I felt excited, pushing open the door of the Olivine Gym for the second time. Not only was it a new opportunity for a badge, I really wanted to see how I compared to Kenta, since we should be around the same level of expertise.

We walked in and saw the well-lit floor of the arena, but nobody was there.

‘Oh, great,’ Gary muttered. ‘They’re probably still closed.’

‘Hello?’ Kenta called out. ‘Anybody home?’

From a side doorway, a young woman poked her head in. Then the rest of her followed, and she walked up to meet us.

‘Hello! Are you challengers?’ she said brightly, flicking her long, light brown hair.

‘Yeah, we all are…’ I answered, ‘But we thought you might still be closed.’

The girl smiled sincerely. ‘No, the Gym is fully operational again now. We did have a crisis earlier with a sick pokémon, but thankfully the matter has been resolved.’ She took up a stance and pulled out a pokéball. ‘Now, which of you will be the first to battle me?’

I paused for a moment to realise that this was, in fact, the Gym Leader.

‘Kenta was going to go first,’ I said with a grin, ‘weren’t you, Kenta?’

‘Sure thing,’ Kenta replied, pulling his trademark hat down firmly in preparation. ‘Let’s go.’

Gary and I took our position on the sidelines as the Leader and challenger found their boxes on either side of the battlefield. The little girl we had met at the Gym before turned up to referee the match.

‘This is an official Gym match between Jasmine of the Olivine City Gym and Kenta of New Bark Town,’ the girl announced the standard rules. ‘Two pokémon will be used. Begin the battle!’

‘Right, let’s go, Typhlosion!’ Kenta started the match with Typhlosion’s ball, and the huge, intimidating fire pokémon formed on the field.

‘And for my pokémon,’ said Jasmine, throwing her own pokéball, ‘I choose Steelix!’

The amount of light that burst out of her ball was enormous. It grew until it nearly reached the high ceiling, and stopped glowing to reveal her Steelix, the massive metal snake pokémon.

I quickly grabbed my bag and reach for my pokédex.

‘Steelix, the evolved form of Onix,’ it confirmed tonelessly. ‘The minerals of its body have been compressed underground. As a result its exterior is harder than diamond.’

Kenta seemed a little nervous but carried on all the same. ‘Start off with flamethrower!’

Typhlosion’s fiery mane burst into life and he bounded across the room, ready to fire at his immense opponent. Steelix was ready though, and reacted faster than I would have thought. He brought his tail crashing down dangerously close to Typhlosion and threw off his attack.

Typhlosion tried again, and blasted a section of Steelix’s body with his fire attack. Steelix countered again, this time by lunging at his foe with his teeth bared. Typhlosion jumped out of the way just in time, showing off his agility.

‘Use flame wheel!’ Kenta commanded, just as Jasmine ordered a rock throw attack from her pokémon. Steelix’s tail smashed the ground where Typhlosion had been, but he had already curled into a ball and span towards Steelix, while flames covered his body. Like a fiery cannonball, Typhlosion sprang from the arena floor and Struck Steelix’s body dead on, seriously injuring him. Steelix’s normally metallic, shiny body was charred and burned, and the giant snake fell to the ground, unable to continue.

The girl called a victory for Kenta, and the Gym Leader readied her next pokémon. With a flash, out came a Magnemite, a magnetic pokémon known for its ability to hover in the air. In a couple of rounds, Typhlosion had burned Magnemite out of consciousness and they had won the match.

I was astounded. Kenta went up to Jasmine to accept his new badge, thanking Typhlosion all the while. The Cyndaquil he had set off with from New Bark Town possessed incredible strength; it was even able to take down two Gym pokémon unaided and emerge almost unscathed. Most trainers usually formed a special bond with the very first pokémon they received, and their starter would probably become the core of their pokémon team, ending up as the strongest pokémon the trainer owned.

But…

Not me.

Why couldn’t I have formed a special bond with my starter? Why did I end up parting with mine, when most other trainers got to spend their whole lives with one special friend?

I walked forward to the battlefield. I shouldn’t be thinking like that. Not only would it put me off the battle I was about to start, the most important thing that mattered was Meowth’s safety, not my envy.

‘Ready?’ called the referee girl. ‘Match two – begin!’

I picked out a pokéball and threw it, not fully realising what I was doing. I had chosen my Quilava for this – party because two of Jasmine’s pokémon this far had been steel types, weak to fire, and also because… I realised I wanted to compete with Kenta. I should be as good as him at this point, so a Quilava should do almost as well as his Typhlosion.

‘Let’s go, Spike!’ I said to my ferret-like pokémon, who readied himself for the battle.

‘I choose Magnemite!’ on the other side of the field, Jasmine released another Magnemite. At least my guess at her using steel-based pokémon seemed to have been right.

As soon as the match officially began, I shouted my first command.

‘Start with your ember attack!’

Darting forward like greased lightning, Spike got within range of Magnemite and, as his mane and tail fire ignited, spat burning embers from his mouth. The floating steel ball seemed irritated but not particularly harmed.

As a counterattack, Magnemite began using thunder wave. The sparks of electricity issuing from Magnemite would paralyse my pokémon on contact, so I had him take evasive action.

‘Spike – smokescreen, quickly!’

Spike blew out a jet of black smoke, concealing his movements. Magnemite’s attack ceased and the Quilava took the opportunity to launch himself in a quick attack while his opponent’s defence was down.

‘No more messing around, Magnemite,’ said Jasmine, sounding determined. ‘Use zap cannon.’

‘No! Spike, get out of the way!’

The sheer force and power of the static attack meant that Magnemite had no time to control its direction. Luckily, Spike jumped over the electric orb when it shot towards him and fired a powerful flamethrower blast at his foe. Magnemite was consumed by the flames and was left blackened and weak after the attack. It lost the power to produce its anti-gravity field and fell straight to the ground.

‘Magnemite is unable to battle. This round goes to Quilava.’

Okay, we won the first round. I tried not to get too excited. There was still another battle to win.

‘You’re doing well so far,’ Jasmine smiled. ‘Let’s see how you handle this one…’

With a flash, a Skarmory appeared. It was a particularly impressive pokémon, looking like a bird, but with no feathers or plumage. Instead its body was covered with shining, silver metal.

As the second round began, Skarmory took the upper hand with its incredible speed, flying into the air and diving towards Spike with peck attacks. He kept trying to get away but he wasn’t fast enough.

‘Use your flamethrower, Spike!’

The Quilava tried to obey, shooting streams of fire at the Skarmory hanging in the air. But Skarmory’s expert agility came into effect, making the metal bird move so fast there appeared to be twenty of him. Spike tried to hit the multiple Skarmory with his flames but every time his attack would pass straight through the illusion. Suddenly the real Skarmory flew down at him from behind and hit Spike with a fury attack, rendering him unconscious.

I held out Spike’s pokéball and called him back, thanking him for a job well done.

‘I choose you, Charlie!’

My final pokémon, Charlie the Growlithe, materialised on the field. His golden coloured fur was still shining brightly.

‘Right, start this off with your swift attack, Skarmory!’ Jasmine commanded.

Skarmory shot down in the air, firing spinning stars at Charlie. He gracefully jumped over the first few, but lost his footing and was pummelled by the rest. He fell to the floor, but soon recovered.

‘Skarmory, use steel wing!’

Skarmory flew up in the air, then came straight down like before, ready to attack Charlie with his wings.

‘Get ready to jump!’ I yelled, and Growlithe lowered himself to the floor, poised to spring. Then once the Skarmory had reached the right position, about to attack, I shouted. ‘Jump!’

Charlie shot upwards just as Skarmory passed him, and used his bite attack in mid-air, managing to clamp his jaws around Skarmory’s wing. Even though Charlie’s sharp teeth couldn’t harm the tough metal, Skarmory couldn’t fly with the extra weight and it careened out of control.

At the last second, Charlie leapt off, landing on the floor without being hurt. But Skarmory couldn’t pull back up and crash-landed onto the arena.

‘Now give it your take down attack!’

Charlie ran full-force at the fallen bird, picking up speed until he struck Skarmory with his whole body. The force of the collision against Skarmory’s metal body seemed to injure Charlie too.

A little dazed, Skarmory managed to take flight again and hovered above the field. It tried to regain composure and prepared to dive at Charlie, aiming a swift attack. As the Skarmory descended, homing in on Growlithe, he also started to run, straight into Skarmory’s path. With a determined expression, he barked, and suddenly his body was covered with flames. Still running, the ball of fire gained speed until he and Skarmory were close enough. Before Skarmory fired its attack, Charlie span into a fiery frenzy and propelled himself towards the bird, colliding with it in the air. The fire around Charlie’s body burned Skarmory badly, and when his flame wheel finished, Charlie dropped back to the ground, panting.

Skarmory quivered, then also fell down to earth, but unlike Charlie it wasn’t standing. The metal bird lay in a crumpled heap, its body no longer shining, but scorched and dull.

‘The battle is over!’ exclaimed the young girl. ‘Holly, the challenger, is the winner.’

I was more relieved than happy. But when I walked over to Charlie to pet him, his big smile made me feel much happier and I ended up grinning, too.

I looked up to see Jasmine. ‘Well done. It was a good battle,’ she smiled, holding out a badge for me to take. I took it with a small bow.

‘Thanks.’

‘Right, I’m up next,’ I heard Gary saying as he strode over.

‘You too?’ Jasmine questioned, probably surprised at the string of challenges. ‘Okay then… let’s get started.’

‘You don’t have to stay, you know,’ Gary said as I recalled Charlie. ‘Why don’t you… go explore town, or something?’

‘Sure,’ I replied, walking over to the door. I knew when to take a hint; Gary was often self-conscious about his battles, especially important ones.

I stepped out of the Gym and took a deep breath of fresh air. Having a new badge was a relief and the world almost seemed brighter because of it. After taking a few steps forward I heard the Gym doors open behind me.

‘Hey,’ said Kenta, coming over to me. ‘So, now that you’ve got this badge, where are you off to?’

I thought for a moment. ‘I’m not actually sure. We’ve already been over the ocean to Cianwood and doubled back… I don’t know which other town has a Gym.’

‘The last place I went was in that direction,’ he pointed to the side of town opposite the beach, ‘after defeating the Ecruteak Gym I went across the mountains to Mahogany Town. Then I had to retrace my steps to get back here.’ He shrugged and smiled. ‘If you haven’t been there yet, that might be a good place to start.’

‘Sounds like a good idea,’ I nodded. ‘Where’re you heading now?’

‘I’ve got to head over the sea to Cianwood for the storm badge. You got any tips?’

‘Hmmm…’ I grinned, ‘Use something that’s fast…’

We stood around chatting for the next few minutes, up until Gary emerged from the Gym with the mineral badge in hand. He walked over with his hands in his pockets.

‘Hey Gary!’ I greeted cheerfully. ‘How’d you do?’

‘Oh, fine,’ he replied without smiling. ‘Not really much of a challenge…’

‘Well, I think I’d better get going…’ Kenta said, sounding embarrassed. ‘It’s a long way to Cianwood. I’ll see you guys again sometime.’

‘I hope so,’ I replied, waving as Kenta walked away. Then Gary and I started off in the direction of the Centre.

‘Isn’t Kenta fun?’ I mused as we walked. ‘He’s become really strong… even though we started our journeys at the same time, I bet he could even battle you and not fare too badly.’

Gary grunted.

‘And wasn’t his Typhlosion cool? It’s so agile and fast… and those flamethrowers were really powerful…’

‘Oh, come on!’ Gary growled, sounding a little angry. ‘So he had one decent pokémon. I’ve got hundreds of them, you don’t you talk about them for a change?’

I turned my head away defiantly. ‘Why can’t you think about someone else, for a change?’

‘I’m just saying, if that newbie is worth blabbering on about, then I must be, too!’

‘If you find it so hard to talk about anyone besides yourself, then that’s your problem.’

‘Fine.’

‘Fine.’

‘Fine!’

We walked along not looking at each other all the way to the Centre. The silence lasted for all of about five minutes, but it was promptly forgotten as soon as the subject of what to have for dinner came up.