farla

A "one-shot" I posted to Wattpad for the Christmas/winter prompt that's a scene from Amnesia. Miki is going to try to find out more about Hoppity by going to the S.S. Anne party. Also contains Magnifying Glass Lightning and her teammate.

Hoppity was released into the middle of a cacophony. People were everywhere, talking and moving and eating and laughing. Next to her, Chamander was looking around.

"So!" Miki said from her perch on Machamp's shoulder, repocketing their pokeballs. "In front of us -" Hoppity looked up from the floor to see more distant floor, covered in people moving around in inefficiently curved lines. "- is a skating rink! And you guys can play on it because this one's for pokemon! So Machamp is going to walk me around for a bit and you guys can stay over here. And you're not going to fight anybody, right? Because you have the Thunderbadge now and that's proof you're great at battling."

Hoppity nodded. "I won," she said.

"Great! Have fun!"

Charmander walked up to the railing and ducked under. "Come on, Hoppity! I saw this on TV once." She put a foot down on the different ground. It slid out from under her and she fell. Oh! It was made of ice. That was why the air was so damp here. "I also saw that on TV," Charmander continued, claws scrabbling as she tried to get upright. "It's normal to take a few tries to get your balance. Don't be scared."

"I'm not!" Hoppity approached the railing. "How do you win this?"

"You don't."

"I can so!" Hoppity's tail lashed back and forth.

Charmander sighed. "I mean it's not something people win. It's just playing." She let go of the railing and wobbled. "See, now I know how to -" She tipped forward, claws digging into the ice for a second before she lost her grip completely and landed on her belly. "I'll know how soon. And then I can zip around like everyone else is, and have fun, without having to kick anybody."

Hoppity pondered this for a bit while Charmander pulled herself up on the railing. As Charmander began moving her feet experimentally, Hoppity asked, "Are you lying?"

Charmander nearly slipped again but caught herself. "What? No! About what?"

"About winning. You're bad at this so you could be lying so I don't know you're losing. If you are," Hoppity continued magnanimously, "it's okay because I don't care if you lose. But I really need to know how I win it if it's something you win."

"THIS IS REALLY NOT ABOUT WINNING!"

"Oh." Hoppity sat down. "That's boring then. I don't know why you're bothering."

A horrible thing glided by and did a twirling spin on one leg, sparkles flying everywhere. Noises came out of the horrible thing: "Because this is awesome and you're just jealous you'll never be this good."

"I hate you! What are you?"

"Hoppity!" said Charmander. "Manners!"

The horrible thing made a laughing sound. The ice was moving under the thing's claws, tiny shifts but Hoppity couldn't see how, couldn't see any of how the horrible thing did it. "Wow, you don't even know about sneasel?"

"Why aren't you like everything's supposed to be! I can't see you you're awful!"

Still twirling, the horrible sneasel thing crossed her arms. "I am exactly like I'm supposed to be, thank you." She cocked her head. "Huh. You're a mess, aren't you?"

"I am not!" Hoppity wailed. "I'm the best!"

"She's just a baby," Charmander said.

"Are you, like, blind?" the horrible sneasel thing asked. She waved a claw at Hoppity. "I may not recognize it but that pokemon's, what, two-fifty, three hundred pounds? Looks like it'd be bigger than a machamp if it stopped hunching so bad. Just because it's some idiot failure who can barely talk doesn't - "

Hoppity screamed and jumped at the horrible sneasel thing, but the other pokemon slid backwards and she landed on bare ice. She pawed frantically to try to chase but found herself running in place.

"Ahahahaha!" cackled the horrible sneasel thing, gliding back and forth. "'It's boring', 'I don't care', everyone always says that when they suck at - "

Hoppity punched her front legs into the ice and launched herself with the handholds. She swung a fist, trying to remember how Machamp had felt using dynamic punch.

Right as she was about to reach the horrible sneasel thing, a spike-covered blue and yellow pokemon jumped in the way and her attack rebounded off of - of - protection! Protect! Hoppity shrieked with frustration. Protect was also awful and unfair and not how this was supposed to work, she was supposed to just hit something and then win! Now how would they know?

She skidded backward and kicked another break in the ice to halt.

It was just this time. Pokemon couldn't keep doing that, it was just a delay, it didn't change anything, she'd win, she'd just -

"So what if you kill us I'll take you down with us!" the new pokemon snarled. "I don't care if I die! I'll tear you up!"

Hoppity flinched and rocked back onto her hind legs. She pulled her arms in tightly against her chest.

"I - I wasn't - I'm not going to kill anybody," she said. She crouched on the ice, her tail coiling around her.

Electricity crackled on the new pokemon's body and a glowy haze appeared in the air. But that...it wouldn't have stopped a punch. Maybe the pokemon was just panicking. Maybe Hoppity was making the other pokemon panic.

"I'm really not going to kill anybody," she tried.

"Look, it's way faster than I expected but I think you're overreacting," the horrible sneasel thing said. "It'd have hurt, and I'm really glad you jumped in, but I wouldn't have actually -"

"You would have actually died! You complete idiot! Why aren't you running!" the new pokemon growled, not taking her eyes off of Hoppity. "You don't know anything about how dangerous whoever you're antagonizing is because you don't battle!"

Charmander slammed into Hoppity's back and dug her claws in to stay upright. "Hoppity no no no you're not supposed to get into fights you promised Miki!"

"I'm not I was just I was just I - I'm not a failure I'm the best!" Hoppity howled.

"I'm sorry. My trainer thinks Hoppity has brain damage," Charmander told them.

"You're starting fights with people with brain damage now?!"

"Hey, that charmander only said it was a baby!" the horrible sneasel thing said. "It's not my fault if people use inscrutable euphemisms! Maybe they should just say what they mean!"

"She is a baby!" Charmander insisted. "Miki says she also has brain damage."

The new pokemon let out a barking laugh. "Nothing is born like that. I've never met anything so dangerous."

"You mean in a pokemon battle."

"No, it's worse than even that glowing thing I told you about."

"Oh." The horrible sneasel thing's expression had changed a lot. "Well uh. Thanks for jumping in the way anyway."

"What's going on here?" The blissey looked livid as she glided to a halt next to the group, but her voice was a gentle lilt, almost a song.

"Whoa whoa," the horrible sneasel thing said. "There's no need to knock everybody out."

"Hoppity just got upset," Charmander explained, "but she's really sorry and she won't do it again. Right, Hoppity? Because this sneasel isn't even a battling pokemon and you don't need to fight her."

The electric pokemon was still in a crouch, ready to launch an attack but said slowly, "I think...I think we're okay." Stiffly, she straightened her legs and then slowly sat back on the ice. "I will agree, Hoppity, that you are the strongest pokemon here. There is no need for you to battle anyone to prove that. I apologize, on my teammate's behalf, for anything she said to the contrary. I'm sure she didn't mean it."

Hoppity pointed, making the electric pokemon jump back up. "Sneasel!" she said.

"Uh...yes. Yes, I am."

"I can't believe you," the electric pokemon said to the sneasel. "Picking a fight with someone like this."

"I thought when you said that you meant that was what was wrong with you. But it's your species."

"Dark type!" the electric pokemon said, in a similar tone of sudden realization. "You're doing this - you're upset because she's a dark type."

"Wow, rude."

More sympathetically, the electric pokemon said, "You must've had bad experiences you can't remember."

Charmander said, "Huh? That doesn't make sense."

"It can happen to pokemon that do a lot of battling," the electric pokemon said. "And things like that, memory problems just make them worse." She shuddered. "I hope I never meet whatever demon could hurt someone like you. I never believed in it, but looking at you, I could believe you met Darkrai."

That was a pokemon, probably? "I'd win," Hoppity said.

The electric pokemon sighed, then nudged the sneasel. "Come on, Princess, apologize for yourself."

Princess rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry you're bad tempered."

"People who want to keep skating should be nicer," the blissey said in the same sleepy lilt, scowling viciously.

Princess groaned. "Okay! I'm sorry I made fun of you for not knowing how to skate! It makes sense you'd be an uncoordinated mess if you've got brain damage so I shouldn't mock that!"

The blissey eyed Princess, then smiled brightly. "I know just how you two can make up!" She slid a bit over to gently pat Hoppity. "So, you don't understand how to skate?"

"No, Charmander said you can't win it."

"Skating's not about winning," the blissey agreed. "Skating is about having fun with friends! And we're all friends here because people who aren't friends have to leave the ice until they can behave themselves, and just sit there, not showing off, being sad. And that means you and this little princess are friends now, so she'll teach you how to skate!"

Sneasel groaned louder.

"I'm sure she'll do a great job," the blissey continued. "Like we always say, if you can't teach something you don't really know how to do it, so I'm sure a great contest star will have no trouble at all!"

"Fiiiiiiiiiiine."

"Hey, kid," the electric pokemon said to Charmander. She moved carefully around, making sure to stay in front of Hoppity, until she was within reach of Charmander. "Grab onto my shoulder, I'll get you back to the railing. Princess, behave yourself."

Princess slid back and forth, watching the others disperse. "Hm. Hm. Actually doing this huh. I guess first you'll need to learn balance...well no, first, you're not allowed to punch holes - "

"I want to know the thing you do with the ice!"

"The skating," Princess corrected. "Well, before you can run you have to walk, and before you can walk you have to stand without falling on your butt."

"No, the, the thing you're doing. You. To the ice. I can't see what you're doing, I can't see you at all, just-" Hoppity waved both arms in frustration. "Just the body, not you, but I can see the ice change and I know it's because of you even if I can't see you. I want that! I can do that. I can do that but I don't know what I have to do to do it."

Princess laughed, then cut off and cast a look toward the electric pokemon. "I guess... you must know what you're doing with actual moves, right? If Glass thinks you're that scary."

"I'm the best!" Hoppity said.

"Right, sure." She waved a paw. "Well... Like the blissey said, I'm a contest star. Do you know what - I'll just assume that means nothing to you. It's like a battle, but instead of hitting people I use moves to highlight all my beauty and grace and then people vote about precisely how wonderful I am."

"That's the worst thing I've ever heard," Hoppity told her. Her voice started to rise. "Why would you do that? Why would anyone want to do that? What if they don't vote for you? What if you do a better job than everybody but they say they think you didn't? What if they just say they don't like you no matter what and it doesn't matter how good you are at it?" Her tail began to lash from side to side in distress.

"Then they're idiots and when I sweep the next competition everyone will know they had no taste. Yeesh, you're high-strung. Look, you don't have to do one or anything. What I mean is, I know how to control moves to do more useful things than battling, and that's what I'm doing here." She held out one paw. "Everyone's all, 'ice punch!' but why punch anyone? Why make a big ugly lump of ice at all? Instead I take that energy, and the focus, and and I apply it for skating. Gives me a lot more control, and extra sparkle as well." In the center of her paw, ice crystals began to spread fracally outward, then they burst into a fine powder.

"But how?" Hoppity whined. "I told you I can't see you doing it!"

"Yeeaaah I can't, like, turn that off. It's just how I am." Princess didn't sound at all sorry about this. "Stop trying to shove yourself into my head or whatever and learn like a regular pokemon."

"But - but - but I don't want to be in anything I just can't see you!"

"That's how it is for everybody else all the time. If you're so great, you should be able to manage something everybody else does, right?"

Hoppity glowered. "Of course I can!"

"There you go. So, pay attention! This isn't about cold, you see."

"Because cold's not real," she agreed. "I'm not stupid."

Princess looked a bit thrown, then continued, "Uh, sure. So, what ice actually is, what makes it different than just chilly water, is all about the structure. Some structures are easier than others, but once you understand it, you can shape it into any of them. Battles, pokemon usually focus on just making lots of ice over controlling what that ice is, so everyone does moves in clumsy, ugly ways, and it forms into a couple basic lumps." Energy pooled in her other paw and she tapped the ground, causing ice to erupt around it. "What a mess. So I - no what did you do!"

Hoppity grinned at the ice around her arm. "I did it!"

"You froze your own arm!" Claws popped out of either paw and she dug them into the ice, cracking it away. "You can't do that!" The claws retracted and the paws patted down Hoppity's arm. She sighed, looking relieved. "You're lucky that you didn't form any under your skin!"

"Why?"

"Because - because you have liquid there, and it's bad when things that are supposed to be liquid become solid. I just said ice isn't chilly water, didn't I? ...also, you should definitely never put it under anyone else's skin. Just don't do that at all."

She considered this, staring down at her arm. "I think if I..."

"So ice punch is not worth anyone's time when you could do something way cooler! Super hard most pokemon totally can't do it don't you want to prove you can do that?"

Hoppity forgot about her arm. "I can do that!"

"Whew."

"What is it?"

"Mod-er-a-tion," Princess said slowly. "Control. Precision. Not just making ice chunks everywhere. Here, watch closely. Forget about trying to read my mind and focus on what you see me doing." She slid backwards several steps, then side to side. "I'm shifting the ice while I move over it. I can leave the ice smoother than I started, or even make patterns behind me. Making something and controlling it are totally different."

"Yes," Hoppity agreed, tail wagging.

Princess held out a paw again. "Like, anyone can make ice, but I can do this." This time, the ice didn't form into a geometric pattern. Instead, blue flower petals formed around a core. "See the color? That's because I've packed the ice together tightly. In the other direction..." They gained an opaque white gloss. "Spread out with air spaces, so the light bounces around instead of going through. Here, try holding it."

Hoppity picked it up carefully in one hand. "Doing this is better?"

"It's harder, and most pokemon never learn. But there's so many things you can do with it if you do! You can even shape it in ways that it'd never form otherwise, once you get the hang of it." She made another flower, this one twinkling golden under the lights. She let go and what tinked onto the ice of the skating rink was blue. "But the really weird ones pop back to something more ordinary as soon as you stop holding them together."

Hoppity grabbed the other one and then considered them both. "Regular repeating crystal. Cleavage lines. But an amorphous water crystal, varying..." She tugged, and the second ice flower began to shift toward golden again, then blue, then expanded abruptly to be clear, then white, before compressing down and shifting into gold. "Without pressure, it pops back. Mixing in air, making it white, weakens the structure, but, if there wasn't anything at all, if there was, airless, empty, void? Vacuum. Vacuum! Pulling inward, holding in place like arches where each piece is the keystone. And energy..." She laughed. "Stored energy with a vacuum! Because of compression, popping back when it's not held together, explosion, and -"

"Hoppity!"

"Miki!" Hoppity turned. She started to try to step, wobbled, and then froze herself to the surface of the ice before she could fall. "I got it! I just need to figure it out." She focused on her feet and pushed, jetting herself back over to the railing where Miki, Charmander and Machamp were waiting.

"Huh, so the sneasel did teach you," said Charmander. "I guess she's okay."

"Yes! She showed me you can make ice into bombs like glass!" Hoppity shouted.

"What."

"I did not and nothing that happens is my fault!" called Princess, skating backwards to the far end of the rink. "Goodluckwiththatbye!"

"Miki! Miki, pokeball! Get her pokeball!"