This place was decent. It was dangerous, certainly, but that wasn’t anything new. She had literally been here before. Sure, she had done better that time due to the aid given, but she was much more prepared this time around.

Being big enough to properly ride an Hydreigon really was a great help. That last distortion had only given her a modicum of success – not enough to be noticeable right away, at least to her and the strangers she had just met – but this had definitely not been some kind of growth spurt. No, she had gotten back at least some of her years in this place. That meant it could happen again. That meant, at least to her, that risking her life once more trying to find another distortion in this strange place was worth it.

Hence, she had come again, riding a mighty dragon. Yet, she had not found any yet, this day. Lash sighed to herself, annoyed. There only seemed to be rocket-like Pokemon here this day it appeared. Aside from…wait, was that a flying Staryu? Lash blinked from afar, focusing on a group of people. One of them was riding a Fylgon. She recognized that one immediately. The whiny one. Home-boy, she called him, for he had been going on about wanting to go home all the time last time she saw him. Apparently, these people were all here again doing…what exactly? She hadn’t really gotten it last time. They seemed sketchy. One of them was a councilwoman or something.
Granted, that did not make them any less sketchy. Just the kind of sketchy she at least thought she could understand, so she nudged Hydreigon to get a bit lower again. “For people telling me how dangerous this place is, I sure run into you a lot here. You happen to come across any distortions so far today?”

Could not hurt to ask. Those seemed like they self-identified as the good guys, meaning they weren’t dangerous at all, even towards suspicious adolescents, as she probably came across as.


Elinor Anderson Alexei Ivanov Guillermo Marceliño

Ugh. That person. She probably was a councilwoman after all. Lash would believe that.

Because all she did was talk, not act. And she did not even talk much in the first place! Annoyed, the apparently youngest of the group could already see where that all was going. And, frankly, she had not asked to join up with these weird strangers to begin with. Neither did they have a right to hold her back or anything like that.

Sure, they had been helpful. Yes, they might have come out looking for her because they thought her in danger. But this, all of this, would just be completely useless if she just sat here on top of this flier and watched the distortion fade away. Lash knew those well enough to know when one was about to flicker out of existence.

And fortunately, the Councilwoman had been so busy hesitating that she had not gotten much distance between it and herself to begin with. In fact, Lash decided to make a move. She eyeballed the distance and decided that they could make it.

Hence, she simply let go of the Councilwoman and pushed herself over the side of her ride, while also going for her Pokeball again. A risky move, definitely, but she should have just enough time to release Lycanrock and mount it again mid-fall.

Which, surprisingly, did work well enough, letting them get to that point right before entering the distortion. “Rock Slide at the last moment, use the momentum against the fall,” she ordered as she held onto the Pokemon for dear life. This should work. Physics did not mean much in the face of a Pokemon that could just kind of conjure rocks, but the act of throwing them did have to create some backward momentum in a situation like that.

And somehow, that worked, just after they had entered the distortion for a good few feet – but it also pushed them straight out of the retracting sphere again. By the time they landed with a thud that did hurt quite a bit, but was survivable, the distortion was already gone. In its stead, there now was some hovering red stone. “Damn,” she muttered, clenching her fists.

Prompts: barely interacting, dunno if that can count

hiExblcV

Well, yes. But also no. Frankly, Lash did not know how to feel about that compliment. She had talent, definitely, but this had not been talent. This had been experience and training. That person just thought it was all talent and no skill because he could not imagine her having invested a lot of time into this. Hence, it was kind of insulting to her previous efforts, in a way, but also genuine praise that was not entirely wrong.

Bothersome. All of it. She sighed. However, she was distracted before she could respond. While he saw some Absol, she noticed a nearby Marshtomp peeking out of the tall grass. By now, she had had to recall her Houndour for training, of course. But she was not going to let one of those slip through her fingers. Not as rare as Absol maybe – but the other already had called dibs on that and she was currently not in a state where it would be worth it to contest that – Marshtomps, or rather, Swamperts, were quite popular. Hence, she let out her Metagross and told it to Hammer Arm the ground type right away. Not the most graceful way to go about it, but she relied on the difference in strength here. It did serve to weaken it sufficiently enough to pitch a ball at the Pokemon.

However, she did not get to even see if that worked at first, since she heard a familiar note – one that saw her instinctively move away from the Absol and everyone else present. The Perish Song was not aimed at her, fortunately, so she managed to get out while both that supposed Gym Leader and his Pokemon were felled in one, well, fell swoop by an Absol that in turn was sucked into a Pokeball. “I don’t know if that is sad or comedic,” she said to her own Pokemon, though probably more to herself.

Then, she sighed. It would look real bad if she just left this guy here to be eaten by the next big Pokemon to come around. He was a bit of a pain in the butt, but probably did not deserve death. Not that she would risk herself defending him, of course. But as she looked around and saw no other threats, she beckoned Metagross to come closer and heave the bulkier person onto its disk-like body. However,  she stopped it before it could move dutifully towards the nearest Pokemon center they had passed about two hours ago, in order to do two things.
Pulling out two items from her side-bag, she wanted to go to work right away. Lash could already see it: “The mysterious coma-inducing prankster strikes again. Newest victim: Elite Ranger Devlin or Gym Leader Devlin (Goes by Josh)”. And if anyone asked, she would say that she saw a Jigglypuff flee the scene.

Sadly though, the Dragon already went to work rescuing him in the meantime, depriving her of that opportunity. A bummer, but she still got to work retrieving the Pokeballs. She probably would leave the Absol's at the nearest Pokecenter with his name. Not worth the hassle of stealing it when he knew she had been around, really.

---

Catching Marshtomp. Also, Anime reference

Lash pouted slightly in response to that question. People always asked that. As if it was any of their business. It was so annoying. Just because she had this kind of body did not mean she had to be treated like a child, in her opinion. Sure, she got why people did it. But she refused to not be annoyed by it.

“Do. Why ‘do’ I want to go to the distortion so bad. And its simple. I lost something important in a distortion. Something I can’t just replace. Only way to even have a chance of getting it back is through another distortion. Like, if you lost your Pokemon partner in one, you would try to find it in the next distortion, right? Well, more misplaced of sorts. Lost sounds too final in that regard.” Granted, she had no idea if she could truly find what was lost in one.

But she was going to try, regardless. Before she could press the issue though, one of the men that had come with the apparent councilwoman seemed to have some kind of episode. “Everything alright with him? He looks like he has distortion disorder without even being in one.”

Oof. Sometimes, a partner was just about as bad as an enemy. Her own Houndour had managed to deliver a blow to the bigger dark type, yes, but at the same time, the fairy’s attack hit it as well, causing the little one to stagger and fall to the ground after, evidently not having expected any of this.

But Lash was a pro. In her mind at least. She did not let that keep her down at all. Instead, with trained movements, she pulled both Houndour’s ball and an empty one out, threw the empty one at the Hydreigon while recalling her own Pokemon at the end of her little spinning motion. Granted, doing that in this body did leave her dizzy momentarily, but she caught herself reasonably well still.

At least well enough to complain. “I always pick catch! And try not to hit my Pokemon in training next time, Devlin.”


- catch attempt Hydreigon

Josh Devlin

This…did not bode well. Particularly because a Houndour had already lost to the assailant. She was prepared for something dangerous to pop out of that grass, something that would truly challenge the little one – and she was not disappointed.

Momentarily, a mighty Hydreigon rose to the occasion and immediately started a three-pronged attack. Lash herself dove to the side in reflex born from experience, as she could not be sure that it was aimed at her. Houndour was a bit slower, reacting more to her action than acting on its own, which resulted in it having its calf clipped by the breath. There was a yelp of pain as Lash picked herself up and she watched the little one do the same.

She already had her hand on his Pokeball, thinking about who she could instead send out against it. But Houndour did give off the vibe that it still wanted to fight. That was why it pushed itself back upon its feet, after all.

Might as well see how that could go. The other trainer had out the best possible counter already, after all. If Houndour wanted to fight despite being hurt, that was fine. In fact, that was one of the things they had trained for. “Well, go ahead and pay it back for that with Comeuppance,” she ordered as Houndour rushed its foe, intent on sharing the pain with the instigator.


Josh Devlin

So, now she had found herself a chaperone? Yeah, yeah, the more apt term would probably be babysitter, but she refused to think of herself that way too much. Hence, she went for the more mature term for the sake of convenience. It was the nicer word, anyway. No one wanted to sit a baby, but chaperone? That sounded fancy.

Plus, he did promise to stay out of the way unless needed. That was probably as good as it got, so she decided to not take his words at their worst. At least for now. Plus, she just caught a Murkrow, which she put into her bag for the time being. Houndour yapped happily over his victory. It was a short-lived celebration, for there was another sound soon after. A painful yelp, one that caught her attention, as it sounded a lot like him.

However, it was another Houndour, which was being flung through the grass their way from an unseen foe. However, given that it had seemingly downed this one and given the roar coming from the grass, it probably was something big. Though Lash’s first impulse was to just catch the random Houndour as any good poacher would, she knew she was being watched, so she rather prepared to engage their foe.


Josh Devlin

Here own Houndour was howling too. But its howl was victorious and grandstanding, as it kept the Murkrow pinned to the ground. Deciding to pick it up as well, Lash flung a ball at it. The motion was still weird in this little body, but at the same time, this was definitely the throw of an expert, not a novice. Her skills were diminished, but the experience was still there.

“As long as you do not get in the way. It’s no good if things get too easy,” she responded, still more focused on the wobbles of the Pokemon instead of the man that had invited himself onto her trip. If she was still herself, she would have figured that Mr. Bigshot was trying to hit on her or something. But she just assumed, very much to his benefit, that this wasn’t the case now. “And you don’t have to worry about me too much. I do have a big one on retainer, just in case. But this is for the good boy here, to get some proper experience.” Raising the weak was more important than stomping threats with Metagross, after all. The big one did not need the exercise right now at all. He was up for the Distortions and should be rested and ready for those.


- attempting to catch murkrow
Josh Devlin

Huh. A civilian in need. Rangers would have a field day with that, Lash thought to herself, as she habitually dismounted her Lycanroc when she noticed the pursuer. Betraying her current appearance, she certainly moved with an amount of fluidity indicating experience. Or maybe it just seemed that way.

Still though, a dangerous wild Pokemon simply meant that one had to prepare for a fight. That was it alright. Any member of the primeape family was to be taken as a dangerous individual anyway, so she took no chances. “Rock Slide it right away. Don’t pursue if it retreats, prepare for it going after you,” she ordered her Pokemon, which obeyed and summoned forth some rocks to throw at the other. Best to probe it from a distance, see if it left. No point fighting this thing. Potentially, this was a distortion to the past and this one was already dead.

The young woman, meanwhile, dusted off her skirt before looking towards the stranger who had thanked Arceus. Even though she clearly should thank Lash instead. Arceus was no true god, for if he was, he was responsible for her current predicament and therefore a jerk. “We can fight. It should focus on Lycanroc, at least for now. You alright?” Not that she truly cared. But they were here now, so why not?


Fayne Abernathy

“Of course we are okay, Mr. Elite Ranger Devlin or Gym Leader Devlin,” she replied, pouting. Of course was, otherwise she wouldn’t have offered the full name treatment to the other. That was reserved for bigwigs or those that thought themselves that.

Plus, that guy did not truly have any grounds to question her. Rangers were always like that, asking questions where they did not belong. Lash was not even poaching here. Could not be. This was a public route not under protective governance. Anyone was allowed to fight and catch Pokemon here. Even kids. Though, granted, she kind of counted as one right then. Which was only more annoying. “Besides, what does it look like we are doing here? Of course we are training. And –“ Lash whirled, hearing something rustling behind them. Houndour did, too, swiftly approaching the Murkrow that was peeking out of the tall grass, tackling it and rolling over the ground with it.

“….Speak of the devil,” Lash noted, before blinking. “Devil, not Devlin!”

@joshdevil

Josh Devlin

Gravity once more regained a hold on them, as three fliers decided to land near the distortion proper. That familiar tingle crosses her skin once more as they enter a space removed from the normal flow of time. Hopefully it would work as she intended. It only needed to work once, in her estimation. Then she would be able to at least regain what was lost.

For that, she felt like the most important matter had been settled now. She was here and whatever would happen, would happen. However, she was freeloading on this (and potentially needed a ride back as well), so she followed the objective of the others for now. Though she probably should act nicer towards them, too. That just wasn’t her, however, so she really did not.

“If they weren’t dead, we’d already be assaulted,” she instead dryly noted while disembarking from her savior’s mount. Immediately, she brought out her Lycanroc again. This was a place where things had died and could die again. Lash would feel vulnerable without a Pokemon of her own on the field. Not that she would show any fear, though. “One could think this is the first Pokemon graveyard you see. Or the aftermath of a quite lop-sided battle, I guess.” She shrugged, but ultimately tried to play it completely cool with only the slightest of huffing and puffing. “Anyway, this is a distortion, so unless you see something really ominously glowing or something that might have killed them and could kill us, I don’t think they’d be any dangerous. Kind of way better for us that they’re dead, not alive,” she noted while looking around for anything of interest.

There was always, well, just ‘stuff’ lying around in these to collect and investigate. Best find some before it fades. Sure, she just wanted her years back.
But a little extra is always good, too.


Guillermo Marceliño Alexei Ivanov Elinor Anderson

“Alright, physical,” she replied to the weird stranger that had appeared. Seemed like those three were some kind of group going in here. Strength in numbers and all that. Obviously, Lash knew about that. But she always found it too much of a hassle. She was hunting distortions. Those could dissipate any moment. So a second spent searching for someone to join her could easily mean missing out. Like that one time when she met the weird riding woman on her way up a mountain.

That being said, she now had those people around. And they seemed like the ‘save the kid’ kind of people. For once, she could make use of that stupid body, then. “The distortion is exactly why I am here. I have to get in there. You can bring me to ‘safety’ or whatever, but I will just go straight back towards it.” Petulant child mode would be useful here, she decided. Plus, that was how she felt here to begin with. It was about 70% acted, but only because she usually did not like to show it.

But who cared? The distortion was right there! “So, yeah. Go and take a look. I’ll stick with you instead.” And that was final. Lash had decided. Those strangers would do well to just accept it. Not like she would be easily pried off of Elinor, anyway.

ALEXEI IVANOV IVANOV @guillermo @marceliÑO ELINOR ANDERSON ANDERSON

The world needed to stop spinning, first. Then, small talk. This body really was not made for mid-air maneuvers like this. Well, not yet. She still remembered that aerial battle with a Charizard two years ago. She had managed to endure that one much better. But that had been her in her prime. Not her in her…formative phase? Yeah, let’s call it that.

Lash sighed, holding onto the stranger in front of her after having been flung onto the Braviary. That probably was the safest space for now. Not that she was too scared now, being on an actual ride Pokemon for the time being. One that did not, apparently, seek to throw itself into the sun.
But that wasn’t the important part, anyway. Lash shook her head, trying to get back on track there. “I am Lash, and I evidently did not plan on hitching a ride on that thing in the first place. That just kind of happened,” she replied, a palpable pout to her voice. She did not quite being rescued. Well, she did not like needing rescue. Getting it when needed was probably good.

But being in that kind of situation was still bad, so she was not exactly happy about it.


Alexei Ivanov IVANOV @guillermo @marceliÑO Elinor Anderson ANDERSON