This is it.

I took a deep breath as I entered the Minstralton City Gym. My heart pounded ferociously, as if it wanted to escape my chest. I always got overexcited like this before entering gyms. If I had asthma, I would still be back in Striaton.

Stay focused and calm. You can do this.

I took a few steps forward before looking around and marvelling at the massive structure. I saw several cannons scattered around the place on many different floors. Barriers prevented you from straying from a preset path, determined by Skyla, the Gym Leader. I met her before at Celestial tower while training for this very event. I can't remember exactly what happened, but it involved a Pokémon that needed help. She seemed pretty determined in her task, but still took the time to be polite and welcome me to the city. Now I'll see how she acts with a Pokéball.

I steeled my nerves as I walked the only direction I could: forward. With walls and barricades on either side of me, I ventured towards a cannon in the middle of the room. She doesn't expect me to fire myself from this, does she? After looking around for a minute and seeing nothing else to go by, I slowly clambered into the steel tube, testing my claustrephobia. After a second of freakout, it seemed to recognize my weight, and it raised up and turned around. When it stopped, it gave me a second to wonder what I was supposed to do now. Then it launched me out at about forty miles an hour.

Suffice to say, I had a minor heart attack, and died a little inside.

As I was flying through the air, wind whistling past my ears, I found another fear to tack onto my rapidly growing list: acrophobia. I never thought my vocal chords had the ability to make that sound before today, and I never want to hear it again. The icing on the cake: the landing platform was solid steel. I swear all of my body was coved in bruises from that encounter, even what didn't touch the ground.

After I picked myself up a few minutes later, I looked around to find the path. What did I see? More cannons.

Pokémon

I finally reached the gym battle platform, albiet in a less than perfect shape. I felt like a Conkledurr decided to use me as a replacement for one of his concrete blocks. I probably looked worse. Glancing down at my arm, I saw purple and blue splotches scattered all over it. I didn't want to check the sensetivity.

"Nate!" Skyla called from a few meters over. She seemed both amused and worried. I realized that she had seen that entire pathetic experience, and felt my face grow warm. "I'm glad you could make it up here, but are you all right? You seem... in pain."

Aren't you the clever one.

"I'm fine," I responded, trying to keep my voice pain-free. "Been through worse." For the first time in my life, I honestly meant it.

"Okay...," she responded, still a little wary. "Are you ready to battle?"

"Don't get me wrong," I started, "you're nice, but there's no other reason I'd go through that and leave without a battle."

She still seemed a bit skeptical, but she took her Pokéballs off of the stand next to her and clipped them into her belt. Taking a few steps forward into position, she took the remaining ball in her hand and tossed it out onto the mat. I heard the familiar click and the pokéball flashed, revealing an excited Swoobat. It flew around hurriedly, as if trying to find a foe to battle.

I took a deep breath, ignored the pain, an reached onto my own belt and grabbed what I knew to be Minipete's ball. A series of memories hurtled through my mind as I touched it. I remembered getting the promise to be given an emolga if I gave him a boldore. After rushing to the nearest PC and grabbing the Boldore, I made a mad dash back to the hiker. He stayed true to his name and handed me the pokémon that could be the key to getting the Jet Badge that Cherén had showed off just before setting off to Icirrus for the next badge. I wanted to catch up to him so badly that I had started training with Minipete immediately.

Putting memories aside, I pulled the ball out of the small metal frame and hurled it near the center of the mat, just as I had with every other Gym Battle. The ball clicked and flashed before the little electric flying pokémon jumped out.

I glanced at Skyla and saw that she seemed to be waiting on me to make my move. Frowning slightly at this, I yelled a command at Minipete. "Double team, now!"

I'm response, the little pokémon shook back and forth, seeming to split into different emolgas.

Skyla must've recognized the strategy, because she spoke up just after I finished.

"Avi, heart stamp!"

The swoobat "Avi" shot forward, paused to smile, and rammed into Minipete. My little pokémon fell to the ground, but picked itself back up and continued to use double team. Rapidly splitting up, the emolga now seemed to be sprawled out everywhere, on and off of the mat. Skyla had been shouting out commands to her pokémon the whole time, but poor Avi had been making him(her?)self dizzy trying to find the real enemy.

"Acrobatics, now!" I yelled, confident of my success. Minipete and all of his clones rose up in the air, swarming around like a bunch of beedrils when you try to take their hunny. Somewhere in the mass of yellow, black, and white, a swoobat flew, trying to attack all of the enemies. The real Minipete followed my strategy well. From what I could hear and see, my pokémon dealt a quick blow, then retreated for a minute before diving back into the process. Skyla seemed at a loss as to what she should tell Avi to do. I grinned, now certain of my badge.

Apparently, Arceus had a different idea. As I backed up a bit to get a better view of the action happening all around me, Minipete swooped a bit too far in his retreat. He crashed into my face, breaking his concentration and spoiling the illusion. While he was too small to do damage to me, he was plent fast enough to know me off balance. I staggered backwards and managed to fall upside down into the cannon intended to take the challenger to the exit. It took me to the exit all right, but one victory too soon. I flew through the air screaming, though this time in frustration instead of fear. Minipete jumped off, causing me to turn in midair. Fortunately, the staff at the entrance saved my face from plastic surgery, but they could do nothing to break my fall at that speed. I slammed into the floor on my butt with extra force from that last-minute turn. Skidding right out the door, I probably looked like something right out of a cartoon. Coming to a halt near the plane sitting on the runway, I flopped down, in pain from my already tender bruises.

"Nate!" I heard Bianca from a distance. I realized with a sense of panic that my old battle challenged friend would throw a pity party for me (metaphorically speaking) if she saw me like this. I forced myself to a sitting postion and slapped on my cap to avoid sympathy.

"I've been looking for you!" Bianca said as she got close. I glanced at her green and white clothes so she didn't think I was ignoring her. "I wanted to tell you that I got my Jet Badge this morning! I just followed your advice, and it wasn't even that hard! Thanks for all of your help. You're the best. I'll see you at Icirrus!"

...

Why do you hate me, Arceus?

A/N

So I decided to make fun of poor Nate again, as well as change the name of the fic again. Not much attention (40 hits and one review), but I was bored. Hope you enjoy this chapter, Draconis Kitten Sweetie!