Hi everyone. Thanks for all of the reviews, they're quite motivating. Special thanks to pikachu0311, who has been quite faithful By the way, if I don't mention a specific POV, just assume its Ryan's.

Now, what you have (hopefully) been waiting for:

Chapter 7: Finally, the Gym Battle!

I woke in my tent outside of Rustboro City. The morning went by rather uneventfully, and Liz and I then began to head to Rustboro. Riley and Ethan, though, had to go a separate way.

"Well, we are now going to head directly to the Rusturf Tunnel." Said Riley. "So I guess this is goodbye for now."

"Aww, that stinks." Said Liz. "You won't get to watch Ryan's battle!"

"Yes, I am sorry for that." Said Riley. "But I wish you the best of luck!"

Ethan spoke up: "Hey Ryan, if Cyndaquil ever leans aura sphere, make sure to let us know!"

I laughed. They were really nice. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll see you guys soon enough to tell you!"

And so both parties went our separate ways. Liz and I began to head to the Pokemon Center.

~(0'-'0)~

As always, we went to room 13, but this time there was a surprise waiting for us.

Nobody was there.

We went to Nurse Joy. After healing our pokemon, we began to ask where Uncle Ash was…

"Hello there! Welcome to the Pokemon Center! Would you like to heal your pokemon?"

Liz and I sweat-dropped and went outside. We were amazed by what we saw.

Uncle Ash, standing on one side of the practice field, seeming to be focusing extremely hard.

"Sceptile, dodge and hit him with a leaf blade!"

"Watch out, Electivire!"

The shouter of the command, on the other side of the field, was none other than my dad.

"DAD!" I shouted. He didn't even notice me. I could tell their rivalry, although now friendly, was still as strong as ever.

"Electivire, now hit it with thunder!"

"Sceptile, solar beam!"

The two beams of blinding light met in the center of the arena. Liz and I stood astounded by the sheer power of the two attacks.

When the light went away, both pokemon lay fainted on the ground.

"Rats, another tie!" said Ash with a smile on his face. Both adults shook hands and returned their pokemon.

"DAD!" I said, and this time he finally noticed me. He smiled broadly and ran over to me and hugged me.

"Hey Ryan! It's been a while, hasn't it! How has the beginning of your journey been?"

"It's been awesome! I have so much to tell you!"

"I'm sure you do! Let's talk about it inside!" said my dad. All four of us headed to room 13.

~(0'-'0)~

Once there, my dad and I caught up on everything that had happened. I told him about my pokemon, and the fun times I had with Liz. At that point he gave me an "I'll need a little more information on that" look.

He told me about his adventures as the new member of the Sinnoh Elite Four, as Bertha had retired.

"Man, dad, that battle was so cool! You and Ash are both so strong!"

Ash and my father both laughed.

"Well, I think both of us definitely have helped each other reach the point we're at now." said Ash, scratching the back of his head.

I wanted more details. "Wait, was that just a one-on-one battle, or did you guys have a full battle that we just didn't see?"

My dad said "It was a three-on-three battle. I used my Aggron, Froslass, and of course, my Electivire."

"Ash butted in. It was funny how they still competed. "I used my Pikachu, Dewott, and Sceptile!"

"Wow, it sounds like it was an awesome battle." said Liz.

I just realized something. "Hey, dad? Not that I'm not super happy you're here, but why exactly are you here?"

My dad laughed. "Well, Ash here told me that you were starting your journey, and were already about to have your first gym battle! I couldn't miss that, now could I?"

"Oh yeah, speaking of that, I'm gonna go win my first gym badge!"

~(0'-'0)~

All four of us stood in front of Rustboro City Gym.

My dad was looking calm, and fairly confident. Ash had a big smile on his face, perhaps reliving memories of his battle here. Liz looked a little uncomfortable, shifting from foot to foot. I was trying to emulate my dad as much as possible, but I was really nervous.

Finally, Ash spoke up. "Let's go inside, shall we?"

Liz followed him as he walked in. My dad, however, kept me back for a while.

He put his hand on my shoulder, "Now Ryan, I don't want you to be scared for this gym battle." He said. "I have complete confidence that you'll do great. From what I've seen, you have natural talent. You remind me a lot of Ash when he was first starting out. Now I want you to go in there and do your best! Understand?"

I was really happy. My dad was never a very "emotional" guy, so this was pretty unusual for him, "I understand, dad!"

We both smiled and headed into the gym.

~(0'-'0)~

I was staning on one side of the field. Liz, Ash, and my dad were all sitting in the bleachers, and the battle was about to begin. Rocky stood on the other side of the field.

Rocky was a young man, probably about 16, and you could tell he had a passion for the outdoors. He was wearing hiking shorts, a big backpack on his shoulders, and had skin that was tan from many days in the sun. He wore a friendly, but almost mischievous smile on his face. His hair was brown, and down to about his neck, and he had brown eyes.

His mother, Roxanne, was standing halfway down the field. The semblance between her and her son was striking, but it was obvious she didn't spend as much time outdoors. She wore a fancy grayish blue dress, and had her hair in a ponytail down the back. She was pale skinned, and had very similar facial features to her son.

"This will be a three-on-three battle, between the challenger, Ryan, and the gym leader, Rocky. Substitutions are allowed only for the challenger. Let te match begin!" said Rocky in an authoritative voice.

"I'm not going to lose to some rookie trainer! Go, Nosepass!" said Rocky.

"Hmmm, cocky." I said under my breath. "Alright then, let's go, Eevee!"

Eevee came out of his pokeball, determined as ever to win this for me.

I smiled, "You first. I insist." I looked at Rocky's eyes, trying to see if I could phase him a litte. He flinched.

"Ummm, alright then, Nosepass, use magnet rise!"

Nosepass began to levitate in the air. Unfortunately, it may be harder for Eevee to hit it now.

"Now, Nosepass, use rockslide!" said Rocky, looking smug.

"Eevee, use double team to duplicate yourself! Dodge it!"

Eevee made about twenty copies of himself, and all of them quickly began running around, dodging the large falling rocks with great agility.

"Alright, now hit Nosepass with a shadow ball!" I said.

All of the Eevees leapt into action, creating a glowing purple ball in between their paws. They fired them at Nosepass.

Although most of them were fake, they all looked the same to Nosepass, and there was no good way to tell which one was right.

"Nosepass, dodge!"

Nosepass looked around, panicked, and could not move. He was struck by the real one, and fell to the ground.

Hard.

Nosepass is unable to battle. The winner of the first round is the challenger, Ryan!" said Roxanne. At least she wasn't biased towards her son, who was silently fuming as he chose his next pokemon.

He took out a pokemon,"Go, Cradily!"

A creepy looking rock/grass type came out of the pokeball. I couldn't even tell where it's face was. I was giving me the heebie-jeebies.

"Eevee, can you keep going?" The little ball of white fluff nodded back at me.

"Great, let's go first! Quick attack!"

"Cradily, use ingrain."

Cradily began plunging its roots into the soil. When Eevee hit it, it hardly moved from it's spot.

"Hmmmm." I mumble.

"Now Cradily, use sunny day, and follow it up with solar beam! Keep 'em coming!"

"Dodge them, Eevee!"

Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

"What an interesting but effective tactic." Said Paul, "Using ingrain, sunny day, and solar beam, Rocky has essentially created a stationary turret. It never runs out of ammunition. It will just be able to keep firing. And Eevee is getting tired.

Ash and Liz looked to the field. Sure enough, Eevee, looked like it was petering out. Finally, it got hit with a solarbeam, and fainted.

Back to the battle…

"Return, Eevee! Good job!"

I thought for a second, and had an idea.

"Alright, go Cyndaquil!"

Rocky looked taken aback that I chose that pokemon, but he just smirked, "Keep it up, Cradily."

"Cyndaquil, use flame wheel to dodge, then get close and burn Cradily's roots off!"

Cyndaquil did as he was told, forming a tight ball and whizzing around the field, and then did a searing circle around Cradily.

"Craaaddilyy!" it cried, in obvious pain.

"Now use swift, Cyndaquil!"

But Cyndaquil had a different agenda. He began creating a glowing, white-blue sphere in between his hands. It got bigger and bigger, until he eventually flipped round and fired it at his enemy.

Cradily fell to the ground.

"Cradily is unable to battle! The winner of round two is the challenger, Ryan!" said Roxanne, once again showing no emotion.

"You did it Cyndaquil!" He ran up and hugged me, "You learned aura sphere! That was amazing! But you seem pretty tired. I want you to take a rest now, ok?"

Cyndaquil nodded and went into his pokeball.

Rocky, on the other hand, took out his last pokeball.

"Go, Rhydon!"

"Go, Mudkip!"

Oh, shoot….

To be continued…

CLIFF HANGER! Please review!