It was late afternoon at Slateport Beach, Josh covered in sweat from spending some time at Round One Arcade playing some Step Step Revolution. He had lost some of his stamina for the game from not having played recently due to how busy he had been with both his Gym and his Ranger duties. As he was on his way to the beach proper to retrieve some of his water Pokémon he left at play there, Pinky, the Sylveon he was astride, let out some low squeals and pointed her feelers at a spire-like building to try to get Josh's attention. "What is it, Pinky?" Josh asked, gently scratching the fairy-type behind her ears. With another squeal, the Sylveon pranced toward the building.

Inside was a playpen full of Pokémon memorabilia and small Pokémon at play with them. Several had flags in their mouths. Pinky approached one and began to tickle it with her feelers, getting it to drop the flag in its mouth. It was a fake - a chew toy that had too thick of a pole to be real!

What a mess the place was! Josh kept his eyes glued to the floor as he searched for the real flag, which was buried underneath the plethora of Pokémon toys on the floor. Several excited Pokémon bopped both Josh and Sylveon periodically, the first one causing the racer to flinch. After quite a long search, longer than any other Base he'd been to, Josh at last found the real flag, buried in a large pile of small Pokémon plush. Thanking the many Pokémon for all the affection, Pinky sounded a long, low, squeal-like cry as she walked out of the air-conditioned spire with Josh aboard.

Serena snarled as Shalin tried to rein the Persian toward the beach. "What's gotten into you?" the white cat's rider asked, gripping her fur harder as she made a sudden, uncommanded turn toward a tall, spire-like building her sensitive hearing had picked up the cries of Pokémon from. There were so many Pokémon of all sizes inside at play, tossing chewtoys at one another. One even bonked Shalin's shoulder blade as her Persian mount ascended a ramp to the second level, trying to get a good idea of where the flag was at.

Unfortunately for her, it was nowhere in sight.

Serena bounded back down the ramp and started playing with the toys the other Pokémon were playing around with, being careful not to rough up the small dolls too much. If she wasn't an explorer who needed to keep her Pokémon weaponized, she would have had Serena and Kiara declawed months ago! At the bottom of one pile of dolls was the base's flag. She examined its banner, looking for the small Ranger logo indicating its authenticity, before waving goodbye to the playful Pokémon within.

Friends! Lots and lots of friends! Ettie was absolutely full of glee as she ran amongst the pokemon who made their home in this cozy base - embroiled in game after game of tag. She'd chase down a little Shinx - but as she tagged the kitten, she'd find herself tagged by a piplup! And as she chased down to tag the penguin, she'd find herself in a playful little wrestling match with a charmeleon! Amidst all the fun and shenanigans from the friendly pokemon, it was safe to say that Ettie had forgotten about finding the flag in the first place, in lieu of playing with everyone!

Anne, however, would have her eyes more on the prize - namely, the flag. It was around here somewhere, surely - although it was hard to say where exactly, when there were so many false flags scattered about the place. It was at least easy to identify which ones weren't real, when the fakes had been used as chew toys for the resident pokemon. But, the pokedolls and pokemon alike made it a little tricky to navigate sometimes - especially with the number of close collisions that occurred, with how haphazardly some of the pokemon were moving!

But before long, one flag would stand out amongst the rest, nestled inbetween two of the dolls that filled the base. Picking it up in her teeth, Anne would glance towards Ettie - who had taken to riding about on a meganium's back, giggling all the whilst... Before sighing, shaking her head with a fond and amused hue. Why not - she could play with for a little too, now that they had the flag.

Alec immediately noticed all of the baby pokemon running around. Freon the Glaceon walked beside him and seemed like she had wanted to play with the pokemon running around. "You can go play while I search for the flag, alright! And no rough-housing!" Alec said sternly as he started his search for the flag, rummaging through the sea of pokedolls that laid out everywhere. Freon preened in delight, hopping away as he made his way to play with his new friends. Alec had continued rummaging through the pokedolls, finding a flag, however, it was all chewed up; saliva practically dripping off of it.

"ugh, now I know why I don't have any baby pokemon," he reminded himself, tossing the chewed-up fake flag behind him. As Alec's attention was drawn solely to searching for the real flag, Freon the Glaceon was playing tag with the baby pokemon. As freon moved around in the sea of pokedolls, one of them gently brushed his nose, letting out a sneeze that accidentally triggered its Secret Power, knocking out one of the baby pokemon. In dismay, glaceon had tried to wake the poor thing up, not meaning to do what it did, but the pokemon was down for the count. "Found ya! Alright Freon, we can head on-" alec abruptly stopped himself when he finally noticed Freon frantically trying to wake up the pokemon that it knocked out. Alec had an annoyed expression plastered on his face, eyes twitching; letting out a sigh. "I'm not even going to ask what happened ... Let's just go okay," Alec had said, not wanting the owner of the base to show up and be accused of poke-abuse.

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Notes: Flag Captured!
Prompt Complete: Use the move Secret Power.