RMWJ: Chapter 3

Scott strummed on his guitar. Ree laid back, wiggling her foot in time. He was trying to get a song written or something, she wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. He was still in the planning stage, so he was liable to change his mind at any moment. Finally, he struck a familiar tune, and began, "You are my sunshine..."

"Scottie," Ree groaned, burying her face in the nearest pillow.

"My only sunshine," he continued, absolutely unperturbed.

"You're being embarrassing," she grumbled, rolling away so that her back was to him.

"You make me hap-py, when skies are graaaaaay," he sang happily, and then set his guitar down so he could slide onto the couch. He wrapped his arms around her stomach, messing with the hem of her shirt. "What, you don't like my singing all of a sudden?"

"Your singing is awesome. But you're too... sweet. You'll give me cavities and have me die of shame!" Ree declared, curling further into the couch. He only snuggled in deeper behind her. "There isn't enough room for both of us. Off my couch."

"Come on, you're warm. You didn't mind being this close last night," he murmured, sighing against her hair. "Your ponytail is itching my nose."

"Your nose itches, my hair can't."

"No, it's itching it."

"It's making it itch!"

"...Maybe." He pulled her flush against his chest and moved so that he was using her hair as a pillow. "I like you."

"I like you too. Now get the fuck off my couch."

-.-.-

Chapter Three: Ree Majors' Wonderful Journey Of Gold

-.-.-

"Oh fucking hell run!"

Lala was worse than Whippy when it came to teasing stronger opponents. She was also faster, though. By the time he realized anything was wrong, she was bouncing past him, laughing hysterically, with an unfezant or pansear or red-faced trainer on her heels. And they always loyally came back to Ree.

It was easier to run.

They had been together for a full day. Whippy was handier with his vine whip, and even beat a tranquill. Granted, through dumb luck, but still. It went straight to his head. Lala was a pretty strong battler already; she was fast, ruthless, and creative. She took Ree's orders during battles as suggestions, but it was better than the snivy, at any rate.

More amazingly, Lala's fluff had almost grown completely back in. It hadn't been down to the skin or anything, but now you could only see a soft dent where she had been partially shorn. The pokédex didn't help at all on that front, but she figured since she was a grass type, it meant she grew fast. Or something. Ree was just glad that her poor whimsicott wouldn't have to suffer any longer than she had to.

Once Ree remembered her lighter, lunch consisted of a disaster. She wasn't a chef, but she could navigate a kitchen fair enough. Cooking a dead patrat over an open flame? That was not a kitchen. She had been smart enough to skin it, although it made her throw up and Whippy had to finish it for her, but that was about the extent of her cooking freshly-dead-things knowledge.

Lala wouldn't touch it when she was done, and Whippy refused to let Ree eat it. It was only after the corpse was charred black and crispy that he managed to convey that it was a good idea to remove the internal organs. Most of them weren't edible or healthy.

Ree buried the remains of the poor patrat, and they had soup instead.

"At least this is easier," she remarked. Maya had been right; while it did take a bit of training and explaining, grass pokémon were adept at finding edible plants. Not having enough foresight to get anything more than some utensils, they were also lucky to find a tin can along the path. She knew enough how to sterilize it, but she wasn't all that squeamish, anyway. It was better than nothing.

Lala came back with tiny handfuls of some sort of leaf, and Whippy brought back bright red berries. Ree saved those for desert; berry soup didn't sound particularly appetizing. She had no idea what sort of flavors they were creating, and ended up dumping half a package of ramen into the can, along with a baseline for seasonings.

Then they figured out that while they had successfully made a meal, they only had a hot tin can as far as serving went.

Ree sighed and flopped onto her back. "Damn it. Remind me to get some sort of set of camping dishes in the next town."

-.-.-

Ree ran for it, Whippy at her heels and Lala bounding ahead. The trainer behind them shouted after them, his klang screeching. She had no idea whether or not they were actually being chased, but she wasn't about to take her chances.

Lungs and throat burning, the chase was abruptly cut off as she tripped. Tumbling into the undergrowth with more than enough swearing, Ree finally hit a tree. Rubbing her thigh where it had been scraped with a branch, she turned and glared back at Lala, who giggled. "I'm gonna miscarry yet," the trainer groaned, folding her hands over her belly. She had been in basketball and had been fairly active (when she wasn't addicted to video games for days on end), so she figured she could get away with some amount of physical exertion. But tripping and tumbling and falling on her face so often couldn't be a good thing.

Whippy caught up, hissing for breath, and collapsed at Lala's feet. He was bleeding from a scrape on his cheek, though he didn't seem to notice. Ree made a sympathetic sound and gestured him over, digging out her bandages and antiseptic.

"Lala, I know it's how we met, but you can't trip me. And it's not an accident—I'm not stupid. This is the second time today." The whimsicott looked innocent and hopped over. Ree held Whippy still between her legs as she wiped at the scrape with the medicine. He thrashed, and probably could've won if he'd really been trying, but knew better. At least one of them did. "Don't be like that. You can't be tripping me."

"Whim?" she asked, clearly annoyed.

"I can't be falling. Fighting through the forest is bad enough, but I can't have you making it worse." Ree looked up at her, just then realizing she had another explanation to do. "Ugh, fuck. Well, Lala, I'm pregnant."

She just stared at her.

"You know, have an egg?" Ree said wearily.

Lala's expression didn't change.

Whippy huffed and cried, "Snivy sni!" Lala still didn't react, though she frowned down at him. It was only then that Ree recognized her expression. It was too obvious she simply didn't care, but understood perfectly. Whippy caught on as well, and hissed at her.

"Scott," she replied dismissively, waving an arm at him.

"Snivy!"

"Whimsi," Lala said with a mean little laugh. "Si-si-si."

"You two, cut it out. No fighting, you're teammates. We're supposed to love and trust each other, right? And then save the world with the power of friendship." Ree paused in putting away the bandages as he slithered out of her grasp. "Well, we can skip that part. I don't give a damn. But you two are not going to fight this entire journey. You only have to stand each other for eight and a half more months."

"Snivy, vee-vee?" Whippy asked, looking back at her.

Ree zipped up her backpack. Contemplating. Lala wasn't a bad pokémon, definitely not. Just a little mischievous. Whippy wasn't bad, either, just a little unruly. She was pretty sure they'd learn to get along in time, or perhaps with another teammate to act as a buffer, but... The time limit. After nine months, she'd have her eight badges, and a small thing in addition to a pokémon team.

Then what?

She had no idea what she was going to do. She was too young to be a mother, really, and she knew she wouldn't be a very good one. Adoption was probably the easiest route. But how did that work? Did they just pick someone at the hospital? Did she have to track someone down on her own? Was there payment involved, did they take the baby right away, were they there in the delivery room? Did she name it or did they? Was that negotiable? Was any of it?

Ree looked over at where her grass pokémon were fighting again. No, not fighting, but arguing. Bickering, really. She'd have eight badges and a pokémon team. They were almost as bad as small children. Scott still had his team, even though he'd quit, and Maya was still out traveling... They already had Aubie as a house pet, and she really couldn't see either of them as a pet, anyway. What would happen to them? She hadn't planned on having the rest of her life spent with a team she got for a nine-month goal.

She sighed and got back up to her feet. There went her mood. "...Well, come on, guys. Back to training and heading towards the next city." She consulted her pokédex's map. "Striaton City."

"Sni!" Whippy cried, disappearing into the trees once more. Lala, she found, preferred to stay on the ground, even if she hopped and floated everywhere. The main problem was that branches, sticks, leaves, dirt, everything ever got into her fluff. It often hampered her movement in the more densely forested areas, so they usually stuck to the path, except then there were far more trainers for the two to bother and piss off.

Still, Ree felt sorry for her whimsicott as she got stuck on a thorny bush she tried to leap over. "Come on." She plucked her out, picking out the twigs and thorns, and carried her back to the path. Lala took the attention stoically, perhaps a little unsure. She tossed her back into the dirt path, marveling at how easily she floated down to the ground. She wasn't super light, and in fact was heavier than Whippy, but her fluff acted as a sail or kite or something. Or maybe a parachute.

"Whimsi," Lala replied gratefully, and then bounded off to bark at a herdier. Really, she barked at it, doing an astounding job at mimicking it. The canine, shocked, took a couple moments to start barking back. But soon, they got into a howling match, before Whippy came running up and tackled the herdier.

"Uh, yeah, I challenge you," Ree said flatly. The other trainer gave her a dirty look. She shrugged. She was only following her pokémon.

He released a sandile to even the odds, though in her defense, Lala had only been antagonizing, not attacking. And really, a ground type against two grass pokémon? The odds still weren't terribly even. Lala disposed of it quickly, using mega drain until it fainted, and then tossed out a couple leech seeds at the herdier.

Whippy, not expecting the interference, was nearly hit by one and jumped back. He hissed at her, sharp teeth bared and tail quivering. She snorted and ignored him, trying to move in to attack, but he batted her back with the broad side of his leafy tail. Affronted, Lala smacked him.

"Guys, stop fighting each other!" Ree cut in savagely, just as the herdier threw itself at Whippy and sank its jaws into his shoulders. He squealed and flailed, scratching and kicking, but couldn't get the leverage necessary to get free. He was shook like a rag doll and spat out. He laid there, dizzy and bloody. Ree stamped her foot with a growl. "I told you! Would either of you listen to me for once?"

"Glad to see I'm fighting some trained pokémon," the other trainer deadpanned, unimpressed by the exchange. Ree spared him a withering glare. "Okay, quick now! Before the snivy gets back up, Willar! Take out the whimsicott with a bite!"

It charged at Lala with a snarl. She danced out of the way with a giggle, tripping it as she did so. It rolled back to its feet, faster than she had anticipated, probably because this wasn't another tiny little lillipup she was fighting. This was an evolved pokémon, and a trained one at that; she was too inexperienced with legitimately experienced pokémon. Its jaws clamped down on her.

Well, they clamped down on her fluff. She tore it away and shook her hips, sprinkling a fine, golden powder over the herdier. It trembled and shook its head, but its movements seemed sluggish. "Okay, good!" Ree called encouragingly. As Whippy staggered back to his feet, shaking his head, the herdier spat out the mouthful of wet fluff. "Use another mega drain now!"

Lala nodded and didn't follow her humble suggestion. She charged at it—just as Whippy went in for a tackle, too. The herdier leapt out of the way just in time for them to collide with each other. That set them to bickering and spitting at each other once more, allowing the herdier time to regain its footing and aim for a single target. It jumped at them both, obviously not caring which it caught, and started clawing and tearing at them.

"Good job! Keep wearing them down! The snivy's almost down!" the other trainer said, pumping his fist in the air. Ree glared at him. Her snivy was certainly not almost down.

And then Whippy fainted.

She recalled him, embarrassed and annoyed, but she wasn't worried. The herdier was tiring, and the leech seed was taking its toll. Lala, if anything, seemed to be playing with it. She used small absorbs here and there, easily running circles around the paralyzed canine. It fainted a tortuous (and even more embarrassing, since Ree was shouting orders and Lala smoothly ignored them) time later.

"You must be new," the male trainer said, reluctantly handing over a fistful of cash.

"Yeah, but I still handed your ass to you," she spat defensively. She called Lala back and picked her up, smoothing out the patches of missing fluff.

"No, I just meant... Your pokémon don't seem to behave very well."

"...No, they don't."

"No badges, huh?" Ree shook her head. The male trainer offered her a smile. "Well, pokémon usually listen a bit better after you get a couple. Striaton's not far from here, are you going to challenge the leaders for one?"

"Yeah, that's the plan." Ree shifted Lala and shoved the money in her pocket, deciding it was better to be friendly when she wasn't holding the loser's earnings in her hand. "...Any tips?"

"Are those your only pokémon?"

"Yeah."

He laughed. "Get another pokémon." She frowned, and he caught it and elaborated, "The gym leaders there are different; they use whatever they had an advantage against. They'll traditionally use the advantage against your starter, so varied teams are okay. And you'll be okay with the first pokémon. They all have a lillipup, too."

"Ugh, just fuckin' great," Ree moaned, glaring up at the sky. She hadn't been keen on foreknowledge on her previous trainer journeys, and of course had never gotten as far as a gym. The only type she knew of was Elesa's. "...Any other tips for the poor, unprepared newbie?" she asked, pushing out her bottom lip. The effect was a little lost since she towered over the teenage boy, but at least she could pretend to be cute for information.

"Um... Lenora's really tough. You either have to get a fighter or just try to muscle past her. You can usually beat the first gym on raw power alone, though, so maybe it won't be too bad for you. They only have two pokémon, at least, so you're not outnumbered."

"Lenora's the second, right?"

"Yeah. I only have those two badges, so I can't help you past that. But yeah, she's super tough. Train a lot for her." Ree nodded, hoping she'd remember the tips. Not that they were supremely helpful, but they were something. Lala wiggled in her arms, getting bored of the mundane conversation, and she let her go. The whimsicott bounced off. As she turned to go, the other trainer caught her arm. "Oh! Don't forget—ressentiment means hatred and jealousy."

"Okay—what?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Just remember that, okay?"

"Uh, whatever. Okay." She shrugged him off, and went chasing after Lala. Whippy was unconscious, and he'd probably wake up in an hour or two without a center (or water to dunk him in), so she'd rather keep an eye on her only protector for awhile. It took a little searching, but she soon found Lala taunting a liepard and its two purrloin kittens. The feline didn't seem at all interested in the cotton ball in front of it, but reigning in two very curious and excited kittens was another matter entirely.

"Si-si-si."

"No." Ree scooped her up and backed away from the liepard. It seemed grateful. "Focus on trainers, okay? They give us money and information. Or, focus on single wild pokémon, and not birds or bugs or fire things. Do you even know you have a weakness?"

She puffed up her chest and exclaimed. "Whimsi! Scott!"

"Of course you don't."

They didn't make it to Striaton until the evening of the next day. The only reason Ree didn't quit at sundown was because her icon on the map was already practically in the city, according to it. By then, Lala and Whippy had fainted several times each, they had enough money for a meager restocking of their supplies, and they were all thoroughly exhausted. Ree left her two pokémon with the nurse on duty and immediately went to the mess hall. They only had a couple minutes until it closed, and she wasn't about to miss dinner.

She came back out to pick them up with a sandwich she was munching on. They saw the food and immediately demanded their own share. Ree picked them up, one under each arm, and dragged them back into the mess hall. "That sandwich had been mine, you little tepig. I had only been munching while I waited for you two slow asses."

Ree made her biggest training mistake yet: allowing two hungry pokémon into a buffet area.

They were kicked out rather quickly. Ree had managed to snag another sandwich and an apple, at least. Whippy was covered in chocolate, and Lala had gotten some sort of gravy or sauce in her fluff. It was only after they retreated shamefully into their room that Lala pulled out several food items she hid in her fluff as well.

They ate on the bed and she introduced them both to the wonders of television. They were mostly amused by cartoons, so she left it on one of those channels as she finished her second sandwich. The apple would either be a late night snack or breakfast. She wasn't sure if they'd be let back in to the mess hall by then. "I think this show is called... Fuck, I can't remember. I haven't watched cartoons like this in forever."

"Sni!" Whippy said with a full mouth. Lala had had enough grace to share some of her contraband with him, and he didn't have enough grace to save anything relatively sweet for either of them. The sweet tooth was a definite feature, Ree noted. She hadn't had enough time to really see what sort of things Lala had eaten, though, except maybe not meat.

"Whim?" Lala asked, catching her trainer's eye.

"Do you eat meat? We haven't managed to cook any out in the wilderness, and I'm not sure if you ate any tonight or not," Ree asked bluntly.

Lala shook her head and stuck out her tongue. "Scott, whimsi-cott!"

"Okay... That's a no then." Ree wiped the crumbs off the bedding as best she could, and then made a chair out of pillows. There was plenty of grass and berries and who knew what else out in the forests, and Lala had been wild long enough to learn how to eat on her own, naturally. But it meant she probably wouldn't be a lot of use hunting or killing things, except maybe to chase things. She certainly liked chasing things.

Ree closed her eyes, thinking hard. Two pokémon, and that kid had recommended she get another. She didn't want to specialize like Maya. She heard far too many horror stories about the troubles of having a mono-type team. Lala had mostly been an accident, in that vein, but she couldn't afford to do that again. She had to get something that wasn't a grass pokémon. Lillipup were common, as were purrloin and pidove. Their evolutions were seen occasionally, although they were far stronger. They had also started to see more exotic pokémon in the area around the city, like timburr and garbador, as well as the selection in the trainers. They weren't coming across newbies with a lillipup or patrat anymore. Well, at least not all of the time.

Training wasn't any more difficult than she expected. More disgusting, sure, but not all that hard. She already had two pokémon who won almost every battle, and she was in the same town as the first gym. She hadn't even been out a week yet. Even if it took a couple days of some hardcore training, this was definite progress.

Third pokémon, first badge, supplies needed... She felt so responsible, suddenly having actual issues of her own to work out and worry over. Just to drive the point home to herself, Ree made herself a list. "Let's see... Um. Dishes! Right. Guys, what else do we need?"

"Snivy!"

"Scott!"

"...Right," she said, turning back to her scrap of paper. "Dishes, and, um... More noodles, I guess. Maybe a cookbook, or no—a trainer's cookbook. I need to learn how to butcher meat..." The bile rose in her throat but she swallowed it back down. "Oh god. I can't believe I actually just said that. ...A trainer's handbook would be nice, though. I think they'd have something about cooking in there. And rules. The more I know about them, the more loopholes I can find."

Dishes, trainer's handbook or cookbook, and food. Ree grinned at her list, proud of it. So responsible, doing her own shopping and everything.

She settled in for the evening soon after that. Changed into her makeshift pajamas, she adjusted her pillow-chair into something more comfortable, and got out one of her books while the two continued watching silly cartoons. It looked like it was something about weird ponyta, only they had hair instead of fire for manes. Some even had wings and horns. "Just so long as it doesn't rot your brains," she murmured, flipping her book open. It was a cheap romance novel, but it was one of her (many) guilty pleasures. And hey, no one was around to police her and give her looks for reading such things in public.

Not a chapter later, she had a snivy in her lap and a whimsicott up against her side, demanding to be read to. It had just been getting to the good part—coincidentally, the part she was not going to read to them—and with annoyance, she shoved her list into the book as a marker. She dug another book out of her backpack.

"Sni?" Whippy pouted, gesturing between the two books.

"That one's not for little pokémon. This one..." It was No More Dead Skarmory. Probably not the best book either; it was sad. And dead pokémon were the last thing she wanted to think about, even if she loved the story itself. "Um. It's a happy little story about these two Skarmory. They're friends! Sophia and Sari, and they live long, healthy, happy lives." Blatant lies. But neither of them knew any better.

-.-.-

"Heh, I'll never know why the trainers say gyms are hard," Ree scoffed and puffed out her chest. She strutted past a waitress, Whippy and Lala at her heels. There had been a handful of gym trainers, not necessarily super difficult on their own, but Ree had figured out the trick to beating the gym; head back to the center in between battles.

She got dirty looks for it, but she knew the other challenger that day had been doing it too, so it was perfectly legal. And while pokémon centers could only heal so much, it was more than enough to keep her team up and running, raring to go.

Three teenaged boys were the leaders, but Ree wasn't worried. She had foreknowledge. "Alright, which one of you am I beating into the ground today?" she asked flippantly, arms akimbo. The three exchanged glances, then looked down at Whippy, standing next to her foot.

"The snivy is your starter, right?" the green-haired one asked.

"Yeah."

"Alright! Then you're fightin' me!" the redheaded one cheered, leaping to his fight. The two behind him sighed, though at his exuberance or the fact that they didn't get to battle, she didn't know. "The name's Chili, and I'm the fire type master of this gym."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Just send out your Pokémon." A lillipup and a fire pokémon. The first would be a piece of cake, which would probably leave her two very healthy pokémon. Even with a disadvantage, she would have numbers on her side. Ree wasn't worried.

Chili sent out a Lillipup, just like that trainer had said. Ree's spirits rose even higher and she lazily gestured Whippy into the rather small area they'd battle in. She was a bit surprised they'd be battling in the restaurant, but hey, it was their building. They could wreck it however they wanted. "I'll let the lady go first," Chili said with a flourish.

Chivalry wasn't dead, but it was still annoying at times. With a twitch, and having given up on giving him actual orders, she commanded, "Get 'im, Whippy." Faster than the canine could react, he threw himself at it, biting and slashing with claws and tail alike. The lillipup had claws and teeth as well, of course, and at the gym leader's order, fought back with equal ferocity.

The two broke apart, nursing minor wounds, and circled each other warily. "Work up!" Chili declared. The lillipup hopped in place, prancing from paw to paw, working itself into an interesting state. Panting, hackles raised, pupils huge, Ree wouldn't have been surprised if it started foaming at the mouth, too.

The redheaded boy seemed a little confused that Ree wasn't giving orders. She would let him think it was some sort of strategy; she wasn't going to let any of them know her pokémon didn't like to listen to her in battle. Even if they won the battle, that was just embarrassing.

Whippy launched two vines out of the leaves on his shoulders, catching the lillipup by surprise. He flung it across the small arena, racing after it and leaping on it the second it touched the ground. It fought back again, though its bites were significantly more powerful this time around. By the time her snivy noticed, he had taken a couple rather nasty ones. He ended up flinging it away with his vine whip and took a moment as it skidded away from him, chest heaving, bleeding from several bite wounds.

Ree still wasn't worried. And thankfully for her ego, Whippy proved to be at least able to learn. Instead of attacking it directly again, he ran away whenever it came close, whipping it with his vines whenever he could. It bit his vines several times, but it could only bite one at a time; no matter what, he still managed to hurt it.

"Snivy-snivy, vee-vee? Snivy!" he said, turning to give Ree a sharp, haughty grin over his shoulder.

"Just concentrate on the battle," she said, rolling her eyes.

As if to prove his superiority, he reached across the small arena once more and tossed the lillipup into the air. It chewed viciously on his vines, but it couldn't keep hold of them, and was thrown back to the ground. It fainted with one last whine.

"Cocky little snake, isn't he," Chili said with a strained smile, returning his canine. He tossed another pokeball back and forth in his hands as Whippy strutted in front of Ree, all arrogance and triumph. "Well, let's see how you two handle this!"

He released a small, red simian that she immediately recognized as a pansear. It trotted about in a little circle, playing with the tuft of fur on its head, taking in the situation. It was about the same size as Whippy, and didn't have any flaming parts on its body; that wasn't quite as bad as she had been expecting. Which was weird, because she had seen pansear before. She was just imagining something worse for a gym leader's pokémon. She had sort of been demonizing her opponents, overestimating what they'd turn out to be.

"Incinerate!"

Of course, it was still a fire pokémon, and it still had the advantage. Whippy fainted with a low moan, still clutching at the burnt and charred scales on his belly as he fell. With a sigh, Ree returned him. It wasn't as if that was her fault. He didn't listen to her anyway, so it didn't matter if she was lost in thought and wasting valuable time. "Fine. Come on out, Lala." One to one. Lala was the bigger pokémon, even without her fluff, and probably faster. But again, that disadvantage... "Lala, be careful! It's a fire pokémon, and I know you don't care, but this is an important battle, okay!"

"Whi," she said with a wide yawn.

"Look here, you little shit—"

"Incinerate!" The attack command cut across the beginnings of a bickering, probably mercifully. Lala easily danced out of the way, though she seemed surprised at the scorch mark it left on the arena floor. She yawned again, smaller this time, and seemed to think. "...Okay, while it's off guard! Work up!"

"Not that move again," Ree groaned. "Lala, do something! Start off with some of that paralysis powder or something! Slow it down so it's easier to dodge—you can't fight fire with fluff!"

Lala turned around and snarled at her. Clearly she took it only as a challenge. As the pansear pumped itself up, swinging its scrawny arms, she jumped to her feet and dashed around the arena. Both it and Chili were surprised at her speed, especially since she was trying, but it wasn't soon before the pansear was trying to follow her with bursts of flames. She was quick enough to dodge or leap over whenever it tried to lead her, but it couldn't keep up otherwise. Ree and one of the other color-coded gym leaders ducked behind a table for cover as the attacks got a little crazy.

"You're not going to advise it?" the blue-haired boy asked seriously.

"...Nah, she's got this," Ree said in embarrassment, ducking around the table to avoid his judgy side-eye. Lala threw a trio of seeds at the pansear, a leech seed. She realized that her whimsicott did have some strategy in her head; she purposefully threw her three leech seeds dead-on. The middle one would hit if there was no dodge, and one on either side would take care of slow, but basic dodges.

The pansear wasn't that slow, though. It threw itself to the side, missing all three, and started panting again with another work up. Its fur puffed up further, and Ree could see little waves of heat coming off of it. It still couldn't keep up with her speed, but all it took was one shot. One trip, one lucky attack, one misstep... Ree was beginning to get a little nervous.

"Lala, please! Use a stun spore on it! Slow it down some more!" Speed wasn't a replacement for accuracy, but it definitely wouldn't hurt to put a bigger gap in between their speeds.

"Scott!" Lala said with a roll of her eyes. She skidded to a stop and shook out her fluff, coating a large part of her corner with a fine, golden powder. She then rolled in it.

"Lala!" Ree shrieked, unable to comprehend why her fluffy grass thing had just done that. It didn't seem to take a huge toll on how fast she was moving, leading her trainer to give a mighty sigh of relief. She shook it off as she ran, sprinkling little patches all around the arena, though both pansear and whimsicott quickly found out that the powder was highly flammable. The pansear threw an incinerate at the corner where she'd rolled, and the remains of it went up in a plume of bright yellow flames.

"So your already weak grass pokémon, with highly flammable cotton on its back, just rolled around in dust that would make it even more flammable," the blue-haired one said, puzzled. Ree irritably shoved him out from behind the table.

Lala sprinkled more of the powder around the arena, and while the pansear seemed to amuse itself by catching larger patches on fire, neither of them seemed to be doing the whole hurt-the-other than was the staple of battles.

Finally, the inevitable happened: the pansear got lucky. It managed to lead Lala just enough to catch up with her, and with a burst of fire, the attack caught her fluff. She screamed and rolled to the ground, patting it out, making another pile of stun spore all around her. She got up and ran again as it fired a second attack at her. She didn't seem to be hurt, but scared, and definitely more serious.

Still shedding gold, Lala fired another trio of leech seeds. The pansear managed to dodge again, but just barely. She circled around and trailed more golden dust. If anything, she was making more of it. Chili sneezed and took a step back from the arena, shooting Ree a confused glare. She shrugged. Hell if she knew.

But then, as Lala continued to circle around and force the pansear, who wanted to maintain a distance out of her pathetic array of semi-long-range attacks, to back up, Ree realized that her whimsicott was totally (and secretly) a genius.

Due to the work ups and constant flame attacks, the pansear was pretty hot itself. And Lala had just spent the last several minutes wasting their time by getting stun spore all over the arena.

The pansear stepped onto one of the larger piles of dust and immediately hopped back, howling in shock and pain, as it alighted in flames. Lala grinned savagely and took the opening, firing another set of leech seeds, two of them making contact. It scrubbed, trying to get them off, and partially dislodged one. But then they set, and Lala turned to Ree with an overly smug, "Whimsi? Si-si-si."

"So it had been deliberately setting a trap..." the blue-haired gym leader said. Ree pushed him out from behind the table again, then climbed out herself. She stood up again and tried to act like the confident, proud trainer she was supposed to be.

"Just because I'm not shouting orders doesn't mean I can't battle," she said airily. She set a hand on her hip and gestured vaguely with her other. "It's all about trust and confidence in your team. Just because you have the advantage..." Lala shot a leech seed into her leg. It didn't take hold, but it stung like a bitch and sent her to the floor with a growl. "You fucking bitch, get back in there and fight before I wipe the floor with your face."

"...Um. Try to watch your language?" Chili said after a pause, clearly unsure at how else to handle the situation. His pansear didn't really need further direction, still trying to catch Lala and avoid the dusting of stun spore all around, and she was simply dodging and biding her time until the leech seed began to effect it for her.

Clever and incredibly lazy, if not potentially sadistic. Ree started to wonder about her whimsicott, just a little. The pansear managed to catch her once more, once again in her fluff and not harming her actual body (though her fluff was amusingly lopsided once more, and much of it was blackened). Lala ventured close enough to be able to absorb from it, which she did, but it was still taking a long time. She shook off more stun spore in smaller and smaller circles around it, though she backed off after nearly getting an incinerate to the face.

"Come on, pansear! You only need to hit it once...!" Chili groaned, tearing at his red hair in frustration.

Lala swung her hips, deliberately strutting slowly past, some of her fluff still glowing with tiny embers. Ree made a carry on motion. May as well let her win the battle her way, especially if her suggestion of using stun spore was what started this drawn-out example to begin with.

"...Just put it out of its misery already," she mumbled as Lala sashayed past.

Another absorb, and another couple moments for another pulse of the leech seed to steal a bit more life, and the pansear collapsed. It wasn't unconscious, and hissed flames at Lala to prove it, but the fight was pretty much won. She circled around it so it couldn't breathe fire at her, and then with a leap, sat down on it. It finally fainted, and for a moment, Ree couldn't help but think that Lala rather looked like a queen upon her throne.

Then the fact that the pansear's skin was superheated thanks to the work ups, mixed with the stun spore still covering her body, caught up. With a scream, Lala bolted up, clutching her burned bottom and the rapidly disappearing fluff near it, charred off. She ran back and forth, crying and panicking, still shedding dust and bits of burnt fluff.

Ree returned her with a red face. At least they won.

-.-.-

Next Chapter: Happy and high off of their first badge so early into their journey, the team moves on. Whippy and Lala still have their differences, and Lala still is a little hellion, while Whippy prefers to be a little more protective of their trainer. Ree slowly starts to grasp their dynamic and exert a bit of control over them, only for their team dynamic to shift in a big way.