Pokemón : The Price of caution

Birch provided, but after that, I'm taking over." And with that, a food pellet baller goes in the cart.

Vulpix's six tails wag slowly, making Lee stifle a giggle when they tickle his neck.

The last stop is the bookshelf on the far wall, where a copy of Nutrition and Health of Canid Pokemon gets picked up before the checkout becomes the final stop.

The teen girl in a blue pokeball-marked apron manning the counter glances up and quickly puts her phone away when Lee and Vulpix approach. She plasters a wide smile to her face. "Find everything okay?" "Just fine, thanks," Lee smiles back. He glances back at the glass case where all the Pokeballs are held and suddenly understands why they're kept separate. The things are a whopping $179.99 a pop, just for a standard Pokeball. The Ultras are an unearthly $1,199.99 for a single ball. Nearly the game price. 'Suddenly the high stipend payments make sense,' Lee thinks as he unloads his cart for the cashier to scan. 'I can only imagine what sort of hell it must be to be low-income and wanting to be a trainer. I should thank Birch again.'

Luckily Potions and whatnot are more reasonable, with Potions only being 50.00c for a large spray bottle's worth. Super Potions are pricer at 149.99c, and Hyper Potions can go fuck themselves at 700.00c. Lee doesn't even bother looking at the Max Potion or the TMs.

"Can I get a basic Potion as well?"

The cashier nods and fishes some keys out of her apron pocket, then turns, opens the glass case, and takes out a Potion in one practiced movement. "Anything else today? You got quite a bit, so maybe a Sliph Co bag?"

Lee blinks. "A Sliph Co bag?"

The cashier hums as she scans and bags another item. "MmmHmm." "I'm afraid I don't follow. I take it a Sliph bag is special or something?"

The girl raises an eyebrow at Lee.

"I already know what you're thinking, and yes, I'm from way out in the boonies," Lee sighs.

"A Silph bag uses the same stuff as pokeballs. You know? With the whole matter to energy and space expanding... thing?" She tries to explain, give her hand a vague wave. "I don't really understand it, but it's bigger on the inside than outside. Somehow."

'I can hear physics weep hideously in the distance,' Lee silently muses. 'It does neatly explain how the main character in the games carries all his junk and how everyone in the anime can carry full camping gear in a backpack though. Sounds useful too' "Sure. How much?"

She turns back to the glass case and reaches into the back, pulling out a rather standard-looking backpack seemingly made from green canvas with leather straps. "These base models are all 1,360 credits before tax. Green okay?"

Lee tries hard to not let the pain on his face show. "Ech. Yeah. Better I get this sooner rather than later."

The cashier nods and scans the Sliph backpack. "Your total is 1,598.67 credits."

Lee reluctantly hands his debit card over. Day 7

A burst of Embers crash into an already burnt and battered log and detonate one by one with loud, jarring pops. Bits of smoldering wood are thrown across the dusty ground as new knotholes are blown into the hapless log. Nearby pokemon in the Little Root corral watch the proceedings with interest. "That's good!"

Vulpix cuts her Ember attack and lets the last few Embers hit their mark before turning to Lee.

Lee looks down at the notebook in his hands, where a rough sketch of Vulpix faces an upright cylinder marked "log". A label line between the two is marked "35 feet". The man steps closer to the log, noting that at this range Vulpix's Ember has spread to almost the edge. "Log is about a foot and a quarter wide, and the Ember marks are hitting the edge from thirty-five feet, so..." Lee bites the end of his pen and jots some numbers down, trying to remember the formula he wants. "That means from Vulpix's mouth, Ember is spreading at about a twenty-degree angle give or take some..." He looks at the log again. "The speed looked to be a good hundred or so feet per second, and her accuracy was dead on for a static target. If we can tighten that spread, then Ember could be a force to be reckoned with."

"Vul?" Vulpix asks with a tilt of her head. Lee blinks and glances back with a sheepish smile. "Uh, sorry girl. Just crunching numbers. Let's give that another go, but this time..." He spins the log to its unblemished back and pulls a little piece of bark in the middle away, exposing bare wood. "Try to focus on this little point as hard as you can. The more Embers hit the very middle, the better. I'll watch and give the signal."

The man retreats back to Vulpix's side and crouches to watch her, notebook and pen ready. "Alrighty girl, Ember on the log."

Vulpix takes a deep breath, her chest swelling as orange flames glow in her mouth and lick at her lips. "Vul..." She draws her head back then thrusts it forward with a cry of "Pix!"

Small orange fireballs shoot from her mouth with a sound not unlike a submachine gun rattling through it's whole magazine. The Embers scream towards the log and explode against it's bark with a staccato of Pop pop pop!, stripping a circle of charred bark around the original.

Lee watches the entire process from start to finish, ignoring the flare of unease the open flames invoke inside him. 'It's Vulpix. She would never hurt you.' He watches it all, from Vulpix's deep breath and flourish, to the first Ember loosed, to the first impact against the bark. 'Does she even need the breath and flourish? Once the attack began, she didn't empty her lungs to maintain it, and I have no idea what part thrusting her head out did.'He wonders. "Alright love, that's good."

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