It was sunset now. The flowing hills and the town below Route 117 seemed to infuse together, and the clouds were stained a deep crimson red. Kar smiled as they reached the edge of Mauville, the two of them and Kar's puppy-like Growlithe peering at a sign at the intersection where the dirt road stopped and the pale brick road began.
--- Route 117, Verdanturf Town, left.
--- Mauville Town; Welcome to Mauville! Home to Gym Leader Wattson, Rydel's Cycles, And Mauville City Game Corner.
"This is it," Remarked Kar with a grin, his beach blonde hair flowing into his blue eyes in a sudden gust of wind. "Are you ready, Rhea?"
"I-" Rhea frowned, looking into the town that was illuminated by the setting sun, casting an orange and yellow reflection on the rooftops of the various buildings. "Have a bit of a confession to make, Kar." She frowned, held her arms behind her back, and tried to feign innocence.
"Hit me." He said, crossing his arms and tilting his head.
"I'm a total Newbie." She said, frowning, blushing, and moving her feet back and forth, making something what of an imprint in the sand.
Kar giggled. Well, he started giggling, then he laughed lightly, then he looked over at her discomfited face, long auburn hair, and gold eyes, and then erupted with roaring laughter, clutching his stomach and rolling on the floor, becoming extremely sandy.
"It's not funny!" She shrieked, taking her backpack and whacking him over the head. "I lost those two times because I suck!" She snorted and looked away.
"Aww…" He said, coming up behind her. He gave her a quick hug and giggled, but then quickly stopped. "I'm sure you don't suck! You'll do much better now that you don't have a complete type disadvantage, I promise." He said, holding back more laughter and trying not to let any of it show on his face. She turned around to face him.
"Really?" She said, seeming unsure of herself. "I've never fought with my Roselia before."
"Growlithe." Growlithe comforted, rubbing himself against her legs.
"Am I sure you'll win? No, but you'll only know if you try, right?" He grabbed her arm and pulled her into a sprint, the three of them scampering clumsily over the brick road through the town, some children to stopping to point and stare at them and Growlithe and their mothers' pulling them along hurriedly.
In front of the large gym, Rhea and Kar panted heavily. It was fancily made out, like all the gyms in Hoenn, The shining windows yellow reflection gazing down at them. Bold red letters expressed the word "Gym" and next to that, there was an icon of a black pokeball. Fanciest of all, thought Kar, was the automatic see-through doors like you'd find in a supermarket. He thought it all quite magnificent, as he had never seen a Gym before.
"This is it!" He exclaimed. He motioned towards her, grinning broadly. "Come on Rhea, Growlie. Let's kick this guy's ass!" He ran inside, the automatic doors opening and shutting behind him.
Rhea looked down at Growlithe. With a nod, she started inside, treading nervously up to meet the gym leader Wattson, Growlithe at her heel. He was a short, balding, good natured man old-man who sat laughing with Kar.
"Seems like they get along just fine, huh?" Mumbled Rhea, coming up to the two of them.
"Is this another challenger?" Wattson asked, as he stopped laughing.
"Yes, this is, and she goes first. Ladies first, right?" He asked, giving Wattson a playful nudge.
"Of course!" He replied, and the two of them laughed. Growlithe and Rhea sweat it in the background. "But wait, I have an idea!" said Wattson. "How about you two tag battle?"
"Tag battle?" Asked Kar, seeming confused. He looked to Rhea for an explanation, but she shrugged. "Poke school was useless." He mumbled, looking up to Wattson.
"A tag battle is when each of you sends out one pokemon. Since theirs only one of me, I'll just send out two. In the Orre region, its how all battles are fought." He explained, clutching two pokeballs.
"Oh, okay! That makes sense." Said Rhea and Kar nodded in agreement.
"You two kids ready?" Asked Wattson.
"Yup." The two of them replied simultaneously.
"Let's begin!" He said.
The pokemon Referee stepped on the middle of the battle field. "This is a two on two battle. The first tag team to knock out both opponents wins. The battle Between Kar and Rhea will now begin!" He exclaimed, waving two red and green flags in the air.
"Right. Go, Growlie!" Kar exclaimed. Determined to make a good impression on Rhea, Growlithe burst into the battlefield, roaring stridently.
"Go, Roselia!" Said Rhea, trying to sound more confident then she was. The pokemon appeared, grass like with two red and blue roses for arms.
"Go, Magneton and Voltorb!" Wattson said, as he released his two pokemon at once. Magneton, a triplet of magnets bonded together with steal, each with one eye. And Voltorb, who looked much like a pokeball, the only thing separating it from its evolved form the different color placement.
"Let's start this off, Growlie, Fire Blast Magnaton!" Kar commanded, and Growlithe rushed towards Magnaton with a burst of fire.
"Magneton, Dodge it and Metal Sound!" Wattson ordered, and the steel pokemon hurried out of the way and a piercing noise filled the room that lowered Growlithe's special defense harshly. "Now Voltorb-Thunderbolt!"
"Uh oh..." Kar squeaked.
"No you don't! Roselia, Take the hit!" Roselia hurled itself in front of Growlithe, and took the thunderbolt not a moment too soon. It did hardly any damage to the plant like pokemon, and suddenly Rhea was glad that she caught it. "Use Stun Spore on Magneton!" Roselia released a rush of spores towards Magneton, and the pokemon couldn't dodge it in time. "Now's your chance, Kar!"
"Right-Use Fire Blast now, Growlithe!" Growlithe Rushed towards Magneton with Fire blast.
"Take Magneton's hit and use Thunder, Voltorb!" Voltorb took the large blast of flames from Growlithe, and although he was damaged, he wasn't nearly as hurt as Magneton would have been. Voltorb released the powerful Thunder attack unto Growlithe.
"Agility, quickly!" Kar said, thinking fast. Growlithe bolted out of the way. "Now use over heat-you know the target!"
"This isn't going to work, Kar, Take the hit Voltorb!"
"Roselia, push Voltorb out of the way and then use Stun spore on it!" Rhea yelled.
Roselia hurled its body towards Voltorb, who tried to take the hit once again for its partner. Then, as it was on top of the red and white pokemon, it released a stun spore and jumped backwards, awaiting further command. Simultaneously as this took place, the overheat attack reached Magneton, knocking it out.
"Magneton is unable to fight. Let the battle continue!" The Referee announced.
"Come back, Magneton." Said Wattson, recalling the Steel type pokemon. "Voltorb, this is up to you. Thunder wave on Roselia!" The attack made contact, paralyzing Roselia.
"Growlithe, let's get him back for that. Use your agility to get to Voltorb from behind, and then overheat 'im!" Growlithe did just that, appearing quickly behind Voltorb and tackling it with the overheat move. Severely weakened, it got up awaiting commands.
"It's there now, Voltorb, Thunder!" The weakened pokemon made a flash of yellow light appear in the gym and strike Growlithe hard and fast. Its knees buckling, it struggled to remain upright.
"We're not completely useless, Roselia, lets go, Giga Drain!" Roselia managed to snap out of its paralysis long enough to launch Giga Drain at it's opponent. Already weak, The Voltorb crumbled, rolling over, fainted.
"Voltorb is unable to battle. Victory goes to Kar and Rhea!"
"Come back, Roselia!" said Rhea. Then, beaming, she ran to Kar, whose Growlithe had trotted to his heels. "Kar, thanks again!" told him.
"It wasn't a problem. Really." He said, a big smile plastered on his face.
Wattson walked up to them, and firmly shook both of their hands in succession. "Congratulations! In honor of winning, here is the Dynamo Badge for both of you. I'd also like to throw in TM 34- who knows, one of you may find a use for it. And if not, you can always pawn it off to the poke mart!" The Gym leader laughed as Kar and Rhea took their badges and the TM.
"Great, Mr. Wattson. But you know we really need some money, too." Kar said, his hands on his hips.
"Kar!" Said Rhea, sighing. "I apologize for his rudeness." Said Rhea, shooting him a dark look.
"Nah, the lad is right. Here you are-5,000$ each. That should be enough to keep you two alive. Have a great evening!" He said, waving them out of the gym happily.
The three of them walked outside into the evening stars to notice that he really was right-the sunset has turned to evening. Lights were turned on in various spots at the town, and streetlights flickered on one by one. Kar looked at Rhea, giving her a playful nudge as Growlithe yawned tiredly, resting at her feet.
"I told you could do it." He said.
"I couldn't have done it without you, though."
"I couldn't have done it without you." He said, poking her in the stomach, then turning away to look around the town. "In any case, we need to find somewhere to sleep tonight. The poke' center sound good to you, Rhea?"
"Yeah. That's fine. But first, can we go back to Route 117 for an hour or two? It's a full moon tonight…and the stars are beautiful." She asked, listlessly staring at the sky.
"The stars…sure thing, Rhea, we can look at the stars." And the two of them walked together back to a hillside on Route 117, to lie in tranquility until the next day, when even more chaos was just around the corner. The strange thing was it didn't matter to either of them. What mattered to them now was the happiness from beating their first Gym Leader, from catching Roselia, and right then, for the peace and quiet of the moon and the stars.