Asher had submitted his challenge. He hoped it would let him and Frou-Frou bond some, particularly over a large challenge. As he told Isaac, he didn't think he could win in actual battle. He might have taken the gym leader down a peg so long ago, but Josh had clearly improved if he managed to get this position. So he had issued a challenge for a race. A land one specifically. Thus the thing with Frou-Frou. They had done some practicing, going through various natural obstacles and getting used to each other. Frou-Frou seemed to be enjoying herself too.

The red head came into the gym and mentioned why he was there. So now he waited. Frou-Frou already had riding gear on her, he just need to release her from her Pokeball. Asher himself had a helmet, elbow and knee pads at the ready to be put on. He was kind of excited. Though also slightly worried. Technically, he did tell Josh that he was a Rocket member. Even if it might not be publically known. He really should have thought of that before he signed up...although...wouldn't they already have said or done something before that?


Josh Devlin

Challenger: Asher Baran[break]
Traditional or Non-Traditional: Non-Traditional[break]
Format: Ground Race[break]
Pokémon: Rapidash:Flash Fire: High Horsepower, Flame Wheel, Stomp, Smart Strike, Play Rough, Sword's Dance.[break]
Powers: N/A

Frou-Frou used High Horsepower again, then jumping. Maybe if she could get him some air...it worked! Asher separated from the fire beast, hanging on with just the reigns. She just needed to get him to let go! She sideways shuffled, then surged forward, so he'd have to try to keep up with her. Only...she didn't see the tree that he would be running into. Eyes wide, this wasn't going to go down well. Thing was...the red head saw it. And while he did have to run next her for a scant second he jumped and pushed off the tree to her other side! With his momentum and weight, Ash yanked as hard as he could to that side. That forced Frou-Frou down to her side, even with a bit of a slide. The song ended...and not only did he not let go of the reigns, but he had actually brought her down! Her!

Asher felt good! Damn good! Standing up and turning he grabbed her by the horn and forced her to stare at him. "I won. And I will remind you of this every time you decide to be a total bitch. But don't consider it a loss on your end. My job as a trainer is to show off your strength, your beauty, whatever it is that you want to show off! And it just happens that most Pokemon and trainers get stronger together. No more picking on the babies. I don't know why you do it, but strife and hardship is just one way to get stronger. Nurturing and teaching them is my method. Bones is often too preoccupied to really be there for them. So what do you say? Think you can be an actual mother and teach them to be strong and not just try to force them?" The Rapidash gave a hard nod on that. "Good. I hope to see it in action. Now, what better way to show off than challenging a gym leader?! What do you say to challenging Josh Devlin? Whether it's a race or a fight, I think you'd do very well. I mean, it sure as hell won't be a walk in the park no matter what, but I think that'll be a good place to show off..." He had let go of the horn at this point, letting Frou-Frou to lay down much more comfortably. But she liked that idea! And...maybe the brat isn't so bad. Maybe...she could learn a thing or two from him.

Standing up, she sort of started to push him towards Isaac. The red head just went over to him with a maniac looking grin on his face.


Isaac Merlo

No matter what she did, Asher stayed on. Though there was a couple of times where he almost slipped off from the sudden sideways hop/dash. Then she did another Sword's Dance, and surged forward with a Flame Wheel. The red head took the heat easily enough...he was primarily a fire-type trainer. And he handled a lot of heat from his Pokemon before. Even so, she burned a swath, but quickly went back to the lush areas and avoided the burnt sections. Had to give her credit there. Hostile as she was, she had no intention to actually cause serious injury to the brat.

The music was nearing completion, she had to do something quick! Using a third Sword's Dance, she started to use Stomp again to vibrate him off. Once, twice, three times. Asher squeeked the second time. This was slowly succeeding in actually letting him go and get flung off. Gasping, he kept hold. If he could handle a Z-move, he could handle this!

Isaac Merlo

Isaac did him a solid and returned his Dragonite. Not that either Ash or Frou-Frou seemed to have minded, but it certainly made sure that there would be only one witness to today's events. With one last bit of encouragement, the boombox started up. There was a scant five seconds before music started, and then the show began. With a mighty leap first thing, Frou-Frou used Stomp on literally just the ground. Despite that, the vibrations traveled up through the horse pokemon and into Asher. With that done, Frou-Frou dashed forward, almost making the red head lose his grip. But Ash held on tighter, and his look of determination stayed.

Frou-Frou wasn't done yet! Sliding to a stop, she reared back, swords appearing around her with a Sword's Dance, increasing her power. Then she plowed forward with High Horsepower, pummeling anything in her path. It wasn't just that, she was zigzagging as well. But the kid kept his center of balance lower, and had leaned forward to weather through the sudden shift in G-forces. Frou-Frou was certainly showing off her power. But the rides with Isaac's Rhyhorn had prepared him for this! With gritted teeth, he kept at it while Frou-Frou did all she could to jerk him off of her and onto the ground.


Isaac Merlo

Ash was practically bouncing on his feet when Isaac said that he hadn't seen anything yet. Eager to see any new tricks, it was the Dragonite that showed off. Its wings started to beat faster and faster. Even so, everything seemed serene. Not even the air was moving. That was extremely odd. Then he started to smell something. Flowers? Even Frou-Frou seemed to have noticed. Shortly afterward, a mist started to form around the dragon, and thicken. It just kept going, soon obstructing the Dragonite itself in a pink cloud. Once it was thick enough, the Pokemon moved back, and blasted the mist around their feet.

The place turned into a bonofide live mat! The grass got thicker, moss covered the ground, and flowers grew and bloomed. Even his Rapidash seemed impressed by the display. "That's awesome! Yeah, that'll work, most definitely." Ash looked around at the lush place. The stage was set. With one last hard stare at each other, the red head looked back at Isaac. "Can you do me a favor? When I give the thumbs up sign, can you start that boombox? When the music ends, the challenge ends, one way or another." It would just make things so much simpler. Ash didn't have anyone else with him, since he didn't want to embarass Frou-Frou if he won, but also didn't want to embarass himself in front of his team. Granted, Bones may one part laugh and one part groan, but still.

Hopping on over to Rapidash, he got on her, with some difficulty due to height, but it was time to get the show on the road. Frou-Frou dug a little with her hooves, and waited for the signal to start. With a thumb's up to Isaac, he was ready.

Isaac Merlo

Asher waited patiently for his big brother figure to arrive. And arrive he did...on a Dragonite?! That was new! Jumping, he rushed to meet the duo as the Pokemon peeled to a stop, just a brief moment of floating before landing softly on the ground. At the light tease, Ash gave a loud and perhaps obnoxious "Ha! As if she'd make it that easy, I'd be severely disappointed!" With motions to boot. The Rapidash gave a loud huff as well. She wasn't going to succumb to this stupid brat! She was better than that!

How he was holding up? "Well, it could be a lot cooler, but otherwise I'm good. I don't suppose you brought a Pokemon that could overgrow the area though? Just in case I fail and get flung way too high, at least the landing won't break any bones..." And maybe to play the toons he had. The Rapidash had until those tunes were done to knock him off and let go of the reigns. If she succeeded before the music was off, he'd have to try again at another time. Perhaps a different challenge. Even if he didn't intend to lose, it was a possibility. But he'd never been the type to dwell too much on what-if's. It was always do or die time.

And he was way too tired of her shit to let it continue happening!

Isaac Merlo

The time has come! After training and amping himself up, the challenge was made. Unable to stand down, Frou-Frou accepted the challenge, along with the date. Ash was nervious, but he had energy! He had guts! He was tenacious! And he was so done with her antics! It was time to show her that he was the alpha here! Asher chose a nice green pasture in Sootopolis City, just so he had room. Plus, this time of year, it was usually pretty desolate here. Freaking crater felt like a sauna, so all the guy had on was a black tank top, red metallic shorts, and a pair of sneakers. On the ground next to a tree was an old boombox that he had stolen from some bloke in Slateport. He still had some CDs too that worked with it.

The red head was just waiting for Isaac Merlo to arrive. He had promised to be there when Ash would try to tame the alpha Rapidash. Plus, maybe having someone there with a Pokemon to overgrow the grass in the area to soften any hard landings. Frou-Frou was in the middle, grazing a little bit, with a harness and light saddle on, ready to be forced to awknowledge him as her trainer. Okay, maybe she was thinking that she will force him off and keep him off. So long as he held onto the reigns, the match was on.


Isaac Merlo

Redeeming 3 x Applicable Moves

Rapidash learned High Horsepower, Play Rough, and Sword's Dance.

Buying 2 Level Tutors (40 pd x 2)

Rapidash learned Smart Strike and Stomp

Total: 80 pd

That was also a fair judgement. Asher just laughed at that comment.

The nerd brought the book he had grabbed with him to take a look at what Ash had found. He could almost see the gears turning in Abs's mind when they saw the word "Hisuien." The red head tried to read a little bit too, managing to catch that Hisui referred to Sinnoh during a time of discovery and settlement. That was...wow. Talk about old. They soon started scrolling for varients of Pokemon, soon finding a list.

It took a bit of looking since they weren't exactly moving quickly, but soon found a picture of a Hisuien Zorua and Zoroark. That was the mystery solved. It went on to detail that they came back via space time distortions. Sometimes even bringing back powerful Alpha Pokemon. That kind of reminded him of Frou-Frou, his overly large Rapidash. Now, there was enough out there that there is a population of these Hisuien varients and some evolutions. Not a large population, but some nevertheless. "Well, sounds like there is a population of these Hisuien pokemon now. And we discovered that's what Mirage is." He soon got a text.

It was from an odd jobs guy that often worked with Team Rocket. Seemed he had a job that would be perfect for the youngster. Well, always gotta eat and/or earn your keep! "Well, it kinda sucks, but it looks like I need to get going. It was good to meet you, Abs! Hopefully we'll see more of each other!" With a hopefully quick handshake, Ash powerwalked out. Time to earn some money!


absalom steel

It really did. "Yeah, logic always seem so cold. Even if without it, we do a bunch of really stupid stuff haha!" And potentially end the human species by murdering each other. Fun stuff. At least it seemed like Ash made the guy smile. He'll definitely have to keep Abs in mind and find out where he lives. Wonder if he had a wallet and ID for the red head to steal temporarilly? Ah, maybe using speech would be enough. Abs did much the same, but instead of going to the computers, he went for the books.

Ashe was reading article after article about time-space distortions and how they relate to Pokemon when he came across one about Alpha Pokemon. And yep, Frou-Frou definitely fit the bill. That was one problem he needed to take care of soon. Moving on, he kept going. Eventually, he started to see something about odd Pokemon. Ones that looked similar to current ones, but not quite. Reading along, he found that they called these variants Hisuien variants, and that there was a list of them. Looking around, The red head tried to find the nerd. Frowning, he got up to take a quick look. Thankfully that didn't take long to find him. "Hey, I think I might have found something. Shall we?" Ash would escort Abs to the computer for the guy to take a look at the article itself.

absalom steel

goodra pwease

Redeeming 1 x Gacha from Passerby Analytics.

pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/22383/ashers-gacha