"I admit that I was skeptical Birch recommended you for a star badge challenge but you seem like you may be worthy of it so show me how sturdy your bond with your pokemon is!" she said sternly before the referee began to narrate the rules. "The challenger is afforded one switch while the challenged is afforded none. Attacks aimed at the trainer or after a pokemon has been declared unfit to continue will result in automatic loss. Each party is also limited to two pokemon in total with evolutions mid battle causing the pokemon to be disqualified. You may begin!" the referee finished with a chop of their arm.-

"Gaia set!" "Graveler out!" Roxanne and I called at the same time while tossing our balls out onto the field. Two bright red beams of energy flew out of the balls and manifested as Gaia on my side of the field and a Graveler on the other. "Polish!" I called and Roxanne commanded her own pokemon "Defense curl!". Gaia glowed brown as she shuddered to perform the move while the Graveler glowed white as it folded it's four stony arms against it's body. "Defense!" I commanded after Gaia finished causing her to glow silver as she strengthened her own defense.-

"Double- edge!" Roxanne commanded and the Graveler tucked in it's arms against its face and rolled it's round body surprisingly fast while glowing white towards Gaia. "Up claw!" I said calmly and Roxanne could only narrow her eye in confusion before figuring out what was happening far too late. The Graveler rolled harmlessly under Gaia as she used her air jet to rise into the air , spin and then come down with her jagged edge covered in silver energy onto the confused gym pokemon.-

"GRAAA!" The boulder pokemon yelled in pain as the move caused severe cracks to appear all over it's side from the impact point. "Claw!" "Rollout away!" both of us yelled at the same time and our pokemon moved simultaneously. Gaia went to use iron claw again while the Graveler glowed brown before rapidly rolling out of the way just before she would have hit. 'As far as move mastery is concerned we are pretty close but she hasn't used a super effective move yet even though Graveler can learn a few.' I analyzed the moves so far seriously. Things were about to get turned up a notch however.-

"Outbreak!" Roxanne commanded and I didn't recognize the name which made me wary "Up high!" I called and Gaia shot into the air as the glowing white Graveler suddenly glowed a dark red and popped up from the ground towards Gaia. 'FUCK! Brick break!' I thought with a small amount of anxiousness that I crushed with emotional suppression. "DODGE!" I yelled but Gaia was still refilling her lungs when I did so I could only helplessly watch as the Graveler flying karate chopped Gaia with one of it's stony arms. "MMMMMM!" she screamed in a high hum before turning midair with a determined expression as her backside glowed silver.-

I sighed at this but didn't move to stop her since the hit had caused a crack to appear on the delicate area around one of her vents and she would be grounded after she landed giving up her mobility advantage. She seemed to understand this herself and chose to trade injuries for the chance at an instant knockout on the Graveler rather than struggling to hit it from now on. Roxanne clearly noticed that Gaia was doing something bad but was helpless to stop it since in mid air Gaia had the advantage and the Graveler had none.-

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"CRASH! BOOOM!" Gaia's wrecking ball struck true and the Graveler and her slammed into the hard ground kicking up a huge cloud of dust. "Graveler is no longer fit to battle!" The referee called and we waited for the dust to clear. Gaia hovered unsteadily near the clearly unconscious and highly damaged Graveler that was bleeding from several places on it's body. To be honest Gaia didn't look so good herself as the front of her carapace was covered in thin spiderwebbing cracks as well as deep ones that dripped blood on the ground below.-

Roxanne recalled the Graveler without a word as Gaia unsteadily flew over to her original starting point and looked at the gym leader fiercely. Roxanne smiled and laughed at that though "How very fitting for a rock type , to the bitter end it is then!" she said before throwing out another pokeball "Aerodactyl out!" she called and my eyes widened when the red beam manifested a huge creature with dull stone colored skin and a large sharp toothed mouth that had two cold brown eyes lock onto Gaia immediately.-

"AAAAEEERRR!" the ancient pokemon roared loudly to announce itself but Gaia paid it no attention which seemed to set it off. "Leer!" I said knowing that she didn't want to be taken out of the fight even if it would be a good idea. If Roxanne had more pokemon her compliance wouldn't be a factor but this was the last gym pokemon and Vulcan was still perfectly ready to go. Gaia's eyes glowed white and the Aerodactyl shivered slightly to show it's defense dropped a little. "Take down!" Roxanne commanded and the ancient predator swooped down with a white glow on it's body.-

"Payback!" I called once the Aerodactyl was too close to back out. The ancient predator struck first but Gaia exploded with white energy causing damage to the thing before the referee called it on Gaia. She was out cold but I could tell through our bond that she was satisfied with this outcome. The Aerodactyl had a few tears in it's skin and one of its eyes took a little damage but it was mostly fine if pissed off. It glared at me while I recalled Gaia before moving back to it's starting point to wait for my next pokemon.-

"Vulcan set!" I called calmly as I tossed the ball out and Roxanne immediately turned tense as Vulcan made it know EXACTLY who was top dog here at his appearance. "EEENNN!" it roared and a wave of oppressive heat flooded the field while the Aerodactyl dropped any arrogance it had and gave Roxanne a look that screamed "Are you fucking kidding me!?". Vulcan was not happy at all after having watched the battle to this point and it was about to make it's displeasure known. Flames flickered to life around it as the hard stone floor melted beneath it's feet.-

An intense red glow filled it's mouth and it shot a sunny day into the air making the rest of the field reach blisteringly hot temperatures. "Rain...!" Roxanne began before energy started to gather in Vulcan from the sunny day above and her eyes widened in horror with her words getting choked in the middle. Vulcan drained the entire false sun above and had an oppressive glow gathered in it's mouth , "Solar beam!" I said coldly and a beam the thickness of a barrel blasted forth from Vulcans mouth and crashed into the Aerodactyl knocking it out instantly before continuing and crashing against the far wall above Roxanne who was covered in a cold sweat.