Chapter 21: Rellor, find your roll
"Play ball!"
Ash decided to let his students have a free day before they continue on their way to Artazon, and right now, the Pokemon were playing Pokeball. No the game didn't have to do with the item that helps captures Pokemon, it's basically baseball for Pokemon, and they were using Rellor's mud ball for the ball.
"So who's going to stand up to the plate first?" Felia said as she motioned to the first base. Nemona's Charcadet went up to the base, with a stick in his little hands to serve as a baseball bat.
Over at the pitcher's position was Nemona's Pawmot, where her strong arms was holding Rellor's ball in her hands before making one giant swing and sending the ball towards Charcadet. Charcadet tried to hit the ball, but the stick broke on impact, leaving him to stare bewildered by the snapped stick.
"I think you put a bit too much power there Pawmot" Felia said while Pawmot sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. It was now Orthworm's turn, and he simply used his tail to bad the ball, scoring himself a homerun. Fuecoco was unable to get a good grip on the batting stick, and spun around in a comical fashion when attempted to hit the ball.
Eventually, it came to Nymble's turn, considering that he didn't have hands to hold a stick of any kind, he instead used his legs to bat. Pawmot threw the mud ball towards Nymble, who turned around, built up energy, and let loose a very powerful kick.
Perhaps a bit too powerful.
Nymble ended up putting too much power into the kick that it sent the ball skyward and into the nearby canyon. Rellor panicked and tried to follow where the ball might have gone to, but he eventually lost track of where it had flung off to.
Rellor was devastated, as that mud ball meant a lot to him, and a dark storm cloud formed above him and it poured rain. Nymble hopped oveer to Rellor to try and apologize to the beetle Pokemon, but Rellor instead pushed him away and gave him a dirty look.
"Rellor, Nymble didn't mean to make you lose your mud ball, it was an accident" Felia said, trying to reason with her bug type, but Rellor just huffed and skittered away.
"What happened!?" Ash ran up to Felia, wandering what all the commotion was about. "Your Nymble ended up kicking Rellor's mud ball too hard, and it launched into the nearby canyon" Felia answered with a sullen look on her face. "Why is Rellor so bummed about losing his mud ball? He can just make a new one easy-peasy" Gus pointed out, not seeing much in how a mere mud ball can be that important.
"You don't understand Gus, that mud ball means a lot to Rellor" Felia argued with her fellow classmate, until everyone got involved. "Well clearly Rellor won't be able to get back to being chipper until we find that mud ball" Nemona declared "Wattrel, Vivillon, I need you two to serve as our eyes in the sky!"
"Wattrel"
"Viiiivillon"
The two then flew off into the canyon to find the mud ball while Ash brings up his Rotom Phone to do some research about Rellor.
Rellor: the rolling Pokemon, a bug type
It creates a ball of mud with dirt and psychic energy, it treasures the ball more than it's own life
"Well that explains why it's so upset about losing it" Thomas said while sending out his Shroodle to help assist in the retrieval of the mud ball.
Nymble was quick to join the search party but was stopped by Felia "I'm sorry Nymble, but I don't think Rellor wants you to so much as look at his mud ball." That really Nymble as he wanted to make it up to his fellow bug type.
"Nyyyyyym..."
Nymble slunked off to the other side of the campground while the other Pokemon were sent out to find the mud ball.
Wattrel and Vivillon weren't having much luck, as their views were obstructed by all of the rocks in the way, if that wasn't bad enough, there were a bunch of Pokemon attacking them from the ground, making them swerve and fall back.
The ground-dwelling Pokemon weren't doing that well either, as all of the uneven terrain and large boulders made traversing the area difficult, and one bad move would easily cause a rolling boulder to come and flatten.
"I'm sorry Rellor, but we may have to accept the fact that your mud ball is gone"
Rellor got really teary-eyed about that and sniffled a bit.
"R-r-rell"
"Oh come on Rellor, we can find something that you can use as a ball, like a rock" Vanny said "Or an orange" Arven added "Or even a pearl" Carla said.
This didn't cheer up Rellor in the slightest as he only grew more blue. "Guys, the dex states that Rellor cherishes their mud balls more than their own lives, I doubt that he would go for a replacement" Ash said "We have to keep searching." Meanwhile, Nymble was off finding the mud ball on his own, his jumping ability allowing him to clear the rocks while not being vulnerable to incoming attacks.
He continued to scour the area for the ball until he found it near a cave.
"Nymble nym!"
He placed it onto his back and was about to hop back to camp until he was hit in the back with a Mud Slap attack. He turned around to see a bunch of angry Diglett and Dugtrio charging towards him.
Not wasting a second, he hightailed it out of there while keeping the mud ball on his back for safe keeping.
He eventually made it to the campground, but a Diglett sprung up in front of him, so he tossed the mud ball over him and over to the camp.
Rellor saw the mud ball and immediately caught it, happy to be reunited with his prized possession. He then saw how Nymble was surrounded and needed help, and having gotten his ball back, he was ready to help.
He began charging a Rollout attack and began slamming into the moles randomly to get their attention. This certainly worked as they stopped attacking Nymble and went after Rellor. Rellor then took the opportunity to use Dig, which caused the Diglett and Dugtrio to follow after.
However, this was what Rellor had wanted, as he began surprising them with Bug Bite attacks and picked them off one by one until only the lead Dugtrio remained.
The two stood off in a classic wild west showdown, until Rellor charged forward with Rollout. But he was intercepted by a Sucker Punch attack when one of the Dugtrio heads headbutted him, knocking him back.
Dugtrio then went in for a Slash attack by kicking up sharp rocks to attack, forcing Rellor to block with his mud ball. The continous attacks ended up causing something to happen with the ball however, as it began to glow purple.
Rellor smirked and he threw the ball straight towards Dugtrio, and it slammed into it with great force: Rellor had learned Sludge Bomb.
Dugtrio was now mad and poisoned, and was about to bring in the big guns until it was knocked out by Nymble's Pounce attack.
"Wow, great work on learning Sludge Bomb Rellor"
"Lor re rellor!"
Rellor then looked to Nymble, before smiling and saying how he forgives Nymble, to which Nymble let out a happy sound as everyone celebrated Rellor's reaquisition of his mud ball.
End of Chapter
Felia's Rellor learns Sludge Bomb