A Journey You'll Never Forget (Brendan x Wally)

Petalburg Gym?

"Thank you for letting me come Brendy!" I was overjoyed when Brendan let me join him. I didn't know then what it would lead to. But it certainly isn't something I regret.

"First, Wally, we're going to Petalburg gym! I gotta get the badge if I want to fight the League!"

I really didn't want to go into a gym again. But I decided to do it for Brendan. It can't happen again, can it? Before I knew it we were standing outside. Brendan pushed open the doors and beckoned for me to follow. Norman was there, as if he knew Brendan would decide to come here.

"Well Brendan, I guess it's time for me to show you what it means to be a Pokémon trainer."

With that the battle began, Brendan sent out his Grovyle and his Numel. Norman sent out Slaking and Slakoth. This was going to be tough, But Brendan seemed confident.

"Both of you, use protect!" As soon as I heard that, I had ultimate faith in Brendan. He knew Slaking can only attack on alternate turns.

Brendan made mincemeat of the duo. Truant really is a curse. But Norman wasn't done. He simply laughed and sent out his final Pokémon. There was no way it could take on two of Brendan's Pokémon at once.

"Go Vigoroth!" The Pokémon touched down in the battle arena.

I saw the Vigoroth and freaked out.  "AHHHHH! NOT AGAIN! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!" I screamed. Brendan looked at me, puzzled.

"Are you scared of Vigoroths?"

"No, but I'm scared of THAT Vigoroth!" I screamed. The Pokémon was surrounded by an all-consuming black shadow. Its eyes were dead and unloving and it snarled at us violently, not like a Pokémon usually would.

"You're being silly, Wally. Trust me, dad wouldn't have a nasty Pokémon." As I expected, he didn't believe me. What was the fucking point? "Now, use leaf blade!" Before the poor Grovyle had any time to obey however, Vigoroth charged into him, knocking the Pokémon to the ground. Vigoroth slammed into Brendan himself and sent him flying into me.

"Wahhh!"

"Oh my Arceus, I'm sorry Wally!"

Norman just laughed. "He sure can be fiesty, eh?" More like violent and dangerous... Norman put the Pokémon back in its ball. "Better luck next time, Brendan."

This was the first time I'd seen Brendan truly sad. He seemed so disheartened, his eyes were wet and he'd lost the spring in his usually bouncy walk. I wanted to comfort him so much but he probably didn't want my cuddling. We walked out of the gym defeated, I gave his arm a tug and smiled at him. He smiled back affectionately. We sat down to rest, Brendan just stared up into the sky for a little and, I joined him. A few minutes later, he finally spoke. "Why were you so scared of that Vigoroth?"

"Oh... you won't believe me when I tell you..." Brendan frowned at me as if to say 'You don't know that.'

"How do you know that?" Okay, close enough. I just decided to tell him as he'd only persist.

"Well, it sort of had a dark aura around it. Like a dark shadowy cloud."

Brendan frowned and looked at me inquisitively. "I knew you wouldn't believe me," I sulked. Brendan simply chuckled and edged closer to me so that the gap between our bodies closed entirely. His arm stretched out around my shoulders and he gazed down at me with those big dumb eyes.

"Of course I believe you."

"Thank you..." I felt like I could just sit there with him forever, but Brendan had other ideas.

"Then we'd better get going!" Brendan exclaimed, standing up and causing me to jump out of my skin. "Oh sorry Wally, did I scare ya?"

"I don't want to go to the next gym..."

"Who said anything about a gym?"

"We're not going to a gym?" I was puzzled.

"Of course not! We need to find out what you saw in there, Wally! It may be extremely important! Adventure awaits!"

Brendan... really did believe me? I was shocked. Nobody ever believed me....