The FireRed/LeafGreen/WaterBlue Chronicles

Chapter II

Brock


"Charmander, keep scratching that tree! Pikachu, you've still got ten more laps to run! Metapod... uh... I guess harden or something."

Red was on the outskirts of Pewter City, training his Pokémon. He'd heard from the locals that the Pewter Gym Leader specialized in rock-types, so he knew he had to prepare.

"Guys, we're at a disadvantage. We've got fire, electricity and a freakin' cocoon to stop rock-Pokémon! If we don't get stronger, we won't be able to defeat the gym! So let's do this!"


Blue and Wartortle were standing outside of the gym.

Unlike Red, Blue was confident. "You're a water-type, Mary. This'll be a breeze."

She entered the gym, and was met by a young teen dressed as a camper.

"Hi, I'm Liam. I'm the gym assistant here. Please show me your badges."

Blue was surprised by the request. "Uhm, I don't have any yet."

Liam wrote something down in a notebook. "Alright. How many Pokémon do you have with you?"

"One." she answered, still confused. "Why the questions?"

The camper looked up from his notebook. "Oh, you don't know? I can explain. So, you know the obvious rules that most folks know, like how the gym decides how many Pokémon are to be used, stuff like that?"

"Yeah, sure." Blue answered.

"But have you ever wondered this?" Liam asked. "If there are only eight gyms in this region, and you need eight badges to enter this region's league championship, how come the gym leaders are always becoming increasingly stronger as you make your way through them? How come the difficulty of the gyms, no matter the order you fight them, always increases?"

Blue looked puzzled. "I haven't even thought about that before," she said.

"Here's why." Liam continued, "The gym leaders have different sets of Pokémon teams. Nine to be exact. Eight they use against challengers, and their own personal team. They decide what set to use based on how many badges the challenger has obtained so far. Believe me," he chuckled, "if the gym leaders were to use their personal team against every challenger, no one would get a badge."

He waved his hand toward the battlefield. "Anyway, just wait here. The leader will be arriving in no time."

Blue was left alone as Liam walked away. She observed how the field was made of stone.

"Hey, a new challenger? Cool." She heard a joyful voice behind her, and she turned to see a man with spiky brown hair walking toward her. He was wearing an orange and gray jacket and dark green pants.

"Hi, my name is Brock, and I'm the Pewter city gym leader. Nice to meet you."

He shook her hand and walked over to the other side of the stadium.

"As you probably know," he yelled, "I use the Rock-type here! Think you can beat that?!"

"Yes sir!" she yelled back with confidence in her voice.

"Very well!" He paused. "Liam told me this is your first gym battle. Good luck!"

Blue threw her Pokéball into the arena and Wartortle bursted out of it onto the field. Brock did the same, releasing his Geodude.

"Hey, Blue! You can go first." Brock offered.

"Alright, but you might regret that!" Blue yelled back. "Mary, Rock Smash!"

Wartortle jumped toward Geodude while its tail started to glow white. The white glow faded as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the tail with a red-orange glow. Wartortle continued by flipping around vertically and slamming its tail toward Geodude, but Geodude dodged.

"Geodude, Rock Smash! Show'em how it's supposed to be done!" Brock shouted.

One of Geodude's hands glowed white, and it punched Wartortle in the face, sending it flying several feet into the air.

"Mary, get back in control!" Blue urged her Pokémon.

Wartortle flipped around in the air, facing Geodude again, just as Brock gave his Pokémon a new command. "Rock Throw!"

Geodude punched the ground, making rocks fly up toward Wartortle.

Blue reacted quickly. "Protect, then follow up with a Water Gun!"

Wartortle's body became surrounded in a green shield, blocking the rocks and keeping it unharmed. As soon as the shield disappeared Wartortle released a spiral of water from its mouth at Geodude.

The rock-type was hit straight-on because of its lack of speed, but it didn't seem fazed. Geodude blasted through the water stream and punched Wartortle in the roof of its mouth.

The turtle crashed into the ground, not moving at all.

Blue was extremely worried. "I only have Mary, so if she faints it's over!" she thought.

"Sorry, Blue," Brock grinned, "but Geodude is trained to resist water attacks."

Wartortle's ears twitched, and the Pokémon got up on its feet.

"Yes! Way to go, Mary!" Blue cheered. "Now, Brock, let's finish this!" she challenged.

Brock smiled a crooked smile.

Geodude launched itself against Wartortle, intending to punch it again.

"Mary, do the Rapid Spin/Bubble combination!"

Wartortle pulled all of its limbs into its shell and started spinning, and a ridiculous amount of bubbles was blown from inside the shell, obscuring Geodude's and Brock's sight.

Brock yelled frantically "Hurry up Geodude, Rock Throw those things away!"

Geodude punched the ground again, and the rocks punctured the bubbles, which made it possible for Geodude and Brock to see that Wartortle had seemingly disappeared from the field.

"What the?" Brock questioned.

Blue smirked. "You said it could withstand water moves? How about ice?"

Brock was taken aback. "No way?!"

He finally noticed Wartortle in the air above Geodude.

"Mary, Icy Wind!"

Wartortle blew sparkling blue snow out of its mouth, hitting Geodude point-blank and encasing it in a block of ice. The ice cracked as Wartortle landed again, and a fainted Geodude rolled out.

"I won!" Blue was ecstatic.

Brock returned his fainted Geodude, impressed with Blue's victory. "Nice going, Blue. You really showed that you can roll with the punches. Good job, you should be proud of yourself and your Pokémon." He gave a very tired Wartortle an approving nod, which it returned.

Blue smiled widely as he gave her the boulderbadge. "As proof of your victory, I grant you this badge. Good luck with the rest of the gyms, Blue."

"Thank you Mr. Brock."

Suddenly, the front door slammed open.

Brock and Blue turned around to see who had bursted in.


In the front entrance stood the silhouette of a teenage boy and his Charmander. He stepped forward with his lizard and stared down Brock with a confident, almost cocky smile.

"Pewter City Gym Leader? My name is Red... and I'm here to kick your ass!"

As Brock looked at the boy with a somewhat puzzled expression, Red noticed Blue. "Blue? What are you doing here?"

"I defeated the gym, that's what!" Blue proudly showed off her boulderbadge.

Red got taken aback, and he looked down at his feet. "I figured I would get it before you, now I can't even brag about me being the best of the best..." he mumbled.

Blue sighed. "Red, stop whining and win a badge!" Blue ordered as she made her way to the stands.

Red snapped out of it and positioned himself.

"So, how many badges have you got? How many Pokémon?" Brock asked with a friendly tone.

"That's none of your business!" Red answered.

The tone in Brock's voice changed from friendly to annoyed. "It's kind of important that I know."

"Well, I'm not telling you." Red replied, speaking with a childish and very irritating voice.

Brock's face turned serious.

Blue shouted from the stands. "He's got three Pokémon and no badges."

"Thank you, Blue," Brock muttered through gritted teeth. "Red, we will use two Pokémon each. Are you ready?" he asked as he made his way to the other side of the field.

"Born ready!" Red yelled back.

Brock sent out a new Geodude, and Red released... Butterfree!

Blue shouted joyously from the stands. "You evolved Metapod?"

"Sure did," he shouted back, "I've trained all my Pokémon for this fight!"

Brock laughed. "You think you can defeat me with a bug? I guess you're dumber than I thought! And I thought you were pretty dumb."

Red laughed back. "At least you got the pretty part right! Butterfree, Confusion!"

"What?" Brock exclaimed.

Butterfree's eyes glowed light blue and Geodude's body became outlined in the same light blue glow.

Geodude seemed to be hurt, but didn't back down.

"Smack Down, Geodude!" Brock shouted.

The rock Pokémon opened its mouth and a metallic gold orb of energy appeared in front of it. Geodude tried firing it at Butterfree, but due to the earlier Confusion-attack, it couldn't aim right and hit the roof instead, making a hole and causing debris to start falling.

"Butterfree, Gust!" Red ordered.

The butterfly flapped its wings and created a gust of wind that caused the debris to crash into Geodude and sending it all into the wall.

Brock could tell Geodude was knocked out and returned it while Red chuckled to himself.

"That was over quickly! Is that all you got?"

Blue noticed Brock started to look really angry. Red however, did not, as he was busy laughing like a maniac.

"Red," Brock mumbled, "I usually don't use this one against first-badge trainers... but your attitude is really getting on my nerves."

He threw a Great Ball into the air. "GO ONIX!"

A huge rock snake appeared out of the blue and white ball with red linings, and both Butterfree and Blue stared at it in awe. Red immediately stopped laughing and stared at the Onix with fear in his eyes.

"Oh no." Red got visibly nervous, but he wasn't about to give up just because of this development.

"Butterfree, Confusion!"

"Do you always lead with that move?" Brock shouted, before telling his Onix what to counter with. "Onix, Slam!"

Onix slammed its tail against Butterfree, but it dodged, and Red fell down after the impact caused by Onix's tail hitting the ground.

"Butterfree, we need to stop it from moving that tail! So get up there now and Stun Spore it!" Red yelled desperately.

Butterfree flapped its wings and flew up toward the roof. Onix stared right at the bug flying toward it. Its huge eyes proved frightening to Butterfree, who stopped mid-air, paralyzed with fear.

Brock raised his voice. "Onix, Rock Tomb!"

Seemingly out of nowhere, Onix sent a large gray boulder with a silver glow at Butterfree.

"Butterfree, get away!" Red yelled, but it was too late. Butterfree crashed into the ground, defeated.

Red wiped some sweat from his forehead. "Return, Butterfree. You did good."

Brock noticed a change in Red's expression. He seemed much more serious now.

Blue was unsure what Red would do next.

"He's got Charmander and Pikachu left," she thought to herself, "he's at a disadvantage no matter which one he sends out."

Red took off his cap, and buried his fingers in his light brown hair. He would never admit it to anyone, but he was scared.

"You're at the end of your rope, Red, admit it." Brock provoked the teen. To his surprise though, Red seemed strangely calm.

"We both are, Brock," Red declared. "One Pokémon left... and only one of us will win. And you know what?" He put on his cap again, and a confident grin appeared on his face. "It's gonna be me!"

Brock frowned as Red sent out Charmander.

"You think you can win with fire against rock?" Brock laughed.

Red shrugged. "I can try. Charmander, Ember!"

Charmander spit out bolts of fire at Onix, who shrugged it off.

"Seriously, Red? Onix, Tackle!"

The rock snake charged head first toward Charmander, but the fire lizard managed to get away in time.

Once again, Onix's impact on the ground caused Red to fall over. "Dammit! Dragon Rage!"

Charmander's eyes turned white, then the flame on its tail became larger and more intense. It formed a ball of blue fire in its mouth and released it. Onix tried to dodge the ball of flames but was too slow. It didn't seem that affected though.

"Do you call that a dragon move?" Brock mocked. "This is a dragon move! DragonBreath!"

Brock's Pokémon fired a green fire-like beam, barely missing Charmander, who was saved again thanks to its speed.

"Again!" Brock yelled.

"SmokeScreen!" Red countered.

Charmander released a thick black smoke from its mouth before Onix could fire a new beam.

For the second time that day, Brock was unable to see the opponent. That is, until the opponent suddenly bursted through the smoke.

Onix tried slamming its tail into the fire lizard, but as it hit, the lizard disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"A Substitute?!" Brock exclaimed in surprise.

The real Charmander bursted through the smoke, and Onix tried slamming it again.

Brock noticed that the lizard was outlined in an orange glow. "Oh no!" he recognized what was about to happen.

The rock snake's tail hit, and Charmander fell to the ground. However, it got up instantly, and the glow was much brighter.

Red smirked. "Counter."

Charmander ran up the rock snake's body, and did a flip over its head, landing on its nose. The glowing lizard punched the Onix between its eyes, and jumped off just as it hit the ground.

Red and Charmander won.

Blue jumped down from the stands and hugged Red after he had returned Charmander.

"Great job, Red! I was worried for a second there."

"Yeah, I was too. Uhm, Blue, do you have to hug me? I'm sore from all the training earlier."

Blue was offended, and stomped toward the exit. "I'll see you when you get out of here."

Brock walked over to a slightly confused Red. "Hey Red, that was a... surprisingly exciting battle. I'm gonna be honest, I underestimated you. To deliberately be hit by the slam so you could absorb the attack and deal out twice the damage with Counter. And the Substitute you used so I wouldn't notice the glow right away because I was too busy wondering where Charmander would appear. And the smoke you used so I wouldn't see you plan take form."

Brock stopped himself, and laughed at his own excitement.

"I didn't know Charmander could learn Counter though." he remarked.

Red grinned. "It can if its father is a Rhydon."

Brock laughed and handed Red the gray octagon-shaped pin, and Red couldn't help but smile.

"My first badge. Thank you, Brock."

As he started walking out he stopped at the exit for one last comment.

"But you know, dude... you didn't lose because you underestimated me. I'm just a very, very good battler."

Brock chuckled. "Good luck on the rest of your journey, Red. I'm looking forward to the next time I see you."

Red smiled and closed the door.

"These Pallet kids are strong. First Green, and now those two." Brock said to himself. "The next time I see them will probably be in the league"

He chuckled to himself and walked out of the arena.


To be continued...

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