The pidgeot circles around Rusty, staying a safe distance away, while the Talonflame charges in. And it's fast. Way faster than Rusty or Manty. As it rushes in, you're afraid for a moment that it's going to hit your trail before you even have the time to attack... only for your heart to jump in your throat as the world turns around you. Looking behind you, you see Rusty did a barrel roll, suddenly slowing you enough that the Talonflame's wing passes in front of you. Manty manages, barely, to reply with a couple Bubble Beam, causing the bird to falter a bit.

You notice a sharp whistling sound, and suddenly the Talonflame changes it's path, focusing on Manty.


Musa shoots his leaves at the Colonel's trail, shredding over half of it right away. The  Mandybuzz looks surprised at this, screaming something to Musa, causing your mount to pause, confused.

But before you can focus on that, you see Flutter pause his attack too, as his antennas twitch toward a spot below you. Following his gaze, you see a Zubat has hidden itself in you shadow, mouth wide open in an unheard shout.

Seymour's head tilted and his ears perked up, listening for a sound beyond his range of hearing. Had both his pokemon become confused? Or just Musa. Probably just Musa. Regardless, it seemed it was time to go on defense. He didn't want to ruin his early lead by being too rash.

"Musa, evasive maneuvers. Cloud yourself in Sweet Scent again and try to clear your head. Flutter, Psybeam that tricky little bat. You've got this." Seymour held on tight to his mount, read for the possibility that Musa might do something unexpected in his confusion.

Jake barely managed to lose his lunch -- in part because he hadn't eaten it yet. He gulped down what bile came up with the evasive maneuver and patted Rusty,
"Good job, keep it up,"
As much as he wanted to ask for a warning the next time, he know there was not always going to be time for warnings.

He let out a sigh of relief as the flaming bird switched targets,
"Go on manty, keep blasting him with your bubble beams!  Don't let up, don't give up!"

As he gave the order to manty, he signaled Rusty to go even higher yet, trying to get into position above Manty.
"Alright Rusty, lets see if you can land a swift when the talonflame gets near to Manty."

Jake did not seem too concerned about the trainer on the other bird. A pidgeot was scary, but he was hoping that he would get a chance to land another solid hit on the talonflame before he switched his attention to pidgeot.

The Zubat slips up, looping above Musa to strike Flutter with a sharp Wing Attack, making his stumble a bit. But not enough to stop his counter attack, causing the bat to cry audibly. But rather than counter attack, the Zubat makes... well, you guess that could be a cute pose, with teary eyes, if it had eyes... It's enough to make Flutter pause and hesitate, at least.

As the dogfight take place above you, Musa tries to regains his senses. At least, the Colonel stays at a distance, rather than swooping in to attack.


The Talonflame's movement is impressive, as it does an Immelmann turn to attack once more, but it made one mistake: Manty isn't a dogfighter. Rather than try a complex maneuver to avoid the blow, she just floats there, firing at the attacking bird, forcing it to break it's attack. It's a short break, however, as the Talonflame does only a short dive to avoid Manty's attack, before climbing back up past you, striking the ray in the same movement.

Rusty takes the opening, hitting the raptor with a shower of homing stars, though none cause serious damage.

"Don't fall for its cuteness, Flutter!" And it certainly was cute, in its own way. "Psybeam again! Musa, let's try to keep those two between us and the colonel." Then, more quietly so that only Musa (and probably the zubat) could hear, "and launch another surprise Magical Leaf as we move for cover." Seymour didn't know if the Tropius would have a clear enough mind to pull off such a trick, but it would be worth it if they could land another hit on the enemy's trail.

---

Flutter is using Psybeam on Zubat. Musa is moving to put Flutter and Zubat between himself and the colonel, and launching a secret Magical Leaf attack on the way. Again, I will spend up to the maximum 25 favor points if it means ending the gym challenge impressively quickly.

"Nuts," Jake curses as the barrage was not enough to disable the talonflame.  Nevertheless, he still felt he was in good shape to continue.

"Alright Manty, now you've softened it up, lets try a supersonic, then another bubble beam!"

Jake wasn't sure how many options he had to go on the offensive. It seemed like speed and maneuverability were essential for attack, and between Rusty and Manty, he barely had any compared to the competition. Fetcher could likely make some quick moves, but that would leave Rusty open to attack.

There were a couple of ideas that Jake had to turn the tables, but neither one seemed appropriate, he needed a few free moments to execute either. Either confusing talonflame or knocking it out for a couple moments would be ideal.

Your call helps Flutter shake off the infatuation, and he lands another solid Psybeam on the Zubat. It panics and tries to confuse him again, but Flutter manages to knock it out with a follow-up shot.

At the same time, the Mandibuzz waves her wings, and you can feel the wind turns against you. But despite that, Musa manages to fire a stream of leaves right as the Zubat vanishes, catching the Mandibuzz by surprise and cutting off the last of the Colonel's trail!

OOC: And that's for a cost of 5 favors!


Manty switches her attack for a moment, but the Talonflame seems unaffected. It does, however, switch it's focus from attacking Manty, to targeting your trail. But Rusty's experience really shows up, as it uses it's slow speed to curl your trail out of the way, causing the Talonflame to miss repeatedly.

Unfortunately, Manty still can't land a blow on the fast moving bird, spraying water all around you to little effect.

"Oh come on, give me a break," Jake's patience was wearing thin as the Talonflame started going after him again. In his impatience he retracted manty into its pokeball, but didn't release a new one.

"Ok, Rusty, just keep going dead ahead, try to get the talonflame to tail us."

Jake then readied his next pokeball and turned to track where the talonflame was flying. He had one chance with this gambit, but even if it failed, he'd probably buy himself a bit of time.  Once he is satisfied with his position with relation to the talonflame, he'd fling the pokeball right at the opposing pokemon, releasing Duder.

"BOOM TIME!" Jake called, out, signaling his rock to use self-destruct just as it emerged from to pokeball, hoping to catch the talonflame in the blast.

Knowing the geodude would instantly be KO'd he flicked out Fetcher's pokeball,
"Ariel Ace on that Pidgeot tail ASAP!"

"Is it- Is it over already?" a stunned Seymour asked. The trainer sat atop his Tropius, absolutely surprised that his gambit had actually worked. But it sounded like fireworks were going off in the sky not too far away, so he must have won, right? "Musa, Flutter, you two were outstanding! Fantastic job!"

---

The "fireworks" Seymour referred to was actually an exploding Duder. :-P

Rusty nods at your command, going into a wide and lazy turn, climbing a bit along the way. The spiral she made was wide enough to convince the Talonflame to take chase, but tight enough that the bird can't use it's full speed.

You time your throw, as best as you can, before sending out Duder. The Talonflame's eyes grow wide for a moment, before vanishing in a large explosion. You just have time to recall the falling Geodude, as the raptor falls as well, forcing your opponent to dive to catch it back.

Fetcher chases after her soon after, slicing off part of the Major's trail while she's distracted. Moments after, she sends out a second pokemon: a pom-pom style Oricorio.

OOC: That risky stunt costs you 5 favors, but takes out the Talonflame and gives you the high ground. What's your next move?


The Colonel flies up to Seymour, nodding in acknowledgment, before moving to observe Jake's dogfight.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:09, Tue 14 Sept 2021.

"Great job, now lets finish this off!" Jake patted Rusty and then signaled for a nosedive as he gave instructions to both Rusty and Fetcher,
"Fetcher, use thief to take the last of the enemy tail"
"Rusty, lets dive past the enemy location and then rise up with feint to ensure we get all the tail. Its OK to fly a bit risky, you can afford to lose some of your armor!"

Jake was confident he could safely ignore the Oricorio if he finished the battle with one, or well, the second decisive action.

With his victory confirmed, Seymour led his pokemon over to watch the rest of Jakey's challenge as well. He even released the rest of his pokemon so that they could watch too. "Farrah, Sunny, Turbo, Malley, come out and join our celebration. Malley, take the form of that Oricorio and help cheer on Falkner!" The Ditto waved its new yellow pom-poms in the air, cheerfully and encouragingly.

You've heard that Pidgeot were fast, but you didn't realize they were that fast! As soon as the Oricorio is out, the Major dashes away from Jake and his team, leaving them to deal with the yellow bird.

Speaking of whom, the bird starts dancing like a cheerleader, creating a blast of electricity that injures Fetcher. Your bird tries to reply, but even though he lands a hit, the shock he took stops him from causing damage. And Rusty, rather than wait in front of the dancer, dashes past it to chase the Pidgeot, briefly sending it spinning.


The Colonel suddenly looks worried as Malley changes form, and shouts "that may not be a good idea! Oricorio do..."

Before he can finish, Malley starts imitating the Oricorio fighting Jake, creating a cloud of sparks around Seymour and Musa, shocking both of you quite painfully.

"...that."

Jake was a bit surprised that his all-out attack didn't work, but he was not ready to give up yet. He did yet another swap of pokemon, recalling Fetcher and bringing out his Inky, which he kept suctioned to the side of Rusty.
"Alright Rusty, try to get as close to the pidgeot as you can while evading the dancer thing. Use another feint if you feel like you have a shot to get the trail.
Inky, do you think you can manage a switcheroo if we get close?  If not, just use swagger on the dancer to confuse it."

Jake wasn't sure if it would already be confusing enough for him to use two non-flying pokemon in the flying gym challenge. It left him a bit more open, but given the rules of the challenge, he wasn't overly concerned about a direct attack.

The Oricorio looks confused for a moment when it's target vanishes, then even more confused as the little squid hangs upside-down from Rusty's neck, teasing it and baiting it. It takes it a moment to recover, giving you a moment to get away from it.

Looking ahead, you see the Pidgeot slow down, as the Major digs through her bag to revive her pokemon.

The Oricorio is still confused, but hot on your trail. It doesn't seem to carry anything, though.

"Ow..." was all Seymour said when he finally rediscovered his ability to form coherent sentences again. "Malley... Maybe find a new form instead..." He lead his Tropius to a sunny spot where it could soak up some sun and recover. He would have found Jakey's new strategy to quite interesting if he hadn't gotten so distracted by electrocution.

Jake wanted to switch back to Fetcher, but seeing the Major slow down, he opted to keep Inky in for a bit longer and let Rusty take another shot at the line.
"Rusty, use another feint to try to finish this."

He did have a bit of a plan for Inky,
"Inky, can you use your suction pads to take off some of Rusty's armor? We need more speed, stat!"

//Trying to get a synergy between Inky's suction cup ability and Rusty's weak armor ability.

Inky nods, and starts pulling the rusted feathers on Rusty. She grins, and taking a sharp dive, your Skarmory gives a sudden burst of speed, chasing after the Pidgeot and leaving the Oricorio in the dust. The Major looks surprised as you close in on her, Rusty darting back and forth behind her, as she struggles to get her own mount to turn around and grab your trail, even as you swipe at her.

The two of you are so close, you can almost reach it...

You hear a rip, as Rusty's wing snags just enough of the trail to win you the challenge!


As Malley takes the form of Musa, you can just make out the Colonel saying "so he's using that tactic. A bold choice."
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:12, Fri 17 Sept 2021.

Upon snatching the rest of the trail, Jake immediately turns Rusty down to land. While he had been up in the air longer before, it certainly was not as up-down and all-around as this time. While he wouldn't classify himself as sick, he was getting a bit light-headed and was quite wanting to feel land beneath his feet.

Unfortunately, his legs were still a bit used to being clamped onto Rusty's harness so his first few steps on land were more wobbly than triumphant, but once he regained his footing, he thrust both arms into the air victoriously!

He noted Seymour already on the ground and correctly assumed his friend already won,
"Dang, you got done faster than me! I felt like I was only up there for a few minutes! Its totally not a race, but if it was, you smoked me."

Jake then popped all his pokemon out of their pokeballs, healed the ones who needed it with the healing items provided with the challenge (after all, why use his own supply when they provided it), and congratulated each of them -- even verdekeet who didn't get a chance to shine.

He especially lavished praise on duder,
"Way to take one for the team! How did it feel to do another bombing run? Bring back any memories"

"I may have been faster, but your challenge was certainly more spectacular to watch. Who else could have effectively used a Geodude in a sky-battle? That was... brilliant!" The trainer helped to congratulate both Jakey's pokemon and his own before turning to the major and the colonel. "Is there anything else to be done?" he asked them respectfully, but he could still barely contain the excitement he was feeling from their awesome victories.

The major grins. "Well, we still have to give you your new badges! You've earned them!" She's about to signal one of the privates nearby, but the Colonel stops her.

"Actually... considering the assistance they gave us last night, I think they deserve something special..." He reaches into his inner pocket, and pulls out two small boxes. Stepping closer, he opens them to reveal a pair of gold filigree in the shape of a Latios.

"To celebrate our newly developped crafts, we decided to change our badges to ones comemorating the legendary pokemons that inspired them. The final product will likely be closer to the standard badges in appearance, but these are the prototypes. You will likely be the only ones to have badges like this."

The Castform sweeps around you, looking quite cheerful. Major Waters smiles as she sees it. "That reminds me... normally we offer a TM when a trainer completes the challenge. However, our Weatherman seems to have taken quite a liking to you. Would you like to take her with you?"

"Oh wow. That looks really cool!" Seymour said as he accepted the new badge. He was so distracted by its shiny curves that he almost missed what Major Waters said next.

"Wait, what? Weatherman wants to come with us?! Heck yeah! There is always room for one more friend!" If a Castform wanted to come along with them, he definitely was not going to turn it down.

"Damn, that's some fine bl- badge."
While Jake was excited about the badge, he was more lukewarm about the castform travelling companion,
"If the weatherman wants to come with, cool with me. I am still trying to figure out how to manage my big team, but if Seymour wants to be in charge of him, I think it is a great idea!"

With a nod, the Major turns to Jake. "So for you, what TM would you like? We have Fly, Roost, or Air Slash."

And while you make your choice... level up time!

Seymour
Musa and Malley get a stat upgrade of your choice
Sunny raises his HP to Average
Farrah raises her Speed to Exceptional
Flutter raises his SpA to Superhuman
Turbo raises his Def to Average, and learns:
Wing Attack   Flying   P   Ab. Av.   0   Can move to attack distant foe

Jake
Fetcher raises his Def to High
Verdakeet learns:
Tailwind   Flying   *         Gives +2 Speed to user's team for 4 turns
Rusty raises her Def to Super2
Duder learns:
Stealth Rock   Rock   *         Create a trap that gives -2 HP to foes entering battle (modified by resistance)
Inky raises her SpD increase to Ab. Av.
Manty raises her HP to Ab. Av, and learns:
Wing Attack   Flying   P   Ab. Av.   0   Can move to attack distant foe
   and HP to Ab. Av

You can also increase one of your stat by one step, and can pick one of the following ability:

-Evasive Maneuvers: You can give an order to your pokemon that is likely to increase it's Evasion.
-Into the Wind: You and your pokemon get +1 Speed if there are no special weather effect in the battle.
-Sniper Attack: Ranged attack can hit farther target, and have higher accuracy if making called shot in normal range.

I boosted Malley's speed and Musa's SpA. I boosted my own IQ. And I chose the Sniper Attack ability. It seemed to fit with the victory Seymour achieved. (It applies to my pokemon's ranged attacks, right? Because I don't see Seymour himself making ranged attacks.)

I will change my team after another post or two.