Chapter 2: Battling the arch enemy
The flight to Goldenrod took only a half an hour or so. Riley was glad it only took that long. Being an inexperienced rider, Riley was defiantly not feeling, or looking, her best. As soon as they landed, she sprung off, happy to get the hell off of that thing. Ariados stumbled off her head and landed awkwardly on the ground. He SO did not want to do that again anytime soon.
"So, did you enjoy your flight?" Ren chuckled as he asked, clearly seeing how disrupted Riley was. She decided to fake it anyway.
"Yeah, it was great," Riley said half-heartedly. Ren chuckled again as he said thanks to Dizzy and returned him to his pokeball. Ren motioned for Riley to follow as he walked up to the pokemon center they had just landed in front of. As Ren walked ahead of her, Riley snuck a look at Ren's perfect ass. As soon as she did she felt like a perv but she just couldn't stop staring. Ariados looked up at her as he was walking and this caused her to stop. She wanted more than anything to not look like a pervert in front of him. Ren stopped as soon as they got inside of the center.
"I'm gonna rest my crobat and you can rest ariados. He looks a little winded," Ren said as a smirk appeared on his face. Riley followed him up to counter and gave ariados to the nurse. Ren and Riley went and sat in the waiting room while their pokemon were being fully healed. They sat there for a moment in silence and Riley felt that it was getting a bit awkward. Just as she began to speak, Ren started to talk and Riley cut off her own words.
"Hey, do you have any headache medicine on you. That wind can really be a bitch sometimes." Riley stuttered as she began to talk, "Yeah, I think. Hold on a sec." Riley pulled her bag up onto her lap and began to dig through it. Man, she really needed to clean this thing out. About two minutes later she took her hand out of the bag along with the pills. She handed the small container to Ren and he got a big smile on his face. He downed two pills and said, "Thanks a lot for those. I really didn't want to pay for a whole box when I only needed a couple."
"You're totally welcome! I know how it is to not want to pay for expensive things. I barely have enough money to feed me and my pokemon! I really want to win this gym badge so I can get the prize money. A little fancy livin' for a while will be nice!" Riley chuckled as she thought about all the things she could do with the money.
"So, I'm going for my third badge, how about you?" Riley questioned.
"I have six. I still need mine from Ecruteak and Blackthorn. I heard both those gyms are very challenging and I'm not quite sure I'm ready for them yet." Just as Riley was about to respond, the nurse came over and gave them back their pokemon. Riley and Ren both stood up and thanked the nurse. Ariados walked speedily toward the door as his way of showing he was ready to go…NOW. Riley started toward the door and so did Ren, eager to see his girlfriend again.
"Oh wait! I have to pick up my other pokemon from the PC," exclaimed Riley. She ran over to the PC and within a couple of minutes a pokeball popped out. Riley opened it and out popped a beautiful sandslash. Ariados rushed over to greet the pokemon and in a couple of seconds they were already joking around with each other like old friends. The two pokemon marched out of the pokemon center in a very playful way. Both Ren and Riley laughed.
"I love your pokemon!" said Ren through his laughter. Man, thought Riley. If he would just cut off the r and the word pokemon, Riley would her been in tears from her happiness. She and Ren walked out of the pokemon center and didn't stop until they were right in front of the gym. Riley went through a mental inventory: Super potions, check. Revives, check. Full heals, check. Pokemon (DUH), check. Riley was ready for this battle.
"So, you ready to meet my girlfriend?" Ren said enthusiastically.
"Sure, why not?" Riley sputtered, sarcastically. Riley returned sandslash to his ball and entered the gym with ariados, both full of pride and confidence. Riley didn't think she had ever wanted to win a battle more badly than she wanted to win this. "Game on" Riley thought in her head. She looked down at ariados and he nodded. Riley looked up at Ren and he was smiling hugely. They were like yin and yang, their attitudes completely different. Riley was so focused, she almost didn't notice when something knocked Ren over, but ariados noticed right away, and he was ready for battle. Ren let out a little playful scream and this sent ariados over the edge. He shot a string shot right at Ren. After this little action, Riley grabbed ariados and scolded him not to do it again. As she was yelling at him, Ren stood up, tied to another person. The person was Whitney and she was not happy.
"Ren, who is this, and why did her pokemon attack me?" Whitney said with some attitude.
"I'm really sorry Miss, he just got scared and didn't want Ren to get hurt," Riley sputtered. Ren looked at Riley and her face looked worried.
"Whitney, this is Riley. She is my friend. She needed a ride to Goldenrod to challenge you, so I offered her one on Dizzy. I promise she didn't mean to hurt you." Riley knew that Ren was oblivious to how much she liked him but Whitney definitely was not. She hated Riley the minute she set eyes on her.
"So, she's your friend, is she? Well let's see how strong she is. Let's battle!" Shouted Whitney. Riley was ready, but she was still scared. This girl really hated her. Riley really wanted to win this battle.
Riley and Whitney were positioned on the battle field, ready to fight. Whitney shouted down to the bleachers where Ren was sitting.
"I love you honey! This one's for you!" Ren smiled and said "I love you" back. Riley knew she did that just to get on her nerves, and to mark her territory. Whitney stared back at Riley and gave her a dirty look. Riley held in her hand a single pokeball. The ref called out to start the battle and both trainers threw out their first pokemon. For Riley it was Shu, for Whitney it was clefairy. Riley was quick to make the first move.
"Go Shu! Poison fang!" Shu flew over to the clefairy at the speed of light and quickly shot its fangs into the pokemon. He let go and flew back to Riley. The clefariy stumbled backwards and cringed in effect of the poison. Whitney couldn't even call out a move before Shu was back at it.
"Wing attack!" The pokemon threw its wing forward and it hit the clefariy directly. It fell backward and was knocked out.
"Piece of cake," whispered Riley to herself as she took out Shu's pokeball. She returned him to his ball and yelled for ariados. He jumped onto the field as Whitney threw another pokeball. A big, plump miltank popped onto the field. Riley's face changed. She was feeling a little nervous now.
"That first pokemon was your test. You're good, I'll give you that, but I'm not going down without a fight! I know my miltank has what it takes to beat you!" Whitney yelled across the arena. It was ok, Riley was ready. This time, Whitney went first.
"Zen Headbutt, miltank!" For a fat pokemon, miltank moved fast. Before ariados had a chance to react, he was hit, hard. He flew back but Riley knew he was still fine for battling. He jumped forward as Riley shouted a command.
"Use sucker punch!" Ariados did as he was told. He scurried up to miltank and attacked her. Whitney was ready though.
"Miltank, use body slam!" screamed Whitney. Before ariados had a chance to move back, miltank flew forward and slammed ariados. He went down and Riley knew he wasn't ok. He was knocked out.
"Oh no," said Riley, although not loud enough for Whitney to hear. She called back ariados and whispered "I'm sorry". She moved her hand over her two unused pokeballs. She made her decision quickly and threw the pokeball. Sandslash came out onto the field and looked ready for battle. He looked back at Riley and nodded. Riley nodded back and gave him a command.
"Sandslash, rapid spin!" Sandslash begun to spin around and as soon as he got up to speed, he swerved up to miltank and crashed into her. Riley, more determined than ever, quickly shouted another command.
"Great! Now use dig! You know what to do after that!" Sandslash grunted in approval and dug under the ground. As soon as he was under, he came back up with a lot of force. He grabbed miltank and shot into the air. Miltank didn't know what to do and neither did Whitney. She just stared up in awe. Sandslash pinned miltank down in the air. They came down hard and Miltank had no way of surviving the fall. Riley was the winner, and she knew it. She threw her hands in the air to celebrate. Sandslash jumped up on the platform Riley was standing on and Riley fell to her knees and hugged him. They were both so happy. She and sandslash stepped off the platform and Ren came to congratulate them. Riley was so caught up in her gym battle; she had completely forgotten Ren was watching.
"Great job, guys! It's not easy to win a battle against Whitney, and you made it look easy! You guys should be proud!"
"Yeah, thanks, and I'm very proud of all my pokemon!" Riley sang. Just as Ren was about to talk, Whitney came up to the both of them.
"Good job, Riley. I guess you deserve this badge," Whitney said sarcastically. Riley took the Plain Badge from Whitney and smiled. Sandslash then ripped the badge from Riley's hands and began to hug it. Both Riley and Ren began to laugh while Whitney stood there emotionless, staring at Ren. When they all calmed down, Whitney began to speak to Ren.
"Are you hungry, sweetie? I sure am! Let's so eat!" Ren smiled and said sure, he then turned to Riley.
"Do you want to eat with us? I sure Whitney wouldn't mind making three meals instead of two! Right sweetie?"
"Um, I don't know if we have enough ingredients, sweetie…"
"Oh, it's fine! I promised my pokemon a picnic anyway! So, um, I guess I will see you later?" Both Whitney and Ren nodded and began to walk to the back of the gym where Whitney would make them their lunch. Riley and sandslash walked to the front yard of the gym. Riley had sandslash lay down a blanket to sit on while she let crobat and vaporeon out of their pokeballs. She then pulled out a max revive and used it on ariados. She normally would have just run back over to the pokemon center but all her pokemon were starving and so was she. All her pokemon were sitting nicely on the blanket, waiting for her to take out the food. Riley placed a big bucket of berries in the middle of the blanket and starter to dig for the crackers. All of her pokemon started drooling over the plump, ripe berries.
"Look at you guys!" Riley said while laughing, "Go ahead, eat!" All her pokemon dug in while Riley was still digging. She finally found them and turned her attention toward the pokemon.
"Guys! You already ate half the bucket! That's supposed to last us all week!" Riley gave them all the stink eye but ended up laughing. None of the pokemon could even say anything because their mouths were chalk full of berries with juice running down their faces. Riley forgave them and began to eat. Just as they were finishing up, Ren walked out the door.
"Aww, look how cute you all are!" He cooed. He walked over and sat down next to Riley. She blushed and turned away so Ren wouldn't notice.
"Hey Ren. What are you doing? How did your lunch go with your girlfriend?" Riley said, putting extra emphasis on the word girlfriend.
"It was ok, Whitney was pretty mad at me for hanging out with you though."
"That's just because I'm so pretty," Riley said jokingly. Ren laughed.
"Yeah, that's it! Well, I have to ask you something."
"Ok, shoot."
"Well, what if I went with you?" Ren asked, and Riley was confused.
"I don't know what you mean," Riley stuttered.
"What if I went with you on your pokemon journey?" Ren stuttered too. The question hit Riley hard but she didn't need to think for a while.
"Yeah, of course! But won't Whitney be mad?" Riley asked. Ren sat still for a moment, thinking. He then leaned over to Riley and planted his lips on hers. Riley was so shocked, she didn't even know what to do, and before she knew it, he stopped. He stood up and started to walk away.
"What she doesn't know won't hurt her." Ren said while walking into the gym. Riley laid down on the ground, SO happy. She then realized all her pokemon were staring at her.
"What are you looking at?" She scolded. They all looked away and Riley laughed again. She began to get lost in thought, thinking about her amazing adventures to come.