"Okay, kid. You have an advantage here, seeing what I battle with. I always stick to the same order, so choose your first Pokémon." Gardenia didn't really sound professional, but Kevin supposed that she was all right, seeing as she was still a qualified gym leader and all. Then again, her main type was grass.

Grass types sucked. Kevin could confirm that.

After going over Henry's battle with the team, Lana decided that a similar strategy would work best. Thus, Styler was in charge of the Cherubi and Turtwig and Kevin would handle the Roserade. That was fine and all; Kevin was pretty confident that he could take care of a Roserade without breaking a sweat. But Styler wasn't evolved and looked frail enough to be knocked out in one Mach Punch. Maybe he'd find it in him to evolve during the match or something. That'd be pretty cool.

Speaking of Mach Punch… It'd be very easy to modify it into Fire Punch, wouldn't it? It was worth a shot later, at least.

Lana nodded confidently, turning to Styler, and the rest of them were recalled into their Pokéballs. Kevin smiled. How hard could a grass type gym possibly be?

…Apparently, Kevin jinxed it. He was called into battle against a nearly perfectly healthy Turtwig with a haughty smirk on his face. Turning to his trainer, Kevin raised an eyebrow and got into a battle stance.

"Reflect." Gardenia wasted no time in choosing her attacks. The Turtwig was equally as fast; his eyes oddly glowing blue as a clear barrier of something shiny fabricated around his body. Well, whatever, it wasn't like he couldn't avoid using physical attacks.

"Flame Wheel!" Of course. Just because a move was fire type didn't mean it was special… Or maybe Lana just mixed up Reflect and Light Screen. Whatever. It'd probably do a decent amount of damage regardless.

Flipping into a somersault, Kevin quickly lit his body on fire. The somersault propelled him enough to keep moving as if he were a wheel, so he ploughed through the Turtwig's barrier and into his side. Which… didn't do quite as much damage as he'd hoped. He hoped Lana noticed and told him to use Ember next.

…Wait, what was he thinking? It wasn't like Lana controlled his every move. He could just use Ember himself. He flipped out of his Flame Wheel and prepared his attack, only to be met with a flurry of sharp leaves scratching his face. Damn fire, obscuring his already poor vision.

Kevin spat out a plume of flames, visibly hurting the Turtwig enough to make his smirking face look a little more like Kari's depressed one. He took the time to jump backwards, out of range of any potential Razor Leaf attack and awaited a suggestion from Lana. She was the one who was supposed to be thinking of strategies, after all.

He gave her a glance, expectantly looking at her face. To Kevin's dismay, she merely shrugged.

"You're doing brilliant, just keep doing what you're doing," She half smiled. "I mean, you obviously know how to battle."

Kevin blinked. The whole point of having a trainer was to become stronger together, wasn't it? That seemed to be the moral at the end of every cartoon when he was a kid. Not that he minded battling on his own, because he liked that. But really.

He decided to go with it, seeing as he was already in battle mode and was about to win. The Turtwig was running towards him; most likely obeying an order he hadn't heard. The barrier of light created from the Reflect followed it, slowly deteriorating but otherwise perfectly fine. Recklessly, Kevin went into another Flame Wheel. Well… why not?

Despite the effects of Reflect, the head on collision was too much for the Turtwig to bear, and for the second time that day, he fell to the ground unconscious. Kevin was pretty sure that Styler was at least able to take out whatever a Cherubi was, since it sounded like something small and weak, so that meant that his one on one with the Roserade was about to start.

He felt reasonably all right; it wasn't like Razor Leaf was super effective or anything, so he smirked and waited for his opponent to materialize.

The superhero-like rose creature was approximately the same size as he was, but Gardenia's signature Pokémon certainly looked older and more experienced. So it was like fighting one of those Breloom from back home. Okay.

Gardenia smiled. "Poison Sting,"

What? Who in their right mind liked to use Poison Sting, barring weak-ass bugs who couldn't do better? Kevin barely flinched as the tiny, poisonous needle poked into his shoulder. Mm'kay. He fired an Ember at the Roserade's face, but she shielded it with her blue bouquet to reduce the damage.

Right. Kevin's options were pretty limited, what with not knowing a whole lot of special attacks. Actually… Ember was really the only special attack he had, since he hadn't exactly mastered Flamethrower yet. He supposed he could stall until the Reflect broke down and then start on a physical assault, but he didn't exactly remember how long the attack was supposed to last.

He facepalmed mentally. Leave it to his hyperactive younger self to ignore the "useless" non-damaging moves' effects when he saw them on television. Brute force would have to do for now.

Kevin formed a Flame Wheel and shot himself towards the Roserade, who countered by tripping him with some sort of vine. It didn't hurt much, but the fall, along with the smirking face of his opponent was really annoying. He launched himself into another Flame Wheel from the back.

"Grass Knot again, Rose," called Gardenia. Oh, a knot made of grass. That made sense. Despite his sarcastic thoughts, the Roserade was quick enough to trip him again. Again.

"Poison Sting," Gardenia said again while Roserade complied. The new needle hit his forearm, and judging by the prickling pain shooting up his arm, he was poisoned this time. He grimaced. At least it wasn't Sleep Powder or Spore. Oh, how he hated Spore…

Quickly opting for a new tactic before the poison inflicted any more pain, Kevin settled for the move his father had taught him. Although he really didn't like using the move ever since his father had decided to abandon him and the rest of his family, Aerial Ace was flying type, and it'd give him a different angle where he'd be less likely to trip.

Starting with a high jump, Kevin rapidly dove down from the air to slash at the Roserade with his pretty much nonexistent claws. The move took the grass type by surprise, and rightfully so; it wasn't the most popular attack for a Pokémon when they already had an advantage.

Kevin decided that ending the match quickly would be the best thing to do and delivered another, ground-based Aerial Ace to the Roserade's jaw. As she toppled over, she smiled at him.

"Good match." She was then recalled to her Pokéball.

Kevin sighed. The poison acted up again, making him cringe, but Lana didn't notice as she ran up to Gardenia with a big smile on her face.

"I won! I had to try twice for my first badge, but this time I won!" She grinned, moving a strand of hair behind her ear. Gardenia nodded curtly, frowning.

"Yes, it's true that I lost, but I wouldn't say that you won." The woman folded her arms. Lana's grin disappeared quickly.

"What?"

"You weren't giving any commands to your Monferno. I realize that you are a new trainer, but I'm afraid if you do something like that at the Pokémon League, you may be disqualified. Being a Pokémon trainer means that you need to work together to win, not that you can just let your Pokémon do all the work. You're lucky that your Pokémon was experienced enough, otherwise the match may not have ended in your favour." Gardenia sternly looked Lana in the eye.

Lana was silent for a minute until she nodded with disappointment. "Okay. I get it."

Gardenia smiled. "Don't worry, you're not the only one I've seen who relies on their Pokémon's skill. Your Monferno will be able to help you come up with strategies if you ask it, I'm sure." Kevin suppressed an eyeroll and nodded.

"Well then, this is yours," the gym leader said as she casually pulled a piece of metal out of her pocket. "The Forest Badge. You've still got a long way to go, so don't start Slaking. Heh, get it?"

Kevin snorted. It was an awful pun, but he liked it nonetheless. He stopped short, though, as the poison affected him again. He clenched his arm.

"Ah! I forgot, you were poisoned! Uh, okay, I'll take you to the Pokémon Center right away!"

And with that, they were one badge richer.