We woke early, Maria and I. I was to excited to eat any type of substanent breakfast so I have a few granola bars on the way while walking to the Ember City gym.

" You shouldn’t eat so fast, you’ll get sick during your battle with Ethan." Maria warned me, but I paid no mind to her and continued to stuff the chuck of granola bar down my throat, sticking the empty bar wrappers in my back jeans pocket, aiming to throw them out the right way whenever I found a trash can.

" I’ll be fine, its just I’m so excited. Where about to earn our first badge Flamey!" I said, turning my head to looks at the fire fox, whom was draped over my shoulder, half-asleep still.

" Well I can see your excited." I said sarcastically, sweatdropping slightly.

" Well think about it Riala, you woke her up at the crack of dawn for a gym battle and the only thing that’s keeping you awake right now is excitement." Maria said, smiling and giggling behind her hand.

Finally we arrived at the gym and Flamey had woken up some, but not much. There was a sign in the front of the gym, reading: Ember City Gym, Leader: Ethan, Wins: 99 Losses: 0

" Wow, he’s never lost. He must be very skilled." Maria commented and I nodded, agreeing with her wholly.

" So then we’ll have to try that much harder!" I exclaimed, startling Flamey, and punching the air with my fist.

" Vuuuulll." Flamey whined on my shoulder, her ears down.

" Oh come on now Flamey. You just have to wake up and get into gear and we’ll scorch this guy. Or maybe drown him with Laparas." I said, way to confidant in myself for my own good.

So we went in, and we would have waited if it weren’t so darn dark in there!

" Hello?" I called, into the darkness, poking my head through the huge stone door as it creaked open. My voice echoed off the walls.

" You’ve come to challenge me?" a voice asked from inside the gym. We stepped inside the large room and the stadium style light flicked on. On the other end of the dirt and rock battlefield stood a man, much older then me, maybe 29 or so. He had short, spiky red hair and orange eyes. He wore a black T-shirt with a red flame in the middle and red cargo pants with black and red sneakers.

" You Ethan?" I asked, stepping onto my side of the field.

" Yeah, and you are?" he asked, taking out a pokeball.

" Names Raila. So how about we start this battle?" I asked, taking out my own pokeball, the one that held Sentret.

" Eager huh? Okay then let’s get started! Go Slugma!" he called, throwing the pokeball and releasing the pokemon.

" Go Sentret!" I yelled, throwing my pokeball and the small flying squirrel pokemon materializing out of the white light.

" Slugma! Use your Ember!" Ethan ordered. The lava pokemon opened its mouth and small, glowing red balls of fire shot out, flying towards Sentret.

" Defense Curl Sentret!" I ordered and Sentret curled up into a tight ball and all the small orbs of flame bounced off its furry back. It uncurled, unhurt by the shower of flaming orbs.

" Good job! Use Quick Attack!"

Sentret ran forward, straight at the lava pokemon, slamming into it and knocking it back.

" Don’t take that Slugma! Use Smog!" Ethan called. Slugma opened its mouth and black smoke spewed out, engulfing it and Sentret.

" Sentret! Stand up on your tail!" I ordered. Ethan seemed shocked at the command but Sentret soon appeared above the huge smoke cloud. Now Slugma was in clear view, still looking around for my pokemon.

" Good! Now use Swift!" I ordered and small, golden stars shot out of the squirrel pokemons' mouth, colliding straight into the lava pokemon in a direct hit.

" Slugma!" Ethan called as the smoke began to clear. It soon revealed a very hurt and tired Slugma and a Sentret in an almost perfect condition.

" Sentret! Use Agility, then Tackle!" I commanded quickly.

Sentret ran quickly forward, straight up to the Slugma and slammed into it, its full body weight behind it, sending the Slugma flying. It landed with a thud, fainted.

" Good job Slugma. You just rest. Lets go, Magmar!" Ethan called as he brought back on fire type pokemon and sent out another. Magrmar sent out a spurt of flame from its beak as soon as it came out excited to see some action.

" Okay then! Lets go Flamey!" I called and Flamepaw, who had been sitting on the side bench with Maria and Cleffa, jumped off the bench and ran onto the battlefield.

Her ears were pointed straight at the sky, as was her tail. I could see that she was just as excited about this gym battle as I was.

" Alright Magmar! Let’s start this up with a Focus Punch!" Ethan ordered the fire duck pokemon.

Magamr, using amazing speed ran at my Vulpix, its fist pulled back as it shone a silver light.

" Flamey! Dodge!" I was about to order but Ethan cut me off.

" Magmar! Use Glare!" he ordered. At his command Magamrs' eyes lit up purple and Vulpix’s eyes did the same but the Vulpix didn’t move. The Focus punch was a direct hit. The Paralyzes that Glare had caused still hadn’t worn off. Flamey flew back and landed hard on the ground, still unable to move.

" Magmar, quickly, use full power Ember Attack!" Ethan ordered and middle sized orbs of fire shot out of Magmars' beak, hitting Vulpix straight in the side and a direct hit. Vulpix cried out in pain as its side was severely burned. Just then the Paralysis affect of Glare wore off and Vulpix tried desperately to stay down.

" No Flamey! Its okay just stay down!" I called but she shook her head slowly.

" What? You still want to fight?" I asked my pokemon, confused by its action. It nodded, now fully standing on its shaky legs.

I smirked, clenching my left fist.

" Alright! Let’s get back to business! Flamepaw, use Ember, then Quick Attack!" I ordered, newly determined.

Flamey shot forward in a Quick Attack then used a full power Ember. The result was a comet shooting along the ground towards Magmar with my Vulpix at its center. It struck Magmar in the chest, carrying at all the way back to crash into a wall. The Comet of fire faded to leave Flamey, complete unharmed by the attack and Magmar down for the count.

Ethan scowled slightly but then smirked as he called back Magamr.

" You think your hot stuff? Well then, go Typhlosion!" he called, releasing a very strong looking Typhlosion. The flame mane around its neck lit up brightly and its red eyes narrowed at Vulpix.

" Okay then. Vulpix return! Go Laparas!" I called and Laparas came out.

" Laaaaaaaaaa!" it cried, getting serious seeing that it was a gym battle.

" Typhlosion! Lets finish this up quick with Overheat!" Ethan ordered clearly anoyyed.

" Water Gun Laparas!" I ordered. Laparas fired a jet of water from its mouth just as Typhlosion fired a huge cyclone of fire. The two attacks collided but the Water Gun quickly cut through the Overheat, hitting Typhlosion full force. I expected Typhlosion to be fainted because Fire type pokemon are so weak against water attacks but it got back up, only slightly hurt.

Ethan smirked.

" One little water gun won’t bring down my Typhlosion. You’ll have to try much harder then that! Typhlosion, use Flame-thrower!" Ethan ordered and the fire pokemon sent out a stream of flame out of its fanged mouth.

" Laparas! Withdraw, then Hydro Pump!" I ordered as quickly as possible and Laparas went into its shell. The fire stream hit its shell, burning it slightly. Laparas came back out of its shell then shot a huge blast of water out of its mouth.

" Now combine it with Ice Beam!" I yelled and Laparas shot out a beam of light blue light, which wrapped itself around the Hydro Pump. The blast hit Typhlosion first with the water, then with the ice.

But the Typhlosion wasn’t down yet but nearly there.

" Follow up with Hyper Beam!" and with that a huge golden ball formed in Laparas’s mouth and a huge beam shot out towards Typhlosion, whom was thoroughly winded.

" Typhlosion use Safeguard!" Ethan yelled and a golden half circle shaped shield formed infront of Typhlosion. The attack hit it and, after a few moments of struggling managed the break through. A dust cloud kicked up around Typhlosion.

But when the dust cleared Typhlosion was on the ground, fainted.

" The match goes to the challenger, Raila and Laparas!" the judge announced, pointing his green flag at us.

" Yeah!" I cheered, running to Laparas and hugging its head. It gave me a huge wet lick with its tongue, covering my head in slobber.

" That was a great match Raila!" Maria exclaimed as she ran up to me, Cleffa in her arms.

" Yeah, well I couldn’t have done it without you guys!" I said to the pokemon, putting a hand behind my head.

" Good match, you battled hard. I am glad that if I lost I lost to such a determined trainer." Ethan said as he walked over to us.

" That said, I now present you with your Flame Badge." He said and held out a flame shaped badge with a black center in it.

" Thanks. You battled hard too. But you know you had to lose some time." I said, taking the badge out of his hand.

" Yeah well your probably right." He said, smiling.

" Well, lets get going. We’ve got an entire mountain range to get to Acidona." I say. So we said good bye to Ethan and walked down the dirt road, Ethan waving goodbye with Typhlosion waving next to him.

A little down the road and smiled huge, suddenly giddy and jumped into the air, Vulpix following.

" Yeah! I got my first badge! Three cheers for team Railia!" I yelled, hitting the air above me. Vulpix, Maria and Cleffa all gave us three cheers as we did a bit of a victory dance. And in that one moment all my doubts about if I really could do this disappeared.