Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen Q: Challenges
1
(-o-)
As I entered the large gym, a female voice emanated from the walls around me. As it started, I stared around wildly, bewildered.
"Welcome, Trainer," said the cool feminine voice. "I am Sabrina, Psychic Master of Saffron City." I scoffed at that—how much of an ego could you have? The voice, however, seemed undeterred by my thought and continued. "As you are here to earn my badge, step on the panel in front of you."
I stared ahead. There was no panel. I looked around the walls again, confused. The voice seemed to sigh in exasperation. "Look down again," it advised wearily. I looked. Where there had not been one before, there was a purple panel, pulsing with electronic power.
"I'm not sure about this," I told the voice, to no response. I gazed down at the panel with trepidation. It reminded me nastily of Silph Co., and Team Rocket. I stepped slowly forward. If I wanted the fifth badge, I told myself, I had to step on the panel. Newly resolute, I took another step forward, onto the pulsing square.
It was a dizzying sensation, worse than the one at Silph Co. It was like being tipped upside-down and being pulled inside out at the same time. I felt the sudden urge to retch.
Finally, it ended as abruptly as it started. I slumped forward, heaving, onto the ground. The voice sounded again, with an amused cadence, in my brain. "You must pass my test before you can reach me. Do so. I am waiting."
I groaned as I finally gazed up to see various purple panels littering the floor. I bit back a curse. It was a puzzle. A sadistic, taxing test. Again, Team Rocket swam to the front of my mind and a nasty expression slid onto my face.
I glanced around the chamber at three fresh panels. Already fighting to keep myself from being sick, I stepped on the nearest one.
It was rather worse the second time. It felt like I was skydiving, in a wild free-fall without a parachute or any form of control. Then, again, it was over.
I was back in the first room. With a roar of frustration and fear of the nausea to come, I wrenched myself to my feet.
Swooping vertigo overtook me again. I fought it off, wiping a bit of stray spittle off my lips.
"I hate you," I growled at the voice. I got no reply, but the coldly silent air told me that the voice, or perhaps Sabrina herself, got that a lot and it didn't get any easier to hear. I wondered vaguely why she didn't just change the stupid puzzle then before I pushed the thought out of my brain. It was of no use at the time.
As I stepped onto the first panel again, bracing myself, I heard the electronic doors behind me glide open. I landed in the second room once more, this time on my feet, and looked at the panel impatiently as, I was sure, the new patron was being accosted by the telepathic voice.
Finally, with an oddly guttural sound, Blue spun into existence on the panel. He fell over, almost chipping a tooth on the ground. Slowly, as though we were about to retch, Blue let his eyes slide up my form. Finally, his gaze met mine.
"Red," he said. He had tried to capture his usual chilly, collected tone, but had sounded more like he was fighting the urge to vomit.
"What are you doing?" I asked, kneeling to look into his taught face. "I thought you were going to Fuchsia first."
"I don't have a bike," he snapped irritably. "They wouldn't allow me on the road down."
"There's another way down, I think," I said, as he struggled to his feet. "Route 12?"
"Blocked," he snarled, having regained his feet and looking a bit green, "by a Snorlax."
"Yeah, well," I said smarmily, "They require a gentle touch."
He shot me a glance that told me clearly to shut up. Then he doubled over, clutching at his head. "Agggh," he groaned, "—stupid voice again—"
I gazed at Blue as the voice spoke to him. "A test?" he said finally, looking up at me. I nodded, and then gestured widely to the purple panels behind me. As he registered the daunting task ahead, his eyes widened in sudden panic. He swore so heartily that I took a step back.
Grumbling all the way, Blue stomped to the nearest one. Before I got the warning out of my mouth, he stepped on it. With a yelp, he was whipped out of existence. I could practically hear his screams his rage back in the first room.
Quickly, before Blue could return and take it all out on me, I dashed to a panel I hadn't tried. I tapped my foot warily on it, experienced a nauseating whirl of sensation, and was suddenly in a new room.
"Proceed," intoned Sabrina's voice in my head. I groaned. There were two panels in this room, and I had guesses as to where at least one of them led.
I stepped on one, and stood again in the first room. I bit back the storm of oaths I wanted to throw at the Saffron Gym Leader and her dumb telepathic voice, but held it inside. She probably was able to hear my tumultuous thoughts anyway, seeing as she could speak to me through them.
I repeated the pattern, ending up in the room I had most recently been in. I stepped on the panel I hadn't yet stepped on.
A howl of pain and rage escaped my lips before I could even think. All I registered was that I was in a room with about sixteen panels. I fell to my knees in despair with a soft clunk.
In a whirl of color and a yelp of surprise and pain, Blue was suddenly in existence and tripping over me, landing face first hard on the polished floor in front of me. Cursing my very existence and burning with humiliation, Blue growled over my stammered apologies and went to the farthest panel he could find before resolutely slamming his foot on it.
He was gone again. I gazed around the room, and the unfettered pulsing squares offered no comfort or advice. I decided not to step on the one Blue had just entered, and went for a panel near to the middle of the room.
I was back in the first room. I was truly tired of the whole ordeal at that point. On my belt, a Poke Ball rattled at me. Surprised, I looked down to see my Vileplume staring up at me. I unclipped the sphere and gazed into it close up. Vileplume was smiling gently at me, small puffs of spores disengaging from its petals. As I looked, my Grass-type Pokemon flexed its tiny biceps, delivering to me an encouraging look and a confident smile.
I replaced Vileplume's Poke Ball with a soft grin on my face. My Pokemon, at least, believed in me.
I entered the second room once more. At that point, I was pretty much used to the sensations of panel travel and stepped off the coinciding panel confidently. It was then I realized that there was still one panel in the second room I hadn't tried.
Sighing, resigned to the idea that the panel would lead me back once more to the entrance, I stepped on it.
The now familiar dashes of color and sickening swoops overtook me for a few seconds. I touched down in a new room to see a pair of violet eyes gazing at me.
I stared back. Slowly, the situation registered.
"Are you serious?" I yelped. The Gym Leader of Saffron City jumped, backing off. "It was—off the second room—what is your problem, lady?" Sabrina stood complacently, her eyes still on my face. It was then I realized that she was rather young, close to Blue's age or mine. A gently amused smile was lighting her face.
"I'm sorry for my tomfoolery," she said lightly. Her tone was so completely different from her telepathic voice that I was struck dumb for a second. Her violet eyes danced with the light of mischief.
"I believe you wanted a battle?" she asked, a smirk crooking her face. She tossed a Poke Ball into the air confidently, catching it with a snap.
"I—um." I said intelligently. She smiled slyly and stalked off, her dark hair flowing behind her. It was then I realized that I was somewhat taken with her.
"I can hear your thoughts, you know," she said amusedly over her shoulder. I blushed a horribly dark shade of red. "And I must say," she continued, "you are much more handsome than your thoughts would suggest."
I barely registered that she had just complimented me, instead blurting out, "I—uh, I don't hate you."
She looked back over her shoulder, her tilted smirk still on her face. "Trust me, I know."
Finally, she turned around. We were now standing on opposite sides of the battlefield. "Ready?" she asked.
Suddenly clear-headed, I nodded. "Ready," I parroted, already clutching a Poke Ball. The Pokemon within rattled with excitement.
"Abra!" Sabrina called, tossing her Poke Ball with the flick of a wrist. Out of her Poke Ball popped a small fox, in a sitting position and with its eyes closed. Its arms hung limply down to the ground.
"Beedrill!" I called, sending out my Bug-type. The hornet danced about the battlefield, its webbed wings a blur. It hissed something of a battle cry, and its drills whirred. Abra sat stoically, unmoving but for its breathing.
"Um… okay," I muttered to myself. Sabrina stood waiting, a glint in her eye. She had something up her sleeve, and I knew it, but I went for the offensive.
"Twineedle!" I called. Beedrill nodded quickly, then flitted across the field. The hornet Pokemon savagely crushed both drills into the fox Pokemon. Instead of taking any force, Abra simply vanished.
"What?" I cried before I could stop myself. My Pokemon was looking about wildly for the little fox.
"Behind you," said Sabrina, so softly I could barely hear, and on instinct I whirled about. There it was, in all its sleeping glory. Then, again, it had vanished. A sickening crunch behind me told me an attack had just hit Beedrill. I winced, and turned around again, my face burning. I wasn't going to make that mistake again.
Sabrina was smiling a coy smile, knowing the internal humiliation I was going through. I tried in vain to shut my thoughts off—I wasn't fond of people digging around in my brain.
Meanwhile, Beedrill and Abra were in an intense game of hide and seek. Beedrill would swipe at the tan fox, the Psychic-type would spirit itself away, and Beedrill would search wildly about until it found Abra, and swipe at it again. Occasionally, Abra would manage to get behind Beedrill fast enough to smack it about with a Psychic attack.
Beedrill wouldn't help. I quickly recalled the Bug-type to its Poke Ball, and then sorted desperately through my options. I was angrily aware that Sabrina was viewing the image of each of my Pokemon as it flashed by. A sudden idea struck me.
I grasped a random Poke Ball at my belt. Turning away as I did so, I tossed it out into the battlefield. I had absolutely no clue what Pokemon was battling. I had no clue what it was doing.
I heard intermittent Pokemon cries as a battle raged behind me, and I covered my ears so as not to accidentally hear one of my Pokemon's noises and know which it was. If I knew, I would subconsciously bring up a slew of information about it—moves, timing, technique, even its favorite food and color. I didn't want to give Sabrina any of that information.
"It is over," Sabrina's voice sounded in my head. Different as it was, I now heard a tinge of the amusement that seemed to lace Sabrina's every verbal word.
I turned, letting my hands fall to the Poke Balls at my belt in case my Pokemon had not been the victor. I needn't have worried.
Vileplume stood in the center of the battlefield, huffing with the exhaustion of exertion. Abra lay, docile as ever, on the ground, unconscious. Its form wavered as if it weren't sure whether to spirit away or not. Sabrina looked impressed, and I noticed uncomfortably that she was baldly staring into my face. I looked away, sure that there was a blush rising to my cheeks.
"You've done very well," she said.
"Wasn't really me," I mumbled to the floor, as Vileplume plodded over to me. "If it weren't for Vileplume here, I would have lost this battle."
"Look at me," Sabrina telepathically intoned. I did, and in doing so realized she was exceedingly close to my face. How she'd covered the distance so quickly and quietly I didn't know.
"Hello," I murmured, taking a step back. Thankfully, I didn't step on the panel, though it was only about half a foot from my shoe.
"That you concede your victory to your Pokemon is admirable," Sabrina said plainly, her eyes on mine. "You are worthy of the Marsh Badge."
"That's it?" I asked, slightly taken aback. "Just Abra?"
"Just Abra," she returned, tossing its Poke Ball into the air casually. "People don't usually figure out that their Pokemon are more trustworthy than their own thoughts. You, however, reasoned that out exceptionally quickly."
I let off a small smile. Sabrina's eyes searched my face. "That doesn't make you proud," she observed. "Just thankful to your Pokemon."
She got a bit closer. The heat coming off my face was palpable. "You are a very admirable person."
Butterfrees exploded into being in my stomach. Her enchantingly violet eyes took in mine a second longer, then turned away at the sound of a new arrival.
"UghmyGod, if I have to go into another of those stupid panels—"
Blue stumbled into being out of the panel, nearly bowling me over. He slowly drank in the scene. "Oh—oh, hello," he said to Sabrina, his cool voice again absent. He seemed a bit unhinged by the panels.
"Hello," she said, and with a burst of pleasure I noticed that her voice was not nearly as warm as it had been with me. "You're here for my badge, yes?"
Blue nodded, looking as though he were repressing a sick feeling rising in his throat. "He already got it, I suppose," Blue said, jabbing a thumb in my direction. I nodded.
"No, he hasn't," said Sabrina. She gazed over at a small cabinet against the far wall, her eyes glowing supernaturally. The cabinet opened by itself, a badge was extracted by some invisible force. The shiny Marsh Badge floated to Sabrina's outstretched hand. She turned to me, her eyes their normal shade once more.
I took the badge she offered, gazing at her. There was no fear in my gaze, only wonder at the Gym Leader's abilities. Psychic Master of Saffron indeed.
She gave me a swift smile, then turned to Blue. "If you'll excuse me," she said to him, even though he looked as though he wanted to sprint away, "I must heal my Pokemon." She strode to the panel and faded out of existence.
"That was freaky," Blue confided in me. I knew he was referring to the Gym Leader's telekinesis.
"Cool, though," I said in a low voice, a bashful grin on my face. The expression didn't leave my face even by the time I'd exited the Gym, heading for the Pokemon Center—and hopefully, soon, the Fuchsia City Pokemon Gym.