I Don't Own Pokemon
I was looking up at the Flying type gym building in front of me, but to be far I wasn't really looking at it, at least I wasn't focusing on it. It had been a couple weeks and I was currently thinking about all the experience everyone has gained over the last period of time. Servine was the only one that has really increased any in the power department but that doesn't mean that the progress of everyone else can be ignored.
In fact that's why I wasn't already in the gym at the moment, I have to consider who to actually use in this battle. I thought about Servine, but he's already gotten a lot of battles in from random trainers that I've met on the side of the routes and the rest of my team is really eager to actually start properly battling again so it wouldn't be fair to them if I put it off for that much longer.
Which leads into the problem of who to use to at least try to make this fair, because I mean both Luxray and Lycanroc would be the literal definition of overkill here, Vaporeon and Mismagius have plenty of super effective moves on Flying types, and both Charizard and Pidgeot would just dominate a battle for the air, so I don't really have an easy choice even if everyone has gotten much better at controlling themselves as to not go straight into an overkill mode when they use a move on a lower level Pokemon in a battle.
I'm probably just being paranoid and just want to waste a bit more time before I drop back into a league circuit, I don't really have a reason behind it, just wanting to spend some time with my thoughts, I got some time during the last two weeks but it's mostly just been me focusing on all my Pokemon. It's not like I mind at all, but it's nice to just take a breather after a long period of preparation before the pay off. That doesn't really work as well in this situation because I'm the definition of over prepared for one of the more beginner friendly gym's in this region.
Now I'm just ranting for no reason, the moments kind of lost now, whatever, might as well get this started. As for my choice of Pokemon to use, well, I'll just choose in the moment, it usually works well enough for me, it's not like I have to worry about any type disadvantages here. So with that in mind I walked into the building while noting that Riolu was letting me know that she was glad I was finally not standing around like a psycho.
"You've made that comment a number of times recently, what makes you think I'm a psycho?" I didn't really care all that much, I've been called way worse, hell she's called me worse, but recently she seemed to be kind of anxious about something so a casual conversation will help take her mind off it some hopefully, because I have an idea as to what is on her mind and I don't want her to have to dwell on it.
"Because you are? Have you met yourself before? A therapist would have a field day with you I'm sure" Well that's insulting, it's not the first time I've been told I probably need therapy before to be fair, though I wonder why everyone assumes it's never happened before.
"Really, because I think my therapist was actually kind of glad to get rid of me" That wasn't exactly true, I'm sure she was glad that I didn't actually need therapy, even though she did tell that it wouldn't exactly hurt to have for someone like me. Though I feel like Riolu wasn't paying attention to that last part as instead she just blurted out.
"You've been in therapy? Really? I can't image that actually" I just rolled my eyes, well, I looked up to make sure she was seeing my rolling of the eyes before dropping my head to continue to look around the entrance of the gym for a moment trying to figure out where to head before answering in a more casual way the the topic would suggest it should be taken.
"You're saying this to a highly touch averse, pessimist, paranoid, emotionally stunted man with mild trust issue who always is at the level of sleep that would make most others delusional and is extremely uncaring about any level of danger that probably borders on a dangerous level of insouciant. Even with all that listed, I'm not stupid, I'm fully aware I'm not the gold stranded of mental stability, and I prefer to know if I'm losing it, but I've learned enough that therapy is just a waste of time"
Riolu didn't say anything for a good minute before replying simply with clear disbelief in her voice as she spoke.
"Yeah, sure, you're not crazy at all" Well, at least she's away from thinking about whatever was bugging her from before, and I also believe I've just found where the battle arena is located, which is very weirdly located outside the actual gym building, but I guess the open air is needed for Flying type gym to really function at it's best. Now to actually find the leader of this place so I can get the badge needed. Thankfully that's when a voice echoed out from behind me.
"Oh, hello there, I wasn't expecting anyone out here. I'm guessing that you're here for a battle then?" Turning around I noted that, Falkner, as I believe his name is, was looking at me as he walked out onto the empty battle field, after a moment I just nodded, I didn't really have to say anything extra to explain it, I was here for a battle and that's it really. He just nodded before asking a question I've never actually been asked yet in gym.
"So, you don't appear to be a new trainer, how many badges have you collected so far" I guess it's because my body's age looks older than a twelve year old, plus I have twelve pokeballs out in the open on my belt and sash, even though four of them were empty, which makes it look correctly like that I have multiple Pokemon.
"Nine, their all Kanto ones if that means anything" His eyebrows shot up before seemingly thinking to himself before sighing, which I wasn't sure about why he did so but after a moment explained.
"Sorry but you'll have to give me a couple minutes, I got to go get some of my stronger Flying types, it's not often that I battle a proper high leveled trainer. Most that come through here usually only have two or three badges" I just gave him a shrug and told him that I didn't mind waiting, which he gave me a grateful nod for before turning and walking back into the actually building part of the Pokemon gym.
Well then that's a bit anti-climatic but I mean, there's now a much more likely and more challenging battle in my immediate future, which certainly isn't a bad thing, it'd be nice to have a proper battle, I haven't actually had on in a while. All the trainers I've met on the road haven't really been that much fun to battle against, though Servine certainly needed the battle experience even if his opponents so far either have been a bit weaker, from random trainers or much stronger, from the team having mock battles with him.
So now all I have to do now is wait for a bit, not sure what else I should do at the moment, I guess I can take this time to continue to spend some time just thinking to myself but I've already done that. Well, when in doubt, idle conversation isn't something I'm exactly all that good at but I can manage, plus Riolu seems to be falling back into what ever was messing with her, something I should ask her about after this gym battle.
"Who do you think I should use?" I was mostly asking because honestly I still don't know to be honest, I mean I've listed it done two choices but I'm not sure which one to use before the other, really I don't think it's all that fair that everyone can't battle all the same but there isn't enough trainers out there, well, not nearby at least for everyone to get to battle all today.
I could switch them out and let at least those two that I'm thinking about get to battle but I know my team, they all see is as a one versus all thing something I'm probably to blame for, so even if they beat the opponent in front of them, if they don't beat the rest then it annoys all of them a bit, which isn't something I don't want for them.
"I would say Luxray, because of type advantage but that would just be kind of cruel. The same could be said for Lycanroc as well, to a bit of a lesser extent because of how much ridiculous energy your Son has. And I'm not even going to entertain the motion of you using Zekrom, at that point it would just be bullying. Why not use Servine? He needs to catch up to the rest right, so this would be a good test"
She isn't wrong but I've already had all those thoughts so no new point is being brought up. Though I noted a hint of annoyance when she mentioned catching up to everyone else, I'll have to make sure to look into that later, if that's what I think it is then I should talk to her about it.
"I would, but he's battled a lot recently and I don't want to overwhelm him especially since I'm thinking about doing another contest soon, while the rest are getting a bit antsy from all the training they've been doing recently, it wouldn't be fair for him to get to and to have to do everything. Plus I'm pretty sure Falkner is bringing out at least probably fifth gym level Pokemon, and with type disadvantage being a thing, I don't want to risk Servine's first gym being a beat down, it wouldn't be good for him if that happened"
She just seemed to shrug from her position on my shoulders before saying.
"Well you seem to say 'screw you' to type match ups if the amount of battles you've had Servine go into against Charizard is anything to go by, I didn't think I should count on you suddenly being sensible about something that should be a clear weakness" That's fair I guess, but I mean I have a very good reason for me doing that and it's not like those two are the only ones that have mocks fights, especially for the reason as to why I have them all do so.
"The reason why I can usually say screw you to type match ups even when they aren't in my favor is because I do stuff like that to help Servine, in this case, increase his psychical endurance and build up a resistance to super effective moves, plus it's not like he's the only one, it's just that everyone else has already done so for the most part to the point where I don't see a good reason to continue it at this exact moment, as control is more important"
She didn't say anything for a moment, seemingly lost in thought but I didn't have much time to think on it as Falkner had once again appeared with two pokeball in his right hand. I gave the man a slight nod and moved out of the way of his path a bit and listened as he called out to me the general rules for this gym battle, while getting into my designated box to stand in during the battle.
"This will be a two on two battle, you can switch out Pokemon if you wish while I won't be able to. If you're ready then we can get started now" I just gave another nod before reaching up a hand to my sash and pulled off a pokeball and gave it a toss into the air at the same time as Falkner sent out his Pokemon. Which as I watched as they appeared in front of my own choice, I noted was, interesting enough, a particularly large Skarmory, which wasn't a Pokemon I was expecting to battle in Johto of all places, but it does make this more interesting, so with that the battle began.
Just one last chapter building up right until the first gym battle in like fifty chapters give or take. It's mostly to just set a few things up with Riolu and that's about it besides adding a fun little detail about my life. I've been in therapy before, it's how I was near classified as a sociopath in most of my teen years, which probably should be a bit more concerning than I think it is, but I mean, I've always known I'm not exactly the picture prefect representation of mental health and all that. Anyway, besides the whole thing about my mental health, which I don't really care to talk about much as I find it to not really be all that interesting, I don't have anything else to add here so. See ya.