Ash scratched the back of his head sheepishly, after his rather loud appearance you'd think he'd be able to back up his challenge, but he wasn't actually ready to fight Roxanne at that moment. The class was filled with stunned silence at Ash thinking he had to be joking, it was only when he asked Cal to stall Roxanne with his own battle that they realized he was serious.

Roxanne, being a well prepared Gym leader, accepted Cal's challenge and lead him, and the rest of the class, to the battlefield as Ash went to go make some arrangements. Cal strolled out to the opposite side of the field from Roxanne, practically brimming with excitement, this was his first Gym battle ever and he was determined to make it a good one.

Roxanne stood across from him and couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic. There was an energy in every fiber of Cal's being that reminded her of the battle she had with Ash all those years ago. From the courage in his eyes, to the self confidence in his grin, and even the battle ready way he stood was similar to Ash's, but it also had Cal's own flare of childish joy thrown in the mix that brought his whole being together.

Roxanne smiled at the young trainer, this was sure to be a fun battle and one that she was not likely to forget. She then told her assistants to start videotaping, for future educational purposes of course, and called out her first Pokémon. "Lend me your strength; Graveler come on out!"

She tossed a Poké Ball and out popped a large jagged rock with four arms, two feet attached to its underside and a stone cold glaring face in the center of its rocky body. It landed on the field with a heavy thud, and let out a challenging roar, "GRAV-LER!"

Cal smiled and looked to his partner perched on his right shoulder, seeing that his friend was just as pumped up as him. "Alright if you're going with Graveler, then Treecko I choose you!"

The gecko Pokémon leaped off his trainers shoulder and onto the battlefield, looking at the boulder towering over him like it were a slab of stone he had been asked to smash. The battle began within seconds of Treecko landing on the field; Roxanne started it by having Graveler use Stone Edge, causing pillars of glowing blue rock to jut out of the ground in a line leading straight to Treecko.

Rather than have Treecko evade the rock type attack Cal had his partner run straight at it, this caused a gasp to come from the spectators as they thought he was as ludicrous as Ash was. The spectators gasping quickly turned into oohs and ahhs as they watched the nimble gecko jump onto one of the rock pillars and use it to boost himself into the air.

Roxanne thought she knew where Cal was going with his arial advantage and ordered Graveler to brace itself; the rock Pokémon did as it was told and covered its face with its four arms. Cal surprised Roxanne when he had Treecko spray a bombardment of Bulletseed in a circle around the rock Pokémon. This spray of seeds caused a veil of dust to billow up around the rock type, obscuring its field of view  and blocking it from its trainer.

Cal wasn't finished though and followed up his Bulletseed blitz with a close range Energy Ball that hurdled the rock type to Roxanne's feet, he'd thought the blow might have been enough to win him the match.

"Not bad, Cal." Roxanne said approving of his usage of Treecko's speed and agility to overwhelm her slow and less maneuverable Graveler. "But you're going to have to do better than that if you want to get the Rock Badge!" As she spoke her Pokémon literally rolled back onto his feet and stood excitedly at her side, having thoroughly enjoyed getting to battle the nimble grass type.

"Graveler grab onto Treecko and use Self Destruct!" Roxanne shouted, knowing that her Pokémon couldn't hold out against another of Treecko's close range Energy Balls and this was her best chance at victory.

Graveler rolled over to Treecko as he landed and latched onto the grass type with all four of his arms. Once he had the woodland gecko in his grasp Graveler began glowing an explosive orange and leered down at Treecko, before engulfing both of them in an energy sapping explosion that rendered both of them out of commission.

Cal walked out onto the battlefield and scooped up his partner, thanking him for getting them this far before recalling his loyal friend into his Poké Ball. Roxanne too recalled her partner and commended Cal for pushing her far enough that she had to knock out her own Pokémon to take down his.

"Thanks Roxanne, but the battles not over yet. Duskull let's make Treecko proud and win this!" He shouted as he tossed Duskull's Poké Ball onto the field. Where it opened the ghost type Pokémon emerged in a shower of sparkles and light.

Roxanne smiled at Cal and spoke to him before calling out her next Pokémon. "A Duskull huh, nice choice to counter any normal type attacks I have and if it has Levitate as it's ability it will be equally immune to my ground attacks as well."

"Uh, yeah I was totally thinking that when I called her out." Cal lied, having not realized that until Roxanne had told him.

"Uh huh." Roxanne said seeing through the flimsy lie. "At any rate I feel I should warn you that I've been doing some traveling lately and came across some interesting rock types on an island region not far from here. I think you'll find that ghost types don't really bother her, so come on out, Geodude!"

Cal expected to see the well known rock and ground type Pokémon that he'd seen in the recording of Ash's battle against Roxanne, but this Geodude was definitely not the same as the one from the video. To start with, this Geodude had a more grey appearance compared to the videos brown Geodude, it also had some extra features to its head: thick black crystals that acted as eyebrows and around eight thin black crystals on the top of its head that somewhat resembled hair.

Cal might not be proficient in the classroom but he obviously was gifted in the field, for he didn't even hesitate in realizing that Roxanne's Geodude was different in more than just its appearance. "Alright so what's with your Geodude, it's appearance is obviously different from normal Geodudes so what else is different; did it get a third typing or something?"

"So close, Cal. She didn't gain another typing she changed her typing from Rock/Ground to Rock/Electric." Roxanne said, marveling at Cal's ability to notice things in the heat of battle. She then grinned as she formed her next sentence, "Allow me to demonstrate her electric typing; Geodude use Thunderbolt!"

Roxanne's Geodude began glowing a bright yellow and the black crystals on her head began vibrating as they generated electricity; a moment later she hurled a blot of lightning straight at Duskull, who was so surprised all she could do was let the attack hit her. Cal called out to Duskull, making sure she was alright before having her counter with Ice Beam.

The ice type attack made contact but, having a type disadvantage with rock, dealt minimal damage to Roxanne's Geodude. The battle was nowhere near over as both Pokémon were still feeling energized and ready to keep fighting. Not wanting to disappoint their partners Cal and Roxanne gave them orders: Cal having Duskull use Will-O-Whisp and Roxanne having Geodude use Double-Edge.

Cal found her issuing such an order surprising considering she had told him moments before that Duskull was immune to Normal type attacks like Double-Edge. He let the scene play out though and saw Duskull get off a point blank range Will-O-Whisp, leaving a burn on Geodude that would do recurring damage throughout the battle as well as weaken her physical attacks.

What he saw next though defied what was true about ghost types and normal types, neither one was supposed to be able to harm the other yet Roxanne's Geodude managed to strike Duskull with Double-Edge and send his Pokémon flying to his feet.

Duskull managed to get back upright but was obviously loosing steam fast, Roxanne's Geodude wasn't looking much better as she was suffering from burn damage in addition to recoil damage. Cal looked at the Geodude fiercely, trying to figure out how she had managed to use a normal type move on Duskull, as he had Duskull fire off a volley of Shadow Balls followed up by an Ice Beam.

The maneuver was meant to force Geodude into a good spot to be hit with the devastating ice type move; and it managed to work in forcing her movements but failed in the delivery due to Geodude countering Ice Beam with Fire Blast rendering both moves useless.

"Thought you had us there, didn't you Cal? Well I wouldn't be much of a Gym leader if I let you take me down that easily, now would I."

Cal wasn't going to lose focus of the match chatting with Roxanne about how much of a Gym leader she was. Instead he asked her a question relevant to their battle. "How did your Geodude use a normal type move on my Duskull?"

"Oh that, that was just due to her ability Galvanize. It makes all her normal type attacks electric type moves, and gives them a slight boost in power." Roxanne said casually as if the info she was revealing wasn't valuable.

Cal however stored that piece of information in his minds archive, keeping it tucked away to use whenever the need arose. He then turned his focus solely onto the battle and fought with everything he had to take down Roxanne. It took him nearly an hour, by which time Ash had returned and was cheering him on from the sidelines, before he eventually managed to land a decisive blow on Geodude.

His match winning attack was rather impressive too as he had exhausted all of his ideas except for this one, due to him never attempting it before. It had taken awhile for him to pull off but the end result was so spectacular that both he and Ash had requested a copy of the battle video to show to their friends.

What Cal had done was have Duskull use Will-O-Whisp to lay around nine flaming orbs of blueish purple fire in a circle above the ground; he then had her freeze over the entire battlefield which encased the, still burning, flames in the ice. The next part of his plan was somewhat more difficult as it required Duskull to lure Geodude right into the center of the frozen fire circle.

She eventually managed to do this, sustaining a great deal of damage in the process, and once they had Geodude where they wanted her, Cal had Duskull fire off another barrage of Shadow Balls. Roxanne was expecting Cal to just repeat his earlier tactic and had Geodude prepare to use Fire Blast, only to watch in awe as the ice exploded in a shower of flames, inky darkness and glittering ice shards that all collided into her Pokémon. Geodude was completely helpless against the trifecta of flame, cold, and darkness, and when the explosion cleared she was laying unconscious on the frozen ground.

The referee called the match on the spot, "Geodude is unable to battle! The victory goes to the challenger, Cal Ren of Oldale Town!"

Cal stood where he was with a dumbstruck grin on his face, not fully believing that he had actually won his first badge. It was only when Roxanne approached him with a celebratory royal blue box that he realized he had actually done it.

"Congratulations Cal, you have proven yourself worthy of the Rock Badge." Roxanne said before handing him a rectangular piece of metal that looked like a boulder split in two.

Upon accepting the badge there was a lot of clapping and cheering from the spectators, mostly from Ash though, and Cal felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

"Alright I got the, Rock Badge!" He shouted as he held the badge over his head displaying it with pride.

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Hope you guys liked the chapter, I thought having Cal battle first would be more entertaining considering Ash has battled Roxanne before and would know her tactics better. Plus it's always fun to watch the rookies go first.

Also if you guys are reading this on your phones,(like I am), I suggest you go back to the top of the page and tap on the picture to view the whole thing.

I'm probably going to do each of the Gym battles with that type of photo at the top, with the respective Gym leaders of course.

Anyways vote and comment on anything you liked and I'll see you all next chapter.😁

Shoutouts: AmourAndEgo5ever Anglewolf5 Sawyer-Kun RyChu_the_Pikachu & LillianDuncan