Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, if I did Ash would age and date at least two of his companions. Serena and Dawn would be my call, with Anabel a close third.
A/N: Here is the second gym battle, hope you enjoy it.
On way to Navel Island
Ash, Sabrina and Tracey were once again on the back of Lapras. Ash had the pokenav in his hand and was looking at the screen. They were close to Navel Island, which Ash had been told was the place he could win his 2nd Orange League badge.
"Ash look at that!" Ash looked up from the screen, and looked towards the direction Tracey had been pointing. There a few miles or so away was a small island, with a huge coned mountain in the middle. The mountain was so high that it vanished above the cloud.
"Oh right! Navel island, here we come." Ash fist pumped and held on tight had Lapras gained speed. Lapras knew her trainer wanted to get to this Island so she decided to travel a little bit faster. Soon they were entering the bay of the island. A head of them was a small beach and further back were building lined on either side, leading up towards the mountain. Lapras surfed onto the beach and then allowed everyone to disembark.
"Good Job Lapras, you take a nice long rest." Lapras returned to her ball which Ash clipped onto his belt. The three friends took a look around the Island. The places was deserted.
"Hey where is everyone?" Ash was wondering the same thing as Sabrina. Just then they noticed a small sailing boat come from around the small cliffs. on board was a boy who looked to be in his late teens, he had brown spiky hair, and was dressed in a very colourful shirt and shorts. Ash watched as the boat landed on the beach and the boy got out of it.
"Hi my name is Danny. I guess you are here to challenge the orange crew leader for a badge." Unknown to Ash and the rest, Danny was in fact that Orange crew leader, however he didn't just challenge trainers, they had to prove they were worth the Coral eye badge through a number of test.
Ash shook the boys hand. "Hi my name is Ash, and this is Sabrina and Tracey. We are all travelling through the Orange Islands, and along the way I decided to take the Orange league gym challenge. However it seems this Island is deserted."
Danny smiled. "Well you don't need to worry Ash, you're in the right place. I too am a trainer and want to challenge the gym leader. Hey I have an idea, lets travel together."
Ash and the others thought this was a great idea. Danny reached into his boat and pulled out his rucksack. The first challenge was to scale the huge mountain on the Island. If the trainer could do that then Danny put them through three challenges. One was to turn water geyser into a huge ice log using Ice beam, the second task was to carve the pillar of ice into a sled. If the final round was needed then they would have a race riding the sled down the mountain to the bottom of the Island.
Danny slung the pack onto his back, as the gym leader, he would travel with the challenger up the mountain, disguised as a challenger. "Okay everyone follow me. I know where the gym is, so stay close."
Ash, Sabrina and Tracey followed Danny along the huge rocky path, until they came to a huge stone door. Danny pushed the door opened, and stepped into the courtyard. To one side there was a chair lift that took the challengers companions to the top of the mountain. On the other side was a path that had a notice on one side. This path led to the foot of the mountain, where the trainers would begin their climb.
"So where is the gym? I don't see it anywhere." Ash looked around the courtyard, there was no building that look like a gym, it was Tracey who noticed the notice by the path.
"Hey Ash, look at this notice." Ash walked over towards Tracey and took a close look at the notice. He then read it.
Trainers wishing to challenge the Navel island Gym, take notice. If you want to challenge this gym, you will be required to climb the mountain, you will have to complete the challenge on your own, and no Pokemon are allowed to help you. If you use your Pokemon to help you, then you will be disqualified. Please take note, that only the challenger is required to climb the mountain, guest and supporters can take the chair lift to the left to the top of the mountain.
Signed Navel island Orange Crew member.
Ash took a look at the mountain in front of him, he had to scale that. Ash gulped and looked to Tracey and Sabrina. "I guess I will see you both at the top."
Sabrina raced over to him and hugged him and then gave him a good luck kiss. "Just be careful Ash, that mountain looks quite steep."
Ash pulled his cap down, and turned to Danny. "I guess we both will have to climb the mountain. Are you ready."
Danny pulled his pack further onto his back, this trainer was full of confidence. Maybe he had found a worthy challenger after all. Many of the challengers before had given up and not even made it too the top of the mountain. Danny followed Ash to the foot of the mountain and both began climbing. It wasn't long before Danny was in front, he had scaled this mountain so many times, he could most likely do it with his eyes closed. However he kept looking behind him to make sure Ash was still with him.
"You okay Ash" Danny noticed Ash gave him a thumbs up, however just then Ash lost his balance and started to fall. Danny noticed Ash grabbed a poke ball from his belt. Knowing that Ash might be disqualified he shouted down.
"Ash don't do it!" Danny noticed Ash hesitated and then put the ball back onto his belt. Seeing Ash needed time to catch up, Danny moved to ledge and waited.
Ash reached the ledge. He couldn't believe he had almost blown his chance of challenging the gym leader. Just as he was recovering, Ash felt Pikachu being pulled from his grasp. Some one had sent out a line with a plunger on the end of it and now it had attached itself to Pikachu. Ash growled, he only knew three people who would try such a cowardly act, and if right on queue their balloon became visible in the sky. Ash cringed as they attempted to sing their motto.
Danny was not impressed, who did these three thing they were ruining this challenge. "Here Ash let me help." Danny removed the plunger and watched as three figures in a balloon started throwing a hissy fit.
"How dare you not allow us to finish our motto. Meowth try again." Jessie watched Meowth throw out the line, however her eyes widened as the boy with the twerp grabbed the plunger and attached it to a huge rock. The boy then let go and the rock was sent flying towards them. It blasted a hole in their balloon and Team Rocket found themselves blasting off again.
Ash checked Pikachu all over to make sure he was okay. Seeing no problem, both trainers began to climb the mountain. Soon they had climbed above the clouds and Ash noticed the top of the mountain was covered in snow. Eventually they managed to reach the top and found themselves travelling through some snow. Ash noticed Pikachu was shivering. Ash pulled off his jacket and then wrapped it around Pikachu.
"Here buddy, you will be nice and warm wrapped in that. Don't worry about me, i can take the cold." Ash shivered as a blast of cold air blew across his chest.
Pikachu looked up from the make shift blanket his trainers had created for him. "Thanks boss, you're the best."Pikachu then snuggled in close to Ash chest.
Danny had watched the whole thing. He had never seen a trainer so selfless before. Ash was prepared to brace the conditions so that his Pokemon could be kept warm in his jacket. Danny smiled. "Come on Ash we are nearly there."
At the top of the mountain
Sabrina and Tracey were wrapped up in blankets. They both were looking towards the huge arc that had written on it finished. Sabrina was worried, she had seen how big the mountain was, she had also worked out who Danny was. She carried on watching the anxiously. Finally she smiled as both boys were fine. She raced towards Ash and pulled her blanket around him.
"Oh Ash you had me worried. You're freezing, here let me warm you up." Sabrina pulled Ash into her body, and allowed her on body heat to wash over Ash. She could eventually see the colour in his cheeks returning. Both teens heard a voice behind them.
"Well Ash, that was an excellent climb. You did very well and I am happy to accept your challenge. Allow me to formally introduce myself. "I am Danny and member of the Orange Crew. Are you ready for gym battle Ash?"
Ash unwrapped himself from Sabrina and noticed Danny was stood ready. behind him were two water geyser. Ash approached the gym leader.
"Ready when you are Danny."
Danny grinned. "Well good, because your first challenge starts here. You see there are three challenges, you have to win two out of three to gain the Coral eye badge. Our first challenge is to freeze these geyser into ice pillars. We allowed one Pokemon each, and they must be able to use Ice beam. Here is my Pokemon. Nidoqueen I choose you!"
Nidoqueen roared and flexed her muscles ready for the challenge.
Ash pulled a ball from his belt and opened it. "Ice beam, huh, okay I choose you Lapras!" Lapras appeared from the ball and laid ready for action.
Danny pointed to both geysers. "Okay on three, we have both our Pokemon use ice beam, the first one to completely freeze their geyser wins. Ready, three, two, one, go!"
Both trainers shouted in unison. "Ice beam!" Ash watched as both Pokemon began to freeze the pillar. Ash could see Lapras was doing her best, but it was clear Nidoqueen was more powerful. His fears were confirmed as he heard Danny shout.
"Nidoqueen, full power!" Nidoqueen opened it's mouth wider and the beam began to intensified, soon the whole geyser was a pillar of ice. Nidoqueen roared and flexed her arms in triumph.
Danny recalled Nidoqueen. "Good job, Nidoqueen, Well Ash looks like I win this round."
Ash sighed and then walked over to Lapras. "You did really well Lapras. I am really proud of you, now have a good long rest." Ash recalled Lapras and then turned to see Danny was pointing to a board.
"Okay, Ash, you need to win this next round, or I am afraid you will fail this gym challenge. Now I would like you to look to the board. The next challenge is to carve the pillar into this final shape. You can use three Pokemon. I choose you Machamp, Scyther and Nidoqueen. Who will you choose Ash?"
Ash grinned and pulled a ball from his belt. "I only need one Pokemon for this challenge. "Go Charizard!, however I choose Scizor, and Venusaur for back up."
Danny was surprised by Ash choice, however this was a challenge, and by the rules he had to stop the challenger winning the badge. " Okay Ash, ready, steady, go!"
Ash turned to Charizard. "Hey pal, you think you can use your flamethrower and carve this shape out of this ice pillar."
Charizard looked at Ash and blew a small flame through his nose. "Piece of cake boss. Stand back." Charizard then spew several flames that melted the ice in the right shape. "All done boss."
Danny was speechless, Ash was stood by a perfectly shaped sled, and he had only used Charizard to do it. "Well Ash, it seems you win this round. Okay so we need the tie-breaker. This round we will race our sleds down the mountain, the winner will be the first one to cross the finish line at the bottom of the mountain. Are you ready Ash?"
Ash climbed into the sled, he decided to only use Scizor as the rest of his team were too big to fit. Ash waited for the signal. Once the light had gone green the two trainers pushed off. Ash turned to Scizor.
"Scizor use your pincers to balance us down the mountain."
Scizor put both pincers out on either side of the sled and used them to keep balance. "Will do boss!" Ash noticed the sled seemed to speed up and soon they found themselves spinning out of control. Danny was already well ahead of him.
Danny looked back. "Too bad Ash, you're far to beyond to catch up." Danny words were cut off by an explosion. he then fell his sled fall into a huge hole. "Oh man who would do this."
Ash had stopped the sled, he could have gone on ahead, however that would be unfair to Danny. he stopped the sled with Scizor help and climbed out. "Hang on Danny!"
"Oh no you don't twerp, this is personal." Jessie, James and Meowth then pressed a button on a remote control, there was a huge explosion and Ash found himself at the bottom of the pit with Danny.
Ash was furious. "Don't you guys ever quit? Hey give back Pikachu!" Ash watched helpless as Pikachu was grabbed out of his arms by a huge metal arm. He then noticed the Team Rocket balloon in the sky above them. "Oh no you don't. Pidgeot I choose you. Razor wind!"
Pidgeot exploded from the ball and flew out of the hole, it then used it wings to create two blades of wind that sliced through the balloon, causing the whole balloon to crash. Pidgeot quickly returned back to her trainer and saw he had already climbed out of the hole.
"Good Job, Pidgeot, take a good rest." Ash recalled his Pokemon and turned to Scizor. "You know what to do pal, teach these three a lesson."
Scizor grinned and then used Agility, it was moving so fast that Team Rocket didn't noticed the jar Pikachu had been kept in, was now gone. Scizor had grabbed it and now returned it back to Ash.
Jessie and James looked around and noticed they no longer had Pikachu, however that was least of their problems as they noticed Scizor was charging his famous Hyper beam. Both members grabbed hold of each other as they were blasted off by the concentrated blast of yellow energy.
"Looks like Team Rocket is blasting off again!" Ash watched with a satisfied smirk as the three vanished into the distance. he then turned to Danny.
"We still have a race to complete." Ash noticed the gym leader nodded and already was back in his sled. Ash returned to his own and both waited.
Danny looked to the sky. "When the sun come out from behind that cloud, we go."
Ash, waited finally the sun had appeared, it quickly pushed off, and soon was racing down the mountain once more. Ash noticed the snow suddenly vanished and now they were racing down a rocky terrain. Ash and Scizor tried to stay on course, however they ended up shooting off into the small woods on the mountain.
Danny looked behind him, no sign of Ash. Danny wasn't happy, he thought Ash was the one to give him the challenge, he was less then 30 seconds from the finish line. Suddenly he noticed something shoot out from the woods. It was Ash. Danny watched helpless as Ash raced past him and crossed the finish line.
Ash fist pumped in triumph as he crossed the line. He had done it. His second Orange league gym badge. Ash climbed off what was left of his sled and waited for Danny to climb out of his. He was suddenly engulfed into a huge hug by Sabrina. Ash smiled and returned the hug with just as much love. He noticed Danny was walking over towards him.
"Well done Ash, you won, two out of three of the challengers. As the rules state, I am pleased to present you with the Coral eye badge. Well done."
Ash took the badge and attached it to his jacket. He then did his famous pose. "I won the Coral eye badge."
Tracey and Sabrina sweat dropped in the background. Would Ash ever learn just how childish that was.
A/N: There you go, Ash has won his second badge. Next chapter will be the famous Snorlax one. Stay tuned.