Chapter 4 - 4: Watching the Gym Battle

Words : 1489 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

Two four year old kids watched their mom fight in a gym battle against a trainer who has earned one gym badge in this Kanto circuit. One of the kids had black hair that he has inherited from his father while the other other had red hair. They were twins despite different hair colour. The boy was named Gladion Vortex while the other twin who was a girl was named Gwenyth Vortex. Gladion had not heard about the Moonwood town, let alone about the gym in his previous life Pokemon anime or games. After some research or rather finding out a map of Kanto region, he found out that the Moonwood town was between Pewter city and Cerulean City. It was on the base of Mt. moon near the Cerulean City. To it's right was the sea. It was a perfect spot for tourism with both beaches and mountains. Gladion also found out that there were a lot more towns and cities then what the anime showed. It was fair since a region can't be just made of only 8-10 cities and a few towns. As for the Moonwood Town Gym, It was a minor gym. The Moonwood gym was a minor ground type gym. And the twins were currently watching a gym battle. Their mother Erza Vortex who was the current gym leader of the Moonwood gym stood confidently at one end. Across from her, a young boy with only one badge from a major gym stood with a determined look, holding his Squirtle. The Minor League badges are silver instead of gold. But have their own unique design. These badges don't have much value apart from being a keepsake and a proof of the trainer beating the minor gym. Trainers still challenged these gyms to hone their battle skills and tactics before challenging the major gyms. In fact, Sometimes a minor gym was more popular then a major gym. Simply for the fact that beating a minor gym was considerably easy and it boosted the ego of new trainers who could not beat major type gyms. The fees of challanging a minor gym leader was also quite less than a major gym's fees. The purpose of a minor gym leader was to protect the town from various threats like wild pokemon, poachers etc. Erza Vortex was not a ground type trainer but was instead one of the best fire type trainers around Kanto. The gym originally belonged to the twins Grandpa who was a war veteran. Ah yes war, another thing Gladion came to know about this world was that it was not as peaceful as the anime showed. Well, The history about this world was complicated and would be explained later. Anyways, Their Grandpa was too old to run a gym right now. His son, Benjamin Vortex was not interested in running a gym or even being a pokemon trainer but was instead a researcher and a Pokemon breeder. So the responsibility to run the gym fell on Erza, Ben's wife. Since she did not have her own ground type pokemon, she used the pokemon already caught and trained by the twins grandpa. Or she just caught Pokemon from Mt. Moon which was rich in ground type Pokemons. The referee described the rules of the match and then called for the start of the match. Erza threw a pokeball on the field from which a Sandshrew appeared while the challanger's squirtle took the field. "Gwen, Who do you think will win?" Gladion asked his sister "Of course, It's going to be sandshrew. GO SANDSHREWWW!" Gwen replied while cheering for the sandshrew who waved his arm towards the twin. "Idiot as always. Sandshrew has the type weakness against Squirtle. Ground type pokemon are weak against Water type pokemon." Gladion said as a matter of fact. As a responsible older brother, he needed to teach his sister about Pokemon battles. "Did you just call me an idiot?!" Gwen leaped at her brother and scratched his face with her nails. Gladion responded in kind while holding his tears from the pain as he punched his sister right on the nose. "You ruined my cute face." Gladion shouted as both of them entered into a scuffle. Both of them stopped though as soon as they saw Erza glaring at their direction. They both quieted down and focused on the battlefield. "Wooooah! Go Sandshrew, take him down!" Gwenyth hollered and cheered rambunctiously from the viewing gallery, drumming her tiny feet against the bleachers. Already forgetting the little scuffle she had with her brother. Beside her, Gladion was far more reserved but no less invested in the Pokemon battle unfolding before them. But he agreed that the trainer needed to lose. The guy was just too arrogant. The blonde-haired trainer acted like he was challenging the Elite Four itself. "Heh, this'll be a cakewalk!" he'd boasted loudly upon arriving, adjusting his tacky metallic sunglasses with a sneer. "I'll mop the floor with your dinky little Ground monsters, lady! My team's been tearing it up at all the junior tournaments." Erza had simply smirked at the preteen's bravado. "We'll see about that. Don't think I'll go easy on you just because this is a minor-league Gym." "Let's go squirtle!" The boy shouted as a timid squirtle took the field. "Squr-tle!" From their front row seats, Gwenyth broke into a fit of mocking giggles. "Oh noooooo, not a big bad squirtle in! Whatever will Mommy dooo?" she catcalled, fluttering her lashes and making kissy faces. Gladion rolled his eyes at her sister's antics. He locked his eyes on the battlefield where the boy was making his first move. "Use Water Gun, full blast!" yelled the boy as he pointed a finger dramatically. Squirtle hocked up a powerful, concentrated stream of water, firing it directly at the unflinching Sandshrew with pinpoint accuracy. "Shrew!" Erza simply commanded, just as the water torrent was about to connect. With enviable speed and agility, the spunky Sandshrew tucked and rolled to the side, letting the jet stream harmlessly impact the Gym's hardwood floor. "What?!" The stunned trainer pulled back, jaw dropping. Gladion couldn't resist letting out a whoop. "Eat it, Sunglasses Kid! My mom's not gonna let some jerk with a big mouth and dollhouse Pokemon beat her! Did you think that Sandshrew would just take the hit head on?" Gwenyth blinked at her brother, then started cracking up in peals of laughter. "Hahaha! Dollhouse Pokemon, that's a good one!" Down below, Erza was just getting started. "Sandshrew, use Rollout!" The plucky Ground-type obediently curled up into a tight ball, its rocky hide taking on a blazing golden shine. It started rolling towards Squirtle at a fast speed. The boy panicked seeing this. "Oh crap! Squirtle, use Protect!" the startled boy cried desperately. But it was too little, too late. The Rollout slammed straight into Squirtle's soft underbelly. And with that one move, Squirtle was knocked out of the battle. The arrogant boy dropped to his knees in agonized defeat, recalling his Pokemon while Sandshrew danced a victorious jig. "Yeeeeah Sandshrew! That'ssss my girl!" Erza swept her Pokemon up in an embrace, nuzzling its prickly face lovingly. The twins charged at their mom. "THAT WAS AMAZING, MOM! You knocked him out with just one move!" Gladion shouted after just seeing the first official live Pokemon battle in his life. "I know, right? I thought that cute squirtle would be a tough one but then bam and Sandshrew won!" Gwenyth chimed in gleefully, punching the air. Erza set Sandshrew down, letting it preen proudly for a moment before recalling the Ground-type back to its Pokeball. She reached down and scooped both twins up in her sinewy arms, planting big smooches on their squealing faces. "You two little rugrats are MY toughest battle, I swear!" she laughed warmly, squeezing them close. "Ewwww, Mom cooties!" Gwenyth faux-shrieked and thrashed around indignantly until Erza set her down, still chuckling. The boy could not accept his lose and shouted foul play and cheating but was ignored by Erza and was chased out of the gym by a roaring Arcanine. Gladion who just watched his first Pokemon battle live was thrilled. He knew his mom was one of the best ace trainers around in all of Indigo i.e. Johto and Kanto combined. One day soon, when he reached Erza age and had his own starter, Gladion vowed to surpass even her battle talents and become a true Pokemon Master. All it would take was hard work, perseverance, and applying all the strategic know-how he'd compiled in his previous life. ...And also maybe investing in some noise-canceling headphones. Because something told him Gwenyth would be supplying more than enough chaotic distractions and dumb jokes to overcome in the years ahead.

Chapter 4 - 4: Watching the Gym Battle

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