I don't own pokémon. And WHOOPIE! It's a songfic episode!!

We were up bright and early the next morning to go and challenge the Gym Leader. Unfortunately, we kept getting sidetracked. There was just soooooo much to do in Goldenrod! We went to the huge department store and stocked up on healing items, then we went to the game corner and looked at the prizes. There were some pretty powerful TMs and even some pokémon like Abras and Cubones. We also visited the magnet train station, which had a shuttle that went all the way to Saffron City in Kanto!

After finally reaching the Gym, we spotted a large tower puncturing the skyline. It turned out to be a brand new radio tower that had only just been built.

The Gym itself was full of flowers. Cute, but seeing as how I had hayfever, they didn’t appeal to me that much. Suddenly a large crowd of girls came rushing up to us. But before we could ask who was the Gym Leader, half the girls whisked Meowth away to coddle him, the other half throwing various compliments at me.

‘Oh, I just love what you’ve done with your hair!’

‘Where did you get those shoes? I have to have them!’

‘Tch, girls,’ muttered Gary.

The girls cuddling and cooing over how cute Meowth was finally cut it out when he yelled:

‘Hee-eey! Knock it off!’

And they realised that maybe he wasn’t so cute after all. Then I noticed something else, 2 more Meowth had come into the scene. Somebody spoke to me.

‘Oh look! You have a Meowth as well!’

The two Meowth seemed to belong to another girl.

‘I got these two in male and female, so I could get lots of little Meowth babies! Does yours have a name?’

‘No, he’s pretty much… just Meowth.’

‘This one’s called Tom,’ she exclaimed brightly, and the Meowth which was evidently the male hopped over to her. Jeez, I thought, what an original name. ‘And my little girl’s name is Peppercat!’ The female Meowth mewed happily. ‘By the way, my name is Samantha. What’s yours?

‘Holly,’ I said flatly. Then the other girls said their names in turn:

‘I’m Carrie.’

‘My name’s Bridget.’

‘I’m Victoria.’

‘Man, they’re all airhead names…’ Gary whispered. I elbowed him quiet.

‘So, who’s the Gym Leader?’ I inquired.

‘You’re here for a battle?! Really? OK then, right this way.’

The girls led us to the Gym’s battle arena, where there was another girl watering flowers. She had red hair in pigtails, and looked rather plain.

‘Whitney, someone’s here for a Gym battle.’ Whitney turned to face us.

‘Really? Which one?’

Gary and I exchanged glances. We had forgotten to decide who was going to go first.

‘Well, both of us, really.’

‘OK, we’ll have a two-on-two pokémon battle, me and the girl, then another battle straight after with the guy.’

I stepped over to my side of the battle ground. I knew Gary would have preferred to go first, but I wasn’t one to argue.

‘Are we ready?’ taunted Whitney. ‘First pokémon, go!’

A Snubbull appeared on the field. I threw the pokéball containing Onix, because of his high defence.

‘Metafang! Start with a tackle attack!’

Metafang made a "graceful" dive at the Snubbull, but it jumped out of the way. Snubbull’s strategy seemed to be statistic lowering before attacking, and it tried to use a scary face attack. It failed, probably because Snubbull was more scared of my giant snake than Metafang was of him. Next it used tail whip which lowered Metafang’s defence. Not that it really made any difference. I told him to try rock throw, and the Onix’s large boulder-like appendages crashed to the ground around the poor Snubbull. Unfortunately it managed to dodge most of them. Now it tried to use charm, but that didn’t work either. Finally it made an attack: lick. The only damage this did was to make Metafang seriously grossed out.

‘Metafang, bind that Snubbull!’

His tail coiled around Snubbull and squeezed hard. It struggled to get out, but it was quickly running out of energy.

‘Snubbull, quick! Use bite attack!’

Snubbull bared its teeth and bite down hard on Metafang. Unfortunately for him, the Onix was harder. After suffering from serious toothache, the Snubbull passed out.

‘A minor mistake on my part,’ admitted Whitney, recalling her broken pokémon. ‘But no one has ever escaped from this!’ she cried, throwing a new pokéball. I recognised the pokémon, after the white energy formed a shape. A Miltank.

‘Metafang, finish it off! Rock throw!’

Once again the large strings of rock crashed onto the field. But Miltank was unharmed. It was using defence curl.

‘Miltank, rollout attack!’

This was very bad. A pokémon’s rollout attack became much stronger if they used defence curl before. Miltank rolled into a ball and rushed towards Metafang. But just as they were about to connect, the Onix raised his tail and swung it at Miltank, and sent it flying!

‘All right! Way to go!’

"I wonder if we could start a pokémon baseball team…" Meowth’s thoughts reflected the old Team Rocket schemes. Well, just barely.

Too bad the battle wasn’t over, ‘cos that would have made a spectacular finish. Miltank was still in the air, curled in a ball. The ball opened and it appeared, unharmed.

‘Miltank, body slam!’

The momentum from the rollout and the baseball swing, combined with the weight of Miltank falling was too much. It crashed into Metafang, right on the noggin. He was knocked out. Now I was faced with a problem. Who on my team could stand up to Miltank’s rollout attack? Lapras and Cyndaquil had a type disadvantage to that attack. Cyndaquil(again) and Sandshrew were too small. I couldn’t use Meowth. And that left…

*Flashback*

‘How about this?’ She showed me a pokémon I’d never seen before in my life. It was orangey-brown, and its head was larger than its body. It partly resembled a turtle, and also a crocodile. Quickly opening my pokédex, I aimed the sensor at the newcomer.

‘Trapinch, the ant pit pokémon. Found in deserts, it will catch its prey by digging a hole and waiting for food to fall in. It can last long periods of time without water.’

*End*

Of course! That was it!

‘I choose you, Mystik!’ The small pokémon materialised on the field. A slight jolt of fear hit me. I had never used this pokémon before. A lot of things could go wrong. But it was my only hope.

Miltank looked at Whitney expectantly. ‘No, wait, Miltank. We want them to make the first move.’ They were doing it again. Defend against my attack, then use powered up rollout.

‘Mystik, use a sand-attack.’

Clouds of kicked up sand blinded Miltank, and Whitney got impatient.

‘Just forget the defence and use rollout!’

Aha, grasshopper. Right into my trap.

‘Mystik: dig!’

The small pokémon quickly went to work, using its jaws expertly to dig a hole. Then the hole extended into a line. There was no way Miltank could get over it. It couldn’t even see very well, being a spinning ball. It rolled blindly into the trench and crashed, sending up a dust cloud. Then Mystik used an attack I had never seen before. It created a small whirlwind which picked up dust and rocks from the ground, and it flung them into the hole. Miltank got buried by the onslaught of debris. I checked my pokédex.

‘Sand Tomb – a ground attack. It uses wind gusts to bury the opponent over a long period of time.’

Miltank was attempting to free itself from the ground. It was still going, but it had also gained a number of bruises and scratches.

‘Come on, Miltank! Use body slam!’

It stumbled forward. Mystik used a bite attack on Miltank’s arm and the battle was over.

‘Yahoo!’ I yelled, and practically danced over to Whitney.

‘Well done. Here’s your Plain Badge,’ she said, holding out her hand. I picked it up; it looked like a yellow diamond with a silver lining. I pinned it to my backpack alongside the other two. I looked at Gary.

‘So, your turn to battle.’

‘Why don’t you and your Meowth go back to the pokémon centre and start having lunch? It’s almost 3:00. I’ll catch you up.’

‘Yeah, sure.’

Not being one to turn down the prospect of lunch, Meowth and I left the building. When we reached the pokémon centre we headed straight for the cafeteria. Just as our food arrived Gary waltzed in, holding his own Plain Badge.

After lunch we decided to do a little sightseeing (not that we hadn’t already done so in the morning). We found a bookshop with a special signing going on, so we got in the queue. We ended up meeting Bill, the guy who invented (among others) the pokéball transportation device, and we got his autograph in his book about his research on his favourite pokémon: Eevee. It was about the strange genetics in an Eevee’s body and how and why to evolve it. I was a big fan of biology.

We also ended up fighting quite a few battles against passing trainers. We intended to spend another night here, as there were only a few hours of daylight left, so we filled up the time by battling and training our pokémon. I used my pokédex to check a few levels: Marina was level 19, Metafang was level 22, Spike was level 12, and Mystik was level 26. After a few hours we returned to the pokémon centre and rented some beds. Night was falling, I sat on my bed, Meowth was napping, and Gary was reading his guide book. After a while Gary spoke to me.

‘Come outside. I want to show you something.’

I left my pokéballs on my bed and followed him outside. Gary led me around the town, every so often checking the guide book for directions. The cold evening air was chilly, but at the same time, it was invigorating. At last we stopped. I could feel bass tones through the ground.

‘A night club?!’

‘Yup. Goldenrod’s famous for its night life. You’re not going to miss it, are you?’

‘Well, I suppose I…’ I answered, but Gary had gone. Inside. I followed and entered. The bass noise aligned with the treble of the music and I could hear it clearly. It wasn’t one of those exclusive clubs with bodyguards and velvet rope where you have to have ID telling them you’re 18. It was a teenager’s club, a disco. And it really felt fun. I quickly joined in, dancing a little and ordering drinks. As I sat at a stool sipping coke, Gary came up to me.

‘Having fun?’

‘Yeah, this is great!’

Then the kareoke started. Most of the singers were pretty good. I had sung in front of a crowd before, in plays and such. There had been solos and a few duets on stage, to S Club, Robbie Williams, Britney Spears, etc, even a few pokémon songs mixed in. Currently a young girl was singing. She wasn’t bad, although I could hardly hear her over the whoops and cheers from the guys. The song ended, and she walked gracefully off stage to be greeted by applause. The guys whooped even louder. Then the DJ spoke over the noise:

‘That was great wasn’t it! Well, next up in our kareoke line-up, Holly!’

I froze. Was that me? I never agreed to sing. When nobody went up on stage, I knew he meant me. But how did…

Gary grinned at me across the room.

That complete idiot! He signed me up for kareoke! What should I do? Run out and go back to the pokémon centre? Or go up on stage and risk trying to sing a song that I might not even know?

While my head wondered about it, my feet had carried on regardless and taken me to the stage. I took a deep breath, and walked up to the mike. Everyone stared at me. The music started. I heaved a deep sigh of relief. I knew the song. Oddly, it was one of my favourites. Can’t Help Falling In Love, the A*Teens version. I saw Gary give me an encouraging wink.

"Do, do, do," sang the intro. I breathed. Next, where there should be words, there were none. And I filled it in.

"Wise men say,

Only fools rush in,

But I can’t help

Falling in love

With you"

The sound of my voice calmed my nerves a little. Some people were clapping in time.

"Shall I stay?

Would it be a sin?

If I can’t help

Falling in love

With you"

Next came the chorus, and I stayed quiet. It was a male part really.

Like a river flows

To the sea

So it goes

Some things are meant to be,

Now I joined in again, getting more confident. I sang louder, and swayed a little to the music.

"Take my hand,

Take my whole life too,

For I can’t help

Falling in love

With you"

The next part was a complete solo. No backing singers on the tape, just 1 instrument, and me.

‘Wise men say,

Only fools rush in,

But I can’t, I can’t help

Falling in love with you"

The whole thing became louder, and so did I. All the backing singers came back in.

"Take my hand,

Take my whole life too,

For I can’t help

Falling in love with you"

I glanced at Gary. He was enjoying it, that was obvious, but he also looked surprised. Heh, I really showed him. He didn’t expect me to be that good. I gave it everything I had as the chorus repeated and changed key.

"Take my hand,

Take my whole life too,

For I can’t help

Falling in love with you.

For I can’t help,

Falling in love…" On that note, the backers stopped, but I didn’t. I carried it on over them.

"Falling in love with you."

The song ended, and a huge cheer went up from the crowd. They applauded, some even whistled. I bowed and left the stage. I went over to Gary, who was staring with his mouth open, but just remembered to close it in time.

‘Well? What did you think?’

Gary made a face. ‘Not bad, I guess…’

‘Not bad? Not bad?! I kicked butt up there!’ I said happily, pulling a grin.

Gary glanced at his watch. ‘Well, it’s 9:00. We should head back before you start getting asked for autographs.’ It was sarcastic, but as we left I noticed a couple of boys rummaging around in their bags for pens and paper.

When we got back to our room Meowth was completely asleep. I tried not to wake him as I got into bed, with him on top of the covers. I plopped my head onto the pillow.

‘Goodnight,’ said Gary from across the room.

I only had enough energy left for ‘Yup,’ before I fell fast asleep.

Yay! All done! I want to add that if your name is Samantha, Bridget, Carrie or Victoria, I DON'T think those are airhead names. Gary does. Blame him.

And about the Medabots thing, I thought it was interesting that one of the girls in the Goldenrod Gym is called Samantha, and has 2 Meowths. So, there we go. An inside joke for Medabots fans.