"The gym battle between Lt. Surge and the challenger; Nate from Pallet Town, will now begin. It shall be a three on three battle, where only the challenger can make substitutions. Now begin!" Announced the judge.
"Kick his ass Surge!" Shouted Moby from the stands.
Machamp and Nate growled irritably, opposite them Voltorb rolled from side to side, its eyes bulging angrily.
"Ok Machamp, let's start this battle, Cross chop!"
Machamp crossed two of its four arms in front of it and they began to glow.
"Voltorb, dodge!"
Voltorb span out of the way almost impossibly quickly, Machamp's attack connected with thin air.
"Wow, that Voltorb's fast," muttered Nate, "Turn and use submission!"
Machamp charged at Voltorb but once more it was too fast, swirling out of the way.
"Voltorb, rollout!" The ball span quickly, head over heels, spinning towards Machamp. Voltorb slammed into Machamp, making it stumble back. Voltorb bounced on the floor and then immediately began its charge once more.
"Try and dodge it!" Cried Nate.
Machamp jumped out of the way, but Voltorb managed to turn and hit it in the air. Machamp tumbled back to the ground. Nate gritted his teeth as Machamp struggled to get up.
Rollout continued. Two times more, each time hurting Machamp even more, each time so fast that Machamp could not dodge it.
Nate bit his lip nervously, unsure of what to do. Voltorb turned and prepared for its fifth and strongest rollout attack.
"Wait until Voltorb's just in front of you!" Ordered Nate.
"Why don't you just give up? Machamp's too slow!" Laughed Moby.
"Machamp, I believe in you! Revenge!"
"NO!" Shrieked Surge.
Voltorb crashed into Machamp at full force. Machamp returned the attack at double strength, hurling Voltorb through the air. It landed with a thump, but somehow was not quite defeated.
"Voltorb, explosion!" Laughed Surge.
"Machamp, look out!"
Voltorb glowed brightly before exploding in a cacophony of light and sound. The explosion engulfed Machamp and was so bright that Nate had to look away.
As he turned back, he saw Voltorb unconscious on the floor and he glanced over to where he expected to see a defeated Machamp.
He was surprised. Badly bruised and breathing heavily, but definitely still in the battle, Machamp gave Surge an angry glare.
"Voltorb is unable to battle, Machamp wins!" Announced the judge.
"I don't believe it…" muttered Surge, "Your Machamp is very strong, but don't think you've beaten me yet!" Yelled Surge.
"Magnemite, let's go!"
"Good work Machamp, you take a rest," whispered Nate, returning Machamp to its poke ball. "Now Charmander, come on out!"
The orange lizard growled defiantly, its tail burning brilliantly.
"Your puny Charmander doesn't stand a chance!" Laughed Moby, although slightly less sure of himself after Voltorb's defeat.
"Charmander, use metal claw!"
"Magnemite, lock on!"
Magnemite's eye glowed blue as it targeted on the incoming Charmander. Too late however as Charmander slammed its glowing claw into Magnemite, sending it skidding across the floor.
"Now Charmander follow up with a flame thrower!"
Magnemite was hit as it tried to rise again and thrown once more to the floor. Surge's grin was well and truly gone now.
"Magnemite, get up!" Surge barked, "Use thunderbolt!"
"Charmander, dodge it!" The orange lizard darted out of the way of the lightning at the last second.
"Nice one Charmander!"
But then, suddenly the electricity curled round on itself and shot towards Charmander, striking it in the back.
"Huh?" Gasped Nate.
"After using lock on, the next attack always hits, how can you not know that?" Asked Surge with disgust, as though Nate's ignorance was painful.
"Charmander, use rage!" Demanded Nate, eager to prove that he wasn't an idiot. Charmander launched its attack, kicking, scratching and biting the magnet pokemon.
"Magnemite, use screech!" Ordered Surge. The battlefield was filled with a horrible scraping, high pitched sound as Magnemite unleashed its screech attack.
Charmander slid back across the ground, hands on its head. Nate covered his ears and yelled out his next command, "Charmander, use flamethrower!"
Magnemite dodged out of the way of the flames just in time, the embers curling just underneath it.
"Thunder Wave, go!" Roared Surge. Magnemite let out a streak of lightning, which engulfed Charmander before it could do a thing. The electricity sparked and crackled across the lizard, rendering it immobile.
"No, Charmander!" Moaned Nate.
"Ha, it's paralyzed!" Laughed Moby.
"Time to finish up Magnemite! Tackle!" Ordered Surge. Magnemite charged at Charmander, taking advantage of its paralysis.
"Now Charmander, you have to snap out of it!" Charmander struggled against the electricity and suddenly burst free of it. Magnemite was too close to turn back so continued with its charge.
"Charmander, Metal Claw!" Charmander darted beneath Magnemite and slashed its claws up ferociously throwing Magnemite high into the air.
"Magnemite is unable to battle! Charmander is the winner!"
"Two down! And I haven't even broken a sweat!" Laughed Nate.
For once Moby stayed silent and Surge just glared angrily.
"You may have beaten two of my pokemon, but I sent out my apprentice to heal my very best pokemon," Snarled Surge, "Raichu, show them how it's done!"
Raichu appeared, looking good as new. It slapped its tail against the ground viciously, hopping eagerly from foot to foot.
"Charmander, you take a rest," Said Nate, returning Charmander to its poke ball. "Hmm, Charmander and Machamp are tired," murmured Nate to himself. "So Taillow, come out and make it three for three!" Taillow appeared, beating its wings rapidly and cawing.
"A flying type? You're going down!" Laughed Surge, although somewhat less happily than before.
"Hmmm, considering I have 3 pokemon left and you've got 1, I wouldn't be laughing," giggled Nate.
"How dare you?" Growled Surge, "Raichu, thunder punch!"
"Taillow, fly up high!" Taillow rose high into the air, dodging Raichu's attack by an inch.
"Thunderbolt!" Raichu let out a burst of lightning, which smashed into Taillow, throwing it from the air.
"Now, Iron Tail!" Raichu swatted Taillow from the air with its tail, sending it crashing into the ground.
"Taillow is unable to battle, Raichu is the winner!"
Nate gasped, Raichu was even stronger than he'd imagined. Taking out a fresh pokemon with two attacks was pretty incredible.
Suddenly having two, tired pokemon against one fresh, strong one didn't seem like such good odds.
"Machamp, come on out!" Cried Nate, throwing out a poke ball. The four-armed pokemon appeared, it was already breathing heavily, but it seemed prepared for battle.
"Good luck Nate, you'll need it," laughed Moby.
"Shut up Moby!" Snapped Nate. Moby just raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything else.
"Machamp, start with cross chop!"
"Raichu, Iron Tail!"
Machamp crossed its arms in front of itself and darted towards Raichu. At the same time Raichu's tail began to glow and Raichu pulled it back like a whip. The two attacks crashed into each other with incredible force. Both pokemon seemed equally strong, holding each other back.
Suddenly Raichu pulled its tail back, causing Machamp to stumble forwards from the shift in momentum. Then, with Machamp's guard down, Raichu used a crushing iron tail, throwing Machamp across the floor.
"Machamp, get back up! Use seismic toss!"
Nate looked to Surge but it seemed as though he wasn't going to try and block or dodge it. Machamp latched onto Raichu and launched them both into the air.
"Raichu, thunderbolt now!" Demanded Surge.
Suddenly Nate understood why Surge had not reacted earlier. With Raichu so close Machamp didn't stand a chance, dropping Raichu harmlessly to the floor.
"Machamp is unable to battle, Raichu is the winner!" Yelled the judge.
"Not looking so good now is it?" Jeered Surge.
"Someone's going to lose!" Laughed Moby.
Nate glared angrily at Moby, whilst unleashing his final pokemon; an already tired Charmander.
"It's about to be all over," promised Surge, "Wrap this up with quick attack!"
Raichu charged at Charmander with frightening speed.
"Flamethrower, now!" Charmander belched out a jet of flame, but Raichu dodged past it and slammed into Charmander, throwing it backwards.
"Charmander hang in there!" But Charmander was clearly struggling. Raichu rattled out attack after attack, each time too fast for Charmander to fight back.
"Raichu, finish it with a thunder punch!" Guffawed Surge.
"Charmander look out!" whimpered Nate.
Raichu leapt, once more, towards Charmander. But Charmander, rather than try to dodge and fight back just stood still, shining slightly.
Charmander began to shine brighter and brighter, until it was just a silhouette of brilliant white light. Raichu skidded to a halt, inches from the shining figure.
"Charmander?" Gasped Nate.
"It's evolving," whispered Moby.
The white light dispersed suddenly to reveal the form of a much larger, deep red dinosaur, its tail flaming brilliantly.
"Charmeleon!" It growled.
"Alright, Charmander evolved!" Cheered Nate. "Now, go flamethrower!"
Charmander took a deep breath and unleashed a fire attack.
But it wasn't a flamethrower.
The fire span in a spiral, trapping Raichu inside a whirlwind of flame.
"That's a fire spin!" said Nate excitedly. "Awesome, Charmeleon. Now, use metal claw!"
"Raichu, look out!"
Charmeleon burst through the flames, its long, sharp claws glowing. It slashed Raichu across its belly, before throwing it back through the flames. A blackened, exhausted Raichu tottered from the flames and slumped to the floor.
"Raichu is unable to battle, Charmeleon is the winner! That means the challenger, Nate, is the victor!" Announced the judge.
"Raichu!!" wailed Surge.
"You got lucky," sneered Moby, stomping out of the gym.
"We did it!" cheered Nate, hugging Charmeleon and singeing his arm on its burning tail.
Kaori pulled Nate into a hug, "nice work on getting your third badge!" Smiled Kaori, "I can see that you and Machamp are going to be a great team."
"Oh and Mac, I'm going to enter another contest and next time maybe I'll beat you!" she laughed.
"I'm looking forward to it," Mac laughed back.
"I'm going to miss you Mac," said Griff sadly. "You too Nate. And you," Zoe looked at Griff expectantly as he stopped in front of her, "you owe me two moonstones!" He yelled.
The five figures parted, waving back over their shoulders as they went. Kaori and Griff slowly melted out of sight, leaving just Mac, Zoe and Nate walking along the forest road.
"Celadon city, here we come!" Yelled Nate, breaking into a run. Mac and Zoe chasing just behind.
Awww, Kaori and Griff have gone!
But Nate's managed to get his third badge and a newly evolved Charmeleon
Can everyone please just keep reading and reviewing!