Cade turns to look at the kid vying for his job (Eris Halla ) with a raised brow. Was she... homeless? She seemed to dress like she was. Though, alternatively, the vagrants here were likely much different than the ones in his home region. Now that he got a longer look at her, she seemed to be more of a... pirate?

"E-Eh...?" The ice cream vendor responds, staring incredulously at the little girl for a moment before turning to the older blonde. "Is she your daughter, or something? Bah! It doesn't matter! Bring your third cousin for all I care! I'll give you each one snowcone now and one later if you get me to the other side of the beach!" He states, picking himself up off the sandy shore.

Sliding the metal door at the top of his cart open, the man urges them to look inside and pick a frosty cone for themselves. "So we got a deal, or what? Take one, take one! You won't be doing just me a favor, you know! That monster out there is a menace to society!"

Cade hums in thought, reaching into the cart and pulling out a blue raspberry cone. "You hear that, Captain Kid? Sure you still want to come along? It might be scary." He calmly says, calmly taking the plastic wrap off his treat and tossing it away into a black bag tied to the cart's handlebar. Sparing a glance at the LUXRAY there, he takes a nibble of his shaved ice.

MISSION + Eris Halla

☉

"H-Hey now! I didn't say nuthin' about the Pokémon getting a snowcone!" The vendor protests.

Cade, however, closes the cart latch with a clank and pats its metal surface. "You want us to escort you or not?" He says, calling his Sableye to his side with a chirp. It slinks across the sand as a shadow, reemerging over his shoulder like a haunting conjoined twin. "Good Pokémon is what something like that takes."

Ultimately, the vendor relents. As he wheels his cart in the direction of their destination, Cade turns to the girl with a snort. He didn't believe her about GROUDON, of course. But those were real GYARADOS scales if he'd ever seen any. Just as his eye begins to take notice of the scars on her arm, however, she lowers her prize.

"Hm? NADYA and I? We can handle anything." He says, letting his Sableye's toothy smirk speak for itself as they walk alongside the vendor. "What's your name, anyway, capitan? Do your parents approve your dangerous escapades?" He smiles.

MISSION + Eris Halla

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"I used to have a Pokémon babysitter once!" The ice cream vendor interjects. "His name was Hyppie the Hypno! He'd take me to dance parties with Drowzee, haha! Though, now that I think about it, it's a little weird that I was always the only one dancing... they'd just sit there and watch and laugh, haha!"

Cade regards the short story with a perturbed glance as they walk past a rocky outcrop separating one stretch of the beach from the other. Before too long, however, he shifts his attention back to little Captain Eris Halla.

"Well, my name is Cade Atreides . It's a pleasure to be working with you, partner."

"And I'm Kujo!" The vendor adds. "I'm the youngest of the KUJO CREAMERY company. I'm sure you've both heard of us before, right? We're big in Lilycove!"

"Well, I only immigrated here less than a year ago, so..."

Meanwhile, nearby, an abandoned and overturned pail suddenly gets sucked into the sand by an unseen force.

MISSION + Eris Halla

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"Gah! See! I wasn't kiddin'! The beach is coming alive again!" The vendor exclaims, pointing at the mass of sand that churns just ahead of them. It appears aggravated by the FAIRY WIND that has picked up. So much so that it spits out the pail it had eaten just earlier, nearly striking Cade on the head.

"Keep moving," The one-eyed blonde orders the ice cream vendor Kujo. "We'll take care of this."

"Y-You don't gotta tell me twice!" The man responds, gripping both hands onto the cart's handle before pushing it away.

Glaring at the mysterious mass, Cade orders his Sableye next, which clambers over his shoulder like some living gargoyle. "DISABLE it," He says, shifting to look at young Eris Halla next. "Then you take the chance to strike when you see it. Got it?"

His Pokémon leaps from his shoulder and onto the sandy ground in front of him, reaching out with its hands and placing a curse on the enemy before them. The mass of sand doesn't simply stay still, however. Instead, it stretches around them in a wide U-shape.

When it attempts to attack, however, it finds itself unable to do so. It swiftly tries to sink away after.

MISSION + Eris Halla

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The entity dwelling within the sands finds itself incapable of escaping. Furthermore, a SPRINGTIDE STORM sweeps across the beach in hues of pink before revealing the true identity of this 'monster': a PALOSSAND. Cade figured as much. The sight of the large sand castle begrudgingly taking shape before them was not so surprising to him.

The strange SPRINGTIDE STORM that the LUXRAY had called forth, however, did. Casually, as if they weren't in imminent danger of being swallowed up by the ghostly sand, he turns to the little girl and says: "I've never seen a Luxray do that before. What kind of attack was it?" The mercenary prided himself on being extremely knowledgeable about the subject, after all. Not knowing stung his pride.

Meanwhile, NADYA the SABLEYE operates independently of her trainer. The PALOSSAND attempts to BULLDOZE the small gremlin with an earth-trembling charge but said gremlin simply leapfrogs over it before striking down with its claws (KNOCK OFF). This seems to separate it from a good chunk of its primary mass (SOFT SAND).

MISSION + Eris Halla

☉