"I suppose you want to know what badges are," Jon said to Gold, Ruby, and I as we walked into Pewter City.
I always though badges were just colourful pieces of material that humans put on their clothes.
"Every trainer wants to be the greatest in the world," he told us. "But there was no way for the officials to measure how good everyone is without going all over the planet and finding every trainer in the world, if they did, it would take years. So they made what was called the Pokemon League. It's a place where all the greatest trainers go and compete with each other, once a year, over a 14 day period."
Oh, I get it. That's why Jon became a trainer in the first place. But that doesn't explain why he wants some plain old badges.
Jon continued, "But not everybody can enter the Pokemon League. To show that you are strong enough to enter, you have to beat 8 special trainers. To prove that you have beaten those trainers, they give you a special badge!"
So that's what a badge is. Now that I think about it, I remember hearing some Pokemon back at the enclosure talking about it, the Pokemon League.
I never new what they were talking about (of course), but now I get it.
I also remember them talking about how their trainers were going to be so good, that they will get nine badges or ten. One of them even said a hundred, but I'm quite sure they were all exaggerating!
Now that I think about it, I never knew what we would be doing when traveling around.
I guess I always thought we would just be going around, seeing different places.
"And that is why we are here, at Pewter City. This is where the first Gym, a place where you get the badges from, is. The Gym leader's name is Brock. He is the person we have to defeat to get the badge. He trains mostly rock type Pokemon," Jon told us.
Hm, Rock type Pokemon? That could be difficult. Mainly because I'm a normal type and I have a disadvantage.
"We should start training," Jon told us. "If we want to have a good chance at beating him, we should start practicing. Especially you Dusk!"
What?
"Don't worry, I'm joking," Jon said, laughing a bit! "You're doing fine, so are the rest of you."
I'm glad he was joking, because I probably would have bitten him otherwise.
- - -
We started the training in two groups, one group would be two Pokemon battling each other for 5 minutes, and the other one would practice their attacks with Jon helping them. After the 5 minutes were up, we would switch, so we could all face each other. Every three times we did that (that's 15 minutes for you humans); we would take a five minute break, and then start again.
"Okay, I'll be facing Ruby now," Gold said. We switched places; I was practicing with Jon now.
"Okay Dusk, let's try some speed training," Jon said to me. "You can start by doing some laps."
Five minutes passed really quickly, I was surprised. Finally we switched over, I was facing Gold now.
"Think you'll win?" Gold asked.
"Maybe, maybe not," I replied. "You fluked you're win last time, and don't you forget that!"
"Let's test that theory!" Gold said.
We walked to either side of the small grass field we were using, and got ready for the battle.
I noticed for the first time this weird feeling inside of me, deep down, what was that. I focused on it, and for just a moment, it spread though my body, but as quickly as it had come, it disappeared again.
I focused on it again, and it returned. I looked up, Gold was charging me. I was going to dodge out of the way, but he was too close.
No I had to try. I ran to the side, faster then I ever had in my life. How on earth did I do that? That was incredible.
"I didn't know you knew how to use Quick Attack," Gold said, surprised.
"Wait, I used Quick Attack?" I asked. He nodded. I had no idea I could do that. "How did I do that," I asked myself.
"I had trouble figuring out how I used it when I first got it too," Gold answered. "To do it, you have to tap into the energy inside of you. Can you feel it inside of you?" I nodded. "You just focus on it, and then sprint forwards," he said.
I focused on that power inside of me. "You mean like this?" I asked, using my new power and crashing into him. He was knocked into a nearby tree.
"Hey, I was showing you how to use it!" he complained.
"Let me remind you that we are still battling," I replied cheekily.
"I guess," he said.
He got back up, and we continued battling. Even with the Quick Attack, my newest power, he still managed to defeat me. The final blow was dealt as he used his Quick Attack and slammed into my side, throwing me to the ground. I wanted to get back up and continue fighting, but it hurt so much, I didn't want to continue.
"I give up, you win," I said to him.
"Guess it wasn't a fluke after all!" He said, smirking.
We practiced for a while longer, and finally, we left, ready for the Gym. "Nice work, you guys!" Jon said to us. "You all did great!"
I was a bit glad to stop training. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, and I learned a new move, but it gets boring fast!
I looked around the city, it seemed quite bland. Although there was colour here and there, it just made the grey of all the stone stand out even more. Although it did seem a tiny bit poetic, in a sad way.
Finally we got to the Gym; it was made of rock, like almost every single thing in this city. On a big sign at the top were some more of those human symbols. They were really confusing. I looked inside the glass doors, but I couldn't see much.
"Boulder badge, here we come," Jon said enthusiastically.