Will grew more anxious as the gym building drew nearer on the horizon. Before he knew it, they were at the front door. It looked like any ordinary doorway on the outside but as for the inside, Will still had no way of knowing. This was a new world after all.
"Stop", May commanded. "Max, you wait here and keep an eye of these two. Use my Blaziken if you have to", she concluded, as she handed her brother the poke ball containing the creature, before swiftly moving towards the building's entrance, brushing Will as she moved past, which Will thought quite odd. Just before entering she turned around and moved her fingers up to her eyes, then pointed them in Will and Penny's direction as if to say 'I'm watching you.' She then promptly turned her back to them and walked through the entrance to whatever lay on the other side.
A few minutes later, May re-emerged and informed them that they could now enter. Will felt afraid but he knew he had to protect Penny if there was danger, so he entered first, moving timidly.
After entering a small, rather mundane looking hallway, they turned a corner on their left and came into a large open auditorium which, to their surprise, really was an actual gym! Just minus any basketball hoops or other sporting equipment. The area in centre of the court was also etched with the image of a red poke ball. At the other end stood a man. He was tall and rather handsome, with short black hair which had a purplish hue; a slim-medium build, soft yet manly features which were well proportioned. He wore a dark red jacket with a black collar, blue-grey trousers and black boots.
"Come forward Will and Penny Robinson", he announced, not appearing intimidated by their presence.
As they drew nearer, the man suddenly began eyeballing Penny and himself. He stared only briefly at Penny, before turning his attention to Will, delivering a long and piercing stare. His expression eventually turned from neutral to one of displeasure, before he finally looked away.
"It's very interesting to meet you both", he began in a rather cold manner. "My name's Norman. I'm May and Max's father. I hope you both remembered to thank my daughter for delivering you here safely." Will couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Surely he wasn't serious.
"I don't mean any disrespect sir", Will began, "but your daughter brought us here against our will and threatened to kill us. We just want to get back to our family." The man's face suddenly glowed bright red; he wasn't at all pleased about Will objecting to his daughter's actions.
"Did it occur to you, foolish alien boy, that my daughter was protecting you?"
"Well she sure had a funny way of showing it." The man was now shaking his head incredulously.
"You just don't get it. There are hundreds of people out there searching for you and your party. If my daughter hadn't brought you here you'd almost certainly be dead by now. Even now your lives are still in great danger." Penny was now looking petrified.
"But w-what about out f-family?" She mumbled, as her body began to tremble. "Our dad and our friends are still out there! And our mum and sister are back at the ship", sounding more panicked the longer she spoke. "Is there any way you can help them?"
"I don't know", the man responded matter-of-factly. "Are you able to communicate with them somehow?"
"Yes, maybe", she replied. "We have radio devices which we could use to try to get in touch." She then turned to Will.
"Will, do you want to try to raise Dad?" Will nodded in reply.
Will nervously removed his communicator from his pocket. His hand trembled as he brought the device up to his mouth and began speaking into it: "Dad, can you here me? Come in Dad." There was no answer. Will waited a few seconds before trying again…"come in Dad!" He pleaded. "Dad…"
"Will", his father's voice answered back. "Are you alright?" Will let out a beaming smile, and breathed a massive sigh of relief, before answering back.
"We're fine Dad, well at least Penny and I are. Although we've lost Dr Smith and the robot."
"They returned to the ship a short time ago. They said you ran into some kind of beast, your mother and I were worried sick."
"It's ok Dad, I'll explain later. "Penny and I are going to start making our way back to the ship now."
"No!" He demanded emphatically, "you two stay wherever you are. Don and I have already left the ship again. Can you give us your position?" Will was now nervous again after what Norman had said a short time earlier.
"Ok Dad. Do you know where the town is? It's due south-east of the area where the ship landed. You should come to it after about an hour if you follow one of the tracks through the forest in that direction."
"Yes, I think I know what general direction it's in", he answered calmly. "Once we get to the town, how will we be able to find you?"
"There's a largish building near the middle of the town. It kind of looks like a gymnasium building. It has a white wall, marked with a red ball logo."
"Ok, thank you son. Don and I will be as quick as we can."
"Ok Dad." Will paused for a few moments before speaking again, the anxiety in his voice obvious for all to observe: "and Dad….please be careful, there might be people looking for you."
"Don't worry Son, Don and I can handle anyone who comes our way. Bye now."
"Bye Dad", Will concluded, before placing the device back in his pocket, swallowing hard as he did so.
"I really hope they'll be here soon", Penny noted.
"Yeah, the sooner the better."
"What's your dad like?" asked May sincerely.
"He's my hero." Will replied sentimentally. "He's big and strong, and smart. And he always comes through, even when the odds are completely stacked against us."
"He sounds pretty cool. I'm looking forward to meeting him."
"You've changed your tune pretty quickly", Penny noted wryly.
"Well, I didn't know if I could trust you guys. Besides, you don't know the ways of Pokémon, so I guess I can't judge too harshly about what happened back in the forest", she noted matter of factly.
"Gee, thanks", Will responded sarcastically. "Although", he continued, "we are grateful that you kept us out of danger and brought us to safety...for now at least."
"Don't mention it." (**)
A little over half an hour later, a noise came from outside the gym. Moments after, two large figures emerged from around the corner...Will and Penny breathed a collective sigh of relief.
"Dad, Don!" Will cried, as he and Penny ran up to embrace their father.
"I'm so glad you're both alright", he said, smiling brightly, as he embraced his two youngest children before looking up and across the room, where Norman was standing, while May and Max stood to the side.
"To whom do I owe the pleasure?" Professor Robinson asked, addressing his counterpart.
"My name's Norman. Norman Roberts. I'm the gym leader here at the Petalburg City gym."
"I'm John Robinson. I'm the leader of the Jupiter 2 expedition from the planet earth in the system of Sol. Our destination is the Alpha Centauri system. This is Major Don West, our pilot", introducing Don, "and you've already met my two youngest children, Penny and Will." Will was surprised that their family's surname was so similar to that of his own family. 'Maybe they weren't so different after all', he mused internally.
"A warm welcome to your family Professor Robinson", Norman replied formally. And the pleasure is mine also. Are their additional members of your party?"
"Yes, my wife Maureen; my eldest daughter Judy, and Dr Zachary Smith, as well as our environmental control robot."
"I see", Norman answered, now appearing mildly concerned. "That is a decent sized party, but we'll make do."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, I'm not sure how well informed you are about the current situation but half the town is currently out searching for you and your party, so my family are willing to provide you with refuge until things cool off."
"That's very generous of you. But I should inform you we have at least a full week's worth of repairs ahead of us before we can take off from his planet, even once we can get back to our ship. We don't want to be a burden."
"A week or two is nothing. My wife and I will be happy to make you feel at home."
"We greatly appreciate it Norman. Thank you."
"Yeah, thanks a lot Norman", Don added. "By the way, this is an interesting gym setup you've got here. It's a little different from your regular YMCA", he noted with a smirk on his face. The Professor gave him a disapproving look, while Norman just looked confused.
"Their gyms are different to gyms on earth Don", Will informed him before explaining what relatively little he knew himself at present.
"Pokémon hey", the Major responded with a combination of curious interest and bewilderment. "So, I don't suppose you guys have any animals huh?" Will, Penny and May all shook their heads in response.
"If you and your captain would like", Norman began, "my daughter and I could show you a Pokémon battle?" Don nodded his head in agreement, shortly followed by the Professor.
"We'd really appreciate that", Will answered enthusiastically, as May turned away and blushed.
"So be it", Norman concluded serenely. "May, you use a Pokémon of your choice. As for me, I'll be using Vigoroth."
"Ok Dad", May answered. "In that case, Blaziken, I choose you!" She shouted confidently, as she threw her poke ball into the air, before Will once again noticed the bright red beam of light, which revealed the tall and terrifying multicoloured creature May had used to threaten him and Penny earlier that day.
"Blaziken."
"Vigoroth, I choose you!" Norman responded with an equal amount of vigour.
"Vigoroth."
John and Don momentarily leaned on one another as they attempted to process what they were witnessing. Will and Penny had never seen a battle before but from what May had told them, they knew there were greater shocks yet in store.
Meanwhile, the battle was beginning, as Norman made the first move: "Vigoroth, scratch." The large, ape-like creature summoned by Norman, was suddenly charging at May's Blaziken, gathering a full head of steam. Once it was close enough, it reached out its claws and inflicted multiple scratches on its opponent. However, the Blaziken quickly recovered before launching its own attack, on May's command: "Blaziken, close combat." Her Blaziken was now launching into a barrage of kicks and punches at close range, as its opponent began to retreat.
"Vigoroth, slash", Norman countered, as Vigoroth charged at Blaziken and began attacking, executing several slashing moves with its claws, causing Blaxiken to retreat this time.
"Blaziken, ember." Several small balls of fire shot out of the creature's mouth. However, Will noticed these only seemed to inflict a small amount of damage on the Vigoroth, as he saw May's face beginning to tense up.
"Blaziken, flamethrower", she commanded, with an air of panic in her voice. This time - to Will's surprise - a much larger set of flames emerged from Blaziken's mouth, which shot across the gym floor at a fast pace, cannoning into its opponent, right in the middle of the chest. Vigoroth let out a groan and began to stumble backwards, before regaining its balance. Norman didn't look concerned.
"Vigoroth, focus punch." Vigoroth appeared to stand still for a brief time, Will couldn't make sense of it. Then all of a sudden it began charging down the floor and began pulling its right arm back, looking like it was ready to unload a massive shot on its opponent, before..."Blaziken, slash!" Suddenly, Blaziken began charging at Vigoroth head-on as the later flinched and pulled out of its attack, before succumbing to a barrage of sharp slashing moves from Blaziken, whose thick, bird-like claws inflicted a significant amount of damage on its opponent, who was again groaning in pain.
Will noticed May was now up and about and full of pep. She again was quick in responding to the situation: "Blaziken, brave bird!" She bellowed, sounding full of confidence. He was staring at her admiringly when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Penny staring at him suggestively.
"She's good isn't she", she said with a grin on her face.
"Yeah, she is", Will answered, trying not to smirk with embarrassment, as he quickly avoided Penny's glance and turned back to watch the battle.
May's Blaziken had suddenly launched several feet into the air! It then tucked in its large wings and began a swift dive straight towards its opponent.
"Vigoroth, dodge it and use reversal!" Vigoroth was able to duck and roll out of Blaziken's flight path just in time to avoid contact. It then leapt to its feet and took Blaziken by surprise, just as it was landing. Suddenly, the big ape-like creature was going all out with a flurry of punches and scratches, with Blaziken struggling to find a way out before May commanded it to perform a 'Blaze kick.' The fire-filled kick hit its target around the waist, allowing Blaziken to escape. Will noticed a small spark coming from the area where Vigoroth had been hit.
"Vigoroth, play rough", Norman countered. Vigoroth quickly lunged at Blaziken and began tackling its opponent ferociously, with Blaziken suddenly on the back foot as it dug its heels into the floor, trying its hardest to hold on. Responding to May's pleas, it finally broke free. However, the creature was now beginning to look exhausted. May was looking concerned once more, before passionately calling out her next move: "Blaziken, flame charge!" Blaziken's wings and body began to shine brightly as the creature, encased in flames, tucked in its shoulders and began charging towards its opponent with all the speed it could muster.
"Come on Blaziken, quicker, quicker. We need more speed, come on!" Will noticed the creature was determined to prove itself to its master but it was also clearly exhausted. It began to pick up a modest amount of speed, however it was being asked just a little too much on this occasion.
"Come on Blaziken!" May pleaded. But she would soon regret her overly competitive approach. Just as Blaziken was about to reach its opponent, it began to raise its right leg, hoping to land a decisive blow to its opponent. Instead, it began to lose control of its wall of fire and suddenly, as its shield fell, the wall of fire broke apart completely and embers were scattered across the battlefield in all directions, with some bouncing off the walls of the gym like pinballs.
"Owww", May squealed. One of the embers had hit her. Will, along with the others, immediately ran to her aid. She had a significant burn down the left side of her face, as well as on her left forearm. John turned to Don, "she needs first aid." Don nodded in agreement, before turning around to ask Norman where they could find some. However, much to his surprise, when he turned around there was no one there apart from John, Penny and Will. Norman was still standing in his position at the opposite end of the battlefield, while the boy was still standing off to the side.
"Hey Norman!" He shouted passionately. "What're you doing? She needs help!" However, Norman still looked as composed as usual.
"Come on, She's your daughter!"
"Her injuries will be healed shortly", he answered, once again in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Look Don", John interjected. "He's right!" He exclaimed, placing his hand on May's injured cheek, where the tone of her burns had significantly faded. The same was true of her forearm. They all instinctively breathed a collective sigh of relief before they began to process what was happening as May's burns continued to heal at an accelerated rate before their eyes.
May looked at each of them in turn. They were all wearing the same shocked, horrified expression.
"What's wrong?" She asked. "It was just a battle burn. It happens all the time. They heal in no time at all." But their expressions didn't change one bit. "Will, Penny", she continued softly, "what's the matter?" Will, now with tears in his eyes, composed himself before answering.
"Human's burns don't just heal themselves like that", he answered delicately.
"Well sure they do. That's just the way we're made. Aren't you guys as well?"
"No, we're not", he answered. The full truth was now dawning on May and so it appeared, everyone else present.
"So I guess you guys really are aliens huh?" She observed.
"Oh honey", Norman called out with an air of sarcasm in his voice, "I'd like to have a word", his face now revealing a stern expression as he approached May and the others. May sighed.
"Very well Dad", she conceded, as she climbed off the gym floor and back onto her feet. She began to walk towards her father before momentarily turning back to face the Robinsons and Major West.
"You aliens wait here a minute. We've got a yummy lunch prepared", she notified them with a smile, before turning back around and following her father out, with Max in toe.
