Chapter 4 – The Trio badge part 1
"Hello," the Striation Pokémon Centre receptionist said, smiling at the pair of them, "How can I help you today?"
"We'd like to, um, have a battle with the gym leader," Brendan said, glancing at Cheren as he spoke. Cheren had told him that, in Unova, one couldn't just waltz into a gym, and instead trainers had to book a time with the local Pokémon Centre, but the rookie trainer seemed to have lost his tongue, and so Brendan hoped he was right.
"Do you have any time in particular you would like?" the receptionist asked, beginning to type away at a computer.
"Well," Brendan said, "We both want to battle, and I guess as soon as possible."
"I can book one of you in for 11:40, and the other in for 4:00."
Brendan looked at his watch. It had just gone 9:00.
"You wanna go first?" Brendan asked his fellow trainer. Cheren jumped. He was already becoming visably nervous at the prospect of his first match.
"Not really." He said.
"I'll go first," Brendan said, grinning.
"Alright, well I'll just need your name."
"Its Cheren." Brendan lied. Cheren would thank him later.
"I wish you hadn't done that." Cheren said, as the pair of them stood outside Striation City's Pokémon Gym.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Brendan asked, "It looks like a café."
"It is a café," Cheren said, "But it's the gym as well. Look, the logo's right there."
"The gym has a logo?"
"Course," Cheren said, as though it would be strange for a gym not to.
The pair of them walked up some steps and pushed the glass doors open, entering a sort of lobby. An usher stood beside a wooden door, and he smiled as the pair approached.
"May I help you?"
"Uh, we're here for a gym battle?" Cheren said, when Brendan made no move to speak.
"Uh…" the usher looked down his list, "Are you Samuel?"
"No,"
"Mitchel?"
"No, I'm-"
"You aren't Jessica are you?"
"Cheren!" he said, before the usher could go on.
"That would have been my next guess."
"I thought we had a booking," Brendan said, "How come there are so many trainers waiting?"
The usher smiled.
"We run through trainers… quickly. Now, Cheren, you come through, and are you going to view?"
Brendan blinked. "What? Watch Cheren? Na,"
"You aren't going to watch me?" Cheren asked.
"No, you'll be fine." Brendan told him, "I wouldn't want to steal your strategy. We'll meet up at the Pokémon Centre at lunch, okay?"
"Right." Cheren said, walking through the wooden doors. Brendan gave him the thumbs up, and walked out.
Once he was in the sun again, Brendan looked around and figured he might as well head back into the forest. True, the sights of Striation City beckoned, but he could get a lot of training done in the last few hours before a gym challenge. He also could use a third Pokémon, just in case this gym was strict on the policy of three-on-three battles. But, he figured, for all he knew gyms in Unova might only have one-on-one, or host weird battles where you used three Pokémon at once. Brendan sniggered at the thought. How could a trainer keep track of three Pokémon?
His thoughts were interrupted when a cart next to him, containing a huge selection of rare berries, exploded. Different colours flew everywhere, as tiny pebble-like objects showered nearby pedestrians. Then, a much bigger something, coloured blue, leapt from the rubble and hit the ground hard.
"What is that?" Brendan laughed as the Pokémon rose to its feet. It was blue, roughly human in shape, and nearly as tall as Brendan was. But by the time Brendan was pulling out his Pokédex, the Pokémon was running, scooping up berries and sprinting from the furious salesman.
Sawk: The karate Pokémon. Like most fighting types, Sawk love to train its body, but it will become violent if it's training is interrupted. It lives in the mountains, crushing stone and chopping trees to ready itself for an encounter with Throh.
"If it lives in the mountains, what's it doing here?" Brendan wondered as the fighting type rounded a corner and disappeared.
"That Sawk comes round every day!" the salesman was yelling to no one in particular.
"Does it have a trainer?" Brendan asked him.
"What? Huh? Oh, uh, no, we don't think so. Once I tried to capture it, and the poke ball worked but it broke free and crushed it."
"Sawk crushed the poke ball?"
"Yea, and I'm not a trainer. I can't weaken it and I'm not spending cash buying poke balls when I'm already losing profits."
"Is it alright if I capture it?" Brendan asked.
"Go nuts." The cart's owner told him, so Brendan strode off after the karate Pokémon. Although tracking Pokémon in their natural environment was hard, Brendan had lots of practise, and the city was by no means Sawk's natural environment. After a few minutes of walking, Brendan came across a park, in the corner of which was a cluster of trees. That looked promising. Brendan crossed the grassy slope, and reached the pseudo-forest, immediately encountering an Unfezant, which lifted its feathers and screeched at him.
"I'm getting sick of you guys," Brendan said, making a mock charge at the flying type, which retreated. Then Brendan looked around: the trees were silent, aside from the occasional call.
"Sawk!" Brendan shouted, "If you're here, my name's Brendan. I'm a Pokémon Trainer. I've trained lots of Pokémon before, and lots of fighting types, and I know that you shouldn't be living here."
Brendan paused. He felt a little foolish, but he knew what was important for fighting types, and if he succeeded he could land an awesome Pokémon. If he failed he could lose Sawk forever.
"I'm not talking about the park, that doesn't matter," Brendan said, "You need Pokémon to fight. You need to train. So, I want you to come with me, Sawk. I want to take you away from here, and train you to your potential, and to prove it, I want to capture you, and I want to battle you myself." Brendan pulled off his backpack and placed it on the floor. Then he pulled the two balls from his belt, and dropped them in the bag.
"I wanna fight you on my own, with no Pokémon. Do you think you can take me?"
For a moment nothing happened. Then Sawk dropped from a tree and raised its hands. It had accepted Brendan's offer. Brendan raised his owns hands, and Sawk ran forward.
Although it seemed stupid, Brendan hoped that years of training alongside other fighting types had taught him enough to take down this one. And if he could beat Sawk in melee combat, he knew that he would win its trust.
Sawk ran toward James much faster than the human expected, and leapt over his head. As he flew overhead, Sawk smacked Brendan lightly across the shoulders, then when it landed the fighting type fell to the floor and swung its legs, knocking Brendan's knees out from under him. The human fell to the ground as the Pokémon rose to its feet, and waited for its opponent to rise. In the leaves, Brendan groaned, then kicked Sawk in the leg. The Pokémon flinched, taken by surprise, which gave Brendan the opportunity to rise to his knees, grab Sawk's arm, and throw him to the ground. Brendan rose to his feet and backed off.
"Come on Sawk, stop holding back," Brendan told it, "If you do that on my team I'm not going to be able to use you. Come at me,"
Sawk leapt at Brendan, its fist glowing. It was using Rock Smash. Brendan chopped Sawk in the face and leapt aside. Sawk turned and sprang back, swinging its feet and hitting Brendan twice with a Double Kick. Brendan felt completely winded, and let out a massive exhale, but he didn't want to give up and Sawk was already coming back at him. Brendan reached down and grabbed a fallen branch, and brought it up to block.
"Come on, you gotta adapt!" Brendan told it, swinging the branch and smashing Sawk over the head. The rotten wood exploded, releasing a few Durant. Brendan kicked leaves at Sawk, but the fighting type simply leapt through the cloud, tackling Brendan to the ground and restraining him.
"Okay, okay!" Brendan laughed, "I surrender."
Sawk stepped off him and sat back in the leaves. Brendan sat up and reached for his bag, which was only a short distance away.
"I think you might have broken something," Brendan told it, smiling. "But, have you decided? Do you wanna join me?"
Sawk seemed to think for a moment, before nodding. Brendan rummaged through his bag, and pulled out a Great Ball.
"Now let's go get a badge."