Chapter 12

Charlene was having quite a good day, she has faced 4 challenges and won all of them, maintaining a great win-loss ratio even with the swarm of trainers who thought they could beat her cause Selly retired. The little gloom had been with her for 5 years and finally decided that she was tired of battling.

The increase in challenges simply meant an increase in her salary as well as more economic activity. Her new Oddish, Eve, was also gaining lots of experience and getting closer and closer to matching Selly's battle prowess so her strength wasn't affected too much.

"Charlene, we have one more trainer before the evening break but I can't tell whether to feel pity for him or laugh at him." A girl who seemed to be 16, in official gym trained clothes walked in,

"Why?"

"He has zero gym badges and started 4 months ago. He also seems quite young, probably started on his 10th Birthday."

Hearing this Charlene was a bit confused, usually, the least experienced trainers she faced had at least 10 months under their belt, most of the time they would have a full year's worth of training. Even with the new surge of trainers, none had less than 10 months of experience.

"They should increase the starting age, at 10 years old most children can't grasp the concept of Pokemon training, let alone do it. I'll try not to beat him too bad."

Hearing this, the gym trainer nodded just as the door to the room opened, showing a young kid with two Pokeballs on his belt. He seemed quite young, but his emotionless face was a bit off-putting. He didn't speak a single word as he walked up to the challenger's area as his Pokeball opened itself and an abra appeared on the field. He began to stare at Charlene as he waited for her.

Charlene composed herself and threw out her Pokeball, revealing an Oddish, as the gym trainer started explaining the official rules of the match.

"This will be a Gym battle for a 2-star badge between Gym Leader Charlene and Trainer from pallet town, Alexander Creed. Each contestant may use two Pokemon and the challenger may freely switch their Pokemon. Begin."

"Eve, use Energy ball"

The oddish started to charge up a ball of energy in front of her as Abra's eyes glowed a deep blue before the ball of energy in front of Oddish disappeared into thin air as if it didn't exist in the first place. The Abra then disappeared before reappearing behind Oddish.

"Eve, Behind you" Charlene shouted out but it was too late as the Oddish was covered in a blue cloak of energy and launched straight off the platform and into the gym wall, where it proceeded to faint.

Charlene's fist clenched as she saw her Pokemon mercilessly defeated just because she was careless and underestimated a kid.

She threw out a Pokeball and a massive Ferothorn appeared on the field. Its steel appendages cracked the ground beneath it as it looked over the field until it saw its opponent. Its presence alone made Alex feel as if he was standing in front of the professor but to a lesser degree.

He recognized that level of power, it was an advancing Pokémon. A Pokémon strong enough to thrash most normal Pokémon. Abra stood no chance.

"Don't take the kid lightly, use pin missile."

Abra immediately tried to stop the multiple steel projections but was unable to stop more than 2 of the 6 flying at him. He was nearly hit by the flying weapon but managed to dodge it by physically moving out of the way but Ferothorn didn't stop there, launching even more missiles with even more speed and power.

Abra couldn't stop these missiles and he certainly couldn't survive for another round of the powerful projectiles after this one so he decided to make an opportunity for his brother. Abra teleported to just in front of ferrothorn. Placings it's a claw on top of Ferrothorn before concentrating all of its might, the totality of its power into a single point onto the crown of Ferrothorn's head.

Abra created a dent in the steel with all of its power, barely managing to break past Ferrothorn's defense before being swatted away into a wall. He was called back by Alex as he tossed his other Pokeball into the air and a Charmander appeared on the field. This time Alex gave out his commands verbally.

"Ferrothorn use pin missile"

"Charmander, block and dodge."

Charmander dodged the projectiles with relative ease. When Ferrothorn turned up the intensity, the Charmander used to protect, letting it hold off against Ferrothorn as the Ferrothorn tired itself out.

"Ferrothorn, use iron head."

"Charmander, dodge and ember"

The Ferrothorn rushed towards Charmander as Charmanders maw burst into flames. Just as the Ferrothorn was about to hit Charmander, which would be guaranteed One hit KO, The ground below Charmander collapsed and Charmander barely dodged the steel behemoth. Charmander emerged just behind Ferrothorn and let loose a massive blast of fire hot enough to melt Iron as the Ferrothorn roared in pain. It was Charmanders strongest attack that could even kill most Pokémon on its stage but the Ferrothorn even with times 4 weakness to fire, got up and was ready to bash in Charmander.

"Ferrothorn, move away and use pin missi-"

"Flame claw" Charlene was cut off by Alex as charmanders claws turned a steel grey that started glowing a dull red. The Ferrothorn tried to move back but wasn't able to move fast enough as Charmander hit the Ferrothorn on its crown, exactly where Abra had hit before him.

It took multiple attacks, two of which were 4X effective and one of which was on an exposed weak point to make Ferrothorn faint. But he had managed to do it, he took down an Advancing Pokemon for his 2-star badge.

Charlene was shocked, the kid was strong. He used her expectations against her, letting him take out Eve with relative ease and letting the abra damage Ferrothorn. He lured her Ferrothorn into an iron head before using dig to emerge behind Ferrothorn, letting him get off a 4X effective attack, nearly taking down the advancing Pokémon with one attack. Then taking advantage of Abras final attack to knock out Ferrothorn. It was a brutally effective strategy.

She snapped out of her shock and out on a practiced smile as he approached the kid with her badge in hand.

"That was great! I didn't expect that. Here's the Leaf badge, you earned it."

The kid didn't even look at her, taking the badge from her hand before turning towards the exit.

"Wait kid, you can now let your Pokémon roam in towns, take rank 2 challenges and ho-"

"I know" Was his short answer as the automatic doors slid closed behind him.