Natalya

**Natalya** (Japanese: **ナタリア** *Nataria*) is a Pokémon Trainer hailed from Cerulean City in the Kanto region.

## **New Era**

### **Indigo Challenge**

Passing through Route 5, Dwayne sees by a building, and the sign outside reveals that the building was a Gym, although it indicates that the Gym is unlicensed by the Pokémon League and the "Gym Leader" has a record of 99 wins to zero losses. Suddenly, the "Gym Leader" Natalya walks up and challenges Dwayne to a battle. She says that she plans to start competing for Badges after her 100th consecutive win, and summons her Cubone to battle against Dwayne's Pokémon, and Dwayne summons Pidgeotto to battle Cubone, knowing that a Flying-type Pokémon should have the advantage. However, Cubone surprises him by using Smack Down, which connects and causes Pidgeotto to lose his Flying-type privileges, and Dwayne notes that now Pidgeotto could get affected by any Ground-type attacks. Dwayne tries to use Double Team, but Cubone quickly uses Earthquake, which eliminates all copies at once, and promptly defeats Dwayne with Take Down. Dwayne notices that Cubone suffered no recoil damage, and realizes that its Ability was Rock Head.

Dwayne then calls out Butterfree, and he orders a Stun Spore attack, but Natalya cracks her whip and Cubone Digs underground, avoiding it. It bursts out of the ground, eliminating Butterfree with Smack Down, as the attack causes double the damage due to Butterfree's typing, giving Natalya the victory, and Dwayne becomes surprised at the strength of Natalya's Cubone. Later, Dwayne overhears Natalya training her Pokémon, yelling angrily and cracking her whip. Dwayne intervenes to stop Natalya from hurting the Pokémon, but Natalya tells him to mind his own business. Her Cubone is wearing a strength intensifier brace invented by Natalya herself. It enables the Cubone to withstand the weakening effects of water. Natalya says she's tougher on Cubone than her other Pokémon because it was her very first.

Appalled at Natalya's training methods, Dwayne asserts that a great Pokémon Trainer should make friends with their Pokémon. After the training, Natalya's Pokémon are all exhausted, and Natalya insults Dwayne's Pokémon, referring to them as "weak-spirited" and "soft", and Dwayne angrily tackles her, causing them both to fall into the pool. Dwayne and Natalya continue fighting, with Natalya saying that Dwayne was unfit to be a Trainer if he couldn't compose himself, but Dwayne says that he only cared about the Pokémon, even those who he didn't owned, and Natalya could insult him all she wants, but he would never stand by and allow anyone to insult his Pokémon. Hearing this, Natalya stops fighting and apologizes, saying she only wanted to rile him up, and didn't realize he cared that much about his Pokémon, and explains that despite her methods being too extreme, her Pokémon were not only tough enough to handle it, but they actually enjoy it, as they share the same habits and traits, and says that she truly loves her Pokémon, too. Cubone hugs Natalya to prove her point, and Dwayne also apologizes for assuming that Natalya was mistreating her Pokémon. Both Trainers shake hands to settle their differences, and Natalya says that since her victory over Valeria was her 100th consecutive win, she would now start challenging for Badges, and tells Dwayne they would meet again at the Pokémon League, and tells him to become stronger so they can have another battle. Dwayne agrees and both parties head into separate directions, with Dwayne continuing towards Vermilion City.

Two weeks before the start of the Indigo Plateau Conference, Natalya sees Dwayne heading towards the stadium and sprints towards him, and without any time to lose, Natalya challenges him to a battle, to which Dwayne eagerly accepts. However, she tells Dwayne that the loser must give up all eight of their Badges to the winner. Dwayne turns down the offer and starts heading back on his way when Natalya suggests that Dwayne is afraid of losing to her yet again, and this tempts Dwayne into agreeing to the battle.

The battle begins, with Natalya revealing her Marowak having it evolved from Cubone. With this, Dwayne chooses Roselia. Dwayne commands Roselia to use Bullet Seed against Marowak, though Marowak dodges. Dwayne instructs Roselia to use another Bullet Seed as Natalya tells Marowak to use Focus Energy and Bone Club to deflect the attack. Then Marowak rushes over and attacks Roselia with Bonemerang, causing great damage. Dwayne then tells Roselia to use Solar Beam, but Marowak's flurry of Bone Club attacks force Roselia to have to dodge the attacks while continuing to charge Solar Beam. Natalya then commands an Ice Beam attack, just as Roselia's Solar Beam launches. However, the Grass-type attack proves stronger, as it easily pushes the Ice Beam, and scores a direct hit, giving Dwayne the victory.

Natlaya then begins to cry over her loss, and when Dwayne questions her odd decision to battle him for his Badges, Natalya admits that she has no Badges to give. Natalya reveals that her Badges were stolen from him as she was walking to the Pokémon League. Natalya and Marowak noticed some fruit on the ground. Being very hungry after much training, the pair rush over to eat, only to fall into a pit fall trap. It is revealed that Adrian and Adriana took her Badges as she laid dazed in the pit. Upon realizing that the twins were behind it, Dwayne decides to help her get her Badges back.

Meanwhile, Adrian and Adriana are bragging about how easy it was to steal Natalya's Badges, and gleefully envision meeting Dwayne at the tournament and eliminating him to finally get their long-awaited "revenge" on him. Elsewhere, Dwayne's Pidgeot flies about searching for the twins, but finds no sign of them. Marowak starts throwing a tantrum, and begins to walk away without Natalya. When she asks Marowak to stay, the Bone Keeper Pokémon knocks Natalya's hand away and leaves her. Dwayne agrees that they have to find the twins and the Badges or else Marowak may never come back.

After searching for almost ten minutes, Dwayne and Natalya find the twins resting underneath a tree, and Dwayne throws a rock at them to wake them up, and Adriana curses him for throwing the rock at them. Dwayne demands that the twins give the Badges back to Natalya. Adriana tells them that they won't give the Badges back unless they can beat them in a Double Battle. The battle begins as Adrian and Adriana send out Weepinbell and Weezing, respectively, while Dwayne and Natalya choose Roselia and Beedrill, respectively.

Meanwhile, Marowak is walking through the woods and notices some Trainers and their Pokémon training for the Pokémon League, which reminds him of the intense training it experienced with Natalya. Subsequently, Marowak decides to go back to Natalya's side, remorseful and ashamed of abandoning her because of a single mistake.

The battle between the twins, and Dwayne and Natalya ensues as the twins call for Weepinbell and Weezing to use Poison Powder and Sludge Bomb, but while the dodge the Sludge Bomb attack, they are both engulfed within the Poison Powder. However, it has no effect due to both Roselia and Beedrill being part Poison-types. Dwayne and Natalya call for their own battle combination. Roselia uses Petal Dance while Beedrill uses X-Scissor, and both attacks successfully connect, although Weepinbell and Weezing suffer only moderate damage.

Weepinbell then uses Vine Whip and begins squeezing Roselia, but Beedrill stops the attack by using Fury Attack onto Weepinbell's vines, hurting it and forcing it to recall its vines back. Weezing then uses Gyro Ball, but Roselia's Petal Dance traps Weezing within a vortex of petals, and when Weepinbell tries to use Slam on Roselia, Beedrill attacks with X-Scissor, sending Weepinbell back. Then, Roselia slams Weezing down with the vortex atop of Weepinbell, and the impact knocks out both Weezing and Weepinbell at once, giving Dwayne and Natalya the victory.

Dwayne and Natalya then demand the Badges back, but Adrian and Adriana refuse and try to run away, only to get clocked on the head by Marowak's bone. Marowak then threatens to attack them with Bone Club if they don't surrender the Badges, and the twins fearfully comply, and throw the Badge case to Natalya. Marowak then fires off an Ice Beam at their feet, and the twins flee while cursing the duo for ruining their chances of competing at the Pokémon League. Natalya walks over to Marowak asking it if it will battle in the Pokémon League by her side. Marowak accepts as Dwayne congratulates Marowak for seeing sense and not abandoning his Trainer. By sunset, Dwayne notices the Indigo Plateau up ahead and begins to run towards it.

After qualifying for the Indigo Plateau Conference, Natalya successfully advanced through her first four matches without losing a single Pokémon, with her fourth victory being against Jade, something that Dwayne found completely surprising. In the fifth round, Natalya and Dwayne once again met in battle, with each Trainer allowed to use three Pokémon each. Natalya chooses Beedrill while Dwayne chooses Wartortle. Beedrill first uses X-Scissor, and Dwayne commands Wartortle to use Water Pulse. Both moves collide and make a powerful explosion, as Beedrill moves straight into Sludge Bomb and Wartortle repels it with Rapid Spin. Natalya then commands Beedrill to use Hyper Beam, as Wartortle dodges. Right before Wartortle can attack, Beedrill uses Double Team. Wartortle looks around for the real Beedrill but cannot point it out. Without any room to dodge, Wartortle is hit with multiple X-Scissors and Sludge Bombs, resulting in massive damage. After pulling himself together, Wartortle is commanded by Dwayne to use Ice Beam, which lands and causes Beedrill to fall down. Natalya then has Beedrill use Double Team again, and Wartortle attempts to avoid any possible attacks with Round, with the powerful sonic waves making all of Beedrill's copies dissipate, before Wartortle knocks it out with a powerful Water Pulse attack.

Natalya recalls Beedrill and sends out Nidoqueen. Dwayne recalls Wartortle and sends out Butterfree. Natalya commands Nidoqueen to use Mega Punch, as Dwayne commands Butterfree to keep Nidoqueen away with Stun Spore. Nidoqueen dodges Butterfree's attack with great speed and lands her attack on Butterfree. Nidoqueen follows up with Double Kick, and Dwayne commands Butterfree to dodge, but Butterfree can't pull it off with Nidoqueen's speed and takes damage from the attack. Dwayne then commands Butterfree's new attack: Silver Wind, which lands and greatly damages Nidoqueen. Natalya then orders Nidoqueen to use Fire Blast, but Butterfree swiftly dodges the attack and knocks out Nidoqueen with Gust, leaving Natalya with only one Pokémon remaining, although Butterfree faints afterwards due to exhaustion. Dwayne and Natalya both recall their Pokémon. Directly after, Natalya chooses Marowak, while Dwayne chooses Pidgeot, and both sides get ready to battle.

Marowak starts out with Smack Down, and makes a direct hit and grounding Pidgeot, which now allows Ground-type attacks to affect him. Marowak then uses Bonemerang, and Valeria commands Pidgeot to dodge. Natalya takes on a surprised look, and Dwayne points out that he and Pidgeot have been doing special speed training. Dwayne then commands Pidgeot to use Aerial Ace, which lands and causes Marowak to take severe damage. Natalya then commands Marowak to go in for multiple Ice Beams. However, Pidgeot dodges them all with grace. Natalya then commands Double-Edge. However, Pidgeot dodges again and uses Gust, which Marowak blocks. Pidgeot then uses a powerful Brave Bird attack which lands and sends Marowak flying back. Marowak gets up, and Dwayne commands Pidgeot to use another Brave Bird. Marowak commands Marowak to catch the Brave Bird and use Bonemerang. After being weakened, Pidgeot is unable to dodge an incoming Ice Beam from Marowak, which knocks him out, evening the score between both Trainers.

Dwayne recalls Pidgeot and sends out Wartortle, who shows his exhaustion from the damage he took earlier in the battle. After giving each other a quick speech of intimidation, Dwayne and Natalya get ready to finish it. Marowak is commanded by Natalya to use Bonemerang while Wartortle is commanded by Dwayne to counter with Rapid Spin. After attacking, Wartortle begins to look like he can't take another attack, right as Marowak prepares for an Ice Beam. However, at that exact moment, Wartortle charges up and learns a brand-new attack: Skull Bash, which pushes through the Ice Beam and makes direct contact with Marowak, knocking him out and giving Dwayne the win allowing him to advance through the tournament.

## **Character**

Natalya is described as a rough and strict Trainer, putting her Pokémon through heavy training regimes, and often relies on her cracking whip to motivate them, although she never truly hits her Pokémon with it, but only the ground beneath their feet. Originally, Dwayne assumed that Natalya was abusing her Pokémon, and even almost engaged in a physical fight with her over this misconception, but after realizing how deeply Natalya cared about Pokémon, and vice-versa, Dwayne realized that Natalya's Pokémon also enjoyed and appreciated the training they were receiving.

Despite seen as serious and level-headed, Natalya can nonetheless allow her emotions to control her, and she show signs of desperation, seen when she had all eight of her Badges stolen by Adrian and Adriana just two weeks before the start of the Indigo Plateau Conference, Natalya was desperate enough to challenge Dwayne for his Badges, despite being well-aware of how hard Dwayne worked to obtain his Badges.

Natalya's skill as a Trainer were nothing to look over, as Natalya managed to advance through the first four preliminary rounds of the Indigo Plateau Conference without losing a single Pokémon, with her first loss being suffered at the hands of Dwayne's Wartortle.

## **Pokémon**

### **On Hand**

Marowak is Natalya's first known Pokémon, as well as her main Pokémon for battle. He was first used as a Cubone during Natalya's battle against Dwayne at Natalya's personal "Gym", where he managed to defeat Dwayne's Pidgeotto and Butterfree with relative ease. He was shown to have evolved shortly before the start of the Indigo Plateau Conference.

Beedrill's known moves are X-Scissor, Fury Attack, Sludge Bomb, Hyper Beam, and Double Team.

Nidoqueen's known moves are Mega Punch, Double Kick, and Fire Blast.

## **Achievements**

### **Badges Obtained**

#### **Kanto Badges**

This listing is of the Badges Natalya has obtained in the Kanto region:

* Cascade Badge
* Thunder Badge
* Marsh Badge
* Soul Badge
* Rainbow Badge
* Boulder Badge
* Soul Badge
* Volcano Badge
* Earth Badge

## **Pokémon League**

Natalya has competed in the following Pokémon League Conferences:

* Indigo Plateau Conference – Top 16