Author's note: I've been getting busier and busier, so the next chapter may be as late as this one! I'll try my best to get the next one in by next week, but there is a sliiight chance i may be a day or two late.

Thanks for understanding! Enjoy!

Chapter 12: Kicking Major Butt!

They were surrounded, and Lucia couldn't stop grinning. Shelgon leapt and attached itself onto Lucia's wrist as she whipped her hand back to summon her sword made of dragon flames to her grasp.

"Shelgon! Protect!" Lucia raised Shelgon as though he were a shield as a barrier formed around them- and then pushed onward. Like a bowling ball pushing through pins, Lucia pushed through the crowd of Golduck who were sent flying in her wake.

"It's time!" Beatrice roared. "Whirlpool!" Beatrice spun like a top as Slowpoke, who sat on her head, sprayed water like a garden hose. The water that flew in the air converged around the red-head and began to form a tornado made of water. Many Golduck were caught in the growing tornado's rampaging torrents.

"Slowpoke! Use Waterfall!" As the tornado raged on, Beatrice rose to the top of the whirlpool, standing upon a geyser of water which rose toward the cave ceiling. Beatrice kept her arms crossed as she looked down at the Golduck caught in the tornado. She smiled as she shot her hand down.

"This is true perfection!" Beatrice cried. A beam of ice shot from the redhead's palm and into the water tornado. The Golduck caught in the whirlpool froze as the whirlpool turned into solid ice. Beatrice then leapt away from the tornado and landed on the ground with a crouch. She slowly stood up, then spun to the frozen twister.

"Shatter!" Beatrice shot her hand at the frozen tornado and closed her hand into a fist. As soon as she did, the Ice whirlpool exploded. Unconscious bodies of Golduck rained down, and Beatrice grinned as she lowered her arm.

Meanwhile, Lucia roared and bellowed as she cut her way through the crowd of Golduck. Lucia landed a devastating kick onto one Golduck's stomach and used it as a platform to flip into the air. As she flew, Lucia shot her arm and used Shelgon like a blaster to fire a salvo of flames at the crowd. The Golduck fell like dominos as explosion after explosion rang out. Lucia landed on the ground before whirling her sword around her. A circle of dragon flame formed around the girl before expanding outward to blast away the approaching crowd of Golduck.

As Beatrice saw more Golduck approaching her, she crossed her arms. "Future sight, Slowpoke!" The redhead cried. Slowpoke's eyes shined red as Beatrice saw a glimpse of the future. "Come at me!" Beatrice said with a confident smirk. One by one the Golduck rushed at her, only to be dodged effortlessly by the arrogant trainer. She kept her arms crossed the entire time, as she ducked and weaved over their claw and scratch attempts. Beatrice flipped before stepping on a lunging Golduck's head and jumping into the air. At that moment, the hoard that circled the trainer opened their bills and fired Hydro Pumps her. The water torrents flew at her at all directions.

Just as she foresaw it.

"Slowpoke! Psychic!" Beatrice shot her hand above her head. Combining both her psychic ability granted by her armor and Slowpoke's Psychic ability, the blasts of water directed at her was redirected to converge above her hand. A giant ball of water was beginning to take form. As soon as the Golducks took notice of this, they stopped their Hydro Pump attacks. But it was too late. The amount of water that floated above Beatrice's head was enough to fill three pools of water, and yet, it wasn't any bigger than a yoga ball.

With a flick of her wrist, the huge ball above Beatrice froze into ice. Then, she clenched her fist. The ball shattered and exploded into shards of ice that flew about like needles. They pelted the surrounding Golduck mercilessly.

Meanwhile,a crowd of Golduck surrounded Machoke, who had his arms crossed and his eyes closed. One of the water types suddenly swung their arm only for it to be caught by the fighting type. Machoke's eyes shot open as he then used the water type's body as a bludgeon to crush and destroy the others. Then, Machoke tossed the Golduck away before the water types leapt onto of the Bruiser Pokemon. They piled and piled onto the Machoke so much that he couldn't be seen.

It was then when the earth began to quake.

An explosion of Machoke's aura raged as all of the Golduck that piled onto the fighting type were sent flying. Machoke, whose eyes shined redder than his own body, had his red aura expand before the top half of his Monk's robe ripped apart. The rest of the Golduck that were fighting him watched in fear and were beginning to step back.

The water types blinked before the Fighting type disappeared from sight, and then for an instant, re-appeared in front of a single unlucky Golduck standing among others. Machoke grabbed that Golduck by the face before slamming him into the ground with enough force to create a massive explosion, sending the other Golduck around the fighting type flying. Then, in a fit of rage, Machoke began dragging the poor Golduck across the ground as it stampeded and plowed through the massive hoard.

It was like watching a truck plow through a bunch of tiny cars. Then, Machoke slowly came to a halt. He lifted the unconcious Golduck up before throwing him away.

"All right, Shelgon!" Lucia spun her sword and aimed it toward the ground with both of her hands. "Let's do it together! Dragon rage!" Lucia shoved her sword into the ground as Shelgon's eyes shined with an azure glow. An intense inferno of Dragon fire erupted below Lucia's feet and raged like a tornado, sending the crowd of Golduck around the trainer flying. Then, when the flames dispersed, Lucia raised her sword. It's size doubled, then tripled, then Quadrupled.

"Time to finish this!" Lucia cried. Lucia raised her sword. Its size doubled, then tripled, then Quadrupled- it was so large that the tip of the sword slashed into the ceiling of the cave.

Beatrice spun around and noticed what Lucia was doing immediately. Slowpoke's eyes shined red in response, using Future sight to send a message to his Trainer.

"Ugh, that idiot!" Beatrice said. Using Slowpoke's psychic abilities, Beatrice teleported to Marstomp and Vulpix, who were hiding behind a boulder. Marshtomp was standing over the shaking Vulpix, who was still holding barries in a plastic bag. The water type had stood over the fire-type to protect him as the water type kept her hands on her head to brace herself. Beatrice ran to them and grabbed them before all of them disappeared in a flash of light.

Machoke stared at the cowering Golducks before him and stepped forward. Just then, Beatrice teleported to Machoke's side and grabbed his shoulder.

"No time to explain!" Beatrice said.

"Poooke!" Slowpoke yawned. The three of them teleported out of the cave in a blink of an eye.

"DRAGON SWOOOORD!" Lucia bellowed a war cry before spinning like a top. The sword's energy expanded as she did this, and a tornado of azure flames slowly rose around the entire cave. The sword slashed into the walls around her. The cave began to tremble- shards of rocks fell from the ceiling but were incinerated to ash by the flaming tornado that was rising around the tomboyish trainer. The tornado became so fierce that it ripped through the ceiling of the cave.

From the outside, it looked like a volcanic eruption. And that's what Beatrice and the rest of the Pokémon saw from the outside of the cave. The entirety of the cave shined azure before shattering entirely, sending every single Golduck that was fighting them into the air.

For a while, it was raining Golduck and burnt berries. Some Golduck fell onto the beach sand, others fell into the ocean. They were all Unconscious. Some of the berries that fell were either on fire, or too burnt to be eaten.

Through the fire and the flames Lucia slowly walked toward her allies. She had a giant grin on her face as a harsh wind blew on her ponytail.

"Got em'." Lucia said. With a flick of her wrist, her dragon sword disappeared. Shelgon hopped off of his trainer's wrist, looking satisfied. "We got 'em all! Good job, Beatrice!" Lucia raised her hand to offer a high-five.

Beatrice flicked her finger to strike Lucia's forehead.

"Ow!" Lucia said, grabbing her forehead with both hands. "What the heck was that for!?"

"I was trying to turn on your brain, because clearly you turned it off! Why would you use a move like that when we have Pokémon to protect!?"

"What- But I took them down! Besides, I didn't know spinning like that would make a tornado!"

"Tornado or not, did you not think for a second that your sword would have become too big if you expanded its size to that degree!? Can you not control that sword to be smaller than… however big you made it just now!?"

"It's near-impossible to do that! When Shelgon and I use that move, our powers converge! We don't know how to make it smaller once we make it bigger-"

"Then why did you make it bigger?!"

Beatrice flicked her finger on Lucia's head again.

"OW!" Lucia cried. "Stop it!"

"Where is the on button on this thing?!" Beatrice roared.

"What are you even talking about!? Go away!" Lucia started sprinting away as Beatrice chased after her.

"Get back here!" The redhead cried. "I'm going to hit you a thousand times until you LEARN!"

The girls started running around in circles around the Pokémon. Machoke sighed to himself. Slowpoke was already asleep while lying on Beatrice's shoulder, unbothered by how fast she was running.

"There you are!" Ninetale's voice reached Vulpix's ears. As the human girls ran in circles around the Pokémon, Vulpix spun to the lone Ninetales approaching. He and Marshtomp approached the worried-looking mother.

"Mom, look! I got berries for us!" Vulpix said, dropping the plastic bag in front of his mother. "This is enough to feed us for days!"

"No food in this world would be enough to replace you if you were hurt!" Ninetales cried. Vulpix's eyes widened. "You don't understand how worried I was for you when I saw you were gone! I was looking everywhere for you until I remembered what you said about wanting to go into that cave to get berries! Then I saw the cave explode, and I was so worried..."

"I'm okay, though, mom! That was just a few nice humans who beat the bad guys! I got berries for us..."

"Just come over here, Vulpix. Come so I can embrace you." Vulpix hurriedly ran to his mother and came close to each other in an embrace. Marshtomp smiled.

"Never scare me like that again," Ninetales said.

"I won't, Mom." Vulpix said.

"Look, look!" The tomboyish girl's voice cried out. The three Pokémon turned their heads to the human girls that approached them. "That has to be Vulpix's mother...!" The glasses-girl said. The girl beside her karate-chopped her on the head.

"No, it's a meteor that fell from the sky- of COURSE that's Vulpix's mother!" The arrogant-sounding girl shouted, hitting her again. "I swear I didn't hit you enough to turn that brain on yet!"

"Why don't you shut up, huh!?" The shorter girl swatted the taller one's hand away. "Don't you ever think about my back hurting from CARRYING you with these fights?!"

"You're going to carry me to my own grave if you don't shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"No, you shut up!"

"...Something tells me they'll be at that for a while," Ninetales said. She picked up the plastic bag full of berries. "Come, Vulpix. Let's go."

"...About that, Mom?" Vulpix said, not turning away from the girls. "They asked if I wanted to be their partner. And I think… my answer's yes. I want to go with them."

"You want to go with them?" Ninetales asked. Vulpix nodded.

"Don't you see this ribbon I got from adventuring before? I was born for this. I was born to see the world, not just stay with the pack with the rest. Tell everyone else my goodbyes, okay?"

Ninetales smiled and nodded. "I will." She said. She turned and left.

"Look at you, you're the hero now." Marshtomp said as the fire type turned to her. "You saved the day."

"I wouldn't have been able to do that without your help. I'm extremely grateful." Vulpix bowed his head. Marshtomp nearly gasped as she chuckled in embarrassment. She scratched the back of her head.

"Th-Thanks," She said.

"What are you going to do?" Vulpix said.

"I think I'm going to go with them too. Now that those Golduck are gone, I need a new purpose in life. I've been following those Golduck for so long because I was afraid of them. I think I'll find my purpose by fighting with them." Vulpix nodded.

"Why don't you ever shut up!?" The purple haired girl cried.

"Why don't you ever think!?"

"Shut up, little-miss perfect!"

"Why thank you for calling me perfect, I'm glad you finally understand your place, filth!"

"Your place is on the ground! Under my boot!"

"Excuse me?!"

"You're excused!"

"WHAT!?"

"YEAH, YOU HEARD ME!"

Vulpix and Marhstomp approached the two still bickering girls. Without hesitation, Marhstomp opened her mouth and blasted water at the two girls. They both cried out in surprise.

"H-Hey!? What was that for?!" The pony-tailed girl cried, pulling her glasses off to wipe them.

"Ugh..! it got in my eyes..!" The taller girl said. As the two recovered, they looked down at the two Pokémon.

"Vulpix!" Vulpix cried.

"Marshtomp!" Marhstomp cried.

Lucia and Beatrice turned to look at each other.

"I think they want us to catch them." Beatrice said.

"I think so too," Lucia said. They both turned to look at the Pokémon, then back at each other, then at the Pokémon, then at each other.

Then, silence.

"MINE!" Lucia cried suddenly, rushing to tackle the Marhstomp to the ground.

"Marsh-!" Marhstomp cried out as the two fell to the ground and skid across the sand.

"HA! You're mine! MINE MINE MINE MINE!" Lucia started giggling as she pat the Marhstomp's head agresively. Marshtomp's eyes were swirling by then.

Beatrice looked down at Vulpix. She crouched down to her.

"Would you like to be on my team, Vulpix?" She said, offering a hand to the fire type. Vulpix approached her and licked her finger. Beatrice then patted the fire-type's head.

"I'll take that as a yes. You will get your very own Pokeball soon." Vulpix climbed onto Beatrice's arm and ran up to stand on her free shoulder, the one opposite to Slowpoke, who was still sound asleep. Beatrice rubbed her cheek on Vulpix with affection, and Vulpix did the same.

"Sorry!" Lucia said, springing up and holding her now unconscious Marhstomp with both hands. "I really wanted the Marhstomp, so I kinda called dibs without telling you."

"I swear, everything about you is barbaric. But it's fine- I wanted Vulpix."

"Barbaric!? You know what?! You're a jerk! Forget you! Hmph!" Lucia turned away in a huff.

"Hmph!" Beatrice said, turning away and crossing her arms.

A brief silence fell. Eventually, The two girls traded a single glance before turning away again.

"...Sorry for saying your place is on the ground below my foot.." Lucia grumbled. Beatrice narrowed her eyes before sighing.

"...Sorry for calling you 'filth..'." Beatrice said. The two turned back to each other slowly.

"...We did kick some major butt.." Slowly, Lucia turned and raised her hand to offer a high five.

Beatrice turned to look at Lucia, then at her hand.

"And We'll defeat Brawly as well," Beatrice said before giving her friend the high-five she wanted.

"You mean, we'll kick Brawly's butt together," Lucia said.

"I'm not going to stoop to your level of language," Beatrice said.

"Ugh- here we go again! Whatever- jerk. Let's get going."

Anastasia was blindfolded and had her hands tied together. She had no idea where she was, but she could guess she was inside a Headquarters of some sort. Suddenly, someone untied her blindfold. She immediately saw the man who had held her down before kidnapping her, Zennon.

"Wh- What!? What're y-?" Anastasia cried. Zennon quickly moved his finger to his mouth. "Let me out of this pla-"

"SHH!" Zennon cried. The snow-haired girl stopped talking. Zennon turned his head back. As he did this, Anastasia confirmed that she was sitting on a chair with her arms tied inside some dark room.

"Let me out of here you jerk!" Anastasia cried.

"That's what I'm trying to do! I'm going to bust you out of here!" Zennon cried.

Anastasia's eyes widened in shock.