“Look buddy, we won our first gym badge!” I was so excited that I just had to keep showing Pichu and Totodile. We had spent the night in the Pokemon Centre after we had won the first Gym badge, the Zephyr badge. It was morning, and we were packing up to continue our journey, but first I wanted to go to the front desk and visit the nurse, so I could have my Pokemon in tip-top shape. I walked out of the room, with my bags and Pichu and Totodile beside me. We walked up to the desk when I saw the person I least expected. Ari. “What the hell are you doing here?” I said, out of sheer frustration “Shouldn’t you be out on your adventure..?” He walked up to me, and I had noticed a little, blue, beetle-type creature beside him. “This is Heracross, my new Pokemon...” I looked down at Heracross and then back up at Ari, and smirked. “He helped me win this...” He shuffled around in his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, velvet black case. Immediately I knew what it was. He clicked it open and flung it forward at my face. “The Zephyr badge, from the Violet City Gym...” He said it with so much pride that it disgusted me. I pushed the case away from my face and moved to the desk. “Nurse Joy, can you please heal my Pokemon?” I took no notice of Ari. “Ah, yes, are these yours?” She looked down at Pichu and Totodile. I smiled and nodded and she led them into a room on the left side of the desk. “So, I guess I really am going to be the greatest Pokemon Master of all time. You... don’t have a measly Gym badge. Psshh, as if you could beat me in a battle.” He was so full of himself, I wanted to strangle him. Nurse Joy had brought Pichu and Totodile back out through the door on the left “Here are your Pokemon, have a nice day sir”. With that, I picked up Pichu and let Totodile walk beside me, and then we walked out the door.

“Hey, hey... walking away from a battle, eh?” Ari stalked me out the door. Why couldn’t this guy just go away? “I am not walking away from a battle. I’m walking away from your ignorance, stubbornness, arrogance and sheer idiocy” I was very angry, and I think he realised. “Hah, as if” he said “Battle me, coward”. I looked at him, I had never been so angry in my entire life. I threw my bags to the ground, put Pichu back on the grass next to Totodile and said, “Bring it on.”
We took our positions and he called out his first Pokemon, “Let’s go Wooper, show ‘em what we’ve got!” I stood there, looking straight into his eyes, giving him such a piercing glare. “Come on Pichu, let’s do this!” Pichu stepped forward onto the grass and took his stance. “Wooper, use Water Gun, go!” Ari yelled and the Wooper walked forward to shoot out a beam of water from its mouth. “Pichu, dodge that and use Thundershock, go!” Pichu jumped out of the way of the water and focused its energy, which then was released in the form of sparks. It connected with the Wooper and it fell over... almost fainting. “Come on, Wooper! Don’t let me down!” Ari shouted, but Pichu was too quick for the Wooper. “Finish this with Thunderbolts, Pichu, let’s go!” Pichu jumped directly in front of the Wooper and focused its energy a lot more this time. A huge explosion signalled that the electricity coming from the Pichu had hit Wooper. A smoke cloud covered the area. Pichu jumped out of the thick, black fog with nothing but a scratch on him. The smoke and dust cleared to show that the Wooper had fainted, ending the battle.

I walked over to Pichu and picked him up. “You did so well out there buddy. Well done.” I placed him down next to Totodile, who was grinning and clapping for his buddy. Ari sent Wooper back into the Pokéball and headed straight into the Pokemon Centre, but before he went inside, I called out to him. “Hey!” I said, and he looked at me, angry. I dug around in my jacket pocket to find the thing I had been looking for. I flashed the velvet case to him, and opened it. I showed him the badge. The Zephyr badge. “Go on...” I smiled as I put the case back into my pocket, and he walked into the Pokemon Centre. “Well done, Pichu” I said as we walked out of the Pokemon Centre’s ground. We had been walking for about 10 seconds when I was confronted by a girl dressed in green. “Adam!” she shouted, and then I realised who she was. “Oh, hey Lily!” I hadn’t seen her since New Bark Town and we hadn’t talked that much then. “Adam, I saw that battle with Ari, you were so awesome!” “Uh, well, thank you? What are you doing here?” I was a bit worried that she may have been separated from the Professor. “Oh, I’m here to enter the contest in the next town over. In Cherrygrove Town, they have the first contest of the year, and I’m going to enter it with my Chikorita and my new Pidgey! Wanna see?” Before I could answer, she grabbed out two Pokéballs from her belt and chucked them into the air. Out from them emerged a Chikorita, which I remembered from the picture on the first day of my journey, and a Pidgey, a small bird-type Pokemon. “Woah, you’ve been busy.” I said. I was kinda proud that Lily had caught some Pokemon; she seemed kind of helpless when I met her. “Ah, so tell me about these contests, what are they?” I was interested as soon as she had mentioned it. “Oh, hahaha, well they’re contests with your Pokemon. You enter two of your Pokemon, and there are two rounds. Round 1 is where you put on a show of your Pokémon’s moves, and then Round 2 is a battle. Round 3 is the final. If you want to enter, we better get a move on!” She explained with ease. “Woah, sounds like heaps of fun. Do you want to travel together until we get to Cherrygrove Town?” I must’ve sounded enthusiastic because her face lit up with happiness. “Sure, let’s go!” With that, we moved in the direction of Cherrygrove Town, my next destination!


We were walking through a green field when we got to a forest. Lily was telling me that we had to get through this forest to get to Cherrygrove Town, and the Pokemon contest. We didn’t have very long, so we had to move quickly. “I hope I can catch a Pokemon in this forest!” I said, excitedly. “We don’t have time, Adam... we need to get there quickly”. A rustling in the trees was heard, and I immediately stopped and turned around. Out from the bush emerged a small fox-looking Pokemon. “Oh my god, that’s an Eevee!” Lily shouted “Extremely rare and extremely cute!” At those words, I knew I had to catch it, so I grabbed a Pokéball from my belt and called out my lil’ buddy, Totodile. “Totodile, let’s go, use Bubble!” The Eevee stood there; not moving and Totodile had leapt into the air and shot a beam of bubbles at the Pokemon. The hit connected but the Eevee was fast. It recovered and started to burrow into the ground. It then shot up from the ground and slammed into Totodile’s chest. “Come on buddy, let’s do this!” Totodile got up and stared at Eevee angrily. Totodile charged at Eevee and slammed into it, it then jumped up into the air and belted it with bubbles, but this was no ordinary Bubble attack. “Oh my god, Adam! Totodile just used Bubblebeam!” Lily had rushed to my side to see Totodile take the battle into his own hands. Totodile had finished thrashing his enemy and leapt to my side, huffing and puffing. I grabbed a Pokeball from my bag and threw it at Eevee. Ding... ding... ding...It seemed to take forever... Dong! “Yes! I caught an Eevee!” Lily giggled and jumped around with Totodile who was immensely happy. “Eevee will do great in the contest, Adam, well done!” Lily seemed pretty excited. I stood there, proudly.