Wellp, it'd been thirty minutes and no more wild Pokemon, so it looked like this 'better mousetrap' was a bust.

Or maybe it was just too obvious.

She'd started out trying to make the dummy look like a real trainer. The way she figured, Pokemon attacked people who went into the Tall Grass, right? Then making a mannequin-type thing and sticking it out in the grass was like a reverse-scarecrow.

In real life, animals were by and large scared of people. Sure, they were dangerous, but given a choice, even large predators and snakes would rather avoid you than take you on head-to-head. Pokemon were different. That's why they scared her. They were too much like people-- they'd pick a fight for any reason. At the same time, they might be reasoned out of it.

"I'm gonna paint it camo," Jade suddenly decided out loud.

"Zzz," said Roger, who had fallen asleep.

...Well, whatever. That was fine. Here was her new logic: she'd done a pretty good job making something that looked pretty human, from a distance. The problem was, when Pokemon started getting closer, they had too much time to realize the thing was still and unmoving and generally just fake. She needed to hit a balance where the Pokemon didn't see the mannequin clearly til they were too close to avoid being caught.

Jade hauled out the set of paints she'd borrowed from Mom's House. They weren't much better than those little starter set watercolors you used in grade school, but it was better in nothing. Man, what she wouldn't give for a set of those magic face paints from the Mime Circus. Can't believe I'm saying that...

<Oh, I don't know,> said the cat, rubbing a paw over its face. <That's a fire-type and boy, I'd hate to lose.>

"Look, Sprigatito..."

<Pete,> said Roger, waking up. <Call him Pete.>

"Fine, Pete-- y'know, you got a point." Fire and grass weren't gonna go so well together. "Roger, you go. Drive that ape off before it rips my arms off."

The Chimchar looked alarmed. <Hold up, who said anything about arm-ripping? I just wanted to see who was out here.>

"What're you..."

Belatedly, Jade shut her mouth as she recognized the move as a Tail Whip attack. Sprigatito was battling. Seeming to sense that, Roger backed off, returning to the egg. "Looks like it's hatching," the Torchic reported.

"Mhm," Jade said, watching Sprigatito's cute puffy tail wave back and forth, back and forth. Chimchar seemed equally fascinated. What was it about that tail? Was it like a pendulum? Or was it just cute?

Roger's words reached her a couple seconds later and Jade's head whipped around. "Hang on, what did you say?"

The egg was hatching. Having a warm chicken sitting on it all day for a couple days had apparently thawed it out, even though she'd found it in the middle of a snowbank. Cracks were spreading across its shell from the top down.

<Ooh, that's a fire-type egg,> said the Chimchar, distracted by the hatching egg as much as Jade was. <I haven't seen one in awhile. Where did you get it? I want one!>

"Well, you better learn to ski then," Jade said, reflecting on the damn ski hill she'd had to navigate just to find the little beauty. But the hatching was slowing- it seemed like whatever was inside didn't have the energy to finish breaking out of the shell. "You wait right there, something's wrong. I'm gonna run to the shrine, get this thing healed up."

She looked around. "There's one around here, right?"

"I know where it is," said Pete the Sprigatito, blinking owlishly. Unexpectedly, the Chimchar also waved her hand. <Hey, hey! I do too! I'll show you. I can be like, your tour guide.>

Jade let out her breath, picking up the egg. "Well, get on with it then!"

A kerfuffle followed. Things were said, like "You're not even on the team" and "Who put you in charge?" and "Where's Roger?" At the end of the day, Jade was left with:

One Sprigatito (unchanged)
One Chimchar (named Goose, which she confessed was what she'd always secretly hoped someone would name her)
One Hisuian Growlithe (named Daniil by Roger, who'd finally shown back up.)

Roger was sitting on Daniil's head, which the dog apparently had no problem with. Guess he got used to it after being an egg for so long. That was good- she knew Roger would have missed his warm snoozing spot.

What the hell am I saying? She didn't care about these things. She was just hanging out in this world killing time while she waited for the AC to get repaired and for her life to turn itself around.

Aw, but who was she kidding? Lives didn't turn themselves around, and she'd already gone all winter without needing climate control. She might as well commit to the bit. Hell, Jade looked around and realized she'd been the only one who'd ever been fooled into anything different.

"Goose, you're on the team."

<Yay!>

"Roger, I know you're naming everyone after famous tennis players."

<Zzzz.>

"Fine. And Daniil, you're gonna watch over us, y'hear? God knows this group needs it."

<BAOOOOOOOW!> bayed the Growlithe happily at a volume that damn near broke Jade's eardrums. "Jesus christ!" the green-haired ninja swore. Well, she might not have a better mousetrap, but at least now she had a better... something. Better team? Better fire-type? Hell, she didn't know if any of that was true, but things were looking up.

Until she threw her Pokeball, anyway.

<What's up?> Goose asked, climbing up to her elbow to look at the Pokeball. <Why isn't it working?>

Jade looked at the Pokeball, dumbfounded. When she'd tried to catch the monkey, the ball had just acted like an ordinary piece of plastic. "This one a dud or something?"

She looked closer. There was a small, LED readout on the front. It said 'Out of BYTES.'

"...You gotta pay to catch Pokemon in this game?!"