Firebug Gym

[Professor Ironwood]

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Firebug Gym : Conflagration Badge
Gym Leader: Lei Mingxia : Trainer Cloaked in Cinders
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A forested square has been constructed specifically to house the Firebug City Gym, an enormous building in its own right. A stone path leads through the square to the front steps of the building, flanked by huge stone pillars ending in constantly burning braziers as the tree cover thins out. There is a large circle of cobbles surrounding the gym, and it seems to be snowing at all seasons - a look at the Gym itself quickly explains that, however. A large smokestack emerges from the guts of the building, pouring ashes skyward and letting them drift quietly back down to earth. The air is thick with smoke even here, and the ground often has a heady coating of ash on it.

The building itself is made of lacquered wood and stone, red with green highlights - fireburst motifs decorate the available surfaces while bug imagery hints at the gym leader within. The doors are large but relatively easy to push open; those who do are quickly treated to a blast of hot air. The inside of the Gym is like a sauna if you removed the humidity, just pure heat.

The building is all stone inside, and it's relatively easy to see why once your eyes adjust. There is only one room within the gym, spherical in nature, and built around an enormous furnace, presumably connected to the smokestack you saw as you approached. The fires within provide the room with surprisingly soft lighting, shadows flickering in the furthest reaches where the firelight can't quite reach.

The walls are covered in papers - each one an individual poem, some classical and well known, others bearing Xiaming's own signature.

The Firebug Leader is renowned for her split typing, which would not be particularly surprising to anyone who knew the name of her city of residence. She trains Fire types and Bug types in equal measure, and favours a straightforward, powerful style of combat. The gym she had constructed for herself betrays her sense of theatrics; she favours bombastic plays and powerful, dramatic moves over more subtle techniques. Challenging her will test a trainer's endurance.

Defeating Lei Xiaming will earn a trainer the Conflagration Badge, a ruby fireburst shot through with green filaments. The Conflagration badge will allow trainers to teach their Pokemon the move Rock Smash, and represents the first half of the North-Western Circuit, leaving only [city name]. However, in order to reach the last segment of this circuit, trainers will need some method to traverse the water - either money to pay for a ferry, free passage from completing the South-Western Circuit, or the ability to use Surf or Fly.

In addition to the badge, trainers will receive HM 0x, Rock Smash, as well as £1200.