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"Archeops, use Aerial Ace," Brock ordered. Before Hercules had even finished coming out of his Pokeball, Archeops launched itself from it's perch and soared straight toward the Heracross.
"Hercules, dodge that attack," Dogwood shouted in vain.
The Archeops came hurdling down on Hercules, talons extended, and ripped through his defense before he even knew what hit him. It was a one-hit KO, and Hercules fainted before he'd even made a move.
"What the- Ugh," Dogwood groaned. What a horrible way to start the match.
"Heracross is part bug and part fighting, which means he takes quadruple damage from flying type attacks," Brock informed him, "You'd do well to remember that."
Dogwood returned Hercules to his Pokeball. What was Brock even doing with a flying type? This was supposed to be the Rock gym! "Ok, c'mon Atlas! You can do this! Use the rocks for cover!!"
Atlas quickly darted behind a boulder upon entering the arena. He wasn't about to make himself easy prey for the Archeops like Hercules had.
"Smart move, there," Brock said. "Archeops, use Sandstorm to hit Scraggy behind his cover!"
"Caaahhhhhhp," the Archeops cried, as a sandstorm started brewing in the arena.
"Atlas, use Payback while Archeops is setting up it's Sandstorm," Dogwood ordered. The arena was already becoming less visible, but he could still see what was going on, mostly.
Atlas leaped over the rock and came down on Archeops head with both feet, then used the flying type's head as a springboard, and lurched over another nearby boulder to resume taking cover. The Archeops stumbled forward, wide-eyed, and did it's best to stay balanced. That looked like it had hurt.
"Scraggy took cover again, Archeops. Sandstorm won't be enough to beat him at this rate. Use Double Team, like we practiced!"
Archeops started sprinting about the arena, dashing to and fro, making carbon copies of itself to confuse Atlas. There really wasn't anyway to spot the real one; they all looked alike.

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Dogwood pumped his fist into the air as Brock recalled his Archeops. That evened the playing field; it was now 2-2. Charon was low on energy, though, and might not last much longer. He would have to use Leech Seed as quickly as possible and hope for the best.
"Well done," Brock nodded, reaching for his 2nd Pokeball, "Now let's see how you fare against this! Go, Golem!"
Golem landed on the field with a loud thud, splashing mud all over the place. Dogwood once again turned to his Pokedex, "Golem; the Megaton Pokemon. Golem sheds it's skin once a year. Even dynamite can't scratch it's boulder-like body."
Well, dynamite might not work, but Leech Seed certainly would. "Charon, use Leech Seed!"
"Golem, use Steamroller, and finish Lombre off before he gets a chance!"
"Golem," it cried, curling up into a ball. The Golem sped forth in it's coiled state, peeling through the mud at breakneck speed, and smashed into Charon, who flew back and smacked against a boulder before collapsing in the mud, fainted.
"Charon, no," Dogwood gasped. Brock laughed, and drew Dogwood's glare.
"No, I'm not laughing because of that," Brock said, stifling his laughter, "Look at Golem's feet."
Dogwood turned his attention to the Pokemon. There were vines tangled around it's legs. Charon managed to use the attack just before getting struck.
"Good work, Charon. Return," he said, withdrawing his last Pokeball. All that was left was Atlas now, and Brock still had one more Pokemon after this. "Come back out, Atlas! Golem has been seeded by Charon. You can do this."
"Scraggy," he cried, appearing on the field in a flash. "Scraggy scrag."
"Golem, Scraggy is the only thing standing between us and victory. Use Rollout," Brock ordered.
Golem curled back up and rolled after Atlas, but Atlas managed to dodge, barely. His tail got caught under the Golem's rampage, but the damage was minimal.
"Come back around and use Rollout again, Golem!"
"Good job, Atlas. Now confuse Golem with Double Team!"
"Scraggy~" he shouted, multiplying. Now there were four identical Scraggy's standing in a row. Golem sped up and smashed right in to-- the wrong one!

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"Congratulations," Brock said, approaching Dogwood from across the gym again, "You might have lost the contest earlier today, but you earned this gym badge."
Brock placed the glittering, gray badge in Dogwood's outstretched palm. It was octagon-shaped, and roughly uncharacteristic. But Dogwood would always remember this difficult battle when he gazed upon it in the future.
"You also receive a cash reward, and this," he said, handing Dogwood a Technical Machine. "This is TM80. It contains Rock Slide, a powerful Rock type attack that can buy you some extra time by making your foe flinch."
"And sorry I got so mad at you at the start of the match," Brock said apologetically, "You mentioned that Pokemon only needed Pokemon Centers, and it might have pressed the wrong button with me, if you know what I mean. But it's ok, you're still new to this kind of thing, am I right?"
"Yes, I just started a couple of days ago," Dogwood nodded, "My goal is to defeat Bruno, of the Elite Four."
"Aspiring," Brock smiled, "I like it. Oh, by the way, I didn't get your name."
"My name is Dogwood, the martial artist."
"Well, Dogwood the martial artist, if there's anything you ever need, feel free to ask."
"Well, actually," Dogwood said thoughtfully, "There is one thing..."

Glint shrugged a little. "I battle when I have to. It's not like I'm completely stoic. I took on that Team Rocket grunt, after all."
"Yes, but I don't think you appreciate battling. I don't think you understand it," Brock said.
"Maybe that's true, but I don't see that I need to. I don't think it'll help me become a better breeder," Glint replied.
"I think it will," Brock disagreed. "In fact, I think we should battle. Three on three. When you're there, on the spot, telling your pokémon where to move, what attacks to use, when to dodge, I think you'll see what I'm getting at. I think you'll learn even more about pokémon through battling than you do through raising them."
"I don't know," Glint sighed. "Coni's never been in a battle before."
"I'll go easy on her. I'm a breeder too, after all, so I know when enough is enough," Brock said.
Glint looked down at the little oddish, still riding on Gruff's back. He didn't think she was ready to be in a gym battle. But he was tempted to have a go, anyway. Maybe he really could learn something from a battle, and maybe Coni would too. "What do you think, Coni?"
Gruff looked to Squirbert and rolled his eyes, while Coni bounced up and down happily. "Oddish odd!"
Glint nodded. That was a pretty solid 'let's do it'. "Okay. We're in. When do you want to do it?"
"No time like the present," Brock said. He jumped up and speed-walked back to the door, as though he was eager to get into the gym and get the battle underway. "Come on, let's go!"

Glint had returned Squirbert and Coni back to their pokéballs before following Brock back into the gym. When he walked in he saw that the gymleader had already taken his place at the the near end of the battlefield. He had three pokéballs and was moving them around with his fingers like stressballs.
"You know you're going to cream me, don't you?" Glint asked. He stepped up onto the rocky battlefield and walked past Brock, toward the challenger's position, at the far end of the big hall.
"Well that's one thing I want you to see--it doesn't always happen exactly the way you imagine. There's a lot goes into deciding a pokémon battle, and especially an official gym battle. We gym leaders are professionals, here to test trainers' abilities and offer them lessons in bettering themselves. That's why I want to battle. Not because I think I'll get an easy win out of you," Brock replied.
Glint was at the opposite end of the battlefield by the time Brock had finished talking . It was strange position to be in. The arena looked bigger from there, and even the centre circle looked miles away. Glint wasn't even sure his voice would carry all the way to Brock if he didn't raise it a little. "What now?"
"Now we choose which pokémon we're going to battle with. I choose Crustle," Brock said. He threw one of his three pokéballs up and a five-foot slab of a pokémon appeared on the battlefield. It slammed its pincers down on the ground, sending vibrations across the floor, to Glint's feet.
"This is going easy, huh? That thing's a monster," Glint thought. Never mind any of his pokémon, Glint wouldn't go up against the crustle himself.

"Odd..." Coni muttered. She looked up at Glint with her little, red eyes and smiled. She seemed okay, despite being hacked down by the giant crustle.
"Glint, this is an official battle. You shouldn't run out onto the field like that, you could get hurt," Brock said.
"I'd rather I got hurt than my pokémon," Glint argued.
"Then you don't understand battles yet. Send out your next pokémon," Brock replied. "Crustle, back off a little."
Crustle took a few steps backwards, to be ready for the next battle, but Glint wasn't sure he wanted to continue battling. He didn't see the point.
Ping.
"Squirtle!" Squirbert shouted. He toddled forward, further onto the battlefield, and struck an aggressive pose.
Glint sighed. He guessed if Squirbert wanted to battle, he wouldn't stand in the way. "Okay. Use rain dance. That should be nice and safe."
"Crustle, swagger!" Brock ordered.
As Squirbert did a little dance and dark clouds began to gather up near the ceiling of the gym, Crustle let out another confusing breath, which definitely hit Squirbert--that was clear just from looking at him.
"Squir?" Squirbert asked, as he span around, ending up facing his trainer rather than his opponent.
"Squirbert, turn around," Glint chuckled.
"Squir?" Squirbert asked. Then, though he was confused, he quickly pulled his head, arms and legs into his shell, before rapidly spinning around.
"Squirbert, what are you doing?" Glint laughed. He watched as the tiny turtle span and span, closer and closer to a big rock. If he wasn't careful he'd hit his tail on--
"Squir!" Squirbert wailed. His tail smashed against the big rock and he immediately stopped spinning.
"Now Crustle, poison jab," Brock ordered. His pokémon scuttled forward, then jabbed one of its glowing pincers at Squirbert's shell. It did a fair amount of damage, and Squirbert didn't appreciate it--he sprang up out of his shell and erupted.
"Squirtle squirt! Squirtle squirt squirt squirtle!" As Squirbert complained, his injuries seemed to clear up a little. The big graze on his tail definitely calmed a little, as rain started to fall on it.
"Hey, it looks like your Squirtle's healed by rain. They call that rain dish," Brock noted.
"Rain dish, huh?" Glint said. He quickly looked for his pokédex in his bag, to see if Grampa had written anything about it before.
"Glint," Brock chuckled. "Don't just abandon your pokémon in the middle of a battle."
Just as Glint was going to defend himself, Squirbert turned on him too. "Squirtle squirt squirt squirtle! Squirtle squir squirt squirt!"

"Aghhhhh!" Aggron growled.
"Heavy slam, now!" Brock ordered. With his pokémon being so huge and Gruff being so small, the move could potentially be tremendously damaging.
Glint knew as much, and somehow his brain managed to process the information in rapid time and got his mouth to spit out an order; "Gruff, dodge it!"
Gruff dived forward. Unfortunately Aggron was so huge, Gruff would've needed at least two leaps to get out of the way. His hind legs got caught under Aggron's body and he whelped in pain. Thankfully the ground had been softened up by the rain, but now that it was stopping there'd be no more lucky escapes.
"Gruff, use reversal," Glint ordered. He watched intently as all the damage his pokémon had taken formed in a ball of energy, which Gruff released directly at the aggron's face. It did some damage... but Aggron didn't react to it. In fact, Aggron hadn't moved since landing its heavy slam attack.
"Aggron, wake up!" Brock shouted.
Glint looked at Squirbert's pokéball and wondered out loud, "did that yawn put it to sleep?"
"Gruff ruff!" Gruff barked.
Glint snapped back to the match. "Flamethrower! Make it a sustained one, it'll do massive damage."
Gruff nodded, then let out a massive burst of fire. It hit the aggron, then started to envelop it.
"Aggron, return," Brock said. He withdrew his pokémon from the battle and spoke to the ball it'd returned to.
Glint wondered why he'd pulled it out already. "I didn't think gym leaders could switch out?"
"We can't. I just knew Aggron had had enough of that flamethrower. You see, it's not all about giving it all you've got on the offensive. It's about knowing when to give in, too. Aggron could be asleep for five whole minutes, and I'm not going to stand here and let it take all that damage from Gruff - or let Gruff pour so much energy into the inevitable win - when I could ease the strain on both of them by conceding defeat," Brock explained. "And now I'm down to my last pokémon. Too bad your pokémon's a fire type, or you could have been walking away from here with a Boulder Badge."
"We still might," Glint said, though he didn't really believe it. Gruff is weak against rock moves, and Brock was a rock-type specialist. Glint was under no illusions that he might have a chance of winning.
"Heh. I think you're beginning to understand. Lunatone, go! Use hypnosis!" Brock shouted. His third and final pokéball popped open in mid-air and a lunatone came out and began hovering around, left and right, trying to disorientate Gruff. It looked like it was starting to work, too. Glint knew he had to intervene.
"Gruff, dive behind one of the boulders!"
"Grrrrrruff~" Gruff said. He ran over to the nearest rock and ducked behind it, hiding from the hypnosis attack.

Ed walked into the gym with his pokemon team and was surprised when he saw that Brock wasnt in the gym. 'I had heard that Gary was one for traveling but i didnt expect this from Brock....well it cant be helped'. As he was deep in thought one of the gym trainers approached him and said "Are you looking for Brock? He went out for a bit with somebody but in the meantime ill be your opponent. That is unless your chicken". "You must have a lot of guts to challenge me kid. I accept your challenge, but im warning you....I wont go easy just because your tiny" he teased. The schoolkid took offense to the tiny comment and got fired up for the fight. GRRRR It'll be a 1v1 match. Lets show him that size doesnt matter! Go Geodude! he shouted as a rather tough looking geodude popped out of its pokeball. "Thats a strong looking geodude but its not match for Ace. I choose you, Ace!" Ed shouted as his newly caught pidgey popped out of the pokeball. The trainer was surprised and said, "Pidgey is a flying type. Dont you know that their weak against rock types? Or are you really as dumb as you look". Ed was offended and decided he would let Ace do the talking. "Show em up Ace! Double Team!". Ace flew up and zipped across the battlefield making copies of itself that were spread out giving him a lesser chance of getting hit. The trainer sent his geodude to attack the copies with rock blast. The geodude began taking out copies with a flurry of rocks thrown with a good amount of force. "Quick Ace hit him with Toxic". Ace flew by the geodude and covered him with toxins badly poisoning it. Geodude used that opportunity to knocked pidgey away with a brick break attack. Even though it wasnt very effective it hit Ace hard and he flew back up to await its next attack. "Ace keep using double edge to overwhelm it and then hit it with a full power Steel Wing". Ace made many carbon copies of itself as the geodude went with a new strategy. Its trainer made it use smack down attacks to knock the copies out one by one with pin point accuracy. Ace charged at it head on and before breaking off and circling around it, made another carbon copy. When the geodude attacked it with another brick break attack Ace dive bombed it and hit it while its guard was lowered.