Two days later, as Ran and Josie stand in front of Goldenrod City’s massive Gym, they do so with very different moods.
Even though the battle he’d ultimately gotten into at the Tunnel, pitting Aria the Ariados against a one-badge trainer’s Aipom, had ultimately been a success, Ran was more than a little jittery about the prospect of facing Whitney. Because beating an Aipom in a debuff-focused fight with an evolutionary advantage was one thing, but Whitney’s reputation made the upcoming fight another matter entirely.
At the same time, Josie didn’t seem to have a care in the world, despite her less-than-stellar performance against Grady in the same Tunnel. Which wasn’t too surprising as, even ignoring her generally more optimistic disposition, she wasn’t from Johto. With the way she treated Johto’s Gym Circuit, Ran hadn’t been surprised that Josie had never really seen or heard much of Whitney, considering Josie’s opinions on Johto’s circuit.
To him however, it was unthinkable not to have heard of the Silver Conference Starlet, the young woman who, as a rookie, had already made it to the final 32. Who’d returned every year, improving by leaps and bounds every time, before, finally, raising the trophy at the end of her third year as a trainer, after a run of dominance that beggared belief. How her famous Miltank, until that time considered a rather limited pokémon, had rolled over entire teams on its lonesome. When that wasn’t enough, Whitney’s true skill had gotten to shine, as from a roster of, at the time, eight pokémon, she hand-crafted a perfect counter to every opponent’s approach to battling and their usual ‘win conditions’.
Only to then immediately become a Gym Leader, rather than even considering a challenge of the Indigo Plateau. From there, she’d rapidly redefined what it meant to be a Gym Leader in Johto, raising the bar especially for low-level badge challenges, as she demanded a higher standard from not only herself, but of all pokémon trainers. More than one rookie’s journey has come to a brusque end in Goldenrod City, with Whitney’s badge demands too large of a step up for the unworthy.
He’d tried to warn Josie about just who they were challenging, but Josie had laughed his worries away, ultimately causing him to give up on the matter. Josie had strong pokémon who loved her deeply and who’d go to the ends of the world for her, which was to her credit as a trainer. But if she was going to insist on just rushing headfirst at any obstacle she encountered, even when that strategy had most recently proven lacking just two days ago, Ran wasn’t going to waste any further energy on trying to get through to her.
Still, it left her eagerly bouncing in place, whilst Ran, standing right next to her, is feeling rather peaky at the moment.
“Oh come on Ran, there’s no need for the long face!” She attempts to cheer him up, with little success, “You’re acting like you’re about to challenge your first Gym! We’ve done this before, remember? Your team’s all powered up from those trinkets you got them, they’re stronger than ever! Hell, that Ekans of yours is good enough to give Ginger a proper workout, you’ll be fine!”
Ran lets out a tense scoff, anxiety over facing Whitney, whose name used to have three skulls next to it in his journey planner, warring with annoyance over Josie’s attempt to underplay Ekans’ performance against her Ponyta. Ultimately, perhaps unsurprisingly and, if he’s being charitable, perhaps even intentionally, annoyance wins out.
“We did more than give her a workout and you know it.” He asserts, finally managing to tear his eyes away from the looming Gym building.
Josie waves him off, merrily skipping ahead of him as she leads the way towards the building’s entrance, “Bul-ba-saur, Bulb-a-saur.”
Ran can do little but offer a beleaguered sigh in turn, as he follows in his friends’ footsteps. Their recently-acquired third member isn’t in attendance, with Grady begging off due to ‘not being ready to face the boss yet’, whilst Ekans and the rest of his teams are in their balls. So he’s got nobody to complain to as he trails after Josie, as they finally enter the Gym.
Considering that Josie’s challenge is still over twenty minutes off, and the half hour between their respective challenges, Ran can’t follow Josie into the waiting room, which is why he instead wanders to the viewing galleries. Not that he minds, of course, as he’s happy to spectate a few matches to see if he can’t glean anything new from Whitney’s approach to battling.
He knows her style at the highest levels, of course, relying on extensive research of her opponents and building her own chosen team out of her comprehensive roster to have counters for anything her opponent has up their sleeve. Then, she tends to work towards the perfect circumstances for a designated ‘sweeper’ pokémon. Most iconically, her pokémon of choice for that particular role was her absolute monster of a Miltank, though her Tauros was a close second.
But those pokémon are far too strong for even an eighth-badge challenge, Conference winners as they are. Plus, with the demands placed on a Gym Leader, not to mention the far greater frequency of battles she gets to run through as a Gym Leader compared to at the Conference, there’s no realistic way for her to deliberately build teams to counter every single challenger. So, it’ll be interesting what he can learn about Whitney’s style when she’s fighting ‘blind’, as it were.
The stands aren’t quite filled to the brim, as finding a seat doesn’t prove too challenging, but there’s still a significantly greater number of spectators here than at either of the previous two Gyms he’s challenged. Then again, considering the sheer numbers disparity in population, that’s hardly a surprise. Not to mention the simple fact that Whitney’s just a lot more popular than either Falkner or Bugsy.
Ran settles on his seat just as the Lickitung Whitney currently has on the field disposes of the Raticate it’s facing, an almost contemptuous Rock Smash enough to knock the brown Mouse Pokémon out. As the referee announces the outcome, declaring the second-badge challenge of ‘Rudy Glass’ unsuccessful, Ran takes a proper look around the arena.
The field is the standard dirt rectangle, with neat chalk lines delineating the middle of the field and both the trainers’ and the referee’s boxes. The stands are also perfectly standard, if it weren’t for their bubblegum-pink coloring, with the seat cushions a complementary pastel green. The color combination at least works well enough, but it’s still a rather garish sight compared to the usually more subdued colors chosen by the other Gyms Ran has visited before.
Not that the spectators seem to mind, merely cheering Whitney enthusiastically as another challenger enters the arena. Surprisingly, the young woman who faces Whitney challenges at a sixth-badge level, which is soon explained by the announcer mentioning that she’s carrying over an incomplete five badges from the previous league year. The explanation draws some muted jeering from the crowd and a pained expression from the challenger, but not enough for her to lose her focus, as she sends out her first of the four pokémon she’ll be using.
What follows is an impressive display of fighting-type prowess, as her Hitmontop spins right through both Whitney’s Persian and Wigglytuff, before finally stalling out against an especially angry Ursaring. The Ursaring then goes down to a Hitmonchan, which takes a fair amount of damage, but at least sees Whitney’s final pokémon arrive on the field.
Miltank is renowned for its Thick Fat, making the trainer’s choice to keep trying for Fire Punch whilst her Hitmonchan gets whittled down a strange one. But it ends up paying off, when, just before Hitmonchan finally goes down, Miltank picks up a noticeable burn. From that point on, the result is no longer in doubt, as the third variant of the Tyrogue-evolutions gets sent out, a series of devastating kicks delivering victory for Hitmonlee over its weakened opponent.
The crowd is appreciative of the display, any disappointment over Whitney’s loss limited due to her win in the previous match. That the challenger appears to be a fighting-type specialist, which is a type renowned for its straightforward, honorable and technical approach to battling, likely helps the crowd reception as well. Whitney for her part doesn’t seem to mind the loss either, her body language calm as she exchanges the traditional quiet words of advice with her successful challenger in the middle of the ring.
After the budding fighting-type specialist exits to another round of crowd applause, the next match is, to put it very mildly, extremely brief. The challenger is clearly an unsponsored trainer like Ran himself, a fifteen year old girl with only a single pokéball on her belt and, as the announcer declares, with no badges to her name.
Generally, it’s well-known that Whitney’s difficulty curve is a lot steeper than that of most of the other Gyms, with only Mahogany and Blackthorn having a similar reputation for just how demanding they are. So Ran can’t help but feel some measure of pity for unsponsored trainers hailing from Goldenrod, when they’re expected to challenge Whitney for their first badge. Of course the unsponsored trainer loses some of that pity immediately, as she could always have left her hometown without her first Badge, like Ran himself did, but the attached stigma is admittedly a factor that sees him remaining largely empathetic.
Then she sends out her single pokémon, which proves to be an underwhelming Snubbull, which shows all the signs of life as a ‘house’-pokémon, rather than a ‘trainer’-pokémon. Its fur coat is meticulously groomed and its fangs are white and shiny, but there is no swell of muscle under its fur and those fangs are thin and brittle-looking, leaving Ran to sigh in clear disappointment roughly two minutes before most of the audience ends up mimicking him.
Because roughly two minutes is all Whitney - though she sends out a Sentret which should by no means be an insurmountable obstacle for a first-badge challenge - needs to absolutely demolish her opponent. The fight is forgettable in the extreme, to such an extent that Ran hardly learns anything from it, nor can he even hope to really recollect the exact sequence of moves. It just doesn’t merit any space in his brain.
Even as the unsponsored and horribly underprepared ‘trainer’ exits the Gym in shame, it leaves Whitney with a few minutes to spare, as her next challenger, Josie, isn’t scheduled for another seven minutes. She takes the time to have a drink from some kind of sports drink from a far too brightly colored can, before turning her attention to the crowd, as she slips on a wireless headset.
“So Goldenrod City, how are you all feeling?!” She shouts enthusiastically, drawing energetic cheers from the crowd as they respond to their beloved Gym leader. Ran for his part remains mute, content to listen and learn.
“I’ve got a bit of an announcement to make, actually,” Whitney tells the crowd, once they’ve quieted down a bit, immediately setting them buzzing with frantic whispers and curious inquiries, “Because our freshest group of rookie trainers has been up to some great stuff, do you all want to hear about it?!”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The crowd loudly affirms that they do, a hundred variations of “Yes!” rolling off of the stands and towards Whitney, who plays her crowd like a maestro. She offers a generous smile, arms opening wide to accept the crowd’s enthusiastic response before bringing her hands down and the crowd’s volume with it, as they hang on her lips.
“Alright!” Whitney acknowledges cheerily, “To start, Selene and Eva won their second badges at Olivine City two days ago!”
Ran can tell that the crowd wants to applaud, but this is clearly not the first time Whitney does something like this, as everyone remains mindful of the limited amount of free time Whitney has, remaining quiet so that she’s free to swiftly continue her announcement.
“Yesterday, Donnie and Grace added the Hive Badge of Azalea to their tally! With Violet’s Zephyr Badge already secured, I’m sure we’ll be seeing the both of them in this very Gym, to show how much they’ve progressed, soon!” Whitney continues, her voice clearly building to a crescendo, everyone in attendance innately recognizing by her words and the pitch of her voice that there’ll be a third and final point coming.
“But they’re all lagging behind a bit, because Grady Kendrick, whose second badge everyone already knows about, is already back in Goldenrod City!” Whitney finally announces, to stunned and awed gasps from the crowd. Just before they can break into applause, she swiftly continues, “He’s not booked for a challenge yet and he hasn’t visited the Gym just yet either, but I’m sure you’ll be getting to see the first of this year’s sponsored trainers in live action very soon indeed!”
Finally, Whitney visibly finishes her announcement, hands going to her headset a clear sign for the crowd that they’re allowed to applaud and cheer. Which they of course immediately do. Rather energetically at that.
Considering the reception his name and feats are receiving, Ran wonders whether Grady knew in advance and didn’t feel like being the center of attention, or whether he didn’t feel ready to see ‘the boss’ yet due to misinterpreting his own standing amongst his fellow sponsored trainers. Whichever of the two is the case, Ran swiftly uses his pokégear to send Grady a swift summary of the past five minutes.
Two minutes later, just as Josie enters the arena and the referee starts briefly running over the rules - 3 pokémon per trainer, singles, 1 non-move-switch allowed - he gets a picture back of a smiling face emoji melting into a puddle of goo. Which doesn’t tell him a whole lot, but there’s no time to be spared thinking about it now. Instead, his focus turns to Josie’s match, as she sends out Soot the Houndour whilst Whitney opts for a Meowth.
Then, the battle begins.
Josie immediately sends Soot charging towards Meowth, maw glowing ominously with a Fire Fang. Yet again, she opts to charge straight in and, yet again, it bites her in the ass, as Meowth uses its greater speed and skill at feinting to Fake Out Soot, sharp claws carving across the dark-fire type’s maw. He lets out a pained whine as his Fire Fang fizzles out weakly, clearly stunned by Meowth’s surprising move.
Meowth follows up with Fury Swipes, carving away at Soot like he’s a scratching post, but the undoubtedly younger pokémon manages to rally admirably, letting out a surprisingly powerful Roar, which forces the Meowth off of him. It doesn’t quite manage to force it back into its ball, like the move should be capable of under the right circumstances, but that clearly wasn’t the intent anyways, as Soot largely ignores Meowth’s Growl - though he can’t hide a full body shiver - and, following Josie’s shouted instructions, finally manages to land a harsh Fire Fang on his foe.
The hit is strong and lands well, Meowth visibly weakened even as Soot temporarily releases his grip. Rather than risk the slight wind-up needed for a second Fire Fang, Josie orders a Bite, clearly intending to press their advantage into a decisive win. There’s enough of an opening for Meowth and Whitney to attempt some kind of counter, dodge or defensive, but rather than any of these, Meowth merely lets out another Growl.
It draws a pitiful whine from Soot, clearly unhappy to be subjected to the weakening move. But it isn’t enough to stop him, as he Bites down harshly, shaking Meowth around for a second or two before throwing him away like a limp ragdoll.
Whitney doesn’t even let Meowth’s form impact the floor, nor does she wait for the referee’s flag to go up. Instead, she recalls the limp form mid-flight, calling out Meowth’s withdrawal from the match as she does so.
Josie pumps her fist, jumping up and down happily as she goes up by one pokémon, with Soot still looking good to continue, though the clear hesitance in his stance - an obvious effect of Growl - would be enough for Ran to withdraw him at least temporarily, were he in Josie’s shoes. But the blonde seems to have no such inclinations, merely cheering Soot on as a Furret appears on the other side of the field.
“Coil!” Whitney immediately orders, to Ran’s pleasant surprise, as the familiar move gets his immediate attention. Though it looks somewhat different on Furret compared to what his research showed for Ekans, for obvious reasons, it’s still interesting to see just how Whitney intends to utilize it. Where the Ekans-line is long enough to form a few ascending rings out of its own body, Furret instead forms an inwards spiral, hiding his head in the middle of a circle of fur. Instinctively, Ran’s hand drifts to Ekans’ pokéball, eager for a learning opportunity.
Unfortunately, common sense reasserts itself, as pokémon are not allowed out of their balls in the stands. Which makes sense, all things considered, but it is a significant inconvenience at the moment. Still, he’s got no time or energy to waste on whining about it, as the fight properly picks up speed.
Josie wastes precious seconds as she waits for Furret to do something more than coil up, showing her clear unfamiliarity with the move.
It’s a hesitation Whitney clearly plans to make her pay for, as she orders another Coil. Only then, as Furret’s sleek form visibly buffs up slightly, fur growing noticeably bristlier as the skin underneath bulges with muscle, does Josie realize what she’s allowing to happen.
“Get in there and use Fire Fang!” She orders hurriedly, Soot barking obediently and racing towards his target.
Whitney seems plenty happy to let it happen however, not ordering her Furret to defend itself or attack in turn. Instead, she calls for an Agility. Which seems out of place… unless…
A cold pit forms in Ran’s gut, as he frantically whips open his pokégear. There’s no way Furret learns- It’s able to learn Baton Pass.
He hesitates, wanting to shout a warning to Josie, but wary of calling Whitney’s wrath upon both of them by doing so. It’s vital information, of course, but the whole point of a Gym Battle is that a trainer gets to prove that they’re ready to have the badge. Crowd interference flies more than a little in the face of that. Still, as Furret’s form visibly grows sleeker once more mere moments before Houndour’s Fire Fang can impact, part of Ran wants desperately to help his friend.
Yet as Soot bites down, only for Furret to essentially shrug the attack off, wriggling out of the Houndour’s flaming maw with only a few char marks to show for Josie’s efforts. When it then hurriedly runs away, easily outspeeding Soot’s instinctive pursuit, Ran’s head drops into his hands in defeat. Unless Josie catches on to what’s happening immediately…
She’s losing.
Josie at least hasn’t realized as much yet, as she continues to encourage Soot, calling for him to Howl, which should at least largely undo the effects of Meowth’s successive Growls. Still, whilst Josie doesn’t seem bothered by Whitney’s call for Furret to use another Coil, Ran can only pinch the bridge of his nose in powerless frustration.
Again, Soot bravely charges in the moment Josie calls for him to do so. Whitney doesn’t even hide her frown as Josie calls for another Fire Fang, clearly unimpressed by Josie’s overreliance on a single approach. Yet, just as Soot closes in, Josie actually pulls out a surprise.
“Switch to Smog!” She commands sharply, causing Soot to obediently snap his flaming jaws shut immediately. Perhaps aided along by the snuffed-out fire, the amount of smokey smog that pours out from between his clamped jaws is supremely impressive, a thick bank of purplish black smog wafting out around Soot. Whitney and Furret are both clearly caught by surprise, with neither reacting fast enough to prevent Furret from inhaling a massive breath of Smog.
“Now follow up with another Fire Fang!” Josie commands enthusiastically, clearly believing that the tables have turned.
Before Soot can react, however, Whitney cuts Josie’s rally off with a curt order, “Quick Attack.”
Furret almost becomes a blur, nearly moving too fast for the naked eye to see. Considering how close both pokémon are to each other, its first attack doesn’t have too much momentum behind it just yet, but it’s already enough to knock Soot back. The second hit, as Furret turns on a dime and races right back for another collision, is enough to knock Soot over. The third one is enough to draw a pained whine that sharply cuts off, as Josie’s first combatant is knocked out.
Furret comes to a standstill on its side of the field, at least showing the encouraging and clear signs of poisoning in its labored breathing and occasional pained twitches. Josie clearly spots it as well, confidently sending out Chief the Growlithe.
Both pokémon face off, with Furret clearly damaged but under the effect of multiple self-empowering moves, whilst Chief is completely fresh. With the poison, the Gym Leader’s pokémon is on a timer, but before Josie can even give a command, or begin to actually use the poisoned status of Furret to her advantage, Whitney speaks up dramatically.
“Enough playing around!” She announces, drawing immediate oohs and aahs from her adoring crowd, “The Smog was a clever little trick, but I’ve seen enough here. Furret, Baton Pass! We’re ending this quickly!”
Obediently, Furret brings its front paws together, normal-type energy quickly manifesting and forming into a remarkably baton-like shape. Then, Furret dissolves into the red energy everyone associates with pokéballs, whilst the ‘baton’ hovers in place for a moment. Ran can only watch from the sidelines as Whitney selects her third pokéball, whilst Josie’s paling face is a clear indicator that she’s finally realizing just how much trouble she’s in.
The Miltank that appears on the field definitely isn’t the Miltank that made Whitney the youngest Conference winner in Johto’s history. Yet, when the ‘baton’ flies towards it and impacts its skin, transferring the boosts Furret gave itself to an intrinsically stronger pokémon, it might as well be.
Josie lets out a sulfurous string of swears, only briefly interrupting herself to order Chief to use Agility. Whitney is significantly less verbose, only speaking a single horrible word.
“Rollout.”
Over the next five seconds, Chief manages two amazing dodges, Miltank’s speed building rapidly with both passes. On the third try, there isn’t even an attempt to dodge, as the fire-type clearly realizes that he won’t make it out of the way. Instead, like Soot before him, he clearly forms a Fire Fang, attempting to bite down on the incoming threat.
The impact is brief. The impact is decisive.
Miltank rolls through seemingly entirely unbothered by the attempted counter-attack, whilst Chief is revealed, partially embedded into the ground and clearly unconscious. Miltank rolls to a stop, merrily bouncing in place, its thick fat still present but appearing less ‘loose’ under the influence of Furret’s boosts.
Ran glances to Josie, only to spot the blonde’s pained expression and realize that that’s as close to an admission of defeat as Josie gets. She still sends out Ginger the Ponyta, her starter, immediately calling for an Agility, but as Miltank merely moves into another Rollout, the fight’s conclusion is already set in stone.
There is no surprising tactic, there is no last-gasp evolution, there is no ace up Josie’s sleeve. There’s merely her starter, who valiantly uses Agility before dodging the first Rollout, before Flame Charging directly at Miltank as it turns about for another go.
It isn’t enough.
Ginger definitely tries, but she simply gets blown away by Miltank, a single hit from the super-effective, built up, Rollout enough to knock her out and, through the elimination of Josie’s third combatant, end the match.
To Josie’s credit, she doesn’t cry or storm out. Instead, she meets Whitney in the middle of the arena, head held high, as the Gym Leader offers her some private words of advice. Once Whitney finishes sharing whatever wisdom she wishes to impart upon Josie, Ran’s friend walks off of the field, whilst Whitney returns to her side of the arena, an assistant coming up to trade out her current pokéballs for a new collection.
As for the crowd, once they realize that there’ll be no ‘loud’ part to the post-match talk, dozens of smaller conversations break out as pairs and small groups of viewers start discussing what they just witnessed. Ran doesn’t have anyone to talk to and with only two matches ahead of his own, he might as well start heading towards the waiting area.
Plus, if he runs into Josie on the way, trying to cheer her up a bit might distract him from the thought that he’s about to challenge Whitney at the same level she just did. Because as far as he’d been concerned just ten minutes ago, Josie and he were roughly at the same level.
Which would mean…
Yep, time for a distraction.