“At which point Caesar carried me the rest of the way and I made it here just ahead of Doro.” Ran finishes his tale, drawing a final approving nod from Chuck. He’s received more than one throughout his tale, with Chuck having been particularly impressed by his unorthodox deal with the Gym leader’s father. On the other hand, the way Ran managed to fool the first Gym trainer he ran into merely drew a disappointed groan from the experienced fighter. As for his arguably rather dangerous exploits with Golbat, those were enough to make the Gym leader turn quite pale for a few minutes.

Doro clearly isn’t as impressed or affected by Ran’s efforts, though she does appear to be outright indignant when Ran mentions outright lying his way past the first Gym trainer. Still, she’s well-mannered enough not to openly disparage him for his decisions, allowing him to complete his story in a single go. In turn, when Chuck then finally turns his attention to her, Ran listens with a mixture of disbelief and awe as she confirms that she didn’t initially intend to take a single shortcut.

Instead, she started by relying purely on her own physical ability and her team’s ability to match the Gym trainers’ fighting-types, set on taking the long way around. Only when she realized just how much time Ran was gaining with his approach, did she do her best to copy him, relying on her team’s power and technique to overcome the challenges she encountered and ultimately coming impressively close to making up the major gap Ran opened up early on. It’s mind blowing to him to hear her tell the tale, as although she’s clearly pushed herself and her team to their limits, between the two of them, Doro has come out merely tired, where Ran has picked up legitimate injuries just to beat her by little more than a hair.

The end result is the same however, with him as the winner and the rightful owner of a Croagunk, and her as the loser.

With their lunch - a filling rice dish with plenty of greens and seafood mixed in - finished and their respective tales retold, Chuck finally speaks up properly once more, easily drawing both Ran and Doro’s attention to him.

“It sounds like quite the spectacle. One that perfectly illustrates some of the things I’m hoping to see reflected in these Croagunk. Completely different approaches to a shared problem. In the case of your race, the result was quite close to equal, but I’m curious to see how things turn out in a dual-type pokémon.” Chuck declares enthusiastically, before bringing out two pokéballs.

Twin red beams of light arc out into the room, the pair of Croagunk soon appearing in the room. Ran is immediately captivated as he examines the pair closely. The first thing that stands out is that they’re of similar height, with neither having an immediate noticeable advantage in that regard. Upon closer inspection however, some differences do become apparent.

The Croagunk on his left is slightly bulkier, with its musculature noticeably more pronounced compared to the one on the right. The white bands both have running across their torso sit slightly higher on the left Croagunk as well, whilst the blue and orange colors are more vibrant on the right Croagunk compared to its fellow. Combined, it does ensure that upon anything more than a cursory examination, the differences between both pokémon are clear enough.

“Now then,” Chuck lets out with a chuckle after a few seconds, finally pulling Ran’s attention back to him with a good-natured smile, “Take a few minutes to make your choice, if you’ve got any questions, feel free to ask them. Doro, please stay around for a minute, I’d like to speak to you afterwards.”

Ran nods, ignoring the other trainer in the room as he stands up and walks over to the pair of Croagunk. They reach up to roughly halfway between his knee and his hip, both Croagunk looking up at him as he approaches them.

The Croagunk on the left, the more muscular one, glares at him, stance strong and combative, as if daring him not to choose it. Considering its seemingly superior physique, he can’t blame it. Still, with just how confrontational it seems, he isn’t too enthusiastic about the first impression it makes on him.

So he looks to the Croagunk on the right, whose cheek sacs inflate for a moment as itraises a hand in a lazy wave, a ribbit that sounds suspiciously close to ‘hello’ coming out.

Caught off guard, Ran can’t help an instinctive snort of laughter. Which just gets the Croagunk to mimic him, which only further increases Ran’s mood.

Ultimately, it’s an easy decision.

“This one, please.” Ran says, one hand gesturing towards the Croagunk on the right, who waves merrily at Chuck in affirmation, even as the other Croagunk crosses its arms and glares at them both mulishly.

“Very well, here you go,” Chuck announces, throwing Ran the corresponding pokéball, “He’s a male and he knows Mud-Slap, Astonish, Poison Sting, Taunt, Venoshock, Sucker Punch, Low Kick and Brick Break.”

Ran catches the ball with a grin, offering his new team member an enthusiastic smile, which is met with another wave from Croagunk, before he recalls him for now.

Before he can get around to thanking Chuck, however, the old Gym leader speaks up once more.

“Now that you’ve made your selection, Doro, I’d like to offer you the remaining Croagunk.” Chuck announces, attention shifting from Ran to the other trainer still lingering in the room.

In a matter of seconds, Ran’s good mood evaporates.

“I don’t understand.” Doro replies in evident surprise, giving a polite and highly-censored voice to the thoughts running through Ran’s own mind.

“Ha,” Chuck barks out a laugh, before sobering, “Fair enough. Simply put, I told a bit of a lie when I told you that only the winner would be getting a Croagunk. I wanted to see both of you go all out, to get a real idea of your respective characters and what you can do. In truth, any study between these two Croagunk would be completely worthless if one of them is trained by me, an experienced and full-time Gym Leader, and the other is trained by an unsponsored rookie.”

Chuck continues easily, once more on a roll as he continues to explain, “So, assuming you both performed well in my challenge, which you did, I always intended to offer the winner first pick, whilst offering the loser the remaining Croagunk. The condition of a short weekly report remains of course, as I do genuinely want to be able to compare both Croagunk’s respective progress.”

He falls silent then, leaving Ran to stare at him in disbelief, even as Doro nods pensively for a few moments, before looking up to meet Chuck’s eyes.

“I understand and I accept.” She declares, her attention only remaining on Chuck long enough for her to catch the pokéball he throws her, before her attention turns to the remaining Croagunk, who appears no less standoffish than she did when Ran approached her.

Ran would like to pay attention to the first meeting between trainer and pokémon, but sound and focus fade away as instead the pounding of his own blood in his ears overpowers everything. He stands completely motionless as he furiously processes just what Chuck just told them.

His explanation sounds believable enough, all things considered. But it isn’t fair! He put everything he had into that race, risking his health, even his life, to ensure that he’d win! All to hear that in the end they both get a Croagunk?

No, he doesn’t buy it.

This is all a ploy by Chuck to give the fighting-type trainer, whom he obviously favors over Ran because of their respective specialties, a Croagunk too. If things had ended up the other way around, with Doro winning and Ran coming second, he definitely wouldn’t have gotten the unchosen Croagunk. This whole story about testing their characters and comparing the Croagunk between equal trainers is a fabrication made up on the fly to cover for the fact that he’s being cheated!

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He stews over those thoughts, anger roiling in his gut, for multiple minutes. It explains the lunch as well, as Chuck must have thought of it on the fly in order to play for time as he had to come up with a believable excuse for why he’d give away both Croagunk rather than just hanging on to one of them.

Before he can ponder the matter any further, he’s brought out of his thoughts by Doro suddenly stepping towards him, her hand extended for a shake, “Congratulations on your win. Though your approach was very different to my own, you proved that it was effective. I look forward to competing against you. Considering how close our race was, I am sure that we will both learn a lot from the experience.”

For a moment, his lingering anger tells him to slap her hand away and storm out.

He doesn’t, however. The genuine look in her eyes and the respect in her voice are enough to keep him calm. And, when he actually thinks on it, he begrudgingly has to admit that he can’t blame Doro for accepting Chuck’s offer, as she’d have been a fool not to accept. He’d have done the same thing if their roles were reversed.

So he grasps her hand with his own and, in a great effort, manages to ignore the acrid burning taste at the back of his throat as he acknowledges her words politely, “Thanks. You really pushed us to our limits, I look forward to our next contest.”

“Good!” Doro declares decisively, “Tomorrow, we shall battle!”

Her confidence catches him off guard for a moment, but the prospect of a good battle is just what he needs to take his mind off of the lingering resentment towards Chuck, who still remains in the room, waiting to draw their attention back to himself once more.

“Sure, that sounds fun.” Ran agrees easily, “Are you staying at the pokécenter, or do you want to exchange numbers?”

Before Doro can reply, Chuck clears his throat, drawing their attention back to him. Immediately, the lingering anger Ran still feels flashes hot once more, but he manages to keep his expression neutral as the Gym leader speaks.

“I’ll have my staff send you a message with an instruction manual for your weekly reports. You both did impressive work today, I honestly didn’t expect either of you to make it back in time for a proper lunch. I wish you both good luck in your journeys and look forward to your challenges. For now, however, I still have two challenges scheduled for this afternoon, so I’ll have to ask you both to head downstairs now.” He informs them, gesturing towards the door to further reinforce his message.

There’s little they can say to that, so Ran merely nods tightly before heading directly for the door, only barely remembering his manners and pausing to allow Doro to leave the room ahead of him. Which is a decision he immediately gets a reward for, as he receives a visual reminder of the benefits of leggings.

Any slight flushing of the face he might or might not experience as he descends the stairs back down to the Gym’s lobby can surely still be excused by the physical exertion from the race. Or at least that’s what he tells himself, as Doro turns to face him once more when they’ve both moved out of the way slightly to ensure that they’re not blocking the stairs.

She doesn’t outwardly show any response to the slight heat he feels in his cheeks, saving his dignity as she instead brings up her pokégear. When she speaks, it’s to the point, but not unfriendly, “If you give me your number, I’ll message you later. I’m going for a cooldown run on the beach before returning to the pokécenter, so I believe this is the easiest way to handle things.”

“Sure thing.” Ran accepts, before rattling off his number swiftly.

Once Doro has entered it into her pokégear and repeated it back to him, they say their goodbyes, before going their separate ways. Because while Doro might want to get a run in, Ran needs to get himself somewhere private and in front of a mirror, to finally get a proper look at just what he did to himself in his rather risky approach to the race.

So he returns to the pokécenter, where he’s pleasantly surprised to find his shoes and stinky socks waiting for him, as apparently Chuck’s father stopped by to hand them in at the reception desk. It’s a pleasant find, but one that doesn’t delay his decision to turn both Aria and Golbat in for a check-up, considering the strain he put them through, before heading directly for his room. The following half hour isn’t pleasant.

In short order, he gets rid of his dirty clothes before ducking into the shower. The hot water agitates the many small cuts and abrasions he picked up as they painfully make their presence known. Once he’s been properly soaked and lathered up with soap to the point that he doesn’t smell like sweat any more, the next step after drying off is actually taking proper stock of just what he inflicted on himself.

Ultimately, he doesn’t think the damage report is too bad. Sure, his torso is a motley array of blues and purples as bruises of varying sizes compete for real estate, but with the shower having washed away the already dried blood from the relatively few cuts and abrasions he picked up, it really doesn’t look too bad. Admittedly, bending down to dry his lower legs and feet is a rather painful experience, but in a few days, they’ll be old injuries. So long as he doesn’t touch them, they probably won’t even bother him by tomorrow.

Just to be safe, he still rubs some ointment on some of the worst bruises, settling down on his bed to let them soak into the skin for a while before redressing. He’s tempted to let out Croagunk for a proper first meeting, but with two of his team members absent for the moment, he decides to hold off. Instead, he just releases Caesar and Skorupi for now.

Skorupi immediately rushes towards him eagerly, clearly looking to latch on, before pausing as he gets a good look at his trainer. For a few seconds, he actually appears hesitant and doubtful, but once Ran offers him a reassuring smile, he simply switches targets. Instead of continuing on towards Ran’s torso, he instead climbs on to his trainer’s legs, enthusiastically latching on there before turning to face Ran once more, staring at his battered upper body unblinkingly.

Caesar is less eager in his greeting, merely examining his trainer from head to toe before settling down on the large pokémon bed with a stern look and a warning hiss. Ran waves him off however, not needing the reprimand. Sure, he got roughed up a bit, but in the end, he did make it through as the winner and the reward is an exotic pokémon who’ll make a fine fifth member to his team.

Admittedly, he probably shouldn’t try to let Golbat carry him anywhere for a while, but today was a proof of concept at the very least. Golbat still has a lot of room for growth left, not to mention the evolution he’s still capable of, somewhere down the line. Though Ran doesn’t plan to hang on to the flying-type with his hands for significant distances, they were still successful enough for him to want to explore the thought of flying with Golbat further… Perhaps they could practice above a soft landing surface to start, rather than risking heights and deep chasms again any time soon.

Drawn out of his thoughts by an inquisitive hiss from Caesar, Ran spends a few minutes fully catching up both of his present pokémon, before sagging back against his bed once more. It’s been a demanding day and they’ve still got training to get to later on, but for the moment, he can’t muster the will to get up from his bed. Instead, he opens up his pokégear to occupy himself with for a while.

He’s curious about both of his former companions, but messaging either of them is not an option. Spencer because, frankly, Ran doesn’t have anything to say to that ass. Josie… There’s actually a lot he’d like to say to her at the moment, but her wishes were clear and he’d be a poor friend if he didn’t respect them. So both of those options are out.

Of course he can and does send an update to his dad, but he already knows that the reply, when it comes later that evening when the man’s done working, will just boil down to a variation of ‘proud of you, keep it up!’.

So once that’s done, he really doesn’t have too many options left. In truth, there’s really only one. Thus, he opens up his chat with Grady, hesitating for a few seconds as he figures out a good opener and then starts typing.

Ran: Yo Grady, how’s things on your end?

He spends two minutes regretting his chosen words, only able to keep looking at them and keep finding them more cringeworthy with every new read. But then, his pokégear vibrates with an incoming message and, upon reading Grady’s eager reply, his self doubt evaporates.

Grady: Hey! Super great! I beat Whitney yesterday! She got me a Thunder Stone so now my Eevee’s a Jolteon!!!

Ran: Congrats, that’s huge, on both counts. If you’ve got the time, I’d be happy to read the recap! First, though, are you still in Goldenrod or are you back on the road? Coming to Cianwood by any chance?

Grady: I’m still in Goldenrod for the day because my family is throwing a party for me winning my third badge! Tomorrow, I’m actually setting out for Ecruteak instead of Cianwood, sorry! How are you doing over there?

Ran: I’m doing well. I got a bit banged up in a race against another rookie trainer, which was organized by Gym Leader Chuck. But I beat her and I’ve added a fifth team member as a result, because that was the reward Chuck had on offer.

Grady: Whoa really?! That’s totally super awesome!

Grady: What kind of pokémon??

Grady: I thought you were specializing in poison-types???

As Ran’s pokégear starts vibrating increasingly incessantly again as Grady gets worked up, he starts typing another brief message to remind the other boy to mind the spam. Before he can even get halfway through typing it up however, Grady’s next message comes in.

Grady: Sorry about the spam! I got excited. I’ll calm down now.

Ran: Thanks. It’s a Croagunk, which is from Sinnoh and it’s a poison-fighting dual-type.

Ran: But I only won it an hour ago and I haven’t even introduced the rest of my team to it, so a proper update will have to wait. How about you tell me about your match against Whitney first?

Grady: Sure thing! It was epic!

Ran leans back with an amused smile against his bed, as he waits for the first of what promises to be a series of effusively long messages. He doesn’t find himself minding however, especially not when Caesar and Skorupi are both happily dozing nearby.