Kelly had paid for a boat down the briny, and graciously was Ryan allowed with her. They did not talk all the way to Fuchsia. Ryan didn't mind. He was too preoccupied with his Thunder Badge. Not many people could get a Thunder Badge like Ryan did. He totally won his first gym battle like it was nothing. He was a Pokemon master. A Pokemon legend! Yeah!

The two silently got off the boat, paid their fare, and began the short walk into the village. It was dusk, but not all that dark out. The moon was out in full, and the village had many lights about that lit the way. Ryan was humming some Lion King to himself when he noticed a dastardly shape moving parallel in the water next to him. Not even stopping, he whipped out his Pokedex, like a boss, and pointed it at this shape. Because, surely, this was a Pokemon as his experience had thus far taught him. And he was right.

"Golduck, the duck Pokemon. Its slim and long limbs end in broad flippers. They are used for swimming gracefully in lakes," the Pokedex droned out.

"Ah, cool. It's a water one. I've always wanted one of those!" exclaimed Ryan.

Kelly shook her head and continued walking. But Ryan was adamant. He needed a new fighter in his arsenal. He reached down, and threw his two occupied Pokeballs out over the grass. Out came loyal Abra, and his Kakuna, Matata.

Before ordering them to attack, however, Ryan wanted to test something.

"Abra, show me all of your attacks before we start," he began earnestly, "I need to know what you can do."

Mr. Loyalty, aka Abra, did so, charging up his blue energy. But then Ryan, all bug-eyed and brash, screamed out with hoarse command:

"I already know about the psychic attack, so don't show me that, silly!"

"Bra!"

Pokemon have only four moves, they sure do. So Abra went on to show Ryan his three other moves as the Pokemon trainer held his Pokedex out and had it read to him which moves they were. First, Abra created an electrical barrier around him which caused Ryan to go numb; that was his second attack, a thunder wave. For the third, Abra started moving around quickly, creating illusions of himself; and that was double team. Great Pokeballs, that move was useless, Ryan thought. Why on Poke-earth would his father have given Abra that?

But the fourth move wasn't any better. Just seeing it made Ryan feel like he had woken up sucking on lemon. Abra squatted on the ground, grunting for eons like a certain yellow-haired man of a completely different universe which I shan't mention for fear of the fanboys coming for me. Needless to say, the Pokedex called this move reflect. Of course, Abra also had the psybeam and teleport (oh no, that's more than four moves! But we will just forget about that), but we've already seen those so no need to rehash them yet. And now you know all of Abras moves. Yep, they're practically are all TMs. Ryan thought that it must have cost his dad a small fortune to buy all those TMs… and for what? Just an Abra. His father wasn't rich. It wasn't even his father's best Pokemon. He looked down at that little guy and couldn't help but wonder what was so special about him.

Little did he know Abra was thinking the same thing about his master.

Then Ryan pointed a finger at the wild Golduck who was still swimming at a lackadaisical pace. It was time to own this nublet.

"Attack that Golduck!" Ryan shouted at them.

They nodded in understanding and turned to face the swimming monstrosity. Sure, this was no Kappa, but it looked as diabolical as any river monster could. Ryan was not very familiar with either of his Pokemon's attacks yet, so he did not dare give them order again on what to do. Instead, he allowed Abra to use its own eclectic arsenal of TMs that his father had given it (and would be impossible to ever find out). Kakuna would help by being a distraction or something. Who knows. Ryan just wanted Mataka to evolve so it could actually fight. The purpose of Kakuna was almost none, and he couldn't understand how a Pokemon trainer (like himself) was supposed to level up a Pokemon which couldn't even move, and had like no attacks.

Nonetheless, Abra alone got the Golduck's attention. A psybeam to it caused the Golduck to stop its swimming, and jump out of the water. It jumped up in a graceful arc before landing on the soft grass in front of the group. Dripping with water, its red eyes livid, it bellowed out its name for all to hear. Yes, it was a Golduck. The Pokedex had already told them that.

It rushed Abra with its claws out. Abra screamed in fear because of how sharp they were. Kakuna grunted itself into a harden so that Abra could block with it. And Abra, not one to be shredded into pieces willingly, did so. He picked up Kakuna, and using her as a shield, blocked all of Golducks's scratch attacks. Golduck, unsatisfied, tried a tail whip, wagging it in front of the two adversaries, but even that couldn't lower Kakuna's harden defense enough.

Abra then attacked, himself, and the psychic attack hit Golduck with a critical hit. Golduck yelped, singed and hurting. It focused itself back on Abra, but it hadn't noticed Matata latching herself onto its leg. Golduck tried to shake it off, but it was too late. A moment later, Golduck felt Matata sting it. It was poisoned. Screaming in rage, it kicked Matata off of it, and focused on Abra. Using its most powerful attack, blizzard, it covered Abra in a cold freeze. Abra was barely able to move, and subsequently fainted.

"No, Abra!" Ryan yelled, helpfully.

But in this time, something extra-ordinary occurred. Matata turned all white, and began pulsating. Her attacks on Ryan, the Electrode, and now Golduck had evidently put it over the threshold. She was transformed. Ryan quickly pointed his Pokedex at this new being to see what he should call it.

"Beedrill, the poison bee Pokemon. It has 3 poisonous stingers on its forelegs and its tail. They are used to jab its enemy repeatedly."

"Awesome! I got a Beedrill!" Ryan was ecstatic, "Hey, Kelly, see? Look what Matata transformed into!"

Kelly, who had stopped walking, and stood behind Ryan watching this fight, rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah."

"Although, her name doesn't really make sense any more now that she's a Beedrill," Ryan said.

He had completely forgotten that a fight was still going on. Only when Golduck threw itself at Beedrill, and Beedrill dodged with an air ascension, did Ryan see what was going on.

"Oh, we still haven't got him yet. Well Beedrill, use your fury attack!"

"Rill!" she responded and attacked.

Golduck, consumed by the poison, had not the dexterity to dodge the fury swipes. Matata rushed it, and jabbed its pointy hands into Golduck. Golduck was hit two times! It stumbled back, preparing its own retaliation, but it was no use. The poison was sapping what strength Abra and Beedrill hadn't already taken away. It collapsed next to the fallen Abra, and fainted.

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Ryan screamed!

If he had a hat, he would turn it around and get all serious before making the camera take a close up of his left eye, then throw his Pokeball all majestically at the defeated enemy. But he didn't have a hat, so he just threw the ball normally. He also returned Abra and Matata to their Pokeballs, praising their valor and staunch readiness to his cause.

Kelly did not congratulate him, however. She once again badgered him and nagged him to death on the fact that he didn't fight fair. Using two Pokemon to catch one just wasn't right.

"Well, says who?" said Ryan with a fierce scowl.

"That's just how it's done," she replied, simply.

"Well, I can do it however I want. You can't tell me how to do it!" Ryan said, in tantrum.

Kelly cared not to pursue this argument, letting Ryan feel as if he had won it.

The two walked into town, and looking at the time, saw it was not even eight o'clock. The gym was still open! Kelly mentioned something about fighting tonight, and then began running off down a street to her left. Well, Ryan was all alone. He had no idea where anything in this town was. So he ran after her. She was faster than she looked, and Ryan was embarrassed that he could barely keep up. Indeed, his stomach was cramping within two blocks.

When he finally caught up to her, she was standing inside a large, one story building, with the door open. It was wooden, and planked across its walls and floor. Ryan, wheezing and coughing, entered into the quiet room, and saw Kelly standing a dozen feet ahead of him. In front of her was a tall man wearing blue. Ryan saw them bow to each other, then draw their Pokemon.

The man sent out a small little thing that Ryan knew was a Venonat. Kelly threw her own ball, and out came her legendary Pokemon, Arcanine.

"Whoa, Arcanine…" Ryan breathed to himself.

"Venonat, tackle attack!" The gym leader commanded.

The Venonat did so, throwing itself at Arcanine. Arcanine took the attack, growling softly, but not being damaged badly.

"Arcanine, fire blast!" Kelly said in retaliation.

Arcanine did so, creating a small collection of three pointed flame balls in his mouth. Then, he threw it out at Venonat. Venonat just stood there, its big red eyes shining in fear and hopelessness. The attack hit right on, burning Venonat, throwing it back against the wall. It feebly stood up, but then fell over, completely spent.

"Excellent attack, but you won't beat me again!" the man shouted.

He threw his second Pokeball, and out came a Scyther. Kelly withdrew her Arcanine, and threw a second of her own. Out came a Raichu, but it didn't look like a regular Raichu. It was darker. Ryan could tell by the tail, it was a female.

"'Aichu, Thundershock!"

The Raichu jumped forward, readying an aura of electric around it. It focused this into a bolt of lightning, which came down right on top of Scyther. Scyther was affected pretty badly, as it howled out in pain.

"Now… Scyther… razor wind!" said the gym dramatically.

A tornado of who-knows-what began forming, but the Scyther did not attack yet. This razor wind must need some charging up time.

"Growl attack!" Kelly yelled.

The pokemon did so, but Ryan could not hear it, nor yet even guess as to what purpose such a move had - for not doing any damage puzzled him greatly.

Then Scyther stepped forward and shot the razor wind at 'Aichu. And it hit the poor mouse squarely. The razors all cut into 'Aichu, causing massive amounts of cuts to form across its body. It fell to the ground, gasping.

"'Aichu?" Kelly said, with worry in her voice.

"'Ai, Raichu chu," it replied, standing up.

"Okay, good. Quick attack, then!"

Raichu moved quickly back and forth, deftly bouncing off the walls and floor to confuse Scyther. But Scyther was not confused.

"Very well, Scyther use your slash!"

Countering the Raichu's quick attack, Scyther ran forward and rammed its sword-hands down on the running rodent. 'Aichu was caught off guard, and flew back, hurting badly. Scyther landed in front of it.

"Now, Scyther, finish it off with a hyper beam," the gym leader said confidently.

Scyther moved forward, preparing the beam when Kelly tried something.

"'Aichu, Thunderbolt!"

"Ai… chu…" it replied.

'Aichu's damaged state lent itself to a lethargic setup, giving Scyther enough time to get its own attack ready. As Scyther charged the attack,, 'Aichu stood up and charged a second electric attack. Right before Scyther finished, and could aim at the Raichu, it released its thunderbolt. Multiple long blasts of electric energy rained down on Scyther, and sent it to the ground. It screamed out as the merciless blast hit it again and again. Quickly, its health drained, its stamina left, and it finally fainted. 'Aichu had won. More importantly, Kelly had won.

Ryan didn't bother listening to all the congratulations. He barged in and ran right up to the Gym Leader.

"I wanna fight too."

The man nodded Kelly away, after giving her the badge, and took stance easily, "Very well, I still have two Pokemon left. You are okay with a two on two?"

"Yeah, sure," Ryan replied quickly.

"Very well, let's begin."

"Venomoth, go!" shouted the man.

"Go Matata!" Ryan mimicked.

"Venomoth, use psybeam!"

"Matata, use twineedle!" Ryan mimicked again.

The two met, exchanging attack. They flew back and forth a few times, before Ryan switched his attack.

"Fury swipes, yeah!"

But fury swipes did little to Venomoth. The Gym Leader simply used sleep powder, and Matata fell. Following that up, Venomoth used a psychic attack, and because Matata was asleep, and defenseless, this thoroughly depleted the Beedrill. Matata fainted in its sleep. Ryan had lost round one.

"Well, do you have a second Pokemon?"

"Yeah, I do," Ryan replied, "Go Abra!"

Abra came out of his ball, and immediately fell over. He was still damaged from his battle previously, and was in no shape to fight. Of course, Ryan had never learned about the stamina of a Pokemon. He had just thought all Pokemon are immediately healed once they go back in their ball. That's how it was on TV! But this wasn't TV, this was real life. And as Abra immediately had fainted, that meant Ryan had lost.

"Maybe you should go heal your Pokemon at the Pokecenter before challenging me again," the man said, coldly.

Ryan nodded, dejectedly, before leaving. Kelly had, surprisingly waitied for him. She seemed chipper.

"See, when you fight fair, you don't win," Kelly said to him.

"Hey, shut up," Ryan scoffed, "Nobody asked you anything. Just take me to the Pokecenter so I can go beat him properly."

Kelly laughed aloud as she led this novice boy out of the Gym, and back down the road to the Pokecenter.