Lucki

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They reached the gym. As Lucki opened the door, a plume of steam billowed out. "Wow," she stated, entering, "it's like a sauna in here."

"Actually, it is one," Keegan responded. "Well, good luck. I'm not going to be battling, so I'm going ahead to meet with Flannery. Since you're a challenger, you'll have to go the long way, through the obstacle course."

"Obstacle course?" Lucki repeated nervously.

"Well, sort of." Keegan pointed ahead of them, where she could see several round holes filled with bubbling water. "Some of those are actually the tops of geysers of water. The gym channels them for this challenge. If you step into one of those, you'll wind up in the room below, and there are others that'll bring you back to the upper floor. You have to navigate through to the gym leader, fighting trainers along the way."

"That seems awfully hard," Lucki mentioned.

"Well, it's a good way of weeding out people who aren't serious, right?" Keegan pointed out.

"Right!" Lucki shouted with determination. She'd show she was serious! She marched forward and stepped into one of the bubbling holes.

"Ah!" she shouted as she fell through the boiling water and stumbled onto the ground. "Hot!"

"Well, it is a hot spring, you know," mentioned a voice dryly.

"Huh?" Lucki wiped the water from her eyes and opened them to see a girl a few years older than her, with short black and red hair and a red outfit.

"I'm Lehava, one of the challenge trainers," she explained.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Lucki gasped, trying to catch her breath in the humid, hot air.

"Then pick your pokemon. If you win a one-on-one fight, you can continue."

Lucki nodded. "Go, Silver!"

"Go, Slugma!" The amorphous red lava pokemon appeared, its body rolling and bubbling like a slow-motion version of the pools of water. Two large oval eyes sat atop a raised bump that was the head, with plumes of almost feathery looking magma above them. Twin blobs of lava dangled on either side of its face, looking as if they were about to drop.

"Quick, water gun!"

"Stop it with a flamethrower!"

Silver's blast of water collided with the flames spouting from the slugma's mouth. The attacks exploded into a sheet of hot steam, temporarily obscuring everything from sight. But as the steam cleared Lucki could see Silver had kept up her water gun after the flamethrower had ended, striking the fire type square in the face and making the sluglike pokemon pull back into itself to concentrate its heat.

"Rock slide!"

The slugma re-extended its head. Its body rippled slightly but otherwise didn't move. Lucki thought that it hadn't used the attack, but then rocks appeared above Silver and dropped, burying the tiny turtle.

"Silver! Are you okay? Try to get out!" Lucki called.

After a few seconds, a blast of water shot out from the pile, punching a hole through the rocks. Silver climbed out.

"Yawn, Slugma, knock her out!"

The lava pokemon stretched its mouth to huge proportions, exhaling a small puff of steam or smoke as it did so.

"Hit it with another water gun!" Lucki shouted quickly.

Silver nodded and set another long water gun into the fire type. Its outer skin began to harden and turn grey as it cooled where the water was hitting, and rest of it curled up into a ball again. When the attack finished the slugma's liquid body stayed pooled in a lump. It had fainted, and the other girl recalled it.

Silver sat back, looking tired, then suddenly lay down and went to sleep.

"Oh! Silver!" Lucki ran over and picked the tiny turtle up. After a few moments, Silver opened her eyes and blinked sleepily.

"What's going on?"

"You fell asleep from the yawn attack."

"Oh." Silver yawned.

"You can heal your pokemon at the machine behind you," Lehava told Lucki.

Turning, Lucki saw that there was, in fact, a machine against one of the walls, tucked away in a drier corner. She recalled Silver and placed the shiny pokemon's pokeball on the machine's slot, then activated it. After a moment, it dinged and Lucki retrieved it.

"Okay, so now what?" she asked Lehava.

The girl pointed to two water columns on either side of her. "Pick one. All paths lead to Flannery in the end, but the long way means you have to fight more trainers. If you pick right, you'll be able to get there in just a few more rooms without battling anyone else."

"Okay, thanks," Lucki replied. She considered, then walked up to the righthand column. She took a deep breath and jumped in.