Into the Pokeverse

Chapter 30.

My friends and I were walking down a sidewalk in the direction of the Gym, according to what Reggie said anyways. He said he would come to the battle once he finished some household chores, and I think he's gonna bring Paul too. Oh boy, I hope my friends won't go off on him after what they've been told.

Speaking of friends, Hector is the only one who knows what really happened with Team Galactic. He hasn't told the others otherwise they'd be pretty protective. They all know I hate being swaddled with protection, so it wouldn't be overbearing but it would be annoying.

"There's the Gym!" Hector pointed.

Looking ahead, there it was. The Veilstone Gym. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach fluttering and the nervousness rising. After encountering Metagross, I'm actually really nervous if Garchomp or Riolu will be able to handle Maylene and her Lucario. No, I'm being silly. Garchomp is a Level 47 the last time I checked and he came through when he needed to against Metagross, but Riolu I need to be careful with.

Garchomp and I walked up to the doors of the Gym, my friends stayed behind me and gave the thumbs up. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door, waiting for a response.

"Hello?" I called out.

Garchomp looked at the door as we both heard footsteps approaching, said door opening. There stood the pink haired Gym Leader herself and her Lucario. They looked at my partner and I.

"Can I help you?" She asks.

"I'm here for a Gym battle, if it's not a bad time."

"No it's fine, please do come in."

She and her partner stepped aside and allowed us all to come inside, the inside reminded me a lot of a ninja dojo like in cartoons. Yeah I know this is a Fighting type Gym, my point still stands. Kinda takes me back to when I was in Tae Kwon Do, but that was..oh man, maybe a decade? Yeahhh I was back in MIDDLE SCHOOL when I quit, so yeah probably a decade.

Maylene lead us all to the battlefield, someone was there sweeping it up when we walked it. I don't understand why you'd sweep DIRT, raking sounds more appropriate, but who am I to judge? My friends along with Pikachu went over to a bench while the Gym Leader and I, along with our ace Pokémon, stepped onto the battlefield.

Ohhh good lord the butterflies are here once again, I'm SOOOO nervous! I never played the Diamond and Pearl or Platinum DS games, so I don't know how strong her Pokémon are. I'll have to be on guard the entire match. Garchomp put a claw on my shoulder and gave me a fierce look of determination, I cracked a smile.

"Are you ready?" Maylene asks.

I take a deep breath to calm down, nodding my head. The guy sweeping the floor put the broom aside and walked over to the referee square, rectangle, whatever. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the pokeball containing the first Pokémon I'll use, Maylene doing the same. So she's not using Lucario first, noted.

"The rules are only the challenger can substitute Pokémon! Both of you, please bring out your Pokémon!" The referee said.

Both Maylene and I threw our pokeballs, they opened and released our chosen partners. Out of mine came Riolu and out of Maylenes a Machoke. Oh boy, that's gonna be a challenge, but Riolu looked extremely determined and ready to go. I smiled and gave her a nod.

"Battle, Begin!"

*   *   *   *

"Battle, Begin!" The referee called out.

"Alright Riolu, Vacuum wave!" Sera ordered.

Riolu complied and fired a swirling vortex at Machoke.

"Machoke, use Hammer arm to block it!" Maylene commanded.