his name matches. so does his picture, even though leonardo really wasn't lying when he said the picture wasn't very flattering. vera laughs again at how endearingly goofy this serious young man had turned out to be. it's really adorable. her eyes continue south and linger on a specific line of the id.

[break][break]

"applied physics department," she reads aloud, the name vaguely familiar. wasn't that the name of the team that had moved in next to hers a month or so ago? honey-colored eyes light up in recognition. "that's right next to my lab!"

[break][break]

the shinx in her arms whines. vera turns her attention to him, worried that something may have happened to it despite him being literally guarded by her. "what's wrong, buddy?" a quick visual inspection reveals nothing wrong, but the frown is evident on its cute little face.

[break][break]

vera hums in thought. "are you hungry?" she asks, and the minun hanging on top of her shoulder butts in as if she'd been talking to her the whole time. she

nuzzles

the shinx, before looking up to stare at vera with the same big puppy eyes that the shinx is staring at her with. vera laughs. "are you both hungry?"

[break][break]

she searches her pockets for snacks. it is one of vera's quirks, the fact she cannot leave her apartment without some sort of sweetened goodies. today's haul seemed to be berry bars. three for the three pokémon, and then some more.

[break][break]

vera crouches down next to the pokémon as they eat. she has a treat for leonardo's garchomp, too, should he decide to accept it. one of her hands runs over the shinx's head, petting it. "did you like it? there's more from where that came from, if you wanna join the team." vera extends her hand for a high-five.

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something odd happens. a cold breeze blows past them, so cold in a totally eerie way that it makes the hairs on her skin stand. the goosebumps are the least of her worries, though. before long, she feels a tug at the basket that she's certain doesn't come from her pokémon.

[break][break]

"can you see it?" she asks her companion, fairly certain she knows what kind of entity they're dealing with but unable to see it anywhere.

[break][break]

a gasp, high-pitched and terrified, is her natural reaction to the phantump's

astonish

. fondue returns it by redirecting his

psychic

towards it.

[break][break]

the basket suddenly feels heavier, now that her raichu's full focus is on the phantump, but she'd hang in there for as long as the raichu needed. or simply put the basket down if things went on for long. either way, she has the means to handle this situation.

[break][break]

"don't worry about me, fondue."

[break][break]

the alolan raichu dips its tail ever so slightly, a nod to his trainer and a motion to gather speed. his

agility

allows him to reach the phantump before it can make another move. rather than attack it, fondue proceeds to offer it a

sweet kiss

on the cheek.

[break][break]

the phantump probably isn't gay, but the kiss does make it wonder. while it tries to figure out its identity, vera tosses a pokéball at it. she'd find a good home for it.

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though it all had been only a joke to play along with him, his answer plants a tiny seed of worry in her head. there's too much noise in that mind of hers to really tell what goes on in it, but a good half of her thoughts or more are screaming danger. vera can't believe she didn't ask this sooner.

[break][break]

"why? what's wrong with your id?"

[break][break]

the longer she waited, the more pokémon she'd have to fight against if things went south. vera is still hoping it doesn't come down to it, but a league member has to always be prepared.

[break][break]

"do you at least have a name?"

[break][break]

she doesn't notice the little shinx walk up to her, caught up in all that tension. she looks down and allows herself the time to pick it up while the new impasse with the young man reaches its conclusion. "hey there, boy," she whispers in his ear, fingers running through the shinx's fur.

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"what? you're pulling my leg." she laughs in disbelief. this really isn't what she expected to hear from the serious-looking young man. she reminds herself that appearances can be deceiving before she can psych herself up further.

[break][break]

throwing a joke back at him feels like the most fitting answer. "where's your identification, then?"

[break][break]

they're interrupted by a lairon, shortly followed by the fluffiest flaaffy vera has ever seen. she's in love already. "go ahead." while the young man catches the lairon, she turns to the flaaffy.

[break][break]

slightly bent knees bring her closer to the flaaffy's eye level. "look at you, you're so fluffy!"

[break][break]

vera wants to touch the smooth pink coat and fluffy white fur. knowing full well that she could easily get electrocuted if she touched the flaaffy without permission, she doesn't. yet.

[break][break]

"can i give you a hug?" she asks. the flaaffy tilts its head, able to understand her intent more than her words. "don't electrocute me, okay?" a nod, small but meaningful. vera smiles and goes for it.

[break][break]

a minute later, she's offering the electric type a pokéball and hoping it and its silky fur accept.

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the basket she carries packs more delicacies than it looks capable of. following the kantonian custom of making small but orderly compartments in one's lunchbox, vera had managed to fit in a meal for ten inside the rattan basket, now closed.

[break][break]

now, such a large amount of food is quite heavy for a young lady, even for one with arms as strong as hers. luckily she's got fondue with her, whose

psychic

abilities served as an extra hand. half of the basket's weight was supported by the alolan raichu.

[break][break]

"everything alright, fondue?"

[break][break]

the raichu nods, a gentle smile plastered on his cute comic-like face as he returns his attention to vera. he's happy to help his trainer.

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uh oh. alric didn't want too much milk but vera had already gone and milked so much, enough for six whole glasses. "oh..." she manages to whisper. the oopsie she'd made can be seen so clearly on her face, eyes open wide as saucers and mouth hanging slightly agape.

[break][break]

well. she could always give a little more to her pokémon. hopefully. fresh miltank milk was so delicious, after all.

[break][break]

"because!" vera starts at alric's question, expression as serious as if she'd been asked for her life purpose, "there's miltanks."

[break][break]

vera turns to watch her girlfriend's pained expression. the sun hat was doing what it could to protect her from direct sunlight, but if she didn't know better she'd think alric a vampire from how much she enjoyed staying inside and sleeping during the daytime.

[break][break]

with her hands busy on the miltank, vera has to come up with alternative ways to call her pokémon out of their pokéballs. she tries with her elbows at first, somehow trying to find the perfect spot from which she could balance the spherical devices. it doesn't work, for obvious reasons.

[break][break]

"hey, alric? can you help me take biscuit out?" biscuit, vera's heliolisk, could potentially help them cover alric from the sun.

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one skill that her girlfriend's always pointed out to her—sometimes in annoyance, sometimes in amusement—is vera's ability to switch back to a cheerful demeanor in a matter of seconds. vera was never sure if that was meant to be a good or a bad thing. right now, she's only glad they're past the misunderstanding.

[break][break]

a disoriented "huh?" escapes her lips. she's gotten so used to the minun's presence so easily that she completely forgot they hadn't made the capture official. "yes! i mean, i'm not sure." vera turns to the minun, as confused about where they stood as the young man probably was.

[break][break]

she doesn't try to remove the minun from her shoulders, despite the angle being a tad uncomfortable. it's an intimidate distance; one perfect for the offer that follows.

[break][break]

"i'd love to bring you with us, if you want to tag along."

[break][break]

vera's eyes are hopeful. she loves electric types but, even beyond that, she's grown attached to this minun in the short time they've shared together. they say difficult situations bring people together. she's certain the same applies to pokémon.

[break][break]

her attention returns to the man she's assumed to be another league officer. for all the distrust he first showed towards her, vera realizes now he never showed proof that he was up to nothing bad, himself. "so what brings you here, anyway? on patrol? looking after the reactors?"

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vera blinks. is he really gonna make us go through the entire protocol? she asks herself, and proceeds to answer in the same fashion.

[break][break]

she searches her pocket for the photocheck. vera finds it hard with only one hand available, the other obviously still holding onto the minun, and is grateful when the pokémon decides to free the other by climbing onto her shoulder. finally, she finds the elusive id card and presents it to him with a triumphant "here."

[break][break]

the card has everything: her picture, her name, her position and rank. it has the league logo and the barcode that is scanned every time she enters the lab or any other league facility. now, she just hopes he doesn't make things any harder for her by claiming an id could be easily falsified.

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vera almost squeals when she sees the adorable minun hopping around the dark-lit passage, seemingly without a care in the world, being followed by a much bigger vikavolt. flanked in a threatening manner or more in a guard-like stance? vera can't tell without a closer look, and to her dismay that closer look is taken from her by the man whose hair covered his eyes.

[break][break]

"come here," she urges the minun, scared for what the man could do to the little thing after seeing what he'd done to the vikavolt.

[break][break]

the minun only manages to tilt its head in confusion, which leaves vera no other choice but to step in between it and the garchomp instead. her alolan raichu stands by her, protective and brave despite the type disadvantage.

[break][break]

"please don't hurt this one. it didn't do anything."

[break][break]

something buzzes in her ear. she doesn't realize it's a mixture of stress and desperation until the minun walks around her feet, its arms raised as if asking to be carried. vera grimaces at the poor timing but indulges the minun anyway.

[break][break]

"look, i know this looks pretty suspicious, but i'm not doing anything bad, okay?" she's very tempted to lie and say the minun was hers all along and that she'd only snuck in because she was trying to follow her overly curious pokémon. the minun looks like it'd play along to that lie. the main problem with this is that vera hates lies and isn't even good at them to begin with.

[break][break]

a sigh. "my name's vera lindt. i work as a chemist for the league. came down here looking for electric types."

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her dreams of starring in a spy movie are crushed when she's spotted. she turns slowly, the same way she used to do when caught redhanded by her nanny whenever she stole some cookies from the cookie jar before lunch. nervous laughter comes naturally, and obviously it's unwanted.

[break][break]

"funny you'd say that..." she begins, trying to buy herself time because she honestly has no excuse to be in new mauville.

[break][break]

vera has all her stars to thank when a pair of wild pokémon come to disrupt their conversation.

[break][break]

she can run while he's busy dealing with the pair. that's option one. however, option one was problematic because she risks coming off as even more suspicious if she runs. the young man had already seen her face. if he was smart, he'd have enough to pinpoint her identity. option one also defeated the purpose of sneaking in, if she simply skipped a pokémon she may want.

[break][break]

it's settled, then, she thinks. option two would be to stay, battle it out if necessary, and try to explain her situation... somehow.

[break][break]

what could possibly go wrong, right?

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she can tell the galvantula is female because of her size. females of the species tended to grow much bigger than their male counterparts, and this one was quite big. by the looks of it, she's also very forward in her actions. vera likes that.

[break][break]

the galvantula's two front feelers move quietly, trying to grab one of the same sandwiches the skiploom had taken before. "that one has sliced lum berries and grounded chestos," she explains, encouraging the pokémon to try them despite her probably not knowing what a lum or a chesto is. at least not by name.

[break][break]

a smooth altercation, if vera can say so herself. the galvantula moves on from the lum and chesto sandwich to a slice of razz berry pie and a pair of watmel cookies. vera's glad she gets to watch her every reaction to the food she's prepared. that's always been her favorite part about baking.

[break][break]

her basket is poked gently once more. vera had thought the galvantula wanted more food, each time she did this, but by the third time she realizes there's something else she's missing. she looks more closely at the basket, specifically at the ribbon adorning it, and finally understands.

[break][break]

alric arrives just in time to find her trying to tie a pink ribbon around the galvantula's head.

[break][break]

"you made it!" she exclaims with so much excitement a different heart could burst. she doesn't stand, though. not yet. had vera not been caught redhanded, she would almost surely sound like she's been up to nothing at all while waiting for her.

[break][break]

the look of surprise on alric's face makes her giggle. "yes, wafer here and i were bonding over cute ribbons. don't you think this one fits her perfectly?"

[break][break]

turning to the pokémon, she adds, "this is alric. we've been together for a while now." at this last bit, vera's cheeks grow rosy. "if you want to come with us, we can all get to know each other better."

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