Machoke bursts into motion, immediately rushing over towards the trio of boulders that got thrown around by Poliwrath earlier. They’ve ended up remarkably close to a fourth rock, giving it plenty of ammunition, should it reach its destination. Something Ran isn’t inclined to simply let happen.

  “Air Cutter!” He orders yet again, hopeful that Golbat will once more see actual success with it, rather than the abject failure that resulted once Poliwrath started using its improvised shields.

  Golbat immediately fires off an Air Cutter, but the attack isn’t quite fast enough to reach Machoke before it can reach the unnatural rock formation. Immediately, Machoke hoists up a rock in each hand, but rather than putting them in between itself and the incoming blade of wind, it immediately throws them up towards the ceiling. It’s a decision that leaves it completely open and vulnerable to Golbat’s attack, which strikes Machoke directly in the gut.

  The large fighting-type is clearly hurt by the hit, as it lets out a pained grunt and its knees noticeably buckle for a moment. Yet it doesn’t let that delay it, as the two rocks it threw towards the ceiling reach the zenith of their flight.

  In a smooth motion, Machoke collects the remaining two boulders, even as Golbat, seeing an open target, fires off another Air Cutter. Unfortunately, he’s too slow to prevent Machoke from absolutely rifling the remaining two rocks directly at the two previous rocks which are just starting to fall.

  The sound of rock impacting rock isn’t muted or muffled, but rather a terrifyingly loud impact that’s accompanied by multiple dry cracking and snapping sounds, as all four rocks shatter into multiple smaller rocks and shards of stone, sized anywhere from roughly as large as a fist, to some that are larger than a Marill. The impact is so great that not only is the downwards momentum of the first two rocks temporarily stopped, but the shards also get sprayed around in all directions, creating an actual hail of stone over the entire battlefield.

  “Quick Guard!” Ran instructs, more out of optimism than genuine belief that Golbat will make it through the attack unscathed, but with Mr. Mime’s barrier visibly flaring up on all sides as it contains errant rocks, it’s clear that there’s no safe airspace anywhere on the battlefield.

  At least Machoke gets hit by the second Air Cutter, which is finally enough to knock it out, its eyes sliding closed before it’s even finished falling, a clear sign that it really had to push itself to its limits to enable its final attack. The results are undeniable however, as Golbat, with a frantic screech, does his best to dip and dive through the barrage of rocks.

  He manages to avoid some of the largest pieces, but still gets hit by at least five rocks over the next few seconds, slamming into either his large back or his wings. The hits land with dull thumps, the limited intensity of the sound belying the sheer force behind the impacts. One of the shards is sharper than its fellows however, actually cutting a gash through the lower side of the membrane on Golbat’s right wing. It’s a nasty hit which draws a bloodcurdling scream from his pokémon.

  “Golbat!” Ran cries out in dismay, as he watches powerlessly as Golbat’s flight becomes a lot more unstable, clearly greatly hindered by the wound.

  The poison-flying-type pays his trainer’s shout no mind however, finally making it through the last of the rock rain and remaining airborne in the aftermath.

  “Get ready, Golbat,” Ran calls out once more, actually getting an affirming cry from his team member this time even as they both completely ignore the referee’s announcement that Machoke is unconscious and that Chuck is down to his last pokémon as well, “You’ll be facing a Primeape. It’s poisoned and Caesar hurt it a lot already. Use Absorb the second you can to heal up a bit!”

  “We’ll see about that!” Chuck counters, sending out his Primeape in response.

  The brawling ball of fuzz has clearly calmed down thanks to the forced respite in its pokéball, appearing on the field with an only mildly peeved expression, rather than the abject rage that was rolling off of it earlier. Golbat wastes no time, eyes closing in concentration for a moment in a clear sign that he’s trying to call up the appropriate energy for the rarely-used Absorb.

  “Swagger.” Chuck instructs calmly, arms crossing in front of his chest as he stares disdainfully at Ran in a clear challenge. It’s a posture Primeape immediately copies, though it of course stares at Golbat, whose eyes open only to be met with a disrespectful snort of Primeape’s nose.

  Were the fuzzball capable of it, Ran is pretty confident that it would have hocked out a wad of phlegm to further emphasize its point. The move’s effect isn’t missed however, as Golbat’s ire is clearly raised by the move. Immediately, any attempts of using Absorb go out the window, despite Ran’s explicit instructions.

  Instead, with an angry screech, Golbat divebombs towards Primeape.

  “Golbat, no! Break off! Air Cutter! Keep at range!” Ran instructs frantically, watching in dismay as his temperamental pokémon completely ignores all instructions and common sense to fly directly at his opponent. Golbat’s fangs gleam with purple poison-type energy, making it very clear that he’s trying to use a Poison Fang, completely disregarding Ran’s instructions.

  Swagger, from what he recalls, plays on a pokémon’s temper, increasing the damage it can manage with an attack whilst at the same time causing confusion. Nothing in there is supposed to make a pokémon disregard its trainer’s instructions to this degree, which can only mean that Golbat’s temper, already having caused trouble in the past, is reacting extremely adversely to the move.

  Ran can only watch in frustration, as his continued commands for Golbat to break off go ignored in favor of the Bat Pokémon’s desire to chomp down on Primeape.

  Chuck of course is visibly delighted, clearly happy for the stroke of good fortune that’ll actually put Golbat within punching range of Primeape.

  “Thunder Punch!” Chuck snaps out, finally revealing the elemental punch he’s clearly been planning to use specifically against Golbat since the very start of the battle.

  Primeape squeals in anger as its fist, coated in crackling electricity, flies forwards in a malicious right hook. Ran’s frantic shout for Golbat to dodge comes too late, the Thunder Punch landing directly between Golbat’s eyes. The effect is immediate, as Golbat’s flight gets stopped on the spot. In fact, he gets launched back the way he came slightly, before gravity asserts its will and Golbat crashes into the ground, skidding a small way before finally coming to a stop in a pained heap.

  “Follow up!” Chuck orders, his Primeape obediently stepping forwards, only for said step to clearly demand a lot of it, as its whole body trembles just to take a single step. Clearly, its earlier damage and the poison still coursing through its system are getting increasingly close to knocking it out.

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  Golbat just needs to last a bit longer. Miraculously, he does, as his large, winged form slowly regains his feet. Normally, his wings are stretched out when he’s on the ground and close to an opponent, to make himself seem larger. There’s nothing of that now, as Golbat’s whole form is hunched together, a clear sign of the pain he’s in.

  Still, Ran can’t show mercy yet.

  “Golbat, I need you to get in the air! Get out of its range!” He instructs hurriedly, “Listen to me, before you get yourself hurt even worse!”

  Whether it’s the reprimand or simply Golbat snapping out of his confusion, Ran doesn’t know. The end result is the same, as Golbat, despite sharp, pained and agitated cries, stretches out his wings before hurriedly gaining flight. Chuck’s order for Primeape to close in and use Assurance comes too late, as although Primeape manages to break into a stumbling jog, it isn’t fast enough.

  “Just keep away for now!” Ran calls out, “It’s on its last legs!”

  “Rock Tomb, Primeape! Knock it out of the sky!” Chuck counters decisively, watching tensely as his fighting-type stumbles over towards the nearest rock.

  “Get ready to dodge!” Ran counters without even trying for another Air Cutter, as he considers how bad Golbat’s right wing looks at this point, the tear in his membrane having worsened from the skid across the sand.

  Primeape reaches the first throwable rock, its hands digging for purchase beneath it. It leans forwards, putting its snout against the stone for a moment as it clearly struggles to muster up the strength needed to hoist the massive weight.

  A second passes.

  Another second passes.

  Suddenly…

  “Primeape is unconscious and is unable to battle! The Challenger has won!” The referee announces.

  Ran has to do a double take, before what he’s seeing fully sinks in.

  On sheer persistence, Primeape managed to stumble over to the rock, putting its hands under it to start levering up, before the poison finally did it in. With the fighting-type falling forwards in unconsciousness, it came to rest against the rock in such a way that it looked at first glance like it was simply putting extra force into its lift.

  Upon closer inspection however, it’s undeniable that the referee is correct, with Primeape clearly unconscious. Golbat isn’t far behind however, as the moment Ran’s victory is declared, the final remaining participant of the match immediately descends to the ground, his landing a lot more brusque than normal, as he only uses the absolute minimum number of wingbeats to slow his fall. Without hesitation, Ran brings out Golbat’s Friend Ball, immediately recalling him, to the Bat Pokémon’s obvious relief, whilst a round of polite applause rings out from the crowd.

  “We’re going to discuss your behavior later,” Ran says to the balled pokémon, less than happy with Golbat’s hotheadedness almost costing them the match, “I need you to calm down and be sensible in the future.”

  There’s no response from Golbat’s ball, as Ran clips it onto his side before striding out onto the battlefield and moving towards the circle in the middle, the point which Chuck is also striding towards with the clear intent to meet him there.

  “That was fun!” Chuck declares boisterously, before pulling out the Storm Badge, which he presents to Ran.

  “As the Cianwood City Gym Leader, I deem you worthy of receiving the Storm Badge!” Chuck announces,drawing another brief round of applause, before the crowd finally breaks out into murmured discussions of their own, leaving Chuck and Ran with some relative privacy, as long as they keep their voices down.

  Which, unlike Whitney, Chuck gets directly into, as he doesn’t expand any further on the public part of his speech. Instead, he looks at Ran assessingly, offering a slight smile, before speaking softly, “You didn’t visit my Gym to scout me out, did you?”

  “I didn’t, no.” Ran agrees slowly, unsure where the Gym leader is going with the somewhat random question.

  “I could tell. From a trainer like Doro, that’d probably be a decision made out of a desire to face me on equal terms, out of some desire for an honorable match or stuff like that. From you, however,” Chuck pauses for a moment, frowning slightly, before continuing, “I think you’re getting a bit overconfident, kid.”

  Ran sputters for a moment in surprise, but before he can formulate a retort, Chuck is already explaining himself, “That Skorupi had a great type match-up, but so did your Ariados and that’s clearly the stronger pokémon of the two, at this point, at least. I can understand wanting to spread the matches out a bit and you won, so you were right to. Especially with the defensive advantage your team has here. But combine that with not scouting and clearly getting caught off-guard by some of my counters… It paints a picture of a trainer who’s been doing better than he was expecting and whose head is getting a bit too big as a result.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Ran answers politely, mindful of the circumstances surrounding them, which hardly make for a decent opportunity to argue with the Gym leader or to confront him over his favoritism following the contest to win Croagunk.

  Chuck, fittingly, chuckles, before speaking once more, “You’ve got a lot of potential kid, I’m not blind to that. It’s why I gave you one of my Croagunk in the first place.”

  Something in his gaze sharpens then, a sign that Ran’s attempt to suppress any outward reaction to the man’s words clearly wasn’t entirely successful. The Gym Leader looks at him taxingly for a moment, before finally sighing heavily.

  “Just to clarify, Ran,” Chuck rumbles, “As long as you didn’t unveil any troubling behavior towards your pokémon during that race, you were always going to get a pokémon. I explicitly told you both that you’d be racing for the right to choose one of my pokémon. Choose, not receive. The loser was always going to get the second Croagunk.”

  Ran doesn’t particularly want to believe Chuck’s words, but the gym leader isn’t afraid to meet his eyes, expression earnest and open as he forces eye contact between them, “Think about it, kid. Any comparative study between me, as a Gym leader, and a rookie trainer, would be worthless out of the gate. At least for the purposes I have in mind, which are far more focused on typing primacy.”

  “Then why’d you deliberately let us believe that we were racing for the right to have a Croagunk?” Ran asks mulishly, still not wanting to believe this version of events where he’d still have gotten a Croagunk if he hadn’t won the race.

  “I told you,” Chuck replies easily, “I didn’t want to see any troubling behavior, and the best way to check for that was by putting you under pressure. It worked, too. You made some very worrying calls with your own safety, but you never mistreated your pokémon and well… it would be hypocritical for me, of all people, to tell you not to take such risks when you saw me climbing down a mountainside without any safety gear just a short while beforehand.”

  Ran takes in Chuck’s words, really weighing them and trying to find some kind of fault or lie in them. It’s hard to believe that things would have played out the same way if he’d lost the race, but with the Storm Badge in hand and a Croagunk on his team, Ran can’t really think of any remaining reason for Chuck to lie to him. So, begrudgingly, he finds himself accepting the man’s words.

  “Alright, I believe you. Thanks for explaining.” Ran answers, ingrained politeness now a lot more genuine sounding.

  “You’re welcome,” Chuck replies softly, before finally raising his voice as he returns to the more public parts of their little ceremony, “Ran Carr, you showed some real fighting spirit and you allowed your pokémon to play to their natural strengths, whilst enhancing them and their abilities! This is why I also reward you with this TM for Focus Punch and the fourth-tier badge cash prize will be transferred to your account. Congratulations.”

  “Thank you, Gym leader Chuck,” Ran answers politely, “It’s been an honor, sir.”

  Chuck waves him off dismissively, “If you want to honor me, there’s two things you can do for me, kid. First of all, work with that Croagunk of yours and show me what a Toxicroak can do in the hands of a poison-type specialist. There’s no way Koga hasn’t got his hands on one and I want to get some idea of the tricks a poison specialist might be able to come up with before he can surprise me with them.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Ran vows immediately, never intending any less than the very best for any of his team members.

  “Good,” Chuck nods, before his gaze pans to the stands for a moment, “Second, Doro is challenging me later, stick around and watch, yeah? The two of you could learn a thing or two from each other.”

  There’s something in Chuck’s expression as he says it that indicates that there’s more to his request than Ran can easily pick up on, but he still nods easily, “We already agreed to watch each other’s matches in advance.”

  “Good,” Chuck agrees, “Then get out of here already, so I can face my next challenger!”