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Steelix would once again be slapped in the face with his own tail, the motion feeling similar to a slap on the wrist, but with insult to the injury in it being his own tail that was the slapee. This is probably where some people's pokemon would fly into a rage and use a move without being told to do so, and the likelihood of Steelix doing so was amplified by the intensity of his Mega Evolution, but Steelix was a pro. He'd been in the majority of Jasmine's fights, and knew how to control itself and its emotions, even in the heat of battle.

Fortunately, Jasmine was of a like mind and asked him to do the exact thing he wanted so to do. "Oh, dear. It seems that direct attacks will not work against this foe, Steelix. A shame, but I feel that ranged combat is the best strategy here. Please, use Rock Slide this time."

Smirking malevolently, the Steelix would slam against the ground, triggering a trap in the ceiling that would drop multiple rocks that Steelix could use Rock-type energy to control, forcing each of them to drop on Poe's head. Should the Sableye try to dodge, the Steelix would focus his energy to have the rocks follow him, as if they were homing missiles. That's not to say Sableye was doomed to be hit, however, as the move was still somewhat slow. The chance to dodge would be amplified when Steelix, despite his deep focus, was suddenly hit with an odd bout of dizziness which would send the rocks every which way. The dizziness would fade as soon as it came, but by then, the attack was done.

Jasmine gasped when Sableye's health recovered, but the reason for her gasping was because she had no trouble seeing it - the Sandstorm that Mega Steelix whipped up against Sub's Malamar had finally faded. Jasmine could already feel Steelix's desire to bring it back, but she refused. "No. We can't keep using Sandstorm like a crutch. We have to finish this using our own power. Give it a taste of what took down its friend, Steelix. Use Dragon Breath.

Steelix roared, and inhaled deeply before exhaling a fog of Dragon-type energy.

Steelix did the best it could to avoid the waves of dark energy, wiggling its massive body this way or that, as if trying to execute a serpentine evasive maneuver. But it couldn't avoid getting hit entirely, and with the damage it had taken up to this point, he didn't have enough energy left to keep going and wound up fainting, it's Mega-Evolved form fading away as it lost the last of its strength.

Jasmine recalled Steelix and made her way down from the battle arena, walking around it to get to Sub. "Thank you for that battle. It was quite fun!" Jasmine smiled. "Here, to celebrate your victory, please take this Mineral Badge." Jasmine would hold up a Mineral Badge in her hand for Sub to take.

At one point from Sub's departure of the Olivine City Gym to the Mahogany Gym, Pryce would receive a call from one of the gym leaders ahead of time. In his usual stoic nature, nothing came to him as a surprise, not even the so called contender that was about to challenge his gym soon. "Yes...yes...I know. I was told about him by Blizzard."

"....."

"According to him? No, he didn't. He lost. Sub's apparently the leader for a reason, though I am told that the battle between them was rather close. Really, according to Blizzard, beating him was the reason why Sub was taking this excursion in the first place. Though, Blizzard thinks its just for his own ego instead of any self improvement."

"....."

"I suppose we'll see when he gets here." He said. With a few more words, the wisened gym leader hangs up the phone on his desk in his gym office then turns around in the chair to look out to the icy courtyard at the back of the gym through his window. He then looks over towards a close by shelf, looking past the various achievements, awards, knick-knacks, and so on, only to look on a picture of himself and his apprentice when he was still human, and next to it another one of himself and his apprentice, only the apprentice was the Articuno hybrid all would know with a date...seems to be taken a short while before Team Snagem was thought of to fight against the rangers. "To take you out, he surely must be formidable, ego or not." Pryce said as if his apprentice was still there with him. "I believe some planning must be done..."

Pryce would leave his office and began making preparations for the time Sub would arrive.

Pryce would be on the battlefield, alongside a Dewgong of his. He looks towards the entrance to the battlefield...though unlike Sub, the senior was dressed in his more casual wear instead of his more outdoorsy, more formal wear of a overcoat and scarf. In this case, it was a striped T-shirt, shorts, and sandals. "...you must be Sub." Pryce said, standing up for the moment. "...um. Not...what I expected. Are you daft? It's summer. Why are you wearing that?"

"I've expected as such. Return, Dewgong. I'll see you later this evening." He said, recalling the Dewgong back to his Pokeball. "The rules are simple. I believe you know them well enough already. Three on three battle. Simple as that." Pryce said to him, making his way over towards the gym leader position of the battlefield. "Victory achieved by party wipe or surrender. Clear?"

This was going to be a long battle, the veteran gym leader thought to himself. Its only been two minutes and already this has reached levels of weird he hasn't seen in years, and he had the feeling this was only the start of it. "Very well then." Pryce said, looking on at what he had to contend with. A Gardevoir. While he was very well familiar with this Pokemon thanks to his apprentice being known to have a couple in his possession, this caught him a little at surprise, due to being told that Sub did favor Dark types. That said, he was also told that he was like his apprentice that he didn't limit himself to them when it came to it. This must be such an occasion.

The old man pulls out a Pokeball and tosses it out on the field. "Froslass, come on out!" Pryce calls out. The Pokeball lands on the icy field and from a burst of light comes a Froslass. Unlike his apprentices, this one was considerably more composed, not giving out any sort of ghastly cackling wail upon exiting, but instead a bit of a twirl, being as lofty and graceful as a winter's wind.

"Froslass, Hail!" Pryce commands.

"Laasss!" The ghost calls out. Winds started to kick up in the gym, and amongst all logic, a hailstorm started to bombard the field.

If Sub thought it was already justified to dress for winter early, he hadn't seen the worst of it yet. Despite it, however, Sub actually fell for a little trap. "Froslass, Psych Up." The Froslass gave a icy, piercing gaze towards the psychic Pokemon, a blue light overcoming the icy Pokemon then settled into the Pokemon and enhancing its special capabilities.

"Laaaaasssss..." The Pokemon spoke up.