“We're so fucking cooked”
“You got this”
“I don't got SHIT”
The three bandit sisters look at the talking Vaporeon wide eyes before Coin barks out an order.
“Toxicroak! Use Poison Jab!”
Toxicroak cries as its hand is coated in a purple energy and throws a strike at Ace.
Ace throws herself to the side, dodging the attack with a curse.
Even without moves, she hadn't survived in the Nightmare World for six years for nothing. Gritting her teeth, she tightens her paw and punches the toad Pokemon in the side of the head.
*crack* Toxicroak's head snaps to the side.
“Fucker”
She jumps back, Toxicroak stares at her angrily, a bruise leaving a mark on its face.
Joshua raises an eyebrow at the sight. He notices a small blue glow covering her paw.
…type-energy?
Ace doesn't seem to notice it, is she doing it subconsciously?
He's once again wondering how much of an advantage it is that, because of the link, Joshua has a much deeper insight on type-energy as a whole.
It's… constant. Water type-energy is both a calm surface and a raging tidal wave, equally as helpful and destructive, the only constant is that it's… durable? No, adaptable.
But what's even weirder was that while he can see lingering traces of it, the attack didnt actually use type-energy.
Was that even a move?
“...water punch?”
[MoveChecker(Rotom): Water Punch is NOT a registered move!]
[Not a move bud]
[Ninjask'd lol]
[Oh hey Checker is here!]
Well what the hell was it then?
“Use Poison Jab again! Don't let her dodge!”
Joshua watches Ace lower her stance, her tail is raised slightly, and her back legs seem to be… swirling? Like a thin yer of water that's now gathering more tightly around her paws.
Water Type energy, but it's not… being used. Just there. Makes sense, Ace doesn't know how to use it.
So is this just water?
*CRACK*
Toxicroak’s head is snapped to the side again as Ace strikes it with her tail. Their attack fails again, mostly because Ace is surprisingly slipper- Joshua decides to NOT let her know about that.
“Toxicroak!”
“Stop crying bitch, I've seen prettier mugs at fucking Innsmouth”
…looks like she's getting into the groove of things.
But he just saw it again, a thin yer of water enveloping over her tail that very noticeably increased the impact, or it dulled the impact for HER, maybe both.
Joshua suddenly remembers Jophiel's unique evolution, how she became something “more”, something almost divine, with how she could do things without even the use of type-energy.
Is it the same thing here…?
He tries something.
“Ace! Use Water Gun!”
“D-Do you actually have brain damage?” She stammers out.
“All moves use a type of energy that corretes to it, try and focus and see if you can feel anything!”
She murmurs something underneath her breath, turning into a loud curse as Toxicroak approaches once more.
The Kirlia, who's been more defensive in this battle, has been shooting off attacks and staying in the backlines.
Ace dodges, and dodges, she gets hit once in the side and is sent flying backwards.
*THUD*
She hits the ground, hissing in pain.
“Fuuuuuck”
“Come on Ace! I know you got this!”
“YEAH THAT'S EASY FOR YOU TO SAY HUH!”
Ace pushes herself up, and her squints her eyes as she concentrates deeply. Toxicroak tenses as it raises its guard.
“Come on Toxicroak! End this!”
Her form shimmers as a thin yer of water swirls around her body.
Kirlia crashes into Toxicroak, stopping it's approach.
“Water Gun, right? Yeah… I know how guns work…” She mutters to herself.
Energy begins to swirl in front of her.
“...lets see if this works…”
With their Pokedex entries, Joshua recalls that Vaporeons are not only mostly made out of water, can melt entirely into water, but can also control water itself FREELY.
That's not type-energy, that's inherent to the species.
That's ft out hydrokinesis. The potential that Vaporeon has is stupidly immense if he's correct about how it can be applied.
This fight is more about letting Ace get more familiar to her body, than it is about survival.
But… hey, wait a minute.
Joshua looks at the move Ace is trying to do.
The energy, it's pale… white? That's normal type-energy, that's not a water move!
What is she doing?!
“Ace, what are you doing?” Joshua asks, a bit worried.
“Water Gun” The ball of energy in front of her is pale, almost gray, but glows bright. Her fins flow in the resulting wind caused by it.
“That's not water!”
She looks confused for a second, then she does a little bit of checking. Her face quickly changing to realization.
“...oh”
Ace stops charging.
“Well fuck me”
And Toxicroak becomes WHITE.
*BBZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
A massive beam of pure white sms into the Pokemon, barely giving it time to dodge as its sent flying back as the ser carries it, crashing it through the neighboring trees and terrain. A loud, cartoonish buzz fills the air.
Even with the tinted helmet, Joshua has to cover his eyes
After a moment, the beam gets smaller, before disappearing entirely.
It goes quiet.
The grass is scorched in a line, with a tree busted, and an unconscious Toxicroak slumped over on the ground at the end of it.
“...”
Joshua stares.
The three sisters stare.
“...”
“...”
“...”
*slump*
Ace falls over.
“Uuugghhh”
She's dead tired.
[...hey uh… Checker?]
[MoveChecker(Rotom): That's move is… Hyper Beam!]
[oh okay I wasn't just seeing things]
Even Kirlia is wide eyed, slowly backing away from the Vaporeon.
“Uuugghhhhh”
“How… in the hell, did you pull off a Hyper Beam before a simple water type move?” Joshua finally asks.
“...maybe big sers are just my thing? I don't fucking know… uuuggghhhhh” Ace slurs out.
The bandits finally seem to gather themselves. Coin points at him in anger.
“Y-You! You just got lucky!”
She smiles as she realizes something.
“But now you don't have Pokemon! You know what that means? Now me and my girls will get our payday!”
“But sis… isn't he supposed to be… y'know?”
Coin waves her off.
“Bah bah, that bastard lied to us first! Let's just rough him up and take his stuff! That sleazy merchant won't know the difference!”
They approach, and Joshua is…
Not that worried, actually.
“H-Hey! Don't you fucking dare!” Ace tries to push herself up, scowling at the three bandits that walk closer.
She's trying to defend him… thats really sweet actually.
But Joshua isn't scared at all, so he doesn't move from his spot.
“What? You frozen in fear, little boy?”
…what cheesy ass dialogue.
“Not really”
“I'll fuckin kill you bitch! Don't you y a fucking FINGER ON HIM!” Ace screams out, still trying to drag herself.
“...the fish scares me” One of the sisters mumble.
She does know that these are just three normal women again a man in power armor, right?
“Empty your po-”
*CLANG*
Just as they got close, a white blur shoots out of the trees. A shovel smacks into Coin’s face, throwing her head backwards as blood shoots from her nose.
The other two sisters catch Coin as she groans, looking up with a scowl on her face.
“OW! WHO DID TH-”
*crunch*
*crunch crunch*
The sisters freeze.
The shrubbery of the forest seems to make way as a figure appears.
Out comes an alicorn, a shovel hovers beside her, enveloped in a pink aura. She looks a little banged up, but nothing bad aside from the stiffness of her wing.
But the look of sheer, unadulterated rage on her face makes the sisters lock in pce. Like a wrathful goddess looking down on those that wronged her. The scowl along her muzzle showing all of her teeth, and her mane seems to rage like an inferno.
They don't even notice as another figure, a zebra, carefully makes their way towards the armored man.
White Horse is very, very angry.
Jophiel’s horn ignites.
And suddenly, that shovel looks very, very intimidating.
*CLANG*
…
Joshua is used to finding himself in confusing, odd situations, but this certainly is one of the more notable ones.
He has a Vaporeon that somehow finds bigass sers easier to use than the moves of the thing she's literally made out of.
He has three bandit sisters currently unconscious with suspiciously shovel-shaped bruises all over their bodies are only really alive because Joshua had to hold the angry alicorn back. All of their stuff is being taken off them by the greedy fishdog
He has that same alicorn burying herself in the crook of his neck after making sure that he's fine (which she already knew because of the link).
He has a Kirlia that's standing just nearby, very obviously tense and looks like they’ll flee at a moments notice.
And stly…
Uriel is hungry. She was too embarrassed to mention it earlier, so now she's eating berries and looking over three knocked out girls.
That part isn't odd, he just didn't want to leave her out of his introspection because she's a sweetheart.
“I am… severely out of shape…” Ace says, eating a Leppa berry.
“Z-Zebstrika!”
“You don't have to spare my feelings, Uriel. I know I'm fat”
“Rap-Rapidash”
It's odd hearing Jophiel speak normally.
She says something along the lines of ‘you did well’. Ace just raises an eyebrow.
“...thanks”
‘You need to apologize to her’
(“I…”)
‘Love’
He hears a sigh.
(“I will”)
Jophiel turns to Ace.
She knows she did something wrong, but with her pride and that small part of her that doesn't think she did anything wrong, she hesitates. With a quick nudge through the link, she opens her mouth.
“Ra… Rapidash”
“It's uh…” Ace scratches her neck, surprised.
“It's fine? I guess? It sucked, yeah. But no hard feelings”
Whether it's because she actually forgives her or doesn't really care, he's not sure. But Jophiel let's out a relieved breath.
“Alright, let's figure out what to do with these three”
“Twenty bucks it was the merchant” Ace quickly comments.
“Zebstrika…” Uriel does make a good point, how did they know where to find him?
Did they see him get shot down? It's pretty odd for then to be in the middle of Heartwood for no real reason.
(“Maybe they were the ones who did it?”)
“Toxicroak can't learn Shadow Ball I think”
[I have a Toxicroak, nope, needs TM]
[Someone check]
[...Checker?]
[Checker can't do that]
Well that just leaves the obvious.
“Volo"
He didn't do this in game… why is he going off script?
Normally, he let's the pyer collect all the Ptes, and then tries to take them all using the threat of Arceus’ rebellious youngest goth child.
Why try to kill him?
(“Uriel scares him, perhaps”)
He snorts.
But… wait. That's not far off, is it?
The Pyer Character is a fifteen year old kid who's not a too big of a threat to him. But Joshua is a grown man with a powerhouse like Uriel on his side…
He can’t manipute Joshua, so he tried to take him out.
The fucker.
Oh he's PISSED. Jophiel is just simmering under the surface too, but now he REALLY wants to beat that Arceus Larper's ass.
Stop.
He breathes.
Calm down.
The bandits, what is he doing to do with the bandits?
He doesn't want to kill them, obviously. Toxicroak will be back up in less than half an hour, Pokemon are sturdy like that, so he isn't TOO worried.
…guess he could just leave them here, couldn't he?
Joshua didn't see anything like a bounty board in Jubalife, so…
He sighs.
He's doing it again.
Jophiel's giggling doesn't help.
“Uriel, give one of the berries to Toxicroak please, for when they wake up. Let's just leave them here"
He should get an award for overcomplicating things.
Uriel does, and that just leaves one st loose end.
Kirlia.
Turning to her, she flinches. He makes sure to approach slowly, and tries to make himself not as threatening.
“Hey, Kirlia… thank you for the help earlier. Do you want a berry?”
She just stares.
Joshua slowly crouches down and pces the berry into the grass and rolls it over to her.
The Kirlia’s eyes go to the berry, then to him.
Her eyes move to Jophiel, who just nods.
The red… rings? On her head, begin to glow, and after a moment of hesitation she picks up the berry and takes a bite.
Her eyes never leaving the man in front of her.
“Do you… want me to patch you up?”
There’s silence.
For a few minutes, she stands there, the red fins(?) on her head fring up occasionally. She's covered in bruises and looks terribly dirty.
She takes a step, hesitant, careful.
Then another.
And another.
Until eventually, she's in front of him.
He smiles, briefly reminded of Uriel when he first found her. He could just catch her, but that would be… scummy, no, he won’t take advantage of her situation like that. Uriel trusted him…
Hopefully, she will give him that same trust.
She's as still as an ant as he carefully wraps her pale limbs in bandages, using his gloved hand to pick out the sticks and dirt in her hair.
It takes a while, she's skittish, and obviously doesn't trust him, it's a miracle she isn't trying to run away or attack him right now.
By the time he's done, she looks like a mummy. A dirty mummy.
“There we go. Not too bad, right?”
“...”
She nods softly. Red eyes never leaving his.
“Yeah, thought so” He chuckles.
She's kinda cute. He's had animals act like this before when they were under his care, it's always nice to see them warm up, even a little.
What is a Kirlia even doing out here? Has the time distortion bubbles causing all these Pokemon to be dispced?
He looks back, it looks like the Toxicroak is starting to awaken. It's time to go.
“Alright, let's head to camp, how's the wing Joey?”
She flexes it.
(“Tender, but it works”)
“Don't overdue it, I'll take another look when we get back, alright?”
She nods.
Getting ready, Joshua casually reaches up and pats the Kirlia on the head.
Her eyes widen.
He just chuckles, admittedly kinda gd that he didn't just lose a hand.
“Let's go”
Getting up, Joshua walks over and gets on Jophiel, returns everyone to their pokeballs, and flies off.
All the while, a bandaged Kirlia watches.
She feels at the spot of her head, where the warmth still lingered.
…
Up in the air, Jophiel is… quiet.
“Love?”
(“...maybe you should stop talking to Fairy types”)
“What? Why?”
(“It's dangerous”)
“Aren't you a fairy type?”
(“That is precisely why I am saying it”)
(A/N: Legends Arceus has very little Trainer Battles, and the ‘etiquette’ is basically nonexistent. Thought I'd reflect that here.)
