Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. I could, maybe, if i had a couple billion (possibly a trillion) dollars.

A/N: Hey, I think its been like a month, time for a new chapter! (wrote that in November!) :) By the way, didn't anyone get the Dragon sneeze reference? At least Pichufan acknowledged my author note on it.

Cassie

Once Nathan and I got up off the floor, the three of us led the Police to the newly expanded forest clearing where I'd defeated the Tyranitar. Not surprisingly, the pair of Grunts had regained consciousness. Riley untied them from the tree, then the officers quickly handcuffed them. As Officer Jenny's subordinates escorted the Rockets away, she asked us if we knew anything useful about Team Rocket.

"We know that they have a hideout somewhere in Dark Cave." I told her. "We were kidnapped when we tried to enter the city about a week ago, but we escaped, which is why all the Rockets showed up." I left it at that so we could keep our abilities secret. "However, we have no idea how to get back there. The way out we took is impassible now."

"Thanks for the help," Jenny said as we began to walk back to Violet City. "By the way, do you three know anything about this?" She pointed to the damaged trees around the clearing.

"That happened when we battle the Rocket Grunts," Nathan explained, "A Tyranitar using Hyper Beam." Jenny nodded that she understood.

Once we reached the City once again, Officer Jenny and the other police officers split off from us, and went back to the police station. "So, where to now?" I asked Riley.

Riley

"So, where to now?" Cassie asked me.

I replied that I was not sure. We could try to go back to our normal journeying, possibly splitting up in the process. I explained this possibility to both Cassie and Nathan.

"Somehow, I feel out fates are kind of, you know, intertwined or something," Nathan responded with appropriate hand motions, "Let's not split up. Can we stay together? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!"

"I'm fine with sticking together, what about you Cassie?" I asked.

"Why not? This way is safer anyway." She affirmed.

"Well, then let's get going to the Violet Gym." I led the way as we crossed the street, passed the Pokémon Center, and reached the Gym. It was a fairly short, round tower with a battle field on the top, so as to give maximum advantage to the Gym Leader's Flying Pokémon. Various Pidgeys and other flying Pokemon were flying around the tower. They probably belonged to some of the lesser trainers in the gym.

As we approached, the automatic doors opened, well, automatically. This time, Nathan went inside first, fearing another confrontation with the Rockets. Luckily, the doors didn't slam shut after he went in, so Cassie and I walked on in. The lobby was fairly plain, there was a waiting area off to the left. Across the room from the doors, a large insignia with a likeness of the Zephyr Badge covered the wall. As we entered the lobby, a blue haired man came out from a door off to the right.

"Are you three challengers to this Gym?" Blue-hair said. When I nodded, he continued. "I'm Falkner, the Violet City Gym leader. Which of you three would like to battle me first?"

"I'll go first," I replied.

"No wait, could we do a triple battle? I've heard of people doing 3 on 3 battles over in the Unova region. If we win, we each get a badge. Is that OK?" Nathan interrupted.

"Seems okay to me," Falkner answered.

Falkner turned around a began to walk back the way he had come. We followed him through the door and up an elevator. At the top, we went up a separate staircase from Falkner and emerged on opposite sides of the roof. We took our place on the battle field, and the battle began.

He threw out a pair of Pidgeottos, and a Dodrio. We each threw out our starter Pokémon. Nathan began having a freak out about Hoopla again, but Cassie quickly slapped her hand over his mouth. "No...just no." I whispered as she shook her head.

"Crock, use Water Gun on the far left Pidgeotto!" I yelled to start the battle. Crock quickly hit it with water, scoring a successful hit. Cassie ordered Chikorita to tackle the other one, and Nathan had Hoopla prepare an Ember attack.

Suddenly, Dodrio came out of nowhere and hit Chikorita before it could attack. "Yikes, that thing is fast!" I said to myself.

"Nothing can beat Hoopla's ember!" Nathan called to me. Hoopla shot his ember straight at the wet Pidgeotto, which was trying to shake of the water so it could take flight again.

"Wait!" I tried to warn him, but i was too late. Chikorita was trying to get away from the Dodrio and ran right in the way of Ember. Instantly, Chikorita's head leaf caught fire. It continued to dodge, keeping the Dodrio busy, while continuing to try putting out the flames. Cassie turned and started yelling at Nathan, while Nathan blamed her pokémon for getting in the way. I quickly told Crock to gently put out the flames. Once they stopped yelling I noticed something, "Hey guys...where did the other Pidgeotto go?"

Two seconds later, I found out. It came hurtling out of the sky and slammed into Crock, sending him flying a few feet. At my command, Crock jumped up and tackled it back before it could take flight again. Chikorita was hit again by Dodrio, while the other Pidgeotto finally took off. "Nathan, quick! we need a smokescreen!" His Hoopla obliged, covering the middle of the field with a thick black smoke. Chikorita and Dodrio were inside, along with Crock and his opponent.

"Chikorita, use Razor Leaf on Dodrio!" Cassie yelled. The Dodrio fell out of the smoke looking a bit dazed and tired, as it had been running and attacking constantly since the beginning. Chikorita and Crock came running out of the smoke just behind, followed by both Pidgeottos.

"Use Tackle on a Pidgeotto!" All three of us called simultaneously. Hoopla hit one, while Crock and Chikorita slammed into the other, knocking both out. Now we just had Dodrio to worry about.

Our Pokémon were beginning to tire out, so Nathan offered to have Hoopla finish the battle one on one.

Hoopla and Dodrio squared off in the middle, Hoopla leering at the freakish ostrich, while Dodrio's three heads argued over which one would get to peck first. "Use Quick attack!" Nathan called. His Cyndaquil looked back at him with a questioning look. Nathan sighed, "Guess your not level 13 yet. Fine, we'll just use smokescreen again! It worked well last time."

Smoke billowed out of Hoopla's mouth, creating a bigger smoke cloud than before. Dodrio tried to avoid it, but found itself caught in the middle. "Go get him Hoopla! Tackle!" Nathan exclaimed as Hoopla delved into the smoke. There was a sickening thwack, and it came flying back out. Dodrio ran out seconds later and jumped on top of and pecked Hoopla again as it lay on the ground. Hoopla gave a weak cry.

Without needing instructions, Chikorita and Crock used Razor Leaf and Water Gun, respectively, to get the big bird off Hoopla. They were able to knock it off its feet. The injured fire type rose to its feet. It limped over to the fallen bird, not ready to give up yet. Dodrio was rising to its feet as Hoopla neared it. "Hoopla, finish it! Use Ember!" Nathan announced. Hoopla shot its little flame darts right in the center head's face. The middle head fell unconscious, bringing the other heads into unconsciousness as well.

Falkner sighed in defeat. He returned his Pokémon and began to walk across the battlefield. We returned our tuckered out pokémon, then turned to face Falkner as he approached. "You guys might be able fight pretty well together, once you get the hang of it. In fact, you three could probably convince the Pokémon League to let you compete at all the Gyms in triple battles." He pulled three badges from his pocket. "And now, I present the three of you with your Zephyr badges." He handed each of us a silver piece of metal shaped like a pair of wings pointing down.

"Thanks a lot!" Nathan replied as he received his badge. We each put our badges in our cases, thanked Falkner for the battle and then went down the stairs and out of the Gym.

A/N: Well, that only took 4 months. I'm really sorry for how long this one took, I've been distracted with school, mostly the science fair. Also, this was delayed a few weeks because of Syaoran1224, who I asked to write the battle for me, but he never got past the first attack. Hopefully, I'll be able to update more often after this. (I'm gonna start Chapter 11 right after I put this up.)