From: Dree Elle1 <dreeelle1@aol.com> Subject: [PW!] New Badges, New Faces Date: Monday, April 19, 1999 3:34 PM ((FINALLY I got it finished....didn't think it would be such a pain in da butt to get Aislynn her boulder badge ;D Anyway, hope ya like.)) ~Karma Rocket~ The door to the Pewter City gym creaked open as Knave poked his head inside. The lights buzzed above them, illuminating two stone pillars lined with small plaques. At the far end were several well-worn mats. "This place creepy..." Knave remarked as Aislynn stepped fully inside. "Kinda cold too..." she whispered, pulling her jacket a little more tightly around herself. "Well, where do I go from here Knave?" she asked. "Straight forward." he told her. "There some mats up ahead. Maybe we find Brock there." "I sure hope so...took us two days of walking and a bus trip to get here." she muttered as she tentatively walked forward. "WOOGA WOOGA!!" something screeched, leaping out from behind a pillar as they approached. Aislynn and Knave simultaneously let out a yelp of surprise and fell backwards as a blue, shaggy tangle of vines danced and bobbed before them. "GET IT AWAY!!!" Knave cried, clinging tightly to Aislynn's face. "What is it?" she asked, her voice muffled. "Is big scary monster that look like ball of yarn gone terribly wrong!!!" Knave shuddered, burying his eyes in her bangs and trembling. "What the---Scribbles, I told you to stop scaring people!" a boy's voice cried as a young man with black hair rushed forward. The thing seemed to giggle and scamper off. "Stupid tangela..." he grumbled under his breath, turning to Aislynn and Knave. "You guys okay?" "I...think so." Aislynn mumbled, attempting to detach Knave from her face. "Need some help?" he smirked, reaching down and yanking the Clefairy off of her. Aislynn brushed her hair out of her eyes with her fingertips and sat a moment, trying to get her bearings. "Scribbles likes to goof around a lot. I hope he didn't scare you too bad." the boy said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "My name's Maki...you here to challenge Brock too?" "Yeah..." Aislynn said, carefully standing. "But I didn't think I was going to get mowed down by a tangela." "Sorry." he said guiltily, holding Knave out to her. "Here...I think this is yours." "Dumb human put me down!!" Knave ordered, twisting out of Maki's grip. "Well geez, if yer gonna be THAT way about it..." he grumbled, letting Knave fall to the floor with a thud. The Clefairy, despite his current state of indignation, fluttered up to Aislynn's shoulder and took his usual post. "I've been here since after breakfast. I dunno where Brock is though..." Maki said thoughtfully. "But just to let you know, I'm next." "Okay." Aislynn nodded. He peered closer at her. "What's with your eyes?" he asked, looking at them. "They look all....cloudy." "You know, you're probably about the thirtieth person who's asked me." she sighed. "Okay, I'm blind if you need to know." "Blind huh? How can you see where you're going?" he inquired. "That's what he's for." she informed him, pointing at Knave. "Well, two challengers eh?" a voice asked, making Aislynn and Maki turn at once. "I was here first!" Maki said quickly, seeing Brock standing before the fighting mats. "Very well." he nodded. "What is your name?" "Maki Elburn." he stated solemnly. "Do you respect that, for the reputation of this gym, I will not show you any mercy during this battle?" Brock asked, eyeing the boy before him. "I do." Maki said with a determined look on his face as he approached and stood on a mat opposite the one Brock was standing on. "Then let's begin. Brock calls Geodude!" Brock cried, throwing a pokeball to the floor. Geodude sprang free in a flash of light, waiting expectantly for its opponent. "Go, Mooch!" Maki cried, releasing a large bat creature with a tongue lulling out of the corner of its mouth from the confines of a pokeball. "Golbat..." it muttered. "Geodude, tackle it!" Brock ordered, watching as the rock pokemon rushed forward. "Dodge it and use your leech life attack, Mooch!" Maki cried, watching as the golbat leapt into action. Mooch whirled to the side, avoiding Geodude's tackle. "Good going, Mooch!" Maki commended. The golbat then proceeded to wrap its mouth around the challenging pokemon and slowly draw it inside... "Stop it! What do you think you're doing??" Brock asked Maki angrily, watching his Geodude vanish into Mooch's large jaws. "Mooch, cut it out!" Maki cried, running forward and grabbing ahold of one of Geodude's arms that was hanging out of the golbat's mouth. Mooch made a grunting noise and fought but in the end gave up as the Geodude came free with a popping sound. "Sorry....I didn't think he was--" "That move is NOT authorized by the pokemon league." Brock said sternly as Maki recalled the Golbat to its ball. "It wasn't really a move. He just didn't have breakfast this morning and--" the boy tried to explain. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to disqualify you." Brock told him, looking at distaste at a runner of saliva hanging from his Geodude's right elbow. "But---" "No but's. You'll be allowed to challenge me again in three days." Brock said with great finality in his voice, looking over Maki's shoulder for his next challenger. Aislynn stood, wavering a bit uncomfortably in the background with Knave snickering about Mooch's attempt to eat Brock's Geodude. "Come forward." Brock called to her. Aislynn felt her heart leap but moved toward the gym leader, her mind racing. "Stop." Knave whispered to her once she had reached an agreeable distance from the gym leader. "What is your name, challenger?" he asked. "M-My name is Aislynn Brandt." she said as confidently as she was able. "Aislynn, do you honor the fact that, for the sake of this gym, I will show you no mercy in this battle?" Brock asked. Aislynn nodded silently. "Then let's begin. Brock calls Onix!" he cried, summoning the large stone snake. Aislynn shuddered, wondering why he hadn't chosen to battle her with geodude first but didn't argue. "I choose you, Dinky!" she cried, throwing the squirtle's pokeball to the ground. Brock watched with amusement as the tiny pokemon appeared and assumed a battle stance. "You may make the first move." he told her, feeling a pang of sympathy for his challenger's inferior pokemon. Aislynn bowed her head to show her gratitude and then quickly turned to her pokemon. "Dinky, bubblebeam!" she ordered. "Squirrtleee!!" Dinky cried, opening his jaws wide and jetting a large beam of silver bubbles at the large serpent. Onix roared in mingled outrage and pain as it was hit, making Brock inwardly cringe. "Don't let that stop you!" he urged his pokemon, withdrawing a small vial of red liquid from his pocket and hurling it at Onix. There was a slight tinkling sound as the glass shattered against the pokemon's hard outer casing and the potion seeped out. Onix instantly sprang back into action, revitalized. "Onix, rock throw!" Onix reared its head back, summoning a barrage of boulders from seemingly nowhere. "Dinky, dodge them!" Aislynn called as the boulders rained down on the Squirtle. Dinky, taken by surprise, did the best he could and managed to be clipped only by the last boulder. "Squirr..." he groaned, rubbing at the lump that had formed on his forehead. "Use your water gun!" Aislynn commanded, not having seen her pokemon take damage. Dinky obliged by spraying a thick jet of water at Onix, making it crumple to the floor. It twitched once and then lay still. "No, Onix!" Brock groaned, recalling the fallen pokemon. "I'm not that easily defeated, Aislynn. Brock calls Geodude!" he announced, bringing forth his remaining pokemon. "Geodude, tackle attack!" before Aislynn had time to react, geodude had knocked Dinky over with one hit. "Dinky down for the count..." Knave groaned. "Dinky return!" Aislynn commanded quickly, recalling the squirtle. "Go Juniper!" she cried, releasing the metapod onto the mats. "You SURE about this?" Knave whispered. "No, but he needs the experience." Aislynn hissed back. "Juniper, harden!" "Geodude, you should be able to take it with a tackle." Brock told his pokemon, watching as the metapod strengthened its outer walls. "Geodude." the pokemon grunted agreeably, lunging at Juniper. "Juniper, return!" Aislynn cried, drawing the pokemon back into its ball. "Spirit, I choose you!" she cried, releasing the spearow. "Spearow!!" the bird screeched, lunging at the rock pokemon. "Fury attack!" Aislynn commanded. Spirit braced itself in mid-air and clapped its wings together, launching a flurry of sharp quill feathers at the geodude. Geodude winced and curled itself defensively, though still taking damage from the attack. "Now peck it, Spirit!" she urged. Spirit was more than happy to oblige and swooped down, delivering a hard blow with its beak to its challenger. "Dude.." Geodude choked, falling onto its side and laying still. "Rock is finished! We won!" Knave cheered. Brock scowled at the fainter pokemon for a moment before turning to Aislynn who had just recalled Spirit back to its pokeball. "Well, I suppose you earned this." he sighed, reaching into his pocket and holding out a small gray badge that winked dimly in the gym's light. "Good work, trainer." Knave took this opportunity to zip forward and claim the badge from Brock's oustretched hand and carry it back to Aislynn. "And for not being able to see, you're a pretty danged good trainer." he added as an afterthought as Aislynn fumbled to pin the badge to her jacket. Her head jerked up, a wide grin on her face. "Thank you..." she said, unable to say it above a whisper. Brock nodded and then knelt beside geodude to see how badly he had been damaged during the battle. "Wow cool! Lemme see!" Maki said excitedly, peering at the gray badge on her Aislynn's jacket. "Man, and I have to wait another three days before I can get mine." "That what you get for letting your pokemon eat gym leader's geodude, baka!" Knave snorted. "Hey, he does that on his own. Mooch eats anything that doesn't get out of the way fast enough. Its not like I trained him to do it or anything." the boy said defensively. "So you've got a Tangela that scares people and a Golbat that eats other pokemon....are all your pokemon this weird?" Aislynn inquired. "Eh...most of'em. Poker and Jessie aren't though." he shrugged. "Yeah my kabutops and vaporeon." he muttered. "They take their work seriously. The other guys though....yeesh." "What other pokemon do you have?" she asked. "Oh let's see....ya know about Poker, Scribbles, Mooch, and Jessie....I guess that leaves Smirk and Meowmix." "Those are....interesting names." Aislynn managed at last. "Smirk's my koffing and Meowmix is my meowth." he explained. "I don't let Meowmix out much though because he's got sort of a swearing problem." "I see." she nodded. "Well, I guess we'd better get going. We have a long walk and..." "Mind if I tag along?" Maki asked. "What about your boulder badge?" she inquired. "It can wait." he told her. "I hate traveling by myself and I've been trying to get out of this podunk town for about a week now." "Yeah I guess you can come. We don't mind, right Knave?" she asked. "Not if I got to be leading BOTH of you around by the hand..." Knave told her. "I can see just fine, thanks." Maki assured the clefairy. "You come on two conditions..." Knave told the boy. "What're those?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "One, you no let scary hairball pokemon jump out of dark corners anymore and two, you feed me." he said firmly. "I got some rice balls left over from this morning." he offered. "Is deal!" Knave agreed quickly. TBC....