[PKMN FULL] Hoenn: Square One [IC]

budube · Nov 23, 2020

[PokeCommunity.com] Hoenn: Square One [IC]

Miranda Lockhart

Thursday, September 17th

Chapter 1: Part 5 - Grand Slam

20:00 to 20:05 - Slateport Beach
"Getting late, my ass! I bet it's barely six!" Miranda complains as the clock hits 8 pm and the lighthouse's light turns at her. "She said she was going to teach me some stuff, but the only thing I learned is… nothing! I didn't learn shit!"

Mankey starts screeching, hitting the sand and jumping around while Miranda's yelling feeds his anger even though he can't really understand what's going on.

"Also, what's with that don't touch my expensive ass PokéBall bullshit! I worked in a hotel, I know what goddamn basic hygiene is! And she even lets her Pokémon eat Wingull crap from the fucking sand!"

Mankey jumps with even more rage, kicking and tossing more and more and more sand, until Miranda puts her hand on his head to make him stop.

"You know what? Fuck it!" she says "I don't need her to teach me shit! I can figure out how scanning works on my own!"

It's actually just as easy as Maritza said it was. Miranda could figure that out on her own just from memory, after all. She went for the rarest catch, and apparently the most dangerous one, considering what Maritza taught her about it before. In fact, it's so dangerous that the only reason stick dudes aren't kicking that stuff to the sea is because Stunfisk are way more common, making them a bigger threat!

And because it's just a pile of sand.

But it's not any pile of sand, no! It's a pile of sand that scares the shit out of kids! In comic books, they show how its evolution eats a goddamn Pikachu! It's probably the strongest Pokémon of all time! Nothing compares! She will win by default in Pyrite Colosseum just from bringing it out! She'll win so many times, they'll eventually have it permanently banned from tournaments!

Miranda adjusts her cap and hits the ground with her bat, with her device on the other hand.

"Let's go catch that bitch." she says with a grin.

She follows the way the scanner's arrow shows her. It's useless as shit, though. Sure, it showed her where that Sandygast is supposed to be, but how on earth is she supposed to locate it when everything around her is fucking sand! It's not even like searching a needle in a pile of hay! It's more like searching a specific piece of hay in a goddamn sea of hay!

She isn't even sure how this crap works. She's been walking in one direction for like three or four… a lot of time, who cares, and the arrow doesn't even move.

"Shit must have frozen." the girl sighs. In yet another sudden burst of anger, she drops the thing away. "Stupid 9 year old piece of shit thing! Why did they discontinue this crap! It's the only thing we get in Pyrite!"

Her device falls on the sand, and while Miranda is busy yelling at it, the arrow gets each time shorter and shorter until it finally disappears and starts beeping.

Miranda instantly jumps at it and picks it up. She can see a red shovel that some dumbass kid forgot, but no Sandygast. That means, it's time to start digging!

Or that's what Mankey thinks at least.

Miranda knows full well digging for a pile of sand is not only useless but also totally dumb. Her Pokémon clearly doesn't give a shit. In fact, he seems happy swinging the shovel around and kicking the sand.

At least until the sand kicks him back.

Mankey is sent rolling backwards, still holding the shovel. He squeals at the pile of sand rising before him and tosses the shovel at it, just for it to get past it.

The wild Pokémon hides under the sand once more and starts moving around them both at high speed, dragging the shovel with it.

It jumps behind Miranda. Her reflex is to instantly swing her bat at it with all of her strength, but it doesn't have any effect on it.

She is hit by a burst of sand and falls back.

The Sandygast buries itself once more and starts spiraling around Mankey, rising a sand veil around the fighting type, trapping him inside.

Mankey tries to punch his way out of the vortex to no avail, for his fists just get past the sand as the Sandygast keeps raising more. Miranda tries to help him by putting her hand inside, but it's spinning so fast that her hand gets slashed by grains of sand. Second option she has is using her bat, so Mankey can grab it and get pulled outside by her, but it's useless; the vortex spins too fast and strong that her bat gets sucked in instead.

Before Miranda gets to run against the Sand Tomb to push Mankey outside of it, the pig Pokémon is launched upwards and falls in front of her. There's smoke coming out from his feet. Or well, she thinks it's smoke because it's black, but it doesn't smell like smoke at all.

The Sandygast shows itself once more, but doesn't attack back. It looks a bit scared, actually, and as soon as it looks at Mankey it starts fleeing.

"We are not sparing two shits! Mankey, don't let it escape!" Mankey squeals in response and sprints. The black smoke thing covers his legs as he runs and it does seem for Miranda as if it's giving Mankey some speed boost.

The Sandygast is way slower than Miranda's Pokémon. As much as it tries to flee, Mankey catches up easily and connects a kick that somehow doesn't just get past it and actually does some damage and also sends the shovel to the sea.

With Miranda and Mankey around it, the Sandygast has no escape now.

"Come with us or die! You got nowhere to escape now!" Miranda yells and Mankey squeals back in agreement.

The Sandygast looks at all the sand around it and then stares back at the girl. Then at Mankey. Then at the sea. It hides under the sand again and drags itself to the sea. It's dead.

"Really!? What the hell!?" Miranda yells, staring at the sea, looking at the Sandygast that will never return. She is frustrated, more than anything. All of that shit just for it to kill itself! She didn't even get to take out her PokéBall! She'll have to scan for another thing now, and it was already too much of a pain before!

While she is busy screaming at the sea, the water brings a red shovel to the shore. Around it, a bunch of wet sand starts taking form. It starts growling while the sand rises, cracks, and falls, just for it to rise again.

It's most likely the Sandygast from before. Or at least, it's the same shovel it had. It's wet, and therefore harder and heavier, which means it also moves slower. It can't fight anymore, but it sure as hell takes a hit.

Mankey runs against it at Miranda's command. There's no black smoke around him anymore, it's just a normal punch. If the previous attacks went past the Pokémon, these ones are barely able to put a dent on the Sandygast's defenses.

The pile of sand starts moving slowly towards Miranda and she tries to get away from it. As it gets to a dryer area the wet sand starts falling and being left behind, while normal, dry sand takes its place, though its impenetrable sand armor stays in its place.

The growling of the pile of sand is scary for her and the way its empty eyes look at her while it gets closer and closer are even worse. Mankey isn't able to do much. The Sandygast is too slow for him to think about getting some speed, and Miranda isn't aware of what move the black smoke one was to command it, and even if she knew, she is too scared right now to do it.

"S-shit." she whispers. "Mankey… help."

The fighting-type jumps in front of her and delivers another punch at the Sandygast. A bit of sand is left on the ground, but that only makes the wild Pokémon faster. After a few more punches, the defenses totally shatter, but the Pokémon doesn't seem to have received any kind of damage. However, the fact that its defenses are down and the Sandygast is starting to flee again is enough proof for Miranda that it's the same one as before. And if it's fleeing, then that means it's damaged enough for it to be safe to catch (yes, she knows the basics of catching Pokémon. She learned that much before leaving Orre), and she still wants to catch it.

"Don't let it escape!" The smoke surrounds Mankey's legs again and it rushes at the Sandygast. "But don't hit it! That's my part of the job!"

The fighting type blocks its path and starts taunting it to direct all the attention at him. That way Miranda has time to take out an empty PokéBall.

Miranda takes a breath and adjusts her cap. She slams her bat against the floor and throws the ball at the sky. She grabs the grip with both hands and swings the bat, delivering a strong hit that shoots the PokéBall at blinding speed, giving the Sandygast no time to react. The ball goes past the sandy body of the wild Pokémon, but still opens as if it reacted to something, sucking the pile of sand and its shovel in. The ball oscillates three times with enough time for Miranda to get to base before it clicks.

Miranda caught a Sandygast!

Lvl 15 - Water Compaction - Sand Tomb / Sand Attack / Harden / Mega Drain / Astonish

Current Party:

Inventory

Spoiler:

Evily · Nov 25, 2020

Shuna Kamado

Saturday, September 19 {4:30 pm}
Epoch 2.2: Dewford City
Littleroot Passage! Unexpected Encounters?

"It looks weird…" Shuna mumbled as she looked at herself in the mirror, holding a strand of her hair. Her hair was still the same color after showering, but the two front strands somehow were back to lilac pink. She was sure the coloring was permanent, or that's what they told her... I'll have to ask someone later about it… Either that or the lady used a washable version with these strands…

A small 'ring' cuts her thoughts, causing the teen to release the strand and turn. She sees her Holotch light up for a second before going dark again, causing the girl to sigh. "I almost forgot… I have to practice for the up-coming contest…" She went over to the bed in the rented bedroom, seeing her clothes laid out with a small food container a few centimeters away. Time to practice…

- - - - - - 8:00 pm - - - - - -

"Is everyone ready?" a young woman with long, chestnut-orange hair reaching her waist and light-violet eyes stood in front of a group of people. The woman wore a pirate uniform and on her shoulder was a small Shellder. "Stay together and no wandering off! If you want to catch a pokemon, ask me first so I can keep an eye out!"

"She seems strict…" one tourist muttered, earning Shuna's attention since she was standing behind said person.

"No doubt… are all guides dressed as pirates?" asked another tourist beside the one mentioned earlier.

"I have no idea…" muttered tourist #1, "But this is supposed to be a haunted place where they are leading us…"

"Really?" commented tourist #2, "Sweet! Hauntings mean ghosts!"

"Ghosts, huh?" Souei muttered from beside her, wrapping one arm around her shoulders, preventing her from leaving. "I wonder what I can ask them..."

Shuna mentally sighed, she was hoping to practice her routine more, but Souei came and dragged her to the Moonlight Tour. He wanted to see the hauntings going on, and also to see if she would get scared by the ghosts, but the last part was a failure. "For the last time, you can't ask the ghosts."

- - - - - - 8:15 pm- - - - - -

"--And here we have some shipwrecks from long ago. One story goes that a Unova cruise ship was lost at sea during a storm years ago…" The female guide droned as the boat moved along the waves, with many shipwrecks either under or around. The people on the tour were standing along the bars, watching with mixed expressions. A few inches away was a half-submerged ship with coral built around it.

Shuna looked at the shipwrecks under the water when bright lights shined on the waves. Beside her was Souei, who was looking at the shipwrecks with a smirk, then looked over at the guide, "Are there ghosts inside?"

The woman gave Souei a sharp glare, eyebrow twitching, "Excuse me?"

Shuna quickly placed a hand over the male's mouth, interrupting his comeback, "I'm sorry! He tends to be snarky when he's bored!" She then glared at the male, whispering, "Don't antagonize the tour guide!"

"She's a tour guide, she's supposed to know all the facts here?" Souei smirked, removing her hand.

"That doesn't mean you antagonize her…" Shuna uttered, giving the male an exasperated expression. "And it's understandable that she doesn't know everything, jeez." Shuna sighs when the male only gives her a smirk, not realizing that the tour guide was giving Souei one last glare before moving on with the tour. Why did I agree to come again?

Shuna sighed as she grabbed a familiar food container from her hip-bag. Opening it, she didn't notice a small squid-like figure appear right under the rails where the female was standing. The bluenette grabbed a pink(sweet) poffin, holding it up, ready eat the muffin. However, Souie quickly snached the treat and put it in his mouth before the female could realize. Shuan stared at her hand for a few seconds turning to Souei with a glare, who replied with a cheeky smirk.

As the girl was scolding Souei, she didn't notice a small pokemon appear in front of her, holding one of her poffins and started munching on the treat. As the critter finished the treat, Shuna's hand moved to grab another as she finished scolding, giving the male a glare, however she felt her hand touch something unexpected. She slowly turned and saw a blue squid-like pokemon, one transparent tentacle was holding a pink poffin.

The two stared at each other for a few seconds before the mysterious pokemon began cooing, using it's free transparent tentacle to hold the female's hand and the other hugged the poffin. Shuna smiled, moving her hand away, but instead, the tentacle stayed wrapped around her wrist, clinging. The pokemon's cooing turned to burbles, swaying sideways, as if "talking" to the female. Shuna gave the jolly pokemon a small smile, amused by the pokemons attempt at "talking".

"Not bad…" Shuna flinched, moving a few inches away when she heard Souei's voice right behind her. I forgot he was here! She turned around and saw the male observing the pokemon with a blank expression for a few seconds before a small smirk appeared.

"I didn't know you were into squids…" he commented, before noticing the pokemon's tentacle wrapped around her wrist. "Or is it the other way around?" Shuna's eyebrow twitched, but she ignored the male's words as she closed the food contained, placing it back in her hip-bag. "I wonder if it could pretend to be a ghost with it's light show?"

"Are you going to catch her?" Shuna and Souei turned around, seeing the tour guide behind them, staring at Shuna with a blank expression, raising her eyebrow. Behind her, the other tourists and trainers were going inside the cruise ship to explore for awhile.

"Catch?" Shuna repeated, giving the pokemon a glance before giving the tour guide a confused look. Shellder, from the guide's shoulder, let out a small cry, earning the squid's attention. The bivalve pokemon hopped onto Shuna's shoulder, closer to the squid, before flicking its tongue. The squid cooed in return, and their "talk" continued for a few seconds.

Souei looked at the tour guide with a bored expression, eyes narrowed, then towards Shuna, "She means the Inkay." He points to the pokemon, who had just finished her conversation with Shellder, and was now muniching on the poffin, clinging onto Shuna's upper arm with one tentacle. Shellder flicked its tongue, licking Shuna's cheek, before jumping back to the tour guide.

"Do you want to catch her?" the tour guide repeated. Before Shuna could reply, the Inkay cooed happily after finishing her poffin, snuggling onto Shuna.

- - - - - - 8:55 pm- - - - - -

"Is that a Binacle?" Shuna stared at the two-handed pokemon beside Souei, who was smirking at the girl. She didn't know why she bothered asking, knowing Souei, he used a crazy method to get the pokemon…

After she agreed to catch Inkay, or Inka, she preferred being outside her pokeball instead, clinging onto Shuna's neck. They had then followed the guide inside the cruise ship to catch up to the others, getting an unexpected surprise.

"If you got a pokemon, then i'll get one." Shuna sighed as another scream rang out, meaning that the horror experience in the cruise ship was still running. She did get scared a few times, but she couldn't enjoy it when Souei would snicker and then tease her afterwards, after every single scare. At this point, she just wanted to leave, having had enough teasing for the day. However, she didn't expect the male to disappear and then appear with a pokemon seconds later.

"Where did you…?" Shuna trailed off as the Binacle's hand and arm started to bicker, but not with each other, but with Souei. The male was crouched down, a hand pointed at the two appendages as the hand and arm of the pokemon waved a bit. "Nevermind…"

Souei and the pokemon's two heads turned to Shuna, "What was that?"

- - - - - - 9:30 pm- - - - - -

"--Alright folks. It's time to head back!" The tour guide called as she led the people back to the tour boat. The tourists/trainers followed back, with mixed expressions and emotions from the experience in the cruise ship. Shuna followed along with Inka still clinging while Souei was at her heels, holding a pokeball with his newly caught Binacle inside.

I wonder how granma and Clamperl are doing…

"I bet you're wondering how Clamperl is doing with your grandparents." Souei spoke, causing the girl to flinch at how accurate his words are.

"...no," Shuna increased her speed, putting some distance between the two trainers. I regret coming here with Souei…

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

Enter Inka the Inkay!

Spoiler:

Current Team:

Spoiler:

Inventory:

Spoiler:

Eleanor · Nov 26, 2020

Hikaru

18 - ✨ - Castelia City

With Avril

Pokémon / Inventory:

HIKARU'S TEAM:
⚡ Rei (Tynamo), ♂ lv. 19
Levitate
Oof
⚡ Hoshi (Staryu), lv. 17
Illuminate
Psywave, Rapid Spin, Water Gun, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Harden
⚡ Aruku! (Clobbopus), ♀ lv. 15
Technician
Rock Smash, Leer, Feint, Detect, Bind

AVRIL'S MONEY: $7 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Flabebe), ♀ lv. 25
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Fairy Wind, Grassy Terrain, Lucky Chant, Wish, Magical Leaf
🌼 Hydrangea (Shellos), ♀ lv. 23
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)
🌼 Wisteria (Inkay), ♂ lv. 15
Infiltrator
Swagger, Hypnosis, Wrap, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

AVRIL'S BADGES:
🥊
HIKARU'S BADGES:
🥊

Hate me later

Monday, September 21^st - about 4 p.m. - Dewford West Wilds

Hoshi and Angie are already working as a team. Shellos has set up a Rain Dance and is now keeping away the Aron who try to Headbutt into her, by using super effective attacks like Mud Bomb all around her, while Hoshi takes hits with Harden and picks off targets with very precise Water Gun attacks.

Most importantly, though, Hoshi has Illuminate. Its core is shining bright enough to light up the whole cave around us, something that Avril seems very happy about already, and revealing all the enemies that are coming after us. In this case, what looks like a dozen of Aron and… now I need to pull out my Pokédex also… yes, Mawile. Which would definitely be the bigger threat if it only did something.

Rei appears in front of me soon after. I let him float above the battleground for a bit, then command him to Thunder Wave the Mawile, all beneath Avril's confused eyes. At the last moment, it dodges and lunges forward with Bite, which I choose to counter with Spark - Rei might be small and tiny, but the few things he can do, he can do them well. He twirls in the air, hitting right underneath the massive jaws that Mawile has on its back, and knocking it back behind the horde of Aron.

Some more attacks from Hoshi and Angie, and finally the rogue Pokémon seem to desist. Most of them just walk away, including Mawile, and the two or three Aron that don't are promptly knocked out. But you know what, I would rather battle some more. I need more time to prepare for… this.

"You lied to me! You hurt me! You trapped me! Hikaru!" Avril finally lashes out at me, on the brink of tears. "Y-you better get me out of here right NOW!"

Usually when I see people acting like that, I find them cute. Possibly a bit delusional. But the problem is that she is right. When I saw her fall off the ledge… well, I knew that something was up, and now with the horde of Pokémon I'm getting even more unsettled. Being attacked all the time was not necessarily in the plan.

"I m-mean… I found my stuff while you were walking behind me and you didn't see me pick it up." I reply, still trying to save what little of my reputation is left.

"Well I don't care! We are stuck in here thanks to you."

"Well then, let's get ourselves some catch-"

"NO! I hate this cave, I hate these Pokémon and I hate the dark!"

Scared of the dark much? "I'll keep Hoshi and Rei out of their balls for you, ok?"

"That's the least you can do. Now where's the exit…?"

This is a complicated situation. Do I want to be indulgent with her, and get us out of there before we get run over by angry Aron, or do I want to keep exploring? This possibility is actually quite enticing, because by dragging her along I get to keep Angie around, and she's truly strong. Plus, I get to have a chance at finding those stones that the guys in the Pokémon center have mentioned, and make some nice blog posts about it. I'm sorry Avril, but even if you are not the best person I could've picked, I'll take the risk.

"Exit? Let's just find a Nosepass first."

"Don't you have a Pokémon that can help us get outta here?"

"No, of course not." I lie.

"I don't trust you anymore."

"If you have a better idea, I'm here to listen." I might have put her in a bad situation because she's just blabbering on her own, thinking about what she could do… and while I do have a plan that lets us leave the cave without the help of a Nosepass, I don't want to tell her about it.

"I… alright, you win. Let's go and find Nosepass… as long as we remember where we came from."

"Yeah, deal."

The tunnel gets smaller as we go on, with steep walls and spiky rocks. I thought this wouldn't be too different from the Castelia Sewers, but I was way off with my expectations. At least, Hoshi and Rei can provide us more than enough light, and this allows us to save some battery charge on both my XT and Avril's Holotch.

The girl is getting more and more nervous as we go on, though. "I still can't find any Nosepass, even with the scan active. And we're only getting deeper."

I grimaced, but still tried to sound confident. "Again, this is the best we can do. No one can come and help us, and staying here any longer won't do us any good either."

"I hate to say it now… but you're right."

"Fair. But we have all the time in the world to hate each other, once we leave. Now is not the time though."

"That's deep."

I bash myself once more for deciding to do this. I should have known that coming in here with a bunch of fresh berries in our bags would have only attracted vicious, hungry Pokémon. I should have known that dragging Avril along was not the right thing to do either… but what's done is done. And I have to make the best out of this situation no matter what… since it's not gonna happen again.

Eleanor · Nov 27, 2020

Hikaru

18 - ✨ - Castelia City

With Avril

Pokémon / Inventory:

HIKARU'S TEAM:
⚡ Rei (Tynamo), ♂ lv. 19
Levitate
Oof x2
⚡ Hoshi (Staryu), lv. 17
Illuminate
Psywave, Rapid Spin, Water Gun, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Harden
⚡ Aruku! (Clobbopus), ♀ lv. 15
Technician
Rock Smash, Leer, Feint, Detect, Bind

AVRIL'S MONEY: $7 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Flabebe), ♀ lv. 25
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Fairy Wind, Grassy Terrain, Lucky Chant, Wish, Magical Leaf
🌼 Hydrangea (Shellos), ♀ lv. 23
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)
🌼 Wisteria (Inkay), ♂ lv. 15
Infiltrator
Swagger, Hypnosis, Wrap, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

AVRIL'S BADGES:
🥊
HIKARU'S BADGES:
🥊

The Shimmering Guard - pt. 1

Monday, September 21^st - from 4:30 to 5 p.m. - Dewford West Wilds

I keep hearing a tingling noise as I keep walking. It's faint, and gets covered by the sound of our own steps, but it lingers around enough afterwards so that my ears can discern it. I try not to think about it, but eventually the curiosity takes over, and I stop in the middle of the tunnel. But I hear nothing.

Oh right, Avril's pendant. How could I forget? "Your chime… isn't it going to attract more Pokémon?"

"So now you want me to put that away also?" Poppy, still perched on top of the girl's head, shakes her own little head in disapproval.

"It's just for when we're in the cave…"

"Please."

This time I shall let her have it her own way. The berries we are carrying already attract other Pokémon, so who cares about a little chime? Plus, if she's so defensive about it, then it must mean a lot to her.

I have many things that mean a lot to me but… thinking about it, I've never had the luxury of showing them off anytime I wanted. Back when I started the blog, for example, I was just way too scared of wearing chokers at home, where my family could see, but I felt obligated to wear them with my friends. My guess is that Avril has just never gone through that.

"It's alright. Did you find Nosepass?"

"Nope. Are you even sure the Scan works underground?"

"Yes! Let's just keep going and eventually we'll pick up some signals."

And so, we go even deeper, climbing down some steep inclines and finally reaching what looks like a bigger room. I'm not sure how to describe this, all I know is that it looks rather even and symmetrical, but that the floor is bumpy, with tons of sand and boulders, and what looks like a small pond on one corner. We got there not because of Avril's scanning, but because of some - this time - actually interesting noise. Sounds like some... munching, rock breaking, I'm not quite sure. But it's not a sound that Angie, Hoshi or Rei would make on their own, of this I'm sure. Now, if just a few moments before I was feeling somewhat grateful towards the cave Pokémon, for not coming after us, now I finally have the chance to figure it all out. Most of the cave Pokémon are in fact, gathered here… all in this room. It doesn't take long before I feel two blue piercing eyes on me. Two soon become four, four become eight, until I can't count them anymore. As they move closer to our source of light, Avril quickly runs back behind me, grabbing my shoulder.

"Let's just leave this room…" She says, super nervously.

"Ok, I…" Rei's faint light falls onto something shimmery. A weird reflection hits my eye and captures me. "You know what, let's claim this room for ourselves!"

"Wh-what? Don't be so reckless."

"We got this. I'm sure you're an amazing trainer."

The girl doesn't do anything but roll her eyes, meaning that I don't have much time left to act. "Hoshi, Psywave! And Angie, could you help it out please?"

The attack doesn't hurt that much, but still startles most of the rogue Pokémon, who do not hesitate to counter attack. Dozens of boulders are thrown our way by what are revealed to be more Aron, whereas a couple of different metallic growls are heard from all the corners of the cave room.

Angie, once again, summons Rain Dance and Mud Sport, not finding any good opportunity to attack with Water Pulse. To clear the boulders in the way - most likely Rock Tomb or Rock Slide - I call out Aruku, who looks around perplexed before randomly swinging her "fists" around… her own version of Rock Smash.

Eventually, Avril lets Poppy come into the fray, telling her to set up a Grassy Terrain which quickly spreads across the cave floor. The Fairy type bounces around with fire in her eyes, but appears to be quite wary of her enemies as well.

Only after the first few Aron get knocked back by Angie's attacks, I finally hear more confidence in Avril's voice. "That is… a Nosepass! I think. At least we didn't come here for nothing!"

Good to hear, good to hear. I take a quick glance and yes, with what little light there is in here... what the girl is pointing at looks indeed just like the red nose of a Nosepass. But there is something else that I'm more interested in. I try to sneak closer to the pond that I could only barely see before, hoping that no Pokémon tries to stop me. What I saw before…

Really is what I thought it was.

Evily · Nov 27, 2020

Shuna Kamado & Natsuko Soyokaze & Junko Enomoto

Monday, September 21 {??? pm}
Epoch 2.5: Dewford City
Contest Hall! Awards Ceremony!

"Now with the third round complete, let's move on to our award ceremony to see who will receive first place and a Ribbon to take home! So give it up, ladies and gentlemen, for our contestants on stage right now, Junko Enomoto, Natsuko Soyakaze, and Shuna Kamado!"

The pinkette watched as the audience roared, hands clamped on the sides of her dress, nerves working against her. She signed up for the contest to see how they are, but to actually manage until the last round, she didn't expect it. Now there was her and two other contestants, waiting to see who got which place.

"In third place, we have Miss Junko Enomoto!"

All eyes turned on the tall brunette girl, who had a brief shock which quickly faded into a modest smile as the applause cheered her on. "Being third place, Miss Junko Enomoto shall be receiving a cash prize of one thousand Pokedollars at the front desk!" Shuna smiled, clapping along with the crowd.

If Junko got third place, that leaves her and Natsuko… I wonder who got second and first… It didn't really matter what palace she got, as long as her pokemon had fun, it works. Although the prize money wasn't bad...

"In second place, Miss Natsuko Soyokaze!" The crowd applauds for her, some even cheering. She grimaced for half a second, but hid it by bowing deeply to the crowd. When she came back up, she was all smiles, finding the people who cheered and giving them a wave. Junko clapped as well, humbly smiling while looking at her competition. A bit aways, Shuna clapped along with the crowd, giving Natsuko a small smile.

"For her efforts, Miss Soyokaze will receive a prize of ₽2500!" Natsuko mouths "thank you so much" towards the audience, then turned expectantly to flash a smile at Shuna.

Shuna grinned, giving the girl a nod before turning back to the audience.

"Leaving only one contestant left to be first place! Last, but certainly not least, give it up for the winner of this morning's contest, Miss Shuna Kamado!"

Shuna blinked, the words processing as the crowd roared in front of her. Her face flushed as she placed her hands over her mouth, shocked once the words registered. I won? I… That's…

"Not only shall Miss Shuna Kamado receive a cash prize of five thousand Pokedollars, but also a ribbon for her and each of her astounding Pokémon!" The audience, along with Junko, applauds for the contest winner.

Shuna flinched, turning to the commenter in shock at hearing the prize. I won what?! The girl turned to look at the crowd for a few seconds before glancing at the judges. I… I don't know anymore… Just go with the flow... She gave a small sigh before giving the audience a small smile, bowing for a few seconds.

"Ladies and gentlemen, give it up one last time for all our contestants who've made it this far!"

- - - - - - {JP with Groc & QueenNothing} - - - - - -

Current Team:

Spoiler:

Inventory:

Spoiler:

QueenNothing · Nov 27, 2020

Junko "June" Enomoto

Monday, September 21, Afternoon

June, having boarded the Breezy Seas ferry that was about halfway through its trek to Petalburg, thinks about the experiences she had on Dewford. Her first gym battle, her first Pokémon caught in Hoenn, and what should have been her first kiss all stuck out to her, but the thing that stood above it all was her first contest, being one of the last things she did on the island.

Her showcase winning the final round was unrealistic, and June knew that, but she still wishes she won. If she did, she could have properly shown the beauty of bug-types, something she failed to do. Even if she was happy for Shuna and Tsu for both ranking higher than her, she still thinks about how much she'd love to be in first place.

The brunette's musing are interrupted by her PokeGear loudly ringing. All eyes on the ferry direct towards her, and she apologizes for the noise her device makes. She checked her phone and sees a number she didn't recognize, but answers of out concern of seeming rude to the caller.

"Hello?"

"Greetings June dearie, it is I, Insecta Reine Papillon, and I wish to praise you for your performance at the contest hall!"

"Inse-" June stops herself from talking when she considers any overzealous fans could be on the ferry. "How did you get my number!?"

"That is unimportant, dearie. What is, however, was your performance! For such a rising star as yourself, you did excellently with what you had!"

"I'm not so sure about that…" June exhales.

"Nonsense! While I will admit that your performance could have used more dazzle, I have zero doubt that you shall achieve that in due time. Right now, you are of the likes of a Cutiefly, but as you gain more experience, you will evolve into a stunning Ribombee, just as moi!"

"Thanks…" The brunette blushes.

"But I do not want you to forget, June dearie! Battling is just as important as presentation in contests, and as you continue your journey, I ask of you to hone your battling skills. Always remember, shine like a Beautifly, sting like a Beedrill!"

"Well, actually, Beautifly are known to be pretty aggressive in the wild, so-"

Insecta's boisterous laugh is heard through the line. "Oh June dear, you are so adorable! I wish to see you again soon, but for now I must return to Unova! Farewell, darling!"

Insecta hangs up, not even giving June time to respond. She blankly stares at her device, but knows what the flamboyant woman said was true- Even if her analogy was a little flawed.

With Petalburg before her now, she could put behind her failings of Dewford, and focus on her opportunities that lie ahead of her. Of course, the first thing she plans on doing when she arrives at mainland was catch a bug-type.

All she has to do is wait for the cruise to end, probably another hour or so, and take a quick route through Briney Port. Then she could finally explore Petalburg Woods with a provisional license, meaning nothing would stand in her way from catching the bugs in the vast forest.

"Sorry ma'am," A stern young ranger blocking off the Petalburg Woods entrance calls out. "We're closing off this area."

"W-what??" June, wearing her straw hat and net over her shoulder, stands dumbfounded in front of the Pokemon ranger. "B-but...why??"

"Around this time of year the Shroomish unleash their spores into the air, and it's deadly for us humans. I'd have to be incredibly irresponsible to let you pass."

June, immensely disappointed, sighs. The ranger examines her net, and correctly assumes what the tall girl came for. "Hey, there should be some bugs around here, don't get too sad. If you need help looking for any, be sure to use the HRD app, it's available on all devices!"

"Thank you…" The brunette lightly smiles. The area she had the fondest memories of was unfortunately blocked off, but the ranger was right- There should be some bugs around here. She sends Chip out to be prepared for any ambushes wild Pokemon might try on her, and strolls along the outskirts of the woods.

It didn't take very long to find a Wurmple crawling on the ground, trying to make its way back to a nearby tree. The worm Pokemon wouldn't be so fortunate, however, as June's excitement peaks at the sight of it.

"Oh my gosh, a Wurmple! Chip, use Aqua Jet!"

Chip quickly rams his body into the Wurmple with an Aqua Jet, but by being so close, the worm Pokemon is able to gnaw on Chip's "head", causing him to screech in pain. The Wimpod scurries back to June, giving Wurmple an opportunity to shoot a String Shot- Not at Chip, but rather at June, specifically around her ankles, tying them together.

"What the- AGGHH!!!" She screams as she loses her balance, falling forward. She reflexively breaks her fall with her hands, but her glasses fall off her face and onto the ground. Fortunately the frames were sturdy enough to not break. "This hasn't gone as smoothly as I would have liked…" The brunette moans as she picks her glasses up and tucks them behind her ears.

June rolls on her back and sits up, but is surprised to see the silk around her ankles had been removed. "Chip, was that you?" The Wimpod only responds by shaking his head. "Then what was…"

She stops to turn around after hearing rustling behind her, and is greeted by a small bipedal Pokemon with a crescent mark on its head and bright green fur who was digging through her purse. Must have fallen off of her shoulder during her trip. June's initial instinct would have been to scan the Pokemon, but she instead prioritizes snatching her purse back.

"I'm sorry," June apologizes as she uses her PokeGear to scan the Pokemon that lay in-front of her. "But I can't let you have this. It has a lot of important things I need. I'm sure you understand." As she scanned the Pokemon, she learns it's a normal-type Pokemon named Teddiursa, but one thing stands out to her about the one in-sight. The dex app shows Teddiursa as an orange brown sort of color, but this cub is miscolored. "Why is it green? That's bizarre…Is it a genetic mutation?"

The brunette doesn't get enough time to read the tiny bear Pokemon's entry, as her attention is yanked away by Teddiursa suddenly bawling, its face buried in its paws.

"Oh, it's because I took my purse back from you, isn't it? I think I owe you some form of compensation…"

Chip approaches Teddiursa out of pity, sharing a similar sentiment as his trainer. When he gets close, however, Teddiursa unpromptedly begins rapidly slashing its claws across Wimpod's back in quick succession, swiping one claw after the other. Chip's only response to his rude awakening that those tears were fake is kicking up a cloud of dirt into the normal-type's eyes, which interrupts its attack.

"Now, use Aqua Jet!" With Teddiursa unable to see, Chip bashes his body covered in water into the cub Pokemon, knocking it onto its back, passing out from the damage.

"Doesn't seem very durable…" June pants. "Honestly, I'd like to leave right about now... Although, I would still like to catch a bug Pokemon." Despite her best interest, she uses her PokeGear to scan for a Wurmple, as it is the only bug type in the area she could catch.

It takea about less than five minutes for her PokeGear to find another Wurmple, being such a common Pokemon. She looks up from her device when it indicates one could be nearby, and sees a Wurmple simply sitting out in the open, nibbling on an oran berry. "Chip, Aqua Jet again!"

As with before, the Wimpod uses the pressurized water engulfing his body to skid across the ground, and darts towards the unsuspecting bug-type. Wurmple, however, casually notices Chip before he was able to land a hit, and spits out a bright yellow web that angled downwards and lands on the Turn Tail Pokemon, stopping him dead in his tracks. The web electrocutes him a few times, revealing it as more than just an ordinary silk web crafted by an ordinary bug.

"What was that!?" June cries, using the dex app to get information on the attack. "Electroweb...Not many Wurmple know this!" More reason to catch the worm Pokemon.

Even while being trapped under an Electroweb, Chip still lands a Sand Attack into Wurmple's eyes. The bug-type squirms around, and shot a String Shot in whatever direction it faces. Enough was able to land on Chip that moving any further would become increasingly difficult.

"I think you should return, Chip…" June says as she retreatea her Pokemon, sending Einstein in his place.

In the time it takea for June to switch Pokemon, Wurmple was able to get the dirt out from its eyes, and covers Einstein in another electric net almost immediately as he enters the field. Unlike Chip, however, the Dottler doesn't seem very bothered by it at all. When Wurmple follows up with a stream of silk, Einstein uses his psychic energy to reverse the String Shot, guiding the silk around the bug-type's tiny body. He continues this process until Wurmple was tied up in his own silk, struggling to move, and flops against the grass.

"Perfect!" The tall girl shouts, tossing a Net Ball at the worm Pokemon. It shakes once, twice, thrice, and…

CLICK

Wurmple was successfully captured!

Overjoyed, June reaches over to grab the newly occupied Net Ball, giggling as she thinls about how she now had three bug-type Pokemon. "Welcome, Wurmple! I'm sorry we had a rough start, but I promise we'll get along soon enough!"

June caught a Wurmple!
Chip grew to level 21!

🐞June's party🐞

16,492

Spoiler:

QueenNothing · Nov 28, 2020

Junko "June" Enomoto

Monday, September 21st, Afternoon

"Uncle Tetsuo! It's been awhile!"

A bored, very casually dressed, brunette man with an olive complexion and blue eyes, sitting at a desk looks up from his smart phone to see June, wearing a sunhat with a Wurmple nesting atop it. "Oh, hey there Junko." He unenthusiastically welcomes. "You uh, you wanted to see the bugs?"

June nods with elation. "It's been some time since I've seen them! How have they been?"

Tetsuo yawns before glancing back at his phone. "Yeah yeah, they've been alright, I uh, I'm pretty sure."

"What do you mean you're pretty sure?" June harshly raises an eyebrow, poking her lip. "Do you not take care of them?"

"Yeah, I uh, I do that stuff, y'know."

"Do you feed them frequently? Or make sure no wild Pokemon get in, call in a Pokemon doctor for regular check-ups, make sure the structure is stable, do daily tallies of every Pokemon living here to make sure none of them are missing…"

"Yeah yeah, I do all that shit, certain of it." Tetsuo rolls his eyes at his niece's insistence. "Well actually, I uh, haven't counted up all the Pokemon just yet, it's a lot of work y'know."

"Uncle Tetsuo!" June mildly raises her voice, trying not to display her disappointment too much. "It's really important you tally everyone! It isn't just my Pokemon living here, dad's live here, and so do yours! This isn't even to mention the species that couldn't survive in the Hoenn wildlife! They can go missing, or worse!"

Tetsuo sighs, very irritated. "Hey, y'know, why don't, you uh, why don't you count 'em. Do it and I'll give you five thousand Pokedollars. Sound good?"

"I'm glad I got to see you again, Bully! But right now I need to move on with my task." June states as she pets her dad's Tauros that resided within a large outdoor field by the conservatory. The brunette then moves her hand away to check off a box on a clipboard that listed many Pokemon.

Of course June accepted her uncle's offer. Even if she was incredibly disappointed in the job he failed to do, it seemed to be a blessing in disguise for June.

"Looks like the dome area is next on the list, and soon enough we'll be seeing my Dustox! Isn't that exciting, Wurmple?" She says to the Wurmple snoozing on her straw hat, who slightly opens an eye hearing his name called. "I've caught many Wurmple before, but they all evolve into Cascoon for some reason. We'll see where nature takes you, soon enough!"

She then makes her way to the inside of a large glass dome, an area where many forest or water dwelling Pokemon laid. The first thing anyone would notice when entering were large trees that had been planted making up a small forest, and June was no exception, having done the exact same.

"It's been so long since I've been here!" June grins, taking in a deep breath through her nostrils and exhaling from her mouth. "I've missed it so much! But I shouldn't distract myself- I need to check on my Dustox."

June walks over to a thick tree, seeing a dozen or so Dustox resting in the branches. The few moth Pokemon that notice her all greet her with a hissing noise. "It feels good to see you all here again! I hope you've all been doing good without grandma." She happily greets. June writes something down on her clipboard, but is suddenly alarmed as she feels something dash past her feet. She checks off the boxes for the Dustox before looking behind her to see two cat Pokemon cornering an out-of-breath Bunnelby against a different nearby tree.

"Two Meowths?" June questions, tapping her lip with her pointer finger before frantically flipping through the papers on the clipboard she had. "There aren't supposed to be any of Kantonian Meowth around here!" The brunette watches the hissing cat Pokemon getting closer to the terrified Bunnelby, who desperately hugs the tree trunk.

"Excuse me, you two!" June calls out, mildly raising her voice again. "Please stay away from Bunnelby! And you're actually not supposed to be here, so while you're at it, I'd like to kindly ask you both to please leave the premises!"

The normal-type Pokemon don't seem very pleased, in fact, they looked irritated as they run up to the brunette on all fours. Bunnelby escapes with them distracted, but that's low on June's priority list right now. "Well looks like I'll have to ward you off, help me out Chi-"

June, Net Ball in hand, is caught off-guard when she sees her Wurmple spring off her hat onto the grass. "Wurmple!? Are you sure? Chip can-" June double-takes again when Wurmple responds to the two cat Pokemon pouncing at him with an Electroweb, causing both Pokemon to fall to the ground, screaming in pain as they're both shocked by the web. The web doesn't tangle them for long, however, as the Meowths use their claws to tear through it and get back on their feet, hissing at the bug-type. The Wurmple is just barely bothered by this, and shoots a poisonous dart at one of the Meowths, causing it to moan as the poison infects its body, while the other one charges forward.

"Wurmple! Are you sure you don't need assi-"

Wurmple stops the normal-type by shooting a String Shot that wraps around its body, causing it to drop the ground. Wurmple then shoots another silk string at the same Meowth, and with the string connecting the worm and cat Pokemon, Wurmple firmly plants his legs into the ground, swinging his head to toss the tied-up Meowth by the string at the poisoned Meowth, both Pokemon getting hurled into the tree trunk they backed the Bunnelby into earlier. Wurmple then aims an Electroweb that covers both Pokemon, zapping the cat Pokemon to finally finish them off.

June stands back dumbfounded at what she had witnessed. "Wow, Wurmple, that was...That was amazing!" She begins to kneel down to pick the bug-type up, but she flinches when her Pokemon begins to spin around, shooting out a String Shot that covers his own body.

"Wait, Wurmple, are you…Evolving!?"

Wurmple keeps covering spinning, unable to answer, and once he covers his body completely in silk, he starts to glow white. As he's glowing, the shape of his body becomes rounder, almost oval like, until the white light fades away, revealing a round Pokemon completely covered in silk with two holes that allow for his red eyes to view the world from.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! You've evolved into a Silcoon!" June gasps, feeling incredibly overjoyed. "I've never had a Silcoon before! Oooohh, before we know it, you'll be a gorgeous Beautifly! I'm so proud of you! Oh my gosh, the potential for the-" She stops herself when she remembers what happened just yesterday with Einstein. "Oh right, I suppose I can't carry you around anymore as easily as I could just a bit ago...I suppose I'll return you to your Pokeball before resuming my wo-"

She's interrupted by Silcoon shooting a silk string from between his eyes, landing on the crown of June's hat.

"Silcoon, what are you-"

Silcoon uses the string to pull himself forward, landing directly on top of June's hat. While he was a little heavier than just a few minutes ago, the brunette smiles with the bug-type atop her hat just as he had been, albeit in a different form. She stands back up straight, adjusting to the weight of the Pokemon that now nests on her hat.

"Now then, since that's all settled, why don't we return to our task?"

Congratulations! Your Wurmple evolved into Silcoon!
Silcoon grew to level 17!
Silcoon learned Harden!

🐞June's party🐞

16,492

Spoiler:

Eleanor · Nov 28, 2020

Avril Reese

16 - ♀ - Laverre City

with Hikaru

Pokémon / Inventory:

AVRIL'S MONEY: $7 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Flabebe) -♀- lv. 26 ↑
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Fairy Wind, Grassy Terrain, Lucky Chant, Wish, Magical Leaf

🌼 Hydrangea (Shellos) -♀- lv. 25 ↑
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)

🌼 Wisteria (Inkay) -♂- lv. 17 ↑
Infiltrator
Swagger, Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

HIKARU'S TEAM:
⚡ Rei (Tynamo) -♂- lv. 22 ↑
Levitate
Charge Beam, Spark, Thunder Wave, Tackle

⚡ Hoshi (Staryu) - lv. 19 ↑
Illuminate
Psywave, Rapid Spin, Bubble Beam, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Harden

⚡ Aruku (Clobbopus) -♀- lv. 18 ↑
Technician
Rock Smash, Leer, Feint, Detect, Bind

AVRIL'S INVENTORY:
🌼 Holotch (phone version)
🌼 Fanclub Membership card
🌼 Eviolite
🌼 Silk Scarf
🌼 Various clothes and commodities

AVRIL'S CONTACTS:
Jordie, Shuna, Natsuko, June, Marcella

AVRIL'S BADGES:
🥊
HIKARU'S BADGES:
🥊

🌼 Character art made with [SPAN="color:rgb(40,180,40);"]https://picrew.me/image_maker/94097[/SPAN]

The Shimmering Guard, pt. 2

Monday, September 21^st - 4:30 to 5 p.m. - Granite Cave Depths

I have known this Nosepass for as long as I can remember, and as reserved, taciturn, or even grumpy as it was, it's always been a nice Pokémon to have around. Being quite rare, all Nosepass around here - especially those that want to venture so deep underground - are very… valuable. I don't know how they do it but they're extremely good at finding metals and rare stones, all things that Sableye, Aron and Lairon love to consume. Of course, this is also where I come in.

As I lurk in the shadows, somewhere near one corner of the room, I try to make a mental list of all the Pokémon I see. At least a dozen of Aron, but also two Lairon and even Aggron, surely the leader of the group. All standing around that single Nosepass, looking at it with anticipation and breaking rocks in the spots that its nose points at. One or two Sableye are waiting patiently for Aron to dig out more stones, also: it makes for a pretty wholesome scene, with all of the Pokémon in the cave working together… besides me, obviously.

Aron, Lairon and especially Aggron are very strong, but also quite barbaric if you ask me. All they do is dig around for metals, trying to make their armor stronger to compensate for their lack of intelligence. Usually it doesn't help the small ones, but when they evolve into Lairon it's too late. Kudos to those who do, though, at least they can keep breeding.

Chaos breaks loose though, as some new Pokémon come into the cave room. The blinding light that comes from one of them is quite the problem, as I have to hide behind some boulders very carefully to avoid being identified by the Aggron, but it also reveals another interesting detail: there's people in here.

They seem to argue between themselves for a bit before one of their Pokémon attacks the Aron and startles them. I keep watching with interest as the battle ensues, very hopeful that this will turn the tide in my favor: soon enough a grassy meadow spreads all over the cave floor, relieving me of some of my stress, while water droplets keep falling from the ceiling.

I study the battlefield. Closer to those two, uhm… deluded humans, stood most of the Aron, all lined up, hurling rocks towards the two marine Pokémon on the other side and occasionally protecting themselves from the bubbles of water aimed at them. Behind them, the two Lairon are screeching and growling, ready to charge up. Even more behind, that one single Nosepass is still doing what it's supposed to, quite oblivious to everything around it, with a couple more Aron nearby: that's an enticing situation to go in and strike, but my escape routes are not as good as they could be. Actually… where's that other Aggron…

I turn towards the other side of the cave, and notice the silhouette of a person trying to sneak closer to me and then forward, towards the water pond. That is where the Aggron and Sableye wash the stones that Nosepass finds, and clear them of all the rubble and mud: that person is definitely here because of them. I see it kneel down, reach out with its hand towards the stones, grab a few, and stand still for a couple seconds - in awe and astonishment, if I had to guess.

The old sergeant has noticed, though. As it is expected of such a territorial Pokémon, it doesn't think twice before lashing out and ramming into that person, knocking it back with a swing of its tail. Even I feel disturbed by such crudeness, but the fear of getting myself involved in the battle and having to stand up to the sergeant has me paralyzed. I hear some cracking sound as the trainer stumbles back a few steps and hits a boulder - it's really not much different from the sound I make when I crack open my prey.

Luckily for it, the person's Pokémon come to the rescue before Aggron can rage on it even more. A weird levitating thing, crackling with electricity, promptly paralyzed the sergeant and spared its trainer of even more pain. The other person ran all the way there and tried to drag its friend away from danger, while more Pokémon I was not familiar with came to the rescue.

Of course, so did the various Aron and Lairon. They do work as a group most of the time, and they will run to their leader if it needs even the smallest help. Sergeant roared and used Rock Slide, followed by the two Lairon doing the same, but luckily for the two trainers, their marine Pokémon were able to disintegrate some of the bigger boulders by combining their Water type attacks. The smaller ones still hit them and slowed them down but even after that, they looked determined to protect the two humans.

Actually, for being such small Pokémon, they're handling it very well. I can now count exactly 6 Pokémon strangers: the electric fish, a star, a flower, a slug, and two things with tentacles (one of which is floating). The star, which is the one that is providing the most light, is flashing in mysterious ways to confuse the opposing Aron. The slug picks off all the Aron that are too confused to protect themselves, knocking them far away with water or mud - all things that my fellow citizens are known to despise.

Of the two tentacle-equipped Pokémon, I see mostly the grounded one constantly jumping around, dodging boulders and smacking the Aron on the head, while the flying one distracts the Sergeant and makes it even more confused. I think I saw it pull up a Reflect also, a very appropriate tactic. And then there's the electric thing, who is just lasering away. Apparently that's the only thing it can do…

Given how hurt one human is, I'm sure that the other is just trying to at least buy some time to drag its friend to safety. But given how slow that operation will be, I don't think that they will ever get a break until Sergeant is defeated. An undertaking that is starting to look… actually manageable.

Even with the shield in place, the first to go down is the electric Pokémon, who can only avoid boulders for so long. After many failed attempts, the Aggron is able to crush one of its six opponents under a rock, literally, all while its trainer is still there on the ground. I see it fiddling with some of its stuff in the meantime, before calling its Pokémon back into a ball.

The battle keeps going, except now most of the foreign Pokémon are focusing on Aggron, trying to power up each other. The flower is also joining in, launching some green, glowing particles at Sergeant as it twirls around the cave, and leaving behind it some sparkles that I definitely recognize as my own.

More boulders are thrown around the cave, but now the Aron and Lairon are also charging straight ahead at their enemies, trying to hit them with their claws or armored head. The marine Pokémon are still able to push them back though, even if they are starting to look quite tired. It's an interesting strategy, the one they've set up: the star shoots out some water from its center, the water gets drained into the slug's own bubble, and that powered up bubble hits for massive damage… not to mention, the rain is still up, and they take a few moments every once in a while to maintain it activated.

Eventually, I hear the humans yell stronger than before. The Water Pokémon repeat the strategy with more intensity than ever, but add in the grounded tentacle Pokémon to their recipe. It jumps right into the high pressure bubble, which in turn gets bigger and bigger, ready to be released against Aggron. Paralyzed, confused, and weakened, it looks like it will have a rough time soaking up the damage, but… the old Sergeant has one more trick up its sleeve. All those markings, cuts, bruises, dents, are there for a reason.

The whole cave goes white: Metal Burst. Aggron barely takes those hits, only to use their energy to strike back. I feel the shockwave on myself as well and shudder, the impact is not pleasant and I have reasons to believe the ceiling will crumble on me any second now… Old Sergeant has no control.

The blinding light goes out, meaning that Star has been finally knocked out, and the same seems to go for the slug and the grounded squid. But the flying squid and the flower are still there, and can bask in their victory: Sergeant is lying on the cave floor as well.

As I said, Aron is not the most clever of Pokémon, and often is in need of a strong leader. Now that it's dealt with, though, chaos ensues, and this gives me the perfect chance to strike. My second mouth blows some wind of my own to let me jump up on top of this boulder, as my eyes finally get used to the darkness once again. With a pirouette, I fly over the clueless Aron and grab one for myself, relishing in the cries of pain that the armored Pokémon is emitting as I run to the other side of the cave. I'm almost there actually, just a few…

bonk

My body suddenly feels weightless, and ethereal in a sense. I start losing grip of the Aron - how is that even possible, my maw is meant to…

I don't see anything anymore, I don't feel anything anymore, I don't know where I am. This feels wrong.

Groc · Nov 28, 2020

Natsuko Soyokaze
Monday, September 21st, midday
Dewford Town

"Haha… w-wow! You don't see that every day, right folks?" Tsu is visibly uncomfortable as she watches the screen, but her lunch partner doesn't seem to notice.

"This is the best part." Sunny Dey grins as she watches the footage of Duchess Stacy snatching Tsu up in her powerful jaws. The crowd gasps, but Sunny just laughs. "Haha! Oh, that's great! Look how high she throws you!"

Tsu slumps in her chair, letting her head hit the table. "Can you turn that off, please? I'd rather forget it even happened..."

"What? But it's so cool! It's already got like 300 likes!"

Tsu sighs miserably, absolutely mortified. This is so embarrassing! How can this possibly get worse?

A chair is pulled out beside her, causing Sunny to speak up indignantly. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"I'm just here to talk to my friend." Tsu glances up, recognizing Lucy's voice. "Hello, Natsuko dear. I had a bit of trouble finding you after the Contest."

Tsu sits up properly, while Sunny eyes Lucy suspiciously. "Oh, hi Lucy... It's okay, Sunny, she's a friend. She made the costumes for my Contest... I know, you probably expected me at the chateau, but Sunny invited me out to lunch, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let her in without a membership card."

Lucy looks Sunny over while the other girl closes the video and puts her Holotch back on her wrist. "Well, you know how they are with protocol... But speaking of costumes, that's precisely what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh, do you have more ideas?" Tsu watches as Lucy starts pulling fabric from her bag. "Something new for Stacy, or did you think of something for Shiny? Wait... those are all..."

All of the fabric Lucy pulled out is the same color and texture, just a bundle of jade green silk. It dawns on Tsu that these probably all came from the same piece of clothing. A certain kimono that didn't survive Stacy's evolution.

"Natsuko, I shall always love you, and I'm very happy for you and Stacy, but you've ruined my career!" She cries out in despair, tearing up a little. "This wasn't just your debut, it was mine too! I used the last of my finest silk for that dress! And now I have nothing to show for it!"

"I'm sorry, Lucy! I didn't know she'd evolve in the middle of the competition!" Tsu reaches out to comfort Lucy, pulling her in for a hug. Lucy accepts, and manages to stop crying before she makes too big of a scene.

Sunny pokes at the silk scraps, mildly confused. "Can't you just reuse these? Stitch them into something new."

Lucy pulls away from Tsu's embrace, fixing the rumples in her clothes as she scoffs at Sunny. "I don't expect you to understand fashion, dear, as yours appears to be stuck in the 90's. You do know that grunge went out of style decades ago, right?"

"You have something you want to say?" Sunny glares at Lucy, her hands on the table as she stands.

Lucy remains seated, disregarding Sunny's display as she takes a sip from her water glass. It's actually Tsu's water, but... "I already have, darling. Were you not listening? Your particular brand is outdated and exceptionally casual. I'm surprised you walk around like that."

Before Sunny can say anything else, Tsu stands up and puts a hand on her shoulder, guiding her back to her seat. "No fighting, you two! Lucy, I apologize for ruining your dress, I know you worked hard in it. I'll pay you back for the silk, all of it!"

Lucy is stunned by that comment. "Natsuko, darling, that's rather generous of you, but are you sure?"

"Of course! You went out of your way to make that dress at the last minute. You're the generous one here. I have my Contest money I can use. I'll pay you back in full, I promise."

Lucy looks at Tsu uncertainly, but smiles at the offer. "Natsuko, you are too kind. That kimono cost me 15,000 Pokédollars to make, just in materials."

Tsu's face pales at the number, and she stares at Lucy, dumbstruck. Lucy smiles pleasantly, and a little apologetically. "Of course, I'm not going to include labor fees. If you can pay me back the cost, that would be more than sufficient."

"S-sure... a promise is a promise..." Tsu smiles back, just as the waiter comes by with the check.

"...so I'm guessing lunch is on me, then?" Sunny casually grabs the check, heading off to pay the bill.

QueenNothing · Nov 29, 2020

Junko "June" Enomoto

Monday, September 21st, Afternoon

"Here you are, Uncle Tetsuo."

Tetsuo grabs the clipboard June hands to him, not even doing as much as examining it with his eyes occupied by a Gameboy Advanced SP he holds in one hand. "Yeah, sure, thanks Junko. I'll uh, get your cash in a sec, just let me beat this map…"

June, clearly irritated with her uncle, keeps a smile on her face anyways. "So, um, Uncle Tetsuo, while I was working I saw-"

"WAIT, NO, FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK, THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!! Tetsuo shouts at the top of his lungs, eyes plastered against his handheld device. I LOST MARCUS!!! June jumps a bit at the unexpected screaming.

Tetsuo shuts his device off and slams it against his desk. "Fucking one percent crits, fuck this game!" He childishly pouts with his arms crossed, before plainly looking back up at his niece. "Hey, did your Wurmple evolve or something?"

June breathes deeply through her nostrils. "I wanted to let you know that two wild Meowth got into the dome, and they chased down a Patrat."

"Shit, that ain't good. Rangers warned me 'bout 'em, sucks they got in."

For heaven's sake, you even knew about this?? Uncle, I really wish you did your job properly.

"Glad, you took care of 'em tho." The young man continues. "I'll throw in a thousand more smackeroos for you, thanks Junko." Tetsuo reaches from under his desk to hand his niece six thousand Pokedollars. "And since you're here, I'll let you stay here for as many nights as you're in Petalburg."

"Thank you, Uncle." She smiles back. "I really appreciate the compensation."

"Yeah, no problem." Tetsuo half-heartedly responds before opening up his GBA. "Shit, gotta do that map all over..."

"Well, I suppose I'll stroll through the city. Once again, thank you for everything."

"Oh, Junko, one more thing." The brunette man calls out, stopping June right as she's about to exit the old building. "The uh, the rangers also told me about some Surskits in the city, and I uh, know you like bugs. Why don't you go catch one?"

June looks back with a wide grin that exposes her pearly whites. "Thank you for informing me. I'll definitely be sure to."

🐞June's party🐞

22,492

Spoiler:

QueenNothing · Nov 29, 2020

Junko "June" Enomoto

Monday, September 21st, Afternoon

The next Pokémon Contest was tomorrow, and she wasn't sure how ready she was for the nearby gym- Having four Pokémon might help her with that, which is why June currently uses her PokeGear to scan around Petalburg.

Her uncle informed her about Surskit in the area, and checking the HRD app shows it was the only catchable bug-type in the area. She understands why the catching restrictions were in place, but she can't help but feel some kind of resentment for them, as they are the only thing standing between her and her desire to catch every wild bug Pokémon. But rules are rules, and June wouldn't dare to break any of them. Nature comes first in this scenario, and she'd feel awful if a single Pokeball she tossed destroyed the habitat.

She follows the beeps that continue to get louder and faster the more her device emits the noises, leading her to an area of the city that was isolated from most of the buildings, bordering more on wildlife than an actual city. The beeping gets louder and faster, and June looks up from her PokeGear when the beeping reaches its peak. In the middle of a pond, she sees a round blue Pokémon using its four thin legs to swiftly slide around the surface of the pond.

"Oh my gosh! A Surskit!" The brunette gushes, eyes sparkling. "I've never seen a Surskit walking on water before, and it's just as pretty as I imagined it would be!" She continues to fawn over the pond skater, but her excitement is disrupted when realizing a very challenging obstacle blocks her path, something her Pokémon likely can't solve with such a distance, and June's abilities- Or lack thereof- also prevent her from accomplishing. "Oh wait...How am I going to the middle of this pond to catch it…"

She eyes the large body of water, trying to think of a solution. Chip is part water-type, but Wimpod don't swim, not until they evolve anyways. Even then, it's more like they walk underwater than actually swimming, which even if Chip was evolved, might not get him any closer to Surskit depending on how deep the pond is.

The brunette contemplates the situation at hand, thinking deeply about some way to bring the Surskit closer to land. But it seems Silcoon, still using June's hat as a nest, grows tires of his trainer trying to come up with a plan, and suddenly fires off a long String Shot directly at the Surskit, startling both the pond skater Pokémon and June.

"Silcoon!? What was-"

The cocoon Pokémon uses all his weight to reel Surskit in, having it crash into the ground. It's not long before Surskit stands back on its legs though, and it points the yellow antenna on its head at June to shoot slow moving bubbles that drift her way. While they don't initially appear to be much of a threat, the bubbles burst as they make contact with June's skin, creating a minor stinging sensation.

"Ow! Ow!" June grimaces in pain before grabbing a Park Ball from her purse. "If it uses ranged attacks, I think Einstein will be useful." She tosses the ball, sending out her immobile starter Pokemon. Einstein sets up a Light Screen right as Surskit shoots more bubbles at him, but the bubbles aren't even strong enough to pass through the barrier.

"Einstein, Super Sonic!" The Radome Pokémon shoots sonic waves at Surskit, who tries to dodge, but the Surskit is much slower on land than on water, and is hit with the Super Sonic. The Pond Skater Pokémon tries to strike back while in a daze, but the most it manages to do is spurt water from its antenna up into the air, creating very shallow puddles surrounding the area. June pays no mind to this, and has Einstein push Surskit back with a Confusion.

Surskit gets up again, but is still confused as to what's going on, and sporadically shoots more weak bubbles from its antenna. Rather than floating towards June, the bubbles circle around the Pond Skater Pokémon.

"Use another Confusion!"

Einstein again hits with another Confusion, but rather than directly hitting Surskit a second time, the bubbles surrounding it pop first, and then hits the wild Pokémon.

June widens her eyes and takes note of the psychic attack's interaction with the bubbles. So the bubbles act as a some kind of psuedo-barrier... Interesting…

There's little time to think about that however, as Surskit lays on its back, possibly passed out. June ceases this opportunity, and tosses one of her Net Balls at it. The ball shakes a total of three times before making a clicking noise. Einstein and Silcoon's work had paid off.

June shrieks. "Surskit is mine! I'm so glad! Surskit are so beautiful! And so are Masquerain, and how it flies when it evolves, it's so fascinating!" She leans down to pick up the newly occupied Net Ball. "Thank you both, Einstein and Silcoon! You're both very helpful, and I appreciate it so much! As for Surskit…" She examines the Net Ball with a wide grin on her face, and then uses her PokeGear to scan it. "Seems I have a female Surskit. But I have a nickname in mind for her. From now on, you'll be known as Kit- It's derived from Surskit, and I think it's simply an adorable nickname!"

June caught a Surskit! Nicknamed Kit.
Einstein grew to level 23!
Silcoon grew to level 19!

🐞June's party🐞

22,492

Spoiler:

Eleanor · Nov 29, 2020

Avril Reese

16 - ♀ - Laverre City

with Hikaru

Pokémon / Inventory:

AVRIL'S MONEY: $7 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Flabebe) -♀- lv. 26
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Fairy Wind, Grassy Terrain, Lucky Chant, Wish, Magical Leaf

🌼 Hydrangea (Shellos) -♀- lv. 25
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)

🌼 Wisteria (Inkay) -♂- lv. 17
Infiltrator
Swagger, Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

HIKARU'S TEAM:
⚡ Rei (Tynamo) -♂- lv. 22
Levitate
Charge Beam, Spark, Thunder Wave, Tackle

⚡ Hoshi (Staryu) - lv. 19
Illuminate
Psywave, Rapid Spin, Bubble Beam, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Harden

⚡ Aruku (Clobbopus) -♀- lv. 18
Technician
Rock Smash, Leer, Feint, Detect, Bind

AVRIL'S INVENTORY:
🌼 Holotch (phone version)
🌼 Fanclub Membership card
🌼 Eviolite
🌼 Silk Scarf
🌼 Various clothes and commodities

AVRIL'S CONTACTS:
Jordie, Shuna, Natsuko, June, Marcella

AVRIL'S BADGES:
🥊
HIKARU'S BADGES:
🥊

🌼 Character art made with [SPAN="color:rgb(40,180,40);"]https://picrew.me/image_maker/94097[/SPAN]

The Shimmering Guard, pt. 3

Monday, September 21^st - 5 to 8 p.m. - Granite Cave Depths / West Wilds

I look in utter astonishment at the white orb of energy bursting up and overwhelming me, but once that's over and done with all that is left is darkness. The lights that reach my eyes now are only Wisteria's flashing lights, as he tries to hypnotize some of the other Pokémon left standing, and Hikaru's fainted Aruku and Hoshi, as they get recalled into their Pokéballs. I call back Angie as well, who fainted from the Metal Burst, and try to help Hikaru get up and out of the cave room. Before that though…

"The Nosepass! Please, the Nosepass!"

"How do I do that now?"

"Throw this!"

"Uh… I'll try!" I reach for Hikaru's Pokéball, which they have attached to… a rope, it feels like. I take some steps back into the cave, where Wisteria and Poppy still are, and ask them to show me where the Nosepass is standing. For some reason, it never moved during this whole ordeal, or so I think. I get ready for my best throw yet, hoping to get a good distance, but of course my aim is just… just a bit off.

I still see a flash of energy, meaning that the Pokéball has hit something… and has actually caught it. Something good happened at least! I quickly recall Wisteria and let Poppy land on my head before scrambling out of there, pulling the rope that the Pokéball is tied to towards me, right before a falling boulder could break it. "I got it, I got it…" I whisper to Hikaru, who manages to smile a little in between the painful expressions. "Ok, I can call Nosepass out now, right?"

"Yes!" Hikaru nods, but soon their hopeful eyes turn perplexed. "That's not a Nosepass."

Nosepass surely doesn't have teeth, but I hear the noise of some teeth grinding. My Holotch's light definitely confirms that this is not a Nosepass, before my Pokédex gives me a name - and this one strikes a chord. Mawile… Valérie has one!

One arm under Hikaru's shoulder, and we finally get to a point where we can feel safe… kind of. Poppy and Wisteria can float around and warn the both of us if any wild Pokémon approaches us, while I try to finally take a look at Hikaru's wounded leg. Needless to say, my cuts pale in comparison to this one - not to mention that Hikaru can't even walk at this point.

They start talking, and I don't know how to feel about them. I learn that the main reason why they got me in such danger is actually the stones, and that they're extremely precious for trainers like us. They brought their whole backpack along, including an escape rope, food, and a couple tools, because their plan was to visit the cave depths after our oddjob was done, but decided to trick me into coming along because they were too scared to be alone.

I am fuming, literally. I start grinding my teeth just like Mawile, who is just sitting nearby, puzzled. What is done is done, though, and I don't have the heart to make Hikaru pay for their actions. "Hate me later", they said, didn't they? I use some of their water to clean their own cut and think of a way to get both of us out of here safely.

You know, I hate seeing people get hurt.

🖤🖤🖤

Wisteria is… a little mischievous angel. I considered him as just a Pokémon I wouldn't really need, but he's doing all he can to change my mind! I'm just sorry for not putting him in the best situation to bond with me… who knows what he thinks of me.

He doesn't know Flash or has Illuminate, and it kind of shows because he can't light up the cave just like Hoshi did. If Hikaru's Pokémon is a headlight, Wisteria is the pair of light up shoes I used to wear as a kid: only good at turning heads and making you dizzy if you look at them too much! Still, I can't help but chuckle at that thought - I will admit, back then I used to love them.

Whatever he's doing seems to be quite effective as well. He just floats around the cave, preceding us and putting to sleep any dangerous Pokémon he finds before letting us crawl onwards: so far his only victim has been a lone Aron, but we still have a long, interminable way to go before seeing the light again.

Mawile, in the meantime, is just helping me hold Hikaru over my shoulders, walking right behind me and keeping her eyes fixed on the cave floor. I'm also unsure of what she thinks of me, but unlike Wisteria, I'm not quite curious to know as much as I'm anxious to know. It's a miracle she's not already disobeying me, I suppose.

An alert reminds me to actually check the Holotch in my hand and, no surprise there, the battery is running out after all the hours I've used it as a torch. 5%, 6:51 p.m. and still a long way to go if I remember correctly. After a couple difficult points, though, I'm now on a relatively flat tunnel. It keeps going and going, turning a couple times, but never becoming too steep, and so I can keep somewhat of a consistent pace. No matter how slow I'm moving, this already feels amazing, even when both of us are getting weaker and more tired.

I should stop focusing just on what I see though. If I just try to listen (and for once, muffle the sound of my chime) I can get some interesting information about what awaits for the two of us. And sure enough…

"Are those… waves?"

"You t-think so, Hikaru?"

"Yeah, that sounds just like the sea."

Just a couple more steps, and we're out in the open, on a beach, in the wilds.

🖤🖤🖤

The Sun has already set, of course, and it's just as cold here as it was in the cave. We're both still shivering, not just for the cold but also for the blood we lost, but at least we're out, and we can breathe the fresh air again. The Moon acts as the best light source, but I can also recognize some faint lights on the horizon, coming from what looks like the shipwreck I explored last night. Wisteria seems to agree, also.

Hikaru fiddles again with their backpack, pulling out the stones they picked up. "I really thought I could pick up more than this, but I must have lost them when Aggron hit me." They sigh heavily. "This one is also… Uh?"

Mawile runs up and grabs it, gushing at the stone that she basically stole from Hikaru. "Hey! I… I found it!" Hikaru complains, but there's no way they're getting the stone back, as Mawile just turns around and pushes them away with her second mouth before running away with the stone in her hands.

Of course, all I can do is grab her Pokéball and recall her inside, before running to where she was standing and looking for the stone she might have dropped. I finally find it before getting back to Hikaru and giving them back the stone.

"These two here… they look like the Key Stones I've heard about, but what Mawile was so enthusiastic about is a different kind of stone for sure." I think I see a bitter expression on Hikaru's face. "Ugh. I'm still going to give you one of these two stones, here. But… I'll be asking for Mawile in exchange."

budube · Nov 29, 2020

Jordie "Jo" Hughes

Saturday, September 19th

Chapter 1: Part 6 - Selfish

10:00 am to 10:10 am - Southern Pokémon Center

Looking at their schedule, Jordie has nothing planned for today. They are battling the gym tomorrow, which means that they shouldn't do any training today. It's all about having their Pokémon in the best possible physical and mental state which means not making them nervous. It would be better to challenge the gym Monday, but it's closed then and they don't want to wait for Wednesday because, well, they need the money.

So… yeah. The only thing Jordie can do right now is relax in the Pokémon Center after their morning workout while Gabby and Neon are inside their Dusk Balls up in their room.

After resting their head for a bit in one of the couches in the eastern corner of the building they go back to their room. The top hall is just as empty as it was yesterday. In fact, they could say it's emptier because that Hui guy from yesterday isn't there.

They take a quick shower and as soon as they get out, they are surprised by a call from their parents.

They stare at their X-Transceiver for a few seconds, thinking whether they should answer or not, while the screen keeps showing their mom's name.

They are not ready for another discussion about why Jordie had to start their trainer career in Unova, but they guess their parents must be really worried about them. After all, the only thing they left was a letter telling them they were going to travel around Hoenn.

Is that a selfish thing to do? Yes, it probably is. Does it really matter, though?

Jordie is destined to be the greatest trainer of this generation, and therefore, they must take the greatest steps possible. If those steps take them to the cliff of the mountain, they are not turning back, they are jumping to the other side of it.

It's all about taking a risk. Even if that means leaving family and friends behind.

They let them know Gabby and they are doing fine. Not by answering their call, but by pushing the ignore button. I'tll have to be that way for now.

Jordie's Party:

Inventory:

Spoiler:

QueenNothing · Nov 30, 2020

Junko "June" Enomoto

Monday, September 21st, Afternoon

I'm not entirely sure what happened a bit ago. I remember leisurely skiing across the pond like I do regularly, and have done for as long as I can remember. But suddenly I felt something pull me from my peaceful activity onto the ground, something I was convinced was a predator, and I don't think I ever figured out if what I saw could be described as that.

What I saw was some kind of titan, I think they were called humans. I had heard about them, but never saw one myself. I heard they were very tall, but I didn't think they'd be that tall! I was worried it wanted to hunt me down for my syrup, and it had two companions. One was a Silcoon, and the other was something I'd never seen or even heard of before, some kind of geometrical mess that stood on two feet and didn't move at all. I tried defending myself with my bubbles, but those did nothing. Then I heard an irritating noise and it made me light-headed- My memory after that is very blurry, but I can't forget feeling my weight disappear and passing out as I saw a bright light. For a second it seemed like I was dying.

But I now know for certain that I'm not dead. I see the bright light again, and I see myself out in an open area. I feel well rested, but the tall human from before is right in-front of me. I know now it doesn't want to kill me for my syrup, but what does it want?

"Hello Kit!" It kneels down in-front of me, softly smiling, and holding some rectangular thing in its...hands? I'm not sure who its even talking to. Whose Kit?

"I saw your attacks a bit ago and I think they have a lot of potential. What do you say you and me practice your attack together?"

Wait, am I Kit? What does the human get out of calling me this? I've never been called anything like this, and the titan calling me "Kit" is incredibly jarring. But it seems to be asking something, and while I'm not sure what it means, I cautiously nod. I'm curious to see where this goes.

"Good!" It claps its oddly shaped hands together. Is that what humans do when they're happy? "So let us begin! I noticed when I battled you with Einstein, you were much slower on land than on the surface of the pond, and that's because your feet secrete an oil that allows you to walk across water." Why is it explaining this to me? I already know this.

"And I noticed Water Sport created a puddle of water, so I want to start with that. So I would like you to do just that, Kit!" I think Water Sport is the name it gave the sprinkling water that comes from my antenna I use as a defense mechanism for Pokémon that shoot fire. I do as the human says, rotating my antenna and sprinkling water around me to create a mini pond, and it seems happy with me. "Very good! Now, why don't you try sliding around the surface of the puddle?"

That's something I never thought to do, but I'll do as it says anyways. I lean to my left, and my legs slide as far as the mini pond extends. I'm taken aback by this revelation, I always had a pond nearby, so something like this never crossed my mind, but I can basically create my own personal ponds! The human seems pretty smart.

I continuously slide right and left, experiencing a similar rush skating on the pond gave me. I don't know where the pond is from here, but I get a feeling I won't be seeing it for awhile, so it's nice to know I can create my own pond whenever I want, even if there's less room to skate on it.

The human looks as pleased as I do, and pushes up the weird circular things it has in front of its eyes. "Great job, Kit!" I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to being called that. The human pulls a sphere from somewhere, and pushes down in the middle of it. It opens up in the middle and sends out a familiar looking bright light, which forms into the yellow and blue thing I saw earlier.

"Before we continue Kit, I'd like for you to expand the puddle with Water Sport again." Good idea- All the more room to skate in.

I do as it says, and I see the human's static accomplice setting up a clear barrier. I think it's the same one that weakened my bubbles.

"While you're still sliding around, hit Einstein with Bubble!"

The yellow thing must be "Einstein". Again, I listen to the human and aim my bubbles Einstein's way, before sliding all the way to the right side of the pond. I notice they pop against the barrier, so as I slide left, I create more bubbles with my antenna. The human encourages me to continue this action, which I do, not because it wants me to, but because I find the action fun, even if it's a tad monotonous.

Ski right. Launch bubbles. Ski left. More bubbles.

Ski right. Launch bubbles. Ski left. More bubbles.

Ski right. Launch bubbles. Ski left. More bubbles.

The satisfaction I would get from hitting Einstein is completely halted whenever I see my bubbles popping against that goddamn barrier. One thing I've noticed however, is that with every bubble I blew, the faster they floated, and sometimes they made louder bursting noises than usual against the barrier. I think I saw some bubbles put some dents in it!

Seeing this, I'm motivated to continue. I slide right again, but this time my bubbles don't slowly drift in a disorganized fashion- They move quicker than before, and follow each-other in a straight line. I can even see some of the bubbles go through the barrier- Albeit, it looks like they come out the other end much weaker.

I then slide left. As usual, I tilt my antenna towards Einstein, preparing my bubbles, but in a quick steady stream. Slide right. My bubbles don't slowly drift away, but rather they swiftly fly over to the barrier. When I slide left yet again, the same thing happens. This time however, the barrier shatters as the final bubbles I shoot burst against it! My hard work finally pays off!

"Kit, you've done really well!" The human, looking overjoyed, calls out, pointing the sphere at Einstein and turning it into some kind of red light which was sucked into the orb. "I'm very proud of you! Gosh, that must have been very intensive, and I'm so sorry if it was. I think you deserve a rest!" The human pulls out another sphere, one that looks identical to the one that turned Einstein into a light. It's pointed at me, and- Wait, what's this red light coming my way! What's happening to m-

Kit grew to level 17!
Kit learned Bubble Beam!

🐞June's party🐞

22,492

Spoiler:

QueenNothing · Dec 1, 2020

Junko "June" Enomoto

Monday, September 21st, Afternoon

Sitting on an outdoor wooden bench, June drinks from a large water bottle she nabbed from the Pokemon Center as Silcoon still lays atop her hair. Seeing Kit use water-type moves made her realize how thirsty she was, and fortunately she was able to acquire a water bottle after healing up her Pokémon.

After closing the lid on her plastic bottle, June gazes at her surroundings, every inch of the city bringing back some fond memories. Tailllows flapping their wings as they flew overhead, Zigzagoon zig-zaqgging by, the scent of the ocean breeze rolling in, obnoxiously loud motorcycles zooming across the city roads, pumping the stench of gasoline into the air- Wait a second.

June left her nostalgic daze to see a familiar motorcycle parked by the nearby Pokemon Center. Just as expected, a young man with a large pompadour and a Litten hopped off the vehicle, turning their attention towards the brunette girl.

Jessie! I didn't expect to see him here, but he needs to learn a lesson for what he did!

"Well well! If it ain't the angel my eyes laid on back in Slateport!" The young man smirks, followed by his Pokémon who rolls his eyes. "And it seems you're free right now! So whaddya say, you and me, tonight we go grab dinner!"

June slightly furrows her brows. "I'm not interested. Not after what you did."

"Since when did you get such an attitude, sugar? I'm not even sure whachya mean by that."

"You stole from Mr. Yamiguchi!" June almost shouts, holding herself back.

"Mr. Whoozitwhat now? I've stolen from enough people that I don't even bother to keep track of their names!" He snickers.

June feels more anger flowing through her than she's ever previously experienced. Hearing the young man so unaware of his consequences really sets June off, but she remembers the words her grandma told her. The brunette girl takes a deep breath through her nose, exhaling from her mouth, calming herself down. "I understand you may have a lot you're dealing with right now, and you might have needed Mr. Yamiguchi's Master Ball to sell to pay for necessities. But he needs it for that too, so could you please return it to me?"

"Oh, you mean that ol' geezer I snagged that Master Ball from."

"He's not 'that old geezer's, his name is Mr. Yami-"

"Don't care." Jessie cuts off. "What I do care about though, is getting you to go to dinner with me!"

June, enraged by the manners of the young man, tightens her fists and feels her polite demeanor shattering. "I'm sorry, but I'm NOT interested!" She sharply retorts.

"Ah, brighten' up, angel. I say we settle this over a battle, like we should have last time! If I win, you have to go out with me!"

The brunette girl feels a surge of confidence flow through her, thinking defeating him in a battle shouldn't be too difficult- But even if she loses, she has no intention of actually going out with Jessie. "I accept! But if I win, I want you to give me back Mr. Yamiguchi's Master Ball!"

Jessie cackles as he pushes up his triangular sun-glasses. "Sure, why not? I'll start with my chum, Stray right here!" At his trainer's command, the Litten crawls in-front of Jessie, grooming his paws as he waits for June.

June, holding her PokeGear in one hand, walks a few feet back to create enough space for a battlefield. "Fire types have a strong advantage against my Pokemon, except…" She grabs a Net Ball from her purse and tosses it to the ground to release Chip.

Stray looks up from his front paws, and harshly hisses at the Wimpod the second he makes eye-contact, causing Chip to whimper.

"Ya like that!?" Jessie chortles. "Stray does that whenever he faces off against a Pokemon!"

"It says it's an ability called Intimidate, and it frightens opponents to weaken their physical strength…" June reads aloud. "It shouldn't matter too much, we have a type advantage! Chip, use Aqua Jet!"

Chip quickly darts forward, tackling into the Litten with his body covered in water. Stray screeches as he's hit with the water-type move, but while he's still close, Stray turns around and hecticly thrusts his hind legs in a kicking motion to knock Chip back. While he skids through the dirt, Stray chases him and pounces, landing and repeatedly scratching his sharp claws against Chip's exoskeleton. The Turn Tail Pokémon yelps, and retaliates by kicking dirt up into Stray's eyes, who rubs them to try to clear his vision.

"While he's distracted Chip, use Aqua Jet again!" Chip strikes with another Aqua Jet, which while doing massive damage, gives away his position, and Stray uses another Double Kick to get the water-type off him. Chip flys back, and when landing on his feet, skedaddles over to June, somehow converting himself into a red laser to be sucked up back into his Pokeball.

"Hehehe! You ain't gonna get anywhere with a puny bug!" Jessie taunts, flashing another smirk while Stray goes back to grooming himself.

"Bugs are not weak!" June agirly replies, grabbing another Net Ball. "Bug Pokémon are very diverse, coming in all kinds of varieties, and I have plenty with me to represent that! I won't listen to your ignorance on the subject! I'll…" Something she said earlier comes to her as she's fueled with a passionate rage. "I'll show you the beauty of bug-types!" With as much strength as she can muster, June chucks a Net Ball on the ground to send out Kit. Jessie snickers again. "I didn't know all your Pokémon were bugs! That makes things easy for me, but don't worry, I'll pay for the meal! Stray, use Fire Fang!"

Stray charges forward, displaying his sharp teeth that become engulfed in flames. June isn't intimidated by this one bit, and gives out an order for her Pokémon.

"Kit, use Water Sport!" Kit's antenna spins around, spurting water in every direction, making the ground muddy and creating puddles everywhere. Stray stops charging as he steps in a puddle, frantically backing away and screeching.

"Stray, what's the matter!? You scared of a little mud?" As Jessie bickers with his Pokémon, June smiles seeing her strategy play out exactly as planned.

"Kit, slide away and use Bubble Beam!" The Surskit points her antenna at Stray and shoots quick moving bubbles from the tip, and uses her thin legs to slide back on the puddle surface. Stray freezes in fear at sight of the bubbles, which drift over to him and burst against his fur, causing him to screech in agony.

"Stray! Come on, what are ya doing!? It's just some bubbles, now get back in there and use Fire Fang again!"

Reluctantly, Stray nods and his teeth ignite. Instead of moving forward however, he fearfully stares into the puddle, leaving him open to more bubbles he fails to notice, which pop against his fur yet again.

"Damnit Stray! Just use Ember then, ya don't need to get close for that!" The Litten meekly shoots a weak spark of fire at Kit, but she gracefully slides across the puddle to avoid it. She then increases her gliding speed with a Quick Attack, ramming her body-weight into Stray, and following up with bubbles at point-blank range.

After the bubbles pop, Stray lays on his back unconscious. "Damnit, damnit, damnit DAMNIT!" Jessie furiously exhales, pushing his sunglasses up, grittio his teeth as he returns the Litten to his Pokeball. "Can't even take a few bubbles! That's pathetic!"

"Umm, I don't think you should be pushing your Pokémon so far…" June, concerned, tries to inject.

"Whaddya sayin', angel? Gotta give 'em some tough love! But Stray isn't my only Pokémon, still got one more! Go, Feathers!" The young man tosses his Pokeball onto the field, which releases a white light into the sky that forms into a small black bird Pokémon that uses its small wings to stay airborne. Its head-feathers resembling a trilby stand out to the brunette girl. June doesn't really have time to formulate a response, and instead scans the Pokemon in-front of her.

"Murkrow… Dark and flying type. This will be a challenge with my bug-types."

"Ya got lucky with Stray, y'hear!?" Jessie, having overheard June's analysis, uninvitedly responds. "Now then, Feathers, use Peck!" The Murkrow swoops down towards Kit, who skids across the water to dodge. Feathers shows persistence as he chases her down, and Kit's speed is no match for her predator's. He jams his beak in the Surskit's face, knocking her into the puddle.

"Now that she's down, hit 'er with a Wing Attack!"

Feathers descends while stretching his wings out, flies in close, and knocks Kit further back with his right wing. Kit fails to get up, and makes weakened hissing noises.

"Kit! Oh no, I'm so sorry!" June retreats her fainted Pokémon, and takes a deep breath.

I don't think I've faced an opponent whose this airborne…I'd have Einstein bring him down with his psychic energy, but it appears it would be ineffective against dark-types, according to the Pokedex…

The brunette girl stays deep in thought, contemplating her next Pokémon to send out. She's taken out of her thoughts when she feels a weight that was on her head is suddenly absent. June looks around bewilderedly, and gasps to see Silcoon somehow had jumped onto the ground without her noticing.

"Silcoon, he's too mobile! Try a String Shot!"

As her trainer suggests, Silcoon indeed shoots a long strand of silk at Murkrow, but not quite like she expects. Rather than using it to tie Feathers up, Silcoon attaches it to his belly, and swings off the ground, slinging himself below Feathers, before pulling his weight to temporarily float right above where the flying-type was. While still in the air, Silcoon's casing shines- June's PokeGear says it's Harden- and he quickly falls directly onto Feathers' back.

THUD

Seems Silcoon was able to harden his body and increase his weight, smacking both Pokémon to the ground. The Murkrow wasn't so lucky, being used to break the bug-type's fall, and June's stands speechless as she watches Feathers cawing in pain, struggling with Silcoon's hardened body pinning him to the ground.

"Wh-what the hell kind of Pokemon is this!?!?" Jessie exclaims, ruffling his hair. "I have two Pokémon who can incinerate your puny bugs, and ya do this shit!?"

"Believe me, I'm just as surprised as you are, but I suppose I've proved your claim wrong." June slyly giggles.

"Damnit, do something Feathers! Get that stupid rock of your back!" Feathers tries his best to get Silcoon off of him, and his attempts do look successful after Silcoon's casing stops shining, but he freezes when a cracking noise can be heard very close to him. Silcoon's shell forms a single crack along the center of his shell, which continues to grow in length.

"Silcoon! Are you- Again!?"

The crack along his shell loosens, with what look like two floppy insect wings emerging from it. The wings straighten out as they flap themselves, and Silcoon's shell completely splits open, revealing a butterfly Pokémon that reveals itself and flies into the air.

"Beautifly!" June's eyes twinkle while she clasps her hands together in adoration. "Woooowwww!"

Now that Beautifly awakened from his crisalis, Feathers shakes off the remains of his old shell, and frantically flaps his wings to gain air. "I don't care how many times ya evolve!" Jessie tightens his fist and pumps it into the air. "We still got the type advantage! Feathers, use Haze!"

The Murkrow opens his beak wide and exhales a stream of a thick, cold, smokey wind that quickly rolls in and covers the field, obscuring the location of both Pokémon.

"Oh!" June returns to her senses and searches through her PokeGear in a frenzy. "What should I do now that he's evolved…"

She has no time to think of a solution, but luckily Beautifly comes up with one of his own by blowing the smoke away with a graceful flap of his wings. Not only does it completely rid the haze, but also kicks up a wind current that pushes Feathers back a bit. The crow Pokémon tries resisting, aggressively flapping his wings against the current, but is unable to do so against Beautifly's gust.

With Feathers tiring out, Beautifly unrolls and straightens out his proboscis, and shoots an electric pulse that the current blows towards the Murkrow. As it gets closer, the pulse expands into a net-shape that hits Feathers, causing him to spiral to the ground as the Electroweb zaps him.

Jessie's jaw drops as he witnesses his Pokémon crashing into the wet dirt while trapped under the Electroweb. "I lost!? What the hell!!!"

"You remember our promise, don't you?" June smugly giggles while her Beautifly floats over to her, roosting atop her head. Jessie grits his teeth and reaches into his jacket pocket.

"Fine. I don't wanna, but I'm a man of my word." He pulls out a Master Ball, which he then chucks at the brunette girl. June, however, isn't the type of person to know what to do when a solid object is speeding towards her face, and ducks instinctively. As she's hurdled onto the ground, a smacking noise is heard behind her, followed by a familiar voice.

"Hold on there buddy, thought you were the hyper manly type. Shouldn't you be a little gentler with the ladies?"

June peeks up and turns around, seeing a familiar looking girl around her age with pale skin, neatly kempt white hair, silver earrings, and blue eyes. Unlike at the contest hall, she's dressed far more casually, a sleeveless denim jacket topping a plain white shirt that she wears with light blue leather pants. The girl holds her right arm up high, holding the ball Jessie threw, with her other hand tucked into her pants pockets.

Robynn??? I didn't expect to see her so soon!

Robynn's pupils wander to June's face, and flashes a playful smirk at the brunette girl, whose cheeks turn red in response.

"Wh-Who the fuck are you!?" Jessie screams, pushing his sunglasses up to hide the distress present in his eyes.

"Oh? Who the fuck am I?" Robynn looks genuinely surprised while pointing towards herself, but quickly laughs it off. "I'm just some passerby who caught some of the battle. But I am familiar with Miss Junko Enomoto right here, and feeling how hard you threw this ball at her face, I think it's safe to say I'm more of a man then you without actually being one."

Jessie shivers, pressing his sunglasses against his face. "Oh yeah!? W-well then why don't ya prove it!?"

"Prove it how? In battle? With what Pokémon?" The white haired girl interrogates then gestures toward Feathers, who lays passed out on the ground. "And I certainly don't think you'd use your fists against a lady like me, wouldn't it?" June stands up straight and grabs the Master Ball Robynn, still focusing on the teenage boy, hands her.

Jessie looks more defeated with every word from Robynn's mouth. "Yeah, well- I-I-I-AAAARGHHHHHHH!!!" He panickedly returns Feathers to his Pokeball before hightailing it back to his motorcycle. "Damnit, just ya wait until we meet again next time! I've been so humiliated today, and I'm gonna train lots to make sure this doesn't happen again, ya hear!!"

After he drives off into the sunset, Robynn chuckles and turns to June, having to tilt her head upwards to make eye-contact. "Wow, you're taller up close y'know." June's blushing grows stronger, and she looks down while holding her head with both hands.

"So, Junko, was it?"

"Oh, I-I'd prefer if you simply c-called me June…"

"My bad, June!" Robynn apologizes. "Didn't expect to run into you until tomorrow's contest! But since we're together, I just wanted to say I think you had a good performance today."

"Th-th-th-thanks!"

"Don't mention it!" The white haired girl waves off. "I was actually just taking a stroll through town, and I was wondering if you could join me while we discussed the contest?"

This was quite the contrast from Jessie. Robynn seamlessly moved from smalltalk to an invitation to get to know each other, something June definitely would not turn down. "O-Oh, yes, definitely! I'd love to!"

Chip grew to level 22!
Kit grew to level 19!
Congratulations! Your Silcoon evolved into Beautifly!
Beautifly grew to level 21!
Beautifly forgot Tackle and learned Gust!
Beautifly forgot Harden and learned Air Cutter!

🐞June's party🐞

22,492

Spoiler:

Eleanor · Dec 1, 2020

Hikaru

18 - ✨ - Castelia City

With Avril

Pokémon / Inventory:

HIKARU'S TEAM:
⚡ Rei (Tynamo), ♂ lv. 22
Levitate
Oof
⚡ Hoshi (Staryu), lv. 19
Illuminate
Psywave, Rapid Spin, Water Gun, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Harden
⚡ Aruku! (Clobbopus), ♀ lv. 18
Technician
Rock Smash, Leer, Feint, Detect, Bind

AVRIL'S MONEY: $7 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Flabebe), ♀ lv. 26
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Fairy Wind, Grassy Terrain, Lucky Chant, Wish, Magical Leaf
🌼 Hydrangea (Shellos), ♀ lv. 25
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)
🌼 Wisteria (Inkay), ♂ lv. 17
Infiltrator
Swagger, Hypnosis, Wrap, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

AVRIL'S BADGES:
🥊
HIKARU'S BADGES:
🥊

Choosing Beggar

Monday, September 21^st - 8:30 p.m. - Dewford West Wilds

My heart is racing again at the thought of what I can get my hands on. If I understood everything alright, then what I was holding in my hands were two Key stones and a Mega stone. And what Avril was holding in her hand, was a Pokémon that could mega evolve… the one piece of the puzzle I was missing.

Am I being too harsh on the girl, especially now that I'm in this situation? If anything, I'm just going back to my normal self after letting her keep her chime inside the cave. I'm just trying to get what is mine, since it was all my idea to get into the cave, and I'm giving out the only thing I have two of, just to make Avril more inclined to comply. I think.

The Kalosian looks at me, puzzled, and she somehow infects me with her feelings. What am I even doing? Haven't I done enough damage to this poor girl? Am I exploiting her lack of knowledge? I'll just… I'll just set myself on autopilot.

"That was my Pokéball, so in theory that Mawile is my Pokémon."

"I guess so? I didn't bring any after all. But…"

"Avril?"

"I feel like I could have a chance to bond with Mawile… but alright. It's good, you don't even need to give me anyth-" She suddenly stops and squeaks. "Ow! Poppy?"

Her Pokémon has definitely pulled her hair, before floating in front of her face. Flabébé shakes her head, first at Avril, and then towards me, then just tries to stop the girl before she gives me the Pokéball with Mawile in it. I actually think that's very understandable, but… I've committed. "What do you want, Poppy? Do you think… do you think your trainer can't make decisions?"

Avril looks flabbergasted, as she tries to mutter some words. Too bad I can't hear them, because Poppy just hits me in the face with her Fairy Wind. "P-Poppy, it's alright…" I finally recognize the girl's words, but her own Pokémon is not having it. "Looks like we may be able to fight for Mawile, uh?" I suggest.

"Which Pokémon will you use then?" Avril asks, perplexed.

"I…" Oh, right. They're all fainted. "I'll think of something."

"Please. If you really wanna settle this, then we can do it once we are actually safe…" The girl definitely has a point, and even if she is anything but confident in her delivery, I can see that she's right.

Just like I told her to 'hate me later', now it's her turn to make a statement in favor of reason, common sense, and teamwork. "Do you think…" she mutters. "Do you think we should just spend the night here?"

Finally, something I was actually not prepared for. My sleeping bag was still tucked away in my Fanclub Resort room alongside some of my spare clothes and shoes, all stuff that I wanted to leave out to have less weight on me. Why are all my plans so wonky?

"Let me just ask…" I whisper. "How tired are you?"

"I don't know? I'm not feeling this good but if I can d-do something m-more…" She starts talking quite fast.

"No, no, Avril, just… do you think you could walk all the way to the wall from here?"

"I don't know how far that is, who knows…"

"Then… we just take it safe I guess."

🌓🌓🌓

Avril has carried me a bit further away from the beach, in a more protected area where I can lay down on some leaves and have trees that protect the both of us from the wind. She's left me here with my backpack and some berries to munch on while she's still doing… something on the beach.

She's still close enough for me to keep an eye on her though. Her and Wisteria are seemingly battling against what looks like a wild Clamperl, who is just hitting Water Gun over and over, moving its two halves menacingly and keeping Inkay far away. Avril's Pokémon is just far more mobile, and able to pester Clamperl from a distance with Psybeam.

I wonder why Avril is even picking up fights at that point, but I let her be eventually. Yes, because I need time to think about… what the hell I'm doing. Now, I'm relying entirely on her since all my Pokémon are fainted and I can't walk anywhere without help… right after getting her hurt and lying to her just to go and get these stones I'm holding in my hand. She's not left me behind just out of pure kindness, and I'm exploiting said kindness instead of thanking her for it.

Technically there's nothing wrong with this. If she really is this kind to help me and let me keep all the rewards, then can I really stop her? And if she doesn't know how one-sided this deal is, I also can't stop her from accepting it. That is how basically all of advertising works… advertising. I'm feeling a little bad about this now - this word brings back memories.

I'm still so torn, though. I have the chance to get myself a Key Stone, a Mawile, and maybe even its own Mega Stone all at the same time, an opportunity I'll never get ever again in my lifetime. Why did it have to come to this, after everything that I had already done? I got down in a cave, got beaten up by a grumpy Aggron, almost took it down, probably stopped some other stone smugglers from getting their hands on my treasure… my treasure...

"Ugh!" I hit the tree near which I'm laying down, just out of pure frustration. I hear the leaves shaking, but that is not the only thing that falls down on my face. As I recover from the hit, I see some yellow eyes staring at me.

"Avril? Avril! Avril…!"

Aquacorde · Dec 1, 2020

Marie Rachelle Mocinno

AGE: 17 ⟡ PRONOUNS: she/her ⟡ HOME REGION: Johto ⟡ DEVICE: PokéGear
DATE: Monday, September 21 ⟡ TIME: midday
LOCATION: West Wilds

Chapter 2 #09 - Eggciting Expedition

Their entry to the western half of the island takes some time, as the overseeing Rangers give them an overview of the rules surrounding the area as well as point out certain things on Marie's map. Marie doesn't mind this at all, of course- she's fascinated by the measures that have been taken to limit the Wilds to human exposure, and wonders how well they have worked.

She'll have to read more about that later, as well as about the history of the arrangement itself. It's still odd, in her opinion, that the first settlers of Dewford chose not to build their town on ground more stable than beachy sand dunes. Unless they had, and over time the sand took over due to rampant deforestation and subsequent erosion. That's certainly a possibility.

It's something to look into.

But for now, her agenda is not to rush to the town hall or local library to sate her curiosity. Her agenda is to use the knowledge of the person beside her- Edison, who has displayed ability and understanding befitting someone who actually went to a trainers' school, who actually is prepared for the journey ahead, who actually came at this adventure with a purpose. All quite unlike Marie, who knows she's woefully behind Edison and those with similar experiences to him. So her plan is to catch up- and a crash course in how to deal with wild Pokémon seems like a good one to take. She's keeping an eye out as they make their way in a vague southerly direction, but she hasn't seen anything yet. Tuie, on her head, hasn't chirped to alert her of anything either. Then again, Tuie is probably asleep anyway.

"Am I blind, or are there just no Pokémon around here?"

Edison glances up from his Holotch, which is glitching slightly as he tries to read it. "You're not blind, you just need to go to where the Pokémon are. Remember, this part of the island is largely off limits to humans, so the Pokémon might be wary of our presence. As useful as the SCAN function is, the database has other uses, too."

He gets closer to Marie so she can see his screen. "See here? This is Meditite. They're usually found further north, by the cliffs. Down here in the lowlands, we're more likely to encounter Exeggcute or Makuhita, which are commonly found in the forest. Perhaps we should head there?"

"Ooh, your screen is not looking good. Let's go find an Exeggcute- I know what that one is, at least." She hadn't really meant to say that out loud. Oh well. Edison doesn't seem like a particularly judgemental person. She'll have to hold her tongue better than that, though, if she wants to keep up a facade in front of his girlfriend.

The vegetation grows close around them as they enter the forest proper, forcing Marie to lead them in single-file formation through the undergrowth.

"This is more the environment you want to look for." Edison lets Marie forge ahead, following behind her and checking the app. "The tricky thing about Exeggcute is that it's one mind spread over six bodies, so one could be anywhere around us, or even all around us, just lurking in the underbrush."

Marie pulls out her own phone, opening the map and finding the SCAN button saturated and ready to press. "So this is when we scan, then?"

"Yes, if you'd like. You can try your luck looking around, or the scan can help you look."

Marie hits the button as soon as Edison says "yes". Her eyes haven't caught anything yet, so she might as well try to scan. Once she selects Exeggcute from the menu, her phone pings softly in time with a gently pulsing arrow, which is pointing to their left.

"This way!" She cheers, and her abrupt left turn takes her directly into a tree. "Ow, um, okay- you didn't see that," she tells Edison, who hides a smile behind his hand before gesturing to the path with an "after you" motion. The pings get louder as they walk, and the arrow pulses with more fervor, until eventually Marie looks up from her phone and makes direct eye contact with a round, pink creature.

"Oh! ...Is this just one?"

"You've found one!" Edison congratulates her, still looking around, but more excited now. "The other bodies must be nearby. What will you do now? Observe it? Battle it? Try to capture it?"

Marie opens her mouth to reply, realizes she has no answer, and closes it again. "Hm. I kind of just wanted to find something with SCAN, but… I suppose I could catch it." The pink egg stares at her blankly. "Do I need all the bodies, though?"

"Actually, yes." Edison looks at his Holotch, rattling off information as though he'd memorized it. "A single body alone cannot survive, as it needs to be in a group of six to stabilize its psychic energy. The six bodies all share a single mind, which cannot awaken with only a single egg. If this is a singular egg, then it has limited brain function, and probably only recently fell from its parent Exeggutor. It is instinctively driven to find more bodies and awaken its mind, for without the full six, it will perish."

Nature. What a wild ride. "It doesn't look like it has much brain function. Would the SCAN find a lone egg?" Said egg still sits placidly on the forest floor, looking unfazed by the discussion going on above it. Marie picks it up and holds it at eye level. It's not heavy at all, but it's weirdly warm and… vibrates or pulses in some way. Something to do with organs, probably. Biology is not Marie's subject. But Edison is here to fill in the gaps.

He puts a hand to his chin, looking at the small egg in her hands. "Normally I'd say no, yet here we are. Perhaps the SCAN triggered a unique quirk of Exeggcute biology. This lone body was searching for others like it, and the SCAN may have confused it by sending out the exact same bio-acoustic signal. It thought your device was another Exeggcute, but there's nothing to psychically link up with, hence its catatonic state."

"I suppose it's only fair we help it find what it's looking for. We can use the SCAN app to find more, right? The arrow is still up."

"If we found one, we can probably find another!" Edison grins at the idea. "Let's give it a try. For science! And to help this Exeggcute."

Two tall humans can cover ground far more quickly than a lone, catatonic egg. It's not five minutes before Marie's phone pings more energetically once again, but she doesn't see anything this time- the ferns here obscure the path so well that they may not even be on a path anymore. And they cover the ground similarly as far as Marie can see.

"How are we supposed to find things in this mess?" she huffs.

"It's in this general area, right?" Edison checks her phone again, pinpointing where the pings are coming from. "Perhaps we just need to clear some bushes." He tosses a Poké Ball, sending out his Staryu, Aster. "Use Rapid Spin to clear some of the bushes here."

Aster leaps into action, spinning around like an oversized shuriken. Their limbs aren't sharp enough to actually cut anything, but they do manage to get tangled in the bushes, then spin fast enough to rip loose some vines. Aster proudly stands where a bush used to be, remnants of the plant still dangling from them, and another pink egg by their side. The egg on the ground and the egg in Marie's hands react to each other, and the grounded one hops closer to her. She thrusts her phone into Edison's hands to pick up their new find and the eggs become slightly more lively, wiggling enthusiastically.

"Okay, now which way?" Marie's suddenly determined to put this puzzle together- it's almost as if this Exeggcute is coming to life in her arms. And, she supposes, it would die if they left it- Edison had said so, right?

Edison recalls Aster, sending out a Magnemite instead. "Let's get a signal boost. Use your Supersonic, N.D.!" Edison hooks N.D. up to the phone, revealing more pings on Exeggcute. "Ignore the stronger signals, those will be fully formed Exeggcute. There are weaker signals over in this direction, so we'll head there first."

Their hunt continues, Edison now in the lead with Marie's phone as Marie's hands are full. A third egg deposited into Marie's arms has all three wiggling happily, making a valiant attempt to bounce out of her grasp, and a fourth is the trigger for gentle squeaking from each. But at that point, Marie has a problem.

"Edison."

"Hmm?" Edison glances up from the device, noticing Marie has her hands full. Literally and figuratively. "My, they're certainly lively now, aren't they?"

"Yes, and I'm not sure I'll be able to hold all of them. Shove this new guy in my backpack, will you? Actually, see if you can fit two in there."

"Right. They should be fine. I'm not sure of their range, but they can separate a little, as long as they stay within telepathy distance." He loosens the drawstring on her bag, taking an egg and putting it inside. It nestles in there comfortably, and Edison adds another beside it. "There we are. You might even get them to follow you if we can collect another one."

"Are they smart enough to do that?" The two still in her arms don't seem to take offense, so Marie assumes they're probably not.

"Probably not yet, but remember that Exeggcute are Psychic types, which by and large are among the smartest Pokémon. And there's another ping just up ahead!"

"Is it going to be smarter than me, then?" Marie's not sure how she feels about that, but follows Edison to scoop up the egg that rolls into their path. The three in her arms are beginning to show a rather childish personality- one seems to be complaining, while the other two gaze about with wonder. "Hey, these last two came to us, didn't they? Is that the psychic energy stuff?"

"It must be! Their nascent psychic energy is stronger than the SCAN, so their instincts are drawing them in. Imagine hearing a voice in a dream, calling you to come closer, and when you do, you wake up. It must be wonderful. Nature is so fascinating." Edison looks at the phone, moving forward into some bushes. Marie watches him. That was really sweet. It really is too bad he has a girlfriend.

"Hold on…" He picks up another egg from the ground, the top half broken off and exposing the soft yellow center. "I think we might be too late. This one is broken."

Marie moves forward with morbid curiosity. "Broken, like… dead?"

But as she leans in for a better look, Tuie wobbling on her head, the egg moves in his grip. It opens its eyes, looking at Marie, as Edison is holding it backwards. It jumps from his grip, evading him as he fumbles to catch it. The eggs in her arms and in her pack react with joy as the cracked egg hops over to her. "Oh, okay, okay-"

She crouches down to let the three in her arms joyously join their cracked fellow, and as soon as she loosens the strings of her backpack the other two spring out, dancing a circle around the rest. They cheer brightly, hopping in as much of a dance as eggs can. Edison hands Marie her phone as he approaches, the SCAN no longer searching for Exeggcute.

"We found all six! I'm sure we could have found a group already formed, but this is certainly a new experience! We helped make this happen." He watches the Exeggcute dance around themselves, but they move behind Marie as he approaches.

Marie snickers. Edison looks at her in confusion. She clears her throat. "Ah. I suppose you could say that we created new life." She glances behind her. "Hey, don't be afraid of him. He's nice. He's basically your dad." Two of the eggs poke their faces around her ankles, staring up at Edison.

"Well… they fell from a tree… tree-like Pokémon… I'm not exactly… hello." Edison stumbles over his words, earning a few giggles from Exeggcute. It moves as a pack now, swarming out from behind Marie to circle his feet curiously.

"Well, they wouldn't have come to life without you, right? So you're Dad and I'm Mom." Marie stands, smoothing out the creases in her pants. "So what do we do with our baby?"

"I, uh… there is logic in that, I guess." Edison puts his hand to his chin. "Well… dear… I believe this is your catch, so to speak. I already have one baby, and… they? They. Seem to prefer you, for the moment."

Marie's delight at Edsion's stilted attempt to play along comes through in her play-acting voice. "Children always prefer their primary caregiver at first, and I suppose I do fit the role! You'll have visitation rights, of course. I would never deprive our child of another parent. But our travels will take us in all directions before we inevitably settle down together to properly raise our family, so you're right, my dear. It will be best if I take on this responsibility." And with that, she fishes a PokéBall out of her bag. "Come along, cuties!"

The cracked egg, the last one they found, is the one to hop over and tap the button. The PokéBall activates, light encompassing all six forms and sucking them into the ball, which shakes only once as the eggs get used to their new home before they settle. Tuie cooes sleepily from atop her head, apparently approving of the addition.

"Of course. I'll be sure to arrange a… play date, with Addie. They should get to know their half-brother." Edison isn't quite meeting her eyes, but is at least playing along. And only a little red. Marie laughs, in a way that makes it clear that she is laughing with him this time.

"We should probably have each others' numbers to facilitate, shouldn't we?" It's been some time since Marie exchanged numbers with someone who isn't a prospective date. "At least, I should have yours. And I can text you when your Holotch is fixed."

Edison glances at his Holotch with a frustrated sigh as he puts his number into Marie's phone. "I will get it fixed." He promises, mostly to himself. "Speaking of which, I'd like to test it further."

He presses some buttons, starting up a SCAN. "Let's head… north. See what we find that way."

featuring Groc as Edison Kintobor ⟡

Spoiler: Team

Spoiler: Inventory

forg · Dec 3, 2020

Slateport [Sunday, Sept. 20]

The restaurants' opaque, stained glass windows graced the trio's rectangular table with emerald hues, disrupted only by the occasional bird. "Thank yeeeeew~," chirped an enthusiastic Koko, of which her eyes closed with every bite of her chicken alfredo parmesan. An infatuated Elliot sat across from her, next to a starving Emilio.

"Haha no problem!" Elliot began, fork lightly stabbing the spaghetti before him. "Thought maybe you were hungry after helping us paint all that."

"I sure as hell was," chimed in Emilio, devouring the lasagna caked in extra parmesan.

"Naaaah, really," Koko giggled out her response. She spoke with a full mouth, yet hid it from view with a single hand that hovered before her lips. "It's very nice of you to pay for my food. That's why I was looking at this stuff's prices and was like 'ayeee, so much, wow.' "

"Nah nah it's cool," reassured Elliot. Emilio snickered, wishing he said the same for their own meals. "You can get whatever you want, bud."

"Hehe thanks. It's super nice of you."

Emilio glanced over Elliot's way, lips pouting and mildly slamming his hands on the table with utensils pointing straight up within fists. "Heey, best friend, why won't you pay for myyyy food?" whined Emilio. With his plate half finished he was unfazed and lacking etiquette as tomato sauce smeared around his lips and utensils clinked against the ceramic plate with every bite.

Playful banter emerged from their table for the entirety of their one-hour stay at the small, local, italian restaurant. Koko continued to cover her wide grin, of which was fairly common at the table, an act that Elliot found adoring. Emilio often interrupted their string of random trivia with his own, quirky opinion.

"I never rode a Lapras… or anything," explained Koko as she finished her cold, cackling soda. "Actually… haha, kinda never got around to it… wait, uh sorta afraid I might fall, actually… now that I think about it-"

"Aw maaaan, you're missing out-"

"Hey. Hey. No," interjected Emilio, placing both hands between the two young adults. "I thought you said you're always on top of your Onix-"

"AaaaaAAAA! Yeah, you're right! Dang, I feel very silly hahaha-" Koko blurted out, flustered over the misinformation. Elliot laughed alongside her, yet only eliciting a snicker from Emilio.

"You almost bamboozled me there, Koko," Emilio continued on, eyeing the other two unfinished plates. In doing so Elliot offered his own, followed by Koko who reciprocated Elliot's kindness.

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

Elliot patted Koko's overecstatic Onix, their end of the tail wagging vigorously enough that Emilio stepped a few feet closer to its front end. It lifted itself and Koko high, the boys now having to look upwards.

"Thanks for the ride, Koko!" Elliot hollered with a hand cupped over his mouth. The other hand waved at the giggling young trainer still on top of her snake made of boulders. Emilio concurred with a thumbs up; his lack of participation in their conversations came about upon realizing his dear friend Elliot had gained a liking to Koko, thus his guilt whenever he ends up stealing her attention away from him.

Everybody went their separate ways. Koko left in the company of her steed whereas Elliot gave his parents a quick call as a reminder that, yes, he still lived. Emilio walked on home after waving his dear friend goodbye.

The trek that followed was quiet in comparison to the earlier day's events. As a result his Galarian Ponyta took notice, now somewhat worried.

Regardless she stay put as he arrived home. Upon washing his clothes & eating ramen the young man threw himself on to his bed, the Galarian Ponyta having been in the background during the entirety of Emilio's day.

That is, until now.

From inside the contents of the bag he had plopped on the end of his bed emerged Ponyta; her pokeball initially trembled and shook prior to releasing a bright display of neon red that formed Ponyta's outline.

She cried out to her socially-drained trainer. Nyaa. But unfortunately all that she managed to elicit out of him was a brief glance before laying his head back down on the soft blanket. Nyya-

"What is it?" he begrudgingly stated, fingers running through his locks. "What do you want?"

Having had enough, instead of a vocal response the Galarian Ponyta rummaged through the contents of his bag for her pokéball. This odd shuffling of items caused Emilio to sit up, albeit slowly, until Ponyta's action came into view. He leaned forward curiously.

"Hey… I said what do you- ey, what are you-" but he was cut short upon the sight of his Pokémon being enveloped in the pokéball's red light. Within the second she became one with the lightshow and vanished into the red and white glistening sphere.

For hours the mare did not emerge as she usually did. Not for food. Not for him. When he called for her presence she did not listen. She did not emerge. Not even a single tremble from the pokéball in the hours that proceeded her disappearance came about.

He grew puzzled as dusk arrived, yet dismissed his worries and slept away.

Emilio Estéban Grácia - featuring: Koko Puff

Eleanor · Dec 3, 2020

Avril Reese

16 - ♀ - Laverre City

with Hikaru

Pokémon / Inventory:

AVRIL'S MONEY: $7 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Flabebe) -♀- lv. 27 ↑
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Fairy Wind, Grassy Terrain, Lucky Chant, Wish, Magical Leaf

🌼 Hydrangea (Shellos) -♀- lv. 25
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)

🌼 Wisteria (Inkay) -♂- lv. 18 ↑
Infiltrator
Swagger, Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

HIKARU'S TEAM:
⚡ Rei (Tynamo) -♂- lv. 22
Levitate
Charge Beam, Spark, Thunder Wave, Tackle

⚡ Hoshi (Staryu) - lv. 19
Illuminate
Psywave, Rapid Spin, Bubble Beam, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Harden

⚡ Aruku (Clobbopus) -♀- lv. 18
Technician
Rock Smash, Leer, Feint, Detect, Bind

AVRIL'S INVENTORY:
🌼 Holotch (phone version)
🌼 Fanclub Membership card
🌼 Eviolite
🌼 Silk Scarf
🌼 Various clothes and commodities

AVRIL'S CONTACTS:
Jordie, Shuna, Natsuko, June, Marcella

AVRIL'S BADGES:
🥊
HIKARU'S BADGES:
🥊

🌼 Character art made with [SPAN="color:rgb(40,180,40);"]https://picrew.me/image_maker/94097[/SPAN]

Unwelcome luck

Monday, September 21^st - about 10 p.m. - Dewford Wilds / Town

I struggle to hear my name, because I'm too busy checking on Wisteria. He has come up with this wonderful idea of startling a Clamperl, who just washed upon the shore, and have it use Water Gun on him… as he's carrying one or two berries in his tentacles.

I finally get it - he's using that clean water that Clamperl is spouting out to actually wash the berries properly! Surely not the most effective way, but Wisteria deserves the credit for trying. He must've picked up on my musings about how salt water ruins the flavor, I suppose…

Now I have to look after Poppy, though. She's floating back towards Hikaru, leaving behind her a few Fairy Wind sparkles to show me the way. While Inkay is still… having fun with Clamperl, I guess, exchanging Psybeam and Water Gun, I walk back away from the sea to find Poppy throwing Magical Leaf at a small wild Pokémon.

"Hikaru? What happened here!?"

"Well this… Treecko, I believe, just jumped on me and started looking at me all angry. And it was trying to attack me as well so I punched it a couple times. Because I can't move anyway!"

"What?"

"Yeah, it was using Pound on me and being annoying so I fought back. I have no Pokémon anymore, you know?"

As Poppy and Treecko trade blows nearby, I look at Hikaru, more and more confused. "Why did it even do that?"

"I don't know!" He shrugs. "Some Pokémon do be like that. And you gotta be ready."

"I don't wanna believe it. Maybe…" I ponder my words. "Maybe you should just catch it and find out who Treecko really is."

"Why, who do you think it is, Avril?"

"No idea, but you might become friends and understand each other!" I remark. As cliché as it sounds, it has worked alright with Poppy…

Finally, after that exchange, Hikaru grabs a Pokéball from their backpack and gets ready to launch it, trying to see better. I help them get up to a sitting position, trying not to make pressure on their wound. "Poppy, can you come closer?" I call her out, and she complies, this way getting Treecko to follow her.

To the Grass-type's Mega Drain, Poppy answers with a Fairy Wind, which lets her float up and set herself free. She blows more Fairy Wind in Treecko's eyes before flying up some more. With a Pursuit, though, she's brought back to the ground.

A second Mega Drain hits her as she tries to fire off Magical Leaf, but it's not needed, as Treecko quickly disappears, morphing into some bright energy before being absorbed into Hikaru's last Pokéball.

The device remains shut as I pick it up, and give it back to Hikaru. "You definitely threw the ball this time. And your aim was perfect, unlike with me…"

"I… I got lucky." They seem to be winking. "Hope this streak of luck continues, so we can rest here."

I look up, trying to look for the moon in the sky and finding it behind some leafage. "Right, uhm… I'll go get Wisteria real fast."

I think Inkay is chuckling as I call him back. No surprise - he'd just used Hypnosis on that poor Clamperl as soon as he was tired of fighting it any longer. But now, it's time to sleep. I quickly recall Wisteria, get back to Hikaru, and just lay down next to them. "We…" I call them and give them a pat on their shoulder as I try to find a comfortable position. "We can do turns?"

"Hm… hmm… uh, ok. Guess I have to stay up then?"

"Yes please… Wake me up when you want to sleep. And… here are some clean berries." I hand all the berries that Wisteria "washed" to Hikaru.

I could have never imagined that one day, I was going to sleep on the ground. Not even when I decided to finally attempt a trainer's journey! And yet, it happened. Hikaru's backpack made for a… rough, uncomfy pillow, but a pillow nonetheless, and honestly I was just too tired to care. So I closed my eyes, as Hikaru talking to themselves aloud provided the lullaby. Soon enough I was sleeping like a rock.

🍂🍂🍂

Yaaaaaaaaaaaawn?

"Uhm, Avril? Wake up!"

"What is it this time…?"

Hikaru looks at me nervously, pointing their X-Transceiver's flashlight right onto me before turning around, discerning the shape of a rather big Pokémon looking over us. From on top of it, another person is pointing a flashlight at us. "H-hi there?"

"They found us? What- How-" I struggle to make a sentence. "They found us?"

"Well yes! Name's Myles, I'm the ranger from the checkpoint!" The boy explains.

"So... Y-you came all the way here for us? You didn't have to go through so much t-trouble..." I spew out, but Myles interrupts me. "Wanna see who's more in trouble?"

"Uh..." Hikaru groans from besides me. "You could've spared us from that. Shall we just... go now?"

Myles doesn't wait any longer, and in no time, we're both riding on the back of his Tropius. It's an experience that I can't even process, so scary and yet so mesmerizing! To be fair, not even Poppy is used to these heights when she's floating in the air - in fact, I do feel her fiddling with my hair and holding onto them as she chirps enthusiastically.The ride is just as soothing during the straight parts, as it's turbulent when Tropius tries to turn or change height, but the Pokémon still looks in control and doesn't do anything too sudden.

Soon enough we dismount right in front of the PokéCenter in Dewford Town, where another ranger - this time a girl - is waiting. She introduces herself as Tessa, but soon leaves the three of us there as she runs inside the building. That leaves Myles, who quickly explains the situation. "So, you were supposed to come back by the afternoon but didn't make it in time, and you didn't even have proper camping gear on you. So that's why I decided to come to the rescue and... it looks like you needed it."

"T-thanks..." A meek Hikaru replies, as I try to explain our situation. "Y-yeah, they can't walk. I'm mostly fine though, just tired."

"I saw..." Myles adds. "Tessa's getting the right devices to help you with that, boy." Of course, Hikaru grinds their teeth at that last remark.

"You instead... Avril, was it?" The ranger continues, and I nod for confirmation. "I can just give you a few bandages and you'll be ready to sleep comfortably! How does that sound?" Good, of course. I'm about to reply, but I feel someone touching my arm... it's just Hikaru.

"Avril! Before I forget… take these and deliver them." The trainer interrupts me, pulling out the berry pouch from their backpack. I'm getting more and more drowsy, as the cold gusts on my face are no longer here now that I'm back on the ground, but I still grab the pouch and put it on my one free shoulder. "For anything else, you can still… call me, alright?"

"Sure thing. Now where was I..." I pause for a bit. "Yes, we were staying at the Fanclub Resort."

"Not a problem, I can fly you there in no time!" Myles replies, finally giving me some sense of security. I'm up in the air just a couple seconds later, my mind entirely focused on the real bed that I will actually sleep in tonight. Only when it's too late, and they can't hear me anymore, I look back at Hikaru, who's crawling towards the PokéCenter's entrance with Tessa's help.

Take care, you...

Eleanor · Dec 4, 2020

Hikaru

18 - ✨ - Castelia City

Pokémon / Inventory:

HIKARU'S TEAM:
⚡ Rei (Tynamo), ♂ lv. 22
Levitate
Spark, Charge Beam, Tackle, Thunder Wave
⚡ Hoshi (Staryu), lv. 19
Illuminate
Psywave, Rapid Spin, Water Gun, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Harden
⚡ Aruku (Clobbopus), ♀ lv. 18
Technician
Rock Smash, Leer, Feint, Detect, Bind
⚡ Tsuga (Treecko), ♀ lv. 20
Overgrow
Mega Drain, Pursuit, Pound, Quick Attack, Quick Guard, Detect

HIKARU'S BADGES:
🥊

Broken in two, hurting as one

Someday after Monday 21^th - ??? - ???

After a long day at the office, nothing brings me more happiness than sliding in that key and taking some steps inside my house once again. Safe from work, I can take off this coat and this tie, and run in to greet my family who's been waiting for me. Finally I can blow off some steam and spend some time with the people I love.

Things start to take a darker turn when I don't hear my kids laughing, or the TV being turned on. On my couch I only see this man, wearing my usual office attire: white shirt, tie, trousers, everything looks the same. But he's also wearing a choker, earrings, and high heels... for some reason. Disgusting, if you ask me… not to mention the bright blue hair on his head. Those items, those hair, and especially those eyes… are somehow captivating, but not in a good way.

"How's life treating you, dear?" He begins, and that voice nearly makes me jump.

"Pretty good, why?" I reply, realizing that I sound identical to him. "I have everything I could wish for."

"You have? Don't make me laugh." He points out, sarcastically. "All your life you've been a brown-nose."

"You mean I'm just not as selfish and self-absorbed as you are." I try to keep my tone collected and detached.

"And nowhere near as interesting. You're just boring."

"Who said being boring is bad? I'm settled in life now."

"You just wasted your best years… what a fool."

I look at him with cold, empty eyes, to which he responds with a fiery gaze and a slightly disturbing smirk.

🏙️🏙️🏙️

Time has stopped ever since I've laid down on this bed. The stitches on my wounded leg will have to stay there for a while, or so I'm told, and this is the only way to ensure a fast recovery…

"Nathan?" A nurse calls. "How are you feeling?"

I'm about to remind her that my name is Hikaru, just like yesterday, but I end up not doing that this time. I'm too busy trying to imagine this conversation, and this has got me thinking over a lot of stuff. "Pretty good, thanks." I reply hastily, to which she announces that lunch is coming soon.

It's not the first time that these thoughts resurface - for years I've just been trying to depict my adult life, either as Nathan or as Hikaru. The difference being, following my family's life plan to the letter or throwing it out of the window to become an entirely different person. It was an interesting perspective at first, but it became even more deep when I was a couple months into my little blog. Because that's when I realized that I was truly creating an online persona.

I, a fourteen years old Nathan, basically a carbon copy of my father, had just created a different… entity with a different personality. Probably, the one I could only wish to have. The difference between my blog posts and my school work was definitely evident. Soon enough I gave this entity a proper name, Hikaru - but the appearance and especially the gender came only way later.

Yes, because if you fast-forward a bit, then you can see how Hikaru wasn't just my persona. Hikaru was bleeding into me and taking control, almost. I would just start disobeying my parents and feeling so good about it, like I could only be myself when they were away. I swear I wasn't just acting, also, because Hikaru got me in trouble many more times than I like to admit. Hikaru was the one who made me learn how to use a skateboard, Hikaru was the one who made me almost snap my ankle when I tried high heels at that weird party, Hikaru was the one who made me explore the Castelia Sewers.

As time passed, Hikaru was turning more and more into an actual person. Well, sort of… their appearance was all over the place, their gender was not well defined, their goals were unrealistic and very present-oriented. I - as in Nathan - was just starting to feel like a vessel, a body that belonged to Hikaru and Hikaru only. They had to learn how to get by in the family they found themselves in, trying to avoid too much trouble and working for their desires while still accomplishing them… and really, that felt like having two parallel lives more than anything.

This is when I received my first Pokémon, Rei - which I was given by an older trainer with the promise of getting my hands on a rare, powerful creature. Look, we all know how that turned out. But becoming Rei's friend has been a beautiful adventure for both, well, Nathan and Hikaru. And this has brought about another moment of epiphany.

Hikaru and Nathan are just the same person. I believed this for the longest time, but there's no such thing as just one being in total control while the other spectates. I felt like I was being split in two, sure - working on a blog sure makes you feel that way, you know… online and offline versions of yourself - but that can't be the case!

I simply like to headbutt and argue with people, because it lets you be yourself. You learn more about you, your limits, your goals, and you learn to fend off for yourself without having anyone enforce their views on you. And this couldn't make more sense because I like standing out amongst the crowd, I like being different, I like living to the fullest, and I like surrounding myself with like-minded people.
I also like to be more responsible though. Thinking about the future, keeping my dignity and my self-appreciation high, genuinely impressing people and getting back the same feelings from others, and caring about others.

Those two identities don't need to be separate, because they can't be separate. They come from the same mind, from the same person, no matter how hard I try to deny it. It may have been evident before, but the moment when I truly realized this was the cave adventure with Avril. All the feelings I've experienced there, either good or bad, are too special to dismiss.

Who am I in the end? Just Hikaru, actually. Feels more like me, and gives me more freedom. I'm more accepting, more interesting, more charming even, than I could ever be if I'd never started on this path. I'm male and I'm also female, and it feels amazing. But whatever I do or wherever I go, I know Nathan's here as well.

"Here's your lunch, Nathan!" The nurse comes in again, bringing all my food right over my bed and helping me get up.

"It's Hikaru, thanks."

[PKMN FULL] Hoenn: Square One [IC]

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