Ned reached for Cobalt's pokéball as a feminine voice called out to him, and he turned around to find a young woman riding atop a skuntank.
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"Oh, we're fine," he replied to her, gesturing to the zangoose. "Just a little lover's quarrel."
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The zangoose wasted not a moment. As Ned was distracted, the furry creature lunged forth and tackled him to the ground, knocking his metagross's capsule from his grip. He raised his arm to shield his face as it began a violent barrage of fury swipes. He rolled back on the ground and thrust his legs into the zangoose's gut. The shimmering beast recoiled, and Ned wrestled himself free. He scurried to the fallen pokéball and tapped it as his metagross emerged and materialized before him.
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"METEOR MASH!" he bellowed.
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Cobalt swung a mighty iron fist towards its foe, but the zangoose sidestepped the hit and returned with a night slash attack that left the metagross reeling. Cobalt cried out in its metallic voice, and Ned clicked his tongue in frustration. By now he was sure that the terastal phenomenon must have somehow sharpened the wild pokémon's reflexes.
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"I may have spoken too soon!" he said to the girl in a clearly distressed amendment to his previous statement, his coat tattered and torn from the zangoose's assault.
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[break]

Shalin Nariya

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Ned remembered the time distortion event as Josh described the phenomenon that had apparently been transporting pokémon across the globe. "It's not just time," he thought. "It's space too..." He wondered for a moment if Team Rocket had anything to do with it. What legendary creature could they be abusing now that would have such an effect on the world?
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He bit his lip at Josh's assumption. "I'm afraid not. If I need to use a cyclizar, then you'll need to provide one for me. Otherwise, Gobi is happy to take on anything you can throw at him."
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Ned scanned over the Paldean mounts. Certainly, they had been trained for speed, but none of them had the ferocity of a pokémon trained to fight. Contrastingly, they looked as if they had been tempered to have a more friendly disposition. His garchomp was a monster compared to them, but in terms of speed, he could not confidently say that he would best the competition.
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"I guess it depends what you want to accomplish. If you want to clash your new pokémon against other species, then I'll use Gobi. But if you just want to give the cyclizar some practice, then I guess I'll have to teach myself how to mount one."
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Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

"Paldea, huh?" Ned thought for a moment. "That's a long ways away. I suppose that's where your cyclizar came from."
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He scanned over Josh as he mounted his new pokémon. The beast was very green - both literally and figuratively. Gobi was too, as far as racing was concerned, but he was fast and his reflexes were sharp. Ned had seen his garchomp had fell even the most ferocious opponents, delivering fatal blows in the blink of an eye. He was an apex predator, and second to nothing else. Gobi was not only Ned's fastest pokémon, but also the only one he owned capable of flight. He initially dismissed the idea of mounting pokémon as childish recreation, but having seen it employed to such great effect in the Hoenn region, he had come to realize its potential combat advantages. A good trainer needed to be as strong and fit as his pokémon, after all. And only a coward would choose to stand back and shout battle commands while others willingly put themselves in the fray.
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"So, what do you say? I'd love to challenge you to a battle, but I'll save that for the day I come for your badge. So today I suppose we'll just have to see who's the fastest."
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Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

"I've been alright," Ned lied. "Y'know, can't complain."[break]
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It had been a very long time since he had answered a question like that honestly, but it was hard not to recipricate Josh's upbeat attitude. He reminded Ned of how he had been in the old days. And yet, Josh had undoubtedly seen plenty of horrors inflicted by Team Rocket in his own time. Truly, Ned envied him. He could only hope that he would eventually overcome his demons, and once again commit himself to greatness rather than revenge.[break]
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"Here, let me show you something," he continued as he reached for his belt and detached a pokéball from the magnetic strip. He called out his garchomp, Gobi. The creature kneeled down on all fours as he climbed onto its back.[break]
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"I've been practicing. Well, we've been practicing, I should say. So, now I've got a dragon-type mount to match that new one you've been training."[break]
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Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

ACTIVE

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Cyclizar Racing[break]
Hunting Crystals[break]
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COMPLETE

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First Steps in a New Land[break]
A Wrinkle in the Woods[break]
The Lay of the Land[break]
Riding Lessons with Leader Devlin[break]
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Ned's eyes squinted in the daylight as he stepped out of the cave onto a rocky cliff overlooking the riverside farms on the outskirts of Fallarbor Town. Rumors had circulated of an enraged wild pokémon attacking passersby on Route 114, somehow empowered by a phenomenon having something to do with the tera crystals that were suddenly popping up all over the region. From what Ned had heard, a few trainers had already learned to use its power to accomplish a form transformation that was compared even to mega evolution, and he aimed to acquire this ability for himself.[break]
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The area seemed unusually quiet, even for a winter's day. Seeing not even one wild pokémon around, Ned was sure that the disgruntled predator was somewhere nearby. He scanned the ledges while he headed down towards the grassy field below. He hopped down a short cliff and descended some stairs carved into the rock. Something seemed to be shimmering in the tall grass, but as he approached, the terastallized zangoose leaped out at him. Ned ducked and jumped, narrowly avoiding the feral beast's attack. He scurried back, and called out his new probopass.[break]
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"Magnet bomb!"[break]
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The shimmering zangoose used detect and dodged Moai's attack, before fighting back with a double kick that seemed strengthened by the terastallization. In two swift blows, the magnet pokémon was defeated.[break]
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Ned clicked his tongue in disappointment as he recalled Moai to her pokéball. "So, it turned into a fighting-type."[break]
[break]

Shalin Nariya

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

The biting cold of the north wind stabbed through Mauville City like a sword. It was that time of year again, when everyone gathered with their family and friends to celebrate the holidays and bring in the new year with big smiles. For Ned, it was a bitter inundation of loneliness. The season itself had become a dark reminder of everything he had lost. He was finding himself more prone to weakness, and staying sober was becoming near-impossible. His recent acquaintance gym leader Josh Devlin had become his only ally, but at least he was always willing to get together and kill time - even when Ned was at his lowest.[break]
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He sighed in relief as he stepped inside, and the warm air of the gym washed over him. He was midly annoyed to learn that it was closed to challengers for the time being, but spending the evening with Josh was better than his usual modus operandi of killing a six pack by himself in a motel room while his pokémon spar each other in the parking lot until someone calls the cops. All things considered, he would be hard-pressed to tell himself that he would not benefit from building up his social network.[break]
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"Hey," he said to the league staffer. "Where's the leader at? I heard he's got some new dragon-type from a distant land, or something like that."[break]
[break]

Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Grass gave way to gravel, and the terrain became steep and craggy as Ned and his garchomp treked on towards Meteor Falls along the path between the dense woods and the sandy coast. Boulders and craters lay scattered around the rising cliffs, like the earthy scars of some great forgotten battle.[break]
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Gobi lowered his head and let out a low growl. The trainer looked around for whatever had caught his pokemon's attention to find a jet of brilliant light sailing in his direction. Just barely dodging the attack, his garchomp waited for no command to retaliate. A probopass rose up from inside of a crater and prepared a second power gem as Gobi stormed forth and slashed at his opponent with a savage dragon claw. The steel-type pokemon endured the attack and returned with another blast of light.[break]
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"Gobi, use crunch!"[break]
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The dragon bit and teared at the probopass's soft metals, as it fought back with a magnet bomb.[break]
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"Dragon rush!"[break]
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Gobi shook off the damage from the steel-type attack as he sprinted towards his opponent, throwing forth his whole body in an incredible display of speed. The two pokemon collided, and the wild probopass reeled and flinched from the blow.[break]
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"Sand tomb!"[break]
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The ground erupted and sand spewed forth in all direction from underneath the metallic pokemon and encircling it within a swirling vortex of debris. Ned readied a vacant poke ball and hurled it towards the probopass as it prepared another magnet bomb. The target was encapsulated in a flash of light, and the trainer clenched his teeth in anticipation as he watched the ball begin to shake.[break]
[break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Memories flashed through Ned's mind. His demons had been growing stronger, as they did from time to time. The heartless onslaught, the horrored cries, the loss of his pokemon team. He remembered that one grunt, laughing in disgusting glee as his nidoking fatally wounded Ned's ninetales on the streets of Viridian City. Tears welled in his eyes. He balled a fist, and thrust a punch in vain retaliation.[break]
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As clarity returned, Ned began to cool down. Tension fell, his breath calmed, and his heart rate slowed. He wondered if he would ever be free of these flashbacks. People had been starting to notice lately, and some had even expressed concern.[break]
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He called out his garchomp to keep him company as he walked along the coast towards Meteor Falls. It was harder to dissociate when he had someone around, even if they had nothing to say.[break]
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"How's it going, buddy?"[break]
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"Grmph."[break]
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"Me too, Gobi. Me too."
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[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Ned's heart was racing. It had been a long time since he experienced such a rush. The gym leader was ecstatic. Ned only half smiled, and chuckled a bit. He had not ridden a pokemon since the invasion, and to make such a feat felt somehow purifying.
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"Even I had my doubts, honestly," he said as he dismounted the large absol.
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Devlin was an interesting character. No doubt serious and disciplined, and yet lighthearted, outgoing, and friendly. Ned was known to be cold in the time following Rocket's takeover, but having returned to civilization after living alone in the mountains, he was quickly realizing that no man survived long without allies. Truly, he wished he could be more like Josh.
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"Thank you for everything, once again." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of thick black fabric that unrolled into a strip pinned with each of the eight badges of the Kanto region. "I had hoped to challenge the Pokemon League at the Indigo Plateau at one time. I was there, actually, at the invasion. Barely made it out alive, lost my entire team." His eyes grew misty. "I don't think I could do it again, not while Rocket still has yet to go down. Thanks for the special lesson offer, but I can't bring myself to spend too much time on this while my own pokemon are sitting sedentary in their own pokeballs."
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Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]