Episode 45: The Earth Badge, Part 2

Niko stood at his end of the battlefield as he waited for the judge to return with Giovanni's healed pokémon. Already knowing the gym leader's lineup, he had his first pokéball ready to go. As it turned out, so did Giovanni.

"Dugtrio, go."

"Shellder, I choose you!" Niko commanded, sending out the bivalve pokémon. "Let's start off with a bubblebeam!"

"Dugtrio, use dig and evade the move."

"Wait for it, shellder…" Niko cautioned. Dugtrio then popped up under the water type, launching it into the air. "Now look down and use aurora beam!"

Shellder launched a rainbow-colored beam of energy at its opponent, halting it in its path and it then clamped down on it. Niko then commanded it use bubblebeam to further subdue the pokémon.

"Dugtrio, use slash!" Giovanni said. The mole pokémon responded, slashing at shellder and causing it to release its vice-like grip on it. "Now, use earthquake!"

Shellder fell to the ground just as the earth began to vigorously shake underneath it. It tried to use bubblebeam, but it found difficulty in properly aiming the move. Nevertheless, it endured the attack as Dugtrio used dig once again.

"Wait for it…" Niko said, having previously counted the length of time the attack took to hit before yelling, "Now! Jump into the air and use clamp!" Dugtrio came out of the ground, on time, and felt the bivalve pokémon clamp onto one of its heads. "Now, use aurora beam!"

Shellder unleashed the attack, creating a bright light that emitted from under its shell. It then released its grip and fell off dugtrio, revealing a defeated pokémon.

"Dugtrio is unable to battle, shellder wins! Giovanni will now send out his second pokémon."

"Nidoking, let's go!"

"Shellder, return. You did a great job, buddy," Niko said before pulling out his next pokémon. "Kadabra, you're up!"

"Challenger Niko has substituted his shellder for his kadabra!" The judge declared.

"Let's start off with psybeam!" Niko ordered. Nidoking retaliated with a thunder, which broke the psybeam and proceeded to hit kadabra. However, the psi pokémon teleported out of the way and used psybeam once again, this time landing a direct hit on its opponent.

"Nidoking, use thrash!"

"Stop it with a confusion attack!" Niko demanded. Kadabra attempted to pick up the drill pokémon, only succeeding it moving it about five feet off the ground before breaking its focus—likely to the weight of the pokémon—and crashing it back onto the battlefield. "Alright, let's not use confusion. Psybeam once again!"

"Nidoking, thunder!" Giovanni yelled out. The two attacked collided, creating an explosion of energy. The drill pokémon then rushed forward, tackling kadabra and using thrash up close. It slammed its hands into the psi pokémon several times before picking it up and crashing it into the ground. "Now, use earthquake!"

"Kadabra, teleport on top of nidoking!" Niko commanded as the earth began to shake. Kadabra reappeared grabbing onto nidoking's neck. It then brought its two hands together around its opponent's neck and released a close-range psybeam, launching it backwards and causing the drill pokémon to fall forward.

"Nidoking, get up and use thunder once again!" Giovanni screamed out.

"Kadabra, use confusion and stop the thunder!"

The psychic type's eyes began to glow as it used every ounce of energy left in it to lift the ground type into the air, releasing a psybeam as it crashed nidoking back onto the ground.

"Nidoking is unable to battle, kadabra wins! Giovanni will now use his third pokémon!"

"Persian, let's go!"

"Kadabra, be weary of this one. It's pretty fast," Niko cautioned to his now exhausted psychic pokémon. Kadabra turned to its trainer, nodded and gave a thumbs up before using psybeam.

"Dodge and use double team!" Giovanni commanded. The classy cat then created multiple copies of itself and surrounded kadabra. "Slash!"

As the dozen copies of persian rushed at kadabra, the latter teleported away, using successive psybeams after reappearing. It eventually caught the original copy and used confusion to lift it into the air and toss it against the wall beneath the stands. However, kadabra was exhausted from the fighting, and collapsed onto one knee before enduring a slash attack from persian.

"Kadabra, you got this, use psybeam up close!"

Kadabra mustered one final psybeam before succumbing to a series of fury swipes from the normal type.

"Kadabra is unable to battle, persian wins! Niko will send out his next pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Pidgeotto, let's go!" Niko commanded as he summoned his flying type. "Right out of the door, let's use quick wing attack!"

"Double team, persian!"

"Halt the move, pidgeotto," Niko commanded as the bird pokémon stopped in mid-air. "Use gust instead!"

The flying type flapped its wings aggressively in an attempt to eliminate the copies. It succeeded, and then dove to use wing attack on the rest of them. It eventually hit persian, but also felt the classy cat's claw stab it in the wing, causing the flying type to crash into the ground. Persian then used fury swipes, only to be slapped in the face by pidgeotto's wing as it got back up and used sand attack, kicking the particles of dirt into the cat's eyes.

"Screech!" Giovanni screamed out.

The shockingly loud noise pieced pidgeotto's eardrums as it tried to get away, only to be slashed at—albeit surprisingly well—by persian. Pidgeotto endured the attack and proceeded to fly back into the air. Taking advantage of the partially blind normal type, it then used quick wing attack, crashing into its opponent and coming out successful. Persian then used screech continuously, making it difficult for the bird pokémon to control its movements. The flying type took a dive-bomb into the ground, only to be slashed at by the classy cat, who had now gotten most of the dirt out of its eyes.

"Pidgeotto, use sand attack once more!" Niko commanded.

"Persian, double team!" Giovanni said as the classy cat surrounded pidgeotto. The latter managed to blind one of the copies, but it didn't help much with another dozen had perfect vision and were rushing at it with sharp claws.

"Fly into the air and use gust once again!" Pidgeotto shot into the air and, with some energy still in it, blasted the copies with a powerful gust of wind, defeating some of them and repeating its first strategy by dive-bombing the others with wing attack. It eventually slammed into the real persian, knocking its glowing white wing into the classy cat's neck and sliding it across the battlefield. Persian collapsed onto the ground in the aftermath of the attack.

"Persian is unable to battle, pidgeotto wins! Giovanni will now send out his fourth pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Nidoqueen, you're up. Use thunder!"

"Use gust to kick up sand and protect yourself!" Niko said on the fly, impressing even himself with the sudden countermove. However, it didn't help too much, as pidgeotto still felt the electric shock, albeit much weaker than it would have been otherwise.

"Nidoqueen, use poison sting!" Giovanni yelled out. The drill pokémon then unleashed a series of small purple beams from its horn right at pidgeotto. The bird pokémon flew into the air to dodge the move successfully, and proceeded to go into for a quick wing attack. The attack successfully landed, slamming into nidoqueen and managing to push it backwards a few feet.

However, before pidgeotto could escape, Giovanni commanded his pokémon to use mega punch, and nidoqueen's glowing fist brought the bird pokémon crashing into the battlefield.

"Finish it off with thunder!"

"Pidgeotto, dodge it!" Niko screamed out. It was too late—the attack hit and defeated pidgeotto.

"Pidgeotto is unable to battle, nidoqueen wins! Niko will now send out his next pokémon."

"Hitmonchan, let's go!" The challenger commanded, sending out his fighting type. "Let's give them a taste of their own medicine! Use mega punch!"

"Nidoqueen, use thunder!"

"Absorb the thunder, hitmonchan!"

"What!?" Giovanni, JJ, and Brittany all cried in confusion.

The punching pokémon lifted both of its glowing fists into the air as it took the thunder like a lightning rod, creating a thunderpunch. It then slammed its gloves into the ground, eliminating the attack.

"Heh, wondered if that would work…" Niko laughed nervously. Hitmonchan turned to its trainer and smiled with a mixture of eagerness and determination. "Alright, let's get serious now. Use comet punch!"

"Nidoqueen, use poison sting!"

"Block the attack with comet punch!" Niko demanded. Hitmonchan obeyed, and aggressively punched the poison attack as it slowly approached its opponent. Eventually the attack ended, and nidoqueen responded with its own mega punch. Niko commanded hitmonchan to switch to mega punch, and the attack collided, both pokémon not giving in. The sheer power of their combined moves caused the ground to cave in a little, creating a small crater beneath the two opponents.

"Nidoqueen here's our chance! Use thunder!"

"Hitmonchan, comet punch!" Niko demanded. As nidoqueen released its punch to unleash a powerful electric attack, it was suddenly punched repeatedly in the stomach by hitmonchan, who refused to give in and endured the attack.

Nidoqueen stepped backwards, clutching its stomach as hitmonchan then proceeded to use firepunch to uppercut its opponent. The ground type fell backwards, but it was far from defeated.

"Nidoqueen, use double kick!" Giovanni commanded. The drill pokémon placed one hand on the ground and it swiped at hitmonchan with its foot, causing the punching pokémon to lose its balance and collapse onto the ground. "Now, use thunder!"

"Hitmonchan, get up and use mega punch one more time!" Niko commanded and, before the thunder launched, the fighting type rushed at its opponent, its fist glowing white, and landed a final mega punch into the ground type. Nidoqueen fell backwards, not able to get up a second time.

"Nidoqueen is unable to battle, hitmonchan wins! Giovanni will now send out his final pokémon!"

"Wow! Niko is doing really good!" JJ mentioned in awe.

"Yeah, but Giovanni's rhydon is pretty powerful, and Niko has a damaged hitmonchan and shellder. Both of them alone won't be able to take down rhydon, not even with an advantage," Brittany responded, having paid close attention to the ground type's battling style during Fay's match.

Fay nodded in agreement. "Brittany's right, although I think Niko can pull it off. He usually does in these situations. He can be a surprisingly resilient trainer when he wants to be."

"Hitmonchan, let's give it all we've got! Use comet punch on rhydon!" Niko commanded.

"Rhydon, catch it off balance with earthquake."

The punching pokémon, with relatively weak lower-body strength, collapsed onto the shaking ground as its opponent proceeded to pummel it with a rock slide. The fighting type managed to use comet punch to break several of the rocks, but took significant damage from the rest. After the earthquake subsided, hitmonchan got right back up and rushed in to use comet punch once more.

"Niko, you aren't listening. Rhydon can't be beaten with close-range attacks!" Giovanni yelled out. "Use rock slide once more!"

"Break the rocks, hitmonchan!" Niko commanded. The punching pokémon successfully repelled the rock type move this time, finally able to rush in and use comet punch. However, rhydon was far more powerful than the already damaged hitmonchan, and used fury attack to ultimately defeat the fighting type.

"Hitmonchan is unable to battle, rhydon wins! Niko will now send out his next pokémon!"

"Shellder, let's go buddy!" Niko yelled out, summoning the bivalve pokémon. "You think you got some fight left in you?"

"Der! Shellder!" The water type eagerly responded. Niko smiled, pleased with the fighting spirit of his pokémon.

"Great, then let's use aurora beam!"

"Rhydon, use earthquake!" Giovanni commanded. Shellder was then sent flying into the air by the aggressively shaking ground underneath it. It released the rainbow-color energy beam, but ultimately missed. Giovanni then followed up with a fury attack, but Niko had other plans.

"Use clamp on its horn!" The challenger yelled out.

Shellder was successful in latching onto the drill pokémon. It then used bubblebeam, dealing significant damage to rhydon. The drill pokémon attempted to reach up and grab shellder, but the bivalve pokémon refused to release itself, instead continuing to use bubblebeam.

"You leave us with no choice, then. Rhydon, use horn drill!"

Rhydon's horn began to glow white. It then released the attack, successfully hitting shellder and launching it into the ceiling like a rocket. The water type then fell to the ground, succumbing to the damage from the KO move.

"Shellder is unable to battle, rhydon wins! Niko will now send out his final pokémon!"

"Ivysaur, I choose you!"

"Rhydon, let's waste no time. Use rock slide!"

"Retaliate with razor leaf, ivysaur!" Niko commanded. His starter pokémon then unleashed a torrent of powerfully sharp green leaves that, while not breaking the rocks, managed to collide with them and slow them down enough for them to crash in front of the seed pokémon. Ivysaur then retaliated with a stun spore that successfully hit rhydon, paralyzing its movements momentarily. "Now's our chance, use razor leaf again!"

"Endure it, rhydon. We can handle this," Giovanni assured his strongest pokémon. "Use earthquake!"

The earth began to shake vigorously, knocking ivysaur off its balance and onto the ground. It was luckily able to get up using its vines to push it on its left side, propelling it up and to the right and back on its feet. The seed pokémon then proceeded to use razor leaf at the rhydon, pushing the drill pokémon backwards a few feet.

"Ivysaur, rush in and use stun spore!"

"Not so fast, Niko. Rhydon, rock slide!"

"Ivysaur, use vine whip and grab the rocks! Throw them to the side," Niko commanded. The seed pokémon did as it was told, throwing rocks to the wayside as it gained ground on its opponent.

The grass type eventually reached its opponent and quickly unleashed a stun spore, quickly paralyzing the rock type and slowing its movements. Niko then issued his final command.

"IVYSAUR, RAZOR LEAF AT FULL POWER!" Niko screamed out as him and ivysaur became one entity in their last gym match. For a moment, he could feel the force of the leaves releasing from ivysaur's body as they crashed into the paralyzed rhydon. The leaves continued even once rhydon regained its ability to move. The drill pokémon unleashed an earthquake, which ivysaur and Niko seemed to ignore. Eventually, the rock type bent down to use horn drill in a final attempt to defeat its opponent, but ivysaur halted the razor leaf and slapped rhydon with vine whip, causing it to crash into the ground.

"Rhydon is unable to battle, ivysaur wins! And the victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!"

"Ivysaur, we did it!" Niko ran over and tackled his starter pokémon to the ground. The grass type looked exhausted, but smiled warmly at the idea of making his trainer so happy. "We did it, buddy. I'm so proud of you."

Niko got up off the ground and dusted off his jeans as he watched Fay, JJ, and Brittany walk over to him. Brittany embraced him in a hug and JJ and Fay patted him on the back. Niko did the same for his fellow gym challenger.

Moments later, the half human, half robot Giovanni lumbered over to Fay and Niko, holding two badges in his two palms.

"I may no longer be Team Rocket's boss, but I still enjoy battling. I may be quarantined to this gym under arrest for the rest of my life, but I love being a gym leader. Thank you both for the battles. I and my pokémon thoroughly enjoyed them. Here, the earth badge. You two have earned them," The gym leader explained in his normal raspy voice.

Niko and Fay took the badges, looked at each other, and back at Giovanni. They thanked him, and began to head back to the pokémon center.

"Hey, kids," Giovanni yelled out. His two former challengers turned back to him. "How many badges do you have now?"

"We both have eight," Fay responded.

"Ah, I see. Well, I wish you the best of luck in the Indigo League. If your battles today are an indication of anything, then you will both go far. I can tell."

"Thank you, Giovanni. That means a lot," Niko replied before walking off with his friends.

Back at the pokémon center, the group healed up their teams before going out to a restaurant to celebrate Fay and Niko's respective victories. That day would be for resting and celebration. The next day, the two would began the arduous task of preparing for the pokémon league, which would test both of the trainer's mettle in ways they haven't yet imagined.