"bite the hand that feeds." noah repeats under his breath. "that was a pretty cool line."

despite the shattering ice puddles, the vaporeon's unique ability allows it a fraction's advantage. noah's medicham swings its fist to meet the pokemon's BITE—but the fangs land first.

they clench around the grey palm and FLINCH THE MEDICHAM it is connected to.

as the initial shrapnel of umbreon's PSYCHIC-ICE SHARD batters the hariyama, noah is quick to devise his retaliation. he barks an order quick:

"WHIRLWIND! send the ice back!"

the hariyama cries and wafts its giant palms around like fans. a conjured gale scoops up fallen and incoming ice to hurl toward the umbreon.

still, the ICE SHARDS have harmed noah's hariyama more than the gym leader had initially thought. their sharp shapes, enveloped in PSYCHIC-TYPE ENERGY, have weakened the fighting-type immensely.

tl;dr and notes

medicham FLINCHES[break]
hariyama attempts to WHIRLWIND ICE SHARDS BACK AT umbreon; hurt by the PSYCHIC-ICE SHARDS BADLY.

jayden cross

☉

[attr="class","icon"]

"aw shucks." the banter freya reflects bubbles against noah's shy smile. [break][break]

noah watches the salamence draw its wings close. he's unfamiliar of what the dragon defends. which vulnerabilities lay behind its leathery cape. however, noah understands that the movement is purposeful and deliberate. [break][break]

this is no flinch-induced recoil.[break][break]

noah is trained in such ways too.[break][break]

"don't stop!" noah shouts, lifting a fist. "DOUBLE KICK. try to strike his head!"[break][break]

the flamigo swivels around with its long legs. one kick attempts to help the bird pokemon climb up lyune's wings, while the second kick seeks a landing on the dragon's skull.

[attr="class","bottom"]freya morningstar [break]
FLAMIGO attempts to use DOUBLE KICK - first kick to lift bird up to be in kicking distance of salamence's head for the second kick.[break][break]

[attr="class","icon"]

across the ring, the toxic spikes skitter like crushed pill fragments. the annihilape huffs as the glimmora is recalled, and though it twitches from a tick of poison, remains forever scornful in expression.[break][break]

"'course leonard does!" noah says of his pokemon's punch. "he gets it from me!"[break][break]

the gym leader laughs, a play-fist firmly sculpted at the end of a flexed forearm. [break][break]

"who's next?" noah shouts. "we'll take 'em."[break][break]

readying its fists, the annihilape snorts. its tendril-like hairs sway like cemetery branches as it waits.

[attr="class","bottom"]angelo vestri [break]
annihilape awaits next mon![break][break]

[attr="class","icon"]

"oh, no way. my rents are in ecruteak too."[break][break]

noah pats his chest, his heart beating with the autumnal colours of that johtian memory. his shoulders relax. limbs remain limber and loose as the commonality smooths nervous blood.[break][break]

"well, welcome to hoenn!" the gym leader announces, and his heracross salutes. "we'll help you out then. help you know the ropes of navigating this mountain. hoenn training."[break][break]

he hums and squints his eyes. threats and dangers may lie ahead.[break][break]

"are you a good battler?"

[attr="class","bottom"]Elise Calcifet[break]
[break][break]

MISSION LINK

[attr="class","icon"]

noah explains that he's owned his annihilape as a primeape; the ghostly transformation was simply a natural consequence of its training.[break][break]

as vanilla's pokemon fights, noah takes the opportunity to rest with his partner.[break][break]

"that's cute." the gym leader says of their story. "if you can trust your rotom, then don't ya think you can find yourself trusting other ghosts too?"[break][break]

noah asks vanilla directly, gaze centered on her rather than her pokemon-phone.

[attr="class","bottom"]Vanilla Kingsley / ghost psychic / passing[break]

[attr="class","icon"]

"love the confidence, man!" noah jokes—but he can feel the firmament of greyson's fearlessness. it steadies him too.[break][break]

"sufang," noah shouts to his chesnaught, "help TINKATON out! PIN MISSILE the SILVALLY!"[break][break]

immediately, needles fire from the chesnaught's fierce charge. darts of thorn and thistle soar toward the ultra beast killer, hoping to slow its assault.[break][break]

a heavy whip of air from a tinkaton's hammer forges valleys in the billowing mist. however, it is bryan's fist-led charge that creates the deepest canyon.[break][break]

noah prepares to parry him, but he underestimates the other's strength. the punch's sheer power forces noah to skid across the damp stone floor some distance before he is launched away.

[attr="class","bottom"]bryan delarosa Greyson Connors[break][break]
TL;DR: - CHESNAUGHT attacks SILVALLY with PIN MISSILE[break]
- NOAH tries to BLOCK BRYAN'S PUNCH AND IS LAUNCHED[break][break]

+10 MP (IC POST)[break]
+10 MP (IC POST)[break]
+10 MP (Assisting another character and/or their Pokemon)[break][break]

[attr="class","icon"]

"this escalated, man. geez." noah frowns, scrutinizing the scenario with a troubled stare. he pats his electrike on the head as the other dogs bark in the yard.[break][break]

the brevity of this route surprises him too. he wonders if it's due to mounting pressure from authorities and consumers for an investigation into the game's uncanny ability to present seemingly real representations of public figures and their lives.[break][break]

he chooses LET HIM FALL.[break][break]

after all, this is simply fiction.

[attr="class","icon"]

as the earth quakes, noah springs to his feet. galvanized by the hastened beat of his heart, his form assumes position.[break][break]

his own limbs rise into strictly disciplined lines. both of his hands would have been sculpted into fists were it not for the readied pokeball in his right hand.[break][break]

"you've fought him before?" noah says out of the corner of his lip. he does not let his eyes stray from their threat. "should i be worried?"[break][break]

he summons his chesnaught and the green guardian lands upon the misty floor with a growl.

[attr="class","bottom"]bryan delarosa Greyson Connors[break][break]
TL;DR: asks GREYSON questions[break]
- summons CHESNAUGHT[break][break]

+10 MP (IC POST)[break][break]

[attr="class","icon"]

noah does not spare words, seconds. a SKETCHED GEOMANCY descends upon noah's machamp from smeargle brush. [break][break]

quickly, the pokemon charges forth, its brutish body pushing past petrified prophets. noah follows too.[break][break]

however, there is little time. this yveltal knows the ins and outs of this domain in the most literal sense, for it begins to emerge beneath matias.[break][break]

"no!"[break][break]

though his pokemon expresses discontent, training takes over. noah leaps and his machamp grabs him by the leg to swing and toss. through the air, the gym leader's soars toward matias, his shadow rippling across stone heads.[break][break]

with a harsh thud, noah tackles matias out of harm's way. however, the gym leader's unharmed in the following blast of ghost energy.

🗺️ SPECIAL HUNT: NOAH FABER will now be able to encounter and catch a MARSHADOW. you must be able to defeat or prove to the marshadow that you are worthy of training them, but this will be no easy task. they quickly learn you and your pokemon's movements, able to mimic their movements by analyzing or hiding in their shadows.

instead, a MARSHADOW takes the yveltal's strike. but it does not petrify immediately. having SPECTRAL THIEF'd noah's machamp, the shadowy creature is inspired. inspired by noah's sacrificial swiftness that it desires to mimic it.[break][break]

it salutes noah as the stones, though slowed by the stolen boons, travel up its small body.[break][break]

"i'm so sorry, man—" noah frowns before his machamp shouts, one of its arms pointing at the unceasing yveltal.

[attr="class","bottom"]kyle lopez PENELOPE LIVY MATIAS SILPH[break]