ace is in literal (not really) awe as he takes in the beauty of the gym. "look at that." he points to a piece of technology that helps regulate the artificial ecosystem. "and that." he points to a red flower of some sorts that have unusually long petals that curl upwards. he visibly wows as he closely examines it, face hovering only mere inches from it.

every now and then he glances around the room to make sure no one's watching him and only when he's sure it's safe will he snap a quick picture with his semi-outdated phone. it functions fine, has a touch screen and camera, and makes calls, so that's all he really needs.

through the maze he goes and soon he steps through the exit on the other end. he's greeted by the sight of a circular stone field and standing on it is someone with green hair. he stops, freezes, then it clicks in his head.

"oh! you're the gym leader. cait, right?" he takes a step forward and unzips his fanny pack to pull out a book of sorts. "i read about you in this guide that i found on the city. it's been really helpful, it even has a map." 

stopping himself from getting sidetracked even further, he clicks his tongue as he nears her. he regards her with a gentle smile, though a look of anxiety washes over him as he speaks again.

"i also read about your gym and the rules." his grip around the guidebook tightens a bit. "are there exceptions? the three-on-three rule to be particular. see," he gestures up to the furret sitting on his shoulder. "socks doesn't really battle. at all. so i was hoping i could do a...two-on-two instead."

cait alfric

his expression lights up in glee at her words, smiling brightly as he quickly tucks the guidebook back into his fanny pack. "yes! thank you very much, miss cait alfric." while in there he fumbles around for two more pokeballs and pulls them out. he clicks them open and calls out his two choices.

the burst of white scared him a bit but he manages to stand his ground. he watches as his chansey and doduo materialize in front of him. nurse the chansey is quick to take in her surroundings before lunging at ace to give him a warm hug.

"n-not now, nurse! we're about to battle a gym." 

ace shrugs himself free and takes a step back. he nods at the gym leader and eyes her with anticipation. socks shares the same feeling as he watches like a good spectator.

and doduo, well, doduo's being doduo. necks seems to be distracted by something in the air.

"we're ready--" he cuts himself off. he reaches back into his fanny pack and pulls out a purple notebook this time with a pencil inside it. he flips it open to the appropriate page and quickly scans the page once more.

"okay, now we're ready. kinda."

cait alfric

his eyes widen at the sight of two very green-looking pokemon. "oh i've never seen those before." he bends down to place the notebook on the ground for a moment before pulling out a pokedex. he lets it scan. beep boop beep. once done he drops it back into his fanny pack and reaches down for his notebook.

ace thinks it's unfair of him to use a pokedex in a battle, especially a gym challenge. but he's read enough about leafeon to know the basics. and in a real battle he won't have time to be looking at his pokedex all the time. so this is good practice.

"let them come to you! play defense!"

as new as ace might be, he's read far too many books for his own good. chansey's experienced, but doduo isn't. the egg-pokemon takes a step forward and positions herself in front of doduo, protecting as she enacts a LIGHT SCREEN. ace nods at the sight of the screen, smiling.

"doduo! do that runny thing you always do!" 

chirping, doduo starts running in place as he brings his skinny legs up and down and up and down, boosting himself with an AGILITY. soon, his moving legs become a blur.

"nice."

cait alfric