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Veilstone City Pokémon Gym Leader: Maylene
The Barefoot, Fighting Genius!
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
The Veilstone Gym is a dojo comprised of several smaller rooms intersected with mobile walls. Trainers wait in the tiny cubicles. To get to Maylene, the walls must be shifted in and out of the cubicles so that the empty spaces in the walls line up with each other and a path is clear. Maylene's students are four Black Belt brothers who call themselves the "Karate Quads" and insist they fight "for LOVE!" "for COURAGE!" "for HOPE!" and "for TEARS!"
Pokémon Platinum
In Pokémon Platinum, the player must push around punching bags in order to knock over piles of tires that are blocking the path. The Karate Quads await the player in roped-off boxing arenas.
The plaques behind Maylene, from left to right, read:
The Veilstone Gym first appeared in Lost Leader Strategy!, where it was revealed that Paul had recently challenged Maylene and easily beaten her, shaking Maylene's confidence and making her consider giving up her job as a Gym Leader. Having recently lost two Contests in a row, Dawn sympathized with her, and, to everyone's surprise, decided to challenge Maylene herself in order to restore her self-confidence.
The battle between Dawn and Maylene occurred in Crossing the Battle Line!. Although Dawn gave it her best in her first ever Gym battle, she ended up losing. Despite this, she was happy to see Maylene regaining her self-confidence and being ready to challenge Ash the next day.
In A Triple Fighting Chance!, Ash finally had his Gym battle with Maylene. During the battle, a part of the roof was blown off, allowing Ash's Buizel to utilize its Swift Swim Ability when it started to rain. Using this in combination with its newly learned Water Pulse, Buizel fought hard against Maylene's last Pokémon, Lucario, but in the end, the battle ended in a draw. Despite the tie, Maylene still chose to award Ash with the Cobble Badge.
Meditite first appeared in a flashback in Lost Leader Strategy! where it was used in Maylene's battle against Paul. As Maylene was out of sync with Meditite, it was easily defeated by Honchkrow.
Its first full appearance was during Maylene's Gym battle against Dawn in Crossing the Battle Line!. Unlike the battle against Paul, in this battle Meditite was used to its full potential, being able to defeat Buneary before being knocked out by Ambipom's Double Hit.
It was next used in the Gym battle against Ash, where it was able to confuse both Staravia and Chimchar but was unable to defeat them. It eventually fell to Staravia's newly learned Brave Bird.
Machoke first appeared in Lost Leader Strategy! during the flashback of Maylene's Gym battle against Paul. It was called upon second to battle Honchkrow but it was quickly knocked out by Sky Attack. It was not used during the Gym battle against Dawn.
It was the first Pokémon used by Maylene during her Gym battle against Ash, where it put up a strong defense against his Staravia despite the type disadvantage. Despite this however Machoke was still defeated by the Starling Pokémon's combination of Quick Attack and Aerial Ace.
Lucario first appeared alongside Maylene training during Lost Leader Strategy! where it was unhappy with Maylene due to her depression from losing against Paul and, as a result, their bond was extremely strained. However, after defeating Dawn's Ambipom and Piplup, Lucario and Maylene were soon back in sync with each other which helped it to defeat Staravia and Chimchar and force Ash's Buizel to a draw during the Gym battle against Ash.
