AG085

Sky High Gym Battle! (Japanese: ヒワマキジム！大空の戦い！！ Gym! Battle in the Sky!!) is the 85th episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 359th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on July 15, 2004, and in the United States on July 9, 2005.
==Blurb==
Ash begins his Gym battle with Winona by sending out Grovyle against her Altaria. Grovyle takes out Altaria with Leaf Blade. Next up is Pelipper, a Water-and-Flying-type so Ash counters with the Electric-type Pikachu. Pelipper uses Steel Wing on the ground, and Pikachu uses Thunderbolt with no effect. Team Rocket arrives to steal Pikachu, but the force of Pikachu's continued Thunderbolt sends them blasting off.
It turns out that Pelipper is being grounded by its Steel Wing, making the Electric-type attack ineffective. Pelipper uses Hydro Pump, which Pikachu uses as a conduit to shock the other Pokémon. It results in a double KO.
Ash sends out Grovyle again, which is then finished off by Winona's Swellow. Ash counters with his own Swellow. Winona's Pokémon has the advantage since it has more experience battling in mid-air, especially with its Aerial Ace. After taking several hits, Ash has his Swellow use Wing Attack on the ground, which gives his Swellow a chance to counterattack, knocking out Swellow and winning him the Feather Badge.
==Plot==
Winona, the Fortree City Gym Leader, and take their places on opposing elevated platforms above the battlefield. Before the commences, Winona prays to the wind, asking for strength. takes his position as referee and explains the rules of the match; a three-on-three battle and only the challenger can make substitutions. Winona calls out her , while Ash chooses . Watching from the sidelines, examines Altaria on her Pokédex and warns that Altaria are part , making for a dangerous opponent. Altaria begins the battle with a that Grovyle counters with . The jumps out of the way but gets Pecked afterward. Winona commands Altaria to Peck Grovyle again, but Ash has Grovyle dodge it by climbing up a totem pole and doing a backflip. Altaria lands a direct hit with its , but Grovyle doesn't seem too affected by it. Winona again commands Altaria to use the same attack, but Ash gets Grovyle to jump out of the way. Winona is mildly concerned about Grovyle's as it continues to evade Altaria's Dragon Breath. Grovyle attacks with Bullet Seed again and hits Altaria on the back, with no ill effect. Altaria resorts to ascending even higher, but despite the increased altitude, Grovyle rebounds off a pole and slashes Altaria with a . Grovyle holds the attack, pushing the pair directly into the battlefield. When the dust has settled, Altaria lies unconscious so Grovyle is declares the winner of the round. Ash's friends are impressed, that despite the type disadvantage, he managed to pull through. Winona also admits that she was caught off guard by Ash's strategy.
Winona recalls Altaria and sends out . Ash decides to switch out Grovyle and selects . On the sidelines, Max points out that Pelipper is a hybrid type and Brock adds that Pikachu's typing gives him the advantage. Pikachu starts off with a , but the attack is proving ineffective as Pelipper grounds itself with . The electrical charge instead flows into the subterranean area of the Fortree Gym and electrocutes , who is wandering the tunnels aimlessly in search of Pikachu. The trio is subsequently blasted onto the battlefield, and they plot to catch Pikachu while he's distracted by the battle. The trio recites their and rush towards Pikachu. However, the divining rods they're holding again become lightning rods when Pikachu attacks. Jessie, however, is thrilled to see the rods led them directly to a treasure, Pikachu that is, as she and her teammates are sent blasting off into the distance. Pikachu is keeping up his Thunderbolt, but Pelipper remains unaffected. After Pelipper strikes Pikachu with , Brock comes to understand Winona's grounding tactic. Ash changes his strategy and orders Pikachu to use Quick Attack. Pelipper is still grounded and Winona commands it to use . The force of the attack causes Pelipper to de-ground itself and Ash sees a chance to use a attack on Pelipper. Both are knocked out. 
Winona informs Ash that the day's perfect conditions have heightened the power of her Flying Pokémon before summoning her , an Pokémon, as her final Pokémon, while Ash chooses Grovyle again. Ash commands Grovyle to use Leaf Blade, though Swellow is seemingly unscathed by the swipe. Swellow is ordered to use , a move unfamiliar to Ash. Ash uses the jump-and-Leaf-Blade combo again as a counter move, but Swellow dodges it. Instead, Swellow lands its mark and carries Grovyle into the sky before tossing it directly into the battlefield to win the round. 
Ash chooses his own to battle. Winona is impressed by Ash's bold choice, so the two elevate their battle platforms to incredible heights for a real sky battle. The increased altitude brings a new challenge to match; unpredictable wind currents. Ash tells his Swellow to use and Brock thinks that this is a bad idea. Winona's Swellow strikes first, causing Ash's Swellow to lose control of its flying as it begins to descend towards the field below. Winona orders her Swellow to repeatedly Peck Ash's Swellow. She proceeds to call for a , which Ash's Swellow dodges. However, she orders this attack a second time and it lands a direct hit. Ash tells Swellow to counter with but Winona's Swellow is faster, allowing it to dodge and counter it with Aerial Ace. The battle becomes an aerial chase between the two Swallow Pokémon. Ash gets some inspiration when he sees the dust being stirred on the ground by Swellow's rapidly changing direction in mid-air close to the ground. As Winona orders another Hyper Beam, Ash orders Swellow to use Quick Attack and rush towards the ground. Winona calls for Swellow to use Aerial Ace while Ash commands his Swellow to use Wing Attack on the ground, whipping up a dust cloud that reveals where Winona's Swellow is coming from. This allows Ash's Swellow to launch a direct hit with another Wing Attack, knocking its opponent out. With that, Zachary officially calls the match and declares Ash as the winner. Winona presents the to Ash against a beautiful sunset background, admitting that the battle truly showcased the trust between Ash and his Pokémon.
==Major events==
* has his Gym battle with Winona and wins, earning the .
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
* Winona's Altaria
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Max
* Jessie
* James
* Winona
* 
===Pokémon===
Pokémon Trainer's Choice: 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (Winona's)
* (Winona's; )
==Trivia==
* This was the last episode to air before M07 debuted in Japanese theaters.
* Due to Megumi Hayashibara's maternity leave, Akiko Hiramatsu takes over the voice of Jessie, a change that will last for the next eight episodes. Hayashibara's other role, Brock's Mudkip, is taken over by Natsuki Yoshihara.
* All of the choices in the Pokémon Trainer's Choice segment would be correct, as is weak to , , , and , which are the featured types of the segment. could be considered to be the best choice since it would be unaffected by Baltoy's attacks.
* Music from Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias is used in this episode.
===Errors===
* When is facing off against , tells Grovyle to "jump and use dodge", rather than to "jump and dodge".
** Similarly, Ash tells to "use and after that use dive", rather than "use Quick Attack and dive".
* During the second round of the battle, uses as a ground to render 's attack ineffective. In the real world, electricity is only dangerous when the target is grounded and not the other way round. This is a consistent error about electricity in the Pokémon universe. also describes the technique as protecting Pelipper "like a lightning rod". Lightning rods act by diverting electricity into the rod and away from a building, not by acting as a ground for the building.
* When Pikachu falls down after getting hit by Pelipper's Quick Attack, part of his tail is missing.
* When Ash goes to pick up Pikachu, his platform is still raised in the background.
* When Winona sends out her , sparkles do not come out of Swellow's .
* In the scene where Winona's Swellow dodges 's , Grovyle appears to have a fang.
* In the scene right before Ash's Swellow hits the ground with , the white aura covering its wings disappears for a split-second.
* In the Hindi MarvelHQ dub, Brock incorrectly claims that Wing Attack causes some damage to the user if used against a Pokémon.
AG085 error 2.png|Pikachu's tail error
AG085 error.png|Grovyle's erroneous fang
===Dub edits===
* In the original Japanese version, says that he had said "dowsing machine", not "dancing machine". In the English dub, Meowth says that he had said the trio will dance to the treasure, not to the disco.
====Pokémon Trainer's Choice====
* Question: Trainers, which one of these Pokémon is the best choice to battle Baltoy?
* Choices: Lapras, , Ledian
* Answer: OK, Trainers! If you chose Lapras, you were right!
==In other languages==
085
Category:Episodes written by Masashi Sogo
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Hiroaki Shimura
Category:Episodes directed by Norihiko Nagahama
Category:Episodes animated by Yumenosuke Tokuda
Category:Episodes focusing on Ash
Category:Episodes in which Ash gets a Badge
Category:Episodes with Gym battles
Category:Episodes in which an alternately colored Pokémon appears
de:Kampf um den sechsten Orden
es:EP361
fr:AG085
it:RZ085
ja:AG編第85話
zh:宝可梦 超世代 第85集