You Can't Hurry Love

“What’s going on down in here?” The unknown male asked, throwing his pokéball up and down, his Haunter circling us all suspiciously.

“Morty! We were having a tag team match. As you can see we’re outnumbered, the girl used six Pokémon against our four.” One of the fire breathers stated.

“Whatever, you two idiots can believe what you want. But you can please let my Charmander go? I’d like to just get out of here and get on with my life without you two mugging me. Thanks.” I said.

“Morty knows we’re not like that. We’re just simple folk who like training in the basement of the Burned Tower. You’re the traveller, you’re the one who cannot be trusted.” Fire breather number two said.

“Actually, aren’t you both the fire breathers who got locked up for a while for hassling young trainers who visited the Burned Tower whilst visiting? Therefore, it’s her that be can trusted above you both.” ‘Morty’ stated.

“Morty! You can’t go to Officer Jenny! She’ll think we are those Fire Breathers, even though we’re clearly not!” Fire Breather one said, not sounding too convincing.

“Well that’s okay then, I mean you’d have ID to prove you aren’t Fire Breather Dick and Fire Breather Ned, right? I suggest you both stop hanging out in here then, I’ll be telling Officer Jenny to keep an eye on this place.” Morty suggested.

“Right! Charmeleon, return.” The first one said, grabbing his Pokémon and running quickly to the stairs and scrambling up the ladder.

“Koffing, Koffing and Growlithe return! Let’s get out of here!” The second one said, following his companion.

“Are you alright?” Morty asked, taking a step towards me.

I then looked at the Haunter circling him, and then it clicked. Morty…ghost Pokémon…he was the gym leader of this town, the one Brent and Aaron wanted to fight to get a badge.

“Yeah. Um thanks, I really appreciate what you did, but can we skip over the whole ‘you shouldn’t have been here in the first place without protection’ lecture? I’ll never do it again…” I trailed off.

“No, you shouldn’t be sorry. There is no excuse for those creeps and their behaviour. A person should be allowed to pay respects for a burned down landmark without getting unfairly attacked. Are you travelling by yourself?” Morty asked.

“No. I’m with three other friends. But two of them went to see the Dancing Kimono girls, and the other one went to challenge you. I was adamant on seeing both the Bell Tower and this Burned Tower, so I went by myself.” I shrugged.

“Well, that’s a shame, they’ve wasted their entire day. The Kimono Dancing Theatre is closed during the day, only showing their show at night, and I’ve been out all day so I haven’t been able to fight anyone.” Morty sniggered, as we began our way over to the ladder.

Morty climbed up first, offering a hand to help me up.

“What made you go down there, anyway?” I asked curiously.

“One of my errands was at the Bell Tower. The Sage mentioned you, and then mentioned you’d be going to the Burned Tower. I regularly frequent the Burned Tower and knew of those fire breathers. I knew if you were as pure as the Sage said you were, they’d easily be able to overpower you and mug you like they have the other travellers,” Morty informed me “I saw a bit of your fight I must say you’re a tough trainer, you battled quite well. I’m a little disappointed you won’t be fighting me today.”

“Yeah well, both Aaron and Brent want to challenge you today, and they said if they lose they don’t care because we’re leaving tomorrow no matter what happens. So be happy to look forward to two matches.” I grinned.

“Wow, they have their priorities straight and seem so determined to get all badges to fight the elite four.” Monty replied sarcastically.

“I know, it’s quite strange. They travelled all over Kanto to party and said they’d take Johto seriously, but they want to spend less than a day in every town. It’s like they have a back up plan to fight the elite four, but there’s no other way.” I replied confused.

“Alright, well, we’ll head off to the gym now. Contact your friends to come meet us now, and I’ll battle them both.” Monty stated.

***

Cat and I were now in the stands watching her brother, Brent, fight Morty. Our small argument from this morning was now long forgotten.

Aaron was sitting next to us, sulking. Him and Brent played paper, scissors, rock to determine who would battle Morty first. Aaron won, and opted to go first. However the problem was, Morty wiped the floor with Aaron, and I have to say I wasn’t surprised.

I didn’t now Aaron very well. I met him at a party once, and we kissed and exchanged numbers, and then it turned out he was good friends with Cat’s brother. We were going to go on a few dates, but from the texts he sent, he seemed to annoy me easily. He would drop things on a whim, and everything was always last minute for him. So he lacked good organisation skills, something required of a trainer.

He also lacked motivation, and didn’t ever seem to do hard work. He’d always ask me to go out and party, and wouldn’t understand about my work and schooling commitments. It seemed so foreign to him, to actually place work first. So it made sense he had barely trained his Pokémon, and this was obvious in his poor performance against Morty.

Brent on the other hand, was faring quite well against Morty. He had always been a hard partier, but at the same time he was a hard worker too. He was a little thick headed and got drunk a little too much like Aaron, but unlike Aaron he knew when it was time to work and when it was time to play.

“Alright, Poochyena, end this by biting Gastly!” Brent instructed.

Poochyena bit Gastly, and just that one bite caused Gastly to faint. Poochyena was a dark-type Pokémon and bite was a dark type move, which was what ghosts were weak against.

With Gastly having fainted, Brent had won the match and gotten his first Johto badge.

“Congratulations Brent. You have earned the Fog Badge.” Morty smiled, handing Brent the badge.

“YEAAAAAAAAAA!” Brent celebrated, punching his fist into the air and jumping up loudly.

Aaron sulked, Cat cheered, Morty smiled and I just rolled my eyes.

“The Kimono Dancing Theatre is now open, if you would all like to go and celebrate before leaving town tomorrow morning. I called ahead before, and I’ve saved you four front row seats.” Morty suggested.

“Awww thanks man!” Aaron stated, shaking his head out of his sadness and now appearing happy, whilst Cat walked over and thanked Morty too.

“Are you sure you won’t change your mind and battle me tomorrow morning, Emily?” Morty asked me.

“Even if she did change her mind, too bad. We’re leaving tomorrow morning, gotta get a move on.” Brent stated.

“Oh well, alright then. I look forward to the day I battle you then, Emily. I know one day we will, and I will get to test your real skills.” Morty said, half smiling.

I only grinned sheepishly and waved goodbye as Cat and Aaron dragged me off behind them, ready to go do their task they wanted to do this morning.

I don’t get Morty’s eagerness to battle me. I was a rookie. I was better than Aaron I admit, but I’m fairly sure Brent was better than me. I only battle for fun; I’ve never seriously considered making a career out of it or start battling for badges.