gratitude

[the_very_best]

Bella flies away. She visits her parents, hits up the guild for matches and wins enough to pay her guild dues, and tools around random wilderness beating up on the wildlife.

She doesn't really expect to hear from Sherlock and Tony again.

Comments

[bitofafiction]

Sherlock repeats the sequence. His imitation of Zag's imitation of Bella is quite good.

[the_very_best]

"Okay," says Bella, "I have no idea how any of that can be encoded in repetitions of various parts of the word 'Linoone', so I'm leaning towards the psychic-or-maybe-magic explanation again."

[bitofafiction]

"Has there been much study made of how Pokémon communicate with one another?"

[the_very_best]

"Probably some, but most Pokémon aren't as smart as Zag, it doesn't need to be that dense with information to account for what we see."

"Linoone," says Zag contently.

[bitofafiction]

"You certainly are," says Sherlock to Zag.

[the_very_best]

"Do you and yours want a rematch?" Bella asks.

[bitofafiction]

"I am sure we could be convinced."

[the_very_best]

"We could try random toss, would that be fun?"

[bitofafiction]

"I believe it would!"

[the_very_best]

"I bet your smart computer can do random number generation. Three on three again?"

[bitofafiction]

"I accept your terms."

[the_very_best]

"All right." Bella returns Zag, puts him on a spot on her string of them, names his ball, "One," and the one on the other end, "Six."

[bitofafiction]

"One two three four," says Sherlock, producing four Pokéballs.

[the_very_best]

"And - how do we get random numbers out of the computer?"

[bitofafiction]

"We ask nicely, of course," he says, loading a Pokétch app.

[the_very_best]

Bella waits. She doesn't think she has that one.

[bitofafiction]

She doesn't!

Sherlock says, "Random number between one and four, please," to his Pokétch.

It displays 3.

[the_very_best]

"What do I get?" Bella asks.

[bitofafiction]

"Random one to six," says Sherlock.

2, says his Pokétch.

[the_very_best]

"Okay. And our second and third tosses?"

[bitofafiction]

Bella gets 5 and then 4; Sherlock gets 4 and then 2.

[the_very_best]

"All right then."

Bella's first random toss is Fireflower, who is raring to go.

[bitofafiction]

Sherlock tosses Mycroft, who copies the Rapidash complete with mimicking her attitude.

[the_very_best]

Fireflower is offended. She's fierce when offended. There is considerable stomping and attempts at poisoning involved. Fireflower's also the one holding the Leftovers, which is a slight edge, and more so in a prolonged fight.

[bitofafiction]

This is definitely a prolonged fight.