“Well, that sounds like a really close call.” Sunset said in between mouthfuls of pasta. The restaurant Crystal brought them to was a quiet little café on the end of the main road in town. Flandre in particular was engrossed by a small plate of doughnuts in front of her, her blank stare singling out each one before she’d make a choice to bite into one of them. “But, what’s I’m concerned about is the lack of the police involvement. I mean, the entire region was saved by five people our age? Where was everyone whose job this actually was?”
Crystal took a break from her soup to answer. “From what I heard about it, Team Flare made a big distraction at Lumiose City to occupy the police while they set up their weapon. I was out of town at the time, thank goodness, but it worried me to no end once I heard about it.”
“Still find it just a little strange, but that might just be me.” A thought struck Sunset. “What did happen to that Lys… Lies… Lies-and-her guy, anyway? Was he arrested, or what?”
Silence for half a second followed her words. Nelson spoke up. “Oh, Lysandre? Well, we’re still not entirely sure on that one. The site, you see, was deemed too dangerous due to radiation from the weapon to fully investigate. It’s unknown what happened to anyone trapped in there.” Nelson took a long drink from his tea. “Personally, I think he’s dead.”
Crystal almost spit out her tea at the notion. “Nelson, how horrid! No matter what he might have wanted to do, nobody actually got hurt outside of Team Flare’s base, so he doesn’t deserve that.”
“It’s a fact of the matter, Crystal. He was using the legendary Pokémon Yveltal to power his machine; you know, the one that brings death and darkness where it goes? The weapon’s misfire would have killed everyone still in that base.” Sunset was trying to follow the conversation, but between trying to listen and looking up Pokémon names in her handy little bestiary to understand which ones they were talking about, she could barely follow.
“No, no, nelson, you misheard. Lysandre was using Xerneas to power his machine, and so that beam would have made them all immortal due to its life energy.” She shuddered. “A dreadful fate either way for sure, but less so than being torn apart.”
“Well, maybe he could have used some of Xerneas’s power, but…” The conversation went on for some time, Sunset no longer able to follow. It ended without a definitive conclusion, but still one that the flame-haired girl didn’t understand. Sunset just chalked it up to poor media coverage and delivery that the result is vague. While the two were finishing up their conversation/argument hybrid, Sunset busied herself with cleaning off her Espurr’s face.
“Come on, Flandre, don’t give me this kind of attitude.” She said as the Pokémon glared at her. Unlike most of her stares, this one held annoyance and disdain from the actions of the trainer. It was soon that the three and their Pokémon left the café, heading towards the center of the city.
“So, anything else you girls want to do while we’re here?” Nelson brought up.“ There’s still a good amount of time between today and when the ferry to Sinnoh is supposed to arrive.”
“Ooh, Sunset, how about you try the gym challenge?” Crystal offered. “It was a fun thing to do during my little journey around Kalos, even if I never did finish all of them.” Sunset read about the gyms in her guidebook; they were places for young trainers to test their skills against ‘Gym Leaders’ and earn ‘badges’ to compete in the region’s Pokémon league.
“Well, I don’t plan on actually competing in a league or anything, but… what do you think, Flandre? Want to try it?” The Espurr’s response was a small, positive sounding chirp. “Well, I guess that settles it. Where is the gym here?”
“On the west side of town, it seems.That big, stadium-looking building over there.” Nelson provided. Indeed, the building was large, with a brown roof and several sizeable windows to let natural light in. The entranceway was akin to that of a sports arena, Sunset noticed, and inner still was a large track of polished and oiled wood surrounding a Pokémon battle arena.
“Wow, this is actually kind of impressive. What’s the track for, though? I thought this was a Pokémon gym.”
“Korrina, the leader here, likes roller skating. Each gym has the personal flair of its leader, to make it a bit more unique than each other.” Crystal added.“ Though, I could do without ever seeing Santalune City’s gym ever again. The leader was nice, but well… too many bugs.” She shuddered rather visibly at the thought.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” The trio walked up to the track, which seemed to have been recently polished. “This is very well maintained. I wonder where the gym leader is, though.”
“Sawk.” A voice said behind them. Startled by the sound, Sunset turned around to see what could only be a man covered in blue bandages and wearing a white karate gi and black belt. He was holding a mop in one hand, while the other was motioning for them to step away from the track.
“Er, I’m sorry, what did you say?” Sunset asked.
The man sighed, then said once more, “Sawk.” Nelson and Crystal shared a laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Sunset, darling, you do realize that’s a Pokémon, right? Not a person?” Crystal pointed out. Sunset turned to the Pokémon with wider eyes.
“Oh, sorry, you just look… so much like a guy…” Sawk simply shook its head and sighed, walking away from the track. Sunset turned sheepishly to the others. “Did… I just insult him or something?”
“I’m not one to decide what a Pokémon is feeling, but… he did seem more than a little annoyed.” Nelson stated, causing Sunset to drop her head and sigh. This, in turn, caused Flandre to topple off of her perch and onto the track.
A sound of rolling thunder hit the ears of everyone present. A sliding gate opened on one end of the track, and three figures darted out of it at high speed. One of them was mostly white-clad, with streaming yellow hair in three ponytails coming out of a helmet. The other two were shorter and blue, but equally swift on the skates all three wore.
And all three were making a beeline for where Flandre lay on the track.
“Flandre!” Sunset cried as she jumped onto the track, grabbing her first Pokémon and holding her close just as the figures were about to hit her. Sunset yelled out in pain as only one racer hit her back and tripped over her, summersaulting over and onto its face. Glancing up through the pain, Sunset recognized the dazed form of a Lucario, but this one happened to be dressed in safety pads and a helmet.
“Whoa there, are you alright? I didn’t know I was going to have a visitor today, you know?” A feminine voice called out. It belonged to the human of the group, the girl Sunset initially saw. “Here, let me help you up.” With the aid of a hand, Sunset shakily got to her feet. Flandre licked her on the cheek, then climbed back up onto the girl’s head. “So, how can I help you? I’m Korrina, the leader of Shalour City’s Gym.”
“I’m Sunset. Sunset Shimmer. I’m, er, fairly new at this whole Pokémon Trainer thing, and well, came to challenge the gym.” Korrina smiled.
“Well, I’m rather free right now. Let’s have ourselves a battle.” Korrina skated over to the far end of the Pokémon arena, flanked by her twin Lucario. Sunset eagerly took the opposite side of the field as Crystal, Nelson, and Esmeralda took to the stands, the Gardevoir having been let out to observe and be ready with Heal Pulse for after the fight. The Sawk form earlier took a stance in the middle of the field, holding two flags.
“So, according to league rules, this will be a three-on-three match, and only the challenger may substitute.” Korrina explained. “The first team to knock out the other wins.”
“Sounds good to me, and in… wait, did you say three?” Sunset asked. Korrina nodded. “Oh, I only have two Pokémon.” Sunset said slowly, trying not to sound too much like a newbie at this.
“Well, we can’t have that. And it looks like your friends have Pokémon a little too powerful for you to be handling right now, so…” Korrina turned to the Lucario on her right, the one that tripped over Sunset. “Cobalt, why don’t you go and help her? That way it’s not too unfair for each side, since you know everything we can do and we know what you can do.” The Lucario nodded and walked to the other side of the arena, to stand next to Sunset.
“Uh, hi.” She said, causing an affirmative grunt to escape the dog-like Pokémon’s mouth. “Alright, then I guess we’re good to go, then. Flandre, you’re up first!” Sunset said, gesturing to the field, followed by the Espurr in question jumping off towards it.
“Machoke, come on out!” Korrina called, throwing a Pokéball. A large, purple-skinned, bipedal Pokémon came out, with bulging muscles and a fierce grin. Sawk, seeing both sides were ready, dropped the flags to signal the fight to start.
Sunset’s first Gym Challenge began.