Lesson 22: Strange assistance
"Yaaaay! Fluffy! I missed you so much!" Squeezing the puffy Cottonee most fittingly nicknamed Fluffy both Pokémon and young trainer cried with relief.
"Thank you!" she squealed grabbing Cheren and Biana in a tight hug.
"Where's the other girl, the one that yells a lot? Lily wants to say thank you to her too!"
The black haired teen frowned.
"What's wrong?" Bianca asked scrutinizing his face through narrowed eyes.
Lily's bear hug had some advantages, it kept Cheren from turning his back on her.
"Tell me!" Bianca inquired still using the motherly voice she used on the child making him feel like a preschooler too.
"Nothing, what could be wrong?" he replied blandly tugging the little girl's hand, trying to escape.
Not pleased with his attempts to avoid her the blonde grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, "You have that face!"
Eying the position of her hand on his body he raised a thin black brow suggestively, "What's wrong with my face?"
Intent green eyes were fixed on him, her sudden closeness was distracting, "You scowl when you're worried about something." Bianca snapped.
"Bianca," he sighed, "I always scowl, remember you nicknamed me Scowlyface for about three years?" Brushing her hand aside he slowly nudged the preschooler towards Bianca.
"This is different, you get a tiny crease between your eyebrows when you worry for real."
How does she know that? He thought startled. Since when did Bianca become aware of her surroundings or more importantly his behavioral pattern?
"Okay okay!" he exclaimed raising his hands in defeat, "First of all you shouldn't know about that face."
Bianca straightened, knowing what he was trying to do, "You are stalling."
"It's her Purrloin."
The bubbly blonde blinked in surprise at the unexpected subject of conversation, "Ashe's Purrloin? Cheshire?" She asked confused.
"We we're fighting those Plasma goons and… he did something strange."
"Strange?" She pressed.
Cheren gave it some thought and found himself pacing, "I have Sherazade so I know every potential move she or her evolved form will or could learn, there are no fire moves amongst their species!"
Bianca frowned, "You lost me, you're saying Cheshire used a fire type move? Maybe it was-
"Assist." Cheren interrupted her, "I thought of that too, but here's where it gets strange, there was no fire Pokémon in our direct environment! We were fighting in a cave for god's sake!"
The girl nodded once "That is strange… But hey! Cheshire won and we got the Pokémon back right! We should be smiling not scowling, turn that frown upside down!"
The young man found himself unable to spoil the optimistic girl's fun, and gave her a small smile. At heart he knew that the devastating attack had been… something more, it was dangerous and he didn't like it.
The image of five Patrat conjuring spheres of light to protect themselves and their trainers was burned into his retina. An attack shattering several 'protects' shouldn't exist.
I'm thankful they knew such a defensive move, all of them could've been ripped to pieces if they hadn't used it.