The next morning, Cyrus woke up early once again. After retrieving Aron from Nurse joy, and doing some light training, he finally made his way to the Pewter Gym.
"Let's see what you got, Brock," Cyrus said under his breath, with a confident smirk on his face as he went through the gym doors.
Walking in, Cyrus was greeted by a room with the lights switched off. In the back of the gym, there was a silhouette of a man sitting on a platform.
'Does he just sit in the dark waiting for a challenger every time? I swear he did the same thing with Ash as well.' Cyrus thought with a wry, amused smile.
"Hey Brock, if you're done trying to intimidate me, can we have a gym battle?" Cyrus asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm and amusement.
Suddenly, the lights turned on, revealing an embarrassed man with spikey hair and squinted eyes.
"I wasn't… I thought.. You know what, never mind, yeah let's battle." With a defeated sigh, Brock came down from the platform and activated the battlefield. The ground began to separate, revealing a rocky terrain. A boy who looked like a mini Brock came and stood in the referee's podium, holding a red and green flag in his hands.
"We will now begin the battle between the gym leader, Brock, and the challenger," Forrest, Brock's younger brother, looks over to Cyrus, waiting for a name.
"Cyrus." He calmly replied, allowing Forrest to continue.
"And the challenger, Cyrus. Each trainer is allowed to use two Pokémon, but only the challenger can switch their Pokémon during the battle. If both participants are ready, then you can begin." With a wave of both flags, both Brock and Cyrus take out a pokeball.
"I'll start with Geodude. Go!" Brock yelled, throwing his pokeball and releasing a white beam of light that revealed a Pokémon that looked like a round rock with two arms.
"Let's do this, Aron," Cyrus said, calmly throwing his pokeball up in the air, releasing Aron in bright white light.
'Huh, what Pokémon is that? I've never seen one of them before.' Brock thought as he saw Aron for the first time.
"Geodude use rollout!" Brock called out. Geodude immediately curled up into a ball and rolled towards Aron.
"Aron use iron defence repeatedly, over and over, then meet the rollout head on!" Cyrus commanded quickly in reply.
Undisturbed by Geodude barreling towards him, Aron's body kept flashing over and over again, each time raising Aron's defence, and even as Geodude got closer and closer, Aron stood his ground, prepared to meet the attack head-on. With a bang, Geodude and Aron collided, and after a brief standoff, both Pokémon backed off. To Brock's shock, Aron stood unharmed as if he had just come out of his pokeball.
"Smart move raising your Pokémon's defence, but that won't be enough, Geodude use defence curl and then use roll out again!" Brock yelled out, but Cyrus said nothing as he continued to watch the battlefield. Geodude once again curls into a ball, and after a sudden blue glow, it starts rolling towards Aron at a much higher speed than before.
"Aron use rock polish, then counter with rock smash!" Aron was surrounded by a white glow, raising his speed. Seeing that Geodude was approaching quickly, Aron quickly coated itself with a brown energy, once again meeting the attack head-on. Unfortunately, this time Geodude wasn't able to come out unscathed as it went tumbling backwards.
"Quick Aron, use iron head before he recovers!" Listening to Cyrus, without wasting any time, Aron surrounded himself in metallic energy and charged at Geodude, and without giving Geodude the chance to re-orientate himself, Aron smashed right into him with a powerful blow.
Suddenly Geodude went flying back, smashing into boulder after boulder before crashing into a large rock causing a large cloud of dust. The dust quickly cleared, revealing Geodude laying in a small crater, knocked out cold, causing Cyrus to smirk.
"What?!" Brock exclaimed, shocked at his Pokemon being taken out so quickly.
"Geo-Geodude is, um, unable to battle, Aron wins. Brock please take out your next Pokemon." Forrest, also taken aback by the quick round, raises his green flag signalling Ash won this round. Brock quietly returned Geodude to his pokeball before pulling out another from his belt.
"You may have beaten Geodude, but my next Pokemon won't be so easy. Go Onix!" Throwing his pokeball, a large rock snake revealed itself with a loud roar.
"Let's see how you deal with this, Onix, use rock throw!" Listening to Brock, Onix smashed his tail on the ground, causing the scattered rocks to launch into the air, and using its tail as a baseball bat, the rocks were sent flying towards Aron, barraging him with a rain of rocks and causing Brock to smirk. But as the rocks cleared up, Brock's smile quickly dropped, and instead it was Cyrus' turn to smile.
"He didn't even move. How is that possible? Even with a higher defence, the attack should have done something." Brock was once again absolutely shocked.
"Aron use iron head!" Once again surrounding itself in a metallic glow, Aron charged forward.
"Onix use dig and dodge!" Panicked at the incoming attack, Brock called out quickly, causing Onix to burrow under the ground. Unfortunately, due its large size, Aron was still able to connect the attack to the back of Onix's tail, causing him to screech in pain as he continued to barrow deeper underground.
"I thought you might do that, so I have something special for you," Cyrus said as Brock looked up, confused and worried.
"Aron, use water pulse and aim straight into the hole, hit Onix with it again and again."
"What, a water-type attack?! No Onix! Get out of there quickly!" Brock screamed, but it was too late, with a loud roar of pain, Onix crashed out of the ground before falling down with a thud, fainting and ending the fight, finishing even quicker than the previous round.
"Onix is unable to battle, Aron wins; therefore, gym leader Brock no longer has any usable Pokémon and challenger Cyrus has won the battle," Forrest calls out, declaring the end of Cyrus' first gym battle. As Brock called back Onix to his pokeball, Cyrus congratulated Aron on their first official win and a job well done, giving him a pet before returning him to his pokeball so that he can rest.
"That was a good battle, I'm very impressed with your skills as a trainer, clearly you've trained hard with your Pokemon, and clearly I still have a lot of work to do." Brock said as he gave Cyrus a handshake.
"Thanks, it was a good battle," Cyrus replied, making Brock smile.
"I am happy to present you with the Boulder Badge as proof of your victory in the Pewter Gym" Brock said, presenting Cyrus with a silver octagon-shaped badge, which he happily accepts and places in his badge case, finally filling in the first spot of the 8. After once more saying thanks, Cyrus walks out of the gym, heading back towards the Pokémon Centre.
As the Pokémon Centre's doors opened, Cyrus' mouth curved up in an amused smile as he caught a glimpse of 2 very familiar faces looking at a poster on the wall.