ENGLISH NAME	JAPANESE NAME	POKEMOPOLIS NAME	DODGINESS RATING	ANIMATION	STORY	TEAM ROCKET	MORAL LEARNT
616: Mastering Current Events!	622: Ea Batoru Masuta Tojo! Guraion Tai Hassamu!	Gliscor Has Bad Wind			Gliscor learns to ride the wind and leaves the twerps	Dedicated to finishing their bit	Brock will always be the odd one out

Today finds the twerps lost in a forest AGAIN! Ash sends out Gliscor to check out what Brock thinks is the way out, and hears it calling shortly after. They head in the direction and come out of the forest onto the edge of a cliff looking out over a series of rocky pillars. Gliscor's calls are becoming panicked now, and the twerps spot it being chased through the air by a Scizor. It lands next to Ash and then a Chimecho or all things appears and actually gets into a fight with the Scizor, exchanging moves as Gliscor watches closely until Chimecho is sent flying backwards and lands right on top of Piplup.

I don't have a clue what is going on, Gentle Dodgers, we need to get around to....



Dawn cradles Piplup while a girl lands in her balloon to check on her Chimecho, apologising to the twerps since she didn't think anyone would be out in the middle of the forest. An old man lands in his balloon with Scizor, and they take the twerps to a stone house at the base of the cliff where the girl and the old man ask if the twerps really don't know who they are. Ash peers closely and then declares that no; no he does not, causing them to take a significant hit to their self-esteem.

Hell, if anything, the old man and the young girl should know who Ash is!

Dawn does though; she saw a story on Sinnoh Now about the old man, an Aerial Battle Master. Those latter two words instantly get Ash's attention, of course, and his granddaughter explains that the man (McCann) is a retired Aerial Battle Master who sometimes lets her train with him. McCann tells them that the rocky pillars in the valley pick up air currents and make a perfect training/battleground, and his granddaughter Maya explains that since he retired he lives there and sometimes trains with her. McCann tells them that every so often people show up and ask him to give them training, but he usually turns them down because he can tell that they don't have what it takes to make it as Aerial Battlers - why waste time on them when they're not going to achieve anything.

Wow. What a dick.

Gliscor gets excited at the prospect of getting to battle like McCann's Scizor and Ash is more than up for it as well, and McCann agrees, muttering that it might be a nice way to "kill some time". That goes down about as well as you might expect.

McCann calls out Scizor and they all load up into balloon, Scizor and Gliscor standing on the top of the rocky pillars and waiting to catch the wind and fight. Gliscor fucks up to begin by riding into a pillar, but recovers and comes back after Scizor which pulls up and gets behind Gliscor to smack it with Metal Claw. Gliscor falls but catches the wind again, trying to keep ahead of Scizor which comes after it with Double Hit, catching it despite its best efforts to keep away.

Gliscor hits the ground and Scizor lands behind it, Gliscor trying to kick up some sand that gets blown away in the wind, and then Scizor hits another Metal Claw followed by another Double Hit, crashing it hard into the rock... but Gliscor isn't done! It comes back out and after Scizor with Fire Fang but Scizor uses Double Team to avoid it and then a Steel Wing, leaving the twerps shocked at how well Scizor uses the wind.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket are sailing about in their Happy Buddha Face Meowth Balloon trying to find the twerps. Finally they spot them, surprised to see the twerps are in a balloon too... and then sail their own balloon directly into a rock pillar and a sharp branch, puncturing the balloon and sending them blasting off again!

Already!?!

Meanwhile, the arrogant and douchey McCann has decided he has wasted enough time and orders a Hyperbeam that blasts Gliscor hard... but Ash suddenly realises that now Scizor can't attack for a moment. He shouts at Gliscor to go after Scizor, but it has already caught an updraft and gotten up to a safe high distance, before diving and hitting Gliscor hard and crashing it into the ground, knocking it out and ending the battle.

McCann and Maya join the twerps and Maya rather arrogantly dismisses Gliscor as a weakling, and McCann grunts that there are better ways to waste time.... before he shocks Ash by telling him that he will teach him some basics of aerial combat.

It's all about learning to read the wind, picking up when, where and how the wind is blowing. The Pokémon must learn how to read the wind and predict what will happen next and how strong it will be. Since the day is drawing to a close, McCann offers the twerps their guest house to spend the night in.... but Gliscor doesn't feel like eating or resting, it's utterly miserable over the ass kicking it took. Come bed time, when Ash tries to return it to its Pokéball, it doesn't want to go.

Later the twerps sleep on thin mattresses on the floor, Dawn cuddling Piplup, Ash with Pikachu sleeping on one of Ash's arms and Brock lying alone and unloved on his back in the middle. Ash rolls over and Pikachu sits up and notices Gliscor is missing, and steps outside and finds it looking out over the valley. Ash joins them, asking if Gliscor wants to try having a shot at reading the wind with some fucking deadly ass night-time gliding.

That can't possibly end in disaster!

Getting Staraptor up, he ties a rope around its claws and has it fly around while Gliscor chases. Dawn has woken too and cut up tinfoil into confetti (oh..... okay?) which she throws onto the wind currents, Gliscor gliding around following it. Ash is delighted, and him and Dawn stand in the dark watching the now happy Pokémon darting about in the wind while Brock is, once again, left out of things entirely.

Meanwhile the barely repaired Happy Buddha Face Meowth Balloon is floating through the darkness when Team Rocket get tinfoil in their faces. Meowth spots Gliscor which flies directly into their faces, and bizarrely engages in a rather tired and amicable conversation with Meowth as Team Rocket fly around the pillars to where the twerps are. Ash and Dawn spot them and demand to know what is going on, and Team Rocket delightedly prepare to deliver their motto... when an updraft catches them. Gliscor leaps out as they're blown away higher and higher, desperately trying to finish their motto before they're sent blasting off.... again!

"Say, is that a snoopy twerp I hear?"
"The snoopiest with a well tuned ear."
"On the wind!"
"Past the stars!"
"And in da same ear!"
"Blowing in the wind now we're hanging a left!"
"I'm feeling anything but agile or death!"
"An updraft by any other name makes me cold!"
"Get me down before I'm old!"
"Jesse!"
"James!"
"Meowth, dis balloon's lame!"
"Putting the astronaut into space!"
"We're Team Rocket!"
"And we're in your face!" they manage to finish together as they disappear into the dark sky.



"Why are they here?" asks Ash, tired and confused,"It's night."

Meanwhile Gliscor continues to follow the tinfoil around, all through the night till the sun rises, absolutely delighted as it learns to "read the wind". Ash and Dawn return to get some sleep (poor Brock will just think they're sleeping in) and then ask McCann if they can have another shot at him. He seems surprised, after all Gliscor didn't score a single shot in their previous match. Ash acknowledges this, and that there is still a chance they can't beat Scizor, but they want to see how much they've improved over the night. Dawn reveals that Ash and Gliscor were up all night training, Brock just staring blank-faced at the real that Ash and Dawn left him out of the bonding and adventuring and experience. Maya rather arrogantly notes to McCann that there is always more time to kill so... why not?

And so the battle begins, Gliscor vs. Scizor once again. Gliscor chases Scizor and manages to avoid gliding directly into rocks again, but can't prevent it from getting in behind... but does manage to dodge an attack by Scizor!

But not a second! Gliscor is hit and falls down along the length of the rocky pillar... but then slams its tail into the rock and kicks up a sand attack that follows the flow of air and does something that hasn't been done in a long time... surprises McCann's Scizor!

Gliscor manages to get in a chomping bite of Fire Fang, but this brings it in close and lets Scizor smash it in the face with Double Hit.... but Gliscor isn't done yet! It tries for another Fire Fang and this time ignores Scizor's Double Team and scores the bite again before charging in with..... GIGA IMPACT!

It just learned that!

But now it has used the move it can't use another too quickly and Scizor has a chance to hit... but Gliscor has learned from Scizor and actually used the updraft to get up out of reach. Maya is impressed, and McCann is too - as evident by the fact that he's no longer just killing time but actively engaged in defeating Gliscor. Scizor and Gliscor charge at each other, the former using X-Scissor and the latter using Double Hit, going straight at each other and.... Scizor scores the shot!

They come at each other again with their big moves, Giga Impact against Hyperbeam.... but Scizor is quicker and Gliscor is hit, crashing into the pillar and tumbling to the ground! McCann blew them out of the water at the first possible chance of his Scizor not walking all over them as a matter of course!

Ash tells Gliscor not to feel bad, they did a great job learning to Read the Wind so quickly (one night as opposed to decades of experience for McCann) PLUS it learned Giga Impact.... and McCann agrees, because he wants it to stay with him and train!

Wait... what!?! Dump Gliscor!?!

Sadly, tears in its eyes, it remembers its first meetings with Ash (and Paul!) and their adventures together... but it has made up its mind, it knows what it wants.



Gliscor steps across to McCann, and Ash hands him the Pokéball, asking him to do his best to take care of Gliscor. He tells them that both Ash and Gliscor have the drive to want to be the best, watched by Team Rocket from a distance who had considered crashing the party..... but they don't want to ruin the emotional moment!



Dawwww!

Besides which, once Gliscor comes back stronger they can capture it THEN and give it to the Boss!

The twerps say their goodbyes, Ash giving Gliscor a thumbs up before they walk away, Gliscor waving goodbye and then leaping up to ride the winds and see them off as their journey, as always, continues on. It's come a long way since it was the clumsy little Gligar who didn't know what the fuck was going on, and now under the tutelage of McCann it will learn to be.... an arrogant jerk who considers battling to be nothing more than a way to kill the time before succumbing to the inevitable, clammy grip of death.

Have a good night's sleep, everybody!

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