#wine mom sneasler has made her debut and i'm so happy

[a-land-lacking-sleep]

Submas/PLA Fic: Electric Trains are the Future Ch. 4 - An Excadrill-ating Day!

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Chapter 4 of Electric Trains is now live! Starting with this update, I’ll be posting weekly, as I go back to work within the week. I have a buffer, so I should be steady on updating until the fic is done!

Chapter Summary: Elesa gets to know her coworkers in Jubilife, and gears up for battle. Chapter Word Count: 3411

As always, you can read the fic here or on AO3 with additional notes! All chapters will be crossposted, and reblogs and comments are appreciated!

He is Emmet.

This day could not get any worse. He had already lost his brother three years ago, and now he’s lost his wife. He refuses to sleep until he’s had a chance to study the footage, but the police keep saying that they need to investigate it first.

They couldn’t find his brother, could he trust them to find Elesa?

Finally, finally, after weeks, the video was sent to Emmet. One of the officers realized how badly it was affecting him, and took some small pity on him, though they didn’t think it was healthy to see it. But Emmet watched the video meticulously. He watched it repeatedly at different volumes, different speeds, with different headphones and on different screens. 

He is Emmet. He has come to a conclusion. He is going to Alola.

The sun had woken up Elesa an hour previously, but she was so tired. Between the photo shoot she had been doing, then the temporal kidnapping Akari put her through, and then the emotional drain of the last night with Ingo, she felt like she could sleep for a month. But Ingo left the window cover open, and it was shining right on her face after a few hours. 

It wasn’t until Elesa heard the door open that she groaned and eventually rolled over. “Ingo, next time can yo-” That wasn’t Ingo.

Standing over Elesa was a tall Pokemon, covered in lilac fur with darker purple on the face and paws. Speaking of paws, there were some giant claws attached to them, holding what seemed to be a similarly colored Sneasel that was wildly waving its arms at Elesa, being held only a foot above her chest.

Of course her Pokeballs were still on the table.

“Sneeeea?” The Pokemon cocks its head and gently places the Sneasel on Elesa’s chest, where it just kicks its feet and lightly baps its clawed paws on her chest, lightly enough to not hurt her. The taller Pokemon makes an approving noise, and suddenly there are four more of these weird Sneasels surrounding Elesa poking and prodding at her, eventually settling to climb onto her.

As Elesa struggles to sit up with so many Sneasels swarming her, the taller Pokemon (probably their mom?) sits down at the table, leaning back against the table as she starts just talking away. Unfortunately, Elesa doesn’t understand a word that is said.

“Are you one of Ingo’s Pokemon?” Elesa finally asks, cutting the Pokemon off. The Pokemon pauses, and tilts her head before shaking it. She brings her paw up under her face and presents the best imitation of Ingo’s expression that Elesa figures a Pokemon could do, then taps her wrist and laughs. 

“Sneasler!” The Sneasler cries out.

“I’m going to assume yes?” Elesa says as she slowly picks the Sneasels off of her and stands up, flattening her shirt a bit to remove the wrinkles, though it’s now covered in fur. “I’m going to be heading out, I need to meet with some of my new coworkers. Bosses? Audino, really.” She goes to get her coat, which she finds has already been claimed by several of the Sneasel as a bed and thus is no longer her coat. She hopes they get sand in their fur.

Taking a pair of Ingo’s sandals to replace her missing heels, Elesa leaves a short note in Galarian for Ingo.

I don’t know what this Sneasler thing is, but I think she’s gonna follow me for the day. I’m pretty sure I got designated babysitter. I’ll be at Arezu’s or the Training Grounds when you get back.

And true to her guess, as she left Ingo’s house, so did Sneasler and all of the Sneasels, some even jumping up onto her back and digging into her shirt to climb. Not the best solution, but it at least kept her warm enough without the coat. She had the feeling that Sneasler was laughing at her, glad that her kids were having fun at Elesa’s expense.

Getting directions to the hair salon wasn’t that hard once she found a Security Corps member, since most people were leery of the half-dozen Pokemon children running around her. Thankfully, it was a quick walk to the hair salon, where she saw a girl with red hair staring up at the clouds, gently stroking a Purugly that was dozing next to her.

“Hello there!” Elesa calls out politely. The girl takes a moment to notice the call, and looks over with a lazy smile and wave. “Are you Arezu?”

“That’s me!” Arezu says with energy that her smile didn’t quite show. She plants her feet on the ground and hops up, her Purugly lifting its head and looking at all the Sneasels in apprehension. “Are you the new girl that Akari mentioned might be helping us out?”

“Yes, my name is Elesa!” She could already see loving to spend time with Arezu just on these vibes alone. “I have a different set up at home, so I’ll need to get used to what you have here. I’m also going to be doing work with the Security Corps, so I won’t be here full time.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” Arezu says with a laugh as she starts leading Elesa inside, pointing Purugly to the very excited Sneasels. If a cat could sigh, she’s sure this one would as she dutifully went to distract the small weasels. Sneasler thankfully also stayed behind to keep an eye on her kids, so Elesa was able to enter the salon in peace.

Inside is an older woman working on someone’s hair, who looks up from her work momentarily to greet the two with a smile. “That’s Edith, the owner,” Arezu says with a small wave in her direction. “She offered to tutor me after Akari had helped out my Lady Lilligant, and I’ve been experimenting with different styles!” 

“Oh, I would love to see your different styles, but,” Elesa shakes some sand loose from her braid to prove a point, “I need a good wash first. Akari kind of dumped me in the sand.” Arezu gives a sympathetic look before having her sit down in the open chair.

“Let’s get your hair cleaned, girl.” It takes a moment, but Arezu finally finds the end of Elesa’s braid and undoes the tie on it to let her hair out entirely. “Oh wow, you know how to pack that in!”

“Years of practice,” Elesa says with a laugh as Arezu first takes a fine comb and brushes Elesa’s hair, getting some of the sand loose and straightening her hair after the night of sleep. Elesa lets herself relax during the process before speaking up. “So, did you work with hair before here, Arezu?”

Arezu undoes the last knot in Elesa’s hair before answering. “I did Adaman’s hair for awhile, worked on a few of the other Clan members, but being here has given me a lot of experience.” She puts some wet soap in Elesa’s hair and lathers, using her fingers to massage the scalp. “Adaman even started dyeing his hair about a year or so ago, which has given me practice on bleaching and dyeing. Edith was glad to hear that.”

“Dyeing hair can be such an annoyance, especially with long hair like mine,” Elesa says, moving her head back to give Arezu more ease at washing her hair. “It’s been a few years since I dyed it completely blonde, and that was a hassle.”

“You dyed your entire hair?” Arezu asks in shock as she begins to rinse the hair out. “Either you’ve grown it out a lot since then, or you have more patience than I ever could.” Having finished rinsing the soap out, she begins to pat Elesa’s hair dry. “I hope he doesn’t think to dye his whole hair green, it would look hideous.”

“It really depends on the color of green you go with,” Elesa says as she straightens back up. “But green also doesn’t go well with most skin tones, so it’s best as an accent.” She hears Aresu laugh as she begins to brush out Elesa’s hair, this time with a coarse bristle brush.

“Yeah, he’s lucky he got what he did,” Aresu says with a giggle in her voice, “because I didn’t think green would look good on him. But he used only enough to work it.” She finishes brushing Elesa’s hair out, then grabs Elesa’s hair ties. “So, do you want this back in the same braids you had?”

Elesa looks over her shoulder at her hair before shaking her head. “Nah, it usually takes three hands, and I’d have to walk you or Edith through it.” She reaches out for her hair ties, and pulls her hair back into a single long ponytail, then brings it back up and ties it again so that it isn’t dragging on the ground. “I’ll probably get it cut soon, it is way too much to deal with right now. Plus, it’ll let me think of something fun to make you do!”

Arezu shoots her a sly grin before responding. “Oh, Elesa, you are a godsend. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!” The two leave the salon to the scene of Purugly crushed under the weight of 6 Sneasels, with Sneasler leaning against the salon, eating a pod of beans like a carrot.

Poor Arezu runs towards her big cat, scattering the juvenile weasels towards Elesa and Sneasler, the former of whom actually feels bad. “Do you need anything, or should I just take them away?” Sneasler wasn’t gonna wait for her, she was already leading the kids away like it was a trip to the park, but Arezu waved Elesa on as her Purugly woke back up with a yowl. Elesa decided to pick up the pace.

It wasn’t a long walk to the Training Grounds, but the Sneasels were starting to get on her nerves with how they were acting. They kept kicking at her legs, they kept trying to climb her, they were running off and she had to stop them. Their mom was right there, and she was doing nothing to stop them.. And as much as Elesa tried to outspeed them, the hellions just took it as a challenge and kept up, sprinting in some cases.

And thus did Elesa arrive at the Training Grounds, with an entourage of trouble making Sneasel cheering as they chased her. Zisu was having trouble holding in her laughter as she saw the small parade before waving her over. “Elesa, was it? We didn’t get properly introduced yesterday, since you and Ingo were focused on your chat.” That was an understatement. “My name is Zisu, and I’m in charge of the Security Corps for the Galaxy Team!”

Elesa extends her hand in greeting. “I’m Elesa, as you knOW!” Before she could even try to shake Zisu’s hand, one of the Sneasels had come up and kicked her full force in the shin. Ok, this was enough.

Turning on the offending Sneasel, Elesa let loose. “You do not hit people!” She knew she wasn’t able to project nearly as loudly as Ingo, but she still managed to get loud enough to startle the Sneasel. “I don’t care if you’re a kid, you’re still a Pokemon! Pokemon don’t fight people, they fight Pokemon!” She glances momentarily at Sneasler, who is watching her closely, but also letting her go off on her kid. Time to take a chance. “If you really want to fight something,” she presses the button on one of her Pokeballs, and her Luxray, Sheds, appears behind her, silently stalking around her and keeping eye contact with the Sneasel, “then I can arrange a fight.”

“Snearrr…” And there was the momma’s warning, though it seemed her stare was directed at Luxray rather than Elesa. “Sne!” Sneasler called her kids to her, and started scolding them quietly, allowing Elesa to turn around and focus back on Zisu.

“I am so sorry about that, Zisu.”

Zisu laughs out loud, having obviously been holding it back through the display. “Oh, there is absolutely no reason to be sorry, Elesa! Ingo has to deal with them all the time, and he’s never been so hard on any of them!” Elesa couldn’t see, but Sneasler nods to that, and then goes back to chiding her children. “He spoils those kids rotten sometimes, and here you are threatening them with a good time.”

Sheds takes this chance to plod up to Zisu and rub her head against her. It was a far cry from the intimidating presence that she had just shown, acting much more like a Shinx than the full sized Luxray that she is. “And isn’t she affectionate? A big ol’ cuddle bug, just like my Luxray.”

“Oh, so you have a Luxray, too?” Elesa says with some excitement, going to pet her giant cat with a smile. “Good to know at least one of my Pokemon is recognizable here!” Sheds basically melted into both of the strokes, content and purring. “So, before I forget because of her adorable demeanor, I was supposed to come talk to you about what I need to be doing with Security.”

Zisu gives Sheds a light kiss on the head before stepping back towards her post, and Elesa uses the chance to return her to the Pokeball. “There are several posts for Security. You could either be here for challengers, where you will be on call for whenever we have someone who wants to train. Ingo is in charge of that portion.” Elesa looks around, and notices that Ingo is nowhere to be seen. “There is also the in-town patrolling, which consists of going around, mostly at night, to ensure that Pokemon aren’t finding their way into Jubilife without permission. It’s probably the most boring.” Sounds like.

“The one that I think you would enjoy the most would be external work. That entails either guarding the entrances of the town from the outside, unlike Ress who mostly keeps a tally of who leaves and enters. The second being stationed at a base camp or along the route between them to ensure that our people outside of the Village are safe. The final part of that is going on expeditions with Supply Corp, Survey Corp, or Construction Corp members to ensure that they aren’t hurt.”

Elesa could see why that is appealing, being able to go around and see Hisui while working would be nice. Though it would keep her away from working the salon, which would be a major mood killer. “Would I be able to work multiple posts, or am I limited to one? I was also planning on working with Edith and Arezu at the salon as well, so being stationed for battle would be best, but…”

“Heading out to see Hisui sounds fun?” Arezu says with a knowing smile.

“Dragons, yes!” Elesa felt that if this were an anime that Emmet liked watching, her eyes would literally be sparkling. “Back home in Unova, kids often went on Journeys with their Pokemon once school let out, and would either challenge Gyms or just explore! It’d not only be so great to see what Hisui is like so I have things to talk about with Ingo, but it’d be so nostalgic to be on a Journey again, even if it’s constrained.” Elesa rarely got this excited, but finding Ingo filled her with so much energy, it was hard to contain.

Zisu takes it in stride, giving her a wide smile. “I’d be happy to accommodate that! When you’re on duty for the Training Grounds, you’re going to be going a good amount of the day without a battle, so you’ll have time to work with Arezu, though I’ll also just give you days to work on that.” She crosses her arms and looks Elesa up and down before nodding slightly. “Now, the first order of business is to do a battle to see how good you are. The Commander told me that you’re a Gym Leader, and that means you’ve got a lot of battle experience under your belt.”

“Indeed I do,” Elesa says with a bit of smugness. “I’ve kept the position of Electric-type Gym Leader for 12 years now.” She holds the smile as Zisu looks pleasantly surprised, though it drops slightly as the Security Captain furrows her eyebrows.

“So, you only use Electric types? That seems needlessly restrictive.” She wasn’t dismissive or mean spirited in saying it, but rather disappointed. And that makes it worse, somehow.

“It’s to show that any type can be powerful, and to provide a challenge for any trainer to overcome,” Elesa says in a calm tone. She was trying, and doing well, on keeping herself in check. No one insults her beauties and implies that they make her weak. “By showing that we can take down any team throw at us, we show that we are masters of the type.”

She was trying to hold the venom in her voice back, but some of it still peeked through given Zisu’s reaction of a battle ready grin. Her boss simply turns on her heel and walks over to the other side of the field. “Then let’s test your mastery, Elesa. I want to see how a master of Electric types can counter her weaknesses.”

Elesa herself turns on the balls of her feet and stalks her way to the edge of the field, noting the Sneasels were now being herded to the edge of the Training Grounds to be members of the audience by Sneasler. With a deep breath, she grabs Skitters’ Pokeball, and brushes her ponytail off her back as a matter of habit. She then whirled around, throwing her Pokeball.

“Go, Skitters!” “Go, Steelix!” 

Elesa knew that Zisu would lead with a Ground-type, and was glad it was one she knew how to counter. Skitters would easily outspeed it, even if its bulk meant it could take her out. “Skitters, use Acrobatics!”

“Steelix, Ice Fang, Strong Style!” There she goes. Skitters, the resourceful little Emolga she is, chews briefly on her Flying Gem to power up her Acrobatics, doubly so as the Gem breaks. The flying squirrel loops around Steelix before dealing a hard blow into Steelix, knocking it to the side but not dealing too much actual damage. Unlike the Ice Fang, which landed directly on Skitters’ midsection as she flew away with a nasty crunch. Elesa involuntarily flinched, knowing that poor Skitters was already out for the count.

‘Strong Style, hm?’

Recalling Skitters, Elesa grabs the next ball and tosses out Slim Shady, her Eelektross. “Alright, Slim, you’re up! Fire Punch!” Steelix, oddly, seemed to be reeling from the Ice Fang still, taking its time like it had used Giga Impact instead of a simple Ice Fang. The attack landed directly, pushing the Steelix back towards Zisu, where it finally recovered.

“Steelix, use High Horsepower!” Perfect. Zisu must not know this Pokemon, because as the Steelix whipped its tail out to launch its attack, Slim Shady floated and flipped up through the air to avoid it with ease and grace. She could see Zisu swear across the field, though not loud enough to hear it herself.

“Perfect, Slim! Now finish it off with a Fire Punch!” Slim didn’t even bother trying to land before rushing the Steelix, who was also surprised to see the attack miss like that, knocking it to the ground, out for the count.

Zisu calls Steelix back and calls out across the field. “Gotta say, I didn’t know you’d have two Flying types on your team to counter the Ground weakness! Guess I shouldn’t expect an easy victory, then!” She tosses out her next Pokeball, sending out an Infernape that beats its chest with one arm before falling into a fighting stance.

“Not a Flying-type, boss! It can Levitate!” Elesa calls back as both trainers call out their next attacks., with Elesa silently thanking Emmet for convincing her to switch Slim Shady’s Choice Band out for an Expert Belt.

“Slim, use Thunder Punch!” “Bulk Up, Infernape!”

The Infernape plants both feet on the ground and pulls both arms out to the side, screaming into the sky as its willpower focuses and its muscles briefly bulge outwards.

Slim Shady closes the distance in that time and slams his fin into Infernapes open chest, a crack of thunder filling the village.