Third Person POV

Water walked into the final gym confidently, Blastoise by her side. She'd just come back from the Sevii Islands where Blastoise had learned hydro canon. Gyarados and Vaporeon were both close in level to Blastoise and had been doing some work of their own on the Sevii Islands, so she had them around too. Pidgeot was also going to be a big help. She was clearing the gym trainers with him. As for the gym leader, Water's plan was to put Gyarados, the lowest leveled of her three water types, out first, followed by Vaporeon, and then Blastoise to finish.

She was really excited for this honestly. The thought of finally beating Viridian City's gym had her giddy. It was the first one she'd been to, but the gym leader was away and all of the doors were locked. Not that breaking in would've had a point anyway with no gym leader to fight. And she was pretty sure she knew why.

Water had noticed that Viridian city was supposed to be a ground type gym. She'd only run into one person on her travels who seemed to fit that theme. Criminal mastermind and head of the feared Team Rocket, Giovanni. People all over seemed to be afraid of him. It made Water feel a little sick to see how he was respected through fear.

But then again, she had to laugh.

Sure, Team Rocket was a threat... To inexperienced trainers. Water had only been on her journey for a few weeks now, but she'd participated in so many battles that she was sure she could consider herself experienced. At least to some extent. Her pokemon were nothing to scoff at for someone who'd just started either. She'd gone through the electric gym with Pidgeot, Wartortle, and a Magikarp taking a slot on her party. Beedrill was also pretty much unusable too. Pikachu was underleveled. Clefable had carried the team with sing and dream eater... And the only other attack it knew at the time was pound. Water probably should've had him wait before using that moon stone.

Celadon offered no real challenge either. Water and Blastoise had blown through that one, with just a little help from Pidgeot. The most impressive thing about Fuchsia City's gym was the invisible maze, although Water supposed the poison type pokemon were cool. The ninjas were a nice feature. And much like the gym before it, Saffron's greatest challenge seemed to be its puzzle.

Now, Cinnabar Island's gym, that one was a bit of a doozy. Water had gotten annoyed with that one. It was irritating having to figure out the mysterious pokemon mansion in order to get to the gym when all she really wanted to do was collect the seventh badge and get out. But, she did get a ditto and some information about some pokemon called Mewtwo while she was there, so maybe it was worth it.

Water stepped through the puzzles in the gym, thinking over her journey. When she'd first heard of Giovanni and Team Rocket she was nervous, she would admit. But she was also very determined to stop them. So, she battled the grunts... And found that they were actually so much easier than she'd originally thought. She kept fighting them, letting her pokemon take turns fighting so they'd all get some experience points. With Blastoise being her highest leveled pokemon, she found a great strategy was to send out her lowest leveled pokemon first and then immediately switch to Blastoise. This had them split the experience points. This was how she got her magikarp to evolve into the gyarados it now was.

Then Water got to Giovanni. She was nervous, but held her head up high and walked in with her Blastoise by her side.  What she didn't know was that most trainers didn't have fully evolved starters when they got to Celadon. She took out each member of Giovanni's team with just Blastoise. Most of them went down in one hit.

She walked in much more confidently during their next encounter in Saffron. She'd also asked for her gym badge, which Giovanni had laughed at. However, she asked again when she took out his team just as easily as the first time. He still refused however, as the battle wasn't and official gym battle and therefore couldn't count.

It didn't matter. She'd be getting that badge soon anyways. Water finally finished the puzzles and walked up to Giovanni.

"Fwahahaha! Welcome to my hideout! It shall be so until I can restore Team Rocket to its former glory. But, you have found me again. So be it. This time, I'm not holding back! Once more, you shall face Giovanni, the greatest Trainer!" Giovanni laughed as Water entered the room.

"Now can I have my gym badge?" She grinned.

"Only if you can beat me. I have a much stronger team now!" Giovanni grinned back.

"Yeah? That's nice. So do I." 

Sending out Gyarados, Water had the atrocious pokemon wipe out the first couple members of the team before pulling her out and sending Vaporeon in. Vaporeon didn't know any water type moves, but he did know aurora beam. This helped until the nidos were sent out. That's when Water switched Vaporeon for Blastoise.

The nidos were the only real challenge due to their poison spike ability. It affected Blastoise and Vaporeon and through the steady damage, cut them both down to about half HP. Blastoise cut them down after that, taking care of the only real threat to Water's team.

And then it was over.

Water smiled proudly at her team. They walked up to Giovanni, Water holding her hand out for her prize.

"Ha! That was a truly intense fight. You have won! As proof, here is the Earth Badge!" Giovanni placed the shiny new badge in the palm of Water's hand. She held it up to look at before putting it in its proper place with her other badges.

"Finally. Thanks."

"The Earth Badge makes Pokémon of any level obey without question. It is evidence of your mastery as a Pokémon Trainer. With it, you can challenge the Pokémon League. Also, take this TM. Consider it a gift for your Pokémon League challenge." Giovanni continued, handing a TM to Water. She put it in her TM case. "TM26 contains Earthquake. It is a powerful attack that causes a massive tremor. I made it when I ran the Gym here, far too long ago..."

Giovanni trailed off and Water continued listening. She was eager to know what comes next.

"Having lost in this fashion, I can't face my followers. I have betrayed their trust. As of today, Team Rocket is finished forever! As for myself, I shall dedicate my life to training again." Giovanni decided. "It's probably a better use of my time than crime anyways."

"You know I don't really believe you mean that." Water responded.

Giovanni smirked and held out his hand. Water shook it.

"Let us meet again someday! Farewell!"

And with that, they both walked away. Water talked to a few people who were surprised about the Viridian Gym Leader's identity before stepping out into the fresh air again.

And then she laughed.

Team Rocket's leader had finally been defeated and she was laughing.

She laughed because that was so easy! Why didn't anyone do that earlier? How hard was it to just train a team of pokemon with a type advantage to a high enough level to beat this opponent? She'd done it in a few weeks.

Of course she had to get through the entire region first. She'd been stuck in Cerulean for a while before she finally figured out how she was supposed to get out. She had to explore some of the Sevii Islands too, and save a little girl from a hypno. And she had to have Blastoise learn his ultimate move. But all in all, this was really easy if you were determined enough. It almost made Water wonder if maybe everyone else was just humouring Team Rocket the whole time, making them think they were powerful.

It didn't matter anymore. Water laughed until her knees went weak and there were tears coming out of her eyes. Ever since their first battle, she just could not take Giovanni seriously. Hiring the dumbest goons to fall asleep at their posts and then turning out to be the worst 'challenge' ever anyways.

And from then on, she just laughed whenever she thought about it.

No matter what she tried, she just could not take this seriously.