The Dave
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Chapter 21, part 3
🕑 Added 2025-01-15 13:26:22 +0000 UTCStarting from the Gym, Chuck took them on a roughly southwestern course. The three flags have all been positioned roughly to the north of each other. A quick glance at the map his pokégear displays is enough to confirm that he’s roughly drawn level with the Gym once more, meaning that a directly eastern course would be the swiftest way for him to make it back to the Gym.
Unfortunately, a look in that direction isn’t all that encouraging. The plateau he’s on drops away sharply at its eastern edge, not offering any real path down as it turns directly into the deep and steep valley separating this mountain spine from the next one. On the other side of the valley, there does appear to be enough of a ledge to run along and that does run east in between two cliffs promising progress in the right direction at least. But the ledge is at least a hundred feet away and only a few feet lower than his own position.
It’s an impossible shot for Aria, which leaves Golbat as the only one that could reasonably make it. Considering the distance involved and how he struggled earlier, when he could descend a lot more between point A and point B compared to the current situation, Ran is hesitant about his flying-type’s ability to carry the load. He can probably do it, but at that point he’ll genuinely have to retire Golbat for the rest of the day. So he’ll just have to continue along the hiking path which runs roughly northeast until a better option presents itself.
Just as he comes to that conclusion, however, the decision is made for him, as Doro appears on the plateau, her arrival announced by pounding feet and loud, labored breaths. Ran can’t help but glance in her direction, to take stock of his rival for the day. The sight isn’t encouraging in the least, as Doro’s own expression lights up when she spots him.
Her eyes catch on his bare feet, then shift to the Poliwrath that’s still holding on to his shoes and then to the patiently waiting elder. Immediately, she moves to untie her shoes.
Well that’s his decision made for him, then.
“Come on out, Golbat!” He orders hurriedly, even as he takes a few steps back from the ledge to enable a running start.
Golbat materializes and only needs a few moments to catch on to just what’s happening, his proud screech only the slightest bit hesitant.
“Right, let me grab onto your feet and then we’ll pick up speed together all the way to the ledge, alright? I’ll jump to give you another foot or two of height and then you just give it your all, alright?” Ran instructs hurriedly, glancing worriedly at the center of the plateau, where Doro is already approaching the remaining flag.
Golbat screeches in confirmation, at which point Ran grabs on to his feet once more. He breaks into a run, propelled forwards by Golbat who flies above and slightly in front of him, the pair of pokémon and trainer picking up speed as they race towards the edge.
When his foot hits the edge of the cliff, he puts everything he can into propelling himself upwards and outwards, attempting the best long jump he’s capable of. For just a moment, it feels like he’s soaring weightlessly through the sky. Then gravity reasserts itself and he starts to fall, only for said fall to be abruptly interrupted as Golbat screams out his frustration and effort, large wings beating frantically as he carries his trainer further.
The distance to the ledge shrinks rapidly, but so too does the height they have to spare. In fact, after just a few seconds, it becomes readily apparent that Golbat won’t be able to keep them above the ledge. Ran’s eyes widen in fright when his ankles sink below the level of the ledge. Hurriedly, he pulls his legs up in preparation as they cross the halfway mark.
But they continue to go down too fast even with that adjustment. Golbat is clearly giving it his all, but the physical demands of what Ran is putting him through are audibly and visibly taking their toll, as despite frantic screeches and violent wingbeats, they continue to descend. When they’ve only got twenty or so feet left to cover, the ledge has risen up above his hips.
At ten feet, his head is below the ledge. He lets Golbat’s feet go with one hand, preparing himself to grab for a handhold of some description even as his eyes frantically scan the cliff for any divots, bulges or cracks he might put his feet up against. It’s only then, as he hurriedly decides where he’ll attempt to grab hold of the cliff, that he realizes just how much the impact is going to hurt, considering Golbat’s speed.
Golbat pours on a last heaving effort, winning them a few inches of height. Immediately, Ran lets go, falling the last foot or so towards the cliff and bleeding off some crucial speed even as Golbat shoots upwards, rather than also slamming his feet into the hard rock.
He collides harshly and painfully with the hard, weathered stone, feet and hands frantically scrabbling for any steady hand- and footholds before he can fall down the nearly completely vertical surface. His right foot catches on a thin uneven line, perhaps half-an-inch thick. Immediately, he turns his foot outwards so that he’s resting on it from big toe to heel. With how thin the ledge is, only a tiny portion of the width of his foot is supported, digging painfully into the bare skin.
But it’s enough of a rest for him to find stability for a precious second. His left hand just about manages to grab onto the ledge itself, which is fortunately not slick with any recent rain, actually giving him a stable enough position to try and lever himself upwards, if he really has to. But he doesn’t have to. Instead, with his free hand, he cautiously brings out Caesar’s pokéball, throwing it up on the ledge overhead, even as an exhausted Golbat comes to peek over the edge to cheek on his trainer.
“I’m alright Golbat, just get Caesar to lower his tail and have him wrap it around me, so that he can help pull me up!” Ran explains, even as Caesar audibly materializes on the ledge, just out of his sight.
It only takes a moment for some hurried screeching and gesticulating from Golbat to get the job done, as Caesar’s head only pops into view for a moment, before his eyes widen in obvious distress. Immediately, he turns around, the final quarter of his tail coming down and wrapping under and around Ran’s shoulders, before Caesar starts to slither forwards, dragging his trainer up against the cliffs. It’s nowhere near as painless as his earlier efforts with Aria, but with her exhausted and given the precariousness of his position, it’s perfectly sufficient.
“Thanks buddy,” Ran gratefully acknowledges Caesar’s efforts, once there’s solid ground beneath his bare feet once more, “Sorry for the scare.”
Caesar clearly isn’t content to leave it at that, continuing to glare at his trainer in a clear rebuke for long seconds, before his expression finally softens, tongue coming out to taste the air for a moment as his gaze drifts to the collection of new bruises and scuffs Ran just earned himself. Glancing down to take in the damage, Ran lets out an apologetic wince.
“That’ll hurt a lot when showering later today, but for now, we’re in a race and even with that stunt, we’re not guaranteed to win just yet.” He admits, before turning his team’s attention back to what really matters.
Glancing back towards the plateau for a moment, he’s mildly disappointed to realize that he can’t see what’s happening up there, but every reasonable assumption indicates that Doro has already won her flag and is once more racing down the main path. So there’s really no time left to waste. Considering his lack of shoes and the rough surface he’d be running on, he opts to immediately move on to his next gambit.
A quick moment of thanks to Golbat is all that can be spared under the circumstances, though he can tell that the exhausted Bat Pokémon is alright with it, before he’s turning his attention to Caesar once more, with urgency in his voice.
“Right, we need to get back to Cianwood City Gym fast. Doro can run a lot faster and a lot longer than me, so I need you to help me out. I’m going to try and wrap my arms and legs around you and then you’re going to race us out from between these cliffs and onto the beach, alright?” Ran instructs, receiving a doubtful look in turn, though at least Caesar is willing to let him try, as his starter obligingly turns to offer his trainer his back.
The position Ran settles on is wrapping his legs around Caesar’s body, just under the hood, whilst Ran’s arms reach up and over the top of the hood before coming down on either side of Caesar’s head.
It’s an even more uncomfortable position than when he was riding Aria, as where he had to make himself unpleasantly small there, here he has to put far too much power into both his leg muscles, to ensure that he doesn’t start to slip down, as well as his arms, to keep them firmly planted in position. It’s immediately demanding, but it’s the only trick he’s got left up his sleeve and so he simply orders Caesar to get going.
His impromptu mount does so without hesitation, immediately slithering forwards at a pace that’s easily greater than any jog Ran can keep up for more than five minutes.
“Just follow the ledges and keep heading towards the sounds and smell of the sea, Caesar!” Ran instructs, himself unable to see where they’re headed as, whilst his arms are raised up above his head to grab on to Caesar’s hood, his own view is firmly blocked by that same hood.
It makes the ride even more monotonous and unpleasant, as he can only look directly to the sides, to see either the rockside they’re racing alongside to his right, or the chasm between their cliff and the next one to his left. The speed at which both things are flying past is at least an indicator of just how fast Caesar is going, which is a comfort, but it leaves him with nothing to distract him from the strain he’s putting his own body under.
Still, they make good time and so he does his best to tune out his body’s complaints as best he can. Until, suddenly, Caesar comes to an abrupt stop.
“What’s up, buddy?” Ran asks, more than happy to let go for a minute, sliding down his starter’s back until his feet touch solid ground once more.
Stepping out from behind Caesar’s obscuring hood, it becomes readily apparent just what the issue was.
Overhead, the sun has broken through the morning’s clouds, bathing the now visible Cianwood City in golden light. Ran and Caesar stand at the end of the ledge they’d been traveling along, the cliffs abruptly dropping off down towards the beach, some twenty or thirty feet beneath them. If Caesar had continued on without pause, they’d have plummeted downwards to an extremely unpleasant landing.
“Alright, excellent work buddy,” Ran tells his starter gratefully, “I’ll recall you for now, we should be far enough ahead for things to be alright at this point. Be ready to race if I bring you out of your ball again in a bit, alright?”
Receiving an accepting hiss from Caesar, Ran releases him before yet again allowing Aria to appear by his side. She’s still faintly trembling from exhaustion, a clear indicator that she’s been put through enough for today. Fortunately, Ran has no plans whatsoever of using her as a mount.
“Aria, can you attach a strand of webbing here and then climb down this cliffside? I just need a rope to climb down with and I’ll handle things from there, I promise.” He asks, hoping that she can deliver him one final piece of help.
Rather than her earlier eagerness, Aria actually walks forwards somewhat hesitantly, taking a good look at what he’s asking of her, before finally chirping her assent. She produces a thick gooey wad of webbing, which gets splattered confidently against the rockface to Ran’s right, before, web still attached to her abdomen by a thick thread, she starts to climb head-first down the cliff.
There’s little of her earlier speed and exuberance remaining, a clear sign of just how drained she is, but Aria doesn’t hesitate and continues onwards nevertheless. It’s a long, tense minute before she reaches the bottom, at which point she snaps off the thread from her abdomen and looks up curiously, clearly waiting for him to get a move on.
Ran obliges without hesitation, grasping a firm hold of the silky rope, before starting to descend. He’s battered and bruised and his feet don’t enjoy the occasional sharp crest or crack they meet in the least, but still he doesn’t rush. Because his team may be tired, but so is he and to take unnecessary risks now out of exhaustion would just be stupid.
Now that the adrenaline has gone down a bit, with Doro out of sight and comfortably behind, he can admit that his final Golbat-ride was an outright stupid thing to do. One they really shouldn’t repeat again. Even if the idea of training Golbat by making him fly with heavy weights has merit, there’s no reason for Ran to function as those weights. Especially not at those kinds of heights.
But those are considerations for further down the line, when he’s won this race and had an opportunity to eat, shower and relax. For now, as his feet finally touch Cianwood City’s sand once more, he’s still got a race to win.
He turns towards the Gym, its distinct shape visible in the distance, before breaking into his final jog of the day. As he does so, he glances warily towards the exit of the hiking path in the distance. Assuming Doro didn’t manage any shortcuts of her own, that’s where she’ll exit the cliffs.
It’s on the other side of the Gym, almost equidistant to it from where he himself left the cliffs. But where Ran cut a nearly-straight line out of the cliffs from the third flag onwards, sticking to the hiking path from that point on must have added at least another full mile of distance to Doro’s race, compared to his own.
With every second that passes in which her distant shape doesn’t appear there, he grows increasingly confident. There’s no reasonable way for her to have covered that kind of distance faster than him, leaving him confident that he’s the first to have made it back to the beach. If she’d appeared on the beach shortly after him, he might have needed to ride Caesar once more to ensure that he’d make it to the Gym first. But even as he continues to get closer to the Gym, there’s no sign of Doro.
Just as he’s about to hit what looks to be about the halfway point, which is the point he’s mentally tagged as ‘no Doro, win guaranteed’, she appears in the distance, stumbling out of the hiking path at a pace that’s significantly reduced by the exertion she’s surely put herself through to get to this point. Notably, she doesn’t have her Hitmonlee running by her side any longer, instead stumbling directly towards the Gym on her lonesome.
She’s no longer easily faster than him, but it still feels like anyone’s race, considering how hard it is to estimate just which one of them is going to make it to the Gym first. Which means that even though he assumes that he’s only got roughly half as far left to go as her, he isn’t confident about his win yet. It’s with a heated swear that he sends out Caesar, his starter immediately lowering the top of his body to allow Ran to leap on to him.
The landing is uncomfortable and once more assuming the same uncomfortable riding position is almost torturous, as his exhausted muscles cry out in agony. But he clings on nevertheless as Caesar bursts forwards, throwing up a few sprays of sand as he rapidly builds up speed, until they’re racing forwards once more.
In the distance, Doro clearly notices them as well, but there is no further burst of speed from her, even as Caesar becomes visible. She’s clearly pushed herself as hard as she possibly could. But then she seemingly takes inspiration from him again, as just before Caesar’s hood fully obscures Ran’s view of her, he catches a glimpse of her sending out her Hitmonchan again, which immediately kneels in a clear sign that Doro is about to get on its back.
Hitmonchan is by no means as fast as an Arbok, or so Ran assumes at least, but it still feels like it’s going to be an uncomfortably close call, especially with his view of his opponent once more obstructed by Caesar’s hood. Surely though, in a race between an Arbok and a Hitmonchan, there’s no real way for him to lose? Or so he hopes, at least.
Caesar rushes onwards, at one point drawing a terrified scream from an older woman who chooses that moment to exit her home only to turn around and see an enormous purple snake rushing by mere feet in front of her. Ran shouts an apology, but then they’re already past her, as they continue onwards to their goal.
There’s a few more close calls, as despite Cianwood City’s unorthodox position on the beach and its generally relaxed holiday atmosphere, it’s still a city. Which, considering it’s sometime around noon by this point, a lot of people. Fortunately, Caesar shows remarkable restraint, successfully avoiding any collisions. It’s following their third close call, which is the first time that the near-victim turns around and throws a string of swears at them, that Ran finally remembers that technically, you’re not exactly supposed, or for that matter even allowed, to use pokémon as mounts in cities.
He can’t spare that detail any thought however, as Caesar comes to a sharp halt, almost throwing his trainer off and towards the Gym doors.
Ran obliges hurriedly, forcing his objecting legs into movement as he stumbles into the Gym. He doesn’t know how much of a lead Caesar managed to retain over Doro, but Chuck’s words were ‘waiting in my Gym’, so until he has verbal confirmation that he’s won from the man himself, he’s not willing to risk anything.
So, when he bursts into the reception, he completely ignores the surprised trainer who was clearly in the middle of speaking to the receptionist.
“Where’s Chuck?” Ran asks, almost shouting as he gets directly to the point, the adrenaline still racing through him making him forgo all manners.
The receptionist has clearly been briefed however, as she merely gestures towards the stairs, “In the same room as where you received your briefing.”
Ran immediately stumbles in that direction, pained legs refusing function for just a moment before moving jerkily once more. As he ascends the stairs, behind him, the door slams open once more. He doesn’t need to look back to know who’s hot on his heels, but as he reaches the top of the stairs, he finally allows himself to relax, even as an amused receptionist, this time not even needing any prodding, repeats the instruction she just offered him for the benefit of Ran’s chaser.
She’s too late however, as he turns the corner and stumbles into the peculiar conference room, where Chuck sits at the head of the table. As the Gym leader takes him in, his eyebrows rise in evident surprise as he takes in Ran’s hobbling walk and what are likely more than a few visible signs of bruising and light bleeding.
Ran doesn’t let Chuck’s evident surprise distract him however, instead hobbling forwards even as he faintly hears pounding feet on stairs rapidly approaching, instead swinging his backpack in front of him and frantically digging out three flags, “I’m here! Here’s the flags!”
He thrusts them in Chuck’s direction, one of the three fluttering out of his grip as he didn’t grab it securely enough, only for his second hand to catch it before it can hit the floor. Behind him, Doro enters the room, but she’s undeniably second to arrive.
“Congratulations, you are the winner of my challenge,” Chuck says to him, offering an approving nod, before gesturing towards the chairs around the table, “Please, have a seat, both of you. I’ll have lunch served in a minute. You both look like you could do with something hearty and healthy after all of that. Besides, I’m eager to hear you both tell your tales.”
Comments
ted bridgman
I really like how Ran got past each challenge. It really shows the difference in mindset, and his ability to come at problems from other angles than some trainers might. I especially liked how he got the 3rd flag, but I feel like the weakest part of the whole thing was his mad scramble to the finish line. That all said, I'm excited to see how Chuck handles this (and whether my theory that Doro is actually one of Chuck's Gym Trainers holds up), and how you characterize the new member of the team. Also, I still am sad that Ran's Moon Ball might never get used now lol.
TempestK
Agreed, and how much they're willing to go all-out for him is part of the reason I think that Golbat may evolve fairly soon.
DiscoT
Yeah it's wholesome af
Authorii
I do love how evident the bond Ran has with his team is in this fic. It's so subtly woven into almost everything that he treats them well and there is mutual care and trust and I don't think I see that presented in this way very often in Pokemon fics
Mrsean22
Pretty good chapter. Ran won the competition and got his poison fighting frog. Straight fights were not the way Ran should of gone so he did it more sneaky like.
Heraclitus
So Ran won, albeit on the back of his creativity, decisiveness, and most importantly, his pokemon. I would say he did his chosen type well, leaning on his mind rather than his body. but it's not like the most famous of all poison masters isn't physically capable himself (cough... super ninja).
TempestK
Phew, that's... wow. Down to the wire. Cannot wait for the next update where we find out if Doro was indeed a ringer from Chuck's gym like we've theorized. I do wonder though if she'll try and call Ran a cheater because of how he bypassed the first gym trainer and dealt with the second. The third was literally just him having a good rational argument when presented with superior "enemy" firepower. I also fully expect that Ran's going to immediately ask for food or treatment for his mon now that the pressure is off. Especially Golbat in case he strained something. Given how much heart that Golbat was putting in, I wouldn't be surprised if he evolves into a Crobat fairly soon.
TempestK
Yeah, I'll bet he had a Hawlucha or something on standby.
The Dave
And with that, Ran not only wins, but survives Chuck's race challenge. Boy took some absolutely idiotic risks, but at least he didn't mistreat his team. I will clarify that the old man had a fighting-type on standby to save Ran's ass if his Golbat-gambit didn't work, Ran just didn't notice due to adrenalin and not needing the save.
