The Confidence Within.

Double Trouble with Tate and Liza

The morning managed to pass without any further issues. Brendan and I were able to get ready and pack everything up with ease. Brendan made it clear he still didn't want to talk about last night so I made no attempt to mention the subject.

We checked out of our room and I wasn't entirely sure where our next stop would be so I asked Brendan.

"I'm going to take on the gym. You can do whatever you want while I do." Brendan answered me.

We walked outside and May ran after us. "Good morning Wally." She said with her teeth clenched.

"Hi, May," I whispered. This was possibly the worst position to be in.

May didn't seem to particularly care about how I was reacting to the rising tension. "So. Where are we off to?"

"I uhm... we're going to go... to the uhm-" I tried to say the words but May audibly groaned.

"For Arceus's sake, Wally just spit it out! I'm not going to bite your head off!" May growled. That didn't do much to reassure me.

"Oh leave him be!" Brendan glared at her. "You know why he's nervous. Don't take it out on Wally."

May's eyes narrowed. "Ok then. Brendan. Tell me where we're going." Her voice oozed condescension and a threat to kill him if he misstepped.

"I'm going to the gym. You guys can do whatever you'd like to." Brendan replied.

"Oh. Well, in that case, I better go take on the gym too. It's part of the adventure experience after all." May spat.

"M-maybe you guys could battle t-together," I suggested, hoping that might bring them together.

Brendan shrugged. "Don't see why not. Saves time and we each have one less Pokémon to worry about."

Brendan pushed the door to the gym open and we stepped inside. The entire room seemed to be a model of the solar system. Large plants spun around on string to represent orbits around the sun.

The walls were all decorated with constellations of stars that illuminated the gym. There was a set of bleachers to the side that I took a seat in.

I noticed that the floor seemed to be pretty far down from the solar system.

Standing on a platform in the back of the gym were the two gym leaders, Tate and Liza. They were dressed in matching blue outfits. They were the same height and had very similar faces.

They both appeared to be pretty young, if I had to guess I would've said younger than 10. They had long black hair pinned up into large buns on their heads.

"Hello, challengers!" Tate said.

"Welcome to our gym!" Liza finished the sentence.

Tate's face lit up when he saw who the challengers were. "Hang on, Brendan is that you? Oh wow, it's great to see you again!"

Brendan grinned back at them. "Yep! I'm finally out on an adventure and I figured it was about time I stopped by!" He pointed his thumb at May. "This is May. If it's alright with you guys I'd like her to be my battle partner for this little gym battle." He tried to pretend as if he wasn't furious with her but anybody could tell they weren't on the best of terms.

Tate and Liza talked it over and decided. "Alright then. This will be a double battle. Each trainer will use one Pokémon."  The solar system model lowered down from the ceiling. I guessed the Pokémon were meant to use them as platforms.

Brendan sent out his Treecko and May sent out her Combusken. The Pokémon struggled to keep their balance on the constantly moving planets.

Tate and Liza sent out a Solrock and Lunatone respectively. Both Pokémon floated in the air above the model solar system. Their bodies were made of rock and in either the shape of the sun or of a crescent moon.