[PKMN FULL] TRAINERS (IC)

Aquacorde · Jan 24, 2021

Casey Holt

Sunday, May 26, 2019 // Noonish, Day 7
Route 11 // Southeast

7-01. brand new

Spoiler: brand new - ben rector

Casey wakes just before the timer on his phone beeps.

Perfect.

He swings out of the bed, dislodging the Skiddo and Charmeleon that had settled atop him for their half-hour nap, and bounces to his feet. Oh, his ribs still hurt- stretching makes him wince- but the weight of despair has dissipated under the warmth of his Pokémon and memories of his friends.

He grins.

Back in action!

He checks his phone- a few texts, and a reminder to leave Arthur some money. Hadn't he wanted to set a reminder for something else, too? Probably. Doesn't matter, though. He leaves a stack of cash and a note atop the dresser and heads out, happy to feel like he's moving forward once more. Trekking the same path along Route 12 three times made him antsy, eager for something new.

Route 11 is new.

The dreary weather of the coast clears out as it rolls into the dry grasslands, letting the sun shine down on Casey and his party for the first time in days. God, there hasn't been a properly sunny day since Wednesday. The clouds had gathered as he and Jordan made their way into Rock Village, and they'd been in a cave for the rest of the day. The sun had poked out of Lavender's perpetual haze a fair few times, but not enough for his preferences. And Route 12- well, he can see why Viveka gets moody.

But now, the sun greets them warmly as the clock ticks over to noon and Parsley frolics in the long grass just off the trail, biting every new plant he comes across with apparent glee. He lets the Skiddo lead as he turns his attention skyward, basking under clear skies, letting the gentle breeze ruffle his hair.

It's nice.

But he's never one to relax for long.

"Ginger," he calls. She cracks an eye open in acknowledgement, but doesn't move from Parsley's back. "C'mere, we're gonna figure out this TM."

She looks vaguely interested. Both eyes are open now, at least. "It's a kicking one."

She gives a dismissive wave. I already know how to kick.

"It's a different kick. 'S elemental."

She perks up at that. Go on.

"You're supposed to spin to get momentum and power it up. Saw you likin' doin' spins with Double Kick, so it shouldn't be too different. Just with ice."

She smacks Parsley a few times, which apparently communicates to the Skiddo that she should be picked up with a vine and thrown to Casey, who drops his walking stick to catch her. "Hey- tell me when you're gonna do that, jeez."

She shrugs. You can catch.

"Yeah, but only if I'm lookin' at you. Anyway. You gotta go in the ball for a minute- don't complain, it's literally for thirty seconds- an' it will load the basic data into your data-form, or somethin'- I don't really remember the details of how it works, I should look that up again… but c'mon, let's do that and figure it out."

Ginger wriggles out of his hands and slides down his side to stick her paw in his pocket and activate her PokéBall. She activates Pepper's first on accident, sucking the surprised Charmeleon away from slashing at trail-obscuring grasses. Maybe he should invest in a ball belt like Gwen has, so Ginger can find hers easily. But for now, he inserts the disc into the PokéDex and taps a few things, and somehow the data disappears from the disc and into Ginger's mind, supplanting her Jump Kick technique.

Technology is crazy.

He lets Pepper and Ginger out again. The Charmeleon grumbles something, but Ginger is quick to snap back with a kick that shimmers just a touch.

"Hey, look at that!"

Parsley shoves his snout through the grasses lining the trail to watch as Ginger twirls again experimentally. A frosty trail forms around her feet, but it's so slight that it evaporates almost immediately in the dry air. "Huh."

Casey sits down and drags his PokéDex from his bag. "Okay, I looked at this earlier, but- okay." Pepper and Ginger crowd around. "You guys can't read, why- whatever. So this is called Triple Axel. It's named for an ice skating thing, a really hard skating thing. The ice skating one is three and a half rotations, technically, and launched from a forward approach, and, well, the move here isn't the exact same- well, nothing like it, actually- but it's got the same feel, y'know?" Their blank looks tell him no, they don't know. "I s'pose there was no reason for y'all to hang around skating rinks. Maybe we'll check one out someday. But we don't have to do that to figure this out."

He re-orients himself by skimming the move's description again. "Triple means three. So the power you get out of this maxes out at three hits. And they're supposed to go one after another, so it's not like- what's that Bug move? Fury Cutter. It's not like Fury Cutter." Pepper looks lost. Ginger circles her wrist. Doesn't matter, get on with it. "Okay. It's like Double Kick, but ice, and three, but power starts lower and increases with momentum. Specifically the spinning, I think."

Ginger looks disgruntled. "I know it's not raw power, but you're good at momentum. No, don't act like that. Think about it. If you get this down, you'll-" he hesitates, doing some quick calculations. "-it'll be way more powerful than Ice Punch would be. But I got another idea about it, too." Ginger taps her foot. Snowflakes puff out of her toes. "I thought about givin' you Ice Punch, and havin' you put it though your feet like Thunder Punch, 'cause it can freeze pretty good. But it freezes in chunks. An' that won't work very well, 'cause I want you to learn to skate."

Casey shuts off his PokéDex and sits back triumphantly. Ginger looks less than impressed with his decision. He knows she wants straight power, but he knows that she won't use a damn buff to save her life. Well, except Foresight. But that's just to let her hit anything no matter what. And he doesn't know how long it will stay around, now that she has more options to take on Ghosts with. And she's so strong now that Endure will probably fall by the wayside as soon as she finds a technique she prefers.

Maybe he should have just gone ahead and overridden that instead.

But Jump Kick has been foiled too many times in the short time she's been using it, and he can't think of a way to get around it. It's just a big, one-directional hit. And Ginger needs more options, if she's going to dismiss non-attacking strategies outright.

He's going to have to trick her into versatility, basically.

She huffs, and stomps her feet, and the ground below her frosts over briefly. "More momentum, more power," Casey says, getting back up off the ground. "I tried figure skating for a while with my friend back in Pewter. He was really into it, but I liked hockey more. More of the team spirit thing, y'know? And dance was way easier off the ice. I couldn't even land a toe loop." Kionte had been baffled, every time they practised. But Casey had refused to risk weeks of his life sitting around with a broken ankle, and therefore never had the confidence to try landing jumps.

But skating knowledge is still in the back of his mind, like everything else he's ever absorbed. "Look, stand like this."

Pepper copies him immediately, even though he has no stake in this training. Ginger rolls her eyes and follows after. "You shift your weight from foot to foot like this, an' you push forward with your weight there, and I think if you push the ice through at the same time, you can freeze ahead of your foot enough to slide forward."

Pepper and Casey both shift their weight and slide along the dirt with some effort, but Ginger manages to do exactly what he wanted- ice appears under and just ahead of her gliding foot, but she struggles a little on switching to her opposite foot and the next switch doesn't get enough ice down to let her slide instead of tumbling forward. A vine shoots out from the grasses to catch her before she hits the ground and drags her into the grass.

"Uh," Casey says eloquently. "Parsley?"

Ginger shrieks.

Casey and Pepper dive into the tall grass, tumbling further than he thought they would as they find themselves in a low ditch, grasses catching on Casey's belt and under his jacket as they frantically struggle in the direction of the vine. Pepper lags behind, but Casey stumbles forward and unearths, sitting atop his Skiddo, a very angry Buneary and a startled Phanpy.

"Who are you?" Casey blurts, then shakes his head at himself. That's not a question a Pokémon can answer. "Parsley, where'd you find this?" is hardly better, but his Skiddo thrusts his chin in a vague southerly direction. Ginger hisses, and the Phanpy cowers.

"Oh, be nice, it hasn't done anything." It looks... sad and confused, actually. Definitely not aggressive- it inches backward as Casey reaches out to it, and falls off of Parsley's back into Casey's other arm. "Hi!" he says brightly, and the Phanpy freezes. "Do you want a snack?" What does he have on hand? Oh, the supplemental Chesto berries he'd nabbed from Arthur's fridge are in his pocket. They shouldn't be, but they are, and it's convenient enough to hand one over to the Phanpy, which curls its trunk around the offering and stares at him wide-eyed.

Pepper taps him on the hip. "What, you want one too?"

The Charmeleon shakes his head frantically and points behind them. Casey turns.

The dry grass, in the exact line they'd taken from the path, is on fire.

"Uh."

Parsley backs away nervously. Pepper presses close to Casey, guilt evident in all of his body language. "Okay, right, no water no sand no Flash Fire no Fire Spin- what do firefighters do? The wilderness ones? Uh, oh, controlled burn, controlled burn. Okay! Parsley, baby boy, be brave, Razor Leaf won't catch- they're too green- send 'em on either side. Cut down the grass, okay? Good job! Pepper, Slash them down and start stamping them, I'll help. Ginger, put ice down on top of the hot stuff. It'll melt, right? That's some water, that will help-"

They make it halfway back to the trail, but in the deep gulley between path and grassland the fire burns quickly, more fuel to play with as it starts to jump Parsley's cut swaths. The Skiddo takes uncertain steps away from the blaze, even as Pepper and Ginger stomp fruitlessly on the quick-lighting grasses. It's getting hotter, and smokier, but there's nothing else they can do- the grass is burning too fast to make their way around, and even Parsley's green leaves are catching as he slings them through the field. "Keep at it!" Casey fumbles for his water bottle, almost dropping the Phanpy. Wait, the Phanpy-

"Can you do anything?" he asks, a little desperately. It's a ground type, maybe it knows Sand Attack, or Sand Tomb, or something. It stares at him for a moment, then wiggles out of his arm and waddles bravely into the fire. "What- wait-"

He expects something sandy.

He doesn't expect Phanpy's trunk to curl, and spiraling whips of water to lash out from the crushed Chesto berry.

Pepper flinches. Ginger's feet freeze more area than she expects and she slips forward, face meeting the ground ungracefully. Parsley darts in to scoop the Phanpy up onto his back as Casey fumbles for another Chesto berry- "Do that again!"

Between this berry-crushing technique and Parsley's skill at covering ground the fire dies down in minutes, leaving Casey, Pepper, and Ginger to smother any remaining cinders as they finally drag themselves out of the ditch and back onto the path. There they retrieve Casey's walking stick and sit for a while, carefully watching for bursts of flame while Casey assesses.

Pepper had definitely started a fire.

Viveka was right to be worried earlier, he supposes. Pepper definitely can't do target training here. He takes out his PokéDex and taps almost absentmindedly. Swinging its tail raises air temperature, he reads, somewhere in the mess of data crammed into the PokéDex's entry on Charmeleon. Maybe it's that. It must be that; Casey hadn't heard the telltale fwoosh of Ember, and Pepper wouldn't have activated Fire Fang out of the blue. So it must be the tail. Even though it hasn't happened before. But they'd been careful, hadn't they, to keep Pepper's tail out of anything flammable? But swishing back and forth while running through bone-dry, quick-lighting grasses… and with this recent, inexplicable bump in firepower…

The burnt swath of grass is no longer smoldering, as far as he can tell. Casey hauls himself to his feet and looks around. Narrow tails crisscross the savanna surrounding them, rolling across the southern half of the route, grasses nearly obscuring them.

That won't work.

But to the north, the grasses become more and more sparse as they begin to fight the unstoppable march of sandy erosion put forth by the desert-like strip of land butting up against rocky foothills. And while deserts are obviously dry, there's a lot less to catch and even less chance of a whole route going up in flames.

"Pepper."

The guilty look the Charmeleon turns on him is heartbreaking. "Baby," Casey cooes, scooping him up. It's harder to do with a backpack on. "Not your fault, no, not at all! We just gotta be really careful here. Look." Casey, with some difficulty, manages to point northward while keeping a hold on his clingy Pokémon. "We're gonna head up there and it should be safer for you. But I gotta put you away 'til we get there, okay?"

Pepper turns pleading eyes on him and Casey shakes his head. "We're almost out of Chesto berries and there's no tellin' if this Phanpy can control another fire like that. We gotta do it this way." Pepper clings to him more aggressively, whining and butting his head against Casey's chin. "Hey, your skull hurts. I love you too. It won't be for long."

He manages to activate the PokéBall in his pocket and Pepper turns to light, sad eyes guilt-tripping Casey to the end.

He sighs.

"Let's get goin' then."

Parsley obliges, finding his feet and dutifully hauling the two smaller Pokémon up onto his back. Casey squints ahead, trying to decide how straightforward taking the actual path would be, but snaps his attention back in short order.

"Hey."

Parsley snuffles quizzically.

"What're we taking the Phanpy for?"

Parsley shrugs, as much as a goat can shrug. The Phanpy looks marginally more comfortable than it had been the first time he saw it on the Skiddo's back. Though that may have to do with Ginger steadfastly ignoring it rather than hissing like a feral Meowth.

"Well…" He supposes there's really nothing wrong with this scenario, though it's a little weird to just hang out with a wild Pokémon. Isn't it?

Oh well.

"I'm thinkin' we go as the Murkrow flies. Stay close."

GINGER replaced JUMP KICK with TRIPLE AXEL

CASEY found a PHANPY

QueenNothing · Jan 25, 2021

Gwen Alanis
May 26th, Sunday, Noon

Bead and Custard don't really need a reason to return to their Pokeballs. Bead can already travel at a similar pace to his trainer, and Custard hasn't caused any problems sitting on Gwen's shoulder. Tusk is a little different- he's too heavy to carry and his stubby legs can't don't work well for long distance walks.

It's sort of like how Casey travels with his Pokémon. She's not really sure why she didn't think of this earlier, and once Scar is withdrawn from Palm's possession, he can function as a mount to carry them on. Maybe then she can rest on the Bouffolant's back while he does the walking- even after a week of journeying, all this walking still isn't easy on her legs.

While subconsciously progressing, the perking ears of a Pikachu catch Gwen's attention. Custard doesn't look alarmed, at least not as alarmed as usual, rather she's picking up on something up ahead. She does grow increasingly more timid the more steps Gwen takes, and it starts to become clear why.

"What the hell?" She asks aloud as she notices a parked bus that's surrounded by a large group of people. It's weird to just see something like this in the middle of nowhere, and decides to get a little closer to investigate while still keeping a healthy distance.

The label on the bus in large yellow letters reads "Tour Route 11!", and the crowd either still seated or surrounding the bus seems like it's mostly full of bitter old people with shirts or caps with an "I _ Kanto!" label, although the blank is filled with a shape of the Kanto region. I Kanto Kanto? What the hell is that supposed to mean?

"Everyone please calm down!" A young man standing in the doorway of the bus exclaims through a megaphone. "Help is on the way! We're just… not sure what happened to the bus… except that it's not working at least."

Disgruntled yammering increases from the pool of people. It's not something Gwen is super enthusiastic about, but through all the complaining she's able to single out a noise coming from the other side of the bus- and looping around the non-functioning vehicle shows almost nobody is paying attention to the area. It might just be because they're that upset or just don't care- not that Gwen would notice.

A few feet from the bus is a sight that excites her as much as it does troubles her: an individual Sandile being pelted with small rocks. Of course, Gwen acts on her impulse and shouts "What the fuck are you doing to that poor Sandile!?!" She looks over to see who's been harassing the Pokémon, but she almost wishes she didn't.

"Oh Jesus Christ, why did it have to be him?"

"Well well well, if it isn't the Cape Student who fluked and got an undiserved victor against me?" This is just great. Of everyone she has to come across, it just has to be Winston Addington, the snobby Safari student. He's wearing the same outfit as when the two last saw each other, although oddly absent is that girl who always copied his movements, Lucina or whatever her name was. Despite that, he's not alone- another young trainer accompanies him, and he looks like a pretty standard Pokémon Trainer, red and white cap over his frizzy brown hair, fingerless gloves, red vest, running shoes, the works.

"Damn Winston, do you know this loser?" Gwen feels her blood boil as the other kid chuckles.

"What the- I'm the loser after absolutely destroying you!?!? At least I'm not the one picking on creatures smaller than me!"

"You can definitely tell this is a Cape kid." The new kid snarks to Winston, who lets out an exaggerated laugh. "That's correct, Tucker! It's good to see you're learning where to spot filth when it's in your place! But anyways, as I was saying to this Cape Trainer right here, I didn't want to dirty up my precious Pokémon so I thought we'd keep our distance!"

He's not making sense, although she's not really sure if anything Winston says does. But whatever, she doesn't care, these two must be rotten to the core. "Alright then, let's settle this with a battle! One-on-one!"

Winston smirks. "It would be low of me to reject, now wouldn't it? Very well- I'll try going easy on you!"

"I don't think anyone can take Winston down!" Tucker adds. Clearly he's never seen Winston battle if this is what he thinks. Winston grabs an Ultra Ball from his pocket, tosses it up before catching it in his palm, and throws it forward.

"SCYTHAAAA!"

Normally this would be a big challenge to overcome, but Gwen thinks he probably doesn't even know how to battle.

"This is gonna be a piece of cake! Custard!" From her shoulder, the Pikachu shudders nervously before reluctantly leaping onto the ground. Even a less experienced Pokémon like Custard can fry this usually scary Pokémon.

Without any command, Scyther creates multiple copies to surround Custard, who trembles at the sight.

"It's no big deal! Quick Attack through 'em all!" Pikachu swallows her fear and runs into every copy before tackling the real deal.

"Now, Thunder Wave!" Custard paralyzes the bug-type Pokémon, and his movements stiffen. She then releases a jolt of electricity forward, which has Scyther collapse to his knees, and Winston follows suit.

"GODDAMNIT, NOT AGAIN!!!" He screams, frantically scratching his hair. "THAT WAS ANOTHER FLUKE, I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU DOWN EASILY!!!"

Gwen rolls her eyes. This kid's delusions are starting to get incredibly irritating- although when weren't they? "Unsurprisingly, I win. Now leave that Pokémon alone!" Tears start flowing from his eyes, and Gwen feels a shred of sympathy for him.

As Winston sobs on his hands and knees, Tucker kneels down to pay him on the back. "Oh no, I don't believe it! I'm so sorry about that- how about I beat her for you?"

"I-I-I…" He fails to form any words in-between the tears and wipes his face with his sleeve. "I kn-know th-that if I can't beat her, y-you probably won't either… b-but I'd really appreciate it if y-y-y-" His uncontrollable bawling prevents him from finishing his sentence. JEEZ, is he alright?

"I'll try my best!" Tucker says with a modest smirk. Something about him pisses Gwen off, the way he tosses a Pokeball to send out his first Pokémon, an Azumarill- and something about this Pokémon's mannerism pisses her off too, even if this water-type acts no differently from any other member of her species. "Come on Custard, this should be another easy win!"

"Azumarill, Supersonic!" Custard effortlessly zips out of Supersonics' way and arcs a Thundershock. Azumarill conjures a liquid ring around her, but is left open to another electric shock.

This is too easy...

Gwen starts to feel herself grow bored, but the water-type suddenly furiously beating against her belly snaps her back into it- Tucker's smirk looks as if it's grown too.

"Oooh, nice move! But that ain't gonna stop us- Thunder Wave!"

Electric rings aimed from the Pikachu's tail easily paralyze Azumarill. Belly Drum left her a sitting Ducklett, but Aqua Jet gives her enough momentum despite her condition. Gwen is a step ahead though, as she orders Custard to Double Team to evade.

"Alright now girl, finish this off with a Thundershock!" Oddly confident, Custard charges electricity in her cheeks to zap the blue mouse and has her fall over. Belly Drum probably made that easier, but a familiar feeling Gwen can't name rears its head again.

"Jeez, you guys are such losers!" She mocks. Tucker doesn't seem bothered by it one bit though, unlike the still weeping Winston. "Hey hey- I still have one Pokémon left!" After Azumarill is returned, another Pokeball is tossed, and a white light materializes into a Graveler- definitely not something Custard should be facing, and her leaping onto Gwen's shoulder signals she knows this as well.

Gwen should send Marshall out, and she knows how easy it'd be if she did. But she sees a ripe opportunity to train Tusk's Iron Tail here, so without hesitance, she tosses a Pokeball to send her adamant Axew out to battle.

Tusk and Graveler stare each-other down for a bit, completely silent before it's broken by Graveler smirking and digging up a large chunk of dirt from the ground that morphs into a boulder, which is then chucked forward.

"Tusk, Iron Tail!" Right as the rock is about to smash into him, Tusk twirls around to shatter the boulder into pieces with Iron Tail. Once that attack is nullified though, another incoming rock is spotted. No problem- the Axew easily repeats the process with another swipe of his iron-coated tail.

In unison, both Tucker and Graveler give a nasty grin. The rock-type jumps into the air and comes down with a single THUD that shakes the ground, reaching both Gwen and Tusk to make them lose their balance. As they're thrown off, Graveler rolls into a ball using Defense Curl, and leaps up to crash down with another THUD, making it still difficult for the dragon-type to stand up straight. Graveler then rolls forward at a moderate speed, running straight over Tusk.

"Tusk, hang in there!!" Gwen cries with concern. Her Pokémon gets back up, signaling to his trainer that he's alright, although with Graveler rolling back around, what his trainer thinks should be the least of his concerns.

"You know what to do boy! Use Iron Tail!" Bracing himself for the attack, Tusk materializes the iron energy through his short tail, waiting for the exact moment for Graveler to get close and…

He swings too early and leaves himself to be rolled over again. God damnit.

Graveler comes back around with more power than ever. Tusk is able to counter at the precise time, dealing massive damage to Graveler and making him roll sideways, but he survives.

That's something he's definitely gonna need to work on. It's a miracle he hasn't screwed this up before, but no matter, he's still capable of staying in. Graveler once again rolls back around at a much faster pace than before, giving Tusk little time to react. He plants his feet into the dirt, waiting for the arrival of the Pokémon charging forward, and preparing his attack. He tries to remain patient, and…

CLANG

His patience pays off when his tail smacks into the rock-type and causes him to roll back at a quicker speed than which he rolled forward!

"Way to go boy!" Gwen pumps her fist in the air, barely watching Graveler halt his momentum by popping his feet out, and Tucker doesn't look the slightest discouraged. "Focus Punch!" he commands, and his Pokemon uses his lower pair of arms to charge up an orange energy in one hand. That's strange- he does know that leaves him basically defenseless, right?

"Rock Climb!" Jagged rocks point from the ground in a path straight towards Tusk and Graveler uses his upper pair of arms to grab onto the rocks to crawl forward at a breakneck speed. Oh, that's how. Gwen is pretty impressed, but she can't admire the creative technique too long.

"Tusk, reflect with Iron Tail!" The solution seems pretty obvious. Have Tusk hit at just the right time towards the unstoppable force to send him rolling back- except it's not quite successful this time. The radiating aura from Graveler's fist combined with the weight of his body completely overwhelms the super effective attack, and sends Tusk flying.

"TUSK, ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?!?" She shouts, on the verge of panicking. Behind her, the Axew pushes himself to stand up straight, and gives a thumbs up gesture. Gwen is a little conflicted- she remembers what Casey said about not pushing her Pokémon too far, but at the same time, she feels it's important to hone Tusk's new skill. Besides, she feels she can trust him enough to keep him in, so against her better judgement, she keeps him in.

Of course, she's learned by now not to make the same mistakes repeatedly. She needs to figure out what to improve on, and fast.

I guess swinging around a heavy tail might cause him to lose some focus in his feet… we might need to work on that, but there's really no time. Come on, think, think…

"Bulldoze!" Tucker's next command takes Gwen out of her thoughts. Graveler hops up into the air, and before he can come down to make the ground quake, Gwen calls out "Tusk, use Iron Tail to stay grounded!" As she says, Tusk leans back to lightly dig his tail into the dirt to plant his feet. He shakes a little when Bulldoze lands, but not enough to lose his balance. Tucker snickers and orders a repeat of Focus Punch and Rock Climb combo. Despite her previous failure, Gwen isn't discouraged this time. In fact, she's feeling far more confident.

Graveler's entire weight and a Focus Punch come charging forward, but rather than knock him back, Tusk completely halts the momentum by using Dual Chop at his sides to keep him at bay. This definitely catches Graveler off guard, and the energy focused into his fist fades away. With the threat neutralized, Tusk releases the rock-type from his grip and swings with an Iron Tail straight to the face, sending Graveler rolling way back. It gets to the point Tucker has to recall him to prevent him from getting lost.

"Oh no! It looks like I lost!" Tucker snaps his fingers, looking over to Winston who's crying hasn't stopped. "At least I did my best, huh?"

Winston sniffles and wipes his face. "I-I suppose so." He says before digging through his vest pocket and- to Gwen's bafflement- plops a large stack of Pokedollars into Tucker's palm. "Maybe next time she won't get so lucky."

Gwen rolls her eyes. She's had enough of Winston's shit. The Sandile from before seems to have fled during their battle, and she doesn't have much business being here anymore. After returning Tusk to his Pokeball, she turns around and storms off as the two Safari trainers haughtily laugh in unison.

"Wait!" She doesn't get far before a foreign voice calls out to her. Turning around reveals an old woman leaning against a cain walking her way. "I saw how those two boys were behaving back there! I must say you've done a good job dealing with them!"

"O-oh… thanks! I couldn't believe it, the way they treated that poor Sandile! I had to do something!"

"Mmmhmmm." The old woman smiles. "I think I'll reward you with something- here, take this." She hands Gwen a small piece of paper, one that's not a coupon, thank God. The card pretty plainly states "Pokémon Fan Club Gold Star Voucher". She's not sure what this can be used for, but the old woman assures her it'll be useless soon enough.

"Well, I must get going. I've heard they're almost done fixing the bus up." The old woman announces. "Take care young trainer. I shall see you soon."

"Uh, yeah, you too old lady. Thanks a bunch!" After that quick exchange, Gwen examines the voucher, wondering what purpose this could serve. Honestly she didn't really want to be rewarded, but the intrigue of what it'll be used made it difficult to refuse.

Gwen's team

Juno · Jan 26, 2021

Tangles Art Cred

6-4: Common Threads

👥Ft. Ralph Gonder 🔬 Dead Factories 🕙 May 25th, Late Noon

Pants. I forgot pants. Waterproof ones, at least. Waist up, Jordan's jacket was holding up fine, and those hiking boots he'd bought with Vera and Casey in Lavender turned out to be a very worthwhile purchase. It was still chilly, and he wouldn't say he was comfortable, but he was mostly dry, at least. All except for his pants.

His jeans were sturdy and quite thick, but they were not waterproof. It was pretty much storming at this point, and they were soaked, sticking to him uncomfortably. Because of the weather, he was also careful not to take his Pokégear out too much. They were water-resistant, but not completely impervious to rain. Underneath a large tree, he quickly pulled it out to see where the good doctor had marked his map. The device was close by. Very close.

A roar from the sky above made him jump, and he quickly evacuated the underside of the tree. He took it as a sign to take a break and find a bit of shelter—real shelter, one that won't be taken out by a stray bolt.

The first building he entered looked promising from the outside. As he opened the door and stepped in, it appeared a large chunk of the roof was missing, which kind of defeated the purpose of going indoors. He soon found this to be a common feature of many of the unfinished buildings, eventually sending Hop out to help scout.

"Help me look for a more intact building?" Jordan requested. Hop set off with a squawk. "Watch out for lightning." He added. Jordan continued to poke around the abandoned buildings and factories himself, but had a pretty good feeling that Hop would have a lot more luck with an aerial view.

True enough, within minutes, a twittering noise alerted him to the Pidgeotto's find. Jordan followed his voice until he saw the bird circling a relatively unscathed and complete-looking building proudly. "Nice work!" He exclaimed, beckoning for the Pokemon to come close as he tried to open the door. "Let's see if we can…" He'd barely touched the handle, before the latch gave and the door creaked open. "Oh. Well, there we go."

It wasn't very good at staying closed anymore, so after Hop made his way in as well, Jordan pushed a few scattered cardboard-boxes lying around up against the door to keep it shut as best as he could. Aside from the broken latch, everything else in here looked fairly intact, as far as he could tell, at least, and it was dry.

Speaking of dry, now was probably as good of a time as any to get out of these soaked jeans. He poked his head through a few of the doors lining the open corridor. He probably could have just changed right there in the hallway, but out of habit, he entered one of the empty offices and shut the door with a loud click, before taking off his pants. Back turned against the door, he finally opened his pack and started rummaging around for a fresh pair. "Come on, where are you…" he muttered aloud to himself.

His rummaging hadn't gone unnoticed though. Further down the corridor, Ralph was now stalking closer, in search of what had been making a noise. She figured it was a wild pokémon, so behind her in a neat line sneaked Sandshrew, Sandslash and Elekid, ready to strike. Dreepy and Rattata were perched on each of her shoulders again.

Another noise, coming from the door just to her side. Excited to see what little critter they could get a jumpscare out of, Ralph motioned to her pokemon to be ready. And on the silent count of three, she flung the door in question open and let the Sandcrew and Jolty burst in roaring while she tried to get a look.

She got a jumpscare, alright—the boy on the other side let out a sharp scream, startling his Pidgeotto so much that he knocked over a chair before diving in between the intruders and his Trainer with a loud squawk. Jordan scrambled to cover his boxers with something, hastily pulling out the first thing he could from his bag. It was the ugly, brown "Amateur Archaeologist" T-shirt.

Sandsy and Jolty had the presence of mind enough to assume defensive stances within a second, but Coldy seemed to assume that the Pidgeotto was the enemy they were looking for. She instantly fired off a Powder Snow in the direction of the bird and the boy. The Pidgeotto took the brunt of the attack, staggering back before rearing up as it shook the snow off. As it spread its wings wide and prepared to retaliate, the boy finally caught a glimpse of the Trainer in the rag-tag gang's mix.

"Whoa- wait, wait, Hop!"

He reached a hand out to his Pokemon briefly, but retracted it when he remembered he was still holding up the shirt around himself.

"R-Ralph?"

"Oh!"

The girl finally realized that there was a human there, and returned Coldy to her pokéball before she could do more harm.

"Sorry, I thought there were wild Pokémon around," she explained, before also realizing the precarious situation he was in. "Ummm. Right. It's wet outside. Very. I'll just- I'll be out here."

She put a hand on the heads of Elekid and Sandshrew and pulled them back with her out, before she shut the door behind her. As she leaned against the wall of the corridor, she felt her cheeks blush, and it annoyed her a lot.

"Y-yeah, no worries…" Jordan said, a few seconds too late. His eyes kept shifting to the closed door as if it would burst open again, swiftly digging out a dry pair of cargo pants.

Once he was presentable, he stepped back outside with Hop in tow. His face was still beet-red as well, but that was not uncommon for Jordan, and there was nothing he could do about it. "...So, how's it going?" He said as casually as he could, leaning against the opposite wall.

Only then did Ralph realize who it was. Plant boy. Casey's bestie. But she had met Casey alone earlier. And now this guy alone as well. Someone she'd barely talked with, but whose name she actually remembered. Only due to Casey, of course.

She crossed her arms and forced a cocky smile, but both of her 'shoulder pad' pokémon gave Jordan a bit too curious and happy stares to completely sell the look.

"You're the first 'pokémon' I've tried to battle barefoot." She wiggled her naked toes against the ground. "So I guess I just made a new milestone journey thing."

The boy chuckled. Her remark seemed to have put him a little more at ease. He paused, looking between his own footwear and her lack thereof.

"Y'know, you should have stopped by one of the shoe stores in Lavender. I got these when we were in town, and they're completely waterproof, really heavy-duty. Learned my lesson the hard way in Rock Tunnel. My other shoes were technically waterproof, too, but they didn't go over the ankle like these ones, so any deep puddles I got in really ruined my day. Wet socks are not fun." He rattled on nervously about his shoes, before noticing Ralph's very raised eyebrows. "Uh, right... I guess I don't need to tell you that, huh."

She shook her head, mostly at the babble, but flashes of her own Rock Tunnel adventure appeared in her mind. They sure weren't in the classroom anymore. And she wasn't ignoring her classmates anymore.

"Nah, you're right. Those look… Good. Guess I'm still not good at lessons. Speaking of wet stuff - you don't happen to have a fire pokémon, do you? My other option is to electrocute my clothes," she gestured to Jolty next to her in the corridor, who took the opportunity to flex, "but I've a feeling that'll go wrong somehow."

Jordan quickly went over his team in his head. "No, I don't," he sighed. "And no, no electrocution. But yeah, I've got... wind generation, but no heat, so I don't think that's very helpful." He gestured towards Hop, who towered over the Elekid and Sandslash. He could tell the Pidgeotto liked being the tallest of the group; it was something new for him since his evolution. "Would be nice if Pepper was around."

"Yeah, man, maybe I should have picked him for a starter. Now all I got was mud generation," Ralph sighed. "I'm kidding!" she quickly added when Sandsy looked betrayed.

She glanced back up at the redhead. He didn't seem like the annoying kind. She spoke again before him. "Anyways… this corridor is nice and all, but I've got this first class mess hall down the hall, an' I'm thinking about setting a chair on fire." She gestured, suggesting he follow her. Dry or not, talking about feet had made her realize that hers were still quite cold, bare on the floor. "In case you wanted to, I don't know, wait out the rain here or something?"

"On fire? But-" Jordan's knee jerk reaction to destroying property was to protest, but he supposed it wasn't really destruction of property if nobody owns these buildings anymore, let alone the chairs. He didn't want to put his pants back in his bag wet, anyway - that was a recipe for mildew. He sighed. "Yeah, you must be getting pretty cold, and nobody's gonna miss these chairs, anyway. I have some matches, if you need 'em."

Ralph let out a laugh. "I was joking, but you know what? Maybe we can figure something out."

They walked back to the large break room where Ralph had dumped her stuff. The Dreepy and the Rattata leaped off Ralph's shoulders onto the table she'd been sitting by earlier. Wind and some thunder could be heard through the broken window in the other end of the room, but it wasn't too bad.

Jordan took off his backpack and put it by Ralph's things, before looking around and trying to get more comfortable. "We lucked out with the four walls and a roof, at least - that seems to be a rarity with the other buildings around here," He commented. Before Ralph could respond, he heard a clatter behind him. Hop had pulled out one of his food containers. Jordan smiled. "Oh. You hungry?" He asked, patting the large bird's head as he opened the berry container for him. He paused, turning back to Ralph. "Are you hungry?"

Ralph's first instinct was to scoff; sure, she wasn't a cook and she had forgotten to eat something more proper than mudcake before setting out, but she didn't need someone to baby her. Or shove a credit card into her face.

She managed to stop herself in time, however - still having the 'try not to be an antisocial arse' mindset mostly in control - and limited it to a folding of the arms as she tentatively leaned against the old fridge and half looked at the boy.

"Starving, honestly."

Sandsy wobbled up to her with pleading eyes at that. "Oh, you got fed already though, you beast," she said and jokingly locked the Sandslash' head under her arm, knowing he wouldn't dare to hurt her to get away.

Jordan smiled amusedly at the roughhousing, as he dug through his bag. "Well, let's see what else we have here…" Aside from the berries, he also had some oatmeal and cranberry cookies, a small container of nuts, and a tub with a few familiar-looking mudcakes in them. "...Not exactly a full meal, but it's something, while we wait out this storm."

Ralph took account of his goods and then peered back up at him as she put the clues together. She'd have pegged him for a person who cared more about proper food, to be honest, considering who he was buds with. But she had never paid much attention to who had been on kitchen duty, even in her own shift (when she hadn't downright ditched it). She pulled up another chair to the table and sat down in one of them, grabbing some nuts and a new piece of mudcake as she spoke.

"So you took the old man's mudcakes to go. Did that doctor person rope you into doing their dirty work too?"

Jordan was already biting into the chocolatey cake. He brushed a few crumbs off his face. "Oh, you were at the Research Station too, huh? Yeah, I have to find this thing for him, I guess, but looks like that's gonna have to wait a bit. Do you know where yours is?"

Ralph just bent over and lifted her discarded rain poncho from its pile, revealing the device below. It was soaked, too, but seemed to still be bleep blooping away unbothered. She could have sworn Sandsy just tensed next to her though.

"Strap or not, this thing is heavy and uncomfy to drag around. That ™ better be worth it. And their pronouns are they/them, by the way. Mudcake dude told me."

"O-oh," Jordan scratched his head, trying to recall if that had been brought up earlier, and if he had faux pas'd. He supposed he did not talk with the older man as much, and the scientist had been too zealous about their work to really mention much else. "I'll keep that in mind. Oh, yeah, that thing's bigger than I expected- Hop, get back over here, what's gotten into you?" The Pidgeotto made his way next to Ralph, before giving the device a sharp peck. He hopped back to Jordan's side when he heard his name, but not without leering suspiciously at the gadget. His Trainer pulled out his Pokégear. "Anyway, I suppose I should get my bearings…"

"How come you're not with Casey?" Ralph blurted out at that, no longer able to contain the question and failing at sounding casual about it. "I mean, I thought you pretty much came as a package. But I met him too - alone - a few hours ago."

"Ah," Jordan looked up, caught a little off-guard by the sudden mention of their friend. "I… we had a bit of a misunderstanding?" His inflection made it sound almost like a question. He wasn't sure what to call it. Jordan furrowed his brow. "I-I think we're good now. I mean, he texted me earlier about stuff. Why, did he say anything about us when you saw him?"

Ralph just looked at him thoughtfully across the table for a moment before answering. "Nah. He only mentioned that you treat your pokémon team like a little family," she said with a small smile. "Jordad."

The boy blushed again. "Yeah, well, if only they treated me like a dad, maybe they'd listen more." Hop had finished the last berry on the container lid he was eating off of, and attempted to squeeze himself on his Trainer's lap. When he couldn't comfortably sit like he used to, he hopped off and settled for resting his head on Jordan's lap. Jordan patted him. "Maybe. Was Casey doing alright? Did he seem a little… pale with fright?" He wasn't sure how long ago she'd seen him. Might have been a weird question.

Ralph still smiled a little as she watched the Pidgeotto definitely act like Jordan's little kid. She glanced over at her own littles, leaning half asleep against Jolty against the wall, before she leaned forward herself, both elbows on the table.

"He'll be fine," she said, feeling sure of it. "I just doubt Lavender was his kinda town, you know? Plenty of things to make even big boys go pale there. And a redundancy of cocky gym leaders."

Jordan nodded, still petting the Pidgeotto. He almost had a breakdown in Lavender, too, but for a completely different reason. "You think so? I thought Beaumont was nice." He might have been too nervous to pick up on any arrogance, though. "Didn't meet the other one, though - God, one was enough, really though I was gonna hurl the first time I stepped foot inside the Gym - only the official Gym matters for our graduation anyway, right?"

"If you were gonna hurl when you met the nice Lavender gym leader, I'd loved to see how you'd handle the other one," Ralph said, amused. "But yeah, I think you're right. Pity. I only beat the unimportant gym," she added with a slight sulk.

Sandsy just then put his head in Ralph's lap, as if he tried to mirror the bird with his 'dad'. The girl obliged and started scratching him behind the ears as she let other thoughts fill her mind.

The boy shrugged. "I think I got lucky, partly with some of the Type matchups, and also this guy evolving mid-battle." He chuckled. "But I mean, win or lose, it's still good experience, right? You'll get the next one. Anyway, want the last cookie?"

Jordan was surprisingly easy to talk with, Ralph had discovered. She hadn't known at all what to expect from someone just on the basis of liking plants and being Casey's buddy; Casey could likely befriend even a plant itself if he felt motivated to. She'd never paid the redhead much mind before. But then again, she hadn't paid any attention to the girl with the purple bangs either. Or the pink haired girl. Or the ghost crazy girl. Or even Aberdeen. Granted, the last one was a kiddo and the youngest graduates in her batch had barely registered in her brain even when Ralph had been looking right at them. She hadn't bothered. She'd only needed herself.

While Casey had finally appeared in Cape College and, on the contrary, collected more and more new friends for himself…

Her deep thoughts were interrupted when a freckled hand reached out, gently shaking an oatmeal and cranberry cookie around in its container in front of her. "Hey, you okay? I said, 'do you want the last cookie?'"

Ralph looked from him to the cookie and back for a second or two. Then she nabbed it.

"I'll do you a favor or something, for this," she said as she bit down on the goodie, feeling a bit weird being offered food and credit cards so much lately. New Friendlier Ralph or not, she still didn't want to seem weak or depending on others.

"Oh! Well, I mean," It was just a cookie, so Jordan wasn't really expecting anything in return, but now that she mentioned it… He looked at the girl thoughtfully, but must have been staring a little longer than he meant to, since Ralph's face had started taking on a hint of disgust.

"Sorry! I wasn't… I was just looking at the device." He said quickly, turning red as he pointed under her. "Well, since you found yours already, wanna help me look for mine, too? I don't even know how they're really supposed to look… I mean, I guess I do now, but like, are they hanging from a tree? Did they hide them under stuff?" He glanced at his Pokegear again, before holding it out for her. "It looks really close by, almost like we're on top of it, right?"

Ralph let out a laugh. "Mine actually did dangle from a tree. Wasn't the easiest thing to get it down, especially not with all the angry Pokémon around it... If that doctor put one in such a weird place, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they put one on the roof here either, or maybe in the deepest pit of the cellar."

She finished the last bit of the cookie, and looked up at the boy again. Quartz' directions to Jordan could be just as shitty as those she had gotten, but if there was a chance the device was actually in the building somewhere, then at least they'd still be out of the rain and wind for a while longer.

"I'll help you," she finally said with a confident smile. "Even though my shoes are still soaked. I vote to check the cellar first - roof means rain."

"Sounds good to me!" Jordan smiled back, gently nudging Hop off him as he stood up and stuffed his belongings back into his bag. "And thank you. Now, let's see… I think I saw a fire exit staircase back there, will probably lead us down. Lemme know when you're ready."

Ralph swung back up and recalled all her pokémon but Rattata and Dreepy, who took their regular places under her hair on her shoulder. The girl bunched up the somewhat drier rain poncho and put inside her bag, and then hung doctor Quartz' device with the strap over her shoulder again, forcing Creepy to momentarily move over or phase out.

"Lead the way, Jordad," the purple haired trainer said.

Party

Tangles
Tangela | F | Lvl. 17

Ingrain
Constrict
Absorb
Vine Whip
Sleep Powder
Poison Powder

Hop
Pidgeotto | M | Lvl. 18

Headbutt
Whirlwind
Gust
Mirror Move
Roost
Wing Attack

Spirit
Alolan Cubone | M | Lvl. 14

Leer
Growl
Bone Club
Headbutt
Swords Dance

Sage
Skiddo | F | Lvl. 15

Tackle
Growth
Vine Whip
Play Nice
Razor Leaf
Leech Seed

Tiny
Pumpkaboo | F | Lvl. 19

Razor Leaf
Shadow Sneak
Confuse Ray
Scary Face
Worry Seed
Trick-or-Treat

Inventory

- Pokédex
- Pokégear
- 2-person tent
- Tangles' plant

Moon Stone

Aquacorde · Jan 29, 2021

Casey Holt

Sunday, May 26, 2019 // Afternoon, Day 7
Route 11 // Northeast

7-02. follow me, follow me somewhere

Spoiler: patience gets us nowhere fast - captial cities

The Phanpy, perched wide-eyed atop Parsley's back, is of course much weaker than Casey's own team. It's a wild Pokémon, after all, and it seems young. It's a feeling, but he can kind of tell. Like with Parsley- Parsley is definitely much younger than Pepper or Ginger.

Do they grow up mentally when they evolve? Pepper seems like he did, at least a little. He'd taken on more of the feistiness his species tends to be known for, though it hasn't fully eclipsed his Charmander personality. But this isn't his final form, either- maybe it's different once their bodies are fully grown. But even when they don't evolve, Pokémon grow up mentally over time. Same as people. Maybe evolution just triggers that mental development to happen much faster?

He'll find out eventually.

He has to admit that he's wary of doing so.

How much'll they change? The way they interact, the way they fight, the choices they make, all their idiosyncrasies- he loves them as they are. Even when Ginger scratches him up, even when Parsley runs away, even when Pepper's mimicking gets on his nerves. He doesn't know what he'll do if one day they wake up different. If Ginger becomes openly affectionate, if Parsley loses his energy and curiosity, if Pepper becomes stoic or mean…

But change is inevitable, and he has to take it when it comes! Even if it makes everything completely different. He can handle it. He has to. Because he's the coach, and the coach has to manage his team, no matter what!

Right now, he's wondering if he could manage another player.

Phanpy being weaker isn't a problem. Training is easy. Ginger's even doing it as they walk, skating in the spaces between clumps of grass as they make their way north. Well, "skating" is generous- she's mostly slipping, and Casey is pretending he doesn't notice how much she's falling over or how much she's definitely cursing in Buneary-language. But, she's training. And the Phanpy could do the same. The PokéDex shows him a list of its probable moves, but the techniques are mostly unremarkable. Like Ginger's had been early on. The Phanpy doesn't have the speed and maneuverability Ginger had compensated with, but Natural Gift is an interesting technique, even being only one shot per berry. He has plenty of those to play with- thanks, Pepper. And Rollout as a mobility option could help if it can use it like Ginger's Quick Attack-into-other-moves.

That might be something.

He shoves the PokéDex back into a pocket and turns to Parsley and Phanpy. "Once we get into the sand prop'rly I- wait, baby boy, where-" He scans the area, eyes landing on the errant Skiddo some ways away. "Ah."

He and Ginger easily catch up to Parsley, finding him nosing at a cluster of cacti and biting them experimentally. "Hey, stop that," Casey says, pushing the Skiddo's nose away with his walking stick. "Don't wander off, baby boy." Parsley snorts at him. "Where's your friend?"

The Phanpy waddles out from the cacti cluster, a new berry clutched in its trunk. "Hi. Where'd ya get that?"

It shrugs, as much as a Phanpy can shrug, and juts its chin in a vague northerly direction. "Oh, you're a copycat too, huh?" Casey laughs. Same as Pepper. That's good to know. "Hey, can I see your Rollout?"

The Phanpy cocks its head. "You know… rolling. Y' roll in a ball. And fast." A poor description, sure, but he doesn't think it matters what he says. The Phanpy doesn't know what to make of it anyway.

Ginger chatters, and the Phanpy turns its attention to her as Parsley wanders off again, Casey keeping a closer eye on him now. The Buneary curls into a ball and lets herself roll down Casey's torso, once again trusting him to catch her. That's really good, he thinks vaguely, but that train of thought is derailed by the Phanpy bouncing up and down in excitement and understanding and ultimately into a ball, rolling sedate circles around his feet and picking up speed to tear off towards Parsley, who startles and prances backward.

The Skiddo yelps as his rear makes hard contact with another cactus, and the Phanpy wheels around at the sound. The cactus- oh, no, Cacnea- whirls around and fires off a hail of spiky needles, the commotion summoning others of its kind to follow suit as Casey shouts for both Parsley and the frantically rolling Phanpy and they're running but it doesn't seem to matter as Cacnea are apparently everywhere, firing needles in all directions as they try to find some kind of out. But the route is flat, and there's nothing to hide behind, and it's still too risky for Pepper to help, and-

And the grasses are suddenly above them, and he's scrambling and sliding down a sandy slope towards the center of the funnel, Parsley bleating behind him and the Phanpy picking up speed on the slope. Pins rain across the sky and he ducks as they fall around him. Above the rushing sand he can still hear the Cacnea chirp in confusion and abandon their pursuit.

Caseys lets out a breath, gently coasting to a halt at the bottom of the pit, Parsley on his side against his backpack. Safe.

The sand shifts, and something clamps onto his leg.

Casey yelps and falls backward onto Parsley, kicking the trapped leg up into the air to reveal a Trapinch hanging from his calf, jaws squeezing with enough pressure to bruise even through his thick jeans. He doesn't want to think about how bad it would be in bare legs. "Ginger, kick it-"

She struggles out from the collar of his jacket and uses his bruised ribs as a springboard, ignoring his cursing as she whips a frosty kick across Trapinch's jaw. The pressure lessens, just enough that Casey can wedge his hands in and pry its jaws apart to release his leg and throw it high into the air, out of the pit. But it jumps back in immediately, sliding back towards them and clacking its jaw menacingly.

He doesn't want to battle in close quarters like this. Climbing out is going to be a whole ordeal, especially if he's trying to dodge an aggressive carnivore the whole time. His leg hurts. He's gotta do something about this Trapinch; he can't just let it keep attacking him. Its jaws are dangerous, even if its limbs are short and stubby and useless-

Actually-

"Parsley, make a Leech Seed as big as you can, an' make sure you hit it in the face!"

Parsley obliges, and the thick roots wrapping around the Trapinch's jaw give Casey a sense of vindication and the Trapinch itself a distraction to deal with as he sets to climb out of the pit.

Which turns out to be difficult.

Trapinch, in nature as they are currently, have over time developed the perfect sand trap. The angle of the walls are such that almost any weight will drag the sand down rather than allow anything to make footholds. Casey, being a large boy made mostly of dense muscle, is certainly too heavy to make his way out. Ginger's freezing feet can't hold the sand in place enough to make progress, even when just managing her own weight. The Phanpy's Rollout just kicks sand around. Parsley's hooves are built for traversing tiny mountain footholds, not like the wide feet of desert-dwellers designed to prevent sinking into the shifting sands. And his vines, drifting over the top of the pit, can't find anything solid to latch onto.

Wait!

"Other way!" Casey recalls Parsley and hands the ball to Ginger. "Let 'im out when you get up there," he says, and launches her out of the pit. Her shriek upon landing worries him until she pokes her head down again to yell at him, small cactus in hand. Or possibly stuck to hand. "Just let Parsley out- thank you."

The Skiddo snuffles at the edge of the pit. "Back up, baby boy. And grab your friend." Casey hefts the Phanpy up as high as he can reach- it's far too heavy to throw like Ginger, even for him. Parsley's vines meet his reach, but he can hear the Skiddo's hooves sliding even with only that much weight. And while the Phanpy makes it out, Casey- even without all his equipment- is three times as heavy.

Crap.

He glances around to check on the Trapinch. It's still glaring at him over the vines trapping its mouth shut. No problem there, at least.

There's nothing solid for Parsley to brace himself on. No rocks or anything. Actually, wait, the Phanpy basically weighs the same as a small boulder. That's something. Ginger doesn't weigh anything, unfortunately. But…

"Ginger, catch!"

She does so, and the flash of light above the pit reveals Pepper's head poking over to take in the situation. "Char?" he asks, as if inquiring what Casey is doing in a hole.

"Well, we were practisin' a little, and Parsley ran into a Cacnea, and- no, wait, get me out first. And watch your tail."

With a few false starts, a lot of explanations, and some bickering, Parsley is braced by Pepper and Phanpy some ways from the pit, vines extended to wrap around the walking stick Casey holds like a lat pulldown and walks himself up the side of the trap. Finally out, and being enthusiastically licked by Parsley and cuddled by Pepper, he glances back to the Trapinch at the bottom, wondering how best to free it without going anywhere near it.

Unfortunately, freeing it is no longer a necessary endeavor.

A Sandile meets his wide eyes, continuing to tear pieces from its easy meal. That's pretty gross. But interesting, in a way- he's never actually seen this kind of thing for real. He's not sure he imagined it going quite like that. Or figured it would be dismantled in that particular order. He supposes he never really thought much about it at all, besides knowing that Pokémon somehow eat each other.

On the other hand, Casey can't help but worry that he's the one that set that Trapinch up for death.

"It's natural processes, right?" he asks his team, a little anxiously. "It tried to eat us, and we beat it, and then something else ate it. That's how it goes. Nature. The food chain. That." Pepper, his only natural carnivore, shrugs, and the five of them watch in silence as the Sandile creates a tunnel to drag the lifeless Trapinch away.

It may be nature, but it's still uncomfortable to think he had a hand in it.

budube · Jan 30, 2021

Bruno Dillinger
May 25, Saturday

Chapter 6, Part 2: The Right Thinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd6hHrLBkYI

Afternoon, Route 12

If the wind was awful in the coast part of Route 12, it's practically non-existent in the swamp. Everything is blocked by trees, and those huge towers covered in vines rising from the dead factories from which he was told to retrieve the device from.

So far, everything lines up with that rumor that fisherman told him, except for the part where the wild Pokémon eat the researcher, most Pokémon here are from the Wooper and Psyduck family. How would that even happen?

With Klink not only being nervous for some reason, but also getting his gears stuck in vines on multiple occasions, Gospel becomes Bruno's companion. Having no wind to blow him away lets him move freely and he does seem to be very happy to be outside of his PokéBall for something other than a battle. Come to think of it, the last time he took him out for a walk was when he left Cape College.

Gospel does seem to be a bit nervous just as well, or at least annoyed. While he is constantly swirling around his trainer, whenever they get close enough to one of the factories, he stops and stares at it until Bruno calls him back.

On closer inspection, the area around each single one of these buildings is totally empty, which adds to the idea that the Pokémon don't like whatever Professor Quartz dropped in there. That also puts a new meaning to this whole device retrievement thing. It's a pretty dangerous job. The Pokémon being annoyed by these devices' existence could either mean that they would stay away from Bruno once he leaves the place with it, or they would attack him, and he's had enough of rampaging Pokémon already.

He also has the feeling that even with no Pokémon around (or at least none that he can see), he is still being observed by something else, and that feeling doesn't disappear even after entering the factory.

What's there to say about the factory? Well, it's empty. There's nothing going on other than the feeling Bruno got of being observed. No Pokémon nor sound, either; just the humid air lingering and the smell of the vines that crawl all over the walls and dead pieces of machinery that never got to function properly.

He is completely clueless on where to start looking, and for each step he takes he feels like something is going to jump at him. It's that kind of feeling that makes him slowly walk forward and repeatedly look from one side to another while his alertness makes him jump or turn around for each sound he hears from behind.

It's rare to see Gospel being careful and floating behind him. It's true that he's been barely a week or less with him as his Pokémon, but Bruno already has this idea of him swirling around him while they walk and occasionally licking his face, adding this to the idea of something really wrong going on here.

At some point, they hit a dead end. A wall of vines with huge pillars connected to it. There's multiple ventilations but none of them seem to work. Many of them were crushed and are completely broken, with strands of black hair hanging from very deep inside them. Paying more attention to the factory, these hair strands are all over the ground and the old machines.

"This is the place." Bruno concludes. What could he find here? The boy thinks of many possible Pokémon that could live in a swamp and do something like this, sticking with the worst answer possible, but whatever it is, it's totally not something he was aware even existed.

'Grimmsnarl, the Bulk Up Pokémon.' his PokéDex begins once Bruno aims it randomly at the ceiling where every ventilation is connected. 'Its hairs work like muscle fibers. When its hairs unfurl, they latch on to opponents, ensnaring them as tentacles would. With the hair wrapped around its body helping to enhance its muscles, this Pokémon can-'

Before the PokéDex finishes talking, it's knocked off from Bruno's hand by a black whip coming from somewhere up there. He feels the whip slashing his hand and giving him a slight burning sensation. Bruno hasn't been able to find the device yet, and he's already been attacked by something.

Gospel glares at the ceiling, sending some kind of signal that makes the creature collapse and fall from the ceiling, breaking the ventilation tubes it was hanging from.

Without losing a single opportunity the hair whip reaches for another tube and uses it to propel against Bruno's Pokémon, but Gospel counter attacks by catching the gases around him on fire with Will-o-Wisp and burning the Pokémon's hair tentacle.

The Grimmsnarl jumps once again to the ceiling, holding onto the steel beams, above the ventilation tubes completely out of sight, following Bruno and leaving Gospel behind.

Bruno doesn't want to fight, but he doesn't run either. He tries to remain calm, just walking in circles, following the hair strands the Pokémon has left behind around the entire room he is in, knowing fully well these would eventually help him find the gadget he is looking for.

The wild Pokémon swings like a pendulum holding from a beam, dropping another ventilation tube and falls in front of Bruno.

Gospel follows and stands in front of his trainer, holding his PokéDex on his mouth and putting it on the ground. Apparently, the last moves he used were Will-o-Wisp and Curse, both at the same time, and that barely did a thing against the other Pokémon.

The Grimmsnarl howls at Bruno, but it fades into panting as it kneels before the boy, giving him a perfect opportunity for him to get through, but Bruno decides to take a step back instead, and take a different route. However the Grimmsnarl attempts an attack either way using its disheveled hair to push Bruno backwards. Gospel intervenes with Hyper Voice, pushing the Bulk Up Pokémon a few meters away from Bruno, making it crash against one of the machines, but gets up almost instantly and charges a dark aura that explodes against the gas Pokémon, stunning him for a while.

With no Pokémon to protect him at the moment, Bruno starts walking faster this time. 'Compared to Tyranitar, this is nothing!' He keeps telling himself, although not having anyone to protect him this time puts this on a similar level.

He starts running in circles, while the Grimmsnarl ruthlessly attacks him by swinging his arms against him and tossing the fallen tubes. One of them gets to hit Bruno and pushes him aside, making him vulnerable for another attack coming at him at full force, but another blue fireball coming from Gospel stops it.

The Bulk Up Pokémon swings its arms furiously at Gospel, smashing him against the wall.

Bruno sends out Klink and Shir to assist Gospel in the battle, while he stays on the ground looking between the broken machines until he finally spots a small radio-like device under one of those, behind the Grimmsnarl. It looks to him like the Pokémon is protecting it or it just hates it so much, it'll kill whoever wants to take it back.

Being the one standing at the same height as it, Grimmsnarl naturally attacks Klink first, smashing one of the gears against the wall, with the other one just following its direction.

Shir runs as fast as her small legs could allow, aiming her Fury Cutter at Grimmsnarl's leg, swiftly slicing it and leaving a bunch of hair behind that instantly grows into another leg, helping it get up easily.

Klink shoots one of the gears at the wild Pokémon's face and the other instantly follows it adding more impulse and damage to the attack.

Bruno crawls his way to the other side of the room, trying to avoid getting spotted by Grimmsnarl, but he is surprised by a kick coming against him and then having Shir tossed at him as well.

He holds her on his arms, feeling her shake from anger and hearing slight growls coming from her.

"Calm down…" he says, but Shir hisses at her opponent and starts running towards it, aiming another Fury Cutter at its leg, just so the hair grows back instantly once again.

Meanwhile, Klink starts charging power to attack from a distance, discharging its electricity in a thundershock that seems to progressively increase its power. Shir uses this opportunity to attack from behind, aiming once again at its leg with no difference on how fast the Grimmsnarl's hair grows back, but distracting it enough so Bruno is able to get to the gadget and finally pick it up. This seems to alter the wild Pokémon to a higher level, but also scaring him too much to even get close to him.

Bruno tries walking closer, but Grimmsnarl keeps walking away from him until Bruno puts the machine down. As soon as that happens, the Grimmsnarl kneels; its growls become panting and it doesn't seem to want to fight anymore. Bruno looks at its eyes, and can tell that it's just scared from whatever this thing is. None of his Pokémon want to get too close to this thing either, meaning that it's not only this Grimmsnarl's thing.

This raises another question: 'What is Bruno supposed to do now?' Bruno didn't want to become a trainer because he liked Pokémon the same way other kids his age. He decided to become a Pokémon trainer so he could have enough influence as a gym leader or something similar so he could do the right thing. But what is the right thing anyways? On the one hand, these machines are some group of scientists' research, and he is aware that it's impossible to do that research without somehow damaging the wildlife; he doesn't know what their research is about, but it could be something important and life changing. But on the other hand, the Pokémon in the swamp are completely bothered by having these things here; if a strong Pokémon like Grimmsnarl is incredibly bothered by these, then Bruno can only imagine what these machines are doing to the smaller Pokémon here.

"Klink…" Bruno nods at his Pokémon. A thundershock pierces through the radio-like device, potentially erasing the data it had accumulated forever and any hope that data had from being recovered completely fades away the moment the Grimmsnarl smashes it with its whip.

Bruno doesn't have the best feeling out of this, but he wouldn't have it whatever the decision he took. He still wonders if he really did the right thing or not, but he knows he can't go back to Professor Quartz with his hands empty.

Bruno's Party:

Bruno art by Aquacorde

WizardOfOdd · Jan 30, 2021

Richard Wolstenholme
East-Kanto Research Station, May 25^th, Evening

Chapter 6-2
Unending Rain

"No! Stop! Don't run there! Lizzie, I beg of you! LIZZIE!"

"AAARGGHHHH!!!" Richard woke up from his nightmare, cold sweat dripping down his body. He immediately gasped for air as he tried his best to stop his body from shaking.

It had been quite a while since he had those dreams he didn't want to remember ever again. But no matter how long it had been since 'the incident', it was still painful to remember.

"Chi! Chi!" Madeleine, who was now awake outside her Pokeball replacing the others, shrieked a few times in panic while hugging Richard's body. It helped his trainer to quickly snap out from his stupor.

"Stop it! Maddie, you're going to disturb the others... Calm down, I'm fine… Everything is fine…" Richard grabbed his drinking bottle from his bag and chugged down the water inside his water bottle to quench his thirst.

It was naive to think that one day of realization would've stopped the issue that had troubled him for several years already.

Unable to sleep, he decided to take a short walk outside his room.

In the hallway, there were visibly few other people sheltering themselves from the bad weather. Professor Quartz had been a kind help to him and the other trainers by lending them room to stay in, of course, their help was also compensated by him who had helped the troublesome device collection earlier. It should've been an unpleasant experience considering how many Pokemon Richard had to deal with. But his plan worked like a charm, not even a single scratch on his team and the device was safely delivered to Professor Quartz who was really delighted at this revelation. Richard even got a TM as compensation for his hard work, which made the deal even sweeter.

He loitered around the hallway aimlessly along with Maddie on his shoulder, but surprisingly it didn't take long until a familiar face greeted him.

"Hey, Richard! You had a good rest?"

"Oh yes, of course… Thanks for the hospitality." Richard bowed politely to avoid being discourteous to Arthur.

"Don't sweat it, but are you sure you're already feeling well? You still have dark circles under your eye."

"Um… Haha, I guess I can't fool anyone with this look. I've already slept for a bit, but I couldn't go back to sleep."

"Bad Dreams?"

Richard nodded weakly while trying to keep his smile intact.

"Oh, is that so? Do you want some Peppermint Tea? I heard it's good to help you relax. And while you're at it, you can also eat more cookies. Don't worry I still have a lot." Said Arthur while showing the cookie tray with an excited expression.

"Maybe later… Although maybe I would refrain from eating the cookies, I had enough earlier after all. Perhaps you should offer Professor Quartz some tea?"

Arthur sighed. "Well I've tried, they don't like it that it makes them feel drowsy. You know, considering Professor Quartz are busy on their research… Also, I don't think you should fully reject the cookies offer, though…"

"Why?"

Arthur smiled while pointing at the drooling Maddie who was looking intently at the cookie tray.

"Geez, you've eaten so much cookie already. Why are you still hungry for more…"

"Chi!" Madeleine pouted at his trainer's remarks as he floated towards the cookie tray and munched one more cookie on the tray.

Arthur laughed at the sight while Richard shook his head, exasperated at his new Pokemon's antics.

"Well, you can tell me if you want a cup of peppermint tea and cookies later, or you can just make the tea yourself in the kitchen if you prefer that... Please don't hesitate to ask for anything else if you need it. That's the very least we could do after you've helped us."

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you very much."

Richard left Arthur and returned back to his aimless walk. He didn't expect both Arthur and Professor Quartz to be very accomodating of strangers. After all, he only helped them collect a single device he knew hardly anything about. Yet he got a TM and lodging just for that? It was more than enough for him.

Unwilling to inconvenience Arthur even further, Richard decided to make his way towards the kitchen and made himself a cup of peppermint tea. Thankfully it was so easy that Richard didn't cause summon any calamitous disaster during his time in the kitchen. With the tea in hand, he made his way towards the front porch.

The clouds were still crying even if the downpour already started from the early afternoon, it was in a much better state than the state it was at before he started his rest. Unfortunately, the cloud's presence masked the beautiful stars above, much to Richard's chagrin.

"I can only hope that we don't have to deal with this weather tomorrow."

Rain was definitely very good weather to be in if you're staying indoors. For those who are traveling? Not good.

Richard took a sip of his tea while sitting on the nearest chair he could find. The ever-curious Maddie was given a sip to taste, but she immediately frowned and coughed at whatever weird drink that her trainer drank.

"Pfft, I guess you are still a baby." Richard pushed Maddie's cheeks with his index finger, which in turn caused the Bell Pokemon to nibble the said finger. Causing his trainer to laugh due to this unexpected reaction.

"Ah, I thought I was going to enjoy the calming atmosphere of the night rain. It's unfortunate that a certain eyesore had to ruin it."

Richard turned his back to see who was responsible for the outrageous remark. Only sighing as he should've realized there was only one person irresponsible enough to throw that insult lightly.

"Oh look who we have here, it's our resident disappointment, Keith! Please do tell me, how does losing to Beaumont feel?"

Keith flipped the bird while grinning widely at his friend.

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WizardOfOdd · Jan 31, 2021

Richard Wolstenholme
East-Kanto Research Station, May 25^th, Evening

Chapter 6-3
Unending Rain - Part 2

Both Richard and Keith looked at each other with a piercing glare, as if a fight between them would erupt any time soon. Causing Maddie to panic with the unexpected development.

"Hahahaha!" Both Richard and Keith's expressions slowly waned until one of them broke into laughter until both of them laughed heartily much to the confusion of the poor Maddie.

"It's okay Maddie, he's my friend."

"Chi~" Maddie who heard the reassuring words of his trainer sighed before she cutely waved towards Keith with her stumpy arms, all without realizing that there was still cookie crumbs stuck around her mouth."

"Aww… She's so cute…" Keith patted the head of Madeline, who was quite happy to be showered with more affection.

"Right? She doesn't really like to be inside her Pokeball unless it's sleeping time, though. So that's one thing that I'll have to fix." Richard wiped the mess on his Pokemon's face with his handkerchief.

"Well anyhow, do you really think I would lose to Beaumont?"

"Wait… No way man, you can't fool me…"

Keith raised his eyebrow as his grin turned even wider. He smugly raised his arms as if he won easily against Beaumont.

"Really? Really!? Wow, great for you, Pal!."

Richard shook his head only for Keith to laugh, before putting up a deadpan face almost immediately.

"Did you actually think that was the case? Of course, I got completely swept, which I guess partially was your fault."

"...Wait, why are you blaming your loss on me? Isn't that your fault for not being able to counter his strategy?"

"His expression was different, let me tell you that. If it wasn't for me helping you, I guess he wouldn't act like such a douche in our battle, I swear his personality reeked worse than a sewage plant when we fought!" Keith rolled his eyes.

"Well, we can't judge him by that only. I mean there must be a reason why he did that… He did have what it takes to be a Gym Leader, or at least the capability to be one. So I can't really judge what he thinks."

"First things first, money exists. You should never count out the power of money to give people power that easily. As for the latter, fuck him! If I knew he'd act like that, I would've signed the petition. Heck, I would help the campaign to oust him as a Gym Leader." He then proceeded to chug the cup in front of him furiously before wiping his mouth with his hand, only to cause Richard to squint his eyes at him.

"You do realize that you're drinking from my cup…"

"Oh shit! Sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"I know, I know… And here I thought I was the hot-headed one." Richard snickered at Keith's

"Sorry man, I think I got carried away… Getting swept by him is just… Frustrating."

Richard took a deep breath before responding. "Let's change the discussion topic, shall we? It's spoiling the mood. Well, it would definitely be better if there's a hot tea here." He winked towards Keith while waggling his now empty cup.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… I'll make you some later. Anyhow, what will you do about Liz?"

Richard couldn't stop his expression from turning sour for a moment before he lifted himself from his seat. "For someone who is known for his crosses back in the soccer team, you can also be such a straight shooter, huh?" Richard laughed albeit painfully to stop himself from showing a sour face.

"Ah… Fuck… Hey, you don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to."

"I don't want to, yeah! But I'll have to think about it sooner or later whether I like it or not. It's… It's not like I can lie forever, Keith." Richard leaned on the guardrail as he touched the falling raindrops with his open palm.

Keith couldn't muster a word, and the moment passed without either one of them making any sound.

Creak!

A weird noise suddenly broke the silence between them. Richard deduced that it was probably a sound from a loose floorboard behind them.

In other words, it was easy to presume that someone was eavesdropping on their conversation from behind the wall.

Feeling anxious, both Richard and Keith decided to approach the source of the sound. They dragged their feet as slowly as possible to avoid suspicion, but just as they were about to catch the culprit in the act. Loud sounds of someone stepping on the floor could be heard as the culprit tried their best to make a run for it.

'Hey, wait!"

Keith almost made a run to chase the culprit if it wasn't for Richard putting his arm in front of him.

Both of them split up after conversing for a bit more before Richard went back to his room. He had a plan prepared after he realized the situation.

As he expected, the culprit soon knocked on Richard's door. But what it didn't expect was that the knock, instantly pushed the door open as Richard didn't close the door properly on purpose.

"...I have been expecting you. Good evening, Lizzie."

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WizardOfOdd · Jan 31, 2021

Richard Wolstenholme
East-Kanto Research Station, May 25^th, Evening

Chapter 6-4
Face to Face - Part 1

"Do you want some tea?"

"Oh no, you don't have to. I really appreciate the thought, though."

Richard tried his best to show a calm front around Elizabeth. However, her expression didn't help with this effort. Lizzie looked calm and composed, cheerful even, as she brightly smiled while waiting for Richard to speak. All while he couldn't stop his own hand to tremble with nervousness as he poured the tea he prepared beforehand.

He knew that it must've been Lizzie who eavesdropped on his conversation with Keith earlier, otherwise the eavesdropper wouldn't run away that fast. Yet with the knowledge in hand, it was him who felt like he was driven into a corner.

"So, uh… I guess you have a lot of questions, huh?" Richard couldn't stop himself from asking the obvious.

"Of course I do, all thanks to a certain someone," Lizzie answered calmly without losing her smile that she showed ever since she entered the room.

It was probably not her intention, but that smile really gave Richard more pressure than he would've liked. Especially when the reaction he expected from her was rage, disappointment, or somewhere in between. It was totally not this.

"Look Lizzie, I'm not going to force you if you don't want to talk. But the fact you keep smiling in this situation is kind of creepy."

"Sorry, sorry… I guess I couldn't read the mood properly." She playfully stuck out her tongue, causing Richard to unknowingly frowned and sighed at her gesture.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any intention to mock you… It's just a bad habit of mine." She bowed respectfully as she asked for an apology. However, feeling mocked wasn't the reason why Richard accidentally showed the unpleasant emotion...

"Oh no, no, no… I'm fine… I just remembered something, that's all. You don't have to worry."

Richard was very uncomfortable at the fact that even if she showed very feminine behavior and mannerisms unlike back then, some of her mannerisms like playfully sticking her tongue when she was trying to soothe the mood of everyone around didn't leave her even if most of her memories were not there anymore.

"That kind of sentence is something that troubled people would say, you know?"

"That actually hit close to home." Richard slowly sniffed his tea, the relaxing, soothing aroma of it actually helped him to calm down his nerves. He gulped the tea bit by bit, as silence brewed among the two. Maddie hopped on Richard's shoulder to soothe his emotions, but it was Lizzie who broke the deafening silence.

"...It seemed that my presence here is a bit unwelcome, huh? I'll keep it short. Why did you try to fool me? No, what are you trying to hide from me?" Lizzie finally went to the question she wanted an answer for.

Richard's instinct screamed for him to lie or run away as soon as possible, but he already promised himself that he wouldn't flee anymore. The earnest gaze given by Lizzie when she asked the question only served to strengthen his convictions.

He took a deep breath before answering with a soft smile. "Hmm… Maybe because I don't want a certain someone to remember things I would like to keep in the past? Besides if you really want to know, you can ask your friends back at Saffron, you know? One of those girls should be able to tell you the truth."

"I don't have any friends, though? Perhaps you were referring to my friends before I lost my memories."

"Huh?"

Lizzie answered the question nonchalantly, much to the shock of Richard who didn't expect her to answer that way.

"I mean… They did say they were friends with me. But I don't think I would enjoy the company of people who wouldn't hesitate to throw their own 'close friend' under the bus when things didn't go their way."

"Oh, you would be so surprised."

"...I-Is that so?"

Lizzie couldn't help but show anxiousness at Richard's remark. As silence took over the room once more.

The aroma of the peppermint tea Richard made had wafted around the room, releasing an aroma that people would describe as 'calming'. Yet there was nothing calming about the situation in the room, even Maddie who didn't understand the root of the issue could feel the choking atmosphere around the room.

After a bit, Lizzie opened her mouth once more.

"You know, the reason I came here was because of this."

Richard's eyes widened as he saw the photo that Lizzie handed to him. It was a photo that he never thought would see again. Yet here he was, seeing a photo of an old memory he tried to forget all this time.

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Aquacorde · Feb 6, 2021

Casey Holt

Sunday, May 26, 2019 // Afternoon, Day 7
Route 11 // Northeast

7-03. a moment to be real

Spoiler: i'm still here (jim's theme) - john rzeznik

Casey lets Pepper stay out as they pick their way through the last tufts of grass, but keeps a careful eye on his tail until they're surrounded by definitively bare sand. It's still hot, and he briefly considers going all the way to the oasis to the north, but it's surrounded by a herd of Numel and Camerupt. And since he figures it's probably better to leave them be, he calls a halt halfway between the oasis and the desert's edge.

Ginger skates wide circles around them as Casey shucks his backpack and checks his phone. She's getting the hang of maintaining the motions. Parsley trots alongside her, Phanpy wobbling precariously atop his back. That, plus the ice Parsley's hooves keep narrowly missing, may have consequences later. But that's not what needs his attention right now.

It's Pepper that needs him.

The Charmeleon nuzzles into him as soon as he sits down and opens his arms. "Hi, guy. 'S cuddling time, huh?" Pepper nods against his chest and Casey runs his hands over warm, leathery skin.

Pepper needs more attention now, doesn't he?

As a Charmander, he'd been perched up on Casey's shoulder and manhandled with regularity. Plenty of physical contact. But Casey can't carry him around with such ease anymore. And the day after evolving he'd been out of it, and then Casey hadn't let him explore much of Lavender, what with the crowds. Route 12 had been so rainy it had been better for Pepper to stay in his PokéBall, and they hadn't had much downtime together.

No wonder he's clingy. Especially now that he's having trouble with his flames.

"Sorry," Casey murmurs. Pepper makes a drowsy, quizzical noise. "I gotta pay better attention. Just 'cause you're the most stable doesn't mean you don't need anything from me. An' you're like me- you like cuddlin' and stuff. 'S good for both of us. We just don't always have the time."

'Specially with how much attention the other two need, he thinks. Ginger's attitude is definitely the most obvious issue. But keeping track of Parsley is just as much of a problem sometimes. Both of them need lots of direction and assurance, but Pepper has proven himself confident and independent time and time again. Same as he himself has, really. But just as Casey still needs care and contact from his friends (why did he leave?), Pepper still needs love and attention from his trainer.

Casey scratches along Pepper's spine and the Charmeleon stretches out contentedly across his lap. He has no idea how Gwen and Ralph manage so many Pokémon. At this point, he doesn't even know if four is a good idea, let alone a full roster of six. Not when Parsley is wandering further and more often, when it's a fight to get Ginger to do almost anything, when Pepper is suddenly losing control of his flames…

"Hey," he says. Pepper makes a mrph noise. "What's with this fire bein' outta control?"

Pepper whines and shoves his head into Casey's open jacket, sending the PokéDex out of his pocket into the sand with a soft paff. "You just not feelin' good? Got a fever or somethin'?" he asks, retrieving the device. He's not sure how to tell. Charmeleon are naturally hotter than humans. Actually- can the PokéDex tell him if they've got a virus?

He pulls up Pepper's status. No alerts, nothing different about his general wellbeing as far as he can tell, but- "Wait, Flamethrower?"

Pepper's listed moves have changed. Ember is gone, replaced by the much more powerful move, and everything makes sense now. "You must've got strong enough to activate that," he muses aloud, briefly tapping the tip of Pepper's tail and getting slightly singed for his trouble. "Ow. And all your fire got hotter, too. An' now that you've got this much power it's hard to control how much comes out at once, huh?" It seems like a reasonable theory.

He wonders if this had happened when Pepper evolved, too. He hadn't thought to check. He hadn't been thinking about this kind of thing yet. Maybe Vera noticed? She was using him to cook, after all. He shoots her a text as Pepper grumbles from underneath his jacket.

26/05/2019 1:27PM
hey did peppers fire get way hotter when he evolved?

26/05/2019 1:30PM
It's fire. I didn't exactly check how hot it was.

Right. Fair enough. He's halfway through putting his phone away when it buzzes again.

26/05/2019 1:31PM
Yes. I was trying to get him to control it, but it got bigger when he evolved.

Seems like he's on the right track, then.

"Well," Casey says brightly, gently dragging Pepper's head back up to look at him and scratching under his chin, "that just means we gotta train!"

Pepper rights himself reluctantly and holds his claws out. "Huh?" He makes a grabby motion. "Oh, no, not with the tanbō. We gotta work on fire. 'Cause with Ember gone, you don't got quick ranged options anymore. We gotta see what you can do with this Flamethrower an' then figure out how to use it."

Pepper's face scrunches into a worried frown, but Casey is distracted by Parsley finally catching a hoof on the ice and tripping face-first into the sand, Phanpy falling off with a yelp and knocking Ginger off her feet, and yelling from all three of them. "Hey!" Ginger kicks sand at Phanpy, and Parsley kicks sand at her, and Casey has to shove a hand in Parsley's face and pick Ginger up by the scruff. "Knock it off! All o' that was an accident, so don't get all up in arms." A preventable accident, sure, and maybe he should have prevented it, but… "Control y'rselves."

He pushes Parsley's face insistently until the Skiddo backs up a few paces and has no choice to sit and subsequently flop into the sand with a huff. The Phanpy timidly joins him, curling into a ball in what minimal shade he provides. Casey stares Ginger down, dangling at the end of his arm. "What're you on edge for?"

She refuses to make eye contact, and Casey's imagination doesn't fill in any words.

Silence is weird, from her.

"Sit with the stuff and eat a snack, then. Give some t' Parsley and Phanpy when you're feelin' less mean," he decides, depositing her on top of his backpack. He can't drop everything for her all the time. His other Pokémon need support too, and he can't favor any of them over the others. Not like some parents do.

Uh.

Casey shakes his head to dismiss that thought and turns Pepper to face away from his teammates, into the desert. "How 'bout you start with Dragon Breath? I wanna see that first so we can compare."

Pepper obliges, conical beam of bluish energy ripping through the sand for about the same distance as it had back on the outskirts of Lavender. Casey walks the length, rolling tiny cacti into the divot at intervals. This isn't something he can stand in the middle of to observe. "Now do Flamethrower, big as you can make it."

Pepper shuffles in place, nervously glancing between the line left in the sand and Casey himself. "Hey, it's okay. There's nothin' here to burn up, and we gotta figure out the limits, right?"

Pepper looks at the sky, sighs, and gestures with a clawed hand. "Oh, okay." Casey retreats a few more paces from the line, and watches Pepper steel himself.

The blaze explodes from the Charmeleon like it's been waiting for this moment. Casey hastily steps even further backwards- it's a much wider stream than Dragon Breath, with roaring flames falling from its edges as it narrows to a point and dissipates as it engulfs the cactus marking forty feet. "Again," because he has a theory, but it's immediately disproven- the second burst is much the same as the first. "Huh!"

Pepper looks around nervously, but relaxes with the confirmation that nothing is on fire. Casey sticks a finger into the sand, then directly into his mouth. "Ow." The sand is around the same temperature as Pepper's tail, probably, but then again it was already warm. He'll have to try that on concrete sometime. Or in the shade. For now- "Can you make it thinner?"

Pepper cocks his head and chirps at him.

"I dunno how you'd do it. Keep your mouth shut more?"

That idea has some merit- the resulting stream is thinner, tighter, and goes about ten feet further before petering out. Pepper tries again, and again, narrowing the flame even further with each pass. The sand below shimmers with heat. Casey's definitely not touching that.

Numel, though, apparently have no problem with such temperatures.

Two of the herd wander closer, curiously circling and nuzzling Pepper. A Camerupt keeps a watchful eye from a distance as the Numel excitedly show Pepper their own Embers, letting the little darts of flame burn themselves out in the sand. Pepper grins and tries to mimic them, but the fires dragged from his belly are still too much, spewing from his mouth even as he tries to clamp his jaw shut around them. The Numel prance gleefully in this show of power, but Pepper's frustration is evident even from afar.

"You want Ember back, huh?" Casey says as he approaches. The Numel scramble and dash back toward their babysitter- wow, they're not quick at all- and Pepper reaches both arms toward Casey, who of course has to oblige and heft the Charmeleon up. "I dunno if we can do that, buddy. We'd have to get another TM."

Pepper lets out a snuffly sigh and lays his head over Casey's shoulder. "Could order online an' send it to the apartment, but it's a long way to Pewter still. Maybe there're shops in Saffron?" Technical machines tend to be pretty rare and expensive, but Saffron has everything. Shopping there will be fun. "That's a ways too though, an' we can't just ignore a whole technique just 'cause it's not the one you want." Ginger probably could. He's glad she at least begrudgingly accepted Triple Axel into her repertoire. Pepper grumbles in reluctant agreement and snuggles against him.

A shriek breaks the moment, partially because it's close and partially because Pepper's head cracks into Casey's jaw as they both jump and look around. "Ow, fuck- what-"

The Camerupt, escorting the two Numel back to the herd, roars a deep rumbling roar as it's repeatedly dive-bombed by a fluffy little bird, who doesn't seem to be doing much in the way of harm. What is that? A Pidgey? No, Hop isn't that fluffy... The Camerupt roars again, and the Numel squeeze in close to shelter from the spewing geyser of lava that sends the nuisance- and chunks of blazing rock- flying. It's an awesome sight, and Casey's fervently grateful they're far enough from the blast to not be caught by debris.

The little bird is the last thing to hit the ground as the Camerupt turns back toward its herd, and it's the thing that falls closest to Casey and his party. Parsley, Phanpy, and Ginger are on their feet and the latter, at least, is ready to fight, but as they approach it becomes very clear that the bird is a) down for the count and b) a Rufflet.

"Still alive," Casey murmurs, and a vision of the Trapinch flits across his mind. Prob'ly won't stay that way long. Discomfort clenches his stomach. Nature's much more difficult to reconcile up close.

Phanpy rolls over to the splayed bird and curls its trunk around one of its feet, dragging it to Casey's feet and staring at him with pleading eyes. "Do you know this?"

He lets Pepper down in favor of scooping up the Rufflet and beginning to brush soot from its feathers. "Weird- aren't these usually blue? Not brown?" The oddly-colored Rufflet stirs slightly. "Can one 'f you- oh, thanks, Pepper. On top of it."

An Oran berry retrieved from his backpack and sliced by Pepper's sharp claws gets shoved piece by piece into the Rufflet's mouth. The berry does exactly what it's supposed to.

The Rufflet does not.

Shrieking, squawking, feathers flying and talons raking- Casey ducks under the onslaught, Ginger springing into action to shove an icy foot into its belly and send the Rufflet straight back into unconsciousness. The group watches it flop to the sand, and Casey makes an executive decision.

"You're a bad judge of character," he tells the Phanpy, as he props the bird in the shade of a rock and carefully conceals it with artfully placed cactus branches.

He hopes it survives, even if it did try to savage him.

WizardOfOdd · Feb 6, 2021

Richard Wolstenholme
East-Kanto Research Station, May 25^th, Evening

Chapter 6-5
Face to Face - Part 2

"This photo… It's from the festival back in Celadon five years ago. You had to scream and cry for your parents to..." Richard stopped in mid-sentence before letting out a deep sigh as he held the picture in his right hand.

It was a picture of him, Keith, and Lizzie smiling as they held candy apples in their hand while wearing traditional Kimono.

We sure looked happy as hell…

The thought crossed Richard's mind as he started to get overwhelmed by emotions that started to pour in.

He flipped the picture to see if there was something behind it. But as soon as he saw it, he instantly regretted what he had done.

'Best Day of My Life'

The single line of sentence was inscribed behind the photo.

It was only a single line. Yet it evoked so much sorrow inside Richard's heart. It was a picture when everything was better, a much simpler time where they had nothing much to think of other than what kind of fun they will have tomorrow.

If Lizzie wasn't here, Richard would've probably reduced to tears seeing this picture. Yet he managed to control himself from crying in front of the person who didn't remember the fond memories they had together.

His leaking expression caused Maddie to put him in an even tighter hug. It was clear that she cared much about his trainer, which made Richard quite happy. Yet at the same time, it made Richard realize that… He might not be ready yet to open the lid to the issue between him and Lizzie.

"Look, I don't want to be rude, but I don't think I'm ready to tell you what really happened between us." Richard returned the photo to Lizzie.

"Even if it made my heart uneasy?" Her wistful smile caught Richard by surprise.

"I'll just be honest, I'm happy with my life now. I have a lot of kind friends like Sarah and Courtney, even if the latter cause a lot of trouble, haha… But every time I looked at this photo, I felt like there was something I had to remember no matter what… It's like something is tugging on my heartstrings."

"...Even if knowing the story would only end in an even more heartache?"

"Yeah."

Liz's tone showed that she was serious about knowing her past, even if Richard wanted to bury it deep in the past. At this point, Richard sighed in resignation.

"...Three of us thought we'll always be inseparable, laugh together, cry together, that we're going to always be there for one another... But people change, their values change, their friendship circle change… You know, if you didn't side with them… No, if I had realized what was going on, we probably wouldn't end up hurting each other like this." Richard tried his best to smile as he uttered the sentence he wanted to put out, yet it was nothing more than a fake smile. A smile that was clearly just a mere attempt to cope with the sorrowful emotions inside.

"Yet it happened anyway. The beautiful story we made ended in a sorrowful tragedy… The more you learn about the story we shared, the more pain you would've felt. Yet you forget everything, no? That's a blessing you should feel grateful for. Instead of carrying a heavy burden for your entire life, you can carry on with your life in complete clean slate… So do you really need to know what happened before you lost your memory? "

"If it was only that simple…"

He didn't know what she was going through. That was the truth, but at the same time even when he already made up his mind, he then wavered again and again. Yet the truth was still the same all this time, he just wanted her to be happy, that's all. Even if her happiness meant that he had to open the deep scar inside his heart that barely managed to close up after almost two years.

"...If you really want to know… I'll tell you."

"Really!?" Lizzie jolted out from her seat, looking in disbelief as Richard agreed to her request.

"Not now though, please understand that I need some time. Also, just in case you want to change your mind."

"I'm not going to, though."

"In.The.Future. Now go, it's almost midnight…" Richard pushed her outside the door. But before he managed to close the door, Lizzie slipped in her hands preventing him from closing the door.

"Okay, okay, I'll go to sleep! But before that~" Her tone returned to playful as she held out a piece of paper towards Richard.

He opened it up only to see a drawing of a girl winking with a line of numbers beside her, both written using a pink marker.

"Pfft… Really?" Richard couldn't help but chuckle seeing how Lizzie gave him her contact number.

"Yep, just in case you'll want to call the cutest girl in the world?" She winked playfully.

Richard squinted his eyes as he reacted to Lizzie's joke. But he was just playing along with the joke.

"I'm joking, joking… It's just, just in case. You never know what'll happen so just keep it. Have a nice night, Richard!"

"Sure, you too Lizzie."

Richard closed the door to his room before he threw himself into his bed. Dealing with it was much more tiring than he had thought before. Yet this wasn't the bottom of the barrel of his problems.

However taking things all at once is not good, he knew that. It was one of the reasons he slipped up in the past. Slowly but surely he'll move forward, but for now? It's time to take a rest. Hopefully, tomorrow will be an even better day.

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WizardOfOdd · Feb 6, 2021

Richard Wolstenholme
East-Kanto Research Station, May 26^th, Morning

Chapter 6-6
Again!? - Part 1

It was morning, the skies were clear as yesterday's rain only left puddles and wet mud around the lab area.

As soon as he woke up, Richard did nothing but immediately preparing himself to continue the journey as soon as possible. If things went as he planned then he might be able to reach Vermillion City before nightfall, heck he probably could reach the city in the late afternoon if he didn't have anything hindering his plans at all.

Yet the reality was often disappointing.

"What the hell is this!? What are you doing here?" Richard couldn't help but shout as he saw a sight he didn't expect as he walked out of Professor Quartz's lab.

"Isn't it obvious?" Lizzie answered with a bright smile on her face as she raised herself from one of the chairs available on the porch.

"Didn't I tell you that I need time before I can tell you about the details? Surely you know better than trying to pry it forcefully from me right now."

"I remember that, yeah."

"Yet you would still show up here, I don't understand the reason why you are trying to force my hand. When I told you already that I will tell you later."

"Last night you said in the future, right? I mean one second from then is already considered the future," Lizzie winked playfully.

"Okay now you're just being pedantic, look If this is about that I'll tell you later, I promise you." Richard tried his best to bail, but not before Lizzie said another word.

"I'm not here to ask you about that though."

Her answer baffled Richard. If she didn't come to ask about that, then why did she even bother to be her? He already texted her last night, so it must be not about his contact information. What then?

"...And so, why… Uh, why are you here? And don't give me a vague answer, I have no idea at all."

"Wanna go to Vermillion together?"

Richard couldn't help but drop his jaw at this revelation. Like why the hell she wanted to go with him? It didn't make sense. Shouldn't be suspicious of him being the exact reason why she ended up losing most of her memories? And didn't she have some other Safari Trainers as a friend she could ask?

Moreover, he was not ready to travel with her. It would be awkward on a whole new level he never experienced before.

"...Uh…No?"

"Why not?"

"Just because… Now excuse me, I have better things to do."

Richard's attempt to run away was interrupted as Lizzie grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks.

"Such as?"

"...Such as… Catching a wild Pokemon… You know, trainer stuff."

Lizzie looked at him with her warm hazel eyes. It's just a playful expression, but Richard couldn't handle her gaze at all as he tried his best to averse himself from it. Much to the chuckle of the girl standing in front of her.

"I don't mind tagging along, though."

"I mind."

"And the reason is?"

"Do I need a reason to refuse you?"

"Um, yeah. What kind of question is that?"

"..."

Richard was exasperated at her response, he couldn't find the words to refute her because she's right! It was annoying but at the same time, she wasn't wrong either. His flimsy logic was basically taken apart only seconds after he uttered them because it had no weight behind them at all.

Desperate to shrug her off, he decided that the best way to do it was half-accommodating her idea before ripping the carpet from underneath her so he could bail without her able to retort.

And he knew just the perfect way to do it.

"You know what, let's just deal with this in the old fashioned trainer way. You win, we go together. If you lose, well… You know the deal. You up for it?"

Liz contemplated for a bit before her face turned resolute. "Sure! I'm not the best there is, but I'm not a pushover. Let's fight!"

Both of them took their battle position on an open field near the lab. Richard just didn't want bystanders to watch their match, so he chose a place away from the main road. It didn't look like there's any wild Pokemon that would be disturbed by their battle which made the place even more perfect for the bet.

She yawned several times during our trip to find the perfect battlefield causing Richard to be slightly concerned over it.

"Grace & Shade! Come on out!"

Ah, that name… It's been quite a while since I've heard that name being uttered.

Liz threw two Pokeballs to the field, one unleashed a Duskull, and as for the other one…

The ball released a Pokemon that Richard knew even longer than Uri. Her wispy Gastrodon-like extension was no longer there, replaced with a pair of legs she gracefully pirouetted with after being called upon to the battlefield.

As she raised upon her head, she looked at Richard with a face of confusion, as if she didn't believe that Richard was standing upon her at that very moment.

Richard didn't have the heart to make the said Pokemon wait any longer, after all even if he lied, Grace would've been able to read his expression. And so he waved at her, just like when he used to see her almost every single day.

The same Pokemon didn't waste any time before tackling him until he fell over. Much to her trainer's confusion.

"You're getting heavier, you know…"

Richard uttered the word that back then would've caused the Pokemon to pout. But this time, she was too engulfed in her emotions to even realize him saying a word while she let out a sorrowful wail as tears started to run down her cheeks.

"I'm happy to see you again, Grace."

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WizardOfOdd · Feb 6, 2021

Richard Wolstenholme
Route 12, May 26^th, Morning

Chapter 6-7
Again!? - Part 2

Grace. She was probably one of the earliest Pokemon Richard interacted with back in his childhood. He met her when he befriended both Keith and Lizzie at the local playground near their neighborhood.

The first time they met, he managed to leave a great impression on her. So much so that Grace started to use her psychic powers to move her way to his house just to escape Lizzie's constant tantrum as a young child. She started to lower the frequency of her visit as time went on, but she still loved visiting Richard's house from time to time.

At least, until Richard and her trainer's relationship broke down beyond repair. Both of them believed that it was almost impossible to meet each other again, at least in good terms.

This was why Richard was feeling very happy when he saw her again, although he didn't expect this much pent up emotion from Grace.

"Come on, sweetie… You've cried… *Huff* a lot already, also... you're much bigger now... Compared to what I am used to dealing with..."

Richard started to pant more and more as sweat started to trickle down his head, his arm couldn't stop shaking in exhaustion as he continued to cradle the body of the Kirlia. Grace started to realize the shaking arms of Richard and eventually lowered herself to the ground before fidgeting in embarrassment.

"Oh come on… It's fine… *Huff*"

Richard couldn't stop himself from panting. Cradling Grace for several minutes was really intensive labor considering he basically got sent to the ER a few days ago.

He turned his head towards Lizzie just to see her reaction and it was not as he expected… She looked at them with a forlorn smile which caused his smile to fade.

Grace, who saw Richard suddenly froze, turned in the direction of the gaze and ran as fast as possible to hug her trainer.

"You okay?"

"Do I even look remotely okay to you?" Lizzie chuckled at the obviousness of her situation.

She was trying to downplay the situation, but it was clear to Richard that a battle wouldn't be happening in this current condition. And so the battle was postponed indefinitely and both of them sat down on a dead tree trunk nearby.

She was definitely not in the right mental condition to force the fight through. There was something that evoked inside Lizzie's heart about his meeting with Grace. Even Richard could easily see through her smile, after all, he also used the same smile every single time he didn't want someone to worry about him.

"You know… I always knew what they said about you wasn't true…"

"Who? Our former classmates?"

Lizzie nodded without letting the weak smile on her face fade.

"Yeah, they said you were a violent person, a guy who would lash out at anyone who dared to stand in his way. No way Grace would warm up to you if that was the case."

"...That part was true, though." Richard smiled painfully, causing an awkward silence between the two of them.

"Hey, between the two of us, who started all of this?"

The question came out from the left field. It was so sudden that Richard couldn't fake an answer right away.

"...Sorry, that was a stupid question, huh?" Lizzie raised herself and walked forward to hide her expression from Richard's observing gaze.

It made Richard wince. He could catch a glimpse of her crying before lifting herself up, and he was also 100% sure that his eyes saw it properly, otherwise… Why would Grace rush to her side and hug her that tightly?

"So, want to go now?"

"Go what? A forfeit is technically a loss you know? I'm just honoring our agreement… Besides… No, never mind." She shook her head without looking back even once.

"I'll be going now then."

"Yeah, take care..."

"Hey, Liz! If you need anything, you can just call my number… I'll try my best to rush over when you call."

"...Really~? Even if I call you at midnight?"

"Please have mercy on me."

Liz chuckled before she turned her back towards Richard as both she and Grace waved their hands with a smile on their face before they sent Richard off to Route 11.

Richard couldn't help but worry about her after what had just transpired, but knowing she smiled in the end? It was more than enough for him. There was nothing much he could do now but to continue his journey alone as he walked his way towards Route 11.

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Juno · Feb 7, 2021

Tangles Art Cred

6-5: Quartz & Quacks

👥Ft. Ralph Gonder 🔬 Dead Factories 🕙 May 25th, Late Noon

Past the double-doors with the worn "Fire Escape" sign over it, they were greeted by a narrow staircase winding in both directions, and as they'd agreed on, they started making their way downstairs first. The stairs were concrete and seemed quite sturdy, but the adjoining floors were wooden, which was not a great sign.

At each new level, they would quickly push the double-doors open and give a cursory glance up and down the hallway; there was no more sunlight down here, so they had to make use of their flashlights, but so far, the other floors had just led to other similar levels with offices like the one they had come from. Jordan noted the ground seemed ever-so-slightly more... slanted as they descended, but it did not seem like a big enough issue to raise concern over, so they kept going.

As they reached Basement Level 4, however, things suddenly took a turn for the worse - Jordan opened the doors and stepped out as he had done for all the other floors... and his foot went right through the wood, causing the rest of the waterlogged ground to snap and break away under him. He heard a concerned squawk first, before yelling out himself. "R-Raalph!" He screamed, as he fell forward through the hole he had created, and landed with a dull thud.

"Ah." He groaned, pain shooting through his body. Hop must have dove in after him, as sharp talons landed gently on his back, before jumping off to explore their new surroundings. Jordan raised his head to look up.

There must have been a leak on one of the upper levels that had been trickling down and rotting parts of the wooden flooring of the lower levels. In any case, Jordan seemed to have fallen straight through to Basement Level 5. Which, luckily, appeared to be the lowest floor. Otherwise he might have kept going down, as the floorboards here were in no better condition. Around him, he could see the vegetation underneath growing through the foundation, which was probably also what broke his fall, but he couldn't see much else as he'd lost grip of his flashlight when he fell.

"Jordan! Are you alive?" Ralph called from the hole above, shining her flashlight down on him. "Arceus, how many basement floors does this building need?"

"Yup… ugh, yup," He slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position. "I'm alive. And good news, I think we found the bottom floor." He said, pulling bits of foliage out of his clothes and hair. "Unless they decided to plant a bunch of grass down here for some reason… Anyway, think you can find a way down here? One with less of a… drop, maybe."

"I'm not gonna go down there unless I have to," Ralph pouted, making a show of how heavy the thing she was already carrying was. "Do you see that device or not? Though I guess, you gotta get up from there somehow. Try to find that stupid device and I'll try to find some stairs, alright?"

"R-right, sounds good," Jordan winced as he crawled around, searching for his light. "I hope it still works… if I can find it, that is." He muttered. A light peck to his ear and a fluttering noise announced Hop's return, and he released something cylindrical from his talons near Jordan. "Oh - thanks, bud."

The flashlight was wet - not just a little bit, but like it had been submerged. It flickered on dimly, but threatened to turn off at any moment. As he shone the light around, he could see why. The leak he'd previously observed seemed to run off down the sloping floor here and pool towards the end of the room. Hop must have fished it out of the shallow end.

He wasn't eager to investigate the depths of the pool, but there really wasn't much else down here to look at, aside from the stray chair, and a few empty bookshelves pushed up against the walls. One of the shelves stood almost in the middle of the pool, half-submerged, and Jordan almost overlooked it since it also looked empty, but something glinted on the top shelf as his light bounced off it, and…

"Ralph? Hey, Ralph, I think I found it!" He called out. "Now, how do I…?" If Quartz had gotten that up there by themselves, they must have done so when the water level was significantly lower. The water was almost waist-high where the shelf stood, and Jordan didn't want to get his freshly changed pants soaked, too.

The light from another torch lit up Hop's head as Ralph found them, coming stumbling down some stairs in the more dry part of the area.

"Oh, ew," Ralph commented, flicking the ray of light over to the device he had shown. "Of course it's in a stupid place. Quartz puts them high up and near angry pokémon on purpose, I swear. Well, at least here there's just water. Mine was in a tree. With trolls."

She walked up to the boy and assessed the depth of the water around the shelf. "I don't have a water pokémon and my Dreepy is too weak to fetch that. Do you-"

A noise made her flick the torchlight around to a corner near the shelves. A lone bubble rose from the water, and ripples could be seen on the surface.

"Oh, what the- did you see that?!" Jordan peered into the depths of the water, but whatever it was that made the ripples did not surface.

"I guess it could have been… Just water being water," Ralph said, unconvinced. "We're inside of a building, I mean. Not out in the wild with pokémon."

"I- maybe, yeah." He thought for a moment as he kept watching, but the ripples settled and did not do that again. He shrugged, reaching for two PokeBalls. "Let's try this… Tangles, Sage, give us a hand!"

In a flash of red light, a Tangela and Skiddo appeared on the drier edge of the water. The Tangela immediately tried reaching out with vines, towards the device her Trainer was pointing at. Sage darted around the dark basement excitedly, before joining Tangles' efforts when the other Pokémon hissed at her, needing help with the weight of it.

The Skiddo's ears lay flat as she looked up at the device, but vines protruded from her grassy body all the same, as she reached out to aid the Tangela.

"Steady, steady…" Jordan watched as his Pokémon's combined effort slowly hoisted and brought down the strange machine. They seemed pretty sturdy, with the way Ralph had been handling hers, but it didn't hurt to be careful. As the device got close enough to set down next to the pooling water, Sage had immediately released it, apparently a few moments before Tangles had planned to, causing her to drop it on the loamy soil. Annoyed, the Tangela gave the Skiddo a light swat, but they both retreated behind their Trainer.

"Hey, I said careful," Jordan bent down to inspect the device, but it was still beeping away, which he assumed meant it was… fine. "Thanks, guys, don't know how we would have got it down otherwise… hey, what's wrong?" He wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but they were almost cowering behind him. Jordan looked back at the pool. Was it something in the water, or…?

"Sit still!" Ralph groaned beside him.

The Rattata and Dreepy who had been hugging her shoulders were now acting up. Suddenly, Greeny leaped down right on top of the machine and hissed, as much as a tiny rat can hiss.

"What the hell is wrong with you now?" Ralph said, trying to at least grab Creepy, but the ghost phased through her hand - that sensation was never pleasant - and darted off to hide behind Tangles, it seemed.

"Jordan, my Pokémon are being weird," Ralph added, troubled, flicking her torchlight between the two of them.

He wasn't sure if she was making a general statement, or they were being weirder than usual, but combined with Tangles' and Sage's reaction, something in here was definitely unsettling the Pokemon. And for that matter, where was Hop? Jordan looked up and shone his light around. It flickered on and off still, as he moved it around, but he spotted the Pidgeotto Roosting on another shelf, leering down at them suspiciously.

"I- your Rattata, does it do that often?" He asked hesitantly. The rat Pokémon seemed to have attacked the machine with quite a bit of hostility. He thought back to the way Hop had pecked Ralph's device when they were upstairs, too.

"She's often hard to control, yeah."

Now the rat was growling at Ralph too though. Or… Rather at the device she was carrying over her shoulder? Ralph looked from it and back to Greeny.

"She just dislikes the machines," the trainer concluded bluntly. "Come on, girl. We're soon rid of them. Just gotta drag them all the way back to the doctor."

"Yeah, it definitely seems that way," Jordan looked between his Pokémon as well. He quickly hoisted up his device. "Come on, this thing is starting to creep me out, let's drop it off as soon as we can."

As he said this, a jet of water narrowly missed him and splashed directly against the machine. "Hey! Wha-?" Jordan jumped back, before scanning the pool beside them again. Sage rushed over as well, pacing along the edge with anticipation before she, too, was splashed with water. She spluttered, quickly shaking it off.

A yellow fin appeared first, followed by the rearing of a pale, blue head. As they were distracted by the two Pokémon swimming closer, they didn't notice that a Psyduck had climbed out of the water and were running towards them, claws bared. With a loud quack, it barreled towards Jordan, taking a swipe at his leg - no, the device. Greeny jumped off, startled, but backed off back towards Ralph instead of attacking in return.

"Oh, god- hey, let go!" Jordan struggled with the Psyduck. "Yeah, it's definitely the machines! Okay, we're leaving, we're leaving," He tried to reassure the wild Pokémon, but it did not let up on its attack. "Tangles, help! Vine Whip!"

The Tangela lumbered to her Trainer's aid while keeping a healthy distance between them - still avoiding the machine, she reached over and lashed out at the attacking Psyduck. As it stumbled backwards, it made a hissing noise, turning its head towards the water once again, but pointing at the invading group. In the dim light, Jordan could see more heads protruding from the small pond. He couldn't really see how many, but he could tell they were going after everyone else at the Psyduck's command now, too.

"And I thought the Impidimp army was bad," Ralph muttered behind Jordan, drawing closer instinctively. "These are even more, and they're wet. I can't handle more wet today, honestly. I guess we're lucky you've got plants and not Pepper now though, right?"

Jordan laughed nervously. "Yeah, lucky. I do have a Pumpkaboo too, if we need more backup… but why are they so hostile…?" He mumbled to himself, looking at the device with concern.

Ralph noticed the Psyduck reaching its hands up and holding its head, shaking it with its eyes closed for a moment. But the other Pokémon emerged one after another now.

"What the… They're Horsea? And Magikarp." She pointed, just as a couple of the sea horses angrily fired off water cannons from their trumped mouths. "Aren't those sea Pokémon?"

Ralph found herself a bit annoyed that Creepy and Greeny seemingly were just watching from the sidelines.

"Where's your feisty self now?" she asked the rat on the ground next to her as she swung the device around to try to avoid the Water Guns. "I doubt they can move much on land, but let's make sure they don't somehow try to come after us. Quick Attack!"

Greeny seemed to hesitate, but finally took off and tackled two Magikarp in the head using her speedy leaps. The rat didn't need a flashlight to see in this darkness. Meanwhile, Ralph grabbed Jordan's arm to pull him back towards her, barely avoiding some Bubblebeams heading their way.

"Oh- thanks," Jordan breathed out. Now was not the time to think about the why. "Right! We gotta help out, too. Sage, Razor Leaf to knock them back." The Skiddo was hanging at the edge still, lapping up the water. "No, stop that, and Razor Leaf." Jordan repeated. How long has this muddy water been sitting here? Jordan looked at Sage with disgust, and she finally leapt into action. "Tangles, help her out with Vine Whip, and…" he whirled around to look at the Roosting Hop. "You're not a plant, but we could still use your help, you know!"

The Pidgeotto opened an eye, before stretching out his wings and drawing closer. He clearly did not see a huge, pressing threat in here, but at least he still listened. His other two Pokemon could knock them back from afar, but as Hop glided into the battle and dodged a Water Gun, he barreled into the Psyduck with a Headbutt.

The attention of the others snapped towards their conflict as the Psyduck flew back and let out a grunt. The Magikarp and Horsea clustered at the edge of the water, trying to get to it, while focusing their attacks on the offending Pidgeotto now. Hop was… not as nimble as he thought on his new wings, and with the combined efforts of Water Guns and Bubbles headed his way, did tank quite a few of the attacks. Ralph's Dreepy thankfully did what she could in skidding across the surface of the water and knock the offenders aim off with Quick Attack.

Leaves were still flying around the basement, pelting the Water Pokémon at random, and a long vine stretched out to sweep the others back, but as the Psyduck got back up, Jordan noticed its eyes glowing; it looked directly at Tangles, who suddenly withdrew her appendages, looking bewildered.

"Oh- Disable?" Jordan muttered as he looked at his Pokedex. "Um, that's okay, Tangles, you can still Constrict them." It was not nearly as effective, but held them off a bit as Sage's Razor Leaf found its targets. Despite this, they still appeared quite angry at Hop for attacking the Psyduck directly.

"Enough of this," Ralph said through clenched teeth and gestured with her flashlight to Jordan and the others to back off further from the water. "Jolty, Thundershock!"

Her Elekid emerged from his pokéball, landing in the shallows of the water with a thud and immediately starting to charge up, waving his arms like a speeding windmill. But then he hesitated, even as the electricity crackled in between his horns and the Psyduck turning its increasingly intense stare at him. He glanced back at his trainer.

"Do it!" she shouted.

And he did. The Thundershock made sparks fly all over the water, also dancing dangerously close to the land based or flying pokémon as well as the humans. It definitely did a number on the Horseas and Magikarps, but most of all, the Psyduck was now rubbing its head more than ever before.

A few crackles of electricity sizzled near Jordan's feet, as he leapt back from the small puddle of water conducting it. With his Pokedex still out, it contributed another tidbit of information.

It is constantly wracked by a headache. When the headache turns intense, it begins using mysterious powers.

"Oh. Well, that can't be good." He looked at the Psyduck, which was unmistakably suffering from a migraine of some sort. "But what do we do? It's not like we can knock the headache out of it-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the Water Pokémon's eyes glowed once again, and a bright beam of light shot out in Ralph's direction. It hit the machine she was carrying straight on and pushed her back a bit.

The device looked slightly singed, and made a soft, popping sound. Jordan blinked. "Do you think it's still okay-"

He was interrupted once again, when another round of Psybeam, aimed at him this time, fired off. "Whoa, geez!" Jordan jumped up, as his own Quartz device took the hit.

"Is the machine okay?" Ralph shouted sarcastically, meaning to mirror the way Jordan had seemed to care more about it than checking how she was.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! But I- I don't think they're mad at us," Jordan called back as he looked around, finally seeing the situation a bit more clearly. The Pokemon weren't glaring at them, not directly, at least - it was so obvious from the start, even the way their own Pokémon reacted to them. "Do you think it's these things?" He tapped the sparking device with the toe of his boot gently.

"Obviously!" Ralph snapped back, visibly agitated now. "Which is why we're taking them back ASAP!" She had been attacked by the imps before though, before she even got to the device. But perhaps they had thought she was doctor Quartz… The person who put them there in the first place.

She turned around but in front of the stairwell was a group of Horsea who had apparently hopped there and were now half-bouncing in anticipation.

"Oh, come on…" Ralph groaned and looked for Jolty. She found him standing near the water, back turned towards the Psyduck. And his small, skeptical eyes focused on Jordan's device, just like the wild pokémon.

The Psyduck let out a strangled quack of sorts, still clutching its head. It trembled slightly, rocking back and forth. If it was about to let out another Psybeam, and the severity of its headache was an indication of how strong the attack would be...

"There's no time," Jordan suddenly exclaimed, surprisingly confident. He picked up a nearby metal chair, and, with a loud grunt, smashed it over the top of his device, making Ralph and several of the pokémon around them jump in surprise. It continued to beep, but the noise was noticeably distorted. He looked back. The pokémon looked on, stunned, but unafraid. More importantly, he glanced over at the Psyduck. It was still clutching its head, but had its eyes open, looking slightly less distressed and not about to unleash another beam. He raised the chair again.

"What are you doing?" Ralph exclaimed. Her interjection gave him pause.

She grabbed a harder hold on her own device and took a couple of steps back towards the boy, ready to pull him away again or even jump in harm's way if she had to; she didn't waste time reflecting on why she would do such a thing. Perhaps her mind just registered Jordan as comparably frail. Or perhaps it knew she couldn't live with getting Casey's best friend mindsploded.

But the Psyduck she glared at with her flashlight never launched its attack. It just kept watching Jordan, strangely still. Jolty stood nearby, following its gaze. The bouncing pokémon at the staircase behind Ralph had gone more silent as well. The girl clutched the device harder, feeling momentarily lost.

"I think it worked, look! The Psyduck's calmed down a bit already. And… the rest of them, too, but we gotta watch out for the Psybeam most of all." The chair came crashing down once again, this time doing a fair amount of damage to the already fractured exterior of his device. He knew he was being a little crazy. What would Quartz think? What would Quartz do? That was probably a worry for later, but right now, the Pokemon seemed a lot more at ease without these things beeping. What even is this?

"Boy, they all really hate these things." A pause. The wild Pokemon looked guarded, but a few timidly stepped in his direction. "...I think we should do yours next."

Ralph, still clutching the device in her arms, shook her head - slowly at first but then more rapidly.

"We're meant to bring them back," she said, but there wasn't real conviction in her voice, not the regular Ralph-power or snark. "Quartz will give me a TM. You ruined yours…"

It was strange. Usually she was the one not shy to break rules if it could do her some good. Or if it seemed like the right thing to do. Every Pokémon she could see in the dim light of the flashlights was transfixed on either her or the other human.

Jordan looked at his mangled machine. "Yeah… I probably shouldn't go back with this thing. I don't know if the TM is worth it, though - say we get out of this basement with them both intact, it's still gonna be bothering our own Pokémon for the duration back." He continued as he committed to destroying his device. "And we might get attacked by more wild Pokémon… I don't know what about it is driving them so crazy, but they don't seem to like us doing anything but smashing them."

A lot of the tension between the humans and Pokémon in the room seemed to have been alleviated, but almost on cue, a blast of Water Gun splashed over Ralph as a Horsea aimed for her device. She staggered and nearly dropped it, the strap still over her - now wet, again - shoulder keeping it up.

The purple haired girl actually ignored the fact that she was basically soaked even from the top now. She bit her lip and looked from the Horsea to Jordan, and then down at the machine. Creepy was still hovering around somewhere out of sight, with Jolty standing his ground firmly near the Psyduck. But Greeny walked up to Ralph and growled. She had never growled at her trainer like this before. But now Ralph was still holding Quartz' machine. This cursed machine.

"The doctor is hurting the Pokémon, aren't they," Ralph then said, perhaps still not with confidence, but at least not with an as faint tone as before. "Scattering all these things here where they live. And… they knew. Because they had been attacked by wild Pokémon before, when trying to fetch these stupid things. So they made us do it instead. Kids, basically. They sent kids to fetch machines that hurt pokémon."

"Yeah…" The boy hadn't even thought of that point, but they must have known. And knew it was dangerous.

She now bore her gaze into Jordan's eyes, flicking the flashlight she was still squeezing under her arm up towards his face to watch it, as she finally shrugged. "I guess I wouldn't want to use a TM earned in that way anyways."

The flashlight dropped to the ground with a clattering noise when she grabbed hold of the hefty device again and raised it as high as she could. She wasn't the bulkiest girl out there, but she was by no means weak. When she flung it down towards the overgrown floor, the crashing noise even as it bounced slightly, told them that the machine wasn't impervious after all.

It came to a stop pretty close to Jordan's already roughed up device. He grinned, glad to see her on board. Prickly girl had a heart, after all.

"Well if we're gonna destroy somebody else's property, let's do it properly," Ralph said and plucked Greeny from the floor as she stepped backwards, hoping it would be enough of a hint for others to do the same. "Wanna do the honors, Jolty?"

The Elekid finally smiled, and waved his arms to charge up anew. Jordan's smile faltered, as he considered something.

"Wait, wait, hold on - do you think it's… safe for them to do it?" Jordan wondered. "Maybe Doc put some Pokémon moves-proof technology into these things, like if these guys here hated the device so much, they would've tried to destroy them on their own, too, right?"

The idea made Ralph hesitate, and gesture to Jolty to halt. She picked the light back up, sighing.

"This has gotta be the shittiest Doc in the world," she grunted, but then fell silent for a few seconds, once again watching the wild Pokémon around them who seemed to just quietly watch them in return now. In anticipation?

"No, they did attack the machines earlier, remember? With water and whatever that duck's migraine whips up." She turned back to Jordan now, her sea green eyes very serious. "They're scared of it, Jordan. Doc probably made it this way so that they would stay away from the machines. I… We fought a huge Grimmsnarl earlier."

She paused to raise her eyebrows at the intense memory. "I thought it was the leader of the Impidimps and hated me for being a human, but now? I'm starting to think it was just scared shitless and crazed. And a tiny Ralts was clever enough to make me help, and led me to the machine. But still too scared to try anything by itself."

She took a deep breath, nodding slowly as if to confirm to herself that her train of thought made sense. "So it's gotta be us. Or our Pokémon. They maybe trust us enough to dare to attack the things. But maybe you're right? Maybe it's not worth risking it."

Jordan looked back at his Pokémon as he listened to talk about her previous encounter. Sage wagged her leafy-green tail nervously as Tangles stood in front of her. Hop's wings flapped rhythmically above, as he leered at the girl's machine suspiciously. Yeah, he really didn't want to put them through… whatever the machine does, if it causes discomfort.

Finally, still somewhat nodding, Ralph swiftly strode past Jordan - unintentionally flinging a few drops at him from her soaked hoodie's sleeves - and picked up another forlorn chair.

"Together?" she said with a grin towards him, tilting her head towards yet another chair. His smile returned, evidently more comfortable smashing the machines manually. Worked the first time, right?

"Together." He agreed, lifting the chair up and finishing what he'd started.

One by one, the Pokémon inched closer - close enough to watch, but just out of harm's way as the two Trainers brought their wrath down on the devices until they both went silent.

The Psyduck was the first to walk right up to them once it was all over. No longer clutching its head, it inspected the destroyed fragments of the gadgets that had been disturbing their peace, and kicked a shard of metal across the room. It quacked again, but sounded much more pleased this time, as it scurried back over to the pool. All around them, Jordan noticed a different atmosphere in the basement already, with all the Pokémon spread out freely, and a few doing backflips in the water, making little splashes here and there. He smiled at Ralph. "I think we did a good thing."

She was leaning on her now pretty smashed up metal chair, panting slightly but having a sort of smile on her face. Creepy was back next to Greeny and Jolty, smiling contentedly. That had to be a good indicator.

"Yeah. Screw the doctor. There's more TMs in the world," she said, straightening up. "Listen, uh… Sorry I hesitated." Jordan hadn't hesitated. In hindsight, seeing all the pokémon relaxed now, it definitely made Ralph feel like the lesser human being in the room.

"What? No, no… don't be. I wasn't even sure that was the right thing to do until, like, my third whack in." Jordan chuckled, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow. He was usually not the brash one in, well, any group, but he was glad he didn't overthink for once.

Quack.

They turned around towards the source of the noise. With the Pokemon no longer as guarded around them, Jordan made his way over to the edge of the water and took a better look at the little pond the Psyduck and the others called home here. As he shone his light down, he could see the yellow creature tending to something propped against a pile of wooden debris. "Oh… Ralph, come look!"

The debris looked like a makeshift nest, crafted from bits of broken down furniture and whatever they must have scavenged around here. And resting on top of this were Eggs. Two of them.

Ralph came up behind him. "Oh no wonder they were scared, if they've made these dead factories their nursery," she said. "You think they're baby Psyducks in there?"

She then stopped, and blinked. Jordan had said the exact same words at almost the exact same time. They looked at each other and laughed.

"Maybe, well - I don't know," Jordan looked around when they'd settled down. "Don't see any other Psyduck here. Pretty weird 'family' of Pokémon down here, actually."

Ralph suddenly shuddered and clutched her own arms. The damp cold around them was starting to get to her now that adrenaline levels were subsiding.

"Mm, fish in a basement. Awesome mystery to consider but could we get out of here first?" Another visible shiver punctuated her question as she stole a glance back at the mess of electronics they had made. "And should we drag that back up somehow or do you think it will just…" She wasn't sure how to end that thought. "Become just another part of these ruins?"

"Oh, right." Jordan felt a little bad leaving the now useless pile of rubble down here. "I guess we could take the larger… chunks that we can still carry back up, put them in one of the garbage bins or something." Not that any garbage trucks would be coming around here to collect them, but at least they would mostly be out of the Pokémon's way.

A slow smile spread across Ralph's face. "Still up for that bonfire, Jordan? I bet something in there will burn good."

Jordan sighed, as he started picking up some of the larger pieces of rubble, but he also had a smirk on his face. "You just really want to set something on fire, don't you?"

As the pair turned to leave, ushering their own Pokémon back towards the staircase, another quack from the Water Pokémon stopped them in their tracks.

"What is it now, bud- oh, I-" Jordan's voice softened as he looked back. The Psyduck carefully padded out of the water, precariously holding an Egg in each arm. Jordan dropped the debris he was holding to help - the Psyduck's arms were stubby and the Eggs looked like they would fall out at any moment. "What are you…?"

The Pokémon pressed the Egg Jordan was supporting into his grasp, before turning to Ralph and holding out the other. Ralph dropped her jaw for a moment, but then recollected herself.

"Um, okay," she said and accepted the egg. It was damp, but strangely warm. "I suppose this is another way of catching new pokémon. You sure you wanna trust us with your babies though?" she added, an eyebrow raised at the Psyduck.

The duck just looked seriously at her.

"I guess that's a yes. Wow. I wonder if they'll be Psyducks or something else. Hm. Can I put this in my backpack? I don't wanna break it. But also I feel like… I should hold it close? When will it hatch?"

Ralph stopped herself with a slight blush, realizing she'd been thinking all the questions out loud. She turned to Jordan, hoping he would know these things better than her. He was crouched down still, but turned towards his own Pokémon, who wanted to see the Egg. Tangles already had her vines wrapped safely around it, and was playing keep-away with Sage. Or she was just… actively trying to keep it away from the chaotic Skiddo, since she looked pretty annoyed.

"Hm? Uh, good questions." Jordan responded distractedly. He cleared his throat and continued as the beat of silence indicated she was looking for elaboration. "These things are supposed to be pretty tough, right? Just don't sit on it. Or do. That's how some Pokémon hatch their Eggs, I think-" He glanced at the Psyduck, who was still looking at them expectantly. "We're probably not instilling confidence in it right now, maybe we shouldn't sound so clueless in front of them. You really mean to give them to us…?"

The Psyduck quacked with delight, dancing over the broken machine debris, before gesturing towards the Trainers' Pokémon. It seemed quite comfortable with the Eggs in their possession, making no attempts to get them back.

"If you're sure, we'll do our best to raise 'em like our own." Jordan smiled, looking at Ralph. "Right?"

She gave him a confident smile in return, folding her arms more securely around the organic orb.

Party

Tangles
Tangela | F | Lvl. 17

Ingrain
Constrict
Absorb
Vine Whip
Sleep Powder
Poison Powder

Hop
Pidgeotto | M | Lvl. 18

Headbutt
Whirlwind
Gust
Mirror Move
Roost
Wing Attack

Spirit
Alolan Cubone | M | Lvl. 14

Leer
Growl
Bone Club
Headbutt
Swords Dance

Sage
Skiddo | F | Lvl. 15

Tackle
Growth
Vine Whip
Play Nice
Razor Leaf
Leech Seed

Tiny
Pumpkaboo | F | Lvl. 19

Razor Leaf
Shadow Sneak
Confuse Ray
Scary Face
Worry Seed
Trick-or-Treat

???
??? | ? | Lvl. -

It appears to move occasionally. It may be close to hatching.

Inventory

- Pokédex
- Pokégear
- 2-person tent
- Tangles' plant

Moon Stone

Groc · Feb 9, 2021

Vera Hill
Chapter 7 - Five for Fighting
Route 11; Sunday, May 27th

Leaving Route 12 behind also means leaving the rain behind, and Vera crosses onto Route 11 in a slightly better mood. The sun is out, there's a pleasant breeze, and the rough, muddy road gives way to a dry expanse of prairie.

So, with a clearer head and a Goblin on her shoulder, Vera heads out. Besides the main road she's following, she can also make out some larger roads carved through the sand and underbrush. The tire tracks make it obvious that vehicles pass through here frequently, so she'll need to keep an eye out.

Surprisingly, it doesn't take long before she encounters her first tourist group. Up ahead, an electric bus is parked on the side of the road, watching a herd of Blitzle run by. There's a lot of excited murmurs and cameras snapping as the people on the bus are enamored with the wild Pokémon. Vera keeps her distance, but watches the group almost sadly. A Pokémon Safari is exactly the kind of event she would have loved to participate in as a kid, if she could have.

Goblin smacks her shoulder, trying to get her attention. She frowns at him for hitting her, but grins and pats his head for the message he's sending. "You're right, it's better to be up close to Pokémon, and form real bonds."

Goblin tilts his head, looking at her in confusion. He points the other way, away from the bus, to a smaller group of people. They're teenagers, five of them, with messy clothes and brightly colored hair. There's a general aura of menace about them, as if they heard what society expected of them and decided to do the opposite just for fun.

"Punk kids? Not the kind of people I want to hang out with. Why are you..." Vera trails off when she notices what they're doing. They're all in a circle, with dust being kicked up in the middle, and they're loudly laughing and yelling back and forth. "That's a fight. There's a fight happening. Why do you care?"

Goblin grins at the word "fight", eagerly pointing and leaning toward it. Vera isn't sure exactly what he's saying, but she can tell he wants to get closer. "Ugh, fine! We'll see what they're up to. Let's go." She heads toward the punks, who are too distracted to notice her approach.

In the center of their circle, a Vigoroth and a Furret are battling. Furret looks tired and hurt, while Vigoroth just looks tired. The kids, teenagers around her own age, are cheering and... placing bets?

"And just what is going on here?" Vera frowns, her hands on her hips, finally getting the attention of the other teens. The Furret takes the opportunity to Scratch Vigoroth in the face, then dash behind Vera with a Quick Attack.

"Wha- aw, you let it escape!" One of the punks complains. "D'you have any idea how long it took us to trap that thing?"

"I don't really care." Vera scowls bluntly. "Five on one doesn't seem fair to me. What's the matter, can't handle one Pokémon by yourselves?"

"Big words comin' from the one!" Another punk steps up. "You wanna start somethin', pretty girl?"

"Oh, whoa, wait a minute..." a third punk holds her back. "She's got a Pokémon on 'er shoulder. Maybe you should level the odds."

"Good idea... what do ya say, pretty girl?" The punk girl grabs a Poké Ball from her belt. "Wanna have a go?"

Vera looks between the five teens, not feeling very confident. But the Furret clinging to her ankles, shuddering in fear, fills her with anger and determination. "I don't think you could handle me. Why don't you all just walk away?"

"Ha! Bold talk, Shiro!" One of the boys speaks up. "Bet you can't back it up! Go, Nidorino!" The spiky Poison type appears in a flash, roaring a challenge at Vera.

Vera tries to step back, but fear grips her heart tighter than the Furret is gripping her leg. "A... wh... i- Goblin, do something!"

Goblin drops off her shoulder, grabbing her arm to slow his fall, and grabs a ball from Vera's belt to throw in his place. "Oh, you little coward!"

Goblin had grabbed Bonnie's ball, and she only needs one look at the Nidorino to know she's needed. She holds her club in a defensive stance, focusing her energy and daring the Nidorino to attack her.

On its Trainer's command, Nidorino charges forward, head lowered and horn pointing straight at Bonnie. She braces for impact, ducking her head and letting the horn glance off her helmet. She is pushed back from the blow, but keeps herself in between her Trainer and her opponent.

"You got this, Bonnie. Take him out!" Vera says, and Furret cheers beside her. Bonnie nods, turning back as the punk orders a Double Kick. Nidorino rushes in, spinning in place to lash out with its back legs. Bonnie blocks with her club, softening the impact and pushing Nidorino away. She throws her club, striking Nidorino in the face. It cries out as Bonnie's club bounces off, returning to her hand so she can throw it again, hitting Nidorino in the other eye.

Nidorino clutches at its face in pain and anger, while its Trainer gets nervous. "Hey, that thing's pretty strong! This girl's tougher than she looks!"

"Well she looks like a total pushover!" The punk girl retorts. "Get in there and fight!"

Vera decides that she doesn't like this girl. She doesn't like any of these people, but the mouthy girl is rapidly getting on her nerves. "Bonnie, finish it off with Bone Club!"

Bonnie charges in, but not fast enough. Nidorino gets a Poison Sting in before Bonnie can knock it out, and she shudders as the poison sets in. Vera quickly recalls her to her ball, which she grips tightly as her hand shakes. Bonnie is a mighty warrior, but even she can be brought low by Poison. It terrifies her to think of it, even as Nidorino is taken off the field.

"Don't think you've won!" The punk girl interrupts her thoughts. "Guys, who's next? Don't give 'er a chance to rest!"

"I got 'er! Bet she can't even hit my Pidgeotto!" Another punk steps up, sending out his bird.

Vera frowns in annoyance, looking down at Goblin clinging to her waist. "You wanted this. Why don't you do something?" Goblin stares up at her, slowly reaching for another Poké Ball. "No, stop that! I'll send someone out."

Furret stands up on its hind legs, smiling as it holds up a paw to Vera. She looks at it skeptically, but it seems to be offering a high five. She offers her own hand to it, and it enthusiastically high fives her. The gesture invigorates her, for some reason, and she grabs the next ball with renewed confidence. "Alright, get ready! Sapphire, let's clip this bird's wings!"

Sapphire looks at Pidgeotto with disdain, casually licking her paw and grooming behind her ears. The punk scoffs, but before he can finish giving a command, Sapphire teleports behind Pidgeotto, smacking it in the head with a Fake Out.

"Grr, fine! Pidgeotto, kick up a Twister!" The bird's wings glow with an arcane energy that Vera has otherwise only seen Dragons use, flapping its wings and creating a stronger wind than she'd ever seen Hop create. Of course, Hop is just a Pidgey, and has an injured wing, but still...

"Sapphire, Icy Wind!" Sapphire winces as the Twister buffets her, but unleashes her icy breath attack. It cuts through the Twister, coating Pidgeotto in a fine layer of frost. The punk calls for another Twister, but Vera responds with another Icy Wind. Sapphire takes the worst of the windstorm, but it's starting to cause havoc with Vera's hair, which annoys her, and Furret is back to hiding behind her legs. Oddly, Goblin doesn't seem bothered, and is mostly just enjoying watching the fight.

Anticipating another Twister, Vera calls for Icy Wind, but Pidgeotto instead kicks sand at Sapphire. It still gets hit by her frozen breath, but Sapphire gets sand in her eyes. Enraged, she Screeches at Pidgeotto, causing everyone, human and Pokémon alike, to cover their ears at the sound. With no hands, Pidgeotto gets it the worst, and resorts to kicking more sand to try and stop the cat from screaming.

"Sapphire! We've talked about this, you can't just-" Sapphire teleports behind Pidgeotto again, hitting it with Feint Attack, but earning a Wing Attack for her trouble. She goes berserk, lashing out with a 5-hit Fury Swipes that knocks Pidgeotto to the ground. She leaps for the fallen bird, claws out and teeth bared, but Vera recalls her before she can do any more harm.

The punk recalls his Pidgeotto, but before any of the others can step up, the punk girl pushes to the front. "I'll do this myself! Watch and learn, boys. Time for a real fight!" She throws a ball, sending a Machop to the field.

"They just don't know when to quit..." Vera sighs, and Furret offers her another high five for morale. She accepts, grinning at the rush of endorphins it brings, grabbing her next Poké Ball. "Alright, show me what you got."

Eleanor · Feb 10, 2021

art by Aquacorde

Arianne Chandler
Route 11
Sunday, May 26^th, noon

Food go poof

Vermilion, Vermilion…

what is it that I had to do there? There has to be a reason why I've escaped Lavender so quickly in favor of this other city. Or maybe not, I'm not even sure anymore. I'm just not going to think about it and make my way over there.

It's about noon, and according to my PokéGear, I should be arriving at the next Pokécenter in just a few hours: one more reason to forget about what happened yesterday and keep up the pace. Luckily, the weather is much better today, and the clouds are quickly clearing out.

The scenery changes quite quickly as I keep walking downhill. Trees become much more sparse, water hides and burrows underground, and I actually start feeling warm. It's actually quite hot here, on Route 11, so much so that even a chilly person like me has no problem putting her jacket away - even crazier, I think I'd rather wear my skirt at this point! But alas.

I follow a path among the grass, looking all around me at all the Pokémon that I can find. There are way more than I would expected, and the terrain makes it easy to spot them - plus, they're all so unique! The Pokédex struggles to get their information because of their distance from me, but the few one it picks up seem all rather new to me. For example, right over my head, there's a Mandibuzz.

Wait what? Dark and Flying? Likes to attack prey that is already weakened? What's this, a big friend of the Murkrow from Lavender? I can only hope it doesn't bring bad luck just like its smaller counterpart! But surely, her circling over my head looks ominous.

I keep my head up for a while, looking at not just the Mandibuzz but at all the other Pokémon that are flying higher up, wondering what flying with them must feel like. It doesn't take long, though, and I have to look to the ground again: two of the Pokémon have quickly gone for a nosedive, and it turns out it's none but two Mandibuzz.

The one I've scanned before has landed not too far from where I'm standing, next to what looks like a small bus with some people all around it. The other quickly follows suit, striking down a smaller Pokémon with an Air Slash. Of course, I can't help but run closer to the point of impact, leaving the trail to approach a sandy, dry ground area with just a few sprouts of grass here and there.

There's a wounded Blitzle right in the middle of this clearing, clearly struggling to stand up or attack. Just a few crackles of electricity come out from its mane, but they look mostly harmless, so much so that the Mandibuzz don't seem to be scared of it.

Further ahead, somewhere opposite of me, there's this group of tourists. They seem quite worried as they look towards me, walking back and forth and talking between themselves. I don't really understand what they want, not until a small Minccino comes out from one of their Pokéballs.

The small Normal-type looks completely disoriented as its feet touch the sand, and tries to reach for the legs of its trainer, a young boy that instead of picking it up just orders it to attack the Mandibuzz with Swift… and, from what I can see, gets a stern scolding from some of the other tourists. Why?

Well…

In no time I find myself standing by their side, fighting against Mandibuzz but aided only by this boy's Minccino. Needless to say, the poor thing is not happy to get dragged into this kind of battle, and is way more busy with trying to hide behind its trainer than following his commands.

Some Protect attacks from Eric give me time to understand the situation. Sort of.

The Minccino guy seems to be arguing with one of the older tourists behind me. He keeps talking about saving Blitzle and about how nature is cruel, but keeps getting interrupted by the woman, who is just explaining that this is a Safari for true men and is meant to not interfere with the wild life. And that by attacking the two Mandibuzz, he got all of them in a terrible situation. And that Mandibuzz especially know well that humans and their demonic devices they call "Pokéballs" mean "food go poof".

Did she seriously just say that?

Eric's cries of pain bring me back to reality. Apparently this time Protect didn't work against one of the two Mandibuzz's Dark Pulse. "They're too strong, just get away with us!" The woman calls from behind, even more worried than before. But of course, the Blitzle's huffed neigh is way louder in my head.

"No, it's alright, I'll deal with this!"

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

Out of all the Pokémon I have, I choose Mizar to help me out for the time being. He doesn't need explanations, he just rapid-fires an Ember in the air and gets a surprise hit on one Mandibuzz. But…

There's two Mandibuzz on the playing field right now. One is facing me, but one is facing Blitzle. If I'm busy facing this one, the other one will have no problem landing the killing blow on the wild Electric type… in fact, it's already mind-blowing to see that Blitzle is still standing. It has already withstood many Dark Pulse and Air Slash, from a Pokémon much stronger than it and fully evolved to its final stage.

The plan should be simple. Defeat this Mandibuzz and move up to the next one. This is the only way to save Blitzle from certain death. But it's not exactly going to work, if Mandibuzz can just grab the Electric type and fly away.

I think Eric has realized this too, because he makes his way right past the first Mandibuzz with Rapid Spin, and gets close up and personal with Blitzle. There, as if on cue, his eyes glow pink.

Mizar has now moved on from Ember to Rage, trying to take attacks as best as he can and building up more energy. As Mandibuzz tries to come closer, don't know for which attack, he strikes back with Dragon Rage. The Vulture Pokémon for once doesn't scoff at the attack, and tries to keep some distance. The sand around me starts to fly up and circle around me though, and without realizing what happened, in place of Bagon appears Lulu. Which means I have to call out Mizar again, quickly…

Eric, in the meantime, is doing an alright job at keeping Blitzle safe, alternating as usual between Protect and Water Pulse to at least waste some time. But he may easily fall victim of that same trick. Whirlwind, is it? I'll have to be extra careful.

Not like I have a chance to beat these two, as things stand right now. Looks like "food go poof" is the only option.

TEAM:

Eric, lv. 28 •

Mulan, lv. 15

Alice, lv. 11 •

Mizar, lv. 17

Lulu, lv. 23 •

Honedge, lv. 16

Eleanor · Feb 10, 2021

art by Aquacorde

Arianne Chandler
Route 11
Sunday, May 26^th, noon
Unsafety Dance quest

Food go bzzt

Lulu and Mizar are against one Mandibuzz. Blitzle and Eric are against another. I appear to be the only human there, though, as if I'm messing with things I should leave alone. Case in point?

Eric is getting tired. He's really acting like such a hero, shielding Blitzle from damage when possible and helping it get up on its feet, but Mandibuzz's attacks are taking a toll on him and I don't think he can keep up for much longer.

Lulu has no way to contribute to this battle, sadly. Her spores can't reach Mandibuzz and her other attacks are largely useless against her. She can pester Lulu with Air Slash instead, often making her flinch and unable to bounce away. But… Sleep Powder! It would all be so easy if that move worked!

Mizar is, as usual, being the biggest distraction. Even if he's not dealing too much damage, his Dragon Rage and Ember attacks are big and… scenographic, I guess. They force Mandibuzz to waste time by dodging and flying around them, but even that doesn't spare my Bagon from some well placed Dark Pulses…

Here it comes though, the Whirlwind on Eric. It takes a while actually, because Wartortle is further away from me than Mizar used to be, but eventually, he's recalled against my will and Alice comes up. I have her come back and stay close to me for the time being, as I scramble to find the right Pokéball and call Eric back out. I have to admit, this battle is getting taxing for me as well!

"Come on, please! Use Sing!"

My Pokémon don't know S-sing…

The tourist from before is actually running not away from me like everyone else, but closer to me. His Minccino is preceding him, jumping forward and climbing on top of me before letting out his little chant.

The melody mostly numbs me, and gets me rather drowsy, but seems to have an effect on the Mandibuzz who's attacking me. She starts getting closer to the ground, and that's a cue. "Lulu, Sleep Powder! You got this!"

She shoots all of her spores upwards, being helped by Minccino's Swift, and finally, they connect. One of the two Mandibuzz has actually fallen asleep for a bit.

"You… ok, you can save the Blitzle! Go!" I tell the trainer, as I finally get Eric back out again. I raise my head to see Blitzle being sucked into a Pokéball right before a Dark Pulse would hit it, making the second Mandibuzz furious. She turns to the boy, who's running to pick up his Pokéball, and I quickly run towards him too so I can at least get him out of trouble… should Mandibuzz attack us again.

Blitzle breaks out before the boy gets there though. I should've known, things always end up this way with Heal Pulse.

What strikes me at this point is how fierce Blitzle's eyes look, even after all this fighting. Its mane becomes surrounded by sparkles as a proper Shock Wave attack hits the Mandibuzz who's still awake. It's not merely a prey, it actually wants to fight...

If I can't get Blitzle out of trouble this way, maybe what I shall do is help it out. And how? Well, I just have to try one thing.

"Alice, try Thundershock, quick!"

Pichu peeks from behind me, sensing the battle ahead, and runs forward. She does like being useful, doesn't she? But as I suspected, her attack gets drawn to Blitzle's mane, dissipating in a bunch of crackles. Alice looks disappointed, but I disagree. "Do it again and again! We got this!"

Eric and Mizar are good enough to keep Mandibuzz busy for what I need to do, hitting once again with Dragon Rage, Water Pulse, Rapid Spin… well, anything they can. They clash together once again, but this time it's the Mandibuzz that has to end this quickly, lest they face the consequences!

As this happens, the boy tries to apologize. "I would've loved to save it even if the Tour Guide said…"

"Protect, quick! S-sorry?"

"As I said, I got it all wrong and got you into this…"

"It's ok, I wanna help Blitzle too! Probably would've… Eric, time to attack! ...Well, I would've done it anyway."

"O-oh, I see… You must be a very strong trainer…"

You actually… said it?

I can feel my confidence rise as I grab Alice's Pokéball, and call her back. "Blitzle, it's your time to shine!"

"Minccino, Helping Hand!" I smile as the boy's Pokémon comes forward again.

The Shock Wave erupts from Blitzle's mane, and is just as strong as I expected. I just wish Alice was here to see it, but if that was the case, the attack would miss the target… unlike now! Mandibuzz gets hit and it's a big blow. She seems to flinch, getting caught by surprise, and is too slow to avoid a second one. I can tell Blitzle has never been happier.

A couple more attacks, and the Mandibuzz have to retreat. Blitzle lets out a battle cry, clearly reinvigorated, and comes closer to me, giving me a gentle nudge before running off.

I get all my Pokémon inside my Pokéball and remain alone with the boy, who has also called back his Minccino. What can I say, he doesn't look that happy to battle, and has only intervened a few times… but looks genuinely happy about Blitzle.

"T-thank you! I'd better get back to the tour, they won't wait for me much longer, but have these. I'm just glad I met someone like you."

"Oh you don't have to…" I smile awkwardly. But eventually, I accept a small package with what looks like some treats inside from the boy, before he runs off.

I still have to process what's happening. Maybe I should just look for a place to rest, just me and my Pokémon. I take some heavy breaths and walk away from where the Mandibuzz used to stand, once again heading towards Vermilion. The plains are quiet, but just after a few minutes I hear the sound of a Pokémon trotting right alongside me.

TEAM:

Eric, lv. 28 •

Mulan, lv. 15

Alice, lv. 11 •

Mizar, lv. 17

Lulu, lv. 23 •

Honedge, lv. 16

WizardOfOdd · Feb 10, 2021

Richard Wolstenholme
Route 11, May 26^th, Afternoon

Chapter 6-8
Law of the Wild

The scorching heat had reached its peak. Compared to the rain last night, it was like from one extreme to another. Yet, Richard seemed to be unfazed with it even if he wore a leather jacket.

He used to wear them for style only, but now he has used it most of the time. It just felt natural to him to wear it in most situations. And so he continued to walk with it still draping on his shoulder without any care, unlike Uri, Eileen, and Victor that already showed visible signs of being affected by the heat.

"You guys can go back to your Pokeball, you know? There's no need to force yourselves."

The three of them shook their head vehemently, leaving Richard to sigh in exasperation before continuing his journey through the dry and barren land of Route 11.

However, in the middle of the way, he noticed something that attracted his attention. There was someone sitting in a tree nearby, a familiar face… There's a high chance that the guy up there was Casey, just with more of a beard than he'd had before. It appeared that he was braiding grasses together, looking intently at some Pokemon around the area. Maybe he was trying to catch one? It certainly looked so. It made Richard hesitant to approach him.

Maybe he wouldn't mind if I just stop by and say hi? I mean he's a friendly person, I can see that at least… But, uh…

Richard's contemplation was stopped by Uri as he shoved his trainer forward as if it was trying to say 'Just go for it!'.

Feeling embarrassed that he had to be pushed by his Pokemon, he walked slowly towards the tree. The Skiddo and Phanpy lazing in the shade next to a backpack and a walking stick turned their gaze toward him, but didn't pay him much mind. They found themselves much more distracted by the Charmeleon falling out of the tree with a surprised cry.

"Pepper, did you- I ain't comin' down to get you again," Casey called, peering down to check on his Pokémon. His gaze caught Richard's movement and a grin spread across his face. "Hey! Richard! How's it goin'?"

"Oh hi! Uh… I'm doing great, glad that you're looking well. Looking at some Pokemon?"

"Yeah, come up and see!"

Casey dropped his project and lowered himself down a few branches so he could extend a hand to Richard. Richard thought that their conversation would end in awkward silence, so he was glad that it didn't end that way. Wasting no time, he proceeded to grab Casey's helping hand.

"Is that a Chingling?" Casey asks, poking Maddie curiously.

"Yeah, it is. I found her back at Lavender Town. Do you want to say hi, Maddie?"

Maddie who was feeling drowsy only waved her stumpy arms slightly while smiling before she tightened her grip on Richard's back.

"Shouldn't you go to sleep now? You can go back to your Pokeball so you can sleep better you know?"

The Bell Pokemon pouted hearing his trainer's words and shook her head to show her refusal.

"...Fine, fine… You can stay outside."

"'S long as she doesn't fall off like some Pokémon," Casey said pointedly as he climbed higher again, beckoning Richard to follow. His Charmeleon complained loudly from the ground. "Hey, hush, we're still watchin' the herd."

Richard followed suit and climbed the tree as carefully as possible. Getting wounded was the last thing he needed after the last trip to the hospital. Near the top, he could see several Pokemon that Casey was trying to observe.

"So, which one of them are you interested in?"

Casey hummed. "All of them? I'm just watchin' to see what they do, really. Can you see the Pyroar out there?" Casey pointed out to the east.

"Yup, I can see them, no problem."

"They've been stalkin' this herd of Girafarig for a little bit. I wanna see what happens, so keep an eye on' em." The other boy settled in, obviously having found the ideal lookout spot before dragging Richard up. Richard decided to sit on a sturdy branch behind Casey. Casey didn't take his eyes off the tableau in front of them, but struck up a conversation anyway: "What you been up to these last few days? Things been good?"

"Better than ever, really. Well, a loss to Beaumont stings a bit but other than that? It's much better than I expected. How about you, Casey? You're having fun on your journey?"

"Oh, yeah, for sure," Casey grinned. "I mean, ups and downs. But it's a good time! Seein' new people and new places. Cape wasn't that interesting of a place an' I was gettin' antsy there. Not enough new things, y'know? But now it's all new!" He laughed delightedly. "You can find somethin' interesting everywhere. I definitely prefer talkin' to people rather'n watchin' Pokémon, but it's still interesting. Even when you see 'em eat each other… Gross, but interesting."

"I agree… Well, not much so about the last one, but I've met some interesting people… Making friends is also fun, well if they didn't mind my presence there at least. Also, it's pretty much fun taking care of… Uh…" Richard's smiling face turned into confusion as he looked downward. No matter how hard he squinted his eyes, he couldn't find Eileen, Victor, nor Uri down there.

"What's up?" Caseys asked, picking up on his unfinished sentence but still keeping his eyes on the Girafarig herd.

"Strangely, I can't find my Po—"

"Pika~" Richard turned his head in shock towards the source of the voice which is on a branch beside them. His panicked state turned into irritation as he saw that both of his Pokemon that he thought were missing were enjoying the front seats to the same sight he saw. Eileen waved happily on the lap of Uri who put a finger in front of her, shutting her mouth before she could cause more ruckus. Eileen looked unhappy with the gesture, but Uri quickly pacified the Mouse Pokemon by patting her head before he used his free hand to gesture that 'everything is under control'. Meanwhile, Victor used its psychic powers to suspend itself mid-air, it seemed to understand that the branch would break if it sat down on it.

"Geez, why does my team always try to give me a heart attack..." Richard clicked his tongue before focusing himself again on his observation. The Pyroar were closer to the herd now, stalking with more intent.

Casey gave a quick huff of laughter. "Two o' mine are troublemakers too. Parsley always- oh, shit, look-!"

The boy slapped Richard on the arm urgently, forcing him to pay attention to the action going down across the field. The Pyroar were making their move on a straggling Girafarig, three of them springing from the long grasses and grabbing on with claws and teeth to drag it to the ground. Wobbling rings of psychic energy flattened the grass and sent a Pyroar falling to the side, but the other two simply doubled down on the attack. The rest of the herd, alarmed, started to run west.

"Ah, yikes!" Richard grimaced seeing the sight. "Maybe this is just not for me. I saw a Tyranitar getting its head bashed with a giant stalactite before, well I'm the one who did it. But this is whole 'nother level." Richard glanced again towards his Pokemon to notice that Eileen's eyes were covered by Uri who seemed to be staring in full focus at the sight upon him, all while Victor seemed to be unfazed by the sight.

"Yeah, it's not pretty." Casey pressed his lips together. The Pyroar began to drag their catch back in the direction they'd come from. "But that's just the way nature works, for real. Seein' it up close is kinda crazy. Reminds you what could happen if there weren't regulations and stuff for training."

"I have to agree on that one… If Pokemon schools didn't exist, that could've been us." Richard continued to look even if he still grimaced at the sight. Dragging a full-grown Girafarig is slow going, even for two alert Pyroar and one wobbly one.

"I was thinkin' more that Pokémon could actually hurt each other in trainer battles. But yeah, 's good that we know how to deal with that. Not that it stops some 'o these from really tryin' to do us in…" Casey brushes a hand across his ribcage and shakes his head. "Long as nothin' tries to eat my three we're golden, I guess."

"True, if someone hurt my four Pokemon beyond battling I don't know how far I can hold myself from— Wait, three? I thought you had four?" Richard peeked down the tree to check if his sight was wrong. One… Two… Three… Four… There were indeed four, he didn't make any mistakes.

"What? No, there's only- oh, the Phanpy. It's just been hangin' out with us, it's not actually mine. I'm thinkin' about it, but three is already a handful. How's four goin' for you?" Casey reached up to grab his Buneary and situate her back on his shoulder before starting to climb out of the tree, apparently done watching. Not that there was much to watch beyond three Pyroar slowly dragging their kill back to their pride, now that the rest of the Girafarig were long gone.

"Considering the fact that almost all of my team are Psychic-type…" Richard pointed his fingers down towards Victor and Uri which used their psychic powers to help both him and Eileen to land down safely. "And Eileen is an Alolan Pikachu which turns into a Psychic/Electric-type after evolution… I may just run full Psychic-type, I guess?"

"Huh!" Casey dropped to the ground and immediately picked up his Charmeleon, who snuggled into him happily. "Never thought about goin' with only one type. Obviously," he laughed, clearly at himself. "It'll be hard if you run into other specialty trainers that's good against Psychic. But if you're at it, guess you could pick up a Girafarig. They're Psychic and they can't get hurt by Ghosts, so that's one thing you'd get a leg up on."

"Well, I think I'll pass on that… I mean there's got to be much cooler Pokemon than you know, a Girafarig… Yeah… I mean that's the reason I won't catch one… Also doesn't it sound kind of cool to overcome the odds with a weakness where a mere sight of you literally screams Psychic-type? I kinda like it, really… But I don't know, nothing is set in stone yet. I mean my pick is literally just a coincidence, they wouldn't want to leave me for all sorts of reasons so I guess—" Richard's word getting cut off as his head was accidentally pushed down by Eileen who climbed his body to nuzzle her nose into the back of his head.

"I'm stuck with them." Richard giggled before showing a bright smile.

Casey grinned back. "Wouldn't have it any other way, would we?" His Charmeleon chirped happily in agreement. Casey's eyes narrowed at Richard for a split second, then he nodded thoughtfully. "Somethin' happened and you're happier," he decided. "Good for you."

"Thanks, honestly I wouldn't imagine myself here talking with you if it wasn't for this journey. It's one hell of a journey, although I'd appreciate fewer near-death experiences than I currently had haha…" Richard laughed while touching the back of his head. "So, I presume you're going to do more sightseeing?"

"Oh, definitely," Casey enthused. "Did you see that butte when we were up in the tree? Looks like there are nests on it, but I dunno what they are yet- wanna come find out with us?"

Richard was definitely considering going, but the word 'nest' itself screamed another screening of live action film 'Law of the Savannah'. Having enough of seeing how nature worked, he smiled. "Eh… I think not… I'm trying to get to the city before dark… So, maybe next time?"

"Sure, man! Call me up whenever- oh, wait, you need my number for that. Uh, it's…" Casey rattled off a string of numbers for Richard to save. "Text me so I get yours, right?"

"Aight, I'll text you later. Take care, Casey!"

"You too!" Casey and his Charmeleon waved as Richard once again headed west toward Vermilion.

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WizardOfOdd · Feb 14, 2021

Richard Wolstenholme
Route 11, May 26^th, Late Afternoon

Chapter 6-9
A Lesson in Life - Part 1

Richard was enjoying his stroll unto Vermillion Town, it's should've been a relaxing last spurt after he ran for quite a bit as a form of exercise after he had to deal with lingering rib injury ever since he had to deal with the exploding Electrode that one time. Alas, just like what had happened before, he was not so fortunate to have a trip without having some sort of problem to deal with at all.

This time, he had to deal with problematic children and their antics. Something that he didn't expect to deal with all on his journey.

"Back off!" One of the kids yelled at him.

"Don't wanna." Richard sternly held his ground.

"I said back off!"

"Yeah!"

"You're boring, old man!"

"Booo!"

Richard couldn't help but feel angry at how these kids treat wild Pokemon. They threw rocks at wild Pokemon that didn't seem to have any intentions to fight back or completely unable to do so.

One of their victims was an Espurr. It was unable to fight back and ended up being beaten badly until she cried loudly. The loud cry itself was what alarmed Richard to its plight.

And Vermillion Town was just like 10 minutes away… He could barely see the town from far away from crying out loud. He wanted to throw his body on the bed as soon as possible, but… Could he leave this poor Pokemon alone, hell no!

"Look I know, you all think this is fun. But really it's not, trust me. You'd have a better time playing in the arcades, or maybe gaming together on a console, or do hide and seek and other outdoor activities. Come on, let's go back! I'll treat you all to some ice cream later!"

But just as Richard passed through them to walk towards the City while cradling the Espurr, one of the kids threw a rock at him. It hit him right on his back.

And so he turned his back, with a menacing look to cause the kids to flinch and almost scrambling to point each other who the culprit was. Richard knew well that he could pass as a delinquent or a thug pretty easily considering his looks, he just never bothered to exude the same aura to cement those assumptions because it would be troublesome.

However, he knew full well that those kids need to understand that messing with Pokemon around here was just not acceptable. Especially to the extent they did with the Espurr.

He looked at the whimpering Espurr with sad eyes before turning his head. He didn't want to put up an expression that he tried to discard a long time ago, but it didn't seem like he had any choice at all in this matter.

"He did it!"

"No, she did it!"

"Shut up, Lenny! I-It was you who told me to throw it!"

"Me!?"

They all argued with each other in an attempt to free themselves from having to face Richard's potential retaliation. However, the boy wasn't having any of it as he approached the kids with a mannerism that showed he was going to give some serious retaliation for what just happened.

"U-uh… Come Lillipup!"

One of the kids sent out a Lillipup to protect him. He then ordered Lillipup to bite Richard, but it seemed that even the small Lillipup was too scared to approach the young man. Especially when he brought out Uri from his Pokeball who glared daggers at the poor Pokemon.

"Useless! Why does my dad even bother to catch you for my birthday gift! Coward!"

"Boo, useless!"

"Yeah!"

The kids' antics caused Richard to approach them even faster.

"I-I'll tell my father if you hit me! Y-you're not going to hit me, right!? Right!?"

"Yeah, me too."

Some of the kids decided to use their parents as leverage to stop Richard from hitting them in the face. Obviously, Richard's intention was just to dissuade them from continuing their reckless action, but it didn't show at all with how ferocious his expression was.

"So? So what?" Richard took his time to continuously wind-up his arm as he approached the kids who kept walking backward in terror. But at the last second, he decided to stop. He had a change of heart, intimidating these kids to follow his wishes sure work for a short-term stopgap, but what if they followed his lead and replicate what he did? It couldn't end up well.

And so his eyes drifted to the area surrounding them, looking for something he thought would work out from his personal experience. And he was apparently very lucky, as the medium for his lesson was something he was used to dealing with.

"You know what, I guess I should stop. Perhaps messing around with Pokemon is fun indeed."

The kids were surprised at the 180-degree turn Richard did, but all of them were happy that they didn't have to deal with Richard's anger all while Uri scratched his head while trying his best to understand what was going on.

But just as the kids thought they were off the hook, Richard grabbed a small rock and threw it just like the kids did earlier. However, this one didn't hit a weak Pokemon as the kids initially expected. It was far from it.

The Pokemon Richard threw a rock against? It was a Bouffalant, and it sure wasn't too happy with the rock being thrown at it.

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WizardOfOdd · Feb 15, 2021

Richard Wolstenholme
Route 11, May 26^th, Late Afternoon

Chapter 6-10
A Lesson in Life - Part 2

The Bouffalant rushed as fast as he could in fury to retaliate against the rock throwing.

But little it knew, that the culprit already moved away from his sight long before it had turned its head.

What was left there were technically innocent bystanders who were looking left and right for the guy in red who was responsible for this. They didn't realize that while their attention was turned against the Bouffalant, he made his escape using Teleport.

And so, the Bouffalant charged against them. And in fear, one of the kids accidentally tripped herself and fell to the ground. But just as she squealed in fear, the Bouffalant was enveloped by pink energy surrounding its body as it struggled to move.

Richard rushed out from the bushes to calm down the poor girl who immediately leaped into Richard's arm while sobbing. Thankfully he had already sprayed a Potion to heal the Espurr's wounds enough so it was able to stand on its own, so it didn't get squished between him and the girl that was crying. Her friends immediately went to her as they saw the raging Bouffalant was unable to move anymore.

"Hey! What are you trying to pull!?"

"Yeah!"

The other kids went to their friend's aid as they rallied against Richard.

"Did you guys finally realize what would happen if you kept doing those rock throws?"

Richard's words silenced all of them.

"Sure you guys are lucky that this Espurr was unable to retaliate, but what if you threw rocks against an Espurr that could? Sure it looks cute, but if you choose the wrong one to anger they could bash you into a tree in seconds. Even Pokemon as cute as Dedenne could cause severe injury if you're not being careful."

The children hung their heads in shame.

"B-but, but…"

"Hey listen, I know it's probably fun doing those things. But does any of you like getting thrown by rocks?"

"N-no."

"Then why did you do that? I know this is weird coming from a stranger, but you shouldn't do things that you know other people would hate. Because trust me, they would do that back to you, and sometimes it would be even worse than what you had put them through. So, it's better to try and do something that would make everyone else smile. Because that way, they will at least also try to make you all smile."
"Sorry…"

"Well with that settled, is there anything you guys want to say to the Espurr?"

"Sorry Espurr, we won't do it again."

They all said their apology to the wounded Espurr, while Richard… He had to deal with the apology to the victim of his demonstration. Uri who was anchoring the Bouffalant's movement with Victor, made a 'go quickly' gesture because continuously holding Bouffalant on its tracks was even taxing than both of them expected.

Richard approached the angry Bash Buffalo Pokemon with a soft brush and treats on his other hand. He was well acquaintanced with handling Bouffalant and Tauros back at Mr. Tarkus' farm. It was a pain-staking job that required a lot of energy, at one point he even felt that it was even worse than the boxing drills that he did, and even that was exhausting.

The experience he had while working as a farmhand there made him appreciate how hard farm work was. Even if it's just during his vacation time from the Academy, he thought that working there was fun and something to look upon. Especially since it paid well and the fact that Mr. Tarkus was willing to give him a place to stay during vacation time helped his decision to work there.

Now he couldn't feel happier, as his decision to do so helped him in dealing with this scenario.

The Bouffalant slowly warmed up to Richard as it enjoyed its hair being gently stroked with the brush while eating the treats that the young trainer had prepared for it.

"Um… Can I try too?"

"Sure you can." Richard gave the brush to one of the kids who were curious about the Bouffalant.

It was awkwardly done, but Richard could easily see the care the young boy tried to put in brushing Bouffalant's hair.

The rest of the kids were hesitant but all three of them eventually followed suit as Richard encouraged them to pet the Bouffalant. The said Pokemon eventually mooed in joy as it felt great being petted by the kids.

Eventually, the sun went even lower on the horizon and the group had to say goodbye to the wild Bouffalant.

"Hey, mister. Can I ask you something?" The kid with the Lillipup asked Richard.

"Of course. Ask away."

"Can I be that close with Lillipup too?"

"Of course, as long as you give it your all I'm sure you can do it. But you have to remember that they have feelings too, same as you they would feel sad if they are being scolded continuously, so you have to give a lot of love to them, alright?"

The kid nodded happily as he cradled his Lillipup.

"Mister, can I ask you a question too?"

"Sure - sure, what do you want to ask?"

"Are you not famous? I watched TV almost all the time with my mother, but I never saw you, Mister."

"O-of course, I'm not… But I promise, one day. I'll appear on the TV so much, that you all would feel sick looking at me, you can count on that!" Richard confidently answered the young girl's question.

"Eh? But isn't that a bad thing?"

"Uh...Umm… You know what? Since you all are being good kids, I'll treat you all to ice cream anyway, how about that? Who wants some ice cream?"

"Me! Me!" The kids raised their hands frantically to grab Richard's attention.

"Alright! Alright! There's plenty of ice cream to be had by all of us, so let's get going quickly!"

The group went back to Vermilion City with a cheerful expression, not knowing that there was an unknown person watching them walking back towards there.

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Aquacorde · Feb 15, 2021

Casey Holt & Arianne Chandler

Sunday, May 26, 2019 // Afternoon, Day 7
Route 11 // Northeast

7-05. a girl with the best intentions

Spoiler: something that i want - grace potter

The path to the butte isn't as straightforward as he would like it to be, considering Casey's conscientious decision to choose only clear trails. He's really trying not to start any more fires. But he doesn't want to put Pepper away, not when the Charmeleon needs this kind of attention. So much attention to the point where Casey is holding his hand as they walk, because Pepper kept whining after Casey couldn't carry him anymore.

It's a little worrying, actually. He hopes this is a phase that will resolve itself with time.

At least one of his Pokémon needs less attention at the moment- Ginger seems to have tired herself out with her skating practise and is dozing on Parsley's back alongside the Phanpy, though the latter is holding on tight to mitigate the Skiddo's stopping and starting as he experimentally bites every interesting plant in sight. At least he's staying close enough that Casey can keep an eye on what he's eating, lest it be another Cacnea. But when an inevitable cry indicates he's bit something living, it turns out not to be a Cacnea's distressed squeaking that comes from Parsley's mouth.

"Baby boy!" Casey admonishes, and Parsley's head whips around, something squeaking and wiggling inside his mouth. At the same time, more squeaking is heard, this time coming from a human voice.

"Aaah! Lulu… Hang in there, I'll save you!" The voice quickly drops in intensity, though. "Oh, it's you."

"Parsley, drop it!" Casey scolds, and the little puffs of spores dissipate as the Skiddo spits out a Morelull. Casey's footsteps falter and his grip tightens on Pepper's hand as he hangs back, glancing past the duo to see who the horrifying little mushroom belongs to.

"Oh, Arianne," he says vaguely. "Uh, do you mind putting that one away? It's, uh, I don't want Parsley to try that again…"

He doesn't actually think Parsley would. It's more about spores, paralysis, helplessness...

"O-oh? Hi Casey!" The girl smiles. "Hm, I would do that but I'd like Lulu to recover some more energy first. Look!"

She pulls out a berry from her backpack and calls out the mushroom's name. Once she gets back up on her root, she bounces towards it and sits on top of the berry, absorbing all of its nutrients. The berry turns wrinkled and unappetizing as the Morelull gives her trainer a gentle nudge. Arianne smiles back.

Casey represses a shudder.

"See, I was just resting for a bit with my Pokémon… having a little snack after a battle we had." Arianne explains, her hand in her hair. Closest to her stands her Wartortle, who's happily munching on some berries and is smiling at the Blitzle right next to him. Further away, the Bagon he'd met before is sitting on a rock by himself, and a small Pichu is running around happily.

"It's not gonna recover energy by gettin' its head bit off," Casey grouses, but shakes his head at himself immediately. He'll deal with it. He has to deal with it! Just like Ghosts. Besides, he has Pepper's fire and Ginger's ice and Parsley's spore immunity. The only reason they'd been a problem back in Rock Tunnel was because there'd been a lot of them. And the Parasect had downed him first. It's fine! He'll be fine.

He'll just keep his distance anyway.

"You fight this Blitzle?" he asks, as Parsley trots up to said Pokémon to lick it. Static electricity zings along his tongue and he lets it loll. Weirdo.

"I… well." Arianne grabs the mushroom and lulls her in her arms for a bit. "I'll call her back, alright. As for the Blitzle…"

The Morelull is sent back into her PokéBall as her trainer looks over to the Electric type, who seems quite at ease with Parsley already. "It's a long story actually. I helped it out against two Mandibuzz who, I suppose, were trying to hunt it down, and together, we made it!"

"Mandibuzz, huh?" Casey casts his gaze out to the butte he's been aiming for. Dark shapes circle around the formation and, not for the first time today, he wishes he had a pair of binoculars. "They come from that way?"

"Uh… probably? Maybe that is where they have their nest. Not a good idea to go there though, they seem to shrug off most attacks like nothing!"

Bagon groans in the distance.

"What's wrong with that guy?"

"Wrong? He's just trying to look tough, I think." Arianne lets out a nervous chuckle.

"Well, if he wants to be tough, why not go after another tough Pokémon?" Casey raises his voice just enough to make sure the Bagon can hear. Maybe if he convinces the Bagon to go, Arianne will hang out with him as they walk? Human company is nice. "Between all of our Pokémon, we could take on a Mandibuzz or three if we had to."

But Arianne isn't having it. "Well, I couldn't beat them in any way. If I succeeded, it's actually all thanks to Blitzle... and Alice!" Arianne points at the Pichu proudly. "Let's say I've had a bunch of unconventional battles lately."

"Oh and… Bagon? I'm afraid he'd just get in trouble." Arianne shrugs. "At least he has some flashy moves though!"

Casey cocks his head. "Have you not been trainin' him?"

"Well…" Arianne looks down to the ground, her voice growing unsteady. "Not that much. I often keep my Pokémon in their Pokéballs if I don't need them to fight…"

Award for weirdest thing he's heard today goes to: that.

"That's- I mean-" Casey flounders for words momentarily, and settles on: "I couldn't get away with that. Look at this!" He laughs as he jiggles the hand holding Pepper's. "This guy needs so much love. If he was in a ball all day there's no way he'd be gettin' what he needs. And I bet he'd be sad about it, and not happy about followin' someone who ain't givin' him what he needs. Same with the other two, kinda."

"Besides," he adds, almost as an afterthought because it's been a few hours since they'd actually done anything, "havin' them out lets ya take any and every opportunity to exercise. You can run with 'em, have them practise moves, let them explore- it's all good for them, right?"

"W-well… you…" Arianne looks just like a kid who's been scolded. Was he harsh? He doesn't think he was harsh. Just observational. "Yeah… it's a lot of work b-but…" She looks at Lulu's Pokéball, which she still holds in her hand. "Some of them are too slow aren't they? Ugh…"

"That one? Just carry it, it's tiny." Casey shrugs. Not that he wants her to at this very moment, but the solution is obvious. "Look, you don't gotta have them all out all the time. 'Specially since you got a lot of 'em. But the most important thing is bonding, right? That's what all the teachers told us all the time. And you can't bond without spendin' time with 'em."

"You… you talk too much!" Arianne pouts, but soon goes back to a smile as Casey sticks out his tongue playfully. "But you're right, so… it's okay. Actually!"

Arianne looks at Blitzle with sparkling eyes. "I've actually not caught that one yet. It just followed me here. So… what do you say if we walk towards Vermilion together for a bit? With Blitzle out of any Pokéball."

Casey hums thoughtfully. "I mean, I was gonna go out to the butte, but if it's a Mandibuzz nest and that's all… I s'pose I could keep on west with ya for a while."

He waits for Arianne to gather her things and put away most of her Pokémon. Ginger wakes up, finally, annoyed by the static generated by Parsley brushing up against Blitzle. She demands the Skiddo throw her over to Casey- alerting him this time, thankfully- and takes up her place on his collar. The Phanpy doesn't seem to mind their new friend, and actually-

"I haven't caught that one yet either," he informs Arianne. "Haven't decided if four is gonna be too much. How's workin' with… however many you have? Five? Six?"

"Six…" Arianne chuckles. "Well it's fun, they all have different techniques and moves! Makes it more interesting, I think."

"Seven with it, oopsies!" She points towards Blitzle, who responds with a neigh.

"More interesting, but more work, right?" Arianne stands and stretches, and before she can answer, he's distracted by something else. What he'd assumed were shadows across her right arm don't change shape when the light hits them properly- they look more like bruises, wrapping in a ribbon-like pattern up and around her forearm. "Hey, what happened to your arm?" There's no way it's a birthmark or anything, he'd have noticed it at school. So what…?

"More work ind- uh? Oh, this?" Arianne seems surprised herself. "Thought it'd go away already. You probably don't wanna know though, that's a shame…" She smiles at Casey.

Well, that just serves to make him more curious. "No, c'mon, I wanna know," he pouts as they set off in a vaguely westerly direction.

"Well! Yesterday evening, at the ruins. I… had almost lost a fight against this vicious Huntail-looking-thingy and I just held in my hand that Pokémon you don't like. And we even beat it, but it got me feeling dizzy after that."

Arianne touches her mark. "Guess this is the result."

She was right to think he didn't want to know. But now he knows. And has been reminded that she's got that Honedge with her. Sweat breaks out across his neck that has nothing to do with the heat. A Honedge that apparently takes control of people to win fights and makes them do its bidding and-

And what?

He can think of a million things it could do but not many he knows for sure it would. And he can think of a bunch of Pokémon he'd rather be around, but he's here now. With a Ghost that Arianne seems to be kindly keeping in its PokéBall, and a tiny spore-user lying in wait.

And that's what he has to deal with.

That's not much, really. And Arianne is nice, and respectful, and probably won't pull a fast one on him like Gwen did.

So it's fine.

It has to be.

"So…" Arianne smiles as she walks beside Casey, on the side opposite where Pepper keeps a grip on his hand. Parsley and Blitzle trot ahead, shoulder to shoulder. "What have you been up to after Lavender?"

Casey hums, letting memories flash across his mind. "Lots o' stuff! Met a cool lady called Viveka- she's a filmmaker, doin' a documentary about all those old factories, so Gwen and I- oh, I ran into Gwen, and Flynn, out at his family's house on Route 12! They're fisherpeople, did you know that? I mean, I knew that, cause he talked about it before, but he never said they eat real meat!" It's still fascinating. He wishes he'd spent more time discussing that with Flynn's family, but he'd gotten distracted.

Arianne seems to freeze at the last remark. "Oh wow, so I dodged a bullet…" She scratches her hair. "I could never eat that!"

"Really? What's your take on it?" Clearly not a favorable one, but it's good to understand the nuance of others' perspectives. He's spent his whole life doing it, so why stop now?

"I just… like Pokémon too much to consider them food. If I can avoid it, it's better for both my conscience and for all of those Pokémon that have to survive by eating other Pokémon." Arianne explains, keeping an eye on Blitzle.

Casey nods. It's not an uncommon view at all- pretty much lines right up with Flynn's. But wait-

"Didn't you mess with the food chain, though? That Blitzle was gonna get eaten, right?"

"Oh… maybe…" Arianne lets out a nervous laugh. "There was something about it though. Say, Blitzle…" She turns to the Pokémon trotting nearby. "Did you want to fight, back there?" She's met with what looks like a sign of approval.

What?

"'Course it did. Just 'cause it was gonna be food doesn't mean it's just gonna give in. Pokémon fight for survival no matter what part of the food chain they're in. You'd put up a fight if somethin' tried to eat you, too." Casey huffs. "That's just nature."

"Yes, of course… but there's something that surprised me. Me and the other tourist tried to catch Blitzle with a Pokéball, because it would've been safe in there. But it broke out and kept fighting. And it was just so proud of finally knocking out the Mandibuzz!" Arianne gushes. "Reminds me of someone, you know…"

That's nonsense.

Why would a wild Pokémon trust some random people to keep it safe in a ball? Why would it not keep fighting for its life? That's how most anything would react; there's nothing special about this specific Blitzle. Even it travelling alongside Arianne means nothing but a whim, not yet. It's a little fantastical, to say the least, to prescribe such emotions to a wild Pokémon.

Says the one who assigns dialogue to his Buneary, his brain admonishes.

That's different! I know her!

Casey holds his tongue.

"Reminds you of who?"

Arianne just puts a hand on her chest, and smiles at Casey. Casey blinks.

Yeah, she's in some sort of weird fantasy world.

"Well, finding common ground with your Pokémon is important," he says diplomatically.

Arianne doesn't reply right away. But eventually… "Sure thing. Thinking about it though… I often do that only after catching the Pokémon."

"Same 's most trainers, I think. Well, same as most start out. Seems like as you travel and grow your team you start thinkin' a little harder about what will work. And that means learnin' about Pokémon before you to out and catch 'em." At least, that's what he's heard from many a trainer-oriented podcast. And it's proven true for his own journey, even if he hadn't been thinking of it.

The girl just taps her lips with her fingers. "That's probably true… and this Blitzle I have not caught might be a nice way to test this out! Same for that Phanpy, don't you think?"

"Yeah, 's what I'm doin'. It's a good little one. Kinda timid? Seems to like Parsley though. Its moves aren't very interesting, but that comes with training and maybe a machine or two, right? So I wouldn't be worried about that. It's more about how well it gets along with the rest of 'em, and… how much I can handle, I guess." He's becoming more and more concerned about the various struggles his current three have, but he's not going to expound on those issues to Arianne. Not in front of them. That's rude.

"Hm, I'm sure you can do it! You're a good trainer!" Arianne gives the boy a gentle pat on the shoulder. "But also… guess who also happens to like Parsley." She chuckles as Blitzle keeps nudging the Grass type.

He knows he's a good trainer. Validation is nice, sure, but he knows what he's doing and he knows his reasoning is sound. He's not going to just jump into a new capture. He'd made that decision way back, right after catching Ginger. He never even intended to catch Parsley- that was a full-on accident.

Not that he'd ever change that accident. He loves his curious baby boy, watching him get along with anything he doesn't immediately bite.

He grins.

"They're cute together, huh?"

"Yeah, definitely! That also makes me think…" Arianne grins too, her eyes sparkling. "It must really like our company, right? Blitzle usually travel in herds, but this one…"

"We're its herd for now!" Casey cheers, and Pepper mimics his cheer in his throaty Charmeleon voice. "Phanpy, too!"

The little elephant turns to pinpoint the source of the noise and almost falls off Parsley's back. "Sorry," Casey giggles, and Arianne laughs as well as their ragtag band continues on their way.

[PKMN FULL] TRAINERS (IC)

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