An Age of Valour
by the Lady of the Mists
Chapter Thirty-six: The Fighting Gym
Cianwood Island was bright and cheery the next morning when Lydia woke, her heart pounding with excitement and nervousness, the way it only did right before a big gym battle. Climbing out of bed, careful not to wake Umbreon, who was fast asleep, Lydia slipped into the bathroom and got dressed quickly.
By the time that she was stepping out of the bathroom, Jennie was already awake and she grinned at Lydia before giving her a nod towards Jesse's bunk. Unsurprisingly, he was still fast asleep, his head buried into his pillow to block out the coming day.
"Didn't he say something about getting up early for gym battles?" Jennie whispered mischievously, her green eyes twinkling impishly.
"Well, we have had a rough couple of days," Lydia said reasonably as she brushed out her light brown hair before slipping her brush into her bag. "Go get ready, I'm gonna try and get him up."
"You'll have as much luck finding a Mew," Jennie said dryly. "That big brother of mine would sleep through World War III, with bombs going off all around him if he put his mind to it." She shook her head as she headed off to the bathroom, closing the door securely behind her as Lydia climbed up the ladder to the top bunk, where Jesse was still sleeping soundly.
"Jess," she whispered right into his ear. He groaned and pulled his head under his pillow. "Jesse, it's time to go to school!" she said in a singsong voice.
This caused Jesse to pull the pillow tighter around his head, effectively blocking out anyone trying to talk to him. Lydia shook her head, plunging into her psyche, and pulling the pillow away from him more efficiently than just grabbing it would have done. Jesse launched himself up and tried to grab his pillow, but he hit his head on the ceiling instead, sending him back down onto the bed.
"Ow . . ." Jesse groaned as he rubbed his forehead, glaring up at Lydia. "What did you wake me for? It's still early."
"Gym battle," she reminded him and Jesse groaned. "Come on, Jess, don't you want to take down some fighters or do you want to let me do all of the work?"
"I want . . ." he complained as he reluctantly climbed out of bed, climbing down the ladder after Lydia jumped down, "to go back to sleep."
"Sorry, you don't get that option right now," Lydia said cheerfully. "Besides, we still need to go and check to make sure the rest of our Pokémon are okay from Nurse Joy." She knocked on the bathroom door. "Hey, Jen, I got him up!"
"You're kidding!" Jennie opened the door to confirm Lydia's declaration as fact and practically gawked at her brother when she saw him awake and out of bed and moving to grab his clothes. "Wow, the world must really be coming to an end."
Jesse tried and failed to look annoyed. "You two are hilarious, can we please just go?" he requested. Lydia grinned as she gently woke Umbreon, grabbing her bag as they headed out the door to get breakfast in the cafeteria, two of them discussing battle tactics for the upcoming gym battles.
Lydia dug into her cereal as she sat down with Umbreon, getting him a bowl of Pokémon food, as Jesse and Jennie joined them. Too nervous to talk, Lydia ate her breakfast quickly before she headed towards the front desk to check on how her other Pokémon were doing. The nurse was finishing up on a redheaded trainer's Arcanine when she approached.
"He should be feeling better in no time," she assured the redhead before shooing her off to the recovery. She turned to Lydia, the friendly smile on her face. "Lydia Talon, right? I have all of your Pokémon right here. They were in near-perfect health, just needed a good rest is all." She handed Lydia her Pokéballs.
"Thanks, Nurse Joy," Lydia said with a smile. "I appreciate it." Jesse walked up behind her and collected his Pokéballs. "So, you ready for a gym battle, Jess?"
"As ready as I'm ever going to be," Jesse said, looking slightly green. "I don't remember being this nervous during some of the other gym battles."
"Well, don't be, you've got Natu, remember?" Lydia said reassuringly as they walked out of the Centre with Jennie. "And psychics are super on fighting types, so you should have no problem. Breathe, Jess," she said in alarm, when he started to look nauseous. "Take a deep breath."
"And then you let it out," Jennie put in when he held his breath for about thirty seconds. Jesse released it, but still didn't look any calmer. Lydia had to admit that she was nervous, too, but she didn't look anywhere near as bad as Jesse.
Jennie looked at her brother, then whispered in Lydia's ear, "Hey, you might want to let him go first, so he can get it over with."
"You don't have to tell me," Lydia whispered back. At that moment, they arrived at the Cianwood Gym, home of fighter Pokémon, and they all stared up at the gym and Lydia read the sign in front of it. "'Cianwood City Pokémon Gym, Leader Chuck. His roaring fists do the talking.'"
Lydia looked at her friends and Jesse took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "Let's get this over with," he said as he walked into the gym, the girls right behind him.
A number of trainers looked around at them as the entered and Lydia smiled brightly at them. "So who do we have to fight to win a badge around here?" she said with a smile.
One of the trainers looked around towards the battlefield. "Chuck!" he called. "You've got some challengers!" He looked towards Lydia, raised eyebrows as he surveyed her. "Little girls shouldn't be here, though. You should run while you still can."
"If she wants to take a beating, that's her business, Mark," a voice said from behind him. Mark jumped as a trainer who Lydia assumed was Chuck appeared. He looked more like a boxing champion than a trainer, she thought as he approached the three trainers. "Three of 'em, eh? And I assume all of you want a battle?"
"Just us two," Lydia said, indicating her and Jesse. "Jennie's just a spectator."
"I'm not just a spectator, I'm the breeder around here," Jennie said, folding her arms across her chest in indignation. Chuck chuckled as he led them out onto the battlefield.
"So . . . who wants to go first?"
"I'll go," Jesse said, forcing some bravery into his voice as he took his side of the field, handing his Pokédex to the referee, who entered it into the computer before handing it back to Jesse. Lydia and Jennie both joined the other trainers on the bleachers as Chuck took his own place.
"This battle between Jesse Turner of Alyson City and Leader Chuck of Cianwood City shall now begin!" the judge called. "Each trainer is allowed only one Pokémon. The battle will be over when either of the trainer's Pokémon is unable to battle."
Lydia stared at the judge, then towards Jennie accusingly. "'Two Pokémon each?'" she quoted Jennie's words from the previous day.
"Well, that's what I heard at the Centre," Jennie defended herself as the battle began. Chuck sent out a Primeape while Jesse hesitated, trying to make his decision.
"What do you think he's going to choose?" Jennie asked, looking towards Lydia curiously.
"Well, since it's one on one, I would choose Natu if I were him," Lydia said thoughtfully. "But since when has he ever taken our ideas?" However, Jesse surprised her when he sent out Natu. "I really need to stop thinking out loud."
"Let's turn up the heat," Chuck said. "Fire punch!" Natu flew into the air to avoid the attack, turning around in the air and taking a dive before Jesse had the chance to call out an attack. She started pecking Primeape all over his body, not giving any chance for a return attack.
Lydia chanced a glance towards Jesse and was relieved to see that he wasn't nervous any more.
Nope, just like every battle before this, the nervousness faded away the moment that he entered the battlefield. Lydia watched her best friend, awaiting what was going to happen. "Use Future Sight!" Jesse yelled and Natu's eyes glowered for a moment before it faded.
"What just happened?" Jennie whispered. "The attack didn't work!"
"Not yet," Lydia said with a grin. "Future Sight's a psychic attack that works a bit later. It's going to come, just not as soon as we expected."
"So she just sent an attack into the future?" Jennie said slowly, trying to understand what had happened.
"That's as good an explanation as anything," Lydia admitted, nodding as Primeape tried desperately to get in an attack, but with Natu flying high, there was no way that he could get into an attack position.
"Primeape, use Thunder!" Chuck called. Lydia's eyes widened as Primeape released an electric attack directly onto Natu, who couldn't get out of the way. Being a bird, Natu was vulnerable to electric attacks. Could she recover from that attack?
"I can't watch," Jennie groaned as she turned away from the battle, but she did so at the wrong time. Natu broke free from the thunder and at Jesse's command, released a powerful psychic attack that lit the entire room with its energy. "What's happening?"
"Jesse's winning," Lydia answered as Natu swooped down to deliver one last peck, but unfortunately for her, this was bad timing, because Primeape had recovered enough to deliver a thunderpunch, sending her reeling back. "Or not. I wasn't expecting thunder attacks from a fighting Pokémon."
Jennie frowned. "I don't think Primeape can use electric attacks . . . not normally, anyway. They can only be learned from TM moves, you know like you did with Eevee and Iron Tail." Lydia nodded, remembering when she had used the TM on Eevee back in Goldenrod, right before the gym battle and her first battle with Alicia. "But he'd better do something fast."
"Hurry, Jess," Lydia whispered, her eyes fastened on the battle. "You've got to get away from those electric attacks. She can't take much more of them."
"Both of them look exhausted," Jennie noted, looking down at Primeape and then to the air at Natu.
"Strength!" Chuck shouted and Primeape launched himself into the air in order to attack Natu. But at that moment, the Future Sight kicked in and sent a powerful attack to Primeape, who was sent to the ground by the force of it, launching dust everywhere. By the time it cleared, Primeape was down for the count.
"Primeape is unable to battle!" the judge announced. "The winner of this match goes to Natu and Jesse Turner of Alyson City!"
Jesse looked relieved as Natu flew down to the ground, looking very pleased with herself as she landed on Jesse's arm. He stroked her as he headed up to the bleachers, letting Lydia take his place as she handed the judge her Pokédex and he entered her into the computer.
"This battle between Lydia Talon of Rosewaters Isle and Leader Chuck of Cianwood City will now begin!" the judge called. "The rules are the same as before, one Pokémon each with no time limit. The battle will be over when either trainer's Pokémon is unable to battle. Begin!"
"Poliwrath, let's make short work!" Chuck roared as he released the final evolution of Poliwag. Lydia's eyes widened as she saw the Pokémon.
I was planning on using Poliwhirl, but do I dare use it against a water Pokémon that it's own evolution? No, I need something else . . . what do I need? A thought crossed Lydia's mind and she grinned triumphantly as she pulled out a Pokéball out of her pocket. "I choose you, Chinchou!"
The water/electric Pokémon was released onto the stage and she could see Jesse and Jennie gawking at her in astonishment as she made her choice. "Lydia, are you crazy?" Jesse yelled at her. She shrugged as she turned her attention back to the battle. "You've never used Chinchou in battle!"
"Well, it's always good to get some practice, then, isn't it?" Lydia shot back before turning to Chuck. "You ready?"
Chuck grinned. "Sure are confident, aren't we, little girl? Well, so am I . . . confident you're going to lose! Body slam!"
"Dodge it!" Lydia called and Chinchou bounced away from the attack, turning around to face Poliwrath again. "Now, use water gun!" Chinchou released the attack, but she hadn't expected it to do much damage, just get Poliwrath off guard for a minute. "Quick, use spark!"
Chinchou squealed as she released the electric attack and Poliwrath was hit straight out before he shook it off, weakened by the electric attack, but still going.
"Double-slap!" Chuck called and Chinchou was slapped in the face about five times before Poliwrath finally released her.
I'm starting to understand why they call them Poliwrath, Lydia thought worriedly as Chinchou staggered backwards, rubbing the abused cheeks. They got the wrath part right.
"Chinchou, use supersonic!"
Releasing a piercing screech that caused everyone in vicinity, including Lydia, to cover their ears, Chinchou sent the attack towards Poliwrath, who was rendered confused and forced to stumble around the room, unable to think straight. "Now, use spark again!"
The electric attack hit a second time and this time, Poliwrath couldn't shake it off, being too confused to do anything else. Lydia gasped as the electric attack, plus Poliwrath trying to injure himself, caused him to knock himself out and he lay motionless on the floor.
"Poliwrath is unable to battle!" the judge called. "The winner of this match is Lydia Talon of Rosewaters Isle."
"Yes!" Lydia punched the air and ran to Chinchou, scooping her up. "You were awesome out there!" She hugged the water/electric Pokémon as Jesse climbed down from the bleachers, looking astonished at the outcome of the match. Lydia grinned at his dumbfounded expression. "So . . . you gonna question my sanity any longer?"
"Just your tactics," Jesse replied, shaking his head as Chuck recalled Poliwrath and approached them.
"The both of you did great today," he congratulated them. "And here's the Storm Badge, one for each of you. Nice job."
"Thank you, sir," Jesse said and he chuckled.
"Well, I'll be looking forward to seeing you both in the Silver Conference. Should be interesting."
Lydia beamed at Jesse, who grinned back. "Yeah, we'll be there," Lydia said cheerfully. "We both will."