Wednesday, September 13th, 2017

As had become habit over the last week, the first thing I did after waking was to start packing the tent while Peren and Blitz enjoyed a light breakfast. In just a week I'd gotten fairly proficient at putting up and taking down camp which meant that I finished my duties before the two of them had finished eating. Sitting down on a nearby tree stump while I waited for them to finish, I decided that it might be a good idea to attempt to set some reasonable expectations for the day.

"We'll head over to the gym once you guys are done eating, but honestly I'm not confident that we'll even make it past the gym trainer." Blitz's head shot up and he squawked indignantly with a mouth full of food. I put my hands up placatingly and continued, "I mean, no offense, but we don't exactly have a ton of experience. You guys did great against Hans, but I'm guessing that anyone at the gym will be at least a step or two above him."

Blitz took a second to consider this before spreading his wings and flapping them as if to psych us all up. Peren didn't seem particularly impressed with the display and continued working on finishing his breakfast unabated. I sighed and attempted to clarify, "Look, I'm not saying that I don't think we can win. I just want to make sure that no one is too upset if we don't." Blitz was at least somewhat appeased by my explanation since he calmed down enough that he resumed eating. "If that does happen, then we'll just keep heading north towards Brainerd. No sense in hitting our heads against a wall."

Once they'd both finished their breakfast, we retraced our steps from yesterday afternoon and headed back to the St. Cloud gym. Judging from the number of cars on the road, it was the tail end of rush hour but we didn't have any issues along the way. Peren and I made sure to stop at all of the crosswalks until we were confident that it was safe while Blitz simply flitted between trees and signs. Our careful travels through the city were interrupted when we got about a block away from the gym and Peren halted in his tracks to sniff the air. Before I could ask him what was wrong, Peren took off in a full run.

"Peren! Wait!" I yelled from behind as I started to jog after him after a moment of confused hesitation. From his position atop a streetlamp, Blitz cocked his head at me and then in the direction that Peren had run off in. He also flew off after Peren and after a second the two of them rounded a corner and were out of my line of sight. When I reached the corner, I was greeted with the sight of Blitz sitting on the gym's welcome sign while Peren stood next to a Rockruff and a trainer.

The trainer looked vaguely familiar and had a confused look on his face as he watched the two Pokemon converse in front of him. When he noticed me jogging over, he half-waved and said, "These your Pokemon?"

"Uh, yeah," I answered as I tried to recall where I had seen him before, only to realize it had been at this very spot yesterday afternoon. I was also fairly confident that I'd seen his Pokemon before so I hesitantly ventured, "Are you John?"

His eyebrows shot up for a moment before he glanced down and made the same connection that I had. "Yeah, and that would make you Thomas, right?" When I nodded, he smiled and said, "Now I know why Rockruff was so excited right before you all showed up. I think she really missed her labmates."

To me, the rock type looked about as serious and stoic as she had during our short meeting at the lab, but I decided not to comment. John and I watched our Pokemon quietly converse for a few seconds before I returned my attention to my fellow trainer. "So are you guys here to challenge the gym as well? We've got a gym trainer challenge today."

The slight smile that John became a grimace in an instant, "I hope you have better luck than we've had then. The gym trainer that we got assigned has a Wingull… We've already lost four times."

I winced sympathetically, "Is there a reason you haven't caught another Pokemon then?"

John sighed, "Pretty much the only wild Pokemon in town are grass and water types, and we've got a weakness to both," He shook his head and preempted me before I could ask the next logical question, "And we haven't gone out of town for a couple of reasons. Unless you get really lucky or go more than a few hours out, you're just going to find more grass and water Pokemon. The other thing is that my parents are a bit worried about me being on my own and want me to prove I can take care of myself at the gym before we go too far out."

I wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, so I simply offered, "Sorry to hear that."

John shrugged amicably, "Eh, it's not a bit deal and they're not exactly wrong. After all, we are having problems against one of the most common Pokemon in the state. At this point, I'm just hoping that something clicks in one of our challenges and we can at least make it to Aeric."

"Maybe today's the day," I said encouragingly before looking down at our starters. From Peren's comforting expression and Rockruff's downcast one, I suspected that they were having a very similar conversation. When Peren noticed my attention, he jerked his head towards the gym sign where Blitz was still perched, trying very hard to seem disinterested in the conversations around him. I decided to take this to mean that Peren had had the same idea as me so I turned back to John, "Do you want any help? You could use Peren and Blitz to catch a second Pokemon."

John's eyes went wide at the offer and he stammered, "S-Seriously? That would be amazing! Would now work for you?"

"Sure. The gym said that we could stop by anytime before four for our challenge, so we've got plenty of time."

John considered for a moment before eagerly saying, "Let's head to the river then! Makes more sense to catch a water type than a grass type when we're going against a flying gym." As he finished speaking, John glanced down towards Peren and frowned, "Actually, I'm a bit surprised that you came here first given your starter."

"Why don't we start heading over and we can talk on the way?" I asked and John hummed agreement. Once we had started heading east with Blitz leading the way and our starters following shortly behind, I continued, "We actually were going to head to Brainerd first. I just figured we should at least scout out the gym first. If we lose here, we're just going to leave town and keep going."

"Ah, now I feel bad," John said as he scratched the back of his head. "Now I feel like I'm keeping you here…"

"Don't worry about it. Besides, if we're catching something at the river, that means we're just getting practice against water types." While I knew we still had plenty of time before we were going to reach the Brainerd gym, at this point I wasn't that much more confident about our prospects against that gym than I was against this one. Given that Peren still didn't know any grass moves, our type advantage would be mostly meaningless at the Brainerd gym. A detour that would only take at most a few hours could end up being well worth it.

"So what moves do they know?" John asked, interrupting my thoughts.

I took a second before responding to make a mental tally of Peren's moves, something that wasn't necessary for Blitz's. "Peren, err Deerling, knows Tackle, Growl, Camouflage, and Sand Attack. Blitz, or Fletchling, only knows Quick Attack."

John chuckled softly, "I actually figured out which was which easily enough. But really, only Quick Attack? That's kinda surprising."

I threw my hands up in exasperation, "That's all I've been able to get him to use. Who knows if he can do anything else. I'm starting to think he's taking his nickname a bit too seriously." John frowned thoughtfully at that but he didn't make any further comments, and the rest of the short walk to the Mississippi was in somewhat awkward silence.

Once we reached the river's edge, I told Peren and Blitz to listen to John, both of them accepting without any complaints. With that out of the way, the five of us started carefully watching the river looking for any sign of a wild Pokemon. For several minutes we didn't have any luck since the few Pokemon that we did see were only visible for a second or two before they submerged. Eventually, Blitz must have spotted something from his vantage point above the river because he suddenly squawked loudly and flew northward. After a few seconds, I spotted what he had seen; something light blue was floating down the river's current, though I wasn't entirely sure what it was since I could only see its side.

Before I could point out the Pokemon to John, he called out to Blitz, "Get on its far side and just stay above it!" Blitz didn't have to move much and he began flying south at about the same speed as the river, marking where the unidentified wild Pokemon was. As soon as Blitz had gotten situated, John turned towards me and our starters. "C'mon, we'll cut it off at the bend." With that, he took off in a jog down the shore with the rest of us following a moment behind. The bend in the river that he had mentioned was about a hundred yards away and signaled the start of a short section where it ran east rather than south.

"Did you see what it was?" I asked, "It just looked like a blue blob to me."

"It's a Wooper," John confidently answered as he glanced back to check Blitz's position. "They like to float down the river until they hit the shore. That's when we'll get him."

We didn't have any issues reaching the river's bend before Wooper and I took a few extra steps from the water's edge while we waited. I had already decided that I would let John take charge of the capture when I had asked my Pokemon to listen to him, but now I wanted to make sure I could observe how he handled a capture. Despite only having one Pokemon, it seemed that he might have a better idea than me on how to go about fighting and capturing a wild Pokemon. Not that that was saying much.

The wild Wooper slowly floated back into sight, seemingly unconcerned by our attention and Blitz following it from several feet above. As John had predicted, Wooper bumped headfirst into the river's shoreline rather than following the flow when the river gently turned east. John immediately shifted his gaze up towards Blitz and yelled, "Quick Attack! Don't let it get back into the water!"

Clearly glad to finally have something meaningful to do, Blitz dove down though I could tell that he was going slower than usual so that he wouldn't hit the ground or water. As Blitz approached, his target realized that its trek down the river had been interrupted so it slowly sat up and opened its eyes. When it saw Blitz, Wooper scrambled to its feet and started waddling towards the shore to escape from its pursuer. Despite Wooper's attempt to escape, Blitz slammed into its back before it could take more than a few steps, and the blue blob faceplanted into the muddy shoreline.

When Blitz flew up to get height for another dive, John called out, "Great, now make sure it doesn't get back into the water. Peren, use Tackle!" Blitz sulkily resumed hovering over the water while Peren paused, not having expected to be suddenly called on. Because of his hesitation, Wooper had once again pulled itself to its feet by the time he started charging forward. The Wooper cocked its head curiously at Peren before opening its mouth and firing a jet of water that hit Peren directly in the face. Undeterred by the attack, Peren maintained his charge and hit Wooper, making the water-type slide back a few inches.

Before John issued a new order, Wooper opened its mouth again but this time small balls of mud came out instead of a stream of water. Peren was once again hit by the attack dead on, though this time he was splattered across the front rather than in the face. This attack seemed to hurt Peren a decent amount more since he was forced back a few steps from the blows instead of being able to largely ignore it.

"Maybe try dodging?" I suggested lightly, not sure what to think of the fact that John was seemingly making the same basic mistake that I had in my first battle. Then again, Cait had mentioned something about her having experience from participating in some competition before she had received Houndy. It was possible they didn't have those in St. Cloud, so John could be on a similar footing to me.

I couldn't see his expression from where I stood, but John's reply sounded chagrin, "Yeah, sorry, not really used to live battles yet… Peren, Sand Attack and then another Tackle."

During our short exchange, Peren had taken a few more steps away from Wooper in order to shake some of the mud off of himself while Wooper returned to watching curiously. Peren stopped as soon as he heard John's command and began kicking up bits of the shoreline at Wooper. Unfortunately for the wild Pokemon, the Mississippi shoreline was far from a sandy beach which meant that it got pelted with chunks of gravel rather than soft sand. Before Wooper could recover from the rocky onslaught, Peren Tackled it in the side and the wild Pokemon was once again knocked to the ground.

John dove his hand into his pocket and retrieved a Pokeball while Wooper lay dazed on its back. Without hesitation, he threw the ball and I was somewhat surprised to see it curve around Peren so that it hit Wooper and absorbed it in a flash of red light. All of us watched nervously as the Pokeball slowly rolled back and forth three times before it stilled with a loud ding.

"Yes!" John exclaimed as he rushed forward to pick up the ball containing his new Pokemon. Once it was secured in his grasp, he turned back towards me and I could see pure relief on his face. "Thank you so much!"

I shrugged and gestured to my Pokemon, "They did all the work." While John turned to earnestly thank them, I walked over to Peren's side to help clean up the remaining mud while feeling mildly disappointed by the battle. Any hopes I'd had about learning more about being a Pokemon trainer hadn't been realized since it seemed like John was as much of a novice as me. Granted, I really shouldn't have expected much given that I doubted that there were any advanced strategies that could be performed with my Pokemon's limited movesets.

Another flash of red light returned my attention to John, revealing that he had sent out his new Pokemon and was squatting next to it. Wooper still seemed unphased by what had just occurred and stood calmly in front of John as the trainer spoke, "Hey there, sorry we interrupted your morning but I really need some help with an important battle. I'll get you some food for your troubles and if you want, I'll release you when we're done. Does that sound alright?"

Wooper considered for a moment before it bobbed its head in agreement, making its gills quiver at the movement. Once John had thanked Wooper, we decided to return all of our Pokemon and head to the Pokemon center for a quick heal. None of them were particularly hurt, but John didn't want to take any chances before our battles. I was surprised that he didn't want to do any training with Wooper before going to the gym, but he seemed confident so I didn't say anything. A half-hour later, we were back in front of the gym and we walked into the lobby after taking a second to steel ourselves.

Unlike when I had stopped by the gym yesterday afternoon, there were a couple of other trainers already sitting in the lobby. John sighed at the sight and muttered, "Dang it, I was hoping to get here before the rush. Hope we won't have to wait too long..." He made his way over to the receptionist and I followed a couple of steps behind.

When the receptionist noticed us, he smiled warmly and said, "Hello John, ready for today's challenge? I'll let the back know that you're here and Larim will come get you when there's an open field. Shouldn't be too long of a wait."

"Thanks," John replied and started to move towards one of the seats, but hesitated after taking a step. "Actually, can Thomas and I watch each other's challenges?" At my pseudonym, I stepped up to John's side and gave the receptionist a half-wave.

"Sure, that's no problem at all! You can head back together and then have your battles in a row. Thomas, your opponent will be…" The receptionist trailed off to consult his computer before looking up after a moment, "Frank. Your battle will be as soon as John and Sally's is done."

The name of my opponent was meaningless to me, but I nodded anyway, "Got it."

"Well good luck to you both! Fifth time's the charm John!"

John frowned at the reminder of his losing streak but plopped down in the nearest chair without any further comment. I nodded my thanks to the receptionist before following his lead and sitting next to him while looking for some way to pass the time. I didn't want to send out my Pokemon since none of the other trainers had theirs out and I also didn't want to start chatting with John and thereby disturb the other waiting trainers. Without anything better to do, I grabbed my Poryphone and opened up the Pokemon app in an attempt to get some last-minute strategizing in.

After blankly staring at the screen for several minutes, I still didn't think I had any real chance of earning the gym badge. It was possible that I'd be able to beat the gym trainer, Frank apparently, though I didn't think I would have much chance against the gym leader unless I got absurdly lucky. Despite only using one move, Blitz at least be competitive against his opponents, but Peren was another story. While his weakness to flying moves shouldn't be an issue, I was more worried about how he would actually be able to deal damage back to his opponent. I wasn't confident that we'd be able to reuse the strategy that we'd used when we first fought Blitz, so with Tackle as his only damaging move, I doubted that we'd even land a blow.

Eventually, I decided to stop worrying about my upcoming battle and instead go to the Minnesota league's website for a review of the rules. While there wasn't anything useful listed about the rules for official gym matches since specifics were up to each gym leader, I did find some information about the league's structure as a whole that I had missed when I'd originally looked up the gyms. The league was split into three main divisions where the number of badges you had was what determined which you were in. Four to seven was amateur, eight to eleven was advanced, and all twelve badges were required for entry into the masters league. The website also mentioned that there was a novice level for trainers with zero to three badges, but that division only existed for the purposes of something called the Blizzard Brawl.

I was just about to start reading about the Blizzard Brawl when I heard someone ask for John and Thomas, making me look up from my Poryphone. The two trainers that had been waiting ahead of us had left at some point and there was a man standing in a doorway at the side of the room looking expectantly at us. I hurriedly put away my phone and stood up while John took a deep breath and did the same.

"You'll be in arena A and I'll be the referee for your matches," he said while John and I made our way over, shaking hands when he offered his. "It's nice to meet you Thomas, I'm Larim. Before I have to be impartial, let me say that I hope you both do well today."

"Thanks," I replied with a nod and I saw John do the same out of the corner of my eye. Without another word, Larim led us down the hallway that he had come from and less than a minute later we were led into a room with high ceilings that reminded me of a school gym. As if to drive home the similarities, it even had padded walls and a rectangle slightly larger than a basketball court marked out in white paint. The key differences were that instead of waxed wooden flooring, the floor was a smooth slab of concrete and there was also a healing machine near the door that we had entered through. The last notable thing about the room was that there was a smirking teenage girl standing on the far side of the painted area. Larim and John immediately took their respective places at the center and near sides of the arena while I uncertainly leaned against the cushioned wall.

Still smirking, the girl brandished a Pokeball that she had been holding behind her back when we'd walked in. "Two days in a row Johnny? You really are getting desperate." Without waiting for a reply, she sent out the Wingull that had been John's bane so far. I couldn't see John's expression from where I had chosen to stand but he sent out his Wooper without any hesitation. Wooper inspected its new surroundings and took a few cautious steps before sitting down on the arena's floor. At the sight of the Pokemon, Sally's eyes went wide for a second before she laughed, "You caught a new Pokemon! I guess this one is at least neutral to water instead of weak to it!"

"If you're quite done, I'd like to start the match," Larim admonished from the sidelines while giving Sally a flat look that instantly killed her mirth. When she gave a weak nod, Larim looked over at John whose nod was much firmer. "Very well. The single Pokemon match between the beginner challenger John Zimmerman and junior gym trainer Sally Page begins… Now!"

"Let's go Wingull! Water Gun!" Sally immediately ordered and her Wingull flew forward at what I thought was a comically slow speed before I realized that I had just gotten used to Blitz.

"Dodge!" John yelled out, but Wooper didn't move and instead simply watched the approaching Wingull from its position on the floor. John audibly groaned at the Pokemon's disobedience but otherwise stayed silent and didn't try to give any other orders.

"Seriously Johnny, did you train it at all?" Sally taunted, missing the look of disapproval she earned from Larim. "Full power Wingull!"

The seagull Pokemon opened its mouth at the command and a heavy stream of water burst out towards Wooper and completely covered the sitting Pokemon. When we could once again see Wooper, the Pokemon seemed to be completely unaffected by the attack and was simply rocking back and forth in the large puddle that it was laying on. The rest of us watched in silence as the Pokemon happily said its own name before starting to suck most of the puddle into its body with a loud slurping sound that made me wish I could shut off my ears. My own discomfort was nothing next to Sally's, who was cringing and looking like she would rather be anywhere else. After a few seconds, the noise mercifully stopped and was replaced by the sound of Wooper happily slapping its tail against the last remains of the puddle.

"What was that?!" Sally exclaimed while Wingull leisurely flew back to her side of the field.

"Water Absorb," John answered smugly, "It negates any water attack that Wooper is hit by and makes them heal him instead."

"Ugh, that's so-" Sally started to say but cut herself off. "...Whatever. Switch to Quick Attack Wingull."

"Let's show her a real Water Gun Wooper," John commanded as Wingull started flying forward with much greater speed than it had on its previous approach. Wooper finally decided to stand up and after bracing his tail against the floor, opened his mouth wide to release a solid stream of water at Wingull. Likely because of its resistance, Sally and her Pokemon decided to power through and continue flying directly into Wooper's attack. The jet of water made Wingull slow significantly, but the seagull Pokemon still managed to make it all the way to Wooper and lightly hit him.

While Wooper was only forced back an inch from the hit, the continued force of the Water Gun knocked Wingull back several feet now that it was no longer being propelled forward by its own attack. Finally stopping the stream of water, Wooper happily absorbed the remains of the puddle that had formed around him before firing a single smaller jet of water at Wingull, who was still trying to regain its bearings.

"Behind you!" Sally desperately tried to warn her Pokemon, but it was unable to react in time and Wooper's attack hit dead on. The small amount of lift that Wingull had managed to achieve was completely lost and the flying type plummeted to a heap on the floor. Just as Sally opened her mouth to issue a new command, Larim coughed loudly and she hesitated. After standing still for several seconds, Sally sighed and returned Wingull. "Congratulations John."

"Sally has forfeited, John is the winner of today's match," Larim announced. I suddenly felt an odd urge to clap John on the back but decided not to, unsure if that would be weird.

For someone that had lost four times in a row, John's reaction was surprisingly muted. He slowly walked to Wooper's side and knelt before rubbing the Pokemon's head. He then nodded gratefully at Sally, "Thanks for the battles."

Sally waved dismissively before making her way back to the door that she had entered the room through. She paused for a moment before ducking out of sight and added, "Good luck against Aeric."

"Well done John," Larim said before turning his attention to me. "Are you ready for your match Thomas?"

I still felt far from ready, but nodded anyway and moved forward to where John had been standing during the battle, "Yeah."

The judge nodded back before grabbing a walkie-talkie from his belt and saying something into it. When he was finished, he reclipped the device and said, "Frank will be here in about a minute and we can get started right away."

Realizing that he was still in the middle of an arena that would soon be in use, John stood up and returned Wooper before making his way over towards me. My nerves must have been showing, because he said assuredly, "You've got this." Without waiting for a reply, he walked past me to stand at the same section of wall that I had been leaning against during his battle.

While I waited for my opponent to arrive, I unclipped Blitz's Pokeball and nervously rubbed my thumb across it. Movement from within the ball caught my attention and I saw that Blitz was readily flapping his wings, though I suspected that he was psyching himself up rather than reacting to my anxious movements. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long since the door at the far side of the arena opened again to reveal a man in his mid-thirties holding a Pokeball. He silently walked to his section of the arena before nodding to Larim and sending out a Rowlet that gracefully landed on the floor. While John muttered something about unfairness to rock types, I scrambled to readjust my grip on Blitz's Pokeball so I could press its button and likewise send out my flying type.

"This match will be a single Pokemon battle between the beginner challenger Thomas Fitzgerald and senior gym trainer Frank Moore," Larim announced while slowly turning to look at both of us. "Begin!"

"Attack Blitz," I ordered, not that he needed any prompting. As soon as Larim had said 'begin,' Blitz had rocketed forward towards his grounded opponent.

"Growl and Peck," Frank softly said.

With a beat of its wings and an extremely loud 'Rooo,' Rowlet took to the sky and carefully watched Blitz's approach, though it didn't have to wait long for the other Pokemon to arrive. Right before Blitz reached Rowlet, the owl Pokemon reared back its head and its beak started to glow white. At the same time that Blitz's Quick Attack connected, Rowlet jabbed its head forward and hit Blitz with its glowing beak. The two Pokemon were knocked backward from the blows, though I noticed that it took a split second longer for Blitz to regain his bearings than it did Rowlet.

As soon as he was able to do so, Blitz once again shot towards his opponent. Without any other ideas, I shouted after my Pokemon, "Avoid Rowlet's beak, get around it!"

This time Frank's eyes narrowed as Blitz approached, and he simply said, "Dodge." Rowlet flapped its wings again to gain more altitude and get out of Blitz's path, making it so that Blitz darted below. Without hesitation, Blitz arced upwards and nailed his opponent in the back. Rowlet plummeted from the blow but before it could hit the ground or recover, it vanished in a beam of red light.

"Frank has forfeited, Thomas is the winner!" Larim announced as if nothing odd had just happened.

I glanced behind me and saw that John looked just as confused as I felt. When I turned around, my opponent had almost made his exit, though he gave me a curt nod before leaving. I wasn't sure if it was in agitation or celebration, but Blitz was flying tight circles around the arena. Oddly, his beak appeared to be softly glowing which I'd never noticed before.

"Uh, not that I'm not happy, but what just happened?" I asked incredulously as John walked up next to me and grunted in agreement.

"We don't usually see first-time gym challengers here," Larim started as he walked closer to us. "Because of that, I made sure to tell them to try not too hard to come back if they're down."

John grumbled softly, "So the fact that I got beaten four times-"

"Was an unfortunate oversight and one that I apologize for. It hadn't been brought to my attention before today how many challenges you had made." Larim said with a solemn look that seemed to satisfy John.

While that explained why John's opponent hadn't fought to the end, I was still baffled by my own victory. "Alright, sure, but I wasn't really winning. He gave up the second we landed a halfway decent hit." John lightly elbowed me in the side to get me to stop complaining about a win, but I almost felt cheated out of a battle.

Larim smiled widely, "Ah, for the answer to that, I would suggest you take a look at your Pokedex. Regarding next steps, I'll attempt to get gym leader Aeric in here as soon as possible, though it could be a bit of a wait depending on how his other challenges are going… and other matters. In the meantime, you can heal your Pokemon and I'll get someone to bring in some lunch for you all."

Neither of us had any objections so we hummed our agreement before we curiously turned our attention to my Poryphone. When I loaded up the Pokemon app, I immediately scrolled past Peren's entry since there hadn't been any changes since I had looked at it in the lobby. On the other hand, Blitz's section had its first meaningful change since I caught him and John whistled appreciatively when he read the screen over my shoulder.

Blitz [Fletchling, Normal/Flying]
Male
Dislikes: Dry
Moves: Quick Attack, Peck
Ability: Gale Wings

"Daaang," John said slowly, "Gale Wings will do you a ton of good."

I nodded silently, though at the moment I was just glad that he finally used a move other than Quick Attack. I never would have thought that I would be excited by a basic bird learning Peck, but here I was. Realizing that I hadn't actually said anything to him since the battle had ended, I called out to the still-circling flying type, "Hey Blitz! Awesome job out there!" He immediately banked over to us and proudly landed on my shoulder before lightly pecking the side of my head. I couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah, yeah, alright. Let's get you all healed so you're ready for the real battle."

Larim had slipped out of the hall at some point, so John and I healed our Pokemon and then waited for the gym leader's arrival. Sally ended up being the one who ended up bringing us and our Pokemon some snacks, which was a duty that she clearly displeased to have received though John seemed to think it was quite amusing for some reason. John and I had been provided with corndogs of all things while the Pokemon had been given an assortment of poffins. Thankfully, it turned out that Peren, Blitz, and Wooper all liked different kinds of poffins while Rockruff had no clear preference, which meant that there were no disputes over who got which ones.

Not too long after we had finished off our food, the doors at the far side of the gym suddenly burst open to reveal a man in his late twenties with light blue hair with a large smile. "Alright! Let's get this started!" He exclaimed as he eagerly moved to the edge of the arena.

John and I started at the presumed gym leader's sudden appearance, and I realized that we hadn't actually discussed the order we would have our battles. "You go first," I said and took a step back from the arena. "You've been waiting longer."

John shook his head, "No, you first. I wouldn't even be here without your help."

Before I could give my rebuttal, the gym leader's expression fell and he loudly interrupted us, "Wait wait wait." When we'd turned towards him, he frowned and looked at Larim, who had entered behind at a much more reserved pace. "You didn't tell them?"

"I thought that, as the gym leader, it was your duty to inform them," the judge replied without pausing on his way to his spot on the sideline.

"Ugh, fine, we'll do it your way," the gym leader grumbled with a roll of his eyes before returning his full attention to us. When he started speaking again, it was in a mockingly formal voice. "I am Aeric Light, the gym leader of St Cloud and I have a proposition for you both. Alas, I am challenged by scant few beginner trainers so I have but one team prepared for such a challenge. Due to this great failing, I humbly propose the following: a double battle where you may use two Pokemon apiece. I will battle with the two Pokemon in my beginner team and one Pokemon from my novice roster." When he finished, Aeric glared at Larim before eagerly returning his attention to us.

Theatrics aside, I wasn't sure what to make of the challenge. Sure we would have a numbers advantage, but I had next to no clue how to approach a double battle. Even in the games, I did my best to avoid them because it was always aggravating when both NPC Pokemon would gang up on one of my own. On the other hand, I still had very little experience with real-life Pokemon battles, so it wasn't as if I would be abandoning a wealth of single battle knowledge.

John likely appeared just as uncertain as I felt because Larim broke the silence and assured, "You don't have to accept. You could still both have normal challenges instead."

"Come on, it would be awesome. Beginner fights are always so boring," Aeric whined, earning a glare from his judge. "Argh, how about this. If you two win, I'll double the prize money."

My eyes went wide at the offer and I nodded vigorously. I wasn't sure what the baseline prize amount was, but doubling it would surely go a long way if we managed to pull off a win. Somewhat surprisingly, John was equally enticed by the offer judging from how quickly and loudly he said, "Yes!"

Aeric's grin returned and he did a small fist pump, "Alright! Send out your first Pokemon!" He retrieved two Pokeballs from his belt but waited for us to make our decisions before releasing the Pokemon within.

"Blitz," I decided without hesitation and the small bird shot past me into the arena. I still wasn't confident in how well Peren would do against most flying types and I didn't want to start the battle with a bad matchup. John was equally decisive and Wooper waddled into the arena after Blitz when he was likewise called on. As soon as we had made our decisions, Aeric eagerly pressed the buttons on the Pokeballs he was holding, making a Doduo and Ledbya materialize in front of him.

Larim nodded to himself once all of the Pokemon were on the field, "This will be a double battle challenge betwe-"

"C'mon!" Aeric complained loudly, "Let's just go!"

The judge gave a long-suffering sigh. "Fine. Begin!"


A/N: I apologize for how long it took these last two chapters to come out. My June and July were absolutely insane, but things are back to normal now so updates should be coming in quicker going forward. I'm really pleased with what I have planned for the next two and can't wait to start working on them.

Once again, thanks to krazykz for the beta. He got sick while reading the chapter which I can only assume is my fault.

The battle for the badge (and more importantly, money) is up next with Chapter 7: Doubles Troubles.