Author's Note: I have returned with an update! Great to be back guys and finally tackle a gym battle. Hope you enjoy the ride and don't forget to favorite, follow, and review. Enough chatter, let's go!
Ben Bowen stopped in his tracks to admire the tunnel carved into the side of the cliffs of Oreburgh City. He distinctly remembered this aspect of the Oreburgh Gym existing in the anime but didn't expect to see it here. It would take a tremendous amount of engineering expertise to hollow out cliff faces and mountains.
Not to mention it would likely be insanely costly. Did the league even give out that amount of funding? Where would one even get the equipment to excavate? Even if Roark had connections and equipment, it would require a large construction crew to build a gym and a well-paid crew at that. No one was risking life and limb without significant compensation. One wrong move and tons of rock would crush them.
He stepped forward to enter the tunnel, prompting motion sensing lights to activate. Ben hissed and instinctively shielded his eyes from the harsh fluorescent light. He blinked away the spots left in his eyes and pressed onward until he heard the soft whirr of automatic doors. They parted to reveal the gym.
Ben gasped. The Oreburgh Gym was immensely different from what he expected. Instead of a lobby sectioned off from a larger room with a battlefield, he found himself on the battlefield staring up at rows of seating made of stone. It reminded him of an amphitheater, at least how the stands encircled the center of the arena.
Definitely not how it was depicted in both the games and the anime, but far more impressive.
From the looks of it, the gym was livelier than the anime or games ever depicted it, too. The gym didn't have the stands for mere decoration – they were packed with miners.
Ben felt his heart skip a beat, unused to the weight of so many eyes on him. He'd been a minor internet celebrity in his past life, yes, but somehow virtual eyes felt different than real ones. Not that he was intimidated. He could deal with the pressure of an audience.
He wasn't intimidated, his adrenaline was flowing and he couldn't help but grin like a madman. The crowd made things a lot more fun and gave him an excuse to put on a bit of a show. His eyes met with his would-be opponent as Roark walked towards him.
"Welcome to the Oreburgh Gym! Glad you could make it, my friend. Hope you're a people person: we have quite the crowd today," Roark said with a friendly wave.
"The more, the merrier! Truth be told, I expected a bigger turn out," Ben joked before gesturing to the stands and the battlefield. "But gotta say, love what you've done with the place. Looks nice; you've got to tell me who your interior designer is."
Roark laughed and shook his head. "Okay, not sure I've ever heard that one before. I'm a bit disappointed, actually … this kind of thing usually rattles rookies with all the force of a barreling Steelix."
"I meant what I said the other day: neither you nor another obstacle will stand in my way," Ben retorted. "But for what it's worth, I like audiences. Keeps things lively."
Roark's eyes lit up. "Excellent, let's see the potential of you and your Pokemon! The rules are simple – two versus two. The winner shall be decided when one side's Pokemon are unable to battle."
Ben flashed the gym leader a thumbs up. "Let's give them a show then, shall we?"
The miners began to shout and cheer as both he and Roark made their way over to their respective sides of the battlefield and took their place in their painted boxes. Roark gave a polite wave to the crowd, prompting them to get louder in their praise.
"Roark, Roark, Roark!"
Ben winced from the chants of the crowd. Not only were they noisy, the cavernous area amplified it with thunderous echoes. It was an underhanded trick he couldn't help but be impressed with. Had he specifically designed the gym with the crowd noise in mind?
Not that it mattered.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, finding his zone, before unclipping a Poke Ball from his belt. Even if the gym leader generally chose first – something that seemed to still be the case here if the Poke Ball in Roark's hand was any indication – Ben knew exactly which Pokemon he was going to choose.
Trident was the best choice for handling Roark's team, especially if he used the Pokemon Ben expected.
Sure enough, a Geodude emerged on the battlefield in a flash of light. He'd known it was either going to be Geodude or Onix before Roark called upon his signature Pokemon. Ben tapped Trident's Poke Ball twice, releasing the penguin Pokemon from stasis.
The Piplup stood on his tiptoes and puffed out his chest. Ben couldn't help but shake his head. Image was everything to Trident, unfortunately he wasn't aware that a posing Piplup was hardly an intimidating figure.
"I'll keep it simple," Ben whispered. "Run circles around Geodude, overwhelm him with your speed, and blast it with water. Don't get close, don't let it get close."
Trident turned his head and saluted his trainer before turning his attention back to his foe. He opened his beak to spew out a weak stream of water aimed straight for Geodude's face.
"Geodude, block it," Roark ordered, prompting the rock Pokemon to slam his arms to the ground.
Fragments of stone flew into the air from the strike, including a large hunk of earth that blocked the jet of water.
Trident increased the water output, causing the stream of water to double in size.
"Geodude, Rock Throw!" Roark shouted.
Geodude smashed his fists into the ground, hurling more chunks of stone from the battlefield in front of him to reinforce his barricade, only for Trident to launch himself up into the air far above the earth walls and spew the strongest torrent of water yet. Scald sailed down and doused Geodude with gallons of hot water.
Trident pirouetted through the air and landed in front of the barrier. The Piplup gave a graceful bow, prompting an eye roll from Ben.
Show off.
"Finish this: demolish the barrier with Water Gun – full power."
Trident opened his beak to spew another jet of water that slammed into the wall and started to crack the stone.
"Rollout!" Roark exclaimed.
Geodude curled into a ball and sped forward like a speeding bullet, ramming through the very barriers it had erected and shattering them into a million pieces.
Ben snorted. Predictable, but then again that seemed to be the trend for rock type gyms.
"Trident, Water Gun in front of you."
Trident flinched, surprised by the command but obeyed anyway. He carved out a divot in the ground in front of rolling Geodude, upending the stone Pokemon and sending it flying through the air.
Rollout worked fine on flat surfaces but rolling over the divot was akin to a car hitting a nasty pothole.
"Scald!" Ben shouted, taking advantage of Rollout's derailment and Geodude's airborne vulnerability.
A torrent of water poured from Trident's beak and slammed into Geodude's face, not only hitting him but launching him into the psychic barriers in front of Roark with a loud thud.
Ben shielded his eyes from the flash of barriers but peeked through a moment later to see if their opponent had fallen. An unconscious Geodude lay on the ground, prompting some of the crowd to boo even if he could hear a few cheers from those now impressed by Trident.
Roark raised his Poke Ball, letting its red beam pull Geodude back into stasis. He swapped to a new Poke Ball…specifically one more worn from use if the scuffs and smudges were any indication.
Roark's ace was coming. Presumably not the ace of his true team, but his ace for mopping up rookies nonetheless. A single tap of the release and a bright flash of light later and a Cranidos emerged on the battlefield.
The dino Pokemon snarled and stamped his feet, digging into the dirt with his claws. Restless … just as Ben always imagined the species to be.
"Can you keep going?" he asked Trident. The Piplup seemed a bit winded from all his high-powered Scalds and Water Guns.
Trident stood up straighter and puffed out his chest. Ben snorted. Who was he kidding? Trident could do this all day, and even if he couldn't, his pride would keep him in the fight until he passed out or he was beaten unconscious.
"Cranidos use Rock Polish then Headbutt!" Roark shouted.
The hard headed Pokemon shrouded himself with a pulsating cloak of light that appeared to smooth away at the rough edges of his armored body to make him more streamlined. He lowered his head and rumbled forward with speed Ben hadn't expected – Trident just barely managed to leap out of the way before Cranidos made a wide, looping turn to the left and barreled towards him again.
Trident spewed a scalding torrent from his beak, aimed for Cranidos' face. The rock type lowered the crown of his head and pushed through the stream of water, ramming into Trident and flipping him into the air in the process.
Trident let out a frightened squawk even as he twirled to correct his fall and land on his feet. Cranidos grunted and snarled, firing off a glowing ball of energy from his mouth.
The Piplup batted the sphere of energy away with a flipper – or at least, he tried to. Instead of redirecting the attack, hitting the projectile only caused it to explode.
He was thrown into the air from the concussive force of the explosion and hit the ground with a thud before he tumbled across the floor and into the barrier behind him.
Cranidos rushed full speed ahead, hoping to ram straight into Trident and slam him against the psychic barriers.
"Head Smash, finish this!" Roark commanded.
Cranidos glowed with shimmering blue light as he lowered his head.
Ben snorted. He would have been worried … if it wasn't so predictable. "Trip him up. Icy Wind," he whispered. "Remember the plan against Torterra? Let's do it again."
Trident sat up and exhaled cold air, coating the ground around him with a thin layer of ice just as Cranidos closed in on him. Fortunately, even a light layer of ice could be slippery. Cranidos grunted, his eyes widening as he lost traction and landed flat on his face. His momentum still carried him forward and sent him careening into the psychic barrier – albeit far away from his intended target. The light around him faded into faint blue sparks and coursed through Cranidos' entire body.
Recoil damage. Head Smash was a high risk, high reward attack. While it dished out a lot of damage when it hit, the damage inflicted on the user limited its use.
Cranidos tried to stagger onto his feet only to repeatedly slip and stumble. It didn't help that Trident kept coating more and more of the battlefield in ice, haphazardly stacking uneven layers to make it even more treacherous. Each footstep and attempt to get back up on his feet resulted in Cranidos falling flat on his face again with a thud.
Ben smirked. It was like watching the idiotic criminals in Home Alone and judging from some of the laughs from the crowd, even they were finding it hilarious.
Neutralizing Roark's ace was almost too easy. Cranidos were a force to be reckoned with due to basically being living battering rams, relying on a direct approach as a result. But by taking away his ability to take a direct approach, Cranidos was rendered useless.
"Ancient Power, break the ice!" Roark ordered.
"Trident, Water Gun and Icy Wind!"
Cranidos staggered onto his feet and opened his mouth to fire an orb of energy at the battlefield. Or at least he would have if Trident didn't hit him point blank with a Water Gun, soaking him in a surge of water that was quickly flash-freezing into ice. Forced to go on the offense before he was trapped, Cranidos fired off the Ancient Power at Trident instead of the icy battlefield.
Trident twirled out of the way of the projectile and skated around Cranidos, alternating between Water Gun and Icy Wind to cause more and more ice to build up around Cranidos. Surrounded by a wall of ice and frost creeping over his hide, he was helpless.
And not a moment too soon from the looks of it. Trident was completely from pumping out Water Guns and Icy Winds for so long. Now would be a bad time to find out Cranidos had a counter to this.
"It's over – your Cranidos cannot move, so that means it's unable to battle," Ben said, hoping to get Roark to see the situation the same way.
He still had Nyx waiting in the wings but Trident beating both of Roark's team members would be a sweeter victory.
Roark shook his head for a moment but ultimately flashed a grin to him and returned Cranidos to his Poke Ball, conceding the match. The crowd erupted with raucous cheers and clapped their hands, even if some of the miners' applause seemed a bit less enthusiastic now that Roark had lost. He had to give them credit for being a class act; it could be tough as a fan when your side lost.
Roark stepped outside the painted lines of his trainer box to make his way over to Ben. "A bit like finding out the tunnel you're digging goes nowhere … disappointing but in the end it's the experience that always makes things worth it."
Ben nodded. "Good match. It was a good experience for Trident since he hasn't really gotten a chance to take on a gym leader's team yet." he remarked, pointing to the water type who puffed out his chest and stood on his tiptoes to make himself seem taller.
"He did well, I can tell he's going to be a steady cornerstone of your team; but what really stood out was your guys' strategy. I have no doubt you and your team will go far!" Roark complimented, reaching down into his pocket. "As proof of your skill, I present the Coal Badge!"
A part of Ben wanted to squeal, although he managed to suppress that urge rather quickly. He couldn't stop from grinning like an idiot, however – this was a childhood dream come true. He eagerly took the badge from Roark, an earth-colored pin in the shape of a hardhat, and ran his thumb across its glossy surface.
Holding an actual gym badge felt surreal, like this couldn't be happening to him, yet here he was. "Thanks!"
Roark laughed a bit from his exuberant reaction as he reached into his pocket for a shiny metallic case. "We haven't even gotten to the fun reward yet." he said, placing the small case into Ben's hand.
Ben raised an eyebrow. He was so enamored with the badge that he completely forgot what traditionally came next.
"Inside is TM for Rock Polish. People think of rock as heavy and immovable. Traditionally, they would be right, but Rock Polish can smooth, streamline, and even alleviate the burden of gravity. It's handy."
Ben's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, I can definitely find uses for this."
"Good, maybe I'll get to see how you implement it into your strategies when you face my father, Byron … provided you get that far."
Ben snorted. "Provided I get that far? You act like there's a question there."
"Don't let that passion of yours die. The road only gets more difficult from here."
"Gardenia, right?" Ben asked as memories of the Eterna Gym's clock dial flashed in his head from his Platinum playthrough. "Any tips for dealing with her?"
Roark chuckled. "I'm afraid that's something you will have to figure out on your own. Unwritten rule amongst the gyms, we don't give intel about our fellow gym leaders."
Ben snorted. "Can't blame a man for trying, right?"
"No, suppose you can't," he replied. "Good luck though."
"Thanks," Ben muttered as he turned to leave.
He appreciated the sentiment, even if he wouldn't need luck. He had skill and would make sure his team was ready for the next challenge. Besides, he had knowledge and that was far better than luck.
Gardenia was next to fall, but until then maybe it was time to check out what else the world had to offer.