[attr="class","text"]

the growlithe's

good manners make her smile. "good boy." she reaches a hand out to pet its head; the same one where the now eaten cheri berry had been. after returning the pinap berry to her berry pouch, both her hands are free and ready to take on the task of carrying the pokémon.

[break][break]

despite her appearance, rhian is surprisingly strong, and she's ready to show kyle she could do it. except the growlithe is indeed too big for her. she ends up puffing out a surprised "oof" as her hold on the puppy falters and she ends up letting it back down.

[break][break]

"guess we're both walking," she whispers to the growlithe.

[break][break]

the ninetales'

roar

would be enough to keep the area ahead safe enough for them to cross, though she does have to rush to catch up with him. her short steps follow with—luckily—no major problems.

[break][break]

"say," she begins then, realizing the single flashlight may not be enough to light up their way the deeper they went inside the cave. "mind if my roto loto powers up your flashlight?"

[break][break]

if he agreed, the rotom would be promptly released. with all the electricity he'd gathered, plus its ability to adjust the circuits inside, the flashlight would be giving them an even better view of what laid ahead.

[attr="class","text"]

rhian is reluctant

to give the man a chance to explain himself. she's pretty sure he'd just try to buy time and run away. with how naïve the young girl is, however, he'd find it easy to fool her. correction: he already found it easy to fool her. it's really only the last part, the part about being unwelcome back in his original faction, that gets her.

[break][break]

her body relaxes a little. the tension lowers down, though it never goes completely away.

[break][break]

"how comes?" she says, frowning. had he done something bad? then again, doing something bad in team rocket probably counted as something good, so in reality he'd have to have done something good? "why would you not be welcome there anymore?"

[break][break]

she's willing to listen, but she wouldn't be letting him go on to wherever his appointment could be until he explained himself properly.

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her cheer

doesn't falter even when the laughter turns into a less lively smile. "mm," she hums, deep in thought, but quickly shakes the thought off. "a little, yeah. must just be my imagination though!"

[break][break]

she notices the man looking down at the same patch of rock and earth (though earth was technically rock). it gives her a chance to look at him more closely, though his words would be what catches her attention the most.

[break][break]

as unaware as she is about competitive battle strategies and the like, she's not so sure about the utility about both a gardevoir and a gallade together. the idea sounds adorable and that's what rhian refers to when she answers. "you're right; like a princess and her prince."

[break][break]

the sudowoodoo standing still only a few feet away is taken in as part of the scenery. three time now that she's stumbled upon one in this very route and she still thinks it to be a normal tree. perhaps even the same tree.

[break][break]

"well..." she starts, unsure of how much information she's allowed to give away. just a general description would be fine, right? "this might sound a little boring. they're mostly just old rocks."

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it's so cute.

rhian looks down at the adorable puppy and crouches down to it while its trainer busies himself with some wild pokémon. "don't be scared," she almost pleads the growlithe as one of her hands reaches towards its head for a pat.

[break][break]

she has just the thing for situations like this, too. though the snacks she kept inside her bag were usually reserved to befriend wild pokémon, rhian sees nothing wrong with sharing one of them with the growlithe either.

[break][break]

"let's see... do you like cheri berries or pinaps better?" one of each is presented to the puppy.

[break][break]

it may be cliché, but that doesn't stop a soft giggle from escaping rhian's lips at the late realization. "i'm rhian," she answers giddily, offering him a friendly smile. "can i carry your growlithe?"

[break][break]

the glalie painting the background white with its

frosty breath

a few feet away goes unnoticed.

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rhian laughs

softly at the woman's mumbled words. the irony is not lost on her. "at least it's thinner than the coat, right?" she says, not in an attempt to tease but out of genuine worry.

[break][break]

despite its colors (its singular color, really), the woman's outfit makes her look so elegant and pretty, and rhian makes sure to let her know as much, even if not so consciously or politely. sometimes she just blurts out the first thing that comes to her mind, like today's "black suits you so well though!"

[break][break]

or maybe the woman's height was such that anything could look good on her.

[break][break]

luckily they have no lines per se, but that's no reason for relief in their case. lip syncing might be just as hard as regular dialogue, if not worse because they'd also require some level of coordination and notion of the song's beat.

[break][break]

which, by the way, they still need to memorize! the song starts playing in the background, to guide them. "one step closer," rhian mouths, tasting the tune that would soon be playing on repeat not only in her head but also all around them.

[break][break]

rhian turns, smiling. she's liking the song. "let's practice it together."

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this time

, she can hear herself scream. they're much higher than before and in no way fine. this time, rhian isn't so sure she can get away from trouble. but she tries, boy does she try.

[break][break]

first, her dragonair comes out her pokéball, its long, smooth body warping in a rather snake-like position. rhian's certain that it's not only her that's glad it's such a big pokémon. the dragonair looks up. "stay still, please!" she pleads, before turning to her other pokémon.

[break][break]

"milkshake, come here!" rhian spreads her arms, tries her best to bring the clefable as close as she possibly can. it kind of works, but not really. she ends up returning her to her pokéball for the sake of her safety.

[break][break]

meanwhile, her sylveon takes aim. princess may not be down on the ground, but her ribbons are still there. they reach for the dragonair and, like a gymnast on parallel bars, swing. the sylveon dips, lets go to momentarily use her ribbons to slow down, stalls, curls her legs, and raises again. the second fall isn't as fast, and the third is slow enough that she can distinguish the human that is quickly falling after her.

[break][break]

she reaches up with those same ribbons to, once more, catch her trainer, and seconds later they're both falling down the dragonair's body. it's like a day at the park, going down the slides, except the reason is way less innocent: they're not here to play.

[break][break]

rhian wraps her arms around the smooth skin of the dragonair, slowing down, and kisses the general area she assumes to be her belly. she's not sure; her heart's thumping too hard, too fast. rhian could cry right now, but there's no time for that. "take us to leo," she croaks out.

[break][break]

the

gravity

surrounding them makes it impossible for the dragonair to fly, but she can manage slithering through the muddy water towards the big creature. its focus is on other people and pokémon at the moment, while rhian's is only @leonardo. with

agility

, she speeds up.

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two minutes

into the trip, rhian decided it wouldn't hurt to simply play along. she doesn't actually have anything better to do today, with leo being holed up in the mossdeep space center without any chances for her to sneak in with him.

[break][break]

"thank you," she offers shyly, not totally sure what else to say. it's not until he calls his ninetales out that her tongue loosens and she marvels at the beautiful sight. "such a shiny coat," she mutters under her breath. she'd never seen a shiny ninetales in the flesh before.

[break][break]

she feels herself shiver only when he mentions the cold. "that'd be nice, um..."

[break][break]

rhian struggles trying to word her next question because she doesn't even know the name of the person who had helped her cross the sea. she considers it a favor even if she hadn't wanted to in the first place. she waddles closer to the heat emanating from the ninetales.

[break][break]

"do you have a name?"

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at least

the dressing room offer some level of protection from the crowd and the scary director. she and the woman were both ushered into the same room, where a number of assistants argued over which outfit would fit their body shapes better.

[break][break]

rhian chooses to ignore them for now, as she turns to her fellow victim of circumstances. "i'm so sorry," she apologizes for unknowingly dragging her into the chaos of this music video production.

[break][break]

she still doesn't get why or how things turned out this way, but she can't deny it is effectively happening and she wants to try and make the best out of it. it's been her only way of coping with difficult situations.

[break][break]

her eyes scan the scene before them. "i really hope they don't make us wear those swimsuits," she says, pointing at the pair of revealing bikinis that one member of the crew was flaunting to another. rhian's gaze then turns back to the blonde woman.

[break][break]

"aren't you hot, with that coat on? let me help you," she offers, hands raised up to take the pink coat from her without quite touching the warm fabric. before she can quite manage, though, they're separated by the two women previously arguing. "seems they made their choice," rhian mutters as she's ushered into a smaller dressing room.

[break][break]

when she reemerges from the dressing room, rhian wears a white sundress and a pair of pretty ballet shoes with only the smallest of heels. apparently, she'd be playing the other woman's daughter in a music video where the mother mourned her stillborn child by imagining a life with her, now stolen.

[break][break]

"is this really going to be fine?" she wonders aloud.

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last time

she was here, leo had dragged her along on his quest for a flying type pokémon for her. she'd insisted it was fine, that she wouldn't need any pokémon other than meteoro for flight, and eventually their failure to find a togekiss had made them turn to the best pâtisserie in rustboro and call it a day.

[break][break]

today, she's back not to hunt for pokémon, but on another errant for the lab. lately the scientists in mossdeep had been requesting weirder and weirder materials to conduct their experiments, and as the new girl rhian was expected to fulfill these tasks. despite being around for over a month already.

[break][break]

luckily for her, leo had let her borrow mr. grandpa for this trip.

[break][break]

the drampa lands near a familiar-looking man whose name she can't recall. "hello!" rhian approaches the figure. with each step, she feels less confident about knowing him at all. there is definitely something about his face that looks vaguely familiar, but at the same time she's certain she doesn't know him at all.

[break][break]

maybe her memory's failing her?

[break][break]

"oh. i thought maybe i knew you for a moment there." she laughs at her own silliness. "i hope you don't mind if i pick up some samples here. were you looking to catch something?"

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lucky few?

was it particularly hard to catch swarm pokémon? rhian isn't sure; she'd only been to the one. "oh. thank you," she says with a small smile. rhian had been pretty happy with herself back then, of course, given that the milotic was meant to be a gift for her boyfriend. until now, she didn't realize it may have meant something more.

[break][break]

"in that case, it's nice to know we've got dependable police like you guarding us." technically, rhian has the slightest suspicion she'd also qualify as a cop. she hadn't been given the rank of cadet for nothing when she joined the league, probably. maybe they just didn't have a more fitting rank for the science and research department yet.

[break][break]

she mulls over the man's next words for a while. there's truth in his philosophy. now more than ever. rhian was still resisting the conversion, having thankfully never gotten into real trouble until then; but the fact two of the people she most admired were insistent on her training did make her anxious sometimes.

[break][break]

the rest of their walk passes too quickly. at least it felt so much more quickly than the first half. they reach the old couple's house just in time for the woman to tend to their berry trees, and rhian hurries to help her after a "it was a pleasure to meet you. i hope we get to see each other again soon!"

[break][break]

she doesn't realize she forgot to introduce herself or even ask for the man's name until hours later, when it's time for her to return home.

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she knows

the gym is around here... somewhere. rhian looks around her and then down at the map that roto loto is showing her. could the gps be malfunctioning? according to the map, the gym was in the street she'd just crossed from, but while she walked passed all she saw was a casino. she frowns.

[break][break]

"are you sure this is the right place, roto loto?"

[break][break]

in her confusion, rhian doesn't notice she'd stopped right before another busybody (or, as she preferred to say, busybee) passerby. "oh! i'm so sorry," she begins, startled out of her focus on the digital map. rhian looks up, her expression full of apologies and worry, and almost manages to step out of his way, but her eyes are too quick and her legs betray her.

[break][break]

to say her legs aren't moving would be inaccurate. they are moving, just not in any way either her or the man would have wanted them to. trembling knees are the discounted deal they get instead.

[break][break]

"y-you— what are you doing here?" she demands.

[break][break]

lilycove was supposed to be safe. it's the league's new headquarters. no rocket would be foolish enough to come here and cause trouble with so many league officials around. yet the face and the dyed hair and everything down to the voice make her relive those seconds right before he and his younger criminal friend caused havoc in new mauville.

[break][break]

"whatever you're planning to do this time, it won't work," she says, defiant. they'd found her alone and helpless then, but he wouldn't have his way again. not here, of all places.

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isra's vague

answers continue, and rhian doesn't have any problem filling in the blanks with her own discourse.

[break][break]

there are plotholes in her narrative that the blonde wouldn't be able to deal with yet. at the end of the day, though, rhian is left with two facts: her new friend had never been to a proper sleeopver, and rhian would be sure to fix that.

[break][break]

she leans closer, eyes sparkling with hope. "don't you want to have one with me?"

[break][break]

it would be a perfect chance to fulfill that promise they'd made to meet each other again, to have rhian's azumarill meet with isra's audino. besides, it would also be a perfect chance for both trainers to have a fun time.

[break][break]

"i know i used to have frequent sleepovers with my cousins, back in johto." it's been a long time since then. over a decade now. "so i've never had a proper sleepover either. it'll be fun! i'll make sure it's perfect! please say yes?"

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this is wrong

, wrong, wrong. they're up in the air—and not even a couple inches up in the air, but literal meters. rhian looks down. her hand is on her sylveon's pokéball again and she aims it at the ground, so that her pretty princess can be the one saving her this time.

[break][break]

the sylveon assesses the situation. her trainer is close, but her ribbons are already out, on their way to catch her. they extend and fold until a nice, soft rope that catches the petite girl and her clefable in midair.

[break][break]



[break][break]

a deep sigh, followed by a hug. "that was terrifying! thanks, princess."

[break][break]

that's also the exact moment she realizes leo is not with her: when the sylveon doesn't catch him too. rhian frowns. where is he? where is everyone else? not only had they been teleported somewhere way higher than their initial destination; they were somehow also separated along the way!

[break][break]

leo may not be with her, but she can spot someone else in their close vicinity. actually it's a pokémon that she sees in their vicinity. close enough to see, but not enough to talk to. not that it would stop her from screaming a desperate "have you seen a grumpy brunette—" she stops mid-sentence. another sound, familiar by now.

[break][break]

she turns just in time to watch leonardo falling from a height even greater than hers. from where she stands, it looks like he misses the

solar beam

by a hair, when in reality he was more than clear from at least that one danger.

[break][break]

"milkshake!" rhian calls again. this time, they're aiming to land on the ground under @leonardo.

[break][break]

perhaps it's not a good idea, given the half-baked results their first attempt had gotten them. desperate times call for desperate measures, and what scenario could possibly be more desperate than her boyfriend being in mortal danger?

[break][break]

rhian's sylveon still has her ribbons protectively wrapped around her and her clefable, keeping them close, maybe even sensing something was about to happen. the small party are in a three-way hug when the

teleport

tugs at them a second time.

[break][break]

whatever happened next, the sylveon would be ready to

wish

pain away.