674 CH54 (668), First Gym Battle (1)

I listened as the referee went over the rules of the battle, while also going over the team I knew Stephanie usually wielded for challenges like this. From what I had learned Stephanie usually used a team consisting of a (high) dark gold stage Steelix, Lucario, Skarmory, Bronzong, Bisharp, and Escavalier. Since Stephanie said that she was going to take our battle seriously, there was a high chance that she was either going to use her (low) platinum-stage Corviknight or Scizor. Maybe even both, in which case Skarmory and/or Escavalier would be replaced.

Compared to that my Gym Team consisted of Mothra/Butterfree, Enji/Arcanine, Mars/Ursasol, Ignis/Gyarados, Stan/Gyarados, and Ryujin/Gyarados. All of them aside from Mars were at the (high) dark gold stage. Only Mars was still at the (mid) dark gold stage, which was why I was planning to lead with him. I was hoping Stephanie would lead with either Escavalier or Bisharp since those would likely prove to be the least challenging for Mars, though I was by no means expecting a fight against them to be easy.

"The challenger is allowed 2 substitutions, while the Gym Leader has none," the referee said, eliciting my interest since I had expected it to be 1 substitution. "Are both combatants ready?" He then asked, and we both nodded in response to his question. "Alright, then ready your PokeBalls," the referee said before starting the countdown. "Go," he eventually said, which compelled Stephanie and me to release our first Pokemon.

"Rex, blow them away," Stephanie said as her Steelix made its appearance. "Saturn, Mars," I said while releasing Mars/Ursasol on my side. There was quite some hubbub coming from the audience, and I heard some excited mentions of Ursasol, but I blended that out to focus on the battle that had just begun. Two things happened simultaneously as the two Pokemon made their appearance. Steelix used his landing on the ground to trigger an Earthquake, while I gave Mars the mental order to 'skip', which had Mars do just that instead of going with the initial opening order.

"Counterquake," I ordered as he fell back down, before adding 'and then roll to the left' telepathically. Mars' Earthquake stabilized the area around him, allowing him to roll out of the way of the Dragon Breath Steelix followed up with without any problems. While that happened Desolate Land took effect, activating Mars' Sun's Progeny talent, raising his speed by 50%. I did not think that Steelix had any water moves, so the only other useful effect for this battle was the 50% power boost to fire moves.

After avoiding that attack, Mars sprang to his feet and began to set up Star Shield and Solar Ring, creating 2 defensive rings around his body. At the same as Mars was finally going through with his opening move, Steelix used Sandstorm. Usually, Sandstorm can coexist with harsh sunlight, but the extremely harsh sunlight of Desolate Land had a suppressive effect on even Sandstorm unless it was close to mastered, in which case the Pokemon was still capable of setting off a Sandstorm. Seeing how its Sandstorm ended up working, it was safe to say that Steelix turned out to be a master of the move.

"Mirage," Stephanie ordered as soon as the Sandstorm went up, and copies of Steelix appeared, before being slightly obscured by the Sandstorm. Directly after the doubles appeared, rock spikes were thrown out and nailed into the ground before vanishing out of sight, telling me that it had used Stealth Rock in addition to Double Team.

"Clear the field," I ordered moments after both Pokemon finished their moves, and Mars released Heat Wave to attack all Steelix at once. "Evac," Stephanie responded and all Steelix silhouettes vanished, escaping the Heat Wave, but leaving themselves open for an obvious (counter)attack. "Quake," I said succinctly, which had Mars release an Earthquake. Yet, Stephanie seemed unbothered by that.

"Curse!" she declared, having to raise her voice a bit to ensure her Steelix heard her, ignoring the Earthquake that was attacking her Pokemon while it was underground. 'Work Up' I telepathically order so that Mars could boost himself while the Earthquake panned out. "Flash," Stephanie followed up, and surprisingly Steelix came back up along with all of its copies.

More importantly, all of them seemed to be hovering above the ground, which explained how Steelix "escaped" Mars' Earthquake. They had to have made sure to hover in the middle of the tunnel they dug, avoiding coming into direct contact with the earth. I was not entirely sure how they stopped a cave-in though. Maybe by using rock moves to reinforce the walls. It was what I would do at least.

Anyway, that unexpected move aside, all six Steelix released a whiteish/greyish beam at Mars, which was easily recognizable as Flash Cannon. Mars was forced to interrupt his Work Up and used Protect to block the Flash Cannon. At least we were able to determine which one of the Steelix was the real one from the point of impact. "Quake, Polish," Stephanie immediately followed up, and all Steelix aborted their beam to slap their tails onto the ground, triggering an Earthquake.

"Counter," I simply said, which had Mars stomp his foot and trigger an Earthquake as well, to counter the one caused by Steelix. While that was happening I saw Steelix gleam a bit more than before which showed that it was using Rock Polish. "Spin then Blast," I ordered, which had Mars release a Fire Spin around the area we knew/presumed the true Steelix to be. "EP," Stephanie commanded and the earth around Steelix erupted, blocking/smothering the Fire Spin, and coincidentally also obstructing the Focus Blast Mars followed up with.

The Focus Blast obviously pushed through the earth in its way, but that bought Steelix enough time to dodge out of the way, resulting in it only being slightly grazed by the attack. "Edge," Stephanie countered swiftly, and Steelix fired Stone Edge at Mars. "Flare," I ordered, ignoring the approaching sharp rocks. Mars followed my order and began to gather fire and solar energy in front of his belly. Solar Flare took a few seconds even under Desolate Land since it was such a powerful move, and while he was amassing the energy, Rock Edge collided with the Protect shield that was still up.

The shield gave in after the third big rock blade crashed into it, but it along with the other two rock blades were intercepted by the Star Shield and Solar Ring he set up in advance, resulting in the collapse of the Star Shield and the loss of one of the flame rings, while leaving only a single rock blade that managed to push itself through Mars' defense shield boundary.

Nonetheless, at this point, Solar Flare was already ready, and Mars released it, causing a huge plasma beam/column to head toward Steelix, casually obliterating the remnant rock edge on the way there. I expected Stephanie to order her Steelix to dodge or at least block Solar Flare since it was apparent that it was a very powerful move.

"Rex, Smash," she said instead, which definitely went against my assumption. Instead of dodging, Steelix's head lit up, and it threw itself at the approaching Solar Flare, or rather it glided towards the attack headfirst. I was pretty sure that Steelix was using Head Smash, which admittedly was a really powerful move, and it confirmed to me that Steelix definitely had Rock Head as its ability, or at least as one of them. There was no way they would have used it otherwise due to the absurd recoil damage usually Head Smash caused.

Still, no recoil or not, facing Solar Flare headfirst meant that Steelix had to endure the attack, which inevitably had to result in damage even if its Head Smash offset some of it. Yet, despite that, Steelix was actually pushing its way through the Solar Flare, steadily closing in on Mars, who was trying to keep his attack going for as long as possible. Roughly 15 seconds later, Steelix had managed to make it within 5 meters of Mars, when the Solar Flare cut off, suddenly allowing Steelix to close in the rest of the distance without obstruction.

Stellix slammed into Mars headfirst, still maintaining the Head Smash, and Mars, who was unable to dodge or block Steelix's head, was sent flying due to the collision. Still, I saw that Steelix's head was pretty scorched due to their choice. 'Mars, if you can, use Protect," I telepathically ordered while he was sailing through the sky. Thankfully, his involuntary flight did not stop him from following through with my order, so after he powered through the pain he was feeling, a protective energy bubble formed around him, and just in time as well it seemed.

"Hyper Beam," Stephanie instructed, which had her Steelix release the strong energy beam at Mars. Thankfully, Protect went up moments before Hyper Beam struck Mars. The power of the Hyper Beam pushed Mars and his bubble, accelerating his flight, and eventually crashed him into the wall, where it kept pushing them deeper into the wall.

Mars' initial mid-air position helped take off the pressure/damage caused by Hyper Beam on the Protect, but once they slammed into the wall, that help vanished, forcing Protect to endure the full might of Steelix's Hyper Beam. Not only that but being mashed against the wall caused additional damage to Protect. It was obvious that the Protect was not going to hold out for long, so we had to do something before Mars had to bear the brunt of the Hyper Beam.

"Hyper Beam," I ordered out loud. 'No need to power it fully, just buy yourself a few seconds to get out of the wall and onto the ground. Then Dig down and move below Steelix before it can touch the ground for an Earthquake,' I mentally supplemented. Instead of immediately releasing the Hyper Beam, Mars charged the energy for a bit to reduce its side effects, and only released his Hyper Beam moments before Protect broke.

The two Hyper Beams clashed, and while the beam struggle happened, Mars took two steps toward and over the edge of the hole Protect had been pushed into. He cut off the Hyper Beam as he fell, and I watched as Steelix's Hyper Beam missed his head by a few cm, no doubt causing some of his hair/fur to curl. Steelix cut off his Hyper Beam after that since Mars dug down moments after his feet touched the ground. Considering how long it had kept its beam going, I was expecting it to be unable to move for at least 5 seconds.

"Fire Blast," I ordered and Mars arose below Steelix prone hovering form, before releasing his fiery attack. "Fall, then Slam," Stephanie ordered as her Steelix got roasted, and Steelix showed an impressive mastery over Magnet Rise by canceling it in advance and falling on top of Mars. "Hammer Arm," I ordered since it was impossible to dodge Steelix due to the very small distance between the two, and from the way Steelix was gleaming it was using Heavy Slam as well.

Unfortunately, the situation was not in Mars' favor and his Hammer Arm only managed to set off a bit of the damage the very heavy Steelix caused by falling on top of him while using Heavy Slam. The one flame ring from Solar Ring got snuffed out as well. "Bind/Fire Combat," Stephanie and I ordered at the same time.

Fire combat was not really a combo move but simply told Mars to hit Steelix with Fire Punch, Blaze Kick, Fire Fang, Fire Slash, and Flamethrower depending on which one fits the situation. While Mars tried to hit the Steelix on top of him, Steelix wound itself around Mars, who struggled against it. As I was thinking about how to help Mars out of this predicament, I heard something that took me off guard.

"Explosion," Stephanie commanded, and her Steelix lit up for a moment before blowing up without any hesitation, catching me off guard since I did not expect her to directly sacrifice her Steelix in an attempt to take down Mars considering that it was nowhere near close to being beaten yet. The resulting explosion was enormous and threw up a lot of dust and earth, obscuring everyone's vision.

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