Renee was the ancestor of Erika. This was the time when Erika was just a child and Ash and Gray have not been born. Renee used grass type Pokemons from the Kanto region. Celadon city was very far from Pallet town and Axel decided to take a plane to travel to Celadon city where he will battle Renee for his second batch.
Gym leaders could only use the specific typing Pokemon of the current region. Going by that logic, Renee could only use 6 Pokemons. They were:
1. Venusaur = Grass/poison
2. Vileplume = Grass/Poison
3. Parasect = Bug/ Grass
4. Victreebel = Grass/ Poison
5. Exeggutor = Grass/ Poison
6. Tangela = Grass
Since Renee could only use Pokemon up to rare ranked, Axel was confident that he would win without any problems. Shedinja and Beedrill were already on the verge of reaching elemental rank and Nidorino was also close. So, Axel didn't make any extensive plans to battle Renee as he did for Flint in the first gym.
He booked a hotel and took a shower. He had already booked his match with Renee for tomorrow via telephone. Normally, you could only book the fight by being personally present but Axel had a secret weapon called Prof. Oak.
Axel didn't want to over-train his Pokemons before the battle so he let them rest. Absol was excited to leave its home and was roaming around the hotel. It was excited to see the new place. Seeing this childish act of Absol brought a smile to his face.
Axel took his dinner and had some good sleep. He was ready for the fight tomorrow at 10 am.
Just when he woke up early in the morning, Axel got a call from Adam.
"Hello"
"Hey kid, How are you?"
"I am good. Why the early call though? Is everything okay?" asked Axel.
"Yes, Angela wanted to have a talk with you," said Adam, and the voice of the leader of the Venu family came.
"Hello, Axel."
"Hi."
"I heard that you are going to challenge the next gym in Celadon City."
"Yes, My Pokemons are high level for the 2nd gym badge. So, I think I would have an easy fight.", said Axel with a proud voice.
Axel had really trained his Pokemon hard for this gym battle. Coupled with their absolute defeat from Oak's Charizard, the Pokemons were very hard-working and wanted to improve more.
"I called you this early morning to give you a little heads up. The Venu family had decided to take over Celadon City gym."
"What do you mean?", asked Axel rubbing his eyes.
"The Zard family and Toise family controls 1 gym each. The Toise family controls Cerulean Gym and the Zard family controls the Cinnabar Island Gym. We have been thinking to be open to the outside world and decided to control 1 gym in the Kanto region too. So, we would be taking over the Celadon gym."
"We could do that?", asked Axel.
"Yes, the 3 families have some leeway and get more benefits than you could imagine. Every family could control only 1 gym but the gym would have to agree to join first. That is where the problem lies. It is an independent gym and the gym leader would not agree to join us.", said Angela
"Then what are you planning to do?", asked Axel.
"Oh, we have already figured it out. First, we decided to throw the gym leader out and take over. But it is not so easy. Renee and her family had handled the gym for many generations and they are doing a good job. We could forcefully take over the gym but the league and the gym leader have many conditions that seem impossible for us to fulfill.
So, we decided to let her join the family and the family would control the gym. Renee didn't want to do that cause a huge part of the resources that she gets from the league would go to the family.
So, we came to an agreement. That is where you come in. If a young member of our family could beat her gym by the age of 14 then she would concede and be a part of our family. The trainer would only get 2 chances. If the trainer loses the first gym battle then s/he could challenge the gym again with a maximum interval of 1 month. You are just a few months short of reaching 14 so you fit perfectly.", said Angela giving full information.
"Okay then. I am no problems.", said Axel. He was planning to beat the gym today and if Venu family could get some benefits then he did not have any problem.
" Okay, now I have to go. Adam would explain the rest.", said Angela and the voice of Adam came
"Hey, kid. How are you holding?", asked Adam.
"I am good. I have finally found the reason to become the Pokemon master.", said Axel with a bright voice. He normally talked to Mark but he rarely talked to Adam. So, it was refreshing to talk to him after many months.
"That is nice. I would want to hear about it but for now, the leader and I called you today to tell you that you are going to have a hard fight at the gym.", said Adam.
"How so?"
"Though we reached an agreement, Renee is still not happy with it.
We offered her a lot of benefits but there is still a lot of friction between us. Don't underestimate a gym leader. So many years of experience in battle is not something you could win even if your Pokemon is much more powerful than hers. I think that you would lose today's fight.", said Adam.
"Really? I mean I know that gym leaders could give a hard fight if they want and the reason I won against Flint is cause he didn't give his all and only observed me. But my Pokemons are on the borderline of reaching elemental ranks now. I don't think that I would lose.", said Axel.
"What really? Already on the borderline to reach elemental. First, give the details of your Pokemon's progress.", asked Adam.
"Okay, then let's start with.....