Gym number 1

[Lhena]

Blinking brown eyes, Ami stared into the gym. "Hello?" She said, fingers tightly curled around a pokeball. "I'm here to get my first badge," She smirked, then added, "If you're not afraid you'll lose."

[Lhena]

The challenger took the quiet gym leader by surprise. "You wish to battle me?" She asked tenatively, grasping a pokeball in her hand. "Very well. I doubt I'll lose."

Tossing it gracefully to the ground, a Lady-bug pokemon appeared. It spiraled in the air, doing flips and turns and landing on the head of the challenger.

Ami smiled at the pokemon. "It's too bad I have to beat you," She told it, reaching into her bag and pulling out her own pokeball. A crystalline skitty appeared, upon release noticing her tail and beginning to chase after it.

Her trainer sweatdropped, and the Ledyba flew opposite Skitty. "Sketch, use doubleslap!"

[Lhena]

"Lady, fly up to avoid it!" Tsuki commanded, smiling as her cute pokemon easily dodged the doubleslap. "Now, megadrain!"

The ladybug dive-bombed Sketch, latching onto her back and sucking the life out of her.

Ami smiled. "Turn around and use doubleslap!"

Grimacing, the kitten-pokemon whirled around and swiped at the leeching pokemon furiously, slapping it several times. For the final blow, she swung her heavy tail around, knocking the makeshift parasite off and severing it's access to her energy supply.

Apparently this was enough, as the Ledyba collapsed. Tsuki gasped. "What the... Lady, return!" The pokemon was sucked into it's ball with a flicker of red light. Quickly, she pulled out another one. "Sprouty, finish that little thing!" She shouted, baring her teeth in disgust.

The bellsprout picked up where his partner had left off, and without waiting for an order from Tsuki, extended his roots and coiled them around Skitty in a desperate wrap attack.

Horrified, Ami yelled, "Sketch, use assist!"

The kitten nodded, still entangled in the Bellsprout's thorny vines. Suddenly, her eyes began to glow white, as objects around her started moving. The bellsprout's vines loosened just enough for her to wiggle free, just in time for Sprouty himself to be thrown violently across the room.

[Lhena]

Angrily, Tsuki pulled out her last pokeball. "Roses, it's your turn next! Use poison sting"

Blinking it's eyes several times, a roselia nodded. Small, toxic pins shot from the roses on it's hands, burying themselves into Skitty and poisoning it badly.

"Sketch, that's enough," Ami said, returning her kitten. She kissed the pokeball before clipping it to her belt and unclipping another. "Kiki, lets show them what you can do!"

"Bulba!" A pretty Bulbasaur appeared.

"Kiki, use tackle!" Nodding, the grass-type dashed at Roses, tackling her hard. Angrily, the roselia shook her petals. Before she realized it, Kiki had enhaled the majority of the glittering yellow powder, paralyzing her in place.

"Even though your Bulbasaur is a grass type," Tsuki said calmly, "I cannot allow you to win. Roses, finish it with another poison sting!"

Once again, tiny pins were sent flying at one of Ami's pokemon, but this time they were brushed off harmlessly. A small smile tugged at the corners of the psychic-trainer's mouth. "But you forget - Bulbasaur is also part poison! Now, Kiki use Leech Seed!"

"Saur!" From the bulb on her back, tiny sprouts began to form. With a great leap from Kiki, they were sent spiraling towards Roselia, burying themselves deeply under it's skin. Tsuki gasped in horror as they began sapping energy from her precious rose-pokemon.

"Ledyba isn't the only one that can be a parasite," Ami said, smiling.

"That doesn't matter!" Tsuki screamed, "Roses use poison sting again!"

Struggling from the effects of the seeds, it staggered forward, emitting another wave of poison sting at the paralyzed bulbasaur. Neither pokemon could move much - dodging wasn't nessiscary. Whatever HP was lost was quickly regained by Kiki, while Roses was getting steadily weaker and weaker each turn.

"Roses!" Tsuki was frantic now, "Keep going! I know you can do it!"

"Part of being a great trainer is knowing when your pokemon can't handle any more," Ami's voice was calm, "Sometimes, it's better to lose with dignity than be tossed aside by somebody much stronger."

The words seemed to sink in as Roses fired another wave of needles at Kiki. The pokemon's face contorted with pain as more energy was sucked away and given to the patient adversary.

Without a word, Tsuki recalled Roses, and tossed a badge at Ami.