Group RP Team Courage - Braving the Cold

"Ah, I see..." the blue-haired boy nodded in understanding. He still couldn't imagine how Rapidash looks like, but he shrugged it off anyway.
I really should've worried about that later tho, he thought. He, no, everyone there still had more important things to worry about, after all.

 

So the adventure begins.

All Kalino could see from the Mudsdale's back were lines of trees covered in snow. This was the first time he had seen such a snowy place outside Mount Lanakila.

Kalino nodded to Mathias as a sign that he heard him. The boy started to watch his surroundings in case anything happened around the group. All went well until he saw a patch of trees in front of them shaking wildly. Even the Mudsdale could sense something wrong with those trees.

Spoiler: Where the shaking trees are (circled in black)

"Guys! The trees over there are shaking!" Kalino warned everyone. He readied his Ninetales' Pokeballs in case he needed to battle.

 

Claire's breath caught a little as the group entered Route 5. So much snow! It was so white, it hurt her eyes initially. Hoenn never got this much, and for a moment, she found herself enraptured by the landscape. "Wow..." she breathed as she watched snowflakes dance on invisible winds.
The more Claire admired the landscape, though, the more something felt... amiss. The snow wasn't natural. None of this weather was natural. That fact made it even more... cold, somehow.
Kalino's warning tore her from her thoughts. Realizing she'd lagged behind the group a little too far, she hurried to catch up. She eyed the shaking trees curiously. What could be in there causing that much ruckus?

 

Upon closer inspection, the trees shook wildly because a group of Sandslash had been furiously rolling into balls and slamming the poor trees. Kalino remembered seeing both types of Sandslash in different occasions; the Alolan ones when he first scaled Mount Lanakila and the Kantonian one in Pokémon Nursery when a breeder there bred one with an Alolan Dugtrio. She also gave 8-years-old Kalino a Kantonian Vulpix egg from which Mako hatched.
...Sandslash?
These Sandslash looked like Kantonian Sandslash in general but with quills and claws covered in ice. Unlike Alolan Sandslash though, they still can curl up into a ball, much to Kalino's confusion.

Upon noticing the travelers, one of the Sandslash decided to redirect the fury on them, prompting the Mudsdale rider to send both Mako and Mio out.
"Ember! Powder Snow!" he shouted. The two Ninetales proceeded to unleash their respective attacks on that particular Sandslash in a way that they wouldn't cancel each other out. From there, Kalino deduced that they must be a bunch of Kantonian Sandslash because the attacker could shrug Mako's Ember off but couldn't stand Mio's Powder Snow.

 

David backer up from the battle. The colors of these sand slash were confusing, if they were ground type he wouldn’t be much help. An electric type squirrel and a ground type ant lion weren’t particularly good. Even ice type wouldn’t be the best. But rather than leave the battling to others, he did search his bag and pull out Chompy the trapinch’s ball

 

Rosie, now wearing sunglasses, sent out Blissey and Greninja to help out. She normally won't battle, but seeing the Sandslashes are already rushing towards the team. She knows this is a fight with no way of talking out of.
"Greninja! Water Shuriken!" "Blissey! Helping hand!" Rosie commanded. Then, her Pokémon started to react. Greninja throws shurikens made of out water in a special way that each Sandslash has at least three shurikens moving towards them while curving to avoid the trees. The Sandslashes noticed the shurikens and made a wall with rocks. They might be in rage, but they still have their senses. They know how dangerous the water shurikens are. However, that attack is very special. Not only are they powered up by Helping hand, they also are the most used attack by Greninja. Meaning it has a lot of practice with the move. It is so silked, the move has some very ridiculous trajectory. One of the shurikens hits another one, which makes it bounced to the right. It curves around the rock wall and hit the Sandslash. While the last one goes straight into the wall and destroyed it. Making a lot of smoke.
"With this attack, the Sandslashes should stop moving for a second." Rosie thought.

 

Those poor Sandslash! Chunks of ice clung to their quills, and their efforts to break the ice only drove them further between their quills. It must've felt like having thorns in their backs. No wonder they were agitated.
"We have to help these poor things, not hurt them!" Claire yelled as Kalino and Rosie ordered their Pokémon to attack. These Sandslash were unlikely to cooperate, however, so helping them may necessitate hurting them. The one that got hit by Ember didn't seem too phased by the attack, but the ice sticking to it did seem to melt slightly.
That gave Claire an idea. She sent out Brutus and gave a command: "Use Incinerate on that Sandslash, but try not to hit it directly!" The stocky Shelgon spit a jet of flame towards the one Kalino had attacked. The fire that hit was enough to melt more of the ice off of the Sandslash's one side.

 

Seems like the Water Shuriken from Rosie's Greninja drove the pack of Sandslash even madder. They too, decided to charge on the trainers, just like the first Sandslash did. Speaking of the first Sandslash, Mako's Ember melted the ice on their spikes a little bit and the Incinerate from Claire's Shelgon melted more. That's when Kalino realized that these Sandslash were clearly suffering in the first place.

"Mio, Iron Tail! Mako, Heat Wave! Go for the spikes!" Kalino ordered. Mio's tails started to harden and shone like metallic tails. She then hit the closest Sandslash's spikes, shattering its icy parts on the side that Shelgon's Incinerate didn't melt with the help of Mathias' Skarmory. As for Mako, he went behind the other Sandslash heading toward the group, then spewed a wind of flames from his mouth and directed it to the spikes with his tails. As a result, the icy parts on their spikes melted little by little.

 

Rosie saw the other Sandslash rushes towards them. “Oh no! What have I done!”Rosie thought. What she did just mad the sandslash in more pain and madder. So, she observed. She releazied that the sandslash has ice on them. Not small pieces of ice, a heavy and large sheet of ice on their body. She knows the exact thing needed to do.
“Blissey! Use gravity but hold it back so that the sandslashes are just unable to move easily” Rosie said. Then, a huge gravitational pull was made on the ground under the other sandslash. She decided to melt those ice all by herself. Some of the ice are melt by her teammate but the speed is to slow, they will be late if the fight countinous. “Blissey. Now use flamethrower! And Greninja, use rain dance!” Then, there are drizzle. Lucky, the current temperature are just high enough to allow water still in their liquid state.
“The low special attack of Blissey and the power of flamethrower is weakened by the rain combined should cause little damage to the sandslash. But the heat from the move should just be enough to melt the ice.”Rosie thought and what she thought is true. The ice on the sandslash skin is quickly melting and soon, the largest pack of sandslash is free from the ice and some left needs the ice removed, but Rosie sure her teammates can handle it so she didn’t help as she has a much more business to do.
The “battle” is aimed to remove the ice from the sandslash, but this still deal some damage to them. So, Rosie has to heal them. But unsure will they attack her when Rosie gets close, so she command “Blissey, use Heal Pulse in full force. Hit all of them until you are tired.” Blissey nodded and start to form a bullet hell of heal pulse to make sure no sandslash can escape from the healing.

 

David was impressed by the battle skills of his companions. He had never spent much time battling, and tried to avoid it as much as possible. He couldn’t have handled the situation as well as the others had. His trapinch did look a bit disappointed to have missed all the action, but David couldn’t think of anyway to be useful.
“maybe next time Chompy,” he told the trapinch, as they watched the battle from the back.

 

Mio was about to swing her Iron Tail on the frontmost Sandslash's spikes once more when her trainer cried out, "MIO, STOP!!!" She stopped her attack and couldn't believe her eyes upon seeing Mathias catching the hedgehog all by himself, only to be reassured by his Skarmory's brief wink as if they're saying "Don't worry sweetie, we got this." The ice/fairy type Ninetales looked around, then decided to join Greninja in their rain dancing ritual (?).

As for the other Sandslash, the ice on their bodies melted quickly thanks to a combination of Blissey's Flamethrower, Mako's Heat Wave, and a double Rain Dance from Mio and Greninja. The melting process was even quicker than if it were just Mako's Heat Wave and made even easier with Blissey's Gravity earlier. All four of Kalino's and Rosie's Pokémon then stopped their attacks when most (if not all) of the ice were fully melted. All of the Sandslash felt lighter now that the ice was gone. One of them even asked for Mako's help to melt the ice stuck on their claws, to which he happily obliged by using a wisp of fire from one of his nine tails.

Just when the Sandslash Mathias and co. had helped was zooming to the bunch, a barrage of Heal Pulse from Rosie's Blissey came their way. It did surprise the bunch of hedgehogs, but true to the move's nature, they got even better. That's when they realized the trainers' true intention to help. Kalino, still on the Mudsdale, only could smile at this point.

 

"Awesome job, guys!" Claire cheered as the confrontation seemed to wind down. The Sandslash looked much happier (if a little confused about their surroundings) now that they were freed from the irritating ice and their injuries were patched up by Blissey's Heal Pulse. They squeaked and waved their claws as if to say "Thank you!" before rolling away into the trees. Hopefully, they would find their way home without any further issues.

Claire returned Brutus, who was impatiently spreading small flames around himself to keep warm. "Thanks, Brutus," she said to the Pokéball before pocketing it. She turned to the group, a wide smile on her face. "We make a pretty good team, don't we?" She was impressed with how coordinated everyone was, particularly with how Mathias personally dove into the fray to help. How brave of him!

 

Yup, we sure are a good team!

Rosie then looked around the area, seeing her teammates' Pokémon's conditions. They are not injured, just a bit tired. This made her relieved as she hates seeing Pokémon too get hurt. That's why she fights so little. She then provides some berries for her Pokémon to regain stamina and ask"Does anyone needs some berry for their Pokémon?"

 

"Whew, yeah..."
After waving a goodbye to those Sandslash, Kalino laid down on Mudsdale's back. "Man, I thought they were Alolan Sandslash at the first sight..." he mused.

As for the two Ninetales, they both came to Rosie, happily accepting her offer. This "battle" did tire them out, especially since Mako went full power with his Heat Wave earlier.

 

David watched in relief as the sandslash ran off.
David recalled Chompy, who looked a little sad to have missed out completely, “there will he other opportunities, I’m sure.” He said to the ball.
“congratulations,” he told everyone, “Mathias that was incredible to see. You all have so much courage.”