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

[the_very_best]

Fireflower finally ends it with a vicious kick.

"Rapidashdashdash," she snorts.

[bitofafiction]

"Don't be rude," Sherlock says mildly, and throws his Porygon-Z.

[the_very_best]

"Rapidash," snorts Fireflower, and she hits the ineptly nicknamed You with a gout of flames.

[bitofafiction]

"We can't help the way we're made," Sherlock murmurs, and You hits back.

[the_very_best]

Fireflower goes down, but not without a fight. Bella's next toss is Branch. Branch knows a self-healing attack and can hang in there for a good long time, especially against You's defensively-oriented attack array. Long enough. Branch has no commentary on the situation, besides the occasional "Saw!" that roughly translates to "Rar! Gonna get you!"

[bitofafiction]

You holds its own nevertheless.

[the_very_best]

"Buck," says Branch unhappily as he succumbs to a particularly well-placed Tri Attack which outmatches the damage he was able to heal with his last Horn Leech.

Bella's next toss is Rachis. "Here's hoping your last toss is Irene and not Watson, but either way I can make you work for it," she says, and because You was most recently pretending to be Grass type to resist Horn Leeching, an Air Slash makes short work of the Porygon-Z.

[bitofafiction]

Sherlock's last toss is Watson.

[the_very_best]

"Of course. Of course it's him. You get out of range, Rachis," says Bella, snapping her fingers, and the Pidgeot flies high.

Rachis does her best to stay out of range, but her timing's not perfect, and a Thunder Wave leaves her grounded when Watson Thunderbolts her, and it only takes two instances of that before she's out of commission.

"Almost," says Bella ruefully. "Rachis could've taken Irene."

[bitofafiction]

"And yet," says Sherlock, collecting his Zebstrika.

[the_very_best]

"Mean old random number generator," laughs Bella. "Stuck my flier with your zapper. Oh well."

[bitofafiction]

He laughs.

[the_very_best]

It is about dinnertime. Bella stays for dinner, and she starts talking about how she got all her Pokémon.

"I already told you guys how I got Zag, right?" she asks.

[toblameforit]

"If you did, I don't remember. Tell us again!"

[the_very_best]

"He was Renée's. Renée doesn't do a lot of battling, though, and Zag was always scrappy, and when I was eight he started following me around whenever she let him out of his ball, probably because I'd read him books and pet him and generally treat him like a stuffed animal except worth talking to. I got him as a present because Renée noticed he liked me, and I gave him the most juvenile possible nickname, and went off with nobody but him to start training when I was ready. Where'd you guys get your first? I guess that would've been Candle as a Charmander, and Mycroft? Correct me if I misremember."

[toblameforit]

"Dad imported Candle for me because I thought Charmanders were the coolest thing," volunteers Tony. "And I called him Candle because I'm not very creative."

[bitofafiction]

"Tony caught Mycroft, actually, but he has always liked me best. I started a little late."

[the_very_best]

"How come?" Bella asks Sherlock. "I'm having a hard time picturing Tony being keener on training 'mon than you."

[bitofafiction]

"I spent the majority of my childhood in the house library, which is why I have already read all of its good books and most of the bad ones."

[the_very_best]

"Huh. And then you scooped up Mycroft and went out - fairly standard after that? Did you catch your others yourself?"

[bitofafiction]

"I caught Irene and Watson. You came from the flock, of course."

[the_very_best]

"Of course," laughs Bella. "I caught Fireflower and Rachis myself, but those are the only ones, the others are trades. Through the Guild."

[bitofafiction]

He nods.

[the_very_best]

"Some of the other aces think it's weird to spend a long time on personality matching - if you're good enough, any 'mon you own will do what you say, so, they figure what's the point - but I was really careful about getting ones that liked to fight but didn't live for it," Bella says. "Traded away some excessively peaceable critters and one bloodthirsty little beast of a Marill till I had a balance I liked."

[bitofafiction]

"The peaceful ones went to like-minded trainers, I hope?"