The Gym Trainers

"We hope to see you again."

Max withdrew his pokemon and made his way out of the Pokemon Centre.

Yesterday's training session was pretty fruitful. It taught him several stuff's about his own pokemon.

Let's start with Lux, The Pikachu.

Lux was actually a really strong pokemon from the beginning, might be even top 3 of his team.

If the current rankings were to be done. Then, it would be like, Kaen, Raiken, Lux, Shu, Needle, Haze. Strongest to weakest from left to right.

It was comical that the one with the highest stats on his team, that being Haze and Needle, both were weakest.

Well, the reason might also be the evolution itself, as they just recently evolved, they are still getting used to their current body.

One other thing he noticed from yesterday was regarding Lux. Despite all the contacts his pokemon made physically with Lux, none of them got paralyzed.

Although the chances of it was really low, merely 30℅, but the amount of time they stumbled with each other, Static should have been active, even if it was for a single time.

So that led him to the conclusion, Lux didn't had Static ability, if it wasn't static then there was only other ability that a Pikachu posses and that is Lightning Rod.

An ability that makes host immune to any electric attacks, and absorbs Electric attack increasing their own Special Attack stats by one stag if hit by one.

Well that was all about past, right now he was making his way towards the Gym, it had already been 6 days since he registered for the League, and he had to win the badge today in order to make his trainer privilege permanent.

Although he was nervous, he sure selected a team of two, but he was still nervous.

The gym wasn't that far from the Pokemon Centre, just behind it, but the fences around the Gym made it so you would have to take the long route which was kinda pain.

After walking for like two minutes, he was finally greeted by the tall imposing building of gym, The Pewtew Gym, ingraved boldly in it.

The Gym building was awfully similar to the Pokemon Centre, but instead of red roof it had a brownish and also the pokeball symbol from the Pokemon Centre was replaced by the Gym symbol, rest was similar.

He entered the Gym, the grand door opened and he upon entering, he was greeted by the Gym Dude.

"Yo, Champ in the making," He said from the corner. "This is the Pewter City Gym, are you here for the challenge?"

Max nods, the gym dude looked awfully similar to the one he met in Viridian Gym, aside from their talking mannerism to even the way he held himself or dressed.

The Gym dude's eyes lit up with Max nods as he immediately three him another question. "And is it your first Gym?"

"Uhh... Yes..." Max said as he gave him his Trainer card for the Gym Challenge registration.

The Gym dude takes the Card, he slides the Card in a Machine, his eyes widened for a couple of second as he started at the machines screen but went down slowly, and hands the card back to him.

"Very well! Then let me explain the gym challenge" The gym dude says clasping his hands together. "Since this is your first Gym, you would only have to fight two trainers in a row normally, but since the... You know, handicapped poured to you, you would have to fight 3,"

Yup here comes the Punishment.

With a sigh, Max opened another gate and entered the actual gym.

First sight he was greeted with was a huge rocky terrain battle arena. Clearly the Rocky terrain was for the Gym leaders to have an advantage as pokemon tend to perform better in their respective area. And except for that advantage, Trainer's were privileged to use as many pokemon as they desired, which... Was robbed from Max so now he had to fight this Gym with only disadvantage.

The three trainer's Max had to fight enters one by one, getting in a straight line.

The first one steps in with a smirk of his. "Ready?" The kid said, a smug plastered in his face.

Underestimating was one thing, and looking down on oneself was another. But what the trainer was doing, was both. He must have known the handycap placed on Max.

The good thing about all this was the Gym trainer's will only use one pokemon each, but that very one pokemon will be their strongest, and Max would have to respond with a single pokemon of his own.

Which... Is gonna be harder than two at a time, if there was two pokemon used, then he could have used Haze for sleep powder and ket Raiken or someone else deal with it, but since it was a single at a time... He would have to face some issue.

"Go! Shandshrew!"

"Jerry, You are up!"

Max responds the Shandshew of the trainer with the Ratata of his own. Normally it would have been ideal to use flying type against Grounds, stealing them of their Ground STAB, but the thing is... This is a Rock gym, not a ground, and the signature move of this Gym was Rock tomb, a Rock type move, so expect to deal with it a lot, even against a Gym trainer.

"Shandshrew use-"

"Jerry! Finish this! Hyper Fang!"

Jerry immediately closes the distance, it's mouth opening wide as it's fangs bore deep in the shandshrew's body before the Shandshrew could even react, all it could do was release it's loud cry, eventually falling in ground.

"Return!"

Max immediately withdraws Jerry back to it's ball as it lands back on it's feet, taking some damage ad the purple bubbles forms around it before being sucked back to it's ball.

"C... Challenger wins!" The refree, gym guy announced.

The trainer looks shocked with its mouth wide apart. Shocked by how it's brilliantly trained Shandshrew just got knocked out in a single hit.

Normally a Shandshrew would have posed a larger threat, that's the very reason he had brought Jerry, to deal with those pesky Shandshrews.

Max already expected that he would be facing Shandshrews, that's why he had already came prepared. He asked his Haze to use Poison Powder on Jerry prior to entering the gym. And thanks to this, the ability of Jerry, Guts, was activated.

Hyper Fang, already a strong 80 base power move receiving a STAB of 1.5x followed by another 1.5x bonus of Guts making it a whopping 180 base power attack. That was the reason behind the massacre that just unfolded.

Although it pained him to use Poison powder on Jerry, he had to make full use of available resources. You would be surprised that besides Raiken, only Jerry was the one that was neutral against Rock types, almost every other was at disadvantage here.

And he was saving Raiken's energy for the Main battle, he couldn't let it exhaust with these... Mere side trainer annoying Shandshrews and hinder it's performance in main battle due to exhaustion from Raiken.

But he didn't forced the idea on Jerry, he had made the strategy final, with every pokemon together. And also, if Jerry was unable to withstand the effects of Poison anymore, he had let it hold Pecha Berry he picked from Viridian Forest, yes, he went back there to farm some berries yesterday.

Basically Jerry could return to normal anytime it wished.

And he had to say, as inhumane as the strategy was, it worked perfectly, the poison slowly killed Jerry, that's why he had to attack and withdraw it immediately to avoid preventing it from further damage.

Now it was for the second challenger.

A lady slowly took place of the earlier trainer. Her eyes narrowed, she noticed the purplish traits of Ratata indicating it was poison, although it was slowly dying it was also at it's most highly offensive mode.

So what was she gonna do? It was obvious if she used any other pokemon then Rock types then Ratata will probably be at the field, and if she used Rock type, then there was a chance that this trainer might have a Mankey.

"Battle begin!"

"Go! Geodude!" She choose the latter option.

Her idea was simple, If the trainer used Ratata then it was immediate win for her. As Geodude Resist Normal typesmoves and had already high defense with Sturdy ability, basically enough tools to outlast Ratata before it finally Sucummb to the Poison.

Sure the Guts strategy was genius, but it was a double edge sword, a high risk high reward play with a gutsy heart to even try.

And say if the trainer didn't used Ratata but decided to use a fighting type, then again... Sturdy, even if she lost, she will wear him enough so it would struggle for the actual fight against the leader.

So what is it gonna be? Trainer? She thought.

"Raiken! I choose you!" Max choose Raiken.

It was either Save your pokemon for later but high chance of losing before even getting to use it, or guaranted win but a little difficult to fight the main battle. Max choose the latter.

His plan was simple. If Non rock, then Jerry. If Rock, then Raiken.

"Fight!"