The next morning, Ash and Misty left the Pokémon Center and headed straight for Pewter Gym.
After registering at the Gym's front desk, a uniformed Gym Trainer—briefed ahead of time by Brock—led them inward.
Deep within Pewter Gym—
The Core.
The air felt heavy as lead, filled with the cold, hard smell of stone.
The huge circular arena was paved with neatly cut slabs of pale grey rock, each block sharply edged, the overhead floodlights turning them into a sea of dull shine.
Around the edges, rough-hewn stone pillars stood like jagged fangs, casting long, oppressive shadows.
The space was enormous.
Every footstep echoed, a dull, short-lived sound, swallowed almost instantly by the deeper silence.
It was far too big.
The kind of battlefield that had no business being used for a rookie's first Badge match.
Ash and Misty stood at the entrance as the heavy rock doors rumbled shut behind them, cutting off the light from outside.
"This is… the Core?" Misty's voice dropped instinctively.
Her orange ponytail looked almost too bright under the harsh white lights.
It felt bigger than Cerulean's field. Much bigger.
She turned slowly, feeling like she'd been swallowed into some stone giant's stomach.
This was not where a normal newcomer fought.
Was this… against regulations?
Or was there some special reason?
Gym Leaders were supposed to follow League rules in theory,
but as local bosses, they enjoyed a lot of freedom in practice.
As long as they could give a halfway reasonable explanation, a little "bending" of the rules was no big deal.
The League couldn't really do much.
"Pika…"
Pikachu crouched tensely on Ash's shoulder, small body tight as a bowstring. Its dark eyes swept the too-silent arena, cheeks sparking faintly to push away the suffocating atmosphere.
It felt it.
A powerful presence.
Several of them, in fact.
At the far end of the field—
A figure stood as if rooted in the rock itself.
Brock waited with arms folded, stone-hard face carved sharper by the shadows. His eyes were as calm and deep as a still pool.
The only problem?
At fifteen, he already looked thirty-five.
If there were awards for "mature face speedrun," Brock would sweep the category.
What he thought about that, no one knew.
His gaze locked onto Ash the moment the boy stepped into the Core.
No greetings. No small talk.
Only a heavy, silent scrutiny pressing down like a mountain.
"Pewter Gym Leader, Brock."
His low voice rolled through the arena, rough as stone sliding on stone.
"Accepts your challenge."
A referee in Gym uniform stepped up to the edge of the field, face blank. His voice rang out through the speakers, clear and mercilessly formal:
"Gym challenge rules:
Two-on-two, one-on-one relay battle.
The challenger may switch Pokémon freely.
The Gym Leader may not switch.
The battle ends when one side's Pokémon are all unable to fight.
Battle… begin!"
Short. Clean. No wasted words.
The atmosphere tightened like a drawn bowstring.
"Got it!" Ash drew a deep breath, forcing down the flutter in his chest at stepping into such a massive arena for the first time. His eyes sharpened in an instant.
He snapped his arm up, a Poké Ball flying from his belt.
"Then it's you! River Thug!"
Under the gaze of everyone present, the golden Gyarados burst from its Ball.
"…A golden Gyarados?" Brock's eyes widened slightly.
Bringing a Water-type against a Rock Gym was the right play.
But most rookies didn't have strong Water-types. And among commonly seen Pokémon, Gyarados was one of the strongest Water-types around.
Even that was already rare.
But a golden Gyarados…?
He'd never even heard of one.
In terms of rarity, that wasn't far off from genuinely endangered species.
"In that case, I'll meet you with Onix."
Brock's reply was steady as he tossed his own Poké Ball.
A giant of stone erupted onto the field.
His Onix was bigger than Gyarados.
By a lot.
Ash rubbed his chin, quickly estimating.
His golden Gyarados was about seven meters long, maybe three tons.
Brock's Onix didn't look like any special variant, but judging from its sheer size…
Nine meters at least. Maybe more.
Weight? Rough guess—
around thirty tons.
Close combat?
Not happening.
Onix and other Rock-types were a nightmare for rookies.
Their mass alone meant their "baseline" power was absurd.
Weight was power. That was why real-world fighting sports always divided competitors by weight classes.
Rock-types also had one perk:
Poison hardly bothered them.
Real Trainer battles were messy. There were more factors than just "type matchups" and numbers.
Height and weight were part of the calculus too.
"ROOOOAR——!"
Gyarados's massive body coiled over the stone field, golden scales flashing like molten armor in the floodlights. Its red eyes locked onto the even larger stone serpent across from it.
Stone dust floated in the air, mixing with the faint tang of water vapor from Gyarados's body.
Strictly speaking, this kind of field wasn't ideal for Gyarados's performance.
Its best environment was still the sea.
But the Gym League rules had another quiet constant:
Battles were never truly "fair."
Humans needed breathable air and solid ground.
Ocean-depth arenas, perfect for Gyarados, simply weren't an option.
Even Cerulean Gym's field was mostly surface water battles, not underwater warfare.
Flying-types had a similar issue.
Aside from specialized Flying Gyms, most standard Gym arenas didn't give Flying-types room to stretch out into full-speed, sustained aerial combat.
"River Thug, Water Gun!" Ash's voice cut through the heavy air.
He didn't care if the attack hit Onix.
The main goal was to soak the field.
He'd thought this through before ever stepping in.
"Rraaah?"
Gyarados reared its head, throat swelling. A thick beam of water blasted from its jaws.
"Shaaaaa!"
Onix twisted its massive body with surprising agility, instinctively sliding away.
It hated water.
Even without orders, it would never deliberately take a full blast like that.
Water hammered the stone floor.
"WHOOOSH—!!"
Spray exploded everywhere.
Water rushed along seams and dips in the rocks, pooling wherever it could, turning the pale slabs dark with moisture almost instantly.
Droplets glittered like glass shards in the harsh lights.
"…Hn?"
On the far side, Brock's stone-hard face creased just slightly.
Water, not aimed at Onix?
He understood Ash's intention at once.
"You're trying to flood the arena and turn it into one big conductor. You want to set the stage… for that Pikachu."
His voice stayed flat, betraying nothing.
Why was it so easy to guess he had a Pikachu?
Because Ash's Pikachu was right there on his shoulder.
You didn't need to be a genius.
See a powerful Electric-type and a Water-type hosing everything down?
Yeah. The plan wasn't complicated.
"Not a bad idea," Brock said.
"But your Gyarados…"
"Isn't going to last that long."
"Onix! Rock Tomb! Lock down its movement!"
Gyarados could "fly"—
but without enough space, it was more like a big snake hovering clumsily over the ground.
"Shaaaaaa——!!!"
Onix hissed deeply. Its massive tail swung high, then crashed down in front of Gyarados with earth-shaking force.
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM——!
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/StrawHatStudios