Raffle ambled through the snow, following a set of very distinctive tracks. He had lost sight of the rambunctious Hippopotas, but he knew that Sollum couldn't have gone very far. The tracks were deep due to the small hippo pokemon's weight, and Raffle was confident that he would find him sooner or later. The Ivysaur suddenly noticed another set of tracks in the snow. These tracks were far different than Sollum's, the footprints were much smaller and there was only two. More notably, the tracks were fresh and even intersected with Sollum's tracks before branching off in a different direction.

Sollum had found himself a boulder to hide behind. He had waited several minutes for the Ivysaur to find him, but there was no sign that Raffle was coming. Sollum was getting bored just sitting there, but just as he was considering getting up to go look for his friend, he was interrupted by the sound of fluttering wings. Two small shadows passed over him and when Sollum looked up to see what it was, he recognized what they were. A pair of Pidove had flown over him but they seemed to have no interest in him, or in stopping. Sollum gave chase for a short distance, hoping they would come down and play with him. However, they were fast fliers and he was quickly undistanced by them, until they were no longer in sight.

Raffle knew when he was close to the wild pokemon, just by the change in the air. It felt heavy somehow, which seemed odd to him. His red eyes narrowed when he saw a figure in the distance, diminutive in stature and smaller than him. As he drew closer, he realized the pokemon was covered in a combination of white and navy blue fur, and it seemed to be distracted with looking at something off in the distance. Raffle cleared his throat to get the wild pokemon's attention, and then moved in a little closer. He extended one of his vines forward in a friendly greeting, but his vine was stopped mid-air just a few feet in front of the small pokemon. Given the sudden hostile look the furry pokemon levelled his way, Raffle couldn't help but feel that what he had done was a grave mistake.

Marsha left Cytozin napping at his tree, since she knew he could take care of himself pretty well. Out of all her pokemon, he was by far the most exprienced. She was worried about Raffle and Sollum because she had lost sight of them. It didn't take her long to find Sollum's deep trail in the snow, and she followed them for quite a while. She found Sollum standing out in the open, looking up at the sky with a disappointed expresion. "What's the matter Sollum, did Raffle get bored of playing with you and wander off?" she asked, guessing that was probably what happened. She then shook her head at the Hippopotas, "You and Raffle can play some more later. We should probably find Raffle before he gets lo..." she trailed off upon hearing some sort of commotion off the in the distance.

Marsha ran off with the Hippopotas trailing behind her, and it didn't take them long to find out what the commotion was about. She found Raffle upside-down and half-covered in snow, several feet away from a very pissed off looking wild pokemon. He looked surprised and more than a little scuffed up, and she reached down to help him onto his feet. He managed to get up okay and shook some of the snow off his leaves. "Let me guess, you were a little too friendly," Marsha commented to her Ivysaur. She didn't know exactly what had happened, but it wasn't the first time Raffle had been too friendly and trusting with wild pokemon.

Having ascertained that Raffle was okay, she turned her head to observe the wild pokemon more closely. It was a Meowstic from what she could see, though the white fur blended pretty well with the snow. She had faced one in a battle back in Galar, though that one had been a male and she had used Cytozin to battle it. Cytozin had won, but only because he was more experienced. She was tempted to go back and get Cytozin, but she wasn't sure if the Meowstic would let them leave. Raffle moved forward to lean against her leg for support, and that's when she realized he was more hurt than she had intially thought. Whatever attack the Meowstic had used, it had been a powerful one, and it had weakened Raffle somewhat. If she remembered correctly, Meowstic was a psychic type and Raffle was at a distinct disadvantage. "Get some rest Raffle. Sollum and I can handle this," she reassured the Ivysaur before recalling him to his pokeball in a flash of red light. He hadn't been anywhere close to fainting, but she wasn't going to send him into a battle already injured.

Sollum had just been about to greet Raffle, but Marsha had recalled him before he got the chance. He perked up at the sound of his name and turned his attention towards his trainer, nostrils flaring. The wild pokemon had hurt his friend, and that was all the motivation he needed to battle. He pawed at the snow with one stubby foot and awaited Marsha's orders. He didn't have to wait long and Marsha's voice was clear in the crisp air, "Use Dig Sollum." His rounded feet scooped away snow in a flurry as he burrowed into it, until his rotund body was no longer in sight. All that remained was a freshly dug hole, and the loosely flung snow surrounding it.

Meowstic had not wanting a strange pokemon touching her, especially one that she didn't know. It had taken only a little psychic energy to stop the Ivysaur's vine mid-air, but that hadn't been good enough for her. She had wanted him to get away from her, and had used a Physic attack to literally fling him into a nearby snowbank. Now she understood why there had been an Ivysaur in the area, he hadn't been wild at all. She crossed her paws in front of her, not impressed by the human's current choice of opponent. The Ivysaur would have been interesting at least, but the little Hippopotas would be easy for her to take care of...or so she thought. He disappeared from view before she even had a chance to attack. Her eyes scanned the snow around her, waiting for the little hippo pokemon to show himself. Her keen ears picked up on the sound of digging from below, but it was coming from directly beneath her. She tried to sidestep just as the Hippopotas emerged from the ground snout-first but it was too late to avoid it.

Meowstic had been flung into the snow from the force of the Dig attack, and although her fur had absorbed some of the impact, she still was feeling a bit sore. However, worse than the soreness was the sense of humiliation she felt. She had not been expecting the Hippopotas to be able to move as quickly as he had. Her pride was hurt more than her body, and she was even more pissed off than before. She formed a ball of psychic energy, molding her anger right into it, and then flung that Psychic energy right at the Hippopotas. She didn't want to give him the chance to burrow again, and she had more than enough anger to use as fuel to make it stronger.

Sollum had felt the impact on his snout, before the Meowstic had been sent into the snow. He finished hauling the rest of his body out of the tunnel he had made himself, and shook off some of the snow that was plastered across his back and sides. His eyes widened as his vision was suddenly filled with a ball of pink energy, and he tried to scramble out of the way. Unfortunately, the heat from his body had melted some of the snow around his feet, making it wet and slippery. He didn't gain enough traction in time to get away, and the wallop of the attack was powerful enough to send him tumbling through the snow like a soccer ball.

The Hippopotas couldn't see, couldn't hear, and for a moment it felt like he couldn't move. The reason being that he was buried deep in snow, and the pressure of snow was all around him. It took him a minute to take stock of the situation he was on, but he pushed himself to get moving. He used his snout like a battering ram to shove away the snow, though it hurt to move at all. He felt like he'd been battered from head to toe, but he finally was able to hear again after he had cleared away some snow. He felt strangely weak, and his legs were rather shaky. The Meowstic's attack had hit him pretty hard, but he was able to keep moving as long as he did it slowly.

Marsha was calling to him, though her voice sounded far away and muffled. Sollum opened his mouth and panted a little, rather shocked at how powerful the Meowstic's attack had been. As sore as he was, he still hefted himself onto the top of the snowy embankment, where he was finally able to hear Marsha's voice. "I'm glad you're okay Sollum. Don't let up. That Meowstic buried you, so let's return the favor. Use Sand Tomb!" Sollum stamped his left front foot and drew up sand from below the snow, sourcing it from the tunnel he'd dug earlier. It was inevitable that some snow got mixed up in the sand, but regardless, the brownish-white miniture tornado moved steadily across the snow towards the Meowstic.

The Meowstic's fur began to stand on end, which was nothing more than a physical expression of her anger. The goofy looking hippo pokemon was giving her more trouble than she had counted on. However, she knew the reason why it wasn't giving up. Meowstic shot the human a hostile look, knowing full well why the fight was continuing. She should have been paying more attention to the Hippopotas than the girl, because although she tried to dash away at the last moment, the mini tornado encircled her before she could get very far. She was pelted with the mixture, which turned her lovely white fur to a grossly speckled brown. She squeezed her eyes shut and closed her mouth, not wanting to get sand into either orifice. The sand and snow mixture battered at her relentlessly, and she couldn't even concentrate enough to use her psychic powers to escape it.

Marsha breathed a sigh of relief, because Sollum seemed to have the situation under control. She was worried because of how battered he looked though; both Sollum and Raffle had taken a pretty solid hit from the Meowstic's psychic attack. She regretted not waking up Cytozin and getting him to come with her, but there wasn't anything she could do about that now. Marsha knew was just going to have to have faith in Sollum's fighting ability. He was paying more attention than usual, which was good. The Meowstic was surprisingly strong though, and she worried that he might not be able to handle another psychic attack. "Sollum, hurry. Dig your way down now," she called out, hoping he would be able to react before the Meowstic escaped the Sand Tomb.

Sollum bobbed his head and scuttled his stubby legs, digging through the snow and down into the dirt beneath. He was just in time too, because the very pissed off Meowstic had launched another Psychic attack the moment his Sand Tomb had subsided. The psychic energy destroyed the embankment of snow he had been standing on just moments before, and likely would have fainted him if it had hit. Luckily for him, Marsha had made a good call and he had escaped the attack in time. Sollum could hear the pitter patter of the Meowstic's feet above, and he was able to hone in one her location. His snout slammed against the Meowstic and sent her tumbling across the snow.

Marsha watched as the Meowstic scrambled back onto it's feet, though it couldn't seem to stand completely upright. After fighting Sollum, it looked more than a little worse for wear. The Meowstic was dirt-spattered and its fur was sticking out in random places. Marsha felt sorry for the Meowstic, but it had been the one to start the fight in the first place. After all, Raffle had only been trying to make friends with it in the first place. "I'm sorry, we weren't looking for a fight but you attacked Raffle without good reason. You are strong though, and you seem to enjoy fighting. I could definitely use a strong pokemon like yourself on my team," she told the Meowstic as she withdrew a pokeball from her coat pocket. Marsha took aim and tossed it at the Meowstic directly, hoping to catch the pokemon in its weakened state.