At the Vermilion City gym, where it has been remodeled to fit aesthetically up to today's standards, the current acting gym leader, Janet Visquez, was pumping weights while her Raichu lifting a dumbbell with its long tail. As she worked out, one of the cleaners approached her.
"Very well done acting gym leader. That makes the last gym challenger of the day."
"I see." She responded. Stooping down, she petted her partner. "You battled very well. I can always count on you." Raichu still seems pumped up though as it lifted the dumbbell with more energy and vigor.
"Rai! Rai rai rai!"
"You're still up for battling, huh?" She chuckled. "I'd like to see a trainer who can really challenge me for a World Coronation Series win."
"Rai Rai!" It agreed with aggressive enthusiasm. Her phone buzzed, and she checked it to see that she was receiving a challenge request.
"Ash Ketchum. Rank 6710. Pallet Town huh?" Walking towards the front door of the gym, she opened it to see her challenger in question, along with his friends.
"So, you're my newest trainer to challenge me. It's not often that I get that many WCS challengers."
"And why is that?" Elaine asked the acting gym leader.
"That assume I'm too easy. All these trainers want to advance through the ranks as fast as possible. Two of the most popular gym leaders high up in Normal Class are Crasher Wake from Sinnoh and our region's own Erika Hikami. Everybody just looooves seeing a part time wrestler while the boys just want to see the pretty girls of the Kanto grass gym." She sighed sadly. "It's hard to find decent challengers when they pass us by."
"Rai." It spoke with a sorrowful tone as well.
"Aw, sorry to hear that." Elaine told Visquez. "Well, we're taking things slow so that we can get as much experience as possible. So we're challenging practically all the gym leaders in the board." That cheered the woman up.
"Thank you. It sure gives us 'lesser'..." She air quoted the word with sarcasm. "...gym leaders the attention we need, you know? Gym challenges are good but the ones in Great and Ultra Class get all the attention."
"Well, consider me your next WCS trainer!" Ash told her confidently. "And we're going to win!" Visquez perked up even more as she clenched a fist.
"You think so little man? We'll determine that on the battle field."
"Quick question though." Trace brought up. "Where's Lt. Surge? We were surprised to see you take his place."
"He's on an abroad training regiment to become stronger." She looked up towards the sky. "I can only wonder what he's doing to reach higher levels of strength and skill." Cut to Surge and his Raichu chilling out on an Alolan beach, sipping pineapple juice.
"This is the life." He sighed, fully decked out in the region's clothing attire for full comfort.
"Rai." His Pokemon agreed. Back to Kanto:
"But, enough about him. Let's get to work." Once they were at the battle fiend, a Rotom Drone appeared.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome! You have been approved for an official Pokemon World Coronation Series Normal Class battle! The challengers here are Janet Visquez from the Vermilion Gym vs Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town! For today's battle, you can choose two Pokemon! When a Pokemon on either side are unable to battle, that side loses! Both challengers bring out your Pokemon!" Both sides sent out their Pokemon outside their Pokeballs, Pikachu and Raichu.
"Battle Begin!"
"First our standard greeting! Use Thunderbolt!" Visquez went first, her orange, white bellied Mouse Pokemon went first as it sent out a bolt of electricity.
"Let's give em our Thunderbolt too!" Ash ordered with a smile as his own electric type sent a blast of lightning straight at the attack, the two identical moves meeting halfway and fighting for supremacy. However, Pikachu's turned out to be stronger as it pushed back hard against the surprised Raichu, before getting shocked by the attack hard despite having resistance to its own type.
"I thought so!" Visquez spoke up. "Your Pikachu has a Light Ball tied in its scarf! I thought I recognized it!"
"Yeah, and it's sure come in handy!" Ash laughed.
"Talk about a shocking start." Trace chuckled at his pun. Elaine rolled her eyes but didn't lose her smile.
"Ash will win this. Even Pikachu's evolved state can't beat her."
"Quick Attack!" The gym leader commanded.
"Quick Attack too!" Seemed like this was a battle of who could use moves better as they both blitzed ahead and slammed into each other, stalemating each other's attacks to such a degree they wouldn't budge. They both stared at each other with determination in their eyes. Raichu was physically stronger, but Pikachu can pump out the damage more thanks to her Light Ball gifted from Professor Oak. Trace noticed something about the gym walls. They had round dents in them like they were hit by wrecking balls. He wondered where they came from.
"Grab it with your tail!" Visquez's Raichu wrapped up Pikachu with its prehensile tail, taking her by surprise.
"Pika?!"
"Do it Raichu!" Spinning Pikachu around fast and hard, it sent Pikachu flying towards the metal walls.
"Rebound with Iron Tail!" Ash retaliated. Her tail glowing white, she banged it against the wall, and the huge amount of power made her bounce off of it, and was about to hit Raichu when Visquez quickly ordered,
"Double Team!" Splitting off into afterimages, Pikachu missed as she passed through one of the fakes and landed on the ground. The afterimages disappeared to show the real Raichu. Pikachu was panting.
"I see you've mastered Pikachu's capabilities." The gym leader told Ash.
"Yeah. Even with the lower ranked gym leaders, they're tough! Trace lost his first WCS match because he didn't know how to fight with Eevee yet. But once he got the hang of it, he can take out rock type gym leaders with just his Eevee by this point. And Elaine needed to use vitamins, minerals and TMs and TRs due to Brawly being too strong, even with fairy types. Most of the Great and Ultra class are filled with gym leaders. And now we see why. Too many trainers try to climb the ladder as fast as possible. They're not taking the time to properly grow and learn how to beat someone that's too good. That's why most of the trainers never leave Normal Class." Visquez smiled from hearing that.
"That's a good observation. You can't take shortcuts to get to the top. It takes hard work and dedication to fully commit!" He nodded. Seeing that both Raichu and Pikachu were getting tired, Ash called back his Pokemon.
"No need to overdo it Pikachu, return!" Running towards her master, Ash knelt down and petted her on the head. "You did good, so rest up for now."
"Pikachu." She said with a smile.
"Diggersby, I choose you!" Ash then sent out his grey and brown bipedal rabbit with huge ears. It started glowing with power with help from its hidden ability.
"Diggersby."
"Oh yeah, this is his first time using Diggersby, isn't it?" Elaine noticed.
"Yep. He's always been fine with the gym battles so far because Pikachu's so powerful and Staravia picked off the types weak to flying. But now we'll be getting to the point where we need more than one or two Pokemon. Especially us." He looked down towards Eevee. Eevee was strong, and quite durable to the extent of the average rock type defensively, maybe even steel types, but there will be times he has to use more than just his partner. Sensing what he was thinking, she said with a nod,
"Eevee!" She was okay if she had to sit some fights out. She understood she couldn't do everything.
"Clefable!" Elaine's partner shared the same sentiment. The two teenagers chuckled, glad they understood.
"Use Slam!" Leaping up into the air, Raichu spread itself wide so that it would body slam into the Digging Pokemon.
"Counter with Mega Punch!" Rearing one of its ears back, the fist at the end glowed with white energy before throwing its fist out, punching the Mouse Pokemon square in the stomach. It gasped in shock how much punch it was packing, as it was sent flying into the brick wall, collapsing soon after.
"Raichu, no!" Visquez gasped when she saw it faint from the pain.
"You did it Diggersby! I knew you could do it!" Ash complimented his Pokemon, whom gave a thumbs up with his normal left arm.
"Excellent job Raichu. I'll avenge you. Return." Recalling her Mouse Pokemon, she turned to Ash. "I won't just give up you know. Go, Voltorb!" She sent out a Pokemon that basically just looked like a Pokeball with angry eyes.
"Voltorb!" It said with a lot of static.
"Use Magnet Rise!" Visquez told her Pokemon. It started to generate electricity into the ground, which caused rocks to be pulled from the ground, even causing itself to hover above ground. Trace started to connect the dots as his eyes widened.
"What's all this?" Ash questioned.
"We're an electric type gym, so gym challengers always try to come in with their Digletts or Geodudes. Or even Pokemon with just ground type moves. So to deal with that, us electric type gym leaders either make our Pokemon float above the ground, manipulate the field to make ground type moves harder to use, or use metal floors to mostly remove the issue altogether. Once ground type moves are taken out of the picture, electric types truly have no equal!" Use Rollout!" Voltorb started to use its electromagnetism to start flying around the air, bashing around the rocks acting like a pinball machine. Diggersby tried to defend itself, but its short legs meant it was having difficulty trying to keep up with all the angles it was attacking from in quick succession. As it bashed into the metal walls, thus showing new dents where it landed, Trace's suspicious was confirmed.
"So those are where the dents came from."
"Dents?" Elaine asked.
"Look at the walls. Those came from Voltorb, and Electrodes from the bigger dents."
"Oh, I see." She saw where he was coming from. "Interesting that's how it considers battling against ground types." However, there was a moment Ash saw an opportunity.
"Use Brick Break behind you!" With a glowing fist at the end of its ears, he spun around to bat away the electric type, grunting from the damage it took. It went on the rebound though as it bashed into the Digging Pokemon just as quickly. "Grr, use Dig to escape!" Burrowing underground, it seemed to be safe from any further attacks. Until...
"Use Screech into the hole!" Hovering over the hole, Voltorb screamed an extremely loud cry to where Diggersby escaped, and the large rabbit burst out of the ground, clutching his ears in utter agony from being subject to such a high decibel inside of an underground tunnel. "Use Sonic Boom!" Spinning around to generate power, it unleashed a shock wave that exploded against the normal/ground type's back, sending it flying into one of the metal walls. It fell defeated. Returning his Pokemon, Ash spoke to the Digging Pokemon,
"Take a good rest. You did your best. Alright Pikachu, let's wrap this up."
"Pika Pikachu!" She yelled as she jumped onto the field.
"We'll wrap this up quick! Rollout!" Spinning again, the Ball Pokemon went on the offensive.
"Dodge it!" Thankfully, she had superior speed, so she was able to reliably evade the incoming rolls of her opponent, not even being pressured now matter how fast it was or which direction it came from. "Use Iron Tail to trip it up!" With a sweeping motion, Pikachu used the angle of her tail to send Voltorb flying as it hit one of the walls as an odd angle, unable to change course.
"What?!" Visquez was shocked by this outcome.
"Finish it with Iron Tail!" With her tail still glowing, the Mouse Pokemon leapt high into the air to get above Voltorb, then smacked it down with a strong attack which sent it crashing into the ground. What she didn't expect though was Voltorb to use Aftermath, which made it explode. She was caught in the explosion, sent flying high and crying out in pain as the explosive force pushed her high. However, Pikachu wasn't taken out as she was able to flip around and land on her feet, if a bit wobbly from the injuries she sustained, why the dust settled to show Voltorb was beaten.
"Awesome Pikachu! You held out!" Ash cheered for his Pokemon, while she sat down panting, yet smiling nonetheless.
"As a result of today's battle, there has been a change in the WCS rankings effective immediately!" The Rotom Drone announced.
"Thanks Voltorb, you gave it everything you could." Visquez sighed as she petted her Pokemon before returning it. "Well Ash, I admit defeat. And while my now lower ranking gives me a bitter taste in my mouth, I'm proud you were able to surpass my ranking." She shook his hand after he checked his phone.
"Yeah, I now have your spot of 6000. Thanks for the battle. You were amazing as a gym leader."
"I appreciate the compliment." She stated with a grin. Turning to the others, he asked them,
"So who's next guys?!" Checking her phone, Elaine answered,
"It's the Sinnoh region grass type gym leader Gardenia Rogers!"
"Sweet. Back to the Sinnoh region."
A/N: Hmmm... honestly I'm at a toss up here. Any one of the three feel like they have a good reason for battling her. Ash because he battled her in the anime, Trace because he has a Beedrill and Corvisquire to battle with, and Elaine because we haven't had a girl v girl Pokemon battle yet and her Pokemon of Clefable and Mawile would get the job done. So tell me who you would like to have me use against Gardenia please. It would help me out.