Chapter 9 – Roark Hard Strength
Roark fiddled with the keys to his gym as he hurriedly tried to unlock the door, he finally got the key into the lock and smiled, turning to face Kouki, "I guess you'll be my first challenger today," he said, pushing the door open to reveal the large gym. Kouki's eyes widened, he'd never seen a real live gym before. It was huge; the towering walls were a light red, the shiny floor was a pale sapphire blue and in the middle there was a large rocky area which must have been used as the battlefield.
"Wow..." exclaimed Kouki, letting his mouth hang open as he stepped inside the wondrous palace-like gym. He turned to Roark, but was nearly knocked off his feet by Cranidos... who had rushed passed him and straight through into the gym.
Roark laughed and closed the door behind him, taking a step forward so that he was right next to Kouki, "Yep, that's most people's first impression of this place." He glanced down at Kouki with a peculiar look and then started to walk further into the gym, "Come on; let me show you something before we have our match."
Kouki stood and blinked, taking in the entirety of the gym again before following after Roark, who led the teenage boy into a room at the back of the gym. The room was completely filled with life-like sculptures of Pokémon, Kouki's eyes scanned each sculpture... the detail that each of them possessed was amazing, "Did you make all of these?" he asked, turning to look at Roark.
"Yep," he replied blankly, "Each and every one of them." Roark then walked over to a large sculpture that depicted a Cranidos, "This is my pride and joy. It's a sculpture of my best friend, a Cranidos that I revived from a fossil a few years ago."
Kouki was amazed by the sculptures life-like features; he looked it over at least twice before looking down at the real Cranidos, who must have entered the room without him noticing. "But, I thought you said you'd only just received this Cranidos," referring to the dinosaur Pokémon that was standing beside Roark.
"Oh... I did," he replied, patting Cranidos on the head, "This sculpture isn't of him. It's of my other Cranidos." Roark then reached into his pocket and revealed a Poké Ball, with a push of the button a much larger Cranidos formed from a red beam of light, "This is who I made the sculpture for."
Kouki's mouth dropped, this Cranidos was at least six inches taller than the first one he'd met, it also seemed to be a lot prouder and better trained. "Wow!" exclaimed Kouki, "So you've got two Cranidos!"
Roark laughed, "That's right." He then returned the large Cranidos to its Poké Ball and smiled, "So, you ready for our match?" He placed his hands on his hips and stared at Kouki, waiting for what he knew would be an enthusiastic reply.
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Back at the Pokémon Centre, Hikari and Jun were getting ready for the day ahead. Hikari was fully dressed and had started packing her bag, while Jun was in the bathroom having a shower. "Pokédex; check. Poké Balls; check," listed Hikari, speaking to herself as she made sure she wasn't missing anything, "I think I've got everything." Suddenly Piplup jumped off the bed and into the girls arms, nearly causing her to fall over backwards, "Piplup; check," she joked, with a cute laugh.
Quietly, Jun stepped out of the bathroom, but his "skilfulness" was ruined when Budew came running over to him quickly. "Hey Budew," said Jun, smiling down at the baby Pokémon, "How are you doing?" Budew cheered, bouncing up and down like a rubber ball.
Hikari heard Jun's voice and turned to her friend, who was dripping wet and had only a towel covering him. Her eyes ran over his body, making sure to watch every curve carefully... she'd never say it, but Jun was in a bit better shape than Kouki, obviously because of his large amount of energy.
Jun wandered over to his bag and fished out his clothes, turning swiftly to head back into the bathroom. Although, he stopped suddenly and turned to Hikari, who was still checking him out, "Hey Hikari," he called, waiting for her eyes to meet his "I got you and Kouki presents back in Jubilife, they're in my bag."
Hikari didn't reply, so Jun simply shrugged it off and headed into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. With the "eye candy" gone, Hikari snapped back to reality, "What am I thinking?" she asked herself quietly, "He's my best friend!" Hikari then remembered what Jun had told her, "Presents?" she questioned, speedily making her way over to Jun's bag.
Hikari's arm swam through the clutter in Jun's bag, until she found two watch-like device's, "Jun didn't have these before," she pointed out, "These must be the gifts." The teenage girl clipped the red Pokétch around her wrist and slipped the blue one into her pocket to keep it safe for Kouki.
A few minutes later, Hikari and Jun were ready to leave the Pokémon Centre to go and find Kouki. They both knew he would be at the Oreburgh Gym, attempting to win his first badge, "After we find Kouki," started Jun, swinging his messenger bag onto his right shoulder, "I want to battle the Gym Leader myself."
Hikari sighed and picked up her yellow duffle bag, although... she swung it over her left shoulder, "Ok," she said, rolling her eyes before becoming completely serious, "But! After that we're going to Floaroma Town so that I can compete in my first contest."
"Deal!" said Jun loudly, happy with the plan that he and Hikari had thought up, "Now! Let's go and find Kouki!" Jun marched out of the room and down the hall, while Hikari gave the room a quick once over... making sure that they hadn't forgotten anything. Satisfied with the room, Hikari gave chase after Jun... after all, she didn't want him to go and get lost again.
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"This will be a two on two battle between I, Roark, Gym Leader of Oreburgh City and the challenger, Kouki of Sandgem Town!" announced Roark proudly, even though Kouki was the only other person in the gym.
Kouki snickered at Roark, "Wow!" he called, cupping his hands around his mouth, "That was quite an introduction." Roark knew that Kouki was being sarcastic, so he simply ignored him and unclipped a Poké Ball from his belt.
"Go!" screamed Roark, hurling the Poké Ball onto the rocky field, "Geodude!" In a flash of light, a strange Pokémon that was made of rock and had two large arms, but no legs, burst out of the Poké Ball. Roark's Pokémon floated in the air, awaiting the Pokémon that Kouki was going to choose.
"A rock Pokémon," whispered Kouki, "Then I choose!" he shouted back, pulling his own Poké Ball from his belt, "Turtwig!" In yet another flash of light, Kouki's little turtle Pokémon appeared and smiled solemnly, not fazed by the angry expression on Geodude's face.
Geodude and Turtwig glared at each other, they were waiting for their trainers to give them an order, but Roark and Kouki were waiting for the other to go first. The gym was dead quiet and the air was thick, who was going to make the first move?
Suddenly, Roark broke the silence, "Geodude! Use Rock Smash and then Rock Throw!" ordered Roark, pointing a finger towards Turtwig. Geodude reacted quickly, the rock Pokémon floated over to a large rock and smashed it to bits; he then began picking up the pieces of rock and hurling them at Turtwig.
"Watch out!" called Kouki as he saw the large rocks flying towards Turtwig, "Quickly, dodge those rocks!" Turtwig looked left and right, trying to figure out where to go... just in time, the turtle Pokémon leapt to the left and then began to bounce around the field, dodging every one of Geodude's rocks.
"Pick up the pace!" yelled Roark, seeing that Turtwig was dodging the rocks too easily. With a grunt, Geodude began to throw the rocks at twice the speed he had been before... Turtwig managed to dodge a couple of the rocks, before he was too tired to carry on and ended up being hit by one of the airborne attacks.
Turtwig tumbled across the battle field, travelling nearly ten feet... before coming to a halt in front of Kouki. "Turtwig!" he screamed, hoping that his Pokémon was strong enough to keep battling... amazingly, he was. Turtwig slowly rose to his feet and faced his opponent, with a look upon his face that showed that he was determined to win this battle.
Suddenly, Kouki heard a loud creaking; he turned his head and saw that the large gym doors were opening slowly. Surprisingly, Hikari and Jun wandered in, "I knew we'd find you here!" exclaimed Hikari, smiling as she saw Kouki's confused face.
"Hey buddy!" called Jun, waving to Kouki from across the gym. Slowly, Kouki raised a hand and waved back at his two friends, he was still kind of confused that they had shown up in the middle of his gym match. Luckily, they knew not to disturb him, well... no more than they already had, so they made their way over to the large audience seats and sat down quietly.
"Kouki!" called Roark, who was starting to get impatient, "Are we going to battle or what?" Geodude and Turtwig also wanted to get on with the match, each of the Pokémon had the burning desire to defeat the other and Kouki was only making them want it even more.
Kouki snapped back to reality and turned to Roark, a look of determination plastered on his face, "Let's do this..." he said slowly, his eyes narrowing, "Turtwig!" he screamed, with more enthusiasm than before, "Use Tackle!" Turtwig finally got to launch an attack, he bolted towards Geodude so fast that he was merely a green blur... in the end; he jumped into the air and crashed head first into Geodude.
The momentum from the attack caused Geodude to fly back and smash into a large rock, but because of his rock hard body... Turtwig also suffered, he fell to the ground with a thud and could barely stand back up. "Geodude! Shake it off and use Rock Smash on Turtwig!" ordered Roark, his voice croaky and sounding slightly maniacal.
Geodude wobbled as he tried to regain his composure, once he was ready, he launched the attack on Turtwig. The rock Pokémon held his arm up high and prepared to have it swing down upon Kouki's injured Pokémon. "Get up, Turtwig!" screamed Kouki, sounding scared that he might lose the gym match.
Turtwig opened his eyes slowly and looked up to see Geodude flying towards him, with all his strength, the grass Pokémon rose to his feet and managed to roll out of the way just in time. This caused Geodude to miss and have his arm swing through the air, the rock Pokémon wasn't happy about this... he turned to Turtwig and prepared for another attack.
Kouki saw Geodude getting ready for a second attack, so he had to act quickly, "Turtwig! Use the biggest Razor Leaf attack you can!" shouted the teenage boy. Turtwig shot a quick glance across to his trainer, who nodded back solemnly. Turtwig stood his ground and began to shake his head back and forth, causing a barrage of leaves to fly at Geodude.
Soon there was a cloud of leaves flying towards the rock Pokémon and his confidence suddenly sunk. He wasn't prepared for such a brutal attack and he didn't have enough time to get out of the way; the group of leaves engulfed Geodude and pummelled his body intensely. Kouki and Roark had no idea what the result would be, could Geodude possibly survive Turtwig's harsh attack?
NOTE: Any spelling/grammar errors are unintentional, if you see one please tell me.
