What's So Great About Being A Trainer Anyways?

Chapter 3 - Why Is All The Focus On Gym Badges?

"Bagon, use Rage then Leer as many times as you can!" After Bagon's fit of Rage, it became a battle of the same moves over and over. Quickly, Bagon's anger exploded as his health dwindled. Machamp looked more and more frantic to get the little dragon away from him.

Please be high enough level for this! "Quickly, use Bite!"

"Use Low Kick!"

I briefly saw Bagon's eyes look at me in confusion, and Machamp's kick landed, sending Bagon flying. He skidded across the ground a little bit, and I ran over to him as the dust cleared. Fainted. "Return." I knew that bringing out Aron would be a fruitless effort, even against a weakened Machamp, let alone his other four pokemon, so I got a hold of myself and admitted defeat. That was stupid of me. Why would I want to be a part of a pokemon battle anyways?

"Serves ya' right. Actin' all high and mighty. Come back Machamp, it's time to hit the road." He walked away, laughing at his accomplishment of beating a newbie.

Flora walked over to me, obviously also disappointed in the turn of events, but with a little twinkle in her eye. "That was fantastic! You really are good at this!"

My pride had taken a hit. "Na, I didn't stand a chance in the first place." Gaaahh! What was I even trying to do, show off to her at how much I could lose or something?!

"I think you're both right." A lone spectator walked out of hiding and came towards us. He was wearing a green suit, spotless black gloves, and a fedora with a green stripe going around it. His inquisitive, small, dark eyes softly met ours, and his swept back black hair hinted that there was a little bit of a rebel inside of him. "The name's Daron, may I ask that you share a cup of tea with me?"

A random guy? Sure, why not. "As long as there is air conditioning."

He motioned for us to follow, and he led us to a strange two storied building with a domed top. Opening the door, he yelled upwards. "I brought guests Cozmo!"

I could hear something crash down to the floor. "Come in, come in! I hope you didn't bring the usual two without warning me first."

Daron laughed and hung his hat and coat up. "Don't worry, it's a different two this time." He looked back at us. "Come on in, don't be shy."

We came in, and the first thing I noticed was all of the papers. Diagrams, blueprints, random mathematical calculations, incoherent scribbles, everything one could imagine was here, there and everywhere on some piece of paper. Papers on tables. Papers on the floor. Papers stuck in the sides of books. The level of clutter was impressive. The second thing that I noticed was the huge telescope on the second floor and the second floor itself. You could see the contents of the second floor on the first, as the second floor only hung over about half of the first, and was connected by a ladder. The telescope up there was huge and almost completely white, and was pointing towards the ceiling, which appeared to be able to open up when needed.

A peculiar looking man in a lab coat gathered up fallen papers on the second floor, and after that was done climbed down his ladder, still carrying a stack of documents. His brown hair was a little lopsided to the right, and was very messy. "Hello, I'm Professor Cozmo! Oh, I suppose you already knew that..." He nervously looked at Daron.

He laughed. "You never do get any less awkward, do you? I found these two making their way to the pokemon center when a battle broke out... I'm sorry, what were your names?"

"Flora."

"Elron."

"Ah... So I found Elron here, who has no badges of his own, holding off a trainer with five of them."