Pokémon story prologue pt. 8 (final pt. of prologue)

“People of Azalea Town, I present you all to your new Gym leader, Bugsy!” The old Gym leader announced, with plenty of volume but little enthusiasm, to the crowd gathered outside the Gym, before stepping to the side as behind him, the doors swung open and out strode Bugsy, his entirely unscathed Scizor following in his footsteps.

Yet again, Bugsy’s name served as a metaphorical bucket of ice cold water down Ran’s back. Spencer and he had had a week to come to terms with the possibility that Bugsy might become the new Gym leader, but both boys had put their hopes in Clarence. The other trainer had also made it far in a Conference after all, and he had gained almost a decade’s worth of extra experience since then.

They’d agreed that challenging Bugsy for their first badges was more than they could stomach, but not immediately getting a badge in Azalea Town threw their entire schedule on its head, along with saddling them with the social stigma of not having their hometown badges yet. A situation which could have been avoided if Clarence had come out as the winner and which they’d both considered the likely outcome.

Whilst Bugsy began speaking about turning the Gym into a Bug Gym, opening up applications for Gym Trainer positions and the upcoming Azalea Town Gym sponsorship competition, Ran tuned him out, as he looked feebly at the three balls at his side. No first badge meant lower stakes in trainer battles. Less job opportunities. No gym battle winnings to provide the comfortable financial buffer they’d been expecting to have for the first few months.

A glance at Spencer wasn’t encouraging in the least, as the other boy looked even more despondent than Ran felt. Which was understandable, as any plans for him to capture a third bug whilst traversing Ilex Forest - as Spencer had planned to initially give a bug-type specialization a go before possibly pivoting - the obvious location for such an attempt, might have to be shelved due to the now far tighter budget each boy would have at hand.

In the span of a week, Bugsy had once more upended both boys’ future plans without even realizing what he was doing. As Ran glared at an unaware Bugsy, the new Gym leader still speaking to the curious crowd standing in front of what was now his Gym, resentment simmered quietly within him.

The very next day, all the unsponsored fifteen year olds who had applied throughout Kanto and Johto would be receiving their CGCs and set out on their long-delayed journeys. Where most of them had plans in place that’d been prepared months in advance, however, Ran would be starting almost from scratch. As he glared quietly at Bugsy, who was entirely unaware of the trouble he’d caused Ran yet again, he quietly vowed to himself that one day, he’d get even with the other boy.