A/N: Yay, the story lives! I decided to take the path of less filler this time round – until Red makes a move possibly. :D

After Being Blue
Poke Ball 8: Comfort

Retracing his steps – that meant starting off against the Pewter Gym. That'd been one of the easiest of them: a gym geared towards beginners and with a blatant weakness against his starter pokemon. Now that Squirtle was a Blastoise and it would be even easier to triumph.

Which made him wonder if he really should use his Blastoise in that match. That would be too easy.

But all his Pokemon were roughly at the same level. Any of them would steamroll the Pewter Gym he'd challenged in the past.

He may as well go with the team he'd gone with in the past – or their fully evolved forms now, as it was. And they were Blastoise and Nidoking.

'Welcome again,' said the gym leader as Blue walked up to him. 'I hear you defeated the Elite Four and Lance.'

'I've come to challenge you again,' said Blue, ignoring the statement. 'Two on two.'

Brock considered him, then nodded. 'It's rare for the victors to return, but I'll grant you your match.'

But instead of standing in the trainer's box, he turned and walked through a door. Blue gave him a moment, and he returned with two Pokemon in hand. 'Your serious team?' Blue asked. Of course, a weak person wouldn't become a Gym Leader. But at the same time, someone like him who always strove for victory would also not.

'Indeed.' Brock tossed one ball. A Golem came out. 'My strongest pokemon who raised this gym with me.'

Blue sent out Nidoking. The two fully evolved Pokemon stared each other down. Blue began thinking. Both their Pokemon had partial ground characteristics, but his also had a weakness to it. And no doubt Golem knew earthquake: the most powerful ground type move of them all. There was little place to hide with that.

At the same time, there was the fighting moves Nidoking could learn. Back then, it'd been Double Kick. Now it was Dynamic Punch. Dynamic Punch and Earthquake. And the less effective moves.

Brock handed the first move to him. He made a soft one: one to lure the other into attack. That was his way of battling. Cool and calculating. The response was equally grounded, equally firm. For someone with a type advantage over the gym, his first gym battle hadn't been an easy one. None of them had been.

But he'd won them all.

And this time…

The field trembled and broke apart. Horns and fists and claws and rock clashed in the centre, in the dust. Earthquake crashed with earthquake and Blue almost bit his bottom lip off in trying to stay upright. Brock did not. Perhaps he frequently fought on fields that trembled in the wake of Earthquakes. Or maybe that meditation he practised had something to do with it.

Blue was a strategist, but not particularly patient.

Nidoking's final Dynamic Punch knocked Golem out of the match.

And then it was Onix. Not the almost baby-sized snake Brock had played against him a year before, but one far far larger. With one flick of its tail Nidoking was knocked off balance. A second sent him flying, unconscious, into the wall behind them.

Blastoise was bigger than Nidoking and had two advantages. He had no inherent weakness to the large rock snake, and he'd taken no damage yet this fight. But Onix still proved to be formidable.

In the first match, Rapid Spin had been a poor defence and Bubble slow at causing damage. Now he had Hydro Pump: the most powerful water type attack, and Blizzard, likewise for the ice type. It was impossible to dodge the effects and yet dodge and even Protect trembled.

But the advantage was overwhelming and even if the direct attacks were dodged, the indirect change in the air finally wore Onix down.

He won. Again.

And all he'd really learnt was the gym leader had a post-league team – or maybe it was used after the challenging trainer had won a certain number of badges or something like that.