TOT :: Chapter 4 - Mud Slinging

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Collaboration between DuckxDuck and BlackCatlove1 

Summary: Eliza convinces Kait to help her hunt for sellable items in the swamp, but it doesn't go well.

+ 2 Keeper Reps
+ Swamp Net

NOT GOOD!

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“This sucks, Eliza,” the jigglypuff complained as she lay on her back staring up at the tree tops. The swamp air was sticky and thick as the meowth pulled up another net full of gross bog mush with a gurgle.

“This swamp is supposed to be known for the amount of stuff that gets sucked into it, there must be something interesting in this goop,” Eliza sneered crankily as she clawed through the stuff the net pulled up and put the net back into the water.

“So you keep saying,” Kait replied with a roll of her eyes not bothering to get up and help. “Are you ready to give up and go back to town yet?” She sat up to give her friend a hopeful glance.

“Fine, this was a stupid idea anyway. I have mud in my boot from pulling up this net,” Eliza gave the net a pull to take it with her when it stopped. “Kait! Kait! I think I got something this time!” she pulled but the net wouldn’t come up “Kait come help me with this stubborn net!”

The jigglypuff groaned as she rocked to her feet. “This better be good,” she muttered as she grabbed hold of the slimy net. “Ugg! This is so gross…”

The swamp made slurping noises as the net slowly rose out of the water.

“What is it,” Eliza questioned squinting at the net being pulled out of the water.

With one last tug the net flew out of the swamp and landed on the ground with a sickening squelch covering the duo in green algae and other unpleasant water features.

“Aug! Gross!” Kait yelled as she tried to wipe the goop off her fur. “This was such a stupid idea Eliza, I can’t believe I agreed to come with yo-“

She paused as the net in front of them began to rise up and a faint moaning could be heard.

“Eliza… what is that?”

“I don’t know! Do you think we caught someone drowning in the swamp?” Eliza hesitantly walked over and pulled the net off. Out from under the net came a horribly slimy creature that sent acidic spit flying with a groan.  A drop of the drool hit the top of Eliza’s paw and started to sizzle and burn.

“Ahh!” Eliza screamed as she used arial ace to launch herself away from the creature.

“What is that thing!?” Kait asked again with more feeling as she hurried over to the meowth who was vigorously shaking her paw in an attempt to rid it of the painful goo. The jigglypuff turned to watch as the beast slowly twisted and untwisted itself still drooling the noxious liquid from what she assumed was its mouth. The whole creature was just one big melty mess so it was hard to tell.

“Gahh! Arceus!” Eliza yelped as she rubbed her paw on the ground. “THAT THING SPIT ACID AT ME!” The fur on her paw was gone leaving her red and blistered skin showing. She furiously faced the creature with a hiss ready to give it some well-deserved payback.

“You aren’t seriously thinking of fighting that thing, are you?” Kait asked tentatively. The gooey monster didn’t seem like it was actually after them, it hadn’t moved from the spot where it landed. It just sat their swaying silently as the strings of acid dripping from its mouth burned a brown spot into the grass around it. “Not unless you want your other paws to match that one,” she added.

“Then I just won’t touch it!” She exclaimed as she used payday to launch coins at the creature. As each coin hit its target with a sizzle the creatures drool was sent flying in all different directions. Eliza quickly used hidden power to unearth a mound of dirt to barricade herself from the spittle.

Kait bounced out of the way as spit was also sent flying her way. “Watch it!” she yelled as she landed a few feet away near the water’s edge. She grumbled to herself as she watched Eliza send a barrage of attacks towards the slime ball. Unbeknownst to her a second slime ball started to drag itself out of the water behind her, attracted to all the noise. She screamed as a gooey tendril wrapped itself around her foot, “GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF!”

She double slapped it across what she hoped was its face and it let go with a low gurgle, but it didn’t retreat back into the water. Instead it finished pulling itself out of the muck and laid on the ground drooling acid the same as its counterpart.

Eliza kept launching coins at the creature and backing away. Suddenly she bumped into something “Ack!” Eliza whipped around to see Kait. Behind her was another drooling slime monster. “How many of these things are there!?”

“How should I know!?” Kait snipped, her fear turning more towards anger as she realized this monster wasn’t actually attacking either. “Coming to the swamp was such a stupid idea; I can’t believe I let you talk me into coming out here for this!”

Her rage induced ranting escalated into a high pitched hyper voice, sending the goo heap in front of her rolling back into the water with a splash.

“Okay, I will try to move this creature out of the path and we can both agree that this was a stupid idea and never come back. Sound like a plan?” The meowth used last resort, sending a starry wind at the monster pushing it over and out of the way. “Let’s get out of here before more of them come!”

“Way ahead of ya!” the jigglypuff responded as she bounced ahead aiming for the edge of the swamp and hopefully to safety. Ebony bounded after her and into the clearing where bunches of other Pokémon were battling other goo monsters.

“What’s going on?” The meowth asked no ‘mon in particular. A hitmontop stopped its battle when it noticed the newcomers and walked over to the distressed pair with a sense of ease.

“Hey you two,” she greeted, “glad you could help us out here. So tell me what ya learned!” She clapped her hands together in eager anticipation. “What worked, what didn’t, etc., etc.”

Kait and Eliza exchanged a glance before staring at the hitmontop dumbfounded at her calmness, their gazes trailing to the scene behind her. Groups of Pokémon were battling one on one with similar creatures to what they had just faced, except they seemed completely unruffled by it. In fact, many of the Pokémon seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it!

“What, what worked?” Eliza asked confused she looked again and saw that none of the goo monsters were attacking, she looked back and saw that the goo monsters they had just fought didn’t seem to be going after them either.

“Wait… is this a normal thing that happens around here?” Kait asked annoyed.

“Well I wouldn’t say it’s ‘normal’,” Kassi began rubbing the back of her neck, “but weirder things have happened! More dangerous too!” She laughed, seeming to shrug off the whole ordeal. “Well I want to get back out there and get some more practice in, don’t forget to write up a report of what worked against the slime bags and what didn’t!” She waved them off before jumping back into the fray.

Kait crossed her arms with a huff of annoyance, “I’m heading back to town. This whole thing is just stupid!”

“Wait!” Eliza called after her. “Do we get anything for writing the report for you guys?”

“Talk to Sinclair!” the hitmontop called over her shoulder before disappearing behind a goo monster.

Eliza excitedly dragged a cursing Kait over to the aggron, “Excuse me... miss?”

 “Good job,” the aggron remarked without looking up from her battle, “go grab a net.”

“Th-thanks” Eliza said as she walked over and picked up a net. “Kait” she called, “do you want one?”

“Fine, whatever,” the jigglypuff snapped as she pulled a net from the pile, “can we please just get out of this hell hole?”

“Fine by me!” Eliza agreed.

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Teams



Credits

Eliza, story & colors © BlackCatlove1 
Kait, story & line art © Me (Duckxduck)
Pokemon © Nintendo
_{(Do not use this picture or story in any forum, chat, RP, Facebook, blog, website, etc. Do not use this as your avatar or as your characters. They belong to us, got it?)}