We take on the gym.

"So, what do you suggest we do next?" I asked Sophia,

"I kind of want to check out the gym, see if its a type I'm good against." Sophia responded.

We walked over to the Gym, and when the sliding doors opened, me and Sophia were greeted by a billow of sand. We walked into the Gym to see that the entire room was coated in a thick layer of sediment, closed in by walls made of sandstone forming a small maze.

"Sand, that kind of seems like a ground type thing, right?" I asked Sophie,

"Yeah, so I don't even think I need to train to take this one on." Sophie gloated.

Walking around the first corner of the maze, we ran into our first trainer, a young boy. As we passed his sight, he yelled,

"Hey, you passed my gaze, that means we battle!"

He threw a pokeball at the ground, and in a flash of light a Pokemon appeared, this one was buried in the ground, with only her torso sticking out. I pulled out my new pokedex and scanned her.

'Diglett, the mole pokemon.

Diglett spends all of its life underground, so very few have seen the lower half of its body, and due to it being underground all the time, it is very skilled at digging, and can dig as fast as athletes can run.'

Turns out I was right, on my guess for this gym's type, which meant these fights shouldn't need any more training to beat.

Sophia stood at the ready, when Diglett burrowed underground. Sophia began to look around, scanning for any sign of movement, when Diglett suddenly burrowed out right under her, sending her up into the air.

"Sophia, you've got this, show this guy what you're made of!" I cheered.

Sophia landed on the ground, flashing a smug smirk back in my direction, before wrapping the Diglett up in its vines. I could tell this was painful, as Diglett's skin began to blister and bruise from the tight vines. It then clawed at Sophia's vines, and I saw Sophia cringe, I came to the conclusion that her vines must be an extension of her body or something.

Despite her obvious discomfort, Sophia extended another vine and slashed Diglett's face with it, making it fall ****.

"Well, I guess you won, well played I guess." The young boy said, disappointed in his quick defeat. He handed me a 5 dollar bill, and me and Sophia continued on with the gym.

"Hey, I saw that that scratch hurt, you okay? We can swing back to the Pokemon Center if you need."

"No, its nothing, and stop that, its getting repetitive." Sophia said, obviously hiding her wound.

The next trainer was a rock climber, who had a sandshrew. Sophia easily won, but once again took a pretty heavy scratch, this time in her tail. I took my prize money and walked up to the gym leader, an older woman in a brown dress.

"Congratulations on making it to me!" She exclaimed, "But I'm afraid those trainers you fought pale in comparison to my experience. Prepare to lose."

She then pressed the button on her pokeball, and out came a woman wearing beige capri pants, a dirty white t-shirt, and a carved skull on her head. I scanned it with my pokedex.

'Cubone, the lonely Pokemon.

Cubone wears a dinosaur skull on its head as an homage to it's parents, it being a family heirloom passed from generation to generation. It is very skilled in hand to hand combat, using a bone as a make-shift club.'

"Sophia, try to avoid its club!"I advised.

"I know." She responded, with a sour attitude.

She then ran straight at the Cubone, and as it started to swing its club, Sophia dodged to the side, then dashed behind her, bashing her with her tail on the way.

"Nice one!" I applauded,

Sophia continued her guerilla style ****, and eventually the Cubone fell to the ground.

"It's not over yet! Get ready for my trump card!" The leader said, pulling out a second pokeball. When she pressed the button, I was blinded by the light that came out, and as I rubbed my eyes, I was shocked at the sight before me.

The Pokemon she let out towered over the entire arena, standing around 12 feet tall. She was wearing a sports bra that seemed to be made out of stone, with a hard edge where her breasts protruded, and where her legs would be was a 8 foot long tail made up of stones.

'Onix, the rock snake Pokemon

Onix is a very large naga made out of sedimentary rock, it is found deep in caves, as it can burrow at 50mph underground. Its 500lb weight makes its tail a fierce weapon, able to crush vehicles and buildings.'

Even Sophia seemed to cower at the immense size of this thing, but she ran at it anyways. She tried to lash at it with her vines, but she only left small scratches in Onix's stone body. Onix then swing its tail, batting Sophia's significantly smaller frame across the floor. Sophia was immediately made ****, and I ran up to her as the old lady returned her Onix back into its pokeball.

"Well, looks like you have a long way to go before you can beat me."

I picked up Sophia's limp body, and ran to the Pokemon Center. Two Chanseys took her into a back room, and after a long wait, Sophia came out, with a conflicted look on her face.

"Sophia, I'm so glad you're okay! That thing was so huge, I was worried." I blurted, kneeling down to hug her.

"Yeah, I know." Sophia said, arms down at her side.

I could tell she wasn't doing so well after that loss, but I didn't know what to say to help her.

We then walked out of the Pokemon Center, and ran into Mia and Gabby, who seemed to be coming back from a training session.

"Hey Mia! Hows it goin'?" I asked.

"Oh, Hi Mark, I'm just training Gabby a bit more, I take it you lost to the leader too?" Mia said, noting Sophia's depressed expression.

"You want to have a little battle? I think Sophie here needs a little boost, she didn't take the loss too well as you can tell." I asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing!" Mia excitedly blurted.

"Hey Sophia, don't blame yourself for that loss, I should have realized we were under-trained. Now let's train up, and hopefully next time we can beat that Onix!" I said, kneeling down to Sophia's height.

Sophia looked slightly less down, and walked out in front of me, and Gabby faced her down.

Sophia took the first attack, leering in Gabby's direction. I saw Gabby shudder, and her arms tensed up, leaving most of her body exposed.

Gabby then stomped her foot, and immediately sand started whirling around from all sides, encompassing all four of us in the vortex.

Sophia coughed from the sand, but managed to run up to Gabby and lash her with a vine, which looked to majorly hurt her, since she couldn't defend herself with her arms tensed up.

Gabby then bit Sophia's vine, but Sophia was ready, yanking on the vine to pull Gabby to her, before slamming her body into her, making Gabby fall to the ground, fainted.

"Wow, that was so cool! We should fight again eventually!" Mia stated, picking up Gabby.

Sophie seemed to be looking a bit better than earlier, so I decided we should head to the nearby pond to train.

I had purchased a cheap fishing rod from the shop when I was waiting for Sophie to recover, so I fished up Magikarp after Magikarp, while Sophie would defeat them, usually in one hit.

Sophie was now a good bit taller, now standing at 4'1, still very short compared to me, but she seemed glad she was making progress.

Fishing was beginning to get monotonous, until I fished up a different looking Magikarp, while all the other Magikarp were wearing red one-piece swimsuits, this Magikarp's swimsuit seemed to be golden, glistening in the sun. I had heard of these 'shiny' Pokemon before, but I never thought I would find one so soon! I immediately threw a pokeball at it, and it didn't even resist as the ball turned 3 times, then closed with a satisfying 'click'.