Ran wanders out of the Pharmacy with an exhausted Skorupi resting in his ball, a backpack that’s significantly heavier than when he entered the store and a whistle on his lips. Though the Pharmacy’s need for Skorupi-venom has been filled completely, ensuring he won’t be making any equally profitable return visits in the near future, he’s still left feeling as if he made out like a bandit.
Not quite in hard cash sadly, but the various medicines and supplements now sitting in his backpack would’ve been ruinous to purchase normally. In that light, enough supplements to enrich his complete current team’s food for the next three months, plus a doubling of his normal healing items like Potions and Paralyze Heals, makes for an extremely productive afternoon. Additionally, Edith, which he’d learned was the old lady’s name, had mentioned an interest in cutting a similar deal further in the future, if he ever felt like swinging by Cianwood City again.
He didn’t really have any hard plans to that end, but if his team showed a clear preference or growth from the Pharmacy’s products, then he’d have to consider that carefully. If the Pharmacy’s wares proved largely useless, then all he’d have lost was a few hours of training for Skorupi, at most. However, the benefits of stuff like X Attack and Calcium had been researched and proven, so he was quite hopeful that the Pharmacy’s wares might also prove worthwhile.
For now, he wanted to get started on the day’s training, but before he could, his pokégear finally buzzed with an incoming message. Immediately, the good mood he’d left the Pharmacy with evaporates, as anxiety rears its head once more.
Not wasting any more time, he looks to see just what Cianwood City’s Gym is contacting him for.
Cianwood City Gym: Cianwood City Gym is looking for suitable profiles for a comparative pokémon development study. Applicants will have to prove their ability as trainers. Payment to be discussed. Please let us know if you are interested in applying.
A pokémon development study?
That doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with letting the local fighting-types practice against his own poison-types. In fact, it sounds vague enough for him to have no clue whatsoever as to just what it’s going to be about. However, considering he’s going to be spending the next two weeks in Cianwood City anyways, he can’t deny that his interest’s been piqued.
Ran: I’m interested in applying.
Message sent, Ran moves to close the messaging window and carry on with his day, however, before he can, a notification shows up indicating that a reply is already being written. Surprised by the speed of the Gym’s reaction, he waits patiently for the next message to come in.
Cianwood City Gym: Excellent! Are you available for a briefing in thirty minutes?
Ran: I am. I’ll be there.
Cianwood City Gym: Splendid! Please present yourself at the reception desk, we’ll be expecting you.
He closes the message with a sigh, a glance at the hour showing that it’s five in the evening already. Any plans of training before dinner will have to be shelved for now, but at least he’ll get to find out what Cianwood’s Gym wants from him. Perhaps he’ll even get some insight into whether Bugsy is pulling any of the strings behind the scenes, though that might be presuming a bit too much.
Opting not to waste any time, he turns to head directly to the Gym, arriving there after about twenty minutes. The receptionist, her workday clearly coming to an end from the three glances she shoots at the clock over the two minutes Ran spends around her, swiftly directs him up the nearest stairs and to the second door on the left.
Politely following her instructions, Ran slides open the wood-and-paper door to walk into a small meeting room, a large oval table taking up most of the room’s floor space. That isn’t what draws his attention however, as rather than any of the room’s interior features, like the apparently constant use of wood lattices and paper sliding walls, he focuses his attention on the room’s lone other occupant.
A dark-skinned young woman meets his curious gaze with one of her own. Neither of them immediately speak, as Ran focuses first and foremost on the three pokéballs on her belt, before properly taking in the rest of her. She’s got black hair falling to the back of her neck, whilst in the front her bangs fall to just between her eyes. She wears a gold-and-pink training jacket - the colors a dead giveaway for something that hails from Goldenrod City - over a black tank top. For the lower part of her body, the ensemble is completed by black sport leggings and gold-and-pink sneakers.
She’s about his own age, potentially even an unsponsored rookie like himself. Notably, however, her hands are taped and there’s a taut muscularity to her frame that hints at a physical strength cultivated over time. As for the eyes that meet his own, stony and hard-to-read as they are at first glance, are an odd brownish gray that, through the soft light that penetrates the room’s paper walls, seems almost a mixture of silver and bronze.
Their mutual staring match comes to an end when the girl blinks, rising from her seat and approaching with an outstretched hand. Ran has to suppress his instinctive desire to reject the approach, before he manages to meet her hand with his own, as they shake hands whilst she introduces herself.
“I’m Doro.” She greets him, her handshake firm almost to the point of being painful.
“Ran,” He replies in turn, as they release each other and he takes a few steps to the other side of the table, eyeing a chair of his own, “I guess you’re also here to apply for the study?”
“I do not know yet,” She answers calmly, her surprisingly deep voice carrying an odd accent he doesn’t manage to place, “It will depend on what exactly they want, and what they are willing to offer in return.”
Ran nods along agreeably whilst Doro also returns to her previous seat, the two of them facing each other from across the table when he agrees with her, “Same here. It sounds interesting enough and there’s definitely more than a few ways for the Gym to make anything worth my while, but they’ve been frustratingly vague so far.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Agreed.” Doro accepts severely, before falling silent.
Ran is content to leave it at that and wait quietly for whoever else might be joining them, or for one of the Gym’s employees to come and explain just what their offer is, but Doro appears to feel differently, as she speaks up once more.
“I am unsponsored and I am on my first circuit. I have won the Plain Badge from Goldenrod City, the Fog Badge from Ecruteak City and the Mineral Badge from Olivine City.” She announces proudly, not asking anything of Ran in turn, though the look in her eyes makes it clear that she does so out of politeness, rather than a lack of interest.
Figuring that fair is fair, he replies in kind, “I’m an unsponsored rookie too. I’ve won the Zephyr Badge from Violet, the Hive Badge from Azalea and the Plain Badge from Goldenrod.”
“Hive Badge?” Doro asks, her head tilting slightly to the side in evident confusion, “What has happened to the Whirlpool Badge?”
“Walter retired. Azalea Town’s new Gym Leader, Bugsy, is a bug-type specialist.” Ran clarifies easily, though he is careful to say no more than he has to, not particularly wanting to get into his own history with Bugsy.
“I see.” Doro accepts, pausing yet again. Though she seems inclined to continue the conversation once more after a moment’s thought, she is prevented from doing so, as the door to the meeting room, previously having been closed by Ran when he himself entered the room, opens once more.
The man that enters is barefoot, has a belly that obscures muscle rather than fat and is the owner of the most peculiar facial hair - with a bare chin sitting under a massive mustache that connects directly to his mutton chops - that Ran has ever seen. Crucially, he is also extremely recognizable, as both Doro and Ran jolt in their seats as they are surprised by the presence of Gym Leader Chuck, rather than a member of his staff.
“Don’t get up, don’t get up.” Chuck offers good-naturedly as he turns for a moment to close the door once more.
Ran obliges, sagging back into his seat, but Doro is clearly of a different mind, as she stands up fully and waits in place as Chuck turns to face them once more. The Gym Leader clearly notices her changed positioning, but doesn’t speak on it, instead moving to sit at the head of the table. Only once he’s done so, does Doro also sit down again.
“Alright, let me get right to it,” Chuck starts immediately, seemingly intending to get right to the crux of the matter, “You’ve both been asked here because your profiles are well-suited to answer a curiosity of mine.”
Chuck pulls out a small remote from underneath the table before pointing it at the distant wall, where a white screen swiftly rolls down from the ceiling before an image appears upon it. It takes a moment for the picture to become sharp enough to see properly, at which point they’re all left looking at what is clearly a pokémon, and one Ran rather recently saw his first picture of.
“That’s a Croagunk,” Chuck offers dryly, as he gestures at the dark blue bipedal pokémon on the screen, “A poison-fighting-type from Sinnoh.”
Attention now fully captured, Ran can only listen quietly, oblivious to whatever reaction Doro is having, as he can only gape disbelievingly at the odds of what he believes is about to happen, happening to him again.
“I recently came into possession of a pair of them. It’ll be my first time working with the species, but I’m not inclined to train up two at the same time. I want a single one to focus on fully, to really examine just what it’s potential is. So that leaves me with one to spare. At which point I figured it might make a fine prize to support one of Johto’s many fine young up-and-comers.” Chuck explains, Ran hanging on his every word as the conversation continues to go down a path that feels like it can only have one conclusion.
“However, none of my sponsored trainers are in the area at the moment and I don’t want to favor one of them over the others anyways. So, I told my receptionist to be on the lookout for a potential fighting- or poison-type specialist. I figured, either we could learn something interesting about the impact of different fighting-type specialists’ training methods on the same species, or we could learn something interesting about the impact of a species with a dual-typing being trained by two different mono-type specialists.” Chuck continues, his tale so far seemingly more intended as an explanation of his thought process, than an actual clarification on what he wants from Ran and Doro.
That changes when his gaze sharpens as he turns from looking at the screen, to examining each of them in turn as he questions them, “The two of you happened to show up on the same day, with one of you seemingly specializing in poison-types and the other apparently doing the same with fighting-types. So, first things first, are you both planning to fully specialize in those typings?”
“I am.” Ran acknowledges confidently, not shying away from the Gym Leader’s demanding stare.
“Yes.” Doro replies mono-syllabically, attention still fixated on the image of the projected Croagunk.
“Alright. In that case, I have an exotic pokémon available that’d make a fine addition to either of your teams. I’d expect a short, weekly report on its progress, half an hour’s work worth at most, as well as a battle between the Croagunk that leaves with you and the one that stays with me after this year’s Silver Conference Finals. Other than that, the Croagunk is free of charge and will be considered yours in its entirety. So, are either of you interested?” Chuck finally offers, gaze panning from Ran to Doro and back.
It’s a tough question, as on the one hand a poison-fighting-type would be a great addition to his team, serving as a great counter to the troublesome steel-typing. On the other hand, he’s only got two slots remaining and those are earmarked for a member of the Nidoran-line and a member of the Bulbasaur-line respectively. Adding an unexpected additional steel-type counter throws the careful balance he’d planned out completely out of whack. Of course Skorupi eventually gaining the dark-typing has done a lot to resolve his team’s crippling weakness to psychic-types already, rendering the acquisition of a Gengar unnecessary, but adding a poison-fighting-type?
The intended Nidoking he’d planned on eventually adding to his team, an addition initially postponed by the thought of Skorupi potentially gaining the ground-typing upon evolution and then by a desire to move on from Goldenrod in favor of Cianwood, was supposed to be his steel-type counter. If he instead adds a Croagunk, does that make Nidoking surplus to requirements? Its great bulk and immense movepool would both be sorely missed only to be replaced by, ultimately, a pokémon he knew very little about.
He could also forget about the Venusaur he was still dreaming of for his sixth team slot, trusting in Aria and Golbat to do the heavy lifting as far as countering ground-types goes… Neither of them actually has much in the way of super-effective attacks for those match-ups though.
The desire to properly analyze the situation keeps him mute and oblivious to his surroundings for long seconds, which is why he doesn’t know how Doro initially responded to Chuck’s offer. When she stands once more and speaks up clearly, however, Ran is drawn out of his thoughts rather harshly.
“I am interested.” She declares confidently, arms crossing in front of her chest as she looks not at Chuck, but instead opts to stare Ran down.
He can feel his metaphorical hackles rise at the evident challenge, but he just barely manages to restrain his instinctive need to match her. Instead, he hurriedly tries to reduce the question to its absolute essence.
Is he interested in adding an exotic poison-fighting-type to his team? And, if he isn’t, can he really accept backing down now that Doro’s thrown down the gauntlet?
His chair scrapes audibly across the floor as he stands up and meets Doro’s flinty stare with a venomous one of his own, “So am I.”