The next morning, Chance awoke to the overly loud voice of the woman he had learned was the Goldenrod City Gym leader. He remained in his sleeping bag for a few minutes, refusing to open his eyes and admit to himself that he was already awake for the day. He listened for several long minutes to the pink-haired gym leader talk loudly about how good Adrian's cooking smelled. Her excited talking was enough to force Chance to surrender his attempt to go back to sleep, much to his annoyance.
"Good morning." The blonde woman, Samantha, greeted the redhead once his eyes fluttered open. The boy glanced over to the woman who sat a few feet away, sipping a cup of warm coffee.
"Hey." Chance greeted, sitting up slowly. The movement disturbed snivy, who, as always, had made her own bed of the boy's pillow. The redhead pulled the grass snake pokemon up into his chest and stood, cradling his starter pokemon.
"Oh! You're finally up! Maybe now we can start breakfast!" Whitney cheered loudly. The redhead rubbed his face with the hand that wasn't holding snivy, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. "Somebody was cooking super slowly because he said it'd be rude to eat without you!" The girl pouted.
The two boys shared a glance where Adrian rolled his eyes at the girl. He quickly had quilava increase the size of their little cooking fire, hoping to speed things up now that his companion was awake. The sooner they ate the sooner they would have their battle.
The breakfast went quickly. Both boys tried to hurry it along in hopes to finally get their third badges. The boys intentionally were trying to eat quickly, but they still finished several minutes after Whitney had devoured her food.
"Ahhhh." Whitney sighed with content, letting her hand rest on her full stomach. She looked over at her friend who had just finished eating as well. "I guess it is time for that battle I promised you boys." She said, while getting to her feet. Her three companions all stood up and joined her. "This match will be a bit unique, if that is alright with you boys." The gym leader said with a wink.
"Unique in what way?" Adrian questioned.
"Well, I don't have all of my gym pokemon with me, and I have no way to heal my pokemon between battles." She explained. "So, how about we have a double battle? Samantha will join me as my partner, and if you two beat us you both earn a badge."
"Is that even allowed?" Chance asked the woman. "I didn't think you could take on more than one person in an official battle at once, and with a person who isn't a gym leader battling with you."
"Oh, don't worry about it!" Whitney replied with a laugh. "There are no official rules about how a match must be done. I am allowed to determine the challenge, and gym leaders can even give away badges to people for different feats or actions that prove to the leader that they are worthy of the badge. So this is nothing. Besides, this will be super fun!"
"Well…" The redhead turned and locked eyes with his friend, who gave a quick nod. "I guess we accept."
"Yay!" The leader cheered. "Each trainer will use two pokemon! The match will be over when one side has no pokemon remaining. Agreed?" She was met with a nod from each of the other three trainers.
"Let's do this." Adrian said with a smirk, withdrawing a pokeball from his pocket.
"Alright! Let's go! Come on out, sentret!" The gym leader shouted as she tossed a ball into the air.
"We've totally got this! Come on out, meowth!" Samantha called out from beside her friend, showing more passion now than she had since the boys met her.
From the two pokeballs emerged two normal-type pokemon. Sentret was a brown pokemon with black stripes and a large tail, while meowth was a cream colored cat pokemon with a gold charm on its head. The scout pokemon quickly stood up on its tail and stared at the two trainers across the clearing from it.
"Ready for this?" Adrian asked his friend, who gave him a nod. "Alright, quilava, I choose you!" He yelled, tossing out his starter pokemon's pokeball.
"Staryu, let's do this!" Chance called out, summoning his water pokemon.
"Let's begin, then! Sentret, hit quilava with a scratch!" Whitney commanded.
"Meowth, fury swipes on staryu!"
"Quilava, repel it with flame wheel!"
"Staryu, use bubble beam to keep meowth back!" The redhead called out.
The two normal-types charged their foes, but each were met with counterattacks. Quilava leapt into the air and curled into a tight ball and spun into a flame wheel, which then hurdled towards the scout pokemon and slammed into it, tossing it across the field. Meowth fared better. The bubble beam stopped the scratch cat's advance, but it was able to use its extended, razor sharp claws to burst the bubbles before they made contact.
"Not bad." The gym leader smiled. "Sentret, use quick attack and follow up with iron tail on quilava!" She cheered out to her pokemon.
"Meowth, follow up and hit quilava with fury swipes!"
"Staryu, stop meowth with water gun!" The redhead called out, throwing his hand out towards the scratch cat pokemon.
"Quilava, keep sentret back with an ember attack!"
The two normal-types charged forward once more, but meowth was met with a powerful burst of water from the star shape pokemon that sent it rolling back towards its trainer. Sentret fared better this time, using its quick attack to close the distance between itself and its opponent and then to dodge the fire-types attack. Quilava was then slammed with sentret's tail, which glowed a light gray color as it slammed into the starter pokemon, sending it rolling across the grass.
"You alright, quilava?" Adrian called to his pokemon, who stood and gave a small nod. "Alright. Then let's wrap this up. Hit meowth with ember!"
"Staryu, water gun on sentret!" Chance ordered.
The two attacks slammed into their targets and launched them into each other. Meowth and sentret slowly began to struggle to stand once more.
"Finish them, quilava! Hit them with flame wheel!"
The fire-type leapt into the air and formed a large, rotating ball of fire around itself. The flames around the volcano pokemon continued to grow into a raging inferno as it sped through the air at the two weakened pokemon. Within seconds the giant fireball slammed into the two, causing a large explosion of dust and smoke to spread through the air.
Staryu and quilava stood their ground, ready to attack once more once the smoke cleared. A few tense moments went by as the smoke dissipated, revealing sentret curled into a ball, while an unconscious meowth lay beside it. Sentret slowly popped out of its defense curl and stood back up on its tail once more.
"Meowth, return!" Samantha recalled her scratch cat pokemon. "You did great, sweetie. Now! It's your turn, nidorina!" She cried out as she threw a second pokeball. A blue pokemon that looked a lot like Adrian's nidoran emerged from the pokeball. However, the nidorina was about twice the size of nidoran and lacked the large horn on its head.
"Nidorina, huh?" Adrian mumbled, glancing at his quilava. "Quilava, let's save you for later. Return!" The volcano pokemon disappeared in a flash of red light as his trainer recalled him. "Alright, let's show them what you're made of, nidoran!" The blonde called out as he summoned his own poison pin pokemon. The little purple pokemon stomped its foot in the dirt as it glared across the field at its evolved counterpart.
"Ahhhh. So you want to play games then?" Samantha said with a smirk. "Fine with us! Nidorina, use bite on nidoran!"
"Counter it with horn attack!" Adrian cried out.
"Sentret, hit staryu with a quick attack!" Whitney yelled out in a joyful tone.
"Repel sentret with water gun!"
Nidoran and nidorina met in the middle of the battlefield and hit each other hard, throwing up a small cloud of dust around them. Nidoran repeatedly used its horn to force nidorina back enough to avoid the bite attack, however, nidorina continually used scratch during the scuffle to damage her foe.
Sentret charged its foe across the field, who tried to retaliate with several powerful blasts of water, but each one was nimbly dodged by the scout pokemon. Sentet then slammed into staryu, sending the star shape pokemon sliding across the grass towards its trainer. The normal-type then continued its attack by flipping in the air and slamming an iron tail into the water pokemon.
"Staryu, rapid spin to get sentret away! Then help nidoran with a swift!" The star shape pokemon obeyed its trainer as it began to spin rapidly and shoot across the field towards the scout pokemon. Staryu slammed into sentret, who tried to withstand the hit but ultimately failed, being tossed before its trainer, defeated. Before sentret could hit the ground, however, staryu was already blasting a shower of white stars towards the two poison-types who were still trading blows. The stars impacted and forced nidorina to back away from the smaller foe.
"Sentret!" Came the piercing wail from across the field, making both boys flinch. Whitney quickly ran the few feet to her pokemon and scooped it into her arms. "How could you hurt my poor little sentret?" She asked, now sobbing.
"Uhhh…" Adrian glanced at Chance, who shared a look of utter confusion. "It's a battle, that is kinda what we are supposed to do…" The blonde explained quietly to the crying girl.
"Let me handle this, boys." Samantha said with a smile. She closed the gap between her and the gym leader and knelt beside her friend, placing her hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you can't always get like this when somebody defeats a pokemon of yours. Sentret did its best, and now the battle must go on." The gym leader's cries slowly subsided into light sniffles as her friend continued to talk to her. Soon, Samantha stood up once more. "Alright, sorry about that, boys. She gets this way when one of her pokemon gets hurt." She looked down once more at Whitney. "You ready to win this?"
"You will pay for hurting my cute little sentret." The pink-haired gym leader said with anger in her eyes as she slowly stood once more, returning sentret to its pokeball and grabbing another. "Let's teach them a lesson, miltank!"
The ball burst open and in a flash of red light a large pokemon emerged. The pokemon was a large, pink cow pokemon, which stood about a foot taller than any other pokemon that was currently on the battlefield. The cow immediately began to stomp her hoof into the grass and stare down her foes.
"Let's resume this battle. Miltank, use tackle on staryu!" The gym leader cried, throwing her arm out and pointing at the water-pokemon.
The milk cow charged her foe with surprising speed. Staryu immediately started to blast it with a water gun, but the steady torrent of water hardly seemed to be slowing the normal-type down at all.
"Nidoran, poison sting on miltank, quick!"
"Not so fast! Nidorina, bite on nidoran!"
Nidoran launched a spray of purple needles from its mouth towards the milk cow, but the assault was intercepted by nidorina, who took the hit and then charged the smaller poison pin pokemon. Nidorina then bit onto nidorans ear, picked it up, and began to slam the pokemon into the ground repeatedly. As nidoran was being beaten down by its foe, miltank slammed into the water-type, who was sent flying past its trainer and into a nearby tree. Staryu slowly fell to the ground, where its normally bright core blinked slowly, signaling its defeat.
"Staryu, come on back, buddy. You did a great job." The redheaded trainer praised the defeated water pokemon. Chance's hand went to his pokeballs, where he immediately grabbed the one storing onix, but then shifted over to another one, not wanting to rely on his overly strong pokemon to make it past this gym battle. "Snivy, come on out!" He called, summoning his starter pokemon.
Snivy emerged onto the battlefield and stared at the milk cow and poison pin pokemon across the field from her. She and nidoran shared a glance and a quick nod before the battle resumed once more.
"Milktank, rollout on nidoran!"
"Nidorina, poison sting on snivy!"
"Use leaf tornado to block the poison sting, quick!" Chance called out to his starter.
"Dodge miltank and use horn attack on nidorina, nidoran!"
Nidorina launched a barrage of purple, poisonous needles at the grass snake pokemon, who began to spin in the air and whip up a tornado of leaves to block the attack. The spinning leaves took the hit of a lot of the needles, but eventually the assault broke past the impromptu defense and slammed into the starter pokemon. However, the attack didn't last long, as nidoran jumped past the miltank who had curled into a ball and rolled across the field at the poison pin pokemon, and slammed its glowing horn into nidorina's side. The two poison-types engaged in a close range battle once again, this time with nidorina enraged.
"Turn around and try again, miltank! Finish that nidoran off!" Whitney ordered, her voice still filled with anger.
The milk cow pokemon did a quick turn while still rolling and sped across the grass towards the two battling poison-types. Nidorina tried to dodge at the last moment, but nidoran knocked her in front of the normal-type to take the hit along with him. Both poison pin pokemon rolled across the grass after the impact, neither able to make it back to their feet after the damage they had sustained.
"Damn! I'm totally out of pokemon. Looks like it's up to you, Whit." Samantha complained with a shrug to the gym leader.
"Two-on-one, huh?" The gym leader said with a smirk. "Don't worry, miltank and I got this."
"We will see about that. Quilava, let's wrap this up!" Adrian shouted with confidence, summoning his starter pokemon once more. "Use ember!"
"Miltank, counter it with rollout!"
Miltank curled into a ball once more and rocketed across the field at the volcano pokemon, allowing the ember to bounce off its thick hide as it surged forward. Luckily for Adrian, quilava was able to narrowly avoid the attack.
"I don't know how we can damage this thing…" Adrian mumbled to his partner. "Any ideas?"
"Not sure. It doesn't seem to be taking much damage from our attacks. For now just keep dodging and try to wear it down." The redhead responded to his friend, never taking his eyes off the still moving milk cow. "Snivy, energy ball!"
The speed of miltank was continuing to increase as it charged towards the two starter pokemon once more. Snivy tried to slow it down some with a large energy ball, which exploded across its body, but didn't do much to slow her down. Snivy took a glancing blow from the rollout and was sent flying across the field, separating her from quilava, who immediately started pelting miltank with embers, causing her to turn and charge quilava once more.
"That's it!" Chance cried out.
"What? Got a plan?" The blonde replied.
"Yeah. Keep quilava and snivy apart. If one can attack while the other dodges then we can do constant damage to miltank. We just have to make sure we don't take a full hit or we are done for." The redhead explained. "Snivy use leaf tornado on miltank before it turns back around!"
Quilava was busy dancing around the speeding ball that was intent on taking him out of the match, but was luckily given a moment of reprieve when miltank was assaulted by a swirling wind of leaves that slammed into her. Miltank quickly turned her attention to the grass snake once more and charged across the field.
"Quilava, don't let miltank get away! Use ember again!"
Quilava shot out a barrage of fireballs once more on the retreating miltank, causing her to begin to wobble for the first time. Snivy easily dodged the attack this time, noticing the normal-type starting to slow down.
"Come on miltank! You got this! Take those two out for sentret!" Whitney cried out.
Miltank turned and charged quilava once more, using much of her remaining energy to speed up once more.
"Not this time! Quilava, meet miltank head on with a flame wheel!" Adrian ordered.
Quilava jumped and curled into a flame wheel and spun towards its foe. As quilava approached its speed increased, as did the size of the flames surrounding its body. The two rolling pokemon slammed into each other, causing a large explosion in the middle of the battlefield. Snivy shielded its eyes from the dirt and smoke that blew back at it. Snivy let out a few soft coughs as the smoke cleared enough for her and the four trainers to see the middle of the battlefield. As the smoke cleared Samantha let out a soft gasp, while Whitney fell to her knees. Miltank lay unconscious on the ground with an unmoving quilava lying beside her.
"Looks like miltank and quilava are both unable to battle. Since snivy is still standing, looks like you two totally win!" Samantha stated happily.
"No! No, it's not fair!" The pink-haired gym leader sobbed from beside her friend. "We aren't supposed to lose!"
"Come on, Whit." The blonde girl said, kneeling next to her friend. "You can't keep getting so upset whenever you don't win a battle. These boys and their pokemon fought hard and earned this win." She said with a grin. She looked across the battlefield at the two boys who were currently holding their respective starter pokemon and praising them for a battle well fought.
"B... but they hurt my poor sentret and miltank…" The gym leader sniffled.
"You know that is a part of battling." The blonde laughed a little. "Come on, let's go give those boys their badges." She stood and offered her hand to the gym leader, who took it and slowly got to her feet as well.
"Fine…" She mumbled as she stifled her last few sniffles and began to walk with her friend across the field to her miltank and the two boys.
The gym leader approached her miltank and helped the milk cow pokemon to her feet, the entire time praising the pokemon for the strength it showed during that battle, defeating three of the pokemon it faced. The normal-type mooed softly in response to its trainer's praise. Both boys smiled at the gym leader's affection for her pokemon. After a few moments of checking on miltank, Whitney finally turned to the boys.
"Sorry about all of that…" Whitney said meekly. "I just really hate losing and seeing my cute little pokemon get hurt." She explained. "But for real, you guys really did earn this." As she spoke she produced two small yellow diamonds with silver borders. "This is the Plain Badge. It shows that you defeated me in a gym battle and helps qualify you for the Silver Conference." She handed a badge to each boy.
"Thank you very much, Whitney. You too, Samantha. You two are really strong." Chance complimented the two with a large smile.
"Yeah… That was a very interesting battle, to say the least." Adrian added, rubbing the back of his head.
"Yeah, Whitney totally likes to use brute force to overpower her opponents. I battle much the same way. You guys handled miltank pretty well!" Samantha praised. Both boys thanked her for her compliments.
"Well! Now that we have that out of the way! I think it is time for us to head back home, Sammie." Whitney exclaimed happily. Her slightly taller friend gave her a quick nod and both women said their goodbyes to the victorious trainers before heading south towards Goldenrod City.
"I guess it's time that we get packed up and head for Ecruteak, yeah?" The blonde asked his friend.
"Yeah, I think we are ready." The redhead smiled as Snivy hopped up onto his shoulder to curl up once more.
So, due to a few suggestions via pm and talking with a few of my readers I have decided to go with the name change to "Heir to the Champion's Crown" as what I currently have sounds more like a generic/in-progress title. Thanks for the feedback. And as always, thanks for reading. 3