“Will they be okay?” asked Morgan. Matt smiled at her and replied: “They’ll be fine. I gave Tobi a little lead to follow anyways.” Morgan was about to ask what he meant but Matt had already turned to Dan who was waiting by the hotel door. “So, are you ready for this?” Matt asked. Dan simply looked at him and walked off.
The three of them walked up to a large building, covered with rocks and the official pokeball logo. This was the Rustbro city gym. Brimming with confidence, Matt and Dan strolled inside whilst Morgan cautiously followed. “Hello” greeted the receptionist, “Are you here for a gym battle?” They all nodded. The receptionist smiled and stood up, walking over to a door and opening it. “Right this way please” she beckoned them.
Tobi stood leaning over the side over the boat’s railings, looking at the piece of paper in his hand. Natalie had handed it to him and told him it was a message from Matt. ‘Matt could have given this to me himself. It was sneaky giving it to Natalie. I can’t ask him anything without giving his pokenav a call’ thought Tobi. Written on the piece of paper was the following message:
1M
Cerulean City
ECC
G-S
“What kind of game is he playing?” Tobi asked himself.
Matt, Dan and Morgan followed the receptionist down a corridor and into a large battle field. It was covered in rocks and the ground was cracked and sandy. At the other end of the battlefield, a referee was talking to a teacher with long brown hair and glasses. This was the Rustbro gym leader, Roxanne. She turned to face her new challengers and greet them: “Well good morning. I trust you are ready for your battle.” Unwavering, the three of them nodded. “Well, as there are three of you wish to challenge me today, I propose three one-on-one battles” suggested Roxanne. “That sounds fun” commented Morgan. Matt nodded in agreement: “Yeah, let’s do it!”
First to battle was Morgan (as both Dan and Matt had agreed on ladies first so they could watch the gm leader in action before battling) who would be facing Roxanne’s Geodude. “Chikorita, you’re up” called out Morgan sending out her Chikorita. ‘A good match-up’ thought Dan, ‘and even if that doesn’t guarantee victory, she was able to take on a Mawille and a Team Rocket subcaptain only using that Chikorita’. “Geodude- rock throw!” ordered Roxanne. “Razor leaf Chikorita” said Morgan. Geodude hurled a huge rock at Chikorita but Chikorita countered by swinging the leaf on its head. The razor leaves it shot out not only cleanly sliced the rock throw into harmless pebbles, but it continued through and slashed at Geodude. “Geodude-rollout!” Geodude curled up and tumbled toward Chikorita at increasing speed. “Chikorita- protect!” Chikorita surrounded itself with a protective barrier to block Geodude’s attack. “Razor leaf” ordered Morgan. Once again Geodude was hit by Chikorita’s attack but this was at close range! “Come on Geodude! Get up and use mega punch!” Rising shakily, still reeling from the last attack, Geodude concentrated its power into its right fist and swung a punch. Morgan smiled and spoke: “Vine whip. Stop it cold.” Even Dan and matt were shocked by the speed at which Chikorita wrapped its vines around Geodude. Instead of shielding itself with the vines, it had used the as chains, wrapping around Geodude’s arms and body, preventing all of its movement. “It’s over” declared Dan. “Full power reverse” ordered Morgan, and with that, Geodude was pushed backwards at high speed into a boulder, knocking it out. Morgan smiled and ran over to Chikorita giving it a big hug. Chikorita was clearly quite fatigued so curled up in her lap. Dan stood up and walked down to the battle field as Morgan walked and sat next to Matt in the stands. “Don’t think this will be easy” said Roxanne with surprising confidence, “Geodude isn’t as strong as your opponent, so don’t let your guard down.” Dan didn’t respond, and simply called out his Bulbasaur. He soon found himself facing Roxanne’s Onix.
