure, but don’t you dare underestimate me just cos I’m a girl.”  

We eventually got to a rectangular patch of plain soil, surrounded by many 
plants.  
“So, how many Pokémon shall we battle with?” she asked.  
“Three-on-three suits me fine.” I said decisively.  
“Okay.”  
“Just one thing before we battle.” I said confidently, “What’s your name?”  
She almost fell over in surprise, “Its Alora, and you, ‘loverboy’?”  
“Rick.  So please don’t call me that.”  
“Let’s go, Butterfree!”  
“Ostrio! Go!”  

“Freee Freee!” cheered the Butterfree rising into the air a little.  
“Waaaak!!!” squawked my Doduo.  
“Butterfree! Use your Confusion!”  
“Bust right through it and use Drill Peck!”  
Ostrio ran forward and went smack bang into the invisible wall, but the two 
heads growled and pushed against it, sparks flying off the spinning beaks until 
the psychic wall shattered and the birds came tumbling forward.  
“Butterfree! Whirlwind!”  
“Agility!”  
As the Butterfree flapped its wings at a high speed, Ostrio charged forward and 
braced the winds, not seeming half as much of a problem as it usually would.  
“Drill Peck!”  
“Waaaak!”  
“F-Reeee!” squealed the Butterfree as it fell back.  
“Use your Stun Spore!” yelled Alora.  
“Fury Attack!” I shouted.  
The round cloud appeared from the wings of the Butterfree and crashed down on 
Ostrio, or so Alora thought.  
“Waaaak!!!”  
Ostrio came flying over the cloud and pecked the Butterfree several times.  
“Supersonic!” she said.  
“Freeeeeeeeee!!!” screamed the Butterfree.  
“Waaak!!!” yelled Ostrio in discomfort.  
“Peck it!”  
“Waaak!!!”  
Ostrio shot forward, and then fell, and the Doduo’s two heads started to peck 
each other.  
“No, its confused.” I moaned, this wasn’t the first time this had happened, and 
it had happened several times, but without an ounce of confusion to set the two 
heads off.  
“Use String Shot!”  
The Butterfree unleashed a sticky string that tied around Ostrio’s legs and 
tightened.  
“Now finish it with Stun Spore!”  
“Freee!!!”  
“Waaak!!! Wak! Wak!”  
This battle was over, and I recalled Ostrio, I had to teach the two heads to 
get along if they were ever going to be a great Pokémon.  
“I hope my Muk will give me luck, Go, Ooze!”  
“MUKKK!!!”  
My little Grimer had evolved recently during a trainer battle, and now he was 
huge.  
“Ooze! Use your Body Slam!”  
“Muk...”  
“Free?...” questioned the Butterfree nervously.  
“MMMUUUKKK!!!”  
Ooze leaped up and landed on top of the Butterfree, forcing it onto the floor 
and overwhelming it in its slimy body.  
“Poison Gas!”  
A blast of purple mist came from underneath Ooze following a muffled explosion, 
and he lifted himself up, the Butterfree was out for the count.  
“Return!...” said Alora decisively, “You big meanie, I’ll show you! Go! 
Vileplume!”  
“Vile... Plume!”  
“A Grass/ Poison-type.” I pondered, “My Poison-type beats your Grass.”  
“I’m not a Grass-type Gym Leader, as you can plainly see.” said Alora 
confidently.  
“Then what are you? Every Gym Leader has a theme.” I inquired.  
“My theme is spores and powders, and my Vileplume has tons of that, use your 
Stun Spore!”  
“Plume!”  
“Acid Armour!”  
Ooze sunk down into liquid form and travelled low, the poisonous aura 
destroying the Grass-type dust above.  
“Now Pound it!”  
“MUK!!!”  
“Petal Dance!”  
As Ooze came from behind to crush the flower Pokémon, it started spinning, and 
absorbing leaves from the trees, before creating a whirlwind that trapped Ooze 
inside and damaged him with leaves.  
“Pound it!” I shouted.  
“Muk!!!” groaned Ooze, he couldn’t control the direction he was being pulled 
in.  
“Um...  Use Poison Gas!”  
“MUK!!!”  
He clapped his hands together and purple dust was the result, it spread around 
the tornado, being pulled in by the winds, and the Vileplume went cross-eyed, 
and then the tornado vanished.  
Both Pokémon fell down, the Vileplume landed hard, not only poisoned, but 
confused, it slapped itself in the face, and seemed to regain its sanity, but 
it was still poisoned.  
“Use your Solar Beam!” shouted Alora.  
“Um, um, Minimize!” I spluttered.  
The Vileplume used the Solar Beam surprisingly fast, probably because of all 
the plantlife and sunlight around here, but Ooze was quick to duck and cover 
until it was over, and then took initiative and pounded the ill Vileplume.  
“Solar Beam! Again!” shouted Alora.  
“What?! So soon?!” I questioned.  
“Go!” she yelled.  
“Vileplume!”  
“Sludge attack!”  
“MUK!!!”  
With no time to move, Ooze flung a blast of sludge towards the beam, deflecting 
it, and the energy of the Solar Beam, and the poison of the Sludge attack went 
all over the two Pokémon.  
“Muk...” said Ooze, a bit weakened, but the Vileplume looked worse off since 
the types were against him.  
“Sleep Powder!”  
“Vile!!! Plume!...” groaned the Vileplume, spurting out a blue dust before 
fainting, the dust overwhelmed Ooze and sent him to sleep, losing his face in 
the ooze and becoming a pile of purple mess, rising and falling every so often 
until I recalled it.  
“One Pokémon left, let’s be fair and throw the Pokéballs at the same time, 
okay?” asked Alora nicely.  
“Sure.” I replied.  
“Voltorb!”  
“Venomoth!!!”  
“A Bug/ Poison-type, we can handle it.” I said confidently.  
“Vol-Torb!”  
“Screech!” I said.  
I covered my ears, and so did Alora, as the piercing cry was emitted.  
The Venomoth was unlucky, it didn’t have any hands to cover its ears, they 
lost those when they evolved in exchange for wings.  
“Disable!”  
“Vol-” said Overload freezing up, it was then tackled by the Venomoth.  
Overload wasn’t strong enough to escape, and the Venomoth took advantage of 
that and dived down again for another tackle.  
“Thunderbolt!”  
As soon as the Venomoth tackled it, Overload gave it a major shocking.  
The shield shattered, but the Venomoth reacted right away with a Psybeam.  
Overload was bedazzled and rolled back, but the Venomoth swooped down and clung 
to it, before using Leech Life to regain some health.  
“Its getting weak...  Use Sonic Boom!” I shouted with concern.  
“Vol-Torb!!!”  
A whirlwind of about 2 to 3 metres in width and growing in height shot forward 
and spun the Venomoth around.  
“Psybeam!”  
“Dodge it Overload!”  
It rolled aside, and leapt up to avoid a more accurate blast.  
“Fly down there and use Psychic attack up close!”  
“Use another Sonic Boom!”  
The Venomoth dodged it this time, flying to the side was all it took.  
“Overload!” I shouted.  
The Venomoth clung to Overload and blasted it with a blue explosion, leaving 
it weak.  
“Finish it off with Leech Life.”  
“Overload! Do whatever you can, to the best of your ability, that’s all I can 
expect from you.”  
It smiled and glared at the opponent, before glowing white, and exploding.  
“No! Anything but that! You’ll be too weak and this’ll be a Double Knockout!”  
The Venomoth flew back blackened, and glared at the figure inside the smoky 
remains, it was still able to battle, but as for Overload...  
The round silhouette stood still, probably out of strength.  
“Hah!” cheered Alora, before a powerful bolt shot out and zapped the Venomoth.  
“Electrode!”  
“Overload...  You... evolved!” I cheered.  
“Electrode!”  
“Venomoth! Use your Psybeam!” panicked Alora.  
“Elec-Trode!”  
Overload used Light Screen, a shining colourful barrier that was formed in 
front of the Electrode, which reflected the Psychic-type attack and sent it 
back into the Venomoth, who was weak against it.  
“Use your Poison Powder!”  
“Thunderbolt!”  
“Veno-Moth!!!”  
“Electrode!!!”  
The lightning was faster than the dust cloud, and stronger too, the dust 
dissipated when the electricity hit it, and it carried on to hit the Venomoth.  
“Venoooo!!!...  Moth...” it said, collapsing.  
“Hooray!” I cheered, and then ran to Overload and hugged it, “I’m proud of 
you, but that exploding evolution was out of line.”  
“Electrode.” grinned Overload.  

“You’re a very good trainer, spores and powders are one of the most effective 
battle tactics, and yet, you overcame them all.” explained Alora a little 
later, “Here you go, a Pollen Badge for you.”  
It was basically a bubbly-shaped badge, coloured a pale green.    
“Thank you, this place was a different setting to battle on, you’ve done an 
excellent job, no wonder your Pokémon perform so well, its perfect for Bug and 
Grass-types.” I said nicely.  
“You know...” said Alora wearing a mischievous smile, “You’re quite the sweet 
talker, if you ever need a place to stay, come on back here.”  
“I, what? Hey wait a minute, I’m not trying to sweet talk you, I would never 
think to-”  
“Re-Lax, I’m just playing with you, but the offer still stands.”  
“And I might have to take you up on that offer.” I smiled.  

I left Juniper City at last, and I felt a little relieved, I think Alora had 
quickly developed a crush on me, but she was too young, and I’m not the sort 
to lead people on...  
I thought about Veronica, and wondered where she was, and what she was doing, 
some people would say that to think such things about a person meant you had a 
thing for them, but I’m really not sure in this scenario.  
I cleared my head of those thoughts, and only thought about the future.  
Overload, my official starter Pokémon had finally evolved, and my Pokémon were 
getting better all the time.  
I left the beautiful city, and despite Alora’s childishness and flirtatious 
ways, I was surprisingly sure that I would return here someday, and stay for 
much longer.  

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Emily's Seventh Gym Battle
Abby's Eighth Gym Battle
Back to the Side Stories
Back to the Pokézone