fanfic Manifest Destiny - Into the Abyss - Page 6

---

The main streets of Rubika were much less crowded. I suppose without the threat of ghosts, people where more willing to use the alleys. The merchants still sat under their colorful tents, selling their miscellaneous wares to the faceless people in the remaining crowd. I was free now to look for what I had come for to begin with, the Pokémon Gym. With Abby and Purrloin, I was sure I could be a good Pokémon trainer. The only problem would be finding the Gym here; I hadn’t seen a map as long as I’d been in this city. Granted, I hadn’t been here very long, only been to the Pokémon Center and an alley.
The towers around me, clad in glass and steel, rose as far as I could see. These were the businesses and corporations that managed the factories all over the city, and man there were a ton of them! The people who walked this part of town wore suits and ties, carried briefcases, and an air of power. Across a rather large street looked like the industrial side of town. The buildings here didn’t have the same look here, they were boxier, much dirtier, and loads louder. Sounds of grinding metal filled the air just like the smell of sweat and smoke, all emanating from the factories. I could be pretty sure the Pokémon Gym wasn’t in there.
Eventually, wandering down one of the larger streets, I saw the gym. It was a larger building than most of the shops around it. It had what looked like half a PokeBall lit up with neon lights directly above the automatic glass doors. On either side of the doors were about three pillars. Between two of the pillars on the right, a plaque had the words:

Rubika City Gym
Leader Sean Jackson
The Steel Terror

I’d never been up against any steel types before; I don’t even think I’d even seen any outside my reference books. All I knew was that they were typically slower, and had a very high defense. Purrloin and Abby probably wouldn’t be very strong against them; we’d have to find some way to train first.
“Excuse me,” I said to one of the other girls looking up at the Gym, “Do you know a good place to train around here?”
“Oh my God, Joey?” It was Rachel! “I started coming back this way when I got Leslie’s text, but I suppose I’m too late, Zebraika got too tierd to finish the trip.”
I hadn’t recognized her at first. What used to have been her long dark hair had been cut seriously short, with blonde highlights. She used to be pale, like really fair skinned. Now though, she’d gotten really tan, with a lot of freckles.
“Yeah, I’m sorry Rachel.”
“Its fine, I know they couldn’t wait that long. Lena kept going forward, sorry, Leinsha, she goes by Lena now. We’d made it all the way out to Shikan Port, there was a big contest going on out there, and she wanted to enter. The contest was going to be the day after we got her message, and she’d already qualified. You know her, she loves her friends, but she’s very ambitious.”
“Yeah, I suppose, still.”
“She wasn’t too close with Abby either, so I suppose it’s alright. Anyway, you needed a place to train?”
“Yeah, I came here with Lena first. Even though she wasn’t interested in battling, she waited for me to get the badge. There’s this training center on the other side of town.”
So off we went. Rachel seemed to know her way around the town really well. Ever so confidently, she strode down the streets, down a few alleys, and up a flight of stairs on the side of a tall brick building. The inside of the building looked like you fighting studio to look. The walls were covered with mats and padding. There were various tools around the floor, such as hurtles and dummies. Over in the corner was an older man talking to a few young kids. Rachel walked right up to him.
“Hello Sensei Yukiya.”
The man turned around and smiled, “It’s been a long time Rachel. Who is this?”
“This is my friend Joey, she wants some training.”

---

~ vaporeongirl2010 ~
~ Raddster ~
~ Mewtwo45 ~
~ zeezow ~
~ Hmszelda ~
~ Watarase Jun ~
~ Poketrainer_Jay ~
~ w111j ~
~ WarMachineBO ~
~ CJames21 ~
~ neji 9889 ~

---

Training with Sensei Yukiya was a lot more work than I expected. The room was insanely hot, and there was little to no break between exercises. Along with Abby and Purrloin, I would run around the room, hop over hurtles, and roll across the floor. Usually this all would have been great fun, except we’d been working for two hours straight and sweat was pouring down my body. Abby and Purrloin were starting to show signs of exhaustion too. Abby hung her head a bit as she followed, and Purrloin dragged its feet on the ground. We finished another pass around his room, and all Sensei Yukiya had to say was ‘Again’. It was agony, my legs felt like they each weighed ten thousand pounds as I dragged them across the floor. It was so nice to let my eyelids droop. I mean, in this heat, and after all these runs, I could do the course with my eyes closed… you know, probably.
Turns out I couldn’t. My eyes were only closed for about two seconds and I had plowed into the hurtles, knocking them over and bruising my leg. It was so embarrassing to lie on the ground, even if all the other Trainers hadn’t turned around to stare. With all my might, I tried to heave myself off the ground, but my arms failed me, and I crashed again.
“What are you doing!?!” Roared Sensei Yukiya in that tone that made me feel ashamed of every fiber in my body. “Get up, your Pokemon are waiting!”
Moaning slightly under my breath, I tried again, and succeeded in heaving myself off the floor. My head was swimming as I dragged my feet across the floor. I could feel his scorching gaze watching my progress, and I tried to make my attempts look less feeble. We had almost completed yet another pass when little black dots invaded my vision, obscuring everything. My right knee folded as I tried to pull another step, and I was out before I’d hit the floor.

What could only have been a few minutes had elapsed by the time I could pull myself up again. All the other trainers were still in the room, but this time they were coming closer to me. The only person I could see however was Sensei Yukiya.
Bearing down upon me, he said, loud enough for the whole room to hear, “You are weak! How will your Pokémon learn to be strong without a strong trainer to guide them?!”
Hot tears began to mingle with the sweat on my face as he continued. His criticisms sounded all jumbled up, I couldn’t understand much more of what he was saying. I couldn’t make any sense of it, all I knew and needed to know what that I failed. I had failed Sensei Yukiya, I had failed my Abby and Purrloin; I had simply failed. Wiping my eyes and I got up, I fled the room, not even knowing whether Abby and Purrloin were following me. Down the fire escape and across the street, I let my body fall onto a bench. Sure enough, they were right behind me, Abby and Purrloin, and Rachel too!
“Come here Joey,” she said softly, putting her arms around me.
Couldn’t she tell that attention like this was the last thing I wanted? Who wanted to be in the spotlight when they were suffering or when they had lost? I tried to pull away, but she put her hands on my shoulders, and turned me to face her.
“You can leave in a bit if you want, just hear me out.” And she paused, forcing me to look at her, “You think anyone in that room got it the first time? You think I didn’t come running to this same bench? Yukiya’s training is infamous for being incredibly brutal, to everyone, and it really isn’t for everyone.”
I tried to fight back more tears as I retaliated, “I’m not giving up Rachel. I didn’t leave Leslie and Mom and everyone to give up the first time it got hard. I can’t!”
She smiled, and handed me a bottle of water, “Then drink this and get back in there!”
I chugged the water bottle and climbed back up to Yukiya’s training center. It seemed like he was waiting for me to come back. That infuriating smile of his as he said ‘again’ lit a fury in my heart. My feet pounded the floor as I lept, sprang, and rolled across the floor. This time I could feel no pain, no weight, nothing. I was a machine. Again and again we ran the course until he held out his hand. His meaning was obvious in his face, this day was done. One day of training, who knows how many more it would take until I could face ‘The Steel Terror’, but I was willing to plow through them all.

---

~ vaporeongirl2010 ~
~ Raddster ~
~ Mewtwo45 ~
~ zeezow ~
~ Hmszelda ~
~ Watarase Jun ~
~ Poketrainer_Jay ~
~ w111j ~
~ WarMachineBO ~
~ CJames21 ~
~ neji 9889 ~
~ Bluepikky24 ~