(Note: All of the characters are humanized here. But not Gijinkas. Just humans who happen to look like Pokemon)
"I'm so bored," Chloe the Vulpix groaned, looking at the bulletin board full of plain, boring requests.
Dratini, one of the other members of her team, smiled apologetically. "Me too, but as an exploration team, we should be used to this."
Chloe's partner, Eevee, fidgeted impatiently. "Ooh! I have an idea! Guess what it is! Guess! Guess!" Chloe and Dratini looked at her expectantly. Eevee grew bored of their silence and started talking again. "There's this place called Prettybig City, and it's supposed to have all sorts of great places to go! Like an amusement park!" Her eyes lit up as she came to this part. "There's rides, and music, and fun houses, and cotton candy, and ice cream, and-and-and-"
Chloe slapped her hand over Eevee's mouth. "We get it. So what's your point?"
"I think I get it," Dratini piped up. "You're saying we should go there for the day, right?"
"Mm-hmm!" Eevee nodded. She pushed Chloe's hand away from her mouth. "Meowth and Grovyle can come with us, too!"
"Since Grovyle is the only of us one with a car, I guess he's driving," Chloe mused. "And Meowth's from Prettybig City, so hopefully he'll be able to keep us from getting lost." She shrugged. "I'm game. When are we leaving?"
"Tomorrow!" Eevee said excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "We'll leave first thing in the morning!"
"But we're not allowed to uh, 'shirk work', as they say in the morning cheer," Dratini said worriedly. "Chatot will kill us if he finds out!"
"Oh, yeah..." Eevee's face fell.
"I have an idea!" Chloe exclaimed. She walked over to the Chimecho Assembly post and rung the bell. Two Ditto appeared.
"You called?" One of them asked.
"Can you transform into me and Eevee for the day tomorrow?" Chloe asked.
"That's...an odd request," the other Ditto replied, looking confused. "But, whatever you say, leader!"
"Problem solved," Chloe said proudly.
"Wow!" Eevee exclaimed.
"I'll go tell Meowth and Grovyle, then," Dratini volunteered. "We'll leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow."
(The Next Morning)
"Where is she?" Chloe asked impatiently. She was sitting in the passenger seat beside Grovyle, while Meowth and Eevee sat in the back. "She's the one who said to leave at the crack of dawn, and she ends up being late!"
"Sorry!" Dratini panted. She climbed into the car beside Eevee. "I didn't mean to hold us up. I packed some breakfast, though!" She added brightly. "But it's just some toast...I hope you don't mind."
"That's okay!" Eevee chirped, bright eyed and cheerful as ever, despite it being so early in the morning. "I love toast!"
Chloe sighed and slunk down in her seat. Eevee's level of perk was too much to take in the morning.
"I can't believe we're actually going to Prettybig City!" Meowth said excitedly. "I haven't been there in years! Maybe I could visit my family...that is, if they still live there. It's been so long..."
"I did some research, and it turns out there's a beach there, too!" Dratini added. "It's supposed to be even bigger than Treasure Town's beach! I can't wait!"
"But we're still going to the amusement park, right?" Eevee asked.
Chloe smiled as she listened to her friends chatter. "Thanks for doing this for us, Grovyle," she whispered.
"Don't mention it," he said flatly. "I guess I owe you guys a couple of favors."
"Aww, don't think of it that way," Chloe chided. "It could be fun."
"Let's just get this over with," Grovyle muttered, starting the car. Dratini passed them each a piece of toast as they drove off.
"Okay, here's the plan," Chloe turned around and spoke to the three in the backseat. "It should take us a few hours to get to Prettybig City. So when we get there, we'll spend an hour at each place we want to go, and maybe later a little more if we have time. Then, we drive home. Understood?"
"Yes," Dratini rolled her eyes, but smiled.
"Yep!" Eevee and Meowth chorused enthusiastically.
Chloe smirked. The two of them were just like siblings. Twins, almost. Chloe leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, quickly falling asleep.
Chloe snapped awake to hear everyone screaming. "What's going on?" She cried. "Grovyle, what-?"
"I don't know!" He yelled back. Then his eyes widened. "Oh Arceus, it's coming back!"
"Steer! STEER!" Eevee screamed from the back. "It coming from the right this time!"
"What is?" Chloe asked in bewilderment. She yelped as Grovyle made a sharp turn to the left and her face was squashed against her seat. As she pried her face off the seat, she caught sight of something outside the window. Spinning through the air was what looked like a green Squirtle shell.
"Holy Mew, there's more of them!" Dratini cried in horror.
Chloe reluctantly looked out the window to see that Dratini was right. There was about five of them now, and they had circled the car. A closer look showed that they were dangerously close.
"What do we do?" Meowth whimpered. "If they hit the car..."
"I have an idea," Chloe said, her mind racing. "Grovyle...o-open the sunroof."
"Are you insane?" Grovyle asked, his voice quiet, which meant that he was on the verge of panicking. "Chloe, what if you—"
"I got this," She promised him. "Trust me."
Grovyle stared and her, before sighing and reluctantly opening the sunroof. "Be careful."
Chloe climbed through and crawled onto the roof of the car. She took a moment to steady herself before standing up. As she was blasted with gusts of wind, Chloe was grateful that she was wearing shorts, instead of a skirt, like Dratini was.
"Now, what to do about these shells?" She mused aloud. One of them bumped against the car, making Chloe lose her balance and fall onto her stomach. She could hear screaming from inside the car.
"Alright, that does it," She growled. "Extrasensory!" She held out her palms towards the shells. Purple light shone from her eyes. A burst of psychic energy shot from her palms and blasted the shells to pieces.
"Yay!" Eevee cheered, opening the sunroof and climbing up. "You did it, Chloe! You—waah!" Eevee let out a cry as she was nearly blown off the roof by the wind. Chloe grabbed her hand and pulled her back onto the roof.
"Hey!" a voice yelled angrily. A Piplup in a go-kart drove up to them.
Chloe's eyes widened. "Grovyle, stop the car!" She and Eevee held onto each other as the car came to stop so neither of them would fall off.
"What do you think you're doing?" The Piplup continued, still sounding angry.
"Gabriel, is that you?" Chloe asked as she recognized her friend from Team Duskball. "It's me, Chloe!"
"I know that!" Gabriel huffed. Chloe noticed that he was wearing an outfit similar to that of a certain Italian plumber. "I should hope you know that you nearly ruined Team Duskball's Annual Mario Kart Roleplay Week!"
"What?!" Chloe and Eevee exclaimed.
"Yeah, it's really fun," Gabriel told them. "How you do like my Mario cosplay? I've been working on it all year." He seemed to realize that he was supposed to be angry. "A-anyway, you nearly ruined the whole thing! You're lucky that we didn't use actual Squirtle, like we planned, just the shells."
"Chloe, what's going on out there?" Grovyle called from inside the car.
"Nothing to worry about," she answered. "It's just…Team Duskball."
Sighs were audible from inside the car.
"I heard that!" Gabriel yelled.
"Sorry, I don't really understand what's going on here," Eevee admitted. "Mario Kart? Roleplay? Those are human terms, right? Can someone please explain them?"
Gabriel's face lit up. "We'd love to! Right guys?" He turned to the rest of his team who had appeared out of nowhere. Among them was Gabriel's partner Aidan the Treecko, who was dressed as Luigi, Crainados, dressed as Wario, Mawile, dressed as Peach, Banette, dressed as Daisy, and Beldum, somehow dressed as Yoshi.
"Where did you guys even come from?!" Chloe screamed, freaked out by the randomness of Team Duskball.
"Hi Chloe!" Aidan called, waving to her. "Want us to teach you?"
"Um, we don't really have time for….." She trailed off when she saw Eevee excitedly nodding her head yes. "Eevee! Did you forget about Prettybig City?"
"Prettybig City?" Gabriel asked excitedly. "I've been there! And as it turns out, the course we're using ends close to Prettybig City! So I think it'll be fine if you play."
"Pwease, Chwoe?" Eevee begged, trying to be cute so Chloe would agree. "Besides," she continued, talking in her normal voice. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Chloe looked at Gabriel, who gave her a huge smile and a thumbs-up. "Oh, I can think of a few things."
She sighed and stuck her head down the sunroof. "Guys, we have officially entered Team Duskball's Annual Mario Kart Roleplay Week."
"WHAT?!"
"I'll explain later," Chloe answered, climbing back into the car. She let out a gasp as the wind was knocked out of her as Eevee jumped from the sunroof, landing right on top of her.
"Sorry," Eevee apologized, climbing back to her seat in the back.
Gabriel opened the side door. "Just so you know, since you guys have no idea how to play and would most likely fail at this, I've decided to ride with you and show you how to play."
"NO!" Chloe and Grovyle screamed, while Eevee, Dratini and Meowth just looked at them.
Gabriel ignored them. "So, that means I need a place to sit."
No one moved.
"I hate this," Chloe grumbled, trying to keep her balance while sitting in the trunk. Gabriel was happily chatting to Grovyle, who had earplugs in.
"READY..." A voice boomed out of nowhere.
"Here we go!" Gabriel squee'd.
"SET..."
Chloe put her hands over her ears and curled into a ball. This could only end badly.
"GO!"
"Step on it!" Gabriel yelled.
The car started with a jolt. Chloe felt herself bouncing around as they went over bumps.
"Okay, here's what you gotta do," Gabriel explained. "See that box on the ground?"
"Yeah?" Grovyle asked.
"Run right through it."
"What."
"You're insane," Meowth said quietly.
"It's just a box, guys," Eevee said. "What's the worst that could happen?"
"Whenever you say that I get worried," Chloe said, completely deadpan.
They drove through the box, which burst open. Gabriel reached out the window and grabbed...a banana?
"What are we supposed to do with that?" Dratini asked.
Gabriel stuffed the banana in his mouth and tossed the peel to Dratini. "Here, toss it out the window."
"But...that's littering," Dratini held the banana peel with two fingers, clearly grossed out. "On the other hand...I don't want to hold this any longer, so..." She rolled down the window and tossed out the banana peel.
"So...what was the point of that?" Chloe asked.
"Just watch," Gabriel answered.
They looked out the window to see Aidan cruising by on his green go-kart. "Hey guys!" He waved to them.
"Aidan!" Dratini gasped. "Watch out for…."
Aidan, not paying attention, suddenly felt his go-kart spin out of control as the banana peel slipped under the front wheel. "CHEEESECAAAAAAAKE!" Aidan screamed as his vehicle began to spin uncontrollably. The tires began to smoke as they dragged across the ground. Eventually, the smoke turned into sparks, and the sparks turned into flames. "Fire!" Aidan screamed. "I'm on fire! Someone help me!" His entire vehicle burst into flames as he lost control of the wheel, causing him to go spiraling toward a cliff wall. "Wabajiiiiiii-!" His go-kart hit the side of the cliff….and promptly exploded.
"Was that Japanese or something?" Chloe asked.
"Nah, it's just something he likes to say," Gabriel answered. "Anyway, that's the power of banana peels!" He looked at the rest of them, whose jaws were at the floor. "Eh, he'll get better. On with the race!"
"Could we turn on we radio, please?" Meowth asked weakly.
Grovyle tried to turn on the radio, but all he got was static. He was about to turn back to Meowth and shrug, when Gabriel pushed him away and began trying every station. "There's got to be something," he insisted. Finally, at station 666, something came up.
"Hi, I'm Joost!"
"And I'm Bubba!"
"And this is the Joost and Bubba Show~!"
"Oh, no..." Chloe groaned. "I hate these guys. Their jokes make no sense!"
Gabriel gasped. "Are you kidding? I love the Joost and Bubba Show! They're hilarious! In fact, I'd get action figures of them, but they don't sell any, since they're just voices..."
"Hey Bubba, what happened when the Ugly Barnacle was born?"
"I dunno, Joost, what?"
"Everyone died!"
A laugh track played. Chloe groaned and shook her head. "That doesn't even..."
Gabriel, on the other hand, burst out laughing. "That's the best one yet!"
Everyone just looked at him with -_- faces.
"What?"
"I'm turning off the radio now," Grovyle muttered while Gabriel looked at everyone in confusion.
"All in favor of dumping him out of the car, abandoning the race, and continuing to Prettybig City, say Aye." Chloe said, still completely deadpan.
"Aye!" Everyone except Gabriel called.
Everyone looked at Gabriel.
"All opposed?" Chloe grinned maliciously at Gabriel.
"Nay…?" Gabriel squeaked.
Shortly after Gabriel was drop-kicked out of the car courtesy of Grovyle, he gave the car that was speeding away a dirty look, and took out his phone.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end greeted him.
"Yeah, it's me," Gabriel answered. "Inject them."
"Glad that's over with," Chloe said happily as she relaxed in her rightful seat.
"I don't know, I hope he's okay," Dratini admitted, looking out the window worriedly as if expecting Gabriel to appear on the side of the road.
"Dratini, that kid could survive a nuclear bomb and complain about the inconvenience," Chloe assured. "He'll be fine."
"If you ask me, I think we should get out of here as fast as we can," Grovyle said warily. "We're still technically in the race, and since we kicked out the guy who was teaching us how to play, we're still in danger."
"Don't worry, Grovyle!" Eevee said cheerfully. "We're in some roleplay put on by the craziest exploration team in the world. What's the worst that could happen?"
A loud beeping noise answered her.
"ATTENTION! BLUE SHELL! BLUE SHELL!"
"What's a...blue shell?" Meowth asked nervously.
"I don't know, but chances are it's something that will most likely get us killed, no thanks to SOMEONE," Chloe glared at Eevee. "-who happened to bring it up."
"Either way, a blue shell doesn't sound good," Dratini said worriedly.
"Wait a minute," Chloe whispered. "I...I think my Dimensional Scream is activating." She felt her head grow woozy and there was a burst of light.
"Hey, no fair! You always win!"
"Well, yeah, 'cause I'm actually good at this game!"
A ten year old girl with curly, rust colored hair sat next to an eight year old boy with blue-black hair and a blue toque. They were both playing Mario Kart.
"Victory is mine, once again!" The boy gave the peace sign and grinned. "It must be pretty embarrassing to know you lost to someone younger than you!"
The girl fumed. "You're only that good because that's all you do every day!"
The boy stuck out his tongue. "Meanie."
The girl crossed her arms. "Whatever. Do you want to keep playing or not, Gabriel?"
"Okay, Chloe," the boy agreed. "But actually give me a challenge this time! And don't keep Blue-Shelling me!"
"Don't keep Blue-shelling me," Chloe repeated as the flashback ended and she was transported back to reality, whatever you want to call what they're in right now. "Don't keep Blue-Shelling me. Don't keep Blue-Shelling me! DON'T KEEP BLUE SHELLING ME!" She screamed, snapping out of her trance and shaking the person nearest to her (Grovyle).
"Chloe! Snap out of it!" Grovyle yelled, prying her off of him and holding her firmly by the shoulders. "What's the matter?"
Chloe blinked. "Wh-what happened? How long was I out for?"
"'Out?'" Eevee echoed. "What do you mean? You just stared into space for a couple of seconds and started screaming about blue shells." She paused, and a look on dawning realization came over her. "Wait! Did you have another Dimensional Scream?"
"Yep," Chloe answered. Blacking out randomly had been freaky and annoying at first, but she had gotten used to it. "This time, it was a flashback of me and Gabriel as kids playing Mario Kart. And about those blue shells? I'm not completely sure what they do, but chances are if one of them hits us, we could end up seriously hurt, or maybe even dead."
"So what do we do?" Meowth piped up.
"Easy," Chloe responded. "We do what we were planning to do in the first place. We leave the race, get to Prettybig City, and actually enjoy our day without being bothered by axe-crazy Piplups with bad taste in humor."
"You know guys..." Dratini interrupted. "That warning about the blue shell happened a while ago. Shouldn't the blue shell have reached us by now?"
Silence swept over the other four as they realized with a sickening feeling that she was right. The blue shell would be here any second now. If the green shells practically dented the car while going slowly, who knows what the blue shell going at full speed would do to it?
"Wait, I have an idea!" Chloe exclaimed. "Again," she added after a pause. "Remember how I destroyed the green shells earlier? Well, I'll just do the exact same thing, except this time, I'll be waiting for them."
"I'll help too!" Meowth offered.
"And me!" Eevee added excitedly. "This is going to be so much fun! Actually, this reminds me of our last sleepover!"
"WHAT?!" Grovyle and Meowth exclaimed in confusion.
"Don't ask," Chloe assured them.
A few seconds later, they were all outside the car, waiting. Chloe glanced up to see the blue shell spinning through the air towards them. "There it is!" Chloe cried. "Let's do this! Flamethrower!"
"Leaf Blade!"
"Shadow Claw!"
"Aqua Tail!"
"Moon Tiara Action!"
Everyone stopped and stared at Eevee, who had called out the last attack. Eevee grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, I mean Trump Card!"
"I never should have gotten her that Sailor Moon manga for her birthday," Chloe muttered. "Even if it was an all-new translation."
The attacks hit the blue shell, which exploded.
"Yay!" Eevee cheered. "We did it!"
"Hey, that's wasn't how it was supposed to go!" A voice yelled from out of nowhere.
Everyone froze. "That voice..." Grovyle whispered in horror.
"It can't be..." Chloe murmured, and slowly turned around.
Gabriel in was behind them, riding in a...helicopter? (Just picture the thing Bowser Jr rides in and you've pretty much got it)
"YOU?!" Everyone yelled.
"Yes, it is I!" Gabriel proclaimed, now deciding to speak in an extremely hammy voice, for effect. "My name is Gabriel the Piplup! You killed my dignity. Prepare to die."
"Get. In. the car," Chloe whispered to the rest of her team. "Hurry."
The exploration team ran to the car, while Gabriel was so busy monologuing he didn't notice.
"Wow, Gabriel's kind of a Tsundere*," Eevee remarked. "Or is it Yandere**? No, I'm pretty sure it's Tsundere."
"I'm regretting getting you into anime and manga more and more every day," Chloe groaned. "Come on; let's get outta here before Gabriel does something he'll probably regret."
"—and then, he will smite you and plunge you into the fiery..." Gabriel blinked and looked around. "Hey, where'd they go?!" He saw their car driving away. "Come back! I wasn't done monologuing!"
"That was close," Dratini sighed in relief. "Anyone thirsty?" she asked as she passed out bottles of water. She offered one to Chloe, who politely declined.
"Sorry," Chloe apologized. "But right now, water reminds me too much of a certain blue penguin."
Grovyle glanced out the window and facepalmed. "Speak of the devil..."
Gabriel was flying in his helicopter-thingy right beside the car. He was yelling something, but no one could hear him over the wind and because the window was rolled up. "What was that?" Chloe yelled over the wind, rolling down her window.
"I said," Gabriel cleared his throat. "WHAT'STHEBIGIDEALEAVINGMEBEHINDLI KETHATWHILEIWASMONOLOGINGIME ANREALLYWHYWOULDYOUDOTHAT—"
Chloe quickly rolled up her window. "I think he's angry," she said flatly.
"You know guys..." Meowth began. "I think the only way he'll leave us alone is if we compete in the race. Who knows, it could be over pretty quick, since we've been driving for a while now. Besides, would you rather have him" he jerked his thumb in Gabriel's direction. "-be after us all day?"
Everyone looked at Chloe. "What?" The team leader asked casually. "I'm not the one driving. And besides, isn't the finish line right there?"
"What?!"
Sure enough, the finish line was right ahead, and since there was no one there, they appeared to be in first.
"Plot deviiiiice..." Chloe sang under her breath.
They sped towards the finish line, and as soon as they crossed it, random Pokemon appeared out of nowhere and cheered. By now, everyone was used to weird stuff happening, so no one gave it a second thought.
Gabriel landed his helicopter-thingy and walked over to Chloe's side of the car, motioning for her to get out. Grovyle, Meowth, Dratini, and Eevee looked at her, worried.
"Is there anything in here that can be used as a weapon?" Meowth wondered, searching the car.
"I'll be fine," Chloe assured them. "If Gabriel tries anything funny, I'm pretty sure I can take him." She got out of the car and walked over to Gabriel.
"Hey..." He said quietly, not looking her in the eye.
"Let me guess, you feel guilty for the trouble you caused us and you want to apologize?" Chloe guessed.
Gabriel growled in frustration and kicked a stone. "Why are you always right? Are you like psychic or something?"
"It's cause I'm used to it," Chloe smirked. She walked closer and hugged him. Gabriel stiffened at first, but then gave in and hugged back. "Let's both just keep doing our best as team leaders, okay?"
"Hey, I don't do happy endings!" Gabriel complained. "I'm part of Team Duskball, for Arceus' sake!" After a pause, he looked up excitedly. "Next week we're doing our Annual Mario Party Roleplay Week! Wanna come?"
"Uh, sounds fun, but..." Chloe tried to think of an excuse, but finally just gave up. "No. KTHXBYE!" She ran to the car, which quickly drove away.
Gabriel watched the car get further and further away. He knew he should be hurt or offended, but he was used to this kind of thing from Chloe.
"We're finally here!" Eevee squealed. "Prettybig City!" She jumped out of the car and ran towards the amusement park. "Last one there's a rotten—huh?"
The amusement park was dark and empty. Eevee looked at the sign on the entrance. "C-closed on Sundays?!"
"Yeah...I guess I forgot to mention that," Meowth admitted as the others joined her.
Eevee's big brown eyes began to fill with tears. Chloe hugged her. "It's okay," she soothed. "There's lots of other things to do here!"
"I'm sure the beach will be fun," Dratini added, taking Eevee's hand gently.
Meowth and Grovyle stood behind the girls watching the seen unfold.
"Should we do something?" Meowth whispered.
"I'm not good with this kind of thing," Grovyle answered in a low voice. "Chloe and Dratini seem to have it covered, so I think it's okay."
"Come on, let's go to the beach," Chloe encouraged.
"You can't," A Mudkip that happened to be passing by spoke up. "The water's polluted. Folks have ended up in the hospital for swimming in it."
Everyone glared at Meowth. "Sorry, I forgot to mention that part, too..." Meowth said sheepishly. "Oh, but before you get your hopes up, I should probably mention that pretty much every place in this city is closed on Sundays."
Chloe's eyes glowed red. "You mean…..we came all this way...FOR NOTHING?!"
"Y-yeah, pretty much," Meowth squeaked. "H-hey, at least we managed to kill a couple of hours instead of spending the day doing nothing."
"YOU'RE riding in the trunk!" Chloe growled as she was held back by Grovyle, Eevee, and Dratini.
"I told you this would be a waste of time," Grovyle muttered.
"Let's just go home, please?" Dratini begged.
"Okay, fine," Chloe sighed, calming down. "Let's go."
As they walked back to the car, Eevee suddenly perked up. "Hey!" She said. "Maybe we could play another round of Mario Kart with Team Duskball!"
"NO!" Everyone else yelled.
"—And that's what happened," Chloe finished.
She, Eevee, Meowth, Grovyle, Dratini, and Caz were sitting in Spinda's Café, and they were explaining to Caz the events of the day before.
"Wow," was all the Togetic could say.
"You know, I kinda miss Team Duskball's wacky antics," Chloe admitted.
"Really?" Grovyle asked in surprise.
"Nope," Chloe answered, sipping her drink.
"I sort of wish I could have gone with you," Caz said wistfully. "It sounded exciting and fun."
"Exciting, yes," Meowth agreed. "Fun, no."
"I wanna do it again!" Eevee exclaimed.
It was silent as everyone stared at her.
"Aww," Eevee pouted. "You didn't laugh. I wanted to have an Everybody Laughs Ending!"
"Well, it's not happening," Chloe told her. "And stop breaking the fourth wall!"