My Little Pokemon

by Alabenson

Puppy Problems

“Well, they do say any landing you can walk away from is a good one,” Pinkie Pie said as the three friends looked over the barge housing the Aquarius City Gym, which was now perched precariously on set of jagged rocks near the coast.

“I’m fairly certain that saying mostly involves planes and not boats, Pinkie,” Derek replied.

“Eh, boats, planes, they’re basically the same thing, right? Anyway, what’s important is that nobody’s hurt and the gym is going to be just fine.” At that moment, a muffled bang could be heard as dark clouds of smoke began billowing out from one of the barge’s engines. “What’s important is that nobody got hurt.”

“In any event, we should probably find some way of reporting this so the league can start figuring out how to fix this mess. The only question now is which way do we—”

“This way!” Pinkie Pie declared before marching off away from the shore in a direction seemingly picked at random. Derek started to open his mouth to object, or at least suggest a less arbitrary decision-making process, but quickly decided against fighting the madness. Fluttershy, meanwhile, was already following Pinkie, having long ago learned not to question her friend’s Pinkie Sense-fueled intuition. Derek, however, was still prone to skepticism, and after an hour or so of apparently aimless wandering he elected to speak up.

“Pinkie, I realize I’m probably going to regret asking this, but do you have any idea where you’re leading us?” Derek asked.

“Wherever it is we need to go!” Pinkie replied happily. “I’m not really sure where that is, exactly, but my Pinkie Sense hasn’t steered me wrong yet. Besides, we know that whichever way we should go, it’s going to be away from the shore, right? So, as long as we’re going away from the water, we should be heading towards wherever it is we need to go.”

“That…actually, I don’t know if it’s the physical exhaustion or the diesel fumes I breathed in back in the engine room, but that almost made sense. So, for now I’m going to just go with the flow.”

“To be fair, just going with Pinkie Pie’s flow does tend to work out, eventually,” Fluttershy added. “That said, do you have any idea where we might be flowing to?”

“I’m not really sure myself,” Derek said. “A lot of that’s going to depend on how far north we drifted. I don’t think we’re north of Ferrum Village, but I can’t be sure how close we are to it either. It’ll be easier to tell once we find some sort of landmark, but the closest place we’ll be able to report the barge’s location will either be the village itself, or—” The air was suddenly filled with canine-like howls as a woman’s voice could be heard barking out commands.

“Alright, pick up the pace! I want to see twenty laps from each of you on the double!”

“I guess that answers the question about where we are. Come on, let’s get moving!” Derek said as he quickly started making his way towards the direction of the voice, Pinkie and Fluttershy following closely behind. The trio soon found themselves standing in front of a sizable compound, at the center of which was a field holding a racetrack, obstacle course and a few other features Pinkie and Fluttershy could only guess the purpose of. The track was currently occupied by a pack of at least a dozen or so orange, canine-like Pokémon being watched over by a green-haired woman in a blue uniform.

“Wow, look at this place! What are they doing with all those Poké puppies?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Growlithe,” Derek corrected absentmindedly. “And they’re training them. More specifically, they’re being trained for police work. This place is the main training facility for the Javik Region police force, and that includes the police Pokémon as well. Which makes it as good a place as any to report what’s happened with—” The piercing sound of a whistle cut Derek off as the officer on the field finally took notice of the trio’s presence.

“Hey! You three! What do you think you’re doing here? This is a restricted area!” the officer called out while the Pokémon stopped what they were doing and turned to face the intruders. While Flutttershy tensed just a bit as she tried to show the Growlithe that she wasn’t a threat, Pinkie Pie blithely skipped over to greet the stern looking Pokémon. Derek, meanwhile, calmly approached the officer with his Pokédex in one hand.

“It’s alright, officer. I’m with the Javik League, and we’re actually here on official business. Sort of, anyway. I’m assuming you’ve heard about what happened with the Aquarius City Gym?” As Derek spoke, he handed his Pokédex over to the officer, who accepted it with a suspicious look on her face. “Anyway, it’s been grounded on the shore not too far from here, so we need to report the location so the league can get started on getting it seaworthy again and take it back to the city where it belongs.” The officer, meanwhile, pushed a few buttons on Derek’s Pokédex before looking up at him with an expression of total shock.

“I see. Sir, if you could come with me inside, we are going to need a full written account of the incident.”

“Yeah, I figured as much. Hey, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, do you two want to wait out here while I head inside and get this report business settled?” Derek called back.

“Does that mean we get to play with all these cute doggies?” Pinkie Pie asked hopefully.

“I guess taking a break wouldn’t hurt them,” the officer said before addressing the assembled Growlithe. “Alright, I have an important report that needs to be filed, so why don’t you all take a short break until I get back?” The officer received a ‘Growf’ in unison from the Growlithe by way of response, which she took as an affirmation.

*********

“This has been so uncool,” Femur groaned as he and Ribcage trudged away from the rocky shore where they had washed up after abandoning the barge.

“Tell me about it. All I got from that wreck was just one more reason to hate gyms and trials and all that stuff…hold up a sec. Hatin’ all that stuff is part of what makes us cool, right?” Ribcage asked.

“You know it, man! Cool dudes hate dork stuff like gyms and school and rules,” Femur assured his friend.

“Right, and so, the more we hate that stuff, the cooler it makes us, right? So, goin’ through all that was uncool, but it also kinda made us more cool in the process.”

“Dude, you’re totally right! It doesn’t matter what happens to us boneheads, we just smash through it and get cooler anyway!” The pair celebrated this revelation by grasping hands hand smashing their heads together.

“Y’know, as awesome as it is that we got cooler, and also we did kinda trash a gym,” Ribcage began as he nursed a likely concussion. “Anyway, as awesome as that stuff is, I was just kinda wonderin’, is it gonna be cool enough for the boss? I mean, he’s always goin’ on about makin’ bank, and ‘causin’ trouble might be cool, but it doesn’t really bring in the Pokébucks.”

“Dang, bro, you might be right. We need to think of something new we can do that will really show the boss we’re the hardest grunts ever! So, uh, what do you think we should do?” The two grunts marched along in silence as they both struggled to think of the most diabolical act they could possibly perform, until they finally came into sight of the police training grounds. “What the heck is this – OH SNAP! HIDE!” Both grunts promptly dove behind a nearby boulder before cautiously daring to peek their heads back out.

“You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me,” Ribcage groaned. “We finally get away from those dorks, and the first thing we run into is the cops?”

“Wait, dude, I just hat the coolest idea ever! Check this, what if we completely wrecked this place? Trashing a gym is cool and all, but messing up the cop’s office thing? The boss would have to respect us if we pulled off something like that. Or, even better, what if we figured out some way of locking the place down? Then every grunt on the island would be able to go wild and there wouldn’t be anyone that could stop them. And, since we’d be the ones who made it happen, we’d be the head grunts of all time!”

“Dude…that is the greatest plan ever!” Ribcage declared. “Let’s get in there and wreck that place! Just, how are we supposed to get in there without gettin’ caught?”

“Relax, man, I’ve got an idea. All we’ve got to do is wait for something to get everybody’s attention…”

*********

“Yay, go doggies go! Woohoo!” Pinkie Pie cheered as she and Fluttershy watched several of the Growlithe transverse the field’s obstacle course, Fluttershy’s Ralts excitedly waving its arms as it sat in Fluttershy’s arms. Despite the Growlithe’s commander having given them permission to rest, the diligent Pokémon were loath to pass up a chance to continue training, especially with an appreciative audience. “Wow, these little guys are really something, aren’t they?” Pinkie Pie asked, to which Fluttershy nodded in agreement.

“I’ve seen animals train for difficult jobs before, but the way they’re doing it all by themselves is really something else. I guess it does make sense, though, considering how different Pokémon seem to be from normal animals. These Growlithe are probably all here because they really want to become police Pokémon, so naturally they’ll work as hard as they can,” Fluttershy concluded.

“Huh, I guess that does make sense,” Pinkie Pie said as she continued to watch the Growlithe drill themselves. “So, are all these Growlithe gonna be police doggies, then? It seems like there’s an awful lot of them.”

“Probably not, to be honest.” Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy both turned to see the officer from earlier walking towards them. “We almost always receive more Growlithe candidates than we can use, so we have to turn away at least a few who can’t keep up with the others.”

“That’s a shame,” Fluttershy said as she leaned to one side to try looking behind the officer. “Um, shouldn’t Derek be with you?”

“Derek? Oh, him. No, he’s still with my cousin Jenny filling out the paperwork regarding the Aquarius Gym situation, so I thought I’d come out here to check on our recruits to see how they’re doing. By the way, I’m Officer Jenny.” As Fluttershy tried to make sense of the fact that there were apparently at least two officers with identical appearances and names, Officer Jenny watched the Growlithe with a critical eye. “It’s always a shame when we have to cut a Growlithe from the program, they all absolutely have the heart for the job. Unfortunately, in some cases the heart might be all that they have.” As Officer Jenny spoke, her gaze seemed to fix on one Growlithe in particular, who was climbing up a structure resembling a rope bridge strung between two stepladders. The Growlithe cadets would climb up the steps on one end of the structure and quickly race across the bridge before climbing down the other end. When the Growlithe who had caught Officer Jenny’s attention attempted this, however, a misplaced paw sent it tumbling over the side of the bridge.

“Uh oh, he’s not hurt, is he?” Pinkie Pie asked in alarm.

“I’d doubt it, even for a Pokémon that’s not exactly a big drop” Officer Jenny replied. “Still, number 23’s been having trouble ever since it got here. If its performance doesn’t start improving soon, and I mean really improving, then we’ll probably have to cut it from the program.”

“Oh no, that means it won’t be able to become a police Pokémon, doesn’t it?” Pinkie Pie said. “Well, no Pokémon is going to have its dream ruined while Pinkie Pie’s on duty. If that Growlithe is having trouble keeping up with the others, then I’ll just have to get it whipped into shape myself! And by myself I mean you too, Fluttershy,” Pinkie Pie added.

“I…guess that’s fine with me,” Fluttershy said as she recovered from the surprise of having Pinkie Pie volunteer her for the task. “I mean, as long as there’s nothing wrong with our giving that Growlithe some extra help, anyway.”

“If you really want to help out then I don’t see any problem with it,” Officer Jenny replied. “As long as it doesn’t cause any disruptions for the other recruits, then you can help all you like.”

“Great!” Pinkie declared as she stood up. “Just one teeny-tiny, itty-bitty little question before we get started. What exactly does Twenty Three need to be able to do to become a police Pokémon, anyway?”

*********

“So, all we need to do is make sure Twenty Three can run the obstacle course?” Fluttershy asked as she and Pinkie Pie stood facing the Growlithe’s training space. “I guess that should be too hard. It’s not the sort of thing I’d be able to do myself, but it doesn’t look all that different from the courses I’ve seen Rainbow Dash set up.”

“Perfect! I’ve cheered on Rainbow Dash tons of times while she’s practiced Wonderbolt stuff, so this’ll be a piece of chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. Okay, Twenty Three, why don’t you show us what you’ve got!” The Growlithe candidate let out a ruff of acknowledgement as it charged forward towards the obstacle course, designed to mimic the sorts of real-world obstacles a police Pokémon might be expected to encounter in the field. Despite Pinkie Pie providing the most encouraging cheers she could muster, however, it quickly became apparent why this particular Growlithe was at the bottom of its class. Hurdles were tripped over or crashed into, balance beams were fallen off of, even a simple teetertotter proved too much for Twenty Three’s nonexistent poise. By the end of the exercise, Pinkie and Fluttershy could barely even watch the spectacle.

“I don’t mean to be discouraging, but maybe Twenty Three really isn’t cut out to be a police Pokémon,” Fluttershy said gingerly.

“Come on, Fluttershy, Twenty Three isn’t that bad –” As Pinkie Pie spoke, Twenty Three tripped and tumbled down several stairs onto the grass. “Okay, maybe Twenty Three is that bad, but that just means he really really really needs our help.” Fluttershy watched Twenty Three picked itself up off the ground and charge back at a series of vaults before letting out a sigh.

“It isn’t that I don’t think that Twenty Three could never make it,” Fluttershy began as Twenty Three bellyflopped onto the top of a hurdle and was left frantically wriggling around in midair. “I’m just not so sure we really have time to give it all the help it’s going to need.”

“Or…what if Twenty Three’s main problem is that it’s thinking too much about what its doing, and that’s why it keeps messing up?” Pinkie Pie suggested. “You remember when Applejack and Rainbow Dash tried coaching us for buckball and we got so nervous that we couldn’t play because we thought that if we messed up than everypony would be super disappointed in us and we’d have to become hermits to escape the shame?”

“Unfortunately,” Fluttershy replied as she winced slightly at the memory. “So, are you saying that all Twenty Three needs to do is stop thinking about making mistakes? I’m not so sure that’s –” A loud series of crashes pulled both Fluttershy and Pinkie’s attention back to Twenty Three and the obstacle course. After a great deal of struggling, Twenty Three had finally managed to escape off its perch atop the hurdle. Unfortunately, Twenty Three had accomplished this by tipping the entire hurdle over, sending it crashing to the ground.

“Come on, Fluttershy, can’t you see that Twenty Three needs help? And helping creatures who’re having trouble is always the right thing to do. Besides,” Pinkie continued before Fluttershy could cite any situations where her last statement wasn’t entirely accurate. “What’s the worst that could happen?” Fluttershy immediately recalled several conversations she had had with Discord in the past about phrases one should never, ever utter. Before Fluttershy could make any comments about the dangers of tempting fate, however, Pinkie Pie was already merrily skipping over towards Twenty Three, presumably to extol the virtues of not overthinking things.

*********

“You have gotta be kiddin’ me,” Ribcage hissed as he and Femur slunk along the edges of the police training field. “How the heck do those two uncool losers keep showin’ up everywhere we go?”

“Relax, as long as they don’t see us, we’ll be fine,” Femur assured his fellow grunt. “Besides, it looks like they’re too busy doing something with one of those Growlithe to pay any attention to what we’re up to. Just keep heading towards the door, nice and slow.” With all attention currently fixed on Twenty Three’s latest mishap, no one noticed the two grunts as they crept towards the building and slipped inside. “Okay, the hard part’s over. Now we’ve just got to find the room with the most important-looking stuff in this place so we can trash it.”

“What do you mean important-lookin’?”

“You know, like computers and junk,” Femur replied. “The stuff the cops use to store all their files and other uncool cop stuff like that. If we trash all that, then the stupid cops here won’t be able to mess with grunts like us like they usually do.”

“If you say so, man,” Ribcage said, not sounding totally convinced. “So, where the heck are we supposed to find a room like that, anyway?”

“How the heck should I know? It’s not like I ever hung out around police stations or anything,” Femur replied as he led Ribcage down one of the hallways, taking care to keep an ear out for any approaching Officer Jennies.

“Hold up, if you’ve never been in a place like this, than how the heck do ya know if they’ve got a big, important room with computers and stuff?” Ribcage asked.

“Duh, man, because you always see those rooms in the movies,” Femur replied, causing Ribcage to pause and think for a moment before responding.

“Oh yeah, you’re right. Let’s find this place then.” The next several minutes saw the grunts cautiously creep through the halls of the building, occasionally checking one of the doors, most of which turned out to be locked tight. Eventually, however, the pair managed to locate an unlocked door, just in time to duck inside before a pair of officers rounded a corner.

“I can’t believe you lost your security badge,” a female voice could be heard chiding from the hall the grunts had been sneaking in only moments earlier.

“And you’ve never lost something important before?” a near identical voice shot back. “I had to take it out to get my security number during this morning’s meeting, and I must have just forgot to put it back. It’s not like it’s a big deal, though, I just need to grab it from the meeting room I left it in.” Femur and Ribcage exchanged a look of panic as it occurred to them that the meeting room in question was the room they were standing in. The pair frantically looked for a place to hide, Femur eventually trying to crouch behind a potted ficus tree in the corner while Ribcage dove under the table. What felt like hours ticked by as the two grunts quaked in their meager hiding spots, but just as the door handle started to turn an alarm suddenly rang out.

“What on Earth is going on?” one of the officers asked.

“Something must have happened outside. Come on, we better go check it out, we can come back and grab your badge later.” This exchange was promptly followed by the sounds of footsteps rapidly rushing away from the door, leaving the grunts to each breath a sigh of relief.

“Oh man, that was too close,” Femur said as he emerged from behind the ficus. “Maybe we should just bail after all. I didn’t think they’d actually lock up all the4ir important stuff like this, anyway.”

“No, dude,” Ribcage said as he pulled himself out from under the table. “We’ve got this.”

“Man, I wish we did, but you’ve seen how locked down this place is. We’ll never be able to get at any of the good stuff without a badge or a key or something.”

“Badges?” Ribcage said with an evil grin as he held up an ID badge with Officer Jenny’s face on it. “You say we need some stinkin’ badges? I found it on the floor when I got under the table. That loser police lady must’ve dropped it.”

“Hah! Nice!” Femur cried out happily. “This changes everything. So, let’s start causing some real trouble.”

*********

“I just don’t know what went wrong, everything looked like it was going really well for a bit, and then…” Pinkie Pie said sadly as she and Fluttershy watched what was left of the obstacle course burn.

“How did this even happen?” Fluttershy asked. “I thought you were just going to have Twenty Three run a practice lap so it could try things without worrying about how well it was doing.”

“That’s exactly what we were doing, but then Twenty Three still looked kind of nervous, so I gave it one of the berries from Derek’s bag to calm down,” Pinkie said, causing Fluttershy to give her an alarmed look.

“Pinkie, exactly which of those berries did you give Twenty Three?” Fluttershy asked.

“One of the big red spikey ones,” Pinkie replied. “Derek has a whole lot of those, so I figured he wouldn’t mind if I borrowed one. Why do you ask?”

“Pinkie! You gave a Tamato berry to Twenty Three? Don’t you remember what Derek told us about those?”

“Umm, that they’re really, really tasty?” Pinkie Pie replied nervously.

“Yes, but Derek also said those berries are incredibly spicy and we need to be very careful when giving them to Fire-type Pokémon because they can make them –” Fluttershy was forced to pause as Twenty Three ran by with a panicked expression on its face, a few tongues of flame still leaking from the corners of its mouth. “-uncontrollably breath fire.”

“Oopsie,” Pinkie Pie squeaked out. “Okay, don’t panic, I’ll just have to explain to the police lady that this was all an accident and that it wasn’t Twenty Three’s fault. At least that way Twenty Three won’t get blamed for this and they still might get to become a police Pokémon.”

“Unfortunately, at this point I just don’t think that would help.” Pinkie and Fluttershy turned to see Officer Jenny standing behind them with her arms crossed. “It’s not that I don’t believe you about what happened, but a police Pokémon needs to be able to control their attacks well enough to keep something like this from happening. If number Twenty Three can’t even manage that, then there’s no way we could let it join the force.”

“Oh no!” Pinkie cried out. “There has to be something that we could do to help it.”

“I’m sorry, but at this point there just isn’t anything that could be done. That Growlithe just doesn’t have what it would take to join the Javik police force. Now, if you girls will excuse me, I need to make sure those fires get put out before they have a chance to spread to anything important.”

“This is awful, now Twenty Three will never get to live out its dream of becoming a police Pokémon and being able to fight bad guys and save people!” Pinkie Pie wailed. “What’s Twenty Three going to do now?”

“I don’t know, probably find a trainer,” Fluttershy replied. “Honestly, it sounds like a lot of the reasons Twenty Three wanted to become a police Pokémon are things that we do with our Pokémon all the time.” As Fluttershy said this, she could see Pinkie Pie’s hair, which had almost completely deflated, immediately snap back to its usual bouncy state.

“Fluttershy, that’s it! That’s how we can still help Twenty Three live their dream! Come on, let’s go find them, quick!” Not waiting for Fluttershy to respond, Pinkie Pie immediately bounced off in the direction they’d seen Twenty Three running earlier. It didn’t take Pinkie Pie long to track Twenty Three down, the canine-like Pokémon despondently slumped at the far end of the compound. “Hey, Twenty Three, are you doing alright?” Pinkie Pie asked as she slowly approached the4 Growlithe and sat down next to it. Twenty Three didn’t stir from its spot, only letting out a low whimper by way of response to her greeting. “Yeah, I figured you’d be pretty down the dumps after everything that’s happened. But, you know, Fluttershy and I were talking and we might have an idea about how you can still be the super awesome amazing hero that you want to be.” Twenty Three looked up at Pinkie Pie with a quizzical expression on its face, but before Pinkie could elaborate any further a siren started to blare out from the compound’s main building. Immediately, all of the officers on the field (every last one of whom seemed to be named Jenny) promptly dropped whatever they were doing and rushed into the building.

“Oh my, what do you think is happening?” Fluttershy asked in alarm, seeing the urgency written on the officer’s faces. As if to answer her question , a garbage can was promptly tossed out one of the building’s ground floor windows as a familiar pair climbed outside, both dressed in poorly-fitting riot gear.

“Now that’s how you case some trouble!” Femur declared triumphantly.

“Naw, man, that ain’t nothin’,” Ribcage crowed. “You wanna see some real troublemakin’, then keep watchin’.” Ribcage seemed to count down the seconds before metal shutters began crashing down over every door and window of the building, completely sealing it. “I set that up to go off right before we bailed.”

“Yeehah! Nice work, man! We’ve got those cops now! Now nobody will be able to mess with us grunts no matter how much trouble we cause!” Femur cheered.

“Ahem. Aren’t you two forgetting someone?” Fluttershy said as she approached the pair.

“Yeah, you’re forgetting a couple of someones!” Pinkie Pie added.

“Oh, don’t worry, we didn’t forget about you two goody-goody losers,” Femur replied evilly. “With all the cops trapped inside, uncool jokers like you two are the only things standing between us and being able to run wild all we want. That’s why I grabbed myself a little party favor before we busted out of that place.” As Femur spoke, he reached behind his back and pulled out a grenade launcher. “Since you whiny losers like crying over Pokémon so much, I figured I’d get you some tear gas!” With that, Femur pulled the weapon’s trigger…but nothing happened. Confused, Femure continued to pull the trigger several more times, eventually turning the launcher around so he could look down the barrel, but still nothing happened.

“Oh, dude, you remembered to load that thing when you grabbed it, right?” Ribcage asked, prompting a sheepish look from Femur as he tried to nonchalantly toss the grenade launcher away.

“You know, now that I think about it, using that thing wouldn’t have been very cool anyway. Super hard boneheads like us don’t need some wimpy cop’s junk to beat these two down, we can do it ourselves! And, you know, by that I mean we can have our Pokémon do it. Anyway, go Weepinbell!”

“Yeah, that’s more like it. Go Zubat!” As the two grunts unleashed their Pokémon, Fluttershy reached to pull out one of her own Poké Balls in response, only for Pinkie Pie to stop her.

“Don’t you worry, Twenty Three and me have got this. Right, Twenty Three?” Pinkie Pie’s supremely confident declaration was met by a baffled stare from Twenty Three, who nevertheless walked up to stand by her side. “Come on, Twenty Three, this is your big chance! Bad guys causing trouble, good guys in danger, now you can show everybody what you can really do!”

“What that mutt can do is catch a beating! Weepinbell, Vine Whip that sucker until it learns not to mess with Team Skull!” Weepinbell promptly lashed out with a pair of green vines at Femur’s command. Twenty Three attempted to meet the attack head on, but this only resulted in Weepinbell’s first strike knocking it off its paws. However, Twenty Three then proceeded to tumble forward, easily dodging Weepinbell’s second attack and bringing it face-to-face with the villainous Grass-type.

“Good work, Twenty Three! Now, show that green meanie who’s boss with your Fire Fang!” Twenty Three obediently chomped down onto Weepinbell’s face, its mouth erupting in flame as it did so. For a brief second, Weepinbell didn’t seem to respond to the attack, but then it began wildly thrashing about in a desperate effort to escape Twenty Three’s jaws

“Uhh…dang, I’ve got nothing,” Femure groaned as he recalled Weepinbell to its ball once its panicked spasms ceased. “Dude, back me up here, will you?”

“Don’t worry, bro, I’ve got yer back. Zubat, launch yer Supersonic attack!” Zubat immediately unleashed an ear-piercing shriek that forced Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to both cover their ears in pain. Twenty Three seemed to have it even worse than either of the girls, the sounds causing it to leap about in confused agony. “Now that’s how ya’ start a beatdown. Alright, Zubat, now use yer Poison Fang.” Its fangs glowing a sickly purple, Zubat darted through the air directly at Twenty Three. Thankfully, Twenty Three’s stumbling about prevented Zubat from landing a direct hit with its attack, only managing to graze Twenty Three’s side.

“Come on, Twenty Three, snap out of it!” Pinkie Pie cried out, but to no avail as Twenty Three continued to aimlessly spin about.

“I warned you that mutt didn’t have what it takes to take on boneheads like us,” Ribcage crowed. “Now look where are, facin’ a Zubat who’s so on fire its practically glowin’. Actually, hold up, I think Zubat really is glowin’. Yo, Zubat, you alright there?” Sure enough, Zubat’s entire body had started to glow brightly, quickly becoming enveloped in white light. In moments, the glow completely consumed Zubat as its outline proceeded to stretch and expand until its size had more than doubled. “Oh yeah! Zubat’s evolving! In yer face, losers, now ya’ got Golbat to deal with!”

“Pinkie, are you sure you don’t want me to help? Twenty Three looked like it was having enough trouble with just Zubat, but now that is evolved –”

“No! Twenty Three has got this handled, you’ll see! Right Twenty Three?” To Pinkie Pie’s delight, Twenty Three shook its head free of its sonic wave-induced delirium and readied itself for her next instruction. “Alright! Now, let’s show this mean old bat that we mean business with your Flame Wheel!” Twenty Three wasted no time charging forward at Pinkie’s command as a raging fire built up inside its mouth before somersaulting into the air, the flames in its mouth becoming a circle of fire as it tumbled head over paws straight into Golbat.

“Aw come on!” Ribcage cried out as he watched his Golbat struggle to remain in the air. “Every time things start to look up fer us, you losers have to come in and ruin it. Well, I’m still gonna beat you and that mutt down. Golbat, hit it with yer Air Cutter!” Despite it still sporting singe marks from Twenty Three’s last attack, Golbat began fiercely beating its wings, generating a powerful gust of wind along with several crescent-shaped blades of pressurized air that came scything towards Twenty Three.

“Don’t worry, Twenty Three, you’ve still got this! Now, get in there and Bite that bat like it’s a marshmallow! A big, sweet, fluffy marshmallow…” While Pinkie started to drool a little at the thought of a five-foot marshmallow, Twenty Three leapt into action, dashing forward straight into Golbat’s attack. Despite several of the scythes scoring hits along Twenty Three’s back and sides, it forced its way through before jumping up at Golbat and chomping down on one of its legs. Golbat made a desperate effort to stay in the air with Twenty Three hanging off of it, but after a few moments Golbat finally collapsed to the ground.

“Stupid mutt, ruinin’ our stupid plans,” Ribcage growled as he recalled his Golbat.

“Hey, relax man,” Femure said. “Yeah, we may have gotten beaten down here, but we’ve still got all those cops trapped inside that building, and there’s nothing these two can do about –” At that moment, the metal shutter over the main entrance to the building bent outwards before exploding off, landing just a few yards shy of the grunts.

“Alright Oppenheimer, good work. Now, return.” Derek’s voice could be heard coming from behind the dust cloud that had been left in the wake of the shutter’s explosive removal.

“Uh, dude, I think we should probably run,” Femur said as a half-dozen Officer Jennys poured out from the entrance. “Oh yeah, we should definitely run.” With that, Femur tossed a smoke grenade to the ground, which quickly filled the area with think grey clouds of smoke.

*********

“-and then, Twenty Three spun through the air all ‘whoo whoo whoo whoo’ and smashed that Golbat right in its mean old face,” Pinkie Pie said as she recounted the events of the battle to Derek.

“And this was the same Growlithe that was having issues meeting the police’s training requirements? It sounds to me like what it really needed was a good trainer to help direct it. That’s actually not all that surprising, most Pokémon perform much better with a partner; that’s part of the reason they tend to be so eager to join up with a trainer in the first place,” Derek said before letting out a small sigh. “Unfortunately, I don’t think any of that will help your friend join the police. Police Pokémon need to be able to operate on their own, and not just with a trainer.”

“I’m not too worried about that, I actually have a much better idea,” Pinkie Pie said as she turned to Twenty Three, who had been resting nearby. “I’ll bet stopping those bad guys felt pretty good, didn’t it? You know, we run into bad guys like that a whole lot while traveling around. Exactly like them, really. Actually, we pretty much just keep running into those two. Anyway, if what you really want to do is stop bad guys form doing mean, bad guy stuff, then you could always just come with us.” Twenty Three appeared to consider Pinkie’s offer for a moment before happily leaping up into her arms and licking her face.

“I’m no Fluttershy, but I’m pretty sure that means yes. Speaking of Fluttershy, do you know where she is? I wanted to talk with her about where we might want to go next.” By this point, Pinkie Pie had already collapsed to the ground in a fit of giggles, but she managed to point Derek in the direction she’d last seen their friend.

As it turned out, while Pinkie Pie had been recounting what had happened to Derek, Fluttershy had been busy providing a similar account to an Officer Jenny. “I’m just sorry I can’t tell you which way they went, but with all the smoke we really couldn’t see anything.”

“Well, luckily all they stole were a few props we keep on hand for display and instructional purposes, so it could have been a lot worse,” Officer Jenny assured her. “In any event, we’ll be sure to let the rest of the officers in the region to know to keep an eye out for those two.”

“That’s something, at least,” Derek said. “Anyway, Fluttershy, I wanted to talk to you about where you wanted to head next. I know you original plan was to just stay put in Aquarius until some of your friends passed through, but is that still what you want to do?”

“I…honestly, I’m not really sure anymore,” Fluttershy replied. “At the time it seemed like a good idea, but now, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to see a little more of this island before we start worrying. I mean, once you get used to everything, all this seems a lot more fun than I thought it would.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you might be talking about Pokémon battling,” Derek teased.

“Well, I still don’t completely understand why Pokémon enjoy fighting each other so much, I think I’d prefer setting up a Pokémon book club. But, they really do seem to enjoy it, and as long as they’re not getting hurt, I guess I should try and support them. So, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to try some more of those gym battles like Pinkie has.”

“Well, if that’s what you really want to do, then we might want to head north up to Ferrum Village,” Derek suggested. “It’s a lot closer to us than Aquarius City at this point, and honestly we probably want to avoid the Aquarius Gym for the time being anyway.”

Comments

[WanderingPony]

Good doggo.

[Xanderfox]

This chapter points out the REAL reason Pokemon Battles aren't like cock fighting, Pokemon like to battle, it's in thier nature. But wild battles cause massive collateral damage and Pokemon will fight to the death, or battle with serious injuries making them worse. Trainer Battles have rules, the trainer can restrain Pokemon from battling to injury or death, Pokemon centers and trainers help make sure the Pokemon doesn't fight with serious injuries. The only reason the Pokemon world isn't the horror show the Pokemon's power would make it is humans have put controls in place to give battle obsessed Pokemon a less destructive outlet.
As to the Pokedex, ok we all know entries are exaggerated. Just look at midevil bestiaries and you'll see the crazy things we need to think animals could do. People used to say Wolves had love potions in thier tails and frogs were made of mud.
Like many systems it's not perfect, thier are those that abuse or misunderstand it. But from amatory perspective that just gives you conflicts you heros can face.