Chapter 19: Celadon City!
Lyra and company were now in a city called Celadon City. Before they arrived in Celadon City, they ran into a Mankey that liked to pick fights.
Mankey is a primate Pokémon, similar to a New World monkey. It is a bipedal Pokémon with a round body covered in whitish, shaggy fur. Its nose is similar to a pig's snout, and it has red eyes and triangular ears with brown insides. Mankey's hands, two-toed feet, and the tip of its curved, prehensile tail are brown.
Lyra liked Mankey's fighting spirit and decided to catch it. Mankey put up quite a fight though; even though Lyra was using Pidgeot, as Flying beats Fighting, Mankey did not give up. Then Mankey evolved into a Primeape.
Primeape is a bipedal Pokémon with a round body covered in whitish, shaggy fur. There is usually a stress mark on the left side of its forehead, and it has triangular ears with pink insides and a pink, snout-like nose. Its arms and legs are brown and have metal shackles on the wrists and ankles. This is probably indicative of a method of training with weights. The hands have no visible fingers, instead resembling mittens or boxing gloves, and the feet have two toes.
Primeape turned out to be stronger than it was as a Mankey.
But Lyra didn't give up. She commanded Pidgeot to use Brave Bird, and that worked, making Primeape faint. Then Lyra captured Primeape and was happy to have it on her team.
Now they were having a nice break in Celadon City.
As they were having a break, Brock and Misty sniffed the air, smelling a nice fragrance not too far from where they were.
"Hey, it's perfume," Misty said, smelling the nice scent. "I'm going to check it out." She walked off in the direction the scent was coming from.
"So am I," Brock said. "Where there is perfume, there are beautiful girls around."
Lyra, Pichu, and Pikachu sweat-dropped at Brock as he ran after Misty, following the scent.
Lyra didn't mind perfume; her mum kept perfume all the time, although she couldn't understand why women were always so excited about it, even though her mum explained it to her once. "Oh well," she said to herself, "everyone has something they like." Just then she thought of something. "Hey, mom's birthday is coming up. And since she likes perfume, I will get her some for a present."
Lyra went to the perfume store, where Misty was trying out different sorts of perfume. She entered the store and had a good look at the perfumes. "Which one would mum like?" she whispered, looking at all the different perfumes.
"I think I need to ask for some help. Right, Pichu, Pikachu?" Lyra asked her two Electric-types.
"Pichu." "Pika." They both nodded.
"May I help you?" a voice said from behind her.
Lyra turned around, and behind her she saw a woman with green eyes, wearing a traditional kimono and hairstyle.
"Yes, please, can you help?" Lyra asked with a smile. "You see, I wish to buy some perfume for my mum because it's her birthday soon, as she likes perfume. But I really don't know that much about perfume, so I don't know which one she would like?"
The woman smiled. "You're a sweet, innocent girl, aren't you? I don't mind at all," she said. "I will gladly help. Now what does your mum like?"
"Gardening," Lyra replied happily. "She loves doing that."
"Then you need a perfume with garden scents." She turned to the ladies that were helping Misty. "Please help this nice girl with the perfumes of garden scents." The ladies looked at Lyra and helped her right away.
They showed all sorts of garden-scented perfumes. Lyra sniffed them one by one until she finally found the one she was looking for. "I would like the wild flower garden perfume, please," she said happily. "It smells just like my mom's garden." She bought the perfume, thanked the ladies, and left the store.
"I like that girl," one of the ladies said.
"So do I," another lady said. "Not only is she so cute, but she is really innocent, not knowing about perfume. So cute."
The ladies all giggled, then they all went back to work.
Lyra sent the perfume to her mother by post. "Hope mum likes it. Now to the gym." She then went to find Celadon Gym.
Celadon Gym looked like a giant greenhouse, and the roof was designed like the petals of a Gloom.
When Lyra was inside, she saw flowers and trees everywhere. "Since Celadon Gym uses Grass-type Pokémon," she said, "it's no wonder that this gym is more like a greenhouse."
Lyra saw a lady at a reception desk and asked her if she could battle the Gym Leader. "Of course," the lady said, "I'll take you to Erika right now."
The lady led Lyra to where the Gym battlefield was. Not only was the room filled with trees, flowers, and grass, it was also filled with all different Grass Pokémon.
Lyra saw an Oddish and its two evolutionary forms, Gloom and Vileplume; Bellsprout and its two evolutionary forms, Weepinbell and Victreebel; Exeggcute and its evolved form Exeggutor; and Tangela. Lyra even saw a Bulbasaur and its two evolutionary forms, Ivysaur and Venusaur.
Lyra even saw Misty and Brock with the ladies that worked at the perfume store. "Erika," the lady said, "this girl wishes to battle you."
"Welcome," a blue-haired lady said, who was Erika.
Lyra gasped a bit. "You're the lady who helped me with the perfumes today," she said.
"Ah, I remember you," said Erika with a smile. "I take it you are here to challenge me then?"
"Yes, I am," Lyra said. "I'm Lyra, by the way."
"Well, Lyra," Erika said, "as the Perfume Store Manager and Celadon City's Gym Leader, I accept your challenge."
Lyra and Erika went to the battlefield. "This will be a battle between Erika, the Gym Leader, and Lyra Mew Light, the challenger," Erika's assistant announced.
"This will also be a 3 vs 3 Pokémon battle. Whoever knocks out the most Pokémon first wins."
Brock, Misty, Pichu, Pikachu, and the ladies that worked there were watching from the sidelines. Some of the Grass Pokémon were watching too.
"Okay," said Erika, "Tangela, go!"
"Tangela," it said after coming out of its Poké Ball.
Tangela is a Pokémon covered with thick blue vines that obscure its face so only its eyes can be seen. These vines are covered in fine hair, and they give it a round shape. It has a pair of red boot-like feet, but no visible arms.
Tangela, the Vine Pokémon.
Its body is wrapped in vines. The rest of its form is hidden beneath these vines.
"Then Vulpix, I choose you!" Lyra said. Her golden fox-like Pokémon came out glittering and got ready to battle.
Some of the people gasped. "Wow, it's a shiny Vulpix," someone said.
Erika smiled. "Even though you are using a Fire-type, Lyra," she said, "don't think that you have won yet."
"Don't worry, Erika," Lyra said, "I know very well that you should never judge Pokémon by types."
"Okay," said Erika, "Tangela, use Vine Whip." Tangela shot out two vines, ready to hit Vulpix.
"Use Quick Attack to dodge." Vulpix's Quick Attack got away from the Vine Whip.
"Use Stun Spore." A yellow powder came off Tangela and headed for Vulpix.
"Vulpix, Fire Blast now!" Lyra said, and Vulpix let out a Fire Blast that looked like a kanji character shape, and it hit Tangela directly, making it faint.
"Tangela is unable to battle! The match goes to Vulpix!" the assistant announced.
Vulpix yipped and jumped into Lyra's arms. "Alright, you did it, Vulpix. That training with Infernape helped you a lot," Lyra said.
"Thank you."
"Tangela, return," Erika said as Tangela returned to its Poké Ball. "Thank you for your work. Weepinbell, I choose you."
Lyra returned Vulpix back to its Poké Ball. "Charmander, I choose you!"
"Char!" Charmander got ready to fight.
"Weepinbell, use Razor Leaf." Weepinbell shot out a lot of leaves.
"Use Flamethrower to burn the leaves," Lyra said. Charmander's Flamethrower burnt the leaves to a crisp. "Now use Metal Claw." Charmander charged at Weepinbell and hit it with his Metal Claw very hard, which made Weepinbell faint.
"Weepinbell is unable to battle! The match goes to Charmander!"
"Weepinbell, return now," Erika said, returning her Pokémon back.
The ladies on the sidelines watched in amazement.
"Wow, Lyra is strong," one lady said.
"Yeah, not only is she cute, but she is strong," another lady said.
"I must say, Lyra," said Erika, "you are an impressive trainer. But this gym battle is not over yet. Gloom, go."
Gloom is a blue, bipedal Pokémon with rudimentary hands and feet. It has orange leaves and a reddish-brown flower growing from its head. The flower has large, rounded petals and white spots, and the female displays fewer but larger spots. Its eyes are wide and narrow, and its lips are thin and purple. It trickles sticky nectar from its mouth with the appearance and consistency of drool.
Gloom, the Weed Pokémon.
The evolved form of Oddish. It gives off a powerful aroma that can cause those who smell it to faint from two miles away.
Lyra didn't have a good feeling about this. "Charmander, return!" She recalled her fire lizard. "Okay, Flareon, I choose you!" Her Flareon was ready. "Use Swift." Flareon launched a star-shaped attack towards Gloom and hurt it.
"Quick, Gloom, use Petal Dance," Erika said. A spiraling whirl of petals shot out from Gloom and twirled towards Flareon.
"Use Fire Spin, Flareon," Lyra said. A spiraling whirl of flames shot out of Flareon's mouth, burnt the petals, and struck Gloom. Gloom couldn't stand another attack of flames and fainted. Lyra won her battle.
Lyra stroked Flareon's head. "Thank you, Flareon," she said.
Flareon loved being stroked. She saw Erika tending to her Gloom and went to see if everything was okay.
"Oh, don't worry," Erika said with a smile, "Gloom will be all right. Lyra, you gave me an excellent battle. You're a good trainer." Lyra blushed at that comment. "And so I give you the Rainbow Badge."
The Rainbow Badge was the shape of a flower with eight rainbow-colored petals.
"Thank you very much." Lyra bowed a bit before taking the Rainbow Badge.
After receiving the badge, Lyra and her friends bid farewell to Erika and her assistants and left Celadon City.
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Thank you for reading this chapter!
See you in the next episode of Pika Ball Z! ⚡