A huge plume of smoke and dust arose the area where the two Pokemon had made impact with the ground. It swarmed the crash seen as if the smoke was a gang of Beedrill swarming a hive of honey. Eli began to get nervous, as it was now more than 15 seconds since the Pokemon had hit the ground, and neither Growlithe nor Wingull had left the smoke shroud. Eli feared that his new partner had already bitten the dust. Aguish began to pour over Eli and engulf him in sadness and despair. If Growlithe died this early, then Bulbasaur would have to take the rest of the Pokemon 3 versus 1, and that was no short order for a Pokemon as young as him. Eli's eyes began to tear up. His journey was over, and there was no two was about it. He finally composed himself enough that he began to open his eyes. To his joy, Growlithe came bounding out of the rubble, with Flappy in its mouth. Flappy had definitely been defeated.
"Yippers! You did it!" Growlithe came up to Eli, set Flappy down next to him like a hunting dog, and started licking Eli's face. "Great job Yippers! Let's go out there and finish the job!" Oxy winced and returned his Pokemon to its Pokeball. He thanked it for its duty, before sending out his next Pokemon.
"Go, Basculin!" The fish sprang out of its home, and went right into the water pond behind it. "Basuclin, finish this imbecile! Abush it and use water gun!" The slimy fish slivered through the pond and the hidden streams of the water. All of Eli's Pokemon were on high alert. "Now, hit that Bulbasaur, Basculin!" A jet of water came right into contact Eli's Pokemon, and it went flying. It landed about three yards away from Slowpoke, who began to crawl towards Bulbasaur. Eli was then faced with a decision. He knew another attack from Basculin was coming, but Slowpoke would attack Bulbasaur if he commanded Growlithe. Eli was in a catch 22 situation, before an idea sprang out of his head.
"Yippers, go and use bite on Slowpoke! It'll be super effective!"Growlithe bounded towards Slowpoke, and Hydro did nothing to stop it. Slowpoke succumbed to the power and force of the bite attack and fainted. "How dare you not aid your Pokemon in a time of need! I have no PokeRespect for you Hydro! You are scum!"
"Ah, I guess it is up to my brother now. You battled like shit, Retard." Eli was fuming. He tried to contain himself, but his emotions spilled over and he made his first rash decision.
"Syntha, go get that Basculin! Get it out of the water!" Bulbasaur obediently followed its owner's commands and jumped into the water, pursuing Basculin. Bulbasaur followed Basculin surprisingly well, before Oxy made his best move yet.
"Basculin, use double team, and follow it up with dive!" With a flash, multiple Basculin appeared in the water, and Bulbasaur was left trying to find a needle in a haystack. When Bulbasaur thought he had exterminated all of the decoys, he lashed out at the final one. It disappeared when he made contact, and then he knew he was in trouble. The real Basculin ambushed him from behind, and dragged him into the depths of the pond. Eli stood in shock before finally coming back to reality.
"Syntha! Try to use leech seed! Use vine whip! Use something please!" Eli knew he was hosed. He couldn't send Growlithe into the water, due to the fact that Growlithe would also drown. Right as Eli was about to face death for the second time in the battle, a tree sapling began to rise out of the water. The tree grew super-fast, and became a large tree. It then receded back onto the water, and a Pokemon took its place. Bulbasaur had risen out of the water. The judge, who had been silent for most of the match, burst out with a boom.
"Basculin is unable to battle! The winner is Growlithe and Bulbasuar and their partner, Eli!" Eli jumped up and down with joy, before going over to greet the gym leaders. Eli was then given the first gym badge, the Hydrox Badge.
"Sweet! We got out first badge! I bet our rival will be jealous. Thanks Oxy, and you're a dick Hydro." With that, Eli triumphantly stormed out of the gym and returned to the Pokemon Center. He handed his Pokemon to Nurse Joy, before going off to take a nice nap. Right before he fell asleep, he thought about what combination of moves Bulbasuar had used to pull off that combination. After thinking about it for a while, he decided that he really didn't care why or how, but he was just happy to have escaped the close calls and get a badge.