"You've done very well so far, let's see if you can keep that up until the end," Gym Leader Dennis challenged, and I honestly couldn't help but bring up something I noticed during the last two battles. "Gym Leader Dennis, I have a question I want to ask if you don't mind," I initiated, and Dennis looked rather curious, obviously not minding that I was going "off script".
"Sure, go ahead," he said underlining it with a wave of his hand. "Oh, and just Dennis is fine," he added with a smile and nod, which I answered with a nod of my own before going ahead with the question. "So, I could not help but notice that the difficulty I experienced during the previous two battles did not match what I read on the net. Honestly, I had kinda expected the battles to be harder; All comments made by challengers that went for the 3-star 5 Badge challenge that I found mentioned having to face a dark gold stage Pokemon during each battle of their Gym Challenge," I finished, sounding almost disappointed during the last bit, and Dennis actually laughed a bit awkwardly after hearing what I said.
"Well, you read correctly, we used to do that," he confirmed before putting on a slightly regretful look. "Unfortunately, those complaints did not stop at the web but also landed at the league's office, and after receiving an overwhelming amount of complaints, their words not mine, they sent an undercover Gym Inspector to assess the Gym in secret," Dennis began to explain, and it was not hard to hear the exasperation he was feeling at the matter, especially since the audience was deadly silent. They were attentively listening in as well since this was prime gossip that was coming straight from the mouth of a Gym Leader.
What he was sharing made me remember one of the earlier episodes of Pokemon where one of the Nurse Joy was sent out by the league to assess rumors about a duo of minor Gym Leaders, Kaz and Yas it was I think, causing problems for the people of the city, as in causing literal gang wars, which ended up with Nurse Joy shutting the Gym down if I did not misremember the end of the episode. I was not surprised that Gym Inspectors were a thing here as well since there were so many Gyms spread across the regions. The northern continent alone had over 250 Gyms, so it made sense that those had to be properly regulated.
"I had no idea that there was an inspector right up until the end," Dennis admitted sheepishly, which earned some laughter and chuckles from the crowd, and I heard some exclamations like "That's why they call it undercover" and "That's the goal my man", which had me smile; I saw Dennis smile as well but he did not react to their words and instead continued with his explanation.
"The Inspector gave her report and the Hoenn League deemed that my Gym Challenges were not of an appropriate difficulty," I noticed him barely suppress a scoff when he said that. "According to the missive I received, my Gym's difficulty matched that of most Major Gyms rather than that of a Standard Gym, so I was ordered to either dial down the difficulty of my Gym Challenge or if I did not want to do that to increase my rank to that of a Major Gym Leader as if I could do that just because I wanted to," he followed the last bit up with a bitter laugh.
I chose to not comment since I had noticed that Dennis was using the opportunity to vent/rant a bit, and even though I was not sure if doing so in a public setting like this was really a good idea, I did not interfere. Still, just because I did not comment did not mean that others didn't, and some of the stuff the audience yelled had me laugh. One of them shouted "Just do it" which had me imagine Shia Labeouf yelling at Dennis to just do it.
"Sorry about that, but some of those shouts are just too funny" I apologized to Dennis who chose to wait for me to finish laughing. "It's fine, I get it," he said before he resumed his explanation. "Since I couldn't just rank up, I had no choice but to lower the difficulty of our Gym Challenge. We applied the change just yesterday, which was the deadline given to us by the bureau. Hence, why your Gym Challenge was easier than the one mentioned on the net," he concluded with a shrug, and even though he tried to appear somewhat nonchalant with that shrug, I could feel that he was not happy with the change at all.
"Could you use the old standard for our battle?" I inquired since I was hoping for a slightly harder battle since that was what I had planned/prepared for. "Sorry, no can do," Dennis denied with a shake of his head. "This is an official challenge and I'm obligated to follow the new regulations," he said firmly; "Especially during this period. I'm sure they're keeping an eye on things," he added mostly to himself, though I heard it as well thanks to my enhanced senses.
"Well, at least they did not interfere with our battle style and only set a level limit," Dennis followed up and he actually made quotation marks with his fingers when he mentioned the level limit. "Anyway, enough talking. You're here for a gym battle, so let's get to it," Dennis declared and the referee who had been silently waiting at the side took that as his signal to start his usual spiel for the third time, though this time he added that I was allowed one substitution.
While the referee did that I took out Luna/Clefable's ball and I saw Dennis doing the same on his side. Once the signal came, we simultaneously released our Pokemon, and I saw that Luna had to face a (high) gold Rapidash. Rapidash immediately set out to set up a Sunny Day, while Luna released a Thunder Wave, which forced Rapidash, who just managed to release the Sunny Day, to jump very high to avoid the current.
Unfortunately for Rapidash, Luna directly followed up her Thunder Wave with a temporary Gravity pillar that shifted the gravity around Rapidash, driving the airborne Rapidash towards the ground, which resulted in a pretty big crash. A beam of light broke out of the cloud caused by Rapidash's crash shortly after that, heading straight for Luna, who expertly dodged the Solar Beam by shrinking down to doll size through Minimize.
Rapidash "rushed" out shortly after the beam, using what looks like a combination of Quick Attack and Flame Charge to counteract the increased Gravity in the area. It was just too bad for Rapidash that I had Luna stop her Gravity, causing Rapidash to overshoot due to gravity suddenly returning to normal. Luna directly sent a Thunder Wave after Rapidash, who was trying to turn around after shooting/running past Luna.
Interestingly enough, Rapidash and Dennis managed to neutralize Thunder Wave by burying its head, or rather its horn into the ground, and from the gleam I noticed it looked like it was using Smart Strike while doing that. Luna directly followed up with Sing, causing the temporarily immobile Rapidash to sway like a drunk. It managed to Bounce out of Sing's range due to a shout from Dennis, but that just led to it falling victim to another Gravity pillar, resulting in a second crash.
Still, it seemed they had expected that since a Fire Blast headed in Luna's direction moments before Rapidash crashed into the ground, showing that it was prepared for this to happen. Luna was forced to dodge out of the way since she was still within the Fire Blast's scope even in her small form, and that was easier than trying to block it. While she did that, fire began to spread in all directions from Rapidash's position, and this time Luna was forced to use Water Pulse to clear/douse the flames that were approaching her.
Interestingly enough no further follow-up came to interrupt Luna who began to use Cosmic Power, and it became clear why after the dust settled. Rapidash was using Agility to boost its speed; I was assuming they wanted to counteract the effects of Gravity as much as possible since Luna had proven to have great mastery over the move, but I was proven wrong when Rapidash suddenly used Baton Pass to retreat to its PokeBall and a Chandelure appeared in its place, circumventing the Gym Leader's no switch out handicap; It also passed its speed boost from Agility as well as Flame Charge to Chandelure.
Chandelure Taunted Luna as soon as it appeared, cutting off the plan to use Safeguard. Obviously, just because she couldn't use her non-offensive moves did not mean that Chandelure was going to win, and Luna proceeded to show everyone just that. She began to alternatively throw Shadow Balls and Water Pulses at Chandelure while dodging its attempts at confusing, poisoning, and generally attacking her.
That became a bit harder when her Minimize ran out and she grew back to her original size, but thankfully the same soon happened to the Taunt which actually allowed Luna to Teleport out of the range of the Curse Chandelure attempted after finally "cornering" her. Luna followed up her escape with a Gravity Crush, which due to Chandelure being a ghost, actually compressed it disrupting its form along with anything it had been planning to do instead of just hurting it using Gravity.
Luna made use of the time it took Chandelure to properly reform itself to not only copy Curse but to also use a second Minimize. She then Teleported away from the Inferno Chandelure tried to release at her in return and followed up with a Cosmic Power, boosting herself even further. Following that Luna Teleported out of the Solar Beam's line of fire before appearing behind Chandelure where she released a Stored Power, after which she Teleported away once more since I was afraid of Chandelure ignoring her attack in favor of pulling off a Pain Split or Explosion.
Anyway, Chandelure tried to use Overheat to block the mass of psionic energy heading at it, but only partially succeeded. We attentively watched the place Chandelure was in, though the area was currently covered by a cloud of dust obscuring everyone's vision. Still, it didn't take long for a Fire Spin to appear, but the fire did not head for Luna but began to spin around Chandelure, who seemed to be spinning in place.
The fire around Chandelure began to compress as it spun, and deciding that we did not want Chandelure to succeed, Luna sent a Water Pulse at it. However, Chandelure ignored that and kept spinning while releasing more fire, turning itself into a fireball. The Thunder Wave she sent in an attempt to interrupt it failed to pass through the fire, so she continued to throw Water Pulses at Chandelure, who still ignored them. The Water Pulses did get weakened a bit due to the fire/heat evaporating part of it, but most of it still managed to hurt Chandelure after passing through the firewall.
Frankly, its disregard for its remaining health and its single-minded focus was very worrying, so I had Luna be ready to Teleport away at any moment while she continued to lob Water Pulses at Chandelure. When the fire around Chandlure turned purple, I knew that whatever it was cooking up was ready/done, so I had Luna stop her attack and be ready for anything. When instead of releasing the fire Chandelure actually began to glow a white that I remembered very well from my recent trip to a certain underground tunnel system, I had Luna Teleport to the edge of the battlefield and throw up a Protect on top of that.
As I expected, Chandelure went up in an Explosion, which actually mixed with the fire spinning around it, covering the whole field in an unholy mix of purple fire, heat, and energy. Impressively enough the Purple Fire Explosion persisted for a full fifteen to twenty seconds before it began to die down, and even then there were areas where some purple fire was still burning as if the damn thing was a purple Amaterasu, though I knew that that was not the case.
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