Johanna’s Dragpult struck up into the air like lightning in reverse; Petra rose, too, as its equal.

“Petra, push through it!”

She narrowed her eyes and charged through the blistering attack, powdered forward by her increased agility. She flexed her wings and curved up at the crest of her rise, maw open, snarling towards the Dragapult as Onyx called out, “Ice Fang!” Cold power began to darken her mouth as icicles sprouted from her fangs; she aimed to snag onto the Dragapult’s head wings and shake it violently from side to side.

Jules, meanwhile, danced away from the swung arm and the wave of sludge that followed in its wake. It curled out from behind the Nidoqueen’s limb like a color guard flag being unfurled; she couldn’t avoid all of it, but she stayed ahead of it as much as she could, keeping as close to her quarry as possible and summoning a blizzard directly atop the Nidoqueen. The wave of poison crashed against her stout, pink body, fragments of it freezing like purple dingleberries in her fur.

notes
- aerodactyl is hit by thunderbolt and uses ice fang on dragapult, wigglytuff is hit by sludge wave and uses blizzard on nidoqueen

Johanna Joy

☉

Onyx’s nose is full of the acrid smell of burning poison and smoke and forest fire, and his body is struck numb with self-loathing and the dying buzz of adrenaline.

Andres stands in the middle of a sunbeam slicing down through the clouds, pealing off his glimmering blonde hair, illuminating the crying child he holds to his chest as his eyes scan around for… they land on Onyx, and Onyx freezes as though he’s been struck.

He doesn’t want to approach him. Doesn’t deserve to. But he makes his feet move (left, right, left, right) until he’s… not at Andres’ side, but nearer, hoveirng just outside his general airspace, not wanting to pollute it like the toxin he knows he is.

“Don’t,” he says, though his voice is lacking his usual hard edge, and is as painfully soft and genuine as Andres’ is. “Don’t thank me.”

Don’t thank me, don’t touch me, don’t even look at me, ever again. I don’t deserve it.

He swallows, and the whistle that escapes him wavers slightly as Ziadem comes round to pick him up. He recalls his Pokemon and gives Andres a final, tired nod.

“...get home safe,” he says, which isn’t an apology, it isn’t much of anything, really, but he’s not gonna stick around for the police and the paramedics and the parents and whoever else is about to crawl out of the woodwork. He twitches his hand out in a pathetic wave, thinks better of it, and bites back a pained sigh as he swings up onto his raven and takes off, removing the shadow of his presence from the light of Andres’ life.

[attr="class","membot"]andres buenaventura mission: clefable in the feywilde

[attr="class","memboc"]☉

The sun beaming down illuminated small motes of dust that filtered through the air.

Onyx’s lip almost lifted in a snarl, but he turned his head to his elbow and coughed to cover it. He’s supposed to not be himself, he remembered at the last second.

“No,” he said, though he offered no further explanation. “Doubles are good, if that’s what you normally do.” He whistled sharply and Ziadem returned from where she had been examining something shiny, high-stepping her little birdy feet across the arena floor.

He wanted to get going but he couldn’t obviously attack an unarmed Gym Leader.

notes
- aerodactyl/corviknight out

Alexei Ivanov

☉

He goes behind the curtains, and waits for his name to be called.

Beyond the cloth barrier, the noise was loud. There were horns and faux-thuds and roars of laughter and clapping. While no less garish than his bout with Josh Devlin, this was about to be a whole lot more public.

Onyx didn’t really know where he stood on that. He wasn’t here chasing fame or notoriety. Just strength. Just climbing a ladder visible only to him, it seemed.

When he was summoned, he breezed through the curtains and took his place, nudging Jules up to her own spot and releasing Petra to join her. The Aerodactyl, it seemed, loved the roar of the crowd, however small, and did a pre-victory lap, roaring and flaring her wings as if swelled up on thermals of the crowd’s excitement.

Onyx had to whistle shrilly to get her to take her mark.

“Ready,” he said, affixing a small smile and nodding at the gym leader.

And then they were off.

“Petra, agility. Jules, sweet kiss.”

The Aerodactyl’s wings swept and swayed as she limbered up to prepare for a battle; Juliette bounced forward on her pink toes, spinning into a pirouette, and aimed to plant a smooch right on the Nidoqueen’s cheek.

notes
- aerodactyl uses agility, wigglytuff uses sweet kiss on nidoqueen

Johanna Joy

☉