The next day after breakfast they decided to go out and walk around until it was time for the Gym battle.
He had forgotten to ask the type the Gym specialized in yesterday, but he rectified that while they were outside.
It turns out the Gym specialized in the fairy-type and that Orchid City only had a single Hall, a fire-type Hall.
The Gym Leader was apparently named Fabien and his ace Pokemon was an Alolan Ninetales.
The battle was supposed to start at 3:30 p.m, so at 2:30 p.m after a satisfying lunch, they made their way to the Gym and Mikail was quite impressed when he saw it.
The gym was a really big stand-alone 2 storied building and besides being painted in pinkish tones it did not look too outlandish.
The building was owned by the Pokemon Alliance and the Gym Leader used it for the duration of his or her term.
Hall Masters, leaders of the Halls, that qualified for the Gym Leader position temporarily closed their Hall and moved into the Gym with all their staff.
The alliance financed the maintenance of their previous Hall for the duration of the Gym Leaders term and if the Gym Leader lost his or her position or voluntarily stepped back, they could return to their old Hall without any problems.
The Pokemon Alliance also provided additional staff for the duration of the term if needed.
It was 3 p.m when they entered the building, and upon entry, his parents told him that most Gyms were built the same.
There were the registry and waiting area at the entrance, after which one would walk to the inner area where the battlefield was.
There were personnel rooms at the sides of the field as well as the stairs leading up to the second floor, where the stands for the spectators were.
It honestly resembled an indoor sports stadium a bit minus the open ceiling.
The size of the battlefield depended on their category.
Minor Gyms had a field that was about a quarter the size of a football field in his previous life.
Gym fields were half the size of a football field and Major Gyms had battlefields the size of a football field.
The composition of the battlefield depended on the Gym Leader and could provide a "home field" advantage to the Gym Leader, like a rock-type Gym having a rocky battlefield for example.
The Orchid Gym had an indoor grass field, so no particular advantage for the Gym Leader.
After they sat down on their seats, Mikail hear an announcement that stated that the 2-star challenge would begin in 15 minutes.
He, naturally, got curious and asked his parents what they meant with a 2-star challenge.
It turned out that Gyms had different difficulty settings, 1-star to 3-star, which would result in different badges, 1-star to 3-star, and different amounts of prize money.
The rules were a bit different for the junior and senior league, for 1-star battles, but the rest was the same.
The easiest challenge was the 1-star challenge.
Here the Gym Leader would use Pokemon that have been provided by the Pokemon Alliance.
The difference between the junior league and the senior league was that all 1-star battles in the senior league were 4 vs 4, while the junior league started with 2 vs 2 battles for the first few badges before increasing the number of Pokemon per battle until it became 4 vs 4 as well.
Those that won received a 1-star Badge and some prize money.
The next difficulty was the 2-star challenge, where the Gym Leader would use some of his own Pokemon for the fight and the battle would either be a 4 vs 4, or a 5 vs 5 battle.
The Gym Leader had the right to choose, which one would happen.
Those that won received a 2-star Badge and more prize money.
The last official difficulty was the 3-star challenger, where the Gym Leader used some of his older and stronger Pokemon for the fight.
The battle would be a full 6 vs 6 battle.
Those who won this received a 3-star Badge and even more prize money.
There was an unofficial even harder difficulty where the Gym Leader would use his main team, but the reward was the same as the one for a 3-star challenge, so only those that really wanted to challenge themselves would choose to do that.
The only extra for a win here was that it would be noted on the challenger's profile that the challenger won against the leader's real team, which was more of a prestige thing.
Besides the increased prize money, the stars also helped find seeded trainers, that did not have to participate in the qualification round or only had to participate during the final stage of the qualification round.
More importantly, it gave someone huge bragging rights if he had 3-star Badges, especially if he had S-rank 3-star Badges, then the bragging rights were immense.
It seemed like the time for the battle had come during the conversation they had, because the announcement that the Gym Leader and the challenger were entering the field was broadcasted, so they stopped talking and focused on the battlefield.
On the right side was the Gym Leader, Fabian, a man that was a bit smaller than his father.
Fabian had pink hair, blue eyes, a handsome/beautiful face, fair skin tone, and a delicate build.
Mikail was not sure if Fabian's hair color was natural, but he assumed it to be because Fabian's eyebrows were pink as well.
Anyway, the challenger was a young woman, with green hair and blue eyes.
She had a beautiful face, a fair skin tone as well as an attractive body.
Once both trainers were inside their designated area, the referee started speaking.
"This is an official 2-star Gym battle and Gym Leader Fabian chose to hold a 4 vs 4 battle.
The battle is over once all 4 Pokemon of either of the participants are unable to battle.
Pokemon are considered unable to battle if they have been knocked out, are unable to continue to fight for more than 45 seconds, the trainer forfeits the round, or if I deem the fight over.
The challenger, Aya from Fuchsia City, may substitute her Pokemon while the Gym Leader may not.
The use of any recovery material or material that interferes with the opponent is forbidden.
Have you both understood and accepted the rules?"
The two trainers nodded at the question and the referee continued.
"Good, then as soon as I give the start signal, both of you will simultaneously release your Pokemon."
The referee had two flags one red and one green.
Green stood for the Gym Leader and red stood for the challenger.
He raised both flags and lowered them again, while simultaneously using a whistle to signal the start of the battle.
As soon as the trainers saw/heard the start signal they called out their first Pokemon.
Gym Leader Fabian released a Clefable, while Aya called out an Arbok.
The first thing Fabian called out as soon as he saw Aya's Arbok was Safeguard, which Clefable immediately performed.
Its body briefly shined in a white light that allowed it to be safe from any poisoning for a certain time.
Aya who saw Fabian's fast reaction told her Arbok to go under and give their opponents a loud and hard slap to the face.
Arbok seemingly used Dig to go underground and Fabian simply told his Clefable to start boosting.
Clefable started to shine a bit with a pinkish glow after receiving the instruction and Mikail heard uncle Thorn say that it was using Cosmic Power to boost its endurance/defense and energy density/special defense.
It used the time until Arbok resurfaced to boost itself 3 times.
Meanwhile, Arbok came up right behind Clefable and aimed a Screech at Clefable as soon as its head was out.
Then it used the momentum of its resurfacing to spin in the air and deliver an Iron Tail directly at Clefable's head.
Fabian who saw the metallic sheen on Arbok's tail tried to tell his Clefable to use Protect, but Clefable was unable to hear him because Arbok kept up its Screech right before it delivered the Iron Tail.
Clefable itself was unable to see Arbok's move because Arbok was behind its back and its reaction was delayed by the sudden extremely loud noise.
Once the Iron Tail hit home, Clefable was sent flying, but thanks to the 3 Cosmic Power's it took less damage than it would have otherwise taken from the super-effective move.
Mikail, who saw that was impressed by Aya's command.
While the underground part had been obvious, the loud and hard slap had been subtle enough and the combination proved effective enough, especially because it interrupted Clefable from hearing the Gym Leader's command.
He made note of this combination while observing how Clefable quickly stood back up.
Fabien told it to use Sing as soon as it was back on its legs.
Aya reacted and told her Arbok to counter Sing with another Screech and to fire Acid at its foe.
Clefable dodged the Acid and stopped singing after Fabien told it to use Encore on Arbok forcing it to only use Acid for a while.
After that, he ordered Clefable to use Gravity to slow Arbok down and Cosmic Power and Minimize to boost itself.
Aya who currently had no other option until Encore wore off told Arbok to use Acid to interrupt and damage Clefable.
Unfortunately for her, Clefable managed to dodge all of Arbok's attacks, while successfully boosting itself quite a few times.
Fabian seemed to be satisfied with something because he nodded before he told his Clefable to approach Arbok.
Aya did not like that and told Arbok to maintain the distance but sadly it was slower than Clefable because of Gravity.
It tried to use Acid to slow Clefable down, but Clefable still shortened the gap between them.
Once Clefable was less than 5 meters from Arbok Fabian told it to tank the Acid and use Stored Power.
Aya's eyes widened in horror at that and she shouted towards Arbok to use Protect.
Fortunately for her Encore wore off and Arbok managed to use Protect in time.
Unfortunately, Protect could not withstand the Cosmic Power and Minimize boosted Stored Power and was destroyed after reducing the power of the move a bit.
To the relief of Aya, her Arbok managed to weather the attack thanks to its timely Protect, but it was on its last legs.
She promptly told her Arbok to use Haze to temporarily prevent Clefable from using such a powerful Stored Power once again.
Fabian simply told his Clefable to use another Cosmic Power.
While Clefable was using Cosmic Power its Safeguard wore off and Aya who noticed that as well used this chance to at least weaken Clefable some more for her next Pokemon.
She told Arbok to use Toxic and Clefable who was only a few meters away had no chance to dodge the move and got poisoned.
Fabian, who saw that clenched his hand at that before he told Clefable to use Dazzling Gleam, which managed to knock out Arbok.
The referee declares Arbok unable to battle and tells Aya to recall it as well as to call out her next Pokemon.
Aya slowly lifts Arbok's Pokeball and recalls it, after which she whispers something to it, which he assumes to be some encouraging words.
She then proceeded to act as if she was thinking before the referee warned her to stop delaying and call out her next Pokemon.
Mikail had to smirk a little at Aya's behavior.
Even if it is a bit unsportsmanlike to drag the situation out so that Clefable got a bit more damaged by Toxic, he could appreciate the strategy even if he saw it as a teeny bit shameless.
He saw Aya nod at the referee's warning before she called out her next Pokemon.
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