Rigorous Relationships

Battle For The Rock Badge!

Ash scratched the back of his head sheepishly, after his rather loud appearance you'd think he'd be able to back up his challenge, but he wasn't actually ready to fight Roxanne at that moment. The class was filled with stunned silence at Ash thinking he had to be joking, it was only when he asked Cal to stall Roxanne with his own battle that they realized he was serious.

Roxanne, being a well prepared Gym leader, accepted Cal's challenge and lead him, and the rest of the class, to the battlefield as Ash went to go make some arrangements. Cal strolled out to the opposite side of the field from Roxanne, practically brimming with excitement, this was his first Gym battle ever and he was determined to make it a good one.

Roxanne stood across from him and couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic. There was an energy in every fiber of Cal's being that reminded her of the battle she had with Ash all those years ago. From the courage in his eyes, to the self confidence in his grin, and even the battle ready way he stood was similar to Ash's, but it also had Cal's own flare of childish joy thrown in the mix that brought his whole being together.

Roxanne smiled at the young trainer, this was sure to be a fun battle and one that she was not likely to forget. She then told her assistants to start videotaping, for future educational purposes of course, and called out her first Pokémon. "Lend me your strength; Graveler come on out!"

She tossed a Poké Ball and out popped a large jagged rock with four arms, two feet attached to its underside and a stone cold glaring face in the center of its rocky body. It landed on the field with a heavy thud, and let out a challenging roar, "GRAV-LER!"

Cal smiled and looked to his partner perched on his right shoulder, seeing that his friend was just as pumped up as him. "Alright if you're going with Graveler, then Treecko I choose you!"

The gecko Pokémon leaped off his trainers shoulder and onto the battlefield, looking at the boulder towering over him like it were a slab of stone he had been asked to smash. The battle began within seconds of Treecko landing on the field; Roxanne started it by having Graveler use Stone Edge, causing pillars of glowing blue rock to jut out of the ground in a line leading straight to Treecko.

Rather than have Treecko evade the rock type attack Cal had his partner run straight at it, this caused a gasp to come from the spectators as they thought he was as ludicrous as Ash was. The spectators gasping quickly turned into oohs and ahhs as they watched the nimble gecko jump onto one of the rock pillars and use it to boost himself into the air.

Roxanne thought she knew where Cal was going with his arial advantage and ordered Graveler to brace itself; the rock Pokémon did as it was told and covered its face with its four arms. Cal surprised Roxanne when he had Treecko spray a bombardment of Bulletseed in a circle around the rock Pokémon. This spray of seeds caused a veil of dust to billow up around the rock type, obscuring its field of view  and blocking it from its trainer.

Cal wasn't finished though and followed up his Bulletseed blitz with a close range Energy Ball that hurdled the rock type to Roxanne's feet, he'd thought the blow might have been enough to win him the match.

"Not bad, Cal." Roxanne said approving of his usage of Treecko's speed and agility to overwhelm her slow and less maneuverable Graveler. "But you're going to have to do better than that if you want to get the Rock Badge!" As she spoke her Pokémon literally rolled back onto his feet and stood excitedly at her side, having thoroughly enjoyed getting to battle the nimble grass type.

"Graveler grab onto Treecko and use Self Destruct!" Roxanne shouted, knowing that her Pokémon couldn't hold out against another of Treecko's close range Energy Balls and this was her best chance at victory.