After exploring at Mt. Moon, Ash, Brock and Misty made to Cerulean City. "This is where I can get gym badge number two" said Ash, getting excited.
"Have you decided what pokemon you are using?" asked Brock. "Well I know that Cerulean Gym uses water pokemon," said Ash "so I'll defiantly use Pikachu, but the others I'm not sure yet".
Misty wasn't saying anything. "Hey Misty, what's wrong?" said Ash "I mean you've been quiet ever since we got here". Misty didn't want to say anything, but she had to tell her friends what her problem was.
"Well the truth is I didn't really want to come back to Cerulean City". "Why? Did something bad happen to you here?" asked Brock. "No, nothing like that," said Misty "the truth is I'm one of the leaders of this gym". "What you're a gym leader of Cerulean Gym?" gasped Ash.
Misty took out a photo from her backpack. It was a photo of her and three beautiful girls behind her. "Those three girls are my elder sisters Daisy, Violet and Lily," explained Misty "since they are so beautiful I'm like a runt to them". "Wait, are you saying that they bully you? asked Ash. "Not exactly bully me," said Misty "but they like to tease me". "So you left them to not catch more water pokemon, but to get away from your sisters as well?" asked Ash. "Yes," said Misty. Ash felt sorry for Misty, being picked on was not nice. "Well if you don't want to come to the gym with us I don't mind" said Ash trying to cheer her up. Misty smiled and accepted the offer. "I'm going to do something if it's all right" she said and walked off.
So Ash and Brock set off for Cerulean Gym by themselves, while Misty did her business. While on the way they noticed some police in front of a machine shop. "What's going on?" asked Ash. He and Brock went to find out; they asked Officer Jenny what happened. Officer Jenny explained that someone stole a lot of machine parts from the shop. "I wonder why the thieves did that" said Ash. "I don't know," said Brock "but when it comes to thieves they steal anything for all sorts of reasons".
Soon they reached Cerulean Gym; the building was a pink and yellow dome shape, with a big picture of a dewgong. Brock then said he had to leave to pick up more supplies for the journey. So Ash was left alone. He and Pikachu entered the building. "Hello anyone here?" he said. The gym lobby was empty. "Hmm where is everyone?" Just then he heard cheering coming from outside the lobby. He went through the doors from the lobby and saw what was happening. Three beautiful girls were performing a water ballet in a giant swimming pool. Ash recognized them from Misty's photo. "Those are Misty's sisters" said Ash. "Pika" agreed Pikachu. Ash wasn't exactly amused by the performance. 'If I was to no better," he thought "I'd think that they prefer doing water ballets than being gym leaders'.
When the water ballet was over, Ash went to talk to the gym leaders. Daisy, Violet and Lily were talking to each other by the pool, about their show. "Daisy you're dive was perfect" said Lily, the pink haired one. "Practice does make perfect" replied Daisy, who was blond haired. "I think that show was our best one yet" said Violet, the blue haired one.
"Uh excuse me" said Ash. "If you're here for autographs, we don't do them" said Daisy. "Oh I'm not here for an autograph," said Ash "I'm here to battle you for a badge". The three sisters looked at each other. "Sorry, but we are not into battles anymore" said Violet. "What?" gasped Ash. "You see we were beaten three times in a row from these kids from Pallet Town" said Daisy. Ash realized that Gary must have been here. "And this is the only pokemon we have left" said Lily, throwing a pokeball. It was a goldeen. "This goldeen is only a baby and is not ready for battling". "So now we pay more attention to our water shows," said Daisy "but don't worry we know what you want. Come out seel". A little white sea lion popped out of the pool. "Seel" said Ash.
He opened his pokedex: Seel, the sea lion pokemon. A Pokémon that lives on icebergs. It swims in the sea using the point on its head to break up ice.
The seel pulled out its tongue and showed something blue. "Since all you want is the cascade badge," said Lily, taking the badge off seel's tongue, "you can just take it". The cascade badge was a blue badge in the shape of a rain drop.
Ash was not happy; he wanted to earn the badges by battling not, earn them for free. He was just about to have a word with them when a voice said; "Don't even think about that!" It was Misty. "For goodness sake Daisy," said Misty "are you trying to ruin the gym's reputation?" "Why hello Misty," said Daisy "have you become a great water pokemon trainer yet". "Yes you did say that you wouldn't return home until you've become one" said Lily. "I did say that," said Misty "but since you are planning to give out badges for free, I've got no choice". She turned to Ash. "Ash you will have to battle me to earn the cascade badge". "Fine with me Misty" said Ash. He was glad to be able to battle for the cascade badge.
Misty explained that that the battlefield is the pool and that they would use two pokemon each. Ash asked Misty if he could let magikarp swim in the pool while they battle. Misty allowed him. Ash released magikarp. He told her that she could swim around in the pool, while he battled the gym leader. Magikarp understood and went for a good swim in the pool.
Ash stood on a red platform, while misty stood on a blue one. The battle was ready. "Misty calls staryu" said Misty. Her brown starfish was ready to battle. Ash asked Pikachu if it wanted to battle, but since Misty was a friend; it didn't have the heart to. So Ash called out butterfree instead.
"Staryu use water gun!" shouted Misty. "Counter with signal beam" said Ash. The signal beam stopped the water gun attack. "Now use silver wind". A wind with silver crescents flew out of butterfree's wings and hit staryu head on. 'Oh dear staryu is hurt' thought Misty. She was amazed that Ash's pokemon was strong; but then again he had trained all his pokemon really well, especially his butterfree and beedrill. "Staryu use swift" said Misty. The stars from staryu hit butterfree.
Misty's sisters were watching the battle from aside. "Misty's good with this" said Violet. "Yeah," said Daisy "she may not have our looks, but she has better battling skills than us". Seel was enjoying the match and was clapping its fins.
"Butterfree use psychic" said Ash. Butterfree's eyes turned blue and fired a blue energy at staryu. That hit staryu dead on and staryu fainted on Misty's platform. "Oh no staryu return," said Misty, returning staryu to its pokeball, "well Ash you battle really well. But this battle isn't over yet. Misty calls starmie". A big purple starfish came out of the pokeball. "Starmie?" said Ash, taking out the pokedex. Starmie, the mysterious pokemon. The evolved form of staryu. Its central core glows with the seven colors of the rainbow. Some people value the core as a gem. "Butterfree return," said Ash "pidgeotto I choose you". Magikarp was watching the battle happening, underwater, and was happy that her trainer won the first match.
Ash and Misty were just about to have pidgeotto and starmie fight each other, when a large machine crashed into the gym. "Where did that come from?" shouted Misty. "Haa! Haa! Haa!" said two voices.
"Prepare for trouble," said Jessie.
"Make it double," said James.
"To protect the world from devastation,"
"To unite all people within our nation,"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love,"
"To extend our reach to the stars above,"
"Jessie,"
"James,"
"Team Rocket blasting off at the speed of light,"
"Surrender now and prepare to fight,"
"Meowth that's right" said meowth.
"Since you're curious about our machine," said James "we made it ourselves. And we're very proud of it". Ash realized that they were the thieves, who stole of those machine parts. "Now to show you how this machine works" said meowth pressing a button. A giant hose came out of the machine and started sucking up the water from the pool. "This is our giant vacuum and hose machine," Jessie explained. "Hey that's our water!" shouted Daisy. "Give it back!" shouted Lily. "All right" said meowth, with a smirk. Meowth pressed another button and the hose sucked out the water, hitting Ash, Misty and her sisters. Pidgeotto took cover in the air and starmie dived into the water. "Now it's time to suck up the water pokemon" said Meowth. The hose sucked up starmie, seel and Ash, who was also in the water. "Oh no!" said Misty. "Come back seel!" said Daisy.
Magikarp saw the commotion and saw her trainer being sucked by the hose. Magikarp became angry. 'No one sucks up my trainer and gets away with it' she thought. Magikarp growled then started to glow. Misty and her sisters saw the glow and watched magikarp evolve into gyarados. "Wow that's amazing" said Misty, although she was a bit creeped about the gyarados. Gyrados hit the hose with her tail and brought Ash, seel and starmie to the surface. Ash coughed and panting, knowing that he nearly drowned. When he realized he was sitting on a gyarados' head, he was surprised. "Gyarados, where did that come from?" gasped Ash. Gyarados gave a gentle roar to her trainer. "Magikarp is that you?" asked Ash. Gyarados roared her head with happiness. Ash was amazed that his magikarp evolved. Then he looked at Team Rocket. "Gyarados we need to get rid of Team Rocket and their machine" he said. Team Rocket freaked from the look of the angry Gyarados. "Use Hyper beam!" shouted Ash. An orange beam shot out of gyarados' mouth and sent Team Rocket and their machine flying through the ceiling. "Team Rockets blasting off again!" shouted Team Rocket, as they disappeared.
After Team Rocket left, Ash was rubbing the cheek of his Gyarados. "Gyarados you evolved to save my life, thank you" he said, with a smile. Gyarados enjoyed being stroked by her trainer. Then Ash returned her for a good rest. Misty and her sisters smiled at Ash; they all thought he looked cool with the gyarados. "Hey Misty what are we going to do about our match?" he asked Misty. "There's no need to continue it," said Misty "you're butterfree defeated my staryu fair and square. Then your gyarados stopped Team Rocket from taking our pokemon. So I present you with the cascade badge". Ash was happy to receive the badge. "Thank you" he said. "I have to say Misty," said Daisy "you have proven to us that you are a good battler". Violet and Lily agreed to that. Misty was happy and thanked her sisters.
Just then seel came up to Misty. "What's wrong seel?" she asked. "I think seel wants to go with you" said Ash. Misty asked seel if that was true and seel nodded. "Okay," said Misty "and I have some pokemon I wish to leave here". She took out six pokeballs from her rucksack. "In these six pokeballs are poliwags. I caught eight poliwags a while after I left. Since the gym doesn't have any poliwags yet; I figured I should leave six here for the gym, while I keep two for myself". So Misty kept seel while her sisters kept six poliwags. They bid farewell to Daisy, Violet and Lily and left the gym.
They met up with Brock sometime after exiting the gym. Ash told him about his magikarp evolving and Misty told Brock about obtaining seel. "Wow, so a lot has happened then" said Brock. "Yes," said Ash "now it's time to head for Vermillion City". So they left Cerulean City for Vermillion City.
The gang were now walking down the road to search for Vermillion City. Ash was thinking about his next gym battle. 'Since Vermillion Gym uses electric type I'll use sandshrew' he thought. Right now Ash had transferred his spearow, butterfree and beedrill to Prof Oak for clefable and sandshrew; they needed training. A chance for Ash to train his pokemon came to him very soon.
He ended up battling five trainers along the way and clefable was enjouing the chance to battle. Right how Ash was battling another trainer's ratatta. "Clefable use mega punch" he said. Clefable's mega punch knocked out ratatta in a second. "Wow you're good," said the ratatta's trainer "you should battle A.J". "Who's that?" asked Ash. The trainer explained that A.J. was a savage trainer and owned his own gym just down the path. Ash suggested the group should investigate.
They found A.J.'s gym shortly. "Wow, nice gym" exclaimed Ash. "Yeah and it's not even official" said Brock. "Who goes there?" said a voice behind them. It was a boy, with dark green hair and a sandshrew behind him. "Are you A.J.?" asked Ash. "Yes that is me," said A.J. "are you here to challenge me?" "Yes I am" replied Ash. "Great this will become my 100th win" said A.J., pointing to his gum sign. It had the number 99 on it, to show that he had beaten trainers 99 times.
A.J. brought Ash to the battlefield. "This will be a one on one match," said A.J. "go sandshrew!" His sandshrew went onto the battlefield. "Pikachu I choose you!" said Ash. Pikachu hopped onto the battlefield. "What's Ash thinking?" asked Misty, knowing full well that Pikachu had the type disadvantage. "I wouldn't worry Misty," said Brock "remember he defeated my onix with Pikachu". Misty knew Brock was right with that. "Sandshrew use dig" commanded A.J. "Pikachu use agility to run around the battlefield" said Pikachu. Pikachu ran in circles, so that sandshrew may miss him. "Get out the ground" A.J. said. Sandshrew came out of the ground, but thanks to pikachu's agility sandshrew missed. "Now Pikachu iron tail" said Ash. Pikachu's iron tail hit sandshrew head on. A.J. gasped; he had never seen anything like that. Sandshrew was getting worn out from the iron tail. "Quick use tackle" said A.J. "Iron tail again" said Ash. Tackle and iron tail collided with each other, but Pikachu proved too strong for sandshrew, so sandshrew fainted. Ash had won.
When the battle was over A.J. picked up sandshrew and asked if it was all right. Sandshrew nodded. "I must say Ash that was amazing," said A.J. "I never thought an electric type would ever beat my sandshrew." "I'm just sorry that this didn't become your 100th win" said Ash. "Ah don't worry about that," said A.J. "besides I can just battle another trainer to earn it". Ash asked A.J. if he could see his other pokemon. A.J. agreed and led the group to a big tent. Inside the tent there were some pokemon and what looked to be some sort of training gear. Sanshrew climbed up a ladder and dived into the pool. "This is where I train my pokemon" explained A.J. He saw sandshrew get out of the pool. He whacked a whip onto the floor. "Get back into the water". Ash saw three ratatta jumping through three hoops of fire and a butterfree and beedrill carrying some heavy gear. "Wow A.J." said Ash "you train you're pokemon well". "Thank you Ash," said A.J. "although I thought you were going to say that my training is harsh. Most trainers do". "Actually I understand this sort of training," said Ash "since this does bring out the strength of pokemon. But I must admit I find the whip a little bit too much". A.J. was happy with Ash and butted fists with him to show that he had found a friend in Ash. Just then an alarm clock went off in A.J.'s tent and A.J. told all his pokemon to take a break.
While sandshrew was having a breather, a bag from out of nowhere grabbed sandshrew. It was meowth; Team Rocket had watched sandshrew's battling and wanted it to give to their boss. Meanwhile A.J. and Ash were discussing about battle strategies when A.J. notice that sandshrew was gone. "Where's sandshrew?" he asked. "Maybe it went outside for a breather" suggested Brock. They were about to go have a check, when they heard screams from outside. They ran out immediately and saw sandshrew escaping from Team Rocket. Sandshrew had used scratch to get out the bag and had tackle Team Rocket to get away from them. "Hey what's the big idea?" shouted A.J. "It's Team Rocket!" said Ash "they steal other people's pokemon". "Oh yeah?" said A.J. "well they aren't taking my pokemon. Come on sandshrew let's battle these guys." "If it's a fight you want," said Jessie "we'll give you one". Jessie and James sent out ekans and koffing and meowth joined in too. Jessie told ekans to bite it and James told koffing to sludge it and meowth planned to use fury swipes. But with sandshrew rolled up into a ball it dodged ekans and koffing easily and became like a toy to meowth. "Meowth this is not the time to play!" shouted Jessie. Meowth snapped out of it and tried to bite down on sandshrew, but sandshrew's hard body broke meowth's teeth. "Use fissure!" shouted sandshrew. Sandshrew made the ground shake and hit ekans, koffing and meowth really hard. Meowth was terrified; "I forfeit the match!" He and ekans and koffing ran away together. "Come back here!" shouted Jessie and James together, running after him. A.J. had won the match and the 99 the on sign changed to 100, which meant A.J. had finally beaten 100 trainers.
A.J. thanked the group for all of their help. "What will you do now?" asked Ash. "Well now I am going to collect gym badges" replied A.J. "I hope to battle you again one day Ash". He and Ash shook hands at each other. "I cannot wait for that" replied Ash. Ash, Misty and Brock bid farewell to A.J. and went on their way.
Ash, Misty and Brock were still on their way, but they were having trouble with the mist that surrounded them. "Hmm I don't think we should continue for a while" said Misty. "I agree," said Ash "this mist is no thick it's hard to see where you're going". Brock suggested they stop and have a break until the mist cleared up. Ash and Misty agreed to that plan. Brock set out some cerulean coffee, some tea and prune juice. Ash and Misty gladly accepted the tea, but they were too young for the coffee and none of them liked prune juice. Brock also said we would make some french crepes, but he needed water and firewood for a fire. Misty offered to fetch the water and Ash offered to fetch some firewood.
While Ash and Pikachu gathered some firewood, they saw two pokemon in their way. "They are a couple of nidoran" said Ash. He checked them on his pokedex: Nidoran , the poison pin pokemon. Its horn is larger than the female's and its toxic is for protection. Nidoran , the poison pin pokemon. Even though its horn is smaller than the male's its toxic can still be fatal.
"Quick Pikachu let's get them use thunderbolt" said Pikachu. The thunderbolt shocked the nidoran couple well. Ash threw two pokeballs at them and caught them. The pokeballs went to Prof Oak.
Ash and Pikachu were just about to head back to Brock and Misty with the firewood, when they heard voices. They saw a boy running on a treadmill, with four older boys surrounding him. The four older boys were asking the younger boy some questions about pidgey. When the younger boy got one of the questions wrong, the older boys pushed him off the treadmill, called him useless and left him on the ground. Ash and Pikachu saw the commotion and went to see if he was all right. "Ah it's okay," said the boy "this happens to me all the time. I'm Joe by the way".
Ash was curious to what Joe was talking about, so he invited Joe to share crepes and tea with him and his friends. Joe accepted the invitation. Ash led Joe back to where Brock and Misty were and they all shared crepes and tea. "So what did you mean about you being tossed onto the ground all the time?" Ash asked Joe. Joe explained that he was a student of Pokemon Tech. "Pokemon Tech is a boarding school where you learn about pokemon," Joe said "and there you can earn badges, without travelling to get them". He then explained that the older boys were trying to help him understand about pidgey. "Since I saw them push you onto the ground just because you got an answer wrong," said Ash "I don't call that helping". Misty asked Joe if he could take them to see this Pokemon Tech. Joe did so. By the time they got to Pokemon Tech the mist had finally cleared. Pokemon Tech was a massive building.
Joe gave them a tour. He explained that the lessons are really difficult and that some students were still behind everyone else. "What grade are you in?" asked Misty. "I'm still a novice, but I have two badges" said Joe. He showed them sort of machine that showed them that he could easily beat the water pokemon of Cerulean Gym with his pokemon weepinbell. This made Misty cross. "Look here you," she said "this machine is nothing compared to real pokemon battles. As a gym leader of Cerulean Gym I challenge you to a real battle". Joe accepted.
Joe and Misty got ready to fight in one of the training rooms. "Misty calls starmie" said Misty. "Okay and I choose weepinbell" said Joe. Starmie hit weepinbell with just one tackle and weepinbell was knocked out immediately. "No way!" gasped Joe "how did my grass type lose to your water type?" "Because starmie has been trained more than your weepinbell" said a voice. It was a beautiful girl with long hair and the four boys from before were with her. "It's true that grass beats water, but it depends on the experience of your pokemon". "Who are you?" asked Misty. "I am Giselle," the girl said "the top student of Pokemon Tech. And I wish to battle you now".
Misty kept her starmie out and Giselle sent out a graveller. Brock was shocked by that choice, water types beat rock types. But graveller easily defeated starmie with a tackle attack, and wasn't even dazed by starmie's water gun attack. Misty couldn't believe her eyes. "There now you see Joe," Giselle said with a smirk "since my graveller was more experienced than starmie, which is the reason it won".
"Hang on a minute!" said Ash "there is more to pokemon training than levels". He introduced himself to Giselle. "How many badges and pokemon do you have?" she asked. "I have two badges and seven pokemon" answered Ash. Giselle and the four boys laughed and called that weak. Ash got cross and asked Giselle to battle him. "I accept" she said.
Ash sent out Pikachu, while Giselle sent out a cubone. "Cubone hit that mouse with bone club" said Giselle. "Quick Pikachu use quick attack to dodge" said Ash. Quick attack dodged bone club easily. "Use iron tail" said Ash. When iron tail hit cubone, it hurt a lot. "Use boomerang" said Giselle. Pikachu let the bone follow him, but Pikachu led the bone back to cubone. Pikachu jumped onto cubone's helmet and the bone ended up hitting cubone and made it loose. Giselle was surprised that Pikachu actually beat cubone. Ash decided to give both Giselle, Joe and the four boys a lesson. "Let me tell you something," he said "you should never underestimate any type of pokemon. Sure ground type beat electric type. But electric types can learm moves that can defeat rock and ground types. Just like water type can learn moves that defeat grass types". The students were amazed by this; this was something they were never taught at Pokemon Tech.
After Ash's lecture Joe and Giselle decided that they both had a lot to learn about pokemon training. Joe decided to leave Pokemon Tech and go home to start a real pokemon journey with his weepinbell. As for Ash, Misty and Brock; they bid farewell to Giselle and Joe and continued their own jorney.