Handing the Reins Over

18 years old and already looking at the next gen, Josh Devlin

A racetrack wasn't what he would've done, but the people of Mauville were due for a change of pace.

The former gym leader was present for the new gym's launch, naturally. It was the polite thing to do. Gave him and the people of Mauville some closure to see the baton passed— or perhaps more appropriately, the reins being handed over.

All that was left was for him to give his successor his congrats and then take his leave.

Best to get on that.

Rising from his seat, John smoothed the creases on his shirt and jacket before he began making his way to the new Gym Leader, tipping his cap at the young man.

"Congrats on a successful grand openin', Gym Leader Devlin." He started off simply as he came to a stop an arm's length from the racer. "The people of Mauville appreciate your service."

Normally, the thief would have turned her nose up at a job like this. Even now, as she sat atop the little office building overlooking Josh Devlin’s gym grounds, she had second thoughts. Crash a party? Cause some chaos? If there’s one thing Lex hated, it was a waste of her time. Literally, the objective to the mission was to just cause some chaos, instill some doubt in the newly appointed gym leader, keep them on edge.

In other words: a proper Rocket welcome to Mauville! It isn’t their city, but Rocket is everywhere. It’s time The League learned that.

Today, Lex would take a more hands-off approach, letting her ghosts loose to do what they do best: cause mischief. She leans forward against the stone lip of the roof to watch the party below as she shoos the Haunter hovering near her head away.

A few moments later, the air around the MANECTRIC carrying a young girl shimmers, an array of lights swirl around the beast’s head in an attempt to CONFUSE them and put their rider in danger.

Josh Devlin & John Sullivan
Wisp uses CONFUSE RAY to attempt to confuse SABER

Josh's gym soundtrack filled the air; it was an aggressive tech-rock whose dueling keytars contributed to the electrifying atmosphere of a race. The speeds the Manectric and Giaceon were carrying their young riders at were probably beyond what their parents thought was safe, but the Leader had assured them that it was so! His Gym had numerous safety measures built in, after all, and the two Pokémon weren't running at anywhere close to racing speed.

"...Thanks, Leader Sullivan," Josh accepted the praise after a delayed response. "Or what title do you even go by now?" It was hard to keep everyone straight. Titles changed, and sometimes at a surprising rate. After all, Josh had only been a Minor League Leader for a few weeks before being promoted out of the blue. "I won't disappoint. Even in the Minors I was pretty busy; the racing challenge is something no past Gym Leader here has really done, from what I had researched. If you've got a Pokémon for it, I'd love to see you drop by sometime!"

The two young ones rode alongside each other until the home stretch, when the young girl broke her mount ahead of Inky. "Saber, can you show me your QUICK ATTACK?" The big canine let out a bark, nodded, then suddenly sped up, going all the way to the Leader's assigned speed limit. She let out a loud scream of pure bliss as the wind whipped all around her face, except what was covered by her goggles.

Then, disaster struck: a scattering of strobe lights swirled around Saber, the now confused Pokémon not listening to a single tactile command the young girl made. She was going far too fast to make an emergency dismount, too. "Hold on, she's in trouble!" Josh exclaimed a bit louder than he needed to while in such close proximity to John. He whistled for Aslan, the Pyroar promptly bounding toward him. The racer mounted up and began chasing his own Manectric down in an attempt to get to the brave girl's rescue before a real accident happened.

Handing the Reins Over

18 years old and already looking at the next gen, Josh Devlin

"I go by Captain nowadays." He said, offering a small smile. "And sure thin'. My schedule just became a lot lighter; think I've time for a quick run'round the track!"

A shrill, childish scream of glee interrupted the two as one of the little riders testing the tracks got a little taste of her mount actually trying.

The young captain laughed.

"Jeez, it's like standin' near a rollercoaster." He said, his grin growing.

What happened next however... Doug couldn't help but squint, leaning a little over towards Josh to whisper.

"What's he doing?" He asked, too far away to see properly. He thought he saw something like darting lights around the Manectric's head, but... that aside, Saber seemed to be picking up a little too much speed now.

Josh seemed to think so too; damn near busted his eardrums clarifying so.

As the new gym leader leapt to action, the captain whipped out his arm, the mechanisms on his wrist launching into his palm a minimized net ball.

It grew in size as he reeled back and threw it, releasing Garo the Orbeetle onto the field. His hand pointed towards the Manectric runnning wild in the distance, finger gunning slightly ahead.

"Psychic Terrain!" he ordered; Garo understood the purpose promptly, eyes gleaming blue before snapped up high in the air and generated an orb of see through, gleaming magenta, energy crackling around the bubble as the Orbeetle launched it forth like a projectile.

It soared across the air and past the Manectric, seemingly missing it entirely as it crashed onto the soil ahead harmelessly... and popped.

As it did, the air shimmered and gained a magenta glow as the world seemed to slow down, eliminating the effects of 'Quick attack' and other related abilities.

"Shrink the radius 'round Saber while Gym Leader Devlin closes in." He instructed his pokemon while looking around with narrowed eyes. "And get yer radar ready; something's fishy."

---

tl;dr
-chatter
-stuff happens
-Orbeetle used Psychic terrain. High priority moves don't work anymore. Garo is shrinking the terrain's radius around Saber as Josh closes in, so that Josh can retain top speed for as long as possible.
-Orbeetle radar is on.

A subtle sparkle of lights was all it took for the Manectric to cause a bit of as mess. In its confused state, the girl was obviously in danger. She was tacked in for a gentle jaunt around the track. Just as she suspected, the Gym Leader was quick to jump into action. Forever the heroes. How predictable.

With both sets of eyes fixed on the Manectric, Wisp decides to take a stab at the Glaceon that rode with another rider. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn’t, maybe they were on edge enough to suspect it, but the Haunter tries anyway, another subtle sparkle of lights swirling around the head of the Glaceon in an attempt to CONFUSE it.

Josh Devlin & John Sullivan
Wisp uses another CONFUSE RAY to attempt to confuse INKY this time!

"Quite the title, Captain Sullivan!" Josh replied. It seemed like the former Gym Leader had another career to go back to with Law Enforcement. He would have recognized the man pretty quickly if he was a Ranger Captain. "Being a Gym Leader tends to do that. The hardest part of being one has easily been time management." It seemed the bug expert was interested in having a little fun himself. "If you've got a Pokémon for it, racing me for the Quick Badge would be fun! The old against the new."

Josh and Aslan quickly caught up to his Manectric, the effects of Garo's PSYCHIC TERRAIN slowing the confused Pokémon down enough for the Leader to take his off the reins and reach for the scared child. "Grab my hands!" he cried, the young rider obliging as Aslan struggled to maintain as little distance as possible between the two. "Now jump!" Try as he might, she didn't have the leg strength she needed to pull her right leg over the running Pokémon's back while in motion. "Alright, on three. One... two... THREE!"

With loud grunts from both of them, the two worked together to pull the scared child off the Manectric's back and onto the Pyroar's, Josh immediately recalling the riderless Pokémon. Cutting the ride short, Josh reined the royal, regal lion back toward the starting arch, cutting across the grass field while making sure the young guest was as comfortable as he could be. Aslan's flexing back was a lot for a young one to deal with.

Just as things were calming down, the same fate befell the boy riding Josh's Glaceon, only the Ice-type wasn't nearly as stalwart as Josh's Manectric was. Blinded by Wisp's strobing lights, Inky made an uncommanded turn toward the grass field on the inside of the ovaloid track and started bucking. Hard. It didn't take long for the force behind the swerving and kicking to unseat the unsuspecting child and rip the reins out of his hands. He cried in pain, badly bruised after he rolled over a sprinkler head.

"Captain, something is very wrong over here." Just as Josh was about to call for Mauville Law Enforcement, he received an urgent email from Shelly, his secretary, indicating that the police were on their way. "Looks like the cops are coming. We gotta hold the fort down until they get here."

Handing the Reins Over

18 years old and already looking at the next gen, Josh Devlin

Right as the child flew off the Glaceon's back— his body became suspended mere centimetres away from the air, his silhouette gleaming white.

"Good catch." The Captain said to his Orbeetle, the bug holding a single, tiny arm towards the child. "Get 'im away from the Glaceon."

As Josh Devlin returned, newly saved girl in arms and with bad news, the younger man simply nodded, gripping the brim of his hat as he peered around.

"Sure is." The young man said, wide open eyes slowly dragging across the tracks, shifting from person to person. "Now... wild pokemon, or uninvited guests...?"

Ghost type pokemon were relatively common in Mauville. Lots of abandoned projects and housing; enough to attract the little nuisances.

"Garo." He commanded. In response, his Orbeetle began to rise in the air— before it suddenly spread its wing's carapace open, eyes gleaming a shimmering blue as its psychic senses spilled outwards and onto the field.

After a moment, Orbeetle rotated in place like a compass' pointer, facing towards... Alexandra Briarwood's unseen Haunter.

"Found something?" He asked after a moment, before turning his gaze towards the new Gym Leader. "Yer gym, yer call, Mr. Devlin. Should we wait for the cops to handle it, or...?"

Lex grinned, watching from far above with a prefect birds-eye-view of the entertainment. She hissed in distaste as the Gym Leader rescued the child rider. Another pang of annoyance ripped across her chest when the former Gym Leader’s Orbeettle saved the one that came flying off the Glaceon. The League, they were never any fun. They always ruined everything.

Enough fiddling around, time to let the ghosts have fun.

A few more pokeballs cracked open. Shadows melted into the roof, dark streams of spectral energy coursed down the side of the building to penetrate the party below. This was signal enough to encourage the Haunter to phase back into this plane. A hearty cackle shrieked from her lips as the potent HEX sought to debilitate the already confused Glaceon.

A shadowed fist formed beside the cake, striking forward with the Gengar’s SHADOW PUNCH to ruin the centerpiece of the party’s display.

A brush of cool air appears beside a partygoer, making the poor woman scream as a Gastly LICKED her cheek.

The Orbeetle was next, another Gastly phased from the phantom realm, its tongue hanging low as it tried to drag its rough surface across the Orbeetle’s carapace.

Josh Devlin & John Sullivan
Oh no! It seems a family of ghosts has disrupted the party!
Gengar uses SUCK PUNCH on the cake
Haunter uses HEX on the confused Inky
Gastly #1 tries to LICK the Orbeetle
Gastly #2 terrorizes a partygoer with another LICK[/n]

"Great save, Doug," Josh said, relieved the young boy was badly shaken up but otherwise okay. Inky, though, was far from okay; even with the boy off his back, the ice-type continued to buck and kick in his confusion, getting his hind legs stuck in a chain-like fence. "Inky!" Josh shouted, well out of range to withdraw him back into his Poké Ball. "After him!" The Gym Leader flicked the Pyroar's reins toward his trapped friend, even going as far as to command DOUBLE TEAM for added speed. They were too late, though; by the time he got close enough and fired the Ball's withdrawal beam, a Haunter had faded back into the material world and stabbed Inky with a critical HEX. That was a wound the Pokémon Center would need to have a special look at.

The four ghost-types were using divide-and-conquer tactics to great effect: a Gengar looked to spoil the giant cake by collapsing the table it was on with a powerful SHADOW PUNCH, and the Gastly were harassing the Orbeetle and other guests. "There's no way these Pokémon are wild," Josh concluded. "This is way too coordinated, and that's what makes them way more dangerous. I'm gonna try to get as many of these people inside as possible. You see if you can draw out whoever's pulling the strings. Sound good?"

Regardless, Josh would send out the rest of his Pokémon except his Manectric and fainted Glaceon. "Nitro, Blinky, Blitz! Start rounding people up and get them inside!" With that, the Gogoat, Jolteon, and Luxray would make a beeline for those in the most distress and begin shuttling them to the Gym's back entrance. When he had an opportunity to do so whilst not maneuvering his own Pyroar steed out of the way of attacks, he would start picking up passengers himself using the fire-type lion, one at a time.

Handing the Reins Over

18 years old and already looking at the next gen, Josh Devlin

"It wasn't much." Doug said, scratching at his cheek.

And then all hell broke loose. Cakes were destroyed, women were harassed, and worse yet—

"KKKRRKKK!!!?" Garo released an undignified screech as something licked him.

His Orbeetle's purity had been tainted.

Now this was everyone's problem.

"Agreed." Josh was right— this was far beyond wild pokemon activity, even for the mischievous ghost-types. He nodded at the gym leader. "Sounds good— leave it to me."

He palmed his still twitching Orbeetle in the back, fairly sure the bug's skin would've been crawling if it had any.

"Get it together, Garo." He said as his cap began to crackle with power, narrowing his eyes. "We've got vermin to smoke out."

A black cocoon suddenly enveloped the Orbeetle as the youth gave it a little shove.

"Mega evolution!" Shouted the youth as the cocoon shattered, revealing the metamorphosed Orbeetle. "Find our rat, Garo."

The Orbeetle's eyes shimmered a neon blue as it rose into the air and let its senses expand as far as they would go, its brilliant mind processing every presence within its reach to see which ones were... odd.