Ethel and Empress were distracted by a frankly very brave Litwick. The little ghost marched bravely up to the Mamoswine that was many times its size and attacked with a column of swirling flame.

Empress was surprised at this interruption, but not unable to react. The Mamoswine stomped her foot, causing a projectile of mud to fly towards the Litwick and splatter all over it. Understandably, the Litwick's bravado was severely reduced by this attack, and it vanished without a trace.

The next Pokemon who approached them was a familiar sight. Ethel had seen Ponyta before, even during her short time on Hoenn, and they were rather curious, as this one proved. The Ponyta approached cautiously, sniffing at Empress.

Ethel smiled and began to greet the fire-type, but Empress must have still been in an aggressive mood. The Mamoswine stomped and grunted angrily, launching another Mud Bomb at the Ponyta. The poor equine panicked, whinnying and galloping off.

Ethel frowned at Empress. "Empress... You can't be aggressive for no reason. That Ponyta didn't want to hurt you." Empress stared at Ethel, seemingly unimpressed, but she soldiered on. "Look, how would you like it if someone attacked you and you weren't doing anything? You wouldn't like that, would you?"

Empress snorted, blinking and breaking eye contact. Ethel figured that would be as much of an acknowledgement as she could expect from the Mamoswine at the moment, so she let it slide.

What was with her behavior recently?

Empress's patience would be tested again, it seemed, when a Magmar approached the two of them. The fire type, however, seemed much more aggressive than the Ponyta that had approached first.

Ethel laid a hand on Empress's side. "Calm down," she said. "It hasn't attacked---"

However, she was swiftly proven wrong when the Magmar roared and unleashed a blast of fire from its arm at the two of them. The Flame Burst nearly singed Ethel, as well, and would have struck her had she not dove to the side at the last moment.

Empress was not so fortunate. The fire struck her full on in the front, and Empress roared in response, now truly angry. She charged at the wild Magmar, hoping to trample it under her feet, but the Magmar was faster, spitting a cloud of black smoke right in Empress's face before running out of the path of the charge.

Empress stopped, sniffing the air with her nose to locate the Magmar more effectively, but the fire-type took that opportunity to unleash another Flame Burst, this time from point-blank range. Empress groaned and fainted.

Ethel blinked. Well, this was bad. Two more Pokeballs flashed as Crescent and Stratus appeared amidst the black smoke. If this Magmar was looking to fight so badly, then she would fight back, but not fairly.

Stratus picked up on the situation first, diving and striking the Magmar in the face with an Acrobatics. The Magmar stumbled back, but Stratus squealed, too. He must have been burned from the contact with its fiery body. Ethel bit her lip as the Magmar prepared to blast another volley of flames at Stratus, but Crescent was there in a flash, the flames swirling into her body and feeding her own flames.

The Magmar gave well, but it didn't take as easily. Another Shadow Ball sent it stumbling backwards, and Stratus, still smarting from the burn but somewhat recovered, followed up with an Electro Ball.

Though the attacks had obviously hurt the Magmar, it still wasn't going to retreat. It prepared another Flame Burst---

Ethel threw a Pokeball at the Magmar. If it wouldn't succumb to the Shadow Ball or the Electro Ball, hopefully this Pokeball would finally defeat it. It made Ethel sick to capture a Pokemon against its will, but this Magmar was dangerous. She would take it to someone who was more qualified to deal with dangerous Pokemon, and hopefully they would know how to deal with it.