As Pokey was tending Josh's garden, cultivating the newly-budding Salac trees, a shrill buzz caught the grass-type's attention. Squinting, the grass-type could see a Cutiefly flitting around the Salac buds. even landing on a branch near one. The Maractus eyed the creature warily. The moment its proboscis pierced the unripe Salac Berry, the Garden warden sprung into action, shooing the Cutiefly with a swipe of NEEDLE ARM.

Agitated, the bug-type's wings churned invisibly fast, blowing a FAIRY WIND at Pokey before turning toward another Salac plant. A second swipe of his NEEDLE ARM was enough to get the wild to back down, though the damage had already been done. A major branch had been broken off one of the Salac plants, which would almost assuredly affect the harvest. It would be a while before Josh made that discovery, though, what with being saddled with thousands of hours of community service following his hearing with Elinor Anderson over his misdeeds against Eris Halla ...

Since moving his Berry Garden to a remote corner of Mauville Racing Grounds, there had been an increase of desert Pokémon looking for meale. Under Pokey's watch, they wouldn't get any... or so the maractus thought. As powerful as the grass-type's NEEDLE ARM was, the Sandslash had a huge mobility edge, DIGGING into the carefully-tilled ground. He simply lacked the reaction time to clobber the earthen vermin before being uprooted. An urgent text to Josh's phone alerted him to the invader's presence, the young man leaping aboard Dimitri and TRAILBLAZING his way across the Gym. The Feraligatr was quite the rough ride, but not one he wasn't used to from his other Pokémon; he rode big cats routinely, after all.

The wild noticed the tromping water-type and whirled about, desperately trying to burrow with a Kasib Berry in its clutches. With a swift kick to the sides, Josh's loyal, cold-blooded predator reached top speed, knocking the spinning Sandslash out of its burrowing attempt with minimal bleeding from the spines. Feraligatr had tough skin!

Surveying the damage to his garden, several unripe Kasib Berries had fallen off their branches. Pokey, uprooted, was not doing well, either; the grass-type had serious damage done to its root system. All three of the Champion's trees were intact for now, but would require close monitoring. Best case, there would be a delay in the harvest of his crop, which annoyed him a bit. With the Sootopolis invasion coming sooner than he'd like and his best fighters all needing to partake of the fruit, this would mean three less Pokémon would be in top shape.