CHAPTER FOUR

"WAKE UP DON'T YOU KNOW HOW LATE IT IS!" a loud, man's voice screamed at me when I wasn't even awake yet.

"WAH What!? What's going on!?!" I said as I sat up still half asleep, totally confused.

"IT'S TIME TO START YOUR TRAINING NOW GET UP!" ordered the man. I rubbed my eyes and took a look at him. He looked almost sixty and had a grey mustache. He wore a red work out fit and a red baseball cap to match. A whistle hung around his neck and pokeballs were attached to his hip.

"Hey you got pokemon! Do you want to battle?" I asked him.

"I'M NOT HERE TO BATTLE. I AM HERE TO TRAIN YOU AND YOUR POKEMON! I'M NOT GOING TO SEE YOU LOOSE ONE MORE TIME TO THAT FLINT!" said the man.

"Well, first off who are you?" I said rubbing my eyes again.

"Call me Mr. Boxer" said the man.

"Ok, what are we going to-" I started to say but all the sudden Mr. Boxer grabbed me by the arm and pulled me right out of the sleeping bag. "How did you know I lost against the gym leader?"

"News spreads fast I guess." His voice was strong and raspy, he didn't sound how he looked, not saying he was good looking or anything because that would be plain nasty. "Now send out your best pokemon, and let's see if you can defeat me." He said as he walked ten steps away from me. Then he turned around forming our mini pokemon battle field. "There are three steps to being a basic trainer besides having strong pokemon. One, is you must get along with your pokemon and they must obey, if they don't obey you, you are not experienced enough to be messing with that pokemon. Two, you must use your environment and the opponent's pokemon for your advantage. If you are battling on an ice field and your pokemon is fire, melt all the ice to make the other pokemon be forced into the water, unless it is a water type pokemon than this tactic won't do much. And finally you can never let your pokemon fall behind. Which means try not to let it get caught in a bind attack or if your opponent's pokemon sends out a stun spore attack, don't just let your pokemon take it, make it blow away the spore with a gust attack or tell it to dodge on coming attacks." I nodded.

"Now that you know the tree basic things you need to know, you might be ready to take on me. But not a gym leader just yet, you are not ready." I nodded again, taking in every bit of information. "Now, send out your pokemon." I sent out Charmander.

"Charmander" he called.

"Alright then I choose Lickitung!" the man through out a pokeball and a giant, pink pokemon with a huge tongue came out of it. I pulled out Dexter to see what the heck it was.

Lickitung is a normal type pokemon with a tongue twice as long as its body. Lickitung has the power to paralyze and disable pokemon when it licks them with its giant tongue.

"Ok Charmander watch out for its tongue!" I warned him.

"Lickitung use your body slam attack!" Mr. Boxer commanded.

"Charmander climb up in a tree!" I instructed him.

"Ah, good job of using your surroundings to your advantage." He complimented. I finally understood how I should use my environment to my advantage. Like when I battle Kirt once again I should try and use the rocky battle field to my advantage.

"Charmander jump down and give him a head butt!" I shouted. Charmander shot down from the tree and bolted towards Lickitung like a jolt of lightening.

"Lickitung dodge it!" the man said to his pokemon. Lickitung did a shoulder roll and let Charmander crash into the ground. "Now, Lickitung use body slam!" Lickitung came down on him with all its might before I could warn him. I felt terrible, even though Charmander was the one getting crushed. Lickitung got off Charmander and stepped back with a grin on his face of victory.

"Charmander return!" I called him back to his pokeball. "You did great, sorry I didn't warn you in time," I said to his pokeball. I looked at my feet waiting for the old man to tell me I'm a horrible trainer, just like Kirt did.

"You got real potential kid" he said to me, and I could tell he had a smile on his face even though I was still looking down.

"You really think so?" I asked surprised yet happy.

"Yeah, I can tell you really care about the condition of your pokemon. You still need to work on communicating with them quickly though. When they are in trouble you need to tell them. You are the referee in your soccer game, what you say goes. And you need to tell your pokemon if it is out of bounds or not." His words were wise, but his metaphors were sort of confusing, but I appreciated his help.

"Thank you, sir" I said and smiled, "Would you like to come watch me challenge him again?" I offered.

"I would advise you catch more pokemon and do some more training, but my job here is done. And don't worry I'll know if you win or not." He nodded then disappeared into the forest. I continued training my Charmander mainly and when the sky was at that time of day when it was turning beautiful orange, I headed for the pokemon center to rest up my pokemon. After they were healed I headed over for the gym for another challenge but this time I could smell victory!

"Here for another let down I see?" Flint mocked.

"You won't beat me this time!" I challenged him.

"Alright, I see your not turning back. But this time only one pokemon each, so I won't have to stand here for another three hours!" he tossed his pokeball in the air. Out came his Onix once again, ready for another binding.

"Well, I choose Charmander!" I threw the pokeball doing my Ash technique.

"This shouldn't take long," he mumbled. "Onix bind it!"

"Charmander, dodge his bind!" I instructed, just like Mr. Boxer told me to do, I didn't let my pokemon get caught.

"Nice move, but you can't dodge him for ever!"

Onix kept swinging his solid, rock tail around, aiming at Charmander, but Charmander was moving too fast. Onix tired to hit Charmander but kept hitting all the giant rocks in the battle field. Not long after, there were no more rocks on the field.

"Your Onix has demolished all the rocks, Flint!" I informed.

"I don't need some lousy rocks to beat a puny Charmander like yours! Onix rock throw!" the gym leader told his pokemon. Then out of the ground giant chunks of rock flew at Charmander. But before they all almost daggered my Charmander I told him to go jump on top of Onix's head.

"Onix use your iron tail and hit that Charmander!" he told his Onix. The Onix swung his tail towards his head.

"Charmander jump off!" I told her. Charmander quickly jumped off the giant, rock snake's head, but his iron tail was still swinging up at his head. The Onix hit his own head with his own tail. Little birdies swarmed around the Onix's head as he collapsed to the rock, hard ground.

"Grounded" I whispered smiling.

"Onix return" a red beam of light retrieved the pokemon back into its safe pokeball. "You have beaten my Onix fare and square," he walked over to me and handed me a silver badge, "this will help towards your dream of entering the Pokemon League. You need to collect eight badges to get in the Pokemon League, the next town with a gym is just west of here, but you do have to find your way through Mt. Moon."

"Thank you" I said as I hugged Charmander so tight his eye balls could pop out. I took Charmander's hands and we did a little dance together, singing "We are the Champions", Flint stood there with a small but proud smile.

I walked out with a huge smile on my face and the boulder badge in my hands. I stared down at it was a new, born baby, like I was the lucky mother of this miracle of a badge. I went to the pokemon center and rested my Charmander then headed out for the mysterious Mt. Moon, where beyond that is the next gym leader.