CH83 (697), Sign Up

"Hello," I first greeted upon stepping up to the reception, which got me a "Good day, how may I help you?" from the lady behind the desk. "I'd like to sign up for a 2-star Gym Battle, please," I informed her while handing over my Trainer ID for the registration progress. "That's fine," the lady said as she was accepting my card.

"Just give a moment please," she added before turning to her computer. I saw her surprise when she took a closer look at my Trainer ID for details, though she did cover that up quite swiftly, maintaining a professional look while typing away on her keyboard.

"Alright, I can see that you already have registered for the Senior Circuit, so there's no problem with signing you up for a Gym Battle," she said before turning away from the screen and looking at me. "However, I can also see that the first Badge you've earned is a 3-star S-Rank Badge. Are you sure you want to challenge a Minor Gym for a B-Rank Badge, a 2-star one at that?" she inquired and I saw her eyes flit to the top of my head where Mothra/Butterfree was lounging before looking back into my eyes, and I could practically see those brown-green orbs screaming "Are you for real?".

It seemed that I was not the only one to notice her brief look since Mothra gave the receptionist a happy wave in greeting, which the lady acknowledged with a brief smile before focusing back on me. It was obvious from her brief look at Mothra that she had realized who I was, and that she was having difficulties understanding why someone with a team/Pokemon like that would come to their minor gym and try to register for a battle. I could feel her incredulity, which only briefly gave way to joy when Mothra greeted her before returning, and while I found the situation a bit amusing, I still went ahead and answered her question.

"Yes, I'm sure," I said with a nod. "I don't recall there being a rule that says that one can't go for a B-rank Badge after earning an S-rank one, or am I wrong?" I asked with a very slight tilt of my head. "No. No, there is no such rule," the lady conceded, but I could practically hear her inner voice screaming that that was not the point of her question

"Great, then I'd like to sign up for that 2-star challenge for the earliest possible date," I declared before deciding to add a bit of an explanation to clear things up a bit for the lady and the Gym Leader, who would no doubt hear about my arrival. "My silver-stage Pokemon are looking forward to experiencing what a Gym Battle is like," I added and I saw/felt her realization of why I had come to their Gym.

"That's thoughtful of you," she returned, not really feeling it when she said that. Well, at least she no longer seemed confused. Either way, she turned back to her screen after that comment and I waited as she began to do her work. "While you have a single Badge, it happens to be an S-rank Badge, so you are only eligible for a 4 Badge challenge or above," she informed me after turning to look at me.

"I'm fine with the 4 Badge challenge," I informed her, and she nodded before focusing back on her screen. "The 4 Badge Gym Battle is 3-vs-3, and you have to battle one Gym Trainer in a 2-vs-2 before you can face Gym Leader Home," she shared while she did whatever she was doing before falling silent. That silence continued for around a minute before the lady turned her focus to me once more.

"We have a free slot on Palkiday next week at 3 p.m., and another one on Dialday next week at 11 a.m. Those are the earliest available dates I could find," she notified me and I saw no reason to not go for the earliest one. "I'll sign up for the Palkiday slot," I declared and she nodded before briefly typing something. Her eyes were focused on the screen for a few moments before she turned back to me.

"Alright, I've signed you up for the Palkiday slot. Make sure to arrive at least 15 minutes early, and if you feel the need, you can find information on our Gym Leader on our Gym's online page," she declared before sharing some advice. "Thank you and I will make sure to do that," I returned with a smile and she nodded at my words.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" she inquired, which I denied before leaving the Gym, though I did so only after thanking her for the help/service she provided. Once I was outside, I found myself the closest public bench and took a seat before pulling out my phone. I followed the advice I got and went to the website of the Hardfort City Gym to look at the available information they had on Gym Leader Daniel as well as the Gym Trainers. 

The information I got on Daniel was pretty much the same as what I gathered beforehand. Daniel used Sableye, Banette, Dusclops, Shedinja, Froslass, Gengar, and Frillish interchangeably during 2-star Gym Battles. Among these 7 Pokemon, Froslass, Gengar, and Dusclops were at the (high) silver stage, while the other 4 were at the (mid) silver stage.

What did come in handy however was the information they had on their Gym Trainers. There were just four of them in total, and I was able to put together which Pokemon they used during 2-star challenges as well. I even managed to find out which Pokemon they used for 4 Gym Badge battles specifically.

Lola used a (low) silver Frillish and a (mid) silver Drifblim. Leonora used a (low) silver Misdreavus and a (mid) silver Banette. Marcello used a (low) silver Haunter and a (mid) silver Gourgeist, while Luciano used a (low) silver Lampent and a (mid) silver Dusclops. I was honestly a bit surprised that they did not change things up at all, but from what I found, all four of them truly used only these Pokemon during the last thirty or so 4 Badge 2-star challenges, so it was probably safe to assume that whoever I ended up facing would keep using those same Pokemon against me as well.

I made sure to take a good look at the profile picture before reciting which Pokemon they used to ensure I knew what I would face regardless of who showed up across from me on the battlefield. After that, I closed the tab and put my phone away before finding a deserted place to enter Utopia. I still had 4 days, discounting today, until my Gym Battle, and while I was going to use a few hours of one or two of those days to explore Hardfort City, I was planning to spend the rest of the time inside Utopia. 

Honestly, I might have skipped the tour completely, but I felt that it would be a bit of a waste if I simply left the city without taking a look around considering that I was already here. Besides, there might be some great food somewhere in the city and it would be a shame to miss it. I definitely had to take a look online to see if there were any famous restaurants in Hardfort City.

Anyway, I entered Utopia and spent the rest of the day with my Pokemon. The next day was spent entirely inside Utopia as well. We had breakfast followed by our morning training before I began our customary Grouday check-up. There were a few that were close to an advancement, but other than that I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Everyone was the picture of health and neither their condition nor health section showed any budding or existing physical or psychological problems, which I was thankful for.

After the check-up, we relaxed until lunch. We waited an additional 30 minutes after lunch before starting a second round of training that went on until it was time for dinner, which I returned to 6:30 for the duration of our stay in Hardfort City. I had everyone relax for another 30 minutes before doing a final training session, which was only 60 minutes long and ended around 8:40 p.m.

Once we were done training for the day I asked them what they wanted to do, and they somewhat hesitantly asked if we could start the second season of Lilo&Stitch. We had finished the first season during Hestia's celebration more than a week ago and had not had another movie night since then, so I agreed to their request. Still, unlike the first season which had 39 episodes, the second one only had 26 episodes, so I told them that we would only be watching 6 episodes today and the next few movie nights would only feature 5 episodes each.

After finishing up the sixth episode I tied up movie night, but since it was not that late yet I agreed to play a game for an hour and a half. We played "What am I thinking of", where one of my Pokemon chose either a commonly known Person, Pokemon, Move, or Item, told only me what they chose to prevent cheating, and then let the others guess what one had chosen by asking a question to narrow down the options. It was practically a more extensive "Who am I" game.

Anyway, we kept going until slightly past midnight, right until the 16th round ended, which was when I finally called for a stop since it had gotten quite late. Some wanted to continue, but I told them to go to bed, and after making sure that everyone had returned to their place, I went to sleep as well.

The following morning started off the new/fifth week, though that didn't change anything for us aside from the fact that we only had 4 days left until our Gym Battle including today. Breakfast was at 8:30 a.m., and morning training began at 9:30 a.m.  I supervised everyone as they trained for 2 hours before telling them that they could do whatever they wanted until lunch, which was in another 2 hours.

I decided to use that time to do some training of my own. I only stopped 15 minutes before 1:30 p.m. to prepare lunch. We began our second round of training at 2:30 p.m. as usual, and it was an hour into the session that the Houndour pair ran up to me full of excitement. It was not hard to guess why when the female Houndour was actively releasing (high) bronze stage undulations. 

She had advanced, which meant that she was finally ready to evolve. The blue male Houndour had long been at the (high) bronze stage, but he had agreed to wait for her to reach the same stage so that they could evolve together, which was why he had waited until now. Seeing their excitement, I could not help but smile.

"Alright I know what you want," I said as I patted their heads, which caused their tails to wag really quickly. "Let's head to your place," I declared before announcing their upcoming evolution over UtopiaFM. We then made our way to the Houndour/Houndoom territory, where the rest of their pack was already eagerly waiting for us.

They rushed up to the pair by my side in excitement as soon as they saw us and congratulated them in advance. The over-excited Houndour only gave us some space after Houndoom released a howl to order them to calm down a bit. Still, they looked at the pair with shining eyes, and seeing how we still had to wait for the others to arrive, I told the two Houndour to go ahead and hang out/play with the other Houndour for a bit if they wanted to, which they did.

It was roughly 20 minutes later that the final group of spectators arrived and as soon as they did, I called the Houndour pair over so that we could start. Since the two were reservists, I had naturally prepared for their evolution, so I brought out the external as well as internal supplements I made for them, and began to apply them to the two after Fortuna/Togekiss and I had wished them good luck.

Once I was done applying the external supplements and they had ingested the internal ones, I stepped back before giving them the go-ahead. Their evolution went pretty smoothly and once the light show was over everyone got to see a blue Houndoom along with a regular one. Since even the Houndour pups had better discipline than the Eevee Squad, no one rushed ahead of me as I made my way to the pair to congratulate them on their evolution.

They only rushed over after I was done hugging both Houndoom and while they were busy congratulating the duo, I checked out their status sheet. Aside from the obvious change to their species, the only other change was in their potential for both of them. The shiny male had his potential boosted from deep blue to light purple with slightly more than 30% to the next shade. The female had her light purple potential pushed to the limit, missing less than 2% for her potential to rise to purple. 

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