Chapter Four

Battles and Cheapskates

Previously:

Johnny stepped up, smirking, and lifted his hand, which had a pokeball in it. From the pokeball came his Rattata. "Go, Rattata." Johnny said quietly.

Rattata hopped back and forth, awaiting its next challenge. Brock smiled his own smirk, before whipping a pokeball off his belt and hurling it onto the field. Out came a Geodude, which floated across from the Rattata. The Rattata immediately charged, ramming into the rock-like pokemon, but barely moved it. The Geodude gave a rumbling laugh, before smashing his hand down on the Rattata, who fell limply. The Rattata slowly got up, and suddenly disappeared. It reappeared behind the Geodude, smashing into it again, this time at high-speeds.

The Geodude turned slightly, staring at the Rattata.

"Geodude, Rock Tomb." Brock called, and the Geodude picked up a large rock and flung it at the rat, striking it dead-on. The rat flew into the wall, and didn't get back up.

"Go, Bulbasaur!" Johnny called, after recalling Rattata.

Brock tweaked an eyebrow at the sudden threat, and looked slightly surprised as green vines whipped out of Bulbasaur, crashing against the Geodude, knocking it out.

"Onix!"

Out came forth a gigantic snake, comprised solely of rocks. It roared and snorted at the small green creature that stood quivering in front of it.

The Onix kicked up a boulder from the ground using his tail, then hit it again, this time speeding towards Bulbasaur. Bulbasaurs vines whipped out, spitting the rock in two, with both halves landing on the sides of Bulbasaur. The vines continued on their path, whipping into the Onix, who roared in pain. The Onix rose up, its head scraping the ceiling, and dived at the Bulbasaur.

Bulbasaur hopped sideways at the right moment, and the Onixs momentum sent Bulbasaur flying to a large rock, landing on it delicately. More vines ended the Onixs anger, and made Brock raise his eyebrow again.

Brock approached Johnny, and put a small badge into His hand, congratulating him.

"Hmph…I'm impressed. You planned ahead earlier, so that you wouldn't have to announce your moves in battle…I want you to have this, as a token of friendship." Brock said, handing Johnny a brownish disk labeled "Rock Tomb".

"Thanks." Johnny said and walked past Tony on the way out, "Your up." He said, leaning up on the wall, watching the match.

"What? Another Challenger?" Brock asked, and at Tony's nod went into a back room, to heal his pokemon. As he came out again, Tony's Squirtle was already out, and ready for battle.

"Alright! You know the drill!" Brock stated, sending his Geodude forth.

Tony's Squirtle, at Tony's command, was already spraying a shower of bubbles at the rocky pokemon, who was caught completely off-guard. The Geodude was already defeated, the water crumbling bits of rock off like acid to flesh. Sending his Onyx out, Brock commanded it to Tackle. The tackle struck Squirtle, but another wave of bubbles sent Onyx to the ground. The Onyx, weakened, curled into a ball and hardened.

Sensing the Onyx's weakness, Tony recalled his Squirtle, and sent out his Caterpie. The Onyx, seeing the new, smaller foe, uncoiled itself and brought itself to its full height, yet it flinched from the pain of doing so.

"Rock Tomb!" Brock yelled, at the Onyx flicked a rather large rock at the small bug, but it sent out its string shot, hitting the boulder in mid-air, and sending it smashing it the ceiling. It stuck there from the strings, and the Caterpie charged at the Onyx, striking into it. The Onyx's weakened armor gave away, and it roared in defeat…just as the strings holding the rock on the ceiling snapped, sending the boulder crashing unto the Onyx's head. The Onyx tumbled to the ground, unconscious.

"You…A Caterpie…My Onyx…" Brock stammered, shaking his head and holding out another boulder badge for Tony to take, but stopped, staring at something happening behind Tony. Tony spun, to see his Caterpie shining brightly, as dots of light spun around it. With a blinking outburst of light, the Caterpie had changed shape, into a Metapod.

After taking his badge, Tony and Johnny departed from the Gym, met up with Lloyd, and headed off towards the end of town. On their way out, a scientist suddenly stopped them.

"Tony? Tony! Hello, I'm one of Professor Oak's Aides, he wanted me to give these to you three." The aid said, handing Tony a pair of blue shoes, A red pair for Johnny, and a black pair for Lloyd.

After the aid departed, they tried their new shoes on.

"Well…that was cool…"Johnny said slowly, testing the shoes out.

"Wow…I mean wow! These shoes are comfy, I feel like I could run faster just wearing these." Lloyd said.

"Yeah!" Tony agreed, while Johnny stared at them both skeptically.

"Quick attack!" Johnny yelled, as yet another Metapod fell to his Rattata, achieving him another victory.

"Wow…another victory for Johnny." Lloyd said slowly, as Johnny pumped his hand in the air.

"Well, at least he's getting a ton of experience in battling." Tony responded

The three adventurers approached a pokemon center that lay nestled in between the rocks of Mt. Moon. They stopped in for a rest, knowing their pokemon would need it. Entering the cool, air-conditioned room, the three teenagers promptly healed up their pokemon. Afterwards, Johnny and Lloyd wandered to the table, while Tony found himself talking to a strange balding man, who suddenly offering to sell him a pokemon.

"It's a rare and powerful pokemon, known as a Magikarp! And I'm feeling so generous; I'll sell it to you for a mere, $5.00! What a deal!" The balding man said, smiling.

Tony looked suspiciously at the dark blue pokeball the stranger held up, before swapping it for $5.00 and walking back to the table Johnny and Lloyd were at. Sitting down he unclipped his pokebelt and set it on the table. Glad to rid himself of the heavy belt Tony leaned back and eyed his friends triumphantly.

"What are you so happy about?" Johnny asked, leaning forward in his chair.

"Only this!" Tony said, holding out the pokeball, in all its glory in front of his friends. Johnny raised an eyebrow, while Lloyd looked at Tony interestingly. With a red flash, Tony opened the pokeball and out came a medium sized red fish. The fish had whiskers and it had golden crown-like fins. It flopped around noisily on the table, knocking Tony's belt and Lloyd's drink onto the ground.

"This is what was so awesome?" Johnny asked skeptically, while Lloyd hurried to pick his fallen drink form the ground.

"Impressive, no?"

Johnny glanced in Lloyd's direction, and both of them broke out laughing.

"What? What?" Tony demanded angrily.

"Whatever you paid for that, you got gipped. You can find Magikarp in almost every body of water!" Johnny laughed, slapping Lloyd on the back.

"What!" Tony yelled, and looked up to see the man who gave him the Magikarp scurry out of the Pokecenter, "Hey! You!"

Tony jumped out of his seat, Magikarp's pokeball, with Magikarp now inside, and ran after the man.

Tony chased the man outside, and barely noticed it became dark out. He spotted the man disappear into Mt. Moon. Chasing after him, Tony himself plunged into the darkness of the large Mountain.

Inside the center, Lloyd and Johnny had leapt after Tony and followed him outside with just enough time to see Tony's shape become swallowed by the darkness.

"Shit! He doesn't have any of his pokemon!" Johnny cried.

"Actually, he does have Magikarp." Lloyd corrected.

Johnny glared at Lloyd, then rushed into the canter, grabbing Tony's pokebelt, and rushing into the Mountain as well.

(Yeah, I kind of had a writer's block. I lost all of my previous rough drafts, and I had a lot of homework to do. This is the result of my sweat and blood, so, enjoy. Even though it's kind of short.)

Oh, and by the way, I DO NOT own pokemon or any of Nintendo and Gamefreaks creations, nor do I take credit for them.