Sherlock trots into the kitchen with his hair looking mightily ruffled and silently serves himself the last third of the omelette.
"You going to fly Candle, or get somebody else to carry you, Tony?" Bella asks. "I know even little 'mon can, it just looks awfully silly."
"Cool." Bella sits back to wait for the boys to both be ready to fly.
"Shall we?" Bella asks. And she describes the course she and Tony picked out to Sherlock.
And out they go, and he produces Irene.
"Grounded start?" inquires Bella. "Or should we go have them all clinging to the roof of the tower?"
"Gonna have a race, buddy," he says, patting the Charizard on the neck. Candle nods enthusiastically. Tony climbs on.
"Five, four, three, two, one!"
Rachis beats her wings on cue.
If this were a straight there-and-back flight with no obstacles, it would be no contest. Irene is a Dragonite. But although she accelerates handily and reaches the trees faster than anyone, she has to brake hard to avoid hitting any, and she flies conservatively between the spindly trunks.
Candle has the median wingspan of the group, but he's spent more time flying than Irene and has a better sense of exactly how close to an obstacle he is capable of getting. Tony starts pulling ahead as soon as they hit forest.
Rachis is not really on a level playing field with these two; she can go fast, and has been flying all her life, but she needs acceleration time to get anywhere, and Bella's fairly holding her down to the space among the trees so she doesn't have the chance. She does her best, anyway, but they were never going to win.
Candle is the first to reach the designated turnaround point. He does a fairly wide swing around the tree, but still clears it before Irene passes him going the other way.
Rachis could corner better if she were cheating by braking with an Air Slash, but that would, of course, be cheating. She and Bella swoop third around the tree and head back for the tower.
Candle touches down and flaps his wings in a celebratory fashion while Tony clings to his back and giggles.
Irene lands beside him and shifts from foot to foot grumpily before she permits Sherlock to disembark.
"That was fun, even if I didn't have a prayer," laughs Bella, returning her 'mon.