The first thing Blue had realized due to this battle, was that the difference in strength between a Staryu and a Starmie was staggering. Wingstorm's sand attack strategy was effectively countered by Starmie currently being in the water, and Misty wasn't planning on letting it leave.
"All right, how about hitting it with a gust to knock it out of the water?" Blue said a bit unsure of himself as Wingstorm blasted the Pokémon with a flap of its wings.
"Starmie, dive down to avoid the wind!" The starfish obediently dove down and the blast harmlessly slammed against the surface of the water and formed a wave that splashed both of the trainers. Blue shuddered a bit at the feeling of the cold water splashing him while Misty looked like she was enjoying it. Blue groaned and watched as Wingstorm flew overhead ready to attack Starmie the second it poked its body out of the water. "You realize that water type Pokémon don't need to leave the water right?" she asked with a smirk and pointed at Wingstorm. "Starmie, hit him with a Water Gun!" Before Blue could react, a blast of water shot out and slammed Wingstorm into the ceiling. Sand began falling down as the bird was washed clean of all of its dustiness.
"No way..." Blue said as Wingstorm began flying again, noticeably stripped of any sand, the water weight making it harder to fly as his feathers were soaked.
"All right, let's finish him off mercifully. Hit him with a Bubblebeam." A compressed blast of rapid bubbles shot out of Starmie's gem and began pelting Wingstorm non-stop. After a minute of the barrage, the Pidgey fell into the water, defeated. Blue recalled his Pidgey and looked at the Pokéball that held his Wartortle, it was all up to Shellshocker now.
Red couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the way Green was talking his head off about the Zubats of the Mt. Moon Caverns. "Ya know, I think you're the only person to ever talk about Zubats for this long without saying the word annoying,"
"It's not fair to them. Us calling Mt. Moon Zubats annoying would be like calling people annoying because you see a lot of them in Celadon and Saffron City," Green countered as she walked with him.
"I guess that's fair, I'd probably get annoyed if a Zubat used my house to travel from one place to another," he chuckled a bit as they approached a rather well lit part of the cave. It was weird, the lights felt unnatural. Unlike the earlier parts of the cave which were lit by crystals, there was a string of lights along a wire that were emitting a harsh orange glow. Any Pokémon that were around previously had definitely vacated the spot as there was a strange man and woman wearing black outfits with a red R emblazoned across their shirts. The woman's long red hair curled off her head almost mimicking a Slowpoke's tail. The man's hair was blue and went down to his neck. The man was carrying a pickaxe while the woman was examining some strange rocks.
"Hmmm, we have a Helix Fossil and a Dome Fossil, I think we can get these back to the boss," the woman said with a smirk and the man stopped digging.
"Finally. Why do I have to do all the digging anyway?" he asked as he placed down his pickaxe.
"Because, one of us needs to dig, while the other needs to supervise," she said with a chuckle.
"Excuse me, but are you guys researchers?" Green asked as she walked up to the two people. They stared at her for a moment before the man spoke.
"You have no idea who we are?" he asked and turned towards the woman, "shall we inform them?"
The woman smirked and extended her hand dramatically, "To protect the world from devastation."
The man joined in and answered her words, "To unitie all peoples within our nation."
"To denounce the evils of 'truth' and 'love'."
"To extend our reach to the stars above."
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light." Jessie got into a triumphant pose with a fist raised in the air. James did the same as he spoke.
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight."
"That's just not right!" Green shouted indignatnly at their motto.
"Those fossils belong in a museum," Red said as he instinctively stepped in front of Green.
"Well, isn't that sweet?" Jessie smriked as she took out a Pokéball, "We've got a couple of lovebirds trying to stop us."
"Why don't we show them what we do to goody-goodies." James threw down his own Pokéball. "Take them down Wheezing"
"Show them some hurt Arbok!" Jessie threw hers down as well. Red sent out Blaze and Green sent out Rose. From there, the double battle began. "Arbok, use Poison Sting," Jessie commande. The Cobra Pokémon slithered along the ground and rushed towards Blaze, ready to bite it with its fangs. Green saw the attack coming and quickly gave out an order.
"Rose, hit it with a Tackle, quickly." Green's Bulbasaur charged towards the attacking Arbok and slammed directly into it's open mouth, knocking it backwards into Jessie while the fangs did negligible damage to Rose.
"Nice shot!" Red shouted as he saw Green start running towards the Cobra alongside Rose. He wanted to pursue her too, but he had a Wheezing to deal with. Unfortunately, it had begun producing a smokescreen which began obstructing everyone's view of the cave's interior. Red coughed a bit and got down low since he knew that smoke rose. He was feeling a bit hesitant to attack since any stray miss had the potential to hit Rose, or worse Green. For now, he decided to crawl towards the glowing light, at least that way he'd be able to find Blaze and be able to deal with any close range combat that this situation would require. He reached his starter and sighed with relief as he saw that the way his flaming tail interacted with the smoke made the air around him swirl around and actually be a bit clearer. He heard James's voice from within the fog.
"Weezing, sludge attack." The sickening black liquid burst out of the brown smoke blasting Blaze into the ground. Red winced at the sight of his Pokémon being in that painful situation.
The battle between Shellshocker and Starmie wasn't really at a stand still per se, it was just taking a while for either side to really make serious headway. Both Pokémon were standing on either side of the pool and shooting at each other with their water guns.
"This is getting a bit repetitive wouldn't you agree, Blue?" Misty asked as she raised her arms, "Starmie, switch to a tackle attack." The Starfish jumped up and began flying at the Wartortle who kept shooting blasts of water that it kept dodging. Blue came up with a rather unconventional idea as he saw the Starmie approaching.
"Shellshocker, hit her with a bite attack!" He shouted and the Wartortle caught the Starmie's arm with his mouth. Neither trainer quite understood why, but Starmie's stamina fell significantly after that bite connected. It didn't take much longer for the battle to end with a victory for Blue.
Misty held out a Pokéball and recalled the faitned Starmie. She walked around the pool and held out the Cascade Badge that Blue earned at last. "Wow, I didn't think I'd lose like that," she said as she handed him the badge. "You put up a good fight, using the sand to take down my Staryu was a clever play."
"Yeah, I was pretty cool," he said with some of his trademark arrogance.
"I'm still a bit surprised you were able to win though, seeing as you didn't have much of a type advantage, and your Wartortle seemed only freshly evolved."
"What can I say,we make a good team," Blue said with a smile as he petted his Pokémon. He had just won his second gym battle, just 6 more and he'd be able to become a champion just like his Grandpa. Everything was shaping up to be perfect. I should call Sabrina! She'd probably love to hear this, he thought as he strided out of the gym and made his way back to the Pokécenter.