Chapter 43: A Cool to Adventure

-"-and so as your mayor, I am hereby awarding this medal of honor to our local hero, Jessie Cooledge, for his bravery, tenacity, and willingness to face dangers that threaten our very liiives!"

-"Yes yes, Mr. Mayor. That's all very well and good, but-"

-"And who better here among us deserves such a pirze? Such recognition? Such prestige? Recognized not only by our humble townsfolk, but by The Ranger Corp itself, I can think of no better candidate!"

-"Once more, very true. But listen, there is a problem."

-"A problem, Ms. Joy? Nay! There are no such problems here! True, this award was intended for humans and humans alone. And it was to go to a certain, ahem, well deserving individual who tended to help local trainers with no expectation of reward. He even gave the shoes off his own feet once, so I hear. But I assure you, Ms. Joy! It's fine."

-"Riiight. But there's still the problem of-"

-"Ms. Joy! I fail to see any reason, any reason at all, that we cannot award this young Tentacool with our highest honor! Our very own Cherrygrove Cherry Cheer Medal! Do you disagree that he is deserving pokemon, nay, the most deserving RESIDENT of our fair town to receive such a high honor?"

*sigh* -"No, Mr. Mayor."

-"Then by my authority as mayor of Cherrygrove town, let the awards ceremony commence!"

*some random guy* -"He's not here."

-"Pfthibba hwat?! N-not here? Why that's improbable! Highly unlikely even! What could a Tentacool even be doing out at this hour?"

*hours earlier*

"We're going camping!"

-"Lapras?"

"Camping is super fun! You go out into nature and experience all the wilderness has to offer!"

-"Lap lap?"

"Well..." 'Right, we can't go out to the local forest. Starting a camp fire is out of the question. Fishing is... Oh! We can do that thing!'

"We're going to go out and explore! Have a good swim off the coast and see the sights, do some poke-watching, and maybe play a game or two!"

At the mention of games, the tiny Lapras becomes very excited.

"Yeah, this'll be great! It's no good for a growing young pokemon to stay at home all the time." 'And I could seriously use a break while we wait for Riley to get back to us.'

-"Lap Lapras?"

"Aurum? I'm sure he'd like to go, but he's busy helping out the construction crew today. They need his help moving timber around since we can't get heavy machinery out here on the beach."

-"Lapra..."

"Aw, I'm sorry. Hey! Here's an idea, why not ask one of your friends to come play with us? I'm sure they'd like to get away from it all every now and then!"

-"Lap lap ras!" As little Roma sets out on her mission, Jessie takes a rest on some rocks by the shore.

"Ah, our first family vacation. I'm tearing up a little bit!" *sniffle*

"Eh? Is she back already?"

-"Primarinaaa~"

-"Lapraaas~"

'Well then! I was hoping she would bring over someone her own age but... eh, why not? Nurse Joy did want me to watch out for the new girl, and those two do get along pretty well. It might be good for Roma to get some "girl time" since she's around nothing but big, fishy dudes all day.'

'And little turtley dudes.'

'And little jelly dudes.'

'And... man, we really need to recruit more lady pokemon around here! No offense to Chansey, Dex, or Fallen, but between work and being a parent to literal hundreds of newborn spawn they're even busier than I am, and I'm the dang leader of this group!'

'That tears it, I have to make sure Roma has a good time on this camping trip! ...And also start a child care program!'

"Okay! So are you two ready to go camping? Got your supplies all ready? No? Ah right, I should have prepared that ahead of time... Well, we can always stop by The Reef and pick up supplies as our first stop. Consider it a mini shopping trip."

-"Pri! Primarina!"

-"Lapras?"

The excited seal-mermaid grabs Roma by the fin as she rapidly explains the fun of the mythical girl time activity that is "shopping trips".

'...I should pack extra berries for trading before we set out.'