The match took place later in the afternoon. Marley saw no point in delaying it any more since he was probably not going to train anyway. Marley took that time to hastily arrange for five Gym Trainers.
Aside from Mr. Jennings, he knew that all of them were pathetic, and their only real purpose was that so he could gauge how strong Ash was, and also to tire him and his Pokemon out.
As such, they all had six Pokemon which had hastily been arranged by 'borrowing' them from other places, and then forcibly evolving them.
The match was to take place in the room designed for challenges, but that had to be cleaned up as it had been used as a storage space for most of the years. Mr. Jennings stood next to Marley, who was sitting on what looked like a throne while looking active for once. After all, all of his power was at stake here.
Ash was on one side of the field, which was about how big a Gym Leader's field would be in Kanto and other places. The field itself was just a barren plain, no rocks or other obstacles were placed in it. The ceiling was placed high, but not so high up as to give a Flying type too much of an advantage.
The first trainer was Elizabeth, maybe because Marley thought that with some experience fighting Ash before, she might be able to find a weakness (he clearly didn't know that she had been defeated humiliatingly- or maybe she had conveniently left that part out in her report).
This theory was proven wrong within five minutes as Ash's Fearow was able to one-hit knock-out all of her Pokemon without even breaking a sweat. The prematurely evolved Pokemon seemed to be stronger than they would be without evolving, but that still didn't mean they were in any particular way strong without training them.
"Great going Ash!" Gulliver said, who was watching along with Pikachu on the sidelines.
Marley yawned and said, "Next." He was wondering exactly how he would execute Ash and Gulliver. He was sure the old guillotine couldn't be wrong, but there were also so many other things he could do.
The next three trainers also fell to Ash very quickly, but Fearow did begin to tire out and took some minor blows, like a Linoone managed to hurt its left foot rather badly, and a Beedrill managed to get a Poison Sting in, though thankfully Fearow didn't get Poisoned.
"Jennings, take care of him," Marley finally said.
Mr. Jennings was probably the only one of Marley's trainers who had kept up with training, and had refused to ask for the Irresolute Badge's power as a shortcut to training.
His first Pokemon was a Linoone, but this one looked a lot larger and heavier than the other one Ash had faced.
Ash withdrew his Fearow for the time being, and went with using Pikachu.
Mr. Jennings began, "Use Mud Sport!"
That move scattered mud across the battlefield, making Electric type attacks less powerful.
It was a good plan, but Ash didn't use an Electric attack. "Pikachu! Iron Tail!"
The Linoone tried to avoid the Iron Tail, but was too slow and took it on its left flank, though to its credit it didn't faint immediately.
"Linoone, Return!" Mr. Jennings said. This confused Ash a bit, because he thought that Linoone would be going back to Mr. Jennings, but actually it was the move Return, and so he didn't really tell Pikachu to dodge it, with the result being that Pikachu took a hit.
However, Linoone suddenly felt sparks dance around it, and seemed to be slowed down considerably.
"Oh dear, Static," Marley muttered.
It was pretty bad, because Linoone then fell to Pikachu's Thunderbolt, despite the Mud Sport and everything and was not even able to avoid it due to being Paralyzed.
Mr. Jennings may have been training, but a side effect of preventing anyone from challenging the Gym Leaders meant that they as well as their Gym Trainers had almost no experience against an actual Trainer, and certainly not one who was battling and meant it.
The next one up was an Arcanine, one that had a glamorous coat that would've probably made Dawn or May squeal at how shiny and perfect it was.
But this was not a Pokemon Contest, and Mr. Jennings seemed to have realized that using physical attacks was not going to be to his advantage, and so started off with a Fire Blast.
Ash got Pikachu to dodge that very quickly using a Quick Attack, and then launched another Thunderbolt.
The attack hit true, but didn't seem to have much effect, probably due to the Mud Sport. It was then that Ash withdrew his Pikachu and sent out Fearow again.
"Extreme Speed," Mr. Jennings said.
Fearow was hit with full-on with a creature that weighed at least twice as much as it, but was still thankfully able to fly, and dodge the subsequent Flamethrowers sent at it in the air.
Ash, though, knew he had to do something. "Fearow! Use Drill Peck!"
Fearow managed to avoid another Flamethrower, flew rather too close to the ground, and its attack hit true on the Arcanine.
The Arcanine looked shocked, with an expression that clearly seemed to say, 'I got hurt! I got hurt!'
"Wait," Ash said, "you're telling me that your Pokemon have never been injured in battle before?"
"There are always a few small wounds," Mr. Jennings said, though he knew none of them had taken a real hit from a Pokemon that meant to do them harm.
This was all enough to turn the tide in Ash's favor, and the opposing Arcanine was knocked out, but at the end managed to get a Fire Fang in and that seemed to weaken Fearow quite a bit.
"Ah, forgive me sir, I no longer have any Pokemon left," Mr. Jennings said.
"That was all?' Marley asked. True, Mr. Jennings had lasted longer than the other four trainers combined, but Marley had been hoping for more than just two Pokemon. "Well then child, it seems that you'll be facing me now. "
In that time, Marley had decided upon Ash's method of execution, one normally reserved for higher-born prisoners, but he thought that Ash somehow warranted it: to be wrapped in a carpet and have several Rapidash set upon him, thereby trampling him to death. After all, it would maintain the dignity of his person at least.
"Good job!" Gulliver said. "I bet Marley'll be a real pushover after that!"
Marely didn't say anything, but he thought that Gulliver didn't warrant something as grand as being trampled, or as simple and quick as beheading. No, he would probably instead have molten gold dumped in his eyes and ears. Or silver- silver was cheaper.
As Marley walked near the battlefield, his lethargy evaporated, and an odd gleam entered his eyes. He touched his Gym Badge, so that he would remember just what was at stake here.
"Before we begin, the rules do state that I have to talk to you about my special rule," Marley said.
"What special rule?" Ash asked.
"The special rule that I will be telling you about if you just wouldn't interrupt me!" Marley snarled. "Now, every Gym Leader is allowed to fight with a special, you might say, handicap when faced with a challenger. My rule is that even if my Pokemon faint, I can bring them back into battle by evolving them."
"That seems downright unfair," Gulliver said. "And why does the Gym Leader get to use a special rule? If anythin', shouldn't it be the challenger who gets a handicap?"
Marley shrugged. "That is simply how it is. And if you think my rule is unfair, you should see what some of the others are allowed to do. Not that you will."
As this was the main event, Marley ordered Mr. Jennings to become sort of the referee/announcer and for the electronic board in the Gym to be set up, which incidentally, took an hour to set up as no one could figure out how it worked after all these years, and then Ash had to use the restroom, and then it was time for supper, and so on and so forth so that when the time for the match finally came it was past sundown. Ash had run out of berries, and obviously he wouldn't be allowed to use the Pokemon Center, so there wasn't much for healing his Pokemon. He didn't know though that he wasn't allowed to heal in-between anyway.
"So," Mr. Jennings said, "In one corner, we have Lord Marley, who is the Gym Leader who will be using two Pokemon, and in the other corner, Sir Ash, who I believe also is using two Pokemon?" Ash nodded. "Alright, so the game ends when all of one's Pokemon are unable to battle, though Lord Marley is allowed to revive them if he can evolve them using the Irresolute Badge. And, let the battle begin!"
Marley started out with a Slakoth.
"Really?" Ash asked. "That's it?"
"I will have you know," Marley said, "that I intended to train it after I had caught it, but was busy doing other things."
'Right, busy sleeping that is, you slugabed,' Mr. Jennings thought.
"How long ago was that?" Ash asked.
"Oh," Marley said, "around twenty years ago."
"You've been putting training it off for twenty years?" Ash asked.
'I was honestly surprised he even bothered to catch it,' Mr. Jennings thought.
The Slakoth, quite predictably, was defeated by Fearow in a single hit. Marley didn't seem surprised, rather, he just used his Badge, and Slakoth grew into a Vigoroth. While it didn't seem too malformed, it did look exhausted.
'Evolving doesn't completely heal them,' Mr. Jennings noticed. He then frowned. 'In that case though, it would have made more sense for Lord Marley to have evolved it from before the battle, so that at least it would start as a Slaking at its full health…'
The Vigiroth was fast, and was going for where Fearow had been injured earlier, particularly where the Fire Fang had hit. If Fearow had been well rested, Ash wouldn't have hesitated in striking Vigiroth, but due to his current condition, Fearow was trying to stay out of range.
Finally, Marley's Vigiroth faltered, probably due to exhaustion, and Fearow struck true, though it ended up taking a blow straight to the chest.
"Fearow! Hang on!" Ash said, though he could tell that Fearow couldn't take another hit.
Vigiroth had fainted, though Marley simply evolved it again. This time, it was quite malformed as the Slaking's arms and legs looked much too small and frail to support it.
Surprisingly, Marley ordered his Slaking to attack, with what looked like complete disregard for its safety. Slaking managed to grab one of Fearow's wings, but was taking a Drill Peck attack while it punched Fearow mercilessly.
Fearow toppled over, and Mr. Jennings declared it unable to battle. A few seconds later, the Slaking did too.
"Poor Slaking," Marley said without a hint of remorse and withdrew Slaking. He smiled. "I've won."
"Whadda ya mean?" Ash asked.
"Simple. I went through that lengthy procedure simply so that I could exhaust, and take out your Fearow, your Flying type rather than evolving it to a Slaking directly," Marley said. "And I'm afraid your electric rat is no match for my next Pokemon."
"Yeah right," Ash said. "I bet your next Pokemon is something you'll evolve too, right?"
Marley snorted. "Are you seriously so daft child, as to not realize that at some point, even I would have challenged a Gym Leader to gain my position? And that, I would have had to been very strong to do so?"
He sent out a Pokemon, one that Ash knew well. It was a huge grass snake, a fully evolved Serperior. It was not deformed or stunted in any way, and though Ash wasn't a Breeder, he could tell that Brock would definitely have been fascinated by it, with the way its think tendons stood out and its leaves shined like emeralds.
This Pokemon hadn't been evolved using the Irresolute Badge haphazardly… because it was clear that it was the Pokemon that had won Marley the Irresolute Badge in the first place.
"Pikachu, I choose you," Ash said and realized that the real fight was just beginning.
A/N: That ends it for now. I put in Marley having a Slakoth, Fenrir's Phantom, though it is going to be his Serperior which is going to really cause Ash damage. After all, Marley might be lazy, but he did get his position by winning it.
Thanks for reading, and please do review if you liked!
