This was indeed the same Gym where the current Hoenn Region Champion used to do all of his battles as a Gym Leader. The inside of the Sootopolis City Gym was truly very luxurious.
If it hadn't been for Juan's leading them himself, Ash and his party would never have believed that this place that looked like a literla luxurious palace was actually the Sootopolis City Gym.
"Welcome back, my good sir." When they arrived at the door, Juan's butler, Sebastian, greeted him very politely and warmly.
Juan immediately introduced them to his very long time butler and friend, "Sebastian, you know who Ash is, right? We have seen him many times on TV before, but now the real Ash that we always talk about is here. This time he came to challenge our Gym, and these are his friends, May, Brock, and Max."
"Hello everyone, welcome to our humble abode." The old butler bowed slightly in a manner of showing his respect towards them, "Let me introduce myself properly. My name is Sebastian, and I work as the head butler of my master and the official referee for the Sootopolis City Gym. It is truly my honor to meet you, Young Master Ash."
"Young Master Ash, to be honest, we, especially my master, have been waiting for you for a long time now. My master said that you will definitely come to challenge the Sootopolis City Gym as your last one, and he was spot on once again." Sebastian's very amiable look made everyone feel warm towards him, despite just getting to know his name.
"Yes, I am also looking forward to battling against Mr. Juan!" Ash replied with a small smile, enjoying being called Young Master for once again.
"Then everyone, please come inside and enjoy the show."
Since this was the location of a very famous Water-type Gym, the battle venue here was also of course of the highest quality a water venue could get for being an all indoor arena. This was also the most professional water venue Ash will ever battle in so far. There are also som positions for Trainers all around the area in the form of diving platforms, especially the front and the back sides.
"This battlefield looks like a high quality indoor swimming pool, like the nature based one I saw back in that amusement park as a child." May followed her boyfriend to many places and thus has seen many Gym battlefields, but the venue of each of the Gym gave her a sense of freshness and shock, even the basic looking one she was used to seeing in her own fathers Gym back in Petalburg City.
Ash and Juan stood on the Trainer platform respectively, and his battle for the Sootopolis Gym Badge, the Rain Badge, begans immediately.
"Then now, we will hold a grand Gym Battle between Gym Leader Juan of the Sootopolis City Gym and the challenger Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town. The number of Pokémon used by each is five. Please select two Pokémon first and battle in a doubles match in the first round, then the rest is set back to the standard rules!"
"After the first round of battle, the remaining Pokémon's are permitted to enter the second round! The second round and onwards will be a one-on-one battle. When one of the Pokémon's on both sides loses the ability to fight, the battle will be considered over!" Sebastian said that all with too much experience and announced the challenge rules for the Sootopolis City Gym.
In other words, Ash needs to have a double match with Juan first, and then the regular one-on-one battles.
There are five Pokémon that can be used in total, which was pretty very close to a full six-on-six battle, like those very important ones.
This will be a tough battle for the Pokémon's that Ash chose for this Gym Challenge.
But as his last Gym Battle in the Hoenn Region, Ash felt like that it was just what he wanted and more, more fun for him and his buddies.
"Someone who aims to become the Hoenn Region Ever Grande Conference Champion must be as flexible as water, if not more, able to change its shape and react correctly no matter what kind of vessel it encounters. Ash, although I personally have not seen your real power in real battles, Steven was full of praise for you, saying that you're someone on his level and all that! Now I want to see just how much right he was! Let's see what kind of fight you can put up against me and my beloved family!"
Juan's fighting spirit was burning hot, ironic as he was a MASSIVE Water-type specialist; this just goes to show just how much he wanted to have a good fight with Ash, "Then let's begin our battle, let's remember this day well! Go, Walrein! Go, Seaking!"
In this kind of water field, the battle with fish type Pokémon's such as his Seaking was more advantageous towards him by a long shot, but Ash still prefers to use his own Water-type Pokémon's that can move freely on land. As he knows that he can count on their strengths and abilities.
When Ash was traveling in the Johto Region, he also participated in something called the Seaking fishing competition and saw some very huge Seakings there.
Though that did not make them Alphas, not by a long shot, it just meant that they were bigger by a large margin.
Alphas refer to bigger Pokémon's yes, but also the true apex of that specific species, or even the whole area.
The one that Juan sent was can only be said to be quite average in size, maybe a little bigger than the average ones, but it's momentum was amazing, more than any other Seakings he had seen before.
Although that really doesn't say that much.
As for the Walrein smiling happily next to it, Ash had already seen one of the two Walreins belonging to the Hoenn Region Elite Four memeber Glacia, but in comparison, Ash still believed that this was was still a step above.
This one had more experience and was one of the few main Pokémon's of someone like Juan.
Even so, depending on a Pokémon's Trainer, the focus of that Pokémon's training will be different, very in some cases, and the strength displayed will also be very different and will look different as well.
This was one of the most interesting parts of becoming a Pokémon Trainer, knowing what direction to train one's Pokémon's towards.
One wrong turn and everything they worked hard towards will be for not, all irrelevant and useless.
Ash didn't hesitate at all and threw out two of his Poké Balls, "Stand by for some crab rave, Kingler, Crawdaunt!"
The combination of his two crab Pokémon's finally showed their pliers to the world.
In the Hoenn Region, Ash had caught a total of four Water-type Pokémon's. Since he decided to fight water against water, and previously learned that five Pokémon would be used in this battle, he went to the Pokémon Center to exchange them on the way to the Gym like he had originally planned.
So one he heard that the first round was going to be a double battle, he didn't think twice and sent them out without any hesitations at all.
"Sis, it's that Kingler again!" Max quickly held May's arm next to him with excitement. Although thos was not first time seeing Kingler, it was the one that had left him with the most impression.
Previously, while they were still traveling on the mainland, Ash teleported his Kingler over to him for some one-on-one training and he saw just how strong it truly was.
He instantly defeated all of May's and Brock's Pokémon's, his Lombre and Forretress at that time, without wasting a single second.
Though he instantly apologized for not holding back his strength enough, he was simply too adorable for them not to forgive, though most of it was still because of embarrassment of loosing to it so quickly without being able to land so much as a single scratch.
Ash's Kingler was simply very powerful for its species and now was no longer the tiny little quy he was before, now being around 1.7 meters—much bigger than the average.
Although Ash's Kingler was still some way shorter than the one Gary had, when it came down to strength, Gary's one didn't even last 2 seconds.
"Oh? I didn't expect you would send out two Water-type Pokémon's like this, despite you telling me about this beforehand!" Juan couldn't help but be stunned in his place for a few seconds. These two Pokémon have something in common, and he knew what they were as he also had these two Pokémon's in team, though a noticeably less taller and less muscled up like them.
If Ash can use it properly to its full potential, once they combine, they will definitely be able to exert some heavy hardcore power.
It was really worth looking forward for him.
Thinking of this, Juan took the lead in launching the attack, "Walrein, use Blizzard!"
And sure enough, it is an Ice-type attack, its primarytype. A well trained Walrein's Ice-type attacks were all very terrifying, that much was obvious from looking at its giant body.
Ash had already learned how to deal with it from Glacia, although just some basics and not that deep.
But Ash was even more proficient in Blizzard, that much he could say because of his Dratini back then constantly needing to train this to better become more resilient towards Ice-type attacks, "Use Crabhammer!"
This is a singular order, but both of his crab soldiers took full action immediately.
These two were two of the most inseparable Pokémon's in the backyard of Professor Oaks Laboratory and they have been training together for some time now. The tacit understanding between them now was very scary to say the least, no need for even any eye contact.
Their two huge pliers shone with a bright white light and a little blue and hit the water at the same time and right next to each other. The terrifying force was not as simple as one having another one added onto it.
The water stored several meters deep in the water field was smashed under the force of their combined attack, exposing a large amount of water on both sides to make them be clearly able to see the bottom of the pool. The water flow stirred up tall waves, which were pretty much instantly frozen into a huge ice wall under the power of a Blizzard released by that same thiccc Walrein.
May and Max on the side were already trembling by the cold and closed their eyes, but when they opened their eyes and saw the giant ice wall on all sides, their hair stood on end. This scene was really something truly amazing for them, who had seen battles between Legendary Pokémon's that could quite literally destroy the whole region if they were to be left unchecked.
However, the ice wall was also something that was even harder to do in a Pokémon Contest, Juan's move could have definitely deducted a lot of points from Ash's if they were in a Pokémon Contest.
"It's not over yet until I say so!" Ash clenched his fist tightly, and his two crabs nodded and moved at the same time. Both stepped forward onto the ice wall. Once again, they used their Crabhammer attack and smash the entire ice wall with terrifying force.
It was beautiful…
Countless huge pieces of clear and hard ice smashed towards Walrein and Seaking under the terrifying force of that last move.
"Seaking, use your destructive Hyper Beam! Walrein, you use the Ice Ball!"
However, in the face of such a crisis, Juan still managed to regain most of his composure after only a brief period of shock. However, this was not enough to make him panic.
Seaking's destructive Hyper Beam instantly destroyed away all the large shards of ice in front of them, heading straight towards Crawdaunt.
Walrein's Ice Ball also hit Kingler at the same time.
In a doubles battle, it was very unwise for two Pokémon's to use a very destructive and powerful move like Hyper Beam at the same time.
Why?
Because they will become very stiff for some moment, and that would basically make them an easy target.
A move like Ice Ball was different tho, it was like another different move, Roll Out, they both become more powerful with each successive hits in a row.
"Avoid it! Destroy their attacks with your own Hyper Beams!" However, at this time, Ash let his two Pokémon's divide their forces for the first time in this battle.
Crawdaunt was facing a powerful and destructive incoming Hyper Beam and dodged from the place where it would hit in a flash, like it was never there. Kingler on the other hand completely ignored the first Ice Ball and raised its large pincers, then suddenly shot out a deep orange-red beam of light energy from its core pincers!
"BOOM!"
Seaking's attack was destroyed while it was still going on in the air, exploding high splashes of water around Kingler, but Kingler still remained motionless, and the same destructive Hyper Beam was launched without any fear, blasting straight towards Walrein!
"Walrein, use Protect!"
Juan still remained his cool and calm self, and set up a protective barrier to block Kingler's own destructive Hyper Beam.
However, the next second, he suddenly noticed the small smile on the corner of Ash's lips, and quickly looked at his Seaking on the other side, who had just recovered from the stiffness that caused by using a powerful move like Hyper Beam.
However, it was simply too late now to issue a warning to it.
"Razor Shell!" Ash raised his hand and slammed it hard in the air m.
His Crawdaunt who had just sneaked under the water suddenly burst out next to Seaking, and the huge force of the water blade slashed at Seaking's body, sending it flying away.
"Great, it hit it!" Max was the first to cheer up.
This offensive and defensive battle just now was looking simply too exciting for his young brain. He was so nervous that he didn't dare to relax at all, despite him not even being a part of the battle. It was really hard to imagine from his perspective just how Ash and Juan could still stay so calm and composed in a tense battle like this.