Ah. So this wasn’t the the moon, after all. Made sense. They would have never made it there alive. There had been a mission to space not too long ago, but despite her contacts in Rocket, she had not been able to go. Well, mostly because none of those had recognized this tiny version of herself. Neither would anyone have allowed her to go like this. It was annoying, but on some level, she got it. Plus, the physics of all that were daunting enough that she figured just thinking about it could cause her brain to burst. She probably would not have made it in this frame, anyway.

Yet despite this, she felt liberated that for one, this was not the actual moon – but also that no one was trying to stop her. Unlike last time, these weird people seemed not intent on retrieving her or anything. No one tried to stop her as she ascended alongside the Celesteela, Hydreigon using the wind’s shadow to keep the pace for the time being, gravity and momentum pulling it with. But also, she could see that there was something else on the moon there. “Just don’t do anything stupid! I don’t think we want to rattle this particular Beedrill’s nest.”
Alexei Ivanov Guillermo Marceliño Elinor Anderson

Clearly, she went unappreciated in her time. Of course, she did. This was her being stuck in the body of a child. The best she could hope for was being all but ignored by the boys while getting some begrudging praise from the girl. It was always like that. Men were stupid, but even more stupid when around younger-looking women, for some reason.

It irked her, clearly, so she crossed her arms again and pouted, all while being a bit proud of herself for having offered something useful. Granted, she had no idea just what that was all good for, but apparently there was a moon now, alongside a rocketing Celesteela.

…

Honestly, nothing made sense. But she was a de-aged woman that constantly hunted for randomly appearing rifts in space-time to recover her last maturity. She probably had no real rights to complain.

Instead, she sighed, mounting her Hydreigon again. “This can’t possibly be a good idea, but you are still going to get up there anyway, aren’t you? Of course you are.” Another irked sigh. But then again, that moon was clearly not in the right place at the right time. There was a slim chance that this was a time-space distortion, so she had her Hydreigon try to catch up to the Celesteela, anyway.


Alexei Ivanov Guillermo Marceliño Elinor Anderson

“Nope, not lost. This should be around coordinates 51.3 / 91.8 on my map. Near some huge Celesteela field. But who cares about those,” she replied, lightly pouting as she briefly pulled up her phone. This place had proven useful before, being the only place where she had recovered some of her stolen time. Hence, she had spent some more of that getting to know the place better, this time bringing a flier of her own.

But then again, she just knew a bit about it. What these guys wanted with gems and cloaks was beyond her, really. “But also, what kind of game do you think this is? This isn’t the place for silly things like that, this place is dangerous. Also also: a Turtonator is not a dragon. That’s a turtle at best. If you want a dragon’s jewel, I’d say this is better.” Saying that, she released her Jangmo-O onto the ground, next to the others. It took an immediate interest in the Typhlosion, walking up to that one. “Don’t think a lot of dragons come with jewels, but that scale is both shiny, pretty, and a prized possession. Would count to me, at least.”

Alexei Ivanov Guillermo Marceliño Elinor Anderson

• player/ooc name:lime
• character tags:Violet Fairbanks Megan Whitmore Evette Moreau Mireille Wynter Shizue Murasaki Lasciel Elis
• dropped characters' tags (if applicable):
• ic posts for characters:pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/35420/twister pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/33687/cementing-choices-mission-past?page=1&scrollTo=441741 pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/35541/bile-blight-gracidea-evette?page=1&scrollTo=435759 pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/36522/ultra-crater-agel-2?page=1#scrollTo=440552 https://pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/35597/trinity-trials-kyurem?page=2&scrollTo=440382
• are characters in directories?: Y
• any notes/comments:

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