Ring Plates Chapter 10 (Patreon)

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Chapter 9 

Chapter 10 the Pewter Gym

The boys arrive in Pewter City, they stopped at the Pokemon Center for a well deserved rest and check up. Everyone was healed up and were fighting fit. “I wonder what Pokemon the gym leader will be using?” Samurai gave them a tip on the type, but that still left quite a few options on the board.

“I wonder what kind of trainer the gym leader is?” Toren blinked at Ash.

“Does that matter?”

“Of course it does!” Nurse Joy returned with their pokemon. She gave them a touch more info on gyms in the Kanto Region.

“You can challenge the gyms in any order, but the challenge will be different based on the number of badges you have, one can also request a special challenge if they wish to test their skills but it’s up to the gym leader to decide if they’ll accept.” There were challengers who didn’t come for badges instead wanted the gym itself. It was rare but it happened, if a challenger claimed the gym, they’d have six months to prove their skills and be acknowledged by the League receiving their own unique badge. The most notable of this was Sabrina, she took over the Gym Leader duties in Saffron City.

“Our previous Gym Leader Flint went on a journey, but he left the gym in the hands of his son Brock. He’s been doing quite well.”

“Brock huh...”

Gym leaders have their own pokemon, but also have special registered pokemon to the gym itself. So every gym had mons prepared for someone who had 0-8 badges. These monsters would no doubt be far stronger, but it was important for the gym to have mons on hand for every kind of challenger.

“But who should get to battle him first?” Toren knew Ash was all for battles, and felt nervous about the order.

“You should go first Toren.” Ash said surprising the greenette.

“But I thought you would want to...you know…” Pop! Out came Paras.

“Par par!” It hopped around looking ready to fight.

Toren sweatdropped. “Paras not again!” Ash just laughed.

“Looks like you’ve got an eager battler there.” Nurse Joy complimented. Paras punched at the air with his claws.

“Yeah, Paras is always looking to rumble.”

The Bug/Grass type bounced around. “I think he likes it, I’ll call you Rumble!” The little guy was pleased.

Toren had no shortage of options for a Rock and Ground gym as the three other grass types he has in his party. He wasn’t worried about Ash as he had Poliwag. “Alright Rumble, I’ll let you battle.”

He pulled out his Pokedex. “Let’s see what moves you have.”

Pokedex: Paras, the Mushroom Pokemon, a Bug and Grass type. Special Ability Dry Skin. Rare mushrooms grow on it’s back, these mushrooms can be used for making medicine. Paras burrows underground to extract nutrients from tree routes to help the mushrooms on its back grow. This Paras’s moves are Absorb, Stun Spore, Poison Powder, and Venoshock

“Those are some impressive moves Rumble.” Ash complimented.

Rumble blushed and bounced at the praise. Ash sat down with Toren to work on a battle strategy. This would be their first gym battle, but Ash had more battle experience than Toren from both school and watching the league matches every year. Rumble hadn’t learned any mastered moves yet, but if things got tough Toren planned to draw on Bloom’s power if he got into a pinch.

With Absorb Ketchum felt Rumble had an edge, but time would tell.

“Brock is free today, he’s had quite a few challengers lately. Three of them came and won Boulder Badges.”

The number gave Ash pause. “Three?” He was sure Gary and Cross had come and gone already. Who was the third?

“Yeah, I beat him yesterday!” The two turned to see a boy with orange hair. “The name is Mist!” He had a swimmer’s body, with his legs more defined than his arms, he had strong hips from both swimming and bicycle riding. He was cute, with aqua green eyes and a boyish smile, his hair was short and framed his face well.

Mist was wearing a yellow tube top and blue shorts. His shoes had no laces and seemed designed to be easy to remove or be used in the water.

Ash introduced them.

Mist showed off the Boulder Badge. “I’m on a journey to become a Water Pokemon Master. I decided to take on the Gym Challenge to test my skills and train my Water Pokemon. Brock’s gym wasn’t even a challenge for my Pokemon!”

“Well yeah...he uses Rock and Ground types, Water Types would have the advantage.” Toren said. It was smart to prepare for the gym ahead of time, and using type match ups in your favor wasn’t against the rules, but the way Mist was bragging felt odd.

“Shut it!” He snapped, making Toren flinch.

“I’m just saying I wasn’t satisfied with our match so I’m looking for other trainers to battle. You two will do.”

“Well I’m sure Rumble would like to battle.” Ash said with a laugh.

“Who’s Rumble?”

“Par Paras!” A chill ran down Mist’s spine, his gaze lowered and he saw the Bug/Grass type on the ground, pumping his claws into the air as if accepting his challenge.

The orangette paled. “B-B-B-B-B-Bug!” He screamed.

Ash and Toren could only gaze in shock as the trainer who was full of bravado and eagerness to battle crumbled like a house of cards. He fell backwards and scurried away from Paras. “NO!” Mist ran for it. “I hate Bug Pokemon!”

Rumble froze in shock at the reaction. “It’s okay Rumble, you are a great Pokemon!”

“Par…” He sulked.

“Let’s go challenge Brock, that’ll make you feel better!” Hearing there would be a battle did lift the little guy’s spirits.

So they went to challenge the gym. Ash took a seat in the spectator area, he sat with his other Pokemon out and watching. ‘This will be a good opportunity to observe a gym battle and leader up close.’

Pewter City was a small town so word spread fast that Brock had a challenger. Some civilians paid to come and watch the battle. Toren got really nervous.

“It’s okay Toren you got this!” Ash cheered.

The greenette blushed.

“How many badges do you have?” Brock asked. He went over to a wall and it revealed six monster balls.

“Oh um none...sorry…”

The gym leader shook his head. “It is fine, we’ll be having a two versus two battle.” The wall was closed back up and instead Brock used two balls he had on his person.

“Sounds good!”

The rules were simple, the challenger was allowed to switch. The battle was over when once all of the trainer’s usable pokemon were unable to battle. “If you win you’ll be given the Boulder Badge.” Brock showed off the badge. “I’ll also grant you this, the Technique Machine Bide!”

“Oh wow!” Ash had seen technique machines advertised on tv. Scientists had discovered a way of harnessing a pokemon’s move and replicating it as a powder. Each Box contained 1 move, these were more perfected models, the box could replicate a powder that’d teach a mon a move multiple times but it did need a recharge. Some other TM’s were experimental and had a one time use on them.

Gym leaders were given the more perfected models to give away to worthy challengers. Each Gym had three TM’s they could give away. Just as they were given a number of badges to give away each month, they also had a number of TM’s to give away. It’d look bad on the gym leader if the numbers weren’t looking good.

Ash began to hear whispering and murmuring among the crowd. “Another two on two battle…”

“So he’ll be using those two again.”

“Hm?”

“Is he gonna lose again?”

Ash felt like he was at a very weird sports game. Lot of the people here were Pewter City people, you’d think they’d be rooting for Brock. Despite this being the home team’s boy, the air was tense.

“It’s been nothing but rookie challengers lately.”

“He might be a skilled trainer but can he truly handle being our Gym Leader?”

Ketchum didn’t like what he was hearing.

Brock started with Geodude while Toren started with Bloom (Bulbasaur). “Geodude use Defense Curl!”

“Bloom use Vine Whip!”

Geodude curled up a blue aura surrounding him. He took the Vine Whip and hung on. “Now Geodude, use Rollout!”

The rock type surged forward the move getting a power boost from the Defense Curl. It was fast and slammed into Bulbasaur, and despite it not being super effective it did a lot of damage. “No Bloom!”

‘Come on Toren you got this!’ That was a good combo.

“Bloom use Leech Seed.”

He fired a seed from his bulb, it hit Geodude and began to encase him in vines. The Rock type’s energy was drained and Bulbasaur recovered.

“Geodude use Rollout!” His second Rollout was unleashed, now with even more power. The vines slowed it down just enough for Bulbasaur to dodge. Bloom used Vine Whip to dodged, jumping into the air.

“Bloom use Razor Leaf!”

A barrage of leaves came out striking Geodude, he took the hit but the Leech Seed sapped the last of his strength. “Great work Bloom!”

Brock returned Geodude. “You did well!” He really did, especially against a Grass type.

Next Brock called out his Onix. “Thanks you did well!”

Toren returned Bloom, he wanted Bloom to recover a bit just in case. “Rumble I need your help!” Out came the Paras.

It was a small mushroom bug versus a giant rock snake, visually this was a one sided match. As soon as the match began however… “Go get him Rumble!”

“PARAS!” The little guy scurried about and ended up climbing onto Onix.

“Use Absorb!”

A green energy reached out and drained Onix for Super Effective damage. “Shake him off Onix!”

He thrashed about but Paras was hanging on tight. “Now Rumble use Poison Powder!”

Rumble unleashed Poison Spores and at point blank range there was no dodging this. Onix became poisoned and it began to eat away at him.

With a Rock Throw Rumble was thrown off. He came back with a vengeance. “Use Venoshock!” The attack hit, doing double damage since Onix was poisoned.

“Onix use Dig!”

The poison slowed it down enough. “Rumble use Absorb!”

It zipped in fast and dealt a lot of damage. Onix was brought down, Rumble climbed up on him bouncing up and down in victory.

Ash applauded, cheering for Toren and Rumble.

Brock returned Onix, his hand gripping the ball tightly. Ketchum could hear murmuring around him, and saw people whispering. “You did your best…” Brock said.

He gave Toren the badge and the TM Bide. “You did very well!”

Toren bowed politely. “Thank you!”

Ash made it down and met back up with Toren. He introduced himself to Brock. “You also want to challenge me correct?” He’d have to wait obviously, since his pokemon had just battled.

“Yes, and while I have no badges I want to make a special challenge!” Brock raised a brow at him.

“Such as?”

“I want a 4 v 4 match. My Pokemon have been training really hard and I want to test how much they’ve grown.”

Brock crossed his arms. “Are you sure, if you lose you won’t be getting my badge.” He couldn’t shake the feeling that Ash was underestimating him. A special match could include conditions set forth by the gym leader. ‘He must have heard about the others from Pallet Town defeating me, and after seeing his friend beat me so easily he must think I’m a joke!’

There was a lot of pressure being a gym leader, and Brock was young, the youngest gym leader currently in Kanto, with more responsibilities than one could see. His aura was radiating with negative emotions that Ketchum could feel.

“I understand, this is my first gym battle. I’m not being cocky I truly want to face you.”

The people in the stands overheard, and it sparked some interest. “Very well, we’ll have this special match.” They agreed on a time for tomorrow.

“Why a four on four match?” Toren asked.

“Well, Pidgeotto and Butterfree are newly evolved, while I’m sure they’d be fine, I want them to get used to their new bodies and powers.” His other four were ready to go.

“I see, well then I’ll see you both tomorrow then.” Brock left to take his monsters to the pokemon center. ‘I lost again…’

Ketchum felt a deep wave of sadness overflowing from Brock’s aura.

“So what are we gonna do today? More training?”

Ash ruffled through his pockets. “Actually, I thought we’d treat ourselves.” He revealed a pamphlet, the Pewter City Science Museum had just finished reconstruction and was open for tours.

Toren’s eyes sparkled. “Really!” Ash nodded. The greenette hugged Ketchum.

First they’d need to stop at the center, then they could have their date!

To be continued...Fight At the Museum