"Holy crap!"
"Evolved mid-battle? That's straight-up dirty!"
"Did this guy bring Gastly just to grind XP?!"
Maybe they really should tear down the spectator stands—every match ends with this kind of nonsense.
Caleb mulled it over silently.
"Gua~sī? ( 'w' )?"
Hey hey hey, your boy's got hands now.
Haunter glanced down at its newly formed claws, waving them in the air, checking out the left and right like it just got a new toy.
Now that I have hands, I can turn pages with them. No more flipping with my tongue~(?′?`?).
As Ritchie recalled Tyranitar, he couldn't help but feel a little deflated.
His ace had fallen. All he had left now was Rose.
"Go, Rose." Ritchie tossed out another Poké Ball.
With a flash of white light—
A Swellow, shaped like a swallow, soared back onto the battlefield.
BOOM!
The moment it emerged, it triggered Stealth Rock—slamming it hard into the ground.
"Tsshh!"
What the—?! That wasn't there earlier!
As a Normal/Flying-type, Swellow was especially vulnerable to Rock-type Stealth Rock.
"Gua~sī?"
Haunter scratched its head with its tiny claws, totally confused.
What's the deal? It's not even New Year's and y'all already throwing firecrackers at me?
Seeing Swellow take flight again, Ritchie encouraged it:
"It's alright, Rose. You're faster. Use Wing Attack!"
Riled up by its Trainer's words, Swellow found its rhythm and prepared to strike.
But Caleb got the first word in: "Sucker Punch."
"..."
In an instant—
Haunter appeared right in front of Swellow, raised its tiny paw...
SMACK!
A clean backhand—packed with Dark-type energy.
Swellow was stunned, knocked senseless before it even got a chance to flap.
"Icy Wind," Caleb said coolly.
"Gua~sī."
Haunter opened its wide mouth and unleashed a gust of frigid air—not gas, for once.
The chilling wind engulfed Swellow in seconds, frosting over its feathers.
At the same time, its speed dropped one stage.
"Rose, pull back and use Roost to heal!" Ritchie ordered quickly.
"Tsshh~"
Swellow had barely started to react when Haunter clung to it like a piece of cursed duct tape.
"Taunt."
Did... did he just read me again?!
SMACK!
Another backhand cracked across Swellow's face.
Swellow stared at Haunter, eyes wide in disbelief.
Bro, come on. Everyone else just wags a finger or makes a face when they Taunt. Why you out here hitting me?!
Haunter: Soooo... did it work?
Swellow: "..."
Wait.
This... this slap had poison in it!
Swellow's right cheek puffed up. A faint violet glow spread over its body, its eyes rolled back, and foam began to bubble from its beak.
Hovering nearby was Haunter, cackling like a goblin.
"Yo what—hidden poison?! That's messed up!"
"Nooo—Rose, hang in there! Come on, buddy... no!"
"You bastard! Bullying kids?! Fight me 1v1 IRL if you've got the guts!"
"Poison Gym, huh? Figures they'd end a match with some shady poison crap!"
Okay... ending with a Poison-type move in a Poison Gym—sure, thematically that does make sense.
But I never told Haunter to use poison!
Where the hell did it even learn that?
Caleb rubbed his chin, deep in thought.
...
After the match—
Ritchie was full-on questioning life.
Still, he'd been through worse. The loss didn't crush him.
At least this time, he'd taken down one of the Gym Leader's Pokémon. "Thank you for the match. I'll be back again," he said, bowing respectfully.
Just as he turned to leave, Caleb called out to him.
Ritchie stopped, looking back in confusion. Caleb smiled and spoke slowly:
"Even though you didn't defeat me this time, based on your performance and skill, you've more than earned the Solaceon Badge."
His words, warm like spring sunlight, lit up Ritchie's heart.
Ritchie's eyes widened in disbelief. He stammered, "R-Really?"
"Of course. The point of a Gym is to help young Trainers grow and improve. You don't have to beat the Gym Leader to earn the badge.
At its core, this place is a test site for evaluating a Trainer's overall capabilities—and I'm the examiner.
Sometimes, when a Gym's strength far surpasses that of its challengers, the Leader might go easy to give more people a shot at passing.
Others won't go easy, but if they respect your abilities, they'll still award you the badge.
And today, even though you didn't win, your strategy, your team-building, and the mental resilience you showed in the face of setbacks—all of it was excellent."
At that—
The Four Color Squad couldn't sit still anymore.
"What about us?! Why didn't you say that earlier?!"
"Uhh... forgot."
Truth be told, if Officer Lyn Jenny hadn't reminded him in the group chat that missing badge reports would cancel his year-end bonus, Caleb wouldn't have remembered at all.
"Forgot?!"
The blond guy's eyes went wide as he shouted, "Do you have any idea how much work we put in to get this badge?!
You think you can brush us off with just 'forgot'? Nobody stop me, I'm gonna 1v1 him IRL!"
All that pent-up frustration finally exploded.
"Chansey, show them out."
"Luuucky~"
The Chansey that emerged from the Poké Ball gave a sweet little chirp.
Then waddled up, spread its stubby arms wide, and easily scooped all four of them into a giant group hug.
"Put us down! Put us down!"
The four of them squirmed and screamed as they were carried toward the exit.
"I'm reporting you to the League! I swear I'm reporting you!"
The blond one's voice echoed through the Gym—
Only to be silenced by a loud CLANG as the doors shut firmly behind them.
"Phew..." Caleb let out a long sigh. "Finally. Peace and quiet."
Then he turned back to Ritchie: "Right—your badge. Lemme find it."
He rummaged through his left pocket.
Nothing.
Checked the right.
Still nothing.
"Hmm... where the heck did I put it?"
He scratched his head, muttering.
Wait... what does my badge even look like?
Oh crap, I don't think I've ever seen it!
But then his eyes lit up.
Old Man's storage shed should have some!
He tossed that line to Ritchie, then bolted off toward the backyard.
Ritchie just stared after him, dumbfounded.
"...Okay."
Backyard – Old Man's Shed.
"Golden Repel? Nope."
"Big Pearl? Nope."
"Bicycle? Still nope."
Why's all this stuff useless junk? Where's the badge? Come on, show yourself.
Wait—found it!
Caleb yanked a dusty metal box off a shelf in the corner. The label read Solaceon Badge, looked pretty old.
He opened it.
Inside were two things: a pile of metal badges, and a grayish-white feather.
The feather looked ragged and worn, but you could tell it had once been beautiful.
The badges seemed to be modeled after that feather.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue... all sorts of colors painted across the iron surface. Looked kinda like a rainbow.
Rainbow?
Caleb stared at the feather.
Then at the badge.
Uhhh...
No freakin' way. Is this... the Rainbow Wing?!