Would You Like To Make a Run For It?

Gary let go of my hand a few seconds after we entered the Pokémon centre. Due to Pewter City being quite a small town and the late time it was, the centre itself was quite empty. I also guess a lot of people were at Brock’s party as well.

“Hi, can I help you?” Nurse Joy asked, smiling as we entered.

“We just need to use one of the public phones, if that’s okay.” Gary stated.

“Well sure. They’re over there. Have a good night.” Nurse Joy smiled, waving her hand over to the corner of the centre.

We passed the only other person in the centre (A fat traveller who was snoring loudly on one of the couches) and plonked ourselves in the chairs facing the phones.

“It’s one o’ clock, don’t you think it’s a little too late to be calling your grandpa?” I asked Gary nervously, as he picked up the receiver.

“Nah, Gramps lets me call whenever I want to. Besides, he’ll be so excited that I’m going to be battling for the first time in god knows when.” Gary smiled.

He dialled the number, and then put the speakerphone on and put the receiver down. You could hear the ringing tone as the screen said ‘please hold’ as we waited for Gary’s grandfather to appear.

About two minutes later, a figure appeared on the other side of the phone.

I had seen Professor Oak in textbooks. He was a well renowned scientist that was world famous, perhaps the most famous in the entire world. The man on the other side of the screen only resembled the big smiling face I had seen in textbooks.

Professor Oak looked very tired. Whilst he didn’t have bags under his eyes, you could see tiredness coming from his eyes. They were half open, like he wasn’t able to open them up anymore. His hair was also dishevelled, as were his pyjamas.

“Oh Gary, why must you call this late?” Professor Oak said, not bothering to hide his yawn at the end of the question.

“It’s an emergency, Gramps! I’m about to get into a Pokémon battle and I need your help.” Gary grinned.

Professor Oak then shook his head, and seemed very, very awake. A huge smile grew on his face, and you could tell he was very excited.

“Oh why didn’t you say so! Of course! I think your Blastoise is perfect, however you might want to change your Electivire for Nidoking. Nidoking has been quite restless lately, and has gotten much stronger. He would be a perfect addition to your team.” Professor Oak excitingly told Gary.

Gary lightly elbowed me and smiled when Professor Oak suggested Nidoking train because he was restless, in a ‘told you so’ way because he told me to start training Eevee because she was restless. I just smiled back.

“That’s great Gramps, however I’m battling against a beginner and I want the stakes to be fair.” Gary said.

Gary then adjusted the phone, and made the phone call go across two screens. The screen in front of me then lit up to show Professor Oak, and I could see the camera turn on too

“Oh hello, who might you be?” Professor Oak asked.

“Lily Taylor.” I nervously replied.

“Oh Gary it’s so great you have a girlfriend! She’s a pretty one, do your parents know? They’re going to be so proud.” Professor Oak gushed.

“Gramps! Shh. She’s just a friend, not a girlfriend. In fact, she’s Ash’s girlfriend.” Gary said, sounding annoyed with his grandfather.

“Oh? Well, either way Delia will be proud. She hasn’t mentioned Ash having a girlfriend so she must not know. I’ll tell her first thing in the morning.” Professor Oak beamed.

“Yeah…whatever. Now, I’m looking for some of my weakest Pokémon you have. I’m going to make things fair for Lily, but I’m not going to let her win.” Gary informed his grandfather.

“Great! Hm, let’s see. It’s far too dark to check outside or even inside for that matter on which of your weaker Pokémon to use. Let me pull up your records.” Professor Oak said, and we saw him jump onto his computer.

“Hm, I can see a few of your Pokémon that are relatively weak from when you were in the Kanto region for the first time at ten years old. How many do you need?” Professor Oak asked Gary.

Gary then turned to me.

“Hm…Lily only has one Pokémon, an Eevee. It’s only going to be a one on one battle, so I only need one.” Gary told Professor Oak.

“Hm, I see. Now, you only have three Pokémon on you, so I can transfer the Pokémon for this battle without you having to send one back. I’ve found one Pokémon, do you remember your Shellder?” Professor Oak asked Gary.

“Shellder? Hm…barely. It was one of the first Pokémon I caught, and by that I mean in the first three dozen. I don’t think I’ve seen it since I caught it though.” Gary replied.

“Precisely. It says here it’s never been trained. It’s the perfect Pokémon to go against a beginner.” Professor Oak stated.

“Great Gramps, just send it over.” Gary beamed.

I heard Professor Oak furiously type away on his keyboard, and then he stopped and sat back. As he sat back, I noticed a tray open on the computer, and on the tray was a lone pokéball.

Gary picked it up, threw it in the air and caught it, inspected it and then put it with his other Pokéballs.

“Well thanks Gramps, I’m off to give Shellder a test run, 8 years overdue I must think. I’ll leave you to go back to sleep.” Gary cockily said.

“Rightio. Goodnight Gary. Goodnight Lily it’s nice to meet you, I’ll be telling Delia about what a delight you are, and how pretty you are for her son. You must tell me the results of this battle too.” Professor Oak cheerily smiled, before hanging up the phone.

“This could get awkward if Ash and I break up tonight.” I giggled.

“A good trainer does not think of these things. A good trainer thinks of the task at hand, which is our battle. Tell me Lily, are you able to lose thought of all your other problems right now, and focus only on our battle that’s about to begin?” Gary asked me, as we exited the Pokémon centre.

“I sure am!” I boasted.

“Great, then you’re ready to battle. I propose we go back to the park to battle.” Gary suggested.

I followed behind, not saying anything but preparing myself for the battle we were about to begin.