Pokemon Company
Airdate: March 13, 2003
Summary: Ash and Pikachu are still on their Iron Tail grind, they won’t quit! May decides that she does not want to be a Pokemon trainer, and that she wants to be a coordinator. Ash and Brock tell May that they will support her decision.. Max is not so convinced. Team Rocket wants to steal Roxanne’s Pokemon, James is motivated to actually steal a Pokemon this time.. I don’t think it will work. Roxanne welcomes Ash and crew to the gym, she asks if she can record the battle to help the students in the school. Roxanne starts with Geodude while Ash starts with Treecko, a pretty smart strategy… if Treecko knew Grass moves. Geodude uses Mega Punch after an ineffective Pound attack, but launching it into the air gives it the speed needed to have a supereffective Pound attack. Geodude survives the hit and uses Rollout to Mega Punch to hit Treecko pretty hard, making it faint. Roxanne gets the early advantage, now it is Pikachu’s turn who uses a Thunder attack to flatten the battlefield. Team Rocket changes up their hole strategy with some conservation.. I really don’t like their side stories during gym battles. Ash hits a Rock Throw but Pikachu evades with a Quick Attack. Geodude hits a Rollout but spins out from the battlefield and gets hit with a direct Thunder that knocks them out. Roxanne sends out a Nosepass, who has an electromagnet for a nose, this one will be tough. Ash has Pikachu uses Iron Tail well at first, which hits Nosepass fairly hard. He uses it again but it doesn’t work, while Nosepass has Pikachu in a Rock Tomb. Pikachu blows away the rocks with Thunder but lowers its speed. Team Rocket’s hole plan doesn’t work.. Oh well. Nosepass uses Sandstorm now, using quite a lot of different speed measures to give it an advantage. Pikachu dodges Nosepass, including a Rock Tomb, Pikachu spins Nosepass around but it calms down enough to avoid another Iron Tail. Nosepass’ Thunder Wave hits Team Rocket and sends them flying from the shovel they dug into the ground. Pikachu uses a Nosepass Zap Cannon to Tackle it and paralyze the Rock Nose Man, Pikachu hits a final Iron Tail to crack that rock. Ash wins the Stone Badge, 1 down 7 to go. Off to Dewford.
Best Trainer/Pokémon: Ash, a very good battle amid a tough opponent.
Worst Trainer/Pokémon: Roxanne, not much of a “bad” trainer but the teacher got beat by a “student” of sorts.
One thing I learned: Pikachu can now successfully use Iron Tail, we will see this one again.
Who is that Pokémon?: Pupitar.. I have already done this one, enough of the Gen 2 mons.
Best Quote: “Just wait til you see us battle” – Ash, he was true with this one, Thunder to start the battle off was sick.
Best Scene: Ash’s confident turn, he is a very savvy battler when he needs to be.
