Huh. A flying turtle. Now she’d seen everything.
Well, probably not. But flying turtles were rather rare. Especially Turtwigs, if she made this out correctly. Those usually could not learn any flying moves, though given that regional variants could have all kinds of odd idiosyncrasies, she did not want to completely rule that out just yet. Instead, Eve nudged the Noivern she was riding to close in a little more, towards the commotion they had heard on their flight. To her surprise, she did spot the Wooloo farm that she’d been looking for due to this, along with a trainer that seemingly was in distress.

She sighed, softly. Not liking to fight with the Pokemon she was currently riding, Eve instead reached for her bell and threw a different ball. Well dropped it, more like. But with intent. Mid-air, it released its Ghastly contents. “Give these guys a….well, just help them, okay?” She had remembered that this one lacked hands in this form. Which was odd, but that never stopped that little gaseous ball of energy. Wasting no time, Ghastly rushed down and towards the Seviper, Sucker Punching it right in the head by all but ramming it from behind. That one really did love fighting, didn’t it? If it scored a hit, it would follow that up with a Confuse Ray before disengaging once more, having way too much fun toying with its opponents once more.

Hopefully though, this would not end up becoming a headache. Eve and Noivern in the meantime, started circling down in the hopes of finding a proper place to land in without disturbing more Wooloos.

     ”Vesty String Shot!”. Mason was running, his eyes on his Turtwig instead of the direction he was running towards. His Pokemon meant so much more than anything else. The Larvesta did as instructed and shot strings of silk at the falling Turtwig, wrapping in a cocoon. As the cocoon-cased Turtwig approached the ground, Mason leapt, with his arms stretched out. He managed to captured his Pokemon before it had managed to hit the ground. By instinct, Mason kept the cocoon close to his chest and folded his legs, ending up rolling across the ground. 

     Mason felt a little bit dizzy for awhile from all that rolling. When he managed to stop his head from spinning, he tore the silky threads away, revealing a happy looking Turtwig inside. Mason chuckled while tearing up a little. He proceeded to hug his Pokemon, the thought of losing his Twiggy scared him to death. 

     When he looked back, he saw a purplish orb, a Ghastly, handling the Seviper. Mason was a little bit confused, but then he saw someone descending from the sky like a saviour. His face awestruck by the heroic scenery.

---

Evette Moreau

Ah, well, she probably should have done something to help the Pokemon, too. That had slipped her mind, hadn’t it? Sure, she would have loved to say that she had simply trusted this boy to save his friend there and such, but honestly, that would have been a lie. With winds blowing in her face and visibility low, she hadn’t really considered doing much to catch the Turtwig. Mostly because her only Pokemon capable of doing that was the one she was riding. And they wouldn’t have made it in time. Probably.

Eve discarded the thought, given that it would not help anyone anyway. For the time being, she concentrated on landing, while Ghastly was playing pranks on the Seviper. That little ball of gas couldn’t have helped catch the Turtwig either, but she naturally hadn’t even tried. The ghost had…different priorities in life (?). Eve sighed, but out of the corner of her eyes, she saw that the boy had apparently caught his Pokemon.
Good on him. She gave a gentle smile as the Noivern came to ground, carefully crouching down so that she could disembark easily. “You earned yourself a rest,” she told it after a pat on the hand, before recalling it.

Then, she turned towards the awestruck teen. Honestly, she did not feel particularly heroic-looking. She was wearing something akin to a biking garb with purple accents, a pragmatic choice for riding a Pokemon at higher speeds. Though she had not yet eaten enough bugs mid-flight to really settle for a helmet. “Uh, hello. Are you trying to catch that one or something? I did not mean to intrude on your battle but you seemed, um, preoccupied.”

    It was definitely the lighting. The light from the sun was shining at his eyes, only allowing him to see the silhouette of the figure that had approached him. When the figure had came closer and began to speak did Mason realise that the person was just an ordinary trainer like him. Perhaps it was also the adrenaline rush from saving his Turtwig that caused him to see things in a weird way.

     His mind was blank for a few seconds, trying to process the words said by the person. ”Uhh... catch? I’m not trying to catch any- Oh!” he suddenly remembered why he was in that situation in the first place, ”Well, I saw that an old man was in trouble with the Seviper, so I tried to help him. But it seems like I’m not strong enough to beat it.” he explained, sighing at the end of his sentence.

“Oh.” Apparently, she had misjudged the situation. The boy was not fighting this Seviper in order to catch it, but for more…altruistic reasons. That certainly was very nice of him. But he might have gotten a squashed plant turtle for his troubles, had he not thought this quickly.
Eve sighed. Clearly, this one wasn’t the one either. The heart of a prince, certainly, but not the wisdom of a king. He did not give her the flutter of the heart she was seeking. Though his earnestness did tug her strings a little, at the very least.

But that just meant she would be honest here. “You should not pick fights you are not certain you can win.” Especially when he was struggling two on one, too. But his heart was in the right place. He just had to be smarter about it. Like Ghastly. That one didn’t bother trying to fight the hissing snake, rather than floating just out of reach, creating lights and mirages to confuse and disorient it. “Snakes are cunning, agile and they always look for weaknesses to exploit. You have to either goad them into a position they don’t want to be in, or you overwhelm them with strength. Think you can do either?”

    Mason sulked a bit as he was ‘lectured’. His arms hugged his knees and his Turtwig was trapped between his legs and body. ’I was just trying to help..’ he thought. Despite those thoughts he listened to what the woman was saying. That snakes are this and that. When she asked him the question though, he pondered a bit. ’I could easily overpower the Seviper if I used Lily...’ though the sudden thought of the Milotic brought back some depressing thoughts so he quickly pushed the idea aside. ’No, Vesty and Twiggy can do this.’.

     He stood up, still hugging his Turtwig. ”Twiggy, use Synthesis.”. The Turtwig looked up to the sun and its body began to glow with a hint of green. The bruise he got was healed. Mason put the Pokemon back on the ground. He then looked at the purple-haired woman, eyes suddenly filled with determination. ”Well I’d like to try.”.

---

Evette Moreau

Ugh. She hadn’t been that harsh, now had she? The boy kind of looked like he might start crying anytime soon, which was decidedly not what she had tried to accomplish here. She’d just wanted to, well, kind of help him? Honestly, she was not completely sure what she’d tried to get across here, but this wasn’t it. Slightly uncomfortable, she briefly rubbed the back of her head.

Fortunately, the boy bounced back relatively quickly. At least it seemed that way. Phew. She wouldn’t have known what to do if he had actually started to cry. Plus, he seemed to find resolve. That was…good? Right?
Honestly, she had no idea. But it didn’t seem like she could stop him now. “Uh, well, I guess you can. But….hm….try to fight smart, not hard. Does that make any sense? Look at Ghastly, she isn’t exactly punching it out anytime soon, but she is safe and sound by doing it her way, you know? Maybe yours can do something like that without being flung into the air?”

    Mason had always been a great listener, and listened to what the woman in front of her was saying. He thought about it for a while, and then turned to look at the Ghastly. His lips curved to form a smile. ”I have an idea.”. Then without skipping a beat, he looked at his Turtwig, ”Twiggy let’s go.”. The Pokemon let out a joyful and passionate cry before it followed its trainer who was rushing towards the battle scene. 

     When they arrived, the Larvesta was already there. ”Thank you Ghastly, would you let us take it from here?” he’d ask out of politeness.

---

Evette Moreau

Ghastly, in turn, simply, well, turned and faced the trainer. Then, she laughed shrilly, zipped in a circle around the trainer before settling right above the scene, deliberately casting a faint shadow on the Seviper. It was not easily discerned, but at the end of the day, she let them do it.

Eve rolled her eyes at that. Something told her that Ghastly mostly gave the others a shot because she expected them to fail, hopefully in a more spectacular fashion. It just was in the nature of this species, wasn’t it? Still, at the very least her Ghastly was not doing anything to make the situation worse, so there was that at least.

Otherwise though, she remained quiet, following the boy and watching. Though she had Noivern’s ball at the ready, in case some sort of aerial rescue became necessary once more.

    Mason chuckled a little when the Ghastly zipped away, he found the Ghastly’s behaviour very interesting. ”Alright, Larvesta, go to the other side, Twiggy stay right there,” he said as he moved towards the front of the Seviper, with some distance between it and him. The case was the same for Larvesta and Twiggy, but they were on different sides of the Seviper. The snake Pokemon noticed them and bared its fangs at them, hissing. 

     Mason picked up some rocks from the ground, ”Vesty, String Shot! Follow up with Ember and Twiggy use Razor Leaf!” he said and his Pokemon did as told. While Mason, threw rocks at the Seviper. An attack from three different directions. The Seviper had to choose any one of them to attack and Mason already had in mind what to do for each scenario as he already had it played in his mind. Hopefully, it will work. 

     The Seviper became a bit agitated and was deciding who to attack. The Seviper plunged at Mason. The boy knew that he is the likeliest target be attacked since he seemed like the most vulnerable. But, this was actually to Mason’s advantage as he was ready to dodge anytime whereas his Pokemon had to be told so first. Mason held his breath and jumped aside, missing the Seviper’s fang by a width of hair, ended up rolling to the ground. Without missing a bit he shouted, ”Flame Charge! Crunch!”. 

     The Larvesta’s body were immediately cloaked in flames as it charged towards the exposed Seviper. While the Turtwig jumped at the Seviper, and bit with the full strength of its jaw on the Seviper’s body. The snake Pokemon wailed and screeched, before finally plummeting to the ground and fainted.

     Mason, still lying on the dirt with his mouth dropped, could not believe what had happened. 

---

Evette Moreau

Arms crossed, she watched. What the girl did made some sense. But it also didn’t. Putting himself in harm’s way, when he already had two Pokemon fighting for him? That did not make any sense to her. A Pokemon could always be recalled and healed up for free in the center, if things went awry. But if he was bit here and poisoned, what exactly would they do? Well, she probably would have had to somehow transport him to the nearest proper clinic – which might take just long enough for him to sustain permanent damage.

Sure, at the end of the day his tactics did pay off and he won, rolling through the dirt like a child. She sighed again, then took off one of her riding gloves leisurely. Ignoring the fainting Seviper, she swiftly made her way towards the boy still on the ground. Then, she briefly straddled him, lunged and slapped him right across the face with her left. “Idiot.” Her words betrayed a certain anger, though she swiftly stood up again and crossed her arms, instead looking at the disappointed Ghastly floating through the air.

    When the boy saw the purple-haired lady walking over, he thought that he would get a congratulations, a clap of approval and appreciation, something along that line. But oh boi. He did not expect to get a smack right across the face. It truly shocked him. 

     He rubbed one of his sore cheeks to lessen the pain, and sat up when the woman was off him. With a prominent frown and sad droopy eyes, he asked, ”What did you do that for? Nobody got injured, nobody got flung into the air...”.

“You didn’t get injured from that slap either, now did you? Doesn’t make it the right thing to do, does it?” Eve already sighed inwardly. Yes, she had managed to rattle this buy with her antics. But clearly, he did not understand yet. Mayhap, he would not understand at all. That would be problematic, if nothing else.

Or, well, she could technically just ignore him. Technically. But she was not that kind of person. If she taught a lesson, she wanted it understood for sure. “This isn’t about what happened. It is about what could have happened. Your Pokemon can take the hit. That is, in a way, what they are here for. But can you? What if it bit you? Poisoned you? As a trainer, your own safety is your first priority. Simple as that.”