13 Vermillion City Gym

By the next day, Scarlet had strategized her plan to defeat the Vermillion Gym leader, based on the information she gathered from Nurse Joy and other Trainers staying at the Pokemon centre.

There were a lot of trainers at the Pokemon centre, because they had to stay until thier Pokemon made complete recovery. Though, Scarlet noticed that these Trainers were worse than amateurs, after all, who would challenge a Raichu with Pidgey, Ratatta and Caterpie kind of Pokemons?

Raichu is a evolved Electric-Type Pokemon, where he was trained by a official Gym leader and had a lot of battle experience compared to wild Pokemons. There was no way of defeating Surge and his Raichu without a Type Advantage, or at least a solid plan.

Coincidentally, Scarlet had both.

"Onix, its your time to shine buddy." Scarlet said as she looked at Onix after explaining the strategy to him with Alex's help.

"I'll do my best." Onix confidently nodded his head. This was going to be his first Gym Battle, so it was evident that he was nervous about his performance.

Alex had a solution for this, so he asked Scarlet to call out Gloom, Onix's best friend, to wish him luck before the Battle. The two got along really well, so this will boost Onix's confidence to give his all into this Battle.

"Onix, are you ready?" Alex asked as he looked at the Stony reptile, "Don't be nervous, it's similar to practice battles you've done with other Trainers. But, if you're still feeling hesitant-" Alex grinned deviously, "-Just be relieved to know that I am not your opponent, like how we do in our training sessions."

"Y-Yes, I understand." Onix vigorously nodded his head in a fearful complexion, "I'll do my best, Lord Alex!"

"Good." Alex nodded at the satisfactory response, "You should learn to be like Primeape a little more, I mean in the confidence part. Primeape would not waver whoever his opponent is, and you like Confident guys, don't you, Gloom?"

"Yes, Primeape is awesome in his Battles!" Gloom replied cheerfully with a joyous hop.

"Be like Primeape.." Onix mumbled thoughtfully and imagined what Primeape mostly does in his battle, 'He beats the crap out of his opponents.' Onix understood and nodded in agreement.

"Enough, Alex. Come back both of you, we're leaving for the Gym." Scarlet called back Gloom and Onix back into thier Pokeballs and then looked at Alex, "You can be manipulative at times."

"I was just encouraging the guy." Alex responded with a roll of his eyes, "Anyways, you were saying that this Ash guy you met yesterday is challenging the Gym, right?"

"Yeah, he had went ahead to challenge Surge, the battle should be over by now." Scarlet answered as she gathered her things into her bag, "Let's go."

"Hm." Alex grumbled with a thoughtful look as they both went to the Vermillion Gym together.

By the time Alex and Scarlet had reached the Gym, they saw that a group of three people and a Pokemon were happily coming out of the Gym. Alex didn't take a second to recognise them, Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu. These were the protagonist's group of this generation.

Though, a protagonist with humorous plot armour. After all, why not? He got all the Starters of this region just like that, and he didn't even bother to train them to their max evolution or capabilities. Only his Chamander was able to evolve to his pique, just because of his willpower and determination to win.

Ash Ketchum might be a good trainer, but he's clearly not the brightest in brain departments.

"Oh, I guess you got the Badge." Scarlet greeted them with a polite smile. But then, she got confused when she didn't get a response or reaction from any of them, "Hello?" She waved her hand to their faces, but she noticed that they were frozen dead while staring at Alex, "Oh.."

"What are you looking at, fools?" Alex confronted with a annoyed glare.

"I am not Stupid!" Pikachu conveyed with a loud squeal, "But I cannot say anything about them, especially this guy." He said glancing at Ash.

"Anyways, let's not waste time, Alex." Scarlet said and tugged on his arm, "Let's go, I need to get the Thunder Badge as well."

Alex nodded in agreement and continued towards the Gym with Scarlet.

"W-What.. Was that?" Misty stuttered as she came out of her shock.

"We saw a monster just now." Brock replied, "No wonder she was able to defeat Dad."

"Will my Charmander also grow up to be like that?" Ash thought aloud in confusion and excitement, if it was true.

"Keep dreaming, dumbass." Pikachu grumbled with a annoyingly adorable face.

—

"That's your competition? So weak.." Alex told her as they were about to enter the Gym building.

"Actually not." Scarlet solemnly shook her head and seriously looked at him, "No one from Pallet Town is my competition, it's someone else. At my last meeting with Dad in Viridian City, he told me that he had met Blue, the current Champion of Galar region, and came to know that his daughter is going to participate in the Indigo league."

"Who is Blue?" Alex acted oblivious.

"Blue was my Dad's rival and they both are from Pallet Town, though he shifted to Galat region after becoming the Champion there." Scarlet explained, "His Daughter and I are actually like siblings, but also have been childhood rivals, so I am not worried about losing to anybody expect for her. No matter what, I am not going to lose to her." She determinedly clenched her fists.

'Blue's daughter, huh.' Alex thought casually, "Don't tell me her name is Aqua."

"How go you know?!" Scarlet shouted all of a sudden and gave him a disbelieving stare.

Alex placed his hand on Scarlet's head and sighed with a tired expression, "Then, you don't need to worry about anything." People with that name won't ever be taken seriously, because of the one they share thier name with.

They both entered the Gym, only to find it empty. But to their relief, two people soon came and greeted them, "A new challenger?" The woman in a biker gang attire asked, though the other guy was dressed in the same way.

"Sorry to say, but Boss is not here." The guy informed, "His Raichu was paralyzed in the battle earlier and is low on electric energy, so he won't be able to battle you any soon today."

"Then I have to wait till tomorrow?" Scarlet stated worriedly, "But I wanted to Battle this Gym today!"

"Then, how about I suggest something?" A tall and bulky man came into the Gym battlefield from the back entrance, whom everybody recognised as Lt. Surge.

"Let's have a two on two battle, that is if you have two Pokemon available for this battle and ready for the challenge." Surge suggested with a grin, "Of course, my buddies here would be the one battling you, since you should've heard that my Raichu is worn out from the battle earlier. Don't underestimate them, you can wait till tomorrow or battle them now, choice is yours."

"Also, that Charmeleon is not allowed to battle." Surge said in the end as he noticed he ferocious Charmeleon standing by her side, "It's not the rules, but no." 'It would be a overkill.'

"What do you say?" Scarlet looked at Alex for his opinion.

"I think it's fine." Alex responded nonchalantly, "We were going to send Onix for this Battle anyways, so we need to decide who will be the second one."

"Can I get to know what your Pokemons are?" Scarlet asked as she looked back at her opponents, "At least that way I'll get some advantage, everyone knew that Surge uses Raichu for all of his Gym Battles."

"Well, that's fine, I guess." Surge gave it a thought and gestured his friends to proceed.

"Go, Voltorb!"

"Go, Magneton!"

The two of them revealed their Pokemons on the Battlefield, and seeing this, Scarlet confirmed her choice of whom she was going to send next in the battle.

"Now your turn, little girl." Surge stated with a grin. He was confident about their victory, because they had a strong Pokemon like Magneton on their side. As for Voltorb, he had a trick up his sleeve as well.

Scarlet took out two Pokeballs from her belt and called them out on the Battlefield.

"Gloom, huh." Alex mumbled as he he looked at her choice, "I expected you'll go aggressive and send Primeape for this challenge."

"Do you think I am dumb?" Scarlet gave him a annoyed look, "Primeape is the worst choice for a two on two battle like this, because he'll go head on to take both of his opponents out by himself. Where else, Gloom has a good team coordination and would be resilient to electric attacks."

"Good choice." The woman who owned Magneton, praised, "Now, explain the rules, Surge."

"The rules are simple, it will be a two on two battle, so switches are not possible." Surge started his explanation, "The team who loses both their Pokemons first will lose the Battle. Fine with the participants?" He asked both the sides, who nodded in agreement, "So in my supervision, this is a official Gym Battle for the Thunder Badge. Are you guys ready?"

"Ready as always." His friends replied.

"Did you guys get the rules?" Alex asked to both Onix and Gloom who were on the battlefield, "This is not what we had expected, so the plans had to be changed a little."

"I understood the rules." Gloom was the first to answer and cheered, "I am happy to battle along with Onix!"

Where else, Alex noticed that Onix was nervous, "What is it?"

"I have never fought a duo battle before.." Onix murmured nervously in response, "I don't know if I'll live up to your expectations."

"I trust you, we all do." Alex responded with a bored look, since he really didn't wanted to deal with this anxiety crap. The rock heads were really a lot emotional than what people would expect from the tough guys.

"We're ready." Scarlet answered as she saw that Alex had explained the both regarding the battle.

"The Gym Battle starts now!" Surge announced and all the participants got on their stance.

"Gloom, use stun spore but avoid Onix's direction." Scarlet was the first to react and made a move, "Onix, use rock throw from a distance to not get caught up in Gloom's stun spore!"

Both of them understood the roles they were going to play in this battle. Gloom was going to be the annoying one that hinders their opponent, while Onix would be the actual damage dealer.

'Now I understand the benefits of doing so much aim practice.' Onix realised as he was using "Rock Throw" on his opponent. Both Voltorb and Magneton were mobile because of their way of moving around, but Onix was still able to predict their movements and precisely throw his Rocks at them.

"This is so annoying!" The woman shouted in frustration at seeing their Pokemons getting beaten up, "Magneton, use thunderbolt to destroy the rocks if you're not able to dodge them!"

"Voltorb, use roll out and move away from Oddish's stun spore!" The man ordered as he saw his Voltorb getting sick.

"No, that way-" Surge was interrupted in his speech as he saw embers surround him, "O-Oh, yeah." He gave a sheepish look to Scarlet and the Charmeleon, 'I am the Referee here, I cannot advise them.'

"Waah! This is so annoying!" The guy got frustrated as he saw that the "Stun Spore" was still not stopping, "Voltorb, Go rollout at Gloom and give a final attack!"

"Voltorb!" The Voltorb angrily charged straight at Gloom with his "Rollout".

Seeing this, Scarlet was alerted and got on her toes, "Onix, use Iron Tail and stop Voltorb from charging at Gloom!"

Onix was startled at the command and froze at his spot.

"Onix doesn't knows how to use Iron Tail yet." Alex informed her with a impassive look, since he already knew the outcome.

"Explosion..!!" Voltorb shouted aloud as he tackled Gloom with his "Rollout" and "Exploded" himself with a loud blast.

As the dust around them settled down, the results were clear, "Both Gloom and Voltorb are down, only Onix and Magneton remain in this battle." Surge announced.

"Gloom!" Scarlet exclaimed in worry and immediately took her out from the Battlefield, "What should I do?!" She panicked at seeing Gloom fainted and injured.

"First, use the healing Potions on her and get her back in the Pokeball to rest." Alex advised as he looked at the sudden storm brewing in the Battlefield, "Looks like he's not much nervous now, huh."

"You...!!!" Onix roared loudly in "Rage" as the Battlefield was now covered in "Sandstorm", "You'll pay for this!"

"Magneton, quickly use Discharge!" The woman ordered. She knew that a normal "Thunderbolt" won't affect much to a Rock-Type like Onix, so this was the best shot she had to defeating him.

The "Sandstorm" was already affecting Magneton and blocking his vision. He tried to charge electricity for his attack, but the stone particles in the Sandstorm were constantly hurting him and made him lose focus.

Without even any commands from Scarlet, Onix "Wrapped" himself around the Magneton and binded his movements, and then continued strangling him into the sandstorm.

"Chloe, call him back!" Surge shouted urgently, "Otherwise your Magneton would he gravely injured!"

"Come back, Magenton!" Chloe tried to call back Magneton in his Pokeball, but the sandstorm was making it unable to.

"The Battle is over, leave Magneton, Onix!" Surge shouted at the enraged Pokemon.

"Onix, comeback!" Scarlet shouted and tried to call him back, but the sandstorm stopped her as well, "Alex." She helplessly turned at him.

"Ugh.. Fine." Alex grumbled as he proceeded into the battlefield. 'So much for being a wimp all the time.' He entered into the sandstorm and grabbed him by his tail, but instead of dragging him out, he lifted the Onix entirely by his body and slammed him down.

The Impact from the heavy slam made the whole Gym shook in tremor, while the trainers had stumbles down on their arses. The Sandstorm stopped brewing around the battlefield, revealing a fainted Onix and Magenton.

Chloe immediately called back Magneton as she got the chance. She didn't wanted him to get injured anymore in this reckless battle.

"Come back, Onix." Scarlet called her Pokemon back as well, "Damn, you Lexy! Did you really had to hit him so hard?!"

"Do you think he was in the mood to listen?" Alex argued back as he came back to her side.

"What's with that Charmeleon..?" Surge thought in awe and fear, after all, the freaking Charmeleon had just lifted one of the heaviest Pokemon so casually and slammed him down.

"I win this Battle, come on, announce it." Scarlet said as she irritatedly looked at the frozen Surge who was staring at Alex.

"Ah, yes." Surge came out of his stupor at the call out, "Scarlet from Pallet Town is the winner of this Battle. Congratulations, you've earned the Thunder Badge." Surge took out the badge from his jacket and handed it to her, "Good luck on your next challenges."

"We'll be heading back to treat our Pokemon, Surge." Chloe stated as she left the Gym with the other guy.

"Yeah, I am coming as well." Surge replied as he went after them, "Might as well check on how Raichu is doing."

"We need to go back to Pokemon centre as well." Scarlet said to Alex, "Let's hurry up."

"Hn." Alex nodded and left the Gym with her. He also needed to get his egg back from the Pokemon centre.