Come to think of it, Andrea DID owe Memo a favor. If not for him, she could've been stuck on that island forever and devolved into a raving lunatic that talked to coconuts. Besides, babysitting some triplets didn't sound nearly as life-threatening as fending off a tribal cult of intelligent apes. This job was gonna be a walk in the park.

... right?

Soon, the young PokéManiac came in dressed in her signature onesie. She had her loyal Kangaskhan by her side, figuring that she would be great help considering she had genuine parenting experience. "Good evening, Memo! Hi, kids! Who here likes Pokémon?" The pajama-clad woman exclaimed with a jovial smile.

Guillermo Marceliño

☉

There were three of them, all boys, and contained within them was a power of unholy terror that laid waste and brought ruin to all it touched, saw, or desired.

Which is how Andrea found Memo when he answered the door, looking bedraggled; he was wearing an apron-- for protection, mostly-- smeared with mac n’ cheese and ketchup; there were matching red stains scattered around the spacious sunken living room. The kitchen in the background was a nightmare of pots, pans, plates, and scattered silverware.

The boys were chasing each other with forks pretending to be playing Call Of Duty when Andrea walked in.

They all swarmed over to her, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at her Pokemon costume and her Kangaskhan. Memo mouthed thank you over their heads and took the opportunity to escape to the kitchen to keep cleaning up the mess from dinner.

After a few moments of being star-struck by Andrea’s costume, the oldest boy (or, who Memo thought was oldest, he honestly couldn’t tell) yelled, “Yeah, we like Pokemon battles!” and threw his fork at her.

“Ah, hey, no throwing sh--,”

“Battle, Pokemon, battle!” They started shrieking, as they fell upon Andrea-- and each other-- pushing and shoving.

---

mission: babysitting duty

Andrea Vaneau

☉

The draconic cosplayer let out a sharp gasp, filled with abject terror at the sight of Memo who was covered in red stains. "Oh my gosh! What did you do?!" She had enough bad run-ins with the law without having to cover for him if he'd just killed someone!

Thankfully, it was just ketchup. The three male triplets were causing quite the ruckus, having turned the living room into a mac n' cheese-infested hellscape, and the kitchen into an indoor junkyard. Those demons in human skin then dogpiled Andrea, which was apparently their idea of having a Pokémon battle.

"Hey, hey, hey! My costume is very delicate!" The young PokéManiac protested, while trying to escape the sea of prepubescent boys. Somehow this was more damaging for her outfit than the time a monkey had worn it (and had done its business in it). At some point, a fork had also been thrown at her, barely missing her face and getting lodged into the foam eye of her hood.

Eventually, Missy the Kangaskhan separated the three obnoxious toddlers, grabbing one with each arm and the third one with her teeth. Checking herself to make sure she was in one piece, a visibly disheveled Andrea wagged her finger at the boys. "You can't have Pokémon battles indoors. If you wanna see a real Pokémon battle, we'll have to get outside first. But only if you promise to be good! Deal?" She proposed.

Guillermo Marceliño

☉

Memo should probably have been worried when Andrea’s Kangaskhan intervened and snagged the third triplet by the back of the shirt in her teeth; but he watched the little hellion windmill his arms and flail his legs and just continued minding his own business, scrubbing macaroni out of a very expensive stainless steel pot.

Amazingly, Andrea bribing the boys with violence seemed to work. They all cheered a version of “Yeah!” and began wriggling to get down.

“Coats!” Memo yelled. “¡Ponganse sus chaquetas!” It fell on deaf ears as one of the boys freed themselves from Missy’s grip-- by slipping out of his shirt-- wrenched open the apartment door and made a beeline for the elevator.

Terrified the child was going to get hurt-- or someone would see him running shirtless through the hotel, Memo rushed out the door after him, snagging a jacket off a hook.

“We can’t let them escape!”

---

mission: babysitting duty

Andrea Vaneau

☉

Those slippery rugrats sure were fast! As Missy confusedly turned around to see where the third sibling had gone, she accidentally knocked a priceless porcelain vase over with her large tail, causing it to break into pieces. Oops!

A frenzied chase worthy of the Benny Hill theme ensued, with Memo running at the front with a jacket in his hands, while Andrea tailed him with the kid's discarded shirt, already sending out another of her Pokémon to deal with the shirtless menace. "No escaping, got it! Go, Gigi!"

A malevolent shadow extended from underneath the child's feet, emerging from the floor in the form of a Gengar with a big, toothy grin on its face. Its red eyes shone with baleful light, using its Mean Look move to prevent the child from escaping. If it worked on wild Pokémon, surely it would work on preschoolers. Hopefully the kid wouldn't get traumatized in the process.

"Where do you think you're going without your shirt? You're gonna catch a cold! Watching the Pokémon battle won't be as fun if you're sneezing and blowing your nose half the time." Andrea said, taking a moment to catch her breath. At the same time, Missy caught up with the humans, still holding the other two siblings in her strong arms.

Guillermo Marceliño

☉

The vase shattering was distant background noise. Memo figured it was a figment of his imagination as stress caused his mind to shatter into sixteen bazillion pieces. Distantly, he also heard Andrea say something about something and there was a lot of G’s in the sentence; something purple and-- and cold stretched out beneath him, numbing him from the toes up, and then a Gengar loomed up in front of the shirtless child, visage twisted into something terrifying and irate.

The kid froze. Memo could feel his lungs loading up with a scream, like bullets dropping into a gun’s chamber; more like bombs, honestly, falling through the loading door of a plane. With all the agility in his body, he lunged forward and smothered the child in the jacket, snapping it over his head and squeezing the boy back to his chest as the terrified shriek was muffled in the children’s North Face fabric.

Memo spun the kid away, firmly planting himself between the trembling child and the Gengar. “It’s okay, it’s okay, está bien, está bien.” He was whispering and gently rocking the child from one side to the next.

Andrea and her Kangaskhan had caught up by then as Memo lowered the jacket to reveal the child’s reddened, tear-stained face. He gave a big, wet sniff, and a half-sob, half-mewl escaped his lips.

“What did we learn about running off like that?” Memo asked, sliding the child’s arms into his jacket and kneeling to fasten the zip.

“D-d-don’t do it!” the kid croaked, crying.

“Exactamente.” He zipped the kid safely into his jacket. “Now, chin up. We promised you a Pokemon battle, right?”

The boy’s face was still pale, but his tears were drying. He nodded, and the kids Missy was carting yelled “YEAH!” loud enough for the neighbors to hear and for Memo to wince.

He met Andrea’s eye over the boy’s shoulder. “Then, let’s get to it! It’s a fancy apartment so there’s a battling field in the courtyard.”

The once-crying boy yelled “I WANNA PRESS ALL THE BUTTONS IN THE ELEVATOR!” and tried to dart away, but Memo grabbed his arm.

“Oh, no you don’t. There’s 74 floors. We don’t have enough years in our lives for 74 buttons. You can press the ground floor button, and that’s it.”

“Awww, you’re no fun.”

---

mission: babysitting duty

Andrea Vaneau

☉

"He can use Hyper Voice?!" The draconic cosplayer blurted out, slipping her hands inside her hood in order to cover her ears. One couldn't fault her for mistaking the child's blaring scream for a Pokémon move. Even Missy and Gigi were mildly disturbed by it. That kid had the vocal cords of an Exploud!

Luckily, Memo came to the rescue, comforting the terrified toddler and wrapping him in a cozy jacket to boot. All was well, and Andrea's Gengar wasn't held accountable for war crimes. A win-win really.

The group made their way to the elevator, whereupon Missy gently set the other two siblings down. However, when the oversized marsupial tried to enter the shaft too, she found that she was too big to fit. "Oh, right. Missy, Gigi, return." Andrea said, calling both of her Pokémon back into their Pokéballs.

Waiting for the ground floor button (and hopefully none of the other 73 buttons) to be pressed, the young PokéManiac held the other two children by the hand, while standing next to Memo. "Good job back there. You're pretty good with kids." She observed with a genuine smile.

Guillermo Marceliño

☉

Memo stood his ground firmly in the elevator, pressing the ground floor button, and protecting it from an onslaught of reaching fingers.

“Thanks,” he said, winking. “You’re not half bad yourself. It’s almost like we both had five siblings growing up.”

Although he would never have even dreamt of acting like these children. Not in a million years. His mother would have paddled him up one side of the street and down the other. Not that he was in any place to pass judgment on parentage, of course-- having three children at the same time certainly couldn’t be easy, especially not for a busy family, as this one seemed to be.

Once they got to the spacious apartment lobby, Memo released his chief babysitter, Corazón. The Stoutland took one look at the situation and quickly began to patrol, rounding the three children up whenever they began to wander.

The apartment complex had a sprawling park adjacent to it with a handful of well-manicured battlefields, as well as a Goldeen-shaped fountain, a bunch of paved walking trails, and tended berry bushes. Memo snagged two of the children by their hands and Cora took the final by the hem of his jacket in her teeth as they crossed over to the battling fields.

“Thanks for coming to bail me out, by the way,” Memo shot over his shoulder. The kids became preoccupied jumping between the redstone pavers, playing the floor is lava with the sod in between. “I was in waaaay over my head.”

---

mission: babysitting duty

Andrea Vaneau

☉

Andrea giggled softly at Memo's remark. "Teehee! I'm an only child, but I get what you mean." Yeah, her parents kinda broke the mold when they made her, so they decided not to try a second time. Imagine having multiple Andreas running around. Total anarchy!

Soon, they were outside, 'outside' looking every bit as extravagant as the family's penthouse. Those kids' parents had given birth to three demons, but they sure had deep pockets! Not that money had much value for someone who fantasized about living her life as a Pokémon.

Once they had reached the battling fields, the Galarian youth expressed his gratitude, admitting that he may have bitten off more than he could chew. "Don't mention it..." The girl responded, wistfully gazing at the triplets that were playing their fun games. "I used to be one of these kids, you know. Always moving, never staying in one place longer than a minute. But Mom and Dad were very patient with me, so I learned to handle children the way they handled me."

The young PokéManiac slapped her cheeks, snapping herself out of her reverie. "Alright, it's time to battle!" She declared, sending Missy back out. Luckily her terrifying Gengar remained inside its ball for now. She assumed her position on the arena, before pointing dramatically at Memo. "You'd better send out your best Pokémon, because Missy and I will hold nothing back!" She boasted.

Guillermo Marceliño

☉

Andrea’s voice got a little misty as she explained why she had such a handle on these three monsters-- she used to be one of these three monsters. If they were dogs they’d be labeled high energy, high drive, and sit in a shelter cage for years unending because no one really knew how to handle them.

Memo’d been the fourth of his family; by him, his parents thought they knew what they were doing. Not to mention his oldest sister, Ester-- six years his senior-- was basically like a third parent by the time he was old enough to walk and talk. Ester was perfect, Olí was too focused on sports to misbehave, and Mira was too clever.

Cora herded the children to a bench to watch the Pokemon battle and sat protectively behind them, watching their every move. Memo took his spot opposite Andrea, who sent out her Kangaskhan. There was a thrill that sent tingles across his shoulders and down to his fingertips-- the thrill of battle. He hadn’t faced off against anyone like this-- old-fashioned style-- in a long time.

Of course, he packed for babysitting, not battling. He released his Galarian Rapidash onto the field; Zuza tossed her head, her magnificent mane catching the sunlight and glittering to beat the band.

“Same here,” Guillermo said, though he hoped they would at least avoid extraneous amounts of gore. “Zuza, start with dazzling gleam!”

Zuza lowered her head and fired off a firework-like, sparkling flash, that arched over the field dragging tendrils of sparkles, aiming right for Missy. The children oo'd and ahh'd in excitement.

---

mission: babysitting duty

Andrea Vaneau

☉

Memo's choice of battling Pokémon came as a pleasant surprise. "Ooh, Zuza evolved! Good job you two!" Andrea cheerfully remarked. That Galarian Rapidash with its candy-colored mane really was a sight to behold, and a stark contrast from the PokéManiac's own, more rugged-looking Kangaskhan.

The equine Fairy type prepared its Dazzling Gleam, its majestic form shining so brilliantly that it was probably in the children's best interest to shield their eyes. Yet, before Zuza even fired the attack, Missy closed in and attempted to strike the magical horse with a blindingly fast right hook.

Bringing her arms in front of her pouch in order to protect her precious baby, the oversized marsupial Endured the ensuing point-blank Dazzling Gleam to the best of her ability. "How did you like our Sucker Punch? Pretty surprising, isn't it?" Andrea boasted. "How are you holding up, Missy?" The young trainer asked her Kangaskhan, who nodded at her, confirming that she could still fight.

Guillermo Marceliño

☉

Memo grinned, sharing in the elation. Yes, he had evolved his Pokemon, thank you for noticing, world. God, he was good at this. “Yeah, she’s all growed up,” he said, wiping a fake tear from his eye. It really was a testament to his growth as a trainer.

Zuza was still awash in sparkles as Andrea’s Kangaskhan closed in. Zuza could do little but empty the round straight into the armored kangaroo’s chest. Meanwhile, the violent punch caught her right in the side of the neck. Guillermo winced, knowing the attack was pretty potent; already there was a bruise forming, purple stippling across Zuza’s neck.

“Brutal,” Memo said, but the kids were eating it up.

Zuza met his eye and gave him a reassuring snort. Don’t worry, girl, Memo thought, I won’t run you into the ground. Just a round or so more. Pride or no, Memo didn't really believe in tearing his Rapidash apart for the delight of small children. She could take a hit or so more and still heal herself up with Heal Pulse.

“Psychic, now!” Zuza danced back from Missy, body enveloped in a bright, pink glow. Manipulating the psychic energy around her, she made a wall between herself and the Kangakshan, aiming to crash it against her aggressor’s face.

---

mission: babysitting duty

Andrea Vaneau

☉

The Sucker Punch had indeed been brutal, but so was Zuza's retaliating Psychic, the maternal Pokémon staggering backwards as if punched by an invisible fist. "Horses don't even have arms. How did you get punched? Psychic types really are something else!" Andrea remarked, thoroughly impressed.

Even though she was hurting, Missy didn't let up. Planting her feet firmly on the ground, she let out a defiant roar. "Our opponent is attacking with the power of their mind, which means we'll just have to disorient them. It's time for a Dizzy Punch!" The young PokéManiac ordered, prompting her Kangaskhan to aim a flabbergasting punch against the Rapidash's own face in retaliation.

Guillermo Marceliño

☉