For those who did not know, I have been set from the beginning on making this whole story end at 40 chapters, and I am finally reaching the halfway mark after pouring so much fucking time into this story, you don't want to know. So this is just a little celebratory self-congratulation for me being one chapter short of hitting the top of the hill, and now getting to enjoy the long ride back down to the finish. I'm going to play into the roles of the gym leaders, the Elite 4, and Anonymous much more in the later part of the story when Adam's team is at its prime. Now enjoy this brutally long second gym battle.

Ch 19: Wintervale Gym

After spending the morning blindly scouring the city for the Wintervale Gym, completely aware that I could ask one of the many town residents I passed by on my walk through the area where it was, but preferring to stubbornly find it on my own, I finally found the damn place. Wintervale as a whole was a much larger city than Peltagrow, and that made it rather difficult to locate the gym considering my habit I'd picked up on as a trainer where searching for places on my own was preferable to asking for direction.

Wintervale Gym was located in the southernmost region of the city, in the Entertainment District, where the building stood sandwiched between a trendy clothing shop that marketed toward trainers as well as their pokemon partners and a quaint, royal purple fortune-teller tent that promised to reveal your future for a mere 50 bucks. Obvious scam.

I found myself entering through the automatic sliding doors of the gym and was once again thrown into the motions of registering with the secretary, a no-bullshit old lady, at the front desk for a battle with the leader. The woman hurried me to give me my trainer card and threw some papers for me to fill out without looking up from her computer as she updated my primary information in their system. I just needed to update my pokemon members with the secretary who raised one doubting eye while entering in the lie about trading my Kabutops for a Haunter, but she didn't push it. She offered me a time slot immediately or to come back next week, informing me that the gym leader was only taking battles now or they would be off on sick leave. I agreed to the battle, and she motioned for me to go down the lobby and past the double doors around the corner that led to the arena itself. I thanked her and did as instructed, even though she was pretty rude compared to the last gym secretary I dealt with.

The gymnasium had similarities to the normal one in Peltagrow, with the same chalk-drawn designs on the floor labeling the trainers designated box, but lacking the stands along the sides. The gymnasium floor consisted of the actual ground along the earth, with this portion of the building completely lacking any kind of tile or cement floor like any other building would, and there were many holes poked all over the floor.

Settling into position in the trainer box on my side of the battlefield, I felt nostalgia creep up my spine as I recalled Zach's Diggersby and Heliolisk smashing my team apart in our first encounter, and apprehensions naturally flooded my brain. I was kind of rusty after all, having spent 3 months doped out in the Wintervale Center due to fears that I couldn't complete this journey. Even though my mons hadn't sequestered themselves off the way I did, were they going to be able to hold their own and beat our second gym leader, when I had no idea what kind of powerful pokemon he undoubtedly had up his sleeve?

The sound of the double doors opening on the opposite end forced me to shake off my insecurities and stand tall, wanting to present a confident demeanor for the gym leader. I personally didn't want to have another dynamic with a gym leader like I did with Zach, who belittled me due to my novice battling tendencies. Knowing I would likely have to use a pre-fully evolved pokemon in Haunter for this battle, I hoped this guy wouldn't be as big an asshole about it as Zach had been. Except as the gym leader hobbled forward using a cane to stand in their personal trainer box, I realized that this was not a man, but it was the old short-tempered secretary from the front desk. Why was she out here?

"Budget keeps getting cut more and more," the old lady wheezed as she finally reached the box. "Can't even afford a staff to run this place - all on my own. It's a dirty business, being a gym leader. Not cut out for sissies."

Not in the mood to placate this woman over her whining, I ignored this. "I have a non-fully evolved pokemon with me, I just wanted to run that by you really quick because this was a previous problem with the gym leader of Peltagrow. I only have 3 in my party these days, and they're all phenomenal, but one just happens to be one tier shy of fully evolved. Is that going to be a problem?"

"I don't care, kid," the old lady answered, and I realized I did not know her name. While I didn't like Zach, at least he had the ability to pretend to be respectful and actually shake my hand and introduce himself. "I just want a good battle. Don't get many these days."

She seemed very talkative, as most older people were, but I came here to fight, and not gab with the grumpy old lady single-handedly running a gym in the most expensive city in Ilragorn. While I'm sure she had a very interesting story about all that, I didn't need to hear it.

"So it's 3 on 3, right?" I asked, getting to the point.

"Right," she confirmed.

"Alright. Um, what's your name?" I couldn't help wondering out loud.

"Gladys," she answered without missing a beat, revealing a pokeball from a pocket in her apron. "Ready?"

"I'm ready."

Two bursts of red energy cast a scarlet glow around the earth-colored room as Tropius stood face to face with a Dugtrio, both of them sizing up their opponent with a look up and down. Neither pokemon looked that impressed at their competition (despite the fact Tropius towered over Dugtrio's short frame), and both remained perfectly still on their own side of the arena, neither initiating anything for a few drawn out seconds as I processed how lucky I'd gotten to come to face a ground gym with a grass and flying type in Tropius, plus a levitator in Haunter. Drapion was only weak to ground as luck would have it, but he probably wouldn't even be needed in this battle as Tropius had big potential to just solo this whole squad.

"Headbutt," I started just to get a read on how Gladys and Dugtrio fought.

Gladys needn't say a word, because the Dugtrio shimmied through the raw earth at lightning speed, no doubt the fastest pokemon I had ever seen in my life. That Dugtrio made my Kabutops and Haunter look like Shuckle's in the speed department, and it wasn't too long ago when I considered my Kabutops one of the fastest in the land. Boy was I clueless then.

By the time Tropius realized he was about to dive into solid ground and stopped himself, the Dugtrio was a very safe distance away on the other side of the field, no sweat.

"Stealth Rock!" Gladys called out, and due to the distance between the mons, Dugtrio had no problem throwing out spear-like jagged rocks into the sky that did not attack the spectating Tropius, but the rocks descended downward, stabbed into the ground, and then sunk into the floor, waiting to be used when the time was right.

"Tropius, take to the air," I went the obvious route. It's a ground pokemon. We'll be in the air. Tropius has the advantage. "Throw off Energy Balls all over the floor!"

Tropius flew angelically to the air as Dugtrio glided with ease around the floor, moving in circles to avoid remaining an easy target but keeping it's three dopey faces always watching Tropius, never looking away. Tropius then sent out an assault of Energy Balls, at least 5 or 6 of them, green sizzling orbs flying in different directions all aimed at the floor of the arena.

"Dig!" Gladys wheezed, and Dugtrio heard. Dugtrio seemed to have an entire underground system of tunnels for it to maneuver around in through the small holes all over the floor, meaning it didn't even have to waste those brief seconds most pokemon would have to to actually dig underground. Dugtrio was safely underground long before the first Energy Ball slammed into the floor, setting off a chain of emerald sparks reminiscent of fireworks lighting up the arena.

Tropius ceased firing to catch his breath after using up so much energy, but remained hovering high in the air, Dugtrio poking his three conjoined brown heads out of a hole not too far from where I was standing, surveying the damage. Tropius was momentarily winded from using up so much power and didn't even see Dugtrio coming.

"Dugtrio, Stone Edge!"

Large, diamond-shaped chunks of hard rocks materialized in front of Dugtrio's face, and went flying toward the distracted Tropius, whose wings and back received the impact of the super effective Stone Edge. Tropius was a blur of green as his body fell to the floor with a painful crash, giving Dugtrio an opening to fire off another series of Stone Edges, with another bundle of rock javelins stabbing into Tropius as he lay on the ground, too caught off guard from Dugtrio's speed and attacks to even defend himself.

"Tropius, fly straight up! Get out of there!" I called out, hoping the order would be enough for Tropius to muster the strength to escape the onslaught of rocks being hurled at his grounded body by the speedy Dugtrio. Tropius succeeded at last, performing a fantastically close dodge of a particularly threatening set of Stone Edges, and rising to the air to put up some space between the two mons. I didn't want to have to resort to using my most powerful move so early in the game, but even though Tropius should technically be beating this Dugtrio every time, I was getting the feeling that unless I unleash some serious firepower, this Dugtrio would outlast my Tropius. With that in mind, an attack came to mind that would allow me to hit the Dugtrio even underground. "Leaf Storm the whole place! Leaf Storm in the holes! Just hit that damn Dugtrio!"

"Stone Edge!" Gladys repeated, shaking her fists at her Dugtrio. "You can't dodge that, so make it count!"

As the tornado of sharp leaves began forming in the air above Tropius as he began to fire his most powerful attack, a 130 base power grass move that hit like a truck, one last bundle of sharp rocks came hurtling at Tropius from right underneath him, where Dugtrio had suddenly poked his head out from the ground. Right before Tropius could unleash his devastating hit, three daggers carved from stone slashed at his belly and his wings, and these three rocks were the final nail in the coffin that sent Tropius flying back down to the earth, knocked out before he even hit the ground.

"Looks like I still got it. Not bad for an old lady, huh?" Gladys chuckled to herself as I recalled my fallen Tropius with embarrassment. My grass/flying type had just lost to a pure ground type. I had two pokemon, with one of them being weak to ground types, and Gladys still had 3. While I had never encountered ground types, bar the troublesome Diggersby from Peltagrow gym, I figured that Tropius would have enough of an advantage against one just from typing alone, so losing him so quickly came as a real shock to me.

"Yeah, I'd expect nothing less from a ground gym leader. Pretty good. " I humored the woman, and she smiled so big her dentures nearly fell out. She then seemed to remember we were battling, and she scowled at me again, smile nonexistent.

Pretending to appear calm and collected was quite different from how worried and anxious I actually felt on the inside. Maybe I had checked out too early after all from the Center? Maybe I wasn't a capable battler anymore?

But I had no choice to but to throw those worries to the wind because the moment needed me to be in it 100%, and I had to focus because there was no way I was going to lose this fucking battle. We are not going to go through another dose of weeks turned into months of stalling before moving on to the next phase of my journey as a trainer. I had to put everything into Haunter and Drapion's performance against these deadly ground types.

I chose Haunter to battle the Dugtrio next, Haunter hovering a few feet off the ground right in front of me, while Dugtrio watched with a blank expression from afar beside the smirking Gladys. I wondered why she looked so smug when those damn Stealth Rock came shooting out of the ground like bolts from a harpoon gun, and bombarded Haunter with several sharp rocks just as he was settling out of his pokeball and into the field. He cried out in pain from the momentary assault, but the rocks returned into the ground where they came from after shaking Haunter up a bit.

"So this is the unevolved one you were talking about," Gladys beamed unabashedly at my pokemon, her yellow dentures nearly falling out again. "A Haunter? Well, I'll face whatever you throw at me, but I'll have you know even a Gengar couldn't outspeed my Dugtrio!"

I had never used Haunter in a battle before, though I had left him to his own devices at Wintervale's Pokemon Center to associate with other pokemon and I gathered that my Haunter was cleverer than the average pokemon, as he rarely seemed to have to resort to physical intimidation against the other mons at the center to get his way.

"Dugtrio, Sand Attack!" Gladys barked.

"Haunter, Sludge Bomb!" I shouted.

Dugtrio began spinning ferociously in place, conjuring up sand powder, and sending it hurtling directly toward Haunter in a giant dusty sand cloud, with Haunter retaliating byby hurtling one of his floating, disjointed hands backwards, and then sending a large splotch of purple poisonous sludge toward the sand, the way an angry painter would slash at a blank canvas. The sludge and sand collided halfway between both pokemon, though the coarse sand made of ground broke through the sludge, tearing it apart into nothingness, and continued blowing toward Haunter in order to blind his eyes and screw with his aim for the remainder of the battle.

Right as Haunter was going to be engulfed by the Sand Attack, Haunter noticed a nearby hole out of the corner of his eye and he flew into the hole at the last moment, dodging the sand cloud until it calmed, with Haunter reappearing by levitating directly through the ground, not even bothering to use the system of tunnels and holes made by the Dugtrio, and sticking its tongue out teasingly.

"Stone Edge! Circle around Haunter! Confuse it!" Gladys tried.

"Use a Shadow Ball on the incoming rocks! Do not miss!" I shouted at Haunter.

Haunter hovered in place a few feet above the earth in the middle of the gym floor as Dugtrio began gliding in a circular pattern around Haunter with quickening speed, trying to move faster than Haunter's eyes could keep up so he could fire off a Stone Edge more likely to not be dodged. Haunter spun in place, eyes on the Dugtrio, waiting for the impending Stone Edge, knowing such a strong move from it would take a heavy chunk of damage off. Haunter himself conjured a large glowing black orb of energy that crackled with purple and black sparks, a beautifully formed Shadow Ball.

Dugtrio fired off the Stone Edge at last, and Haunter reflexively unleashed his own Shadow Ball without needing prompting from me, both moves flying dangerously fast at the opponent.

"Dugtrio, Dig to dodge it!" Gladys said nervously, but her Dugtrio had burrowed into his underground system of tunnels right before the Shadow Ball crashed into the floor, setting off a small explosion of ghostly energy.

Haunter had dodged the four rocks fired at him by parting his head and his arms several meters further apart than the standard couple of inches they usually drifted, his three-clawed hands dodging toward the floor while Haunter's pleased face flew upward the moment he unleashed his Shadow Ball, and the rocks passing safely between his split body.

"Haunter," I said, Haunter's head turning toward me whilst his hands slowly drifted back to his head, knowing it was safe while Dugtrio was hiding underground for the moment. "You're a ghost, aren't you?" Haunter nodded at me like a patient child would, knowing I was building to something greater. "Just phase underground and Shadow Ball Dugtrio and wrap this up."

Gladys face was plagued with uncertainty as Haunter reacted speedily, using his intangible ghost body to join Dugtrio underground, bypassing the many holes all over the ground and sinking right through the floor, and somewhere underground, underneath one hole in particular far off in the corner, a burst of black sparks erupted like a gothic volcano from one of the holes as Haunter apparently had landed a Shadow Ball on Dugtrio in his home territory.

Haunter drifted through one of the holes laughing arrogantly, and in one of his hands he was holding the ashy-faced, knocked out Dugtrio. Gladys scoffed and recalled Dugtrio to her pokeball while Haunter gave a confident little dance of victory, which was impressive considering the lack of legs.

"Well done. My Dugtrio's been a member of my team for years, boy. No easy feat taking it down. Perhaps a ghost type to match yours will make things more interesting?" Gladys cackled and sent out her second pokemon - a massive, clay-like monstrosity consisting of pure brown beach sand, with a red shovel jutting out of its top like a hat, and shells layered across its features so that the bizarre pokemon resembled a face, and a castle, and a pile of sand. I looked it up on my pokedex because I had never seen this pokemon before.

Palossand. Hailed from Alola, which explains why I didn't know it. They were recent discoveries and I didn't have much time to learn them, with the only other Alolan pokemon I'd encountered at this point being that Toxapex my Kabutops put down in the parking lot of the Celmont Motel. It had meh to mediocre stats, with it's only impressive features being a high defense stat and decent special attacking power. The top rated comment in the comment section read: "Just use Golurk, it's cooler." Not much help.

I jumped straight into battle mode.

"Haunter, dive back underground," I said, reusing the strategy I had just used to beat Dugtrio, but hey, if it's not broke why fix it? We could just fire off a few Shadow Balls from underground and be done with this in record time.

Gladys and Palossand made no move to stop the attack so Haunter did as told, using his ghostly body to once again phase underground. Once he was underground, though, Gladys made her move.

"Earth Power," Gladys told Palossand, who reacted quickly to orders despite the giant pokemon not moving a grain of sand on its body. Palossand shook the earth with intensity, revealing a surprisingly powerful special attack that heavily damaged Haunter while he was vulnerable under the earth to attacks. Haunter catapulted upwards to escape the attack, and returned to his usual stance hovering several feet in the air, visibly dazed and shook from the Earth Power. Gladys did not let up. "Shadow Ball."

The unmoving Palossand, so opposite in its methods from Dugtrio, conjured a Shadow Ball that was just as big and lethal looking as Haunter's previous one had been. Palossand unleashed it upon the Haunter in his moment of weakness, and despite my cries at him to dodge it, Haunter was hit dead on with the Shadow Ball, exploding upon contact and splattering Haunter with the super effective purple and black ghost energy inside, causing him to scream in agony. When the smoke from the attack dimmed, my hopes were not dimmed because Haunter was still hovering, clutching in pain at his own head, eyes wincing through the smoke and badly bruised, but not done fighting. This was the moment we needed, as I could finally use the one move Haunter had in his arsenal that I had been unsure what to do with.

"Disable!" I ordered Haunter, who swept away all his momentary pains to point an accusatory finger toward Palossand, a black light flashed, and with that, I knew that Haunter had just managed to prevent the stupid castle pokemon from seriously damaging my Haunter for the next few turns by Disabling the Shadow Ball, seeing as Haunter levitated over the floor making him immune to Palossands ground coverage. Depending on Palossands remaining movepool, my Haunter very possibly completely walled it. Palossand remained in place, looking at Agatha for guidance.

"Damn it!" Gladys swore. "Mega Drain, get some health back!"

The pathetic draining grass move that Palossand used on Haunter hardly damaged him at all and confirmed my beliefs that Haunter walled him. I ordered Haunter to use two Shadow Balls on Palossand, and Haunter rushed to obey. Palossand didn't even attempt to pretend to dodge the incoming balls of spectral energy, knowing full well that he could never outspeed Haunter's attacks. The two Shadow Balls connected with Palossand on both sides of his body, each ball slamming into a different turret arm and exploding upon contact. Palossand was knocked out instantaneously from the amount of sheer power Haunter had harnessed in each one.

Haunter did his second dance of victory over his rather impressive feat of taking down two gym pokemon in a row, which I had never seen done before. And I really hate to admit it, but I almost wanted to join the goofy bastard. Agatha recalled Palossand spitefully, then unveiled her final pokemon, the flying ground type Gliscor. Gliscor reminded me of a vampire, a fanged flying/ground pokemon with long pointy ears, huge clawed hands, and a mischievous look in the eyes.

"I got a pretty good head start right away with taking down your Tropius so quickly, but you've done well to not get intimidated by a bad start and to turn the tide around. Be that as it may, Gliscor is my strongest pokemon and the Wintervale Badge is no easy win."

"I've saved my strongest pokemon in the back, too," I challenged, failing to mention the fact Drapion naturally loses to Gliscor 9 out of 10 times if Drapion is lacking Ice Fang (which mine was), and despite Haunter's hail mary plays in this battle, I felt a tinge of hopelessness over knowing there was no way Haunter could take down a Gliscor as well, and that Drapion would somehow, someway, have to beat this Gliscor that was probably a bigger threat than that damn Diggersby.

"Gliscor, Knock Off Haunter into the ground!" screamed Gladys.

"Haunter, Hypnosis!" I countered, revealing my fourth move even though the accuracy made me hesitant to use it.

Gliscor plunged through the air to get a good swipe on Haunter, dodging effortlessly under the yellow hoops that were the Hypnosis aimed at him, and Gliscor descended upon Haunter with one of his huge claws raised high over his head, and struck it down with a powerful Knock Off aimed right on Haunter's head. But Haunter was no easy target himself, and he caught Gliscor off guard by phasing directly through Gliscor's chest and emerging out the back, choosing to approach Haunter rather than back away and make himself an open target like most pokemon would instinctively do.

As Gliscor's Knock Off swung through open air and Gliscor realized that Haunter was behind him, Haunter proactively shot off a Shadow Ball at Gliscor's back, connecting, and causing massive damage while Gliscor reeled through the air coughing and fanning away the black smoke from the explosion so he could see clearly.

"Another Shadow Ball!" I recommended, seizing the moment of Gliscor's distraction.

Though looking close to his limit, Haunter mustered up the energy to summon another Shadow Ball in front of his face and send it flying at the unaware Gliscor.

"Watch the Shadow Ball!" Gladys said. "Acrobatics!"

Natural instinct came into play as Gliscor's reflexes kicked into high gear and he flew straight up, narrowly avoiding the Shadow Ball and leaving it crashing into the far wall. Gliscor then did an impressive display of gymnastics through the air, twirling and diving as high as the ceiling, and then like that - Gliscor unleashed a fully powered Acrobatics right into the worn-out Haunter who didn't have the energy to dodge it, and Haunter slammed onto the natural earth with intense ferocity, knocked out before he even hit the floor.

I recalled Haunter with appreciation and some surprise over his run at the gym. It was now or never. I released Drapion from his pokeball, the Stealth Rock damaging him as he emerged, and for the first time I realized that I hadn't even really had to use Drapion since the last gym. While Drapion had always been the strongest on my team, he was at a natural disadvantage against a Gliscor, even if Haunter had weakened it slightly.

"A Drapion," Gladys commentated, that same bemused expression of joy on her face over what was in her mind an easy victory. "This should be fun then."

"I'll have you know my Drapion has never lost a match," I said with confidence, because it was true.

"Until today."

"Just give me my badge quickly when we're done, I got a lot to do today."

"Gliscor, Earthquake!"

"Drapion, use the walls!"

Gladys gleefully got to at last use a ground move to its full potential against me as Gliscor descended to the floor and pummeled the ground with his fists, setting off a reaction of the entire gym floor rattling back and forth. Drapion had evaded the hazardous Earthquake by leaping in the air, and then jamming the pincers of his front claws, as well as his four clawed feet, and the pincer on his tail even stabbed into the wall for good measure, leaving Drapion dangling on the wall of the gym like a careful spider, watching from above as Gliscor pummeled away at nothing but the barren gym floor.

"Clever way to dodge Earthquakes," Gladys said with a cheeky grin. "Gliscor, knock him off with Knock Off!"

"Leer!" I began the only strategy I could think of. I felt like I hadn't used this move since the day I caught Skorupi, so fucking long ago, in that first battle against Eliza's Starly, and a wave of nostalgia hit me.

Drapion used his eyes to shine a bright light reminiscent of the flash of a camera that I knew had lowered Gliscor's defense, but using the Leer left Drapion vulnerable, and Gliscor used both of his hands to Knock Off the Drapion from the wall, his pincers slipping out of the concrete and Drapion falling to the floor in a clumsy manner. Unfortunately, Drapion was a lot larger than Haunter and he was just a broader pokemon in general, so I couldn't use the holes in the floor, the underground tunnels, or any of the flat gym floor to my advantage since he was just too big. I had to win by wearing the Gliscor's defenses down to a point where Drapion could take him out with one hit.

"Gliscor, Tailwind!" Gladys called out.

Gliscor hovered in place, lifted his tail toward the sky, and he made a sweeping motion

through the air with his tail, conjuring some strong gusts of wind that I knew from nights scrolling through the list of moves in the Pokedex made Gliscor twice as faster for a short period.

"Drapion, Swords Dance!" I took advantage of Gladys and Gliscor focusing on heightening their speed while I used the turn to have Drapion perform the standard dance that raised his attack two fold, as taught to him a few months back by me and Kabutops one boring day back at the Gord.

Gliscor propelled through the air with renewed speed and vigor, aided by the Tailwind, pushing him to perform all his movements twice as fast as he raced to the ground. Gliscor took it upon himself to perform a second Earthquake as he reached the floor, pummeling his fists upon the ground once more, and making the ground shake recklessly. Drapion was caught in the crossfire this time, and he could only cling to the trembling floor, eyes shut in pain and teeth gritted, waiting out the attack for the floor to calm. With all this mind, I needed him to overcome this moment and do what needed to be done to ensure we win this.

"Drapion! Leer Gliscor just one more time, buddy! You got this!"

Despite the chip on Gliscor from Haunter, and the raised attack plus the weakened defense, I was convinced it was not enough to take him down with one hit. My Drapion had shrugged off the resisted Knock Off easily enough, but the current Earthquake attack being used on him was clearly draining him fast of his stamina.

Drapion did the impossible and forced his eyes to stay open for a brief moment or two during the chaos of the manic moving floor, and the flash of light around the room confirmed that Drapion successfully Leered the stationary Gliscor who was focused on just punching the ground with the renewed speed from the Tailwind.

"Earthquake the floor with everything you got, Gliscor!"

"Drapion, you've got to jump, and Knock Off! Fucking jump!"

As the final wisps of Tailwind trailed off, and Gliscor was engrossed in his pummelling of the floor, Drapion rose from the lowered, crouched position he had been making to stand straight, struggling the entire time to keep his balance over the shaking earth, Drapion mustered up the last of his endurance to do what I needed him to do. Drapion took high to the air, above Gliscor, and he had his right arm reeled back and ready as he fell back down.

Gliscor hadn't even stopped using Earthquake, as he was so preoccupied with showing off to Gladys that he could unleash a powerful attack, he wasn't even focused on his target. Drapion's Knock Off, boosted from gravity from the fall, clobbered Gliscor right across the face, cracking his neck in a horrible manner as he did but not breaking it, and Gliscor fell to the floor, his head comically sinking right into one of Dugtrio's holes, knocked out.

Let me know what you hated.