kyle throws out a pokeball, releasing a lumineon rather than one of his big hitters.

"tailwind!"

the fish pokemon leaps out, summoning winds from the sea breeze to blow towards the kyogre and against the direction of its attacks. though it wasn't enough to completely stop it, the iron moth's move, alongside the lumineon's storm drain, manages to steer the brunt of the attack away from their ship.

in the mean time, suicune and raikou run through the surface of the water, leaping on the air before tension breaks underneath their steps. they employ the same moves as kyle usually uses in the face of deterring kyogre.

suicune moves in with the help of tailwind, creating sheets of ice with sheer cold to limit the kyogre's movement. they get destroyed with every movement, but the pokemon is quick to reinforce them nonetheless.

the raikou uses the foothold from suicune to hit it where it hurts. thunder deafens as each strike of lightning hits the kyogre clean in the middle of the heavy rains the leviathan conjured itself.

"and this usually continues until it loses interest," kyle absently narrates. "it wouldn't be a win since it just comes back the next day."

kyle waits by a perimeter with his pokemon ready, having been alerted by the news of it.

stealth rocks litter the road that would be the only exit for these vehicles should their first line of defense fail. kyle pats his lycanroc's head before speaking to the radio.

"pecha avenue clear."

according to what he hears on the radio, however, rangers and civilians alike had already taken care of most of the job. he wonders why he should even be here if things solve themselves with people's inclination to intervene at every chance to be a hero.

oh, right. he doesn't want to get fired.

• utilize caltrops or spike strips (human or pokemon made [e.g. spikes, galarian stunfisk]) to pop tires.

"oh, i didn't recruit him to elite four," he corrects josh. "he did that himself."

Navy being one wasn't expected, especially since he told kyle multiple times before that he didn't want to be part of the league. true to his hypocrite nature, however, it becomes the case.

not that he was opposed to it.

"i did pad his resume to get his application easier though," he adds, referring to his admission to aqua initiative. "and i'm about to do the same for you with this match!"

with a phone on hand, he points it to a giant screen on his chamber. it shows the six pokemon he is bringing, alongside what josh's repertoire was. not that kyle got anything from it since he had his team out already.

"how about i use three pokemon against how many you want?" he offers. "doubles, of course."

while it was true that pokemon that aren't normal are usually stronger than common ones, it was also true that kyle takes things more seriously when he has his back against the wall.

the handicap wasn't to limit himself, but to force his hand.

a lasting impression was easy when he has a shadow pokemon.

bulldoze comes first. rampardos stomps his foot against the ground, destroying the stage. debris start to spike from the epicenter, forming protrusions that face outwards from the point of impact.

kyle snaps his fingers, cuing a change of lighting.

the main lights all turn itself off, leaving behind a flashing floodlight that shines on the stage. fitting for the pokemon, a shadow play from the shadow pokemon was given to the audience.

a dinosaur in the middle of what seemed to be a ruined city or a mountain range sets the scene.

the rampardos starts to destroy every prop it made itself, dark impact making an impact to the performance. it makes a show of destruction, wrecking the entire stage until everything was leveled down.

the show ends.

sacred fire burns away at the poison, toxic chain or otherwise. kyle watches it disintegrate into ashes as flames from entei's maw leave its victims untouched.

kyle attempts to yank one from a controlled civilian, but it ends up crumbling the moment he touches it. a healing aura activates almost immediately, giving the avatar himself a natural cure against the poison.



in the middle of the operation, entei barks and stares up the skies. an unnatural glint of light hits his eyes as the presence of the latios takes their interest.

they would've loved this scenario, he thinks to himself.

they thrived in chaos, and kyle shares this distinction with them. he leaves the latios be instead of chasing after it as a favor for a friend. they don't want him shackled in any way, just as they are with their life.

he motions for his entei to continue their work of neutralizing the poisons, leaving behind a section of the town as cleared.

• have a pokemon know & use the ability, NATURAL CURE.
• incorporate the appearance of a LATIOS shifting in and out of invisibility to assist with Littleroot's liberation; this Pokemon can not be caught.

another one appears by route 120. kyle is one of the first to respond to the call, bringing out his pokemon to combat it.

"sheer cold."

kyle orders his ninetales to freeze the place up, solidifying any of the liquid toxins spewing out from the garbordor. ice crystal creeps up to the massive creature, encasing it with ice, until everything shatters once it reached its potential.

it's one barrier down, and the rest is for the others to destroy.

• assist by break the eight dynergy barrier segments (first 8 will receive 2 mochi instead of 1).

"i would rather have it held on my chamber than on the league's arena for public matches," he tells josh. "won't you rather have such a big moment of your life be more personal?"

for someone like josh, it wouldn't matter. he'd be too absorbed in the moment anyways to notice the crowd. the burden was more on kyle, who would find it difficult to comply with josh's conditions for their match if there was a live audience.

"it's never too late to change the details for your request of the match," he hints. "i don't really plan on making our match a show match, anyways."

it means no flashy moves, no fancy stipulations, and finally, no 'top champion' role for him. he'll be going as kyle lopez, avatar of ho-oh, as part of josh's own journey as a person.

he hops on the back of his spectrier afterwards.

"feel free to ask navy for tips when you go meet him too," he teases. "though i'm not sure if it's going to be helpful."

it doesn't mean to be condescending as pre-battle banter, and more like a premonition for what's to come for josh. kyle makes sure each match is tailored to the challenger, after all.

vilzriquath.

he turns back to the book to read the word where he left off. he certainly knew the word, and he could somewhat read it in the script it was written and could identify it if it was spoken out, but his words did not sound the same way as roy had said it.

"vilziquath... vilziriquath... fuck."

his pronunciation was off. if he were to speak it in his natural tone and voice, it definitely would sound alien to the rest of how the language was supposed to be spoken.

"eh, i'll get it right later." a part of kyle wants to embrace being a defeatist. instead, he turns his attention to an easier topic. "anyways, are you part of the draconids too, or are you also a hobbyist?"

it implies that kyle was one, as opposed to the likes of freya morningstar .

kyle groans.

"i forgot wild pokemon can access terastalization too."

it was more of a whine to himself than anything. dealing with any pokemon was trouble as it is, and having to manage fending them off with the boost seems doubly more miserable.

still, the sylveon's actions make kyle look more confident with being able to deal with the situation easier.

"hyper beam," he tells his pokemon.

with its laser focus, it hones in on the wattrel as its target. together with the sylveon's helping hand, it fires a huge torrent of power towards the bird as it had its attention on the eeveelution.

his mightyena finds an opening for a critical hit, blasting the wild pokemon against a nearby crystalline growth with force.

"oh, yeah. it does that."

kyle wonders if eris just wants to argue by saying these statements. nonetheless, he ignores those and concentrates on her last question.

"who knows? nothing's ever been logical in hoenn."

because there were always people who say they don't want to be in the spotlight or danger, but will always find their way to make excuses out of their presence in the most dangerous scenarios of the region.

he has long accepted that he will never understand what happens in the mind of an average resident of hoenn.

"i just personally err on the side of caution. it doesn't mean anything i say or do will be useful though."

despite his title and status, he wasn't special as an individual.

"if you think you're safe, then maybe i'm just worrying about nothing. carry on your drawing then."

"dude, you literally just told me to-"

he stops to think of the words navy told him when they appeared in this scenario. they were all just taunts and words of encouragement, but he never outright told him to take it seriously.

"-nevermind."

he turns to his manectric and whistles a note.

going on the offensive, the manectric finishes its set up with the rain dance before bombarding the koraidon they beat up with a barrage of thunder, which have been boosted with the electric terrain.

kyle casually mega evolves his pokemon in the middle of the onslaught, stealing the limelight back from the koraidon on their side.

"can we go home now?" he whines, not wanting to be teased by navy into being coerced into doing something again.

"your standards must have dropped if you already considered that certain dog boy one of those."

he would have just given him a smile, but a laugh comes out instead, finding it funny that he had externalized a thought that has long lingered in his head.

"are you sure that's the case when he's the one person in the region that should be doing more than the minimum?"

it's a lighthearted conversation, but he doesn't want to let his thoughts get filtered in a chat with a friend.

kyle never was the type to fish for compliments. though he's learned how to take them well, there were simply statements where he finds himself being able to refute if he doesn't find it aligning with his truth.

he laughs.

"looks like you got your composure back."

he knows that there's still worry and dread underneath the friendly banter he throws back at him. for a man who can only live by going forward and ignoring the weight of his own sins, it will never be gone.

but the fog in his head has cleared. he is ready to make decisions in accordance to his nature once more.

"unlike you, i actually know how to get myself out of my own mess," he banters back. "maybe i'll help you out too as long as you don't stab me in the back."

they had talked about it before. matias swore that, unlike every other friend or love interest he had, he would never drive a knife into him. back then, part of him didn't actually believe it.

the lighthearted note of his dark humor provides a glimpse of the future to come.