"I am honored to meet the one and only Axel Blaze here today.", said Ava with a polite tone.
Yet, Axel could say that there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"It looks like you don't have a good impression of me.", said Axel with a smile.
"Well, you did make quite a joke of us a few months ago. I cannot forget that."
"I just hated Roy Falkner, that's all."
"I can understand that. Roy can be very irritating to deal with. Enjoy our farm. It is quite an eye-opener for the first time. I will see you tomorrow.", said Ava turning in the opposite direction and moving.
"It looks like your cousin doesn't like me very much."
"You insulted Johto region the last time you battled Roy. It has affected the Johto region a lot. Ava has been in constant meetings and under a lot of pressure.", said Clair.
"Really? How does one interview of mine affect the whole Johto region?", asked Axel as he clearly didn't believe this bullshit.
"Axel, you may not know but your interview has increased the incoming number of tourists by 40% in the last couple of months. This has affected us a lot from in economic point of view. A lot of trainers from other regions are also not wanting to come here."
"Really?"
"Yes. It is not that my cousin hates you or the impact that you have caused. Whitney family is not affected by your interview but her working time has increased and she has to attend a lot of meetings now."
Axel was now sure that he would be having a very dangerous battle tomorrow. Looking at the aura of Ava and her anger towards him, he was sure that she was a very powerful trainer and she was serious about the gym battle.
"Can you tell me what Pokemon she would be using against me? Cause you must know, right?", asked Axel.
"Yes, I do know but I am not allowed to say. That is a part of the bet but believe me when I say that they are going to be strong. You might be surprised about them.
All I can say is that the last Pokemon is going to be Miltank."
"Oh wow, I had never thought of that. That is crucial information.", gasped Axel clearly in sarcasm.
He was starting to hate Clair now but he was at her mercy because if he wanted to storm off from that place, he would not find the exit gate. The place was very big.
After looking around for some time, Axel asked to leave.
"You know, for a person that is going to have a gym battle tomorrow, you don't look very stressed. Normally I see trainers planning and training their Pokemons.", commented Clair.
"I am not stressed. It is just going to be a bit more difficult than normal gym battles. That is all. I have fought against a lot of powerful gym leaders in the past.", said Axel.
"I wish you good luck and hope you help me win my bet.", said Clair saying goodbye.
They were already near the exit gate right now. Axel said goodbye and went to the training ground. He booked the training ground for 3 hours and called 3 of his Pokemons.
Togetic, Aerodactyl, and Primeape.
"I didn't call you here to train but tomorrow's battle is going to be as difficult as the previous gym battle. I have already told you that. We have already made our plans but now I think we should change our lineup and our battle strategy a little.", said Axel.
All 4 of them started to discuss. Axel could do this alone and just tell the result to his Pokemons but he wanted team involvement as this would improve the Pokemons too.
###
"Ladies and Gentlemen, a few months ago, a trainer came to the Johto region and made a name for himself. This is not a normal trainer but one of the most powerful and talented trainers of his generation. We all know his name."
"AXEL!!"
"AXEL!!"
"AXEL!!"
"AXEL!!"
People started to chant his name. Axel was in the waiting room. Ava had come up to meet with him and said that they would now be meeting in the stadium.
The commentator was a professional and he knew how to rile up the fans.
"But this time, he had come here to challenge one of the most difficult gyms in our region. Yes, the Goldenrod City Gym. Will he be able to win against our gym leader or will he be humiliated in front of all of us?
I don't want to waste anyone's time. Let's first welcome our gym leader, Ava Whitney!!"
"Ava!!"
"Ava!!"
"Ava!!"
The crowd started to cheer her name as she came to the stadium and waved her hand to greet all of them.
"Now, let's welcome the challenger, Axel Blaze!!"
The crowd also started to chant Axel's name but Axel could tell that Ava had a lot of fans compared to him. This was to be expected as this was her city.
Axel came waving his hand to the crowd. The crowd got excited to see an exciting battle.
"Axel, do you think that you are going to win today?", asked Ava.
"Of course, I would not have come here if I think that I didn't.", said Axel.
"That is a good attitude to have but attitude will only get you so far. Be prepared, cause I will not be holding anything back.", said Ava.
Axel nodded and the referee came to the middle to say the rules.
"Before the start of the battle, let me tell you the rules of this gym battle.
This is a 3 VS 3 Pokemons gym battle. Only the challenger can change his Pokemons during the battle. If the battle ends in a draw, the challenger will be considered victorious. Since this is the 2nd gym of the challenger, the gym leader can only use Pokemons of the rare rank category. The gym leader and the challenger could not use any items during the gym battle. Gym leader will take out her Pokemons first. The gym leader can only use normal-type Pokemons.
These are the rules of the gym battle. Are you both ready for the battle?"
"Yes, I am."
"Yes, I am."
"Good, The gym leader is requested to send out her first Pokemon.", said the referee.
"Come out, Ursaluna!!", shouted Ava as she threw a ball in the air and,
ROOOARRR!!!
It was a large, quadrupedal dark brown bearlike Pokemon with a gray pelt around its back, paws, and round tail. The pelt had nine rectangular brown spikes on its back and four rectangular spikes on each side of its head. The front paws have five claws each while the back paws have three claws. Its face had a light-yellow circle resembling a full moon on the forehead, two gray eyebrows resembling clouds, and a light yellow snout that contained a small, black nose and sharp canine teeth.
This was Ursaluna.
"I expected it.", said Axel and inspected the Pokemon. He had a hunch that the gym leader had found an evolution for this Pokemon and he was right.
Ursaluna was a monster of a Pokemon in the game. It had a very high attack stat and even though it lacked a lot in speed and special attack, there was no need to worry about it cause it had high defense and good special defense too.
But this was the real world and he didn't know how good it was until he saw it for himself.
---
Pokemon's name: Ursaluna (Age- 4 years)
Pokemon Nickname: NA
Pokemon Rank: Rare rank
Pokemon type: Normal/Ground type
Ability: Guts (60%)
Hidden ability: Unnerve (45%)
Potential: Brown (Monstrous)
Health: 3800/3800 Attack: A+
Agility: D Defense: A
Sp. Atk: D+ Sp. Def: C++
Moves: Fury Swipes, High horsepower, Thrash, Hammer arm, Earthquake, Facade, Belly drum, Rest, Yawn, Fire punch, Hyper beam, Dig, Swamp, Peat manipulation.
---
This was a powerful Pokemon. First of all, its health was way too high for a rare-rank Pokemon. It also looks like it was very near reaching elemental rank as most of its stats were high enough. It also knew a lot of useful moves. This was going to be a tough battle.
Axel was surprised that it knew 2 new moves which were very rare for a rare-rank Pokemon. He looked at the moves description.
---
Swamp: Create a swamp with a radius of 4 meters around it. The user can increase its speed while moving through it and the speed of the enemy would decrease.
Peat manipulation: Manipulate peat to fire sharp peat attacks and also cover the enemy with peat that would decrease their speed and also make them difficult to react.
---
Those were some interesting moves. Both of the moves focused on decreasing the speed of the enemy. It was quite good as the speed of Ursaluna was quite slow. Its other moves were also very impressive. Most of its attack moves were physical moves and it could be understood as the Pokemon excelled in physical attacks.
"You know what? You are the first one to be not surprised by seeing my Ursaluna. I recently found out about the evolution of it. Do you want to know its pre-evolved form?", asked Ava.
"No, I already know about it.", replied Axel which further made her angry.
Unlike Axel, the crowd was absolutely nuts after seeing Ursaluna. Ava had found out about its evolved form just 6 months ago. It was a surprise even for her and she had kept it hidden from the public for some time. The public had gotten some rumors about it but that was it. Seeing it for the first time was an eye-opener for them.
Ava took it her responsibility to explain the pre-evolved form of Ursaluna and characteristics of its. She also began to tell its nature and how different it was from its pre-evolved form. She was doing her job as a gym leader. However, she didn't tell how she evolved it. It was kept hidden for some reason.
"Challenger, take out your first Pokemon.", said the referee.
"Come out, Togetic.", said Axel.
Togetic came out and then started to fly in the air. Its expression changed as it saw its opponent and then it went near Axel to observe its opponent.
The moment it came out, Ava already knew that it was an elemental rank Pokemon. She silently cursed her luck. She wanted Ursaluna to win the first battle and now it was just going to be a pipe dream.
Togetic was a normal/ flying type Pokemon and Ursaluna was a normal/ ground type Pokemon. Flying types were immune to ground types. It was also one rank higher and Togetic was normally considered as a strong Pokemon and being a gym leader, she cannot change her Pokemon. So, there was very little chance for Ursaluna to win.
Ava knew that she could handle one elemental rank Pokemon but if Axel had more than 1 elemental rank Pokemon, this was going to be a difficult battle even for her.
"Are you both ready for battle?", asked the referee.
"I am ready."
"I am."
"Nice, Let the battle begin!!!"