The Ghost Specialist

Here’s a question: how long does it take for a trainer to acquire a Gym slot? Of course, the answer is easy. Trainers can register in practically no time at all by simply approaching the Gym’s front reception and scheduling a challenge.

The real problem comes from the sheer amount of waiting there is before the date of the battle.

Sam went to Olivine Gym to sign up for a Gym Trial and a battle against the Gym Leader, just as Redi proposed. The second he did so, he balked at the registered date and rushed back to drag Redi over to have her register for a match, herself.

It would be two weeks.

Two horribly long weeks.

Between major cities being packed at the start of each season, the increase in population thanks to the Beginner’s Tournament, and the fact that Olivine served as a port city that people from other regions entered Johto through, there was a full two weeks between the day Sam signed up and the day Sam’s challenges were set.

It didn’t make sense to have Redi wait for Sam to win before taking it on. With the sheer amount of time they’d need to spend simply waiting, it made more sense to have both of them sign up to minimize the amount of time they spent in town. Thankfully, with the Beginner’s Tournament having taken up the first week-and-a-half of the season, some of that initial rush had lessened, otherwise the wait would have been much longer.

So, with this long period of time before him, Sam trained. He trained with Redi, he trained with his Pokémon, and he took on as many Pokémon Jobs as he could. The initial fee that came with signing up hurt his finances, so he ended up barely scraping by for the rest of the waiting period. For that matter, partnering with Redi was a godsend, because she was able to help support both of their teams with her own cash. Having someone to rely on was genuinely amazing. Sam wasn’t sure he would have been able to do it otherwise.

Cyndaquil worked on Curse and her fire, as planned. Mankey worked on Fury Swipes and mastering his rage. Sam kept careful notes to see exactly what activities helped train them the most, and once the time for his set date rolled around, he was feeling confident.

And not that false confidence he had felt before the tournament. Thanks to Redi’s help, he genuinely believed his Pokémon had vastly improved, and he was itching to send them out in a fight.

Olivine’s Gym wasn’t in the dead center of the city, but it was pretty close to what Sam considered to be Olivine's downtown district. It was five stories tall with a sloped front absolutely covered in solar panels. Grass separated it from the rest of the city nearby. It went significantly deeper into the block than anything else here, taking up a ridiculous amount of space when compared to literally any other building Sam had seen.

He stepped inside, swallowing a breath to solidify his confidence. Redi’s matches wouldn’t be until a few hours after his, so she was still at her aunt’s house.

(Sleeping, because it was so early in the day.)

He strode forward, passing by all of the various chairs set up in the waiting room, walking past the dozens of trainers all waiting for their turn. Not all of them had registered a time to fight. Instead, most were sitting around and waiting to fill the slot of any unexpected cancellations. Personally, Sam felt the idea was a little short-sighted, as waiting in the Gym itself required a lot of sitting around and doing nothing except sitting instead of training or anything else.

It was funny. A month and a half ago, and he would have loved to have all of that free time just to read. Now? It felt wrong to not dedicate at least some of his time to training his team. He took that as a sign that he was slowly becoming a real Pokémon trainer.

He approached the front counter, where a woman with red hair reclined in her seat and casually read a book. Her relaxed demeanor stood at odds with the nervousness coursing through his veins.

“I—”

Sam blushed when his voice cracked when he spoke.

“I,” he repeated, now carefully enunciating his words, “am here to take on the Gym.”

“Alright.” The Gym Trainer glanced at a white computer on her desk. “Samuel Greyson?”

“Sam, actually.”

“Cool. Did you know you have the same first name as Professor Oak?”

He scowled.

“Please don’t remind me.”

She loosely shrugged and typed a quick message on her blocky keyboard. She glanced at a ticking clock on the wall before there was a ding coming from her device.

“Alright Sam! You’re all set. Enter the door on your left and take the Pokéball set out for you.”

“Pokéball?”

She chuckled, slightly.

“You’ll see. It would be a spoiler if I told you more about the trial, wouldn’t it?” she said, grinning.

Sam glanced over to the door and back to the Gym Trainer working reception, but she had already returned to reading her book. He was half tempted to try to talk to her about it, but that was just his nerves speaking.

His Pokémon were strong.

He had been training for weeks.

The first Gym?

So what?

He could actually do this.

Sam pushed the bar and opened up the metal door, stepping through and entering a dark, painted hallway. The door clicked when it closed behind him, plunging him into darkness, and he blinked several times to try to restore his vision.

Then, a light turned on, perfectly illuminating a Pokéball held in a slot in the wall.

He approached it, but a jingle rang out before he got any closer. A faint buzz signified a recorded message was now playing.

“...Hello. This is Jasmine, Olivine City’s Gym Leader. You are taking on a First Gym Badge challenge and will face an appropriate 1-star level of power. For this Trial, that Pokéball you see contains a Mareep. Your goal is to escort Mareep through the maze and locate the three Gym Trainers and defeat them. Each Gym Trainer has one Pokémon on their team, and you have thirty minutes to find and defeat them all to be successful in your challenge. Thank you, and good luck! I am proud of you for having the courage to take on our Gym.”

Another jingle signified that the message was over, and Sam stood taller from the Gym Leader’s words of support. Before grabbing the provided Pokéball, he instead reached into his pocket and pulled out Cyndaquil’s.

She appeared in a flash of light pushing her flames to full blast. Seeing that no other Pokémon were around, she then sheepishly reduced their intensity. Sam smiled, recognizing how Cyndaquil had no problem at all keeping her fire steady and active.

“We have a maze to get through and trainers to defeat. Give me a moment to send out our guide,” he said.

Cyndaquil nodded as Sam finally grabbed the Pokéball. The light above it turned off, which would have sent him into darkness if it wasn’t for Cyndaquil’s steady flames illuminating the space around him. Then, he hit the ball’s button, and a small sheep appeared on the floor next to him.

The Mareep had yellow wool and deep blue skin. Striped horns on the side of its head matched the yellow and black stripes of its tail. At the end of that tail was an orange lightbulb that flickered before maintaining a simple glow. Its wool sparked with static electricity as it smiled at Sam. Then, the Mareep paused and looked around, seemingly surprised about the light already present.

“You must be Mareep. You’ll be our... light source for the maze?” Sam asked.

Mareep nodded before turning to Cyndaquil. She looked away as the sheep trotted over.

Mareep cried its name.

Cyndaquil replied with hers, apologetically.

Mareep rubbed its wool-free face against Cyndaquil’s, telling her that it was okay.

“Let’s head out!” Sam said. “Cyndaquil, take the lead. Mareep, can you stay next to me?”

Sam could tell right away that he was cheesing the whole challenge portion of the trial. Mareep was supposed to be his sole source of light, and the walls were painted a dark blue to make finding paths that much more difficult. Except, he had Cyndaquil with him, and she provided a significant chunk of extra light. Not just that, but her light wasn’t a yellowish-white but a mix of red, warm hues. That difference in colors made all the difference in the world, as the colors from her flames made any side passages stand out more than before.

At a few points, Sam encountered doors that were locked shut. Likely, those could be opened and closed by the Gym Trainers to adjust the difficulty of the maze accordingly. Given that this was only a Trial for a first Gym, most doors were closed, but a few were open to provide Sam quick shortcuts through otherwise winding halls.

It was less of a maze and more like a trip through a few connected corridors. It took him only a handful of minutes before he encountered his first foe. Stepping into a dead-end hallway, Sam noticed an older man with hair just beginning to grey, wearing a brown suit and sitting in a chair. This section of the hallway was a bit wider, allowing it to be more suited for a Pokémon battle. The man stood up and smiled politely at Sam, beckoning him closer.

“I see you’ve found me first,” The Olivine City Gym Trainer said. “Now that our eyes have locked, a Pokémon battle is inevitable, yes?”

“Yes!” Sam replied excitedly.

Mareep moved off to the side. Cyndaquil made sure she was standing right in front of Sam. The man took a look at Cyndaquil and chuckled before sending out his own Pokémon.

As expected, it was a Steel Type. Appearing in the air was a single-eyed, metal sphere with two magnets attached to its sides: a Magnemite.

“I’ll allow you the first move,” the gentlemen said.

“Thanks,” Sam replied, “but you’ll regret that! Cyndaquil, use Leer!”

The man cocked his head to the side, as if not expecting Sam to use such a move. From the ground, Cyndaquil let her flames blaze bright as she glared right at the floating Pokémon. The Magnemite inched back, uncomfortable.

“Tackle,” the man ordered.

It zipped forward towards where Cyndaquil was waiting for it on the ground. Noticeably, after that Leer, it tried to take her out first rather than to defend itself from any attack.

“Flame Wheel!” Sam shouted.

Right before Magnemite slammed its heavy body into her, Cyndaquil lunged forward and slipped underneath her opponent and the ground. Magnemite pulled itself to a halt and turned before it hit the floor, but doing so caused it to delay just enough to give Cyndaquil time to pull herself into a roll.

Flame Wheel lit up the space even brighter than before as Cyndaquil’s fire utterly consumed her. She tore across the ground, causing the Magnemite to try to retreat, but it wasn’t prepared to dodge after that Leer. Cyndaquil slammed into it to deal devastating, super effective damage.

The Steel Type hit the ground, already glowing from the heat. Sam pumped a fist when he saw that Magnemite’s eye was already spinning from unconsciousness.

“That’s one down!” he cheered.

The older man chuckled and returned his Pokémon.

“It’s rare to encounter a beginner who doesn’t immediately attack. Without that Leer, Flame Wheel would not have taken out Magnemite in a single hit.”

Sam grinned.

“Then our plan worked,” he said.

The man chuckled in reply.

“You have two more Gym Trainers to go. I wish you luck for the rest of your challenge.”

Cyndaquil walked back to Sam, a little dizzy after that Flame Wheel but otherwise undamaged. Sam bent down to high-five her, and then he high-fived Mareep too, to thank the Pokémon for its help so far.

“And now for the next one,” he mumbled.

He found the second Gym Trainer rather quickly, as she was only a few turns away. This time around, he kept Cyndaquil at his side. Instead, he palmed Mankey’s Pokéball and tossed it forward as a brown haired young woman smiled cheerfully and tossed forward a Pokéball of her own.

“Mankey, go!” Sam shouted.

“Pineco!” the Gym Trainer called out.

Sam had to pause when he saw the Pokémon that appeared. It was a teal blue, resembled a pinecone, and it was a Bug Type rather than a Steel Type.

“I... what? That’s not a Steel Type.”

“Pineco will eventually evolve into a Steel Type, so as far as a first-level Gym Challenge is concerned, he’s fair game,” the woman said cheekily. “Anyway, if you’re not going to attack... Use Tackle!”

“Mankey, Fury Swipes!” Sam countered.

The Pineco hopped in place before bouncing off the ground, throwing itself through the air right towards Mankey.

Showing off all of his practice against Teddiursa, Mankey immediately jumped to the side, avoiding the arc of Pineco’s Tackle. However, he didn’t use Fury Swipes, instead choosing to use Karate Chop to smack Pineco downwards.

The Fighting Type strike wasn’t very effective against a Bug Type like Pineco, but it was the perfect way to halt all of its momentum.

The Gym Trainer paled at the sight of how vulnerable Pineco now was.

“Protect yourself!” she yelled.

Mankey started to furiously scratch at Pineco, but Protect meant his move had no effect. Sam shouted, not to yell any new commands, but to “encourage.”

“Mankey!” he yelled, taking on an almost challenging tone to his voice. “Isn’t it annoying how Pineco is protecting itself from you? Isn’t it just awful how it’s not letting you show off all your hard work?”

The Fury Swipes accelerated. Mankey snorted out of annoyance. Pineco kept up using its Protect, but all that did was make Mankey angrier.

He breathed heavily now, both from exertion and from anger. It got to the point where Mankey had to let up, simply because he needed to throw his arms out to the side and let loose a furious shout.

Then, he resumed his assault. His arms were like windmills with how much they were trying to dig into Pineco. Protect came back up, but Fury Swipes continued. The Gym Trainer bit her lip nervously as Sam quietly watched on.

Pineco never got the chance to react. The Fury Swipes kept it pinned, and with how Sam had stoked Mankey’s anger, the primate never let up.

When the Pineco’s Protect failed it succumbed to Mankey’s rage-filled attacks, and Sam called out to his Pokémon.

“Breathe! The battle is over. You’ve won!”

The angry primate pulled back, his shoulders heaving up and down from his anger-fueled panting. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, and then Sam walked over to give him a high-five.

“Good job,” he said.

Mankey smiled and rubbed the back of his head. Sam laughed at how he acted as if the whole fight were easy.

He also went ahead and high-fived both Cyndaquil and Mareep again. No special reason, just because.

Finally, with only one trainer left, Sam plunged into the maze with the fervor of a boy who absolutely wanted to win. His last two opponents had been crushed, and he wanted to crush the third Gym Trainer just as well.

It took him longer than he wanted to find them. He was half hoping to make some kind of record, but this place was still a maze, regardless of how easy they made it for a trainer’s first Gym Challenge. He went down every hallway, dived through every corridor, but in the end, he only found them when he retraced his steps.

The last trainer was at the very beginning, having slipped in once Sam left the area.

The same woman that had been reading the book at the reception counter grinned at him. The older man and other woman Sam had already defeated stood behind her. Their presence was almost like a taunt, but Sam refused to fall for any taunts.

He had come here to win, and with this last battle, he was so incredibly close.

“Ready, Sam?” the woman asked.

“Absolutely,” he replied.

She grabbed a Pokéball from her pocket as Sam nodded to Cyndaquil. After one last flash of light, a Geodude appeared on the field.

“Come on. That’s not a Steel Type,” Sam said.

The Geodude, a Pokémon consisting of nothing more than a head and two arms made of rock, slumped at Sam’s comment. Its trainer crouched to rub its craggy body.

“Aw, don’t listen to him, Geodude. You’re just as tough and powerful as any other Pokémon here!”

Sam rolled his eyes. He guessed it made sense. There were only so many Steel Types in Johto, after all.

Though, he took one look at where Cyndaquil stood on the field.

“Are switches allowed in these battles?” he asked.

“Sure, but you have to time them well. Use Rock Throw!”

Cyndaquil squeaked in alarm as the Geodude pulled back one of its thick hands. Rock Type energy poured into it, allowing it to form a rock to toss forward in an attack. She tried to duck out of the way, the same as she had done against the Magnemite, but the chunk of stone flew faster and better aimed than expected.

It thunked into her side and caused her to cry out in pain. The super-effective move made her flames flicker as the Rock Type energy briefly disrupted her fire.

“Return, Cyndaquil,” Sam said, scowling and bringing her back into her ball. “Mankey, come out!”

His Fighting Type hit the field after a flash and practically puffed up in excitement. The primate’s whitish-tan hair stood on its ends as he looked at the Rock Type as if it were prey.

“Crush it,” Sam said.

He didn’t need to specify any attacks other than that.

Panicked, Geodude's trainer shouted, “Defense Curl!” Mankey leaped through the air to land right before the Rock Type now pulled into a ball.

Low Kick should have outright knocked it out, but a lot of the move’s damage came from the act of actually tripping a foe. Against a Pokémon protecting itself with Defense Curl, there wasn’t any way for a Pokémon in the shape of a sphere to properly fall.

What it did do, though, was cause Geodude to roll back and throw off its angle. After withstanding the Low Kick, the Rock Type groaned and tried to stiffly pull itself back open, intending to attack Mankey. However, it faced the ceiling rather than forward, so Mankey was not in its line of sight.

Before it could reorient itself, an open hand struck Geodude on its face. A Karate Chop sent chips of its body to the floor in an incredibly damaging, super effective attack. This last move was enough to cause Geodude to go limp as it quickly fell unconscious, fainted.

“Man, kid. That was brutal,” the Gym Trainer said.

A different Gym Trainer, the woman with a Pineco, spoke up in reply.

“You should have seen how he beat Pineco. It was so mean! He had his Mankey get angrier and angrier and angrier...”

Sam chuckled awkwardly.

“Sorry, but a Mankey’s best strength is his rage,” he said.

And getting used to controlling that rage is how he’ll eventually evolve.

The lead Gym Trainer shook her head, amused.

“Type Advantage can be big at low levels of play. Regardless, you’ve beat the three of us within the allocated time. So, let me be the first to congratulate you for earning the Mineral—”

“Wait!” Sam interrupted. “I’m, uh... Actually, I’ll be fighting Jasmine for the badge this afternoon. She’s the one I’ll need to beat to earn the Gym Badge. All of this was just... practice? I guess?”

He shifted side-to-side a bit awkwardly.

The three Gym Trainers exchanged a look. Eventually the one who was about to present him with the badge spoke up again.

“So you’re one of those trainers, then, aren’t you?”

“Excuse me?”

“One of those crazy ones trying to squeeze every last bit of practice out of a Gym they can,” she said. “They’re the ones who take on both the Trial and battle the Gym Leader each and every time.”

Sam correctly chose not to respond to that.

Actually, I only took on the Trial for the financial benefits.

He still had a proud smile on his face, though. After everything with Redi, his team was strong. Sure, this might have been only the first Gym, but every battle had been easy!

“Well, if you’re not accepting our Gym Badge just yet, you can follow me,” the woman said. “I can give you your prize for winning.”

“Thank you,” Sam said. “And thank you too, Mareep.”

The sheep smiled at him as he returned it to its Pokéball and passed it over.

The earnings for winning the Gym Trial weren’t much. It covered the initial payment and then only a small amount more, but anything earned was still appreciated.

“I have to bring my Pokémon to the Center to heal them before my match later, but do you have any tips for Jasmine?” Sam asked.

The Gym Trainer, now returned to working the front counter, hummed in thought.

“Well, Olivine has the least number of Gym Trainers in the region, and with how rare Steel Types are, it’s hard to prepare for challenges at times. Difficulty tends to swing wildly and randomly between each trial and level.”

“So then, for a first badge challenge?” Sam asked hopefully.

“How many stars is your team?”

Sam stared at her blankly, and she let out a short sigh.

“The strength of a team is approximately measured through a star ranking, where every star a team has is equivalent to the power needed to earn that many Gym Badges. So, a one-star team could easily earn one Gym Badge, a two-star could earn two, a three-star three, and so on and so forth.”

Mom said she had a five-star team. I wonder where Declatty would be rated right now?

“Your team...” She hummed again. “I’d say your team is firmly one-star as it stands.”

Sam grinned. That was proof his Pokémon had grown stronger.

“But for this Gym? The Trial is easy, but the battle is a bit harder,” she said. “I’ve seen two-star teams struggle to beat Jasmine’s Pokémon. It’ll be a difficult fight.”

Sam blanched, but the woman was quick to try to reaffirm him.

“No, no! Don’t worry—there’s a bright side to this! Jasmine will only be using one Pokémon!”

That didn’t make Sam feel any better. After all, how strong would that single Pokémon be? He still thanked the Gym Trainer and headed out, returning to the Pokémon Center to let his team get healed. There, he gave tips to Redi—keeping them light so as to not spoil any challenge for her—and she went on to take her own Trial. She had a much tougher time of it, but she still came out victorious.

The trainers Redi fought were different, but the species of Pokémon were the same. Teddiursa struggled with Magnemite the most, as he still didn’t have a handle on Fire Punch. Once he managed to grab it out of the air, he fought through the weak Thundershocks to eventually wear it down with Fury Swipes.

(It only resisted the move. Unlike a Gastly, it wasn’t immune.)

In the afternoon, it was Sam’s turn to head back to the Gym. There, he greeted a different receptionist and was sent down a different door to reach an interior field. The room was large with its own stands to allow locals to pay for tickets to watch matches, which helped support the Gym. The crowd wasn’t as big as the Beginner’s Tournament, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking that anyone was there.

Redi found herself a seat. Friends of the challengers got in for free. She cried out Sam’s name in support, causing him to blush, and he found a spot across from Jasmine.

“...Welcome,” the Gym Leader said. “You are my opponent for this match?”

Sam nodded once.

“I am,” he said.

She smiled gracefully at him before tossing forward a Pokéball.

Right away, he was struck by why the receptionist had warned him this battle would be difficult. Sure, Jasmine was using only one Pokémon, and sure, it might not have been a Steel Type, but he immediately got flashbacks to her enormous Steelix that had appeared on the Beginner’s Tournament field.

It was so big that several ceiling lights were blocked by its body. Every individual boulder that made up the body of the massive Onix was larger than both Cyndaquil and Mankey combined.