Although it seemed like Joey's wish of finding a third team member had been fulfilled in the most ironic fashion, namely too late to train them. He did find a new team member. It was even one of the perfect types for the upcoming gym, completely unintentionally. Exactly where he'd never bothered to look before; the Pokemon of other people. Was there an untapped market of Pokemon being trained by other trainers who were too hard-working and thus made their trainers feel bad and made them want to trade them?

Probably not, but no one would deny that the Diglett had come to him very fortuitously. It wasn't even overly complicated to accept him into his team. The old man simply handed him the Pokeball and signed the documents stating that the Diglett had traded trainers. Documents that he'd already had prepared, for some reason. They didn't even have to leave the motel. That's how easy it was.

The only downside of how he'd received Diglett was the fact that he'd gotten him one hour before his scheduled gym battle. This meant that he was able to prepare strategically, and in terms of training, just about fuck all.

Additionally, Diglett had already tired himself out with his very persistent training and probably didn't have the amount of energy necessary to win a gym battle. Hopefully, Metapod and Rattata would pick up the slack there.

Otherwise, Joey had used 40 minutes to familiarise himself with the enthusiastic and hard-working, if a bit slow Pokemon, before he already had to summon him back to his ball and stroll on to the gym.

The old man was joining him, saying that his wife would take care of the motel while they were gone. Considering that the only guests were the youngsters, Ruth, and the bus driver, who would all be out until the evening, Joey didn't quite know what there was to take care of, but he was hardly a hotelier so he bowed down to the man's assumed wisdom.

Lorelei had already left, immediately after arrival to Vermillion, citing that she was going to explore some underwater caves near the coast to the east or something.

While David previously with his Marowak had shown that type advantages were not everything, battling the electric type gym with a ground type was a bit of a cheat. Even if the ground type in question was tired, unused to Joey's commands and completely inexperienced. It was about as hard of a counter as Magnemite was to Rattata.

Also, it was hardly possible for Surge to order Raichu to self-destruct, so the same strategy as had been used against the Marowak would not be up for debate.

It was after the unlikely duo had reached the gym, that they had to split up. The old man would be looking at the battle from the spectator stands, which already looked quite empty. It made sense considering the late time of day.

After a quick chat with the receptionist, Joey was pointed in the direction of a preparation room, where he found Sabrina and Ruth waiting for him and Michael.

"Birdbrain got lost on the way?" Joey joked as he sat down on one of the wooden benches and leaned back, kicking one leg over the other.

Ruth gave him a confused look, while Sabrina simply rolled her eyes and then closed them.

"Who's bird brain?" Ruth asked cutely, like the old lady that she was. Her Butterfree wasn't out for once. "Is this some new-fangled slang for a friend?"

"He's currently entangled in a battle with some Tentacool at the docks," Sabrina suddenly said as her eyes glowed blue.

Joey paused, not having expected that answer. Although, it was definitely very Michael.

"A fisher just helped him out with his Poliwag. He's running over now, very wet." Sabrina updated them on Michael's situation again.

Joey giggled. It was funny getting such stupid news in such a deadpan voice. Would it kill the girl to add some emotional inflexion to her words?

He turned to Ruth. "How are we going to settle who's going to go when?" he asked. "I sort of want to go first, honestly." Going first meant that there was less of a chance of Surge running out of Raichu and sending out a Magneton. That would basically be his death sentence.

"The gym leader hasn't told me anything," Ruth said from where she was sitting down at a wooden bench in the corner of the room. There was a TV blaring right above her head, showing a live stream of the battlefield which was currently empty. "I assume he'll come get us when it's time and then we can just decide amongst ourselves?" she mused.

It was very obvious that she had lost a lot of her energy due to the wait they had to endure due to the Slowpoke migration. In previous interactions, he'd usually found her to be more energetic than Sabrina.

"All right," Joey sighed. "I guess it's the waiting game for us."

"The only game tonight is the game of battle!" someone suddenly boomed from the other entrance to the locker room. Joey looked over and saw an absolutely humongous unit of a man fill out the whole door frame with his arms crossed and a flagrant grin on his face. A shock of yellow hair topped his head and the yellow tank top mashed fairly well with the combat pants and boots. A belt with about 15 Pokeballs on it was hung at the man's side.

"I want to go first, dibs," Joey said before anyone else could pipe up. He felt like Sabrina was shooting him a glare, but he didn't look over to check. He was more focused on trying to stare down the gym leader into submission.

If the man was intimidated, he definitely didn't show it. He just threw his head back and laughed. "Well if you're looking to get your ass kicked that hard, then who am I to stand your way!" Surge's voice filled the locker room like an amped ghettoblaster with bass add-ons.

Did the dude have a mute button? Or a volume-down option? Joey wondered.

Without saying anything else, Surge bid Joey to follow and turned around.

The young boy stood up with a shrug and went along with the gimmick. The faster this was over, the faster the poor man could get on with his break. It was already eight in the evening. Was there anything to do other than dinner, sleep and then waking up tomorrow to do it all over again?

Quite frankly, being a gym leader sounded like a really shit job.

Joey exited the locker room to see that behind it was a corridor that could go either to the left or to the right. The left was clearly labelled as 'gym,' and the right had a big red 'challenger' spray painted on it along with an arrow. Joey took the hint and went right. It was a long grey cement tunnel of a walk, before he emerged onto the arena, bright stadium lights making the battlefield look as if it was daytime.

In front of him stood a larger red platform which he could use to command his team from the high ground. Surge was already standing on the opposite platform, which was electric yellow.

The referee in his chequered shirt was looking at both of them impatiently. It seemed like the Slowpoke had ruined several people's plans for the evening.

Stolen novel; please report.

Joey quickly ascended the platform, noticing out of the corner of his eyes how a bright blue light signalled Sabrina's teleportation into the spectator stand, which were otherwise mostly empty. It was well beyond dinner time people were likely relaxing at home, not seeking the excitement of electrifying battle anymore.

A piece of gravel had obviously gotten caught in Joey's shoe. It scraped against the floor as he adjusted his stance, hand at the belt at his side, to face Surge, who was grinning at him from the other side.

"Are you ready, challenger, for your third badge challenge?" the man shouted excitedly. Where was he getting all that energy?

"I'm ready!" Joey shouted back.

This was then the point where the referee butted in. "This will be a battle between Jonathan Joestar of Saffron and gym leader Lt. Surge of Vermilion. This will be a one-on-three battle in which the challenger will be allowed no substitutions," the man dramatically raised one of the little flags in his hand and swung it down.

"Trainers, release your Pokemon!"

A small flicker of movement from Joey's peripheral vision allowed him to see a psychic barrier spring up over the battlefield to protect the audience from errant lightning bolts.

A hand went down to his pokebelt, from where he unclipped Metapod's Pokeball. "Go, Metapod!" he shouted and the green crescent bug materialised on his side of the gravelly arena.

On the other side meanwhile, an arrogant-looking looking Raichu emerged from a red beam of light. It looked disparagingly at Metapod, before turning its head to look at its trainer. 'Really?' it seemed to be saying.

Surge's facial features remained the same, however.

"We go all out no matter the opponents," his voice boomed. "That's our ninja way," he told his Pokemon. This caused the Raichu to menacingly spark some electricity along its yellow cheeks and punch its fists together.

"Meta," Joey's Pokemon muttered. Knowing her she was likely incensed that her opponent thought her weak, while also happy that the gym leader was going to take her seriously. At the same time, it maybe wasn't the best that she wasn't being underestimated. That was one of the biggest advantages of fielding Pokemon which were considered weak. People didn't take them seriously until it was too late.

"Battle, commence!" the referee announced. The time for thinking was over.

"Raichu, Thunderbolt!" Surge shouted without any sort of preamble, seemingly wanting to get this battle out of the way.

The orange mouse Pokemon threw its head back, chanted its name and then bobbed forward, with electricity building up along its body.

A gigantic crackling stream of lightning escaped the Pokemon and rushed towards Metapod.

Thankfully, the bug type was prepared and what met the electric attack in midair was a large dose of String Shot. Any less and the electricity would have likely simply burned through and went on to hit Metapod. The two attacks cancelled each other out, to Raichu's and Surge's obvious surprise. Joey gained a second of thinking time.

A bead of sweat ran down Joey's brow as he realised that Metapod didn't have enough material available to block several of those Thunderbolts.

However, they would have to gamble on Surge not realising that and eventually sending Raichu in for a physical battle. That was why it was important to not use Harden actually, as that would decentivize the action.

"Metapod, small burst String Shot," Joey called out. Obviously, they couldn't just counter, but also had to attack. Small little strings would be enough to keep the Raichu on its toes while also not wasting more of the precious string reserve.

Raichu for his part simply twirled out of the way of the small burst of white attacks, before executing Surge's next command. "Double team," the gym leader had ordered. Raichu wiggled and split into several images of itself which surrounded Metapod from all sides. A circle of hideously grinning orange.

From watching David's battle, Joey had learned that the Raichu was probably a fifth badge Pokemon. At least that one had been. The only reason this challenge was somewhat fair was because the challenger could use three Pokemon to face one.

"Block this," Surge taunted. "Thunder Shock."

Thankfully Raichu's Double Team wasn't on the level where it could replicate the illusion of the attack from all of the images encircling Metapod, which meant that the attack revealed the real Raichu.

Unfortunately, the real Raichu was sparking up behind Metapod, the opposite side of where her mouth had to be to block the attack.

Thankfully, they'd worked something out to counteract such a strategy.

"Behind you Metapod, spin and block," Joey said calmly, at which Metapod flipped onto her side and rather than staying there, she shot some string from her mouth just strong enough to turn her 180 degrees for a half turn before righting herself up. From this position, a String Shot net flew out to block the Thunder Shock coming her way.

The white and the yellow once again met mid-air and fizzled out into nothing. Just a bit of ash remained as a memory of the collision, which slowly drifted to the floor. Metapod then spat out a few tiny String Shots to harass the Raichu and force it to dodge again.

"Bah!" Surge exclaimed from the other side of the field. "If all you can do is stall, then don't mind if I do! Raichu Charge Beam!" he called out.

Joey had of course known that the Raichu Surge used for his third badge challenges knew this move, which was why he already had a strategy prepared for dealing with it.

Of course, there wasn't anything that Metapod could do, but he as a trainer could give the wrong impression. A String Shot hit the charge beam in midair, both attacks cancelling each other out once again. Raichu lit up with electric energy, seemingly getting lucky and getting the special attack increase immediately.

"It doesn't matter how strong you get if you run out of stamina," Joey shouted confidently from his side of the field. "If all you plan on doing is hitting us from afar, then we'll whittle you down with just one Pokemon," he taunted loudly enough for Surge to hear him.

It was true in a way as well. Surge could use Charge Beam to buff up his Raichu for the next two Pokemon from Joey, but it wasn't a move that could beat Metapod as was being shown. Raichu could run out of stamina before he even got the face Joey's second Pokemon, which was what Joey hoped Surge was thinking. He of course knew that the amount of string a Metapod could produce was limited.

Also, was there even really a point in raising special attack when one Thunderbolt was already enough to knock out one's enemy? Surviving even one fully charged attack from the Raichu was probably impossible for everyone but Diglett.

Surge didn't seem to share his opinion and simply grinned. The next few exchanges followed the same pattern of Raichu firing off a Charge Beam, Metapod blocking it off with String Shot, Raichu getting strengthened by the move, and Metapod firing a few small String Shots at the Pokemon.

It was after the 4th of such repetition, that Surge finally decided that he'd had enough. He called out a move that Joey had hoped he wouldn't use.

"All right, Raichu, I think we're amped up enough for this one. Volt Tackle! Blow it away!" he shouted.

Joey had hoped that the man would use Quick Attack, to conserve some energy and avoid a recoil. After all, while Raichu was in the state of Volt Tackle it couldn't really be poisoned. All the toxic thread sent out would simply fizzle away from the heat of the lightning. Which meant that they would have to make a sacrifice play here.

"All right Metapod, Harden in preparation," Joey said as an amazing amount of electricity started crackling around the Raichu's form and it went down on all fours. Its dangerous-looking tail whipped around madly.

Harden in this case was a predetermined code for Metapod to prepare a poison attack in her mouth. It wasn't like she could really dodge or block a Volt Tackle. Elemental physical moves were one of her weaknesses. For example, she could maybe extinguish the flame part of a wheel with enough string, but then she still gets smacked by the physical part of the attack. It seemed that Surge had known this, which is why he buffed the volt tackle with Charge Beam to make it a 100% finishing move and avoid having to recoil twice.

Raichu suddenly blurred forward. It was the fastest that Joey had seen the Pokemon move the entire match and in the span of one second, it had already traversed the fifty or so feet separating it from Metapod.

Joey's bug didn't try to dodge. How could it, after all? There was nothing to attach a String Shot to, to get out of the way. The ground was made out of loose gravel so if she tried to pull herself along that, she'd just pick up some stones.

As befitting of his expectations and internal monologue, the two Pokemon crashed together, Raichu smashing into Metapod from the front and discharging a deluge of electricity into the poor bug. However, just as the attack dissipated and Raichu flinched from the recoil, Metapod spewed poison sludge from her mouth. It hit the Raichu right in the face and travelled down its body to paint its orange coat of fur a noxious purple.

Then she promptly passed out.

The referee raised the flag signalling that one of Joey's Pokemon had been eliminated.

Joey mused that this was a very similar situation to how Surge, earlier in the day, had ordered two Self-destructs. One of his Pokemon had gotten locked out, but it has been to his advantage. The man seemed to realise that his play had been turned on him as he grimly watched the poison seep into Raichu's body through its pores. The electric type mildly twitching from what was probably a significant amount of pain.

Joey recalled Metapod, his hand going surgically to his belt to consider which Pokemon to send out next.

Both Diglett and Rattata could probably stall well enough. The advantage of sending out Diglett now would be that even if he got knocked out fast, Raichu would be more tired and hurt by poison. On the other hand,

Diglett would undoubtedly do worse than Rattata, so it might relieve some of the pressure that Raichu must be feeling right now due to its poisoning.

"Challenger, send out your Pokemon," the referee reminded him.

Joey made a decision based on his battling philosophy. When you have an advantage in momentum, you don't let go of it.

"Rattata," he called as the purple rat materialised on the field with a chitter of its name. Its colour matched the Raichu, now that it had been covered with poison spew.

However, it was up for debate if that didn't just make the Raichu angrier and thus stronger.

The referee shouted for the match to begin and both trainers called out their moves.

"Rattata, Quick Attack."

"Raichu, Thunder Wave," Surge shouted. He seemed to be done with the battle. From what Joey had seen he didn't usually use the status inflicting electric move. It was a more surefire way to battle, but it cost a bit of time. Paralyzed Pokemon couldn't dodge Raichu's powerful Volt Tackle or Thunderbolt, but considering most Pokemon couldn't dodge it anyway, there was no point in setting them up for it.

"Raichu," the Pokemon exclaimed, lighting up a dazzling yellow and firing a wide burst Thunder Wave right at the approaching white Rattata missile.

"Go under," Joey said calmly and just before Rattata would have been hit by the move, he simply disappeared, having slipped underground. The Thunder Wave dispersed against the earth as it tried to follow him along.

Raichu was left alone on the field with a scowl on his face.

"Await arrival, Mega Punch down," Surge ordered.

An experienced Pokemon like Raichu would probably be capable of trading a Dig for a Mega Punch. With the difference in strength, it would likely be a winning gamble as well. However, Joey thought as he shouted his next move… Thinking that they would simply come up to be smacked around was a bit naive. He'd taught Rattata Swift for a reason.

"Come up and engage," Joey shouted. He was on a metal platform so he couldn't communicate with his feet, but Rattata's ears were good enough to hear him even through a tunnel. Engage in this case meant to come up and attack from range.

Raichu's right fist was already glowing as the Pokemon raised it in preparation to strike downwards. It was completely unprepared for Rattata to pop up dozens of feet away and spin around once in the air, firing off a barrage of Swift, before once again disappearing into the ground.

The Mega Punch fizzled away and Raichu backed up to give itself more time to shoot out a small but wide Thunder Wave which dissipated the incoming attack. Then, it twitched from the poison running through its system.

The battle entered a stalemate. This time, to Joey's advantage.