Some people saw treasures in the stone, beauty even. Once upon a time, she probably had, too. But these days? These days Megan saw this whole cave as an opportunity. There were wild Pokemon here, of course. But there were also boulders. And her Lucario needed training. So, she, was killing two birds with one stone. Or more smashing two stones with one fist. Well, her Pokemon was, but she felt quite smart coming up with that one. So, it would stay.

And so, her Pokemon would continue punching one particularly big boulder, which was apparently blocking the path in this area. She figured that a Pokemon with Strength could move it but a) she didn’t have one with that move and b) she didn’t need to. As long as they could train like this, it didn’t really matter if the boulder was removed or not.
After all, she had not come here for the beauty of things. Instead, the lass in shorts, shirt and jacket would watch her ‘Mon punch the boulder repeatedly, her own arms crossed. The only sounds coming from her direction, reverberating through the cave, were sounds of those punches and the impatient tapping of her feet. Though she was not quite sure why she’d do that to begin with. As if she was waiting for something, without really knowing what that was.

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Evidently, their period spent in technical isolation concluded with the persistent reverberation rinsing throughout the expansive, cavernous environment. Her cerulean eyes widened before elongating under the weight of her furrowed brow, her attention trained on the near distance where she made out the forms of two figures. One feminine, the other a particular fighting type the blonde knew of. With the fruitless efforts of pulverizing the rock only bearing fruit in the form of alerting every waking denizen of the cave to their existence, Sofia released a diminutive sigh.

Having expected to be joined by wild Pokémon as a result, she reacted quickly to the goosebumps covering her nape. Pivoting and turning around, her eyes widened as she caught glimpse of a an airborne Skarmory a short distance away. It seemed disturbed and belligerent—hmm, she wondered why.

Raising her currently vacant Pokéball, a thin stream of red light emitted from it and unto the Primarina at her side. It was fortunate she did, too; the armored bird Pokémon whisked through the air her companion used to be with a razor-sharp METAL CLAW.

While it recovered from its momentum, one deft motion later and the blonde tossed and released Amaryllis in his steed. A juvenile Braixen left in the wake of the bird, it turned around and prepared for another round. However, the Skarmory boasted a keen intellect, perhaps as sharp as its notable perception. After taking inventory of her last action, it spun itself around in an amorphous blur, releasing myriad crimson SPIKES to pollute the battlefield; a makeshift minefield for anyone intent on future switch outs. Even as far as the other blonde and her angry Lucario.

In no time, it became apparent that Amaryllis wasn’t fucking around. Kindling the end of the stick in his grasp, he traced a shape in the air—the outline of the ensuing attack. The sweeping motion unleashed a familiarly shaped FIRE BLAST to crash into the Skarmory with violent intent, the subsequent eruption turning it momentarily into an airborne, metallic wreath of flame. Once the smouldering discontinued, a mesmerized Sofia caught her bearings and tossed a vacant Pokéball at the Skarmory.

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Megan Whitmore | Attempting to catch Skarmory!

She had not actually considered that her training method might call for more wild monsters to come at them. But, at the same time, she was not completely opposed to that, either. That just meant more training opportunities. Lucario blew a particularly big piece of stone away – and then the stone punched back, a Makuhita coming from the opening. Slightly startled, her own Pokemon did take that hit, being pushed a few feet back.
But it wasn’t exactly one to give up. Within moments, it surged forward again, unleashing an Aura Sphere and knocking the other Pokemon down, just as it had. Briefly, that saw Megan think about throwing a ball at that being, but she ultimately decided against it. A shriek of sorts from the other end of the cave caught her attention instead.

While the Makuhita ran, Meg and her Lucario watched another brief battle unfold. Somehow, there was a bird in this tunnel. That was confusing enough that she could not avert her eyes from it. However, the blonde under attack there was clearly better able to deal with that situation, already cycling through her ‘Mons and, hopefully, bringing down the metallic avian.
“Heh. Not bad,” she noted, smirking like she actually had the right to judge anyone else’s performance as a battler. Still though. It wasn’t bad, now was it? Megan focused on that occurrence, really, while her Lucario kept watch. So far though, it did not seem like that Makuhita was coming back.

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passes

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Watching the familiar crimson, amorphous energy be sucked into the iconic capturing device, she waited, and soon witnessed the fruits of her labor. Adorning a smile, she stepped closer to where she tossed the ball and picked it up; minimizing it to its diminutive size and stowing it into her pocket. By the time the blonde finished her own brief spat with the Skarmory, and her subsequent successful capture of it, her attention panned towards the nearby other blonde and the apparent successful repulsion of a belligerent Makuhita. Putting two and two together, she wagered the Lucario must have given it a good crack upside the head.

Before she could offer much of a response, she noticed another anomaly behind this stranger. Politely, she pointed towards the imposing Empoleon approaching the woman, because she reckoned she might want to look out for the immediate danger. “Ah, over there…” Maybe it stirred from a nearby slumber after hearing her Lucario beat the shit out of that Makuhita—she didn’t know.

Her Braixen alerted her to the immediate existence of another encroaching hostile, and she turned around to face it. A Breloom—and she had to take cover behind nearby rocky protrusions to avoid the sudden SEED BOMB onslaught. Her Braixen took the brunt of it, but as it moved rearwards and was a poor choice of target for such a move, it didn’t appear affected as dramatically as the belligerent thought. In response, it expelled a violent, vehement torrent of flame at their aggressor from the kindled end of its ever-burning stick, engulfing it in a FLAMETHROWER. Conclusively, the oppressive scent of its own partial incineration was likely enough to send it running away back from whence it came.

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Megan Whitmore | passes

Guess that Makuhita had a buddy. Or maybe the ruckus they were causing had called others onto the scene. Hard to tell. But one way or another, she had a sort of buddy here now as well, one who’d warned her. Turning quickly, she nudged Lucario towards the hostile as well. Okay, maybe she was just imagining the hostility here. That thing looked quite stoic and imposing. But being cautious meant giving up the advantage of initiative. And like heck was she going to just let that one attack them!

Instead, she decided to hit it first and hit it hard. “Close Combat right away!” Her order was maybe a bit headstrong, but it looked like a strong Pokemon. If they were starting a useless fight here, she at least wanted to come out swinging and hit as hard as they could. Hopefully, that would be enough. It did seem like the Empoleon was being flung backwards, against a nearby wall. But her Lucario had already caught up on her drift. Instead of letting a dazed opponent be, it sent an Aura Sphere after it on instinct.

Megan, too, followed that up by the only attack she knew, the one called ‘Throw Ball’. She was still husbanding her resources in that regard. But Empoleon looked strong, so she wanted it, one way or another!

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Tries to capture Empoleon.

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Megan Whitmore CAUGHT EMPOLEON!

“Fuck, how many do I have left again?” After warning her apparent newfound accomplice in wild ‘Mon subduing and capture, she spoke to herself while checking her pockets. From the looks of it, she counted about four left. The Skarmory she caught earlier joined the ranks of her main party, but it was in poor shape and she doubted it would be wise to immediately send it off into battle against the potential belligerents around the area.

Turning her attention back to her fellow blonde, she watched on as the woman gave the order for her Lucario to use Close Combat; equitable to an emperor giving the thumbs down in a coliseum. Swangin’ and Bangin’, barrages of impacting strikes were disseminated unto the Empoleon until it slammed into a wall, where it subsequently was subjected to the vehement crash of a follow-up Aura Sphere. “Damn, girl…” Sofia muttered, scratching her cheek. The woman then caught it after that, and she started feeling slightly bad for the immediate populace.

Holding out another ball, she siphoned her Braixen back into its confines. “Here, take a bit of a break for now.” After a subsequent flick of her wrist, she sent out the familiar Pokémon from before—her Primarina. Around that time, Sofia spotted a rather endearing, predominantly blue-coloured Pokémon rounding the corner of the cave. Maybe she could be a little gentle about this? It looked more curious than anything. Welp…

“Brunnera, use Sing,” Sofia said, and thus commenced the beautiful, haunting melody that emanated from the first Pokémon she ever formally accompanied. Rather not expecting the confrontation, the Amaura likely slipped into a quick slumber, slumping onto the rocky ground below. “And follow up with Sparkling Aria!”

The song continued to flow, the tempo of the melody picking up, and a large orb of water collected above her Primarina. It tore through the air towards the Amaura, slamming into it at such a trajectory that the cumulative force was bound to send it into a wall. Its consciousness suspect after the combination, Sofia took the opportunity to reach into her pocket and toss a Pokéball towards the creature, hoping to seize it within.

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Megan Whitmore | Attempting to catch Amaura!

Huh? That word seemed out of place. Granted, it wasn’t like she actually knew this girl at all. But she just had not struck her as the kind of person who said ‘fuck’ all over the place. Maybe that meant that she was losing her cool? But that was weird. Meg would have figured for that to happen if the wild pokemon did become overbearing. But running out of empty balls just mean you couldn’t catch any more of them, nothing more. It was bad if you wanted to save an injured wild pokemon, but to her, it just wasn’t something to swear over.

Though, admittedly, she would have at least grunted in dismay, had she ended up without a means to capture this Empoleon. That one was kind of amazing, really. It would have been a shame to miss one. Megan did not feel bad at all for having to beat it up. At least by now they were in control of their strength enough to not accidentally kill wild Pokemon they wanted to catch. It had taken her quite a bit to get to that point, though. She had been a lot more antsy about all this in the past.

But now? Now she was getting into the groove. When she spotted a Lairon further down the tunnel, she decided to go after that one, too. “Come on, that one as well!” Her call to Lucario was heeded, who rushed over there and once more used the power of Close Combat to great effect, beating up a somewhat confused Pokemon before it could do anything.
Yeah, Meg was definitely getting carried away already, tossing yet another ball at this Pokemon as soon as she saw it weaken, her thoughts becoming a bit narrow in the process. Heck, she was barely paying attention to the other girl now. There was a rather nice song coming to her ears from the back though, but that only served to put her half to sleep, the other half of her mind going into overdrive to keep herself up, as if forcefully caffeinating herself mentally.

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Attempting to catch Lairon

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BOTH OF YOUR CAPTURE ATTEMPTS ARE SUCCESSFUL!

Success. Managing to capture the particularly endearing creature, she stowed it away. Sofia imagined it would get along well with some of her less evolved ones. It looked small and happy, and the rest of her team that wasn’t in the upper echelons of evolution shared the same characteristic. The woman assumed her logic would be upheld.

Admittedly, she never afforded much attention towards the other blonde present. Didn’t know her name, didn’t know who she was, and quite frankly, she was apathetic over the notion of learning those details. Sofia might be mellow and exhibiting literally no signs of losing her composure, but it didn’t incentivize chatting up the hyperactive emoticon for no apparent reason.

In other news, she spotted what appeared to be a ghastly golem nearby. Her eyes widened at its stature - appearing nearly three meters tall. It looked like it could be a strong addition to her team, and like it could serve a protective role over her weaker companions. Perceiving this as a boon she desired, she turned her focus in that direction and motioned for her Primarina to follow suit.

”Again!” Not having been acknowledged as a threat yet by the Golurk, she refrained from the use of Sing this time. In fact, it looked like it was potentially less susceptible to it. Her command pertained to the latter of her prior actions, and they picked up where they left off on the impressive chorus. A melodic, watery encore that sent a large, familiar orb of water crashing into the creature with identical cumulative force. Effectiveness emphasized, she noted that it found greater purchase and potency than she originally imagined, and she sent another Pokeball soaring in its direction.

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Megan Whitmore Attempting to catch Golurk

It was one thing after another, really! She managed to capture the Lairon, and immediately there was a screech from the cave’s ceiling and a Hawlucha dive-bombed her Lucario, driving it back, hurt, but not down. The fighter did pant though, as did Megan, even though she hadn’t really exerted herself. At least not physically. But mentally, she was caught up in all this fighting now, even wincing when her Pokemon was hit. That was how she sometimes got, really. And it was something that she was trying to get better at. In fact, part of their training here was meant for her as well in that aspect. To control this thrill of battle better.

But she was still working on that. And now, she succumbed to it. And with that Lucario. He continued on with the Close Combat, exchanging blows with the Hawlucha. Due to reducing its own defense in the process, he took a lot of nasty ones, but fortunately, he still was better trained than the wild Pokemon. He stood victorious, though unsteady, wobbling on his feet. And that sight was enough to help Megan calm down a little. Being in such a sorry state, she snapped out of her stupor and recalled him, before throwing a ball at the Hawlucha. “W-well done,” she told the ball, almost out of breath, her heart beating fast, though not much had changed. Somehow, this rattled her on a level she couldn’t define.

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Tries to catch Hawlucha