Sunyshore City Pokémon Gym Leader: Volkner
The Shining, Shocking Star
The Sunyshore Gym is a three room Gym. Volkner is said to have designed it out of boredom. The main floor is made up of gigantic gears and clockwork suspending platforms operated by buttons. To get through, Trainers need to rotate the platforms in a correct order to create a path. To follow the path however, the player has to battle various Trainers in the Gym. The Gym has exposed dynamos that use up a large amount of electrical power, prompting the city to renovate the pathways into solar energy collectors.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
The Sunyshore Gym debuted in Flint Sparks the Fire!, where Ash and his friends arrived there to find a machine offering a free Gym Badge without a battle. Frustrated about this, Ash tried to break into the Gym, but the machine responded that it was not possible and declared Ash an intruder, picking him up with the intention of forcefully expelling him from the area. However, Flint came to the rescue and freed Ash. Afterwards, they went to find Volkner in the Sunyshore Tower, learning that he was not willing to continue his role as a Gym Leader anymore. However, after seeing Flint and Ash battle, he regained his enthusiasm and decided to battle Ash.
In The Fleeing Tower of Sunyshore!, Ash started a Gym battle with Volkner, but the match was suspended due to power outage caused by Team Rocket. The Gym, along with the tower, were seriously damaged by the following events, and Volkner promised to contact Ash when the Gym was rebuilt. Later, in The Eighth Wonder of the Sinnoh World!, Ash returned to the Sunyshore Gym to have a rematch with Volkner. After the battle, which ended in Ash's victory, Volkner awarded him with the Beacon Badge and promised to cheer him on in the Sinnoh League.
Volkner first received his Raichu as a Pikachu when he was young. He battled with Flint's Chimchar and lost. However, in their rematch, he defeated Chimchar with Iron Tail. Since then, Flint and Volkner became friends and rivals. Later, Pikachu was battling the Proprietor's Houndoom, when the latter he was a Pokémon poacher at the time. Houndoom dealt some damage to Chimchar and Pikachu, but Chimchar wasn't able to continue, leaving Pikachu to do it on his own. Volkner was very determined to battle the Proprietor. After a long battle, the Proprietor was defeated and became friends with Volkner and Flint.
Pikachu evolved into a Raichu sometime when Volkner was growing up and took the job as becoming the Gym Leader. Raichu was very strong as he defeated several Pokémon such as a Trainer's Weavile and Mothim over time. However, Volkner did not select Raichu in both of his matches against Ash.
During the rematch, Luxray first battled with Pikachu, and won after taking hits from several Iron Tails. Ash next used Infernape, which got badly injured during the battle. Due to this, its AbilityBlaze got activated. However, this time Infernape was able to control its Ability, and with the powers gained through it, the Flame Pokémon quickly defeated Luxray, serving the final blow with a devastating Flame Wheel, earning Ash the Beacon Badge. It was seen in a flashback in League Unleashed!.
Electivire was the first Pokémon which Volkner used during his rematch against Ash. Ash first used Torterra, but it was easily defeated. Next Ash chose to use Pikachu. With his Thunderbolt, Pikachu triggered Electivire's Ability, making it an even harder target to hit. However, when one of Electivire's punches connected with Pikachu, the Thunderbolt Pokémon was paralyzed by Pikachu's Static. After this, Pikachu was able to finish Electivire with a well-aimed Iron Tail.
Jolteon was the second Pokémon used by Volkner during his and Ash's rematch. Ash chose to use his Infernape, which soon defeated the Lightning Pokémon with a Mach Punch.
The Sunyshore Gym appeared in Encountering Elekid, where the manager of the Valley Windworks had arrived to investigate the source of the blackout that was bothering Sunyshore City. He quickly tracked the source of the problem down to the Sunyshore Gym, where Volkner, having become bored of the lack of good challengers, had spent his time renovating the Gym, causing its new systems to drain all the power in the city. The power plant manager was furious at Volkner for his selfish behavior, but his rant was interrupted by a phone call from Byron, asking Volkner to come help Platinum, Maylene, and Candice train at the Spring Path after their defeat by Jupiter of Team Galactic at Lake Acuity.
In the TCG
The following is a list of cards mentioning or featuring Sunyshore City Gym in the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
Pokémon in Sunyshore Gym Cards listed with a blue background are only legal to use in the current Expanded format. Cards listed with a green background are legal to use in both the current Standard and Expanded formats.
