another day, another dollar.[break]
mr. krabs would be proud of pippa taking up the mantle of being on site for mineral excavation under the name of silver co. in her most neutral shade of pink from head to toe, she chose the most brown-toned outfit to better fit in with the dirt on the various workers around her. "it seems they won't let up. we'll have to show them a thing or two, darling little dirt thumbs that they are." it was disappointing it came to this, really. pippa didn't hate pokemon in any which way and she understood why they were getting in the way of mining and excavation, but there just was so much to tap into at rusturf tunnel that she couldn't let them continue to get in the way of her operations. with a shake of her head, she almost spun around from surprise when she was tapped on the back of her neck.[break]
'ms. silver, there's someone here to see you.'[break]
ah, it was likely the recruit she had heard about. given all her workers had families to feed and no time to train pokemon when they had their kids, wives, husbands, and work to maintain, she understood that they had to throw a line out into the proverbial social waters and reel in a sucker.[break]
of course, said 'sucker' was none other than andrea vaneau.[break]
"OHOHO, SO WE MEET AGAIN!" this must have been fate. pippa would hear nothing else of it. though she adored andrea too much to talk down to her in any matter, she was still her coordinating rival and thus she was greeted in a loud and uppity manner that made the workers around there snap their heads to focus to see the newcomer. she seemed to be big deal with how pippa acted excitedly out in the open, both arms crossing over her chest as she looked andrea up and down. "i know what you can do, so no worries about that," the heiress said as she waved off the worker that had escorted andrea forward. "it seems that there are three groups of digletts gathered around each one of the larger machines set up to excavate. they've done quite a bit of damage to them but that's no matter. i just need them escorted away - forcefully, if need be." unraveling a large parchment, she pointed out large red 'x's like a pirate's map. on top of the x's were large drawings of digletts with downturned eyebrows, signaling they were angry. "and there's two dugtrios at the head of these assaults. they are still being scouted, but if you see them - they are dangerous ..." trailing off, this left time for pippa to put a hand to her chest as to give a flourish to what she was about to say: "and that's where i come in! i will be escorting you to make sure you are well and safe!" [break]
essentially, andrea was stuck with her tagging along.[break]
"with that said, are there any questions? our ride is right over there." a dune buggy for four awaited them just a ways away, ready to be attended. with a step and a jump into the vehicle, pippa honked the horn once with a wink and a flash of a grin.

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Andrea Vaneau

"I WOULDN'T EXPECT ANYTHING LESS!" pippa exclaimed in delight at the garchomp skillfully scaring away the digletts. "maybe this may be easier than i thought," she said out loud, rubbing her chin as she pulled the dune buggy to a momentary stop. with a toss of an overly bedazzled pokeball, another garchomp joined the fray. while the two pokemon were the same type, one was far more obnoxious to look at than the other - pippa's garchomp having a pink 'princess'-labeled collar and a fuzzy pink coat on with white wool trimmings around its ankles and wrists. this garchomp also seemed to be less of a dragon type and more of a fairy or normal type with the way it happily stamped its feet with loud 'gar!' and 'chomp!'s. it certainly was happy to be part of the crew and looked curiously at the other garchomp who was all the more battle ready than this pampered dragon.[break]
"with a mighty roar, i think we can just scare them away!" the heiress called back to her garchomp who looked down at the dirt with a frown. it seemed to not want to dig underground and get itself dirty, but such was the fate of a ground type and so it did. it seemed to mimic andrea's garchomp in this manner, thinking it to be the leader in this scenario and easily following suit. with the first group of digletts dispersed, pippa pulled up the dune buggy to a large excavator that had multiple large thumb-sized dents in them ... [break]
except something was off.[break]
"miss andrea, i must say -- i don't recall digletts having hairs that were that strong."[break]
within the machine, there were small chicken feet-structured dents in the sense that it was one line divided into three. these dents were what did the most damage, it seemed, as it pierced into the fuel tank that has long since been emptied out onto the ground. "well i'll be ..." the pink woman muttered, rubbing at her forehead before returning to the dune buggy to zip away with andrea in tow. amidst the speeding and quick turns of a madwoman driver, she asked andrea: "have you ever seen something like that?" more of a coordinator than trainer by far, pippa lacked some knowledge of pokemon when it came to combat situations. she didn't know much about regional variants and the like, unfortunately.[break]
"hopefully we see what's wrong here," she proclaims as she points to the two garchomps to approach the next group of digletts. pippa's own garchomp is first to lead the charge - eager to show off to the other garchomp to show its own usefulness - when it stops dead in its tracks. several caltrop-like hairs sprout out of the ground, making the garchomp do a funky dance to try and avoid being pricked by the iron hairs.[break]
"diglett ... isn't bald?!" pippa exclaimed in shock.

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Andrea Vaneau

good god. if the dugtrio didn't have to be bested for the sake of her company's wellbeing, pippa would have been more than happy to recruit the pokemon for some form of advertisement. how beautiful its hair was - making even the pinkette jealous as she pushed out a hand in front of her, in a proud - albeit overly dramatic - fashion.[break]
the garchomp was hopping on its feet to and fro, whining softly at the pain that it had endured from the fellow ground type. although she could feel the judgement from the other garchomp, pippa's own dragon didn't seem to particularly take much offense to it. as a dragon type, it did understand the idea of pride and needing to maintain itself in terms of appearances but what could it do? it was subservient to her new trainer and she raged forward with the command it was given. "dragon rush, lillian!" this had been the nth name that had been given to the garchomp in its small amount of time in the claws of the heiress, but it was of no matter to it. as the command demanded, the garchomp pulled forward and slammed into the dugtrio that seemed to shimmer with a defiant gleam only a steel type could have. the very hair on its heads warbled like thin sheets of metal as the onslaught of garchomp attacks came down on it, the digletts around the two garchomps letting out angry 'dig!' and 'lett!'s. they wouldn't let their proud leader go down so easily, a variety of attacks pelting the garchomps and mud slap attacks lowering their accuracy as dirt was constantly thrown into the dragon types' eyes. [break]
what cheeky little pokemon - cute, but still unfortunately in the way.[break]
this was a moment in which pippa regretted not having had her pokemon learn roar to properly scare off the crowd. for now, she let out another pokeball to aid the foot soldier garchomps. the samurott summoned was prideful - moreso than any of pippa's pokemon, it seemed, as it looked down its nose to the crowd of ground types with a triumphant grin. it hadn't even put forward a single move but it already seemed proud of its efforts, summoning a barrage of large shells in the form of a multitude of razor shell attacks towards the dugtrio that seemed unhappy with the damage it sustained -- enough so to even pull back, his mangled troops following him.[break]
"i'm not too keen on ending their careers here. maybe they will come to terrorize another group," pippa thought out loud, insinuating they move on to scare away another of the remaining groups as she returned to the dune buggy and pulled out a stash of potions to help heal up their pokemon before the next round.

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Andrea Vaneau

"it seems we go ... weast?"[break]
a pause and a turn of the map in her hands kept pippa from recreating a spongebob scene gone wrong. "moreso east than west." having properly read it this time without crossing her wires, she returned her pokemon to their balls and stepped on the gas once more. much to the distress of the ground below them, tire marks were made as a dune buggy learned how to burn rubber on the open expanse before them. a small slope in the road turned into a launching pad with the way pippa drove (loosely calling it such), by some grace of arceus above having them land with a twist of the car sideways into a skidding stop.[break]
"and here we are!" the heiress declared, arms wide in front of her. the digletts had already made their home in the new machine. dirt and sand had accumulated atop it as if they were making it into some large diglett monument. the pokemon turned their heads(?) ... er ... necks (?) to look upon the duo in shock, their eyes blown wide and rattling in their little whack-a-mole skulls. they were caught off guard, so this was their chance.[break]
"once more!" pippa declared, but her pokemon did need a rest - primarily her garchomp who had taken a beating and was happily healed up and resting in her pokeball. the samurott could come back out and so it did proudly, already bellowing as it scampered to chase away some digletts with its water-based moves. it was an easy scene to overcome, but something wasn't quite right.[break]
as they had approached this scene, they were close to the ending point. this was alarming in the way that there seemed to be a constant rumbling of the earth - not quite earthquake-like, but not exactly unlike the beginnings of one. pippa didn't seem to mind, considering she found her driving (a natural disaster in itself) to be normal.[break]
"with this rabble through, i think the next dugtrio left this group and joined the other one further ahead!"

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Andrea Vaneau

a very animated 'nice, nice, very nice, andrea' was only right, given the dragonette's expertise with her pokemon. the dugtrio they had come to meet seemed to easily be overwhelmed and the digletts had fled ... [break]
but was it due to them?[break]
'dugtrio, dugtrio, duGTRIO!' came the rhythmic chants of the last dugtrio that had seemingly come to join up with the smaller variant. this alpha-sized dugtrio had shockingly ginger-colored hair as opposed to the normal blonde and ... had six heads instead of three? would that even be a dugtrio?! "andrea, watch out!" pippa called out as she tried to do some daring maneuvers with the small vehicle around the pokemon to distract it while her samurott went into battle mode once again, launching whatever moves it could at the dugtrio who seemed to only get more and more angry with every swipe. a menacing aura came from it as it lashed out and let out a mighty earthquake that seemed to cause rifts in the very ground itself, exposing small caverns beneath.[break]
having to escape the dune buggy as it faltered and fell into one of said caverns, pippa landed on her side and sent out her garchomp anew to team up with andrea's dragons. "this should be the last one. if the leader falls, all will be done!"

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Andrea Vaneau

the hoenn-ending dugsextet was ready to push itself into the history books and end proboards once and for all for that final jcink push when -- ![break]
it was effectively tossed like a salad.[break]
the powerful z-move had moved the massive horde of ed sheerans into what seemed to be their 'side'. still, the question of what a diglett or dugtrio looked like under the dirt was unanswered on this day as the thumb projections of the dugtrio simply laid out atop one another, shaking their heads in a way that mimicked a small wave. one head alerted the other, that one alerted the next, and so on until the collective dugtrio brought itself together - eyebrows knit downward in anger. it was very hurt, seeing as a z-move wasn't part of a healthy breakfast unless you liked eating razor blades for your start of the day. in dnd terms, one supposed this could parallel a 'bloody' state.[break]
pippa couldn't help but pause at this, unsure why the dugtrio was so set on tossing its life aside for something that seemed quite harmless when compared to losing one's life. "is there a term for deforestation of caves?" she thought out loud, looking to andrea in a confused manner - genuinely asking. was she doing just that? oh no, not the big bad corporation coming to push pokemon out of their homes and the one behind it just now realizing the gravity of it all![break]
unfortunately, this wasn't a child-friendly cartoon episode. while pippa felt bad for the possibility of such, she knew there were other areas for them to be if they were so needing a new home. "relocation will have to wait!" the pink thing exclaimed, attempting to follow up the mighty nine-headed dragon with what she could. although she had no real special tactics of her own, her pokemon were ready to keep fighting and that they did. dewussy was growing tired, maybe low on pp juice or whatever else it was, and her garchomp was also seemingly panting a bit. it was a tough battle, but such was to be expected.[break]
"one last combo! throw in a mud pump!" this was borderline explicit, but this meant a mixture of earthquake with hydro pump, the earthquake knocking up shard-like debris and transferring it by means of a violent hydro pump. the dugsextet was resistant to ground-type moves but it seemed to be caked with this thick muddy debris that made it slower, already on its last leg of even existing.[break]
"good!" pippa said with two thumbs up towards andrea, going to quickly phone in a friend of sorts for the jet lift this large beast would need. this was an act of mercy, seeing as pippa was indeed heading a large money-hungry corporation, but she wasn't about to just carelessly kill off a spectacle of nature.[break]
"oh daddy, i need a favor --" the phone call started, a gruff voice on the other end going back and forth as the two of them seemed to come to a conclusion that would satisfy the both of them. "alright! we just have to babysit this giant cutie until help arrives. shouldn't be long." pippa said to andrea, approaching by means of riding her already tired garchomp that sighed as it effectively gave its master a piggyback ride.[break]
"unless you wanted to do something with it? seems like a shame to let such luscious locks go to waste on a corpse."

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Andrea Vaneau

oh sweet little andrea. how she didn't know of the wicked reality of battling and the harm that comes from it.[break]
to be honest, she probably did but pippa was just tearing up at that moment, overwhelmed by a sense of protectiveness like one would have with a baby they adored and didn't wish to have hear curse words or learn of 'adult topics.' "yes, correct! i MISSPOKE, HAHA!" her voice was unwavering as she laughed. obviously pokemon just fainted. there was no such thing as pokemon death. nope, not here.[break]
"but here you go miss andrea. you've done a splendid job." indeed, the pokemaniac had gone out of her way to help pippa with this matter and truly, pippa was touched. what a good girl. it was so rare to see someone so genuinely good these days, wasn't it? it sparked a little something in the pinkette herself as she felt her heart grow three times its normal size that day much like a green fuzzy man in a christmas suit would agree on.[break]
the promised payment was whirled to andrea's account with the press of a few buttons on pippa's rotom phone. furthermore, she summoned her entourage of baby pokemon who were mature and competent beyond their baby-faced ages. "please, have it!" an array of outfits and accessories whirled about andrea and her pokemon, all cutesy and fluffy in their own right. there were some more cool and sleek designs offered as well in case the dragon types wanted to sneer and bite at the baby pokemon that did they best to outfit the two of them to the best of their ability without getting snatched up and eaten.[break]
capitalism won on this day, huzzah indeed.

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Andrea Vaneau