[attr="class","nothingmoreapp"]

[attr="class","frlastconttop"]

[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]



“that thing isn't that big,” was what bailey cooper had said from a distance.[break][break]

She had been wrong. [break][break]

“Uh, fuck. Never mind.” Her shadow krookodile trembled with anticipation, unable to hide the blood-lust that twitched in his fingers—Gator does not share in his trainer's apprehension, moving to the front-line to confront this unknown foe. [break][break]

He just ran in. [break][break]

sandtomb was summoned—boulders that the krookodile manipulated from the ground to propel at this unknown machine and ensnare it with a sandstorm that brewed within. [break][break]

[attr="class","frlastconttag2"]

[attr="class","frlastconttop"]

[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]

A Hero of Hoenn?[break][break]

“Yeah, okay,” like she would ever believe that.[break][break]

Motels had become her standard of normalcy. It was not a good standard, but beggars couldn't be choosers. It was better than sleeping on the couch of a Pokemon Center. It was better than pitching a tent out in the wilderness. Those memories were what made her quit the life of a traveling trainer. Sometimes, it was just too much hassle.[break][break]

His offer filtered in her mind. With the liquor acting as a catching net, she was less inclined to be wary. “...You got HBO?”[break][break]

She had her priorities in order.[break][break]

“Cuz the motel sure as hell won't.”

[attr="class","frlastconttag2"]

[attr="class","frlastconttop"]

[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]

She had accepted her defeat.[break][break]

“I'm gonna hurl,” and the Sergeant was weakly clutching to the mantine after two consecutive failures. The back-to-back crashes made her unwilling to perform a third jump, waiting for her stomach to stop performing front flips.[break][break]

The announcer's voice sounded like the crashing of the waves—or was that just the sound echoing in her head from her last collision?[break][break]

Better to get a zero than to puke on screen, right?[break][break]

Her mantine had a different idea as it accelerated into the school of tentacool, trying to catch up to the others for the final stretch. The water was choppy. The waves were rolling.[break][break]

Slowly, the sergeant closed her eyes and figured that one last trick wouldn't hurt, right?[break][break]

Her eyes close; envision the fish. Envision the magikarp. Become the Magikarp.[break][break]



When the right wave emerged, she would rise back up to the skies, attempting to execute the legendary magikarp splash as her final finale—the one move that she would successfully execute.[break][break]

And she fucking nailed it.

[attr="class","frlastconttag2"]

[attr="class","frlastconttop"]

[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]

The wind rose to greet her; gentle coaxings of the breeze that let her hair sway and curl against her face.[break][break]

On a hot summer day, she can appreciate the sight of the rotoms as they form a swarm in the distance. It was what made her hand drop to her waist, fishing for an empty capsule. “It'd be stupid to not give it a shot,” though her track record for catching pokemon in swarms was low.[break][break]

Rather than debate her odds, Bailey Cooper would expand the pokeball and give it a toss, wondering if her chances would improve if she hit one of the ghosts while it was unaware.[break][break]

9AdCNCtW

[attr="class","frlastconttag2"]

[attr="class","frlastconttop"]

[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]

Hero of Hoenn.[break][break]

The Sergeant had to refrain from gawking. Was that what they were calling her? “Yeah. Just Bailey,” because she wanted this to be casual. The more pressure she could remove from the situation, the better.[break][break]

Because an entire world was waiting outside—waiting to find out what really happened at Mossdeep. It was a question that she still cannot answer, even if she was marked with its sigil upon her chest. [break][break]

All memories come to Cooper with crystal clarity, but could it be believed? Could it be muttered aloud? Or would it be better to lie and to tell the world something that they would want to hear?[break][break]

It was too much of a headache.[break][break]

“I could help move 'em.” A Snorlax was approachable. A Snorlax was familiar. Maybe it would be a well-needed distraction. “Besides, my pokemon are getting antsy.”[break][break]

Her Steelix was resting outside, by the gardens that the hospital tended. After Mossdeep, they were unable to find the remains of his capsule.[break][break]

When sunlight greeted them, so would he.[break][break]

Bailey would rest a hand atop Rumble's head, feeling the cold of his metal and the soft, rainbow reflection that he had never possessed. It was faint, but at that moment, she felt as if her hand was touching two pokemon instead of one. [break][break]

Her kiss to the Steelix's brow would have felt the same as being bumped by a Cutiefly, but he wagged his tail all the same. “He's doing a lot better—I was told there was a good chance he wouldn't make it, when they dragged us outta there.”[break][break]

But he defied the odds. Dents were keen on his frame like scars, but to the Sergeant, it only made him more distinguished as her hand smoothed over the flat expanse of his head. "Now, you can't even tell."

[attr="class","frlastconttag2"]

[attr="class","frlastconttop"]

[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]



She already had a spheal on her team. A seel would be overkill.[break][break]

“You do you, buddy.” The pokemon would clap, spared from the fight by his round, adorable eyes and overall helplessness. It would leap back into the waters of the cave, into the depths where her eyes could not follow.

[attr="class","frlastconttag2"]

[attr="class","frlastconttop"]

[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]



She fell, unable to maintain her balance as the earthquake threatened to tear the ground out from underneath her.[break][break]

To her knees, she beheld the collision of attacks—the chill as the landscape was morphed white with ice that could not form on her skin. Steam would manifest, spilling from her pores; white from red iron that had been freshly struck. Too hot to be frozen, the ice that tried to stick to her would instead crackle and break.[break][break]

“when they hit you—”[break][break]

Steelix was unable to articulate the pain—his rise and fall that came so swiftly—as the damage was dealt from both sides. Everyone, in their empowered exuberance, threw all of their combined might at this once impossible foe. The promise of victory was clouding their gaze.[break][break]

They follow its call, like they were beckoned by a light in the dark, unable to see the obstacles that still laid before them. Bailey had burned such illusions from her mind, glowing like her own light, as she beheld a might that could not discriminate.[break][break]

“—you hit them back. twice as hard.”[break][break]

This was the lesson she imparted to her pokemon, from the very moment they promised to battle for her. She could never sugar-coat the truth, could never tell them lies—no, it was better to tell them that pain would come, and when it arrived, they would have to stand steadfast in its wake.[break][break]

Ice was broken from his frame, freeing the primal from his encasement.[break][break]

They would not let the chance of victory cloud their judgment.[break][break]

“precipice blades.” A command that they felt in their very bones. Even if Bailey had never uttered those words aloud, it would have been executed regardless; they share that image in their mind, too tempted by the possibility to let the moment pass.[break][break]

The blades rose from the ground; elongated crags that were sharper, stronger, and faster than any stone edge.[break][break]

And Guzzlord had just brought the full weight of both limbs upon this rising attack. At that moment, both trainer and pokemon hope that their plan would be unavoidable—hoped that their goals would be achieved as the ground around the Steelix was distorted.[break][break]

Because they intended to skewer the creature—they would intend to sever the limbs straight from its blackened husk—to end this once and for all.[break][break]

[break][break]

But Steelix will not have the luxury to stand by and watch. Not when he was so close.[break][break]

The rain of attacks would not be halted, and they would find themselves in the crossfire. Friendly fire was a very real, very present threat. Had it not been for Rumble's impressive defenses, then surely the results could have been fatal—she could feel that frustration rise, but now was not the time to chastise her allies for their carelessness.[break][break]

He used Dig, burrowing himself back into the underbelly of the ruins of Mossdeep, just as everyone seemed keen to unleash their full wrath.[break][break]

They would have to time their next strike; she would be his eyes, brewing the final strategy as this battle entered the end game.

[attr="class","frlastconttag2"]

[attr="class","frlastconttop"]

[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]



She awoke to the sound of seed bombs bombarding the beach.[break][break]

Bailey Cooper, the ever vigilant solider, was snapped from her dreams as she jerked and slid out from her bed; a cacophony of crashing as an empty bottle of gin falls out of bed with her, bouncing against soft carpet before rolling for the door. Somewhere, in this mess, she can hear the cries of Chubs as his blankets are stolen.[break][break]

“F-FFFUCK! I'M UP! I'M Up! What's happening?! SHIT, SHIT!”[break][break]

In a half conscious haze, the Sergeant would forget that Rocket was defeated. She would forget that there was no encroaching ultra beast—she ran through the ranch house, bare feet trekking across the hardwood floor, passing her hoards of pokemon as they rested outside of their capsule; those too large for the house peering in through the windows to wonder why their trainer was so eager to bounce out of bed.[break][break]

“We got a fight! Move it! Go go go!” Like a drill sergeant calling to their resting cadets.[break][break]

Some follow, some groan and go back to sleep.[break][break]

An oversized t-shirt with coffee stains. Sweatpants that had seen years of abuse. Yes, this was her battle uniform as she kicked open the front door to spy the enemy at her shores.[break][break]

And then immediately back into the house as they pelted her with their pin-point precision; octazooka. [break][break]

The door would be slammed shut just to cut of the bombardment, her hair soaked to its very bone like an early morning shower. “Fucking remoraids are back,” and her eyes would be wide as her pokemon stared at her in confusion.[break][break]

“And they fucking evolved.”[break][break]

Would she stand here and let these pillagers assault her coast? Would these foreign invaders prevail?[break][break]

No. Bailey Cooper would wipe the water from her face, and when she came back to the door, a beach umbrella was held like a battering ram. Some pokemon stand behind her, at the ready.[break][break]

“Charge!” They'd rush the enemies on the beach, her umbrella functioning as a shield to divert the water blasts—a battalion close behind her. Kapow would leap over her leading form to fall down upon the army of eight-limbed foes like a bombshell. Tink would rain Air Slash down from the sky with long, sweeping dives.[break][break]

Somehow, in this mess, she found herself laughing almost hysterically as her pokemon join her in the fray, beating back the hoard of wild pokemon in the most stupendous, unbelievable manner possible. Craters are made in the sand, bursting up as if struck from mortar.[break][break]

They take one of the enemies captive—she threw a pokeball capsule to make it official as she collapsed, chest heaving but her smile beaming.[break][break]

“Holy shit,” and she'd fall back to the sands, opting to celebrate her victory by stretching out her limbs like a starmie and feel the warmth of the sand seep into her bones.

[attr="class","frlastconttag2"]

[attr="class","frlastconttop"]

[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]

Sleeping at League Headquarters? Really? “Ritzy,” she remarked as another drink was plopped in front of her.[break][break]

Third drink was the charm—well, her third coke and whiskey. Something told her to exercise caution. It would be best to give the ice a chance to melt and to water down the drink even further. It was why she turned her attention back to her glass of water, chugging it down.[break][break]

She wasn't an amateur—a hangover was not what she wanted. [break][break]

The glass was half empty when she set it back to the table, wiping at her lips with her sleeve.[break][break]

“Dunno. I thought when this was over, I'd just make my way back home to Lavaridge,” but that plan was shot now that she was drunk. Despite feeling the start of her inebriation, she held her color, knowing how to keep it together even while the room was spinning.[break][break]

She would have to blackout if she wanted to make a fool of herself. For now, she was giggly and self-assured.[break][break]

A crooked smile pulled at her lips. “I guess a motel will do just fine. I got cash. Doubt I could squeeze in a reservation for anywhere nice.”

[attr="class","frlastconttag2"]