❆

suddenly, a wild arctozolt appeared, and mcflurry had to react quickly. this was the first big problem she'd encountered thus far, and the woman couldn't help but flinch when its body slammed into her steelix.

still, she had the advantage, no matter what. batting it away with an iron tail, mcflurry grunted as the brunt force of an avalanche rang against steelix's body — before a stone edge finally finished it off.

...hoo. that one was a change of pace.

mclaren mcflurry  ● skip ● 3 safari balls left

❆

mcflurry let out another disgruntled sigh at that second insult, but she didn't feel quite as murderous, given the guy was trying to look out for her. these days, that was rarer than ever.

"hhh... i-i guess. d-don't mind that, it's - the cold just does that to me..."

mcflurry grunted, eyeing another figure popping out from the grass behind hendrix. big, bright, orange - a rotom.

callously, mcflurry pointed it out over hendrix's shoulder, giving a frosty little shit-eating grin, small clouds puffing from the corners of her smile.

"you've got a ghost o-over your mcshoulder, scaredy cat..."

(her vulpix enthusiastically looked for other targets, and her abomasnow watched. the hail was brewing, indeed.)

mclaren mcflurry ● hendrix emmerson   ● skipping

❆

"i mean, uh. Since i was in fiore, i-i thought it was suicune, originally, but —"

mcflurry swallowed down her nervousness, shaking her head.

"i-it could have been zacian. or zamazenta...? i don't know. sorry, it just — stopped mccontacting me. i-i used to see it running around, but, i... joined rocket."

mcflurry fell silent, knowing damn well she was oversharing. maybe gavin appreciated the information, maybe he didn't, but mcflurry knew she should have shut the fuck up about something so important to her.

desperate, mcflurry attempted to dismiss herself.

"th-that's it, though. i don't know why you asked, sir, b-but — if that's all..."

mclaren mcflurry ● Cillian Quinn

❆

as the cave walls came down, mcflurry noted all the loot they were able to accumulate. ah, she hoped she got a decent share of it. in any case, it's damn near pitch black — so much so that it seems to eat away at her normal flashlight — and mcflurry doesn't have the pokemon to illuminate the way.

when it is illuminated, though, there's a huge stretch of underground water which... definitely leads somewhere. air pockets dont just happen like that.

when someone else's water bubble is applied, mcflurry goes in first, sending out her spheal with her. maneuvering through the cave, mcflurry clears the path with spheal's rollout, allowing the group to progress.

---

NOTES:

- spheal used rollout
- rock-type move fulfilled

mclaren mcflurry  ● oscar clayton  ● maverick noah ryder  ● Alexei Ivanov

❆

mcflurry hummed. a dead end, yet again. except, well. not really. she spotted a small puddle of water accumulating on the floor at the end of the cave system. ordering her steelix to dig into it a little —

a sudden gush of sea water blasted into the cave, and mcflurry quickly backed up as several magikarp came flopping in — as well as a spheal.

as the gushing opening trickled down into a newly formed underground pool, the spheal attacked with an aurora beam, and steelix rushed forward to tank the hit. grunting, the iron snake slammed an iron tail into the offending pokemon, knocking it out.

well, she got something out of this, anyways. a spheal was fine, too. mcflurry tossed the poke ball and prepared to head home.

mclaren mcflurry   ● catching spheal

❆

mcflurry's alolan vulpix had just gotten done blasting a blizzard at a yamper (making the weather even worse) — and she subtly tossed a poke ball at it underhand before turning to someone talking to her.

just that moment, she decided to exhale. with the frosty breath, the bags under her eyes, and her almost-shimmering blue pupils that had to be the result of some sort of mega-energy runoff, it was no wonder the man screamed.

mcflurry didn't notice any of the above, so she just thought the guy was being rude. a few months ago, she would have apologized. nowadays, though...

"g-g-got a problem? are we having a mc... issue? i do-do-don't appreciate that sort of thing... hhh..."

she grit her teeth, looking angry. her eyes flashed, her brows furled, and a blast of evaporating breath from between her clenched teeth, looking like a steam engine in terms of volume and cloudiness.

her abomasnow behind her cracked its knuckles, letting out a low, intimidating growl as it started stepping up to the man.

mclaren mcflurry ● hendrix emmerson   ● catching yamper

❆

at a certain point in the cave, it got dark. a sneasel would skitter along the walls, looking at mcflurry... before seeing the steelix and thinking better of the attempt.

in mcflurry's case, she just held up a flashlight. she swore she could see a crack in the wall leading to light, but — maybe. she ordered her steelix to go there, in case.

mclaren mcflurry ● 1 encounter left  ● catching x

❆

that one was passed, as well. it seemed like the local wildlife was starting to fear the iron snake with the black-haired woman on top, from how it seemed. perhaps their predecessors warned them?

hm. or maybe mcflurry's eyes were getting weaker.

mclaren mcflurry  ● skip ● 3 safari balls left

❆

the thought of dying in identity was... terrifying, to say the least. mcflurry never did put much value in her personality, her mark on the world, and yet —

she had her parents. her friends back in fiore. she had fans wanting to hear her play the piano again. she had people in hoenn, too. and thinking of losing that was...

she let a few tears escape as she trudged through the icy grounds, hiccupping and sniffling. she didn't want to lose all that. lose herself. she wasn't sure if she could live through that burder. wasn't sure if she was desperate enough, even.

but that felt selfish, didn't it? why should she get to die the easy way, when she'd ripped the life away from so many other people permanently? what made her better than them?

she tried to calm down as she took in what chu-e was telling her. that he died, too. that if she told anyone, he'd kill her. that he'd died like she would have to.

she slowly accepted the losses, in her mind. her parents and friends would mourn. her fans would mourn, and move on. the people in hoenn didn't know her that well. but.

just as she was about to take chu-e's hand, she hesitated, pulling back a fraction.

there was just one thing that would make her turn into a monster, that she'd be happy to turn into a monster, if only she could keep them.

"i — i-is there any way for me to keep... m-my pokemon? p-please. they're — they're the only th-things i h-have left. i d-don't want to mc, mcdie if i can't..."

mclaren mcflurry ● Chu-e Choi  ● skip

❆

route 102 was feeling several degrees colder than it usually was, even in the winter. the hail falling from the sky would usually be cause for concern, even in december.

for mcflurry, it was just a sign that she was doing work.

specifically, practice. her alolan vulpix needed training, being younger and less experienced than her other pokemon, and mcflurry always did do things traditionally.

(and if the hail was a little harder today, it was because her abomasnow stood to her side, as a second supervisor. in case a larger pokemon arose.

and if mcflurry seemed a little more villainous today, causing snow in an otherwise warm route, well.

she'd just exhale icy steam from her teeth, looking every bit like her glalie. a true villain-of-the-week.)

mclaren mcflurry ● hendrix emmerson   ● catching x