It seemed Alex wasn't too prepared for Josh's intrusion, scheduled as it was. He had been warned not to formally register for the challenge, lest he get grilled by the Birdfather's Gym staff. He immediately noticed the Leader distinctly not dressed for the occasion, an empty bucket in his hand. "...Was this a bad time?" he asked half-apologetically, trying to break the ice in case of stress. Josh was more than familiar with the stress of running a Gym, after all!

"I'm sure you saw the listing for Dahlia's operations. I've been conscripted to space," he moaned. "On short notice too. I was under the assumption the desert's beacon was mine. But nooooooooo. She wants me in space. And I don't get a vote." Pazuzu squawked, trying to get Josh to cheer up. He gently ran his glove-covered hand over the large avian's head plume, which calmed the rider some. "And that's why I moved my appointment up. I get the feeling that it's going to be very much trial by combat up there, and I want to be as prepared as I can. As I taught you the art of racing, I would like to learn the art of aerial combat."

"Must be nice having a choice of where you get assigned to," Josh replied with a hint of jealousy in his tone, his mood clearly on the sour side after hearing about the Birdfather's circumstance. "They held my Gym over my head: go to space or resign. Must be nice having tenure, huh? I would have taken Pyre over space. One accident and you suffocate within minutes. And as much of a meme as it is, in space, no one can hear you scream." His mention of his armada being unable to fly without lift perhaps went into the decision to exclude the flying-type specialist from space. "Thankfully I have a Dragonair. She can fly and breathe in a vacuum, if all the testing we did is accurate. Dragons are something else, aren't they?"

Still seated on his Pidgeot, the Mauville Leader nodded in agreement, his usual energetic demeanor replaced with an earnest desire to learn how to fight alongside his Pokémon. "If I'm gonna be on the front lines, riding my Pokémon team, it would be a good idea to learn how to fight alongside them." The large bird screeched, equally ready to help Josh on a new level. "Let's go."

"Bidoof? Is that what you called me?" Josh spat, not taking kindly to the insult. "That's worse than being called Catface. I got called Catface when I was young." Given Josh's affinity for felines, and his love of Raikou that Alex knew about, it may not have come as much of a surprise. "Of course I do!" he answered the Birdfather's question. "I'm assuming the ones that stand up straighter are the ones that are reinforced?"

Provided Alex would confirm his suspicions as correct, he would make a pass with his Pidgeot, making a bid for a lightning-yellow one toward the center. His first pass on the swift bird resulted in an early grab. When he realized he had the orange one next to it in his hand, he dropped the pool noodle and made another pass, this time successful. The solid core within the noodle's center made it feel like a polearm, though quite a bit lighter than a real one.

His foam jousting lance in hand, Josh landed Pazuzu next to Alex again, hoisting it under his arm much like a charging knight would. "Like this, right?" he asked. Little did he know he would later become more skillful with a sword than a polearm...

"...Right," Josh smiled, trying to hide his look of embarrassment as the common idiom had gone sailing over his head like a Drifloon in a whipping wind. Josh gave his pool noodle a test run, as well, happy with the reinforcement in the middle keeping it straight.

Alexei riding bareback did not surprise Josh at all. They had known each other for a long time. They were both close enough to their Pokémon that Josh could ride bareback as well, if the situation warranted it. The Gym Leader simply preferred tactile control. It gave him a lot more precision than with trusting the sync between the two. He also found controlling them his way to be just plain fun! To each their own, though!

The rules reminded him of the many jousting tournaments he had been to, particularly when he faced off against ghost fireheart and Thomas Benoit . "I've done something similar at the Ren-Faire before, but never with a flying Pokémon. This should be fun. I do have one question, though. Our partner Pokémon isn't allowed to attack. Does that include using moves like Quick Attack not to attack, but just to go faster?"

Josh was visibly disappointed he couldn't use the one edge he had over Alex in the air: speed tolerance. Even for the Birdfather, QUICK ATTACK could have been challenging to control. Their race at Mauville Gym not long after he had taken office there was evidence of that. Perhaps his skills in the metaphorical saddle improved (not a real one, as he rode all his birds bareback).

"I'm familiar," the fellow Leader smiled. "As I'm sure you know, if you want to win at Mauville Racing Grounds, you have to prove you can ride as one. I've known this Pidgeot since I was eleven years old. Pazuzu here was the first Pokémon I ever caught on my own. Oh, speaking of which, do you have any leads on Pidgeotite ore? I've been in search of some." That discussion could wait until after the match though. With a loud caw, the large bird looked ready to take to the sky, his armed rider ready to joust. He flashed a smirk toward one of his best friends.

"Round one. Fight."

Alex getting well ahead of Josh showed the young racer, still wet behind the ears in the art of combat flight, just how reliant he was on QUICK ATTACK to overtake foes. While they had both known their Pidgeot for years, the Birdfather's simply had higher sustained speed. Pazuzu chased Idun down, looking for an opportunity to cut a corner and give Josh an opportunity to land a passing blow.

That chance would come sooner than later as Idun pulled a sharp reversal that would have made Hoenn's newest Gym Leader dizzy. He clearly had a lot to learn about how to pilot flying Pokémon, and who better to learn from than the Birdfather himself? "Dive, Pazuzu!" he shouted over the powerful wind, reining his bird to the left and shifting his body weight in the same direction. If their timing was right, Idun would fly right into the yellow, foam polearm!