"Hm?"

'Liam King' turns his head at the sound of 'his' name, appearing quite baffled as he watches a man rise out of a fountain. Like some great terror of the deep, the scuba-clad man breaches the surface before ripping off his gear in a startling display.

Poor Captain Douglas seems even less prepared for the impromptu battle.

"Why the hell not?" Gavin decides.

He whistles, and the Lucario at his side springs forward with a surprisingly feral snarl. It hunches over, jaws dripping saliva.

"Show me what you're made of, Captain."

Doug vs Gavin

Enemy Unknown

Swallowing all three of his churros whole, the youth dragged his arm under his lip before grinning at the man, a net ball slipping from under his sleeve.

"Cheeky, are we? That's my line, random citizen!" He said playfully as he threw out his Scyther into the field, the pokemon landing on the streets on light steps.

Her gaze settled on her opponent in front her... and at the borderline feral Lucario, she narrowed her eyes, popping her head from side to side tauntingly before waving her Scythe at him.

Come and get me, Fido. Aggressive and to the point- she would probably get along terribly with the frothing at the mouth dog.

Doug was a tad bit more worried, brows furrowed as he stared at the Lucario. A regular at noah faber's gym, the sight of the usually calm and disciplined species so... savage was disconcerting.

"Yer friend there fine?" He asked the man for a moment.

Whether the blonde answered or not however, the referee suddenly swung his arm down.

"BATTLE, START!"

"Do your thing."

The Scyther moved without warning, arms held aloft at its side as it leapt off the paved roads and ran over the walls of the buildings nearby, smirking at the Lucario as if to tell it to try and follow, her scythes growing hotter under the burning sun before she suddenly pushed off the wall, flying towards the Lucario in a straight line.

Before her wings spread wide, her body suddenly lurching upwards as she came closer to the Lucario, turning her straight-line trajectory into an arc, her scythes swinging at the Lucario as it flew near.

---

-Scyther used Swords' Dance.
-Scyther used Acrobatics.
tags: Cillian Quinn

Gavin smiles as if at some private joke.

"Oh, she's fine. Just... excited."

As the Scyther lunges forward, Gavin clicks his tongue twice. Ever the COPYCAT, Lucario mimics the SWORDS DANCE as its opponent draws in close. The acrobatic attack connects—

—and the ILLUSION breaks, revealing the Lucario to be a cackling Zoroark, instead. The hunched posture and feral demeanour is far more suited to the trickster fox, who cackles as the impact of Scyther's blow sends her skidding in the sand.

Her eyes glow with BURNING JEALOUSY as she lunges across the battlefield, swiping with fiery claws.

Doug vs Gavin

Enemy Unknown

The blow landed with a satisfying dud, but whatever excitement there was for the Scyther there was shaken away by shock as the opponent became an entirely different species.

"Clever clever!" Doug said with a chuckle, tipping his hat at the man in appreciation. His grin was unshaken, however.

It was an opponent the Scyther was far better equipped to fight than a Lucario, after all.

The Scyther's smile sharpened, her arms coming together in an X before being swung in a rotation around her in a blur of motion. The fire was met with a vacuum, swirling around the invisible barrier like a whirpool as the bug flew forth at blurring speeds, a bursting forth while swinging its Scythes in elegant arcs at the opponent.

---

-Scyther used Vacuum Wave.
-Scyther used Fury Cutter.
tags: Cillian Quinn

It's a shame he hadn't chosen the actual Lucario, but oh well.

Zoroark snarls in displeasure as the vacuum swallows its fiery wrath, leaving the Scyther unharmed. It DETECTS the incoming slash of claws in time to bring up its own and block the attack.

Growling, it fires a pulse of energy as black as the NIGHT sky in the hopes of DAZING its foe. It does not retreat, eyes glittering with malice.

Doug vs Gavin

Enemy Unknown

A clang rings through the air, fury cutter against naked claw, grinding away against each other before the Zoroark suddenly unleashed a pulse dark as the night.

An furious screech leaves the Scyther's maw as it hits and burns into her carapace, its teeth coming down together to grit as she glared but found her vision blurred.

But it refused to retreat, so even as the darkness fried at her chitin plate and blurred her vision, the Scyther planted her own feet and hooked her scythe around the other's blocking claw, trapping it in her grip.

A shrill sound echoed around them as an invisible force seemed to draw them closer- before a boom cracked through the air and exploded inwards, a vacuum wave slamming them together like an all-encompassing pneumatic hammer.

Her fury not yet abated- she then swung her arms wide, sending the vacuum exploding outwards to try and send the Zoroark flying.

---

-Is damaged by Night Daze.
-Hooks onto the Zoroark, then uses Vacuum Wave.
-For good measure, uses Vacuum Wave again.

tags: Cillian Quinn

Zoroark cackles gleefully as Scyther's attack clangs against her claws, holding both of them at bay. Gavin is more subdued in his satisfaction, fully expecting some kind of rebuttal. Douglas was a gym leader, after all, and bug-types were his specialty.

Sure enough, retaliation comes in the form of a vacuum wave.

The first one slams them together, Zoroark snarling in pain.

The second sees Gavin whistle, sharp, then click his tongue.

Kicking off from her opponent, the Zoroark COPIES the VACUUM WAVE and sends the two forces crashing against one another, holding the attack at back long enough for her to leap clear. Panting, growling, she lashes her tail and sends a searing wave of BURNING JEALOUSY toward her foe.

Doug vs Gavin

Enemy Unknown

Doug tilted his head slightly.

The Scyther, for her part, hissed as her opponent shoved off her to get away, crouching low to give chase, air shimmering around her as she lowered her scythes and narrowed her eyes to slits, preparing for launch.

And then a fiery blaze was sent her way.

The air shimmering around the scythes as she launched herself towards the fire, swinging them down, intending to blast the through the blaze once again.

Except-

The air suckled and lurched inwards, a boom making nearby glass quake or shatter, yanking forth at the Zoroark. Even a single stumble would be enough-

Because the Scyther emerged from the blazing fire a moment later, scorched, pained and furious as she swung her bicep towards the Zorork's neck before it exploded on contact with another booming shockwave, trying to to slam it onto the floor.

---

-Is damaged by Burning Jealousy.
-Technician is activated.
-Uses Vacuum Wave to pull the other inwards, then bursts hopefully unexpectedly through the fire.
-Uses Vacuum Wave to Lariat Slam the Zoroark into the floor.

tags: Cillian Quinn

Once more, the first attack connects before a sharp click sees Zoroark DETECT against the second.

She is resilient in spite of her evident pain, fur dust-covered and bloodied but eyes blazing. She has trained against Rockets, their violence and brutality on the field of battle, and she doesn't shy away from the danger.

In fact, she leaps toward the Sycther, aiming a slash of her claws before kicking off with a sharp U-TURN to put distance between them yet again.

Doug vs Gavin

Enemy Unknown

The Zoroark draws near to strike, and the Scyther responds by letting it claw at its chitin plating, a pained snarl leaving its throat as it rears back vengefully and swings with its entire body.

The Zoroark was quick to leap away from the return strike however, the maneuver familiar to the bugcatcher and its charge.

But it was not gonna be allowed to escape.

Its body still reeling from its own swing, the Scyther's brought up its other scythe, mirroring its other arm its wings began to flap rapidly before launched forth with a powerful push of its legs, the pavement cracking under it.

It corkscrewed through the air, generating a powerful vacuuming force that attempted to drag back the airborne Zoroark towards it, before it brought its scythes down on the Zoroark with one final spin.

---

-
-Technician is activated.
-Uses Vacuum Wave to create a vortex and drag back the Zoroark.
-Technician is activated.
-Uses Fury Cutter to try and finish it.
tags: Cillian Quinn

Having just protected herself, the likelihood that Zoroark will fail to do so a second time is too strong for Gavin to make the call. Doug is a gym leader who specializes in bug-types and knows to press the type advantage.

If they were to go down, might as well do it spectacularly.

Gavin clicks his tongue.

Dragged back by the vacuum wave, Zoroark doesn't attempt to escape a second time. She rounds on her opponent even as it lifts its scythes for the attack. Spiteful, vengeful, BURNING JEALOUSY erupts from the trickster fox, igniting both in a brilliant inferno.

But it's the last of her strength, and she falls.

"Well played, Captain."

Doug vs Gavin

Enemy Unknown

The ball of fire eventually fades away, revealing a badly burnt, very pissed Kama with both scythes crossed in front of her, having barely managed to erect a Vacuum wall around herself at the last moment- to middling success.

Well, she was still on her feet, which was all that mattered.

It's what Doug would've said anyway, but Kama seemed to have other thoughts, prompting Doug to quickly return her to her net ball.

"Thank ya kindly. Granted, Kama did a bulk of it on her own." He said with a chuckle, rolling the net ball atop his finger before slipping it back into his sleeve with a grin. "Ya pretty awesome yerself! With 'em Alien clicks and such!"

It was fun, meeting people with such interesting battling methods. One could learn a lot; So far, FERNANDO SILPH's style of teaching your pokemon to battle with minimal input seemed best to an officer like him. One didn't micromanage their soldiers, so why their pokemon?

Kama had always fought on her own, so simply training her to problem solve against different circumstances had been relatively simple enough.

The rest of his pokemon were still a long way from that.

"Liam King, right?" He said, approaching the man and holding out his hand. "Pleasure to meet'cha! Hope to see ya swing 'round the gym sometime!"

---

tags: Cillian Quinn

"Alien?" Gavin fakes a good-natured laugh. "Picked it up from a friend."

Like any good lie, it's rooted in truth; enough that the smile that lingers seems genuine, for it is.

"That's right! Just Liam's fine." He shakes Doug's hand, grip firm with confidence. "Pleasure's all mine, though I didn't realise you were a gym leader! No wonder you thrashed me."

Gavin, of course, knew exactly who he was.

"Have to see if I can find the time; I'm only in Hoenn for the tournament, then it's back home for me."

Home seems obvious, with the Galarian accent.