Author's Note: This is mostly silly, but it's also my attempt at making Team Magma train Wailmer make some kind of sense. It still leans on the humorous side, but, hey, there is a point!
...Forgive the meme in the title, by the way. It was the first thing that came to mind, and I couldn't think of something better to replace it with.
Too Much Water
"There—leap out of the water! All together!"
Terra frowned as she watched the trio of Wailmer jump gracefully out of the water. Well, "graceful" wasn't the right word. The creatures were big and bulky and couldn't do anything with elegance. Their bulbous forms quivered as the air whistled around them, and they landed with colossal splashes that ended up getting her wet.
Fortunately, she'd been standing far enough away that Terra was only slightly soaked instead of completely soaked. Her face, hair, and shirt were dripping with water, but her arms and legs were mostly dry. Terra sputtered, wiping off her face with her sleeve before wringing out some of her hair.
"Um, what are you doing?"
Terra cast a sidelong glance at the girl who'd just walked up behind her. She looked…vaguely familiar? Wasn't she some…contest star, or something? That was it, probably. Terra watched contests every now and then, and she was certain that she'd seen the girl on stage a couple of times.
At any rate, the brunette blinked curiously at her. Then, she furtively glanced around Terra's shoulder, as if she couldn't believe the Pokémon she was looking at. Finally, she stepped backwards and gave Terra another look over. What was that disbelieving stare for?
"Training the Wailmer," Terra replied flatly. "Why?"
"Well, it's just…aren't you…" The girl waved at her outfit. "…in Team Magma?"
Well, Terra was wearing her uniform, and Team Magma mostly assigned its members Numel (along with the occasional Baltoy or Koffing). She supposed, in one sense, that Wailmer were an odd choice for a Magma grunt. But how would the girl know that unless she'd fought the team at some point?
(Unfortunately, Terra hadn't been out on most of the 'big' missions lately. If she'd had the chance to do so—instead of being relegated to clerical work for the past few weeks—she might've realized that this very girl was the same one who'd been mucking up the boss's well-laid plans.)
Terra shrugged. "Well, you know what they say. 'Know your enemy,' and all that. How are we supposed to fight back against Team Aqua if we don't understand them?"
Well, that was…kind of what she'd been going for. Terra was trying to understand exactly what the appeal was behind Water-Types. What did those Aqua fools see in them? She looked back at the Wailmer, who were now lazily floating around in circles. They weren't that appealing, were they?
The girl frowned. "I guess so. But how does this help with that?"
"You know, it's like…" Terra shrugged. "How else are we supposed to figure out how to get rid of the things we don't want? If we study them, we'll know what their weaknesses are, and how we're supposed to deal with them."
The girl glanced over at the Wailmer, eyebrows raised in alarm. Perhaps she was worried about them hearing Terra admit that. She didn't have anything to stress over, though. One of the Wailmer had just ducked underwater, popped back out, and shot massive jets of water out of its blowholes. The other two attempted to clap their stubby little fins together, shrieking in amusement at the show.
"Right," she said, backing away slowly. "I'll, uh…leave you to that."
"That'd be nice, yeah."
Terra turned around, focused intently on the Wailmer again. Seriously—what was so great about these things? They weren't pretty; they weren't elegant; they weren't even very smart (at least, these three weren't). If they were supposed to show her what was so great about Water-Types, they were failing horribly.
Maybe she should get some other Pokémon to study instead. Maybe that would help… Terra sighed. Seriously, what were the admins thinking, giving her a silly assignment like this? If it was to bore her into hating Water-Types altogether, it was working.
Honestly, Terra was already more partial to Ground-Types—she wouldn't have joined Team Magma if she thought the ocean was awesome. This was pointless, unless they were planning on doing it with all the grunts. That'd be a great way to ensure they never wanted to see any ocean-dwelling Pokémon ever again.
…Actually, that made a lot of sense, Terra thought. Maybe that was the point of this exercise. She wouldn't doubt it if Tabitha and Courtney were planning on having the Grunts take up rotating shifts with the graceless Wailmer trio she'd been stuck with.
Terra was shaken out of her thoughts when one of the Wailmer did a giant belly-flop off a nearby rock. This time, she was soaked completely through, and she groaned as she stared down at her uniform. Thankfully, she had several spares, but she didn't want to stand around out here while she was wet. That was just asking to get sick.
Sighing, Terra withdrew the Wailmer into their balls. She didn't want to drip all over the hideout—she'd go change at the Center instead. Fortunately, her bag was further back on the shore; Terra should have some dry clothes in there. Then maybe she'd grab a few dolls at the Department Store to make herself feel better.
Yeah, that sounded like a plan. Terra nodded, congratulated herself, and strode off. Certainly nothing too bad would happen at the hideout while she was gone.
