Morning comes, and with it a wake up call that Dustin couldn't ignore. The dreaded sunlight in the face was preventing him from falling back asleep. Looking at his watch he noticed that it was already past the time he normally got up at. "Damn overslept. oh well at least i didn't waken up by the pichu alarm clock system." Looking around he spotted Nurse Joy behind the counter working on her computer. After folding his blanket and going through the morning retinue. He came back out to the main room, handing joy the blanket he used. at the same asking her if he could reserve a room for tonight. "Sure we can hold a room for you tonight, it'll be one of the smaller ones." She answered typing in a room hold for Dustin. "Oh have my friends been by to pick up their pokemon yet?" he asked. "Why yes, they came by about half an hour ago, I belive they were heading over to the gym, so they should be back in a few hours." joy answered handing Dustin the key card to his room. "Thanks Joy. If they get back before I do tell them I went to explore the city for a few hours and check back to see if they are back." replied Dustin. Pocketing the key card he walked over to his backpack and got everything he was going need, ten minutes later Dustin walks out of the pokemon center with Sparky sitting on his shoulder. Pulling out the guide book, Dustin checked to see if there was anything of interest or worth seeing. "Alright lets see what's interesting in this city. Hmm not much to do in this place, I think I'll go look at this cave system" putting the book back into his bag he started walking over towards the opening. Twenty min later Dustin was at the opening to the cave system. "lets go in Sparky" said Dustin as he pulled out a flash light and turned it on. "wow this cave is amazing" said Dustin. 90 min later. "hmm looks like i am lost again." turning around corner he noticed light up ahead. "good at least i will be able to get out of this cave." walking out of the cave, he notices that he is on a ledge "this is can't be good for my health" said Dustin as he turns around but stops when he hears a loud creaking sound and see a crack forming in the ledge. Dustin has enough time to say "damn" before the ledge crumbles and starts sliding down the mountain straight through the north city gates down the main street and crashes into the pillar outside of the pokemon center. "yep not good for my health" was his remark before blacking out. * * * * * "So who you are going to battle Pyre with pat" asked Mary. "Well i was thinking of starting with winter, figured I would use Silvera and Tiamat" answered pat as they continued down the cave to Pyre's gym. "fire and ice? pat, normally i would say that isn't a smart thing to do. but I've seen the way you've trained winter so there isn't to much worry about on that part." remarked Mary, "But just don't repeat the same thing you did to Blane's arcanine." "That wasn't my fault his arcanine tried to kill winter, winter just acted in her own defense." "Granted but that almost cost you the volcano badge" pat was thinking of answer when they reached the doors of the gym. "shall we?" asked pat gesturing towards the doors. "Best not keep the gym leader waiting." answered Mary. Opening the doors to pyre's gym, this time they knew about the lights flaring to life and were able to avert their eyes before the blinding lights came on. "Pyre can we do something about these lights or do i have to put them out myself" yelled pat. *why do they always have to do this? i mean every gym, save for the orange league. they all have flood lights that they use to blind challenger with. it does get tiring and very harsh on the eyes* *good question Mary. but your not the only one who would them to stop do this* replied pat. "no need to shout you know this gym does echo. so there is no need to shout right now." answered pyre as she dimmed the lights, from high noon setting, to dawn. "now you didn't come all the way to my gym just to talk so you ready to battle?" she asked as she buckled her belt on. "Well now that you mentioned it." gesturing to the arena behind pyre. "let's battle, same rules as from last night?" asked pat as he moved over to the platform. "yes the same rules from last night." answered pyre stepping up to her platform. Throwing her first pokeball out into the field "For my first pokemon i choose charmeleon." she called as the ball split open. nodding to himself, pat pulled one of the pokeballs from his belt and tossed it out into the field. "Winter come forth" releasing his bird of ice. "The gym leader Pyre as chosen Charmeleon, the challenger as chosen...An Articuno??...that guy must be nuts sending out an ice type pokemon against a fire type, i mean come on anyone in their right mind would know better then to do something stupid like this...huh? what do you mean the PA is still on?" *i think you were right when you said the announcer was stupid last night Mary.* a faint clicking sound echoed in the gym as the PA turned off. *this just goes to reaffirm my theory that these guys have no live, and have never seen the light of day* Mary remarked. "Are you trying to mock me or something, sending out an ice type pokemon against a fire type, what the hell are you thinking." shouted Pyre, "well any event it doesn't matter, Charmeleon flamethrower, that over grown turkey" "Winter Shiver Armor and follow up with Ice age, before it attacks." called pat as he pulled out his pokedex and checked the charmeleon's level. *hmm level 44. must have evolved last night talk about your pokemon that don't want to evolve* Winter glowing a dark blue started what looked like a blizzard attack, only this blizzard filled the gym with snow, ice and a howling wind. once winter had started her attack, she quickly covered herself in a whirlwind of ice shards. pyre's charmeleon's, looking a little uncomfortable in the snow storm glanced back at pyre, who motioned for it to make it's attack. Inhaling deeply to stoke it's internal flames, charmeleon released it's flamethrower only to see instead on a tongue of flame, a small cloud of embers. Pyre shouting to be heard over the wind "Charmeleon, use sunny day, get rid of this snowstorm" "winter, ice quake" called pat. Pyre's charmeleon knelt down in the snow and started giving a reddish glow, and traced the sun's path until it reached the high noon mark. at which point a bright shaft of sunlight appeared in gym. As the shaft of light appeared in the gym, a cry of pain echoed from pyre's side of the arena. *guess someone forgot that sunlight and snow don't mix very well, wouldn't you say pat* "that was a dumb move on your part Pyre, ice age is not effected by any of the other weather effecting attacks" shouted pat. "Now winter, ice quake, shake things up," called pat, bracing himself for what would follow. Upon hearing her trainer's next command, winter rose into the air focused her energy into her talons and came down slamming the ground with the ice energy she had built up. The result was a ripple in the ground that caused spikes of ice to shoot up from the ground. pyre's charmeleon had just gotten it's vision back when it saw the spikes of ice heading right for it. dodging to one side it avoided one row of spikes, only to slam into a second row behind it stunning Charmeleon. "winter enchant it with your song," speaking just loud enough to be heard by both winter and Mary. Hearing this, Mary quickly covered her ears, and at the same time used safeguard making sure that Winter's song would not put her to sleep. Singing in a very soothing tone, winter lulled the charmeleon into a deep slumber, and from the looks of it one it wouldn't be waking up on it's own anytime soon. "ok winter put it down with your orb, Winter's orb" called pat. Nodding winter opened her beak and gathered a ball of ice energy, when the ball had reached the size of a basketball winter released it. the orb sent bolts of ice in all directions, as such with no place to run and it being sound asleep to start with, pyre's charmeleon was nailed by any of the ice bolts that came it's way. reaching the middle of the gym the orb exploded in a ring of frost knocking the charmeleon on it's back. "oh and with a stunning attack, Pyre's charmeleon goes, point to the challenger." this of course was the annoying voice of the PA system. "Charmeleon return, and go Magmar," shouted pyre, throwing her second pokeball onto the arena. "winter use snowflake" "Magmar fire blast" pyre's Magmar got it's attack first, hitting winter and creating a cloud of smoke. "well i belive your bird as just been cooked." shouted a gleeful pyre. As the smoke faded away, pyre stopped her celebrating. "Magmar flamethrower finish it off" she shouted. "winter renew shiver armor and snowflake, go for the gut." called pat. Flapping her wings once more, winter created a whirlwind of ice shards around her, and out of the whirlwind she sent two large snowflakes spinning towards Magmar. the first of the snowflakes connected leaving long cuts on Magmar, but not doing much damage, the second one however, scored Magmar in the same places the first one had hit, this time doing critical damage to Magmar. putting Magmar out of the fight. "return Magmar, go Cyndaquil" "good job, winter come back for a rest." returning his bird of ice, pat thought about his next pokemon, *why not, i know she'll enjoy this* "go Tiamat." he called throwing his second pokemon into the arena. the pokeballs opened to reveal a small fire mouse from pyre's, and from pat's a gyarados. Looking around for it's opponent Tiamat dwarfed the cynadquill. *reminds of a weedle and lugia, you know Mary.* *true, but cynadquill's don't learn poison attacks on their own* was Mary reply, giggling as she pictured the weedle and lugia battling each other. "cynadquill, flamethrower it's face, try to make sure it can't see you." Called a worried Pyre, knowing that a single attack could end this battle very quickly. "Tiamat, snack time, crunch attack" spotting the little fire mouse in front of it. Tiamat dived towards it, and had the mouse in her mouth before pyre could warn her cynadquill to get out of the way. "release Tiamat" called pat. spitting the cynadquill out, Tiamat watched as it rolled to a stop in front of pyre. standing up it wobbled for a few minutes before fainting. (for the rest of its young life cynadquill was traumatized) "nice work Tiamat, you want to stay or let Silvera have some fun as well?" seeing the gyarados acting so tame, like nothing had happened was something pyre had never seen before. "well pyre since Tiamat is going to let Silvera have some fun as well. make sure you pick your best pokemon, your going to need it." with that, pat returned his water dragon to it's pokeball. "fine i don't use this one to often in gym battle due to it's high level, but seeing as your pokemon can handle themselves, they should be fine. so your going to be in world of hurt. Go Houndoom." cried Pyre, releasing her hellhound. "Silvera bring honor to your clan." called pat, releasing his dragonair. "the final round has started, the gym leader pyre has chosen her houndoom, well the challenger has chosen a...Dragonair...pyre will be hard pressed to knock this challenger out..began" "houndoom use your crunch attack" shouted pyre. "Silvera let it get close and wrap it's muzzle." pat said calmly. Charging Silvera at a good running speed, houndoom was able to latch its jaws onto Silvera. "now Silvera wrap it and give it a thunderbolt," called pat. Charging up the electrical power from the air around the houndoom slivera gave the hellhound the shock of life, with its jaws still latched on, and was now being wrapped by Silvera, Pyre's houndoom had no way of dodging the bolt of electric energy. the resulting power surge from Silvera was enough to give the houndoom an X-ray showing that it was in good shape, with no broken bones yet. "Silvera ice beam attack, put in on the rocks" called pat. Rearing back her head Silvera released a beam of blue ether at the hellhound knocking it off of her, and incasing it in a block of ice. "Oh and with pyre's final pokemon trapped inside the ice block, that ends the gym match." Jumping down to field Pat made his way over to his dragonair, surprisingly with no trouble at all from the ice on the gym floor. walking over to Silvera, who proceed to wrap herself around pat. seeing this brought a laugh from pyre. "i see your dragonair does this very often for you to able move around without falling." stepping down from the lowering platform. "as proof of your victory over me, i pleased to give you the ruby flame badge. and the gym prize of $1000 for both you and your girlfriend. *Mary you might come down and get your money from last night.* *guess i should, i knew there was something we forgot last night.* remarked Mary as she walked down from the stands and over to where pat and pyre were standing. "here you go, i guess i forgot to give this to you when you won last night. i guess i should put what hours the gym is open out of the cave." laughed pyre. handing Mary a small pouch with $1000 inside "good luck in the league your going to need it, from here the league goes through the rest of this mountain range." remarked pyre, shaking hands with both Mary and Pat. "Oh our friend should be by here tomorrow to battle you as well Pyre." spoke up Mary as they were leaving the gym. "Well hopefully I'll be able to take some of his down." closing the doors after them. pyre turned and faced the gym. "Now what am I going to do with this all snow?" she wondered out loud. looking around and seeing no one else was in the gym, she started playing in the snow. "I haven't had this much fun in years." Walking back to the pokemon center Mary was counting the money that group had total. "Well right now we have just over $4000" she said putting the money into the pouch that pyre had given her. "Come on Silvera, back into your pokeball." Turning Mary started laughing at the sight she saw. Silvera had manage to tangle herself up with pat's legs. slowly untangling the dragonair took a few minutes but afterwards, slivera had warped herself around Mary like a feather boa. they had just entered the pokemon center when they heard a loud crashing sound outside. running outside they saw a crumpled human body in front of a pillar, walking over to the body pat rolled it over so they could see the face. "Medic" was all Dustin said before blacking out from the pain. "better go get nurse joy, Mary." "right" standing up she dashed back inside the center. "nurse joy, Dustin just crashed into the pillar outside of the center." she yelled. "oh dear." turning joy shouted towards the back of the center, "chansey bring a stretcher for a trainer" called joy as she ran outside. "can you help me get him onto the stretcher," she asked pat. nodding pat moved down towards Dustin feet and lifted him on to the stretcher when chansey brought outside. "chansey did you call for the medics to pick him up and get to the hospital?" asked joy. "chansey." "thanks chansey" after a few minutes of waiting the paramedics was in front of the center taking Dustin with them. * * * * * * * * * * * * "anyone get the number of that steelix?" asked a doped up Dustin. "about time you woke up, Sparky was just about to dump a bucket of water on you." Opening his eyes Dustin saw that both Mary and pat were there. blinking Dustin saw he was in a blinding white room, meaning only one thing. "hospital?" he asked. "yep. hope you enjoy the food, your going to be in here for the next couples of days." remarked pat. at the sound of the door opening everyone looked up. the nurse seeing Dustin was awake spoke up "ahh so he finally chose to wake, well young man, i hope you've enjoyed your two day nap." "two days?" asked Dustin. nodding the nurse turned towards the other two people in the room, "and visiting hours are over now, you'll be able to see him in the morning." she said escorting them out of the room. "well guess we go back to the center. and let joy know." Mary said in soft tone. "guess so, come on." returned pat. walking back to center they passed a theater, *hmm they have some movies that sound good. want to catch one?* asked pat through the shared link. looking at what was playing, Mary saw one movie that she would like to see. "how about that one pat?" pointing to one of movies. "sounds good Mary" ************* "well it was good movie, haven't seen Harrison ford in movie for a long time." "i think that's because goldenrod doesn't show new films Mary" "hmm true, i liked the part where their playing soccer on ice, funny watching them play like that." remarked Mary as they walked into the center. (name the film) looking up from her work as they came in nurse joy asked if Dustin as woken up yet. "yeah he woke up about three hours, but after he did we had to go so we stopped and saw a movie that Mary wanted to see. answered pat handing his pokebelt over to nurse joy for their nightly healing. "we'll see you in the morning joy" called Mary "good night" she called back as she closed the pokecenter for the night. feeling the change in the temperature joy commented to herself about getting the heating system looked at. fin