The First Gym Leader.

Leaving the Pokemon Center, I made my way to the gym.

As I entered, my senses were immediately overwhelmed by the sight of towering rocky formations, meticulously arranged to create an intricate battlefield. The entire building was dedicated to be a battle arena. The gym floor was a mosaic of stony textures, each step resonating with a firm, solid grounding. Massive boulders adorned the arena, serving both as obstacles and strategic vantage points for trainers and their Pokémon. Sunlight filtered through small crevices, casting a warm glow upon the earthy terrain. The scent of minerals and moss lingered in the air.

I had seen pictures of this place before, but it was different to experience it in person. Taking in a deep breath to calm my excitement, I looked at the pokemon beside me, who gave me a firm nod to show they were ready.

As I walked in, I was greeted by a man with curly hair and a big mustache. He was the person assigned to introduce the gym to new trainers, and once he saw me walk through the doors, he greeted me with a smile.

"Welcome, welcome! You must be the trainer that caught Machop, Roark has been waiting for you. Do you want me to give you an introduction to the Gym?" He asked as he adjusted his glasses.

Shaking my head slightly I answered.

"No, thank you."

He simply gave a slight chuckle.

"I see; in that case, go right ahead. The Gym Leader is waiting."

As I made my way in, I saw that Roark was waiting in front of what appeared to be a computer with a scanner next to it.

He waved at me to come over before saying.

"Since this is your first gym, I will explain this pretty quickly. You have to scan your id so that we can register the battle, it will give me some general information about you, and it will help me decide what pokemons I should use for the challenge."

I nodded before tapping my id on the scanner. Roark took a moment to read the information before raising his eyebrows.

"Thre letters of recommendations and two starters… Huh, I have never seen anything like this." He muttered to himself before typing some things on the keyboard.

"Only one battle against another trainer? Are you sure you are ready for this? I know when I got my first pokemon I was also quite eager to get started, but my dad made sure that I knew not to rush into things too much. You should know that since you received a letter of recommendation, we are allowed to use stronger pokemon for the first gym challenge. Your record reflects on the Professors that backed you, so if you do badly you could damage their image" He asked in concern.

I took a moment to think before nodding my head.

"I have been preparing for this day for a long time. I think I should at least give it a try to know what I am up against. If it turns out that I am not yet qualified to challenge you that means I just have to train even harder."

Kirlia and Dreepy should be strong enough to beat this first challenge. If I truly wasn't ready, then that just meant I had failed both of my pokemon. I knew I had a lot of difficult challenges ahead of me, so this first gym was my proof that I was going to be able to beat them in the future.

Roark took a few seconds to think before nodding his head.

"I can respect your determination. If that's your choice, then choose your pokemon. This Gym battle will be a 3v3 challenge. You will have some time to prepare, and once you are ready we can begin."

He typed a few more things in the keyboard before an assistant came back holding a three pokeballs that he gave to Roark.

We both made our way to different sides of the battlefield before Roark threw his first pokeball releasing an Onix.

I sat down on the dirt before crossing my legs and taking in a few deep breaths.

Dreepy emerged from under my hat before looking at me directly with determination.

He had to experience battles against stronger opponents in order to become stronger, but I was slightly hesitant to let him fight this first round. Compared to Kirlia or even the newly caught Machop, he was the weak link of the team. But as I looked at the determined eyes of my pokemon I nodded my head.

I wasn't sure what Carolina or Garchomp had said to him. But ever since my birthday, he was filled with a sense of determination. If this was the path for him to get stronger then I was not going to stifle it.

Closing my eyes I tried to connect with Dreepy, and to my surprise, the usual resistance wasn't there.

As both pokemon arrived to their spots in the arena the assistant who had given the pokeballs to Roark walked to a microphone before starting to announce.

"Now that both trainers are ready, the gym challenge will begin. Im three, two, one. Now!"

"Onix, Rock Polish and then Harden!"

'Astonish and then Confuse Ray. We cannot allow him to power up his Onix. Otherwise, this battle will become extremely difficult.'

Just as the Onix was about to rub his body on the ground to polish himself, Dreepy let out a massive wail that was followed by a dark purple ray. The Onix was stunned for just long enough to let himself get struck by the purple ray.

"Onix, dig down to the ground and try to shake off the confusion, once you feel back to normal burst from the ground and attack!"

'Dreepy, now is your chance. Use double team as many times as you can. Then once he emerges, use Dragon Tail.'

Onix wobbly jumped down into the ground before digging through the dirt, and as he did this Dreepy began to create many illusory clones of himself, filling the entire battlefield with hundreds of himself by the time Onix burst out from the ground.

Clearly, the Onix was left confused as to who to attack, so he turned to his trainer to seek advice. But the moment the Onix turned to his trainer the swarm of Dreepy all attacked using their Dragon Tail, only one would actually deal damage, but the rest would serve to dissorient him.

Dreepy's tail began to give off a light blue glow before striking the confused Onix.

The Onix let out a massive wail before Roark gave his command.

"Sandstorm, then use Rock Tomb to destroy the decoys!"

'Don't let him block your line of sight. Use Disable.'

As all the dirt in the area began to lift up into the air Dreepy activated Disable causing all of the dirt to fall back down to the ground, yet even though his first move had failed Onix followed up with his second move.

Boulders began to fly all over the battlefield as Onix attacked with all of his might.

'Dreepy, go into the ground and prepare to use sucker punch. He is most likely going to try to dig back into the ground once he sees you are not there. You are going to have to be prepared to dodge once your attack lands.'

Using his ghost typing, Dreepy's body became slightly transparent before pashing into the ground.

The Onix continued to wail on the clones that Dreepy had left until there was no more left. Once Roark realized this he shouted.

"It's a trap! Quickly Dig into the ground and try to disturb the ground until Dreepy comes out of hiding. You know the rest."

The Onix leaped into the air before attempting to dive into the ground, but just as he reached the peak of his leap, Dreepy emerged to deliver a mighty strike.

"Now!" Roark shouted

Onix's tail began to glow in a familiar light blue color as he struck while still in the air.

'Shit, Disable, wait no, Protect!' I shouted to Dreepy mentally, but it was too late.

The little dragon was struck by Onix's Dragon Tail, sending him flying across the field before crashing into the ground and creating a big explosion.

I could sense he had taken a lot of damage from the attack, but he wasn't going to go down so easily. I could feel his intention, so I said.

'Before you do that, use endure.'

A massive wave of Ghostly energy was released from Dreepy's position before it rushed and attacked the Onix.

Letting out a roar the Onix had taken a lot of damage before he glanced at the pokemon that was on the verge of collapsing. Dreepy had gritted his teeth and endured using the move Curse, which should have knocked him out. At this moment, he was barely floating in the air but he let out a roar of his own as he defiantly stood his ground. Waiting for his opponent to go down.

"Crap, Onix, Attack as fast as you can!"

Onix launched himself in order to reach Dreepy, but before he was able to complete his attack, another wave of ghostly energy attacked him, causing him to fall down unconscious.

"Onix is unable to fight!" Declared the gym assistant.

I quickly drew Dreepy's pokeball before calling him back. He was on the verge of collapsing, but he had toughed it out to win this battle. I could sense the wave of draconic pressure he released as he roared defiantly before.

Once Dreepy was resting inside his pokeball I looked at Machop before he took a few fierce steps into the battlefield. He had just seen an intense battle and wasn't going to let himself be outshined.

Roark gave a small round of applause before calling forth his next pokemon.

"That was quite the impressive battle. But don't think that this is the end. We are 2 vs 2 right now. Graveler, come out!" He said as he threw his second pokeball.

The moment Graveler touched the ground of the battlefield the battle had resumed.

"Graveler use Rock Polish."

'Machop, use Bulk Up. Try to use it twice. They will most likely attack after they increase their speed, so be prepared to use Revenge once you are hit.'

Machop nodded his head before starting to flex his muscles as much as he could, making it so that his strength and defense would increase. Yet once he had made it so his muscles were as hard as rocks he relaxed for a moment before flexing even harder. The Graveler in front of us was using this time to polish the rocks around his body before his trainer smiled as he saw my Machop was preoccupied increasing his strength.

"Earthquake, and then Rollout!"

'Crap, change of plans. Use bullet punch to close the distance. If you can't reach in time try to jump as high as possible.'

Machop's fists became covered in what appeared to be a layer of metal before his body burst forward with incredible speed towards Graveler, yet he was only able to make it three-quarters of the way there before the ground began to shake violently in the arena. Using the ground just moments before it collapsed, Machop jumped as high as he could into the air to avoid the damage. Yet as he began to fall, Graveler began to spin at an incredible speed before launching into the air to attack Machop.

Thanks to the increase in speed he had given himself, he was rolling with incredible speed, almost guaranteeing to deal a massive amount of damage, and since my pokemon was in the air, it would be impossible to dodge. It was lucky that Machop resisted Rock-type attacks, otherwise, this could have been a battle-ending move.

'Use Counter'

Machop readied himself to absorb some of the impacts in order to increase his own attack, and as the Graveler struck Machop, you could see his muscles tense and bulge for a second before he delivered a massive punch right to the Graveler, breaking his rollout and causing him to crash violently against the ground.

Roark let out a sigh before his eyes narrowed in determination.

"It seems the typing advantage will be hard to overcome. I was hoping you would struggle to properly command Machop since you only caught him yesterday, but it seems that is not the case."

He took a look at his Graveler before they both shared a nod.

'Quick, try to get out of there or block! If you get hit by this, you will be taken out!' I shouted mentally as I realized what they were about to do.

Graveler began to roll on the ground once again with incredible speed, his body began to glow a faint white light as he made his way towards Machop.

My mind raced through different things Machop could do to try to mitigate the damage, but he didn't know Protect yet. So the result of this battle was decided.

The moment Graveler arrived next to him, a massive explosion occurred as he used Self-Destruct.

After the dust settled from the explosion, we could see that a good amount of the rocks that covered Graveler had broken off, and the pokemon was left unconscious on the ground. On the ground, not too far from him, was an unconscious Machop with his arms crossed as he had tried to protect himself.

"Graveler and Machop are no longer able to fight" Declared the announcer

"Isn't that a bit extreme?!?" I asked in shock as I saw Roark take out his pokeball to call back his Graveler.

Roark only gave a serious expression before answering.

"I told you I wasn't going to go easy on you. Your Machop is the biggest threat to my team, so in order to give my Cranidos a chance to win, I had to take them out. Graveler was determined to help win this battle, so I gave him permission to use his final move."

His words made sense, I was shocked by how far he was willing to take this combat, but maybe I should be thankful for the experience. In the future, team Galactic would not hold back their punches once we fought, so I had to be prepared for when the time came.

I looked at Kirlia, who had an extremely serious expression as she stepped into the battlefield. I could tell she was annoyed by how hurt Dreepy got. Now, it was her time to take revenge.

'Don't push it too far.' I told her before getting a nod in response.

Roark took his last pokeball, releasing their last pokemon.

"Earthquake!"

Roark shouted the moment the battle resumed.

Kirlia simply floated into the air using her telekinesis while looking down at the ground that was shaking violently.

While floating in the air, she closed her eyes for a second before activating Calm Mind. The anger in her eyes disappeared, being replaced with complete indifference.

"Use Sword's Dance, then use Iron Head" Roark shouted

'Kirlia, you know the rules.'

She raised her hand as Cranidos began to focus energy around him in preparation for a swords dance. Using Disable, she made the energy disperse, preventing Cranidos from powering up. Yet the pokemon was not deterred as his head gained a coating of what appeared to be metal before it jumped, trying to attack Kirlia.

Teleporting to a different location, she shot forward a Psybeam towards the location of the Cranidos.

"Cranidos, Protect, then use sandstorm!"

A barrier of energy appeared around the Cranidos, dispersing the force of the Psybeam, and as the pokemon began falling into the ground, it made the dirt in the area begin to float before creating a massive storm all throughout the battlefield.

Disable and Protect were not moves that could be spammed, they had delays between each use. This meant that if Kirlia was able to land an attack she would be able to deal massive damage, but the same could be said for Cranidos.

The storm blocked Kirlia's vision, and though she could technically use her Clairvoyance to detect the Cranidos, it would limit her mobility as she would have to focus on feeling the location of the mind of her opponent.

The extremely loud sound of rocks falling from the ceiling began to sound.

'They must have used Rock Tomb. Focus on dodging, and I will focus on locating the Cranidos.'

I felt the earth begin to shake once again as the sounds of the rocks being launched intensified.

'Crap, they must be using all of their AOE attacks right now. Use Disarming Voice as you dodge to try to distract the Cranidos!'

Kirlia's most potent combo required the opponent to be able to see her. Mesmerize and Draining Kiss were usually quite effective at neutralizing opponents with weaker wills. We knew that it wouldn't be as effective with the pokemon of the gym leader, so we had planned to confuse them first before executing our combo. But it seemed that now it was too late.

We had to focus on either waiting out the sandstorm or dealing the finishing blow.

Taking another deep breath, I cleared my mind before focusing on the mind of the Cranidos. The pokemon was currently running wildly in the field, trying to cause as much mayhem as possible and in order to become harder to locate.

It appeared that the Disarming Voice was working slightly as his wild movements slowed down slightly.

'I found him.' I said to Kirlia as I shared his location with her.

Kirlia had taken some damage from the wild barrage of rocks, so she was ready to strike back, and the moment she knew where her foe was, she teleported next to him before releasing a massive Psychic straight to his head.

Cranidos let out a loud yell, which must have caught the attention of Roark as I heard him shout.

"Use Iron Tail!"

The massive barrage of rocks stopped as Cranidos focused on attacking the pokemon next to him. But the very next moment, Kirlia disappeared into the sandstorm. It was our turn to use the fact that you couldn't see at all on the battlefield to our advantage. I could keep track of the pokemon, so all that Kirlia had to do was teleport in, attack, and then teleport away.

Cranidos was left to become overwhelmed, as the attacks kept coming from different directions until, eventually, it became too much. Once the Cranidos fainted, the Sandstorm dissipated, revealing a bruised Kirlia and an unconscious Cranidos.

"Cranidos is unable to fight, Trainer Lucas has successfully defeated the Gym Leader!" The announcer said with excitement, indicating the end of our battle.

~Author's Note~

Oh boy, this marks the first Gym leader battle. Let me know what you guys think. The next few chaps probably won't have pokemon battles/I will give a shortened version of the battles because writing in-depth battles takes a long time.

— — —

The babies have been born! However, I think I need to hire private security to keep my family safe. There are rumors that the FBI is sniffing around for me. Send me your power stones so that I can keep my family safe!