After Marcello left the battlefield, they "introduced" Gym Leader Home, who under the cheers of the audience took his place across from me. While they did that I once again thought about what I knew about Daniel's 2-star team. As far as I knew, he interchangeably used 3 among either Sableye, Banette, Dusclops, Shedinja, Froslass, Gengar, and Frillish, out of which only Froslass, Gengar, and Dusclops were at the (high) silver stage, while the rest were at the (mid) silver stage. I was assuming that he would directly use the (high) silver trio against me, though I could be wrong.
"Welcome to the Hardfort Gym, Mikail," Daniel spoke up, drawing my attention. "Let's have a great battle and let me show you how tricky it can be to face off against a ghost," he proclaimed and I nodded in acknowledgment before the referee piped up. The referee did the usual rundown of rules and also mentioned that this was going to be a 3-vs-3 battle without any substitution on the Gym Leader's side and a single substitution on my side.
"Are both of you ready?" he asked once he had said his piece, and I nodded, having taken out Freyja/Lopunny's ball while he was talking. Daniel, who did the same, nodded as well, and seeing us indicate our readiness, the referee began the countdown. As soon as he gave the signal, both Daniel and I released our Pokemon.
Freyja appeared on my side, causing a bit of a commotion due to her being a Lopunny and a different-looking one at that. Even Gym Leader Daniel, who had chosen his Froslass, raised an eyebrow in surprise when he saw me call out a Lopunny, which was a normal type. Well, Freyja was a normal/fighting type, both types that ghosts were immune to, but that was naturally not the case with Freyja thanks to her Scrappy ability, which was why I chose her.
Still, we ignored everyone else and focused on the fight. Even Daniel and his Froslass did not let their surprise stop them from directly acting against Freyja, who had released a salvo of Swift at her. It seemed that Daniel knew that something was up with Freyja's attack since he did not ignore it just because it was a normal-type move. As expected of a Gym Leader I guess, even if it was a minor one.
Anyway, Freyja directly used Bounce after Swift to rise high into the air, rising above the Frost Breath that did more than just stop the homing stars heading for Froslass. While Froslass cut off the Frost Breath that harmlessly passed below Freyja, Freyja fired off two successive Aura Spheres as she reached the peak of her jump, forcing Froslass to block the first using Shadow Ball before evading the second one. There was some confusion in the crowd at Froslass' actions in the face of Freyja's moves, but we ignored them.
Froslass' actions allowed Freyja to descend unbothered, and she was using High Jump Kick as she was coming down. Thanks to Scrappy Froslass was not immune to Freyja's fighting-type moves, and due to her being an ice type as well, Froslass had a minor weakness to fighting-type energy now that she could actually be hit by it, so when Freyja's High Jump Kick landed on Froslass's head, it hit and caused a cracking sound while sending Froslass crashing into the ground.
Well, rather than crashing into the ground, Froslass sank into it since she was still a ghost, avoiding any secondary damage, but the force of the hit made her vanish beneath the ground, giving Freyja more than enough time to recover from her super drop kick. Now, at the latest, the audience understood why Froslass acted the way she did, and there was quite some surprise that Freyja could hit Froslass without using Foresight.
Regardless, Freyja used the moment she acquired to perform Agility to raise her speed, and just as she finished boosting herself, multiple Froslass rose from the ground all around Freyja, indicating that Froslass had used Double Team before emerging. Freyja immediately used Foresight to determine which Froslass was real, and she directly jumped to the side, dodging an Icicle Crash performed by the Froslass behind her. Freyja threw an Aura Sphere at the real Froslass as she was rolling to safety, and Froslass managed to dodge that aura ball by using her physiology to half sink into the ground, allowing the Aura Sphere to pass above her head.
Without bothering about leaving the ground, Froslass sent a Frost Breath after Freyja, who dodged the freezing wind by performing a crouching jump. She spun in the air and released a salvo of Swift at Froslass, who blocked them with a volley of Ice Shards. Freyja followed up with an Aura Sphere, as she was falling back down, but that got blocked by a Shadow Ball that Froslass released at nearly the same time.
What followed was somewhat of a stalemate where both Froslass and Freyja were attacking each other, while dodging and/or blocking each other attacks. They occasionally succeeded in hitting each other, but overall they were both equally hurt/exhausted. I did not mind that since Freyja was actually at a slight stage disadvantage while facing a Gym Leader's Pokemon, even if it was not one of his main team members.
Anyway, there was a moment of surprise when Froslass tanked an attack to release and hit Freyja with a Will-O-Wisp, causing Freyja to get burned. Expecting the next bit, I ensured that Freyja dodged the Hex Froslass released, along with any further attempts to Hex Freyja. To counteract the burn, I had Freyja use Drain Punch, but after the second hit, she was unable to employ it again, indicating that Froslass had Cursed Body.
Aware that Freyja needed to win this battle as quickly as possible, I had her release two sets of Swift. I then had her follow after the Swift and use Power-Up Punch to destroy the seven stars the farthest away from Froslass to attain the maximum strength boost she could maintain, while Froslass dealt with the rest of the stars.
Following that boost, I had Freyja set the stage for a finishing blow, and we eventually managed to time everything perfectly to land a Jump Kick on Froslass's chin/cheek. The devastating blow sent Froslass flying, and I knew that she had been knocked out by the hit. Unfortunately, Froslass seemed to have managed to set up a Destiny Bond before she got hit since Freyja slumped a bit after her successful kick sent Froslass flying. The sudden slumping caused her to botch her landing a bit which forced her to roll along the ground before standing back up, but thanks to her Supple talent she managed to avoid hurting herself.
"Froslass is unable to battle, Lopunny is the victor," the referee declared after waiting for a few seconds to ensure that Froslass was down and that Freyja/Lopunny would stay conscious. "Gym Leader Home, please recall your Pokemon, and send out your next combatant," he followed up and Daniel did just that. The next Pokemon he sent out was his Gengar, who showed us the tongue after making its appearance before breaking out in laughter.
Once the referee gave the starting signal, Gengar directly released a surge of Poison Gas, forcing Freyja to jump into the air to dodge it to avoid getting poisoned on top of being burned. She released two Aura Spheres in quick succession, and Gengar blocked the first one using a Shadow Ball while tanking the second one in return for releasing a Confuse Ray that Freyja was unable to dodge mid-air.
I used telepathy to tell her to use Aura Sphere to keep Gengar busy, while she descended. She naturally had to use High Jump Kick during her descent to nail Gengar with it if possible. The Aura Sphere part worked, but she used Doube Hit at nothing instead of channeling High Jump Kick. Luckily, the force of the Double Hit shifted her position, which allowed her to dodge the Hex Gengar tried to hit her with after dodging the Aura Sphere.
Well, at least she landed in a crouch, without hurting herself. The Poison Gas had already passed as well, but I still ordered her to roll to the right to dodge the Shadow Ball Gengar sent her way. Sadly her confusion made her disregard my order, which allowed the Shadow Ball to hit her. Fortunately, she managed to snap out of her confusion thanks to the pain the Shadow Ball caused her, so there was a bit of a silver lining there.
Freyja then tried her best to cause as much damage to Gengar as she could before she was unable to continue, but that was less successful than we wanted since Gengar did its best to keep its distance, forcing her to rely on Swift and Aura Sphere for her attacks which it either dodged or blocked. Furthermore, Gengar also sent its own counterattacks ranging from Hex to Poison Gas, which forced Freyja to keep moving. In the end, her burn along with the three Shadow Balls that she failed to block or dodge caused her to fall unconscious, resulting in her loss.
Nonetheless, it was a good overall performance on her part since she managed to beat one of the Gym Leader's Pokemon. She also forced the second Pokemon to expend some energy while causing it some damage, even if it was not much, and all that while being at the stage disadvantage.
Anyway, I decided to go with Fortuna/Togekiss next, and the crowd was once again excited to see a rare Pokemon. I was not sure how many of them had actually noted how special Fortuna really was, being a Shiny Royal, but Togekiss were already rare enough for them to get excited about seeing one.
Regardless, once the referee gave the starting signal, the first thing Fortuna did was to use Safeguard to avoid getting poisoned. That allowed her to ignore the Poison Gas Gengar released, and she followed up with Ancient Power, which triggered its stat-boosting secondary effect. Fortuna then used Psychic to take control of the Ancient Power, turning it into homing rocks, which went after Gengar, who tried to dodge and block them.
Gengar manage to use Dark Pulse to disrupt/take care of around half of the Psychic rocks, but Fortuna managed to retain control of the other half. Ultimately, a third of the rocks successfully hit Gengar, causing him some pain. That first exchange pretty much set the tone for their battle. Fortuna kept the pressure on Gengar with her various attacks, utilizing either Psychic or Air Slash if she was not going for a metronome-triggered big move.
Gengar was on the back foot the whole time, which was probably why it went for Curse after being hit once again before rushing through Fortuna's incoming Ancient Power. It dodged as many rocks as it could while tanking the ones it couldn't dodge, but Gengar managed to arrive before Fortuna, where it used Destiny Bond before triggering an Explosion.
Having already suspected this being a kamikaze rush, Fortuna set up a Protect before Gengar exploded. Nonetheless, while the Protect stopped the worst/first impact of the Explosion, Gengar falling unconscious as a result of its own move triggered Destiny Bond, which caused Fortuna's focus to falter. That in turn caused her Protect to falter, which exposed her to the tail end of the Explosion.
Yet, despite enduring some of the Explosion along with Destiny Bond, Fortuna was still not out of the game. She was however still cursed, which unfortunately put her on a time limit, though we had ways to delay that quite a bit.
"Gengar is unable to battle, Togekiss is the victor," the referee declared after the smoke caused by Gengar's Explosion dissipated. "Gym Leader Home, please recall your Gengar, and send out your final Pokemon," he followed up and Daniel followed suit.
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