Other than training Scraggy and getting to know the newly born pokemon, we did not have a lot of issues getting to Castelia City. That is, until we reached the Skyarrow Bridge. There we met an angry Gothitelle who trapped us in one of her memories! She had a good friend in Sally and in Sally's family, who worked in a water taci. But as soon as the bridge was constructed, they went out of business and moved away. Gothitelle was so sad and angry at being left alone, that she was now taking it out on the people crossing the same bridge that tore her family apart.
Luckily, we did not have to battle her. Sally, now all grown up, showed up and reunited with Gothitelle. After the reunion, Sally caught Gothitelle and we all parted ways.
The troubles followed us into Castelia City. The whole city got overrun by a gigantic colony of angry Venipede! We crossed path with Trip there as well, who had the brilliant (note my sarcasm) idea of battling the Venipede head on. Luckily, Gym Leader Burgh got there in time with a plan to round them up and herd them into the city's Central Plaza until Professor Juniper can figure out what's going on.
Working together, we found every last Venipede and brought them all to the plaza. Professor Juniper ended up discovering an unusual energy emanating from the Desert Resort, just outside Castelia City. She concluded that the underground energy flow must be what had disturbed the Venipede. The professor and Officer Jenny then took off to find out exactly what's happening in the desert, while Gym Leader Burgh stayed behind to look after the Venipede.
Which is why we are now waiting for the issue to be resolved before the gym battles could happen.
At the moment, Ash, who was finally back from Alola, was training with Mega Houndoom. It seems that Mega Houndoom is a new update. Ash had been gifted with a Houndoominite by the International Pokemon League for achieving his second mastery.
"Hey Ash, how are James, Jessie, and Meowth doing?" Riley asked the Generalist Master.
"Good, a vacation in Alola was what Jessie needed, the pregnancy is making her even more... loud..." Ash chose his words carrfully. "They loved the Woobat, I caught for Jessie, and the Yanmega, I caught for James. Though, James had only just received Yanmega. Then again, James loves any pokemon of his," Ash chuckled.
"I'm so happy for them!" Max cheered, then paused. "I never thought I would say that."
"Ha ha ha," Ash laughed, as Mega Houndoom came to stop by his side. Even if Ash was laughing, they made quite an intimidating pair. "Well, we've all grown up a lot this last year."
"It seems that you guys are having fun," Burgh suddenly appeared next to me with a relaxed smile. "It's been a while Cilan."
"We just saw each other during the Venipede situation," I replied with amusement.
"You know what I mean!" Burgh laughed. "We, Gym Leaders, don't get to see each other as much as we should."
"Well, we are tasked with guarding the cities we are stationed in," I told him with a smile, we then hugged. "It's good to see you doing good."
"I was surprised to see you away from Striaton City," Burgh commented as we parted away. "I knew that you've been wanting to go away and travel... but to join The Saint's group? That I did not expect!"
"He is... much more than what we learned from the Unova Pokemon League and the news," I hummed thoughtfully. "He is brave, smart, kind... but also he can be intimidating, imposing, and intense."
"He seems to be quite the character," Burgh hummed. "I can't wait to battle him!"
"Is the situation over?" I asked him excitedly. "Was it Team Plasma?"
"Nop, I have no idea who was and it is not over, Professor Juniper and Officer Jenny are still gone," Burgh popped the 'p' of nope, in a relaxed manner. "However, the other boy, Trip, came barging into my gym and demanded a battle. I could not say no and not offering it to Max and Ash seemed... impolite."
"Got it!" I laughed. "Ash! Burgh is ready for your battle!"
Ash turned to us, his eyes still shinning blue, it was then that I realized he had been using aura to listen to our conversation.
Aura can really be handy.
We then all followed Burgh, as he guided us towards his gym. It was decided that Ash would go first. Burgh and Ash took their positions on opposite sides of the battlefield, whil the rest of us sat on the bleachers. Burgh was the first one to summon his pokemon, he chose a Dwebble, closely followed Ash, who seem to have deemed Tepig ready to battle.
"Tepig is a solid choice," I commented with a hum.
"Wait... why is Gym Leader's Dwebble different from you Dwebble?" Iris turned to me confused, but got easily distracted by Tepig- who started the fight with a Tackle.
However, Dweeble dodged it rapidly and then used Dig, when Tepig tried another unsuccessful Tackle. Dwebble followed with a fast X-Scissor, which Tepig used Iron Tail to parry and then an Ember to the face.
"It seems like that Dwebble's shell is lighter than other Dweeble," Max commented.
"You are right," Burgh smiled at the young and smart rookie trainer. "This way my Dwebble is faster than the average."
"Tepig, use Ember again!" Ash ordered.
"Dwebble, Protect!" Burgh was fast to counter, nullifying the attack completely... which was what Ash' had wanted. Hiding in the smoke of the nullified Ember, Tepig appeared, charging at Dwebble with a Flame Charge that took the Bug-type pokemon out. "Dwebble!" Burgh shouted in concerned, sighing when he noticed that his pokemon had fainted. "Good job, my friend," Burgh returned his pokemon with a small smile, as Ash spun Tepig around on the other side. "Whiripede, you are next!"
"Good job, Tepig!" Ash kissed his pokemon's forehead, which had the Fire-type preening. "But let's allow your other teammates to have fun too," Ash returned Tepig and released his second pokemon. "Sewaddle, come on out!"
"Tranquill and Tepig would be effective here, if he wanted to keep this battle to Unova native pokemon, why did he choose Sewaddle?" I commented in confusion.
"Because Ash does not give a crap about type advantage," Max and Riley replied at the same time. "Jinx!" They both laughed.
Sewaddle dodged the upcoming Poison Sting with a String Shot, she then tried to trap Whirlipede with String Shot, but this one simply spun around to break it. What followed afterwards was a massacre... and for once not from Ash's side. Whirlipede landed a Steamroller, which hit Sewaddle hard, and when she tried to stop the second one with Razor Leaf... well, the leaves were batted away like they were made of paper. But Sewaddle did not give up, she tried to retaliate with Big Bite, but Whirlipede's Iron Defense made it useless. When the third Steamroller landed, I began to believe that it was over and that Ash overestimated Sewaddle's capabilities.
However, Sewaddle was still standing!
"What is that Sewaddle made off?" Burgh exclaimed shocked. "Well, it does not matter. Whirlipede, finish it with Solar Beam!" Sewaddle surprisingly takes it and glows with light, evolving into Swadloon. "Well, now things got interesting."
I saw that Burgh was excited, he was having so much fun! How could he not? That was one tough Sewaddle... sorry, one tough Swadloon.
Swadloon fires String Shot onto Whirlipede, but it once again shreds it. Swadloon tries to dodge a Steamroller with String Shot, but Whirlipede runs into the string, cutting it. Whirlipede prepares to attack again, but an Energy Ball attack stops that. One Tackle attack is enough to take Whirlipede out of the match.
"Of course, Ash's pokemon would evolve in the middle of a battle," Iris chuckled. "This makes it the third pokemon in Unova, right?"
"Yeah," Max said, after he had calmed down from cheering for the victory of his favorite trainer. "And if we count all the times it happen before... I think I've lost the count."
"Leavanny, come on out! You are my last hope!" Burgh called out his beautiful Leavanny. Of course, it was not his starter. As he knows that Ash was not going to use his A-Team. "So, what is going to be your last choice?" Burgh asked as Ash returned his Swadloon.
"Pidove! Come on out!" Ash released his small bird pokemon, to the Gym Leader's stunned reaction.
"Ash, are you going to use a first stage pokemon against my fully evolved one?" Burgh inquired in disbelief. "You know that even with type advantage this is madness."
"Don't worry about us," Ash smikred, something that Pidove coppied.
I could see that Burgh felt insulted by the smirk and confidence in Ash's voice. Especially, when he began the battle with a bang. A powerfull Leaf Storm, which was followed by an Hyper Beam. However, the surprise of the battle was Pidove riding the Leaf Storm with an Aerial Ace and evading the Hyper Beam with Fly. Pidove then used Sky Attack to attack the frozen Leavanny, who was recovering from the Hyper Beam.
"Since when does Pidove learn Sky Attack?!" I was on my feet in seconds, not believeing what I was seeing.
Pidove flew up into the air, then turned around and flew straight down at Leavanny. Her body then became surrounded in a clear aura with white energy around her and she flew into Leavanny at top speed. Throwing the Bug-type pokemon into the wall behing the Gym Leader, leaving a crater behind. Oh, yes, Leavanny was down.
"This is the trainer whose Pikachu learned Surf and Gible learned Draco Meteor!" Max laughed cheerfully, which became louder when Pidove began to shine. "Here we go again!"
Pidove's body began to grow, as he transformed into a gorgeous Tranquill. A gray avian pokemon with lighter gray and black markings. Her beak and eyes were yellow, and there was a dark pink marking above her beak that curves over the eyes. She had a black tuft of two feathers on her head and a petal-like arrangement of feathers on the nape of her neck. There was a black stripe on each of her light gray, black-tipped wings. Each of her pink feet has black talons. She possessed a long tail feather that were tipped in black.
"She is so beautiful!" Riley hummed in delight. "I am so happy for them," he smiled down as he saw Burgh handing Ash his Insect Badge. Riley then turned to Max. "Are you ready Max? You are next."
"I am! I am using Pikachu, Shuppet, and Snivy!" Max replied in excitement.
"You might have to decide on one pokemon fast," I told him, not liking the idea I had to be the bearer of bad news.
"Why?" Max asked me confused.
"Because I know for a fact that Burgh only has six pokemon ready for rookie trainers, he used three against Trip and two against Ash," I answered. "That's why used Leavanny against Ash, someone he keeps for trainers with five badges,"
"Oh," Max deflated at that.
"We will just have to tell Ash that he is going to have to battle second from now on," Riley nudged Max playfully, making him chuckle.
"Ok," Max chuckled, skipping as he went down towards the battlefield. Burgh then proceeded to inform Max of what I had just told him and then released his Karrablast. "Shuppet come out!"
"Karrablast, use Sword Dance and then Bug Buzz!" Burgh commanded.
"Shuppet, use Substitute to dodge and then Will-o-Wisp!" Max was rapid to counter.
"Good," Ash hummed proudly, as the attack landed, causing Karrablast to become burn.
"Do not give up Karrablast!" Burgh shouted in encouragement. "Use X-Scissor!"
"Double Team!" Max commanded, and various copies of Shuppet appeared all around the battlefield. However, Karrablast was not giving up, he also used Double Team and rapidly found the real Shuppet. "Shuppet!" Max shouted in worry, as his pokemon fell on the ground after becoming victim of a X-Scissor and Energy Ball combo. But Shuppet was not giving up either! Struggling, but steadily, he floated to the center of the battlefield and glared at Karrablast challengingly. It was then that he began to shine and when the glow faded out, it revealed a powerful Banette. "Shu... no, Banette! You look incredible!" Max praised his pokemon. "We will celebrate this later, for now, use Night Shade!"
Banette's eyes started to glow bright pink and his body turns pale purple. He then released multiple crimson rings from his body towards Karrablast. When the rings hit Karrablast, his body became surrounded in pale purple, damaging Karrablast. That with the combined effects of burn from the Will-o-Wisp seem to be too much for Karrablast, causing him to faint.
"All right!" Ash jumped from the bleachers to the battlefield to go and celebrate with his apprentice.
"Aura, I'll never get used to it," I shook my head in amusement. "But I am happy for Max, he deserved that win."
"That he does, he's beene working very hard," Riley agreed and laughed when Iris did the same as Ash and jumped down to go and hug Max. "Kids."
"Kids," I agreed with a playful smile. "I can't wait for the next battle."