//------------------------------// // 313. Wild Wooly Wonders. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Equus, Seaquestria, Twilight- “What do you mean she went on vacation, to where?!” Apparently the vacation destination was private and I couldn’t even begin to guess where it was, the guards looked a bit reticent to bother their queen who ran two civilizations. Sighing loudly I ran a hoof slowly over my face. “Look, can you at least let her know I needed to talk to her about something that’s moderately urgent at her soonest convenience?” “Sure thing ma’am, when she gets back. She’s always so busy so it’s a first for us to hear she wanted a vacation. We’re not about to disturb her and Princess Skystar’s mother daughter bonding time.” The male guards here were quite efficient and competent considering the aquatic megafauna they have to deal with. On land I doubt they’d be about as competent as my guard without Fizzle in it. The less said about paper bags and the inability of Equestria’s guards to fight their way out of them, the better. There’s a reason why we paid Jaded La Perm as a security consultant and threatening training aid. The vacation actually sounded quite important given how busy Queen Novo got after the Storm King situation was dealt with. If she was a workaholic like Celestia was, then she clearly deserved it. “Wait… Skystar has more cousins than us in the Hippogriffs and Sea Ponies like me and Terramar?” Silver Stream, who I asked for some help from, looked entirely confused to hear this news. Apparently Silver Stream had thought Princess Skystar didn’t have too many cousins beyond her or her brother, there was something she wanted to know now too judging from the look on her face. Most likely who her other cousins were and why Novo had never mentioned them. I was certainly curious too. Maybe… “We’ll find out about that later Silver Stream, may I be escorted to the local library please?” Underwater libraries of Seaquestria were very precisely kept, because written word was hard to get underwater unless you had magic ink and used special seaweed for paper. I was also curious about how schools worked down here too… I’ve been meaning to look into Sea Pony education, Hippogriff education was well known to me already thanks to Silver Stream’s father. I might as well turn this into an educational experience since Novo wasn’t here, I might actually find something in my research. -Pokémon world, Kingdom of Pugilis, Pummelton Indoor Super Stadium and place with an unfortunate acronym, Smolder- So Pom beat the ever loving snot out of Dolly and got battered, bloodied and bruised herself… yet Pom was still going. Dolly did surprisingly give Pom a lot of trouble, though I think that was because Pom didn’t use magic claws or her wolf transformation thing. The most medical advice that the Fighting Types around could give about Dolly was either the healing spring or seeking the nearest Medicham they knew of. That or some berries for when she wakes up and some bandages with some rub to help with the bruises right now. Fighting Type Pokémon tended to rest off most of their injuries, they were all about pain and gain what with the muscle parade going on around here… kind of like dragons in a way. Kind of why I liked it here. How have we gotten so far on so little medical knowledge in the group with the injuries we’ve incurred? Dormarch was bound to be our medical professional until… yeah… It was beginning to concern me how many worlds we’ve been to and long term sickness didn’t seem like a thing that would happen to us. Even I knew it was impossible to visit foreign places without picking up at least something if you weren’t inoculated to it. I didn’t just go to Equestria without seeing a doctor first before being pushed into the School of Friendship that Twilight created. Could have used someone like Dr. Bones from Airship Mauled or Dr. Sweet Heart from Ponyville on this journey because Pom has looked like a constant mess after a certain point in this journey. Yet she was a constant mess for our sakes and still found the time to talk to us, which… she wasn’t currently doing. Speaking of our lambkin friend, she was standing there waiting for her match with Geoff to be called up. Ocellus had pointed it out, Shanty pointed it out and even I pointed it out, that we were all quite aware that Geoff wasn’t exactly subtle in wearing a yellow mask with smiling faces on it and pretending to be something larger than life. Now Lucha Mundo, there was an interesting and colorful guy. “So what exactly did you teach Geoff?” There, I put it out there. “I did not teach any Geoff, I taught the Wild Wrestling Wooloo, a fantastically quick learner of the traditions of wrestling, which are Honor, Family, Tradition… and Donuts!” The bird guy stated with his beak held high. Next to him was Dazzle’s friend Frizzle and she was silently chomping away at the honey glazed donut sticks called churros. Apparently a unique form of energy in this world was thin and it made it hard for to stick around, she was quiet, hungry for baked goods and felt like she had a dragons demeanor hidden under her moderately cute and tough exterior. “What, did you need money and Geoff had enough to pay off your debts or something?” I said bluntly and the guy started sweating. “Maybe, but I still have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to this Geoff character.” His accent was nice at least, but he wasn’t a very believable liar. I stared at him and he sighed. “You are not buying this one bit are you?” “I don’t think anyone who knows Geoff is buying it, even Lit wouldn’t buy it and he’s kind of close to being what we’ve heard of feral Pokémon where those Mystery Dungeons are thing.” Well as close to feral as Pokémon got around here, on other continents Pokémon who lacked intelligence somehow gotten it beat into them. I’m noticing a disturbing lack of schools around, I mean aside from all the dojos in this one crazy sports happy kingdom, and yet these Pokémon can build civilizations with lights, indoor stadiums with multiple combat rings and castles? Yeah, this place had similar tech levels to Equestria at times and there wasn’t much explanation for it. According to Ocellus, Fighting Types cared about spectacle and sport so apparently their technology reflected it in its entirety. It’s like how Pom told us about lightning powered structures in Violight. I bet a Pegasus would have fun with a job for creating lightning as a power source, a power source that only requires water and atmospheric friction. Something Ocellus and I were becoming good at given how we’ve supported the recent battles Aurora’s gotten into. Speaking of Lit, the little guy was currently wrapping some of Dolly’s wounds with silk as Ocellus helped him. He was cute, friendly and ultimately deadly if you underestimated his ability to blast a lightning bolt into you on a moment’s notice. Hard to believe the little guy’s species could paralyze someone and then eat said person alive, they were living bug zappers and Dolly probably wouldn’t have ticks or fleas as long as Lit was around. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen Dolly do more than hand Lit a berry once come to think of it, yet the bug seemed incredibly healthy. We haven’t known Lit for as long, but apparently he mostly takes care of himself and was smart enough to ask for help or food. I quietly made my way over to Pom who was sitting off to the side looking thoughtful and her eyes were still somewhat hollow. After that fight one would have to wonder what’s going on in her head. She seriously didn’t want to hurt or kill Dolly, that wasn’t up for debate, but the whole golden glowing wool thing needed an explanation as that had happened on Pom’s command. “You don’t want to talk about it?” So I decided to broach the topic in a different way. “Yes.” How did Pom make it sound so hollow? “Going to at least get your injuries checked?” As the competition was going to have top twelve winners, Pom and Geoff were the last two in their block to determine who got first or second place here. Of the four blocks, the top three winners from all the battle blocks can volunteer for a free-for-all battle afterwards. For little incentive more than proving you wanted to have bragging rights over others, that and a slight extra monetary prize depending on the number of opponents you could bring down and not winning the whole overall thing after the blocks were done. The tournament was a little weird, but the fights had been spectacular to watch as the runners of the tournament seemed to pair capability and merit pretty well. Probably why Pom even got to fight that Machamp guy and he didn’t even seem angry about losing to Pom the way he did. “No.” Again, it was a single word answer and no explanation, Pom really had issues at the moment and I didn’t know if I could even help with them. Ocellus didn’t look like she was about to try either, but I was of the opinion that we were giving Pom too much space to sink into her own head. “Worried that Geoff can actually beat you in a fight?” Now this was supposed to be a goofy left field question, yet Pom hesitated and looked to me. “… Yes…” That… really Pom? Sure Geoff was one of the most reliable guys in fight, in fact he stayed standing through most of the fights we’ve been through, but you were actually worried… about him? The gentle Wooloo with a heart of, moderately to extremely perverted, gold? “Really?” I actually asked in surprise and Pom smiled a bit as she glanced at me with a bit of life in her eyes. “Tired.” Coming from you Pom, the word could be and mean of a lot of things. Tired of being bloodied, beaten and hurt, tired of being put through a whole lot for our sakes, just tired in general… that word could have meant positively anything in reference to the definition of it. “Hurting. Might prove to be too much… looking forward to it...” “Contestants Pom Lambchop and Wild Wrestling Wooloo…” I didn’t bother listening to the announcer as Pom started to move forward past me, she glanced at me and gave off a wan smile. “Thank you…” For what Pom, not pushing about the golden glow thing that destroyed an entire ring with raw magic? You’re not going to explain yourself of course… and I haven’t exactly pulled the dragon card with her as a ‘Huoshan Guard’ for most of our adventure and I wasn’t about to do so now. “For what?” So I asked for clarification. “For being a friend.” Pom coughed a bit and chuckled weakly. “Dolly might tell you eventually or Tianhuo might, but… well… we’ll see…” “That bad huh, doubt whatever it is would really stop us from being there for you.” With a pause and her back to me, I saw Pom look back at me. “That’s kind of what I’m afraid of…” What, Pom was afraid of us staying close to her? We’d fight tooth and nail for Pom… ah… oh… we would do that wouldn’t we… I watched her go to the ring where Geoff was waiting with his silly mask on. Sure he was being rather silly, but he did beat several Fighting Types and that was said to be quite hard for a Normal Type Pokémon. Pom’s still putting too much pressure on herself to get us home safely and this world… it’s completely nuts if a dragon like me can have my scales be so easily punctured. I calmly ran my claws over the shattered scales and winced as the pain skyrocketed throughout my body, had my wound been any deeper… well not to worry because it hadn’t been. Taken down in one blow again, where was my pride as a dragon? Probably right where I left it, gathering dust when I became good friends with Ocellus, we were both from strange places. Things are always so… complicated… dragons try not to think too deeply about things considering we’ll outlive almost everyone we could come to love as a friend that wasn’t another dragon and any bitter resentment can last centuries for us. We are more ruled by our need to prove we existed and were strong, that’s it. We really weren’t strong when even the smallest thing like a microbe and some sickness could fell the mightiest of dragons, we weren’t overly complicated either. Something as small as an illness felling a great and powerful thing that was impervious to most forms of injuries is how Dragons usually died, usually because the sickness that could make a dragon sick was one that could survive and thrive off the internal temperatures of our bodies. We could build a civilization worthy of note and would be remembered forever, but we were too lazy to do what the Longma did… functionally feeling secure in our might and power, where showing weakness such as love outside of privacy was a foreign concept for us. Changelings could survive for as long as they were loved, whether that be open or not a Changeling would feel it. A species based around emotions meets a species that refrained from outwards shows of emotion, the joke writes itself. I wonder what Changelings felt when revulsion wasn’t the first reaction to meeting them, I would know what Ocellus felt. She could practically taste my utter curiosity when she transformed for the first time, she went from being the fake dragon she was hiding as to the cute little bug I have come to know and love. Back to here and now, I’m still somewhat surprised Shanty could even put up something like a fight after the kind of battering that messed up her body and if Dodo hadn’t been there… from what I heard her shouting had slowed down an attack that would still have killed her even with Dodo’s help. Thankfully that strange Hideyoshi guy showed up to save her. Heard Hideyoshi seemed to have less sense about things than King Evan and I had thought that, like many things, to be impossible. This world was as weird as it was amazing, kind of like home in a bizarre sense. “Hey, Ozzy, do you think Pom will lose to Geoff?” I asked as took a seat next to Ocellus. “Maybe… I think Pom wants to lose, to know that she gave her best and still couldn’t push above and beyond. She probably direly desires the feeling of mediocrity, because she’s only excelling and pushing so much for our sakes. At the moment I think Geoff is aiming and willing to give her that feeling with the amount of determination he’s putting out.” That Ocellus and the fact that Geoff was making quite a showing among the Fighting Types for Aurora. If I were to look at it from a dragon’s perspective, he’s at least showing that Aurora wasn’t weak by any stretch of the imagination even if most of their military is out of action. -Pom Vs Wild Wrestling Wooloo (Not So Secretly Geoff after what would be considered an insanely fast crash course in wrestling with a dubious trainer that is a Hawlucha that goes by the name Lucha Mundo.)- The referee for this fight was a Crabrawler, a large purple crab with two large bone colored horns above its head, four blue tipped legs sticking from its lower torso and two large blue claws that… again… resembled boxing gloves like numerous Fighting Types had as a theme. “Please don’t destroy this ring, we only have so much budget to rebuild them with… even though we built them to be rated for taking Fighting Type attacks worth of punishment, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that with how you two broke or completely your fighting rings. Each of you to a corner, this is a special title bout between you two.” They proceeded to follow the referee’s instructions, who was only going to step in if someone was about to die or grievously injured to prevent permanent injuries, the referees around the stadium were surprised that these two hadn’t caused anything close to a permanent injury… not for the seeming lack of trying when they broke their fighting rings in respectively amazing ways. The Wooloo in particular had their currently referee spooked given Geoff was glaring at Pom with a set jaw. “In this corner from elsewhere and beyond, the wooly outsider whose speed impressed all who can even see it as much as her insane fighting techniques have… Pom Lambchop! In that corner we have another white wooly wonder who is the dark horse of this competition in the block he’s in, the Wild Wrestling Wooloo… whose name is apparently Geoff! A wooloo that’s known for a being a Cleric, a good militia unit leader in Aurora, his favorite color is blue and he likes fire roasted apples.” “… awww…” Geoff was upset that his identity was given away so readily, not that he was hiding it all too well in the first place being the only Wooloo within miles of Pugilis. Some Pokémon might have even thanked the fact that the problems in Ignis stopped Wooloo from traveling to here and elsewhere to bother Pokémon everywhere, aside from all the deaths that incurred because of all the fighting. Geoff had wanted to do the whole dramatic reveal and everything, not that he was doubting anyone who knew him wouldn’t be able to tell it was him already. It was the principle of the mystique that was wrestling that he keep his identity secret until after he’s won the battle or not. The smiling faces on his mask were representative of Ditto’s simplistic face too. “Can we get this over with… please?” Pom asked dully. “Ready…” The crab brawler backed away from the center of the ring raising his right claw. He slung it forward as he backed away. “Fight!” Pom immediately launched forward left leg primed to ram its way into Geoff’s smiling masked face, only to be utterly surprised seconds later when he went onto his hind legs and used Cotton Guard. Geoff grabbed her leg with a single hoof at the point of impact with his wool and kicked off the floor with his three other legs and brought her into a one leg lock where he was standing on her back. Pom struggled as Geoff got his right hoof under her right leg around its pit and then let go of her left leg while avoiding Pom lashing out at him and then he got his other hoof under her left legs pit. Geoff started squeezing Pom tightly and her eyes widened as the pressure became somewhat familiar to her. “Let the power of hugs compel you! Let the power of hugs compel you! Let the power of hugs compel you!” Geoff stated loudly as he held her tightly from her back. -Airship Mauled, Paprika- It was quite nice to see her father and brother, even if she couldn’t approach them what with the pregnancy problem and it was annoying that she couldn’t even approach Velvet or Arizona. At least she could hug her mother… that was one hug she would have felt bad if she couldn’t give it directly. Her right ear twitched and Paprika stared off into the distance for a bit, then shrugged and felt like hugging her brother and father anyway even if the pregnancy was stopping her from almost approaching just about everyone personally. Paprika was anything other than fine psychologically, physically she was eating healthy and for two. So she just separated most of her wooly fluff from her body and sent it off to hug others in her stead. It wasn’t quite the same as a personal hugs upfront that she was itching for direly, but she loved her brother and father all the same. It was nice that her family came here to help keep her spirit up, who knew that this stuff would be so hard? There was only a mild concern as to who was watching the rest of the cria in her family back in the nomadic alpaca tribe, but she was sure they were fine. “So does Paprika need more healthy premixed drinks to keep up her strength?” She looked up and saw the stallion Mr. Liquid Refreshment talking to Kuril about her, Airship Mauled had really nice people and so many families that look out for one another. It was a good community, especially with everyone looking out for her family. -Pom vs Geoff- “What are you doing Geoff… compel me to do what?” Pom stopped struggling for a moment to ask this dully. “Huh, might have thought you were possessed by a Ghost Type Pokémon with the way you were acting, maybe I should just try to cheer you up while winning the fight.” Despite the fact that they were supposed to be beating each other into the ground Geoff was still as amiable and friendly as he ever was. “Also I am a Cleric, working an exorcism in was just a guess on my part as to what was wrong with.” “Just fight me…” Despite the fact that Pom had upset Geoff with her words, he nodded and increased the hugging pressure on Pom. Pom leapt up and fell back first. Geoff’s Cotton Guard protected him from the impact, but it did make him lose his grip on Pom. He soon quickly rolled onto his hooves as the jet of a Thousand Spears passed by where he just was. Pom was fast, but Geoff started moving faster than anyone had likely ever seen him move before, he was using a Pokémon move called Agility to avoid Pom’s attacks. Even Pom’s Dancing Flame was kind of hard pressed to keep Geoff in sight before he tackled her with a flying glomp, then lifted her up to slammed suplex her into the floor. Afterward Geoff tried to leap onto Pom to do a knee drop and pin her in place, with a single inhale and exhale Pom blurred out of the way and into a standing position on three hooves as her left hind leg lashed out and struck Geoff’s wool as it fluffed out to cover his masked face and he hopped backwards. Pom proceed to aim her hind leg and fire off a Thousand Spears from her hind leg with a bucking motion. Geoff dodged and then did something that really surprised her, as her wool was pierced with a Thousand Spears attack fired off from Geoff’s left hoof?! After piercing through her wool, Pom felt her body get struck with a large amount of raw blunt force instead of an expected sharp pain. This was Geoff after all so he notably didn’t want to seriously hurt or injure Pom, maybe just knock her out. “What in the…” Ocellus stated from ring side. “Geoff apparently knows Agility, Protect and Electro Ball.” Dazzle interrupted with an impressed look as Geoff started a duel of Thousand Spears sending jets of air across the ring as they dodged and jumped around. “He also apparently knows the move Copycat, didn’t think it would actually work on beings other than Pokémon... this might actually be decided on how he decides to interpret things. Also there’s something about that mask he’s wearing.” “It is a Lucha Mask, it has certain ‘unique’ mystical properties.” Lucha Mundo stated with his arms crossed as he smiled proudly at Geoff. “I have a request to make of your leader, whether she wins or loses it does not matter, as I will make it all the same. She takes commissions, yes?” After hopping around the arena firing Thousand Spears, Geoff really hopped Pom didn’t figured out how he replicated her move and that he could only replicate one ‘unique’ move at a time. He couldn’t copy simple attacks, it had to be absolutely and particularly ‘unique’. He also cottoned onto a special technique to hold onto a specific move for ‘Copycat’, it required him to not physically see another move or use a move himself. Geoff didn’t know blind fighting techniques, but he could definitely improvise whatever technique Pom might use. For some reason Pom skidded to a stop for a moment and so did Geoff, Pom let out a growl and then… “Awooo!” Once Pom finished her howl, her wool shifted and took on a more wolf like appearance with her wool taking the shape. A mischievous sparkle appeared in Geoff’s eyes. “Awooo!” Geoff performed the same wool shift and even got a good idea of what it did as he did so, soon he too was in Sheep’s Clothing mode. Instead of looking like a wolf, he resembled a small Lycanroc. Pom glared and leapt at Geoff attempting to slash at him with her left claw, the unfortunate problem for her was that any buffing abilities a Pokémon used tended to stack. Agility, plus the insane Sheep’s Clothing boost and some good old natural Pokémon battle instinct had Geoff moving at a speeds far exceeding what Pom could. The fun thing for Geoff about Pom having done this… even if she used a different move Geoff would still be in Sheep’s Clothing form if he used copycat since the form counted as a constant passive buff. As such Pom found her eyes going wide when Geoff slammed into her from the left side after seemingly teleporting there and slapped her into the nearby ropes with blunt left paw. Geoff still stuck to his principles regardless of the power boost and would continue to just try and batter Pom down. Geoff also used another Cotton Guard and the shape of his wool hardened and thickened in place while retaining the boosting ability, as Pom slowly pushed herself off the ropes with gritted teeth. Pom couldn’t armor herself while her wool was wolf shaped as it was too busy enhancing her body’s capabilities. It just meant she had to be more careful as Geoff was surprising her even more. With a roar, Pom charged forward and inhale as she went onto her hind legs and swiped a magic right claw for Geoff. She exhaled and dodged to the side and barely managed to keep up with and out speed Geoff to kick him with her left hind leg. As he flew backwards Geoff added another stack of Agility to himself and then blinked out of existence, Even when Pom started inhaling she began to realize something. Geoff was staying far faster than she was as she exhaled and tried to hit several blurs with claw swipes only to find them to be after images. Pom had not thought Geoff as much of a threat to her, they were friends even if he was annoying, but in this case she was horrified by what he was truly capable of as hoof strikes started to slam into her body as if from out of nowhere. She quickly wool shifted back to her basic ‘steel wool’ form and tried to figure out what to do as she protected her face from an onslaught of high speed hooves that reminded her of her Full Feral Flurry move. One would think wearing a bright yellow mask covered in dopey smiling faces would make Geoff easy to follow, there was nothing more than an indistinct streak moving around Pom trying to pummel her through her wool. The impacts were quite numerous and hitting with a lot of strength, had she stayed in her Sheep’s Clothing wool shift she would have been quickly defeated. Pom concentrated and sniffed the air, flexed her ears and inhaled slowly trying to think of a way to retaliate against the nearly invisible outline of Geoff moving around and laying into her. Nodding to herself as she continued to inhale, Pom launched herself straight up with the wool from her hind legs springing her up and then angled her mouth downwards and exhaled a bone chilling powerful howl that shook the entire area around the ring with a powerful wide coned torrent of energy. This came with an effect that was a mix of a Bark Blast, Noivern’s Boomurst and sounded like a banshee wailing or Shanty extending a pirate shout. An attack that hit the entire ring and slowed Geoff down immensely. Pom’s Howl Blast was less concentrated than her Bark Blast, but it hit a much larger area and was impossible for Geoff to dodge. “Ngh… I’ll not let you win if it means you staying like this!” Geoff had kept moving in the hopes to avoid a raining showers of Bark Blasts, he hadn’t expect her to do something new that could slow him down and the pressure of the noise hurt a lot. Pom landed and was immediately on him a slash of magic claws with her right hoof, it didn’t penetrate Geoff’s wool as he reared back using Agility to build distance and then fired an Electro Ball point blank as Pom followed. “Ggggg-gggg—ggg.” Pom grunted while fighting through the pain to lunged forward at Geoff to slam him in the face with her left hoof hard straight. Geoff was sent flying back until he was bouncing off the ropes, he used the momentum to hit her with another Eletro Ball before bodily slamming into her with a flying right knee to her throat gagging her from launching another Bark or Howl Blast attack. Pom couldn’t ground herself in the ring and both electro balls had hurt a lot, she still managed a nasty blow to Geoff’s chin with her left hind leg raisin him up into the air, she leapt and brought both her hooves down in a hammer blow to slam back first into the floor of the arena. Unlike Pom who was open to attack while in Sheep’s Clothing form, Cotton Guard was making up for what would have been Geoff’s lack of defensive ability as he was up and firing another electro ball. Pom being in the air was hit by the full brunt of the attack before she could manipulate her wool for a maneuver and shrieked before hitting the floor, she quickly rolled out of the way of another electro ball and then decided to try something different. “Are you okay…” Pom took up a stance and readied her right hoof. “Funny you say that, because I want you to be!” This had been a particular moment Geoff had been waiting for all fight, a chance to end this without hurting Pom any worse than he had to. He had to put a stop to her current demeanor. “Buster Wolf!” Pom shot across the space between them in a blink with her right hoof leading and covered in the friction flames, Geoff went on to his hind legs and then jumped upward and forward as Pom’s initial blow missed. Pom braced and fired off the angled pillar explosion trying to catch Geoff in the air, she missed there too. Geoff’s smiling face pressed against Pom's. Nose to nose as his entire body seemingly rolled up her forehead and over her back, Geoff brought his rear legs in and bucked her in the center of her spine forcefully to kick off and away from Pom. Pom’s chin slammed into the floor and she let out of shout of pain. Geoff looked at Pom sadly as he gained some distance with Agility and then said something that drove a cold chill into Pom’s battered form. “Are ‘YOU’ okay…” Pom looked up wide eyed as Geoff mimicked her stance that she had just used a second ago except he would be leading with his left hoof. Pom inhaled and exhaled as Geoff shot across the distance between them with a sad smile. Geoff wasn’t about to tell Pom he had once copied this move from her prior to this battle at some point and then tested its every last limitation. Pom could have been using this far more inventively than she had been and Geoff was about to show her that despite all the jokes about Wooloo… he was truly a genius in a fight. His left hoof lashed forward and Pom dodged to his right, like he knew she would, he braced and then smiled. “Buster Wooloo!” Instead of the eruption pillar happening in the same direction he was aiming, Geoff had basically pulled the wool over Pom’s eyes, it instead appeared in the exact direction Pom was dodging into and exploded directly into her with full force. The pillar of energy engulfed Pom in a conflagration and she shrieked in slow motion having been caught entirely off guard. She was pushed back towards Geoff and would have passed by him, had he not launched his right hoof forward at her forehead. His hoof and the sudden brain jarring change in momentum almost made Pom lose consciousness, then the back of her head and the pressure on her skull did just that a moment later when Geoff put her through the floor of the ring and shattered it entirely. “Winner… by knockout… Wild Wrestling Wooloo!” The Crabrawler was stunned, he thought that Pom was tough contender. The Wooloo was clearly the insane one with tactical acumen like that. Despite the cheers that rose up, Geoff’s only concern was Pom and he carefully pried her from the ring and gently carried her off to the side. “I wish for you to find the peace in your heart.” Geoff leaned down and kissed Pom on the forehead, then tears sprung from his eyes. “Cresselia, I beg of you, hear me, give this lost one peaceful rest! Show her dreams of her loved ones, her wife and her family… she more than anyone else in the world needs you now and may your love Darkrai eat her nightmares! Darkrai, I know there’s a stigma behind your nightmares, but I believe your nightmares to be heavenly and beautiful as Cresselia’s dreams, please help this little unworthy Wooloo’s earnest wish come about! HELP MY FRIEND!” -In a border slightly beyond reality, Darkrai and Cresselia- “Oh my…” Cresselia a Pokemon of peaceful rest and dreams heard a plea so strong that it drew both her and her beloved Darkrai to Pugilis in an instant and they looked down on the Wooloo crying over an outsider with his nose raised to the ceiling and hooves held up in prayer. “... he… even asked for my help…” Darkrai looked into the nightmares of the being and boggled at the intensity, if someone were to use Pain Split on her right now… he shivered at the thought. “Very surprising to me as well, but can you truly eat the nightmares plaguing her?” Cresselia asked with her little paws held up in prayer. “If I can’t, then we both know I’m going to very well try my best to at least steer the nightmares into something productive.” For how often did someone call upon the Pokémon of nightmares and sleeping terror to fix something? It was rather unprecedented, but together… they would listen to a Wooloo’s plea and bestow the best rest Pom would have gotten in a long while without her anxiety or the sheer terror of what she actually was getting in the way for once. -Smolder- “Wow… that just… wow… holy… what the… how the…” As much I and some of the others would think of Geoff as something of a joke, that…. that fight said a lot about him and what he was truly capable of when pushed. “I can’t even come up with a cuss I’m so flabbergasted.” “Ahem… let me be doing that, if we only be getting one this entire story... HOLY *Porpoise Noises*.” Everyone stared at Shanty. “I grew up with pirates, I be knowing how to curse like a salty dog.” “It is as I thought, he learned my wrestling maneuver quickly and had a plan going into this fight. He fights with Honor, Family, Tradition… and of course Donuts!” Lucha Mundo stated while waving a close claw high into the air. “He can keep the mask, for he is the best student I have ever had the pleasure of teaching.” “In the absence of Pom… what did you want to ask her?” Ocellus was already taking charge and carrying Lit over to Pom quickly, the little guy hopped off her hoof and started to wrap up Pom forehead with soft and gentle silk. “Hola Mi Amigos, I would like to join you on your trip back to Aurora, in fact… I want to be a member of your traveler team!” Lucha Mundo stated with pride as he thumbed a claw at himself. “Well a flying and fighting type would definitely round out our odd unit.” Quetal commented while still staring at Geoff with wide open eyes. So what that would make it Shine, Dazzle, Favela, Quetal, Lit and Mundo? “What about the Charjabug guy?” I asked pointing at the loaf of green bread currently getting curious looks from Dazzle’s friend Frizzle. “Oh I’m not going to be acting as a traveler with you guys, I just want to travel around with you for a while and be friends!” The Charjabug was still as sweet and peppy as ever. “I’ll help out if you really need me, but I’d rather not do any fighting. You guys are plenty strong enough that I can travel around safely and won’t have to!” “Thanks for the vote of confidence on that, despite the fact that most of us were utterly wrecked before we got to the healing springs here.” Those springs couldn’t work fast enough for all of us… -A few hours later, Ocellus- “Uh… you’re wool is still…” I tried to say to Geoff and he sighed. “I honestly don’t know how to change back, I kind of knocked out the only person that could do that for me… it’s not all too bad. I’m at least cute right?” Geoff smiled goofily he was first place in his block and he went on to fight in the free-for-all battle. He earned a lot of money for Aurora and entered to help Pom to the best of his ability at the same time. The triangular wool shaped ears on his head shifted in an adorable manner, but I wasn’t about to tell him that or his wagging fluffy tail made him stupidly cute. Geoff would likely look too deeply into that and I really didn’t want to think about it too hard if I said anything positive. Otherwise Geoff was truly a hero of Magic, Kindess, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty… laughter was up in the air at the moment, but he could probably swing the pratfall side of it what with being a pervert that constantly fails. “Do you think Pom will at least give me one date when she wakes up?” Geoff said hopefully looking for all the world like a bright eyed puppy. “Not within your lifetime Geoff and possibly up to ‘never’, even if you somehow become immortal through some impossibly ridiculous means.” We were stuck with a wolf like Wooloo for the time being and apparently he was also stuck with the enhancements of the wool shift as well. “Awww…” Geoff wilted, but still he smiled. “I hope she will be okay after that… I really let her have it huh? Didn’t even need to use Protect for that… certainly had to during the Free-For-All afterwards.” “I feel like Pom kind of needed all that stress off of her skull… so probably.” I never imagined Pom would be beaten by someone like Geoff, it was kind of amazing to watch happen. “I have never seen so many Fighting Types terrified of a Normal Type in one place before.” Dazzle stated with honest surprise. “Technically the wrestling mask makes me a pure ‘Fighting Type’ while worn, it only seems to work for Normal Types though.” Geoff stated while looking at the yellow mask he had earned from Lucha Mundo sitting in his hooves. “I heard rumors of a Pokémon superpower with a similar principle involving crystal crowns doing the same thing to other Pokémon, not that they can fully capitalize on a type change if they don’t have the attacks suited for such a thing. Still it would adversely change ones defensive abilities greatly. Lucha Mundo… I’ll hold onto this mask… with Honor, Family, Tradition, Donuts…. and pride!” A teary eyed Wooloo hugged onto a teary eyed wrestling bird. “Sorry, I’m not gay, so don’t look into this manly hug as anything more than what it is.” Lucha Mundo stated dryly, bluntly and flatly all in one tone. “Awww…” Whined a teary eyed Geoff. “You’re feathers are so nice and well-kept though, I hope you meet a really nice lady in your future you handsome monster you!” “Well we’re going to let Pom heal in the springs with Dolly for the rest of the day and then we’ll be heading back for Aurora tomorrow morning.” I was a little worried about passing through Ignis, but I’m sure we’d be fine. If Pom and Dolly didn’t wake up sometime tomorrow well… we’d cross that bridge because they seriously got into some rough fights. “Ah yes, our home establishment on this continent… this place was quite nice but…” Kec-Red stated with his chin held high and proudly hefting the wait of the Kec-Merchant wares on his back. “It was extremely profitable, never sold so much mystical training gear in so little time! Going to be hard to have repeat customers though, that training gear was built to last.” Kec-Blue smiled as he hefted a huge sack of Poké on his back. “Also snack stands are must with crowds like that, always a good business opportunity when combined with sports!” “Indeed it is!” A jovial Kec-Red started chuckling. “Can we make a stop in Ignis before heading back to Aurora?” The newly christened Combusken asked, I didn’t see the problem with it. “I don’t see why not.” If it was on the way and not too far off the beaten path, then I was okay with a small detour.