That night, Terra and Alec slept fitfully in their room, thanking the gods for survival. For
a week they had carefully snuck across the other half of mount moon, carefully keeping
out of sight of anybody, even just normal trainers.
Somehow, Alec had survived three times against the rocket's, and Terra twice. They felt
they had some pretty heavy accomplishments.
Now, as they walked anywhere, Nidoking walked between the 2 dogs, but now they
looked like puppies to him. The 2 dogs had a growing respect for him as well, he had
saved their lives. Only Sneazle of Alec’s party walked. The others he left in their
pokeballs so not to wear them out, just in case a battle showed itself.
The morning they woke in the pokemon centre. An unspoken agreement between them
seemed to say they would get on with their journey, and earn the cerulean city badge.
So they found themselves training for the gym leader against a bunch of other trainers,
mostly, water trainers. Psyduck earned his way expertly, lifting the pokemon out of the
water with a confusion or disable attack, then slashing them or using skull bash to finish
the match off.
Ursaring and nidoking would finish their matches quickly, they seemed to enjoy soaking
in the water, while Houndoom and Arkanine drew their matches out, and they seemed to
like the attention.
Sneazle, however, fought with fury. Every match seemed to be a personal affront to him,
and he viciously finished off any foe with a slash across the chest, or froze them with an
ice beam.
Terra and Alec started to get a name for themselves, and they both began to suffer for it.
Not one person would challenge them when they found out who they were, so they
eventually returned to the pokemon centre, after organising a battle with the gym leader
the following day.

When the day came, they were at the gym before the sun rose, before even the old gym
leader, Misty waterflower, former Elite 4 member and widow to the undefeated pokemon
master, Ash Ketchum. Apparently, pokemon were now her whole life, and she lived for
water pokemon. 70 years old, she was the oldest gym leader working.
The old woman finally showed up, a wise looking golduck at her side.
“You must be today’s challenges”, she began. “I’m M…..”, she never finished, as the
wise old golduck butted in with the words, “Golllllducky”. Misty went berserk. “Cant
you ever let me make a good impression you dumb-ass duck”, she yelled, screaming like
a mad old woman. Alec and Terra stood back, covering their amused expressions with a
hand over the mouths.
“Alright, now that I’m a little upset lets have a match, I can take it out on you”, Misty
said, the pain she was about to bring them in battle was written all over her face.

“Try starmie on for size”, Misty said as she released the purple pokemon with a jewel in
the centre.
“Ok, go Arkanine”, Terra said, a little worried about facing the legendary trainer.
“Huh, your first mistake”, she said with a snort.
“Wait and see. Let’s go arkanine, dive in”. Arkanine dived into the tank of water.
“Tackle that wanna be water type with your rapid spin attack”.
“It seems a little cool there arkanine, why don’t you heat things up, hot water attack”.
A surprised misty and Alec watched in surprise as the water began to bubble with heat.
Starmie tried, but couldn’t handle the pressure and jumped out.
“Good arkanine, you’ve taken one of her advantages off her. Use extreme speed”.
Arkanine sped through the  battlefield like mad, jumping from platform to platform, until
he found his foe, and rammed the star shaped starmie into the hot water.
Starmie began to shriek, and jumped back out again, still a little burnt.
“Recover”, misty said quickly, and her player suddenly got healthy again
“Now finish this try hard fire dog off, hydro pump”. Water shot from every  point on the
starmies body, splashing all over Arkanine with ferocious speeds, pushing him back into
a wall where he continued to soak.
“Arkanine is out of the match, victory goes to Starmie”.
Terra looked stricken, but a wicked smile crossed her face as she reached for her next
choice.
“Nidoking, show this bitch who we are”.
Nidoking emerged from it’s pokeball, enraged look over its face. Misty seemed slightly
offended about being referred to as a bitch, but lost the offence when she noticed the
sheer size of her foe.
“Barrage attack”, Terra said, the wicked grin slightly larger when she noticed Misty’s
open amazement. Nidoking was punching like there was no tomorrow, until the hugely
disadvantaged Starmie fell to the floor, ringing its unconsciousness.
“Starmie is out of the match, Nidoking is the winner”, the voice said over the
microphone.
“Umm, well done girly”, Misty said politely, somehow unnerved. “But I will NOT be
upstaged by some new beginning trainer with a super sized pokemon”!
Misty was now nearly screaming.
“Golduck, take this BITCH out”. Alec realized the 2 obviously didn’t like each other,
they were both now fuming.
“Golducky”, the pokemon at her side said, questioningly.
“Just use disable”, Misty said with an exasperated look on her face.
Golducks eyes went blue, and Nidoking stopped in its tracks.
“Water gun”, Misty said as Terra  smiled and said, “Break through and use toxic”.
Nidoking just stepped forward, and spat at golduck, who released a cannon of water at its
foe. The 2 attacks just missed each other, but connected with their foes. The water gun
was easily brushed aside, but sadly, the toxic took on effect.
“I give, I give”, Misty quickly exclaimed as she watched golduck in pain.

After receiving her badge and prize of a tm and money, Terra sat down in a corner and
watched the next match begin. She was amazed at the grace Alec pokemon would show
as they pulled off moves. Sneazle flipped around with such skill that she wondered if it
could float in the air. Misty’s golden was frozen while underwater. Then, poliwrath lost
to his slash attack, ending the match with speed. Alec showed much love in
congratulating his pokemon on their win, and not his. Misty handed over the badge
grudgingly, admitting defeat, and also gave him the tm and money.
“What is his secret? Why does Celebii want me to follow him”.


A week later, the 2 were still walking across open terrain towards celadon city. All of
their pokemon had been left in their pokeballs, just in case rumours had spread of their
battle skills. Perhaps they were cocky, But Alec had to be sure. Only Sneazle stayed out
of his ball. In all truth, he didn’t appear to be that strong of a pokemon, compared to
Nidoking or Ursaring. In truth he was probably stronger, or at least, faster. He seemed to
be increasing his speed as the days went by. One minute he would be sleeping on Alecs
shoulder, the next he would swing from tree to tree. And when there were no trees in
sight, he would run.
That was when he tripped over magby. Sneazle had jumped back up, and was preparing
to ice beam the being that had caused his fall, when the magby didn’t move a muscle,
except to breathe. Its eyes were glazed, and it appeared bruised and in need of help. As
Alec reached Sneazle, he automatically threw a pokeball and caught the pokemon. In an
instant he had it back out again, and was spraying it with healing root.
Terra helped Alec to care for his new injured pokemon, showing him how to heal him
properly, and she even used some sort of item on it, that she said would make its fire
moves a little stronger and hotter. She knew what she was talking about, so Alec just
watched her intently, sometimes asking what she was doing.
When magby came to, the first face he saw was Alecs, and he immediately jumped into
his arms, although his body burned Alec. Magby noted this, and seemed to smile,
although shyly.

It took perhaps a week to reach celadon, and nothing else eventful happened. The fire
dogs each had a great time racing around with Sneazle, although they struggled to keep
up with his jogging pace, and when he sprinted they couldn’t even see him. Ursaring and
Nidoking looked at the 3 as if they were crazy, and psyduck also kept his distance,
though he kept close to Alec. All in all, it was pretty much a minor holiday. To bad it
couldn’t last.

As they crested the final hill on the way to celadon city, each pokemon was returned to its
ball. Below, some sort of town meeting seemed to be going on. Nearly 200,000 people
were standing in a huge park, while a lady spoke over the speaker phones. Alec and terra
couldn’t make out what was being said, so they hurried down to find out.
“The black charizard has killed 17 people and 32 pokemon”, officer jenny was saying.
“Apparently, he started a forest fire in viridian, and the forest is now completely gone. It
is possible that a former terrorist group, Team Rocket, is resurfacing after 40 years to try
and take over the world again. I suggest we fortify the city in case of an attack. The black
charizard is impossibly strong, and they may have more black pokemon”.
Officer jenny went to her seat, and sat down. A fat man with white hair and a white
moustache took her place.
“As y’all know, I’m your mayor, Colonel Manders. The amount of money that would
have to be spent on what the young officer jenny suggests would raise your taxes by at
least 10 percent. Now, we all know that terrorism is a real threat, but from a pokemon?
To defeat a pokemon you use a pokemon, so I suggest we bring the dragonite trainer
Dwayne in from the indigo plateau, and let him handle these beasts. The cost would be
much less, and taxes wouldn’t have to be raised”. A cheer went up, including the
colonels, whose stomach jiggled with his enthusiastic ness.
“Then its decided, ladies and gentlemen, ill call for the Dragon trainer”.

“Officer jenny”, Alec began to the depressed police woman. Terra stood in the
background.
“I was there when the charizard burn the forest down. I barely survived”.
“Your that boy”, Jenny asked. “My cousin tried to question you, but you were
unconscious, and when she came next you had left. We’re in trouble, aren’t we”?
Jenny seemed to be looking for false reassurances, but Alec changed the subject.
“What makes you think it will come here.”?
“A man in a suit ordered us to submit the city to team rocket, or suffer the consequences.
The mayor laughed at him, and utterly refused, insulting the man in the same move”.
Jenny looked terribly depressed as she finished. “The worst problem is he said he would
destroy the city in 2 days time, a day ago. Even if I had time to call for reinforcements,
what kind of pokemon could stand up to a charizard that powerful”?
Terra stepped forward. “We will”.
Jenny looked absolutely stunned.
“Lets go”, Terra said to Alec.
They left, leaving a completely shocked jenny.

As they walked the streets, they overheard many conversations.
“Who needs fortifications, we’ll take on any pokemon, right blastoise”, a young man said
to his pokemon. “Toiiiise”, it replied.
“We’ll defend the city, wont we pidgeot”.
“No fake black charizard could beat a real red charizard”
“Dragonites are invincible, and we’ll have 6 to defend the city against a single charizard.
Who needs help”.

As they walked towards the pokemon centre, they were stopped by a huge line of
pokemon trainers, all talking of joining something called, “The militia”.
Terra explained what a militia was, and Alec joined the line as well. It took almost 2
hours to reach the front, and when they finally did, a familiar face signed the pair on.
“Alec”? Mel asked as soon as she saw him.
“Mel”, Alec grinned, and hugged her tightly. “Haven’t seen you in months, what are you
doing here?”
“I was preparing to battle the gym leader when she closed the gym and exclaimed she
was creating a militia. I was the 1st to sign up, and here I am, a captain”. Her grin was
huge. “I get to boss people around”.
“You mean you didn’t sleep your way to the top”? Alec said jokingly. Mel blushed, and
changed the subject.
“Who’s your friend”. Mel pointed at Terra, a grin on her face.
“Terra”, Alecs companion said, her voice rough and unplesent. “Sign me up”.
“Sorry mel, we’re holding up the line, we’ll chat later”.
“Right”, she said with a grin, and the pair walked off into the building.

Inside, pokemon were wondering around the place, as well as at least a hundred young
men and women. As they walked around, they were directed towards a desk, and a young
lady cheerfully asked what was in their arsenal”.
“Excuse me”, Terra asked, extremely insulted.
“She said your arsenal, as in, what pokemon do you have”.
“Oh”, Terra replied, blushing furiously. “Arkanine, Houndoom and Nidoking”.
“Mmmm hmmm”, the girl said at that. “And you”. She now looked at Alec.
“Magby, Psyduck, Ursaring and Sneazle”.
“Good, and now release your pokemon over there”. She pointed towards a boxing ring
like area, with heaps of people hanging on the ropes, looking at all the pokemon.
“Ya sure”, Alec asked, wondering if it was a good idea.
“Just do it”, she replied absently.
So Alec and Terra joined the line to reveal their pokemon. They watched as a middle
aged man released a Ursaring and a Nidoking, both at least 3 times smaller then their
own. They both held back a grin as the crowd ooh’d and ahh’d.
Alecs turn arrived, and he released all except ursaring. The crowd seemed taken with the
muscly Psyduck and the Sleek and healthy looking Sneazle, until one boy pointed out the
remaining pokeball.
“That’s just ursaring”, Alec said sheepishly.
“Well, you gonna show us”, the boy who had shown off his ursaring earlier asked.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea”, Alec began.
“Those are the rules lad”, an old man that appeared to be controlling the show said. “You
joined, you obey them”.
Alec sighed, and released his huge Ursaring. The crowd gasped at the giant. Ursaring
roared its usual roar when it escapes the confines of its pokeball. Alec noticed Mel
gaping, and suddenly filled with pride.
“Come on Ursaring”, Alec said, and the 2 walked over towards the corner of the building.
“N..N..Next”, the man who had made Alec show his ursaring stammered.
Terra released all of her pokemon at once. Everyone took a step back as Nidoking came
into view, as it was even bigger then Ursaring. Terra, leaving her pokemon out, walked
over to Alec, Grinning.

The 2 ate alone that night. Many people had offered them a room, but the questions that
everybody asked began to ware on them.
“Whats the secret”, and “Where did you find them”.
“What do you feed them” and “Are them much stronger”.
“so tomorrow we fight again, huh”, Terra said to Alec, breaking through his thoughts.
“Guess so”.
“They have no idea what they’re getting into, do they”?
“No”.
“What about your friend, is she as strong as you”.
“No, I have a certain benefit over her though”.
“Really, what”.
“I cant tell, I made a promise”.
“I think im strong because of Celibii”, Terra said quietly.
“What”, Alec replied, half asleep.
“nothing”
“good luck tomorrow, and stay close”. Alec said as he began to sleep.
“You too”.