Chapter 11 – Ice Punch Training
Aipom and I woke up early the next morning. I got up straight away, eager to try Ice Punch out and
made breakfast for me and James who woke up not long after. Me and James sat and ate while Aipom,
Pidgey, Kakuna and Caterpie sat together and ate from their pots of Pokémon food. “We’re getting
pretty low on the food for the Pokémon” James commentated. “We should go to the Pokémart before
you start training again. I agreed and we left the Centre once again not long after. Just before we left,
Nurse Joy came over to us and removed Aipom’s bandage and told us the wound was healing nicely,
she sprayed it with a Potion and said it should be fine.
The Pokémart was just around the corner from the Pokémon Centre so it wasn’t a long walk. While we
were there, I bought the Pokémon food I needed along with another Pokéball and two Potions. James
bought what he needed after. We then headed back out to Route 31. We were walking towards our
destination when James suggested an idea for training. “Kakuna will know Harden now won’t it? It
learns it when it evolves from Weedle” I nodded, guessing he was right. “Well, instead of having to
look for a load of wild Pokémon, you could have Kakuna use Harden over and over again and then
have Aipom use Ice Punch on it. It’d take hardly any damage from the attacks and you’ll be training
both Pokémon at the same time.” It was a great idea; I would have to ask Kakuna first though.
We reached Route 31 but didn’t bother going far down it. I released Kakuna from its Pokéball, it
appeared in front of me, somehow balancing on the thin point at the bottom of its golden body. I went
through the plan with Kakuna, thankfully, it agreed to it but I would stop if Aipom’s attack hurt it too
much anyway. “Ok Kakuna, use Harden!” A silvery mist appeared and coated Kakuna it seemed to stick
to its shell and then vanished from sight. I noticed Kakuna was slightly more reflective that normal.
“Great, use it again” Kakuna used the attack over and over getting shiner each time. Eventually,
Kakuna couldn’t use it any more and the silver mist became a feeble wisp which couldn’t find
anywhere on Kakuna’s body to stick too and floated away. I turned to Aipom, “You ready?” Aipom
nodded and stepped forward, determination in his face. I looked at Kakuna, “You ready?”
“Kuun” I took that as a yes.
“Aipom, Ice Punch, go!” Aipom leapt into the air, he knew exactly what to do. He didn’t use his actually
hands for the attack but instead used the much larger, three fingered hand on the end of his tail. He
spun round in mid-air giving his tail more momentum as he turned, the fist on the end of his tail
glowed an icy blue leaving a jagged trail of what looked like lasers behind it. The charged up fist of
energy collided with Kakuna sliding it back a few metres and falling onto its back. I winced when I saw
it hit, concerned for Kakuna. “You Ok?”
Kakuna flipped itself onto its point and jumped into the air. “Ku-na!” It seemed to enjoy being attacked
without taking any damage.
“Great! Aipom, go again!” I was much more confident this time. Aipom repeated the routine again and
executed the Ice Punch perfectly. Kakuna jumped onto its point again and Aipom went for the third Ice
Punch without my command. This time it didn’t work out so well. Aipom got up to the point when his
fist was just starting to charge up when it spluttered and died out. Aipom was distracted by the failed

attempt of the attack, lost its balance in mid-air and crashed into Kakuna on the ground. I jogged over
to the collision site to check they were both Ok, Kakuna was fine and seemed to be laughing at Aipom.
Aipom however looked dazed and confused, it seemed that he had knocked his head on Kakunas
hardened body, James came over to see the situation. “Hmm, Aipom has the technique; he just needs
to learn how to use it as many times as it can in a row”
“How does he do that?” I asked, lifting Aipom off the ground while Kakuna righted itself.
“Just keep doing it” James replied with a wink. I had noticed that, although James was fairly young, he
knew a lot about Pokémon and how to train them well.
“Ok, you ready to go again Aipom?” I asked looking down at the little bundle in my arms; he seemed to
have recovered well. He answered by pushing himself out of my grip and landing facing Kakuna. “Ok,
Aipom! Do it!”
We continued throughout the morning until lunch. We kept up a steady routine, Aipom would use the
attack a few times, I would ask Kakuna to use Harden again to keep up its defences. Every now and
then I would get Aipom to use Scratch, Astonish and Sand Attack to make sure they were all fine as
well. While we did our training, James released Pidgey and Caterpie to do some of their own training.
When we stopped for lunch, everyone was in a good mood. The morning training had gone well and I
was getting confident that I would be able to defeat Falkner in our rematch. While we ate, James
suggested that we visit Sprout Tower at some point during our time in Violet City.
“Sure but I was thinking of challenging Falkner again tomorrow. I think we’re ready!”
“Awesome, we can go after you’ve won that badge then” And with that I stood up, ready to start our
training regime again.
We headed back for the Pokémon Centre at around 6 o’clock for some dinner and to give our
Pokémon a good rest, ready for tomorrow’s battle.
The next morning, I was nervous. After a quick breakfast, I headed back out towards the Gym with
James and Aipom. “Is there a limit on how many times you can re-challenge a gym?” I asked James.
“Hmm, I don’t think so. It doesn’t matter anyway. You’re bound to win, especially with Aipom’s new
move.”
We arrived at the Gym and walked back up the hallway with the bird statues and entered the stadium
through the large double doors. “Hello?” I called into the empty stadium, my voice echoed around the
room and Falkner appeared through a door on my left.
“Ah, I was wondering when I was going to see you again” He said as he walked casually over to us.
I smiled, “Yeah, and I’m prepared this time”
“Great but just to warn you, I’ve been doing some training of my own in the past couple of days” This

worried me. “And I saw you in Route 31, you have a new Pokémon?”
“Yeah”
“Excellent, we can have a 2v2 then?”
“Um...” I wasn’t confident in Kakunas battling ability’s, I had never trained it attacking but Falkner was
already on his way to his side of the field and I didn’t want to cause a fuss so I walked to mine with
Aipom upon my shoulder. James took his place in the stands.
The same referee came through the door Falkner had come through. Falkner casually held up two
fingers as the ref walked past. He nodded and continued on his way to the centre of the field. “This is a
Official Johto League Gym Battle! The battle between gym leader Falkner and challenger Edd is about
to begin! The battle will be a 2v2 battle.” The ref spoke the same rehearsed words as before. Once
again, he walked to the edge of the field and pressed the button, activating the mechanism in the roof
giving us a wide view of the sky. “Let the battle commence!” The referee cried, waving the same flag
as before.
“Go, Hoothoot!” Falkner called on the other side of the field. With a flash of white a small brown ball
appeared with wide red eyes and one leg. It jumped up and down on it hooting excitedly.
“Ok then, go Kakuna!” I had decided to save Aipom to battle the Pidgeotto which I knew was coming
later on in the battle. I threw my Pokéball in the air and Kakuna appeared stood on its point.
The rematch had begun.