Gotta finish this chapter by four P.M. lol. I've never done it before. Well, yeah I have actually. Whatever.
Onto chapter ... something.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Short and sweet and to the point.
Gym Battle
"May?" Brendan asked, not crossing the threshold from the warm, outside world to the cold, rocky, kind of creepy world that was the rock-type gym. "... Do I really have to do this?"
May sighed, crossing her arms and staring at the whimpering boy standing next to her. "Stop being a baby," she muttered with an eye roll. "I mean, you don't have to or anything, but I thought you wanted to complete in the League, so eventually you're going to have to. Might as well get it over with now instead of building up your nerves later. Besides," she poked Brendan in the arm, giggling, "I thought boy trainers were better than girl trainers."
"And they are," Brendan replied arrogantly, scowling.
"Oh, really?" May wasn't convinced. She put her hands behind her back and started to pace around Brendan, slowly circling around him and evaluating his stiff, quivering form. "Hmm, I don't see a gym badge anywhere on you. And yet ..." She stood in front of Brendan and gestured toward the strap of her fanny pack. "Yet I have one. And," she put a hand to her lips, her mouth forming an "o" shape, "look! I am of the female specimen."
"You're just going to rub that in my face until I get a badge, aren't you?" Brendan murmured with a sigh.
May nodded. "Well, not literally. I think you'd enjoy that." She winked as Brendan rolled his eyes again. Shaking her head, she walked into the gym, swinging her hips. "Come one, B Boy!"
Grumbling, Brendan shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants and kicked at the dirt, trudging into the gym, his mudkip following after him. The glass doors swished behind him, making him shiver as the cold brushed against the bare nape of his neck. As he stepped further inside, he was glad to see that the rest of the gym was lit, barely, but still enough to not make him quiver. Golden light basked the rocky terrain of the battlefield, making the tall, pointy rocks on the field cast shadows.
Brendan hadn't really been inside an actual gym before. Well, he had, but not as a trainer, but a curious schoolboy on a field trip. He remembered that day well and how he eagerly pushed his way past his bigger schoolmates toward the front where the Rustboro gym leader was battling his opposing trainer. He remembered gripping the cold metal of the bar that separated the battlefield from the audience, his eyes wide. Well, now it was his turn. It was his turn to shine. It was his turn to get his first badge.
"You know," he said out loud more to himself than the wide eyed mudkip next to him, "the old Rustboro gym leader retired along with the Petalburg one. So I'm kind of curious about who took over ..."
Hesitantly, he stepped onto the rocky battlefield and entered the trainer box in front of him, a drawn on white square made out of chalk.
Brendan then looked down as his mudkip pawed at his leg. "So, now what?" the mudkip asked curiously, bright orange eyes blinking twice.
Brendan shrugged in reply, his eyes sweeping the field in front of him, eventually reaching the other trainer box. Empty. "I don't know. Are we suppose to ring a bell, or something? And where did May go?" His eyes traveled toward the left where a single metal bench was – a place where curious audience members could sit – yet no one was there.
Then, suddenly, a bright, white light from above shone on the confused trainer, making him shield his eyes with an open palm. Squinting, he looked forward again and could barely make out the black silhouette that made its way to the other trainer box. The new gym leader was curvy, yet pretty short, so Brendan assumed it was a girl, and a young one at that. As the lights dimmed down, or his eyes got adjusted to the brightness, the details of the gym leader became much more clearer. Long, brown hair trailed down toward the small of her back and tied back with a red ribbon. She wore a school uniform, gray yet short, though she hid her legs with red tights.
The white-haired trainer scratched his head as he looked at the girl gym leader who smirked, pulling out a pokéball from behind her back. This girl looked familiar ... but from where?
"Brendan Birch, huh?" said the girl gym leader, looking up from the pokéball grasped in her hand. Her brown eyes flashed dangerously in the light of the gym. "I remember you." She then laughed a bit, putting her hands on her hips. "Do you remember me?"
That laugh. That voice. It was all coming back to Brendan in a flood of suppressed memories that he desperately wanted to forget. There she was, in all her smug glory, taunting her with that cackly laugh of hers. It irritated him.
Now, this wouldn't be the first time Brendan encountered Roxanne. In fact, much to his dismay, he known her for quite some time. Roxanne never liked leaving Brendan alone back when the two went to pokémon trainer school together. Being four years older than him, she believed that gave her the right to pick on the poor boy constantly, shoving him in lockers, pulling down his pants, stealing the cupcakes from his lunch, and so on, constantly humiliating him and making him run home, teary eyed. And every time, after she was done bullying him, she would pat him on the head and coo in his face, calling him a "cute little boy."
Shaking his head as if it would rid him of the memories, Brendan grumbled, "Oh, yeah," in response, crossing his arms. "No one can forget you, Roxanne. You called me cute. No one calls me cute." He glared at the gym leader in front of him, his eyes narrowing. "No one."
A laugh to the side caught his attention, and he snapped his head to the left where May was sitting. She must have sat down when he was lost in his thoughts, thinking of all the horrible things Roxanne did to him back in school. "Oh, come on, Brendan." She snorted, wiping at her nose, a grin on her face. "You should take these compliments while you can. Like anyone else is ever going to call you cute again."
Brendan flushed in embarrassment a bit, but he shook his head, ignoring the girl trainer's comment. "Ignore her," he muttered, addressing Roxanne. "She's crazy. Let's get this battle started already!"
Roxanne merely nodded, throwing up the pokéball in her hand a few times while a judge, clad in a simple red sweater and black slacks, strolled over toward the side of the field to evaluate the battle. He began to explain the rules. "Both trainer will use two pokémon each. No time limit. The challenger can switch pokémon at anytime while the gym leader cannot." He looked at Roxanne first, and then Brendan, before nodding, moving his arms down in a sweeping motion to commence the battle. "Begin!"
"Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, let's play!" Roxanne cried out. "Geodude, let's do it!" She threw the pokéball in her hand, and the ball spiraled, hitting the ground hard. White light burst from the ball, revealing a geodude beating his buff, gray stone fists into each other before lifting his rugged, round body off the ground, his black eyes glowering coldly at Brendan.
Brendan was startled. The jump from horrific school memories to horrific gym battle was so fast, he didn't really have enough time to calm down and think. This was his first gym battle after all, and like hell was he going to lose, especially against that she-devil named Roxanne.
Yet he couldn't find back his nerves, beautiflies beating against his stomach. He touched a pokéball on his belt, his lips trembling. What to do, what to do ...
A tug at the bottom of his pants caught his attention, and the boy looked down, noticing his mudkip biting his pants and pulling at them. Spitting the cloth out of his mouth, he remarked, "Well, do something. Send a pokémon out." He slapped his tail against his small body, smiling smugly. "Like me, for example."
Brendan looked from his cocky mudkip to the pokéball his fingers were pressed against. He plucked said ball from his belt and enlarged it, holding it to his chin. "Let's try Sapphire first okay, Muddy?"
"Stop calling me that." Mudkip snorted and scowled, turning his head away. "Fine. But you do remember you just caught her, and uh, she can't use electric moves, right?"
"Exactly. Electric moves won't do me any good against rock types," Brendan replied back, reeling his arm back. "All right, Sapphire, let's do it!"
The boy trainer threw the ball in his hand toward the field. Like Roxanne's, the ball spiraled in a blur of red and white before hitting the ground, releasing Brendan's newly caught pokémon, a confused lanturn, her beacon dimly lit and crackling as her red eyes swept over the battlefield. She then wiggled a bit, trying to move, but only succeeded in rocking back and forth.
"Oh, and did I forget to mention that lanturns can't really move outside of water?" remarked the mudkip in a sarcastic tone, shaking his head.
Brendan rubbed the back of his neck nervously, picking up sweat. "We'll just have to do this fast. I mean, she has water moves, and from what I remember, water is good against rock. So ..." Pointing at the field, he ordered, "Sapphire, Water Gun!"
Sapphire coughed a bit, her body shaking as she opened her mouth, revealing a row of white teeth. Her eyes narrowed a bit in concentration, yet nothing came out. Again, Sapphire closed her mouth, shook a bit, and then opened her mouth, a thin stream of water beelining for the geodude. The rock type merely blinked as the small jet of water hit him in between the eyes. While the water irritated him, it wasn't strong enough to really damage him, let alone knock him out.
Roxanne clicked her tongue in disappointment. "Latias, this is going to be easy," she muttered to herself. "Let's make this even more annoying to them. Use Block!"
Geodude nodded and rolled over toward a few large boulders. Using his strong arms, he picked up a few of the boulders and hurled them toward Sapphire. Sapphire cringed, awaiting the rocks to hit her, but they never did, landing behind her instead. Brendan could barely see Sapphire over the towering boulders as much as he tried – he probably couldn't even return her mid-battle if he needed to.
"You should have sent out meee ..." remarked Mudkip in a sing song voice.
"Shut up," muttered Brendan. He then scratched his forehead, looking at Sapphire and then the smirking girl gym leader in front of him. "Why do you think her Water Gun was weak, Muddy?"
"Stop calling me that. And I don't know. Again, I'm not your pokédex. But ..." The mudkip's eyes went back and forth in his sockets. "Remember how Sapphire kind of shocked you when you fed her chocolate and I went on a ramble about maybe she can attack better if she knows she has someone behind her that cares for her?"
"... Wasn't that ramble about things allergic to chocolate not being happy because ... of something?"
"Well, yeah. But the underlying message was whatever I said earlier. Maybe you should feed her chocolate; show her you care still."
Brendan shrugged. "Worth a shot." He waved at the judge, catching his attention. "Am I allowed to use items?"
The judge looked at Roxanne, and she shrugged back in return. "Well, technically you can, but most trainers don't tend to use items when their pokémon hasn't gotten hurt yet."
"Oh, it's not a potion or anything like that." Brendan stepped over the white chalky line of his trainer box, swinging his bag around and unzipping the front pocket. He pulled out the same plastic bag from earlier, causing the judge, Roxanne and May to look at him, confused. Was that ... chocolate?
The white-haired trainer got on his knees and put a comforting hand on the quivering lanturn's body, bending over while rubbing her back soothingly. He put her head next to his while whispering something, his hands pulling out one of the brown chocolate balls from the plastic bag. He fed her one, and the lanturn chewed it happily, her beacon crackling in delight
Roxanne watched as the boy jumped back a bit, shocked by one of the lanturn's zaps of electricity, but he merely grinned, rubbing her back one more time before standing up, walking back to his trainer box. "Hmm ... Maybe there's something more than just an annoying brat after all," she said quietly to herself, an odd, new found respect for the young trainer.
"All right, Sapphire! Let's try this again!" Brendan cheered, pumping a fist in the air. "Water Gun!"
Sapphire nodded firmly, the beacon in front of her face covering her eyes as she inhale deeply, her cheeks puffing out. She exhaled a powerful jet of water so mighty that it sent her skidding back. The attack hit the geodude head on, making him skid back, water dripping down his body. He tried to protect himself by thrusting his arms in front of his face, but he ended up toppling over. He groaned, pushing himself up, gasping for breath.
"Geodude, Rock Throw!" commanded Roxanne, gritting her teeth.
Brendan thought quickly, invigorated by the battle. "Supersonic, Sapphire!"
Geodude rolled over toward another pile of large rocks and heaved one above his head as Sapphire opened her mouth, a high-pitched squeal coming out of it. The sound waves engulfed the rock, and he cringed at the squeals, dropping the rock on his head and dazing him out. With swirls in his eyes, the geodude began to rock back and forth on his rugged body.
"Water Gun again, Sapphire!"
Sapphire blew up her cheeks again, exhaling a cold stream of water, sending the geodude flying backward into the wall behind Roxanne. He landed on the floor with a thump, his eyes clenched shut, sitting in a puddle of water.
"Geodude is unable to battle!" declared the judge, raising his right hand.
"Geodude, return!" Roxanne turned around and recalled her fallen pokémon inside his ball, whispering words of praise into it. "This battle needs more excitement." She switched balls behind her back. "Let's beat 'em, Nosepass!" She threw the ball toward the battlefield, and the ball split open, revealing a stout, oval-shaped boulder, his eyes closed and a huge, red nose smack in the middle of his face. He had stubby legs and arms and looked hardly able to move, let alone battle.
Brendan smirked, examining the opposing pokémon in front of him. "You would think that after how I mowed down your geodude, you wouldn't send someone that wasn't just plainly a rock."
Roxanne simply waved off Brendan's comment with a motion of her hand. "Don't be so sure," she remarked, a small smirk tugging at her lips. "Nosepass, Mud Slap attack!"
"What?" Brendan cried in shock, but it was too late. Nosepass cried out his name and dug his foot into the ground, flicking chunks of earth toward the wide eyes lanturn. She closed her eyes, skidding back a bit, the hard chunks of earth hitting all over body. She cried out in pain, mud caking itself on her rubbery body until the attack stopped, the lanturn on her side and wiggling about, trying to swing herself upright. The wiggling soon became slight twitching and then nothing.
"Lanturn is unable to battle!" announced the judge, raising his left hand this time.
"Sapphire, you did awesome!" said Brendan with a smile, returning his fallen lanturn into her ball. He then minimized her ball and looked at the other two pokémon he could use. "Well, Poochyena is pretty fast, but I don't think his attacks would do any good against something as hard and tough as that nosepass ... And, well, Mudkip doesn't have water moves."
A tug at his pants caught his attention again, and Brendan looked down, noticing an impatient glare on his starter's face. "What?" he muttered, shifting his foot to pull his pants out of the mudkip's mouth.
"Use meee," the mudkip whined. "I can do ittt."
"You don't have water movesss ..." replied the trainer in the same whiny, singsong tone. "You wouldn't be able to do anythinggg."
"Ahem," coughed the mudkip. "There's a reason why the word 'mud' is in my name."
Brendan slapped his forehead, an idea enlightening him. "That's right. Ground attacks are good against rock types. Well, okay then. Let's do it!" He pointed to the battlefield as the mudkip scurried onto the rocky terrain, standing a few feet away from the dull-eyed nosepass. He snarled, beating his tail against the ground, but the nosepass wasn't fazed mostly because the mudkip looked more cute than threatening.
"All right. Let's try Mud Slap!" ordered Brendan.
Mudkip cried his name as he turned around, waving his behind at closed eyes of the nosepass, kicking his hind legs into the air. He then put both his hind legs into the ground and kicked backward, sending upturned dirt and pebbles toward the nosepass. Dust and mud coated the nosepass, making him cringe, but he stood his ground.
"You can do it, Nosepass! Use Rock Throw!" Roxanne commanded.
Nosepass totted over toward a pile of rocks that were luckily stacked up near him, taking one up in his stubby arms. He squinted, his eyes watering because of the pebbles and dirt that embedded itself in them, and he could barely make out the blue form of the mudkip. He heaved the rock above his head and threw it at the mudkip, but the mudkip quickly stepped out of the way, dodging it. Again, the nosepass took another rock and threw it at the mudkip, but he missed again.
"I guess that last attack lowered his accuracy," Brendan muttered out loud, rubbing his chin. "Let's do it, Mudkip! Mud Slap again!"
Mudkip turned around and sprayed dirt across the pained nosepass. The nosepass toppled a bit but regained his balance, trying to rub at his watery eyes with his stubby arms.
Roxanne snarled a bit, clenching her fists. "Nosepass, Rock Throw again!"
"Hop on top of the rocks and tackle him down!" countered Brendan quickly.
As the nosepass slowly made his way toward a farther pile of rocks, Mudkip ran ahead, his body low to the ground. He jumped on the pile of stones way before the nosepass made it to the pile, and jumped down, flying at him, both of their hard heads conking together. Mudkip landed on all four feet as both pokémon stumbled around in a daze, the nosepass toppling over, his legs flailing about. The flailing soon stopped though, and the judge bent over a bit, noticing the x's in the nosepass' eyes.
"Roxanne's nosepass is unable to battle!" announced the judge. "The challenger wins!"
"Hmm ..." Roxanne returned her pokémon in a beam of red light and sighed a bit, putting her hands on her hips, watching as Brendan ran onto the battlefield and scooped up his mudkip in his arms, spinning him around. "He certainly has grown up from that puny eight year old boy I used to know."
Shaking her head, Roxanne fished inside her pocket while walking onto the battlefield where the boy trainer and his pokémon were celebrating. "I'm sorry to interrupt your cheer fest, but I believe this is yours," she said, making the boy stop spinning to look at her. She extended her arm, Brendan doing the same, and she dropped the stone badge in his open hand, the gold tint of the rectangular badge reflecting in the light of the gym.
Brendan held up the gym badge in awe, seeing his wide eyes in the badge's reflections. "Wow ..." he said in awe. "My first badge ..." He then began to dance in place as the mudkip in his arms shouted in delight as well. "This just kicks ... butt!"
Roxanne laughed a bit, putting her hands on her hips. "It was nice to see you again, Brendan Birch. You're going to make a fine pokémon trainer. And don't forget," at this, Roxanne reached out and ruffled Brendan's hair much to his dismay, "you'll always be a cute little boy to me."
Brendan swatted at her arm but missed as Roxanne turned around and walked away, laughing to herself. Sighing to himself, he spun around and walked toward the exit, the golden sunlight that flooded through the glass doors comforting. The doors swished open, the warm wind engulfing him in welcome, and the boy looked back and forth, wondering what to do next. He then turned around, peering into the dark gym. Empty.
"Ugh, did May ditch me –" Something jumped on his back at that moment, wrapping its arms around him, making the poor boy freak out. He let out a loud yelp and dropped the mudkip in his arms, turning his head left and right to try to look at the perpetrator on his back. "Ah – May! What the?"
May still clung on his back like a monkey, her arms wrapped around his shoulders as she swung her legs back and forth. "Surprise?" she said sheepishly, smiling innocently as Brendan stared at her, bewildered. She pressed the tip of her nose against the nape of his neck, making him shudder a bit. "Hmm ... You smell kind of nice."
He flushed a bit at the compliment but quickly responded with a sharp, "Whatever." Brendan pulled the girl off him, making her stand on her own two feet. "Well, now what?"
May looked up and around, gazing at the buildings that towered over them. "Well, why not explore Rustboro for a bit since we're here? We're in no rush." She then watched as a man dressed in red and black that bumped into Brendan earlier ran down the street, a businessman dressed in a gray suit, his thin, brown hair wild, chasing after him.
"Hey! Stop! Help! Thief!" the man in the business suit cried, waving his arms in the air. "Someone stop him!"
"That was the guy that I helped ... and the guy that I battled," May observed, gazing into the distance where the two ran. "Hmm ... I think he stole something again."
"No, really?" Brendan replied sarcastically. "The clue 'thief' sure didn't help me figure that out. Come on. Let's go after them!" He began to chase after the two, his clothes flapping behind him in the wind, his mudkip on his heels.
May simply sighed, not bothering to follow, and walked toward a steel railing, leaning against it, her gloved hands wrapping around the cold metal. "I hope that boy knows what he's doing."
That chapter seemed hard to write lol. Oh well.
LaTeR dAyZ!
Last Revision: 04/11/09
