Justy: The Phenac City Gym Leader With No Badge to Give

A Gym Leader with no Badge to give. Justy runs the Prestige Precept Center in Phenac City, in the Orre region, and holds a title nobody else holds: PreGymLeader. His hall works like a Gym and his challenge protocol looks like a League challenge, but no League recognizes him. Two games feature him — Pokémon Colosseum and then Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, and the second one starts by taking his city away from him.

Contents

• Phenac City: A Gym That Isn't One
• Four Students, Six Pokémon: How the Challenge Works
• Sand Veil, Double Team, Sandstorm: Winning Without Getting Hit
• The Invasion of Phenac City and the Justy Gang
• After the Liberation: A Number, a Ship, an Email
• An Opponent Who Thanks You for Beating Him
• Justy at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Phenac City: A Gym That Isn't One

In Phenac City, the Prestige Precept Center fills the place a Gym would hold anywhere else, and Justy is the one in charge. His PreGymLeader title belongs to him alone: nobody else in the entire Orre region holds it.

The resemblance to a Gym ends where the institutions begin. The center isn't backed by any Pokémon League and Justy hands out no Badge; beating him opens no official door and doesn't count toward any recognized challenge.

This administrative void does nothing to dent his local authority. He's ranked among the best professional Trainers in the region, and for the young people of the oasis city, beating him is a career goal in itself: the recognition comes from the neighborhood, not from an organization.

Four Students, Six Pokémon: How the Challenge Works

You can't just walk up and battle Justy. He starts by introducing the Trainers at his center, all described as seasoned battlers, and demands four wins in a row before considering anything else; a loss along the way sends the challenger back to try again later.

The second condition is more unusual and applies in both games: he refuses to battle until the opposing team has six Pokémon. In Pokémon Colosseum as in Pokémon XD, an incomplete bench earns you a polite brush-off, with an invitation to come back once your roster is full.

The run pays off at every step. In Pokémon Colosseum, beating the four students earns you a White Herb, then Justy himself parts with TM27 (Return); in Pokémon XD, he gives you a Lum Berry and TM32 (Double Team).

Sand Veil, Double Team, Sandstorm: Winning Without Getting Hit

His preference as a Trainer is spelled out in black and white: Justy recruits Pokémon with the Sand Veil Ability. It isn't a type or an evolutionary family; it's a code of conduct, and it's enough to explain the shape of his team.

On the field, the logic doesn't change. He plays for evasion rather than trading blows, setting up Double Team or a Sandstorm before letting the conditions do the work for him: across the field, attacks start missing their target.

He's credited with seven Pokémon — Sandshrew, Sandslash, Cacnea, Gligar, Azumarill, Sunflora and Nosepass. One of the center's students names the last one as Justy's favorite.

🔥 Sandshrew, Sandslash, Cacnea: browse the Pokémon figures.

The Invasion of Phenac City and the Justy Gang

Pokémon XD turns the situation upside down before it's even set up. Cipher overwhelms Justy and takes over Phenac City: like the rest of the townspeople, the head of the center ends up locked in the basement of his own building.

The organization takes the humiliation as far as copying him. The Hexagon Brothers borrow his appearance and spread out across the city in this disguise, which earns the siblings the nickname of the Justy Gang.

Once the hostages are freed and the enemy driven out, the real Justy speaks up again, with a piece of intel rather than a complaint. Townspeople have seen shady figures coming and going in the desert, and he concludes that the attack was mostly meant to silence that rumor.

After the Liberation: A Number, a Ship, an Email

Justy doesn't drop out of the story once his city is handed back. He asks the hero for his P★DA number so he can stay in touch, promises to call him if anything happens, and really does use that channel until the end of the adventure.

The contact moves the investigation forward: it's a message from him that gives away the location of the S.S. Libra, along with confirmation that the ship really was in the desert. He also comments on the theft of the Snag Machine, surprised that Team Snagem is still active, then is delighted to see it back on its owner's arm.

His last message announces that the center is reopening and asks for a battle. In it, he recalls the one he fought five years earlier against another hero of Orre: so the challenger in Pokémon XD is facing the man the protagonist of Pokémon Colosseum had already beaten half a decade earlier.

An Opponent Who Thanks You for Beating Him

The character is best read in the way he loses. Justy comes out of his defeat drenched in sweat and delighted, says he holds no bitterness at all and thanks the winner for giving him such a battle — one, he says, he'll always remember.

Even beaten, he keeps doing his job. To a challenger who falls short, he replies that he senses a strength in them that others don't have and invites them to come back stronger, just as he sends away those who don't yet field six Pokémon.

The localization confirms this reading of a character cut out for righteousness. He becomes Justy in English, Justo in Spanish and Giustino in Italian, three variations built on the same root as his French name, Justin; only German goes its own way, with Primus.

Justy at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Justy in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD?
  The head of the Prestige Precept Center in Phenac City, in the Orre region. He holds the title of PreGymLeader, of which he is the only holder, and is one of the most renowned professional Trainers in the region.
• Does Justy give a Badge when you beat him?
  No. His center isn't affiliated with any Pokémon League, and his role, though very close to that of a Gym Leader, comes with no Badge. Beating him earns you items: TM27 (Return) in Colosseum, a Lum Berry and a TM in XD.
• How do you battle Justy at the Prestige Precept Center?
  By first beating four of the center's Trainers in a row, then showing up with a full team of six Pokémon. Without those six Pokémon, he refuses to battle and asks you to come back later.
• Which Pokémon does Justy use?
  He's credited with seven: Azumarill, Cacnea, Sunflora, Sandshrew, Sandslash, Gligar and Nosepass. He favors Pokémon with the Sand Veil Ability and relies on evasion with Double Team or Sandstorm. One of the center's students describes Nosepass as Justy's favorite.
• What happens to Justy during the invasion of Phenac City?
  Cipher overwhelms him and locks him in the basement of the Prestige Precept Center with the other townspeople, while the Hexagon Brothers take on his appearance to hold the city's crossroads. Once freed, he reopens the center and asks for another battle.

In short

Justy is a Gym Leader without a League, and that's exactly what makes him interesting: Orre has no Gyms, so the region made itself a Leader of its own. The title is worthless on paper, the entry conditions are tougher than those for a Badge, and an entire city stands behind him. The day it's taken from him, it's a future opponent who gives it back.