Rowan Wrynn's challenger arrives in his loose gym uniform. the midday sun is unbearable by now— and so his arms become bare by consequence. torched sleeveless, noah seeks another battle before peak heat.

seeing the kingler, noah is quick to summon his own crab. a stunned stupid smile emerges before it crowns a freezy(nyao) crabominable form.

"hey man!" noah hollers. "you and me. we're matched up, yeah?" he pats his crabominable's yellow tufts. "name's noah. you might've seen my face on some shorts." a quick reference to a previous partner's (jayden cross / michail) purchased merchandise.

"ready for some crabs?"

tl;dr

he says hi ^.^

Rowan Wrynn

☉

"oh shit!" noah says— but the expletive is meant to bide time for memory to scale its mountain. finally, it arrives and as it reaches the summit of his thoughts, he says, "mt. pyre!"

the lewd humour is enough to lure laughter from noah's lungs. he shakes his head. "no! wait, the game's called craps, right? whooOOPS!"

his crabominable rushes to meet karkinos in center. encasing its own claw in frost, an ICE HAMMER matches the kingler's STEEL CLAW. ice shards scatter onto their beachy battlefield.

"nice! pretty evenly matched in strength!" noah shouts, wiping his brow with his forearm. "widow! FROST BREATH!"

like a metal gate plunging open, the crabominable expels icy air toward the kingler's bright orange carapace.

tl;dr

frost breath POG

Rowan Wrynn

☉

"give the kingler a meaty punch!"

as noah's crabominable expels a breath as spicy as a tab of mantyne gum (ice), its mallet of a hand juts to the side. the pokemon groans. the sound of an old man escaping a nursing home— but forgetting that the entrance has steps instead of a ramp.

the claw swings toward the kingler as a frosty pendulum. swiftly, the ice crab's legs mobilize to close the small distance between them.

"are you feeling it now? the growing intensity?" noah shouts. "this is what it's like to battle a hoenn gym leader, man!"

tl;dr

crabominable moving in to punch the kingler's side

Rowan Wrynn

☉

"aha?" not a gasp of skepticism. it is a mixture of surprise and pride. the thought that the challenger before him was more than he had initially imagined.

the CRABHAMMER lands like a heavy wrench. from the sheer strength of the attack, the crabominable skids back before the legs rearrange like robotic appendages.

"ice the ground! make it slippery!"

an ICE HAMMER makes contact with their field. a crawling layer of frost spreads across the battleground as the crabominable slides on top.

"who'd you get it from?" noah hollers.

tl;dr

icing the ground POG

Rowan Wrynn

☉

"oh melody! did you know the gym leaders have a bet going on right now?" the pane of clear ice shatters and casts cold shards into their air like dispersing pixels. "if she loses, we shave her head!"

while rowan's badge retreats back into its pocket, noah's crabominable is quick on the offensive. it slides forth like a curling stone. a relentless barrage of ICE HAMMER continues to fly toward the kingler, landing on the field to sculpt flat blooms of frost.

"anyway, that badge means you're a good battler." noah says. "i won't let my guard down!"

Rowan Wrynn

☉

noah laughs too, caught by the contagious cadence of the other's own chuckles. his throat tickles further at the thought: a reminder to stay cool under the deathly heat of a hoenn sun.

"funny as hell, don't you think, man?" as the crab conflict continues, noah watches their opponent carefully. the kingler mind you— not rowan, "IRON DEFENSE! look out!"

the massive claw slams against the crabominable's body. ice forms across its yeti-like fur as it hardens its carapace. still, like a glutton cracking open shells, the damage is palpable.

"SCALD them back!" as the crabominable struggles to carry its beating, hot, burning water jets out of its drooling mouth.

Rowan Wrynn

☉

"aight! gimme your number and i'll invite you!" noah says.

while the other HARDENS, the crabominable's muscles tense within their carapace cages. such bodily binds are not here to constrain— but to channel strength. to focus it.

and as the crabominable spits the last of its BURNING SCALD from its mouth, a SUPERPOWER smashes the ice crab into the other with a resounding crash.

"hell yeah, man! let's go!" noah shouts. "keep it up. your kingler's nasty!"

Rowan Wrynn

☉