Brandy didn't have a thing for being stood on, but if she did, the vision of beauty currently using her as a footrest was definitely the sort of lady she'd go for. Tall, imperious, with a gorgeous slender neck and long waves of hair that gave her even more height. Her pure white feathers gave her an air of majesty that made Brandy's mouth dry. 

"'Hey!" the Trainer clinging to her back yelled, flicking the brim of her white cowboy hat up. "Quit eying up Harper, and listen to me." 

Maybe she'd been eye fucking Harper a little, but Brandy still wasn't thrilled about this situation. Being jumped just as they got started on the next leg of their adventure felt rude as hell. For once, she wasn't going to take this lying down. All the feathers meant this Trainer had to be a Flying Ace, and she'd picked the wrong group to mess with her. Her team could take them apart easily.

"Calcine," Brandy called to her side. "Grab her mouth and Rock Polish. Sparky, Wave your way out."

The Pokémon on Calcine was huge. Her puffy spikes of white hair and colorful tail made Brandy sure she was a Braivary. Wisps of wind curled around her mouth to form a beak with which she furiously pecked at Calcine's skin. Calcine rammed her fingers right in the open mouth, choking her attack as rock flowed over her body and through her fingers. She tried to claw Calcine off, but the rock was seeping into her feathers and sticking firmly. One pump of Calcine's arm was all it took to bring the bird lady to her knees, an excited fire rolling behind Calcine's eyes. 

"Nice, Calcine!" Sparky called as she whipped her electrified web to ward off her opponent. "Now make her beg!" 

The blue-haired Pokémon used her wickedly sharp talons that extended out the end of her fingers and hissed through the air as she swiped, leaving dark tears that slowly fizzled away. There were a few spooky black bird Pokémon, but the blue hair gave her up. Not a Corvknight, but in that line, Brandy wasn't sure if she was Corvisquire or Rookidee. There was a way to tell, but she was blanking on it right now. Sparky used her electrified web to keep her grounded, swinging it over her head whenever Corvi-something flexed her wings. It was clearly frustrating her, and she kept a keen eye on the end of the web, hoping to dart past it as it swung away. Sparky was more than happy to use the distraction to let her fur build up a crackle of electricity before throwing her arms back and exploding in a crackling wave of electricity. The Corvi-Gal went down with a warbling, ecstatic cry that made Brandy a little hot under the collar. She knew Sparky's electricity could make you sensitive, but Flying types were particularly weak to it, and from the way she was digging grooves in the ground as she writhed about, it must have hit hard. 

"Cassidy," the white feathered Pokémon said with a voice of pure silk, "I don't think this is going as you wanted." 

She flicked her gorgeous grey eyes over Sparky and smirked. "I could take her, though."

"Ohohohoho," Sparky cackled and licked her lips. "Try it. I get a little electricity in you, and you'll cum so hard they'll hear you all the way back in Unova. Tall and gorgeous, you are so my type."

Awful pun, but Sparky wasn't wrong. Tall and white feathered was clearly a Swanna, far from home and an even worse matchup for Sparky than the other Bird Ladies with her Water Typing. Why was it always Water Types that wanted to step on Brandy? 

"How about," Brandy said, amazingly patient considering the circumstance. "You get off me, and we start again. Unless the Fletchling wants to jump in?"

"I'm good!" the short bird-girl grinned. "Us spiky redheads got to stick together, can't be starting wars. Putting the new girl in the sparkling rock grinder would be horribly cruel, right Cassidy?"

"You are meant to back me up!" Cassidy slid off the Swanna's back and dusted off her jeans. "We a flock or not?"

Harper put a wing around Cassidy and gave her side a stroke, white feathers trailing over her face as she took her foot off Brandy's chest. "Talk it out with the Talonflame girl," she whispered, "Before Basilah drowns in stone."

Brandy had a footprint in her boob that wasn't rubbing up, but she kept at it as she eyed Cassidy suspiciously. She had a round, excitable face and the kind of vibrant energy she associated more with Sparky than a Flying Ace. Cute, maybe even a little hot with how her arms were filled out with muscle, but Brandy wasn't feeling charitable right now, so cute it was. Still, she'd be the bigger lady here. "Calcine, stop choking Basilah."

Calcine tutted and withdrew her fingers from the Braivary's mouth, patting her cheek. "You want more later? Come find me, sweetie." 

Words like that meant Calcine was running hot, and at a record speed. The potential danger of the situation must have fired her up. Something to keep an eye on; coaxing out her flame would be important if they ever wanted her to Evolve. 

"So," Cassidy said with her hands on her hip, "You're going to ... holy fuck, you're tall!"

Brandy had got to her feet, and just this once, she wasn't above doing a little looming. She had a good head in height on Cassidy and didn't back up. Instead, she reached out to tip Cassidy's cowboy hat up, forcing her to stare at Brandy's unimpressed face. 

"Heh," Cassidy's bluster took a moment to get going again as she tried to puff herself up. It wasn't going to work. Even heels weren't covering this distance. "You beat Mercury, so you must think you're hot stuff. Out to set records and be a big shot, but you can forget all that. I got dibs."

"Dibs on what?" Brandy said, arching an eyebrow. She was trying to channel her inner Mahi here, keep it short and cutting. Brandy felt she was pretty affable, but Cassidy had set a record for rubbing her up the wrong way. 

"What my lovely Trainer is trying to say," Harper said, giving Cassidy another squeeze with her wing. "Is one of our lost flock is in the region, and we'd like it if you left her alone."

"Lost flock isn't helpful either," Calcine said, stroking the Braivary's cheek. The poor bird-lady was still stunned on her knees after Calcine's Move and nuzzling up to Calcine's hand fondly. She probably had it heated up; Brandy knew how hard it was to resist a nuzzle with a warm Calcine. "You're missing one of your team?" 

"Yeah! So hands off," Cassidy said and yelped as Harper stole her hat and gave her a head swat. "Ugh, I mean uh. Please?"

"Can't imagine someone would run off from you," Sparky snorted; she'd taken a seat on her black-feathered opponent's back, running an electrified finger up and down her spine and making her mewl. "You're such a charmer."

Cassidy might have pissed Brandy off, but seeing her Partners so effortlessly handle this fight took the edge off. Brandy didn't want to be a sore winner; she could throw Cassidy an undeserved bone. "You don't want us to capture a Pokémon? One of yours?"

"It's an awkward situation," Harper said, covering Cassidy's mouth before she could speak. "She's left our flock. Won't let us talk to her. Cassidy won't give up until she finds out what went wrong."

Ah. Relationship trouble. That did excuse a little of Cassidy's behavior. 

It was rare for a Pokémon to break a bond, and if it'd been built up, there'd be a lot of aches on both sides. The rest of Cassidy's Pokémon seemed devoted, or at least putting up with her, so it probably wasn't anything nasty Cassidy had done. At least not consciously. 

"I don't want to start a fight," Brandy said cautiously. "But if she's not bonded, she doesn't have to answer to you, and she can pick a new Partner if she wishes."

"I know that!" Cassidy said, poking her head out from Harper's wing. "I'm asking you not to try. Just leave her alone. She was happy in the flock for so long; I don't know why she left. I find her hard to read sometimes. Please, it's important."

Hard to read? So a Dark Type or maybe a Ghost? Brandy had a suspicion it was Dark. The same Dark Type Shay had pointed her at. Maybe that's why Shay hadn't even tried to capture her, Shay was in tune with Pokémon instincts, but this seemed a lot bigger than that and Shay wasn't exactly what Brandy though of when she thought 'responsible'. Or it could be there was only one Dark and Flying line in Galar, and Shay just didn't want a second Mandibuzz. Shay didn't seem to think more than two steps ahead, which made her pretty hard to read too. 

"If she doesn't want to talk to you, you can't force her to," Brandy said, Calcine nodding along with approval. "And you can't stop others from trying."

"You are stubborn," Cassidy pouted. 

"She's really not," Sparky said, "But she looks out for our hearts. I'd listen to her. She's not a glory hound or anything, and she wouldn't snatch up a Pokémon just to brag."

"I need to talk to her," Cassidy said more firmly, stomping her foot. It was childish, almost petulant, but she was a Flying Ace. Thinking she could do everything herself was a prerequisite.  

"It's not a wound she'll want to poke," Sparky stroked the black-feathered Pokémon's neck making her twitch happily. "I've got a Sister who's had a frayed bond, and it sucks ass. We had to fill a house with syrup to get her over it."

Just let that one go, Brandy. There isn't time to go into it right now. 

"If she wants someone to talk to, I'll do it." Brandy said, "But I won't make any promises about anything, and I won't change her mind if she wants nothing to do with you."

"Oh shit, you think... I swear it's not me!" Cassidy said and looked up at Harper. "Tell her!" 

"Cassidy helped us form the flock so we could all lean on each other." Harper said, "None of us get along with others well, but there's a unity here that feels nice. It's not a crowd, or any pressure, just a shared experience. Morgan was welcome in it and seemed happy for a long time, but something in her soured."

So she was called Morgan? Dark types did like short names, but that one sounded a little grand. Odd.  

"So Morgan got tired of being part of your flock?" Brandy asked, trying not to make it sound like the accusation it kind of was.

"No," Harper brushed Brandy back with a wing, putting some space between them. Brandy had hit a nerve there. "She tried to get closer to us, and it just made her grow further apart until she left. We don't understand it. We're worried for her. Some a little too much, and it makes her do foolish things."

"I want her to be okay," Cassidy squawked and was silenced by a stream of bubbles from Harper's fingertips, breaking her into a fit of giggles. "Harper! Quit it!" 

Harper didn't, smiling fondly as she made her Trainer bat at the ticklish bubbles. The fondness was clearly there, along with more confirmation for Brandy that all Water Types are evil.

"Well, I won't say I didn't enjoy this," Calcine said as she patted the Braivary's head. "But if that's how it all is, it's kind of killed the mood. I want to hear the other half of the story."

"I'm still up for rolling them all in the grass." Sparky grinned, "I'd power through the awkwardness."

"We'll catch up with them later Sparky," Brandy said, waving for Sparky and Calcine to follow. "Cassidy, no promises, alright?" 

"Just make sure she's okay!" Cassidy said between giggles. It was awkward, really. Cassidy clearly didn't want to be laughing, but Brandy had to assume Harper knew how to handle her Trainer's moods better than Brandy did. 

She couldn't imagine what it'd be like to lose Calcine or Sparky. If it ever happened, she wouldn't know how to feel. She'd probably go to pieces just as badly as Cassidy had. This didn't excuse Cassidy from being a blustering idiot, but at least it all made sense why she was being one. 

Brandy had been eager to find a third Pokémon to bond with, but now she was more curious about what had happened here. Morgan must have left for a reason, but as Sparky had said, fraying a bond hurt. Cassidy was full of panicked bravado. It was only thanks to Harper's mediation that she didn't escalate this to a messy fight. 

Morgan didn't have anyone right now. Getting her side of the story might be a lot harder. 

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Turns out charging your enemy when you can fly isn't a winning strategy.