"i don't try to. my characters are just geared to set up before casting a big spell!" it concluded a brief exchange with Michael Navidson before both of them went to deal with the problem.

he recalls his baxcalibur soon after. satisfied with its performance, it takes the gift it has left in the field and snaps the sygna suit into activation, filling it with infinity energy and deactivating his avatar powers in the process.

a tap on the ground with his foot sets a zone of his choice around the area, boosting ice-type moves that his pokemon has left on the field. he just needs both the snowscape and the nodes of icicle spear to remain in the area, just to regulate the heat more.



although his suit protects him from the heat, he needs it more for the mist the ice generates.

the smeargle takes the field after the dragon-type, syncing with kyle the moment it hits the field. the presence of strong-willed people backs their confidence up enough to be brave about their next gambit.



"mist ball."

alone, the smeargle wouldn't have been able to emulate a move a legend can pull off. set up aids the pokemon to bring out its best, alongside the wonders that the sygna suit brings.

like a catalyst of its power, it points its brush of a tail towards the target. the difference between mist and steam start to blur as the pokemon channels the move, with the smeargle attempting to incorporate what constitutes the cause of poor visibility into its attack.

he's not trying to take the last hit. this is just how he plays.



tl;dr

• stays at the back and recalls baxcalibur
• activates sygna suit
• activates type wish - ice zone to keep baxcalibur's cold in the field
• calls smeargle out
• smeargle uses big mist ball with the environment's steam/mist
• attempts to clear visibility with his stunt
• using moltres feather save on yuina

"you're saying it's an ailment. have you ever thought of it as a buff instead?"

he struggles to get back to his feet, but the easygoing temperament remains. he remains on the ground as she was despite having a better constitution than her. she was paralyzed, but he was simply tired.

misery loves company, and kyle offers companionship.

"people being honest with themselves... isn't that a good thing?"



without the curse of the nihilego, the solgaleo manages to move freely once more. it roars, and it targets the new pokemon with heat crash, barrelling over the grass-type as it becomes an embodiment of the blazing sun.

"see? it's fun talking with peers. it'll be easier to read me too if your mind isn't so clouded with negativity."

barriers involving the awkward prerequisites of this ability are broken with kyle caring less about his words in this state. this kind of talk had been his bread-and-butter once upon a time.

"i don't see you or your friends find a problem when you do it."

he always had the front row seats for it, and he's sure theo did as well.

balancing on a fragment of ho-oh, he greets the underboss with the smile when he complies with a temporary truce. he's a man of his word, until he finds a reason to back away from it.

"...so, what's wrong?"

the kommo-o tries to defend with the steel-type honedge, but kyle recalls the pokemon just as the springtide storm can hit.

weighted down by the salt cure, the honedge drops to the ground, incidentally dodging the move headed to their direction.

the vaporeon's pokeball has been ready the entire time. as soon as the kommo-o got to its ball, kyle watches the big screen overhead and waits for the kommo-o's face to dim and be recognized as fainted.

the vaporeon comes back to the field. "go muddy water," he instructs alongside the throw.

as soon as the vaporeon materializes, it surfs across the field, grabbing the honedge on a drive-by. the tidal wave crashes on the two, but the vaporeon directs it to the garganacl.

as they approach, the honedge is thrown. iron head heads to the rock-type's direction as its ribbon makes sure no guard is available for both itself and its target.

"uninhibited, i guess."

he raises his brow at matias' reaction to the new kind of mist. kyle's reaction causes a pause on the false florist's figure as it freezes in place with the erratic flickers of tv static.

"hey, why are you backing up? it's not like you'd be any worse!"

he smiles as he approaches matias with his hands on his pockets. the mist lingers in his wake, following the emergent with his every step while it threatens to embrace the volatile.

"don't you do things without a care about consequences? that's what i feel like under this spell."

"i don't know. i just took his mask while he tried to kill me."

kyle shrugs. even he doesn't know who he stole the mask from. all he knows is that it's someone who manifested crystals akin to his knife from galar as armor.

following the instructions, kyle's eye wander around the corridor. nothing in particular catches his attention, although the cafeteria seems like a good ending for this impromptu espionage.

"so... do we have a plan or are we just winging it?"

he absolutely has no idea on what proceeds after this. he's not sure if kazimir has something up his sleeve though. he always seemed charismatic enough to hide his thoughts behind the image of a reckless fighter.

a chuckle escapes with the comment about his supposed occupation. both comments check out. whatever he says, kyle is aware. he's been a client for the less legal jobs he needed to do while under the law enforcement after all.

he peeks on the screen in front of him and reads the job description. kyle smiles, not for the practical in-game effects, but because of the flavor text that might be more than just a descriptor in this scenario.

"did you know i actually met the rocket boss during this attack?" he tells navy in a livelier-than-normal tone, making small talk.

kyle cocks his head to the opposite path of the traps, where sleeping grunts block the road. he carries his poochyena across, just in case its tiny legs trip up the mountain of bodies.

"can you lead the way to the precinct? we need to arm up before we head to the docks."

kyle doesn't need to explain what was going to happen next.

kyle doesn't have a pokemon out, but raikou quickly appears before him in a blink of an eye to defend him against the blow. a barrier of reflect stands between the two legends.

"i didn't accept its avatarship." he turns to lam. "i haven't met anyone else who'd do the same so i'm not sure if this is the norm."

sand and other beach debris gets thrown at their direction as a storm forms from the horizon. kyle smiles with grit as he gets excited by the thought of a fight exceeding his expectations.

"do you think it gets stronger depending on how you perceive my relationship with it is?"

it makes sense in kyle's point of view that his logic works. this is the interdream zone. it pulls from both of their thoughts and imagination. he's wrong on one thing though. it also feeds on kyle's preferred difficulty of the scenario.

"ah. good timing."

the interdream mist starts to thicken around them. kyle knows what happens next, and he stores the bottle of pills back to where he got it from.

"it's something like this."

he turns to his side, as if he can somehow predict the entrance of Elisabeth Fiorelli's figure from the mist. it's a figment of imagination, as with every being birthed from the zone, but coincidentally real at the same time.

a mist of different nature comes flowing from her, one that could turn a person berserk. having appeared beside the champion, he gets affected by it once again.

"you're friends with her, right? have you fallen victim to it before?"

his mightyena knows they're not alone. kyle ushers him to keep quiet and to not let them know that they are aware.

he acts as casually as he could. he raises his phone up, as if trying to get a signal from the countryside beach. a singular bar shows on the screen. it probably was enough to send a message, but it wasn't enough to play music online without it buffering.

the mightyena's body language betrays the intent of the trainer. his paws stomp impatiently on the sand as the pokemon grows anxious of not giving attention to the other person in the vicinity. the sigh from kyle gives the dark-type some sort of relief.

"fine. we can go after him if he doesn't go for us first," he tells his pokemon.

he wouldn't classify whatever he was doing to be patrolling the skies. instead, he'd rather call it a joy ride.

riding atop an aerodactyl, he wanders around in search for something that might catch his interest. the objective of the league wasn't on his mind, but he supposed it would work in their favor in the end if he gets to delay rocket operations.

boredom potentially comes to a halt when he spots movement on the corner of his eye.

kyle doesn't intent to approach first, and gives the first move to whoever was around. of course, an encounter was inevitable between them. pretending not to notice, he decides only to chase after him if he was ignored.

grubby hands take hold of a crate full of supplies he forcibly took away from an unlucky grunt he happened to pass by.

for the grunt, the misfortune of the champion's erratic movements across the map led to their unfortunate series of events. reprimanding awaited them, but it was a better alternative than getting on the opposition's bad side after their psyche has been scrambled by a certain florist.

by chance, the path he took coincided with a trail used by league forces. he finds himself face-to-face with someone he doesn't recognize by name. perhaps someone had mentioned it in passing, but he never recalled.

he recognized him by face though.

almost everyone that surrounded him by galar can be connected to him. he doesn't remember the events fully, but his gut feeling was usually strong whenever he meets someone that he had met before.

was he supposed to know him as well?

"oi," he speaks behind the mask he took from Zev Harcourt. "do i know you?"