A panicked run was such a good idea right up until the adrenaline ran out and Brandy very ungracefully flopped over onto the grass.

It was a pleasant day to be on your back at least, with puffy white clouds and crisp blue skies. Only slightly marred when Sparky’s gleeful face popped into view, excitement blazing in those four blue eyes.

“She’s not chasing us,” Sparky said with both arms waving at the tall grass they’d just spilt out of “I can’t believe she didn’t chase, usually running really sets them off!”

“You ran too though?” Brandy said with great puffing breaths between each word.

“Oh yeah, but you’re the one she’d grab. I was completely safe!”

Wow. What a strong partnership they’d formed so fast. Truly Brandy was blessed to have such a stalwart partner. Brandy padded through the grass until she found a pebble and tried throwing it at Sparky, but the Joltik was far too nippy and just ducked out of the way with a laugh.

“You’re familiar with them?” Brandy said as she pushed herself up a little so she could feel the breeze on her face. She badly needed to cool off after all that.

“I mean we’re not friends or anything,” Sparky said with a big shrug, hands tipped up to the skies. “I tried but she’s kind of intense. But every other week someone will try to capture Mercury and she’s good at giving us a show by making them lose really loudly. It’s hard to miss all the crushing impacts and psychic blades flying everywhere. Even harder to miss the noises that come after.”

A faint ecstatic cry carried over the wind and Sparky shrugged as if her point was proven. 

“Well, we should be safe now, no way we’re ready for that.” Brandy said she pushed herself further up to sit, her forearms dangled over her knees as she caught her breath. “Unless you have a poison move? That might let us whittle her down some”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Sparky smirked, kneeling to lay her elbows on Brandy’s forearms, staring her down with a mischievous squint in her eyes. “Maybe you could check if I’ve got fangs? Stick your tongue in there, I don’t bite.”

Brandy didn’t need to, she could see the fangs perfectly fine. But she reached up to take Sparky’s chin in her hand and leaned in as if to lay a kiss on her. Then turned Sparky’s head to look at Brandy’s shoulder, which still had pairs of red welts from all the bites a worked-up Sparky had laid on Brandy while they’d been going at it frantically back in the forest.

“Oh. Well, I don’t bite much?”

“If you actually had poison I’d be more poison than blood right now.” Brandy huffed “Nice try though. You help out in the mines and I’ll put in the work to find out all your secrets”

Sparky was very eager to get moving after that.

-----

It took a few faltering starts but Brandy eventually got back on the trail. Walking helped with the aching some and Sparky even helped her pick out a few choice berries along the way for a pretty welcome juicy snack. The Joltik may be relentlessly trying to get back into her pants, but she wasn’t holding a grudge about failing. Another roll in the grass was tempting, but Brandy wanted to be a good Trainer and that meant not giving in to her horniest urges. At least not every time anyway.

Brandy was finally getting her second wind as the sun began to approach the horizon passing a pond with a few lilies floating gently in the light summer breeze. It was a good bet there was a Lotoad hiding in there somewhere and if she wasn’t conserving her stamina she’d have happily sent Sparky splashing in to try scare one out. Sparky wouldn’t have picked her name if she didn’t have any Electric moves and she’d probably have been able to wear them down so much that all Brandy would have to do is wade in and have a few steamy moments with a Pokémon who was hypersensitive from all the frazzling.

An easy win would be good but her home was famous for Grass Types and she wasn’t about to drag a Water girl along as her second pick to tackle the gym. Lotoad’s long blue hair was really pretty and Brandy would happily sink her hands into a good pair of hips but they just wouldn’t be of any use in an actual fight and she didn’t want to make them feel bad about that!

A Flying type would have been perfect and Sparky could have easily pinned one down to the ground if she actually could be coaxed into using some of those hidden moves. The only downside was there just weren’t any nearby. The long stretching plains weren’t the kind of terrain they liked, it made them far too easy to follow when they were playing their chasing games with trainers, wearing their pursuers out instead of the other way around.

Her Volcarona Poké-mom would be the ultimate weapon now Brandy thinking about it, she’d never really thought about what her Poké-mom had been like before she was captured. Her other mom must have picked her for a good reason, maybe she’d helped her destroy the Grass Gym when she was young.

Well, she wasn’t going to ask her mom to fight her battles, the embarrassment alone would kill her. No, she had a hope of what she wanted, Rock Types were usually slow and got smothered by Grass Types but Brandy had taken to heart that careful partner planning let you upset the rules. You judge every Pokémon by its type and you’ll be the one ending up biting pillows when one surprises you. She just needed one that had that hidden edge.

The Galar Mines weren’t as active as they’d been when her mother was young but what was a loss for Industry was a gain for trainers as the unused mines were left open for them to plumb for anyone that had taken up residence. Brandy and Sparky gave a wave to a pair of women sharing a packed lunch by the gate to the still active mines. A fairly average-looking human with shortly clipped black hair was cuddled up in the lap of a very square and muscled Pokémon. She certainly looked like she would be good to lean upon and eye-catching too! Curly grey hair, long white claws and, a yellow hard hat with a Cosmo Corp logo that had got a little faded but was still visible. It looked like a very cute date at least so rather than interrupt the two pairs fired excited waves of arms back and forth at each as Brandy and Sparky followed the tracks into one of the mines that hadn’t been sectioned off.

Thankfully some kind soul had left the electric lights into the mine's scaffolding so Brandy didn’t have to use her Pokédex for light, though the mine’s lighting cast some truly concerning shadows at the shaft's first bend and it probably wouldn’t get any better.

“Okay, you take the lead Sparky” Brandy said, giving the Joltik a pat on their delightfully firm rear and a push to get her going.

Sparky blew a kiss at Brandy as she went in, a static pop fizzing in Brandy’s ears from a sudden burst of sound. Sparky definitely had some kind of Electric Move to pull that little trick off, but guessing which was going to be the trick. Giving Pokémon commands they simply couldn’t follow stressed the bond between them and their trainer and Brandy wasn’t about to throw away the work she’d put in to capture this yellow-furred tease.

The mine rumbled, lights clattering against the walls and flickering as Sparky hopped to keep her balance. Someone big was here too? Well, they hadn’t come for big, so they’d just have to stay out of her way and avoid ending up going the way of the Maple.

Brandy thought back to that scene and bit her lower lip. Well. Surely a peek couldn’t hurt just for future collection, right?

-----

Brandy leaned into the mine's walls as she crept closer to the source of the rumbling, trying to keep herself out of sight with careful peeks around each corner. The coal dust getting smeared along her skin and fresh clothes were a worthy sacrifice to not end up in an ambush all over again. She'd already learned a few lessons from her encounter with Sparky and Mercury, number one was you let Pokémon make the first move you were at a horrendous disadvantage. Carefully lowering her boots onto the ground to avoid kicking up the loose stone, she was thankful Sparky was incredibly light on her feet, Brandy’s heartbeat was louder in her ears as nerves and excitement built with every tremble of the mine's foundations and rattling of the lights.  

It was a few minutes of slow progress before Brandy finally saw what was making the noise and if you'd given her a thousand guesses she'd never have gotten close to the truth. The mine shaft opened out into a wide-open area that had been quarried clean, but then someone had gone even further than necessary. Rock and Coal alike were flattened smooth and glistening as a warm red glow refracted off a mirror shine polish.

The glow belonged to a woman just a little shorter than Brandy, waving red light pouring off a massive cape that flowed off her shoulders and swung just shy of her ankles. Patterned with black chunks of what were probably coal, rivulets of boiling red heat flowed between them, the coal pattern gently shifting along the molten flow slowly enough that it was soothing to watch. The woman's black hair wasn't overly long, but it was just enough to trail into the cape itself, the black strands wavering in the heat and coming away with white-hot tips. A pair of crags poked out of her hair, stubby horns that she stopped to scratch as she worked on some kind of statue that had a vaguely woman-like shape, though it was more of an impression of a woman than anything Brandy could pick out as an actual person. 

Thankfully she had her back to Brandy and didn't spot the pair sneaking up on her. When she laid both hands on her statue a rumbling shook the chamber as the rock shifted under her hands, rock boiling red and flowing under her hand as she moulded the rock like it was soft clay. Sparky threw her arms around Brandy's waist to stop her from tipping over from the rumbles, leaning it to whisper in Brandy's ear. 

"I think she’s also evolved, snap her for me?" the Joltik promoted, snapping Brandy out of her staring long enough to get her Pokédex out and cover the flash with her fingers before she took a shot of this surprising Wild Artisan.

Brandy stared at the information in confusion for a few moments. No capture attempts and no researcher name but she was already evolved? Was she missing something here? 

"I can hear you, you know" the Carkol called out, turning her head to look at the pair. Her eyes were two cut triangles that sloped back into her hair, pure red but the surface pooling and moving much like her blazing cloak. The rest of her face was chiselled perfection, the light of her cloak casting enough shadows that Brandy could see that pretty face that would have been a pure black void otherwise. "You have very heavy boots"

That prickled at Brandy a little. Darn right she had heavy boots, she was a serious trainer and that meant serious boots! So what if they weren't good for sneaking, at least her feet would work when she got there. The Carkol just laughed at the affronted look on her face and waved for them both to approach.

"Never seen a rock artist" Sparky piped up as she took the invitation with her usual enthusiasm, no doubt still smugly safe in the knowledge Brandy was always going to be the one any Pokémon went for first. "Are you still practising? Not that I'm saying it's bad, but it uh .... needs work?" she finished lamely.

"It does," the Carkol says, her voice like a warm hug. A hint of wistful tiredness to it that let Brandy pack her nerves away and approach. Maybe stomping her boots a little bit more than necessary, not that her pride was sore about the callout of her poor attempt at sneaking or anything.

"It looks like you don't know who to make it yet?" Brandy guessed as she gave the art a look over but her eyes wandered away from it pretty quick. It was certainly lacking definition compared to the coal-carved beauty that was the Carkol, a muscle-lined core that became rolling muscle hills when they reached her arms and legs. Not excessively fat, but enough that Brandy wanted to squeeze them even if she'd probably have better luck trying to squeeze a steel bar. Even her chest and her hips had a kind of compressed power to them, small but firm and perfectly proportioned. The Carkol was a work of art, which just highlighted the flaws of her statue even more. Brandy felt herself heating up some and it wasn't just from the warmth of that cloak. 

"I don't know who it is" the Carkol admitted with a pleasantly heated huff of air that made Brandy's spiky hair bounce "But I dearly would like to."

"That's... odd" Brandy finished lamely, out of her depth in what was going on here "Have you not met a lot of people? You aren't named."

"Oh!" Sparky piped up "I get it, you've only just spawned!"

"A few weeks," the Carkol says, turning her bright red eyes to Sparky for just a moment before fixing Brandy with them again. She was taller than the Carkol but the triangle-eyed stare somehow made her feel small, shrinking her head into her shoulders while a blush made rapid advances up her neck and onto her cheeks.

"Don't worry little flame, I've no interest in you today. I want to finish my work" the Carkol laughed putting one arm around her statue and stroking a poor attempt at a face's cheek. "Perhaps you can help me with this?"

"Sure!" Brandy says without hesitation, happy to grab any lifeline in this confusing conversation. "Uh, but could I ask before that? Sparky said you're a fresh spawn, but aren't you evolved? I don't get it."

"It's true I only came to this world a few weeks ago," the Carkol says with a sigh "But if you see an evolved like me then you should know. It's not our first time here. When our trainer parts us, the bond frays until we've no grief left to give and go to the place beyond this world, where memories can't cross."

Sparky nods at this but for Brandy, it was all new. She knew Pokémon went somewhere they didn't remember later when they were in their Balls, but this is the first she'd heard they could get there by other ways. Maybe it was just too morbid to teach? She’d have to ask her human mom when they finally met up, that'd be something she’d no doubt be happy to wax on about for hours.

"Now I am returned, head clear of what came before." the Carkol says with a lick of emotion-stoked flame curling over her polished black lips, making her skin glisten. "I had a trainer once and I want to honour that memory. I don't know who she was, but I know she was mine."

“That’s sweet,” Sparky says “Never heard anyone worry about that before, but I kind of like it. Seems respectful”

"Ah, a perfect opener.” the Carkol says with a content smile “I have someone here that needs to learn a little respect and some love in her veins would not hurt either. If you're up for the challenge? I'd very much like to see a bond form, what a trainer that could stoke a stone heart might look like." the Karkol smiled softly, "If you're up for the challenge, can I call her?"

A fight against an unknown rock opponent for the appreciation of a hot and emotional Pokémon? Brandy's tactical mind said no, it wasn't worth giving up the surprise but it was swiftly overruled by her heart. She was being asked to prove she was a real trainer and she wasn't going to disappoint!

"You're on. Sparky, get ready. We'll put on a show!" 

Sparky shook her head with an amused smile, stretching her arms out her yellow fur crackling with static. 

"Only because you're awfully cute when you're excited, but you owe me tonight! You can't stall on a second round forever!"

Brandy laughed, a deal where she wasn't giving up anything she didn't already want? Finally, something was going her way!