679 CH59 (673), First Gym Battle (6)

When Stephanie gave her declaration full of confidence, I had to refrain from saying that I still had 5 Pokemon ready to fight, no matter how funny that would have been. I knew she was just doing her best in her role as a Gym Leader after all. Otherwise, she could have just as well thrown out her Ace Metagross and taken down Mothra/Butterfree along with one or two more members of my team. The only part I was confident of was that Metagross would not be able to sweep through my whole team even if it was at the (high) platinum stage.

It might have been able to do that with everyone else, but my Pokemon were too strong for that and would eventually manage to wear Metagross down, especially if it had to beat down both Mothra, Stan/Gyarados and Enji/Arcanine first. As for the possibility of Mothra beating Metagross? Well, emotionally I wanted to say that she could, but realistically I knew that she couldn't.

Not because she stood no chance against a (high) platinum-stage Pokemon since I was pretty sure that Mothra could wear down certain weaker Pokemon of that level if it came down to it even with her being "only" at the (high) dak gold stage. Mothra's recent victory over Corviknight only reinforced that belief. However, Metagross was definitely not part of that group. Its base was too strong and its moveset was versatile enough that it would have no problem facing Mothra at any distance, especially with it being a psychic type.

Things would have been different if Mothra had been at the platinum stage as well, but Mothra was still a long way off from breaking through to the next stage, and the same was true for any of my other dark gold stage Pokemon as well. Still, I was getting sidetracked again. It was time to respond to Stephanie's challenging words.

"And I'm sure that we are up to the challenge," I confidently replied, and I could have sworn I saw the ghost of a smirk on her face for a moment. "Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that," she replied cooly while releasing her next Pokemon, which happened to be her Lucario. Upon appearing, Lucario immediately crossed its arms, before looking at Mothra and me as if it was assessing our worth/threat level.

"I'm subbing out Mothra," I declared after raising my hand to signal to the referee that I had something to say pertaining to the battle. After he gave me the go-ahead, I once again praised Mothra for her brilliant battle performance before recalling her. I then put her ball away and ruminated for a moment who to send out to face Lucario. Ignis/Gyarados, Stan/Gyarados, and Ryujin/Gyarados had yet to fight, so it had to be one of them, but which Gyarados was the thousand-dollar question.

Well, I wanted to keep Stan back for Stephanie's potential second platinum-stage Pokemon, so that took him out of the equation leaving Ignis and Ryujin as my options. Considering that the Pokemon we would be facing after Lucario should be Stephanie's Bisharp and most likely platinum-stage Scizor, I decided to go with Ignis, which would leave Bisharp to Ryujin.

I silently released Ignis, though the audience's reaction to his appearance was anything but silent. Exclamations of awe, surprise, disbelief, and excitement echoed throughout the battlefield/room. The referee did not start the battle and waited a minute for the commotion to reach a more acceptable level before asking for silence. Only then did he address us and our Pokemon.

"The battle begins upon my signal," he announced before starting the countdown. As soon as he gave the go, both Pokemon sprang to action. Ignis performed his exclusive weather move, Steaming Mist, while Lucario seemed to use either Work Up or Bulk Up. I was not sure which one it was, it could have even been both. Everyone was surprised when they heard Lucario release a hiss of pain after Ignis conjured the Steaming Mist since it did not appear all that different from the usual (white) Mist, at least at first glance.

However, as Lucario's reaction had shown, Steaming Mist was nothing like the move Mist. In fact, considering that Mist was an ice-type move, I'd say they were on the opposite of the move-type spectrum since Steaming Mist could probably be classified as a steam-type move, which thanks to Ignis' Steam Core talent and Volcanion's blessing could be counted as a real thing since it did truly combine fire and water energy into a new derivative energy, we called steam energy.

Steaming Mist in particular was the evolution of Summer Rain, which had been Ignis' initial combination of Rain Dance and Sunny Day. Using that move as a basis, Ignis created a move that covered an area in a steaming hot mist that not only delivered continuous damage to all Pokemon aside from fire and water types but also boosted the power of fire and water-type moves by 50%, while boosting the power of steam-type moves by 100%.

"Vacuum Wave, clear the area around you," Stephanie ordered, and it was admittedly a clever way to grant her Lucario a temporary relief. "Steam Jet," I followed up, and Ignis fired off the steam equivalent of Hydro Pump at Lucario while it was busy clearing the scalding mist around it.

Still, Lucario did react remarkably swiftly to the attack and rolled/dodged out of the way moments before it got hit. "COPY!" Stephanie said almost immediately upon seeing Ignis' attack. It was funny really, mere moments after it had to roll under Ignis' Steam Jet, Lucario fired one back at Ignis, and while it did not have the STAB bonus, it did benefit from the Steaming Mist bonus. Honestly, I was quite happy that Lucario's counter/copy did not have the same STAB bonus as Ignis' attack since his steam moves enjoyed a 100% STAB bonus, not a 50% one like regular moves and even other combination moves did due to the nature of steam energy.

Anyway, unfortunately for Lucario Ignis had supreme fire and Water resistance, along with supreme steam resistance, so the Steam Jet it released could merely tickle him, which was why I ignored it and had Ignis hit back instead. "Tank it, then fire back," I ordered out loud. 'Follow up with Dragon Dance, and if Lucario attacks you from afar block it with Hydro Pump or Flamethrower. If Lucario tries to close in instead so that it can physically attack you, then let it get closer before using Steam Eruption,' I telepathically added and I could practically feel Ignis smirk at the last bit.

Ignis took Lucario's Steam Jet head-on, tanking it without flinching. While he did that, he fired his own Steam Jet at Lucario, who was not able to accept the attack as easily as Ignis did. Lucario released a painful groan when it got impacted by Ignis' Steam Jet, and the pain ended up interrupting its attack. Honestly, Lucario was lucky that Steam Jet did not have as much of a "physical force" on it as Hydro Pump would have had, or it would have been sent flying. I somehow doubted that Lucario would have enjoyed landing inside the Steaming Mist.

Nonetheless, while Steam Jet did not send Lucario flying, it did leave behind burns with painful-looking blisters. Following that, Lucario did something that took me off guard. It hit its blisters/burnt areas worsening its injury and causing itself pain before using what I recognized as Life Dew to heal those injuries. Its approach worked and it was a somewhat clever if not painful way to heal burns without status condition healing moves options, but one had to come up with such a self-mutilating method first which wasn't easy.

Lucario was also lucky that Ignis was using the time it was doing that to spam Dragon Dance instead of attacking it since its actions left it open for a not-inconsiderable time that could have definitely been used to attack it once or twice. "Vacuum, X Speed, Quake, and Drain," Stephanie fired off a chain of instructions immediately after her Lucario had dealt with its burns.

Following her order, Lucario first released another Vacuum Wave, once again clearing away the Steaming Mist that had begun to cover the area it had previously cleared, before releasing a second more focused Vacuum Wave, this one aimed solely in the direction of Ignis, clearing away the Steaming Mist between them, opening a path for Lucario. It then vanished from its position, at least that was probably what it looked like to the untrained eye, but I could see it rushing towards Ignis using Extreme Speed.

Just when Lucario came within 10 meters of Ignis, my boy triggered Steam Eruption, releasing a massive cloud of superheated steam in all directions. Yet, surprisingly despite the short response time, Lucario managed to raise a Rock Slab in front of itself through a clever application of Stone Edge, blocking the worst of the Steam Eruption. Lucario then triggered an Earthquake that shook the ground and slightly unbalanced Ignis while causing some damage to him as well. It then went in and tried to deliver a Drain Punch.

However, Ignis was not planning to make it that easy for Lucario. In a manner that showed off a degree of nimbleness that most would not expect from such a large Pokemon, Ignis turned his body and slapped Lucario with an Aqua Tail. Fist and tail met, resulting in Drain Punch and Aqua Tail clashing for a moment.

Unfortunately for Lucario, Ignis' Aqua Tail overwhelmed its punch, and slapped it across the body, sending it flying. Interestingly enough, Ignis actually showed a pained expression when he hit Lucario on the chest with his tail. That was something that did not happen during the brief clash that occurred moments before, which meant that the spike on Lucario's chest managed to do more damage to Ignis than his Drain Punch attempt, which I found kinda of funny, but in a sad way.

"Quake, Stone Forest, Double Up, Aura Guerilla," Stephanie ordered while Lucario was still flying through the air. "Flamethrower, then Surf," I gave my own orders as well, and Ignis turned his focus towards Lucario and bathed it in flames for a part of its involuntary flight. Once it was out of the optimal roast range, Ignis stopped his Flamethrower and released Surf instead. The water wave arrived by Lucario's side seconds after it crashlanded, and while Lucario did get submerged by Surf, it already set off an Earthquake before that happened, specifically the moment it crashed into the ground.

The side effect of the Earthquake it released, namely the tears in the ground, helped drain the water faster, not to mention that the wave moved on, so Lucario got some fresh air a few seconds after being submerged. Ignis followed up with a Thunder, but Lucario dealt with that smoothly by using Iron Defense and sticking its feet into the muddy ground.

'Ice Beam at its feet,' I directly followed up, hoping to freeze its feet while they were stuck in the ground, but by the time Ignis released his Ice Beam, Lucario had already used Stone Edge once, raising a batch of stone slabs in front of itself, one of which blocked Ignis' Ice Beam. Lucario did not stop there. It followed up the first Stone Edge with a second, a third, a fourth, and so on until it had raised a literal Stone Forest between them. That the stone slabs helped Lucario block Ignis' attacks while it was raising more stone slabs through Stone Edge was rather fortunate for it.

When Lucario stopped creating any more stone slabs, presumably to Double Up, Ignis began "charging" Diamond Cutter. Roughly 5 seconds later he released the thin pressurized Hydro Pump, sweeping his head and hence the move once across the battlefield. During that sweep, Diamond Cutter cut through around four-fifths of the stone slabs, and shortly after Diamond Cutter passed through, the upper portion of the stone slabs fell off at exactly the height that the thin water stream passed through.

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