My Little Pokemon

by Alabenson

High Seas Hijinks

“So…” Derek sighed as he assessed the situation. “We’re stuck on a giant barge that’s headed out to sea; we can’t steer it because the control panels have been destroyed –”

“I already said I was sorry!” Pinkie Pie protested.

“And those controls also operated the engines; so we can’t easily shut everything down either,” Derek concluded.

“Can’t we just go to wherever the engines are and turn them off right there?” Fluttershy asked.

“Actually, that’s pretty much what I was about to suggest myself. If we can find the engine room, we should be able to manually shut everything down at the source. At that point, the currents should take us back to the island without our having to do anything else.” Derek paused for a moment before continuing. “If we’re really lucky, the two halfwits who got us into this mess will find their way to the engine room and break things enough to do the job and save us the trouble.”

“Do you really think they’d just break something for no reason whatsoever?” Fluttershy asked before shaking her head and sighing. “Okay, you’re right, they’d absolutely do something like that.”

“You know, the sad part is that they’re not even especially bad by crime team standards,” Derek said. “Admittedly, it does help that they seem to manage to hurt themselves more than anyone else.”

*********

“Aw dude! Why?” Femur screamed as he and Ribcage fled the engine room, slamming the door behind them.

“It reeks worse than that time we exploded that stink bomb,” Ribcage added as he gasped for breath.

“Uh, duded, weren’t you the one who blew that thing up?” Femur asked.

“The important thing is that we won’t be able to trash that engine room if we can’t even breathe in there. And if we can’t trash the place and the stupid fake pirate doesn’t have any treasure then I don’t know what we’re gonna do,” Ribcage said dejectedly. “I mean, we gotta do somethin’ here to show that we’re complete boneheads.”

“Wait, dude, I’ve got it!” Femur suddenly said, pratically hopping up and down in excitement. “It’s so obvious; if we can’t find where the good stuff is in this stupid gym, then what we should do is steal the gym itself! I mean, it’s basically just a big ship thing, right? So, we could just sail it anywhere and it’d be like we grabbed everything. Even the boss would have to give us serious props for pulling off a move that hardcore.”

“Yeah, man, we’d be the ultimate boneheads of all time!” Ribcage said eagerly before a look of concern crossed his features. “But wait, what about those loser goody-goodies we ran into in the control cabin place? They’d definitely cause us some problems, and not in the cool bonehead way either.”

“Dang, that’s a good point,” Femur said as he crossed his arms to look like he was deep in thought. “Those losers are always messing up our plans. What we need is a way to keep them out of our business…and I think I just got an idea how,” Femur said evilly as he motioned for Ribcage to lean in. “Check it, all we need to do is this…”

*********

“…and once we find the emergency fuel shutoff valve the rest should take care of itself,” Derek explained as the trio made their way to the gym’s engine room. “Not only should that stop the engines, but tripping it should also trigger an emergency distress beacon to start broadcasting. That way, even if the currents don’t take us back to the island for some reason, someone should still be able to come find us.”

“That sounds like it should work,” Fluttershy replied. In truth, Fluttershy didn’t really understand much of what Derek was talking about concerning the engines. But, it sounded as though the situation was going to be resolved and that was enough for her.

“Where do you think we’ll end up once we get back to shore?” Pinkie asked as she bounced along down the hallway. “Ooh, maybe it’ll be a jungle, like the one we went to when we helped Daring Do stop that mean old Ahuizotl.” Derek briefly looked like he wanted to ask something, but quickly thought better of it.

“I’m not really sure they have jungles on this island,” Fluttershy replied before turning to Derek. “At least, I don’t think there are any here. Are there?”

“Not really,” Derek replied. “The drier parts of the swamp are kind of jungle-ish, and there’s the forrest between Mercury City and Aurum Town, but we don’t really have a real jungle here.” Further conversation was cut short as Pinkie Pie eagerly called out from further down the hall.

“I found the engine room! At least, I think I found it. There’s a big metal door, and it kind of smells a little funny,” Pinkie added.

“That sounds like that’s probably it. If I had to guess, Pinkie’s probably smelling the diesel fuel,” Derek explained as they hurried over to their friend, who was waiting for them in front of a sturdy-looking metal security door. “Alright, let’s get this taken care of and then we can start figuring out what to do while we wait for someone to come pick us up.”

“I know, I can start planning a ‘stranded at sea boat party’! Do you think they have any balloons or streamers on board?” Pinkie asked.

“I…you know what? Let’s figure that out after we get things handled in here,” Derek said as he pulled the heavy door open and stepped inside, with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie following behind. As soon as they entered the room, however, it became hideously apparent that the smell Pinkie Pie had detected earlier was something much worse than diesel fuel.

“Oh, dear Celestia! It’s even worse than the time Zephyr Breeze stuck his head in Mr. Stripey’s burrow!” Fluttershy groaned as her Ralts desperately tried covering its face with its arms to keep out the stench.

“Urgh, even Marble’s cooking smells better than this,” Pinkie Pie added in a similar slate of distress.

“We should get out of here,” Derek said “If this is what I think it is, it’s only going to get worse the longer we stay here. We’ll just need to find some other way to –” Before Derek could finish his sentence he was interrupted by a loud metallic crash as the engine room door slammed shut.

“Yeah! We got you fools now!” a triumphant Femur called out from the other side of the door. “There’s no way you’ll be able to mess with our plans while you’re stuck in there!” This declaration was followed by banging sounds from around the edges of the door.

“So, we’re going to be stuck in here?” Pinkie Pie asked as Derek desperately tried to force the door back open.

“It looks like it,” Derek said. “They must have done something to wedge the door shut, I can’t get the thing to even budge. Well, there should be an emergency exit in here somewhere. We may as well try and shut down the engines while we look for a way out.”

“Hopefully that won’t take too long and whatever’s making this smell isn’t dangerous,” Fluttershy said. No sooner did Fluttershy say this, however, than a small figure scurried between the shadows. “What was that?”

“Probably the reason this place smells like a bucket of vomit that’s been left out in the sun,” Derek said. “I wouldn’t get too close to it if I were you. If that’s what I think it is, then its going to be incredibly skittish, and if you spook it then we’ll all pay the price.”

Derek’s warning fell on deaf ears, however, as Fluttershy slowly approached where she had seen the skittering figure dart under some machinery. “Hello? You don’t need to be scared; nobody here is going to hurt you. My name’s Fluttershy, why don’t you come out so we can all meet you?” Fluttershy’s gentle coaxing was answered by a squeaking chirp as a Pokémon resembling a gray and purple, foot and a half-long woodlouse cautiously peeked out from under some nearby machinery.

“A Wimpod,” Derek said as he held himself is still as he possibly could. “They’re not dangerous at all, but they tend to be very easily frightened, and when that happens –”

“Hiya! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced over to the small Pokémon. The Wimpod promptly let out a terrified squeal and retreated back under the machinery, but not before spitting out a stream of viscous purple slime which splattered on the ground at Pinkie Pie’s feet. As unpleasant as the slime looked, however, the hideous stench that emanated from it quickly proved to be a much greater concern.

“At least now we know what that awful smell is,” Pinkie Pie said, her eyes watering as she backed away from the noxious slime.

“Like I tried to warn you, when a Wimpod gets scared its response is to spit that stuff out as defense mechanism against predators. What I don’t get is what the thing’s doing in here in the first place. Wimpod normally avoid human settlements like the plague, and it’s not really the sort of Pokémon I’d expect Trask to keep around,” Derek said.

“It must be so scared and lonely, especially with those two awful grunts running around,” Fluttershy said, the tone of her voice already telling Pinkie and Derek what she was about to suggest next.

“Why don’t Pinkie and I work on getting the engines shut down while you handle the Wimpod?” Derek suggested.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Fluttershy asked.

“There’s not really any need for all three of us to do the job, and anyway it’s going to be a lot easier for all of us if you can keep that Wimpod nice and calm.” As Derek spoke, he carefully leaned over and whispered to Fluttershy. “To be honest, I could probably handle the engines on my own, but we might want to keep Pinkie Pie occupied for the time being.” Fluttershy and her Ralts both nodded their heads in agreement as Fluttershy bent down to start looking for the Wimpod while Derek motioned for Pinkie to follow him.

*********

Several minutes later, Fluttershy was still on her hands and knees as she searched for where the Wimpod had fled, her Ralts riding on her back and doing its best to assist. While Fluttershy had several times heard the telltale sound of skittering as Wimpod moved from one patch of shadows to another, she had yet to catch sight of it again. The only slight upside to her situation was the fact that she felt as though she were slowly becoming more acclimated to the foul stench that filled the room. “I realize that Mister Wimpod must be very frightened with everything that’s been going on, but was it really necessary to squirt so much of his slime everywhere?” Fluttershy muttered to herself as she crawled past a machine whose sides were splattered with dried purple sludge. “This isn’t going to work. There’s just so many places for the Wimpod to hide that it could be anywhere. Think, Fluttershy, if you were lost in some strange place like this, where would you hide?” Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she tried to put herself in the mind of the Wimpod…only to immediately regret her decision as the smell quickly overwhelmed her.

As Fluttershy collapsed to the floor in a coughing fit, however, she caught site of a pair of sad eyes staring out at her from the shadows. Slowly, Fluttershy did her best to stifle her coughs as she tried to keep an eye on the Wimpod without letting it realize that she could see it. Once she was able to quiet herself, Fluttershy watched and waited for the Wimpod to make the first move. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the Wimpod cautiously peeked its head out into the open.

“Hello again,” Fluttershy said once the Wimpod had gotten about halfway into the open, while her Ralts cheerfully waved at it. “Don’t worry, don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you, we just want to be your friends. It must be so lonely to be all by yourself in the place, isn’t it?” The Wimpod let out a sad wimper in reply as it inched closer to Fluttershy. “There, there,” Fluttershy said reassuringly as the slowly reached out and started to gently stroke the top of Wimpod’s head. “Why don’t you tell me about how you got here in the first place?”

*********

It was a sunny day in Alola (like most were) and the Wimpod that lived near the docks of Heahea City were engaged in their usual pastime of scouring the area for any leftover bits of trash to eat. The ships that docked there seemed to offer a never-ending supply of refuse to snack on. Better yet, the largest ships offered a multitude of spots to hide once the humans disembarked.

The humans on one such boat had even left several bags of refuse on the deck unattended, likely meaning to haul it off before the departed. It was the considerate thing to do, then, for the Wimpod to eat as much of the garbage as they could before the humans returned, thus reducing the amount of work they would have to do later. Unfortunately, the Wimpod wouldn’t have much time for feasting, as midway through their meal they heard the telltale sounds of humans approaching and were forced to scatter and hide. Most of the Wimpod managed to scuttle over the side of the boat, however one was forced to dart into the ship’s cabin and hide under the furniture as it listened to the humans and waited for them to leave.

“Aw dang it! Look at this mess!”

“Hey, I warned you about leaving the trash out like that, but you didn’t want to listen.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. You can spare me the ‘I told you so’ bit. Listen, we’re running late as it is. I’ll get this mess cleaned up, you work on getting the ship ready to move.” Much to the Wimpod’s dismay, this exchange was followed by one of the humans walking into the cabin while the other human stayed outside gathering up the remains of the Wimpod’s meal. Fearful of being discovered, the Wimpod waited until the first human seemed distracted before darting further belowdecks in search of a new place to hide.

The Wimpod waited for what seemed like an eternity until it finally felt have enough to chance exiting its hiding spot and sneak out onto the deck. To the Wimpod’s horror, however, upon leaving the ship’s cabin it found that the ship had sailed out into open water, with land nowhere to be seen.

In the days that followed, Wimpod would spend most of its time hiding belowdecks, only emerging at night to forage for food. Finally, the ship finally docked at another island, and as soon as the humans had left the ship Wimpod fled as fast as it could. Unfortunately, the new island that Wimpod found itself on wasn’t much of an improvement over the ship. Humans were teeming all over the shore and there wasn’t a single other Wimpod to be seen. Dejected and alone, Wimpod wandered from hiding spot to hiding spot until eventually it came upon the massive barge that served as the local gym. The gym was sufficiently large that Wimpod had plenty of places to hide, and its kitchens were well stocked enough that there was little danger of anyone missing the food Wimpod helped itself to at night. Still, it was a lonely existence, and Wimpod dearly missed its swarm.

*********

“Oh, you poor thing,” Fluttershy said, practically in tears as Wimpod finished its story. “After going through all that its now wonder you’re so nervous. Well, don’t you worry, now that I’m here I’m not going to let anything else happen to you.” No sooner did Fluttershy say this, however, than an alarm started to sound accompanied by red flashing lights. Despite this, Wimpod didn’t flee or spit up more slime, but rather pressed itself into Fluttershy’s arms. “It’s…alright,” Fluttershy said through gritted teeth, trying to be as reassuring as possible. “That probably means my friends have finished doing whatever it was they were trying to do with the engines. I didn’t know it was going to be so loud, though.” As Fluttershy started to stand back up, the Wimpod began to whine piteously until Fluttershy bent down to pick it up, allowing her Ralts to climb up onto her shoulders. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to leave you behind. Now, why don’t I introduce you to our friends and we can see what was so important that they needed to make all that noise. “Don’t worry,” Fluttershy added as the Wimpod began to squirm uncomfortably. “My friends aren’t going to hurt you. They’re actually both very nice, even if sometimes they are a bit louder than they need to be. Especially Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy added under her breath.

It didn’t take long for Fluttershy to locate Derek and Pinkie Pie, who were at the back of the room near a set of massive machines Fluttershy could only assume were the barge’s engines. “Fluttershy you’re here…and you brought the Wimpod with you,” Derek said as he noticed the Pokémon Fluttershy was holding in her arms.

“Now, be nice,” Fluttershy chided. “Wimpod has been through an awful lot, and he only spat up all that slime was because he was scared. Speaking of which, what was making all that noise a little while ago?”

“Oh, that?” Pinkie replied. “Well, Derek went over to those boxes on these big, enormous machines and he flipped a few switches and everything went all Eheheheheheh and then it was all like Verrrroom and then the machines stopped making noise. But, then the alarms went off, and they were all WRAHH! WRAHH! WRAHH! But, you probably heard that part yourself.”

“In other words, we were able to shut the engines down, and that alarm was to let everyone know that the emergency distress beacon’s been activated,” Derek translated. “So, now the good news is that we’re either going to eventually drift back to shore somewhere in the Javik region, or a search party is going to find us. Either way, the next issue we have to deal with is how do we get out of here? The main door’s still going to be jammed, but there should be some other way to of here. Theoretically, we could just smash out way out, but I’d rather avoid that if we can.”

As Fluttershy nodded her head, not particularly liking the idea of breaking down anything, the Wimpod suddenly began to squirm about in her arms. “Is there something wrong?” Fluttershy asked as she crouched down and let go of the Wimpod, who proceeded to scuttle about in a circle a few times before pausing to look back at Fluttershy and the others. “I think Wimpod knows a way out and wants to show us.”

“That’s great! Lead on, Wimpy!” Pinkie Pie cheered.

Letting out a chirp of acknowledgement, the Wimpod proceeded to rapidly skitter across the engine room floor, pausing occasionally to check to make sure the others were following it. Eventually, Wimpod stopped near a wall and began gesturing towards a battered ventilation grill near the floor.

“Huh, I’m guessing this is probably how Wimpod get’s in and out of here,” Derek said as he nudged the grate, which easily swung open. “Well, theoretically we could use this to get out here, the only catch is it looks like it’s pretty tight in there. Honestly, I don’t think there’s any way that I could fit in there, and even for you two I’d say it’s going to be a real squeeze.”

Fluttershy looked into the dark confines of the vent and shuddered at the thought of trying to crawl through there. “Isn’t there some other way we could get out of here!”

“What about our Pokémon?” Pinkie Pie asked suddenly. “The problem is that we’re too big to fit, right? But our Pokémon are a lot smaller, so there could fit in there no problem. I mean, except for Munchy, of course. He’s gotten way too big to fit in a little hole like that. And, Isla’s pretty big too, so she probably wouldn’t be able to fit in either.”

“Pinkie, you’re a genius!” Derek exclaimed.

“Actually, I’m a pony,” Pinkie replied in complete seriousness.

Derek paused for several seconds before continuing. “Right. Anyway, if we send some of our Pokémon in there, then Wimpod should be able to lead them back out into the main hallways. Once they’re there –”

“They’ll be able to unblock the door and we’ll be able to get out of here!” Fluttershy said before crouching down to Wimpod’s level. “Well, Mister Wimpod, do you think you’ll be able to help us?” Wimpod replied with a cheerful chirp as it bounced up and down.

“I’m going to guess that’s meant to be a yes,” Derek said as he pulled out a Poké Ball. “Okay then, go Joy!”

“Ooh, ooh, me too! Go Lombre!” Pinkie Pie said, tossing out her own ball as well.

“Right, and I’ll send Quilava,” Fluttershy said. Moments later, the three Pokémon were assembled in front of their trainers. “Alright, everyone, we really need your help with something. We need you to follow Mister Wimpod here through these vents to the outside hallways, and then you’ll need to try and unblock the door into here so we can get out. Do you think you’ll be able to help us?”

“Quil!”

“Lombre.”

“Linoone?”

“No, I don’t think we’ll need you to bring back whatever the grunts used to block the door,” Fluttershy replied.

“Lin Linoone?”

“I’m not really sure what ‘Dracozolt Energy Drink’ is, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t use cases of it, so I don’t think you’ll need to worry about it,” Fluttershy said.

“Joy, just get us out of here, please? It’s either you or I have to let out Oppenheimer, and you know how he gets,” Derek said. Joy appeared to consider this for a moment before nodding its head. “Alright now that that’s settled, it’s all up to you four now.”

*********

The following has been translated from Pokémon for your convenience

“Do you think is going to take much longer?” Lombre asked as the group crawled their way through the vents. “It’s too dark and cramped in here, I don’t like it.”

“Here,” Quilava said as the vents on the top of its head flared up. “Does this help?”

“Hey, hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Wimpod yelped. “Are you trying to cook us all or something? Cool your jets before you hurt one of us. I mean, literally cool them, that’s way too hot.” Quilava grunted at this, but obligingly lowered its flames back down. “Thank you. Now it’s not going to be much further, we just need to take the next right and then two vents down should take us right outside the door that your trainers need unstuck. Um, how exactly do you guys plan on opening the door, anyway? I’d offer to help, but I don’t really have all that much upper body strength. Or, you know, hands.”

“I just figured we’d let Joy handle it,” Lombre said. “She’s probably the strongest one here, anyway.”

“So, what do you guys think the door is blocked with?” Joy asked. “I know Fluttershy said they probably didn’t use cases of energy drinks, but they might have, right? Or, maybe they used cases of something else fun, like poffins. Do you guys like poffins? I love poffins, they really tasty, and fun to say, too! Poffins poffins poffins poffins –”

“For the love of Arceus, will you please be quiet?” Quilava growled.

“That would probably be for the best,” Wimpod added. “There were a couple of other humans in the engine room earlier, and they looked like they were from Team Skull. I don’t know too much about them personally, they were always so loud that the rest of my swarm and I always had plenty of time to hid. But, I’ve heard stories from other Pokémon and they really don’t seem like a group of very nice people.”

“Yeah, they’re jerks, but we’ve dealt with them before,” Lombre said. “If they show up then we can handle them.” Quilava once again grunted his agreement as Wimpod came to a stop in front of a decorative grate.

“Alright, out here should be right in front of the door. Are you guys really sure you’re going to be alright? I mean, what if those Team Skull guys come back and they have some sort of machine or something to catch you with? I know you said you could beat them, but humans can be tricky and –"

“If you want to stay back here then stay back here,” Quilava said as it pushed past Wimpod to access the grate. “Right now, we have a job to do.”

“You were a real help leading us here,” Lombre added. “But Quilava’s right. Our trainers are counting on us to get this done, so even if it is a little risky, we need to just go ahead and do it.”

“Besides, it’ll be fine,” Joy added as she followed the others into the hallway. “I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? You know, aside from a school of Gyarados attack the pace, that actually would be pretty bad.” A tense few seconds ticked by as the other Pokémon froze and listened for the sounds of angry roars in the distance. “Wow, did anyone else kind of expect a bunch of Gyarados to actually just randomly attack us after I said –”

“Yes,” Quilava replied. “Now, let’s get this over with.” A quick examination of the door revealed that the grunts had wedged a half-dozen doorstops into the doorframe at various points to keep it shut. “Well, should be easy enough tot fix, at least,” Quilava grumbled. “Joy, why don’t you focus on getting the ones stuck in near the top, I’ll grab the ones at the bottom, and Lombre can –” Quilava fell silent as approaching voices echoed out from down the hall. “—keep watch. Terrific. Alright, new plan. Lombre and I will keep our company busy while Joy gets the wedges out.” Lombre hurried over to take a stand next to Quilava, the pair taking their positions just as Femur and Ribcage rounded the corner.

*********

“It figures those losers would start bustin’ stuff up the one time we don’t want stuff getting’ trashed,” Ribcage said. “I mean, come on, they’re not even part of a team, so why the heck do they keep doin’ this?”

“I know, right? I mean, we bust things up, but we’re bone hard grunts, it’s what we’re supposed to do,” Femur replied. “Actually, I’ve always kind of wondered about that. We’re grunts, so we’re supposed to bust things up and make trouble, right?”

“You know it, man!” Ribcage said.

“Yeah, but we’re also boneheads. And boneheads never do what we’re supposed to do, that what makes us boneheads. So, if we’re supposed to make trouble because we’re grunts, but we’re supposed to not do what we’re supposed to do because we’re boneheads, does that mean to be real boneheads we shouldn’t be making trouble?”

“Woah, that’s some seriously deep stuff,” Ribcage said. “Wait, wait, I got it. Boneheads never do what they’re supposed to do, right? But, we’re the hardest boneheads of them all, so we don’t do what boneheads are supposed to do by not not doin’ what we’re supposed to do. So we are gonna do what we’re supposed to do as grunts, ‘cause that means we’re not doin’ what we’re supposed to do as boneheads, which is what boneheads are supposed to do!”

“Yeah! You’re a freaking genius, man! So let’s…uh, what were we going to do again?” Femur asked.

“We were gonna check to see if those losers we locked in the engine room had trashed the place,” Ribcage reminded his friend.

“Oh, year, right. So, what are we—” Femur stopped mid-sentence as he turned the corner and found himself faced with Quilava and Lombre as Joy continued to yank at the doorstops. “Are you kidding me? Those losers have got their Pokémon sneaking them out.”

“Relax, this is fine. All this means is that we’ve gotta beat these little pests and then we can use them to make the losers in there do whatever we tell them to,” Ribcage said. “Speakin’ of which, go Zubat!”

“Man, you are on fire today,” Femur said as she pulled out his own Poké Ball. “Go Weepinbell!”

*********

“This Zubat is back for another attack so you suckers best step back before I give you a smack!”

“I really hate that guy,” Quilava grumbled as he glared menacingly at the Zubat fluttering in the air above it. “For crying out loud, even your trainers knocked that off by now. Enough with the rhyming already!”

“You think you’re zealous but you’re just jealous you can’t match my flow ‘caus you’re too slow so get ready to go!” Zubat continued to rap.

Quilava paused for a moment, its eye twitching slightly. “That’s it, I’mma kill it.”

“I guess that leaves me with Weepinbell, then,” Lombre sighed. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance you might just give up and go away, is there?”

“Probably not,” Weepinbell admitted.

Before Lombre could respond, Quilava took action, curling itself into a ball and launching itself into the air at Zubat with its flames making it look like a wheel of fire.

“No fair, they’re fightin’ back without those dweeb trainers of theirs?” Ribcage complained. “Who said they could do that? Zubat, Poison Fang this fool.”

“Thought you could bring the pain? Well get ready, ‘cause now I’m bringin’ the fang!” Zubat screeched as it dove down at Quilava, its fangs glowing purple as it sank them into Quilava’s side.

“Grr, that doesn’t even – Ngh – rhyme you lunatic,” Quilava growled as it struggled free of Zubat’s grip.

“Looks like my boy’s got that on lock, so its just you and me, lily pad. And by that, I mean it’s you versus Weepinbell here. Speaking of which, Weepinbell, use your Acid attack!” Weepinbell calmly inhaled before spewing forth a torrent of steaming, purple liquid, which spattered onto Lombre, eating away several small holes in its lily pad. Lombre, in response, fired off a powerful stream of bubbles that, despite striking Weepinbell square on the face, didn’t seem to have much effect on the Grass-type at all.

“Bubbles? Against a plant? Really?” Quilava snorted before it bolted into the air again, rapidly bouncing off the walls of the hallway before pouncing onto Zubat and slamming it into the floor.

“Gonna…somethin’ rope…hegafloof,” Zubat barely managed to weeze out as it tried and failed to pull itself upright.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me,” Ribcage moaned as he recalled his Zubat back to its Poké Ball. “Those losers ain’t even here and their Pokémon are still beatin’ us down. Maybe we should just book it.”

“Come on, bro, we’ve still got this,” Femur objected. “Besides, running away when we can still cause trouble seriously isn’t hardcore, and I’ve still got some serious payback to give this Lombre. Weepinbell, Poison Powder!” Weepinbell took another deep breath before exhaling a cloud of sparkling violet powder that quickly engulfed Lombre.

Lombre promptly exhaled another blast of bubbles, which cleared the toxic dust from the air, but even a brief glance was enough to tell that powder had already gone to work.

“Lombre! Hold on!” Quilava yelled as it burst into another Quick Attack, slamming into Weepinbell from behind before interposing itself between Weepinbell and Lombre.

“So you want to get wrecked first?” Femur sneered. “That’s fine with me. Weepinbell, blast this fool with your Stun—” Femur was abruptly cut off as a beam of red light blasted out and struck Weepinbell in the side, sending it tumbling into the far wall.

“L-leave my friends alone!” Everyone present, human and Pokémon alike, turned towards the vent to see Wimpod emerge, holding itself as high as its tiny legs would allow.

“What the heck, now they got some new little pest out to mess with us? This situation’s gettin’ more uncool by the minute. I say we make like a Spoink and bounce out of here while we can.”

“Hold up a minute, I recognize that little squirt,” Femur said. “That’s the same annoying pest that stank us out of the engine room earlier. I say we give the little chump some payback before we go.” Ribcage nodded his head in agreement as the two started to advance on the now panicking Wimpod. Quilava readied itself to defend its friend, but before it could, Wimpod suddenly vomited up a stream of greyish-purple liquid that spattered across both of the grunts.

“Dude,” Ribcage began as both grunts stood frozen in place due to a mixture of shock and disgust. “Did that thing just do what I think it did?”

“Yeah, yeah it did,” Femur replied as he struggled to keep from vomiting. “Oh man, that is seriously rank. Maybe we should just split after all.” Even as Femur spoke, a metallic squeal echoed through the air as the door to engine room swung open, a rather irate trio of trainers standing behind it. “Aw dang, now those dweebs are out, too. That’s it, we’re bailin’ on this whole uncool scene!”

“Right behind ya, bro!” Ribcage added as the pair fled down the hall.

*********

“There we go, an Antidote to take care of the poison, and a Super Potion should heal most of the injuries,” Derek said as he administered the medicines to Lombre. “Fluttershy, how’s Quilava doing?”

“Actually, it looks like Quilava’s going to be just fine,” Fluttershy replied, stroking Quilava’s head as she fed it a Sitrus Berry. “And it sounds like things went as well as they did because somecreature was very brave and helped chase those grunts away.” As Fluttershy spoke she glanced over towards Wimpod, who was sitting alone in a corner. “I want to thank you for what you did. Standing up to those grunts must have been very scary for you.” A moment or two of hesitation later, Wimpod scuttled over to Fluttershy and let out a few squeaking chirps. “What? You want me to take you with us? Are you sure you want to do that? I’m flattered that you trust me that much, but you need to understand, we do tend to have to do a lot of battling. More than I’d really prefer, to be honest,” Fluttershy muttered under her breath. Wimpod, however, appeared undeterred as it began to gently nudge Fluttershy’s foot. “Oh, alright. If this is what you really want, then of course you can join us.” Fluttershy proceeded to reach into her bag and pulled out a Poké Ball, which she presented to Wimpod. The Bug-type Pokémon eagerly bumped into it, allowing it self to be pulled in and captured.

“Aw, Fluttershy made a new critter friend,” Pinkie Pie said as she recalled her Lombre, satisfied that it was going to be fine.

“Yeah, just watch yourself if it manages to evolve,” Derek cautioned. “Wimpod might not seem terribly threatening, but their evolved form—” At that moment, the entire barge violently shuddered, sending everyone (save for Pinkie Pie, who had somehow managed to brace herself in time) tumbling to the floor. “Oh good,” Derek groaned. “We’ve landed.”

Comments

[raven618]

I know you won't be including Galarian Pokemon on the Island, but will any trainers have them on their team?

[Alabenson]

10852771
I will say that one of the Mane 6 will be getting a Galarian Pokemon.

[Xanderfox]

10852861
So from a trade or some jerk trainer abandoning it?