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“Agh, alright, alright, I give!”

Dani’s tone was light with a hint of laughter as she lay on the floor, her Squirtle, Jeffrey, bouncing on her chest. She picked the little guy up as she moved to pick herself off the floor. A few feet away, a shy looking Phanpy trumpeted concern. The brunette reached over to rub behind the little elephant’s ears. ”No, you did a great job Luna, and I’m fine. Just wasn’t expecting the move to be that strong.” The trio was off in a side area of the mountain, practicing their moves. Obviously the pokemon in the area were too strong to train against, so Dani was just working on strategies and getting her team to listen to her.

Which with the Squirtle that was currently still trying to bounce in her grasp, wasn’t exactly an easy task. She half-chucked the creature off to the side, where he tucked into his shell and bounced a couple times on the floor before poking his head (and his tongue) out at her. ”Squirt!” The other two couldn’t help but laugh, but it was interrupted by a beeping on her person. ”Oh, crap, it’s that communicator...computer....thing.” She quickly patted down her jacket, trying to remember which pocket she had put the SNAG, before finally grabbing the beeping device. She flipped it open and read the incoming message, her eyes going wide before her whole expression going dark. ”Aw, hell no.” The brunette scrambled to her feet, pulling out her pokeballs. ”I gotta get back to the base for a teleport, fast, so I’m gonna put you two up, alright?” The two pokemon exchanged a worried glance before nodding as they were sucked into their respective containment beams.

Not wasting another second, Dani took off through the caverns, grateful she was an athlete. She could push herself all the way to HQ, and only be slightly tired. From there it was a quick trip to the teleporting room, and she could see others heading the same way. She eyed them somewhat darkly, but didn’t say anything. Although she didn’t want to admit it, she might need their help. Ready and waiting, the girl crossed her arms and practically spat out “Olivine City” before disappearing.


The young trainer arrived into chaos. Those at the teleport point were already rushing out and releasing their pokemon. Many more were trying to seek shelter in the building, mainly those who didn’t have pokemon or whose team had already fainted. She pushed her way through the crowd to outside, just narrowly beating the urge to gape at the scene. Visible even from the center of the city, down at the beach, were a number of huge tentacruel, their long limbs almost lazily smashing down around them. She started running faster, needing to head closer to the source of the chaos.

Dani dug into her pocket and tossed out a pokeball while still running, even managing to catch it on the rebound. Jeffrey popped out, looking confused but immediately taking off after his trainer. ”You’re faster....than Luna...” She spoke as she ran. ”These guys...are dangerous. Don’t do...anything...stupid. Just hit them...a bit at...a time.” The Squirtle nodded, understanding that now wasn’t the time to be silly. The girl pushed herself, past the buildings, past her...past.

”Tag, you’re it!” A young Dani tapped a blonde boy with just enough force to make him rub the shoulder before chasing off after her. She loved these games, especially since she usually won. Her and the other children in the city were often scolded for running around in the streets and generally getting in other peoples’ way.

Shaking her head, the brunette practically slid onto the beach from the pathway, digging her feet in the sand. Other trainers lined the beach, having built up makeshift bunkers out of sand dunes. All around and behind them, buildings were thrashed and crumbling with debris from how much destruction the tentacruel had caused before the trainers had started to hold them off. Angrily, she pointed a finger at the nearest sea creature. ”Get ‘im Jeff! Bite one of the tentacles!” As she found a somewhat empty dune to hide behind, the little shelled creature tore out closer to the water, nimbly weaving through the limbs before biting down hard on the tip of one. The tentacle thrashed, and the Squirtle was thrown off, his face in a “yuck” expression.

”Hey, what are you doing? Your squirtle’s too small to be out here!” A female voice sounded to her right, and without looking the brunette shoved the person away. ”Nobody has the right to tell me to back off from this.” This was her home, as much as it pained her to admit it, sometimes.

”Not even a Gym Leader?” Dani’s eyes went wide and she turned to the side to face the speaker, flabbergasted. ”Jasmine? Oh, cripes, I’m...” The girl paused and shook her head, sparing a glance back to her Squirtle (which was still dodging the tentacles and biting occasionally). ”Wait, no, I’m not sorry. I don’t care if you’re the Gym Leader, I wouldn’t care if you were the freaking Champion, I’m staying put.” She crossed her arms and looked at the older trainer mulishly (and somewhat guiltily). Jasmine blinked, looking slightly confused. ”Do..do I know you?”

Dani stood in front of the gym, nervously glancing between the pokeball in her hand and the imposing building. She could do this, she’d practiced. Her Magmar had the type advantage; she had done her research. With a nervous sigh, the 11 year-old walked into the gym.

Dani snorted and looked to the side. ”I doubt you’d remember me. I fought you once, back when I was a kid. I wa-“ The older girl held up a hand, eyes narrowed as she thought. ”No, I do remember you...I remember that glare.” It was said half-jokingly. The Gym Leader started to continue, but a crash nearby had them both jumping. Jasmine turned back to the beach, all business, and it was now that Dani could see a steelix further down the area. ”Shellby, Thunder Fang!” With a roar, the giant pokemon bit down on one of the Tentacruel, jolts of electricity emanating from its mouth. The havoc-causing pokemon went down...but there were still 3 more. The steelix swung its tail at one of the other ones, crushing some of its limbs.

Dani was still somewhat in awe at the display of power, and nearly missed Jasmine continuing their conversation. ”I couldn’t believe a child could have that much anger. I had to call security from the way you were yelling at me....what was it about...

”Why, why’d you do that?! You could have won without hurting him like that!! What kind of Gym Leader are you?!” The young Dani struggled against the hands pulling her away from the field and towards the door. She cried out wordlessly at the magmar lying crushed in the middle of the arena, pushed halfway into the dirt from the force of the battle.

The younger girl rubbed the back of her head, looking annoyed, although it was mostly at herself. ”I was upset that you’d hurt my pokemon. I mean...you literally smashed him into the ground.” She looked back to her Squirtle, and pointed to the top of the tentacruel’s head. ”Climb the limbs! Bite its head!” Slightly bruised by now from some of the thrashing tentacles, Jeffrey still complied. ”I quit being a trainer because of you back then. I didn’t want to see my pokemon get hurt.” Her tone was sullen. ”It took me a while before I realized they could handle that.”

Jasmine looked proudly over at her steelix, which had ripped off half the limbs of one of the tentacruel in its jaws. ”Yes, they’re quite something. I’m glad to see you’ve matured.”

Dani snorted again. ”I’d like to hope so, that was over 10 years ago. Now I just beat my opponents into the dust. That’s it, Jeffrey!” The little pokemon had successfully navigated the sea of limbs (no pun intended) and waved mockingly from his perch on top of the tentacruel’s head before tearing into the soft flesh.

It was well into the evening before the last tentacruel finally fell, finished off by one of Jasmine’s revived magneton. Tired, dirt, and in some cases, bloodstained, trainers started the process of retrieving their pokemon, and some with healthy or revived members of their team started work on clearing up the debris from the smashed building.

Dani had stayed near Jasmine during most of the fight, her original awe towards the gym leader increased ten-fold after watching the older girl in a true fight, not one for sport or challenge. Having already retrieved her Squirtle some time ago, she released Luna, the little blue elephant trotting off to carry some of the debris. It always surprised and pleased the brunette at how strong the little creature was. ”Well, looks like Olivine survived.”

Jasmine turned to her with a half smile. ”Doesn’t it always?”

Dani looked over the town, trainers, civilians, snagems, and even gym leaders alike in helping out, united in a common cause. Kinda like her, even when hit hard, it just came back stronger. ”Yeah...I guess it does.”