Rumor had it that some rare Pokemon showed up at the Slateport beach at night. Hideo, the up-and-coming-but-still-badgeless trainer that he was, couldn’t resist investigating this, sneaking out when he should have been asleep.

He knew the way there by heart; he didn’t need any of his Pokemon to guide him there. Though just to be safe, he had Rocky out with him; no idea who’d be lurking out at this hour, right? Even sounded like he’d scared off a few threats along the way, though he didn’t know if they were people or Pokemon.

He knew immediately when his feet reached sand. “Alright, Rocky,” Hideo whispered, careful not to alert anything that was already here, “Try to see if you sniff something out. They’re probably only coming out this late to hide.”

The Lycanroc’s nose glowed as he sought out a scent - and found one quickly. He brushed against his trainer’s leg to let him know - quietly. “Good job! Lead the way!”

So he did just that, sniffing away at the sand as he led the boy along the cool sand. It wasn’t a straight line there; on top having to smell it past the salty sea air, Rocky just liked walking along the beach. The sand just felt right on his paws.

Eventually, they’d reach the source.

Were Fay to wake up now, she’d be treated to the sight of a Lycanroc Dusk sniffing at her, with a young boy, his eyes closed, holding a Pokeball in his hand, grinning in delight.  Both illuminated solely by the moonlight.

@fay

Hideo did expect some resistance; a Pokemon that went into that much effort to hide wouldn’t be too keen on some kid and his Lycanroc walking up to them. He knew well to keep a Pokemon with him at all times, especially when wandering outside on his own, so he was safe in case whatever they found fought back.

He was still caught off guard when whatever it was they found, slapped the Pokeball right out of his hand.

And it scolded him. She scolded him. “O-oh, sorry,” the boy stuttered, stepping back. “Thought you were a Pokemon.” His cheeks reddened a little - at least the darkness would help hide his embarrassment.

Predictably, his Lycanroc was less than pleased. Hideo could hear Rocky growling; he had to distract him fast, before he got aggressive. “Rocky, help me find that Pokeball. We could still use it.”

Rocky glared at the woman, but acquiesced to his trainer’s request. They were fortunate that Rocky was (relatively) less aggressive when dealing with people than he was with Pokemon; were it a Pokemon that slapped like that, a battle would've broken out right then and there.

It didn’t take him long to find it, lifting it up into his trainer’s open hand with his mouth. Hideo made sure to pat him on the head, both out of gratitude and to help calm him down.

From where that woman talked from, Hideo could guess that she was laying on the ground - hence why Rocky had been sniffing away down there. Which raised a pretty obvious question; “So what are you doing sleeping out here? You waiting for some rare Pokemon too?”

@fay

Hideo gently brushed his hand over the Pokeball, wiping off any sand and Lycanroc slobber that was still on it. He was mildly annoyed that she’d slapped it like that, but he could kinda understand it; he did just walk up on her, fully ready to throw it at her had she not stopped him.

Though he couldn’t resist tilting his head as the girl spoke. “You’ve really been here since the morning?” he asked. She must really like going to the beach - or she didn’t have anywhere else to go. He considered suggesting her to the homeless community Doug lived in, but held off; if he was wrong, he’d just offend her.

“Well, not surprising you haven’t seen any yet. I came here this late ‘cause I heard the rare ones don’t come out ‘till it’s dark out. Plus, might be a little hard to find them in all this darkness. But that’s what I got Rocky here for.” His nose could find just about anything - heck, it was how they found her in the first place.

Rocky immediately pushed Hideo back, getting between the boy and the Skarmory. Hideo was able to keep his balance, but had to block his face from the sand flying around under the new Pokemon’s wings.

Hideo was more than ready to try catching whatever giant flying-type just landed there - until the girl started addressing it. “Didn’t know you had a Pokemon flying around this late,” he said, brushing the sand off his clothes. “Sounds like a big one too! What Pokemon is it?”

@fay

Hideo raised an eyebrow - while keeping his eyes closed. A trick he’d learned a while ago. “You’ve really been out here that long?” he asked, somewhat incredulous. “Guess you must be using a lotta sunblock! Probably been eating a lot of fish too!” A joke, attempting to alleviate the tension, if only a little bit.

As for how he knew there’d be rare Pokemon out here? “It’s what I heard.” Not really much reason other than that. “And, well, I hear different Pokemon come out at night. Doesn’t hurt to catch a lot of different Pokemon for when you might need them, right?“ Completely ignorant of how they were the only two people on the beach at the moment. ”And I haven’t gone looking for Pokemon this late before, so I got the chance to find some new Pokemon!”

At least he wouldn’t get any competition if he did find any.

He didn’t even know the Pokemon was tilting towards him until he heard her breathing right by him. “Oh! Yeah, I’ve heard of Skarmories before!” He reached out towards where he heard the breathing, and found the big bird’s head very quickly; just as metal as he was told. “Pretty popular Pokemon, though not a lot of people have them! I hear they can fly over 300 kilometers and hour; is that true? Does she fly around that fast for you?”

Rocky carefully watched over Hideo’s interactions with the Skarmory; she did seem nonthreatening, but he knew better than to let his guard down. Especially with a Pokemon that sharp-looking.

“How long have you had her for?”

@fay

It wasn’t every day Hideo got to pet such a big bird. Biggest he had was a Cramorant, which was a respectable size. And this Skarmory was so cooperative, making it easier for him to pet her.

He knew to be careful of the wings, though. Those, he heard were quite sharp.

“That’s pretty impressive!” Hideo said, marveling at her survival ability. He believed her completely, because why not? He had no reason to suspect she was being dishonest. “I’ve never had much luck fishing myself. They always manage to get away before I can pull them in.” Didn’t help that he wasn’t very good at knowing where to fish in the first place; it could be hard to tell what was a Pokemon splashing around, or just something falling into the water.

Just something for him to work on. Hopefully he could learn it soon; it’d make his future plans that much easier.

However, the news about the oncoming storm did put a damper on his plans. On one hand, he’d probably have a bad time getting home in all the rain; he’d be soaked, and Rocky hated getting wet. But on the other hand, he’d heard that there were Pokemon that only came out when it rained.

…

Hideo could feel the initial drizzle. If it already was starting to rain, it was too late. The boy shrugged. “Well, I’m gonna get soaked either way. Might as well try to come back with a new Pokemon.” He could dry his stuff off when he got back home. “And who knows; maybe something good’ll show up! I hear a lot of water types love coming out in the rain!”

Of course, his Lycanroc looked far less eager to stick around. There was a nice palm tree nearby for him to hide under, protecting him from most of the rain, but he was starting to get fidgety.

“It’s pretty cool you’ve had your Skarmory for so long! I’ve actually had Rocky here for longer than that! Got him five years ago, when he was a Rockruff!...though he’s only been a Lycanroc for a few-”

He was interrupted by a cry from the shoreline; a Pokemon cry. A pink Gastrodon had taken the chance to sneak out of the water, ready to enjoy the beach under the cover of darkness and rain.

Hideo couldn’t tell what it was, but it was something. “Rocky, you hear that?! We gotta get it!”

The Lycanroc, however, lied where he was. He wasn’t going to get wet for this.

@fay

Hideo frowned. He was a bit bothered with how roughly the girl agreed with him. “Yeah. Well, maybe I’ll get better at it. But until then, I got some Pokemon to help me with fishing. One’s really good at it.” His Cramorant was very good at finding and catching fish. Only problem was he also had a habit of swallowing them.

At least she sounded a bit amused by him staying in the rain. Definitely wasn’t the most comfortable thing to do, but he was getting soaked no matter what he did.

He was more distracted with Rocky anyways; he noticed that Rocky hadn’t run over to whatever Pokemon had come out. He didn’t even use a long-ranged attack to soften it up for him. “You really gonna be that scared of the rain, Rocky?” the boy asked, arms at his sides.

The Lycanroc just let out a low moan, staying where he was.

Though maybe Rocky was making the right call. “Really? A Gastrodon? Guess I can pass on that then. Last time I tried to go for a Gastrodon, it took hours to get its slime off my hands.” Not a very pleasant experience. Wasn’t even worth it; he did not like how it had felt. “What’s it doing out here anyways? If it was trying to hide, it wouldn’t be making all that noise.”

As it would become apparent, that Gastrodon’s cry wasn’t just to make some noise; quite a few more Gastrodons, some pink and some blue, emerged from the water. Hideo could hear them emerge from the water, but he only realized there were more when they also started making noise, crying out together.

“...just how many are there now?” Just one, he could switch to another Pokemon and be fine. But a horde? No chance.

@fay

In retrospect, the reason a bunch of water-type Pokemon came out onto a beach in the middle of the rain should’ve been obvious. But it became much more obvious as they started yelling at each other, battling with each other. “They’re...oh...probably should let them be. I’ve always been told to never interrupt Pokemon when they’re...trying to mate.” That was when they were most aggressive - and most adverse to being caught.

As eager as he was to catch a Pokemon, he’d just have to let his horde go. But unfortunately for him, they noticed him. And one Gastrodon decided to be extra-ornery and tried to Body Slam him.

Thankfully, Fay pushed him out of the way in time. Falling onto sand was a much more comfortable experience than getting bodied by a fully-evolved Pokemon. But he could hear more of them start to approach, and he knew he had to get out of there ASAP.

Rocky had finally stood back up, none-too-pleased by the sudden attack against his trainer. He made sure to stop that Gastrodon from making a follow-up attack by trapping it with a Rock Tomb. It didn’t hurt the Gastrodon that much, and it wouldn’t do a lot to stop the new ones approaching them, but he just needed to delay them.

Hideo stood back up, only to hear the woman tell him to hold on. He wasn’t even sure what she meant, until Rocky pushed him towards her, the boy grabbing her hand by pure chance. It wouldn’t be hard for her to lift him up there - he didn’t weigh too much, and he didn’t resist her help.

But there was still one problem. He hadn’t heard Rocky climb on the bird too.

“Rocky? Come on, get on!” His Popkemon was more preoccupied setting up some Stealth Rocks to ambush the incoming Gastrodons. The Lycanroc would just look back to make sure his trainer was safe, before barking at the Skarmory to leave without him - he’d be fine holding them back.

He would just run away once they were in the air anyways.

@fay