Pokémon Journey: Hoenn

Chapter 12: A Rock-Hard Attack! (Part 1)

After last chapter saw the protagonists end up at the Rustboro trainer school and James and Richard help out Roxanne, a teacher there, by fighting an exhibition match for the students, they discovered that Roxanne herself was the gym leader they would be fighting the following day.

Upload Date: 21st May 2017

Chapter 12: A Rock-Hard Attack! (Part 1)

Rustboro City, Hoenn

6:21pm, 13th April 2006

"Arrgghh! I can't believe this!" James groaned. "I used all my best strategies in front of the gym leader I need to beat tomorrow!"

"Yeah, you're going to have lots of fun with that!" Richard grinned. "Though I suppose you could change things up by using Kacha!"

"Against a rock gym?!"

James, Richard, Nicola and Will were sat at a table in the canteen at one of the pokémon centres in the eastern side of Rustboro. Discovering that Roxanne, the teacher at the trainer school who they'd helped earlier that day, was in fact the Rustboro gym leader had come as a big surprise. Nicola was secretly relieved that James and Richard had been the ones to fight the exhibition match instead of her. Though the fact that her pokémon remained a secret probably wasn't going to be decisive for her.

After arriving at the pokémon centre and booked a couple of rooms for the night, James and Richard had immediately gone to the trainers' lounge to try and find information about the type of pokémon the gym leader used.

"It's only fair, since she knows what pokémon we'll be using!" James had insisted.

Discovering that Roxanne specialised in rock type pokémon had been a disappointing discovery for James, though Richard had been delighted. He had the perfect excuse to give Dish her first taste of combat. And, as he'd pointed out to her shortly afterwards, Nicola's water type Kipa and grass type Mushy meant that she had an excellent advantage.

"We're definitely going out and training as hard as we can tomorrow!" James insisted. "I'm not going to take any chances!"

"What are you worried about?" Richard laughed. "You've already got your first gym badge!"

"Exactly! I've got to stay ahead of you!" James retorted.

"I like the idea of training as well!" Nicola added. "I'm still not that confident…"

"How about we get up nice and early tomorrow and focus the entire morning on training?" Richard suggested. "Then we can rest up and lunchtime and then head over to the gym."

"Well, that suits me, I guess." James nodded. "The sooner we start, the sooner we'll start seeing results."

"Urgh! Do I have to?" Will groaned.

"Well, you could stay in bed all morning if you want," James replied. "But you probably won't become a pokémon master that way."

"Urrrrrrrgh!" Will groaned again, resting his head on the table. "…I'll come."

"So, what sort of time?" Nicola asked, looking between James and Richard.

"Ten?" Will asked.

"I was thinking more like eight," said Richard.

"No, let's be out by seven!" James insisted. "We can manage it!"

"Urrrrrrrrgghh!"

"…Half past seven then, but no later!"