"Let's go get the boulder badge!" Mark said,after he had gotten his Pokemon back.
"Okay!" agreed Charlene.
They made their way to the gym and put they're names in.Charlene was called first. Mark was allowed to go in the gym to watch, though.
The two walked into the gym. It was differebt than Ash had described it to Mark. Then again, all the gyms had been remodeled since his dad became a pokemon master. The entrance way was lined with a stone statue, one on each side. One resembled Brock, the other Flint. Inside, the floor was all stone. On each side, there was a stone platform, two feet off the ground. Running along one side of the gym, there was a bleacher. Mark took his seat while Charlene prepared to battle.
A small girl, who was 10 years old, took her place on the reamaining platform. She was wearing a blue tank top and khaki cargo shorts.
"I am Carla, the youngest child of Flint. Prepare to go down," she said proudly. Even though she was Brock's sister, Mark had never met her.
"How many pokemon each?" asked Charlene.
"One. One on one. I want this over quickly!" replied Carla, with her dark black ponytail bouncing up and down. "Geodude, I choose you!"
Hmm...go Squirtle!" Charlene said as a level 9 tiny turtle popped out.
"Hahaha. You may have a water pokemon, but this Geodude is a level 14! It should beat that Squirtle easy! Geodude, tackle!" Carla taunted in an overly-hyper voice.
"Squirtle, bubble!" Charlene shouted back. Squirtle tryed to dodge the tackle, but got hit slightly on the side, and hit Geodude with several bubbles. Geodude winced as the bubbles hit him.
"What are you doing, you stupid stone? Stop whining and tackle it!" Carla screeched; she was obviously annoyed.
"Geodude!" the pokemon whined, both in pain and because he'd hurt his master. The geodude tackled, but Squirtle was still standing, though a little shaky.
"Squirtle, tail whip!" Charlene yelled. The attack didn't bring down much health, but it did weaken the rock pokemon's defense.
"Tackle, tackle, tackle!" an impatient Carla yelled, furiously jumping up and down.
"Tackle must be the only attack the geodude knows! Gees!" thought Mark.
The geodude tacked, which took a great deal of health from Squirtle. "Squirtle!" the turtle cried out in pain.
"Oh! Hang on Squirtle! Try and give it another bubble!" Charlene cried. THe Squirtle nodded, and with all it's might let out over twenty bubbles. Geodude probably woud have been able to withstand it, but because it's defense had been weakened, it passed out.
"I- I won?" Charlene asked.
" I guess you want your stupid badge. Here."Carla abruptly handed Charlene the Boulder Badge.
"Good match?" asked Charlene.
"I suppose," replied Carla. She saw Mark taking a position on the platform, and quickly gave her geodude some full restore to prepare it for battle.
"Good luck. I'm cheerin' for ya!" Charlene said as she winked at Mark. Then she sat down to admire her first badge.
"Geo. Geodude."
" Yes, I know you're cheerin' for me. Now stop trying me and beat him! Er, what is your name, amatuer boy?" Carla said, cocky and jumpy at the same time.
" Mark. As if you wanted to know. Don't you think you're kinda being rough with that Geodude?"
"What? Nonsense. Besides, it's not even my pokemon! So there!"
" Well, who's is it, then?" Mark asked curiously.
"My brother Kent's. He's supposed to be the leader here, but I have to fill in for him because he went to Saffron for a vacation. I hate this! I wanna go train, not be stuck in this loser gym! I don't even like rocks! I prefer cute pokemon like Jigglypuff." Carla said in one breath.
"Oh..." Mark tried to get a word in.
"Well, all my brothers and sisters don't have time, or don't want to. So that's why I'm here. League rules stink. I wanna use my Jigglypuff, but no, I have to use a stupid rock! I also already have two badges, but I had to come home to do this!"
"Geo..." the geodude said sadly.
" Aw, you've hurt it's feelings," said Mark.
"Aw, he'll get over it. One on one, okay? I'm getting tired of fighting amatuers!"
"If we're such amatuers, then how come Charlene over there just beat you?" inquired Mark.
"Oh... she just got lucky, that's all! Besides, if I had my pokemon, I'd beat you easy."
"Whatever. Weedle, I choose you!"
Carla giggled. " You expect you're stupid little Weedle to beat my really, er, strong geodude?" "Weedle, poison sting!" Mark shouted. THe bug's needle hit the rock pokemon, but bounced right off.
"Geodude, tackle!" The geodude hit Weedle, but it wan't very effective.
"Um, Weedle, use string shot!" The attack hit the geodude. Hard. The string wrapped the rock pokemon up. It struggled, but finally fell over. Then, weedle evolved to Kakuna.
"Good job Wee, er, Kakuna!"
" What? No way! Stupid rock!" Carla said as she potioned her geodude back to health.
I won -- my first badge!"
" Yeah, yeah, yeah. you're so wonderful. Here's your badge." Carla said sarcastically , forking over another badge.
"Come on, CHarlene." Charlene got up.
" See ya Carla!" she called.
" Yeah, see ya." she replied. "I hope my retarted brother gets back so I can pick up my training!"
Outside, the duo admired their badges.
"I'm gonna call my parents and tell them the good news!" said Mark.
"I think I will too!" agreed Charlene. The duo excitedly ran to the poke center. Mark picked up a T.V. phone."I'll use the one inside." she said. And that was that.
Let's listen in on Mark's conversation:
"Hello?" asked a female voice.
"Hi Mom!"
"Ash come quick!" said Misty.
" Hi Mark! How's it going? asked Ash.
"Great!' he said, holding up his boulder badge.
"Wow, you're first badge. Yep, you're definitely my boy!" Ash bragged.
"Stop gloating! It doesn't become of you!" said Misty. "Are you having fun?"
"Mom, Dad, I think I'm in love!"
"How could you possibly be in love? You're only 10!" replied Misty.
"We're soul mates! And she makes a really good friend!" retorted Mark,dreamily.
"Aw, how would you know?" asked Ash.
"Her name's Charlene!" said Mark.
"Charlene what?" inquired Misty.
" Ya know, I really didn't think to ask.But does it matter?' was Marks reply.
"For all you know, she could be a Rocket!" warned Misty.
"Na. She's too nice.," said Mark, pulling out a picture wallet with almost EVERYONE from Ash's childhood. His old friend Todd had taken them for him, "And she doesn't lookanything like this picture of Jesse and James."
"Oh ,well just be careful, maybe she's not a Rocket,but you could run into one....." said Misty.
"Well, I better go and get my poor Oddish healed!" said Mark.
"Well, talk to us again soon!"said Ash
"We're glad you're making friends!" said Misty.
"Bye!"
"Bye!" With that Mark hung up.
Meanwhile, inside the Pokecenter, let's listen into Charlene's conversation. "Hi Mommy and Daddy! Guess what? I got my first badge."
"Honey, I'm so proud of you!"
"Thanks mom." " You're not gettin' into any trouble, are you?"
"No, Dad."
"Good, you be the sweet girl of the family. Maybe in time we'll get our nice Trina back."
"Okay mom."
"How was your trip?"
"It went very well. I met a very nice boy and we've become friends and decided to Travel together."
"Well it's nice your making friends." said her mom.
"His name is Mark."
"Does Mark have a last name?"
"Come to think of it, I don't really know...."
"Well watch yourself, he could be an Evil Rocket for all you know and I don't want anything to happen to ..."
"Ya ya ya, dad, I'll be careful. I seriously doubt he's a Rocket. He's too nice."
"Well, still be careful!"
"Okay I will. I should get Squirtle healed---"said Charlene.
"Alright , luv ya!"
"Bye!"
Charlene hung up just as Mark came in the door.They got teir Pokemon healed and spent the night at the Pokecenter. The next morning, they got up and started walking towards Cerulean City. Walking through a woody area, Charlene got a Bellsprout. Suddenly out of no where, two little seven year olds in Rocket uniforms appeared. They looked like Jessie and James, only the girl had blue hair and the boy had reddish hair.. They started to say a motto, a motto that Mark knew all too well, though it was a bit altered...
"Apare for double! "Make that trouble!" "To atect the world from devalation." "To ignite all peoples within our vacation." "To announce the evils of truth and glove." "To pretend our reach to the Mars above!" "Jaqui!" "John!"
"Wait a second, what comes next again?" asked Jaqui.
"Here, lemme check." said John. At that time, young John pulled out a piece of paper. "I can't read this, the words are too big!"
"Gimme!" cried young Jaqui. She took the paper out of John's hand. She skipped over the words that were "too big" and said"Now get out Meowth!"
"Right!" John put the paper back and pulled out a stuffed Meowth and said"Meowth! That's right!"
Jesse and James, looking a lot older than in the pictures, came out of the bushes, followed by the real Meowth.
"NoNoNo!" cried James. "How do you ever expect to take our places if you can't even get the motto right? The motto is an essential of Team Rocket."
"No motto, no Team Rocket!" said Jessie.
"But mommy, it's too hard!" cried John.
"Well mommy's gonna take you home, and we're gonna get the motto right next time!"
James turned to Mark. "Do I know you?" he asked,puzzled.
"Come on , our children are crying! We can pick up on being evil later!" said Jessie, sternly.
"Whatever you say, honeybuns!" obeyed James. With that the Rocket gang was off.
"Wow! Their kids are gonna be just like them, evil, evil, evil. I wonder if Brock's baby will swoon after the opposite sex like he used to. Ya know, I wonder if my dad's rival, Gary Oak, ever got married. My dad said he was an obnoxious jerk! He was so full of him self and took half my dad's title. I think his kids would be just as arrogant and snotty." said Mark.
For some strange reason, Charlene looked hurt. "Is your name MarkKetchum?" she asked, suprised.
"How did you know, I didn't get around to making it known yet."
"I'm physic,"she said sarcastically, " My daddy worked very hard and earned his title. And is far from a jerk!" replied Charlene, still a bit steamed by a speech previously spoken. "Charlene Oak?" asked Mark, slightly dumbfounded.
"Good job, Einstein!"
"But you're too nice!" replied Mark, " I'm sorry, I didn't know."
After that, there was a brief silence, as Charlene was thinking. Finally she said, "No, its okay. I know all the stories just as well as you do. He admits he was a real pain in the neck to his rival Ash. But he's grown now! By the way, my mom was top of her class, Giselle.. Maybe you know her?"
"I think my dad's friend,Brock, had a crush on her one time. Then again, he had a crush on every girl." Mark fished through his picture wallet and found a picture of Gary and Giselle."Do they look like this?" he inquired.
"Yep, except,ya know, kinda taller." Charlene replied.
"Well that explains it." said Mark.
"Explains what?"
"Your hair style."
"What about it."
"Well, it looks like your dad's,except the color and all, but in a girl version." Charlene giggled. They were off to Cerulean City.
When they got there, they went to the Pokecenter and got their pokemon healed. They went to grab a bite to eat, then got their pokemon back.
"Oddish, you seem like a good pokemon for the water type. Let's go kick some Cascade butt!Whatdaya say?" asked Mark.
And they were off to the gym....