Sunyshore City

The past few days have been dangerous for wild pokemon and random trainers alike. Sunyshore should be accessible by now, the only city in Sinnoh that I have not visited. My pokemon have grown stronger. Inanna, Khali, Enki, Nanabozho, Apsu, Ninhursag, Ryujin, Hanuman, Nyx, Phlogeus, Sekhmet, and Cai Shen are all level 40 now. I enter the gatehouse. One man there notes that the gym leader could be described as "shockingly electric." If he intends to use only electric types, I'll crush him. Another man notes that the gym leader is bored because there haven't been any worthwhile challengers in a while. This is new, but like I said, I'm ready.

As soon as I enter Sunyshore City, a trainer spots me and approaches. This one doesn't want to battle right now, though...

"Your pokemon are secure inside their poke balls, but there's no masking that aura of serious toughness!"

I'm flattered. And you are...

"Oops, sorry, I should introduce myself. The name's Flint! I'm one of the Pokemon League's Elite Four!"

Elite Four? This sounds like something I'm going to have to deal with later. Do I have to face them all at the same time?

"I just had this idea. Maybe you can pull it off. It's about this town's gym leader."

I'm not going to refrain from defeating him and taking his badge, if that's what you want.

"He's really lost his enthusiasm lately because there've been so few good challengers worth his time. He's been so bored he spends all his time renovating the gym. And then the blackout happened. That sure didn't help his mood. You know where I'm going with this, don't you?"

Actually, no.

"I need you to give him a battle that's so hot, it will reignite his passion for battling. I'm counting on you, hotshot!"

Well, that's really up to him now, isn't it? But Flint leaves. Well, if he wants this gym leader to have a challenge for once, that's what I was already planning on doing in the first place, with the minor caveat that I completely trounce him. That still counts as being a "hot" battle, right? For him, at least. But first, I want to check out this new city.

The roads here are strange. I find out from a local that this is because all of the roads are solar panels. It seems like that would be expensive and impractical. I barge into a house in my usual fashion. Everyone living here is obsessed with some underground thing. Enough of this. I barge into another house and the woman there wants me to tell her stories. I'm out of here. There's a market that doesn't seem to have anything interesting. I also find a local woman who informs me that in addition to being a major port, Sunyshore is the gateway to the Pokemon League. I don't really know what that means. I'm sure I'll find out.

I find a small beach where I meet a gym leader named Jasmine. She's from somewhere called "Johto" so I can't challenge her for a gym badge. She also tells me that if I don't have the gym badge, I'll be forced to turn back. Earlier in my adventure, I would have ignored her and continued past her, but I she's probably right and I want that badge anyway. Time to check out the gym.

Flint is standing outside the gym. He says that the gym leader hasn't come back yet. Ugh. The sign says that the guy's name is "Volkner." I'll try asking around. This same nonsense happened to me in Hearthome City. I search the city. This time, it doesn't take long. Volkner was in the lighthouse. I confront him...

"So, you're the latest challenger up against the Sunhshore Gym. All right, I've decided! If I find you to be weak, I'm going to challenge the Pokemon League. I'm done with renovating the gym, so I don't need to be here. More than anything, I want to have battles that can thrill me again. As the toughest gym leader in Sinnoh, I'm going to unleash everything in my arsenal on you."

He's allegedly "shocking" and "electric." The only sure pick for my team to beat Volkner is Ryujin. I keep Poseidon, even though he'll be useless, because I want to train him and I'm really not even worried about having a full team at this point. Maybe I'm underestimating Volkner, but I doubt it. I also take Inanna, Phlogeus, Ninhursag, and Cai Shen. Flint is still hanging around outside the gym. For the third time, Flint instructs me to give Volkner a battle so hot that it reignites his passion for battling. Flint is repetitive.

Like all gyms, this one has stupid puzzles that I must navigate to progress, along with puny trainers for me to crush along the way. My first opponent uses a Pachirisu that is higher in level than any of my team (I left Articuno in storage). Phlogeus puts up a fight, but Pachirisu does too much damage with super fang and gets my horse confused, so I switch to Ryujin. Pachirisu's discharge is harmless against Ryujin, but then my opponent uses sweet kiss and super fang again. It's proving to be a devastating combination. I may have to rethink this. I switch to Ninhursag. Pachirisu uses an attack called last resort and nearly finishes Ninhursag, but she manages to afflict the squirrel with leech seed. I switch to Inanna and let leech seed finish the job. No need to do anything stupid here: I return to the Poke Center and heal my team, then rush back to the gym.

The next trainer that ambushes me in the gym uses only a Luxio. Phlogeus gets hurt as I switch him in, but manages to hit back with a big fire blast. Luxio uses crunch. I switch to Ninhursag and finish the battle with petal dance. I heal Phlogeus and proceed through the stupid puzzles. The next trainer uses only Mr. Mime. I switch Phlogeus in again. Mr. Mime uses energy ball, which Phlogeus shrugs off. My opponent chooses energy ball a second time and Phlogeus wrecks Mr. Mime with fireblasts. Thunder wave and thunderbolt do more damage. I switch to Cai Shen and try to finish Mr. Mime using confuse ray, but Mr. Mime's flash causes Cai Shen to miss. Energy ball does even less to Cai Shen than it did to Phlogeus, so I get a second chance, ultimately defeating Mr. Mime with gyro ball after missing a few more times.

I heal my team again. The next trainer is dressed as Pikachu. Amazingly enough, she uses Pikachu. And Pikachu. And Pikachu. And Pikachu. All four of them go down in one hit from Ryujin's dig attack. My next opponent uses only one pokemon again. Raichu. One critical hit from a thunderbolt takes Phlogeus out. I retaliate with a digging Ryujin, then head back and heal my team yet again. I'll admit it: this gym is harder than the others. Nothing I can't handle, though. My next opponent uses Kadabra. Phlogeus hits Kadabra several times with fire spin and fire blast, but Kadabra is able to recover away the damage and damage Phlogeus. I switch to Cai Shen. It's a good thing I trained until all of my pokemon (almost) became level 40, because everything I'm facing is above level 40. Cai Shen wins this one unscathed, although it takes a while. For the first time, a trainer in this gym has two different species of pokemon. I switch to Ryujin as she switches to Raichu. We both have our pokemon use dig, amusingly. This works for me because my pokemon is slower.

Phlogeus evolves into Rapidash. The people at the daycare probably kept him from evolving somehow. Unlike the rest of my team, Phlogeus reached level 40 at the daycare, not through my training.

The next trainer leads with Luxio. I switch to Ninhursag and have her use leech seed. Ninhursag is paralyzed by a thunder fang. I switch to Inanna and a crunch lands a critical hit. Inanna puts Luxio to sleep with sing. Now she's free to set up minimize. Leech seed will take care of the rest for me. Luxio does wake up and even hits with both crunch and thunder fang, but Inanna throws an egg bomb, knocking Luxio out. My opponent's other pokemon is apparently Bibarel. Once Inanna puts it to sleep, I switch Ninhursag in and win with petal dance.

There seems to be one last trainer standing between me and Volkner. He leads with Steelix. I switch to Phlogeus. Fire blast misses twice and Steelix keeps screeching at Phlogeus. After fire blast finally hits, a fire spin finishes Steelix. Medicham is up next, and I switch to Ninhursag. This trainer keeps having his Medicham use detect every other turn, so I have Ninhursag leech seed and then repeatedly attempt petal dance until it starts working. Medicham doesn't last long.

I make it to Volkner and switch so that I'm leading with Ninhursag, just in case he really is that tough. Here we go...

"All right, challenger. It's not often, but some trainers manage to come and challenge me. But they've all been boring battles. I didn't break a sweat beating them."

I keep hearing about this.

"I'm Volkner, the gym leader. They say I'm the top gym leader in Sinnoh, but..."

But what?

"Anyway, I guess we'd better get this done. I hope you're the trainer who'll make me remember how fun it is to battle."

Volkner leads with a level 46 Raichu. Brick break damages Ninhursag and she sets up one layer of toxic spikes. The next exchange is identical. Then Raichu uses charge beam and Ninhursag leech seeds. Ninhursag starts petal dancing and is paralyzed by Raichu's ability. Raichu keeps using brick break. Ninhursag is badly hurt, but Raichu is down. Volkner's next pokemon is a monkey called Ambipom with two tails. It's level 47. I have Cai Shen use confuse ray, but Ambipom baton passes right away, and Cai Shen is suddenly facing a level 49 Luxray. Cai Shen's extrasensory isn't particularly devastating, but confuse ray and the toxic spikes help to weaken Luxray. Cai Shen is nearly brought down by charge beams by the time Luxray succumbs to poison. Ambipom comes back out and starts using nasty plot. Phlogeus fire blasts the monkey and is about to finish it with take down, but Volkner uses a full restore. I forgot that he could do that. Phlogeus is about to finish Ambipom yet again, but a critical hit from shock wave knocks Phlogeus out. That was patently unfair to poor Phlogeus. I bring Ryujin in and have him use dragon rage to take the monkey out permanently, but Volkner has Ambipom baton pass. All those nasty plots and agilities are now enhancing this water-type. I didn't plan for a water-type. Ryujin was here to take down electric pokemon. Octillary takes Ryujin out with aurora beam. I switch to Inanna and have her use minimize. Octillary can't score a hit and the poison from toxic spikes finishes it off. Volkner exclaims, "Here it comes. Get ready for my trump card!" I have Inanna use egg bomb. Ambipom withstands the egg bomb and uses agility twice, but goes down after the second egg bomb. And that's it. I win.

Volkner stops his silly oh-I'm-so-depressed-because-no-one-can-give-me-a-decent-challenge attitude and congratulates me on earning all of the gym badges in Sinnoh. He seems to think that I am ready to take on the Pokemon League. But first, I'll need waterfall to get there. I go back to the beach. Jasmine sees me and runs up to me. She gives me the HM for waterfall. Problem solved. I guess I'm off to the Pokemon League.

There is one thing that bothers me, though. Every other gym I've been to, Slave had already been to and become certified. But this time, he was nowhere to be found. I don't think Slave would lose to Volkner. He's had plenty of time to beat me to Sunyshore City if that was what he wanted to do. The last time I saw him was on Mount Coronet. So what's that kid up to?