[header]Esther
Thursday, June 9 – East Lake Axewell, Motostoke, Galar Region
[/header]
On paper, catching Pokémon sounded easy; walk through some tall grass, reedy shores, anywhere really, until you stumbled upon a wild Pokémon and—assuming it didn’t horribly mutilate you, kill you, or both—you lobbed a Pokéball at it. Easy enough, right? Esther found the iconic formula wasn’t as simple as it was made out to be. For example, what happened when the Pokémon in question wouldn’t stay still? The obvious question was to battle it but...what if you couldn’t? Frustration ensued.
The little, gray-furred miscreant responsible for Esther’s predicament perched itself on an overhanging branch. The thought of simply setting her battle-hungry drake on the tree-rat was enticing, the sadistic urge just let the dragon rip the wild Pokémon to bits had Esther’s fingers pressed to the Pokéball at her waist; however, one that would be incredibly cruel and two the new and the thief had pilfered her rather pricy swimsuit as a hostage. Her reservations kept her touch light. If she released Pyrrha then her swimsuit would be a sure casualty of the resulting rampage. Still...she was running out of options, and the swimsuit-thief was beginning to tear at the rhinestones embedded into the fabrics.
It snickered, taunting her, daring her to toss another one of her Pokéballs—she’d already lost one when it had deftly ducked behind the tree and then slapped her Pokéball into the nearby lake. Living so close to a human settlement, the creature had clearly learned a thing or two about avoiding capture. Esther had watched bug-eyed and fuming as $200 sunk into the lake’s depths. Animal cruelty suddenly sounded a lot more palatable.
Since the swimsuit was done for either way then... “Pyrrha, Pyrrichios!”
The snap, crack and pop of scales filled the air, violent at first then settling into a subdued rattle. It was a small prelude as the Jangmo-o shook her body into motion. Then her eyes swept her surroundings, without a word she locked onto the only Pokémon in sight. The sound of voiceless challenge echoed across the meadow, a metallic percussion, a whip-clamor of scales, a cymbal of aggression as Pyrrha’s tail snapped from side-to-side, colliding with the primary scales on her torso.
Commands were unnecessary, wasted breath on Esther’s part, but the girl still reveled in feeling like she was in control. “Sick em!”
Pyrrha shot out like a canon-ball, two feet of rage covered in metallic scales. The startled...uhh, what even was this Pokémon? Esther had no time to check as a sweep of Dragon Tail shattered the Pokémon’s resting place. When the grey rat fell to the ground, dazed, Esther activated the pokedex feature of her poketch—
Now it was Minccino’s turn to look wide-eyed and aghast; Esther nodded, satisfied the Minccino had been rightly stricken with the fear of Arceus. Now that she looked closer, the chinchilla Pokémon was cute as a button and seemed as good an addition to her team as any other.
Another racket from Pyrrha signaled her charge and the Minccino scattered into the tall grass, eager to avoid another Dragon Tail. As Pyrrha gave pursuit Esther returned her with a red snap of energy. Minccino had dropped her swimsuit in its panicked escape and rather than let the drake massacre the poor thing, Esther had decided to catch it. After retrieving her swimsuit, she turned to the tall grass; she could see the rustle of Minccino’s flight through the meadow.
Esther took aim, raising a thumb to track Minccino’s movements through the grass. One...two...toss and...she missed... It was to be expected really, it was difficult enough to hit a moving target, much less to hit one moving in grass taller than itself. To her credit she hadn’t missed by that much and she’d still managed to hit something. She had seen as the Pokéball bounced into the air, capturing something with a flash of light.
There as a pregnant silence for a moment, then another, then a thir—cCCRRAAACK! The silence was shattered—and by the sound of that crack, so too was her Pokéball; her heart bled at the loss of another $200, but those were the least of Esther’s concerned. A furious Howl, dark and ominous grated on the trainer’s ears, forcing her to into a squat as she covered her ears. That proved to be a stroke of fortune as; no sooner than she’d ducked, a fusillade of embers scorched the air where her head would’ve been.
Esther startled, looking into the tall grass. The Ember had clipped the grassy blade tips, setting them to a smolder that slowly revealed a sleek, dark form gilded with bone-white, bone-like ridges. Its gaze was heavy with malice, fangs dripping cinders from its earlier attack. Before Esther could even think to move, the Pokémon opened its maw once more, spewing a toxic cloud of gas that swept towards the Oblivian. The danger of this gas was not lost on Esther, if its sickly noxious color hadn’t tipped her off, then the way grass wilted and died as the Smog passed over it surely did.
The poisonous cloud was upon her in seconds. Instinctively, Esther cowered, shielding her face with her arms. She breath caught in her throat, half fright and half an attempt to not breathe in the fumes. Her skin prickled and her stomach churned in anticipation of nausea that never came.
There was no burning sensation of toxins seeping into her skin; no desperate wheeze—a fight for every fresh breath; no foul, polluting stench of smog and decay; instead, there was only sound—the whip-clamor of scales and cymbal crash of aggression. Daring to peek through the gap in her fingers, Esther found herself in an island of green; it wasn’t just that only the plant life in the vicinity had survived the toxic attack, it was also the Protect-ive shimmering of green that was beginning to fade around her.