Brock's pokémon took the field first. His geodude's uneven gray skin was marred by a few lingering scorch marks from its battle with Roy's charmander, but it still looked formidable as it sprung into the center of the arena. "All right, Geodude, let's rock!" shouted Brock with a laugh.

Across the field Antonia was not laughing. She was instead shaking with some combination of fear and excitement that she didn't fully understand. Her hand closed upon one of the two poké balls in her pocket and she brought it out to hold it unsteadily in front of her. "Weedle, I choose you."

A beam of red light shot from the center of her poké ball and took the form of the pokémon which Antonia had caught the day before. The weedle explored its surroundings with evident curiosity, its bright red nose guiding its face every which way. Beady black eyes took in Brock and his geodude as well as Antonia, but Weedle did not seem unduly concerned with them. Instead, it crawled its way over to the nearest of the upturned rocks littering the battlefield and climbed atop it to bask in the warming rays of the afternoon sun.

"First a charmander and now a weedle," Brock murmured to himself, "what a weird day." Then he shouted across the arena, "Are you sure that's the pokémon that you want to go with, Antonia?"

"Yes!" squeaked Antonia, so Brock and the match's referee both shrugged their shoulders before the latter announced, "A battle between the challenger Antonia and the gym leader! Trainers, begin!"

Immediately, Brock's voice rang out with his first order, "Geodude! Hit it with a tackle attack! Let's do this in one go!"

His pokémon grunted in agreement and then started to advance on Antonia's weedle with its characteristic bounding leaps. The sound of Geodude's hands slapping against the battlefield and the resulting vibrations which shook the rock it was sunning itself on shook Weedle from its complacency. It looked up blearily at its attacker and then let out a high-pitched squeal of terror.

Weedle looked in every direction but there was nowhere that it could go on its many stubby legs to escape Geodude's attack in time. It started to curl up in despair when Antonia ordered, "Weedle! Use your string shot to tie up one of Geodude's arms!"

If there had been anything else that Weedle could have done besides engage the pokémon barreling towards it at full-speed, it would have done so. But lacking any other options, the fragile creature decided to trust in its trainer. Scrunching up its face, Weedle fired three narrow lines of silk out of its mouth at Geodude. The first attack was too far to one side, while the next overshot its target, but by the third time, just as the stony pokémon had closed the distance between itself and Weedle to only a few yards, the string connected. Weedle moved its head back and forth so that the thin line of string stretched taut between Geodude's wildly pumping arms and ensnared them. Brock's pokémon had built up too much momentum to do anything other than topple face-first onto the rocky field.

"Very impressive, Antonia!" said Brock as his geodude rolled over to pick itself up off of the ground and began working to untangle its arms from the thin bindings of Weedle's attack. While Geodude worked, Antonia brought Weedle's poké ball back up and recalled her small pokémon back to safety.

Then, with a frown set deeply in her round face, Antonia brought up another red and white poké ball in her other hand and sent forth her bulbasaur in a burst of light.

"Switching pokémon so soon?" asked Brock.

Antonia did not respond to the gym leader's question. Instead, she shouted, "Bulbasaur! Hit it with your vine whip!"

With a croak of exertion, Bulbasaur shot two long green-blue vines out from under the rounded plant on his back. The appendages slapped Brock's geodude across the face as he finally pulled free of the last remnants of Weedle's string shot attack. Geodude groaned in pain and annoyance, but it still tried to advance on Bulbasaur with its characteristic leaps driven by its powerful arms.

"Don't let it get started!" ordered Antonia. "Trip it up!"

Bulbasaur nodded his broad head and hardly a second later swung one of his outstretched vines just across the surface of the battlefield where it built up enough speed to land with a loud crack against one of Geodude's wrists. The rocky pokémon gritted its teeth and toppled over to one side. There on the ground it had to struggle to pick itself up while Bulbasaur's vines continued to batter away at its prone body.

"Defense curl, Geodude," commanded Brock, and then he stroked his chin as he watched his pokémon roll up into a ball and try to shield itself from Bulbasaur's barrage of attacks. Geodude's efforts had almost brought it within striking distance of Bulbasaur, but it was unable to close the distance without taking a heavy beating from its foe's vines. So, with a shake of his head, Brock raised his own poké ball and aimed it at his beleaguered pokémon so that it vanished inside of it in a flash of light.

"The gym leader Brock has recalled Geodude!" announced the referee. "Since he is not allowed any substitutes, Bulbasaur is the winner! The gym leader will now send out his last pokémon!"

"You're doing pretty well, Antonia," said Brock with a warm smile on his chiseled features, "but let's see how you handle this pokémon! Onix, you're up!"

With a mighty throw, Brock through his next poké ball high up in the air until it was impossible to make it out with the sun behind it. The reason for this move became apparent as the spinning capsule released its occupant, a towering serpent constructed out of interlocked segments of gray stone and topped by a head with sharp narrow eyes and a pillar of stone serving as its horn. It was tall enough to blot out the sun at its full height and when it lowered the bulk of its body to the battlefield with a heavy crash the impact sent Bulbasaur, Antonia, and the stones scattered around the arena off-kilter. The fearsome monster, the onix, opened its toothless mouth and unleashed a roar which was somehow even louder than the crash. Then, it stared down at Antonia and Bulbasaur with an unfathomable expression.

"So, Antonia, what do you think of my onix?" Brock asked. "I'm guessing it's a lot bigger than anything that you and your pokémon have faced before, so what will you do?"

"I-I-I-" stuttered Antonia as her eyes bugged out of her head. With how well things had gone against Brock's geodude, she had started to grow confident, but now the swell of pride in her pokémon and in herself had deflated. How were they supposed to tackle this beast, this creature which looked like it belonged in a fairy tale, not looming over her and her bulbasaur? Antonia struggled to pull her eyes away from the onix to glance down at her own pokémon. He was so small that Onix could swallow him in a single gulp! But he was the only pokémon that she could rely on. Weedle was too small, too timid, and too weak.

Antonia found herself staring back up at the awesome monster on the battlefield, when a sharp cry of "Bulbasaur!" caused her to snap her brown eyes back down to her pokémon. Bulbasaur's body was still facing his opponent, but he was looking back at his trainer. She still had a hard time reading his expressions, but Bulbasaur didn't seem scared to Antonia. He croaked again, something which sounded as though it might have been encouragement, and then he looked back up at his gigantic foe and growled at it.

"What will you do?" Brock asked again. The way that he asked it sparked something in Antonia. He wasn't taunting her. Instead, he was asking her the question with the same tone that she had heard from her teachers back in Pallet Town when they had called on a student in class.

This wasn't just a battle; it was a test of her talent as a trainer. And thinking about the match in that way helped Antonia regain some of the confidence that she had lost upon Onix's frightful appearance. "I can do this," she said to herself, though she wasn't quite sure that she believed it, and then, to her pokémon she shouted, "Bulbasaur! Use your leech seed attack!"

Bulbasaur was ready, almost as if he had been anticipating her order, and he squatted low to the ground while the deep green bulb on his back opened ever so slightly and fired a small yellow seed hurling towards Brock's onix. It landed between two of the long pokémon's body segments and produced a series of vines where it burst. The small green tendrils sought purchase on Onix's craggy body and continued to steadily creep across its body.

The much larger pokémon roared its annoyance while Brock laughed. "Very good! But let's see if this battle will last long enough for your strategy to work! Onix! Attack!"

Onix obeyed its trainer without hesitation and it brought the front third of its body down on the ground in front of it. Bulbasaur still had his vines outstretched from his bout with Geodude, and he used them to dodge Onix's attack. He wrapped his vines around one of the stones protruding from the battlefield and quickly retracted them in order to pull his squat body out of the way of Onix's lunging attack.

"Good work, Bulbasaur!" cried Antonia, but Brock simply ordered, "Again, Onix!" and the giant pokémon lifted up its body again and lurched toward Bulbasaur's refuge.

The smaller pokémon hopped away just in time as Brock's pokémon slammed its body down onto the battlefield again and reduced the stones in its path to rubble. While Onix worked to lift itself off of the ground, Bulbasaur attempted a few slashing blows with his vines, but the larger pokémon shrugged them off and reoriented itself for another attack. Once more, Onix reared back to strike and once more Bulbasaur used his vines to pull himself out of the way. Both pokémon were breathing heavily by now from their exertions and, in Onix's case, from the parasitic plant spreading its grasping reach across its body.

Brock was smiling, but when he spoke his voice was hard and professional again, "Onix, clear the field." His pokémon bellowed its acknowledgement of the order and lowered its body to the ground. Then, resting the front part of its long body on the ground it swung its tail behind it with tremendous force to send the rocks behind it flying, when they were not destroyed outright. Many of the assembled spectators scattered out of the way from the resulting shower of gravel and dirt, but Antonia and Brock in their dugouts paid them no mind. Their attention was fixed solely upon the battlefield.

The first part of its work done, Onix turned its body around and proceeded to sweep clear another section of the arena, and then the next, until Bulbasaur was left confined to a single corner, huddling behind one of the few remaining upturned stones.

"One last time, Onix," said Brock, "then it'll have nowhere to hide."

Scrambling with his short clumsy limbs, Bulbasaur clambered atop of the rock which he had been hiding behind and then jumped off of it just before Onix's tail swept across the field again and left it clear of any shelter for the smaller pokémon.

The exertion of thrashing about the field had clearly taken it out of Onix, but Bulbasaur was also panting hard and working to catch his breath. The battle was reaching its denouement, and all sides knew it. Brock made the next move, ordering, "Onix, let's wrap this up with a bind attack."

Onix advanced carefully on Bulbasaur while the smaller pokémon tried to fend it off with slaps of his extended vines. But Brock's pokémon was simply too large and the space between them too small for Bulbasaur to avoid it, and it circled around its opponent and then started to tighten its body to coil around Bulbasaur.

Just before her pokémon disappeared completely behind Onix's looping body, Antonia cried out, "Use your vines, Bulbasaur! Hold it off!"

Inside of Onix's stranglehold, Bulbasaur tried to push back against the cloying press of the larger pokémon's body with his vines, but they were too weak and their wielder too tired to challenge Onix's attack. Instead of trying to directly match his foe's power, Bulbasaur then tried to protect himself in another way, by circling his vines just around his body, entwining them together to strengthen them. Onix continued pressing against him, squeezing the protective circle of vines and the pokémon inside of it with steady pressure.

"Keep it up, Onix!"

"Hold on for a little longer, Bulbasaur!"

The two trainers could do little else but shout encouragement at their pokémon as they watched the contest of wills between them. There was no sign of what was going on inside of the prison of Onix's spiraled body, but it seemed to Antonia that it was continuing to draw tighter and tighter around her pokémon. She was almost ready to concede victory before Bulbasaur became seriously injured, but suddenly Onix stopped moving. It gave a low, pained groan and then loosened its hold before slumping over on the ground. The plant which had grown from Bulbasaur's leech seed attack had spread along a great deal of the mammoth pokémon's body and was now blooming with yellow flowers. Over Onix's prone form, climbed Antonia's Bulbasaur. He was bruised and exhausted, but as he stood atop of his fallen foe, there was a look of unmistakable pride in his eyes.

"Onix is unable to battle! The winner of the match is Bulbasaur and the challenger, Antonia!"

With those words, Antonia slumped against the side of the dugout on her side of the field. She had done it, she had actually done it, she thought wildly. A sudden surge of energy lifted her back onto her feet and without any care for the people watching her she climbed out onto the arena and with her hair flying behind her and her glasses bouncing up and down on her nose she ran to Bulbasaur and lifted him up in the air, spinning him around as she cheered, "We did it! We did it!"

Then, she realized where she was and that she was the center of attention for all of the people who had gathered in the park to watch Brock's matches. One set of eyes in particular made her turn crimson.

Roy was looking at her with an expression that she couldn't make out and Antonia's excitement faltered. Her untrammeled joy at her victory over Brock was doused in cold water and she grew self-conscious about the whole situation. Antonia's nerves only grew more frayed as Brock joined her in the middle of the arena.

"Congratulations, Antonia, that was a well-fought match," the gym leader said as he returned his pokémon to its poké ball and motioned for Antonia to do the same. "You used the abilities of your pokémon very well and you didn't give up when faced with a challenge. In recognition of your determination, I award you this Boulder Badge." With that, he pressed a polished piece of stone into Antonia's hand as he shook it. With dull unfocused eyes, Antonia looked down at the gray hexagon in her hand and then was surprised as Brock dropped something else in her open hand.

"What's this?" she asked.

"It's a technical machine, or a TM, if you'd like. It teaches a pokémon how to perform a technique that they otherwise couldn't learn." Brock gestured at the small cube that he had given Antonia. "That one is TM34, it can teach one of your pokémon the bide technique. Since it's one that requires a cool head under pressure, I think that you should be able to use it well."

Antonia closed her fingers around the two gifts and said, "Thank you, Mr. Brock, sir."

He smiled at her. "You're welcome, Antonia, and thank you for a great battle." Then, he shook her hand again and walked off to speak with the referee.

Antonia wasn't by herself on the flattened battleground for long. Roy had broken out of the crowd and had stood by patiently while Brock had spoken with her. But now that the gym leader was gone there was nothing stopping him from approaching Antonia. She felt her hands coming together to fidget as he drew nearer, but they stopped when she saw the smile on Roy's face.

"You did it!" he cheered with nearly as much enthusiasm as Antonia had voiced when she had danced around with her bulbasaur. "You really did it, Toni, I mean wow, that was great!" He stretched out an arm, and Antonia couldn't figure out why until he slapped her hard on the shoulder.

"Ouch," she said, but then asked, "So, you're not angry?"

Roy stood there blinking at her for a few seconds before he replied, "Why would I be angry? That was awesome! What was it like? How did you know what to do? Why did you send out your weedle?"

Before Antonia could answer any of Roy's questions, the referee's voice rang out in the park. "The gym leader's pokémon need a rest from battling! He will not be accepting any more challenges until this evening! Thank you!"

Most of the people who had been gathered to watch the matches or to challenge Brock themselves left after that with only a couple of grumbling complaints, but a few stayed by and started to advance on the field, whether to look for souvenirs or some insight into how they might beat the Brock and his pokémon.

"How about we go back to the pokémon center, Roy?" asked Antonia. "We can get our pokémon healed there and I can answer your questions about the battle."

Roy readily agreed to that plan and the pair of them walked back to the red-roofed pokémon center in the south of Pewter City. Antonia was quiet and, surprisingly, Roy was not quite as talkative as he usually was. He still chattered away, but it was about minor things and he did not linger on any topic for too long. It was only after they dropped off their pokémon with the pokémon center's staff that Roy finally opened up.

"So, I guess you'll be moving on, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

Roy shrugged. "I mean, you beat Brock, right? So, you'll want to be going onto the next city where you can challenge another gym and gym leader."

"I need eight of these badges," said Antonia quietly turning over the Boulder Badge that Brock had given her.

"So do I," said Roy with a heavy sigh. "That's why I have to stick around for a while. I need to figure out how I can beat Brock, and then I can try to catch up with you." When Antonia didn't say anything, Roy looked at her from his seat on the polyester couch which dominated the pokémon center's waiting room. "Thanks, Toni."

Antonia looked back at him. "For what?"

"For traveling with me yesterday and today. You didn't have to do that."

"No, I didn't," agreed Antonia, but she added, "It's been fun, I guess."

That milquetoast comment seemed to get Roy on his feet and he paced back and forth in the waiting room. "Okay, well, you're going to be moving on, but not until tomorrow, right?"

"I think so."

"That doesn't mean that we can't have some fun tonight, right? Okay!" Roy clapped his hands together so loudly that Antonia jumped and said, "I've got it! I'm going to take you to dinner, Toni!"

"You're what?"

Roy's blue eyes were sparkling as he said, "We've gotta celebrate your win against Brock. You pick the place, anything that you want! It'll be my treat!"

"Thank you, Roy," Antonia said, although she was more than a little flustered by Roy's energy. "I'm going to do some shopping for supplies, but once I'm back, and the pokémon are doing better, we can go look for a restaurant."

Roy let her go with a smile and a wave. Once Antonia was out the door, he headed over to the pokémon center's cafeteria to see what food he could scare up before blowing his budget paying for whatever meal Antonia wanted.

It turned out that he did not need to have worried. Either Antonia was being mindful of price or, as a ten-year-old girl, she had not developed a truly refined palette so the two of them wound up eating at an inexpensive diner which was small but comfortable. There were a few wooden tables with yellow and white umbrellas for outdoor seating, and Roy and Antonia ordered their food there so that they could have their pokémon out with them while they ate.

As promised, Antonia gave Roy detailed answers to all of his questions between bites of her soup and half-sandwich.

"But I still don't get why you sent out your weedle?" said Roy after a slurp from his soda. "There was no way that he was going to be able to do anything against Brock's pokémon!"

"You're right," Antonia said. "But I thought that it was important to get Weedle some experience in a real battle though, to show it that it wasn't anything to be afraid of." She was looking at the pokémon in question which was crawling around under the table, blissfully ignorant of the topic of conversation.

Roy chewed his mouthful of cheeseburger thoughtfully and glanced over at the other pokémon. Neither Bulbasaur nor Charmander appeared to have lost their appetites, but the latter seemed more subdued than before. He did not once try to swipe any of Bulbasaur's kibble and accepted the fries which Roy offered him almost sullenly. Roy didn't know what to do or say to make his pokémon feel better, so he settled for hoping that it would get better on his own and turned his focus back to Antonia.

Antonia was her usual muted self. The burst of excitement after her victory over Brock which he had witnessed seemed like it must have been a dream when looking at the girl sitting across from him. He tried to make her smile, but neither his best nor his worst jokes seemed to have any effect on her. Roy was about to try sticking two of his remaining fries in his mouth and pretend to be a monster when Antonia asked him, "How do you think you and Charmander are going to be able to beat Brock?"

"I don't know," admitted Roy as he hurriedly replaced his food on his plate. "We'll figure something out, I guess. Maybe there's a pokémon that I could catch in the forest or somewhere else that could help."

"You don't know?" Antonia pressed. "Nothing that you saw today that gave you any ideas?"

Roy just waved off her concerns and then said, "How about we get dessert? What kind of ice cream do you like?"

And that was how Antonia ended up with a tall glass of strawberry ice cream in front of her. Roy only had the money for the one malt, but their waitress had been thoughtful enough to bring them two spoons so that Roy could have a bite whenever Antonia let him, which wasn't nearly frequent enough for his liking.

"It'll be the Cerulean City Gym next," mused Antonia as her spoon scooped up another pink chunk of ice cream. "The gym leader there is supposed to use water pokémon, so I think Bulbasaur should be able to handle it."

Roy shook his head bitterly. "Water pokémon? I'll definitely need a new pokémon then."

As she chased the last of the strawberry malt around in the glass, Antonia said, "Well, there's plenty of pokémon that you catch. A pikachu might be hard to find but you could always- Jesse!"

"What?" was all Roy got out before Antonia's rose jerkily to her feet and sent the remnants of her dessert spilling towards him. "Hey, watch it!" But then he saw Antonia looking over his shoulder and he turned around and found himself face-to-face with his twin brother.