ENGLISH NAME	JAPANESE NAME	POKEMOPOLIS NAME	DODGINESS RATING	ANIMATION	STORY	TEAM ROCKET	MORAL LEARNT
720: Cilan Takes Flight!	726: Fukiyose Jimu no Ea Batoru! Chosensha Dento!?	Starfire Yoko and Disgruntled Granny In A Bra			Cilan tries to teach another Gym Leader a lesson	Wake me up when they're back	Air Battles are boring!

Today finds the twerps... over the goddamn mountain and almost at Mistralton City! Holy shit! It seems that mountain they made a point of showing last episode wasn't Chekov's Mountain after all - they're over it and almost to the city!

Pikachu senses something overhead and they all look up to see a small plane doing loops, and eagerly chase after it as it heads on into the distance. They reach the edge of a grassy hill and see Mistralton City sprawling out in front of them - they've done it! They made it, and now it just remains to see what possible distraction can get in the way of Ash's next Gym Battle.



NO! They're at the Gym! They've arrived immediately and there's no stopping them! They note that the sign on the Gym says it is the Mistralton Cargo Service but it also has the gym sign as well. Ash doesn't give a fuck what the sign says, it's a Gym and that means he's getting his battle! He rushes towards the closed roll-down doors, but then a little boy distracts (NOOOOO) him and tells him if he's here for a Gym Battle, he needs to line up with the others waiting just off to the side. They would have been completely visible from where the twerps were standing, and while Ash can be excused for not noticing, what is Iris and Cilan's excuse?

It seems the Gym is extremely popular; in fact there is a separate group for mornings and afternoons. Cilan and Iris are confused as well, and Ash approaches an adult with a schedule and tells him he's here to challenge. The man asks if he has an appointment, confusing Ash who is far too used to just barrelling up to the front door (and nobody being home). There is an opening in the afternoon group though, and he asks for Ash's Pokédex so he can scan it to create the appointment. Ash does, revealing a little QR Code (I wonder if you can actually scan it?) that is scanned and gives over Ash's details. This means they can give him an appointment card... and also sell his details to advertisers! Ash takes the card, and then the plane they saw flying earlier lands on the runway leading up to the Gym, and out emerges.... Miss Sparkle-Pretty!

Ash and Iris both sweat a little (Iris more than Ash) at the sight of her - perhaps they're overwhelmed by the fact she appears to be a cross between Starfire and that Yoko girl with the skull in her hair from Tenpin Topping Garden Lager? But the moment she introduces herself to everybody as Skyla the Gym Leader, Ash's enthusiasm ramps up. Gym Leader? That means he can fight her! For a Gym Badge!

For Ash, this is as close to being in love he can get.

She approaches the morning group which consists of 15 challengers. Ash is startled, only just now picking up on the fact that she's going to take on 15 challengers in a row. She tells them to prepare, then grabs out her Pokéballs with her oddly huge forearms/giant hands (she wears REALLY weird gloves) and reveals immediately her line-up! It's Swoobat, Unfezant & Swanna - three flying types all revealed immediately for everybody to see!

Ash checks out each of the Pokémon with his Pokédex, learning that Unfezant is the evolved form of Tranquil and comes in different appearances based on gender. This one is male, as shown by its red plumes. Swanna, of course, looks like a grumpy grandma in a bra, though the Pokédex doesn't mention this. The little boy who helped Ash earlier calls out all three of his Pokémon as well - an Emolga, a Boldore and a Zebstrika - and the twerps are again surprised, it's all cards on the table for this Gym, apparently. Skyla pronounces that the Air Battle is set to begin, confusing the twerps again since they have no idea what an Air Battle is. One would presume it was a battle in the air, but no, as Skyla looks over her challenger's Pokémon and a thought bubble appears over her head considering match-ups of the challenger's Pokémon against her own. In each case she sees the challenger having the upper hand, and so.... she declares the challenger a winner, tells him he showed great strength and hands over the Jet Badge to him!

Wait wait wait what the fucking Christ is this happy horseshit?

He happily takes it and runs off with his badge, while the next challenger - a little girl - steps up with her Sewaddle, Pansear and Leavanny. Ash stops the boy to ask him what the hell just happened, and the boy is confused that Ash doesn't know what an air battle is. They're both distracted by the new "battle" taking place, as Skyla looks over the little girl's Pokémon, chuckles and tells her she doesn't stand a chance and therefore Skyla wins!

Furious, Ash roars that they didn't even have a battle. The little boy seems a little pissed at Ash's attitude and tells him that they DID have a battle, it just took place entirely in Skyla's mind! The rest of the trainers all continue their "battles", with Skyla alternating between celebrating wildly at her "victories" and being slightly shamefaced at her "defeats". Those who win happily take their badges, those who lose slink off in defeat, and while Ash is angrily confused and Iris is unimpressed.... Cilan is fucking furious! He watches angrily as Skyla mentally goes over the various permutations of battle and comes to the conclusion that she wins. She heads over to her plane which has been checked and refuelled, confirms she has nothing else on till the afternoon group and happily declares that now she can get in a quick flight. But she's distracted by two furious young boys who hate her and everything she stands for - Cilan and Ash!



Ash demands to know if she really calls those Gym Battles, Cilan demands an explanation and she... happily tells them they're scheduled for the afternoon and she'll chat with them later, then hops breezily into her plane and takes off, leaving them behind. Ash sighs that he doesn't want a Gym Battle like that, and Cilan - actually SHAKING with fury - roars that he won't accept a Gym Battle like that, the backdrop of a volcano exploding behind him.

A stocky old man with angry eyebrows approaches, noting that they sound angry. They ask who he is and he reveals that he is Skyla's grandfather (uh oh!), and takes them inside the Gym Building and sits them down at a table. As Pikachu manages to keep his chin just above the table (dawww), Grandpa Miles explains he used to be the Gym Leader till he retired and fulfilled his dream of running a cargo freight company.

The dream of all small children, everywhere.

Skyla took over the Gym after him, with not a word about the interim generation. A rather rude Ash demands to know what Miles thinks of how Skyla runs the place, Cilan also glaring holes at him while Iris just gets left sitting uncomfortably next to Miles. He explains that at first Skyla took things VERY seriously, and her Gym Battles were a thing to behold. But as word spread of her skill, more and more challengers started appearing on the scene and she had less and less time to pursue her love of flying. Since she was so skilled at battling, she began to "Air Battle" instead, looking over her challenger's Pokémon and running through various permutations in her head and quickly coming to the conclusion over whether she could beat her opponent or not. This sped things up considerably, as people trusted in her judgements... but Cilan roars that this is no excuse, leaping to his feet and slamming his hands on the table. Even the pissed off Ash is taken aback by just how angry Cilan is, while Grandpa Miles sadly explains that he is also not a fan of Air Battles. He told her the same thing, but she breezily told him that she wasn't getting any complaints and besides... sweaty battles are soooo yesterday!

Sighing, Miles tells them that this is just the way things are now, and maybe it would be better if they just went to another Gym. Ash will hear none of it though, after hearing how good Skyla CAN be, he wants to battle her... in a REAL battle. Cilan agrees, fire in his eyes, saying that as a fellow Gym Leader he can't abide by the way Skyla is doing things. So it is that in the afternoon as the other appointments wait patiently, Skyla lands only to find herself face to face with Cilan. He's mastered his temper at last, and smoothly apologises for earlier, introducing himself formally as a Gym Leader himself. She's delighted, she hasn't met another Gym Leader before (poor Grandpa!) and happily takes him up on his offer for a proper battle - if the afternoon group is willing to wait. They all declare happily that they'd love to see Cilan and Skyla going at it hot and heavy, getting all sweaty and putting some stink on it.

Cilan calls out his "prime" Pokémon - Pansage, Stunfisk and Crustle. Skyla takes a look at them, runs through some simplistic looking permutations (presumably she goes into deeper depth but this just makes for better visual shorthand) and declares that she has won. Cilan says this isn't true, but she says there is no point in wasting energy on a battle she already knows she will win. Cilan insists though, she accepted his challenge so the least she could do is battle the way he prefers. She agrees, but tells him not to be sad when he loses.

They head inside to an ACTUAL battlefield, Miles acting as judge. The battle opens with Swoobat vs. Pansage, and Pansage uses Bullet Seed. Swoobat dodges and uses Air Cutter, sending Pansage spinning about in a panic. Cilan tells Pansage to use Bite and it leaps through the air at Swoobat, which dodges easily, causing Skyla to laugh that a move isn't effective if it misses. She has Swoobat use Gust and Pansage is sent crashing into the ground and knocked out.... first blood goes to Skyla, just as she predicted in her Air Battle! Cilan recalls Pansage with thanks, and tells Skyla that she is skilled in battle before sending out his heavy-hitter - Crustle. Skyla eyes it up and considers that being a Bug/Rock Type makes it weak AND strong against her birds. Crustle uses Rock Wrecker and scores a direct shot on Swoobat, knocking it out and evening things up at 1-1. Cilan asks Skyla if she has changed her mind yet but she laughs that she's still on track for victory. Next out is Unfezant which also takes a direct hit from Rock Wrecker, but comes back with Air Slash. Crustle blocks however, and a smug Cilan adjusts his bow tie and declares it is.... Evaluation Time!



Iris is... not impressed.

Cilan tells Skyla that she's done a poor job of showing off the best that Flying Types have to offer. She gapes, confused by the sudden arrogance, and tells her while it's clear they have a strong connection, she has been making poor move choices. She needs to measure a challenger's skills and their connection to their Pokémon, and she is failing to do that. She asks him if all this talking is making him tired, and he happily declares NEVER! A challenger must get a badge as a reward for truly defeating the Gym Leader. Skyla is confused, a badge is just a badge, but Cilan declares that this type of thinking cheapens the value of a Gym Badge - it should mean something to the person who wins it, having one should be a mark of honour.

And now it's back to the battle, as Cilan orders Crustle to use Shell-Smash. It breaks open its shell and then uses X-Scissor, slashing into Unfezant and knocking it out... it's 2-1 in Cilan's favour! He explains that he used two moves that really shouldn't have worked well together to great effect, leaving unsaid that this is something that wouldn't fit into Skyla's permutations in an imaginary Air Battle. She's impressed by his skill but doesn't seem to have had her confidence shaken, as she calls out disgruntled-granny-in-a-bra Swanna as her final Pokémon. This is where Cilan fucks up big time, as he declares it is time for a repeat performance and tells Crustle to use the exact same combo it just did! A Rock Wrecker misses and Crustle is sent backwards by Bubble-Beam before Skyla orders Brave Bird. Crustle slips out of its rock house which takes the Brave Bird hit, then explodes with Shell-Smash and uses X-Scissor.... and Skyla laughs that she knew he'd use that combo again.

She knows because he said it out loud!

Swanna is able to come back with Brave Bird, the two moves clashing and Crustle coming out the weaker of the two. It is sent crashing back into the ground and knocked dazed long enough for Miles to declare it unable to battle. Distraught, it scuttles back into its rock, Cilan telling it that it did a good job and deserves a rest. Skyla, meanwhile, not only hasn't had her confidence shaken but actually strengthened. She tells Cilan that he can't tell how a battle will end without trying, whereas she is only seeing confirmation that not trying ends in the same result. She KNOWS how a battle will end, so there is no need to have the battle at all, and that's just the way she rolls. Cilan is getting angry again, calling out his last Pokémon - Stunfisk - to happily flail about on dry ground. Cilan has it open with Thundershock which smacks right into Swanna. It should have done lots of damage, but Swanna shakes it off surprisingly easily and a confident (arrogant) Skyla tells Cilan that he'll need a stronger move like Thunderbolt to do any damage to her disgruntled granny in a bra. She orders a Hurricane which kicks up a sand spout that lifts Stunfisk into the air. She laughs and asks if he can use electric moves up there, and he tells her not to underestimate the flapping bottom-feeding retard-fish and has it use Scald - the hurricane sandspout giving it the height to get maximum coverage.

The water clears and reveals that Swanna is glowing red with the after-effect of Burning, costing disgruntled-granny-in-a-bra to lose energy. For the first time, Skyla seems to have lost her confidence... till she notices Swanna open an eye and apparently grin confidently back at her. Confidence fully restored, Skyla orders an Aqua-Ring which completely heals Swanna, removing the burning after-effect. Cilan orders a Mudbomb but it easily dodges the slow moving projectiles, and Skyla laughs that he won't smudge Swanna's beautiful white feathers. She orders Brave Bird and Swanna smashes directly into Stunfisk and.... knocks it out! The winner is Skyla, she won just like she told Cilan she would! She was right, he was wrong!



Yeah, he... doesn't take it well.

Ash, Iris and Miles are all distraught, while Skyla yawns and tells everybody that she's all tuckered out and she'll have to cancel the rest of the afternoon's battles. She heads off, completely assured in her horrible concept of what a Gym Battle should be.... and it's up to Ash "I'm incredibly stupid but holy fuck can I battle" Ketchum to save the day. He rushes up after her, and hits her with one hell of a truth-bomb, her Air Battles are boring!

A Nintendo Executive's face just shot up and sniffed the air.

Ash tells her he wants to battle her, and with a sigh she starts to tell him to listen up. Miles stops her before she can tell the rude little boy to go fuck himself, telling her that HE wants her to battle Ash. She points out that she just proved that her Air Battles are accurate and it'll never be different, but Ash yells that it will ALWAYS be different... because battling without doing any actual battling is boring! Miles tells her that as far as he is concerned, Swanna's white feathers ARE smudged, and she - with an odd smirk - tells him this is quite a thing to say to your own granddaughter. She tells Ash there is no way he can beat her, and he says she'll never know without giving him a chance. He calls out the three Pokémon he has chosen (who we don't get to see), and she eyes them up, goes through the permutations in her head and tells him they have good balance but she would beat them - so that's that!

But that is not goddamn that! Ash wants a REAL battle, and while Skyla can evidently process all kinds of battle permutations in her head - there is one thing that nobody can successfully plan for outside of the quarter/semi-finals of Tournament, and that's the fact that Ash's battles have nothing to do with reality, sense, type advantage/disadvantage of anything else. This is the boy who once had his Pikachu create THUNDER ARMOUR! If anyone can beat Skyla's mind-battles, it's Ash! But we'll have to wait till next week to see if he can do what Cilan couldn't.

Win!

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