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[attr="class","vpostbg"]”Alright, looks like we’ve got our first battle here.” Vera declared, spotting a Slowbro sunbathing on a large rock. The waves gently rolled off the rock’s front, splashing the pokemon every now and then, but there were no signs of stirring. Even evolved, Slowbro weren’t the brightest of ‘mons.

“Wilhelmina, you’re up first.” The Braixen looked smug, shooting the Salandit a look before walking forwards. Selene growled audibly, embers puffing out from her small jaws.

Wilhelmina stood tall and straight before the Slowbro, ears twitching. She picked up Vera’s words, ”Use Light Screen.”

Plucking the stick from her bushy tail, she waved it before her, creating a psychic wall of light that briefly reflected the sun’s rays. With such a sturdy wall, she was confident that attacks wouldn’t be able to harm her. Meanwhile, the Slowbro had taken no notice of her, finding itself at the mercy of warm, reflected beams. Irritated slightly, it withdrew, curling tightly upon itself and unknowingly bolstering its defences.

”Well done, now use Sunny Day.” At this, the Braixen looked puzzled. Her stick was already burning with a flame, a sign that she was ready to attack. She stared down at the sunbathing creature and was filled with animosity. This pokemon was stupid—she could tell by the stupid expression on its face, the total lack of awareness of its surroundings, and the ridiculous shell clamping upon its tail. She’d be able to tell if something even so much as poked her tail! She gripped her stick and wanted to fry the wild 'mon like the seafood they saw on the menu.

Vera’s eyes widened, noticing the Braixen’s movements. “Mina, don’t!”

The Braixen pointed its wand forward, elbow ramrod straight as it waved in circles, forming orbs of odd, electrifying psychic energy. She sent the Psyshock hurtling straight towards the slumbering Slowbro.

The water pokemon took it with a small cry, mostly out of shock than anything. Now awake and angry, it turned to Wilhelmina, who took a step back – how could something so intellectually inferior make such a face? The Slowbro opened its mouth, and out came a wave of water.

Vera sighed, watching her pokemon get doused – a fate she would not want for them, especially the fire types, but Wilhelmina had it coming for deciding to act rashly. The Sunny Day would have helped lessen the effectiveness of water moves.

Fortunately, they did have Light Screen. After a sluggish shake to rid her now-sopping pelt, Wilhelmina heard her trainer call out for ‘Psychic’. Humiliated and angry, she raised her arms in front of her and unleashed a more familiar torrent of psychic energy.

The Slowbro, lifted from the rock, would flail its limbs in confusion, before being quickly tossed into the sea.

Wilhelmina stomped back to her trainer’s side as Selene laughed at her ridiculous look. The Salandit easily dodged the weak spout of embers tossed her way.

”Well, you won, but let’s try to learn from this, shall we?” Vera chuckled softly, bending down and taking out a towel from her bag to start drying off her pokemon. The Braixen was quiet—that odd silence of shame and dignity surrounding her as her whiskers got puffed and patted by soft cotton. Vera could see the determination in those eyes. The mistake would not be repeated.

SLOWBRO WAS DEFEATED!

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]Vera did not know Salandit could scream like that.

She jumped, practically out of her own beach sandals, and ran for the source of the noise. The beach towel she had been resting on was sent flying off into the sand, left abandoned along with a half-finished bottle of cheap wine she bought at some no-name corner shop situated near the beach. After the incident with Wilhelmina, the Braixen had turned to sulking and refusing to battle, so Vera had decided to call off training for a short while; give her babies some time to relax, and more importantly, some time for her to relax.

She stumbled to a stop, seeing a familiar Braixen’s back. The pokemon was standing, shoulders twitching up and down as it faced a most peculiar scene.

Selene had somehow managed to snag her hand inside a Clamperl – a pokemon notorious for its strong grip. The young salamander was jumping up and down erratically, spewing fire and poison and making a fruitless mess. Wilhelmina was just standing by, hand on her mouth in a false effort to hide her giggles.

”Oh for fuck’s sake!” Vera cried, causing her Braixen to jump. She pushed forwards, Wilhemina stepping away with what seemed to be a guilty look as she quickly approached her panicking poison type.

“Sweetheart, stop flailing around,” she commanded, her voice gentle but stern as she knelt down and held Selene’s arms. She yelped, narrowly avoiding a slew of Toxic sent her way. She tightened her grip until the Salandit stopped, still whining loudly and shifting uncomfortably from the pressure.


Vera got to work. The Clamperl seemed for the most part unresponsive, receded into its shell to protect itself from the intruding hand. Testing the gap between its shells with her fingers, she noticed the grip was much weaker than the average Clamperl. As a scientist with impulsive curiosity, she had her experience to justify the claim. When she squinted into the gaps of the Clamperl’s shell, she could see something thick and vaguely purple pooling from within, surrounding its fragile head and body and something else.

She sighed, ”Right, I need my pack for this.” Clamperls weighed over 52 kilos on average. If she tried to pick up her Salandit, the poor thing would have its entire wrist broken. “Mina, keep watch!” Though pouty, the Braixen obliged, watching as the scientist made a (stumbling) mad dash back.

When Vera returned, the Salandit had resolved to lying on the sand, having seemingly accepted its fate of being trapped forever. Or it was just crying like the dramatic baby it was. Either way, Vera knelt down beside it and began a simple procedure.

See, in all likelihood, her Salandit must have made the idiotic move to try stealing from the Clamperl, likely with provocation from her Braixen. The riches a Clamperl could hold wasn’t lost on anyone, including rambunctious little pokemon. And when the Clamperl actually held on, and Selene realized how her slim wrist couldn’t actually slip through, she must have panicked and began assaulting it with Toxic, which then spurred the Clamperl to use Clamp. This left Selene immobile, trapped in the Clamp while the Clamperl began succumbing to the poison. Vera mostly felt sad for the Clamperl; death by drowning in poisonous sludge was completely undeserved.

Fortunately, she still had some time. First, she applied some lotion to the outer rim of the shell and Selene’s wrist – make it easier. She waved for Wilhelmina to come over and handed the Braixen an antidote, instructing it very specifically to press a button when she gave her the signal. She also ordered Selene to keep completely still—no attacks. Vera then moved her fingers to hold the shell’s outer rim and began to wait.

And pretty soon after, she felt it begin to give. With the Clamperl’s health dwindling, she pried its shell open and released Selene, who stumbled back in panic. Quickly, she signalled for Wilhelmina to spray the Clamperl as she kept its shell open. The antidote wouldn’t work if only sprayed on its hard shell.

There was a short delay time before the weakened Clamperl would regain control of itself and retaliate. Vera used this opportunity to snatch her pack and grab a sitrus berry – a snack she had reserved for her team – and toss it in its maw. No point in releasing the thing while on the verge of fainting, right? It’d just get snapped up by some wild.

Vera had to leap back before the Clamperl shut itself close completely, the sound of its rims smashing down enough to give her shivers. She was that close to losing a hand. She dusted sand from her sundress and turned.

And then proceeded to give Selene (and to a lesser degree, Wilhelmina) a good scolding. The scientist, perhaps a little unhinged now due to the wine, managed to catch some looks from nearby tourists with how loud she was being. They doubled back when they realized she wasn’t scolding two toddlers.

When all that was over, she sighed, placing her hands on her hips. ”You know what? Vacation’s over. We’re heading back to the motel.”

Both pokemon whined, having wanted to treasure hunt a bit more. She was quick to wave them off, grabbing her pack and slinging it over her shoulder. The wine bottle she had abandoned was back in her hands, having been retrieved earlier, and she set about finishing what she started as they began to walk.

She barely takes a few steps forward before something is thrown at her feet, causing her to stumble and fall onto her knees. Fortunately, the sand cushions her; unfortunately, it is too cushiony for the bottle not to fall on its side and get swept by the waves.

And again, the tourists of Slateport Beach are treated to a healthy dose of a drunk woman’s screaming.

CLAMPERL WAS… SAVED?

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]During the evening of that same day, Vera found herself back to the coast. Her legs dangled and kicked off the edge of an old little pier without a boat, the seawater lit only by shimmering moonlight before her. Her sandals were discarded, allowing her to splash the chilling water with her feet.

Her pokemon were in the Center nearby, being treated for the injuries of the day. Vera scoffed, recalling how the nurse had scowled at her when she stumbled through the double doors. Sure, she may have been a bit crass when she asked them to look over her precious Selene’s wrist—it had been swelling oddly since the encounter with the Clamperl—but they were being shitheads! Telling her she needed to leave the Center, that it was a place for children, that they couldn’t have some drunk walking in there.

Vera was not a drunk.

She was, at best, a little tipsy, as evident by the now-empty bottle being rolled around on the pier under her palm. A less-sober woman would not have had the grace to relinquish her pokemon and exit the Center at the annoying pink-haired menace’s behest. She even made sure to thank the nice guard who escorted her out.

She inhaled the cool salty air, feeling calm, totally at peace with the world as she waited. She looked up at the stars and counted constellations.

Then the world reeled, and she found her skull cracking against splintered old wood. ”Fuck!” she hissed, cushioning the back of her head with her hands, bare foot slamming onto the wood impulsively. She shivered, the dress not being enough to brace her from the cold night. She had forgotten to grab a jacket from her motel room; the panic had settled in fast when they got to the elevator and Selene wasn’t trying to jab the buttons like she did when they arrived.

”I’mma good trainer!” Vera whined into the night, deciding fuck it, it was too dark for anyone to be out and anyone stupid enough to do so was weird enough to deal with her tantrum. “I! Am! A Good! Fucking! Trainer!” Each word was punctuated with a slam of her fist against the wood. How come nurses had the audacity to stare at her like she was the villain? She was acting sloppy, but at least she wasn’t putting someone’s beloved pokemon at risk!

After tiring herself out, she groaned loudly, pressing the heels of her palms to her closed eyes and wincing when the rough wood fragments poke the lids. “This fff-hucking sucks.”

Eventually she does remove her hands and faces reality again, and is quickly greeted by two very concerned faces staring down at her. She yelped, surprised, pulling herself up to lean on her elbows before recalling that these two were hers. She sighed, dragging a clammy hand over her face, “How did you two get out?” She wouldn’t have been surprised if the nurse had put them up for adoption—took them away from her, called it ‘necessary’. She’d kill her, but not be surprised.

Selene grinned, glancing cheekily over to Wilhelmina, who looked both proud and guilty. The Braixen waved her stick-wand, bathing them both in psychic energy. Vera noticed Selene’s little wrist cast; the two must have been treated. She chuckled and ruffled their heads, ”You little assholes escaped, huh?” Wilhelmina confirmed it with a nod, taking out the other hand she’d been hiding behind her to pass onto her trainer two minimized pokeballs.

“She’s gonna be so pissed,” Vera grinned, taking the pokeballs, ”I guess we should leave.”

She staggered to push herself to a stand, waving off the offers of the much-shorter pokemon for help. ”Y-you two need to relax. I’ve got it under control, see? I’m like a fucking trapeze art—“ her foot glided off a mossy patch, “—ist?”

A resounding splash; Selene having to be held back from jumping into the water; Wilhelmina looking down at the water with a brow tighter than a pressed spring, arm outstretched to keep her idiot teammate from demise.

To their relief, Vera resurfaced, sputtering and racked with chills but very much alive. Her cheeks burned from shame and cold and she flailed her arms about, trying to recall how the fuck to swim and finding her mind blank from panic and wine.

She felt something grab her and just about died right there.

It was smaller than a human, but just big enough to drag her to the coast, carrying her like a newborn. She clutched what felt like a huge, wet towel and looked ready to shrivel in on herself when the night breeze harshly grazed her soaked skin.

Coughing, she spat out salt, elbows braced on sweet, rough sand, hair dripping around her and framing her view. She turned over, still struggling to breathe as she tried to identify what the fuck just saved her ass. Turns out, it was a pretty average-looking Floatzel; the pokemon was looking at her with something like wild fascination and budding disdain.

Her eyes remained locked on it, arms coming around to wrap her body and try to revive some warmth. She felt two bodies press against her, far warmer than what she could do on her own. Looking down, she found Selene and Wilhelmina cuddled up to her, both glowering at the wild pokemon. They must have ran over as soon as they saw her being dragged to the beach.

The Floatzel stared at them with indifference; it could beat them easy. One water attack—that was all it would take. It could tell the trainer’s pokemon were weak and young. It growled a warning, baring fangs and scaring the two briefly. A chuckle followed. An empty wine bottle was thrown to the spot before her.

It took out something shiny. Closer inspection led Vera to conclude it was a Pearl, probably the same one she got from the Clamperl earlier. She must have dropped it when she fell in the water. The pearl was tossed her way and her shaking fingers struggled to trap it between her palms.

Satisfied, the wild Floatzel nodded a farewell to them, a sharp look still in its eye before it turned away and dove back into the water, back to the spot it had chosen to sleep for the night. Hopefully no humans would litter or stumble into it again.

Vera, Selene, and Wilhelmina sat there on the sand. The two fire pokemon had let go of Vera and made some distance; they naturally didn’t like the feel of dew on themselves. Vera had pulled her legs up to her chest, tired and still cold.

She would wait until she felt dry enough to walk before taking her pokemon. Upon returning to the motel, she would finally end what felt like an unnecessarily long day by disposing the empty wine bottle in a recycling bin. Perhaps next time she’d just lounge on the beach with some iced tea.