It all finally started clicking, with me sitting there inside Goldenrod Gym, listening to that girl talk a mile a minute about whatever. The Leader order I had been following up to this point was right, in a sense. Those had to be the actual Leaders, if two of them were correct. But whoever had written that list had definitely mixed up at least two. This Gym was, no doubt, run by a guy.

"Excuse me, miss, but do you know of a lady named Whitney?" I coughed out, interrupting the girl's foolish babble.

Her eyes widened at that name. "Whitney's the Ecruteak Gym Leader. None of us around here really like her all that much. We can't touch her Pokémon." From that, I gathered that the type used here must not have been very good against whatever type they used in Ecruteak. Instead of telling her this, though, I let her continue. "All of us except for Leader Chuck, that is. He's not scared of anything. Especially not her!"

"You're kidding, right? The Leader here is the one named Chuck? Is he the reason why you're wearing such silly clothes?" I asked, giving her a once-over. "That can't be healthy!"

"Oh, it's really fine. Chuck's such a little girl at heart! He let us pick out our own outfits and lets us live how we want, but as long as we stay here, he's happy and we're happy."

I raised one eyebrow. "You chose to wear that? What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong with me, boy. You've done nothing but insult me since you walked in here, you know. You ignore me, you say that horrible woman's name in front of me, and you insult my fashion sense! Haven't you ever heard about how to treat a lady?" She slapped me right then, straight across the face, In an attempt not to cry, I slapped her back.

"Hey, hey, hey! Cut it out! Boy, don't be hitting on my little sister like that!" a masculine voice from behind me started yelling. "She may be young, but she's not your plaything!" I was pushed out of the way by a big guy who was wearing a pair of very short shorts and a shirt that was barely covering his massive upper half. "Come on, Cresta! Tell me, did this mean boy hurt you?"

"Yes, Chuck, he did. He made me think about bad things, and he made me cry!" At that word, she burst into obviously fake tears. The big man then turned to me, with obvious anger in his eyes.

My head was grabbed, and I was pushed into a wall. "How dare you hurt my little sister like that! Would you hurt me if I had been where she was and she had been where I was?" I whispered that no, no I wouldn't have. "Exactly! Just because she's small and young doesn't mean that you get the right to be rude to her! Now you apologize to Cresta, before I bash your face in!"

"I-I'm sorry, miss Cresta! Please forgive me, and please don't bash my face in, mister Chuck!" The man let me go and I collapsed to the floor in terror. My mind was moving a mile a minute, though. I could see why Falkner had a rivalry with this man, but not a friendly one. This guy was crazy! How could a rooted person like Falkner get along with someone like this? And how was Bugsy such a fan of him? He had just thrown me against a wall!

"That's the spirit, boy! Now chin up, don't look like I hurt you!" He laughed, big and booming. "I wouldn't dare hurt a little kiddo like you! What's your business, being here inside my girls' sanctuary, anyway?"

"I've come to challenge you, I guess." My voice wasn't very loud, as I was scared that just mentioning my desire to fight would send him into a rage I wouldn't survive. "I'm on a journey to become Champion."

He looked at me for a second, with his arm wrapped around Cresta's shoulders, before he laughed. "You, challenge me? You probably couldn't even beat Cresta if you tried! How stupid do you think I am? You're trying to creep on my little sister!"

"I really am here to challenge you, though!" I retorted, raising my voice a little. If he was going to resort to physical violence (which I completely expected), I was going to stand my ground and convince him that I was telling the truth. "I have two Badges already, because I beat Falkner and Bugsy; they both told me nice things about you."

"That means nothing to me. Those two are nothing but pushovers. But me, I'm the," he pounded his chest, "real deal. I don't lose to little kids, other than my sisters." At that, he gave Cresta a little smile; she giggled and jumped up, skipping off into the mess that was the Gym. "You don't look like you could handle me."

I thought carefully about the Pokémon I had on me. They weren't very strong, and only one of them was loyal to me. That's what I got for relying only on the Pokémon my parents had gotten while they were doing whatever it was they did. In addition to that Mareep, I now had a Finneon, which I guess no one in Johto had ever heard of, and I also had a Makuhita, another strange Pokémon in these parts. Those three wouldn't be enough to take on Chuck, would they?

"I think you should just leave now, kid, and come back when you're older and stronger. I don't want to crush your spirits, not today."

A shiver went up my spine. I had been sitting here, freaking out about everything I thought this man would be, and he was none of that. Where I had thought evil, he ended up being pretty nice and caring. But to back away now, after I had gone to Violet and Azalea? No way! "Can I ask just one question before I go, Chuck?"

"If you want to, I guess. I mean, I've got all day..."

"What type do you use?"

His face lit up, as if he was really excited to tell me. "The Normal type is what we here at the Goldenrod Gym specialize in," he started, giving me the intro to an obviously-rehearsed speech, "and we here have dedicated massive amounts of time to our type. We train harder than anyone at any other Gym. We bond more with our Pokémon. We even have sleepovers here just to talk about how amazing our Pokémon are. And, as our type is only weak to one other, I have a very hard time believing that you could defeat me. So long now, kid. See you later." He turned and began to walk away.

But I was not going to let him disappear on me like that. "But Chuck! I'm new at this whole 'Pokémon' thing, really. Yeah, I've beat those other two Leaders, but you're obviously so much better than them! Can't you tell me some things about your type?"

"You're making me blush, kid," he said after a few seconds of extremely girlish giggling, "but you seem to be telling the truth." In all honesty, I was, but I wasn't nearly as stupid as I had just made myself seem. "Well, most of the Pokémon we train here are cute, just like my little sisters. They're also very strong. Few things can make them faint, with the big one being a Fighting move."

My eyes got big.

Like, really big.

A Fighting move, did he say? Makuhita, the cute little bugger, would be getting some work in this place! "Oh, I don't have any Pokémon that know those. Not on me, at least. I might have one at home. Maybe I should go back..."

"Why bother! You're here now. If you're this curious, how about I give you a test battle to see if you think it's worth it to even come back? You and one of my little sisters can fight, and if you beat them, it's worth it; if not, don't bother showing your face in my Gym again!" Instead of his usual giggles, he unleashed a booming laugh that shook me down to my core. "What do you say?"

I pretended to think about it for a second. "I like the idea, but how about instead of me fighting one of your underlings, I fight you? I want to know what I can do to you without something strong."

"Fight me? Without a Pokémon that can hurt me? If you insist!"

My hand wrapped itself tight around the Ball that Makuhita was in. Whatever trouble I was about to get into for lying to this big man's face, I didn't care. I just wanted to fight him and get my Badge. That was what mattered.

Oh, and seeing Cresta's face when I beat her "big brother." Something told me that she'd be a big part of this journey. I had to make her proud.

A/N: This chapter was supposed to be up last week, but I had some issues (like leaving my flash drive in another city and then accidentally deleting half the chapter) that pushed its release date to today.

But, I hope you enjoyed reading about the Chuck in this universe, who really is a little girl at heart. xD He's scary, but protective and not too mean. I like him a lot more here than how he actually is. And, if you liked this mix-up, did you catch who's next? That's right: Whitney will be written as the Ecruteak Gym Leader. And if you know what I like to do with the poor Leader of that town, well, you'd be surprised to see what I do with Whitney! (Hint: she will not be a stoner. Much.)

As for the girl named Cresta...she'll appear again later. And in a different story. My other fanfic, Of Tag Teams and Triumphs, is full of characters that I've lovingly created. There's one named Cresta that has some relation of some sort to Chuck. Instead of coming up with new names, I just took ones from that other story and used them here. (If you're interested in seeing how she's in that, you'd be waiting a while, but you can give that story some love!)

That's all for this week's edition of the Metamorphosis!

I don't own Pokémon, but I own Shaun and Cresta. Heck, I don't even own the Leader order in this. That belongs to Shiny Gold's trainer card!

Please review!

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