A week passed since the Slateport City trip.

  Neela had left Clearcloud Island with their father as planned. A bitter pill to swallow no matter how mentally prepared Luvia got. When the time came to see them off at the docks, she hadn’t been able to keep her eyes dry.

  Neither had Neela.

  Her father, she was used to seeing off, but Neela had been there with her the entirety of her life.

  The atmosphere in the house had changed without her sister around. It was quieter. The TV wasn’t constantly playing billboard music or celebrity shows.

  The first few days felt weird-bad. Somber in the evenings almost. Luvia would put on the TV and let it play downstairs as she went through the trainer exam notes in her room, door opened wide, Mida following her everywhere like how Ziggy used to do. That would make it better.

  Her mother and Nana would cook together and sometimes she’d join them for the company, studying at the small kitchen table while they wove around the place, asking questions and serving as questionably helpful study partners.

  By the end of the week, the somber lack of Neela’s presence had lifted. The downsized family adjusted. They got into routine.

  School break had only just started, but she had her studies cut out for her…

  “Mida, Water Gun!”

  Mida let out a whiny growl and pelted a fat tree with a hurtling blob of water. It hit the trunk with a satisfying smack.

  “Now, Water!”

  Mida’s tail vibrated a couple of times. She shifted on her tiny paws, taking a moment to work up the move.

  Luvia had noticed that Mida sometimes took a bit longer to perform her water gun attack if she had just used it. Something akin to a mandatory catching of breath. It was delayed enough to give the impression that maybe the Mudkip was ignoring the command.

  It wasn’t so at all.

  *Ghhh!*

  A continuous stream of yet another water gun attack buffeted against the tree for two seconds before dying out.

  As the trainer exam notes read:

  What is a Move?

  When a pokémon channels the mysterious type energy to produce supranatural effects, that is called a Move.

  Ancient history suggests a time when pokémon were believed only capable of channeling moves within their type (or closely related, i.e. Ground-Rock, Water-Ice) but today, with the use of technical machines and other methods, it is possible to teach pokémon a wide range of moves.

  One tried and tested method to improve and strengthen the efficacy of a pokémon’s move has been volume training.

  Having a pokémon perform the same move over and over builds proficiency, both increasing its effectiveness and allowing the pokémon to use it more times before failure.

  …

  “Good, Mida, that was nice,” Luvia said encouragingly. She was out in the woods, taking Andrea’s parting advice to practice for battle very seriously.

  She still got a giddy feeling in her stomach whenever she remembered that day at the courts in Slateport.

  The battle against the boy called Joney and his Tyro… It had been fun. She wondered what the pair of them would be doing right around now. Probably at the courts if she had to guess.

  “One more time, Mida! Water Gun!”

  Mudkip spat a smaller blob that slapped against the trunk. Her juice was starting to run out. Luvia called her over and they sat down at the foot of another tree where she opened up a snack pouch and gave Mida a tough biscuit to nibble on.

  “You’ve used your water gun eleven times…” She checked the little stopwatch she had brought with her. “In 2 minutes, 49 seconds. That’s better than yesterday… I think.”

  They’d come to an understanding that when Luvia said “Water Gun,” Mida would use the blob form of the attack.

  When she said just “Water,” Mida would use the long stream instead.

  It had been coincidence at first. Mida, by chance or by choice, alternated between both versions of the move when Luvia called them out differently. Why did she call them out differently? For spice. Why say three syllables when you could say it in two?

  The little one coincidentally alternating between the water gun forms is what had given Luvia the idea though.

  She preferred when Mida used the blobs. They looked like they had more impact to them and Mida wouldn’t need to stay in place after using the move.

  The stream version looked great too, but it really tapered off in power the further away the target was. It also seemed to tire Mida out quicker.

  The blobs will be for far away things, and the jet will be for nearby things.

  She leaned her head back on the tree and watched the little one bite down on the biscuit.

  That boy’s mudkip had looked so tough in comparison. She smiled remembering the way Mida had reacted to it all timid-like. It had likely been close to evolving. Pokémon normally grew bigger months or weeks before they evolved, though they were also known to evolve spontaneously.

  For the average person she knew, pokémon took years to evolve. Ziggy, for example, was still likely a bunch of years away from becoming a Linoone like his mother. Luvia would probably reach her twenties before he did.

  This was not the same for pokémon trainers. There was a show on TV called Race to Evolve which pitted trainers against each other in a competition to see who could evolve their hatchling pokémon fastest. Some did it in weeks, most did it in months. But those were like actual, ranked trainers.

  Battle was thought to be the universal way for a long time, but these days, there were so many theories that pointed elsewhere as the catalyst for evolution. Lombre, for example, the icky prankster, rarely became ludicolo however much it battled, and the traditional belief was that only a lombre that found valuable treasure was able to evolve (which was why some of them had a penchant for hoarding items.)

  The thieving lombre all those years ago must have been desperate to evolve to turn to robbing people in broad daylight.

  Speaking of lombre…

  “Mida, you’re strong right?” said Luvia.

  Mida’s fin vibrated as she crunched and downed the remainder of the biscuit.

  “You’ll be fine, right?” Luvia smiled, petting her head.

  “Meedh!”

  “We can do it, right?”

  Another quiver of her tail.

  Luvia got up and headed deeper into the woods, Mida bounding in small hops beside her. There were several wild ponds scattered around, further in, and she knew for a fact that lombre were in them. Mida had faced a badge-holder’s pokémon… They could try a wild lombre, right?

  Hopefully it won’t use Absorb…

  Luvia and Mida had ducked under a bush, peering across at the circular lotus leaf sitting idly in the pond – sure it was lombre. Way too big for a lotad.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  As one could guess from the leaf, lombre and lotad were grass-type pokémon. As one could guess from the way they slept in the water, lombre and lotad were water-type pokémon too.

  Apparently, such double-typing was rare. Water-type pokémon didn’t fare so well against grass-types, but a lombre was both. Doubly resistant to water-type attacks and able to shrug off grass-type ones.

  Lombre were cowards though. At least the ones Luvia knew. They all resorted to trickery, and usually to run away not into a battle. She wasn’t underestimating them… right?

  “Mida,” she said, shifting and pointing slowly through the bush, at the wide plate-like leaf sitting on the pond’s surface. “See that thing?”

  Mida whined and shook her fin rapidly, rustling the bush slightly.

  “Shh!” Luvia put a hand on the little one to quiet her. “Use one Water Gun – just one!”

  With another quiver of her tail, Mida stepped gingerly past her and poked her little head out from the bush.

  “Water Gun,” Luvia whispered.

  Fin vibrated. *Ghh!*

  The blob shot straight into the pond and splashed against the surface, sending huge ripples across it.

  Luvia yanked Mida back into the bush and they both waited.

  It took the lombre some time, but soon enough the leaf moved, coming closer to the pond’s edge and the thing slowly climbed out, glistening trails of water trickling and falling to the ground. It shook itself and let out a loud chirp from its beak-like mouth.

  Ugh… Luvia could already feel the ick. Its sickly, pale, green skin and bright red beaky lips. Those wide but lazy looking eyes with tiny pupils – evil!

  The way it hunched over the ground like a frog-thing, and the thick wads of drool that swung from the corners of its mouth – Ugh, ugh, ugh!

  Now that it was out of the pond, Luvia second guessed herself. It was way bigger than Mida. Mida could sit on that flat leaf atop its head quite comfortably. And it was a grass-type…

  But they were cowards, and it was alone.

  We’ll just knock you back into the pond, Luvia decided and took a breath. Yep, knock you back in – that’s our goal.

  She held Mida, whose smaller fin atop her head had started twitching oddly. After a cursory look at it, she turned her eyes back to Lombre, who was lazily plodding away from the pond, looking around and scratching its rear for good measure.

  She waited until it was a good few yards away from the pond before taking her hand off her eager Mudkip. Mida had seen it too. She was ducking and leaning for a clearer view through the shrub they were in.

  Water Gun.

  Tackle.

  Growl.

  Three options.

  Luvia had thought it through.

  “Growl, Mida!” she hissed quietly, and Mida hopped out of the bush with a short but loud scream.

  Luvia giggled when the lombre flinched and tripped on its feet and fell back on its butt. She crawled out from the bush like a trooper and got to her feet at the same time lombre did.

  “Water!”

  Mida sent a long stream that beat squarely on Lombre’s face. The lombre didn’t even flinch.

  Uh oh…

  It was kind of expected but not to that extent. The attack felt less like an attack and more like favor.

  “Lehhhmm-k-k-kh!” it cried. Those tiny pupils locking on the girl and her Mudkip, and that short but wide red bill of a mouth, clicking and perpetually shaped like a self-satisfied smirk.

  “Water Gun, Mida!”

  Mudkip didn’t need to be told to fire off more than once. She fired off three hurtling blobs at Lombre. The first one glanced off it’s arm with a good little shove, but it managed to jerk away from the other two in time.

  “K-k-k-k!” it went, then grasped the ground with its clawed paws. *Phiwp!*

  It spat out a slimy water gun attack of its own that buffeted against Mida. The little one met the attack head on, crouching low and remaining rooted to the ground with a strained grunt. Her fin vibrated.

  “Growl again!”

  “Rwah!”

  Lombre flinched again, pulling a paw off the ground as if bolting away was a serious consideration. It lifted its bill to the air and let out a bleating that rang through the air.

  “Kkk-k!”

  It darted at Mida, arms flailing behind it, beak clicking, head wobbling.

  Luvia’s heart hammered, but she wasn’t intimidated. “Tackle, Mida!”

  Mida was strong. Stronger than the small wild pokémon on the island. Luvia had spent a week testing it out. Lombre wasn’t small though. It was one stage evolved.

  The pokémon collided. Luvia grinned.

  “Khhnnng!” Lombre grunted painfully. Its run came to a complete stop, feet staggering, eyes bulging as Mida’s head hit it in the gut.

  She was already rearing for the next command. Luvia could tell by the way her fin tail shook.

  “Kh-kh-kh!!!” Lombre threw a tantrum, thrashing its arms on the ground.

  “Water Gun!”

  *Ghhhhh!* Mida buffeted the icky, slimy creature close-range with a fat blob of water.

  It slapped against the lombre’s face, shutting it up and knocking it over backwards and rolling toward its pond.

  Mida could even handle a lombre! An electric feeling rushed up Luvia at the thought. Just wait until she evolved!

  …

  Something poked her on the back of her thigh.

  Mida was in her field of view, so it couldn’t be –

  She began turning, head swinging around, eyes catching up, then –

  *SNAP*

  Her vision went dark and the next moment white. Then her vision refocused and she saw the horrendous face of Lombre leering at her.

  Another one? …

  Her heart was already climbing up her throat. Her head felt hazy, but she caught sights of her white-on-white pokéball and the small biscuit pouch clutched on either slickly slimed paw of the surprise lombre.

  Astonished? Her?

  Luvia yelped and kicked at it.

  “K-k-k-k!” it snickered, easily dodging her feeble attempt.

  Mida slammed right into it the next moment, knocking it sideways like a ragdoll and causing both her pokéball and snack pouch to be flung into the air.

  It was time to go.

  “Lehhheeemm-k-k-k!” the first lombre croaked from near its pond.

  Luvia held her head with a hand as she reached down for her items. It had been such a long time since she’d felt an Astonish. She’d forgotten how horrible the sensation was. She was sure she’d get a headache. More importantly –

  “Yuck!” she spat. “Yuck, yuck, yuck!”

  Mida’s pokéball was covered in a slippery layer of slime. The snack pouch was already soaking it in.

  She shot an angry glare at the second lombre, who was now back on its feet.

  “Sorry!” she said, but the tone sounded more like she was saying “Fuck you!”

  “We’re going now, ok?” She started slowly pacing backward and gesturing at Mida to follow her.

  “Lehhm-k-k-k-k…” the first lombre said.

  “Meehd!” Mida replied.

  “Kh-kh-kh!” the second lombre disagreed.

  Water guns started flying. Both lombre ganged up on Mida. As one of them kept spitting blobs of water at her, the other rushed in with its short, stumpy claws glowing faintly.

  It swiped at Mida repeatedly.

  Fury Swipes.

  “Mida, jump away!” She was going to recall the mudkip and bolt. Maybe the lombre wouldn’t chase her down.

  Mida yelped and leapt high into the air, though not in any direction in particular, only straight up.

  The other lombre had stopped with the water gun attacks and rushed in too for a few Fury Swipes of its own.

  “Hey!” Luvia screamed, trying to take their attention. They were thrashing Mida on the spot with a never-ending volley of swipes.

  With the two lombre in the way, the pokéball’s recall function was having trouble locking on to Mida.

  *scrunch* Luvia picked up a handful of gravelly soil and rushed in.

  “Get. Off!” she kick-shoved one of them on the back and it lashed out as it fell, scratching Luvia’s shin and tearing through her joggers with ease.

  The lombre still fell over Mida and landed at the feet of the other, stopping both of their attacks.

  Luvia flung the soil at them, feeling like at any moment, something was going to knock her out.

  “Let’s go, Mida!”

  Streaked with a number of red lines on her blue skin, Mida shook her head for a moment and hopped out of the spot, behind Luvia.

  “Growl!”

  Mida didn’t growl. She buffeted both lombre with the jet-form Water Gun attack.

  Luvia picked up another handful of soil and flung it at them too.

  They shrieked and thrashed angrily.

  When Mida’s water gun died out, Luvia was already picking her next handful. She threw that too and immediately went for the next handful.

  As she lifted her arm to throw the fourth handful of dirt, in a blink, a water gun blob smacked into her stomach and she doubled over, wheezing.

  She fell to her knees. No…

  Good thing she had been wearing a baggy nylon jacket, because if that had hit bare skin, it would have bruised her black and purple.

  “Gaaahd!” Mida yowled. She started firing rapid water blobs of her own, but the lombres’ skin was so slick that unless they hit square on, they simply slid and bounced off them.

  She got to her feet with a face scrunched up in pain and a handful of dirt.

  “K-k-k-k-kkk!” they snickered, bills clicking.

  One of them literally slapped one of Mida’s blobs out of the air and raised its arms in victory, brandishing its little red claws which began to glow once more.

  Disgusting. The situation was disgusting. From pretty safe to pretty chopped in a blink. Luvia chucked her handful of dirt with spite and darted away with an arm wrapped around her stomach. These slimy assholes were the worst – irredeemable. Knowing that ludicolo came from them made her second guess whether she actually liked the region-beloved pokémon or not.

  “Mida!” Luvia called, wincing. “Leave them!”

  This’d teach her.

  As much as she loathed the lombre, she knew this was entirely her fault. Too much too soon.

  This’d teach her good.

  “Meehd!” Mida cried, darting to Luvia’s side. Luvia opted not to recall her. The little one could keep up if needed.

  But the lombre weren’t going to let them go like that. Cowards though they were, they were smart enough to know when they had the upper hand. This was not a battle they’d be running from.

  More water guns whizzed past them, but the thing that alarmed her more was the light thumping of paws against the ground. She looked back and saw one lombre dashing after them, head lolling side to side and beak clicking.

  “K-k-k-k-k! K-k-k!”

  Luvia was sure it was laughing.

  The slimy pond monster was faster than her. It cackled joyously, swinging its arms around as its pondmate kept shooting mouthfuls of water in their direction. Some of the blobs hit the back of the darting lombre, but only to add to the hellish sight.

  Hell, the blobs struck and splashed on its back and boosted its run!

  “K-k-k!”

  She yelled loudly at it, but she wasn’t a pokémon. She didn’t know Growl.

  “Geehd, geehd!” Mida stopped running and turned, standing between Luvia and the lombre darting madly at them.

  She reached down again for more dirt ammo. She had nothing else.

  “Meeeehd…” Mida whined and pushed its little paws into the soil, tail vibrating violently. Luvia cocked her arm, ready to throw another useless handful of dirt.

  “Lehhhhhm!” shrieked the attacking lombre, hopping into the air with both clawed hands ready for swiping. Mida didn’t let it land.

  The ground before Mida burst as she lifted her front paws off the ground, and a blanket of soil shot up into the air, battering the lombre midair.

  It landed with a loud thud against the weedy soil, arms and legs up in the air, in a daze totally out of its wits. In the next few seconds, it groaned and rolled onto its side, rubbing its eyes with the back of its slick paw.

  Luvia frowned. The other lombre was looking over at them dumbly. As dumb as Luvia felt.

  What was that? she wondered.

  But she knew. It was a move. A new move! That’s the only thing it could have been.

  Mida, you rock! Luvia pocketed her ball and lunged down to lift the little one in her arms. She hoisted her on the left side of her hip for a moment, like a baby, and lifted her chin at the floored lombre just starting to come to its senses.

  “K-k-k, you lose.” She chucked her handful of dirt at it and bolted away with Mida in her arms.

  They hadn’t managed to throw any lombre back into the pond, but this outcome was even better!