"Your father learnt a lot from that little Bagon he caught in Hoenn." He replies, smiling.
She feels Ash's eyes on her. She's never really talked about her parents with her friends, and she silently promises herself that one day she will, but it's enough of a challenge to talk about them with her Grandpa as it is.
She'll tell them eventually, but now she's focused on something else.
"Alright. I'll take Metang with us."
Route 212 - Sinnoh
Casey strolls behind the rest of the group with Metang hovering at her side, the Iron Claw Pokemon opting to remain as far away from her as it can whilst still remaining on the dirt path.
That's a habit that Metang's kept up since joining them all on their journey. Sometimes it just bursts out of its Pokeball, refusing to go inside the capsule but also refusing to stand by her side.
She figures that it's doing it in an act of defiance, or perhaps just because it's trying to be difficult, but she can't deny that it's frustrating her to no end.
Its behaviour is bizarre, because thick storm clouds that look just about ready to give way are covering the sky, so you'd think that it'd go back inside the capsule to avoid the imminent inclement weather, but apparently not.
As if on cue, the dark sky flashes and thunder rumbles, making the entire group jump with a fright and come to a stop.
"I guess that's it with nice weather for a while." Dawn remarks grimly with a look at the overcast sky.
Casey sighs, turning to Metang, "Now will you go back into your Pokeball, Metang?"
"Met!" The Steel-Type bites back, standing its ground to protest her suggestion.
"Seriously?" She asks, involuntarily scoffing at his behaviour, "Metang, you've got to compromise with me here."
She knew that taking Metang with her would bring up some challenges, but she hadn't expected everything to become a challenge.
"Cleffa! Cleffa!"
The sound of a distinct cry followed by the ruffling of some nearby shrubbery catches everyone's attention, even Metang's. They all turn towards the source of the sound, all of them surprised to find a small pink Pokemon stumbling out onto the pathway.
"It's a Cleffa!" Ash remarks.
Dawn withdraws her Pokedex and aims the device at the small Pokemon.
"Cleffa, the Star Shape Pokémon. It has the silhouette of a star in the night sky and some believe that Cleffa ride on shooting stars."
"It all sounds kinda romantic, if you ask me." Dawn says, pocketing the device and looking at the Star Shape Pokemon with intrigue.
Casey's never actually run into a Cleffa in person before. She's seen pictures of the Pokemon, so she recognised it instantly, but she's never physically seen one before now.
"Cleffa?"
Yet another appearance, this time of a young lady dressed in housekeeping robes, catches the groups attention. She spots the Cleffa and rushes right over to it.
"Oh, so this is where you are!" She cries in relief, scooping Cleffa up into her arms, "I was worried about you! Please don't go so far away again!"
"That Cleffa is so cute! Is it your Pokemon?" Dawn asks as the group approaches the girl, Metang reluctantly following behind Casey as she follows her friends.
"Oh, no. This Cleffa actually belongs to the master of the house." The young lady replies.
"Master of what house?" Ash asks.
"I mean, the owner of that mansion, Mr Backlot. I'm Monica, Mr Backlot's housekeeper." She explains, gesturing up to the ginormous mansion situated on a hill at the top of the dense forest they're walking through.
"I'm Ash, and I'm from Pallet Town." Ash says, and Pikachu chimes in with a small hello of his own.
Dawn introduces herself and Piplup too, and then Casey takes her opportunity to do the same.
"I'm Casey." She says, then pointing to Metang, "That's Metang."
Metang responds with a gruff buzzing noise before then turning away, and Casey flushes red in embarrassment. She considers scolding Metang for his behaviour, but she's not exactly in the mood to cause an all out war, particularly not in front of someone she hardly knows.
The rudeness of the moment is soon forgotten when Brock gives an extravagant introduction of his own, going so far as to kneel down in front of Monica and profess how he'll stay by her side despite barely knowing her.
Classic Brock.
Croagunk, as per usual, steps in to deal a swift Poison Jab, immobilising Brock and dragging him away from Monica as he lays there limply.
He snaps out of it just in time to be on his feet for when the rain begins to come down.
Dawn instantly goes to shield her head when the rain comes down, and Piplup shies away from the rain and attempts to hide from it underneath her hair, "Oh, no! It's coming down in sheets!"
"You're all welcome to come back to the mansion." Monica suggests, nodding to a crossroads in the dirt path, "It's right this way!"
The group begin to follow her, eager to get out of the heavy rainfall, but Casey finds herself grinding to a halt when she notices that Metang is, once again, standing its ground.
"Metang, come on!" She shouts, turning to Metang with a pressing look.
It ignores her.
She sighs, turning back to her friends with a forced smile, "You guys head on up. I'll catch up."
"We can't just leave you here, Casey!" Dawn says, flinching slightly as even more rain starts to come down.
"I'll be fine."
She probably won't be. It'll be a miracle if she doesn't catch a cold or something, but she's not about to let her friends potentially suffer the same fate. They reluctantly follow Monica, and Casey takes note of the path that they take before turning back to Metang, who doesn't seem remotely bothered by her clear discomfort.
"You know I'm gonna end up catching a cold, right? You might as well, you know?" She says, because she figures that she can convince Metang to listen to her if its for its own well-being.
It ignores her, which only furthers her frustration.
"Why are you doing this? I know you don't really like me all that much, but this is a new low." She says, and despite her anger her tone is remaining calm.
Metang does respond this time, but it's only by rolling its eyes.
"Did you just-?" She gasps, but she quickly forgets about it and gets back on track, "That's not important right now. We need to get inside."
Lightning strikes again, and Casey doesn't miss the way that Metang flinches, the sight making her face soften.
"You're scared, aren't you?" She asks, and the fact it doesn't answer is enough of an answer in and of itself.
"I know you don't like me, but we can both agree that we'll be better off inside than out here. Just, follow me, okay?"
It doesn't look like it's going to agree with her at first, but then a moment passes and the sky roars and lights up once again, and Metang's quick to rush to her side for the first time. She takes that as confirmation and begins to head up the path her friends took.
She's running, though admittedly not as fast as she could be. She's realised that the path has begun to get slippery because of the rain, and the slight incline of the path isn't making the trek much easier, so running probably isn't the best option.
By the time they're stumbling through the front door of the mansion, both of them are soaked, though Metang's fairing slightly easier due to the fact that the water just slides off of its metallic body.
Everyone's eyes fall on them as they enter, and as Casey's eyes quickly scan the large entrance way, her sights are drawn to a certain Pokemon in particular.
"Is that a Swinub?" She asks, pointing to the Pokemon scoffing a large amount of food from a bowl in the middle of the room.
"Yeah. It's got quite an appetite." Brock remarks, looking slightly taken aback as he looks at the small Pokemon.
Casey reaches into her pocket, quickly scanning the Pokemon's data into the device before pocketing it once again, and she slowly advances into the room alongside Metang, closing the door behind her as she goes.
"You must be Mr Backlot." She says politely, approaching a portly man whose clad in a formal looking grey suit.
"Hello, there. You must be Casey." He replies warmly, "You're also welcome to join us for dinner just as your friends are."
"Thank you, sir." She replies gratefully, "I just need like twenty minutes to dry off."
Casey slumps down onto the bed in the room that Monica gave to her with a groan, but this time it's not out of frustration. She's bloated from that delicious meal that Monica prepared for Mr Backlot and her friends, which was definitely what she needed after slogging it through all that rain.
Monica was even kind enough to make her Pokemon some food, which explains why Monferno's slumped down on the bed next to her, his stomach full and visibly larger than usual.
"Hey, pal. You feeling okay?" She asks.
"Mon." He groans back.
"Well, at least you're not hungry."
Metang went back inside of its Pokeball eventually, though it was on its own accord and not at her request. It ate some dinner, but it didn't exactly appear grateful about it. Regardless, her Grandpa gave her enough of the special food he's been giving Metang to last a while, and he even gave Brock a recipe for it. The Kanto native said that he'd pick up the ingredients when they reached Hearthome City, so even if her Grandpa's stock runs out, she'll be able to get hold of some more soon after.
Still, even though it's now inside of its capsule, the thought of Metang is still taunting her mind even now.
"Hey, Monferno. Can I ask you something?" She asks, slowly sitting up on the bed and turning to the Playful Pokemon, who too sits up with a bit of effort, "What do you think of Metang?"
"Mon?"
"I mean...look, you respect me right?"
"Mon-ferno! Mon!" He responds, which roughly translates to 'of course I do'.
Unless she's been misunderstanding Monferno this entire time, which would be quite awkward and confusing.
"Why do you do that?" She asks, "Because Metang sure doesn't and I still can't figure out why. His first trainer was awful, and I've always tried to be nice to it, but it still can't stand me."
"Monferno, mon! Mon, mon!"
"Trust me Monferno, it really can't." She admits, sighing, "I just...I want to be its friend, you know? Like how you and I are friends. Like how you and all the other Pokemon are friends. I want that with Metang."
"Mon." He tells her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"I know, pal. It's just hard, because I really want to battle with Metang, but there's no point if it won't listen to me. The fact that we won in Pastoria was luck and brute strength based, and we can't keep going on like that."
She knows she's being pessimistic, and in hindsight she should at least try to look on the bright side with the situation, but she can't bring herself to do that right now.
It's kinda hard to considering what happened just hours prior.
"I'm not about to give up with it, but...I just want to know what I'm doing wrong." She admits, because that has to be the case. She has to be doing something wrong, because if she wasn't Metang would listen to her and everything would be fine. She just can't figure out what that thing is.
Monferno, on the other hand, seems to have a different perspective on the situation, as he instantly begins to protest her suggestion.
"Monferno! Mon! Mon-ferno!" He cries, punching her shoulder in the process.
"Ow! What was that for?!" She shouts, recoiling back and clutching her shoulder.
"Mon! Mon! Mon-ferno!"
She thinks that his phrases roughly translate to 'what are you talking about, you idiot' and 'I'm trying to get you to understand'. She thinks the insult is slightly harsh, but Monferno doesn't shy away from proving a point when he believes in it strongly, so she probably should've expected it.
"Okay, I get it." She says, relaxing when she realises that Monferno probably isn't going to swing for her again, "I just really want to get through to it, you know?"
"Mon. Mon." He replies, which roughly translates to: 'you will'.
And she's certain that she's not wrong about that one.
It's the next morning, and the sun is shining brightly over Mr Backlots garden, which is a nice contrast to the sky's appearance the night before. Dawn's inside right now, baking a whole bunch of Poffins for all The Pokemon. Apparently the Swinub, which doesn't even belong to Mr Backlot like all the other Pokemon in the mansion, loves them, so she's making up a bunch for it and all the other Pokemon.
Right now, all of The Pokemon (Casey and her friend's Pokemon included) are socializing in the garden, well, all of them except for Metang. The Iron Claw Pokemon is isolating itself in the corner of the garden, choosing to shelter itself from the sunlight and the other Pokemon by hiding underneath a nearby tree.
"They're all having a real ball! That's great!" Ash remarks, watching the Pokemon with a fond smile alongside Mr Backlot, Brock and Casey.
"You know, it's special moments like these when I almost wish that I could be a Pokemon!" Mr Backlot says with a hearty chuckle.
"Hello! It's snack time!" Dawn calls to them, strolling out into the garden alongside her Pokemon and with a large woven basket tucked on her arm.
She makes her way over to The Pokemon, placing a bunch of bowls full of Poffins in front of them all to enjoy. She then turns to Casey, extending a single bowl out to her with a smile, "I made these for Metang. I figured it might want to eat separately."
"Thanks, Dawn. That's really nice of you." Casey replies gratefully, because the bluenette didn't have to go out of her way to accommodate for Metang. She's a good friend.
She walks over to Metang, her arrival catching its attention, and she places the bowl down in front of it with a smile, "Here you go, Metang."
It looks at the bowl with skepticism, eyes darting between it and her.
"It's food, Metang. Poffins, actually." She explains, "Dawn just made them."
It still looks hesitant, but it ultimately hovers down to the bowls level and takes a bite out of a Poffin, and then it takes a bite out of another and Casey knows that the foods won it over. Casey stands there, relieved to see it enjoying the food, when she hears the sudden cries of multiple Pokemon, followed quickly by the panicked shouts of her friends.
She turns around, shocked to find a large hole in the middle of the garden. At first she's beyond confused, but then a ginormous flying mechanical robot of some kind rises out of the hole, distinct in the huge red 'R' that's plastered across the front, of which she recognises in an instant.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Casey groans, rushing back over to her friends just in time to see Team Rocket emerge out the top of the vessel. She stands by her friends, glaring up at the crooks, "What do you fools want?!"
"Show some respect!" Meowth snaps.
"You guys don't deserve any respect!" Casey snipes back, fists clenched in anger, "Give all the Pokemon back right now!"
Team Rocket never learn, and that's what angers her the most.
"Mr Backlot, this is terrible! Every last bit of our food has disappeared!" Monica cries, running out into the garden with a look of horror plastered upon her face.
"Who could've done such a thing?" The wealthy man gasps, though Casey already knows the culprits.
"Maybe striking a famous dance pose will give you a clue!" James proclaims, striking a flamboyant pose that makes Casey painful.
She senses that their motto is incoming, so she's quick to try and shut it down before it gets to that point.
"Please cut it out! This is painful!" She groans, and it's thankfully enough to make them stop. She looks over at Metang, whose observing the events as they unfold from its position underneath the tree, hopefully, "Alright, Metang! Time to shine!"
She doesn't really know what she was expecting, but she has to admit that she's surprised and quite frustrated when it just turns away from her.
"Metang, are you kidding me?!"
"Boohoo!" Jessie taunts, clearly enjoying their lack of Pokemon in the situation, "Well, this marks the end of our broadcast day!"
"Away!"
All three members of the villainous team cry out victoriously, and then the ginormous machine is rising up high into the sky, taking them and all their Pokemon with it. Ash and Dawn both make a mad dash for the robot, jumping up to reach it and the two of them barely managing to hold on as Casey stands there, stunned and beyond enraged by what's just happened.
And she's not just thinking about Team Rocket.
Ash falls, landing flat on his back against the grass, and Brock hastily rushes over to him in order to help him up whilst the robot rises up high up into the sky and out of reach, taking Dawn and the Pokemon with it.
"Ash, are you okay?" Brock asks, assisting the raven-haired boy to his feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But we've gotta save the Pokemon!" Ash replies.
The panic's really starting to set in. She hears Mr Backlot request Monica to collect his car and bring it into the garden, but she's not exactly paying much attention to him. She's instead focused on Metang, whose only now decided to come out from underneath the tree to inspect the empty Poffin bowls that the other Pokemon left behind.
No, stop it, Casey! They haven't left anything behind! They're coming right back!
"Metang, I'm being serious right now. I need you to listen to me." She says, voice level and serious, as she approaches it, "Dawn and all the other Pokemon are in danger and we need your help."
As expected, it ignores her, which only adds to her frustration.
"Do you even care? Even if you don't, you should still do the right thing!"
She's aware that she's yelling now and that everyone's eyes are on her, but she doesn't really care anymore. She's fed up with trying to play nice. Sure, hanging around in the rain is annoying, but it doesn't exactly put anyone in any serious danger.
But this? This is a whole other ballpark.
Metang grumbles, turning away from her and beginning to hover towards the pathway leading back into the house. She feels her blood boil at the sight, and she's rushing around to the front of Metang and holding her hands out to block it before she even realises it.
"Met?"
"You're not walking away from this, Metang! I didn't walk away from you, so you're not doing the same to me or them!" She shouts, face flushing in anger.
"Met-tang! Met!"
Ouch, that stings.
Though she can't understand Metang nearly as well as she can Monferno, she understood that part.
"I had to leave you with him! Don't you get it? You wouldn't listen! You still don't, and because of that, Team Rocket got away!"
She's completely given up with trying to hide her anger at this point. She's beyond the point with caring because she's fed up and scared and worried about her Pokemon and Dawn. Does that make her a bad trainer? Maybe. But right now she needs to put the needs of the many over the needs of Metang.
Metang also doesn't seem bothered in suppressing its emotion, as its arm suddenly glows brightly, and then Casey's spiralling backwards onto the path after being hit by a crippling Meteor Mash. She groans in pain, clutching at her stomach as she barely manages to stumble to her feet. Metang hasn't moved, and it's glaring at her with pure fire in its eyes.
The thing is: she's even angrier than Metang.
She stumbles towards it, pointing an accusatory finger at it with her right hand whilst her left remains at her stomach, and she's borderline screaming out her words.
"We don't have time for this, Metang! You want to hurt people?! Fine, but don't hurt the people that care about you! Go after Team Rocket, because they're the bad guys, not me! Because when it comes down to it, I know that everyone trapped in that ridiculous robot of theirs wouldn't hesitate to help you!" She screeches angrily, her final words coming out as strangled cries because of how hoarse her voice is.
Metang seems surprised by her sudden outburst, and his metallic body almost seems to deflate. Ordinarily, an overwhelming sense of guilt would overcome Casey at the sight, but she's too enraged right now for that to happen.
"Casey?" Brock says, taking a cautious step forward as she and Metang stand opposite each other in silence, both physically heaving as they take in deep breaths.
"You guys go by car, okay? Metang and I will search from the sky." She says simply, eyes not moving away from Metang.
As if on cue, Monica pulls up with the car at that moment, and she can tell that both Ash and Brock are conflicted on whether or not they should get into the vehicle. She turns to them, forcing a smile onto her face, "It'll be alright. Just go."
Brock accepts it first, prompting Ash to follow him as he and Mr Backlot get into the car. The car's tyres screech as the vehicle shoots off in the direction that Team Rocket went, leaving Casey and Metang stood alone in the garden.
The exchange they have is wordless. It hovers down to the level of her knees, and she climbs up onto its back, gripping onto its sides as it flies up into the sky. Her eyes are alternating between the ground and the sky as she tries to spot Team Rocket.
She's trying not to think about what just happened with Metang by focusing on the task at hand. She can deal with everything else later.
It takes a while, but then she spots the familiar white hat that belongs to Dawn, and more noticeably the yellow robot of Team Rocket. Her friends are already there, and they're watching as Swinub fights off Team Rocket's Pokemon singlehandedly.
She lands down on the ground just as Swinub knocks Carnivine and Yanmega back towards Team Rocket, temporarily immobilising the crooks.
"Casey! The Pokemon are still trapped inside!" Dawn says exasperatedly, pointing at the center of the giant robot.
"Metang, use Meteor Mash on that spot!" Casey orders, pointing to the specific area of the robot that Dawn pointed out. Metang obeys her without question, smashing through the yellow metal casing with ease and leaving a large metal hole behind.
"Excellent job, Metang." She praises, watching in delight as all the Pokemon rush out of the robot happily.
She's mildly aware of Ash and Dawn dealing with Team Rocket along with their own Pokemon, but she's far too focused on her own to pay them much attention. She kneels down on the ground, relief rushing over her in waves as Monferno, Dragonair, Gastrodon and even Electabuzz rush over to her, all of them beyond glad to see her.
The feeling of happiness she feels just by seeing them all, okay and safe and joyous, fades when she turns to Metang. It's stood away from everyone else, even as Dawn rushes back to the group to show them all Swinub (who Casey hadn't even noticed she had caught), and it's staring at her with a mixture of emotions.
Anger, confusion, hurt...and something else that she can't quite figure out.
It's unsettling, and now that the adrenaline and angers faded, she can feel the overwhelming sense of guilt hitting.
It's even more painful than the Meteor Mash.
