Mitsuru blinked.

"Um."

How was she supposed to respond to that? Seriously! She basically just said "Hey, you freaking idiot! Why did someone as hecking useless as you decide to volunteer to do humanitarian work? Are you stupid?!". And what was she supposed to say? "Huh, I didn't really think about that, but I guess you're right! Yes, I am a real big dumb moron, aren't I! Thank you for telling me. It certainly made me feel much better about myself!"

Ugh. Kids these days. She remembered back in the day, when they said "Please", and "Thank you", and "Hello, miss! You look very pretty today!". Nowadays, all they did was watch Pikitok and smoke vapes and be mean to her for no reason... Oh well. She might as well try and be polite, even if she knew it wouldn't be reciprocated.

"Well, it was just the right thing to do, y'know? Helping people and Pokemon is just... good! It's a good thing to do!" She explained, leaving out all the arguably very ungood things she also planned to do while she was here. "And it makes me feel good, and it makes them feel good, too. So, I'm here for good reasons! Really, it's just very good all around."

Idly, she glanced over to the scientists as they filtered into the carrier with their modern-looking laptops and important-seeming files in tow. All very fancy, all very expensive... Then, after a too-long pause, she looked back to June and cleared her throat.

"Ah, what about you? Why the heck are you here at Sea Mauville, anyhow? I didn't think the Rangers would let teenagers on dangerous missions like this."

No, that wasn't sarcastic. Yes, she meant that one-hundred percent sincerely.

---

june sleigh

June gave her a cautious eye but turned her head away from the fortune-teller. “How very generous of you.”

She was trying to steal shit, wasn’t she? Sounded like someone that would steal shit when no one looked. Sold it under the table for a quick buck. Of course, it was an entirely valid agenda to have. Some of the shit here made June want to start swiping stuff too.

But Annalise would literally kill her if she got caught, and that wasn’t something she had on her to-do list.

“What can I say? They believed me when I said I was twenty-seven,” she leaned in and covered her mouth, “but don’t tell them I’m actually two thirteen-year-olds stacked up in a trench coat. They’ll kick us out.”

“Here ‘cause of a contract, duh,” she said and straightened back up. Not a ‘duh’ moment to anyone else, but it was obvious to the delivery girl. She had to do what they told her to, and it wasn’t an option. “And this isn’t dangerous. Building is sinking at–”

The world shook. The skyline dropped a solid foot. All the scientists yelped and barely kept their footing at the sudden lurch. Yet the disturbance lasted for less than a second as the solid ground went back to being solid. All the white-coats gave her a scared look.

“A glacial rate,” she breathed in deeply, “Look, keep going! We fell, like, half a meter, and we’ve got about a hundred of those left before we should be scared. Don't lose your heads!”

Her elbow slammed into Mitsuru's side, "Back me up here, yea?"

---

Mitsuru Kagami

29. Offer quick training or guidance to less experienced team members or other individuals

Wow. She was twenty-seven? Just, wow. Mitsuru didn't know whether to be impressed that she looked so young, or horrified that she was still so immature. What was her skin care routine? Why did she think it was okay to talk to other people like this? What moisturiser did she use? Didn't her parents teach her to be polite? Did she have some kind of special diet? Why was she like this?

The floor beneath her feet sunk a little, and Mitsuru almost jumped out of her skin. Almost. Was it really safe to stay here? Maybe it would be better if they waited on the Corviknight. Yeah, that sounded good, maybe she'd just-- OW!

"Ack! Hey, you jerk! Why'd you do that...? What? Um. Oh! Uh, yeah, this is perfectly safe! We'll be perfectly fine. It's all just perfectly perfect right now, okay? Let me assure you, you'll all be absolutely fine!"

KRRRSHUNK! All of a sudden, the platform sunk another half meter.

"EEP!"

Like a spooked Rattata, Mitsuru scurried to safety, clambering onto the back of the Corviknight for shelter. Normally? That would just mean she embarrassed herself for no good reason. But this time?

Two chunks of rusted metal were flung high into the air, and came crashing down towards Mitsuru, June, and the scientists all at once.

---

june sleigh

When the building sank another touch and sent June reeling, she considered the possibility that maybe, just maybe, they wouldn’t be alright. That’d be very bad, though. These idiots might panic. Mitsuru might panic. She couldn’t panic (they’d all die). Worst of all, she’ll have to do her job. Vile.

Fortunately, it did not sink another time. June rolled her eyes at her partner as she climbed atop Knight. However, Knight didn’t look upset in the slightest. His eyes glowed purple, and he lifted his wings high. To shield her. From what?

Two beams. One went straight for the bird, which deflected it to the side and back down the side of the building. The other one nearly caved a scientists' skull as it slammed into the concrete. It stuck perfectly upright and rattled against the building's frame. June gulped. “Erm. What the–”

“Everyone, forget the shit, get on the thing!” June commanded. She didn’t have time to argue with them the importance of lives versus data. Instead, she sent out Matchstick and clambered on top of the red bird. “Misturu, get off Knight and follow me!”

“Fuck.”

June pulled the flare gun off her belt and aimed upward. A second later, a bright red light soared into the sky and illuminated the panicked scientists below. She’d need the help. A couple more beams nearly smashed them to a pulp as she soared downward towards the–

“KLAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF”

This was the start of a shitty straight-to-video movie. The stone crab peeked out from the surface of the water, claws held high with even more steel beams. Must’ve attracted it with them being in the area at all. Or the scientists were trying to study them. Either way, they had to get rid of it.

“You got anything to deal with it?”

---

Mitsuru Kagami

09. Use signaling methods to call for additional support

 

Get off the Corviknight? Really? Did she have to?? Did she REALLY have to???

Another block of debris bounced off the heavy armour of the bird, a mere wingspan away from crushing her into a fine paste. Okay! Maybe it's time to get off the Corviknight now.

"R-right! On it!" Mitsuru called, grabbing a Pokeball and tossing forth her Mienfoo. "Lee! Hit that big crab, please!"

With a deep breath and a high-pitched exclamation, the weasel obliged. Sprinting forth, it narrowly weaved through the rain of junk falling from the sky, and straight up to the rampaging crustacean. Then, pulling its arm back as far as it could go, it hopped right up to the face of its opponent, and with a mighty thrust--

BONK.

--Tapped it lightly in the face with a Fake Out. Mitsuru blinked. The Klawf blinked. Mitsuru blinked again. The Klawf did not.

"KLAAAAAAAAAAAWF!"

A pincer was raised up high, ready to deliver a devastating Crabhammer.

---

june sleigh

Mitsuru sent out a Mienfoo.

A Mienfoo.

Mienfoo. A few dozen stories up. Against a Klawf, easily ten times its size. June rode Matchstick, a fast but otherwise frail bird incapable of doing much to a Rock type. June blinked alongside the pair down below.

They were fucked.

But that wasn’t an option. Annalise would bring her back to life, and then kill her with her own two hands. That’s why she reached for her belt and sent out a second Poke Ball. Buddy could show this Mienfoo what was up. Stop the Klawf from absolutely obliterating the small, frail child Pokemon.

Except she didn’t send out a Passimian. She must’ve grabbed the wrong ball, or brought the wrong Pokémon. Regardless of where she went wrong, it wasn’t a lithe, strong, batshit insane fighting type she sent out.

Instead, a massive rectangle weighing in at roughly two-point-two tons, a massive Revavroom eight-cylinder engine with six-speed automatic shifting and incredibly awful gas mileage, fell directly onto the Klawf’s pincer before it could get the Crabhammer out. A Starmobile of the poison variety.

The car and its freshly torn arm disappeared beneath the deep blue water. “Oh no.”

Unfortunately for them, the Klawf still had five fully functional limbs. Each one of them pulled a rock from below the waves and lobbed them one by one. The Rock Blasted through more concrete and ripped steel from the fractured frame of the building. More rock rained down, and June narrowly dodged becoming just like her car.

“TSURU, DO LITERALLY ANYTHING!” She called from below. Beneath the waters, a Revavroom and two Varooms attempted to breath water.

They were not succeeding.

---

Mitsuru Kagami

07. Defend important locations or resources from harm


 

What did she mean, "do literally anything"?! She was doing! Doing her best!!! Wasn't that good enough?!?!?!

No, unfortunately. Not good enough to stop the Klawf, and not enough to stop June from being upset with her. Not that she was doing much better, mind, sending out a one-ton van in a mostly aquatic environment. Didn't she have something more fitting than a Starmobile to help with this situation? Some kind of Starcraft? A Starsloop? The HMS Star?

Evidently not. So, it was up to her. To "do something", so to speak.

"UM! Lee! Use, uh... Crab Defeating Attack!"

She wasn't sure if her Mienfoo knew that iconic move, but she certainly hoped it did. And, never one to disappoint, her Pokemon stepped up to the plate. With a mighty leap, it Bounced high into the air, before coming crashing down, slamming through the water and right onto the hefty exoskeleton of the cretinous crustacean!

---

june sleigh

Fate was a fickle thing. It made the impossible, well, possible. If the world so desired, its will would be enacted despite all known laws of physics and reality that dared attempt to dictate how an interaction would go. Gods were felled and demons banished with little more than Fate. Such was its power. It's world-warping work. It’s awesome awe-inspiring a-okay–

Mienfoo collided with Klawf, and its exoskeleton snapped clean in two. With one launch into the atmosphere into subsequent dive bomb, their problem ceased to be. Bubbles followed the titanous crab into the depths of the rising sea. June wiped her brow and started to ascend.

“Thank fuck,” she said upon her arrival. While the scientists looked absolutely terrified, they managed to get themselves all aboard the Corviknight taxi at least some of their equipment. “Saved our asses. Good shit.”

“But we’ll probably have to make a second round,” she jerked her thumb to the remainder of the stuff. “Unless you got a flying type in your back pocket. Or really big back pockets.”

Something tugged at her mind. She was forgetting something. But what? Who knew.

Down below, the Starmobile ceased to run. Three Pokemon fainted simultaneously. Somewhere in the universe, a Pokemon Ranger felt a massive pain in their heart over Pokemon abuse. Whoever it was, they would rue the day.

---

Mitsuru Kagami

14. Ensure the area is safe from remaining threats

The Klawf was defeated. The mission was a success!

Except not really, because they still had an entire research team's worth of scientists they needed to carry back to the mainland. But that was okay, because she just needed to contribute with her own Flying-type Pokemon, and they'd get it done in half the time! So, she reached down to her Pokeballs, and released her--

Um.

--Okay, no, she didn't own a Flying type, actually.

"...Two trips it is, I guess..."

For her part, Mitsuru also didn't remember the Starmobile in the ocean. No, as soon as the crab was defeated and her weasel hopped its way back to her, she all but forgot about the Starmobile Incident of 2024. Oh well. Maybe putting those car batteries in the ocean would help the Eelektross charge themselves up?

---

june sleigh