Kaia and her pokemon stood in front of the gym. Kaia took a a breath in, and walked through the doors.
The gym looked like a cafe or restaurant. Kaia looked around in amazement. Were all gyms like this? Or did each of them have a specific theme to them? As Kaia was looking around, a waiter with green hair and a green bow tie walked up to her.
"How may I help you?"
Kaia was not expecting him to come up behind her, so she jumped a little. She starred at him and he smiled nervously. Kaia cleared her throat and looked the waiter in the eye.
"I think I would like the Battle Special."
As Kaia said this, she glanced back at her pokemon. The waiter smiled, crossed his arms, and put his hand on his chin. He closed his eyes, and it looked like he was thinking.
"...Yes, Battle Special... I like that!" He then put his hands on his hips. "Follow me."
Kaia followed him past all the other customers, and further into the back of the cafe. As they were walking, Kaia glanced behind her at Etain, who was carrying Nereus on his back.
We can do this, right Etain?
"Growl lithe lithe growl."
Kaia laughed softly. Of course they could do this. It was just a gym for a silly little badge. It's not like it was for the control of a kingdom. She could relax a little more with this battle.
She was led down some stairs to a battle field. The field was on the lower level, while there was a spectating area up above. One side of the battlefield was empty, and the other side had two men that were dressed like waiters. The waiter that had led Kaia to the battlefield walked over and joined them, and Kaia took her place at the other side of the battlefield.
"So you are a gym leader?"
He nodded.
"Yes. My brothers and I are the three gym leaders of the Striation Gym. My name's Cilan, and these are Chili and Cress."
Chili was the one with red hair, and Cress was the one with blue hair. Kaia nodded to each of them. Once that was done, Cilan nodded and continued.
"Now, if you could tell me, trainer, what starter pokemon did you pick?"
Kaia was about to respond, when Nereus jumped out in front of her. Kaia nodded down at the pokemon.
"As you can see, I picked oshawott, and my name is Kaia. Not trainer."
Cilan nodded and said, "It looks like you will be facing me then. I specialize in grass type pokemon."
Chili and Cress took a few steps back, and Cilan took a step forward. He fixed his bow tie and took his place at the battlefield. He grabbed a pokeball and let a pokemon out. It was a little tan puppy with a black back.
Kaia looked at the puppy.
So his first pokemon is a lillipup? Nereus can handle this battle, and then Etain can take care of the grass pokemon.
Kaia looked down at Nereus, and the water pokemon understood that he was to battle first. He stepped out onto the battlefield, ready to start. Chili and Cress moved to the side of the battlefield.
"We'll act as the referees," said Cress, "The rules are simple: only the challenger is allowed to switch pokemon, and it is a two on two battle. Whoever has the most pokemon left at the end wins."
"Now let the battle begin!" said Chili while pumping his fist in the air.
Cilan smiled and said, "Use Bite!"
The small dog ran toward Nereus and was about to bite him.
"Dodge!"
Nereus was not fast enough and got hit by the lillipup. The oshawott flew back, and hit the ground. Kaia looked at her pokemon in worry.
"Nereus! Get up!"
The oshawott slowly got up and looked ready to fight. Kaia smirked.
"Good. Now use Water Gun!"
Nereus nodded and hit the lillipup with the move. The small pup was pushed back, and took damage from the water attack.
"Water Gun again!" said Kaia, "Then follow up with a Tackle!"
Nereus nodded and used Water Gun again, and when the lillipup was on the ground, the oshawott used Tackle. The lillipup was knocked back again, and was close to bing knocked out.
"Use Bite!" shouted Cilan, "Don't give up yet!"
His lillipup got up and nodded. He ran toward Nereus and bite the oshawott. With that bite, Nereus got a little weaker and lost a little energy.
"Nereus, use Water Gun! He has almost no energy left!"
The oshawott turned to Kaia and nodded. He then turned back around and used the water type move again. The lillipup got thrown back again, and this time, it couldn't get back up.
Chilli and Cress looked at lillipup. Cress raised a flag toward Kaia.
"Lillipup is unable to battle," he said.
"That means the challenger is the winner!" said Chilli. Cress looked at Kaia.
"Challenger Kaia, would you like to substitute pokemon?"
Kaia nodded. Since the next pokemon would be a grass type, it would make sense for Etain to go out to face it. Kaia looked at her partner.
It is finally your turn.
"Go Etain!" said Kaia. Etain nodded and stepped out onto the battlefield, and Cilan sent out his pansage.
"Go Sage!"
Once Etain saw his opponent, fire started surrounding his mouth, showing that he was ready to fight. Kaia crossed her arms and smirked.
I am going to give you commands like this when I am battling with you. The opponent will not know what they will be attacked with.
Etain looked back at Kaia and nodded. He then faced the pansage again.
Cilan took this chance of them doing nothing to get ready.
"Sage, use Work Up!"
Once the pansage used the move, it looked like he was jumping around a lot more. It was like he just got super energized. Kaia saw that Etain was starting to get a little antsy. As if he were a little worried for what was to come. Kaia smirked.
Is my little baby growlithe too scared to fight? Maybe I should put Nereus back in. Although he is the one that has the type disadvantage, he might have a chance to win. Oh well, I guess my toughened up growlithe is too scared. Apparently, Ransei did nothing for us.
Etain looked at Kaia and growled. He then turned back around and barked.
"Sage, use Work Up again!" said Cilan. This could work very nicely for him. Because Kaia and her growlithe were stalling, he could set up and raise Sage's attack the pansage's ineffective grass type move could do a lot of damage.
Kaia saw what was happening and saw she had to take charge of the situation and knock out the pansage.
Etain, use Flame Wheel.
The growlithe started running towards the pansage, and then started rolling toward it as he generated fire around him. Etain hit the pansage, and almost knocked it out. The pansage flew back, getting dirt and scratches on him. Cilan looked at Kaia in surprise. Was she allowing Etain to do whatever he wanted? Or was there something more?
It looks like we have them confused. Good. Now Etain, use Fire Fang!
Fire formed around Etain's jaws. He ran and bit the pansage, causing more damage and making Sage faint. Cilan had tried to tell his pokemon to dodge, but Etain came too fast. There was not a chance for Sage to get out of the way. Dust was thrown up, making little clouds that hid if Sage fainted or not.
Once the dust cleared, it was revealed that Sage had fainted. Cress nodded.
"Sage is unable to battle. Etain wins."
"And that means Challenger Kaia is the winner!" said Chili.
Cilan nodded and looked at his pokemon.
"Sage, return."
The pansage was surrounded by a red light and was sucked into the pokeball. Cilan then walked over to Kaia. He was holding something shiny in his hand. When he was in front of Kaia, his brothers joined him.
"This is the Trio Badge, proof that you have beaten the gym," said Cilan, "Gym Badges are a proof of a Trainer's abilities. If you have one Badge, Pokémon, including traded Pokémon up to Lv. 20, will obey you without question. We also want you to have this. TM83 contains Work Up. If you use Work Up, the Pokémon's Attack and Sp. Atk go up! By the way, TMs can be used as many times as you want."
Kaia nodded and took the badge and smiled. She then looked at Etain.
Our first badge! We did it!
Etain nodded and barked happily. Kaia bent down and picked Nereus up off the ground.
"Good job Nereus, you did great out there."
"Osha!"
The trio of gym leaders looked at each other. Chil smiled kindly.
"I know that fire types can get temperamental and are a little hard to train, but I know you'll get the hang of it."
Kaia blinked. She didn't know why he was saying that. She knew fire types were hard to train. She trained Etain for as long as she could remember. She even hatched him from an egg.
"I do not understand why you are telling me this," said Kaia with uncertainty in her voice, "I know that fire types are temperamental. I raised Etain."
The three gym leaders looked at each other. If this trainer had raised her pokemon for a really long time, then why did it attack without her saying anything?
"Then why did you let Etain attack like that?" asked Cilan.
"You were just letting him attack!" said Chili.
"So you three cannot communicate with your pokemon like that?" asked Kaia, "What a shame. I thought that at least gym leaders would be able to do that."
The three gym leaders looked down at their monkeys. Kaia smiled.
"It was fun to battle you Cilan. I think I did a good job for my first gym battle, huh?"
With that, Kaia walked out of the gym, leaving the three gym leaders to look at her in shock. What was she? If she could have that great of a bond with her growlithe before even the first gym battle, what else was she capable of?
Yes! Short chapter! I know. I just didn't really have any time to write. It's getting to the end of the year, and AP exams are coming up. I'll do my best to update at least two more times this month, but no promises. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!