#writing isnt comin to me so have something i wrote 90% of months ago

[umbraastaff]

Pokemon: Century Version

1.3 - Integration II

[first] [previous] [recent] [teams]

“I can’t belieeeeve,” Taako moans, lying on his back on his bed, head not even up on his pillow. His new eevee is standing on his chest as he pets it.

“I cannot believe!” Lup parrots, pacing up and down the room. Her eevee is playing around with her raichu at the side of the room, darting up and down beside the wall.

“All the damn work we do to keep off the higher-up’s bad side and here they are insulting us. Like we don’t already have teams planned for this mission!”

“God, they’re adorable, though. I hate this.”

“They’re cute as hell.”

“I’m naming this one Gingerbread. You hear that, Gingerbread? You have an adorable name and could get away with crimes.”

Her eevee looks at her and squeaks.

Taako rolls his eyes and looks at the eevee on top of him. “You don’t get a name. You’ve gotta earn it.”

“Just admit you can’t think of a good one,” Lup says.

Taako scoffs. His eevee purrs at him.

“You sure these things aren’t cats, Lulu?”

“I don’t know. Taxonomy’s a bastard.”

--

The IPRE’s massive greenhouse is a place where the department’s grass-type pokémon frequently roam free, but Davenport finds Merle’s party all gathered around the dwarf.

He approaches the party briskly. Merle and his Ludicolo are leading the rest of his pokémon--along with a few tagalongs Davenport doesn’t recognize--through a dance exercise. Given that most of them are quadrupeds, the dance doesn’t translate very well, but the instructors still cheer the rest along without hesitation.

“I’m glad to see you’re getting your eevee acquainted with the rest of your party.”

“Hey, Skip! Take five, everyone.” The pokémon halt at Merle’s command, except for the ludicolo, who keeps dancing to an unheard tune. “Yeah, it’s goin’ well! Kid’s got moves.”

The eevee climbs up the ludicolo’s arm as it dances, perches on its shoulder, and sings/squeals along to the swaying movements.

“I came to ask about evolving it. Lucretia has asked me to put in a request for an Ice Rock sample, and I want to confirm with you about getting a Moss Rock piece as well.”

Merle squints. “Why?”

“Well, forgive me for presuming, but I thought you might be inclined to evolve it into a leafeon.”

“Oh,” Merle says, but the confusion doesn’t leave his face. “And what’s the Moss Rock got to do with it?”

“That’s…how an eevee evolves into a leafeon, Merle,” Davenport says.

Merle laughs. “An eevee doesn’t need a stone to evolve!”

“It’s not a--”

“Rock, stone--whatever, man! Eevees evolve through exposure. Positive experiences in the greenhouse will get this one to evolve into a leafeon, if it wants to evolve at all. Just like an eevee living by a volcano will grow into a flareon whether you give it a fancy ol’ Fire Stone or not.”

Davenport crosses his arms. “Alright, so no Moss Rock? And you’re sure it’ll evolve before the mission?”

“If it wants to,” Merle says noncommittally.

“Well, that’s good. Let’s not be in the business of forcing anyone to evolve.” Davenport shrugs. “Alright, I won’t keep you from your, er, dance lesson any longer.”

“Wanna join us?”

“Ha. Maybe next time.”

--

“This is Big Boof,” Magnus tells his new eevee. The arcanine sniffs at the small, new arrival.

The eevee shakes as its face comes close, whining. After a few moments, it falls over altogether.

“Oh no!” Magnus reaches out to help it stand back up. “You’ve got some jellylegs, don’cha.”

The eevee squeaks. Boof sits back when Magnus waves at it, giving them some space.

“D’you mind taking a break? The newbie’s a little nervous--we’ll work up to you!” Magnus says. Big Boof looks disappointed, but it obliges when Magnus holds out a pokéball.

Some time later, there’s banging on the door to the dorm room. It startles Magnus’ rockruff and eevee out of their play, and the eevee almost falls over again.

“Hush!” Magnus shouts as he runs for the door, taking wide steps over the paper scattered in the main room. “You’re scaring the baby!”

He opens the door to Lup. “Oh! Hey.”

“Hi!” Lup says, stepping into the room as soon as Magnus moves out of the way. “How’re things going with your eevee?”

“Better before you nearly knocked the door down! What’s up?”

“Oh, sorry. Is Lucretia here?”

“Nah, she has a late class.”

“Aw, lame.”

“That’s what I said when she was picking out schedules last year! But she says lots of seminars and stuff happen around noon, and she kept missing them ‘cause of class? So…”

“Still.”

“Yeah.”

Lup crosses her arms. “So, you named your eevee yet?”

Magnus leads her past the painted papers and back into his room, where Lassie is still trying to coax the eevee into playing again. “I was thinking Jellylegs? Is that anything?”

“Oh, that’s cute!”

“Right? What about yours?”

“I’m going with Gingerbread.” Lup tosses a pokéball, sending her own eevee out into the fray. Its sibling and the rockruff immediately come over to sniff at it.

“Aww!”

“I know.” Lup says. “Is your rockruff trained not to hurt friends with its neck?” she asks, watching carefully as the three pokémon hop around each other.

“We’re workin’ on it,” Magnus says. “It knows to stop if someone acts hurt, though.”

--

A knock sounds on the lab door. “It’s unlocked,” Barry calls out, his hand not pausing in its scribbling.

The door creaks open, and Lucretia peers through. “Hello.”

“Oh, hey! One sec, I’ve gotta…” Barry writes increasingly incomprehensible scribbles into his notebook as he tries to speed up, and then drops the pencil with finality. “Sorry, writing, uh, reactions to…” he catches himself before he launches into an explanation. “...Stuff. What’re you, uh, what’s up?”

“I thought it would be good to have my eevee battle another at its own speed. Unfortunately, none of my pokémon are both small and patient enough for that.”

“Ah, so you wanna pit it against its sibling instead?” Barry says mockingly, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, please.” She rolls her eyes. “But yes, I thought it might be good for them.”

“No, yeah, that’s actually a great idea,” Barry says, fishing in his bag for the right pokéball. “You wanna do this now?”

Lucretia holds up her pokéball in affirmation. “Let’s act like it’s a regular battle? So they learn how they’re handled.”

“Sure thing… I choooose…” Barry finally recovers the correct pokéball from his bag and tosses it forward. “Goldilocks!”

“You already named it?”

“Yup. You haven’t?”

“Well, kind of…” she throws her own pokéball. “Eve, come out!”

“That’s gonna be weird when it evolves.”

“I knowwww. But nothing better came to mind, and now it’s stuck.” She raises an eyebrow. “And Goldilocks is going to be just as strange unless you end up with a Jolteon.”

Barry shrugs. “Got me there. Byte, what’s the expected moveset for these guys? Eevees, three weeks old.”

The rotom dex beeps a few times, then says, “Tackle. Growl. Tail Whip.”

They wait a few moments, but it says nothing else. Barry chokes back a laugh. “Arceus. Is this what it’s like when you start a journey?”

“Little more exciting,” Lucretia says with a smirk. “Speaking of, these two are getting antsy.”

The eevees are fidgeting and squeaking at each other, unsure of what to do without orders. But it seems they’ve at least been trained in battle behavior, more or less.

“Hmm,” Barry says. His eevee twists around to look at him. “Well. Growl?”

It lets out a little rumbly sound that might well be a purr. Its opposing sibling’s hair stands on end as though it suddenly grew horns.

“You growl right back,” Lucretia says, and her eevee obliges, making Barry’s step back with trembling hind legs.

Barry stares at them for a few moments, and then he looks at Lucretia, deadpan. “Growl.”

Her eevee reacts just as dramatically as the first time.

“Oh no,” she says. “Oh, you’re not winning this. Growl.”

His eevee staggers to the side, unbalanced by the forced weakness.

“Growl.”

“Growl again.”

“Annnd growl.”

This time, mid-growl, Barry’s eevee sneezes. Lucretia’s jumps nearly two feet in the air and lands with its hackles raised to the sky.

Barry and Lucretia break down laughing. “We can’t,” Lucretia wails. “Oh my god, this battle’s literally never going to end.”

Barry’s voice breaks as he tries to respond, “W-We can just--let’s just call a truce and use Tackle--”

“No, no, we’ve been growling for a minute straight, do you know what growl does--”

“Oh my god,” Barry says, a new wave of laughter coming with the realization. “Holy shit, the attacks are gonna do nothing.”

“Do you ever think about the consequences of your actions, Barry Bluejeans!”

The eevees are chittering and hopping below them, unsure of what’s going on but clearly enjoying the happiness in the room.

“Okay, okay, okay, wait, we can fix this,” Barry wheezes, and he points at his eevee. “Tail whip.”