As we left our trio they were settling in for the night. 
As the sun slowly rose over the hillside Dustin was awakened by Sparky
tossing a small bucket of water over his face "Awww what did you do that
for Pichu." said Dustin glaring at the laughing pokemon 
"Well since you are in such a playful mood lets do some training before
the others get up," said Dustin. As he got ready for the day getting out
of his tent and stretching he noticed a certain ghost pokemon floating
around the camp site *better not get in its way* he thought to himself. 
Dustin reached in to his tent and grabbed his pokeballs and placed them
on the clips on his belt 
"Well Pichu lets go look for a new pokemon friend as training today,"
said Dustin. Pichu sweat dropped twenty minutes later Dustin spots a
sizor asleep in a tree. "Let’s capture that one." Dustin says quietly to
Pichu "Go burner use flamethrower." whispered Dustin releasing his
rapidash. The sleeping sizor didn't know what hit it as it woke up to
flames kissing its body. "Pokeball go." yelled Dustin as he threw a ball
at the pokemon. sizor glowed bright red and was sucked inside the
pokeball the small light on the side glowed as the ball rocked and
finally stopped. Dustin walks over and picks up the pokeball and quickly
returned to the campsite. "Looks like I got back time to spare." Dustin
said to himself as he looked as his watch 5:45 AM. Well let’s get my new
friend healed thought Dustin, releasing his newly caught sizor. Appearing
from a beam of light she looks at Dustin looking worried. "Don't worry I
am not going to hurt you." said Dustin "This might sting but you then
feel much better." The pokemon seemed to relax after that. Dustin then
went to work applying bandages to sizors wounds and end it by giving his
new sizor some vitamins. 
A half-hour later Mary and Pat both woke up still in their pokemon
bodies. After changing back into humans they both noticed that Dustin was
busy with a new pokemon. "Looks like you got an early start this
morning," said Pat as he returned his gengar. "Yeah Sparky woke me up
early this morning." was Dustin reply as he then went to a whisper "With
a small bucket a water." Mary over heard what Dustin said under his
breath and started a laughing then said. "Good one Sparky." after eating
a light breakfast of omelets (ham and cheese) all three of them packed up
camp and returned on the road to Slate City. As the three of them were
charging at full speed on the two fire pokemon they arrived at a clearing
around noon and stopped for lunch which was PB&J sandwiches all round. 
"So which way from here Dustin?" questioned Mary. It looks like we can
head north west or we can head that way" said Dustin as he pointed at a
newly built trail "But it think we should wait an hour to give our
pokemon a longer rest." Mary pulls out her staff from her backpack and
starts walking slowly towards Dustin. As Dustin slowly backed up into a
tree she swung the staff towards Dustin's face and when it was about to
hit him she stopped and at that point Dustin fainted and collapsed on the
ground "Too easy" sighed Mary as she walked away and puts the staff away.
 
About an hour later Dustin woke up and saw that Mary and Pat were ready
to get going again. "Well it's about time that you woke up" smirked pat
putting his staff away. "I'm surprised you slept through all the noise we
made." "Huh?" he said intelligently. "Never mind Dustin, if all of the
noise that both me and Mary made practicing on our staffs didn't wake you
I don't think there is anything that would." answered pat as he
shouldered his bag. "And here we thought we would have to have Pat's
gyarados drop a hydro pump on you. The way you were sleeping it might
have been needed." laughed Mary. Dustin got up and returned all of his of
his pokemon and packed up the gear he taken out for lunch, ten minutes
later Mary, Pat and Dustin were on their way to slate city. "Well since
we are making such good time we will be entering Slate City in about an
hour and a half." remarked Dustin looking at the map. "Well let’s see if
we can get there faster. Race you there Dustin," said Mary. " 
Your on." replied Dustin. 
"Hold on pat." as Mary and Pat took off on blaze with Dustin on burner
close behind. 
(Any one saw our trio would have just seen two red blurs rush by them)
several hours later. (8:30 PM) 
"Well looks like we have arrived in Slate city." said Mary 
"I think maybe it's time I said that I had gotten us lost in the forest"
remarked Dustin marrepishly. 
"Please don't hurt me." He cried as Mary turned around and glared at him. 
"Can't you read a blasted map?" she yelled. "Somewhat, it was something I
never really bothered to perfect....." Was the meek reply from him. "Easy
Mary, you can take it out on him later. Right now let's go see if the gym
is still open." said Pat in soothing voice. *Dustin your going to get
later and you know that. * Nodding his head, Dustin looked at the city
map inside the guide. "Well the guide book says that the gym is set
inside the mountain itself, trainers have to find the way to the gym
leader." "Dustin you’re still going to get later on. But right now lets
go find this gym leader," said Mary, a little calmer. Leading the way
Dustin walked towards the mart, so they could stock up on healing
potions. "Hey Pat, have you seen the price of the hyper potions." Asked
Dustin. "No haven't checked yet, I was looking for some other things I
always carry with me." was the reply as pat came around a shelf. "And
that would be?" Inquired Dustin. 
"Full heals, Revives, and Full restores," said a soft voice behind pat.
"The same thing that I carry Dustin now are you ready?" "Almost Mary,
just need to grab the potions" answered pat. Once everything was paid
for, they headed for the caves on the edge of town. "I'll say one thing
they know how to build their gyms." remarked Dustin as they had just
passed a sign that said Welcome to Slate City. Elevation 2500 ft. Seeing
the caves ahead them they started discussing who would battle the gym
leader first. After a few bruises on his head Dustin relented and said
Mary could battle first. Walking through the caves they kept walking
until the light from outside faded to nothing. "Damn, my flashlight is at
the bottom of my bag, it's to blasted dark to see anything." remarked
Dustin. Hearing this remark both Mary and Pat started laughing. 
"I don't see why you guys are laughing, none of us can where we are
going." whined Dustin. Mary spoke up after hearing the whining "Actually
Dustin that's were your wrong, both me and pat can see quite well in the
dark." turning around to face Dustin, all that he could see was a pair
red and blue eyes glowing at him in the darkness. "Well that works for
the two of you. But I need to see as well." he retorted. 
Sighing Mary started to glow a soft red, providing enough light for
Dustin to see by. "Now can we please continue, we wasted enough time
standing here," she asked once the light was bright enough to see by.
Walking farther into the cave, they soon came upon a large set of double
doors. "Well I'm going to make the wild guess that we've found the gym,
so what are waiting for let's go have ourselves a battle." said Dustin as
he put his hand on the door. Crying out in pain he quickly pulled his
hand off the door. "Water need water, hand burning!" This was said as
Dustin ran around in a small circle. Holding his staff up to Dustin's
head just he came around once more, Pat watched as Dustin ran right into
it, and then melted down to the floor of the cave. "Thank you Pat that
was getting nerve wracking," said Mary as she opened the door. "Don't
know what he was talking about that door is stone cold." she continued.
"Oh so you did get the door open after all. I was wondering if anyone
would be able to open." A voice floated over from the other side of the
gym. As the lights flared into brightness there was a small hissing sound
heard from pat who was trying to get his sight back. Once pat could see
again, he could make out the gym leader still hiding in the shadows.
*Maybe it's a good thing that Dustin is out cold I don't think he would be
able to battle the gym leader. * *What makes you say that pat? * *Simple
the gym leader is female, and curvaceous enough to put prima to shame. *
Nodding to herself Mary agreed with pat on that part, once the glare from
the lights had dimmed and she could see for herself. *Yeah I think your
right pat Dustin would be too busy staring at her to battle* 
"My name Pyre and I welcome you to the slate city gym. If your going to
be in the blue mountain league your going to have to battle me for the
ruby flame badge." Flipping a switch on the gyms' wall the lights changed
their angle and focused on the arena. 
"So who wants to battle first?" she asked stepping onto the trainer
platform. Stepping away from her group Mary stepped onto the platform at
her side of the arena. "Well I guess that answers my question. Well then
here are the rules. 1. A four on four battle. 2. No trainer items allowed
3. Pokemon battle until they faint, and last no sideline help. Are you
ready to battle?" 
"Just waiting on you to shut up and throw your pokeball." shouted Mary.
"Fine you want to hasten your defeat then lets speed things up Go
Magmar." "Come out Blaze," shouted Mary as she released her arcanine "The
gym leader Pyre has chosen Magmar, the challenger has chosen arcanine. No
time limit has been set, began" the announcer called over the P.A. 
"Blaze start off with extreme speed, and take down" called Mary. "Magmar
shed some light on this battle, flash attack" called Pyre. *Cover your
eyes quickly. * Taking the advice she was given, Mary closed her eyes
just as the Magmar gave off a bright flash of light. *Thanks Pat. I think
Blaze took your advice as well. * Calling out to her arcanine Mary gave
the command to finish its attack "Now Blaze Take Down." 
Easily out weighing the Magmar, Blaze tackled it sending the Magmar and
himself to the ground. 
"Magmar get up your not going to let some overgrown puppy beat you,"
shouted pyre. Getting up pyre's Magmar looked like it had gotten into a
fight with train and lost. 
"Now Magmar, show that puppy the power of flames, Fire Blast." pyre
called. 
"Blaze you know the drill so let's see what you find this time" as Magmar
spat the character for fire, blaze started digging it's way underground
just dodging the fire blast. "Magmar, smoke it out of that hole, smog
attack." Running over to the hole that blaze had dug Magmar started
exhaling its toxic cloud into the hole. "Now blaze finish what you
started." called Mary. With a ripple in the ground Blaze dug right around
Magmar, causing the surrounding ground to fall into the hole that was
created. With inside the hole blaze mauled the Magmar for a few seconds
before jumping out of the hole, slowly followed by Pyre's Magmar. Upon
reaching the edge of the hole, Magmar fell over on its face. Blaze walked
to Mary and dropped a small green stone at her feet. Scooping the stone
up she gave blaze a loving rub on the head "good job Blaze" she whispered
in his ear. "Oh and down goes Pyre's Magmar. Point to the challenger." 
"Dumb announcer" mumbled Mary. "I heard that young lady, I don't like
this job either but it pays." came the voice of the P.A. system. "Return
Magmar, Go slugma, start off with mud-slap." called Pyre. Absorbing the
ground beneath it, slugma started throwing flaming mud at blaze, hitting
blaze and getting some of the mud in face. Spending the few minutes
trying to rid himself of the mud on him, blaze suffered a few more
attacks from the slugma. "Blaze I know your tired so after this you can
rest, give that pesky slugma a crunch on the neck" "slugma surround
yourself with fire spin and tackle that puppy." ordered Pyre. Covering
itself with a spinning vortex of flame, pyre's slugma slammed into blaze.
"Now blaze," cried Mary. Grabbing the Slugma by its neck, Blaze gave a
hard shake of his head and threw the Slugma into the wall. Panting hard,
Blaze gave a small howl, and laid down. "Good job Blaze return." called
Mary as she held up the pokeball. Reaching up Mary plucked her Eevee off
of her head and set it down at her feet. "My next pokemon is Eevee" she
called. "Fine and I choose charmander" pyre yelled as she recalled her
slugma. Looking up at her trainer eevee made a small inquiry. Nodding
Mary told her Eevee what to do. "Lets go Eevee, start with sand-attack."
"Charmander, close your eyes and ember that pint-size doll." shouted
Pyre. Turning it's back towards to charmander, Eevee started kicking up
sand, covering it's eyes Charmander tried to use it's ember attack on
Eevee. To bad for Charmander the sand-attack smothered most of the flame,
and got into Charmander's eyes as well. "Good job Eevee, now use double
team and tail whip." Still kicking sand up Eevee split into ten copies of
itself. The copies then rushed Charmander and started bashing it with
their tails. Not doing any real harm, other then leaving a stinging
feeling as Charmander's defense fell through the floor. "K Eevee, that's
enough playing around, skull bash Charmander." "Charmander growl"
lowering it's head Eevee started running towards charmander. Shaking it's
head to clear the sand out of it's eyes charmander tried to growl, but
all that came up was a small cloud of dust and sand. "Charmander move out
of its way, and slash It." called pyre. "Eevee full speed ahead and go
for the gut" called out Mary. Charging straight into Charmander’s belly,
eevee clawed at it the same time scratching one of the arms. The recoil
of skull bash sent charmander straight in pyre's arms and sent eevee back
by Mary. Kneeling down beside her eevee Mary praised her young eevee on
what a good job it did. *Nice job Mary* *thanks pat* "my final pokemon is
cynadquill," cried pyre as she threw the ball onto the field. "Eevee
hyper-beam attack" Mary said in a clam voice. "Cynadquill smoke screen"
called pyre. "It's going to take more then a cloud of smoke to stop this"
mummer Mary to herself. Bracing itself cynadquill billowed out a thick
cloud of smoke blocking it from eevee's sight. Releasing the beam of
energy that it had been building up, eevee's attack brought a squeal of
pain from inside the cloud. "Nice job eevee." shouted Mary "cynadquill
use your ember attack, now" yelled pyre. Bracing itself once more this
time it shot a small cloud of embers at eevee. Panting from the amount of
power it put into the hyper beam eevee was unable to dodge the ember
attack. Squealing in pain from the ember eevee ducked out of the cloud.
"Eevee, mimic flamethrower" breathing out a small torrent of flames at
cynadquill, this time however cynadquill was able to dodge the attack.
"Cynadquill fire blast attack." shouted Pyre. "Eevee dig under and dodge
it." Digging underground eevee just missed being charred, however eevee
did get clipped on the backside. Coming back up from underground, eevee
then tackled charmander and collapsed from exhaustion. Jumping down to
the field, Mary walked over and scooped up eevee, and returned back to
her trainer box, where she gave eevee a gold berry. "Ok pyre, I hope you
have that badge ready, because your pokemon is going down. Go broiler,
use sunny day" shouted Mary. "Oh yes that was very smart move on your
part, cynadquill fire blast" laughed pyre. "Broiler healing flames, and
charge up Merton" shouted Mary over Pyre's laughter. Surrounding itself
with a dome of flame, broiler started glowing a very dark shade of red.
*Aren’t we going just a tad overboard there Mary? * *No not really, I
just want to end this battle and get eevee healed. * Pyre’s cynadquill
released its fire blast right at broiler, hitting the shield of flames
surrounding him. Once more the resulting blast from the two flames
meeting each forced everyone back. "Now broiler, show them your mastery
over fire, use Merton and end this battle" cried Mary. Releasing the
attack it had been building up, broiler sat back and watched as the field
in front of it was blanketed in flames, hitting both of the cynadaquills,
however broiler, took no damage from the attack, seeing as he was still
inside the protective dome of healing flames. Pyre took one look at her
cynadquill and recalled it once the flames had died down. 
"And with a stunning attack, the challenger has defeated the gym leader
Pyre." came the announcer’s voice 
"Good battle. As proof of your victory over me I award you the Ruby Flame
badge" this was said as pyre as climbed down and handed Mary a glistening
red stone cut in the shape of a roaring fire. "I’ll battle the next
person tomorrow, my pokemon need healing, so I’ll see you all tomorrow,
good night" turning around, Pyre headed towards her quarters. Running
over to her friends, she was surprised when pat picked her up and gave her
hug. "Congrats on your battle." he said as he set her back on the ground.
"Thanks. Oh blaze found this well he was doing his dig attack, and I was
hoping you could identify what type of stone it is." reaching into her
pocket Mary pulled out the stone that blaze had dropped in front of her.
"Hmm well off hand I’m going to say it's an emerald, I’ll need some more time to look it over
when we get over to the center. Sound good?" he asked. "Fine by me, come
on Dustin we'll be back tomorrow." she called over to him at the same
time taking a hold of pat's hand. "Shall we?" she asked pointing towards
the door of the gym. "Sounds good to me, I think Dustin can catch up"
answered pat. Walking back into the cave, this time both of them walking
in the darkness. 
The cry of "hey wait up" echoed in the cave. The three of them had just
got to pokecenter, where they found nurse joy ready to close for the
night. "You three are lucky I saw coming down the road. What on earth are
you do out this late at night?" opening her hand Mary showed the ruby
flame badge. "I see well then lets get you three inside and heal your
pokemon." walking over to her computer she typed a few commands in, and
looked at the trio. "Well you three just lucked out, there is one room
open it has a bunk bed. So someone is going be left short. But I do have
some blankets so who ever gets shorted can sleep over on the couch behind
you" *hope you enjoy the couch Dustin* sighing "I’ll take the blanket
nurse joy" said Dustin as he handed over his pokeballs. "Ok I’ll be right
back with your blanket, if you two want to give me your pokemon as well I
can put them into the healer as well." she said. Handing over their
pokemon as well, and getting the key card to their room, both Mary and
pat told Dustin good night, and walked down to the room. 
After they had both changed into their sleepwear, Mary locked the door
and turned out the light as pat closed curtains. "Night Mary" "night".
Out the main room of the pokecenter, nurse joy had just returned with the
blanket that she had promised Dustin. "Here you go, good night" she
called as the lights dimmed. "Night nurse joy" five minutes later Dustin
was freezing ever with the blanket. "Hmm, damn it got cold in here." few
seconds later he kicked the blanket off as he was now sweating buckets.
"Ok they need to get their heating system looked at" he mumbled as he
turned in his sleep.
                                                                         
    Fin. part-4a