Amber Challenges the Gym!

“Number 3, you’re up!”

“HERE!” As you practically jump up from your seat. You take a moment to look at Blue, saying to him “Wish me luck” as you make your way to the stairwell that leads to the challenge arena. It doesn’t take you long as your half run down the stairs and dash through the hallway on the ground floor.

You only stop when you find yourself standing in front of a pair of large double doors. Doors which you know lead into the battle arena. “Ok Amber, you got this.” You take a deep breath, and put your hands onto the doors.

You push open the doors and walk into the Pewter City Gym Arena. As you enter the large well lit battle arena you can see the stands full of onlookers. The nosebleed seats where you know (or hope) Blue is watching are too far away for you to see him. But in the front row seats is Melody, waving enthusiastically at you.

You give an enthusiastic wave back to the Melody, who seems to be one of the few people in the audience excited. As you wave back to and look at Melody you see that there is only one other person in the front bleachers with her, a young man who appears to be as tanned as and has similarly blond hair like Melody. He is also sitting right next to her. For a moment you wonder if they know each other, are they related, or is it just a coincidence?

As these questions run through your head, you look at the crowd and can’t help but notice the general lack of enthusiasm. While you are a little disappointed, you aren’t that surprised. You can’t remember the last time you personally bothered to watch a Rookie Gym Challenge broadcast, so you can’t be that surprised that the crowd isn’t excited to watch a Rookie Gym fight.

The good fights were usually the Trainers who had at least 3 or 4 badges. The REAL good ones were the 7-8 Challengers. The Challengers like Melody.

But now that you were the one doing the challenge you wish you had watched a few more Rookie Challenges. After going through the hassle of getting here yourself, you have a new appreciation for just how hard the road just to get this far actually is.

Still, you hope your Mom is watching…

FOCUS AMBER! Now is not the time to think about Mom, and the very awkward conversation that you will eventually have to have with her.

You make your way to your staging area, and at the other end of the arena you see the Pewter City Gym Leader Brock standing casually on the other end of the arena.

You hear the announcer start to speak “Our next Rookie Challenger is Amber Oak of Pallet Town!”

Well, IF Mom is watching that Meowth is out of the bag…

Thinking out load, you tell yourself “Not now Amber, clear your head.” You close your eyes, take a deep breath, hold it for a moment before slowly letting it out. You grab onto one of your Pokémon Balls and get ready to throw it. Looking at the Pewter City Gym Leader you see that he is also holding onto a Pokéball and is waiting for the signal.

You hear the announcer call out “Oh, it looks like our challengers are ready!” There is relative silence for a few moments until you hear the announcer speak again. “Trainers, get ready to release on three. One, two, THREE!”

You and Brock both throw your Pokéballs at the same time, starting the battle.

Author's Notes: Short Chapter, but I have been busy and I wanted to end at a point which allows for variants in how the fight/challenge goes.