Chapter 22: Boulder Badge!
To Flint's horror, Gastly formed 4 Energy balls at the same time and launched them at Onix.
Before Flint could react, Onix was knocked out.
"Onix is unable to battle. Gastly wins."
*Jejeje*
Gastly laughed, and the next moment, he started evolving. He has been suppressing his evolution for some time, and now he finally evolved.
*Haunter*
"Finally," Altro smiled seeing Haunter, and used his power to check Haunter's data.
***
Name - Haunter
Type - Ghost/Poison
Level - 28
Ability - Levitate
Moves - Confuse ray, Lick, Hypnosis, Mean look, Curse, Energy ball, Giga drain, Hex, Night shade, Shadow Claw, Venoshock
Egg moves - Shadow ball, Haze, Toxic
***
'Hm, that's odd.' Altro expected Haunter to have changed too, like Gyarados, but that doesn't seem to be the case. 'Will it work in his final evolution?'
Altro stopped thinking about this matter for the time being. He doesn't even know what his power is. So there's no point thinking.
"Hahaha, this is your first gym challenge and you are already showing great potential. I'm sure this year's league will be fun." Flint said with a deep look.
"But before that, you have yet to defeat my last Pokemon."
Saying that, Flint took out his last Pokemon.
"Come out, Kabutops."
Altro was a bit surprised, but there was no worry written on his face. 'A level 32.'
Celeste curiously looked at Kabutops and opened her Pokedex.
[Ding!]
[Pokemon data:
Name - Kabutops
Type - Rock/Water
Rank - Intermediate
Info - It is thought that this Pokemon came into the land because its prey adapted to life on land.]
"Haunter, let's show them," Altro said.
*Haunt~Hawn*
*Jejeje*
"Both sides are ready? Continue."
"Kabutops, Mud shot."
"Haunter, Energy ball."
The moves collided sounding a loud boom.
"Haunter, use curse."
Hearing Altro's command, Flint was dumbfounded. 'Such a ruthless guy.'
"Kabutops, use Ancient Power."
Haunter sacrifices half his health to put a curse on Kabutops. If Kabutops can't defeat Haunter fast. That will be his defeat.
"Haunter use Energy ball and Dodge." Haunter didn't look like someone who just lost half his health. With a smooth motion, he dodged the attack.
"Kabutops, Aqua jet."
"Haunter, use Energy ball and then Toxic."
With the impact of the Energy ball, Aqua jet slowed down and Hauter used Toxic to poison the already cursed Kabutops.
"Kabutops, use Night slash." Flint expected with a close-range Dark-type attack, Haunter will lose. But Altro wouldn't let him.
"Haunter, use Venoshock."
Kabutops screamed in pain as the poison in his body became even more painful. He couldn't use Night Slash.
"Haunter, Gigadrain, and finish him."
Haunter used Gigadrain on Kabutops and regained most of his health. While the Kabutops was knocked out.
"Kabutops is unable to battle. Haunter wins. So the winner is challenger Altro from pallet town." Referee Forrest announced.
"Good work Haunter," Altro praised him and gave him a potion. Haunter was happy to be praised.
Flint gave an antidote and potion to Kabutops and took him back inside the Pokeball.
Walking towards Altro, Flint laughed. "It was a great match."
"Yeah, I never expected to fight a Kabutops today," Altro said while agreeing to Flint's words. He had a great time. At this time, Celeste also came there.
Flint smiled slightly and said. "That Kabutops is a gift from my wife."
Hearing this, both Altro and Celeste gave him a curious look.
Flint smiled a little awkwardly and said, "Well, my wife is a water-type Pokemon trainer and I am a Rock-type Pokemon trainer. So that Kabutops is a symbol of our union. That's what she said."
Altro was speechless while Celeste thought, 'So romantic.'
At this time Forrest came out with a case in his hand. Flint smiled, took out the Boulder badge, and gave it to Altro. "This is the proof of your victory here. Boulder badge."
Altro smiled and took the badge and kept it inside the Badge case.
"Your winning prize money 20000P$ is transferred to your account, and this here is your TM." Saying that Flint took out a Rock Slide TM and gave it to Altro.
Altro was pretty satisfied with the results and left with Celeste.
After Altro and Celeste left, Forrest came to his father and asked. "Dad, why did you use such strong Pokemon for a trainer with zero badges?"
"Well, I wanted my first battle after retaking the gym to be grand. But what does it matter?" Flint said, depressed that he still lost.
Forrest nodded his head in pity and understanding.
"But this year, Pallet Town produced a lot of monster rookies. All of them are very strong." Forrest muttered.
"Yeah, I'm sure this year's Indigo League will be a blast," Flint said expectantly.
***
Coming out of the gym, Celeste congratulated Altro. "Congratulations! Altro. For your first badge."
Altro smiled and said thanks.
"But I don't understand some of your actions," Celeste uttered.
"What is it?" Altro asked.
"Well, first question. Why didn't you use Gyarados at the start instead?" Celeste was sure with Gyarados' match would have ended a lot sooner.
"Well, yeah, things would have been easy, but I've trained Pikachu and Haunter for this match. So I let them go first."
"The second question, why did you use Curse? From the way I see it. Haunter could have defeated Kabutops without using Curse." Celeste asked, thinking back to how Haunter dealt with Kabutops. She still remembers Kabutops' screams. Kabutops wasn't able to land a single hit on Haunter.
"There are two reasons for me using Curse. First, after I used Curse, Flint panicked. He had no time to think about strategies. He just wanted to finish the match fast. That was a mistake. Otherwise, I would have won, but the match would have lasted longer."
Celeste nodded her head in understanding and looked at Altro with admiration. In the match, he even had time to judge Flint's psychology.
"And what is the second reason?"
"Well, I just wanted to try that move. We never got to try that at someone, that's why."
Celeste smiled lightly. Altro always wants to do things that he finds interesting. This nature of his she finds interesting.
After that, they went to visit the museum.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone