As Misty and I were making our way to Cinnabar Island for my 7th gym battle we made a detour through Pewter City to say hello to Brock then when we got to Pallet Town we found out that the sea went from Pallet Town to Cinnabar Island. So we jumped on Nessie's back and traveled to Cinnabar Island that way. Along the way we battled some trainers and when we got to Cinnabar Island we found Gary there who had just received his 7th gym badge so he challenged me to a battle. It was a very hard fought battle, and near the end, it came down to a very beat up Zappy vs Gary's just as beat up blastoise. "Zappy, use thunderbolt." I yelled. "Blastoise, Dodge and use hydro pump." Gary said in response. Gary's blastoise easily dodged the thunderbolt and took Zappy out with a very strong hydro pump blast, handing me my first loss so far. After calling Zappy back to his pokeball, we went to the pokemon center to rest my pokemon but I was feeling a little depressed so Misty gave me a hug to make me feel better. We decided that we were getting tired and that it was getting late so we had some dinner and went to bed. The next morning, Misty came into my room yelling, "Wake up sleepy head." Not in the mood for sudden wake up calls, I asked Misty, "What's got you so excited this morning?" "Today's my birthday!"Said Misty excitedly. "Oh wow, happy birthday Misty." I replied, suddenly much more awake as this exciting news. "How old are you now?" "I'm 20 today." Said Misty. I then said "Oh ok, I've already had my birthday and I'm 22." "Nice." Misty replied. After eating breakfast, I said to Misty, "I Guess as a birthday present, you can watch me win my 7th gym badge." "That would be great." Said Misty. "Though I'm just wondering, why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" I asked. Misty replied, "Because I wanted it to be a surprise." "Ok well it was certainly a great surprise alright." I replied. As we eventually came up to the entrance to the gym, we discovered that the door was locked. Luckily, a man came over and told us that we would have to find the key in the Cinnabar Mansion. As we traveled through the mansion, we battled some trainers and eventually we found the key and when we got out of the mansion, I used the key to open the door to the gym. When we got inside, I battled the trainers and as I was about to come up to the gym leader, I remembered my loss to Gary and in a rather out of character moment I got nervous. "Listen Jason, I know you can win this, you're a great trainer and I want you to be the confident, cool and energetic guy I like so much." Said Misty, holding my hand comfortingly. "Thanks Misty, I'll do my best." I said, hugging her in appreciation. With my confidence coming back to me, I came up to the gym leader Blaine. I took a deep breath and said "My name is Jason and I challenge you to a gym battle." "Ok, Jason, I accept your challenge." Said Blaine. I then called out "Go Venom." "Rapidash, let's go." said Blaine. "Venom, use poison jab." I called. Venom jabbed rapidash hard, poisoning it. Blaine said, "Rapidash, use flame wheel." Rapidash rolled into a flaming ball towards Venom, so I said, "Venom, dodge and use dig." Venom quickly dug into the ground, but not before rapidash just barely grazed the tip of his tail with it's flame wheel. Venom came quickly out of the ground, hitting rapidash hard with his dig attack which quickly scored the knockout. "Rapidash is unable to battle, nidoking wins." The referee said. Blaine then said, "Not bad, Jason." I said "Thanks, but this is still the beginning." "I couldn't have said it better myself, ninetails go." Said Blaine. I then said "Venom, use dig again." This time the dig did not quite as much as last time but it still did big damage. "Ninetales use flamethrower." Said Blaine. Ninetales' flamethrower scored a direct hit and did big damage as well. I said "Venom, use thrash." Venom charged at ninetales and hit it hard scoring a second consecutive knockout. "Ninetales is unable to battle, nidoking wins." Said the referee. Suddenly Venom in is celebration revealed that he had just learned fire blast. "Your nidoking is very strong indeed, but this battle is far from over. Arcanine, go." Said Blaine. Venom locked into thrash, hit arcanine doing modest damage but then Blaine said, "Arcanine, use flare blitz." Arcanine, wrapped in it's own flames, charged hard at Venom which finally took him down, though not without taking some recoil damage as a result. "Nidoking is unable to battle, arcanine wins." Said the referee. I then yelled, "No Venom." I ran over to Venom and called him back to his pokeball after checking if he was ok. After getting back to my square to continue the battle, I said "Nessie, let's go." Blaine called out, "Arcanine, use flare blitz." In response, I said, "Nessie, use surf." As arcanine was charging towards Nessie, her surf attack washed right over arcanine, getting the knockout. "Arcanine is unable to battle, lapras wins." I said, "Great job Nessie," as Blaine called arcanine back into it's pokeball. "Let's do this, magmar." Said Blaine. Then I said "Nessie, use rain dance." Nessie then shot a cloud above the battlefield and it started raining. "Magmar, use flamethrower." Called Blaine. Because of the rain dance, magmar's flamethrower attack did much less than it would have done otherwise. "Nessie, use surf."I called out. Nessie's surf boosted in power by the rain, did huge damage knocking magmar out, winning my 7th gym battle in possibly the best victory I ever had so far. After calling Nessie back to her ball, Misty and I ran over to each other and hugged each other tight. "I told you that you were a great trainer Jason." Said Misty. I then went over to Blaine who said, "Jason, as proof of your victory at the Cinnabar Island gym, I award you the volcano badge." "Thanks Blaine." I replied. "Now that you have 7 gym badges, you last gym battle should be at Viridian City." I then thought to myself "Oh yeah that's right, I remember the gym leader not being there at the time when I was first in there and it also makes sense why Professor Oak said to go to Pewter City instead of Viridian City when I started my journey. With that Misty and I went back to the pokemon center for a rest then set out for Viridian City.
