Normally, when he encountered things that didn’t fall under the umbrella of ‘big’ and ‘strong’ he would leave them without a second thought.

But he was here to challenge that perception by going into the Safari Zone, since anything and everything that appeared in here were all babies—young ones, more like—and had to be raised up in order for them to hit their full potential.

His Noivern, Ava, was hovering above him and keeping an eye out while he traversed the undergrowth, wondering if he was going to be able to find what he was looking for. While a Dratini didn’t normally go well with his team, the image of having a big-ass, strong Dragonite was more than enough driving force for him to actually go into this strange place and start catching Pokémon to add to his collection.

Hence the big brain moment of him traversing the Safari Zone right now.

His Noivern let out a screeching cry, a few moments before Arashi was suddenly smacked in the face by an oncoming Dratini that had used a Dragon Rush attack right at him! “Whoa! What the hell!” he exclaimed as he tried to duck down but ended up getting a face-full of dragon instead.

Shoving the Dratini off, he was unsurprised to see it try to charge at him again—only this time it was met with a sudden Air Slash attack from the Noivern who had come sweeping down in an attempt to keep it away from her human companion.

“Ah, gee, really?” he remarked, before the Dratini before it charged at the Noivern this time with an Aqua Tail attack. Snickering to herself, the Noivern then positioned herself before swooping down and aiming a well-timed Dragon Pulse at it.

The little Dragon-type let out a squeal of pain before Arashi took aim and lobbed a Safari Ball at it, hoping for the best…

Last time he was searching out on the Eastern Hoenn front for a Water-type, and he’d succeeded. Now he was back on solid ground, on land in the Western side of the region, not too far from Mauville.

Why were there only three places in the entire region that had Fire-types? He blinked slowly and wondered why this was the case. Sighing, as he knew he was going to be in another world and a half of trouble, he wondered if he would be able to find a Ponyta—and not just any Ponyta.

It had to be the one from Kanto, and it had to be male.

He was trying to go for a theme here. He even had thought up of a nickname for this particular Pokémon! He already had some kind of naming system going, but with the way he was coming up with their ‘codenames’ so to speak…

There was a certain theme starting to emerge.

All according to plan.

The last Pokémon that they came across drew his attention—simply because it was something so achingly familiar to him, that reminded him of home—a region so far away now. Hoenn was technically his home now, considering he didn’t have a place to return to back in Enju…

Maybe this one would be a good addition to the team.

Without warning, though, the Croconaw that was minding its own business took aim at the Golurk and released a powerful spray of water—a Hydro Pump attack!

“Whoa!” he yelped as he ducked down and urged the Golurk to fly out of the way—which it did so, although in its maneuver it was strafed by the powerful Water-type attack.

Wait, powerful?

The evilest of grins spread across his face as he pointed. “Alfons, strike it with your Shadow Punch attack! Look, I don’t care how many times you have to try—we’re bringing him with us!” he said as another powerful spray of water rocketed towards them.

Wasting no time, the Golurk took aim and released both its fists in a rocket punch-esque Shadow Punch attack combination, one fist missing but the second striking it upside the head as the Croconaw attempted to shoot them down with another Hydro Pump blast.

Seriously, this Croconaw was giving them a run for his money—and he liked that.

“Again, Alfons!” he called out, and another one-two series of Shadow Punch attacks came screaming down on the Croconaw as it tried to snipe one of the fists out of the air. While it had provided a temporary distraction, the other fist managed to find its mark—slugging the Water-type into the sky.

Taking aim, Arashi then flung an empty Pokéball at the Croconaw and hoped for the best.

“If the weather was much nicer and cooler, then yes, I certainly wouldn’t mind showing this off from time to time,” he began as he moved the fingers on his right hand. “My name’s Arashi,” he added a few moments later as Katherine introduced herself.

He didn’t know why, but he was feeling particularly chatty today. “They told me, after the accident I was involved in back in Enju—that I would be a hopeless case. But you want to know what I said?”

He then stretched his arms above his head while allowing a brief pause for her to ask should she be interested.

“I told them to fuck off. I didn’t want to be treated as a special case considering what happened,” he added quietly. He still remembered the time he had been brought to the hospital and informed that getting prosthetics hooked up to him would take a while, and then the physical therapy that followed afterward was painful most of everyone who was offered the option decided not to take it?

He came out on top of them all and won that battle. Hah.

“Oh, I think you don’t know either, but,” he continued as he stood up from the cool water of the lake to stretch his legs a bit, “…even the lower part of my left leg’s prosthetic. Absolute murder in the sun. Pray you don’t get yourself in an accident where you lose not just one but two limbs, it sucks.”

He sat back down into the cool water of the lake once more, averting his gaze because he didn’t want to be caught staring at the woman who was lounging near him.

By this time he’d kicked off his boots and had shed his pants as well to reveal that he was wearing a pair of swimming trunks underneath that hot get-up of his, and was preparing to slide down into the water when he realized something—this also meant his left leg, at least the lower half of it, was exposed as well!

Ah, shit, whatever, it’s raging hot and this is going to kill me, he thought as he slid into the water right up to his neck and began rearranging himself so he could sit down and duck underwater as needed. He’d managed to get a few deep breaths in and had dunked his head beneath the cool surface of the water when he saw a figure headed his way—a decidedly female figure.

Quickly removing his head from partial submergence, he began to undo the braid he wore his hair in. Now he looked more like a girl when his hair was down and soggy, to boot.

“It would be much better if it wasn’t so damned-ass hot, I could literally roast out here in this heat,” he gestured to his right arm, undoing the knots and tangles before winding the hair tie between his fingers. “I’d have to be a madman not to cool down in this heat. Nice swimsuit you got there, too.”

Heh, two could definitely play this game!

Oh, Arceus, if there was one thing Arashi despised it was… the heat.

There was a reason why he preferred Johto’s summers over Hoenn’s, and that was because his home region didn’t have that much of a tropical climate. Only thing is, Hoenn had the misfortune of being located in a tropical area of the world, and that was made even worse because…

“Shit, shit, shit,” he muttered as he found himself at the crater lake in Sootopolis. While shielded by the vast caldera from all sides, the fact of the matter here was that it was so damned-ass hot he couldn’t resist having to strip down and take off his shirt and practically go shirtless around the area.

Now everyone who saw him would know that he had a prosthetic metal arm, and wonder if he was balls-crazy. Either way…

He popped a few Pokéballs to full size—mostly it was his Golurk that was out, for now.

“Alfons… you can go rest, okay? Recharge… I’ll just… go dip in the water…” he said with a sigh.

He had yet to go to the Safari Zone, so this was going to be a first for him. Blinking in wide-eyed wonder at the lavishness of it all, it certainly wasn’t the same as the Safari Zone back home in Johto. Located past the strange waterfalls to the extreme west of the region, the Johto version of the place was…most unusual in so many ways.

Thankfully, this iteration of the Safari Zone allowed battle, and so this was where Arashi found himself today. Looking for some specific targets—while they were small now, he knew that with time and patience, they would grow up into powerful species in their own right—with at least one of the currently spawning Pokémon being able to use Mega Evolution—a concept he still didn’t fully understand.

Thankfully he wasn’t as known as other Rockets to require fake identity papers yet, so he could stroll in, slap the money down on the counter, and be on his merry way.

After all—he was just a seventeen year-old kid.

purchasing 1 Safari ticket, please! (non-premium yet because Arashi is only currently at 10 infamy. Lol)

On the other hand, he was faced with… a pink Pokémon. Internally hiding his disgust at the sight of the Slowpoke, he wondered if he could have a good use for it. Sighing, he then looked over where his Salazzle now stood, eagerly sniffing the air.

“No, Luxu. Not that. You’d end up getting extinguished before you could even blink,” he added a few moments later. He idly wondered if there the Slowpoke was sun tanning itself all the way out here. These were such weird times and places for Pokémon to be just… lazing around, apparently.

And he could already tell that the Slowpoke wasn’t on his list of Pokémon that fell in the ‘big’ and ‘strong’ categories. Oh, how wrong he would be in the future—but of course he didn’t know that yet, did he?




pass on Slowpoke draw me like one of your Kalosian girls

The next Pokémon they would eventually come across was something—a familiar sight—that would bring a grin to his lips. Seeing the Noivern soaring on the updrafts, he wondered if that was how it tried to fly with its stubby little wings—like a Wingull’s own erratic flight pattern.

Soaring on the updrafts, gaining airtime, until they could stretch their small, short wings and truly soar among the clouds.

…unfortunately, it wasn’t on the list of ‘things that I want’ either.

“No, Alfons. Let’s keep going,” he said, leaving the Noibat alone to its own fluttering. He already had one in Ava, anyway.

If there was one thing Arashi didn’t mind, it was the paranormal.

Honestly, what had gotten most of everyone’s underwear up in a bunch when ghosties were mentioned? He knew that majority of these Ghost-types were skirting the fine line between death’s door and the afterlife, so to speak—he did come from one of the more… ‘spiritually intact’ places in Johto, Enjo.

Or as most people liked to call it these days, Ecruteak. Bleh. It didn’t roll the same on his tongue, so why would he call it what travelers usually did? Absolutely no respect…

What most of the Rocket higher-ups didn’t know was that he was absolutely fine being around Ghost-types, being partnered to one Golurk himself ever since he was a kid, so he was pretty chill about anything and everything that involved the supernatural and the creepy.

He'd been sent to the Lighthouse, since there was a reported infestation that had cropped up again. Where the hell were they all coming from, anyway?

Arashi was one of the Rocket members who could be classified as close to a ‘mirage’ as possible. Although he had just turned seventeen almost a week and a half ago, he was still… lingering on the bottom of the hierarchy, so to speak.

Maybe it was time for him to get out and to do something substantial? Keeping his eyes and ears peeled for any opportunity, he then decided to join up with a fellow Rocket when there was word they were going to be ‘permanently borrowing’ some Pokémon to help the cause.

He couldn’t stay as quiet as a ghost forever now, could he?

Either way, it was the usual six on him, along with his favored outfit—which was going to be a bitch now that the weather was taking another uncomfortable turn. Oh, Arceus.

Okay, so he was supposed to meet another blonde man, right? Where was he?

[attr="class","omgen"]