Brandy had stuck around talking with Maple, telling her of her adventures so far, while Sparky shamelessly embellished it all. She wasn’t about to say it out loud, but Maple was showing her the benefits of taking a loss to heart. Calcine probably had been right to say she was glad about it.

“I still don’t believe Calcine is real,” Maple says, fully coming out of her blanket shell to play with Sparky’s fur. The shameless Joltik had thrown herself over Maple’s legs so she could scratch into that mane. “It sounds a lot like those ‘My Girlfriend in Alola’ stories we’d tell in school.”

“She’s real!” Brandy waves to the door as if the mere existence of a world beyond it proves she has a cool rock girlfriend out there somewhere. “Oh wait, I can prove it!”

Brandy rolls up the bottom of her top, showing off her stomach. “See? Red hand marks from when she got too hot to handle.”

Maple squinted at Brandy’s stomach, tongue clicking. “Which red marks exactly?”

“Wah?”

Brandy looked at her stomach to see it’d gotten a criss-cross of red marks on it from all her time with the Wooloo pile on’s and rolling in the flowers with Orchid and Calcine.

“She’s actually dating ten Rock Pokémon. It’s amazing she has time to do anything,” Sparky said, arching her back as she tried to get Maple to scratch her neck. She’s all but presenting her ass for Brandy to give a slap, and Brandy doesn’t pass on the chance. A swift smack rings out in the room, and Sparky squirms and giggles madly. “Hey Maple, you want to see my red marks?”

“No!” Brandy nips in quickly. “We had one rule coming in here, and you’re not breaking it.”

“Maybe when I get a partner of my own, we can battle,” Maple says, using her fingers to massage the smack.

Sparky melts in her lap, and Brandy is taking mental notes. Maple might have felt down about her skills, but Brandy wasn’t so proud she couldn’t admit the woman had talent in spades. “Ohohoho. Brandy, hold her to that. I want to battle her!”

“You might be too much for me. I’d have flashbacks to Mercury if you used this on me,” Maple said, slipping a hand under Sparky’s lap and sneaking in a squeeze on her crotch. All four of Pokémon’s blue eyes shoot wide open as she gasps, body tensing up.

“Maple!” Brandy squeaks, only for Maple to give her a big grin. “You’re terrible.”

“And you need to take care of your Pokémon,” Maple grins. “Just because you’re ahead of me doesn’t mean I’m going to let you slack off.”

Brandy looks at Sparky and bites her bottom lip. It was awfully tempting, and there was no question she owed them.

Maple laughs as she sees Brandy’s attention drift to Sparky’s rear. “Not right now! Oh my, now I can see why you were such a daydreamer. Thoughts only for one thing.”

“Pokémon real good,” Brandy nods. “Oh, uh, speaking of. Are you okay with talking about Mercury? I was kind of curious.”

Maple blushes, shying her head away. “That’s an intense story. She’s outstanding with her technique and forceful about making sure you know it. Sweeps you up and then just hits all the right spots effortlessly. Relentless too! After you all left me there.”

“Bravely left you!” Sparky says, kicking her legs.

“Left me there,” Maple says, punctuating each word with a pinch at Sparky’s side, leaving the Joltik in another fit of giggles. “She kept going for what felt like hours. It probably wasn’t, but I thought I could exhaust her by taking all she had to give. It wasn’t even close, I don’t think. Why? You thinking of taking a run at her?”

“Me? Bugs are actually strong against Psychic.” Brandy says, tapping her chin with a finger thoughtfully.

“Can’t read our minds so good,” Sparky says, “But she’s Fairy too, so I don’t get much advantage at all. Everyone forgets that about her because she’s so imperious! Not that it’d matter, she’s chewed up Steel types. You’re being lazy if you think Type Advantage will win every fight for you. It’s just an edge.”

“You said she chews up pros for fun,” Maple says. “I know she fucks like a pro. I’d love to have her, but she’s out of my league. Out of both of our leagues.”

“Someday though...” Brandy says, still not quite ready to let the idea go.

“I’ll race you for her,” Maple says, rolling Sparky off her lap and back onto Brandy’s. “Take your cute partner and shoo now. I’ll come to find you tomorrow. I have to apologize for some things I said to my mothers.” Maple settles back onto her bed, fluffing up her pillows before laying back on them. “But I will take you up on your offer for a battle tomorrow. I’ll tease you if you’ve picked me a poor match.”

“Two mothers? Don’t you mean your mom and your Poké-mom?” Sparky says, and Brandy can see that dreaded mischievous smile form.

“What?” Maple raises an eyebrow. “Poké-mom? Who says that?”

Brandy claps a hand over Sparky’s mouth and slides her off the bed as the Joltik muffles in her hand. “No one. No one says that.” Brandy says, tussling with Sparky. The muffling gets louder as she edges Sparky to the door. “See you, Maple!”

“Brandy! Do you call her your Poké-mom?” Maple says with obvious amusement.

“It’s been lovely! BYE!”

---

Sparky was gnawing on her hand when they got back to the main center, taking her time to chew along Brandy’s fingers and tease the fingertips before going back down again. Sparky’s teeth were pointier than a human, but it didn’t hurt. Actually, it was nice to be treated to some playful bites oddly. Brandy let Sparky chew away as she stood on tiptoes, trying to spot Calcine.

The place was packed, and as tall as Brandy, there were a lot of bigger Pokémon. Calcine was lost in the sea of wings, big fluffy tails, and bulky shells. Why was it so packed here, anyway? This seemed crazy even by a Poké-center’s standard. Sparky stuck close as she tried to push through the crowd to find Calcine.

Sparky was eventually pressed right onto Brandy, stopping her chewing to hold on tight. “I wanted a squeeze, but this is a bit much!”

Brandy agreed. This place was becoming a crush zone. One nurse was on top of the desk, hiding under the wing of an owl Pokémon with a face made for death stares. The owl was swatting away anyone who tried to get closer with a glowing purple barrier.

Reflect! Brandy knew that move, and it looked handy too. She wished she had it herself as Sparky darted around her nimbly to avoid getting underfoot of anyone.

“Please!” the nurse, protected by the owl, said, using her Pokédex to amplify her voice. “We’ve time to check everyone, but not if you rush! Please be sensible!”

For all her efforts, plenty wasn’t being sensible, scrambling and tussling to get closer to the desks. They bounced Brandy off them, Sparky using her webs to swing around the more giant Pokémon and meet back up with her as she pinball’d around.

Eventually, Brandy stopped herself by grabbing onto a huge fox tail and struggling with it as she apologized to the owner. But the press of people was pretty bad, and every move to extract herself had her bumped right back into the crowd. The tail owner was a Pokémon with a blank bandit mask-style marking over her eyes. She gave Brandy an exasperated sneer and flicked her tail, sending Brandy up and over the crowd.

She saw Sparky shooting bandit mask right in the face with some electric webs as she soared up over the crowd with a wail.

“I got you!”

Brandy hit the unknown voice dead on, landing in something soft. Her vision suddenly turned bright green and washy, like she’d opened her eyes at the bottom of a pool. She tried to move, but something resisted, only a tiny pocket of air by her mouth, the only place she didn’t feel the press of something on her. Someone got her hands around her, hugging her as she felt that pressing softness roll over her skin, and then her vision came flooding back as she came free.

Shaking herself as she felt everything about her decompress from the squeeze, the woman with her arms around her turned her around, looking up at Brandy with a concerned expression. “Are you okay, miss? Are you hurt?”

“Y-Yes... I’m fine, thanks...” Brandy said shakily, flailing her legs to find a footing, but she wasn’t on solid ground right now, so they just slapped at the mass behind her. She turned to look up to see what she’d run into even was and squeaked when she came face to face with a vast green jelly head. Bunny ears popped out the top of a head whose face was more a blobby suggestion. Brandy could even see the ceiling through it, though fuzzy and tinted.

“Boo!”

“Not now, Remi!” the woman called. She was just a regular-sized human, maybe a few years older than Brandy, with tanned skin and a blue baseball cap over some short-cropped brunette hair. She wore a blue and white striped dress that would have looked lovely on the beach, but indoors she looked silly. “Can’t you tell you scared the poor girl?”

“Sorry, sorry!” The pokemon said, wiping a huge green jellied paw over her translucent face. “Can’t help it sometimes! Just wanted to show I was friendly.”

“You’re a big teddy bear, I know, but do remember other people don’t?” she said, with the exasperated tone of someone who’d had to explain it a lot. She looked at Brandy and hooked her legs in to help Brandy get a footing on the other hand of the giant green slime girl, the pair of them easily able to fit in her palm. “Sorry, hun, you looked like you needed some help. I’m Tanya. This is Remi. Do you want to wait here until people get their senses?”

Brandy was still struggling to find her sense of direction, but she quickly sobered up when she saw the struggling crowd. “Sparky, Calcine! My partners are in there!”

“Oh!” Tanya said, turning to look. “Well, you spot them, and Remi can grab them for you?”

Brandy bit her lip as she looked, but it was such a chaotic mess below that she didn’t know where to begin. She had a few ideas of how to disable a lot of people, but if she opened up with attacks, she’d probably start a riot. She had to be smarter than that. Her bonds were no good. This many people together made the feelings all tangle up in her stomach.

“Sparky!” she yelled over the chaos, “Ceiling! Web on up!”

A crackling electric web shot up from the crowd, and Sparky swung it gracefully. Agility was on full display as she twirled around it like a pole dancer and stopped with her legs gripping the web, dangling down it as she hung in the air, flicking Brandy a salute.

“Can you see Calcine?” Brandy called over to her.

Sparky shrugged as she slowly spun on the rope. People were jostling it from below and tangling themselves up on it. Well, that was their silly fault, and Remi snagged Sparky out of the air, the Joltik attaching herself to Brandy once she was on the palm with them.

“Now this is cool, good find!” Sparky says as she bounces the ball of her feet against the soft jelly skin.

Think Brandy! Calcine is sensible. If things got messy, she would have gotten out of the way.

Brandy scanned the room’s edges but didn’t spot the coal-skinned Pokémon with stubby horns anywhere.

Had she gone outside completely? No, wait! Calcine’s not just sensible. She’s loyal too. She’d have pushed to get to Brandy to ensure she was safe before finding a safe spot.

“Can you take us over to the Rest Rooms?” Brandy called up to Remi. Now she got a good look at the giant slime girl, and she could see a core to her that was a bone white that looked an awful lot like a curled-up sleeping woman. As Pokémon sat on the weirdness scale, this was pretty up there, but Remi was being so helpful she didn’t even feel creeped out.

“Aw, thanks! I try to be nice,” Remi said, taking steps across the room.

Oh, right, Psychic. Oops.

Remi laughed as she took the three women in her hand across the room, just stepping right on top of people as she walked since her spongy slime body didn’t do much more than trap people briefly.

As fast as their progress was, there was an edge of panic creeping into Brandy now. The crowd wasn’t getting any less surly, and she’d left Calcine alone.

She’d never let her out of sight again if she’d gotten hurt!