Chapter 3
Tom opened his eyes, but shut them again immediately. The world was spinning, at least from his perspective. Four heads immediately hovered over Tom, realising that he was awake, all speaking at once. "Sea sea dra! Buzzzzz! Marrrrrr!" *How do you feel?* Tom attempted to sit up, but failed miserably, flopping back to the bed halfway. He felt weak, no surprising, after being literally peppered by pin missiles and poison stings. When brought into the pokecentre, Tom's heartbeat had been almost nonexistent, and had Joy not had the proper experience, they might have lost Tom. It had been, and still is nothing short of a miracle that Tom had managed to survive over a hundred jabs from a beedrill swarm, and still survive.
However, Tom remembered none of this, at least not clearly; everything was still murky for him. The room seemed to be spinning, an unpleasant feeling to say the least. Electabuzz helped Tom up to a sitting position, and started jabbering away. Kadabra made electabuzz slow down, and started to translate. *After you fainted, we managed to drive off the beedrill. Electabuzz, the only one strong and fast enough to carry you, took you here. Magmar would have carried you, except that in his newly evolved form, you would melt in his arms -- literally.*
Tom interrupted the pokemon at this point. "Yeah, ok. Its pretty easy to figure out the rest. How long have I been under?" *Approximately...* Once again, Kadabra was rudely stopped by a teenager sticking his head into the hospital room. "Angus! Come over here!" The other trainer grinned, and walked over. "I heard about your little ah...." Angus paused, searching for the right word; one that would be very offensive, "*incident*. How are you... oh nevermind, you look pretty fine. Anyway, what I came here to do is to inform you about a new rule. The council for the Azure League recently passed a rule permitting trainers to carry eight pokemon with them at any one time; something about giving battles more challenge or something."
Tom's eyes expanded to the size of saucers. An increase of two pokemon, although sounds little, is a 33% raise, and this allows for a *HUGE* increase of strategy in battling. He groaned. As if he didn't have enough problems already, pokemon training has just gotten harder.
"Hey wait a minute, how come you're here to tell me this? Why didn't the guy just call me?
Angus reddened, embarrassed for "the guy". "Well... He sort of lost your number... but managed to get a location fix through your pokegear. Since I was the closest one, I was chosen."
"Oh well, never mind that. So how are the others doing? How many badges have they earned? And you might as well tell me how you're doing while you're at it."
"Er... I haven't started collecting the badges yet. I plan to train some more, besides, I don't want to make a fool of myself by only having two pokemon or something when the gym leader requests a three on three battle."
Now it was Tom's turn to be embarrassed, as he remembered how close he was to losing the badge. "Oh... that's nice to hear. So how many pokemon have you caught? What's your current lineup?"
Angus frowned. "To answer your first question, I have not heard from the others, but most of them are not doing very well. My lineup... currently is Scyther, Sneasel, Chinchou, Natu, and Eevee." Tom's ears perked up at the last pokemon. Eevees were rare, and were great for any team, since you could choose from five evolutions, as well as its basic form. To have one was a great boon; if you were lacking a particular type, you could evolve it, and immediately have one of that type at your disposal. Tom announced his four pokemon, surprising Angus with their evolved forms. "Wow, you've got quite a good bunch there. And the final evolutions of your pokemon are sure powerful. Oh well, I'd better be getting on. See ya some other time!" With a final wave, Angus left.
***
Tom stood tall, just outside the hospital, and stretched. *It feels good to be out of that stuffy old room.* A few more day after the incident with the beedrill, Tom had been let out. *Better get down to training, like Angus. I'm really gona need it for the next gym.*
***
A few months passed quickly, and Tom had been training all this while. None of his pokemon has evolved again, and he hadn't caught any; not that there wasn't any pokemon in the immediate vicinity, but there wasn't any that Tom thought "worthy". That is, there wasn't any that was of a type that Tom didn't have already, or that the pokemon were just far too weak to provide a challenge to his current pokemon.
Tom continued hiking, eager to get to the next gym, the flying gym. On the pokegear map, it was just a few, closely bunched together contour lines, but in reality, it was much more difficult to scale. A mountain three kilometres up from sea level, and the gym was at the very top. A rather adequate place for birds. Tom had heard of a gym in the Orange League that was also located at the top of a mountain, and the gym leader only battled challengers who were courageous enough to scale the mountain. Yet, this peak was far higher than that of the orange islands, and it was second only to the mountain on which the Azure League was held. Tom climbed on.
***
Tom looked at the massive building ahead of him. The afternoon sun shone, making the construction appear even more magnificent. Words fail to describe the ivory-like exterior, and the only real clue as to the building's importance was the carving of a huge pidgeot in mid-flight, beak open, claws curved, and wings spread wide. Tom had arrived at the plateau only a few hours earlier. The time had been spent healing his pokemon and letting them get used to the high altitude and thin air. Only a few hundred metres up, the peak of the mountain towered over them. The area was foggy, and the gym leader's pokemon no doubt gained an advantage in this field, through knowing the arena layout.
Tom took a deep breath, uttered a silent prayer to Articuno, and stepped in. Surprisingly, the atmosphere didn't change at all in the gym. The reason soon became apparent. The gym had no roof; the arena was circular, with a light padding of snow. This last feature, apart from being ornamental, also served to make the gym floors slippery. Tom grimaced; even the gym was constructed to suit the gym leader's type, and he or she would obviously make full use of that.
A teen with purplish hair came over to Tom. "Greetings, I am Falkner Jr., the gym leader. You are very good to have beaten Janet, but you shall find your battle here more... challenging." The boy spoke with a dry, raspy tone, sounding as if he had a sore throat. "My father is the gym leader of a certain Violet city Gym in the Johto League, and I have adopted some of his gym's *special* characteristics. Tom frowned, "How did you know about my victory at the grass gym?" "We gym leaders keep in touch; as you should have found out by now, the gym battles here are far harder than those in the other leagues, and thus, we manage to inform one another of any challengers that are very skilled, at least compared to the other trainers." Tom blushed at this comment, remembering how close the victory was, remembering the bellsprout.
"It shall be a two on two battle, no time limit, every where within the gym, including the sky above and underground, may be used. Any use of items is prohibited."
Both teens took their positions, Falkner calm, but Tom far more nervous.
"Go!" In a white flash, a noctowl and a kadabra appeared. Tom cursed aloud at the gym leader's choice. Noctowl were known to have psychic abilities, even though they were not of the type. Falkner must have had remarkably good hearing, since he chuckled, and ordered "You know what to do!" Tom grew even more nervous, remembering the bellsprout that needed no commands. The noctowl came swoopping down, silent, with deadly intent and accuracy, using a takedown attack right from the start. The fog obscured both kadabra and Tom's sight a moment later. *Kadabra, put up an barrier, and teleport away.* Kadabra nodded slightly, summoning a near invisible barrier ahead of it, and disappeared in a flash. The fog cleared up, to reveal the noctowl heading straight for kadabra. Correction, heading for where it thought kadabra was. Unfazed in the least at kadabra's disappearance, noctowl shattered the barrier upon impact, glanced around the arena, its eyes glowing red, and flew off again, just in the nick of time to avoid the purple psybeam headed its way. *Darn, it can see through the fog! Kadabra, sense its movements, and charge up a psychic. When its charged up, teleport behind it and release it.* A dull glow radiated through the fog, but Tom wasn't really worried. Kadabra would know to teleport if need be.
Falkner, however was really worried at how Tom wasn't shouting commands at his pokemon. He came to two possible conclusions, either Tom was psychic, or his pokemon was even better trained than he expected.
The glow suddenly stopped, and reappeared in another spot, and started travelling upwards at an amazing pace. Falkner smiled. The glow didn't stop, travelling upwards without hitting anything. A sudden, forceful movement cleared up the fog, enough for Tom to see what was happening. Noctowl had Kadabra trapped, and was pecking him furiously, giving him no chance to retaliate or to teleport. Grimacing, kadabra put its spoons together, and unleashed a huge psybeam at a range of two centimetres. Squawking, noctowl was blown up, this time propelling by something other than its wings. It struggled to regain its balance, twisting and turning in mid-air, flapping the wings. It was still disoriented as kadabra, not bothering to stand up, hastily charged up a psychic, and let it loose. The pale yellow mass of psychic energy slammed into the noctowl, weakening it massively but not fainting it. *Damn! Just how powerful is that thing! Alright, kadabra, a confusion. End this.* Kadabra closed his eyes, the in mid air, noctowl, in the middle of a now controlled dive, glowed blue also, and started to twist around, no longer in control of its own flight. It slammed into the ground, and didn't get up. Before Tom could feel the elation of having the advantage, kadabra collapsed also, the pecks taking their toll on the psychic pokemon, making it unable even to muster the energy to use a recover.
Suddenly downcast, Tom returned Kadabra, and sent out electabuzz. Falkner, however, was mildly surprising, but still grinning. A pidgeot materialised opposite the striped pokemon. It was huge, and Tom realised that the carving outside was probably based on this pokemon, except that it was smaller. The *carving* was smaller. Shivering, Tom tried to remember that he had the type advantage this time, and ordered a thunderbolt. Electabuzz was fast, but pidgeot was far faster, lifting off the ground and dashing away using its agility before the yellow bolt even travelled half the distance. The attack dissipated, hitting the ground, melting the snow, which it touched.
"Quick attack!" Both pokemon prepared the same attack, but after a couple of seconds, electabuzz was seen a dozen metres from where it was, and pidgeot flying away. No, pidgeot was gliding away, almost casually. Electabuzz had a little difficulty in standing up, after the impact from the giant bird.
It was at this time that a fat drop of water fell on Tom. Frowning, Tom glanced up. Dark clouds where gathering; a thunderstorm was on its way. Caught up in the intensity of the battle, neither of them had noticed the sky turned dark, partly due to the huge spotlights trained on the arena.
Falkner looked worried, and with good reason. Not only would the rain slow down its movement, the sky had just become a lot more dangerous. Plus, the storm could, if a lightning bolt hit electabuzz, charge it up again. The tides had turned.
Tom smiled, thinking the same thing. "Thunder!", he cried, pointing upwards. Electabuzz, chest heaving from the last confrontation, was momentarily confused, but he got it soon. Raising his hands, he then clapped his palms together symbolically. A huge lightning bolt zigzagged from the sky, hitting the bird of prey square on its head. Falkner flinched, probably feeling the pain from the attack as well. Still, he didn't give any commands, and there wasn't anything that he could do anyway. What Zapdos conjured, no human could stop.
Tom felt sorry for the bird, but was relieved as well. *The pidgeot is much too fast even for electabuzz to catch up with, but it can't dodge what is faster than it.* The bird crashed down into the snow, and struggled to get up from the rapidly forming pool of water. The rain was now pelting down, literally coming in sheets. Tom and Falkner, partially protected by a over-head shelter, was not drenched -- yet. *That bird is sure strong, still able to get up after that thunder attack hit it on its head...* "Alright, give it a thunderbolt!" Breathing hard from the exertion of summoning such a strong attack, electabuzz nevertheless released the strong attack, this time just letting it flow through the water to its opponent. Overhead, a bone-shattering clap of thunder rumbled, as pidgeot cried out at the attack. However, pidgeot was still struggling, much to the amazement of even Falkner, its trainer. "Thunderpunch! Finish it!" Mustering the last of his strength, the electric pokemon's fist crackled dangerously with the voltage it contained, and it charged, crossing the distance between the two pokemon with reckless speed, trying desperately to reach the giant bird before it could fly away.
Under normal circumstances, pidgeot would have lifted off long ago, but now, its wings heavily weigh down by water, and weakened by the two strong blasts of electricity, it was close to fainting. The yellow fist crashed into the great bird, and with a final cry, both pokemon collapsed. Only electabuzz got up again.
Two long beams retrieved the two pokemon, and the two trainers rushed over to the pokecentre next door to get some shelter from the rain. Even though they were dashing, both managed to get thoroughly drenched. "Here." Falkner held out a badge that looked liked a dragonair's wing, and a pokeball, a great ball, to be precise. Tom was about to reject the offerings, when Falkner spoke again.
"Take them; you have defeated me, after all, it was a brilliant brainwave to make use of the storm the way you did. Have no qualms about the situation. After all, its only fair, since I am the one that made sure the gym was open-air, with no roof. Since my pokemon benefited from it, there isn't any reason why yours shouldn't. Take it!" Falkner's tone left no room for argument.
Tom managed a tight grin, took the two items, and shook Falkner's outstretched hand firmly. "Oh, and by the way, what is in this greatball?"
Falkner laughed. "That's a pokemon that I think you will have no trouble managing. I have a couple of full-grown ones, but this one was chased out of the nest by its parents, since it was too weak. Take good care of it." Tom accepted the pokemon, still in the dark as to the species inside, but shrugged, knowing that he would find out very soon. "Oh yes, would you like a ride down the mountain? That's one of the services I provide to anyone that has beaten me."
"No thanks, I want to climb it myself. But any information that you're willing to disclose about the next gym would be greatly appreciated."
"Ha! Somehow, I expected no less from a trainer of your skill. Oh well, the next gym is the fire gym. its located rather close to a volcano. You should know, just look at your pokegear. Just a word of caution. Don't be careless, even if you have many water or rock pokemon." With a wave, Falkner retreated to a room in the pokecentre, presumably to change. Tom stared after him, shuddering at the memory of the battle. Had the storm not arrived, all would have been lost; even with the storm, the victory was close. Getting up, gave the nurse his five pokemon to heal, and headed to the bunks provided for trainers. *I'll find out what pokemon it is tomorrow...* Tom drifted off to sleep.
***
Tom woke up bright and early, surprised at the change of weather from last night. He was standing outside the pokecentre, to allow room for whatever pokemon that might emerge from his newly acquired ball. With a prayer that this pokemon would help in the next gym, Tom threw the ball.
Tom opened his eyes, but shut them again immediately. The world was spinning, at least from his perspective. Four heads immediately hovered over Tom, realising that he was awake, all speaking at once. "Sea sea dra! Buzzzzz! Marrrrrr!" *How do you feel?* Tom attempted to sit up, but failed miserably, flopping back to the bed halfway. He felt weak, no surprising, after being literally peppered by pin missiles and poison stings. When brought into the pokecentre, Tom's heartbeat had been almost nonexistent, and had Joy not had the proper experience, they might have lost Tom. It had been, and still is nothing short of a miracle that Tom had managed to survive over a hundred jabs from a beedrill swarm, and still survive.
However, Tom remembered none of this, at least not clearly; everything was still murky for him. The room seemed to be spinning, an unpleasant feeling to say the least. Electabuzz helped Tom up to a sitting position, and started jabbering away. Kadabra made electabuzz slow down, and started to translate. *After you fainted, we managed to drive off the beedrill. Electabuzz, the only one strong and fast enough to carry you, took you here. Magmar would have carried you, except that in his newly evolved form, you would melt in his arms -- literally.*
Tom interrupted the pokemon at this point. "Yeah, ok. Its pretty easy to figure out the rest. How long have I been under?" *Approximately...* Once again, Kadabra was rudely stopped by a teenager sticking his head into the hospital room. "Angus! Come over here!" The other trainer grinned, and walked over. "I heard about your little ah...." Angus paused, searching for the right word; one that would be very offensive, "*incident*. How are you... oh nevermind, you look pretty fine. Anyway, what I came here to do is to inform you about a new rule. The council for the Azure League recently passed a rule permitting trainers to carry eight pokemon with them at any one time; something about giving battles more challenge or something."
Tom's eyes expanded to the size of saucers. An increase of two pokemon, although sounds little, is a 33% raise, and this allows for a *HUGE* increase of strategy in battling. He groaned. As if he didn't have enough problems already, pokemon training has just gotten harder.
"Hey wait a minute, how come you're here to tell me this? Why didn't the guy just call me?
Angus reddened, embarrassed for "the guy". "Well... He sort of lost your number... but managed to get a location fix through your pokegear. Since I was the closest one, I was chosen."
"Oh well, never mind that. So how are the others doing? How many badges have they earned? And you might as well tell me how you're doing while you're at it."
"Er... I haven't started collecting the badges yet. I plan to train some more, besides, I don't want to make a fool of myself by only having two pokemon or something when the gym leader requests a three on three battle."
Now it was Tom's turn to be embarrassed, as he remembered how close he was to losing the badge. "Oh... that's nice to hear. So how many pokemon have you caught? What's your current lineup?"
Angus frowned. "To answer your first question, I have not heard from the others, but most of them are not doing very well. My lineup... currently is Scyther, Sneasel, Chinchou, Natu, and Eevee." Tom's ears perked up at the last pokemon. Eevees were rare, and were great for any team, since you could choose from five evolutions, as well as its basic form. To have one was a great boon; if you were lacking a particular type, you could evolve it, and immediately have one of that type at your disposal. Tom announced his four pokemon, surprising Angus with their evolved forms. "Wow, you've got quite a good bunch there. And the final evolutions of your pokemon are sure powerful. Oh well, I'd better be getting on. See ya some other time!" With a final wave, Angus left.
***
Tom stood tall, just outside the hospital, and stretched. *It feels good to be out of that stuffy old room.* A few more day after the incident with the beedrill, Tom had been let out. *Better get down to training, like Angus. I'm really gona need it for the next gym.*
***
A few months passed quickly, and Tom had been training all this while. None of his pokemon has evolved again, and he hadn't caught any; not that there wasn't any pokemon in the immediate vicinity, but there wasn't any that Tom thought "worthy". That is, there wasn't any that was of a type that Tom didn't have already, or that the pokemon were just far too weak to provide a challenge to his current pokemon.
Tom continued hiking, eager to get to the next gym, the flying gym. On the pokegear map, it was just a few, closely bunched together contour lines, but in reality, it was much more difficult to scale. A mountain three kilometres up from sea level, and the gym was at the very top. A rather adequate place for birds. Tom had heard of a gym in the Orange League that was also located at the top of a mountain, and the gym leader only battled challengers who were courageous enough to scale the mountain. Yet, this peak was far higher than that of the orange islands, and it was second only to the mountain on which the Azure League was held. Tom climbed on.
***
Tom looked at the massive building ahead of him. The afternoon sun shone, making the construction appear even more magnificent. Words fail to describe the ivory-like exterior, and the only real clue as to the building's importance was the carving of a huge pidgeot in mid-flight, beak open, claws curved, and wings spread wide. Tom had arrived at the plateau only a few hours earlier. The time had been spent healing his pokemon and letting them get used to the high altitude and thin air. Only a few hundred metres up, the peak of the mountain towered over them. The area was foggy, and the gym leader's pokemon no doubt gained an advantage in this field, through knowing the arena layout.
Tom took a deep breath, uttered a silent prayer to Articuno, and stepped in. Surprisingly, the atmosphere didn't change at all in the gym. The reason soon became apparent. The gym had no roof; the arena was circular, with a light padding of snow. This last feature, apart from being ornamental, also served to make the gym floors slippery. Tom grimaced; even the gym was constructed to suit the gym leader's type, and he or she would obviously make full use of that.
A teen with purplish hair came over to Tom. "Greetings, I am Falkner Jr., the gym leader. You are very good to have beaten Janet, but you shall find your battle here more... challenging." The boy spoke with a dry, raspy tone, sounding as if he had a sore throat. "My father is the gym leader of a certain Violet city Gym in the Johto League, and I have adopted some of his gym's *special* characteristics. Tom frowned, "How did you know about my victory at the grass gym?" "We gym leaders keep in touch; as you should have found out by now, the gym battles here are far harder than those in the other leagues, and thus, we manage to inform one another of any challengers that are very skilled, at least compared to the other trainers." Tom blushed at this comment, remembering how close the victory was, remembering the bellsprout.
"It shall be a two on two battle, no time limit, every where within the gym, including the sky above and underground, may be used. Any use of items is prohibited."
Both teens took their positions, Falkner calm, but Tom far more nervous.
"Go!" In a white flash, a noctowl and a kadabra appeared. Tom cursed aloud at the gym leader's choice. Noctowl were known to have psychic abilities, even though they were not of the type. Falkner must have had remarkably good hearing, since he chuckled, and ordered "You know what to do!" Tom grew even more nervous, remembering the bellsprout that needed no commands. The noctowl came swoopping down, silent, with deadly intent and accuracy, using a takedown attack right from the start. The fog obscured both kadabra and Tom's sight a moment later. *Kadabra, put up an barrier, and teleport away.* Kadabra nodded slightly, summoning a near invisible barrier ahead of it, and disappeared in a flash. The fog cleared up, to reveal the noctowl heading straight for kadabra. Correction, heading for where it thought kadabra was. Unfazed in the least at kadabra's disappearance, noctowl shattered the barrier upon impact, glanced around the arena, its eyes glowing red, and flew off again, just in the nick of time to avoid the purple psybeam headed its way. *Darn, it can see through the fog! Kadabra, sense its movements, and charge up a psychic. When its charged up, teleport behind it and release it.* A dull glow radiated through the fog, but Tom wasn't really worried. Kadabra would know to teleport if need be.
Falkner, however was really worried at how Tom wasn't shouting commands at his pokemon. He came to two possible conclusions, either Tom was psychic, or his pokemon was even better trained than he expected.
The glow suddenly stopped, and reappeared in another spot, and started travelling upwards at an amazing pace. Falkner smiled. The glow didn't stop, travelling upwards without hitting anything. A sudden, forceful movement cleared up the fog, enough for Tom to see what was happening. Noctowl had Kadabra trapped, and was pecking him furiously, giving him no chance to retaliate or to teleport. Grimacing, kadabra put its spoons together, and unleashed a huge psybeam at a range of two centimetres. Squawking, noctowl was blown up, this time propelling by something other than its wings. It struggled to regain its balance, twisting and turning in mid-air, flapping the wings. It was still disoriented as kadabra, not bothering to stand up, hastily charged up a psychic, and let it loose. The pale yellow mass of psychic energy slammed into the noctowl, weakening it massively but not fainting it. *Damn! Just how powerful is that thing! Alright, kadabra, a confusion. End this.* Kadabra closed his eyes, the in mid air, noctowl, in the middle of a now controlled dive, glowed blue also, and started to twist around, no longer in control of its own flight. It slammed into the ground, and didn't get up. Before Tom could feel the elation of having the advantage, kadabra collapsed also, the pecks taking their toll on the psychic pokemon, making it unable even to muster the energy to use a recover.
Suddenly downcast, Tom returned Kadabra, and sent out electabuzz. Falkner, however, was mildly surprising, but still grinning. A pidgeot materialised opposite the striped pokemon. It was huge, and Tom realised that the carving outside was probably based on this pokemon, except that it was smaller. The *carving* was smaller. Shivering, Tom tried to remember that he had the type advantage this time, and ordered a thunderbolt. Electabuzz was fast, but pidgeot was far faster, lifting off the ground and dashing away using its agility before the yellow bolt even travelled half the distance. The attack dissipated, hitting the ground, melting the snow, which it touched.
"Quick attack!" Both pokemon prepared the same attack, but after a couple of seconds, electabuzz was seen a dozen metres from where it was, and pidgeot flying away. No, pidgeot was gliding away, almost casually. Electabuzz had a little difficulty in standing up, after the impact from the giant bird.
It was at this time that a fat drop of water fell on Tom. Frowning, Tom glanced up. Dark clouds where gathering; a thunderstorm was on its way. Caught up in the intensity of the battle, neither of them had noticed the sky turned dark, partly due to the huge spotlights trained on the arena.
Falkner looked worried, and with good reason. Not only would the rain slow down its movement, the sky had just become a lot more dangerous. Plus, the storm could, if a lightning bolt hit electabuzz, charge it up again. The tides had turned.
Tom smiled, thinking the same thing. "Thunder!", he cried, pointing upwards. Electabuzz, chest heaving from the last confrontation, was momentarily confused, but he got it soon. Raising his hands, he then clapped his palms together symbolically. A huge lightning bolt zigzagged from the sky, hitting the bird of prey square on its head. Falkner flinched, probably feeling the pain from the attack as well. Still, he didn't give any commands, and there wasn't anything that he could do anyway. What Zapdos conjured, no human could stop.
Tom felt sorry for the bird, but was relieved as well. *The pidgeot is much too fast even for electabuzz to catch up with, but it can't dodge what is faster than it.* The bird crashed down into the snow, and struggled to get up from the rapidly forming pool of water. The rain was now pelting down, literally coming in sheets. Tom and Falkner, partially protected by a over-head shelter, was not drenched -- yet. *That bird is sure strong, still able to get up after that thunder attack hit it on its head...* "Alright, give it a thunderbolt!" Breathing hard from the exertion of summoning such a strong attack, electabuzz nevertheless released the strong attack, this time just letting it flow through the water to its opponent. Overhead, a bone-shattering clap of thunder rumbled, as pidgeot cried out at the attack. However, pidgeot was still struggling, much to the amazement of even Falkner, its trainer. "Thunderpunch! Finish it!" Mustering the last of his strength, the electric pokemon's fist crackled dangerously with the voltage it contained, and it charged, crossing the distance between the two pokemon with reckless speed, trying desperately to reach the giant bird before it could fly away.
Under normal circumstances, pidgeot would have lifted off long ago, but now, its wings heavily weigh down by water, and weakened by the two strong blasts of electricity, it was close to fainting. The yellow fist crashed into the great bird, and with a final cry, both pokemon collapsed. Only electabuzz got up again.
Two long beams retrieved the two pokemon, and the two trainers rushed over to the pokecentre next door to get some shelter from the rain. Even though they were dashing, both managed to get thoroughly drenched. "Here." Falkner held out a badge that looked liked a dragonair's wing, and a pokeball, a great ball, to be precise. Tom was about to reject the offerings, when Falkner spoke again.
"Take them; you have defeated me, after all, it was a brilliant brainwave to make use of the storm the way you did. Have no qualms about the situation. After all, its only fair, since I am the one that made sure the gym was open-air, with no roof. Since my pokemon benefited from it, there isn't any reason why yours shouldn't. Take it!" Falkner's tone left no room for argument.
Tom managed a tight grin, took the two items, and shook Falkner's outstretched hand firmly. "Oh, and by the way, what is in this greatball?"
Falkner laughed. "That's a pokemon that I think you will have no trouble managing. I have a couple of full-grown ones, but this one was chased out of the nest by its parents, since it was too weak. Take good care of it." Tom accepted the pokemon, still in the dark as to the species inside, but shrugged, knowing that he would find out very soon. "Oh yes, would you like a ride down the mountain? That's one of the services I provide to anyone that has beaten me."
"No thanks, I want to climb it myself. But any information that you're willing to disclose about the next gym would be greatly appreciated."
"Ha! Somehow, I expected no less from a trainer of your skill. Oh well, the next gym is the fire gym. its located rather close to a volcano. You should know, just look at your pokegear. Just a word of caution. Don't be careless, even if you have many water or rock pokemon." With a wave, Falkner retreated to a room in the pokecentre, presumably to change. Tom stared after him, shuddering at the memory of the battle. Had the storm not arrived, all would have been lost; even with the storm, the victory was close. Getting up, gave the nurse his five pokemon to heal, and headed to the bunks provided for trainers. *I'll find out what pokemon it is tomorrow...* Tom drifted off to sleep.
***
Tom woke up bright and early, surprised at the change of weather from last night. He was standing outside the pokecentre, to allow room for whatever pokemon that might emerge from his newly acquired ball. With a prayer that this pokemon would help in the next gym, Tom threw the ball.