"Who's the Gym Leader here, again?" Ash asked, knocking on the door of Sootopolis Gym. "I did read it, it was just confusing."
"It used to be Juan," Max said. "Then he taught Wallace, who surpassed him as Gym Leader, but then Wallace became Champion so Juan took over the gym again. Then Steven became Champion and Wallace went back to become Gym Leader, except sometimes it's Juan, and I think they both do Contests so sometimes someone else entirely takes over?"
"So really it could be anyone," May's Dragonite said, as May helped take his long-distance flight harness off.
"Probably," Max agreed.
Then the door opened.
"Ah!" Wallace said. "Ash Ketchum and May Maple grace us with their presence!"
He stepped back, letting the trainers into the gym. "So, are you here for a gym battle, or some Contest advice? You don't have to give the same answers, of course."
"Well, I'm here for a gym battle," Ash said. "I think May's here because I'm here and we're travelling together. And these are Brock and Max – Brock's a Gym Leader from Kanto and Max is May's brother!"
He frowned. "...actually, your surname is a tree name. Does that mean one of you has to be a Professor?"
"I hope not," May said. "Even if Max does become a Professor I'd like it to be because he wants to, and I'm certainly not becoming one!"
Wallace chuckled, leading them through the gym's entrance hall. "It's nice to meet you, then, all four of you. Now, since Ash is here for a Gym Battle… Juan and I were arguing about what to do, and we came to a decision."
He threw open the doors, revealing the gym itself – a large pool in the middle, with some fighting room around the edges and rows of seats for spectators.
Also, Juan was there.
"We're both battling you," Wallace finished. "Juan's going first, because he won the toss, but we're both using two Pokémon… and mine is going to be a double battle."
"Great!" Ash declared. "I know who I'm going to use… it'll just take me a moment to get them sorted out. I think for three of them it's actually their first Gym Battles."
Brock started counting under his breath, then winced.
"This is going to be interesting!" May said, once they and their Pokémon were arrayed in the spectator's seats. "I watched some videos of Juan Coordinating over the past year or so, but I've not seen someone who's such a skilled Coordinator going all out in battle."
"What about a skilled battler go all out in Coordinating?" Brock said.
"I'm… not really sure," May replied, frowning. "How do you tell which is someone's focus?"
"All right!" Wallace called, getting their attention. "Juan's battle is first! The pool will be refilled after each bout, so please don't throw it all out just to try and set up a tactical advantage for the next battle."
"Seems fair!" Ash replied. "Okay, here we go!"
"Milotic!" Juan called, sending out a beautiful Milotic who plunged straight down into the swimming pool with a splash.
As against him, Ash sent out Lokoko (or presumably Lokoko) who spread her tails, nodding, then began to pace along the poolside.
"Dancing tails!" Ash called, and Lokoko broke into a loping run. As she did, Double Team doubles split off – some going faster, others slower, some turning around completely – and inside five seconds there were over a hundred Lokoko running in two overlapping chains around the pool and trailing fire from their tails.
"Even knowing only one is real, that's hard to follow," Max admitted. "What would you do, May?"
"Try to hit all of them, maybe?" May suggested. "So much of it depends on what the Pokémon can do, though."
"Psychic!" Ash said. "Sweep through the pool!"
The eyes of the running Lokoko duplicates glowed, and Juan pointed.
"Surf!" he ordered.
Milotic sprang out of the water, did a flip-turn in mid-air, and crashed back down at great speed. The impact sent a wave washing over the side of the pool in all directions, splashing into Lokoko and knocking her sideways, and many of the Double Team doubles dissolved from the impact.
"Mystical Fire!" Ash decided. "Then – Fireblast into the pool!"
"Spring out and attack!" Juan said. "Look to me!"
He pointed with a flourish, and Milotic sprang out of the pool again just before Lokoko's Fire Blast detonated. The Water-type followed his trainer's finger, turning to look towards Lokoko – splattered as he did by the surge of Fire Blast-driven water – and used Scald, firing a steaming hot surge of water directly at Lokoko.
Who turned out to be a duplicate.
"Will-o-Wisp!" Lokoko informed Milotic, as three purplish flames collided with him at once from different directions. "You must realize that doing an illusion of pawprints on the water is quite possible, surely?"
"Good work, Lokoko!" Ash said. "Now start using Hex!"
"Attract!" Juan ordered.
"Resist it, Lokoko!" Ash called.
Lokoko trembled a little as Milotic used Attract, then her tail went crack and all her duplicates dissolved.
"That's better," Milotic said, Refreshing and clearing away the burn as he swam closer. "It's just a battle, there's no need to actually hurt me. Right?"
"Oh, I agree," Lokoko replied. "It's just a battle… and, unfortunately, you're not the right sort for me. Psychic!"
Milotic tried to dive back into the water, but Lokoko hadn't targeted him with her burst of Psychic power. Instead she'd targeted the water, and Milotic bounced off the solid-seeming surface with a boing as Lokoko stepped down onto it.
Another illusion burst, and Lokoko's tails splayed out – all nine glowing a golden yellowish-white.
"Thank you for letting me charge my Solar Blades," she said. "What about a dance?"
Milotic did not have a good time.
"Allow me to say that I'm impressed with how well your Milotic can fence using Aqua Tail," Lokoko said, facing Juan. "You've clearly trained him well."
"I'm glad you approve," Juan chuckled. "It's rare a Pokémon I've battled gives a positive review."
"Want to watch the rest of the challenge?" Ash asked, and Lokoko considered before nodding.
"I'll go and join the spectators, I think," she said, crouching down slightly before jumping up off the pool and letting the surface reliquify as she did so.
She paced along to a likely-looking seat, next to Treecko, and nodded to him. "A fine evening, isn't it?"
"...so I sort of lost track in all the other stuff that was going on," Max said, as Ash looked for where he'd put his second Pokémon's Moon Ball. "But Ash has a Mew?"
"Yeah, Dragonite mentioned them a while ago," May replied. "...oh, right, you must not have heard that bit. I just assumed you'd overheard – this was back when Dragonite was a Dratini and he was talking about how he learned a lot of his moves. Mew's sort of… a move teacher for the Pokémon of Ash and his friends?"
"Mew's also one of the rarest Pokémon that's not, like… a one off foundation pillar of the universe!" Max replied, waving his hands. "You didn't know?"
"How many Rayquaza are there?" May said.
"...two," Max admitted. "Okay, fair point, Ash is just complete nonsense."
"Aha!" Ash called, and sent out his second Pokémon just as Juan did the same.
"Oh, this one I remember seeing at the Indigo League!" Wallace said, applauding. "Welcome to our gym, Latias! I could wish you were a Water type, but you already have two Types."
Latias waved. "It's going to be interesting doing this!" she said.
Juan stroked his chin, then got the attention of his Whiscash.
"Dragon tactics," he said.
Whiscash nodded.
"Begin!" Wallace instructed.
"Reflect!" Ash called, and Latias crossed her arms.
"Block!" she announced, which meant that Whiscash's opening Ice Beam attack splashed off a shield – freezing that instead of making it through to Latias – and the Dragon-type rolled left, away from the rest of the attack.
"Amnesia," Juan called.
Whiscash slapped her tail into the water, then fired Ice Beam again.
Latias crossed her arms for another Reflect, but the move didn't happen. Instead Latias took a direct hit from the Ice Beam, and yelped in surprise.
"What?" Ash asked, confused. "Uh – Dive!"
Latias splashed into the pool, moving at high speed underwater, and the sheer force of the current she created tore most of the ice away from her tiny feathers. The rest of it wasn't nearly as much of a problem, and Latias splashed back out of the water to see if Ash had any more advice.
"Shield with mist!" Ash said. "Dive again to set up!"
"Dragon Dance!" Juan ordered. "Then Thrash!"
The whole pool rocked wildly from side to side, water splashing out in waves, then a bright flash lit it up and about two thirds of the remaining water exited the pool in a vertical direction.
"There!" Latias announced, zipping up into the air with a mass of misty water orbiting her in a psychic grip. It was opaque enough that it wasn't quite possible to see where she was, and Ash gave a thumbs-up.
"All right!" he said. "Now, uh… wait, hold on… where did Whiscash go?"
After a moment of confusion, everyone looked up.
"I am not happy," Whiscash announced, wedged into the ceiling rafters, then slipped and fell. She went wham into the pool floor, fortunately not hard enough to damage it, then shook her head. "Right. Where were we?"
"Dragon Energy, Latias!" Ash ordered.
"So, what do you think?" Wallace asked.
Juan chuckled. "I think I'm glad we reinforced the pool back when you were learning…"
Wallace nodded, as the pool refilled now that Whiscash wasn't in it any more. "Well, let's see how he handles a double battle."
"Forgive me if I hope he uses a Legendary against you as well," Juan requested.
The two Water trainers shared a nod, then Wallace stepped up to the poolside.
"You have your Pokémon ready?" he asked.
"Yep!" Ash agreed.
Wallace sent out his team for the battle, a Milotic and a Walrein, and watched as Ash held up first a normal Pokéball and then a Heavy ball.
The Torkoal made him smile slightly, wondering about what the trick was going to be – with Ash Ketchum's Pokémon, it was clear, there was always a trick – then the second Pokémon came out and he stared.
"That is a tiny, shiny Rayquaza," he said. "Goodness me… and are they wearing a little backpack?"
"This is a water gym," Rayquaza said, rummaging in her backpack. "So that probably means… this one!"
She looked over at Torkoal. "That's alright, right?"
"My flames will burn through any hardship!" Torkoal assured her.
"Begin!" Juan called, and Rayquaza took the Blue Orb out of her backpack.
And, without any fuss, turned into Shiny Primal Kyogre.
The room shook with a crack of thunder as Primal Kyoge dropped a foot and a half into the pool, then an incredible rainstorm began from pitch-black clouds that appeared just below the ceiling.
"Whoa!" Max shouted, startled, and Lokoko and Latias collaborated to establish a psychic shield over the audience. Ash had no such luck, though.
Nor did Wallace.
"What on earth just happened!" he shouted, through the downpour soaking his clothes. "Did your Rayquaza just turn into Kyogre?"
"Yeah!" Ash hollered back. "Torkoal! Cross Chop that Walrein! Kyogre, Origin Pulse!"
Wallace tried to see what was going on in the battle, but it was hard to tell at all – the rain was so intense it was drowning out a lot of the sounds with a surf-roar, and Milotic was using Flash on her tail just to get a sense of where everything was. And there was what sounded like the crash of an ice move going off, countered by a bang which might be a Fighting attack, then Origin Pulse shone through the rainfall and knocked Milotic backwards.
Also, the water level was rising past his ankles.
"It's filling the pool!" he said. "It's actually filling the room faster than the emergency drains!"
There was a whud, and the rain cut off as suddenly as if someone had hit a switch. The clouds vanished, and Ash's Rayquaza scratched the back of her neck in embarrassment as she put something back in her backpack with the other arm.
"Sorry," Rayquaza said, as the water drained away. "I should have realized that wasn't the right choice… what about the other one?"
She took out the Red Orb instead, switched to a Shiny Primal Groudon, and a tiny artificial sun blazed up near the arena roof.
Primal Groudon hit the pool with a splash, but rather than floating or sinking she just dropped to the bottom of the pool in about three seconds and the pool's water level went with her. The room filled with vapour as every exposed surface steamed, then went bone-dry, and Torkoal flew down to land next to her.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" the Fire-type announced. "Let the fires of our youth explode!"
"Milotic, Walrein, Hydro Pump!" Wallace ordered.
Milotic and Walrein tried to use Hydro Pump.
It didn't work.
"Bulk up!" Torkoal said, snorting out a plume of steam, then charged. "Dynamic PUNCH!"
"You know… normally, when we say our gym is a Water Type gym, and that to win the badge you have to defeat the gym's challenge…" Wallace began.
"Yes?" Ash asked, looking up from checking Rayquaza over.
"Well, normally we don't mean you have to defeat the very concept of the Water type itself," Juan completed.
"I did that in the battle against Giovanni, in Viridian," Pikachu reminisced. "Fun times…"
"Was that okay?" Rayquaza asked, anxiously. "Sorry about the Primal Kyogre thing, I thought a Water gym would be able to cope with it."
"It was fine, don't worry," Ash told her. "And we learned some important lessons, too!"
Rayquaza nodded, accepting that answer.
"Well, what do you think of that?" Torkoal asked, sliding to a halt by the spectator seats. "My first Gym Battle! I think it was a fine display of the Fire-type's burning spirit, to overcome even a Type disadvantage!"
He waited.
"Treecko?" he asked.
"Huh?" Treecko said, looking up. "Sorry, did you say something?"
Torkoal sighed. "So cool…"
AN:
Eighth Gyms tend to have a bad time, it seems.