Monday’s workday came and went for Cassie as normally as she expected, though with a bit of sadness as Steven explained to the rest that Cassie would be leaving near the end of the month to start her trainer journey. Everyone at the shop was sad to hear she was leaving, but understandably excited to hear that she was going to challenge the league. Cassie found she had underestimated how much Pokemon training was baked into the culture of the world; declaring you were going on a journey or a league challenge felt like a cross between the common trope of the hero’s journey and a coming of age moment all in one.
The Fidough seemed devastated by the news, whining pitifully as the entire kitchen consoled the tiny Fairies, but they perked up a bit once they started working. That was common, Josh told her - it happened almost any time they had someone come in that they got attached to, be that a regular customer or an employee. Fairies were emotional creatures at the best of times, and even years after their discovery they were still quite the enigma for all but the most knowledgeable professors and type specialists. It did help a bit that she promised to come back and visit whenever she was able, too. She might’ve cried if they hadn’t cheered up before she left for the day.
Now, however, she was putting her energy towards happier things. Kaitlyn should be arriving within the next few minutes, if the message Allison had passed on when she returned was any indication, and she was just finishing packing up some snacks after feeding her team. Paulos, luckily, had been content to eat some of the berries Damon had left them along with some of the store-bought Pokemon food that she still had, so she hadn’t needed to return to the store yet for anything more specific. She’d also gotten the chance to look over his Pokedex data following his check-in at the Center, and...well.
He was quite the giant Pidgey, that was for sure. Normal Pidgey were an even foot tall on average. Paulos? One foot, seven inches. He clocked in at just over nine pounds, which was a bit over double the average weight for the species. If he was any bigger, he’d be Dynamaxed, she’d thought jokingly after seeing the measurements. She found herself wondering exactly how big his parents must’ve been to sire such a large bird.
Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any trace of the animosity from the previous day. Paulos appeared to have accepted his place on the team with grace, and Growlithe didn’t seem to harbor any ill feelings for him either. That caused a sigh of relief; she wasn’t sure what she would have done if her first teammate had been at odds with her starter. She quickly snagged her Pokedex from the bed where she had been studying information, pocketing it and reaching for her bag as she looked between her two Pokemon.
“You guys ready to go?”
A chirp and bark in the affirmative greeted her ears, with Growlithe taking his place in front of her and Paulos flying over to rest on her shoulder as had quickly become the norm. She didn’t know what she would do if he tried to keep that up after evolving - Pidgeotto was quite a bit larger than Pidgey, and she hardly dared dream how big he might be as a Pidgeot someday. Bag slung over the opposite shoulder, she let Growlithe lead the way out of the room and up the escalator back to the Center lobby. A quick look around showed Kaitlyn waiting for her on one of the nearby couches, and she waved as she spotted the older girl before starting to make her way over.
“Hey, Kaitlyn,” she greeted, seeing Kaitlyn wave back as her eyes flitted to the Pidgey riding her shoulder. “How are you?”
“Fine. Work went okay, I take it?”
“Yeah - everyone’s a little bummed that I’m leaving, but I told them I’d try to visit as much as I could. At least I’ve still got a few weeks around here...”
“If nothing else, we’ll be back so that you can challenge Gardenia for the Forest Badge, right?” Kaitlyn shrugged, standing up from the sofa. Cassie nodded slowly, looking over at Growlithe sitting quietly beside the furniture.
“I was kinda thinking...maybe I could challenge her before we leave town?” Cassie suggested hesitantly, earning a loud chirp of approval for the idea from Paulos that made her wince from the volume directly in her ear. “Don’t be afraid to try, right?”
That got a grin out of Kaitlyn. “You definitely sound more like a trainer now. Looks like I was right about you after all.” She started to head towards the exit with a gesture for Cassie to follow her, Growlithe hopping up and running after the pair of trainers as they left the Pokemon Center with a polite wave to the nurses at the desk. “Figure we can head back to the park and let your Pokemon get some move practice in while we go over some things,” Kaitlyn suggested, eyes turning to Paulos on Cassie’s shoulder again. “Like where that Pidgey came from, maybe?” she added jokingly.
Cassie laughed as Paulos chirped again from her shoulder. “Paulos? I caught him out at Pearson Farms yesterday - I took a job from the board online to help pick some berries, and this guy and his flock were harassing the owner and stealing his crops.”
“He’s definitely a big boy,” Kaitlyn said, noting the way Paulos’ head tilted upwards at the compliment. “He’s your first catch, right?”
“Uh huh,” Cassie nodded, reaching up to stroke the bird’s breast feathers as they walked. “So, what did you have in mind to go over? I did some reading about the social rules of battling after what you told me the other day, so I think I understand a bit more about that now.”
“Good - there aren’t a lot of unspoken rules, really, but some people might get a little annoyed if you accidentally break one. If you just try to be polite, you’ll probably be fine. Most people will forgive you if you honestly didn’t know about something.”
One of the interesting things Cassie had read about was the etiquette of offering a challenge to another trainer. Unlike the game rule of “when two trainers’ eyes meet, they must battle,” the reality was more of a proper discussion of rules and strength levels, almost like with competitive battling in the games. The usual things to ask before a battle were how many Pokemon would be used, how many badges you had obtained with your current team, and whether there would be a monetary ante on the match. It kept a match from being completely unfair to one side, and also in a sense helped trainers grow by ensuring that they could face others of similar skill and power.
“If we’re going to have your Pokemon practicing moves with mine,” Kaitlyn continued, “then it might be a good idea to start teaching you about Type Energy.”
‘Type Energy?’
Cassie blinked - she’d never heard anything like that before. “Is that like...how Pokemon use their moves?”
“Close enough, yes,” Kaitlyn said. “Pokemon draw on Type Energy to use what we call ‘moves,’ but they can also use it for things outside of just Pokemon battles. Meganium’s ability to regrow dead flora is because of Type Energy manipulation, for example, not any kind of specific move like Synthesis.”
The statement had the sound of a well-worn piece of information, one that had often been told to newer trainers. Cassie did seem to remember something in Meganium’s older Pokedex entries talking about how it could heal trees, too. She mulled over the concept in her mind as they walked the last block before the park, trying to think of other Pokemon that had similar tidbits in their entries that might be related. Vaporeon was one of the first that came to mind, with some of its Pokedex entries talking about how it could melt invisibly into water. The Ralts and Hattena lines’ emotion-sensing traits also sprung into her thoughts, though she wondered if that was truly the same or just some side effect of their Psychic typing.
They wandered through the park gates mostly in silence as Cassie thought, with Growlithe trotting happily beside them and Paulos eyeing up the local Bug-types as if he was going to make a meal of them at any moment. A group of Cutiefly scattered upon noticing the hefty Flying-type, buzzing away rapidly even though Paulos made no attempt to chase after them. They had entered closer to the battleground this time around, and Cassie was glad to see that it was basically empty today. That meant with any luck, they wouldn’t have to worry about fielding any challenges from local trainers while they gave Cassie’s team some practice. Two flashes of red light signaled Kaitlyn releasing Astrid and Tera to the field, and Growlithe happily started up a conversation with Astrid again as Tera flew up to Cassie, turning on its axis in mid-air as if tilting its ‘head’ as it looked at Paulos.
Paulos looked decidedly uncomfortable at the idea of an Electric-type so near to him, feathers ruffling as he puffed himself up again, and he finally hopped down from Cassie’s shoulder to try and get away from the odd magnetic Pokemon. Talons kicked up tiny puffs of dirt from the earth below as he hopped his way over to where Astrid and Growlithe were, barging into their conversation with all the subtlety of a rampaging Tauros as Tera gave Cassie an inquisitive look.
Or at least what she assumed was an inquisitive look, given that the Pokemon’s sole eye was all that could emote for it.
“I...think he’s a little bothered by the fact you’re an Electric-type,” Cassie said, an apologetic note in her voice. “Don’t feel too bad, okay?”
Tera bobbed up and down, letting out another of the odd metallic noises before floating away back towards Kaitlyn, who was watching the ongoing excited conversation of the three Pokemon nearby her with amusement. Cassie followed Tera back over to the rest of the group, wondering exactly what the Pokemon were talking about given how animated Growlithe and Paulos were being. Astrid, for her part, seemed intensely interested, eyes flitting between the pair with every few barks and chirps exchanged.
“So,” Cassie started, “you were saying you wanted to have my team practice moves, right?”
“That’s right. I know that Growlithe knows Ember and Flame Wheel already, so those will be good starting points for him. I’m assuming your Pidgey knows Gust?”
“And Quick Attack,” Cassie added. “He was using it to zip around and avoid Growlithe’s attacks when I battled him.” Kaitlyn nodded thoughtfully - that was a good sign. Any Pokemon capable of using it could make good use of Quick Attack for a variety of battlefield tactics besides just attacking.
“That’s good. Using Quick Attack for mobility is something you’ll see a lot as you get higher up in the ranks. Training both of those would be a good start for him to practice keeping enemies at range.”
She turned her focus to Growlithe, noticing that the conversation between the group of Pokemon seemed to be winding down. “For Growlithe, I think focusing on his Fire moves is the best way to go first, though we can probably have...Paulos, was it?” Cassie nodded. “We can have Paulos start teaching him how to use Normal TE for Quick Attack after that. If he can get that down, you’ll have a much better time facing Gardenia.”
“You think I can win?” Cassie asked nervously.
“You’ve got two Pokemon who have a type advantage over Grass-types, and we’ve got some time to get them trained up and for you to do some studying. So yeah, I think you’ve got a shot. If we don’t leave until a little after the start of the month, that’s no big deal.”
Kaitlyn tapped a finger on her chin as she thought for a moment. “Though, we should probably go ahead and book you a match. We could get one for a week or two from now, which should give you guys plenty of time to practice. What’s the next day you have off from work?”
“I’ll be around tomorrow morning,” Cassie replied. “Unless I pick up an extra shift or someone needs me to cover, I won’t be going in until around one o’clock.”
“How about we head over to the gym around ten, then?” Kaitlyn suggested. “Gardenia shouldn’t be too busy this early in the season, but it’s better to go ahead and lock in a spot now just in case.”
“Sure, that’s fine with me.”
“That’s the easy part, then, so...let’s see about getting Growlithe and Paulos started.” She turned towards her Mawile, causing her to tilt her head up to look at her trainer while still trying to listen to Growlithe. “Hey, Astrid? Mind setting up a few Rock Tomb targets for us to use off to the side of the field?”
The Mawile gave a short nod, striding over to the edge of the battlefield on short legs as she searched for a suitable spot to place the rocks. After a few moments of gauging the space she was working with, she concentrated and brought her arms up as gray energy started to emanate from her and swirl into ovular shapes in mid-air. The Rock-type move formed in seconds, several large rocks outlined with white energy floating above her before she carefully settled them down onto the ground in a line with a gentle thud.
“Astrid’s had a lot of practice making targets for us to practice on,” Kaitlyn said as her starter toddled back over, gesturing and saying something to Cassie’s pair of Pokemon. “Basically, we’re just going to have them use their moves repeatedly on the targets to gauge how quickly they can make the attacks, and how much of an impact they have. The more they practice, the better control they’ll have over forming the TE to use them, and that’ll make the moves faster to use and more powerful over time.”
“Just like workouts building muscle,” Cassie realized.
“Exactly. Astrid will keep an eye on both of them, so we can sit down and start going over more interesting things in the meantime.”
Cassie nodded, walking over to where her two Pokemon were talking to Astrid. “Growlithe, Paulos? Kaitlyn’s going to have Astrid help you two out while we’re working together, okay? Just listen to her, and let us know if you need anything.”
Growlithe nodded once as Paulos chirped his assent, and Astrid gave a tiny salute that made Cassie giggle before she took both Pokemon over towards the makeshift firing range. Tera floated off after them and hovered around the sidelines, seemingly preparing to analyze the practice they were about to do. Satisfied that Astrid would have a handle on things, Cassie joined Kaitlyn over at one of the benches nearby, pulling a small notebook and pencil out of her bag as Kaitlyn looked for something in her own.
“Alright, let’s get started. I’m going to assume that you’re not familiar with any of this, so let me know if you need more explanation on anything,” she said, finally digging out a notebook of her own and flipping it open. It looked to be filled with notes and a couple sketches of various things, but Cassie couldn’t read any of it from where she was.
“Type Energy - or TE for short - is the foundation of what makes Pokemon moves and abilities work. Every Pokemon can use TE, but some types of TE naturally come easier than others. Obviously, the TE matching the Pokemon’s type fits that category, but similar types of TE are often easier as well, like Rock TE for Ground-types or Ice for Water-types. There’s a theory that any Pokemon can learn to use every type of TE because Mew is an ancestor of all Pokemon, but there’s a bit of debate around that one because Mew’s origins can’t really be pinned down.”
Cassie was a bit surprised to hear mention of Mew so casually, but it made sense given the topic. Mew could learn every single TM or HM move in the games, so the idea that it could use moves of every type seemed basically all but true despite the lack of confirmation.
“Every type of TE has its own properties, too. Normal TE is sort of the baseline when it comes to TE manipulation. Every Pokemon can use it, and it’s generally fairly easy to learn to control. Then you have things like Dark TE, which a lot of moves use to do things like trick the senses or make retaliatory attacks stronger when wounded, or Grass TE, which naturally aligns more with healing and restoration.” Kaitlyn looked over at where the group of Pokemon were, watching as Gusts flew and Embers popped against the rocky surfaces set up as targets. “Knowing the different types of TE and what they can do is important as a trainer not just for knowing type matchups, but simply for helping your Pokemon grow.”
“Like knowing what moves to teach them?” Cassie asked.
“There’s that, but also just knowing how to take their strengths and magnify them. If your Pokemon is great at controlling Water TE, for example, you can...”
Cassie’s head was spinning by the time she was done listening to Kaitlyn’s impromptu lecture. They’d been at it for over an hour while her Pokemon trained on the other side of the field, and she’d filled up several pages of her own notebook with thoughts, notes, and information about various things to do with Type Energy and Pokemon types as a whole. They’d finally decided to take a break to get a snack and check on how Cassie’s Pokemon were doing again after switching up their training midway through.
“Guys - we’re going to take a break!” Cassie called out, fishing around in her bag for a snack for each of her team members. “Want to get some food?”
The mention of food was all the incentive Growlithe needed to stop what he was doing, letting the cavalcade of Embers he was spraying into the air at a dodging Paulos trail off before he turned and ran over towards his trainer’s side. The white energy of Quick Attack faded from Paulos’ body as he glided down, nearly outpacing Growlithe even with his head start before dropping onto the field in front of Cassie. Both Pokemon were breathing heavily, she noticed; they’d clearly been working hard in the time they’d been given to work with. She winced internally as she realized she’d forgotten to bring any of the leftover Oran berries that she’d put in the fridge. Those would’ve been a big help in helping her Pokemon recover from all the exertion, she reminded herself.
They’d spent roughly a half hour just repeating and practicing moves while Astrid gave them targets with Rock Tomb to aim at, starting with large boulders and working their way down to smaller and smaller rocks to try and improve their accuracy with their basic attacks. Growlithe’s Ember spreads had gotten a bit more contained, and the fireballs seemed just a little larger than they did when they started even if he’d started to run out of energy near the end. Paulos, meanwhile, had left slightly deeper cuts in the rocks with his Flying-type attack, though it was hard to tell if there were any differences besides that.
After a brief break, they’d switched things up a bit - Growlithe would attempt to use Ember to hit Paulos, who was to try and use Quick Attack as much as possible to help both his evasion and Growlithe’s ability to predict how his opponents might move. Growlithe hadn’t landed many blows on the hardy bird, but he was slowly improving at tracking his movements around the field. He still needed some practice with leading his shots, but he was definitely getting faster at calling up his fire for Ember attacks.
“Did you have any questions about anything we talked about?” Kaitlyn asked as they started to hand out treats to their Pokemon. Cassie shook her head as Growlithe happily started to munch on one of the peanut butter cookies she had leftover from the creamery.
“I don’t think so - I took lots of notes. You’re a good teacher, Kaitlyn,” she said with a smile.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Kaitlyn laughed. “Comes from long days of trying to help my sister out. She can’t sit still for more than two minutes sometimes, it feels like.” Cassie giggled at the thought - it almost sounded like her sister would fit right in with the Fidough at work. Ringing cut through the air from Kaitlyn’s pocket a few seconds later, and she reached down to grab her phone before checking who the caller was.
“Speaking of...” she muttered, pressing the button to accept the call. “Hey, Ka -”
“Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn, guess what? I caught a Dreepy!”
Excited chattering at a decidedly louder than needed volume from the other side of the phone cut Kaitlyn off, alongside a sort of squeaking noise that caused Kaitlyn to jerk the phone away from her ear. The voice on the other end kept talking, less intelligible with the distance and seemingly heedless to whether Kaitlyn was actually listening or not. Kaitlyn tried to say her sister’s name several times to get her attention, but the attempts were lost in the flood of words coming from the far side of the line.
“ - and then whoosh, there it was! Just dropped out of the tree right in front of me, so I sent in - “
“Kayley!” Kaitlyn yelled, finally managing to get her sister’s attention. “Take a breath, please. Did you say Dreepy? Are you in Galar right now?”
“Well, I was going to go to Paldea, but I realized that I was closer to Galar anyway and just had Delilah take me over! We went to this super-nice café in Hammerlocke - you have to try it, oh my Arceus, the food is to die for - and I was right next to the Wild Area, so I just went whoosh! Popped right in and started looking!”
By the time Kayley stopped for a moment, Kaitlyn was pinching the bridge of her nose with her free hand, and Astrid was giving her a sympathetic look and patting the side of her leg gently. Cassie didn’t quite know what to think, but was sitting somewhere in between amazement, stunned silence, and outright horror.
‘I guess she wasn’t kidding about her sister going wherever the mood took her...’
“So, are you coming back this week?” Kaitlyn finally asked when she was able to get a word in again.
“Maybe, but I’ve still got a video to edit, and me and Delilah wanted to go back and see more of Hammerlocke since they’ve got a Dragon gym here and maybe talk to the Leader and - “
“I’ll take that as a no,” Kaitlyn sighed, interrupting before Kayley could get too wound up again. “Just be careful, would you?”
“You worry too much, Kaitlyn! I’ve got Delilah with me, and a couple of my other adorable babies too! Including this new little lovable noodle boy! I’ll be fiiiine!”
“If you say so...just don’t have a repeat of Blackthorn, would you?”
“That was totally different and you know it! She was just sooo rude!”
“Granted, but still. I’m gonna hop off for now - need to go feed Astrid and the rest. Call me when you get back to Sinnoh if something doesn’t happen before then, okay?”
“I will! Bye byeeee!”
The phone call disconnected as Kaitlyn tapped the button, pocketing the phone again with what almost seemed like a sigh of relief, and she looked over at Cassie again with a thin, brittle smile.
“So...that’s my sister. See what I put up with?” she shrugged helplessly. Astrid just laughed from beside Kaitlyn’s legs, clearly well-accustomed to what Cassie had just gotten a taste of.
“Is...that common?” Cassie hesitantly asked.
“Sadly, yes. That’s just...Kayley,” she said, looking between Astrid and Tera. “Ball or no ball?” Responses came quickly from the two members of her team, and she reached for the Great Ball on her belt to recall Astrid while Tera floated over towards her, apparently having decided to stay out.
“You said we should go to the gym tomorrow, right?” Cassie asked, earning a nod from Kaitlyn. “I’ll be ready by nine-thirty, then. Sound good?”
“Works for me.”
“Oh - do you know what time the Poke Mart closes?” Cassie added, suddenly remembering that she wanted to go by and see about getting a phone before she forgot again. Kaitlyn glanced at her own, seeing “7:41 PM” on the display before flipping it around to show Cassie.
“I think they’re open until around ten, but don’t quote me on that,” Kaitlyn replied as she tapped at her phone for a minute. “Let’s see...yeah, ten today, looks like. Plenty of time if you wanted to stop by there.”
“Okay, good...I was going to try and get a phone since I got some extra money from the farm job. Can I get your number? I’ll send you a text when I get everything set up if I find one I like.” She fumbled with her notebook for a moment, flipping it open to one of the pages she’d been taking notes on before handing it to Kaitlyn to write down the number.
“I’ll be up for a while, so just let me know if you do get one,” Kaitlyn said, to which Cassie nodded. “I’m gonna head out and get everyone something to eat - have a good night, Cassie.”
“You too, Kaitlyn!”
The Steel-type specialist headed towards one of the other exits to the park as Cassie went back the way she’d come, veering back onto the main street and heading south again towards the Poke Mart. “Did you guys enjoy yourselves?” she asked her Pokemon, looking between the canine and avian at her feet. Paulos had decided to ride on Growlithe this time around instead of on her shoulder and was balancing himself on the Fire-type’s back, something which looked almost comical because of his size. Growlithe barked his approval, breathing a small tongue of flame for an instant as if showing off a little. Paulos, not to be outdone, loudly cried his own agreement as he extended his wings, flapping once and causing a gust of wind around himself that didn’t cut but instead blew Growlithe’s fur around wildly. The dog shot an annoyed look back at his passenger, and Paulos let out a chirping laugh even as Cassie started to giggle, kneeling down to try and straighten Growlithe’s fur out again.
“I’m guessing that’s a yes,” she laughed, shaking her head. She knew that Pokemon enjoyed battling and getting stronger, and it looked like her two current team members seemed to have struck up a rivalry with one another. Hopefully, that wouldn’t wind up causing too much trouble in the future, she thought to herself. As long as they kept things civil, it should be fine...probably.
A short while later, Cassie walked back into her room at the Center, finally setting down her bags and letting her Pokemon back out of their balls from where they’d been resting. The Poke Mart had still been surprisingly busy for later in the evening, and she’d had to spend a few minutes waiting for one of the mart attendants to be able to help her while she looked for a phone that she liked. The Mart had a surprising amount of different phones, she’d discovered, ranging from normal-looking smartphones to smart watches and even flip phones. Most of them fell under the umbrella of a familiar brand that she recognized - PokeNav - though the Sinnoh-native Poketch also had a front and center place in the electronics displays, as well as the Pokegear from Silph. One thing she didn’t see were the Rotom Phones from newer entries in the series, though if she was being honest, she hadn’t expected to find any of those here to begin with. The only other thing she’d grabbed on the trip was a simple belt with Poke Ball mounts so that she could finally stop keeping Growlithe and Paulos’ balls in her pocket all the time.
It took her a couple minutes to run through the initial setup for the device, and she discovered that there was an app to link her Pokedex information to the phone itself so that she could view it on the mobile device as well. She passed on that for the time being, instead opting to get the wi-fi connection set up and fire off a quick text to Kaitlyn before she started making small meals for her Pokemon and a sandwich for herself.
4322-10644-7070 -> Monday, March 22
Cassie [8:37 PM]: hey kaitlyn its cassie. just got my new phone. see you tomorrow!
Text sent, she returned to the kitchen as Growlithe curled up on the bed to relax, tired from his training. Paulos still seemed full of energy, and took a spot on the top of the small refrigerator as he watched Cassie prepping food. She was rather surprised that the small bird was so energetic, but he definitely seemed like he leaned a bit into the “macho” stereotype and didn’t want to show any weakness around his trainer. At least, that was what she was gathering from the way he had acted around the other Pokemon. He’d certainly wasted no time trying to get to know Astrid, even if Tera unnerved him a bit. That was understandable given the obvious type weakness, at least, and she hoped the unusual Pokemon hadn’t taken offense to Paulos’ snubbing.
She slapped the top piece of bread on her sandwich before grabbing the bowls of food and water for Paulos and setting them down near her feet. She did the same for Growlithe before grabbing her sandwich in one hand and phone in the other, taking a seat at the table while she ate. The sandwich vanished quickly while she poked around at the phone’s settings, customizing it a bit more to her liking before it chimed softly with an incoming message alert. She stuffed the last of the sandwich in her mouth before pulling up her messages again and opening the only message in the list.
Kaitlyn [8:44 PM]: Sounds good. See you tomorrow.
She quickly made sure that Kaitlyn was saved to her contacts properly before she put her phone away, moving over to the small desk and laptop again before she browsed to Poketube. She’d already made herself an account and marked a couple of videos to watch later while researching other topics of interest, and she started to pull one of them up before having a sudden thought. Changing her mind, she searched again for the Eterna Gym’s website before starting to browse around and see if the site had any old battle videos linked anywhere on it. Thankfully, the site seemed to be well-designed, and it only took her a minute or two of checking the various links and menu options before she found what she was looking for. There weren’t any videos up yet from the current challenge season, but there was an entire section dedicated to videos from previous years neatly sorted by month and year. She scanned through the list for a couple seconds before clicking on one that was labeled as a first badge challenge from a few weeks into the previous season, turning the volume up a little as she started to watch.
The battle was declared to be a two-on-two match, and Gardenia led with the familiar Kanto starter of Bulbasaur as she tossed out her first ball, the stocky blue-green amphibian happily taking up a battle stance as vines extended from the large plant bulb atop its back. Her opponent led with a Starly, a Flying-type that was more common in Sinnoh than in any other region, and the gray and black starling let out a high-pitched screech as it took off into the air and awaited the referee’s signal for the match to start.
The camera panned around the arena as the referee made sure both trainers were ready, and Cassie was somewhat surprised to see spectators in the stands around the arena cheering wildly, mostly for the Gym Leader herself. She’d seen matches televised with spectators in the anime, but that was almost solely limited to the major championship matches held at the Indigo Plateau or similar venues. She hadn’t expected that there would be general admission to regular gym matches...but the more she thought about it, the more it was obvious. Of course there would be admission - it would be a great source of income for the gym to have locals come and watch matches, just like professional sports at stadiums. That realization caused her thoughts to spiral off on a bit of a tangent. Did the gyms sell merchandise? Could you get something like a season pass? Were any of them televised, or just recorded and posted online?
She almost missed the starting call from the referee in her distraction, and quickly cast her attention back down to the screen as the battle started. Gardenia was obviously used to dealing with Flying-types as a Grass gym leader, immediately calling for a Vine Whip to try and snag the diving bird as it went in for an attack. The bird proved to be a bit too nimble for the snaking vines, but the entire move proved to be a feint as Gardenia called for a Leech Seed. Bulbasaur got to shoot out a pair of small green seeds right before he was bowled over by a Quick Attack, and the seeds sprang to life and spread tiny vines all around the Starly’s body before they dug into its skin and started to sap away its energy.
From there, the battle gradually tilted more and more in Gardenia’s favor as it became a race against time for the little bird to take down Bulbasaur before the Leech Seed sapped away the last of its stamina. A steady barrage of Razor Leaves and flying vines kept the Starly from closing in too easily, and though Bulbasaur took another hit from a well-timed Quick Attack, a swift retaliation with Poison Powder forced her opponent to recall the crippled bird.
Cassie watched, transfixed as the match continued, eventually ending in a victory for Gardenia with a score of two to one. Her Bulbasaur had eventually fallen to the Shinx that replaced Starly, but the Roselia that Gardenia sent out next was quickly able to take down the electric feline and the greatly-weakened bird without too much trouble.
She felt her confidence waver as she thought about what she’d just watched. Gardenia had looked totally comfortable and in control of the match as she dispatched her challenger’s sole Pokemon with a type advantage, and hadn’t let that slip at all against her other foe. Even knowing that it would simply be a first badge match like that one and that she had not one, but two Pokemon with a type advantage, Cassie felt her nerves still getting to her. She still felt like she was in over her head with trainer life, like someone who didn’t know how to swim being thrown into a lake to try and force them to figure it out.
A large paw found its way onto her lap as she stared at the screen, and she realized she’d been so caught up in her thoughts and the match that she’d never even heard Growlithe approaching. He let out a sharp bark as she turned to face him, shaking his head as if to tell her to stop thinking like that. She stopped and took a deep breath to calm herself as Paulos flew down from the fridge to land on her shoulder again. The weight was almost reassuring just like the feel of Growlithe’s paw, letting her know that even if she didn’t think she could do it, her team clearly seemed to believe in her.
“Thanks, you two...I guess I’m still pretty nervous after all,” she said, reaching down to scratch under Growlithe’s chin. “But if you two think I can do it, then I’ll do my best to not let you down.”
Paulos chirped out a series of notes before a wing lifted to lightly and playfully swat Cassie on the back of the head a few times, almost as if he was chiding her for not believing in herself. She giggled, brushing Paulos off her shoulder only to have him flitter around and land back on the opposite shoulder smoothly as if he’d never left.
“Fine, fine...I’ll have more confidence, okay?” she laughed, turning back to the laptop again and going back to the list of battles. Maybe she’d be able to figure something out by watching more of the battles, some kind of pattern to the way Gardenia tended to fight during lower-level challenges. If she could figure that out, then she could try and figure out how to work around it, or at least know what to expect for her own match. She quickly found another and clicked on it before pausing and deciding to move to the bed so that Growlithe would have an easier time seeing the screen. Settling in, she found Paulos on one side of her and Growlithe on the other as they started to watch again, three sets of eyes locked on the screen to try and glean any kind of advantage they could.
It was a long time before Cassie finally drifted off to sleep that night, surrounded by her Pokemon and thoughts of the future.