Julian had no time to waste, evacuation of cities will take a month and he knows Team Magma and Aqua will not waste this opportunity to steal the orbs so he decided to challenge the gym today itself so he could reach Mt. Pyre to handle the situation.

Julian didn't like to play hero but when it depends on the life of several innocent humans and pokemons he had to take action to stop these delusional fools in their path. ​​

Seeing that all the gym leaders left Julian jumped down the rope bridge and arrived in front of the gym entrance.

His opponent will be Winona, she is a flying type specialist who excels in sky battle as well, Julian didn't know what kind of battle he is going to have, he cannot have a sky battle as he doesn't have a pokemon which can fly right now, Pidgeot would just one sweep the whole gym so he didn't use any of his old pokemons in gym battles.

He entrance of the gym had a statue of a Charizard and a Scarmory which was nothing unusual as this is a flying type gym.

Julian entered the gym to see small statues of many flying types pokemons, he also saw the statue of the three legendary birds with them, these statues were being cleaned by the steward of the gym he is a middle-aged man with a long beard.

The steward saw Julian entering and greeted him.

Steward "Welcome, are you perhaps a challenger?"

Julian "Yes"

Steward "Then you may go straight through this path and climb the tower to meet the gym leader, she will be waiting for you there.

Julian nodded and walked straight to the directing that the Steward indicated, as he kept walking Gengar came towards him and went into his shadows, Julian didn't mind and walked straight.

As he kept walking he left the inner building and saw a huge open space and right in the middle was a huge tower, it had stairs right in the middle that went up, wasting no time he walked up the stairs and in a few minutes reached the top, when he reached the top he noticed that there were two platforms that were elevated from the ground, he noticed a figure standing on top of the opposite platform.

She was wearing a light blue costume with white pants and gloves, she was also wearing a light blue helmet with wing-like protrusions coming out from the side, she is the gym leader of this gym, Winona.

Winona "Welcome challenger to my gym, you may take the stage by standing on the platform that is across me"

Julian walked towards the elevated platform and started to climb it, the platform was elevated high which was suitable for battling with flying pokemons, Julian didn't have a pokemon that could fly buy he has an idea of what he is going to do.

Winona "How many badges do you have?"

Julian "Five"

Winona "I see then, let me go through the rules, both of use will use four pokemons, you can switch between pokemons in the middle of the battle, the battle will end when one of us don't have any pokemon left"

Julian "Hmm"

Julian nodded his head and looks at Winona to see which pokemon she is going to choose.

Winona "As for my first pokemon, Swellow come out"

Julian "A Swellow huh? Then I choose Metang"

Julian sent out Metang, this is Metang's first official gym battle and he is very excited, he floats in the air and looks at his opponent.

Winona "Swellow use Air Slash"

Julian "Counter with Metal Claw"

The big air blade was sent towards Metang with full speed, it charged towards him as it separated the air between its trajectory, Metang extends his hand as it starts to glow brighter, suddenly three long claws appear made of steel energy, Metang slashes his claw at the incoming Air Slash and completely destroys it.

Julian "Metang, use Thunder Punch"

Metang puts his hands at the back and shoots towards Swellow with full speed.

Winona "Swellow quickly use Double Team"

As Metang was near Swellow he extended his right hand and suddenly his hold hand started to sparkle and a huge amount of electricity was generated from it, Metang swung his right hand towards Swellow with full force.

Suddenly Swellow used Double Team and created multiple copies of itself and escaped Metang's Thunder Punch.

Winona "Swellow use Brave Bird"

Swellow sores up in the sky and once it reached the perfect height it dived down towards Metang with full speed, its body started to get covered by blue energy that looked like flames.

Julian "Metang, use Hyper Beam"

Metang started to charge up energy in front of his horn, Julian thought Metang Hyper Beam recently so he didn't know how to bring out its full power but it is still as strong as a normal Hyper Beam, maybe a litter stronger than normal.

As Swellow was just a few meters away from Metang he shot the Hyper Beam which collided with Swellow.

Metang definitely had the advantage here as he was using a Special Attack and Swellow was using a Physical Attack, Swellow would receive damage no matter what by Metang will be safe.

The collision was huge, shockwave blew away the small stones and dust everywhere making the whole battlefield dusty.

The Brave Bird and Hyper Beam canceled each other but Swellow was suffering from the backlash of using Brave Bird, it flinched and lost its balance in mid-air and allowed time for Metang's energy to recover.

Julian "Let's finish this, use Gravity"

Metang extends his hand and suddenly the magnetic field of the surrounding changes and Swellow suddenly gets pulled to the ground due to the Gravity suddenly increasing.

Julian "Thunder Punch"

Metang charges towards the pinned Swellow and swings his arm covered with high voltage electricity, Swellow takes a direct hit and is sent crashing and rolling on the ground, it faints after taking that direct hit.

Winona "Impressive, I have never battled such a tough opponent"

Julian "Thankyou"

Winona "You got the first win, it won't be so easy this time"

Julian "We will see"

Winona "You seem too confident"

Julian "Well I was born that way"

Winona "And Cocky as well"

Julian "Thanks for the compliment"

Winona "Hmph! enough chitchat lets continue, go Pelipper"

Julian "Metang return, you did great"