The next morning Foxx and Dawn first made their way to the gym so he could challenge Roark for the Coal Badge since they were having too much fun together last night to remember stopping by he gym. Upon entering the arena Dawn, who'd wore her red cheerleader outfit just for him, went to the sidelines while Foxx and Joy got into position near one of the ends of the battle field. Roark, a man in a a full minor's outfit.
With a grin Roark tossed out his first pokemon, geodude. Roark waited for Foxx to send out eevee before ordering an onslaught of rock attacks ranging from rock throw, rock smash all the way to earthquake and rock slide. Foxx had to greatly rely on eevee's greater agility and speed to dodge the attacks. Also waited a bit before having her unleash her onslaught of grass attacks which included razorleaf and solar beam.
It was a very balanced match as they dodged each other's attacks while also trying to aim their own attacks only for eevee to luckily land a well timed and placed razorleaf closely followed by a almost point blank ranged solar beam thus knocking out geodude. Panting she awaited Roark's next pokemon of which he carefully selected onix who right upon exiting his pokeball charged and wrapped around eevee.
Short on breath and almost out of hit points eevee struggled to target onix enough to hopefully get free. Yet in the end all he was able to do was blast each of onix's cheeks and the top of his head with grazing solar beams thus only shaving off a few hit points before she fainted. Thus Foxx recalled her before carefully debating on who to send out next.
Then with a smile Foxx slipped his hand into his bag before withdrawing a pokeball and tossing it into the air thus sending out gastly who quickly targeted onix with a hypnoses attack thus putting onix to sleep. Foxx then had him use his signature dream eater move which in turn caused onix to lash out sending up dirt and dust to the point that neither trainer could really see what was going on.
Thus they were both left to just wait for the dust to clear at which point they found both onix and gastly fainted and laying on the arena floor. This lead to them recalling both of their pokemon while greatly debating on who to send out next as they would be their last pokemon and the wrong choice could spell defeat for either one of them. So they had to be very careful in who they choose next.
In the end Roark sent out cranidos as his final pokemon while Foxx knelt before Joy placing a hand on the side of her muzzle before mentally asking, "I know we've gotten out of some really tough spots before but I was really hoping for eevee to make it farther or gastly to do a little more damage before sending you out so I'll leave the choice to you. If you think you can do this without getting hurt too badly then we'll go for it."
"I trust you Foxx my dear with my whole life as well as those of our friends. Let's make them proud and take down this one as well." mentally replied Joy placing a paw on his wrist and licking his thumb.
Thus with a grin Foxx stood up and nodded towards Joy for her to join the battle of which she quickly dominated with a combination of both fire and ice attacks making it almost impossible for Roark's cranidos to avoid or even counter. Yet this was no simple pushover match for Joy either, no she was going to have to fight for this victory.
In the end it was very close but Joy was able to pull out the victory by hitting cranidos with a fire blast and ice beam at the same time allowing for her just narrowly gain the victory. Panting she now stood over the recently fainted foe just trying to catch her breath and balance as she was almost too tired to continue.
It was at that point that Roark recalled his pokemon and started towards the center of the arena to which Foxx also started for in order to scoop up Joy in his arms for her to rest. As for Dawn she scurried over towards them at which point Foxx handed Joy over to her so he could talk with Roark.
"That was one of the best battles I've head in a long time kid. I guess Dawn here really knows how to find them." called Roark as he held out a hand to shake Foxx's hand.
"You must be referring to Ash, well we're both from Pallet Town in the Kanto region so that could really say something about our town." replied Foxx with a grin.
"I'm just glad to see you're not all like that Gary Oak fella." sighed Roark as he held out the Coal badge for Foxx before adding, "He's the one person I really hated to give this badge to."
"I understand I grew up with him almost like a big brother even though he was technically my nephew." replied Foxx as he took the badge and at the sight of everyone's confusion added, "Professor Oak who adopted me and raised me as his son was also Gary's grandpa."
"Okay I guess that makes some sense either way here is the Coal Badge I hope you enjoy the rest of your time in the region." replied Roark as Foxx and Daw turned and began to exit the gym to which he added, "Oh and Dawn please tell your folks hi for me the next time you see them."
"Will do Roark but don't forget you're always welcome to stop by as well." replied Dawn before the exited the gym and started back on their journey towards Dawns house. Will they make it with time to spare or will they only get one day before having to take off for the next step of this journey of theirs? How long will they have without Ash storming in or trying to force them to move on? Stay tuned to find out.