~ These Creatures Are Friend-Shaped ~

"Jaskier."

"Yennefer."

"The Murkrow is new."

"Yeah, well, your... Mom is... old."

"Grumpig," Mom protested.

Yennefer turned to Geralt and asked, "Where's your little baby?"

"Over there," Geralt replied, gesturing vaguely in the direction where most of Jaskier's Pokemon were playing with Dunior and Booger.

"I don't see hi- wait. There are two Jigglypuff."

"Booger evolved."

"How do you tell them apart?"

"Well, one of them responds to 'Booger' and the other one doesn't," Jaskier replied archly.

"Are you still annoyed about me naming him Booger?"

"Well, maybe if you hadn't named him after nose-pickings, I wouldn't be annoyed!"

"Ugh," Yennefer scoffed. "I can't take the old married couple routine. If you guys are going to rehash a decade-old argument about a Pokemon's nickname, I'm going to make myself scarce because I don't want to hear it."

"Wait," Geralt said as she started to leave. "I didn't show you how we actually tell them apart."

That piqued the sorceress's curiosity.

"Okay, show me."

Geralt led her over to where the Pokemon were playing, and whistled to get their attention.

Some of Jaskier's Pokemon ignored him, but Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff both joined Geralt's Pokemon in going over to to him to see what he wanted.

Geralt knelt and spoke to the two Jigglypuff.

"Hey, where's your dad?"

One Jigglypuff pointed to the other Jigglypuff, and the other pointed at Jaskier.

"This one's Booger," Geralt told Yenenfer, patting the first Jigglypuff on the head.

"Jigglypuff~" cooed Booger.

At the top of the mountain, they found the legendary dragon Pokemon - Rayquaza.

Unfortunately, before the hunters could initiate a battle to see who was the one worthy of becoming the legendary dragon's partner, a portal suddenly rent the air and dispelled the strangest-looking space alien Pokemon any of them had ever seen.

As Rayquaza engaged the invader in battle, several of hunters from various groups fled the scene.

"That's... a Pokemon, right?" Geralt said uncertainly to Yennefer.

"We'll find out," Yennefer replied with a grin, as she withdrew Hoopa's bottle from her coat pocket.

After a long and taxing battle, Geralt and Jaskier each managed to bond with a legendary Pokemon. The legendary Rayquaza was now bonded to Jaskier, and the alien Deoxys was bonded to Geralt.

Yennefer parted ways with her friends, traveling down the mountain with the dwarves instead, because she could not stand to listen to the two of them arguing over Pokemon's nicknames again.

"They're a legendary dragon! You can't call them Greg," Geralt argued.

"They look like a Greg to me," Jaskier replied. "First you're mad at me for never giving my Pokemon nicknames, and now that I've finally given one a nickname, you're mad at me about it! And I hardly see how you have room to complain when you named your... little space alien guy Noodle."

"He's got long wiggly arms like noodles! At least that makes sense. You just gave yours a people name."

"Greg likes his name! Don't you, Greg?"

"RAWR."

~end~

Pokemon team recap:

Geralt: Mudsdale (Roach), Honedge (Sword 3), Jigglypuff (Booger), Sandslash (Dunior), Trevenant (Sweet Baby), Deoxys (Noodle)

Jaskier: Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff, Kricketune, Chatot, Politoed, Murkrow, Rayquaza (Greg)

Yennefer: Grumpig (Mom), Dratini (Anica), Yamask (Baby Princess), many Phantump which all have cutesy nicknames, Hoopa