Chapter 11B
Brendan walked over to the entrance to the Petalburg gym. He breathed in, then out. It had been a hectic day, and it was time to end it with earning a badge. He took a deep breath, then stepped into the gym.
He immediately noticed a lack of trainers in the gym. He initially was surprised, but quickly realized this was actually logical. He hadn't seen anybody other than Ethan at the lab, and nobody outsped him on their way here, so it was unlikely he'd meet anybody. When he looked closer, it was apparent that there was a person waiting for new trainers. Brendan recognized him as Norman, the old leader. That "smaller job" was probably the welcomer. Brendan raised his hand to wave to Norman, hoping May would call the old leader over. To his relief, he felt himself ask Norman if he could challenge the gym.
Norman turned to face him, nodded, then pulled a cord. He then turned to face Brendan, and said "Welcome to the Petalburg Gym."
May asked for Brendan "Norman, right?"
Norman nodded, saying "Yes."
"Kid, i'm going to tell you the basics of pokemon gyms. The first part will be told every time you visit a gym, and the second part will tell you the gym's special mechanic."
"First off, your number of badges will change the difficulty of the gym. You have none, so the gym will have a low level team. After that, you will have to go through the gym's ace trainers while traversing the gym's specific gimmick. Here for the balance badge, you have to go through three groups of rooms. Behind me are two doors, labeled Speed and Accuracy. These labels tell you what the room specializes in. The speed room, for example, has a trainer that excels in speed. You only need to beat three to get to James, the leader, but you get more pokedollars if you beat more."
"Good luck."
With that, Norman nodded and left Brendan to get through the trainers. Brendan sprinted over to the doors. The left door read Accuracy, and the right one read Speed. He heard himself whisper "I think i'll go for the accuracy room"
Brendan typed in "The left door, right?" He was surprised when May disagreed, thinking it was the right door. He checked what May was seeing quickly, and saw that for her, the labels were reversed. They would have to fight a different room.
Brendan actually wanted to fight the speed room. Worried that May would change her choice for him unnecessarily, so he let her know he was ok with choosing speed. May smiled hearing this, and subsequently walked to the left door. The knob was grabbed, and the door was pulled open.
Time to beat the gym.
Authors note: Happy New Years! (At time of release, 2021 is ending.) In terms of the story, the first gym has begun.