The gym leader had the right idea. Megan, knowing what would come, had prepared herself to quickly shield her own and look away briefly in advance. During training, she had worn shades for this attack in particular. But she couldn’t exactly do that in a battle like this. Would just give the game away more easily. Yet, with some anticipation, she was able to both do that and recuperate faster, soon finding herself looking at her Hydreigon, which needed to recharge for the time being.
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That kind of attack did take something out of it, after all. Hence, it simply hovered where it had been, the distance created by the other now benefitting it. That rock slide had absorbed some of the attack, but so far, it was difficult to tell just how much the Salamence had taken. The dust still needed to clear. Though both Megan and Hydreigon were apprehensive, anticipating that the other dragon had managed to take the beam without going down. There would be no premature celebration. Especially not when they were the most vulnerable.



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“Recklessness only differs from decisiveness after the fact,” she shouted back, trying not to get too distracted. After all, without the protect, the Salamence would have taken a good deal of damage, probably. As was, it had interrupted its own attack as well, which left Hydreigon reeling a little from the sudden, more unexpected impact. But it had expected to impact with something at least, so this was not something overbearing. It could deal, even as it backtracked a bit itself. Apparently, the melee was over.
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But to Megan, those words were relatively meaningless. She knew from her fight with Doug that most Gym Leaders mostly saw themselves as teachers, so she took this as constructive criticism, rather than him looking down upon her. But still, it didn’t help much. Not like they could do much more than attack when the opportunity arose. A shield just delayed matters.[break]
Come to think of it though, that was a good thing after all. That shield was used now. Sure, the Salamence would be able to try again – but it could hardly shield itself when it was attacking at range, either. “But, sure, I guess we can be more careful with the next beam, right Hydreigon?”
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The dark type smirked in response, as the three heads gathered energy once more. Only this time, when they released their attack, it wasn’t three differently coloured attacks and elements. Instead, it was all the same. A massive hyper beam, that hopefully would do more than just take care of the next salvo.


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Heh. Got the wings. Nice. Megan smirked when she saw her Pokemon score some painfully-seeming hits. It was probably best to keep up the pressure now that they had some advantage, so she did not play it safe and tried to disengage. A worked up Hydreigon would probably not really stand for that, anyway. They were here to win, not to get away unscathed. Some damage was always unavoidable. To that, they both (the four of them?) agreed on principle.
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Hence, Hydreigon roared too, and she roared her order with it. “Meet it head on with a Dragon Rush!” Both dragons were going into a frenzied melee now, which was probably good, one attacking with claws, the other tackling with massive force. Though she did hope that Hydreigon could make the other flinch, still. Always best to still get away more unscathed, rather than less.



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Yeahhhh….[break]
She didn’t actually get any of that. There suddenly were some Pokemon singing, but she couldn’t for the life of herself figure out which breeds they were just from that. And she most certainly could not tell whether or not a Beheeyem was currently involved or not. So, she had to take his word for it while completing her own rinsing. “I don’t know a whole lot about Pokemon singing, to be honest. As I said, most of mine are fighters, really. Doesn’t sound that bad though. Mine just aren’t into that, I guess.”
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Once again, she shrugged, though her words probably indicated such to begin with. Her pals just never did this, so she had not really experienced it outside of what she saw on TV. That weird Diglet DJ was something she had to watch over and over during work, which had thoroughly killed her interest in the topic. “I guess my Hydreigon is the most musical of my mons. It is loud at least. Though it honestly only knows one very threatening sound, so it is probably not the best to hold a concert or so.”[break]
Another joke, naturally. That one would rather scare away any Pokemon in a fifty foot radius than entertain them, that much was for sure. Though three heads growling in unison did make for some nice reverb.



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The rest of the tri attack was consumed by flame, cancelling out and leaving a fine mist across the battlefield. Not the kind that could change the combat situation by itself, but rather the kind that just added a bit of a flourish – and one that caused Megan to briefly sneeze when it reached her nose.
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Slightly embarrassing, but she did not allow that to get her down. After all, her opponent was apparently controlling the other Pokemon with whistles, so it was probably not even that bad to make random noises.
But also, do stuff in general. “It’s close now. Show it the other kind of triple attack with crunches!” The Hydreigon obeyed swiftly, all three heads joining in with the snapping as they would come at the opponent from slightly different angles, winding heads seeking a good position to sink their teeth in gleefully. This was the most enjoyable part of battle for Hydreigon, after all, so it revelled in it.



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“Taking the word out of my mouth,” she mostly mumbled to herself. Apparently, the man’s preparations were complete, as were theirs. The two heads working up one another stopped just as stones were razed, all of them intently watching proceedings.
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And then, the Hydreigon did what was probably antithetical to everything that had happened before. It fell completely silent for a few moments. The Salamence might have had cackled, but the Hydreigon grinned slyly. It was a dark type, after all. It was quite crafty by nature.
Megan had already figured out what it wanted to do and agreed. “Tri Attack,” she simply noted, though this was more a formality. Less her giving an order, more her just approving a plan of action.
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As the rocks and dragons closed in, the three heads opened their mouths. The left and right head shot fire and ice at the incoming rocks, destroying some of the bigger ones that might have otherwise have hit it – but the last one, it had not stopped tracking the Salamence, or at least the latter’s most likely position. Clearly, of the three heads, this was the dominant, or at least the most intelligent one. And in that role, it shot lightning at the incoming dragon, seeking to deter or damage it, whatever happened, even as the body was pelted by some of the remaining rocks.



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The Salamence didn’t try to defend itself in favour of using status moves, it seemed. She recognized that trademark shudder it induced in Hydreigon anywhere. Loads of wild Pokemon they’d fought for training had used such a move as their first defensive instinct. And she certainly could see why. Though it went without saying that her opponent and his Salamence were quite experienced battling together as well. Either that or he just let his Pokemon do whatever it wanted.
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Given that he was a gym leader and hopefully not messing with her, she assumed that this was the case. Plus, she and Hydreigon had some pre-set tactics, too. One of them was that if their opener didn’t do all that much, but the opponent was not attacking, then it was time to work up. Hence, two of the heads snapped at one another, working each other up, while the third coordinated levitating backwards to create some distance. Salamence was more of a close-ranged dragon as far as they knew. And even if not, a ranged attack was easier to dodge to dodge at range.
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In the meantime, Megan was getting quite worked up herself, hands clenched into light fists and quite intently watching the battle, waiting for her moment to actually give inputs that might help.


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“Good to know,” she replied, feeling a bit relieved. She wouldn’t want to end up with menial labour like that of a receptionist again full time once she realized her dream, after all. That was very much meant to raise her out of such a desolate state, in the end.
However, it was still a rather long way towards achieving that, so she put on her game face for now, after giving him a brief smile as he left for the other side of the pitch. Apparently, he was already guessing something big and making room for such. Though, fortunately, this was not a water gym that could lead to Wailord on Wailord action.

Still though, she guessed that a Salamence was certainly big enough. And she was not going to disappoint, reaching for her own Pokeball. This wasn’t her little private aviary, after all, she had to use such pedestrian technology to bring her Pokemon still.
“Guess this will at least be slightly epic a fight then, one way or another. Just as long as no one uses Sing,” she announced, before throwing the ball. He probably would not get that reference, unless gym leaders gossiped a lot. Ugh, just thinking about anyone knowing how that particular battle had gone made her feel annoyed.
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But the sight of her three-headed dragon emerging from the ball all but immediately cheered her up still. “Ah, well, a first move is always good. Let’s get loud right out of the gate, Hydreigon! Give them a Hyper Voice!” The dragon took off to at least hover over the ground while all three heads roared loudly, making themselves heard. It wasn’t her strongest move, but she figured that she would be gauged by that. Plus, she figured that her opponent wouldn’t exactly just take it. So, she decided to go for a smaller, but also very obtuse opener like this to see how this would go herself.



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Likewise, he reminded her a little of someone as well. Mostly because he was so certain of himself and his fame that he did not even bother to introduce himself. Granted, she knew his name. But introductions were still proper, they showed the respect that he was speaking about. Hence, she briefly scoffed, though he probably wouldn’t know why. Guys were like that oftentimes, sadly. But she saw no reason to be of too much help in that regard, either.
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Instead, she simply moved on. “Yes, a traditional one-on-one. Always seemed the most straightforward and meaningful format to me.” She did not elaborate much further, since she felt like that would only bog the convo down needlessly.
Thus, she naturally followed him into the arena, which mostly looked like she had envisioned it. Which was only natural. The information had been relatively easy to look up, after all. She knew that this was probably going to be an aerial battle in the end.
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She still took the arena design in as best as she could. After all, she was still working her way towards becoming a gym leader herself. “You often have to fill in for your subordinates, though?”



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“Silence is also quite nice,” she replied, though she quite quickly realized how rude that might have sounded, so she briefly harrumphed before adding a little bit. “Don’t mean you are annoying right now or anything like that. Just like going out into the world and don’t have any music other than natural ambience.” That probably was the best explanation she could give there. Not that she strictly speaking had to give one, but it kind of just felt right to do so. He was an amicable kind of person so far, after all.

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There was a brief interruption with some quirting noises. Probably one of his Pokemon doing something. Hopefully something like that. Though he quickly brought her attention to that topic anyway. “Don’t think any of my Pokemon are great singers. They’re fighters mostly, really. Though I guess there can be art in combat too. After all, singing other Pokemon to sleep is not too different from just knocking them out.” A somewhat coarse laugh was added to what definitely was supposed to be a joke.



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“I’d say it’s either Megan or Miss Whitmore. Always sounds weird to use a honorific to a first name to me,” she replied, as per usual just chattering pointless things when she was on edge. Her tongue somehow always got used when she closer to a gym battle or other big event. Some might call it witty, but she was always just embarrassed by it afterwards. Probably because she was so very honest when she did.
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However, by now the man had her full attention. At first, he just looked like a receptionist. But she knew the gym leader was a man. And she still remembered the last time she was greeted by a seemingly low-level gym employee at the entrance. So, this time she figured she’d just ask instead of falling for some kind of deception. That at least eliminated the ‘I never actually lied, you just assumed’ kind of excuse. “You the gym leader here or the receptionist?” A very specific kind of question for certain.



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If she had heard his age assessment, she would probably have gotten irked. Meg definitely wasn’t old enough yet to be flattered by being considered younger. Though she was probably guilty of the very same thing. Yet, as long as neither of them put too much emphasis on this, it would fortunately fall to the wayside one way or another.

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Instead, the conversation drifted into more harmless territories. After all, he was complimenting her. Just on something she didn’t exactly deem worthy of much praise. Hence, she scratched the back of her head. Then, she realized that boy incognito could not see that. Then she realized that it was probably a good thing….[break]
Her response had to be audible. “It’s just something I sometimes do. And when you have to have music at all times during work, whistling just comes natural I guess. Though usually I just ended up getting sick of hearing the same jingles over and over and over and over.” She stopped herself there, feeling the all too familiar urge to complain come up. And that was supposed to be so last year.



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Benicio? That sounded like he was from that region….the one….she’d forgotten the name of it. Maybe it would come back to her in a few years. Didn’t really matter right now. Chances were he was from Hoenn anyway. The place was a melting pot of cultures sometimes, often feeling like it lacked one of its own sometimes. Not like she knew much about this to begin with.

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Hence, she just shrugged at his introduction. “I’m Megan. And I tend to not trust clowns with my hands when I am on ice,” she replied, not bothering to rein her bluntness in. After all, they had already reached a part where they could be honest with one another. Angry or friendly, honesty was something positive either way. “Though I will accept the apology, if it was sincere of course.”



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