"Drat!" Taylor exclaimed, stepping out of the door to Saffron's Gym in a frustrated manner. As the electronic metal doors behind her came closed automatically, she lifted a foot, as if ready to stamp it down hard on the pavement beneath her. Then, her eyes widened slightly. "Now, now, Taylor. That's no way a lady would act." Her father's words rang in her head. With a sigh of self-understanding, she lowered the angry foot and took a deep breath.
You're not a failure, she told herself. Sabrina even said you did well. Few trainers ever manage to defeat such a skilled Gym Leader as her...
Images of the battle flashed back in her mind. Images of her loyal Pokemon zipping back and forth across the field, firing multi-colored beams and dealing decent damage to even the elite, evolved Psychic Types of the Saffron Gym... In one hand Taylor still clutched Blitz's Pokeball tightly. She held the metallic orb up to her eye level, and the bright outdoor sunshine glinted off its metallic surface. Next time, she thought, We'll get ourselves a Marsh Badge!
For now, however, she knew she needed to get to the Pokemon Center, which was conveniently located only a short block away from the Gym. This quick walk gave her the nice opportunity to plan out a new battle strategy...
Let's see... Conversion 2 should make things a bit tougher oin Sabrina if Blitz uses it early on, and Tackle can be strengthened with Sharpen. Psybeam won't deal much damage, but it may confuse Sabrina's Pokemon... That could definately come in handy. Agility! I'll have to make sure to apply that move as well! This time Kadabra was able to mentally guess Blitz's movements, but if we can make his movement a lot less predictable... Perhaps I should buy a Thunder Wave TM, as well?
Suddenly, something pink caught Taylor's eye, inturrupting her careful thoughts. This was odd... She'd been down this way before, and all there seemed to be was gray pavement, concrete, and blue-tinted buildings. Pink wasn't a color she'd expected to see. Yet, there it was, in the form of a piece of paper nailed against a phone pole. Curiously, Taylor rushed across the sidewalk to the pole and tore off the page.
"Greatest trainer in the world...? Pokemon League challenge...? Champion...?" she read aloud. This seemed interesting... While she wasn't the type to go about boasting of her superiority, Taylor had always fancied a challenge. And already this goal of hers to beat Sabrina alone was, while hard, quite entertaining. Such a quest would be worthwhile. Fun. Enjoyable.
Her eyes scrolled down to read that she could enter at a Pokemon Center. Well. Wasn't that a coincidence, considering Saffron's Pokemon Center was literally a few steps away?
The beginning trainer pushed open the doors to the building and marched over the tiled flooring to the counter, all in less than a minute. A red-haired nurse perked up, turning a pair of emerald green eyes up to look at her visitor.
"Hello, Taylor!" the nurse greeted in a cheerful tone. It wasn't surprising she'd memorized her name; Taylor had been coming here all week after training and battling. "Still trying to defeat Sabrina? Or did you finally manage it this time around? I suppose either way you'd like me to heal your Porygon, hm?"
Taylor nodded, setting Blitz's Pokeball on the countertop. "Yes, and if you don't mind I'd like to register..." she held up the paper, "... for this."
"Ah, entering the Pokemon League challenge, I see!" the nurse said with a grin, taking the Pokeball and setting it into a complex-looking machine to her left. "Good for you! I'm sure you'll do well, seeing how hard you've been training over the past week or so."
"I would hope so," Taylor replied simply.
