Chapter Two: LEVEL 10 PART 2 OF 3

Another kid came in to challenge me in the second stage of the Baby level.

"Hiya! The name's Ray, and i'm not gonna lose!" The kid spouted with an over-confident smirk.

I really didn't think he knew who I was.

"Doesn't mean you're gonna win, does it?" I taunted, wiping the kid's smile right off his face. It was pleasing to me.

"Grrr... Go, Hera!" The kid growled, throwing his Pokéball before I even unclipped mine from my belt.

"Gahool, do it!" I said, making the most of the kid's mistake.

He must've realized what he did, but in an attempt to hide it, he kept his Heracross out.

"Zen Headbutt!"

"Peck!"

His Heracross bent over and launched itself at Gahool with it's horn emitting a pink glow. Hoothoot's beak connected with the horn but only did little more than chip a small piece of it, while the Heracross slammed its glowing horn into my Pokémon, harshly throwing it across the room.

"Hypnosis and Peck!"

"Dodge, Hera!"

The fight was over too fast; once Gahool had put the Her across to sleep, the Bug/Fighting type didn't stand a chance against the Hoothoot's mighty beak.

Ray returned his Pokémon and smirked at me. Was he aware of something I wasn't?

"Mud Bomb!"

"Oh fu-"

A blast of mud came erupting from the earth terrain of the room and slammed into my stationary Hoothoot, who was awaiting commands. Gahool wasn't usually hit by ground attacks, but this sneak attack had him pretty beat. I knew that the little Hoothoot couldn't fly with all that soon-to-be caked mud on him, so I did the smart thing, I withdrew him.

Quick as a flash, Jaws was in the game.

"D-Dig!" Ray stammered, knowing that his little ground type would get destroyed if it was hit by one of Jaws' mighty water attacks.

"Concentrate... Like we trained..." I say soothingly to my Totodile, sending him into a trance like state of concentration.

All too fast, he jumped in the air and flushed the Diglett which had erupted under him back into it's hole.

"Scratch?" Ray ordered with an unsure tone when a dazed Diglett emerged from the first hole.

Shaking off its weariness, the Diglett popped back in, making a shallow mound of raised earth as it tunneled towards my Pokémon.

"Dodge into Ice Beam!"

"Stay underground! Magnitude!"

Jaws' Ice Beam only hit the mound before the Diglett disappeared entirely. Not long after, a tremor was felt through the ground, rocking the room. It was a pretty strong one, and Jaws ended up being tossed and shaken on the floor like a doll, but he go up real quick. When the mandatory ten seconds for an underground Pokémon was nearing, Diglett came up and was promptly frozen into a block of ice.

Ray's last Pokémon was a Bellsprout. I knew that Gahool wouldn't be able to fight anymore, and I had trained Jaws to take out grass types...

"Razor Leaf!"

"Dig!"

Now it was Jaws' time to go underground and I already knew what he was doing.

"Flood!"

All of a sudden, a 'geyser' opened up behind Bellsprout, nearly knocking the flimsy grass type into the air, but it dug down its roots and stayed firm. That was what I was waiting for.

"Razor Leaf!"

"Ice rink!"

The water under and around Bellsprout grew unbearably chilly and some parts formed frost. The effect on Bellsprout's root feet was immediate. It was finding it hard to move forward on the icy ground. Granted, it was also a bit hard for Jaws, whose foot claws weren't that long, but the Bellsprout would probably topple over from the pain coming from the 'cold feet'.

Hehe. I'm good.

"Magical Leaf!" Ray yelled, a bit frantic now.

Dammit.

"Bite!"

The unavoidable flurry of leaf bits cut into Jaws hard as he ran though before clamping his jaws shut on the Bellsprout's head.

"Ice Beam!"

"Sleep Powder!"

The ice barely got out of Jaws' throat when the sleep inducing dust wafted into myTotodike's nostrils and body, putting him out like a light. As a plus, the Bellsprout's head was frost-covered, which meant that I had won.

After I returned Jaws and Ray returned his Bellsprout, I expected him to rant childishly, but he just walked over to me, shook my hand, and walked out with a smile.

Denial!