The blonde smiled faintly as the man remarked that he was nervous. "You can tell?" he spoke softly, with a hint of amusement in his voice. Of course he was nervous. It was indeed his first time properly challenging a gym, after all. "Indeed. I've attempted before, but it's always one thing after another. Showing up at a bad time, or even being stood up at an appointment one point with offer to reschedule. Then I just got busy, and well... That's just how it goes" he remarked with a casual shrug. He'd made his peace with not being able to challenge Gyms when he was younger, and even this was more of a whim than anything.

This... Definitely wasn't a Gym by traditional means. It was as much of an aviary as it was an arena. A Bird Pokemon rescue facility? That was a first. Still, it seemed whoever this Gym Leader was, they were kind at least. He could respect that. He slowly nodded his head.

"They're kind. I look forward to meeting this Gym Leader."

Alexei Ivanov

-Notes-

No, no he was not. And as he said that, and as the grin began to unfold on his face, Josh realized immediately what he was looking at. As he blew the whistle and the flocks overshadowed them, he took a deep breath. Lightning's cheeks began to spark as the Raichu took a step forward, as if ready to defend its trainer should it come to it. A testament to their bond. Lightning hadn't hesitated whatsoever, and Josh had trusted his judgement enough to not stop him unless it was obvious that the defense was not necessary. A Braviary landed soon after, and then came the reveal he knew was coming.

"After the show, I kind of figured" he remarked with a small smile, motioning for Lightning to stand down with a small motion of his wrist. With that, it seemed they were ready to begin in short order. He considered what flier to use as Alexei, as he now knew him as, ran him through the plan behind the challenge. When he brought up having his Pokemon use a blindfold, he quirked a brow in surprise. He had known this would be challenging, but this sounded dangerous.

Regardless, he nodded as he placed his goggles on and took the blindfold. After a bit more debate, he made his choice. Taking a Pokeball from his belt and brought out his Charizard. Fawkes loosed a roar when the overly-large Charizard was brought out, and Josh brought a hand to its head. The Charizard lowered its head to meet his, and he whispered something to the Charizard. Likely explaining the situation, in what way he could. The Charizard looked at the blindfold, and grunted lightly, snorting a speck of flame from its nostrils. It wasn't happy with the idea, but it could at least sense that it was necessary for whatever this was. Fawkes did not protest as Josh placed the blindfold over its eyes.

"I'll be your eyes, if able" he promised softly, before turning to the Gym Leader. He kept an arm outstretched as he did, so the Charizard knew he was moving and could turn to face them in turn.

Alexei Ivanov

-Notes-

The Gym Leader requested that he stay within the weather boundaries and try not to dispel them either. That wouldn't be very sportsman-like. Considering he had brought out a Charizard, he was expecting either a downpour or a snowstorm of some sort. A heatwave wouldn't do anything to a Charizard, after all. "Wait for our return" he told Lightning. The Raichu was clearly disappointed and pouted at this, but otherwise seemed to agree to this. As it had not been mentioned he could use other Pokemon, he assumed that also using Lightning to aid in the challenge would be cheating.

Shame. It would be a huge help in a storm. But that was the breaks. He climbed onto Fawkes and tapped a few points on his back to indicate for him to take off as Josh put on the goggles. Soon enough, then came the biting cold. Then came the hail. It was one of the two possibilities he had foreseen. "Up your tail heat. Two ticks. I think I know what's coming next" Josh spoke to Fawkes. The Charizard's tail flame grew as it projected more heat, giving the two of them some matter of protection. Josh zipped up his jacket as well.

His prediction was correct. The Gym Leader had utilized Blizzard. The flames offered some protection from the cold, from the ice layering clouding his goggles too much, and kept the hail from Fawkes' hindsight, allowing Josh to shift himself forward so he could pull the hood of his jacket on and protect Fawkes' head from the hail.

Then came the large chunks from the Blizzard. He knew they were coming now. Keeping his calm, Josh acted as Fawkes' eyes as he shifted his weight to signal for Fawkes to move left and right. His years of experience were on full display.

@tag

-Notes-

First there were the spikes of ice that were coming from below. The rumbling tipped him off that they should fly upwards, so he shifted back so Fawkes would move up. While this was far from ideal, it was clear that Trainer and Pokemon were perfectly in sync. They just might survive this after all…

Then came the avalanche. They had survived the spikes, which Josh took note of when they appeared, but now they were dealing with the tail end of the avalanche the Gym Leader had just faced. And vision was getting worse. The blonde cursed under his breath, but did his best to keep calm.

“Flare Blitz.”

Flames enveloped Fawkes. While Josh’s gear protected him from the flaming aura that was projected above them so long as he ducked and hung onto the Charizard, he was forced to hold on tight as the Charizard spun through the air, gaining momentum and shooting forwards full speed. Snow and icicles melted before they could even contact them as Josh hoped they could try and breeze through the worst of it in time.

Alexei Ivanov

-Notes-

Just as the Flare Blitz ended, they were beset upon by far worse conditions than before. The Charizard bucked a bit, but Josh held on and positioned himself to where he could stroke behind Fawkes’ ears and keep them calm. These weather conditions were something, and he could still barely make out the Gym Leader who had seemed completely unphased by the sudden weather changes. Weather changes that were completely unnatural, occurring in a way that affected the Gym Leader, but nowhere near as much as it seemed to be hitting when he came around. No blizzard he had encountered in his long career had ever been this continuously fierce and only got worse instead of even slightly petering out at any point. Blizzards were unpredictable, with winds that changed track and velocity at the whims of nature. It didn't just keep steadily increasing and point at one area in particular. But he was being beset on both sides by simultaneous winds, both increasing in tempo at the constant... That made no sense from a natural standpoint.

Unless…

Removing the goggles he was wearing, he put them back on his belt and fished something out of his belt. A pair of goggles that interfaced with his HoloWatch, a prototype his mother had been working on. He had intended to field test it, and well… No better time to field test it than now, right? Putting the goggles on, he found them to be well-adjusted to his eyes, and the minor inside light improved his visibility. Holograms popped up in his vision and allowed him to zoom on where he could feel the wind of Blizzard coming from.

And with it, he could see the wind blowing and from where. He had a theory, but… He placed a hand on Fawkes’ snout, diverting his focus between the path in front of them, and the way he was looking at. Fawkes’ head would follow his finger movements as he urged the Charizard to look right at where he could see the wind blowing...

“Flamethrower.”

Fawkes would shoot a lengthy Flamethrower in that direction. If a Pokemon was causing the winds to blow like that, then the shot might be enough to force them on the defensive in order to dodge it, and force these insane weather conditions to let up a bit. Just enough to make it easier to pass. But for now, Josh's head would snap to attention as he would lean to the left in order to instruct Fawkes to dodge a large rock that had jutted out in front of them.

Alexei Ivanov

-Notes-