generalflirt | Appointments Post ( II )

[Curiously, and forebodingly, for a brief moment as they're taking the ground is going to shake - much more than before, more like a small localized earthquake than anything. That's the onix, tunneling under the ground near the surface, but not coming up yet.

Nothing is rising from that though. Just a shaking. Masaomi's smirk becomes more pronounced, and Linda actually starts to get alert, mostly because of Masaomi's smirk there]

[ What was that. Ikki's up on the balls of her feet, prepared to move, but she's not certain if she should or where to. Soren, meanwhile, flaps his wings, either from nerves or impatience - Ikki's banking on the latter, but she's not sure.

She's supposed to be leading Soren to things and not just reacting, right? So Ikki does start walking again, although she's not just walking - she's walking like she's in practice, still in position, and she's trying to figure out where exactly the source of that was. Soren's still following along, too. ]

[It happens again then - the source is going from what is Ikki's right, going towards her left. Last time, it was the opposite direction. The best is criss-crossing under the ground.

...But that's a distraction, really, because behind the two of them the last sandshrew is digging itself out of the ground as quietly as it can and holding up one claw to the sky. That claw is glowing, because it's trying to change the weather. This move isn't a fast one, but if it's allowed maybe ten seconds, a Sandstorm will quite randomly come up on this field. Strong winds and dirt blowing everywhere]

[ The distraction is definitely working on Ikki, who can't figure out where the rumbling is coming from exactly - it's stronger than the sandshrew's digging, and so the only warning she has is Soren, who catches on only at the end of the ten seconds.

Weather shift ahoy!

Ikki adjusts to the winds easily enough, but she has to half shut her eyes to protect them from dirt. She doesn't think she can split her attention enough to bend air away from her and focus on whatever else is going on, and that might obscure things even worse, so she decides to just go with it.

Okay, strong winds - and just like she'd just decided, the weather might make it more difficult for Soren to bend air - sorry, use flying moves - then - ] Quick attack!

[ She had to raise her voice to be heard, and at least Ikki doesn't seem to be having too hard a time with the wind, although she has to keep moving to avoid being blown over. She's tiny. ]

I like her style. [Worth noting: Soren is being buffeted by the wind, and the dirt hitting him is doing damage. Not a lot, but it's making him need to flap his wings harder, making him need to look closer for things, and generally just harassing him. Still, it does not lower his visibility enough that he can't hit the sandshrew and knock it out, making it vanish.

...Even if that doesn't make the sandstorm vanishing. It's now adding howling wind and lower visibility to her searching. The earth's rumbling again fro, the underground onix, this time in a circular motion around the area, but that might be hard to pin down from vibration and sound alone. Even Masaomi isn't following that. he's instead watching his student.

...He wonders, idly, if she could possibly do some bending trick to make Soren's visibility easier. Perhaps getting on his back and then bending away things around him? If she doesn't think of something herself, he makes a mental note to suggest that for next time]

[ Ikki was hoping the sandstorm might have vanished with the perpetrator, but no such luck. And there's more rumbling and it seems to be coming from everywhere - one of these pokemon is moving around way, way too much, or they're dancing down there, and Ikki's not certain how to find that.

Two more.

The wind and sand isn't hurting her - at least, not enough that Ikki notices - but she does see that Soren looks more harassed, and she growls a little, because while her temper is generally pretty upbeat, she doesn't exactly like the situation. It's more Soren's body language than the need for visibility that causes Ikki to close the distance between them; she doesn't get on his back (it doesn't occur to her, although that would definitely make what she's attempting easier), but she takes a breath and tries to get a bubble of air around them. She's not sure how long she can keep it up in this sort of condition, and it makes it harder for her personally to pay attention to the ground, but at least it should make it easier on Soren.

Also, she can't figure out what the rumbling is up to, anyway. ]

Three, two... [Because it turns out, there's a second rumble now. the onix is still moving, but there's a much more localized and much more violent one. namely, the Dugtrio is using Earthquake. As a ground move, as long as Soren and Ikki get airborne it shouldn't effect them at all, but Masaomi takes a three steps forward, just in case.

Because the dugtrio is going to burst out of the ground two or so feet from Ikki and Soren, and the ground all around them is going to split apart. Breaks in the ground, crags of dirt-rock-stuff splitting up, violent land shaking, the works.]

[ Ikki's bending helps Soren's visibility, and he's a lot more experienced than she is at this sort of thing. The instant the ground starts shaking he's off of the ground, and as a bonus he's knocked into Ikki to get her on his back beforehand. That got her to yelp a little in sheer surprise - and stopped the bending, so have some more sandstorm Soren - before she rolled with it and attempted to clear the air around them again as Soren kept them aloft.

Okay, an earthquake - but where is the source

oh nevermind there it is and that would be why Soren thought it was important to get them airbound, Ikki has to agree she wouldn't have liked being there for the sudden ground demolishment. Ikki grips Soren just a little tighter. Good thing one of them caught that. ] Can you do anything with me on you? [ Half asking and half trying to think about it.

Soren's of the opinion that obviously he can, but it'd probably slow him down a lot, and Ikki isn't certain she'd be able to stay on - or, well, that she wouldn't get in the way - so this time she'll give an order before slipping off of his back, while they're...pretty high up in the air. ] Peck!

[ And oh hey falling but it's a controlled fall more than anything else, concerned grandparents don't need to take her antics too seriously. It's a little difficult with the windstorm, but bending air beneath her isn't advanced at all. ]

[One Peck isn't enough to take out the Dugtrio though! It does hurt the three headed mole though, and it retreats (blindingly fast) back into the broken earth before appearing again off to the right, trying to slash (very fast) up at Soren with some sort of... claw... thing. Despite not having arms. Still, being the air, while the dugtrio is much, much faster, Soren is probably more nimble.

That said]

Keeping hold, Ikki?! Good luck!

[Masaomi calls that, strutting closer to the battlefield. Linda groans as he enters the outer ranges of the standstorm. Even if it's starting to die down now (five turns and all)

[ What the hell is that thing anyway. There's no time to fiddle with pokedexes at the moment, though, so Ikki figures she'll ask about it later. Soren, still airborne, does manage to dodge whatever was just thrown at him, although his attention is now split, because he's worried about the little girl on the ground, considering they're both viable targets in this apparent exercise.

Ikki is less worried about that, although she should probably share his concerns. ] Quick attack! [ since that one worked all the other times. There's a split second delay before Soren obeys, because okay at least if he does this they'll have one less to worry about. Maybe.

And at least the sandstorm is starting to die down. Ikki's in tune with the wind conditions, if nothing else, and she glances over at Masaomi as he starts coming over. One more, if they got dugtrio, so she's not sure why he's coming in. Did she do something wrong? ] I'm okay!

[ covered in sand and probably she's got a few cuts from the sandy wind, but she's bouncing on her feet and ready to go still.

little does she know. ]

Good, glad to hear it! [The Quick Attack knocks out one of the dugtrio's heads. The other two are looking a bit winded too, but all three dig back into the ground to try to appear under Soren and shoot up out of the ground right below him. It won't seem to be doing anything, but is Soren goes in for any damaging move, it's going to shoot up out the ground like a bullet to hit him in the jaw before he can attack. A Sucker Punch, if you will.

However, that's only is Soren is attacking. If the attack isn't pressed quickly, Dugtrio will be confused and tired looking for a moment.

It's a matter of intuition, because while the Dugtrio isn't doing anything, both of the two eye sets which are still awake are focused intently on Soren.

The sandstorm, also, is now basically gone]

[ Okay so that - huh. So you have to knock out all three heads? That makes sense, Ikki supposes? She does see that the Dugtrio is paying attention, but Ikki doesn't guess why. You're supposed to watch your enemy in battle, and she figures this is that, and not a planned pre-counterattack. Soren, who has just defeated all the previous pokemon in one strike, is feeling a bit too confident and cocky to catch what Ikki misses, too. ] Quick attack!

[ And then that happens, the Sucker Punch to Soren's jaw, and wow he's not going to be attacking right now give him a minute.

Ikki gives a little strangled yelp - oh no is he okay what just happened Soren look out what if it does something else - and realizes she can at least buy some more time for Soren to recover. She's going to send her own airbending blast at the Dugtrio, attempting to divert it from attacking Soren again. ]

[Excellent. That's what Masaomi was hoping to see, because the air blast causes the dugtrio heads to pop back under ground quick before popping back up. they're wary now, and more importantly, they are now distracted. While the sucker punch was a heavy blow, it's not nearly enough to knock out Soren. So he has a good chance for a counter attack here.

...Masaomi, meanwhile, is tapping linda. Linda goes to Magnet Rise off his shoulder. The gounds's shaking again, the onix is coming back]

[ If these things are allowed to attack her, Ikki's pretty certain it's not against the rules to attack them back. And she may not be violent in nature, but she is very much defensive, and that reflex was just tripped. ] Aerial Ace!

[ And she's going to bend at the dugtrio again while Soren obeys, because keeping the pokemon's attention split seems like a good idea at the moment. This time instead of a punch, she whips air at it with a kick. ]

[The air hits the dugtrio again - and attention is split. This time between the heads. The two still awake heads actually look in different directions - one at Ikki and one up at Soren. and the result is the attack from the bit hits it square in the noggin, knocking both out at once. It too, vanishes.

And Masaomi gives a prideful smile at her]

That was great.

[The ground is still shaking, though. and now him and Linda are walking right up next to her]

[ Ikki grins up at Masaomi, pleased that he seems pleased, although it changes to a little frown after a moment, as Soren swoops over to circle above them. ]

One left, right, Sifu? [ The questions inside that question are pretty apparent on her face. ]

Yep, but don't worry. I'm handling this last one for you. [With a smile. But it doesn't meet his eyes. His eyes are hard, focused... but Excited. He loves being a trainer. Loves this control.

Three, two... one...

And then an Onix barrels out of the ground in front of them. Not it's whole body, but given it's about thirty feet long, it doesn't need the whole body out. It appears with a loud roar, too]

[ She's about to ask why, but that's pretty much when the ground splits and there's suddenly a giant rock snake attacking and Ikki definitely takes a startled step back - not anything further, though, because Masaomi said he was handling it, and while her eyes are pretty wide, she just watches Linda and Masaomi carefully, trusting that they'll...take care of it. ]

Linda, let's wrap this up. Aqua tail! [Linda, for her part, cackled. The Onix roars and goes to use Rock Throw - a giant boulder goes flying towards Linda and Masaomi. The two leap aside just enough that the boulder (fully as big as Masaomi is) misses him and embeds into the ground about the same moment Lidna is front-flipping into the air. She's leaping impossibly high, aided by her Magnet Floating, her tail coated in water. The water forms a sharp looking blade, and once she's level with the onix's face, she spins and slashes across it. Her water actually leaves a "cut" in the boulder of its face, between the eyes, and it makes one more noise before it topples down the side.

Lidna is now free falling, but as the onix falls (as soon as it lands on the ground with a thud, it vanishes too) Masaomi races out to catch her, and hug her tight when he does]

[ Water against rock. That's one of those two-time things, right? Ikki looks suddenly enlightened, although she's paying enough attention to get out of the way of that boulder throw. Soren lands down next to Ikki once she's well off to the side, chittering angrily at her while he checks her over. Ikki does the same, and decides Soren took the brunt of this session. ] Katara can fix you up, I think.

[ But then the Onix is down, and Ikki claps her hands together once as the count goes to zero. ]

[And - still hugging Linda - he now turns to Ikki with a smile. The blouder landed not near them at all, like he thought. Though maybe nearer to Soren than he'd like, given his rock weakness. And he's grinning]

So Ikki, how was that?

[He's sure Soren liked to be able to fight a bit after losing Chien]

[ Well she moved, Masaomi. Flying boulders make one want to be elsewhere.

Ikki takes the question and considers it. She'd been worried about Soren at certain points, if not about herself. And she's not sure she likes being attacked by random things in the ground, but...it hadn't been bad? It was nice to see Soren happy and doing something, and she'd mostly been upset about her own inability to figure out how to help him. ] Ummm. Good, I think?

[ That question is half to Soren, who seems to agree, so she grins. ] What were those, though?

Sandshrew, Dugtrio, and Onix. [She thinks... He hopes she felt it. A bond with Soren. Over time, maybe she's come to like it more. He never feels more in sync with Linda than went they battle...

Oh well. He motions for her and Soren to follow him back towards Katara]

[ Ikki nods, trying to remember the names for later, before adding to what she'd said. ] The - Dugtrio? - got Soren in the chin that one time, and I didn't notice the Sandshrew and they made it all windy and sandy and that hurt Soren but not a lot and those weren't good, but other things were.

[ She...had a lot to learn. Maybe then she'd be able to help him out more. She does brighten up as the near Katara, though. ] Oh! But at the end, with the Dugtrio, that was fun!

[It's official: She hates this. It's foreign and unnatural and dangerous. She had practically bit her cheek through in effort to just continue to stand there and trust Ikki to handle herself.

She doesn't wait for Ikki to get closer to her, moving at first jerkily to meet them in an effort not to simple run and sweep her away. She stops, bending down, and smooths Ikki's bangs.]

You did very well.

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