The gym battle is finally here! This chapter and ones that follow it will be moving away from the main plot for a while, as I need to develop John's character a little more and I need to get the team out of Pewter. Anyway, here's the gym battle, so enjoy!
Chapter Eleven – First Gym Challenge
And so there I was. Stood outside Pewter City's Gym on a relatively cold morning with my fellow Pokémon team members, waiting to fight a giant snake made out of boulders.
"Why are we doing this?" I whimpered.
"This is there first step on the road to becoming Kanto's Pokémon champion!" said Siria, who was relatively pumped for the upcoming fight. But she was only young. Although me and Bulb were young Pokémon ourselves, Siria had only just come out of childhood, and had yet to hone her psychic abilities.
Bulb, on the other hand, was pretty level headed about it.
"Bulb, have you done anything like this before?" I asked him.
"Nah, not really." He replied. "I suppose it's because it's a rock gym, but I dunno, I'm just not that worried."
But then again, Bulbasaurs were known for their docile nature, a trait of Bulb's that I envied. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the gym doors opening.
"Hi, are you the challenger? Lets get this battle underway!" came the gym leaders voice.
As we walked into the large gym hall, I saw the rocky formations that created the gym's area in the centre, and to the right, a referee standing to the side. Both John and the Leader took their positions and the ref went over the rules. It was a standard set of rules: three Pokémon, only John could substitute, first to loose all three Pokémon wins.
I was up first. I stepped forward into the ring and the gym leader released his Pokémon, one of the two Geodudes.
"Begin!" cried the ref.
I didn't want to give away the game I knew Dig too early, and nor did John, so he just gave me the order to dodge and incoming rollout. I leaped clean above the Geodude and landed behind it. As it rolled off, I fired a flamethrower at the back of it. This gave the Pokémon more momentum and it was unable to get out of rollout before it hit one of the rocks in the arena. While it was stunned for a moment I took the chance and dug below ground. Geodude had no idea where I was when it came out of its daze, and I bust out of the floor and smashed into the rocky ball, and it fell to the ground. It lay there for a few moments before trying to push itself up, but its arms gave way and the rocky body crumpled to the floor.
The gym leader called his Pokémon back and sent out yet another Geodude. This was the stronger one, and I edged back a little.
"Blaze, have a rest!" John called out. I ran back and rested on the sidelines. I wanted to know what was going on. John then sent out Siria to deal with this one.
Siria used her speed to her advantage. Every attack that Geodude threw, Siria dodged. Eventually Geodude began to tire, and Siria took the opening and let loose a psychic beam. Geodude fell to the ground and was barely able to get back up. Then something spectacular happened. Geodude pulled a rock from the ground, but instead of tossing it towards Siria, it smashed the rock into its own face and collapsed.
"Gah, that Psybeam must have confused Geodude…" muttered the gym leader.
Now it was the big one. The gym leader tossed the pokeball into the air and Onix manifested before us. John made the decision to use Bulb, target Onix's weakness and finish the battle quickly.
As the battle began, Onix was surprisingly quick, and I don't think Bulb expected it. The rock snake darted forward and whipped it's tail round. Bulb was barley able to react, and rolled out of the way, but the tail did graze him. Bulb then shot out two vines and whipped them across Onix's face, and then followed up with a razor leaf. The colossal Pokémon staggered back, and Bulb fired that signature seed from his back. It hit Onix, and the vines shot out and wrapped around it. The giant Pokémon veered up in pain, and I noticed Bulb feel the relief as the energy flowed back into him. While Onix was still in shock, Bulb had been charging Solarbeam. I saw the light gather at the top of his bulb, and I grinned as I saw Bulb angle it towards Onix.
"Rock Tomb!" shouted the leader.
This ruined everything. Rocks burst from the ground and trapped Bulb. He had to waste the Solarbeam he had been charging to blast away the rocks holding him captive in order to escape an oncoming slam from Onix.
Onix would not let up. It had very little energy left to fight, and I knew if Bulb could get in just one hit, this would be over. But he couldn't get an opening, and it was hard to avoid a big, fast Onix on rocky terrain. Leech seed was still draining Onix, so it had to be near the end by now. After a few more attacks, Onix began to slow, and before too long, Bulb saw an opening an took it. He fired a flurry of Razor Leafs that batted Onix, and it fell forwards and hit the ground hard. Somehow, it was hanging on by a thread, it's eyes barley open. Then Leech Seed took hold, and we had won.
Back in the Pokémon Centre, out team was gathered in the seating area having a chat about the battle and the gym badge. I thought the whole thing was quite good, it was a great sense of achievement, and I felt stronger somehow, knowing I could tell others that I had a Gym badge under my belt.
John then came over, and we finally set of out of Pewter City, and on to Route 3, to the next town.