"Hello? Is anyone here?"
Seeing that no one responded for a long while, the boy was just about to leave.
That's when an eager voice suddenly called out:
"Wait! You're a challenger, right? Come in, come in!"
Caleb came running out with Green in tow, smiling brightly to greet him.
It had been nearly half a month since the last live human showed up at the Gym—he couldn't let this one get away.
Beside the boy was a Pikachu wearing a yellow-and-blue cap. He had blue eyes and brown hair.
Even though the weather was cold, he wore only a thin green short-sleeved shirt and matching pants—textbook hot-blooded anime protagonist.
Caleb recognized him immediately.
Wasn't this Ritchie, the kid who knocked Ash out of the Indigo Plateau Conference?
Thanks to Charizard refusing to listen, Ritchie had barely edged out a win and made it into the top eight.
Didn't expect to run into him here in Sinnoh.
After inviting him into the Gym, Caleb made a small request.
"Mind if I record a video?"
"Huh?"
Ritchie blinked, surprised. It was the first time he'd gotten such a request. After thinking for a moment, he didn't see any issue. "Uh… sure, go ahead."
With Ritchie's permission, Caleb set up the camera, but wasn't happy with the static angle. He called over Rotom and had it possess the camera for better control.
As everything was ready, a sudden idea struck him, and he asked, "Mr. Ritchie, did you come here because you heard about me?"
"Eh?"
The unexpected question threw Ritchie off again.
This was an official Gym, right?
He fumbled for words before managing to say, "Well… I'm actually traveling through Sinnoh. I happened to pass by this town and heard from Nurse Joy at the Pokémon Center that there was a good Gym here, so I thought I'd check it out…"
Caleb immediately cringed, curling his toes in embarrassment. Why the heck did he ask that? Now it was just awkward.
Still—thanks, Fiona, for sending me a challenger. I swear I won't report you for slacking at work next time.
Caleb silently made a vow in his heart.
Meanwhile, Green had changed into a slightly dusty referee vest and stood at the center of the field.
Raising the red and blue flags in her hands, she announced: "A Gym battle for the Solaceon Badge is about to begin. The challenger is Ritchie from the Kanto region."
"The rules are two versus two. The Gym Leader sends out the first Pokémon and cannot switch during the match. The battle ends when both of one side's Pokémon are unable to battle. The remaining side wins."
"The match begins now!"
After reading the rules, Green stepped out of the battle zone.
Above them, the Rotom-possessed camera started recording.
Having not battled in a while, Caleb rubbed the Poké Ball in his hands and smiled gently.
"My first Pokémon will be this one."
"Go, Sableye!"
The Luxury Ball popped open midair, flashing with white light.
"Boo~!"
A creepy-looking purple Pokémon appeared, with blue gemstones embedded in its eyes, and gems on its chest and back.
Sableye?
Wasn't this supposed to be a Poison-type Gym?
Ritchie was slightly confused, but when he thought of the Elite Four back home, it started to make more sense.
There were no rules saying a Poison-type Gym had to use only Poison-types.
"In that case, go, Cruise!"
Ritchie, like Red, had the habit of nicknaming his Pokémon.
He threw a red-and-white Poké Ball decorated with a star sticker.
A cocoon-like Pokémon covered in grayish-blue armor appeared on the field.
Pupitar, the pre-evolution of the pseudo-legendary Tyranitar.
Unlike the Sandstorm Tyrant Tyranitar, Pupitar's ability was Shed Skin.
At the end of every turn, there was a one-third chance of curing its status effects.
That meant Toxic and similar debuffs probably wouldn't be very effective. Caleb was a bit disappointed, and Ritchie seized the chance to move first.
"Cruise, Dragon Dance!"
While Ritchie took inspiration from Ash, he didn't inherit Ash's reckless nature from the early days.
His battle style was cautious and methodical.
Planning to stack boosts and steamroll the fight?
Nice try!
"Fake Out," Caleb said calmly.
Sableye's gemstone eyes gleamed, and in an instant, it rushed up to Pupitar.
Just as it was about to start dancing—
SLAP!
A sudden, brutal smack shut it right down.
The Dragon Dance was interrupted on the spot. Even though Pupitar's face was protected by thick armor, that unexpected slap still felt like a major humiliation.
"Fake Out, huh…"
Ritchie had challenged over a dozen Gyms during the Indigo Plateau Conference and had never met a Leader who used Fake Out this effectively.
Fortunately, Sableye didn't hit that hard, so Ritchie didn't worry too much.
The priority now was to keep stacking boosts.
"Cruise, Dragon Dance again!"
Fake Out only worked on the first turn, so this time, the Dragon Dance went off without a hitch.
"Encore," Caleb said with a smile.
!!!
There it was—Caleb's signature dirty tactic.
From the ref's box, Green wasn't surprised at all. Watching Caleb's battles always revealed a few rare and underused moves.
Encore forced the opponent to repeat their last move for the next three turns.
In other words, Pupitar could only keep dancing.
Watching Pupitar spin again and again, Ritchie's face began to twitch.
I mean… this many Dragon Dances is a bit much, don't you think?
Meanwhile, in the air, Rotom kindly zoomed in for a nice close-up of Pupitar, recording its glorious triple spin session in full HD.
Sableye didn't waste the downtime either—set up Reflect and Light Screen, then used Substitute.
By the time Pupitar snapped out of its Dragon Dance daze, Sableye had a truly menacing presence.
+3 Attack! +3 Speed!
At this point, one Earthquake could probably KO Sableye seven or eight times over.
Ritchie realized this too, and his frustration began to lift. If not now, then when?
"Cruise, Earthquake!"
"Sableye, Psych Up."
Caleb still wore his calm smile.
Psych Up copies the target's stat changes by mentally syncing with them.
Not as direct as Marshadow's Spectral Thief, but just as effective.
Ah. I see what you did there.
Ritchie finally understood why Caleb hadn't attacked during Pupitar's Encore—he'd been waiting to copy all of its buffs.
...So sneaky!
Watching all its hard-earned stat boosts get copied in an instant, Pupitar was not having a good time.
While it was still dazed, Caleb gave his next command.
"Foul Play!"
With a shout, Sableye turned into a black blur and lunged at Pupitar with incredible speed.
Foul Play is a Dark-type move that uses the opponent's Attack stat against them—the higher the opponent's Attack, the more damage it deals.
And right now, it was facing a Sableye with +3 Attack, targeting a +3 Attack Pupitar...
Do the math...
I'm toast!