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The next day, Sam, Rae and Kurt went out to learn about the Gym and get supplies. We were going to challenge The Pewter City Gym in three days.
Three days.
Possibly the biggest fight of my life. With Sam's honor on my shoulders. Suddenly, I felt as weak as when I had first battled that Ratatta two weeks ago.
Decision made, I uncurled myself from the warm spot Sam had left. I hadn't felt like walking around town, unlike Gold who wanted to see if he could walk around picking any fights with any training pokemon.
So I was still moping about falling off a cliff. I'm sure everyone's done it once or twice.
I immediately realized how stupid that was.
I sighed, shook myself off, and squeezed through the door.
I waited until Nurse Joy had her back turned, I didn't want to risk the chance Pokemon weren't allowed to leave without their owners, and scurried behind a potted plant near the door(humans have such strange things). I waited patiently for the door to open. Five minutes later, my patience paid off, the sliding door opened and a boy with a fainted pidgey hurried in. I took advantage of the distraction and slipped through, wondering if I would be able to get back in or not. I retraced my steps to the mountain.
If I wanted to win this for Sam, I'd have to give it all I had.
I started trotting up the mountain, only slowing to preform a more difficult move. Whenever I slipped, I pulled myself up.
By the time I reached the top, I was slightly sweating and panting so I lay down watching the town for a few minutes.
Finally, I pulled myself up again, And practiced rolls, dodges, sprints, and attacks on the slanted land. I frustratedly shook myself off every time I tripped on a rock or lost my footing on the rocks. I aimed at a thick tree, growing on the slant. I would jump to different spots near the tree, jumping on what I needed to and aiming tackles and scratches at the trunk until it looked cross-hatched every where I could reach and I couldn't feel my paws.
I looked up at the sun, it had to be after 2 PM by now, I would have to hurry back before everyone got back. I had been training for nearly five hours. I was no wonder I was so worn out. Yet as I practiced agility going downhill, I was so full of adrenaline, I could barely notice.
Finally, I reached the town. It was a lot more active than it was when I had left so I constantly had to dodge behind bushes and trees and weave between legs.
"Hey!" A grumpy man said looking down. When he saw me, his eyes widened considerably.
"Go, Nidorano! Catch the shiny!" He cried in excitement, casting his pokeball into the crowd and tossing a blue pokeball with a yellow lightning pattern at me. I barely jumped back in time and jumped behind some else's leg.
Pedestrians quickly dodged out of the way so the larger pokemon could materialize. I started at it for a split second, quivering, before taking off. Though I should have been able to out run the heavier pokemon, my days' training was started to take an obvious toll of me, even if I hadn't gone all out, it certainly took all the stamina I had to train for five hours even including breaks.
As I ran through startled people's legs and ducked corners, I realized exactly what my advantage was. I was smaller and nimble, even if my muscles were shaking and I was constantly becoming slower due to fatigue. I took as many 90 degree turns as possible, between houses, blocks, and stores.
Just as I was sure I was finished, I spotted the person I wanted to most in the entire world, Sam.
Gasping in exhaustion, I pushed myself a little harder, tucking my tail closer to my legs as Nidorino snapped at it and sprinted. I winced when I realized I had snapped a claw but it wasn't critical so it could wait 'til later.
Sam finally saw me hurtling towards him followed by a vicious pink spike ball and, after registering the strange sight, dropped the groceries and bent low with his arms out.
Rae grabbed her Pokeballs and released Azurill, Cleffa, and Igglybuff.
I jumped into Sam's arms and he scooped me up, holding me tight.
Nidorano skidded to a stop, confused.
I would have stuck out my tongue at him but I was already panting.
The three Police pokemon puffed out and Nidorino jogged away, seeing no further reason to pursue an already captured Pokemon. The three baby pokemon thought they intimidated him and I wasn't gonna ruin their fun.
We started walking back.
"Nova why'd you leave? Your coat attracts too much attention. It's dangerous. I couldn't risk losing you." Sam told me, frowning.
Since I was unable to tell him, I looked up at his innocently a wagged my tail, snuggling further into his arms as if to tell him 'I couldn't risk losing you either.'
"Do you still want to explore town?" Rae inquired, butting in.
'Ee-e!' I agreed. No matter what happened, it was still worth it for the training experience.
Rae smiled and started digging through Kurt's backpack.
"H-hey!" He protested. Rae pulled out a navy blue bandana, folded it once, then wrapped it around my neck and tied it in back. I shifted, uncomfortable with her sudden touch.
"What's that for?" Sam asked.
"It's for when Nova decided to walk around again. If she wears this, she looks more like a trainer's pokemon than a rare, wild one. She'll have an easier time getting around now."
I understood and gratefully licked Rae's hand and she grinned ear to ear.
NEXT DAY
Sam, after asking me, left with Kurt and Rae to train Missile, the Police pokemon, and Abra.
Me and Gold, who was already wearing his boxing gloves, headed into town. This time Nurse Joy spotted me and was unhappy about me leaving my the managed to get Chansey to tell her Sam had allowed me to do so.
It was 6 AM and Gold and I were on a mission to battle any willing pokemon who would stand a chance to us, or vice versa. After walking a few minutes, Gold stopped and pointed left.
"I'm gonna go find some foes other there. See ya back at the center later I guess. Try not to get run over, Shrimpy."
"Oh, uh okay see you." I said, a little disappointed that he wanted to go alone.
I started walking down the middle of the street, keeping distance from any early risers. It was interesting how society worked. It all seemed so new to me, but I had only been experiencing these things for a little longer than two weeks so it wasn't too surprising. I peeked behind my bandana to check to see if the three oran berries I had packed into the little pouch Kurt (who seemed to be infinitely good with anything requiring a tool) had sewn, were still in place.
After wandering around for several minutes, I found a flock of pidgey and walked over to them.
"Anyone wanna battle?"
A few flew off, spooked but two stayed, one only long enough to give me a sarcastic retort, 'as if.'
"Alright, I'll take you on," a pidgey said stretching out his winging. I shifted to my battle stance.
"Bring it on."
Pidgey hurtled at me, rapidly flapping his wings. I found my dodge had become much more neat and faster and dodged farther than necessary. I realized it must have been the running and quick turns from the day before. Upon jumping on the birds' back and delivering a tackle to the top of his skull, I realized my skull was harder than his, as it virtually had no effect on me but caused him to faint.
I hopped off him, thanked him though he was completely out if it, and dragged him to a shady tree for him to recover before continuing on.
12 PM
I lay down under a shady tree on a crest of a small hill right outside the city and pulled out my oran berries. I was a little bruised and scraped up from battling for inconsistently for six hours. I had battled nine pokemon so far, not a lot, considering the span of time. Most of them didn't last more than two or three minutes but one battle with a trainer and her charmander had lasted five minutes before I finally won.
I stretched out my exhausted muscles and finished off the berries.
I wonder how Gold's doing... I thought, immediately imagining Gold running around punching anything with a pulse and two fists. I laughed then realized that was probably what he was doing...
I pulled myself up and prepared to keep at it.
I trudged back to the center exhaustedly and ignoring any formalities, jumped up onto the counter in a way that said, 'heal me, wench' but good natured Joy complied anyway, knowing politeness was probably the last thing on my mind after so much work.
THE DAY OF QUESTION
I was feeling confident. I was ready to do this.
Sam, Kurt, Rae and I approached the looming Boulder Gym. The first milestone in our quest. An official battle.
"You ready for your first Gym battle, Rusty?"
"It's yours too, Gold."
...Or maybe I wasn't ready. I looked up at Sam, sweat dropping and tried to inconspicuously head back that way we came but Sam grabbed me.
"Don't back down now, Nova. I know how hard you trained for this. "
I nodded nervously and looked up. The Gym had a purple roof. How bad could the Pewter City Gym be if it had a purple roof?
Unless it was designed to make you put your guard down...
Realizing anymore thinking would psych me out, I braced myself and charged in, utterly terrified.
"Hey! Nova! Wait up!" Sam called after me and the humans ran after me.
I skidded to a stop ten feet in front of a boy maybe a few years older than Sam with tan skin, small, narrowed eyes and spiky brown hair.
"Looks like I have a challenger. Where's your trainer, little eevee?" He asked before Sam came in.
"Right here. And we want to challenge you to a battle."
Brock chuckled. "Alright then. This'll be quick. I have to make dinner soon."
Dinner? I wondered confusedly. He didn't seem like that kind of guy.
Brock, the Gym leader led us to an official looking field with stones and rocks jutting out.
"You can pit any or all of your pokemon against my two. You have the first move." Brock stated monotonously, tried of newbie trainers who had let their head get to big for his gym.
"Alright, sounds good," Sam said, pulling a pokeball from his belt.
"Go, Geodude!"
"Let's win this, Missile!" Sam hurled the pokeball into the air in the way I loved and the newly winged Missile appeared in a blaze of red five feet above Sam.
"You ready to show Brock what you've learned?" Sam asked. I realized I hadn't seen Missile battled since he became a Beedrill.
"Missile! Fury attack now!" Sam commanded.
Missile charged at Geodude with ridiculous speed and delivered a flurry of attacks of which only one or two hit.
"Geodude, keep distance!"
'Geo ge!'
"Keep 'em coming Missile! Fly higher! Now Focus Energy!"
Missile glowed with red aura.
'Bee bee BEE!'
"Fury attack!" Missile charged at the geodude in the incredibly fast speed. By now Kurt and Rae were cheering loudly.
Three hits connected.
"Geodude, Tackle!" Geodude slammed his rock hard body into Missile and he hit the ground with a thud and dizzy eyes.
"Missile!" Sam recalled him, "That was amazing, don't worry, we'll keep working on it until its perfect."
Sam pulled out a new Pokeball.
"Gold, finish him off."
Gold appeared on the terrain, seemingly unfazed by the important battle and cooly watched the winded geodude.
"Better say your prayers, shorty." Gold said.
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