Disclaimer-I don't own Pokémon. If I did, I would explode with Pokémon related joy.
Zed entered through the gym lobby. He had to get past a series of challenges to reach the gym leader. Penny and Daniel entered through different doors, and all three found that they were standing in the middle of a maze. The gym challenges had to be hard, as gym badges were a sign of a great trainer.
Zed began running down the wall of the maze. He was running down a long corridor, when a rumbling noise began behind him. He turned around, curious as to what was making the sound. A massive boulder was coming up behind him! Taking a deep breath, Zed began to sprint down the corridor. The gym challenges had been known to be fraught with danger. Many a time had someone gotten a broken leg, or a fractured arm. Zed hoped he wouldn't be one of those sad people who had to go back to the Pokémon Centre empty handed, holding his arm in an awkward position. Those were the type of trainers who would be amazed by getting one badge, but that wasn't Zed. He was going to be the best. The very best. Like no one ever was. To catch them was his real test, but to TRAIN them?; that was his cause. He would show everyone. Show Gary that you didn't have to have a famous granddad to be great at pokémon training. Show the whole Kanto region that the small town of Pallet was not to be looked down upon. People from big cities like Saffron or Celadon laughed at people when they said they came from Pallet Town, thinking that it meant that they were stupid. But Zed would prove them all wrong. In 3 years, the Indigo Plateau would be held. It was a competition to see who the best pokémon trainer in the world was. Pokémon trainers from all four regions gathered to test their strength. The requirements were that you had to have eight badges from the region you came from. A trainer from Kanto hadn't won in 100 years, and Zed vowed to be the trainer to end that poke-drought. It was for these reasons that Zed needed to get past this gym.
Zed outran the boulder, and he came across a hole in the floor. He leapt it without thought, and as the boulder came through, it fell down the hole. Zed was safe! He rounded a corner, and came across a gym trainer. The gym trainer immediately sent out a poke ball, leading to Zed sending out his Charmander. The guy had a Cranidos out, and Zed knew that this would be a tough battle.
"Charmander, Ember then Scratch!" Zed shouted. Charmander spat small flames at the Cranidos, but then something strange happened. Instead of using Scratch, Charmander's claws glowed shiny silver for a second, then slashed down at the Cranidos. Instead of not harming the Cranidos, like Scratch usually did, Cranidos was thrown into a wall, unconscious. "Amazing" commented Zed. "Charmander learnt Metal Claw!"
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Daniel had gotten past the boulder and the first trainer. His Treeko had gotten rid of it very easily. For Daniel, this gym badge meant something differently to what it meant to Zed. For Daniel, it was to prove that a geeky kid who spent his time poring over books could succeed in the rough world of pokémon training. It was also to prove that a kid from a broken home could be just as successful as a kid who came from a fixed home. Daniel had been raised by only his mother, and when he asked where his father was, or even who he was, his mother had quickly changed the subject and muttered "It wasn't my fault. I didn't know..."
Daniel's first love was actually studying pokémon, not battling them. But, he reminded himself, it would be interesting to observe pokémon relations with their trainers.
Daniel came across another gym trainer. The trainer sent out a Geodude wordlessly. Daniel smirked, sending out his trusty Treeko. "Treeko, Absorb" Daniel shyly said. Treeko gained all of its opponent's energy by using Absorb. Since Geodude had a double weakness to Treeko's grass type moves, the Geodude fell to the ground before it could even attack. Daniel moved on, a little closer to the gym leader.
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Penny had beaten two of the gym trainers, beaten the boulder, and evaded a rock slide. She was determined to reach the end and destroy the gym leader for the badge! Like Daniel and Zed, Penny had something to prove. She wanted to prove that women were just as good as men at pokémon training. Women were looked down upon for pokémon training, as the sexist idiots at the Pokémon League thought that girls were too 'fragile' for the rough life of a trainer( Authors Note: These are not my own views. I thought it would be interesting to Penny's character for everyone to believe she's some kind of scared little girl, when she's a massively arrogant badass. If you're a girl, and you're watching this, don't kill me. Please. I have a family...). Penny would show those pigs that just because you were a girl, it didn't mean that you couldn't be tough.
Penny came across the final trainer in the maze. He was covering the exit to the long line of trainers waiting to challenge the gym leader. The trainer sent out a Sandshrew, which wasn't even a rock type, since this was a rock type gym, but Penny didn't care. She would still win.
"Piplup, destroy this mofo" Penny shrieked. Piplup came out of the ball, looking feisty and ready to battle. "Piplup, use Bubble!" Piplup ran up to the Sandshrew and blew Bubbles in its face. Sandshrew fell back, hurt but conscious.
"Sandshrew, Sand-Attack!" the trainer shouted.
"Piplup, dodge and then use Bubble once more!" Piplup dodged the Sand-Attack by flipping over it, then released small, transparent Bubbles at Sandshrew. Sandshrew collapsed, defeated.
"Congratulations, trainer. Go on and face the gym leader" the trainer congratulated. Penny made her way into the queue to face the gym leader, seeing that Daniel was ahead in the queue, with Zed even farther ahead. They were ready for their first gym battle.
So, Zed, Daniel, and Penny are all ready to face the Pewter City gym. Will they win? How will Zed overcome his challenge of using a fire type in a rock type gym? Find out in the next chapter! Review if you're enjoying the story! Next chapter should be up soon!
