Ch 10. Ares vs. Brock

Waking up, Ares was greeted by the sight of Mew, in the form of a Pikachu, and Eevee sleeping on his chest. His arms had become numb as both Lucario and Pidgey had claimed one arm each to sleep against. Just beside his head was Pichu, who was happily nibbling on his hair. She must be dreaming about snacks, as she began to drool a bit while smacking her lips.

"Wake up guys. We have work to do today."

Ares slowly moved his arms as he tried to get up, his pokemon falling from his chest and arms, glancing around in annoyance to see what had happened.

His pokemon grumbled as they each woke up slowly, some digging into the covers to get a few more minutes of sleep before Ares called them again to eat. Mew yawned, climbing inside his bag with only her head sticking out, her eyes blinking slowly as she rubbed her Pikachu shaped ears. The message was clear. 'You might have work, but I don't. You do what you want and I'll keep on doing what I do'. He hadn't expected anything less from Mew.

Ignoring Mew, Ares began to ready himself for the day. His pokemon all began to ready themselves as well as they were all fired up for the coming challenge.

Waking up Pichu, the only one who had tried to get more sleep, they quickly finished their breakfast. They had an hour left before they had a challenge scheduled with Brock, the gym leader. Enough time for the food to digest a bit and them to get into shape.

"Alright, let's go!"

Ares returned all his pokemon to their pokeballs, with the exception of Lucario, and made his way to the gym. It didn't take long for Ares to find the gym, as it stood out from all the other buildings. It looked like a true rock gym, the gym being made entirely of rocks. It appeared to be one big boulder randomly thrown in the fields. It was truly the depiction of the gym leaders favored typing.

Going inside, the supposed gym leader that greeted him was a man who was around twenty years old. Ares was a bit confused, as he had presumed the gymleader to be an old guy. He was rather young for a gymleader. He must be really talented to get this position.

"My name is Ares and I'm here to challenge the gym."

The man nodded.

"I was waiting for you to arrive. I accept your challenge. My name is Brock and I am the acting gym leader of this gym. As a gym battle is different than a normal battle, there are certain rules. I will explain them if necessary. Is a two on two battle fine with you?"

"That's fine by me."

Brock moved to the battlefield, one that was covered in boulders of multiple sizes.

"As this is a gym battle, only the challenger may substitute Pokemon. This is a two on two pokemon battle. The winner is decided when all of the opposing sides pokemon have fainted. Let us begin the battle, ready or not."

Brock took out a pokeball from his belt, calling out a giant rock snake pokemon called Onix.

"This is Onix, one of the ace pokemon of my team. Choose your pokemon wisely."

Brock said, as he waited for Ares to choose his pokemon.

"Lucario, your turn to battle."

Lucario nodded as he fist pumped to show it was ready. Lucario looked at Onix with determined eyes, not the least bit intimidated by its size. It had seen bigger pokemon at Professor Oak's lab, who were a lot stronger than his current opponent.

"A good choice."

Brock commented as he turned his attention back on the battle.

Both waited for the opponent to make his move, anticipating what move they would make. Brock made the first move.

"Onix, use Rock Polish!"

"Lucario, Agillity and Focus Energy."

Both pokemon increased their stats, making a move as soon as they were ready. In this case it was Lucario who was ready first, as he had experience in using two moves at the same time.

Lucario moved at a fast pace towards Onix, observing intently on how Onix would move. Every twitch of the serpentine body was noted in case he needed to dodge an unexpected attack. Onix saw Lucario coming and roared at it. It was surprised at the speed Lucario showcased, feeling a bit threatened by the Lucario.

"Onix, use Rock tomb!"

Onix gathered his energy as rocks began to form above Lucario. Lucario noticed it as well, but kept on running, his speed instead of lowering increasing. The giant rocks came crashing down, while Lucario seamlessly dodged the falling rocks, sometimes even using those rocks itself to dodge the next one.

"Lucario, use Force palm on the rocks closest to you, send them back towards Onix."

Lucario rushed to the nearest rock and placed his hand on the rock, blasting it with full force towards Onix.

"Onix, break it apart with Iron tail!"

Onix wasn't planning to get hit by his own attack anytime soon and powered up an Iron tail, smashing the rock to pieces, while trying to keep an eye on his opponent. Onix was strong, but it's counter attack only caused one demerit. It also left an opening in its guard.

"Lucario, Climb it"

Lucario took the opening and climbed on top of Onix, running upwards towards its head. Lucario didn't need any instruction to know what Ares wanted him to do. On each of his paws a big Aura sphere was forming and was blasted straight into Onix's face. Onix roared in pain as it fell backwards, thrashing wildly as it did. Lucario didn't let up as he continued to fire Aura Spheres, each connecting solidly with Onix, creating a dust cloud as Onix crashed to the ground.

Lucario paused, waiting for Onix to move. As the cloud vanished, a fainted Onix was sprawled on the ground.

"You did great Onix, please get some rest."

Brock returned Onix to his pokeball and took out his last Pokemon. Appearing on the field was a strong looking Geodude.

"Lucario, return."

Lucario returned to Ares's side, as it knew Alex wanted his other pokemon to gain some experience too. Lucario was too strong to make this a worthwhile experience for him. This was the best time for his other pokemon to get a feel for a real battle.

"Eevee, time to battle."

Eevee came out of his pokeball, jumping excitedly as it was psyched to face an opponent. Especially one his trainer had told him about. One that would let him fight against a stronger opponents if they won. He was ready to defeat this Geodude, to get stronger and to get the oportunity to fight against stronger trainers, stronger gym leaders. That would surely help in their path going forward.

Seeing Geodude, Eevee growled at it as a challenge. Geodude flexed its arms, also ready to start.

"Geodude, Rollout!"

Geodude rolled up, moving at a speed Ares found astounding. It was fast! It was as if it had used Rock Polish multiple times, but that surely hadn't happened. Eevee saw it as well, knowing it would be bad if he was hit. Eevee jumped out of Geodudes way, using the boulders from the previous battle around him to oversee the course Geodude would take. It made his maneuvering a lot easier, as did it make overseeing the battle a piece of cake.

"Eevee, Shadow ball."

Geodude rushed towards Eevee who was powering up a Shadow ball. Yet it hadn't forseen that the Shadow ball would be formed as fast as it did, don't even mention the amount of Shadow balls that were formed. In front of Eevee were three fully formed Shadow balls. Ares had instructed Eevee to work on those, as it would give Eevee more time act and would ensure at least one of them was close to hit the opponent. Now it was the moment of truth to see if Eevee's work had paid off.

"Geodude, quick! Dodge it!"

Brock yelled, as he could see where the battle was going if Eevee was able to hit Geodude. Even if Shadow ball dealt relatively low damage to a rock-type, it would depend on the mastery. Seeing that Eevee's mastery was top-notch, it was better to avoid than regret it. Geodude pushed himself out of this attack with his arms, barely avoiding the shadow balls.

"Rock throw!"

Once Geodude came to a stop, it immediately started throwing rocks at Eevee, who started to dodge as well.

"Eevee, use swift on the ground!"

Doing just that, Eevee created a massive cloud of sand in which it disappeared. It was made even easier, as Eevee was naturally camouflaged in the dust cloud. His fur coloration really helped with this.

"Double team and Swift once more."

Even if the trainers couldn't see their pokemon, they could hear the soft grunting of Geodude as it was hit with mulitple Swift.

"Geodude! Calm down and sense where the attacks are coming from."

They could still hear Geodude grunt under the barrage of attacks, but suddenly there was a painful yelp as Eevee was hit by a Rock throw from Geodude.

"Eevee, finish this quickly. Quick attack followed by Take down."

"Geodude, use Rollout to counter it."

The battle ended up as a clash of two attacks, both hitting each other and blasting away the sand, revealing Eevee and Geodude in a fierce battle to overpower the other.

Eventually, Geodude was pushed back, as it had received a lot more damage than Eevee. Eevee growled, putting every ounce of strength he had left into the attack, sending Geodude flying into one of the boulders.

As Ares and Brock turned their eyes on Geodude, they could see it fainted, stuck into the rock.

Eevee barked in happiness but soon sagged to the ground in exhaustion. He had worked hard, but had also received a lot of damage from this battle. Eevee had dealt a lot of damage, even if the attacks were weak, which consumed a lot of stamina. The attacks he received were few, but rock-type attacks were heavy hitters, dealing a lot of damage, especially since Eevee was still in his first evolution. His defense was just not good enough right now.

Ares patted Eevee on his head, showing his pride in Eevee for a battle well done. Eevee slowly got up and nuzzled in Ares's arms, wanting to be a little spoiled after a big battle.

Brock sighed as he returned Geodude to his poke ball.

"You did your best Geodude, good job."

Putting the pokeball away, Brock walked towards Ares, who carried a tired Eevee in his arms and had the calm Lucario by his side. Lucario had watched the battle ever since he was swapped out, ready to give Eevee some pointers once they were going to train again. It patting Eevee in praise for a well won battle. Ares couldn't help but feel glad his pokemon were working together as good as they did. It really made training them a lot easier.

"Congratualation, Ares. You have earned your Boulder badge."

Brock handed him a grey badge which looked a lot like a rock. Eevee and Lucario smiled when they saw it, clearly happy they had won the fight.

"Thanks. My pokemon did their best."

Ares put the badge into the badge case and left the gym. He would treat his pokemon to something nice today, they had earned it. Tomorrow he would move on towards Cerulean city where the next gym was.