Chapter 5The group swept their gaze around Pewter city. They first bought some pokeballs and other supplies at the pokemart, then healed their pokemon in Pewter City's pokecenter. They relaxed for awhile at a big table, together instead of in seperate groups like in the last town.
Fry told a long story about her grandma taking her to the museum several times when she was a child. "We should go there, first! Last time, when me and my grandma went, we sa-"
Mazz interrupted. "I want to go to the gym first. I want my first gym battle. I'm definately going to defeat the leader on my first try." Mazz's poochyena barked in agreement, and Senkit wagged its tail excitedly.
"It's gonna take us awhile to all fight the leader together," said Liz. "How about some of us go to the museum first, while another group goes to the gym?" Her nidoran let out a cute sound and Liz took a treat out of her pocket, then fed it to the pokemon. The purple creature ate it happily and let out a purring sound.
The pokecenter in Pewter city also doubled as a resturant for trainers. A tall girl in a black-and-white top and skirt walked up to them with a plate of breadsticks. "Even though you didn't order anything, we're supposed to offer these to anyone. Eat as many as you want!" She said cheerfully and walked away.
Everyone grabbed a breadstick eagerly and began to munch on them. "Okay, so who's going to the gym first?" asked Scruffy. They all talked it out and settled their decisions more maturely than they'd ever spoken like before. Kitty, Dev, Fry, Will, and Splodey decided to go visit the museum first.
Fry cheered and finished her breadstick. She patiently waited for everyone else to finish. "Right, we'll meet you at the gym later," said Dev. The friends split into their groups and walked out the pokemon center and towards their destinations.
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The five young trainers looked up at the tall, impressive looking museum. "Let's go inside!" Said Kitty. She grabbed Will by the arm and together they went in first. Dev, Splodey, and Fry followed.
At the entrygate, Dev, who had the most money from winning against the bug-trainer, paid for everyone (except Splodey). "Sorry Splodey," she said.
"That's okay, Dev. It's only $50." $50 was not a lot in pokemoney. Soda cost six times as much as that. Splodey paid the attendant, but was secretly irritated at Dev for refusing to pay for her as well.
"Welcome to the Pewter Museum of Science!" said the attendant with an obviously forced smile. The small group avoided her gaze and walked into the museum.
They looked curiously at the items on exhibit. "Look at this," said Kitty, pointing to a cranidos fossil. "Guys, look!"
The others came over. "What is it?" asked Fry. "It just looks like a rock."
"It's a cranidos fossil," said Will. "I'll read what the plaque says. 'Cranidos went extinct several million years ago. It lived in jungles and hunted skillfully, knocking down prey with their powerful skulls. This fossil was recently found in the wilderness outside Fuschia City, proving that long ago, cranidos were not exclusively native to Sinnoh.' That's awesome. And you can still get one if you resurrect one from a fossil."
"Really?" Said Dev. She wondered if, someday, she would have a cranidos. It sounded like a very strong pokemon. But for now, she was infinately thankful for Mimi, Rattata, and Pansage. Mimi seemed to understand what Dev was thinking, and let out a soft meow from Dev's shoulder.
The group admired many other fossils, sekeltons, and a meteorite before climbing the stairs to the second level. Splodey looked in awe at a model of a space shuttle laying on a table. "That is so cool. I bet Mazz would like to see that." She reached out to touch it, but Fry screeched at her that touching the exhibited items was against the rules. Splodey drew back her hand and moved her red hair out of her eyes.
"Yeah, Mazz would like this. Maybe she can come look later." Said Kitty. Then she looked up. An aerodactyl skeleton hung from the ceiling. It was incredible.
Will looked at the skeleton too, but then something else captured his attention. "Hey look, that girl over there isn't even looking at the exhibits. She's just standing there." The girl was dressed in a black suit with a black hat, with blond hair visible from underneath the hat. She was standing perfectly still, as if she were a statue on display herself. "I wonder if she's okay," said Will, who began walking in her direction.
Kitty was the only one to notice. "Hey, Will, wait. What if she's from Team Rocket?"
"I have my pokemon," called Will. "I can handle any trouble." He was very confident in his pokemon's ability to fight. His ledyba, lilipup, and lotad would protect him. Kitty went back to the others, but hoped the girl wasn't dangerous and had stronger pokemon than him, or martial art skills, or a weapon, or something.
"Hey," said Will to the blond-haired girl. A rumbling sound that he hadn't noticed before filled his ears.
Thunder, maybe? he thought. "What's wrong? Don't people usually come to the museum to look at the stuff on display?"
The girl turned in his direction. A red R was clearly visible on her shirt. Will took a step back, but before he could run or call out his pokemon, she grabbed him and climbed out the window into a helicopter.
The group huddling around the shuttle model noticed nothing. Eventually, they left. Kitty wondered out loud where he'd gone. "He was talking to someone strange." What if the girl had kidnapped him?
"He probably wandered off somewhere," said Fry. "Hope he's alright, though."
"He'll be fine," said Splodey. "We're all going the same way anyway. He'll meet up with us in another town if we don't find him by the time we're out of Pewter. Let's go meet the others at the gym."
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At the gym, a tall, bulky man named Roth was battling Zac and Liz at once. Since there were so many trainers, all six of them had to team up in teams of two to battle the man. Roth was a normal-type gym leader, but long ago this gym had been a rock-type gym, and was still full of rocks that had been too heavy to remove.
The battle was almost over. Roth's buneary and deerling were close to fainting. "Use scratch again on deerling, Fabulosa!" Zac shouted. The gray pokemon gracefully leaped from a rock and onto the buneary, scratching it deeply. It was a critical hit, and the rabbit pokemon fainted.
"Patrat, use bite!" Roth called. The patrat darted to Liz's starly and bit its wing. Starly screeched and flapped its wing wildly.
Liz gasped. Starly was weak from the battle, but this was the perfect chance. "Use wing attack, Starly!"
The bird flapped its wings desperately, and the patrat struggled to hold on. But then the patrat flew backwards, knocked out. Starly stood, breathing heavily, but immensely proud of itself.
"We did it!" Liz cheered, and high fived Zac. Roth returned his pokemon and walked over to them.
"Here is your badge, each of you." He handed them badges. They were white with horizontal black stripes, and very shiny. The gym leader also handed them a case to hold their badges.
"One step closer to becoming a champion," said Zac with a smile.
Bennie, Scruffy, Mazz, and Cas had already fought against the leader. He healed after each battle, and Bennie wondered whether he was running out of potions and revives and badges. Scruffy had fought with Bennie: their Purrloin and Panpour had fought well and neither had to switch out pokemon once. Mazz and Cas's battle gone well, too, although Mazz's sentret fainted half-way through the battle. Poochyena and Pikachu had proven to be a good team.
That was when Kitty, Dev, Splodey, and Fry walked in. "Hey guys!" Fry yelled and skipped over to them. "How'd it go? Did you guys win?"
Everyone held up their badge cases.
"Cool!" Fry said. "So, I guess we're next!"
"Hey, where's Will?" Asked Cas.
"We don't know. He disappeared. He must've gone off on his own..." said Dev.
Liz nodded. "OK, well, you guys have to battle in pairs."
"He's kind of easy to beat," said Scruffy. "But good luck anyway."
Roth called from the other side of the gym. "Alright, I healed my team! Let's get this over with! Who's next?"
Fry grabbed Dev by the arm and dragged her onto the battlefield. "I'm ready to fight!" She said excitedly.
Dev was a little nervous. This was going to be her first gym battle. No one had practiced against each other like they'd planned to. But the others had done just fine, and she would too.
"Go Dev! Oh, and Fry! You guys are gonna need it!" Snickered Mazz.
"Don't be nervous, you guys are gonna do awesome," called Scruffy.
Roth looked bored as he threw two pokeballs into the air. An elongated creamy-colored pokemon and buneary jumped onto the battlefield.
"That furret's gonna give them some trouble," said Cas. "Remember how tough it was?"
Mazz frowned. She couldn't wait for Senkit to evolve. It was the furret who'd knocked out her sentret.
"They'll do fine," said Liz.
Dev looked at the pokeball she was holding. "Can I trust you to win this for me, Pansage?" She almost expected an answer. She tossed the pokeball. Her pansage looked curiously at the furret and buneary. Fry sent out her growlithe. Scruffy looked at the growlithe with slight envy. She hoped that one day, she would get a fire-type pokemon.
The furret was very fast. It lept forward on Roth's command and used fury swipes on Pansage before Pansage had a chance to dodge. Dev yelled to Pansage to use fury swipes back. It looked like a cat fight. Zac laughed, which distracted Pansage. The fury swipes knocked the green pokemon over. Dev looked back at Zac with irritation. Zac stopped laughed and blushed, then apologized. Liz in turn laughed quietly at him.
"Come on, Growlithe, use bite!" Ordered Fry. The growlithe bit fiercly into Furret. The ferret pokemon spun around, giving Pansage the chance to use vine whip. Furret turned back to Pansage. "Again!" And Growlithe bit it once more. The furret was doomed.
Buneary darted out of no where. "Quick attack!" said Roth. Growlithe fell to the ground.
"Ember!" Fry commanded. The dog-pokemon released fire from its mouth. Buneary jumped back, now enraged.
"Let's see you use vine whip, Pansage," said Dev. Pansage nodded and, using its tail, slashed at furret. But furret was too quick. It dodged, and Roth told it to use fury swipes again. Pansage screamed. It fainted. Dev tensed up, "I'm sorry, Pansage!" She returned it to its pokeball.
"Mrow! Meoww!" Called a voice from her shoulder.
"You wanna try, Mimi?" Dev smiled. "Okay! Go!" Mimi pounced into the arena.
Meanwhile. Growlithe finished off Furret. The cream-and-brown pokemon fell to the ground. Roth replaced it with patrat. "Mimi, use fake out!" Mimi ran at Patrat, doing a lot of damage. Patrat used bite, but Mimi dodged out of the way.
"Okay, Growlithe. Use ember again!" Growlithe, eager to please its trainer, sent fire towards the buneary. The buneary fell to the ground. Now, only the patrat was left. They were about to win.
Patrat used sand attack, kicking some dust from the floor into Mimi's eyes. She covered her face with her paw and coughed. "You make me so angry!" Screamed Dev. "Mimi, use fury swipes!" The meowth blinked the dust out of her eyes and shook her head, then swiped at the opponent, alternating paws. The patrat chattered angrily. Growlithe finished off the battle with bite. The patrat swayed and fell.
Roth stood up, obviously annoyed. "Okay. Here are your stupid badges." He gave them the badges and purple badge cases.
Kitty and Splodey were next, and they were ready.