Arlo walked down the streets of Aegis, the city that held the normal-type gym. He held his head high, his new pokemon, Duraludon, safely in its poke ball in his pocket. The cool wind blew through his blonde hair as he climbed the steps to the normal gym. There were loud noises coming from behind the doors, and he stopped for a minute, pressing his ear to the door to listen. He could decipher nothing from the noises— wait, was that an electric jolt? Yes, that was certainly electricity crackling.
With nothing left to do, Arlo shoved open the door and strode inside. On one side of the gym was a defeated gym trainer, his pokemon, a bidoof, fainted on the ground. On the other side of the gym was the gym leader himself, Atticus. He had long brown hair and wore a clean, white robe with a gray jacket. On his feet were gray sandals. He had just recalled his last pokemon, but Arlo had entered the gym too late to get a glimpse of what it was.
As Arlo watched in awe, Atticus walked powerfully over to the mini pokemon center machine in one corner of the gym to heal his weary pokemon. After the machine gave a beep, he retracted his pokeballs and walked back to the center of the gym.
"I suppose you are next?" he called, pointing a finger at Arlo. Arlo looked over his shoulder to see if he was talking about anyone else.
"Me?" Arlo asked, but it came out a squeak. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Me?" he repeated, this time more strongly.
"Yes," Atticus drawled, his lip curling. "You have pokemon, yes? You are here to fight, yes?"
"Er— Yes," Arlo replied. This guy made him very nervous.
"Then stop blithering and get over here," Atticus ordered. "I don't have time for this."
Arlo balled his fist and stormed to the center of the gym. "I'll show you what I'm made of!" he yelled defiantly.
"Yes please do," Atticus snarled, throwing his first poke ball.
A Minncino exploded out of the ball.
Arlo burst out laughing.
"Ha! You're the fourth gym leader and you use a Minncino?! Hahahaha!"
Atticus looked murderous. "Minncino, fury swipes!"
The chinchilla pokemon charged at Arlo, who threw his first poke ball in response. As the poke ball hit the ground, Arlo's Pawmi flew at the minccino. But the minccino's attack connected first, and in a blinding slash of claws, Arlo's Pawmi was sent flying backwards across the gym. "Pawmi!" Arlo cried. The Pawmi had quite obviously fainted, so all Arlo could do was withdraw it to its pokeball.
"I'll try something a bit different, then!" Arlo yelled, and sent his Duraludon out. "Duraludon, Metal Claw!"
Arlo's Duraludon looked at Arlo as though he were something dirty he'd just found on the street.
The Minccino attacked the Duraludon, which fled across the gym. "No!" Arlo cried. "Duraludon, come back!"
Arlo pressed the button on the poke ball and in a flash of red light the duraludon returned to the Pokeball. "Snivy, go!"
Snivy dashed at the Mincinno, knocking it out in one Quick Attack.
Atticus sneered. "Ready for something a bit more challenging?" Arlo didn't even have time to say "no" before the Helioptile was flying at him.
"Snivy, dodge! Counter with Leafa*ge!" The Snivy dodged out of the way and shot a blast of leaves at the helioptile, which fell. Suddenly, Arlo's Snivy started glowing. "What—" he grabbed his pokedex. Snivy is evolving, the screen read. "Evolving?" Arlo echoed, who returned his gaze to his snivy. Only it wasn't a snivy anymore. It was a Servine.
Atticus had been watching with an annoyed expression. "Are you quite finished with your little evolution party over there? Wigglytuff, rollout!"
A huge Wigglytuff came rolling out of nowhere, slamming into Servine and knocking it to the ground. "Servine, uh— I don't know what moves you can use! Pokedex!" He flipped open the screen and hastily read Servine's move list. "Quick attack, Leafa*ge, Vine Whip, Tail Whip— all the same. Good. Servine, Tail whip!" Servine waved its tail provokingly at the Wigglytuff, which made an angry noise and rolled at him. The move hit, but it did less damage, just as intended.
"Time to go offensive, Servine! Vine whip!" The vine whip connected, sending WIgglytuff rolling in the other direction. The huge pokemon hit the wall and sat there dazed for a minute. "Now, Servine, finish it up with Quick Attack!"
Snivy darted at the Wigglytuff, hitting it straight in the stomach. It let out a deflated squeak and fainted.
Atticus snarled in frustration. "Argh, fine. You win. I suppose. By some miracle. Here's your badge."
He threw the gym badge to Arlo, who dropped it and scrambled to pick it back up. It was a perfectly simple, white sphere.
"I believe in simplicity," Atticus called. "That's why I like normal types. I asked the pokemon league to put me higher up on the gym challenge, but they made me the fourth gym leader, only letting me use three pokemon. Jerks. Anyway, I have to clean this place up for the next challenger. Oh, and that Duraludon isn't going to listen to you unless you give it some training."
With that, Arlo left the normal type gym, his spirits high.
