The Grunts were talking a lot, they had never seen this rookie before. Gan went over to the Merit Hall again to have a look around. He checked a few TMs out and found that they had some decent Tms, they were the same price as the ones from Celedon City's Branch.
There were only certain TMs that were sold by businesses across Kanto. Then there were the exclusive TMs that the Gym Leaders handed out. These TMs came from the Pokemon League and were given to the Gym Leaders to give to the Trainers that defeated them as an extra prize.
It went in this way.
Brock: Rock Tomb
Misty: Water Pulse
Lt. Surge: Shock Wave
Erica: Giga Drain
Etc...
Of course, if he bought any TMs he would use them on useful Pokemon like Geodude. Gan only had 32,000 Merit Points, so he decided to leave it at that and save his points for later.
He had already trained with Mankey and Sandshrew for 3 hours straight, so he let them relax a bit. Afterward, he planned to head to battle the Gym Leader at 9:00 Pm.
"I can't get over it, once I find that guy I'm really gonna teach him a lesson! He even has a nickname now, they call him Ghost Hands, it should be Ghost Legs with how fast he was running!" Gan suddenly heard a familiar voice, then he looked to see.
"Damn!" Gan instantly recognized the 2 girls from before. He had robbed these 2 of their Clefairy yesterday night.
Gan quickly put his head down, so they hopefully wouldn't recognize him or bother to look his way. However, the tomboy noticed Gan's Mankey and Sandshrew standing next to him while he sat on the bench.
"Hmm...." The tomboy walked over to Gan to get a closer look at him.
"Can I help you, that's pretty rude to get in my face like that. Are you trying to kiss me or something?" Gan's face was filled with disgust as he spoke harshly.
"W-what? How could you say that, I wasn't trying to kiss you! I just thought your figure looked a little familiar, that's all." The woman took a step back with an expression of embarrassment.
"You don't have to be so rude, she was only curious, have a bit more respect." The blonde-headed woman said haughtily.
Gan stood up but didn't say anything. He recalled his Pokemon and left without a word!
"You...!" The Blonde was instantly enraged, this guy actually ignored them!
"Calm down, he's probably going to challenge the Gym Leader. How about this...." The tomboy said a few words and the Blonde smiled in agreement.
...
Meanwhile, Gan was on his way to the Gym, he decided to go early. He was confident in his skills, but when it came to Gym Battles, it was a no-joking matter. These were skilled trainers that tested a trainer's real ability, each badge was proof of it.
Gan wanted to collect every Gym Badge he could obtain from every region across the world.
Mankey and Sandshrew had leveled up to 11 from their training, which surprised Gan a bit. They grew more respectful of him when they saw him win his battle with Arlo. Too bad, though, he didn't find Mankey suitable, besides Sandshrew.
It took Gan 5 Minutes to reach the Pewter City Gym.
The Gym Looked like a training Gym from the outside, but small in comparison to those true workout places. Gan walked inside and was greeted by an old man at the front desk of the Gym.
"Oh, welcome young lad, how may I help you today?" The man looked up and asked with a smile.
"I've come to challenge the Gym Leader Brock, is this possible?" Gan looked around and asked.
"Yes, of course, but do you have an ID, you need this to confirm that you're able to do this challenge." If you didn't have an ID, you couldn't battle the Gym Leader.
People 14 and under couldn't battle the Gym Leader or even think of traveling into the beyond for that matter. Gan pulled out his ID and handed it to the old man, he scanned it with the computer and confirmed that it was real.
There was a meter in the Pokemon Center that could check your bone age, so you couldn't hide how old you were. The Pokemon world had made several things to prevent kids from going on dangerous adventures.
Of course, some people didn't follow the rules and kids would end up getting killed or eaten by Pokemon.
All roads led to death!
"Perfect! You can challenge him now, there haven't been any challengers lately but this will change soon." The old man handed Gan's ID back after he was done checking it.
"No Challengers? That's surprising, and what do you mean it will change soon?" Gan wanted to know what was going on, it was important to know what he could in this new world.
"Well, in about a week or so, there will be a flood of trainers coming from Viridian City and Pallet Town to challenge the league, so they must beat the Gym Leaders first." The old man smiled, he always loved to spectate Brock battling challengers.
"So it was like that." Gan nodded as to understand, this made it all the more important to get his Badge quickly. This place will more than likely be backed up with challengers, and he didn't want to wait in line.
"This way, I'll take you to the waiting room while I go get Brock." Gan was led to a waiting room that had no one in it. He waited 5 minutes before another man came to lead him to the Gym battle arena.
Once he was inside the battlefield arena, he saw a few spectators in the stance. There were about 10 people, but he recognized 2 out of the 10 people.
"Why are they here?" Gan frowned. It was the 2 girls from before, the ones he robbed at Mt. Moon. They looked back at Gan with mocking smiles, they were clearly there to see him fail against Brock!
'Don't they have anything better to do?' Gan shook his head and looked away. At that moment, Brock walked out with a smile as his gaze fell on Gan.
"Welcome, Challenger! I haven't seen a challenger in almost 2 months, so I'm a bit fired up to see you." Brock said with a thrill.
"Yeah, I'm new to this whole Gym Battling thing, but I hope to learn a few things from our battle." Gan smiled slightly.
"Hmph! Acting all tough when he was just a noob." The tomboy mumbled in the stance.
"It's okay, the defense of rock Pokemon is hard to go against, I hope you're ready because my rock-hard defense will make you lose your will to battle." Just as he said that; a strange machine came out of the ground.
There were 6 sockets in them.
"Put the Pokemon you want to use inside the sockets, and the number of Pokemon you wish to use. The Pokemon you want to use will not be exposed, but their strength will be measured." Brock smiled and said.
Gan quickly put the two Pokemon he wanted to use inside the sockets. Brock nodded and 1 minute later, he was brought 2 Pokeballs by the old man from before.
"All must be equal to hone a true trainer! Let's begin!" Brock gripped his Pokeball, then tossed it.
"Geodude, you're up!" Geodude made its appearance by speaking its name, but it looked pumped as well.
...
|Name: Geodude♂
|Type: Ground/Rock
|Level: 11
|Ability: Sturdy
|Potential: ★★
|Nature: Impish
|Moves: Rollout| [TM]RockTomb| Defense Curl| Tackle| Rock Polish|
...
Gan sighed lightly, it had a defensive nature and it even had sturdy to ensure that it didn't get KO'ed in one hit.
But this was what he was looking for.
"Go! It's your time, Sandshrew!" Gan decided to send Sandshrew out first and save Mankey for later use.
"Shrew!" Sandshrew looked at its opponent, he recognized this type of individual from earlier. Gan had told it to remember how Geodude fought.
"Nice, good choice!" Brock complimented. "But, you're going to need more than a type advantage to win this battle! Geodude, slow it down by using Rock Tomb!"
A few rocks floated and came together to quickly form three decently sized rocks that came crushing over towards Sandshrew.
"Rollout away from those rocks," Gan ordered. Sandshrew took action and curled into a ball, evading the tomb of rocks.
"Attack him!" Gan followed up and had Sandshrew directly confront Geodude. Sandshrew changed its course and started targeting Geodude with that.
"Geodude, hold it at bay!" Brock knew Rollout wasn't a very effective attack against Geodude, so why dodge when he could pin Sandshrew down? This move also lacked stab, so it would do even less damage to Geodude.
Geodude stuck its arms out to stop Sandshrew in its tracks. Geodude had large hands so this wouldn't be a problem for it.
"Hehe, just what I wanted! Do what we practiced, use Poison Sting!" Gan hurriedly commanded.
Just before Geodude could catch Sandshrew, it came out of its ball form and used its tail to slam onto the ground—lifting it up into the air. Sandshrew dodged Geodude's grasp and flipped; appearing above it.
Sandshrew's tail was glowing with a dim purple light; that directly slammed onto Geodude's rocky body or head.
Author Note: Not sure if it's a head or a body. lol!
"D-dude!" Geodude was surprised, but it wasn't hurt.
However, a purple hue appeared on its cheeks!
It was poisoned!
Brock was a bit surprised to see Sandshrew's combo, but he quickly gave the order to Geodude to grab Sandshrew's tail.
Geodude wasted no time, and quickly grasped its tail. Sandshrew was slammed back and forth on the rocky field like a toy in the hands of a 2-year-old!
"Shrew~!" Sandshrew started yelling in horror.
"Damn, uh... Rapid spin, quickly!" Gan panicked for a second before giving a command. Sandshrew spun as wind currents kicked up slightly. This pushed Geodude away but only a little and it also lost its grasp on Sandshrew.
Sandshrew quickly booked it out of there after breaking free. Gan sighed in relief because Sandshrew was free and Geodude was now on a timer. Sandshrew's body had also lit up with red light for a second, indicating that its speed had gone up a stage.
"Wow, you're really a smart and calm trainer for a beginner, don't you know that most beginners would have freaked out seeing their Pokemon getting pummeled like that?" Brock clapped a little and reverted back to his serious manner.
'I was freaking out, it just didn't show!' Gan's eyebrows knitted but he focused on the battle as well.
'It's annoying but if I could stall this Geodude out, it should be easy to take down' Gan thought.
"Defense Curl, Sandshrew!" Gan made his plan simple.
"Not good enough, Rock tomb, it can't move while boosting its stats!" Geodude took full advantage and used Rock Tomb as ordered.
Three rocks that were bigger than Sandshrew crush down on it, sealing it up. Sandshrew's body lit up with blue light indicating that its speed had lowered. However, its body also lit up with red light; indicating that its defense had gone up.
"Rapid Spin those Rocks away!" Gan laughed, Rapid Spin was too good in real life!
Sandshrew quickly spun and knocked the rocks away but it had taken damage from the attack from before. It didn't receive a stat boost from Rapid Spin since it must hit a target for this to happen.
Gan looked at Geodude, who had started sweating by this point.
"That's something you don't see every day, it's a sweating rock!" Gan couldn't help but say.
"Pfft!" Someone in the audience held their laughter in, but everyone could clearly hear this person's sniffles.
Brock looked at Geodude with wide eyes, they actually opened up!
"It was poisoned!?" Brock had not noticed because Geodude never turned to him.
"I see now." Brock looked at Gan and Sandshrew, and nodded with a smile.