CHAPTER 57 – THE NEW GYM LEADER OF ROCK TOWN
In the previous chapter we see how our heroes decide to go to Lavender Town in order to find Sabrina to fight their gym battle, however, on their way, they find a problem, it turns out that in Rock Town a battle was being fought to see who would be the official gym leader, however, both were equally strong and an agreement was never reached, so nurse Joy decides to ask our heroes for help in the hope that they would come to their senses and decide who would be the leader of Rock Town.
With Ash.
Latias knocked down Tauros who flew out until he crashed to the ground.
Taurus tried to get up, but the damage was too great and he fell to the ground weakened.
"Tauros cannot continue, Latias wins!" – said Carlos.
"Well done Latias!" – I said with a smile.
Latias smiled at me, transformed into Bianca and hugged me.
"It can't be... I actually lost" – Manuel said depressed.
"Hahaha, this is perfect, now I just have to win and the position as gym leader will be all mine!" – Carlos said cheerfully.
Then, leaving his depressed rival behind, he headed towards us.
"Very good fight, I loved it, watching a Latias fight was the best thing I saw in a long time, but to be the gym leader I need to fight and win against someone of the same level as a Latias, does anyone have anything similar?" – asked Carlos.
We all looked at Verity because the only way to fight someone like Latias was with her, who had her brother, Latios.
"I'll fight you" - Verity said.
"Very well, let's start, Manuel stops self-pity yourself and acts as a referee!" - said Carlos approaching his rival.
"Well... I recognize my defeat, but just because I lost doesn't mean you're the gym leader, you still have to win against that girl." - said Manuel.
"Of course I will win, just watch!" – Carlos said putting himself in his position.
With Verity.
I also put myself on my side of the field, but to tell the truth I was a little nervous, it has nothing to do with my opponent or that they are watching me, that does not matter to me and only activates my competitive side, no, I was nervous because it would be the first fight of Latios and me.
He could take out any other Pokémon, but Carlos specifically asked to fight against a Pokémon of the same level as Latias, and who better than his brother to fulfill such a request? In addition, even if I had not done it would have taken Latios out the same, Latios will be one of the Pokémon that I will use yes or yes in the Indigo League, so I have to accumulate experience fighting with him, know his weaknesses, his strengths and, of course, make us stronger together.
"As before, the rules are simple, 1 vs 1, whoever weakens the rival's Pokémon, loses, that's simple, you can start!" – said Manuel.
"Perfect, the sooner we start before we will finish, Tauros, I choose you!" – said Carlos.
But this time it was not the water variant, but it was the Fire-type Paldea Tauros.
"Latios, I choose you!" – I said pulling Latios out of his Pokéball.
Latios stepped out of his Pokéball and looked at Tauros with a defiant look.
"Yes, that's just what I wanted, so you won't be able to say I had the upper hand, I'm about to fight against a Latios!" – Carlos said with emotion.
"Shut up and start fighting!" – Manuel said angrily.
"Right, let's get started, Taurus uses Raging Bull!"
Carlos ordered and Tauros headed straight for Latios.
"Use Dragon Dance!"
Latios turned on himself and raised his stats, as I understand it, he raises his attack and his speed, which is essential for Latios, knowing that his speed is his strong point.
The Raging Bull of Taurus hit Latios, however, it only retreated a little before it could recompose itself.
"Use Dragon Dance again!"
"Don't let it increase its features, use Giga Impact!"
Tauros wrapped himself in a yellow aura and lunged straight at Latios with uncontrollable fury, luckily, Latios had already finished charging his attack and we could still react to such a threat.
"Dodge it and Psychic!"
Latios easily dodged the attack due to his Dragon Dance and used a powerful Psychic that sent the Tauros flying, falling to the ground completely weakened and without strength to fight.
"Hahahaha, Tauros can't fight, Latios wins!" – Manuel said happily.
"It can't be, we also lost..." – Carlos said depressed.
...
With Ash again.
As expected, Verity won easily, not that Latios and Latias are excessively strong or that they were weak, but their desire to prove that one is better than the other clouds their capabilities and they only focus on winning and not on combat tactics, so even devising a simple strategy it was easy to beat them both or so it seemed to me.
"And what will we do now? None won" - Nancy said.
"How are we going to choose the new gym leader if none were able to defeat you and Verity?" asked Koharu.
Actually, and since I already feared this outcome, I have already devised a plan that will surely satisfy everyone.
I approached both of them who looked depressed in the face of the current situation.
"What do we do now, is it that none of us are worthy?" – asked Manuel.
"None of us deserve to be gym leaders, we'd better go back to what we did before this" - said Carlos.
"Wait a minute, I have something to say" - I said.
"You don't need to console us, we already understood it, we are not strong enough to be gym leaders" – said Carlos.
"No, you are obviously strong" – I denied.
"If we are strong, why did we lose that way to you?" asked Manuel.
"Well, the reason for that is because you were so focused on being better than the other that you forgot that to be a good gym leader and even to be a good trainer, you need to plan strategies, not just carry brute force and hope for the best" - I replied.
"That's right, if you had been serious instead of showing each other how strong you were, things would have turned out very differently" - Verity agreed.
"I see... you're right, I was so focused on beating Carlos that I really forgot what it's like to be a gym leader" – Manuel nodded.
"Yes... a gym leader is also a Pokémon trainer, the only difference is that we have to prepare the trainers for the Pokémon League, not focus on fighting each other" – Carlos nodded.
"That's right, a gym leader must devise tactics, learn from their mistakes and above all improve, all while helping challengers to increase their level and force them to improve, leave the competitiveness and I am sure you will be much stronger than you are now" – I nodded.
"I understand, I think I owe you an apology Carlos" – Manuel said.
"No, I owe the apology to you, I was so focused on winning you, that I forgot what it is to be a gym leader, I think in the end you are the most suitable to be the leader" – said Carlos.
"No, the most suitable is you" – Manuel denied.
"Well, I think I have a simple solution for that that I'm sure you'll all like" – I smiled.
"What solution?" – they both asked.
"Do you know Mossdeep City from the Hoenn region?" – I asked.
"Yes, I went on holidays two years ago, but what does it have to do with all this?" – Carlos asked without understanding.
"You see, in that City there are two gym leaders who fight together, that is, double battles, although they are twins and are perfectly blend, but I see no reason why you cannot do the same" - I explained.
"God yes, a Fight type gym with double battle, I love the idea!" – Manuel said animated.
"Besides it would be the only one in all of Kanto, the Indigo League will be delighted!" – Carlos said excitedly.
And so, discussing new strategies, we decided to leave the gym and stay at the Pokémon Center that night, starting tomorrow there will be 6 days left for the trip to Paldea, I hope to reach Lavender Town and return in that period of time.
"Are you sure it will work?" – Nancy asked once in the room.
"Well... Not quite, but it's the only thing I could do" - I said.
"Well, I think it will work, they get along pretty well, even if they don't own up" - Koharu said.
"I think the same, surely now they will be discussing what Pokémon to take out and in what order, but I think it will works" – Verity nodded.
Latias and Pikachu nodded too, wow, it seems that I had a good idea, to tell the truth, it occurred to me on the fly and I did not know if it would be well received, but it seems that my concerns were unfounded.
"By the way, we haven't seen Nurse Joy coming in" - Koharu said.
"Yes it was, but you didn't notice" - Nancy said.
"Why didn't he ask us anything then?" – Koharu said.
"Surely she didn't see us, tomorrow he will tell us something, anyway, I'm tired and I want a good sleep, does anyone sign up?" – asked Verity stretching out.
"Me!" – we all said.
We were super tired, after everything we have lived today, all I want is to sleep through the night without interruptions.
After that, each one went to her bunk, Latias was transformed and decided to return to the Pokéball at night while Pikachu lay next to me as usual and yes, tonight nothing happened, we were all tired after all.
...
The next morning.
We got up not very early, but that was a very pleasant dream and we did not seem to be very tired.
"I've slept like never before!"- said Nancy, stretching out.
Well it seems that he was right, because the rest also said something similar.
With that said, after we got dressed, Latias came out of her Pokéball, turned into Bianca, and we went down to the Pokémon Center.
As we said earlier, we would have breakfast outside, so we were going to order breakfast and leave.
But just as we had just arrived at the Hall, we saw Carlos and Manuel talking to Nurse Joy.
"There they are!" - said Carlos.
"Good morning!" – said Manuel.
"Good morning everyone, is something wrong?" – I asked.
"Ah, no, it's just that since we thought you were going to leave, we came to thank you again" - said Carlos.
"I see, it was nothing" – I smiled.
"Yes it was, thanks to you we managed to agree, in addition, yesterday after you left we sent the proposal to the Indigo League and it is official, in the next Indigo League we will be considered an official gym" – explained Manuel.
"Congratulations!" – we all said.
Pikachu and Latias also did it in their own way.
"Thank you very much and it's all for you, I know it's not much, but we have decided to give you this as a gift!" – said Carlos.
Then he took out what seemed to be 6 medals, these medals had a very particular design, it looked like the leg of a Hitmonlee kicking, the design was quite nice.
"We present to you for the first time the design of our Medal, the Kick Badge!" – said Carlos.
He then gave us a copy to each including Pikachu and Latias who were looking at their new medals in delight.
"Thank you very much for the detail, but it was not necessary" - said Verity.
"On the contrary, we even feel bad that we can't give you anything else" - Carlos denied.
"By the way, I did not say anything to you last night because I did not realize it, but thank you very much for everything, thanks to you this town was saved and in the next Indigo League more people came here to fight the gym, I do not know how to thank you" – said nurse Joy.
"It's nothing, we are delighted to have been able to help" - I said.
"Ah, wait, I have something for you, wait a minute!" – said nurse Joy suddenly.
Then he left quickly and entered through a door that god knew where he led, a few minutes later, he came out with what appeared to be a small incubator with an egg in it.
The egg had a beautiful design, it was completely blue with white stripes.
"Take, this is an egg that a trainer found a couple of months ago, I've tried to incubate it in every possible way, but the egg doesn't respond, so I'll hand it to you, maybe you'll find a way for it to hatch" - said nurse Joy giving us the egg.
Well I rejected it, I don't need the egg... or rather I wanted to reject it, but I couldn't because Verity immediately caught it.
"Well, it's only fair that Verity keeps it, unless Ash wants it too, after all they both helped" - Nancy said.
"No, I don't want any eggs, it's all for you Verity" – I said without giving it much thought.
After that, we said goodbye to Carlos, Manuel and nurse Joy and continued our journey to Lavender Town, but not before thanking them for the egg logically.