Vanilla sat in front of the forest, having her Skeledirge at the ready. The fire and ghost type was back at full health and ready for another round. "For the record, this is stupid." Proxii said, with Vanilla huffing at her partner as she flicked his screen. "This is the only way I'll be able to get this stupid Drapion back. And besides, imagine the help it would be if they were able to join our team!" The girl said, unaware of Thomas watching them from afar. They continued back and forth in their argument for a bit before Vanilla finally physically grabbed Proxii.

"We're doing in and that's final, Proxii."
"What?! Hey, Ow! Stop holding me so tight!"

With Cayenne leading the way through the wooded area, Vanilla began to walk through the area with her eyes on the horizon. "Don't worry, Cayenne. With that Earth Power we bought you, we'll take down that little poison type in no time!"

Thomas Benoit

PURCHASING/REDEEMING

welcome to the poké mart!

1X tm/tr (60 PD)

HARVESTING

be sure to visit the pretty petal flower shop near rustboro!

2X rabuta berry
1X grepa berry
1X tamato berry

TOTAL

do come again!

60 PD

The group would end up out of Petalburg Woods, with the Poison types would look at their new surroundings. It wasn't the industrial sort of environment that they had grown used to, with both Trubbish looking at a nearby decayed tree. Vanilla and Proxii had done the same. They quietly wondered what kind of scenario would cause such a poisonous forest as El would begin to explain their plan. It was pretty smart, moving these guys to a place that was farther away and able to handle their usual deeds. "That makes sense! So they'll be nice and taken care of here while getting used to things as other Pokémon slowly return."

The Garbodors chatted amongst themselves before letting out a content chirp of agreement. Even their Trubbish would share the sentiment. "They said this place will be better and less crowded than the sewers. So they'll gladly live here." Proxii translated to them as they continued to speak. "The mother says, "Thank you for helping my mate and children. I'm sorry for causing a scene from before and grabbing the pink one." Vanilla smiled, simply offering a wave to the two. "Oh, it's no issue at all! That's just what Rangers do, after all!" She flashed a sign to Ell, meeting their gaze with a playful smirk. "Like my Dad used to say, "The darker the night, the brighter the stars~"

Some more grumbling and more from the Pokemon as they cheerfully agreed with the two. "Oh, and they also say that if you're ever in need of help or want to stop by, they'll be here. And maybe or maybe not complimenting a devilishly handsome Rotom as a translator." Vanilla snickered to herself, playfully flicking her Rotomphone's location in the suit before looking to El. "Thanks for helping me solve this issue. We should probably go and turn this into the mayor before it gets too late. I'm roasting in this suit from the phone battery."

Proxii flickered to Ell, his smaller phone body resting beside his owner's head. "Yeah! This was fun! If you ever need a translator, lemme know. Buuuut, a master moderator between pokémon and humans can't be anywhere without his apprentice."
"We'll see whose apprentice is whose when it's time for dinner."
"Speaking of which, wanna get some grub, El? I bet there's some good fast food somewhere back home."

El Sunderland

The area around the battlefield was tense as could be, with Vanilla standing amongst the many people around that had been just in time to look at the enemies greeting their arrival. Twenty years since they had first arrived here and been informed about the incoming plague of poison. She had been given a chance to run like the others in her company, but Vanilla adamantly refused, opting to serve with the reinforcements of this grand battle. Her beautiful assistant and begged her not to go, but alas, Vanilla's heart belonged in the front lines. They shared a kiss goodbye and separated as Vanilla arrived just in the nick of time.

Near the front of the pack behind the Skeleton and the Black Knight lay several Toxtricity Generals, each one commanding a unit of their own, with three gigantic Dynamax'd Pokémon that would tower over the rest of the battlefield. Vanilla knew she had very little in terms of finding a way to combat these fearsome beasts, but the best she could do was to offer them help in getting rid of those smaller pests.

Maybe one day she'd be a hero like them?

"Cauli, Moonblast!" The Altaria would raise its head, gathering enough Psychic energy before then launching a beam of energy at one of the Txoxtricity Generals.

@ | @

---

TL;DR:
- Vanilla bids her assistant farewell, has her first kiss and leaves for battle
- She arrives just in time for the battle to begin
- Cauli is called to battle and then uses MOONBLAST at a Toxtricity General

pTICtv1m + 15

The swollen Garbodor let out another deep and rumbling grunt, more like a soft sigh. But it seemed like everyone involved understood what El had asked of them. The two Trubbish watched in anticipation at what would happen, with the female Garbodor standing on edge. The comment about moving their nesting area would make the mother speak out again, with Proxii acting on he behalf. "She said they'll agree to it, but first they need us to save them." Vanilla tossed out a pokeball, the capsule opening up as her Bisharp was called out. The steel type softing looking at the pile of garbage as its trainer would nod at her partner.

"I'm on it. Let's sharpen those blades of yours, Cutlery!" The blades carefully scratched against one another, slowly sharpening them while Bibidi and El would focus on the eggs. Once it was proficient enough, the teen focused back on the swollen Garbodor. "Now use Metal Claw to carve Garbodor out from the water way! Just be careful." The Bisharp huffed and quickly moved forward with its blades at the ready. One by one, it would make quick cuts along the mass of filthy objects as it would quickly carve its way along the side to free one side of the Garbodor. Vanilla watched with bated breath, eyes scanning along the blades' path as it would begin to saw through an impressive lump of garbage. The entire process took a while, as there was so much contained in the mass that one single strike wasn't enough to cut cleanly.

About five minutes later, the male Garbodor would pull himself back onto the concrete, his body thinner than his mate's as a result of the cutting, but in good health. The backed up waste would finally flow freely again, as water rushed towards the direction of the stream. It wasn't long before everyone was resting on solid ground once more. "Hey, we did it!" Vanilla said, looking over at the nest containing the eggs. The female Garbodor carefully collected the nest from El, her precious cargo held level as to not disturb them. But then came the task of relocating the family. "Now what's your plan about where they can go, El?"

El Sunderland

"But it's way out of our League! We barely lost Cayenne, and I don't want to think about what would happen if another one of our team got hurt." Proxii retorted to Thomas, his little wings flapping about while showing a refusing expression at him. Vanilla stayed the course, absolutely refusing to be swayed.

"It's my battle to finish. That thing hurt my Pokémon! I don't care if it was immune to everything, I'm going back to show it what I've got." Vanilla said, crossing her arms at her RotomDex as they'd glare at one another.

"So you're going to just blindly rush into another fight that you'll lose, best case scenario?"
"I have all that we need! We just drop by a PokeMart, teach Cayenne that Earth Power technique and then boom! We win!"
"That thing is a freakin' Drapion boss! It's not going to go down in one move! What if it starts poisoning us again? Stop being so dense!"
"Then we keep using it! Stop being so scared!"

The two continued bickering back and forth in front of Thomas. Despite being a Pokémon and their trainer, the two were practically siblings as they'd snap back at one another. It took a minute or so before Vanilla would pout, but then smile a little at the man. "We'll take any help we can get. Thank you for offering the medicine." She graciously accepted the inventory given to her by Thomas as she'd placed them in her bag. They definitely were going to come in handy.

"Thanks again! We should hurry up and get that TM before the store closes. Thanks again!" Vanilla snuggled Gene one last time before recalling Cayenne back into her Pokéball. The trainer spun around and began to hurry out of the ranch just as quick as she ran in.

Thomas Benoit

The Garbodor shuffled along inside of the tunnels, showing the way forward for the team as the two Trubbish waddled along. Vanilla glanced at El every now and again, their eyes meeting as she'd wonder what they were being led towards. She had been thanked that the Ranger had been present to quickly about her out of the previous situation. They seemed pretty cool, and any sort of Ranger was cool in Vanilla's book!

The party ventured deep into the sewers as a little ways into it, a haunting, sorrowful cry. It was similar to the Gabodour that had been with them, although was more monstrous. Terrors began to fill in Vanilla's head as she could only imagine what was making such inhuman noises. The current Garbodor only hurried their speed while leading everyone forward before they ended up at a large room in the sewers, filled to the brim with trash. Papers, loose garbage can lids, it was sludge of what was hopefully discolored water that squished underneath their feet. It wasn't much longer until it would pile on high, soon any concrete was buried beneath this mountain of garbage. And there, just as the sewer water would lead into a freewill stood a MASSIVE Garbodor. It had been blocking the waterway and by the looks of it, absorbed Boston of the nasty stuff that was in here. It let out a deep groan, eyeing the party as they approached. The smaller Garbodour would speak to Proxii again as he'd translate.

"She says that their nest down here was washed away because of a recent flood and their eggs ended up over there." He said, directing their attention to a bundle of loose garbage current residing on the opposite end of the chasm, tucked neatly between two upper pipes. Purple spotted Pokémon eggs rested, untouched by the waters below.

"Her mate got stuck trying to save them and ended up stuck down here days ago. Even since, he's been absorbing the stuff down here and been unable to free himself."

Vanilla pursed her lips in thought, looking at the waterlogged Garbodor and then back to El. "Maybe that's what's been causing the smog around the city? A Garbodor that's in danger of outgrowing the entire sewer system. So if we manage to free him and unclog this, maybe this should help the poisonous cloud in the city." She offered, smiling at El as she'd offer her two Pokeballs. "If one of us can work on freeing him, the other can try and get the eggs from the other side. But this might take a while. This is a lot of garbage to cut out."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! We don't even know if cutting all that garbage from him is a good idea! What if it hurts him?" Proxii asked, looking over to El for their input.

El Sunderland

Vanilla looked over at Cayenne while the Skeledirge continued to receive a hug from the Audino. "A TM? Are they those machines that they sell at PokeMarts?" She asked while trying to formulate a plan inside of her head. So if she could mix and match moves with her Pokémon that weren't just their type, she might have been able to come on top here. "It sounds like I can't really go and fight this thing right now, since I need to get a lot of stuff ready…"

The news about dragon types was a bit of a let down. Weren't they super powerful or something? That's what one of her classmates had always told her. Stupid Roarich telling her that! Vanilla had debated using her newly acquired Mega Stone but it would be a coin toss about whether it would help in the long run or not. But luckily, she did have a steel and poison type that she could use for this fight. It was one puzzle piece of many that would need to come together.

"Thanks for the info dump, Thomas!" Proxii buzzed to the man, the Rotomphone switching back to his mischievous face. "But if this is gunna be a huge battle like you're saying, maybe we oughtta let somebody more skilled fight it. I don't think we can-"

"Wh-What? No way! I have to do this!" Vanilla said, pouting at the two as the teen walked over carrying Gene still. "That Drapion hurt Cayenne. I have to get it before anybody else does!" She exclaimed to Thomas and Proxii, the trainer adamant about wanting to battle with Alpha Pokémon herself.

Thomas Benoit

The Garbodor continued along with its captured trainer, Vanilla thankful that she couldn't take in the scent of this gigantic pile of garbage. Her entrapment was cut short, as she'd suddenly find herself standing next to El again. The Garbodor, now holding an Alakazam, would then be pushed back the Telekinesis. It growled, raising its arms as the alleyway grew hazy again. Behemoth stood in front of them, with the rivaling party bearing their fangs in return. The Wheezing puffed itself up, both heads glaring at the two trainers. All attempts at peace seemed to have gone unsuccessful.

But then a Trubbish would peter forward towards Behemoth. It would try to speak with him, with the two watching. Proxii soon perked up inside of Vanilla's suit. "Hang on, I think that this one's trying to tell us something." Vanilla looked down, leaning out of the way of the Nidoking as she watched the small little trash heap. "Can you talk to them, Proxii?" The Rotom would pop out of his Rotomphone home, speaking with the Trubbish. The small Pokemon would talk with the other three of its party, as each would begin to look towards the party. The Wheezing flashed an unhappy gruff look to Behemoth before them going to the Garbodor, who would speak to Proxii. "U-Uh, any luck, Proxii?" Vanilla asked. The Rotom popped back into his phone before translating.

"She says she's sorry for taking you. She's asking for help and wants us to follow it." Proxii replied. The Garbodor grunted and would shuffle down the path leading to the sewers. The Wheezing remained, side eyeing the party while the two Trubbish would hop at them. the one that had approached Proxii would stick close to Vanilla, much to the girl's dismay. the stench on them was horrific, although she wasn't going to let that detail slide out. "I think we should go with them. It might be something important."

El Sunderland

An oversized Drapion that was her barrier to growth?! This would be quite the challenge for her. Vanilla was confident that they could find some kind of way to overcome this gigantic scorpion that had hurt her fire croc Pokémon! Thomas did have more deets on the strategy, which looked pretty dire. No grass Pokemon was easy enough to follow as she had almost none, but Fairy typings being at a disadvantage meant that Ribbon would be nose use against this beast. The trainer huffed in thought, mulling inside of her mind for one of her team that could solve this little disparity.

"That's not a good sign. I'm not sure I have anybody on my team that can use a Ground Type move." Vailla said as she looked over towards Cayenne. Her hands continued to stroke Gene's fur in the meantime. It was strange, having probably every type of move but ground types. And sadly, most of her team was physical attackers. Maybe Cauli could help? "What about Dragon-types? Would they help? They're supposed to be super strong against everything."

Oh, the naiviety of a newbie!

"I don't have Aromatherapy or anything like that besides potions, but I can at least try and figure out what to do with that dirty Drapion. Do you have any other advice that could help me?" she asked. Proxii let out a chirping noise as he'd quickly float in front of his trainer.

"Oh, we almost forgot." Proxii said, showing a picture of the recently caught Koffing they had caught in the Safari Zone. But if Thomas were to look at it, the color of the Pokémon would be different entirely. "Vanilla went to the Safari Zone a week ago and caught this Koffing there, but it's not the right color compared to the others we saw. Is it sick or something?"

Thomas Benoit

"You're so fluffy~" Vanilla said in a baby voice, cooing at Gene as he'd continued to receive the entire suite of what her hands would fluff and pet against him. She continued for a while, looking back up at Thomas as she'd stand back up onto two feet once more. Proxii showed him the Pokémon that had been responsible for poisoning Cayenne, as the younger trainer walked up to her Rotom with a frown. But then came that term she hadn't heard before. "An Alpha Drapion? So it's the leader of them or something?" she asked curiously before then letting him continued. "And Cayenne did put up a good fight. That's why it used Toxic, since it couldn't overpower it."

Her hand fell onto the Skeledirge, who had been happily accepting the cheek brushing from Pulse. The fire type spewed out a warm fire, the chick sitting atop its beak flittering around. It seemed to try and return the gesture to the Audino by using its tail and brush against it was well.

In his abundance of knowledge, Thomas would at least give her some pointers on what she could do to make battling the Drapion easier. Unfortunately, it was a solid typing and Cayenne or most of her Pokémon wouldn't be too much help in exploiting a weakness like that. Proxii returned to his trainer's side and hovered beside the girl. He wore a contemplating expression while thinking of a strategy. "So if we wanna take this thing down, we're gunna have to be strategic about it. I don't think we have any Ground-type moves on us." Vanilla began to pace around in thought about what they could do. She lit up as Thomas offered to help her with potions and such, looking at her available Pokémon.

"I'd appreciate it." she said, looking back down at Gene while nuzzling her head against his. "I'm going to need everyone I can for this fight. I think I can buy some Antidotes and things, but what kind of Pokémon should I not take with me?"

Thomas Benoit

Vanilla was relieved that she could rely on Elise to help her out with stuff! "Thanks! I've been kind of nervous about waiting for my turn." The girl said to the royal. She'd walk to pick up her Pokeball with the Honchkrow inside, placing it inside of her bag as she'd spin back around to watching Elise deal with a stray Varoom. Watching expectantly, Vanilla would continue her story once the battle had concluded. "I don't really do heights well...The last time I did, i passed out while with some friends." She explained briefly, recalling the tale with the Ranger and the boy around her age.

Her eyes went towards a nearby Toxicroak that had been busy scavenging for berries nearby, roaming around between bushes as she commanded Proxii to launch another Electroball out to damage the Pokémon. The frog was pushed back from the attack, glaring towards the offending Rotom with its hands raised. "Shock Wave, Proxii!" The Rotom crackled with glee, emitting a fierce, powerful wave around itself as the Toxicroak was paralyzed from the attack. Using this to her advantage, Vanilla threw a Pokeball at the suffering creature. Its form disappeared into the ball before rocking back and forth.

"I don't really have a land Pokemon as well. Cauli would be the only riding Pokémon that I would have. And I don't think I can just hop on board with her without some training."

Elise Calcifet

She continued to pet Gene's fur, trying to stifle some laughter as some snickering came every now and again. How come she ever stay sad or upset at such a cute face? Even the Audino she was hugging could feel that she was doing better. Cayenne, currently resting on her side, would finally open her eyes to glance at the two healers. The Skeledirge rolled back over onto its flat stomach before letting out a soothed yet restless cry. While not as spirited as it usually was, the sound of its singing voice did provide some relief to those around it.

"Ah, that makes sense." Vanilla repeated from Thomas, finally releasing her grip on the Audino by her to focus exclusively on showering Gene with head pats, hugs and more! "I guess it's one way to let everyone know that something dangerous is in the area."

The Rotom flipped his screen open at the question, pulling up scan data of the Pokémon that had been catalogued before Cayenne had become fully poisoned. "It was this one, a Drapion. But this one was huge! I couldn't measure it since I was busy running to catch up with Vanilla, but he was easily at least six foot. I didn't even know they could get that tall."

A bit relieved to hear that he wouldn't be turning the Drapion into mushed stew, Vanilla would frown, hesitating to say something as she looked down at Gene for a bit. Her fingers gently massaged his fluffy cheeks, her glasses sliding down to the tip of her nose before being pushed back up. "T-Thomas..." the teen said, frowning. "I wanna take it down myself. To make sure I won't repeat this same mistake."

Thomas Benoit