Roleplay Stage

10.2 Years

627

February 25th, 2023 at 4:01 PM , since edited

Simon Pearburgh

Spoiler: Inventory

Spoiler: Memories

Chloe Hayes

Froslass

Luxio

Alcremie

Fake Trick Un Swagapino the Gentleman Thief

Popplio

Route 9

"Fake Out!" The battle began on Chloe's order. Morgrem zipped to his foe's side in an instant, an arm outstretched. Faster than the trainers could follow, he passed on by... and a handful of sand was thrown in Ross' face.

"Oh, come on!” Simon exclaimed, tossing his arms up. It seemed like every time he was ready for one of these Fake Outs, he had to deal with some stupid new trick. He looked to Chloe to see if this was something she planned (since as far as he knew, Fake Out was a proper attack), but she just looked incredibly unamused. This may have been the first time he'd ever seen the girl scowl, it didn't really suit her.

"Shake it off, Ross! Hit it back with Vacuum Wave!"

The Heracross was in the middle of spitting up sand, but he quickly regained his composure. His vision caught up with the Morgrem creating some distance between them, and he raised his arm to attack. Vacuum Wave didn't care about distance, so he needn't chase his target down.

Yet when he unleashed it, the Heracross felt a fist against his face, knocking the attack slightly off course, striking "Fake Trick" in the arm rather than his chest.

Simon heard Ross mutter out a slightly unsavory comment, something about fighting dishonorably. He realized that Sucker Punch packed a lot of power though, and even if the Morgrem was relying on trickery, Simon still had to be careful about approaching him recklessly.

“Wear him out! Rock Blast!”

"Don't let it hit you!"

Fake Trick's dexterity was also remarkable, just barely dodging each of Ross' Rock Blasts as if his life depended on it. His avoiding was quite comical, as the Morgrem struck various wild poses and stretched in incomprehensible directions to not get hit, dragging himself with his prehensile hair farther than his body could naturally.

Soon enough it seemed like Chloe was getting as tired of his antics as Ross was. “Shadow Claw!”

Suitable for his shady character, perhaps, but it meant Fake Trick finally needed to fight head-to-head. He rushed forward, slipping past Ross' defense by the skin of his teeth and digging three grooves into the bug's exoskeleton.

Simon realized he'd been greatly overthinking the battle so far and let his instinct take over. "Grab him!" he yelled. Once Ross had Fake Trick's wrist in a vice grip, he began his Counter. He spun in place, swinging the Morgrem along for the ride. A few revolutions and some Arm Thrusts later, Fake Trick was being dragged rather unceremoniously through the wet sand. But he eventually countered with Thunder Wave, sending a paralyzing jolt through Ross' entire body. Forced to let go, Fake Trick was sent screaming back toward his trainer and crashed into the sand.

Though he staggered briefly, the sparks around Ross’ body were quickly replaced by an empowering red aura from Guts. Simon grinned, ”Should've stuck with your trainer, mate—let’s finish this, Ross! Megahorn!"

Ross' horn glowed bright green as he charged up his attack. The Morgrem made it back to his feet, shaking the dizziness from his head and prepared himself for the final blow. He met Ross’ attack with another Shadow Claw to the arm, but the Megahorn struck his gut and threw him sky high.

When his back hit the sand, the Morgrem tried to lift his head, but couldn't raise it more than an inch, and so he let it fall back down. He was awake, though, staring at the sky, and briefly contemplated on his battle. Fake Trick the Gentleman Thief knew he'd lost.

“One down!” Simon flexed proudly for the spectators.

"Maybe I shouldn't have…" Chloe muttered to herself. Simon didn't pick up on the rest, but he at least knew she wasn't happy with the result of the first round.

"What, are you regretting our bet already?"

"My only regret is taking it easy on you. Don't worry, that won't happen again."

“Hah, never pegged you for a sore loser…”

As the two trainers spoke, another conversation was had between the fighters themselves.

«I cannot say I approve of your methods, trickster. But I must admit you gave this old bug a good run for his money.» Ross slowly approached the fallen Fake Trick, and extended his good hand to help him stand back up.

«I couldn't have asked to have been defeated more spectacularly,» the fairy replied through gritted teeth. He groaned as he took the proffered hand and rose to his feet.

«Do not undersell your strength. Your strikes carried quite a punch when you fought me head-on.»

«Ahaha, you flatter me. I'm truly not so great. In fact, I feel I must warn you: I am merely the weakest of the Big Four.»

«Oho?» Ross was suddenly intrigued at the prospect of even stronger opponents on the human woman's team.

«Thank you for a glorious fight,» Fake Trick continued, and he and Ross shared a solemn warriors' embrace. «But there is something else you should know...»

«And what is that?»

Fake Trick leaned in closer and whispered, «You should have gone for the head.»

«Wh—gh!»

Suddenly, Ross and Fake Trick both fell to the sand. A hole in their sides had been opened by the latter's hair piercing through his own flank like a spear.

Everyone watching was agape at the sight, including the commanding trainers. If anyone were examining the scene, it would have only looked like the Morgrem's hair was swaying in the breeze until the final moment. It was his trump card, which he had been keeping secret even from his own trainer: False Surrender.

The battlefield went completely silent. Perhaps it was only a few seconds before the sound of the ocean returned to their ears. Even so, it felt far longer before Ross' hand slapped against the ground, and he pushed his face up from the sand. Agonizingly, he stood back up. His opponent did not.

Ross looked down at the Morgrem and narrowed his eyes indignantly. «Once a trickster, always a trickster.» Then he turned away. «Until our next battle… gentleman thief.»

A few more moments passed. Simon looked more confused than anything, having missed most of the conversation during his banter with Chloe. “The hell was that all about?”

"It's best not to think about it," Chloe answered, looking somehow exhausted despite her previous energy. "It'll only hurt your head."

A Stonxrally Foxbird production

Ex-mod of RPT - Pairs: Gligar & gimmepie –

Friend Code

SW-5146-5893-7210

–

Fen-Fen

Profile Message Posts

Also Known As Fen

Me but more fabulous

Age 24

Female

Colorado, USA

Seen 21 Hours Ago

Posted 4 Weeks Ago

354 posts

7.5 Years

628

February 26th, 2023 at 4:43 AM , since edited

Haleigh Windsor

Corey (♂)

Coraline (♀)

Cornelius (♂)

Captain (♂)

Dart (♂)

Orion (♂)

Cerise (♀)

Reyna (♀)

Spoiler: Memories

Breaking the Chains of the Past

A satisfied smirk creeped its way onto Vera’s face as she said, “See, was that so hard? We can be civilized.”

Haleigh deepened her glare. This, coming from the woman that had chased her out of the house with a knife.

Vera cleared her throat. “Anyways, I must start off by saying that I truly am sorry for having dear old Ian invite you under such circumstances, but my business with you is not something I can just discuss over tea at the Hotel Ionia. I needed to make sure you would hear me out after you had departed on…less than favorable terms, shall we say.”

Vera’s face shifted into a different expression as she shifted her hands to fold them on her lap. “That’s not the only thing I have to apologize for, though. I’ve done a few things that I’ve regretted in my life, but one of my biggest was not supporting you going on your Pokemon journey.”

The words hit Haleigh like a bucket of cold water, dousing the burning anger she felt as it melted into sheer disbelief. Her mother was…sorry about not letting Haleigh go on her journey?

“I was an ignorant fool,” Vera said. “If I hadn’t been so against you going off on your journey, that whole mess of your disobedience and having to discipline you could have been avoided.”

The spell of disbelief that had briefly overtaken her was now broken at the mention of the so-called discipline, uttered in that condescending, nonchalant tone. Haleigh clenched her fists again, restraining her burning fury so she wouldn’t fly off the handle and do something she’d regret. Instead, she settled for a quip, said between gritted teeth. “So what, caught some of my matches on the telly, had a change of heart? Or you just trying to chase clout off someone else in the family?”

Exhaling deeply, Vera replied, “No, Haleigh. Believe it or not, my motivations for having you here go much deeper than that. You were gone. Your father divorced me less than a year after you left. No matter what I told him, he just couldn’t let go of you running away, and it took its toll on our marriage.”

She wrinkled her nose and scoffed. “He left me this old house as a peace offering and psyducked off to Wyndon. I was bitter that he had left me, that my life wasn’t going to be this fairytale, that I wouldn’t have that perfect family.” The last sentence was spat out with an undeniable note of venom, a look of malice flashing across her face.

Haleigh’s scowl faltered as she flinched a little. She quickly straightened back up and went back to glaring at her mother.

Just as quickly as that look had appeared on her face, Vera reeled it back and recomposed herself. “One of the things I had realized since you’ve been gone was how wrong I had been to demean your dream. I was too caught up in the pageantry and frivolous things that I thought a woman marrying into wealth ought to have done, and I tried to mold you in that image. It was to both of our detriment. Now, however, I understand. I get what drew you to [/i]them.[/i]” She gestured to Reyna and Corey, who both growled at her in response.

Haleigh scoffed. “No, you don’t. You don’t understand Pokemon. You don’t understand why I love them. Not then, not now.”

“Don’t I,” Vera challenged. “You’ve clearly made a name for yourself as a trainer. You’ve gotten stronger, so much stronger than the weak, scared little girl that left this house. I see the strength that Pokemon gives us, and I have my old employers to thank for opening my eyes to that. After your father left me, and after he left the company, I was free to dedicate myself entirely to my work. The higher ups felt my talents were wasted on mere research and development for electronics, and that I was hungry for something more. They gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse: a head scientist for a secret project, deemed to be of utmost importance by none other than Oleana and Chairman Rose.”

Haleigh could feel a pit form deep in her stomach as she started to have an idea of where this conversation was headed.

Vera laughed heartily. “Ah, how it took me back to the days of my youth, a fiery, single lass ready to take on the world! I had rediscovered my passion for being in the lab all over again. There was a focus on energy production, with Pokemon being at the center of it. How to channel their power into energy, the power of Dynamaxing, the myth of the Darkest Day, the different kinds of power one could draw from different Pokemon. The more I delved into the nuts and bolts of how Pokemon operate, the more fascinated — no, enamored — with them I became. Oh, how wrong I had been to dismiss them. Such wonderful creatures!”

By that point, Vera had gotten so animated that she had abruptly stood up out of her chair, startling Haleigh, Corey, and Reyna. Haleigh had nearly commanded her Pokemon into attacking, but stilled when the attack she had been anticipating never came. After a few panting breaths, Vera sat back down and calmed herself down. “My apologies. I can get so passionate that I lose track of myself and ramble.”

Nuts, bolts, how they operated, Haleigh’s mother had said, like Pokemon were machines to tinker with. The thought made Haleigh sick to her stomach, knowing how the Pokemon the blacksuits had modified were. There was no longer any doubt in Haleigh’s mind. Whatever shred of decency the woman once had disappeared the day she had chased Haleigh out of the house. Even after knowing who she worked for now, even knowing how cruel, manipulative, and deranged she was, her mother’s involvement in one of the most infamous disasters in recent memory was something that was hard to believe. Haleigh exclaimed, “How could you?! You nearly wiped Galar off the map!”

Vera hummed. “That was not a part of the plan, I can assure you. It was a grave miscalculation on our part. We were so close. That’s why my current work is so important to me. It’s why I have even more respect for the power of Pokemon, and those who can wield it. People like you, Haleigh.”

Vera reached into the blazer pocket and clutched something in it. “I can give you what you came here for, and so much more. You would be a great asset to me and my organization. We need strong trainers like you.”

A smile — a smile that Haleigh might have mistaken for genuine if it wasn’t coming from her mother — spread itself across Vera’s lips. “We can be family again. With our help, there’s no telling what you could do — what we could do. You don’t ever have to feel like you’re weak ever again.”

Haleigh took a deep breath. She had a very good idea of what her mother was holding her hand. The offer, like so many others that her mother had made to her in the past, was filled with sweet words masking a bitter poison in them. Maybe this would have tempted her back when she was the scared, troubled kid that ran away to Spikemuth. She would feel strong having such powerful Pokemon at her disposal. She could have let all the horrible parts of the past be water under the bridge.

But of course, that was then, and she knew better now. There was no undoing what her mother had done. There was no forgiving her mother for abusing and traumatizing her. There was no forgiving her past work with Macro Cosmos, or her current work with whichever organization the blacksuits belonged to.

She needed Snom, though. She needed him safe, away from the hands of this vile woman. If Haleigh pretended that she was seriously considering the offer, she might buy enough time for Coraline and Corey to come through.

Signal, attack. Coraline, through the door.

Haleigh held out her hand and asked, “After all we’ve been through, you’re really willing to forgive and forget?”

Vera replied, “Of course. I’m your mother, after all.” She took the object in from her pocket and clasped into Haleigh’s hand, looking directly into Haleigh’s eyes. It was smooth and spherical, though it felt different from a normal Poke Ball.

Keypad, numbers, 0219.

Just as Haleigh was about to snatch the ball out of her mother’s hands, Vera pulled the ball back and stepped back. All of the friendliness disappeared instantly off her face as she narrowed her eyes and asked in a tone that was soft but menacing, “Haleigh, dear, are you plotting something? I can —”

Before her mother could finish that sentence, a blast of ghostly energy came flying from the direction of the doorway, aiming wide of Haleigh and headed straight for her mother. The blast jolted her out of her chair, knocking her to the floor.

Haleigh wheeled around and saw Coraline floating by one of the other desks, giving Haleigh triumphant smirk. Cornelius soon followed suit as the door opened and he dashed over to Haleigh’s side. Corey and Reyna gave the Kirlia a high five — and Coraline a “high face” to not touch her polyps.

Haleigh said, grinning widely, “You guys are the best!” She nodded her head toward her fallen mother. “Now let’s go over there and —”

Their celebration, however, came prematurely. The five of them could hear faint chuckling coming from the direction of where Vera had fallen. She croaked out, “You’ve got…nerves of steel…young lady. I reckon just a few more centimeters closer…and I would’ve been down for the count. But…not quite good enough.”

Even as Corey and Reyna dashed toward her mother to prevent her from getting up, the click of a Poke Ball and the emergence of a Pokemon stopped everyone in their tracks.

A Frosmoth, every bit as beautiful as it was intimidating given the circumstances, hovered over Vera. Just like Simon’s Scolipede and Ian’s Arcanine, the creature had no discernable emotions or reaction to the situation it found itself in.

Haleigh’s eyes widened as her worst fears had been confirmed. It wasn’t just any old Frosmoth that her mother had brainwashed. “You monster! You’ll pay for this!”

“Frosmoth…take out this wretched lot. Blizzard, on all of them.”

With no hesitation, the Frosmoth started flapping its wings and summoned a bone-chilling torrent of snow. Haleigh and her team mobilized themselves to get out of the way, but the move directly hit Cornelius, Coraline, Reyna, knocking Cornelius and Reyna out in a single blow. Only Corey — who was hit only with a glancing blow and resisted the move — and Coraline — with just enough bulk to weather a direct hit — and Haleigh — who leaped just far enough away to not be hit at all — were spared from the ice bug’s wrath.

Haleigh quickly recovered and put her mind back into the battle. Just before she could utter a command, however, looking at the Frosmoth weakened her resolve as she remembered that he was still sentient underneath all of the brainwashing. After a moment of hesitation, Haleigh said in a shaky voice, “C-Coraline, Ancient Power! Corey, charge at ‘im with Flare Blitz.”

The moment of hesitation was all that it took for the attacks to land wide of the Frosmoth and break the window behind it. Vera commanded, “Use the opening and bury them with an Avalanche!”

Even Corey wasn’t able to get out of the way in time as all three of them were buried under a layer of snow and ice that knocked them to the ground with the force of an ocean wave. Haleigh groaned in pain as her head was knocked forcefully onto the floor, disorienting her as the weight of the ice and snow pinned her to the ground. After several moments, she managed to crawl her way out of the pile and rolled onto her back. Her head was throbbing. There was something warm running down her nose, her mouth filled with the metallic tang of blood.

Vera propped herself back onto her feet and dusted herself off. A maniacal expression glowed on her face as she walked towards Haleigh, the Frosmoth following suit. She exclaimed, “Just as I had told you all those years ago, you’d be nothing without me. You wouldn’t even be on your precious little journey without me. I made you, and this is the thanks you give me! Just like always, you make an enemy of me by being an insolent little muk! Now, you’re going to face the consequences!”

Haleigh looked at her Pokemon. All of them but Corey were unconscious. Corey looked to be on the last dregs of his health. She looked back at her mother and her Frosmoth, feeling frozen in place by the primal fear that started overtaking her in waves. She could feel her heart thundering in her chest. Her shivering from being buried in the Avalanche was transitioning into full on shaking. It was getting harder to breathe. The walls seemed to close in on her as that same maniacal expression that her mother had given her all those years ago froze her in place, and the emotionless gaze of a Pokemon that she had once loved, now preparing himself to finish her off, consumed her thoughts, preventing her from thinking about anything else.

Corey panted, the leaden weight of exhaustion threatening to pull him down into unconsciousness. This was no gym battle, when being knocked out meant a little nap and waking up in the Pokemon Centre. Their lives were on the line, and he couldn’t afford to faint. Even though he was scared like his trainer, even if he wasn’t sure he would be able to triumph, he was Haleigh’s Pokemon, and she, Reyna, Cornelius and Coraline were all relying on him to do something. He managed to drag himself back onto his feet, barely able to keep himself standing.

“Frosmoth, finish the job. Ice Beam.”

Letting his instincts take over, feeling an odd form of zen as he took a deep breath, Corey was awash in a white glow as he could feel himself grow taller and stronger as he sprinted and leapt into the air. He could feel a ball of fire, unlike anything else he had ever made before, form at his feet. He kicked it in the direction that he could sense the Frosmoth being near.

When the glowing stopped and he was able to see again, the fireball was melting the Ice Beam away, and heading straight at the Frosmoth, too fast for the Frosmoth to dodge in time. The fireball hit the Frosmoth dead-on, staggering it backwards. There was the slightest indication that the attack had caused serious damage based on the slower movements of the ice bug, but it was somehow strong enough to weather the four times effective attack. The fireball had been big enough to also graze her mother, who screamed as she dropped the ball and clutched the left side of her face.

Haleigh was jolted out of her panic and back into action. Through the mess of soggy papers strewn all over the place and the displaced chairs and desks, she saw that dark ball sitting right next to her mother. This was her chance. She leapt back up onto her feet and sprinted for the ball before her mother could grab it. When she got to the spot where the ball was, Haleigh raised her leg and, with all of her might, stomped on it with the heel of her boot.

As the ball broke with a resounding crack, the spell over the Frosmoth seemed to instantaneously dissipate. He fluttered around in confusion and fear, his eyes widening as he surveyed the scene and looked at Haleigh and her fallen Pokemon.

Unfortunately, there was no time to console the poor Frosmoth. Haleigh reached into her pocket, got out an unused Poke Ball and threw it in his direction. Haleigh watched with anticipation as the Ball wiggled. Once. Twice. Thrice, before finally settling with a click. She quickly went over and retrieved the ball, stuffing it into her pocket and picking up a waterlogged folder that was right by it. Then, she took out the balls of her other four Pokemon and returned them.

Haleigh could hear her mother still groaning in pain behind her. Vera started to snarl, “You impudent little…how dare you defy me —”

“Save your breath, ye old hag,” Haleigh spat, turning around to face her mother. “I’ve already gotten what I came ‘ere for. It’s already over.”

Vera could only seethe as she continued clutching her face, contorted into a mask of pure contempt.

“But don’t think that I’m done with you. I’ll do whatever it takes to bring you and your organization down. For the sake of humans, Pokemon, everyone.”

Haleigh turned away and walked a few steps before stopping. “You may have given birth to me. You may have helped raise me. You may have even helped shape who I am, for better or worse, but you are not my mother, and everything that you did to me is not going to control my life anymore.”

Haleigh walked all the way to the door, and as she turned the handle, she said, “Goodbye, Vera.”

Songbird

Profile Message Posts

Tonight, the marigolds bloom for her.

Female

Seen 1 Week Ago

Posted March 3rd, 2023

554 posts

9.9 Years

629

February 27th, 2023 at 6:20 PM

Simon Pearburgh

Spoiler: Inventory

Spoiler: Memories

Chloe Hayes

Froslass

Luxio

Alcremie

Fake Trick Un Swagapino the Gentleman Thief

Popplio

Route 9

When the shock of Fake Trick's secret move wore off, it didn't take long for the trainers to get back in gear. Ross and—unfortunately—Fake Trick were recalled and already on the mend with some timely assistance, and the battle continued. Figuring this was as good a time as any to test out his newly-evolved Pokemon’s abilities, Simon whistled for his Armaldo to hop out of the water and called him onto the field, to which Chloe brought out her Popplio.

“Quick disclaimer, by the way: don't call him ‘Armaldo’ yet, it stresses him out.”

"Wait, what? Is he okay?"

"He's okay! Just, uh… a little special."

Simon knew from League records that Popplio was Chloe's most recent addition, so they probably weren't completely in sync yet. He could take advantage of that. Anorith wasn't the smartest in the bunch, but he was good at listening to Simon's commands; and what he lacked in brains, he more than made up for in brawn. Plus, he’d get some practice with his new form.

"Dig!" Simon called out, signaling to begin. The Pokemon hopped into the air, over a speedy Bubble Beam from Popplio, and in the next moment he was swimming under the sand. Chloe and Popplio had no idea where he was.

However, seconds passed, and… no attack came from below.

“Did it get lost?” Chloe wondered out loud to herself, tilting her head. Popplio matched the motion, having felt nothing happening beneath her.

“Just keeping you on your toes!” Simon held his confident grin unperturbed. Although he mentally appended, I think…

After maybe thirty seconds of waiting for Anorith to resurface, Simon asked, "Uh… Anorith?"

The Armaldo answered immediately, his head popping out not far from where he dug down.

"... What are you doing?"

Anorith chittered, wiping sand off his eyes, saying that Simon had simply asked him to dig. Evidently the thought of attacking never crossed his mind.

The bug master deflated a little as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Perhaps Xan's telepathic training was working a little too well. "You're supposed to attack, it's a battle!"

Popplio turned back to her trainer with an incredulous look on her face. It was as if she was saying, <Are you mocking me?>

Chloe didn't think Popplio would appreciate it, but she was aware of “Anorith's” brute strength. So while she acted apologetic for the moment, she thought it was good training and cheekily told her, "Just trust me, okay, Popplio?" She would learn eventually.

"Let's try this again!" Simon recovered first. "Aqua Jet: the attack!"

Anorith burst out of his hole and slammed into his opponent, sending her skidding against the sand. This time, Popplio could tell what kind of strength she was up against, and sucked in a breath as Anorith approached once more. When he made it close enough for a leaping strike, she hit him with an unavoidable Hyper Voice, repelling him into the air. Before he landed, she conjured an Icy Wind that raced along the ground, covering the soft sand in a thin layer of hard ice.

Anorith shattered the ice easily, and used Dig again, remembering to properly surface and attack. Popplio was the one sent upward this time, but both trainers were quick to counter each other.

“Ancient Power!”

“Bubble Beam!”

A few more ranged attacks were fired from each Pokemon without any connecting with their target. Changing tactics, Chloe steadily moved the battle closer to the ocean, where the tides rolled in over the sand. Icy Wind froze it all the way through, making it far harder for Dig to break it.

Popplio quickly took control of the battle from there; and with his main dodging move rendered unviable, Anorith was in danger. “Rapid Spin!” Simon called out, hoping to break up as much frozen sand as possible, but that only made an opening to get hit.

Things weren't looking good, he thought to himself. Even with the evolutionary advantage, Anorith was clearly still unfamiliar with his new body, and Chloe’s field advantage had him on the back foot. They hadn't set any rules for switching out, so long as they stuck to three Pokémon… and he was pretty sure Chloe’s Luxio would be up next if he did that. Perhaps it was best to preemptively fight electricity with electricity.

He readied himself to switch Anorith out and bring Princess in, only to realize his head felt oddly lighter than usual.

"Huh?"

Simon reached up to touch his hat—the only spot where a bug could've been besides his swim trunks—and felt nothing but fabric where there should have been a fuzzy bug.

"Princess? Princess!"

Meanwhile, Popplio's trainer was thinking to herself as well. It looked like Simon was going to switch out, but until he did, she'd press the advantage. And in case he did switch the Armaldo out, she would…

"Huh?"

Chloe had let herself relax after limiting Anorith's mobility, confident in Popplio's success. With the tension gone, though, she felt an unfamiliar weight. She turned her head down to her chest, and was overcome with a sense of déjà vu.

"Princess? Is that you?"

Nestled comfortably into her cleavage, just like the last time they'd met, was Simon's Joltik. Chloe wasn't sure it was a safe place to be at the moment, given she was only wearing a bikini, so she held one arm under her breasts to prop them up and make sure Princess didn't fall out. When she looked at Simon, he was searching around, presumably for the Joltik she'd just found.

She pointed her out to him with her free hand. “Are you looking for this?”

“Princess! Yes—oh.” Simon flailed and turned his head firmly away from her, his face turning bright red.

"Should we stop for a minute?" she asked him, although their Pokemon clearly felt no need to. They kept fighting regardless.

"I-It's fine! It's fine! Anorith, X-Scissor!"

Simon couldn't help himself from glancing at Princess repeatedly… and by extension her. His eyes flickered back and forth between Anorith and Princess' peach-coloured pillows, and his focus suffered horribly from a newfound appreciation for his exceptional eyesight.

The girl herself noticed in no time, of course, and didn't hesitate to seize the opportunity. He did say it was fine.

As the battle went on Popplio’s vitality dropped, but not taking her down with a single strong blow was a mistake, and her power surged from her ability. “Bubble Beam!” The atmosphere around the water-type filled with energy as the combination of Torrent and ocean water resulted in what looked like more of a Bubble-Hydro Pump.

Thus, partly due to the unfortunate incident of Princess choosing a new pillow, the battle between Anorith and Popplio met a swift end. Popplio handily tied the score one to one, looking rather pompous over her win. The beach-goers’ cheering her on only made her worse, though it wasn't clear if it was actually Popplio that the men in the audience were cheering for.

“Good work, boy…” Simon let out a sigh as he handed Anorith a Sitrus berry, which the bug happily gobbled, completely clueless about why Simon looked so flustered.

Much to the young man’s relief, Chloe took the opportunity of a short intermission to carefully walk back to her things and retrieve her sweater. Closing it up to her chest helped keep Princess from sliding anywhere, and she freed up her arm.

Simon desperately needed the break as well, plopping down on the sand and breathing deeply to settle himself until Chloe got back. He genuinely couldn't tell whether the girl was dangerously shameless, or if she was just dangerously defenseless. Either way, it was bad for his heart, among other things.

As Simon predicted, Luxio came out as Chloe's final Pokemon. It was somewhat comforting to know it wasn't Froslass, as much as it hurt knowing she still didn't consider him a threat. Vivillon offered herself up to fight in place of Princess, ultimately turning the third round into something of a grudge match.

His mind drifted to the memory of his first battle with Chloe before graduating, when he'd challenged the random then-tourist and didn't take no for an answer; but Vivillon—a Scatterbug at the time—was mercilessly toyed with by Luxio. They'd all come a long way since then, and Vivillon felt good about her chances this time around.

“Let’s show ‘em how much we've learned, yeah?” He nodded to the bug, who squeaked back confidently.

The two Pokémon moved onto the field and faced off. Only the beating of Vivillon's wings and the crackling of electricity along Luxio's fur were audible over the midday tide rolling in.

Then Chloe and Simon broke the silence at once.

"Rain Dance!"

"Poison Powder!"

Clouds darkened the sky as shimmering purple spores filled the air. Rain fell and dampened the effect of poison powder before it could hamper Luxio. Some spectators briefly groaned in annoyance, before remembering that they were on a beach and mostly soaked already from being in the water.

Vivillon was lacking in attacking moves, relying mostly on applying status effects. However, Chloe knew that didn't mean she was helpless without them. Simon also knew Luxio's strengths well, and Vivillon buffeted him with Gust to keep him at a distance.

Luxio tried to charge through it and use Night Slash, only to graze Vivillon's wing. Even with the water weighing her down, she was measurably faster, and managed to pull herself away whenever Luxio got close.

“String Shot, and keep flanking with Gust!” Simon doubled down on the speed advantage.

At first, it looked to be a stalemate. Luxio took little damage from Vivillon's attacks, but he couldn't catch up and make a clean hit of his own. After several failed exchanges, however, Vivillon finally took a Psychic Fangs, but her stacked speed advantage opened Luxio up to counters from Draining Kiss, and she slowly but steadily started to pull ahead.

As one trainer plotted to land a decisive blow and the other plotted to whittle their opponent down, their battle was interrupted by a massive explosion in the water.

A Stonxrally Foxbird production

gimmepie

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Also Known As GP, Daniel

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Age 27

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Australia

Seen 9 Hours Ago

Posted 2 Days Ago

11.1 Years

630

February 28th, 2023 at 2:13 AM

Indra (Male, Swift Swim) - Rain Dance, Hypnosis, Bubblebeam, Hydro Pump, Earth Power, Refresh

Stampede (Male, Poison Point) - Hydro Pump, Smokescreen, Twister, Focus Energy, Dragon Pulse, Icy Wind

Holo (Female, Lightning Rod) - Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Electric Terrain, Rising Voltage, Flame Burst, Flash

Vessel (Female, Dry Skin) - Fury Cutter, Giga Drain, Poison Powder, Spore, Rain Dance, Protect

Lancer (Male, Dry Skin) - Rock Climb, Revenge, Sucker Punch, Poison Jab, Rain Dance, Toxic

Inventory:

- ATC
- Expensive PokeGear
- Pokedex
- 800 Poke (On ATC)
- TM Icy Wind
- TM Flash
- Wishing Star
- TM Protect
- TM Rain Dance
- TM Rock Climb
- 1x Heavy Ball

Badges:

CATHERINE CARLISLE & HALEIGH WINDSOR
Reconvening

“Well, mission accomplished.”

Catherine was crouched between two thick bushes in a small local park, peering through an elegantly designed iron fence the shrubbery was growing around and through. Stampede was pressed in close to her, keeping guard. He snorted in response, focused on bodyguarding.

Catherine had spent a good while in the grounds bombarding the blackspear grunts acting as security with water, spores and lightning from a position of cover not unlike the one she was in at that moment. As the grunts had started closing in, her team had moved back towards her position and she had gradually returned them until it was just she and Stampede, who had been closest to her since he had the longest range. The guerilla team sufficiently downsized, she had managed to sneak all the way out of the grounds before a handful of the grunts had spotted her and given chase.

This wasn’t a bad thing necessarily, so long as she didn’t get caught. It meant that there would be less security on the premises while Haleigh was looking around. The distraction had been prolonged, she supposed.

She looked at Stampede, the Kingdra all business. There were other benefits to the scenario too. Stampede’s hesitance had been mostly forgotten. He had steadily defaulted back to his typical nature as the process had gone on. She was sure that this wouldn’t be the end of things on that front but, for the moment, he was his usual self. She couldn’t help but smile just a little despite the severity of her situation.

She pulled out her phone and checked for a reply from Haleigh. There was nothing. That was a little disconcerting, but she figured that the other girl probably had her phone on silent given the stealth mission she was on - and was also likely focused on that mission.

Catherine put her phone back in her pocket, watching as two of the grunts that were searching for her came to a halt at the mouth of a nearby alleyway at the corner of her vision. It was a good thing she wasn’t particularly tall or she would never have been able to cram herself and Stampede both into her hiding place. Still, it was only going to be a matter of time before she was found where she was. She had to get to the meeting place and with only two grunts around, this was probably her best chance.

“I need you to knock those two out, then we’re going to make a run for it.”

Stampede exhaled, then gave a nod. Together they backed out of the shrubbery. A moment later, the grunts were both blasted by torrents of water and left slumped against a brick wall.

It was a good fifteen minutes later when Catherine finally made it to the allocated meeting spot, a nearby PokeCentre. It hadn’t been quite as smooth a getaway as she had expected and she had ended up having to take out another grunt and run from the rest.

She showed up out of breath, covered in bits of shrubbery that had left her hiding place with her and looking very much like someone on the run. Still, the skeleton crew of staff didn’t seem to question it. They were probably used to trainers showing up in the middle of the night covered in miscellaneous crap and looking worse for wear. That was standard procedure during gym challenge season, Catherine suspected.

There was no sign of Haleigh yet though. Catherine had hoped that Haleigh might have managed to arrive at a similar time to herself given the detour she had to take… but apparently not. Catherine spotted a small counter with tea-making supplies left available for late night visitors to the centre and made use of them before finding a reasonably comfortable chair in the back corner of the room - out of view of the windows to wait.

It wasn’t the short wait that she had hoped for. It was another twenty minutes before Haleigh finally appeared through the door and Catherine had been close to getting up and returning to the mansion to lay siege to the place.

Haleigh was out of breath as she burst into the PokeCentre like a Tauros in a china shop. She looked considerably worse for wear than Catherine had been, being wet, having a swollen nose and dried blood on her face. Her gaze darted around frantically before making her way to the counter, where she quickly got five Poke Balls out of her jacket and dumped them onto the counter. Out of breath, she said, “Heal…them…please…”

The concerned looking nurse said. “Of course. Are you okay, though? Do you need a referral to the clinic next door?”

Haleigh shook her head. “No…I’m fine…please…heal them. They should be…fine…knocked out…in a battle…but fine…”

“Do you have any headaches, nausea, dizziness, or sensitivity to light?”

Haleigh replied, “Got a bad headache…but that’s it.”

The nurse examined her face for a bit, before nodding to herself. She said, “Your nose looks swollen, but it still seems to be straight. You’ve got a busted lip as well. Let me get you some ice, a blanket, and something to wipe all that blood off your face.”

Haleigh nodded and watched as the nurse went back to grab the supplies. Once she came back up front, the nurse handed them to Haleigh and grabbed the Poke Balls off of the counter to put them in the healing machine.

While she waited for the machine to heal her Pokemon, she took the wipes she was given and wiped the blood off her face. In her haste to heal her Pokémon, she had forgotten that she was supposed to be meeting up with Catherine at the Pokémon Centre. She looked around and found her hanging out in the corner.

She called over to the other girl and said, “Made it, just gimme a sec to let my Pokémon heal.”

Haleigh waited another minute before her Pokemon were returned to her. She took the bag of ice and blanket with her and walked over to the back corner, plopping down on the seat next to Catherine’s.

“What happened?” Catherine asked. “Are you okay?”

Haleigh exhaled as she peeled off her wet jacket and wrapped the blanket around herself. “Yeah, I’m fine. I ran into her while I was looking around the place. I ended up getting into a fight, tried to get the jump on ‘er, but she ended up sending out one of her brainwashed Pokemon and nearly got me.”

She used one hand to keep the pack of ice over her nose, while the other reached into her pocket and pulled out a Poke Ball. She looked pensively at it as she explained, “It was a Frosmoth. Not just any old one either, but my Snom. My mo — Vera — knew that I had come back for ‘im, and offered ‘im to me if I joined her side. That’s why she got Ian to kidnap me in the first place. She said that I had become this strong trainer and that Blackspear needed people like me.”

Haleigh sighed. “At least I managed to save him. I broke the Dark Ball he was in and used one of my empty regulars to keep ‘im in.”

“I’m glad you got him back,” Catherine said. “Nobody should have their minds taken from them like that. Did you find anything else?”

Haleigh reached into one of her inner pockets and pulled out a crumpled, water-damaged folder. “Yeah, I managed to nick this on my way out. Didn’t have the time to read it, and it’s not in great shape either…”

Haleigh looked around to make sure there wasn’t anyone who was paying them any mind. Once she was satisfied that no one was looking at them, she opened up and hummed as she examined the contents. There were some text documents with explanations of how the current Dark Ball worked, with plans to improve the design, but couldn’t make out more than that on account of some of the text being smudged. There were some schematics as well that fared better, but Haleigh couldn’t make heads or tails of them.

“This is definitely important,” Haleigh said. “But I doubt this is all that she’s up to. She told me that she was involved with the old Macro Cosmos plan to resurrect Etaernatus, so this is probably a secondary project to her.”

“Well, I know what I’m looking at,” Catherine said, “But I don’t understand any of it. It’s not useless, it links her to those evil pokeballs… but it doesn’t incriminate her bosses at all. I was hoping for something that would be irrefutable proof of their identities. It’s better than nothing at least.”

Haleigh nodded. “Yeah. You reckon anything would come of this if we turned this over to the authorities?”

Catherine shook her head, then half-shrugged. “I don’t know. But I doubt it. They’ve got too much money, power and influence. Simon and I left the rangers with evidence already and I haven’t seen any news suggesting it went anywhere.”

From the way Catherine was talking, it sounded like she already had an idea of who was behind the blacksuits. Vera never disclosed who she was working for. Haleigh asked, a skeptical tone in her voice, “Who’s ‘they?’”

Catherine sighed. “I should have been more careful. I guess you're someone who it’s easy to let your guard drop around. Well, part of that is that I don’t think you’d make a particularly great actor or liar - and tonight would have been a bit extreme for that.”

She hadn’t been planning on filling Haleigh in but, at that point, it didn’t seem like there would be too much harm in filling her in to Catherine. As long as Haleigh didn’t go around blabbing to anyone who would listen. “It wasn’t exactly a surprise to hear it, but I only know because of everything that happened with Simon. These blacksuits that keep showing up are working with - or are part of - Blackspear. But before you start grilling me with questions, that’s about all I know. I have no idea why they’re doing any of this. Honestly, it makes no sense to me. It doesn’t seem like they have much to gain when they already practically own Galar.”

Haleigh was taken aback by the answer. Blackspear? Even though she wasn’t someone who followed the news or current events all that closely, she knew that Blackspear was the biggest conglomerate in the aftermath of the Darkest Day. They had their hands in pretty much any industry one could think of. Nothing that Haleigh had ever heard would suggest that they were the ones behind all of this, and, as Catherine had said, they already had so much power and influence already.

Still, the part about having tons of money and influence would certainly make sense as to how they seemed to have such a large, clandestine operation. As Haleigh knew all too well, Galar already had one major corporation with very evil people having worked for it, so having Blackspear be the ones to take their place made a lot of sense.

Haleigh gave a dry chuckle as she replied, “I don’t blame you for not telling me. I’m definitely not someone who’s the best at deceiving people or who gives off an air of seriousness.”

Her expression turned serious and an edge started creeping into her words. “I’m not one to treat this kind of stuff lightly, though. Not after how I’ve seen them try to endanger my life, or how they treat Pokemon.”

She looked back down at Frosmoth’s Poke Ball and rotated it in her hands. It was still hard to believe that she really had him back, after so many years apart.

Something didn’t quite feel right, though. It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy that he was out of that woman’s hands. There was something about the way that Vera saw Pokemon, as nothing more than weapons or tools, that made Haleigh think about her own journey up to this point. Battling, fun as it was, didn’t feel nearly as important to her as the relationships she had to her Pokemon. Corey, Coraline, Cornelius, Orion, Cerise, Reyna, Dart, Captain, and now Frosmoth.

Knowing that Frosmoth must have been through horrible ordeals on account of that brainwashing the dark ball subjected him to was a poignant reminder of how many other countless Pokemon were suffering a similar fate at the hands of Blackspear. It wasn’t even necessarily just Blackspear, either. There was the merchant she and Achille rescued Orion from. There were the unknown smugglers whose shipment of Pokemon Haleigh and Val had rescued Reyna and Squirtle from. Beyond even her own Pokemon, there were countless other Pokemon out there in need of help.

Haleigh said to Catherine, without looking up. “Hey, mate. I know we still don’t really know each other really well or anything like that, but can I…ask you about something?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“You talk a lot about becoming Champion and using your position to help improve Galar, that you want to inspire people to follow your lead. From what I’ve seen in your matches, and what you’ve helped me to do with getting Frosmoth back, I’m starting to believe you really mean it. Me, on the other hand, I never really gave it much thought about what I would do. I was so set on this journey to become champion, and yet now, I feel like I’m starting to feel that maybe there’s a different way of fulfilling that ideal of making Galar a better place.”

Haleigh straightened up and looked Catherine in the eyes. “I think protecting and caring for Pokemon is what’s really important in my life. Not the fame, not the badges, just that. And well…I don’t know if being a trainer is the way that I can best do that. At the same time though, I don’t want to just give up so close to the finish line. If you were me, if you felt this calling, what would you do?”

“Do what you want,” Catherine said. “I’m not about to complain if more of my competition drops out. But, if it were me, I’d keep going until there wasn’t anything left to gain from the experience. The more information you have the better, right? So if continuing the gym challenge is providing information that will be useful to future endeavors, there’s no reason to stop. Especially since the chances of you accidentally becoming champion are zero with me around. But if it’s not useful, don’t waste your time. So long as whatever you’re doing leaves the world better off in the future than it is now.”

As Haleigh sat there and mulled over Catherine’s words, thoughts of what she did want to do instead of being a Pokemon trainer entered her mind. She had spent so much time in the wilderness of Galar and, despite the dangers, loved the feeling of being part of the natural world. Helping Pokemon was something she was very passionate about, whether it was something as small as tending to an injured Pokemon’s wounds, or as grand as taking down a smuggling operation. She was someone who enjoyed exerting herself and pushing her physical prowess.

To that end, it seemed like a Pokemon Ranger was Haleigh’s calling. It just felt right, given all that Haleigh has been through.

Would continuing on the journey help her with that goal? She had already learned so much, about the world, about herself, about other people. But of course, there was always something new to learn.

Haleigh said, “I think I have my answer. I want to be there at the finish line, to tell myself that I’m not limited in what I can do. Even after all this, whether as the champion, or a Ranger, I’ll keep moving forward, keep growing.”

She smiled warmly. “I really have to thank you, by the way. What you’ve done means the world to me. Not just with helping me get Frosmoth back, but for pushing me and inspiring me to be better when I was still struggling. Maybe you’re surly and blunt, but you got a good heart underneath it.”

She gave a nervous chuckle as she added, “Sorry for getting all sappy there, I just…I don’t know, I feel like I trust you a lot more now.”

“I haven’t done anything special,” Catherine said. “I’m just trying to do the right thing - and I’m trying to give others the chance to do the right thing. I haven’t changed my mind about the world or anything, but people have to have the capacity to do better otherwise there’d be no point to anything I’m doing.”

Haleigh nodded. Same old Catherine. Haleigh wasn’t really sure if she could ever be friends with her in the same way as Mel, Simon, or Achille, but she felt that there was at least a mutual understanding that was a far cry from hostilities that had defined their relationship in the past.

Haleigh smirked and said, “Now that I’ve figured out that I’m not going to drop out and make this easier for you, what’s your plan for the gym? Goin’ to take on Gordie, or Melony?”

“Gordie probably. He’s weak against nearly my entire team and from what I’ve seen doesn’t have any particularly great countermeasures against water-types. If Melony would put me at a theoretical disadvantage I’d consider her instead for the statement but she’s not in a much better position than her son. Probably wouldn’t be worth the small extra effort. You?”

Haleigh shrugged. “Probably Melony, but I know that she’d probably try and wash Corey away with her Lapras. Still, with Electro Ball, some clever strategies, with Reyna as a backup or Coraline to wall her off, I reckon I could work past that.”

“I wouldn’t suggest winging it like that - unless you already have these clever strategies planned out. Her whole team has countermeasures for fire types - some of which cover a wide area. The terrain is going to hinder maneuverability and make your hit-and-run tactics harder - especially when you mostly favour glass canons who aren’t going to appreciate having to constantly shift in and out of battle to avoid getting Perish Songed into oblivion with that jagged battlefield causing problems. Meanwhile her team are going to be used to dealing with that battlefield so it won’t hinder them as much. You should do something about the battlefield and take out her Lapras quickly.”

“Yeah, that’s a good point.” Haleigh grimaced as her head started throbbing again and used her free hand to massage her forehead. “This whole bloody thing’s got me too knackered out to think about it though, and my head’s killin’ me.

Catherine thought for a moment. This could be a good opportunity. She could help someone out, spread a message of cooperation and maybe even keep Stampede focused on what he liked doing so he wouldn’t slip back into his more doubtful mindset he had fallen into. It… wasn’t exactly comfortable territory for her, but she had to be willing to push her boundaries.

“What if you didn’t have to think too hard about it then?”

“Mmm?” Was Catherine really suggesting what Haleigh thought she was suggesting?

“Well… we clearly function fine as a team. We could partner up. I can deal with the battlefield and cover for you. You can do what you do best and run amok.”

She was suggesting that! Though, maybe it wasn’t that much of a surprise in light of everything that had happened. Though Haleigh had dipped her toes in playing around with the environment, there was no doubting Catherine’s prowess when it came to controlling the battlefield. Having that, on her side…

Grinning widely, Haleigh replied, “I reckon we’ve got ourselves a deal then! When do you want to do this?”

“In the morning. No point drawing it out.”

RP • WL • A&M • VG • Gaming Journal

Foxrally

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PokéCommunity Supporter Crystal Tier

Also Known As Fox/Gamer/the Algerian

Discord Nickname Foxrally#0276

ya boi

a Torterra's back

Seen 2 Weeks Ago

Posted 3 Weeks Ago

10.2 Years

631

March 1st, 2023 at 3:42 PM

Simon Pearburgh

Spoiler: Inventory

Spoiler: Memories

Chloe Hayes

Froslass

Luxio

Alcremie

Fake Trick Un Swagapino the Gentleman Thief

Popplio

Route 9

Aa a pillar of water rose into the sky, a swimmer was knocked upwards and came hurtling out toward the beach.

"Vivillon! Gust! Soften the landing!" Simon sprung into action immediately, creating a cushion of air that stopped the victim before he hit the ground.

“What the hell is that?!” someone screamed.

The man was bloodied and bruised, attacked by whatever caused the explosion. The spectators moved to help him right away, but the scene devolved into screaming and evacuating when they got a look at what caused the chaos.

An enormous blue Samurott, at least several times the regular size of one, emerged from the water. Its arms and head were covered in sharp, razor-like black shell protrusions, and its massive claws were tinted a deep crimson. Most concerning, though, was the red, misty glow coming from the Pokemon’s skin, and the blank red stare in its eyes. This was a shadow Pokemon.

“Crap! We have to lure it away!” Simon called out to Chloe.

"You know what's up with that thing?!" Without waiting for an answer, she brought Froslass out.

"I wish I didn't!" Simon replied. “Vivillon, Gust!”

“Thunderbolt!”

Both Pokemon’s attacks seemed to barely affect the Samurott, as it took the brunt of the damage but didn’t flinch or recoil. Instead, it turned its soulless eyes and glared at the two offending trainers. The shadow mon roared as it rushed horn-first towards the sandbank.

“Yep, we definitely have its attention now, run!” Simon shouted, sprinting by Chloe and grabbing her arm as he passed to help her along. Sand was blasted into the air behind them on their way to another shore. With a quick whistle, Anorith jumped into the water, and Simon leaped on his back. “Hop on!”

Knowing Popplio didn't have the speed she needed, Chloe climbed on right away. Luxio's Pokeball went off and recalled him as they sped away from land with Vivillon and Froslass flying closely behind, hitting Samurott with another volley of attacks to keep its attention.

While Simon was looking ahead of them, he heard the sound of a camera right behind him. He glanced back to find Chloe with one hand around his waist and her phone in the other, flipped open and snapping pictures galore even as she directed Froslass.

"Chloe, what are you doing?!"

"Photos." She suddenly seemed a lot less panicked now, for reasons Simon couldn't fathom. "What, should I take a video too? Oh, that's a good idea."

"Where were you even keeping your phone?!" He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, but Simon blurted it out anyway. He also tried to ignore the soft, pleasant sensation against his back that was very inappropriate for the situation.

"Dodge right!" Chloe shouted. She clung to Simon's back as he directed Anorith, and a Hydro Pump blasted the space they just left. Just like the Pokemon, the move was several times bigger than normal, and the water it blew into the air obscured them and Samurott from each other until it charged through. Another Thunderbolt ran through its soaking body, redirecting its anger back to Froslass.

“Listen, this isn’t a normal Pokemon! These things will stop at nothing to kill us, I’ve faced enough of them to know that!” Another roar from behind and the Samurott was gaining on them. Simon suddenly veered Anorith to the side, spraying the riders and their pursuer with water as he redirected course. He spotted a cluster of boulders in the distance and sped towards them.

“Anorith, we’re gonna ‘jump’ it, just like last time!” he called out, to which the bug chirped excitedly. Simon looked back. “Trust me on this one—hold on tight, and get ready to jump when I tell you!”

Chloe did as he said, following his lead as Simon tried to stand. She moved her grip up to his shoulders and gave him a little room to move, though he still bumped against her while he did. Both trainers unsteadily got to their feet atop the Armaldo’s back, tenuously holding on in a crouching position. As they got closer, the Armaldo picked up speed and Simon held his breath, praying to every god that this would work. At the last minute, he yelled, “Now!”

Both he and Chloe leapt forward, off of Anorith’s back and above the rocks. They soared over the boulders as the bug pierced through and emerged on the other side. Keeping their momentum, the trainers smoothly landed back onto their ride, shaken, but not stirred.

They couldn’t help but let out a relieved but adrenaline-fueled laugh as they sped away, but they were quickly brought back to reality by the roar behind them. With an explosive crash, the Samurott charged through the entire cluster of boulders, sending fragments of rock flying everywhere.

“... Muk.” Simon muttered. It barely even staggered.

"At this rate we're gonna have to fight it," Chloe began, "but we need it back on land." Neither of them had the roster for a battle in the water.

Simon scanned the area for a remote beach, one that was free of people and Pokemon but also large enough that the Samurott would have to be far from the water to get to them. After a while, he spotted one. “There!” He pointed it out, and Anorith changed course and headed to shore.

Whatever distance they’d put between them and the Samurott was quickly closing, and Vivillon and Froslass were no longer able to slow it down. As the trainers reached land they hopped off of Anorith and sprinted away from the water. The Samurott leapt out and crash-landed onto the sand, red fumes billowing from its jaw.

The trainers whirled around as their Pokemon finally caught up. “We’ll keep it distracted, you guys attack!”

"Let's do it." Chloe additionally called Luxio back out, while Anorith joined from the water.

“Vivillon, Stun Spore!” The bug flew around the Samurott and attempted to spray it with shimmering yellow sparks. The water-type snarled and swiped at her, blowing away most of the powder with wind from the sheer power of its swing. It followed with an ear-splitting roar, calling down a thunderstorm that quickly grew out of control.

“Thunderbolt!” Froslass struck with another bolt of lightning, much stronger now with the storm in play. When she got its attention, Anorith flew in with Aqua Jet, crashing into the side of Samurott's head and pushing it face-first into Luxio's Night Slash. It countered quickly, grabbing two Razor Shells from its leg guards and repelling the melee fighters with a single swing.

Vivillon and Froslass chipped at it during the chase, but now that it was embroiled in an all-out battle, the damage was finally starting to stack up, on both sides. However, the Shadow Samurott's massive size conferred an equally massive health pool.

Once it reached the threshold of its ability, its power ballooned, accompanied by the swelling of its crimson glow until it looked like it was corrupting the air around it. It felt oppressive even from far away. Another earth-shaking howl damaged its surroundings, intensifying the storm and bringing it just shy of a hurricane.

"If we don't take it out now…!" Simon yelled, but the rest was drowned out by the raging wind. Chloe tried to respond, finding her own voice unable to make it far either.

Luxio retreated to a distance and barked something out—not at his trainer or opponent, but at Froslass. The ice-type rose high into the air as Vivillon was nailed by a vicious Hydro Pump. Simon's quick reaction got her back in her ball before she hit the ground, but she was out of the fight.

"Simon!" Chloe's voice barely reached him over the gale. "Back us up!" He answered with a thumbs up in lieu of more yelling.

"Thunderbolt! Luxio, Spark!"

"Anorith! X-Scissor!"

Anorith rushed in, his glowing arms clashing with Samurott's shells. With it distracted, Luxio started running, gathering more and more electricity around his body each time his feet left the ground.

Up in the sky, the storm clouds focused on Froslass; once she was prepared, she sent down a single great lightning strike. Instead of Samurott, though, it landed on Luxio. His body absorbed the attack, speeding up and covered completely in arcing white and gold.

Anorith's X-Scissor gave out, the shimmering blades shattered by a Razor Shell sweep. Simon had his Pokeball at the ready, recalling him before he took the finishing blow. It caught Samurott by surprise, slashing through thin air, and it paused for too long to react to the last Pokemon on the field.

A ball of lightning met Shadow Samurott's bloody aura in the next moment, engulfing the eye of the storm in a flash of light that made the blackened sky look bright as day.

By the time the trainers were able to open their eyes, the wind was slowly dying down, and the clouds were beginning to clear. Samurott lay unmoving on the sand. It was dissolving, as if it were being eaten away by the vestiges of the red mist that covered its body. And towering over it, Luxio—Luxray—stood tall, golden sparks still flying from its pitch-black fur. Under the light of the afternoon sun, he looked downright majestic.

As Simon heaved the longest sigh of relief of his life, Chloe tossed her phone to him. “Get whatever photos you can before it’s gone!”

“What? Why would…” The young man began but quickly realized he’d never actually kept any photo evidence of these creatures, and dutifully snapped a few at various angles during its disappearing process. As he did, Chloe ran up and hugged her Pokemon for a job well done, unfazed by the static prickling her skin. However, she quickly realized something was wrong.

Because in an effort to kill the mood, Luxray fainted on his feet.

A Stonxrally Foxbird production

Ex-mod of RPT - Pairs: Gligar & gimmepie –

Friend Code

SW-5146-5893-7210

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Songbird

Profile Message Posts

Tonight, the marigolds bloom for her.

Female

Seen 1 Week Ago

Posted March 3rd, 2023

554 posts

9.9 Years

632

March 3rd, 2023 at 1:52 PM , since edited

Simon Pearburgh

Spoiler: Inventory

Spoiler: Memories

Chloe Hayes

Froslass

Luxray

Alcremie

Fake Trick un Swagapino the Gentleman Thief

Popplio

Somewhere on Route 9

It was mid-evening when Simon finished telling Chloe everything he knew, from the very beginning. She listened quietly without judging him, absentmindedly petting Luxray for most of it, and only interjected when she had a new question that needed answering. The orange glow of the sunset should have felt nice, but there was a somber mood in the air throughout Simon's story.

"So… that's the whole thing. As far I know, only Catherine and Raphael know." He debated starting at only the first time he saw what he called the "red shadow Pokemon", but decided against it. He went all the way back to when he joined Blackspear—before that, even, to his encounter with a newly-christened Shadow Glalie in the middle of the night. Mothim came out to vouch at the time, though Chloe could barely understand his gestures, and played up his personal heroics. (Simon shut that down quickly.)

Telling her about the Scolipede situation left him with a heavy aftertaste of guilt. Recalling the events of that night brought back all of its feelings. Not just for what he’d done as an unwitting Black Suit operative, but also for what he’d done to his team and those around him. Catherine’s words still rang in his mind—just because he left, didn’t mean he could be forgiven so easily. He cast a glance at Shedinja’s ball and sighed. “...I know this is a lot to take in, and whatever impression you had of me is probably ruined, but… I can’t keep it a secret anymore.”

Rather than disillusioned or displeased, however, Chloe stared him in the face with a gentle smile. "You know, you're really cool, Simon."

"H-Huh? What do you mean by that?" He was so blindsided by the straight admission that he forgot to act like he had an ego. Chloe giggled, then her smile faded as she turned her eyes back to the water and continued.

"I think most people would double down when they psyduck up. Like, they already committed to it, so they have to see it to the end. Or they don't know how to apologize and change… Or they don't even think they're doing anything wrong in the first place." She nearly spat out the last part, but she softened up right after when she looked at Simon again. "But you're trying to make it right, and you're even fighting overwhelming odds to do it. You should be proud of yourself."

Simon kept forgetting that Chloe had a few years over him, but now it sounded like she was kind of acting her age. The salty ocean breeze suddenly felt a little bit warmer, and Simon gazed out beyond the shore with her. A few long seconds later, he managed to choke out, "Thanks, Chloe."

"Any time." She got up and stretched, having been sitting in a sidesaddle position the entire time. She bent over to brush the sand off her legs (giving Simon a view he wasn't going to forget any time soon) and he scrambled to his feet to do the same. After raising her arms as high as she could along with a low groan, she asked him, "So, do you wanna finish our battle from earlier?"

It was then he remembered that they made a bet, and the score was tied one to one. Vivillon had had Luxio on the ropes the first time, but Simon had no idea how things would go now that they would be up against the (quite literally) bigger and better version. Even so, both of the Pokemon were recovered now, and both of the trainers wanted to see what they could do.

"Hell yeah! We're gonna wipe the floor with ya!"

The unfortunate reality was that Simon would be on the floor, and Vivillon got wiped out.

Luxio's evolution gave him a substantial buff. It was more than just a massive stat boost. Night Slash boasted greater range; Vivillon remained on the faster side, but where she got away with grazing before, she had to put all her effort into dodging when Luxray charged in. Even when she kicked up a huge cloud of sand to try and gain some ground, Luxray’s eyes saw through it like it was open air. His oft-neglected Bite had been given up for Electric Terrain, and it turned his normal chomps into something resembling Thunder Fang.

Chloe finished the battle with Wild Charge, upgraded from Spark. Between the overload he experienced against Samurott and the effect of his new terrain-changing move, both Simon and Chloe thought it deserved to be called Volt Tackle instead.

“Ugh…” Simon dropped his shoulders and hung his head low, looking more like how he did during their very first battle with Scatterbug. Vivillon sat on the sand beside him, rubbing her head as she munched on a consolatory poffin. “You win this time,” the bug catcher mumbled.

"What was our wager, again?" Chloe teasingly put a finger to her chin, then balled her hand into a fist and smacked it on her other palm. "Oh yeah! Loser has to do whatever the winner says, right?" It was as if all the kindness and maturity that she showed earlier never existed.

It turned out that if Samurott hadn't interrupted their first battle, she would have resorted to some nasty tricks. Not least among them was using Night Slash to throw clumps of wet sand at Vivillon. Chloe was a veritable demon, and Simon couldn't help but think to himself, Maybe that gentleman thief mon was a good match for her after all…

However, Luxray had been suffering loss after loss before today, such as in the battle against Melony. Even though Chloe generally won in the end, she actually didn't like busting out Froslass too much. He felt like he was dragging their whole team down, as few combatants as it had. Going mano a mano with another gym challenger was an extremely valuable opportunity for him. In the end, unlike a certain self-proclaimed gentleman thief, Luxray felt pretty good about himself now.

Meanwhile, Simon slowly, painfully resigned himself to his fate. "Okay… What do you want?"

"Alright, so…"

"There is no way I’m doing—"

"Anything~"

"Gnnngh…" Simon just about cracked his teeth from the gnashing as he writhed. He finally sucked in a deep breath and answered, "Fine! But how am I even supposed ta pull that off?"

"You can leave the hard work to me. I just need…"

"You cannot be serious, mate!"

"I mean, do you want to be a laughingstock instead? Or, I could think of something else."

Simon eventually gave in to her terms. Waiting for whatever else she would come up with would have been hell on his nerves. The devil you know and all that, he reasoned. With their bet settled, much to his dismay, Simon looked up with dead eyes until he remembered they needed a way back. He brought Anorith the Armaldo out once more to give them another lift to get their things—a ride that felt much longer than it was to Simon, for several reasons.

A Stonxrally Foxbird production

Fen-Fen

Profile Message Posts

Also Known As Fen

Me but more fabulous

Age 24

Female

Colorado, USA

Seen 21 Hours Ago

Posted 4 Weeks Ago

354 posts

7.5 Years

633

March 5th, 2023 at 1:32 AM

Haleigh Windsor and Catherine Carlisle

Corey (♂)

Coraline (♀)

Cornelius (♂)

Captain (♂)

Dart (♂)

Orion (♂)

Cerise (♀)

Reyna (♀)

Frosmoth (♂)

Indra (♂)

Stampede (♂)

Holo (♀)

Vessel

Lancer (♂)

Spoiler: Memories

Odd Pair, Great Battle

The sound of the cheering of the crowd, boos of detractors, signs and memorabilia and the familiar air of anticipation. It was all pretty much the same as always. Catherine scanned the crowd, looking for the patch of yellow raincoats and umbrellas.

She spotted a few such groups, noticing the first not by the colour but because she saw her face on an umbrella. Evidently, her number of supporters was growing even in a stuck-up rich city like Circhester. That was a good sign. Although she was less than pleased about the umbrella.

She turned to Haleigh, who was standing next to her, also looking over the crowd. “Not a word.”

Haleigh laughed heartily and chirped, “Ah cheer up mate, they love you!”

She turned and saw another corner of the stands with her own supporters, a mix of black and purple, some sporting Team Yell logos. She waved fervently at them and flashed a “rock on” gesture, earning a roaring cheer of approval from the fans.

“It’s time folks!” The announcer called over the speaker system, her voice amplified enough to be heard over the roaring chorus of voices. “The surprise team up of challengers 41 and 861 have completed the gym mission and will now take part in a tag battle against leaders Gordie and Melony!”

The volume of the crowd nearly doubled as they cheered for their hometown heroes. Across a battlefield of jagged and cracked stone, pillars and blades of ice and rock rising up across it, the mother and son pair of gym leaders were striding onto the battlefield with an air of confidence. Gordie beamed at the crowd, waving at them and shouting greetings while his mother, Melony was all business, laser-focused on the pair of challengers.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Melony said. “A hastily thrown together pairing is going to struggle against a partnership with years of training together under their belt.”

“Yeah.” Gordie grinned. “I’d have loved to take either of you on alone to show off how cool my Pokemon are for the audience, but I’m not going to go easy on you in a double battle either. This is going to be rough for you if you’re not careful.”

Melody nodded. “I have a reputation for being rather severe and I taught my son well.”

Gordie half-scoffed, half-laughed. “Give me a little credit here.”

Catherine sighed, looking across at her teammate. “I always hate this part. The grandstanding.”

Haleigh looked back at Catherine with a confident smirk and replied, “They can say whatever they want, but all the trash-talking in the world isn’t going to change what’s going to happen.”

She turned her head back to face Gordie and Melony, punching her fist into her palm. “You wanna talk rough?! We’ll be standing strong even if you throw a whole mountain our way! Me an’ Catherine will rock you right out the stadium!”

“In that case,” Melony said, smirking. “Let’s begin.”

In unison, the gym leaders sent out their opening Pokemon. With twin flashes, the towering stone behemoth that was Gordie’s Coalossal appeared next to Melony’s smaller, block-headed Eiscue.

“Well, that’s annoying,” Catherine remarked. “She’s planning to get into a weather war with me from the beginning. Not that it will be enough. I hope you’re ready for this, Haleigh. We’re going to completely shut them down. No casualties.”

Catherine tossed out her own Pokeball, Indra taking to the field.

Haleigh nodded, a determined gleam in her eye as she cranked her arm back and threw her Pokeball out on the field. Corey appeared from it and came out mirroring her trainer’s confident cross-armed pose.

“No casualties? Someone is confident,” Melody said. “Hail and then Surf!”

“How exciting. I can’t wait to see them try!” Gordie added. “You know what to do!”

Shards of ice began to fall over the battlefield as Gordie’s Coalossal blasted a searing stream of water into the air over its head, causing a billowing of steam before it all crashed back down over the top of it. It was extremely weak to water damage like that, but barely seemed to flinch.

There wasn’t much time to ponder that thought though. The Eiscue’s follow through attack suddenly erupted into being, a surging tidal wave that rushed towards Indra and Corey.

“Earth Power, block it off,” Catherine commanded.

Indra stepped forward as the Surf rushed forward and stamped his foot into the ground. Between two of the sharp spires, pillars of thick, gushing mud exploded up forming a wall. Some of the water got through the tiny gaps or splashed over the top, but it was mostly harmless and for the most part the Surf spread out and around the battlefield in a thin and slowly dissipating layer.

“Getting rid of that Eiscue is the top priority,” Catherine said to Haleigh. “Don’t worry about enemy attacks. We won’t let them break through and hit Corey, just get rid of that thing so I don’t have to spend the entire fight fighting for control of the weather.”

“Got it! Corey, let’s try out that new technique of ours!”

Corey nodded as he took off with a running start, sidestepping the wall and deftly charging towards the Eiscue.

With a smile of glee on her face, Haleigh shouted, “Pyro Ball!”

A large ball of fire started materializing by Corey’s feet. He dribbled it back and forth, as much for show as it was to line up the shot. Soon enough, Corey found just the right angle and once the Eiscue was in sight, he kicked the projectile right at a curved angle.

Despite the Eiscue’s best efforts, it was no match for Corey’s raw speed and finesse as he was forced to take the flaming ball straight on, staggering backwards. Even though Haleigh could tell the impact had caused major damage, she’d need more than that to secure the blow.

“Sur -” Melody started to voice her counter-attack, but Catherine had already been issuing a command of her own.

“Hydro Pump!”

As the Eiscue started to conjure a close-range super-effective retaliation, its plans of retribution were cut short. From across the battlefield, Indra blasted it with a deluge of high pressure water, knocking it off its feet and across the arena, disrupting the attack.

“Don’t let up.” Catherine glanced at Haleigh. “Once the Eiscue is out, we win.”

“I’m here too, you know!” Gordie declared. “You won’t get away with ignoring us. Tar Shot that Cinderace!”

“Earth Power, Indra.” Catherine wasn’t about to let Gordie slow down Corey. The Cinderace needed its speed.

The Coalossal spat out globs of inky black tar as another wall of mud geysers shot up between the Rock type and Corey. The tar struck the mud, merging with it into an oozy conglomerate as the geysers gurgled to a halt, but Corey was free to keep pressing the attack.

“Ha! You’re not gonna slow me down that easy! Corey, get the Eiscue with a Double Kick.”

Corey used the opening Indra gave him and got close to the Eiscue, leaping up and using his momentum to land a kick. The impact shattered the Eiscue’s ice cube head, to which Corey immediately followed up with a second kick that directly connected with its now exposed head.

“Keep on your guard, Corey!”

“Forget guarding. We’ll guard you. Just take it out,” Catherine said.

The Coalossal was approaching again, only to be shunted back across the battlefield by a second Hydro Pump from Indra, taking his queue from his trainer.

“You can’t defend against both of us,” Melony called across the battlefield. “Surf!”

“Earth Power.”

Another massive wave exploded up from Melony’s Eiscue as a series of muddy geysers shot up in front of the wave. The Earth Power was holding the attack at bay, but the Surf attack was starting to break through and Gordie’s Coalossal was fast approaching again.

“Hit the mud with fire!” Catherine instructed. “Indra, behind you.”

“Corey, hit the wall with some Embers, quick!

Corey redirected his attention to the wall and spewed bursts of flame on it. The wall noticeably hardened as the flames hit it. The wave crashed over the wall, holding strong and allowing Corey another opening as it started retreating.

“Let’s make this count, Flame Charge!”

Moving in a blur, Corey dashed toward the Eiscue, fire engulfing his entire body. He was a blur as his already high speed was boosted as he headed straight for the Eiscue. No evasive maneuver that the Eiscue could do would be able to get the Cinderace off it in time, forced to take another head-on blow.

“Hit it with Bubble Beam, Indra.” With Corey handling the Eiscue just fine, Catherine turned her attention to Gordie’s Coalossal. While Water moves did huge damage to the behemoth, they did also make it faster. But Bubble Beam would sometimes reduce the speed of its targets. Catherine smirked as Indra released a seemingly infinite surge of bubbles at the Rock type as it charged.

Taking the hit head on as it charged, the Coalossal made it about halfway to Indra before it was forced back by the continuous attack.

“Let’s try a different tactic then. Heat Crash!” Gordie called across to his Pokemon.

It was, admittedly, a bit of a surprise when the enormous Pokemon managed to leap well into the air as a field of intense flames formed around it. Like a meteor it came crashing down, forcing Indra to dive out the way and abandon his bubble barrage. The Poliwhirl copped a glancing blow, but resisting the damage type was able to roll back to his feet as steam billowed up from where fire and water had met.

“I can work with steam. You don’t have any wide reaching attacks like we do. Earth Power.”

Hidden in the cloud of steam, Indra had more of the muddy geysers exploding up out the ground all over the place. They wouldn’t all hit the Coalossal since Indra couldn’t see either, but they weren’t going far enough to get in Corey’s way. “Time to wrap it up with that Eiscue I think.”

The Eiscue looked to be on its last legs as it just barely managed to keep itself standing, every bit as hardy and determined as her own Eiscue. It couldn’t take much more, though. Once Haleigh got the finishing blow to connect, the match would be as good as theirs.

“Alright Corey, let’s finish this! One last Flame Charge!”

Corey turned himself to face the Eiscue once again and started dashing towards it. This time, the Eiscue had just barely been able to dodge the blindingly fast attack thanks to a small falter in Corey’s trajectory after stepping on a patch of slick mud. Corey let out a noise of surprise as he looked to his left and saw the Eiscue right beside him, undamaged by the attack.

Melony called out, “Zen Headbutt, now!”

“No, Corey -”

Before Haleigh could finish her command, however, the Eiscue had already charged itself up with psychic energy and headbutted Corey directly, causing him to stagger back. Despite the impact clearly having landed, however, it was only a moment later that the Eiscue was the one that ended up flying through the air as Corey charged back at him with a resounding boom. Everyone watched in awe as the Eiscue landed back down on its back, not moving or making a sound.

The announcer called out, “What a way to turn that around! With a Counter from Corey, Eiscue has been knocked out!”

Haleigh exclaimed, “Great work, mate! Cheers!”

“Don’t get too excited,” Melody called across. “This is far from over.”

Melony tossed out another Pokeball and a second later, the elegant form of Lapras materialized. Melony was quick on the draw to give it an order. “Perish Song!”

“You might think that’s a problem for me too,” Gordie said, still grinning confidently even as the Lapras let out an eerie, almost discordant melody. “But my team are plenty used to switching in and out of this battlefield and they’re hard as rock. It won’t be a problem.

“It isn’t going to be a problem for us either,” Catherine replied flatly. “Time to put the plan into action. Indra, Rain Dance!”

Without waiting, Indra started twirling and leaping across the battlefield in time to the Lapras’ song, storm clouds quickly forming above and a downpour beginning.

“What’s this meant to do about Perish Song?” Gordie asked. “Besides, isn’t the rain going to be a problem for your partner?”

Haleigh chuckled as she said smugly, “Oh don’t worry ‘bout me, mate. Flames aren’t the only thing in my arsenal.”

“Besides,” Catherine added, “It’s not meant to do anything about Perish Song. It’s about your battlefield. Good work, Indra. Time to tag out with Stampede.”

Catherine returned Indra to his ball and then released her Kingdra onto the battlefield. He winced, the jagged ground digging into him, but held firm.

“Looks like it’s still working to me!” Gordie declared.

“You get one,” Catherine replied. “Time to do what you do best, Stampede. Your job is to protect Haleigh’s team. The other side doesn’t get to lay a finger on them. First step, control the battlefield.”

“Am I missing something?” Gordie asked, glancing at his mother.

“They’re definitely up to something. Don’t give them a chance to do whatever they’re planning. Hit the Kingdra, Ice Beam!”

“You heard the lady, Stone Edge!”

“Icy Wind, Stampede.”

Blades of stone flew out of the ground towards Stampede from one corner of the arena as a chilling Ice Beam shot at him from the other. Both missed as, with his Swift Swim kicking in during the rain, Stampede bounded out the way using his tail like a spring. From the air above, he called forth a freezing Icy Wind and spread it down across the battlefield.

With a little unintentional help from Melony’s Ice Beam, the Icy Wind froze solid all the rainwater that was collecting in the pot holes and divots between the jagged parts of the arena. In a moment, the battlefield was a lot more level than it had been a moment prior, now covered in mostly flat layer of wet ice.

“I guess you haven’t been paying attention to the other gym battles. If you did, you’d know what I told Kabu. Every arena I walk into belongs to me. And speaking of paying or not paying attention…”

“Corey, Electro Ball!”

An electric ball rocketed toward the Lapras from seemingly out of nowhere, its source coming from a rapidly skating Cinderace. There was nothing the Lapras could do as the ball instantaneously hit it with a resounding impact, crying out as it took a devastating amount of damage as it reeled back.

Haleigh let out a laugh of exhilaration and pumped her fist in the air as she shouted, “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! A proper hattrick!”

She took out Corey’s Poke Ball and recalled him before the Perish Song could take effect and swapped him out for Reyna, energized and ready to go. Haleigh said, “Alright, let’s snipe that Coaloassol with a Bubble Beam, get yourself in there quick with the ice.”

Reyna nodded with a smirk, flopping down on her belly and propelling herself towards the large Pokemon. She propped herself back up again and shot a Bubble Beam towards the Coaloassal. She had been fairly quick on the ice, but not quite as quick as Corey, so Melony had a chance to exclaim, “Freeze it with Ice Beam, Lapras, press the attack.”

“Dragon Pulse.” At Catherine's command, Stampede shot out the blast of flame-like violet energy, his own attack colliding with the Ice Beam. The attacks exploded on impact, showering the surrounding area in shimmering ice crystals and flecks of violet and purple.

The Ice Beam didn’t reach its target, but Reyna’s Bubble Beam did. Gordie’s Coalossal staggered back against the deluge of bubbles. It wasn’t getting as many speed boosts as Gordie would have liked even though it was taking Water hits thanks to Bubble Beam’s secondary effect and it was having trouble moving on the extra slippery, rain-soaked ice too.

“Tar Shot!” Gordie instructed. Once more, his Coalossal spat globs of gooey tar - this time at Reyna. Unfortunately for him, Stampede was on-the-ball. The Tar Shot was struck out of the air by a Hydro Pump.

Melony wasn’t going to waste that opening though. “Psychic!”

Stampede was encased in psionic energy and lifted off the ground, then launched back down into the ground below, leaving a crack in the ice.

“Now the Prinplup!” Melony continued.

“Don’t let it!” Catherine called out.

Laying on his side on the ice, Stampede shot out a Hydro Pump towards the Coalossal, letting the force of the attack shoot him across the battlefield towards the Lapras. He slammed into the Lapras, shaking its concentration and interrupting its Psychic attack. Meanwhile, the Hydro Pump collided with the Coalossal, knocking it over at last with a splintering sound and leaving it vulnerable for Reyna.

“Finish ‘im, spray ‘im with Brine!”

Reyna quickly got herself into position by sliding on the ice, got back up, and opened her beak, shooting out a spray of ultra salty water at the Coalossal. Having only a few speed boosts, the Coalossal simply wasn’t fast enough to dodge as it took the spray directly. The attack was all the more devastating due to its low health. The large Pokémon collapsed with a thud, signaling another victory for their battle.

“Hell yeah,” Haleigh cried. “Another down!”

“Okay,” Gordie said. “I have to give it to you. Not bad. But how will you handle this!”

Gordie withdrew his Coalossal and then released his next combatant. Another towering Rock type took to the field with a roar, sand billowing out from around its green, armoured body to create a sandstorm that canceled out the rain.

“It’s not like we weren’t ready for the possibility of Sand Stream stopping my rain,” Catherine said. “But that’s going to hurt your mother’s Lapras too and the battlefield is already how we want it.”

Catherine gestured to where Gordie’s Tyranitar was standing gingerly on the frozen battlefield, not making any moves. Like the Coalossal before it, its massive weight didn’t pair well with the slick and slippery ground.

“He won’t have to move around if your Pokemon are asleep,” Melony said. “Sing!”

Her Lapras began vocalising once more, this time a much more pleasant rhythm, lilting and hypnotic.

Catherine saw Stampede’s eye start to droop, the Kingdra being right by the Lapras. She was having none of that. “Twister!”

A tornado sprang into existence, with enough force to throw Stampede away from the Lapras. The Lapras itself got caught in the vortex, the howling gusts drowning out the sound of its singing.

Both Haleigh and Reyna had noticed that the Tyranitar was having a difficult time with keeping itself steady on the ice. The two gave each other a mischievous look, seemingly thinking the same thing; one didn’t always need telepathy to be on the same wavelength.

“Let’s go in quick for a Metal Claw!”

Gordie called out, “Keep yourself steady, counter with a Thunder Punch.”

As the Prinplup flopped down on her belly again to gain momentum for the strike, the Tyranitar started cranking his fist back for a punch, which crackled with electricity. Reyna got back up and held out her right flipper that started to harden and shimmer. However, instead of striking the Tyranitar directly in front of her, she ducked back down and slid right through the creature’s legs. The Tyranitar punched thin air where the Prinplup had been just a second before, prompting it to grunt in frustration as it started turning itself around.

“Now!” Haleigh shouted.

Before Tyranitar could fully turn around and go for another swing, Reyna quickly jumped to her feet and spun around, striking the Tyranitar’s right leg from behind with her hardened flipper. The effect was immediate as the impact forced the large creature to lose its purchase on the slick ground and fall hard on its face, a resounding boom echoing throughout the stadium as it did so. Before Reyna could do a brief celebration at successfully tipping the Tyranitar over, however, a harsh blast of sand buffeted her and forced her to cover her face.

“Keep at it!” Catherine called. “Stampede, Twister again. Keep that Lapras out of the way.”

Stampede did just that, adding more power to the tornado that was keeping Melony’s Pokemon at bay. Every now and then, an Ice Beam or Hydro Pump would break through, but they would go wide, thrown by the windcurrent.

Despite being knocked on its face, Tyranitar still had plenty of fight left as it glowered at Reyna, scrambling to get back on its feet. Haleigh didn’t waste any time in trying to press the advantage she had against the Tyranitar and instructed, “Let’s get some more Metal Claws in there, keep ‘em down!”

“Get up, retaliate with Crunch!”

As Reyna dashed by to deliver another strike, Tyranitar managed to get enough purchase to get back up onto its feet. Reyna was forced to change her course as the larger Pokémon sidestepped and avoided the brunt of the Metal Claw. Tyranitar took the few second window that Reyna was skating by and chomped down on her, holding her in its jaws for a brief moment before jerking its head and tossing Reyna aside, leaving her vulnerable for a follow-up.

“Press it with another Crunch, don’t let them get up.”

Her eyes widening, Haleigh called out, “Get up, spray him with some Brine!”

Reyna quickly scrambled to her feet as she spewed the water attack directly into its mouth, forcing it to cancel the attack as it reeled back and held its mouth with a grimace on its face.

Haleigh exclaimed, “Alright, don’t let up, let’s get in some more hit and runs!”

“Enough of this,” Melony said. “Psychic.”

This time, the attack was of a very different nature. The Lapras’ psychic attack pushed back against the Twister in the opposite direction, breaking it apart with a rumbling noise not dissimilar to thunder.

“Now the Kingdra,” Melony continued.

Once more, Stampede was levitated into the air and then slammed down into the ice and stone beneath. It wasn’t going to stop at just once though, Melony had the Lapras repeat the process, levitating him and dropping again and preparing for a third time.

“Dragon Pulse!” Catherine ordered while Stampede was still in the air. He twisted to a better angle and blasted the Lapras with the attack, shaking its hold on him and letting him drop to the ground with far less force. “Now Hydro Pump that Tyranitar, that sand is getting annoying.”

Without moving from his spot, Stampede whirled around and targeted the Tyranitar that was still struggling to get a lock on the slippery Reyna. He unloaded a Hydro Pump sniper shot towards the Rock type, catching it off guard and knocking it over much like he had done to the Coalossal earlier, leaving it as easy pickings for Haleigh and Reyna before turning his attention back to the Lapras to prevent Melony interfering.

“Bubble Beam, Reyna, give it all you got!”

Reyna stopped in her tracks and shot out the attack. Before the Tyranitar could recover from the Hydro Pump, the Bubble Beam buffeted it with devastating force. Though it stubbornly tried to keep standing, the Tyranitar had simply taken too much damage and fell back onto its back, knocked out cold.

Gordie recalled the fainted Pokemon and pushed his sunglasses further up his face. With a smirk on his face, he said to his mother, “It’s all you now.”

“No need to remind me,” Melony replied tersely. “Lapras, use Psychic on the Prinplup, we don’t want her getting close.”

The Lapras, not impeded by the ice like the Tyranitar had been, started moving and set her sights on Reyna. Once it was in range, the Lapras sent out a wave of psychic energy that was heading straight for Reyna.

There was little that could be done about a Psychic attack as far as obstruction, but that didn’t mean that Catherine couldn’t reduce its duration. “Dragon Breath, Stampede.”

Even as the Psychic was striking Reyna, Stampede was letting loose another of the violet energy blasts. The attack collided with the Lapras an instant later, knocking it skidding across the ice and breaking its hold on Reyna.

Once Reyna was free from its hold, Haleigh exclaimed, “Metal Claw, you know what to do!”

Reyna took off dashing towards the Lapras, taking advantage of it being hit by Stampede’s Dragon Pulse. The Prinplup leaped up in the air and carried her momentum forward as she swung her flipper down right onto the opposing Pokemon. The Lapras cried out, looking to be on its last sliver of health as it righted itself.

Haleigh shouted, “Just a bit more, Brine ‘em!”

“Ice Beam, freeze the Prinplup to the ground.”

The Lapras opened its maw as it let out a beam of ice aimed at Reyna’s feet.

“Hydro Pump,” Catherine ordered.

Stampede leapt forward, shooting a torrent of water directly into the incoming Ice Beam, the two attacks canceling each other out with a burst of freezing air and a spray of sleet and ice crystals.

With the Ice Beam neutralized, Reyna was free to shoot the Brine attack at the Lapras unimpeded. The spray of salty water hit Lapras with full force, compounding the damage it had already suffered. Before the blast had even finished, the Lapras collapsed in a heap.

Roars of cheering erupted from Catherine and Haleigh’s sides of the stands as the announcer called out, “How incredible! A completely flawless victory for the gym challengers!”

Haleigh turned to Catherine, a look of pure exhilaration on her face as she shouted, “Cheers mate, we did it! We killed it out there!”

“We did,” Catherine said. “Losing wasn’t an option.”

Melony and Gordie both came forward to meet the two challengers. They both held out their respective badges. Gordie remarked, “You two are an odd pair, but there’s no denying you both make a hell of a team.”

“Indeed,” Melony added. “You’ve both trained well. Not everyone can claim a flawless victory, let alone over two experienced gym leaders.”

Haleigh looked between the two badges and said to Catherine, “I’ll take the Ice Badge, if that’s alright with you.”

“Doesn’t really matter which one I take, so go ahead.”

With the euphoria of victory washing over her, Haleigh jumped in the air and held up her badge for everyone to see. Another wave of cheers erupted from her section. “I’m coming for Spikemuth next! Piers, Marnie, don’t think I’ll take it any easier on you!”

gimmepie

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PokéCommunity Supporter Platinum Tier

Also Known As GP, Daniel

Moderator

Age 27

Male

Australia

Seen 9 Hours Ago

Posted 2 Days Ago

11.1 Years

634

March 9th, 2023 at 6:39 AM

Indra (Male, Swift Swim) - Rain Dance, Hypnosis, Bubblebeam, Hydro Pump, Earth Power, Refresh

Stampede (Male, Swift Swim) - Hydro Pump, Smokescreen, Twister, Focus Energy, Dragon Pulse, Icy Wind

Holo (Female, Lightning Rod) - Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Electric Terrain, Rising Voltage, Flame Burst, Flash

Vessel (Female, Dry Skin) - Fury Cutter, Giga Drain, Poison Powder, Spore, Rain Dance, Protect

Lancer (Male, Dry Skin) - Rock Climb, Revenge, Sucker Punch, Poison Jab, Rain Dance, Toxic

Inventory:

- ATC
- Expensive PokeGear
- Pokedex
- 800 Poke (On ATC)
- TM Icy Wind
- TM Flash
- Wishing Star
- TM Protect
- TM Rain Dance
- TM Rock Climb
- 1x Heavy Ball

Badges:

CATHERINE CARLISLE
Biproducts

Catherine sat on a small sand dune overlooking the churning waves of Route 9. The snow was gone now, apart from the places right around Circhester or at a particularly high elevation. A cool sea breeze was blowing and the scent of salt was in the air.

Indra and Stampede swam about a short way ahead while Lancer was entertaining himself with pushups in the surf. Holo was curled up at Catherine’s right side while Vessel stood silently sentinel on her left.

It was idyllic. Peaceful. Catherine had long since learned that as much as she craved the comforts of civilization, she was most at ease when people were few and far between. It was easier than trying to navigate who was or wasn't trustworthy, dealing with social politics and fame. She had come a long way from being who she was at the beginning of her journey in many ways, but some things weren’t going to change in a hurry and, she reasoned, shouldn’t necessarily have to change at all.

Besides, her visits to the cities tended to be eventful. Circhester had certainly been eventful. Too eventful. Running into Haleigh and helping her deal with Blackspear and her mother had been intense, but at least it had meant positive change for someone. Navigating the discussions after had been difficult, but she felt like it was a good sign that she had managed to be true to herself without pissing Haleigh off overly much. The gym battle had gone exactly as smooth as she had hoped it would. But that too had taken a lot out of her mentally.

The interview though? That had been the straw that broke the Camerupt’s back. Catherine had already been done with Circhester before the paparazzi had found her. She was significantly more so after the impromptu interview she had been subjected to.

“Excuse me, Catherine?!”

Catherine had expected to have to interact with some of her yellow-clad fanbase. What she saw when she turned around though was even worse. A team of three. A scruffy man with a camera, a balding sound guy lugging equipment around and a pristinely-presented woman in a suit carrying a microphone.

The press.

By-and-large, Catherine had managed to avoid them. They had failed to corner her outside a single gym since they had started looking for her post-Kabu. But now, it seemed that her luck had run out.

“I hope you don’t mind,” the woman said through an artificial smile, “But you are a hot topic right now and I would love to ask you some questions.”

“And if I don’t want to answer questions?” Catherine had asked.

“Well, we wouldn’t be able to run the interview when discussing you later. You would lose your chance to give your side of things and we’d be stuck with other sources and hearsay.”

Catherine grit her teeth. Of course it wasn’t going to be that way. The threat was implicit. She complied or they would consider that free reign to present her as the villain. They would likely try to anyway, since that would net them the most views. Catherine lived on the internet, she knew damn well how many people would love to see her burned at the stake. Her number of supporters were growing, but that didn’t mean the hate aimed her way was decreasing.

“Just a few then,” Catherine said. “I want to get Indra and Stampede checked over as soon as possible.”

“Of course!” the presenter beamed. “I wouldn’t dream of keeping you from the Pokemon centre too long. Your team is clearly important to you.”

“They are. Everyone’s should be.”

“Are you implying that other competitors don’t look after their teams properly?”

And so it began. The attempts to get her to say something that would fan the flames. Well, knowing that wasn’t going to stop Catherine from giving the blunt and honest truth. “I’m sure there are those that don’t. Plenty of gym challengers look at their teams as tools to bring them victory. It comes with the nature of the competition. I’m not saying every other challenger is like that. I’ve seen people who started that way and got better. I’ve seen others who had the right attitude from the start. But it would be stupid to pretend the darker side to all this doesn’t exist.”

The presenter nodded her head, smirking ever so slightly. She clearly thought she had found the controversy gold mine. Catherine figured she probably had.

“What about your recent battle partner?” The presenter asked.

“What about her?” Catherine replied, “Do you think I’d willingly partner with someone who mistreats their Pokemon? Haleighy does right by her team.”

“And was she someone who was good from the start, or did she get better?”

“Does it matter? She’s doing the right thing now.”

There was a hint of annoyance in the journalist’s eyes at that, but she was a professional and pressed on regardless. “She must be for you to be willing to partner with her, given your philosophy. It was quite a surprise to see you engaged in a team battle. In fact, some people are already whispering that you’re betraying your own ideals.”

Catherine couldn’t help but scoff. “If you think cooperation is against my ideals, you haven’t been paying attention to anything I’ve been saying and don’t understand my philosophy as well as you think you do. Galar is a corrupt and broken place. I want to fix it. How exactly are we going to fix anything if we refuse to work together? I’m selective, but I fully support cooperation and teamwork. That is going to be needed going forward. I’m trying hard to keep to that even though I am clearly not naturally a people person.”

The reporter opened her mouth and then closed it, seemingly at a loss for what to say to that.

“I’ll say it again: I’m focused on doing the right thing and I want others focused on doing the right thing. You should always be mindful of what people’s ulterior motives might be, but we can’t move forwards as a society if everyone is enemies.”

This time, the reporter had something to say. “Were you mindful of Haleigh’s ulterior motives? How do you know she wasn’t just using you to achieve victory? What about you? Did you have ulterior motives?”

“Haleigh can handle herself just fine and neither Gordie nor Melony was much of a challenge. She’d have been fine without me. Besides, if you knew anything at all about her, you’d know that she isn’t really someone capable of scheming like that.”

“What about your motives then?”

“I wanted to show the world what good cooperation looks like and I was curious about teaming up with her. That’s it. I’m upfront about what I want from things.”

“So you wanted to try the paired battle? Is Haleigh a friend of yours?”

Catherine sighed. “Maybe? I don’t know. I also don’t see why it matters or why it’s any of your business. Stop looking for stupid gossip to report on and focus on the important parts of what I’m saying.”

The interview hadn’t gone on much beyond that. Which was good, because Catherine had become progressively more inclined towards homicide as the reporter had continued her probing.

Unfortunately, this hadn’t exactly done her any favours with the press. The interview itself had gone viral and videos of it were a constant source of debate between people who supported her, people who despised her and those who were just there to fan the flames and feed on the chaos. Catherine disliked that last group the most.

In that moment though, while the interview and related articles were certainly present in her mind, Catherine was calm. She had never really cared what people thought of her. She still didn’t really. All that mattered was if her public image was hurting her message and, as best she could tell, it wasn’t. If anything, her continued honesty was helping.

The theories and arguments were annoying, but they weren’t a hindrance. So, despite the memory of the interview lingering in the back of her mind, Catherine was able to enjoy the peace.

Right up until Stampede indicated someone approaching and the sound of boots sinking into soft sand came to Catherine’s attention shortly thereafter.

The source of the steps was a young brunette woman in a ranger’s uniform, a Rookidee perched on her shoulder.

“Can I help you?” Catherine asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” the ranger replied. “Actually, I’m here because you need to leave. There’s a lot of territorial, violent Pokemon around here. Happens every year when the ice starts melting. Local Ice types start brawling over the reduced territory all over the place until the ice is gone and they head back up into the mountains.”

Catherine nodded. It made sense. The fact that the ranger said all this while scowling irritably at her made less sense unless she had been recognised.

“Thanks for the advice,” Catherine said. “I’ll be leaving shortly anyway. I have a ferry to catch.”

“You’ll be leaving now.” The ranger’s scowl deepened.

Catherine hadn’t meant to defy the instruction. She wasn’t particularly worried about handling any wild Pokemon that jumped her given her team were all present, but she didn’t want to cause trouble for the ranger either. Now though…

“There’s no need to get angry about it. I didn’t mean I was going to ignore you. We’re just finishing up here anyway so we’ll be out of the way soon.”

“Look,” the ranger said, “I’ve seen your interviews. I get that you think you’re hot muk. But when a ranger instructs you to leave, you leave immediately.”

“I just said -”

“Immediately.”

Catherine sighed, standing up and starting to recall her team. “Certainly, ma’am. I wouldn’t dare question the authority of a clearly rookie ranger, nor dare to put myself at risk when someone far less capable is here to protect me. I’ll be on my way.”

And she would be. But she had time to kill before the ferry was due back so she figured she might as well go clear out some of the troublemaking Ice types. Partly to do a good deed. Just a little out of spite.

RP • WL • A&M • VG • Gaming Journal

LinearAxel

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PokéCommunity Supporter Crystal Tier

Also Known As Axel

That Dream...Make it Come True!

Female

The Internet

Seen April 18th, 2023

Posted March 14th, 2023

391 posts

7.7 Years

635

March 11th, 2023 at 8:32 AM

Video Did What?

After months of adventure, after miles upon miles hiked on foot, through plains and mines, through snow and deserts, through city after city and trial after trial, the only thing standing between Melody and her hometown was… a beach.

The look of the unnaturally pale girl with the resting b*tch face standing at the shore, arms folded, did bring something of a one of these things just doesn’t belong thought to mind. At least she was dressed lightly enough not to look physically uncomfortable. Her Spikemuth trial tank top was short enough to pass as a bikini top, and she had begrudgingly traded her usual jeans for a pair of black shorts (sand is the mortal enemy to pants.)

The punk teen looks down at the pair of Pokemon in front of her: Spike the Toxel, and Shredder, the newly caught Wimpod that she had found during the trial’s holiday break. Had it not been for the sand crab looking so excited to be around, well, sand, Melody would have made a b-line for the docks and rented a boat to leave this beach as soon as she got here. Though, she had to admit, the look on the two Pokemon’s faces as they constructed a Pilosand-castle together was endearing enough to make a little pitstop worthwhile… even if it was a pitstop that involved a blaring sun and an obnoxiously high number of people. Loud people. Overly cheerful people.

“I think you need one more shell,” Melody says as she points to the center of the Pilosand-castle’s head. The pair of Pokemon look down at a small indent they had dug in the sand to put all their decorations. Spike makes a displeased huff upon realizing that there are no more shells. It’s followed by a little pout that makes Melody snicker. “C’mon, let’s find another one.”

The punk teen hoists the lizard into her arms and begins to walk along the shoreline. The skittering sound of tiny claws pitter-pattering along behind her is indication enough that Shredder is following along, making soft, happy sounds when the waves brush against the shore and surge underneath tiny legs.

As the group walks along the shoreline, Melody’s attention is quickly taken away from the shell-search. She blinks slowly, her eyebrow raising in curiosity as a group of sunbathers, who had not moved in the last forty-five minutes, suddenly abandoned their umbrellas and towels to charge inland. Following them with her eyes, she soon sees why: There’s a stage up there, and from the looks of all the people now excitedly trying to rush over, someone’s about to perform. That suits Melody just fine: She’s more than happy to walk along the beach without having to sidestep people lying in the sand and try not to get knocked over by kids too focused on their Itemfinders to look at where they’re going.

The cheering crowd fades into the background as the trio continue to scale the shoreline for a properly colored and shaped shell. Melody barely registers the shouting crowd or the voice of the person speaking through a microphone. Even the music that starts playing serves only as background noise-- until the person begins singing. It’s then that Melody stops abruptly, a perplexed look on her face as she looks at Spike and then back to the direction of the stage. That voice, the one playing through those speakers… that’s her.

An autotuned, digitized version, but that’s unmistakably her voice. “No f*cking way.” The jarring sensation quickly fades in lieu of confusion. While this tune is familiar, these words aren’t. She’s never sung them. So how-- That thought doesn’t have time to be completed before the punk teen takes off in a sprint toward that stage.

By the time she arrives, a decent chunk of the beachgoers have encircled the platform. Impatiently, the punk teen pushes her way through by lightly elbowing a large, shirtless man in the side. When she was finally close enough (and had managed to find people short enough that she could see over) the sight that laid out before her, while not shocking, was instantly infuriating.

Not only was her voice (at least a bastardized version of it) playing through those speakers, but parading around on the stage was a girl, not much older than her, moving her mouth along to that voice as if it were coming from her mouth.

“Did that cotton candy b*tch seriously pirate my throat?” Melody thinks aloud, though the sound of her voice is quickly dissolved by the louder sound waves. Two things happen simultaneously: A bright light flashing from the corner of her eye signals that Shredder has activated his ability and put himself back into his Pokeball, and a loud, threatening growl plays in Melody’s ear. As she looks at the Toxel hanging onto her shoulder, she sees a look in his eyes she’s never seen before: His body tensed, his eyes narrowed into a baleful glare, and the bolt-like mark on his head glowing a vibrant yellow. He looks from the girl parading around the stage to his trainer as his tiny hand balls into a tight fist.

Likewise, Melody feels her own hand tightening, her nails digging into her palm, before reaching the same conclusion her electrical reptile had come to the second he saw that girl spinning around on stage:

It’s time to make a scene.

Other Half | Brother| Mother

Orx of Twinleaf

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Also Known As Orx, Torterra of Twinleaf, Orxinopheles

Discord Nickname Orx#5970

Branch into Psyche

Male

The Corner of Hither and Yon

Seen March 12th, 2023

Posted March 12th, 2023

273 posts

7.2 Years

636

March 12th, 2023 at 1:11 PM , since edited

Team:

Rij

Henj

Pelj

Kolj

Tonj

Silj

Tim T
Tim stood atop the Wailmer, stretching his arms. He stepped off of it back onto Kolj, who had finished her own brief rest. The Wailmer—that had submitted to being sat upon either from fear or as thanks for Tim’s disposal of the Carvanhas that had been harrying it—promptly disappeared under the water without fanfare. Tim gripped Kolj with his legs and sat up straight as the Relicanth chose her own direction.

Things had changed with Rij’s Evolution. The now-Rhydon had stepped up to act as a leader to the other mons, and even over Tim. Rij had made it very apparent he considered himself not just senior to the other mons by virtue of his experience but also to Tim by virtue of his age. For a creature that had spent all his life prior as a quadruped, Rij was very animated when he spoke as a Rhydon, gesturing so widely and emphatically it would make a silent film actor seem positively droll. With no shortage of theatrical scoffing and arm-crossing, Rij had demanded Tim ball the team but for Kolj, and cross the route with her alone. The other mons had supported the idea and between the combined charades of Rij and Henj had managed to communicate to Tim that they felt that this would be a more proper manner of doing things here, rather than for Tim to just prowl the coast for a while before hiring a ferry as he’d originally planned.

Kolj wasn’t completely hogging the field though. The occasional little sandbank broke up the monotony of water travel enough for Tim’s other mons to have a turn when Tim challenged what passersby he found. Tim’s Rocks were not shy of water as most of their species would be, with the exception of Silj the Sudowoodo, who had not yet had an opportunity to be put through the same water training the others had gone through.

When a sandbank was not to be found, Tim dismounted to tread water. It was exhausting to do so in his heavy boots, but Tim made himself do it as an act of solidarity—it didn’t sit right with him that Kolj should carry him about the entire time, after all. Tim still felt a certain hesitation to be in the ocean. Sometimes he felt the phantom grip of an anchor over his shoulder. He was determined, however, not to be cowed by such things. He trusted Kolj to be able to guard him from any such maneuvers, and besides this stretch of water didn’t seem to harbor the same degree of danger. Carvanhas and Basculins were well within the size category that Tim considered “comfortable to melee,” even in the water, and anything else that might attack him would be doing so in the usual territorial feral fashion, not trying to get a taste of his fingers.

The place was attracting a wide array of tourists, who brought with them all sorts of mon, even those not native to the area. It was valuable experience to be able to battle on such restricted terrain, how much more valuable for Tim and his mons both to battle such varied creatures as Sandyghast, Tandemaus, Kingler, even a nonGalarian Farfetch’d. Tim would bring Kolj in along coastlines to challenge any there willing to battle. Tim was careful to not come into crowds, so his opponents weren’t exactly other League challengers, but he liked to think that the experience was worthwhile all the same.

Tim had started battling other Trainers in the field even before challenging Gordie, but now he had decided to make it a focus, at Rij’s encouragement. With a demeanor more fitting an unhappy nanny than a drill-horned rock monster, Rij had made very plain his disapproval of Tim’s state of living. Tim had to wonder why it should be so important to Rij when he never cared before, but regardless Rij’s insistence wasn’t completely overridden. Tim had agreed with some exasperation to at least buy himself some clothes at the next opportunity. Tim considered this a wild and irresponsible waste of money, and the increase in Trainer battles would help offset this perceived reckless spending. Tim didn’t demand payment of course, but it was something of a tradition here as in Unova—and apparently in a whole lot of other places—to forfeit some small sum to the victor after a Trainer battle, so most of Tim’s opponents would pay him without even being asked. It was of course pocket change compared to what matches between carded Trainers could turn up but it was more than nothing. Sometimes one of his opponents even had their own card and offered to do things the official way. These payments together with the payouts for Tim’s Gym victories would hopefully be enough to allow for maybe a new pair of pants and another coat at the least.

Tim had to keep in mind that his opponents were not especially-amazing Trainers in the grand scheme of things. Tourists or just mundane passersby who happened to have mons with them and at least a surface understanding of battling. This was the only satisfactory explanation for why Tim had yet to lose any of these battles, no matter how exotic and unpredictable the teams in play could get. They were more involved than fighting groups of Skrelps or a Clobberpus ambush or something sure, but Tim didn’t think they were particularly more difficult. Tim wasn’t going to suppose for a moment that he might just be especially skilled at battling. He was no slouch but he didn’t consider himself very good either.

Tim bent and tapped Kolj on the side of the head, turning her towards a sandbank he managed to see through the glare of the sun. Tim hadn’t ridden Kolj before—honestly she was almost too small for it, Tim felt—but there were few better ways to learn such a skill than doing it. Tim’s thighs had been burning since shortly after sunrise having to cling to the fish under him as she squirmed and wiggled through the water, but he would suck it up and deal with the expectable crippling pain he’d wake up with in the morning. It was the least he could do when he wasn’t running or sparring here.

Tim found his mind drifting. He wondered what his friend would have said to him and Rij if she were here. In the end though, he realized it didn’t matter. It was a what-if. If Rij could stand up and assert himself now why shouldn’t Tim be able to? Rij had known her all his life—for longer than Tim had even been alive. But even as a Rhyhorn, Rij had applied himself for Tim, given himself over to his training, learned new things and overcame new challenges. What had Tim done though? Wallowed in despair, wandered listlessly. It was no wonder the other challengers were so reviled by him. It was pitiful behavior.

Honestly, Tim had to wonder how he’d let himself fall into such a slump. So what would his friend have said to him were she here? No doubt she would have jabbed him in that playful way she always had, chided him for being such a downer. She would have told Rij to try and pick him up and help him. And of course, with his apparently newfound mental faculties, Rij was doing that now. Because Rij would and did know what she would have said to them. Rij had known her better than Tim ever had, and he had managed to get his life back together and move on. If Tim weren’t able to it would be shameful indeed.

Kolj reached the shore and let Tim clamber off to wade the rest of the way in as she followed behind. Tim missed his friend. He imagined he likely always would. But she wasn’t coming back. He would never get to know her any better than he already had, never get to make more memories to look back on. But here, now, were others to know and make memories with.

Tim’s mustached face swiveled around the sandbank and then further to sea. After some scanning he spotted what looked like a Drednaw ferry some distance away. Kolj got back into the water and Tim mounted up. Tim’s friend had been the best Ranger she could have been. She had never doubted her abilities or worried about appearances. She had just been a Ranger. Tim had admired that about her. It was why he had followed her here to this foreign, friendless land.

Tim wasn’t a Ranger. Tim was a Trainer.

“Ahoy the ferry,” Tim called from Kolj’s back as she drew closer. There was a spindly young man riding it with the look of a tourist, and a few balls visible on his belt besides the Milcery he was cradling in his arms. “You’d oblige me to a battle, sir,” Tim said, pointing to the sandbank he’d come from. “Liven up the day a bit, ah?”

Tim didn’t consider himself a good Trainer.

He doubted if he’d ever pass as a good Trainer, even if he still felt he was at least an adequate one.

But Tim was going to be the best Trainer he could be. For his mons. For himself. For her.

The young man looked down at his Milcery and spoke with a strong accent Tim couldn’t place. “Leche was start getting bored anyway.” He looked up at Tim. “I am Wenceslao. Who is your name?”

“I’m Tim.”

A Cup of Dreams, Pour in Your Soul, a Pinch of Knowing, Stir in with Hope,
and Drink to Despair and Celebration: Drink it All and Stay Asleep, Drink in Parts and Vomit it Back
Joy, Relief, Fury, Fear, Sorrow, Longing, and Pain, Colors that Forever Cope
Despondency and Guilt with Ambition and Pride, No One of this World and Species may Truly Lack

Foxrally

Profile Message Posts

PokéCommunity Supporter Crystal Tier

Also Known As Fox/Gamer/the Algerian

Discord Nickname Foxrally#0276

ya boi

a Torterra's back

Seen 2 Weeks Ago

Posted 3 Weeks Ago

10.2 Years

637

March 14th, 2023 at 3:04 PM

STAGE 20 - SPIKEMUTH

Spoiler:

As the spring months continue on, the academy graduates find themselves reaching Spikemuth, the smallest city in Galar. That is not to say that Spikemuth is unimpressive though, thanks to Marnie’s efforts leading up to the second Darkest Day and continuing thereafter, Spikemuth has experienced a few years of much better publicity and is steadily growing and improving - especially now that a lack of a Power Spot isn’t such a detracting feature.

Many areas of Spikemuth are now in the process of being reinvented and rebuilt, replacing the dusty and old with the shiny and new to better fit the new Spikemuth image. It also meant that the dingier, shadier parts of town only became more obvious as remnants of Team Yell and local street gangs crammed themselves into such places.

Spikemuth is a place of duality. A cramped city where one side of a street will be lined with neon lights, shops pressed side by side windows full of new merchandise and lines of people gathering outside clubs; and on the other side, the lights are dim and the buildings abandoned but for illicit gatherings in the narrow alleyways and underground punk shows held in ramshackle basements.

Towards the back of the city, a stadium stands tall… and unfinished. Not yet ready for use, it is simultaneously a monument to Spikemuth’s progress and to how far it still has to go. Instead, gym battles here are held at an outdoor concert venue until construction of the new stadium is completed. Only time will tell what the graduates will gain from their experiences in a place of such transition.

WILD POKÉMON AVAILABLE THIS STAGE

Pokémon available to those on Mission 1:

Pokémon available to those on Mission 2:

Pokémon Available to those on Mission 3:

GYM LEADERS:

Important Note:
For this stage, as well as any following stages with two gym leaders, you will have the option to take on both gym leaders at once by teaming up with another player. The same rules as a solo battle apply and both gym leaders have the normal amount of Pokemon. You can also take on the gym mission with the other player. You cannot take on both gym leaders at once with a single character.

Gym Mission:
Spikemuth’s straight, narrow alleyways are known for their dangerous Pokemon street races at night. However, rather than outlawing them, its gym leaders have decided to make them a feature of the gym mission. In order to pass, challengers must beat an opposing Team Yell member’s Pokemon in a street race. Rotom cameras follow the racers and each Pokemon is equipped with an earpiece for trainer communication. The track itself goes through the entire town and the first to complete a full loop wins - be warned, however, as Spikemuth racers are not known to play nice…

Battle!
Since her debut as Spikemuth’s gym leader, Marnie has kept her brother’s rock-band aesthetic for the Spikemuth arena. Both she and her co-leader Klara use this area for concerts as well as battling - as such, it is outfitted with several pieces of equipment that can be used for both. The stage itself is extremely dim, only lit up by bright pink neon signs and a few spotlights. Challengers must battle in this near-total darkness, all while being surrounded by bombastic pyrotechnics, overzealous Team Yell fans on the sidelines, and blaring speakers blasting out the respective leader’s music. This is the Spikemuth way of battle - get used to it!

[OPEN][GYM] ★1:
Marnie took over the Spikemuth gym from her older brother Piers shortly after the second Darkest Day and has been spearheading the efforts to put Spikemuth back on the map ever since - and arguably before then too. When not participating in league battles or exhibition matches, she can usually be found adding her talents to Spikemuth's renaissance in other ways.

Marnie tends to shy away from the limelight, but don't let that fool you into thinking she's soft. Marnie is calm, composed and tough as nails. Behind her static exterior is the soul of a fierce competitor who is dedicated to Spikemuth's future. While she is difficult to rile up on her own, her well-hidden competitive streak can come out during battle and she tends to get caught up in the enthusiasm of her Pokemon.

Unlike her brother, who was known for his aggressive and ruthless fighting style, Marnie is a more more methodical and controlled fighter, rarely letting her emotions show in the heat of battle. She uses the stage to its fullest extent, often relying on surprise tactics to gain the upper hand. Her strongest Pokemon, Grimmsnarl, uses a powerful combination of Trick Room and Hammer Arm to wear down foes and outspeed even the most dextrous opponents. Scrafty is an endurance fighter with strong coverage, intimidating opponents before catching them off-guard with its surprising speed. Finally, her Morpeko’s cuteness should never be confused with weakness, with a devastating arsenal of bite moves and a second wind from its berry - just beware its hanger once that berry is gone…

Marnie’s Pokémon:

Play Rough | False Surrender | Stomping Tantrum
Burning Jealousy | Hammer Arm | Trick Room
Ability: Pickpocket

Aura Wheel | Seed Bomb | Scary Face
Psychic Fangs | Fire Fang | Super Fang
Ability: Hunger Switch
Held item: Sitrus berry

Throat Chop | High Jump Kick | Drain Punch
Poison Jab | Head Smash | Zen Headbutt
Ability: Intimidate

[OPEN][GYM] ★2:
Unlike her contemporary, Klara thrives on being in the spotlight and loves being the centre of attention. Originally a struggling pop singer with limited popularity, she turned her goals towards becoming a gym leader instead.

Although there were hiccups along that road too, Klara proved to be dauntless and soon found herself joining the league circuit as the second leader of Spikemuth. Klara can come off as ditzy, but this is an act for the sake of the public. In reality, she is calculating, cunning and devious and determined to bask in the glow of the spotlight for as long as she can.

Klara’s battling style can be described in one sentence: she will poison you, and once that happens, the battle becomes a ticking time bomb. This simple strategy has been known to bring even the strongest fighters to their knees, and this late in the challenge, Klara knows how to use it with deadly effectiveness. Her Weezing and Drapion, special and physical fighters respectively, set up the poison using clever tricks and the stage’s blind spots. This sets up her quick-drawing Slowbro, who then quickly disposes of any stragglers with its devastating nasty plot and shell side arm combo.

Klara’s Pokémon:

Shell Side Arm | Psychic | Surf
Foul Play | Focus Blast | Nasty Plot
Ability: Quick Draw

Toxic Spikes | Toxic | Venom Drench
Cross Poison | Night Slash | Ice Fang
Ability: Sniper

Toxic Spikes | Toxic | Sludge Wave
Strange Steam | Heat Wave | Dark Pulse
Ability: Levitate

[CATCH CHANCE!] Mission 1:
There are rumours floating around town that a Spikemuth perfume store is using illegal exotic ingredients to make their products more valuable. One such ingredient is Ivysaur nectar, a highly-sought additive in Galar. Will you investigate the truth of these claims?
Reward: Black Sludge

[CATCH CHANCE!][MULTI] Mission 2:
For years now the dastardly Gliscor nicknamed ‘Shadow Bat’ has been terrorizing the people of Spikemuth, hiding in the darkness and always evading capture. Its archnemesis, ‘Sword Claw’ the Scizor, is the only one capable of standing up to the Bat’s villainy. Will you side with the villain or hero of this story, and will you recruit them into your own justice (or injustice) league?
Reward: Razor Fang (Gliscor) or Razor Claw (Scizor)

[CATCH CHANCE] Mission 3:
You’re enjoying a leisurely stroll down the tall grass around Spikemuth when suddenly you trip and fall over an invisible obstacle. You look behind you and realize it’s… a floating stripe? Oh! No, it’s a Kecleon. The Pokemon seems angry at you, and is pointing at an item you seemed to have stepped on, then at your pockets. You’ve heard of a coin-collecting Pokemon from a distant region before, but this is the first time you’ve heard of one demanding coins as payment.
Reward: Light Clay

Mission 4:
Wait… why is that Zigzagoon brown? Why are there so many brown Zigzagoons hanging around? The Galarian Zigzagoon are not happy about these Hoennian imposters invading their territory, and they’re doing everything in their power to drive them out. It seems something (or someone) is keeping them here. Maybe they’re aiming to make a profit at this invasive species’ expense?
Reward: Silk Scarf

Mission 5:
You know what they say: Hyperfans ruin everything. The Pokemon Center staff find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place as two groups engage in a battle of petty insults and references. What’s the topic of debate this time? Who is Best Girl obviously! Are you Team Klara or Team Marnie? You might not be able to definitively settle the dispute, but it would be nice if you could get these fanboys and fangirls to take their arguments elsewhere so people can heal their Pokemon in peace.
Reward: TR Hyper Voice

Mission 6:
Club Soundwave has a problem! Their scheduled bouncer, Lenny, threw his back out and can’t make it to work. The club can get a little rough, and with no one to keep the customers in line, something’s bound to get broken fast. You must be pretty tough to have made it this far, you want the job? The pay is decent, and you get a cool pair of sunglasses for keeps.
Reward: Black Glasses + 1,000 Poke

Mission 7:
Marnie is working hard to make Spikemuth a better place, but not everyone’s on board. In fact, a small group has been roaming the streets at night trying to undo what’s been done to improve the look of the place. They could really use your help cleaning up, and maybe, if you come across the crew that’s messing everything up, convince them that a little change might be good.
Reward: TR Encore

[OPEN]Mission 8:
“Máquina Técnica Co.”, a foreign TM and TR retailer and manufacturer, has recently opened a large shop in Spikemuth ahead of the incoming wave of battle-hungry tourists. Challengers can browse their selection of high-power TRs at their leisure… but at a (probably exorbitant) price.
Reward: Any move TR of 90+ power (you must have at least 10,000 Poke on hand).

Ex-mod of RPT - Pairs: Gligar & gimmepie –

Friend Code

SW-5146-5893-7210

–

LinearAxel

Profile Message Posts

PokéCommunity Supporter Crystal Tier

Also Known As Axel

That Dream...Make it Come True!

Female

The Internet

Seen April 18th, 2023

Posted March 14th, 2023

391 posts

7.7 Years

638

March 14th, 2023 at 3:18 PM , since edited

Video Did What? Pt. 2

“Power-Up Punch!”
The order is given before the Toxel is tossed toward the stage. While in mid-air, he balls his hands into tiny fists and aims for one of the massive speakers. The piece of technology shrieks in high-pitch feedback as it spits out electricity, which the electrical reptile happily absorbs.

The attack had several people leap back while others reached for their phones and rushed over to see what had caused the sudden explosion. This cleared the way for Melody to run over and hoist herself onto the stage.

“You’ve got eight seconds to tell me why you’re using my voice in your fake-*ss glamour show or you’re next.” Melody fixates her gaze on the trainer before her as Spike hops down from the speaker and back onto her shoulder.

While the blonde teen hardly looked pleased, her expression read significantly more annoyed than frightened by the threat (and the flying lizard baby punching things.) However, as she pivots on her toes to face Melody properly, that look of annoyance morphs into a smug smile. “Haven’t you heard? It’s free real estate.”

“Excuse you?”

The blonde rolls her eyes and makes an expression that reads she’s trying to look annoyed, but is far too smug to really pull it off. “You can take all sorts of things from people: Words, styles, art, no one cares as long as you don’t charge money.”

In a way, she had Melody over a barrel. She had never paid any attention at all to how… any laws work, really. This girl could be right, she could be making it up, she could be telling a half-truth. Not that she really needs to understand to beat the highlights out of this girl until she agrees to stop doing what she’s doing (overlooking the fact that that is, in fact, very illegal.) She’s also thrown for a loop on the why of this whole thing. If this girl’s not trying to make money, and she can’t use it for clout (she’s outright admitting all she’s doing is flapping her lips to lyrics--) “Then what the f*ck do you want with it?”

The blonde looks at the punk teen as if she’s about to say the most obvious thing in the world. “To give the people what they want.”

She’s said this before-- but it bears repeating. With slightly more indignation this time. “Excuse you?”

The blonde teen shakes her head in faux dismay before extending her hand towards the crowd-- which had grown in size considerably since the explosion. “Have you ever heard the expression, [i] video killed the radio star [i/]? When someone has a nice voice, but won’t-- or can’t, make the right look and act the right way, the people get bored.” She crooks her finger as she looks at the punk teen with a look of pure superiority. “So I’m borrowing what the people like about you and adding it to a package that they can get behind.” Raising the microphone back to her lips, the blonde spins on her toes once more to face the audience. “Tell me who you love!”

The audience, who had begun either talking amongst themselves or taken out their Rotom phones to record or blog about whatever the h*ll one could even call this exchange, suddenly jumped to attention.
“V-E-R-A!”

“Thaaaat’s right, and I love you!” She says with the cutest (most fake) giggle Melody had ever heard. Vera turns to face the punk teen and lowers her mic once more. “See? They don’t care what’s real. They care about the image: A nice voice, a pretty face, a star that loves them as much as they love her. That’s what they want to see. ”

Melody folds her arms over her chest, her nails digging into her upper arms in frustration as she looks out at the audience. What Vera’s saying isn’t exactly news to her. From the beginning of this journey, she knew she wasn’t the type of person anyone could get behind; She wasn’t a charismatic underdog like Simon, she wasn’t an energetic, supportive superstar like Valerie, she wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous and graceful like Pia, and she wasn’t endearingly stubborn and brave like Haleigh. H*ll, she spent her entire schooling trying not to be seen as anything like that. She always thought it was better to fly under the radar, never being noticed and never getting any expectations pinned on her… rather than show she might be decent at something and eventually fail, disappointing everyone who thought she might be able to put Spikemuth on the map.

… And she didn’t honestly know when she stopped being the person that let the fear of disappointing a faceless mass of people control her, but somewhere along this journey with these charismatic, supportive, stubbornly brave people, she got sick of it. This is her life, and she was sleeping through it, ducking away from it, because some chuckle f*cks in the audience might say Oh, look, the Spikemuth girl’s got a Zigzagoon. Never seen that before.

Looking back on it now, it… seems completely ridiculous to walk through life pretending to be something or someone she isn’t. If the many, many ghosts she’s come across have taught her anything, it’s that this life is just too damn short to spend any more time of her time not being herself because she might not be a good enough version of herself to appease… someone.

Cutting her gaze away from the audience, she rolls her eyes at Vera. “Okay, first of all: Video did what? It didn’t kill anything. Radio still exists, and second, I didn’t ask for your brain-fried, bleached-blonde philosophy on the quickest route to celebrity rehab. I asked why you auto-tuned the piss outta my voice to do it.”
Twirling a strand of blonde hair around her finger, Vera looks from Melody to the audience and back again. “How about this? These people came for a performance, which you ruined, so let’s give them a different kind. If you win, I’ll stop using those vocals.”

And what? If she wins, she gets to keep them? No, that’s not happen--

“TOX-TOXEL!” Spike shouts from Melody’s shoulder, pointing an accusing finger at Vera as the symbol atop his head sparks with anger.

…He just agreed to this for them, didn’t he? “What kind of performance?”

Vera smirks before raising the mic to her lips. “How would you all like to see a double battle?!”

The cheers, whistles, and frantic claps answer that question quickly enough. Melody looks at the purple reptile on her shoulder, who encouragingly taps his forehead against hers.
“I guess we’re doing this.”

“Fan-tastic!” Vera practically squeals before spinning towards the complete opposite side of the stage, making Melody question how she didn’t fall right off the side. With all that hair, there’s no way she could see. “Show me what’cha got, Miss Phantom!”

Before Melody could so much as consider which of her Pokemon had the best synergy for a double battle, Spike slides off her shoulder and-- on his back two legs, trots towards center stage.

“Spike--” Melody attempts to call the little creature back, yet he continues. Once he reaches his destination, he turns back to his trainer, his body sparkling with electricity as he gives a thumb’s up. He can do this. He wants to do this.

A tiny smile threatens to take shape on her face. “Okay, then… let’s do this, Ren!”

She grasps the single Duskball from her collection of Pokeballs before holding it out towards center stage. The Lycanroc appears, glimmering in the light of the vibrant sun before letting out an excitable, eager grin. His shining pink eyes look down at his youngest counterpart as he holds his much larger fist out to the young electric type, earning himself a fistbump.

Other Half | Brother| Mother

gimmepie

Profile Message Posts

PokéCommunity Supporter Platinum Tier

Also Known As GP, Daniel

Moderator

Age 27

Male

Australia

Seen 9 Hours Ago

Posted 2 Days Ago

11.1 Years

639

March 20th, 2023 at 10:08 PM

Indra (Male, Swift Swim) - Rain Dance, Hypnosis, Bubblebeam, Hydro Pump, Earth Power, Refresh

Stampede (Male, Swift Swim) - Hydro Pump, Smokescreen, Twister, Focus Energy, Dragon Pulse, Icy Wind

Holo (Female, Lightning Rod) - Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Electric Terrain, Rising Voltage, Flame Burst, Flash

Vessel (Female, Dry Skin) - Fury Cutter, Giga Drain, Poison Powder, Spore, Rain Dance, Protect

Lancer (Male, Dry Skin) - Rock Climb, Revenge, Sucker Punch, Poison Jab, Rain Dance, Toxic

Inventory:

- ATC
- Expensive PokeGear
- Pokedex
- 800 Poke (On ATC)
- TM Icy Wind
- TM Flash
- Wishing Star
- TM Protect
- TM Rain Dance
- TM Rock Climb
- 1x Heavy Ball

Badges:

CATHERINE CARLISLE
The Battle of the Brawn

Catherine watched as the Darmanitan scurried away with its metaphorical tail between its legs. Stampede hopped back to her, looking almost smug. He’d been shaken for a while after the mishap with the Gabite pair, but the events in Circhester and subsequent gym battle seemed to have put him right again. He wasn’t quite as gung-ho as he used to be, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Still, he was plenty enthusiastic about helping out with the Ice-type encroachment. He’d fought off two weaker Pokemon and now a fairly tough Darmanitan. Catherine decided it was time to switch him out for Lancer.

The Kingdra protested somewhat, but eventually gave in and returned to his ball without further fuss. A moment later, he was replaced by the purple form of Catherine’s Croagunk, eagerly awaiting what he hoped would be a battle.

Catherine was happy to give him what he wanted. “There’s a bunch of territorial Ice types causing problems in the area. We’re going around clearing them out so they stop endangering people and each other. I take it you have no complaints?”

A smirk was quick to form on Lancer’s face. He shrugged his shoulders and cracked his knuckles, eager to test his strength.

First though, they had to find one of the aforementioned Ice types which turned out to be easier said than done. Evidently, she and Stampede had been doing a very good job because the immediate area around where she had switched Lancer in was devoid of any Pokemon looking to get into a brawl.

Lancer was starting to get irritable as the few Ice types they did come across were the timid sort aiming to avoid confrontation. Catherine wasn’t going to chase them down and force them into a battle they weren’t looking for.

It was in the wake of a pair of Darukama jumping into a hole behind some shrubbery and Lancer very nearly diving in after that something major finally caught their attention. A very loud, very human scream.

“Well, Lancer, maybe that’s the fight you’re looking for. Come on.”

The site that Catherine and Lancer found before them minutes later was in some ways exactly what Catherine had expected to find. In others, it was something of a surprise.

As expected: a hulking white-furred Beartic was looming over a cowering young woman and her fallen Pokemon.

What was not expected: the woman in question was a familiar upstart ranger and the fallen Pokemon was her Rookidee. Stranger still though, the Beartic wasn’t making any further moves to attack. It was just standing there menacingly. At closer inspection, it almost looked bored or unimpressed.

With Lancer at her side, Catherine strode into the sleet-filled clearing this scene was playing out in. “Having some trouble there, Miss Ranger?”

The Beartic and the ranger both turned to face Catherine at the same time. The latter with eyes going wide with shock and horror.

“What are you still doing here?!” the ranger shrieked. “You need to get away. It’s dangerous. Didn’t I tell you to leave before?!”

“You did,” Catherine said, “But I decided to do something more productive and clear out some of those problem Ice types for you.”

“Go!”

Catherine sighed and shook her head. “If this Beartic was as dangerous as you’re saying, it would have eaten you before I got here.”

The Beartic was ignoring the ranger entirely now, focused on Catherine… no, Lancer. It was sizing the Croagunk up. It gave a derisive snort, but bared its fangs regardless.

Catherine realised soon thereafter what was going on. This Pokemon wasn't territorial. It was testing its strength. Still, it was clearly too keen to pick fights with anyone passing by. It was already growling at Lancer.

“It’s not trying to claim territory,” Catherine said. “It’s looking for a good fight. Reminds me of some people I’ve met. Some Pokemon too. It’s not attacking you anymore because it’s decided that you’re weak.”

As Catherine spoke, Lancer was squaring up to the Beartic - less than half its size but smirking at it and beckoning it to try its luck anyway. There were differences, but both Pokemon were obsessed with their own strength.

“Okay, Lancer. I see what we’re doing. You can sit back Miss Ranger, we’ve got this covered.

“Are you crazy?!”

“No. I’m confident.”

The Beartic suddenly lunged, seemingly accepting that battle lines had been drawn. A lance of ice formed around one of its paws as it struck out for Lancer.

“Sucker Punch,” Catherine ordered.

Lancer ducked under the attack in a sudden burst of speed and rammed his fist into the Beartic’s abdomen. The Ice type reeled back then suddenly pressed the attack again, smashing the ice weapon into Lancer and shattering it into a milling jagged shards.

Lancer was thrown back off his feet, rolling to a defensive position as the Beartic viciously attacked again with a Slash. The Beartic was already rushing him again, but he countered with another Sucker Punch.

“Poison Jab!” Catherine called, intent to put some space between Lancer and the beastly Beartic.

Lancer obeyed, following through with his other arm to jab purple shimmering fingers into the same spot the Sucker Punch had struck. This time, the Beartic staggered further back, dropping to all fours.

Then, it attacked again. Water surged over its body and it rocketed forward like propelled by a missile. The attack smashed into Lancer and made him stagger back, but the water merely washed over him and he barely felt the impact.

“Tough luck,” Catherine said. “Water moves don’t work on Lancer. Revenge.”

A fiery orange aura formed around Lancer’s fist as he punched the Beartic with all his might. This time, taking a shot from a move it was vulnerable to, the Beartic was knocked clean off its feet and landed in a pile of icy slush.

It was clearly a very powerful Pokemon, but it wasn’t fighting smart. Catherine knew Lancer had the win in the bag. Still, it would be foolish not to take advantage of the breather.

“Rain Dance.”

“Wait!” the ranger shouted.

It was too late. Lancer was already going through a series of martial-arts stances, storm clouds gathering overhead and rain beginning to fall.

“That was a bad move!” the ranger cried out. “Stop the rain!”

“I can’t stop it! What are you on about?”

It was the Beartic that gave Catherine her answer. It let out a roar, and then it was gone from where it had been laying. In an instant, it had closed the distance to Lancer and was slamming another Icicle Crash into him.

Lancer was blasted across their battlefield, through a tree and into a pile of dirt and melting snow.

Oh.

“You have to be kidding me,” Catherine said. “I completely forgot they could even get the ability. It’s got Swift Swim.”

The ranger groaned. “I tried to warn you. It’s rare but it happens sometimes.”

Lancer staggered back onto the battlefield, his wounds slowly recovering from the megaton hit he had just received as Dry Skin healed him.

“Fantastic,” Catherine said dryly.

The Beartic roared in response.

“Well, screw it. We will never lose in the rain. Right Lancer? Let’s show it that you’re not just tougher, but we fight smarter too. That’s real power.”

“Are you kidding me?!” the ranger yelped.

“Dead serious. Sucker Punch!”

Catherine called the attack preemptively, seeing the Beartic ready to launch itself for Lancer again. In a blur of movement, it was upon him, lashing out with a Slash attack. It didn’t make contact this time though, Lancer punched it twice in succession and knocked it back again.

It was able to take a hit though - and much faster than Lancer. Before Catherine could give her next command, it attacked with another Slash and knocked Lancer sprawling. Then it kept going, forming another Icicle Crash.

“Toxic!” Catherine called as Lancer narrowly avoided the attack with a roll. He spat a glob of venom right into the Beartic’s face as he leapt back to his feet.

The Beartic didn’t appreciate that. It growled again and punched for Lancer.

“Rock Climb!”

A mound of earth and ice burst upwards from the ground between Lancer and the Beartic and Lancer ran up the side, leaping up from the top as the Beartic smashed through it. He came down on top of the Beartic with a brutal axe kick and slammed its head into the ground.

“Revenge!”

The orange energy formed around Lancer’s fist again as he thrust it down, but the attack didn’t make contact. The Beartic made a sudden, violent movement and Lancer was thrown off of it and knocked to the dirt beside it. A moment later, it lashed out wildly again as it rose back up, sending Lancer skidding across the clearing and into another tree, ripping bark from the trunk.

Lancer rose to his feet again. The rain might have been healing his wounds, but it was being outstripped by the beating he was taking too.

The Beartic wasn’t doing amazing either though. It was swaying, in a daze from the aftermath of its Thrash attack and slowly being sapped by the poison the Toxic had left it with.

“Rock Climb!” Catherine ordered.

Lancer forced himself into motion, rushing forward and then letting the rising earth and rock of the attack fling him into the air. Despite the speed boost it had from the rain, the Beartic’s confusion dulled its reaction time and it swung wildly to defend itself to no avail. Lancer slammed down on top of it again and knocked it back to the ground.

This time, Lancer lept back off of it before he could be launched off again. The Beartic rose to its feet again as Catherine ordered the next attack.

Lancer ran in and rammed a Poison Jab into the Beartic’s side as it tried to turn. It stumbled backwards and Lancer rushed in to make his follow-up attack.

This time though, the Beartic shook off its daze and countered with an Icicle Crash. Both attacks hit home and both Pokemon were knocked onto their backs. Both of them groggily got back up.

Another series of blows were exchanged. Icicle Crashes and Slashes striking Lancer between Sucker Punches. Once more, both Pokemon were knocked off of their feet. Once more, both stood. Both heaved for breath.

The Beartic was the first to make a move. It rushed in with another Slash attack.

“Take the hit!” Catherine instructed.

Lancer braced himself, the attack struck him and brought him down to one knee. But he had strength left to counterattack - and he would do so with double the power.

“Revenge!”

Once again, a fist of blazing orange collided with white fur as the Beartic was knocked careening back, tumbling to a halt.

The Beartic clawed its way back up to all fours, then stood tall again even as Lancer struggled back to his own feet.

Then the Beartic fell forward, the Poison taking its toll and lay in the sleet defeated, Lancer standing over it in victory.

Catherine walked up to the Beartic and knelt at its side.

“You know, you and Lancer have a pursuit of power in common. So I’ll make you the same offer I made him. You’re already strong, but I can teach you to fight smart. I can make you even more powerful and I can take you to places with even greater challenges. You’ll fit right in with my strategies too. Perfect for both of us.”

The Beartic snorted and nodded its head slightly before shutting its eyes for a rest. Catherine reached out with a silver Pokeball and tapped it to the Beartic’s head, drawing it inside. The Heavy Ball barely shook as the sixth slot on Catherine’s team was filled.

“That was… incredible.” The Ranger had finally found her way to her feet and was approaching Catherine with her groggy Rookidee cradled in her arms. “You really should have left when I told you but… I have to admit you really are as good as you think you are. Thank you for coming to my rescue.”

“It isn’t like you really needed the rescuing,” Catherine said. “But I’m happy to help. Always. Even when people probably don’t want me to.”

The ranger shook her head. “Maybe you should be in public service instead of the league. You have the right attitude for it.”

Catherine chuckled. “Too corrupt for my liking. Maybe one day when I’m done with being champion and I’ve fixed that.”

“Shame. Can’t be helped though. I guess you’ll have to win then.”

Catherine nodded. “That’s the idea.”

The Ranger scratched her arm sheepishly. “You should come back to our encampment nearby so I can patch up your Croagunk. It’s the least I can do.”

“Normally I make a point of not taking rewards, but I’ve probably already missed the next ferry anyway and I’m sure Lancer will appreciate it.”

The ranger nodded again and made to lead the way.

“Come on, Lancer,” Catherine said, following behind the ranger.

The Croagunk didn’t move. He simply stood there looking at his hands.

“Lancer?”

A moment later, Lancer was aglow with white light, emerging from the glow taller, with a pronounced red bulb for a throat and knife-like red middle fingers perfect for delivering Poison Jabs.

“The surprises keep coming,” the ranger said.

“I guess so,” Catherine said. She gestured, and her Toxicroak followed after her.

Female, Swift Swim - Icicle Crash, Slash, Aqua Jet, Thrash, Superpower

Cooler the Beartic obtained!

Lancer evolved!

RP • WL • A&M • VG • Gaming Journal

Geras

Profile Message Posts

PokéCommunity Supporter Crystal Tier

Roleplayer

Age 27

Male

Everything's bigger here, apparently.

Seen 1 Week Ago

Posted March 28th, 2023

957 posts

12.3 Years

640

March 28th, 2023 at 9:33 PM , since edited

Winston Imes - The Unbeatable Hero Spikemuth

<Your reign of terror is through, Bat!> Energy swirled around the crimson crusader as it Focused its power, claws at the ready.

<You have never once managed to capture me, Dull Claw. What makes you think this time will be any different? Heeheeho!> The Gliscor took to the sky and stretched its black wings, covering the moon overhead in an imposing visage.

<We’ve fought many times. I know your tricks now, you won’t get awa—>

A loud clang echoed through the street as a speeding vehicle rammed into Sword Claw, whisking the Scizor away.

<Uh… Claw?> Shadow Bat looked at its nemesis racing away on the front of a motorcycle, then looked back at where it had come from. In that moment a flash of blue light flooded its vision. A soaring Drampa let out a mighty roar, unleashing a breath of destruction onto the streets below.

<Uh… Claw!?>

“Oh my lord it’s him! I can’t believe it, Sword Claw himself! I’m your biggest fan!” The girl with green twintails took a hand off the bike she was driving and held it out towards the Scizor. Sadly Sword Claw was too busy scrambling to get off the motorcycle’s windshield. It looked at her incredulously, then looked behind her at the rampaging Drampa chasing them.

“Now’s really not the time for that!” Shouted Winston from the back of the bike. “Can’t you shake him off or something?”

“Your coat is even redder and shinier than I imagined! Do you polish it somehow or is it just naturally like that? Oh and I love his scarf, I wonder where he got it?”

“G! Focus!”

She groaned. “Hey it’s your pokemon, how about you try actually helping instead of just yelling at me? How the hell did you even catch something like this? Oh my, his claws are so big! No wonder they’re his defining feature!”

Winston released his Tynamo and held onto it so it wouldn’t go flying at their speed. Charge Beams blasted the dragon helplessly, not even slowing it. In fact, Rive seemed to take it as a challenge and sped up. “Uh…G!?”

Sword Claw’s wings buzzed frantically, pulling the bike to the side just enough to avoid a Dragon Pulse that scorched the ground beside them.

“Oh, he’s so wonderful, saving lives even in a situation like this!”

Winston rolled his eyes and shot another futile Charge Beam. “Look, I get it, he’s cool! We can look at him after we—”

A red glint shone in Rive’s eyes as they entered an intersection, and a massive Twister immediately formed around them. There was no time to dodge, and the bike was launched into the air along with its riders. As Winston hit the ground, his vision became hazy.

He’d agreed to help a fanatic journalist in exchange for her help finding his pokemon that had escaped its ball. That’s all it was supposed to be. He would meet a local hero, find his dragon, and be on his way. But now he was fighting for his life. He was just an artist, he wasn’t built for this.

His head hurt. He didn’t want to get up. Yeah, maybe he shouldn’t.

Just as that thought entered his mind, a light began to shine in front of him. This light stirred something in his heart, telling him not to give up. He slowly sat up, seeing before him the crimson armor of a hero.

Sword Claw stood before the foul dragon, arms and legs spread in a powerful and heroic pose. A pose of defiance. He struck a few more poses as spectral swords began to swirl around him, finishing their dance in the shape of a V. A declaration of victory. A hero never loses.

Power radiated from Sword Claw’s proud form as it leapt toward Rive. In moments, he was enveloped in the azure rage of Rive’s Dragon Pulse and blasted into a nearby building. Rive’s attention turned to Winston.

Winston looked around at the mess Rive had made. Some people were screaming and running away while others were gathering around to see what the commotion was all about, phones in hand. Like he needed more hits to his reputation after his display at Stow-on-Side.

Rive snorted, waiting for Winston to make a move. Clearly he wanted a battle. He supposed the gyms weren’t enough, and he’d grown tired of waiting. Maybe catching this thing was a mistake after all.

He reached for his next strongest pokemon with a trembling hand. With a burst of light he released his Pangoro, Ado’s massive form being more than a match for Rive’s. They glared at one another. Then Ado looked back at Winston. His ragged breath and his shaky knees. She closed her eyes and walked away, taking a seat on a toppled trash can nearby.

So that was it. Rive wasn’t just bored. He didn’t respect him. And neither did Ado, by the looks of it. He supposed he couldn’t blame them. He only won his last three gym battles by relying on Rive to clean up after his mistakes. And he wasn’t even there for Ado’s evolution.

He took a deep breath, a little more relaxed now that the situation was clear. He’d been lucky enough to capture some powerful pokemon. But they needed a powerful trainer to match. He never believed himself to be anything like that. But here, with his strongest pokemon staring him down, he realized he didn’t have a choice. After coming this far, that’s what he’d have to be.

He thought about Isla.

He puffed his chest and pointed at Rive. “Listen up you troublemakers! I told Bea I’d make it to the top, and I can’t do it without you two. And if I have to beat the muk out of you to get you to stop making a mess of things and come with me then I’ll do it!”

He was far from the most popular Gym Challenger but it sounded like a few of the bystanders were starting to recognize him. He could feel his cheeks turning red, but one look at the dragon in front of him was enough to forget about that.

He released his remaining pokemon all at once. Dev floated up from nearby, ready to face down Rive. His Wooloo Sol looked a bit less ready for battle, but despite his trembling he stood at the ready. Meanwhile his Wimpod Serv stood beside Winston instead of with the others. Not exactly hiding but ready to do so at a moment’s notice.

The gathering crowd mumbled as they saw the tiny pokemon he’d be facing Rive with.

Using three pokemon at once was a bit much for someone like him, but he had a plan. He was lucky Rive was gracious enough to give him the time to come up with one. “Sol, don’t worry about attacking, just protect the others. Dev, you’ll attack, and Serv, just support them with Struggle Bug from here. You don’t need to get into the action.”

His pokemon nodded in understanding. This was all the signal Rive needed to begin moving forward. He’d given Winston enough time.

“Dev, Thunder Wave! Sol, Guard Split!” Dev began to charge with electricity but was blown away by an Echoing roar, as Sol created a psychic tether between himself and Rive. Rive had seen this, it was the move that turned his formidable rival Turtonator into something frail enough to be knocked around by this sheep. This was the one to worry about.

Rive’s maw shone with azure energy as he blasted Sol with a Dragon Pulse. Sol braced himself for the hit, but the stream of energy didn’t stop. Rive opened his mouth wider and the attack grew in intensity, even Winston feeling the heat of it.

“Sol!” Winston cried, getting ready to recall his pokemon before it was too late. In that moment balls of green energy crashed into Rive. At the same time, a bolt of electricity struck him and coursed through his body, finally halting the Dragon Pulse. Winston breathed a sigh of relief. Sol sat in a smoldering crater, but was still standing. Though standing might be a generous word for it.

More green orbs appeared around Rive, flickering like fireflies as they crashed down onto him. They didn’t seem to do much damage, but Winston knew they were still quite potent. Rive unleashed another Dragon Pulse into Sol, but this one seemed much smaller.

“Hold it back with Copycat! And Dev, focus on using Charge Beam!”

Mimicking the time he’d fought Rive alongside Isla, the two pokemon unleashed their own beam attacks to counter Rive’s. At first it seemed like Winston’s pokemon didn’t stand a chance, but with each passing moment Dev’s beam grew stronger. And with each strike from Serv, Rive’s attack grew weaker.

Rive’s beam gave way and he was hit by both attacks, creating a cloud of smoke. Had they done it? Both Winston and the crowd watched in anticipation.

But of course not. Winston should know better than anyone as Rive’s trainer that it wouldn’t be enough. The smoke cleared, and Rive hadn’t even budged. He roared, and a Twister swirled to life, cleaving through Dev and Sol. They were flung into the air and crashed to the ground, defeated. Serv had seen enough and moved to run away, but Rive Flew forward and slammed into the Wimpod.

Only Winston remained. Rive stepped forward, looking down on his puny trainer.

His eyes darted between each of his fallen team members, mind racing to think of what he could do. The Devourer of the Storm, The Soul of A Hero, and The Ultimate Survivor. He’d given them powerful names so they could become powerful pokemon. Something like this wasn’t enough to be the end, he knew it. He tried to think of what to do, but as he felt Rive’s breath on his face his mind went blank.

In that moment, he struck a pose. Arms and legs spread in a powerful and heroic pose. A pose of defiance. He struck a few more poses before finally ending in a pose with his arms spread in a V. The sign of victory. He’d done it on instinct. The crowd around him muttered, some people even laughing.

He’d grown up on stories about heroes. Heroes existed to save people, sure, but also to inspire them. To teach them that they could be greater. He knew they were just stories, but those stories were etched into his heart so much so that Sword Claw’s silly heroics could bring him to his feet. And he hoped that he could do the same for his teammates.

They didn’t stand. Rive sighed, and turned around. He’d seen enough. He took one last look at Ado who shook her head, then took to the skies. Then crashed into the ground as a steel claw punched him across the jaw with blinding speed.

Landing beside Winston was Sword Claw himself. He looked at Winston with an excited glint in his eye. He made some noises as if wanting something from him. Winston could guess what it was. He glanced at the crowd around him that was cheering for the hero’s arrival, and resigned himself to his fate.

He struck a pose, and Sword Claw matched it. Another pose. And another, and another. The two were in total sync, and the crowd’s cheering grew louder.

“No way…” A familiar voice spoke from underneath the rubble of a ruined motorcycle. The journalist calling herself “G” looked at the two with glee. “Seeing it from Sword Claw is one thing, but I didn’t think any person would be bold enough to do that kind of thing. It’s incredible!” Winston grumbled, his face turning red.

Sword Claw began shouting at Rive, who responded to the provocations with a Glare. Winston wasn’t quite sure what to do in this situation except go with it.

“There is more to strength than brute force, dragon. True strength is the strength of one’s heart!” He pointed at Rive once more, knowing he was spouting bullmuk but hoping it would hype up Sword Claw. It absolutely did, as the Scizor imitated him and pointed his claw at Rive. He was rather easy for a hero.

Winston felt ashamed for having to rely on another strong pokemon to get him out of trouble, but he also knew letting Rive roam free here was also a bad idea. The best thing he could do was defeat Rive so he couldn’t escape his ball again, then figure this out somewhere less populated.

Rive and Sword Claw stared each other down, Sword Claw’s scarf blowing in the breeze. The crowd’s cheering fell silent. A nearby car’s side mirror dangled precariously. It snapped and hit the ground, and in that moment the two rushed at each other.

Rive’s eyes became a glowing red, entering his Berserk state as he let loose a fearsome Dragon Pulse. Sword Claw dodged it with stunning Agility and struck back, his Metal Claw meeting against Rive’s Protective shield. They danced around each other, these veteran fighters exchanging blow after crushing blow.

Rive soared into the air, coming down like a meteor onto Sword Claw who flew into the air to meet him. Their midair clash sent shockwaves rippling through the streets. Then the two plummeted to the ground, kicking up a cloud of smoke.

The world was silent as the smoke slowly parted. And when it did, Sword Claw was left standing. The crowd went wild.

Winston sighed, recalling Rive into his ball. He looked around. His other team members were slowly starting to get up. G was in tears behind him, her hands filling page after page in her notebook without even looking at it. She seemed to be muttering “Thank you.” over and over. Ado was still sitting on her trash can, looking at Winston with a serious expression. Even so, she allowed herself to return to her ball as well.

And Sword Claw was immediately in Winston’s face, eyes gleaming again. Once again, he seemed to want something. This time he was poking at Winston’s pokeballs with his claw. He knew what this meant, but he was hesitant to accept. If he did, how long would it be until Sword Claw, too, grew disappointed with him?

“W-w-wait, how about coming with me, Mr. Claw?” G frantically searched for her own pokeball, but Sword Claw gently shook his head. She slumped to her knees with a pout. Winston worried for her.

Before he could make up his mind, he noticed something. Movement out of the corner of his eye. “Sword Claw, look out!”

A purple claw emerged from the shadows and grasped his neck like a Guillotine. Sword Claw fell to the ground, his metallic body clattering in front of Serv.

<Heeheeho! You’re always so easy to catch off guard! I swear, your mind is as dull as your claws!> Shadow Bat gripped Sword Claw’s body with his tail and rose into the air to show the people their fallen hero.

<Now nothing will stop me from taking over this city! Heeheeho!> The Gliscor reveled in the shocked expressions of the crowd below. Despite what he’d said, he kept an eye out for escape routes in case there did end up being someone who could stop him from taking over the city. But the only one he could see was a trainer with three weak little pokemon.

“Let him go!” G shouted. “If you don’t he’ll wake up any moment to beat you up! Sword Claw never loses!” Shadow Bat chuckled at her idiocy.

The trainer barked some orders, and his Tynamo and Wooloo rushed at him.

<You want me to let him go? Here you are, then!> He threw Sword Claw at the two pokemon, knocking them back. When they regained their bearings he was behind them, and he swiftly took them out with a Night Slash.

That only left the bug. He turned to face it, but was blinded by a bright light. The light began to change shape, growing and growing. My, was it growing. Suddenly, the bug he’d been looking down on was looking down on him. And it had grown a set of rather savage-looking claws. A Golisopod. Now this didn’t look like an easy opponent.

It was a good thing he’d planned his escape routes. <Well I’d love to stay longer, but I have an appointment I don’t want to be late for. Ciao!> Shadow Bat grabbed Sword Claw and flew off. The trainer barked an order, and in the blink of an eye the Golisopod was in front of him. It slammed its claws into him, throwing him to the ground.

Ok, so maybe escape wasn’t an option, but he’d crossed claws with a hero. Surely he could take a freshly-evolved brute. <Very well then, you’ve sealed your fate!> Shadow Bat swung his tail down onto Serv, who caught it with the plates on his arms.

<I don’t know anything about heroes and villains, but the red one saved me. So I’ll try to save him.> Serv knocked Shadow Bat’s tail away and swung with his claw, but Shadow Bat was able to nimbly dodge it.

<My, you have no idea how to use those things do you? Of course you wouldn’t, you’ve had them for 2 minutes,> Bat taunted.

“Serv, use Razor Shell!”

Aquatic energy surrounded Serv’s claws and he swung at the Gliscor. And missed. He swung again, and again, then threw a fistful of sand in his face allowing his third strike to connect.

<Gah! That’s not very heroic of you!>

Serv shrugged and continued his attacks.

Winston could tell this wasn’t working and wondered what he could do to help. He didn’t want to rely on Ado for this, not right now at least. But something did come to mind. There were pokemon that used items to extend the range of their Razor Shell attack, like a Samurott and its Seamitars. He scrounged around for something he could use and picked up the first thing that felt sturdy. “Serv, use this and Razor Shell!”

It was the muffler from G’s motorcycle, which she didn’t seem to appreciate being used as a weapon. Serv caught it and coated it with the aquatic energy of his claws, slamming it onto Shadow Bat’s head and snapping it in two in the process.

Shadow Bat struggled to pick himself up. <Not like this… Not by some nobody…> Before he could say more, Serv stomped him into the ground.

With the infamous Shadow Bat defeated, Spikemuth could live in peace. This meant Sword Claw could do as he wished, and what he wished was to travel with Winston. Eventually Winston gave in and let the Scizor join his team. But he was convinced he could come up with a better name than Sword Claw.

Actually, he thought he could go further with his names in general. If the idea behind his other names was to give them powerful titles to live up to, he needed something extra powerful for an experienced hero. And thus, he was named The Knight of Lost Paradise Who Rends the Unforgiving Darkness. Or Knight for short. He considered going for Rend or Para instead, but he thought Knight was extra fitting for a hero.

And he also realized there wasn’t much point in hiding the extravagance of his names anymore. He was terrified to look at what social media was saying about him right now.

And so he bid a very grateful G farewell, and set off to figure out how to collect enough money to pay for all the damage his pokemon had caused before he got into legal trouble.

I'll put something cool here eventually.

Turnip

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Magnificent Turnip

Private property what the heck are you doing here get out

Seen 6 Days Ago

Posted April 15th, 2023

693 posts

11.1 Years

641

April 7th, 2023 at 7:55 PM

Xan Kinda Preferring The Other Beach Where There Was A Giant Crab Trying To Kill Them
Featuring Jerry, Chaperone, Xan, Kass and Mimbo J.

It hadn't taken a lot of watching other matches to come to the conclusion that it was probably best to wait rather than take on the challenge of Chirchester gym. Going into what was looking to be a fairly rough match-up with a team that could only be described as considerably less stable than Xan would have hoped for this point in their journey seemed like a recipe for wasted time. However expedited the decision to move on was, however, the act of doing so ended up delayed regardless. Though dealing with the Gym Challenge itself loomed, as ever, on the horizon, Xan had more than enough auxiliary issues to deal with between Chirchester and Spikemuth.

Sphinx... Sphinx was a spanner in the works. As far as Xan was concerned, the Vulpix had proven that she wasn't capable of handling the responsibility of not being a violent idiot - which really, they figured, wasn't asking for much. Kass seemed to believe that it could be worked through, but... Xan wasn't here to babysit an asshole and Sphinx seemed plenty in favour of leaving. Perhaps if the psychic was invested in becoming the very best trainer there ever was, they'd see it as a failure in their technique or as a challenge to overcome. As it stood, they only required any gaping holes in their training ability to hold off on appearing too significantly before everything they actually needed to do was over and done with. The problematic tendencies of a petulant research partner did not deserve significant time devoted to them in Xan's eyes. Sphinx just... wasn't worth it, at the end of the day. By all means, good luck to her in finding a promising future - but she could psyduck off and find it somewhere where it wasn't ruining the rest of theirs.

The issue was: where? Sphinx had chosen, as per the agreement Xan had with all their Pokémon partners, to be released with delay in a place of their choosing - that place being... in the team of a different trainer, according to Kass' translation of the Vulpix's haughty responses. Xan wasn't even sure that in the interest of everyone's safety they could do that. Could you call the Rangers on your own Pokémon? It would be an odd thing for a Gym Challenger to do, for sure. Maybe some other trainer with a good reputation, a league challenger or something, would be up to the task. Getting one to agree - mindful of the potential danger of rampant destruction and being blamed for it besides - was beyond the scope of Xan's imagination, though. Ah, well. This was why a delay was mentioned. Sphinx would have to be patient indeed.

In lighter team-turbulence news, the new addition of Mimbo J counted as an issue that demanded Xan's attention, but was nonetheless promising rather than exclusively stressful. Experienced with many different forms of psychic power to a comprehensive but not intense degree; abilities practised and honed for the likes of convenience, natural extensions of the self, or augmentations to his performing arts. Skills that had no real relevance in battle, but battle wasn't everything. Any form of proficiency was not to be discounted. Jerry and Kass seemed to like the Mime Jr. enough, and the stoic Chaperone seemed unperturbed by his presence at the very least. Sphinx seemed to think poorly of the new hire if the amount of eye-rolling at mealtime was anything to go off of, but her opinions wouldn't have been worth much to Xan even if her future in the team was particularly bright.

The Mime Jr. was mostly being brought up to speed on everything, at this point. There was a lot of research being done, down a lot of different avenues. Maintaining and strengthening of existing senses and the myriad psychokinetic abilities never ceased. Kass was supposedly getting a good grasp on their perception of Dark-type presence, and the sheer confidence that came through in their telepathy was telling. The gears of the Kadabra's brain were turning. And it wasn't just that they were having success with; Kass' understanding of psychoconjuration had deepened to a degree that the Pokédex was now calling their physically-manifested attacks 'Psyshock' - and with that knowledge came the willingness to teach, or at least attempt or assist something that approached the definition of teaching. Chaperone's apparent ability to learn Psycho Cut via TR did not seem to manifest in anything much - it was an odd feeling, Xan realised, to see a Pokémon not immediately outstripping them in psychic precocity. Xan's own progress was not necessarily useful but definitely observable - fragile, fleeting constructs of miniscule size that scarcely held up as dust in the wind and disintegrated to nothing at the drop of a hat. But they were constructs still. Jerry was already proficient with Zen Headbutt and without very clear evidence Xan never had a hope in hell of knowing weather the Psyduck picked up on anything or not. The Yellow Shape was inscrutable as ever outside of the insights that Kass afforded. There were... insights to be had, if not progress, in the Psyduck's area, however. Psychic Terrain was good for the Water-Type - like a more potent and more readily available but less permanent version of the incense the group was used to. Still, it was a far cry from the dizzying (or perhaps rather, the opposite of dizzying) heights of the effect Ballonlea Gym seemed to have had on the Psyduck. Which meant, barring some unknown variable, (please, please let it not be some unknown variable) that the explanation for Jerry's gym phenomenon probably lied in Misty Terrain rather than Psychic Terrain. Or more likely than that it was some combination of the two. Now of course, Psychic Terrain was far too huge a boon for every member of their team for the trainer to feel any hint of disappointment in seeking it out rather than the alternative, but it did nonetheless mean that greater effort would yet be required.

The mystery behind the duck would remain just that for now. Jerry himself was a being intertwined with mysteries: right now, he was sitting in the sand, paused in the construction of a magnificent castle. He stared down at himself, wondering how many legs he had. Chaperone the Pawniard stood a little ways off, watching, blades folded across his chest and the sunlight glinting off of a visage that gleamed unmistakably with pride. Xan was in much the same place, only tucked away in the shade. As indicated by the previous paragraphs, they had retreated into their own mind; a reflective state, brought on to avoid the horrors of the environment they now found themselves in. Not a week ago had they been shivering in the snow of Chirchester, and now they were sweltering, overdressed on the humid beachside of Route 9. Drednaw ferries were delayed, and their lot was to wait in line while trying not to perish. If they'd somehow known that nature had planned to sucker punch them with a weather-shift not even Jerry's Cloud Nine could assuage properly they'd have come here without the signature get-up they were known for - but here they were, and now the option of backing out and ruining the private sanctity of the remainder of their life was one they'd have to will themselves out of considering. Kass and Mimbo J were taking the opportunity of delays to put on some kind of impromptu show elsewhere - not that there was much they could have done to help even if they were here. Sphinx was still in her ball but, all else besides, as a Fire-type she was essentially only capable of making the situation worse.

Chaperone offered Xan a slice of Leftover apple again. The human politely declined. The Pawniard had taken a liking to the 'foodstuff', if it could be called that, and his knife-limbs seemed the perfect implement to carve off bite-sized pieces. Admittedly, a cool, crisp apple slice sounded pretty nice right about now - but Xan knew better than to mistake Leftovers for the kind of fruit they'd buy at the supermarket. Some kind of minor commotion in the line ahead of the two drew their gazes for a moment before they could confirm that no, the line wasn't really moving. And with that, both human and Pawniard turned their attention back to the sand and the Psyduck sat there.

Xan wasn't exactly a sandcastle connoisseur, but their amateur opinion was that Jerry's creation was really something to behold. They'd been impressed back on Hulbury beach months ago, and the Psyduck had only improved since then. The detail that little telekinetic touches were affording them were certainly nothing to scoff at - and, okay, fair enough, looking about the beach there were some real professional builds going on (there was some kind of sandcastle competition, right?) that seemed grander in both scale and technique. But for a single Pokémon with no tools and no assistance? Jerry was kind of killing it out there. More practice under Psychic Terrain must have given him a far better understanding of what it was he was wielding. The walls of Jerry's creation looked sturdy and rectangular, crenellations were uniform, there was a good amount of verticality involved with an inner citadel and outer sections, there were tiny little intricate balustrades overlooking a courtyard that wAS CRUMBLING? WHO THE-?

Black and white stripes betrayed the form of a Linoone, mercilessly laying waste to the Psyduck's creation before its time. Jerry quack-screamed in unbridled horror as the quadruped's paws performed a two-second siege on the short-lived fortress. The creature chittered all the while - was this intentional? Was this thing a wild? Xan didn't think they had wild Linoone in this part of Galar but if this thing was wild they were kicking its ass. Chaperone seemed well ahead of them on that front; already approaching, with one swift drag they slid their arm-blades across one another, scattering sparks on the sand. A Linoone on all fours and a standing Pawniard were of similar heights, and yet Chaperone undeniably looked down at the intruder as he stepped between it and Jerry. He was unflinching, his stare unwavering in the face of the jeers and Leers of the Rushing Pokémon that turned to face him. His expression was still, almost hollow - a cold-burning malice.

"Anyone here to vouch for this Linoone?" Xan called out to their surroundings as they drew near, silently hoping for no answer. A cathartic three-on-one smack-down for this little bastard wasn't the ideal moral solution. But if it was the only option...

"Heyyy," came a voice in response from the waterfront. A responsible resolution, then. "What's all this noise over here?"

The helmet turned to meet the newcomer, a gruff-looking sort dressed in grey and magenta with spiky accessories and face-paint to boot. "You're claiming responsibility for this Linoone, or just curious?"

The newcomer narrowed their eyes. "That's my Buddy, yeah."

"Well your 'buddy' here just gleefully trashed someone else's sandcastle for no good reason," Xan scowled. They took another glance at the increasingly tense stand-off between Chaperone and the Linoone. The beach bully's continued aggressive glare served only to feed the fires of hatred dancing behind the Pawniard's eyes. Status moves were already being exchanged, with even a Sand Attack being slipped in there. This was inevitably going to turn into combat proper very soon unless one of them was recalled, and Xan didn't much feel like doing that to Chaperone right now. "If you can get an apology out of them, that'd be ideal."

"Eh," Buddy's trainer waved a hand. "Let 'em fight it out. Let's battle."

Xan shook their head in confusion and scoffed. "-Yeah? No. If we were guaranteed to win, maybe-"

"Aw c'mon, you're a league challenger," the hooligan grinned. "Can't be scared of a lil' battle."

"-but we're not. I- 'scared'? It's about principle, you- any possibility for you to win shouldn't be acknowledged. You can't just battle your way out of being a piece of muk, that's not how things work - the- 'Buddy' should apologise, you know, like a reasonable person, one with actual thoughts and feelings bouncing around in their head-"

"Ey. Oi," Buddy's trainer frowned dangerously, and the Linoone made a noise that sounded halfway between a scoff and a snicker. "You callin my Buddy a piece of muk?"

"They're acting like one."

"That's my partner you're talkin' about you lil' wierdo."

Oh, good. The hooligan's posture was getting aggressive. At least that made the situation a little clearer. Xan had spent far too long in the sun already to deal with an extended conversation. They turned their senses downward, focusing on the grains of sand on the ground rather than on the humid air clinging to their skin.

"Not sure what you want me to say," the psychic offered, taking another laboured breath and a couple of steps backwards as the other human approached. "Get a better partner, maybe?"

"You shut your psyduckin-!"

Two conflicts resolved themselves at once. Toward the water, beside the ruins of Jerry's masterwork, Buddy the Linoone had had enough of the back-and-forth and launched at Chaperone in a sinister Covet attack, faking assent before viciously snatching the Pawniard's Leftovers away. The Sharp Blade Pokémon let it go, one blade twisting around his body to transition into a vertical slice. Chaperone's Defiance had pushed his offensive fury into overdrive, and as the Linoone paused to snicker in celebration of their successful theft a Fury Cutter of epic proportions sent their head directly into the sand.

Further inland, the hooligan had raised one arm in undeniable hostility, a grab for the fabric of the psychic's hoodie at the shoulder - their front-most foot, however, ended up struggling to find purchase on sand that rapidly fled the path of their very first step. Xan was too exhausted from the heat for any kind of prolonged avoidance, so instead of darting away as the other human immediately lost balance and began tipping, they took a single step forward and braced the top of their helmet to drive upwards into the painted surface of a rapidly descending nose.

In the aftermath, Chaperone roughly pulled the fainted Linoone free of the sand and took back his Leftovers before turning around to go and comfort Jerry.

Wary of catching blame from onlookers, Xan raised both hands and said, "Careful." They didn't have the breath for much else. The other human had fallen to the sand and was bleeding from the nose - perhaps a little concussed, maybe shocked, but otherwise fine. They hadn't done much other than scramble away a little, but before they could do more than that another commotion reared its ugly head.

"Hey," came a voice, echoed by a couple of others. More beachgoers, dressed in similar getup to the aggressive one sprawling in the sand. A wave of dread washed over Xan as they realised how likely it was that even more day-ruining was about to come their way. "Heck's goin' on 'ere?"

The psychic stepped aside and widened their arms to show off the scene in its entirety, presenting the group their side-profile just in case the colour-co-ordinated lot wanted to try anything funny.

"Didn't start it," Xan began. "If they're with you, you should probably get them some-"

"-Guys," one of the face-painted ones interrupted, pointing. "Look how sad that Psyduck is."

Waves of 'ooh' and 'aww' and 'Arceus' emanated from the small crowd, carrying a relieving tone of empathy. The group chatted among themselves.

"Poor precious..."

"Yellow guy..."

"Must have destroyed his sandcastle..."

"Dang, Buddy biffed it..."

"Wait, is that a Gym Challenger...?"

"I hope the ducko feels better..."

"Maybe Keith is the asshole here..."

"I wanna pet him..."

"You can't pet him..."

"Keith's been an asshole for years Iunno why you're only now realising..."

"Let's get out of here, guys..."

"Keith! Don't bleed on my tank top!"

"Yeah Keith hold your nose you frickin' dope..."

The group absorbed the hooligan, Keith, as well as Buddy the Linoone, then promptly meandered off. Up the sandbank, onto the pavement and away.

"Er... hi."

Xan closed their eyes and breathed deeply - more people. They turned slowly, met with the sight of a bright-eyed sort in ferryworker's uniform with something held under one arm. The stranger, who waved, seemed hesitant to speak, and Xan wasn't all that keen on the idea either with how long the sun's heat had had to worm its way into their clothes. Eventually the psychic spoke.

"Sorry about-"

"Beach bullies d-"

Both tried speaking at the same time. After a beat of silence, it was the ferryworker who picked up the conversation.

"We saw, and... well, we all feel sorry for the Psyduck, and that lot were... well, let's say they're a weight off of the congested ferry service. So why don't you take this as a reward and give it to our little yellow friend, okay? If- if the Psyduck is yours, that-"

"The Psyduck is with me, yeah," Xan confirmed. The ferryworker seemed to be holding out some kind of TR. "They're Jerry. I'll- yeah, I can do that, thanks, I guess- if it's a gift for Jerry, you can give it to them yourself if you want to, you know."

The ferryworker gasped, "Can I!?" and rushed forward. They faltered as Xan recoiled, stuttered one step in awkward indecision, then hurried over toward the Psyduck. "Hi! We're sorry about what happened over here, we saw your sandcastle and we thought it was really nice! So we got this..."

Xan's perception of the conversation trailed off as a telepathic hail reached them from elsewhere. Down the long side of the beach Kass approached in big skipping leaps, followed by a Mime who was looking considerably less Junior than he had an hour or so ago - presuming that this was Mimbo J, of course, and not some other Mr. Mime that Kass had just happened to pick up. The mental conversation that followed confirmed such suspicions - evidently, Mimbo's dreams of getting out and seeing new places weren't empty ones, and fulfilling them was doing the Mime Pokémon a load of good. Of course, it didn't take long for Kass and J to become curious about the other side of things, and a jaunt over to wish Jerry well happened quickly.

The Psyduck seemed to have been reassured by the surprise gift, as well as ample support from friends. Jerry was much more comfortable with psychotelepathy now than he had been in the past, and waves of gratitude emanated from the duck with practised ease. Friends... were nice. Structures... of sand... would be good. Oh! Surprise realisation! There was another Jerry. He will be larger.

From what Xan had gathered based on many months of interaction with Jerry, as well as the impression they got from whenever Kass communicated with him, this was a Jerry thing rather than a psychotelepathy thing. Figuring out what the Psyduck meant never failed to require some level of deciphering.

The ferryworker cleared their throat and said, "Okay! I'm really glad we could sort things out. However, um, due to policy, we are going to have to ask you to leave... Sorry."

For psyduck's sake.

Mimbo J. evolved into Mr. Mime (Galar)!
Jerry forgot Disable and learned Metronome!

Woah holy moly this boi's got a funky old signature

Foxrally

Profile Message Posts

PokéCommunity Supporter Crystal Tier

Also Known As Fox/Gamer/the Algerian

Discord Nickname Foxrally#0276

ya boi

a Torterra's back

Seen 2 Weeks Ago

Posted 3 Weeks Ago

10.2 Years

642

April 13th, 2023 at 6:23 PM , since edited

Simon Pearburgh

Spoiler: Inventory

Spoiler: Memories

Melody Argent

Nightshot (Doom Noodle)

Spike

Piper

Ren

Celeste

Annabelle

Blue

Bishop

Lyric

Shredder

Spikemuth

With the sun setting on the Route 9 beaches behind him, Simon still felt like he was shaking sand out of his hair as he stepped through the large, warehouse-like front gates of the city of Spikemuth. Despite the outer city’s dilapidated appearance, the entrance felt surprisingly grandiose, the rusty hinges holding the two massive metal doors creaking as they swayed shakily in the wind. He thought the city would have at least tried to fix its front gate ahead of the surge of tourists and fans - even though it was late in the evening, there were several large tour groups crowding the area - but the whole ‘run-down’ aesthetic must have been part of Spikemuth’s brand now. As he went further in, he saw rows of older buildings dotted with bright neon signs, advertising everything from local shops to slightly sketchy ‘cafés’.

After some time, Simon reached his hotel, nestled away in one of the narrow streets. He took a long shower, eager to wash off the several days’ worth of sea salt on him, and quickly tossed his stuff in his room to go out and explore the city.

“Ah, so this is Spikemuth…” he said, getting a deep whiff of the stale, slightly sulfuric air. It was surprisingly temperate - perhaps the only advantage of being a mostly enclosed city - but still cool enough that his winter coat didn’t feel suffocating.

Princess peeked out of his coat and shivered; this place felt dangerous. Vivillon chimed in on his shoulder, saying she’d heard spooky stories about this place from back home. Simon gave her a reassuring pat. “Lots of people think Spikemuth is scary, but it’s really not - some of the best people I met back at the academy were from here! In fact, we might just run into Haleigh or Melody if we make enough noise.”

The city was bustling with nighttime activity as the clock struck nine, and the group found themselves wandering the dizzying maze of Spikemuth alleyways, many of which were packed with eager visitors. He had to ball up Ross and Anorith at one point; if not for how crowded it was, then just to not be recognized so easily. He tried his best to avoid the largest crowds lest he be swamped with a wave of overzealous league fans, but he also couldn’t help posing for few selfies.

After a brief quest to find a non-crowded fish n’ chips stand (which the bugs were not too fond of, noting the distinct fishy smell put them on edge) Simon came across another large crowd in an alleyway, much bigger than he’d seen previously. Voices that sounded like they were coming from a megaphone could be heard from around the corner, along with bright, coloured lights.

With his curiosity piqued, Simon approached the area to hear the announcer more clearly. “You wanna check it out for me?” he glanced at Shedinja, tossing a chip at him. The ghost caught the fry and nodded excitedly before disappearing into thin air.

As he did so, Simon got close enough to hear the voices more clearly.

“Rowdy Ricky’s Liepard BARELY avoids the hit from the challenger’s Corvisquire! And she retaliates with a shot of her own!”

The crowd cheered as they all looked up at a large plasma screen, which Simon just caught of a glimpse of when he turned the corner. It showed a Liepard and Corvisquire locked in pursuit and racing down a dark alleyway, firing off attacks at each other as they ran and flew. The crowd cheered as the Corvisquire dodged a dark pulse from its opponent.

“Wait a minute, that’s…” Simon narrowed his eyes as he looked at the bird Pokemon, recognizing the distinctive mark on its wing. “That’s Bishop! This is Melody’s Pokemon!”

He heard the sound of the two racers approaching in the distance, and like a missile through the streets, the two Pokemon rushed past the crowds and further down the track, leaving behind them a trail of dust and wind which nearly blew away Simon’s hat. Shedinja reappeared before him; saying he’d found Melody just a little further away, engaged in some strange battle with a communicator.

“That’s no battle!” Simon said, running over in that direction, “It’s a street race - Mel’s the challenger!”

------------

“So Rick’s got long-distance moves on his Liepard now, huh?” Melody was willing to play this semi-fairly for the first half, but if she wasn’t careful, that Liepard could shoot Bishop right out of the sky. The punk teen flashed a small, devious smile as she spoke into her headpiece. “Dive down and use scary face.”

The raven pokemon gave a determined nod before pushing his wings straight outward, slowing from frantically flapping to gliding through the air. Once he saw the dark feline in his sights, he dipped his beak and dove downward, tilting his body into a tailspin as his opponent fired another dark pulse. Spreading his wings to slow his descent, he locked eyes with the feline and glared, his pupils glowing a demonic red. A paralyzing sensation gripped the Liepard; its muscles tensing and its legs suddenly feeling considerably heavier than they had seconds ago.

“Got ‘em! Now book it!”

The corvisquire zipped past the struggling cat and through the streets, letting out a powerful caw in response to the excited cheering from the audience. With each flap, the pitter-patter of the Liepard’s claws became fainter and fainter, and the finish line was in sight!

------------

Just as Simon reached the challengers’ spot, he heard the crowd roar as the screens showed Bishop piercing through the finish line flags like an arrow. He heard the announcer congratulate challenger 182 for her hard-fought victory, and Mel was cheered out of the arena to make way for the next racer.

As she left from the side of the racetrack, dozens of eager fans ready to pounce on her for a selfie, Melody felt a tug on her sleeve and a sturdy bug string yank her out of the crowd and into a more cleared-out area. “Hey!” Melody balled her hand into a tight fist, ready to wheel around and strike at whoever just grabbed her sleeve and so forcefully pulled her away, only to realize that it wasn’t a who at all.

“I said ‘get her for me’, not literally grab her!” Simon hissed as he snapped the string from Vivillon that was connected to Melody’s sleeve. He looked at his friend and grinned, “Hey, ghost girl!”

Melody’s ‘’ready to throw hands’ expression eased away as she folded her arms over her chest. “Hey, Bug Boy.” She greeted as Bishop flew towards the pair and landed on her shoulder, his feathers still puffed rather proudly from his decisive victory. “So you’re finally in Spikemuth! You and your crew been here long?”

“Nope, just landed in town a few hours ago!” The smaller members of Simon’s team peeked their heads out of his coat. “Thought I’d go on a walk and check out Spikemuth’s landmarks.” he added teasingly. As soon as the bugs recognized Melody, they jumped out, with Larvesta and Princess immediately hopping onto her own jacket.

Whatever blood had tried to creep its way towards Melody’s cheeks had been quickly chased back to where it belonged as the two small bugs leaped on her. “Well heya. Missed you guys too,” she said as Bishop offered the Joltik Princess a respectful bow. The Corvisquire then gracefully hopped from her shoulder onto Simon’s, resulting in an interesting Pokemon switcheroo.

“That race was incredible, by the way! You’d put Mothim to shame if he was out.” Simon said to the bird, to which Bishop proudly puffed out his chest and swished his head-feathers.

“You should let me show ya around!” The punk teen added after flashing a short-lived raised eyebrow to Bishop. “There’s stuff around here ya just won’t find unless ya know where t’ go.” Now it was her turn to flash a wink. “‘Course, I know you didn’t come rushin’ over here just to see my mug. You’re going to do the drag race mission, right?”

“Wait, that’s the gym mission? A street race?” Simon replied, raising his eyebrows in surprise. “You Spikemuth folk sure are interesting.”

“Yeah, you gotta prove you can survive the streets before we let you go inside any buildings.” There was a joking tone to her voice… at least partially. “Ya wanna give it a go?”

“Do I have the victor’s blessing?” Simon said, glancing at Bishop on his shoulder. The bird gave a determined nod and a squawk. “Let’s do it, then.”

A joint post of LinearAxel and Foxrally

Ex-mod of RPT - Pairs: Gligar & gimmepie –

Friend Code

SW-5146-5893-7210

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Foxrally

Profile Message Posts

PokéCommunity Supporter Crystal Tier

Also Known As Fox/Gamer/the Algerian

Discord Nickname Foxrally#0276

ya boi

a Torterra's back

Seen 2 Weeks Ago

Posted 3 Weeks Ago

10.2 Years

643

April 13th, 2023 at 6:26 PM , since edited

Simon Pearburgh

Spoiler: Inventory

Spoiler: Memories

Melody Argent

Nightshot (Doom Noodle)

Spike

Piper

Ren

Celeste

Annabelle

Blue

Bishop

Lyric

Shredder

Spikemuth

Simon and Melody reached the registration desk, manned by the hyper announcer Simon had heard.

“Ay, it’s the bug kid! Welcome to Spikemuth, mate!” the man said, grinning. “Here for the race, I assume?”

“You know it!” Simon replied, pulling out Mothim’s pokeball. “I’ll be signing up with-”

As he said so, Larvesta burst out of Melody’s jacket pocket and landed on the front desk. The firebug let out a high-pitched chitter and hopped on the spot, begging Simon to have him sign up.

“Uh… you sure you up to this, lil’ man?” Simon asked. “The racers make it look easy.”

The firebug responded with an enthusiastic cheer and a blast of fire from all five of his horns.

“How could ya deny the lil’ bugger?” the announcer laughed, backing up the fire-type.

“Alright, I’ll take that as a yes.” Simon gave a nervous laugh as he patted down a small flame from his coat. He’d avoided signing Larvesta up to any challenges or missions on account of his age, but maybe it was time to give him some spotlight.

“He’s got this. Ya both do,” Melody said with a small smirk. She didn’t know how, but it’s not like she had expected Simon to go about this by any conventional method.

Simon eyed his opponent, a mohawk-sporting Team Yell fan with a Sharpedo. The fish Pokemon seemed to be hovering slightly; likely the result of some item. “Know anything about this girl?” Simon asked.

“Only that she’s from Spikemuth, so… don’t expect too much fair play.” Mel snickered.

Both trainers set their Pokemon on the starting line, the crowds around them getting more and more hyped up as the racers prepared for the opening shot.

The announcer’s voice blared through the speakers. “It might be a fish out of water, but don’t underestimate Turbo Tina’s Sharpedo! How will challenger 412 fare against a type and size disadvantage?”

Simon cracked his knuckles and flashed a thumbs-up at Larvesta. “Godspeed, tiny.”

The lights around the track changed to red, signalling the start of the countdown.
“THREE…”
“TWO…”
“ONE…”

“BLAST OFF!!”

“Flame Wheel!”
“Aqua Jet!”

Both Pokemon shot off in a trailblazing mix of fire and water as the race begun. Larvesta looked like a shooting star on the screens, cloaked in fire with his Flame Wheel in effect, flames spewing from his horns like a jetpack. However, right on his tail was an equally speedy Sharpedo, cloaked in water from Aqua Jet and cutting through air just as easily as it would underwater with its sharp fins.

“Challenger 412’s got the edge for now, but let’s see how they fare on the track’s first turn!” the announcer exclaimed.

The camera panned towards the track ahead and showed a sharp ninety-degree turn. Simon grabbed his headpiece; “Larvesta! Keep up the momentum and pivot with Trailblaze!”

Just as the racers reached the turning point, a green glow covered the bug’s body and Larvesta shot sideways, perfectly angling himself to keep his momentum on the turn.

“Yes!” Simon cheered. The Sharpedo was even further behind now, and Larvesta quickly picked up speed as the secondary effects of the move kicked in.

Suddenly, he heard the opposing trainer speak up. “Sharpedo, Bubble Beam!” A powerful jet-spray of bubbles struck Larvesta from behind, blowing away some of the flames and causing the bug to yelp out from the supereffective hit.

“Larvesta! Hang in there!” Simon called out. The Sharpedo was beginning to catch up; the bubbles from its attack weighing Larvesta down just enough to even out their speeds.

”Here’s another tricky part of the track - the notorious U-Turn! Will the bug king succeed on this aptly-named bug-move obstacle?”

Simon prepared to call out for Trailblaze again, but this time, he was ready. As the racers got to the turn, he spoke up; “Trailblaze… and knock into that sharpedo!” Just like last time, Larvesta’s speed boost from Trailblaze came just in time to help with the turn, but instead of shooting off towards the open track, the Pokemon instead used its momentum to slam into its opponent, attacking its side with a pulsing green tackle.

“Crunch!” the Team Yell trainer tried to counter, but the bug was too fast as Sharpedo only bit down on air.

The crowds cheered as the race continued with Larvesta now ahead again and they crossed the halfway point. The little firebug dodged several more bubblebeams from its opponent, and Simon could see the Team Yell racer grip her communicator in frustration. “Screw it - Hydro Pump!”

Simon’s eyes grew wide as the Sharpedo slid to a halt and it blasted a torrential beam of water at Larvesta. Dispite his speed, there was nothing the bug could do to avoid the attack as the water engulfed his body, immediately extinguishing his flames and sending him tumbling down the racetrack.

“Blimey! Turbo Tina’s high-risk maneuver worked - challenger 412’s Larvesta is soaked!”

Both the sharpedo and its trainer cackled as the fish took off again, spraying Larvesta with a parting shot of dirt and water. Much to Simon’s relief, the firebug rose to its feet, coughing up steam, down but not out. It let out a sad whimper, as if holding back tears.

Simon grit his teeth and he spoke into the communicator, “C’mon, lad, don’t give up! We never do!”

Larvesta tried to ignite his flames again, but only a sputtering bit of smoke came from his horns. The young Pokemon let out another sob.

“It doesn’t matter how hard we get knocked down, as long as we can get back up, it’s always worth fighting back!” Simon exclaimed. “You’re on the team for a reason - now show ‘em what the hivemind can do!”

Larvesta let out an energized squeak and flames burst from his horns once again, even stronger than before. He blasted down the track, quickly evaporating any water from the Sharpedo’s attack.

“Challenger 412 is back in the race, folks! But with such a large lead, it seems like sharpedo’s victory is all but assured!”

As Larvesta charged forward, he eventually found himself on Sharpedo’s tail again, though his opponent also picked up speed as soon as he saw him. Simon looked behind him and could even spot the pair in the distance… they were approaching the finish line, and if all he tried was to outspeed his opponent, they would never get ahead in time. All he needed was an edge…

“Larvesta! Cut off all the flames… and use string shot to latch onto the sharpedo!” Simon called out, to everyone’s shock.

The bug shot out a long, sturdy string of web, latching onto the Sharpedo’s back, and stopped shooting fire from his horns so as to not burn it. The Sharpedo let out a confused growl as it was pulled slightly off-balance.

“Now wind yourself up with Trailblaze!” Like a bug-shaped Yo-Yo, Larvesta spun on himself, empowered by the speed boost of Trailblaze, pulling himself closer and closer to the Sharpedo. All the water-type could do was watch in terror as a stringed-up tackle of green energy slammed into its back, knocking it down to the ground with supereffective damage.

As it tumbled down, Larvesta burst from the string cocoon in flames and shot forward, crossing the finish line in a grand, fiery flourish.

“Amazing! Challenger 412 wrestles victory from the shark jaws of certain defeat!”

Larvesta whirled around and crashed into Simon as the crowd went wild for the twist ending. Melody ran onto the track and picked both of them up, clapping Simon on the back.

“I dunno how ya keep doin’ it, but you nailed it!” she cheered. She had a feeling Simon would have incorporated String Shot into that race somehow, but she never would have guessed he would use it in such a jaw-clenching grand finale. She let go of Simon’s shoulder and looked down to the speedy fiery type she had scooped off the track. “Way to show ‘em what a shooting star you are, li’l man.”

“Took a little inspiration from someone in that pep talk.” Simon replied, grinning.

It didn’t take long for the audience to realize that two of the finalist challengers were on the racetrack, and the crowds around them went even wilder as Simon and Melody were swarmed with more league fans.

“Ah muk, we better get out of here before we're trapped for the rest of the night!”

“Race you to the exit?”

“Bet!”

“Think fast!” Melody shouted as she bolted away from Simon and made her way down a slender pathway that was part of the racetrack. While said pathway seemed like a dead end due to the stone wall at the end, many a Spikemuth youth knew that it could easily be scaled by leaping atop the nearby dumpster and using the added height to hoist yourself right over the wall. With the wave of fans hot on their tail, the two trainers managed to escape just in time.

A joint post of LinearAxel and Foxrally

Ex-mod of RPT - Pairs: Gligar & gimmepie –

Friend Code

SW-5146-5893-7210

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Turnip

Profile Message Posts

Magnificent Turnip

Private property what the heck are you doing here get out

Seen 6 Days Ago

Posted April 15th, 2023

693 posts

11.1 Years

644

April 15th, 2023 at 2:53 PM

Spike Mouth? Wow That Sounds Like It Must Hurty If Eating (Part 1)
Featuring Xan, Kass, Jerry, Chaperone, Mimbo J. and... surprises.

Neon signs created an irritating glare across the visor of Xan’s helmet. Spikemuth was a town of contrast in more ways than one. Bright lights, dark corners. Promising new growth, desolate old back-alleys. The place had seemed like it might be a fairly comfortable stay for the psychic, but in practice it was always either too loud or too quiet. Constant sucker-punches to the senses.

And the sucker punches kept coming. Spikemuth Stadium wasn’t even finished. The gym challenge was being held in the arceus-forsaken backstreets, and the battle was taking place in an outdoor concert venue. Xan was just about used to the idea of battling for show in a stadium now - enough that they could tune most everything out - and here comes Spikemuth to shake up the formula a little, just in case the psychic had managed to get over feeling like a caged zoo animal.

… At least the weather was temperate.

Xan and their team had gathered amongst the various chain-link fences that served to set apart the official gym space from the rest of town. Xan themselves, Kass the Kadabra, Jerry the Psyduck, Chaperone the Pawniard and Mimbo J the Mr. Mime. Sphinx the Vulpix had yet to regain public-space privileges. The plan was simple: disrupt other racers and use Teleport to avoid any obstacles. Kass was more than kitted out for the Gym Challenge and would probably have a blast. As for the battle? Take on Klara, use Mimbo J’s Safeguard to neuter any attempt to use poison, buff up someone else (probably Kass again, if they were being honest) to deliver the killing blow with a little help from one of the new tricks they had up their (nonexistent) sleeves.

Jerry the Psyduck let out a short quack of distress. All eyes turned to follow the yellow shape.

“... Jerry?” The psychic said slowly. “You good?”

The water-type held out two webbed hands to his fellows - the universal sign for ‘wait here’ - and began plodding off at a jog, breathing heavily. Kass quickly zipped to the side of their friend, and a short conversation of ‘psy’s and ‘kadab’s followed.

“Something I should know?” Xan asked the two, blinking in confusion.

Kass responded with a thumbs up, though a telepathic missive soon followed. It passed along a modicum of Kass’ own befuddlement, which was good to know. The message itself carried uncertainty and the image of a toilet? Xan knew Jerry was prone to nervousness, but nervousness of that kind, though totally understandable, would be a first for the Psyduck.

Jerry tripped over, making a sound like a deflated balloon on impact, but was quick to roll back to his feet. He attempted to jump up and climb a chain-link fence for some reason, but with a quick offer Kass teleported the two of them to the other side instead.

“Stay safe, you two. Don’t go too far, you know?”

Another thumbs up from the Kadabra. Chaperone briefly shared with Xan a look of mild concern before turning back to keep watch on the two. Mimbo J seemed to be holding back a degree of laughter.

Jerry and Kass’ little adventure seemed to come to a stop when they came across a different yellow shape, still within earshot. The yellow shape in question being a woman in a large raincoat, accompanied by a Manectric that was also yellow in part. Rapidfire quacks and psy-iys seemed to imply some kind of excited explanation, directed at the semi-familiar gym challenger and at Kass in equal measure.

Catherine was so wrapped up in her thought that it took her a moment to notice the Pokemon conversing right by her. It wasn’t until Holo joined in with a couple of barks of her own that she turned around to see a somewhat familiar-looking Kadabra and Psyduck gesturing in her direction.

One of her old classmates had appeared in videos of gym battles with a Kadabra and Psyduck. Given that she felt like she recognised the pair, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that was who they belonged to. Except they seemed to be trying to get her attention and she had a hard time imagining that particular graduate seeking her - or anyone - out.

Amongst exchanged barks and confused kadabra-ish vocalisations, the Psyduck stole a few glances the way of the others but seemed, for the most part, fixated on her. A single, final ‘duck’ belied the end of a speech lost entirely to translation. The Kadabra turned, gave Catherine a wave and a little apologetic bow, then turned back to mutter a few things the Psyduck’s way.

A sudden, exclaimed quack sent out a ripple of thought, seeming to surprise even the Duck Pokémon it came from. A wave of feeling washed over the forefront of nearby minds - the impression of the colour yellow.

Catherine blinked a few times, allowing the involuntary flash of colour and accompanying fuzzy feeling to fade away from her head. It was so sudden and alien that it took her a moment to fully compute what had just happened.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, not that she was expecting much of an answer.

As if confirming she was correct not to expect much, Holo gave the vocal equivalent of a shrug. The Kadabra got chattering with the Psyduck and, after a moment, lifted one hand in realisation and turned to the other two again. A few ‘kad’s and ‘dab’s were shared with Holo, who yipped back excitedly. Like a wafting breeze rather than a tidal undulation, more foreign thought-packets arrived at Catherine’s consciousness. A greeting, jovial. An image, some kind of… towering wind turbine. Apology, cautiousness, hope, a polite proposition and all the emotions therein weaved into one thought - a suggestion for the potential of working toward a shared goal. And quieter, lighter than before but familiarly… yellow. The Kadabra waved again.

Having things beamed directly into her brain was an experience that Catherine felt “invasive” didn’t even begin to cover. But, it seemed like her cooperation was being asked for. Although not thrilled with having thoughts projected into her head, she was hardly someone who would turn down such a minor request.

“I guess our help is wanted, Holo,” Catherine said, looking down at her companion with confusion that had not yet entirely faded. She then turned her attention back to the newcomers. “I guess you’ll be taking us to your trainer then?”

The two yellowest Pokémon took a quick break before answering to cheer at each other. The Kadabra gave a jubilant thumbs-up before waving a hand over their shoulder and heading in the direction of some chain link fences. The Psyduck raised both webbed hands, thumbs-up akimbo (if a Psyduck could really be said to have thumbs), and continued to hold them up in Catherine’s direction as he waddled along beside.

Holo barked something in response and then set off after the Kadabra and Psyduck. With a measure of reluctance, only bolstered by a lack of understanding, Catherine followed on behind. Sure enough, this soon led her to a confirmation of suspicions in the form of a very recognisable helmeted visage.

“Do your Pokemon always go around putting cryptic messages directly into people’s minds? Did you need something?”

Xan looked up from their phone. “Do-? Not, uh- I don’t know what you mean by cryptic - hi, by the way - what’s this about cryptic messages?”

The helmet conspicuously turned in the direction of Kadabra and Psyduck, the former of which began gesturing as though conversing.

“Regular sort,” Xan murmured. “Probably makes sense, yeah. Jerry, mmkay… yeah? I guess they have had moments like that… yellow? And the- psyducking hell. So - but how…? Okay, whatever, if everyone’s on board and Jerry’s insistent then it’s not like I’m going to stand in the way.” Helmet raised again. “Sorry about that. You go by Catherine? That was a weird way of putting it. I’m not wrong though, yeah?”

“Yes,” Catherine replied. “And this is Holo. So, what exactly is going on?”

“Well, first off, congratulations,” Xan put their phone away, pointing briefly to the Psyduck as they did so. “Apparently you might be Jerry but larger. Hi Holo, by the way. Kass,” A gesture to the Kadabra. “Tells me that Jerry’s insistent to team up with you and yours. If everyone else thinks that’s how they want to conduct their gym challenge business then I wouldn’t really have a say even if I was particularly opposed to the idea.” A pause. “Oh and- the messages, that’s just- telepathy’s nothing to worry about. Better than words sometimes, not often. Better than nothing - like, always.”

“I’m what?” Catherine looked at the Psyduck, who looked fixedly back at her. “You know what, never mind. If Jerry wants to work with me, who am I to refuse? We’re going to have to do some serious strategizing though. We’d have to anyway, but Jerry kind of puts the brakes on half my strategies just by existing.”

“Rain, yeah. I keep up with the league. Seems you do too. That kind of… I mean, actually, we could probably work with this…?”

The unlikely pairing of Catherine and Xan stood on one end of the open space that was more in line with an underground performance than a gym battle. Surrounded by chain fences, spotlights and neons illuminating parts of the stage that would otherwise be shrouded in darkness as other patches were. Some sort of bastardised electro-pop-punk monstrosity was already blaring over the speakers.

Perhaps it was meant to symbolise the different tastes of each gym leader, but Catherine was pretty sure the cacophony was the kind of compromise that didn’t please anyone. It certainly wasn’t pleasing her.

Then again, after the disaster that had been the gym mission, she was already not in the best of moods. It was a miracle that hadn’t been caught on camera.

“Are you lucky enough to have noise cancelling in that helmet?” Catherine said to Xan over the sound of the “music,” wincing.

“Meditation techniques can only do so much,” the psychic droned. “I think I’m actually in the middle of cardiac arrest.”

It was at that moment that, blessedly, the music dimmed just enough for the announcer’s voice to drone over the venue’s PA system. “Now, it is time for the moment you have all been waiting for!”

He said a few more things that were barely decipherable, but apparently the imminent arrival of the Spikemuth gym leaders had been a part of that because the crowd roared with excitement as the two of them took to the field. One dressed in the black and magenta colours that had once been the soul colours of the Spikemuth gym, the other is a mess of purple, blue and green.

The former, Marnie, spoke first. “Sorry for the wait. The facilities here ain’t the best so there’s a bit more prep time between battles, y’know?”

“Guess it can’t be helped until the stadium is finished,” Catherine replied, eager to just be on with it before her ears actually started bleeding.

“‘Fraid so,” Marnie replied. “But we’re here now. So shall we kick this off?”

“Yeeeesss let’s get this party started!” Klara was practically running on the spot. “Make some noise, Spikemuth!”

The crowd’s roar today was especially intimidating.

“Fine by me,” Catherine said, trying and failing not to glare at Klara’s energy.

Xan murmured next to her, “If I didn’t pay to be here can I still get a refund?”

“No, but you can probably sue them if she gives us an aneurysm.”

“Could have done with that knowledge earlier. I’m going to need to employ a lot of lawyers.”

With greetings and something resembling pleasantries out the way, the gym leaders both sent out their opening Pokemon. In front of Marnie, an ovoid yellow rodent - her Morpeko - appeared. In front of Klara, the entirely more menacing segmented body of her Drapion, pincers gnashing appeared.

“More or less what we expected then,” Catherine said. “Cooler, you’re up.”

Catherine lobbed the weighty Heavy Ball into the battlefield, popping open with a silvery series of flashes and a “popping” sound and allowing the Beartic out. Immediately, the Ice type dropped into a ready-stance on all fours, growling at its new foes. It was quite the debut.

“Now’s the time, J,” said the psychic, a proffered Luxury Ball opening to release the gangly blue form of Mimbo J the Mr. Mime. Immediately, the Ice type dropped into a ready-stance on all fours, growling at its new foes. It was quite the debut.

“Wow! Incredible!” Klara cheered. “What a couple of cuties! I’m gonna crush ‘em!”

Mimbo J. hopped to his feet and bowed for the audience. At least one of the challengers was happy.

Cooler looked ready to bite the head off of her ally for the mimicry, so Catherine decided it was best to direct that aggression somewhere else. “Cooler, Rain Dance and then Icicle Crash.”

Cooler, thankfully, obliged. She thrashed her head in time to the music that was still blasting over the speakers, rain clouds rapidly forming and beginning Catherine’s signature deluge. The instant the rain started falling, Cooler launched herself forwards and crossed the battlefield in seconds.

She ignored the tiny, less intimidating Morpeko and instead smashed a claw of ice into Klara’s Drapion, knocking it reeling with the sudden strike as ice shards shattered against it.

“Oho, you’re approaching me? Fine then - Drapioooon! It’s time for Toxiiic- what!?”

Preceding the rain like some kind of shockwave, Mimbo J.’s Safeguard washed over Cooler’s towering form. Klara’s mood immediately dropped, and the downpour that followed served as the perfect backdrop.

“Fine! Fine! Coat your pincers, make it a Cross Poison instead…”

Klara’s poor Drapion didn’t get to do that either. At a word from Catherine, Cooler lashed out with a backhand Icicle Crash, faster than the Drapion in the rain. This time, the Poison type knocked back several feet in a shower of ice crystals as Cooler growled her victory.

“Can’t ‘ave you doin’ too much of that,” Marnie interjected. “Fire Fang!”

With a surprisingly feral noise, her Morpeko leapt into action with a blazing bite. Not paying attention to the smaller foe cost Cooler for a moment as the attack landed and flaming teeth sunk into her arm.

The Beartic, thoroughly displeased with this turn of events, flung her arm sidewards, using the momentum to launch Marnie’s Pokemon off of her and in the direction of… where Mimbo J. used to be. Where had Mimbo J. gone?

“Ohhh, I get it, you think you’ve got a powerhouse?” Klara put a hand to her mouth to giggle. “Hee hee, you think your big bad bear is speedy? You can come back later, Drapion, no big deal - try Slowbro on for size!”

Red light sucked up the Ogre Scorpion Pokémon as a parallel beam dropped in a pink and purple biped to replace it.

“Hope you’re quick on the draw!” The Poison Leader said.

“You talk too much,” Catherine said. “Aqua Jet.”

Quick Draw wouldn't help against a move that did the same thing. Water surged over Cooler and rocketed her forward, she collided with her new opponent and knocked it onto its back before wheeling back around for a stronger follow-up strike that sent skidding across the battlefield into a patch of darkness between signs.

Meanwhile, Marnie’s Morpeko was still looking for any sign of Mimbo, but struggling to find any sign of the Psychic type. In the end, Marnie decided it was best to focus on what was in front of her.

“Never mind,” she said. “Help Klara with an Aura Wheel!”

The little rodent turned back towards Cooler and started sprinting for the Bearting, a wheel of electricity circling it vertically as it ran.

“Patience, Slowbro!” Called the Poison Leader, her ace trudging over to the point that light barely grazed its snout. “Get ready, brace for the big guns!”

As two separate foes closed in on the Beartic, the missing combatant ever-so-subtly slinked through the shadows. Using his powers of stage-mimicry, Mimbo J. had taken on the easily-ignorable silhouette of a chair. He had taken to a stealthy approach early on after throwing up Safeguard, Calm Mind after Calm Mind serving less to overcharge the Pokémon’s raw power and more to combat a probably-reasonable amount of nervousness. J was no stranger to performing in front of a crowd, but he had never taken to battle quite like other ‘mon did - and this was the Big Leagues! But it was fine, surely. All he had to do was prepare himself backstage a little bit, and wait for his cue…

Cooler whipped around to defend against the Morpeko that was now leaping at her, bringing her arms up to guard against the electric strike that collided with her and holding her ground.

“Slash,” Catherine ordered.

She didn’t have to ask twice, Cooler lashed out at her attacker with her claws and practically launched it into the darkness. Unfortunately, that was a moment she wasn’t paying attention to the Slowbro that was now behind her setting up a Nasty Plot.

“Uh-oh! Someone’s busy - let’s go Slowbro! Draw!” Klara mimicked a cowboy.

A moment later, a ball of energy was fired into Cooler’s back like cannon fire and the Beartic was thrown forward and onto all fours with the force of the dangerously effective move. Focus Blast. Things only got worse when a feral screech came from the darkness.

Marnie’s Morpeko was back on the scene, somewhat rejuvenated from berry consumption but with a new and edgy coat of paint. The demonic rodent’s fur was now in shades of black and purple and murder was in its eyes.

“Aura Wheel!” Marnie repeated the earlier command while Cooler was still pulling herself back together and the rain was starting to come to a halt. This time it wasn’t electricity, but a wheel of swirling, malevolent darkness that accompanied the Morpeko in colliding with Cooler and knocked her rolling across the battlefield.

“Cooler can retreat to their two-ten,” Xan leaned over to Catherine and said. They swished a hand in the vague direction they were indicating. “No clue what J’s doing but support seems welcome.”

“You heard them,” Catherine said, “Back and regroup.”

She thought for a second that Cooler might actually refuse, but thankfully the Beartic followed the orders she was given as scrambled into a retreat. Not that this was going to stop Klara’s Slowbro.

The Poison-type fired several shots after Cooler with Shell Side Arm, Cooler only dodging most because of Swift Swim, but the rain wouldn’t hold up too much longer and Safeguard would disappear right after it. Unfurling from some kind of contorted pose, Mimbo J. the Mr. Mime sprang into the light to offer what assistance he could.

This did not go unnoticed. Marnie’s Morpeko was after the Mr Mime in an instant, bolting right for Mimbo with a Fire Fang ready to go.

But J hadn’t stepped into the light for the sake of weather or protection - he wanted his swirling eyes and fascinating hand gestures to be seen. The approaching Morpeko, for all its speed, shot forward in a straight line and was snoozing in the dark behind the two challengers’ Pokémon in one swift motion. Hypnosis.

On the other side of the battlefield, Cooler continued to clash with Klara’s Slowbro. At Catherine’s instruction, Cooler was darting around a barrage of Shell Side-Arm attacks with Aqua Jet and striking with hit and run tactics.

Klara had evidently had enough of that though, and judged it was time to rescue her teammate instead. “Hey! There’s the sneaky guy!” She cried, pointing. “Get ‘em, ‘bro! Shell Side-Arm, get the poison in!”

Her Slowbro jumped back with a sudden surge of strength and blasted the ground with a powerful Shell Side-Arm, launching itself across the battlefield to land near Mimbo, whirling around to take aim at the Mr. Mime. Ol’ J had plenty of experience dodging berries in his less popular days, but this was an entirely different ball park.

“Lil’ sneaky guy’s been using Calm Mind, but all that Special Defense won’t do a thing!” The Poison Leader continued. “Shell Side Arm shoots right for your weak point!”

It was all Mimbo could do just to roll with the punches as he struggled to put up Safeguard again, occasionally stealing a glance at the two challengers as he scrambled to get away from the slower Pokémon who kept finding ways to catch up to him.

“No poison?” Klara whined. “Come oooon…!”

With the rain coming to a halt, Cooler’s means of helping Mimbo were limited. But they weren’t gone.

“Aqua Jet, get over there,” Catherine instructed.

With a guttural growl, Cooler did just that, rocketing across the battlefield. She clipped the Slowbro on the way through, throwing off its aim, and came to a halt next to the sleeping Morpeko and Mimbo.

Unfortunately, the Slowbro was already levelling its next attack in their direction. More fortunately, Catherine had an idea for what to do about that. “Chuck the Morpeko at it!”

Cooler swept her arm forwards in an underarm motion, catching the hypnotised Morpeko and launching it towards the Slowbro even as it fired another Shell Side-Arm. The Morpeko was struck by the attack in an explosion of toxic liquid and dropped out the air, having blocked the attack against Cooler.

The Morpeko lay on the ground between the combatants, fainted before it could even wake up.

“Good try,” Marnie said, calling back her Morpeko and selecting her next fighter. “I ain’t gonna roll over just yet. Let’s see what you do about this.”

A Dusk Ball was thrown to the battlefield, a swirl of darkness stark against the spotlights giving form to a bulky and grotesque Pokemon with dark fur and patches of green skin.

However, with Mimbo J having a moment to breathe, the air soon became saturated with vapour and drop by drop the downpour resumed.

“J’s not used to this,” Xan murmured Catherine’s way. “They’re hanging in there for now, not sure how much longer for, though. Got to be ready.”

“That Grimmsnarl will be bad news for Mimbo either way,” Catherine said. “Good call. Icicle Crash, let’s get that Slowbro out the way first!”

With blistering speed, Cooler sprinted forward intent to take chunks out of the Slowbro. This time, it wouldn’t be so easy though.

“Trick Room!”

A weird fuzzy energy pulsed out from her Grimmsnarl, taking up a swathe of the battlefield and forming into a box shape. Crossing into its boundaries, Cooler suddenly became much slower, as if Swift Swim was having the opposite effect than it should have - because it was.

A second later, she was blasted by a Shell Side-Arm and then smashed all the way back to where she had started from by a Hammer Arm. She struggled to her feet, but things were starting to look rough for the Beartic. Mimbo J, slower than he was used to and overpowering the urge to act out slow-motion for fun, bravely stepped back into the fray with swirling eyes and dancing hands.

“No lookie, Slowbro! Do the fancy shot!” Klara commanded. Too sluggish to dodge with his speed reversed, avoiding Slowbro’s stylish back-turned over-the-shoulder Shell Side Arm wasn’t in the cards for the Mr. Mime. “That kinda trick ain’t so easy the second time!”

“Looks like their cue,” Xan said hushedly.

Mimbo J.’s next action as he scurried to his feet wasn’t to hypnotise or run away; instead he bowed - to his opponents, to Cooler, to the audience - and chucked a gleaming red-and-gold baton into the air before being consumed in crimson light. The beam retracted toward Xan and, in parallel, another flickering ray zipped past it, almost touching. The other beam struck ground and shaped into the form of another Pokémon, and one yellow hand reached up and caught the Baton Pass with a frightening measure of confidence. One of the most prolific members of Xan’s team had arrived, ready to bring an entirely new energy to the battle.

Jerry put the baton in his mouth and swallowed it as it dissolved.

Immediately, the rain felt dampened. It was still there, but it was less. It didn’t seem to be falling as heavily and Cooler’s movements suddenly seemed much more sluggish. The area around Jerry wasn’t even really getting wet.

Catherine turned to Xan with a look of incredulity. “Really? Cloud Nine with me as your partner. Are you an idiot?”

The psychic looked her way only briefly and said, “Maybe try not using weather as a crutch for a change.”

“It’s not a crutch, it’s a strategy. I guess you’re not familiar with that since your team does everything for you while you take the credit.”

“I shun the credit, you can psyduck off. It’s Trick Room, anyway. Cooler’s faster with the rain off.”

Jerry turned his back on his opponents to stare unblinkingly at the two. His mouth filled with water and bits of it dribbled from the sides, seemingly unsure if now was a good time to unleash it or not.

“You shun the credit? Is that why you made a point of attaching yourself to the person generating the most media buzz right now? I’m not stupid. You’re lazy and looking for an easy way to succeed. Let your Pokémon do the work. Let someone else build attention. Make me carry the battle and then shut down my strategy once we’re ahead to steal the limelight.”

“What the…? Slowbro, head up there,” said Klara confusedly, her Slowbro readying its Shell Side Arm and approaching menacingly.

“You guys remember where you are?” Marnie asked. “Guess I’m gonna have to remind you. Play Rough.”

Her Grimmsnarl took the chance to dash forwards and lunge at Cooler while she and Jerry were seemingly distracted by their trainer’s bickering. It struck the Ice type and then proceeded to wildly throw another flurry of blows… only for Cooler to grab it in a makeshift grapple and pull it around to face Jerry, who was wagging his fingers distractedly… or so it seemed.

“Looks like we were right,” Catherine said. “You really did just walk right in.”

Woah holy moly this boi's got a funky old signature

gimmepie

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PokéCommunity Supporter Platinum Tier

Also Known As GP, Daniel

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Age 27

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Australia

Seen 9 Hours Ago

Posted 2 Days Ago

11.1 Years

645

April 15th, 2023 at 4:08 PM

Indra (Male, Swift Swim) - Rain Dance, Hypnosis, Bubblebeam, Hydro Pump, Earth Power, Refresh

Stampede (Male, Poison Point) - Hydro Pump, Smokescreen, Twister, Focus Energy, Dragon Pulse, Icy Wind

Holo (Female, Lightning Rod) - Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Electric Terrain, Rising Voltage, Flame Burst, Flash

Vessel (Female, Dry Skin) - Fury Cutter, Giga Drain, Poison Powder, Spore, Rain Dance, Protect

Lancer (Male, Dry Skin) - Rock Climb, Revenge, Sucker Punch, Poison Jab, Rain Dance, Toxic

Cooler (Female, Swift Swim) - Icicle Crash, Superpower, Thrash, Aqua Jet, Slash, Rain Dance

Inventory:

- ATC
- Expensive PokeGear
- Pokedex
- 800 Poke (On ATC)
- TM Icy Wind
- TM Flash
- Wishing Star
- TM Protect
- TM Rain Dance
- TM Rock Climb

Badges:

CATHERINE CARLISLE & XAN
Big Blue

“So Cloud Nine psyducks weather strategies,” Xan pondered, a hint of mirth to their muffled voice. Strategy talk for the upcoming Gym Battle was going surprisingly smoothly.

“It’s not like weather is all I have, but it definitely limits my options,” Catherine admitted. “Holo doesn’t need the rain at all but Indra, Stampede and Cooler are all much slower without it and Lancer and Vessel will have slightly less longevity. They can function without it, but it isn’t ideal. Then again, speed might not be an issue if Klara pulls Trick Room on us.”

The psychic shrugged, “Maybe. Rain-boosted Surf from Slowbro is the only other thing to really consider, but it’s hardly a game-changing issue. No real reason to forgo the standard sort of-” They jolted in realisation, then leaned back a little and snorted. “Unless… well, unless psychological warfare is an interesting prospect.”

“Psychological warfare?” Catherine asked. “You mean using the situation to mess with them since they’ll be expecting me to be weakened?”

“I was thinking a little more than that,” Xan said with a tilt of their head. “You watch the battles, you know the narratives people like to spin. If you’ve been exposed to any part of the public response then you’ve probably- well,” They paused to chuckle. “First off, my condolences, sorry you had to go through that. But for, uh, actual relevance, here - if you’ve seen the public perception, then you likely know that armchair commentators love to paint either of us as aloof and abrasive. Not sure they use those words exactly, but you know what I mean.”

“Oh, that. I’m public enemy number one as far as mainstream media is concerned and they definitely are not your number one fan either. Why?”

“Well… you’re right, messing with the situation seems plausible. Appear weak when strong, strong when weak, et cetera - all that Sun Tzubat Art of War stuff. I say we make them think we’re arrogant mukheads with no ability to work as a team by feigning argument, then capitalise if and/or when they overextend. Well, more arrogant and more mukheaded than we are by a little ways, at least…”

As Grimmsnarl found itself caught in a decidedly unfriendly bear hug and Slowbro loomed over Jerry, ready to fire, the little Psyduck’s finger-wagging turned suddenly into the manifestation of a sinister talon of gloom. His Metronome-Shadow-Claw lashed out to the surprise of Slowbro - not to slash, but to grab. Just as the primed shell fired, Klara’s ace was wrestled into facing Grimmsnarl instead - and in the wake of the Bulk Up Pokémon suffering a nasty dose of friendly fire, Jerry unleashed the water he had been storing in his mouth on both grappled opponents.

It wasn’t a Water Pulse, like had been witnessed before, or even the pseudo-Hydro-Pump that occurred in Ballonlea. What exited Jerry’s bill was more of a pressurised mist that coalesced into thick rain when it reached its targets, the liquid itself seeping deep into the surface of their skin. It was Soak.

With the countdown beginning, it was time for Cooler to bring out the big guns. “Thrash.”

Still with Marnie’s Grimmsnarl in her grasp, Cooler began wildly thrashing about, slamming the Dark type into things and squeezing ever tighter.

“Play Rough!” Marnie called over to her struggling Pokemon, realising they’d been had.

“What!?” Realisation had just dawned on Klara. “We’ve been smeckledorfed! That’s not fair! Slowbro, get Grimmsnarl out of there with Foul Play!”

Cooler was finally thrown off of the Grimmsnarl as she was bludgeoned repeatedly in turn, staggering back in a daze just in time for Klara’s Slowbro to come in and punch her with its Shelder arm. The Beartic was sagging now. She was confused and had taken a beating throughout the battle. She would surely drop any moment.

Catherine withdrew Cooler’s Heavy Ball again and returned her to it in a beam of light. She could recover a bit that way and shake off the confusion if it was needed. “Nicely done. Now it’s Holo’s turn though.”

With the usual glow, the Manectric materialised onto the battlefield, fur crackling.

“It would be very inconvenient to be a Water type against us right now.” Catherine couldn’t help but smirk. “Electric Terrain and then Rising Voltage.”

Electricity surged over Holo and down onto the ground, racing out over the battlefield and illuminating the ground with yellow sparks that made the dark patches visible. Then, like plasma arcing on the surface of the sun, vast bands of lightning began to rise up out the ground and lash out towards the Gym Leaders’ Pokemon.

“Get outta there!” Marnie ordered.

Both the Grimmsnarl and Slowbro were much faster than normal thanks to the earlier Trick Room, but the attack was wide-reaching. Each of the enemy Pokemon was struck by multiple bolts of lightning and - having been made into Water types by Jerry - they were certainly feeling it.

Marnie’s Grimmsnarl was able to last through the onslaught, hurt but plenty ready to fight on. Klara’s Slowbro, however, was left a smoking and thoroughly fainted mess in the middle of the battlefield after the sustained beating it had already taken.

Klara gasped, “Slowbro! Ugh, well, that stinks. But it’s not over yet - now Drapion’s back and angry!” Red light shot up and over in an arc, to a spot where a rotund, yellow shape happened to have been moseying toward. Jerry was already spitting Soak at the Drapion before it even arrived. “What is this guy, a Soak machine? Night Slash ‘em, Drapion!”

Effectively slowed by Trick Room, however, the Drapion wasn’t finding Jerry an easy target. With similar panicked eyes and physical effortlessness to his stint in Ballonlea, the little duck meandered dance-like around every pincer-stab and tail-swipe.

“The hell, again?” Xan was too perplexed to be as happy as they rightly should have been. “Surely not Electric Terrain - no Psychic, no Misty. Baton Passed Calm Mind maybe - the-'' Their mind jolted, realising exactly how early Jerry had started moving over to where Drapion had ended up. “Is this psyducking precog?”

And then that thought just recontextualised almost every hypothesis on the yellow shape they’d ever had.

“Is that even a thing Psyduck are supposed to be able to do?” Catherine asked.

“Anything- in theory any psychic can-” Xan cut themselves off, struggling to parse what was happening in front of them and what it meant. “It’s not expected, if that’s what you mean.”

Jerry’s time to strike back was now, standing boldly beneath the Drapion. His little eyes closed. One digit on his right hand waggled, grew, elongated as his skin turned from yellow to bright gold to white - glowing, enveloping the rest of him in a shell of luminescence that expanded outwards. The first time in Ballonlea took a bit to get used to, but the second time around Jerry was possessed of a composure that Calm Mind only bolstered. It was as Jerry thrust one hand forward that Xan realised - months upon months of cryptic telepathy and confusing action began to make sense. Countless declarative statements… Thought and action being mysteriously confident… Eyes constantly darting about to look at things that weren’t necessarily there… The ‘clear skies’ after the battle with Avery; clarity, sure, but specifically a lack of crowding. Unobscured vision… Xan had something of an idea of what meditation techniques did, and while they wouldn’t rule it out, they had realised something else. They had turned to Misty Terrain after Psychic Terrain failed to explain things fully, had looked up its properties - how it protected Pokémon within from suffering from certain conditions. With Safeguard still active, pulling similar weight, only one throughline was making any sense.

Jerry could not be confused.

‘There was another Jerry. He will be larger.’ - Jerry had professed something to that effect via telepathy only a couple of days ago. Catherine was still suspected to be the so-called ‘other Jerry’… but the human’s natural size advantage over the likes of a Psyduck wasn’t what the second part meant. It was a separate statement. And it wasn’t about Catherine at all.

“I didn’t see that coming.” Catherine’s eyes darted from the glowing Golduck back to their opponents, who were also watching with a mix of surprise and apprehension.

“Congratulations,” Marnie said. “But that isn’t going to win this for you.”

“Challengers’ Pokémon evolving mid-battle ain’t an uncommon sight but it’s always sweet to see,” Klara chimed in with a shake of her head. “Still, no problem for Team Supercute!”

The light of evolution shattered around the newly-Golduck, leaving behind only the glow of Metronome as it shot out a single seed that adhered itself to Drapion’s carapace. Worry Seed… historically, there had been more impactful evolution debuts.

“Uh-” Xan faltered just a little, still thrown off. They forced themselves back on track. “The- both opponents Water-type now! Water ineffective, Psychic fine - immunity gone on both. Electric will shred - mind your lines of fire, positioning is key. Beware Stomping; advise target switch.”

“You heard them,” Catherine said. “Let’s get that Drapion away from Jerry. Rising Voltage.”

Where before the attack had been more widespread, now the bands of electricity that snapped up from the battlefield were entirely focused on Klara’s Pokemon. With its focus on Jerry, it was practically helpless to dodge the incoming assault and was soon engulfed in lightning.

Even as that was going on, Marnie gave the order for her Grimmsnarl to move in. “Stomping Tantrum!”

Thanks to Trick Room, the Grimmsnarl was able to cross the battlefield far quicker than normal, stamping around as it got closer to Holo. At the same time, still being thoroughly electrocuted, Klara’s Drapion lashed out suddenly with another Night Slash, catching Jerry with a particularly vicious strike that launched him across the battlefield in the direction of the other combatants. The critical hit sent the Golduck cartwheeling through dark and light patches of the field until he eventually caught his balance, the moisture on his skin easing friction as he stabilised in a one-handed handstand still sliding across the floor toward Holo. But Grimmsnarl was on its way over there at the same time, having closed enough distance to commit fully; in one final leap, the Bulk Up Pokémon braced to slam both feet into the ground.

But a blue, webbed hand met the ground first. As Grimmsnarl descended, massive roots spread from Jerry’s fingertips and erupted from below, catching its legs and suspending it mid-air in a cage of spiky plant life. The once-Dark/Fairy-type struggled and strained against the swelling bindings to no avail - it was Water-type now, and its strength waned quickly. Within moments, Grimmsnarl gave in, enveloped in light as it returned to its ball.

“Well that’s unfortunate.” Marnie grimaced. “Guess it can’t be helped though.”

“Huh!? No way, Frenzy Plant?” While Marnie remained calm, Klara did enough impassioned reacting for the both of them. “There must be some kind of mistake!”

Jerry finally tipped over from his handstand, the impact knocking a quack out of him. Exhausted from the powerful move, he looked Holo’s way and gave what resembled a thumbs-up - before becoming distracted and stopping to stare at what was evidently an entirely new thumb-adjacent appendage.

Holo gave the newly-evolved Jerry a nod, electricity running across her fur.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s a two-vs-one!” Klara continued, resilient. “They’ll both get a toxic dose of us, Drapion! Ice Fang, we’ve got this! Give ‘em-”

“One more time,” Catherine cut in.

With a growl, Holo let loose with another Rising Voltage even as Klara’s Drapion charged forward. It was struck by multiple arcing threads of lightning, luminescing almost as brightly as Jerry had as it was overcome by electricity. Then, the attack came to an abrupt stop with the Drapion dropping smoking to ground in a much less impressive culmination than Jerry’s glow.

Catherine gave Xan a nod. “That’s that. Everything as planned… more or less.”

“More than planned definitely seems an apt description…” the psychic replied.

“The Gym Leaders’ Pokémon are unable to battle!” The announcement blared through the makeshift venue’s sound-system, struggling for dominance over the still-roaring music. “Challengers 861 and 775 are the victors!”

“C’mooooon, what a drag,” Klara whined, gazing at her smoking Drapion as it dissolved into light and returned to its Pokéball. She shook her head and sighed, brightening up a little. “Ah, well. Whew, these challengers are no joke, huh?”

Marnie shook her head. “We’ve gotta step up our game if a bunch of them are gonna start showin’ up in the tournaments.”

The Dark-type leader approached Catherine and Xan, Klara trailing behind. “Well, one badge for each of you. ”

Catherine reached out to take the Dark Badge. “Only one left.”

Xan took the Poison Badge and said, “Cheers.”

“Okay, soooo,” Klara began as she handed the badge over, looking between the two challengers. “What was all that toxicity in the middle all abouuut? And I’m not talking about my specific brand of toxic, tee hee!”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That was obviously all an act,” Catherine added.

“Oh, the bait,” Xan nodded. Apparently their last statement had been genuine. “Yeah. I almost broke. Probably wouldn’t have worked if you could see my face; I’m not that good an actor.”

“I’m not either.” Catherine shrugged. “I’ve heard I have a natural gift for being mean though.”

Marnie stifled a laugh, not succeeding in keeping up professional appearances despite her efforts. “Well, it was a nasty tactic but it worked and that’s what usually matters.”

Neither challenger was enamoured with the idea of sticking around for long. Even a few streets away, the melodic droning and thumping of the bass was perceptible enough to be irritating. Something about the area gave the impression that a noise complaint wasn’t going to get anyone anywhere, so the only real option was to pack up and get going as quickly as possible.

Though the prospect of Xan simply leaving with no goodbye was a particularly common one, something seemed to be keeping the psychic around on this particular occasion. As the newly-evolved Jerry fiddled with the Poison Badge, wondering if this gifted him with any official capacity as a licensed Poison, his trainer broke the silence.

“Ok, since I’ll probably never ask otherwise. Question.”

“Yes?”

“If you’re not aiming for Champion you’ve done a good job convincing everyone otherwise. How do you get there, and what do you do with it?” The psychic paused. “You as in specifically you, not, like, any sort of general ‘you’.”

“If I wasn’t aiming for it, I wouldn’t say I was.”

Catherine couldn’t help but sigh. She should have known, really. She was the one who opened herself up to constant scrutiny. “A lot of people have been asking me similar things lately. How do I get there? Like this. I keep winning until nobody is left. What do I do with it? Pressure. Champions have a stupid amount of influence in their regions. I can use that to put pressure on organisations like the league - and beyond - to reform and be better. And, just by being the champion, I’m going to have millions of people who will listen to what I have to say just because of the title. I don’t care about the glory. I’m doing this as the most efficient means to an end.”

“Never said otherwise,” said Xan, who had pulled out a phone. They gestured to it with the other hand. “Taking notes, in case it needed to be said. League reform and beyond - what’s beyond? And at risk of getting bogged down in detail, what’s reform?”

“Companies, politicians - everyone from people in suits dealing with finances and policy to people working in the back rooms of warehouses. We live in a world where most people are only interested in personal gain - usually at the expense of others. I used to think I couldn’t do anything about it, so I just avoided people. A couple of chance encounters leading up to a very public wake-up call changed my perspective. I’m going to use the title of champion and the platform and social power it carries with it to promote change and encourage people to be more altruistic. Create enough social pressure like that and the whole system will eventually shift to accommodate it.””

“Mmkay. Psyduck it, can’t hurt. Any headline policies to note?”

“I’d be lying if I said I’d gotten as far as drafting legal minutia. But the first place I’m aiming is corruption, I suppose. There are people in Galar right now who, as we speak probably, are using their wealth and power to do… Well, I’m not entirely sure what they’re planning. But I’m sure you’ve heard about the red Pokemon. Maybe you’ve even come across the Blacksuits. They can only do this because of the system and their public face. So that’s priority number one.”

The taps on the phone ceased, “Mm, alright. Funny that it feels like an overstep, but I guess that’s the lot that’s been dealt.” Xan put their phone away and looked back up. “Satisfied enough.”

“And the point of that was?” Catherine asked. “It’s a little weird to have you standing next to me taking notes.”

Xan shrugged, “Had to be done, but sorry, I guess. It’s getting late in the challenge so I’m having to get my muk together. Uh… how to put this- I guess, long story short, if some dipmuk wants to be Champion and actually has a shot I’ll have to try harder to chuck them out.”

The candid response was unexpected. Catherine found herself laughing with the surprise of it. “I appreciate the honesty. But if you think little tricks like what we pulled in the gym today are going to get you ahead of me, you couldn’t be more wrong. I’m going to win.”

“Well you’re not a psyducking dipmuk, though, are you Catherine?”

“No,” she replied. “You have a point. So what are you getting at then?”

“I… should this be mystifying at this point?” Xan put their hands in their hoodie pockets and shrugged again. “Got to be thorough checking for dipmuks at this point. Just checked, you’re not a dipmuk, happy camping from here on out as far as we’re concerned.”

“Okay then. I think I get where you’re coming from. More or less.” Catherine pondered for a moment. “Well then, before we part ways, I’ll do you a favour. You should watch out for Blackspear. They’re up to something. Just don’t go shouting that information from the rooftops or anything or you’ll make yourself a target.”

“Wh-?” Xan snorted. “I- they’re a massive corporation. Of course they’re up to something.”

“Obviously. But I mean they’re up to something that involves the red Pokémon and people in suits going around brandishing guns. This seems bigger than your usual corporate bullmuk.”

The psychic was silent for a good moment, tilting their head sceptically. Jerry, balancing the Poison Badge on his snout, let out a quiet quack that carried with it a pulse of psychotelepathy. A message that could only be translated as ‘evil cave’. Then he did a little jig.

“Those guys had guns?” Xan muttered in the Golduck’s loose direction. “Smoothbrained homunculi if they had guns - surely not, I don’t-” Their head rose again to address the other human. “I appreciate the warning, I guess? Good luck messing with Championhood and dealing with whatever that is - suppose if I see anything else I’ll, er… tentatively check it out.”

“Just don’t do anything that will get you, your team or anyone else killed,” Catherine said.

“Well there go the weekend plans.”

Catherine scoffed. “I’m going to go before I set you up for any more dumb punchlines.”

Xan leaned down toward one of their pockets and murmured, “Right? I thought it was pretty good,” as they dove into the inside of their hoodie to retrieve their phone again. “Before you leave, I hesitate to ask but I’ve got good reason - contact info. In the event we both get past eight badges I may need a favour… and in theory if anything psychic and interesting pops up… and if whatever that evil-gun-people business is turns nasty, I guess there’s that as well.” They paused. “To be fair, considering everything - or rather nothing - across the span of our education and subsequent Gym Challenge run, I don’t think it’s as much of a risk as it usually is…”

“Admittedly I’ve heard worse.” Catherine reached for her phone. “Here.”

“Right, there we are. And of course, I’ll let you know if Jerry foretells of your arrival, again.”

Dark Badge obtained!
Also Xan got the Poison Badge I guess

RP • WL • A&M • VG • Gaming Journal

Foxrally

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Also Known As Fox/Gamer/the Algerian

Discord Nickname Foxrally#0276

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10.2 Years

646

April 16th, 2023 at 1:46 PM , since edited

Simon Pearburgh

Spoiler: Inventory

Spoiler: Memories

Melody Argent

Nightshot (Doom Noodle)

Spike

Piper

Ren

Celeste

Annabelle

Blue

Bishop

Lyric

Shredder

Spikemuth

After their daring escapade, Simon and Melody spent a good chunk of the evening catching up, mainly about new joiners on the team. Simon was especially excited to meet Shredder the Wimpod, noticing that bug got along wonderfully with Ross (who Mel hadn’t met yet either). Oddly, Shedinja would briefly materialize long enough for her to drop a quick hello before disappearing again.

Melody then took it upon herself to show Simon every bit of Spikemuth she felt was worth visiting; from the big tourist traps like the infamous “Team Yell main base” (which she insisted was not the actual old base) to very specific locations from her childhood, such as the alleyway she’d drawn her first graffiti on or the parking lot she had her first battle in; Melody had a story to tell for each one. It made Simon realize he wasn't the only one dearly missing home back during their academy days, or during the arduous challenge journey - and seeing the fondness with which Mel spoke of a place which, by all means, had a less than stellar reputation, brought a huge smile to his face. He’d seen so much of Galar at this point but no two places had been alike.

“Now lemme show ya a real treat.” Mel said with a smirk as she led him into a large, abandoned building and up a dingy flight of stairs.

After what felt like an eternity of walking, the two trainers reached the top of the building, out of breath but still standing. Simon blinked and rubbed his eyes, as before him was a grand view of all of Spikemuth, blanketed by the thin metal sheet ceiling of the city, the light from neon signs peeking out of the maze of tight buildings. “Whoa…” He could see the street race happening in the distance, and further out, the brighter lights of the makeshift battle stadium.

“Y’know, Spikemuth is one hell of a city.” he said as he leaned over the wall surrounding the roof. “Nothing like what people say about it.”

“They don’t get it,” Melody explained as she motioned down below, to the entryway of the city. “They think they’ve got it all figured out from what they see down there. They don’t take the time to come up here and look-” she paused briefly before continuing, “and they sure as hell don’t take time to listen.” The heart of Spikemuth was its music; everyone who called this place a home had a song and a style all their own. Most people that come by have made their mind up well before they hear those songs- if they hung around that long at all.

As they’d gone further away from the busy tourist-y streets, the two trainers were able to release the rest of their Pokemon, who began exploring the rest of the roof curiously; the flying mons enjoying a brief moment of unrestricted airtime above the cramped buildings.

As Melody released Piper, her Gourgeist, Simon heard a rattle beside him and Shedinja materialized in front of the pair.

“Gah! What did I tell you about doing that?!” Simon yelped, startled. The bug hummed as it stared at Melody, then Piper. “Hm? You… oh. Yeah, I should probably tell her.”

Simon sighed and looked at Mel. “So… I know this is hard to believe, but…”

“That’s Caterpie,” Melody said softly. Her general smirk softened into something of an understanding smile. “I saw him before… and then I put it together.” Even if she couldn’t see the silhouette of what Shedinja used to be, she knew Simon wasn’t the type to leave any of his Pokemon behind. For Caterpie to be gone and for a ghostly husk to be here instead… she tilted her head to look at the ghostly bug. “You were the spirit tagging along in the desert, right?”

Shedinja nodded. Simon looked between the two of them, confused, “...wait, so- you could see Shedi- I mean Caterpie? Before he became a Shedinja?”

“Yeah… but I couldn’t see him as clearly as I can now,” Melody explained. “Remember when Princess and Piper were battling in the desert and I freaked out?” As she spoke, Piper floated upward to offer an apology to Caterpie, and Princess shuddered at the memory. It had been Piper’s Trick-Or-Treat that made Caterpie think Simon was in danger, and had caused him to reveal himself to Melody back on route 6. “Because… somethin’ was hanging around? I guess…” Melody realized she didn’t need to guess. She asked the ghost directly, “You weren’t ready to say goodbye to the squad yet?”

Shedinja let out a low hum as his eyes drifted from Melody to Simon. In a rare moment where both humans could clearly understand it, the Pokémon simply repeated a phrase it had been told a long time ago: ‘We're never leaving each others’ side again.’

Simon gave a bittersweet smile. “Even after all that time. You stayed.”

Melody crossed her arms. “That begs the question... You don't- and as far as I know, you’ve never had a Ninjask. Where did the hijacked husk come from?”

Simon sighed, glanced at Caterpie, then looked Melody in the eyes. For a brief moment, just like his father, he considered telling her the truth. He'd already told Catherine and Chloe about Blackspear and the suits, but those two had already seen enough of their activities to warrant that. Melody still didn't know… and he wasn't about to put another person in danger with that knowledge. “It's… a long story. I can't talk about it too much, but… just know that I'm never letting it happen again.”

Melody exhaled out of her nose and nodded. She could put the pieces together decently enough without making Simon relive something that had to be… rough. In fact, she was pretty sure she could tell when it happened. “You guys must be one hell of a team to stick together through something like that.” She gave a wink before turning on her heels. “Anyway, the night’s still young, wanna hang some more before we call it quits?”

Simon glanced at his phone, it was almost eleven - if that was “early night” in Spikemuth, he didn't want to ask what late night was. His gaze turned to the brightest source of light in the distance, the Gym-stadium-concert-hall. Suddenly, an idea popped in his mind and he looked back at Melody. “Okay, hear me out… we both just completed the gym mission, yeah?”

He gestured towards the stadium. “How ‘bout we take on the gym battle tonight as well? Both our teams together.”

Melody raised her eyebrow. “That wasn’t exactly what I meant by hang.”

“What’s more metal than crashing a concert for some battling?” Simon replied, pumping his fist.

“I was thinking more along the lines of grabbing some spray paint and finding a new building to graffiti, but… storming the stadium at nearly midnight on a whim? That’s metal as psyduck.” Melody mused, unable to pass up the opportunity to battle alongside her earliest teammate. “Ya know what? Ya got yourself a deal, bug boy.”

------------

A short walk later (much shorter than Simon had expected, actually, thanks to Mel’s ever-convenient shortcuts) the two trainers found themselves at the large concert venue serving as Spikemuth’s stadium. Music from the stage was blasting through the walls, mingled with the shouting of fans, and made the ground below their feet tremble with the sheer bass of the speakers. Both of their Pokemon had rushed back into their balls, except for Shedinja, Lyric, and Spike, who seemed to not mind the noise (probably on account of being a ghost, rockstar badger and musically inclined reptile respectively.) They stepped into the venue, a large flat space dotted with oversized speakers and bright neon lights, with a massive stage upfront - an upgrade from the previous Spikemuth ‘gym’, for sure, but still nothing like any stadium they’d visited thus far.

“How the hell do you guys battle here?!” Simon shouted over the music and crowd. “You wouldn’t be able to hear anything!”

“WHAT??” Mel shouted back, squinting.

“I said how do you battle with all the noise?!” Simon repeated, leaning over her ear.

“Isn’t it obvious?!” Me’s squinting morphed into a proud smile as she backed away from Simon. Once a decent distance away, she cupped her hands around her mouth while Lyric stood on his hind legs beside her, mirroring her movements for emphasis. “YOU YELL!”

Simon opened his mouth to say something, but his voice was drowned out by an even louder shout from the speakers above as the current song ended.

“HOW WAS THAT, SPIKEMUTH?!” the voice exclaimed, to which the audience cheered loudly. The man onstage was none other than the former Spikemuth gym leader, Piers. His Obstagoon and two Toxtricities stood at his side, hyping up the crowd as it went crazy. “WE’VE HAD A ROCKIN’ NIGHT OF MUSIC… NOW HOW ‘BOUT SOME GYM BATTLES?!”

The crowd went even wilder. Suddenly, two large spotlights flashed on and pivoted from the stage, shining directly onto the two trainers that had just entered. “Don’t think I couldn’t spot your mug immediately, Melody Argent!” the rockstar touted.

The contrast of pink on black and the numerous, numerous piercings tended to make Melody stand out a bit in most crowds-- but not in Spikemuth. Her eyes widened at how quickly she had been pin-pointed, but the shock was quickly replaced with a mixture of awe and confidence as she lifted her hand, throwing the rock on sign to her idol. Spike’s yellow scales lit up as he quickly stepped into the spotlight with his trainer, beaming excitedly at his parents on the stage.

“And you even brought us a surprise… the bug king himself!” a second voice, female this time, chimed in, to which the crowd immediately went berserk. Another spotlight shone onto the stage as Marnie stepped out of the shadows, fully dressed in her gym leader outfit, Morpeko at her side. “And word is out that both of you beat the gym mission…”

“Say, Team Yell, hows about Marnie give our born n’ raised challenger a warm welcome home?” Piers yelled out, looking at the audience. They responded with ravenous cheers and hollering, as the spotlight on Melody grew brighter.

Melody and Simon looked at each other. “HOLD YOUR MIC, MATE!” Simon shouted back, giving in to the Team Yell screaming match. “We came to do this one TOGETHER!”

Melody gave Simon a subtle thumbs up as he got into the yelling groove. “Damn right! The bug king and the death princess are uniting the kingdoms!”

Piers’ deadpan stare slowly formed into a smirk. “Well, I’m afraid our good friend Klara’s not on the show list today, so you’ll have to change those plans! Unless… whattaya say, lil’ sis?” He glanced at Marnie beside him.

Marnie narrowed her eyes at the two challengers, then looked back at her brother with a nod. “Two on two, one Pokemon each - and Piers will be on my team!” she exclaimed, looking at the crowd. “We’re doing this battle… SPIKEMUTH STYLE!” The gym leader added as she struck the classic Team Yell pose.

“Oh--” Melody said softly as she turned to Simon, a fire in her eyes that had been lying dim for some time catching light once more. “Hell--” She said as she darted towards Simon, raising her hand up for a high five.

“YES!” they shouted in unison. The fight was on.

A joint post of LinearAxel and Foxrally

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