"Plainly Tested," written by Freedom Fighter Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of the characters associated with the show. All names and likenesses are copyrighted by Nintendo, 4Kids Entertainment, and anyone else who had a hand in creating the show. ====== Chapter 2 (07.22.02) "Welcome back, loyal listeners! DJ Mary here, now outside the Goldenrod City Pokémon gym. Inside at this very moment, our city's own gym leader and today's guest, Whitney Emerson, is in a teleconference meeting with the other Johto League gym leaders. Why, you ask? Well, if you're just getting up folks, allow me to fill you in on what we have so far..." ====== Inside the gym, Whitney is sitting at her desk in her office as she stares at a videoscreen. On it are the faces of the other Johto gym leaders, the Elite Four, and the current Pokémon League master, Lance Yamasuke. Of course, they were all talking about what had happened at the Azalea Town gym that morning. "I'm telling you," exclaims an exasperated Bugsy, "it's all true!" "That doesn't sound all that convincing," Jasmine, Olivine's gym leader, notes unassuringly. "I bet he's making the whole thing up in order to get some much needed publicity!" suggests Chuck, the leader of Cianwood. Falkner, the Violet City gym leader, shakes his head back and forth in disgust. "That's something I'd expect from old man Pryce." "Hey!" Pryce retorts, the eldest of all of those present. "Mahogany Town doesn't need publicity! Not when I'm the leader of the Johto League's second highest ranking gym!" "That's until you join my ghost team," Ecruteak's leader, Morty, jokes, before letting out a smile. "I'm sure that won't be too far from now." "You little whippersnapper! If I was in Ecruteak right now, I'd..." "Enough of all of this unnecessary fingerpointing!" Lance shouts, jumping out of his seat. "This is a serious matter!" Lance is interrupted by the sound of someone giggling. One of the female gym leaders giggling. Everyone turns their attention to the feed from Goldenrod City, where Whitney is doing her best to control her laughter, but to no avail. "Miss Whitney!" Realizing that everyone is staring at her, Whitney quickly regains her composure. "I'm sorry," she apologizes. "I was laughing at Morty's joke about Pryce. It took me a second to get it." Whitney laughs nervously as she gets an odd variety of smiles, stares, and glares from the other gym leaders and the Elite. "I'm well aware that being a gym leader of a bustling metropolis can be rather stressful," Lance tells Whitney, "but there's a time and a place for jokes, as well as a time to laugh at them. But this is not the place, Miss Emerson. "I'm sorry," Whitney apologizes again, lowering her head. "And that goes for the rest of you as well. Especially you, Mr. Oharu." "I understand," Morty replies. "Well then, as for what happened today in Azalea Town, Will is on his way there with a small group of League officials to help the local authorities with the investigation. It's best not to worry about this anymore." "Easy for you to say!" Bugsy shouts. "It wasn't your gym that disappeared into thin air!" "Mr. Montgomery excluded, of course. But whatever happened there this morning seems to be an isolated incident, so the rest of you may resume normal gym duties as usual today without any worries. I also advise all of you to inform your gym staffs of this as well, so their fears may be put to rest. If any of you have further questions, the rest of the Elite, as well as myself, will stick around for a few minutes. Otherwise, this meeting is adjourned." ====== A minute later, Whitney opens the door and heads out of her office. But just as she steps into the hall, Bridget and one of her Jigglypuff are standing there, waiting for her. "Bridget!" Whitney yelps, startled out of her wits. "Sorry 'bout that. Didn't mean to scare you." "That's okay." Whitney breathes a sigh of relief. "Walking with Jigglypuff already?" "Yeah. So, what happened at the ultra-urgent video teleconference?" "Bugsy said that some shadowy figure entered his gym this morning and beat the entire staff in battle, including himself. Very convincingly, he added reluctantly." Bridget nods, signifying to Whitney that she's following so far. "Then he said that after beating each of them, the figure would pull out a strange looking Pokéball and suck all of their Pokémon in." Bridget nods again. "Then the figure snaps his fingers, makes the entire gym disappear in an instant, trees and all, and then he departs." Bridget nods... twice this time. "And to top it all off, the guy says that he's going to challenge the rest of the Johto gym leaders. And every gym leader that loses to him will be subjected to the same fate as Bugsy." "Wow! It sounds like it came right out of a science fiction movie! And this all really happened?" "As weird as it sounds, yes, it did." "What did the Pokémon Master say?" "Lance told us not to worry." Bridget gasps in shock. She then yells at the top of her lungs. "Not to worry? NOT TO WORRY? We've got this mysterious trainer about to make his way through every gym in the Johto region, including ours, and take away all of our Pokémon, make our gym disappear, and humiliate us for the whole world to see, and all the Pokémon Master can say is NOT TO WORRY?" "Bridget, calm down! You're overreacting! I swear, you watch... um... you know, that show you like that talks about space aliens and secret organizations who are trying to protect us and stuff. You know which one I'm talking about, right?" "You mean 'Unsolvable Mysteries?'" "Yeah, that's the one!" "I'm telling you, first it'll be the gyms, then Indigo Plateau, and then the world!" "Can we talk about how real or not this actual threat is later? Because you just passed my office with one of your Jigglypuff, it must be 8:52 already." "You mean you don't care about what happened to Bugsy?" "Of course I care about Bugsy! But not care care, you understand." Whitney starts to walk down the hall. Bridget and her Jigglypuff follow quickly. "Understood!" "Puff!" "Drop and hold off for now, okay?" "DAH'd 'til after work, Whitney. Now, for what's up in the gym today." "I'm listening." "Guy in the lobby is looking for a suitable mate for his male Nidoran. Says that your Nidorina is perfect." "Probably another suitor here to win me over. The old 'if the Pokémon are in love, the trainers must be too.'" Bridget rolls her eyes. "Third time in the past three weeks." "Samantha's check?" "Profile came up clean, but he just started high school." "Tween becomes teen, hormones become active, male seeks the city's most attractive and available bachlorette." "Victoria will have him escorted out immediately. She'll just tell him it's an age thing." "Next?" "The Giro Bike Shop wants to sponsor you as a rider in the annual Park Tour bike race." "When and how long?" "Two weeks from this Saturday at 10 a.m., 35.3 miles from the Magnet Train station to the center of the National Park." "That long? I know I'm a good athlete, but I don't think I can bike for that long!" "So I should put that down as a no go?" "Reply with a GB2U." "Get back to you. Got it!" "What else?" "Four trainers in the gym as of right now, with one battling Victoria and two of them both dueling with Carrie. Well, one dueling and the other waiting her turn." "And number four?" "PB." "Already? But we open at eight fifteen on Mondays! How did he..." "Surprised us all, including myself. Guy's pretty good. Considering that he's a Cinny, anyway." "Didn't think that tourist trap could pump out any more decent trainers." "Accepting?" "I am the gym leader. I have to accept no matter what." "I'll inform him that you will be with him shortly." As Whitney reaches for the door that heads into the main lobby, Bridget tries to stop her. "Um... Whitney?" "It's no big, Bridget. Besides, Milty could use a good workout for once." "That's not what I'm worried about..." Whitney pushes the door open... and sees a whole mess of reporters, cameramen, and others waiting for her. They quickly surround the duo and start asking questions out of the blue. Jigglypuff quickly hides behind Bridget's leg, obviously a bit camera shy. "What happened in the teleconference?" one reporter asks. "Is it true that the Azalea gym vanished into thin air?" asks a second. "Is Bugsy really that weak of a gym leader?" a third queries. "Are you worried about how this might affect your relationship with him?" asks yet another. Whitney groans at dismay as the reporters continue firing off question after question at her. "That's what I was worried about. All of the reporters here had heard the news. Seems like DJ Mary wasn't the only one with the bright idea of following you back." Whitney groans again as she gets ready to endure a very long on-the-spot question and answer session. ====== Despite the rocky start to the day, Whitney manages to make it through as she and Bridget leave the gym nearly eleven hours later, just before 8 p.m. Bridget follows Whitney out, locking the front door behind her and making sure that the red 'Closed' sign was out. In the background, the sun has already dropped below the city's skyline, as the sky begins to turn dark and the first few sets of street lamps are turning on. "What a day!" Whitney sighs in relief, before clenching her fist in anger. "If I hear just one more question about tough trainers, Clefairy, or my quote unquote 'supposed relationship' with Bugsy..." "At least we got through another day without hearing a 'why are you the gym leader when four out of every five Pokémon trainers are male' question." "Thank goodness for that," came the reply as the duo starts to walk. "When's the last time that's happened on back-to-back days?" "Almost four months ago. February 24th and 25th. The 26th, of course, was the off-day that everyone thought you took because you couldn't stand the pressures of being a gym leader." "Don't remind me. Some people are so stupid! Gym leaders need to relax once in awhile too! To think, there are those people who think I should work 30 hours a day before they think a woman can be a gym leader, much less myself!" "There are only 24 hours in a day, Whitney." Whitney quickly counts on her fingers before realizing that Bridget is right. "I knew that." "Sure," Bridget remarks sarcastically. "Okay, so technically my statement wasn't right, but I did it to prove my point! There are those people who'll do anything to see me fail! I bet they'd all rather see a three month baby boy as the gym leader than me!" "Now who's the one overreacting?" The two women continue to talk as they walk into the sunset. ====== Two hours later and nearly five hundred miles west of Goldenrod City, Chuck Morris, the gym leader, was hard at work chopping a few lonely rocks near the northern shoreline, occassionally scaring out a few Krabby, or even a lonely Shuckle or two. Not too far away, his wife calls for him. "That's enough rock breaking for tonight, dear! Where will all of the Krabby and Shuckle sleep tonight if you destroy all of their homes?" "I'll be in in a minute! I'm just trying to vent the last of my anger out!" Chuck then punches right through the center of a giant boulder, smashing it into about a hundred pieces. "You still sore about what happened in Azalea this morning?" "That little Bugsy has another thing coming if he thinks I'm going to believe that he didn't stage that!" "You don't believe in the young bug trainer's word?" Chuck turns around and sees a mysterious figure staring at him. And around his neck is a small replica of the Hive Badge, attached to a necklace. "Who are you?" "The question isn't who I am, but are you going to challenge me to a battle?" "Gym closes at dusk, pal. Once the sun goes down, I go down." "How appropriate... because once I'm done with you, you will be down." Chuck growls in anger. He then shouts at his wife. "Sweetie, could you get my two Pokéballs?" Facing the figure, he then tells him, "But for trainers who think they can beat me, I like to prove that I know I can beat them. And you're no exception. Prepare to battle!" ====== "And poof, just like that," Chuck's wife told the reporter. "The gym completely vanished, including the heavy boulders that guarded my husband's battle room." A Dan Rather look alike appears on the TV screen, behind the newsdesk. "And that was the scene just after ten thirty last night from where the Cianwood City gym stood. Well, that was before it disappeared. The Pokémon League and local authorities have been searching for the gym leader himself, but he is nowhere to be found. Some say that whatever made the gym disappear made Chuck vanish as well, but his wife says that he's just off somewhere, training. Basically, he's out hiding in a cave somewhere, crying his eyes out because he is sitting in the same situation that just over 24 hours ago, Bugsy and the Azalea Town gym staff found themselves in. I know I would be if I were him." The TV then shuts off. A reflection can now be seen on the dark screen. It is of Koga and Bruno, two of the current members of the Elite Four, sitting on a couch. Bruno jumps out of his seat and heads for the door. "Where are you going?" Koga asks. "Out to avenge Chuck's defeat?" "Actually, I was thinking about seeing if I could save his tough guy image, but yeah, I could do that too." Bruno departs, leaving Koga to sit and meditate. As he sits there, he begins to sense something else afoot. "I'd better get Karen and Lance. Something tells me that another gym will join Cianwood's before the sun sets." ====== Deep in the mountains, another gym is attacked as the same mysterious figure from last night was wreaking havoc once again. And just as before, he followed the same routine. He defeats each of the gym trainers, takes their Pokémon, and makes the entire gym disappear. With one exception... the gym leader herself. But he knew where to find her. In the Dragon's Den. End Chapter 2 Does Whitney feel the heat as Johto's top gym leader is about to come face-to-face with this mysterious threat? How will Whitney and the remaining gym leaders try to defend themselves? Return for Chapter 3 next Monday and see!