The next morning, Red woke up ready for battle. He got dressed and went down to the lobby to see Green already eating breakfast with her twin.

"Hey you two, how's it going?" Red asked yawning a bit as he sat down.

"Oh ya know. Just waiting for the gym to open. I wanna register to challenge Brock as soon as possible." Blue said eagerly while his sister rolled her eyes.

"Yes, yes, and this the fifth time you said that this morning?" She sighed as she got up and took her plate to the sink.

"Hey, I can't help being excited, besides, Red didn't hear me say it. You're the only one who was with me all five times," Blue retorted as Red chuckled.

"Sounds like you two have been up longer than I have," he smiled and began eating.

"So Red, got any plan on how to beat Brock's gym? Fire doesn't tend to do well against Rock types," Blue asked as he began taking his plate to the sink.

"Well... I can... using..." He looked down at his breakfast discouraged.

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Green placed an encouraging hand on Red's shoulder. "Besides, the gym leaders have to scale their teams in proportion to your current number of badges, so his Pokémon won't be strong enough to learn Rock type moves yet."

Red perked up at this with a smile. "Hey, you're right! He may resist my fire, but Onix can't really handle special attacks anyway, so that might cancel out in my favor!"

Blue scoffed. "It's so not gonna work. Especially if you try to brute force it."

Red stood up. "Watch me!"

"You know what, sure, go ahead. I'll let you go first," Blue smirked challenging Red.

Red finished his breakfast and took his plate to the sink. "You're on!" He walked off towards the Gym in a huff.

"What the heck was that Blue?" Green asked looking annoyed.

"He has a chance to prove himself now. If not, I guess he'll probably return to Pallet or finally get serious about training." Blue shrugged and walked out to follow him.

"And you're just ok with breaking his spirit if that happens?" Green asked shocked at how cruel Blue's actions seemed.

"If his spirit breaks that easily, then he wouldn't ever be able to become champion anyway. Either way, it won't matter if you're confident that he'd win."

Green went quiet at that. They arrived at the gym not long after. Red had just finished his registration and opened the doorway to face Brock.

"Welcome, I see this is your first gym challenge, would you like me to explain the rules for you as a courtesy?" Brock stood on the opposite side of the gym. He had an intense stare as he held a pokéball in his hand.

"Of course," Red said with a nod as he took out up his own pokéball.

"We will each use two pokémon for this battle. You can switch whenever you like, but I must stick with the pokémon I switched out. The battle ends when both pokémon one of us has are unable to battle."

"The switching rule is kinda pointless if I only have two pokémon from the start." Red said as he steeled his nerves.

"That it is, that rule is more used for later gym battles with larger teams." Brock chuckled as he sent out his Geodude.

Red sent out Blaze. "Go for an Ember!" Blaze shot out a flume of flames at the Geodude, but it seemed that it mostly shrugged it off.

"You should realize that a fire type is next to useless against a rock ground type." Brock said as he called for a tackle. Blaze tried dodging the attack, but the Geodude slammed into Blaze launching him backwards into a wall. Blaze slowly got up and launched another ember. "Brute force is not a strategy." He repeated what Blue had said earlier as Geodude went in for another tackle.

Red sighed as Blaze fell to the floor defeated. He knew it was already over. There was no way Metapod would defeat Geodude, much less Brock's second pokémon.

Because they were busy getting registered, Blue and Green weren't allowed to actually enter the gym to watch Red's battle against Brock. Green had her fingers crossed hoping that her best friend could pull through. Even Blue, despite his earlier words, didn't actually want Red's spirit to get crushed for good.

After about 10 mintues of waiting, the doors opened and Red ran past them. Green reached out her hand to wave, but Red didn't even see her. He just brushed past her as if she was a ghost type. Green watched him walk off and quickly ran after him.

"Red!" She shouted as she watched him run off. She couldn't believe that he was just running away. "Red! What happened?" He didn't even respond to her shout as he kept moving towards the forest. "Are you seriously giving up just like that?"

"You think I'm giving up?" Red asked sounding a bit hurt as he stopped just outside the edge of the forest. "You think that's it? I lost so I'm giving up? I'm not leaving this forest until Blaze and I are strong enough to defeat Brock. I don't care how long it takes." He adjusted his cap and marched inside with a look of determination on his face. Green almost went after him, but decided not to pursue. He's seen him get like this before. Whenever he got a bad grade on an exam, he'd isolate himself in his room until he was sure he could pass a repeat.

"Then I won't leave town until you're back." She said as she turned to face the gym once more. She walked back to see a victorious Blue holding a Boulder badge. "Wow, already?" she said to her twin.

"Yep, the other trainer told me to get you. So, where is Red off to?" He smirked as he put the badge into his case. He was still asking out of worry, but his recent victory was coloring his attitude a bit.

"He's training in the forest. Just until he thinks he is strong enough to beat Brock."

"Hmmm, I wonder... maybe evolving his starter is what it takes. Then again, that still wouldn't change the weakness. Unless he had access to a different special move." Blue was considering Red's options as he led his twin back to the gym.

"Well, I guess it's my turn to take on Brock. Rose and I should be able to handle him though." She nodded as she took a deep breath. She walked through the doors and took out her pokéball. "Let's do this!"

Red walked through the forest until he came upon a hive of beedrill. He stood back and silently sent out Gabriel. "Pay close attention," he told the Metapod as he slowly approached the horde. He sent out Blaze once more and ordered him to use Ember. One of the Beedrill fainted, but the rest were alerted to his presence and began dive bombing him one at a time.

Each Beedrill was met with a blast of fire and would quickly retreat or faint due to the strength of the flames. Blaze's tail burnt fiercly with his fury as he kept blasting Beedrill, but it seemed he was only attracting more and more of them.

"Keep it up Blaze! We gotta get stronger if we ever wanna defeat Brock!" Red said with his fists clencehd as a Beedrill managed to land a fury attack on his Charmander. Blaze was knocked down but got back up and used another Ember. Red looked back to see Gabriel and saw that he was observing the fight and seemed to be taking in the experience as well. As Red turned his head back to watch the battle, Gabriel began glowing.

Blaze was panting as he kept using Ember after Ember to defend himself and his trainer from the oncoming Beedrill. The flame on the tip of his tail was starting to get weaker and weaker from his efforts. The surge of pokémon kept on coming. Red was starting to get worried, he wasn't sure if Blaze would be able to handle any more of this. He closed his eyes as the Beedrill closed in on him.

Before the Beedrill could hit him, Red felt a strange energy and when he opened his eyes, the Beedrill had been blown back by some kind of psychic attack. He looked up and a Butterfree was flying above his head. "Gabriel?" He asked and the butterfree responded by flying in a circle excitedly. He chuckled as he saw the Beedrill were all out cold. "I think we can take on Brock now." He smiled weakly as he held up his pokéballs and recalled his two pokémon. As he walked back down the path, he didn't notice the strange pokémon flying somewhere above him.