Chapter 9
Tom stared at the gym, or rather, what there was of the gym. It was open-aired; whereas the flying gym had the four walls, this one didn't. The arena, if it could be called one, was just a boxing ring, except that it was larger than any that Tom had ever seen. The two trainer boxes were unoccupied, the gym leader nowhere in sight. Tom groaned. *Looks like I would have to wait for him... or her.* The Joy in the previous pokecentre had divulged precious little of the fighting gym. In fact, the only thing she had said for sure, was that it was a fighting gym.
Tom settled down to wait, leaning on the side of a tree. He dozed off.
***
"Hello?" Tom was rudely awakened, jolted out of his slumber by a voice. He gazed up, vision unfocused. The images before him converged into a girl. She looked to be about twenty, with blonde hair and cerulean eyes that looked like sapphires. She was crouching down, looking at Tom, eyes sparkling like jewels.
"Woa! What a sight to wake up to..." The girl blinked a couple of times, then flushed a brilliant scarlet, giggling. "Haven't heard that line before... Anyway, my name's Shalla, would you like a battle?"
"Alright..."
"How does two on two sound?"
"Okay..."
Shalla stood up, and moved off, Tom following. Now that both of them were standing, Tom got a good look at her. Shalla was rather tall, yet still slightly shorter than Tom's 1.83 metre frame. She was slender, but had the sculpted muscles of a dancer, a far cry from Tom's weight lifter like build. Tom caught himself staring at her hips swaying as she walked.
*What is *wrong* with me... I never act this way...*
Tom glanced ahead, finding that Shalla had taken a position in the trainer box.
"Hey! That's a gym arena..."
Shalla rolled her eyes in a silent "Duh!", and looked back at Tom. "I am well aware of that..."
"*Then???* Why are you heading there for *our* battle?"
Shalla repeated the gesture, and replied in a dry tone. "What's wrong with it being a gym arena?"
"Well for one thing, shouldn't we be asking permission at least, from the gym leader?"
Shalla stared at Tom incredulously, and started to giggle again, a pleasant sound that Tom found rather infectious. "Sorry, I forgot to mention it... I had no idea that you were unaware."
"What?!" Tom was, by now puzzled at Shalla's strange behaviour, whom he had taken to be a regular trainer.
"I'm the..."
Tom stared; the words bubbled from the depths of Shalla's consciousness even before she spoke it. "*You?* The *gym leader*?"
Shalla looked miffed, obviously offended.
The frown was not lost on Tom, and he hastily added, "Well, you being a lady and all, and your age..." He never got the chance to finish the sentence, Shalla crossly barging in. "So what if I'm a girl? So's Janet and Lisa, not to mention many others. As for my age, I'm fifteen, and Falkner's not much older than me..."
"But... You don't look like a fighter..."
"*Young man*, you obviously have a severe misunderstanding about the art of fighting. It does not necessarily require brute strength. Most of the time, technique, endurance, and instinct are more important."
Tom blinked at the use of "young man". After all, he was taller than Shalla, and older by a year or so as well. *Never mind, I'm after the badge...* "Okay, okay; fine so I was wrong." Tom followed up with another remark, one with just a tint of sarcasm, "I am soooo sorry, would you forgive me?"
The gym leader glared at Tom, and said icily, "Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself? and we can start the battle."
Tom mouthed a wordless "ooops". *What a great start...* "I'm Tom."
Shalla just stood there, waiting. Then, realising that Tom was not about to say anything else, stated the rules. "Standard gym rules, two on two."
In utter silence, the pokemon were sent out. Alakazam appeared, facing what appeared to be just a bundle of muscle. The opponent looked back at Shalla, "Champ?" Alakazam translated for Tom, but Shalla obviously understood her pokemon and giggled. *Another one?*
The machamp started off by slamming its fists into the ground. Tom, expecting an earthquake attack, started to command alakazam. *Levitate up!* However, the soft base of the boxing ring totally changed the attack, absorbing the impact. What happened next was incredible, to say the least. The giant fighting type, not known to be agile, flew up, bewildering Tom for a second. *The floor seemed to absorb the attack, but in reality, was just bouncing the force straight back at machamp, letting it jump higher than it could with its legs alone. All right, since there are a couple of surprises in this arena, lets play this my way. Alakazam! Immobilise it, then give it a couple of psybeams!*
Tom wanted to conclude this first battle as quickly as possible, striving to keep alakazam for the next opponent. Understandable; the only other pokemon with an advantage over fighting types was shadow, and Tom *really* did not want shadow to battle, considering its temperament.
While Tom was distracted with thought of his last gym battle however, the current one was still ongoing. Machamp bounced towards alakazam, totally evading the indigo shafts of psychic energy.
*What are you waiting for? Quick! Immobilise it!*
A thoroughly frustrated and confused telepathic voice came back to him. *I *can't*!*
Swiftly Tom *scanned* the arena for telekinetic impulses. He picked up some on Shalla; only enough for her to be a weak psychic. He sensed some from alakazam; expected. Finally, Tom gathered a faint signal from *machamp*... What the hell...*
*Get rid of that barrier!*
*I can't...*
While Tom and alakazam were occupied bickering, machamp was preparing for an attack. Raising all four of its arms in the air a lavender sphere formed, swelling larger with each passing moment, until it was the size of an abra. *It can't be...* With a tight grin, machamp hurled the globe, now crackling with the energy it contained.
The shadow ball accelerated, seeming like a blur. Still distracted by the dispute, alakazam failed to notice the attack in time, and was pushed back into the elastic ropes that all rings were equipped with. Groaning in anguish, alakazam was crushed between the mauve orb and the stretched cables. *Teleport! Recover! Barrier! Anything!* In his panic, Tom called for three moves at once, none of which alakazam could concentrate enough to utilize. The psychic type slumped, his head drooping down, unconscious. "Return!" *How *could* this happen? One of my most powerful pokemon, losing despite a type advantage...*
Tom grinned; his vengeance would be swift -- and violent. He tossed the ultraball, releasing the evil ghost -- and regretted the decision the moment the capture ball left his hand. Nevertheless, he kept on with the match. *I'll make sure nothing happens...*
Shadow looked back at its master, observing the blaze of revenge in his eyes. Shadow grinned, a sight that would make kids run away screaming. This was more to its liking -- the master's dark side, finally unrestrained, showing itself.
Bringing the same strategy into play, machamp bounced around, throwing another shadow ball. With calm indifference, shadow raised its stubby arms, absorbing the energy, sending it back in a golden mass -- a psychic. *Normally, a psychic needs to be charged up, but it looks like shadow is using the shadow ball as the charge. Impressive. I hope nothing goes wrong.*
The machamp, not expecting the attack to back fire, received the full brunt, toppling down. *It went down in one hit, and shadow is barely sapped.*
Shadow advanced on the fighter's unconscious form, preparing a massive psychic attack. The cobalt aura surrounding it was unbearably harsh, and opposite, Shalla's eyes widened. She hastily returned machamp, previously in shock over both the failure of the attack, which she believed to be super effective against a gengar, and the one-hit KO nature of shadow's strike.
A tyrogue appeared in the ring, with a blank look plastered onto its face. It wasn't very muscular, but Tom knew without a doubt, that it packed a lot of punch. Tom felt a irrepressible shiver crawl up his spine, as the sequence of the last battle with an unevolved pokemon came to mind -- the bellsprout.
The match started, with shadow unleashing the pent-up psychic. Tyrogue glowed... But nothing happened. Even more surprisingly, shadow was slammed back into the cords, and pummelled by psybeams. *That thing seems to be doing the same thing shadow did -- absorbing energy, then using it for itself... But something is wrong... Psychic attacks are not supposed to work on shadow... And this move, some variation of counter, I suppose.*
Unfortunately for Shalla however, the psybeams just passed right through shadow, who had not bothered to dodge them. Shalla stood, dumbfounded... Her shock rippled across the arena, and Tom effortlessly read it. *But... Gengars are not supposed to be resistant to psychic attacks, much less immune to them... unless... This is NOT a gengar...* Tom chuckled at this, *she sure is quick.*
The battle, meanwhile was not going well for tyrogue. Although it had avoided and sent back the initial psychic, its only other attacks were ghost, fighting, normal types, all of which it found not effective against shadow, who was, by now bored with the whole affair. Tyrogue had been hit by quite a number of psybeams, severely weakened.
{The more that hit you, the more that will. Now let's finish this.}
Shadow teleported behind tyrogue, who was by now far too tired to evade being enveloped by a mass of psychic energy that immobilised it. *Shit... Death trap. Hope it survives this... Shadow, go easy on him.* {No way.}
If anything the attack seemed to intensify, with the orb growing larger and larger.
*Oh no...* Shalla mirrored Tom's thoughts, horror-struck.
With a raise of its hands, shadow formed the reflective barrier, and released its hold on the power.
Once again, the energy flashed, swirling around in the sphere in turmoil, with tyrogue caught in it. Unlike the previous victim however, tyrogue did not -- could not try to escape, and fainted. With a sadistic streak, shadow allowed the attack to continue, eliciting groans of agony from tyrogue even in its state.
"No!!!" Tom returned shadow, and withdrew from the trainer box. The attack automatically faded, its starter gone. Shalla, shocked at her lose, now turned her attention to Tom, flabbergasted. After all, according to official gym rules, should the trainer return his or her pokemon before the winner is declared, be it by a judge or the gym leader, the battle is considered by default void, and the "victory" goes to the gym leader.
"Wait." Tom stopped in mid stride, and asked in a flat tone, without turning back, "What."
"Don't you want your badge?"
"You know the rules as well as I do. Besides, nothing's worth getting a pokemon killed." Tom got ready to go, pacing towards the pokecentre before uncertainty claimed him.
***
"Nurse Joy, what's the next gym?"
"Have you defeated this one?" Joy had a questioning look etched on her pretty face.
"Not exactly."
"Well then, you have not beat these gyms in the order specified you know... That's part of the challenge."
"I see." Tom stormed off for some more training, determined not to use shadow in their next battle.
***
"I challenge you, Shalla." Another fortnight had passed, during which time Tom had trained rigorously.
"I'm sorry Tom, I'll have to deny you that honour."
Tom just waited in silence.
"Well, I think you have already earned this badge."
Again, Tom waited, for further clarifications.
"For one thing, you have shown that you have the skills to beat me, and even without the advantage of surprise, I think that the training you have done in these weeks would allow you to win again without too much trouble."
"What's the other reason?"
"Actually there are two more. You have shown that you believe that a pokemon life is far more important than your gym challenge, and thus I think your pokemon are fiercely loyal to you, and will do their best."
"And the last..."
Shalla hesitated, reluctance evident in her speech. "Well, I am not longer the gym leader."
"What?" Tom gaped at Shalla, unable to believe it. Not surprising; in the Azure League, all gyms had to be approved by the League committee, and the gym leaders as well. The committee had the final say, not the gym leader.
"I've handed over the run of things here to two of my disciples; I am sure they won't let me down. After all, I trained them myself."
"Then you don't have the authority to give me the badge."
Shalla's giggled, eyes sparkling. *Now here's a person that smiles with her eyes...* "Ahh, but I do. You see, you battled me before I handed over the gym leadership. I wanted to give you the badge previously, but you ran off too fast. And yes, in case you are wondering, it is approved."
"I didn't run..."
Exasperated, Shalla rolled her eyes, and snorted. "That was just an expression."
"Oh."
*Great line Tom, now she thinks that you are an idiot.* Tom glared at alakazam, whom Tom had kept out of his pokeball. Sometimes, having a psychic pokemon around could be such a pain.
"Oh yes. One more thing. I would like to go with you."
"Huh?"
*Another great response Tom, at this rate, she'll ask *you* to marry her.* Alakazam's telepathic voice was literally dripping with sarcasm, something he was, unfortunately becoming very good at.
*Shut up!*
"Well, I want to see the way you battle, and besides, I have always wanted to see the rest of this place again. The last time I travelled around, much like you, was two years ago."
"Oh, I see."
*Another...*
*Shut up!*
***
Tom was more or less drowned in sweat; Shalla however was barely wheezed. The other pokemon were long since withdrawn, unable to keep up. Tom and Shalla were jogging towards the next gym, with long, loping strides. Actually dashing would be a better word; they were sprinting, rushing through the terrain at speeds that Tom seldom achieved. *Oh brother, on top of everything else, she's a better runner? Well at least I'm a better trainer and psychic.*
It didn't take Tom long to find out that Shalla was a weak psychic, too weak though to do much with her abilities, much like Tom when he first started training.
The woodlands were left behind, leaving only a never-ending pasture, and the occasional trees. The scenery was amazing; flowers abounding in the landscape, hills in the distance, and puffy white clouds floating serenely in the azure sky. In fact, the only thing that a person could complain of in this aspect was the bore that one felt after observing this -- and only this for half a day.
Another thing contributed to Tom's dilemma. There was no shade -- and Tom was literally pouring out sweat, his face flushed and his thighs, calves and just about every other muscle shrieking for a break. They had been running at a rapid pace -- one that even Tom was accustomed to. He wanted to call for a rest, but the last thing he needed was to seem weak in Shalla's eyes.
Tom hurried on, following Shalla's lead.
***
They were in the pokecentre of the bug gym, resting -- actually Tom was the one resting. Shalla wasn't visibly affected by the long journey, choosing instead to go for some light exercise in the gymnasium, to finally stretch her muscles she said.
Tom finally recovered enough to have a look at Shalla. When he walked into the gym, it seemed that only Shalla was exercising -- everyone else was staring at her, and they were not ogling; well most of them weren't. Tom followed their example.
Shalla was testing the weights -- and by testing, she was just raising each weight a couple of times, muttering "too light" every so often. She finally settled down to her routine, doing frontal raises, cable rows, dumbbell shoulder presses with ease -- even with some of the largest weights. Machamp was behind her, getting ready to assist in case Shalla couldn't take it.
***
"I'll challenge the gym leader today. Coming?"
"Of course. That's why I came along in the first place."
Tom muttered under his breath, "Then why does it seem that I am going along with you..." Tom was thinking of the running the day before.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing."
Shalla gave Tom a weird look, and went over to the gym, intending to have a chat with the leader before the challenge.
Tom stared at the gym, or rather, what there was of the gym. It was open-aired; whereas the flying gym had the four walls, this one didn't. The arena, if it could be called one, was just a boxing ring, except that it was larger than any that Tom had ever seen. The two trainer boxes were unoccupied, the gym leader nowhere in sight. Tom groaned. *Looks like I would have to wait for him... or her.* The Joy in the previous pokecentre had divulged precious little of the fighting gym. In fact, the only thing she had said for sure, was that it was a fighting gym.
Tom settled down to wait, leaning on the side of a tree. He dozed off.
***
"Hello?" Tom was rudely awakened, jolted out of his slumber by a voice. He gazed up, vision unfocused. The images before him converged into a girl. She looked to be about twenty, with blonde hair and cerulean eyes that looked like sapphires. She was crouching down, looking at Tom, eyes sparkling like jewels.
"Woa! What a sight to wake up to..." The girl blinked a couple of times, then flushed a brilliant scarlet, giggling. "Haven't heard that line before... Anyway, my name's Shalla, would you like a battle?"
"Alright..."
"How does two on two sound?"
"Okay..."
Shalla stood up, and moved off, Tom following. Now that both of them were standing, Tom got a good look at her. Shalla was rather tall, yet still slightly shorter than Tom's 1.83 metre frame. She was slender, but had the sculpted muscles of a dancer, a far cry from Tom's weight lifter like build. Tom caught himself staring at her hips swaying as she walked.
*What is *wrong* with me... I never act this way...*
Tom glanced ahead, finding that Shalla had taken a position in the trainer box.
"Hey! That's a gym arena..."
Shalla rolled her eyes in a silent "Duh!", and looked back at Tom. "I am well aware of that..."
"*Then???* Why are you heading there for *our* battle?"
Shalla repeated the gesture, and replied in a dry tone. "What's wrong with it being a gym arena?"
"Well for one thing, shouldn't we be asking permission at least, from the gym leader?"
Shalla stared at Tom incredulously, and started to giggle again, a pleasant sound that Tom found rather infectious. "Sorry, I forgot to mention it... I had no idea that you were unaware."
"What?!" Tom was, by now puzzled at Shalla's strange behaviour, whom he had taken to be a regular trainer.
"I'm the..."
Tom stared; the words bubbled from the depths of Shalla's consciousness even before she spoke it. "*You?* The *gym leader*?"
Shalla looked miffed, obviously offended.
The frown was not lost on Tom, and he hastily added, "Well, you being a lady and all, and your age..." He never got the chance to finish the sentence, Shalla crossly barging in. "So what if I'm a girl? So's Janet and Lisa, not to mention many others. As for my age, I'm fifteen, and Falkner's not much older than me..."
"But... You don't look like a fighter..."
"*Young man*, you obviously have a severe misunderstanding about the art of fighting. It does not necessarily require brute strength. Most of the time, technique, endurance, and instinct are more important."
Tom blinked at the use of "young man". After all, he was taller than Shalla, and older by a year or so as well. *Never mind, I'm after the badge...* "Okay, okay; fine so I was wrong." Tom followed up with another remark, one with just a tint of sarcasm, "I am soooo sorry, would you forgive me?"
The gym leader glared at Tom, and said icily, "Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself? and we can start the battle."
Tom mouthed a wordless "ooops". *What a great start...* "I'm Tom."
Shalla just stood there, waiting. Then, realising that Tom was not about to say anything else, stated the rules. "Standard gym rules, two on two."
In utter silence, the pokemon were sent out. Alakazam appeared, facing what appeared to be just a bundle of muscle. The opponent looked back at Shalla, "Champ?" Alakazam translated for Tom, but Shalla obviously understood her pokemon and giggled. *Another one?*
The machamp started off by slamming its fists into the ground. Tom, expecting an earthquake attack, started to command alakazam. *Levitate up!* However, the soft base of the boxing ring totally changed the attack, absorbing the impact. What happened next was incredible, to say the least. The giant fighting type, not known to be agile, flew up, bewildering Tom for a second. *The floor seemed to absorb the attack, but in reality, was just bouncing the force straight back at machamp, letting it jump higher than it could with its legs alone. All right, since there are a couple of surprises in this arena, lets play this my way. Alakazam! Immobilise it, then give it a couple of psybeams!*
Tom wanted to conclude this first battle as quickly as possible, striving to keep alakazam for the next opponent. Understandable; the only other pokemon with an advantage over fighting types was shadow, and Tom *really* did not want shadow to battle, considering its temperament.
While Tom was distracted with thought of his last gym battle however, the current one was still ongoing. Machamp bounced towards alakazam, totally evading the indigo shafts of psychic energy.
*What are you waiting for? Quick! Immobilise it!*
A thoroughly frustrated and confused telepathic voice came back to him. *I *can't*!*
Swiftly Tom *scanned* the arena for telekinetic impulses. He picked up some on Shalla; only enough for her to be a weak psychic. He sensed some from alakazam; expected. Finally, Tom gathered a faint signal from *machamp*... What the hell...*
*Get rid of that barrier!*
*I can't...*
While Tom and alakazam were occupied bickering, machamp was preparing for an attack. Raising all four of its arms in the air a lavender sphere formed, swelling larger with each passing moment, until it was the size of an abra. *It can't be...* With a tight grin, machamp hurled the globe, now crackling with the energy it contained.
The shadow ball accelerated, seeming like a blur. Still distracted by the dispute, alakazam failed to notice the attack in time, and was pushed back into the elastic ropes that all rings were equipped with. Groaning in anguish, alakazam was crushed between the mauve orb and the stretched cables. *Teleport! Recover! Barrier! Anything!* In his panic, Tom called for three moves at once, none of which alakazam could concentrate enough to utilize. The psychic type slumped, his head drooping down, unconscious. "Return!" *How *could* this happen? One of my most powerful pokemon, losing despite a type advantage...*
Tom grinned; his vengeance would be swift -- and violent. He tossed the ultraball, releasing the evil ghost -- and regretted the decision the moment the capture ball left his hand. Nevertheless, he kept on with the match. *I'll make sure nothing happens...*
Shadow looked back at its master, observing the blaze of revenge in his eyes. Shadow grinned, a sight that would make kids run away screaming. This was more to its liking -- the master's dark side, finally unrestrained, showing itself.
Bringing the same strategy into play, machamp bounced around, throwing another shadow ball. With calm indifference, shadow raised its stubby arms, absorbing the energy, sending it back in a golden mass -- a psychic. *Normally, a psychic needs to be charged up, but it looks like shadow is using the shadow ball as the charge. Impressive. I hope nothing goes wrong.*
The machamp, not expecting the attack to back fire, received the full brunt, toppling down. *It went down in one hit, and shadow is barely sapped.*
Shadow advanced on the fighter's unconscious form, preparing a massive psychic attack. The cobalt aura surrounding it was unbearably harsh, and opposite, Shalla's eyes widened. She hastily returned machamp, previously in shock over both the failure of the attack, which she believed to be super effective against a gengar, and the one-hit KO nature of shadow's strike.
A tyrogue appeared in the ring, with a blank look plastered onto its face. It wasn't very muscular, but Tom knew without a doubt, that it packed a lot of punch. Tom felt a irrepressible shiver crawl up his spine, as the sequence of the last battle with an unevolved pokemon came to mind -- the bellsprout.
The match started, with shadow unleashing the pent-up psychic. Tyrogue glowed... But nothing happened. Even more surprisingly, shadow was slammed back into the cords, and pummelled by psybeams. *That thing seems to be doing the same thing shadow did -- absorbing energy, then using it for itself... But something is wrong... Psychic attacks are not supposed to work on shadow... And this move, some variation of counter, I suppose.*
Unfortunately for Shalla however, the psybeams just passed right through shadow, who had not bothered to dodge them. Shalla stood, dumbfounded... Her shock rippled across the arena, and Tom effortlessly read it. *But... Gengars are not supposed to be resistant to psychic attacks, much less immune to them... unless... This is NOT a gengar...* Tom chuckled at this, *she sure is quick.*
The battle, meanwhile was not going well for tyrogue. Although it had avoided and sent back the initial psychic, its only other attacks were ghost, fighting, normal types, all of which it found not effective against shadow, who was, by now bored with the whole affair. Tyrogue had been hit by quite a number of psybeams, severely weakened.
{The more that hit you, the more that will. Now let's finish this.}
Shadow teleported behind tyrogue, who was by now far too tired to evade being enveloped by a mass of psychic energy that immobilised it. *Shit... Death trap. Hope it survives this... Shadow, go easy on him.* {No way.}
If anything the attack seemed to intensify, with the orb growing larger and larger.
*Oh no...* Shalla mirrored Tom's thoughts, horror-struck.
With a raise of its hands, shadow formed the reflective barrier, and released its hold on the power.
Once again, the energy flashed, swirling around in the sphere in turmoil, with tyrogue caught in it. Unlike the previous victim however, tyrogue did not -- could not try to escape, and fainted. With a sadistic streak, shadow allowed the attack to continue, eliciting groans of agony from tyrogue even in its state.
"No!!!" Tom returned shadow, and withdrew from the trainer box. The attack automatically faded, its starter gone. Shalla, shocked at her lose, now turned her attention to Tom, flabbergasted. After all, according to official gym rules, should the trainer return his or her pokemon before the winner is declared, be it by a judge or the gym leader, the battle is considered by default void, and the "victory" goes to the gym leader.
"Wait." Tom stopped in mid stride, and asked in a flat tone, without turning back, "What."
"Don't you want your badge?"
"You know the rules as well as I do. Besides, nothing's worth getting a pokemon killed." Tom got ready to go, pacing towards the pokecentre before uncertainty claimed him.
***
"Nurse Joy, what's the next gym?"
"Have you defeated this one?" Joy had a questioning look etched on her pretty face.
"Not exactly."
"Well then, you have not beat these gyms in the order specified you know... That's part of the challenge."
"I see." Tom stormed off for some more training, determined not to use shadow in their next battle.
***
"I challenge you, Shalla." Another fortnight had passed, during which time Tom had trained rigorously.
"I'm sorry Tom, I'll have to deny you that honour."
Tom just waited in silence.
"Well, I think you have already earned this badge."
Again, Tom waited, for further clarifications.
"For one thing, you have shown that you have the skills to beat me, and even without the advantage of surprise, I think that the training you have done in these weeks would allow you to win again without too much trouble."
"What's the other reason?"
"Actually there are two more. You have shown that you believe that a pokemon life is far more important than your gym challenge, and thus I think your pokemon are fiercely loyal to you, and will do their best."
"And the last..."
Shalla hesitated, reluctance evident in her speech. "Well, I am not longer the gym leader."
"What?" Tom gaped at Shalla, unable to believe it. Not surprising; in the Azure League, all gyms had to be approved by the League committee, and the gym leaders as well. The committee had the final say, not the gym leader.
"I've handed over the run of things here to two of my disciples; I am sure they won't let me down. After all, I trained them myself."
"Then you don't have the authority to give me the badge."
Shalla's giggled, eyes sparkling. *Now here's a person that smiles with her eyes...* "Ahh, but I do. You see, you battled me before I handed over the gym leadership. I wanted to give you the badge previously, but you ran off too fast. And yes, in case you are wondering, it is approved."
"I didn't run..."
Exasperated, Shalla rolled her eyes, and snorted. "That was just an expression."
"Oh."
*Great line Tom, now she thinks that you are an idiot.* Tom glared at alakazam, whom Tom had kept out of his pokeball. Sometimes, having a psychic pokemon around could be such a pain.
"Oh yes. One more thing. I would like to go with you."
"Huh?"
*Another great response Tom, at this rate, she'll ask *you* to marry her.* Alakazam's telepathic voice was literally dripping with sarcasm, something he was, unfortunately becoming very good at.
*Shut up!*
"Well, I want to see the way you battle, and besides, I have always wanted to see the rest of this place again. The last time I travelled around, much like you, was two years ago."
"Oh, I see."
*Another...*
*Shut up!*
***
Tom was more or less drowned in sweat; Shalla however was barely wheezed. The other pokemon were long since withdrawn, unable to keep up. Tom and Shalla were jogging towards the next gym, with long, loping strides. Actually dashing would be a better word; they were sprinting, rushing through the terrain at speeds that Tom seldom achieved. *Oh brother, on top of everything else, she's a better runner? Well at least I'm a better trainer and psychic.*
It didn't take Tom long to find out that Shalla was a weak psychic, too weak though to do much with her abilities, much like Tom when he first started training.
The woodlands were left behind, leaving only a never-ending pasture, and the occasional trees. The scenery was amazing; flowers abounding in the landscape, hills in the distance, and puffy white clouds floating serenely in the azure sky. In fact, the only thing that a person could complain of in this aspect was the bore that one felt after observing this -- and only this for half a day.
Another thing contributed to Tom's dilemma. There was no shade -- and Tom was literally pouring out sweat, his face flushed and his thighs, calves and just about every other muscle shrieking for a break. They had been running at a rapid pace -- one that even Tom was accustomed to. He wanted to call for a rest, but the last thing he needed was to seem weak in Shalla's eyes.
Tom hurried on, following Shalla's lead.
***
They were in the pokecentre of the bug gym, resting -- actually Tom was the one resting. Shalla wasn't visibly affected by the long journey, choosing instead to go for some light exercise in the gymnasium, to finally stretch her muscles she said.
Tom finally recovered enough to have a look at Shalla. When he walked into the gym, it seemed that only Shalla was exercising -- everyone else was staring at her, and they were not ogling; well most of them weren't. Tom followed their example.
Shalla was testing the weights -- and by testing, she was just raising each weight a couple of times, muttering "too light" every so often. She finally settled down to her routine, doing frontal raises, cable rows, dumbbell shoulder presses with ease -- even with some of the largest weights. Machamp was behind her, getting ready to assist in case Shalla couldn't take it.
***
"I'll challenge the gym leader today. Coming?"
"Of course. That's why I came along in the first place."
Tom muttered under his breath, "Then why does it seem that I am going along with you..." Tom was thinking of the running the day before.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing."
Shalla gave Tom a weird look, and went over to the gym, intending to have a chat with the leader before the challenge.