SER Patrol 1: Fight Or Flight

Sparklepaw trotted on the ice, humming a little tune to herself and looking around to take in the scenery. Behind her was Joltpaw, sheepishly walking behind her and watching where he stepped, looking at his paws and the ice below.

"It's so cold..." Joltpaw complained. "Sparklepaw, please be careful." 

Sparklepaw turned back at him and smiled. "No worries, Joltpaw!" she replied. She turned forward again, but not before hearing the screams of two pokemon.

"What the?!" Joltpaw immediately tensed up, and Sparklepaw's smile was replaced with a look of concern. The two came to a halt and looked at where the noise was coming from.

From a distance, they see two pokemon. One was a pastel blue Walrein with alien features, clouds surrounding his neck, tiny wings, and a halo over his head, while the other was a Buizel-colored fusion between Lapras and Walrein, with their glass shell full of water and the rim of it glowing bright yellow. Both of them were fleeing for their lives.

That's when the apprentices saw who they were fleeing from. A massive neon blue alien Avalugg with red markings.

"Run!" Joltpaw squeaked.

"No! We have to help them!" She pleaded. "We can't just leave them to die!"

"We'll die too if we try to fight that off!"

Sparklepaw wasn't hearing any of Joltpaw's reasoning. "Follow me!" Sparklepaw galloped to the conflict, and Joltpaw, who deep down wanted to help them as well, reluctantly followed.

"I'm a brave Shinx. I'm a brave Shinx. I'm a brave Shinx," he kept repeating to himself, trying to keep himself calm.

As for the fleeing duo, The Walrein began scolding the Lapras/Walrein fusion. "I told you that we weren't going to take the Avalugg down with just the two of us!"

"Not like anyone else would do it!" The Lapras/Walrein snapped back. As the Avalugg was about to catch up to them, Sparklepaw stood between them, facing the Avalugg head on. The Avalugg came to a stop.

"Leave them alone!" Sparklepaw yelled. Joltpaw was close behind and stood next to Sparklepaw, though less confidently and shaking.

"What in Arceus' name are you kids doing?!" the Walrein exclaimed, but the Lapras/Walrein played along.

"Ha ha! That's right, you didn't think any more Pokemon would show up, did ya?!" they taunted the Avalugg.

"You think you can defeat me?" the Avalugg asked Sparklepaw and Joltpaw, inching closer towards them. "Adorable. How about you two run back home while you still can?" His red markings glowed brightly to further intimidate them.

Joltpaw whimpered, but Sparklepaw stood her ground. "Not with you harassing these Pokemon!" she answered.

"Then perish!" The Avalugg conjured up a blizzard and sent it straight towards the group of 4. While the Walrein and Lapras/Walrein were able to get out of the way, Sparklepaw and Joltpaw were too close to react. The force of the blizzard made them fall to the ground.

Joltpaw was in full panic mode now. Unable to calm himself down, he began to hyperventilate. Sparklepaw got up, worried for Joltpaw.

"Pathetic," the Avalugg muttered to himself, making an icicle over Joltpaw.

"Joltpaw! Get up!" Sparklepaw cried, but Joltpaw didn't listen to her.

The Walrein and Lapras/Walrein looked at each other and nodded, giving a silent agreement on what they had to do. Before the Avalugg could hit Joltpaw, the two of them sent a huge wave towards him. The Avalugg groaned in pain and stopped his attack, looking over to them. He began trying to attack them instead, ignoring Sparklepaw and Joltpaw for the time being.

"Joltpaw! Joltpaw! Please, get up!" Sparklepaw cried again.

"I WANNA GO HOME!" Joltpaw exclaimed.

"We can't leave them! We just can't leave them! Please, we have to help." Not being able to convince Joltpaw, Sparklepaw sighed and went to help the others.

The Walrein and Lapras/Walrein kept firing attacks at the Avalugg, who was tanking the hits and trying to attack back. Sparklepaw joined in and began to fire attacks of her own at the Avalugg, most of them being Psychics.

The Walrein noticed Sparklepaw and was shocked she was still trying to fight. "Leave, kid! You're going to kill yourself if you keep this up!" he rebuked.

"But she's helping us! Look!" the Lapras/Walrein defended her. It was true, the Avalugg was beginning to wear down from the constant barrage.

"Oh alright, alright," the Walrein gave in, and the three continued their attacks.

Joltpaw, who was finally trying to compose himself, took a peak at the battle. When he saw that the others were holding on, he calmed down a little. Though he was still terrified, he stood up. If he wanted to be a warrior, he couldn't cower like this. He had to help fight.

"I'm a brave Shinx. I'm a brave Shinx," he repeated to himself again. "I'm a brave Shinx!"

The Avalugg continued to fight back, but failed to hit any pokemon. "You can't keep dodging my attacks forever!"

"I don't know, maybe we can," the Lapras/Walrein snarked. This made the Avalugg furious, and he launched himself at the fusion, tackling them down. 

"Argh!" The Lapras/Walrein struggled to get free from the Avalugg's grasp, and the Avalugg began to crush them.

"No!" Sparklepaw screamed. She and the Walrein tried to push the Avalugg off, but he didn't budge.

In came Joltpaw, dashing into the fight. He bit down on one of the Avalugg's legs, making him yell in pain and let go of the Lapras/Walrein. The Walrein helped the fusion get up.

"Real smart there," Walrein said to them sarcastically. "Don't scare me like that again!"

"Get off me, you runt!" The Avalugg roared, trying to shake Joltpaw off, but Joltpaw wouldn't let go. Sparklepaw smiled.

"You're doing it, Joltpaw! You're doing it!" she cheered. The others resumed their barrage of attacks, including Joltpaw using Thunderbolt whenever he could, and the Avalugg was barely able to fight back anymore.

"Enough!" The Avalugg commanded. "I had enough of this!" He then began to make his escape.

"He's leaving! Joltpaw, you can let go!" Sparklepaw told Joltpaw. Joltpaw let go of the Avalugg's leg and got back on the ground. Everyone observed the Avalugg as he ran away, until they knew for sure he was gone. Joltpaw and Sparklepaw breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you," the Walrein began to say. "That fella we just fought there was called Titan. He's been making a mess of this place and hunting down other Pokemon for sport."

"We were gonna confront him and tell him to cut it out. As you can see, it didn't go well." The Lapras/Walrein grimaced.

"There's no we. That was their idea," the Walrein corrected. "I already knew it wouldn't work, but since they insisted so much..."

"I didn't force you to come, you know!"

"I wasn't gonna have you die thanks to your mess of a plan!"

"Please, I don't want another fight breaking out," Sparklepaw frowned. "I don't actually like fighting, you know."

"Oh, don't worry about us, kid," the Walrein reassured. "We're siblings! Bickering is the norm." The Walrein let out a light chuckle. "Guess we should introduce ourselves, after all the trouble we caused you. You can call me Spike."

"And I'm Shanty!" the Lapras/Walrein added.

"Nice to meet you two! I'm Sparklepaw!" Sparklepaw introduced herself.

"I'm Joltpaw," Joltpaw said, still calming down from the battle. "We're from RoseliClan."

"Roseli, huh? As for us, we don't come from any clans, you see,' Spike told them.

"Nope! Just us two against the world!" Shanty exclaimed, putting a flipper around Spike, but Spike shooed them off. "We're not enemies though, we promise. Don't send RoseliClan after us."

"Don't worry, Cherrystar is nice to people outside the clan! You two can even stop by sometime if you want!" Sparklepaw offered.

"Speaking of Cherrystar... Sparklepaw, should we tell her about Titan?" Joltpaw asked her.

"I guess so. I don't know what she's gonna do about him though. RoseliClan isn't a clan that likes fighting."

"Whatever it is, I hope it ends with us not having to deal with Titan anymore. Anyway, we can't stay chattering for forever. There's still work to be done today. Goodbye for now," Spike said his goodbyes.

"See ya! Perhaps we will visit your clan at some point!" Shanty said their goodbyes as well.

"Bye!" Sparklepaw and Joltpaw said almost in unison.

"And one more thing," Spike added. "Promise me you'll be careful out there, alright? You two have so much potential, but please, be careful."

"We promise." Joltpaw answered. "Right, Sparklepaw?" Sparklepaw nodded her head in agreement.

"Again, thank you for what you have done today. We appreciate it. Now goodbye." With that, the two duos went their separate ways.