『 A Yellow Gem and Lots of Fluff. 』
Citrine is a girl that can't feel pain, and has survived thus far with the help of the Pokemon around her and her surrogate guardian Wallene and Riley in Rustboro. Being the younger sister of a world-famous Berry...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Rivals are comrades in face of common foes.
"Lotty, Bubble!" Citrine commanded, facing the wild Wurmple.
To her surprise, instead of the usual blue blobs, a sharp ray of water bubbles shot right out, swallowing the dark pink caterpillar and knocking it out for good.
Wait no, not "for good", this wasn't that kind of show--
Citrine paused, horrified, "wait, that wasn't Bubble!"
Lotad jolted, shocked to hear it did something wrong. Eyes tearful and trembling, it looked back on its owner fearfully, expecting to be reprimanded. No, but she did it normally! Why was it different? Oh, now Lotad was scared of itself. It went dashing toward its owner, already crying.
"I think that was Bubblebeam!" Citrine was awestruck, too confused to provide a smile of assurance before the Lotad came barreling into her arms, "but I reckon you should've evolved before you could learn it..."
Her eyes landed on the pond at her side, and decided to set Lotad adrift to calm itself.
"What moves do Lotads learn before they evolve again," she tried to recall from her past memories, "I don't have a Pokedex, so I can't prevent evolutions or anything... hmm... maybe reality works differently from the games?"
She sat down by the pond and opened her boxed lunch-- letting Whismur out to play, she continued to mull over the issue.
The Wurmple from before, after a bite of a rejuvenating berry, felt the urge to cross the river. It was currently waiting for Lotad express to arrive at port. Lotad, calming down with the chilly refreshment of the pond water, slowly waddled its way toward the shore.
The only thing different from usual was...
"The pond!" she realized, a light bulb figuratively flashing over her head, her hand reached through the stale waves and hooking the little platypus right out of the water, "I've got it, Lotty, you managed to learn 'Nature Power'!" she rejoiced, "...or, I think, at least. Wanna go try it out?"
Wurmple spun String Shot toward Citrine's arm, annoyed that it lost its ride across the waters. But Citrine didn't really notice it much. Lotad was petrified by the sudden movement, but that was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Little Wurmple!" she beamed, turning toward it, disregarding the white webbing wrapped like a cast around her forearm. "We're gonna go a little deeper into the forest, so would you watch our stuff here with Whismy?"
Whismur was baffled, and Wurmple was culturally shocked.
Oddly enough, Wurmple was given an affectionate rub on the head, then it was entrusted the belongings of this human child it'd met just a while ago.
Confused was an understatement in this situation.
It turned toward the side, and found Whismur grumbling, glaring daggers at it. Evidently, Wurmple was a rather unwanted guest in this situation, and the little bug Pokemon wholeheartedly agreed.
If it left right now, the human wouldn't mind, right? He'll just go around the pond instead of crossing it...
As it wriggled away, Whismur seemed unpleasantly alarmed, squeaking a Growl at the imbecile. Oh, how dare you walk away after the human trusted you! or something?
Wurmple was now irritably conflicted.
Then began the quarreling. Growl against Growl, Pound against Tackle, and the emergency diving-for-that-bag-of-berries that seemed to never end.
Breathing laboured and bodies exhausted, they stood face to face. Mud crushed under their feet, and nothing was in their way except each other. One strike-- one strike would decide the outcome of this battle-- just one more.
Sucking in the steel air of resolve, they charged forward with a cry of war--
A gurgling, carp-ish noise croaked from the side, bubbling delightfully.
The two swerved sharply aside, screeching to a sharp stop.
Both turned toward the pond, where a Magikarp was pleasantly munching on the lunch box laid out to cool. There was only one sandwich left of five that used to be there, and Magikarp inhaled the last one, licking it lips scrumptiously, grunted a satisfied burp.
A wave of murder was shot in its direction, and it froze in horror. Looking to the side as if turning away the blame, it steadily drifted back to the innerside of the pond, sinking into the waters.
