I've always heard stories about the fabled Ecruteak City. Two majestic towers once stood tall here. One still remains, towering to the sky and the other sits crumbled to the ground as a sad reminder of what once was. This town is steeped in majestic tradition. The legends of this region have originated from this town (except for Lugia, which is said to near my neck of the woods).
With such a vibrant town, it seems out of place to have a Ghost type gym. Every building in this town is bright and draws tourists in, except the gym. The gym has an aura around it that almost repulses you from it. As I approached the gym, I considered heading out of town. I didn't really need this badge, did I? I could have gotten another badge, but I would have to go out of my way considerably to get them. I opened the door.
The gym was dimly lit. I could hardly see the floor. Across the room, in the brightest area, I saw a man with a bandana and a cloak waiting for me. "Good evening, challenger. Thanks for coming to the Ecruteak Gym! I'm Morty, the leader."
"Hi, I'm Reggie, from Cianwood."
"Cianwood, huh!? You've come quite a long way then. I am assuming this would be you third gym challenge them?" He questioned.
"Um, no. Only my second. When I went through Olivine, Jasmine was gone. Someone from the gym said she was in Sinnoh competing in contests," I told him.
"Ah yes," he responded with familiarity. "She does do that from time to time. I think she is a better coordinator than she is a battler. I am sure you will be able to meet her soon enough. But let’s get to the matter at hand. Are you ready to begin?”
“Yes, let’s start!” I said with genuine enthusiasm.
“Great. You just have to talk across the floor,” he said with a smile.
Easy enough, I had thought. I took three confident steps toward Morty. At the third step, the floor… wasn’t there. I plummeted down into a pit that seemed to be endless. As I fell, I thought about my journey. Is this really how it ends? I thought about my Pokémon. What fate awaited them? Would they be safe if I am gone? I thought about my family. What will Mom and Dad do? Will my Pokémon be ok? As all of these thoughts came to my mind in order and all at once, my shoulders were grabbed by two... I don't know what they were. They felt like talons but there a cold breath on my neck. Before I knew it, I was placed at the entrance of the gym.
"Watch your step," Morty called out with a smirk. It dawned on me that there was a hidden path I must find in order to reach him. So I couldn't walk straight forward... Let's go right. I was able to take about three steps before I fell again. And once more, two hands with cold breath in my neck grabbed me before I fell deep into the pit, placing me back where I had started. I carefully traversed walkway. Trying to look to the ground to find any clues as to where to go next; there were none. For several minutes, I continued this routine of taking a few steps, nearly falling to my death, and then being grabbed to do it all again. I eventually made it right in front of Morty. With a final leap to ensure my landing, I was on solid ground.
“Alright, Morty, I am ready for this,” I said assuredly.
“Great, man. Let me just give you some ground rules before we start. I am going to use two Pokémon for this battle, and you are welcome to use as many as you want,” He explained. “We fight until one of us is out of usable Pokémon. I will begin with Gastly.” A black ball with teeth suddenly popped out of the Pokéball with billowing purple smoke.
I had prepared well for this battle. I spent a long time looking for the perfect Pokémon for this battle. Morty is a master of Ghost Pokémon. While this is true, all of his Pokémon (from the Gengar line) are also Poison type. Ghost Pokémon can be tricky, but Poison types have a few key weakness, which I have brought for this battle. “Go, Butterfree!” It fluttered from its Pokéball.
“Gastly, start by attacking with Lick!" Before I could give a command, Gastly dissipated, for a moment, and then reappeared right in front of Butterfree. A wide pink tongue escaped from the dark orb and slurped all around my Pokémon. My Butterfree was paralyzed... This will make things more difficult.
"Butterfree, Confusion!" It tried to send the attack, but was halted by its paralysis.
"Gastly, Mean Look!" The attack locked Butterfree into the arena with the ghost Pokémon. That was fine. All it needed was one opportunity to get its Confusion attack off.
"Try it again, Butterfree!" The Bug Pokémon began to let a pink wave from it body, but it struggled to continue.
“Gastly, use Curse!” From its mouth, billowing black smoke flowed out and formed an odd symbol. With a shriek, the smoking symbol shot across the battlefield and hit Butterfree. It was clear Gastly was damaged greatly, but it had done what it needed. Butterfree would be gone in less than 4 turns, depending on what the Lick attack did.
“Confusion, again. Please!” I pleaded with Butterfree. At last, it executed the attack as planned. Gastly was hit and fainted.
“Nice job,” Morty said, “That is a good Butterfree. Did you train it from a Caterpie? Or catch it?”
“I caught it and trained it a bit for this match,” I responded.
“Awesome. You’ve done a good job, dude. But, now it is time for my last Pokémon. You should know it pretty well, by now.”
“I should?”
“Well, sure. This little buddy was the one catching you when you were falling before. Go, Haunter!” From behind Morty, the Haunter appeared and floated forward, ready for battle. “Alright, Haunter, let’s start out with Night Shade!” The whole arena turned dark for a moment. I couldn’t see a thing, but I could hear the frightened screeches of Butterfree and finally a wail.
When light returned to the battlefield, Haunter was hovering over my debilitated Butterfree. I returned it to its Pokéball. I naively grabbed my next Pokémon. "Zigzagoon, give it a shot! Quick attack!" The tanooki Pokémon ran at Haunter and quickly lunged for it; it passed right through it. I was stunned! It appeared to be a direct hit. How was this possible?
"Curse, Haunter." Again, a symbol of black smoke spewed from the Ghost Pokémon's mouth and was blasted into Zigzagoon. "Hey Reggie, I didn't know if you knew, man, but Normal and Fighting moves can't hit Ghost Pokémon."
Shoot! I thought I had prepared so well for this. I can't believe I missed that! With a frustrated sigh, " Zigzagoon, return." There is no way he would survive. Two more left. Let’s go with, “Chikorita!” My starter should be able to at least do a decent amount of damage, even though I don’t have a lot of options. Tackle won’t affect it; I won’t make that mistake twice. I know it is a poison Pokémon, so Poison Powder won’t do anything to it. Synthesis will be helpful, but won’t do any damage. Looks like the only option is, “Razor Leaf!” From the leaf atop its head, several sharp pieces of foliage flung at Haunter. It was clear damage was done, but not nearly enough.
Morty responded, “Night Shade.” Darkness enveloped the room. Once more, only the sounds of my Chikorita taking hits could be heard. As soon as it disappeared, the light returned to the room, revealing Chikorita was beaten up, but not defeated.
“Synthesis, Chikorita.” I yelled. This was the only chance I would have to heal. Chikorita gathered what light it could to recover its health. Light sparkled around it as it gathered the energy.
“Exactly what I wanted. Mimic, Haunter!” The same light sparkled around Haunter in the same way it did around Chikorita, bringing it to full health. Great plan by him to use Mimic and steal Synthesis; it is doubtful I will be able to make much progress against this as it will be able to heal itself. Nevertheless, I commanded Chikorita to attack with Razor Leaf, to inflict what damage I could. Unfortunately, Morty used Night Shade a few more times to finish Chikorita off. I was down to my last useful Pokémon.
“Geodude, you can do this. Go!”
“Haunter, Synthesis!” It was once again brought back to full strength. It was faster than Geodude; I had to change that.
“Geodude, use Rock Polish.” It rolled around the ground rapidly, smoothing out any imperfections, making it able to sleekly move about the gym. Geodude was primed for the next attack. It has a few ground moves that are usually great attacks, but considering how Haunter can float and move about, I reckon they won’t do much good. But I might find more success with a Rock attack. “Now use Rock Throw.” Driving its hands into the ground, it grabbed two handfuls of rocks and hurled them at Haunter, nailing it and causing great damage.
“Haunter, use Night Shade again.” For one final time, the room went dark. As the darkness dissipated, I noticed the Geodude seemed to take very little damage from this attack. It was time to finish it up!
“Geodude, one more time, Rock Throw!" This time, using both hands to grab a massive slab out of the ground, it hurled one massive stone over its head into Haunter. It made direct contact, making Haunter collapse at the gym leader's feet.
"Haunter, come back. Way to go, man. That was an awesome Rock Throw, great power. You and Geodude definitely earned the Fog Badge!" The badge glistened in the dimly lit room as he handed it to me.
"Thank you. I am honored," I almost stammered.
"So where are you off to next?" Morty asked.
"Um, I really don't know where to go from here..."
"Well, Reggie, if you go south from here, you'll go to Goldenrod and face Whitney, Bugsy, and Falkner. But if you want a real challenge, you should go East to Mahogany Town and then Blackthorn. Price and Claire won't go easy on you!"
The smart move would to be to go south. The tactical move would be to build up my team and improve my battling skills, but... "Thanks for the heads up. I think going East sounds more fun..."
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