- 10 -

The gym was silent, as everyone waited for the battle to start. May and Roxanne stood at their separate ends of the arena. She stared at the gym leader, while Roxanne stared right back. 'Geodude is a rock and ground type, isn't it? That means...Groyvle would have an advantage against it?' she thought.

May smiled. She probably wouldn't of even known about type advantages, if Ash hadn't taught her about them in the first place. Looking around, May looked for him near the stands, where the class Roxanne had been lecturing was sitting. Ash was leaning against the railing of the lower benches, arms crossed across his chest with Amber lying sprawled out on top of his head lazily.

When he noticed she was looking at him, Ash gave her a passive smile and nodded. Amber looked down, her tail twitching, having been disturbed. May returned the smile. Roxanne cleared her throat to get May's attention again. Once done, she called out her order: "Geodude, use Mud Sport!"

Geodude nodded to its trainer, and rolled about the arena, flinging up mud. The students all dodged out of the way, using their clipboards and binders to shield themselves as much as possible from the flying mud and dirt. A few of them screamed at the same time.

Ash looked at them, before ducking down under the bleachers to get out of the way. Amber made a face, when some of the mud hit her on the head. "Chuuuu!" she said, rubbing at it.

"You can wash it off later!" he said, smiling at the pokemon, "I wonder why she's having Geodude use Mud Sport though..." He looked out from under the bleachers, and saw that Geodude had rolled to a complete stop in front of Groyvle. He carefully got out from under the bleachers, using the railing to keep from slipping on the muddy floor.

The arena was covered in a thick layer of mud, but the bleachers where relatively clean, even though the occupants weren't so lucky. Some of the mud and dirt had hit them. Amber shook her head, the mud sliding off her fur. "Hey!" Ash laughed, "Not on me will you?!?!"

Amber gave him a small, playful shock. Ash, in surprise, fell over, loosing his grip on the railing. Some of the students looked over at him, eyes widening. He was trying to wipe the mud off, but failing at it. One of the female students whispered to the others, before they started giggling. Amber glared at them.

Roxanne gave her chatting students a warning look, before smirking. Her entire plan with the Mud Sport had been to slow down the Groyvle, and hopefully it would succeed! May looked around at the arena, and at the mud it was caked in. "Groyvle!" she called, "Use Quick Attack!"

Groyvle started to go into a sprint, when it tripped, falling forward. Roxanne smiled triumphantly. 'Groyvle must not be able to gain up speed, since the mud keeps getting stuck to it...' May thought, her eyes widening.

"Geodude, use Tackle," Roxanne said, smirking at May. Geodude charged forward, and slammed into the near immobilized Groyvle. The pokemon didn't fall back from the impact, but still felt the impact of the attack. "Keep it up with your Tackle! Don't let it recover!"

The rock pokemon continued to charge into Groyvle mercilessly, not giving it any time to gain any type of advantage. May watched her pokemon being beat anxiously. She had never been in such a situation, and had no clue on what to do about it.

"May! You need to relax!" Ash yelled, frowning, "Just concentrate! You can find a way out of this one, I know you can!" May looked at him, and nodded. She could always trust him.

Taking a deep breath, May once again looked at the battle. Her first lesson as a trainer came to her mind. "Look at the surrounding area, and use it to your pokemon's advantage," May said quietly, "It is so simple! That's the first thing Ash told me almost..."

She looked at Groyvle, smiling. "Looks like an animal, yet is still a plant-type! SO that would mean..."

Her stance once again turned confident. Groyvle turned to May for an order of some sort. "Groyvle use Absorb on the arena!"

Puzzled, Groyvle nodded. He could trust his trainer and his friend. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the arena, blocking everything else out.

The class gasped quietly, as Groyvle glowed with a faint light green aura. The ground and mud started glowing also, the Gym lit up with the glow. Roxanne stepped back, staring at the pokemon. "What is happening?" she exclaimed, surprise in her voice.

Ash smiled, watching as Groyvle continued to glow along with the arena. Amber peeked at him, ears twitching. "Good girl," he whispered.

Groyvle using Absorb was absorbing all of the water and nutrients from the mud, healing the pokemon. At the same time, it was turning the mud into clay. "Yes! You did it! Great job, Groyvle!" May said.

Opening his eyes, Groyvle looked at his trainer, smirked proudly, and gave her a thumb's-up. Smirking also, May looked at Roxanne. "I most likely wouldn't of thought of that if it hadn't been for what my husband has taught me! Groyvle, use Fury Cutter!"

Charging, the leaves on Groyvle's arms sharpened and took on a shininess. With a cry, Groyvle sped past Geodude, and sliced at the Rock-type pokemon fiercely. Geodude growled in pain, yet was still able to battle. "Rock Throw, Geodude!" Roxanne ordered.

Boulders appeared around Geodude, as he threw them at Groyvle. May stepped to the side, when one nearly hit her. "Use Quick Attack to dodge them!" she said.

Quickening his speed, Groyvle ran out of the way of the flying boulders. Within seconds, he was right in front of Geodude. Roxanne, who was about to yell out an order, was cut off. "Groyvle, finish it off! Absorb!"

Groyvle, grabbing hold of Geodude, sucked the energy out of the Rock-type. Without a sound, Geodude fell over. The attack had knocked it out.

"Geodude is unable to battle! The victory goes to May Ketchum and Groyvle!" the referee declared. Groyvle jumped up and down, before running to May. She swung him around, smiling happily.

"We did it, Groyvle! We did it!" May yelled. Roxanne smiled, and recalled Geodude. Groyvle seemed happy to of helped gain the victory.

"Well done, May." she said, looking at her, "I should of expected this from the wife of the Pokemon Master!"

Both Ash and May turned red in embarrassment from the compliment. The gym leader pulled another poke ball out. "Nosepass, I choose you!"

Out of the pokeball in a flash of red light, Nosepass appeared. Calling Groyvle into his poke ball, May let another pokemon out. "Elena, come out!"

Elena barked, and rubbed up against her leg. May laughed, petting the dog pokemon. "Ok, ok. Now, let's get ready to battle!" she encouraged her pup.

Barking again, Elena trotted out onto the battle field and stood in front of Nosepass confidently. The students murmured quietly amongst themselves, as they quickly jotted down notes. They went silent, curious as to what was going to happen.

At the same time, the magma members watched the battle with rapt interest. That's not too badm for such a scrawny twerp," the woman said, scowling.

Her partner snickered in response. "Not too bad? That woman was great!" he said, "I'm not just talking about her looks either."

"Whatever. When do we make the strike?" she asked, re-crossing her legs. He looked around thoughtfully.

"After the battle is over. When the dust clears out, we can make out move on them. That hot woman and Roxanne's pokemon will be much too weak to resist, while it'll be too quick for Ash to react and stop us!"

"Then, we capture him and make him one of us!" she continued, smiling. Her partner snickered.

"With his connection to Entei and Moltres, we could easily burn out the opposition, and make more land masses for the pokemon here on Earth!"

The woman licked her lips, looking in the direction of Ash. "That, and also having my way with him. I'll show him the full pleasure of being with a real woman like me," she said delightedly.

"Feh...whatever, you can take Ash if you want, just give me his wife! She is hot!" he said, "Heh, heh..."

She rolled her eyes at him. Falling silent again, the two waited as they watched the battle between Elena and Nosepass.

AN: This is chapter 10 I hope you all are enjoying TAT so far! Sadly, I can't update for a while....at least for June. I'm going on vacation, and won't have internet access....so, yeah. I might get back early though! And while on the trip, I'll still have my notebooks and stuff, so I can hand write my fanfictions. So, until I return..ja ne!

Reviews:

DJ- Thanks They are always welcome here -

MysticWriter- Andrea, you coulda told me that at school! XD!!! ...How is it confusing?!?!?!