The co-writer usually writes the battle scenes, so this was my first one in a while.

Victor did as he promised, and both Hattie and Harry evolved by the end of the day. Fraxure still needed more time, but she got enough from the curry that it was only a matter of time.

So Victor decided to challenge Raihan, with a pair of goggles said to protect against weather conditions given to Harry and the rest of the team holding Lum Berries from Gloria's curry hoard. He wasn't sure what kind of conditions the Gym Leader would use against him, but it was always good to be prepared.

As he went to go through the mission, Gloria tried to find her way into the stadium. She had a record of finding creative ways to get a free show, and for the final Gym battle, she needed something to top it all.

She looked up at the Hammerlocke stadium, a blur of color in the distance. She carefully considered her options.

And then Victor distracted her. "You're actually going to buy a ticket this time, aren't you?"

"What makes you think that?"

"You bought a shovel last time," he reminded her. "I thought you could afford a ticket or two."

"I probably can," Gloria admitted, "but it's a habit now. I have to figure out a way to get in, and if I can't, then I'll buy the ticket."

That didn't sound promising, especially after they'd already had a close encounter with going to jail when they'd kidnapped a former challenger and then sold him for pocket change. But Gloria seemed to find it fun, and Victor wasn't going to stop his friend from having fun.

He just wished he could be there to see it.

Once Victor changed into his uniform, he found out that the gym challenge wasn't even on the ground floor with the stadium this time. Instead, he took the elevator up to the Vault, where Raihan was waiting for him.

"The rules are simple," Raihan said as he started explaining the rules of his gym challenge. "You're just going to fight some specially taught Pokémon trainers in double battles."

This caught Victor off-guard. He spent a lot of time traveling the region for the gym challenge, but he had little experience with double battles, and even less experience in double battles without Gloria or Hop working with him. If these trainers are specialized in the style, then does that mean that these Pokémon were specially designed to work in tandem with each other? Could any two of his Pokémon replicate that teamwork? Could even Hattie and Harry replicate it?

Raihan noticed Victor's confusion and panic, but he only smiled and chuckled. "It's the final challenge before the league. I have to make it interesting."

Victor shook off his uncertainty, finding a new determination to keep this man from intimidating him. At the end of the day, it was just another battle. "I'm ready," he said simply as his eyebrows furrowed.

"Good," Raihan responded as he turned his attention to one of his trainers. "Sebastian, you're up."

Victor was able to beat the first trainer's Pokémon without much issue, and after the second trainer sent out her Pokémon, Victor was beginning to see a pattern with their strategies. The first trainer's Sliggoo was accompanied by a Peliper with a Drizzle ability, and the second trainer's Turtonator was partnered with a Ninetails with the Drought ability. It seemed like every dragon Pokémon was accompanied by another Pokémon of a different type that manipulated the battlefield, despite the fact that they were in a building that housed important historical tapestries just a few feet away.

His suspicions were confirmed as the last trainer sent out a Hakamo-o and an Abomasnow that had the Snow Warning effect, which confused Victor since he thought that dragons didn't do too well in the snow, but this dragon was a fighting type, so it must have balanced out or something.

In the end, he was able to pull off a victory against all of them with strength and a touch of type advantage, courtesy of Gloria's fairies and Dash for the Abomasnow. After that, Raihan accompanied Victor to the elevator, where the boy thought about his strategy. Of course, Raihan was prepared to battle fairies, dragons, and ice types since they were a trainer's obvious choice against dragons.

Then Victor thought about the warm-up trainers, and remembered that the missions were supposed to prepare the challengers for the actual battle. Raihan's team may not have as many dragons on his team as expected. Victor had no choice. He had to use his brain.

Victor's head hurt.

It could be from the nerves that still hadn't quite left him after Hop threatened his confidence. It could be from the anticipation that he was going to be just a few short steps away from the battle he's come to covet so much. It could be from the fact that he had no idea what he was going to come face-to-face with and that he didn't exactly have a plan other than "use the fairies to fight the giant one".

Or it could be from Gloria, the dope on a rope.

The stadium had windows stationed side-by-side along the top of the walls stretching all around it, and Gloria had thrown an escape rope through it from the ledge and was currently using it to be lowered down by Dishwasher. But just when she was only a few feet off the ground, she noticed a tag that was attached to the rope that had currently slid down to be face-level with Gloria. Putting her face close to it, she read: "Warning. Do not use item for reasons other than its intended purpose".

"What does that mean?" Gloria thought aloud, failing to notice the rope fraying just a bit above her. "This is a rope. It's designed to have multiple-" She didn't manage to finish her sentence as the rope snapped, and she fell the rest of the way down, causing Dishwasher to cry out in panic a bit. But Gloria only fell a short distance, so she was able to pick herself back up and give her partner a pained smile and thumbs-up.

"It's all right," she called. "Landed on my bum!"

Dishwasher dropped the long face and half-heartedly dropped the rope. Gloria returned him to his Pokeball and took the first open seat she found.

Victor and Raihan came to the center of the field and faced each other. "I must admit, I didn't think you'd get this far," Raihan said with a confident smirk. "But I should have known better than to doubt a trainer hand-picked by Leon himself, but there's no way that I'll let you beat him before I take the honor." His Rotom Phone flew out to get the best view of the battle as he raised two Ultra balls and pointed them at the challenger. "Not before I make you work for it."

And with that, he threw the balls and out cam a Flygon and Gigalith, the latter of the two kicking up a sandstorm with its presence. Victor responded by sending out Drednaw and Hattie.

Drednaw used Liquidation on Gigalith and Hattie used Dazzling Gleam on Flygon. The dragon went down, but Gigalith had just enough energy to hit Hattie with a Flash Cannon. Raihan replaced his Flygon with a Sandaconda, and Victor replaced Hattie with Clobbopus.

Drednaw used Liquidation again, but on Sandaconda this time. The snake fell down at the super effective hit, and Clobbopus was able to use Submission on Gigalith and took it out, but the sandstorm that slowly dwindled the health of Victor's team remained. Raihan's last Pokémon was a Duraludon, and it took a second for Victor to realize what he was seeing. "What's that Pokémon's type?" he asked.

Raihan smiled. "A Dragon and Steel type," he said. "I hope you weren't relying on any fairies to finish off the match."

And just as quickly as it took him to call it out, the Duraludon was summoned back to his ball to Dynamax into a form that resembled a skyscraper.

The censors wouldn't allow what Victor said next to play on the air, but he held the vowel for a solid minute to the surprise of the audience. He used this minute to think of what to do, and he figured that he would find another way to use type advantage.

He called back Clobbopus to replace him with Croviknight, but a Max Rockfall took out Drednaw. Dash was sent out and immediately Dynamaxed to use G-Max Fireball. The Dragon type made it resistant enough to the Fire-type move to still keep standing, but Croviknight's Steel Wing was enough to finish the battle.

As the two trainers approached each other, Raihan scoffed at his own shortcomings. "Perhaps I was a bit conceited to call myself Leon's rival," he said as he was getting over the shock of this guy beating him. "But it was obvious that you didn't have a plan coming in here."

"I know," Victor admitted. "And I know I'll need one if I'm going to challenge Leon."

"Eh, never got me anywhere." Raihan shrugged. "But I know you'll give him a challenge, and he'll take us out for pizza if you win. Or you'll lose and cry like a baby. Either way, it should be fun to watch."

Victor scowled at the last line. "You know, you're kind of a jerk."

"24/7."

And with that, he was given the dragon badge to complete his medallion. With the gold coin in his hands, he felt invincible.

Victor: Dash (Cinderace) Corviknight, Drednaw, Excadrill, Fraxure, Clobbopus

Gloria: Ace (Inteleon) Dishwasher (Obstagoon) Rogue (Thievul) Hattie (Hatterene) Harry (Grimmsnarl) Stabitha (Pawniard)