This wasn’t a distortion, sadly. Lash sighed, kicking an errand stone in frustration. She had come here due to the rumour of strange Pokemon being sighted and causing a ruckus. That was sometimes a tell that a distortion was happening nearby. Sadly though, now that she was on a small ledge overlooking where some of the Tinkaton were either fighting or sparring with one another. Those were rare Pokemon, yes, but only in this region. She’d never seen any here so far. But in Paldea, they were considered rather common – a far cry from the seemingly time-displaced Pokemon she encountered in the distortions. They were rare here, but this was rather a mystery of how they migrated here, rather than why they existed at all.

She put her Pokedex away for the time being, then grumbled again, kicking another stone.

Only this time, she put in a bit too much force. The broker did still not completely have complete control over those sorts of things, especially when agitated. Granted, even an angry kick in this body did not have all that much power. But it was enough to carry the stone, really just a pebble, much further than intended. Small as it might be, it was enough to be noticed when she hit one of the Tinkaton on the head. And that one threw something back towards her.

Only it threw a hammer, with great force, right at the earthen ledge she was standing on. Or maybe it missed in that short-fused reaction. Either way, it started to crumble in dust immediately. To her credit, she was already dashing away when she noticed that she was noticed. But one, Lash was still too slow to make that much of a difference. And for the other, well, she ran to the side instead of just backwards, back into the woods. Hence, the shockwave of the impact hit her enough for a stagger, then a messy slide down the ledge along with a surprised “Eeep!” of sorts.

The sound of something heavy hitting earth was hard to miss, and the shockwave could be felt all the way from where he was standing. And the sound of earth sliding down a cliffside. It didn't immediately mean he'd found what he was looking for, but it was enough of a lead to work off of.

With his Beheeyem guiding him, Hideo was quickly informed of the sound actually being someone sliding down. He didn't know how far down this cliff went, but he didn't want someone else to find out for him. "Elga, quick, help them!" he ordered.

His Beheeyem was already on it before the boy spoke, its hand facing forward as it focused Psychic energy on this person, to help stop their rough descent, gently bringing her to solid ground.

Though in the process, his Beheeyem also informed him of the small pink menace picking up a thrown hammer - and looking down towards them. Seemed like they'd found what they were looking for - and it found them.

Lasciel Elis

This descent was….surprisingly pleasant? Having closed her eyes when she started falling, Lash now opened them, blinking, to try to figure it out. Took a few moments, but she did notice the Beheeyem near her eventually and put two and two together. This was some kind of psychic ability slowing her descent.

Not bad. A short sigh of relief as she felt solid ground below her again, Lash decided to stop being stupid and put at least a bit of game face on. She might look like this, but she wasn’t some hapless child! No, definitely not. Instead, she went and pulled out a pokeball from her pocket, releasing her Toxel. Against this thing she had no great matchups but at least this one wouldn’t be weak to either it had to offer.

However, since someone else had already intervened in the fight she decided to not do anything yet while the Tinkaton retrieved its hammer, the erstwhile sparring partner of it just looking on as if to leave this to its opposite for now. “Hey there. Thank you for the help. You planning on fighting this or just leaving?” After all, this person had helped her. Would be rude to pull them into a fight they did not want. Though she herself wanted a little bit of payback at least.

The rescue went smoothly, the person gently placed on the ground - and eager to get back at the Tinkaton, if the sound of a Pokemon exiting its Pokeball meant anything. His Beheeyem was quick to inform him that the Pokemon she let out was a Toxel, which…wasn't the best choice against a Tinkaton.

Well, it was the effort that mattered. You couldn't be prepared for everything.

"You're welcome," was Hideo's answer, the boy reaching into his pocket to take out another Pokeball, "And yeah, I'm gonna stop that Tinkaton. Been a menace around this area."

As if to prove that point, the Tinkaton tossed her hammer towards the boy and his Pokemon, a sheer look of glee on her face as the 100-kilogram hammer flew down.

Hideo pressed the button on the Pokeball, letting out a Melmetal. The hammer struck the massive Pokemon…who barely budged. "Jiggler, there's your lunch."

A deep, joyous noise came from the Melmetal as its body expanded, its hands pushing the hammer in gradually. Light *crunch*ing noises could be heard as it gradually absorbed the hammer into its body.

The gleeful expression on the Tinkaton flipped upside down, the small Pokemon horrified and hurriedly scampering down the cliff.

Lasciel Elis

That huge chunk – or maybe hunk? – of metal sure was an answer to itself. Lash really should get herself one of those one day. For the moment, she still had to rebuild after being caught off-guard by the de-aging when she had just unloaded her stash. There was Metagross, certainly, but it was the presence of another here, ironically, that saw her go for Toxel instead. It was better suited to her current appearance and she did not want to play her hand completely. After all, this was a stranger with powerful Pokemon that she met out in the wild. While he had been helpful so far, she was not going to just up and trust him anytime soon. Well, not more than anyone else, really.

Instead, she would keep an ace in the hole just in case. Better to have and not need than to need and not have, really. But that did not mean that one should just discard the little one, either. “Don’t let it run off, Nuzzle,” she ordered the little one and as dutifully as it came, the toxic rodent dashed after the Tinkaton right as it was trying to leave and hit it with an electrical tackle, the paralyze stopping it in its track, if only briefly. “Well, if you want to stop it, better stop it properly. If we let it leave it will just come back either with more or just stronger. Those kinds of Pokemon don’t just tug in their tails and leave forever.” That was probably not the best thing to say for her guise, but she was not exactly playing a role here. Lash was still Lash and she knew quite a bit about wild Pokemon. She was not going to pretend she was stupid or inexperienced just for the sake of it.
Heck, she hated it when people went and treated her like a kid. She was not going to give them much of a reason to do so.

The Tinkaton tried to make her escape once she realized the size of the Melmetal (and that there was no more hammer to save), but the Toxel's tackle put a stop to her plans. To her credit, she did try to push through the paralysis, but there was nothing to stop Hideo's Beheeyem from lifting her up with Psychic energy, restraining her with ease.

"At least it's not gonna be tossing a hammer around for a while," Hideo said, listening as his Beheeyem gradually brought the Tinkaton closer to the group - easy to tell from its angry pokespeak ramblings. "I'm sure we can bring her in to a Pokemon Center or something. Maybe give her to a trainer that can help keep her under control."

He already had enough trouble with his own.

Hideo turned to the girl he'd helped save. "I'm Hideo, by the way. You?" He didn't see any harm in introducing himself to someone he just helped out - she sounded about his age too.

Lasciel Elis

On closer inspection, the other trainer seemed young as well. Seemed young, she corrected herself. Ugh. This was very frustrating already. Lash sighed once more, irked by her own thoughts all the same. Not exactly that boy’s fault, really. He seemed to act reasonably, well, reasonable in just about any regard there, so she had little reason to complain other than her own neuroses that arose from her situation.

Once again a sigh, as she watched her Toxel follow the floating Tinkaton, clearly interested in what was going on. It still had to learn and grow itself, so an unusual sight like that just kind of interested it greatly. “I guess bringing it to a Pokemon Center is the reasonable course of action,” she replied, banishing more final solutions from her mind. This was a young boy, not a seasoned hunter keeping the local population of dangerous critters under control. Best to not treat him like one. “Oh an I am Lash, at least that’s what people call me. Was looking for a space-time distortion since I heard talk of rare Pokemon. Did you happen to see any of those around here?”

Could not hurt to ask, after all.

Being followed by the Toxel didn't do anything to diminish the Tinkaton's angry poke-ranting. Hideo's Pokemon could only silently watch, the Beheeyem keeping her restrained while the Melmetal was ready to strike if she got free.

Hideo raised an eyebrow at the girl's question - still keeping his eyes closed in the process. "Can't say I've seen any distortions for a while. Been months since I've heard of any. They've been a lot less common lately, but the Pokemon they came from have been popping up all over Hoenn without'em. They became common around the time Paldean Pokemon started appearing."

Which was fine by him; the ones that were appearing outside of distortions were a lot less aggressive. He had close calls in pretty much every distortion.

"Well, I hope you have some good luck finding the Pokemon you're looking for, Lash." Hideo waved to the girl, turning around. "I'll be taking the Tinkaton to a Pokemon Center now."

The boy's hand met with a glob of metal - his Melmetal wanted him to hold its hand on the way there, which the boy readily did. Not like it'd make it any hard for his Beheeyem to guide him around.

Lasciel Elis

That kind of stung. His reply saw her taken aback, briefly. Mostly because she had had a similar experience. Ever since the one distortion that had done this to her, she had missed two due to them being on the other side of Hoenn and had not heard of any since. Which always brought that terrible, terrible thought to the forefront.

What if there weren’t going to be any more distortions, now that the meteor situation had been sorted out?

Now, Lash did appreciate not being blown up by that meteor. And, technically, her situation would eventually fix itself to a degree, simply due to herself ageing. But that still probably meant the better part of a decade being stuck living the hell of adolescence. It wasn’t just her mother who was unwilling to go through that again.

“I am not just looking for a Pokemon…” she started, voice going flat. “But I don’t expect someone like you to understand, pah.” Having come back from that brief bout of defeatism, she pouted now before turning on her heel and decidedly walking off in the opposite direction, showing him what was what. Granted, it probably achieved nothing, but that wasn’t the point. Not really. It was just her acting out her own frustrations, in a way.