Day one comes. Opening day. Everything’s more or less like he predicted. While Josh waits, the gym trainers he hired are keeping the townsfolk entertained down on the beach. They’re exhibition matches for the next few people – stuff to get them warmed up before the real show. Maybe that’s why there’s no one in the waiting room besides the smiling receptionist.[break][break]
Josh barely has time to adjust to the chair beside a wall replete with crayon drawings before he’s called. Navy walks out, wearing the same clothes he always wears. His famous dark blue jacket, the red shirt underneath. Hair done up with its spike, a smile that only edges his gunmetal eyes.[break][break]
“Man, you weren’t lying when you said you’d be the first one through the door.” Navy chuckles. He seems to be in a good mood on opening day. With a wave of a gloved hand, he callss Josh over. The other side of the door is…positively plain.[break][break]
It’s just a simple battle pitch. Nothing more, nothing less. No audience. Not much space outside of the pitch either inside this perfectly square room. Navy, as per gym leader tradition, takes up the post on the far side, away from the door. Josh is afforded the privilege to stand as the challenger.[break][break]
“So, tell me something. We don’t have to start right away. Why d’you think you’ve lost to every elite 4 you’ve fought so far?”

[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin

Sounds to me like Young’s good at counter-picking.[break][break]
Navy muses on this, but doesn’t voice the thought to Josh. It’s good intel for his own inevitable struggle with the Elite 4.[break][break]
Instead, he puts on the face of a gym leader. It’s a slippery mask. Navy hasn’t mastered its intricacies yet. How could he, when this is his first day truly wearing the thing? He recalls another lifetime, serving as a nobleman under Queen Penelope and King Ollie. Donning that face, it serves well enough.[break][break]
“…you’re not bad. Chairwoman Goode wouldn’t have approved your appointment if you weren’t good. Councilman Silph wouldn’t have ended your suspension early.” There’s bile, try as he might to not let it seep in, at the mention of Fernando Silph. Gym Leader Navy is the latest in a long line of men that man has made an enemy of.[break][break]
“But you’re childish. You’re probably more reliant on structure than anybody I’ve ever met. You’re an excellent gym leader…but you need to be more than that, if you wanna be a Champ in Hoenn.” Closing his eyes, he thinks back to the look in the eyes of every Elite 4 he’s seen fight, both on television and in real live battle.[break][break]
“Melody…Young…Fairburne…Connors…Matias Silph…Lopez himself. They’re all fighting for something. They’ve each got stuff they’d put everything, even their lives, on the line for…”[break][break]
He presses a button. The ground rumbles. The pitch begins sink. Around them is steel as they sink to some unknown depth.[break][break]
“Tell me, Josh. What are you fighting for?”

[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin

“Yeah, of course I was.” He endeavors to not patronize Josh with his note. There were more than a hundred people there that day. All of the council that wasn’t captured at the time, all four elite 4, every active gym leader, and that was just on the League’s side. Navy’s sure that if he bothered to look, he’d have found every member of Rocket’s upper staff there as well. It’s easy to lose one spiky-haired man in the chaos.[break][break]
“Gonna guess you got pulled into the shield. I got thrown into the sword. Lived for twenty years running between the kingdoms delivering mail.” His voice quivers as he remembers the daughter he lost. Kris, or was it Crystal? Her face fades. The smile flickers out. All that he can remember her by is a hand-carved figurine of Zacian, which sits by him even now.[break][break]
“But I guess that leads me to another question: why fight here? They’re in Johto. If you wanna protect the people who are close to you, why aren’t you close to them? Why not move back home, or move them to Hoenn? What if you’re not there the next time Rocket attacks Johto? Is that something your conscious could bear?”[break][break]
They sink far enough that Josh can see what’s below them: a vast battlefield. Rocky terrain surrounds them. This is a proper playground for Pokemon. Someone could get creative here, use speed to their advantage, or snipe from a distance. A place for warriors, not necessarily trainers.

[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin

“Trust me when I say…doesn’t matter how near or far you are, they’re still gonna worry.” This is no attempt to patronize, goad, or guilt. It’s an honest admission of one who has served as a parent to one who has not. “You could show up on their doorstep with Raikou, Zacian, and Rayquaza all acting like your best friends and they’d still worry about you. You’ll always be their…”[break][break]
He looks at the figure of Zacian again, carved by hands that are no real. Reaching out and touching it, he recalls the words of a song.[break][break]
A man can build his life on dreams,[break]
But it’s prudent to recall:[break]
A man with moonlight in his hands[break]
Holds nothing there at all.[break][break]
“…anyway.” He fights to keep his voice from growing emotional. They’re here on business. It won’t do either of them to dwell on what they have given up to reach this moment, where they have to test everything they have against one another. High above, hanging from the ceiling, is a ghostly chandelier.[break][break]
“Rocket will try and take over Mauville, just like they took over Sootopolis. They’re coming. They’re coming for every city in Hoenn. You’re a great duelist, but like we saw in these same caves…you gotta learn how to fight on an open battlefield. So, Josh.”[break][break]
Navy picks up a pokeball, steadies himself, looks to that carved figurine and all the love it represents, and tosses out his first Pokemon.[break][break]
“Show me you’ve got what it takes to defend the people you care about.”[break][break]
Grugni, his Runerigus, rises from the pokeball and roars. It is a far slower beast than whatever Josh will toss out to face him.

[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Tradition dictates that it is the challenger who gets the first blow in a gym battle.[break][break]
Team Rocket doesn’t care about tradition, and neither will Navy. Above them, the chandelure sparks to life. A surge that will be all too familiar to Josh sweeps over the room. Up is down, fast is slow, high is low.[break][break]
The world revolves. On and on and on, the battlefield around the pitch spins in a maddening, beguiling trick room. Callan Young has used this strategy on Josh before. Navy looks forward to seeing just Josh will think under pressure. Balling a gloved hand into a fist, he slams it against the display just below him, showing details of the battle.[break][break]
“C’mon, Josh! C’mon, Twilight! Let’s see what you two have got!”[break][break]
Grugni stirs amidst the rapid spin of the world. Floating across from Twilight, his red eye begins to glow. This is not a round for overt hostility. Instead of flying forward to attack a Pokemon as monstrously strong and deceptively quick as Absol, he instead takes a slower approach. Under any ordinary circumstance, he would be far too slow. In terms of a western duel, he is slow on the draw.[break][break]
In this place, which no more obeys physics than it does League regulation, rocks explode from his body. Part of Grugni burns away to place a powerful draining curse on Twilight.[break][break]
As the inevitable counter-attack comes, the air crackles with freedom. The question, which in the end is a question asked of every human, is what they will do with that freedom?


[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin [break][break]
Chandelure uses Trick Room[break]
Runerigus uses Curse

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

And what does Dewford’s gym leader do at that remark?[break][break]
He smirks. Ear to ear. Beams with pride at Josh for daring to declare something like that.[break][break]
“You know what you just did, Josh?” Navy asks as Twilight lands a decisive critical hit that almost destroys Grugni in one hit. “I don’t think you do…”[break][break]
“You sounded like a champion.”[break][break]
“You see a dirty trick, you gotta tell ‘em that dirty trick won’t work. Rocket throws out their worst, you tell ‘em their worst doesn’t mean shit to you.”[break][break]
Grugni falls in a mere few hits. Dewford gym’s lead is thoroughly trounced before even being given time to breathe. And good for Twilight, the next trick he was planning, just to be doubly mean, was a destiny bond. Ordinarily forbidden under League regulations, Navy little cares for those regulations. Rockets certainly don’t.[break][break]
Two Pokemon fly out to replace the fallen Grugni. One of them is all too familiar to Josh: Junior, the Tyranitar that trounced his interim gym leader. The other, a Copperajah, is new. Navy has been building up his line-up for the gym. Rashid’s trunk loudly sounds. A sandstorm is kicked up, obscuring Junior for the moment.[break][break]
Junior, too, curses. His own curse does not afflict Twilight. Instead, it seems to shroud him in power at the expense of speed. Rashid rushes out across the field, endeavoring to play rough with the Mega Absol.[break][break]
“Don’t lose your momentum, Champ In The Making. You keep this attitude up, you might just trounce the Elite 4 next time. Come on, man! Show me what you’ve got!”



[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin [break][break]
Runerigus faints![break]
Navy sends out Tyranitar and Copperajah[break]
Tyranitar uses Curse, increasing attack/defense and lowering speed.[break]
Copperajah rushes Mega Absol and uses Play Rough[break]
Tyanitar's ability kicks up a sandstorm[break]
Trick Room is still in play.[break]
Chandelure vibes.

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

He oversees this battle like a commander standing on ramparts. The incensed question brings a serious, stern tone to his voice. This man, so often the catcher in the rye, is determined to push Josh off a cliff. That there is safety equipment at the bottom to catch him is of no consequence. He must fall, and learn that in falling there is nothing to fear.[break][break]
“Do you think Cillian Quinn plays fair? Do you think any of Rocket’s bosses or beasts do? If you had to fight bryan delarosa or dorian westcliff , you think they’d stick to a gentleman’s agreement just ‘cause you would? You’ve got two choices, champ in the making: stick to your own morals and try to win your way, or adapt. What’s it gonna be? Sink or swim. No wrong answers. Show me what you’re about, Master of Faster!”[break][break]
Rashid, seeing the writing on the wall about what Junior is about to do, takes advantage of his vastly boosted speed to high-tail it away from the immediate vicinity of the battlefield. Scurrying away, he bides his time.[break][break]
Junior is beset on all sides. Disappointment reigns that Twilight couldn’t last longer. She seems close to Josh’s ace. The young Tyranitar hoped to have an all out brawl, but she’s down for the count. Her slash nearly cracks his armored hide. Were it not for the curse and the ample constitution of a Tyranitar, he would be down.[break][break]
But a Tyranitar is no normal creature. It is something made from devouring mountains. It is a ferocious opponent who will not lose easily. The signal beam strikes true, making him roar in outrage at the display. His tail slams into the ground and a mighty earthquake causes the whole gym to shake.[break][break]
Rashid is only spared because of how far away he ran. It is only after the Earthquake inevitably settles that he bites into the earth, digging underneath the ground. He’ll emerge later, but for now he is hidden from sight.

[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]