Disclaimer: Pokemon does not belong to me. Last I checked, Pokemon belonged to Satoshi Tajiri. The only things I claim ownership to are the own characters in this story.

Warning: This chapter does not focus on Brown. Instead, it focuses on Blake. Just thought I'd put that out there.

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DUNNE DAYS

Part 5: Earth

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* * * 09:32 - 7 June 2004 * * *

"Ah! Mister Oak, sir!"

The Gym Leader of Viridian City turned to his receptionist.

"Yes, Clyde?" he asked, causing the man to cough politely as he prepared himself to speak.

"Well, a Trainer just showed up fairly recently, and I tried telling him that you were going away but he's really quite persistent," Clyde said, gesturing to a black haired boy standing nearby, arms crossed and a shadow cast over his face.

Blue Oak grimaced. He didn't have time for this, he was needed elsewhere.

"Thank you Clyde, I'll handle this," he said, placing his bag on the desk and facing the Trainer. "Would you get my Charizard ready?"

"Of course, sir," Clyde nodded, and stepped outside, taking the bag with him.

"Well then," Blue looked at the younger boy. "I'm afraid I won't be able to accept your challenge, but-"

"It won't take long," the boy interrupted in a short tone.

"Hah… is that so?" Blue asked. "You do know this is supposed to be the strongest Gym?"

"I do," the boy nodded. "However, because of this city's close proximity to Pallet Town, the home of the Pokemon Professor who offers starting Pokemon to new Trainers, you must also go easy on the beginning Trainers."

"Is that what you are, then?"

"I am a new Trainer," the boy nodded. "My name is Blake and I would like to challenge you to a battle."

Blue laughed. "Fine, fine… I guess you can't wait until my replacement gets here. And like you say, it won't take long."

The boys headed into the battleground, where each stood on opposing sides.

"Well then, one Pokemon each. I'll select one at random, but I'll go easy, don't worry," Blue smiled. "All of my Pokemon are specially trained."

Blake nodded abruptly and selected a Poke Ball from his black backpack, tossing it onto the battlefield saying simply, "Poliwag."

Blue tapped a button in his Pokedex and he furrowed his brow at the screen. "I see, it seems I must choose… Sandslash!"

The Tadpole Pokemon and the Mouse Pokemon appeared on their respective sides of the field, staring at each other.

"Go easy on em, Sandslash," Blue nodded. "Blake, you take the first move."

"Surf," Blake said shortly, and his Pokemon leapt into the air.

A huge wave formed out of the ground, following Poliwag up and crashing down onto Sandslash.

"Earthquake!" Blue yelled, and Sandslash slammed against the ground.

The ground shook ferociously, and the wave collapsed harmlessly onto the Gym floor, though the same could not be said for Poliwag, who tumbled dangerously a few metres before Blake called out his next command.

"Waterfall."

Poliwag quickly righted itself in mid air, clambering up the cascading water like a flight of stairs and slamming into its opponent heavily.

"Mud-Slap it away!" Blue called out.

Sandslash shoved a clawed paw into the ground, taking a heap of mud and lobbing it at Poliwag, who had just rebounded off Sandslash's body to return to its side of the field.

The lump of mud smacked against the Tadpole Pokemon's body, causing it to yelp out in pain.

"Water Gun!"

Though injured, Poliwag shot a blast of water from its mouth. The water mixed with the mud, creating a sludgy mess that landed on the Mouse Pokemon's face, seeping into its eyes and stinging them.

"Sandslash, you okay?" Blue asked, and Sandslash grimaced, but nodded. "Okay, since you've restricted my Pokemon's vision, I think I'll return the favour! Sand-Attack!"

A barrage of sand particles flew from the ground around Poliwag, blocking its vision. The Poliwag winced and closed its eyes, but the sand was already in, and it screeched with pain.

"Water Gun!" Blake commanded.

"Mud Shot!" Blue countered.

The Pokemon spewed forth their elements and they clashed into each other, the endless rays going on forever, splashing the Gym with muddy water all over. However, one of the sides slipped, and the element crashed to the ground.

As Sandslash was hit by the full force of the Water Gun, it collapsed, keeling over.

"What? How is that possible?" Blue asked, an incredulous look on his face as he recalled his Pokemon.

"My Poliwag mixes the moves Water Gun and Scald into one. Your Sandslash was burned pretty badly," Blake explained, returning his Poliwag to his Poke Ball as well.

Blue smiled. "Well, I didn't expect for you to actually knock my Pokemon out. I was going to concede defeat if things were going badly. But here, you deserve this," he held up a plant shaped Badge, which he tossed to Blake. "This is the Earth Badge. You'll get plenty of respect just from that Badge, but you'll still need to get the others to challenge the League."

"Thanks," Blake nodded, turning away.

Blue looked at the boy's retreating back, then shook his head and turned to the Poke Ball he held in his arm. "Hey Sandslash, we still need to tell people about us leaving. Wanna help me put up notices around the city?"

…

Author's Note:So there you have a chapter of Blake's side of the story. He's managed to beat the mighty Blue! I'm not sure I managed to capture Blue's personality that well. I think I made him too happy… I think the trouble is finding the right Blue to use. Blue from the manga is a lot different from the Blue in the games…

I normally don't enjoy writing fights, but I did like this one. I have no idea why, but anyway…

I know "Blake" isn't the best name to use for one of your OCs (well, that's what I think, anyway), but at the end of the day, what is? I personally wouldn't like it if a character had the same name as me, because then if I didn't like the character… well… so obscure names are probably better. But I find that names like "Sunjab", "Tvuna", or "Yuuki" can put people off since they can be hard to pronounce or whatever.

But before I start to ramble on about the dynamics of names, let's focus our attention back to this chapter.

I was going to make it longer, originally, by having another character appear to talk to Blue. But I'll put that in at a later point.

One thing I like though; is that when I got my first Pokemon game (Diamond), whenever I saw the Gym Guide, I called him "Clyde", because it rhymed with "Guide". Then, when Black/White were released, the Gym Guides in those actually were called Clyde! Yep…

Next chapter is ready to go. I'll release it… whenever I feel like it!