Hard Enough

Chapter 202: Interlude - Girls day (2)

A.N. By popular demand here is the second part that I considered writing last week.

Suzie rocked back and forth on her heels. Munchlax, as he liked to do, copied her.

Suzie rocked further and further, teetering on the edge of falling over. Munchlax copied her, only for his arms to begin swinging in huge circles. Suzie grinned, only to gasp as she went too far and fell on her bum with a flop.

Suzie considered this new position with a blink before announcing, “Ofph!”

Munchlax laughed, forgetting to keep swinging his arms and toppling to the ground himself. “Lax?” he said, having fallen on his back.

Suzie giggled as Munchlax rolled first one way, and then another before huffing and curling his legs up towards his mouth.

“No, don’t eat your legs!” Suzie cried, only for Munchlax to surprise her as he kicked his legs into the air and sort of flipped up onto his feet.

He landed and raised his hands to the air like Suzie had seen the big kids do. Suzie clapped at this and Munchlax bowed in a dignified manner before reaching out to lift her to her feet. Suzie raised her hand. “No! I want to try and do it like you did!”

Munchlax blinked, hands outstretched. Suzie smacked them away before raising her legs into the air where she kicked them about.

Nothing happened apart from a few kicks. She frowned. “Urrrrrrrrgh!” she said, kicking the air harder. Maybe it was how you kicked the air. “Hiyah!” she shouted, copying what she’d seen Crystal do when Forrest had said something stupid.

He’d been quick enough to protect his family jewels, which was apparently important in some way. These days Crystal picked fights with A.J., but the older boy never said anything as silly as Forrest had.

Or at least Crystal never tried to kick him… something about that was different for some reason?

Maybe it was that Crystal liked A.J. more?

“Munchlax?” asked Munchlax as he leaned in to inspect if Suzie was still awake.

“Bwah!” said Suzie as he got too close. Suzie tried to pull back but couldn’t, so instead her legs continued to topple over her, knocking Munchlax away and forcing her to tuck and roll over herself.

She kept rolling until she was on her feet and standing.

She held her hands out to the side and blinked. Munchlax, now once more on the floor, stared up at her in awe.

“Munch? Munch? Munch?!” he said, trying to copy her by rolling over himself only for his belly and head to be too big, causing him instead to roll back onto his feet front ways.

Suzie grinned and let herself fall back before tucking and rolling so that she landed on her feet where she stood. She giggled and then giggled harder when Munchlax tried again, only to roll onto his side and land on his stomach with a soft “Mun!”

Suzie tucked and rolled again and again, and after going from her room to the lounge room, she stood and grinned. Only to find that her Daddy wasn’t paying attention and instead doing adult things, like folding laundry or talking on the phone. In his case, he was doing both at once.

“—need to look into the mineral deposits. I have sent through some notes from my travels regarding one stone that I found. Extrapolating from that is going to be tough, but we at least have a starting point,” he said at a man that was being projected from his transceiver.

The man had a smiley face with a big bushy beard like some of the others that sometimes came around the gym… or like Stephen when he came back from his trips.

Suzie inspected the man.

No, that wasn’t Stephen, his beard could get wild, but it didn’t have the black and white like an old Meowth.

“Daddy! Look what I can do!” Suzie chimed.

Daddy blinked and looked around. “Hmmm? Cindy?” he said.

Suzie growled and stomped her foot. “Noooooo! It’s me, Suzie! Your third daughter!” she said firmly.

The smiley man on the phone snorted. “Third? Oh right, I forgot how… energetic you and Lola used to get!” said the man, but Suzie ignored him.

He was being icky in the way adults sometimes liked to be. Big brother and biggest sister were the same sometimes, but biggest sister always made sure to be ‘proper’ when Suzie was around. Which meant it was always big brother’s fault when they got too ‘adult’ with each other. Which led to smoochies and ick, as Forrest had liked to say.

Daddy gave a cough and smiled. “Right! You said you had something to show me?” he asked.

Suzie blinked, for a moment wondering what he meant, only to remember her new trick as Munchlax appeared in the doorway with a pant and a huff, having had to get back onto his feet and chase after her.

Suzie held up her hands, and with all the grace she could muster fell onto her back causing a loud thwack.

She blinked up at the ceiling. “Oh right!” she said, kicking her feet over her head and rolling up onto her feet once more. “Ta-dah!” she said.

Daddy stared at her his eyes flicking to the floor of the kitchen. “Oh, uhmmm, well done?” he knelt down. “That didn’t hurt, did it, little girl?”

Suzie tilted her head like Spot would do when he was confused. “No? Why would it?”

“You… hit your… no never mind,” said Daddy leaning down and giving her a hug. Suzie hugged him back only to grunt.

“Owwie! My head hurts! You’re hugging too hard!” she said, slapping him away.

He retreated with a quick dart. “Sorry baby girl!”

Suzie pouted at him before giving her bestest big sad eyes at him. “Can we go into town now?”

Daddy paused. “Ah, sorry, little girl. Daddy has some work to do, maybe later?”

Suzie sighed. “Allllllright,” she said, slumping off to keep playing with Munchlax. She turned and raised her arms up, ready to repeat her rolling trick, only for Daddy to cough.

“Maybe do that in a carpeted area only?” he suggested.

Suzie hummed and nodded, not really seeing the problem. But the carpet was soft and the kitchen was kinda hard. “Munchlax! Let’s play until we can go into town!” she cheered, running into the lounge room, where she and Munchlax tumbled and bounced around to their heart's content.

When they got too loud Eevee appeared and barked at them a few times. “Sorry Eevee!” she said to the usually laid-back little pokemon. Eevee huffed, fluffing out her tail before stalking back to her bed where she proceeded to do a circle three times before flopping down, with her legs ‘splooting’ out wide.

Suzie giggled and copied her on her own cushion.

“Circle! Circle! Circle! Sploot!” she announced as she flopped onto her belly with her legs as wide as they would go.

Eevee eyed her and huffed, only to then tuck into a tight ball of fluff to ignore Suzie.

Suzie shut her eyes and pretended to sleep. She felt Munchlax copy her. She counted in her head the three circles before he flopped down on the cushion.

She suddenly found herself airborne and gasping as she flew across the room to thump into the lounge with a whump. She found herself wedged between two cushions. She wiggled and squiggled back, only to not move at all.

Oh well, she could live a good life inside the couch. Her family would be sure to feed her. And there would be television she could poke her head out every now and then to watch. Sabrina would visit with her dolls.

Small hands reached into the cushion and dragged her out.

Suzie took a huge breath of air as she returned to life outside the cushions. She flopped onto her backside and blinked at the much brighter room. “Awww, I was gonna be Countess of the Cush!” she said.

“Munch!” said Munchlax in approval, only to grumble as he turned to and glowered at Eevee who had been ‘helping’ to drag Suzie out of her cushion prison by biting him on the bum.

“Thanks Munchlax and Eevee!” Suzie said, before turning her eyes to the cushions.

Eevee glared at them both. Suzie ignored it, more than used to Eevee being too sensitive and… prissy! But that wasn’t important right now. Suzie had just discovered something amazing!

“I had no idea that you could launch someone with a cushion!” she said, grabbing said item and setting herself up on it. “Munchlax! Launch me!” she commanded.

Munchlax scratched at the side of his head. “Muuuuuuun,” he started to say only for Eevee to start barking at them.

Daddy popped his head in. “Are you two being too loud for Eevee?” he said.

Eevee started nodding straight away, pointing her paw at them and the cushion and then arcing it through the air. Daddy nodded and Suzie sucked in a breath. Shoot! Daddy wouldn’t let her do that if he thought it was dangerous.

“I have no idea what you’re saying, but it sounds like both of them are being too loud,” said Daddy.

Suzie sighed in relief. Thankfully Daddy couldn’t speak pokemon like Sabrina could! Daddy turned to Suzie. “I think you need to play a quieter game.”

“I wanna go into town,” Suzie whined from her position on her cushion.

Daddy gained a sad look. “I know baby, I know and we will go, it's just I need to work right now.”

“Can I go with Nanny Grav and Munchlax, then?” Suzie asked, changing her argument slightly.

“Hmmmmm, I don’t think Nanny Grav woul—”

“Grav,” came from said Nanny, popping around the corner and stuffing another load of washing into Daddy’s arms before grabbing Munchlax in one of her arms while Suzie took up another set.

“Whee! Thanks Nanny! Bye Daddy!” Suzie said as Nanny trotted along.

Daddy stared blankly after them. “What is up with the pokemon in this house?” he said aloud, only for Eevee to sniff and strut away to find a quieter part of the house.

Suzie waited until they were well and truly out of the house before she started to squirm. Nanny put her down then and Suzie took off running this way and that, all while staying within a few metres of Nanny. She inspected the flowers and the road. When she got to a particularly smooth part she played hopscotch with herself, hopping first with her right foot and then with her left foot.

Then she did big Shrek-like jumps, launching herself as far as she could all while ribbiting with each hop. “Pert! Pert! Swampert!” she shouted.

Munchlax’s stomach grumbled and he looked around for something to eat, only to perk up when they passed by a cluster of Granny Gertrude’s berry trees. Suzie and Munchlax shared a grin with each other and snuck through the fence to grab berries until the juices ran down their mouths and they felt particularly swollen.

“Hmmm, are there some thieves in my trees?” called an old wizened voice.

Suzie perked up. “Musses Aberbafy!” she said with her mouth stuffed full of berries.

From between the trees, an old lady with her hair tied up in a bun appeared. “Oh? What’s this? A lazy thief that doesn’t run away?” she said, peering at Suzie through her huge glasses which made her eyes bulge.

Suzie swallowed. “Missus Abernathy it’s me! Suzie!”

“Munchlax!” said Munchlax from next to her, reminding Suzie about him being there as well.

“And Munchlax! We’re having a break from our adventures!” she said with a nod.

Mrs. Abernathy gave a coy smile. “Oh? But you must be thieves, because you haven’t paid for my goods. And if you eat before paying that could be stealing,” she said in the slow way that old people liked to use when talking with her.

Suzie hummed. “Can’t I pay after eating? Like in the restaurants?”

“Ah, but you need to know how much I am charging first, otherwise I can charge whatever I want!” said Mrs. Abernathy.

Suzie nodded. This did make a good deal of sense. “Alright,” she said, reaching for her small purse. “How much?” Hopefully this wouldn’t cost too much pocket money.

“Hmmm, I don’t think I want any money.”

“So they’re free?” Suzie said, perking up.

“I didn’t say that. I said I don’t want money.” Mrs. Abernathy waved her hand and gestured for Suzie and Munchlax to follow her. When they came up to the porch of Mrs. Abernathy’s house they found a pot of tea ready with some snacks. “I think I need you to sweep my porch for me and weed the garden for my berries,” she announced.

Suzie considered this. “Hmmmm. I think I can sweep the porch?” she said, looking at Munchlax.

Munchlax looked at the weeds and sighed, before moving to begin his now freelance weeding.

Nanny Grav who’d been observing all of this made to help, only for Mrs. Abernathy to lay out another cup of tea. “Chamomile?” she asked Nanny Grav.

“You’re just going to sit there drinking tea watching us work?” Suzie said in shock.

In response, Nanny Grav raised up her cup of tea, only for Mrs. Abernathy to offer her a slice of something that looked nice. “Sponge cake, dear?” said the old woman.

Suzie huffed and got to work sweeping the porch, sending dust flying this way and that. Munchlax looked up at one point, only to take a faceful of straw.

He opened his mouth and started to eat the broom, only for Suzie to jerk it out of his mouth. “No, brooms aren’t for eating!” she said, admonishing him.

Munchlax swallowed his mouthful only to burp and go back to weeding. Suzie paused to… supervise his work. She watched him pull out a weed, inspect it for a moment and then eat it.

She blinked. “Uhmm… good work?” she said, after thinking about it for a moment.

When they were done they turned to Mrs. Abernathy who looked thoroughly amused. “Well… that was certainly one way to get the jobs done… I suppose I will just have to get a new broom?”

Suzie coughed. “Sorry?”

Mrs. Abernathy waved it off. “Well I think you’ve had a long enough break. Time for you to continue on your way, child,” she said, and Suzie perked up.

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“Adventure!” she shouted, dragging Munchlax and Nanny Grav down the road.

They stopped at the playground and ran and slid to their hearts content with the other kids. Nanny Grav sat on the side with a magazine with the other parents and old people while Suzie and Munchlax played.

When they got tired Suzie staggered over to Nanny Grav and the larger pokemon hefted her up onto her shoulder. “I don’t want to go home yet,” said Suzie sleepily. “I want to go meet up with Yolanda and Cindy at their school,” she said.

Nanny Grav considered this and nodded, causing Suzie to flop about slightly before they trudged along.

Munchlax walked next to them, a slight look of concern on his face before he pulled out a hairy piece of pizza. He stared long and hard at Suzie before offering up the slice. Suzie shook her head. “No thank you,” she said, fighting her eyes as they tried to slide shut on her.

Nanny Grav found a nice bench in the shade overlooking the front entrance of the school and sat down to wait. Suzie felt herself drifting along with the sounds of other kids laughing and the breeze blowing through the trees above.

Her eyes might have shut. Maybe. Only for a little while.

Then they opened when she heard a deep chuckle. “So, this is where you got to,” said big brother Brock. Suzie opened her eyes slowly and found him carrying her twin Timmy.

“You forgot me!” he said with a whine.

Suzie smiled sleepily. “So? Just have your own adventure?” she said.

He huffed and sat down next to her, only to tell her all about the game he’d been playing with the blocks that they had in their playroom. It sounded pretty fun.

When he was done, Suzie told him all about being a thief and Mrs. Abernathy making them do time in her yard while Nanny Grav made sure they didn’t run away.

Brock looked up at Nanny Grav and the old pokemon grinned, nodding along with the story.

When the bell rang and school let out Suzie felt great watching the surprise and then happiness flickering on everyone’s faces when they realised she’d come to greet them.

Her family and some of their friends all gathered around as they headed back home. When they reached the front door Daddy opened it for them and Eevee barked happily, now more than ready to play.

Suzie grinned and grabbed a cushion. “Hey! Everyone! Come see this trick!” she said, sharing a look with Munchlax.

When she was once more launched into the air she was surprised when firm hands caught her and twirled her around. “Hmmm, you have had an interesting day, haven’t you? Maybe tell us before you do something so dangerous in future?”

Suzie bumped her head softly with a fist. “Whoopsie! Teehee!” Something in Brock’s eye twitched, but he kept on smiling.

Suzie grinned at Brock ignoring the momentary flinch. “I was the Countess of Cush!” she said proudly.

When he looked confused she patted him on the head. “It’s okay, old people don’t understand young people’s adventures,” she said wisely.

Brock just laughed and hugged her.

Misty locked eyes with her opponent.

Since fighting Brock, she’d taken to fighting more often, but their current stop in Hophophop Town had been more for the boys than her. They’d taken to training and fighting in the local Battleclub and Misty, after thinking about it for a while, had decided to join them.

The local Chapter leader of the Battleclub had spotted her and decided she needed to be pushed.

Old man Karl rubbed his beard before winking at her. “Like I said little miss—” Misty repressed a twitch at the term being used on her. She was no one’s little miss! “— this will be a two on two match!” he said.

Misty wet her lips and let her breath come slow and steady, like the breathing exercises they’d practised with Forrest.

She felt the water within stir slightly, but didn’t try reaching for it. Like water running through a bucket with holes, it always streamed out of her grasp when she tried consciously grabbing for it. So instead she just let it be.

Her focus wasn’t on it, but rather on her opponent.

“Go Hitmonlee!” he shouted.

“Go Starmie!” she said, sending out the best hope she had for this match. She’d known Karl to have a fondness for Fighting types and even be a bit of a fan of Kong in Saffron, making him a useful fellow to practise against. She’d made too many mistakes against Kong. It didn’t matter that she’d won in the end, she had to fix her weaknesses.

Karl’s eyes narrowed and his next exhale hissed through clenched teeth.

Misty felt that perhaps she might have made a mistake sending out Starmie in this match, but that wasn’t something she could change now anyhow.

“Sucker Punch!” snapped Karl, surprising her by his ordering the first move.

“Minimize!” she shouted.

Hitmonlee used its powerful legs to surge forward with its arm swinging up, instead of the stronger legs.

Starmie, thankfully, had shrunk and avoided the attack.

Misty sucked in a breath of air. She’d gotten lucky there. She knew it, and so did Karl with how he clicked his tongue. His Hitmonlee had gone for a headshot instead of a body shot, and with Starmie shrinking the faster move hadn’t landed, which was an immense relief.

Still, that didn’t mean she was out of the reef yet!

With Hitmonlee basically on top of her pokemon, it limited their options. “Rapid Spin with Hydro Pump!” she shouted, knowing she needed to make room.

Water blasted out of the small starfish pokemon, forcing Hitmonlee away while giving itself room.

“Brace with Focus Energy!” Karl ordered and Hitmonlee stamped its feet and held instead of being further knocked away. Misty gritted her teeth, knowing that any attacks it got off now would hit harder.

She needed to win this match, and quickly. “Hydro Pump… on the knees!” she ordered, making her pokemon go after what was supposed to be some of the strongest parts of a Hitmonlee. The slight pause made her pokemon twitch as it caught onto her plan.

Karl scoffed. “Dispatch them with a one-two!” he ordered and his pokemon lazily lifted a leg and blew away the oncoming water attacks with a pair of kicks.

The water detonated, causing a cascade of water droplets that showered the wooden battlefield.

Karl opened his mouth to taunt her only for it to be his turn to be surprised as instead of keeping room, Starmie shot through the water and slammed into Hitmonlee’s still-planted leg, buckling the fighting type and making it topple to the ground.

Misty shot him a smirk. “Hydro Pump from in close!” she said, punching forward. Her pokemon unleashed a pair of powerful blows from point blank and Hitmonlee was blown out of the field.

Karl surprised her by returning his pokemon and giving her a thoughtful nod. “Acceptable,” he said, giving her pokemon another look over. “Try this on for size before I make my ruling,” he said, tossing out another pokeball.

This time a Primeape took to the field and looked around angrily. It stomped and huffed and Misty had flashbacks to Ash’s Primeape. “Oh dear,” she said, as her Starmie’s gem glinted in the light and caught Primeape’s attention.

“Make room with Psybeam this time!” Misty said.

Karl clicked his tongue. “So much for that,” he said derisively.

For a second Misty had no idea what he meant as Starmie unleashed a powerful attack and started to knock Primeape back, only for Primeape to screech and begin emitting dark energy. It then charged up the Psybeam and hammered both fists into Starmie.

Starmie started to reel away,? only for Primeape to catch it and begin raining blows into it with a fury.

Misty stiffened only to slump, realising that Starmie wasn’t going to be able to recover from this. She raised her pokeball and returned her pokemon. “I withdraw my pokemon,” she said with a sigh.

Karl nodded. “A wise decision. You shouldn’t have fallen into the trap of arrogance that we would not have counters prepared for psychic moves,” he said.

Misty felt a retort on the tip of her tongue, but with great effort, she swallowed it down. She’d gotten herself in enough trouble running her mouth during some of her matches so far this year, and had… eventually learned to keep some things to herself or just the boys when they were alone.

Misty slid her hand about her pokebelt. Which pokemon to use now became the question.

Horsea? Tentacruel? Seaking? All of them would be slow on the hard field. She’d also recently battled with them prior to fighting Karl. They’d be exhausted.

Karl had already admitted that psychic-type moves wouldn’t work as well, so Psyduck… well, he wasn’t ever really a choice being so… well, he was just Psyduck. Or was that a trick? No, he seemed to be an honest man, if a bit… dated in his thinking.

Karl crossed his arms. “This match, as a two vs two, is different, I know, so don’t be afraid to forfeit, little girl,” he said condescendingly.

Misty felt a vein in her forehead twitch. She’d thought for a long time it was just a twitch until Ash pointed out… helpfully, that she actually did get a rather ugly-looking vein in her forehead when she was exceptionally annoyed.

Somehow Misty didn’t think it a coincidence that he of all people noticed such a detail. He had the most opportunities to observe it after all.

Misty reached for her pokeball, knowing that with her other options having handicaps she would need to fall back on her most reliable pokemon to date. “Go Wartortle!” she announced.

Karl inspected Wartortle and nodded at what he saw. “That’s a strong looking pokemon!” he said, impressed.

And so he should be! Misty thought to herself. Wartortle was one of the best around! His shell glinted with how well looked after it was, his tail was the fluffiest around and his little ears were also the longest and most receptive of any that she’d ever encountered.

And that was just his appearance!

“Withdraw into Rapid Spin!” Misty commanded, not letting herself fall into the trap of thinking Karl was going to sit on his backside all day.

Karl nodded. “Put it in the ground with Stomping Tantrum!”

Primeape, instead of just lifting its feet and stomping down to shake the building, leapt up high with both legs raised.

Misty hissed in surprise at this as Primeape came down on her pokemon, cratering the floor and roaring his triumph.

“Wartortle! No! Fight!” she called, feeling her water surge in panic.

Something within the waters of her soul, as she’d come to think of it, tugged in response to her call, and she pushed her energy towards the tug.

Primeape, gloating from atop her pokemon wobbled as suddenly light exploded from beneath its feet. Primeape toppled to the floor as Wartortle, or the light that was Wartortle, began to glow as it grew, and grew, and grew.

“Wartortle! You’re evolving!” she squealed in delight. The light of evolution faded away to reveal a much taller, much more powerful-looking pokemon. Misty felt a shiver of delight run through her. She’d done it! She’d dreamed of this day!

She! Misty from Cerulean! Had a Blastoise!

Blastoise shot her a grin and she matched it. As one they both turned their attention to Karl. “Blastoise? Hydro Pump!” she ordered. and this time when her pokemon unleashed it, it was like twin cannons had unleashed their payload.

The very air in the gym shifted with a pulse due to the power of the attack and Primeape, still caught off guard by this turn of events, was hurled back.

Primeape dug into the floor though. and glowered up at Blastoise.

Misty grinned, more than happy to keep fighting. Karl matched her and punched forward.

“Close with Acrobatics!” he said and Misty blinked as Primeape flipped and twirled and rolled towards Blastoise. instead of taking a straightforward path.

Misty knew she needed to change things up a bit. “Water Pulse!” she said, and instead of two powerful blasts, this time a pair of rings shot forward, lapping at each other. With their wider diameter, Primeape still took some damage despite the tricks it was pulling to get close.

Primeape still closed and Misty got ready for a brutal fight as Primeape cocked a fist back.

Then it stunned everyone by punching itself instead of Blastoise.

Everyone blinked, Primeape included, as it turned its attention to its own fist which was still raised after hitting itself in the head.

The fist bobbed back and forth and made a ‘come on’ gesture, which seemed to anger Primeape as he grabbed it with his other hand and begane wrestling with… himself?

Misty stared but Karl merely sighed. “I shall withdraw my pokemon and award you the victory, you have fought well,” he said as he returned his pokemon.

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Misty perked up. If the match was over that meant… she sprinted forward and hurled herself at her newly evolved pokemon. “You did amazing, Blastoise!” she said as she nuzzled his shell. Oh, wait until her sisters learned about this! They were going to be sick with envy!

Karl approached and coughed. “Young girl,” he said.

Misty shot him an annoyed look for calling her that, as well as interrupting her water pokemon appreciation moment.

Karl, sensibly took a small, bracing step back. “That is to say! Misty from Cerulean! I, Karl of the Saffron Gym!” he announced loudly. “Award you the Dedication Medal! I can see that you have earned it with this demonstration!” he said, handing her a token.

“Eh? What’s this for?” she said.

Karl snorted. “Fighting and winning against a Battle Club leader is no mean feat dear girl! While we don’t have the same… prestige as gyms, we are the whetstone many use to grow stronger, or to simply take part in fighting with their pokemon,” he said with a slightly bloodthirsty look.

He tilted his head. “I suppose as a Gym Leader’s child, you wouldn’t have ever considered trying for our medallions? Most are too caught up on gym badges.” Karl said, kicking the ground in annoyance.

Misty stared at the Dedication Medal.

She’d never heard of this before… she wasn’t that out of the loop, was she? Karl shifted slightly, twinging something in Misty’s mind. She lowered the medallion.

“You only started this recently… didn’t you?” she said and Karl twitched.

He sighed and nodded. “The Indigo Battleclub chapter decided to trial it with this year’s circuit and it’s been pretty popular!” he said, perking up. “We’re certainly getting more regular takers for local challenges and the matches we get to watch are much higher tier!” he said eagerly.

Misty snorted but nodded, feeling well and truly vindicated. So, she’d been right! This was only a recent event.

It was kind of cheap how they were copying the gyms’ style of awarding ‘medallions’, but… it wasn’t a terrible idea for what was a more relaxed setting.

Misty weighed up the medallion. She hadn’t been expecting this and it was… nice, she decided. “Thanks,” she said, her eyes drifting back to Blastoise, who was the real prize today. She gazed happily at her pokemon.

Nothing could— “Misty! Get off the field! I want my turn at beating Karl! Hurry up! What did he give you? I want that!” said Ash, cutting through her moment.

Misty shot him a look full of hate. Ash ignored her while Forrest leaned out of the way to give Misty clear access to hurl a pokeball into Ash’s stupid face.

When it bounced off and returned to her grasp she smirked, only for Ash to bounce back and glower at her. She sighed and gave Karl a small look, with him only smiling back. “I won’t go easy on him,” he said with a whisper.

Misty giggled and skipped up to sit next to Forrest. Ash made his own way down, mind obviously turned to his upcoming fight. She’d come out pretty well, now it was time to watch Ash then probably Forrest fight. Both of them needed to work on their skills more than she did after their showing against Kong.

When she sat next to Forrest he congratulated her on the win and she preened. “Thank you! It was much tougher than I thought it would be! Watch out for his counter psychic techniques,” she said.

Forrest waved his hand. “It's alright. Metang’s got this,” he said with a smirk.

Misty sighed. He’d said the same against Kong. Sure it had been Beldum back then… but the point still stood.

Misty shook her head. She supposed it was true. Boys did take longer to grow up than girls.

“Five bottles of wine on the wall, five bottles of wine! Take one down, drink it all down! Four bottles of wine on the wall!” Lola sang to herself as she lay on the back of her Lapras.

Lapras shot her a worried look as Lola took a long, slow pull from her canteen.

“Don’t mind me, buddy,” she said. “I’m just passing the time. You know that!”

He shot her a worried look, and Lola patted his shell. So what if it took her ages to finish this song and she usually gave up around the tenth bottle down! Today she was going to do it!

“Three bottles of… wait, sorry! Four bottles of wine on the wall!” she sang.

Lapras turned away and began stroking harder, apparently encouraged by her singing. Just for that, Lola sang louder.

When she reached the last bottle on the wall she clutched her canteen, feeling oddly sad that she’d done it. She was about to finish the song that lasted forever. She almost wanted to not bring down that last metaphorical bottle to drink.

She drummed her fingers and despite the feeling of fear, whispered the last few verses. “One… bottle of wine on the wall… one bottle of wine… take it down, drink it all down… no more bottles of wine on the wall,” she said.

She shed a tear for that empty dreamland of alcohol, that was now bereft of what made it wonderful and fun to be in. She always liked to start by thinking about each bottle of wine. Would it have been a Pinot Noir, a Syrah, a Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, or a Shiraz? Or would it be something else like a Moscato?

Hmmmm, so many different flavours of wine to—

A bark from her Lapras made her blink and sit up. “Lapras? What’s…” she trailed off as she spotted what had alerted Lapras.

There on the horizon… was a landmass.

Lola sat up and checked her compass. It was still facing the right direction. She looked up at the sun, blinking away the pain before looking at her shadow. Right, that wasn’t a trick of the mind… like that one time.

Nope! That was the sun alright!

She licked her lips. “F-full speed ahead!” she said, feeling the same surge of excitement and fear. Was this it? Was her trip over? Had she done what she’d set out to achieve?

Lapras, unaware of her mental ramblings, powered towards the landmass. Excitement built as the landmass grew closer and closer, only to fade as it formed up into an island and not a giant continent of an entire region.

Lola slumped only to perk back up. Wait! Where there was one island there were usually more! Maybe she’d found the fabled Alolan islands! Oh that’d be wonderful! Nothing but surf and turf for some rest and relaxation!

And if there were any naughty boys and girls about? Well she’d take care of them!

The island grew larger and larger until Lola found herself staring at a beach with a wharf leading up to what could only be a pokemon centre. She landed and returned her pokemon only to tumble to the side as her inner ear insisted she was still rolling and moving with the ocean.

She clapped a hand hard to one ear, knocking it out of sync, before righting herself with a smile.

Then it was off and up to the pokemon centre to make contact!

The doors of the centre swished open, and Lola inhaled the all too familiar scent of citrus chemicals used to mask a medical centre. Behind the desk, what could only be a Nurse Joy waved in greeting.

“Hello! Welcome to Island A of the A-B-C islands,” chimed the nurse, only to blink. “Uhmmm, do you need help?” she said, leaning to the side and inspecting Lola’s ear.

Lola marched up with her smile firmly in place. “Now why would you say that?” she said and something in her tone or posture must have scared the nurse as the woman flinched.

“Uhmmm, you’re bleeding from your ear?” suggested the nurse.

Lola dabbed her fingers against her ear. “Oh, whoopsie! Teehee!” she said, bonking herself softly on the head. “Say, where are we, what region?”

The nurse blinked and reached for a button. Lola’s hand caught her before she could press it. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Nurse Joy shivered fearfully. “You need medical attention, I’m calling the Chansey in. You have a head wound and don’t know what region this is, that’s signs of deeper issues.”

Lola released the nurse and giggled to herself. “Oh! No, this is just an old trick I learned to get my balance back quicker, and I’m not from around here! You see, I’m an adventurer from Kanto!” she announced proudly.

“O-oh,” said Nurse Joy who was now pressing the button quickly.

A trio of Chansey appeared, each and every one of them in fighting poses. They didn’t relax when they locked eyes on Lola, and Lola smiled as they approached carefully.

Ah, this brought back memories.

For a heartbeat she considered breaking out of their ‘care’, but then that would slow down her getting to talk to someone official. And she was tired. The Chansey chattered at her soothingly, their Disarming Voice helping to calm her down and settle her frayed nerves.

Lola let herself be lulled to sleep. She could always break out later if she needed to.

For now, a nap sounded wonderful.

She fell asleep with a smile on her lips and dreamed about how amazed her family would be when she told them of what she’d done.

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