All the Way to the Top

The final altercation has seemingly escaped us again, because after storming Rose Tower, battling all of the henchmen, and defeating Chairman Rose's aide in battle at the top of the skyscraper, Chairman Rose just let Leon go.  He didn't even monologue at us or anything.

Like, come on Sword/Shield. I know that the emphasis is the gym challenge this time around and you do a great job with that,  but you can't keep shoving the story back into the closet like this: we are at the end of the game and we only know that there is *something* going on with dynamax and that Chairman Rose is at the center of it and TWOHEROSDARKESTDAYSWORDPOKEMONENERGYCRISISDYNAMAXDARKESTDAY.
____________
The final test to see who should get the right to face off against Leon involves battling the gymleaders again in a tournament. However, against expectations, Bede arrived on the battle pitch to challenge me to a fight. Given his uniform and his new title as "Gymleader Bede", he seems to be doing well for himself now.

He unleashed an all out Fairy-typed assault on me. I was glad to have brought Mme.Trunks to overpower him with Sheer Force.

My first official finals battle was against Nessa and her water types. She told me that I would never battle the Champion because she would defeat me on the spot. Ultimately, her Golisopod, Barraskewda, Seaking,  Pelipper, and G-Drednaw were no match for Cheeto's power and Trash's ruthlessness.

My second match was against Allister the ghost trainer. I lead with Chirpy to scout and U Turn. His Dusknoir was tough, but Snorkle took care of it handily. Following this, I had Drednaw Dynamax in order to gain momentum against his next pokemon: polteageist and Chandelure. I came out of it with a burned turtle, but a clear lead.  His next pokemon was Cursola and his final was G-Gengar. Cheeto was able to barely hold on against Max Ooze in order to lower Gengar's speed with Drum Beating enough so that Trash would easily stall and then outrun it with Obstruct and then Night Slash.

The final match would be against Rihain again. I look forward to regaining my pride after our last match. I placed Cheeto in my second slot next to Chirpy just in case we would be doing another Doubles match.

This concern was for nothing as he battled me one-on-one. Against his Turtle Torkoal, I used my own, Snorkle. This ended up being the wrong choice as he uncorked a one-turn solarbeam on me. Trash was able to clean him out for me, but now I was fighting from a deficit.

I guess this one is going to be another tight match.

His Turtonator was playing coy with Shell trap, so I took a turn to revive Snorkle and send him back in. I dynamaxed him on a whim and used Max Rock to deal damage and to boost my own special defenses as a rock type in the sandstorm. Turtonator used sunny day, so I reset the weather the next turn with another Max Rockfall.

I have one Dynamax turn left and it is against Goodra. If I go for the sure Ice type  KO with Max Hailstorm, then the sandstorm will be replaced with hailing weather, but if I use Max Darkness, the KO isn't assured...I decide to play it safe and use the rock move...

Which turns out to be the wrong choice as Goodra uses Rain dance anyways. Snorkle shrinks back down to normal size and nets a KO with Ice Fang. Now I'm back ahead again. Plus, all in all, Rain would benefit me as well. Rain will at least boost the damage of my move Liquidation.

Which is SIMILARLY moot because his Flygon uses Sandstorm the next turn. WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!

His last pokemon is Duraludon. There is no way that I am going to take it out before it boosts up with Dynamax moves, so my goal here is to lower its speed enough with Cheeto's Drum Beating so that Bewear could KO with Hammer Arm.

The strategy plays out without a hitch.