Chapter 8:

Old Friends Clash

Noelle and Omar sat in the living room waiting for Ariya to wake up and get ready for the day. As they sat making small talk, Noelle heard the lock on the front door start to turn. He turned around quickly to see who was about to enter the house, and in walked Gardenia. She met his gaze and jumped a little from fright.

"Oh! Noelle! I didn't know you were home," Gardenia said with a huge smile on her face. "I was just coming to tend to the garden."

In her arms were an array of garden tools and a basket to take any produce back to town with her that she had collected. "Hey Gardenia, I just got back last night. We wanted to take a night of rest before -" Noelle stopped as he pulled out his badge case and showed her his Coal Badge, "I challenge you to a battle for your badge!"

Gardenia responded with a loud laugh. She squinted her eyes and peered at him past his badge case. "I accept your challenge, but first let me get to the garden!"

Gardenia exited out the back door of the house to accomplish what she had come to do. Ariya eventually came downstairs, dressed, made-up, and her hair straightened. "Good morning boys," she said to the two who were sitting up waiting in the living room. "Ready to get going today?"

The boys nodded their head in unison. Noelle shouted out the back door to Gardenia that they were going to head down to Eterna City and they would see her when she gets back. On the way to Eterna, the trio heard a thrashing in a small lake nearby to the trail they were on, and they went to investigate the commotion.

In the lake, they saw a swarm of magikarp, being chased by one visibly upset feebas. "I've never seen a feebas in this lake before, I don't think he belongs here," Noelle said to his companions.

"Well, I know a good way to take care of it!" yelled Omar as he reached in his bag. "Go Flabébé!"

Flabébé emerged from her pokéball in a dazzling light. "Flabébé, help those magikarp out and use Magical Leaf on the feebas!"

Flabébé nodded her head and let loose a flurry of razor-sharp leaves that were surrounded with a rainbow aura to hit the feebas. As the leaves connected, the feebas turned his attention to Flabébé and Omar. He turned and began to swim towards them. As he approached, Noelle saw Omar reach into his bag once again. He chucked a pokéball at Feebas, hitting his target. As Feebas was transported into the device, the ball floated on top of the water as it shook. Eventually, the ball clicked and Feebas was comfortably secured inside. Noelle had Phantump hover over the water and retrieve the ball for Omar.

Once in hand, Omar let Feebas out of the ball into the water he caught him in. "Hey, you're okay. Are you calmed down now?" Omar asked Feebas.

The fish nodded his head and gave Omar a little smile. "Alright then, I don't think you belong in this lake, so we are going to take you along with us, and you can explore a bunch of lakes and rivers and ponds!" Omar exclaimed, much to Feebas' excitement.

He withdrew Feebas into her pokéball, and the trio was back on route to Eterna City.

Once they had arrived, Noelle began taking them around town and showing them where everything was. Ralts had only come into town with Noelle a couple of times, so even he was ecstatic to be shown the city in-depth. As they approached the statue that stood tall over Eterna City, Ralts and Phantump began to climb it like a piece of playground equipment.

"Noelle," Ariya began, "Do you know anything about this statue?"

"Not really. My mom said there used to be a descriptor plate on the front that explained it, but she said it was in a language she couldn't read."

As Ariya opened her mouth to respond, they heard a voice from behind them. "This statue is built after the legendary pokémon of Sinnoh."

Noelle turned to see where the voice was coming from and saw a tall woman with long, flowing blonde hair, and a black outfit. "You… you're… Cynthia! I watch you all the time on TV defending your title! You're one of the greatest trainers of all time!"

Cynthia covered her mouth as she giggled. "Very sweet of you. I do enjoy battling, that's for sure. It gets harder and harder with each challenger, and I never know when the one is going to come that beats me."

"Didn't you lose your first battle ever about a year ago?" Omar interjected.

"Ah yes. To our young hero of Sinnoh. After he beat me, he let me keep my title. He said he was not interested in it and was going to head over to Hoenn to challenge the league there. He and I defended Sinnoh from the plot of Team Galactic about a year ago. This statue reminds me of that adventure he and I had together atop Mt. Coronet." Cynthia turned her gaze to the huge mountain looming over the Sinnoh region. "I wonder how he's doing in Hoenn," she pondered. She turned back to the statue. "This statue is a tribute to the pokémon of time and space that reside here in the Sinnoh region. It has pieces from both combined to create one pokémon that keeps the peace here in Sinnoh."

Noelle, Omar and Ariya gazed up at the statue, amazed they had no idea of this tale Cynthia told. "Wow… that all is happening, right here in Sinnoh. Amazing," Omar said.

Ralts pointed over Cynthia's head and shouted. The group turned to face what caught his attention to see Gardenia approaching the statue. "Hey, Cynthia!" she yelled. "I didn't know you were visiting today!"

"Togekiss and I were taking a little fly and I figured I would just make a stop and see how things are going with my coolest gym leader," she said while laughing.

Gardenia returned the laugh and responded, "I mean, I AM pretty cool! Noelle was going to challenge the gym if you wanted to hang around and watch the battle. Who knows, maybe you will have to fight him one day," Gardenia said nudging Noelle with her elbow.

"I would like that," Cynthia responded.

"Perfect! Then let's head to the gym. I had my students prepare the gym for our battle. I hope you're ready Noelle. Do I have a surprise for you!"

"I am readier than I will ever be," Noelle responded as they began to make their way to the gym.

Once inside the gym, Noelle and Gardenia took their respective spots on the battlefield. Omar, Ariya, and Cynthia took seats up in the spectator seats and prepared to watch their friend battle for his second gym badge. "Alright Noelle, this will be a 3-on-3 gym battle. The first person to have 3 pokémon be unable to battle will be the loser!" Gardenia shouted across the field. "First up, I'll use Shroomish!"

Gardenia's shroomish emerged from his pokéball and stood ready to battle. "Hm, a pure grass type huh?" Noelle thought. "Alright Snorunt would be perfect for this!" "I will use Snorunt!"

Noelle threw his pokéball and Snorunt emerged onto the field looking at Shroomish fiercely.

"Shroomish, start this off with Poison Powder!" Gardenia yelled.

Shroomish shook his body and purple spores floated over to where Snorunt was standing. "Snorunt! Use Ice Beam on the ground below you to raise yourself out of the way!"

Snorunt shot a beam of ice straight down where she was standing, as it stacked on top of itself, slowly pushing her up in the air on an ice tower about 10 feet up. Snorunt was safe from the poison spores, but they littered the ground below. "Shroomish! Headbutt on the base of the tower!" Gardenia yelled.

Shroomish bashed the top of his head into the tower of ice Snorunt had created. As he hit the tower, Snorunt lost her footing atop the tower and fell into the poison spores below. As she tried to shake off the spores, Shroomish was recovering from the hard hit to the ice tower. "Snorunt, use Ice Beam on Shroomish!" Noelle shouted.

Snorunt, being obviously affected by the spores, took the command, and hit Shroomish with a direct ray of ice. Shroomish was launched backwards away from the tower. "Shroomish, use Headbutt on Snorunt!"

As Shroomish rushed Snorunt, Snorunt looked to Noelle for command. "Snorunt, use Ice Beam on the ground in front of you!"

Snorunt slicked the ground in front of him with ice, turning remaining spores into little snowflakes. As Shroomish hit the ice, he slid away from Snorunt and towards the ice tower. "Now Snorunt, finish him off with another Ice Beam!"

"Shroomish, dodge that attack! Gardenia yelled.

Shroomish tried to scurry out of the way but could not get his bearings from the ice underneath. The second ice beam connected with Shroomish and he was knocked unconscious. "Yes! We did it Snorunt!" Noelle yelled.

"That was some good strategy Noelle. Guess you learned a lot from watching all those battles on TV. And it doesn't help my case that you've seen me battle so many times," Gardenia said as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "Well, up next is Roselia!"

Gardenia tossed Roselia onto the field. Noelle figured he still had the type advantage. "I will need to save Snorunt for Turtwig," Noelle thought. "Alright, I will use Ralts!" Noelle shouted.

Ralts leapt from Noelle's shoulder and onto the battlefield. "I have the type advantage against Roselia who is a poison-type as well," Noelle thought.

"Alright Roselia, use Magical Leaf!" Gardenia shouted.

An array of leaves flew towards Ralts. Noelle was getting very adept with Ralts and the best way to use him in battle. "Ralts, teleport away from the attack!"

Ralts teleported away from the leaves and appeared elsewhere on the field. "Use Confusion on Roselia, Ralts!" Noelle yelled to him.

As Ralts began to launch his attack on Roselia, he was struck in the back by a barrage of leaves.

The Magical Leaf had changed course and followed him to where he had teleported. Ralts stood up and glared at Roselia after recovering from the attack. "Ralts, try Confusion again!"

Ralts launched a blast of psychic energy at Roselia. "Roselia, move out of the way!"

Roselia gracefully dodged the attack that would have left her badly damaged. "Now Roselia, use Magical Leaf!"

A barrage of glowing leaves flew towards Ralts from Roselia's hand-petals. "Ralts, stay where you are and take control of that attack!" Noelle commanded.

As the leaves approached Ralts, he closed his eyes and let out a wave of psychic energy. The leaves stopped in place and floated where they had stopped. Gardenia and Roselia stared at them when suddenly all the leaves at once turned and raced towards Roselia tenfold the speed they were moving towards Ralts. Cynthia leaned forward from her seat, as this psychic power and control even caught her attention. "Ralts, you know what to do with this!" Noelle yelled.

"Roselia! Dodge- "

As Gardenia tried to finish her command, the leaves connected with Roselia hard, sending her to the ground. As she skidded across the ground, she suddenly halted and looked up into the eyes of Ralts, who had teleported behind her during the attack. "Ralts, Confusion!"

Ralts pounded Roselia with a direct psychic blast of energy being only a couple inches away from her. The attack left her completely unable to continue. "Great job Ralts!" Noelle yelled to his partner who was quite a distance away from him.

"Alright," Noelle thought, "So Gardenia only has Turtwig left to put into the battle. I think I will be able to keep Phantump out of this battle."

"I hope you are ready for this Noelle," Gardenia shouted to him. "I told you I had a surprise for you!"

As Gardenia let her pokéball out of her hand, out emerged a pokémon that Noelle was shocked to see. Standing in the middle of the field was a strong and battle-ready Grotle.

"Your Turtwig evolved!" Noelle shouted.

"Yes, he did. And I think you will have some trouble with this fight!"

Noelle looked down at his pokéball that held Snorunt. "Well, I still have the type advantage either way!"

Noelle sent Snorunt onto the field. She looked at Grotle, prepared to fight to the end. "Grotle! Razor Leaf!"

As leaves rained out of Grotle's back, Snorunt looked to Noelle for direction. "Snorunt, freeze them in the air!"

Snorunt let loose an Icy Wind attack, as the leaves began to slow down. However, the attack was much stronger than Noelle anticipated and some of them got through to Snorunt, hitting him for direct damage. Noelle winced at the damage his Snorunt had just endured. He had taken a couple of hits now. "Snorunt! Use Headbutt!"

Snorunt pointed his peaked head towards Grotle and began rushing. "Grotle, meet him with Body Slam!" Gardenia responded.

As the two approached each other, picking up speed, suddenly, Snorunt collapsed to the ground and skidded towards Grotle, who had stopped in his tracks. "You seemed to underestimate my pokémon's ability to poison you Noelle!" Gardenia teased.

Snorunt was unable to continue the fight and Noelle withdrew him. This was not looking good, he knew that if he had to send Phantump in against a barely damaged pokémon, he would lose for sure. He looked down at Ralts who was standing at the ready and nodded for his partner to join the battle. Ralts and Grotle looked at each other, fired up. They had met a few times but both felt the need to excel over the other being their respective trainer's first partner pokémon.

"Grotle, Body Slam Ralts!" Gardenia commanded.

Grotle began to charge Ralts. Noelle looked at the battlefield and thought of a way to turn the tide of this battle. There was an enormous tower of ice, there were frozen leaves on the ground, and there was a patch of ice near the ice tower that was starting to melt. He remembered his strategy that helped him beat Roark. "Ralts! Use those leaves next to you!"

Ralts nodded and psychically picked up the icy leaves that littered the ground around him. He launched them at Grotle, and the impact from the leaves slowed him down enough for Ralts to jump out of the way and dodge the body slam. "Grotle, change course!" Gardenia yelled.

Grotle slowly made a 180 degree turn in a large arc and rushed towards Ralts, who was now standing between him and Gardenia. "Ralts, teleport onto the ice patch!" Noelle called.

Ralts did as told, and Grotle adjusted course to meet him once again. "Ralts, wait for it!" Noelle yelled.

Grotle picked up speed as he charged the little pokémon. Omar and Ariya watched on and braced for the impact the heavy hit would have on Ralts, who had already sustained a direct attack from Roselia. Right as Grotle approached Ralts, he vanished. Grotle tried to slow down and adjust, but the ice made him slide straight ahead. He collided with the ice tower, and the immense power and size of the pokémon made the tower crumble down. Ralts, who had not teleported far enough away, was slowly buried under the falling ice along with Grotle.

Noelle watched the scene with horror in his eyes. "No! Ralts!"