Chapter 12 is here, as is the battle against Roark, the once teen, still first gym leader of Sinnoh! (although Jake could've gone in any order, he decided to follow the footsteps of his mother.) So, review time -

Thanks, John! I'm glad you are enjoying this story, I've put a lot of time and effort into it, and here's the next chapter for you, since you were so eager to read it!

Chapter 12: Roark

The rest of that day passed quickly, with Jake training Phoebe and Demi in order to take down the gym leader Roark. He had figured out that Demi knew mega drain, poison sting, magical leaf and grass whistle whilst Phoebe only knew tackle, wish, tail whip and sand attack, a clearly underwhelming move set, but one that Jake was determined to make work, so… How did his battle go? Let's find out...

Jake woke up early the next day, ready to face off against the gym leader.

"Alright, Phoebe… I say we just sneak out and take him whilst it's still early." He whispered into the ear of his kit making it awaken with a saddened cry. "I know, I know it's early… so I won't make you walk alongside me if you don't want to, there's always the luxury ball."

He said as he pushed himself into the sitting position and then to stand on the floor.

"So, what is it? The Luxury ball or walking?" He asked, offering the black ball to the young fox who replied by nuzzling Jake's leg. "you want to walk, then? Fine... you can walk with me." This comment made the eevee kit smile and chase her tail in pure happiness. "now, Phoebe, let's get us a gym badge." he grinned at his companion and started to make his way outside until he felt Phoebe bite his trouser leg and pull it away from the door.

"Phoebe? What's wrong? Oh… I get it.. we need member three, don't we? I guess I can try making up with Chloe…"

"Hey, Chloe? Are you in?" Jake asked, knocking on Chloe's bedroom door. "Chloe?" he heard a groan and a shout from within as the blonde opened the door.

"What?"

"uhh… I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I've been a jerk these past couple days… but what you said, about me not having human friends? That was uncalled for." Jake conceded, bowing his head and making the blonde laugh.

"Jake, it's fine. If anyone was at fault it was Senju. But… why did you have to wake me up so early?"

"I… I woke you early because I need a favour doing…" he started "remember before we got to hearthome I said that I wanted to borrow Nyx for the Roark battle? Well… could I borrow Nyx?" he finished.

"you came to apologise just so you could have a pokemon to fight with? Okay. Sure. You can borrow Nyx." Chloe answered, "but, I've got to be allowed to watch the battle."

"but that defeats the entire purpose of waking up early so I'd be the only person there." he sighed, "alright, you can come. But don't distract me." He resigned, clearly needing the blonde's pokèmon.

"Just let me get myself dressed and sorted, then we can go, alright?"

"Yeah, whatever. Just be quick. I want to get this battle done as soon as possible."

Ten minutes later, Chloe was ready to go.

"Finally done?" Jake asked, seeing the blonde out of the corner of his eye.

"Yes, Jake. I'm finally done getting dressed. So… where's the gym?"

"The gym is in the old coal mine in the South-East of town. At least that's what the Nurse says."

"The old coal mine? It's a good job I didn't do anything special today, isn't it?"
"What? You don't usually wear makeup or do your hair, do you?" Jake asked, confused with Chloe's statement.

"Uhh… That's a fair point, I don't wear makeup, but I could've done something special for the occasion of your first gym battle."
"Yeah, well... don't. I'm glad you're just wearing your normal clothes."

"Uhh… Thanks?"

"Don't mention it. Now, battle time. Phoebe, get in your luxury ball, please. I'll call you out when I need you."

"Vee…" The Eevee bowed her head as she was enveloped by the red light of the luxury ball.

Around twenty minutes later, the duo had arrived at the old mine, which Jake was given the task of going through to get to the arena.

"This is where we split up, I suppose. You get to go to the stands, and I'm stuck… over here. Going through the mine with Nyx."

"Farewell, Jake. Good luck."

He nodded and put on one of the hanging helmets, ready to explore the cave.

Jake delved into the cave, all he could see was black. Black to the left, black to the right, black to the floor and black to the ceiling. He was essentially blind, to wander through the low caverns with Nyx. It confused Jake, the gym being underground. Surely it should be above ground, as the battles were meant to get intense. But, on the other hand, it was only the first gym. Maybe they expected the trainers not to have pokemon capable of destroying boulders yet. The surroundings terrified him, and it wasn't helped by the fact that Nyx would occasionally send swarms of Zubat or a charging Rampardos at the trainer.

"Nyx, stop that now. You're scaring me." He sighed, looking around to see the Zorua laughing at Jake.

Eventually, Jake saw the cavern open and brighten up, and, much to his relief, also saw a strong red head sat, facing away from the trainer.

"Welcome, child. To the Oreburgh gym. I am gym leader Roark."

"Hi. I heard you take battle challenges?"

"Now, now. There's no need to be so scared." The ginger said, standing up and facing Jake.

"Right… Of course, there isn't… Roark, I challenge you to single combat!" Jake called, standing straight and grabbing Demi's poke ball.

"I accept your challenge. Geodude, round one is on you!"

"Demi, let's rock these guys!"

The two trainers threw their poke balls, releasing their two pokemon and prompting an announcer to speak

"Let the battle between Roark the gym leader and Jake the challenger… Begin!"

"Okay, Demi, mega-drain!" The thorn pokemon curtsied then lime orbs flew off of the Geodude and into the assailant, sapping the rock of its energy.

"Geodude, are you okay?" The ginger called to the rock monster, it groaned in response. "That's a no, then… use a stealth rock, geodude!" The rock pokemon threw some rocks at Jake, surrounding him from all sides with dark grey monoliths.

"I don't need to switch my pokemon, I can beat you using only Demeter!" He boasted, causing Demeter to look back at Jake and frown. "Now, Demeter, use magical leaf!" glowing leaves materialised around the Roselia and flew into the geodude, knocking it out.

"Good work, kid. But that's not going to work against fighter number two - Onix, you're out!"

The rock snake roared as it materialised from the red light cast by the poke ball.

"Another rock/ground type? Come on, Roark, you can do better…" Jake muttered, brimming with confidence. This confidence, however, wasn't shared with the Roselia who started to back away from the monster. "You'll be alright, Demi… just do your best. I know that's all you'll need." He feebly attempted to reassure the Roselia who gave Jake a weak smile. "Good girl, Demi… Now, let's start this off with a grass whistle!"

The Roselia put her rose bushes(leaves? petals?) to her mouth and started to create a sweet melody, calming the intimidating snake and causing it to start to sleep.

"Onix, don't fall for it! Use a rock throw!" Roark called, snapping the rock pokemon from its trance and making it materialise a rock to fly into Demeter, throwing her against a wall of the arena.

"Okay, Demi… use magical leaf!" Jake called, with a couple of glowing leaves appearing at Demeter's side and jamming into the Onix's sides.

"Alright, Onix, use tackle!" The snake roared and rammed itself into the wall Demi was stood in front of, creating an imprint in the wall.

"Okay, Demi… That's enough." the teen recalled the damaged Roselia with a sigh.

I shouldn't have been so over-confident in her… I knew she was scared...

"Alright, Nyx, are you ready?" The black fox jumped out from the shadows behind Jake, a devilish smile on her face, which was broken by the rocks surrounding Jake stabbing into the little fox "Alright, Nyx, open it up with a… umm…"

"Onix, rock throw!" Roark commands, taking advantage of Jake's hesitance, almost throwing the Zorua at the arena's wall. Almost. Fortunately, Nyx had jumped onto the rock, vaulted off of it and started to repeatedly scratch the Onix.

"Yeah, continue using fury swipes!" Jake shouted as if he knew what Nyx was going to do all along. Unfortunately, however, the fury swipes attack was nothing but a distraction to the Onix

"Onix, use tackle again, on the wall!" Roark commanded, hoping to get the Zorua off of the monster, to no avail. Eventually, the Onix fell, giving the advantage to Jake.

"Good work, Nyx. There's one left, so you've just gotta keep this up!"

"Okay… Aerodactyl, it's your turn!" the ginger threw a poke ball and the great grey pterosaur shrieked as it appeared into the world.

"An… Aerodactyl? I thought you had a Cranidos!" Jake shouted in confusion.

"Yes, well, I've been told that I need to shake it up, so… yeah… Aerodactyl, wing attack!" The pterosaur swooped down on the Zorua who attempted to attack its wings… which, as anyone with half a brain cell, would figure out wouldn't go well. A giant monster with a rock for skin, using its rocky wings to smash into a small fox… bye, bye fox… And that's kinda how it went… The Zorua managed to damage the pterosaur's wing but… not by much. It actually got Nyx hurt more as she was carried away and thrown off into a wall.

"Alright, Nyx... that's enough. You can go and sit with Chloe…"

That leaves me with just Phoebe… He gritted his teeth and threw the luxury ball out for the Eevee to be released.

"Okay, Phoebe, be careful. Don't try to be a hero…" Jake called, getting a nod from the Eevee.

"Alright, Aerodactyl, use another wing attack, let's finish this easy!" Roark called, the fossil pokemon once again swooping down. However, instead of attacking the underside of the wings…

"Phoebe, try to jump on it! Over its wings, on its head, any way possible!" Jake called as it came down to the Eevee who ducked beneath it. "Come on, Phoebe… I know you can do this!" The Aerodactyl came down once more and Phoebe jumped over the edge of the damaged wing, landing on its carapace.

"Nice work, Jake… I knew you'd have some of your Mother's wit, but… that's all you've got!" Roark shouted, pointing upwards towards the top of the Arena. The Aerodactyl, understanding the message, flew straight upwards in order to crush the kit.

"Okay… come on, Jake… think, think…"

Wait… Demi could still fight. She wouldn't like it, but if I can get it to sleep…

Jake grinned and withdrew Phoebe.

"I'm sorry, dems but…" He threw the ball out, the beat up thorn pokemon curtseying as she entered the battlefield. "Dems, I'm sorry about this. Still, use grass whistle!" The Roselia started sobbing and blew into her leaves, calming and actually putting the Aerodactyl to sleep.

"Yes! Use mega drain, Demi!" The Roselia smiled and started to sap the pterosaur's energy, and revitalising her own. "Okay, magical leaf!" Many multicoloured leaves appear around the Roselia and stabbed the Aerodactyl with them until it woke up.

"Check mate, young Jake. You fought Valiantly, but… Aerodactyl, wing attack!" That attack finally knocked out the resilient Roselia, leaving Jake with only Phoebe.

"Okay, Phoebe… just keep away…" Jake called, releasing the Eevee, it getting stabbed once again by the stones.

"Aerodactyl, fire fang." Roark called, putting his bag back on, thinking the battle was won.

"Phoebe, on its head! Try not to get hit!" Jake called, the Eevee jumping away from the flaming maw and then jumping immediately back onto the Aerodactyl. "Now, Phoebe, use its own momentum against it, bite its horn and ram it into the wall!" Phoebe bit one of the Aerodactyl's horns and pulled it to the side, slamming it straight into the wall and leaving Phoebe victorious.

"Phoebe! Good work, girl!" Jake shouted, running over to the kit, as the Aerodactyl is recalled to its ball.

"You did good, kid… very, very good… you've earnt this, kid. You've earnt this…" Roark resigned, handing Jake the small brown and silver badge and bowing his head. "Well, I guess you'll be off now. I'll see you around. I hope." Roark said with a sigh.

"Y-Yeah. I'd like to fight you again one day, when you're not holding back, and when I'm much stronger…" Jake acknowledged with a sheepish grin.

He left the old mine and met back up with Chloe and Nyx.

"Uhh… Hey, Chloe. Sorry Nyx got so beat up." Jake apologised, scratching the back of his head.

"No, not at all. I think Nyx had some of the most fun she's had in awhile back in there. So don't apologise." Chloe reconciled, her point being backed up by the Zorua nodding and smiling at Jake. "So, you've got to face the gym in Eterna, next, right?"

"Yeah, I think I should find another pokemon on the way there so that I don't need to use Nyx again. I didn't even know what moves she had."

"Fine… so, what pokemon are you going to try to get next?"

"What am I trying to get next? That… is a good question indeed… I think I should get a Murkrow? Or a starly? One of the two, both could help when it comes to defeating both maylene and Gardenia when I get to fight them…" He answered as he pulled out a map to study it. "The quickest way to Eterna and the way to get a flying type is probably through Eterna Forest." He noted, creating a false trail with his finger across the map.

"Jake, why did you go through that entire trail, that way? It would be much easier to just go up that path there. It's practically direct." Chloe countered, drawing a line up the region's cycling road.

"Well, that's because it requires a bicycle to go up, I don't have a bicycle, they're expensive to rent out and, in case you haven't noticed, I'm dirt poor. So… I'm not going to be able to hire any. Sorry." He admitted showing Chloe his nearly empty wallet.

"Fine, you win. This is going to take a while then, isn't it?"

"It is, but you signed onto this willingly, you can back out if you want."

"Hah! Are you kidding me? This is the most fun I've had in an age! Well, minus the whole kidnapping fiasco." she proclaimed with a laugh, as she started to walk back towards the pokemon center, pulling Jake along by his hand "Well, let's meet back up with Alex and Senju, then… head off."

"Do you really want to just leave this place? Why don't we just spend the rest of today relaxing, instead? And Tomorrow. Then we will head out." He proposed, getting a smile from Chloe.

"Really? I can relax for today?"

"Uhh.. of course, you can, I'm not entirely cruel. I would've actually stayed in hearthome for a while, but Alex didn't want us to. But I wouldn't want to stick around if I thought I was going to be hunted down. If just for the safety of you lot rather than myself." He admitted. "Oh, look, the Pokemon centre!" Jake ran forward to the centre and met up with Alex back in their room, before proudly describing the heated battle between he and Roark.

So, first gym beat! who was thrown off by Roark using an Aerodactyl over his Cranidos he usually has. Roark does actually have an Aerodactyl, and I just thought I'd shake it up a bit! Also, here reviewers decide what happens. Does Jake get a Starly(as his mother did) or does he get a Murkrow? The decision is all yours and you've got two weeks before I ultimately decide. I'll see you next week for an exciting adventure in Jubilife!