Go punch some rocks

As you enter Pewter City, you make a bee line for the red roofed building easily identifiable as a pokemon center. While the potion had definitely helped charmander, a full recovery couldn't hurt before you challenge a pokemon gym leader. As you walk in through the automatic sliding doors, you are greeted with a familiar and confusing sight.

"Nurse Joy?" This was the same nurse from viridian city. But how and why she was here had left me confused.

"Yes? Welcome to the Pewter City pokemon center. How can I help you today?" She welcomed me but didn't seem to recognize me.

"What are you doing here in Pewter city? I thought you were the head nurse at Viridian city." She seemed to laugh at this. Clearly she found something quite amusing.

"What? Did I miss something or?"

"That was my sister, she is my twin."

"So you both are nurses and you both are named Joy? That must have been confusing growing up as a kid."

"Sort of. We all go by our last name of Joy. My full name is Christie Joy while my sister in viridian city, her name is Cassy. If you think that's bad, I have 11 sisters. And to make things worse or better for trainers, we each managed to become a head nurse at the pokemon centers. So no matter where you go you can always find Joy at a pokemon center." She giggled at the play on words she had obviously rehearsed.

"That's utterly insane. Sounds to me like someone really wanted to play a massive prank on trainers." The sheer lunacy of it was mind boggling.

I then thought she said something about wait till you see Jenny, but maybe I had misheard her. Moving on I had her heal charmander before leaving the pokemon center. I walked up the street to where the pokemon gym lay. Opening the door I discovered a small arena littered with sand, broken rocks, and large boulders scattered throughout the arena. Inside were two people, one a young man just out of his teens, while the other a tall slender built man in his late twenties by the looks of him. One of them must be Brock, so I walked up to the young man to ask him if Brock was in today.

"He is! But before you can take him on in a gym battle, you have to prove you can beat me, his apprentice!"

Without a second to spare he threw out a pokeball and a small boulder with arms popped out in a dash of light.

"Come on geodude! Let's rock!" I groaned at the pun as I released charmander from his pokeball.

"Come on charmander. We are going to make him pay for that pun! Lets kick this off with metal claw! Use that geodude like a punching bag!" Charmander hit the ground running towards geodude with his arms out, claws gleaming.

"Geodude, hit them with a rock hard tackle!" The young man pointed torwards charmander as he yelled it out.

"Charmander, sidestep and use metal claw as geodude goes by!" Charmander hearing my plan, sidestepped at the last moment, held out his claws to his side. Geodude already charging forward, was unable to alter his course mid tackle, ran straight into the charmander's gleaming metal claws. There was a loud shriek as claws passed through rock followed by a loud thud as geodude hit the sand and remained motionless.

"Way to go charmander! Over in one hit!"

"Alright geodude. Return! Way to go miss, using your light agility against my heavy rock type pokemon was brilliant. Here is your victory money and I wish you best of luck against Brock." He gave my $100 and I thanked him for the match and the praise.

"Are you Brock by any chance?" I asked the older man.

"Indeed I am. I am the Pewter City gym leader. And may I ask whom I have the pleasure of being challenged by?" His tone was formal but nice.

"My name is Leaf and I'm from pallet town."

"Well let's get down to the fight then shall we? Lets go geodude!"

Leaning down to charmander I whispered to him "let's try the same move again! " he nodded then stood ready. It was geodude who made the first move. Charging forward like he was getting ready to tackle charmander, just as the other geodude had. Charmander, just as before sidestepped to the right holding out his claws waiting for geodude to collide with them. However this time, Brock's geodude reached out in the split second before impact and grabbed both of charmander's arms and held his body away from the claws. Using his momentum, geodude swung charmander around and threw him a few feet away.

"A good strategy, but one that we just saw and formed a counter attack against. Be careful of using the same strategy too many times."

I gritted my teeth as charmander got up, no worse for wear. Charmander leaped forward claws gleaming once again as charmander used metal claw. Geodude tried backing up but unable to match charmander's speed. Claws raked across geodudes arms as he tried to fend off the attacks. Geodude collapsed under the weight of the blows charmander was raining down upon him.

"Well fought geodude! Return! Let's go Onyx! We haven't hit our rock bottom yet!" An audible groan escaped my lips this time. Seriously, what was up with trainers and awful puns.

Onix, using his tail began hurling rocks and small boulders. I knew we were going to have to get in close in order to take him out. However the closer charmander would get the less time he would have to dodge the incoming rocks.

"Think you can get in there close enough to use those claws of yours little buddy?"

"Char! Charmander!!" Charmander took off at a slow run, not rushing in blindly but dodging and using his speed to weave and zigzag making him a harder target. Onix continued the barrage until charmander was just a few feet away. Moving his hulking body now, onix swept his tail towards charmander. Charmander leaped over the tail but letting his gleaming claws scratch ever so faintly against the tail underneath. Onix growled before raising his tail and slamming it down in an overhead swing. Charmander jumped once again only this time to the side. His feet had only just barely hit the ground before charmander lept up again, landing this time on onix himself. Charging up onix's body now, charmander was freely raking his claws all along onix's body. Onix, unable to help himself, let out a loud roar as he was scored along most of the length of his body. He began rolling and thrashing about, trying to dislodge the little fire lizard that had caused him so much pain. Charmander had to leap off to avoid getting squished beneath the giant stones thst made up onix's body. Charmander had dove aiming for onix's head, now searching around for him having lost charmander in the motions of heaving and bucking. Charmander raked along Onix's head as he came down, scoring deep gouges along the length of his body on the way down. Onix, unable to remain up, crashed to the ground in an earthshaking display of ****.

"Onix! Return!" Brock pointed a pokemon ball at the defeated boulder snake pokemon as it vanished in the familiar display of red light.

A new light now shone through in the building. This time it was charmander. I had to shield my eyes as the light became almost overpowering as it shifted and morphed. Then, as fast as it had come on, the light faded. Before me now was a charmeleon. A great deal taller now, his skin a deeper red than before.

"Way to go charman-, charmeleon! You evolved! I'm so proud of you! And you beat Brock's pokemon. Way to go! I gave charmeleon a hug, with him now reaching almost to my shoulders as I stood upright.