There was so much to see in Castelia City. It seemed like every street was another shopping mall or apartment complex. There were window shops and sidewalk chalk and guys selling hot dogs and peanuts and cold drinks on the side of the road. We always traveled in a crowd because there was no where else to go and it was hard to fight through the crowd when we wanted to stop and gaze a window display. Everything was beautiful and new, I wanted to live here when I grew up.
The gym in Castelia City was the smallest one yet. It was iron grey and was painted to look like boulders had crashed into the sides. I was confused why it was so small until we went inside and realized why. The building led down into a mineshaft meaning the whole gym was underground and before us stood a small mine elevator ready to take us down below. I think it was pretty obvious what kind of gym this was.
After checking in with the man at the front desk and registering our trainer IDs Anita climbed into the mine elevator first. Mason and I went in second and I slid closed the door. Slowly we began to sink below the surface down into darkness. At first there was no light then lights began to appear on the sides and illuminate the walls. I could see cracked dirt and fossils along the walls as well as poles leading up to the surface. So far this ranked as my least favorite gym.
When the elevator stopped we'd reached a metal platform suspended over the rest of the mineshaft. We had to walk down a flight of metal stairs that made loud noises as it hit our boots and some of the miners stopped to look at us. I saw different Pokemon working in the mine too like Geodude and Roggenrola. It was pretty cool that people got to use there Pokemon at work and maybe get some training in as well.
It didn't take us long to find the actual gym. It was close to where we'd gotten out of the elevator and it was marked by the league symbol above a stone archway. Anita stode in first, looking confident and was immediately greeted by a young man in a grey jumpsuit. The patch on his left chest read Diggy.
"Welcome challengers," said Diggy the gym leader. "I hope y'all like my gym. Let's cut right to the chase. Who wants to battle me first?"
Of course Anita volunteered to go first and Mason and I sat on the bleachers to watch her match. Anita for the first time ever actually made a smart move although probably by accident. She sent out the brussel sprout or Imi as she was actually called which was a grass type. Grass was strong against rock which meant Anita actually had the upper hand.
"Alrighty then youngster," Diggy said. "Go Iggy!"
Diggy sent out a Graveler named Iggy. Apparently just like Anita, he was really bad at naming Pokemon.
Imi was actually winning. I couldn't believe this, and the worst part was, it wasn't even Anita who was getting frustrated with the match, it was Diggy. He started to scream at Iggy and call him names just as I had seem Anita do to all of her Pokemon. I'll admit, Anita had no technique at all. She just kept ordering Imi to use razor blade over and over again and it worked. Iggy was getting tired out. He was too slow to dodge everything. Finally with one last hit, the Graveler keeled over and dropped like well, a stone. My mouth dropped.
"Yes! I won!" Anita screeched. "I won I won I won!"
I stared at her with disbelief. Sure I guess the odds were that eventually Anita would win something but I'd thought it would happen after she was a little kinder to her Pokemon. Then the worst part happened, the brussel sprout began to glow.
"Not again," I said.
"Budews evolve when they are happy," Mason said as we watched the brussel sprout begin to grow. "If it's trainer is happy then it is happy."
The Budew stopped changing and the glowing light cleared revealing a small flower Pokemon. It was a Roselia and actually really pretty. I was a little bummed I couldn't make fun of it anymore.
"Yes!" Anita beamed. "A Roselia! This is the best day ever!"
Diggy came over and he was grinning.
"What's your name again?" He asked. "Wow you're the best trainer I've ever battled against. If only there we're more trainers just like you Anita," Diggy said.
Right then and there I really wanted to punch something. Anita didn't deserve to be called the best trainer. If only he knew how horribly she treated her Pokemon.
"Take this," Diggy said and handed her a small brown and black badge. "It's called the Cave Badge," he explained.
Anita beamed and pinned it to her own jacket but on the outside so that everyone could see it. It made me want to blurt out that I already had two.
"Who's next?" Diggy asked and I volunteered.
My choice of Pokemon was obvious. Bellamy sprung from his Pokeball full of life and twirled his tail around. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Anita sitting with Imi and she was no longer in her Pokeball. The match began and Diggy sent out a huge massive Pokemon called an Onix. I almost screamed when I saw how big it was. There was no was this was as fair as beating a Graveler.
Bellamy proved to be a lot stronger than his size. Since he was a water Pokemon that could walk on land he shot loads of water guns straight at the Onix which severely weakened him. The match turned out to be not as much as a challenge as I had first thought. Soon I was shaking hands with Diggy as he handed over another gym badge. I was waiting for the same approval as he gave Anita but he just nodded his head and grimaced like I had just barely passed my algebra test. I wanted to kick over of those rocks.
Next up was Mason but he looked worried. I'd been so caught up in thinking about my own battle I hadn't stopped to think about why. Sure Juno was a water type like Bellamy, but she couldn't fight on land, there was no way.
"Maybe I should back out now," Mason said nervously. "I shouldn't force Juno to battle on land, it could be bad for her."
"I could let you borrow one of my Pokemon," I said.
"You would?" Mason asked, looking relieved. "Who can I borrow?"
"Chloe," I said.
Bellamy would be tired out from battling Onix, it was better I sent out a Pokemon that was full of energy like Chloe.
"No way," Mason shook his head. "Chloe's an electric type which means she'll do next to nothing against a rock type. I think I'm stuck either way."
"What's the hold up?" Diggy called. He was waiting below on the battle arena.
"Anita we need to borrow Skipper," I said frantically.
Anita frowned. "So you've finally realized how tough he is and want to take him from me?"
I shook my head. "No Anita, Mason needs him so he can get his gym badge, he can't battle with Juno because there's no water for her to swim in."
"Fine if you have to put it that way," Anita said and reached for her bag. She handed Mason Skipper's Pokeball and he took it gratefully.
Mason was ready for battle though I was still a little worried. He had never battled with Skipper before not to mention the fact that Skipper was no where near as powerful as Juno. Mason might not be able to adjust.
Diggy sent out a very an unstable looking Roggenrola. He tendered forward and Skipper growled at it, knocking it backwards. This was our lucky day. Then the Roggenrola started to use moves I didn't think we possible, Skipper was starting to loose hope. He bit and scratched at the other Pokemon but it's hard shell was almost impenetrable. Mason was going to loose.
"Skipper dig with your paws and let the dirt hit the other Pokemon," Mason instructed. Not once did he lose his cool.
I watched as miraculously, Skipper began to dig into the dirt and as he did so sharp stones began to fly at the Roggenrola. Taken by surprise the Roggenrola took some serious damage.
"Skipper use bite one more time," Mason said.
It worked, the Roggenrola collapsed and the match went to Mason and Skipper. Anita and I cheered but for different reasons. She immediately went down and retrieved her Pokemon. I couldn't believe our luck. All three of us had won a badge today on our first try. It was a miracle.
Mason treated us for lunch to thank Anita for letting him borrow Skipper. We went to a pizzeria since there was one on just about every street corner and ordered three Castelia style slices of cheese as well as pizza flavored Pokemon food since Pokemon were invited to dine at this restaurant as well as people. That's when my day really took a wrong turn.
"Don't look now but there's someone in the booth next to us," I muttered to Anita.
Of course Anita looked. There was Violet, sitting across the table with a man in a very expensive suit, her father probably. I ducked as I saw Anita tap her shoulder.
"You!" I heard Violet saw as she whipped her head around.
I couldn't believe Violet was here at this very pizzeria at same time we were. This was insane.
"What are you doing here?" Anita asked. "I thought you already had four gym badges."
"I do," Violet sniffed. "But I came back for another."
"You lost to Diggy the first time you were here didn't you," Anita scoffed.
Slowly I sat up. Violet losing to someone was almost unheard of.
"That is none of your buisness," Violet said and spun around, letting her black hair hit Anita in the face.
"Let me see your Pokemon," Anita begged and reached over the booth to grab one of Violet's Pokeballs.
"Don't touch them," Violet said, slapping Anita's hand away. I didn't blame her, I probably would have done the same. "But if you insist." she said pridefully.
I watched as Violet let out all four of her Pokemon including one very large one, a Liapard, the evolved form of her starter Pokemon Purrloin. There stood three very rare Pokemon, a Totodile, a Torchic and a Snivy as well as a massive purple tiger Pokemon. Violet hadn't been bluffing after all and it made my gut filled with loathing and jealousy.
"I'm guessing you don't have any rare Pokemon with you," Violet said as she stroked her Liapard Andromeda's head.
Anita was silent for a moment then retorted.
"All of my Pokemon have evolved."
Violet sneered. "I don't care about evolution," she said. "I am a Pokemon collector which means I'm going to collect the best and rarest Pokemon only to preserve and train. I only accept the best Pokemon on my team not some run of the mill kind you find in the woods. Let me guess, you've got a bird Pokemon, a bug Pokemon and a normal type Pokemon.
"Wrong," Anita said.
"Actually she's right," I said quietly.
"No she's not Penny," Anita snapped. "Imi is a grass type not a bug type."
Violet snickered. "I thought so."
"Sweetheart be nice," said Violet's father patiently.
"How about a Pokemon battle?" Violet challenged.
"You're on," Anita replied.
Oh brother, I thought. Anita was going down.
