Close Victory!

You shout out “Go PAUL!” as you throw out a Pokéball and release your Poliwag

As you released your Poliwag, you see that Brock has let out a small rock Pokémon. You look at it for a moment, trying to remember what type it is...

But the announcer beats you to the punch. “And it looks like our challenger has sent out a Poliwag. It should have a good match up against Brocks Rolycoly! Lets hope the Rookie doesn't fuck this up!”

Great, looks like the announcer was expecting you to mess this up somehow. But how could you? Water beats rock. “Paul, use Water Gun!”

Broke doesn’t waste any time either, commanding his Rolycoly to use “Rapid Spin!” and to your surprise two things happen.

One, the rock Pokémon starts to twirl around like a spinning top. This has the effect of mitigating what would have been a direct hit by your Pokémon’s Water Gun attack. Instead of being blasted by a direct hit, the Water Gun only glanced on the side of the Rolycoly, causing it to spin around even faster.

Second, as the rock Pokémon continued to spin around it was getting faster. At first you weren’t sure, but as the rock Pokémon spun around the arena, it started to literally do circles around your Pokémon.

Not sure what else to do, you tell Paul to "Try Water Gun again!" Again, your Poliwag shoots water attacks at the Rolycoly, but Rock Pokémon simply dashes out of the way.

As you tried to think of what to do, Brock shouts out “Use Smack Down!” and you watch as the now fast spinning rock cucks a rock at your Poliwag.

You cry out “Dodge Paul!” and thankfully your Pokémon dodges. But that just leaves it open.

“Spin Attack!” and the Rolycoly changes direction and charges towards your Pokémon going far faster than you think a rock Pokémon should be able to go.

You shout out “Dodge!” But it is too late as you watch the spinning Rolycoly slam into your Poliwag, sending it flying through the air. You cry out in worry “Paul!?” To your relief, you see your Pokémon struggling back to its feet. Out of the corner of your eye you see the Rolycoly turning back around. “It’s coming back! Use Water Gun!”

Your Poliwag gets up and starts to shoot Water Gun at the Rolycoly. But the rock Pokémon is now dashing around even faster than before. Running literal circles around your Pokémon getting closer, and closer, and closer as it gets ready to attack again.

Taking a guess at when the Rolycoly will be close enough, you command your Poliwag to “Use Double Slap!” and you watch in satisfaction as Paul’s tail slams into the Rolycoly right when it is about to slam into your Pokémon, partially countering the attack.

Even better, the Rolycoly had stopped spinning and was finally still! You shout out “Water Gun!” and before the Pokemon can get back up, Paul finally manages to connect with a Water attack!

For a second there is silence as everyone waits to see if the Rolycoly gets back up. Silence which is broken as the Announcer “Looks like I just lost a bet folk, because Rolycoly is unable to battle! Lets see if she can pull out a double or nothing!”

With that Brock returns the Rolycoly to its Pokéball, and sends out his second Pokémon.

Oh, a Geodude, you know what that is. Wait, why does it look so weird?

Brock answers your thoughts with a single word “Spark!” and to your horror you watch as the Geodude slams into your Poliwag with an ELECTRIC ATTACK!

You cry out “What the fuck!” as you watch your water Pokémon go flying across the arena and slide across the ground.

"Oh, looks like our Challenger will NOT pull off a sweep folks! Lets see if she was smart enough to have a back up."

You try to ignore the announcer as you return Paul to his Pokéball and send out your second Pokémon. “Go Bell!”

You hear the Announcer continue his commentary "Oh, looks like the Rookie was smart enough to bring TWO useful Pokémon to her challenge! Still, that doesn't mean she is out of trouble yet!"

Sure, the Electric attack was a HUGE surprise, but Grass resists Electric, so Bell should be fine. Right?

Brock commands his Geodude to use “Roll out!” and you see the strange looking Geodude curl up into a ball and start rolling towards your Bulbasaur.

Well, you can use that. You wait until the Geodude is to close to dodge before shouting out your command. “Poison Powder!” Sure enough, the Geodude rolled straight through the cloud of poison, and right into your Bulbasaur.

As you watched Bell fly a few feet through the air from the impact you considered that maybe you hadn’t thought that through. But now the Geodude was poisoned. Bell just had to stay out of the way long enough for the Poison to work. The rolling Geodude was coming back for another pass, so you shout out “Bell, Leech Seed!” and you watch as Bell spits out a seed. A seed which to your glee lands directly onto the rolling Geodude. But this leaves your Bulbasaur open, and you watch in horror as the Roll Out connects again, and your Bulbasaur goes flying, again.

Ok, in hindsight, that was a pretty bad plan. Still, Geodude IS poisoned, and seeded. Now Bell just had to dodge long enough and the fight was yours.

Thankfully, Bell struggles back to her feet. But you can tell that Bell is struggling to stand. You see the Geodude is coming back for a third pass. You don’t think Bell can take another hit like that.

Hoping this works, you shout out “Bell, Vine Jump!” and thank Arceus she remembered the maneuver you and Melody had Bell practice over the last few days.

As the Geodude rolls towards Bell, she takes her vines, but instead of attacking she coils them like a pair of springs below her. Bell then uncoils her vines like a pair of springs and flies through the air, leaping not just over the Geodude, but halfway across the arena. “Good job Bell! Just Keep Away from it! Let the Poison do its thing!”

The Geodude continues to use Roll Out, turning and heads back towards Bell, and just like the last time Bell jumps over the rolling rock. But this time you hear Brock shout out “Use Rock Throw!”

Time seems to slow down as you watch the Geodude, in a single practiced motion reach out as it stops rolling, grab a chunk of the arena, and throws a large rock at your Pokémon.

Your currently airborne Pokémon that can't do anything to dodge!

You watch in horror as the rock connects with a loud crack, the rock shattering into half a dozen smaller pieces, while Bell is thrown off course and crashes into the ground. “Bell!”

Nothing, “Bell, get up please!” You can’t lose, not your first gym challenge! Not after everything you had gone through!

For a few seconds the arena is silent as you wait for Bell to struggle back to her feat. To your relief she does. But it seems to be taking everything she has left just to stand. For a moment you consider just calling it now, Bell obviously can’t continue to fight. But the choice is taken out of your hands when you hear the announcer call out

“Geodude is unable to battle, Amber Oak is the winner!”

You are so surprised you can’t help but cry out “WHAT!?” You turn your head to the side and catch a glimpse of the Geodude lying on the ground. It is foaming from the mouth, its body is covered in a tangle of small vines. You only get a split second to look at the Pokémon before Brock returns it to its Pokéball.

Without wasting a single more second you run towards Bell, covering the distance in a few short seconds. You kneel down and grab onto your grass starter and embrace her in a tight hug. “We did it! You did! Oh, I will never call you lazy again!”

You can hardly believe it! The fight was a lot closer than you were expecting, but you did it.

You earned your First Pokémon Badge!

Author's Notes: Well, Amber did it. She WON! WOOT! Now to get the other 7 Badges :D

As for the Pictures, I try to find interesting pictures for the Pokemon in my story, but there is hardly anything for NORMAL Geodude, let alone the Regional version. But I do like the Bulbasaur Picture I found. Almost didn't use it but I thought she looked cute and the picture is unique.