[PKMN FULL] Hoenn: Square One [IC]

[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Fanclub Beach House, Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Sunday, September 20th​

Chapter 2 - 4
Cave of Absolute Despair - Part 1
Ft. Katrina Purcell​

Damn, this was looking like a good day indeed. I yawned while stretching my body as I looked outside the window.

It's been a while since I had such a great sleep, I didn't even remember when was the last time I chose to sleep again after knowing it was already past seven in the morning.

I changed my clothes to something that's much more presentable and went straight to the nearby eatery. it's unfortunate, but I've missed my complimentary meal so yeah… It's not like I have any other choice.

The food was kinda so-so, I guess. I mean compared to the foods I enjoyed back in Slateport, this didn't have the same taste profile. Did it have something to do with Slateport being a tourist spot? Maybe? I'm not a food critic, I knew absolutely nothing except what is good and what is better.

I opened my Holotch to find information about varieties of Coffee Beans on the internet. I mean if I could make Callie impressed why not, right? Although there was a higher chance of me accidentally embarrassing myself with the shallow knowledge I was going to bring while helping her, the thought of learning it was fun, it's been quite a while that I laughed while thinking about something I'm about to learn without feeling burdened at all.

So I connected my DIY Holotch to the internet, only to find one message. It was from Kat.

Maybe she was asking for forgiveness after what happened yesterday? That's the most probable reason I could think of why she messaged me. I hoped that it wasn't the case though, especially since it was my fault that the situation between us had turned awkward.

So, I opened the chat message… Only to furrow my brow when I saw the content of the message.

Hi Jack! I hope this message finds you well. I decided to enter the depths of Granite Cave because I heard the rumor that we could find Key Stone inside the deep ends of it. Don't worry, I'll be fine by myself. Hopefully, if you decide to enter this place, you'll find a Key Stone too.

Oh yeah, I'm sorry for yesterday. Thanks for helping me along the way while being patient about it, I really appreciate that you are here with me.

With warm regards,

Kat.

What is this, why did she write a message like she was writing a letter, and most importantly I really didn't like the sound of this message. Granite Cave? Depths? Did she even know that she would also need a Mega Stone that corresponds to a certain Pokemon to do a Mega Evolution? Okay, forget about the last part for now. But I still didn't like how the first two words sounded.

"Uh, Sir? May I bother you with some questions?"

"Oh sure lad, just hit me with what you're curious about." The man behind the counter seemed eager to answer the question I had.

"What do you know about the depths of Granite Cave?"

The man grimaced while shaking his head. "Yikes lad, not a good place. I mean there's a reason why the rangers had kept it off-limits."

"Off-Limits!?" I couldn't help but raise my voice at this realization.

"Yeah, I mean… Like you could be lost for hours inside that maze-like caverns. Not to mention the chasms, risk of asphyxiation, the fragile cave ceilings, and I mean you could possibly be mauled by an angry Aggron, so yeah it's not good… Uh, you okay?"

"...May I ask for my bills, please?" I asked in a grave tone.

My heart sank lower and lower when the man said about the dangers Katrina could possibly encounter inside the caverns. I wolfed down my meal as fast as I could and ran back towards my room to grab whatever necessities I deemed needed on my search effort. There was not much time available on my hands so I just rushed the process and hoped that nothing bad would happen.

I didn't have the time to take a bath either, so I decided that a little spray of perfume was the way to go. I really wanted to take a bath, but what could I do?

Just when I was about to finish packing my bags, my Holotch suddenly vibrated. It was a call from Callie.

"Hi Arthur~ I sup—"

"Sorry Callie, I don't think I'll be able to come. Uh… There's an emergency… And uh…"

"Calm down, Arthur! Please tell me what's happening…"

"My friend Katrina had entered the depths of Granite Cave alone, I… I am worried that she would get lost inside it."

"Okay, but here's the thing Arthur, you must no—"

The call got cut off suddenly. There must've been something that happened on the other side of the call. But there was no time to ponder about that.

The moment I arrived at Granite Cave, I realized that this rescue mission could be even harder than expected. I knew nothing about the hidden routes to go inside which left me with no choice to enter with the tour group provided by the Rangers.

If I could be honest, this was probably the hardest test of patience I had ever experienced. Even worse than fixing Uncle Kirk's test machine that he broke three times in a single day.

I managed to bail when not even 10 minutes had elapsed from the start of the tour. What the hell was wrong with those rangers!? Are they were underpaid or just plain dumb? I couldn't wrap my head on how easy it was to slip through their surveillance. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if there are more people than just me and Kat that managed to escape their supposedly 'strict supervision'.

I got a Water Stone for my troubles but that wasn't the utmost priority of mine right now. I had to quickly find Kat before something happened to her.

After more than an hour had passed since I went inside, I could see why this place was off-limits. To say the path I've chosen was not up to standard was an understatement of the highest order.

Steep slopes that would kill the legs of an indoor person? Check. Really hard to traverse narrow pathways? Check. Sharp rock formations that would make some ugly gash wound if I'm not careful? Check. Dangerous wild Pokemon? Uh… Maybe?

I mean most of the Pokemon here were surprisingly not violent, or at least those I met. Most of them looked at me and my team with a cautious glance before continuing with their own business.

Not the Mawile species though, fuck them!

I had to deal with several of them attacking our party out of nowhere along my way.

With how cramped the tunnel was. Fighting against them was a severely dangerous endeavor where with every move we made, there's a chance that we might cause the tunnel to collapse on us. Not to mention how the branching paths inside this cavern enabled hostile Pokemon to make a pincer attack on us which adds much more danger than what I would've liked.

Which severely undermined Braveheart who relied on its physical capability to dish out punishment. I mean that large frame it had was a liability in itself, so much so that it couldn't even bend its arm properly without hitting the wall several times during our skirmish with relentless attackers.

But at the same time, it was really hard for them to attack without getting hit by Zen Headbutt. The narrow corridors really had their plus and minus.

Muchorin also thrived really well in this environment as its acrobatic tendencies came into full bloom once more with it using the rock walls to evade and launch attacks at advantageous angles. Flame Wheel and Incinerate for days was definitely the way to go.

Kaplan… Didn't really like being inside a cave, which was predictable as it's a flying Pokemon that wouldn't enjoy the restriction of a cave. But he managed well with a little encouragement from me. Especially with how he used Icy Wind and Supersonic to hinder the movement of those pesky Mawile.

After a few battles, I eventually ran a formation of Kaplan and Muchorin in the front row while Braveheart protected our rear. This formation not only prevented the huge Iron Claw Pokemon from accidentally getting hit by friendly fire but also helped me to be calmer as I didn't have to deal with Mawile lunging towards me from the rear.

I really didn't want to see another Mawile anymore after almost getting blindsided… Thrice.

Several hours elapsed and even my leg which was already well used to exercising was feeling the toll of this ridiculously arduous route. Even with several rest breaks I took, this was just too extreme for me.

I failed to rein in my emotions and now I had to deal with consequences. Yet at the same time, all that occupied my thought at the time was how was Kat doing inside this horrible place. If my hunch is correct then, it's more the reasons to rush to her aid.

"Why did I go here without a solid plan…" I muttered in irritation.

"Because you're stupid, that's why."

"True… WAIT, WHAT THE F—"

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One hour ago, in another part of the tunnel

I couldn't go anymore. I could barely feel my left leg anymore and my right leg wasn't much better either.

Both my newly caught Aron and Garnet went out of commission just two minutes ago as waves upon waves of wild Pokemon seemed too much to handle even by the coordination of my three Pokemon.

Only Aurora remained and with our only light source gone entirely, we hugged each other as we spent what we thought was the last moments of our life.

I couldn't help but be reduced to tears with this realization. If only I wasn't so stubborn to enter this cave alone, If only I was patient and waited until I got the full picture of how dangerous this place was before entering, If only…

Regrets filled my head as tears flowed down both of our eyes. I didn't even manage to say sorry to Jack even before this.

Please, if there's someone out there. Please save us! Even if I couldn't survive, please save my Pokemon. I pleaded with desperation.

Our tearful embrace was interrupted as we could see dim light shined on the floor in front of us. It seemed that it came from the corner, which meant that it was probably emitted by a wild Pokemon. And so I tried my best to stop myself from shaking and held Aurora tightly in my arms. If someone had to survive then let it be her…

The light slowly turned brighter as the Pokemon in question approached us that were trying to hide ourselves away from its sight.

It became brighter…

And brighter…

And even more brighter…

The Pokemon in question finally appeared in front of us.

But contrary to our expectations...

The light came from the eyes of a small Pokemon that floated in the air, it had a small body yet at the same time it had a really long tail for its stature.

"Chii~" It turned its back and started to yell. It was definitely calling for someone. And sure enough, not long after a big Pokemon appeared. It was an Arcanine, but it had someone riding on it.

"Shush, Maddie. You shouldn't be too loud in a place— Ahhh! here you are! I'm glad that I didn't come late."
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[Groc]

Natsuko Soyokaze
Tuesday, September 22nd, almost noon
Dewford Town Pokémon Center

---

Tsu looks over the corkboard at the Pokémon Center, hoping to find an odd job to spend her day on, but nothing stands out. Obviously there's nothing that will pay what she needs in one fell swoop, and she's not entirely confident she could complete such a task even if it existed. Her new Knuckle Badge was a huge boost in confidence, but there's only so far you can go on determination alone.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe… catch a Persian by the toe… if he Screeches, let him… this isn't getting me anywhere!" She clutches her head in frustration, earning a few surprised looks from her outburst. "Oh, uh… sorry!" She lowers her hat, ducking her head in embarrassment as she heads for the door.

...and promptly runs into someone as they walk inside, bumping her head against their chin.

"Ouch! Hey, watch where you're… Tsu?" The angry voice cuts off with recognition, and Tsu looks up to see Sunny Dey, while her friend Ed holds the door open.

"Oh my gosh, Sunny, I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking, and I was hurrying…"

"It's fine, I'm fine." Sunny brushes it off, leaning against the other, still closed door. "What's the hurry?"

"Sunny, maybe don't block the door?" Ed speaks up from outside.

"Huh? Oh, sure." She comes inside, taking Tsu's arm and leading her to the vending machines. "You in a rush to go somewhere?"

Tsu glances back at the door, noticing Ed head toward the nurse. The others inside have gone back to their own business, so she follows Sunny. "Not really. I just don't know what to do next. Nothing really speaks to me, y'know?"

"Sure, sure…" Sunny pops open a can of Soda. "Maybe you need a change of scenery. Eddie just finished up at the Gym, so once he's done getting his team a check-up, we're headed off on the ferry. Why don't you come with us? You could tell Eddie all about your Contest that he missed!"

Tsu frowns at the mention of her Contest, but forces herself to think of something else. She doesn't blame the Duchess for what happened, but she hasn't spent much time with her since she evolved, either. She should probably fix that, actually… Don't want to leave a Gyarados feeling put out or anything!

"Sure, I guess… could be fun! I think the ferry goes to Petalburg, right? I bet there's plenty to do there."

"That's the spirit!" Sunny playfully punches Tsu's arm. It hurts. "Better than just sitting around in that hotel all day, at any rate."

Oh. The Resort… Tsu makes a mental note to give Sir Bill a call later. She'll feel bad if she doesn't give him a proper goodbye.

"Yeah… I'm gonna grab a brochure, see what we can do when we get there." She heads back to the information station, finding the reading material she's looking for just as Ed comes back over from the desk.

"Right. Fully restored, even Addie." Ed touches one of his Poké Balls, maybe a bit protectively. "Ready to go?"

"Sure am! How about you, Tsu?" Sunny looks past Ed and directly at Tsu, to Ed's slight confusion.

"Yeah, I guess. We're leaving now?" She folds up the brochure, tucking it into her skirt pocket. Sunny doesn't bother answering, so Tsu hurries to catch up to her as Ed politely holds the door for them. "Oh… thanks!"

Ed touches his forehead in acknowledgment, as though tipping his hat to her. Except he doesn't have a hat, so he just looks silly. It's enough to make Tsu chuckle, which makes Ed smile.

"Hey! Quit standing around, we got a boat to catch!" Sunny calls back, looking annoyed. Too annoyed, maybe… Tsu hurries forward rather than dwell on it.


☆☆Soon! At the docks!☆☆


Despite Sunny's impatience, the trio arrive at the docks with plenty of time to spare. In fact, they have to wait to board. Tsu would complain, because at least they could have grabbed a free lunch at the Pokémon Center, but she's basically their guest right now. It would be rude.

Luckily, there's a food truck parked outside, and Ed volunteers to grab some sandwiches. He's oddly protective of them on the way back, and kept checking the sky as he walked. When Tsu asks what he's looking for, his only reply is, "Wingulls. They're all over the beaches here…"

Tsu is confident she hasn't seen a single Wingull since she arrived, and that maybe Ed is just paranoid. She chooses to ignore it, because he's a funny kind of weird, and still a nice guy. She starts telling him about the Contest, and he's very interested to hear about it. Sunny jokes that he should have been there, and it was better in person, but pulls out her phone to show him the video.

The signal to board sounds partway through, so Tsu hurriedly stands. "Oh, it's time! Let's go, we want good seats, right? Ha ha!" This time she leads the way, and it's them who have to catch up to her. She grabs a seat near the back, one with a nice view of the water. They all have a nice view, but still.

"Edison!" a cheerful voice calls out, and a tall girl in capris and a loose top strides past Sunny to take a seat next to Ed. "I didn't know you were leaving today, too!"

"You again?!" Sunny is shocked, while Ed offers a friendly wave.

"Hello, Miss Marie! Fancy seeing you here. Taking the ferry was a bit of a surprise for me, as well. Sort of a last minute decision."

Marie relaxes into the ferry seat as if she owns the place, angling her body fully toward Ed and giving Sunny only the barest acknowledgement in the form of a lazy wave. "I have to assume you took on Brawly, then. Are we tied?"

"Hey!" Sunny stands over Marie, glaring. "You're in my seat. I want to sit by Eddie."

Ed looks at Sunny, shaking his head slightly. "Let's not fight again… Remember last time? This works out better, we won't have to compete for leg room."

Marie hums in tones of smug agreement, which has Sunny bristling. Tsu knows an argument when she sees one, moving to defuse it. "You can sit by me, Sunny! These ferries can get kind of cramped!"

Sunny glares for a moment longer, but relents, sitting next to Tsu, across from Marie. "Fine. If you all think it's best…"

Ed nods slightly to Tsu. A sign of thanks? He looks back at Marie, pulling a small box from his pocket. "And yes, I did challenge Brawly. Just this morning, in fact. Not quite the outcome I expected, but a win nonetheless." He opens the box, showing the Knuckle Badge held inside. It's neat, and Tsu considers getting a display case of her own... "And you? I take it you won as well?"

"First badge!" Marie confirms. "Weird outcome, sure, but our son did well. I suppose this means Sunny still has an edge on us, though? Two to our one?"

"Hang on, your what?!" Sunny looks between the two in shock. "It's a long story…" Ed chuckles a bit, while Marie grins and offers no further context. Tsu can tell this will be a long ride at this rate.

"I got the badge, too! So I guess I'm tied with you two!" Tsu fishes the badge from her pocket, showing it off. Marie claps her hands together.

"Wonderful! Another for our little contest, and all three of us on the same level! Maybe next we'll even manage to overtake Sunny and her two badges." Marie laughs, a bright, quick sound.

Sunny looks away from Marie, frowning slightly. Tsu laughs nervously, hoping to draw attention to herself. "Yeah, who knows? Brawly sure was tough, though! Guess we're all just that good, am I right?"

Marie finally looks at Tsu properly, scrutinizing her for a split second. Her lip curls up at the corners in a little smirk. "We must be. Brawly said I had guts, at least. That kind of complement comes with winning a triple battle, I suppose."

"Wow, a triple battle? That sounds complicated! I just fought him one on one. But he said I had potential, and good luck."

"Yes, I would've liked to see that as well…" Ed puts his hand to his chin. "Commanding all three at once, you've grown more bold since our training at the beach."

"Well, I've got a rival to beat!" Marie winks at Ed, who tilts his head slightly in confusion.

"I suppose you do. Friendly rivals, of course. I mostly won through luck, I'll admit. But I guess I should step up my game to get to your level, Marie."

"Oh, come on!" Sunny protests. "Eddie, you're my rival, remember? You can't just steal my rival from me!"

"Oh, but Sunny… you're the one that said we should be rivals, remember?" Marie crosses her long legs in front of her and locks hands behind her head, leaning back in her seat. "You paired us together; blessed our union yourself."

Wow. No double meaning there, not at all… "Well, they're both good at Pokémon battles. They fought really well together. Maybe all three of you can be rivals?"

Sunny glares over at Tsu this time. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

Tsu raises her hands slightly at the glare. "No one's! Just saying it's a possibility!"

"Not a bad idea, actually…" Ed nods to Tsu. "Sunny and I pushed each other to where we are now, and if having one rival is a good motivation, imagine how effective having two could be. Logically, it makes sense."

"And if being included makes Sunny feel better, I'm happy to do so," Marie says graciously.

Sunny looks like she's about to say something, but just folds her arms and looks away with a petulant "Tch." Tsu pulls out her brochure, hiding behind it while Sunny seethes and ignores the others.

It's going to be a long ride, indeed...

A joint post between Groc and Aquacorde.

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Granite Cave
Pokemon at hand :

Sunday, September 20th​

Chapter 2 - 5
Cave of Absolute Despair - Part 2​

"Pfft… Hahaha, you should've seen your expression earlier." The man walking beside me laughed heartily. He seemed to be very pleased to be able to surprise me, thankfully it was in a good way.

"I mean like, you came out from nowhere."

"Phew, well… At least your savior is finally here. Aren't you glad to see me?"

The man beside me smiled widely, even with the dim light from my flashlight I could see him and his unique attire. Unlike before dawn, he was wearing short white pants and blue floral patterned shirt with two buttons unbuttoned, the look was perfected with a pair of slip-on shoes and a white brimmed fedora hat. Although, he could do without the white fanny pack.

He looked like a supermodel on vacation since this outfit accentuated his athletic body, that or an Alolan tourist. With the fanny pack, it's probably the latter. The first words that were uttered from my mouth weren't really a compliment though.

"Why are you dressed like you're going to the beach, Vincent?"

He clicked his tongue before looking towards me. "Because I WAS at the beach! You know, sipping my cold beverages while enjoying the beautiful view under the parasol… Until a certain girl screamed her lungs out at me for not turning on my Holotch."

"Why didn't you, though? Didn't you tell me that you had a job to do?" I glanced at him with skepticism painted on my face.

"Let's just say there's a reason why you shouldn't accept a job until you inked the black over the white. Well, enough of this…" He snapped his fingers to call the Pokemon that had been acting as our tour guide to turn our way.

"Most importantly, I would like to introduce you to your real savior, say hi Perorin!" The Pokemon waved towards us with a warm smile before turning his attention back to finding the way out.

"So you have a Slurpuff, huh?"

"It's Callie's to be exact, so if you want to thank someone. Thank her after we got out of here."

I bowed slightly to say thank you to it, which was met by her rubbing the back of her head as she smiled bashfully. However, I suddenly remembered something much more important than this.

"Wait, how about Kat!? Is she okay!?"

"Calm down, Arthur… I've sent an acquaintance after her. It'll be easy to find her considering the Pokemon that person has in hand, I mean Arcanine compared to Slurpuff? Finding her would be a ci— Oh, sorry Perorin, I didn't mean to—"

I fell down to my knees with a sense of relief. Our journey was delayed for a bit as Perorin was… 'not happy' at Vincent's words to say at least. It took Vincent literally begging for her and a bit of help from the Poffins Vincent kept inside his fanny pack to coax her into continuing her duties.

After a while had passed our conversation continued, and just like last time, it was me who initiated it.

"How did you find us? I mean the fact you brought up Slurpuff and Arcanine in our conversation meant that you used smell to track us down, but how did you know our smell when you— Oh…"

Vincent pulled out a familiar bottle of fragrance from his fanny pack before I managed to finish talking. He waggled my bottle of perfume in front of my eyes. No wonder he could find both of us pretty easily, I bet he used the same method to find Katrina too.

"Well, technically she also sniffed your pillow and the shampoo in your room… We had no choice but to ask the staff for your room keys, so, I hope you didn't mind."

I shook my head. Of course, I didn't, if it weren't for that, I would probably be lost forever inside this horrid cave.

Our journey continued inside this maze with occasional rest taken between them. It's nothing too long, but it was enough for me. Thank goodness that I frequently exercised, otherwise I might be huffing and puffing like a Qwilfish right now.

But I'm actually impressed with how Vincent handled his way through this rugged terrain. He was using a slip on shoes, but the way I saw it, he was navigating around the rocks without any noticeable problem.

Not to mention the fact that none of the Pokemon around here dare to approach us at all. Judging from my Pokemon's initial avertness to Vincent, it must be the effect of Repel. Even with the few things he brought, it seemed that he was experienced in traveling in caverns like this. My curiosity took over and I couldn't help but to ask Vincent about it.

"You're really good at this, huh Vincent?"

"Good at what?"

"At traversing these kinds of caves."

"Well I mean, this is nothing compared to Mount Coronet, so yeah…" He shrugged nonchalantly.

I didn't expect to hear the name of the highest mountain in Sinnoh to be namedropped by Vincent. As far as I knew, it wasn't a pleasant place to traverse either.

"You've been there before, Vincent?"

"Yeah, I was there as an outside expert for a research project, but at the same time, I was also the escort for the rest of the team… It was fun, though. Not to mention I was getting paid double as a researcher and as their bodyguard, so no complaints there. Oh look, we're finally here."

"Wait, this is!? Won't we get in trouble?"

The place where we arrived was the safer area we went through at the beginning, which was easy to notice by seeing the lights installed on the walls. The rangers didn't see me slip out from their surveillance earlier, yeah. But I doubted the idea that we would be able to escape this place without being seen by them.

"Well, we couldn't really use another exit other than this one since this was the only place Perorin smelled before entering the cave. Besides, Callie has some connections around here, you don't have to worry about anything." He smugly smiled to convince me before walking through the ranger that was guiding a group touring inside the cave, he acted like they didn't even exist in the first place.

I followed him and the Ranger only politely bowed towards me before continuing with his duties.

I was in utter disbelief. What kind of sway did Callie have against these rangers? I couldn't think of a reason why she could influence them to let us go off the hook, she looked like an ordinary girl from outside.

I guess looks can be deceiving indeed. I thought as I stared silently at Vincent.

And so the horrible journey of mine ended. I would never, ever, ever! Step my leg inside that god-awful place ever again!
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[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Remains of S.S. Tidal Wave, Littleroot Passage
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 6
A Trainer's Life for Me - Part 1​

Arrr~♫
Once lived a lad named Arthur~♫
Gone past midnight for a Pokemon~♫
Bravely going through the haunted ship~♫
Search through it, Arthur, search~♫

Vincent jollily sang his made-up version of a sea shanty while making a binocular-like gesture with his two arms, all while Cody on his shoulder chirped and clapped in enjoyment to his trainer's song. "Come on Callie, sing with us!"

"I'm not childish enough to do that, sorry..." Callie shook his head while covering her eyes from the embarrassing sight.

Vincent grinned mischievously before continuing his antics. "Booo!"

Callie is a wet blanket~♫
Callie is a wet blanket~♫

"Pfft… Oh please, I'm not so easily—"

"Callie... wets... her... blanket..." Vincent spoke really slowly before his expression turned into a wide grin. Meanwhile, Callie froze in place before her expression turned into rage after processing what just happened.

"You're so dead, V!!!"

Callie chased Vincent who ran in circles around the deck to avoid her. It wasn't long until she caught up with him and started to pull his hair while Cody tried his best to hold on Vincent's shoulder to avoid getting thrown overboard. All while I watched their antics, speechless without being able to say a word. Yet, I couldn't stop myself from showing a grin on my face.

How did I end up here, you might ask?

It all started when I couldn't sleep again after taking a long nap to relieve my exhaustion. It was 11 o'clock at night, and I didn't know what to do other than to visit Happily Ever After. After all, unlike my initial prediction, my legs actually felt okay after I woke up, although that might be because of the pain relief gel Vincent gave me before I went to sleep. My legs were cold as hell, but it works really well.

There I met both Vincent and Callie who were kind enough to help me think of what to do next. Yeah, rest is important but I couldn't neglect the exact reason why I came here in the first place. The fact that my spirits were better than what they were a long time ago also became the reason why I decided to argue against them who wanted to keep me here so I wouldn't overexert my legs.

So they told me everything I had to know about the abandoned ship here, but then decided tag along just in case something happened. Although Vincent also said it might be a good time to go on a trip with Callie for old time's sake. I didn't understand what they said by 'old time's sake' but I'm quite happy that they were willing to help me.

And so we waited for several hours after that, Vincent told me that the ship was used for tourist attraction until midnight unless we wanted to pay the touring fee, which we don't. So after Callie closed the shop, we all went to this ship where that happened.

Callie was pouting in the aftermath of Vincent's teasing before he hugged her, Cody was also joining in the hug, and not long after...

"Hey, Arthur what are you doing? Come, join us here!"

"Why should I?"

"Just come here!"

The four of us did a group hug together, it felt really warm in this cold weather. It felt really nice to have a group hug with them. Although I wasn't brave enough to tell them that to their face.

"Okay! Let's continue the journey! But before that…" Vincent put his hand forward.

"Been a while since I did this…" Callie put her hand on the pile also .

Meanwhile, Cody tried his best to crept on Vincent's arm to avoid falling before barely able to put his hand in the stack.

This time I didn't need any other sign from either of them to put my hand in the stack.

"Aight, we scream go in the end, alright!? Come on, 1, 2—"

"GO!" Callie raised her hand and yelled before Vincent managed to say 3, causing Cody who was not ready to tumble down the deck floor.

"Really, Callie? Really?"

"W...Well, I am sorry, I didn't mean to— Aaaa!" Callie's cheeks were pinched by Vincent who was laughing at her. Cody also joined the fun as he climbed her back to pinch her cheeks.

The pair bickered again but this time I was unable to hold my laugh. The other three members of the party turned their sight towards me before smiling.

And so we began our search of the Pokemon I wanted with high spirits. Hopefully, it would equate to finding the Pokemon I needed, because otherwise… Nah, I shouldn't think so. We will find it. Definitely.
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[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Littleroot Passage
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 7
A Trainer's Life for Me - Part 2​

"Damn I couldn't find one here either… I opened one of the rooms in one of the shipwrecks only to be disappointed as there's not even a single sign that pointed to the location of the Pokemon I was trying to catch.

I walked outside while feeling a bit dejected.

"Yep, this is also a bust." Vincent came out from a room beside me while scratching his head.

"Same!" Callie shared the same sentiment from the room next to Vincent's room.

It seemed that our search on S.S. Fair Lady was a bust, and so we regrouped at what remained of the ship's deck area.

"These squeaky floorboards make me feel really uneasy…"

"Well at least they're usable for doing the fabled 'walk the plank'," Vincent chuckled at his pirate reference once more.

"If you broke your legs this time I swear…"

"I know, I know… I'll be careful this time." Vincent's tone changed as he heard the sentiment shared by the worried Callie. Unlike the playful tone he exhibited back since the cave tunnel, it was more like the first time we met where he exuded a calming yet dignified aura.

"As much as I love to roleplay as a pirate, I'd rather stay in Happily Ever After while enjoying my warm beverage, so let's quickly wrap it up, shall we? Time to lean on modern technology, if you catch my drift."

I totally understood what he was trying to say, so I rummaged through my bag to grab my Pokedex, and soon after I got it, I didn't waste any time and immediately used the scanning function of the Pokedex, and I got positive feedback. It was weak, but the Pokemon I wanted was within the vicinity of our current spot.

I quickly pointed the direction of the scanning result to Vincent who happily used the binoculars he brought while humming to pinpoint the direction. It was an easy task to do I thought, especially with how well-versed he was in traversing the mountain which made me quite sure of his ability to pinpoint the right shipwreck. But after a few times alternating between my Pokedex and the binoculars, I was starting to feel nervous.

Callie quickly grabbed the binoculars just in case something was wrong, but after she looked at the point my Pokedex pointed, her expression also went pale.

"It's not that ship, right?"

"Uh… I would love it if it's not the case, but it's uh… I think we have to go there."

I was very confused, why the hell are these two very hesitant about the area that was indicated by the scan result? I mean it's just a shipwreck. I took the binoculars and took it for a spin myself to look at the very reason why they were so nervous.

The shipwreck in question had 'S.S. Promise' written on the hull of the boat. It didn't look particularly strange or anything, it's just looked like an ordinary shipwreck. Nothing out of the ordinary, really. Yet both of them looked really hesitant to step on that boat.

"It's just a shipwreck, why are you—"

"IT'S NOT JUST A SHIPWRECK!" Both of them yelled at the same time.

"Look, does the name 'S.S. Promise' rings a bell for you?"

"Uh… No…"

"...Look, most of the shipwrecks around here are harmless. The ghost rumors are only fabricated by the locals to grab more tourist attention. However, there was no need for any fabrication for that ship because… It was haunted for real." Callie explained to me.

Yet I was not willing to budge at all. The Pokemon I wanted is within arm's reach, I wouldn't let stupid rumors get over my head and stop myself from obtaining it. And so I tried to use my logic and reasoning to change their mind.

Vincent sighed at the arguments I gave in order to convince him. "Oh well, there's no stopping you, I guess. Well, if that's the case then let me give you one piece of advice before we step in there…"

"You must never… In under any circumstances… Ever underestimate the supernatural."
​

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[budube]

Jordie "Jo" Hughes

Sunday, September 20th

Chapter 2: Part 1 - The Town's Mascot

14:30 pm to 14:50 pm - Dewford Town

Dewford's beach is slightly better than Slateport to take a walk. Not being at risk of stepping on a Stunfisk landmine is a plus, but on other hand, there's the Pyukumuku which aren't as bad, but can be annoying as hell too.

Jordie still can't believe they got their first badge on just their fourth day in the region. They will brag about it if their parents ever find them here, but being found is not something they would like to jinx. The best part of this is that they recovered a small part of the money they spent in Slateport, although more than half of it will go today at night. There's this graveyard tour to the old S.S. Cactus which immediately got their attention, and the entrance fee is around ₽3000.

For the rest of the day, Jordie has pretty much been relaxing at the beach. They bought an ice-cream for them and water for Gabby, while Neon digs under the sand to scare away some Pyukumuku to make some space for the whole team to lay in. There's nothing better than listening to the relaxing sound of the waves after a tough moment like that, it's pretty much the same thoughts Jordie had after catching Neon, but it is the best way to relax.

The beach here is pretty crowded, although not as much as Slateport's. Something Jordie is able to see is how the surfing scene seems to have exploded in this town, and apparently, the Gym Leader is to fault at this. If Jordie hadn't ran out of adrenaline a few hours ago, they would've loved to give it a shot. Surfing is one of those things you can't really do in Unova and you can't miss if you are visiting Hoenn… a shame.

After getting bored of the sun and having the urge to start moving again, Jordie makes their way away from the beach and into the town and that's when Jordie realizes that Dewford doesn't really have much. Not in the sense of being the place tourists go to get souvenirs, at least. If anything, the closest things Jordie has found that could possibly be considered souvenirs are… Clobbopus. Yeah. They are everywhere: On t-shirts, pins, pennants, even the mascot of one of the restaurants is a Clobbopus. But it's not to blame, right? Clobbopus have what it takes to become a town's mascot, pretty much the same way Minccino do for some places in Unova: they are cute and full of personality. It's a good business for a small place like Dewford to say 'Hey, we don't have much to offer compared to Slateport, but we got Clobbopus!'.

Jordie isn't too interested, though. They haven't heard much of Clobbopus' battling capabilities. According to the information found in the Hoenn Ranger Database, they just like punching things at random, but that's pretty much it… That's similar to what they said about Stunfisk too, and it only took Neon to have a blue pattern and a devastating move to make it worth the catch in their eyes, so maybe this bluish little guy that just punched their leg is worth it too!

"Hello there, little one!" they say, crouching with their hands on their knees and looking directly at the Pokémon with a smile. One shiny Pokémon on their first days is one thing, but finding a second one with not even one week of being in Hoenn must mean that Jordie's luck is in the right place.

The Clobbopus keeps staring at them with its tentacles sticking to the ground. It lets Jordie give it a few head pats before they turn around and start walking away, but the tantrum Pokémon follows them and swings its right tentacle against their leg, trying to stop the trainer.

That action startles Gabby and makes her hide behind her trainer, just for Jordie to do the usual which is telling her there's nothing to be afraid of, knowing this Clobbopus just wants a little bit of attention, but Gabby still doesn't trust them looking with disdain at the Pokémon.

"Don't mind her. She's like that with everyone she meets, y'see?" Jordie jokes, then crouches again this time with their bag on hand. "Are you hungry? I think I have a snackbar left. You can have it if you want to."

The Pokémon accepts the snackbar, although it doesn't seem to know what to do with it. Well, Pokémon biology isn't really Jordie's strong suit, but, how would it even eat it? It doesn't have any kind of visible mouth. Regardless, the Clobbopus seems to be having fun with it, running around using it as some kind of toy airplane and then crashing it into some wall destroying Jordie's last snackbar completely. Oh, kids… they aren't looking forward to one, although Gabby is close enough, probably.

Jordie doesn't even get to give a few steps away before the Pokémon nabs their leg once more. "What do you want now?" they ask with annoyance in their voice. The Clobbopus walks around them, and once Gabby realizes it's looking at her, she starts moving around Jordie as well, trying to avoid the wild Pokémon's gaze. It tries to run faster, and thinking it would finally catch her, it yells 'Boo!', just to find out Gabby was never in front of it to begin with, but Jordie got the idea.

"Do you want to battle her?" The Clobbopus nods eagerly. Jordie gives a gentle smile at Gabby, but she just sighs and lower her head in response. That is sort of an agreement, right? "Okay, but I warn you that she is very strong, so don't cry once she beats you, alright?" The Pokémon nods its head again and gives a small jump shaking its tentacles up and down. Jordie giggles and tilts their head forward, giving Gabby the signal to get into a battle that both of them know fully well how it's going to end… a battle that doesn't last more than two seconds. It only takes one Psybeam from Gabby for the Clobbopus to fall defeated.

Thinking that it's finally over, Jordie starts walking away, but as if this was some kind of cartoon, the Pokémon is by their side right now, walking together with them as if it didn't get one-shot by Gabby literal seconds ago.

The Clobbopus asks for a battle again and both trainer and Pokémon look at themselves and sigh.

"You can't be serious." Jordie says, but they know deep inside that it's being as serious as a Pokémon with the mind of a toddler can be. The little guy's got spirit, Jordie is going to give it that.

The outcome is pretty much the same, except that this time the Pokémon tries to swing its tentacles at Gabby first before being beaten up.

"I hope you had fun playing with Gabby, but we are busy and gotta leave right now, see? Maybe we could play together another day." Jordie says, not waiting for the answer, this time leaving the Pokémon behind for good.

---

Jordie's Party:

---

Inventory:

Spoiler:

- 30 Dusk Balls
- 10 Potions
- X-transceiver
- ₽5000

 

[Eleanor]

Avril Reese

16 - ♀ - Laverre City
​

Pokémon / Inventory:

AVRIL'S MONEY: $20 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Flabebe) -♀- lv. 29
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Fairy Wind, Grassy Terrain, Lucky Chant, Wish, Magical Leaf

🌼 Hydrangea (Shellos) -♀- lv. 26
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)

🌼 Wisteria (Inkay) -♂- lv. 20
Infiltrator
Swagger, Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

🌼 Venus (Mawile) -♀- lv. 23
Intimidate
Fairy Wind, Feint Attack, Sucker Punch, Fake Tears, Taunt, Baton Pass

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

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

AVRIL'S BADGES AND RIBBONS:
🥊

🎀• 1

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

Space for your memories to emerge

Thursday, September 24^th - noon - Petalburg Center, Avril's room

Avril, stop!

It's just like in the ancient legends: the mutual blush between two girls is an unstoppable force that washes away all sense of reason and lets emotion take over! It makes your head spin and your heart stumble, your eyes sparkle and your words sound incoherent.

You close the door of your room behind you and give yourself some moments to collect yourself, just like you've done time and time again. You take some heavy, long breaths now that June is no longer by your side, and let your eyes fall on your bag. The thing whose thought has come to haunt you back at the clothes' shop.

Honestly, Avril, that was a godsend! Look at yourself in the mirror, now. A whole dress that has to stay in your bag for most of the time, that touches the ground all the time, and that you will wear just in a handful of occasions… that's just useless, isn't it? But this little bracelet that you bought will remind you of the sweet, carefree, lovely time you've spent with the brunette anytime.

It's going to be always there, on your arm, ready to be looked at and make your memories surface whenever you want. And it fits very well next to the other jewelry you're wearing! The refined, silver bracelet from your relatives, and that red and white friendship bracelet that Layla made you before your departure, and that somehow is still intact despite all that you put it through.

You've always had this habit of connecting items and memories, and you already know, it's adorable. It enhances all your good memories and makes you feel safe, because even in the darkest times you'll have something to hold onto for comfort. Of course, your chime is the best example of this, and you know you'd never trade that in for anything.

The other best example is, well, Poppy! Sure, she's not merely an item - how could you even say that - but she plays a similar role to all of the little trinkets you've gone through so far. She's just as irreplaceable and as important, especially considering just how closely intertwined her life is with yours. Losing her would be… nothing you want to even think about, of course.

🎐🎐🎐

What about June though? You've seen it already, she has this whole city to fall back on, and more specifically… her uncle, the conservatory, all the shops that she seems so familiar with. Of course it's that way, she's at home here in Petalburg, whereas you're so far away. And that's where your bag comes in.

That's where your thoughts were taking you, even when you were still wearing that long dress, because that's the closest thing to home that you have right now. You move away from the mirror and reach for that beige backpack, before opening it up.

The size of this backpack is the limit to the amount of things you can carry - be it more cool dresses, essential clothing, footwear, Pokémon supplies, food items, your sleeping bag, or even all those books and flyers you've read on the way here.

You struggle to throw any of those flyers away, even if they are about places you're over and done with - the only exception being that flyer you got two copies of… "Journey: Hoenn." One is ruined by one of your tears, so it has to go, but it still feels hard to get rid of it… all because that tear was shed moments before Jo and Shuna would appear to cheer you up.

You move onto the books that are pressed against the bag's walls. Not large books by any means, but you've enjoyed them during your ferry trips, back when you had nothing to do all day besides walking in and out of different boats, jumping from region to region like it's nothing.

Maybe one day you'll have to make some space for more things. Proper camping gear is one candidate - you've already heard some trainers talk about that down in the lobby and you're not quite sure when it will come in handy. Not to mention, that takes up a lot of space. More food and water is another candidate, if you happen to spend a long time out in the wilderness… like that cave adventure should have taught you.

Making space in this bag is hard, though. Even things that aren't needed in the moment are important because of all the memories you've associated them with, and you feel terrible by even thinking about disposing of them. You made the right choice by wanting wheels on your bag at all costs and going for a bigger model, but that only gets you so far.

Making space in your head though… is just as difficult! Making space for your memories to emerge and manifest themselves is a precious skill, one that you're working on in this very moment. You still need to calm down, leave the world out of the door, and have all these little things with you to make it work, but if that's what it takes for you to accomplish this… you may just have to find a good compromise.

Sure enough, this is when more people than just June come up in your mind. It starts with a name, or a little snapshot, but then all the details are unveiled. Jo, Shuna, Tsu, Marie, Marcella, Hikaru, Kimberly. They are part of your journey as well and you will likely find them again… especially one of them. You have a feeling you might meet her quite soon, and you'd better be prepared.

You turn to the mirror once again. Good job, girl.

Now that you've calmed down and thought things over, go back to June and have fun with her. She's waiting for you!

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: S.S. Promise, Littleroot Passage
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 8
A Trainer's Life for Me - Part 3​

"AAARRGHHH!"

It was the third time I screamed. Yeah, quite pathetic considering it's the third time in four minutes.

But I just couldn't help it. The sound of the doors that suddenly closed themselves, the sudden items falling for absolutely no reasons. and the creaky noises I could hear even though the floor wasn't made from wood was enough for me to feel paranoid about this rundown place.

The sudden chill I felt as soon as I stepped on the abandoned shipwreck with the rest of our party didn't help either with my nerves.

I could only regret my decision-making process. If only I didn't suggest us to split away and scour this ship, this wouldn't even—

"Art—"

"AAAAAA!!!" I screamed before I curled myself into a ball. Oh please, don't let it be an evil spirit! I'm sorry for even trespassing…

"Arthur, it's me!" Vincent put his hand over me as he shook my body to help me recover.

I couldn't believe the state I was in. This was supposed to be a fun easy trip to find an Inkay, why did this have to happen to us?

"Look, I'm not trying to be rude. But it's really clear that some sort of supernatural force is affecting us here! I-I got locked inside a room for some reason, and that's definitely not something wind could've done." Vincent tried to keep his composure as he explained the situation to me.

I sighed as I had to resign myself to the fact that we might not have the leisure to search the rest of the ship remains as we didn't have anything to deal with the forces beyond our comprehension.

An Inkay would've been nice, though. I was planning to catch it as soon as I found out it was on the Hoenn Rangers Database for this area. With the ability it had, it could play a powerhouse role in my team even if I already had Braveheart as a Psychic-type Pokemon.

"Don't worry we still have plenty of time to explore the rest of the shipwrecks around here."

Vincent's words echoed in my head. Yeah, there should be no question about that. I couldn't let this tiny setback put a damper on my plans, I would just have to try and find them again around the Littleroot Passage even if it'll take until the morning.

"You know this reminded me a lot back when I and Callie used to travel together. At one point we entered this sort of cabin in the woods, and not long after we stepped in there I accidentally stepped on a loose floorboard causing the floor around me to collapse and I fell into the basement. And that's how I almost trapped myself inside a haunted house with a broken leg, well almost… Thankfully it was an ankle sprain, but that didn't help her who almost cried seeing me lying on the floor below…"

Vincent's story made me realize why Callie was snarky in her tone earlier. Perhaps she didn't want Vincent to hurt himself just like back then, it just fueled my ever-rising curiosity of their story back then.

"So, that actually helps you cheer up, huh? Good for you. Being cheerful does…" Vincent stopped his walk as he looked back towards me much to my horror.

"W-what's wrong? Is there something on my back? Please blink if something happened."

"Look at your left."

"This isn't a prank, right?"

"Hey! Just do it."

I slowly turned my head with dread still heavily felt on me. I was hesitant, but Vincent insisted that I must turn my head. And so I did it, and when I turned my eyes all I could see was the googly eyes of a Pokemon, looking at me up close with a curiosity clearly blaring in its eye.

My expression stayed flat as I tapped a spare Pokeball I had without turning away my gaze.

1,2,3. And I caught an Inkay just like that. A bit anticlimactic, but I would rather bail myself from that place as soon as possible.

"Thanks Vincent, but can you not— Vincent?"

Vincent was nowhere to be seen.

Oh I get it, he's trying to be funny now, huh? Well, I guess someone is getting his secret exposed, then.

With that thought in my mind I quickly went back to the deck where we promised that we would meet up again in five minutes, and here they were, both Vincent and Callie were conversing with each other as they waited for my arrival. So obviously I went straight to action.

"Real funny, Vincent!"

"Uh, what do you mean by that?"

"What happened earlier! You left me alone after I caught Inkay!"

"Okay, this doesn't make sense! I stayed here the whole damn time, Arthur!"

Least to say that I wasn't very pleased with his answer. Oh well, he's trying to pull a joke on me… So maybe I should just spill the secret out? I mean it's not something harmful. And so I unveiled to Callie what he had told me earlier.

"Oh please! Back there you told me that the reason Callie was angry back at the ship with the wooden floor was that when you both traveled together towards an abandoned house, the floor caved in and you almost broke your leg!"

I was expecting a look of chagrin from Vincent, but all that happened was that his face went pale as his jaw dropped in surprise. The fact that Callie had the same expression made me think that both of them were in this together. It's really funny, but I'm much smarter than that.

"H-h-how did you? But I never told you that! I was here the whole damn time!"

"Oh come on, I'm not dreaming! Look, this is the Pokeball I used to catch the Inkay! You would like to say this all part of my vivid imagination? Like, you know... I appreciate you guys trying to make a joke. But come on, enough is enough!"

"Arthur… He was with me all the time."

"Nah, you're joking… Please tell me you are..."

She shook her head in a grave expression. And it only took literally seconds before my face mirrored the exact same expression. The three of us then shared a blank stare with each other, before we hurried ourselves to get the hell out of that place.

Another place scratched from the list of places I would ever visit again in Dewford.
​

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[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Happily Ever After, Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 9
Defeat is a Medicine Best Served Bitter
Part 1​

"Here, this is on the house." Callie handed me a cup of coffee as I waited for a certain someone to appear in the Cafe.

"Thanks so much, Callie— Ack!" I couldn't help but show my disdain for the drink she gave me, as the coffee I tasted was extremely bitter even for my taste.

And of course, she was chuckling at my distress.

"Callie this so… Bitter!" I wasn't shy about giving her a piece of my mind.

"True, but doesn't looking at me give you all the sweetness you need?" She rested her face on both of her palms and tried to act cutesy in front of me.

Well if she wanted jokes, then sure. Have at it!

"Perhaps you can find someone that would share that sentiment, but I'm not interested in old hags, Callie." I shrugged while trying to show the smuggest face I could muster.

"Oh yeah? Hmm… You should burn my image on your memory though. Especially since this old hag here would be the last thing your eyes will ever see." She grabbed my collar with both of her hands.

"Haha… I'm joking! I'm joking! I'm giving up!"

We both shared a laugh before she released my collar and mixed my coffee with milk to reduce the bitterness of it.

"Thanks, Callie."

"Just your smile is enough for me." She winked towards me while making a v-shaped gesture with her fingers on her eyes.

I couldn't believe the short time we experienced with each other was enough for us to casually joke with her. The same was also the case for Vincent. And speak of the devil...

"Hi, hi, hello~ Is this a certain scent of doom and gloom I'm smelling?"

The star of the show appeared casually in his floral shirt and short pants before sitting down with a wide grin on his face.

"You're late, V!"

"Sorry, I had something to deal with first."

"Did 'Snacks' already leave the town?"

"Yep, what a shame considering we wouldn't be able to see her soon. She's pretty busy with her research, alright… Kind of sad considering that she's the type that needs to be forced to take breaks."

"The pot calls the kettle black, huh?" Callie snarkily called out Vincent.

"Well, you can say that for you too, Miss Frying Pan... Anyway, where's my drink?"

"You should pay your tab first, mister… You're racking up quite the numbers here."

"Sure." Said Vincent while playfully rolling his eyes.

"...You wouldn't pay, huh? I knew it."

"Well, Cass would pay for my bills if I accidentally forgot about it... So no problemo, Señorita?"

"My sister is not your personal ATM, V… " She shook her head at Vincent's remark.

"Hey, come on now. I was only joking… Although, it'll be nice if she actually pays for my tab." He winked at Callie.

"I swear you never change…"

She acted like she was annoyed with his answer, but it didn't take long for both of them to show a bright smile on their faces. It was really heartwarming to see, I'm glad I met them even if it was by pure chance. But soon enough, Vincent was more than ready to get down to business.

"Alright, let's cut to the chase, shall we? So I presume you're here to accept my offer, huh?"

"Well if you don't mind…"

Of course, I didn't mind. I was surprised that he asked if I want some tips from him on Pokemon battling, but an extra insight from someone who had some experience on that matter wouldn't hurt. After all, he wouldn't survive Mt. Coronet if he wasn't someone who was adept at handling Pokemon.

"Okay then, we'll begin training soon. But before that, let's dig in!"

Vincent was more than eager to eat the brunch Callie prepared for the both of us. As I dug in for myself I quickly realized why he was so eager to eat it. The word good couldn't describe how I felt as I wolfed down on her dish.

As soon as we finished eating our food, both I and Vincent conversed with each other as we helped Callie to wash the aftermath of our brunch.

"So, in order to teach you optimally, I would have to gauge your current ability firsthand to know what to do."

"...So you want to battle me first, huh?"

"That is correct."

His answer raised the anticipation I already had since he asked me whether I would like to train with him. A battle with Vincent!? Wow, this should be interesting.

"So what are we going to do? 1 vs 1? 2 vs 2? 3 vs 3?"

"Okay, how many Pokemon do you have?"

"Uh, four."

"Aight, four against one, it is." He said nonchalantly while continuing to scrub the pot Callie used to cook the dish earlier.

"What!?"

I couldn't hide my surprise, at all. Yet Vincent stayed calm and smiled at me as if he was showing that he was 100% serious.

At the time I was too naive to know what would happen next. But, what came soon after? Even the word 'disaster' was not enough to describe it.
​

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[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Outside Dewford Gym, Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 10
Defeat is a Medicine Best Served Bitter
Part 2​

The battlefield we chose was an open field next to the gym. The gym didn't have the capacity to accomodate multiple battles at the same time like the one it Slateport did, so we had to settle for the field instead.

Vincent stood in front of me and my team with a confident expression. It was stupid to be so confident with a massive disadvantage he had, but looking at his Pokemon he called on for the battle, it wasn't a very unreasonable thing as I initially had thought.

We had to fight a Gallade that he named Percy. The fact that Gallade was a final evolution Pokemon made my anxiety rise quite a bit. But at the same time, I was curious to see how good Vincent's skill in Pokemon battling was.

I made a huddle with my Pokemon to discuss the strategy to go here. I didn't know much about Nero's capability other than the basics from scanning him, but he'll also play a big role in our strategy on this occasion. At least he was happy to join in our match even after his catching went really... Weird to say the least.

And so everything was set, Callie acted as our referee and… Vincent decided the best thing he could do when he challenged me was to sit down to lean on a tree on the sidelines before opening a book I was barely able to identify as a copy of one of the famous tragedy literature 'Hamlet'.

I was exasperated, I mean it's fair to underestimate me as a newbie trainer without even a single badge. But who is he to do things like this!? Especially since this is not a one against four Pokemon in a gauntlet, this is one against four ALL AT ONCE. His actions are asinine for crying out loud!

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. Me being in rage was probably the thing he wanted me to do. And so I tried to keep my anger down inside without letting it pour out, although the annoying smirk that Vincent showed while he read his book was really testing my patience.

And by Callie's signal, the battle started. My Pokemon immediately scrambled to their position as each of them launched an attack towards Percy, but the Gallade was too nimble and managed to dodge their attack as they came all at once, but that was something that was within my calculation. As my first move, I decided to use Muchorin's Incinerate and Kaplan's Water Pulse to create a thin mist curtain as they collided with each other.

I kept my utmost focus on the battlefield, it's time to wait for Percy to either attack or jump and reveal his position or he wouldn't be able to attack due to visibility reasons.

However a few moments later and Percy didn't seem to be interested in coming out from hiding. And so I had to flush him out by force using Nero and Braveheart's Psybeam and Confusion respectively, only to be surprised when the dust cleared as Percy wasn't even bothered to dodge the attack at all. He faced the attack at full force without even flinching.

I couldn't help but show a grimace at this sight. In every single battle I've ever experienced, the Pokemon I fought either dodged the hit, blocked, or tanked the hit before launching a counterattack. Yet Percy stood still while looking straight to my eyes with a stoic calm expression as if it was mocking me for my ineptitude.

However, I couldn't waver now. I've experienced too much to be incensed by this show of defiance. If Vincent wanted to underestimate me, then so be it! Let's just hope that he wouldn't start to whine when I knock the wind out of his Pokemon.

I quickly yelled a new set of orders to my Pokemon in order to seal the deal completely.

Nero used Hypnosis on Percy, and with it, Percy fell to his knees to set up the final blow.

I took a moment to see Vincent's reaction to this. He was too busy humming while reading the excerpts of the book to realize that Percy had been downed. I really wanted to scream at him, but I had to be patient there are more important things at hand. Or so I thought...

"It's time to end this!" I couldn't hold it anymore. I yelled really loudly to attract Vincent's attention, but all he did was shook his head before going back to his book. So be it, then.

Muchorin rolled at a high speed as he pushed Percy away to the sky while being enveloped by flame. Then it was Kaplan's turn who used Water Pulse to push Percy even higher, which was followed by Nero who used Psybeam to do the same. Yet it was all just a setup. A setup for one big attack that would end it all.

Braveheart was already waiting at an even higher altitude before it propelled itself while rotating at a very high speed like a meteor towards Percy. The hit landed well on Percy's torso and as Braveheart hit the ground, it caused a tremor in our surrounding area as a huge crater was formed in the middle of our battlefield.

The dust cleared and there was Percy, lying on the ground motionless. It was very clear that Percy was unable to fight back… And yet…

"Oh, you sweet summer child," Vincent muttered as he closed his book and walked towards the battlefield.

I was dumbfounded. He lost! Why! What would he gain from acting like a jerk!? And why did Callie not announce the result? There must be something I didn't know yet, but what!?

At that point, I was unable to hold back my exasperation at the situation. And to make matters worse, a bright pink aura engulfed Percy that was lying motionlessly in the crater.

"Sorry to say, but reality is often disappointing, Arthur."

I had to see in horror as the heavy wounds Percy had sustained from our attacks mostly disappeared as he teleported in front of his trainer.

"The professional world of Pokemon battling is really ruthless, you know? Let me show you a brief glimpse of it."
​

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[Groc]

Natsuko Soyokaze, Sunny Dey, Edison Kintobor, Marie Rachelle Mocinno
Tuesday, September 22nd, afternoon
Route 104

---

Briney Port… it certainly lives up to its name. The ride hadn't been as terrible as Tsu originally thought. Ed and Marie had chatted through most of it, pulling Tsu into the conversation at times, and even Sunny had chimed in once or twice, despite otherwise looking out over the water and looking bored.

But, Tsu is happy to be out and moving again, feeling energized by the breeze and having her own two feet under her again. "Hey guys, I have an idea. I was reading that pamphlet, and it says there's a Fishing Spot not too far from here. I'm gonna go check it out, do you wanna come with?"

"Pass." Sunny shakes her head, heading directly for land. "Not really one for standing around with a stick in the water."

"Oh, but it's really fun!" Tsu complains, turning to Ed and Marie. "What about you, wanna try fishing with me? You can find Pokémon you can't always see further inland."

Ed thinks about it, looking into the distance. "That does sound fun… I've never really gone fishing before. Alright, I'll join you."

"I'll tag along," Marie says, and with a glint in her eye: "Sunny, are you going to let your rivals catch cool new Pokémon without you?"

Sunny stops, clenching her hands into fists. "Of course not!" She comes back over, stopping in front of Marie and looking up into her eyes. "If you think you can be my rival, then let this be our first challenge! I'll fish up something greater than either of you! Just try and match my skills!"

Marie looks down at the redhead, small smirk unmoved by the challenge. "I'll take you up on that."

"Ha ha, yay, we're having fun!" Tsu smiles with mostly authentic optimism, looking at her map. "It's just north and a bit west of here. I think we just follow this path along the hill."

"I wonder what kind of Pokémon live there?" Ed follows Tsu, looking at his wrist. "...oh, right. Well, I guess it will be fun to find out when we get there."

"Need to borrow my phone again?" Marie waves her blindingly bright green device in Ed's direction.

"Or you could use my Holotch!" Sunny quickly points to her own wrist.

"Oh, thank you, Sunny. Very kind, both of you." Ed moves closer to Sunny to look at her device, while Sunny sticks her tongue out at Marie. Marie dismisses her with a wave and pockets her phone once more.

Tsu does her best to ignore the rivalry going on behind her. Her friends are interesting, but they're loud. Still, it makes for idle background noise as they head for The Point. As they arrive, Tsu can see only one person fishing at the moment, and not a single Wrangler Ralph's, or anywhere else to rent a pole.

"Okay, slight problem… I don't suppose any of you has a fishing rod?" Tsu looks hopefully at her friends.

They share a few glances, and the general consensus is that no, they do not. Sunny in particular doesn't take it well. "You brought us all the way out here, and now we can't even fish? This was your thing, Tsu. I thought you were prepared!"

"I'm sorry! Last time, there was a rental place nearby! Let me just ask this guy, maybe he'll have more info for us." She heads over to the man currently fishing, noticing he brought a card table and a computer with him. "Excuse me, sir! Can I ask you something?"

He glances back at her, waving her on over. "Sure thing! What's on your mind?"

"Well, it's a little embarrassing for me, but my friends and I just arrived in town. I wanted to come fishing here at the Point, but none of us has a fishing pole. Do you know where I can get some?"

"You're new in town, eh?" For some reason, that's what sticks out to him. "Well, you can pick some up in Briney Port, but if you don't mind sharing, you can use mine."

"Really? Oh, that'd be great! I don't mind at… wait." She narrows her eyes at him, suddenly distrustful. "What's the catch?"

"The catch?" He laughs at that. She hadn't intended to make that joke. "No catch! I just only have the one rod. And if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you some questions too. You see, I have this podcast, kind of like a radio channel? I play music mostly, but I also talk about the things I find, or the people I meet. I'd like to interview you and your friends, talk about how you heard of us, that kind of thing. Just a few sound bites for the show, what do you say? Wanna be on the radio, get your voice heard?"

"Oh, uh… I guess? I don't mind, but let me ask my friends." She hurries back over, interrupting whatever conversation they'd been having (something about social media, apparently, and the fact that Ed doesn't use any…) to explain the situation. With no objections raised, Tsu takes them back over to make introductions.

"Hey, guys. I'm Felix. Since you're new in town, let me welcome you to Briney Port. And maybe check out my podcast, it's called PointCast, at 104PointCast.com."

"I'm Natsuko, Natsuko Soyokaze. You can call me Tsu." Felix prompts her for her socials, so he can send his fans her way. "Oh, uh… you can find me at TsuReal_Photography on Insta?"

"Ooh, adding you, Natsuko! Marie Rachelle Mocinno, find me at m-a-r-i-e r-a-c-h-e-l-l-e all lowercase all one word. I'm mostly active on Insta."

"I'm Sunny! Follow me @SunnyDey (that's D-E-Y) on Twitter or YouTube!"

"Edison Kintobor, pleasure to meet you. I don't have an online footprint, sorry to say." Marie mutters something in the vein of "absolutely baffling, really, can't get over that".

Felix jots down notes as they introduce themselves. "Great, guys, thanks! Now, who wants to go first?" He holds out his fishing rod to the group.

"Well," Tsu raises her hand, "Since I've actually done this once before, I figured that-"

"It's me!" Sunny rushes forward, snatching the proffered pole. "I'll catch something awesome, you'll see!"

With a swish and a flick, she throws the hook out into the water, grinning intently at the water.

"That's a bold strategy, Sunny!" Felix grins as he takes a seat. "No bait, no lures or bobbers, just throwing a raw hook into the water? Let's see if it pays off for you!"

Marie stifles a titter, which Sunny doesn't seem to notice, thankfully. She starts reeling the hook back, but it snags and won't retract.

"Ha! See! Already caught something!" She tries pulling it back, bracing one foot against the guardrail as she does. With one mighty tug, she yanks the line out of the water, her stubborn catch at the end.

It's a tangled old net. Sunny stares at it in disbelief as Felix goes to untangle his hook. After a bit of finagling, he gets it free, and three bluish Poké Balls tumble out.

"Alright, alright! Not a bad catch! Although, that does count as your try." Felix recovers his pole from Sunny. "Now, funny thing about these here…"

"They're Lure Balls." Ed mutters thoughtfully, picking one up. "Made from Blue Apricorns… refined, of course. In the early days of Poké Ball tech, Blue Apricorns were the go-to way for catching aquatic Pokémon. These still use an Apricorn core, similar to the mass-produced Dive Balls."

"Uh… couldn't have said it better myself!" Felix offers Ed the pole. "What do you say, big guy? Wanna go next?"

Ed glances at Tsu, so she just shrugs and smiles. "Go for it. I want to see if there's anything you don't know about."

After careful deliberation, Ed finally selects his bait, which looks like a cluster of Oran Berries. The hook protrudes slightly from the cluster, which is something Tsu hadn't thought of before.

"Hey, Felix? That hook doesn't hurt the Pokémon, does it?"

"Nah, don't worry about it!" Felix assures her as Ed tosses the hook into the water. She idly notes that it didn't go very far, before returning her attention to Felix. "It's not sharp enough to pierce the skin, it just catches and pulls. More of a light, but forceful invitation to come out of the water."

"Oh, so it's like grabbing someone's arm when you want them to go somewhere?" Tsu brightens at the thought. She'd hate for her new hobby to be cruel.

Suddenly, Sunny comes up from behind, pinching Tsu's ear. Tsu yelps, instinctively leaning toward her assailant. "More like leading them by the ear. You know, because it's a small object at a more sensitive point?"

"I get it, I get it! Please let go!" Tsu complains until she does, and Sunny laughs at Tsu's annoyed expression. Tsu looks to the others for support, but Ed is more focused on fishing, keeping an eye on the bobber.

Marie picks up a Lure Ball and turns it slowly, examining. "Are you going to put these away?"

"Don't touch those!" Sunny snatches the Ball from Marie, gathering up the other two as well. Marie huffs out a "well, then!" as Tsu gives her a grateful smile, glad that the two's rivalry is distracting Sunny from tormenting her further.

Sunny puts two of the Lure Balls in her pocket, bringing the third over to Ed. "Here, Eddie. I'll let you have one of these."

"Thank you, Sunny. It should be quite-" As he reaches for the Ball, his line suddenly goes taut as something bites onto the hook. Ed quickly turns his attention back to the water, reeling in the line.

"Hey, you got a bite!" Felix stands to get a better view and Marie cranes her neck to see as well. Tsu expected more of a struggle, but whatever Ed caught isn't fighting back very hard.

She doesn't have to wait long to see what it is, as Ed retracts the line and pulls a small pink Pokémon from the water. Tsu pulls out her Pokédex as the thing complacently gnaws on the bait, apparently not bothered by the hook in its mouth.

"Alright, a Slowpoke!" Felix cheers, making Tsu's Pokédex unnecessary to identify the Pokémon. "No wonder it wasn't fighting much, Slowpoke are usually pretty chill."

"Yes, but it's still heavy!" Ed struggles to retract the line much further. "Could one of you help me get it onto the dock?"

"Of course," Marie drawls, wrapping her long arms around Ed from behind and grabbing the rod, pressing her body flush against his back to brace him. Sunny objects to this, wrapping her arms around Marie's stomach and trying to pull her away.

Somehow, this actually works. Together, the three drag the unhelpful Slowpoke onto the dock. One of them loses their balance, and the three collapse into a pile, the Slowpoke sailing overhead and landing a ways behind them, spitting out the hook as it lands.

"Whoa! You guys alright?" Tsu rushes over to help, offering a hand up. Ed grabs it and rises, moving more quickly and stiffly than she'd seen before. "We're fine! Just a slight fall, nothing severe. Oh look, a Slowpoke!" He hurries over to the Pokémon, who looks up at him curiously.

"I've seen those before," Marie comments, smooth tones quite in contradiction to her new game of "accidentally" keeping Sunny pinned as Marie "tries" to get up. "They come all the way up to Goldenrod sometimes when the currents are strong."

"Get off of me!" Sunny tries to push Marie, but can't get the proper leverage and only succeeds in making herself easier to keep down. Tsu sighs, offering Marie her hand. "Here, let me help you."

Marie accepts the help graciously. "Why thank you, Natsuko! How kind of you!"

"Happy to help…" Tsu smiles wearily. Sunny gets up, turning away from the others. Tsu decides it's probably wise to give her a moment.

"Hey, nice catch!" Felix chimes in, picking up his rod. "Slowpoke are hard to catch, since they're so calm and slow. Most people reel in too fast, so they don't catch 'em."

Ed doesn't respond, too busy looking at Slowpoke, so Felix awkwardly turns to Marie and Tsu. "Okay… so which of you lovely ladies would like to go next?"

Tsu starts to raise her hand, but glances at Marie first. The others, intentionally or not, had stepped up before she could. Might as well extend the same courtesy to Marie. "What do you say? Wanna give it a go?"

Marie clicks her tongue. "I've never fished before, and those two didn't exactly set a great example. Show me how it's meant to be done, please?"

"Okay, then! Looks like I'm next!" Tsu happily accepts Felix's rod. He has more gear than Ralph had, so Tsu finds herself a bit lost. "I guess I'll just use some basic bait. All this other stuff looks kinda complicated." She had promised to offer sound bites for the podcast, though, so she starts talking, not sure what to say.

"I like how simple it is, though." Tsu tosses the line out over the water, going for distance then slowly reeling it in. "I don't know any technique, I just like how peaceful it is. You can focus on the water, or have a chat with friends… you don't have to worry about what to do next, or if you're making good decisions, or anything stressful. You just… fish."

"Wise words." Felix nods. "You may not know technique yet, but you understand the spirit of fishing. And that's the important part."

Tsu smiles, blushing slightly under the compliment. She reels the line in, but nothing bit, and the bait is still there. She tosses it back out, retracting the line slowly and in small bursts. She lets it linger for longer, hoping something will bite. Maybe it's too close? Should I throw it again?

Before she can reel it back in for another toss, something bites the hook, nearly pulling the pole from her hands! She braces herself, reeling the line back as the fish fights her. She grits her teeth, pulling with all her might, when the line goes slack. She looks at it in confusion, then something leaps out of the water!

"Whoa, it's a Totodile!" Felix shouts. The fish isn't a fish at all, but a little alligator! The line must have gone slack because it stopped trying to leave and instead came closer.

"Careful, though, they bite."

Wait, they what?

Totodile rushes forward, jaws open wide. Tsu yanks on the rod, pulling on Totodile's mouth. This pulls it off balance, and it takes the time to remove the hook in its lip. This gives Tsu a chance to grab a Poké Ball from her belt, calling on the Duchess to rescue her. She roars at Totodile, giving it pause for a moment before it approaches, head held low.

Stacy leans in close, curious about the small reptile. She sniffs at it, and it suddenly bites down on her lip. She growls in annoyance, biting it back. Tsu gasps in shock as it disappears into her mouth, only its lower half protruding as it kicks its feet and thrashes its tail in a panic.

"Stacy, no! Put it down!" She quickly returns Stacy to her ball, leaving the poor Totodile sitting on the dock, slightly traumatized and covered in sea monster drool.

"Tsu, catch!" Sunny tosses something at her, which she fumbles to catch, but manages to grab with both hands. "A Lure Ball? Why… oh! Catch the Totodile! Got it!"

She throws the ball, bopping Totodile in the head. The ball shakes slightly, but like Ed said, it was specifically designed to catch Water types, and it clicks shut.

"I caught it! Woo!" Tsu happily grabs her new Lure Ball and Totodile within. She's two for two on catching things she's fished up now.

"Excellent catch, Miss Tsu." Ed congratulates her from his spot near the back, idly scratching Slowpoke behind the ears. Slowpoke looks like it's fallen asleep, despite the commotion and Marie's enthusiastic applause.

"Yo, was that a Gyarados?!" Felix calls as he recovers his pole. "You're the real deal, girl! Not just anyone can raise one of those! Or reel in a Totodile. You ever wanna take this hobby seriously, you could go pro!"

Tsu looks down, pulling the brim of her hat down to hide her face. She's blushing from the praise, and grinning like a fool, but it feels nice to hear that she did well. "Thanks, everyone! It was pretty cool, huh? But now it's Marie's turn!"

"Ooh, I'm going to have a hard time topping that catch," Marie laughs, accepting the rod from Felix and casting the line surprisingly far into the sea. But- "Oh! I already forgot the bait."

She reels it back quickly, but halfway through it catches on something and starts to resist. "Um…?"

Tsu notices the resistance, trying to see through the water to the submerged hook. "Did you get caught?"

"Maybe? It's not moving, just heavy." Marie frowns and continues to reel her line. Something thunks against the rocks as whatever-it-is gets dragged closer to the group.

Finally, the hook rises from the water and with it, what looks like a chunk of seaweed and twine. "Ew," Marie says, gingerly reaching out to remove the slimy vegetation from the hook. As she does, though, the thing catches the afternoon sun in an undeniably sparkly fashion.

Sunny immediately moves to inspect it. "What is that? Did you just fish up an old tin can?"

"Please," Marie huffs. "It's definitely cooler than that." She tries to wave Sunny off while continuing to uncover the object. It doesn't work very well, and she ends up shoving the pole into Sunny's hands so she can use both of her own to work. The seaweed and twine fall away, and the dense little object falls into Marie's hands, shining in the sunlight.

"It's gold!"

"Gold?!" Tsu peers at it curiously. Is it real? How would they even check?

"Pardon me…" Ed clears his throat to get their attention. "Perhaps I could borrow it, do a couple quick tests?"

He accepts the lump of gold, borrowing Felix's table for his experiments. First, his Magnemite fails to move it with magnetic force. "Pure gold isn't magnetically charged, so it can't be attracted or repelled by magnetism. Point in its favor."

He pulls a small kit from his bag, unscrewing the lid on a bottle of vinegar. He drips a few drops on the nugget, to no effect. "Vinegar would cause lesser metals to tarnish or discolor, but not gold. Another clue to its authenticity."

Finally, he empties Felix's cooler, filling it with water. He drops the gold into the water, watching it sink. "Due to its density, gold will sink in water. With that in mind, you're very lucky to have recovered this from the water."

He returns the item to Marie, bowing to her dramatically. Marie accepts the gold with exaggerated care in turn. "Congratulations, Miss Marie, you have one Nugget of solid gold."

"Wow, that's pretty cool, Marie!" Tsu grabs her phone, opening the camera. "Can I get a photo of you and your catch? It's my first time fishing with friends, I want to save these memories!"

"Pass." Sunny sulks in the background. "I already gave out my catch, anyway. Take a picture with your Totodile, instead."

Marie's happy to pose, though, cheekily kissing her find despite the probable lingering stench of seaweed and vinegar. "Get Edison and his Slowpoke, too!"

"Oh, right… the Slowpoke…" Ed glances back at it, crouching down to scratch behind its ears again. Tsu notes he didn't call it his Slowpoke. She lines up the shot, taking the picture just as Slowpoke angles its head back to grab Ed's hand in its mouth. His surprised reaction makes for a better shot than the smile, so she decides to keep the photo as it is rather than retake it.

"Happy to take a photo for your website, but I think this may be a classic case of catch and release." Slowpoke didn't bite down, so Ed is easily able to extricate his hand. "I'm afraid I have no real use for the creature, and I'd hate to take it from its home if I won't use it."

"Aw, really? But it's so cute!" Marie cooes, joining Ed at the Slowpoke's level to pat it. "I would have rather caught a cute little one like this than a stinky gold nugget."

"A fair assessment, however… actually? I have an idea." Ed tosses the Lure Ball at Slowpoke, who doesn't even try to resist as it's sucked away from Marie's touch. The ball clicks shut immediately, and Ed pulls out his Pokédex as he retrieves it. "Why don't you take it, Marie? Transferring ownership is a simple process, I simply need to register it to your Trainer ID."

"Really?!" Marie's delight is obvious, though it takes her a moment to find her PokéDex. "Oh, do you want this Nugget in exchange? I really don't need it, and it's the least I could do…"

"No, it's quite alright. I don't need it, either. Consider this a gift." He hands her the Lure Ball, and with a few button presses, Slowpoke is registered to Marie's Pokédex.

"Another child of ours to establish custody arrangements for," Marie says as she takes the Lure Ball, which is mostly nonsensical, but is still the straw that breaks the Sunny's back.

"Wha? A ch..." Sunny stammers, her hands clenching and unclenching. "A g… God dammit, Ed!"

Her outburst catches them all by surprise, but Ed seems too shocked to say anything, so Tsu steps in. "Hey, calm down, Sunny! It's okay!"

"No!" Sunny holds up a hand, keeping Tsu at bay. "Fuck being calm, fuck fishing, and fuck you!" That last part is directed at Marie. "I'm leaving." Without another word, she turns and walks back down the path toward town.

"Maybe… maybe I should go talk to her." Ed quickly gathers his things. "I'll see you both later."

"Oh. Um, okay!" Marie waves as Ed takes off, slight frown creasing her features despite her cheery tone.

Tsu frowns as she watches Ed leave. This is not the fun excursion she'd been hoping for. Even Marie looks a little put out. Enough that Tsu feels bad for even considering what she's about to do.

"So…" she approaches Marie. "Were you serious about not wanting that Nugget? Because I uh, I kinda do…"

"Hm?" Marie blinks and drops her hand, finally glancing away from Ed's retreating figure. "Oh, yes." She pinches the nugget between her fingers and holds it out towards Tsu. That was easy, Tsu thinks, reaching for it.

But it's snatched back before she can. "Ah-ah!" Marie's frown flips to a mischievous grin. "I'm not as nice as Edison. I think I want something in exchange."

Should have figured… "Yeah, that makes sense. What did you have in mind?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just enough to make this a fair trade!" Marie holds eye contact with Tsu as she makes it clear: "Just a kiss from a pretty girl."

Tsu's eyes widen and she starts to blush. "A what?" Her voice cracks slightly as she stammers. "A k-ki… but I… I've nev… I, I don't…"

She's so flustered and suddenly warm that she half expects steam to start coming out of her ears. She turns away from Marie to catch her breath, unable to look into her eyes or at her grin. She takes a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. Get a hold of yourself, Natsuko! You're embarrassing yourself more by panicking!

She huffs out a breath, feeling a little more composed. She turns back to Marie, who still has that same grin on her face. "Okay." She squeaks, hastily clearing her throat. "That seems fair."

The height difference is an unexpected complication. Unsure of what to do with her hands, she puts them on Marie's shoulders, standing on tiptoe to move in closer. She closes her eyes, hesitating just inches away. She can feel Marie's breath on her face, smell her flowery soap, hear her own heartbeat…

And she misses. She moves in for the kiss, and her lips make contact with Marie's cheek. Her legs shake, and she drops back onto her feet. "I-I'm sorry, that probably wasn't what you were expecting, it probably doesn't even count…" She keeps her gaze lowered, too embarrassed to even look up, let alone try again.

The nugget pops into her line of sight, sitting prettily on Marie's open hand. "I asked for a kiss and you gave me one! Fair exchange."

"O-oh! Okay…" Tsu grabs the Nugget, her hand resting on Marie's for a moment. Say something! Anything! She looks back up to Marie, still blushing. "Thank you. I, uh… I think you're pretty, too?"

Why did I say that?! Tsu covers her mouth in embarrassment, but Marie just smiles at her. "I gotta go!" She runs away as fast as she can, feeling flustered and confused. But also a little excited? It's all a bit overwhelming.

"See you later!" Marie calls from behind her. Not wanting to be rude, Tsu merely shouts back, "Yeah! You too!"

It sounds lame, even to her.

A joint post between Groc and Aquacorde.
Marie and Tsu art by anna.

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Outside Dewford Gym, Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 11
Defeat is a Medicine Best Served Bitter
Part 3​

The word he uttered sent shivers down my spine. But I'm not willing to lose, not when we already go this far. We would prevail in the end, no matter what. Yet what I saw in the field served as a proof of how naive my thoughts was.

I immediately screamed the next set of orders to my team at the field, and Braveheart immediately went and launched a powerful swiping move that was easily sidestepped by Percy.

In a shocking turn of events, Percy grabbed Braveheart's arm and turned its body to act as a shield for him against the incoming combination attack much to the shock of my other Pokemon.

All of them were forced to stop attacking as Braveheart ate the brunt of their attacks, all before Percy kicked Braveheart so hard that it tumbled forward several times on the ground. Percy then proceeded to open his arms wide in a gesture that was easily discernible as a form of taunt.

And that was just the start of it.

Nero tried to use Hypnosis only for Percy to launch Muchorin using his psychic powers towards the beam, while Kaplan's attempt at using Supersonic failed as Percy quickly teleported behind him before sending Kaplan plummeting down with a swift chop to its body.

Braveheart who was already recovered at this point was unable to hear my commands as it was drowned by the anger which had swelled inside him. Braveheart spun in a really quick motion like a top while using Metal Claw to pummel Percy, but it didn't matter at all. Percy easily teleported away from the attack range before using his psychic powers to push the recovering Kaplan towards Braveheart, effectively sending him crashing outside the battlefield.

I wanted to bite my fingernails so much, I could barely hold myself from panicking as the illusion that I could beat Vincent with four Pokemon shattered in an instant.

If I could avert my eyes... I would do it in a heartbeat. Yet I knew that I had the job to carry my team to the end. And so I started to scream. I screamed and screamed orders towards my Pokemon only to hold back frustration and anger as Percy continued to methodically rip my team to shreds.

Nero wasn't able to hold his ground against Percy, and his attempt at using the move Payback only raised the power of its target. All thanks to the Justified ability that I later understood after the battle. It helped Percy to beat Nero soundly as he rained the Squid Pokemon with a barrage of punches.

Of course, Muchorin and Kaplan didn't sit still as they saw their friend being dismantled methodically. However, their attempt to bewilder Percy also failed miserably as the move Teleport proved to be too much for them to keep their coordination in sync. No matter how many plans I tried to execute, Percy only needed to use its psychic powers to alter the surroundings slightly so their attacks landed against each other. Leaving them vulnerable to the finishing blow from Percy.

Braveheart kept attacking even as I yelled different orders. The anger it had welling inside proved too much for it to handle even with my coaching beforehand.

Yet even at that moment, Percy's fancy footwork proved to be too much for Braveheart to handle. He evaded the relentless attack without even lifting a finger. At one point, Braveheart had enough and tried to use Zen Headbutt only to be shoved to the ground.

It wasn't a move, nor an ability. It's just a plain old shove. As Braveheart was lying on the ground, Percy did a dusting off gesture on his shoulder to mock it. It was like pouring gasoline to the already blazing flames.

Braveheart was not happy. It started to screech loudly as it took some distance between it and Percy to prepare a devastating move. I yelled to dissuade it, but it already had its heart set on beating Percy even if it had to take a huge recoil in the process.

And yet even as Braveheart tried his best, the high-speed Zen Headbutt was easily dodged as Percy used Teleport once more to reappear just slightly after Braveheart passed by.

Losing most of its Braveheart eventually tumbled as it struggled to even move its arm.

I could only bite my lips as Percy closed his yawning mouth with his right hand and slowly approached the shaking Braveheart. Even in this situation, it continued to shriek and shake its body as if it was forcing its body to move.

Percy decided to mockingly push Braveheart with his foot, but it barely managed to muster just enough power to slap Percy with its metal arm.

Yet Percy was unfazed. Just after he spit on the ground, he nonchalantly delivered a punch so powerful that it left a mark on the battlefield, essentially putting out Braveheart from its misery.

I fell on my knees as I saw the despairing sight. Not only that my team lost, but I was beaten by Percy without any single word nor order came out of Vincent's mouth.

What was I struggling so much for? Why did I try day and night to learn just to end up like this?

I just... I didn't know anymore.

Even when there was a crowd that watched our battle, I just couldn't lift up my head and acted like everything was alright.

Why… Why...
​

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[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 12
Defeat is a Medicine Best Served Bitter
Part 4​

After the battle, Vincent took me for a walk away from the busy crowd. We stopped by the Pokemon Center to drop my Pokemon team for healing, but even during that process we never spoke even once.

I absentmindedly followed him only to realize that we stopped on a deserted bench on a hill. It had a huge tree behind it, giving us shade to protect us from the blistering heat.

We both sat down but after that beating Percy gave to my Pokemon, I just didn't know what to say.

And yet as I glanced towards Vincent, he was closing his eyes while smiling softly as he was waiting for me to say something.

"Why?" I turned my eyes towards Vincent with a shaky voice.

Yet all I could hear from him was 'Why what?'. Spurring my anger so much that I was barely to restrain myself from having tears dripping down my cheeks.

"What!? Is that the only thing you could say to me? After all of that!?"

"I did tell you I'm going to show you a glimpse of the competitive Pokemon world, didn't I?"

"You told me just before the battle! Why did you have to show off like that!? I-I don't understand why!? You knew I lost two of my gym battles without even a single official victory against any gym leader under my name! Yet you would still have the audacity to do something like that to a first-year trainer—"

"Exactly."

He cut me in the middle of my rant. He then sighed and looked at me with a resolute look reflected in his eyes.

"Arthur, you told me that you're a first-year trainer yeah? Why are you being so hard on yourself? Sure you lost to me in an embarrassing fashion, but have you ever thought the reason why I could do that was because I had a lot more experience than you?"

"Of course I understand. I mean that's understandable, bu—"

"Then why are you being so hard on yourself?"

Those words silenced me. I could finally understand what he was trying to say.

"Arthur, listen to me. Remember the first time we met? There's a reason why I decided to butt in and start a conversation. If I may be honest, at the time you entered the cafe your eyes were looking like it was devoid of life. It was as if you were an animated corpse that was trying to eat me alive."

"..." I couldn't utter a single word.

"It was why I'm really glad that you tried to open up." He pulled a cigarette and immediately started to light it up. Hey, listen… I'm saying this not to bring you down or anything and even with what you have told me before, I'm 100% sure that there are some of your circumstances that influenced how you act."

"I'm not lying when I said that the professional Pokemon trainer world is something that is very hard. Not only you'll have to deal with the financial constraints needed to be competitive, but you have to deal with media, sponsorship, all those kinds of things you have to deal with… It's hard, you know? And one of the things you would have to deal with was losses, it's inevitable, only one person can be a winner in a given time. There's no shame in losing."

"I just… I'm scared. My family went through a lot because I was so stubborn you know? My father tried to stop me and…" I hesitated slightly before finally continuing what I was going to say. "My sister never complained even once… And she had to deal with an awful child who was restrained to his bed most of the time… And…She… She wasn't even... related to me by blood, and yet..." I was unable to continue my words as I choked with tears.

Vincent hugged me really tightly as he whispered some words of encouragement. "I'm sorry if you think I'm being pretentious, but have you ever thought that the reason they were willing to do so is that they genuinely want you to be happy? I know the fact that you lose especially after trying so hard is a hard pill to swallow, but have you ever considered the fact that you managed to put a fight against Percy is a feat in itself?"

"Everyone also tried their damndest, Arthur… It's admirable that you're thinking hard about your defeat, but if you continue to be like that because of them, I don't want to imagine what would happen to you when defeat is a common thing in the professional circuit, especially when you could be utterly defeated in a globally televised broadcast and the media had a field day about that? Trust me, you don't want to know about that… And this is coming from someone who had anguish derailed his life. It is fine to lose, what matters is that you learn something from it and move on with your life."

"...Sorry…"

"Don't be, Arthur… Just be a better person… I just don't want you to experience what I did that's all."

We embraced for a bit as I tried my best to hold my tears, eventually, I was able to stop only to find out in horror that his floral shirt was wet by my tears.

"Ah sorry, I didn't mean to."

"Eh don't worry, with how hot the weather is I'm pretty sure it'll be dry eventually. I'm used to it by now, after all, Cody's drool every time he slept on my shoulder also left the same mark. What's quite regretful is this…" He lifted his cigarette which had mostly turned to ash.

"I-I didn't mean to— A-Ah…" I had my cheeks pulled by Vincent who laughed his ass off.

"...Phew, well I guess that we have already come this far. I might as well impart one more nugget of wisdom for you. See this cigarette right here?"

I nodded slowly.

"Life is like this cigarette, whether you like it or not when you already lit the cigarette, it'll continue to burn quickly until it turns into ashes. Whether you like it or not, the wheel of life will keep rolling until the end, and it will burn really quickly, some individuals would even have it completely burnt off quicker than others…" He took a deep breath as his somber expression turned into a very wide grin.

"Life is really short, you know? This is why staying down in the dumps is never a good thing. I'm not saying you shouldn't cry, to be honest, you actually should… It's okay to cry, it's okay to feel sad about something, and it's okay to feel angry and disappointed about something. But you can't let it take control of your life, even when things look bleak you have to believe that there would be a bright light at the end of the tunnel."

"Take the Tauros by the horns, my friend. No matter how many times life knocks you down, you have to keep moving on. So even if you lose 10, 100, 1000, or even more times than you can possibly count, no matter how bad the problem that came in your way? As long as you have the heart? You will be able to reach greater heights, I'm sure of it. So live your life to the fullest and aim for the stars, Arthur! For you only live once."

I wiped the tears from my eyes and lifted myself from the bench as I grinned widely at Vincent. He's right, I didn't have the time or leisure to be down in the dumps. After all, I still had the gym to beat this evening.

"Now come on! Let's buy some ice cream on our way, shall we? This heat is really starting to get annoying."

I nodded and we immediately went to buy ice cream for ourselves and for Callie back in the Cafe. Only for Cody to greet Vincent back by pecking him furiously as retribution for leaving him to sleep in the Cafe with Callie's parents' supervision.

I really hoped that I could beat Brawly, but even if I didn't, I'll have to go out with a bang at the very least. And so, with a renewed determination I finally began my planning.
​

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[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Dewford Gym, Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 13
Ride the Momentum - Vs. Brawly
Part 1​

It was finally the time to battle Brawly.

Honestly, it wasn't that easy to find him. We had to wait for a while for him to return after he finished surfing, especially since the gym had no booking system at all. I thought it was a mandatory thing for trainers' convenience, but perhaps I was thinking too highly about the league's governing body.

The referee in charge was a nurse at the local Pokemon Center? Uh… I was surprised, but I didn't really mind about that, I mean it's not like she was going to act as a football referee, there was no fear of botching a call that would change the flow of the battle completely. Besides, I was sure that Brawly knew what he was doing by designating this person to take care of the refereeing duty… Or at least I hoped so.

I mean from my observation, Brawly seemed to be just like Vincent… With the laid-back attitude dialed to 11. I could only hope that Brawly was not as strong as Vincent. Otherwise, I might be entering a world of pain.

The other thing that attracted my attention was the battlefield, even out of the gate the peculiar mat and the sand used for the battlefield reminded me of a sporting ground of that traditional sport… Which was called, uh… What was it again? Tsu— Not good, the name escaped me, but whatever it was. It was basically a traditional sport where two big guys slapped, shoved, and grappled each other until someone was falling to the ground or out of the ring made with rope.

We agreed on a singles format three on three Pokemon match. And with the signal from the nurse, we began our battle.

The first set of Pokemon that we both chose respectively was Braveheart and Machoke for Brawly. The battle started with a slugfest as both of them traded fast punches against each other. And then they continued the brawl with kicks and punches being traded between, but the breakthrough came not long after as the blitzing punch that was thrown by Machoke was well scouted by Braveheart who pushed away the Machoke with a well-placed Bullet Punch.

It was then followed with a Zen Headbutt from Braveheart which missed its target only for Machoke to grapple its arm. Machoke started to twirl Braveheart's body before trying to throw it to the sand below, but unfortunately for the Machoke, I countered by yelling at Braveheart who accordingly used psychic energy to shift the sands below Machoke's foot causing him to lose balance and leaving him open for a retaliatory Zen Headbutt aided by gravity.

200 kilograms of steel slammed the Machoke down and pinned him under the sand so that he was unable to move. However, I wasn't done yet, I still had a whole bag of tricks waiting to be dished on. And using the battle against Vincent as an inspiration, I was able to command Braveheart to pin down the Machoke with Confusion. Yet even with that, Machoke was slowly able to rise up from Braveheart's pin even when its body was shaking so much as it tried its best to stand up.

But unfortunately for him, Braveheart raised both of its arms before rotating them at a high speed as it propelled itself to the ground. Machoke who was pinned couldn't resist the force at all as it started grunting when it was getting grinded by Braveheart against the sand. Even when Brawly ordered Machoke to use Power Trick, it was all for naught as Braveheart managed to raise the speed every time there was any sign of resistance causing Brawly to throw the towel as there was no breakthrough at all with Machoke's situation.

The first battle ended up really faster than expected which made me feel really happy. But as Brawly clapped his hands and showered me with praise about my strategy with making use of the sand to counter Vital Throw, I just couldn't help but feel uneasy. It felt just too easy, just like how Vincent lulled him to a false sense of security.

Brawly started to look like he was just getting to it as he threw the next Pokeball which contained a Pokemon that from a glance looked like a Raichu… But I noticed that it looked different, it floated in the air… It's an Alolan Raichu. I was trying my best to remember how I should counter this Pokemon. But I was snapped out of my line of thoughts quicker than I expected, as it was cut abruptly by Brawly who reminded me that I was still in a battle while chuckling. It was embarrassing but he was right, I didn't have time to dawdle.

I had tried my best to rally my Pokemon's spirits after the devastating loss earlier, and they seemed to be even more motivated after my pep talk. So it would be only fitting if I also gave it my all, all for my Pokemon who also tried to give their best. I couldn't lose for the third time… Not in front of Callie, and most certainly not in front of Vincent.

Even if I barely knew anything about the Pokemon in front of me, I wasn't going to panic and let victory slip away from me without a fight to the end.

It's time for me to claw my way into a sweet victory.
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[Embyr]

Name: Kira Wolf || Day: Tuesday, September 22 || Time: Evening
Location: Dewford Town

Sandy Challenge Part One, Nyx vs Raichu!

Kira let out a heavy sigh as she left one of Dewford town's street markets, putting away her lighter coin purse as she walked down the road. "You're a hard one to win over, you know that right?" she asked, looking down at the small fox she was carrying in her arms.

Nyx smiled smugly in return, resting comfortably as she was carried. Around her neck a new, Crimson red scarf replaced her old collar. A copper broach with a violet stone keeping it tied together just below her chin.

"You're lucky I was able to manage all that you know! If we didn't find such a large stone that would have cost us way more." Kira retorted in an annoyed tone.

Nyx happily rubbed her head against the silk of her scarf, completely ignoring Kira's retort.

"Fine, whatever… Either way, now it's your turn to make it up to me. We're super low on supplies so winning this battle is going to mean even more than usual. Just do your best and we should do great!" Kira encouraged Nyx before returning her to her ball.

Running out onto the strip of beach north of the docks it was clearly less populated than it's resort dominated southern half, the evening sun's reflection glistening brightly off the water's surface. There was the occasional unmanned Towel and pack out on shore, presumably belonging to the people out surfing. "Alright, that kid at the gym said he should be out here somewhere…" Kira muttered to herself, looking out towards the ocean waves.

It only took a few minutes of walking along the shore for Kira to spot him, his blue hair sticking out like a sore thumb. Excited, Kira ran over to the foreshore of the beach closest to where he was. "Hey!" Kira called out loudly, hands cupped over her mouth to project her voice.

He seemed to take notice of Kira's call and waved back. After talking to someone beside him, a young blue haired girl, they both rode the next wave to the shore. Swimming a short distance after petering out just shy. "Hey there, what's up?" the older man asked as he approached, the younger girl following behind.

"You're Brawly right? My name is Kira, I'm here to challenge…" Kira began to speak before trailing off, now getting a better look at the girl with him. "Didn't I see you back at the gym? And weren't you…"

"A boy? Yeah, you met my brother." The younger girl curtly said, cutting Kira off.

"N-Not what I was going to say but..." Kira stammered, blushing slightly. "Sorry, I really am. I used to hate it when people would do that to me."

"You have a twin brother?" the girl asked sceptically.

"Yeah, his name's Kaden. Haven't seen him in a few years though, not since I went to school." Kira explained, rubbing at her shoulder awkwardly. "A-Anyway, about that challenge."

"It'll be no problem! We can battle here if you like." Brawly offered, gesturing to the nearby area.

"Actually, I've got a place in mind. Your son gave me the rundown back when I checked the gym so I took the liberty of picking somewhere." Kira remarked, Gesturing further north along the beach. "It isn't too far away from here."

"Sure thing, let us just pack up first." He requested, making his way over towards their spot on the beach. "Hey you mind carrying this for us?" He asked Kira, tossing her a mesh bag.

Kira instinctively caught it with her left hand and instantly regretted it. With a small yelp she quickly dropped it, grasping her left arm in pain.

"Sorry about that! Are you alright?" Brawly quickly apologized.

"Y-Yeah, just a nasty fall the other day." Kira explained, slinging the bag over her right shoulder this time. "Anyway, it's just over here."

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

After ten or so minutes of walking and talking they finally came to their destination, a small swimming dock that seemingly hasn't been used in quite a while. The boards were old and sunbleached, the pillars covered in barnacles. "Alright, here we are." Kira announced.

"Interesting location." Brawly remarked, looking over the area. "There doesn't seem to be too many people around, is the dock safe?"

"Yep!" Kira affirmed as she stepped onto the dock, board by board she jumped on each of them. "Tested it earlier, they're able to hold my weight at least with only a few of them creaking. Makes them more safe than the old Akurnai city gym at least."

"Alright, I'll trust you on that then." Brawly said, taking his position at the beach end of the dock. "Alex, you mind reffing this for us?"

"Way ahead of you Dad." Alex replied, pulling a pair of flags from a nearby bag.

"Alright, how about a two vs two then? Singles, the dock isn't really wide enough for four at once." Kira offered.

"As you wish. In that case, It's Raichu's turn out on the waves." Brawly called out, the chubby pokemon appearing in a flash of white light.

"Right, Azure then! Lets go!" Kira called out, the seel appearing in a similar fashion on the end of the dock.

"Alright, the first Pokemon of Gym leader Brawly and the challenger Kaden have been chosen!" Alex announced with a wry grin, earning her an annoyed look from Kira. "Let this official gym battle begin!"

"Alright Azure! Charge forward and strike at Raichu!" Azure barks and begins his rolling charge forward.

"Alright, Raichu! Tie them down with electroweb!" Raichu creates an orange orb of electricity from the tip of its tail and flings it forward towards the charging seel. As the move strikes however, Azure seems to disappear in a puff of black smoke. After a moment of confusion Nyx appears to the side of Raichu and strikes with a swipe of her claws.

"Not bad at all! Nice!" Brawly encouraged, flashing a thumb's up. "Lets see how you plan to follow it up though. Raichu, teleport!"

As Nyx continued striking with a flurry of claws the Raichu disappeared, leaving Nyx stumbling forward a bit. Reappearing out in the ocean the Raichu gently hovered a meter or so above the water, safely outside of Nyx's reach.

"Nyx! A… Um…" Kira stammered, at a loss for what to do. She didn't account for a pokemon who could simply float outside of Nyx's reach.

"I'll presume this location then is better suited for your second pokemon then." Brawly deduced, looking up at Kira. "That's great and all, but what about right now?"

Kira gritted her teeth, frustrated as her brainstorming came up blank. "N-Nyx, fall back to the dock and get ready."

Nyx gave Kira a concerned look, all too familiar with Kira's tone and what happened last time she stammered like that in battle. Nevertheless, she did as she was told, turning her attention to the Raichu as she did so.

"Nothing huh? Raichu, apply some pressure with an Electro Ball!"

Surrounded by a yellow glow, Raichu floats higher into the air before dropping into a freefall. As it falls the electric glow condenses into an orange ball of electricity. With a flip, Raichu flings the ball of electricity towards the landlocked Nyx, catching itself just before touching the water.

"Nyx! Dodge it!" Kira cried out
With a quick dive to the side Nyx narrowly managed to dodge the large ball of electricity. As it crashed, a large, creaking groan could be heard from the dock's boards.

"Raichu hold up!" Brawly called out as he looked over the dock. "Kira, are you sure that thing is safe?"

"Yeah! I said I tested it didn't I? Even if it does break I know how to swim!" Kira assured, bouncing in place a bit to demonstrate the stability.

"That's not what I'm... " Brawly began before giving a heavy sigh. "Alright fine, we can continue here. However I want you to join me here on the beach."

"Why?" Kira asked.

"Because you're already hurt and your partner is more durable than you."

"I'll be…" Kira began before pausing, feeling the pressure from Brawly's stern look. "Fine…" she eventually conceded, walking over and taking a position on the beach.

Brawly nodded approvingly before turning his attention to Alex. "Alright, you mind Alex?"

"Right" She nodded in response, holding up the twin flags. "The battle may now resume!"

"Alright Raichu! Surf!"

It's tail glowing a bright yellow, Raichu began to quickly move, skimming the surface of the water in a large, sweeping arc. From that point, a large wave formed and began to roll towards the dock.

"Nyx! Take cover behind one of the supporting pillars!"

As Nyx braced herself, the wave crashed overhead. Disappearing from sight for just a moment, Kira's heart nearly froze as she heard the dock crack and moan from under the water's weight. Yet as the wave passed over Nyx was still holding strong.

However while Nyx seemed fine, the dock itself certainly seemed worse for wear. Almost as if it sweeped back along with the weight of the wave.

"Doesn't look too sturdy anymore does it?" Brawly said in a parental tone, looking down at Kira.

"Yeah, fine. You were right…" Kira conceded with a heavy sigh.

Brawly nodded. "Raichu, Electro Ball!"

Once again, the ball of electricity was sent flying towards the dock and slammed into the pillar Nyx was hiding behind with a large crack. The electricity from the attack scattered across the wet dock, striking Nyx with a sharp jolt.

Kira's body tensed up as she heard Nyx yelp, The pillar she was hiding behind forming a large crack at its base. As she watched Nyx recover from the attack, a stroke of inspiration suddenly hit.

"Alright, one more time Raichu! Electro Ball"

"Nyx! Leap up on the support behind you!"

As the attack was launched, Nyx scrambled up on top of the support behind her. The attack crashing into the pillar she was previously hiding behind, a loud, low crunch could be heard as it split in half. Sending a large chunk of wood flying through the air.

"Nyx! Fling!"

Leaping from her vantage point towards the tumbling piece of wood, Nyx managed to plant her paws on it. With a dark glow Nyx pushed it away from herself, Sending iit hurtling towards Raichu. Hitting them clear in the head Raichu stumbled backwards off of its tail and fell into the water, knocked out cold.

"Raichu is unable to battle." Alex called, holding up the flag on Kira's side. "Point goes to the Challenger Kira!"

"Nyx!" Kira called out excitedly as the small fox fell into the water. Running out to her, Kira scooped Nyx up up in one arm, taking her back to the beach.

"Nice Job, I can't say either of us were expecting that. You totally made Raichu wipe out!" Brawly complimented, recalling his pokemon from the water.

"Not exactly how I expected it to go either." Kira admitted, letting Nyx drop to the sandy beach once they got out of range of the tide.

"As for our second round then! I'll be going with Mantine!" Brawly called out, the large sunfish-like pokemon appearing out in the water. "It's getting late, here's where the good surf begins!"

Spoiler:

Pokemon on Hand​

Spoiler:

Azure the Spheal
Male / Calm / Thick Fat
Level: 24
- Brine
- Aurora Beam
- Aqua Ring
- Defense Curl
- Ice Ball
- Rollout

Nyx the Zorua
Female/Timid/Illusion
Level: 19 --> 22
- Pursuit
- Feint Attack
- Fury Swipes
- Hone Claws
- Fling
- Snatch
​

Inventory
​

Spoiler:

Money:
₱1,500 --> ₱1,500


Medicine:
1 Burn Heal


Pokeballs:
None


Berries:
9 Oran Berry
5 Chesto Berry
4 Leppa Berry
5 Cheri Berry
2 Pecha Berry
3 Rawst Berry
3 Aspear Berry
1 Persim Berry

Trainer items:
Ability Capsule
Rocky Helmet
Eviolite Collar
Eviolite --> Eviolite Broach


TMs:
TM56 Fling


Other:
One Piece Swimsuit
Holotch
Pokemon Fan Club Membership (Expires: October 17th)
Mysterious Stone

Gym Badges:
Slateport City

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Dewford Gym, Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 14
Ride the Momentum - Vs. Brawly
Part 2​

What I just thought earlier about clawing my way up? I knew it wasn't easy, but I guess even that level of expectation was off by quite a bit. Especially when I saw the motionless Braveheart who was covered in sand in the aftermath of the battle against Brawly's Raichu.

Braveheart may have the speed, but Raichu's speed and nimbleness were on another level. Especially after she used the move Electric Terrain. Terrain moves were something I was really passionate about, which was why I could quickly understand the implications that this giant electric dome gave us.

Not only that this electric dome restricted Braveheart's capability to find space to launch an attack, but the fact that it helped Raichu gained even more speed on top of what it already had was just utterly bonkers to deal with.

The damned thunder dome was the downfall of Braveheart, even when it could retaliate to several of Raichu's attacks. Braveheart just didn't have what it takes to overcome the devastating Electro Ball even when it was equipped with the Eviolite necklace.

I pondered my options for a bit, as Brawly smiled at me while waiting patiently. I knew Brawly was holding back since the start of this battle, but I guessed the fact that I managed to beat Machoke so easily was the reason he held his punches less with Raichu. Welp, perhaps it was me that had caused my own downfall, but I knew that must not err, for the battle was far from over.

So I called upon Nero to bring the advantage back to our team. I was planning to keep him as the anchor of our team, but… The situation just wasn't in my favor.

Brawly praised my choice as predicted, and obviously, the battle raged on once more.

Raichu threw a fast electric ball that was barely able to be dodged by Nero by lowering its levitating height, but it wasn't done attacking yet… Far from it even. It used Teleport to reappear behind Nero to launch a blitzing Electro Ball in a curved arc. This one had to be redirected with a Psybeam to change its trajectory as it merged with the electricity in the cage.

Yes, you read that correctly. Nero's Psybeam was only strong enough to redirect the Electro Ball, not to destroy it. Add the fact that he had Twisted Spoon equipped and you had me almost bitting my fingernail in reflex at the sight.

But of course, with a few more Teleport and Electro Ball, the ball finally hit right on target as Nero was barely able to stop himself from crashing towards the electrified dome during the aftermath. It was almost like a 5 against 1 dodgeball tourney with unlimited balls, and the poor one person was barely able to dodge all of their throws without having a moment to retaliate properly.

My confidence level was going really low at this point, that I instinctively glanced towards the spectator seat. Callie and Cody were yelling their support of me, while Vincent nodded a bit before smiling and clenched his fist as if he was trying to tell me to have faith in my own capability.

I didn't know why I did that, but it helped me to calm my nerves. If I couldn't understand what to do at the moment, then there was only one thing I should do.

Which was to stall for more time. No, I'm not joking, I told Nero to use its Psybeam against the ground to create billowing clouds of dust, obscuring the Raichu from using its Electro Ball willy-nilly. But of course, My prediction missed the mark as always as Electro Ball after Electro Ball rained on the field, creating more dust clouds as more and more of it landed on the sand below.

I could only yell at Nero to deflect them as they came, yet even that was just a wishful hope on my part. I didn't have the ability to see through the dust, let alone to see whether my partner was still able to stand his ground under the barrage of Electro Ball.

Brawly told me to trust my Pokemon and to be honest, yet I was irritated. I knew he meant well, but it was not the matter of not trusting Nero who was struggling for my sake, it was the matter of me unable to concoct a plan to help him which was really making me furious.

But it seemed that my reaction had caused his tone to change. He told me to calm down and think carefully about what I could do instead of panicking. He also added that winning would be hard for me if I couldn't put my anger away and see the battlefield with clarity.

And he was right, what he said was 100% the cause of why I failed multiple times. I would have done my self-deprecating sighing session if I was free, but I didn't have much time to think about what to do next.

Raichu decided it was time to wrap up the battle, as it created a giant wave of water to drown down Nero and reveal where he was by making the dust clouds disappear. However, electric currents and water worked more than just well as the dome's electricity caused the rapid torrent to be electrically charged, adding more element of lethality to the already dangerous attack.

It didn't look good at all, and not even Psybeam was able to dispel it, and to rub salt into the wound Raichu launched another Electro Ball just before the waves crashed down on Nero.

I didn't have much leeway in this situation, but I'll just have to trust what Nero could do and just hope for the best. Nero armored itself clad in psychic energy to break through the wave, the Raichu didn't expect it at all which gave me the opportunity to order Nero in delivering a powerful Payback, causing a crater in the sand as Raichu finally fainted.

But of course, as much as I loved the result. Nero wasn't able to escape unscathed, it was clear that electricity still ran in his body which was a telling sign that he was paralyzed. Combined with his current body condition, I thought that it would only take one to two strikes to put it on the sidelines.

Brawly smiled and said, "See, I told you so, dude."

I could only scratch my face in embarrassment and said 'thank you' to him for the advice he gave.

The last Pokemon he chose was a Hariyama. One of the Pokemon that I would have confidence in to beat had Nero been in a good shape, yet that wasn't the case. However, I regret nothing, there was no telling if my other Pokemon could beat Raichu as soundly as he did even if Braveheart had already worn it down beforehand. After all, now that I think carefully of it, there was one strategy that could potentially end this for good without letting this battle get even longer than it needed to.

But of course, I didn't have much time to think about that. With me refusing to switch Pokemon even after he asked twice, Brawly ordered his Hariyama to swiftly send a powerful Force Palm towards the impaired Nero.

It was dodged but things were not looking so good, Nero literally had to tumble down to barely avoid it, there was no sugarcoating able to be done than to think that it's probably over for him, but that was exactly the moment I was waiting for.

I screamed the next move to Nero shortly before the shockwave from another Force Palm hit and made a giant hole in the ground as Nero was knocked unconscious due to the impact. From there, I could only hope that being paralyzed wouldn't stop him from activating the move before he was knocked unconscious.

A dark purple aura engulfed Hariyama as the fully healthy Pokemon suddenly dropping down unconscious due to the effect of the move I called.

Destiny Bond. It was a really powerful move to use even with the limitations it had, yet if it weren't for Brawly's scolding, I would probably never had the epiphany in order to use it properly.

The spectators that were waiting anxiously for my victory rushed towards my side, patting my head with joy and with a wide smile.

While me? I predicted that I would raise my fist in joy and yelled out expletives like nobody ever saw before without any restraints, but… No, it wasn't what happened.

I couldn't even say a single word as tears choked my throat.

It was a long and arduous journey to get to this point, so much so that I almost gave up entirely.

I made it. I finally made it. I finally won a gym battle.
​

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[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Fanclub Beach House, Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 15
The Path Forward
Part 1​

The aftermath of the battle against Brawly was full of joy.

Was the victory cheap? Yeah, you could argue that it was the case.

If Destiny Bond didn't manage to be used because of Nero being paralyzed, would I lose? Oh, definitely… I wouldn't want to imagine what will happen to me if I lose once more.

Well, everyone was really cheerful and looking forward to the celebratory party. This includes me, obviously.

I had offered to put the ₱5000 I gained towards the party budget, but Callie and Vincent both insisted that they'll be the ones who were going to pay for the celebrations.

I had absolutely no power above those two lovable weirdos, so I had no choice but to shake my head as they took the initiative as always.

However, in the midst of this celebratory mood. There was one thing that had stayed in my thoughts.

How is Kat doing right now?

Vincent told me that she was relatively unharmed, but he said that his colleague told him that she exerted her legs so much that she re-aggravated her injury. As a result, she had to be bound to a wheelchair once more for the foreseeable future.

I didn't want to make her feel bad for herself or something around that line, so I didn't bother knocking on her door yesterday to give her some time alone. But even when I knocked on her door this morning, she didn't give any reply at all which was really worrying for me.

I only wished that she was alright, that's all. I mean it's sad to lose your traveling companion, but I knew that she must have something else in mind and there's no way we'll be able to travel together for a long time. So I would love to thank her and say my farewells, but…

She wasn't responding at all to me knocking on her door.

So I knocked again. I knew it was rude, I know you would think of that too. But I just... I just couldn't leave her alone you know? I was worried for her mental-wise since she seemed to be the type to bottle everything up herself.

But, there was still no answer from her. I knocked and knocked again, but with no answer at all, I decided to leave while hoping for the best. But just when I was about to give up, I could faintly hear a few barks inside before I managed to walk off completely from her room door.

Not long after, I could hear a loud thudding noise as the door opened, it was almost like something heavy fell off into the floorboards. Not wasting any time, Aurora rushed to me and quickly bit the edge of my pants as she dragged me inside the room.

It surely didn't help with my worries at all, so I was just hoping for the best only to feel absolutely horrified when I saw what was inside.

Katrina was lying on the floor motionless with her back turned against us.

At that point, I had no other assumptions than expecting the worst.

I ran towards her to check what was going on and put my hand on her forehead to check her condition.

She wasn't having a fever or anything like that, her temperature felt like what healthy people usually have. But just as a precaution I decided to check her vital signs, just in case because Aurora still wouldn't stop barking even after I told her that she was fine.

There was no problem at all, her pulse was normal. It wouldn't be that fast if she had any issues. The next thing to do after that almost escaped my mind though, it's been a long while since Sis taught me how to check up on people, so the fact that I was supposed to do a pupil check almost evaded me.

And so I opened her eyes slowly as possible. I was afraid it was impolite to do that, but I didn't have time… If something happened to her, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself for not being capable enough to save her.

But as I checked her eyes, her face suddenly turned red like a tomato before she averted her gaze away in embarrassment.

I wasn't too averse to the awkwardness either, especially with how close my head was when I checked her pupils. I bet I was looking flushed also at the time.

However, I wasn't there to stay in the awkwardness. I was there to invite her to the celebration that Callie and Vincent already planned, it just didn't feel right to not ask her whether she was willing to come or not. Especially considering she already accompanied me in my travels for a few days already.

Yet, our conversation didn't go as smoothly as I hoped. The atmosphere around us felt… Awfully cold. The reaction she gave felt like what a work-only acquaintance would give, something that was really different compared to the time we traveled together in Slateport.

I was confused, but a sentence uttered by her quickly unraveled what was going on with her.

"Was it you the one responsible for my rescue?"
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[WizardOfOdd]

Katrina Purcell
Location: Fanclub Beach House, Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Monday, September 21st​

Chapter 2 - 3
The Path Forward
Part 2​

I'm not a burden.
I don't want to be a burden.
If I am a burden to someone else, then they will discard me.
I'm scared.

Those thoughts couldn't escape my mind no matter how many times I tried to think that what happened in the past was just one unlucky occurrence.

Even when I knew that Jack was here smiling next to me as he tried his best to show that he cared about my wellbeing, I couldn't help but think of the worst scenario that would happen next.

I just couldn't do it, I couldn't hide my insecurities from him. It resulted in a change of expression that he did as I asked whether he was the one responsible for my rescue from the cave.

"Why are you asking that?" He looked confused while answering it.

However, I knew he had something to do with it. The lady who saved me yesterday told me that she was there at the request of her cousin, who goes under the name of Vincent. I didn't recognize the name, but it was fair to guess that he was an associate of Jack considering he was the only one who knew that I was entering that treacherous cave.

"Haha, come on! You're being too humble." I pulled up a wide smile while giggling in order to convince him to fess up. It was awfully sickening to my very core… Yet I decided to do it anyway. I had to know the truth.

"But I'm not responsible for that, trust me… And even if I did, that's all a coincidence. I did enter the cave depths, but I was lost for hours inside there. I was also saved by someone else I knew, perhaps he was the one responsible for your rescue instead of me."

He was clearly trying to downplay his exploits, but I couldn't help but notice the few words coming from his mouth. 'Lost for hours' meant that… He… So it was because of me.

"So you almost died there because of me?" I couldn't stop myself from uttering the word which sent Jack into panic mode.

"No, no, no! Why!? Why are you thinking like that!? Look at me, I'm fine! You should be concerned with yourself only, why did you have to think like that!?"

I sighed hearing his answer. "Fine, answer me this, then. Did you obtain a Key Stone inside the cave?"

"No, I didn't. Is there any point discussing that now? I mean I was there for you, not for that Key Stone. Don't worry… I can get it any time I need it." He nonchalantly exclaimed his thoughts.

So he didn't… Not only he was at risk… But he couldn't even find a Key Stone because too focused on his effort to find me… It's… It's all my fault. I… I...

"Kat… Kat… Oh no…"

I just couldn't hold it anymore, tears were starting to drip down my cheeks while Jack tried his best to console me.

"Just leave me alone… Please…"

I tried my best to keep any semblance of a smile I could, but it was clear from Jack's expression that I was failing miserably.

"Will you be okay?"

"Why? Why do you have to care so much for me? I… I'm just extra baggage for you. Why wouldn't you just leave me be?"

"Because… There's no reason needed for me to care about you."

"Are you stupid!? From—"

"If I am a stupid person for me to care about a friend, then you can call me stupid for all you care." He answered with a resolute face.

His answer put me into silence.

"It's idiotic that it took really long for me to remember it, but even when the world is cruel on you… There are some people that would care for you even when it doesn't give them any tangible benefits. The same goes for me now."

"You sure you wouldn't regret wasting your time with me?" I asked him while trying to wipe the tears from my face.

"100%. Being with you is really fun, you know? Especially when considering your expression when being teased." He giggled warmly. "So please don't feel like you were being a burden, I never thought of you that way."

I felt a huge feeling of relief hearing his word, but I just… I need some time to think. And so I told him that I needed some time to be alone.

"Sure, just tell me if you need something else." He stood up from the chair beside my bed before walking towards the door.

"Hey, Jack!"

He turned his head with a perplexed expression.

"Thank you."

He was visibly hesitant for a moment, but he soon let out an answer while showing his usual smile. "A nice sentiment, but I don't know anyone with a name like that."

It was my time to be perplexed by his answer.

"Arthur Weissmann, you can call me Arthur."

The words he put out surprised me. Yet I was unable to reciprocate the gesture he shown before he went out from my room.

On one side, I was frustrated. It was almost like the gap between us was getting bigger in front of my eyes.

But on the other hand, his words gave me the courage I needed so badly to move forward.

I had to make a decision soon.

What do I want to do moving forward?
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[budube]

Miranda Lockhart

Saturday, September 19th

Chapter 2: Part 2 - One day job, Part 1

13:00 to 14:00 - Dewford Docks to Dewford Beach
'Is there a reason for this Pokémon to still be called Sandslash despite it not being a ground type in Alola? It makes sense for it to keep that name in the normal/common one, but why does the alolan variant keep the name? It doesn't make any sense no matter how you look at it. Is it because its ice typing lets it "slash sand" or something like that? I'd like to know if there's some kind of reason a professional could'- You know what? Fuck it. I didn't write this shit… Well, I did, but come on! 'Slashing sand'? What was I thinking when I came up with that?

I bet some of the people that were with us read the dumbassery I posted and are cringing so hard they might as well have jumped from the fucking ferry if we hadn't reached Dewford already!

"Ah, Dewford Town! Don't you like how relaxing this place is? The air of one of the most calm places in this region." Maritza says as soon as we exit the ferry. How can she know that? We've been in the deck the whole time, the air feels the exact same as in the ferry.

"It is just as salty as Slateport's." I answer, once again, giving the only hint of seriousness and common sense in this group.

"I was talking metaphorically. Like how this island gives a different vibe from Slateport. Although… the actual air is more humid here, which isn't good if you wear shirts like me…" Maritza's expression turns into that of legitimate disgust, as she unbuttons the neck of her shirt and loosens the knot of her tie a little bit. "I think I'll be going to Petalburg tomorrow."

"You aren't going to challenge the gym here either?"

"I don't think so, no." she shakes her head. "I'm more excited to visit Petalburg City, honestly." she giggles and then becomes serious once again after clearing her throat. "What about you? Are you going to try the gym?"

Come to think of it… If there's something I learned from Slateport's battle is that I need more training. Maybe challenging Slateport and this gym once I'm ready is the best thing to do and I should head to Petalburg tomorrow as well and start from there.

"... I'll see." I finally answer.

None of us say anything for a bit, which is strange for Maritza. She would probably talk about the weather, but she's maybe containing herself from yelling like I do.

I, on the other hand, think on where to start. Dewford doesn't look as big as Slateport but I'd rather not be running around like an idiot searching for a place to train. That's when I remember that I've been, since I came here, with only ₽100… Which is nothing! I didn't mind at first because I thought I would beat the gym at first, but it's been three days and I still have no money!

Maritza tells me to head to a Pokémon Center which I was going to do at some point anyways. She doesn't come with me, though.

"I heard there's a place called Resort Cove here. It's for members of the Pokémon Fanclub." She says. "They probably have big windows and a nice air conditioner."

So she's gonna leave me all alone again. At least I know what I'm supposed to do now.

Or not.

---

"Where am I supposed to look for a job?" I ask the receptionist, nurse or whatever her job is, as soon as I enter. She looks back at me with her eyes wide open and a big smile which intimidates the shit out of me for some reason. "... Hello."

"Good afternoon. How can I help you?"

"Uhm… someone told me I could look for a job here." I tell her. She keeps staring at me with those huge green eyes of hers and nods. "Where?"

"A job… ? Oh, I guess you are talking about odd-jobs! Do you see that bulletin board over there?" She asks, pointing at some wooden thing cluttered with papers, near the café. "The 'Help Wanted' posters there are the jobs you might be looking for."

I nod and 'mhm' at her, looking around the Pokémon Center thinking if every Pokémon Center is the same exact building. The reception and café are all in the same place! How conveniently weird.

There's this cool as shit black paper with some kind of ghost ship in it, but I don't know what it is about because I can't understand anything other than the word 'tour' and the bullshit price of 3000. It's almost the same money you get to pay in Pyrite Colosseum to watch the tourney from a barely decent seat!

There's like nine million Help Wanted papers on the board, but only one I can actually understand something about: Cleaning the beach. Not from trash, but from Pokémon. There's even a drawing of them and apparently they are called Pyukumuku... however you pronounce that.

So I take the paper and go back to the nurse. "What do I do with this thing now?"

"Hmm?" She says, once again intimidating me with how she stares at me. Why does she do that? It's like she's sleeping with her eyes open because she doesn't even listen to me when I first call her. "Excuse me?"

"Sorry. Wanted to know what to do with this paper now."

"Well, it should have all the information you need in it. Let me see." She takes the paper and gives it a whole read, then turns it back at me. "This one is from the Dewford Pokémon Rangers. You could try to find one of them at the beach or go to their building in Granite Cave. Since you are new here, I think the beach would be easier to find."

"I'll head to the beach then, alright… Thank you very much."

---

What the fuck is a Pokémon Ranger, anyways? That's something I should have asked instead of coming here to stand like an idiot. It's so hot and crowded here too! Maybe I should buy an ice cream once I'm done with this, if I survive. But I can't do that if I don't find a Pokémon Ranger!

Maybe I should ask someone? But who? Most people are accompanied by someone else, and I'm not talking to two strangers at once.

In the end I find someone alone enough to ask them. It's just some ice-cream vendor, but these people probably walk across the beach all the time, so of course they know everything that is happening here.

Apparently there was a Ranger around here a few minutes ago. She was having trouble with having her Pokémon moving on the sand, so she is probably still around here.

According to the vendor, Rangers wear some very easy to spot uniforms and most of the time show off their badge on their belt. Weren't it because of the hat she wore I still wouldn't have been able to spot her, though. She is wearing a white top and has a tattoo on her right arm, whereas her jacket is tied around her waist. That would've been an easier way to recognize her. Why didn't they tell me that instead?

"Excuse me… Are you a Pokémon Ranger?" I ask, although I think it's pretty obvious she is. Her Zebstrika is seriously having trouble moving for what I see. "I just picked this job from the Pokémon Center. I thought I should ask some of you about it."

"Come one, Zebby! If you don't want to go back to your PokéBall at least let me… wait no, just go back to your PokéBall. At least until we get out of here."

"Um… excuse me? I want to talk to a Ranger because of this-"

"Or at least let's try walking as slow as possible so you don't fall. That could also work."

"Hey, I'm talking to you, you piece of…!" I yell, and hit the ground with my bat. That doesn't seem to alarm her, but it does startle her Zebstrika which does make her jump.

"Oh? Sure, what is it?" I hand her over the paper and without even taking a look at it, she says "Oh you are here for the Pyukumuku job! Why didn't you say so before? What is your name, by the way?"

"Miranda." I grumble. 'Why didn't you say so before?' What an asshole.

"Miranda… Let me explain the job a bit. This beach is full of Pyukumuku. One of them even hurt my Zebstrika not long ago. They aren't too dangerous, but they clutter the beach because tourists keep feeding them, so we need to take them back to the sea."

"So I just have to kick them away? That's easy."

"Oh, no! No, no! They are going to hit you back if you do that… and it's also illegal, unless you use your own Pokémon for that. You are safer by grabbing and tossing them away." She scratches her tattoo and looks away for a while. "That'd be it. If you can stop any tourists from feeding them as well, that'll be highly appreciated. I'll stay here trying to get my… Pokémon out of the sand. I won't be too far away. You come here in an hour or so, so I can take care of your pay."

---

Sandygast leads the way, swimming across the sand with his shovel looking like Sharpedo's fin on that one movie… or in any movie that has a Sharpedo. Don't ask how you swim across the sand, though, it was the best way to put it. I think he is just rolling underground, but it looks cool as hell.

Actually, Sandygast is just leading the mision underground, while Mankey and I look for Pyukumuku that aren't hidden.

Our first target pops right out of the sand once Sandygast crashes with it. It sends a really quick attack at the floor, that goes completely past the sand, only hitting his shovel slightly. I didn't get to see what exactly it was that it attacked with, but it came out from its mouth.

The Pokémon lands and Mankey charges at it preparing a punch and before I tell him to stop because of what the Ranger said before, he bounces back at me as if he was the one taking the hit instead.

Once the sand raised from Mankey being launched back goes down, I get to see the Pokémon in front of us angrily shaking its… fist? Why the fuck does it have an arm inside its mouth? And how does it even fit in there, this little shit is just a small ball.

There's something else bugging me about it. I'm pretty sure this Pokémon isn't supposed to look like that, so I take the paper with the job to look at the picture it had of Pyukumuku.

"It's green!?" I took a second look at the picture. Maybe it's a dark shade of green, but no, the picture is black with pink spikes while this one green with yellow spikes. "Why the fuck is it green!? Is this another one of those Alolan variants?" I take a closer look between the Pokémon and the picture, but it's not. In fact, I took the PokéDex out as well just in case and the text to speech thing said Pyukumuku are native to Alola! And guess what, the picture in the PokéDex is also a black Pokémon with pink spikes!

What the fuck is happening here? Why is this Pokémon green? Why do the Rangers and PokéDex show a black Pyukumuku instead? Why is it that whenever I'm getting pissed off, Alola is always involved?

And why of all things is this thing taunting Mankey by flipping its finger!? Tourists at the beach really feed the Pyukumuku and teach them to be assholes!

"Okay, now I'm really pissed off! If this is a Pyukumuku it should still be a water type!" I yell, holding my bat against the sand and adjusting my cap. "Sandygast, use uhh… Mega Drain was it?"

Sandygast forms a red ball of energy and shoots a beam of it that is supposed to drain its energy, but the Pyukumuku gladly receives the attack as its body turns into some kind of mirror, deflecting the attack back at him.

So this asshole can't be damaged by contact moves or special moves!?

"Well, it's not going anywhere despite all that! Sandygast, use the sand thing!" Sandygast tosses a chunk of sand at the wild Pokémon, directly on the eyes, but that wasn't supposed to happen! "No, I didn't mean Sand Attack! I meant the other sand thing!" I really need to memorize the moves' names.

I'm sure the Pokémon tried to escape the sand whirl by punching Sandygast, but it just didn't work. Sandygast is just that strong, or it's probably because of its ghost typing. Whatever it is, it's perfect. I wasn't wrong when I decided to catch this Pokémon.

I'm standing thinking about what move to make next, but after a short time, Sandygast's whirl just fades and the Pyukumuku is gone. I can see Sandygast's shovel getting back to me and how he rises with a smile on his face with his mouth is surprisingly closed.

"Where is it? Why did it disappear?" I ask him, but he just nods with his mouth still closed. "Did you eat it? How am I supposed to get my answers if you eat it?" Sandygast shakes its head still with a huge smile that just pisses me the fuck off. I bet he is an Alolan Pokémon as well. I poke him with my bat, not believing a bit of what he's trying to tell me and feel something spongy inside. "Spit it…" he shakes his head again and tries to get away from me. "Mankey don't let him go!"

After finding himself surrounded between Mankey and I, Sandygast gives up and coughs the Pyukumuku outside of its mouth, covered by a chunk of sand. Gross. The wild Pokémon starts jumping, shaking its one fist against Sandygast, trying to fight him, but before the battle even starts taking place, I grab it.

"You are coming with us." I say. It has to agree, it's not like it got any other choice.

---

Miranda caught a Pyukumuku!

Lvl 10 - Unaware - Mirror Coat / Bide / Water Sport / Taunt / Harden​

---

Sandygast grew to level 16!

---

Current Party:

Inventory

Spoiler:

- 3 PokéBalls
- 5 Potions
- P★DA (Pokémon Digital Assistant)
- ₽100

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Boat Terminal, Dewford Town
Pokemon at hand :

Tuesday, September 22nd​

Chapter 2 - 16
Farewell, My Friend!
Part 1​

Today was the last day of me being in Dewford, or at least for the near future.

I had everything well prepared for my departure. Obviously, I've made a prior reservation beforehand so I was able to board the boat ship without having to deal with the risk of not getting a seat at all.

After all, it's not like only trainers who are using that ship. Reaching Slateport wasn't going to be pleasant if I had to wait for the next boat to arrive.

Yes, I was going to Slateport once more instead of riding a boat towards Petalburg. I wasn't so sure if it was because I felt like I had the obligation to finish what I had started or because I was a stubborn idiot, but I couldn't stop myself from thinking about fighting Benji once more.

So I followed my heart and booked a boat ride to the city that had almost caused my Pokemon training career to end. Honestly, there was one other reason why I did this, but this was my main driving force to come back, which was to avenge the loss I had beforehand.

And because of that, I was sitting on one of the chairs at the ferry terminal with few other people, waiting for our boat to arrive. The smell of the sea wafting in the air, the scorching heat of the sun, and the chirping bird Pokemon flying about in the beautiful clear sky, the atmosphere was so very Hoenn-ic indeed.

As I sat down, I slowly reminisced about what had happened yesterday.

I was still feeling the euphoria of the victory at the celebration yesterday, but thankfully the talk I had with Katrina reminded me to call my family. I was hesitant to call them because I didn't want to say that I failed to win a gym battle two times in a row and that would be really embarrassing.

I didn't want to make any of them worry about my condition, even if their concern would be legit considering I was in a horrible mental state after losing against Benji.

And so I excused myself in the middle of the celebration and went to a silent place where I could call my family. If I may be honest, I was expecting quite a few notifications to pop up here and there. After all, I haven't opened my main Holotch since last Thursday.

As I expected the notification number indicator on my Holotch started to rise as messages and calls started to pour in my Holotch.

At 136, I thought that there were quite a few people that cared about me.

At 467, It was much more than I had expected.

At 872, I was starting to feel quite worried.

At 999+, I freaked out. What the hell was happening!? It was impossible that I would reach this number of notifications considering I muted several group chats.

And so… I sheepishly tried to open the call application, only to be greeted by a giant wall of missed calls.

My father, my sister, Alice, some friends in the academy I rarely talked with before, and even contacts that I never saw before. They bombarded me with calls that I obviously didn't answer at all.

All of these raised a red flag for me, 100%. I was very sure that there was no way this could end well at all.

And so I chose to call my dad. I thought that he might be one of the few people who wouldn't panic under this unknown situation. My Holotch rang a few times as I waited for him to answer, and almost immediately after I said the word 'hi', he yelled several profanities I wouldn't dare to repeat in public.

Apparently a lot of people I knew thought the worst scenario had happened to me, and that was all thanks to what I've said to Alice before I departed to Hoenn.

My dad told me that he got a call from Alice, and she was sobbing so much while asking for forgiveness which was very uncharacteristic for her. And just to make things worse, what she said to my father caused most of the people around me to think that I was gone for good.

And so I had to spend the rest of the party sending a lot of text messages to those people to explain that I was alright. But never in a million years that I expected to deal with so many that felt concerned about my well-being, it was really touching.

But this incident also showed how bad of a decision I made about Alice. Yet I declined her plea to call me last night and she had to settle with me constantly informing her about how I was doing from now on. It's not that I wanted to put her under constant stress or anything, but…

I was too ashamed that my foolish action had caused one of the closest friends I've ever had to weep in a feeling of deep sorrow because of me. It was the greatest driving force to why I had to tell her not to call me. One day I would say sorry to her properly face-to-face, but not now.

This was a learning experience. I promised myself that I would try my hardest to not do this ever again as I looked toward the bright skies.

I was going to contact my family to tell them I was going to Slateport at this moment, but before I managed to open the menu on the old Holotch I wore once more, I could feel something really cold touching my forehead.

I lifted my head to notice that the feeling of coldness was coming from a can of soda. The perpetrator of the action giggled as they saw my reaction to their arrival.

"Having fun daydreaming?" The girl asked me while flashing a bright smile, causing me to reciprocate it with a wide smile myself.

"Not as fun as seeing you today though. How are you doing today, Kat?"
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