Hard Enough

“Argh! This place is so annoying!” Gary shouted.

“Weedle!” another bug pokemon leapt out at Gary, causing the Rattata that Gary had out to sprint at it. Rattata intercepted it with a tackle mid-leap. Gary watched the fight progress, more than happy to let his pokemon fight without instruction for now. His pokemon won anyway. Gary looked over the Weedle before shaking his head. So far he hadn’t been impressed with how the Weedle and Kakuna he’d come across had acted. And no way was he going to get something as lame as a Butterfree. Urgh, no. Daisy had loved hers and had it for ages. He didn’t want to be compared to her, so no Butterfree.

He glared at the trees around him. He’d ended up getting lost. So one could possibly say he hadn’t planned things out quite how he should have. “Should have bought a compass! Urgh, idiot!”

The girls didn’t say anything, they merely sat around in some fold-up camp chairs while watching him shout at the tree. The same tree that he’d walked past at least six times today! He should know. He’d made a mark on it to show he’d been through here. He glared at the ‘Gary rules and Ash drools!’ he’d carved into the bark. Damnit! If he didn’t stay ahead of Ash, this would turn him into a joke! A laughing stock! A loser!

He sat down, his brow furrowing as he started to think. It was up to him, as the man among the ladies to have a solution! He sat up. “Didn’t someone say something about moss growing on only—”

“That doesn’t work,” said Sarah from her chair.

Gary frowned at her. "Well, if that doesn’t work, how am I supposed to move around without knowing which way to go?”

“Most people stick to the roads through the forest and only venture off a small way.”

“I thought I saw a Pikachu! That’d be perfect for the type of team I need to assemble!” An evolved pokemon that was an electric type this early in his career would do wonders for him!

“Oh well, you’ll learn next time, and it’s not like you haven’t gotten the chance to fight a lot more pokemon now. You’ve even got to try new things with your team. Imagine how you’d go against other trainers now?” Sarah sipped from a soda can before tossing the can into her bag.

Gary liked the thought of that. He nodded. Once he got out of here, he’d be so much stronger!

The girls all sat up and looked at one side of their clearing. Gary watched them in confusion for a moment before an older boy stepped out. “Ah! You must be Gary Oak from Pallet town! I have been expecting you!” The boy clanked as he approached, his body covered in plates that made him look like an old samurai. On his back, a pair of bug nets rested in a criss-cross.

Gary stood, “Heh! Heard of me have you? I knew I was famous, but I didn’t think people would seek me out for my autograph so soon!” He grinned at the boy only for the samurai boy to frown.

“I have not sought you out for an autograph! I have sought you out to fight you so I might see the strength of the new trainers from Pallet Town this year! Come! Fight with me and my pokemon in battle!”

“Oh? Yeah, I think I have time for that, prepare to lose though!” Gary selected a pokemon and hurled it out to reveal Spearow. The small bird pokemon hopped back and forth in irritation as it glared at the samurai kid.

“A flying type eh? You have done your research well but I shall not falter! Go Weedle!” Gary looked at the revealed pokemon before raising his pokedex to capture a few images. He looked over the written details and whistled. That wasn’t too shabby a pokemon. The horn on its head made him a bit weary.

“Spearow watch out for the horn! We only have a few antidotes left!”

“Weedle lunge forth with your horn and strike this bird from the skies!” The samurai thrust his hand forward.

“Dodge it!” Gary commanded. Weedle lunged straight at Spearow, but the attack missed as Spearow hopped to the side. “Great! Use Peck!” Spearow began peppering the bug pokemon with pecks furiously. The Weedle was tossed aside, and Gary grinned as it struggled to get up.

“Weedle use string shot!” the bug shot a string from its mouth straight at Spearow, this time the attack connected and Spearow tripped. “Now! Poison sting!”

“Spearow roll to the side!'' This order saw Spearow roll instead of trying to hop or flap out of the way, overriding Spearow’s instincts. This allowed Spearow to dodge once again. And again, and again as Weedle kept up the pressure, after a few more near misses the Weedled lunged too far and face-planted into a tree before slumping down.

Spearow rolled to the side and struggled enough to break free. It turned and rounded on the still limp Weedle with a mean look in its eye only for the foe to vanish in red light. “Your pokemon is well trained. I am bested on this day! Congratulations, young Gary!”

“Heh! I knew we could do it Spearow!” Spearow glared at everyone around it before hopping up into a tree branch to eat some berries. The girls, now all standing close by burst into cheers for Gary and his Spearow. This had the small bird puffing itself up more and more. Gary grinned as he accepted the cash from the samurai boy. An idea struck him. "Hey, you spend a lot of time around here, how do you navigate around?”

“Oh? Did your compass break?”

“Uh, something like that,’ Gary said back.

The boy nodded stoically before pointing to the sun. Gary followed to look at the sun before looking away as it was too bright. “Always remember. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west! That means if you keep the east to your left you will be heading north!”

Gary blinked before nodding. It made sense. He coughed into his fist. “Alright girls, we're going that way!”

The Samurai boy nodded. “Good luck on your journey Gary! I shall await the rest of the trainers from Pallet! Also, watch out for the Beedrill nests. If you hear lots of buzzing, go around it!”

Gary perked up, he’d get the chance to see if they were strong pokemon! “Sure! Sure!” He turned and waved the girls onwards. “See ya later Samurai!” he called over his shoulder.

And with that said he strode northwards, finally getting closer towards his first gym match against Brock! Gary bounced a little more as he walked and started to speed up. He was practically buzzing with energy—

“Hear that buzzing?” asked Fiona.

Gary stopped.

That hadn’t just been himself buzzing but also the forest in front of him. He snuck up to some trees to peer around them. Sure enough, in the next clearing a large tree was set with Weedle and Beedrill moving about. Upon numerous branches Kakuna watched on, only their eyes flitting around as they worked through their second stage of evolution. Gary watched them all carefully. His eyes constantly returned to how the Beedrill zipped around, a few of them even slamming into each other with their needles like swordsmen. He raised his pokedex and set it to record the area.

He sat and watched for the next ten minutes, trying to figure out how the pokemon lived as a community. They were actually all stronger than he had come to expect of wild pokemon.

He’d encountered a small ‘hive’ earlier in the day but they’d been much weaker. Clearly, those were stragglers, and the pokemon here were united. They trained together and looked after each other. That would mean they were healthier and stronger.

Gary pulled back the pokedex and tapped out his observations to attach to the video file before resuming his recording.

After another ten minutes. Fiona approached him. “Got enough video?”

“Hmmm? Oh, yeah. Gramps will be pleased. I think I’d like to try catching one of them as well.”

Fiona’s eyes widened. “One of them? One of the swarm pokemon?”

Gary nodded. “They’re bigger and stronger.” A pair of Beedrill clashed. “Faster too.”

“And how are you going to do it?” Gary chewed his lip and looked around.

He didn’t want to enter the swarm’s territory, instead, he wanted to lure one out. But he probably couldn’t take it too far or it would lose interest. He needed a way to make the pokemon like him.

“Let’s find some berries. The sweeter the better.” He retreated to find a few leppa and pecha bushes. It took him and the girls a few minutes but they soon had a few of each berry. They’d had to knock out some Pidgey and Spearow that had been claiming the bush as their own but Squirtle, Nidoran, and Spearow had taken care of them.

“Yeah Gary!” the girls whispered as he set up his plan.

He looped a string around one of the berries and tossed it lightly to the edge of the swarm’s territory. His eyes roamed over the nearby Weedle before pausing on a large one happily nuzzling through some leaf litter. This one had some energy to it. He leaned down and toss a rock close to but not at the Weedle. The little bug stiffened before whirling around to look at what had thrown something at it.

Gary gently tugged the berry backwards. The movement making Weedle’s eyes lock onto the slowly retreating berry.

“WEe!” cried the pokemon before hurriedly giving chase. Gary grinned and dragged the berry to his prepared area. Then he dropped the string so that the berry would just so happen to rest on the edge of the clearing.

“Clear out girls, I don’t want to intimidate it!” The girls that had been guarding his berry pile darted behind a few trees leaving Gary to lounge near the berry pile. He selected a nice-looking one and made a show of biting into it slowly. He made loud noises of enjoyment. When the Weedle pounced on the berry he’d left it only had to glance up to see him enjoying his own berry pile. The little bug’s eyes locked on the pile and inched forward. Gary ignored it, eating his own berry.

When it got three-quarters of the way to him Gary made a show of finishing the berry off and turning to select another. When he ‘happened’ to spot the Weedle it froze.

“Huh? Oh! Hey, did you want some of this?” He offered up a pecha berry. The Weedle tracked it up and down, left and right. It slowly nodded. Gary smiled and tossed it to it before selecting another for himself. When the Weedle finished, it looked up hopefully at the pile. Gary tossed it another. And then another, and finally another. When the pile was done the little weedle was now rather round in the middle.

Gary stood making the food lethargic pokemon remember that the nice human was still there. It wobbled backwards giving Gary a look that was probably thoughtful.

“Heh well, it was nice to share a meal with you… I love having little breaks like this all the time.” Weedle twitched at that giving, Gary a deeper look over. “I’m going to keep heading though.”

He made his own show of looking over the Weedle. “Hey? You didn’t want more berries or food even better than this, did you?”

The Weedle perked up and nodded. Gary grinned and raised a pokeball. “Want to come with me? I promise to give you good food while you do!”

The Weedle leapt at him, causing Gary to flinch for a moment, thinking he’d messed up. Instead of stabbing him, the pokemon slapped itself into the pokeball allowing the ball to absorb it. It didn’t even wobble, instead merely clicking home instantly.

Gary glanced at the pokeball before looking to the buzzing part of the forest. He pumped his arm one. “Yes!” he said quietly.

“Yeeeeeaaaah Gary!” whispered the girls from the trees, swishing their ever-present pom poms softly so as to not attract the swarm. Gary gave them a theatrical bow before signaling they’d move on. He tossed the pokeball up and down, thoroughly pleased with his success for the day even if it was only the morning.

They passed by the swarm without anything alerting the Beedrill of their presence. They continued to walk a bit towards the west only to turn northward once more when Gary felt they’d gone far enough.

As they walked, Gary had his new Weedle out crawling all over his arms and shoulders. Behind him, a few of the girls cringed away from his newest teammate. After a few minutes of this, he handed the pokemon another berry off a bush they passed, and instead raised up his pokedex to record any pokemon that they happened upon.

Sadly, they found no rare pokemon. Only more Pidgey, the occasional Spearow, a Rattata, Weedle, Caterpie and Metapod. He’d have loved something more exotic to appear before him but it didn’t seem to be a super lucky day.

They broke into another clearing around lunchtime. Unlike the other clearings where the sun peeked through, here the trees were tall enough to have a full canopy that cast the area in shadow. They entered carefully in case it was a pokemon’s resting area. Not that it should be a concern. There hadn’t been any rangers around that would have pushed them away from a dangerous area or tested them with a battle.

The clearing did hold something.

In the middle, made from wood that had been carefully treated, rested a simple shrine with a small doll-like figure made of wood resting within. Gary looked over the buglike eyes and sprout-like head before shrugging and taking a picture with his pokedex for posterity. His sis would like to see things like this on his pokenet page.

The girls approached the shrine and as one clapped their hands. “Dear protector of the Forest! Let Gary win his next pokemon fight!” They then clapped their hands together three times before offering another bow.

Gary snorted. “Please! I don’t need luck ladies, I have skill!”

Fiona merely shrugged. “It never hurts to show a little faith. Someone obviously cares for this little shrine.” She glanced around and exhaled slowly. “It’s rather nice here. Care for a drink?”

Gary looked around. The long but thin grass swished idly back and forth causing the whole place to have an almost hypnotic effect. He relaxed and slowly sat down. “Yeah, that sounds good.” He enjoyed some milk while the girls all had tea. They even offered the shrine a cup, much to Gary’s amusement.

Gary toyed with the idea of writing his name on it but decided against it. Ash probably wouldn’t come this far anyway. And Fiona had been right. The shrine was looked after by someone. No need to write his name on it. If Daisy found out she’d fly out on her Pidgeot and beat him up.

Instead, he released his pokemon to let them roam around a little. Some of them sidled up to the girls and got some tea and snacks. Weedle had to approach Gary as most of the girls seemed a bit put out having the bug pokemon crawl over them.

When they were done they packed up and Gary made to take back the offering only to find it empty. “Heh, nice one girls, I didn’t see you even swipe it!”

The girls all blinked at him before looking at the empty shrine.

“Hadn’t there been a little doll as well?” Sarah asked with a tilt of her head. Gary frowned. There had been… hadn’t there?

“It’s gone now,” Gary said before looking to see the girls checking the area, only to shake their heads. Gary rubbed his chin before snapping his fingers. “Must have been a ghost pokemon of some sort. They get up to all sorts of tricks!”

He looked around, hoping for one such pokemon to appear. A Gastly would be great to have! Or maybe a Misdreavus! He continued to look but didn’t find anything. He did think he heard something giggling at him though but he could never put his finger on where it had come from. Eventually, he decided to leave it be, making his way further north.

They exited Viridian forest with only an hour’s walk to see them into Pewter itself. The city sat nestled in the cradle of large mountains that made heading north and east tough affairs for the most part. Faint lines could be seen where people had built in roads to travel in said directions.

With the city before him, Gary led the way proudly. Other trainers were set up nearby with campsites strewn about. A few making up an early dinner. Some picnickers were packing up their baskets and what looked like the last few matches of the afternoon were already wrapping up. Like them, Gary planned to be in the city proper tonight.

Gary stumbled on something only to turn around and find a small face sticking out of the ground. “Diglett!” cried the pokemon

“Hey! Whose pokemon is this?” The pokemon vanished as trainers turned their heads. They looked away, shaking their heads at Gary only for the Diglett to poke its head up and stick its tongue out at Gary.

“Diglett!”

“Oh she’s a sassy girl!” cheered the girls. Gary grumbled at that, giving the now watching trainers a look. None of them seemed to be interested in the Diglett. He looked at the Weedle on his shoulder before looking at the Diglett. He selected another pokeball and called out, “Go Squirtle show up this chump!”

“Squi—” Mud sprayed into the turtle’s face and the cry was aborted. Gary blanched.

“That thing is fast! Squirtle use Bubble! Fill the area! Don’t worry about aiming!”

“Squirt!” With the Mudlsap affecting it, Gary didn’t like his chances of hitting it. Mudslap was like Sand-attack.

A move he’d learned enough about through the last few days of fighting off Pidgey. Thankfully, he and Squirtle had come up with a decent method of countering this. Fill the area with bubbles. The Diglett seemed a bit astonished by this before trying to swing around the bubbles. With the air filled with bubbles however the areas it could move were limited allowing Gary to direct his pokemon.

“Shoot your bubbles to your two o'clock!” It had taken a bit and so far only Squirtle had understood the idea of a clock face aiming system but after being blinded he’d needed a way to direct the attacks. This was what he’d come up with. Squirtle dutifully fired in the direction. His bubbles floated out quickly to impact the mole.

“Diglett!” cried the pokemon as each bubble slammed home. When it came out the other side it looked annoyed. Gary raised a new pokeball. Perfect, he’d catch it as the final win for the day. The little mole had already proven itself to be pretty quick, with endurance like that against a water move it would make for a good battler.

“Go pokeball!” he shouted, hurling the ball forward. Sadly the Diglett saw it coming and dropped into the ground. It shot up and stuck its tongue out once more, causing Gary to snarl, especially when he saw that his pokeball had slammed into a tree and broken. That right there was a huge loss of pokedollars. “Bubble again Squirtle! Two o'clock!”

The Diglett didn’t look as willing to stick around after that but before the bubbles ran their course he was already throwing the pokeball. With the bubbles hiding the throw the Diglett didn’t get the chance to dodge.

It wobbled a few times before breaking out. In the time it took to do that however Squirtled had frothed up his mouth and used the bubbles to clear his eyes. A final bubble attack saw the Diglett down for the count and captured.

Gary thrust the pokeball up to the heavens. “Yes! Another pokemon for my team of champions!”

“Squirt! Squirt! Squirtle!” cried the pokemon at Gary’s side with his arms crossed over.

“Yaaaah Gary!” The girls kicked their legs together and Gary smiled while feeling odd.

Something about how their legs were kicking up made him want to keep watching. He shrugged it off and waved his hand towards the nearby city. “Onward to the pokecenter and then!” He clenched his fist as the girls swooned, “The first Gym match!”

“Hooray!” shouted a small girl that had approached while Gary was fighting the Diglett. She tried mimicking Gary’s girlfriends which got a lot of laughs from people watching on. Gary gave her a nod while her mother ushered her back to the family picnic blanket.

Riding high with success, Gary entered the city, glancing over the earthy-toned city that also had newly painted areas with slate grey and lighter browns. Sarah skipped over to an information kiosk just before the person manning it could shut it up for the evening. She skipped back with a few brochures and information booklets that she began reading.

Gary didn’t bother to stop, he kept walking on. In truth, it was hard to keep ahead of the girls with their slightly longer legs. But he wasn’t bothered, he knew he’d be taller than them soon!

As they walked, Gary caught sight of numerous signs that indicated where they needed to go for things like the pokecenter, the pokefeed building, the Battle club, the museum, and finally, the Gym itself.

These signs were all in newly done slate grey with fissure-like paint put onto them. Gary had to admit that he liked them. He looked down the road. “Reckon the Gym is still open?”

The girls all shared a look before Fiona shook her head. “Brock’s probably already closed up. Also, it’s probably best to give Squirtle a rest tonight before trying early in the morning.”

“Yeaaaaaah I guess you’re right,” Gary said, continuing to walk forwards only to cough. “Oh! Muk! What’s that smell?”

The girls dry heaved before tugging Gary back and away as a particularly rank-smelling hiker jogged past them towards the pokecenter chanting about hot showers under his breath.

“Urgh! People can get that bad out in the wilds?”

The girls shook their heads. “Only if you go without a water type. Usually, they can help you keep clean with a light-powered Water Gun,” said Sarah.

Fiona nodded before waving her hand towards the man trotting away. “He probably can’t even smell how bad he was, he's gotten that used to it.”

“Urgh!” Gary said before pausing and sniffing himself. He hadn’t bathed in a few days and he had a water type. He shot the girls a sheepish look. They had been standing further back for a few days now…

“Alright! Pokecenter, showers and then the finest Mr Mime’s bur—”

“Actually how about Mr Raticate’s grill?” Fiona cut him off.

Gary grumbled. “But! Burgers!?”

“Next time alright? Also, Mr Raticate’s has burgers.” That got Gary to brighten up and lead the girls on for a bath and dinner. On the way Gary could have sworn he heard the girls ask why they didn’t try for Gaston’s only for Fiona to say something about having realistic expectations for a kid.

Gary wondered who they were talking about.

[/hr]

The Pewter city gym was a building that made people stop and take it in.

“Wow, I think I should have Brock design my mansion when I’m Champion,” Gary said from atop the small rise.

They had stopped on the path to the Gym. At a site on the road with numerous benches that allowed you to stand slightly above and enjoy the Gym’s design. It had obviously been created with an eye for large crowds to appear and vanish from the building quickly.

Multiple walkways led to and from various entrances, and to the side, Gary could see multiple smaller battle courts. That would probably be a great place to learn some tricks from visiting trainers or even train some of his current teams. The area didn’t have bushes or flowers like in Pallet Town but instead featured boulders, pebbles and slate rockways that gave it a harshness that allowed the gym to be imposing without even casting a shadow.

“Brock didn’t design the gym,” Sarah said from behind an information brochure. Gary waved a hand at her.

“I knew that…” When the girls gave him blank looks of disapproval, he coughed. “Right, sorry. How’d you learn that?”

Sarah raised the brochure before reciting, “The local Pewter City gym was originally located in a more central position to the city. This original gym—which was actually a city-owned building before being gifted to Brock’s family for service to the city—was merely boulder shaped. This Gym however, was deemed too small for the demands of the pokemon battles and the needs of the city.”

She flipped to another side of the brochure. “Since Brock took over running the Gym, he has used his own funds— secured through his journey, and the sale of a number of rare or exotic pokemon —to construct the new Pewter City Gym. The Local Stonecutters were hired to design and construct a building that paid tribute to the local natural beauty that is so often overlooked by rock formations. Local timber from the viridian forest was sourced to create the soft interior. They achieved their style with the gym by working with the rocky landscape of the mountains that surround Pewter.”

Gary listened as they walked closer and closer to the gym. Along the way, various boulders stood planted with plaques on them that listed off basic trainer advice like making sure you had a pokemon that could generate light for cave explorations along with common cave exploration tricks and tips. Gary read through them.

Never enter a cave alone, always check for signs of a cave in, do not use earthquake or large-scale pokemon moves while underground, have an emergency plan, avoid making loud noises while inside caves or the wild. The last one Gary read more seriously as it showed pictures of trainers being swarmed due to attracting hundreds of zubats that had been resting in the caves.

A few of the boulders only had pictures of old men and women with their stories. Gary didn’t look over them. Important people didn’t have boulders dedicated to them. They had statues and were written into books or told about so much that everyone simply knew their name!

Gary already had plans for a five-part movie series in mind for his own story.

“—the sharp geometric shapes also allow for the entrances to mimic cave entrances while keeping the energy costs of the gym down thanks to the solar panels built into the roof through miniaturisation technology. The Stonecutter’s have since won numerous awards for their innovative ideas. Brock was said to be a large part in the design concept stage along with using numerous pokemon from his gym during the building phase of the project,” said Sarah, apparently having continued to talk with the other girls who were listening avidly.

“The Gym itself, and much of the surrounding area are owned by Brock. This allows for the Pewter Gym to serve as a stable for numerous trainers should they be sponsored by the gym or trainers willing to pay the stable rental fee.”

“How much land does that take?” Gary said, absently entering through the greyed out but still reflective doors.

“It says here that it’s roughly four hundred hectares.”

“Is that big?” Gary said, eying the small line of pokemon trainers that had gotten to the gym before him. Two receptionists stood behind another blocky-looking desk. Sarah leaned towards him.

“That’s like a thousand League battlefields.”

That made Gary stop. “Oh…. that’s almost like Gramp’s farm.”

Sarah flipped through the brochure. “It apparently gets Brock into the top hundred stables in Kanto just on size alone.”

Gary whistled at that. Brock was clever, not a lot of people realised how much money there was in stable rights. Even a year’s rent at a decent stable was expensive. Having it attached to a Gym? The pokemon that roamed here were bound to learn a trick or two. They’d certainly toughen up from hanging out with rock-types.

Gary grinned when he reached the front of the line. “Hello there! How can I help you today?” said the receptionist politely.

“Name’s Gary Oak, and I’m here to challenge the Gym Leader for the Boulder Badge!”

The receptionist gave him a wide smile. “Perfect! Which challenge would you like to undertake?”

Gary gave her a confused look. “Which… Challenge?”

The woman inclined her head before turning in her seat to gesture above her. Above her in a board chiselled into the wall were a group of Geodudes, Gravelers, Golems, Onix and all sorts of rock-type pokemon.

The first challenge was held in place by Geodudes and Gravelers. It read;

‘The Traditional Challenge’

The trainer may battle the gym leader with two pokemon and two pokemon only.

The Gym Leader is not allowed to substitute his pokemon during the match.

To earn the Boulder badge you must demonstrate skill equal to that of your current badge challenge.

The second challenge featured pairs of rock pokemon standing together in the corners and looking out. It read;

‘Double pokemon Challenge’

A trainer will select two pokemon to fight at the same time on the same battlefield as will the Gym Leader. Your bonds and teamwork will be tested.

No substitutes will be allowed during this match.

The last pokemon on the field will earn victory but this does not guarantee the earning of a pokemon badge.

Gary whistled to himself. “Wow, you don’t see many gyms offering trainers the chance to fight two-on-two for a gym battle.” He looked down at the receptionist. “Does he get many that challenge him like that?”

“A few, it’s a wonderful method for him to stay flexible with his planning as you often have to consider the way moves can counter or bolster each other,” said the receptionist.

“Huh, cool.” Gary looked for the third option and found it being held by trainers with stone faces staring back and multiple pokemon roaming the border looking protective. At the top, a badge symbol rested.

‘The Gauntlet’

In this challenge, you may challenge the gym with a full roster of a pokemon team at six pokemon and no more.

You will face no less than two trainers prior to the gym leader. You are not allowed to leave for the pokemon centre and return. Only one healing item may be used between matches.

At the end of running the gauntlet of Gym trainers at your skill level, you will face off against the Gym Leader. You must defeat his team to claim victory and earn your Badge at this level. This is a test of endurance and planning. You may Challenge with either standard or Double battles for each match upon selection.

Prepare yourself.

Gary stared at that plaque, he wanted that. The way it was worded had to be a test. The real trainers obviously took note and challenged at the Gauntlet level! You had to if you wanted to call yourself an actual pokemon trainer! Now that, that was a challenge! Gary shifted in place. Part of him wanted to find Brock right now and demand the Gauntlet Challenge.

He liked the sound of that. He also liked the signs that listed the payout if he won at each challenge. Winning against the Gauntlet gave over three times the amount that the standard and Doubles battle did.

Before he signed on for that though he turned to the final challenge. This one was written in dark stone and had a scratch through it with broken rocks to highlight it was the next level again.

A single pokemon sat at the top of the plaque with a crown underneath it. Gary stared into the oddly lifelike Tyranitar as it glared down at him before reading the text.

‘The Elite Challenge’

Bring only your best six pokemon.

Challengers of this level will face one pokemon from Brock.

One pokemon… from his strongest team.

This will be completely randomised but you will face one of Brock's strongest pokemon that represent the Gym.

If you can beat this challenge on the first attempt you will earn a Bejewelled Boulder Badge to highlight your accomplishment. If you complete it otherwise you will gain a golden badge to signify the achievement. This challenge is not recommended for trainers until they are finishing their Badge collection run.

The Gym Leader will not pull their punches against your team.

Weakness is a sin for this challenge.

Gary felt himself drool. A special badge? Something better than all the rest?

He wanted that so, so bad. He licked his lips and nodded to the last challenge.

“Any takers for that?”

The receptionist grinned. “Oh certainly. But, if you meant any winners?” She grinned wider.

“Then no. Brock has a record for that level and so far he has been challenged in his entire career fifty-eight times. Only three have won and that was early on when Brock was starting out. Not a single challenger has won on the first attempt.”

Gary clenched his fists. “If I run the gauntlet can I come back and challenge for the Elite?”

“You may. If you want the bejewelled badge however, you will, as it says, need to win on the first challenge.” She stared at Gary. “Good luck if you choose that.”

Gary nodded. “I’m… I’m…” He slumped. “I’m not ready for that yet.” It hurt to say the words. Perhaps all the more because they were true.

He’d seen Brock throw down with Lance. He’s seen the sheer endurance of the Dragon-type pokemon on display and been amazed. He had to accept that right here and now… he didn’t. No! Couldn’t measure up.

“I want to do the standard Gauntlet challenge.”

The receptionist looked at her screen. “Very well I will book a time for you. This takes a little longer than a normal challenge, so I will try to fit you in. The earliest available timeslot is in three days time as the first match of the week. Does this suit you?”

“Three days!? But that’s forever! Can’t I challenge him now?”

The receptionist shook her head. “There are a lot of other trainers that are already scheduled in. You can slip in easier with a single challenge as there is time set aside specifically for them in Brock’s schedule but the gauntlet takes a little longer. Don’t worry about the delay. There’s plenty to do in Pewter. Such as the Museum, or the jobs board if you are low on money.”

Gary waved that off. “Guess I can train my pokemon for the matches. I’ll take the slot and be back in three days. Hope your gym’s ready for me!”

“We will be. Please hand over your license for official registration and lodgement in the League database. You will have the fee deducted from your account, and should you win you will be reimbursed.”

When all was done, she bowed politely and gestured to the side. Gary grunted a goodbye, making for the exit only to pause when another door opened, a small crowd pouring out.

“—and then he used Rock slide!” “I know!” “Hey what was that pokemon they used third? It didn’t match up well but it was really pretty and I’ve never seen it before!!” “It was an Espeon obviously!” “It was green though?”

The crowd passed him with barely any looking at him. Gary gave them all his signature smile, puffing his chest out, ready for the usual nods or waves. Instead, they merely walked past him. In fact, more attention was given to his girlfriends than him. That… That didn’t happen back in Pallet…

He stared after the first people to emerge as more people walked past. It felt strange how none of them recognised him.

Oh well, if he wasn’t recognised yet, he would be in the future!

Gary looked at where they had come from. It obviously led to the stadium, where you could watch the fights taking place. It would be amazing to watch and pick up information ahead of time.

He only considered it for half a heartbeat before signalling he was leaving to the girls. The girls closed around him and they cut their way out of the gym.

He’d do it the right way. He didn't need or want any advantages!

“Let’s go get some battling in. I want to be ready in three days' time!” He made his way to the battle courts to the side of the gym, pleased that he didn’t even have to walk far before getting the chance to challenge someone.