20 minutes later Ashley and Whitney arrived at the Gym and Whitney opened the door that she had received from jasmine for use while she was sick and let Ashley walk through first. Whitney, when they were both inside, asked "so, have you had breakfast yet?"

"Yeah, I had some jam on toast before I left."

"Well, that's alright then. Hey, why'd you trade Tentacool for a Mareep?"

"Well, I've been thinking back on all of my journeys so far and I realised that my only electric type is Pikachu. I mean, I know that type isn't everything, and I'm still lacking in Dark and Steel types, but I've got multiple Grass, Fire, Water and Ground types, along with many Flying types. I mean, I've always been happy with Pikachu as my only one and I've got no regrets about anything I have done up to this point. However..."

"Now that you don't have Pikachu with you..."

"Yeah, I've suppose that I never really consciously thought about it before now, it's just that now I'm coming to realise what I've done in the past and what I should probably do differently this time."

"Well, this should be quite the interesting journey then."

"Why's that?"

"I'll get to see just how much you've grown since our Gym Battle at Uncle Milton's farm."

"Okay then, how about a battle?"

"Sounds good to me. Any specific rules in mind?"

"well, I'm going to use Mareep, so how does one on one sound?"

"Alright then. I'm sure that there'll be no problems with using the gyms battlefield."

"Alright, let's do it."

With that the two girls arrived at the gyms battlefield to see Jasmines apprentice about making use of the battlefield. When they walked out onto the battlefield they saw that one of jasmine's apprentices was teaching a class of students who wished to become Pokémon trainers. He was saying "now, here in the Olivine City Gym we specialise in steel type Pokémon, now, can any of you tell me what Pokémon the Gym Leader uses?"

A student raised his hand and said "Steelix, Magnemite and Magneton."

A girl bumped him on the head and said "no it's not, once she returned from the Sinnoh region she evolved her Magneton into a Magnezone and she also caught a wild Shieldon that she uses in her Gym Battles."

"That is correct" the teacher said "now..."

"Uh, sorry to interrupt..." Ashley said from behind the teacher, tapping him on the shoulder "...do you mind if we use the field?"

"No, not at all."

"Okay thanks" Ashley said before turning to walk back to where Whitney was standing.

"Uh..." the teacher trailed off.

"Yes, what is it?" Ashley asked turning her head to look over her shoulder at the teacher.

"Would you mind if the students watched your match?"

"I don't mind, what about you whiney?"

"No I'm good."

"There you go, no problems at all" Ashley said to the teacher.

"Thank you, it's just that it's not often that the students get to see Jasmine battle."

"Really?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah."

"Why not?"

"She claims that it might distract the trainer going for a badge."

"oh, I see. Just be aware that this isn't a Gym Battle, alright."

"That's fine, as long as you both try your hardest to win, that's all that matters."

"Alright..." Ashley turned to Whitney "...so, do you want the left or the right?"

"Doesn't matter to me."

"I'll take the right side then."

"Then I've got the left."

The two female trainers walked to the ends of the battlefield that they had chosen and Ashley called out "do we need a judge?"

"No it's a one on one battle and the first Pokémon unable to battle loses."

"Alright then. Come on out Mareep" Ashley said throwing a pokéball away from herself.

"Go, Rattata" Whitney said at the same time as she threw a pokéball towards Ashley. They simultaneously caught their respective pokéball and Whitney said "alright Ashley, you can have the first move."

"Thanks Whitney. Mareep, use Thundershock."

Mareep launched the rather weak attack and Whitney called out "Rattata, dodge that and use quick attack." Rattata dodged the electric attack and ran towards Ashley's Mareep so fast that a white streak formed behind it.

Ashley called out "Mareep, dodge that." Mareep tried to get away from Rattata's Quick Attack, but was just too slow and got hit by it.

"Now, use Super Fang" Whitney said.

Rattata's extended two front teeth glowed white and it bit down on Mareeps neck. Mareep started to try and shake it off, but failed miserably. Ashley said to herself "wait a minute, in a situation like this..." then called out "Mareep, use Thundershock now."

"Oh no, Rattata, get out of there" Whitney cried out as she realised what Ashley was doing. Unfortunately it was too late as, by the time that she had finished speaking Mareep had already poured a lot of electricity directly into Rattata. When Mareeps Thundershock finished Rattata struggled to get up. When it was back on all fours again Whitney said to herself "well, I'm not going to try that again. Mareep is rather slow, which means..." then in a louder voice she said "alright Rattata, use quick attack again."

"Oh damn" Ashley said.

"Mareeps response time to your commands may be extremely fast Ashley, but its physically incredibly slow. Rattata, use Quick Attack again but this time aim for Mareeps side."

"Wha..." Ashley trailed off as her mapped was both knocked on its side and knocked out. She sighed and said "you're as good as you ever were Whitney."

"You almost had me there Ashley."

"Yeah, then you went back to using speed attacks."

This conversation was going on as they returned their Pokémon. They then walked to the middle of the field and shook hands before heading over to the class.

Ashley asked "so, how was that kids?"

The boy that had answered the teachers question when Ashley and Whitney walked into the room said "it was awesome, but why did you use Quick Attack at the end of the battle rather than Super Fang, which is a more powerful move."

"Well, that's easy..." Whitney said "...when my Rattata bit down on Ashley's Mareep before Ashley used the opportunity to use Mareeps most powerful move on it."

"But Mareep can use more powerful moves than Thundershock."

"Yes. That is true, that Mareep can learn more powerful attacks however, if it doesn't know those powerful moves, then it's not really much use, is it?"

"I guess not...but you still haven't answered my question, why use quick attack?"

"Sometimes in a battle power isn't the only thing that matters."

"What?"

"Think of it this way, Electavire is stronger than say-y-y, a Pikachu right?"

"Well yeah, of course. An evolved Pokémon will always be stronger than an unevolved Pokémon of the same type."

"Well, even if Electavire is more powerful, if it can't hit Pikachu, then what is the point to having all the extra power?"

"I see, so you're saying that because Whitney knew that because her Pokémon was faster than yours she used speed instead of power?"

"You could look at it that way."

"Geez, there's more to battling than I thought."

"Well, just keep it in mind, there's more to battling than just speed and power as well."

"What do you..."

"Just think about it yourself. At times you need also need to think things through. Believe me, I wish that someone told me that long ago."

"Hai Ashley-sensei."

"Uhh, right. Well, goodbye" Ashley said before leaving with Whitney to take their Pokémon to the Pokémon Centre to have them healed.