The sight of Goldenrod City was a huge change from what the group had become accustomed to. The city was the largest on in the Johto region and was a bustling metropolis. The crowds and noise of the city was a bit much for Adrian, who was used to the quiet of Cherrygrove City. Chance, however, felt right at home. He was used to the intensity of Nimbasa City. He preferred to the solitude of the forests around the town, but at times being able to lose yourself within the noise of the crowds helped him get away from the stresses of life. He was feeling that today.

As they walked into the large city, they admired the skyscrapers that loomed above. Once they were within the city the tops of the buildings almost blocked out the sky from their view. Chance soon noticed that Adrian was acting a little odd.

"Hey, Adrian, you feeling alright? You look a bit off…" The redhead asked his friend.

"I- I'm fine. Just feeling a bit claustrophobic, I guess." Adrian replied with a blush. "I've never been in a city this large before. The largest city I have ever visited before was Violet City…"

"Really?" Cassandra asked with a bit of surprise on her face. "I come to Goldenrod like once a week, at least. Well, at least before I started my adventure. It's a really great place to explore!"

"Yeah, I grew up in a city that was a bit like this one." Chance explained. "It felt overwhelming at times, but I was always able to get lost in the city and let my mind escape when I needed it… It really isn't that bad once you get used to it." He rested his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I guess… Everything just feels like it is closing in. I have never seen this many people." His eyes darted around as he spoke. Cassandra grabbed his hand and began to trot ahead, dragging him with her.

"Come on, I have an idea!" She said with a smile. "There is a park up ahead. It's small, but it will give you a chance to gather your thoughts where it is a bit quieter."

The group hurried forward, weaving through the crowd as best they could. At one point a passerby bumped into Chance and almost knocked snivy off his shoulder, but she was able to grab his shirt and swing back up, showing how nimble and graceful she was.

They soon found themselves in a small clearing surrounded by a few trees, a tiny pond in the middle. The park was scarcely populated, only a few people with their children or pokemon. Adrian walked over to the small pond and plopped down on the grass, laying back to look at the sky.

"See, this feels better." He said with a sigh. His redheaded companion joined him in the grass.

"Just take a minute to breathe and relax, but once you feel better we gotta keep moving. We can't sit here forever or you two will never get to face off against Whitney!" Cassandra said with a small frown.

"Don't worry, Cassandra. He will be fine in a minute." Chance smiled down at the boy beside him, who responded in kind.

They remained in the relative peace of the park for about half an hour before starting to make their way through the large city once more. Adrian kept close to Chance while they walked, finding a bit of comfort in the fact that his friend was near. They quickly weaved through the city, using Cassandra as a guide to locate the Goldenrod gym.

It took roughly half an hour to get out of the busy shopping district of the city and locate the gym. The outside of which looked rather plain, which was fitting for the normal-type gym. They rushed towards the gym the moment it was in sight, however, they were met with instant disappointment. Plastered across the door was a notice from the gym leader. The notice informed the group that the gym leader was currently away from the gym and would be gone for about two weeks.

"Two weeks?!" Cassandra groaned loudly. "I can't wait that long… I have things to do." She sighed.

"Well, does it say when it was posted?" Adrian asked. "For all we know she could be back tomorrow…"

"The note doesn't say…" Chance mumbled while reading over his friend's shoulder. "What should we do?"

"Well, I don't want to be rude… But I can't just sit around for two weeks waiting for you guys… I have a lot of training to do if I want to be ready for the Silver Conference." Cassandra looked at the ground as she spoke, attempting to hide the guilt in her eyes.

"Hey, we understand." Chance said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We understand it doesn't help you to hang out in a city you've already conquered."

"Yeah! No problem at all. If you want to continue without us we can always catch back up at the Silver Conference." Adrian said with a smile.

"Are you guys sure? I feel like kind of a jerk…" Her frown deepened.

"We promise. It's no big deal. If you don't do what is best for you then you will doubt yourself if you don't do well at the league." Adrian explained. "Go ahead. Go train." He said with a smile.

"Alright…" She said slowly. She finally turned her gaze back up, and was met with a smile from both of her friends. She gave a quick nod. "Right! Alright! You two better not disappoint me though! You both better make it to the conference! I am headed to Olivine City, maybe we will see each other soon if Whitney returns quickly."

"Count on it." Chance grinned. "We don't plan to get left too far in the dust."

"Yeah, you better take every chance to train that you can get now. We are coming for ya once we hit the league, Cassandra." Adrian said with a smirk.

"Cassie." The blonde replied.

"What?" Both boys said with a bit of a dumbfounded looked.

"My friends call me Cassie, so get used to it." As she spoke she walked past the boys, waving over her shoulder to them. They had made their promise to meet again at the Silver Conference, and she was going to make sure that they both had to earn a victory against her.

The boys looked at each other for a moment, both smiling a bit.

"Well then… Now what?" The blonde asked slowly.

"Well," Chance said, scratching snivy's chin. "I guess the first thing we do is try and figure out how long Whitney has been gone. Right?"

"Yeah, sounds like a plan. Think the pokemon center will know?"

"We have as good of a chance of finding out anything from Nurse Joy as we do anyone else. Let's try it." The small group made their way a few blocks over towards the pokemon center, where they quickly learned that Whitney had left about two days ago, however, the last time she had left the gym she was gone for twice as long as her note said. The news hit hard for the boys, as it was a large roadblock for their journey. They were unsure if they should continue, skipping the gym for now, or try and wait around for a few days to see if the gym leader would return early.

"Man… Two weeks. Maybe even longer. How is it fair for a gym leader to just disappear for that long?!" The blonde yelled, venting his frustration.

"Hey, don't worry. Nurse Joy said she could also be back any day. We can hang out for a few days and get some more training in. With how strong everyone keeps saying she is, the extra training couldn't hurt us, right?" The redhead replied, trying to reassure his friend.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He sighed. "Besides, it wouldn't be bad to stay in one spot and relax a little for a few days. Getting through that forest was tougher than I thought. My whole body aches still…"

"So, what I am hearing is that we need a beach day?" The redhead grinned. He was met with a puzzled stare. "Come on, we saw the ocean in the distance when we entered the city. We can go check into a hotel and go relax on the beach for the day."

"Ya know, that really doesn't sound like a bad idea. Let's do it!" The blonde smiled back at his friend.

The boys made quick work of locating a hotel to stay at for a few days, choosing one that was about halfway between the gym and the ocean, allowing them the ability to check the gym daily without a huge walk, but also spend a decent amount of the next few days on the beach. Once they got to their room they immediately changed and headed out towards the beach for a relaxing afternoon.

Once they reached the beach they found a relatively unpopulated area to release their pokemon to relax, minus onix who was too large to comfortably spend time on the beach. Adrian's tentacool was loving the chance to swim around in the ocean with its trainer. Adrian also took some time between swimming to practice with his elekid, who still had not been able to produce an electric attack.

Chance spent much of his time hiding under an umbrella that had been set up on the beach for guests, hiding his pale skin from the sun's rays. When he wasn't hiding from the sun and watching snivy sunbathe he spent some time swimming with Adrian and tentacool. It was while he was in the water that he spotted something glimmering under the surface.

"Hey, do you see that?" He questioned his friend, nodding his head towards the reflection from below.

"Yeah." The blonde nodded. "It looks kind of like a gem stone. Maybe it's a pearl or something. Want tentacool to go check it out?"

"It isn't too deep here, we can go check it out ourselves, really." The redhead instantly dove below the surface. He was followed quickly by his companion and tentacool.

They swam straight down for a moment, and about halfway down Chance could clearly make out what the reflection was coming from. A staryu was laying in the sandy ocean floor below them. Chance quickly motioned for his friend to surface so they could speak.

"I want it!" He said as they surfaced. He was met with a laugh from his friend.

"Yeah? And how do you plan to catch it way down there?" Adrian laughed.

"I can get snivy to pull it up and throw it towards the beach. If hoothoot and tentacool can help us keep it corralled until snivy gets back to the beach we should be fine."

"Well, I am willing to try it if you are. Let's get snivy out here." The boys nodded at each other and put their plan into action.

Within minutes Chance was swimming above the staryu with snivy standing atop his head. Hoothoot, tentacool, and Adrian were closer to the beach, but still in the water, waiting to help keep staryu in the shallow water.

"Alright, snivy. Go ahead and use vine whip to grab staryu and reel it in!" Snivy attempted to grab the water pokemon below, but found its vines fell short of reaching the pokemon. Chance remedied this by telling his pokemon to get ready to dive. Snivy held onto her trainer's hair as they dove a few feet below the water's surface, the small grass-type quickly threw out her vines again and successfully grabbed the resting pokemon. The moment her vines wrapped around staryu, Chance shot back towards the surface. Once they were above the water once more, Snivy tossed staryu with all her might towards the beach.

Staryu splashed down into the shallow waters, but quickly tried to swim back out to sea. However, it was met by resistance from the team that was left up there to keep it close. Chance swam as quickly as he could to the beach, where snivy hopped off his head and into the shallow water, where she grabbed staryu once more and tossed it out of the water completely.

"Good job, snivy! Now hit it with a leaf tornado!" Chance yelled as he ran through the shallow water to join his pokemon.

Before staryu could recover from hitting the sand it was struck with the swarm of glowing leaves, getting tossed even further back on the beach. Snivy continued the assault by opening her mouth and creating a small green ball, which it then launched at the water pokemon. The orb struck its target, hitting it for a large amount of damage. Chance quickly followed this by throwing his lure ball at the injured pokemon. The ball wiggled for a moment before clicking.

Chance ran up and grabbed the lure ball off the ground, cheering loudly at his new capture, as well as how well his starter pokemon performed. Snivy ran up and jumped into her trainer's arms, sharing a tight hug with him.

"Snivy! You did fantastic!" The redhead praised his pokemon. "That last move was energy ball, right? When did you learn that?" He questioned the grass snake, who replied with a high pitched squeak and a small shrug.

Adrian congratulated his companion on the new capture, and cheered on snivy for the new attack. The group spent another hour or so on the beach before returning to their hotel and having dinner, deciding to continue the relaxation. That evening, Chance called out his staryu to try and get to know it a bit. The pokemon didn't seem to have too much personality yet. It seemed a bit shy, but it was hard to tell due to the lack of facial features. Overall, the boys were happy with their day. The much needed relaxation really seemed to get their minds off of the disappointment about the gym leader being absent currently. They were ready to see what the next few days would bring their way.