"Uuuhh Noah, why did you have to have to book the earliest appointment for a gym battle? And why am I up first?" Kyra complained
"Simple, either we win and can spend the whole day celebrating, or we lose, then spend the day recuperating, as for you going first, it was Hikari's idea." Noah said while throwing me under the bus.
Seeing Kyra's unamused gaze turn to me I shrugged, "ladies go first and I didn't want to go first so I volunteered you", I said to her.
"How did you two even register me, I never gave you my information?"
"Kyra" x2, both me and Noah paused in our walking and were looking right at her, ultimately it was Noah that vocalized both of our thoughts. "Kyra, we've all grown up together, I know you and Hikari of like the back of my hand, it's not that hard for me to fill out a form with either you or Hikari's information. And for the record, to register you all we needed was to bring your pokedex to the gym."
"Oh, oops", she faltered
We were standing outside the Oreburgh city gym, currently it was about to be 7:30 in the morning, just in time for Kyra's battle. Once we were all done bickering, we all took one last deep breath before walking inside. Upon walking in the guy behind the counter recognized us, "oh I remember you two, are you ready for your gym battle?" The receptionist's name was Ian, he seemed like a chill guy, Noah responding to him stepped forward, we're ready but she's first, while Noah was talking to Ian I pushed Kyra forward.
Ian seeing Kya offered a friendly smile, Kyra could only respond with an awkward wave in return, Ian nodding to himself waved for us to follow him further into the gym. We kept walking until he pushed open a door that opened up into a larger room. In the center was the battle grounds, while on the left and right sides had rows of bleachers for people to watch. But what caught all our attention was the man on the opposite side of the room, he had red hair that barely reached past his shoulders, along with a miner's outfit on, including the helmet.
Seeing us enter he spread his arms out, "Welcome challenger's my name is Roark, and I am the gym leader of Oreburgh city."
Meanwhile Ian, unlike us didn't stop walking, he kept moving forward until he reached the referee's position, "We have miss Kyra of Twinleaf town, vs Roark of Oreburgh city. The battle will be three on three, and only the challenger is allowed to switch pokemon."
With Ian's words we all rushed to our spots, Kyra the challenger's, while me and Noah headed towards the bleacher's. With everyone in position, Roark pulled out a pokeball, Kyra mirroring him did the same, seeing that both of them were ready, Ian raised his hand then brought it down, "BEGIN!"
Instantly the two chucked their balls onto the field, for Roark what appeared was a Geodude, while for Kyra was, Duskull. Roark waved his hand, "you have the honor's"
Hearing him Kyra didn't hesitate, "Duskull, use hypnosis"
Meanwhile Duskulls single eye looked dazed, despite Duskull not having feet, he was floating around as if he was drunk or more likely needed coffee.
Not waiting any longer Roark made his first more, "Geodude, rollout"
Geodude using rollout quickly closed the distance between him and his opponent, just as Geodude was about to collide with Duskull, Duskull slightly floated up. Barely dodging the attack, Roark seeing this called out to Geodude, "stay in rollout."
Geodude hearing Roark responded with a grunt then started circling around Duskull, everyone knew that the longer Geodude was in rollout, the harder the move would hit. But that also meant that the move would stop if Geodude stopped moving, Kyra keeping this in mind called out to Duskull, who seemed to finally realize he was in a battle.
"Duskull, float down, then move closer to me!"
Once Duskull was closer to the ground Roark called out to Geodude, "now"
With the order given Geodude charged straight towards Duskull. Kyra ready for this yelled at Duskull, "UP!!"
Duskull hearing the command, did as told and floated up, as he did the Geodude smashed into one of the rocks on the battlefield.
"Geodude!?" Roark panicked from across the room
The impact created a cloud of dust that hid the battlefield, while the dust was still settling we all could see a floating red dot. Eventually we saw Geodude, he was face first embedded in a rock trying to pull himself out.
With the confirmation that both pokemon still had enough energy to fight, and Geodude temporarily incapacitated Kyra made her next move, "Duskull use nightshade."
Instantly the air changed around Duskull as his red eye seemed to glow brighter, soon a dark aura came out of him and hit Geodude. Just as Geodude freed himself from his make out session, he was hit with the dark beam from Duskull. The pokemon gave out a cry of pain, as he did Roark responded, "Geodude launch yourself off the ground and use rock throw."
Geodude trusting his trainer did as told, Kyra not expecting the pokemon to be able to get off the ground, fumbled leading to Duskull being hurt. Once Geodude was on the ground something unexpected happened, Geodude was holding his head and looking around as if he didn't know what was happening.
Roark wanting to wrap up the battle raised both fists in the air, Geodude even through his confusion understood what to do, he started spinning, unlike rollout Geodude was spinning left to right with both fists out. By the time Duskull recovered from the last hit it was too late and was launched into the air, we all could see it, even before he hit the ground there was a swirl in his eye.
As Ian was about to declare Geodude the winner, we all looked towards Geodude, but there was something wrong, Geodude wasn't moving and we all realized he was also knocked out. In the confusion he must have hit both him and Duskull.
"Both Duskull and Geodude are unable to battle, both challenger and gym leader can only use two pokemon", Ian announced, While Kyra was battling, me and Noah were munching on some popcorn he brought. Both Kyra and Roark recalled their pokemon, as they did they both took a moment to congratulate their pokemon.
With that done, Roark release his next pokemon a huge Onix, while Kyra released Gastly. In the end it was a close fight but Gastly didn't manage to pull out the win, Gastly had been annoying the heck out of both Onix and Roark with constant Confuse rays, and hypnosis attacks that kept putting Onix to sleep. Unfortunately for Gastly, Roark's Onix was surprisingly fast and Gastly fell to a swipe from an iron tail.
Though it was clear that Onix wasn't doing so good, Kyra down to her last pokemon finally released Misdreavus. These last few days Kyra really had put Misdreavus through borderline military training, the poor ghost didn't even have the energy to deal with Gastly roasting her when she literally melted any time she touched the ground.
Misdreavus seeing how weak her opponent was, didn't even wait for Kyra's command before she started firing off shadow balls. The next thing we all heard was Onix hitting the ground knocked out. With it now tied, Roark released his last pokemon a Cranidos, one of the fossil pokemon of Sinnoh.
With both parties aces out each trainer synced with their partner. The Cranidos was fast, but Misdreavus was an ass.
At first Kyra had Misdreavus buffing herself with Nasty plot, constantly taking damage from Cranidos's zen headbutt, but once she was fully powered up Kyra had Misdreavus even the field with pain split. After that it was all over, Cranidos was under constant attacks and anytime he used his powerful legs to get in the air to attack Misdreavus, she would disappear and attack from behind. The final strike that knocked down the Cranidos was a psybeam to the face.
"Cranidos is unable to battle, the challenger is victorious!"
After Roark recalled Cranidos he moved towards Kyra, as he did, Roark reached into his pocket and pulled out a badge, "congratulations, here is the coal badge, proof that you have overcome the Oreburgh city gym."
"Thank you", Kyra said as she took the badge from Roark, as she did that me and Noah ran towards her, "congratulations Kyra, you did it, we cheered, "and to you too Misdreavus."
"MISDREAVUS!" The ghost said while puffing up her chest.
While Noah was still congratulating Kyra I turned to Roark who was smiling at us, "so when can I battle you?" Hearing me he shrugged apologetically, "sorry I have to take my team to the pokemon center, but hopefully if it's not too busy I can squeeze you in before lunch?"
It was completely understandable, and I easily agreed. After we were done talking Roark escorted us out, heading for the pokemon center. While we were walking the entire time Kyra was strutting, head held high to the sky, even Misdreavus while scuffed up and not having legs was mirroring her trainer.
After we dropped off Kyra's pokemon, we killed time by going to get breakfast. Time quickly past and we again stood in front of the Orebrugh city gym, "round two."
Unlike with Kyra, for me Roark started the fight off with his Onix, in return I started off with Piplup, Piplup upon seeing the giant rock snake that easily dwarfed her, looked terrified. "Come on Piplup you can do it, use bubble beam." Roark taking advantage of Piplup's fear set up stealth rock, causing me to click my tongue in annoyance, I called out to Piplup, "bird, start moving!"
Onix as if responding to my call, roared then charged straight towards Piplup, "Piplup, run to the side, then use water gun!"
Piplup not wanting to get rammed by the the bulldozer called Onix, practically threw herself to the left, as the Onix passed her, while still on the ground she used our high pressure water gun. The Onix roared in both pain and surprise, not expecting the simple move to hurt that much. This gave Piplup a boost of confidence, and she again fired off water gun. Midway through her attack Onix's tail got close enough to her and slapped her across the field.
Seeing that I would have to come up with a different strategy, before Piplup hit the ground I recalled her, then tossed out Skorupi. Before I could even give the first order the stealth rock from earlier activated and hit Skorupi. Crap, I had completely forgotten about that, Roark taking advantage of the attack, had Onix use rock polish.
When the battlefield became clearer I saw Skorupi, he looked hurt but still wanted to fight, "Skorupi, keep using leer until it get's close."
"Skor", was all he said, then started spamming leer.
Roark not wanting too many leer's to pile up had Onix get in close with a slam, before Skorupi could be hit by Onix's tail he jumped to the side, taking advantage of the opportunity I called out to Skorupi, "get in close and use poison sting!"
With Onix's tail, still so close from the previous attack, Skorupi quickly reach it, then started attacking. Onix, not wanting to be hurt used Double edge, this time Skorupi couldn't react in time and was hit.
When the dust cleared Skorupi was knocked out, after I recalled Skorupi, as I tossed Piplup back out, I remembered the stealth rock. Like with Skorupi, Piplup was hit by the attack, while Piplup was coughing from the dust, I looked towards Onix and noticed a light shade of purple on his face. Skorupi, managed to poison the rock snake before he was knocked out, seeing that, it boosted my morale, "Alright Piplup blast him with water gun!!"
The Onix charged in, I noticed that his tail was glowing, as he moved towards Piplup he winced at the pain from the poison, slowing his movements just enough for Piplup to land her attack. With the boost from Skorupi lowering Onix's defense, the beast fell.
Onix was knocked out, Roark saving Cranidos for last tossed out his Geodude, and since I didn't want the stealth rock to activate again I still used Piplup. This time Piplup had no problem with Geodude, while yes she did get hit every now and then, most of the time when Geodude got close enough Piplup would just hop on the Geodude's head then bounce towards another rock. This cycle kept repeating until Geodude was knocked out.
Now with Roark down to his last Pokemon, I recalled Piplup, wincing at the inevitable attack, as stealth rock hit Petilil. Like with Kyra's battle Cranidos started with zen headbutt, with him charging at Petilil I called for her to use stun spore. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Roark smirking, that left me with a bad feeling in my gut, and of course I found the reason why, Cranidos, relying on his powerful legs jumped over the entire cloud of stun spore. Cranidos completely ignored the stun spore and once he was back on the ground he rammed right into Petilil.
She was launched towards one of the rocks on the battlefield, luckily she was able to twist herself making her able to bounce off instead of colliding. With the new distance I had Petilil start buffing herself with growth.
To create more time I gave my next order, "Petilil, use stun spore around yourself", yes it was a double edge move, if Petilil gave paralysis to herself and Cranidos didn't get it, then I would be in trouble. Fortunately for me Roark's Cranidos seemed to not have any long range attacks, and was forced to get in close. Once Cranidos was in the air from his latest jump, I called out to Petilil, "get down and roll out."
Petilil were small, and Petilil had created a cloud of stun spore higher than herself, as she rolled out of the cloud, Cranidos landed at her previous location. Hearing a cry of pain from the cloud, it meant that he was paralyzed, "Petilil, mega drain." With Cranidos under paralysis, his movements were drastically slowed and he couldn't keep up with Petilil, ultimately being knocked out.
"Cranidos is unable to battle, the challenger is victorious!"
"Yes, yes, we did it Petilil, we beat the first gym of Sinnoh!" I couldn't stop celebrating, I ran onto the battlefield and picked Petilil. I tried to avoid touching the areas where Cranidos hit her, even while paralyzed Cranidos was still able to land several hits. Like with Kyra, Roark came over to me and handed me the coal badge though this time he was less enthusiastic, once I had it, in one hand I raised it while the other I had Petilil. "We did it!!"
While Roark smiled, he turned he head to the side he saw Noah, "uhhh, I can do before dinner?"
In return Noah smiled at him, "I can agree to that."
The cycle repeated, we dropped off my pokemon at the pokemon center, killed some time then returned to the gym. "Round three!"
"Alright Noah, both me and Kyra won, its all on you" I said while patting Noah on the back. He grinned, "don't worry I got this."
Unlike the previous times Roark seemed to take the battle more seriously, he started the battle off with Geodude, while Noah released Shinx. Within a few moves the turd easily brought down the Geodude. Surprisingly after Geodude was knocked out, Roark directly brought out Cranidos. Noah seeing Roark's ace so soon, switched from Shinx to Turtwig.
Turtwig was able to leech seed Cranidos, then tried to keep Cranidos out of close range by constantly firing razor leaf. While it did damage Cranidos, Roark had Cranidos ram through it with zen headbutt, before Turtwig got knocked out Noah recalled him and switched to Wooper.
Once Wooper appeared, Noah gained a new level of confidence, "Woopa"
The Cranidos stared down the tiny, drooling pokemon, and with the order given from Roark, Cranidos charged in with a zen headbutt. With his opponent coming straight for Wooper, Noah spread his arms out.
"Wooper use your tail."
With the order given Wooper charged in, before the two attacks met Wooper jumped up and spun around in the air to gain momentum. Except for Noah, everyone else was confused, or at that was until Cranidos's head met with Wooper's tail, and there was a clear winner.
Cranidos was launched out of the arena, and was embedded in the wall behind Roark.
While Ian announced Cranidos's defeat, Roark released his last pokemon Onix, Immediately Onix charged forward at Wooper using double edge. When it comes to big pokemon fighting smaller pokemon, yes they can hit harder, but that only matters if they can land a hit on the smaller pokemon.
Wooper was having a blast messing around with the giant, constantly hopping around the arena, or using Onix as a slide.
After letting Wooper have his fun, Noah got semi serious, "alright Wooper, move to the end of Onix's tail, and do the thing we practiced."
Roark tried to have Onix respond, but Wooper easily reached Onix's tail first, and without hesitation wrapped his tail around Onix's, then all we hear for the next minute was boom. The tiny terror, lifted Onix's entire body off the ground then started smashing Onix's body left to right. Everyone's eyes bulged and by the time Wooper was done, the arena was completely flattened, covered in craters.
"Woopaaa!", "HAHAAAAA", Noah and Wooper were both laughing like madmen.
It took a good ten seconds before Ian was able to recover, "Onix is unable to battle, the winner is the challenger!!", with Ian's words everyone sucked in a cold breath of air. Because I didn't have to battle anymore I had released my team to cheer on Noah, while I stared open mouth at the scene, a foul smell filled my nose.
Crinkling my face, I looked to my side, "ah, dammit bird!" Piplup crapped herself, she herself didn't seem to realize it, still looking at the dancing Wooper. As if sensing her gaze Wooper turned to her then started skipping over towards her. Piplup started screaming, and practically punched her pokeball then with a flash of red light, she disappeared.
Wooper seeing that his victim was gone, moved over to Noah, Noah eagerly scooped up Wooper, and turned to Roark. Who had completely lost all of his energy, three losses in a row, his gym in need of repairs, and his Onix in need of therapy, who wouldn't be down?
Noah seeing how down Roark was, patted his shoulder, "don't worry, I'll pay for the damages."
That seemed to work as Roark managed smile, "thanks, oh here you go and congratulations on overcoming the Oreburgh city gym." Roark said while handing Noah a badge. After I finished cleaning up Piplup's mess both me and Kyra moved over to congratulate Noah's victory.
When all arrived at the pokemon center, Nurse Joy seeing all of us and Roark raised an eyebrow, "again?"
"Yup", Roark said while popping the p. With the last gym battle complete our group of three decided to end the day celebrating at a barbecue place, and through all the meat, and grease, we enjoyed ourselves.
The morning quickly came, and with all of us obtaining the gym badge, there was no real reason to stay in Oreburgh city. As we left the pokemon center I left a message for Dawn.
-------
Two days after Hikari's group left Oreburgh city, Ash's group finally walked into the pokemon center. All of them were tired, and after Croagunk knocked out Brock again, they all checked into the pokemon center.
Nurse Joy seeing the familiar name on her screen, looked at the blue haired girl, "Ms Dawn, do you know a girl named Hikari?"
Hearing the familiar name Dawn nodded, "yes I know her, did something happen?"
Nurse Joy shook her head, "no that's not it, she asked me to give you this when you arrived." Once she was done speaking Nurse Joy handed Dawn a photo, in Dawn's hand was a picture of a messy Kyra, but what caught her attention was the familiar color of toothbrush.
"Hahaha! Thank you Nurse Joy, Misdreavus, and Hikari!"