"Sorry, Champ, but we've gotta close it."
Magnus was still fixed on the flashing lights in front of him, but before he could pull the lever, a strong hand grabbed his arm.
"We're closing", the man said. His eyes and muscles on his arm showed that he wasn't going to take no for an answer this and Magnus begrudgingly got up from his chair.
"How late is it?", he asked. He felt awfully tired.
"Six."
His legs had been in a sitting position for far too long and Magnus could only stumble towards the front door. When he exited the Game Corner, he took a moment to stretch his legs in the cold morning air of Veilstone. He sluggishly dragged himself downhill towards his hostel.
"Such a damned cold city", he mumbled as he started to shiver.
"You here?", a familiar voice shouted from behind and before Magnus could even turn his head around, a pink-haired young woman in sportswear was standing next to him and stretching her arms.
"Maylene?" he was visibly surprised to see the Gym Leader here this early in the morning.
"Doing my morning run!", she exclaimed and started to jump from her left to right leg and vice versa, "And how about you?"
Watching her swing from left to right made his head even dizzier.
"I've heard you're only missing one Sinnoh Badge!" she said and bumped her fist on his chest which was probably supposed to be a friendly gesture, but hit Magnus much harder than he would have liked to admit.
"You need to get tougher to defeat Volkner", she chuckled, "How about a rematch? This time, I'll no longer hold back!"
"I'm not really in the mood to –"
"If you wanna challenge the Elite Four, you've always gotta be in the mood!"
"Alright", he growled. At least that would distract him from his headache. He expected her to lead him to the Gym, but no, she just pulled out three Pokéballs right here in the middle of the street.
"Three vs. three, go!" she shouted and released her Hitmontop. Magnus grabbed a Pokéball from his bag – Arceus forbid, not that Pokéball! – and sent out his Garchomp. Better end this quickly.
"Dragon Claw" – "Fake Out!"
The humanoid Fighting-type rotated on its head with a blistering speed and spun fist-first into Garchomp's head who was too surprised to do anything about it.
"Close Combat!"
"I told you, Garchomp" – Maylene raised an eyebrow at how angrily Magnus shouted his command –"Dragon Claw! Get this done with!"
Hitmontop's punches and kicks hit Garchomp in quick succession, but it had to get so close to Garchomp that there was no chance to evade the Dragon Claw aimed at its gut. The impact made Hitmontop fly across the street, but just as it managed to land on its feet, a Flamethrower attack hit it right in its face. Magnus used the precious seconds during which Maylene withdrew her fainted Pokémon and sent out her next fighter to massage his temple, even though that didn't seem to help much. A four-armed, bulky Fighting-type now faced his Garchomp.
"Bullet Punch!"
Machamp's four fists quickly flew at Garchomp who seemed to be unfazed by it.
"Brick Break!" shouted Maylene and Garchomp, waiting for a command, looked over his shoulder at Magnus.
"Uh, dodge!" he answered and Garchomp jumped out of the way just in time – but Machamp's fist nevertheless darted at him with enormous speed.
"Of course", Magnus thought and got angry at himself for forgetting that Machamp's ability No Guard made evading attacks impossible. But that also applied to Machamp itself.
"Dragon Rush!"
With no chance of missing, Magnus felt free to spam his Pokémon's strongest Dragon-type attack. Unsurprisingly, Machamp would not go down with one hit, but Garchomp's tough defences allowed him to shrug off even Machamp's Fighting-type attacks. Again and again, Garchomp surrounded his body with the blue-red energy of Dragon Rush and rammed himself into Machamp and Magnus paid less and less attention to each hit – his head was feeling even dizzier – until a loud noise told him that Machamp had collapsed onto the ground.
"Last time, we held back – but now, my Lucario will show you our power!" shouted Maylene and her Lucario hit the field. Its pointy ears and red eyes eagerly scanned the environment, before it rushed towards Garchomp.
"Extreme Speed!"
The attack hit Garchomp and pushed him backwards. Magnus held his head in pain, unsure what to do. Garchomp looked into his trainer's eyes, waiting for something, but before Magnus could say anything, his Pokémon got hit by another punch. Maylene shouted "Metal Claw!" and Lucario started to rush towards him. There was no time to wait – he'd have to win this fight on his own. He swiftly ducked to evade the silvery claws of his opponent and slammed a Dragon Rush into its flank. Lucario was pushed backwards, but the attack dealt much less damage than Garchomp expected.
"Dragon Pulse!"
A ball of blue and red flames formed between his opponent's paws and was thrown at Garchomp who suppressed the pain. But that hurt more than he thought it would. Angered, Garchomp used a Crunch on his opponent's left fist and although he thought that his bite force should be almost enough to rip off its arm, the other Pokémon seemed unfazed. "Brick Break!" and the right hand hit Garchomp on his head, causing him to reflexively open his jaws. Lucario immediately withdrew his left arm and Maylene ordered him to charge another Dragon Pulse. From such a short range, Garchomp couldn't evade and howled in pain.
"Garchomp!" Magnus shouted as he heard his Pokémon's scream, "Dig!"
Relieved to hear his trainer's voice, Garchomp hid himself in the ground.
"And I thought you were about to fall asleep!" Maylene shouted across the battlefield. Although she tried to sound a bit cocky – she always thought that's how Gym Leaders are supposed to sound, right? – she was relieved that her opponent had not completely blacked out. Suddenly, Garchomp burst out of the ground and hit Lucario with his super effective Ground attack. Lucario tumbled backwards and Magnus shouted "Flamethrower" which settled this match.
"Not bad", commented Maylene after withdrawing her Pokémon, "but if you have such a blackout against Volkner, he's going to electrocute you!"
"Yeah...", muttered Magnus and walked to his Garchomp to pet his back, "Sorry about that, buddy."
His Garchomp started to purr in a deep, booming voice. He didn't seem to hold a grudge against him.
"But seriously, what was going on with you?"
"Difficult to explain", he mumbled and withdrew Garchomp, "Maybe just need some rest. Been through some exhausting days."
With that, he excused himself to his hostel room and Maylene would maybe not have worried about him any more. But when he said goodbye by wishing her a "good night" at 6:15 a.m., she decided that she'd definitely had to worry about him. For the rest of this morning, she struggled to get his pale face and almost empty eyes out of her mind, until she finally decided to make a call.
"Hello Maylene", the Champ's voice greeted her, "What can I do for you?"
"Your mentee", she answered, "I think you should check up on him."