Striaton City was a colorful place, with a great courtyard and many elegant buildings. Robin rode her bike down main street until the Gym came into sight.
"This will be the place where I get my first badge, John!" said Robin. "Do you think I'll be victorious?"
'You trained hard, Robin. I'm sure that you will work out a strategy.' I said.
"Oh no! I forgot to think of a strategy!" cried Robin, but it was already too late. We had entered the gym and the lady at the front noticed us.
"Hello fellow trainers. Are you here to challenge the Striaton City Gym?" she asked. Robin nodded reluctantly as the lady guided us through a set of double doors and down a long hallway. As we walked, we noticed a kid leaving in the opposite direction.
He was muttering, "So unfair. Why do I have to fight a type I'm weak against."
Robin and I looked at each other in confusion. I realized that I still did not know what type of gym this was. We entered another set of doors and we were in a large room with a battlefield in the center of it. Robin stepped up to the platform. There were three people standing on the other side. 'Is it possible for there to be three gym leaders?' I asked.
"I don't know." Robin replied.
The person in the middle stepped forward and explained, "Hello, Robin. We are the Striaton City gym leaders. This is a unique gym, for it does not specialize in any type. I am Cilan, this here to the right is Cress, and this here to the left is Chile. We are the gym leaders of grass, water, and fire respectively. How this works is that depending on your starters, you will have to fight the type that you are weak against."
Robin asked, "Wouldn't that make it unfair?"
Cilan replied, "This gym is here to test your battling skills. A good trainer will be able to beat his opponent regardless of type. Now, may I ask what starter pokemon did you chose?"
"I chose Tepig" said Robin reluctantly.
"Ok then. Looks like I'm taking the show today." said Cress, as he approached the trainers square. The lady who had escorted us in had took her position as the ref.
I got out my pokeball with Tepig in it. The ref looked at us and saw that we were ready. "This will be a two on two battle. When one trainer runs out of pokemon that are able to fight, the other trainers wins. Now, the battle will commence!" shouted the ref.
"Alright, Lillipup, come out now!" shouted Cress as he threw his pokeball onto the battlefield. A cute little dog-like pokemon appeared in the middle.
"Aww. It's so cute", said Robin. "Wait! I thought we were fighting water pokemon?"
"My other pokemon is a water pokemon. There is no rule that all my pokemon have to be water typed."
"Ok, then I chose you, Tepig!" shouted Robin. Tepig appeared and he was pumped and full of fire. "Alright Tepig, start off with ember!" shouted Robin. Tepig blasted out a ball of fire that flew towards Lillipup. Lillipup jumped back as the fire hit the ground. It sent dust clouds to appear around Lillipup. Without warning, Tepig charged through the debris and hit Lillipup with a full on tackle that sent Lillipup flying a few feet back.
"That was a nice combination of moves you planned out, Robin." said Cress. "But we just started. Lillipup, use bite!" Lillipup pounced forward and landed a bite right on Tepig's forehead. Tepig winced in pain as Lillipup would not let go of his snout.
"You know, Cress, I think you forgot about something." said Robin.
"What would that be?", asked Cress.
"Tepig, use Ember!" shouted Robin. Lillipup's mouth was biting onto his snout, where Tepig's fire moves came from. When Tepig shout out a blast of fire, it went right into Lillipup, causing the little puppy to fly across the room and hit the wall on the opposite side. Lillipup managed to land on all four, but then he collapsed and fainted.
"Lillipup is unable to battle!" shouted the ref.
"You think fast on your feet, Robin. Most trainers panic once they see Lillipup bite their pokemon." said Cress. "Well, looks like it's time for you. Panpour!" A water monkey pokemon appeared on the battlefield. "Panpour, use water gun!" With the command, Panpour shot a thick stream of water toward Tepig.
"Try to dodge it, Tepig!"yelled Robin. But the water traveled very fast and Tepig did not have enough time to react. The stream hit Tepig squarely on the chest, pushing him off the stage. Tepig had fainted.
"You did great Tepig." said Robin as Tepig went back into his pokeball. "Well, John, it looks like it's your turn to battle. Are you sure you're up for this?" she asked sympathetically.
'Don't worry, Robin. I'll fight Panpour, but I will need your help. Don't panic. We can still do this. Panpour is his last pokemon. As long as we can work together, we can figure out any problem.' I said to her.
I flopped from the basket I was in to the center of the battlefield. "Oh, that is an interesting choice, Robin. A magikarp. I wonder what strategy you have, Robin. You do realize water is not effective against water." said Cress.
"Alright, John, use tackle!" yelled Robin. I leaped forward with all my strength, aiming for panpour.
"Panpour, use water gun." shouted Cress.
"John, use bounce!" shouted Robin. Yes, during our training, we discovered that I had learned a new move, and it was bounce. At the last second, I used the move to fly above the stream of water that was headed my way. Gravity did the rest of the work. Without hesitation, I fell and aimed straight for Panpour and my body smashed into his head. It dazed him a bit, but it was not enough to do significant damage.
"Panpour, use fury swipes!" shouted Cress.
"Dodge!" yelled Robin. I was anticipating Panpour follow up, so I was already braced to jump out of the way. When Robin commanded for me to dodge, I managed to do so a split second before Panpour's claws made contact with me. Panpour had missed with his fury swipes, and both he and his trainer were surprised.
"That is a very fast magikarp!" cried Cress.
"Now, tackle!" yelled Robin. This time, Panpour was so distracted by the fact that he missed that he did not predict that I would retaliate so quickly. He turned around to try and stop me. It was too late to dodge.
"Panpour, quick! Use water gun!" yelled Cress. But it was too late. Panpour had just began to shoot out the stream of water but it was too weak. I used my body's momentum to push through the water and I landed the tackle. My tackle made him roll across the battlefield. When panpour had stopped rolling, he tried to stand up, but his legs gave away and he fell back onto the ground.
"Panpour is unable to battle. Magikarp is the winner. Cress does not have anymore pokemon that are able to fight, so Robin is victorious!" shouted the Ref.
"YES! I won my first badge!" yelled Robin with happiness. She ran up to me and hugged me. "You did fantastic, John!" she said to me. She summoned Tepig also and hug him too. "And Tepig, you also helped me with this victory today, so thank you, thanks you to you both!" she said as she gave us a big hug. "I love you guys."
Cress approached us and handed Robin the Trio badge. "You did spectacular, Robin. Both of your pokemon put in a lot of effort. That magikarp of yours seems very unique. I never seen one so strong and agile." he said.
I said to Robin, 'It was because you trained me these past few days.'
"I bid you farewell, and good luck getting the rest of your badges." said Cilan
"Thank you!" said Robin as we headed out of the gym. The sun was shining brighter than ever, but if we had noticed the man that was following us in Striaton, it would have been a whole different story.