Squirrely Sparks:
Patching Up After the Battle

The battle for the Fever Flats had been won, the mighty witch Gilgamarsh now contained in a highly-reinforced Apricorn Cell meant to hold weakened witches such as him. Though many of the combined Tabira-Fernfrond coalition celebrated their victory, a few were left with critical injuries in their fight, their fates hanging in the balance of a medical team that had been hard at work long after Gilgamarsh’s defeat.

Ethlyn was of neither of these factions, instead caught in a state between relief that Gilgamarsh could no longer threaten the continent’s water or terrorize the locals with his artificial creations, and worry over her friend Patch’s health and whether he would recover from being struck by a powerful Thunder attack. While she herself sustained injuries in the form of a burned right hand from the seconds it touched the surface of the acidic lake that powered the Goodra witch, it was nothing compared to being tormented by the images of her friend pushing her away before he was struck and the damage the attack had done to him as he laid motionless before Ethlyn. Though he was known to annoy ‘mons like herself with his flirting, to see one as lively as him in such a state made it difficult for her to think about other things.

“Miss Ethlyn, Gemma’s ready to see you now,” said a voice from the entrance to the medical wagon, followed by the appearance of Zorua with light blue tipped legs and hair instead of the usual red, along with a bow on her forehead and a gray collar on her neck. It was Alice, one of the brightest students the Scholars had on hand, and she seemed pleased to see Ethlyn despite all the pacing she had done outside the tent, which as far as Ethlyn was concerned was likely a distraction for whatever needed to be done to save Patch’s life.

Regardless, Ethlyn followed the young Zorua in the tent, in which a Lucario with leaf-based accessories on her wrists and upper body and a bandaged and unconscious Pachirisu lying in bed shared space with all sorts of medical equipment and herb-mixing tools as a sort of intensive care unit. It had been a while since Ethlyn had met Gemma in person, but to see the Keeper proxy aiding Patch with her Heal Pulse was reassuring, knowing that he was in good hands.

“It’s good to see you again Ethlyn, though I admit this isn’t the best of circumstances under which we meet.”

The Emolga bowed her head in respect, “It’s fine, and I thank both you and Alice for looking over Patch while I got my hand treated.” She paused as she turned towards the Pachirisu in bed, “He seems to be fine from the looks of things.”

“The good news is that the burns weren’t too serious despite how powerful that Thunder attack was,” Gemma explained, “All they needed was some salve and bandages along with a dose of Heal Pulse to fix”

“Patch certainly has a lot of luck on his side when he needs it most,” Alice continued, “Were it not for the fact that he’s an Electric-Type, Tabira would be without its most famous flirt…not that some people would think of it as a good thing, but given how often he hits on Menthe…”

“That said, he did absorb a lot of electricity from the attack, and he’s got quite a lot of buildup inside as a result. Once he wakes up, he’s going to need to discharge electricity much more frequently so that he doesn’t overload. It’s should go away after about a week if he maintains a consistent schedule though.”

The Emolga nodded in acknowledgement of Alice and Gemma’s diagnosis, a soft exhale showing her relief that the worst hadn’t happened to Patch. With their business done, Gemma and Alice bowed their heads and walked past her towards the exit, leaving the female Emolga alone with the resting Pachirisu.

Sitting down on a stool next to Patch’s bed, she stared silently at the Pachirisu, reflecting upon their conversation while the two were hiding up on the trees from Gilgamarsh, how his push saved her from suffering the same fate, if not worse. Emotions of joy that he did something without being a glory seeker were mixed with sorrow for the hit he took in her place, and regret that her insistence on being selfless instead of his usual selfish attitude put him in the line of fire.

The Emolga slowly moved her uninjured paw towards his face, flinching as sparks crackled off his cheeks for a moment, before gently stroking his forehead. Her heart raced with each brush, her body inched in parallel to his resting body towards her hand. The more she stared at the unconscious Pachirisu, the more she thought about their last moments together before Gilgamarsh delivered the blow that made Patch bedridden, overwhelming her with guilt not only for all she had done to make it difficult for Patch to focus on the fight before then, but also for the urge to do more gentle things to his forehead than simply petting it.

“You really care for him deep down, don’t you?” a voice from the entrance of the tent spooked the Emolga, snapping her out of her trance-like state to find a Cinccino with unusually unkempt fur and a young Minccino with a magenta bow and a walking cane stepped inside.

“Emily, you startled me!” she said as she caught her breath, “How long were you standing there?”

“A few seconds, about the time you started petting Mr. Reeses,” the Minccino replied, “Is he going to be alright, Miss Monica?”

“He’s got a few burns, and he’s absorbed a lot of electricity from when he was struck by Gilgamarsh’s Thunder, but he’s otherwise likely going to make a full recovery.”

“What a relief,” the Minccino sighed as she sat on the stool that Ethlyn offered, “between you two and mom, I was worried for everyone’s health…”

“What was your mother in for? I knew she looked pretty exhausted after she used that jewel’s power, but I didn’t think it was for anything serious.”

“It was a precautionary measure. You’d be surprised how much of a strain magic can do to a body,” Emily answered, digging her paws into the scarf-like fur around her neck, “but perhaps it’s time you knew about who I was before I came to Tabira and why I’m able to use magic…”

From the fur around Emily’s neck emerged a sapphire stone encased in a silver, rectangular octagon-shaped casing that was no bigger than the paw that held it, glimmering in the sunlight that shone through the wagon cover.  Upon receiving the jewel to inspect its intricacies, Ethlyn immediately noticed an ice-cold chill going through her paws, as if she were holding a small chunk of snow. She reflected upon the moment Emily saved both she and Patch using the jewel’s icy powers to deal damage critical to Gilgamarsh’s capture, leaving her astounded that something so small carried so much power.

“ Conxelación Sapphire, a gem as cold and blue as a glacier, even in the hottest of conditions. The value of this jewel is almost unfathomable, not only because of a luster comparable to the most valuable gems in all of Tabira, but also for the powerful ice magic it contains.”

“I can see why you’re so protective of it, not only for its worth, but imagine what would’ve happened if this thing got into the wrong hands,” Ethlyn said as she handed the gem back.

“It’s not just those things that make it so difficult for me to share this, Ethlyn. This gem was a gift from my beloved husband on the day that we wed, and it was he who taught me how to draw out its power, just as he was taught by his first wife…a witch known as the ‘Nut Job of Glenmark’.”

Ethlyn’s eyes opened wider with each revelation told, “My, that gem has quite the backstory…but, if you had all this power all along, why didn’t you use it when Minnie was kidnapped?”

The Cinccino shot a slight glare at the Emolga, who flinched upon seeing her grim look, “Ethlyn, the basic concept of magic is that it requires something to fuel its power, be it the user itself or others around it. You saw how Gnarl’s magic made the foliage rapidly wither and die during the fight? It was powerful, but it took so much life to use. The magic of the Conxelación Sapphire works the same way, but using the caster’s life force instead of those of the plants and trees around me. I would’ve gladly joined you, but I had used that jewel’s power prior to our move to Tabira, and excessive usage would’ve been dangerous to my body.”

She walked close to the Emolga, her expression calming down as she prompted Ethlyn to feel her unkempt fur, to which the Emolga noticed that no matter how much she stroked, they remained like stubborn bed hair.

“I don’t look this way because I’m some lower-class citizen. This is years of magical use, fighting bandits and minor witches throughout the continent, taking a toll on my body, just as it did my husband until his last breath…”

“My mom used a lot of magic a decade ago when she was expecting me,” Minnie interjected, “we both seem to agree that’s why I have trouble walking on my own, because my development was stunted by her magic usage…”

Ethlyn bowed her head in shame, guilty of having brought up what seemed to be a sensitive subject for the two chinchillas. Emily was quick to pat her head, comforting the Emolga a little knowing that she seemed okay with it. “I know you mean well, Ethlyn, you just wanted to know why I’m able to use magic and why I didn’t reveal this sooner… I was afraid that revealing this information might’ve spooked you when we first moved to Tabira, since magic tends to be a touchy subject.”

“No, it’s not a problem, Ms. Mint,” Ethlyn replied and shook her head, “if it weren’t for your magic, Patch and I…” she sighed and shook her head once more, “No, I’ve gotta stop thinking about that. Patch will be fine, he’s a resilient individual…”

“But you still wish to see him up and about again, smiling that devilish smile of his, right?”

“I suppose there’s no use trying to hide it… Patch may be a pain sometimes, but that moment he pushed me out of the way and took that Thunder attack in my place… and that was after I told him that he needed to curb his behavior, to be selfless for once… for him to do that…”

Ethlyn lunged towards the Cinccino before her, burying her tear-covered face in her scarf-like fur as she wrapped her arms around the Scarf Pokémon like a child crying to her mother…



With a soft moan, he slowly opened his eyes to a strange world of black and pink, electricity arcing amidst a swirl of storm clouds that surrounded him. Fighting a dizzying sensation and blurry eyes, he sat up and gazed upon as much of the world around as he could while his vision corrected itself. Sparks crackled off his cheeks with each arc of lightning that discharged nearby, amplifying the dizziness for brief moments at a time as he gingerly rose to his feet.

With a blink of his eyes, a new figure appeared in the distance that he was unable to see before, becoming more and more identifiable with each step forward. It was a Pachirisu much like him, and pink was her clear color of choice, from the stripes that would normally be blue to the outfit, the jewel sewn onto the chest area, and the cloak that were common among witches that were usually considered “cute”. The closer he approached the Pachirisu as she lay on the ground, the louder a monotonous, unending moan began to enter his ears as each twitch of her limbs discharged sparks from her body. She was alive, whoever she was, but it was clear that her return to consciousness would not be for quite a long time.

As he inspected the insentient Pachirisu, a strange sense of familiarity overcame him, that he had somehow seen her before, but he couldn’t place a paw on who she was or what he knew about her that would jog his memory. Yet, there was a sense of beckoning brought about by her, wanting to see what her relation was to him…

A blinding light shone in the corner of his eyes, muffled sobbing echoing in the atmosphere, turning his attention away from the unconscious Pachirisu towards a break in the cloud-like surroundings bathed in the blinding light. Though he was unsure who the voice belonged to or how the environment changed so suddenly, he figured that perhaps a likely way to get help for the insentient Pachirisu. The moment he turned his attention back towards her, however, he noticed there was not a single trace of her left by his feet or in the area surrounding him. Had she been some sort of illusion this whole time? He could only wonder as he took his lone remaining option and stepped into the light…



“Mommy, Ms. Monica, he’s waking up!”

Minnie’s exclamation snapped Ethlyn out of her sadness, freeing herself from Emily’s embrace as she turned to watch as the Pachirisu opened his eyes for the first time since the battle’s end, softly whispering his name into his ear to gently aid him back into reality. The Pachirisu lifted his head as his orientation returned, scanning his surrounding before his eyes met with Ethlyn’s.

He gasped and opened his eyes widely, suddenly scrambling out of his bed in an explosion of bedsheets and running over to the far corner of the tent, glancing over to the trio with a frightened look on his face.

“W-w-where am I?! W-w-what am I doing here?! W-w-who are you?!”

Minnie, Emily, and Ethlyn glanced at each other in worry and confusion, knowing this was far from his usual reaction to waking up with a female nearby, fleeing into a corner in fright instead of saying something corny like “What a beautiful sunrise shining before me.” Immediately the three huddled together and debated on what was going on, ranging from a common side effect of electrical overcharge to some sort of trauma from the hit he took. Nonetheless, they agreed that they needed to talk to Patch to see what was wrong, and Ethlyn was the first to move slowly towards the frightened Pachirisu.

“Patch, you’re probably a little confused as to where you are and what happened to Gilgamarsh, but I assure you that everything is fine now.”

“P-P-Patch? I-I-is that my name? Who’s this Gilgamarsh guy you’re talking about? G-go away, I can’t think like this!”

Ethlyn sighed as she continued to approach, the situation was worse than they had thought, “Patch, you need to rest, if you stress yourself, you’re going to— “

The Pachirisu screamed as he discharged electricity from his cheeks, forcing Ethlyn backwards as the Pachirisu tore through the cover behind him and out into the open, to the bewilderment of several Pokémon scattered through the area picking up the last of their supplies before their return home.

“Was that Patch?” one ‘mon was overheard, “What’s he running away for?”

“Knowing him, he probably tried to hit on someone and they didn’t take it well,” replied another, “Oh well, I’m sure that Ethlyn girl will corral and reprimand him for whatever he did.”

Ethlyn growled as a few of the ‘mons chuckled in response. While it was true that such behavior and response was common, this was a much more serious matter on their hands, and jokes were the last thing she wanted to hear about. She was beaten to the punch, metaphorically at least, in scolding the offending ‘mons by a Hitmonchan that had several physical traits that showed he had been in quite a few battles before. It was Vander, leader of the Trackers Guild, and though Ethlyn knew that he and Patch had a rough history, he would likely be the best option in helping get Patch back.

“Alright, who did he hit on this time?” he huffed, “How long did he take after waking up to flirt with someone?”

“It’s not what it looks like, Vander. He freaked out the instant he woke up and thought I was going to hurt him or something.” Ethlyn replied

“He’s dealing with some symptoms of electrical overcharge, and it’s likely making it harder to identify friend from foe,” Emily spoke, “If we don’t find him, he could be a danger to himself as well as others. Minnie and I will go get Alice and Gemma, they’ve know more about his condition than we do.”

“I’ll see about getting Sibyl to help,” Vander replied with a nod, “I hate wasting time when we all want to go home, but we can’t leave anyone behind here involuntarily.”

“And I’ll ask Holly, Menthe, and Addy for their help,” Ethlyn said, “I know they dislike Patch, but Holly and Menthe could use their Psychic abilities and Addy can use her deductive skills to find Patch. That, and they’re the ones he likes to flirt with the most, for better or worse…”

As Emily and Vander went their separate ways, Ethlyn began her search for the Scholar sisters and Addy, knowing there was going to be a lot of explaining to do to get their aid…



The quiet emptiness of the Karuka Jungle was a welcome change of pace from the crowds of Pokémon gathered around the wagons near the caverns, yet he was still not at ease. In his rush to escape from the Emolga, he found himself lost in the wilderness with no sense of where he had been and where he was going. It didn’t help matters that his vision occasionally blurred as a throbbing headache flared on and off, coinciding with the occasional discharges of electricity from the electrical sacs in his cheeks, making it hard for him to rationalize everything that was going on.

” Patch…” His ears perked the instant he heard the whispering voice, a chill shivering down his spine upon recognizing its feminine tone as he frantically checked his surroundings for the source, “Patch… go up that tree on your right…the one with the dead bush…”

He paused upon recognizing the tree in question, a bush that looked more like a pile of sticks at its base, just as the voice described. As concerned as he was about who this voice belonged to, he figured a climb up the tree would allow him to get some peace and quiet. Scurrying up the bark onto a branch halfway up the tree, he sighed and sat down with his back towards the bark to catch his breath and look around his surroundings, just in case that Emolga was still after him.

Just as he was about to confirm the coast being clear, a pink Pachirisu’s face suddenly appeared from above him as she let out an enthusiastic “Hello!” He leapt in the air in fright with such height that he slammed his head upon the branch above him, slamming back down upon the branch he rested on once gravity took hold once more before crashing down into the dead bush cushion below….



By the time he opened his eyes once more, his surroundings had changed from the lush Karuka Jungle to the black and pink thunder cloud from before he woke up in the medical tent. Though his head greatly ached from the hits he took, the Pachirisu was quick to sit back up and survey his surroundings, making sure that mysterious Pachirisu was nowhere to be found before standing back up.

“W-what am I even doing here? What is this place?” he said to himself.

“To put it simply dear, you’re out cold, and things look like this because you have a lot of excess electricity built up.”

Patch stumbled to the ground as his eyes widened at the sight of the pink Pachirisu, her tail whipping back and forth with each step she took towards him with an endearing smile on her face, almost as if she had been reunited with someone she hadn’t seen in a while. The fact that she appeared where he had checked literally a second before she spoke spooked the blue Pachirisu, almost as if she was a ghost of some sort.

“Oh my, I didn’t mean to frighten you. I figured you would’ve known what kind of place this was by now.”

“I-I-If that’s the case, all I need to do is wake up and I’ll be out of this place!”  Patch stammered, closing his eyes in hopes he would return to reality. Instead, the feeling of a pair of soft paws rubbing his cheeks quickly garnered his attention, and upon opening his eyes he realized that the pink Pachirisu was right before him, giggling to herself as she continued massaging his cheeks. As freaked out as he was about the fact this stranger was doing this, the sensation brought about by her strokes felt relaxing, tender, like a mother to her child…

” Relax, stay for a while, there’s much you need to remember before you return… and I can help you with that.”

“B-Before you do that, tell me who you are. I-I feel strange about all this…”

“Oh ho ho, how silly of me!” she laughed to herself as she let go of his cheeks, “I forgot to introduce myself! I’m… your conscious. You know, the thing that’s always supposed to be your guide?” </i>

He stared back with a skeptical look on his face, confused as to why his “conscious” would be of a female, pink-colored Pachirisu instead of some mirror image of himself. “C-can we start with what happened to me and who that Emolga was?”

“Long story short Patch, that’s your name by the way, you were in a fight with a witch named Gilgamarsh and you took a big bolt of lightning. That Emolga is named Ethlyn, and you saved her life when you pushed her out of the way of the attack. You’ve known her for quite a long time, and you both trust each other very much.”

“I-I trust her? But…I’m scared of girls…have been all my life…”

“Oh nonsense! You’re the handsomest Pachirisu in all Tabira, and girls like her swoon at your presence! You’d do anything and everything for ‘mons like her to be by your side.”

“T-that…doesn’t sound like me at all…” Patch sighed and lowered his head, “I-I could never talk to girls like her…”

The pink Pachirisu slowly backed away from Patch, signaling with a smile on her face that she needed a moment before they could continue, turning her back on him as she began muttering to herself, a few words such as “memories”, “Ethlyn”, and “she is necessary” reaching his ears, leaving him confused as to their meaning. She then clapped her paws and shouted “Aha!” before turning back towards Patch with a calm expression on her face.

“You know, if you feared girls like Ethlyn, then why would you have taken a Thunder attack in her place? Wouldn’t that mean you trust her, see her as a best friend, and that you’d give your life for her?” the pink Pachirisu paused to allow Patch to think for a moment, replying with a small nod. “That’s right, and it’s not just her, you have that same dedication to all the girls in Tabira!” She stopped to sigh in disappointment, Alas, not every girl understands this, despite all that you do for them, and all they give as thanks is cold stares and punches to the face…”

“M-Maybe I’m trying too hard?” Patch asked, “I mean, that’s so many ‘mons I try to make happy… and they probably get annoyed…”

“Hmmm, you do have a point there. Perhaps it’s quality you need and not quantity. You’re never going to please everyone, and sometimes trying to please one girl makes another jealous, so it’s probably best you start downsizing, stop going to big lengths to impress everyone, and dedicating your energy to one special ‘mon. Someone like…Ethlyn, yeah, she’d be perfect girl to be my ve--… err, your companion!”

The faint echo of a certain Emolga’s voice reached Patch’s ears as the light that once beckoned him back returned, no doubt that she had found Patch in his unconscious state and was begging for him to wake up. Though he was nervous to go back to reality, he knew that not responding to her pleas to awaken would make her sad. The pink Pachirisu placed a paw on his left shoulder, assuring him that it was time to go back.

“Remember Patch, trust in Ethlyn, and always let your conscious be your guide. You’ll be surprised how far you’ll go!”

Patch nervously nodded his head, turning his back towards the pink Pachirisu and towards the light back to consciousness, unaware of the familiar smirk appearing on her face while his back was turned…



As Patch opened his eyes after what seemed to be an eternity, a great sense of relief came over Ethlyn. While Patch had endured worse in recent times, to only suffer a loss of consciousness and a bump on his head after the fall he had, and to find him so quickly thanks to Gemma’s aura reading abilities, was nothing short of miraculous. The comfort of knowing Patch was safe was not to last, however, for he flinched once more and shook himself out of her grip, backing towards the tree behind him and frantically looking around at the rest of the small group of ‘mons gathered around him.

“Patch, I don’t know if this is a byproduct of the overcharge or something else, but please understand that none of us are here to hurt you. We just want to know why you’re fleeing from us. You should be resting, riding with us on a wagon back to Tabira while we celebrate our victory over Gilgamarsh together…”

Cautiously approaching the Pachirisu, Ethlyn held a paw out towards the frightened squirrel, hoping that she could somehow convince him to believe in her words. Gemma cried out to the Emolga to be careful of sudden discharges of electricity, her movement towards them halted by Vander and Emily as they watched in silence.

“Come back Patch… to us…to me…”

Patch remained motionless, seemingly refusing to answer Ethlyn’s plea beyond staring into her eyes with timidity. She withdrew her paw, bowing her head in sadness, certain that if she couldn’t get through to him now, when he was literally within arms’ reach, she would never be able to regain his trust again. As tears began to well in her eyes, a soft touch on her right shoulder eased the pain in her heart, her head following the paw all the way back to Patch.

“E-E-Eth…lyn…”. His whisper brought forth a swell of emotions in her, a smile forming on her face as she embraced the Pachirisu in her arms in sweet relief. Such feelings were quickly replaced by an ear-splitting screech and an electrifying sensation tingling though her body, forcing her away from Patch as he fled towards Vander, hiding behind his legs as he looked towards Ethlyn with sparks crackling from his cheeks and the timid expression on his face once more.

“Well I’ll be, normally I’m the one he flees from…” Vander said, “This is all too strange for me, it’s like how my littlest child goes running to my wife when I’m home…for someone his age to do that, whether it was from trauma or an electrical overcharge or not…”

“It’s my fault though, I-I couldn’t help myself there…,” Ethlyn grunted, sparks crackling off her fur from Patch’s discharge of electricity, “I shouldn’t have moved so swiftly when my slow approach before had worked…”

“I-I-I’m…sorry…” Patch whimpered as Ethlyn attempted another approach, holding on to Vander’s legs as firmly as he could.

“You’re forgiven Patch, it’s been a long, hard trip for all of us,” the Emolga said as she held out her paw again, “Let’s go back home to Tabira, together.”

The Pachirisu turned his gaze towards Vander’s face, the nodding of the Hitmonchan’s head assuring him that it was okay to go to Ethlyn. He took a deep breath to calm as much of his nerves as possible before he started to inch his way towards her. Halfway in between Vander and Ethlyn, Emily and Minnie moved to flank Ethlyn’s sides, holding out their paws much like Ethlyn was to encourage him to come to her side. The Pachirisu flinched as he noticed the two chinchilla-like Pokémon approach, but seeing as the two were doing the same thing Ethlyn was, he eventually continued moving towards Ethlyn until he finally took hold of the Emolga’s uninjured paw.

Though she was satisfied that she had finally regained Patch’s trust, she knew this was only the beginning of a new set of problems she would have to face, many that would likely remain even after Patch could discharge all the excess electricity out of his body, the words she overheard Holly, Menthe and Addy speak as they began walking back to the wagons ringing clear in her ears…

“It looks like this is the end of Tabira’s most infamous flirt, at least personality-wise. This would make a great article in the Tabiran Informer .”

“I feel sorry for Ethlyn though, she always has her hands full with him one way or another…”

“Now it’s just a matter of how this all affects the two of them…and whether their relationship can last…”