Chapter 45: The Gym
I spent the morning training outside the city.
Flat ground near the forest edge, nobody around. Prinplup worked on Peck. Rhyhorn practiced moving sideways, which she hated, but after an hour she could dodge left on command without tripping over her own feet. Deino ran Dragon Breath drills at range, keeping the blasts tight instead of letting them spread. He was getting good at it. Really good.
Gastly watched from a tree. I hadn't included him in the plan for tomorrow and I think he knew it. He floated there with his grin but his eyes followed everything.
"You'll get your chance," I told him. "Just not tomorrow. I need to know you better first and you need to know me better. That's not an insult, that's just how it is."
"*Gas.*" He just floated there. Quiet. No pranks. That made me feel worse about it than if he'd been annoying.
By noon I felt like we'd done what we could.
I recalled everyone and walked to the gym.
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The gym looked even more like a greenhouse up close. Glass panels everywhere, vines crawling up the sides, the smell of soil and green things pushing through the doors every time someone opened them. I walked in and the temperature changed immediately. Warmer. Humid. Like stepping into a different climate.
I stood there for a second just looking. Trees growing between the walls. Ferns covering the floor near the edges. Flowers I didn't recognise climbing up trellises toward the glass ceiling. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, a battlefield. I could see the lines on the floor through gaps in the foliage. This place wasn't a gym. It was a garden that someone had put a battlefield in.
No wonder grass types thrived in here. This was their world. Everyone else was just visiting.
A woman was watering plants near the entrance. She had an apron on and dirt on her hands and she looked up when I came in.
"Here for a battle or just looking?" she asked.
"A battle, actually. Is there a spot open tomorrow?"
She checked something on a tablet behind the counter. "Tomorrow afternoon, two o'clock. That work for you?"
"Yeah, that's perfect."
"Alright, name and how many badges?"
"Ryan, and one so far."
She typed it in. "Gardenia will adjust for one badge. Three on three. You can use any Pokémon you've registered. Standard league rules." She looked up at me. "First time in a grass gym?"
"Yeah."
"Word of advice then. The plants on the field are part of the arena. Gardenia uses them. Her Pokémon know every root and branch in there. Yours don't." She said it flat, like something she'd told a hundred people before. "Don't be surprised if you can't see her Pokémon sometimes."
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."
She nodded and went back to her watering. I took one more look at the battlefield through the plants. Somewhere in there, tomorrow, I was going to fight for my second badge. In a jungle. Against someone who'd built the jungle herself.
Great. No pressure.
I walked back to the Pokémon Center and spent the rest of the day going over everything I knew. Gardenia. Grass type specialist. Three Pokémon for a one badge challenger. Roserade was her ace. Poison Jab, energy drain moves, and she used the field like a weapon.
My plan: Prinplup opens. Yeah she's water against grass but she has Peck now, flying type, super effective. And she's my most experienced fighter. She knows how to take a hit and adjust. Rhyhorn comes in second for raw power, Rock Blast and Smack Down. Deino closes if it comes to that.
I went to bed early. Couldn't sleep for a while. Kept running the plan in my head. What if Reflect goes up early. What if Prinplup gets poisoned. What if Roserade is faster than I think.
Eventually I slept.
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Two o'clock.
The gym felt different when you walked in knowing you were about to fight. The plants felt closer. The humidity stuck to my skin. The light coming through the glass panels turned everything green and warm.
My heart wasn't calm. It wasn't racing either. Just going, faster than normal, the way it always did right before something started.
Gardenia was standing on the far side of the battlefield.
She was younger than I expected. Maybe early twenties. Short brown hair, orange crop top, green cloak thing draped over one shoulder. She was talking to a Cherubi on her shoulder, saying something I couldn't hear, and when she noticed me she smiled and the Cherubi bounced.
"Ryan, right?" she called across the field. "One badge. Three on three."
"That's me."
"Awesome! I'm Gardenia." She walked to her position and the Cherubi hopped off her shoulder onto a branch nearby. "Sorry, she likes to watch. Don't mind her." She tilted her head, looked me over. "You came in yesterday to book, right? Most one-badge challengers don't do that. They just show up and hope for the best."
"I like knowing what I'm getting into."
"Good habit." She pulled a Pokéball from her belt and something in her shifted. Still friendly but sharper now. "I love this, you know. New challengers, new Pokémon. Every battle is different and I get to see how people think." She held up the ball. "Ready when you are."
I looked at the field. The grass was real, ankle-high, and between the field lines there were clusters of plants and low bushes that her Pokémon could disappear into. Home advantage didn't even begin to cover it.
I took a breath. Pulled Prinplup's ball. Felt the warmth of it in my hand.
"Ready."
"Then let's go!" She threw her ball with a grin. "Turtwig, you're up!"
The Turtwig materialised on the grass. Small, solid, the leaf on its head catching the green light. It planted its feet and looked at me and there was nothing nervous about it.
"Prinplup, let's go!"
"*Plup.*" She landed on the grass and looked around. Took the whole field in. The plants, the bushes, the Turtwig standing there waiting for her. Her flippers came up.
"Prinplup, Peck! Let's start this!"
She launched forward, beak glowing white, closing the distance fast.
"Turtwig, Reflect!"
A wall of light shimmered into existence between them.
Prinplup's beak hit the barrier and—
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A/N
Thanks for reading! The second gym arc officially starts here.
If there's anything you'd like to see (Pokémon, battles, character moments), feel free to comment I read everything.