The Violet City Gym sat on the opposite side of the city from Sprout Tower, the city's iconic landmark. The two were in completely different directions, so it took the group a while to make their way over.
By the time they arrived, the Gym was already closed for the day. So they ended up heading to a nearby Pokémon Center to rest for the night and challenge the Gym in the morning.
"I just checked online. The Violet City Gym does allow one-on-one battles. The current Gym Leader, Falkner, isn't the original. He inherited the post from his father and uses his father's Pokémon. So his training level probably isn't quite up to his father's."
Brock was at one of the Pokémon Center's computers, browsing through the Gym's records. The records showed that the previous Gym Leader had stepped down and gone traveling, and the current Gym Leader was a young man in his twenties named Falkner.
Falkner's Trainer skills weren't on his father's level. The strongest Pokémon in his hand was only Elite-tier, roughly comparable to a fresh-but-developed Trainer like Misty. So while Falkner's overall skill was above the average rookie's, Serena wasn't without a path to victory. It came down to what level of Pokémon Falkner would put on the field, and how much Serena had absorbed from Ash so far.
"That guy looks so much worse than Dad! If he hadn't inherited his father's Pokémon, he wouldn't even qualify as a Gym Trainer. Why is someone like that even chosen as a challenger? Pointless."
Max said it dismissively after reviewing the records. When it came to Pokémon information, he'd long since mastered the basics. Trainers at Falkner's level simply didn't compare to his father. Choosing people like that as opponents wouldn't help Max improve at all.
"Max!"
May's tone went cold, and Max actually flinched.
Don't be fooled by May's usual gentleness. When she got genuinely angry, she was more frightening than any parent. They said an older sister was like a second mother, and May usually treated her brother well, which was part of why Max had grown up so sheltered.
May could let plenty of things slide and gently reason with him. But Max's words just now had crossed into insulting another Trainer's character and dignity. The usual gentleness was gone.
"No matter how much you admire Dad, and no matter how strong you think you'll be one day, none of that gives you the right to insult other Trainers. You're not even a Trainer yourself yet. What right do you have to look down on other Gym Trainers? I know you're upset because of Dad's defeat. Does that mean you get to feel better by putting someone else down?"
"Besides, Falkner is only twenty. He's just starting out as a Trainer. Inheriting his father's responsibility, he's going to work even harder for that role going forward. Sooner or later he'll grow into a true Gym Leader in his own right."
May's cold words left Max unable to lift his head. He realized he'd been wrong. His father's defeat had bled out as resentment toward another Gym Trainer, and that wasn't acceptable. Lucky for him, Falkner wasn't actually here. Otherwise Max would have been bowing in apology by now.
Ash, who'd been about to say something to Max, gave a small smile when he heard May and swallowed the words back. With an older sister like that, even with Max's slightly arrogant streak, he'd find his way in the right direction eventually. Besides, it was perfectly normal for a kid around ten to have a touch of brattiness in him.
With Pokémon and training, Max wasn't particularly vicious. In other areas, though, he could clearly be a handful. It was only his love for Pokémon that kept the mischief in check. Otherwise, he'd be a genuine troublemaker.
"All right. Now that we know what we're working with for the Violet Gym Leader, let's put together a battle plan." Ash clapped his hands and pulled everyone's attention back.
"A battle plan? Is that, is that really necessary? I only have one Pokémon right now." Serena pointed at herself, a slightly embarrassed smile on her face.
By Ash's count, Serena had been traveling for nearly two months. In the same span, he'd caught several Pokémon. Serena hadn't caught a single one. Almost two months on the road and still only one Pokémon was practically unheard of for a normal Trainer.
"One-on-one matches are exactly the kind that get decided by tactics. If we want to make sure you can come away from your first Gym match with a win, Serena, the strategy matters."
The strategy was, in essence, that if they'd ended up fighting today on the spot, the plan would have been to let Serena experience defeat for the first time and gather information about the opponent in the process. Since they'd happened not to fight today, and since they'd managed to dig up the Violet Gym Leader's info online overnight, the new plan was to aim for victory and design a tactic around it.
Serena blinked. So her original purpose, in their minds, was to lose? That seemed a little brutal.
The next morning at ten o'clock, a large group filed up to the front of the Violet City Gym. The staff at the entrance, expecting one or two challengers at most, almost thought a gang had come to wreck the place when they saw the size of the party. Fortunately, May's face was familiar enough in Violet City that one of the staff recognized her. After a brief exchange, the group was waved through.
The Violet City Gym was a tall tower, with the battle arena on the top floor. The group took the elevator up and stepped inside.
When they reached the top floor, the scene that greeted them was startling. The Violet City Gym arena was not only enormous, it was completely open to the sky. Up to now, Ash had challenged plenty of Gyms, most of them indoors. A Gym arena with no roof at all was a first for him. Seeing a real Gym battlefield for the first time, Serena couldn't help but let her small mouth fall open, taken aback by the scale of the place.
"Welcome to the Violet City Gym. I'm Falkner, the Gym Leader. Are you the one here to challenge the Gym, Ash?" Falkner's gaze fixed on Ash the moment they met.
Though this was their first time meeting in person, he'd seen countless posts about Ash online, and combined with the staff downstairs giving him a heads-up, recognizing Ash was no trouble.
As for why he assumed Ash was the challenger, well, of course he was hoping Ash was. Battling powerful Trainers was something every Trainer dreamed of. With six people coming up together, Falkner only really knew that Ash was the one Trainer of note in the group.
"No. The one challenging the Violet Gym isn't me. It's my friend." Ash stepped aside to let Serena come forward. "She's still a novice. Only has one Pokémon, and she's been on the road about two months. Please go easy on her, Gym Leader Falkner."
Falkner's eyes ran over Serena from head to foot. There wasn't much disappointment in them. Although her aura did read as a newer Trainer, Falkner could sense something faintly threatening underneath it.
"All right. By the lowest standard, then. We'll battle at that tier. But as I always say, even if you clear the rookie threshold and get the Violet Badge, you should be mentally prepared for what comes after.
For one thing, the more Badges you collect, the harder each Gym Leader is. For another, no one will go easy on you at the Silver Conference."
It was something Ash had already anticipated. Even though Serena only had one Pokémon, the Violet Gym Leader would still have a way to make it a real fight, the same way the lower-level Gyms had worked when Ash had challenged them at the start of his own journey.
A Gym Leader had to adjust to the challenger's tier. There was no risk of Falkner sending out something massively above her level. But even with both sides fielding Pokémon at roughly the same tier, strategy, command, and battle reading could still differ enormously.
Falkner had only recently become a Gym Leader, sure, but that didn't mean his Trainer skills were ordinary. He had an Elite-tier Pokémon in his hand, which already put him a step above someone like Serena.
If both sides fielded Pokémon at the same level, Falkner would still have the edge.
"Both Trainers, please take the battle arena. Spectators, please move toward the back and avoid standing too close to the field, to avoid getting caught in the aftermath of the battle. The match will begin shortly."
The referee in the center of the field directed Ash's group and the watching Gym students back, leaving Serena and Falkner facing each other. Once both sides had retreated to a safe distance, the referee waved his flag.
"All right. Go, Noctowl!" Falkner threw out his Poké Ball.
A grey-brown Pokémon with a cat-like face and an owl's body appeared on the field.
"Noctowl. An Owl Pokémon, the evolved form of Hoothoot. Possesses unique eyes that allow it to see clearly in even faint light. Extremely intelligent. Can rotate its head 180 degrees to activate its brain cells."
Serena pulled out her Pokédex, which she hadn't used in a while, and checked Falkner's Noctowl's profile. Until now, with Ash beside her, any unfamiliar Pokémon or piece of knowledge she lacked had been something Ash could explain on the spot. This battle was hers, though. Ash had done everything he could the previous night. The rest was up to her.
"It really is a Noctowl. If Ash is right, then I should be able to seize the initiative from the very first move. Go, Braixen!"
Serena murmured the first half of that to herself, then shouted the second half clearly.
Light flashed across the arena, and a fox-like Pokémon with long, fluffy yellow fur and a long fluffy yellow tail appeared on the field. Serena's first Pokémon, and her only Pokémon, Braixen.
"I've never seen this Pokémon before. Not from Kanto or Johto, is it?" Falkner's eyes ran across Braixen with a flicker of surprise. He was familiar with the Pokémon native to Kanto and Johto, but he'd never even heard of this one, which meant Serena's starter had to be from a fairly distant region.
"Yes. This is one of the starter trio of the Kalos region. My first Pokémon. Braixen, Flamethrower!"
Serena didn't bother with formalities. She moved straight to the attack.
The decisiveness of the command startled Falkner. Was that something a novice Trainer should be able to pull off? A bit too decisive.
Braixen didn't hesitate either. The fox took a deep breath, then exhaled a stream of scorching flame, the fire shaping into a long, straight line that shot toward Noctowl in the air.
If the directness of Serena's command was the first thing that shocked Falkner, the speed at which the flame moved was the second.
"That speed. How is that possible? High level? Noctowl, dodge!"
Falkner's voice rang out, but it was already too late. The flame moved at extreme speed and caught Noctowl square in mid-air, lighting the owl up like a roast bird for an instant. In the next moment, Noctowl emerged from the flames, ruffled and singed, but not seriously hurt.
Noctowl was only at Mid level, one tiers below Braixen, but that gap wasn't huge enough that a direct hit from a type-effective attack would knock it out at this rookie matchup tier. Even so, the opening salvo had already put Falkner on the back foot.
"I didn't expect that. In under two months you've raised a High-level Pokémon. Looks like another rising star. Don't think you'll get the Violet Badge this easily, though. Noctowl, Air Cutter!"
Falkner returned fire after the compliment. Above the field, Noctowl flapped its wings sharply, and a dozen blades of compressed air tore through the space, slicing down toward Braixen on the ground.
Faced with the dense barrage, Serena showed no panic, only sharp focus.
"It's exactly like Ash said." She murmured it to herself, then called out the next order. "Braixen, Fire Spin! Defensive!"
Braixen spun in place, wrapping herself in a swirling vortex of flame to weather the storm of blades.