Chapter 8: Mike's First Test

Mike followed Simon to the mid-sized Pokemon Gym. In the gym were 2 trainers. Simon said Mike had to beat the 2 gym trainers to prove his worth so he could battle him. Simon said that he specialized in Steel-Type Pokemon. The first gym trainer started the fight against Mike. The trainer sent out Pawniard. Mike sent out Rowlet. Since Mike was the challenger, he got to attack first. Rowlet used Razor Leaf, Pawniard hit back with Metal Claw, Rowlet fell back but was still alright to battle. Rowlet used Peck, It did a moderate amount of damage. The Pawniard came back with a Scratch, which left Rowlet in pain. Mike sent back Rowlet and sent his newly caught Zorua. Zorua finished off the Pawniard with a Fury Swipes attack.

Mike had defeated the first trainer. Simon healed up Rowlet for the next battle. In the next battle, the gym trainer sent out Klink. Klink looked like it was stronger than the Pawniard from the previous Battle. Simon sent out Zorua. Zorua used Leer to lower the Klink's high defense. Klink used Thunder Shock. Zorua looked like it was gonna faint, but Zorua used Fury Swipes on Klink on its lowered defense, but it was still up. The next turn, Klink finished off Zorua with a Charge Beam. Zorua returned to its Pokeball. Mike sent out Rowlet and used Leafage on it but the Klink lived on just 1 HP, The Klink used Thunder Shock and took about half of Rowlet's HP, but Rowlet finished it off with a Razor Leaf. Simon was really impressed with how Mike took on those trainers with ease. He healed up Mike's Pokemon and went on to the main battlefield. '

The gym battle had started. Mike sent out Rowlet to start, Simon sent out his first Pokemon, which was a Bronzor. Mike started off with Razor Leaf and did a medium amount of damage. Bronzor used Confusion, which also did a medium amount of damage to Rowlet. Rowlet used peck on the Bronzor to bring it to about 11 HP, one more attack should do it. Bronzor used Gyro Ball, Which left Rowlet in low health. Rowlet finished it off with Razor Leaf. Simon decided to use his Cufant. The Cufant looked powerful, so he decided to sub in Zorua for Rowlet. Zorua used a Quick Attack, which didn't do a lot of damage. Cufant used rollout, Zorua got knocked down, but then Zorua was able to use a quick swipe to bring it down to medium health, Cufant knocked out Zorua with Rollout. Mike had to send out his low health Rowlet.

He sent it out and ordered it to use Razor Leaf, which brought Cufant down to red health. Cufant used Rock Smash, which left Rowlet with 3 HP. Mike then saw a blue aura coming from Rowlet. Rowlet was growing, It was Evolving! Mike's Rowlet turned into a new Dartrix. Carson and Sandra were in Amaze from the sidelines. Mike ordered Dartrix to use its newly learned shadow sneak, which knocked out the Cufant. In Simon's 44 years as a gym leader, he has never seen that in a gym battle before. Simon found Mike as a worthy opponent and handed him the Technical Badge, which looked like a gear. Mike went on to the sidelines as it was Carson's turn to battle Simon.