Josh was busy de-gearing Blinky and Saber as a new challenger walked through Trainer Hill's back door and toward his Racing Grounds. This would be his first actual battle as a Gym Leader, and put him slightly out of his racing element. It was needed, though; besides Josh using it as an experience to help funnel new recruits toward the Pokémon Racing Federation, the challengers were there to keep the Leaders' battle skills sharp.

kyle lopez had forwarded Josh an announcement directly from FERNANDO SILPH about how there were swaths of Hoennian trainers that did not have the battle skills that reflected the number of Badges in their possession. He had already rejected the effort @nneoh had made during his challenge, declining to hand him a Badge, though he had given the Quick Badge to roughly 60% of his challengers since his Gym opened. Perhaps the stern warning from Fernando was warranted; it was well above the 37% Hoenn League average and even the 49% IAPL average. Perhaps his racing challenge was too easy and he needed to make it harder.

"Ah, there you are," Josh stood up as he finished de-gearing his Jolteon and Manectric. Blitz, his Luxray, was all geared up and awaited Josh to mount up. "I have to say, the day we first met, I never thought we would meet each other in this kind of battle." He rest his hand on the Luxray's saddle and mounted up, ready to lead Elinor to the wide-open battle arena under one of the aerial race courses.

"It's kind of a funny story how I got in this position," the racer continued as nearby scoreboards lit up with the trainers' names, their Pokémon, and their approximate battle condition. "Before we met, I wanted to take on the Gym Challenge. I had even applied for the Minor League. When I decided to abandon the idea of the Gym Challenge and become a Ranger, I went to the Hoenn League's website to withdraw my application, and found it had already been approved. So now I'm stuck with doing both. With my limited schedule and how busy you are with Ranger work, it must have been difficult for our schedules to align."

There was a small crowd of Josh's racing fans that looked excited for him to have a battle. "Singles it is, then. You take down my two Pokémon before I take yours down, or you otherwise impress me in battle, and the Quick Badge is yours. Director Lopez has been on my ass about giving out way too many Badges, so... Don't take this the wrong way, but I've got a job to do. And our friendship, if anything, makes me unable to give anything less than everything I've got. No hard feelings, but I'm going to impress the Director by taking you down."

The Leader crossed his arms as the trainer's boxes rose along with both his Jolteon and Manectric. "Challengers first," Josh smirked, the Luxray he was still seated on letting out a battle cry of his own despite not being in the match. "I can assure you it will be the only decision you will get the time to ponder today."

Most of the supporters in the stands were cheering for Josh, but there were a few that wanted Elinor to win. "Blinky, you're up!" the Leader pointed toward his racing Jolteon, who leaped down from the trainer's box and raised every quill on her body. Just as he touched down, a reverberating stomp from the challenger's Electivire was a prelude to a shock wave that shredded the ground beneath. It was the oldest trick in the book for dealing with incredibly speedy Pokémon like the ones the Leader favored, and one of the biggest reasons he could never obtain his sixth Johto Gym Badge.

His training under Director kyle lopez had made him a much stronger trainer worthy of the title Gym Leader. With borderline superhuman reaction time, Josh shouted, "MAGNET RISE, Blinky!" A trail of sparks flew out of her four paws, the Jolteon levitating inches above the ground, a small feather-shaped icon now overlaid atop Blinky's image on the scoreboard. The seismic wave from the Electivire's EARTHQUAKE harmlessly passed underneath her, a bouncing red numeral zero above the same image before fading away. The electric quadruped's quills were still pointed squarely at the Electivire. "You'll have to think faster than that!" Josh taunted as the Jolteon looked ready to launch a barrage of quills at her foe in the next split second.

Jolteon readies Magnet Rise!
Jolteon levitated with electromagnetism!
Electivire readies Earthquake!
Jolteon's Magnet Rise made Ground-type moves miss!

The speed of Vire's charge surprised Josh; his studies of almost exclusively mount Pokémon left him with a knowledge gap that would cost him dearly. "Pop that top with your PIN MISSILE!" the Leader commanded. The attack Blinky had readied was not electric; he knew many Electric-type Pokémon, including both his own, had ways to absorb Electric-type attacks. Whether it was Blinky's ability to heal her wounds by absorbing electricity or some Manectric's ability to serve as grounding for them entirely, trying to overload Vire was not a good idea. "Aim low!"

Blinky aimed for Vire's legs, trying to knock it over from repeated barrages of stinging projectiles. Josh had underestimated the hulking Pokémon's speed by a substantial margin. He wanted to issue a command for Blinky to dodge, but it was far too late; he was committed. The brave Jolteon tried to fill Vire's body with as many quilled projectiles as possible before the inevitable collision.

Blinky let out a yelp as her foe's DARKEST LARIAT-fueled live wires struck her like whips, lashing sounds included. Blinky's portrait on the scoreboard turned yellow, cascading numerals larger than Josh would like temporarily imposed over it. It was a heavy blow, for sure; the challenger had come out on top of that exchange, but it wasn't over yet.

The Leader was ready to deploy one of his favorite strategies, inspired from racing Pokémon. He liked to call this "death by a thousand cuts." Blinky retreated, sparks flying from her paws as she accelerated to speeds that were very difficult to follow.

Electivire readies Darkest Lariat!
Jolteon readies Pin Missile!

The barrage of Jolteon needles had a lot less effect on Vire than the Leader would have liked. A Pokémon where they would be using nothing but their weakest attacks take far too long for Josh's tastes. His Gym wasn't called the Racing Grounds for nothing! If there was one thing Blinky and the rest of his team was good at, it was going fast. Josh would not give anyone a Badge, even if was a good friend, without making sure they knew how to handle speed responsibly.

"Blinky, QUICK ATTACK out of the way!" Josh commanded as he noticed the fell mist from the larger Electric-type's fist. His orders were just in time for the Jolteon to avoid most of the icy attack's force, but even a glancing blow left her in rough shape. On the scoreboard, both combatants' window gradients turned toward colors of longer wavelengths of the rainbow, but Blinky's was decidedly more red than Vire's. He even got an aural warning his Pokémon was running up on her limits.

Thankfully for Josh, not one bit of Blinky's pain stemmed from her legs. It was time to show the councilwoman his favorite battle tactic. "Blinky, keep chaining QUICK ATTACKs together! You got this!" It was a tactic he liked to call the Thousand Cut Joust. Blinky made a passing slash with her claw every time she dashed back and forth lengthwise across the meadowed arena at speeds that would make all but the most skilled Pokémon riders vomit. While each individual slash was not strong, the Jolteon was almost impossible to follow. It was a spectacle to watch; the Leader's section of the gallery roared at the display of pure speed. Even if Elinor and Vire could visually track them, it would require almost impossibly precise timing to interrupt one directly.

Electivire readies Ice Punch!
Jolteon readies Quick Attack!

Josh's section of the gallery continued their roar as Blinky executed her Thousand Cut Joust. To the untrained eye, it looked like the Jolteon vanished, then reappeared on the opposite side of the grassy field, an invisible blade slicing across the Electivire with every pass. The antigravity from her MAGNET RISE made it impossible to detect her from kicking up grass and leaving a trail in the dirt, as well. Of course, the Leader could track Blinky perfectly; he had ridden this Jolteon at this speed before.

When Blinky went to make her seventh pass, the slicing of her QUICK ATTACK-fueled claw was accompanied by the echo of a sonic boom. Vire's rotational velocity had propelled his two DARKEST LARIAT-fueled livewires to the speed of a whip crack, landing a devastating headshot just as his foe was about to escape again. Elinor's fans went ballistic, giving the challenger a standing ovation.

The slow-motion replay revealed all; precisely a third of a second after Blinky turned around and rushed into one of the fastest QUICK ATTACKs any Pokémon could muster, Vire started building momentum in his live wires, ultimately turning them into makeshift whips. Even on the replay, there was exactly one frame where the unfathomably fast Jolteon was actively slashing at Vire and was at risk of being knocked away by his DARKEST LARIAT. Elinor and her partner found that singular frame, blasting the electric-type into the base of the Leader's trainer's box at great speed.

"You are a very talented Trainer, Elinor," Josh complimented his challenger as he withdrew Blinky. "The number one reason Trainers don't win my Badge is from being unable to see through that. Now, let's finish this. Saber! QUICK ATTACK! Don't give Vire a chance to get back up!" He pointed toward his Manectric, who leaped off the platform and seemingly disappeared from view, with no fear of his larger foe.

Jolteon readies Quick Attack!
Hit the enemy 7 times!
Electivire readies Darkest Lariat!
Jolteon fainted!
Manectric readies Quick Attack!

Elinor's second Pokémon was, unsurprisingly, a Ground-type. One thing Josh was required to do in order to pass his practical exam to become a Gym Leader, even in the Minor League, was to study ways to combat the most common Pokémon types that had an advantage over the ones he preferred. During his days in the Johto League Gym Challenge, he had done this exact same thing. He had acquired every single one of his Badges not with the same team of six Pokémon, but having a rotation of a dozen or so Pokémon. To each Gym, he had brought a team designed to prey upon the Leader's most obvious weakness. Somehow, every Leader he had battled managed to overcome that weakness to make the matches close. Ecruteak City's Gym had taken him four battles to finally come up with the win; those ghost-types were something else.

And now, the roles had reversed on Josh for the first time. He had done so much racing, both here and on the Silph Cup circuit, that he had to take some time off the circuit to research how to counter Ground-type Pokémon with Electric-types. While his Gym wasn't strictly Electric-type, it had a glaring Ground-type weakness. He put his research into practice. As the seismic wave shot out from Sohrab in all directions, the Leader rolled his eyes at Elinor. "Saber, MAGNET RISE!" he cried, the Manectric levitating just above the grass and letting the Ground-type attack harmlessly pass by. "You're really off your game today, Elinor! You made the same mistake twice? I'm not letting that go unpunished!" The electric-type looked ready to make a high speed pounce; while he wasn't nearly as fast as Blinky, Saber had a lot more muscle to him, his attacks packing quite a bit more punch.

Electivire fainted!
Manectric readies Magnet Rise!
Swampert readies Earthquake!
Manectric's Magnet Rise made Ground-type moves miss!

The Manectric flinging himself forward, the popping sound of sparks flying out of his paws as he darted toward the Swampert with explosive acceleration. The water-type met Josh's Pokémon head-on; exactly what he wanted. While Saber wasn't quite as fast as Blinky was, holding down the much larger Manectric would be a much more challenging task. "Now, Saber! Leap over Swampert with your--"

Saber understood the command and was about to use his Quick Attack to leap above the Swampert, then pull an about face to deliver a devastating counterattack. With a heroic leap, Sohrab was able to snatch the Manectric out of the air with SUPERPOWER. He hoped the Manectric's swift momentum would be enough to topple the Ground-type and let him escape. It wasn't looking good. Saber needed to get out of that lock and get running. "Saber, use your ICE FANG!" Josh's closest Pokémon chomped at one of the Swampert's arms with mist-laden canines, trying to escape the Superpower-fueled grip by numbing them with the cold.

Swampert readies Superpower!
Swampert's P.ATK dropped by 1 rank.
Swampert's P.DEF dropped by 1 rank.
Manectric readies Ice Fang!