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This close to the water was the last place Lam really wanted to be. Forced to drop low by gale winds, his feet skimmed across the water from the back of his togekiss. Egg seemed just as unimpressed as she let out low, irritated trills as the spray soaked through the velvety exterior of her coat.[break][break]
All the same, they persisted as they followed the directive to look out from any offshoots of a recently broken up group of Rockets. Not that it was easy to see with the lash of wind and saltwater flecking his goggles.[break][break]
His eyes remained fixated on the bright red ridge of his feraligatr just ahead—much more at home in the ocean than he’d ever be, as she led the charge.[break][break]
So fixated, in fact, that the incoming toxapex was unnoticed until it was right there, smacking into him (though it gratefully missed the mark and landed on his shoulder rather than his face like some kind of aquatic facehugger.([break][break]
Lam wobbled on the togekiss’ back as he yelped, hands shooting up to detach it before it really latched on good.

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"What the-" he continues to struggle with the toxapex, hands slapping at it as his togekiss trills in warning. He needs to stop thrashing in the effort if he doesn't want her to lose balance and accidentally tip him into the ocean. The pointed spikes of the creature poke at his hands, but Lam is beyond the point of caring.[break][break]

Yanking it free with both hands, he lifts it and overhead yeets the thing away. "Fuckin'...aquatic life. Hate it, hate this," he mutters sourly to himself. Though it's swallowed up by the howl of the wind.[break][break]

He wipes the ocean spray from his goggles, looking for Pepper again. The tentacles of a malamar constrict the feraligatr and she roars before her maw opens wide to sink ICE FANGS into the rubbery flesh right in front of her.[break][break]

It's enough to put two and two together - that the toxapex wasn't a freak event. Silently, he urges the togekiss to lift a little higher as he now looks for any sight of an opponent.

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Once the toxapex is dislodged, Lam takes a split second to look down at his hands. There is some sting, sort of toxic in nature. But it’s a relief to see that none of its spikes seemed to break the skin on his palms from the force at which he grabbed it up and threw it.[break][break]
Meanwhile, Pepper continues to thrash in the effort to break loose from the malamar’s tentacles, which hold fast to her bulky body and drag her down. The gator bellows furiously conjuring a SUPERPOWER to strengthen her limbs as she pushes outward from the constricting pain of the WRAP.[break][break]
Lam can’t devote his attention to the war waged in the water, however. “Woah!” he balks first, tugging Egg’s direction in a sharp veer to the left as the rocket on his corviknight drops toward them head on. They wheel back in a sharp, tucked arc to face off against them again, though this time with the added preparation of a commanded FAIRY WIND to blow them backward.


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The more the malamar hangs on, the more enraged Pepper grows. The feraligatr’s thrashing becomes erratic and wild, bloodlust taking over as the inky dark hue diffuses through the water. Her tail glows in threat, and then the heavy appendages lashes out in a last ditch effort to break free (AQUA TAIL).[break][break]
The FLASH CANNON causes Egg to trill in distaste, and she peels away from the brightness in another dodge. Lam notices, though, that her speed drops in the effort. His own retinas burn, bright light searing behind his eyes from being unable to shut them in time.[break][break]
Squinting, he almost misses the shark hook the corviknight takes. “Below you!” Egg tries to bank sharply, but the bird still manages to clip the thick meat of one of her wings, sending the togekiss spinning out to the side as Lam clings to her back for dear life. The world tilts around him, a dizzy blur as he tries to keep his attention on the corviknight and its rider.[break][break]
Egg is still unbalanced, but retaliates all the same. Energy gathers around her, the radial burst of aural energy surges outward to hurtle at the crafty rocket (AURA SPHERE).

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It seems they can’t quite catch the corviknight and her rider. The AURA SPHERE illuminates them in the burst, but soon they are struggling to keep up again.[break][break]
The shrill sound of the togekiss’ cry fills his ears. Egg tilts hard to the side to shield him from the DRILL PECK. A sharp beak batters her soft belly as Lam tries to hang out. But the angle is too severe and he slips off her back and makes the short plummet into the choppy ocean below.[break][break]
Dunked with momentum, he’s swallowed by cold. Sea water drags on his clothing, and there’s a patch of warm density that he doesn’t register as the dispersing remains of the malamar fanning through the water and coloring it blue black and gory. Beneath him, his feraligatr rises through the carnage of her own making— tuned into her trainer as she pushes him up to break the surface sprawled on her back.[break][break]
The cold is that much starker as he takes gasping inhales, eyes stinging with salt as they blearily search out Egg, who drifts on the top of the water out cold. Stiff fingers push sopping hair from his eyes as he fumbles to free the pokeball from his pocket to collect her in a flash of light. “Pepper, find the bird.” A rogue shiver darts across his shoulders and his teeth clack together as the pair float in place.[break][break]
Then the feraligatr fires of a wildly rogue HYDRO PUMP of pressurized water at what she deems might be their target.

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He thinks that maybe the blast clipped the bird up in the air. He can’t be sure, though, sunk down lower at this angle–more readily tossed by the sharp wind and choppy water. Even with the pump of adrenaline in his system, he can feel the cold bone-deep, and despite the grit of his teeth, they begin to chatter.[break][break]
This is a fight he’s no longer willing to stick around for. He stops looking for an attack to come from above. Maybe they’ve written him off– if that’s the case, he’ll take the out. He doesn’t seek further retaliation, and instead coaxes his feraligatr away from the scattered mess of malamar she made.[break][break]
Water streams from her scaly hide as she pushes Lam up further out of the water and surges forward at a steady pace for the shore. The sooner they can get to cover on dry land, the better. He is careful to tuck the pokeball of his togekiss away so that it doesn’t slip from his stiff, shaky fingers to sink into the dark water below.


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