The noise was so loud, he was more than certain that shit would come screaming down on them the longer this went on.

“I said—” he began in his outdoor voice, before realizing that the loud noise had died down and she was no longer a blur of color.

Popping out the earplugs, he then had to clear his throat before he continued, “Doesn’t doing that like, all the time, really hurt after a while?” before blinking her way.

Sometimes, he was thankful that he lugged earplugs around with him all the time in case situations like these came up.

“E-exactly… my partner told me about the s-stories involving the Pokémon that hoards those c-coins,” he squeaked; not realizing his own voice had gone up several octaves again.

Primarily because Gholdengo were possessive little shits, and they did not like their stash being stolen from!

“W-what if this coin’s cursed?” he continued in that same quiet tone, quickly brushing off the rest of the webbing that had gotten stuck to his jeans.

Now, where did his Corvisquire fly off to?!

---

• hello, intrusive thoughts (fear prompt, Tom rolled a number with a 4)

The sound he’d heard was similar to the one he’d picked up on several times during a previous trip out here with his friend Thomas Benoit; was whatever making that noise in the middle of mating season?!

It sounded like the calls he’d heard previously… what if whatever made that noise was extremely territorial?!

He could only look around in a panic; before he searched his pockets and realized that he had his phone; but luck of the matter had it that the poor thing was already running low on juice!

“Oh, fuck me,” he whined; drawing out the last part of the sentence. Mustering up what courage he could, he immediately snapped a picture of the area; before popping a message open and looking for the closest contact he could find and sending it along with this message:

‘Send help! My phone’s running low on juice and I only had Kyouya with me earlier; he should be heading your way with an injured explorer!’

He then turned the phone off; his paranoia literally going up and through the wall because shit, shit, shit…

---

• send in the clowns what a nightmare

“Yeah, just got my foot stuck in a Joltik’s web—at least they’re not the angry, bitey kind,” he continued with a little ‘click’clicking’ gesture meant to mimic the sound of pincers.

It wouldn’t take too long before they would eventually find—something else. Something that was entirely and totally out of place in the entire—

“Hey, what’s th—” he trailed off as he pointed out the silver coin that his clumsy ass had accidentally dug up.

A split-second later he would have a belated realization what it was and immediately recoil at the sight of it.

“Shit.”

---

• oops
• he found the Gimmighoul coin kek

Oh, fuck.

Were they back again to get this done?

The moment the distress call came out from Route 120 of all places, he immediately went to go answer the call—never mind if his partner was currently doing household things.

“Sorry, love, have to check something out just past the city limits!” he yelled Guillermo Marceliño’s way as he literally peeled out the door, running full-tilt and grabbing his bird whistle to summon—

Yeah it was time to go out!

He would be at Route 120 in minutes on his Braviary’s back; before seeing the mass chaos unfolding… oh, shit, was this what was in Eva Morales’s report?! Yikes.

“Come on, over here!” he would yell as he swooped down and began directing people who’d gotten caught in the crossfire towards safety; out of the line of fire.

He was here to support, after all!

---

↠ help evacuate wild pokemon and/or civilians.

While the boulder that came flying at the two would throw them off-course for the briefest of moments, things weren’t over yet—as once they were able to navigate to the next part of the obstacle course; rathr than being greeted by rain, they would be greeted by the sounds of what appeared to be…

Cannon fire explosions.

Why explosions?

The fact would become clear as an unruly flock of Toucannon in all manner of sizes would come screaming down on the both of them; alternating between bursts of Bullet Seed and Beak Blast (which explained the booming noises when they went off) being fired from every single possible angle.

It truly was…

Bullet Hell.

Even he was caught off-guard by the sudden change in the obstacle, before a crackling voice in his ear said with a triumphant smirk that he could hear from this distance, “Thank me later! That was just supposed to be only the Beak Blast Battalion but Ethan had other ideas!”

Up ahead, the Hydreigon would suddenly do an inversion as the loud ricochet of Bullet Seed attacks being fired at maximum velocity (thanks to all the Toucannons having Skill Link as their ability) very nearly caught the hydra-hands off-guard!

“WHOA!” he yelped as not a moment too soon, the sizzle of a near point-blank Beak Blast to the face would cause him to drop several feet in height before the very noticeably shiny plumage of Sam the Toucannon would catch his attention.

Clearly, they weren’t here to mess around.

---

Part 2: Alolan Bullet Hellscape; roll lower than the total of Alex’s rolls to get through the second half of the obstacle! Do you want to know what happens if you roll higher?

The moment she revealed that her companion was going to be the Pokémon he would be going up against, he felt the skin on the back of his neck crawl for the briefest of moments—geez, what a bane to have an absolutely useless talent of being able to easily detect a Ghost-type Pokémon, wouldn’t you say?!

Either way…

There would be one shadow that would come streaking over the moment they walked out onto the arena—it was Gabriel the Salamence, who was still gnawing on a few Berries in his mouth as he flew lower and closer to the ground—

“Yeah, that’s why they didn’t show off, the cheeky little shitheads,” he gestured as the Salamence quickly made short work of the Berries in his mouth and then roaring his challenge to the skies; fixing his stare on the Dragapult on the other side of the field.

“You get first move, Miss Johanna!” he called out once his Salamence assumed the ‘ready’ position.

The moment he felt the vibrations on his skin, he knew he’d very nearly avoided getting his eardrums blasted out because he’d been fast enough to pop in the eardrums before witnessing something extremely… well, this was Hoenn, so the realm of impossibility had already been breached.

He could only flinch at the impact of the shock wave had landed; feeling it seep into his own body before he let out a shiver. Yikes, just how painful was that?!

He then waved her way; hoping the other would see him because he was trying to get her attention; eventually pointing at the Jigglypuff with a ponytail that had been sent packing.

“Doesn’t doing that often hurt?!” he exclaimed over the loud din.

“You might want to be careful around here, using fire like that,” he warned his friend.

“Who knows if the next time we use any kind of fire we accidentally start a big-ass forest fire…”

This wwas, of course, until he himself felt his foot snag on something as well! looking down, he realized that there was a Joltik climbing up his leg—and that what remained of the web had smeared all over his jeans.

Oops.

“Looks like you’re not the only one who had some spider trouble,” he remarked quietly with a laugh as he let the Joltik hop off and scuttle away elsewhere.

---

• oops
• galvantula web + joltik crawling up his leg

While he was aware that Sootoplis had been taken, his brows furrowed briefly. Why only now?

And wouldn’t that risk…

He couldn’t help but glare at Josh Devlin for a few moments, before turning back to the new issue at hand.

“Since that—Dynamax,” he gestured outside before continuing, “…is already inevitably on the table, we should expect them to use it as well… which is why we should at the very least start preparing on how to handle situations like that should they happen down the road.”

(Not should—will.)

He was also reminded of something else.

“I have a feeling as well, that while most of the League’s attention may be on Sootopolis when we do make our move; they may be moving to claim another location in its place should we succeed in liberating Sootopolis. Just my two cents’ on the matter—cut off one head, two more grow in its place.”

It was inevitable; reclaim one area and another would fall in its place—an endless cycle.

---

• Dynamax would inevitably be on the table, so best to get started coming up with countermeasures on how to handle it should a situation like that emerge in the proposed attempt to reclaim Sootopolis
• Alex however has his own concerns as well; if the League focus-fires too much on Sootopolis then another city might be claimed in its place

He knew that his friend was… well, human champion of another legendary Pokémon that he knew existed back home—he still couldn’t fathom how a Galarian had managed to forge a connection with a Unovan Pokémon…

The world really works in mysterious ways, right?

Either way…

He would make the trip on his Braviary, down to the blasted ruins where… holy shit he didn’t know that they were that big in person! He would stare up in quiet awe at Zekrom’s visage, wondering if they were also non-verbal, or similar like his own dirty little secret that he carted around with him more often than not these days.

He would then disembark from the blue-plumed avian, before looking down at the ground and thinking hard. Alas, though, he decided to just tell it straight—

“I may be an extremely idealistic person that desires peace—an anomaly in this ravaged reason. But like, there’s a reason why I want to take the pacifist route to get to what my ‘ideal world’ is like.”

He sighed.

“Would you judge me if I told you that I just wanted everyone to stop fighting, stop being at each other’s throats all the time? I know, I know. I’m a bit of a traitor there, since I’m a gym leader and all, and we’re supposed to be on the frontlines fighting. But see the thing is… not everyone is suited to fight at the forefront all the time. I just happen to be one of those people.

Like, you know you want to contribute, you want to survive, you just want people to stop fighting and get along? An impossibility right now, but one I would really want to achieve. No matter how the hell-ass long it takes.”

He had to resist the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“What lengths would I go to? Everything. I know that dying’s off the table—my partner expressly forbid me from doing that, so. I just. Want to help in other meaningful ways that doesn’t involve physical violence. Peace is always an option asides from violence, so why can’t people stop being stubborn and be more… pliable? More open to negotiation?

I want to… I want to help bridge those differences without spilling a single drop of blood. Even if it takes years, decades… centuries, whatever period of time… I’d want myself, as well as whatever future progeny I may have down the line with my partner—to carry this out. Kind of like how Eva Morales does it, only without all the bloodshed and fighting.

Just. Fists are powerful, yes, but words can be even more powerful when wielded in the right way…”

He sighed, before running his fingers over one of two Cherish Balls he carried with him.

“That’s about it…”

He was debating on whether or not to whip out the—no, definitely not yet, all things considered.

He’d done well to hold off on that until the last round the previous time he was here… and so, he had another plan… which would involve some more finagling.

---

The stage was dark once more after the previous performance; he was holding a small candle once more; however he made sure that the little light in his hands was the only source of light in the whole area, all things considered.

“Back then, the world was shrouded in darkness,” he would begin, the small cup of ‘light’ in his hands betraying his location.

(Look, if he was going to live up to the reputation of fire then this was how he was going to do it.)

“There was a courageous human who decided to head towards the realm of the gods to get their hands on something that was called ‘fire’. However, this wasn’t without trials and tribulations.”

The little light would be snuffed out in his hands, plunging the entire place into darkness.

“However, due to the fact that he had to tough it out to help the other humans to survive, he’d square his shoulders and quite literally, get their hands on fire itself. But of course, this was not without any resistance, for the gods did not want to share fire with anyone else and keep it to themselves.”

A singular snapping noise came from his direction; before a sudden burst of illumination in the form of a Sunny Day lit up the stage proper; his Charizard sweeping in from above the rafters this time and swinging her tail forward to act like the ‘beacon’ that it would be.

“It takes absolute balls to defy the very gods themselves, however this human did it—he’d secured fire, and warmth, and brought it to the rest of his waiting people.”

The Charizard would then let out another bellow, spreading her wings before he hopped on her back.

“Besides, it takes balls of steel and an infinite well of toughness to literally stare down a problem without flinching and making a solution, right?” he would add before he took the exit—this time, stage aerial as the Sunny Day lingered on the stage; a bright and stark contrast to the rest of the darkness around the immediate area.

---

Charizard used Sunny Day in a ‘let there be light’ performance!