"Wow its so big" I say looking up at the grand stadium

The Goldenrod gym stands in front of me, it a huge hulking stadium in the vein of gym stadiums from the Galar region. It had only recently been refurbished in the last few years alongside the other developments around the city. I had heard a few whispers while relaxing around town that a lot of the refurbishment was due to a close link with the city of Levincia in Paldea, the two cities had become almost sister cities, so much so that Iono had made an appearance battling Whitney when the gym was finally reopened. Sprawled across the glass doors of the stadium are flyers and posters for upcoming events, there are even a few for the contest event that Louise had partaken in. I take a deep breath before Togepi brings me back to reality

"Toge!" she shouts happily from the new carrier I had gotten

"You like it in there huh?" I say with a laugh

It was essentially a papoose that parents wear for the children, Elm had designed it but fleshed it out with Pokemon materials, it was stitched with Levanny and Butterfree silk so the material can stretch too hold any size of Pokemon while it was lined with Swanna feather for comfort.

"You will have to go into your ball for the battle okay, I don't want you getting hit by any strays okay?"

"Toge!" It calls nodding happily

I smile down before pushing the door open of the gym, its fairly early in the morning, so only the receptionist and one of the gym trainers are present. I walk up and speak with the reception who nods and ushers me into the gym arena, the gym trainer grudgingly follows slightly groggy from the earlier morning start. The pitch is smaller than I thought it would be, it fairly boxed in surrounded by four walls of seats. There are a few local kids up there ready to watch but generally the vibe seems to be very flat, I return Togepi to her ball before packing away her carrier into my bag, I hear door across open and close

"Welcome Dustin to the Goldenrod gym!" comes a cry from across the pitch

I look up to see the distinct figure of Whitney, she pretty intimidating in words, most of the challengers who pull out of the Johto gym challenge are caused by Whitney and her Miltank. This perhaps would be the biggest test my journey so far

"You ready to go?" She questions happily

"Uh yeah sure, what's the rules?"

"Excellent! Well normally I go fo if you okay with that?"

"Sounds good"

She smiles

"Good I have heard lots of good things about you, hoping you might put my winning streak to an end" She says before turning and walking away

Okay, just like we planned, we trained for this

I walk back to my side of the pitch and stare out at Whitney

"Today we have the battle between the gym leader Whitney and the challenger Dustin, the match will be a 3 v3 battle with only the challenger being able to make substitutions. If both trainer are ready please select your first Pokemon!"

"Sudowoodo, you're up!"

"Dunsparce go!"

Sudowoodo lands down on the field

"Sudo!"

"Okay buddy you got this!" I shout out to hype Sudowoodo up who calls back in excitement

Across the filed the motionless Dunsparce lies on the floor, it yawns loudly before fluttering its small wings

"Okay Dun, use Headbutt!"

Dunsparce blank expression turns suddenly to a serious one as it launches itself forward slamming head first in Sudowoodo who is pushed back a little

"Drain Punch!"

Sudowoodo right arms glows a yellow colour and slams into the head of Dunsparce who is sent flying backwards

"nice hit!"

"Sudo!" he calls back as the yellow aura washes over him healing the small damaged the headbutt had done

"Hm this is going to be interesting, Drill Run!"

Dunsparce, spins on the ground collecting dirt before flying towards Sudowoodo

"Block it!"

Sudowoodo throws it arm in a cross across it chest and bares the hit

"Counter!"

Sudowoodo glows blue before slamming its fists down into the back of Dunsparce, it kicks up a lot of dust which eventually fades showing Dunsparce out on the floor unable to go on as Sudowoodo stands above it

"Dunsparce cannot continue, Sudowoodo is the victor!"

"Great work Sudo!" I shout out as Sudowoodo bounces from foot to foot in victory

"Not bad, try this on!" Whitney says returning Dunsparce and sending her next Pokemon out

"Furret!"

The long body of Furret emerges

"Careful Sudowoodo, this is completely different!"

"Sudo!"

"Furret Dig!"

Furret burrows its way under ground

"Sudowoodo, Rock Slide pierce the ground!"

Sudowoodo summons a storm of rock and slams it into the ground cracking the ground stocking out like fallen stalagmites

"Won't find us like that!"

Furret bursts up through the floor and slams into Sudowoodo who absorbs the hit similar to the Drill Run

"Counter!"

Sudowoodo glows blue again and goes to swipe at Furret

"Not this time!"

Furret manages to contort its long body to avoid the hit pushing itself away using Sudowoodo like a spring board. Sudowoodo tumbles to the ground but pulls itself up

"Return Sudowoodo"

I pull it ball to my mouth

"Gotta keep you fresh" I say before placing it back on my belt

"Bayleef, your turn!"

Bayleef emerges and touches down, it roars out in defiance as Furret worms it way around the field

"I see but that won't help, Furret time to play pop goes the Furret!"

"Furret!"

Furret calls out before beginning to dig hole after hole, popping up constantly from every new hole made

"Bayleef, Use Razor Leaf!"

Bayleef summons a huge plumage of leaves and fires them across the field, Furret deftly doges it by jumping into a nearby hole

"You won't hit us with that, Furret Super Fang!"

Furret jumps up out of one on the holes behind Bayleef and latches on causing Bayleef to call out in pain before diving down a nearby hole, Bayleef stumbles and it front left leg hits the floor before it pulls itself back up

"Bayleef, use your vines and grab Furret!"

Bayleef fires off it vine down the hole in pursuit of Furret

"You won't be quick enough!" Whitney cries out as Furret dives from out of the hole

"That was just a distraction! Now Bayleef!"

Bayleef vine pops out in front of Whitney stretching all that way, it pulls them up out of the ground causing dirt, sand and more importantly the rock laid by Sudowoodo to fly up into the air, Furret holes in a second are gone as the field is completely decimated as shards of all the rocks are now strewn across the field

"Grab it Bayleef!"

Bayleef whips her vines and latches onto Furret who squirms to try and get away

"Razor Leaf!"

Bayleef whips its head as another plumage of leaves fly off this time hitting there mark

"pull it in and Body Slam!"

Bayleef pulls Furret in close and pins it down before jumping high and slamming it with all its weight. It jumps back leaving Furret laid out on the floor unable to go on

"Great work Bayleef!"

Whitney returns Furret with a wry smile

"You used Razor Leaf to cut the rocks didn't you?" she shouts

I smile

"That was the plan yeah, I saw your videos using Furret to pop up. The rocks in the first place gives Furret less space to make holes however we couldn't get rid of the whole field without being able to destroy them later so we had to damage them"

"Smart kid, but as you will know, the battles only really just began, come out Miltank"

The large round Pokemon lands out with a heavy thud

"Moo moo!"

Right, hopefully the plan works

"Bayleef, Razor Leaf!"

Bayleef again summons a plumage and fires it off, Miltank simply spins on the spot to deflect them

"Miltank, Body Slam!"

Miltank in the motion of rolling fires itself up high into the air before descending towards Bayleef

"Poison Powder!"

Bayleef Leafs flutters releasing a huge cloud of purple spores, which Miltank dives into to hit Bayleef. Bayleef is sent flying to behind me skidding across the floor, Miltank coughs in the spore cloud as I sprint up to Bayleef

"Are you okay?" I shout

"Bay" It groans with a smile before passing out

"Bayleef cannot continue, Miltank wins"

I return Bayleef and smile

"We will put you good work to use"

I stride back to my box and send out my next Pokemon

"Lapras I choose you!"

The hulking water type touches down and calls out happily

"A water bourne Pokemon, it won't be much use on a ground field like this"

"She'll be fine, Lapras Hydro Pump!"

Lapras summons a huge stream of water hitting Miltank square forcing it backwards

"Fine, Miltank Rollout!"

"Now lets see if it works" I whisper to myself

Miltank rolls itself into a ball, slipping slight on the now wet ground, it trundles forward in a ball bouncing slightly on the uneven ground created by Bayleef

"Lapras, Ice Beam! Straight ahead!"

Lapras fires off a huge light blue beam on the ground in front of it which Miltank eventually lands on, it it motion off rolling it is unable to stop itself rolling as Lapras dodges the attack, it speed gained cause it to continue to roll and slam into one of the rock shards left upturned on the field

"Great work Lapras!" I shout as Lapras continues to freeze the field using the now frozen floor to move around easily as Miltank pulls itself up with a grimace from hitting the rock

"So that was your plan all along?" Whitney questions

"Your greatest weapon is Miltank's Rollout, you use it to steamroller through teams, we had to make it a disadvantage"

"Nice idea, but you've now just made this essentially the field a ice rink where Miltank can endlessly use Rollout! Go Miltank!"

Miltank huff out before rolling up and starts its attack, it slams into Lapras who can't avoid the first one before beginning to ping pong around the field

"Lapras use Ice Beam to create walls of ice"

It breathes out the attack creating large walls of ice between the rock shards, Miltank begins bouncing off these and the walls of the stadium to create even more speed hitting Lapras a few more times who manages to position herself to just in front of me, the speed of Miltank is causing some steam to lift off up the ice

"Its over now Dustin, Lapras won't be able to take this next hit, Miltank straight down the middle!"

Miltank moves to the middle of the field bouncing off the back wall and down a sort of funnel created by Lapras

"Who said it would be Lapras!" I shout returning her and throwing out Sudowoodo who lands down looking determined

"Who cares who it is, Miltank with roll it away!"

"Sudowoodo get ready!"

"Sudo!"

Miltank races down the field and collides with Sudowoodo, it stands firm as Miltank rolls

"How is it doing that!" Whitney cries

"Its ability is Sturdy meaning it can take one hit it need to!"

"But its not at full health, Furret damaged it with Dig!"

"It didn't hit! Thats why Counter missed, Furret hit one of the rocks Sudowoodo left behind with Rock Slide we planned it to stand on one, if Dig had hit Counter would have hit, I used it to make sure Sudowoodo was at full health, so it can hit now! Sudowoodo Counter!"

Sudowoodo glows blue and cries out slamming both of it fists it the underneath of Miltank sending it flying backwards, it bounces along the ice and hits the back wall before slumping to the floor unable to go on

"Whitney's Miltank cannot continue, Sudowoodo is therefore the winner, the winner of the battle is Dustin!"

"You did it!" I shout before rushing out and grabbing Sudowoodo who is panting heavily

Whitney smiles returning Miltank and saunters up to me

"Congratulations, that's the first time in a very long time that a trainer had more than one Pokemon left standing when battling me"

"Thank you, we been planning it for a while"

"Question though, what about the Poison Powder?"

"Oh, well it was a contingency I guess, if Sudowoodo counter hadn't take Miltank out, Lapras could have come back onto the ice and dodge attack hopefully wearing Miltank out in the end"

She smile and nods approvingly

"I'm impressed young man, those are some high level tactics, I'll be keeping an eye on you"