With speed beyond that which Ash and Sabrina anticipated, Joe the Sableye closed the distance between Jigglypuff with his arms cackling with unstable dark energy.
'FOUL PLAY!' Joe screamed as the attack was unleashed—
"Rollout!" The puffball curled into a ball a second before the attack made contact. Even though dark energy blasted on impact, Jigglypuff shot out like a speeding locomotive. The pink blur hit the wall—the bounced back with the same force he was launched.
Joe saw this and dropped—he dropped onto his own shadow with such speed, his fedora was left in the air as Jigglypuff sped past him.
The pink puffball rolled to a stop and turned around. Then Joe jumped out of his own shadow, reaching for his fedora and placing it back on his head.
'Ain't you clever?'
Joe gave a large grin as he tilted his head towards his opponent.
'Wow friend! you're super strong!' Jigglypuff waved in response.
'Thanks for the compliment. I gotta admit, you're not bad yourself for a youn' un.' The Sableye smirked as he tipped his fedora. 'But nothing personal, I'm gonna beat you up.'
The ghost and dark type crouched, and kicked off with his foot, blasting off with force of an olympic runner.
Ash was prepared this time as he screamed out only two words, "Disarming Voice!"
Jigglypuff opened his maw and fired a sonic boom that had a noticeable pink energy. The move was a Fairy Type move and currently, the only type advantage over the ghost and dark type.
However, Joe only grinned wider when he saw the attack coming his way. He reached for his fedora, and with one more step, he dropped into his shadow like a pitfall. The attack passed over him, but the shadow moved with the same speed until it reached the pink puff's shadow where Joe jumped out of it. While mid air, the dark ghost spun with a reverse roundhouse kick that was empowered with dark energy and smacked Jigglypuff to the side like a rubber ball.
The pink puff bounced considerably before stopping, pouting as he did when he stood back up. It was as threatening as a new born Lilipup with all of his fur fluffed up after having wet hair blow-dried.
Joe snickered and ran right for Jigglypuff once more. The normal and fairy type fired another Disarming Voice, only for Joe to repeat the process and drop to his shadow with Shadow Sneak.
Joe appeared behind Jigglypuff once more and swung his leg—
BAM!
The pink puff twisted faster than anyone expected, and with obvious use of the move Strength, he punched the incoming leg of the Sableye, and to the shock of most, the attack made contact and allowed the ball of air move his other limb to punch the ghost type in the face and send him flying.
(Jigglypuff! How'd you do that?!) Ash mentally screamed at the balloon Pokemon.
(Oh that's easy! If I couldn't hit him and he could hit me, all I had to do was hit him the moment he tries to hit me!)
Ash slowly realized something: ghost Pokemon do have solid forms at times and sometimes when they attack, they put back mass and such to put weight into their attack. This basically meant that there was a point when they have to go back solid to get in a good hit and Jigglypuff was able to abuse that moment of solidarity!
(Whoa! That's clever of you, Jigglypuff!)
'~Yaaay!~ I made a friend proud!' The apple lover cried out and did a happy little jig.
"My my, that is the first time I saw a normal attack make contact with a ghost type." Leonardo called out before looking towards Joe. "I warned you, Joe, not to underestimate this group."
Behind him, Tommy the Houndoom was sniggering with a paw over his maw as if to somehow hide the vindication from his friend's suffering.
The Sableye got back up and fixed the fedora on his head. 'Keep laughing, you Gogoat-horned mutt!' He snapped to his now full on laughing friend. 'Expect excrement in your food later, punk!'
Ash and Jigglypuff tilted as they heard that e-word before Joe turned back to them. 'Alright, kiddoes, let's do this the other way then.'
Joe threw out both his arms which ignited with purple-blue flames and then he pitched them like baseballs, most of them hitting Jigglypuff dead on and igniting into an exploding fire. The rest were still aimed to surround the fairy and normal type.
Jigglypuff screamed, using the attack Echoing Voice to blow away the purple flames. As he did, his own shadow popped up—then Joe stepped out and slammed the pink puffball right between the eyes with his palm with one of those blueish fires.
The pink puff struck back at the same time—only for his fist to pass through Joe's face. 'Ain't falling for that a second time, pinky!' He stepped forward and followed through the palm into his face. A sonic boom was seen as Jigglypuff was knocked back like a cannonball.
"Jigglypuff!" Ash cried out as the pink Pokemon stopped bouncing, and rolled over to see his eyes in swirls.
"That's one down, Ash. you have three left to go." Leonardo stated out loud.
Ash gritted his teeth and returned Jigglypuff. Joe was powerful, not to mention he could take even Jigglypuff's Strength with relative ease. That fire attack was Will-O-Wisp, but even among Professor Oak's Pokemon, none of the attacks he saw back in the ranch moved akin to missiles like Joe's did. Something tickled the teen's mind, telling him there was something more to that uncanny speed of his fire attacks.
Well, at least Jigglypuff was able to get some good hits in, few as they were—!?
A light shined on Joe and soon his noticeable damage was healing instantly. 'There we go. That feels sooo much better!' The ghost and dark type spoke as he stretched his arms like he woke up from bed.
"That was Recover!" Ash cried out.
"You were taking your time with your next Pokemon, so Joe healed himself." Leonardo stated nonchalantly as Jigglypuff's hard work was easily undone.
So adding on to all of the advantages Joe had, he could even heal all damage done to him!? Ash twitched as realization came over him that he and his remaining Pokemon had to deal with something like that!
Still, there had to be something that could work to his advantage... he hoped...
The raven haired teen shook his head and took out his next Poke Ball. "Go, Spearow!" The flying type was brought out and glared down her opponent.
Joe the Sableye waved at her. 'Aww, what's up little birdie? Huh? Huh? Get it?'
'Simpleton! Do you not realize this ceiling is above you?!'
'What? No I—'
'Nay!? You remind me of Slow Spearow in my clan…. he's slow. I apologize for your circumstance.' The usually boastful flying type seemed to humble herself as she seemed to misunderstand the speech of her opponent.
In response to that misunderstanding, Tommy the Houndoom started howling laughter, or he could have been doing a combination of both howling and laughter. It was hard to say but he seemed to be enjoying himself.
Joe's teeth made a nasty sound as they ground together in obvious annoyance towards his teammate. 'Let's just fight now.'
The ghost and dark type then fired another Will-O-Wisp that was much faster than a regular one. Spearow blasted off with Agility, avoiding the flames barely. Joe switched up his tactics and fired bigger, purple flames at the normal and flying type.
But that move no immediate sense to his opponents. The bigger flames were fast, but they were slower than a while ago, and Spearow was able to avoid them very easily.
However, when they hit the ceiling, the shoddy lighting in the room started to flicker with longer periods of darkness with each hit in the ceiling.
Sabrina looked up and then her eyes widened.
Spearow was keeping track of her enemy. However, when the lights flickered off, she felt something off. When they came back on, Joe was no longer in the spot he was previously.
"Spearow, above you!" Ash's voice hit her ears and she glanced up to see a close up fist—
The flying type was knocked down to the ground by Joe who then dove down with dark energy towards the fallen bird.
"Spearow, Mirror Move!" The voice of her trainer made the chieftain's daughter summon a phantom that fired a Will-O-Wisp that was noticeably slower towards the incoming Sableye.
Joe smacked the attack away, but he wasn't able to avoid the direct hit into his stomach by Spearow's Aerial Ace. Showing that she followed up with the attack.
The impact pushed the ghost type off and forced him to land back at the ground.
Ash looked back up, staring at the flickering lights.
Joe cackled as he summoned another Will-O-Wisp in his arms and fired it towards the ceiling. This caused Ash to scream before the attack made contact with the roof. "Spearow, Agility! Move around now!"
"So that explains it." Sabrina spoke out as she looked over towards Leonardo while the fight continued on. "You purposely made the lighting in this gym bad. Whenever the lights flicker, your Pokemon uses Shadow Sneak during the longer periods of darkness to get to the ceiling and attack from above."
"My Pokemon have literal home field advantage," Leonardo spoke out while the lights flickered on and off during their talk. "They use the weak lights in their favor to distract and blind opponents."
"Are you holding back anything?" As the fight went on, there just seemed to be more advantages Leonardo's lone Pokemon had over Ash's part. Sabrina didn't realize she was worried for the boy in her own way.
"I try not to hold back." Leonardo explained as he looked back at the battle. "Because life doesn't. The real choice we have is what we do after."
As he said this, Leonardo looked over towards Ash who had his eyes focused and watching the lights in the room.
The lights started to blur and an instant before the lights went out, "Now, Spearow, Mirror Move!"
And then electric bulbs died out.
When they reappeared, Joe was seen up in the air, with no sign of Spearow. The reversal from before was a complete surprise, and as Joe landed back on the ground, he glanced all around the room to see signs of his opponent.
Leonardo's eyes snapped open. "Joe, behind you!"
Joe looked behind him only to see light—
Then he was smacked some distance back felt a sting in his face.
As he looked back up, he saw what everyone else was seeing: another phantom Sableye that had his same fedora.
'Do you truly believe the same trick would work on us a second time?!' Spearow boldly declared. She flew, and the phantom dragged her into the shadows—revealing she had copied Shadow Sneak and raced after Joe.
'Well this is gonna be fun!' Joe smirked as he too dropped into his own shadow.
The two shadows raced for each other and clashed with the force of two opposing comets. They kept clashing, twisting, and racing all across the building, the ground shaking at the moments of clash.
It was very easy to lose track of who was who because they were just shadow blobs. However, as the fight dragged on, a clear winner was starting to show and beat on the other shadow.
Soon, the lone shadow was kicked out of the ceiling, revealing it to be Spearow that lost the battle of shadows.
Joe jumped out of the wall after her. 'Whoo! That was a great time!'
As he walked over towards the downed flying type, Spearow's eyes snapped open and a burst of feathers exploded around the area.
Sableye couldn't see beyond the feathers and Spearow dashed—was punched in the face knocking her out cold.
'You ain't the only one who learns his lesson.' Joe the Sableye spoke up as the feathered died down.
"Was that Feather Dance?" Leonardo raised his brow. That move might have cut Joe's attack power in half.
Ash sighed and returned Spearow. "You did a great job." As he looked up, he saw Joe healing his wounds from Spearow's fight.
Down two Pokemon, and whatever progress he makes gets undone. There had to be something he could do. At least Spearow cut his attack power; that was something at least.
The trainer from Pallet Town took out his next Poke Ball, "Go Prince Nidorino!"
The purple Pokemon made his appearance as he stared down his opponent.
'You are my opponent? I've seen more threatening reflections than you.' The royal huffed with pride.
Joe smiled and held the tip of his hat to obscure his right jewel eye. 'It ain't about scary, kid, it's about learning lessons. And you're about to learn a lot.'
The Sableye stepped back—then dropped into his shadow. Prince Nidorino stood still and looked around.
The lights started to flicker, only revealing the golden glow of Prince Nidorino's Life Orb.
In the moment of darkness, Joe stepped out and rushed for the right side of the Prince Nidorino. He stuck out in the darkness like a sore thumb—why was the light suddenly snuffed out?
A second later, Joe felt like he ran into something.
As the light flickered back on, it was revealed that Joe had just ran into a boulder that shot out between the attacker and Prince Nidorino.
'I learned you're foolish.' The prince declared with pride and showed one of the smuggest of smiles.
"You have quite prideful Pokemon..." Leonardo commented as he watched the battle.
Joe grunted and phased through the rock in an attempt to rush the poison type. However, no sooner than he showed his face out of the rock, A Protect barrier shot out and slammed into Joe then pinned him into the side of the spiked rock, effectively putting the Sableye between a literal rock and a hard place.
This happened for one second before the barrier pushed through, making Joe get crushed through the boulder and making him fall into the ground.
Joe groaned as he got back up, activating Recover early into this third fight. 'Okay, you actually some bite to your bark. I respect that.'
'Respect? Soon, you'll be giving me your admiration!' The poison type narrowed his eyes as he huffed and did a pose that made him look down on his opponent despite being naturally lower.
The golden Life Orb glowed and Nidorino stomped his foot. The floor beneath Joe rocketed upward, sending him flying into the air.
Joe grunted and use Shadow Sneak to get close to the royal, but as soon as he got close again—Bam! Another Protect blasted him away and slammed him into another conveniently placed rock.
Leonardo sighed. "Alright, Joe, hang back a bit. You're actually going to need my help for this."
The Sableye relaxed as he took a step back.
"Will-O-Wisp!" Leonardo cried out as the ghost Pokemon fired an alarming amount of ghost flames in a short amount of time.
Nidorino used Rock Tomb in front of him defensively and the stone took on most of the flames. Joe was then ordered to go to the high point of the rock. Then broke it off and smacked the spike right towards Nidorino.
The proud Prince activated Horn Attack and pierced through the boulder thrown his way. But no sooner than he did, he ended up being surrounded by ghost flames. By instinct, Nidorino activated Protect before the flames could get to him. However the second they dispersed, Joe slammed into the Protect barrier with dark energy accumulating into his foot.
The barrier actually was knocked back down and bounced on the ground. Joe raised both his hands and brought them together with ghost like energy before slamming it into the bubble. The third attack shattered the field. Joe then threw out his arms with exploded into the form of large Shadow Claws.
Joe rushed in while Nidorino was still mid air. However, the light of the orb shined brightly and Prince Nidorino opened his mouth, but this only made Joe dive faster and launch his attack sooner.
The result was a powerful clash of Joe's and Nidorino's attack. The explosion ended and what surrounded the field was a rain of needles.
Prince Nidorino fell to the floor in a smoking heap and it was seen that he was knocked out unconscious from the power of the two attacks clashing.
Ash sighed and recalled his third battler down, which only left Riolu as his last remaining Pokemon.
The Trainer form Pallet town called out his first partner, the fighting type. All the while, Ash found himself looking over towards the ghost and the field scattered with broken rocks and large Poison Sting needles everywhere. Something was forming, but he couldn't quite bring it to the surface of his mind. But it wasn't time for that, there was still something Riolu had that could help them in this situation.
"Riolu, use Foresight!" Ash cried out as Riolu's eyes started glowing.
"Joe, Magic Bounce." In an instant, a magical screen appeared before Riolu could finish his scan.
The light of the fighting type's eyes burst and the little jackal ended up rubbing his eyes after the returned scan.
Ash didn't get it, Riolu launched his attack first, so why was Joe's moves faster than...
Faster? ...Of course!
It finally dawned on Ash why some of Joe's non-combatant attacks were so speedy. He had heard of it before, a special and very rare ability that few Pokemon had. "Wait, does Joe have the Prankster ability!?"
Leonardo was slightly taken by the scream but nodded at the boy's cry. "Why yes, which means whenever someone tries to use Foresight, Joe here can cancel any attempt thrown at him." The mobster gym leader explained while Joe took out his fedora and started spinning it in his hand as he started to use Recover from the previous battle from Nidorino.
Ash had his eyes widened in realization. Riolu didn't have any moves that could hit a ghost type without Foresight!
Leonardo seemed to read his opponent's face like a book and smiled. "Joe, end it!"
The ghost type went off in a vicious assault that Riolu could only defend himself. But it was obvious that he wasn't going to last long.
"Want to call it quits, kid?" Leonardo called out. "This is only going to end one way."
The raven haired boy gripped his fist. His friends all did their best, but it still wasn't enough. Joe was just too experienced and high leveled. Not to mention the fact the gym was made in favor of the dark types.
Maybe… maybe he should give—
'Ash!' Riolu called out, gritting his teeth and supporting his legs to stand. 'What's our next move!?'
Riolu… wasn't giving up. He wasn't giving up! Not one of his Pokemon ever did during the fight, even though they knew Joe was a high leveled Pokemon! And here he was giving up after they never did!? Ash gripped his fist then slapped his face with both of his hands. He screamed out loud, causing everyone, but Riolu, to look at him in surprise.
Ash inhaled deeply and looked towards Leonardo with a smirk.
Leonardo said that the theme of this gym was to show unfair life was. The Gym Leader expressed wanting to be something before he became the man he was today. And he's right. Sometimes, you don't get what you want, but that doesn't mean you should try to go for them and doesn't mean that even if you fail, it'll all go to waste!
His friends and his dreams, they'll help each other, and by Arceus, Ash Ketchum was going to show them all, he is going to be a Pokemon Master!
This cry of renewed courage made the trainer's ind work back on overdrive, thinking back to watching the field and realizing that his previous Pokemon didn't just get knocked out for nothing! This needed to be a team effort in order to win, and Riolu needed his help to pull it off!
"Riolu, pick up those spikes left by Prince Nidorino!" Ash shouted as the fighting type avoided an attack by Joe, and did so, grabbing two leftover stingers a little over half his size.
Alone, not one of them stood a chance against Joe and Leonardo. But that was the thing wasn't it? Just like in Cerulean, just like in Mt. Moon…
They were not alone!
Joe fired many, speed enhanced Will-O-Wisps at the blue Pokemon.
"Stand your ground and use Quick Attack!"
The paradox of that statement caught the watchers off guard. However, Riolu did stand his ground and his limbs started to move fast. He used the spikes that were obviously laced with Aura to cut and slash through the incoming Will-O-Wisps, effectively showing that the remaining attack was used as pseudo tools to help Ash's last Pokemon!
Joe, while momentarily distracted by the challenger's resourcefulness, knew he needed a different strategy and fired another Will-O-Wisp to the ceiling to make the lights flicker off for a few seconds.
The ghost and dark type raced within the gaps of darkness, but as he readied to strike behind the fighting type, Riolu ducked at the last second and was stabbed in the gut by the two spikes.
Riolu's eyes were glowing as he pushed and stepped forward with the poison sticks. The amount of force in such a small movement was amazing enough to send the Sableye flying back some distance back and caused the higher level Pokemon to slide on the floor to stop the momentum.
The lights flickered back on and Joe threw his hand out to point at Riolu while the other clutched his stomach. 'How'd you know I was there?!'
'I can sense aura?' Riolu tilted his head as he answered honestly. 'Is that so surprising?'
Joe exhaled as he tried to heal himself up. 'Okay then, kid. I just have to—urk!' There was a shock of pale purple that spread all around the ghost type mid heal. He looked down and instantly realized that the two needles that hit him… they poisoned him!
"Nidorino left the tools for Riolu to stand a chance, Spearow taught me how Joe uses the lights to his advantage while also cutting his attack power in half… and Jigglypuff showed me..." Ash thought to himself and felt his heart rate skyrocket. He was using everything his other Pokemon left behind and if even this wasn't enough—no! This had to be it! Forsaking his doubt, Ash ordered Riolu to head in with Quick Attack.
The fighting type raced off, using the two sticks to make another blow onto the ghost. Joe was prepared this time and avoided the stab by ducking and trying to sweep kick the blue Pokemon. Riolu was far more capable in close combat, jumping over it and swinging both temporary staves over his head to bring them down the low ghost and dark type. The gym Pokemon had quick reflexes and dropped into his shadow before the attacks could make contact, but the attack did almost hit him. Joe raced back to the shadow of Riolu and tried to strike his back, but Riolu blocked a Shadow Claw by twisting and using his makeshift weapon to clash and hold the attack.
The two's dance of combat continued, with each attack coming closer and closer to contact for both sides.
Leonardo, for the first time in this fight, was starting to get tense. "Joe, break those sticks! It's the only thing letting him hit you!" Leonardo cried out.
Joe exerted more energy into his Shadow Claws and swiped at Riolu in such a way it forced him back. However, the needles he was using did get caught by the attack and were shattered into pieces afterward.
Joe rushed in again. 'Goodnight, kid!' He threw his Shadow Claw and at the last second—
"And Jigglypuff showed me that Joe can't always defend from last second moves."
Riolu's palm glowed and smashed right into Joe's Shadow Claw, pushing it back. The surprise of such a thing let the ghost type's guard down and allowed Riolu to smash another force palm right into the chest of the Sableye.
"What!? How did you hit—" Leonardo stopped mis sentence when he saw the glowing eyes of the fighting type. He realized that Riolu was waiting for Joe to make a move, so he could activate Foresight before he could counter with Magic Bounce!
"Now Riolu! Don't let up for a second!" Ash punched the air hard.
The fighting type screamed as he unlashed a flurry of Force Palm attacks that connected into the Sabeleye. Joe seemed to take in some of the hits as he also tried to counter. However, Riolu was just naturally better at close combat, and even though he took some hits, it didn't do much in deterring the assault.
"Joe, run! You can't beat him close qaurters!" Leonardo called out.
The ghost and dark type stepped back and dropped into his—Riolu dove in, grabbed on to Joe's arm and lifted him up. In that moment, the fighting type gathered energy into his foot and slammed his foot into the bottom jaw of Joe.
Joe realized he couldn't escape anymore and ended up unleashing his power to out attack Riolu. However, despite getting more hits in, and some good blows, Riolu was still fighting and hitting back harder.
The flurry of palms increased until with one solid slap to the face, Joe staggered backwards and seemed to be near collapsing.
A blue light gathered around Riolu's palm before he stepped forward and both he and Ash screamed as the attack was pushed right into the stomach of Joe once more.
The attack was a direct hit and the result was an explosion where out of the clouds, Joe shot off and fell into the ground, his hat rolling off his head and swirls on his eyes.
...
...
"W-We won! Riolu, we did it! We won!" Ash, releasing a breathe he didn't know he was holding, cheered then ran up to his fighting type.
'Yay! Everything hurts!' The little Pokemon cried out before he was picked up and hugged by Ash—only to yelp in pain after the hug.
Leonardo returned Joe and walked up to the boy and Riolu. "Well that was… something." He fished for his pockets and tossed something towards the boy like a flipped coin.
The boy from pallet town caught the object, revealing it to be a circular badge that had a black moon and a silver sky.
"That's the Twilight Badge, proof that you have won the challenge here in Diagon City. Congratulations my boy, you've earned it."
The boy took the badge and a smile was obviously on his face, but the smile soon faded and he looked back up to the mobster. "Mr. Capone? You told me that you had a dream before, what was it?"
The old man seemed to be caught surprised by the question. The mobster exhaled once before he looked back to the boy and gave an honest answer. "When I was your age, I wanted to be an astronaut and explore beyond the stars. It was all I could ever think about. But... considering where I was, and who my family was, I never got the chance to pursue my dream. I still think about it to this day, what my life could have been if I choose differently."
The old man made a motion towards the old building they were in. "In a sense, despite being the 'king' of this city, it also acts like a prison." He looked over to Ash with one of the saddest smiles the teen had ever seen on the melancholic mafia leader. "Which is why I started this gym in a sense. It could bring the outside world to this isolated city, if one couldn't leave it as easily."
Ash seemed to react to that information like a sponge, but then he opened his mouth. "Why don't you still try and chase it?"
The sentence was a simple one, but it caught Leonardo and Sabrina off guard as they both turned to Ash.
"I mean, can't you join the space program from Mossdeep City in Hoenn? You may not be an astronaut, but I bet they can get you hooked up with a lot of cool space stuff! Professor Oak told me all about it and one time borrowed a Lunatone from their space center so we could learn more about potential Pokémon from space! It was so cool!" The teen gushed as he explained the memory but calmed down a bit. "I'm not really smart even though I try to be. But my mom once told me that dreams don't really go anywhere while chasing them, they're just always waiting for you."
Silence filled the old building before the mobster broke out the largest smile that looked like it belonged more on a child than it did an old, bitter man.
"Your mother sounds very wise, young man."
Ash nodded. "My mom said she got it from my dad. She said it was one of his favorite phrases he read from a fortune cookie."
"Well then," The two older gym leaders noticed the past tense usage for the word, father, but made no effort to mention it further. "Allow me to repeat it before we get too off tangent: congratulations, Ash Ketchum, for winning the Twilight badge."
The raven haired teen smiled and looked back at the shiny badge. Ash threw his hand with the badge up, proud to earn such a thing after a hard fought—"Wait! I need to heal the others! They gotta see this! Thanks Mr. Leonardo!" Ash waved goodbye as he bolted out the gym door without listening to another word.
As he did, Leonardo had a huge smile on his face even when he turned to Sabrina.
The psychic user sighed. "There he goes again, running off ahead without care. He truly does need to know how to calm down."
"True. But let him be himself for now, he will learn when he learns." The old godfather spoke out cryptically before turning towards the psychic user with a mischievous smirk. "Did you know he was the first to win that challenge?"
As soon as the message entered into her brain, the woman replayed it in her mind, only to be even more confused when she heard it.
"What? Ash was the only one to get your badge?"
"No no," Leonardo shook his head. "Because of how I stacked the odds against younger challengers, you get the badge if you can do the following: make me command my Pokemon against you, or never give up even when you lose totally. Ash is the very first one to actually win against this challenge designed to be unwinnable."
The tone in his voice was one of wonder and interest. It was hard not to be if a young, new trainer just did the impossible.
"Wait, what about his friends from his hometown?" Sabrina asked the old man. From what Ash told her, it was implied his friends already challenged the gym and got their badges. If what the Diagon City Gym Leader was true, then wouldn't that mean...?
Leonardo scratched his face. "Either I'm getting older, or the next generation is getting stupidly strong. The other three had draws with whatever Pokemon I sent at them. They were able to knock out my main party at their last Pokemon each time. I thought for sure I could finally beat one of them, but as you can see it was the complete opposite."
Wait, the other three had ties with that challenge?! Sabrina knew Ash had a talent for battling, but his friends did as well?
"Look out for those kids in case you battle them—that does remind me, I'm surprised your out of your city during League Period." The mobster asked politely.
"Somethings came up, I needed to look into some business."
"From Giovanni?"
Sabrina's entire body shifted into tension, not that she showed that as she looked back towards the still smiling mobster.
"You'll have to forgive me for the reception earlier last night. I had found out that a psychic was coming to my turf, and I wanted to see what reason they would come here."
"… That was one of your men? How did he evade..." The psychic user started to stand up straight. She wasn't aware that Leonardo had some meta human abilities at his disposal, or even access to nullifying other meta human powers.
"You don't live years with dark types without learning a few tricks." Tommy the Houndoom came up to the mobster for Leonardo to pet on his head. "Some of those tricks can even stop a psychic's power."
The tension in the air was thick— until mobster gave a laugh as soothing as a cool breeze. "Relax. I just wanted to know why you were here when I made sure Giovanni stopped sending goons over to this place." He looked over towards Sabrina. "Imagine my surprise when you were just following a fun kid around."
Sabrina was still wary, Leonardo was proving himself to be a more dangerous man than she heard about, and even then that was saying something. She was truly starting to see why Diagon City seemed so out of reach for Team Rocket if he was always in charge.
"So, what happens now?" The psychic user still remained tense, choosing not to say much about her reasons or affiliations.
"That… depends on you. At first I thought you were sizing him up to be one of Giovani's new puppets, but I was genuinely surprised that the kid is bringing out something in you of all people: your empathy." Lenoardo turned and started walking towards the other side of the gym. "I wasn't lying in saying that kid is interesting. And that's just more than his battle skills."
The old mobster suddenly stopped and turned towards the other gym leader. "By the way, did you know that the S.S. Anne is docking by the Diagon Port tomorrow? The port is a shuttle ride down and much shorter than any of the trains back to Cerulean. You should tell Ash about it cause that boat ride is much faster travel to Vermillion City than walking by land." He tossed his head as if remembering a single musical note, "Honestly, I wanna see how that Surge fellow will react to that kid."
And with that last comment, the mobster left his own gym, leaving Sabrina to think about how Ash was starting to change her.
Was it for better? Or for worse?
The lights of the gym flickered… and then darkness returned to the building.
+Author Notes+
So, what did you guys think about this 4 VS 1 Gym battle? I worked hard to make sure it was something just beyond calling out the names of attacks.
I talked with a friend and agreed that just following the game format of battles was boring to read. The anime is better, but those are visual mediums, and Fanfiction are text.
Thankfully, a certain anime with currently 5 anime parts and almost nine manga sagas showed the potential in how to make exciting battles even without losing interest even when translated back to text.
Segway here.
I'm kinda of excited for the next chapter. It's another fun one and it's on a boat.
A. Boat.
You know another name for boat?
Ship.
Mwa-MWAHAHAHAHA!
See ya guys soon. Support this fic with follows, favorites and reviews, please!