Chapter Thirty-Nine - Well Well Well

"I was curious, are you a member of Team Rocket? Because if so, I think we might have some questions for you!"

Choco stood next to Broccoli and crossed his arms. He gave the big human ahead of them a firm and serious nod. He knew his role here. Broccoli was the sweet, nice and friendly one. Choco was the intimidating muscle. "Bun buneary!" Tell her what she wants to know!

The big human scoffed and stood taller. "Get out of here, kid," he said. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I often don't know what I'm talking about, unless I'm talking about friendship, and from what I've seen so far, Team Rocket are nothing but a bunch of rotten eggs!" Broccoli declared.

"Hey! We're not that bad," the man snapped. Then he blinked. "Uh, I mean, they're not that bad, I'm sure... screw it." Reaching down, the man unhooked a pokeball from his belt and flicked it towards the ground. "Get ready for a pummelling, girlie!"

The familiar red wash of a pokeball unleashing a pokemon filled the clearing around the Well for a moment before a pokemon appeared. It was a large purple-ish ball with a dopey smile on its face and several small bumps that were spewing some sort of gas. Choco caught a whiff of it and felt himself cringe back. This pokemon smelled like fart.

"Koooooffing!" Heeeeey!

Tabitha and Jazz came out of the brush, both of them looking like they were ready to fight as well. "That's a koffing, a pure Poison-type pokemon," Jazz said. "Lots of gas-based attacks. That one doesn't look particularly strong."

"Where are all these girls coming from?" the human they were fighting asked as he took them all in.

"Choco! I think this one's on you!" Broccoli said after eyeing the koffing for a moment.

"Bun!" Yeah! He flexed his arms, then shifted from side to side to make sure he was stretched out and limber enough to fight.

There wasn't a signal like in their spars or in the few trainer battles he'd been in. The grunt they were fighting against—he thought that grunt was just a noise before today, but apparently it was a kind of human too, a stupid kind—pointed at Choco and shouted an order. "koffing, Smog!"

The koffing took in a deep breath, then let out all out from the vents all over his body. Noxious, fart-smelling smoke poured out of him with a whistle and rushed towards Choco. It had that purplish glow he'd come to associate with Poison-type attacks.

"Choco, Clean Shield!" Broccoli shouted.

"Uh!" He raised his paws, then created a shield in front of himself. Unlike before, when his shields were wobbly things with uneven thicknesses and would crack easily, his shield now was... still not perfectly round and maybe a bit wobbly, but he was better than he had been a few days ago!

The smog washed into and right through the shield as if it wasn't there, but when it passed, the glowing Poison-type energy was whisked away, leaving nothing more than a bit of warm air that fortunately didn't stink so bad.

"Interesting," Tabitha said.

"Choco, range attack!" Broccoli said.

"Bun!" he agreed as the last of the smog dispersed. He dropped his shield, then swung his arm around and flung a quick Cleanball right at the koffing.

Choco was hoping that it would make the pokemon duck lower so he could give it a Pounding. Instead, the Cleanball smashed into the koffing's face and made the bigger pokemon flinch back with a cry of pain.

"Buneary?" What happened?

"It looks like it's really weak to Cleaning-type," Broccoli said. "Get in close with a Quick Attack and finish it off, Choco! But not too hard, we don't want to hurt the poor thing too much!"

"Cleaning-type?" Tabitha asked.

"It's... a whole thing," Jazz explained.

Buneary decided not to listen to those two too much, they were distracting! Instead he concentrated on his inner energy, then bounced forwards. Between one bounce and the next he gained a bunch of speed and slipped forwards super-fast, stopping just a bit before the koffing.

"Smokescreen!" the grunt shouted.

The koffing started to spew out a thick whitish smoke, probably to hide in, but Choco was right under him. He squatted down, then leapt up and into the air until he was even with the koffing's face. "Un! Un!" he shouted as he launched both ears forwards. They were coated in Cleaning-type energy.

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The double Pound rocked the koffing back, sending it slamming into its trainer. Then it rolled forwards, eyes spinning in their sockets.

He'd done it! "Bun bun bun!" he cheered.

"Well done, Choco!" Broccoli said. "But remember, punching people really hard isn't the best way to make friends!"

He nodded. That made sense, but this koffing was the grunt's, and the grunt was a no-good human who wasn't friend material to begin with.

"Dammit!" the grunt said. He raised his pokeball and recalled the koffing. Then he raised another and summoned up a rattata who landed before him and hissed.

"I've got this one, Broccoli," Jazz said. She summoned Sage, who chuckled darkly as he saw his opponent.

Choco was still itching for a fight, but he supposed it was okay to pace himself. Besides, it was funny seeing the rattata leaping through Sage and missing all of his attacks while Sage had a much easier time.

When the rattata finally went down, the humans were quick to tie the grunt up and confiscate his pokeballs. "We should call the police now, right?" Broccoli asked.

"Yeah," Jazz said. "Can you do that?"

Broccoli nodded, unslung her backpack, then fished in it for a moment before pulling out a small rectangle. "Azurill, azu?" Wait a second, you have one too? Azurill asked.

"Huh? Yeah, I got this when I became a trainer," Broccoli said. "I don't really care for phones much."

Azurill gasped. "Azu azurill rill!" I want it!

Choco giggled with a paw over his mouth as Broccoli stared at Azurill. "Uh, okay? But you don't know how to read. And you don't... well, I guess you can use your paws. How about we do some reading practice at night, and once you've learned how to read well enough, I'll let you play with the phone some?"

"Azu!"

Choco considered making fun of Azurill, then set it aside... for now. He was feeling really nice about himself after that easy victory.

Broccoli talked to her rectangle for a bit, then smiled up at the others. "It was Officer Jenny! She said to wait here until reinforcements arrive."

"How long will that take?" Tabitha asked.

"They'll be here in three hours," Broccoli said. "That's... actually a really long time, no?"

"Too long," Jazz said. "Someone's going to twig onto the fact that the grunt here isn't back. We can either ambush them here... is there another exit to the Well?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Tabitha said. "My scouting wasn't overly cautious, however, and there might well be a secondary exit within. The Well is supposedly connected to a rather large cavern underground, so it's possible. And with Team Rocket present, they might have created a second exit via a Rock-type pokemon."

Jazz nodded. "I say we go in."

Broccoli hummed, then nodded as well. "It goes against what Office Jenny said, but I'm kind of inclined to agree. We should take our time, though. Time is kind of on our side. Our goal isn't to fight off all of Team Rocket, right? It's to make them leave the local pokemon alone and to stop them from bullying people."

"Right," Jazz said. "Sage, want to go down and see if anyone's down the ladder? Be stealthy about it."

"Gastly gasss." If I must.

"While Sage is busy," Broccoli said. "Does anyone need to use the little ladies and-or boy's bush? Has anyone noticed anything that should be brought up? Does anyone want a snack?"

"Azu?" Snack?

"Bun!" Snack!

Choco did also need to use the bush, so Broccoli was, as always, very smart and clever. He'd be super ready for the next fight!

Sage returned a minute later to tell them that there was nothing at the bottom of the well except some water, an old bucket, and a blue pokeball that he spat at Jazz. It was covered in ghost saliva, but once Jazz stopped cringing she was actually pretty happy.

"This is an unused great ball!" she said. "Oh, these are worth... well, not a ton, but way more than a normal ball. Nice find, Sage!"

The ghost looked about as smug as a ghost could look. He returned to hover around Jazz's shoulder.

"Okay, if we're all ready, then down we go!" Broccoli said. She scooped up Choco, placed him onto his spot between her ears, then picked Azurill up and walked into the Well.

There was a gasp behind them, but Choco couldn't find out who it came from because he was hanging onto Broccoli's ears for dear life as they plummeted into the dark.

***