Woah, I can't remember writing a chapter this long in a while, but it's the first time I've written a decent battle in ages, so I just sort of got carried away. And I didn't really want to put this battle into two halves, seeing as I haven't written one in a while. Oh well.
Hope you like it :)


Chapter 48

The group arrived at Waneral the next morning (after camping under the cover of some trees) and their first stop was of course, the Pokecentre.

"But I want to go see the river! I mean it's going to be all watery and blue and I mean look at the weather, it's really hot so we could just like, jump in the pool!" Hayley whined as they trudged through the town to the centre.

"Hayley, I am so close to tying rocks to your feet and throwing you into the river," Kaleb said wearily. She hadn't shut up about the large river all day, and the group was growing tired of hearing about it,

"Why are you so interested in the river anyway?" Sarah asked. She would have thought the City of Dust would have intrigued her more, what with it being so steeped in history and her love of ground pokemon.

"Why am I..? Do you guys know anything? This, my friends, is the very first river that Kyogre ever swam in!" she gasped, her eyes wide with astonishment. The others laughed at her ludicrous idea.

"You just made that up didn't you?" Seth laughed,

"No, no I didn't, my little brother told me," she insisted,
"And how old is your brother?" Sarah asked,

"Well, he was four at the time," she said, counting on her fingers.

"And you believed him?"

"Of course I did, he's full of great stuff like that! For example, did you know that that little island called Greensand actually has green sand! I'm going to have to visit there one day!" Hayley beamed. Kaleb and Sarah laughed even harder,
"Hayley, we grew up on Greensand! It has not got green sand! That's like saying they call my village Woodham because the trees are made out of ham!" Sarah told her, astounded at how gullible Hayley was.

"Really? Oh, that must be why he laughs whenever I mention anything he's told me," Hayley looked crestfallen, but quickly perked up and said,

"But it's okay, I still want to see the river," she smiled. Sarah shot a glance at Kaleb and they both started sniggering again as they entered the pokecentre.


"While you're at the river, I'm going to the gym," Sarah said, as the other three made their way towards the riverbank.

"Now?" Seth asked, looking up,

"Nah, I just said that so I could run away," Sarah shot back sarcastically. She still didn't know whether she liked Seth or not, and the frustration it gave her meant she kept snapping at him whenever he spoke to her.

"Woah, sorry. I was just gonna say I'll join you but it doesn't matter if you're being like that," he scowled at her. He couldn't believe she was being so cold towards him, not after he'd opened up to her, told her what she wanted to know. It was more than he'd told anyone, but she didn't seem to appreciate that.

"I'll go," Kaleb smirked. He was the only one who was outwardly happy with the whole situation (apart from Hayley, but more often than not, she was off in her own little world). The fact that Sarah didn't seem happy with Seth only seemed to fortify his dislike with him, and he was pleased that Seth was not trusted at all anymore. There was just something about him that seemed off.

Sarah didn't fall for it though, as much as she liked Kaleb, she hated the fact he was taking advantage of her frustration with Seth.

"No. I don't need any of you there," Sarah said shortly then walked off, leaving them both there, staring after her.

As she walked through the doors to the gym, the first thing she noticed was the light dancing on the ceiling, reflected from the large body of water that was running through the middle of the room. After looking around, Sarah realised that the gym was actually built over the river, with the waters raging through the room, with the river banks sprouting foliage. It was basically four walls and a ceiling placed over a section of land.

"Hey! Are you here to challenge us?" a woman in her early twenties shouted, jumping off a platform and running over. Her long brown hair swept out behind her and she had a warm smile.

"Um.. Yeah, but what do you mean by us?" Sarah asked, looking around for another person.

"Oh! Well, me and my fiance are a tag team," she beamed.

"A... A tag team?" Sarah asked. As the woman in front of her nodded, Sarah groaned; she should have let one of the others join her-if she had to have a partner then she may aswell leave now. As she turned to go, the leader pulled her back.

"Hey, where are you going?" the lady asked,

"I don't have anyone to battle with,"

The woman let out a tinkling laugh,

"You don't need a partner, you just send out two pokemon at a time,"

"Ohhh, that's okay then," Sarah smiled.

"Right. Um... So are you ready?"

Sarah nodded,

"Okay, one minute. WILL, GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF THE WATER, WE HAVE A CHALLENGER!" she bellowed behind her, making Sarah jump. The surface of the water broke and a man, about the same age as the woman, swam to the bank and pulled himself up.

"Great, my pokemon haven't had a good excersise today," he smiled.

"Right, just stand over on the other side of the river-you can use that bridge if you like," the woman said. When she got to where she was supposed to stand, Sarah looked over at the pair of gym leaders, standing at the other side of the water.

"Okay. Introductions, introductions..." the man mumbled, scratching his head as if trying to remember something. The woman hit him playfully,
"Stop acting stupid! Anyway," she turned to Sarah, "I am Courtney, lover of all water types-and this is Will. He likes swimming," Courtney smiled. Sarah tried not to laugh, out of all the gym leaders-these two seemed like the funniest.

"And you are?" Will asked,

"Sarah,"

"Ready? Okay, let's BATTLE!"

With a flash of red light, a Floatzel and a Kingler appeared , standing on the bank. Sarah thought for a moment-the obvious choice was of course Zen, but who else?

"Okay Air, Zen, let's do this!" Sarah smiled, letting loose her Pidgeotto and Jolteon.

"Blitz, use ice fang!" Courtney yelled, and the Floatzel leapt into action. In one fluid movement, it jumped over the river and sunk its teeth into Air, who had been caught off guard.

"Zen, thundershock!" Sarah ordered. The Jolteon aimed a jolt of energy at the weasel pokemon, but it twisted out of the way, throwing Air into the oncoming bolt of energy and with a cry of pain, she hit the floor. After two super effective attacks, she was feeling pretty beat up, when a scuttling noise caught Sarah's attention; the Kingler was scuttling over to the bank and scraping up some mud to fling at Zen,

"Zen watch out!" Sarah cried. Just in time, Zen slipped out of the way, running upstream out of the way.

"Use thundershock on that Kingler, Air return!" Sarah said. She wasn't going to let her get any worse. The only choice that left her with was Blue-Mars and Arcane wouldn't stand a chance. An indignant bark made her look down, her Growlithe was wanting to join the fight,

"Arcane no, they are water pokemon. I'm going to send out Blue," Sarah spoke as if she was talking to a small child. She threw Blue's pokeball and her Wartortle appeared, chuckling for some reason.

"Blue, take out that Kingler, Zen you focus on the Floatzel," Sarah ordered, eyeing up the opponents uneasily. They seemed pretty tough. Blue looked at the Kingler that was advancing on him and immediately stopped laughing. It looked scary.

"Blue, use bite," he heard his trainer say. Grinning to bear his pointy little teeth, he leapt at the pokemon and bit down onto its pincer. In return, he felt a stinging pressure cracking down onto his shell. With a yelp, he withdrew into his shell and used rapid spin in an attempt to escape. The Kingler dropped the spinning Wartortle in shock and Blue landed in the river.

Zen was staring down the Floatzel, it's fangs were bared in an evil grin.

"Blitz, use crunch!" Courtney shouted, and once again, the Floatzel all but flew over the grass and came down upon Zen, but the Jolteon was wise to it's tricks and sent a thundershock straight down it's throat. It jumped back, glaring at the Jolteon.

"Blitz, physical attacks are out of the question-use sonic boom," Courtney advised her pokemon. Blitz nodded and sent a destructive shock wave at the Jolteon, making her wince with the pain.

"Use swift, it's stronger," Will interruped,

"Right. Blitz use swift!" Courtney smiled, there was no possible way to escape that move.

Blue was struggling with his fight, the Kingler had him in a vice grip, slowly crushing him-he could feel his shell about to crack at any minute and his water attacks were proving futile to stop it. Suddenly, a new pain cut into him, as hundreds of razor sharp stars tore into him and the Kingler holding him. The crab pokemon dropped Blue as the stars ravaged his shell and Blue quickly swam over to the bank, pulling himself up to get next to Zen. Together they stood, staring at their opponents, eyes wide with anticipation, waiting to see what happened next.

Will and Courtney did the same, conversing as to what their next move would be. Sarah stood nervously, unsure of to attack or wait it out. Suddenly, the two gym leaders shouted out their commands and both of the pokemon charged at Blue, who shrieked and withdrew into his shell just as the jaws of the Floatzel and the Kinglers pincers closed around it. Zen let out a furious growl and flew at the nearest foe, but with a swift tail flick from Blitz, she was flung into the river. By the time she dragged herself to land, Blue had fainted. The two pokemon turned their attention to the startled Jolteon. Just as they were about to attack, an angry growl from behind made them turn. Arcane stood there, head down and hackles raised, ready for the fight. Blitz smirked and ran swiftly towards the Growlithe, water jets at the ready, but Arcane was prepared; jumping up he swivelled in mid air and chomped down on the Floatzel's whirring tail. The weasel pokemon let out a scream of pain and shot a jet of water at Arcane, blasting him backwards. He let out a ferocious roar and charged recklessly at Blitz, flinging himself off the ground and slamming into the Floatzel with as much power as he could muster. Blitz was thrown backwards by the force and Arcane thudded painfully to the ground.
"Arcane did you just use... You just learned take down," Sarah smiled at her furry friend and he grinned back before quickly turning to the battle once again.

Zen was getting angry. She hated the way those two pokemon had teamed up on Blue to take him down so cruelly. The poor guy didn't stand a chance. She narrowed her almond eyes at the approaching Kingler; he was going to pay for what he did. She walked calmly towards it, daring it to attack. The Kingler was put off by this, it wasn't used to pokemon waiting for an attack. Will didn't seem to have a problem though, he hadn't learned the lesson Courtney had and ordered the Kingler to use vicegrip. As soon as the pincers made contact, she let loose her fury in the form of a terrifyingly powerful electric shock, knocking it out cold. She let out a huge sigh of relief and started to relax again, when a flash of red light revealed a new foe for her to fight.

Arcane ran to bite at the Floatzel, revelling in the fact he was getting one over on a water pokemon, when a sudden blast of water from it sent him reeling. The Floatzel then bounced up and used his tail to bat Arcane into the river. Not wanting to give up, he sunk his teeth into the Floatzel's floatation sack and brought it down into the water, shaking his head violently to try and do as much damage as he could. After a few minutes, neither pokemon emerged and Will had to pause the match, dive in and retrieve the pokemon, both fainted. Sarah took a deep breath. It was Mars' turn. Her first big battle. And she was still much weaker than the rest of the team. And it was against a pair of water specialists. Great.

Zen looked up at the Cloyster in front of her, then saw a flash of red light. Turning slightly, she saw Mars on the battefield and felt her stomach drop. She couldn't let her get hurt. Another flash of red light caught her eye and she saw the woman let out her other pokemon, a Gorebyss which landed gracefully in the water. She glanced back and forth between all of the pokemon. She knew for a fact that Mars wouldn't stand a chance, she also knew that it would be tough for her to defeat them both while trying to keep the Diglett safe. With a glance at the river, she realised what she must do.

Her paws padded silently on the grass as she took a few steps backwards then, with all of her speed she ran at the the Cloyster, the momentum sending them both barrelling into the water. When she was in the water, along with the two other pokemon, she let loose another powerful shock, the water amplifying it ten fold with crackling intensity. Zen then pulled herself ashore, panting heavily and standing protectively over Mars, ready for any attack that may come. After a few moments without any sign of life, Zen closed her eyes in relief, then turned to walk back to Sarah. As she did so however, the huge Cloyster rose from the water and shot an aurora beam straight at the Jolteon, knocking her to the ground, struggling to get back up. Mars instantly went into attack mode, outraged with the Cloyster, it summoned it's earth power, making the ground underneath the oversized clam erupt with power. It was sent rocketing to the other side of the river where it lay at Will's feet out cold. A sudden light filled the room, blinding everyone. Then it faded, revealing a Dugtrio, a look of victory plastered over her three faces.

Will and Courtney returned their fainted pokemon while Sarah ran to Zen and Mars, pulling them into hugs and praising them over and over again.

"I love you guys so much," she whispered.

When she got up, it was to see the two gym leaders standing over her, beaming.

"You sure earned this one kiddo," Will said,

"Yep. You're a great trainer," Courtney smiled.

Sarah looked down at her pokemon.

"No, I've just got great pokemon," she grinned.


Becoming The Best