bThe Gang/b
"You put up a good fight Josh," Misty told the trainer who she had just defeated in battle. "You've got some talent. I think if you train a little harder and come back later, you might win."
"Thanks!" Josh, the trainer she had battled, said. "I'm going to train really hard and then I'll come back and beat you. Then I'll be one step closer to entering the pokemon league!"
Misty smiled at the comment. She remembered the way Ash had the same kind of energy whenever he had gym battles. "So how many badges do you have?" she asked, curious.
"Three. Only five more before I can join."
"Well good luck with your journey. I expect to see you again soon."
"You can count on it!" Joshua said. They shook hands and then he left. Not long after he went out, Misty left as well. She needed to take a little break from the gym leader business. She couldn't go out on a journey, unfortunately, no matter how much she wanted to, but she could walk around the city and get some fresh air.
The problem was, everyone knew who she was. Almost everyone in Cerulean City had seen the water ballet show that Misty starred in, so everytime she went outside, someone recognized her and wanted an autograph. Even though she had her hair in a ponytail and wore a yellow button shirt that half covered a red shirt and wore yellow shorts, people could still tell that she was the mermaid in the show. She was fine with that, but she really wanted some peace and quiet for once. Ah well. She couldn't do anything about it. People saw her, came up to her, said hi to her, and she said hello back, signed some autographs, and then went on her way. She was used to it.
She was heading back towards the gym, after walking around for about an hour, when yet another person walked up to her. It was a teenager, probably around sixteen years of age, and he was wearing some sort of dark blue outfit that seemed like some sort of street gangster type clothing.
"You're the gym leader here, aren't you?" he said immediately as he came up to Misty.
"Yes, I am," Misty replied with a nod. "Why, do you want to battle?"
The teenager smiled with a chuckle. "Why else would I be looking for the gym leader?"
"All right, let's go into the gym." She started to head towards her gym but the boy stopped her.
"Um, let's not. Why don't we battle in that field over there?" He motioned towards a clearing off in the distance, wide open with fresh cut grass.
iThat's a strange place for a gym battle.../i Misty thought. But she agreed to do it there anyways. So the two of them headed over to the clearing, each of them going to opposite sides.
"It'll be a one on one battle," Misty said. "If you win, you get a Cascade badge." She then pulled out a pokeball from her knapsack. "I choose Gyarados!" She threw the pokeball into the air and the serpentine water pokemon appeared in the clearing, clearly standing out in the wide open space.
"A Gyarados, huh?" the trainer said. "Then I choose Scizor!" Throwing his own pokeball, the red bug and steel pokemon appeared on the battlefield, waving its claws in the air as it took a fighting stance.
"This ought to be an interesting match," Misty said. "Gyarados, use bite!" The large water pokemon lunged forward, mouth ready to chomp down onto the smaller bug pokemon. But by the time it reached it, it had dodged the attack, moving off to the size with blinding speed.
"Scizor, use metal claw!" Obeying its trainers command, the pokemon leapt up at Gyarados, its right claw glowing as it slammed onto the serpent's body with enough force to cause it to stumble. Gyarados growled as it turned towards Scizor.
"You'll have to do better than that. Gyarados, use flamethrower!" Fire burst from the pokemon's open mouth, quickly engulfing the insect pokemon and burning it. The pokemon seemed to be severely weakened by the fire type attack. "Now hydropump Gyarados!" Her pokemon was about to obey when it was hit by flames from the side, causing it to halt its attack.
"What was that?" Misty asked, looking in the direction of the flames. There she saw a Charmeleon, a Venasaur, and two trainers who were wearing an outfit similar to the trainer she was currently battling. "Hey!" she exclaimed. "This isn't a tag team battle!"
"Well I say it is," one of the newcomers said. "Venasaur, use solarbeam!" With a grunt, the massive plant pokemon started to suck in sunlight into the flower on its back, preparing the powerful grass type attack.
Misty growled. This was totally unfair, but she would have to deal with it. "Gyarados, quick, use flamethrower again!"
"I don't think so," the first trainer said. "Attack with metal claw Scizor!" As Gyarados turned towards Venasaur, he was knocked to the ground by a metal claw to the head, stunning him for a moment. As he just got back up, it was too late. Venasaur was fully charged and unleashed the beam of solar energy at the water type pokemon, causing severe damage and knocking the large creature to the ground. It was unconscious, unable to battle anymore.
"Grr... That was totally unfair!" Misty shouted at them as she returned Gyarados back to its pokeball. She turned to walk away, but the trainer shouted back at her.
"Give me my badge. I won!"
"You won by cheating," she said, turning her head back towards them. "You don't get a gym badge that way." She scoffed, turning her back toward them, and headed back towards her gym, leaving the three gangsters behind.
Later that night, Misty was looking at Gyarados in the pool. He seemed to have recovered from the battle earlier. She stroked his scales when he came up to her at the pool side.
"You seem to have recovered well," she said. "That was so unfair. Three pokemon against one." She shook her head. "Well, we won't have to worry about them again." She stepped back from Gyarados and said, "Well, I'm off for the night. Sleep well guys," she said to the other pokemon that were in the pool as well. Gyarados dove back under the water along with all the other pokemon after they had all said their goodbyes.
Misty left the pool room and headed for the front door. She was the last one to leave the gym. Her sisters had gone home earlier. Typical. They always made her do all the work. She headed towards the front door when someone came in. It were those same trainers she had battled earlier.
She frowned as they just seemed to barg right in. "I told you I'm not giving you the badge."
"Oh yes you are," the trainer said. "I won that battle."
"Unfairly. If you want a badge, you have to battle me again, by yourself. But the gym's closed now so you'll have to come back tomorrow."
"But I don't intend on coming back tomorrow to fight a battle that I already won." He stepped sternly towards Misty. "Now give me my badge."
Misty stood her ground, firmly responding, "I'm leaving," and attempted to walk past them and out the door. But the trainers all blocked her way forcefully.
"Then you give us no choice." The three trainers moved forcefully towards her. Misty realized what they had in mind, and defended herself, pushing the nearest one out of the way and then running off into the gym.
"Go get her," the first trainer ordered. "I'll go look for the badges. If she won't give them to us, then we'll just have to take them." The other two nodded and then went chasing after Misty.
The gangster then went through the gym, searching for wherever the badges might be. He looked through drawers at the front desk. Not there. He merely glanced in the pool room, seeing the pokemon still in the pool. There didn't seem to be any plausible place the badges could be in there.
Then he went into a room that seemed a lot like a dressing room. They looked through the drawers, and found several of Misty's clothes, including the mermaid dress. They also found the badges in there, but when he saw the mermaid dress he remembered who Misty was.
Misty, knowing the Cerulean gym intimately, ran through the gym's corriders in different directions in order to lose the two trainers behind her, who were moving faster than her. When she was certain they wouldn't see her, she ducked into a closet, quickly shutting the door, and caught her breath as she heard the other two running past the door, not knowing she had gone in there.
She left the closet quietly after a moment, looking around for the gangsters. They weren't there, as far as she could tell. She had to get to the phone and report what had happened to the police. She hurried to the front desk, ignoring the mess that the gangsters had made, found the phone, and dialed 911.
But there was no tone. Those gangsters must had disconnected the phone lines. Sighing she hung the phone up and tried to think of what to do next.
"Hey!" She turned, and saw one of the trainers coming back towards her. She turned and ran towards the pool area, the trainer who had seen her close behind. As she entered, she saw the other trainer coming in from a different direction, surrounding her and closing in on her.
She fought back against them, kicking one of them who got too close. But the other one grabbed her from behind, pulling her hands behind her back and tying them together with rope.
"Let me go!" she shouted as she struggled and pulled against him, but he held on tight. She kicked the trainer in the shins hard, which only made him mad, and he threw her into the pool. In the water, she could barely keep her head above water just by kicking her legs.
However, the water pokemon in the pool had noticed what was going on, and her Staryu came to the surface to help her, holding her above the water.
"Thanks Staryu," she said to the pokemon. Starmie was also nearby, so she ordered, "Starmie, use water gun!"
Leaping into the air, the purple starfish pokemon sprayed a stream of water at the trainers, but they moved out of the way, avoiding the attack.
"So it's a water pokemon battle you want, eh?" one of them said. Then they both threw their pokeballs, and their pokemon came out and into the water: two Tentacruel. "Use wrap attack!" they both ordered.
Obeying, the two jellyfish attacked Starmie, Staryu, and Misty with their tentacles, dragging them underwater to battle. Staryu managed to get free and used a rapid spin attack, slamming into the Tentacruel that was holding Misty underwater, causing it to let her go. The Tentacruel responded by using poison sting, firing barbs of poison at the pokemon, hurting it severely with its poison.
Misty kicked towards the surface, but the Tentacruel kept pulling her back down deeper. They routinely let go of her when other water pokemon attacked the Tentacruel, seeing what they were doing to Misty. But most of the pokemon in the tank were used in the water ballet show and had little experience in battling, so the poison sting knocked most of them out.
Her lungs needed air. She was wasting precious oxygen just trying to get to the surface. She wasn't sure how much longer she'd last. The Tentacruel pulled her underwater another time, and she was nearly ready to pass out. But then Gyarados appeared out of nowhere, probably awakened by all the fighting, and slammed into the Tentacruel, throwing them away from Misty. While Gyarados pursued the pokemon, Horsea, who had stayed away from the fighting until now, swam up to Misty and pushed her towards the surface as fast as its little seahorse tail could swim.
Misty took a deep breath when they got to the surface as Horsea pushed her towards the shore, inhaling the air like she'd never had air before. Horsea pushed her partway out of the water, but then the gangsters stepped up to her. Attempting to protect its trainer, Horsea shot a water gun at the trainer, but it was relatively weak, only a mere annoyance to the trainer, who kicked the seahorse pokemon across the pool and then pulled Misty out of the pool.
Back in the pool, Gyarados was having a hard time battling the Tentacruel. He tried to attack them, but as he did, they hit him with poison sting which threw his attack off balance and he missed. He managed to hit one of them with a hydropump, knocking it unconscious, but the other was unrelentlessly hitting him with poison sting, and it was starting to take effect, making him a little dizzy. As a last attempt to defeat them, he fired a hyperbeam. It missed completely, blowing up a part of the coral at the bottom of the tank, and the Tentacruel hit him with more poison stings, which pretty much ended the battle with Gyarados losing.
"Gyarados!" Misty shouted when she saw that her pokemon had lost the battle. He was very weak, and he had just recovered from the previous battle. She tried to pull away to go help him, but the gangster held her back. "Let go!" she shouted, her arms still bound behind her back.
"You're not going anywhere," the first trainer said, entering the spacious room. "I got the badges," he said. He had not only one Cascade badge but several of them in his hand, which he showed to the other two. "These ought to be worth a pretty penny." He placed the badges into his pocket and then looked at Misty, who was still struggling to escape. "I can tell you've never had experience with a gang before. When a gang wants something, you better give it to them. If you don't, then this happens." He was holding the mermaid outfit he had found when he was looking for the badges. "And now I want you to put this on and do a little show for us. Or else."
Misty growled, pulling against the other trainer, even though she knew she couldn't get away. She grunted in defiance, turning her head away from him.
Despite Misty's protests, she was forcibly stripped of her clothing and the mermaid outfit was put on her. Her arms were untied, but they held them behind her back so she wouldn't try anything, along with his Charmeleon there in case she did escape, and they took her up to the diving board. Once there, the trainer who was holding her released her with a shove towards the edge of the diving board, the fire type pokemon blocking her way back.
"Unless you want to get barbecued," the first trainer said, "I suggest you do what we want."
Misty glared at him, but noticed the Charmeleon growling at her, the flame on its tail blazing. She certainly didn't want to face the flames of a Charmeleon. Sighing, she turned. She couldn't believe she was being forced to do this, but she was. She had no choice but to do it. So she dove off the diving board and into the pool below. The Tentacruel were still in the pool, to ensure that she didn't do anything that they didn't want her to do. She looked at all her water pokemon with sorrow. They had all been poisoned by the Tentacruel, and she couldn't do anything about it. She could see the trainers watching her as she did a less than spectacular performance of her usual show routine. She purposely swam towards each of her pokemon, inspecting them, but didn't stay long for fear the Tentacruel might hurt her if she wasn't performing. Fortunately, the gangsters didn't seem to notice that.
After a while of performing for her captors, they allowed her to be done. The Tentacruel forcefully grabbed her on orders of its trainers, and took her out of the water, where the trainers were waiting.
"Now what do you want from me?" Misty said, her rebellious attitude partially diminished. She knew that they must have something else in mind for her. She was a little afraid as to what that would be...
To her surprise, he said, "Nothing." He nodded at the Tentacruel, and it released her from its tentacles, dropping her to the ground. "We're finished with you." Misty stood up, a little surprised that they'd be finished with her that quickly, but then they grabbed ahold of her again, tying her hands behind her back.
"I thought you were done with me!" she shouted as they tied her up, putting ropes around her chest to secure her arms behind her back.
"You can't do anything more for us right now," the gangster replied as they gagged her with a piece of cloth, the gym leader mumbling in protest. "Throw her in the closet. Someone will find her tomorrow."
The mermaid struggling and wriggling, the two trainers dragged her out of the pool room, leaving the first trainer in the room. He found the pokeballs that Misty had, and put her wounded Gyarados into it. He placed Gyarados pokeball into his pocket. It was a pretty strong pokemon, and he thought it'd be nice to have it. None of the other pokemon caught his interest, so he left them alone.
The two trainers tossed Misty into the closet, her hands tied behind her back and also her legs tied together, even though they were in the mermaid outfit already. She mumbled and struggled to free herself of her binds, but they were tight. She was stuck in here.
"We'll be back another time," he heard them say before they shut the door. She shouted something that was muffled by the gag. They were going to come back?! She could hear them outside, doing something. They were probably vandalizing the gym with their gangster style graffiti or something. She exhausted herself trying to get free, twisting and turning in the closet, knocking over some of the items that were inside until she just stopped altogether. Her body hurt where the ropes were as she struggled. She sighed loudly through the gag. Tired and trapped, she figured she had nothing to do but rest until someone came to the gym the next morning. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.