by Martial Arts Master
The original concept of Pokemon and all related characters copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., 4Kids, TV Tokyo, Satoshi Tajiri, and Wizards of the Coast. All characters I use as Pokewomen are copyrighted by their original creators and owners. I made up Rick and Orville, though. See the first chapter for the rules by which the Pokewomen world operates by. Now, on with the story.
***
In the morning, Rick and all his Pokewomen woke up.
After ordering breakfast at the hotel, and after they all ate breakfast, Rick recalled them and checked out of the hotel.
He was hoping to catch the next ferry to Viridian City. Now that he had all seven of the first badges, he could finally enter the Viridian City Gym.
He was in luck.
As it happened, there was a ferry that was about to leave.
Rick quickly paid for a ride, then climbed aboard the ferry.
The ferry then set off for Viridian City.
When the ferry arrived in Viridian City, Rick quickly got off it.
He rushed towards the gym.
Sure enough, the two guards he'd met just after the beginning of his adventure were still there, guarding the gym.
The guards apparently recognized him, too.
"Hey, kid, you better have seven badges this time, or you're still not going in," the guards both said.
It still completely freaked Rick out that they both talked at exactly the same time.
But he proudly displayed his seven badges.
The guards, thus satisfied, tapped the flat ends of their spears on the floor at the same time.
The door opened, and Rick rushed inside.
Once he got inside, he saw a man sitting on a chair, and the chair was on a platform high above the gym floor.
Rick couldn't see the man's face. For that matter, the rest of him was also hard to make out.
"I am Rick, from Pallet Town, and I challenge you to a match!"
"Challenge accepted; I am Giovanni," the man said. "I specialize in the earth. I am the toughest gym leader in the Indigo League."
Rick gulped. The toughest gym leader in the Indigo League...considering how much trouble Rick had before, this wouldn't be easy.
"You will use three Pokewomen; no time limit," the two guards said.
Rick jumped. He hadn't seen them come inside.
Wait a minute...these weren't the same guards.
They wore the same armor, but their faces were different.
"For my first Pokewoman, I select Sadira," Giovanni said, throwing a Poke Ball.
A brown-haired girl dressed in "street rat" clothes popped out.
Rick pointed his Pokedex at the Pokewoman.
The Pokedex said, "Sadira. This is a character from an Earth TV show called Aladdin. She used to be a villainess, but has now reformed. At first she has little control over sand, limited to sand spells, but if she is trained to her very maximum potential, she will eventually gain mastery over all sand."
"I choose Birdie!" Rick said, sending out Birdie.
"Interesting choice," Giovanni said.
Suddenly something slapped Birdie, knocking her to the ground.
Rick then saw a hand made of very densely compacted sand lying on the ground. He figured this was what slapped Birdie.
"What the---I didn't see Sadira cast any spell!" Rick shouted.
"Of course not, I have trained Sadira past that liability," Giovanni said, chuckling. "She has been trained to her very maximum potential. Now she is a master of sand."
Rick remembered the Pokedex's description of Sadira.
No wonder Giovanni was the toughest gym leader in the Indigo League! He trained his Pokewomen so well that they far surpassed the abilities of the Pokewomen belonging to the other gym leaders.
Rick began to sweat profusely. He knew he was in trouble. BIG time.
He resolved that after this match, he'd train his own Pokewomen to the extreme. He'd only devoted a small amount of time to training them during this journey. It was a sheer miracle he had been able to collect the other seven badges.
"Birdie, send some ice shards at Sadira!" Rick said.
Birdie shot some ice shards at Sadira.
There was no movement, but suddenly "snowballs" rained down.
I put snowballs in quotes because the balls were actually made of sand, and very densely compacted sand at that.
Not only did the sand-balls knock the shards out of the air, they also forced Birdie to the ground.
This was incredible. Sadira wasn't even moving. Giovanni must have trained her for a very long time.
"Oh, by the way, out of the three Pokewomen that I have, this is my weakest," Giovanni said, intentionally rubbing it in.
Rick was shocked. So far Sadira was kicking Birdie's (expletive deleted). If Sadira was Giovanni's weakest Pokewomen...then what did that say about Giovanni's other Pokewomen?
Other...other...other...
The word "other" gave Rick an idea. Sadira was relying on other forces, namely sand, to defeat her opponents for her. That probably meant Sadira herself didn't get much exercise. So if Rick or Birdie could trick Sadira into trying to match up physically against Birdie, Sadira wouldn't stand a chance.
"Hey, Sadira, I could make sand castles out of your sand!" Rick shouted.
"What was that?" Sadira asked, confused.
Apparently that wasn't a good insult.
"You're pathetic! I've known stuff at the bottom of my shoes that was smarter than you!" Rick shouted. If he could just make her mad enough, she might be foolish enough to challenge Birdie physically.
"You're making a mistake," Sadira said, getting angry.
"Ooh, I'm SO scared! NOT!" Rick shouted. "You're a coward! You let sand do all your dirty work! What'sa matter, does the little girl not wanna play?"
"That tears it! I'll show you I'm not afraid to fight myself!" Sadira said, rushing at Birdie.
"Don't do it! It's a trick!" Giovanni shouted.
But it was too late.
All Birdie had to do was give one kick to Sadira's head, and Sadira was out like a light.
"Birdie is the winner!" the two guards said.
Giovanni, disgusted, recalled Sadira.
"Sand Card, go," Giovanni said, throwing a Poke Ball.
A girl made entirely out of sand appeared.
Rick pointed his Pokedex at her.
The Pokedex said, "Sand Card. She is from an Earth TV show called Cardcaptors. She not only has the ability to control sand, she also is entirely made up of it. She has only one real weakness, and that is to ice."
Rick smirked, snapping his fingers.
Birdie shot some ice at the Sand Card, instantly freezing her.
"Birdie is the winner!" the two guards said.
Giovanni's eyes widened. That had been an extremely quick victory.
"You idiot! Why'd ya send out a card weak to ice against someone who could use ice?" Rick asked.
"I thought I had trained her enough to beat you, but apparently you trained Birdie better," Giovanni said.
Then he threw a third Poke Ball, saying, "Here's my strongest. Go, Earth Card."
A very familiar-looking girl appeared.
Rick then realized why she was familiar. Brock, the gym leader in Pewter City, had used an Earth Card, too.
Giovanni saw the look of recognition of Rick's face and said, "You probably recognize her because of Brock. I'll have you know that I don't concentrate on wimpy rocks. My Earth Card specializes in ground attacks."
Then the Earth Card suddenly melted into the ground.
Then, the ground violently humped up under Birdie, knocking her down.
But the Earth Card wasn't finished. She did this repeatedly, knocking Birdie around like a rag doll.
Then, before Rick could even say anything, Earth Card imprisoned Birdie in a bubble of earth, and then threw her against the wall.
Then the Earth Card rushed at Birdie, slamming into her.
After that, she slapped Birdie repeatedly with hands made of densely-packed earth.
In short, Birdie was getting her butt kicked.
"Oh my goodness!" Rick said. Now he could see why Giovanni was the toughest gym leader in the Indigo League.
But Rick had an idea. He remembered that the Earth Card's weakness was trees, which the Earth Card couldn't affect.
There were no trees, but maybe he could make one.
"Birdie, fashion some trees out of ice shards!" Rick said.
Birdie complied, throwing millions of ice shards, building trees out of them.
The Earth Card tried to break through, but it was helpless.
"Now, trap her in a black bubble!" Rick shouted, remembering how the Pokedex had told him that was one of Birdie's powers during the incident where he'd tried to catch Birdie.
Birdie motioned with her hands, and the Earth Card was trapped in the bubble.
The Earth Card violently tried to break out, but ended up exhausting herself in the process, and she fainted out of exhaustion.
"Birdie is the winner! The winner of the match is Rick, from Pallet Town!" the two guards said.
Giovanni was stunned, but being the calm man that he was, he quickly regained his composure.
He recalled the Earth Card and threw Rick a leaf-shaped badge.
"That is the Earth Badge," Giovanni said. "You now have all eight badges, so you may enter the Indigo League."
"YES!!!" Rick screamed, recalling Birdie, putting his badge away, and rushing out of the gym.
He planned to go back to Pallet Town to train, for soon he would be on the way to what had a small chance of turning out to be the final step in his adventure...
To be continued...
***
You're probably thinking, "Oh no, not another new trainer fic that the author won't bother to finish!" Well, let me tell you, I hate those kinds of fics too, and let me tell you in advance that I DO plan on finishing this fic. I never start a fic that I don't intend to finish. In fact, if I'm lying about planning to finish the fic, may I get pounded by a madman. E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com.