Chapter 3: Chance Encounter

Alex had begun his walk towards the Gym to scout it out 2 mornings after meeting Darius, his Tepig walking in tandem with him through the cobblestone sidewalks of the town. The bakery beside the Pokémon Centre had just opened for the day and the smell of fresh bread nearly lured Tepig into the store, but Alex diverted Tepig and himself from the delicious smell, in a rare demonstration of self-control. Most of the other stores were still closed, except for a fletcher's hut with a wide variety of recurve and compound bows on display.

They had become fairly adept at battling the native wild Pokémon and had beaten every Trainer he had faced out on the routes. Tepig had learned Ember fairly easily and used it to adeptly defeat all the Sewaddle and Patrat that were plentiful around the wooded route through which he had entered the town, and it seemed to be growing stronger at an astonishing clip.

Alex, upon consulting his TMA's map feature, decided to cut through the park across the deserted street in order to take a shortcut. He nearly ran headlong into a young jogger and his Whismur, and his emergency diversion caused him to land in a bush, cutting his forehead and scratching him up. The jogger wordlessly extended his hand to help him up.

"Thanks!" Alex said, but as he was about to head on his way, the man called to him.

"You're a Trainer, correct?" The man, who looked to be around 20 with black hair and brown eyes, looked at him in a way that every Trainer instinctively understood: Battle time.

Without another word, the jogger sent out a Zigzagoon. It began running around in circles upon being sent out, with such speed that it became a spinning brown ball of fur.

"Tepig, use Tackle!" Tepig began to run at the Zigzagoon while squealing loudly, attempting to intimidate its opponent.

"Zigzagoon, tackle it." Zigzagoon used the momentum from its spin to execute an absurdly fast zigzagging Tackle that sent Tepig flying with very little to no effort at all.

"Tepig, you can take more than that!" Tepig began to shoot flames out of its nose when it had regained its footing, realizing this opponent was a force to be reckoned with.

"Pin Missile, now." Zigzagoon's fur stood up on end as multiple needles shot out of its coat.

"Ember, Tepig!" Tepig shot multiple small flames that destroyed the needles, but the burning needles released a nauseating stench upon combusting, distracting Tepig long enough for another round of Pin Missile to hit. The needles caused Tepig to bleed in multiple spots as it squealed in pain.

"Zigzagoon, Headbutt!" Zigzagoon rushed headlong at Tepig, whose Blaze reaction kicked in as it started charging headlong towards Zigzagoon.

"Tepig, what are you doing?" Alex yelled frantically at Tepig. Tepig's body became shrouded in flames as it picked up speed, and it managed to hit Zigzagoon on its side before it could land its attack. Zigzagoon shrieked as the fire singed its fur

"Your Tepig just learned Flame Charge. Congratulations." The trainer said with slight interest, but in a way that betrayed no worry about losing.

"Tepig, keep it up! Ember!" Tepig released much bigger flames from its mouth than before, knocking Zigzagoon back slightly. "Tackle once more! Finish it!"

"Don't be too confident. Dig." Zigzagoon dodged the tackle by quickly burrowing into the ground, tripping Tepig up as it tried not to fall in. Zigzagoon popped up directly underneath Tepig, sending it back to the ground with a Whump as it landed, coughing up blood before it slumped to the ground in defeat.

Alex simply stood, stunned at how a common Zigzagoon could beat his Tepig. His Tepig had beaten all the other Zigzagoons he had encountered before in the wild, so he felt slightly humiliated by the defeat.

"I'm afraid I didn't properly introduce myself yet. I'm Robert, this town's Gym Leader." Robert extended his hand to the stunned Alex, who took a few seconds to clue in and extend his own hand. "Most of my challengers don't put up a fight like that. I'm impressed. Your Tepig is well on its way to evolving, and if you catch one or two more Pokémon and evolve your Tepig into Pignite I suggest you come and challenge my gym."

"Do I have to evolve my Tepig before I'm allowed to battle you again?" Alex asked, somewhat impatiently.

"No, but my gym is all normal-types. Pignite is a fighting-type, so it will have a significant advantage. You'd certainly be able to beat my Zigzagoon, but my Herdier is a different story entirely!" Robert laughed before walking away smiling. "Maybe I'll have a decent challenger for once." He thought to himself.

Robert's main frustration was that most of the trainers in this town were too afraid to battle him, which meant that his Pokémon didn't get as much battling in as they wanted to. He'd been undefeated for 4 months so far, and he was sometimes considered to be the weakest gym leader in the region, along with his buddy Damian, a gym leader two towns over. Of course, the reason he was considered one of the weakest Gym Leaders would partially be because the two hardest gyms in the region were considered to be insurmountable. In fact, only three trainers had conquered the Scaled Castle last year, the Dragon-type gym in the far north.

Robert returned to the gym to find a 12-year-old boy with short brown hair nursing his injured Lillipup and Patrat and digging through his bag for a Potion.

"Hey, Joel." Robert greeted the youth and threw him another Potion.

"Hey, Rob. Some guy came in here earlier with a Snivy and a Gligar and just wiped the floor with Patrat and Lillipup here. He said his name was Darren or Darius or something." Joel said flatly while spraying his Patrat with the Potion. "He left after the battle because my Lillipup took out his Gligar and he muttered something about needing more training."

"Did you tell him about the power station?" Robert asked.

"Yeah, I think he headed over there." Joel told him.

"I had an interesting battle today too. Some hotshot named Alex nearly ran into my Whismur, so I battled him with Zigzagoon and I beat his Tepig. He was pretty impressive, though; my Zigzagoon got a good run for its money. I suspect this may be Professor Fern's latest batch of Trainers." Robert recounted to Joel rather excitedly. It had been a while since there were any serious challengers to the Gym, and the fact that Joel's Lillipup had been taken out by the mysterious trainer meant that Robert might finally have a good match again in the near future.

Unbeknownst to Darius, he was about to have his first encounter with Marcia at the power station, a similar encounter to Alex's first battle with her gone awry. It seems that she attracts trouble wherever she may go...