Book II: Impending Twilight

Chapter 81: The Second Gym

Point of View Black

"It's too early for this crap," I muttered as I fought to keep my tired eyes open.

"What, it's only like seven in the morning?" Hesh sarcastically responded to me.

"I'm too tired to argue with you," I responded as I let out a yawn.

Our whole entire team walked down the streets of Cyllage, and we made our way towards the second gym. It was about time that we got to this, plus I was curious to see how this gym varied from the first one we went through. I was interested in tearing this gym apart, after all we've been through, this would be a walk in the park.

After a long walk, we eventually came to the outskirts of the city.

"This is the second gym?" I said in amazement as I looked up the gigantic mountain in front of us.

"Well, it's all the way up there I believe," Flare said as he pointed up the gigantic mountain.

"Fuck this; I'm not climbing up that!" I complained as I looked at the mountain that towered over us.

Flare jabbed my arm with his paw, "Language," he whispered to me as he looked over towards Ebony, who was curiously staring at me.

"Right," I said as I gave an understanding nod, since I had to watch my toilet mouth around a child.

"So, you guys ready to hike up this behemoth?" Alex asked us as he faced a steep trail that would lead us to the second gym.

"No…" I said as I dreaded the thought of walking up this thing.

"Well, Black's ready, so let's go," Alex said, as he began to lead us up the mountain trail.

"I am not ready!" I piped up at Alex.

"That's the spirit!" Alex replied back gleefully.

One hour, nine minutes, and twenty-four point five seconds later

I pulled myself up a giant step and once I pulled myself over I collapsed on the ground breathing heavily. Every muscle in my body ached, and I was already at my limit. After a few seconds of panting in exhaustion, Alex climbed up the step I climbed up, and soon everyone followed him.

Alex was quick to sit down and pull out a bottle of water and begin chuggingit. Flare collapsed on the ground next to me, while Gray and Hesh both sat down and took a moment to repose themselves. Kana and Ebony where the last two to climb up, Kana assisted Ebony on getting up the ledge, and after the two collapsed to the ground.

"We made it," Flare panted as he managed to force himself up, and he gestured towards the entrance to the second gym.

"I'm… I'm done," I panted as I looked towards the gym entrance.

After we all spent around twenty minutes recovering, we all pulled ourselves off the rocky ground, and headed towards the entrance of the gym. My muscles still ached, but I was going to have to force myself through this. Losing wasn't an option; there was no way in Hell I was going to climb back up this mountain.

Our group walked through the entrance that was in the side of the mountain, and we walked down a long dark hall. After a moment, we entered an opening, and a bright light blinded us for a moment. Currently we all stood in a big opening in a cave. And in the middle of this cave was another gigantic mountain. A variety of crystals stuck out of the walls, and added an interesting design to the room, and at the top of the room there were some stadium lights that illuminated the whole room.

At the very top of the room, I spotted a man standing at the top, with his arms crossed. He wore a black long sleeved shirt and some gray pants that were rolled up a little past his ankles. This man appeared to be black, and for some reason he had shiny gems in his hair. I know humans have some weird styles, but this one took the cake.

"Welcome to the Cyllage gym!" The man yelled down to us with a cheerful smile that was rather welcoming. "I don't suppose you all came all the way up here for fun, did you?" the man replied.

"We're here to challenge you," Alex shouted to the man with a smirk.

"Well then, you'll have to climb up here if you wish to challenge me," the gym leader responded.

My eyes grew wide as I looked at the mini mountain again. This one was steep, it'd be impossible for a pokemon without gripping power to climb up that.

"Okay, I did not climb up here just to climb another mountain," I stated in anger as I began walking away towards the exit.

"Well what about my pokemon, not all of them can climb something that steep?" Alex questioned.

"Well they can take the elevator," The gym leader said as he pointed towards the entrance to an elevator. I quickly stopped walking away and I turned towards the elevator he pointed out.

"Well, can't I just ride up the elevator as well?"

"Well if you insist on it, but I highly recomm-"

"Alrighty, I'll be up there in a second!" Alex shouted, interrupting the gym leader. The man frowned as our group got into the elevator and Alex pushed a button, and the doors shut.

"Alright guys, remember to try your hardest, I don't think any of us want to make a second trip up here," Alex warned us, and we all nodded in agreement. "Flare, Kana, Hesh, I hate to say this, but you two won't be able to do much since neither of you have a type advantage. So, I'll strongly be relying on Black and Gray," Alex said as he looked in my direction. "Ebony, I know you're still young, so I'm not going to force you to fight, since you aren't trained yet."

"Ehh, I was never looking forward to this gym," Flare pouted as he looked down in disappointment.

"Yeah, Just let Black and Gray take the beatings, not like I'm in a hurry to die," Hesh teased.

"They'll do fine, no one is dying," Kana reassured us.

After Kana's words, the door to the elevator opened up. We all walked out of the elevator and all of us stared in amazement at the huge arena in front of us. Many stadium lights shined down onto the arena, and scattered throughout the arena were many boulders. Standing on one side of the arena was the gym leader. We all walked towards the gym leader, and we stopped once we were on the opposite side of the arena.

"You know, I would have recommended climbing up here, you'd be surprised on-"

"I don't feel like falling and breaking my neck," Alex stated, and the gym leader just froze up at the statement.

"Well, if you insist. But anyways, my name is Grant, pleasure to meet you," Grant said.

"My name is Alex, nice to meet you as well," Alex responded with a friendly smile.

"You know the game, right?" Grant questioned Alex.

"Wouldn't have made it this far if I didn't," Alex said with a smirk.

"I have three pokemon, so you're allowed to choose three as well," Grant said as he unsnapped a pokeball of his belt and held it out.

"Black, Gray, and…" Alex said as he began to look at my remaining team members "and Kana, I feel like your speed will come in handy, even if you don't have a type advantage. Plus, there could be a pokemon you could be useful against," Alex said.

"I'll try my best," Kana said with a forced smile. I could easily tell she was nervous, she was never much of a fighter, but I have seen her handle herself a few times.

"Black, why don't you go first," Alex suggested.

"Ughh, I'm still sore," I whined as I began to walk onto the arena, "Let's just make this quick, I am not happy after having to climb up this mountain," I said with a growl directed towards Grant.

"Alright, not a bad pick, but I got something that'll pose a good challenge for you," Grant said as he cocked his arm back and threw his pokeball. A bright flash shined as a giant snake like creature submerged from the shining light.

"Go get him Rocky!" Grant shouted as his pokemon began to take a form.

"No… No-no, this is a fucking joke, right?" I said in disbelief as a giant onix slithered towards me as its body left a trail in the solid ground. "Alex! Alex I don't want a part of this, pull out the white flag!" I yelled as the onix threw its whole body at me, and I dove out of the way. Once the onix hit the ground, I felt a strong tremor go through the ground, and I realized how heavy that thing was.

"Okay seriously, this isn't even fair! I'm like three feet tall, I'm nowhere near that thing's size!" I complained as the onix got back up, and began slithering towards me again.

"Black stay on guard, just be evasive and wait for an opening!" Alex shouted at me. Right as he finished up, the onix flung its tail towards me. My eyes widened as the rocky tail swatted me like a bug, I flew through the air until I collided with a boulder. For a moment I blacked out, I only regained my consciousness in time to see the onix coming in for the finishing blow. Head first the onix dove towards me, still on the ground, I rolled out of the way and quickly got to my feet right before the onix smashed into the ground. I quickly jumped towards the onix and began clawing at its face as fast as I could, then I got the bright idea to punch it, but I soon found out how hard an onix was.

"Ahh, shit!" I yelled as I jumped back, keeping weight off my right paw, which was now aching, "And that's the paw I just broke too," I whimpered as I winced from the pain.

"That tickled, little umbreon," the onix known as Rocky said in a deep male voice.

"Okay really asshole, do you think this is fair in the slightest bit? I'm like three feet, how big are you?" I questioned him with an aggressive snarl.

"I register at about twenty-nine feet," the onix answered with a taunting chuckle.

"Arceus…" I said in frustration as I began to wonder how I was going to win this battle.

"Game over, umbreon!" the onix shouted as the snake like creature lunged at me again. I quickly moved out of the way and barely avoided getting squashed by the onix.

"Black now!" Alex shouted, "Use quick attack!" Alec commanded.

Despite it being pointless, I jumped on top of the onix and I began clawing at the top of its head. The onix soon rose up, and I began to rise up with him, many feet from the ground. I quickly dug my claws into a crease in the Onix's head, and I held on for dear, sweet life as the onix dove forward with me still on its back. When I was an eevee, I had always wondered what a rollercoaster was like. Well today I got my answer, and I hate the idea now.

"Alex end this!" I shouted as the onix slithered around the arena at light speed as it thrashed its body around. I could quickly feel myself becoming noxious, and I felt as if I was going to throw up. "Stop, I'm going to-" I was saying before the onix came to a dead stop and I flung off its head. Time moved in slow motion as I flew through the air. I could see all of my teammates looking at me with a worried expressions. Suddenly, I crashed into a boulder, and I let out a loud gasp as I felt the wind get knocked out of me.

"Black!" Alex shouted in concern as he refrained himself from running on the arena.

I let out a groan as I rolled over onto my stomach and I pushed myself up. "This is bullshit," I muttered as I fell back down, but I quickly forced myself up, so they wouldn't call the match.

"Black, if you can't go on just stay down, it's alright to lose!" Kana yelled in concern. I looked over towards her, and I could see all the worry in her eyes. For some reason this sparked a second wind within me.

"One more try," I said in a weak voice as I completely got up.

The onix was now slithering towards me. I felt myself beginning to panic as it made its way towards me. Honestly, I was terrified at the moment. This thing was just shrugging off my attacks, and I couldn't do crap to it. As the onix slithered closer to me, I began walking backwards from it, until I felt one of my hind legs go off the edge. I quickly looked down to see the long drop, I gulped as I looked at the fall that would easily kill me.

"Any last words?" the onix asked me, as he slithered towards me.

"Actually, I do," I said with a sneer. "You hit like a magikarp, seriously, for your big bulky body you suck!" I shouted at him as I showed a toothy grin.

"Don't antagonize me!" the onix shouted back at me in fury.

"What's the matter big guy, don't like being talked down to?" I snidely replied, "Come on, prove me wrong, go full throttle wimp," I taunted. The onix let out a loud roar that caused the entire ground to shake, and the onix dove straight towards me. I clenched my teeth tightly as I waited for the last second, and I moved to the side. The onix missed its target, and flew off the ledge like a total klutz.

"That did not just work?" I said in amazement as I watched the onix crash down at the bottom of the mountain. I cringed as I saw debris fly into the air, and mask the onix.

"Will he be alright?" Alex questioned as he ran to the ledge and looked down at the onix.

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Grant responded as he unclipped his next pokeball, "Good job though, not how I expected you to win, but that was clever," Grant said to me.

"I didn't expect to win like that either," I said as I limped off towards my group and collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

"Black you did it!" Flare shouted in excitement as he jumped up in excitement.

"Somehow that worked," I responded.

"Alright, let's move this along," Grant said as he threw his next pokeball, and a flash of light blinded us and an amaura appeared in front of us.

"Kana, it looks like this will be your battle," Alex said as he looked towards Kana with a smile.

Point of View Kana

"M-Me?" I said in surprise as I stepped back nervously, "I really don't know if I'm-"

"You'll do fine!" Flare gleefully said as he gave me a nudge in the arm, "Beside, Black just took down an onix singlehandedly, plus this'll be your only chance to do something, since the next one probably won't be in your favor," Flare told me.

"I'll… I'll try," I said as I nervously stepped onto the arena.

"You got this!" Flare shouted at me from the sideline. I looked back and gave everyone a fake smile, honestly I didn't want to be here. While I did enjoy travelling with everyone, I didn't really like the concept of fighting, it just wasn't something I enjoyed.

"Is your pokemon ready!?" Granted shouted to Alex from the opposite side of the arena.

"Kana?" Alex said as he awaited my response. I looked back at him and noticed the excited look on his face, I could see the confidence he had in me, but I wasn't sure if I'd live up to his expectations. I gave a weak nod towards Alex. "We're ready," Alex shouted to Grant.

"Then the battle begins!" Grant responded and my heart rate instantly spiked up. I quickly inhaled a deep breath as I tried to calm myself, and I waited for Alex to give me a command.

"Kana use thunderbolt, but be ready for oncoming attacks," Alex commanded me. Doing as he said, I began charging the electricity in my body into an attack.

"Amaura, counter it with an ice beam!" Grant commanded right as I shot my thunderbolt. The Amaura did as Grant said, and our two attacks collided. My attack was instantly stopped, but the ice beam continued on towards me. I instinctively jumped to the side, but before I did my shoulder was nicked by the ice beam. A chill ran through my body as my shoulder was practically frozen.

'I'm going to get frostbite if I get hit by that,' I thought to myself as I began to shiver.

"Kana stay on the move, you are faster than amuara, use your speed to your advantage," Alex told me.

Taking his advice, I dashed towards the amuara in a zigzagged pattern. Electricity circuited through my fur, and my speed only accelerated as I neared my target.

"amuara, use powder snow!" Grant commanded.

amuara opened its mouth, and a gust of wind came out of its body with snow . I quickly felt the chill of the breeze, and I dashed around the sting of the cold. Once I dodged it, I slammed my hip into the amuara's side and all the electricity circuiting through my body shocked the amaura. The dinosaur creature let out a high pitched whine as it tumbled to the ground.

"Use mist!" Grant desperately shouted. The amuara then opened its mouth, and blew a chilling mist that sent chills down my spine. I shivered as I jumped back away from the amaura. Then out of nowhere, I felt a bunch of sharp pricks in my side. I let out a loud shriek as I flinched back, and moved back even further. I scanned the area carefully, but due to the thick mist I couldn't see anything. Seeing that I had a moment, I looked at my left side and I saw multiple shards of ice sticking out of my side with blood dripping down. I placed my maw over one of the shards, and I pulled it out, my wound was instantly filled with a sharp stinging pain that made me wince.

"Use ice beam!" Grant shouted. I quickly ducked down just in time to avoid getting hit by a concentrated beam of ice. The beam aimlessly sliced through the mist, and I ran towards the direction of the beam, knowing exactly where my target was. Electricity began to circulate through my body again. The fog began to clear up, and right as my target became visible, it noticed me.

"Hail!" Grant commanded. Amuara launched a series of sharp needles towards me. I held my head low to keep my eyes safe. Multiple shards punctured me, but I continued to run towards my opponent as my body screamed for me to stop. Once I was close enough, I tackled the amuara with everything I had, and the dinosaur let out a loud cry as I electrocuted it. I quickly moved back to safe distance as the amaura crashed down onto the ground.

In a final desperate attempt the amaura shot another ice beam towards me. I quickly jumped out of the way. I then lunged towards the amaura as fast as I could, while electricity ran through my fangs. I bit down as hard as I could on the dinosaur's side, and it let out a loud whine as it fell limp, and almost appeared lifeless until its muscles started having spasm from the electricity running through its body.

"I did it?" I said in an unsure tone as I backed away from the amaura.

"Well, your jolteon packs a strong electrical charge, I didn't actually expect her to take down my amaura in two attacks?" Grant said in amazement.

"I guess she's a diamond in the rough, she's full of surprises," Alex said as he shot me a cheerful smile. A smile managed to creep on my face as well, and I actually felt good about myself overcoming this challenge with very little struggle.

"So, one more pokemon to go Alex, are you switching out your jolteon, or are you sending in your absol?"

"What do you want to do Kana?" Alex asked me.

"I think I've had enough for today," I said as I walked off the arena, and stood in the sidelines with everyone else.

"You did great Kana, see that wasn't bad at all," Flare said with a gleeful smirk.

"I'd say you even did better than Black, who only won by being cheap," Hesh added in.

"Lay off it, it's like fifty times my size!" Black yelled at Hesh as he pried himself off the ground.

"Gray, it's your turn, let's finish this strong," Alex called back to Gray, who was sitting away from the group in solitude.

Point of View Gray

I stepped onto the arena and I faced Grant as I awaited him to reveal my opponent. No matter what he threw at me, I was going to surpass them.

"Brace yourself, this last one is my strongest pokemon," Grant said as a smirk formed on his face. Grant unclipped a pokeball off his belt, and he tossed it out onto the arena and a tyrunt came out of the ball. The dinosaur growled at as it revealed it razor sharp teeth.

"Are you ready, Gray?" Alex asked me. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and gave a nod. "We're ready when you are," Alex said to Grant.

"Great, then the battle begins," Grant replied back.

A moment of silence passed by, no one made a single noise. A small smirk then appeared on my face out of nowhere. This battle may have actually been somewhat challenging if I didn't have a type advantage, or from the fact that I have been put into a lot of fights recently that would make this fight seem like no big deal. This tyrunt wasn't intimidating in the slightest, I have seen far worse in the past few weeks.

"Rex, use crunch!" Grant shouted at his tyrunt.

I chuckled to myself as I watched the dinosaur charge at me with its mouth ready to gnaw on me. I didn't even wait for Alex's command. I charged up an ice beam in my mouth, and instead of shooting it at the tyrunt, I shot it at the ground below it and created a sheet of ice leading towards me. The tyrunt let out a confused screech as it lost its footing, and tripped on the ice sheet. It slid on the sheet, and I jumped in the air as I charged another attack. I launched my attack at the peak of my jump, and razor sharp hail rained down on the tyrunt. The dinosaur let out a pained roar as its skin was impaled, and left gashes across its body.

"Rex, dragon claw!" Granted desperately commanded. With another attempt at a fierce roar, the tyrunt charged straight at me as its claws began to glow with a strange purple energy.

"Just sloppy and predictable," I whispered to myself as the tyrunt slashed its claws at me horizontally. I ducked under the attack, and I thrusted my horn at the tyrunt's stomach. Luckily I held back, if I didn't the tyrunt's stomach contents would be all over the ground right now. I withdrew my horn from the minor gash in its stomach, and I leapt back from my foe.

The tyrunt panted in pain as I just watched his every movement. The tyrunt held its wound with one of its hands. "You're pretty good, absol," the tyrunt spoke to me as he began to pant. "I guess I am expected to lose from time to time, since things have to be fair. But, your whole team seems to be a bit ahead of this gym level," the tyrunt stated.

"We've all been through a lot, a fight like this is considered a break for us," I replied back bluntly, not even sure why I bothered talking to him.

"Let's finish this!" the tyrunt yelled out of nowhere, and he charged at me with his teeth ready.

I just sighed as he snapped at me with his teeth. I flinched back, and avoided losing a chunk of my body. He swung his claws at me, and I moved every time, not feeling the slightest bit threatened. His speed was pathetic compared to the riolu I fought… The riolu I should have killed.

In one final desperate attempt, the tyrunt threw his whole body at me. I quickly jumped on him, and used his head as a jumping pad as I made my way into the air. With my back facing him in the air, I leaned back in a flip manner, and I shot an ice beam at him as he looked back at me. The beam contacted his face, and sent him tumbling to the ground with half of his face frozen.

Once I finished my back flip, I walked towards the fallen tyrunt. "It wasn't a bad fight, but work on being less predictable, try not to be so head on," I suggested as I walked past him, and headed towards my group.

"Way to go Gray!" Alex shouted in excitement as he ran towards me, and pulled me into a hug and lifted me off the ground.

"Wha-stop!" I shouted in discomfort. After a moment, Alex saw my discomfort, and he set me back down on the ground.

"Heh-heh, sorry, I was just excited," Alex replied back with a nervous chuckle.

"Well, great job Gray, you went flawless in that fight," Kana said with a cheery smile.

"It's no big deal, it's not like we haven't seen worse," I responded back, and the jolteon frowned since I was probably being a 'kill joy'.

After a few minutes of everyone excitedly celebrating, Grant walked over towards us, and knelt down to our level.

"Well, you three really impressed me. I've seen some tough teams walk through here, but you all mostly went flawless against me, that's something you don't see every day," Grant praised us.

"Thank you," Kana replied, and even though Grant didn't understand her completely, he got the gist of it and playfully roughed up the fur on her head.

Grant then looked back at Alex, "It took me a bit to realize this, but you're the one who was on the news. You're actually a pretty popular story, even if you are anonymous to everyone," Grant said.

"And what would make you think that?" Alex said tensely, as he and Grant peered at each other.

"Simple, some of your pokemon were listed on the news, and it was stated that you were a trainer as well. I had a feeling I might run into the very person that had pokemon that managed to survive an attack from such infamous killers. It's no surprise my team lost, but I don't mind losing to a worthy opponent any day," Grant honestly stated.

"Listen, I'd prefer if we keep this quiet, last thing I want is to draw attention my way," Alex stated.

"Of course, I wasn't going to go alerting the media or anything, personally I'd understand not wanting to be reminded of that night constantly, so of course I'll promise to keep silent."

"Thanks, I really do appreciate that," Alex said, as he extended his hand out towards Grant, "And thank you for battling my team."

"Usually I'm the one going for the handshakes," Grant said as he shook Alex's hand. Right as they finished, Grant reached into his pocket and pulled out a badge. "According to the rules you've earned this," Grant said as Alex accepted his second gym badge.

"Thanks, it means a lot," Alex said, with a smile now replacing his tense mood from a moment ago.

After a few minutes we all rode down the elevator, and we made the long journey down the mountain. After a long descending trip, we finally ended up at the bottom of the mountain, and we headed back into the city.

Everyone throughout our team talked amongst each other as I walked in silence. Black, Flare, Hesh, and Kana all talked amongst each other, while Ebony followed a few steps behind. That left Alex and I. While Alex couldn't talk, and Ebony was just timid and shy, I guess I was some kind of an outcast from the social group in our team. Flare and I had grown distant since it was revealed that I had a problem with umbreons, Kana and I had conflicting personalities, Hesh and I barely knew each other and he seemed to be the type to like groups, and Black resented me, I could see it in his eyes every time we talked, or perhaps I'm paranoid. Though, if he did, I couldn't blame him. I did most of this damage to myself through my own ignorance.

"Ebony, aren't you excited?" Kana suddenly asked the eevee that was walking behind the group.

Ebony jumped upon the random question, "I- I am," she answered timidly. I swear that child is a ghost or something, she rarely talked to anyone, every conversation was also forced on her, I honestly forget she exists at times... Even though she was the youngest out of the group, she was accepted much more than someone like me. I let out a chuckle, I guess to an extent I was a bit saddened that I did this to myself. I'm not blaming no one, I just wish I would have had a better mindset back then. The most attention I received was from my victory, other than that I was shut out from the group.

After a while, everyone went out to get dinner somewhere to celebrate. Instead, I decided to go my own way for the night, and spend my time alone. The sun was now setting, and the moon was slowly ascending into the sky. I lied on my back out in a field of grass outside of Cyllage, I gazed up to the moon and stars as I felt a cold breeze blow through the air.

'The moon, the very thing umbreons yearn for every day.' I thought to myself, as I tried to imagine what it felt like to get my energy from the moon.

'Eclipse was always basking in the moonlight,' I thought to myself. My thoughts of Eclipse were comforting at first, and I remembered the good times we had, but my thoughts soon went towards his final actions. I soon rolled over onto my side, and I stood up as I dug my claws into the ground.

"Dammit, why?" I said in melancholy as my losses rushed into my mind. I remembered everyone's face so clearly, they were the ones who accepted me. To this day, I constantly yearned to reform the WPA, and to carry on the hopes and dreams of my real friends.

Every day that went by was another day wasted in this pathetic life. I honestly couldn't care less about the eight gym badges, it was honestly just something to distract me from what I really wanted to do. Kill Eclipse in the most violent way possible. I swore I wouldn't, but the thought was just too satisfying, it was so pleasing to imagine him suffering and begging me for mercy after what he did.

A psychotic chuckle exited my mouth as my eyes began to feel heavy. "Don't worry Aaron, I'm just venting, a promise is a promise," I reassured my dead friend who I liked to think was watching me from the afterlife.

Chapter End

Author Note: Well, hopefully I didn't do to bad on this gym battle. Also, I don't watch the anime and I only play the game, so I may have not nailed Grant's character 100% but I think it'll work. No matter what, this can't be worse than my first attempt at the first gym leader. Anyways, hopefully this was enjoyable.

Question: How do you think Gray would respond if he met Eclipse again? (The umbreon that betrayed Gray).