Chương 13: Chapter 12

Huge stalactites hung high on the cave's ceiling. The air felt colder than it had been outside, but more humid, and the ground was slick with moisture. Geodude could be seen camouflaged against the cave walls or among rocks, and a pack of Zubat could be seen hanging upside down on the ceiling. Oreburgh gate was often a trainer's first caving experience, and I found it to be an oppressive, anxiety-inducing experience. My throat felt clogged up, and I had to remind myself how to breathe often.

Plus, even with how cold it was, I found a way to sweat. Stupid nervousness making me sweat everywhere, I thought. Luckily, the cave was also mostly a straight path, just like route 203 had been, and it was lit up all the way through by gas lamps to help new trainers." Ahh!" I squealed as I heard flapping wings right behind me. I waved my hands around wildly and ran away, ignoring the pain it brought to my abdomen.

"What the hell was that?"

"I think that was a Zubat," Denzel said. Eevee was on his shoulder and barked at the bat Pokemon, chasing it away. My mind flashed back to the Golbat that I had seen at Lake Verity, and I shuddered.

"Zubat, Golbat, I hate all of them. What was nature thinking when it made that Pokemon line? First, there's a creepy little guy with no eyes and whose mouth basically takes up its entire face, and then there's its evolution that's basically just a mouth! That's literally what it is! How does it survive?! It's a flying mouth!"

"Nature doesn't think," My friend deadpanned.

"Please indulge me for at least a second," I groaned.

"How much longer do we have to go?" Denzel opened his Poketch.

"Eh, Eighteen hours or so, including breaks. More if you keep panicking at every noise you hear."

"Fine," I sighed.

"Let's keep going." Eevee barked in agreement. I wished I could have my Pokemon out, but Togepi was absolutely terrified of the cave— even more than I was. When we first walked in, she had just grabbed my leg and pulled, begging me not to go. I decided to carry her, but she kept crying, and I couldn't bear to see her scared like that, so I recalled her to her Pokeball. Meanwhile, Frillish just felt lazy and wanted back in the ball as soon as I released him.

In the end, that meant that all we had to defend us was Eevee, but he was doing a pretty good job so far.

"Hey, on a scale of one to ten, how stupid would it be for me to find a Geodude and train with Eevee against it?" Denzel asked after a few minutes of silence. My eyes almost fell out of their sockets.

"One hundred!"

"That's not on the scale," Denzel chuckled.

"I was just wondering. I've never fought any rock types, and even though I know normal type moves aren't very effective— or most physical moves in general— I'd like to see how Eevee fares against one of them."

"Dude… no, just no. I'm not getting hit by another Pokemon attack trying to help you. I've had enough of that for the entire League Circuit."

"Think about it—""I already thought about it. No. Or at least wait until we're closer to Oreburgh."

"I feel like I could be doing more to train," Denzel grumbled.

"You're fine," I said, rolling my eyes. Denzel was in a better mental space than he had been a few days earlier, but I could tell he still thought a lot about that trainer who beat him.

"Hey, why don't we play a game to pass the time? Truth or dare?"

"Now who's the crazy one? I'm not doing any dares in the middle of a cave."

"So you can be responsible when you try." We kept going, occasionally coming across a few trainers traveling alone or in groups as big as ten. To me, that number seemed way too chaotic, but if it worked, I wasn't going to shame them. Our goal had been to reach the cave's exit in a day, which was theoretically possible. Unfortunately, we underestimated how slow we'd be going because of the uneven ground and my bruise. Much to my chagrin, we ended up spending a night in the cold, wet cave.

It felt like the moisture was seeping through my backpack somehow as well, and I got scared a few times my Poketch would get wet. Fortunately, at least Pokedexes were waterproof, so I didn't have to worry about that. About ten hours later, we were finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Literally. I squinted and covered my eyes with my hand as we finally stepped outside. Seeing sunlight after so long was painful.

In the distance, plumes of smoke rose into the sky, and huge apartment complexes covered the entire city center. Whereas Jubilife was a nice-looking modern city, Oreburgh was an industrial mining town. Coal, tin, and copper were the vast majority of the products exported all over the region by air, but they also were famous for the number of fossils that were unearthed here every year. I felt a wave of relief wash over me.

Finally, we were out of that stupid cave, and our first objective was practically right in front of us! These next few days would be extremely important and would determine if I had what it took to keep going on the League Circuit or not. The first gym awaited us. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. —— The first thing we did was obviously head to the Pokecenter.

I immediately took a very earned shower, checked in Togepi and Frillish, and then headed toward the human care wing of the building." Legendaries, that's a large contusion. And you said you've been walking around with this?" A male doctor told me.

"Yes, but it's been slowly getting better," I said.

"I can walk, and I can bend over if I really brace myself." He exhaled loudly.

"I wouldn't say that's great progress. Now, what move was the one that hit you? And from what Pokemon?"

"Bullet Seed from a Budew on route 203," I said. I omitted the fact that we had gone off-route. The doctor grabbed a huge dossier, licked his finger, and flipped through what must have been hundreds of papers.

"Budew… Budew… ah, there it is. Hold on a second," He said, writing something on a piece of paper as he read.

"It's not bad is it?" I said, with a slight surge of panic.

"Well, it could have been worse. It could have hit a bone and broken it. It could have hit you in the neck or temple and killed you. So I would say you got off pretty easy, Ms. Pastel," The doctor said nonchalantly. I swallowed.

"Alright, give this to the front desk. It's a prescription for a cream that you'll have to apply on the contused area four times a day. Next, I'd like to run some tests to see if you didn't inhale any spores."

"I was pretty far. I'm more worried about my friend in that case."

"Better safe than sorry. Budew's poison isn't weak by any means, but it is slow acting. In a month, you could be dead if you don't go through the necessary precautions now."

"... Alright." He ran a few more tests on me, including a blood and a urine test, but I ended up clean. I hurried up back to the front desk, grabbed my prescription, and told Denzel to go get scanned asap for poisoning as well. Luckily, he was also unaffected. —— While our Pokemon were being healed, Denzel and I visited Oreburgh. He complained endlessly about the polluted air, but I couldn't really tell the difference between Jubilife's air and Oreburgh's.

We made our way to a fast food place, where I ate enough for two people. I ordered a milkshake to go and we went to the Oreburgh Mining Museum, which was one of the city's main touristic attractions. There, we learned about Orebugh's history. The city was relatively young, only being settled a few hundred years ago during the industrial revolution. We also learned that coal was formed with the help of dead grass type Pokemon and plant matter, and we saw a bunch of old mining artifacts and some fossils.

All in all, I found it pretty boring, but Denzel seemed to have liked it. Finally, we reached the city's main attraction: the rock type gym. The building was grander than it looked on television, being easily one of the largest in the city. It looked like Jubilife's battling arena facilities, just three times bigger. There was a giant queue that stretched all around the block to sign up, and it took an hour and a half to finally get inside the gym.

There was a receptionist in the lobby that helped trainers sign up for a battle, and he sported a white and brown uniform with a brown Pokeball on the white side of the shirt. Above him, there was a screen with all the scheduled matches, and the monitor changed days every so often. I groaned internally when I realized that Roark had been booked for the next week already, and I'd have to wait that long to challenge him. The truth was that the situation was a mixed bag.

I would have more time to train, but I'd feel the stress build up the entire time. I just wanted to be done with it, win or lose. I couldn't really blame the way the gym was organized either. Every match was scheduled to last twenty minutes at most, and then there'd be a ten minute break in between. That meant that Roark would be battling for the majority of his day, from eight in the morning until the gym finally closed at seven every single night for the foreseeable future.

I loved battling, but there was no amount of money anyone could pay me to do this job.

"Next!" I heard. Finally, after an annoying wait, it was my turn. I walked up to the receptionist with a smile.

"Good afternoon, and welcome to the Oreburgh gym," He said, almost by reflex.

"Are you here to sign up for a gym battle?"

"Yeah," I said, suddenly feeling very small.

"Alright. Trainer ID, please." I quickly handed him my ID.

"Grace Pastel…" He muttered as he typed something on his computer. After ten seconds or so, he handed me a piece of paper and a pen.

"Read through this and answer the questions honestly. Lying on any of these is grounds for disqualification from the Circuit." I understood right away what the questionnaire was for after reading the first question. Is this your first time participating in the League Circuit? If not, how many times have you done so and how many badges did you get during your most successful year? They were gauging our skill level to know what Pokemon to use against us.

The questions I found the most interesting were these ones: Have you joined any of the Circuits in other regions? If so which ones and how far did you get? Have you had any experiences battling before joining the League Circuit? If so, please state how many years/months/days. How many Pokemon do you currently own? (Make sure to warn a gym official if you catch another Pokemon while waiting for your match) I answered all of them honestly and handed back the paper.

The receptionist typed away for another minute or so and then placed my form in a drawer full of them.

"Alright, Ms. Pastel. Let me explain how this gym works to you very quickly. In five days at 2: 40 pm, you'll have to battle one of our gym trainers. If you win, you move on and get a battle with Roark, but if you lose, you have to wait two weeks to sign up again. This also applies if you miss your battle, by the way. We'll only wait for five minutes until you're counted as missing, so don't be late." I absorbed the information as best I could.

The receptionist clicked his mouse a few times, and a small slip of paper came out of a device to his side.

"This is your ticket with the date and time. Do not lose it, or you have to wait the full two weeks. Any questions?" I shook my head.

"Next!" He yelled. I walked past Denzel and winked. I decided to wait for him outside, and as soon as he came out, we walked back to the Pokemon Center to grab our teams back.