Josh nearly tripped over his own feet as he left the PokeCenter. A group of Trainer School girls were crossing the street in front of him and he thought he recognized Caitlin among them for a horrible moment. Josh breathed a sigh of relief as he saw their skirts were the gray of Pewter City and not the lush green of Viridian. After that pathetic display in the forest, Josh knew he could never look Caitlin in the eye again.
Pewter City wasn't much to look at, in Josh's eyes. The entire city seemed to be a muted gray color, nestled between two mountains and the Viridian Forest. As far attractions went, the only thing of note Pewter City had was the museum and the Gym. Josh had actually visited the museum once before on a field trip years ago with Professor Oak, but could barely remember anything about what was in the building.
What Josh did remember from the trip was seeing the long line of Trainers that led into the Pewter City Gym from the second floor window of the museum. Many Trainers from Pallet Town and especially Viridian City tended to challenge Brock first, since he was seen as a much more responsible Gym Leader than Viridian's constantly-absent mystery man. However, just because Brock was more accessible didn't necessarily mean that he was easier. By the end of the field trip, Josh had only seen one Trainer emerge from the Gym with a triumphant fist pump and a crowd immediately gathering around him.
Josh grinned to himself, as disappointed as Jake had been with that Poliwag when he first caught it, Josh could remember how quickly he changed his tune after Pewter City. "You should have seen it, bro, Benz took them all down with his Water Gun — and Mud Shot, gotta keep them guessing, you know?"
Jake rarely tripped over his words like that, but Josh could tell he was trying hard not to sound like he was bragging.
"You should've recorded it for me, then I could have watched!"
"How am gonna I record while I'm battling?" Jake had said with a laugh, "And with this crappy flip-phone, not like that video would do you much good."
Josh considered calling Jake just as the memory came to him, but decided not to. Jake had confronted his first Gym with nothing but a single Pokemon and his wits; if Josh was anything close to his brother's skill, he would have to do the same. A Grass-type like his Pan was just as good as a Water- type, Josh reasoned, his Pidgey would have to sit this one out.
The Pewter Gym building certainly looked the part for a Rock-type Gym. The exterior was all a beige stone color, in contrast to most of the gray concrete that the rest of Pewter City seemed to be made of. The sign next to the door had a simple engraving:
Pewter City Pokemon Gym Leader: Brock
The Rock-Solid Pokemon Trainer!
Josh stood before the glass doors, reading the sign several times, staring at his own reflection, hoping that some sort of last-minute wisdom would come to him. He had gone over his plan already in his head. Hermes would obviously not be useful, which meant that he would have to rely only on Pan. Brock would have no Fire-types like Ryan, so there shouldn't be any issue. Then why was Josh still so nervous?
Caitlin's warning came to mind. "His Onix," Josh thought to himself, "it's faster than you'd think." Just how fast would it be? Jake hadn't mentioned anything special about Brock's Onix when he had challenged him. But of course, Jake had challenged the Gym with a Water-type.
Josh shook his head — he was wasting time.
He walked forward and the doors hissed as they slid apart for him. The inside was exactly what you would expect. The Gym was essentially one giant room, a battlefield in the center with stands on either side for spectators. The battlefield had a rocky terrain, and had white lines painted on the ground indicating places for the Trainers to stand and splitting the field in half, with a simple Poke Ball design in the center.
"Hey there!"
Josh turned to his right. There was a tall, squarely built man with a beard, wearing a red plaid shirt and brown khakis.
"Is this your first time challenging a Gym?"
"Uh, yeah," Josh said, wanting to erase the the words 'rookie Trainer' that were apparently written on his face.
"Don't sweat it, kid, Brock's a great Gym Leader to be your first," the man said.
Before Josh could ask what that meant, a door on the other side of the Gym swung open. A tall man with brown khakis and an orange shirt emerged from the doorway.
"Is that another challenger I hear?"
As he approached, Josh was able to see him more clearly.
He had tanned skin, spiky brown hair, and a casual smile. "I'm Josh, from Pallet Town," Josh said.
"I'm Brock, Pewter City Gym Leader," he said, "is this your first time challenging a Gym?"
"Um, yeah," Josh said, "I only have two Pokemon."
"That's perfectly fine," Brock said, pulling out two miniaturized Poke Balls from his back pocket and holding them in his hand, "I'll match your two with these two."
As simple as that, Josh found himself standing across the battlefield from Brock, the man with the red plaid shirt standing to the side as a referee.
"This will be a two-on-two battle," the man said, "the Gym Leader will call his first Pokemon first, and will use no substitutions. The challenger is free to use substitutions at any time. Agreed?"
Brock gave a thumbs-up, Josh nodded to the referee. "Go, Geodude!"
Brock tossed a Poke Ball into the air, and a mass of rock emerged about the size of Josh's chest. The Geodude rolled forward on the ground and flexed its arms, ready for battle.
"I believe in rock-hard defense and determination," Brock said, "you'll have to learn to beat both if you expect to win your first Badge."
Josh took his own Poke Ball from his belt and threw it into the air, "let's go, Pan!"
Josh's Bulbasaur appeared on the ground, vines already curled up next to the bulb on its back.
"Pan, use Vine Whip!"
Pan's vine lashed out and struck the Geodude in the center of its forehead, sending it rolling backwards towards the Gym Leader. Its arms dangled limply at its sides, and it finally rolled to a stop, mouth agape and eyes staring up at the ceiling.
"Geodude is unable to battle!" the man in the red shirt said as he held up a red flag in his right hand.
"Very good," Brock said, "I see you understand Type advantages, but it's going to take more than that to beat my next Pokemon."
Brock withdrew his defeated Geodude with one hand and opened his other Poke Ball with the other. Josh felt the hairs on his neck stand up as he watched the massive stone beast that emerged arch its body and roar up at the ceiling. Somehow, even after hesitating for so long outside, Josh had still underestimated how big the Onix would be.
"All right, Onix, Tackle!"
The Onix reared back, then dove nose-first with surprising speed towards Pan. Pan tried to turn and run, but the Onix struck the ground it was standing on and sent Pan flying back. The Onix rustled, and withdrew its face from the crater it had left in the ground, bits of rock sticking to its nose as it raised its head again.
"Pan, get up and use Vine Whip!"
Pan pushed itself upright with one vine, and then sent the other arcing through the air, catching the Onix on the side of its head and shaking loose the last few rocks that still clung to its face. The Onix grunted and reared back in pain.
"Again, Pan, keep hitting it with Vine Whip!"
"Can't make it too easy for you, now," Brock said, "Onix, use Bide!"
Pan walked forward at an even pace as it alternated striking the Onix with its vines, slapping its face back and forth, but the Onix no longer made any noise as it took the hits. Instead, the Onix had begun to glow faintly, each vine that hit it seemingly having less and less of an effect on the Onix.
Josh thought hard. Bide, what did that move do again? Josh and Ryan had spent countless hours planning what their then hypothetical Pokemon would learn as moves to use in battle. Their choices were obvious — only the strongest, most damaging moves: Fire Blast, Earthquake, Hydro Pump. Josh, as any boy his age, had quickly scrolled past the boring moves that Pokemon learned early during their pre- evolutions. There was no point to learning those useless moves, right?
Only now, as Josh watched the Onix continue to glow brighter and become more motionless, did the vague memory of a single line of text on a battle encyclopedia website finally come back to him. He almost tripped over his words as he fumbled with his Poke Balls.
"Pan, come back! Hermes, I need you!"
What happened seemed to play in slow motion for Josh. The thin red beam of light reached Pan's body, just as another vine was about to hit the Onix and give it more deadly energy, Pan dematerialized and shrank back towards the Poke Ball. Josh's second Poke Ball cracked open, a flash of white light materializing into a flurry of feathers, and Hermes flew forward. The Onix finally roared, each individual boulder that formed its serpentine body rotating in place as the Onix spun, swinging its massive tail around and smacked the barely- airborne Pidgey, sending it flying into the wall of the building.
Hermes pancaked against the wall, then fell to the ground.
"Pidgey is unable to battle!" the man declared, as if it weren't painfully obvious to everyone there, and held up a green flag in his left hand.
Josh withdrew Hermes, frowning as he held the Poke Ball in his hand.
"I'm really sorry," Josh said, "if I had remembered sooner, I could have given you more time. Maybe you could have dodged it."
"Are you ready to continue?" the referee said.
Josh looked back at the battlefield. Brock was standing with his arms crossed; the Onix stared back toward Josh, each segment its body undulating gently.
"Yes," Josh said, "come back out, Pan!"
The Bulbasaur reappeared, and vines sprang out from its bulb the moment it saw the Onix again.
"You've already weakened this one," Josh said, "we just have to finish it off."
"Is that so?" Brock said, "let's test that theory. Onix, use Tackle!"
"Pan, Vine Whip!"
The Onix reared back and opened its mouth, but its moves were sluggish and the roars that had been bellowing out had softened into a strained grunt. Pan's vine was much too quick, and intercepted the Onix in the face before it could even throw its weight forward. The vine collided with the Rock-type's face with a deafening crack, the Onix was thrown backward and its body went limp as each boulder in its serpentine body fell onto the ground.
"Onix is unable to battle!" the referee said, again holding up the red flag with gusto.
Brock's Onix had landed in a giant S shape, blocking Brock from Josh's view. The mass of boulders shrunk into a red mass as Brock recalled it into its Pokemon. Brock walked forward and Josh walked to meet him, both stopping in the center of the battlefield.
"That was a great maneuver with your Pidgey there," Brock said, "I think I would have had you, otherwise. But, a defeat is a defeat, and you've proved your worth here in my Gym." Brock reached into his pocket and held out his hand, holding a single octagon-shaped piece of medal in his fingers. "This is the Boulder Badge. Anyone who manages to defeat me wins this, and shows that they have what it takes to get through my Rock-types. Take it."
Josh could see his hand tremble as he reached forward, fighting the urge to snatch it out of Brock's hand as if this dream of him winning his first Gym Challenge on his first try would end if he took too long to grab it. But the dream did not end. Josh took the Badge and held it gingerly with his thumb and index finger, holding it up to his face and watching as the lights overhead made the dull metal shine into a brilliant white. This was a real Badge, from a real Leader.
"I also want you to have this," Brock said.
Josh looked back down. Brock was holding a small, gray CD. Josh gently grabbed it and lifted it off the finger Brock was using to hold it up.
"This is a Technical Machine — a TM — it can be used to teach your Pokemon useful moves," Brock said.
"I've heard of these," Josh said, "you just pop them in a Poke Ball and it learns the move?"
"Not quite," Brock said, "these discs just have what's called a virtual memory drive. It's like a movie that plays for your Pokemon inside their Poke Ball, showing them what the move is supposed to look like. But you'll still have to practice it for your Pokemon to really learn to use it, especially if it's a really powerful move."
"Wow," Josh said, marveling at the disc, "I guess there's no shortcuts, even with these."
"That's right, kid," Brock said, "but I think you have what it takes to make good use of it. What you have there is Bide, I think you're familiar with it after today."
Josh turned the disc over in his hand. Sure enough, if he squinted, he could faintly make out the text that seemed to be printed on the edge of the disc: "TM34 - BIDE".
"Thanks," Josh said, stowing it in his bag.
"Can I ask where do you plan on going from here?" Brock said.
"Oh, um, probably to a store where I can buy a CD case for these," Josh said. He didn't like the idea of a disc bouncing around in his bag along with all his Potions, Poke Balls, and his Pokedex.
"I meant, which Gym do you think you'll challenge next?"
"Oh!" Josh exclaimed, "I hadn't really thought about it."
Brock chuckled, "I guess the world is your Cloyster then, kid, I'm sure I'll be hearing about you from whoever you go to next."
#
Josh felt lighter than air as he thanked Brock for the last time and walked out of the Pewter City Gym. He could feel the stupid grin on his face and made no effort to suppress it. He stepped outside and heard the doors hiss closed behind him. He threw his hands into the air and howled at the sky. Then he turned around, wanting to take one last look at the first Gym he had defeated. He could see his own reflection in the glass. Somehow, the boy looking back at him through the glass surprised him. He looked no different than when he had entered.