Kyle’s response to the Marowak question had her staring down at the Pokémon and then back to Kyle. ”Wait whatya mean that he misses his mum? What’d you do steal it from its family?” And with the next challenge starting she wasn’t getting an answer to that.

All she could do is feel bad for the poor little guy and return the Pokémon to its Pokéball. While the others tackled the challenge June shuffled through the capsules she had to find the right one while thinking that she thought the Pinsir was alright why that guy would have to call it ugly.

”Here we go.” She finally found the right one and let out Mudsdale. ”Uuuuh use Earthquake.” It was lucky that the move was really useful in this situation.

She didn’t know any of its other moves and she felt the horse knew that but still did the move anyway, shaking the ground like the other Pokemon.

kyle lopez , mateo martinez , FERNANDO SILPH

The sounds of yelling and shouting were music to June’s ears who had begun thinking her little trip to explore Hoenn was starting to get boring, that was definitely the reason not that she didn’t know how to read a map properly and was getting angry about it. The source of all the yelling was a couple shouting at some Pokémon that stole some of their food.

She wanted to make fun of them for getting robbed by a single Pokémon but she held her tongue and took the case of the stolen lunch. With Herdier in tow, the two began to track down their thief.

Their target was a sneaky Poochyena that they almost cornered but managed to slip away.

”We’ve got you now!” They had cornered the pup to what June assumed was its den. The den was a dump of all sorts of random trinkets and food, the Pokémon had been surviving on its own for a while.

And it was a big coward too as once it realized there was nowhere to run any tough guy act it might have been putting up was gone. ”Ah c’mon then you can’t put up that act and cower the second someone calls you on it!” She’d grab the Poochyena by the scruff of its neck, pulling it close to her face.

”Now what to do with you?” The lunch was totally kyboshed so there was no returning it and she didn’t want to have to hear any mouth about not doing anything about the Pokémon and having it run around freely.

Looking at the pup reminded June of those dogs Noah was walking when she met him.

So she decided she’d capture it, why not have another pup?

capture attempt

June had been in Hoenn for a bit now and was still unfamiliar with the region.

She couldn’t tell you where or what the hell a place like Fallarbor was. A lot of her time in Hoenn was spent going between Slateport and Mauville and only occasionally going to one of the other towns or routes and those times were usually for jobs.

So she figured a good start would be to visit Verdanturf and see what it was all about. But she was beginning to feel like she was lost, having stopped in Route 117 to check a map to make sure she was going the right way.

solo wild

”Yeah you really don’t have to tell me twice on that. He comes within five feet of me and I’m decking him.” June said, replying to Kyle’s warning. And again she’d focus on the task at hand instead of the apparent Rocket attractor.

This round they had to survive the move Guillotine which when thinking about it had a pretty obvious solution.

”Okay it’s your turn. And don’t worry about it the others are doing just fine.” June wasn’t even sure that the Marowak needed a pep talk and the face it was giving her made her definitely think otherwise.

Regardless the Marowak, like the other ghost Pokémon went up to face its judgment.

”Is that Marowak usually distant?” June leaned over and asked Kyle, trying not to let the Pokémon hear her.

kyle lopez , mateo martinez , FERNANDO SILPH

June let out a whistle as Noah’s ace appeared on the field, he had been holding out on her! ”Now this is what I’m talking about! Ace versus Ace!” She could barely hold in her excitement, this was the climax of the show after all!

”I’ll consider this an honor then! To have you use your ace and to take it down!” June reached into a pocket a pulled out what would appear to be a pair of earplugs. With the Machamp on the move, there was no way they’d be able to keep up with its speed, at least definitely not with Brick being its opponent.

Once they were in June looked over to her steel dragon, ready to make her move despite having a bit of reservation about it. ”I’ll have to apologize later. Brick! Use Metal Sound! And be ready for a follow-up!”

Due to not being able to hear jack shit the girl was shouting a lot louder than previously before so her order was definitely heard by her dragon and anyone else within a five-mile radius.

The Duraludon opened its mouth again but there’d be no energy beam coming from it but instead, a horrible screeching noise would be emitted.

Even with her earplugs, June could hear it to a decent agreement, and more importantly, she could feel the vibrations through the ground. If this didn’t slow down that lumbering mountain of muscle they were in for a bad time. Noah would find that after the screeching was over the Duraludon was charging for another beam attack.

noah faber

Well there went their element of surprise. ”Fucking hell, man.” She grumbled, pulling out two Pokéballs from her belt. The group of shadowy figures was revealed to be the Pokémon Elgyem, which was odd. The report had said Beheeyem not Elgyem, what was going on here?

As June looked around, an attempt to see if there was someone else here who should be, she released the Pokémon from the two capsules she held, Boltund and Herdier.

There was nothing at first but nearby the flock of farm Pokémon there was another shadowy figure, though this one was bigger than the others.

”Found you. Let’s go boys.” Obstagoon and Ivar would be able to deal with the Elgyem so June’s target would be the big boy. The Elgyem must’ve been the Beheeyem goons sent to distract whoever might be looking out for it so it can take some sheep without any issue.

It was a good thing that there were two teams of trainer and Pokémon or it might have ended up getting away with this. Speaking of which, the Elgyem was startled by the Obstagoon’s sudden appearance and began to teleport out.

”Touma use Wild Charge and Lowen you follow up with a Crunch once we get close.” June whispered to her two canine Pokémon.

@sheng
Mission

”Hell yeah! Let’s get out there and wreck shit!” June had replied instinctively, not really thinking about what Bailey had said. When it actually clicked for her she blinked. They were going out right now?

June had on objections to this she was just surprised, it didn’t seem like they were going to be doing much of anything today. This “interview” had done a complete 180 from what it felt like when June first arrived, and not just in the assumed result but also in terms of her mood.

”A ride would be great!” June replied. She had taken a bus and then walked the rest of the way over here so avoiding that would be great; some weird people like to take that bus.

June and her Scorbunny followed behind Bailey, both excited to see what sort of fun they’d get in.

Bailey Cooper

June had originally thought this was going to be just her and Kyle doing some sort of training, at least that’s what Noah told her when he set this up but what she didn’t expect was the two-plus ones. One of them was an ex-Elite Four member that June figured was dead and the other was some trust fund baby who’s presence just oozed creepy boss vibes.

Thankfully she could just focus on the challenge instead of the fifty questions she had. Challenged seem simple enough, just get past the mean look and bada bing bada boom you’re home free!

Kyle had graciously given her a rental that she could use in the tower and it’d come in handy for this so she released the Alolan Marowack.

The Ghost-type wouldn’t be affected by the Mean Look and would be able to walk right past the statue. Before she’d follow behind Kyle and Mateo she looks to Fernando and waves slightly.

”Uh I'm June. It's nice to meet you.” Well he acted as weird as he looked so that checked out. June shook her head and then followed behind the rest with Marowak in tow.

kyle lopez , mateo martinez , FERNANDO SILPH

She should’ve have thought this through before just rushing into the room, that would’ve avoided her getting slapped in the face by what she could only assume at the time was a stuffed toy that one of the ghosts flung at her. And by one of the ghost, she really did mean that because instead of there just being one asshole Casper there was a brigade of the spectral shits that were causing this nightmare.

Poor Touma was being overwhelmed but the canine was doing his best to fend off the ghosts whenever he could get close enough to them.

A combination of Ghastly, Haunters and even some Duskull, the whole damn family was invited and they were fast. ”Bloody hell, why the fuck did that hurt so much?!” June growled, grabbing her face where the stuffed animal hit her.

Frustrated, June sent out her Taillow to try and add a bit more speed on her own side, and with its ability, it would have no problem fighting back against the ghosts. At that moment she had forgotten all about Thea so when the older woman spoke June almost snapped.

”Listen reason or not and even if they’re normally just endearing tricksters right now they’re being assholes who need to the shit beaten out of them.” She was having one of it.

Alethea Ivanova
Mission