It was no mean feat balancing on a Steelix’s head; but now that Alex Louis didn’t have a very egoistical rider on his head, the dual-type was now free to preen himself; towering over pretty much everyone assembled.

“Ooh, where’d you get the little ghostie?” he would ask, taking every single chance to use his other arm to either point, stretch, waggle fingers or just be silly with it!

…for that matter, when she worded it that way, there was nothing else to it.

“Hey, as long as we make it back alive, then we should be good,” he would nod her way.

Speaking of which…

“…did you bring a Pokémon that can heal both our asses?” he would ask a few moments later.

Where had he been?

To be fair…

The ground would rumble, slowly at first and increasing in intensity until a shining, well-polished Steelix would slither into view. And right close to the top of this Steelix’s head—

There was a cackling idiot, arms crossed. Wait, arms?!

For yes, that’s right—

This idiot had both his arms back! Problem was that the other one was still artificial, so there was that. It was better than nothing, at least!

“Hey, Johanna!” he called from the top of his Steelix, Alex Louis; before the Steelix then lurched downward for a landing; allowing him to jump off the top of the steel snake’s head once he was close enough.

“So… what’re we looking for down there?” he would ask without further preamble.

What in the name of—

Why were there Smeargle waggling their tails like they were trying to summon some kind of power, only to have it suddenly be blocked by this weird-ass looking… huh.

“What in the living hell.”

He could only watch on in silent wonder, wondering why the Smeargles were looking at each other in a panic, much like a very iconic painting called The Scream by some… some guy.

Look, Arashi wasn’t that great with famous names, but he knew that this particular picture was one of eternal shock.

But of what?



(Did like, someone actually flash the poor person in that painting? Why couldn’t he remember the guy’s name who painted it?! Was it Edvard Munch or something?)

“Honestly, what the fuck, Hoenn.”

He then took aim, before chucking a Pokéball at the closest one while his Steelix, Alex Louis, rumbled his amusement at the scenario unfolding before him.

“Did she… you know, ‘ma, like… ever tell you about that one time she ran off one summer and absolutely refused to talk about it? Well…”

He’d managed to put the pieces together through one hell of a lot of context clues so there was that.

“I was that one summer. Though… shit happened and my ol’ man raised me back in Enju, not here in Hoenn. I think it was like, some family-regulated thing.”

He crossed his arm(s) over his chest and let out a huff. The carnival was way too noisy for people to be actively listening in, so there was that.

“I didn’t like the way they ran things. Plus nobody would miss a kid like me, so what else was there? I ran and never looked back.”

When she’d namedropped edith joy, it was like the entire world had receded to a certain point.

Like… how in the name of everything was this… all… real???

“Okay, don’ tell me yer dad’s a wild-haired guy like mine was,” he wheezed out next, the sheer insanity of the situation still sinking in as slowly as a Wailord drifted through the oceanic waves.

“Unless you ‘ad a diff’rent ol’ man?”

Of this he was certain—nobody looked like his dad, and it was one hell of a surprise he ended up looking like a spitting image of him, too.

Although, yes—he was a Joy by blood, even if not by name as he’d been… well, ‘spirited away’ by his old man and raised with a different family altogether in Enju, back in Johto.

“And don’ tell me, ye were also in Rocket previously,” he stammered without realizing how true that was for her, too.

Because he’d been there. But he didn’t like the way of living, and so he made a run for it, and never looked back.

“I’m gonna need another pair of hands—lady, you mind if I borrow yours?” he asked their lone female companion.

With the parts that they’d managed to scavenge, along with some hodge-podging together on his part (and using his mouth as an ‘extra’ hand to screw the rest on together, he eventually had in his remaining hand—

“This should distract that damned-ass fucking bird. Or what I think is a damned bird.”

The moment they made to hatch their daring escape, he then held the ‘tiny’ little contraption that looked like a Rookidee—or some twisted interpretation of it and threw the little contraption as hard as he could the moment one of the gigantic automaton ‘Corviknight’ spotted them.

“Come on, ol’ man, let’s get the hell OUTTA HERE!” he hollered—as they had a very small window to Teleport their asses out of the place!

---

• borrow’s the lady’s hands and makes a lil’ version of an exploding Rookidee which he YEETS at the automaton Corviknight the moment they get outta the castle
• time to begone of this place

And there he was!

After the pastel Ponyta was sucked up into the Safari Ball, he then saw the main prize—the entire damned reason he came out here, literally incinerating a pile of oranges that it was about to eat.

“Oh no,” he chuckled quietly, because from the looks of things, this Fuecoco had a rather insatiable appetite!

The sleepy Camerupt waddled forward—and the Fuecoco was taken by surprise. For a moment there, though, the two stared at each other…

…before the Fuecoco rolled a scorched orange in the sleepy Camerupt’s direction. Aww!

“Well ain’t that nice,” he muttered quietly as the Camerupt lumbered over before sniffing at the orange—and then eating it in one swallow.

…okay, Aced, you’re a Camerupt, not a Snorlax.

Arashi continued to watch the silly exchange, before the Camerupt sneakily Yawned, catching the Fuecoco off-guard as it was eating through the pile of oranges.

…at least the other Fire-type didn’t see what was coming as it fell asleep mid-chew on another incinerated orange!

“That… you sneaky bastard,” he grinned as he then dropped the final Safari Ball on the Fuecoco’s head.

---

catch attempt on the Fuecoco!

Okay, no denying that Mudkip were cute, and it really showed!

(Hell, he almost threw his Rowlet instead of his Mudkip here, but apparently there were a lot of part-Flying types already.)

Arashi had agreed to drop off one of his Pokémon for assistance in the hospital today—even if he was numb to the prospect of needles, he knew that there were people out there who couldn’t handle them like at all, and so decided to offer some help.

One of the younger kids was already bawling because of the prospect of being stabbed by a big needle, however the Mudkip was to the rescue! Running over (and tripping on her face in the process, whoops) the Water-type came skidding towards the crying kid in short order.

The entire tripping thing distracted the kid enough, who let out a guffaw of laughter that became a sympathetic look as they saw the ‘kip trip over her feet. Aww, poor thing.

The next thing that came barreling out of the undergrowth was something… well. Something that reminded him of his ‘other’ half. (Well, technically, that side of the family, but then again it was so difficult to comprehend he was actually a Joy and not that…)

“That’s got to be the weirdest-looking Ponyta I’ve ever seen,” he wondered out loud, before the funny pastel-colored mare charged right at the Camerupt with a Psybeam attack!

“Whoa,” he yelped, getting out of the way as the Camerupt then countered with a Lava Plume attack that caught them off-guard because of the heat.

“Huh, so you’re scared of fire?!” he continued as the pastel Ponyta neighed, before shooting a Fairy Wind attack, which was met by the dual-type with a Rock Slide attacked that knocked it into a daze.

Quickly taking aim, he chucked the Safari Ball, realizing that he was about to run out of time if he didn’t pick up the pace!

---

catch attempt on the pastel Ponyta!

The moment she’d mentioned her name, his jaw fell to the ground.

“Wait. Wait, wait, hold up just one second—” he continued, backing away before realizing…

“You…?!”

He had to stagger backwards before letting out a bark of laughter, and for a few moments, it was like the world had receded.

“Ye—ye cannae be serious ‘bout that!” he wheezed, unable to fully believe what he’d just heard from her. “Yer a Joy, too?!”

How… how in the hell was that even possible?! They really didn’t look like each other.

Okay, so by technicalities he was sort-of Galarian, by adoption at least? Well, that certainly threw a wrench in the moment he found out about his relation to Demiyah and Kazuko just being—a big-ass faced half-lie.

Well, the one person he wanted to yell at about it had been buried so long ago, so that was out of the question.

“Dad, you asshat,” he huffed before the Applin very literally almost smacked him on top of his head! He had about half a second’s worth of warning before the whooshing noise alerted him to the presence of the—

“Whoa!” he yelped as his Camerupt looked up and literally spotted it before he did, actually sending out a juggling Earth Power to keep it airborne even while it used Withdraw to boost its defenses—

And then the surprising thing happened, the Applin began using Rollout mid-air!

“Okay how in the hell is that even possible—” he trailed off before the rocketing fruit of a Pokémon came screaming his way, and the Camerupt had to sleepy-blink before trapping it again in the Earth Power juggle to wear it down!

“Geez,” he grumbled as he very nearly got a concussion from the fruit as it was eventually shaken so much it almost came to a wet, splattering crash on the ground.

“Yikes,” was all he could add after that as he dropped the second Safari Ball on its dizzy head.

---

catch attempt on Applin!

The next Pokémon that came out and tried to challenge them was something that looked like—

Aww!

“Cute,” he grinned, however the Tirtouga only wanted to get to the water, so there was that.

“No, Aced, we’re not going to attack that one. Let ‘em get to the water… we have bigger pies to find.”

In a manner of speaking, of course. Two pairs of eyes watched as the Tirtouga flopped towards a nearby lake and then disappeared beneath the surface of the water once the Pokémon had managed to get to the shallows.

---

skipping Tirtouga