Andrea wiped the sweat off her brow, having just finished polishing Nala's armored body with a clean rag. "And we're done! Don't you feel prettier now?" The Nidoqueen nodded with a jovial expression, feeling so happy to be taken care of by her trainer. Her olive green frame was sparkling... literally!

Granted, being a shiny Pokémon, she always had a bit of a sparkle to her. All shiny Pokémon seemed to do that. It was a total mystery as to why that happened. Was it magic moon dust? A result of nuclear radiation? Who knew. Nonetheless, there was an even bigger mystery that needed to be addressed...

Why did Nidoqueen have breasts?

No seriously, what purpose did those serve? Pokémon laid eggs. In addition, Nidoqueen were incapable of breeding. Andrea assumed her thinking face. "Hmmmmm... Perhaps they're an evolutionary remnant? Does this mean Pokémon were once mammals? Further evidence is needed to prove this hypothesis." She mused, trying to sound all sciency and stuff.

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"C'mon, Junior! Show me your Rock Blast!" Andrea said, pointing at a straw dummy with a red target painted on its chest.

'Junior' was the baby Rhyhorn that had recently hatched from an egg, its small stature and big eyes denoting its very young age. Junior's mother, Donna, was standing nearby alongside her mate, Barron. The Rock type couple seemed to be quite proud of their little boy.

With Andrea's encouragement, the adorable rhino baby managed to shoot a large enough rock out of his mouth to knock the dummy over, eliciting a celebratory cry from the young PokéManiac. "Yay! I knew you could do it!"

Donna smiled proudly over her son's success, leaning affectionately against Barron's side, whose metallic cheeks flushed a vibrant shade of pink.

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"Do you ever stop eating?" Andrea inquired, staring with an incredulous look on her face, while her shiny Munchlax eagerly devoured a whole mountain of berries that was set in front of him. She was beginning to regret catching this one... Even Chomper didn't have such a gigantic appetite!

Due to the Munchlax's blue color, she had given him the name 'Doraemon', the title character from an anime about a time-traveling robot Munchlax that her mother used to watch when she was little. Like, REALLY little! Andrea didn't really get the appeal, but still, she thought the name sounded cute.

Unlike his namesake who had all sorts of unique abilities, this Doraemon seemingly did nothing but eat all day. He was known as the Big Eater Pokémon for a reason, after all. With the berry pile having already vanished, the Munchlax let out a noisy burp, while rubbing his stomach that was pregnant with a food baby.

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"Alright, these are the rules of the game..." Andrea began to explain, standing in the middle of a makeshift volleyball field where four of her Pokémon that had been divided into two teams stared each other down.

Team A consisted of Chomper the Hydreigon and Meatloaf the Salamence, while Team B consisted of Sandy the Tyranitar and Finn the Garchomp. While Andrea broke down the basics of volleyball to them, the four monstrosities eyed each other intensely. To them this wasn't just a friendly sport. It was a chance to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who the strongest pseudo-legendary was!

"Aaand go!" The young PokéManiac signaled the beginning of the match, and pandemonium ensued...

A few minutes later, the field was riddled with fissures and large, smoking craters. Chomper and Meatloaf were wrestling on the ground over some minor dispute, both covered in cuts and bruises, Sandy had been tangled up in the net, which had been torn off the ground, while Finn held a deflated volleyball in his blade-tipped arm, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong.

On that day, Andrea learned an important lesson: Never pit pseudo-legendary Pokémon against each other. Their overly competitive nature was a recipe for disaster.

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Five hours had passed since she'd let her newly acquired Shiftry out of its Pokéball, and it had yet to warm up to her. The carved out scars that adorned its wooden frame told the story of the abuse it had suffered at the hands of the black market traffickers. As such, it had grown to distrust humans and act hostile towards them.

"Here you go, Woody. I figured you would be hungry." Andrea set a plate of sliced off berries unto the ground, but the Shiftry didn't come closer, glaring at her with narrowed eyes instead. "Look, I'm not like the people who hurt you. I just wanna be your friend!" She tried to approach first, but the Grass type hurled an Air Cutter attack at her, cutting her cheek and drawing a tiny amount of blood.

"What did they do to you..." The girl muttered while pressing her fingers against her small wound, bewildered, but mostly feeling sorry for the poor creature. "Alright, if you're not hungry, I'll just leave it here and you can eat whenever you want." She said, sitting down cross-legged and waiting.

Several more hours passed with no progress being made. Night fell. Eventually, Andrea got tired of waiting and fell asleep on the ground.

The Shiftry's stomach growled. He stared at the alluring plate of berries, then at the slumbering human. Finally, he approached the plate and wolfed down the food in record time. Clearly he had been a lot hungrier than he cared to admit.

His hunger sated, the tengu Pokémon looked at Andrea once again. She was shivering ever so slightly. Humans were not fit for sleeping outdoors. He felt bad for her, and also somewhat guilty, for she wouldn't have to sleep outside had he not been so stubborn. He lied down beside her, hoping that his white, woolly coat would be enough to keep the human warm. It was.

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A shady man in a trench coat approached Andrea as she walked her Pokémon just outside the family ranch. "Excuse me, young lady. Is that a Snorunt that you have?"

"Why, yes it is!" The dragon-costumed girl jovially replied, cradling the diminutive Ice type in her arms. "It's pretty cute, isn't it?"

"May I take this Snorunt off your hands?" The shady man requested. "I promise I will pay you well."

Andrea gave him a bewildered look. "You wanna buy my Pokémon?! Why?"

"It's not for me, it's for my daughter. She loves Snorunt, always has..." The man's bottom lip quivered, as he barely held back his tears. "You see, my daughter is gravely ill... The doctors said she might not even make it to New Year's. Ever since my wife passed away, she's the only family I have. And I know it's not much, but... If she were to die tomorrow, I'd like to see her smile one last time as she plays with her favorite Pokémon..." He broke down sobbing.

There was no way anyone could be dense enough to buy such a cliched sob story, so naturally Andrea fell for it hook, line, and sinker. "Of course she can have it! Everyone deserves to die happy!" The young woman said, getting teary-eyed herself.

"Thank you! Thank you ever so much!" The shady man took the Snorunt out of her grasp, and gave her a big wad of cash in return. What the girl failed to notice was the man's sinister smirk as he walked away with his newfound prize.

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According to Andrea's parents, this small, reptilian Pokémon had inexplicably appeared in their ranch one day. An obvious Fire type based on its fiery ahoge and red scales, its species name was apparently Fuecoco.

"Hello, little one. Don't be scared. Here, you must be hungry." The young PokéManiac said, setting a nutritious-looking apple on the ground that immediately caught the baby crocodile's attention. It accidentally set the apple on fire in its excitement, giving it a crispy, charcoal black texture. Learning that the apple was not only still edible in that form, but it was also tastier, it happily gobbled it up, flashing a big smile afterwards.

Andrea giggled at the adorable display. "So cute~! Let's be friends. I think I'm gonna call you... Jalapeño!" She said, warmly embracing the little Fuecoco, which imprinted on the female human as if she were its mother.

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Dragon mating season was always a disaster. Not for any lewd reasons, mind you, but due to how competitive Dragon-type Pokémon could get. It was a well known fact among Breeders that a male dragon would demolish any rival in order to spread its dominant genes.

Finn and Edges were standing inches away from each other, exchanging hostile looks, like a pair of rowdy, inebriated youths about to get into a bar fight. The Druddigon tried to intimidate his rival with his Scary Face, while the Garchomp stood his ground with a defiant Swords Dance. The object of their shared affection seemed to be the charming Salazzle lying on a nearby rock.

"Boys, don't fight! Lizzie's not interested in either of you!" Andrea tried in vain to defuse the situation, eventually being forced to return the two dragons into their Pokéballs before they could skewer each other. The Salazzle yawned with cold indifference. She was a lot like Andrea in a way, completely Oblivious to the advances of the opposite sex.

Love was a fickle thing, and this luscious lizard was just not ready for it yet.

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Andrea called her newly evolved Salamence out of its ball. "Go, Beeferella! Let's see you spread your new wings and Fly!" She exclaimed, yet the crimson-winged dragon didn't share her enthusiasm, staying rooted to the ground.

Andrea gave her Pokémon a worried look. "What's wrong, Beeferella?"

The Salamence swayed its reptilian tail to and fro like an annoyed cat.

"You don't like being called Beeferella?"

The Salemence nodded.

"I'm so sorry..." The girl hung her head down in shame. "I was so excited to get another Salamence after what happened to Meatloaf, I wanted you to have a nickname that sounded similar. But you're different from Meatloaf, aren't you? What kind of name would you prefer?"

The Salamence turned its head upwards, pointing at the sky.

The draconic cosplayer smiled. "Alright, from now on, your name will be Sora!" She declared.

The renamed Sora roared emphatically and spread her massive wings, before taking to the skies, performing a series of aerial tricks to impress her trainer. From that day forward, Sora would be her own person without having to live in Meatloaf's shadow.

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Andrea's Buzzwole had been doing crossfit exercises all morning. If she knew they were such a musclebrain, she would've bought them their own gym equipment. For the time being, the alien bug made do by lifting two Slowbro as if they were dumbbells. The Slowbro did not seem to mind.

"Are you sure you don't need a break, Buzz-Buzz? I can make you some poffins." Andrea offered. The gargantuan mosquito vehemently shook its head. Poffins contained too much sugar, the enemy of getting buff! They needed to maintain their excellent musculature through a strict diet of protein and bodily fluids of other organisms.

"What have I gotten myself into..." The young woman sighed. It was pertinent to train her Buzzwole far away from densely populated areas. Civilians would be terrified if they suddenly saw an Ultra Beast casually strolling in town. Someday Hoenn would get over past trauma and accept those creatures, but it was probably too soon to have that yet.

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Andrea's track record with simian Pokémon was not exactly the best. Which is why she was deeply surprised when the League had entrusted her with an extremely rare species of monkey: Zarude.

Naturally, the young woman had spent the first couple of days mortified of the dark-furred ape. With bloodshot eyes and arms longer than the rest of its body, this primate looked more like a demon. Eventually, though, she warmed up to the mangy jungle dweller.

He had no style. He had no grace. One could even say that he had a funny face. Andrea could appreciate a Pokémon that looked just a little bit goofy.

"I'll call you Lanky. Let's be friends." The girl said, warily approaching the Zarude and petting it. To her surprise, it did not tear her limbs off. Perhaps not all monkeys were bad.

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