running a gym was a hell of a lot more work than he expected it to be like, okay yeah it was supposed to be work but arceus fucking christ it wasn't anything like he expected. construction was done fast for what he wanted and his arena or stage or whatever looked really fucking cool. but now it came down to the actual work behind it all. taking on challengers. as soon as the word got out that his gym was open he had a huge flood of people coming and asking for a chance to challenge it. like, immediately. they didn't even give him time to breath. but whatever, he could do this. it was going to be fine.

his first competitor was another gym leader apparently. one who hadn't been one for the longest time but still longer than him. maybe if he battled this dude then things would become a bit more clear on his end. after all the only experience he had with gyms or badges or whatever was doing Zac Ramsay 's contest thing. that had been a blast. John Sullivan was his first challenger and apparently he was already here. for the first time in a long time glitch actually felt a little bit on the nervous side. stepping down from his spot above the arena he gave a small wave.

"thanks! i worked hard to design it! you're john right?" after all that's who was supposed to show up today. "that's live algae in there! it makes the glow itself. neat huh?" he was proud of the fact that almost every part of his design came from the inspiration of the caves and fossils themselves. the mixture of biome and technology. something he couldn't thank zac enough for when he had challenged his gym. the whole experience had changed his outlook on a few things.

The young man turned towards the Gym Leader as he approached, grinning.

"It shows! I'm loving the atmosphere of this place!" Doug said, before nodding at Glitch's question and grinning, tipping his straw hat.

"Sure am! Name's John Sullivan- but m'friends call me Doug. Pleasured to meet'cha, Gym Leader Glitch." He said, holding out his hand.

He had read on what information was available on the Gym and its leader before the date for the match arrived. Not much he could discern on the person from the information other than their name- but that was the fun part of meeting new people.

"It is! Hope ya don't mind if I some notes! My Gym is still an ugly mess." He said, sticking his tongue out playfully at the memory of the small almost century-old base he had been granted to transform into gym installations.

Most of his nonexistent budget had gone just into cleaning up the place. It really could do with some spicing up.

Usually Doug kept his status as Gym Leader a secret- but there was no reason to do so with other Gym Leaders.

"So how we doing this, Glitch? Should I get up into stage, or is there a prior step?" He asked, rolling his throwing-arm like a pitcher warming up.

---

TAG: glitch maverick

oh, he guessed they were actually going to have to have a fight at some point, weren't they? that was what this guy was here for after all. "go ahead and take notes, i'll be excited to see what you do when i get around to challenging you." gym leader versus gym leader was sure to be at least a little bit fun. but he mostly just wanted to feel out the waters. if he ended up handing over a gym badge here he wasn't that worried about it. after all eventually everyone won at a gym if they tried hard enough. and John Sullivan looked like he was definitely a try hard.

stepping up onto his stage for the first time he juggled his two pokeballs. "we might as well get this show on the road!" he was excited to see what his challenger would throw out. after all, guests went first. "after you." with a grin he held a pokeball in each hand, waiting for his opponent to release a pokemon first.

"Thank ya kindly!" Doug said with a grin, slipping his hand into his jacket and producing a Net Ball.

He then stepped unto the stage as well, reeling his arm back-!

"Go, Ultra!" He said, net ball flying off his hand and releasing a Scizor onto the field in a flash of light.

The red hued bug tilted its head from one side, then another. Pops filled the air as it began to stretch, shifting its weight from one leg to another before throwing several warm-up jabs, its wings flapping behind it erratically. The trip had been a short one, but even that had been too much time cooped inside the ball for the excited Scizor.

Finally! A Gym Battle! A chance to test its mettle, after being passed over on previous challenges for so long!

"Don't get so excited ya lose focus, eh?" Doug called out to his pokemon, prompting it to look over its shoulder and nod confidently.

The youth tipped his hat, turning his gaze towards Glitch.

"Ready when ya are, Glitch!"

---

TAG: glitch maverick

a scizor was a formidable foe from John Sullivan whenever it came to battling. glitch wouldn't be able to let his guard down he knew that much. so choosing one of his pokeballs he sent out jerky, the dracozolt first. this would be a rough match up no matter which of his two pokemon he sent out. but he wasn't really worried. it was gym leader versus gym leader after all. meaning that he would have plenty of work to do in this fight.

"let's have a good clean fight, alright?" although he really didn't care one way or the other when it came down to it.

jerky roared being on the stage, the goofy ass looking fossil ready to put up a fight since it was finally out here to fight. it had been a long time since it had to battle and it was ready.

"hope you don't mind if i go ahead and get started! jerky, haul ass!"

the pokemon dashed forward, mouth crackling with electricity as it charged up its bolt beak attack. being the first one to move usually took the opponent off guard, especially since they didn't expect such a huge dinosaur to move so fucking fast. if worst came to worse there was hopefully some paralysis that could get going. if worse came to worse then dragon tail was always an option as well.

- jerky started the fight with bolt beak
jerky's moveset: dragon tail, charge, discharge, bolt beak, ancient power, dragon rush

"Wouldn't have it any other way!" Came Doug's cheerful reply, his smile quickly shifting to a curious 'o' as Glitch released his first pokemon onto the field.

'The heck is that?' Were the shared thoughts of both trainer and pokemon, Doug's and Scizor's heads both tilting ever so slightly as they stared at the... fossil(?) pokemon.

Had they smacked two different fossils together or something? Something didn't feel quite... right here.

"Haul a-? IT'S HAULING AWRIGHT!" Yelped the youth as the very bottom heavy dinosaur launched into motion, lightning crackling around its beak.

Unexpected was not even half of it.

Scizor himself was taken aback by the sudden dash, a single leg flying back as his arms came up in a boxer-esque stance, eyes wide open. There was no dodging this one after such delayed reactions!

"Counter!" Shouted the youth, the Scizor immediately letting his guard open as the lightning beak hammered into his chest, the bug planting his heels on the arena in order to grind the charge to a painful halt.

As lightning coursed through the Ultra's body, the pain empowered his counter, the steel bug releasing a compact, focused uppercut towards the dinosaurs' chin.

---

TAG: glitch maverick

oh the counter hurt, it hurt badly, but sometimes you just had to get hurt to get what you wanted done and that was all that could be done. glitch knew more than enough about that on a personal level. jerky staggered a little bit with the hit, shaking it off the best it could as it prepared for the next part of their attack. after all, counter required close contact and that meant they were directly touching as jerky let off a discharge attack in order to try and damage and paralyze the opponent. "you're good, i didn't see the counter coming. but i am still new at this i guess." it would take some time for him to actually be good at pokemon battling he guessed. but he had plenty of time.

- jerky used discharge as the scizor hit it to try and paralyze it
jerky's moveset: dragon tail, charge, discharge, bolt beak, ancient power, dragon rush

A shocking discharge traveled up the length of the Scizor's pincer, leaving trembling, spasming mess.

Doug clicked his tongue, knowing what paralysis looked like.

"Hit and run!" The youth ordered sharply, prompting the Scizor, to stomp the floor with one foot before somersaulting back, its foot swinging at the dragon's chin as it did before it landed away, its wings spreading wide and flapping as it took another leap back, putting some distance between them.

"Don't sell yerself too short, Glitch! The one who got paralyzed was Ultra." The youth said with a chuckle, tipping his hat. He only had a slight bit more experience than other man, but he decided to share it anyway. "The most important thing is to get the lesson o' the gym across to the challenger; winning and losing's ain't important to either leader or challenger!"

---

-Is hit by Discharge. Left Pincer is suffering of erratic movements, shocks and paralysis.

-Uses Quick attack to dish out a swing to Jerky's jaw before flying away. His Light Metal ability makes him rather agile; his second ability Technician powers up low power moves like Quick Attack!

TAG: glitch maverick

he was right, it wasn't about winning or losing. it was just about getting the message across. of course that didn't mean he wanted to lose here. he always wanted to win. one way or another. but he couldn't be a little cheating rat in his own gym battle. he had to try and do things fair and square. even if it was annoying as hell. the quick attack was annoying and glitch watched as his pokemon wobbled a little bit. they would need to do something about that. "shock it jerky. shock it good." anyone listening would think that he was talking about shocking the other pokemon but in truth that wasn't what was going on, electricity charged on his mouth and bit down hard on his own tail, the volt absorb ability restoring a bit of his health. he was his own little generator.

- jerky used bolt beak on himself to recover
jerky's moveset: dragon tail, charge, discharge, bolt beak, ancient power, dragon rush
John Sullivan

"Double team!" Ordered the youth in response, thinking another attack was coming their way.

The Scizor's form trembled and blurred, sparks moving over the surface of its metallic form, before it suddenly split into several copies... And then Jerky stabbed himself with his own lightning, triggering his volt absorb ability.

"... Surround him!" Doug ordered next. The lights running from the caverns ceiling shimmered as the clones moved about, the several Scizors springing forth and spreading over the battlefield, surprisingly fleet of foot as they ran around Jerky, moving rapidly over the field.

They moved from the ground level to the pillars and back, leaping to and fro, in front and behind the structures, intent on disorienting the dragon while looking for an opening.

---

-Scizor used Double Team.

TAG: glitch maverick

sometimes glitch was glad that his pokemon were stupid. this was one of those times. it was hard to confuse a pokemon that didn't really understand what was going on anyways. so the appearance of more opponents suddenly did nothing but fire jerky up. god he was such an idiot. "don't worry about which one is the real one, just get rid of them all." once more electricity crackled over the pokemon's scales. discharge was honestly an underrated move. it formed something of an electric fence around jerky, meaning if someone wanted to get close they'd have to go through the waves of electricity.

- jerky used discharge to create an electric field around itself.
jerky's moveset: dragon tail, charge, discharge, bolt beak, ancient power, dragon rush
John Sullivan

"Clever!" He said with a grin, a bead of sweat running down his cheek.

An electric fence... A good move!

But!

"Should've saved it till we made our move, though! It only works..." Doug said as he swung his fist down. "If ya fear the sting!"

The shadows of the room shimmered once again as all moving Scizors reeled back onto their haunches before exploding into motion, launching themselves towards the electrifying dragon with arms crossed over their chests, running straight onto the electrifying barrier.

The clones' forms trembled and shimmered as they ran through the barriers, arms crossed before them as electricity phased through them. One of them didn't however.

This one flew straight down from the ceiling into jerky at blurring speeds, Arms crossed over his chest as he attempted to slam through down into the dragon, teeth grit as it endured the lightning coursing through it.

---

-Scizor used X-scissor.

TAG: glitch maverick

it didn't matter if they didn't fear the sting and doug's dramatics honestly made glitch want to yawn. but he had to pretend to be impressed by it or whatever. he wasn't but he was good at pretending at least he wasn't bored. "it was just to get you close. dragon tail as he hits you jerky." of course they'd only have a few moments to pull it off and the hit from the scizor would probably be the last that jerky could handle. but at least the scizor would be out of the battle as well for now. between the electricity and the paralysis on the bug it probably wouldn't be able to stand much more. not with how hard they had been hitting him.

- jerky used dragon tail to try to force scizor out.
jerky's moveset: dragon tail, charge, discharge, bolt beak, ancient power, dragon rush
John Sullivan