I looked across the gym, supported in my endeavors by three other gym trainers. On the other side was the grim, calculating face of our Gym Leader, Norman.
"Is that the best you all have to offer? My Slaking isn't even strained." Norman said, in a lecturing rather than harsh manner. Even so, the words stung us visibly.
"Diamond formation!" I yelled, our Pokemon attempting to surround his Slaking. "Diggersby, use Return!" My Diggersby hands lit up, a powerful shining attack. The two of us, Diggersby and I were so in sync that Return was at it's highest potential for power, the attack only now limited by the physical training of Diggersby. Norman had told us as much.
The Return slammed one of the joints of Norman's Slaking, as did the attacks for the three other Pokemon. Having battled Norman many times over, we all knew that this was the location that was best for harming Slaking. The rest of its body was pure muscle and deceptive, protective blubber. We weren't going to do a lot of damage there.
The Slaking grimaced in pain, which was to be expected. Even the Champion's Pokemon would have cringed at the attacks. My Diggersby used the backlash of the attack to jump away at the retaliatory strike from Slaking. The other's Pokemon weren't so lucky. A Mightyena was sent hurling through the air by the Slaking's Night Slash, as was a Wigglytuff and Linoone. None of them got up.
"Impressive strategy you've got there. I assume you copied my move with Vigoroth from yesterday?" Norman asked. I didn't bother to answer him, my Diggersby quickly doing an Earthquake now that my allies Pokemon were knocked out. The arena in the gym shook, and then intensified. It was as if the entire world within the contained battle arena was composed of seismic tremors. I could even feel the ground beneath my feet shake a little, although that may have been from the vertigo of watching the arena shake.
"EQ again!" I yelled, having trained my Diggersby to know what this meant. The ground started shaking again, this time some of the ground cracking. The other three trainers looked in awe at the result a month of effort and tears that Diggersby and I had gone through. This shaking was probably what saved my Pokemon from an Ice Punch to the face, courtesy of Norman's Slaking.
I looked in horror at the grim face of the Slaking barely missing my Diggersby. Even with the entire world shaking for the two Pokemon, the Slaking had sure footing. The only thing that had suffered was the Pokemon's aiming, and even that was barely helping.
"No more Earthquakes Diggersby. Jump back and use Sword Dance." I yelled. My Pokemon jumped back and starting doing a strange, violent dance, the fists for ears that my Pokemon had visibly growing brawnier. I braced myself, knowing that as I ordered the next move, Slaking would be moving.
"Power-Up Punch!" I yelled. Slaking rushed forward viciously, a Choice-Banded boosted Ice Punch heading toward my Diggersby. The two punches met for the briefest second, before my Diggersby was thrown back. The Pokemon managed to get into a roll in order to disperse some of the energy for the jump, but even then it was visibly injured. It couldn't take another attack.
"Brick Break!" I yelled. The Brick Break slammed into Slaking's face, the full force of the attack visibly showing itself on Slaking's face. Diggersby was again thrown back by the equal and opposite reaction of the attack. I grimaced, knowing that this next order would decide the battle.
"Brick Break again!" I yelled. An Ice Punch from Slaking hurtled toward my Diggersby, who was jumping into the air to attempt to get a blow on Slaking's forehead. A blow struck.
Diggersby, now recovered from the battle was helping to put everything in the arena back to normal. The cracks in the ground, formed by the Earthquakes was being resettled by a quick Dig, followed by a quick and weak Earthquake to collapse the tunnels left behind by he dig. Meanwhile, I was cleaning up the entire arena area, making sure that the floors were spotless, and that nothing was broken. It was a bit of an easy job, but a necessary one- Gym Leaders could and would catch major amounts of grief for anything essential being broken, especially since it took just a few broken shock absorbers for the arena to break, and the entire town to feel tremors.
Norman came up to me while I was putting the finishing touches on the arena after a long few hours of cleanup.
"That was a pretty impressive battle. If the Brick Break had landed, my Slaking would have fainted." Norman said.
"I'm not sure about that." I answered honestly, thinking back to the time I decided I wanted to be a gym leader.
It had been during the Team Aqua crisis, when a bunch of ocean lunatics had somehow awoken Kyogre and tried to flood half of Hoenn. They had almost succeeded too, until Champion May, daughter of Norman had utterly defeated them and captured Kyogre, which probably cemented her as one of the best trainers of all time. Her title afterwards of "Champion" had merely been icing on the cake.
My family and I had had no clue what was happening. At one moment, I was a few hundred meters from my house, playing in the sand. The next moment, the ocean was raging. My mother had tried to find me, but the area around our house was basically a large collection of sand hills, perfect for hiding me from view. One moment, I was running along the beach, trying to get to my home. The next, the ocean was washing over me, a giant ocean wave, like the legendary kraken of legend pulling me in. My whole world was ocean and seafoam, a confusing imagery and montage of air, then water, on rinse and repeat.
Then, he had came. The Gym Leader, Norman. I had always seen him as the stern-faced but kind Gym Leader of our town. I had watched his battles, but even there he was never at his firmest.
He scooped me up with one hand, which was surprising considering the waterlogged weight of my body. I gasped for breath as I desperately clung to his Linoone for life, looking up at him. He was a stone statue in his facial expression, a testament to humanity about it's will and power to conquer nature itself alongside Pokemon. And right in front of us was the largest wave yet, a fifty foot wall of ocean hurtling toward us. He acted quickly. One moment, there was a flash from one of his pokeballs as he sent out his legendary Slaking. The next moment, the air around us turned bright. I watched in awe as the entire ocean was lit up as if it was day, the light in Slaking's Return attack illuminating the scene for me. It was as if Arceus itself was taking a picture of the scene, the flash tracing out the edges of Slaking's body. Then, the attack struck the wave, blowing it apart where previously it would have hit us. Norman quickly returned his Slaking as it was hurtling through the air at the backlash, something I would learn later was common in higher-level battles.
"Let's get out of here." Norman said, his Linoone speeding toward shore. From there, it was a bit of a daze. I remember being brought to higher ground as the sky continued to cry. I remembered Norman briefly sending out his Slaking, and yelling for first aid. I remembered the bleeding stump where it's hand used to be. But most of all, I remember Norman, even while his Pokemon was bleeding out of a missing stump where one of its hands used to be, making sure that his gym trainers had evacuated people near low-lying areas. And then, the rain suddenly cleared, the roaring of the storm that had encompassed Hoenn just... gone. I watched in a daze as Norman seemingly ignored this, continuing to make sure everyone was alright before going to his Slaking to reassure the Pokemon. And it was then and there that I decided I wanted to be a Gym Leader like him.
Norman smiled, seemingly cognizant of what I was thinking on. I had told him previously of the reasons for my ambition towards becoming a Gym Leader. This had happened when I applied to become a gym trainer, a necessary step on the way to Gym Leader.
"Don't be too critical toward yourself." Norman said. "After all, I'm going to be the next Elite Four member." I stared at him.
"Elite Four?" I asked. Norman nodded.
"I didn't want to share that with everyone, in case Drake decided he didn't want to retire after all, but he just came out and announced today that he was stepping down. And since I'm the strongest Gym Leader in Hoenn, I'm going to be moving up into the Elite Four." Norman said.
"Wow, congratulations!" I said, meaning it. I'm sure the entirety of Hoenn would welcome this too. Norman was one of the most infamous Gym Leaders in the entirety of the Pokemon League. He was known for both crushing the ambitions of those who challenged him, and then raising them back up again with advice and tips for training. He was extremely involved in civic activities around Petalburg City. It was doubtful that any replacement for Norman could ever quite fill his shoes.
"Thank you." Norman said, grinning. "There's actually a reason why I'm telling you this. You see, I need a replacement."
My breath caught.