CHAPTER FOUR

I awoke the next day, with a heavy heart, almost expecting to be at home in Cinnabar Town. Realising I wasn't, I then expected to be alone, when I rolled over to see Percy and Lucy cooking breakfast I nearly jumped out of the sleeping bag, nudging Archie in the back, who then let out a loud howl. Percy and Lucy, who were also looking stunned, nervously greeted me good morning.
"Morning." I said in a reply which was clearly lacking in enthusiasm. I slid out of my sleeping bag when the fine aroma hit my nose and I almost seemed to float off the ground and upright, Percy had made coffee. Looking at the expression on my face, Percy immediately asked if I wanted some and I nodded before he even finished the question.
"Yeah, I like my coffee as well." Percy mentioned as I seemed to be more ready for the day now,
"A coffee is all I need." I replied. We packed up all of our stuff and walked through the gates of Pewter City, the city of stone, the grey buildings didn't do much for contrast. At the back of the town was Pewter's famous museum, known for having a large collection of fossils on display. Just before that was the building we all craved, but none more than Percy who already had his dress pants and blazer on. We walked towards the gym, Percy as calm and cool as ever, Lucy who seemed to fumble around like she forgot something and then there was me, I was somewhere in between, I was trying to remain calm but my stomach was doing back flips, our first gym battle was only steps away from happening, I wasn't sure if I got enough training in, but I knew I had an advantage, Pewter's rock type Gym will be no match for Squirtle. We reached the doorway of the Gym and stopped in front, staring at the size of the building,
"So, you must be Oak's latest trio." A voice came from behind us, it was a confident tone, we turned to see who it was, it was Brock, the gym leader, he was tall and strong, he seemed confident and intimidating, almost enough to throw Percy off his game, his scruffy jet black hair only added to his presence.
"So? Who wants to take me on first?" Lucy seemed to cower behind Percy, though he only stood still for a quick second, matching Brock's gaze, Percy stepped forward,
"I will." They disappeared into the Gym, not hearing anything for a while, Lucy and I waited patiently, but she seemed to fidget around, obviously nervous about this battle. Finally the door swung open, it was Percy, he walked towards us and held out his hand, holding the Boulder Badge,
"Your turn Airen." not being able to hold in the smile anymore, we shook hands as I offered him my congratulations. Then I stepped forward, knowing it was my turn, and stepped inside. The gym was massive, the lights lit up every corner and the battlefield was littered with rocks, adding possible defensive and offensive areas, the winner will be the one who can use them the most effectively.
"You got it, Squirtle, let's go." Squirtle landed in the middle of the battlefield, looking ready for action,
"Squirtle huh? All right, I like a challenge" He said with a smirk, "Geodude!" The rock Pokémon landed just in front of Squirtle, letting out a loud cry indicating it was ready for anything.
"Squirtle lets kick this off with Bubble." Bubbles surrounded the gym, covering the battlefield, direct hit on Geodude,
"Geodude! Tackle!" Geodude's heavy tackle sent Squirtle flying across the battlefield.
"Squirtle! Water Gun!" A jet of water flew out of Squirtle's mouth but Geodude hid behind a rock and curled up.
"Ha, that's Geodude's Defence Curl, his defence just went way up, Tackle again." Geodude flew at Squirtle, surprisingly swift for a rock Pokémon.
"Squirtle, dodge it!" Squirtle jumped behind a rock and Geodude crashed into it, shattering the rock but also its health. "Squirtle, water gun, while it's close!" Squirtle unleased another jet of water directly in the face of Geodude sending him back landing Brocks feet. Brock looked at his Pokémon in shock and after a moment, returned it to his Pokéball.
"Nice battle, but here comes Onix!" A giant snake made of boulders appeared, standing over twenty-five feet tall it was daunting. Squirtle seemed a little more frightened at the sheer size of Onix
"Squirtle, let's focus, start off with bubble again!" Onix was too massive to hide amongst the rocks on the field, the bubble scored a critical hit.
"Onix, Tackle!" Onix dove forward while Squirtle managed to hide behind rocks to dodge them, however that was no good, Onix seemed to splinter the rocks apart but didn't even seem to affect its health, Squirtle dashed from one rock to another in desperation to escape Onix Tackle until there were no more rocks to hide behind, Onix dove down and hit Squirtle head on, sending him back.
"Squirtle, can you get up? Can you battle?" Squirtle gets up gingerly, looking, tired but ready for action Squirtle gets back into the fray. "Well done Squirtle, let's finish this quickly, Water Gun!" Squirtle runs and jumps getting close to Onix, a fierce Water Gun shoots from Squirtle hitting Onix just below its head. Onix fell toward the ground, a thunderous crash following. Brock recalled Onix
"Well done, you've earned your first Gym Badge, The Boulder Badge, that was a great battle Airen, thank you." Brock bowed and walked back behind a wall to heal his Pokémon, before Lucy entered looking for her badge as well. I left the gym to find Lucy and Percy outside
"Percy, that's a nice badge on your lapel, I have one just like it." holding up the badge smiling.
"Hey, that's great, well done." Lucy cut in, "Well done." Percy then gestured toward Lucy,
"Your turn, knock him dead." Lucy nodded and disappeared into the Gym, while Percy and I sat outside talking about whom we had left behind. He mentioned he was travelling to earn the pride of his Father, but didn't mention any more than that and didn't seem too willing to bring it up again. Before too long Lucy returned, not even trying to hide it came outside with a giant smile on her face with her badge already attached to her shirt.
"So that's done, to the museum!" she shouted and ran off, not realizing we still had her backpack. She slowly walked back to us to grab her bag, almost blushing
"Well come on, let's go." motioning to the large museum behind the Gym.

We walked inside the museum, greeted by a large Aerodactyl fossil in the middle of the room. The first floor covered in information about fossils of the prehistoric Pokémon Aerodactyl, Omanyte and Kabuto. Venturing upstairs the Pewter museum had a space exhibit, walking around the room to see a diagram of the space shuttle and a portion of the Moon Stone, that stories say fell to earth striking Mt. Moon in the form of a meteorite. Lucy seemed to skip from display to display looking at everything and anything, I made sure to read every letter that was on the plaques, the information intrigued and enticed me to learn more, Percy however seemed bored, but before too long, we left. Heading to the Pokémon centre to heal our Pokémon before we left for route three, and Mt. Moon, I knew that was our next destination so I was brimming with excitement, I read everything that it said on the plaques and I was itching to know more. Percy wanted to change out of his suit before we left and before too long he came out wearing his usual jeans but this time wearing a sporting jersey. It was fairly eye catching with a white shirt and a purple-bluish flame sprawled from the top right hand corner to the bottom left. The flame contrasted well with the black lined, red letters saying 'Blackthorn Meteors Grid Iron.'
"Hey! Blackthorn Meteors!" Lucy yelled with excitement, I clearly had no idea what was going on, "I followed the Celadon Razor Leafs, we won last year, you know." she continued with a smile. Percy held up his arms announcing
"Three time winners of the UJFL." he then turned so we could see his number "Number twenty-nine, best running back in the league." Now very lost I looked at Percy "UJFL?" Percy opened his mouth to answer but Lucy cut in
"University of Johto Football League, it's a Grid Iron league." I decided to be a smart ass and remind them that Football was a spherical ball with white and black hexagons and pentagons. They both pulled a face and asked what team I supported, without missing a beat I whipped out an orange and black striped jersey with a logo that said
"Cinnabar Island Arcanine's FC." a team I loved for more than one reason. It was my home team, and Arcanine was the mascot. Percy and Lucy clearly a little disinterested gestured toward the door and we headed off but before too long it was night again, so we started to set up camp near the craters and grab some dinner, all of us needed some well earned sleep, we all won our first badge and both Lucy and I used whatever energy we had left zooming between displays at the museum. Percy quiet and content about his battle while Lucy and I bragged about ours and how we used type to our advantage, though we were both eager to hear how a Dragon type and a Fire type beat Rock with no real type advantage, however, Percy didn't seem like the type to kiss-and-tell so we went unsatisfied. After a lovely dinner, I let out Archie again so he could sleep, and Lucy let out Bulbasaur, however Percy seemed content keeping his in his Pokéball.
"Airen?" Lucy suddenly spoke up, "Before, at your Gym battle, Percy and I were talking, and thought, considering we are all collecting the badges anyway, did you wanna travel with us all the time?" My eyebrows rose in surprise at the offer but I was rather thankful they wanted me to stay, I started to think I was overstaying my welcome,
"I would love to join you guys, it's always great to travel with friends." They smiled in reply as we said our goodnights and we each crawled into our respective sleeping bags and before too long, I was asleep.