Once the strangely-colored Drowzee had been whisked away in the Safari Ball, he continued his trek through the place.

…unfortunately, though, the next thing that would come crossing his path was… was…

“…Ilya,” he muttered quietly. He knew that one of his companions had died at the hands of… he didn’t want to think about it anymore. It still hurt like fuck, though.

Taking a deep breath, he then gave the Jangmo-o an extremely wide berth, hoping to find the next Pokémon out here—he still had some way to go.

---

skipping Jangmo-o

Unfortunately…

The sight of the larger-than-normal Mismagius set off the g-dar and had it on perpetual high alert.

(Oops.)

“Are you kidding me!” he screamed in a pitch so high that only the Zubat-line could hear anything further at this point. Geez, he was down for adventure but ghosts so early on, and so large even?!

The Salamence realized what was about to happen, and roared before charging forward, flames forming on his maw before blasting the larger-than-life Mismagius with a powerful, concentrated blast of Flamethrower!

“Let’s get outta here!” he all but yelled afterward, making tracks for the open path that led to another room—however due to how the Salamence had charged forward, the draconid slammed into the southern ‘wall’, tail whipping as he had to navigate in such a tight space.

Perhaps the Salamence slamming into the southern section of the ‘room’ they were in would reveal a hidden room of some sort…?

---

Salamence used Flamethrower! Due to the size of the room, Salamence slammed into the southern ‘wall’, perhaps revealing something there…?

Mausika could only sigh, what the hell was up with his crazy human? He chittered in Nike’s direction, asking her if the two were really like this.

Of course, to the two humans they had no idea what their Flygons were talking about, and he felt the lightest thwack on his shoulder.

“Poin’ ta Memo, we even out now! First to three wins, ya got that?” he heard Jack’s voice keeping track of the score while riding Idun the Pidgeot, who squawked their way before the male Flygon decided to barrel-roll out of the way and suddenly drop in altitude… what was going on?

The plan became clear as this time he was beneath the other Flygon, before suddenly flying upward with a surprise sneak attack!

“Think fast, Frog!” he couldn’t help but shout, a peal of laughter escaping him.

---

to score the point, roll exactly one of Alex’s rolls! Otherwise he gets the point.

Bird: 1
Frog: 1

It was at this moment—he knew that the entire match was over.

What with the way the Dragonite charged forward to meet its manifest destiny—hilariously this was one loss the Salamence was perfectly willing to take (even if Alexei didn’t realize it) as the two tangled in mid-air one more time.

One last time.

He had to squint upward and caught sight of the big-ass Draco Meteor that came screaming down from the sky, and watched as the tenacious Dragonite brought down literal fury on the Salamence, who was still whirling, kicking and screaming all manner of profanities at his new ‘rival’ before an explosion of meteoric proportions shook the entire arena as the two draconids came hurtling down—

And there was an orange blur wobbling, however the sky-blue one with red wings had met his match.

“You know,” he began as he crossed the field, stopping to pat the unconscious Salamence as he recalled the draconid before picking his way across the rubble-strewn arena, “…if you busted out a Mega-evo capable ‘mon I’d have done the same!”

Once he’d managed to cross the overturned bits and pieces of smashed rocks that were haphazardly scattered across the arena, he finally reached the other man.

“I can’t help but ask… do you know another guy? Blonde, spiky-haired? Owns a Charizard?” he quipped, because unless he was remembering this wrong, Josh Dragomir may have mentioned this gym to the other man…

“Either way, all I can say is. I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of whoever gets your Dragonite angry!” he chuckled as he had already palmed something in his other hand. Gesturing for the other man to hold out his hand, he would then drop the small, cold metal badge in his hand—



“Congratulations!”

Realizing that the Xatu was going to be dying on the hill that it was on, the Masquerain knew there was only one choice remaining: take down the much-larger opponent from a safe distance!

He grit his teeth, because he already knew what was coming next—another loud, screeching, Buzzing noise from the Bug-type would echo out all around them.

I hate that noise! he thought as he closed his eyes against the irritating noise the small, fast and definitely furious wings were creating as the Masquerain dodged out of range from the flames—yet it was only a matter of time.

---

Masquerain dodgesthe Heat Wave and unleashed another Bug Buzz!

Aww, a Pidove!

The other Pokémon Lam brought out also caught his eye, and he couldn’t help but grin a little—but at the same time he knew not to underestimate younger Pokémon as well!

A sudden shadow circled close to him before—wait, was that an entire fluttering of wings…

“Mike?! No, no, you’re too—” he trailed off as he saw an entire horde of Pelipper fly close, but then he realized that the shiny Shinx had caught his own shiny Wingull’s attention!

“Oh! Okay,” he chuckled quietly as the Wingull circled around—before being joined by a Yanma. Small for now, but absolutely terrifying when an entire horde of Yanmega were in the picture.

“Alright, you two, let’s go!”

Before the Wingull could yeet himself straight at the Shinx, though, the Yanma cut him off with a Detecting move; which basically functioned as a Protective screen at the same time—cutting off the Electric-type attack.

This then left the Wingull to huff a bit, before the extremely loud encouraging screaming of the Pelippers that had come out to watch their little ‘jewel’ fight bolstered the Wingull’s spirits and crashed into the incoming Razor Wind with a Water Pulse of his own.

---

Yanma and Wingull are out on the field!

Wingull wanted to attack the Shinx but Yanma headed him off with a Detect to block the Shock Wave attack; while Wingull flew head first into the Razor Wind and taking it head-on, before countering with Water Pulse!

So now that he had something that lived on dreams, who knew that the next one he’d find out here was the nightmare eater?

“…well, what do you know.”

He was literally about to walk away when he did a double-take… wait, that wasn’t a normal-colored Drowzee was it?

Pulling out his phone before he was noticed, he snapped a quick picture and sent it to his partner with the caption, ‘About that idea you told me about… you think we can do it? I got a Munna before this… you think it’s possible?’ before sending the message to Guillermo Marceliño.

And that was before the Braviary screamed again and came down with a sudden Rock Slide, what was up with his avian today—why the hell did Kyouya choose violence?!

A surprise Psycho Cut managed to cleave a boulder in half and actually clip the Braviary, and even he had to do a double-take as well.

“Interesting.”

A Psyshock attack followed from the pissed-off Drowzee afterward, before the Braviary retaliated with an up-close and personal Aerial Ace—kind of dangerous, but there you go.

There was a short exchange between the two, but eventually a Sky Drop yeeted the Drowzee his way, before the second Safari Ball went flying.

---

catch attempt on (shiny!) Drowzee!

The first thing that came across his path was—aww, a Munna!

Even if he already had a Musharna he still wanted to have at least one that was his very own, so. The Munna that was heading his way threw up a Barrier however the screaming noise in the sky—his Braviary—suddenly came crashing down with a Sky Drop attack!

“Kyouya, what the fuck!” he screamed as the pink blur was snatched up in the avian’s claws before suddenly flying very high, and then crashing downward not too long after.

A Psybeam followed the Braviary afterward, however the avian retaliated with a Rock Slide attack to quell the Munna’s attack—

And out went the first Safari Ball to catch the pink flowery Pokémon.

---

catch attempt on Munna!

Oh boy, here we go again!

This time, though, he was here with a definite sense of purpose—for the exact reason that there was something inside the Safari Zone this time that spoke literal volumes to him; in more ways than one.

After sliding the money across the counter and getting the four Safari Balls in return, he knew he had to get through this entire trip as quickly as possible, because—well, let’s just say that one very specific thing had his name written all over it.

Time to get cracking, then!

He… he had a plan.

To be honest, the one thing he was saving, was going to be for the ‘home stretch’, because he knew that what he was specifically planning was only going to last for a limited amount of time—and so he had to play his cards carefully.

The noise behind him isn’t missed either, considering that he didn’t go for a burst of speed on this one—and this was when he realized the fatal flaw…

That his Salamence had absolutely no speed-boosting moves at all!

“Fuck.”

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks as he drew a sharp breath, resting both hands flat on the base of the draconid’s neck. There was also the momentary flare of panic as the path narrowed—but he swallowed down his fear and bent down, hiding his head in the comfort of his Salamence’s neck.

After all, he was a Sky Rider…

“Gabe. I know you have better turning power than Kyouya… I’m going to trust you with this, okay?” he whispered quietly, watching as the crazy, hairpin-tight turns began to weave into sight.

---

Speed: B
Endurance: C
Reaction: B

time to ride and DIE; tackling target #1

After the crazy, intense battle for air supremacy—he was still behind the surprise dark horse Kyle and unsurprisingly, little Josh.

He was surprised to find out that he’d made up for some lost time, so there was that too.

(How loud was the home crowd yelling for him? He had no idea. However he could wager a guess that Ethan and Claire had called up pretty much everyone at the Sanctuary and they were most likely having a time in the stands.)

Now that there was a wide straightway for everyone to rest, he rubbed the back of his Salamence’s neck with both hands, and gave him this reassuring whistle.

“Rest while you can, I have a feeling the next part of the course is going to go crazy. We’re going to need all the power we can get when we get to the home stretch,” he reassured the draconid, who grunted and continued to coast along on the air currents.

---

Speed: B
Endurance: C
Reaction: B

time to ride and DIE

“You are most certainly not fine,” he continued in that same quiet little voice he took on when he was being dead serious.

He then approached his boyfriend (more like, life partner at this point but who’s asking) and then touched the back of his hand against the other man’s forehead, before—

“You’re hot. Hotter than usual,” he quickly followed up. And no, that did not mean physical sexiness, but the fact of the matter was that he was running—

“When was the last time you got a proper night’s worth of sleep?” he asked him next.

---

how the turn tables indeedy

Guillermo Marceliño