[PKMN FULL] TRAINERS (IC)

WizardOfOdd · Dec 9, 2020

Richard Wolstenholme
Lavender Gym, May 25^th, Morning

Chapter 5 - 12
Unexpected Call

"You're quite forgetful, I don't take you as the type to forget someone you just met yesterday…"

"No, no… Of course I remember you. Miss— I mean Kate."

Of course, Richard wouldn't forget the person in question, after all, she was probably the main reason why he had to pull a few people in desperation for the graveyard exploration yesterday. It's not like he could leave someone harassed by angry drunkards, even if it's just a stranger. She wasn't exactly popular due to her job working under Tomorrow Foundation, and her status as someone who lived most of her life in the town didn't help her case at all.

Kate had insisted on repaying Richard with a meal, which unfortunately turned into a drunken rambling session where Richard had to sit through a long story session while Kate chugged through quite a few liquor bottles at her family tavern. Well, it's not like he disliked it or anything, at least the cookies her uncle gave Richard was the catalyst for Madeline to eventually follow him.

"Hey, I'm not that ungrateful to forget what I've promised to you." Kate giggled through the phone.

Richard finally remembered that Laura had promised him safe passage through the screening process. Although he didn't expect that she would actually help him. It's quite a hassle, and she probably didn't have anything to gain from helping him so he's glad that he was wrong for once.

"Oh yeah, my sister also said hi. She said that she couldn't wait to see your battle."

"Sister? I'm sorry but I couldn't quite follow where this is going…"

"Laura, she's my sister. I was told that you both met at the Pokemon Tower, right?"

Richard was pleasantly surprised at that revelation, he never thought that one of the warden's best friends and one of the higher-ranked staff of the Tomorrow Foundation are siblings.

"Oh, she's your sister? How is she doing?"

"She's doing fine, but perhaps too tired to move after the festival yesterday… Oh yeah, the fact you're here right now means that you'll challenge the gym right now… Oh, shoot!"

Richard wasn't prepared for the ear-piercing noise he would experience shortly after.

"LAURA! HE'S ABOUT TO CHALLENGE THE GYM NOW! YOU BETTER WAKE UP OR YOU'LL MISS HIS MATCH!" Kate screamed so loud that Richard had to move the handpiece away from his ear.

The staff who watched the scene could only shake his head as he felt bad for Richard. But not long after, he shook two of his fingers in a throat-cutting motion, a signal that the young man recognized as a plea to quickly end the conversation.

"Uh, I think it's already my time to prepare my match so… So sorry, I'll have to hang up now."

"NAH, DON'T WORRY ABOUT THAT… I DON'T KNOW WHERE YOUR SOCKS ARE, LAURA! MAYBE YOU PUT THEM IN THE LAUNDRY BIN OR SOMETHING!? JUST BORROW MINE! Oh, sorry… Hey, Richard, can you pass the phone back to Phil, please?"

Richard handed back the phone to the staff, who didn't look too excited getting it back from the young trainer.

"Yes? Oh, yeah… Thanks boss. I'll see you at the office later. Yeah, yeah… Don't worry about me, I'm not the one drinking like a fish."

Phil ended the call just as Kate was about to start to yell once more.

"Hoo boy, if only she would cut her rants and stop throwing temper tantrums, she'll be a grea… Ehm, sorry I went off on a tangent."

Phil quickly pressed several keys on his keyboard, and not even in a minute he handed Richard his trainer card back.

"Okay, I've registered your trainer card for the gym fight, just wait for a bit eh? I'll tell Mr. Tayloz that you're expecting him, just sit on that sofa over there and make sure you're comfortable, okay? Also, try not to mention the Tower Association thing. He's not 'enthusiastic' regarding the topic."

Phil left Richard to sit alone on his own. There was nothing interesting to see in the waiting room. Well, there were few mounted television screens on the wall but all of them were showing Tomorrow Foundation ads, which was not interesting for Richard after he watched it once. He was a bit disappointed that he couldn't change the channel to sports, but it's not like he came here to watch television anyway.

Soon after, Phil came once more with a man Richard assumed to be the gym leader in charge.

"Hi, nice to meet you, Richard. The name's Beaumont, Beaumont Tayloz." The gym leader put out his hand for a handshake.

Richard reciprocated the handshake, but for some reason, he couldn't stay calm when he saw Beaumont's smile. There was something unsettling about it, and he knew it well from his experience dealing with people.

"Are you okay? Considering the bags under your eyes, I'm a bit worried."

"Oh no, no… I'm fine."

"Is that so? Well, let's have a great battle, shall we?" Said the gym leader while maintaining his friendly expression.

There was no time for Richard to contemplate trivial things like the leader's smile, he came here to win and that's that. Nothing more, nothing less. With that in mind, he was ready to face the first real gauntlet on his road to greatness.

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WizardOfOdd · Dec 10, 2020

Richard Wolstenholme
Lavender Gym, May 25^th, Morning

Chapter 5 - 13
Sparks of The Future - Part 1

"So, I assume you don't have any objections regarding the rule?"

Richard slowly nodded. There was nothing strange about the rules Beaumont explained to him.

"Haha, I'm glad. Then shall we begin?"

There were only three Pokemon available to use for Richard, so it wasn't a huge deliberation regarding which of the three Pokemon he'll bring to the battle. At least not until he could fix Maddie's natural disposition to sleep during the day.

He made his choice in a short time and decided to test the waters with Eileen. The question now was which of the Beaumont's Pokemon will enter to counter Eileen.

"Hmm, Heliolisk I choose you!"

A Heliolisk eh, let's see what it can do.

"Eileen, Thunderbolt!"

A bolt of lightning rained down on the frilled lizard, only to be dispelled as quickly as it hit. The Heliolisk even tilted its head in confusion as to why the Mouse Pokemon decided to use such a weak move.

"You do realize that electric-type move is not effective against Pokemon with the same type, right?"

"Yes, I understand it well!" Richard yelled in irritation. It's not like he had a lot of moves to use against Beaumont's Heliolisk. The patronizing tone Beaumont used didn't help a lot with his sleep-deprived state either.

What did he want me to do? Use Earthquake or something? It's not like I have a lot of choice in this match up. Darn, it seemed to me there's only one tactic applicable here…

"Eileen, We're using the same tactics we used against Rhydon! Now, Quick Attack!"

"Oh, I'm curious to see what kind of tactics that is. Heliolisk, counter with Slam!"

The Mouse Pokemon ran as fast as her tiny limbs carried her as she dashed her way to the Generator Pokemon, but the Heliolisk was already waiting there with its tail glowing white in preparation to swat away the tiny Pikachu.

"Feint!"

Eileen jumped backward just outside of the tail's range which opened a window of opportunity for the Pikachu to strike. She didn't waste the opening and struck at the Heliolisk's hind leg as hard as she could, but it only caused the said Pokemon to stumble for a bit.

"Wow! What a great strategy. I'm sure it'll bore some fruits soon." Beaumont applauded Richard with the smile ever-present in his face, or so it seemed if Richard was actually oblivious.

The young man gritted his teeth as a response to the 'compliment'.

He really didn't enjoy Beaumont's attitude, It was one thing to let a resisted attack hit, but it's another to let an attack you can easily dodge to hit. Maybe Beaumont thought he wouldn't realize, but his Heliolisk showed no distress at all even when it was countered which was a red flag all in itself. Not to mention the fake smile and the forced enthusiasm that oozed so badly from the gym leader. It really made him feel nauseous to see Eileen being toyed like that.

Richard then ordered several successful assaults against the Generator Pokemon, which all hit the mark perfectly without fail.

However, none of them made significant damage even when it's all focused on the legs, cementing Richard's assumption of Eileen being toyed with. The frustration and anger were already reaching a high point at that moment while Beaumont's smile was getting even wider and wider, almost sealing the fate of the battle.

"Come on Richard, you can do it!"

A familiar voice could be heard from the stands. Apparently, Laura was already sitting down there, it was a much-needed support boost for Richard. He could finally rein in his emotions—

"Hmm… I'm surprised you still have time to look towards the stands. Do you feel sick? You can just resign if you want to."

Or not.

On paper, Beaumont looked like someone who cares for his health, but Richard felt that there was a higher chance of jumping into a ravine and actually surviving than the comment being an actual show of concern by the gym leader.

"Hell no! And I doubt you actually care about that." Richard sharply refuted Beaumont's attempt to appear as a good guy.

"I'm not lying, I mean if you're healthy you wouldn't make a reckless decision like what you've done earlier… Or the entire battle...

Both Pokemon in the field were busy fighting each other as Eileen kept landing shots that Heliolisk easily shrugged off. But both of the trainers involved were silent at that moment, for different reasons.

"Don't fall in his mind games, Richard! He's just trying to get into your head! You've almost beaten Jarmie last time, you can beat him now!" Laura yelled at Richard to deter Beaumont from breaking his spirit.

Without losing a beat, Beaumont turned his sight towards the only bystander watching. "Do you really think you'll be able to beat me just based on that? She's an illegitimate gym leader… Both her position… And her capabilities."

"YOU!" Laura stood up in anger before Beaumont smiled towards the only spectator on the stands, he then made a shutting up gesture with his finger, of course without losing his nauseating smile. It caused Laura to reluctantly sit down on her seat once more.

At this point, Richard started to remember one of the conversations he made with one of the locals. Something was not right, the staff at the Pokemon Center said that Beaumont was not the type to talk much and focus on the battle. The guy in front of him wasn't that at all… Maybe there's a reason why… Who was he kidding, it took him only a moment before he remembered what could've triggered the shift in attitude.

He must have known about me signing the petition somehow…

Instead of Richard sighed a sense of relief. Maybe he wasn't the only one fuming at the moment, the fact helped him to regain some of his confidence. He took a deep breath before deciding on his next action.

"Come back, Eileen!"

"Oh, you're changing your Pokemon? What happened to the strategy you've planned? I guess it didn't work out, huh?"

"You sure talk a lot for someone who couldn't land a proper hit." Richard taunted Beaumont back, even if he knew it's actually not the case. At least it helped him to blow off some steam.

"The look in your eyes changed, huh... Interesting." Beaumont's expression took a turn as the fake smile started to fade away, replaced with a more composed look.

"It's time to get serious."

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WizardOfOdd · Dec 10, 2020

Richard Wolstenholme
Lavender Gym, May 25^th, Morning

Chapter 5 - 14
Sparks of The Future - Part 2

The battle raged on, as Uri brought the high firepower Richard desperately needed in the match against Beaumont's Heliolisk, but even with the presence of his trump card on the battlefield—

"Uri, Confusion!"

"Razor Wind!"

It couldn't tip the scale of the battle. Both attacks clashed with each other creating a small blast. Unlike what the blast indicated, it was not an exciting match at all.

After Uri entered the match to replace Eileen, Beaumont started to use more powerful moves from his Pokemon's arsenal, but it was used rather sparingly only to stop every single attempt of offense from Richard.

If this was a football match, the crowd would've been throwing drinks and pennies towards the players while screaming for a refund. That was how boring the situation had been.

"Come on Richard, you can find a way out of this!" Laura kept yelling encouragement to Richard from the stands. Even with the bleak outlook, she didn't lose any steam at all.

"If you really want to obtain a great review then show me your worth."

Argh, brute force won't cut it. I have to force him to play my way.

"Uri, Disable!"

Uri's eyes turned blue, as the same colored light bathed the Generator Pokemon. Cutting her off from her ability to use the move Razor Wind.

"Ah, finally… Let's go, Heliolisk. Thundershock!"

"Dodge! Ice Beam!"

Uri who was using his psychic powers to levitate above the ground managed to glide away from the multitudes of lightning bolts shot by the generator Pokemon. All while he created a blue orb of frost energy which shot out lightning bolts of its own.

Heliolisk jumped to dodge the attack but while it didn't hit him, the lightning still hit all over the battlefield, causing several icicles to emerge and coating portions of the room with ice.

"Ice Beam? Interesting, I didn't realize Kadabra has the capability to use Ice Beam… Well, I can't wait to see what you have in your sleeve to beat Heliolisk.

"Ice Beam, again!"

"Dodge! Mud Slap!"

Heliolisk ran sideways to avoid the beam, but as soon as she looked left and right the Generator Pokemon realized that the room for her to run was getting even smaller and smaller by every single Ice Beam the Psi Pokemon used. While the Mud Slap only managed to break a nearby icicle due to how easy it is for Uri to use one as a cover.

"You actually have Mud Slap!? Why didn't you use it earlier against my Pikachu!?" Richard yelled in frustration.

"Just be grateful I had a change of heart. You far surpassed my expectations. I didn't realize what you were trying to do before it's too late. But this is where it all end, Mud Slap!"

At that moment Richard knew that Beaumont was finally showing his full capability, but it was all too late. His plan was already in motion.

"Dodge and get close, Uri!"

The Psi Pokemon pushed itself from harm's way before it gilded quickly at a straight line, causing the Heliolisk to smile when she saw a perfect opening for her to strike.

"Finish him off! Slash!"

Heliolisk whipped up her tail as fast as she could, in one powerful motion she managed to swat down the Kadabra, or so she thought. She didn't realize that the slippery ice below her didn't help with her balance. The lack of friction caused her to fall to the ground. Making her a sitting duck for Uri who was unimpeded by the aid of his levitation.

"Night Shade, right leg!" Uri conjured another orb between both of his hands, this time it had an ominous purple hue to it. Two powerful rays leaped from the orb, mercilessly blasting the kneecap of Heliolisk's right limb. Causing her who was trying to stand up to fall face-first on the ice-covered floor.

"Thunder Shock! "Heliolisk emitted a powerful discharge of electricity in defiance of Uri who was levitating in front of him. To its surprise, the attack was met head-on by the Psi Pokemon. It didn't last long, however, as the shock quickly turned to horror as she realized that Uri was already conjuring another purple orb.

There was no time to react properly against the attack and as a result, the right leg of the Generator Pokemon was blasted with a powerful ray once more, forcing the Thunder Shock to stop due to sheer pain the Heliolisk experienced on its leg.

Realizing it was futile to continue the battle using Heliolisk, Beaumont sighed before calling back his Heliolisk using her Pokeball.

"My Heliolisk will forfeit the match." Declared Beaumont with a smile that actually looked sincere.

Richard nodded before he grinned widely towards the proud Uri in front of him. One down, two more to go.

"Woo! Good job Richard! Wipe the floor with him!" Laura at the stands clapped loudly with enthusiasm.

Richard tried his best to stop himself from grinning widely, but beating a gym leader's Pokemon without losing any Pokemon beforehand was an exhilarating feeling that he couldn't hide his expression at all.

Beaumont clapped his hands in acknowledgment. "You raised your Kadabra well, I didn't expect a Pokemon that is not known for its defense to tank the hit so it can retaliate. I guess you do have the potential. However, do you have what it takes to win against me? Or will that jubilation you have right now disappear in a flash? Let's find that out, shall we?"

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WizardOfOdd · Dec 11, 2020

Richard Wolstenholme
Lavender Gym, May 25^th, Morning

Chapter 5 - 15
Sparks of The Future - Part 3

Richard and Uri were riding high on the momentum their team earned after beating Beaumont's Heliolisk. They felt that momentum was on their side so much that they were going to win without much trouble. They were wrong.

"What's wrong, Richard? Don't tell me it's all you got. Quick Attack!"

"Night Shade!"

Beaumont's Emolga easily dodged the dark purple beam with her sheer speed. Once more, it outmaneuvered Uri by utilizing her surrounding icicles for cover.

It had been quite a rough time for Richard and Uri. Ever since Emolga entered the battle the tide had completely tipped to Beaumont's favor. Thanks to Emolga's power and her trainer's sharp wit, Uri was at the end of a few attacks landed by the Sky Squirrel Pokemon without able to retaliate even once.

"Pursuit!"

Emolga appeared from behind Uri, sending the unsuspecting Psi Pokemon flying towards a nearby icicle.

"Ice Beam!"

The frigid bolts that were conjured by the Psi Pokemon were unable to reach the intended target, as the white rodent Pokemon protected herself from it with the help of the giant icicles protruding from the floor.

The beam became a double-edged sword for the Psi Pokemon. On one hand, it was one of the most devastating moves in his arsenal, not to mention the type advantage it had to bring down the nimble Emolga.

But on the other hand, it created more places for the Emolga to hide and mount offense without needing to care about retaliation. It was a huge dilemma for Richard who was grasping at straws on how to maintain his advantage.

Laura who was still watching from the bench couldn't help but sit silently while clenching her fist because of how one-sided the beatdown was.

Uri was doing all it could to snuff out the hiding Pokemon by blasting the icicles one by one with what remained of his energy, but alas the Emolga was crafty enough to know where to hide properly.

"Double Team! Follow with Pursuit!"

The Emolga leaped once more from behind one of the icicle towards Uri, the illusion from the Double Team by Emolga made it look like there were five Pokemon pouncing at the Kadabra all at once.
Uri tried to blast the Pokemon off, but the clones were too fast for him to completely swat down and not long he was sent flying once more. While the Emolga perched calmly on the icicle in front of it.

Uri just barely managed to pull himself up with his psychic power, but no matter how much tenacity he had. He couldn't stop himself from shaking due to the injuries it had sustained. It was hardly in a condition to continue being outside of his Pokeball, let alone battling

Knowing that fact, Richard quickly pressed the button on Uri's Pokeball all in an effort to prevent him from taking more damage than necessary. But as the red light from the ball enveloped the Psi Pokemon, the light was suddenly cut off from the ball.

"Uri? Why!? Stop this madness! Now!" Richard tried his best to convince his Pokemon to stop risking his body and continued to press the button in the Pokeball to no avail. "Why won't you listen…"

Uri looked back at his trainer with a reassuring smile while raising his thumb, even when he barely able to stop shaking. A familiar gesture that Richard knew too well. After all, it was what he used to do when he tried to look strong in front of Uri during the hardest days of his youth.

But all it did was adding more fuel to the grief Richard felt. Richard moved his gaze away from Uri while biting his lips in pain. Uri was a smart Pokemon. It wouldn't surprise Richard that Uri knew how important this journey was to him, especially when he was always there during the hard times he experienced.

"...Let's end this, Double Team!" Beaumont who couldn't stop taunting Richard earlier didn't show a hint of a smile at all. Perhaps he too wanted to end the Kadabra's struggle before the Psi Pokemon went too far.

The Emolga launched herself towards Uri at full speed, alongside several of her mirages in an attempt to overwhelm the Psi Pokemon.

Richard bit his lips in horror. He wished that Emolga would just hit her strongest move so that Uri wouldn't have to spend more time to suffer at the battlefield… But it would be disrespectful to all the sacrifice Uri had done to make it that far. With a heavy heart, he finally decided that if Uri wanted to go out fighting. Then he would do his best to support him, that's the least thing he could do as Uri's trainer.

Richard put it all on one move. A move that he never used before. A move that he only knew the name of. A move that might cost him his first gym battle. His brain screamed not to risk it, yet he would still use the move no matter what. If he could honor the wish of his best friend, then that's enough for him.

"Miracle Eye!"

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Aquacorde · Dec 14, 2020

Casey Holt & Noel Yukino

Saturday, May 25, 2019 // Evening, Day 6
Route 12 // East Kanto Research Station

6-11. nothing lasts forever // only fades away

Spoiler: music

Arthur gives Casey a quick overview of the kitchen while Viveka swipes fresh pastries, then shoos them both out so he can continue his baking. Viveka heads back to her own room, probably to plan her approach to the factory, but Casey drifts into the adjoining lounge area. Even though he's starting to feel his energy draining, he'd still like to see who's around. He knows he's basically on the same schedule as quite a few of his classmates, so the chances of others staying here besides himself and Gwen are high.

He'd expected to see more people than just Noel.

Not that he's unhappy to see her; she's always a treat to hang out with. He'd just expected more people.

As he walks in, Noel is wandering about the far side of the room, near a pair of sliding glass doors, perhaps basking in the location to be inspired for her next entertainment routines. Or whatever she does. She spots Casey after she discovers him waving lazily at her. "Oh? My, my, Salutations!"

"Evenin'," Casey greets, far more casually, and claims a bulky armchair for himself. Parsley lays down beside it, while Pepper and Ginger crawl into his lap. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Me?" Noel replies with a cheerful smile. "I go wherever fate has guided me. Like the wind, breezing through the heavy clouds… or like blossoms, in a storm. This place interests me - fills me with energy. And you?"

Typical Noel answer, really. Casey grins. It's nice to know her usual approach is working out for her. "Relaxin'. All my energy is gone by this time of night. How's Luna doin'?"

"A good question… oh Luna! Luna-dear?!" Noel cries out, but with no response. Seemingly confused, she then takes off the hat she was wearing, giving it to Casey, who accepts it without question. "Ah, sorry, hold this for a second? She couldn't get too far… Luna? Luuuunaaaa?"

The hat she handed to Casey starts to oddly shake in his hands, until a few moments later - Noel's Clefairy pops out from underneath, falling onto Pepper and flashing her trademark blowing of a kiss. "Ahhh, sweet Luna!" Noel greets, as Luna leaps off Casey's lap, climbing on Noel's shoulder with her hat. Noel gave her a friendly nuzzle. "She's the perfect partner, as always!"

"Perfect for you," Casey agrees, patting Pepper where Luna had landed. "It's kinda neat that we both got Pokémon that match us so well to start with."

"True indeed," Noel replies. "Speaking of which, how fares your partner?"

"He's good, he's good. Aren't you?" Casey cooes at Pepper, who just nuzzles into him sleepily. "He's been a little moodier since he evolved, but not too much. Not like you usually hear about Charmeleon. Guess I'm lucky." A flash of memory and Jordan's voice echoes in his head. "Luna'd need a Moon Stone to evolve, right?"

"That's right, but…" Noel responds, petting Luna. "Only if that's what Luna wants."

Casey hums. "I s'pose there are Pokémon that wanna stay how they are 'til they're good and ready. Kinda wonder if these three are like that." He glances across his gathered team. "It wouldn't be so bad if they all stayed this size, I guess. Once they evolve they'll all be pretty big, an' when they're big they can't always hang out with me." And that would get lonely, he doesn't say. He likes having them out, even if they aren't conversationalists. They're still fun to experience new things with. Pepper wouldn't have gotten sized for tanbō in that little shop as a Charizard. Parsley won't be able to wander through busy city streets as a big Gogoat. He won't be able to have Ginger perched in his collar as a Lopunny.

Things inevitably change. Everything changes. Time progresses, people move on, Pokémon grow up.

But for once in his life… Casey feels like maybe they shouldn't.

He shakes his head, and re-focuses what little energy he has on Noel. "Has Luna thought about it?"

Luna and Noel both exchange glances. "She… We actually hadn't," is Noel's soft reply, as Luna gave her a confused, awkward look. "Hm… change. Change is necessary sometimes I think. That's why I… erm, nevermind. Anyway, we have loads of time to figure that out, right? All that matters is what we can do with our current selves now."

"Yeah." Casey chuckles. He forgets sometimes that Noel is a very live-in-the-moment being. Same as he is, under all that showmanship. "So what is it that y'all can do right now? Any cool new moves?"

"Hah! Any cool new moves he asks me…" Noel says playfully. "We have magic that transcends humanity itself… our feats within Lavender are only the tip of the iceberg! That being said, we aaaaare looking to evolve our ever growing skills! Luna, the powers of the cosmos, Amethyst the power of the every crystals within the earth… soon we shall discover our true power of… infinity. I hope you are looking to improve yourself as well!"

"Ooh, is that a challenge?" God, he knows it's late, and he's already tired, and he's just battled Gwen, but- he likes Noel, and he's always interested to see what she's come up with. And it's exciting to see how others are progressing. And important to know if he's behind. He's still worried about that, even knowing that Arianne and Ralph both lost to Beaumont. It still doesn't change that Vera and Bruno had won…

"A showcase of Luna's powers, hm?" Noel considers the idea. "But… upon a place such as this?"

"No," interrupts Arthur's quiet but firm voice, followed by the man himself. He dusts his hands on a towel and gestures to the sliding doors leading outside. "That patio is small but covered. It should suffice for a simple demonstration. Take care not to destroy anything."

"I see! Very well then, we'll accept!" Noel responds, as Luna eagerly nods. Casey gives Pepper a shove and the Charmeleon grumbles.

"C'mon, we're not gonna be rained on this time." Pepper perks up. Casey wonders how much of his moodiness in the gloomy weather is his own, as a Fire-type, and how much is actually Pepper copying Viveka.

Instead of hopping off of Casey's lap when Pepper does, Ginger brazenly pulls up Casey's shirt and climbs under. He takes that, as well as Parsley's reluctance to move from where he's flopped next to Casey's chair, as refusals to battle. It is late, he concedes, especially for a Grass-type that photosynthesizes and hasn't seen much sun today. "Fine. Just Pepper, then."

Ginger wriggles her way onto his shoulder, still inside his shirt, as Pepper scampers to the door and slides it open, bowing to Luna and Noel and ushering them through.

"Star guardian Luna, is up and ready!" Noel announces, with Luna blowing a kiss.

Casey hands Pepper his tanbō as they take their place across from Noel, taking care not to step out from the shelter. The patio is lit by only a single bulb above and Pepper's own tail, but that's plenty of light for the small space. "Alright!" Casey says, and Pepper cheers. "Show us whatcha do!"

"Let's focus on raising our stats first," Noel says softly, and Luna nods. "Use Defense Curl!" Her Clefairy huddles quickly into a ball, raising her overall defense. Like Ginger, before she decided to forgo such techniques. Though this strategy is a bit out of the norm for Noel, Casey thinks. Noel's usually the type to jump right into the show. Maybe today it's up to him to coax that out of her, for whatever reason.

"Y'know what? Let's try somethin'." Pepper glances at Casey curiously. "Do Ember, but slowly- make them float over to Luna."

Pepper obliges, to the best of his ability. It's not something that can be controlled so well, not like Will-o-Wisp, but four little flames can glide lazily toward Luna, two on each side, casting flickering shadows around her feet. Showmanship it certainly is not, but it's different. It's interesting to look at. And not something Noel expects. Luna watches carefully as the flames flicker towards her, albeit a bit more slowly than what she is used to dealing with. All four strike her, gently but still singeing- she's quickly able to shake it off, which is fine. Damage isn't his point at the moment.

"Ohoho! Not too bad," Noel compliments. "But behold! The surface of Luna's powers… Copycat!"

Luna's body glows a bright red and her eyes a darker red. She then jumps right up, furiously releasing a stream of spit fire into the air, and in greater numbers towards her opponent. That's more like it! Pepper matches some of the Embers with his own, though he takes a few hits without much complaint.

"Smokescreen!" Casey calls, wondering if Noel will choose to copy that as black haze fills the space.

"We can use this," Noel says to Luna. "Alllright, ready! Time for your other powers!" Luna unleashes her Copycat skill once more, this time wrapping herself with the black haze of the Smokescreen. But this Smokescreen is a lot less potent than Pepper's and dissipates quickly- but by then, Luna vanishes.

"Ooh!" Casey applauds briefly. He doesn't see Luna anywhere at all, but- "Pepper, be ready to block!"

"We learned this lil' number from fighting the Gym Leader…. Ready Luna?! Time to reappear!" With Noel's order, Luna pops right back out from the ground as she uses this chance to maneuver herself right behind Pepper, to grab on his tail. "That was Luna's other skill - the power of making her body smaller! Not too shabby, huuuh?"

Minimize, then, probably. Interesting use of it. "Not at all! But we learned stuff, too- Pepper, spin!"

Pepper does, sweeping his tail in mimicry of Beaumont's Heliolisk, dragging Luna along until she is forced to let go, but the Clefairy manages to rebalance herself with a handstand, and then pushes herself up to land back on her feet. "Don't underestimate an actress!" Noel announces. "Time to keep up the pressure… go on and show off your feat of strength that is blessed by the cosmos… Doubleslap!" Luna runs up, raising her right hands together, preparing for attacks.

"Staff Rush!" is Casey's choice of counter, meeting Luna stick for slap.

"Whoa…" Noel's amazement is satisfying. "What is this… 'Staff Rush' technique?"

"Palm said it's actually like Bone Rush, but Charmeleon don't normally know that! An' since Pepper uses a staff- well, tanbō- I just call it Staff Rush instead. It's got Ground energy, that's basically it." Casey's never really thought too hard about it, but it really is more of a surprise than something like Parsley's Leaf Screen. Beaumont had been surprised too, he vaguely remembers. Not that he was paying a whole lot of attention to the man at the time. "Now what, Noel?" Casey prompts cheerfully.

"Go on, Luna!" Noel hints at her. As the battle between Doubleslap and the Staff Rush technique rages on, Luna eventually manages to grab on to one of the sticks, using both of her hands. "Did you know, back then sailors always feared the power of song, for songs made by powerful maidens made them crash… the power that Luna has also acquired! Go on then Luna - With your harmonic voice... Sing!" Luna took a deep breath, and a harmonic melody that echoes throughout the patio.

"Ah, shit-" Pepper's already sleepy, as is Casey, and the lullaby Luna beings to sing is not helping. "If you're gonna play that kinda trick- Pepper, Smokescreen!" The black haze swarms near Luna and just as Casey plans- she begins to cough, prematurely ending her song. She falls on her knees and continues coughing heavily, until the smoke finally disperses.

"Ohoho, not too bad," Noel once again compliments. "Buuut that's enough of a warm up, don't you think?"

"If ya say so," Casey grins. "Pepper, Ember!"

Flames spew from Pepper's mouth, one after another in a speedy barrage all aimed directly at the opposing Clefairy.

"Copycat!" Luna spews forth similar flames from her mouth, this time surrounding herself with the barrage of flames, protecting herself from the opposing attack. She continues to spew more and more flames, mixing them with the fire that Pepper spewed forth, until she is out of sight, completely surrounded by a whirlwind of flames.

"Behold! Our new technique born by the fiery-wrath of the gods!" Noel announces, as the flames erupt so much that small fire particles dance around the field. Casey is momentarily concerned with the state of the patio, but Noel's not pausing for anything. "O' holy wrath of fire, incinerate thy enemy to burn our blaze of glory! Luuuunaaaaaa Fireeeee SOUL ATTACK!!"

Luna then jumps up, still wrapped in her flames, and dives down, like a fire-rocket towards her foe, readying another double-slap, hands coated with her flames. "Neutralize!" Casey cheers, and Pepper's tanbō, infused with the energy of his attack, slam into Luna's hands to extinguish the conjured flames. "And knock her away!"

With a push from both tanbō, Luna is knocked back, and then rolls over a few feet, until she completely disappears once more. Luna had shrunk herself with once more, and once more Casey can't seem to find where she went.

"To think our Fire Soul attack got extinguished…!" Noel playfully wails. "But, one technique right after another - now with Minimize!"

"Sweep your tail!" Casey calls, and Pepper complies, with a clockwise spin. They may not be able to see Luna, but if they can hit her before she sneaks up, then maybe-

"Peekaboo!" Luna manages to jump up right before Pepper's swinging of his tail and a hard-right Doubleslap is aimed right at his face. Pepper reels from the first slap, but Casey's ready for that, too- flames lick at Pepper's teeth as he chomps down on Luna's open hand. Luna winces from the flaming bite Pepper gave her. Still not backing down however, she decides to use her other hand - for another slap. This one hits, but Pepper only grinds his flaming teeth down harder.

"Since we're up close like this… go on then, you can do it!" Luna, now kneeling down from the vicious bite, still manages to find the strength for another spell - she started to sing once again. Pepper bonks her repeatedly on the head with his tanbō, but the smacks train off as he drifts down to the ground, flaming teeth extinguishing and releasing Luna's hand.

'"Alright! Go get em'!" Noel shouts. Luna manages to release herself from the loosening grip of the Charmeleon, now finding herself sitting atop him on the ground, and slaps him repeatedly.

Casey pouts. "That's not nice." He knows there's nothing he can really do about it- same as earlier with Parsley, he has no way to wake move-induced sleep. But it still seems unfair.

Noel simply, playfully sticks out her tongue. "Ooookay Luna, time to back off," she orders. Luna stops her onslaught, letting herself off the sleeping Charmeleon. Her hand still clearly stings with the flaming bite he gave her. She doubles over, panting heavily and kneeling down in pain. "I'd loathe to see our Pokemon get too hurt, so, how about we call it here?"

"Fine by me," Casey says, inspecting and then scooping up his dozing Charmeleon. Ginger shoves her head out of his shirt to inspect her teammate- Casey has no hands, so he resorts to blowing sharply in her direction when she tries to forcefully open Pepper's eye. Ginger wrinkles her nose and smacks his collarbone in protest.

Pepper looks… pretty much fine, which is good. He'll sleep off what little hurts he'd received. "That was fun! Shame I didn't get to see the rest of your team. Next time, right?"

Noel grabs Luna, cradling her in her arms. "Naturally!" Noel says with a smile. "I expect you do the same, dear Casey. It will be something to remember! I certainly learned a bit more from this experience. Thank you!"

"O' course," Casey grins. He leads the way back inside, nodding to a suspicious-looking Arthur and rousing Parsley. "Guess it's bedtime for us. See ya later, Noel!"

"G'night, dear Casey, pleasant dreams," says Noel, blowing a kiss and a wave towards Casey. "Live, learn, grow strong. I shall do the same."

Casey winks and blows a kiss back best he can with his arms full of Pokémon.

Noel's always great to hang out with. He hopes he can do so again soon.

WizardOfOdd · Dec 15, 2020

Richard Wolstenholme
Lavender Gym, May 25^th, Morning

Chapter 5 - 16
Sparks of The Future - Part 4

Uri's pupil turned blue as the name of the move was uttered, Richard knew nothing about the move so he was waiting in anxiety for the result of his gambit.

Meanwhile, Beaumont's expression was exuding calmness, indicating that he knew full well what kind of move Miracle Eye was. But the calmness also meant that whatever the move will do, it wouldn't matter much to how the battle would turn out.

Emolga was approaching close, yet Uri calmly levitated on one spot. Befuddling everyone who watched the Psi Pokemon, including the Sky Squirrel Pokemon who was ready launching herself towards Uri.

"Spark!"

Emolga emitted blue sparks from her body. The electricity fully engulfed her as she barreled herself towards the Psi Pokemon. The potential impact of the move was more than enough to end the resistance of the Psi Pokemon who was struggling to even float properly above ground. But, what happened next shocked everyone.

The attack didn't manage to hit at all, as Uri moved out of the way just before the attack landed. It was surprising considering Emolga had spread the lightning on her body to widen her attack range, yet it didn't graze the Psi Pokemon at all.

"Follow up with Quick Attack!"

Emolga used the icicle in front of her to propel herself towards Uri before even landing on the ground, she kicked the icicle as hard as she could with two of her tiny legs. Launching her at high speed towards Uri who wasn't looking in her direction.

Uri glanced backward, but it was too late. Emolga knew that he wouldn't have the time to react to her high-speed attack.

She was well trained to read the situation, but the reality was different from what she predicted. Uri only needed to turn his body slightly to avoid getting hit at all, and the Emolga was suddenly in a precarious position.

"Confusion!" Richard yelled with desperation clearly felt in his tone.

The psychic energy launched by Uri struck Emolga and accelerated her speed, sending her crashing headfirst through several icicles.

Richard didn't expect that turn of events. But he couldn't stay happy for long, the job was not done at all.

"Ice Beam!"

Uri tried to conjure another blue orb from between his hands, looking to seal the battle's outcome for once and for all. But the momentum came to a screeching halt as the ball dissipated away, as Uri crashed down on the cold floor below him.

Uri's willpower was a sight to behold, but of course, it didn't make any injuries or fatigue disappear at all. It was an amazing attempt at a comeback, but ultimately it was Emolga that managed to stand on top.

Richard sighed before he grabbed Uri's Pokeball. "I'm sorry, Uri… You did so well…"

"AAAAARRGHHH!!!"

Just as Richard was about to press the button on Uri's Pokeball, Uri started to scream in agony while holding his eyes tightly, it was in so much pain that it started to kick the ground repeatedly much to Richard's horror.

"Uri! What happened!? Answer me!"

Overwhelmed by pain, Uri couldn't answer his trainer's call.

Worried for his partner, Richard dashed as fast as he could.

"Hold on… Everything will be alright…" Richard rummaged his backpack as fast as he could to grab a potion from inside it.

He sprayed the entire content of the potion bottle to heal Uri, but it was soon clear that it'll need more than just an ordinary potion to end his agonizing pain. With that in mind, Richard knew that the Pokemon Center would be the best chance to stop his partner from hurting. But how? He was still in a battle. Against a gym leader, too. He couldn't forfeit now...

Or so he thought, it didn't take long for him to realize that Uri was much more important than the battle. He could go on another journey later, even if it would take a long time. But he wouldn't forgive himself no matter how long time passed if Uri suffered permanently because of his stubbornness, so he raised his hand as he smiled bitterly ready to forfeit the match.

"I'll take care of him."

Just as he was about to surrender, Richard suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder as he heard the familiar voice. When he turned back, he could clearly see Keith that stood behind him with a worried expression.

"I'll help too. We'll take care of Uri… You still have to finish the battle, right?" Laura came from the stands and offered her help.

"But—" Richard knew he had to finish the battle, it's the reason why Uri risked it all and he shouldn't waste the chance his partner created. But, the two didn't help at all with his feelings about leaving Uri alone.

Beaumont walked towards the group.

"You can just declare that your Kadabra won't continue and that'll suffice for you to continue."

He could certainly do that and leave his Kadabra to the care of Keith and Laura, but... No, it wasn't supposed to be a question at all. Uri was always there, even when he was at his lowest and so it would only be fitting that he followed suit. Especially since there was no telling about Uri's current situation.

"Nah, I'll forfeit completely. My Pokemon needs me."

"Is that so? Then so be it."

Richard quickly put Uri inside on his Pokeball and ran as fast as he could towards the Pokemon Center with both Keith and Laura in tow.

Please be safe… Uri…

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

Aquacorde · Dec 15, 2020

Casey Holt

Saturday, May 25, 2019 // Night, Day 6
Route 12 // East Kanto Research Station

6-12. hand over hand // 'til i believe that i can stand

Spoiler: music

Casey retreats to his room, yawning the whole way. He really should've been asleep an hour ago. Parsley and Pepper make a valiant attempt to commandeer the bed while he brushes his teeth, but Casey's not having it. He's a large guy, and this is only a twin bed. Skiddo and Charmeleon can and will sleep on the floor. He invites Ginger to sleep on one of the pillows, but she instead takes it and one of the blankets to the floor where Pepper and Parsley are sulking.

Good thing Casey runs warm.

He flicks off the lights and settles into the well-worn, floral-print sheets. His phone's already in Do Not Disturb mode, but he gives it a glance anyway.

And sees a text.

Well, he sees a few texts, because Do Not Disturb activates at eight and it's pushing nine-thirty- texts from Kel, from the bank, from Jordan- but the one he focuses most on in that moment is Sorley's collection of little waving arms and exaggerated expressions.

So, because he knows himself, he answers Kel, snoozes the bank reminder for probably the third time, and sends Jordan something equally stupid before flicking open his contacts menu, scrolling down until he sees Sorley's information staring back at him.

His thumb hovers over Sorley's name.

And he presses "call".

The line rings only once before a horrible roar of static rushes through the speaker and Sorley's voice echoes faintly, nearly drowned out but still peppy. "Casey! Hihi!"

"Uh, hi. What're you doing?"

"Flying! Sorry, sorry, Golurk is noisy, should have landed, but no time for that! You called me, so I had to answer! You could have texted, you know! Then this would've been completely totally avoided!"

"Yeah, but I got things t' ask you, an' you only text in those emote things."

"Ooh! A question! What is it, what is it?"

Do you believe in life after love? is definitely the brand of stupidity he would have responded to Jordan with, but he did actually call Sorley for a purpose. "What do you know about Mimikyu?"

"Mimikyu! That's a Ghost-type! Why do you want to know about a Ghost-type?"

Casey sighs, closing his eyes in the darkness. He doesn't really want to talk about it. But this is not only the person he has called for information, but the person who called him out on his nonsense earlier that day. "Might be seein' one tomorrow."

Sorley makes noises of disbelief, still barely audible over the roar of wind and fire on their side of the line. "On purpose?!"

"Saw some on purpose twice today, thanks much," Casey grumbles. Sorley backtracks quickly.

"Sorry, sorry, I just didn't think you'd be doing it! At least not so quick!"

"Well, I am."

Casey can hear the grin in their voice. "I'm really really glad! It's a good thing!"

Casey hums a negative note, sleepiness breaking down his guard as he relaxes into the borrowed mattress. "I tried t' battle my friend's Gastly an' I had t' have Ginger click the PokéBall 'fore I passed out." He really should text Bruno and explain himself. Not right now, though. He doesn't want to open his eyes.

"But there were two, right?"

"Huh? Oh, I guess. Saw another friend's Misdreavus for 'bout thirty seconds just t' ask him t' stay in his PokéBall while I'm around."

"That's a good start!" The static on the other end of the line ceases abruptly. Sorley must have landed. Small noises of motion and Sorley muttering to themselves break the silence. Casey listens for a while, the quiet in his own room broken only by Parsley's gentle snoring. He can feel himself dozing off.

Wait, he called for a reason.

"So… Mimikyu?"

"Ah, right, right!" Sorley's voice is much more clear, though no less energetic. "They all wear clothes, that's their main thing. I think it's because they're actually weak in the sun, so they hide! Mostly they try to look like Pikachu, 'cause they wanna be loved. It's very very sad actually. But they turn their pain into anger so don't… don't rip their outfits! It'll be bad. And don't look under their clothes!"

"Never would without consent," Caseys says vaguely. Sorley laughs in delighted surprise, and only then does Casey fully realize what he said. "Never would- it's a ghost, I wouldn't- I-" Sorley continues to laugh at him, so he just groans and rolls over to squish his face into the pillow. "I give up," comes out slightly muffled.

"Never give up!" Sorley cackles. "You're just sleepy so you can't think anymore. Go to sleep! I've gotta do stuff! Nighty night!"

The call ends as Casey finishes forcing a "g'night" out of uncooperative lips, and he barely manages to shove his phone onto the tiny nightstand before sleep takes him fully.

Groc · Dec 16, 2020

Vera Hill
Chapter 6 - No Run-In in the Halls
Route 12; Saturday, May 26th

"You have so many machines, Doc!" Vera digs through a box while Quartz busies themself looking over the device she'd recovered. Ebony floats nearby, gently stroking Vera's hair as she synchs a TM with her Pokédex.

"Ooh, what about this one? Thunder Wave... that sounds awesome! And you can learn it! Wouldn't that be cool? If you could shoot lightning?! You'll be like... pew! pew!... or maybe zzzt! Hehe... yeah."

"If that's the one you want, then be my guest. Thank you again for helping me." Quartz ushers her out of their lab, where Arthur can deal with her instead.

"Perhaps you should find a room and get some rest, my dear. You look like you've had quite the adventure." He finishes putting some kind of baked good on a tray.

"Ugh..." Vera grimaces at the sweet smell. "Yeah... but no desserts, okay? You use too much sugar."

Arthur merely nods, heading off in a different direction as Vera heads toward the rooms. Her head is pounding again, and she wanders to the end of the hall before realizing she's reached the vacant rooms. Maybe I won't have any neighbors this far down?

She heads into one of the rooms, leaning against the door as she looks inside. It's small and plain, with an attached bathroom... not too different from the rooms in a Pokémon Center, actually. She holds her head, trying to will the headache away, and feels Ebony settle on her head again. He doesn't weigh much, and feels cool, which she's grateful for. The pounding in her head fades a bit, allowing her to catch a snippet of conversation in the hall.

"...Feel free to find myself or Doctor Quartz once you're tidied up and settled down."

It's Arthur again. She hears his shoes squeak on the wet floor. Guess I'm not the only visitor here. Ugh, I hope it's not someone I know... I'm in no mood to talk.

"They're pretty samesies," Another voice speaks up.

Wait.

"D'you like either one better?"

It can't be! Is that...

"I'll take twelve, then."

CASEY?!

She hears a door shut, then another one. She immediately leaves the room, running down the hall in a panic. She notices muddy hoofprints on the floor, almost slipping on some water, but Ebony catches her. Why is he here? Did he follow me?! No... no, of course not. He's just going the same way I am. And I took that detour, so of course he caught up... is Jordan here, too?

She shakes her head, wincing in pain. Ebony whines in despair at her expression, so she pulls him close, walking toward the door. Quickly, but not recklessly. "I... I can't be here. Not if they're here. Let's go, Ebony. Before it gets too dark."

He glances back at the rooms, then settles on her head again. She lifts the hood of her poncho, covering him as she heads back out into the rain. She hadn't expected to keep the protective garment, but it's hers now.

She heads back onto the road, moving away from the research station as fast as the slick ground will allow. She's not even sure why she's running. Why should I? I don't have to explain myself to them! I have just as much right as they do...

Not watching where she's going, she slips in some mud, falling to her knees. The impact knocks Ebony off her head, but he catches himself in mid-air. Vera gasps, but her breath catches in her throat. Her stomach churns, and... well.

Those cookies don't taste as good coming back up.

Vera coughs, her head bowed as the rain comes down on her. Ebony hovers nearby, worried. He points back the way they'd come, at Quartz's lab still visible in the distance.

"No." Vera shakes her head, forcing herself to stand. "We're not going back. I... not like this. We're going forward."

Ebony frowns, but nods, floating beside her. She smiles at him, hugging him to her chest. "Thanks for understanding. Now come on, let's-"

Something grabs her leg, trying to climb up her. She yelps in surprise, kicking her leg instinctively and knocking aside a small pinkish-purple goblin.

"H-hey!" She clears her throat, embarrassed that her voice cracked line that. "We were having a moment, you creep!"

The goblin- or "Impidimp", according to her Pokédex- sticks its tongue out at her, which is annoying, but harmless. "I don't have time for this. Squitch, let's go!"

She tosses Squitch's ball, and the little Inkay dances happily in the rain for a moment. "Use Hypnosis on this goblin so we can get out of here."

Impidimp gasps, holding a hand to its chest and tearing up. It actually starts crying at Vera's words. "What? What?!" Squitch grins at the display, cocking an eyebrow dubiously before strobe lights start flashing in her head, directing the hypnotic pattern towards Impidimp.

It watches the lights, swaying slightly before falling asleep on its feet. Vera would grin at how clever she is, but the bad taste in her mouth makes it more of a grimace. "Come on."

They keep walking, when suddenly something hits Vera in the back of the head. "Ah! Wha... ow!" Tears form in her eyes as she turns back, seeing Impidimp laughing at her. "You... why... that hurt, you fucking goblin!"

She sends Squitch back in, using Hypnosis as Impidimp charges toward her. Luckily, she again puts it to sleep, so Vera throws something of her own: a Poké Ball. The Ball hits Impidimp square in the face, pulling him inside.

"Yeah, it hurts, doesn't it?!" Vera glares at the ball, rubbing the back of her head. Her hand comes away muddy, so she can tell Impidimp had thrown mud at her. "I bet the little goblin snuck a rock in there..."

*click*

Vera looks at the ball, surprised. "I caught it? Wait, no! I didn't want to-" her phone dings at her, an official report informing her that she has too many Pokémon with her, and she'll need to transfer one away.

"What? But, I... I didn't... oh, fine!" She picks up the ball, looking over her phone to find out how to transfer Pokémon. "You better be worth all this trouble, Goblin. Yes, that's your name now."

She completes the process, sending a Pokémon back to Palm. "See you later, Iggy. You weren't really pulling your weight anyway." Ebony reacts with shock, but before he can say anything, another voice catches Vera's attention.

"Hey! What are you doin' over there?"

((Ebony learned Thunder Wave!))
((Vera caught an Impidimp, sent Iggy to Palm.))

Eleanor · Dec 16, 2020

art by Aquacorde

Arianne Chandler
Route 12
Saturday, May 26^th, 3 p.m.

Wrong kind of sea

The sea!

Arianne had stayed away from the sea for almost two years now - another perk of Cape College apparently, as Safari was just off the heavenly Fuchsia coast - but now could feel the saltiness of the sea and the sound of the waves once again, and that in itself made Arianne quite excited to travel on Route 12 even if she couldn't get to actually swim. The rocky coast wouldn't allow that, but Arianne was lacking a swimsuit to begin with: one more reason to reach the next town and actually get one… since she forgot to do so in Lavender.

The rain that was nothing but a mild annoyance at the beginning, though, had soon turned into a downpour. Route 12, apparently, didn't want Arianne to continue her journey.

Surely enough, Arianne was already missing Lavender. The comfortable room in the "attic", the amazing food and festival atmosphere, and all the friends that made her stay so special: she reunited with Ralph and Coralie, she met Richard, Gwen, Casey, Noel, she fought some exciting battles by their side.

Why did she decide to leave so suddenly, then, and why wasn't she turning back already and, at the very least, wait for the rain to go away? Well, first of all she lost those two battles that mattered the most to her. And second… Courtney. Probably. To be honest, something about the town in general felt odd to her.

Well, who even cares about when and how… I'm reaching the next town anyway, no matter what!

Lost in thought, the girl kept walking for a good while without stopping, until a couple small houses appeared on the horizon. Just like on the first night of her journey, when she met Ralph and, instead of waving her goodbye and continuing to travel on her own, she asked for her help. She was definitely missing her now.

The house also made Arianne think about something else though. She just had to calm down and actually plan her next moves, something that she didn't take care of back in Lavender. Like… where to spend the night.

She clenched her fists and took some heavy breaths under the rain, trying to forget about Lavender and focusing only on that moment. And then… use her PokéGear of course!

Vermilion was way too far ahead to get to before nightfall, so she had to grudgingly strike out that option and think about something else. Camping up somewhere didn't sound enticing at all given the weather, not when there were houses right there in front of her at least. And so, this time all by herself, she picked a random house and walked up to the door.

There didn't seem to be any actual doorbell, just a fancy metal knocker, that Arianne eventually used two or three times. She then waited for a couple minutes, bracing herself for… a battle, maybe. Or a weird confrontation with someone like Darling again.

The elderly man who opened the door on the other side didn't look anything like that, though. Long beard, slightly hunched, but a welcoming attitude for sure. He let Arianne in his home, introduced her to his wife, and offered her some shelter from the rain. The girl, of course, was quick to get to the point.

"You see, our two children eventually left this place to live in the city. That leaves us and an empty room - which we're more than glad to let passerby trainers use!" The man explained. Surely a relatable topic for Arianne, as that was common to hear even in Cinnabar. She liked these people more and more.

One look around the house made her feel somewhat conflicted, though. It was cozy and homely, with wooden beams on the ceiling and on the floor, a few old lamps, and tons of vintage photos. The chair on which Arianne was sitting was definitely man made and quite old as well, but still held up alright - it was not too different from those that were in Courtney's house! But there was something weird about the… smell in there. And whatever the old woman was cooking.

To Ari's question, the man answered that he worked all his life as a fisherman, and that only recently his body had started to give up on him. Luckily - as his wife remarked - other fishermen were more than happy to help out, and even the scientist living further down the route "didn't annoy them". The girl couldn't help but raise an eyebrow - why did she feel like pointing that out? Were they that kind of fishermen?

"That book right there…" Arianne muttered, as she took a look at the cupboard to her side. Other than a couple shining scales, that piece of furniture also held some books, one of which much bigger and worn-out than the others. "Myths and Legends about Pokémon, right?"

"Oh, yes! It's one of our favorites. Very, very interesting. Do you want to hear the myth I like the most?"

The next sentences made Arianne shiver. She definitely heard the words "bones", "meals", and "clean". Focusing on everything else was made surprisingly hard by the unsettling thoughts of seeing her beloved Water-type Pokémon turned into food, a topic she and her family had always shied away from and that she wasn't ready to get into. "I-I'm sorry, I'm not feeling too well…" She shook her head, dismissing the elderly couple before walking out of the door and trying to take some heavy breaths.

She wasn't dealing with that today. She was not going to eat Pokémon for dinner, and she was not going to let those people do that in front of her either. Today had to end better than it had begun - and the only way to do that was getting to the research center those two mentioned.

TEAM:

Eric, lv. 24 •

Mulan, lv. 12

Alice, lv. 6 •

Mizar, lv. 15

Lulu, lv. 21 •

Honedge, lv. 16

Aquacorde · Dec 17, 2020

Casey Holt & Gwen Alanis

Sunday, May 26, 2019 // Early Morning, Day 7
Route 12 // East Kanto Research Station

6-13. wake-up call

Spoiler: music

Too early.

That's a weird thing for his brain to think.

But when he checks his phone, the clock reads four in the morning. Which is indeed too early, even for him.

He can't go back to sleep, though. Casey knows himself, and he knows he'd then sleep too long, and he'd be groggy and cranky all day, and his schedule would be all messed up for a week.

So he gets up quietly, scooches past the pile of sleeping Pokémon on the floor, and turns on the bathroom light only after he shuts the door with the gentlest of clicks.

It's going to be a weird day. He's not going to go for a jog, not going to shower until midday-ish when they get back from the factory, not going to cook breakfast for only a single human… all his rhythms are thrown off.

Oh well. Nothing can be done. It's a journey, after all, which is not conducive to maintaining a routine.

He does some stretches at least. Brushes his teeth, puts on clothes, runs a comb through his hair. It's getting long. His scruff is more filled out than yesterday, too- one could call it a beard and not be ridiculed, probably. He runs his fingers over his face. Maybe he'll keep this. Sure, it needs to be cleaned up, and he doesn't love the moustache, but it could be good. Definitely makes him look older.

Like the adult he almost is.

Huh.

He's almost an adult.

That's what that message from the bank he keeps snoozing is about, isn't it? That he needs to decide if his accounts will stay under his parents' names or if he will become the sole owner of them as an independent entity. That he needs to read through some terms of service and figure out what documentation he needs and what effect that will have on his life…

That sounds like a lot to deal with.

He wonders if his parents are getting those messages too.

He wonders what Aurelia did at sixteen.

He wonders if there's literally anyone else he can ask for help and guidance.

And shelves that train of thought, because his stomach reminds him that he's been awake too long without fuel.

Arthur had given him an overview of the kitchen last night- what they have, what he can use, what should most definitely not be touched under any circumstance- and Casey falls easily into cooking a semblance of his usual breakfasts. The vegetables he finds aren't his preferred but they will do for a simple meal. Eggs are plentiful, what with Arthur using them for so much of his baking, so he scrambles two whole dozen into the vegetables, fluffing them up nicely and setting them aside. A batch of day-old croissants slice beautifully and Casey pops them in the oven with a pan of water to freshen them up before making his way back toward the bedrooms. His first stop is his own room to wake his Pokémon, which they all complain about with varying degrees of sincerity. Once all three are trailing along, he knocks gently on the door marked number ten.

No response.

He knocks more firmly.

Still nothing.

"Viveka?"

The door creaks open just slightly, its dishevelled occupant squinting in the dim light of the hallway. "Wh't time's it?"

"Uh, about five."

"Go 'way then." She tries to close the door, but Casey sticks his foot in it. Ow.

"You're the one who wanted to go early. C'mon, I made breakfast."

Viveka glares at him for a moment, then sighs. "Let me get dressed."

He lets her close the door fully this time, then moves on to his next target. Not bothering with any subtlety this time, he raps firmly on the door marked number eleven. "Gwen?" he calls. "Breakfast time."

It takes a few minutes for any kind of direct response, but groaning can be heard from behind the door, so he waits impatiently until it manifests itself into the teenage girl opening the door. Gwen looks very cranky, with bags visible under her eyes and her hair completely down and messy- this is only the second time he's seen it like this, come to think of it, though last night it was neatly combed rather than bed-mussed. Her usual updo is ingrained in his mind as "Gwen's hairstyle", so it's a bit strange to see something different. But Gwen speaks up before he can make a comment. "Wh-What time is it?" She hunches over while supporting herself with the door knob.

Why's that the first thing people think about in the morning? "Uh, about five?"

"That's way too goddamn early…" she says, struggling to keep her eyelids open.

It isn't, really. "Gotta leave early to get places early. C'mon, I got breakfast in the kitchen."

Gwen sticks her head back to wake her Pokémon up, and her Axew, Vulpix, Pikachu and Wooper follow her, Ekans and Misdreavus absent for whatever reason they have. Most of her Pokémon look almost as tired as their trainer, except Marshall, who smiles blankly as ever.

"I guess breakfast doesn't sound too bad... I'm in the mood for some pancakes right now." A cheerful yet tired "KEW KEW" can be heard from behind the girl.

The Pokémon greet each other as Casey starts back toward the kitchen, shaking his head and tsking. "Pancakes are just sugar; not a good breakfast. I made eggs. And there's croissants and jam. Not sure what kind of jam, actually, Arthur just said we could have it. It's reddish." He gives Viveka's door another knock as they pass. She yells something muffled and unintelligible. It may be swears.

"Oh...I mean, I guess that's fine." Gwen rubs her eyes, and follows Casey, just lagging behind a bit. He hears Viveka's door open and shut as he and Gwen turn the corner. At least she's up.

Casey's quick to pull the croissants out when he finally makes it back- they're a bit more crisp than he'd like, since Gwen took forever to answer him. But it's alright, really. "Hope I made enough for everyone. Could probably make more, but I don't wanna use all of Arthur's eggs. The Pokémon have other stuff they can eat so feed yourself first." Really, considering how much it takes to feed three adult-sized people and a herd of Pokémon, he should be leaving Arthur some kind of reimbursement. He sets a reminder for three hours ahead. That should be about right.

Gwen reaches past him to grab a croissant, but stops when she looks at Casey's face, staring at him with an eyebrow raised as if something is wrong. She doesn't say anything, so it's impossible to tell what's concerning her.

"Uh, is there something on my face?" he tries. He hasn't eaten anything yet, though he goes about the motions of rectifying that even as Gwen looks at him strangely.

"Uh, yeah actually, since when did you have a…" something about what she's trying to say makes her stop and shiver. "Since when did you have a beard?"

"Since… last time I shaved?" Casey responds quizzically. What a weird reaction. Sure, he usually kept up with shaving at school, but there probably were times she's seen him with some sort of scruff before. Yesterday, at the very least.

Then again, this is Gwen.

She gives no response, but her expression is enough to signal she's not a fan. Even as she grabs a croissant and sits down at a nearby table, she can't seem to take her eyes off his facial hair, even if she's not super into it. Casey's not one to skirt an issue, though, and he's not about to have Gwen being weird about it all day. "Don't like it?"

"Wh-well, I mean, uh, facial hair is like, kinda, uh…" Her body tenses up and she shakes her head to get back to a normal state of being. "It's complicated."

"If you're not kissing him then it shouldn't matter." Viveka finally shuffles into the kitchen and makes a beeline for the croissants and jam. Casey gives her an unimpressed look, which she either doesn't see or chooses to ignore. He said Gwen's not in love with him, she should be leaving it alone!

Then again, you don't have to be in love with someone to kiss them. He kissed Jordan the other day, after all. Maybe he could kiss Gwen, just to see if beards bother her just in theory or in practise as well.

Considering how much Gwen is blushing and her sudden rapid breathing, she's probably not at all prepared for that on any level. But there's a more interesting angle to this conversation anyway. "Is kissing someone with a beard diff'rent?"

"It's more about the moustache, usually, but beards can-" Viveka's brain finally catches up with her mouth, apparently, and she cuts that train of thought short. "I'm not talking about this with some teenagers I met yesterday."

Casey tsks. "Fine. Eat some eggs. Should be enough to let your Pokémon have some, too." Maybe he'll kiss Jordan again and make Jordan tell him about the differences. That should be easy enough. He'd put a note in his phone for that, too, but he's a bit busy making small plates for Ginger and Parsley, Cinccino and the pair of Chargabug.

Gwen jolts over to grab about a third of the eggs before quickly sitting back down. She slides some onto a plate she grabbed for Tusk, who immediately demands more as soon as he sees the amount of eggs he has. She does nothing to address her Pokémon's tantrum, in fact she looks completely checked out, staring off into space still blushing. Casey hands a larger portion to Pepper and Togekiss, but instead of eating, the Charmeleon wanders over to the whiny Axew and taps him on the head with sharp claws.

"Char."

A few gestures and other sounds make it seem like Pepper is telling Tusk to eat what he has and then ask for more. Casey stifles a giggle- Pepper's obviously copying Casey's own frequent interactions with Parsley.

However, his actions only further aggravate Tusk. The Axew barks at the Charmeleon, takes a break to shovel down all of his eggs in five seconds, and gets close up to Pepper while puffing his chest out.

"Huh- what the…" Gwen snaps back to reality and immediately turns her attention towards her feisty Dragon-type. "Oh my god Tusk, it's way too early for this!" The Axew snarls at Pepper a bit more before pouting and retreating. Pepper sulks over to Casey, who obligingly picks him up for cuddles.

"No fighting in the kitchen," Casey grumbles. "An' wait your turn for seconds. Viveka ain't even got any." Said woman, mouth full of jam and bread, gestures to her plate in order to emphasize the fact that she is content with what she has. Casey, despite being encumbered by an entire Charmeleon, scoops some eggs onto her plate anyway. "Balanced meals." Viveka rolls her eyes.

Gwen had only just begun to touch her eggs with a fork, stabbing into them and dropping them in her mouth as if it was a mundane action to her, but the second she starts chewing her face scrunches up. She didn't speak up about his facial hair that clearly bothered her earlier, so there was little reason to think she'd do the opposite now.

"What's this face for?"

"Wh-Oh, it's just that, uh… these eggs taste a little different than what I'm used to."

Casey shrugs, setting Pepper into a chair and nudging him to eat. "This's just what Carol taught me at her restaurant. Maybe they make 'em different other places."

Gwen picks at her food, but eats the eggs anyways, even if they aren't to her liking. The croissant goes down without complaint, though. Viveka, though clearly more invested in bread and sugar, eats what he's given her. He doesn't care much what they think, honestly. He's cooked this for people in a professional setting many times over- he knows it's objectively good. There's just no accounting for taste.

The group finishes breakfast with little more conversation, despite Casey's attempts. Neither Gwen nor Viveka seem happy to chat in the mornings, so he busies himself with washing up and talking to the Pokémon on and off. Normally he would be listening to the radio or a podcast, but that seems strange to do when other people are in the room. Even if not doing so makes him a little antsy.

Gwen and Viveka each take their Pokémon when they go to pack up, and eventually Casey and his three make their way back to their room as well. Pepper distributes berries as a supplement to breakfast while Casey makes rather arbitrary decisions about what he packs in his smaller bag for the morning- there's no reason to be encumbered by all his gear while crawling around through decrepit buildings. And he's gonna be the one to carry the device, too- Gwen isn't exactly strong, and it's not Viveka's mission. So having snacks and a few other things in his drawstring bag should suffice.

Somehow, he's still the first to make his way out the front doors at precisely five forty-five in the morning. And because he hasn't been able to do or talk much this morning, he's already bored and trying to figure out something to occupy his time. Pepper seems to think similarly, though Parsley is as content to lick the dewy grass as Ginger is to lounge atop him.

"I'd get y'all to do some training if I didn't think we'd be leavin' soon," Casey muses. "If I was goin' by myself I'd just have y'all run with me, but I don't think Gwen and Viveka would take too kindly to that pace. Maybe we can practise somethin' while we walk?"

Ginger looks disgusted. So be it. "Parsley, throw her to me."

Ginger screeches as vines pluck her from Parsley's back and whip her toward Casey, who of course makes a clean one-handed catch.

"If y'ain't gonna actually train, I guess I'm gonna have to use you to train," he says over her yelling. The Buneary seethes. He really is putting his foot down, isn't he? But Ginger can't just rely on fights to grow. Especially if she learns a move that needs more refinement than "punch" or "kick". Heck, even those moves would use refining- Casey has no idea what level of power output she's getting from Thunder Punch, nor the specifics of use. But that's for another time- starting small is important, and getting Ginger to go along with anything at all is a struggle.

"You got two options." Ginger crosses her arms grumpily, still sitting in the palm of his hand, but she's listening. "First option is that. Gettin' thrown around. You gotta get used to it for battlin' with Parsley. So we throw you back and forth as we walk. Work on your internal gyroscope an' that."

Unenthusiastic as she is, she makes a "go on" gesture. "Other option is balancing. I gotta do some sort of upper-body work, and you're a decent weight. So I do lifts an' you either balance or work on your grip, dependin' on the exercise."

Ginger considers this. Casey extends the arm holding her above his head and back down a few times. "Like that."

The Buneary huffs and taps his hand twice. "Option two? Cool. Pepper and Parsley!" The two perk up at their names. "Remember that game y'all were playin' the other day? Razor Leaf versus Ember. I'm gonna say a number for Parsley, and that's how many leaves I want. Okay, baby boy? Just shoot 'em straight forward. And then Pepper's gonna burn as many as he can before they hit the ground. Let's practise once."

Casey nudges Parsley so that he's facing towards the road. "Ready, Pepper?" Pepper cheers. "Okay… fifteen!"

Pepper's Embers catch four of them before the rest settle on the wet grass. A voice behind them asks: "Is that wise?"

"Huh?" Casey turns to see Viveka, ready for travel but with only Cinccino sitting atop her messenger bag. The woman gestures to Pepper.

"Is that wise? Open, uncontrolled burning in the middle of nature."

Casey hadn't exactly thought of it that way, but she's right. However- "It rained all day yesterday and it's wet today. Nothin's gonna catch."

Viveka shrugs. "If you say so."

Gwen exits the building, the only differences in her appearance being her regular hairstyle, a flannel, and a bag slung over her shoulder. "It's stupidly early, but I'm always ready to see some cool Pokémon!"

She's in a better mood. Casey grins. "Then let's go! Parsley, that doesn't mean run-!"

Spoiler: music

QueenNothing · Dec 17, 2020

Gwen Alanis ft. Casey Holt
May 26th, Sunday, Morning

The walk to the factory itself takes only forty-five minutes, but by the time they get there Gwen is visibly tired of hearing Casey's calling of random numbers- anywhere from four to twenty-five, and with no rhyme or reason. Besides that Parsley still can't get below six, and over twenty-five just falls to the ground. He claims it's better training this way- Parsley has to learn to drop certain numbers of leaves on command, and it's more effective for Pepper's aim if he doesn't know what's coming. Either way, forty-five minutes of hearing that and watching him use Ginger as a weight is wearing on Gwen.

Luckily, they've left the main road, which forces Casey to pay attention to their surroundings rather than his Pokémon.

This particular factory is wide and squat, rising only two stories above the ground, but Quartz had said there were many more levels belowground. It had once been a hydroelectric plant, with channels cut through deep rock to create canals to divert the flow of water from the sea, and those structures still lie deep under the earth, out of sight for the time being. What they can see is decrepit- holes in walls, piles of fallen concrete, almost no glass remaining in the plethora of window frames. The main, road-facing doors are inaccessible- a large tree, felled by strong seaside storms, had smashed through the entire entry.

Viveka unfolds a weird piece of equipment from her bag, and Casey's attention is immediately diverted from feeding berries to his Pokémon. "What's that for?"

"Shoulder mount," Viveka answers, securing the thing to her right shoulder. "I don't need bulky batteries for my camera, but it still gets heavy and hard to hold after a while."

Her red Charjabug settles atop her left shoulder, balancing the weight of the video camera mounted to the device. Wires from the camera get wound around its spikes. The green Charjabug spins some silk, anchoring itself to the shoulder mount as it begins to rise, hovering about a foot above Viveka's head to act as a flashlight. Casey is clearly in awe, as well as Gwen, though for different reasons. "Wooow! Is that a Charjabug!? Neat!"

"Yeah, they've been pretty helpful. Red doesn't like to do much besides sit and eat, but Green will participate in things. That's why she's on the string."

"Well what are we waiting for!?" Gwen shouts in anticipation. "Let's go!"

Casey and Pepper cheer with Gwen, but: "We have to find a working door first," Viveka reminds them. "Quartz said they just walked in the main doors, but we clearly can't do that."

"Oh." That was pretty embarrassing for Gwen, but she isn't gonna let it kill her momentum. "Well let's find a door and then let's go!"

Casey takes the lead with enthusiasm matching her own, at least until Viveka drags him backward by the collar. "Get out of the shot, Holt."

"Whatever you say, Anand," Casey sing-songs back at her as she forges ahead through the thick vegetation.

It's a slow pace that they take around the perimeter while Viveka films. She's allowed them to speak, as she won't be using any audio from this venture, but the gloomy, oppressive atmosphere of the swampland keeps the group fairly quiet anyway. The sleepy glares of Silcoon and Cascoon watch them from the trees, and flashes of color belonging to other Pokémon occasionally flit across the ground.

"Thought there were only s'posed to be four kinds here," Casey murmurs, watching the red-orange of a Corphish scurry back behind a tree, which definitely doesn't go unnoticed by Gwen. She needs to stay focused though- Corphish can wait.

"They said that about the interior, not the exterior," Viveka says absently. Casey's "oh" is almost lost in the heavy air.

The black haired trainer examines the building, looking for any sort of entrance. She's not exactly sure what a door on this kind of building would look like, and the vegetation surrounding the area doesn't help. Her pupils continuously study the abandoned facility, and her eyes stop on something suspicious- Gwen spots two pointy magenta fingers sticking out of a crack that quickly retract. She recognizes the shape of those fingers and the exact color of them, and stressful memories of Cerulean come flooding back to her. "It can't be…"

Her voice catches Casey's attention. "Did you find a door?"

Even as he asks, he must realize the answer- he moves toward the building, Pokémon at his heels. "Oh, this's way hidden. Good eye, Gwen!"

"I-I swear I saw something sticking out of it! It was…" She takes a deep breath to calm herself. "It looked like a Morgrem hand."

"Quartz said there were Impidimp, right? Stands t' reason there's Morgrem, too." Casey inspects the door. It's covered in moss up to about knee-level, with vines hanging down from the top of the frame. But it's just slightly ajar, opening inward.

Even with Casey reminding her of the wildlife, Gwen can't shake off the feeling that someone she recognizes will be behind the door. Seeing the hand gave her a bad feeling about the mission in general, but she does want a Technical Machine, so she needs to persist.

"Looks like it'll swing," Casey says, and that's all the warning she gets before he pushes it open, letting the light of Pepper's flame illuminate beyond.

Fortunately, Gwen's prediction was wrong, but what was behind the door was infinitely more overwhelming than a single crook- dozens of Impidimp hop up and down, unleashing high pitched screeches at the teens. Three Morgrem surrounding the batch also turn their attention towards the group, smirking and snickering with bloodlust in their eyes.

"Uh," Casey says, wide-eyed and eloquent. "Pepper, start shootin'!"

As true as Pepper's aim is, he can't hit them all- the Morgrem, especially, are faster than their unevolved kin and race towards Pepper, shoving their way past the Charmeleon and bursting from the entry. At Casey's command, Pepper and Parsley dart away from the door so he can drag it closed behind them.

Three Morgrem and four Impidimp, now separated from their nest, chatter maniacally as they surround Gwen, Casey, and his Pokémon. The bravest Impidimp darts forward, moving as if aiming for Pepper's stomach, but at the last second backhands him across the face. The other three Impidimp follow suit- two aim for Parsley's knees, but the Skiddo's attempt to block only results in one raking its claws across his belly while the other's spindly fingers latch onto his pelt, surprising Ginger with a slap that knocks her from her mount. The last rushes Pepper, but instead of attacking uses the Charmeleon as a springboard, jumping up to slap Casey across the face and triggering a spluttering mess of mild curses.

"You two got this?" Viveka calls from further away, well outside the fairy circle, as the cackling Impidimp return to their places.

"Oh, yeah." Casey grins confidently, despite skimming fingers over his reddening cheek. "Parsley, fifteen! Pepper, Ember! Ginger, Double Kick!"

A spread of leaves nails a pair of Impidimp, knocking them off their feet momentarily. One of the Morgrem takes an Ember to the face followed by two kicks to the knees that bring its head down to Ginger's level, lightning crackling from her coiled ears as they punch into both its eyes. The Morgrem howls, clawing at its face as it reels back, and the two other Impidimp rush to its aid. Ginger leaps into the air and Casey calls for ten- and that perfect spread of leaves hits all three of the clustered imps, with Ember following close behind. Three hits, in succession, and Ginger coming down with a kick to the Morgrem's head- her weight and momentum drives its head into the ground once again.

Before the Impidimp can get their spindly fingers on her, two vines lash out- one to smack the pair aside and the other to yank Ginger back to her place atop Parsley's back. Pepper dashes in to continue the relentless onslaught; he Slashes at the fallen Morgrem, spinning as Casey shouts- one of the Impidimp making an attempt to bite at his tail gets swept off its feet instead, and a "five" from Parsley knocks it out completely. The other sinks its teeth into Pepper's tail at the same time as the Morgrem finally gets its horrible, sharp fangs into Pepper's neck, but Pepper's own fangs burn bright as he snaps at the Morgrem's hair, setting it ablaze and sending the squealing imp dashing away into the woods. The Impidimp attached to his tail gets an Ember to the face and it releases Pepper with a screech, dashing after the retreating Morgrem.

Gwen meanwhile, makes eye-contact with the grimacing Morgrem, nervously gulping.

This is exactly what I caught Jess for.

She grabs one of her Pokeballs, tossing it to the ground, and out pops said Ekans. She rattles her tail and hisses, and Morgrem backs away slightly, but he disappears in a flash but quickly reappears right in front of Jess, catching her off-guard, and smacks her straight in the face.

"Fake out! Damnit!"

As Jess flinches, Morgrem bites on her neck, causing the Ekans to scream out loud. But with the Devious Pokémon so close by, Jess hacks up an Acid that splats directly onto him. Morgrem tries wiping the sludge off of himself, but it only distracts himself from the snake Pokémon coiling around his body. The Morgrem scratches her skin repeatedly, making Jess wince in pain, but it doesn't stop her from tightening her grasp. The dark-type Pokémon yelps and stops scratching, but looks directly into Gwen's eyes, looking a little teary-eyed.

Wait, did I...Did I hurt him? Damn, I'm honestly starting to feel a little bad.

"Jess, let go of him!" The Ekans gives her trainer a baffled look as Gwen wipes her eyes with her sleeve, but she does so anyway, feeling sympathy for both Morgrem and Gwen. Jess completely loosens her grip, and slithers back, looking at the dark-type kowtowing on his hands and knees.

"Jeez, I'm really sorry Morgrem, I mean it. I didn't know you'd be so sensitive…"

Gwen is confused when she hears Morgrem chuckling under his breath, and is shocked to see him suddenly jab his sharp hairtip into Jess' neck. Hearing his prey frantically hiss, Morgrem snickers, the bloodlust returning to his eyes. It all makes sense now- he had used Fake Tears and False Surrender, and Gwen fell for every bit of it.

"You fucking tricked me!" she roars, furrowing her brows. Morgrem doesn't seem to mind her anger, and just chuckles while retracting his hair tip from Jess' neck. Jess is clearly hurt, but still ready to keep going, although Gwen figured she could use some help.

Tusk and Bead would be awful choices right now, and I think Custard would be too scared. That leaves Pix and…

As she makes up her mind, Gwen tightens her fist and tosses another Pokeball to send out Marshall. Morgrem snarls at the Wooper, but Marshall just grins back blankly, throwing him off a little.

"Jess, use Poison Sting!"

The Ekans unhinges her jaw to shoot a quick poisonous dart at Morgrem's chest. He writhes as the poison flows through his body, and then is shocked to see a smokey haze roll in, obscuring his vision. He tries to look around to check his surroundings, but the poison in his body hurts too much for him to move. Morgrem reaches for his chest, but freezes when he notices Jess suddenly wrap around his body, this time entangling his lanky arms.

"Now Marshall, Water Gun!"

A blast of pressurized water hits Morgrem directly in the face, which clears up the Haze. Morgrem feels the Water Gun stinging his face for a solid ten seconds, and the next thing he sees is a blankly smiling Wooper looking at him. The Devious Pokémon tries to repeat his previous tactic, and starts sobbing, but Marshall completely ignores it and just shoots another Water Gun in his face.

"Hate to break it to ya, but Marshall is unaware of cheap tricks like that." Gwen snorts while Morgrem's face continues to be soaked in a Water Gun. When Marshall stops, the Morgrem looks exhausted from battle.

"Alright Morgrem, we'll let you go only if you get outta here! And no funny business this time!" Gwen sneers at the Devious Pokémon, who sighs in frustration. He nods, and immediately Jess disappointedly unwraps herself again. This time Morgrem keeps his promise, and whimpers off into the forest.

"Got that taken care of." Gwen sighs in relief. "Wonder if Casey needs any help." She looks to her classmate to see he's doing just fine on his own- thick roots cage the last Morgrem's torso, draining energy into Parsley as the Skiddo holds it tight with his vines. Ginger and Pepper, back to back, kick and slash respectively at the Impidimp pair- at Casey's call, Ginger jumps to allow Pepper to sweep both opponents and Ginger comes down hard on one and then the other. Parsley whines while the Morgrem tears at his vines, but he pulses with Synthesis's golden light and seems revitalized.

"Quick Attack!"

The Buneary dashes in, dodging undergrowth and fallen Impidimp to slam into the Morgrem's side. Parsley's vines retract, taking Ginger with them, up and out of the way as Pepper Slashes, missing the Morgrem's body but cutting strands of its hair to fall gently to the forest floor.

The Morgrem wails, head bowing to the ground in lament, scooting backwards as Pepper advances.

Gwen loudly gasps, recognizing the stance this dark-type Pokémon takes. "CASEY, LOOK OUT!! THAT'S MORGREM'S SIGNATURE ATTACK, FALSE SURRENDER!!"

Casey whips his head around. "What?! Pepper-" But Pepper can't stop his momentum, careening straight into the hair that stabs and curls around him, dragging the Charmeleon towards the sharp-fanged maw.

"Parsley- three!"

And despite all Casey's talk about how Parsley's never managed to actually get below six, three razor-sharp leaves precisely shear the black hair, leaving Pepper tangled on the ground. Whipping through the foliage is Ginger, boosted by Quick Attack, launching up to arc through the air and crash her little foot into the Morgrem's face. She uses it as a springboard, backflipping out of the way once more as the loose, tangled hair ignites to reveal Pepper, rising up to Slash the Morgrem one final time. The imp sways, and finally falls.

And the oppressive hush settles in once more.

"Morgrem are something else…" Gwen, unusually aware of her surroundings, cautiously roves her eyes around the perimeter. "Wasn't even my first time fighting one."

"Wait, when- oh. That guy, huh?" Casey asks, brushing burnt hair strands from Pepper as Ginger clambers back onto Parsley's back.

Gwen nods. "Yeah, him." The resentment in her emphasis makes itself very apparent. "When I saw the Morgrem's fingers, I honestly thought he would show up here." She wasn't sure how she got here, but getting this off her chest alleviates her. This wasn't something she really did unless Jenny was around.

Casey hums. "Like I said back at camp- I still think all that was just a Cerulean thing."

"Probably." Casey's right- The chances she'll see Morgrem guy again aren't very likely. But that shouldn't be important right now, there are more immediate matters at hand. "And I'm guessing that door is out of the question, huh."

"Well I'm not going through it," Viveka says, forging ahead once more. "Come along, teenagers."

A full circuit of the building's exterior reveals only four more doors. Casey- still not careful about it, despite their previous encounter- manages to shove open two, but both open onto rubble-filled rooms impossible to pass through. The little party gathers once more at the tree-smashed main entry, unsure of their next step.

"I vote we give up," Viveka says. Casey protests, but she talks over him. "I didn't bring any Pokémon that can knock through walls safely, did you?"

"...No," Casey sulks.

"Tusk can probably break down a wall or two!"

"I said safely, and I don't think your Axew knows the meaning of that word." Viveka sighs. "Remind me what you have; I know all of Casey's are out already."

Gwen holds back a knee-jerk response telling Viveka off, but she's absolutely right. "Well, besides Tusk and these two," she quickly gestures over to Marshall and Jess, who are still out, "There's Vulpix, she's called Pix, Pikachu, named Custard, and a Misdreavus who I call Bead… But I don't think Casey would appreciate me having him out." Having to keep Bead in his ball around her classmate was starting to get a tad annoying.

Said classmate has wandered away and is examining the building up close, peering around the corner and apparently ignoring her. Viveka sighs. "I guess I could… no, that doesn't make any sense…" she continues to mutter to herself. Casey disappears around the corner with his Pokémon. Shortly after he does, Gwen hears a clattering and a "good boy, Parsley!" She glances over to see Casey pop his head around the corner and wave at her in a "c'mere" motion.

"I'm goin' up the fire escape," he says casually. Viveka groans.

"I don't want to be responsible for you two getting injured. That thing looked rickety."

Casey shrugs. "You're not responsible for us. I'm an adult in-" he ticks off numbers on his fingers. "-two weeks. And we're on our graduation journey and we're s'posed to be making decisions for ourselves anyway, no matter what kindsa consequences come outta that. An' my decision right now is goin' up this fire escape."

He disappears back around the corner before the short-haired woman can protest further and the clattering resumes, this time at fairly regular intervals.

"Goddamnit," Viveka sighs.

Gwen on the other hand takes no issue with Casey's proposition and with her two Pokémon out, follows her classmate around the corner. After being ambushed by multiple Impidimp and Morgrem, it seems like a smart idea to keep them out, and when seeing the fire escape ladder, the first thing she does is have Jess coil gently around her waist and grabs Marshall with a single hand by his head, holding him under her shoulder. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't seem to mind this one bit.

Above her, on the second-story platform, Casey has Parsley untangle some vines from the second ladder before he tugs on it himself. It gives way with another horrible clatter, but Casey seems pleased enough and climbs it quickly, Pepper ahead of him and Ginger on his shoulder. Once at the top, he has Parsley wrap vines around his hands and reels the Skiddo to the rooftop, disappearing from Gwen's sight once more.

Gwen quickly follows his footsteps, grabbing onto the bars of the ladder with her right hand, followed with Jess reaching her head out to bite onto any bars above her, acting as Gwen's left. It isn't long before she reaches the above platform, and repeats the process, getting up to the roof. First thing that catches her eye on the roof is a nest of squawking Wingull, probably waiting for their mother to return or something. She finds it pretty distracting, and almost forgets about Casey until he speaks again.

"Did Viveka give up?" he asks, peering over the side.

In answer, a whoosh follows the bulky shape of a Togekiss up and over the building, coming to a delicate landing in the corner of the rooftop. Viveka slides down gingerly and recalls Togekiss, testing every footstep as she rejoins the two students and their Pokémon.

"What, you really didn't trust the ladder?"

"Nope," Viveka pops the p sound deliberately. "And I don't trust this roof, either. I can see the holes. Let's get in that stairwell."

Casey, clearly more confident in the roof's stability than Viveka, strides over to the access door and makes a valiant attempt to kick it in.

"It opens the other way," Viveka volunteers, deadpan.

"Ah." Casey turns the handle, pulling it open easily. "Well."

"Alright, now we can finally enter!" Gwen announces, smirking. "We're gonna see lots of cool Pokémon and come out of this with Technical Machines!"

Gwen's team

budube · Dec 18, 2020

Bruno Dillinger
May 25, Saturday

Chapter 6, Part 1: Oh, no...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idOmc35hlhU

Early Afternoon, Route 12

If Bruno recalls correctly, Palm said they had to go to Route 12, and then to Vermilion City, which is the closest thing to a familiar place.

The route is not too much of a breath of fresh air. In fact, the air just wants to punch him in the face here. The wind is worse than in Route 9.

At least he got a hoodie and no Pokémon sleeping on it this time.

Bruno travels with Klink this time (yes, Klink, he hasn't thought of a better name yet). They are honestly a fine partner. Contrary to Shir and Bumblebee, they actually seem to listen to him, which is good. It's also a pretty interesting Pokémon. Bruno did some research about the species and there seems to be some historic value behind them regarding their relevance in the development of mechanical and industrial engineering. Apparently, spinning is their most used (or only) way of communication. The way they spin is also connected to how they feel at that very moment, or that's what the sources he researched and his PokéDex say. For example, right now, they are spinning at moderate speed, but without changing the direction in which each gear rotates. That means they are relaxed.

The boy himself isn't too aware of what caught his attention about that Pokémon. Maybe the fact that contrary to other Pokémon he's seen so far, Klink are more machine-like, which is pretty interesting.

There are more things regarding Klink that have been circling in Bruno's mind since his last battle, which would be too much to explain at the moment, especially since he is constantly drawing his attention to the trails of Route 12 trying not to run against another person walking around.

Going back Route 12, he eventually runs into a group of small huts, meaning that there actually are people crazy enough to live there despite the horrible weather, and by the looks of it, they are fisherpeople for the most part, as if living in Route 12 isn't already strange enough.

Bruno gets there at the very moment a tall guy's fishing rod bites. He puts his whole strength pulling his fishing rod off the water with one hand while he fights with the fish Pokémon reeling it in with the other one.

"It's coming! This is a big one!"

The fisherman pulls a Magikarp out of the water, and while it bounces, trying to get out of the situation it is currently in, a big Crawdaunt knocks it out by slamming it with its pincer.

The boy looks at the fisherman as he goes back to one of the huts nearby and the Crawdaunt follows him holding the Magikarp between its pincers.

The fisherman walks past him, back into his hut, and Bruno just walks to the cliff, on the same spot he was standing before.

Hearing nothing but that crashing sound of the waves hitting the cliff is kind of relaxing, actually.

He sees the Wingull hanging motionless upon the air, and a few Goldeen and Magikarp jump out of the rolling waves, just to be taken away by some hungry wild Pelipper.

Then, the boy hears the echo of a closing door behind him, and the fisherman and his Crawdaunt are back again with their fishing rod. Taking a better look at him, he's probably just a bit older than him. He wears a green fisher's vest with different kinds of fishing hooks hanging from it, rubber boots and whatever else fisherpeople wear to do their job, he doesn't really mind that.

"Excuse me, this is our fishing spot." he says, making a gesture with his head to tell him to move.

The Crawdaunt stays behind its owner, but is constantly glaring at Bruno who just moved to one side, making the boy get further away.

"He won't attack you. Don't worry about him." the fisherman says without removing his gaze from the water "Slingshot just attacks Pokémon we are fishing."

Bruno stays quiet.

"Are you a trainer?" he then asks. "I saw a few getting past here. None of which seemed to be too interested in the cliffs, though. I think most of them actually went to explo- A bite!" he interrupts himself, holding the fishing pole and the reel tight. "Slingshot, get ready!"

The same show as before begins, but it takes longer this time. He still pulls out a Magikarp, to his own disappointment, though.

"What was I saying?" he asks while the Magikarp tries to escape Slingshot's pincers as he walks back to the hut on his own. "Oh, that's right! Most trainers have been going to explore the swamp. Rumor is there's some scientist or something that is giving rewards to trainers that get to retrieve an object of some sort from the towers. I'd go see for myself, but there's nothing good to fish for in there."

"Towers?"

"Yep! Old towers of some sort. I've only heard rumors of what used to go on there." he answers. "They said some scientist installed these devices to torture Pokémon and experiment with them or something, and that's why they grew to be so hostile."

Bruno just listens.

"In fact, they say they were so hostile in the end, that they ended up eating the scientist alive, but the devices are still there and other people are trying to take them back."

"... I see." he finally answers. He's not surprised honestly. It most likely was some ghost story like the one he created accidentally when his journey started. But if anything, if the Pokémon in the swamp are really as hostile as this guy says, then that just means one thing: He has to get out of this route before someone pushes him into the swamp.

"I suppose getting items from a research team is really appealing for trainers like you if you guys really go exploring the place, right?"

"... Not really, no." the boy answers.

The fisherman looks at him, a bit puzzled. "Really? Well those trainers I saw were probably just explorers and I heard things wrong."

'... Yeah… explorers...'

Both keep quiet for a few seconds. The fisherman goes back to fishing, but nothing bites. While he is waiting, he asks another question.

"Wanna try?"

The boy shakes his head. "No, thanks. I have to get going, actually."

"Really? Where?"

"Vermilion."

"Walking? Boy, that sounds exhausting." he says. "But it's cool too, I guess! I haven't been on a journey either."

"I see…"

"How long have you been traveling, though? You probably got a lot of stories to tell."

"Well… " The boy thinks back to what he's been through these past few days: Battling two delinquents blocking the way through Nugget Bridge; witnessing a Pokémon being stolen in front of him in Cerulean; fighting a horde of Spearow and almost passing out from exhaustion in Route 9; being kidnapped, trapped, and attacked by a Tyranitar in Rock Tunnel… "I got a Gym Badge." He still doesn't know if Mr. Tayloz went easy on him, though.

"Oh, that's cool." the fisherman says, looking at the sea. "Anyways, I don't want to delay your journey even more, so… good luck. If you need a place to stay the night, my parents are always allowing travelers in our home, so feel free to stop by. We should have space for one or two people more."

"I'll consider." Bruno nods. "Thank you."

He is probably halfway through Route 12 right now (he was done with the map since Cerulean and hasn't even checked it since Route 9 after he got lost with Katherine). There hasn't been any issues so far, no people kidnapping him or wild Pokémon coming after him for something his Pokémon did. In fact, he even forgot Klink was with him, because they haven't done anything but follow him.

But of course, when things are going too well, is because something's about to happen. The moment he heard that researcher yelling 'Oh, great! Another trainer!', he took out his map, just to take a look at where the swamp was, thinking: 'Story of my life.'.

Bruno's Party:

Bruno art by Aquacorde

QueenNothing · Dec 20, 2020

Gwen Alanis ft. Casey Holt
May 26th, Sunday, Morning

The tight stairwell only brings them down one level before the group runs into what appears to be some kind of nest, full of tattered cloth and dry leaves. Choosing not to intentionally disturb another one so soon after the Impidimp fiasco, they instead file out into a slightly wider hallway. Viveka shoves ahead once more, Charjabug lighting the much darker interior. Pepper's tail blazes steadily just ahead of Casey, lighting the immediate path for himself, his Pokémon, and Gwen.

The hall eventually opens up onto a catwalk that circles a huge, open room- probably the main part of the factory. Viveka's more interested in filming, but after Casey's done being fascinated by the view, he gestures directly across the room. "Hey. Stairs."

"I thought this place would be crawling with Pokémon!" Gwen impatiently complains.

"It's got basements, right? Bet they're all down there," Casey nudges her in the direction of the stairs. "C'mon, we got things to do and Viveka's busy."

"Wait-" Viveka turns abruptly, partially blinding them with the Charjabug high beams. Casey and Gwen make various noises of complaint. "Normally I'm a sane person, and I don't ask for numbers from random teenagers, but I'd rather you be able to call for help if you need to."

"O-oh, sure…" Gwen reaches into her bag and rustles her hand around. "Uh, it's gonna be a bit before I find my phone."

"Here's mine," Casey says, while Gwen works. He and Viveka swap numbers, then apparently he realizes: "Oh, hey, I don't have yours either."

"There we go!" Gwen announces, holding her phone up. "Glad I didn't lose it again." Looking relieved to have found her phone, she directs her attention over to Casey. "Did you say something?"

"Give me your number," is Casey's blunt response.

"O-oh, right." She mildly blushes before telling Casey her number. "Y-y'know, I've never actually t-traded phone numbers with someone before…"

"No?" Casey says, but he doesn't look overly surprised. "Well, now you have both of ours. Surprised you don't have Flynn's, though."

"Ugh. He's certainly bothered me about it." Something about that kid's name always changed her demeanor.

Viveka types Gwen's number into her own phone. "What's your last name?"

"Alanis! You may ha-" She stops herself, remembering the past few times she's announced her relation to Jenny. Not many people even seem to know who her sister is. Was there any point to it?

"Huh. Battled someone with the same name once." Viveka shrugs, slips her phone away, and goes back to her camera. "Off with you, teenagers. Find a dark corner to make out in or whatever."

"WAIT, YOU DID!? WHAT WAS HER NAME, WA-WA-WA-wa-wa-wa-wait, wh-what???" Gwen felt an intense emotional whiplash from the women's comment, going from delirious to incredibly flustered in a single sentence. Casey just laughs, slipping his hand into Gwen's as he'd done yesterday, and just like the previous day the Unovian trainer's breathing only got heavier.

"Plenty of dark corners 'round here, long as you don't come by with those Charjabug." Casey tugs Gwen toward the stairs, Pepper bounding ahead to light the way and Parsley trailing behind.

"W-w-w-wait, I-I-I-I thought we w-w-w-were looking for machines!" Gwen's face was completely red, and in her state doesn't notice Jess unwrapping herself from Gwen to follow the duo. Casey keeps her hand in his, ridiculously casual as always.

"Sure, but I bet we'll find plenty of other things, too!" His tone falls back into his usual cheer, none of the teasing lingering in his words. "Y'wanted to see Pokémon, right? Bet they're all hiding lower down."

"O-oh, right. Pokémon."

Casey leads her hand-in-hand down to the main floor, the quiet of the factory only broken by their group's footsteps and Viveka's echoing as she moves above them. Down at ground level, the damp creeps in- with no sun to heat the building, the water coalesces on abandoned machines, dripping down the walls and pooling across the cracked floor. It's interesting scenery, for sure, and it was surreal to think about how this facility once run by humans became a natural habitat for different species of Pokémon. But speaking of which-

"I haven't seen a single Pokémon in the entire building. Besides those M-M-Morg… besides those Pokémon, anyways."

"We ain't exactly been lookin' very hard. They're prob'ly more scared of humans than Pokémon that live out near the road, so we gotta try harder." Casey slips his hand out of Gwen's and beckons Parsley forward. The Skiddo places a vine in Casey's now unoccupied hand.

"Y-yeah, I guess you're right." Gwen stares at her own hand again. That was gonna take some getting used to. "I guess, like, where do we start?"

"Dark corners, like Viveka said." Gwen nods while still focusing on her hand, but flinches a bit when the exact quote Viveka said sinks in. Casey continues, either unaware of or unconcerned with her reaction. "And we gotta find some stairs, so we're gonna be pokin' around in 'em anyway."

Gwen starts aimlessly wandering around, a seasoned skill of hers, and looks around the dim room, the faintest of pulsing lights catches her attention.

"Hey, what's that!"

"Not Viveka, that's for sure." The sweeping lights of the Charjabug are still meandering above them. "Let's go look!"

Gwen carelessly approaches the source of the light, and almost trips a few times- whatever the dim light is, it doesn't do a great job guiding the way. Pepper catches up to her to light the way, despite Casey's protests and subsequent stumbling. The dim light is joined by others- nothing brighter, just more of them- and they dance away as Gwen tries to get close, almost as if the light is deliberately trying to flee.

Parsley, apparently seeing it as a game, trots ahead of both Gwen and Pepper. Ignoring both Casey's calls and Ginger's attempts at control, he disappears into the shadows with Ginger on his back.

"Ah, shit, uh- Pepper, c'mon!" And the black haired girl tries to stay within the area illuminated by Pepper's flame as the Charmeleon and his trainer pick up the pace. Gwen tries her best to catch up, but it's near impossible to do that while also being able to see in this environment. She was almost jealous of Parsley, who left the group in his dust, wishing she could just rush forward like that. But they find him again quickly enough- prancing and bounding, as the floating lights spin and dance around him. Pepper's flame finally illuminates their true forms.

"Oh my god! It's an Inkay!" Gwen fawns over the squid Pokémon, mesmerized by its sporadic lights flashing about.

"A few of 'em!" Casey adds, watching two swoop down to nuzzle Parsley and float away again. "Good boy, bein' nice." Ginger doesn't look thrilled, but she hasn't started a fight yet.

"They're so cute!" Gwen reaches her free hand out to beckon forward one, but all she gets is confused looks instead. The Inkay collectively give the only humans in the room quizzical glances. Casey offers one his walking stick and it does its best to lift it, only succeeding when two of its fellows come to assist. They immediately spin, the heavy stick just missing Casey's head as he ducks on instinct.

"Okay, nope, give it back-"

While Casey tries to coax them into handing it over, Gwen giggles as she feels a single Inkay nuzzling her index finger. The Inkay then stares at it before opening its beak and biting down on her finger.

"OWW!" Gwen quickly retracts her hand and recoils in pain, accidentally dropping Marshall onto the dirty floor- she'd honestly forgotten she was still carrying him- and shakes her hand as if that makes the pain go away. "You little bitch!" The Inkay floats away, giggling at its mischief. Casey stifles laughter, even as the Inkay suddenly let go of his walking stick and cause him to stumble backwards.

"Hey! Don't just run away from me like that!" Gwen tightens her fists, but jumps once she hears a new sound- an ominous murmur far lower than the gentle squeaks of the floating Inkay, whose voices falter at the noise. Their lights dim and as one they flock to a brighter, larger light as the noise changes to a sharp command.

Floating from the shadows is a Malamar, full-grown and menacing as it advances upon the teens and their Pokémon. Parsley skitters back, coming to hide behind Casey, and even Pepper takes a halting step backward.

"OH MY GOD, IS THAT A MALAMAR!?" Gwen shouts with excitement, absolutely tone-deaf to the implications of the situation. Casey runs a hand across his face with a groan and shifts his stance as Malamar looks in their direction with glowing red eyes, and shoots a beam of psychic energy towards her. Casey sidesteps quickly, his Pokémon following suit. Gwen tries to hop out of range, but moves too late- she's hit with the Psybeam and is knocked onto her rear a few feet.

"Ah, shit- Parsley, Leech Seed!"

"Wha-" When she looks up, Gwen's blurry vision witnesses the root-wrapped Malamar multiplied into three, all of them shifting their positions around. Could Malamar even learn Double Team? Looking around, she notices how there's also multiples of Pepper, Casey, Jess… everyone in the room. That answered her question at least, but now her biggest problem was how screwed up her vision was.

Gwen tries standing up, but nearly stumbles and falls, feeling the weight in her head completely vanished. She's able to pick herself up from it, but she's completely lost her balance, and can't even stand up without wobbling. Luckily, Casey is on top of distracting the Malamar. It's hard to tell what's going on with her vision so skewed, but she watches Parsley throws Ginger high in order for her to come down foot-first onto the Malamar's beak. Ginger flips away to be launched again by a shove from Pepper's sticks, held parallel to each other to create a platform. Malamar takes only one of Ginger's spinning kicks to the face before plucking her from the air with one tentacle, coiling it around her small body and squeezing.

Gwen tries aiming a Pokeball at Jess, knowing she's weak to a psychic-type, presses the button in the center to beam a laser at her Ekans, but completely misses- it's pretty difficult to aim at Jess when there's three of her that all swap places. "Argh, goddamnit! Uhh, Marshall, use Water Gun or something!" She tries pointing at Malamar to guide her Pokémon, but Marshall looks in a different direction to fire off a water-type attack at its body and catches Malamar's attention as it flinches from the pressurized water blast. "That's something, at least."

"If you can't battle, just let me deal with it!" Casey huffs out a frustrated breath as Ginger writhes in Malamar's grip. "Thunder Punch!"

Ginger's crackling feet kick at Malamar's tentacle, barely making contact. It seems surprised, at both the kicks and the pulsing drain of energy from the roots around its lower half, but simply squeezes Ginger harder. The Buneary's kicks slow as she gasps for breath. "Parsley, grab her! Pepper, jab the- the shoulder, or whatever!"

Parsley's vines wind around Ginger and Pepper darts in, flipping the stick in his right hand and jabbing it up into the space where Malamar's tentacle meets its body. The tentacle goes limp and the Pokémon hisses in alarm as Ginger is torn from its grasp and flung to Casey, who catches her easily. Pepper strikes with his sticks again but Malamar's working tentacle snatches one and lashes out, dark energy surrounding the stick at it smacks Pepper across the shoulder in return. The Charmeleon stumbles, but yanks the stick back before Malamar can retract its tentacle. It shudders as the glowing roots across its torso pull energy into Parsley.

"Circle!"

Parsley begins his trot, just like he had against Gwen and Flynn the day before, and Pepper does the same. The Malamar's eyes track the Charmeleon, but that only allows the Skiddo behind it to execute Casey's order of "twelve". Leaves cut through the air, some tangling in Malamar's "hair" but most echoing as they strike metal and concrete beyond their little circle of Pepper's light.

"Hey, I want in on the action!" Gwen's vision clears slightly, but she still feels light-headed. "Marshall, uhh, just, do your thing!" Marshall interprets this as another Water Gun, clearly irritating the Malamar whose already occupied with one trainer. It screeches and extends a tentacle around Marshall, lifting him into the air and squeezing his torso. The attack hurts, but Marshall doesn't really show it, but that doesn't concern Gwen any less.

"God damnit! Give him back!" Gwen tries to rush up to Malamar, but she trips and falls, using her hands to catch herself. She feels her eyesight going fuzzy again, and writhes in frustration, feeling useless. Jess and Bead were both dead meat against a dark and psychic type, and the rest of her Pokémon weren't much better off. Maybe Pix could do something, but even then she could barely muster up the energy to toss her Pokeball. On the bright side at least, she satisfied her curiosity of what it's like to be hit by a Pokémon.

Not privy to her musings, Casey continues his attack. The Malamar whirls to face Parsley's second onslaught of leaves but is distracted once again by Pepper, calling its attention back with largely ineffective swats to its elongated, glowing torso. But the damage isn't the point, apparently- when Malamar turns to him again, Pepper blows a Smokescreen into its eyes, concealing Casey's real plan.

Ginger, flung in the style of a discus thrower, uses the spin and force Casey has put behind her to slam a kick into the side of the Malamar's head. The Pokémon reels, reaching out blindly with its unoccupied tentacle to grab at whatever has hit it, but Ginger is snatched back by Parsley as Pepper puts himself in the tentacles's path. It winds around him, lifting him to eye level- Pepper jabs at the soft tissue of the other tentacle, releasing Marshall, but the glowing eyes lock onto Pepper and spin in the same way Gwen's head does.

"Pepper, look away- Parsley, Pursuit!"

Parsley's fast, but still hits the Malamar just too late and Pepper goes limp in its grasp, fully asleep despite the battle around him. But the Malamar is clearly worse for wear- it seems like it can't hold Pepper's weight and drops him to the ground, shuddering as the roots drain more of its energy. It glares at the trainers, drawing a deep breath.

A thunderclap and the smell of ozone in the air follow a blinding flash of crackling lightning that strikes the wet floor, sending electricity coursing through Gwen and bringing Casey and Parsley to the ground. When their vision clears, Malamar is gone- leaving only Pepper asleep and Marshall completely unaffected.

This wasn't an entirely new sensation to Gwen- she'd been shocked by Custard a few times- but Malmar's electricity was far stronger. She had already been struggling to get on her feet, and this only made things more difficult- her limbs just weren't responding to her brain. She hears Casey groan and drag himself to his feet. "Parsley-"

The Skiddo's hooves echo on the floor as he meets his trainer next to Pepper's limp form. The flame of his tail is banked in sleep, but flares again when Casey sticks a piece of something in his mouth. "Good thing I swiped those from Arthur, huh?"

"Wait, what is that?"

"Chesto Berry. Arthur said they weren't ripe enough yet, so I took a few. Seems like it works alright for breaking sleep, though." Pepper nibbles on the blue fruit under his own power now, making a face at the dry flavor every time he does but continuing anyway. "Actually-" Casey rummages in his bag, Pepper's sticks clattering as he does. "This one might help if you got dizzy."

He waves a pinkish fruit in Gwen's direction, and while not great for her given how dizzy she is, she immediately recognizes it. "That's a Persim Berry! Give it to me!" she desperately demands. "Malamar really fucked with my head. Literally."

"Literally?" Casey asks, as he makes his way over to her, then shakes his head. "Nevermind, don't wanna know." Parsley, behind him, scoops up Marshall and sets him next to Ginger.

"What's that's supposed to mean?" She raises an eyebrow to Casey, confused by what he means, but it doesn't matter. She tries reaching her hand out, but does so very slowly. She's able to toss it in her mouth and start chewing, but the texture is a little different from what she'd expect- definitely not fully ripe, but she couldn't afford to be picky right now. She feels her lightheadedness alleviate as she chews on the berry and swallows it, but still finds it hard to stand up. "Did I get paralyzed by that damn Thundershock or something? It's hard to move."

"I dunno, d'you wanna Cheri, too?" Without waiting for an answer, he fishes a small red berry from his bag and sticks it directly into Gwen's mouth. Her face temporarily flashes red, but starts chewing on it regardless. The spiciness of the berry comes as yet another shock, but it's a nice flavor. It definitely makes for good seasoning when chopped thoroughly, or even just as a snack.

After swallowing the Cheri Berry she's finally able to stand on her own two feet and stretches her limbs out. It was nice of Casey to offer her berries, but it bothered her how he didn't offer one when she was very clearly affected by Malamar's Psybeam.

"Why didn't you give me one when I was super dizzy a bit ago?" Gwen asks, somewhat passive aggressively.

"Was a bit busy directin' three Pokémon in a fight, wasn't I?" Casey says mildly.

"Sure, but like…" She stops to think about her words. Even if she was a little upset with Casey, she worries about how her tone might negativity impact her friendship. Maybe it wasn't great of him to not tend to his friend who should have easily recognized her status, but it's not worth getting into a fight over. "Uh, yeah, you're right I guess."

Casey gets up properly and glances around, taking stock of his Pokémon. He looks vaguely surprised to see Marshall sitting behind Ginger, but doesn't comment on it. Instead, he says: "We should prob'ly get to doin' our actual mission, huh?"

"Y-yeah. You're right."

Gwen's team

moon · Dec 20, 2020

Ralph Gonder

Fairy Land

Saturday, May 25th
Late Afternoon, Day 6

Sandsy

Lv 24 | Coldy

Lv 21
Jolty

Lv 17 | Creepy

Lv 17 | Greeny

Lv 13
Ralph's Profile | Current Chapter | css base by Aquacorde

Spoiler:

The world around them is a murky green, and the bits of old building that peek out at them from in between the vegetation seems unnatural. Well, it is unnatural, of course. But what bothers Ralph more is how quickly it all became so overgrown. Is a few decades really that long? These buildings look more like ancient ruins. Just, with the shapes of modern factories. If her dad knew she was here, he'd get terrified about her falling into some old broken space or get stuck somewhere, for sure.

The rain has let up, surprisingly. Ralph still doesn't think she can see any blue sky, but it could also be because there is a lot of greenery, like a speckled ceiling above. Also, she's mainly focused on the device in her hand.

It's really nifty, traveling with a GPS in your pokégear. And Quartz marked her destination on its map. Sadly, the mark is very large and kind of a blotchy ring, as if Quartz either didn't remember where they put the machine exactly, or maybe didn't care to be more specific. Ralph grunts at the thought.

A technical machine, she reminds herself. It will be a useful thing. It's fine with a detour for it.

Ten minutes later, she has circled around to the same location, and isn't feeling as sure anymore. Her grunt now is much louder, and makes Greeny and Coldy react and stop to look at her.

"Stupid Quartz," Ralph says. "She could at least have come with me. Talk about lazy adult abuse of teenagers. She and Palm, same batch aren't they."

Just then, Coldy freezes up, and Greeny looks around before she tenses as well.

"What is it, girls?" Ralph says, walking closer to them and trying to see what they reacted to.

From the bushes, suddenly creatures come scuttling. Not just a couple, but a whole group. They are pink and their ears look like horns.

"Impidimp!" Ralph realizes easily. She doesn't even need to raise her pokédex to remember that they are Dark and Fairy type. It and its evolutions had been pokémon she always found to be pretty cool.

Coldy is looking like she's about to leap, so Ralph puts a hand on her head to keep her calm. Just then, a larger creature walks up to them, with the definitive air of being a leader. It's a Morgrem. This isn't a fair fight. Ralph wouldn't have cared if she was alone, but she isn't really keen on putting Greeny and Coldy in unnecessary danger.

Wait. That's easy to prevent though.

She suddenly withdraws both of the pokémon to their pokéballs. This doesn't dissuade the Impidimps or Morgrem, but at least it also doesn't seem to anger them more.

"Lemme through," Ralph says confidently. "I'm just gonna pick up a machine. Nothing you'll want anyways, I bet."

As she mentions the machine, she clearly sees Morgrem react, its face turning from a threatening snarl into an actually angry snarl.

"Wow, you don't seem to like it. Does that mean you know where it is?"

The Impidimps are starting to shout and jump now, much like how she imagines angry Mankeys would.

Ralph crosses her arms. "Just show me the way and I'll take it off your hands."

Either, Impidimps aren't very clever, or they just really don't like her vibe, because two of them jump at Ralph just then, from behind. She doesn't see it…

… But someone else does. Both of them get hit by something before they reach the girl, and they are knocked down into the wet grass. Ralph turns around to see what just happened, and just has time to see Creepy deliver an Astonish attack to the fallen goblins right as they scramble to get back up. They get surprised and stumble once more. Creepy giggles and makes a loop in the air.

"Atta girl," Ralph smiles. She had kept her hidden like a little scarf around her neck, under her many braids. "See, bad idea to attack me."

She threatens Morgrem now, and the already angry pokémon does not appreciate it. But before more of them can jump on the trainer, Morgrem spins around. One of its followers has tugged its hair to get its attention. Although, this one looks quite different. Ralph's eyes widen.

"Is that a Ralts?"

The small fairy doesn't look anything like the goblins around it, but it looks quite unafraid of Morgrem as the larger goblin leans down towards it.

"I guess they're friends," Ralph thinks out loud as Creepy settles on her shoulder and follows her gaze.

After the Ralts has whispered something to Morgrem, the latter stands up. It seems to be in anguish for a moment, before it barks something out, and all the Impidimp back off. Ralph looks around to ensure she's no longer surrounded, and by the time she turns back forward again, only the Ralts remains.

"Uh, hi," she says.

Ralts nods towards her before it starts walking. Ralph gives Creepy a look and gets a sort of shrug in return.

"Alright, I'll play."

As she does her best to follow the tiny fairy through the tall grass and rubble, finally able to focus more on her surroundings now that the pokégear is put away, Ralph notices raindrops falling again. The sky is darker now, and not just because of the time of day. The clouds have started taking on a decidedly dark gray shade, and was that an ominous rumble she could hear?

"Stupid lazy adults," she mutters, before she has to suddenly stop.

She's lost Ralts.

"Did you see where it went?" she asks Creepy, who darts out and zooms around for a bit, but comes back empty handed with sad eyes.

"Arrrgh," Ralph groans and kicks a log in front of her. It's moldy and breaks unexpectedly, making Ralph lose her balance and trample through it. Thankfully, reflexes kick in, and she retracts her leg before she can fall, turning the motion into a sideways somersault instead.

The end result is her lying flat on her back in the dirt, lucky for the rain poncho having a hood to protect her hair from getting muddy. She blinks. There's something in the tree above her. Something blinking.

Getting back up, she grabs the pokégear once more. She's on the edge of the crude circle drawn in her map app, but it could be the machine Quartz intended for her to fetch. Honestly, she doesn't really care. If she brings back at least one of these machines, it's a job well done from her side and she'll take a TM by force if they dare to contest her work.

The machine looks just like the one Quartz showed her. It seems to be lodged between two branches, a couple of meters up. But Edgy isn't here with her, and Creepy is way too tiny to be able to carry or even push it unless she crashes into it with a Quick Attack. Ralph has a feeling that the doctor won't consider the job well done if their machine is broken. So how will she reach it?

Creepy suddenly prods her arm hard, until the trainer finally looks back down to the ground. Ralts is back, leaning its head to the side as it's watching Ralph. Is it wondering what the human will do next?

"I can't climb that slim tree," Ralph says. "And I can't risk damaging it." Then, she gets an idea. "But you… You're psychic, right? Yeah, I'm sure!"

Ralts starts to back off.

"No, no, listen! All I need you to do is just give it a gentle push. With whatever power you have that's not, you know, actually a push or fire or anything. Just move it with your mind. You can do that, right?"

But Ralts disappears into thin air.

"Teleport?" Ralph sighs. "Great, couldn't you just have teleported up there, grabbed it, and then come down again? Why are some pokémon just as unreasonable as humans."

Creepy's prodding her arm again.

"What now?" Ralph snaps, turning around quickly to see what Creepy's huge eyes was staring at. "Oh."

Maybe Morgrem wasn't the leader after all. The very dark, very wet, and certainly very angry goblin standing in front of her now is much more imposing. And bigger.

"I hate today," Ralph says, and the Grimmsnarl roars.

Juno · Dec 22, 2020

Tangles Art Cred

6-2: Food Fight

🛣️ Route 12 🕙 May 25th, Afternoon

There was a sense of coordination in the Wooper's attacks Jordan did not expect from wild Pokémon. One of them stomped its feet rhythmically in a dance of sorts, powering the others' Water-type moves. The already-gloomy weather nosedived, and the rain intensified around them.

It didn't really bother his Pokémon as much as it bothered him. "Oh, man—" Jordan groaned, as he pulled on the drawstrings on his hood to tighten it around his face. "Guys, try to get that one out first!" He pointed to the Rain Dancing Wooper. Not that it would have helped much—the rain was already falling pretty heavily and it would persist for a little while even if the offending Wooper stopped dancing. "...Guys?"

Jordan lifted his hood a little just in time to see all 70 pounds of Sage land in a large puddle of water, splattering water over her Trainer's shoes. ...Well, I guess she's REALLY unbothered by the rain. He sighed, looking around. Where's Tiny?

It was a little concerning he couldn't see his Pumpkaboo, but they had to do something here, quick. "Oh, what are they doing now...?" He mumbled to himself, as a thick, white Mist shrouded the three small, blue figures. He turned back to his Skiddo, bending down slightly. "Hey, Sage! You want to play, right? Go Play Nice with the Wooper! Go!"

Her Trainer's enthusiastic tone worked in riling her up, and with a final shake that landed a few more flecks of water and mud on Jordan's pants, she bounded over to the Wooper and pranced playfully around them. The Mist still shrouded the Wooper, but at least the Skiddo was now in a more battle-oriented headspace, he hoped. As she jumped around, Jordan could also see something bouncing up and down in the leafy-fluff around her neck. Ah, there she is.

"Time to play a little rougher, then, Sage. Tackle! And, uh, hold on tight, Tiny."

Sage charged forward, lowering her head in preparation for the impact as she ran into the Mist. A small yelp told Jordan she'd found a target, but as the three Wooper regrouped in a triangle formation with the Rain Dancing one in the back, its two protectors retaliated with a Mud Shot at Sage each. The Skiddo stumbled backwards, shaking mud off herself. A little orange figure on her back popped up once again at this moment, unharmed. Perfect.

"Tiny, Razor Leaf!"

The little Pumpkaboo jumped up and let loose a barrage of leaves that buffeted both of the Wooper in the front. They were definitely protecting the dancer. It seemed to be the one mainly in charge of keeping up the rain and keeping their statuses in check.

Boosted by the Rain Dance, the two Wooper aimed their Water Guns... at each other. Water Absorb... they're healing. They really need to try to take out the Wooper in the back, first. "Sage, Leech Seed behind them."

Oh his command, the Skiddo playfully lobbed her health-draining seed over the two Water Pokémon in the front line. They investigated it curiously, before it sprouted and latched on to the Wooper in the back. It let out a screech. Got 'em! It'll be a little distracted now, at least.

Recognizing their Water moves would have little effect here, even boosted by the rain, one of the other Wooper charged forward, preparing to Slam into the Skiddo. As it did so, Tiny jumped up once again, looking a little different. A sinister, dark smile incongruent with her small, unassuming form played across her face, but it worked—the Scary Face caused the Wooper to stall long enough for Sage to crack down on it with a Vine Whip.

Although they outnumbered Jordan's current team, even the Wooper could tell they were not about to win a fight against two Grass Pokémon. Still trying to pick the Leech Seed off, the Wooper in the back tugged on its friend's branching gills, and they gathered their other ally before disappearing into the thicket of trees they had come from.

"Let them go, let them go!" Jordan called after Tiny, who had hopped off Sage's back. "And please wipe that look off your face." He shuddered. Tiny huffed, grabbing Sage's ankle in an attempt to pull her steed along. "No—just come here—look! Tangles has berries!"

The Tangela lumbered back into view, her blue vines curling around an assortment of fresh-picked berries. Her proud expression shifted into annoyance as a berry fell out of the sky and dropped on her head. Hop cawed with delight, as he released another berry from his talon, but Tangles caught it this time. The Wooper were quickly forgotten as Tiny and Sage returned to their group, picking from the pile of fruit their teammates had returned with.

"Alrighty, nevermind the trail mix, guys, let's eat." Jordan sighed, picking up one for himself.

☂☂☂☂☂

When his team had had their fill, Jordan stored the remainder of the berries in the now-empty trail mix container. They continued on their way, with much higher spirits now that the Pokémon each had a belly full of berries. Even Spirit made an appearance under Jordan's raincoat to eat with them, before returning to the safety and dryness of his Poke Ball.

He wasn't sure how much of the weather was natural, or if there were other Pokémon around like the Wooper influencing it with their power, but along the route, it did shift a lot... between varying other stages of miserable. Near what would appear to be the end of the route, he came across a sizable building that was quite unlike the others he had passed. It was well-lit, and much larger than a lot of the local homes in the area, and less... abandoned and creepy compared to the decrepit structures he had seen looming past the forest earlier. It looked a bit like those structures, had they been properly maintained. Almost like a laboratory of sorts.

Jordan stood outside it for a few minutes as he watched Hop circle overhead. It was still pretty early in the day, but he figured it would be nice to get out of the dreary weather for a little bit and recharge, maybe get a refill of clean water for the rest of the trek.

It took several moments to round up his ragtag team by the door, especially the Pidgeotto, who apparently just no longer had the patience for his non-flying companions—"What, you think you're better than us now?" Jordan muttered as Hop begrudgingly landed next to Tangles—but eventually, he had them all lined up nicely next to him, as he reached out and rang the doorbell.

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. 12

Tackle
Growth
Vine Whip
Play Nice
Tail Whip
Leech Seed

Tiny
Pumpkaboo | F | Lvl. 18

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

Inventory

- Pokédex
- Pokégear
- 2-person tent
- Tangles' plant
- Container of berries

Moon Stone

QueenNothing · Dec 22, 2020

Gwen Alanis ft. Casey Holt
May 26th, Sunday, Morning

For once, aimlessly wandering didn't get Gwen into something she was completely unprepared for.

Well, "aimlessly wandering" might be a bit of an exaggeration- She is still currently traveling with Casey, someone much more attentive than her, and both being guided by Pepper's tail flame. But she doesn't really think about that; rather, her mind is struck with thoughts about her relationship with Casey. She's pretty sure they have something good, but it feels like just a second ago that could have been jeopardized if Gwen got on his bad side, which she feels she almost did. She could always ask Casey directly, but well, that would be a challenge. The possibility she'd receive any sort of rejection just isn't worth the risk.

THUD

The sudden loud noise has Gwen jump. "WHO'S THERE!?" She panics and frantically looks around. She finally takes in her surroundings, sees the corner where two crumbling walls intersect. Looking past this particular corner reveals an entrance to a long hallway, and looking down has her realize the source of the noise.

THUD

It's just Marshall walking into a wall.

Gwen giggles, but it was pretty embarrassing that her own oblivious Pokémon ramming into a wall for god knows why caused her to jump. "Alright Marshall, I think it's time you go back in your ball." She grabs his Pokeball and has him retreat. Gwen looks back at Jess, and does the same with her before attaching both Pokeballs to her belt.

Casey chuckles. "He shoulda stayed sittin' on Parsley."

"Yeah, I guess." She shrugs before looking down the dark hallway. "Hey, I wonder if anything is down there?"

"Might be a stairwell. It kinda looks like the hall upstairs." Casey strides ahead, Pepper at his heels to light the way, and Gwen quickly follows suit. Looking around the dimly lit hallway shows there really isn't much of anything here. Just the right environment for her mind to wander again.

Since her and Casey had officially been friends since last night, how close exactly were friends supposed to be? Jenny always told her to make more friends, but never specified the exact steps to how friendships work. Maybe the relationship that she and Jenny had was supposed to be an example of how these things play out. She never fought with her sister or anything, so it might have been a good idea to hold her tongue after the Malamar attack. But to what degree was her friendship supposed to replicate her relationship with her sister? Would she have to end up opening up about everything? Including…

No. Never in a million years could she even consider confessing that. Back to square one there.

Casey opens doors as they make their way down, but apparently none of them were interesting enough to linger on. The final door, though, turns out to be the stairwell they were looking for- one tight spiral later, they find themselves in another hall, pitch-black but for the light of Pepper's flame.

"Didn't think the sun was doin' much for us up there but… proves me wrong I guess!" Casey observes cheerfully.

Any details the light reveals are just as uninteresting as the hall of the last story. There are a few doors scattered throughout, and Dr. Quartz's map shows the device is somewhere on this floor, but the problem comes in figuring out which room. Casey continues to open random doors and wander in, giving a cursory scan for Quartz's device and wandering back out, but that clearly is getting them nowhere. He shoves open a set of double doors and finally perks up.

"Hey, this room is big. And looks like a lab. Like maybe they did machinery tests here? Wait, isn't something like that marked on the map?"

Gwen checks the map to verify Casey's claim, squinting her eyes as she examines it. "Well, the map says the room the device is in is like, uh, three rooms behind this one. How are we supposed to get there from here…"

"Behind?" Casey peers over her shoulder at the map. "Wait, no, we're… here, and i think we came in this door. So it's… no, that ain't right."

He disappears from behind her and the light goes with him as Pepper follows his trainer, Gwen hurrying to keep up. He disappears into one of the rooms they've checked before. "It's this room, that's what the map says!"

"So that means the device is here, right?"

"Uh… no." Casey, Pepper, and Parsley cluster around a hole in the floor, peering down. "I think it… fell?"

"What do you mean it fell?" Gwen gives him a quizzical expression.

"It fell," Casey repeats, shrugging. "I've looked all around this room twice now and it's nowhere, but there's a hole in the floor here. See?" He sticks his walking stick into the hole, as far as it can go, and it doesn't make contact with anything. "Too bad it's dark, or I'd just jump down. Unless it went through two floors. Quartz said there were lots of basement levels, right?"

"I guess so, but how are we gonna get down there. What if I used Jess to lower us down…" Gwen freezes to think about what she's saying. "Well, could she even carry either of us? I'm… a little heavy, so probably not."

"An' I'm too heavy for even Parsley to lower. But mostly I was thinkin' we'd just go back and use the stairs."

"Oh yeah." Gwen freezes for a second, looking dumbfounded. "I mean, yeah sure, even though it's not as cool."

"I can make anything cool!" Casey says with faux-haughtiness as he leads the group back the way they came, stepping easily around the previously encountered messes of rubble and abandoned memorabilia. The stairwell seems to be clear all the way down- well, as far down as they can see- but Casey pauses at the door to the next level.

"We should prob'ly split up, right?"

His suggestion comes as a shock to Gwen, who was starting to feel comfortable around him. "Wait, split up? But, why?"

"I wanna be back at the lab by lunchtime, so we should try to get this done pretty quick. An' we don't know if it fell one story, or two, or three. Couldn't see down that far! So I'll go see what's on this floor, and you go down to the next one, and if we find it then we call each other."

Casey's suggestion is sensible, but it doesn't sit right with Gwen. She doesn't want to risk upsetting Casey, but she also doesn't want to separate from him. But it's either one or the other, and she has little time to decide.

"Yeah, alright." Gwen sighs. If she separated from Casey now, she'd at least get to see him later- The same couldn't be said for if she got on his bad side. Casey waves as he starts out to explore his floor, taking Pepper's light with him. Gwen watches as he disappears through the hall, upset about their decision. He'd be back, but to her it feels eerily familiar.

Don't worry champ, we'll see each other again during Spring break!

She shudders as the memory flashes in her mind. She feels herself being consumed by her thoughts, but is taken out of it by a Pokeball on her belt wiggling, to which she grabs and presses the white button to send Bead out.

"What is it, Bead?"

The Misdreavus only swoops behind Gwen and grabs her by the back of her flannel and pulls her back towards the staircase. "Hey, watch where you're going, I could fall!"

Even if Bead can be pretty annoying at times, it was good to have him out again- that sure as hell wouldn't happen with Casey around.

Gwen's team

QueenNothing · Dec 25, 2020

Gwen Alanis ft. Casey Holt...?
May 26th, Sunday, Morning

Spoiler:

In retrospect, splitting off from Casey was probably a bad idea, solely based on the fact that Gwen had lost her best light source while in a dark abandoned factory.

She's not completely out of luck at least- Bead's "necklace" can emit enough light so that Gwen can sort of see in-front of her, but compared to Pepper's flame, is significantly less bright. It's more like a night-light than anything, but at least it's functional. Bead, having spent most of his life living a nocturnal lifestyle, has his eyes better adjusted to see in the dark, and he's able to quickly pull Gwen out of the way of any fallen objects on the ground. The two make a decent duo for this mission.

The first thing she notices is another hallway, but it was much shorter than the two she just walked through, and this one has no doors. That only leaves her to exit the foyer, where she sees lots of machinery, nothing she knows a name for. She follows the direction Bead yanks her flannel in, but there's no guarantee he's any more confident where he's going.

Gwen makes lots of more turns, left and right, and isn't any more sure if she's getting closer to the device. The most that stands out to her is the light coming from this one hall that's matched with crackling sounds- Hey, wait just a second.

She's not sure where this came from so suddenly- She probably just spaced out again- but that doesn't matter. Gwen runs up to the entryway, Bead occasionally halting her momentum so she doesn't trip, and looks down it. She spots a school of Tynamo, all floating through the air, and emitting enough electricity to light up the hall.

"Wooooow!!" Gwen enthusiastically squeaks, admiring the school of eels, in awe over how they move through the air as if they're swimming. "I wanna-"

She's taken out of her thoughts when Bead forcefully nudges her forward. "Jeez, alright, alright!" She begrudgingly treads through, doing her best to avoid making contact with any Tynamo. Some of them float pretty close to the floor, and Bead does his best to make sure Gwen doesn't step on any- His trainer would feel a chain of all their combined electric energy pulsing through her, and he isn't about to find out the type effectiveness electric attacks have on humans.

After the pair carefully make their wall through the corridor, they see the end is another hallway entrance. Looking left shows nothing but darkness, but to the right, the population of Tynamo continues.

"They might be feeding off the electricity from the machine!" Gwen's eyes brighten as she thinks out loud to herself, and again carefully tip-toes through the crowd of electric-types.

Reaching the end of the hall was the same business as before- to her left was more Tynamo and right was complete darkness. Unhesitantly, she gets ready to trek through the hall with a light source, but she suddenly feels something tap on her shoulder.

"GAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" Dreading the worst, she jumps into the air and lands on her feet facing the opposite direction. She expects to see another Morgrem, or even worse, a Grimmsnarl. What tapped her shoulder, however, wasn't a Grimmsnarl, Morgrem, or even a Pokemon-

It was just good ol' Casey Holt, grinning widely and holding his arms behind his back. He probably gave up on his search on the above floor.

"Oh, Casey." She exhales. "Boy, am I glad to see you!" Casey simply waves as he continues to smile, saying nothing. Gwen studies him, but notices a few things missing.

"Hey, why isn't Pepper out?" She asks, raising an eyebrow. Casey still says nothing, and just shrugs.

"Well with the Tynamo lighting up the way, I guess we don't need him out." She chuckles. "I thought you'd have a better answer than that, though." Casey simply scratches the back of his head in embarrassment. Gwen further examines him, not being able to help that something seems...off.

Whatever it is, it can't be that important. "Oh well." Gwen shrugs. "Let's go already!" The Unovian girl turns around to march down the lit hallway, but abruptly halts when Casey unpromptedly grabs onto her hand. "Wh-wh-wh-wh…"

Gwen turns around to see Casey pointing to the dark passageway while tightly squeezing her hand. Normally she'd question the strange decision, but in her current state, she was rendered near useless. "B-b-b-b-b-but, th-th-th-WAA!!!!" Regardless of any interjections Gwen is unable to make, Casey strings her along into the pitch-black corridor. As the light-source fades further and further away, Gwen does her best to think up why exactly Casey makes such a baffling decision. But it starts to make sense when something Viveka said floats through her mind.

"Find a dark corner to make out in or whatever."

Is THAT what his goal is? It did feel very illogical of him to go along with such a plan, especially when yesterday he told her straight that it was an act. Maybe he changed his mind? What else could drive such strange behavior?

"C-C-C-C-Casey, n-n-n-now isn't the t-t-t-t-time f-f-f-f-f-for-"

As Gwen stutters her way through the sentence, Bead has just as many questions in his mind as his trainer. How did he navigate these dark rooms without his Charmeleon? Why would he just abandon his task? Why wasn't he talking? Maybe there's an answer to these he's overlooking, but that still leaves the most puzzling question of all;

Wasn't this kid scared of ghost-types???

Bead has a suspicion of what's going on, but currently it's too dark to test it, and his neck light isn't a very adequate light-source. And even if he has decent night-vision, this was something that Gwen needs to be able to see.

Casey continues to drag Gwen through the darkness for what feels like an eternity. Thoughts about what Casey's intentions are and if she feels the same way race through her mind, all while the blonde boy says nothing. He must be really determined about this.

Eventually they do come across something of note- A dim light flickers up ahead. As this becomes visible, Casey kicks his speed up, and Gwen has no choice but to follow with their hands locked. Getting closer reveals it's some kind of backroom with a single light-bulb overhead, which shows the room as completely empty, and the only entrance or exit is where the trio just entered from.

By this point, Gwen thinks she knows full well what Casey's aim is, and her face turns as red as a tomato. "C-C-C-C-Casey, I-I-I-I-I-"

The boy still says nothing, and all he does is just stand against the back wall of the room, grinning widely again. Now that Gwen could actually see, Bead decides this as a perfect time to act, and floats out from behind Gwen's back. He barks at Casey, who literally barks back, oddly enough, and swoops forward to collide into the young man. Gwen wheezes in utter astonishment at the sudden decision of her Pokémon.

"B-B-B-BEAD, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU-"

Making abrupt contact causes Casey to suddenly be engulfed in a white light, to the absolute confusion of Gwen. Bead's intuition was correct though- Whoever was leading them certainly wasn't Casey.

"What the-!"

The character who was thought to be Casey morphs, shrinking to a quarter of his previous size, and into the shape of a small quadruped creature. The white light fades away, exposing a small, black fox Pokémon that Gwen stares dumbfoundedly with her jaw on the ground.

"What the… A Zorua!?" This certainly explains a lot in retrospect, but that didn't matter currently, as Gwen felt rage fuel her. Being manipulated into experiencing a bizarre range of emotions by a Pokémon isn't something she's very happy about. She wishes Dr. Quartz mentioned something about Zorua inhabiting the perimeters to prepare her for this. "I've been fooled by a Zorua this entire goddamn time!?!?"

The Tricky Fox Pokémon mischievously snickers before it zips under Gwen's legs to escape. Gwen turns around, yelling "Get back here!" but freezes when she sees an additional character behind her who seemingly came from nowhere. The Zorua leaps onto the shoulder of a shadowy figure that walks out from the darkness Gwen emerged from not too long ago. It doesn't take long for her to realize who exactly decides to show up.

Spoiler:

"What's the matter? Disappointed about your lover boy!" The eerily recognizable voice cackles, sending chills down the girl's spine. It starts to become clear why Quartz brought up no word of Zorua.

"Y-y-you!? Wh-what are y-y-y-you doing here!?!?"

The figure walks out from the shadows, revealing himself to be draped in a black cape and a black mask that hides his eyes- Gwen just now notices it resembles the face markings of an Impidimp. His face covered in piercings and unique haircut make it unmistakable who this figure is.

"You know damn well what I'm here for!" He asserts harshly, his jagged voice echoing through the small room. "I was humiliated by some weasley brat in Cerulean who stopped me with some cheap tricks! Now that I've managed to get you out here alone, I'm here for revenge, bitch!" The Masked Man grabs a Pokeball from somewhere behind his cape, menacingly smirking Gwen down with his teeth exposed. He tosses it to the ground, sending out a navy blue Pokémon with a feather on its head and stands on two legs, flashing the sharp claws on its hands.

He has a Sneasel too, huh? Oh boy, I might have needed to be prepared for more than just Morgrem, but I'm ready for this at least…

"Pix, I need you!" Gwen tensely tosses a Pokeball of her own, sending Pix onto the floor. The single lightbulb in the room appears to get significantly brighter as she's sent out, an illusion created by her Drought ability. Despite the obvious type advantage she has, the Masked Man's vicious smirk only widens.

"Bring it on, you little shit!"

This should be enough to actually deal with Morgrem Guy this time around, but given his smug confidence, Gwen remains uncertain how cocky she can be right now.

Gwen's team

QueenNothing · Dec 28, 2020

Gwen Alanis
May 26th, Sunday, Morning

Spoiler:

Going by type advantage alone, the rematch Gwen is about to have with Morgrem Guy should be a walk in the park. Her Pokémon have drastically grown in the past few days, and Pix's Drought ability should be enough to close the gap between the two. Bead recognizes this as well, and spectates from behind his trainer's head.

"Pix, use Incinerate!"

"Sneasel, Fake Out!"

Pix charges up a fire in her mouth, but Sneasel gets incredibly close to her in a split second, hitting her straight in the face with his palm to make Pix flinch and lose her focus.

"Now, Icy Wind!" Rolls off the Masked Man's snake-like tongue, and his Sneasel exhales a freezing cold fog which expands into the small room, temporarily blinding both Gwen and her Pokémon.

It's not long before the fog clears up, revealing the tile they used as a battlefield to be covered in a thick layer of ice, and the overhead light-bulb's harsh light is severely muted. Sneasel briefly vanishes, but reappears as two instead of a single being- Very obviously Double Team. When visible again, the Sneasels use the ice layer to gracefully slide across the floor, giving the appearance they're both ice skating as their movements are in perfect unison.

"That's nothing we haven't dealt with before! Pix, you know what to do!" Determined, the Vulpix tries with her Fire Spin technique, charging up a ball of fire in her jaw, and hops into the air- Or at least she would have, if her feet weren't currently frozen to the ground, something she and Gwen just noticed. "O-oh, right. Icy Wind hinders movement."

"Good to see you remember what they taught you at trainer school." The Masked Man cackles maniacally. "Sneasel, Triple Axel!"

Both Sneasels gradually close in, spinning on the ground like tops with one leg kicked up where ice begins to form around. Sneasel and his copy slide in to deliver a frozen foot to Pix's left and right cheeks, each one targeting a different side.

"Uh- Pix, melt the ice with Incinerate!" Pix tries again to charge a fire in her mouth, but her concentration breaks when two more ice kicks hit her face in two different directions, feeling a greater pain than she previously did.

With both Sneasels backing away, preparing a third and final strike with Triple Axel, Gwen's mind flails around, struggling to think of a path to avoiding defeat. Her breath kicks up and she starts to panic and lose focus, even as the Sneasels once again use their spinning momentum to fill the distance that stood between them and Pix, their soles of their feet smashing into her face from both sides. The sound of ice shattering against Pix's head takes Gwen out of her detached anxiety, but does little to alleviate it.

"PIX, NO!!!" Despite all the damage she's taken, Pix still stands her ground- Although with her feet frozen, it'd be hard not to. Gwen heavily considers switching Pix out, but she was the only real match for Sneasel. Still, Gwen hated seeing her Vulpix push herself to such levels, so she lifts up Pix's Pokeball.

"Vul!" The fire-type weakly yips at her trainer. Gwen furrows her eyebrows and grits her teeth, begrudgingly trusting her Pokémon's foolish decision. Refocusing her attention to her enemy, the black haired girl notices too late that both Sneasels charge forward frozen fist first, and clock Pix in the face in perfect unison, shattering the ice against her fur, and she yelps in agony. The Sneasels slide back yet again, and increase their skating speed against the ice floor with Agility. Pix tanks the hit, staying in battle for her trainer's sake, but is unsure she can take another attack.

"Trainer school didn't prepare you for this, did they?" The Masked Man kaws with his ill intent, and the young trainer shivers from being so intimidated.

What the hell!?! She's clearly taking damage from the copy, and the ice is even shattering from both sides! I thought with Double Team only one attack is real and the other is an illusion. What's his technique?

Gwen, deep in thought, ignores both Sneasels scratching their claws together to increase their power. Her eyes wander to Morgrem Guy, and staring at him for a few seconds has her eyes light up. Something he had at the start of the match is missing- and that might explain the Double Team conundrum.

"Hey, wait just a sec!" Gwen points directly at the Masked Man, who cocks an eyebrow on his sadistic expression.

"Oh? Why don't I hear your pathetic attempt to delay the inevitable!"

"Where's your Zorua?!"

Spoiler:

That one simple question causes Morgrem Guy's to flinch. He gasps and nervously darts his pupils left and right. "He, uh, err,, I sent him- Keep your nose out of other people's business, bitch!"

Bingo.

A smug grin forms on the Unovian trainer's face, and Bead swiftly floats out from behind her head. His eyes glow red, and a small glowing energy ball launches from his mouth, successfully targeting a speedy Sneasel. She knows this one isn't a clone, because instead of disappearing into nothingness, he loses his balance and spins around in place. Normally, a Double Team clone would fade away by now, but the remaining Sneasel's eyes widen, unable to stop his momentum from sliding on the frozen floor, and shouts as he bumps into the other Sneasel. Both are knocked onto the floor, and the Sneasel that was confused glows white, reverting back to a Zorua. This entire time, the Double Team was Zorua disguising himself and using Copycat to follow Sneasel's actions.

"AHAA!!!" Gwen cathartically yells, bluntly pointing at Morgrem Guy, who freezes in a cold sweat. "You know what they say; Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, fuck you!" She's not entirely sure how the saying goes, but she likes her version better anyways.

Before the real Sneasel can even regain his footing, Bead shoots another Confuse Ray at the Sharp Claw Pokémon, who struggles to stand up on the slippery floor. With nothing standing in her way now, a fire sparks in Gwen's eyes.

"Y-y-you bastard!" The Masked Man's collected composure shatters, being switched out for a whiny shriek. "That's the same cheap trick you used in Cerulean!"

"I used my Pokémon's abilities fair and square!" Gwen's confidence skyrockets, and displays a cocky grin that extends to both ears, exposing her pearly whites. "Pix, Fire Spin!"

With nothing to set her back, Pix launches a ball of fire at the floor Sneasel and Zorua lay on, and on impact, expands into a flaming vortex that traps both Pokémon. They cry in anguish, especially Sneasel, and the Fire Spin melts any surrounding ice layered on the floor- including the ice that glued Pix to the ground.

"Now Pix, let's finish them off with Incinerate!"

At the swipe of Gwen's hand, Pix spits a steady stream of flames into the fire tornado, which gradually grows bigger and bigger the more Pix's Incinerate fuels it. The tormented howls of Zorua and Sneasel eventually come to a halt, and both Pokémon lay totally unconscious on the charred floor. The Fire Spin suddenly dissipates, and Morgrem Guy's jaw drops on the floor.

"You saw that! I won!" Gwen taunts. "Now get outta here! You're messing with a future champion here!"

The Masked Man stands silent in shock for a minute before he slaps his cheeks and shakes his head. "Not so fast, brat!" His menacing demeanor is a little harder to take seriously after it was already broken into pieces. "I still have three Pokémon left!" He snickers as he grabs two Pokeballs from under his cape, and tosses them both. As expected, one of them is his malicious Morgrem, who gives a playful but deadly sneer, and is paired with a Houndoom who harshly snarls through his piercing teeth.

Gwen gulps, but remains confident, and grabs Bead and Pix's Pokeballs to have them retreat. "Thanks, both of you. You did a great job, but you need the rest. Right now, I have other friends who are better suited for this job."

Gwen's team

Aquacorde · Dec 28, 2020

Casey Holt

Sunday, May 26, 2019 // Morning, Day 7
Route 12 // Abandoned Hydroelectric Factory

6-17. dungeon crawl

Even though the hallway before him twists and turns in different ways than the above floor, Casey could follow his fairly accurate internal compass and head straight for the area he suspects the device to have fallen to.

But he doesn't.

Even though he'd told Gwen they should try to move quickly- and they should, he still believes that- he can't help but open every door along the hallway. Most are seem to be simple storage rooms, but he wanders into a few for a better look around anyway. It's rare that he finds one with a working light, so he has to sweep the areas with the limited radius of Pepper's flames. Unlike Gwen and her earlier nervousness, he's not afraid of what may lie beyond these doors- he's confident he and his Pokémon can deal with anything that happens. He always is. That's how he's lived his whole life, really.

He's about to close the door on yet another room, dismissing what he can see from the door as boring office space, when he hears it- gentle rustling and tiny splashes. Opening the door again, he motions for his Pokémon to stay quiet as they tiptoe into the room, navigating abandoned cubicles and shelving to finally see a crumbled wall, a broken pipe, a puddle of water, and-

Casey's blood runs cold.

Nearly a dozen Mimikyu, in their Pikachu-esque costumes, dancing intricate rituals around the pool of water, clearly waiting for their soft sounds to summon prey to their sinister gathering-

No. Calm down. Think properly.

Six Mimikyu, taking turns dipping whatever toes are under their costumes into the trickling water, splashing gently for no other reason than to enjoy doing so in this dark room lit only by the flickering flame topping Pepper's tail.

Lit only by Pepper's tail.

Shit.

The group turns to face Pepper, all as one, and fuck, that's creepy- Casey's quick backward steps are halted by the touch of a slender hand and he yelps, swiveling in place to find a Morgrem blocking his way to the exit. Shrinking away, he ducks into one of the cubicles, Parsley and Pepper shoving in with him. The Morgrem cackles at their display of fear and slides a shelving unit in front of the cubicle entry, trapping Casey and his Pokémon.

But the Morgrem doesn't truly care about them.

Casey peeks over the divider and watches the best he can in the dim light. Better to keep eyes on the Ghost-types than wait for them to come to him. Theoretically, at least.

The Morgrem waltzes toward the Mimikyu, who ignore its advance and continue their splashing until it looms over them. Once again, as one unit, they turn to face the newcomer. One Mimikyu splashes gently.

And the Morgrem backhands it across the painted face, spinning the fabric in a full rotation.

The Mimikyu, still silent, shrinks away. Another splashes water, defiantly but foolishly. Another slap knocks it down.

Watching Ghosts get beat up is new.

I thought Doctor Quartz said they all got along here. Casey watches the Morgrem continue to torment them, the tiny Mimikyu doing little to defend themselves. Why aren't they doing anything? Wait- can they do anything?

He rifles through his bag, coming up with his PokéDex fairly quickly, and scans Mimikyu to pull up the projected natural move listing for their estimated power level. The PokéDex isn't always accurate with Pokémon that haven't been caught, but it's usually decent. Splash, Double Team, Astonish, Scratch, Copycat, Baby-Doll Eyes all flash up on the screen. No wonder they're not doing much- there really isn't a lot that they could do. Not against this Morgrem, who the PokéDex registers as way stronger than even his own team.

Maybe this one doesn't live here, he thinks, as the Morgrem cackles and the Mimikyu huddle closer to each other. Maybe it's sneaking into this territory. That's a question for Doctor Quartz later, he supposes. The question now is how to get out without alerting the Morgrem or the Mimikyu, when it's his Pokémon that's lighting the room. If Pepper moves, they're caught. If he recalls Pepper, they're caught and plunged into darkness, which probably will only hinder Casey himself.

Bad options.

Casey stares blankly at the scuffle as his brain screams for him to make a decision, any decision, something other than hiding in a cubicle in a room filled with Ghosts. A Mimikyu hesitantly raises a claw and the Morgrem, with speed and precision, rakes shadowy claws across its neck. A sickening crack echoes through the room and the Mimikyu's head lolls.

Don't rip their outfits! And don't look under their clothes!

And Casey finds himself choosing a third, arguably worse option.

The Morgrem startles as Casey kicks through the particleboard wall and pushes his way between the Mimikyu and their attacker, back to the ghosts and skin crawling as his brain screams BAD IDEA! BAD IDEA! on siren-esque repeat. Aloud, he says through gritted teeth: "Leave." As if talking to it will help, or he will even be understood. Parsley and Pepper flank him, creating even more of a wall between the sides. Casey steps forward, putting distance between himself and the Ghosts and forcing the Morgrem to step back. He doesn't want to do this, he really doesn't, but siding with Ghosts is far better than being in the same room when they unleash their supernatural rage.

The Morgrem looks uncertain for a moment, then bows its head. The walking stick in Casey's hands moves before he even registers the attack- the stabbing hair gets smacked aside, and the Morgrem stands fully once more, anger flashing across its face.

"False Surrender! I know that trick." Casey's grin falters as he hears the shuffling of Mimikyu behind him. His grip on the walking stick tightens. Breathe.

"Parsley, Leech Seed."

The roots wind around the Morgrem's right leg but it tears them off immediately, crushing them in its spindly fingers. Too smart for that, huh? Just like Bruno, just like Gwen- like Beaumont, if the man had been serious. Not the time! An Ember from Pepper briefly sets the Morgrem's hair alight but it simply pinches out the flame, smirking and tossing its hair. Pepper blows out a frustrated breath and lashes out with his claws, completely unprompted by Casey. The Morgrem sidesteps easily and Pepper crashes to the ground, picking himself up and unleashing a much bigger puff of flames. The Morgrem ducks, cackling.

"Pepper, what-?" At the sound of his voice, his Pokémon rounds on him. Casey barely dodges Pepper's raking claws and Parsley rears back from snapping, flaming teeth. The Morgrem cackles harder and the PokéDex's move list flashes across Casey's memory. "Swagger?"

Casey catches Pepper's wrist as he tries to slash at him again. He can't put Pepper away, he's the only light they have. He'll just have to hold him- kneeling, he uses the walking stick to help pin the struggling Charmeleon against his chest. Pepper's tail thrashes, thumping against Casey's thigh and sending the Mimikyu into a shuffling panic. Casey grits his teeth. "Ten."

The Morgrem grovels and Parsley's leaves fly over its head before its dark hair stabs out once more, jamming into Parsley's neck. The Skiddo whimpers and Ginger jumps into the fray, shocking the Morgrem both literally and figuratively as it takes an electrified foot to the face. Pepper spits a fireball at Ginger and she ducks at Casey's shout, but that gives the Morgrem a perfect opening to punch her away into the darkness. Parsley's vines wrap around the Morgrem even as his body glows a dim green with Growth- there's no sun here, there hasn't been enough outside, and the weak boost is hardly helping Parsley wrestle the Morgrem to the ground.

Ginger reappears from the shadows, leaping high to drop another foot in Morgrem's face, but it's the Morgrem itself that crackles with electricity this time- weaker than Ginger's Thunder Punch or the bolt from the Malamar, but enough to flicker the old fluorescent lights, set Ginger's fuzz on end, and lock Parsley's muscles. The Skiddo yelps when he falls to the ground and (spores, paralysis, helplessness) Casey recalls him instantly, but in doing so drops his walking stick and releases Pepper, who in turn releases a blue-tinged breath- luckily, toward the Morgrem. But a Dragon-type attack does nothing but make their adversary smirk, and instead of retaliating it begins to glow.

No.

Disbelieving dread stops him in his tracks as he watches the Morgrem's form shift, change, and grow. The glow fades, leaving Pepper's tail the only light source once more, and the first thing Casey sees is that pink skin has turned to green. Where the creature before barely cleared his knees it now stands at his shoulders, spindly limbs strengthened by dark hair grown long and thick. New energy flows through it, manifesting as a dull pink glow in its hair-coated fingers. It closes its fist, dispersing the energy, admiring the new form.

And grins.

Locks of hair grab Pepper and Casey by the wrists, chaining their arms together and dragging them to the floor. Ginger is completely invisible but for little sparks lighting the tendril encasing her and Casey writhes on the ground, desperately trying to break the hold as he throws out commands at random, thoughts on hold as immobilization saturates his entire body with blinding, rushing terror. Pepper is forced to swallow his own fireballs as the hair creeps over his body and clamps his mouth shut. Ginger's electricity fizzles out- he doesn't even know which clump of hair has her anymore- and Parsley, paralyzed and in his PokéBall, can't answer Casey's desperate calls for any number of leaves.

The Grimmsnarl looms over him, grinning, cackling, toying with him, bulking up its free arm with masses of hair in preparation for this new attack, hand aglow with pink-tinged Fairy energy. Casey struggles, but all he achieves is flipping himself onto his back, wide eyes meeting the Grimmsnarl's piercing glare. A gentle shuffling echoes through the ringing in his ears as the broken-necked Mimikyu glides along his side. Casey shudders, but the Mimikyu stops and stares not at him, but at the Grimmsnarl. No, leave- no Pokémon- no help- no hands- can't defend-

And the hand slams down into his torso, knocking the wind from him as the demon's teeth glint in the firelight. Casey chokes, gasping for breath, vision fuzzing over and eyes watering- no, tears falling as the Grimmsnarl just laughs, malice rolling from every note. Breathe! he screams, internally. Reset your diaphragm, come on-

An eternity passes in the seconds it takes for him to draw in a deep breath, then two, and three. And finally he can choke out a command, despite the will to resist dissipating entirely from his very core. A command not to his own Pokémon, not for a move he's familiar with, but one he'd caught a glimpse of just moments ago on the glowing screen of the PokéDex.

"Copycat," he rasps out.

The broken-necked Mimikyu swivels to face him.

And leads the charge.

The other five Mimikyu glide around Casey, claws extending from underneath their shrouds. The pink tinge that had suffused the Grimmsnarl's hand does the same across their shadowy claws as they attack as one, severing locks and slashing at knees. The Grimmsnarl stumbles, roaring threats as Casey scrambles to his feet and to the wall, away from the assault. Pepper and Ginger join the fray, Pepper's claws tearing more hair from the Grimmsnarl's body and Ginger's spinning kicks to its knees helping bring it to the floor. The Grimmsnarl lashes out with shadow-coated claws and sends three Mimikyu flying, costumes going limp. "Mimikyu!" Casey coughs, still struggling to get words out at the volume he needs. "Get away!"

The four broken-necked ones are rounded up by their two normal-looking friends and whisked into the shadows, presumably towards the door, and Casey can focus for real now. He releases Parsley, as Pepper and Ginger continue to distract their foe, and forces a Cheri berry into the Skiddo's tight jaw. "Chew, baby boy," he murmurs, and as the Skiddo's body loses its tension Casey regains hope. "Good! FIFTEEN!"

Pepper and Ginger dart away as leaves fly forth, pummeling the Grimmsnarl. Parsley sneaks a Leech Seed in as well, and distracted as it is by Pepper's stream of fire to its face, the Grimmsnarl doesn't register the roots curling around its thigh. It does, however, recognize the renewed threats of Casey and Parsley and sends a wave of crackling electricity their way. Casey braces himself for impact, more Cheri berries in hand, but fast as lightning itself Ginger dashes to intercept the wave. "Good!" Casey praises, and Ginger takes half a second to make a rude gesture at him.

That half a second costs her and she takes a hair-loaded punch to the face. Casey catches her just before she slams into the wall and the Grimmsnarl gets to its feet, kicking Pepper back into the cubicle they had hidden in before. Casey glances wildly around the room- all he can see is what's around Pepper, the cubicle directing light mostly upwards toward the long-dead ceiling fixtures.

Wait!

"Parsley, trip it!" With Casey bracing the Skiddo, the vines snaring Grimmsnarl's feet yank its legs out from under it and laying it out on its back. "Pepper, Rush!" is all the permission Pepper needs to combine a wire shelving unit with his unique technique and slam it repeatedly into the Grimmsnarl's torso, while Casey himself settles Ginger into his palm. "Take it down!" he says, as his throw puts extra oomph behind her arc- she comes down perfectly onto the swinging fluorescent fixture, snapping chains and riding it down to crash into Grimmsnarl's neck.

The racket shattering of bulbs fades into silence. Parsley's vines retract, Pepper drops his shelf, and Ginger picks her way through limp hair and over to Pepper, demanding to be carried. Pepper obliges as Casey and Parsley join them at the side of their fallen foe, Casey retrieving his walking stick as he goes.

"Uh. Did we, uh." Casey clears his throat. "Did we… kill… it?"

He's not quite sure what to do if they did. Or how to feel about it.

They watch carefully in the flickering light of Pepper's flames, and the Grimmsnarl's chest rises and falls rhythmically. "Okay. Okay, we're good. Let's get outta here."

Once the door is closed behind them, he breathes properly again, but it turns into a shuddering gasp as Pepper's tail illuminates the gathered denizens of the hall. A dozen Mimikyu, for real this time, all turn to face him in silent unison. Four broken-necked and eight unscathed.

Casey sits down heavily against the wall.

The two parties watch each other in silence.

Casey sighs.

"I'm afraid of you ghosts," he says. "I'm afraid of all the things you can do. To me, specifically. I don't want y'all taking over my body and makin' me do stuff. I don't like that y'all can pop up wherever, whenever, and make stuff happen. Phasing an' possession an' that- that really freaks me out. Don't help that y'all are tricky and unpredictable. But, uh, you didn't do any of that. And you helped. And pretty much saved us. So. Thanks."

They stare at him.

"It should be sluggish for a while. Happens after evolution sometimes. Better take off, though."

They continue to stare at him. Expectantly, perhaps.

"I'm not gonna bring any of you with me." That's still out of the question.

Maybe someday.

Casey represses a shudder at that thought. But wouldn't that be cool? Wouldn't that be the ultimate conquering of his phobia? To be at the point where he himself could train a Ghost without fear…

Maybe someday.

How much the Mimikyu understand, he doesn't know. But they do eventually turn, silently, as one, and disappear into another room down the hall. The door shuts behind them.

And the ringing of his phone echoes through the hall.

moon · Dec 29, 2020

Ralph Gonder

Unfairy Fight

Saturday, May 25th
Late Afternoon, Day 6

Sandsy

Lv 24 | Coldy

Lv 21
Jolty

Lv 17 | Creepy

Lv 18 | Greeny

Lv 13
Ralph's Profile | Current Chapter | css base by Aquacorde

Spoiler:

Grimmsnarl is a dangerous beast. It's tall and wide, and the menacing hairs on its limbs flutter threateningly, seemingly shuddering whenever the rain falls onto them. And the rain is picking up, and so is the wind. This is, overall, a really shitty situation.

And Grimmsnarl charges forward, with a roar.

A memory flashes before Ralph's mind, of a Lycanroc standing before her, ready to take a bite. Her pokémon had saved her then.

She instinctively grabs pokéball after pokéball and calls her team out. They all appear one after another, and their battle-ready stances seem to make the fairy goblin hesitate and come to a halt a mere meter in front of Sandsy's outstretched claws.

Ralph dares to breathe, but the relief was false. Grimmsnarl is taking a deep breath and Ralph scrambles to get her mind as battle-ready as her pokémon are, so she can send out useful orders.

The attack comes just as Ralph calls out for a Sand Tomb. But it doesn't hit any of her front-liners; it's a Dark Pulse and it's shooting straight at Ralph. Or, relatively straight at her. It hits the small Dreepy, who was just next to the girl and made sure to get in the way in time. The attack is powerful, and Creepy tumbles down into the tall grass below.

That seems to be enough to trigger Ralph at last.

"Sand Tomb!" she repeats, and Sandsy is already on it.

As the trainer dives to her dragonling, the Sandslash is spraying a swirling storm of sand that at least somewhat traps Grimmsnarl in the spot.

"Powder Snow! Jolty, Thundershock!"

The other front-liners fire off their powers, assaulting the sandied goblin with lightning and cold. It seems to make it falter.

Then, Ralph's tiny Rattata enters the fray unprompted, and even though she's only visible for a split second, Ralph knows it's Quick Attack the rat is using.

The next thing they know, Greeny has been knocked back and falls hard to the ground right in front of the goblin. Sandsy lets the Sand Tomb fall, to not spray his ally. Ralph puts two and two together.

"Grimmsnarl isn't much weakened at all… And that was a Sucker Punch!"

The enemy smiles at them and its body begins to shine with a dark aura, but it doesn't move. Some kind of Dark type powering-up move? Ralph knows she should try to figure out what it's doing, but she's heavily distracted by Greeny's unmoving figure at its feet. She's barely visible behind the vegetation. She holds Creepy more tightly in her arms and decides that she has to retreat the rat.

"Sandsy, Rock Slide! Coldy, Ice Shard! Jolty... Shockwave!"

While the trainer tries to sneak off to the side to get a clear line of view to Greeny, pokéball in hand, her pokémon fire off their new onslaught of moves. Sandsy conjures a rain of rocks and fires them off towards the Grimmsnarl, intermingled with sharp shards from Coldy. Before they hit, Jolty's Shockwave does, shocking the goblin enough to keep it from easily evading the other attacks. They all hit, and Grimmsnarl roars. The ray from Ralph's pokéball reaches Greeny, and she is safely returned to the ball.

Grimmsnarl seems to notice, though. It again ignores the pokémon in front of it, and starts running towards Ralph on the sideline. Creepy struggles out of Ralph's grip as the girl stumbles backwards in terror. Sandsy and Coldy are already Rapid Spinning and Ice Balling to catch up with the surprisingly fast troll, but it raises its arm - Hammer Strike, Ralph's mind somehow finds the time to think, probably recognizing it from TV at some point - and it is a pity that Sandsy isn't a little bit faster and knows Protect-

The pokéball she has just used, opens anew. Out comes a Rattata that's glowing red, and she lands right on top of Grimmsnarl's nose, and Bites it.

The Hammer Arm is swung around and is barely avoided by the Sandcrew and Jolty, as the fairy troll screams in pain. Apparently the nose is a weak spot?

Greeny finally lets go, and jumps into a perplexed Ralph's arms.

"You are crazy!" she scolds the rat, but hugs her nonetheless.

As Sandsy, Coldy and Jolty carefully steps around the goblin, it seems like the wild pokémon has started crying.

"Oh, come on," Ralph says uncomfortably, looking around. She swears that she's seeing a few Impidimp sticking their heads out from the dripping vegetation. "It can't have hurt that much. Why do you hate humans so much, anyways? I mean, it's clear you have it out for me."

Ralph sighs and looks around again. The Impidimps and Morgrem were pretty upset too, but they had let Ralts lead Ralph away. To the device… She glances up at it, where it's still sitting high up in the tree.

"Or, you have it out for people with purple hair in general… Or people in general," she muses. "Quartz did something bad to you when they put this thing up? Or these things - it seemed like they had plenty of them out here."

Grimmsnarl bows its head down. It really looks like it's giving up, maybe acknowledging what Ralph's suggesting. She crosses her arms, not fully believing that one nose bite would lead to this result.

"I'm here to get rid of that machine. But I can't reach it. Can you help me, then? Win-win, what both of us want?"

She doesn't at all see what happens next, until she's lying on her back in the mud again. She can't breathe, and her mid-section feels numb… For a second. Then pain starts creeping in. She gasps for air, and it finally comes - she doesn't even know after how many seconds. Frantically, she struggles to sit up, and make sense of the world around her.

Grimmsnarl had hit her, with… Its hair. It had been a charade. Did she break her ribs? All of them? It hurts. But she can breathe. Maybe she's alright. She steels herself and crawls up to standing position, steadying herself against the tree. The tree. Had she been knocked all the way back over here? Whoa.

The battle has started up again. A strange pride comes over Ralph as she realizes that all five of her present pokémon are throwing themselves at Grimmsnarl in revenge.

Creepy is zooming around, sending a prickly Infestation at the Dark pokémon whenever she can, and seemingly using Double Team to avoid most of its flailing punches in return. When did she become that clever? Was she always? Jolty is peppering Grimmsnarl's back with Swift, trying not to hit Greeny who, still glowing in red from her Focus Energy, tries to tackle the troll with Quick Attack whenever she can. The Sandshrew and Sandslash, meanwhile, are pretty much in close combat in front of the troll, using Fury Cutter and Metal Claw to slash at its dangerous muscle hairs that snap at them when the Grimmsnarl's fists don't.

Despite all this, Ralph finds that she can't help to think that if Softy had been here, she'd been at her trainer's side now instead, making sure she was alright. And if Edgy was here, that wild fairy would already have a needle or two through its eye.

Looking up again, she sees the device dangling above her. Maybe… Maybe she could use this wild rage to her advantage. Considering how hurt she and her pokémon had been on this mission already, she was now heavily downprioritizing the safety of the device itself. She just wanted this to be over with.

"Return!" she calls out, holding out four pokéballs and making of her pokémon but Creepy de-materialize. "Come here, girl! Fast as you can! Double Team!"

Creepy seems flustered that she was the only one not given the safe retreat, but does what she's told and zooms into Ralph's direction instead, where the trainer is hiding behind the tree from before.

Grimmsnarl is fast, though. It runs after the dragonling, probably in an actual Pursuit attack as its body is glowing with an ominous power when it leaps.

It's just about to headbutt a Dreepy-

But the image of the ghostly dragon disappears. One of them has phased through the tree, and the other one is the Double Team clone. Grimmsnarl headbutts the tree instead, and when it backs off and roars in frustration, something else hits its head before it tumbles through the dark hair on its way down to the wet ground. The device.

"Yes!" Ralph cheers. "Creepy, lure him off for just a little bit longer!"

Creepy doesn't seem to like that idea at all, but Ralph suddenly gives her a kiss on the wet forehead. It seems to be something the dragon has never had happening before, and something she definitely wants to happen again, because it makes her quickly dart out and toss another Double Team clone out after all.

As both Dreepy images blow raspberries at the dark fairy, it's looking away from the device. Ralph dares to dash out and pick it up, throwing its strap over her shoulder. Damn, it's heavy. This work is totally worth several TMs.

Ralph turns to run as fast as she can, carrying both her backpack and the heavy device over her slippery rain poncho. She only looks back to reach Creepy with the pokéball's ray, returning her the safe way at last.

There is some distance put between herself and her enemy, and she had hoped that it would just give up now. It doesn't. Grimmsnarl starts running after her, even as she begins to climb a slight upwards slope. And it's fast. Faster than her with her load.

"This is… Not my… Day at all…" Ralph thinks out loud in between ragged breaths, trying to keep herself calm despite panic definitely rising.

Can she fight again? Her mid-section screams at her to stop and rest. Can they even actually beat this high level monster? She just needs to get away… Think. Think!

A roar from behind tells her that he's closer now than she thought. She nearly loses her footing in the wind and wet grass on the slight slope. That gives her the idea.

She fumbles but gets Coldy out without stopping. The Sandshrew manages to keep up, using her claws to not slide down.

"I need ice! Behind us! Now! The biggest Powder Snow you have ever made! On the ground!" Ralph screams.

Coldy hasn't questioned her trainer's orders for a long while now. Of course she wouldn't now. She hears the urgency and sees the Grimmsnarl still pursuing, mere meters away. The time is dire.

She blows out as much Powder Snow as she possibly can, spraying a thick layer on the ground behind them as they keep advancing upwards. Then, she doubles down and uses Ice Shard as well.

The slope becomes slippery with ice and snow, and laden with sharp shards. Grimmsnarl stumbles and can't follow. It tries again, but slides back down.

"Hah! It worked!" Ralph says, out of breath as she looks over her shoulder.

But the danger isn't out of range yet. Grimmsnarl is full of tricks, and now it reuses its first one. A Dark Pulse is being readied, Ralph realizes in the nick of time.

"Mirror Coat!" she calls out.

The Alolan Sandshrew makes sure to get hit by the dark ray, which is redirected straight into Grimmsnarl's own face. It's a massive strike - Coldy feels the weight of its special power even as her Mirror Coat protects her from the worst of it - and it does a number back onto its origin.

Grimmsnarl finally leaves, wailing. The few Impidimp that Ralph can still see peeking out from the bushes, eventually all leave as well. Not even the Ralts is still here to be seen.

"That's the thanks I get, huh…"

She's sitting down now, on top of the machine. Whatever. She deserves at least three TMs for this, regardless of its state when they return. Quartz is an idiot if they didn't make the devices water-proof though. It's like being in the shower, now, and Ralph can hardly feel her feet anymore from them being so wet in the useless sneakers.

She glances over at the Sandshrew. Rain is dripping from her nose, but she remains vigilant, still keeping an eye out downwards for enemies.

"Thank you," Ralph says. After a few seconds, she is rewarded with a simple glance. "I'm glad you came with me on this journey."

Coldy is quiet and still for a few more seconds, then she puts her wet claws carefully on Ralph's shoulder and rests her paw there for a moment.

[PKMN FULL] TRAINERS (IC)

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