This would be the start of my second league journey attempt on T-Flare, as when I first joined T-Flare, the gyms were nearly about to expire, as it were. I had only reached the fourth gym leader before the overhaul. Once again, the gym battles had to be done in order, so the normal gym was the first one up. D2theM was the gym leader but during a brief absence, Lina was the substitute gym leader. It was really generous of her to do this, seeing as how everyone will have to challenge this gym first.
To keep track of my progress, I decided to make a specialized intro screen for the gym battles. Okay, so it's not really all that original, but at least it distinguished itself slightly from other battles.
I distinctly recall heading to a party later that evening but I can't remember if I actually compiled the intro right after the battle, or the day after the party.
Anyway, the battle begins. I had a feeling that Ambipom would be the lead Pokemon, but I had somehow forgotten its lead role. Fake Out flinches Metagross, and Taunt stops Stealth Rock. A very basic idea, but I had somehow overlooked it. There wasn't much I could do about the flinching, but I should have used an attack on the second turn. Keep that in mind.
Ambipom uses U-Turn to get away from Metagross' attack. Lina may have anticipated Explosion, or maybe she just needed a bulky Pokemon. Either way, Spiritomb takes the Earthquake, which happened to be a critical hit.
Earthquake is used again, and Spiritomb goes ahead and tries to burn Metagross, but the mechanical beast is able to eat a berry to cure it. Not sure how that works, though. Another Earthquake faints the Spiritomb, and Lina is now down to two wildcards. The effects of Taunt have also worn off.
Ambipom returns for a repeat performance, with Fake Out and Taunt. Metagross decided to attack this time, though, and makes a mark on Ambipom. Knowing that Ambipom would try to U-Turn out again, Metagross decides to make the first move and Bullet Punch to inflict more damage, although an extra 2 HP of damage wouldn't hurt (well, except to Ambipom).
Flygon, Lina's second wildcard, is next to appear. I was fearing an Earthquake from Flygon, but rather than trying to outpredict what Flygon would do, I decided to just go for a Bullet Punch. If my guess was correct, Flygon was holding the ever popular Choice Scarf, which would make the prediction much more easier after the move had been performed.
Metagross fainted, which also meant that I had no way of laying down hazards. It's okay, though, I thought. It's not like I was facing the Bug, Fire, Flying or Ice gym at the time, anyway. I brought in Salamence, knowing that I would be able use Dragon Dance without having to worry about being hit by Earthquake. Lina, though, switched out to Porygon2 which promptly traces Salamence's Intimidate and uses it, meaning that DD will really just boost Salamence's speed.
Knowing that Ice Beam was coming, I probably should have switched it out for Scizor, who could take the hit, but instead, I just decide to use Dragon Claw. Porygon2 is extremely bulky, and still survives with more than half of its HP remaining. Salamence's training in Snowpoint Temple didn't really help nullify the weakness to Ice, and it falls.
I bring out my Lucario a little earlier than I wanted to. I wanted to save the Fighting STAB for when all of the wildcards were defeated, but Porygon2 would still be a threat to my Gyarados if it decided to switch in again later, Scizor was meant to be a bulkier backup to Lucario, and Latias was being held back to attack Flygon later on.
Lucario used Close Combat right away, and takes out the first evolved form of the Pokemon in that infamous episode. The score is now tied, with Lina having the advantage of choosing a check or counter for Lucario.
Flygon appears again, and I do recall thinking a lot about what to do this turn. I mean, I know Flygon has Earthquake, and that would be such an obvious move. What if Flygon decided to use Fire Blast or Dragon Claw or Outrage? What if it had U-Turn? I had to take a chance and hope that Gyarados could assist, with its Intimidate and resistance/immunity to Fire, Bug, and Ground attacks.
Gyarados enters the fray and Intimidates Flygon into using an Earthquake which misses the flying serpentine fish. Flygon retreats, and once again, Ambipom takes the stage, smiling with its 2 HP, while Gyarados takes the time to boost its Attack and Speed.
As anticipated, the two hands appear again and cause a flinch. I was ready to attack Ambipom. Even though it had 2 HP left, I don't know why I decided to choose Gyarados' STAB move instead of Return. I know I had actually took some time wondering what Lina's last wildcard would be, but I still picked the predicted Waterfall as the move. As predicted, though, Lina would not be using U-Turn since Ambipom appeared slower than Gyarados now (but in actuality, it wasn't), and it was manually switched out... for Suicune. Suicune takes the +1 Waterfall like a legendary beast.
Since it was likely that Suicune knew Calm Mind, I decided to stop that move from happening for a few turns. Gyarados Taunts just in time. However, looking back, I probably should have used Return. I mean, on the next turn, Return brings Suicune down to the yellow, so imagine what could have happened if I were able to use TWO Returns. Or better yet, three, had I done that instead of Waterfall. The Hidden Power of Suicune will put a stop to the theorymon, though.
Lucario comes in and uses Extremespeed to KO Suicune. I probably could have used Close Combat just in case Lina decided to switch out, but I wasn't entirely sure of Suicune's speed in heat of the battle. So, it appears that I have the advantage of knowing that even if Lucario were to fall, I would still have Latias to take care of Flygon, and Scizor to take care of the remaining Normal types. It was looking good.
Flygon appears again. I was thinking that Lina might be thinking that I would switch out to another Pokemon to avoid the Earthquake that she was trying to use so many times, so she probably wouldn't be using Earthquake this turn. Maybe something like Outrage. So, I decided to just stay in and use Close Combat, but alas, Lina was probably predicting that I would predict that she wouldn't use Earthquake, and thus used Earthquake. The "A critical hit!" message may have more meaning than doing a lot of damage to a Pokemon. I probably should have commanded Lucario to do some damage with Extremespeed. That way, if Lucario falls, it would make Flygon easier to deal with later on, and if Lucario survives, that could mean that the move wasn't super effective and Flygon would have switched out (assuming it did less than 50%) to a Normal type, which would be promptly hit by Close Combat on the switch in. Ah, hindsight. But like I said before, even if Lucario were to fall, the other Pokemon could pick up the slack.
Latias comes in, and in the interest of Flygon's survival, Lina brings out a special wall, Clefable. The Dragon Pulse hits for some damage, and Clefable gets a burn from the Flame Orb. I wasn't really sure what that was supposed to accomplish at that moment. Perhaps it was a defensive measure to protect against Sleep, Freeze, or Paralysis hax.
Latias probably wouldn't like to take an Ice Beam, so Scizor is switched in to take it. However, instead of taking the bone-chillingness of a concentrated focused beam of low kelvinness, Scizor took a sphere with half of the heat of a sun a few kilometers away... the Flame Orb. Losing the Choice Band meant that the attacks were weaker, and being burned also didn't help much. At least Superpower hit for super effective damage, and the critical hit really helped. I'm guessing Lina kept Clefable in so that it could Trick back the Choice Band to Scizor, but it really didn't matter now.
Okay, so all Lina has left is her Flygon and her Ambipom. I have Scizor and Latias. Easy win, I thought. Flygon returns, and predicting that Flygon would use Earthquake again, I hastily made the switch to Latias. I guess I kind of forgot that Scizor is slower and has U-Turn available, thanks to losing its Choice Band. And that oversight, which I will remember the most out of all the battling gaffes I have done to the present day for years to come, was punished by an Outrage hitting Latias. Had Scizor U-Turned, it could have taken the Outrage, switched with my Scarf Latias, and given the once-uber dragon free reign over Flygon. Ambipom would have used Fake Out, but Latias would have survived and Dragon Pulsed my way to victory.
But, instead, a burned Scizor is all I have left. I would ask Scizor to make a comeback, but it may have thought that it was going to come back to its Pokeball, and make it confused since it was the last Pokemon. After a series of Bullet Punches, Flygon is handily defeated. Of course, there was still the matter of Lina still having Ambipom left, so the battle wasn't over, and burn damage had to be calculated. And, still living in a Pokeball was an Ambipom laughing away with its 2 HP which Metagross should have taken care of had it used an attack instead of attempting Stealth Rock.
What was my weakness in this battle? Being too hasty? Not being able to adapt to new situations caused by items? In any case, I would not have a chance to rematch Lina for a gym battle any time soon, and D2theM would be returning later that week, bringing in a different dynamic.
