"I might warn you," the brown-haired kid said. "Winona, the Gym Leader here, is my older sister. I won't be a pushover."
"In that case, I should warn you that my father is the champion of Johto, Gehta, and the Orange Islands. He even trained along side Kamon," Andrew shot back.
Julia was taken aback. Andrew…actually showed more respect for daddy, she thought.
Andrew continued. "So I don't think you should mess with me."
Julia frowned. So he was just bringing up daddy to make himself look better… She sighed.
The kid looked straight into Andrew's piercing green eyes for a minute before answering. "I guess I'll have to see how tough you really are, then…what's your name?"
"Andrew."
"Ah. Mine's Gavin." Gavin reached under his long, blue tee-shirt to get a Pokéball clasped to his black pants. Andrew followed his actions and got his own Pokémon. "I hope you're ready," said Gavin.
"More than you could imagine," Andrew replied. Gavin smirked and let out a Vibrava. "Go, Crawdaunt! Ice Beam!"
"Crap…Vibrava, Dig!" Gavin commanded. Vibrava dodged the first round of attacks, but was unable to escape the second Ice Beam. Vibrava fell in one hit. "Wha…what!?"
"Ha!" Andrew chuckled, cocky. "Told you I'm no pushover."
"We'll see…Tangela, get 'em! Vine Whip!" Vines lashed out on Crawdaunt, scarring his body.
"Crawdaunt, use another Ice Beam!"
"Tangela, Detect!" Gavin yelled. One of Tangela's many leafy tendrils blocked the Ice attack, keeping the Grass Pokémon in the match. "Great job. Now, Leech Seed!" A seed was imbedded into Crawdaunt's hide, sapping life away.
"Crawdaunt, Clamp!" said Andrew. Crawdaunt's giant claws secured Tangela in a vice grip, but he couldn't hold on; the Leech Seed was taking away too much energy.
As Crawdaunt released its grip on Tangela, Gavin's Pokémon released a Giga Drain, bringing Crawdaunt down to a sliver of health.
"Crawdaunt, get back up! Attack with Ice Beam!" Crawdaunt struggled to stand, and then held out its claw. With a last effort, he attempted to fire the freezing ray at Tangela, but Gavin's Pokémon simply used Absorb, knocking Crawdaunt out. Andrew sighed out of frustration. "Return. Mightyena, go! Bite!" Mightyena clamped down on Tangela, knocking out the relatively weak Pokémon.
"That's all right, Tangela. You did your best. Now, while you rest, Absol will fight! Slash!" Gavin cried. His grey-and-black Pokémon sliced away at Mightyena's fur, but it did little. Mightyena too advantage of the training deficit and knocked Zangoose over with a Take Down. "I know you are a newborn," Gavin murmured, "but you have to give it a chance, Absol. Come on…"
"All right Mightyena, now use Faint Attack!" Mightyena struck down Absol with the Dark attack. As Absol rose to attack again, Mightyena used Bite, and then Quick Attack. Mightyena was obviously the better Pokémon. In no time at all, Gavin's Absol fell.
"Hmm…" Gavin uttered, in somewhat disbelief his Pokémon were falling so easily. He decided to send out something different: Sealeo. "Sealeo, Rollout!" Sealeo curled itself into a ball and then ran over Mightyena. However, it didn't do much. While Sealeo was one of Gavin's more powerful Pokémon, the relatively weak Rock attack wasn't going to cut it. Mightyena was too well trained to be taken down like that.
"Mightyena, Double-Edge attack!" Andrew shouted. Mightyena slammed into the round, blue, Ice Pokémon, causing damage to both himself and Sealeo. Sealeo came back with Surf, doing an extreme amount of damage. Mightyena used Secret Power, crunching Sealeo at its midsection. As a random side effect of Secret Power, Sealeo became paralyzed.
"Damn," Gavin cursed. "Sealeo, come on! Another Surf!" Sealeo couldn't move at all. Mightyena used Bite, nearly knocked Sealeo out.
"Tackle," said Andrew. Mightyena merely knocked over Sealeo, and the Water-and-Ice Pokémon fainted. Gavin recalled the Pokémon, and sent out a white-and-red Pokémon: Zangoose. Another Pokémon Mightyena will defeat, Andrew thought. This kid's not nearly as hard as I thought.
"Zangoose, Slash!" Gavin instructed. Zangoose used its claws to attack Mightyena. The Dark Pokémon wasn't fast enough to block the attack, and suffered through tremendous damage.
"Mightyena, get 'em back with Faint Attack!" commanded Andrew. Mightyena snuck behind Zangoose and attacked him, but Zangoose came right back with Metal Claw. It knocked out Mightyena.
Andrew thought for a moment. I have fought a Zangoose before. He's Normal type…Combusken should do well. He sent out his Fire Pokémon.
"Focus Punch!" said Gavin. As Zangoose charged up for the attack, Combusken used Quick Attack, making Zangoose lose focus.
"Good job, Combusken. Now use Double Kick!" Combusken jumped into the air and kicked Zangoose twice, knocking him down.
Zangoose immediately got up. "Zangoose, Crush Claw!" Zangoose ran up to Combusken, smashing the Fire Pokémon with his claws. Combusken, however, caught the claw in his fist, and threw Zangoose down. Combusken still took damage, though.
Andrew decided it would be best not to attack Zangoose up-close. He was far too powerful to fight physically. "Combusken, Flamethrower attack!" Flames were sprayed from Combusken's mouth, scorching Zangoose. While Zangoose was recovering from the harsh blow, Combusken finished him off with a Body Slam.
"Zangoose," Gavin said with a heavy sigh, knowing he was down to one Pokémon. "…Return. Skarmory, you're my last hope. Go!" He released his last Pokémon, and told it to use Air Cutter. The metal Pokémon fired spears of wind at Combusken, damaging the Pokémon severely.
"That's all right," Andrew reassured Combusken. "He's Steel, and you're Fire. You've won this one. Flamethrower!" Again, flames were shot at Gavin's Pokémon, but Skarmory dodged them. Andrew had drastically underestimated Gavin's Pokémon. Skarmory used Drill Peck, knocking out Combusken. "Uh…whoa. Combusken, come back. Um…Tropius, go! Razor Leaf!"
"Why would you send out a Grass-type Pokémon against a Flying-type?" Gavin wondered. "Unless, that is, you don't have any more. Ha! Skarmory, another Drill Peck!" Tropius' leaf-attack did next-to-nothing, leaving Skarmory to easily attack him.
"Tropius, don't let him attack you freely! Stomp!"
"You know nothing." Skarmory flew past Tropius' feet, and then used Razor Wind, knocking Tropius to the ground. Skarmory immediately took advantage of this by dive-bombing Tropius over and over, knocking him out.
"That was cheap!" Andrew protested. "You hit me when I was down!"
"Hey, you're the son of a Pokémon Master, right? You have this battle in the bag, right? I mean, one Pokémon doesn't matter, does it?" Gavin mocked. Andrew scowled.
"Mock me again and you die."
Julia, when she heard this, started at Andrew in disbelief. She didn't think he would actually threaten someone's life.
Andrew recalled Tropius and sent out Grovyle. Though sending out another Grass Pokémon was a mistake, he knew, Trapinch wasn't experienced enough to fight Skarmory-easily Gavin's most powerful Pokémon.
"Grovyle, Pursuit!" Grovyle charged at Skarmory, but the Dark attack did little. I should have brought Pikachu…at least I'll have him for the battle against Winona.
"Skarmory, Aerial Ace!" Skarmory struck Grovyle with extreme speed, leaving the Grass Pokémon out to dry.
"Grovyle, Leech Seed!"
"Cut!"
As the seeds were implanted in Skarmory, the Steel-and-Flying Pokémon slashed them away. Andrew was quickly on the way to losing a battle he completely dominated.
"Great work, Skarmory! Now use Wing Attack!" Skarmory whacked Grovyle with its stiff wings. Grovyle came back with Mega Drain, but it did very little. Grovyle didn't have enough energy to pull off a powerful attack, and Skarmory was coming around for another barrage of attacks.
The first one was Air Cutter, chipping away at Grovyle's health. Grovyle rose, trying to fight back. He fired a couple of seeds-Bullet Seed-at Skarmory, but they missed. Skarmory used Drill Peck, making Grovyle faint.
"It all comes down to you, Trapinch…don't let me down." Andrew tossed out his final Pokéball. "Trapinch-"
Before Andrew could issue a command, the door to the gym opened. A woman with purple hair walked out. "I'll see the next challenger now," she said. It was Winona.
"Oh, sis, hey!" said Gavin. Winona looked at the battle, concern marking her face. "Er…yeah, this…this kid, Andrew, and I were battling. You know, in preparation for fighting you."
"I won't have this in front of my gym. If you're going to prepare, fight one of my apprentices inside. But I don't want fighting outside of my gym," Winona said sternly. While her reprimanding was aimed at Gavin, even Andrew felt the heat. Gavin recalled Skarmory, and Andrew called back Trapinch. "Good. Now why don't you two heal your Pokémon at the Pokémon Center, and this young lady will fight me."
I hate rhetorical questions, Andrew thought. He obliged, however, and followed Gavin to the Pokécenter.
"Still, it was a good battle," Gavin said to Andrew while he was withdrawing his Pikachu and putting away Tropius.
"I suppose," Andrew replied.
Nurse Joy handed them their Pokémon. "Well, I'll see you around, Andrew. Good luck against my sister. Maybe we'll see each other in Victory Road or something."
"Yeah, that'd be…cool," Andrew half-heartedly responded. "Wait-aren't you fighting Winona now?"
"Not right now. I'm taking her advice and fighting her pupils." Gavin put his backpack on. "Well, see you around." Andrew waved good-bye, and sat down in the Pokécenter, contemplating his almost-loss, and plans for the future.
"How did I let life slip out of my hands like that…?" he said to himself.