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Mirana was some distance away, and released a spitting warning in Lars’s direction, that made him look up. He was in the middle of lighting a cigarette when he recognized the owner of the voice.

“Back down,” he remarked in the Salazzle’s direction, and the reptilian was forced to comply, slithering back towards where he stood. To Orion, he tilts his head slightly.

“More on a personal search. Been looking for a Greninja since forever, but can’t seem to find one,” he begins, before he feels the ground underneath him quake. It wasn’t coming from the dual-type Shiftry that had appeared at the edge of his vision, so where—

A sudden burst of ground revealed itself to be an Onix. While utterly nonplussed, he knew he could use a little variety on his team. Checking that he had more than enough Pokéballs on him, he then chucks a second Pokéball forward and watches as his Tsareena emerges.

“Caelia, subdue the Onix!” he began, urging her forward. Without further orders, the Tsareena charged ahead, releasing a sickly Sweet Scent to lower the Onix’s defenses. On the other Pokémon’s part, the Rock-type retaliated with a singular large rock. The Smack Down attack was cut down with a Trop Kick from the Tsareena, who then sped forward before releasing a sudden flurry of Magical Leaves at the other.

“What brings you here?” he inquires of the other Ranger. Surely there was something interesting for him out here as well? He looked up in time to see that the Tsareena had managed to single-handedly bring down the Onix, ending the fight with another Trop Kick to the Onix’s head.

“…damn it, don’t be so harsh,” he drawled in the Tsareena’s direction, fishing out an empty Pokéball and throwing it at the Onix.

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He turned to Orion and was about to mutter a word of thanks when he was beset on by the Shiftry—and watched as the other captured it a few moments later with a Weavile. Classy.

The Tsareena saunters over, eventually kicking the Onix’s occupied Pokéball in Lars’s direction before flipping her ‘hair’ around and leaving him to his own devices. “Gee, Caelia, for a lady you sure act like a man,” he muttered, resisting the urge to roll his eyes skyward at the way the Tsareena was behaving.

Meanwhile, the Salazzle continued to slink through the grass, keeping an eye out on the perimeter and hoping that they would find something interesting. Hilariously, she did. Standing up a few moments later, the Salazzle came upon the sight of a…

…what the fuck?

Retreating on her hind legs, she backpedals towards where Lars is now tossing the occupied Pokéball up and down, looking at the Liepard with an appraising look. “Why do I get the feeling she’s not going to like fighting?” he ponders, before he catches sight of Mirana gesturing with her whipping tail at the incoming…

…what in the absolute flying fuck?!

“…what the hell is that,” Lars blurts out of nowhere, looking at the Dugtrio… that had… hair.

How the fuck could a Dugtrio have hair?! Was he seeing things?!

“Weird,” he adds a few moments later, before shaking his head in the Tsareena’s direction.

“No, not that one.”

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Looking over at his companion, he sees a flash of black land in the other’s hair—and then lets out a chuckle because he recognizes what had decided to roost in his hair—he’d seen some of them in the safari, but didn’t take any interest in them.

He was a picky person, can anyone blame him?

“Looks like we have company,” he said a few moments later, spotting the unusual duo. Wondering if it was going to be a good idea to let him handle the other Pokémon, Lars whistles in Mirana’s direction, and the Salazzle snaps to attention.

“Be careful around him. He looks dangerous,” he tells the dual-type, and with a hiss she bounds off, readying her array of noxious poisons, before quickly exhaling a Poison Gas cloud at the Cacturne. Not one to be deterred, the cactus Pokémon quickly summons up a Spiky Shield—but that’s only meant to block incoming physical attacks.

“Again!” he adds, and a second exhalation of the potent purple cloud spreads out past the Spiky shield, forcing the Cacturne to collapse its defense as it inhales the toxic stench. A sudden blast of Flamethrower catches it off-guard, before the Salazzle rears back and unleases another blast of Flamethrower at it. This time, the Cactturne was ready, retaliating with a Sucker Punch that had caught the female Pokémon senseless.

“Wow, rude,” he grumbled, before the Salazzle hissed again, this time snapping in the Cacturne’s direction with a well-timed Fake Out attack. Another Flamethrower blast secures the perimeter and the weakened dual-type’s driven away.

“Well, that’s that,” he says with a smirk, letting the Salazzle continue to patrol around the perimeter.

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Lars could only cringe as he heard the Liepard cry out—it wasn’t until he remembered that Dark-types were weak to Fighting-type moves, but thankfully Orion had managed to dispatch the weird-looking donkey without too much trouble.

Another source of trouble came knocking, and this time, he had to do a second take—thankfully the Dugtrio that appeared didn’t have that weird head of hair. Okay, this looked normal. Pretty normal.

“Oh, thank Arceus,” he muttered under his breath, but it was the Dragon-type that had caught his attention—Mirana was hissing in its direction, spitting up globules of noxious Poison Gas before following it up with a Captivate attack. Hearing the hissing, he turned his attention back to the Salazzle.

“Mirana, be careful. Don’t use your Flamethrower. It’s not going to work,” he called out, before remembering what these Dragon-types were weak to. “Wear it down with Dragon Pulse! Drive it away!”

In retaliation, the Haxorus lashed out with a Taunt, and thankfully it had crossed on the Dragon Pulse that the Salazzle had thrown its way. An attempt at Scary Face wasn’t enough to slow down the dual-type, who was hissing-mad as another Dragon Pulse hit the Dragon-type full-on in the face.

Another attempt at Dragon Claw was launched, only for the Salazzle to drop down and aim a low-aimed Dragon Pulse, finally driving the Haxorus to its feet. Wondering if he was going to get something out of this, he then throws another Pokéball at the fallen Haxorus and watched as it was sucked into the beam of red light.

All this happened while Lars eyed the other Dugtrio suspiciously. Why was this one… bald?