Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

I hadn't really noticed exactly how much I had changed over the last couple years. I was 11 years of age, and had 4 pokémon of my own. I had unawaringly become a bit of a trainer, though I had never imagined myself as one. I had battled wild pokémon, thought of names for my partners, and had even challenged a pokémon gym.

Well, I was about to. Having lived in Rustboro all my life, I was well aware of the gym located in that very city. It was a rock pokémon gym, not extremely competitive, but a good place to start. I still had no intentions of challenging the league, but I figured a gym battle here or there couldn't hurt. Besides, it was more for the experience I was going for.

I knew that rock pokémon were tough to beat, since most attacks aren't effective against them. I needed water pokémon, or grass, or even steel would be good. I had none of these, of course. The best match-up would be using my absol and umbreon, because their dark moves would at least land undiminished.


I took a breath, straightened my back, put a slightly formidable look on my face and walked into the building. I knew that most trainers start gym challenges at 10, where I was 11, but I still couldn't help but feel minute and insignificant against someone who has been training most their life. Nevertheless, I had decided to go through with this, and I was not about to let myself back down now.

"Well hello there" I was greeted with upon entering, "I was wondering when I'd see you here." It was Roxanne, the gym's leader. "I've seen you around town a lot, mainly heading to and from the library" she said with a smile, walking over to greet me.

"You're Paul Wrynn's son, Arc aren't you?" she said, outstretching a hand which I shook timidly.

"Yes,...yes that's me" I said shyly. My sense of confidence had somehow seemed to lessen, actually being in the gym looking its leader in the eye. She noticed this, and gave me a smile.

"You don't have to feel uneasy, everyone gets a case of the jitters on their first gym battle. Am I correct in assuming this is your first?"
I nodded.
"Well then, it's my honor to be your first. (bowchickabowwow) I'll try not to go too hard on ya" she said, moving to one end of the indoor stadium. I took my appropriate spot across from her, and started to decide which pokémon I was going to use.

An referee for the gym stood on the sidelines, and stated the conditions. "This will be a one on one match! Both leader and challenger will be using two pokémon! If both are knocked out, the opposer will be declared winner! Only the challenger may retreat pokémon! The match will start when the challenger calls his first attack! Begin when ready!"

It was an easy choice; I would use my absol and my umbreon. Both knew dark type attacks, which would at least make for a fair fight. Besides, Omen was my grandfather's, and was I'm sure more skilled in battle than any other choice.
As I was about to reach for Omen to call her out, I was stopped. I felt something in my head...It wasn't a sight or a sound, but a knowing. For some reason, I felt as though my ralts, the female one, wanted to battle. I knew it was irrational, and hesitated for a second, but I did I did it anyway.

"Alright, Gabriella, lets do it!" I called and threw her pokéball into the stadium. Roxanne called out a geodude, and waited for me to make the first move.

"Gabriella, confusion!"
The ralts closed its eyes and focused its mind, and the geodude was hit with a mildly powerful wave of psychic energy.

"Geodude, rollout!" Roxanne called, and the geodude shook it's head, and then looked out, but didn't attack. Instead, it turned around wildly, and started moving around in random directions.

A thought clicked in my mind. It must be confused... I thought. I took this as an opportunity to get in a direct attack. "Use tackle!" I called. Gabrielle lunged at the geodude and hit it dead on, knocking it back into the wall. Alright!
The impact knocked the geodude out of confusion however, and with another command of rollout came spinning right at the ralts.

"Look out!" I called, but it was too late. Gabriella was hit, but at least it wasn't that powerful of an attack. "Tackle it again!" The ralts lunged, but the geodude was still spinning and the psychic type pokémon just ended up getting knocked back. Still rolling and picking up speed, the geodude rammed it again before I could call another attack.

This isn't looking good...that rollout just keeps getting more powerful. "Gabriella, jump! Try to avoid it!" She jumped and avoided the attack. "Keep dodging it!" She jumped again and again, and continued to avoid the attack. But I knew I couldn't keep this up forever. I had to think of something. Wait! "Gabriella, use confusion!" She focused her mind again, and caught the geodude in a field of telekinetic power. It was still spinning, but not moving. "Alright, turn it a little to your right, and then let go!"
She did as commanded, and then released the geodude, still spinning at a dangerously high velocity. Having been aimed right at the nearest wall of the gym, it flew right into it and crashed with an enormous bang. After the cloud of dust and debris cleared, we could see the rock pokémon: dazed and out cold.

"Geodude is unable to battle!" The referee declared.

"Alright! One down! Great job Gabriella!" I said, giving my ralts a thumbs-up.

"Excellent job!" Roxanne called out, as she withdrew her geodude and pulled out her next pokémon. "This may be your first battle, but you're really thinking smart! Let's see if you can keep it up!" She threw out her next pokéball, releasing a nosepass.

"Lets start this off with a confusion again!" Gabriella gave the nosepass a powerful confusion. It was fatigued for a second, but shook it off and charged at the ralts with a full body tackle.
"Jump!" I called, and Gabriella leaped just in time. I knew that tackling wouldn't have very much if any effect on this massive rock of a pokémon, so I figured confusion was all I could really do. "Give it another confusion! Keep it up!" She let off attack after attack, avoiding the nosepass when he attacked. It seemed like the perfect strategy.

"Nosepass, rockthrow!" the leader called, and several rocks were flung at the ralts, knocking it out of its focus. "Take-down!" she called, and the nosepass charged fully at Gabriella with reckless abandon, and knocked it clear halfway across the stadium.

"Gabriella!!" I called, and ran over to the injured pokémon. "I'm so sorry...I worked you too hard" I said, picking her up and pulling out her pokéball to recall her. "You did good...I'm proud of you."

This left me with one more pokémon to bring out. I knew I should bring out one of my dark types, but Gabriella did surprise me, even though it wasn't a good match up. Maybe I should give the other ralts a chance.

"Alright Kiryu, lets see what you can do" I said, throwing his pokéball out to the stadium.
He came out, already ready for battle. He looked very determined, and almost...intimidating, in a cute sort of way. Like when a little poochyena thinks he can take on a fully grown houndoom.

I knew that this wouldn't be much different than the last fight, but the nosepass had taken some notable damage from all the confusions, and from his take-down. Maybe if I kept it up, I could knock it out before this ralts was knocked out. It was really my only choice.
"Confusion!" I called, and to my surprise, instead of sending a wave of telekinetic energy at the rock pokémon, it went charging straight for it!

"Wait, Kiryu! I said confusion! You can't fight that thing physically..!" It wasn't listening, and continued to charge straight at the nosepass.

"Nosepass, take-down!" Roxanne called. I knew that would end it. "Confusion!" I cried, almost desperately, to prevent my pokémon from getting clobbered like the last one. It still didn't hear me.
As the two pokémon got closer and closer, I almost wanted to turn away. I didn't want to see my pokémon get hurt, and I couldn't get it to back off. Almost feet from each other, the ralts raised it's arm, which was now glowing purple.
wait...I saw that when I tried to catch it. What move is that?

Ralts and nosepass met face to fist, causing a small shock-wave from the impact. Nosepass was blown back into a rock, and Kiryu flew back into the wall, landing on it's feet and hopping down to the ground rearing for another charge.
I was thoroughly impressed. I had no idea that the ralts could even survive that impact, much less retaliate.

The gym leader looked very intrigued in what she saw. She called out another attack, 'Double-edge.' I knew this was an extremely powerful form of takedown. No matter how tough Kiryu thought he was, I knew that this would be too much for it.

"Dodge this one!" I commanded. The ralts charge directly at the nosepass, much like I unfortunately expected he would. As they neared impact, I braced myself.
Inches from each other, Kiryu suddenly stepped slightly to the left, and let the momentum of the nosepass through the air spin him on his right foot until he was behind the rock pokémon. All in one motion, still spinning, he let out another physical/psychic attack, slashing right across the back of the nosepass, and actually causing it to rocket forward faster!

Just like the geodude, it slammed smack into the wall of the gym. It was no less expected from me nor the gym leader when the referee declared nosepass unable to battle.

I couldn't believe it. Not only did I just win my first gym challenge,...that was one of the coolest things I had ever seen! The ralts moved up to me and looked up, with his determined and stubborn look. I understood now. This was the way he battled, and he wasn't going to battle any other way. And I wasn't going to make him.


"Congratulations on your first victory!" Roxanne exclaimed, walking toward me. "That was a truly amazing battle. The way your pokémon moved on the field, the way you used the wall as an offensive object,... definitely something to see. You've more than earned this." She handed me the stone badge and shook my hand.

"Well, on the second fight, that was really all my ralts' doing" I said bashfully. "I didn't really know what to do, and he kind of took over."

"It really seemed to work though, didn't it" she smiled at me, "I'd work on his attacks and try to fine-tune his battle style. I have a feeling you can work together very well. Same goes with your first ralts. You have very special pokémon, I hope you treat them with all the respect they deserve."

"Oh of course! These guys are my best friends in the world! Them and my absol and umbreon! ..since I don't really have too many people friends..
Roxanne smiled. "You are young. You will meet many, many people in your time. Especially the more you travel"

I smiled and nodded at her. This was true. Even if I didn't have many friends in this metropolitan city, there would certainly be more people my age elsewhere.


My parents were still working when I got home, so I went straight to my room to let out my pokémon, have a drink of water, and then get some sleep. It had been a long and eventful day, and nothing ends a day like such quite like curling to sleep with the moon and stars as your only light.

"Goodnight guys, I'm proud of all of you."