Episode 16: Pewter City Gym (Part 5)

Everyone, including Brock and the referee, were so gobsmacked by Charmander launching himself out of bounds towards me that they all missed me throwing out a different Pokeball as I was recalling Charmander.

I had hurled this other Pokeball above Onix's head as hard as my 10 year-old body could. Because Charmander had been near me, Onix's head landed near me as well. I had felt the impact of the slam create the massive vibrations beneath my feet. I don't want to think about what would've happened to Charmander if he was unable to dodge the attack.

Anyways, from this other Pokeball, Squirtle had come out, mid-air, above Onix's head. Since Onix just landed on the ground and couldn't get back up immediately, he was a sitting duck (sitting rock snake) for Squirtle's water gun.

"Try to soak up as much as you can, Squirtle," I had said, just an hour before, in the bathtub at my Bed and Breakfast. He had comically inflated, having soaked up water to his limits. His little body bloated up like a water balloon. His face was like a big puffer fish. My Pidgey had collapsed from laughing.

"What's that? Oh no, don't worry about being unable to walk, Squirtle," I had told him. "When you come out of the Pokeball, you'll be in the right place. Just unload about half of the water."

And so it was, after an hour, Squirtle had a free shot of water gun directly towards Onix's eyes (this is what I tell my Pokemon to aim for unless otherwise instructed). Gravity did its work as well, and the water did its damage.

"Onix!" Brock shouted in concern as the big rock snake raised its body and writhed in the air, in pain.

Squirtle was no longer on the ground. He had shrunk down to his regular size and was ready for battle, which was still not over. Although he had taken a water gun to the face, Onix was still able to battle, and had raised his head towards the ceiling. From this angle, there was no way Squirtle's water gun would reach Onix's face.

"Next phase, Squirtle," I said.

Squirtle started running towards Onix, who was still standing up on his tail.

"Keep your head covered, Onix!" Brock said, and as Squirtle used water gun as close to an upwards 90 degrees angle as he could, the water made contact with Onix's body only. It did some damage, but the big Onix could still take it."

"Onix, tail swipe and then dive!" Brock shouted.

Onix swung his massive tail across the ground, and Squirtle had to jump as high as he could to dodge it. As he did, Onix "dived" into the ground, burrowing his enormous body out of sight somewhere under the battlefield. It was explained to me later that a certain space beneath and above the battlefield is considered fair battle boundaries. As long as the burrowing or flying Pokemon wasn't just wasting time, it was accepted as a fair battle strategy.

"It seems like you know about Pokemon types," Brock said to me.

OMG, Brock is doing "the talk!" You only see it in anime or movies, where the opponent spends time explaining stuff to the MC and then gets owned. Oh, Brock, not you too!

"You may have learned that water type Pokemon have a natural advantage over rock types, and I'll give it to you that the first attack was very effective. But now that Onix is underground there's nothing much you can do!" Brock smiled. To be fair, it wasn't a cocky smile. Perhaps a smile of 'whatcha gon' do next?'

"What's Squirtle doing?" one spectator asked.

Everyone was collectively confused once again, seeing how Squirtle gave zero attention to Onix somewhere under the ground. Instead, he was running around the entire battlefield in the optimum route, covering every square inch of water, which he was spraying like a fountain. It was like the shower mode on your garden hose.

Satisfied that his job was done, Squirtle gave me a nod, and then I switched him out with Bulbasaur again.

Having recovered decently in the Pokeball, Bulby now tried to sense Onix's subterraneous movements using his four paws flat on the ground.

"Ha!" Brock said, "Are you trying to feel the tremors to detect where Onix will strike from? That only works if he's the ONLY thing that vibrates. But what if the entire ground shakes?"

I'm not sure if it was Brock's personality or powers-that-be that was making Brock start "the talk," but he sure was going off.

In any case, Brock was right. The entire ground was shaking, making it difficult for Bulbasaur to detect where Onix was going to strike from. Bulbasaur would've been in a lot of trouble...if that's what he was trying to do. Instead, Bulby had his vines out, touching two corners of the battlefield with it.

Onix came out of the ground just below Bulbasaur, knocking him up high in the air. It really was a devastating technique, I have to give it to Brock. Everyone gasped in shock and surprise as Bulbasaur was visibly hurt, wincing.

'You've activated my trap card,' I thought in my head. It was too cheesy to say out loud.

The momentum of the strike knocked Bulbasaur high into the air, but because he was anchored down to the ground, he flew off on a 45 degree angle, then came down underneath Onix. Think of throwing a tennis ball that's tied down on top of a flag pole, then throwing it up at an angle. It'll come swinging back around, right?

Oh, you want to know how Bulbasaur was able to grab the GROUND with his vines, right? 'Cause that's not possible?

You're right. He didn't grab the ground. He grabbed the net of leech seeds that he had thrown out earlier that was harmlessly lying on the ground, until Squirtle had gone around watering all of them just a few minutes before. Activated by the water, the seeds had grown and started growing, covering the ground like ivy plants on walls. But unlike regular ivy, the leech seeds grew out into really strong vines, connecting with each other and creating a veritable web of plants.

It was these vines that Bulbasaur had grabbed onto, and now that he had come swinging around UNDER Onix (who was still in the air), Bulby shot out two more vines and grabbed the other two corners of the web. So picture this: a giant web of leech seed vines that was roughly rectangular in shape, the corners of which were secured by Bulbasaur as if he had a parachute over his head. And between Bulbasaur and this deadly parachute was...poor Onix. He had no chance.

"Reel 'im in, Bulby!" I shouted.

Onix was in the air and he was still going upwards. There was nothing he could do except to faceplant into the leech seed web. All Bulbasaur had to do was literally just detract his vines that were holding on to the four corners. They folded nicely and then entangled all over Onix. Bulbasaur didn't even have to pull Onix down (he wasn't strong enough to do this yet anyways) since gravity took care of the whole thing. Onix came crashing down, and then the leech seed started to… well, leech. He was like a snake caught in a web that he couldn't get out of.

There was a faint green glow over the web of the leech seed vines, and you could see that Onix was in pain like he was getting tazered. The more he wiggled, the tighter the webs became. Meanwhile, Bulbasaur was being recharged by Onix's energy.

I saw Bulbasaur's bulb open a bit with a glowing light inside when...

"Enough!" Brock shouted. "You win."

"Brock has forfeited! The challenger wins!" The announcer over the PA shouted.

It was my first Gym win.

I honestly remember very little of what happened after the victory against Brock. I do remember that he came over to shake my hand.

"You're going to go far, kid," he said, even though he was only 15 years-old himself.

The crowd was still much shocked over what they had seen, and looked at me with awe and suspicion. (I was SUS!)

Brock took me into a private room and there was a bit of paperwork I had to sign. Then I got the Boulder badge.

The octagonal edges glistened with a pleasant gray chrome glint when I held it at different angles of the light. It had a unique identifying serial code on the back and Brock explained that it was to be registered under my name: "Ash Ketchum."

"Can I also register an alias?" I asked.

"Sure," Brock said. "What will it be?"

"... RED," I said. "I'll go by Red."