Gavin, too, recognizes many of the faces gathered around the newest gym leader. There were Miles Sharp and Chu-e Choi, of course, Rockets like himself, but there was also kyle lopez and Zac Ramsay, Kazimir Wynter who he knew in passing, Laurence Anderson whom he knew by reputation.

michiko maeda is the wild card, and a curious gaze lingers on her during glitch maverick's speech.

When asked for introductions, the confident blond steps forth without hesitation. From their capsules emerge a regular Cradily and Aerodactyl; Gavin's shadow Aerodactyl was too identifiable to bring on such a public excursion.

"Patrick Cavalli," he begins, and sweeps his arm toward the Pokémon. "Cradily here's been with me a long time, but Aerodactyl's a bit of a new face. Not entirely sure where she came from, just kind of showed up in my backyard."

[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon cradily"][attr="class","pokesprite pokemon aerodactyl"]

As Chu-e peers around, not just at glitch maverick but at the faces of the other people after the badge, he finds that he... knows every since one of them! Or, at least knows most of them. Kazimir Wynter and michiko maeda he had only met through Zac Ramsay once or twice each. Laurence Anderson and kyle lopez were met through the Adventours and a random meeting in that order, but he had enjoyed the time well enough even if he didn't really know them. Miles Sharp was one of his and Cillian Quinn was one of his two best friends. with Zac Ramsay being the other. This was going to be fun.

Not one to be outshone, Chu-e stepped up after Gavin was finished. He called out his two pokemon with a flourish, having decided to leave the two of them inside of their balls until now. A Sylveon and a Carbink materialized in front of him. The Sylveon seemed to wink at Michiko when he noticed her; the sly devil!

"I'm Ji-Hoon Ki! These two are are Polka Dots and Grapefruit!" Polka Dots, the Sylveon , lifted up his weird flesh ribbons to 'wave' to the other participants. Grapefruit seemed sleepy and lethargic but still gave a little spin in the air from where it levitated before taking notice of Miles. The Carbink hovered over to the man before trying to push it's head against his pants, causing Chu-e to sputter out a surprised laugh.

"Oh, wow, sorry about that. Maybe she likes your body wash?"

But, with his turn over, Chu-e walked back in place, awkwardly trying to pry his pokemon from Miles' personal space.

[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon sylveon"][attr="class","pokesprite pokemon carbink"]

Miles had no interest in taking the gym challenge.

In truth he'd come to deliver flowers to the recently appointed gym leader and through an assortment of unwelcome coincidences and misunderstandings the rocket found himself on the gym floor in place of some other challenger who was unable to participate. At this point it'd be more of a pain to resign, thus he'd decided to stay and have his fair share of fossil fun after all it wasn't as if the man had anything pressing to return to today.

To say he didn't feel a hair left out however was a lie, as it seemed everyone in the vicinity knew each other to some extent at least, and of course there were those few Miles knew. Chu-e Choi was his boss who'd been of great assist to him in the grunt labs as of very recently, and he'd seen the esteemed Patrick Gavalli around the submarine though he went by an entirely different alias in Miles' sphere, but the bonds a few of these trainers shared simply felt different. Perhaps that's the reason Chu-e's carbink attached itself to the rocket scientist more than happy to give Miles some unwanted TLC to the man's dismay. Thankfully Kazamir's flashy introduction manages to take attention off the odd affair. He definitely owed the man a thank you.

It was as good a time as any, and so Miles would step up revealing the two fossils of his own, calling forth a kabuto and a tyrunt the latter of which would immediately move to watch Kazimir Wynter 's larger evolution in absolute awe, while the former would scuttle up the researcher's back.

"Greetings all, I'm a researcher by the name of Miles, and as you can see by my team I study fossil pokemon. The rambunctious one is Obelos, while this shy fellow is Mare." The intro's not a complete lie at least, "I'm not much of a fighter, but when it comes to puzzles rarely do I disappoint. I also apparently have an affinity for Carbink, something I'm just learning today, It's a pleasure to be working with everyone."

When Mickey-- Michi's beloved husband, currently working abroad on a ruin site in Galar-- had gotten wind of the newest gym leader's fossil-digging challenge, he'd called her on the spot. Michi had of course been more than happy to take a day off work to try and find some fossils for her husband. Today, she was determined to achieve success!

"This is Doree! Maybe you know this character already, from the famous children's animation!" the older woman said eagerly when it came to her turn for introductions, gesturing with an open palm towards the ghost. The tiny dragon was zipping around her headlamp like a moth drawn to the light, nibbling at the glass. "I am a fan! Oh, but maybe some people do not like so much," Michi admitted, realizing most of the people in the room would have been little kids at the same time the educational math show had been originally airing. Dreepy had functioned as sort of the 'antagonist' of the show, showing up to obscure pieces of the puzzle until the viewers chanted "Dreepy, no creeping!" three times. Michi had fond memories of sitting with her daughters, shouting and pointing at the TV screen every time Dreepy appeared.

"Oh! If you cannot see her, it is because you do not have the Doreepi Connection," she added, sounding sympathetic in advance. Doree whistled, her luminous eyes glowing like a smaller pair of spotlights. "Waa! She is so cute..."

Wasn't there something else? Michi remembered she had brought a second Pokemon. "Oh, this is Linoone." She put it on the ground like a small dog, barely looking at it. "My husband recommend this Pokemon for digging. Sometimes, my husband and I, we look for fossils when on vacation! Linoone is not there, though." She was visibly less enthusiastic about the black-and-white badger. It was beautiful to look at compared to Hoenn-native Linoone, but she couldn't help but think resentfully about how often they busted through her hedges or trampled straight through her berry patch. Why were they so bad at turning?! Michi didn't understand. 

"And I am Michiko Maeda, but please call me Michi! Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Maverick." She inclined her head gratefully, then turned to the others with clear enthusiasm. "Everyone, let's enjoy finding fossils together!" 

Glitch was actually pretty excited to see what Pokemon everyone was going to bring out and it showed as he clapped at the end. It was neat to see that there were so many different types of Pokemon that ended up being a great part of his theme of the gym. It was a blast and a half and really a lot more fun than just the regular gym battles that he ended up doing every single day. This way was a lot more enjoyable and seemed like it would gather him more information. But that wasn't the point for now. "That was great! It's good to know that some of you are already acquainted with each other." But now they needed to move on to round two. "This round will be actually finding the fossils! You'll have to be careful with them though, fossils are fragile. If you break them you're going to have to spend even more time putting them together."

Zac Ramsay , Chu-e Choi , michiko maeda , Cillian Quinn , Miles Sharp , Kazimir Wynter , kyle lopez , Laurence Anderson

This round is scored! The point of the round is to find fossils in one of the three locations available to you. Glitch's pokemon will interfere with you attempting to find them and with the safe transportation of them.

Each post searching for a fossil will need to be rolled for, a 1-35 means you've found a part 1 of a fossil, a 36-65 means part 2 of a fossil, a 66-95 means you've found part 3 of a fossil. 96-100 means you've found nothing. It's low odds to find nothing so good luck! There is no limit on how many times you can search for a fossil! The only stipulation is that you have to be careful. Occasionally you will have to roll to defend your fossil from one of Glitch's Pokemon or because you've been clumsy in your post. How you treat the fossils in your post will also effect your final score, not just the rolls.

You must find THREE pieces of fossil to move on to the final round.

The locations available for this round are:

• The Cave Walls [ Climbing Equipment Available ]
  
• The Pit [ Flashlight's and Ropes Available ]
  
• The Water Pool [ Diving Gear Available ]
  

Your ANCIENT POKEMON roll bonus can be used at any time but can ONLY be used once. You can add a +10 or -10 to any score once.

this round will END on may 25th at 10:30 pm central

Michiko had recently gotten into spelunking as a hobby, but she had never even considered trying fossil-hunting at the same time! Her usual concern while climbing was handholds, footholds, and dangerous patches where she might lose her footing. Examining the type of rock had never occurred to her. I will have to look very carefully this time, she resolved as she cinched her toolbelt tight around her waist. 

Doree could easily float and slither up the cavern walls, so the difficult part was Linoone. It is not very good at climbing, Michi thought, hands on her hips as she looked at the black-and-white Pokemon. It had curled up for a quick power nap while the gym leader had been explaining the rules of the challenge. How will we do this?

She had her own climbing equipment prepared, but she ended up sorting through the climbing gear to find a harness suitable for the slippery badger. She rigged him up behind herself like a rookie rock climber-- it would be slower going with the Linoone's weight behind her, but she would make sure to be careful so they couldn't fall. 

"Are you ready?" she asked, holding out one finger for Doree to perch on. The tiny dragon chirped assent. "Are you ready," Michi asked Linoone, barely looking at it. Baja's long, bright magenta tongue lolled in response like a fruit by the foot and Michi frowned visibly. The older woman turned away, pretending she hadn't seen it, and began to hammer the first piton into the cave wall.

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