A few hours later, Ash walked into the Cerulean gym. Brock had stayed at the Pokèmon Center to look after Pikachu and flirt with Nurse Joy, but Sabrina had already made her way to the stands to watch the match. When Ash walked onto the field, he immediately noticed the difference between Brock's field and this gym leader. Brock's had simply been rocky earth, while this field was made up of several islands protruding from a pool. There were two podiums for the trainers to stand, and an elevating room where the referee could watch from, allowing him to see on the islands and under the water. Ash stepped up to his podium and gasped. Standing at the gym leader's podium was the girl from the pond.
"You?" Ash said.
"Yeah, I'm the Gym Leader. I wanted to check out if you were worth my time. Sorry about the whole Gyarados thing, I took care of it after you left, but you had that thing in a frenzy. It took me forever to calm it down," she said.
"For your information, that Gyarados injured my Pikachu, and it's still at the Pokèmon Center recovering!" Ash shouted angrily.
"Look, I'm sorry for what happened to your Pikachu, and I'll make it up to you for this battle by not using Wooper. So this will be a two-on-two battle. Got that ref? We're using section 26, clause 7." she said. The referee, although confused, nodded.
"Okay then. This will be a two-on-two battle between the gym leader Misty Waterflower and the challenger…" The referee said, then looked at Ash.
"Ash Ketchum. From Pallet Town," Ash said. The referee nodded and stepped into his chamber.
"Battle begin!" he yelled over the speakers. Misty grinned.
"You may have beaten Wooper at the lake, but I'm not done yet!" she said, "go, Starmie!" Ash grimaced. He had heard about Starmie's Ice Beam attack from a trainer on the other side of Mount Moon, and was not looking forward to trying to overpower it without Pikachu's Electro Ball.
"Go, Butterfree!" He called. He threw out the Butterfly Pokèmon's Pokèball. Butterfree appeared and soared into the air. Now, use Energy Ball! Ash called.
"Ice Beam! Misty countered. Both Pokèmon launched their attacks, causing a large explosion as the Ice Beam broke through the Energy Ball and struck Butterfree. Butterfree was thrown into the water, and just barely managed to crawl out. Its wings were soaked.
"Butterfree! Return!" Ash called. Butterfree was sucked back into its Pokèball. Ash held it in front of him.
"Dry your wings. I'll need you again," he said before returning it to his belt.
Ash closed his eyes and considered his options. He could feel his Pokèmon's hope and determination, and could even feel Pikachu's sorrow for his absence. He grabbed a Pokèball off of his Belt.
"It's up to you," Ash said, throwing the Pokèball onto the battlefield, "Go, Nidorino!". In a flash of light, Nidorino appeared on the battlefield. Misty laughed.
"Really? Do you not know that my Starmie is a Psychic type? It'll make quick work of a Poison Type like Nidorino," she said. Ash rolled his eyes.
"You've got this, Nidorino, wait for my call!" Ash said. Nidorino nodded. Sabrina sat up in the stands, watching the battle. She wondered what Ash had planned.
"Finish this quickly, Starmie! Use Psychic!"
Nidorino rose into the air, surrounded by a pink aura, and was thrown towards a wall. Ash simply stood there, his eyes closed in concentration. Suddenly, his eyelids flew open.
"Now, Nidorino! Jump off the wall and use Sucker Punch!" he shouted. Nidorino grinned and flipped, launching itself off of the wall, gaining enough speed to break free of the Psychic attack and hit Starmie with the powerful Dark Type attack. Starmie was thrown against the back wall.
"Quick, follow up with Supersonic!" Ash called. Nidorino shot a high-pitched wave of sound at Starmie, confusing it. Starmie began attacking at random, slamming into platforms on the watery field, hurting itself in the process.
"Dive into the water and recover!" Misty ordered. Starmie focused for a few seconds and managed to get itself in the water, where it simply stayed still until its confusion wore off. Ash sighed. Nidorino had no way to reach Starmie.
"Come on, Ash," He muttered to himself, "think.". Suddenly, He gasped. "That's it!" He yelled, "Nidorino! Use Surf!". Nidorino grinned and roared, sending the calm pool waters into a frenzy of waves around him. Starmie was thrown out of the water.
"Use Ice Beam!" Misty called. Starmie shot its Ice Beam at the water, creating a sheet of ice over the water and stopping Nidorino's attack. Ash grinned.
"I'm just getting started, Misty!", he said, "Surf, full power!". The water spiraled out of control underneath the ice, smashing it and slamming the ice and the water into Starmie, knocking it out. Misty smiled.
"Go Gyarados!" she said. Ash gasped as a Gyarados appeared on the field and gave him a powerful glare. On its eye was a scar, right where Pikachu had hit the Gyarados from the lake.
"You caught it? I refuse to battle this thing, it injured my Pokémon, not to mention its power level must be far above the limit compared to my own!" Ash said. Misty grinned.
"I thought you might say that, but a pre-battle clause is in effect. The rules state that if a gym leader has previously battled the challenger outside of the gym, leading to a Pokemon being unable to recover in time for the battle, the battle can be considered a part of the official Gym Battle, and any Pokemon knocked out cannot be used, as well as making any Pokemon who participated officially locked into the 3-Pokémon Limit. I didn't get the chance to heal Gyarados, and you agreed that your battle against my Pokémon at the lake counted, it is officially part of the Gym Battle," Misty said, her voice changing to one of mocking. She had gotten exactly what she wanted.
Ash growled. Misty had planned for this all along! Gyarados had been her Pokémon all along, lying in wait for Ash to defeat Wooper. Then, when he came to battle the gym, she had gotten him to agree to something that allowed her to send in an overpowered Gyarados, allowing her to win the battle!
In the stands, Sabrina glared at the gym leader. She'd heard rumors, and had been worried that she would try something tricky in the gym battle, but even she hadn't realized that the pre-battle clause would allow a gym leader to circumvent the rules that limited a gym leader to using Pokémon that matched their challenger's in power.
"This isn't a fair battle, Misty," he said, "this isn't how a gym leader should battle."
Misty stopped for a second, taken aback by Ash's accusation. She shook her head and returned her focus to the task at hand.
"Use Hyper Beam!" she called. Gyarados growled, and shot a Hydro Pump at Nidorino instead. It fell to the ground, unable to battle.
Misty frowned. "I said Hyper Beam, not Hydro Pump!" She said. Gyarados just growled and rolled its eyes. Ash grinned. He might not have the advantage in power, but he had an idea. He could still win it.
"Go, Butterfree!" he yelled as he threw the Butterfly Pokemon's Pokéball. Butterfree burst into the air and landed in front of Ash. Gyarados growled at Butterfree, before shooting a Dragon Pulse at it.
"Quick, Butterfree, use Energy Ball on the ground!" Ash commanded. Butterfree followed directions and was launched into the air, away from the attack. "Now use Energy Ball on Gyarados! Keep your distance!" He continued. Butterfree began flying around Gyarados, using its small size to maneuver around the Gym at high speed while shooting Energy Ball attacks at it.
Although the attacks didn't do much, they were like Combee stings, adding up into slow damage, and tons of rage. With every dodge, Gyarados was getting more and more aggravated, and that was exactly what Ash wanted.
"Is that all you've got, Gyarados?" Ash called. Gyarados growled. "Go on, attack Butterfree with all your power!" Ash taunted. Gyarados growled even louder and shot a Hyper Beam at Butterfree. Ash grinned.
"Now, Butterfree! Use Confusion to pick up the ice, use it as a mirror!" he commanded. Butterfree quickly obeyed, lifting the crystal-clear ice in front of it. Gyarados' Hyper Beam hit the Ice and was reflected into a wall. As the ice began to crack, Butterfree moved the ice in order to hit Gyarados, sending it flying into the wall, knocked out.
"Gyarados is unable to battle! With that, the winner is Butterfree!" the referee announced from the ref's box.
"I wish I could say that was a good battle, Misty, but it wasn't." Ash said. Misty frowned and simply threw the Cascade Badge to him.
"Get out," she said. Ash walked out of the door to the gym.
"How can somebody like her…" he muttered, "possibly be a gym leader?" By this point, Sabrina was beside him.
"Yeah, I heard about her. She went on a journey to become the best and while she was gone the gym was taken by another trainer. She trained for three years before she finally managed to win it back. By then, she wasn't the same friendly trainer she was when she left," She said. Ash frowned. It made him feel kind of bad for her, but she still had used unfair tactics to try to win. He shook his head.
"Let's go check on Pikachu," he said.
After turning in Nidorino and Butterfree to Chansey for healing, Ash was escorted into a care room, where Pikachu was lying in a bed, awake but obviously very tired.
"The injuries were easy to heal, but Pikachu's suffering from energy exhaustion. It'll take a day or two for it to recover, so it'll need to stay inside a Pokéball for a while." Nurse Joy explained. Ash frowned.
"I was hoping to get out of here as soon as possible," Ash said, "but Pikachu refuses to go into his Pokèball, so we'll have to stay here." Brock and Sabrina nodded.
"Anything to do around here?" Ash asked Brock.
"Well, trainers tend to head north when they stay here. The route right before you reach the bridge is a great training spot, filled with both wild Pokémon and with other trainers," he suggested, "not to mention that the owner of the land, Bill, imports rare foreign Pokemon for analysis, so it's full of rare ones to train against.
"Sounds good," Ash replied, "Next stop: North Cerulean!"
As the three trainers left for their next adventure, Misty watched them leave from the doors to her gym. She considered following them, then shook her head and turned around, returning to her dressing room, borrowed from the water theater next door. She changed out of her swimsuit and back into a yellow dress and white jacket. She sat down at her gym log and filled out the loss to Ash, noting sadly that he was only the third person to challenge the gym in the past two months. Business had been down since she'd gotten her gym back. One hadn't returned after losing to her trick, one had battled her in a rematch and beaten her in a fair competition, and now Ash had beaten her on the first try. If she could only get 4 battles in 2 months, eventually either the city board or the Pokémon Leauge would take notice. She reached into her jacket's pocket and pulled out a locket, staring at it.
"I wish I could say that was a good battle... but it wasn't" Ash's voice echoed in her head. Who was this trainer to tell her how to run a Pokèmon gym? She sat down in a chair in the corner and stared at the locket in her hand. She ran her thumb across the carving on the silver door: a mermaid holding a water lily.
"What do I do, mom?" She asked, slipping the locket back into her pocket as she felt her eyes start to sting.
"What do I do?"