Johto region, Goldenrod City.
Thump!
A vibrant girl with short pink hair in twin pigtails slammed her palm on the desk. "This is disgusting! Since when is Skarmory allowed to be THIS dirty?!"
Whitney had no idea how genuinely terrifying her Attract-Rollout Miltank looked to rookie Trainers. Gritting her teeth, she yanked out her phone and furiously dialed Falkner, all the way out in Violet City.
"Falkner. Was that YOU I just lost to? The tactics felt way too familiar."
Stealth Rock builds were a Master League staple — plenty of Trainers ran them. Elite Koga leaned Toxic Spikes specifically; Brock, back in Pewter City, had a whole Rock Tomb / Stealth Rock combo he liked to show off. But that particular Skarmory-plus-Whirlwind pattern had hit Whitney with an unmistakable sense of déjà vu.
Had to be Falkner's Skarmory. Who else runs that exact build.
"Gaming on the job? I'm reporting you to the Association!"
Falkner, unbothered as ever, laughed on the other end. "Whitney, relax — I think you've got the wrong guy."
"Who ELSE runs Skarmory and Stealth Rock this cleanly?"
"Could be any Steel-type Gym Leader from another region, honestly. Or just someone who's put real time into Stealth Rock builds specifically." A pause. "Also — I'm currently occupied chasing down Team Rocket. Not exactly finding spare hours to game."
Whitney paused, something clicking. "...Ugh."
Right. That was an Orient-region player.Damn it, those tactics felt more polished than even Falkner's.
"You lost to a Stealth Rock build? Ha! With your brain, honestly, that tracks," Falkner said, laughing warmly.
"...Hm?" Whitney's grip on the phone tightened, something ominous practically radiating off her forehead.
"...Signal's cutting out, talk later," Falkner said quickly, hanging up like he'd sensed the danger just in time.
Whitney took a breath and pulled up the replay instead, reviewing it carefully.
"Ugh. My calling wasn't even the issue — his team composition was just genuinely better." She scratched her head, irritated. "This is supposed to be casual training, why does everyone insist on running full competitive-ladder lineups!"
If Whitney had run the equivalent build herself, she was fairly confident she wouldn't have lost to Teacher Luke outright. But the opponent had clearly absorbed the Stealth Rock philosophy completely — his whole team synergized around it perfectly.
"This is just disgusting," Whitney muttered. "What kind of person spends every waking hour perfecting ladder climbs like this."
In pokémon: battle, most players trained a single go-to lineup tied to their preferred tactic. Someone actually rotating full team compositions to match whatever strategy they wanted to run — that took a genuinely rare depth of team-building knowledge to pull off convincingly.
"Is this guy actually some Gym Leader from the Orient region?"
Whitney frowned and clicked through Teacher Luke's match history — a clean sweep of wins. One set against a Sunny Day build even ended 6-0. And the player running that Sunny Day team turned out to be none other than the region's resident pool prodigy — Gold.
Whitney's eyes went wide.
The mental image of that particular troublemaker surfaced immediately, and she nodded slowly to herself. "...If it's Gold on the other end, losing that badly checks out, honestly."
______________________________
Off in a Breeding House on the outskirts of Goldenrod, Gold sneezed abruptly.
"Ugh, seriously, I've been sneezing nonstop the past two days." He answered his buzzing phone lazily. "Moshi moshi, who's this?"
"Your grandma!"
"Wrong number, bye—"
"It's Whitney! From Goldenrod!"
"Oh, asking me out? Get me Miss Mary's Line and I'll actually consider it."
"Focus. Do you know Teacher Luke well? What's his actual skill level?"
Teacher Luke? Gold propped his chin on one hand, the mental image of a merciless group chat owner surfacing instantly.
Guy's clearly operating on another level. I've never once beaten him.
"Dude, Teacher Luke's incredible," Gold said, dead serious. "Even Senior Red's a certified fan. Uncle Brock straight up called him a top-tier breeder too."
"...Wait, seriously?" Whitney's voice thinned out slightly.
If that's true, then losing to a Stealth Rock build sharper than Falkner's own actually makes sense.
"Don't believe me? Come check the group chat yourself, it's stacked with Master-tier players."
Gold clicked his tongue, pleased with himself. "Honestly if Teacher Luke hadn't personally begged me to join, I wouldn't have bothered."
"Wait—" Whitney's eyes lit up. "A Master-tier GROUP CHAT? Senior Red's actually IN it?!"
"Yeah, pretty great, right? I think so too."
A long silence followed. Then, in a voice barely above a whisper:
"...Could you... maybe... add me in...?"
"Didn't catch that, speak up."
"I SAID CAN YOU ADD ME TO THE GROUP!!"
Gold rubbed his ringing ear, unbothered. "Your skill level's kind of lacking for that crowd, though, isn't it?"
"You want to test that theory? I will come to your Breeding House RIGHT NOW and settle this in person!"
"Fine, fine—" Gold waved it off. "A hundred signed photos of Miss Mary and you're in."
"Seriously?"
"Dead serious."
"Deal, I'm finding Mary right now!"
______________________________
Luke, freshly off his stream, glanced at his phone in mild surprise. "Huh? New member?"
Whitney: AAAAHHH!!
Whitney: it's actually Senior Red!! the real one!!
Whitney: Senior can I add you on Line, I've admired you for so long!!
Viridian Lilac: (○｀3′○)
Lorelei: Oh my, how delightful~
Luke scratched his head. And there it is. Red's harem group, officially confirmed once more.
The Stealth Rock stream had gone over well enough, though Whitney's material as a Gym Leader opponent had been just barely serviceable content. If the edit came up short, he could always rope Gold into a few more matches to pad it out.
Over the course of the afternoon, BP had climbed by over a thousand — converted into Berries, that meant a full week of food covered for the two Pokémon, easily.
[Remaining BP: 2400]
Eevee had spent the whole afternoon sprawled out, half-watching Luke play. It yawned, hopped off his lap eventually, and wandered over to entertain itself on the running wheel instead.
______________________________
The sun dipped low, dusk settling in. Luke, apron on, put together a full spread of food, waiting on Haunter to get home. The food had gone nearly cold by the time it finally squeezed excitedly through the door crack, tossing a card down onto the table with a triumphant thud.
It floated straight to the fridge, hand phasing directly through the door to pull out a can of Mental Soda.
"Kojie~~ (`)" — pure bliss on its face.
Luke's expression shifted as he pulled off his apron and picked up the card off the table.
His eye twitched.
[Bull Coliseum]
[Annual Membership]
"...Huh." Something clicked into place. "It's one thing to go train on your own. But you got yourself a MEMBERSHIP now too?!"